South Africa: Call for calm in the face of increasing industrial action Employment and Labour Minister, Thulas Nxesi, has urged all parties to resolve their industrial issues urgently through social dialogue especially in this sensitive period of massive unemployment and retrenchments. This comes after workers affiliated with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) embarked on a national indefinite strike following failed salary negotiations with major employer organisation in the engineering sector, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa). Numsa and Seifsa remain in a deadlock over salaries following the end of their wage agreement in June. Additionally, one of the countrys biggest federations, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), called for workers to come out in their millions this week to protest South Africa's weak economic performance. The Minister appealed to all social partners entering wage negotiations to work through their issues on the table. He said hostility would not solve differences, instead it risks escalating the severe economic and social damages that have been brought about by COVID-19. "Our Constitution guarantees the right of association and the protection of worker rights and industrial action. We respect the fact that many people died for us to be able to enjoy these rights. But with the rights come the responsibilities and we would like to urge unions and other worker representatives to exercise this responsibility, Nxesi said. Nxesi said it is common cause that the country is now going through one of the most difficult periods occasioned by the pandemic on one hand and the inclement economic conditions that prevailed even before COVID-19 on the other. It is against this background that we appeal to all the players, workers and employers, unions federations and employer bodies to handle the sensitive talks with the necessary caution. "Cool heads should prevail and the good of the country and our economy should always at the top of mind. After protracted industrial action, we still have to come and sit around the table to resolve our differences but it is not wise or advisable to play a zero-sum game. We are all invested in this country, the minister said. Nxesi added that given the number of unemployed people in the country, it would be tragic if more people become unemployed when social dialogue would be more fruitful. According to the latest unemployment figures from Statistics South Africa, the country has lost even more jobs in the second quarter, with some 54 000 people losing their jobs in the second quarter of 2021 to 14.9 million. The number of unemployed persons increased by 584 000 to 7.8 million compared to the first quarter of 2021. The report also showed that discouraged work-seekers increased by 186 000 (5,9%) which resulted in the official unemployment rate increasing by 1.8 percentage points from 32.6% in the first quarter of 2021 to 34,4% in the second quarter of 2021, the highest since the start of the QLFS in 2008. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: Government launches digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate South Africans can now download their digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate following the official launch by the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla. Addressing a media briefing on governments efforts in the fight against COVID-19 and the national vaccination rollout programme on Friday, the Minister said the certificate could be used for travel and tourism, sport and recreation events, music festivals, shops that are providing discounts and prizes for people who are vaccinated. Our role is to make this tool available to the nation to provide people with the proof of vaccination so they can have access to many the amenities and activities that some have been missing... The vaccination certificate was introduced over the last three days while it was in the testing phase but some people have been able to upload it to their cell phones. We are launching the first phase of the certificate - theres going to be a lot more improvements in the next two months [with regards to] the safety and security of the certificate but it is ready for use, the Minister said. The certificate was developed by the Department of Health and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and can be found at https://vaccine.certificate.health.gov.za. National Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) project manager, Milani Wolmarans, said the certificate can be downloaded through a web portal by anyone who has received the COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa. Youll need your vaccination code from the sms you received after your vaccination, South African ID or Foreign Passport number or Asylum or Refugee number. This should be the same document that you presented when you got vaccinated and the cell phone you included on your registration, she said. Over the next four days, the vaccination codes will be sent via SMS. The code can also be accessed from the COVID-19 call centre on 0800 029 999. The code will be sent via sms. With regards to the recognition of the digital certificate, most countries around the globe would accept the certificate. It is, however, dependent on the policy of the country that you would be visiting and also what their verification requirements would be. Towards the end of the next two months, there will be an app that you can use to download the certificate, Wolmarans said. Meanwhile, the Minister welcomed South Africas removal from the United Kingdom (UK) red list. We are also pleased with the United Kingdom (UK) government announcement that it is taking our country from the red list - meaning more easy travel between people from South Africa and the UK. The UK will be recognising the certificate that we are launching, Phaahla said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: SA's COVID-19 cases stabilise With South Africa having exited the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reproductive rate of the virus is standing at 0.67% indicating that the country is entering stable territory, the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, said on Friday. This third wave has lasted longer than the previous two waves, which was for more than 100 days. The first wave was for about 80 days and the second wave lasted for 90 days, Phaahla said, addressing a media briefing on governments efforts in the fight against COVID-19 and the national vaccination rollout programme. The Minister said the number of new infections has been consistently dropping in the last three weeks, with a 33% reduction in the last seven days. There has been a 90.3% decrease in hospitalisation in the last seven days and we have seen a decrease in the reported deaths by 51% in the last seven days. The overall positivity rate has remained below five percent in the last seven to 14 days on an average of three percent over the last seven days. The average positivity rate has reduced in all provinces, we are concerned about the Northern Cape and Free State where the positivity rate has been above five percent on some days, the Minister said. In the last 24 hours, South Africa reported 989 new cases. There are still over 5 000 people in hospital with COVID-19 infections of whom 885 are in the intensive care units and 465 are on ventilators. We can only sustain the low levels of infections if we continue to observe the personal health and safety measures, he warned. With the fourth wave expected later this year, the Minister urged everyone in the country to get vaccinated. We have a window of opportunity while infections are low to protect ourselves before the expected fourth wave. Vaccines have proven to be safe and effective, very few vaccinated people are falling ill, the Minister said. Government recently introduced a series of weekend vaccination drives, known as Vuma Vaccination Weekends, to make it easier for people to get jabbed outside working hours. During the [first] Vuma Vaccination Weekend, we surpassed our minimum target of 350 000 vaccination doses administered and the momentum of the weekend has carried us in the week with sustained increases over 200 000 does were administered per day. Last weekend, over 2 100 sites were opened on Friday, 1400 on Saturday and 500 sites opened on Friday, the Minister said. More Vuma Vaccination Weekends will be announced in the future. The total doses administered thus far is 18 735 000, with 13 300 000 individuals fully vaccinated at 33.4% of the adult population This takes us very close to half of the targeted 70%. It is encouraging that we are close to reaching 70% of the vulnerable groups, which is the 60 plus age group, and the 50-59 age group with vaccination coverage. For the age group of 60 and above, we are now standing at 60.7% and the 50-59 age group stands at 52%, the Minister said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Hong Kong: CE explains policy blueprint (To watch the full programme with sign language interpretation, click here.) Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the Northern Metropolis plan aims to transform the northern part of Hong Kong into a bustling and attractive area, adding the 20-year timeframe for the project is realistic. Mrs Lam made the statement during a radio talk show this morning to highlight details of the new development plan that she unveiled in her 2021 Policy Address. She said: "Within the 300 sq km, which is about 27% of Hong Kong's land mass, ultimately it will be a metropolis. We will plan on the basis of it being self-contained. It will have 650,000 jobs, as compared to just 110,000 jobs at the moment in the new town areas. "(For) such a big plan, even without the Northern Metropolis strategy, it will take 10 to 15 years. "Of course we want to do it faster. But we all know that there is a process in the development of new areas, so we will strive to do it as quickly as possible, but 20 years is a realistic timeframe. "And one reason why we think we can even do it faster is because I have committed to fundamentally reviewing the various statutory and administrative procedures that will guide the development of land. Best opportune Mrs Lam explained the rationale behind introducing such a massive undertaking as she winds down her term as the Chief Executive. "The reason why at this point in time, in the last year of my term as the Chief Executive, I put this forward is because this is the first occasion that the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) Government could do something that is visionary, that is long term and that we have confidence that we will be able to deliver. "Because in the past year or so, two important decisions have been made by the central authorities. One is the National Security Law. The other is of course improvements to the electoral system, which will return a Legislative Council which is broadly representative of the interests of Hong Kong with 'patriots administering Hong Kong', and which is willing to engage with the Government and get things done." The Chief Executive emphasised that the success of her Policy Address, given its title is Building a Bright Future Together, hinges on the support of the business sector. "There are plenty of opportunities for the business people. It is not confined to the Northern Metropolis. It is actually laid out in the eight centres that we have the support of the nation in the 14th Five-Year Plan. "Together with this Policy Address, we have taken a more innovative approach to publish what we call the fact sheets for each of the centres so that all business people know what are the prospects in front of them." New era She stressed that because the city is now very safe and stable, it is time for Hong Kong to embrace a new paradigm that includes making the Government more effective. "So governance has to be improved, planning has to be more holistic and bold, and we are also setting a new beginning. "I hope in time to come, Hong Kong people will realise this freshness. I have asked my colleagues in charge of infrastructure, highways and landscape to improve Hong Kong's cityscape. "So this is really to give people that freshness that we are entering a new era after two very difficult years." Mrs Lam also expressed her feelings about the future of Hong Kong as a global aviation hub, adding the Government has sought the central governments support. "The entire aviation industry has been hard hit by COVID-19. But if you look at the Hong Kong International Airport in terms of air cargo (traffic), we are still doing very well. Last year we did 4.5 million tonnes, which I think is the world's number one in terms of air cargo. And we are building, apart from the three runway system, modern logistics facilities on the airport island. "So because our geographical location is almost perfect, we can reach half of the (worlds) population within four or five hours and we are really the hub in this part of the world." Free flow of people The Chief Executive said the Policy Address also outlined measures to help businesses have more access to the Mainland and the Greater Bay Area (GBA), especially for business people who do not have the relevant travel permits. "This question about facilitating access has been put to me very clearly over the last two years when we discussed the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Because in order for this Greater Bay Area to succeed, we have to ensure the free flow of people, talent, capital, data, and so on. "So I put (forward) a proposal - it is a very concrete proposal, it is not just an idea - to the Hong Kong & Macao Affairs Office earlier this year. It will be a sort of a revised form of visa or permit, or whatever you call it. But the ultimate objective is to facilitate the access of non-Chinese Hong Kong nationals to the Mainland cities of the GBA for business, for exchange, for research and so on. "And the response is positive, and that is why they told me that we could have meetings before the end of this year to discuss the details of what form this facilitation should take in order to make access easier for expatriates, which will mean that Hong Kong will be more attractive in recruiting talent from overseas." This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: NA Speaker encourages world parliaments to perform oversight functions National Assembly Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, says the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on humanity should encourage world parliaments to vigorously perform their oversight functions, so that agreements adopted at different multilateral platforms are realised. These agreements should positively impact saving peoples lives, reconstructing and transforming economies to bring about a new global reality post-COVID-19, Mapisa-Nqakula said. Mapisa-Nqakula made the call in her capacity as the South African leader of delegation to the seventh Summit of the Heads of Parliaments of G20 countries, called the G20 Parliamentary Speakers Summit. Parliaments of G20 countries have a crucial role, as oversight authorities, in ensuring governments are held accountable for implementing decisions. The two-day meeting held in Rome, Italy, aims to strengthen the role of legislatures in global affairs. Speaking at the summit on Thursday, Mapisa-Nqakula gave South Africas socio-economic perspective regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The Speaker said South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, has also been severely impacted by the pandemic, noting that the March 2020 hard lockdown caused devastating effects, both economically and socially. The devastating circumstances of the pandemic claimed many lives, destroyed economies and left many jobless. Socially it has resulted in another pandemic of gender-based violence (GBV) that has left women and children vulnerable, Mapisa-Nqakula said. Compared to other G20 countries, Mapisa-Nqakula said South Africas Gross domestic product (GDP) impact lies in the middle range. The Speaker also commended the sterling efforts taken by South Africa and India at both World Trade Organisation (WTO) and United Nations (UN) level, in calling for a temporary waiver in intellectual property rules relating to COVID-19 vaccines and medicines, diagnostics and other technologies. By waiving the parts of the Agreement on Trade Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), drug makers in developing countries could produce effective vaccines without worrying about being sued for patent infringements, ultimately speeding up the end of the pandemic, Mapisa-Nqakula said. She added that the fourth industrial revolution technology (4IR) is at the heart of the recovery strategies, adopted by South Africa to deal with the impact of the pandemic. This is possible through the Governments Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan. It aims to build a new economy and unleash South Africas true potential, and the project is to create a sustainable, resilient and inclusive economy. Strengthening relations between SA and Korea Mapisa-Nqakula also met with National Assembly Speaker of the Republic of Korea, Park Byeong-seug on the sidelines of the Summit, with a view to strengthen relations between the two parliaments. Political relations between the two countries date back to before the democratic dispensation in South Africa, and were formalised in 1994 when South Africa became a democratic government. During the meeting, the two Speakers agreed on cooperation, and encouraged South African and Korean business people to invest in the economies of both countries. The Speakers also agreed to closely work together in monitoring the implementation of commitments, and ensure policy convergence on critical interventions at the multilateral level. The meeting also resolved to support the call for an increase of financial aid to vulnerable countries that are still recovering from, and were left vulnerable by COVID-19 and other disasters, including climate change. They also stressed the need for equity in the redistribution of vaccines and discouraged vaccine nationalism. The G20 Parliamentary Speakers Summit ends on Friday. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: City of Joburg signs agreement to increase power supply Gauteng Premier David Makhura, together with Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Moerane, have signed a milestone power purchase agreement which is expected to add an extra 100MW of electricity to the city's power supply. The two-year agreement was signed with private electricity supplier Kelvin Power Station which is expected to increase its electricity supply sent to the citys power utility City Power, from 80MW to 180MW. The Gauteng Premier said the move paves the way to securing a reliable power supply to the city. I am very happy that Johannesburg has taken a concrete step to ensure that it enhances its own capacity to guarantee the supply of energy to the residents of the city. I think this is a tremendous achievement. What Johannesburg is doing is something we want to do in the whole province. Reliable power supply and reliable supply of clean water. Those two are fundamental basics without which you cant do anything. What distinguishes us from significant progress is access to those two clean basic services, power and water, he said. Makhura highlighted that a secure electricity supply is needed for the economy of the city to grow. Johannesburg has huge economic potentialbut you cant have an economy and residents enjoying quality of life if there is no power supply. Intermittent power supply interruptions have destroyed businesses and undermined the position of the city as an economic entry of our province. It is extremely important that we get Kelvin to go to the 300MW [of power supply], he said. The Premier added that the provinces metropolitan municipalities need to take over electricity from Eskom. [Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality] is going out on an expansion...on power supply. They want to get more renewable energy supply with Independent Power Suppliers. The municipalities especially the metros taking over the supply of electricity is the right way to go. These are critical governance issues. This is an era where municipalities [have to] build their own capacities, he said. Makhura reiterated the call for more residents in the city to be connected to prepaid electricity. I know that the big worry is that the people dont paybut they must have prepaid electricity. People must pay for electricity as per the consumption. We cant have something called a flat rate. People must pay as per consumption. But we must sort out the infrastructure. When the substations have blown out, we cant take two years to fix a substation, he said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: Pioneer Foods recalls apple juice products The National Consumer Commission has urged consumers to return 100% Apple juice produced by Pioneer Foods. Acting National Consumer Commissioner, Thezi Mabuza, said the supplier informed the Commission of the precautionary recall of both LiquFruit and Ceres 100% apple juice. Consumers who have these products must not consume them but return them immediately to the point of purchase. We understand that the recall follows Pioneer Foods quality routine checks and laboratory testing that revealed elevated levels of mycotoxin patulin found in the product. The risk of consuming mycotoxin (patulin) exceeding 50 parts per billion (50 microgram/kg) may lead to vomiting, nausea and gastrointestinal discomfort. We urge consumers who bought these products to return them to any retail store for a full refund or a replacement voucher added Acting Commissioner Mabuza, Mabuza said in a statement on Friday. Mabuza said the Commission is working closely with the supplier to monitor the recall. She said the company told the Commission that LiquiFruit products were distributed nationwide, including Botswana and Namibia, while Ceres products were exported to 25 countries. The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) provides for safety of consumers at all times, we therefore encourage consumers to also monitor their health in cases where they have already consumed these products. We are pleading with producers/manufacturers to strengthen their quality checks routines/processes to avoid these mishaps. The Commission is monitoring the recall based on its Recall Guidelines and also allowing the supplier to conduct further investigations to detect any further potential risk, Mabuza said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: SA, Palestine express concern at Israel's accreditation to the AU South Africa and Palestine have agreed to exert joint efforts aimed at reversing the decision to admit Israel, the occupying power, as an observer member to the African Union (AU). This comes after Israel obtained observer status at the AU in July, which it has been demanding for years and seen as a diplomatic win for the Jewish State. International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Dr Naledi Pandor, is holding talks with her Palestine counterpart, Dr Riad Malki, during his official visit to South Africa. Security and stability in the Middle East are being undermined by the continued occupation of Palestinian territories and the aggressive actions of the Israeli regime, the two parties said in a joint communique on Friday. South Africa and Palestine have since called on the international community to further strengthen their support for the return of all parties to the negotiation table without pre-conditions. In addition, both nations are demanding a legal and legitimate establishment of an independent, fully sovereign, and viable Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital as per the borders in line with the internationally agreed parameters based on the relevant United Nations (UN) resolutions. In keeping with South Africas long-term and principled support for the Palestinian people, the government of South Africa remains committed to supporting initiatives aimed at refocusing the international agenda on Palestine and the Middle East Peace Process. Meanwhile, South Africa continues to support the two-State solution and international efforts aimed at the establishment of a viable Palestinian State, existing side by side in peace with Israel within internationally recognised borders in line with all relevant UN resolutions, international law and internationally agreed parameters. The two countries agreed that they would continue to work to achieve peace for the Palestinian people, who continue to endure countless injustices and an ongoing cycle of destruction, displacement, and dispossession, as well as the progressive fragmentation of its territory under Israeli occupation and its colonial settlement policy. Both nations believe that these actions undermine the prospects for a two-State solution, which constitutes an imminent threat to regional and international peace and security. The occupation continues to deny the guaranteed, protected, and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The two leaders also touched on the geopolitical and economic significance of the Middle East to the region in relation to peace and security and development within the global community and particularly the recent developments in Afghanistan. They concurred that in the absence of sustainable peace in the region there could be no global peace, stability and economic prosperity. Both parties stressed their strong belief in multilateralism and the centrality of the UN, including the Security Council, as essential in promoting effective and inclusive international cooperation in resolving the variety of the current global challenges including the peaceful settlement of conflicts. The two sides expressed their concern over the escalation of instances of racial discrimination and hatred globally and urged all countries to implement the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action, which remains a clarion call for anti-racism advocacy and action worldwide. They also stressed that, despite the efforts made in this regard, millions of human beings continue to be victims of marginalisation, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in its various contemporary forms and manifestations. The Minister also committed to working together to enhance close political, economic, and social cooperation for the mutual benefit of their countries and peoples. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Hong Kong: Climate action plan announced (To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.) The Government today announced Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050, setting out the vision of Zero-carbon Emissions Liveable City Sustainable Development and outlining the strategies and targets for combating climate change and achieving carbon neutrality. In response to the Paris Agreement, the Government presented Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2030+ in 2017. The Chief Executive announced in her Policy Address last year that Hong Kong would strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050. Unveiling the updated climate action plan at a press conference this afternoon, Secretary for the Environment KS Wong said: In 2019, electricity generation was Hong Kong's largest source of carbon emissions, followed by transport and waste. Therefore, our carbonisation work should focus on these three key areas. The new plan outlines the four major decarbonisation strategies and measures, namely net-zero electricity generation, energy saving and green buildings, green transport and waste reduction. In the next 15 to 20 years, the Government will devote about $240 billion to take forward various measures on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Mr Wong described the Chief Executives commitment to the decarbonisation work and how the Government may consider appointing a commissioner to new Office of Climate Change & Carbon Neutrality. We have the Chief Executive to head the Steering Committee on Climate Change & Carbon Neutrality. So we have the topmost level of the Governments support and steer on the whole issue and it will be attended by different bureaus and departments. And, we will set up the new Office of Climate Change & Carbon Neutrality that will be under the Environment Bureau. You would probably note that the Policy Address also mentioned the idea of advocating dedicated positions with specific responsibilities, which is the commissioners idea. So we are considering whether we should dovetail with this office - we could have a commissioner on this - so that for the Government, internally and also externally, we could have a focused contact point and office to work on Hong Kongs climate actions. Additionally, the Government plans to form an advisory committee on combating climate change to encourage the community to actively participate in climate action, Mr Wong added. And last but not least, we would have a dedicated advisory committee, as mentioned earlier in the plan, that would also liaise with the key stakeholders in Hong Kong including young people. This would create a good connection internally and externally and also even locally and globally, so that we can, through this office, strengthen our climate actions. Click here for the new plan. This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: Over 890 000 candidates to sit for the 2021 NSC exams With only weeks to go until the 2021 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is expecting more than 890 000 candidates to sit for the exams. The November 2021 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination will commence officially on Wednesday, 27 October 2021 and conclude on Tuesday, 7 December 2021. Director of National Examinations, Priscilla Ogunbanjo, said that this is the largest number of candidates who will sit for the exams in terms of fulltime candidates since the inception of the NSC examinations. Ogunbanjo said this at a media briefing on Friday hosted by the department on the state of readiness to present credible examinations for the 2021 curriculum year. We have 735 677 fulltime candidates that have enrolled to write the exam, this is the largest number since the inception of the NSC exam in terms of fulltime enrolment. This is an increase of 128 451 candidates than we had enrolled last year, she said. Ogunbanjo said that part-time enrolment has also picked up again compared to 2020, with 162 109 candidates that will sit for the exam this year. The department has also noted an increase in key subjects in terms of the number of candidates. Minister Angie Motshekga said that the department is ready to present a credible examination for 2021. The DBE has consulted with the provinces to check on their state of readiness. In their response, the provinces have confirmed that it is all system go. This is the third matric exam to happen under the COVID-19 environment; and the DBE had to make changes, to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning, she said. Adding on to the readiness and monitoring, Ogunbanjo said that the department and Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) will monitor both the writing and the marking of the November 2021 NSC examinations. She said that PED monitors will include provincial, district and circuit officials and monitoring is aligned to the risk profiles of centres. Resident monitors will be deployed to all high risk centres, including takeover by head office/districts. Each PED [is] to have a monitoring coverage of not less than 70%. On-line monitoring tools will also be used in certain PEDs. Additionally, a total of 95 DBE monitors will be deployed across the provinces to verify the monitoring conducted by PEDs, Ogunbanjo said. Marking and the release of results Marking is scheduled to commence on 8 December and end 22 December 2021, meanwhile the provisional release of results is scheduled for 21 January 2022. The department has appealed to the public to assist it in stamping out the evil of examination breaches. The DBE and the PEDs are leaving no stone unturned in strengthening their security measures across the value chain. We need the support of parents, teachers, principals and all members of the public to alert the Department of any irregular practice that may surface on the social media or on any other platform, Ogunbanjo said. Learner support In terms of learner support, the department said that the Woza Matrics Campaign is available and offers tuition support to Grade 12 learners in ten subjects. The campaign is a free-to-air television initiative, launched following the academic disruptions caused by COVID-19. The Woza Matrics 2021 Catch-Up Campaign, is led through a partnership between the DBE, National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) and the Education, Development and Training Practices (ETDP) Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA). We urge all our learners to take advantage of the learning and teaching support materials as well as the support availed through the Campaign. We also have hundreds of zero-rated platforms on our website, Motshekga said. Basic Education Employment Initiative Since the opening of the sayouth.mobi site on 27 September 2021, the department has received more than 5.5 million applications from more than 3.9 million unique applications. Through its Basic Education Employment Initiative, the department seeks to provide 287 000 unemployed young people employment and training opportunities in the basic education sector. As government, we are seeking to mitigate the devastating economic challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our young people will have an opportunity to receive training on a variety of skills, that will equip them for future employment opportunities and job creation, the Minister said. Motshekga has urged more people to apply before the application period ends on Sunday, 10 October 2021. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Hong Kong: Alfred Sit elaborates on I&T initiatives Secretary for Innovation & Technology Alfred Sit today elaborated on the innovation and technology (I&T) initiatives outlined in the 2021 Policy Address. Mr Sit met representatives of the Election Committee Technology & Innovation Subsector, the Greater Bay Area Association of Academicians, the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences and the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. He noted that the central government supports Hong Kong's development as an international I&T hub. The Policy Address has earmarked several sites for I&T uses. It has also put forward a number of I&T initiatives that are forward-looking and groundbreaking, including forming a spatial framework of "Twin Cities, Three Circles" to expedite Hong Kong's I&T development and seize the opportunities arising from the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the integration into the overall development of the country, and develop Hong Kong into an international I&T hub as promulgated in the 14th Five-Year Plan. The Government proposed the setting up of an InnoLife Healthtech Hub in the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation & Technology Park in the Lok Ma Chau Loop, with the 16 life and health-related laboratories in the InnoHK research clusters and the eight State Key Laboratories in life and health disciplines as the basis, to focus on related research work. Mr Sit highlighted that Hong Kong has a solid foundation in scientific research and a good number of worldrenowned experts, with clinical data and clinical trials being well recognised. Hong Kong has the capabilities to give full play to its unique strengths and contribute to building a pool of talent for the bay area, he added. This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. RTHK: Suicide attack kills scores in Afghan Shia mosque A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunduz province on Friday, killing scores of worshippers in the country's third attack this week on a religious institution. Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack that state-run Bakhtar news agency said had killed 46 people and wounded 143. Two health officials told Reuters the death toll could be between 70 and 80. Video footage showed bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque, which is used by the minority Shi'ite Muslim community. The blast, which the United Nations' mission in Afghanistan called part of a disturbing pattern of violence, follows others in recent days at a mosque in Kabul and a religious school in the eastern province of Khost. There have been similar attacks in recent weeks, some of which have also been claimed by Islamic State, whose fighters are Sunni Muslims. The attacks underscore security challenges facing the Taliban, which took over the country in August and have since carried out operations against Islamic State cells in Kabul. (Reuters) This story has been published on: 2021-10-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. News Vietnam US donates over one million more doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam Vietnam administers 1.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses on Friday An additional 4,806 Covid-19 infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours in Vietnam, and approximately1.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered in the country on Friday, according to a report from the Ministry of Health. A health worker gives a Covid-19 vaccine dose in Hanoi According to the ministry's report, 4,795 of the new patients are locally-transmitted cases confirmed in 42 localities including HCM City (2,215), Binh Duong (828), Dong Nai (612), An Giang (182), Tay Ninh (92), and Kien Giang (89). There were 11 imported patients confirmed today. The new infections showed an increase of 648 cases compared to yesterday's figure. There were 2,451 infections found in the community. As of Friday evening, 827,033 infections have been reported since the new outbreak occurred in the country in late April. Some localities that have recorded the highest number of patients include HCM City (407,399), Binh Duong (220,480), Dong Nai (53,752), Long An (33,165), and Tien Giang (14,433). The outbreak has so far spread to 62 out of 63 cities and provinces nationwide. With these new infection cases, the number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 831,643. The country now stands 43rd among 222 countries and territories worldwide in the number of infections. On October 8, an additional 994 more patients recovered from the disease, raising the number of recoveries in the country to 759,482. On Friday evening, a further 114 deaths related to Covid-19 were announced, bringing the total number of fatalities in Vietnam to 20,337. The deaths were reported in some localities including HCM City (78), Binh Duong (17), An Giang (7), Dong Nai (3), Long An (3), Dong Thap (1), Ninh Thuan (1), Kien Giang (1), Bac Lieu (1), Tay Ninh (1), Can Tho (1). The country has so far conducted over 50.55 million Covid-19 vaccine shots, with over 13.65 million people having received two doses. News Vietnam Health Ministry, Facebook launch campaign on COVID-19 inoculation drive Eighth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Minerals opens The 8th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Minerals (AMMin 8) opened on October 8 in the form of teleconference. Vietnamese delegation to the meeting (Photo: VNA) In his opening remarks, Vietnamese Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said minerals have contributed to socio-economic development for a long term. However, overexploitation and unsustainable use of natural resources have resulted in serious challenges such as environmental pollution, ecological breakdown and climate crisis, he added. Its time for ASEANs minerals sector to reform its development pathway to match global trends like circular, low-carbon economy, and reduction of reliance on fossil fuels, the minister stressed. To build a sustainable minerals sector, he suggested ASEAN strengthen cooperation and coordination in the time ahead. As an active and responsible member of the ASEAN Community, Vietnam stands ready to cooperate with countries and partners in the sharing of scientific knowledge about minerals and new technologies to seek new strategic minerals and create long-term values like museums and geo-parks, Ha said. At the meeting, delegates looked into issues regarding priority solutions and tasks of ASEAN in 2021, the development of the ASEAN community, a report on the implementation and supervision of the ASEAN Minerals Cooperation Action Plan (AMCAP), and another of the ASEAN Federation of Mining Associations (AFMA), among others. Cambodian Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem said the second phase of the AMCAP (2021-2025) should focus on investments in the minerals value chain, and utilise minerals information and data on the ASOOM 3 platform. The delegates also discussed issues relating to major solutions and priorities of ASEAN in this year, and the development of the ASEAN Community, especially those regarding the fourth industrial revolution and the circular economy. They reviewed outcomes of the work of the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Minerals (ASOMM) and the working group in 2020 and 2021, issued a statement on relevant policies, and approved major recommendations on regional cooperation in minerals in response to opportunities and challenges. They shared the view that the issuance of the statement on the ASEAN agenda on mining and targets to realise the 2030 agenda will help boost mining cooperation in the grouping comprehensively in the new period, toward a prosperous, green and sustainable ASEAN Community, contributing to global initiatives, raising ASEANs position as well as the future of each ASEAN member country. Serbian Premier loses ground - Rightists advance to parliament A second far-right party won seats Wednesday in the Serbian Parliament, and the overall winner, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, still lost ground in a repeat election held on a small number of polling stations because of irregularities. GALLERY Opposition supporters hold placards and banners reading in Serbian Cyrillic letters: Vucic you thief, you stole the elections (L), referring to the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, and Because of freedom (C), during an opposition rally in Belgrade. Former Serbian President Boris Tadic (2-L) talks to supporters who hold a picture of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic reading in Serbian Cyrillic letters: It is finished. Opposition supporters hold placards and banners reading in Serbian Cyrillic letters: Vucic you thief, you stole the elections (L), referring to the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, and Because of freedom (C), during an opposition rally in Belgrade. Belgrade (dpa) - The coalition grouped around the extremist movement Dveri will take 13 members in the 250-seat parliament, after collecting barely more than 5 per cent of votes in the total tally. Before the repeat vote on 15 polling stations with fewer than 20,000 registered voters - out of the 6.7 million votes in Serbia - Dveri was short of the mark by a single vote.The balloting was repeated there because of irregularities reported by both the authorities and opposition in April 24 elections. Had Dveri again failed to clear the hurdle, seven of their seats would have gone to Vucics conservative Progressive Party, reducing their losses.The outcome is a tough blow to Vucic, who will now command 131 votes in parliament - 27 fewer than before the elections he called halfway through his term, saying that he wants to cement his authority for reforms and EU membership talks. Vucic and the group lined up behind his Progressive Party (SNS) did clearly win the elections - 48.2 per cent of the vote, nearly exactly as much as in polls he also called early in 2014.Then, however, only four parties won seats in parliament, which led to a massive redistribution of votes dispersed on non-qualifiers, which heavily favoured the SNS as lopsided winners. Now seven tickets won seats and far fewer votes were available for redistribution, leaving Vucic with a majority only six above the halfway mark of 125 in parliament.The Socialist Party, junior partners in the outgoing government coalition, won 30 seats. It is unclear whether the two blocs will renew their alliance after they skirmished in the campaign. The far-right Radical Party returns to parliament after two years. Headed by Vojislav Seselj, who was cleared of charges in March at the UN war crimes tribunal, it has 21 seats.A newcomer reformist bloc, called Enough, and the once mighty Democratic Party won 16 seats apiece, while the group led by the former Democrat leader and Serbian President Boris Tadic and Dveri have 13 seats each. Ethnic minority representatives hold the remaining 10 seats.The outcome is a surprise, as pollsters predicted that the SNS would win more than 50 per cent of the vote and be close to claiming a two-thirds majority in parliament. Building shook as shrapnel went flying Witnesses who attended Monday night's Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena described scenes of panic and confusion after they heard a loud bang and saw people injured by shrapnel, many of them seriously. GALLERY 22 people including children are killed in an explosion after a concert in Manchester, Britain. London (dpa) - Gary Walker, from the nearby city of Leeds, told the BBC he was injured by shrapnel as the explosion went off a few metres away while he and his wife were waiting for their daughters to come out from the concert. "We heard the last song go and then suddenly there was a massive flash and then a bang and smoke. I felt a pain in my foot and my leg," Walker told the broadcaster. "I turned around to my wife, who was standing at the side of me, and she said, I need to lay down. Shes got a stomach wound and possible a broken leg," he said. "Ive got a bit of a hole in my foot where Ive got a bit of shrapnel. I was surprised I got away so lightly." Walker said he saw metal nuts that he believed could have come from an explosive device. People at the venue were using tables as makeshift stretchers for the injured, he said.Emma Johnson, a caller to BBC Radio Manchester, said she and her husband were also at the arena to pick up their daughter and son from the concert. "It was definitely a bomb," Johnson said. "It was definitely in the foyer - about 15 feet (5 metres) away." "We were stood at the top of the stairs and the glass exploded - it was near to where they were selling the merchandise. "The whole building shook," she said. "There was a blast and then a flash of fire afterwards. "Fortunately for us, we were all safe to tell the story," Johnson said. "Were just so grateful to be home and safe. Im just praying for everybody else with loved ones there."Another witness, identified only by the first name Andy, said he had been waiting in the foyer for his wife and daughter when he was knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion. As he got up, he saw a scene "like something out of a war film," he told BBC Radio 5. "When I get up and look round, theres just bodies everywhere. I reckon 20 to 30 bodies. I cant say if some of them were dead but they looked dead. "They were covered in blood and were really seriously hurt," he said, adding that he saw "kids and teenagers just lying there screaming."Calvin Welsford, 18, from the south-western city of Bristol said he was in the front row as he heard a loud bang that "almost sounded like a gunshot." "I looked around and people were just spilling down, heading out of the building," he told the broadcaster. "I was actually having an asthma attack. It was sheer panic. Security told us we needed to leave but they were very caring. People were crying." Xi to attend commemorative meeting marking 110th anniversary of 1911 Revolution Xinhua) 08:09, October 08, 2021 BEIJING, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a commemorative meeting on Saturday to mark the 110th anniversary of the Revolution of 1911. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, will deliver an important speech at the event, which is scheduled to be held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing at 10 a.m. The event will be broadcast live by China Media Group and xinhuanet.com. It will also be rebroadcast simultaneously on major news websites including people.com.cn, cctv.com and china.com.cn, as well as on news apps run by the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) WHO set to vaccinate 40 pct population of every country against COVID-19 by end 2021 Xinhua) 08:22, October 08, 2021 The video screenshot taken on May 7, 2021 shows World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attending a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua) Over 6.4 billion vaccine doses have now been administered globally. However, low-income countries have received less than half of one percent of the world's vaccines. In Africa, less than five percent of people are fully vaccinated, according to WHO's data. GENEVA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday an initiative to vaccinate 40 percent of the population of every country against COVID-19 by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022, by prioritizing vaccine delivery to low-income countries, particularly those in Africa. "Today, WHO is launching the Strategy to Achieve Global COVID-19 Vaccination by mid-2022," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing. "The strategy outlines the road we must all take together to achieve our targets of vaccinating 40 percent of the population of every country by the end of this year, and 70 percent by the middle of next year." According to Tedros, achieving these targets will require at least 11 billion vaccine doses, which is an allocation problem instead of a supply problem. "With global vaccine production now at nearly 1.5 billion doses per month, there is enough supply to achieve our targets, provided they are distributed equitably," he said. A medical worker receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Aug. 3, 2021. (Photo by Herman Emmanuel/Xinhua) According to WHO's records, more than 6.4 billion vaccine doses have now been administered globally, and almost one-third of the world's population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. However, low-income countries have received less than half of one percent of the world's vaccines. In Africa, less than five percent of people are fully vaccinated. Earlier this year, WHO set a target for all countries to vaccinate ten percent of their populations by the end of September, but 56 countries didn't make it. That has prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to join the WHO chief to launch the latest strategy. "Vaccine inequality is the best ally of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Guterres, but "through dose sharing, swaps, technology transfers and other priority actions, it is possible to reduce deaths and minimize suffering, prevent health systems from being overwhelmed, resume social and economic activities, and reduce the risk of dangerous new variants." The UN chief also renewed his appeal to G20 for help, adding that "their meeting later this month will be an opportunity to deliver." "I urge all global stakeholders to step up, mobilize their resources and turn this strategy into a reality," he said. An elderly person receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 17, 2021. (Photo by Yeshiel/Xinhua) (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) China sees 515 million domestic tourist trips during holiday Xinhua) 08:23, October 08, 2021 People visit a food street during the week-long National Day holiday in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Oct. 2, 2021. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) BEIJING, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- China saw a total of 515 million domestic tourist trips made during the seven-day National Day holiday, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The figure was 70.1 percent of trips made during the same period before the COVID-19 epidemic, said the ministry. Tourism revenue reached 389.06 billion yuan (about 60.38 billion U.S. dollars), a recovery of 59.9 percent of the revenue gained in the same period before the epidemic, the ministry said. China celebrates its National Day on Oct. 1. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Interview: Denmark considers China's rising demand for high-quality food products huge opportunity Xinhua) 08:46, October 08, 2021 A staff member works at a booth for Danish household products at the Lifestyles exhibition area during the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Ying) China has been the most important country in the Asia region for Danish agricultural exports since 2008 and it is now by far the biggest market there. COPENHAGEN, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Danish companies consider it a huge opportunity to deliver safe and high-quality food products to the Chinese market, and Denmark's sustainable solutions will also "help accelerate the green transition", Denmark's food industry experts told Xinhua in recent interviews. "We believe that our focus on manufacturing safe, sustainable and high-quality food products offers a huge chance for us to increase our market share in China," said Martin Kristian Brauer, chief economist and area director at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council. "A survey conducted in three major cities in China has revealed that consumers there are aware of the sustainability concept. Most respondents said that they intend to shop and eat sustainably," Brauer said. The expansion of Denmark's food exports to China since 2008 makes China "the most important country in Asia region for Danish agricultural exports and it is now by far the biggest market there." Denmark's success in China is driven by pork exports, accounting for nearly 9.3 billion Danish kroner (1.4 billion U.S. dollars), corresponding to a market share of 26 percent in 2020, Brauer explained. According to Food Nation, the official branding consortium established by the Danish government and leading private organizations and companies to promote Danish food, this success was the result of hard work and the strict observance of food safety standards. A girl attends the annual Copenhagen Cooking &Food Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark, Aug. 31, 2019. The ten-day festival concluded on Sunday. (Xinhua/David A.Williams) China accounted for 47.4 percent of total Danish food and agricultural products exports in 2020, including bio-based products and machinery, according to Food Nation's recently published annual report. "The decision makers in China highlight sustainability and food safety as the most important considerations when they choose partners for cooperation in the agriculture and food sector," said Lise Walbom, chief executive officer (CEO) of Food Nation. In contrast to the success of finished food products, agricultural technology, food processing technology and biosolutions currently make up just a small part of Denmark's exports to China, but this trend is expected to reverse soon. According to Walbom, in the next two to five years China will become a major target market for food technology companies using sustainable solutions. At the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE), to be held in Shanghai between Nov. 5 and Nov. 10, 2021, Denmark will be represented by a record high number of companies on a floor area of matching size, said Soren Falck, head of delegations, exhibitions and export promotion at the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI). The booth of Danish toy giant LEGO Group is seen at the Consumer Goods exhibition area during the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Ting) "Denmark's business heavyweights will all be there," Falck said. "In the Danish national pavilion in Shanghai we will focus exclusively on food products, beverages, ingredients, nutrition, agriculture and food industry equipment." "But several other Danish companies will also be there on their own or together with their Chinese partners," Falck said. The CIIE is the first dedicated import exhibition in the world and has seen fruitful outcomes in the past three expos. The booth of Denmark is seen at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 6, 2018. (Xinhua/Yin Gang) (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Chinese ambassador invites Americans to get immersive experience of China after pandemic Xinhua) 08:52, October 08, 2021 WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang on Wednesday encouraged Americans to go to China and get "an immersive experience" of the fast-evolving country once the situation allows. "Today's forum is about tourism, hospitality and cultural exchange between China and the U.S., which are the foundation for the mutual understanding and correct perception of the two peoples," Qin said in his keynote speech at an online Forum on Tourism, Hospitality and Cultural Exchange held by the U.S.-Asia Institute and Las Vegas Sands Corp. "To get a true, multi-dimensional and panoramic view of China, I encourage you to go to China and get an immersive experience of my country. I hope that the pandemic will be over soon, so that you can go there for study, work and fun," Qin said. He offered some tips for potential American visitors to China, including carrying a smart phone as scanning QR codes is more convenient when taking buses, high-speed trains, planes, or ships, or just riding a shared bike, and taking one's driving license in a bid to rent a shared new-energy car on the street. As many Americans cannot visit China in person now during the COVID-19 pandemic, Qin suggested they make good use of internet resources, take a virtual tour of China's places of interest like the Forbidden City, try some live streaming shopping and improve their Chinese language skills with interactive learning apps. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Library hosts cultural events during National Day holiday in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Xinhua) 08:53, October 08, 2021 Poeple play Chinese chess on an electronic device at the Shijiazhuang Library in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, Oct. 6, 2021. The library hosted a series of cultural events to better entertain visitors during the week-long National Day holiday starting from Oct. 1. (Xinhua/Luo Xuefeng) (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Joint statement of China and Russia on strengthening the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons Global Times) 09:03, October 08, 2021 The national flags of China and Russia are seen on Red Square, Moscow. (Source: Xinhua) The Russian Federation and China reaffirm their conviction that the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (BWC) is essential as a pillar of the international peace and security, and their determination to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the Convention. Today, as in 1975, the objective of the BWC remains relevant: to rule completely out the possibility of biological agents being used as weapons. The Russian Federation and China reiterate the need that the BWC should be fully complied with and further strengthened, including through its institutionalization and the adoption of a legally binding protocol to the Convention with effective verification mechanism, as well as through regular consultations and cooperation in resolving any issues related to the implementation of the Convention. The Russian Federation and China emphasize that the BWC functions, including in what concerns the United Nations Security Council, should not be duplicated by other mechanisms. With a view to shaping a BWC mechanism of investigation of the alleged biological weapons incidents, they call on the BWC States Parties to develop operating standards for the mechanism, together with technical guidelines and procedures. The Russian Federation and China note with concern that over the past two decades the BWC States Parties, despite the wishes of the overwhelming majority, have failed to reach an agreement on resuming the multilateral negotiations on the Protocol to the Convention, suspended in 2001 when the United States unilaterally withdrew from this process despite the fact that the consensus was almost reached. Consequently, and also in the light of rapid advances in the field of science and technology with dual-use capabilities, the risk of biological agents being used as weapons has increased. In this context they emphasize that the United States' and its allies' overseas military biological activities (over 200 US biological laboratories are deployed outside its national territory, which function in opaque and non-transparent manner) cause serious concerns and questions among the international community over its compliance with the BWC. The two sides share the view that such activities pose serious risks for the national security of the Russian Federation and China, and are detrimental to the security of relevant regions. The Russian Federation and China further note that the United States' and its allies' military biological activities on their national territory also cause serious compliance concerns. Given the fact that the United States and its allies do not provide any meaningful information on those military biological activities that could allay concerns of the international community, the Russian Federation and China urge the United States and its allies to act in an open, transparent and responsible manner, by informing properly on its military biological activities carried out overseas and on their national territory, and supporting the resumption of negotiations on a legally binding protocol to the BWC with effective verification mechanism, so as to ensure their compliance with the BWC. In this context the Russian Federation and China note the importance of improved confidence-building measures under the Convention, inter alia, by including information on the overseas military biological activities by the BWC States Parties in the reporting form. The two sides believe that such declaration will be conducive to filling in the blank spots and fostering confidence among States Parties. The Russian Federation and China also call upon the BWC States Parties to continue joint efforts towards strengthening the Convention on a secure, legally binding basis. They welcome relevant initiatives. At the same time, they support ancillary measures to improve the current implementation of the Convention. The BWC institutional framework would be strengthened with the proposed mobile biomedical teams to render assistance in cases of biological weapons use, investigate such cases and help combat epidemics of various origins. This proposal represents a new approach to the improved BWC implementation at the international level, combining the principles of collective security and cooperation for peaceful purposes. The Russian Federation and China stress that the rapid development of science and technology in BWC-related areas call for greater attention of the BWC States Parties. There is a need to raise awareness of the risks associated with dual-use research and, simultaneously, promote the full use of the latest advances in biotechnology for peaceful purposes. In this context, the Russian Federation and China support the idea to establish a BWC scientific advisory committee to analyse scientific and technological advances relevant to the Convention and advise its States Parties accordingly. At the BWC Ninth Review Conference, the Russian Federation and China are prepared to consider any proposals capable of strengthening the Convention and improving its implementation in a non-discriminatory manner. They call upon all BWC States Parties to adopt a constructive approach to ensure that the decisions taken serve strengthening the BWC regime. Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) China takes lead to propose, implement red line strategy for ecological conservation: white paper Xinhua) 10:21, October 08, 2021 BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- China was the first in the world to propose and implement the red line strategy for ecological conservation, said a white paper released on Friday by the State Council Information Office. The country has also designated priority areas in biodiversity protection, according to the white paper titled "Biodiversity Conservation in China." These measures have contributed to the conservation of key natural ecosystems, biological resources, and habitats for key species, it said. Setting red lines for ecological conservation is an important institutional innovation in China's land use planning and eco-environmental reform, said the white paper. China's proposal "Drawing a 'Red Line' for Ecological Protection to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change" has been selected by the UN as one of the 15 best Nature-based Solutions around the globe, according to the white paper. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) China contributes 10 pct of world's new plant varieties in past decade: white paper Xinhua) 10:22, October 08, 2021 BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has contributed up to 10 percent of the new plant varieties identified worldwide in the past decade, according to a white paper released Friday by the State Council Information Office. In this period, the country has identified about 200 new varieties of plants per annum, said the white paper titled "Biodiversity Conservation in China." To strengthen the supervision of biogenetic resources, China has conducted surveys on essential biogenetic resources and conservation performance evaluations, which aimed to identify the scale, distribution, conservation and utilization of these resources, it said. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) China contributes most to world's green area growth in 2000-2017: white paper Xinhua) 10:30, October 08, 2021 Citizens visit the Baishatan park in Xining, northwest China's Qinghai Province, Oct. 12, 2020. In recent years, Xining has continuously increased the green area at urban area to improve city environment. (Xinhua/Wu Gang) BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has been the largest contributor to the world's gain in greenness between 2000 and 2017, according to a white paper released Friday by the State Council Information Office. The country has contributed about 25 percent of global vegetation growth in the reporting period, the biggest share among all countries, said the white paper titled "Biodiversity Conservation in China." China's forest coverage and forest reserve have both maintained growth for the last 30 years, and the country has realized the largest growth in forest resources among all countries in the world, it said. China's desertification coverage and sandy desertification coverage have both decreased in three successive monitoring periods, and its steppe vegetation coverage rate has reached 56.1 percent, the white paper said. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) China achieves remarkable results in fulfilling biodiversity obligations: white paper Xinhua) 10:52, October 08, 2021 BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has achieved remarkable results in fulfilling obligations for biodiversity conservation, said a white paper released by the State Council Information Office Friday. China has made positive contribution to the 2020 global biodiversity targets (the Aichi targets) and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, said the white paper titled "Biodiversity Conservation in China." In 2010, the China National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2011-2030) was published. Since then, China has been working for a better eco-environment by improving the legal system and other mechanisms, strengthening in-situ and ex-situ conservation, increasing public participation, and boosting international cooperation and exchanges on biodiversity, said the document. China has over-fulfilled three of the Aichi targets - establishing terrestrial nature reserves, restoring and ensuring important ecosystem services, and increasing ecosystem resilience and carbon storage - and made progress in 13 targets, including mainstreaming biodiversity, sustainable management of agriculture, forestry and fishery, and sustainable production and consumption, according to the white paper. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Interview: China's anti-COVID-19 support "extremely valuable," says Ecuador's health minister Xinhua) 11:10, October 08, 2021 QUITO, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's support in Ecuador's fight against COVID-19 is "extremely valuable," Ecuadorian Public Health Minister Ximena Garzon has said. "China's support has been a mainstay in getting us out of this pandemic. Without China's support, we definitely wouldn't have been able to do it, not just because of the quantity of vaccines (supplied) but also because of their speedy delivery," Garzon said in an interview with Xinhua earlier this week. Progress in vaccination has been possible in the country thanks to the rapid supply of CoronaVac and Convidecia vaccines, developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics, respectively. The Chinese vaccines have been "very well received" by Ecuadorians, said Garzon. "More than 60 percent of the population has been inoculated with Sinovac, while a smaller but significant percentage has received CanSino, leading to very good immunity and no undesirable effects," she said. To date, 10 million people have been fully vaccinated in Ecuador. The inoculation of adolescents aged 12-15 is underway, while children aged 5-11 will begin getting vaccinated on Oct. 15. The strategy aims to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 by the end of the year, after 85 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. "We have scientific evidence from Chile and China, all the evidence of the vaccine's effectiveness and safety. Therefore, we will make them (vaccines) available to these age groups," Garzon said. "Now you are seeing the impact on economic and social recovery, the saving of lives and the decongestion of hospitals so that other pathologies can be treated," Garzon said. Progress in immunization has led to a sustained downward trend in the number of new COVID-19 infections and deaths throughout the country, she said. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Written Statement by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the 11th Ministerial Plenary Meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum People's Daily Online) 13:08, October 08, 2021 Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF). On behalf of the Chinese government, I wish to congratulate the Forum, and thank the Forum's Co-Chairs, the Working Groups Co-Chairs and all the members for their hard work for the Forum's development. Over the past decade, the GCTF has played a unique role in promoting frontier research, capacity building and practical cooperation on counterterrorism, and provided strong support for the efforts of the international community to effectively implement Global Counterterrorism Strategy of the United Nations.The GCTF has become an important platform for global counterterrorism cooperation. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Two decades have gone by. The world is witnessing waves of terrorist threats, and international counterterrorism remains a complex and grave challenge. Thanks to the joint efforts of all countries, significant progress has been made in international counterterrorism cooperation. However, terrorist forces are yet to be wiped out. Their networks are still growing. Terrorist organizations exploit social networks, encrypted communication, virtual currencies, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to conduct terrorist activities, making prevention and crackdown more difficult. The lingering pandemic of COVID-19 has further complicated international counterterrorism efforts. Fighting terrorism remains a formidable task for the international community, and global counterterrorism cooperation must be strengthened rather than weakened. When looking back at the past ten years of international counterterrorism cooperation since the founding of the GCTF and the past 20 years of global counterterrorism since 9/11, we should learn some valuable experience and lessons. China would like to make the following five propositions on future global counterterrorism. First, we need to give full play to the central role of the UN. All countries share the same future in face of terrorism, and solidarity and cooperation is the only way forward. The mindset of building small exclusive blocs and zero-sum games must be discarded. We must practice true multilateralism, and always stand on the right side of history and the side of fairness and justice. The purposes and principles of the UN Charter and other basic norms of international relations must be truly observed, UN Security Council resolutions must be strictly enforced, and the UN Global Counterterrorism Strategy must be fully implemented. Second, we need to uphold the principle of addressing both the symptom and the root cause. Fighting terrorism is a systematic project, both complicated and challenging. Only through combined efforts on the political, economic, social, cultural and religious fronts with a long view, can we eliminate the breeding ground of terrorism and defeat it in the end. The Afghan war once again proves with its result that military means alone can hardly eliminate terrorism, and that forced "transplanted democracy" in the name of counterterrorism is incompatible with local conditions and cannot sustain. Third, we need to abandon any double standard. There is no such distinction of good and bad terrorists. Politicizing counterterrorism or using it as a tool to meet one's own political needs is like taking a wild tiger as a pet, which will only bring disaster. One must not under the pretext of protecting ethnic minorities or religious freedom groundlessly attack or slander other countries' legitimate counterterrorism and deradicalization measures. It is even more unacceptable to connive with or even use terrorist groups for selfish geopolitical interests. The East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a terrorist organization listed by the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council. ETIM has long been active, and is responsible for numerous horrendous crimes. It is not only detrimental to China's security and stability, but also a real threat to the international community. There must be zero tolerance in eliminating ETIM. Fourth,we need to tackle new threats and challenges. We must all be alerted to the new tendencies of global terrorist activities. We need to tackle new threats and challenges such as the abuse of cyber and emerging technologies by terrorists, the collusion of terrorism and organized crimes, and diversification of terrorist financing. For justice to prevail over evil, countries need to keep pace with the times, upgrade their capabilities of counterterrorism technology, enhance communication and synergy, and resolutely stop the escalation and spread of terrorism. Fifth, we need to strengthen counterterrorism capacity building for developing countries. We need to help developing countries enhance counterterrorism and deradicalization capacity, particularly African countries and those on the front line of counterterrorism, so as to shore up every link in fighting terrorism. During its presidency of the UN Security Council in March 2020, China promoted the adoption of a presidential statement on helping African countries strengthen their counterterrorism capacity. We need to earnestly implement the statement, and give African countries strong support in fighting terrorism. Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, As a founding member of the GCTF, China always participates actively in the Forum, gives it strong support, and provides useful proposals and contribution to its development. Under the GCTF framework, China has proposed and held two symposiums on combating Terrorists' Use of the Internet (TUI). These events helped build international consensus and expand practical cooperation,and achieved important outcomes. China will continue to support the GCTF, implement the Strategic Vision for the Next Decade, and work for more tangible outcomes. Looking forward, China has three proposals for the future development of the GCTF. First, deepen coordination and cooperation. The Forum must stay apolitical and informal. We need to enhance communication and cooperation between members, strengthen coordination and cooperation with the UN and other international and regional organizations, step up information sharing, and draw on each other's strength. Second, reinforce the Forum's strength in research. We need to continue to leverage the Forum's ability of being pragmatic, efficient, and professional, and step up research on deradicalization, combating TUI, preventing terrorists from using new technologies and other key issues. Third, improve allocation of resources. We need to prioritize and channel more resources to developing countries, provide them with more training and capacity building programs, and help them improve their counterterrorism and deradicalization capacity. Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, Terrorism is a common enemy of humanity. Addressing the threat of terrorism matters to every country. We need to see humanity as a community with a shared future, unite and work together to remove the"cancer" of terrorism. China has always been an important participant and contributor in the international campaign against terrorism. China will continue to carry out effective exchange and cooperation with other countries on counterterrorism and deradicalizaion, and contribute China's solutions to global counterterrorism through its efforts. China will work with the international community, make even greater achievements in the global fight against terrorism in the Forum's second decade, and contribute more to building a world of lasting peace and security for all. Thank you. (Source: www.fmprc.gov.cn) (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Young lady from Xinjiang presents Atlas silk to the world through her wholehearted endorsement People's Daily Online) 14:38, October 08, 2021 Buwizorihan Metrozi works as a guide at an Atlas silk company in Hetian, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. She is responsible for showcasing Atlas-making crafts to visiting tourists. In her hometown of Jiya township there are many families dedicated to the production of Atlas silk, a tradition that has been carried on from generation to generation. Clothes made of Atlas silk feature a soft texture and bright colors. The tie-dyeing techniques that are involved in the process for making the silk have been inscribed into China's list of national intangible cultural heritage. The young lady has had a thing for Atlas silk since she was a child, and later was recommended by the village committee to work in the local company, which has since brought her much happiness. She later decided to make videos about Atlas products with the intention of posting them on Douyin, a popular video-sharing platform. At present, she has more than 10,000 followers on the platform. No wonder she stated in her videos with a sense of pride, "Atlas has my endorsement. (Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liang Jun) Chinese military veteran uses animal designs to create "bedding zoo" at local supermarket in Shanghai People's Daily Online) 16:55, October 08, 2021 Pan Xuedong, a military veteran, has made the most of his skills learnt while in the army and has since become an expert designer at a supermarket in Shanghai demonstrating his proficiency in fashioning together various animal toys out of bedding set items such as quilts. Pan Xuedong shows his co-workers how to make a "rabbit" out of a towel. (Photo/chinanews.com) After serving in the army for five years, Pan was demobilized in 2006 and began working in RT-Mart in Shanghai where he was responsible for folding up the stores quilts. Over the past 15 years, he has designed more than 500 animal shapes made of bedclothes, including quilts, bed sheets and daily necessities such as towels, turning the supermarket into an exhibition of fashionable designs. Pan said that he used to be a soldier of the armed police force. During his military service, he often would take the first prize in quilt making competitions. "I didn't think making beds would be my future career," Pan joked. There were no standards or regulations for displays that were commonly agreed on by the whole industry in 2006, Pan recalled, adding that the idea of making animal toys out of these bedclothes suddenly came to me. I gave it a try casually. Gradually, I developed my own style for making them." Photo shows Pan Xuedong and his self-made "monkey". (Photo/chinanews.com) Take this monkey made of a brownish-grey towel as an example. It took me 15 minutes to come up with this idea. Its easy to make and can be done at home, said Pan. With more and more designs created over time, the supermarket has gradually been transformed into Pans own bedding zoo. Netizens have also called these "animals" made out of store goods as the art of supermarkets, which made Pan very proud. Pan said that through his efforts he was willing to offer small surprises to customers during their shopping experience, which could help make them feel more relaxed as they shopped. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) The world needs a lockdown on politicizing COVID-19 origin-tracing 16:57, October 08, 2021 By Mohammad Saiyedul Islam ( People's Daily Online Firemen disinfect a wetland park in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Oct. 5, 2021. Outdoor public places in Xiamen started to reopen from Oct. 5, as the results of the sixth round of citywide nucleic acid testing all came out negative. (Photo by Ye Yiheng/Xinhua) Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most serious issues has been the origins of COVID-19. Normally, it takes many years to resolve this kind of scientific question. However, some Western politicians have been fanning the flames by politicizing the origin tracing of COVID-19 and slandering China. The US has apparently spared no effort to continue politicizing the issue. According to a White House statement released on May 26, US President Joe Biden directed the countrys intelligence agencies to conduct a thorough inquiry into COVID-19 origin-tracing. On the eve of the G7 summit, on June 10, Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a joint statement indicating that the US and the UK support the work plan for the second phase of the investigation into the origins of COVID-19 (the plan) that was circulated by the WHO secretariat. During the NATO summit that took place on June 14 and 15, the organization, led by the US, also issued a joint statement which claimed that its members would support the plan. The WHO-China joint study report on the origins of COVID-19 was officially released on March 30 by the WHO. It concluded that a laboratory leak from a Chinese lab was extremely unlikely. Moreover, researchers were to continue looking for possible early cases in a range of places around the world, and learn more about the cold chain and frozen food link. This investigative report provided a scientific and authoritative set of results that were to serve as the foundation for future worldwide origin-tracing efforts. At the very beginning of the outbreak, the US government ignored the warnings issued by China and the WHO. It missed the ideal time horizon for implementing epidemic prevention and control measures. When the epidemic spread to the US, the countrys leaders deliberately referred to the new unknown virus as the "Chinese virus" or the "Wuhan virus", and launched a public relations campaign directed against China. The "laboratory leak theory" was proposed by former US President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among others. Afterwards, the Biden administration not only maintained the outgoing Trump administration's anti-China strategy, but has even gone further to continue building on top of that original foundation. The US failed to fight the epidemic on its own accord and became the country with the largest number of infections and deaths worldwide, which was an approach that was truly tantamount to America First. Unfortunately, in the face of the rebound of the pandemic and its negative impacts, the focus of the US is still not squarely on the prevention and control of the global pandemic, but instead relies on continuing to play the blame game against China. Government officials, experts, and scholars from many countries all around the world have expressed their disapproval of the efforts to politicize COVID-19 origin-tracing as put forward by some US politicians. They urged that the international community should unite together to fight against the pandemic and oppose the stigmatization, labeling, and politicization of the virus. They underscored that viruses are a common adversary of all of humankind. Furthermore, research on COVID-19 origin-tracing should be conducted in a scientific and objective manner. Margareth Dalcomo, a researcher at Brazils Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, said that politicizing COVID-19 origin-tracing is neither scientific nor helpful for the origin-tracing process. It is actually more like perpetuating a conspiracy theory rather than engaging in sound science. Politicization will further hinder the prevention and control of epidemic diseases as such an approach creates a greater sense of insecurity in public opinion. Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University in the US, has pointed out in an article published on July 26 that the true purpose of COVID-19 origin-tracing should be to prevent future pandemics on the basis of international cooperation. In other words, COVID-19 origin-tracing should not be regarded as a geopolitical issue. At a briefing on COVID-19 origin-tracing for diplomatic envoys on August 13, 2021, Chinas Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu noted that more than 70 nations had recently expressed support for the WHO-China joint study report and opposed politicizing origin-tracing after submitting letters to the WHO Director-General. More than 30 nations have expressed opposition to or reservations in response to the WHO Secretariat's plan. Over 300 political parties, social groups, and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions signed a Joint Statement delivered to the WHO Secretariat, urging the WHO to undertake COVID-19 origin-tracing research objectively, equitably, and without politicizing the process. Having made use of a variety of methods to get their message across, groups, professionals, researchers, and media agencies from different countries around the world have stated their opposition to politicizing the COVID-19 origin-tracing process. The international communitys attitude towards this incident is very clear. It supports the WHO-China joint study report. Political manipulation is unpopular in the face of truth, science, and justice. The international community has also shown its concern regarding the Fort Detrick biological laboratory in the US, which was abruptly closed in July 2019, before the onward spread of COVID-19. The Fort Detrick biological laboratory was shut down when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a cease and desist order. Since then, relevant US departments refused to release more information on the grounds of national security concerns. Obviously, if COVID-19 origin-tracing is to be effectively promoted, the Fort Detrick biological laboratory must be included in the list of targets for further international investigation. However, the US has remained silent up until now. Chinese netizens recently began a large-scale joint signature campaign, urging the WHO to examine the Fort Detrick biological facility. The joint petition saw the participation of more than 25 million people. The US has blatantly ignored the scientific conclusions of the WHO-China joint study report on COVID-19 origin-tracing and has launched a campaign against China based on a "presumption of guilt". The political calculations behind such maneuvers are clear. The process for conducting COVID-19 origin-tracing requires solid scientific evidence. Virus tracing is solely a scientific endeavor. We need to give scientists more time to figure out where the COVID-19 virus came from. We, as laypeople, are unable to determine whether the COVID-19 virus originated from abnormal conditions generated in a laboratory setting; or channels found in nature associated with animal-to-human transmission. Hence, attempts to politicize scientific issues will surely cause great harm. We will only get closer to the truth when results from scientific studies continue to emerge after resolving many of the remaining puzzles. We hope that all parties will respect facts and science on face value. So, please stop seeking out ways to engage in political manipulation for the sake of narrow self-interest at this critical moment in time. Otherwise, the truth about the origins of COVID-19 may remain forever shrouded in mystery. The opinions expressed in the article reflect those of the author, and not necessarily those of People's Daily Online. The writer is a Doctoral Fellow with the School of International Trade and Economics at the Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, and a Bangladeshi journalist based in China. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) A conference aimed at promoting the protection and industrial development of ancient architecture kicked off Thursday in Huangshan, a city in east China's Anhui Province, famous for its Hui-style architecture. Around 450 representatives, including experts and scholars from UNESCO, the Palace Museum, China Construction Industry Association as well as businesspersons from relevant industries, attended the opening ceremony. The event, first of its kind in Huangshan, includes a keynote conference, a forum on the development of Hui-style ancient architecture and architectural skills, business matchmaking and field trips. Initiated by Huangshan City, an industry alliance of ancient architectures was established at the conference, including 10 cities such as Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province, Yangzhou of Jiangsu Province and more. Huangshan has many well-preserved Hui-style buildings dating back to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties that feature black roof tiles and white walls with exquisite wood, stone and brick carvings. The two popular villages of Xidi and Hongcun were listed as world cultural heritage sites for their ancient Hui-style buildings. Huangshan is also striving to build a digital database of ancient buildings that includes photos, videos and design papers. More than 56,300 photos covering 8,037 ancient Hui-style architectures have been collected so far, according to local authorities. The market size of China's ancient architecture industry has increased at an average annual rate of over 15 percent in recent years from approximately 61.6 billion yuan (about 9.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, according to a report on the investment prospect of China's ancient architecture industry. Over 4.4 billion yuan has been invested to protect and utilize local ancient architectures in Huangshan since 2014. "There are more than 200 companies that are involved in the ancient architecture industry in Huangshan, and they are becoming stronger day by day. We will spare no effort to inherit and promote these architectural skills, and achieve integrated development of various fields such as planning, design, research and construction," said Ling Yun, Party chief of Huangshan City. Enditem Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a commemorative meeting on Saturday to mark the 110th anniversary of the Revolution of 1911. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, will deliver an important speech at the event, which is scheduled to be held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing at 10 a.m. The event will be broadcast live by China Media Group and xinhuanet.com. It will also be rebroadcast simultaneously on major news websites including people.com.cn, cctv.com and china.com.cn, as well as on news apps run by the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television. Enditem Girls smile during an art festival in Lhari County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Aug. 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Chogo) "China's progress is a result of the hard work of the Chinese people. We never see it as a gift from other countries. And we will never allow anyone to deprive the Chinese people of their rights to development and a happy life," said a Chinese envoy. UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said on Thursday that the best answer to China's human rights situation is found in people's happy life and smiling faces. "The best answer to China's human rights situation lies in the happy life and smiling faces of the Chinese people," Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), told the General Debate of the Third Committee of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Zhang cited a poll conducted by a Western institution as showing that the Chinese people's satisfaction with the government exceeds 90 percent. "It is the people's support that gives us the greatest strength in advancing our human rights path with distinctive Chinese features," said the ambassador. Intangible cultural heritage inheritors dance with tourists at a scenic area of Bosten Lake in Bohu County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Xiaocheng) "This year, we again witness some strange phenomenon at the Third Committee: The U.S. and a few other countries are provoking confrontation, pointing fingers at other developing countries' human rights situation, and brazenly launching smear campaigns," he said. The ambassador pointed out that "they choose to stay silent on their own problems and turn a blind eye to the terrible human rights records of their allies." "Such selectivity and politicization have seriously poisoned the cooperative atmosphere of the UN," said the ambassador. A few countries, including the United States, fabricate lies about Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, making baseless accusations against China, and using human rights to interfere in China's internal affairs, the ambassador said. "These moves are firmly opposed and resolutely rejected by the Chinese government and people," Zhang said. A child waves the Chinese national flag while posing for photos on a bridge in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Oct. 2, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) "I must point out that the accusations by the U.S. and a few other countries are totally unfounded, unjust and go against the prevailing trend of our times. Instead of caring about human rights in China, their real intention is to sabotage China's stability and development," Zhang said. "China's progress is a result of the hard work of the Chinese people. We never see it as a gift from other countries. And we will never allow anyone to deprive the Chinese people of their rights to development and a happy life," the ambassador added. "China's progress will by no means be stopped by any external disruption," he said. The UNGA Third Committee, also known as the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, is one of six main committees at the UNGA. The committee meets every year in early October and aims to finish its work by the end of November. All 193 member states of the UN can attend. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday highlighted the role of the United Nations when discussing efforts for global counterterrorism cooperation. "We need to give full play to the central role of the UN," Wang told the 11th Ministerial Plenary Meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum. "We must practice true multilateralism, and always stand on the right side of history and the side of fairness and justice," he said, calling for strict observation of the principles of the UN Charter. Terrorism a 'systematic project' Describing the process of fighting against terrorism as "both complicated and challenging," Wang urged addressing the issues from "both the symptom and the root cause." "The Afghan war once again proves with its result that military means alone can hardly eliminate terrorism, and that forced 'transplanted democracy' in the name of counterterrorism is incompatible with local conditions and cannot sustain," he said in the statement. Indonesian anti-terrorist police officers take part in a bomb threat and terrorism drill at Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Lebak Bulus station in Jakarta, Indonesia, December 16, 2020. /Xinhua Wang slammed "any double standard" for all terrorist activities. "Politicizing counterterrorism or using it as a tool to meet one's own political needs is like taking a wild tiger as a pet, which will only bring disaster," he said. "It is even more unacceptable to connive with or even use terrorist groups for selfish geopolitical interests." Strengthening counterterrorism capacity building for developing countries Wang also suggested more assistance for developing countries to enhance counterterrorism and deradicalization capacity, particularly African countries and those on the front line of counterterrorism. "We need to prioritize and channel more resources to developing countries, provide them with more training and capacity building programs, and help them improve their counterterrorism and deradicalization capacity," he said. The Chinese diplomat said he believes enhancing communication and cooperation between members, strengthening coordination and cooperation with the UN and other international and regional organizations will help the world in the fight against terrorism. He also called for information sharing to be stepped up. "China will work with the international community, make even greater achievements in the global fight against terrorism in the Forum's second decade, and contribute more to building a world of lasting peace and security for all," he said. A tribal fighter stands at a position in Marib, Yemen, October 2, 2020. /Reuters Bahrain, Russia and other members of the UN Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday to shut down the body's war crimes investigations in Yemen. Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the independent investigators another two years to monitor atrocities in Yemen's conflict. It marked the first time in the council's 15-year history that a resolution was defeated. The independent investigators have said in the past that potential war crimes have been committed by all sides in the seven-year conflict, which has left at least 100,000 people dead and four million displaced. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres still believes there is a need for accountability in Yemen, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. "We will continue to press for accountability in Yemen, a place in which civilians have seen repeated crimes committed against them," Dujarric said. Source(s): Reuters Canadian Chinese gather to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution in Vancouver, Canada, October 4, 2021. /CFP Editor's note: 2021 marks the 110th anniversary of China's Xinhai Revolution, also known as the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew China's last dynasty the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Before the Wuchang Uprising that finally ended China's 2000 years of monarchy and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (1912-1949), Sun Yat-sen, leader of the revolution, launched ten armed uprisings. In these uprisings, overseas Chinese played a vital role, donating time and money and sometimes even sacrificing their lives. Sun once called them "mother of the revolution." To purchase weapons and ammunition and pay soldiers for the revolution, Sun Yat-sen went abroad to raise funds, starting in Hawaii, where he spent most of his teenage years. In 1894, Sun founded the first revolutionary organization called the Revive China Society, or Xingzhonghui in Chinese, in Honolulu, the U.S., in his earliest attempt to rally overseas Chinese to help the revolution, and raise money. Donations from relatives, friends, members It was a difficult beginning, with only very few people responding. Sun said in his autobiography that his close friend Deng Yinnan and his brother Sun Mei were "the only two people who helped with all they possessed, plus scores of relatives and friends who supported the cause." Deng, an overseas Chinese doing business in Honolulu, liquidated all his personal assets and donated a large sum to Sun. Elder brother Sun Mei was operating a farm in Honolulu. He sold his cattle for $2,000 to support the cause. Sun also raised money from membership fees, $5 per person, and stock, at $10 a share, issued by Xingzhonghui. Though it was a relatively small contribution, he collected $288 in fees and raised $1,100 during his Hawaii visit in 1894. He launched the first Guangzhou Uprising in 1895 with donations of $6,000 from Hawaii's overseas Chinese and other funds he collected in Hong Kong. After the failure of the Guangzhou revolt, Sun was forced into exile but continued to lead revolutionary activities in China from abroad until the success of the uprising in Wuchang (today's Wuhan City) in 1911. Funds for the 1900 Huizhou Uprising (in today's Guangdong Province), Sun's second insurrection, were mainly donated by supporters in Hong Kong and Japan, as well as his brother in Hawaii. "I got some from Hong Kong, some from Japan... I relied on my brother for help. My brother and I had been donating all we had for the revolution and my brother donated almost all he had... Two years ago, my brother filed for bankruptcy... I am responsible for his bankruptcy...," Sun wrote in a letter to his friend Wu Jingheng on October 30, 1909. Although there is no record of the total Sun's brother donated to the revolution, it was said to amount to $700,000, equivalent to about $20 million today. In 1904, Sun issued the first military bonds in Honolulu to raise more money, promising to repay the buyers at ten times the investment they made. He raised $2,000 and $4,000, respectively, in Honolulu and San Francisco. Support from broader masses overseas A lot more overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, Canada and the United States joined the team supporting Sun's revolutionary activities from the third uprising (May 1907) to the eighth uprising (May 1908). The funding of the ninth uprising was mainly from overseas Chinese in the U.S., while the tenth uprising, the Huanghuagang Uprising, got support from the overseas Chinese worldwide. Most of Sun's supporters were overseas Chinese from the lower middle class, such as workers and small merchants. Although not being wealthy, they were very generous in supporting the revolution. Sun founded the American Chinese Revolutionary Army Fundraising Bureau and issued the gold dollar banknotes of the Republic of China in June 1911. Back then, the revolution gathered momentum and a lot more people believed it would be victorious. As a result, fundraising became much easier and was markedly more successful. A total of $144,130.41, equivalent to about $4 million today, was collected from June to September 1911. In Hilo, Hawaii alone, gold dollar banknotes worth $5,000 were sold during the period. According to incomplete statistics, during Sun's nearly 20-year revolutionary career before the founding of the Republic of China, he traveled to Japan 12 times, Southeast Asia 43 times, the U.S. four times, and Europe at least four times, rallying overseas Chinese and foreign friends to help the revolution. The building where the office of Interim President of the Republic of China Sun Yat-sen was housed in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, east China. /CFP Did Sun repay? Many people took buying bonds as a supportive measure to the revolution without expecting payback, so they eventually destroyed them. Some never cashed the bonds, preferring instead to keep the precious historic coupons. A person named C.K. Ai wrote in a book that he got paid back $1,000 for each of the $50 revolutionary bonds he purchased after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911. Besides executing monetary repayments, Sun, who was sworn in as the first president of the Republic of China, also awarded citations or medals to those who had helped him out during the revolution. BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held a phone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Noting that China and Japan are close neighbors, Xi, citing an ancient Chinese saying, stressed that good neighborliness is a treasure of a country. To maintain and develop friendly and cooperative relations between China and Japan is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries and their people, and also conducive to Asian and even global peace, stability and prosperity, he added. At present, the China-Japan relationship faces both opportunities and challenges, Xi said, adding that China appreciates the importance the new Japanese government attaches to maintaining high-level communication between the two countries. China, he said, stands ready to work with Japan to enhance dialogue and cooperation, and promote the building of a China-Japan relationship that meets the requirements of the new era in the spirit of taking history as a mirror and opening up the future. As the next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic ties, China hopes that the two sides will revisit their original aspirations and meet each other halfway to jointly embrace this significant historical juncture and open up new prospects for the development of bilateral relations, Xi said. Xi pointed out that China and Japan should earnestly learn from both the positive and the negative experience in bilateral relations, strictly observe the principles set out in the four political documents between them, and effectively implement the political consensus that they are cooperative partners and not threats to each other. The two countries, he added, should properly handle major sensitive issues concerning history and Taiwan among others, properly manage their differences, and hold on to the right direction, so as to maintain the political foundation and overall situation of bilateral relations. They should also strengthen exchanges on state governance and coordination on economic policy, jointly safeguard a fair and open environment for trade and investment, and achieve a higher level of economic complementation and win-win cooperation, so as to bring more benefits to the people of both countries, Xi added. Calling on the two countries to practice true multilateralism, he suggested that China and Japan, on the basis of their respective fundamental interests and the common interests of mankind, carry forward the East Asian wisdom of seeking harmony without uniformity and working together, actively promote regional cooperation, coordinate their response to global challenges, and safeguard world peace, stability and development. Xi also congratulated Japan on successfully hosting the Tokyo Olympics, and added that China welcomes Japan to take an active part in the Beijing Winter Olympics in February next year. For his part, Kishida extended congratulations on China's National Day. Under the current international and regional circumstances, Japan-China relations are entering a new era, he noted. Japan, he added, is willing to work with China to draw important lessons from the history of bilateral relations, and take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to make joint efforts in building a constructive and stable Japan-China relationship that meets the requirements of the new era. The two sides should manage their differences through dialogue, he noted, adding that Japan is ready to work with China to continuously strengthen economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, and intensify communication and cooperation on important international and regional issues, such as COVID-19 response and climate change. Japan looks forward to the Beijing Winter Olympics taking place smoothly, he added. Both sides deem this conversation to be very timely and important, and they agree to continue to maintain interaction and communication through various means, so as to guide the development of bilateral relations in a right way. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Friday expressed hope of Japan meeting China halfway following new Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's remarks on bilateral ties. China and Japan are important neighbors, cooperative partners and important countries in the region, spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing, adding that the two countries share extensive common interests and broad space for cooperation. Zhao made the remarks in response to a question on Kishida's remarks on Japan's relations with China in his first policy speech as prime minister earlier in the day. Kishida stressed the importance of building stable relations with China and maintaining dialogue in tackling common issues, while urging China to "behave responsibly." Zhao said China and Japan should strengthen dialogue and communication and enhance mutual trust and cooperation, calling for joint efforts to promote healthy and stable development of bilateral ties. Some 630,000 high school seniors and teachers started to get their first shots of the Pfizer vaccine from Monday. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the recipients come from 3,184 high schools and alternative schools across the country. They include permanent and substitute teachers and all other school staff. Other applicants for a September mock test for the university entrance exam who are no longer in high school will be vaccinated next month, the KDCA said. Shots are being administered at about 290 vaccination centers across the country. First shots will be given until July 30 and second shots on Aug. 9-20. Anyone who is not in good health can put it off. After losing two full summers of tourism revenue, Britain is getting rid of restrictive quarantine requirements for visitors from 47 countries, including India, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey. Starting Monday, vaccinated travelers from those countries will no longer have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel upon arrival in Britain. Britain recognizes the AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccines. Visitors from seven countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela will still be required to quarantine. The CIA also said it is launching a Technology Fellows Program, to bring in experts to work with the agency for a period of one to two years. The CIA also announced it is creating a Transnational and Technology Mission Center and the new position of chief technology officer to better address issues of global competitiveness, including emerging technology, economic security, global health and climate change. "Throughout our history, CIA has stepped up to meet whatever challenges come our way," Burns said. "And now facing our toughest geopolitical test in a new era of great power rivalry, CIA will be at the forefront of this effort." In a statement, Burns called the Chinese government "the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century." Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns Thursday announced the creation of a new China Mission Center to make sure the agency's resources and existing efforts are working together to face the growing threat. The United States top spy agency is making changes in response to what it describes as an "an increasingly adversarial" government in Beijing. The heightened concerns about the activities of the Chinese government are not new, and Burns hinted during his confirmation hearing earlier this year that changes could be coming to better take on the dangers. "Competing with China will be key to our national security in the decades ahead," Burns told lawmakers in February, describing China's leadership as both adversarial and predatory. "The evolution of [President] Xi Jinping's China over the last six or seven years has been a very sharp wake-up call," he added. "It's the kind of aggressive, undisguised ambition and assertiveness that I think has made very clear the nature of the adversary and rival that we face." During a worldwide threats hearing in Congress this past April, the CIA director further warned that the U.S. rivalry with China was increasingly focused on technology, and that almost one-third of the CIAs workforce was already working on technology and cyber. Despite the sharper focus on China, the CIA statement promised there would be no let-up when it comes to other top threats, including terrorism and what the agency said is an "aggressive Russia, a provocative North Korea and a hostile Iran." However, the way the CIA takes on some of those threats is changing. As part of the changes, the CIA will no longer run separate mission centers for North Korea or Iran, both of which were created in 2017. A U.S. official, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the changes, said the Korean Mission Center would be "folded back into" the agency's larger East Asia-Pacific Mission Center, while the Iran Mission Center would be reabsorbed into the Near East Mission Center. The official said the changes are organizational and that the resources being devoted to both North Korea and Iran are not changing. Genres : Crime and Thriller : Crime and Thriller Running Time : 139 min. : 139 min. Directed by : Tom McCarthy : Tom McCarthy Starring : Matt Damon, Camille Cottin Synopsis : A father travels from Oklahoma to France to help his estranged daughter, who is in prison for a murder she claims she didn't commit. Woorisoa Children's Hospital analyzed data of 3,000 elementary students who visited the hospital between May and July this year, and found that most of them experienced a deterioration in their vision. Increased time spent at home due to the coronavirus lockdown is taking a toll on children's eyesight. Myopia was found in 38 percent of first and second graders. One in four of them were already wearing corrective eyeglasses, while three in four were newly diagnosed with nearsightedness. The figure was 60 percent among those in higher grades. Half of them were already wearing eyeglasses. Myopia among elementary school students had been on a slight decline over the previous five years, but has risen during the coronavirus pandemic. Pediatrician Chang Ji-won said, "Online classes have increased amid the lockdown, while smartphone use has increased, apparently causing a rise in cases of myopia." Doctors said myopia can be prevented by reducing screen time and looking into the distance, which give eyes time to rest. The EU antitrust watchdog remains skeptical of the merger of Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. The decision of the European Commission does not nullify the merger, but if it becomes final the merged company will not be able to do business in the EU, which is home to many global shipping companies. According to the Fair Trade Commission here on Thursday, the European Commission has rejected a proposal from Hyundai Heavy's holding company Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering to weaken the monopoly of the mega shipbuilder that will be created by the merger. KSOE "offered to weaken its potential monopoly by transferring technology to other companies, but the EU rejected the proposal saying it was ineffective and insufficient," the FTC said. The merger requires the authorizations of antitrust watchdogs in major countries that are home to clients. So far China, Kazakhstan and Singapore have authorized the merger, but the EU and Japan have yet to decide. The EU worries that the merger would create a monopoly in the LNG vessel market and allow KSOE to jack up prices if it ends up controlling more than 60 percent of it. One industry insider said, "I suspect that the EU made screening standards tougher to prevent a dominant shipbuilder from emerging at a time when shipbuilding orders are recovering." The EU wants KSOE to resolve its concerns by selling off some of its businesses, but KSOE is refusing because businesses in the shipbuilding industry are all intricately linked. The EU had halted its review of the merger in July last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Windy. Mostly cloudy skies will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High around 65F. Winds NNE at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Some passing clouds. Low 43F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. HERO OR VILLAIN? - Tom Hardy, left, and Michelle Williams in a scene from Sony Pictures "Venom: Let There Be Carnage." It's hard to overstate just how much the relative success of this film comes down to Hardy and his go for broke performance. Woburn, MA (01801) Today Sunny to partly cloudy. High 69F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Low 39F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, and his wife, Melinda French Gates, announced on Monday that they plan to divorce after 27 years of marriage. "After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decis... The American technology company Intel says it is working to address a shortage of semiconductor chips affecting the automotive industry. That same day, U.S. President Joe Biden convened CEOs for a virtual summit on the semiconductor supply chain. "We hop... Local comedian Dan West will take the stage at Cook McDougals Irish Pub, 100 N. Main St., Saturday, Oct. 9, for an evening of standup comedy. West is a military veteran who worked as Army intelligence until he was medically discharged in 2008, having been injured somewhere between Mosul and Baghdad in Iraq, he said. Now I goof off, West said. Joining him on stage are Jamie Shriner (Chicago), Lynett Thomas (Fort Wayne), Julie Heckman (Fort Wayne) and Dyke Michaels (Indianapolis). West has only recently returned to indoor performances, choosing to do outdoor shows and to perform online early in the pandemic. Getting to do these indoors shows, the energy is almost frantic, he said. I did a show at the Helium Comedy Club [in Indianapolis] and it was a Wednesday night and over 100 people showed up and they were so ready to have a good time. People want [live performances] more. This is going to sound very arrogant, but live performance is a gift. And audiences have kind No one No one ever told us what we might experience during our golden years. Thats because none of our friends or relatives have lived as long as we have. My dad often said he was living on borrowed time. Thats how my husband and I feel about our lives today. Thats why we are thankful at the end of each day for having the opportunity to enjoy another day. The following morning we are happy to see a new day. To make our days happier in these uncertain times, a friend sent an email that has caused the sun to appear on a rainy day. With the way our world is going, we need days that are definitely happy, not dreary. After reading more than 30 suggestions on how to improve your life, it seemed a good idea to share a few with you and hopefully cause you to smile. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute In case you are concerned about your smartphone or TV spying on you, stop! Instead, take time to remember your vacuum cleaner has been collecting dirt on you for years. Too often we discover a message on our answering machine with the caller threatening to take money out of our bank account for a supposedly overdue bill. No mention is ever made of the name of the company. The message reminds us to call the bank where certain employees are still keeping an eye on our account. Were thankful they are. Recently Ive begun talking more rapidly than thinking. That isnt wise since it indicates not being with the program like I once was. Advice for this is to say youve forgotten the English word for the word you cant recall at that moment. This may cause your friends to think you are bilingual instead of old and forgetful. This suggestion, however, does not work well with your children. They know more than friends! Reading that youre at a place in life where errands are starting to count as going out has definitely hit home. Its now a big deal to drive two miles to see a doctor or pick up groceries ordered by a daughter-in-law who lives in another state. Remember never to sing in the shower. Singing leads to dancing, dancing leads to slipping, and that leads to having to call paramedics to take you to the emergency room of the nearest hospital in an ambulance. Just be thankful you can slip slacks on without losing your balance. Each day presents a new challenge that was not anticipated. That is when its necessary to help other people and forget what might be bothering you. Getting old is one challenge after another. Are you remembering more about days that have passed than what you did with a piece of paper 10 minutes ago? Does it bother you that you arent interested in doing much of anything? This is the time to sit down and phone a friend who needs company. When you do something for someone else, it improves your outlook on life. Solidarity Community Federal Credit Union is close to celebrating a full year of its new branch being open. The anniversary has been heralded by membership expansions and a festive Halloween trunk-or-treat. We love to brag about our new full service branch on the west side, Diana Tenbrook, vice president of marketing at Solidarity, said. We tried to open it in June of 2020, and it was only open nine days until we had to close it because of the pandemic. Luckily the new branch was able to reopen near the end of 2020. Tenbrook said the west side location, located at 214 N. Dixon Rd., offers members the same experiences as the main branch. Were very proud of that service. Its just like coming to our main office where members an walk in apply for an auto loan, a personal loan, a mortgage loan, or a home equity loan. We have loan experts there as well as member service people who can help them with online and mobile banking. We have our tellers, and it has drive-up that has extended hours on Fridays just like our main office. I think its just a very convenient place for our members to do their banking services with us, Tenbrook said. The new branch is not the only expansion the credit union has seen recently. On Sept. 23, Solidarity announced a field of membership expansion, which means, anyone that lives, works, worships, or attends school in, and businesses, and other legal entities located in the counties of Clinton, White & Carroll in Indiana have been added to Solidaritys Charter, according to a press release sent by the credit union. Solidarity previously served Howard, Tipton, Miami, and Cass counties, and the expansion will open membership up to an even larger area of central Indiana and expand on its base of over 26,000 members. Tenbrook said the credit union has some exciting events on the calendar for its members. For Halloween last year we did a drive through trunk-or-treat at our main office location. Were doing that again this year on Saturday, Oct. 30, Tenbrook said. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute In the past, Solidarity has thrown large Halloween parties at the Kokomo Event Center. Tenbrook said they would blow up huge inflatables for the kids to play on and businesses would set up booths with decorations. She said one of the biggest events was the costume contest, which had over 500 kids over five different age groups. There were three prize levels in each age category, and the people from around the city were asked to judge. Things are just so uncertain with health and safety right now, Tenbrook said. We have all those kids in one place. With them not being vaccinated yet, or people just not wanting to get vaccinated, which is their choice, we feel like we need to keep it covid-safe. The trunk-or-treat event will be held at Solidarity. Tenbrook said that regardless of precautions, the event will be festive. We have employees that volunteer the trunks of their cars and we decorate, and we decorate those to be very attractive. We have inflatables blown up in the yard, and we have some Halloween decorations for the kids to enjoy as they drive around the credit union back yard. Then they go through our drive up lane, and we are there with all the candy. All the families have to do is open their door and we put it right in their bags, Tenbrook said. The kids last year arrived in full costume, which was awesome. This is one that weve had to revise a little bit, but we still want to let the community know that were out here doing something to hopefully make you happy and take your mind off all the worries in the world. Its been an up and down year for United Steel Workers Local 12775. Upcoming plant closings in northern Indiana have put many workers jobs at risk. A COVID surge in Howard County has endangered gas workers who must enter residences to help repair gas lines. Thanks to strong union support, what could have been multiple crises have been resolved with creative solutions, said Vernon Beck, vice president of USW Local 12775, which represents the employees of NIPSCO, a natural gas and electricity company that operates in Howard County and across the state. Many of the workers who faced losing their jobs because of plant closings will now move to different positions at new plants. We negotiated for creative things to try and incentivize going to different spots that wouldnt harm other people, Beck said. If you didnt have a union, you wouldnt be able to do that. A company could lay you off and you would be without benefits and pay. Beck served as president of the union for nine years but, as he prepares for retirement, he recently stepped down and took over the role of vice president so he could help train his predecessor. Currently, Beck and his team are preparing for negations that will take place during the spring to make sure they have good benefits. Thats one of the things unions fight for is to make sure that people who are workers get good benefits and wages, whereas if you dont have a union you pretty much have to accept what the company gives to you, Beck said. When it comes COVID, Beck said workers in Kokomo, especially the gas servicemen who enter customers homes, have been challenged with staying healthy. COVID has hit multiple employees in the area. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute Thats been a real challenge because we have to go into peoples homes, Beck said. We cant say, Oh, youve got a gas leak, too bad. Thats one of the challenges, if you are a pizza delivery person or any other business, you can say, We dont deliver at night or we dont deliver in that area, but with us we have to go into every single area of our district no matter what, no matter what time, day or night. We can never say no. Despite the challenges of 2021, Beck felt positive about the future of labor unions in the United States. Over the past decade, union support has grown and he credits a lot of the new support from young men and women who are graduating from college and entering the workforce. He says many of these new workers come from low-paying jobs at restaurants and retail stores. They also enter their post-college lives with large amounts of debt and wonder how they will survive when it comes to retirement. They see the benefits and support union workers receive and want that security. The average union person makes more than the average worker because we have people negotiating for us, Beck said. Not to mention a big thing that unions do is making sure that things are safe for workers in the workplace. To keep momentum going, Beck said that USW Local 12775 offers multiple ways for workers to learn leadership skills and become a larger part of the union. Theres a Next Generation group where workers are taught about negotiations, grievances, arbitration and the many responsibilities each role in the union undertakes. The Women of Steel helps develop female leaders. There is also a civil rights committee. Beck said people who are not part of a union and would like to organize one can reach out to the USW Local 12775 and members will talk them through the process and inform the workers of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. People can reach out to different unions and say, Hey, what do we need to do to start a union in our organization? And we come over and talk to them about what it takes, he said. Beck encourages people to look into and do their own research on the advantages of being in a union. There is always a certain group of politicians who try to create the narrative that we are just union thugs, he said. Thats not true. People started to buy into that, and now they realize that if these are the benefits a union member gets, then let me be a union thug. Once Betty Cowgill makes up her mind, you know there is no stopping her. You sense that minutes after meeting her. So its easy to see there would be no stopping her when she decided to enlist and join the World War II effort, despite objections from her parents and others around her. On Oct. 7, her strong will and determination will lead to new milestone, her 100th birthday. The event will be celebrated on Oct. 9 at the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer. It feels, of course I feel this way, because I am a veteran, proud, she said. Recently, Cowgill recounted her time in the service in a four-hour interview that will become part of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. It was her admiration for her little brother that drove her to join the military, after he enlisted in the WW II effort in 1942. She was Betty J. Stephens then, working in Cincinnati at the time when she came home to Tipton for Christmas and revealed her decision to her parents. I told the folks, Ill be in the service within six months. Hes going in, I want to go in, she said. Her brother passed away 11 months ago at 97. Her youngest sister died at 94 just four months ago. In 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law that allowed women to serve as officers during the remainder of WWII. The reason for this was to free up men who were doing other military jobs so that they could be shipped to the warfront. One branch of service was the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in the United States Naval Reserve. Another branch was the SPARS (Semper Paratus Always Ready) in the Coast Guard. There were also the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), both precursors to the WASPs. The WAVES already had filled up with women, so Cowgill went into the SPARS. She was sworn in at Chicago and then returned to Tipton, waiting for her orders. In June of 1943 she was shipped to Palm Beach, Florida, for basic training. The train ride took two days and she met other women with similar backgrounds like hers, a farm girl from Tipton. Mercy, it was so hot, she said of the trek. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute After finishing basic training, she returned to Tipton via Chicago for 10 days before she began the next phase of her service in New Orleans. She took a train from Elwood to Chicago on a Friday, and around midnight she departed from Chicago to New Orleans, arriving Sunday morning, just 90 minutes before she had to report for duty. Cowgill served as a storekeeper throughout her time in the military, eventually being promoted to storekeeper 2nd class. Part of her duties included taking care of supplies like paint, clothing and the commissary. She had to adapt to the size of New Orleans, the traffic and learning the military way of doing things. But she didnt see these as challenges. I just said they were new ideas I had to meet, she said. In December 1943 she was transferred to Biloxi, Mississippi, where she stayed for two years. She worked as a storekeeper, keeping records of the paint being used. She would travel with the chief to Pensacola, Florida, to get supplies. She learned how to issue flight gear to pilots, how to purchase food, and learned accounting and how to do payroll. She also stood guard duty. I didnt hurt anyone, she said. But I was good and there were rumors that the commanding officer was a sharpshooter. They were going to put me up against him. About every time I had practice I hit the bulls-eye or was very close. Cowgill was given the opportunity to go to officer school, but classes were full. The war ended in 1945 before she could attend, and Roosevelt shut down the womens service branches. She was disappointed for the missed opportunity, but she already had decided what she would do when the war ended. She returned to Tipton and celebrated Christmas with her family, and then began business school in Kokomo. After two years of school she took a job with Shell Oil. Each weekend she would take the bus back to Tipton. The bus driver became her husband. He was a widower with three girls from his first marriage. They added a fourth. In 2016 Cowgill was invited to join an Honor Flight with other Hoosier WWII vets. They flew to Washington for a one-day tour and then returned to Indiana that evening. After landing, they were taken to Plainfield High School, were a packed gym was waiting to meet them. Cowgill was the 50th veteran to enter the gym and the first woman. The crowd exploded, bringing newfound life to the exhausted Cowgill who jubilantly waved at the audience. I think we set the pace for all women that are in the service, she said of the many women who joined her in the war effort back in 1942. I love my country, she said. I was privileged to serve my country. We dont have the same type of strong Black leadership that we used to have in this community. - Chris Washington Its been the talk of if not the outrage of Kokomos Black community. There has been a vehement reaction to the recent plea-deal sentencing of a Kokomo man, Joshua Cochran, 23, whom police say was high on marijuana when his vehicle struck and killed a 10-year-old Black girl in 2018, to a nine-year sentence but no jail time for the fatal crash and felony charge. This should be the talk of the town, opines popular Kokomo pianist/organist Chris Washington. There is a racial element to the decision that they made. Theres been a pattern of this, certainly in Kokomo. That controversial court ruling prompted the following Facebook post by Washington: This has greatly disturbed my spirit. I have no anger at this young boy he made bad choices that resulted in an unthinkable tragedy, but he should be punished for those choices. My mind goes back to the young Black girl who killed a 37-year-old white man while driving high on weed 20 years was her sentence. She deserved punishment also, but why such a great discrepancy between the two sentences? Unfortunately, the judicial system wont be forced to answer that question. Theyve failed us again. Ill reserve my anger for those responsible for that failure. That sentiment has been echoed and exasperated in barbershops, clubs, churches and kitchen tables by arguably a majority of activists, former inmates, young Blacks and fair-minded folks all across town since that regretful ruling was announced recently. Blacks account for about 11% of Kokomos population. This is racial injustice, they believe. The punishment should suit the crime, they say, and this was a mere slap on the wrist. You basically spat in the face of this girls family, claims Washington, a 59-year-old father of two sons, one daughter and proud grandfather of eight. You spat on her grave by letting him go without prison time. Minority lives dont carry the same value. The justice system has always reacted to Black crime with anger and reacted to white crime against Blacks with compassion. Social media is a convenient platform for use as a bully pulpit, and Washington says his comments were merely to vent his pain, though others did react bitterly. Ray Charles, or Little Ray as he was called, is a 66-year-old former Kokomo kid, Navy veteran and retired entrepreneur now living in a Dallas, Texas suburb. His sister was killed here when he was 12-years-young. Here is his piercing and provocative Facebook post: When a community doesnt have or lacks leadership, these miscarriages of justice dont matter to the oppressors. Why? Because no one with an activist mind seems to really care about equality. No one mentions or brings up the double standards in Kokomo until its too late and the damage done. Theyve [Kokomos elected politicians] watched and listened to Black Kokomo. In other words, they have a copy of Black Kokomos Play Book! Though they dont come right out and say it, but why would they care more than the community thats being mistreated than the community itself? I said this years ago, but the truth remains unchanged, the justice system appears to be consistent. Ray Charles is Chris Washingtons lifelong friend who was formerly his familys paperboy. Ive never not known Ray Charles, Washington reports. Hes always had a strong personality, always very opinionated about the cause of racial injustice. He cares very deeply. Hes got very strong feelings about [Kokomo], and the lack of leadership in the Black community. Kokomos Black preachers have turned Jesus into a business, Charles curtly charges during our interview. I think they are very complacent with Kokomos racial situation. The Black voices of Kokomo have no platform. The white man isnt stopping you; you are stopping you. Nobody cuts your grass for free. We dont even have a Black bank. Why? Washington is the first Black man I met and bonded with in Kokomo 18 months ago, and I most likely wouldnt be writing this column now without his computer repair wizardry. But this was a Chris Washington racially riveting and revealing persona I had not yet met. I was staggered and incredibly impressed by his brazen disturbed my spirit Facebook comment; particularly for a top shelf church organist and revered jazz pianist for the past 44 years. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute That little girl is the granddaughter of one of my closest friends, he shares. My first reaction was almost to cry because it hit so close to home. I put myself in that situation, how would I have felt if this [injustice] happened to me and my family. I had to say something because the system doesnt see value in our lives. So, I took 15 minutes to vent. He continues, In the Black community, racial injustice has been an ongoing topic [for decades], but in the last two years with the George Floyd verdict and those type of racial injustices nationwide, its come more to the forefront across cultures. This is a local case that once again showed us that the system is constantly failing Blacks and other minorities. Its an ongoing story. Washington is biracial but was adopted and raised by 55- and 57-year-old Black parents who came to Kokomo in 1920. I could tell you some stories that I listened to as a child that would make it very clear this stuff has been going on to a much greater degree throughout our history, he bemoans. No, its not as bad, but it has been happening for years. But there was no social media to share a video to, and there was no justice system to make it right. Washingtons half-brother is Jerry Paul, a popular Kokomo mover and shaker, who masterminded construction of the Womens Legacy Memorial outside the Howard County Courthouse. So, I asked Chris, can he not see and appreciate both sides of the racial divide? I think I do but I think most Blacks share insights into the white community that are not reciprocated by whites, he answers. Ive been with white people on an intimate level, all my life, every day, so I am much more familiar with them than they are with me. We operate in a white world. We all know that Blacks are punished more severely for the same crimes that whites commit, he continues. Weve known that for years. Weve also known that whites receive much lighter sentences for crimes then Black folks. Chris Washington is an accomplished artist, not an angry activist. He makes music, not racial rancor normally. Washington is a highly regarded jazz pianist and beloved Baptist church organist. I learned to be an artist, he tells me. I learned to be a musician, I learned to repair computers. I didnt learn to be Black. Music has proved to be the focal point of Washingtons life. His parents pushed him to take piano lessons when he was 8 and to play for the Second Missionary Baptist Church Youth Choir at 14. I love to create music, he reveals. At 17, he got involved with the Kokomo Community Choir, and the leader, Lewis Hall, who was the Minister of Music at Grace Memorial Church of God, became his musical mentor. When I heard this brother play the organ, I said, thats what I want. I want to be able to play like that, he recalls. To be honest, Im still searching for that ability because we call Lewis the Godfather around here. Jazz musicians perform at the highest level technically. I can play a little jazz, but the church is what gave me the avenue to build my ability because I was allowed to play every Sunday. It gave me a chance to grow as a musician. He now plays a dozen or more weddings and funerals annually, plus a wide range of other musical gigs. Washington is a premier professional pianist. Given that Kokomo was once considered a hotbed for the KKK in the 1920s, what is Kokomos racial climate today, I ask him? We have a rich history of racism here, Washington replies. Of course, its not like that anymore. But there are still elements passed on from generation to generation. Ive got white family, and I have a lot of white friends, so the overall atmosphere here I think is tolerable! Washington is gifted, articulate, savvy, skilled, personable, passionate and purposeful. Why are you still here in this city, I ask? Kokomo is my home; every town has its pluses and minuses, he answers. I could say it was Gods plan. I wouldnt change anything. Ive been blessed. Maynard Eaton of Kokomo is an eight-time Emmy Award-winning news reporter and National Communications Director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Kokomo, IN (46901) Today Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High around 40F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 23F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. The Indiana Court of Appeals has unanimously affirmed the murder conviction of a Gary man who shot and killed 69-year-old Alonzo Smith Sr. four years ago in East Chicago. Stephen Shelton, 54, is serving a 60-year prison term for shooting Smith on April 29, 2017, while Smith was sitting in a silver Chevrolet Impala parked at Wallace Metals, 1200 E. Chicago Ave. According to court records, Shelton fired twice at the driver's side of Smith's car, wounding Smith, and sending his car rolling forward where it struck a passing truck and ultimately crashed into a fence at a building across the street. Watch Now: Riding Shotgun with NWI Cops: School resource officer Cpl. Jerry Patrick Smith was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital. A forensic investigation determined the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, records show. In his appeal, Shelton claimed there was insufficient evidence to sustain his murder conviction because no one directly witnessed him shooting Smith. The appeals court disagreed. It said DNA evidence linking Shelton to the gun, glove and ski mask unquestionably used by the perpetrator, and multiple witnesses seeing someone with Shelton's unique walking style leaving the shooting scene, along with the other evidence presented at trial were more than enough to justify a murder conviction. At the same time, the appellate judges agreed with Shelton that prosecutors inappropriately suggested through a detective's testimony that Shelton's demeanor during interviews with law enforcement was evidence of his guilt. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute WATCH NOW: Riding Shotgun with NWI Cops: Cruising the coast with Lake County Sheriff's Marine Unit However, the failure of Shelton's attorney to object to the testimony at trial, and the other overwhelming evidence Shelton shot and killed Smith, overrode any basis for reversing Shelton's conviction based on fundamental error, the appellate judges said. "We conclude that the evidence was sufficient to sustain Shelton's conviction and that though error occurred, it did not amount to fundamental error requiring that Sheltons conviction should be reversed." Shelton still can ask the Indiana Supreme Court to review his case and consider overturning his murder conviction. Otherwise, his earliest possible release date from prison, assuming good behavior, is Oct. 17, 2062, when Shelton will be 95 years old, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. Shelton v. State ruling of Indiana Court of Appeals Gallery: Recent arrests booked into Lake County Jail CROWN POINT Lake County Councilman Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, absolutely loves serving on the financial governing body for the state's second-most populous county. The three-term councilman believes the seven-member panel has done some great things since he joined in 2010 to shore up the county's finances and prudently invest taxpayer dollars in services, programs and equipment that benefit Lake County residents. "It has been a great opportunity and experience for me," Dernulc said. "These folks are my friends and we trust each other. We don't agree, sometimes. But more times we do. And I know, by and large, everybody is looking out for what's best for our county." But Dernulc, who also leads the Lake County Republican Party, admitted Thursday he's considering just considering, for now leaving the county council behind for a chance at serving in the Indiana Senate. WATCH NOW: Indiana Senate Democrats speak about redistricting plan The new legislative district maps adopted last week by the Republican-controlled General Assembly combined state Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, and state Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, in Senate District 2, and created an open seat in the new Senate District 1 that includes Dernulc's hometown of Highland, along with Griffith, Dyer, Schererville, St. John, and southwestern Merrillville. Dernulc said he's already been asked by many people to consider running in the new district, and he acknowledged that he's taking those suggestions seriously and talking over what going to Indianapolis might mean to his family, friends, and political allies. "We'll see what happens," Dernulc said. "I am really considering it. I have not made a decision." New Indiana Senate districts Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute At the same time, Dernulc is confident if he does run for the Senate, he could make a real difference for the Region and the state by bringing to the Statehouse first-hand experience in municipal and county government "that I think is possibly lacking down there." "When there is a (state) mandate it puts the burden on us, and we have to say, 'How the heck are we going to pay for it? How the heck are we going to do it?'" Dernulc said. "I might be a voice that can tamp a little of that down." If elected, Dernulc also would be part of the Republican supermajority in the Senate and able to directly advocate for Lake County issues among the GOP legislators who control policy outcomes, instead of from the outside as the Region's Democratic state senators often must do. Watch Now: Riding Shotgun with NWI Cops: School resource officer Cpl. Jerry Patrick "I think I might be able to add some value to our county, and that's the one thing I want to do," Dernulc said. Dernulc still has a few months to think over his decision since Indiana candidates can't even begin filing to run for office next year until Jan. 5. The filing deadline for the 2022 primary election is Feb. 4, according to the Indiana Election Division. The 1st Senate District race is likely to attract additional Republican and Democratic candidates, since state legislative contests without an incumbent on the ballot generally are rare in Northwest Indiana and across the state. Gallery: Indiana historical markers in the Region The Marion Superior Court ruled late Oct. 7 in favor of the Indiana General Assembly in a lawsuit brought by the governor who felt the body was usurping his powers. Attorney General Todd Rokita called the decision "an important win for the separation of powers." The decision says that the legislature by law can call for a legislative session if the governor declares a statewide emergency. "In its order, the court upheld the statute known as HEA 1123, enacted during this legislative session and challenged in court by" Gov. Eric Holcomb, according to a news release from Rokita's office. This is a huge win for the people of Indiana and permits their voices to be heard through their legislators when the Governor invokes his own emergency powers, Rokita said in the release. Attorney John C. Trimble of Indianapolis Lewis Wagner, LLP, filed the lawsuit April 27 in Marion County Circuit Court on Holcomb's behalf. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute It names specifically as defendants Rodric Bray, the President Pro Tempore of the Indiana State Senate, and Todd Huston, the Speaker of the Indiana State House of Representatives. Bray and Huston are both on the Indiana Legislative Council, a 16-member committee of the General Assembly tasked with various responsibilities under the Indiana Code, the lawsuit notes. Holcomb says that he swore an oath to the state constitution, and that by passing House Enrolled Act 1123, the General Assembly has impermissibly attempted to give itself the ability to call special sessions, thereby usurping a power given exclusively to the governor under Article 4 9 of the Indiana Constitution. In an effort to control the COVID-19 virus and not overwhelm the state's health care workers, Holcomb declared a public health emergency in spring 2019 after the virus was detected in an Indiana man. He followed that with a stay-at-home order with Holcomb telling all Hoosiers to stay home unless absolutely necessary. The order made exceptions for what were deemed essential workers to keep some parts of society functioning. Thousands were put out of work as businesses shuttered, either unable or unwilling to operate during the shutdown. Unemployment in Northeast Indiana hit as high as 30% in some counties when factories idled amid the stay-at-home order. Many questioned how the governor could make decisions without input from the people's representatives in the legislature. Holcomb vetoed HEA 1123, with both the Senate and House overriding his veto to make the bill law April 15, 2021. Rokita said the court was saying, '(t)he Special Session Clause does not limit the General Assemblys authority to schedule its sessions.' Indeed, the Court said, the Special Sessions Clause 'was never understood to give the Governor any power to tell the legislature when it can or cannot meet.' Rather, it grants to the Governor an extraordinary right to exercise a legislative power to call a special session that is otherwise reserved to the legislature." Press Release October 8, 2021 De Lima expresses support for Robredo's presidential bid: "It has to be Leni; It can only be Leni" Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima expressed full support for Vice President Leni Robredo who announced her presidential bid for the May 2022 elections last Oct. 7. De Lima said Robredo's candidacy for president is the country's hope to return to the decency in government and to save the Filipino people from what she described as the "national nightmare of the past five years" under the Duterte regime. "It has to be Leni. It can only be Leni," said De Lima, who, like Robredo, also hails from Bicol. "Sa pagdeklara ni VP Leni Robredo ng kanyang pagtakbo bilang Pangulo, natapos na ang matagal na agam-agam ng ilan na baka walang malakas na pambato ang oposisyon. Ang desisyon ni VP Leni ay simula ng pag-asa at pag-asam ng marami para sa isang mabuting liderato sa susunod na anim na taon," she added. Just a day left in the filing of certificates of candidacy, Vice President Robredo announced that she is running for president in the 2022 national elections, saying that she is now ready to fight it out in the upcoming polls despite challenges. "Buong-buo ang loob ko ngayon. Kailangan nating palayain ang ating sarili mula sa kasalukuyang sitwasyon. Lalaban ako, lalaban tayo, inihahain ko ang aking sarili bilang kandidato sa pagka-pangulo sa halalan ng 2022," said Robredo. De Lima said Robredo is the "decent alternative" for the country's new leader as she lauded the latter's sterling record in effectively addressing issues hounding the country. "In the past half decade, Duterte and his gang have grossly mismanaged the government and our economy, bungled the pandemic response, plundered the public coffers, betrayed the Filipinos in favor of foreign interests, ruined our democratic institutions, and committed innumerable crimes and human rights violations against our people." "Pinakyaw na ata ni Duterte at tropa n'ya ang lahat ng pwedeng gawing masama sa pamamahala," she said. "VP Leni has the full grasp of the important issues, has the comprehensive and doable solutions, and has the abilities and proven track record to address the most pressing problems that plague us. Si VP Leni ay may tapang, galing, sipag at pagkalinga sa kapwa, sa bansa at sa Pilipino, lalo na ang mga nasa laylayan ng ating lipunan," she added. Despite the meager budget for the Office of the Vice President, and the marginalization and vilification that Robredo has been getting from Duterte and his gang, De Lima stressed that the former "has amazingly shown her mettle, moral courage, competence and resourcefulness." "All these years - especially during the ongoing pandemic - VP Leni has demonstrated time and again her brand of proactive and compassionate leadership. In services and programs that she personally supervises on the ground, she has extended much needed assistance to our medical frontliners, workers, urban poor, rural communities and other disadvantaged groups," said De Lima. "To top it all, her office has been consistently given outstanding COA reviews in the past three years, showing how transparent and incorruptible she really is," she added. Most importantly, De Lima said that "VP Leni has the clearest vision - along with the good heart and the bright mind to match it - of where we ought to be: a better place and a brighter future, away from this national nightmare of the past five years. And she has the right character, the correct attitude, and the best tools that can take us there." Last August, Robredo also rallied behind De Lima as she openly supported her fellow Bicolana during the launch of #LabanLeila2022 campaign volunteer network in Bicol. In her message, Robredo said that "history will remember this as a time of grave injustice not least because a person of great honor, courage and integrity like Sen. Leila has had to sacrifice years of her life in the name of truth and our rights." You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Your browser does not support the video tag. Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size Notice body Oct. 11 is Indigenous Peoples Day, a holiday to honor and celebrate the original inhabitants of North America. This day recognizes the resilience and strength of Indigenous Peoples while bringing awareness to historical and current challenges their communities face. Auburn University and The Office of Inclusion and Diversity recognize the vast historical impact of Indigenous People, both in Auburn and throughout the country. Auburn is committed to supporting the Indigenous members of its community and acknowledges the many Indigenous tribes native to Alabama, including the Muscogee Creek population that still calls the state home. The Auburn Family is invited to learn more by getting involved with the Cross Cultural Center for Excellence, as well as the American Indigenous Organization. For more information on Auburns commitment to fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive campus community, please visit the Office of Inclusion and Diversity through its website, on Instagram, new DEI landing page or by signing up for the OID newsletter. Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size Article body Auburn University is expanding access and affordability for high school students who want to attend the land-grant institution through its Auburn First dual-enrollment program. Reimagined in 2018, the program offers dual-enrollment opportunities for high school students beginning in 10th grade, with eligible students allowed to complete up to 24 hours of Auburn credit before graduating from high school. Carrying the slogan Get started, get accepted, get ahead, the program provides online coursework for students with an unweighted cumulative grade point average of 3.0, or better, at their respective high schools. By providing an accessible and affordable pathway for students, the program offers students interested in attending Auburn or any other higher education institution the opportunity to gain experience by completing college-level coursework before stepping on campus. Designed as a springboard for those looking to get a jump on their collegiate academic courses, Auburn First helps students decrease the time needed to complete a degree, giving them valuable experience and confidence in handling college-level classes while earning high school credit. We know that discussions about students college plans often begin before they are even in high school, Auburn Provost Bill Hardgrave said. Our goal with Auburn First is to give students an affordable option that allows them to access college-level coursework before they graduate from high school. The confidence they gain from these courses is critical to helping them realize their potential for success in college and, in many cases, allows them to gain early acceptance into Auburn. Students who earn at least six credit hours of approved Auburn coursework and maintain a 3.0 GPA in those college classes by Aug. 15 of their senior year qualify for automatic admission to the university. Designed to be affordable, courses cost about a third of the on-campus rate, and tuition waivers also are available for students with demonstrated financial need, as program organizers are committed to keeping costs at a minimum for participants. Dual enrollment is a proven approach to increase access to higher education, Vice President for Enrollment Joffery Gaymon said. We know that if students take dual enrollment, they are more likely to finish high school and continue college. Auburn First has proven to be a successful model in ensuring an Auburn education remains affordable and accessible to the best and brightest students. As we continue to advance and fulfill the university's land-grant mission, we are eager to see this program's positive impact on students for years to come. Created with high school students in mind, the programs online courses are taught by trained Auburn faculty. In addition, the program provides students with access to several academic resources, including tutoring services, University Writing, Adobe Creative Cloud and Office 365. High school students receive chords of distinction to wear with their graduation regalia if they complete 12 credit hours of Auburn First courses by Aug. 15 of their senior year and maintain a 3.4 Auburn GPA. We understand there may be a learning curve when high school students enroll in college courses, so we place great emphasis on providing meaningful, high-touch support, said Alli Bracewell, student success coordinator for Auburn First. Our team actively engages with students and families to ensure they have a positive experience and their needs are met. We want our students to be successful and believe we have appropriate measures in place to give our dual-enrollment students the best opportunity to succeed. During the 2020-21 academic year, 89 percent of the students who completed the admission requirements received automatic admission to Auburn. All totaled, 57 students joined the program this fall, and more than 200 students are currently enrolled in Auburn First. I loved Auburn First, said AlexAh Boone, a freshman chemical engineering major at Auburn who completed 11 Auburn First hours while attending Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School in Birmingham. It was an opportunity that Ill never regret, and it prepared me for college by exposing me to the way assignments work at a university, both time-wise and content-wise. I really do have an advantage over my peers who did not attend Auburn First because I already knew what to expect my freshman fall semester. Not only does it prepare you for the rigor of college courses, but also if Auburn is your dream school, it gives you the opportunity to get a head start on your academic career at the university. I highly recommend Auburn First. The program has displayed considerable success in recent years, aligning with nearly 160 high schools throughout Alabama to provide dual-enrollment options. Most recently, the program expanded to include Fulton County, Georgia, students beginning fall 2022. Contact: Kent Donahue kent.donahue@flhealth.gov 407-858-1418 Orlando, FL The Florida Department of Health in Orange County has issued a Health Caution for the presence of blue-green algae in Lake Copeland. This is in response to a site visit and water sample taken on October 7, 2021. The public should exercise caution in and around Lake Copeland. Blooms have the potential to produce toxins, and what triggers them to begin doing so remains poorly understood. For this reason, it is important to exercise caution, as bloom conditions are dynamic and could change at any time. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection collects algae samples from reported bloom locations for toxin analysis. Once completed, the results will be posted on the DEP Algal Bloom Dashboard, and can also be viewed on the Protecting Florida Together website, where you can sign up to be notified of the latest conditions. Residents and visitors are advised to take the following precautions: You should not drink, swim, wade, use personal watercraft, water ski or boat in waters where there is a visible bloom. Avoid getting water in your eyes, nose, or mouth You should keep pets and livestock away from the waters in this location Eating fillets from healthy fish caught in freshwater lakes experiencing blooms is safe. Rinse fish fillets with tap or bottled water, throw out the guts and cook fish well. You should not eat shellfish from this location What is blue-green algae? Blue-green algae are a type of bacteria that is common in Floridas freshwater environments. A bloom occurs when rapid growth of algae leads to an accumulation of individual cells that discolor water and often produce floating mats that emit unpleasant odors. Some environmental factors that contribute to blue-green algae blooms are sunny days, warm water temperatures, still water conditions and excess nutrients. Blooms can appear year-round but are more frequent in summer and fall. Many types of blue-green algae can produce toxins. Is it harmful? Blue-green algae blooms can impact human health and ecosystems, including fish and other aquatic animals. For additional information on potential health effects of algal blooms, visit floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/aquatic-toxins. Find current information about Floridas water quality status and public health notifications for harmful algal blooms and beach conditions by visiting ProtectingFloridaTogether.gov. Protecting Florida Together is the states joint effort to provide statewide water quality information to prioritize environmental transparency and commitment to action. What do I do if I see an algal bloom? The Florida Department of Environmental Protection collects and analyzes algal bloom samples. To report a bloom to DEP, call the toll-free hotline at 855-305-3903 or report online. To report fish kills, contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute at 1-800-636-0511. Report symptoms from exposure to a harmful algal bloom or any aquatic toxin to the Florida Poison Information Center, call 1-800-222-1222 to speak to a poison specialist immediately. Contact your veterinarian if you believe your pet has become ill after consuming or having contact with blue-green algae contaminated water. If you have other health questions or concerns about blue-green algae blooms, please call the Florida Department of Health in Orange County Algal Bloom Information Line at 407-723-5216. About the Florida Department of Health The department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county and community efforts. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @HealthyFla. For more information about the Florida Department of Health please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Booking.com files appeal in dispute with Russian antimonopoly watchdog Zuma\TASS 12:07 08/10/2021 MOSCOW, October 8 (RAPSI) Booking.com B.V. filed an appeal against the decision of the Moscow Commercial Court saying the company abused its market dominance by imposing unfavorable terms of contracts on Russian hotels as stated by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), according to the court's materials. The company appealed to the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals against the decision of the first instance court of 6 September. At that time, the court said the conclusions and evidence provided by the antimonopoly watchdog were sufficient to rule in its favor. Earlier, FAS had fined Booking.com B.V. managing Booking.com aggregator (The Netherlands) 1.3 billion rubles ($17.5 million) for abusing its market dominance. In December 2020, the watchdog completed consideration of an antimonopoly case against Booking.com B.V. launched upon an application filed by the All-Russian public organization of small and medium business Opora Russia. The Federal Antimonopoly Service revealed that the company had abused its power at Russias accommodation reservation market forcing contract terms of the need of obligatory provision and enforcing price and room parity as well as conditions of compatibility with closed user groups upon hotels and hostels. This meant that the hotels could not set prices for their services on other websites lower than on Booking.com., the statement reads. The regulator held that such actions of the aggregator restricted market competition and led to the infringement of the hotels interests. Booking.com registered in Amsterdam provides an online accommodation reservation service in more than 200 countries. Top manager of major real estate developer put in detention on embezzlement allegations Moscow's Tverskoy District Court 18:22 08/10/2021 MOSCOW, October 8 (RAPSI) Moscows Tverskoy District Court on Friday ordered detention of the regional development director of major real estate developer Samolet Alexander Lefel as part of a large-scale embezzlement case, the courts press service told RAPSI. The court granted a motion lodged by investigators and detained Lefel until December 7. According to case papers, Level is accused of embezzling funds on a large scale from Pik construction company where he worked prior to Samolet. ANNAPOLIS (October 07, 2021)Gov. Larry Hogan, R, on Thursday announced a budget framework for how he proposes to use the state's $2.5 billion surplus, which was announced last week. The five-point plan includes boosting the state's rainy-day fund, tax relief for retirees, tax relief for Marylanders, help for underserved people, and "enhancement" for state employeeslikely in the form of compensation. Hogan's plan didn't include specifics on many of the points, which he called "broad outlines." "As long as I am governor, I will continue to fight for fiscal discipline," Hogan said. State statutes require a minimum rainy-day fund of 5% of the state's roughly $20 billion general fund, according to the state's Department of Budget and Management. Hogan's plan includes raising the fund to a goal of 7.5%, which would be approximately $1.4 billion. On tax relief for retired people, Hogan said he thinks the budget surplus can fund something legislators have previously said was too expensive. "Cutting retirement taxes is one of the most important things we can do," Hogan said. He added that he believes retired people move to the South or to nearby states with different tax structures for financial reasons. "It's not because they don't want to live here," Hogan said. "They like the quality of life." The governor did not offer specifics on tax relief and support for those most in need, but he touted what he called Maryland's low eviction rate. "We are gonna continue to help those that are struggling and in need in every way we possibly can." Hogan also did not go into detail about how the surplus might affect the state's negotiations with public employee unions. Last week Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, D, announced the state ended the 2021 fiscal year with a surplus of $2.5 billion. The Board of Revenue Estimates credited the surplus in part to increased personal and corporate income tax revenue. The COVID-19 pandemic was expected to have a negative financial effect on the state. Hogan was elected governor after running a campaign focused on fiscal responsibility. "Before I took office, Maryland's economy was floundering after years of running up the credit cards," Hogan said. In December 2014, then governor-elect Hogan complained of a $1 billion projected shortfall he inherited from the previous administration, of Martin O'Malley. State law requires the governor to submit a balanced budget to the Legislature by mid-January. The Legislature, where Democrats hold a supermajority, can cut but not increase the operating budget, which becomes law without further action from the governor. The Expedition 65 crew had a busy day on Thursday with eye checks, space science, and Soyuz crew departure preparations on the schedule. The 10 residents aboard the International Space Station also joined each other in the afternoon to review emergency procedures. NASA Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Shane Kimbrough swapped roles as crew medical officer today during a series of eye exams. Vande Hei kicked off the first session Thursday morning using an ultrasound device scanning the eyes of fellow astronauts Kimbrough, Flight Engineers Megan McArthur and Akihiko Hoshide, and Commander Thomas Pesquet. Kimbrough took charge in the afternoon measuring fluid pressure in his crewmates eyes then using near-infrared imaging gear to examine their retinas. Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) started his day replacing electrical components inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility, an incubator with an artificial gravity generator. Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) installed a research device that will enable the observation of fluid physics and materials science experiments at high temperatures. Veteran cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Anton Shkaplerov checked computers and electronics gear inside the docked Soyuz MS-18 and Soyuz MS-19 crew ships. Roscosmos Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov joined Novitskiy and Shkaplerov and also assisted the two spaceflight participants Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko with their filmmaking activities today. Novitskiy will command the Soyuz MS-18 back to Earth in just over a week with the two filmmakers. Shkaplerov will complete his mission at the end of March next year inside the Soyuz MS-19 leading Vande Hei and Dubrov back home after their near year-long mission. All 10 residents aboard the station joined each other for an hourlong session in the afternoon to review their roles and responsibilities in the unlikely event of an emergency on the station. They located safety gear, ensured the crew vehicles were ready for an evacuation, and practiced communication and coordination with mission control centers around the world. On-Orbit Status Report Payloads: Actiwatch Plus: A crewmember connected up to four Actiwatch Plus devices to the HRF Payload Drawer on HRF Rack 2 for charging and data transfer. The Actiwatch is a waterproof, nonintrusive, sleep-wake activity monitor worn on the wrist of a crewmember. The device contains a miniature uniaxial accelerometer that produces a signal as the subject moves. The data are stored in nonvolatile memory within the Actiwatch until they are downloaded for analysis. Device for the study of Critical Liquids and Crystallization Alice-Like Insert (DECLIC-ALI): A crewmember installed the third re-flight of the DECLIC instrument, hard drive, and the ALICE-LIKE Insert (ALI) into EXPRESS Rack 8. DECLIC-ALI studies liquids at the verge of boiling. The flow of heat during boiling events is different in microgravity than it is on Earth. Understanding how heat flows in fluids at the verge of boiling will help scientists develop cooling systems for use in microgravity. Immersive Exercise: A crewmember performed the setup of the Immersive Exercise hardware, run an exercise session, fill the questionnaire and restowed the hardware items. The Immersive Exercise project focuses on the development of a virtual reality (VR) environment for biking sessions aboard the ISS. The VR equipment is interfaced with the current bicycle exerciser aboard the ISS, Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization (CEVIS), located in the United States "Destiny" Laboratory Module. Portable Pulmonary Function System (PPFS): The crew performed troubleshooting steps to recover from observed problems that occurred during the Max CEVIS activity on GMT 272, where Portable PFS became unresponsive. The PPFS, provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), is new equipment added to the already developed European Pressurized Module (EPM) pool of instruments. The Portable PFS is an evolution to the existing Pulmonary Function System (PFS). The PFS is the EPM contribution to NASA's Human Research Facility (HRF) and supports a wide range of respiratory and cardiovascular measurements. Space Acceleration Measurement System-II (SAMS-II): A crewmember activated the SAMS-II Control Unit. Space Acceleration Measurement System-II (SAMS-II) is an ongoing study of the small forces (vibrations and accelerations) on the International Space Station (ISS) resulting from the operation of hardware, crew activities, dockings and maneuvering. Results generalize the types of vibrations affecting vibration-sensitive experiments and structural life of ISS. Investigators and Structural Analysts seek to better understand the vibration environment on the ISS using SAMS-II data and assessing station loads and dynamics. Technology Box: A crewmember performed troubleshooting activities prior in preparation of Technology Box operations. The main objective of Technology Box (Tetr'ISS) is to conduct experiments gathered in support equipment called 'Platform', to illustrate science principles based on physics and chemistry. For this mission, Tetr'ISS contains the Chladni's Figures experiment: a physical science experiment to observe the sound waves in 3D thanks to fine particles organized according to nodes and antinodes. Touching Surfaces: A crewmember performed touching operations on the Touch Array and reported data via the EveryWear application. Previous space research conducted during short-term flight experiments and long-term environmental monitoring on board orbiting space stations (such as MIR or the International Space Station) suggests that the relationship between humans and microbes is altered in the crewed habitat in space. This interdisciplinary project Touching Surfaces aims to investigate novel, laser-structured antimicrobial surfaces onboard the ISS. The realistic testing of the tailor-made nanostructured antimicrobial surface in space allows for the determination of the most suitable design for antimicrobial surfaces for terrestrial applications such as public transportation and clinical settings, as well as future human space mission and habitation design. Systems: Emergency Roles and Responsibilities Review: All crewmembers and spaceflight participants participated in an Emergency Roles and Responsibilities Review today. Items of discussion included procedure strategy and intent, communication and coordination, crew accountability, access to escape vehicles, Safe Haven, segment expertise, buddy system, PPE, and the ISS Commander's responsibilities. Due to the complex nature of emergencies in space, it is imperative that each crewmember and spaceflight participant is familiar with the various emergency procedures and strategies in place. Completed Task List Activities: None Today's Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Powerup Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) Unstow Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Translate Config Attitude Control System (ACS) Software Thruster Disable Mobile Transporter (MT) Pre-Translation Check Out and Survey Mobile Transporter (MT) Translation Attitude Control System (ACS) Software Thruster Enable Look Ahead Plan Friday, October 8 (GMT 281) Payloads: Astrobee Perching Arm Install, stowage clear and crew conf and Astrobatics session (NASA) BioLab Laptop checkout (ESA) Food Acceptability (NASA) Food Physiology Brief (NASA) HRF1 Supply Inventory (NASA) JAXA Water Recovery Pump3 Exchange (JAXA) Technology Box Data transfer (ESA) TELLAS (Tele-Luminescence) ops (JAXA) Systems: N1 20-Port JSL Switch Deploy CASA Outfit N3 Endcone Cleanout PAO Events NRAL Stowage Cleanout Photo/TV N2 HD Encoder Ethernet Cable Swap EVA Mag Gather Saturday, October 9 (GMT 282) Payloads: Off-duty Systems: Off-duty Sunday, October 10 (GMT 283) Payloads: Off-duty Systems: Off-duty Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Technology Box troubleshooting activity XF305 Camcorder Setup Wireless VR Headset and items retrieval for Immersive Exercise Touching Event for the Touching Surfaces experiment Transfer Cygnus Cargo Operations DECLIC Hardware Gather. DECLIC Instrument Installation Actiwatch Plus HRF Rack 2 Setup Alternate Ultrasound 2 HRF Rack 2 Power On Health Maintenance System (HMS) Ultrasound 2 Scan Prep Space Acceleration Measurement System Control Unit Activation Environmental Health System (EHS) Personal CO2 Monitor Data Transfer and Stow DECLIC Removable Hard Disk Drive Installation DECLIC ALICE-LIKE Insert Installation Health Maintenance System (HMS) Ultrasound 2 Scan performed by a Crew Medical Officer (CMO) Health Maintenance System (HMS) Ultrasound 2 Scan Set up and run Immersive Exercise session Health Maintenance System (HMS) Ultrasound 2 Post Exam Food Acceptability Survey HMS Tonometry Test Setup HMS Tonometry - Practice Actiwatch Plus HRF Rack 2 Stow Alternate HMS Tonometry Test Crew Medical Officer (CMO) HMS Tonometry Test Subject HMS Tonometry Test Stow Portable PFS Partial Set-up Health Maintenance System (HMS) OCT2 Setup Astrobee Prep Emergency Roles and Responsibilities Review Portable PFS Troubleshooting Urine Transfer System Backup EDV Swap Public Affairs Office (PAO) Social Media Event Health Maintenance System (HMS) OCT2 Prep Health Maintenance System (HMS) - OCT2 Exam - Operator Health Maintenance System (HMS) OCT2 Exam - Subject Portable PFS Stow Health Maintenance System (HMS) OCT2 Stow Flight Director/ISS CREW CONFERENCE Deploy Sleeping Bag in Dragon Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. With the Artemis program, NASA will establish a sustained presence on the Moon, opening more of the lunar surface to exploration than ever before. Areas of interest include: the Moon's South Pole, where water ice might be harvested; the far side of the Moon, where unique astrophysical observations could be made; and familiar areas explored during the Apollo missions. This explosion of lunar activity requires bold innovation to assure the safety and success of astronauts exploring the rocky surface of the Moon. To this end, the Search and Rescue (SAR) office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is applying their experience in Earth-based, satellite-aided search and rescue technologies to the unique challenges of lunar exploration. "We're extending terrestrial search and rescue principles to the lunar regime," said SAR Office Chief Lisa Mazzuca. "Having this safety net will allow NASA to explore better, faster, and in a more secure manner." Lunar search and rescue, or LunaSAR, is a part of the detection and information services offered by NASA's LunaNet architecture, which will extend internet-like capabilities to the Moon. LunaSAR uses LunaNet navigation data to provide distress location services for crewed and robotic missions on the lunar surface. "LunaSAR will be an astronaut's lunar lifeline: a lunar 911," said SAR National Affairs Mission Manager Cody Kelly. "We're creating a system that enables automated distress tracking and notification for a wide variety of users." LunaSAR development takes advantage of lessons learned in SAR's creation of Advanced Next-Generation Emergency Locator (ANGEL) beacons. ANGEL will provide location services to Artemis astronauts during splashdown through the Earth-based satellite-aided search and rescue system, Cospas-Sarsat. "LunaSAR is an evolution of ANGEL because it's a low-cost, highly developed system," said Kelly. "We'll be using similar messaging formats, signal characteristics, and architecture." Since beginning work on LunaSAR, NASA has made numerous strides in development. The recently released a Draft LunaNet Interoperability Specification that includes an overview of the system and has been sent to industry and international stakeholders for comment. "We're specifying a common, community-wide, and internationally agreed-upon distress messaging format," said Kelly. "LunaSAR will be compatible with both NASA and partner organizations' plans for exploration." With LunaNet still in formulation, the SAR team is fielding input from a wide variety of stakeholders within NASA as well. These include surface science users, lunar base camp developers, and rover teams. "We're going across the Artemis enterprise to gather requirements," said Kelly. In terms of implementation, the first LunaNet nodes with LunaSAR capabilities are anticipated within the next few years. "We've already built functioning beacons, developed message structure, and built up a core LunaSAR team," said Kelly. "Our goal is to have the system ready for demonstration when the initial Artemis missions transition to a sustained presence at the Moon." Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. The UAE has announced the UAE Net Zero by 2050 strategic initiative, a national drive to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, making the emirates the first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) nation to do so. The initiative, announced at Expo 2020 Dubai in the presence of HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, aims to underpin dynamic economic growth alongside positive environmental impact. Commenting on the announcement, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said: "We are committed to seize the opportunity to cement our leadership on climate change within our region and take this key economic opportunity to drive development, growth and new jobs as we pivot our economy and nation to net zero. With an investment of over AED600 billion in renewable energy, our vision for a clean future is clear." The announcement aligns with the Principles of the 50 - the UAEs roadmap for accelerating national economic development to mark the countrys golden jubilee year, as the nation enters a new 50-year cycle of growth. The major economic opportunities offered by the path to net zero directly support a vision to develop the Emirates into the most dynamic economy in the world. Mohamed bin Zayed said: "With our announcement today of our plan to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the UAE continues our effective role in climate control issues, adding our support to international efforts to mitigate climate change with a range of effective community and economic initiatives." "In achieving climate neutrality in the UAE by 2050, we aim to develop an approach that both drives sustainable economic growth and is an exemplar of working together to achieve a better future for humanity," he added. The announcement was made at the conclusion of a government-wide accelerator programme initiated earlier this year. The Government Accelerator for Climate Ambition and Economic Development took a holistic approach to developing the framework for the UAEs pathway to net zero, leveraging strategies for green economic growth and job creation. Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Special Envoy for Climate Change, said: "The UAE Net Zero Strategic Initiative is an open invitation to the world to collaborate with the UAE in developing practical solutions, boosting multilateralism, and creating opportunities for sustainable socio-economic development." "Critically, we will leverage the development pathway to net zero as a vehicle to create economic value, increase industrial competitiveness and enhance the UAE's standing as an attractive destination for investment, in line with the UAEs vision of progress for the next 50 years," he noted. "The UAE net zero by 2050 strategic initiative offers new opportunities for economic progress and also further establish the UAE as an ideal location to live, work, raise families and create communities," he added. According to him, the initiative aligns with the Paris Agreement, which calls on countries to prepare long-term strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 C compared to pre-industrial levels. Mariam Hareb Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment. said: "The UAE is focused on balancing the requirements of economic growth, social inclusion and cohesiveness and limiting the impact of climate change on our environment and natural resources." "Our announcement of the Net Zero 2050 strategic initiative is consistent with our drive to diversify and build a knowledge-based economy, adopt the principles of green and circular economy, protect the environment, attract foreign direct investment, and develop competencies in future growth areas," added Almheiri.-TradeArabia News Service Members of Cruise Saudi and CLIA at Seatrade Global in Miami, from left, Cruise Saudi Chief Commercial and Operations Officer Mark Robinson; CLIA Pres Cruise Saudi was welcomed as an Executive Partner of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) during the annual CLIA Diamond Partner Lunch at Seatrade Cruise Global. As the world's largest cruise industry trade organisation, CLIA provides a unified voice and is the leading authority of the global cruise community, fostering the success of its members by advocating, educating and promoting their common interests. As a member of CLIA, Cruise Saudi joins more than 50 cruise lines, 13,000 global travel agency and 50,000 travel agent members and the other 95 per cent of the worlds ocean-going cruise capacity bodies, according to a Cruise Saudi statement. Cruise Saudi Managing Director Fawaz Farooqui said: We are proud to announce our membership of CLIA. We look forward to actively contributing to the associations events and forging productive partnerships to advance our goal of developing the cruise industry along the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coastlines. He added: In line with Vision 2030, Cruise Saudi supports the diversification of the Saudi economy and drives the growth of the local tourism sector by showcasing the countrys nature, culture and heritage to domestic and international cruise passengers. To achieve our objectives, we build synergies with global cruise operators and provide best-in-class tourist services with a focus on innovation and sustainability. Cruise Saudi will have the opportunity to attend networking events and engage with industry stakeholders from around the world to build relationships and connections with the global cruise industry. It has already established partnerships with major cruise lines with MSC Bellissima and Scenic Eclipse in operation sailing the Saudi coastline for the summer season.-TradeArabia News Service Jassim Transport & Stevedoring Company (JTC), a leading provider of ports and contracts logistics in Kuwait, has reported a revenue of KWD10.7 million ($35.4 million) and a net profit of KWD1.2 million for the first half of the year. Adel Kohari, Chief Executive Officer of JTC commented: The Company is going through a strategic move following the successful private placement and the plan to list its shares on Boursa Kuwait, which will reinforce our leadership position in the markets in which we operate. We are very pleased with the operational and financial results that we have achieved so far this year. In addition to healthy top line and bottom-line performance, we have won new contracts, commenced new projects, and implemented new businesses. We are pleased with the performance of our diversified portfolio of services with operations extending throughout the region, he added. The results, which have seen growth quarter on quarter, are in line with our expectations despite the market challenges we are still experiencing and the repercussions from the disruptions in economic activity. Our operations in Saudi Arabia and Qatar have shown significant growth, taking advantage of improving market conditions in these two geographies. We are well on our path to recovery in all our core business segments as travel restrictions are eased by the government and the economy shifts towards normalcy. Although we have many milestones to meet and market challenges to overcome until the end of the year, we are confident about achieving our overall growth objectives in the medium- to long- term. JTC has consistently distributed dividends year-over-year, totalling over KWD 28.7 million in payouts during the last five years (191fils per share), while maintaining a healthy balance sheet. Excluding the COVID-induced challenges in 2020, the Company has shown impressive top-line and bottom-line growth, growing by 7.7% and 14.6%, respectively, during the period from 2014-19. Furthermore, and despite the pandemic, the Company was resilient and reported net profit of KWD 4.1 million during 2020 and distributed a cash dividend of 20 fils per share. Despite the economic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, JTC has reported growth in revenue and net profit for two consecutive quarters this year. Revenue for Q1 2021 was KWD 5.2 million, 2% higher than Q4 2020, and KWD 5.5millionin Q2 2021, 6% increase from Q1 2021. Similarly, net profits grew during the last two quarters to reach KWD0.60million in Q1 and KWD0.63millionin Q2 (up 5% from Q1). JTC enjoys a strong balance sheet with total assets of KWD52.7millionas of 30 June 2021, shareholders equity of KWD41.6million and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.1x. Since the beginning of the year, the Company initiated the execution of a new 3-year logistics contract with Kuwaits Ministry of Electricity & Water, in addition to signing new long-term strategic contracts with several oilfield services companies for power rental services in KOC oilfields. These contracts are expected to drive revenue growth over the next 7 years. Furthermore, the company commenced aggregate cargo handling services at Shuaiba Port in July 2021. The company has also awarded a contract for the construction of a new temperature-controlled warehouse at Mina Abdullah, which is expected to become operational in 2022, with plans to develop more similar warehouses in the coming years. TradeArabia News Service Help India! Rep. David Trone warned Ambassador Atul Keshap against lending legitimacy to RSS. Trone warned that by engaging with RSS officials and discussing their ideology, the United States could lend legitimacy to this controversial group and further jeopardize the communities that the RSS has targeted. Support TwoCircles Pieter Friedrich | TwoCircles.net My constituents have raised concerns about our country fostering a relationship with the RSS and its leaders given the groups painful history of violence and destruction, wrote US Congressman David Trone (Democrat-Maryland) to immediate-past Acting Ambassador to India Atul Keshap on 30 September. Trones letter follows weeks of swirling controversy provoked by Keshaps 8 September meeting with the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an Indian paramilitary which is the mother organization of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has been repeatedly implicated in acts of mass violence against Indian minorities, particularly Christians and Muslims. As you know, the RSS has promoted principles of Hindu nationalism, an ideology which threatens the Muslim community and other communities in India, wrote Trone. The congressmans letter is historic as it appears to mark the first time that a federal elected official in America has specifically named and criticized the RSS. The RSS, which originated as a contemporary of the fascist movements in Italy and Germany, adopted a xenophobic worldview that teaches that only Hindus have a birthright to full citizenship in India. The paramilitarys founders as well as its earliest and most influential leaders variously visited Mussolini in Fascist Italy, pointed to the exclusionary and expansionist ideologies of the European fascist movements as a justification for their views, and praised Nazi Germanys purging of the Jews as a good example of the supposed failures of multiculturalism. They described Muslims and Christians as internal threats or even traitors and demanded that they be stripped of citizenship. The RSS has put this xenophobic ideology into practice in pogroms against Christians in Odisha in 2008, against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, and also against Muslims throughout central northern India in 1992-93, as well as through terrorist bombings, assassinations, lynchings, and many other violent methods; this is not to mention its use of legislation at times when the BJP holds either state or national power to harass, corral, and disenfranchise non-Hindus. By engaging with RSS officials and discussing their ideology, the United States could lend legitimacy to this controversial group and further jeopardize the communities that the RSS has targeted, warned Trone. As a former member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I know how important it is that we conduct diplomacy with individuals and organizations across the globe. However, radical, nationalist groups pose a threat to the values of peace and tolerance that our country stands for and the secular principles the Indian government was founded upon. Keshap was appointed Charge dAffaires, ad interim, at the US Embassy in New Delhi in June 2021, a position he held until 8 September. His meeting with the RSS chief was, quite literally, his final, official act as Americas Acting Ambassador to India. He has been replaced (as scheduled and unrelated to his RSS meet) by Charge DAffaires Patricia Lacina; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has been appointed by President Biden to serve as Ambassador to India, but his nomination remains pending until confirmed by the Senate. Trones letter to Keshap was preceded by a 25 September joint statement by 10 Indian-American organizations which demanded that Keshap resign or be removed from any position in the diplomatic service. The letter warned: The nature of Keshaps meeting with the RSS came across as a photo-op, it was public, and it platformed and promoted a violent, fascist (and many call it terrorist) organization which serves as the greatest enemy to religious freedom that Indian citizens face today. The joint statement followed remarks (made in a 22 September congressional briefing) by Human Rights Watchs Asia Advocacy Director, John Sifton, who warned that Keshaps meeting sent a terrible message, called it disturbing, and compared it to if the US Ambassador to Germany in 1933 had attended Nazi Party rallies at Nuremberg (which they did not do). Elsewhere, Keshap was protested in Sacramento, CA outside the offices of Congressman Ami Bera (who Chairs the Subcommittee on Asia, which influences US foreign policy towards India), six Indian-American groups denounced his visit in a webinar about the issue, and an online petition (which remains active) garnered over 3,000 signatures in support of the diplomats resignation or removal. Trones letter to Keshap was first released by Sana Qutubuddin, a leading Indian-American Muslimah activist who is the founder of No Separate Justice. Qutubuddin, who had reached out to Trones office, thanked him for sharing his concerns about the corrosive impact of normalizing relations with the RSS and praised his solidarity and leadership on the matter. Pieter Friedrich is a freelance journalist specializing in the analysis of South Asian affairs. He is the author of Saffron Fascists: Indias Hindu Nationalist Rulers and co-author of Captivating the Simple-Hearted: A Struggle for Human Dignity in the Indian Subcontinent. Help India! The briefing was co-sponsored by a group of 17 human rights and interfaith organizations, including the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Amnesty International USA and Hindus for Human Rights. TCN News Support TwoCircles WASHINGTON, D.C. In a Congressional Briefing on Thursday, leading Indian American human rights defenders condemned the Indian government drive to forcibly remove hundreds of thousands of Muslims from their homes in the Indian state of Assam, calling the move a brazen attempt at turning millions of Indian Muslims into non-citizens. The briefing was co-sponsored by a group of 17 human rights and interfaith organizations, including the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Amnesty International USA and Hindus for Human Rights. In the wake of this targeted anti-Muslim discrimination, the speakers of the briefing demanded that the United States designate India as a Country of Particular Concern or CPC. According to the US Department of States Office of International Religious Freedom, a CPC is a nation that is engaged in or [tolerates] particularly severe violations of religious freedom, including flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons. India has been recommended by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to be placed on the CPC list for two years in a row. Aman Wadud, the Fulbright Scholar at UT Law and defence lawyer for multiple NRC victims, spoke on the fear of mass statelessness that is growing among Muslims in the region. This re-verification is not because of any demand for excluding illegal migrants that have crept in. It is a political demand, said Wadud, who in 2020 testified before the USCIRF on Indias alarming rates of anti-Muslim discrimination. If this process of asking Indias citizens to prove their citizenship [begins] again, [all] people will live in fear. [All] peoples dignity will be stripped. Siddhartha Deb, journalist and author, pointed out the discriminatory nature of the eviction drives. With or without the NRC, or with endless NRCs going on, Bengali Muslims in Assam are targets, he said. The US government needs to make it very clear to Modi that this kind of targeting of Muslims in Assam, around the country, is not acceptable. I think there is a very good reason to declare India a Country of Particular Concern. In recent years, the BJPs aggressive CAA-NRC politics has exacerbated the divisions stemming out of the common belief that indigenous Assamese are losing their land to illegal Bangladeshi migrants and has overlaid a unique Hindutva agenda on top of them, said Nadim Khan, co-founder of the United Against Hate campaign and secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights in India. The BJP has been exploiting the ethnic and religious fault lines in Assam for electoral gains, and running a hate campaign against Muslims, who account for one-third of the states population. Even Hindus who find themselves left off the registry face difficulties. Under the anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act, Bengali-speaking Hindus do have the option to reapply for citizenship. However, even if they have been living in Assam for generations, the rules of the CAA force them to claim that they are Bengali refugees and not Indians by birth. Deb who has written on the Assam evictions for the New York Times emphasized that the discrimination does not stem from a vacuum. In India, when we say Muslims are under attack, we also need to be saying that democracy is under attack, freedom is under attack. It all goes together. Today's featured article Pottery making began to develop in China during the New Stone Age some 10,000 years ago and porcelain making in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) revealed dazzling exuberance. (More) Archive Did you know... ... that Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation offers the largest non-governmental science and technology awards in China? ... that Riyuetan-Weipai Building is the world's largest solar energy office building? ... that Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway has a 350-km-per-hour average speed, boasting the world's fastest train journey? ... that the Old Town of Pingyao's history goes back 2,700 years, when it was first built during the reign of King Xuan (827-782 BC) of the Western Zhou Dynasty? Archive By Hu Zheng KASHI, Oct. 8 -- In late September, service members assigned to a border defense regiment of the Kashi Military Sub-command under the PLA Xinjiang Military Command flew to a plateau border defense area at an elevation of more than 5,600 meters to perform patrol missions on the helicopter. Most border troops of the Kashi Military Sub-command are located in life-restricted zones, where the vehicles have no access to. Under complicated weather conditions, many defense areas were used to be no-fly zones for helicopters. To realize airspace control in the region under their defense, the military sub-command teamed up with an army aviation brigade to challenge the harsh conditions. They carried out joint air patrol drills many times, practiced takeoff and landing at high-altitude duty posts, honed the pilots' capability to deal with special situations and successfully opened up more than ten border patrol air routes on the plateau, which effectively improved their plateau border patrol efficiency. At the same time, they formulated a batch of joint patrol courses, and carried out regular realistic combat drills on subjects of key point seizure and control, accompanying cover, troops delivery, etc. According to a leader of the military sub-command, they will develop a more complete border management and control system in the near future. Turkey's Airstrikes in Syria, Iraq Since the Taliban's violent takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, Turkey has increased its expansionist military activities in the Middle East in a way that is significantly impacting the lives of minorities. Turkey appears to be maneuvering to expand an Islamic state in Syria and Iraq. Turkey has so far been using its fight against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) as an excuse to justify its military aggression, destruction and casualties of persecuted minorities. Among those communities affected by Turkish military actions in Iraq and Syria are Yazidis, Assyrians and Kurds -- communities previously targeted by ISIS and al-Qaeda. On August 17, in Iraq, the Turkish military carried out an airstrike on a hospital in Sinjar Province, where the Yazidi minority had already been victim of a genocide in 2014 at the hands of ISIS. The raid, consisting of three drone strikes, "totally destroyed" the makeshift hospital in the village of Sekaina. A doctor in Sinjar said that at least three people had been killed and five others wounded. A senior Iraqi army officer told AFP that the raid had been carried out by Turkey's military. Another Turkish air strike on August 16 targeted and killed a senior Yazidi leader, Hassan Saeed. Assyrian Christians, another persecuted indigenous minority in Iraq, are also suffering from Turkish airstrikes. In a 2021 report , "Caught in the Crossfire: Assyrians and the Turkey-PKK Conflict in Iraq," by the Assyrian Policy Institute, reported: "Turkish strikes in northern Iraq have caused irreparable and costly damage to civilian properties and agricultural lands... The destruction to private property and farmland caused by Turkish airstrikes effectively robs Assyrian farmers of their livelihoods and immediately threatens their ability to stay in their homes and villages." Meanwhile, Turkey's military is targeting northern Syria, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its Kurdish component, the People's Protection Units (YPG), previously fought against ISIS. Also in August, the Turkish military conducted bombardments in Al-Hasakah Province; once again Turkey used the PKK to justify targeting civilians and US allies. One child was killed and five other civilians were wounded in the bombardment, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The next day, 13 rockets hit the Afrin city center, killing three people and wounding four others. In another airstrike that killed four members of the SDF, the Turkish military targeted Tel Tamir's Military Council base. Sosin Birhat, one of the SDF casualties, had previously joined meetings with top US military officials and diplomats, the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah noted. Amy Austin Holmes, a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, has challenged Turkey's version of events: "First, Turkey justified its 2018 and 2019 interventions in Syria by claiming the presence of the SDF/YPG along its southern border constituted a grave threat. But my analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project indicates the opposite is closer to the truth. Between January 2017 and August 2020, Turkey and Turkish-backed forces carried out 3,319 attacks against the SDF/YPG or civilians. By contrast, the SDF/YPG carried out 22 cross-border attacks into Turkey. Turkish officials claim their attacks against the SDF/YPG were tit-for-tat. But that is mathematically impossible. "Second, after signing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement in Syria in October 2019, Turkey promised to safeguard civilians and religious and ethnic minorities. However, Yazidis, Christians and Kurds have fled in droves from the Turkish-occupied areas of Syria. Data I analyzed showed that Turkey and Turkish-backed militias violated the U.S. ceasefire agreement over 800 times in the first year after it was signed. The Assyrian Christian region of Tel Tamer was targeted every single month. "Finally, I led a research project that analyzed the impact of Turkish airstrikes on Yazidis in Sinjar. Data-mining from five different sources, we found that Turkey had hit Sinjar with strikes every single year for the past five years. Turkish military activity is a major impediment to recovery. In the month of July alone, 472 Yazidis who tried to return to Sinjar to rebuild their lives ended up relocating back to camps for internally displaced people. "As these examples illustrate, Turkish claims about "anti-PKK" operations need to be fact-checked." The same Turkish government that claims to counter "terrorism" through its fight against the Kurdish PKK has supported ISIS in the region for years. According to Dr. Mordechai Kedar: "2014 marked the year when ISIS became a very real threat to the Middle East. Within one year, the group managed to take over a third of Iraq and half of Syria, with 200,000 fighters under its control.... "The ability of ISIS to become a functioning state so quickly is largely due to its relationship with President Erdogan in Turkey. "ISIS has had strong connections to Turkey over the years, whether through its oil industry or through its willingness to shield wanted members of the Muslim Brotherhood. This 'neighborly' relationship was essential to ISIS's success, and it continues to be reflected in Turkish decision making. "Turkey has been ruled by Erdogan since 2002. He is a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that seeks to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate that applies Islamic sharia law. "Not only did President Erdogan never launch any counterterror operations to disrupt ISIS's networks or recruitment activities, but he provided it with assistance." International Christian Concern has reported that Turkey's expansionist foreign policy has significantly declined religious freedoms in the region, making persecuted minorities even more vulnerable: "Countries previously part of Turkey's former Ottoman Empire, and countries with a significant Muslim population, are specifically targeted... Turkey has leveraged those religious freedom issues of neighboring countries for Turkey's own benefit, at the expense of the local population. "In short, Turkey's military expansionism has had the impact of exploiting people, exporting persecution, and enabling the perpetrators to commit even more egregious actions. If this is how Turkey treats vulnerable communities outside of its own borders, then how much more so within." The Turkish government -- a member of NATO -- clearly seems to feel itself on a jihadist roll. Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute. Iraq's Ankawa, Home of Assyrians, Comes of Age The creation of "the biggest district of Christians in the Middle East" has been warmly welcomed by a bishop from the area who sees the development as critical for securing the future of the Church in the country. Syriac Catholic Archbishop Nathaniel Nizar Semaan of Adiabene told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) he is "delighted" that the government in Kurdish northern Iraq is making the Erbil suburb of Ankawa an administrative district in its own right. The announcement by Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government, will mean people in Ankawa - home to 60,000 Christians - have devolved authority to elect civil leaders such as a mayor, and powers over security and welfare support. Until now, Ankawa, which is 80 percent Christian, has been a sub-district of Erbil. Thanking the KRG for "making this gesture", Archbishop Semaan, who is based in Ankawa, told ACN: "The decision to make Ankawa a separate district will, we hope, be an important step forward both for the region and for the future of Christianity in Iraq." Ankawa's Christian population dramatically increased overnight in August 2014 after up to 120,000 faithful fled following the Daesh (ISIS) invasion of the nearby Nineveh Plains. Although large numbers have returned following the military defeat of Daesh, many Christians have stayed in Ankawa. Prime Minister Barzani's announcement this week that "Ankawa will be the biggest district of Christians in the Middle East" came shortly after a meeting with Archbishop Semaan and other bishops, including Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil and Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Nicodemus Sharaf. The bishops presented Mr Barzani with a written request to grant what Archbishop Semaan called "special status" to Ankawa on grounds of its increased population. Stressing that district status would not turn Ankawa into a Christian ghetto, Archbishop Semaan spoke of the area forming part of 'a triangle' of Christian centres including the towns of Qaraqosh and Alqosh, both in the Nineveh Plains. He added: "Ankawa becoming a separate district will help us witness to our faith to the whole of Iraq, showing that there are still Christians here. We are not inviting the people of Nineveh to come and live here [in Ankawa] but if they want to come they are welcome. It is better if they come to Ankawa than leave Iraq." Praising the decision to make Ankawa a district, Nadine Maenza, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stated: "Encouraging to see Marour Barzani's announcement that they will put Ainkawa under administrative control of its Christian residents with the ability to ...'directly shape their destinies'." ACN has prioritised help for Christians in northern Iraq, providing emergency help following the Daesh invasion, rebuilding homes and churches and now supporting university students and medical care in the Erbil area as well as pastoral care in Kurdistan and Nineveh. by Dario Salvi The October 10 election is a "moment of hope" that requires "broad participation". USA, Australia and Europe praise the work of the Independent Electoral Commission. Exchange vote also among Christians, question of quotas for minorities to be reviewed. Rome (AsiaNews) - The elections are a "moment of hope" for a "real change" provided there is "broad participation"; for this reason to all Iraqis, but especially to young people "I say go and vote" to "contribute to a better future", otherwise "everything will remain as before and you will not be able to complain". This is what the Chaldean Primate, Card. Louis Raphael Sako, writes on the eve of a crucial vote for the future of the country, brought forward by a year compared to the natural expiration of the legislature in response to the street protests of autumn 2019. "Iraq - adds the cardinal - needs a change that is the result of broad participation." Young Iraqis, protagonists of the demonstrations two years ago from Baghdad to Basra, are "disappointed". Some of them will present themselves to the vote as candidates, Card. Sako continued, but "I don't know how many possibilities they have of asserting themselves". Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 "we have gained freedom and democracy", losing "stability" in a climate of "confusion". The country and its people are "poorer" in the grip of "interests and opposing nations: we need a real democratic change, because the country is rich but the money is diverted from corruption and malfeasance. The general elections of October 10 are the fifth vote to renew the single-chamber parliament since the U.S. invasion that led to the fall of Saddam Hussein and generated a complex multiparty system. Approximately 25 million voters are called to the polls, who will have to choose 329 deputies from 3,200 candidates in 83 constituencies. 25% of seats are reserved for women. The future Chamber will have to indicate the president and the prime minister, who will then be entrusted with the task of forming the government. Victory should go to the Shiite movements already in power, although internally they present deep divisions. Recently several religious leaders, including the Chaldean Patriarch and the highest Shiite authority, the great Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have launched appeals against abstentionism. The Cardinal confirms: "Our words have had a wide echo in the population. The president himself thanked me for this appeal, which is strong precisely to encourage people even if the situation remains complicated". There is a danger of boycotts of the ballot box even by ordinary citizens "disappointed not to have seen any change in 18 years." This, he notes, is also a "great danger" because there are forces interested in "obstructing" the vote to form "an emergency government. Many factions are hoping for low turnout, to do what they want." The international community will keep a watchful eye on the elections, defining the appointment with the ballot box as an opportunity that citizens must take advantage of to determine their future in a democratic way. Dozens of nations, including the United States, Australia, Canada and members of the European Union have praised the work of preparation of the Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission. The hope is that it will be a free, fair, inclusive vote without violence. Cardinal Sako : "If people participate it will be possible a change from the past. In 2018 there were documented cases of fraud and corruption, actually only 20% of people would have voted. Iraqis are afraid of fraud, that the same people of the past are plotting to stay in power" and we must respond to them "with a great participation." It is necessary to fight, he continues, against those who move in politics only "for personal interests, without a vision of the future". Finally, the Chaldean Primate is critical of Christian politicians, who have also been implicated in the past in episodes of corruption or "bribe votes, with undue promises to gain consensus. For this reason, he concludes, it would be important to review the issue of quotas reserved for minorities", because so "they make no sense and serve the interests of the politicians, not of the minority community". by Vladimir Rozanskij Further measures introduced after 2016 ban on private religious schools. Government fears spread of extremist ideas. Young people who went abroad for religious studies forcibly repatriated. New clampdown seen by many Tajiks as a violation of religious freedom. Moscow (AsiaNews) - Tajikistan has introduced new punitive measures against the "underground" religious education of children. On October 6, deputies of the Madzhilis Namoyandagon, the lower house of parliament, approved some amendments to the penal code, according to which deprivation of liberty for up to three years is foreseen in the case of illegal religious education, including lessons given via the internet. The amendments are the work of the government; Nusratullo Mirzoyev, first deputy chairman of the State Committee for Security, then presented them to the House. According to his report, "95% of young people who join groups and organizations with radical tendencies received their first education in private religious schools." In 2019-2020, and in the first 9 months of this year, Tajik authorities detected 1,833 cases of illegal religious training: reported 43 imam-khatiba, 983 illegal ministers of worship, 32 teachers and 17 students. The mullahs received between 200 and 5 thousand somoni (between 20 and 500 euros approximately) from students for the exercise of worship. 33 parents received administrative sanctions for taking their children to private religious schools. Under the new regulations, fines of between 48,000 and 72,000 somoni are applied for infringements regarding religious education. If the already fined citizen falls into the same violation within a year of the sanction, he can be imprisoned for up to three years. Mirzoyev explained the danger of online courses, for which there is also the possibility of arrest and imprisonment for up to three years. The ban on private religious schools has been in effect in Tajikistan since 2016. For the government it is a response to the danger of radicalization and religious extremism. Authorities believe that the extremist elements of these forms of teaching can ruin the mentality of Tajik youth, even if only by participating in communal prayers in private buildings, which are difficult to control. As early as 2011, regulations were passed according to which religious formation abroad is permitted only by agreement with the authorities, and only after completion of formation courses at home. At the time President Emomali Rakhmon warned that Tajiks in foreign madrasas "do not become mullahs, but terrorists". According to information from the Religious Affairs Committee, since 2010 the government has forcibly repatriated over 3,000 Tajik citizens who received religious training through illegal routes in Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. A few weeks ago, as it was disclosed yesterday, 10 Tajik children were returned home from Bangladesh, where they were taking courses of study at a religious school. The authorities have placed the youngsters in a state-run boarding school, where they will have to spend a period of "readaptation". The father of one of the boys, Mahmadsharif Saidov, reported to Radio Ozody that his 13-year-old son S.M. had been forcibly taken by the state. The father had taken him from the town of Bahdat in 2015 after the local high school was closed. From Almaty in Kazakhstan, father and son had traveled to Dubai, and from there to Bangladesh, because "I wanted my son to become a reader of the Koran." After their return, the son lived for some time at his parents' house, only to be transferred to the government facility "for difficult boys." His parents are not allowed to see him, let alone bring him home at least on weekends. The reasons for the new clampdown on religious extremism have been explicitly linked to the new situation created after the Taliban took power in Kabul. Many Tajik Muslims, however, believe that these restrictions represent a violation of their rights to freedom of conscience and education. In his first speech to Parliament, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he wants to increase public spending to counter the effects of the pandemic. According to the Asahi Shimbun, his party would like to increase the defense budget to 2% of GDP. Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Japan's new prime minister Fumio Kishida said today that he will do his best to bring the country out of the Covid-19 crisis. The premier added that he will also work to protect Japan's territory and people in an increasingly difficult geopolitical environment. "I'm determined to devote body-and-soul to overcome this national crisis with the people, carve out a new era and pass on to the next generation a country whose citizens are rich at heart," Kishida said in his first policy speech to parliament.. His first test will be to lead the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) into elections for the House of Representatives on Oct. 31. The former foreign minister went on to say that the government will adopt a stimulus package to overcome the consequences of the pandemic. He did not specify the scope of the funding, but had previously said he would invest 30 trillion yen (232 billion euros). Kishida went on to talk about the need to protect Japanese territory from interference from China and other countries in the region. The premier aims to strengthen the coast guard and missile defense capability. "While working with countries with which we share universal values, we say what needs to be said to China and demand firmly that it behave responsibly. We also maintain dialogue and continue cooperating with them in tackling common issues," he said. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper writes that the LoC is planning to increase the defense budget from one to two percent of gross domestic product. The information will be contained in the party program that will be presented before the elections at the end of the month. According to the Japanese newspaper, the manifesto will be unveiled next week after Liberal Democratic leaders approve it. China claims nearly all the waters of the South China Sea, where it has established military outposts on artificial islands. China and Japan also contend over a group of small islands (Diaoyu for the Chinese, Senkaku for the Japanese) in the East China Sea. I appreciate, so does Samuel, so does his family, the hard, almost never-ending work of Detective [Charles] Hardesty and the states attorneys office to try and get to the bottom of this and try and do whats right, he said. Its become evident to me that many of the defendants pleading guilty do not truly accept responsibility. They seem, to me, to be trying to get this out of the way as quickly as possible, stating whatever they have to say ... but not changing their attitude, Hogan said. We narrowly escaped a constitutional meltdown over the transfer of power in January, and the fact that the insurrection failed is hardly comforting. With Trump itching for a comeback, with Republicans more interested in sabotage than in governing, we remain at the brink of crisis described in the darkest terms by Robert Kagan in a recent Washington Post essay that warned of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves. I call on every person reading this letter now to commit to the same goal. We must ensure that young people of all races can see the signs of unhealthy relationships and understand what they are seeing. We must create a common language for talking about a topic that is so difficult, and we must normalize this conversation so that all young people have the confidence to navigate these tough issues in their own lives and in the lives of their friends. We must commit to providing every child in our region with the education they need to avoid abusive relationships. School bus drivers bear enormous responsibility given the precious cargo they transport, yet food delivery drivers and dump truck drivers hauling rocks and dirt are paid more. This simply cannot continue. School boards must recognize the integral part these drivers play within the school system and ensure they are compensated accordingly. Right now, with federal dollars flowing down to state and local governments (Five things to know about the billions coming to Maryland from the American Rescue Plan, Sept. 23), school boards have the ability to increase school bus driver hourly wages, and they must do so. This is the only way to attract and retain school bus drivers and, any way you look at it, the only long-term solution to ending the driver shortage were currently experiencing. Residents will have time to weigh in on the options. The competing plans wont be finalized until the end of the year. An online form has been created to gather input. Early responses during Thursdays virtual meeting varied widely. Some residents were upset that a plan with two lanes in each direction was drafted at all. Others felt that the rights of drivers to use the street were being downplayed. The governor said he also would like to spend some of the money on targeted relief for Marylanders who are struggling to make ends meet. Hogan offered few specifics of that proposal Thursday but described the idea as building off the bipartisan state RELIEF Act package of pandemic aid passed into law in February, which supplemented existing tax credits for the states lowest earners, made direct cash payments to the unemployed and temporarily eliminated state taxes on unemployment benefits. This week, McGrath was hit with federal and state charges, as prosecutors allege he lied about having Hogans support for the payout, secretly recorded conversations with the governor and others, improperly directed the Maryland Environmental Service to pay for donations to an art museum and a Harvard University course, and put on his time card that he was working when he was really on vacation. Dakota graduated from Bret Harte in 2013 and went to Davidson College, NC where she earned a bachelor's degree in Arab studies. After spending time studying in the Middle East and Europe, she is happy to be home, writing about the community she loves. Comment Policy Calaveras Enterprise does not actively monitor comments. However, staff does read through to assess reader interest. When abusive or foul language is used or directed toward other commenters, those comments will be deleted. If a commenter continues to use such language, that person will be blocked from commenting. We wish to foster a community of communication and a sharing of ideas, and we truly value readers' input. Before, I could only hop five steps to my bathroom and back, she said. Having this scooter made it possible for me to get out of bed. Ten percent of Maryland adults have a mobility-related disability, according to the CDC report. Barron has selected veteran assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Selden as his first assistant. Selden previously worked in Marylands federal prosecutors office in the fraud and public corruption section until a few years ago when he shifted to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Brooklyn. He previously also worked as a firefighter and EMT in Montgomery County, according to a Q&A with his law school alma mater. Thank you to my students. You have taught me what it means to love beyond condition, to teach with purpose and to lead fearlessly, Ross said in a recorded video. I would not be the woman I am or the educator I am without you. Sky Danee Campbell, 22, died after the Oct. 10 crash in the 3300 block of Murkle Road, west of Md. 97, after being taken to Carroll Hospital, the Carroll County Sheriffs Office said. At the time, two 24-year-olds were also taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with serious injuries, according to the sheriffs office. One of the men was operating one dirt bike with Campbell as a passenger, while the second man was operating the other dirt bike. The two bikes were headed westbound on Murkle Road before they ran into each other, authorities said. We remain steadfastly committed, in our duty as a public institution of higher education and as an anchor institution, to supporting the needs of health care professionals in our states hospitals, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes, Towson University President Kim Schatzel said to the crowd. This pandemic has placed a white-hot spotlight on the existing and growing health care disparities in our state and in our nation. A search warrant was also obtained for a Maserati that law enforcement had observed him driving, the U.S. Attorneys Office said, after a K9 positively alerted to the presence of drugs. Court documents show that during the search, law enforcement recovered a semi-automatic firearm, a black trash bag and gray bag both containing controlled substances, and a digital scale with drug residue, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Authorities also recovered approximately 449.46 grams of cocaine, 25.66 grams of fentanyl and a large quantity of marijuana from the vehicle, the release states. Judge Lynn Knight sentenced the 23-year-old man, who The Capital is not naming because of the nature of the case, to three years in prison, suspending all but three months of house arrest, a decision four CIT members in blue collared shirts urged Knight to consider. The team consists of police officers and county mental health counselors. They respond to calls of mental health crises and continuously check in with people after an incident, including picking a person up, driving them to court, and testifying on their behalf. The Ministry of Health will issue fresh guidelines for foreign nationals from the UK after the country ordered to discontinue mandatory testing and quarantine norms for those vaccinated with Covishield travelling from India to the UK, sources told ANI on Friday. The UK on Thursday announced that it will scrap Covid quarantine travel rules for 47 destinations, including India from Monday (11 October). According to the latest restrictions, the UK would recognise the vaccine status of arrivals from more countries. The Indians, who are fully vaccinated with locally produced Covishield Covid-19 vaccine, will not be required to get 10-day quarantine. "Eligible fully vaccinated passengers and eligible under 18s returning from countries and territories, not on the red list, can do with just a day 2 test," said the statement released by the UK government. The new eased restriction will be followed from 4 AM (UTC), October 11. Eligible travellers vaccinated in over 47 new countries and territories including Brazil, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey will also be treated the same as returning fully vaccinated UK residents, so long as they have not visited a red list country or territory in the duration of 10 days before arriving in England, according to the statement. (ANI) Goldbugs, silver bulls and concerned investors rushed back to the futures markets all week as the U.S. Labor Department announced a 6.2 % rise in the widely followed Consumer Price Index. Supply chain problems were identified as a partial explanation of the rise in everything from autos, ga Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Allstate has been a corporate fixture in Northbrook since 1967, when it moved its offices from Skokie to a six-building complex on a 122-acre campus. The company said Friday existing Chicago office space at River Point and the Merchandise Mart will be available to employees, but it is not clear if Northbrook will remain part of its plans. I hesitate to rush to judgment, since there was more than enough of that in the boneheaded Jan. 6 attack. But the possibility heightens the case for Congress to investigate Facebooks algorithm, which Facebook is bound to fight like Colonel Sanders would fight for the secrecy of his fried-chicken recipe. Plus, new treatments continue to be developed, the latest being a pill that its drugmaker said halves the chance of hospitalization and death in those recently infected. (It could be approved by regulators later this year.) And regulators are now weighing a request from Pfizer to OK their vaccine for kids 5 to 11, which if approved could limit spread in schools and lessen the chance adults catch COVID-19 from kids. While whether or not to read more books from non-Western authors is always an individual choice, it seems to me that there could be more resources in place to help readers find books they may be missing. Maybe this is a stretch, but I see the massive success of breakout Netflix hit Squid Game, which originated in South Korea, and think that perhaps we just need the right filters to help us guide our choices. "The set of voters that they're going to get rid of have seen more movies and have more context in which to judge something than any newbie coming into the academy," Goldstein told The Associated Press. "You can bring in more women, you can bring in more anybody. Everybody's a human being. They're going to vote what they're going to vote. Nothing's going to change." As for Vic Flick: Thirty five years after the fact, he started collecting modest royalties for his Dr. No guitar line, the one he performed on a 1939 English Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe by way of a Fender Vibrolux amplifer. He sold the guitar at auction in 2015, for $23,040. It came with a certificate of authenticity signed by Flick and John Barry, composer of the theme songs. Wait, what? Well. Barry took varying degrees of credit over the years for his hand in the Bond theme, though Norman prevailed in the eyes of the law. Read between the lines of Capotes project, and you intuit that he did not so much see an actress so much as fantasized an alignment between Lee an astonishingly beautiful and sophisticated woman and Philip Barrys Tracy Lord, a character that had been tailored to the needs of Katharine Hepburn in 1939. Hepburn appeared in the play on Broadway, but a Hollywood comeback vehicle clearly was top of mind. And that is precisely what happened when George Cukor adapted the play to film in 1940. So close in style were the real Radziwill and the fictional Lord, Capote must have thought, that the two surely could merge. He glossed over the inconvenient truth that his favorite new actress was not really an actress at all. Shed never been on a stage. The man has not shown a weapon during the robberies or said he has a gun. Instead, he has used notes with language that threatens serious injury and implies he could be armed and dangerous, Johnson said. Come to think of it, many of the states that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 also have endless supplies of salt air. South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas are all coastal states. One of the reddest states of all, Alaska, has nearly 34,000 miles of coastline, which is more than all the lower 48 states combined. Benjamin Franklin created one of what may be the first American editorial cartoons with his drawing, Join, or Die, which shows a segmented snake as a commentary on the Native American War. A cartoon in 1812 introduced the word gerrymander into American lexicon by satirizing Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerrys plan to create partisan districts. The late 19th century comic strip The Yellow Kid, inspired the name for sensationalism in journalism or yellow journalism. Herbert Block, or Herblock as he signed his cartoons, created the word McCarthyism to describe the anti-Communist hysteria of U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. If one wants to know the hearts and minds and social mores of Americans over the last 50 years, one could do no better than looking at the Garry Trudeau comic strip, Doonesbury. The solution is to decouple the commissions, so that buyers and sellers pay their agents separately, and litigation now under way seeks to do just that. One big difference between the U.S. and other countries with much lower transaction costs is that even when American home buyers arent working with a buyers agent, they stilloften pay the full standard commissionwith the lucky sellers agent double-dipping andtaking the whole amountbecause the rules leave consumers in such a weak position to negotiate lower rates. But even the victims who were shot refused to talk to the police, invoked their right to remain silent, and thats where it made it difficult for the detectives to present a case saying, Well, this is a person who had a gun in their hand, and they were discharging it. This person had a gun in their hand, Deenihan said. Because the video does not clearly show ... who was the actual discharge. And when we did arrest people, we were unable to put guns in peoples hands. So this one is a little more convoluted. The baseline homeowners insurance policy they obtained as part of the standard process of buying a house is only a starting point, Schmidt said. Theyll have to update their policy to include the solar panels theyve installed. Theyll have to keep an eye on the gear, furniture and improvements they make to ensure that the coverage they buy always matches the actual value of what they are covering. And theyll have to figure out what water-thwarting tactics might save them from having to insure against water damage. I. Enacting Hong Kong-related Acts, vilifying China's policy on Hong Kong, meddling in Hong Kong affairs, and wantonly interfering in China's internal affairs 1. On 27 November 2019, in collusion with those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong and obstruct efforts of China's central government and the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to stop violence and restore law and order, then U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law two bills passed by the U.S. Congress, i.e. the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 and the Act to prohibit the commercial export of covered munitions items to the Hong Kong Police Force. These bills accuse China's central government of undermining the high degree of autonomy of Hong Kong, authorize the U.S. President to impose sanctions such as inadmissibility to the United States and asset blocking against relevant Chinese officials, require the U.S. Secretary of State to submit a report regarding Hong Kong affairs on a yearly basis, and prohibit U.S. exports of police equipment, such as tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and stun guns, to Hong Kong. 2. On 14 July 2020, then U.S. President Trump signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which requires the imposition of sanctions with respect to the foreign individuals or entities involved in the so-called erosion of certain obligations of China with respect to Hong Kong and foreign financial institutions that conduct significant transactions with those individuals or entities. It also supported permanent residents of Hong Kong who have been "persecuted" to enter the United States. On the same day, Trump signed the President's Executive Order 13936 on Hong Kong Normalization, which determined that the situation with respect to Hong Kong constitutes a threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States. He declared a national emergency on that basis, which included measures to suspend or eliminate the different and preferential treatment for Hong Kong, and to authorize sanctions against entities and individuals with respect to Hong Kong. 3. On 18 February 2021, Gregory Meeks, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution condemning the so-called "continued violation of rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region", which slandered the efforts made by China's central government and the HKSAR government to uphold the rule of law, maintain order and stability and protect the life, property and safety of Hong Kong residents. The resolution was adopted by the House on 19 April. 4. The U.S. Congress is considering several other ill-intentioned bills regarding Hong Kong: On 25 January and 8 February 2021, Republican Representative John Curtis and Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act in the House and the Senate respectively, requiring the U.S. government to designate refugee status to individuals espousing "Hong Kong independence" and participating in the riots in Hong Kong. On 18 March 2021, Senator Rubio introduced a resolution condemning the so-called "crackdown by the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong, including the arrests of pro-democracy activists and repeated violations of the obligations of that Government undertaken in the Sino-British Declaration of 1984 and the Hong Kong Basic Law". On 24 June 2021, Republican Senator Ben Sasse introduced the Democracy in Hong Kong Congressional Gold Medal Act on conferring the Congressional Gold Medal to Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, Ryan Law Wai-kwong, Cheung Kim-hung, Royston Chow Tat-kuen, Chan Pui-man, Cheung Chi-wai, Yeung Ching-kee and all the executives and staff of Apple Daily, a newspaper in Hong Kong. On 30 June 2021, Republican Representative Tom Malinowski introduced the Hong Kong People's Freedom and Choice Act of 2021, calling for providing protected status to those who oppose China and provoke instability as well as law breakers and offenders in Hong Kong and for enhancing protocols to facilitate their travels to the United States. On 30 June 2021, Republican Representative Scott Perry introduced the Hong Kong Freedom Act, calling for authorizing the U.S. President to recognize the HKSAR as "a separate, independent country". II. Imposing sanctions in an attempt to obstruct the implementation in Hong Kong of the Hong Kong National Security Law and relevant decisions of China's National People's Congress (NPC) 1. On 29 May 2020, then U.S. President Trump announced revocation of the special status and preferential economic treatment for Hong Kong. 2. On 29 June 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the immediate end of exports of U.S. defense equipment to Hong Kong and restrictions on exports of U.S. defense and dual-use technologies to Hong Kong. 3. On 29 June 2020, then U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross issued a statement, officially revoking Hong Kong's special status in trade, banning exports of dual-use high-tech products to Hong Kong, and stating that further actions to eliminate differential treatment for Hong Kong were also being evaluated. 4. On 30 June 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the suspension of license exceptions for exports to Hong Kong, banning exports of U.S.-origin defense equipment and sensitive technologies to Hong Kong. 5. On 7 August 2020, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on 11 officials of China's central government and the HKSAR government on the ground of enforcing the Hong Kong National Security Law and undermining Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy. 6. On 11 August 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that after 25 September 2020, imported goods produced in Hong Kong may no longer be marked to indicate "Hong Kong" as their origin, but must be marked to indicate "China". 7. On 19 August 2020, the U.S. Department of State announced the suspension or termination of three bilateral agreements with Hong Kong covering the surrender of fugitive offenders, the transfer of sentenced persons, and reciprocal tax exemptions on income derived from the international operation of ships. 8. On 14 October 2020, the U.S. Department of State submitted its first report to Congress pursuant to the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, listing 10 officials of China's central government and the HKSAR government as "persons undermining the autonomy of Hong Kong" and threatening to impose sanctions on financial institutions related to these individuals. 9. On 9 November 2020, the U.S. Department of State announced sanctions on four officials of China's central government and the HKSAR government for "threatening the peace, security and autonomy of Hong Kong". 10. On 7 December 2020, the U.S. Department of State imposed sanctions on 14 Vice Chairpersons of the Standing Committee of the NPC of China on the ground of the NPC Standing Committee formulating the Hong Kong National Security Law and disqualifying four opposition members of Hong Kong's Legislative Council. 11. On 15 January 2021, then U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo issued a statement, announcing sanctions on six officials of China's central government and the HKSAR government for arresting 55 so-called "pro-democracy politicians and activists" by Hong Kong police. 12. On 16 March 2021, the U.S. Department of State updated its Hong Kong Autonomy Act report, announcing an updated list of sanctioned individuals and additional financial sanctions following the NPC's decision to improve the electoral system of Hong Kong and implement the Hong Kong National Security Law. 13. On 7 July 2021, the White House issued a Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Hong Kong, announcing the continuation of the so-called national emergency declared with respect to the Hong Kong situation, and extended U.S. sanctions on Hong Kong for one year. 14. On 16 July 2021, the U.S. Department of State, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Treasury jointly issued a so-called "Hong Kong Business Advisory" on the ground of enforcing the Hong Kong National Security Law and closing of Apple Daily, in an attempt to cast doubt over Hong Kong's business environment as well as the development of Hong Kong and the prospects of One Country, Two Systems in Hong Kong. In addition, new sanctions were announced on seven officials of the central government's liaison office in the HKSAR. On the same day, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement "marking one year of Hong Kong's national security law", in which he made groundless attacks on the Hong Kong National Security Law and the Chinese government's policy on Hong Kong. III. Making unfounded charges against HKSAR affairs and law enforcement actions taken by Hong Kong police in an attempt to undermine Hong Kong's prosperity and stability 1. On 25 February 2019, then U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Kurt Tong expressed in an interview his concerns about the HKSAR government's plan to introduce amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, saying that an amendment could have some impact on the implementation of the bilateral arrangements between the United States and Hong Kong. 2. On 21 March 2019, the U.S. Department of State released 2019 Hong Kong Policy Act Report alleging that freedom of expression in Hong Kong was facing setbacks, and that the increased intervention by China's central government in Hong Kong affairs had "adversely impacted Hong Kong in multiple areas". 3. On 7 May 2019, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission of U.S. Congress issued a report, alleging that the HKSAR government's proposed extradition bill would "erode Hong Kong's autonomy" and create serious risks for U.S. national security and economic interests in Hong Kong. 4. On 16 May 2019, the U.S. State Department issued a statement, alleging that the HKSAR government's proposed amendments to the Fugitive Ordinance would threaten Hong Kong's rule of law and expressing concerns about it. 5. On 19 June 2019, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed a breakfast meeting hosted by The Christian Science Monitor in which she turned a blind eye to the extremist and violent acts committed by those who were opposed to China and attempted to destabilize Hong Kong and claimed that "the demonstration by some two million people against the extradition bill" was "a beautiful sight to behold". She thus openly urged rioters to take illegal and violent actions against the central government and the HKSAR government. 6. On 26 July 2019, then Chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel issued an unfounded statement about the so-called "police brutality in response to protests in Hong Kong", alleging that "it has tarnished Hong Kong's international reputation for good governance and fair administration of justice". 7. On 17 September 2019, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing on Hong Kong. At the hearing, the violent demonstrations against the extradition bill was whitewashed while the response of the HKSAR government and police was attacked as undermining One Country, Two Systems and Hong Kong's autonomy. 8. On 28 September 2019, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China made a statement on the fifth anniversary of the so-called "Umbrella Movement protests", in an attempt to vilify One Country, Two Systems and the central government's policy on Hong Kong. 9. On 7 October 2019, then U.S. President Donald Trump said that "we just want to see a humane solution" in Hong Kong. He talked about the "great people over there" and said "they are flying the American flag", "I saw two million people. I've never seen anything like it". 10. On 24 October 2019, then U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivered an anti-China speech at the Wilson Center, in which he mentioned the turbulence over the amendment bill in Hong Kong several times. He alleged that "Hong Kong is a living example of what can happen when China embraces liberty". 11. On 21 November 2019, in her remarks made after the passing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deliberately misrepresented One Country, Two Systems, alleging that China has broken the promise of high degree of autonomy. 12. On 10 December 2019, U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong Hanscom Smith wrote an article for Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, asserting that "human rights are universal, which is why the United States stands with Hong Kong". He claimed that the adoption of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act by the United States reflected its commitment to universal values and its concern over Beijing's measures that erode Hong Kong's autonomy. 13. On 22 May 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on the adoption of the NPC Decision on Establishing and Improving the Legal Systems and Enforcement Mechanisms for Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in which he made unfounded accusations that the National Security Law was "imposed" on Hong Kong and would "undermine Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy". 14. On 27 May 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued another statement on the Hong Kong National Security Law to be deliberated and adopted by the NPC in which he claimed that the United States once hoped that Hong Kong, "as a bastion of liberty", would provide a model for "authoritarian" China. He also stated that he would certify to Congress that Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under U.S. law in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997. 15. On 28 May 2020, the U.S. State Department submitted to Congress the 2020 Hong Kong Policy Act Report and certified that Hong Kong did not continue to warrant differential treatment under U.S. law. 16. On 30 June 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a statement, asserting that the Hong Kong National Security Law undermines One Country, Two Systems, and violates commitments made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of the HKSAR. 17. On 1 July 2020, following the adoption of the Hong Kong Autonomy Act by the U.S. House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi alleged that the Hong Kong National Security Law was "a brutal, sweeping crackdown against the people of Hong Kong, intended to destroy the freedoms they were promised" and it "signals the death of the One Country, Two Systems principle". 18. On 6 July 2020, U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong Hanscom Smith asserted in an interview that using the Hong Kong National Security Law to erode fundamental freedoms and create an atmosphere of self-censorship is a tragedy for Hong Kong. 19. On 14 July 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement in support of the so-called "primary election" organized by the opposition in Hong Kong. 20. On 23 July 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered an anti-China speech titled "Communist China and the Free World's Future". In the speech, he attacked the leadership of the CPC and China's political system, fabricated the so-called "China threat", accused the CPC of "tightening its grip on Hong Kong" and called Nathan Law Kwun-chung and other individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong as fighters for democracy. 21. On 31 July 2020, then White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated the United States' opposition to the HKSAR government's decision to disqualify opposition candidates. 22. On 7 August 2020, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong issued a statement, blatantly smearing and attacking the Hong Kong National Security Law and alleging that it was "never about security, but rather, was intended to silence democracy advocates". 23. On 11 September 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked China in a statement on a case of illegal border crossing made by 12 Hong Kong residents in an attempt to meddle in China's judicial sovereignty. 24. On 11 November 2020, then Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Robert O'Brien asserted that China's actions disqualifying the opposition legislators from Hong Kong's Legislative Council violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration and that the United States will identify and sanction those responsible for extinguishing Hong Kong's freedom. 25. On 12 November 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on the disqualification of four opposition legislators. He accused the lawful decision of the NPC of being an "onslaught against Hong Kong's freedoms" and clamored for "holding accountable the people responsible for eroding Hong Kong's autonomy and freedoms". 26. On 6 January 2021, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on the Hong Kong police's lawful arrest of 53 opposition members who were suspected of violating the Hong Kong National Security law. He called for the "immediate and unconditional release" of those people and threatened further sanctions. 27. On 14 January 2021, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China released its so-called "2020 Annual Report", alleging that the One country, Two systems framework has been dismantled. The Commission called for providing shelters for offenders from Hong Kong based on U.S. domestic laws and blatantly exerted pressure on the HKSAR government against its law-based administration. 28. On 11 March 2021, the Spokesperson of the U.S. State Department made unwarranted charges against the passage of the NPC's Decision on Improving the Electoral System of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, asserting that the decision was a continuing assault on democratic institutions and a direct attack on Hong Kong's democratic processes. 29. On 11 March 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement on the passage of the NPC's Decision on Improving the Electoral System of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in which he asserted that it was a direct attack on the autonomy, freedoms and democratic processes of Hong Kong. 30. On 30 March 2021, the U.S. State Department released a 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, vilifying the Hong Kong National Security Law and attacking law-based administration by the HKSAR government and law enforcement carried out by Hong Kong police. 31. On 31 March 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued the 2021 Hong Kong Policy Act Report, accusing China of undermining the autonomy and rights and freedoms in Hong Kong and stating that Hong Kong would no longer receive the differential treatment previously accorded to it under U.S. laws. 32. On 1 April 2021, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Hanscom Smith, in media interviews and articles published on newspapers such as the South China Morning Post and Ming Pao, vilified the major steps China had taken to improve HKSAR's electoral system and to formulate and implement the Hong Kong National Security Law. He alleged that changes to the electoral system would render Hong Kong's election results meaningless, and threatened to impose U.S. sanctions in an attempt to embolden those who are opposed to China and attempted to destabilize Hong Kong. 33. On 16 April 2021, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, tweeted that the arrest of Martin Lee and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong was "another sign of Beijing's assault on the rule of law" and felt "saddened and disturbed". 34. On 17 April 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that sentencing for politically-motivated charges "are unacceptable" and called for the "release" of those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. 35. On 7 May 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that "the United States stands with the people of Hong Kong". He called for rejecting the sentencing of those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong and their immediate release. 36. On 27 May 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a press statement on the State Department website, unwarrantedly accusing the Chinese government of undermining the democratic institutions of Hong Kong and calling for all individuals arrested under the Hong Kong National Security Law to be released and their charges dropped. 37. On 3 June 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a press statement on the State Department website, claiming that "the United States will stand with" the people of China who demand that their government respect "universal human rights", and he called those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong "brave activists". 38. On 4 June 2021, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong lit up electric candles inside its the office window in support of the so-called candlelight vigil staged by those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. 39. On 5 June 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted that those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong were inspiring and called for the immediate release of those arrested. 40. On 11 June 2021, in an interview with Reuters, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Hanscom Smith alleged that the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law had created an "atmosphere of coercion" threatening both Hong Kong's freedoms and its standing as an international business hub. 41. On 21 June 2021, at a press briefing, the spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State, under the pretext of media freedom, accused the HKSAR government of using the Hong Kong National Security Law to suppress independent media and stifle freedom of expression. 42. On 24 June 2021, in a statement released on the White House website, U.S. President Joe Biden, using media freedom as a pretext, called Apple Daily's closure "a sad day for media freedom" and a signal of "intensified repression by Beijing". 43. On 29 June 2021, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a roundtable on the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, making unwarranted charges against human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong. 44. On 30 June 2021, at the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, in disregard of facts, openly attacked the legislation, alleging that it curtails Hong Kong's freedom of expression. 45. On 1 July 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued the so-called "2021 Trafficking in Persons Report". In the part on China, the report denigrated Hong Kong's successful efforts to combat human trafficking, and demonized the Hong Kong National Security Law. 46. On 13 July 2021, the spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State unwarrantedly accused China of continuing to undermine Hong Kong's autonomy and business environment, and called for international attention. 47. On 21 July 2021, the U.S. Department of State issued the so-called Investment Climate Statements. In the part on Hong Kong, the Statements played up the so-called security risks of the Hong Kong National Security Law and defamed Hong Kong's business environment. 48. On 2 August 2021, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong posted "Bearing Witness" on its website, listing individuals who have been held accountable in accordance with law for opposing China and attempting to destabilize Hong Kong. The list contains such information as their names, the dates of their arrests, the dates they were charged, charges made against them, and their conviction dates. IV. Shielding and supporting those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong, providing platforms for them to advocate "Hong Kong independence" and spread political disinformation, and justifying the acts of those lawbreakers by twisting facts and misleading the public. 1. On 17 March 2019, the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong arranged for a delegation of the U.S.-China Working Group of the U.S. House of Representatives to meet with Anson Chan Fang On-sang, Martin Lee Chu-ming and Joshua Wong Chi-fung and others. These people told the media afterwards that they discussed with the U.S. side issues such as the HKSAR government's disqualification of opposition candidates from the Legislative Council election, the proposed amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, and Hong Kong's political development. 2. From 19 to 26 March 2019, Anson Chan Fang On-sang, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, Charles Mok Nai-kwong and several others visited the United States, where they met with U.S. officials including then Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, then principal policy adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State Miles Yu, and then Assistant Secretary for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs of the U.S. Department of Defense Randall Schriver. They also met with officials from the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Anson Chan and others urged the U.S. administration to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and pleaded for U.S. support for the anti-amendment bill movement launched by the opposition. The U.S. side arranged for them to give speeches at such institutions as the McCain Institute at Arizona State University and the Heritage Foundation. This provided a platform and support for Anson Chan and others to preach "Hong Kong independence" and spread political disinformation. 3. From 13 to 17 May 2019, six people, namely Martin Lee Chu-ming, Lee Cheuk-yan, Mak Yin-ting, Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, James To Kun-sun and Nathan Law Kwun-chung, visited the United States and met with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then White House National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs Matt Pottinger and others. The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China arranged for them to attend a so-called hearing on Hong Kong and ask the HKSAR government to withdraw the draft amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. 4. On 14 May 2019, the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy held a seminar on the proposed amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance by the HKSAR government, discussing the so-called "new threats to civil society and the rule of law in Hong Kong". The Endowment arranged for Martin Lee Chu-ming and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize to attend the seminar. Participants of the seminar called for taking immediate action to stop what they described as the "evil law". 5. From 7 to 11 July 2019, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who is opposed to China and attempts to destabilize Hong Kong, visited the United States and met with then Vice President Mike Pence, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then National Security Advisor John Bolton, then Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell and others. Jimmy Lai lobbied for U.S. intervention in Hong Kong affairs, and discussed with the U.S. side developments in Hong Kong surrounding the amendment bill and the so-called "autonomous status of Hong Kong", for which he received positive response from the U.S. side. 6. On 6 August 2019, Hong Kong media reported that Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and other leading figures of Demosisto, an organization for "Hong Kong independence", met with officials of the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong and called on the U.S. side to adopt a Hong Kong human rights and democracy act as soon as possible and impose sanctions on Hong Kong. 7. On 17 September 2019, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China arranged for Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Dennis Ho Wan-see, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Sunny Cheung Kwan-yang and others to attend a hearing under the so-called title of "Hong Kong's Summer of Discontent and U.S. Policy Responses". This provided a platform and support for Wong, Ho, Law and Cheung to advocate "Hong Kong independence", spread political disinformation and smear the central government of China and the HKSAR government. 8. On 17 September 2019, U.S. Senator Todd Yang attended a press conference held on Capitol Hill to inaugurate the so-called Hong Kong Democracy Council, an organization supporting "Hong Kong independence". 9. From 12 to 13 October 2019, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz visited Hong Kong and met with Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, Anson Chan Fang On-sang, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, Charles Mok Nai-kwong, Bonnie Leung Wing-man and other leading figures among those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. Cruz appeared at a protest site dressed in black and told the media that he did not see any violence. He accused the Hong Kong police, who had been enforcing the law with great restraint, of violent suppression. 10. From 22 to 26 October 2019, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, Martin Lee Chu-ming and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong visited the United States and met with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, then Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell, Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Jim McGovern and several members of Congress. 11. On 4 February 2020, at the invitation of U.S. senator Rick Scott, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, who is opposed to China and attempts to destabilize Hong Kong, attended the U.S. President's State of the Union address. 12. On 5 March 2020, then U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Jonathan Fritz and U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Hanscom Smith met with Charles Mok Nai-kwong and some others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. 13. On 21 March 2020, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong Hanscom Smith met with Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Sunny Cheung Kwan-yang and Fergus Leung Fong-wai, among others, and accepted a so-called petition from Wong. Wong urged the United States to impose sanctions on HKSAR government officials and members of the Hong Kong police by invoking the U.S. Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. 14. On 18 April 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement making groundless accusations against Hong Kong police's arrest of individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. 15. On 27 May 2020, U.S. Senator Joshua Hawley met with Joshua Wong Chi-fung and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. 16. On 1 July 2020, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing and arranged for Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Lee Cheuk-yan and others who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong to attend the hearing via video link, providing a platform for them to vilify the Hong Kong National Security Law and the central government's policy on Hong Kong. 17. On 21 July 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a one-on-one meeting in London with Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a "Hong Kong independence" advocate who had fled to the UK, in a move to embolden Law. Law smeared China's central government and the HKSAR government, and called on the United States to exert more pressure on China. 18. On 10 August 2020, then National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien issued a statement claiming that the U.S. side is "deeply troubled by the arrest of pro-democracy advocates" including Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and calling on Beijing to repeal the Hong Kong National Security Law. 19. On 16 December 2020, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary arranged for Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a "Hong Kong independence" advocate, to attend a hearing via video link. Law claimed that the Hong Kong National Security Law restricted Hong Kong people's freedom of expression and right to protest, and urged the United States to grant asylum to more Hong Kong people. 20. On 6 January 2021, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement expressing so-called concern over the arrest of more than 50 individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. 21. On 15 January 2021, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued another statement making irresponsible comments about the HKSAR government's arrest made in accordance with the law of individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong, including an American lawyer. He called on China to immediately release individuals sanctioned under the Hong Kong National Security Law and drop charges against them. 22. On 31 January 2021, nine U.S. senators and house representatives including Jim McGovern, Marco Rubio and Jeff Merkley wrote a joint letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee nominating the so-called "pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong" for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. 23. On 28 February 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted a tweet to "condemn the detention of and charges filed against pan-democratic candidates in Hong Kong's elections" by the HKSAR government. 24. On 16 April 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement making unwarranted accusations against China over the sentencing of Martin Lee Chu-ming, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and other individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. 25. On 8 July 2021, Joshua Huck, Chief of the Economic and Political Section of the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, attended as an observer an HK court trial of individuals suspected of illegally planning, organizing and carrying out the "35 +" and "10 steps to mutual destruction" plan. When interviewed by the media, he claimed that the Hong Kong National Security Law is about suppressing the freedom of Hong Kong people and sought to glorify and justify individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. V. Colluding with some countries to exert pressure, and teaming up with allies to interfere in Hong Kong affairs and make irresponsible comments by such means as joint statements. 1. On 27 May 2020, the United States Mission to the United Nations issued a statement calling for a UN Security Council meeting on Hong Kong. The statement claimed that Hong Kong is "a matter of urgent global concern that implicates international peace and security". 2. On 28 May 2020, foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada issued a joint statement on Hong Kong, attacking the Hong Kong National Security Law to be adopted by China's NPC. 3. On 17 June 2020, foreign ministers of the United States and other G7 countries and the High Representative of the European Union issued a joint statement on Hong Kong. In an attempt to put pressure on China, the statement claimed that the Hong Kong National Security Law would undermine One country, Two Systems and Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy, and urged the Chinese government to reconsider the relevant decision. 4. On 9 August 2020, foreign ministers of the United States and other Five Eyes countries issued a joint statement on Hong Kong, slandering the central government's policy on Hong Kong and urging China's NPC to revoke the disqualification of the four opposition members of the Legislative Council. 5. On 18 November 2020, foreign ministers of the United States and other Five Eyes countries issued a joint statement on Hong Kong, attacking the decision of the Standing Committee of the NPC on the qualification of members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council and China's policy on Hong Kong. 6. On 9 January 2021, foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada issued a joint statement on Hong Kong. The statement expressed so-called serious concern on the arrest of 55 individuals who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong by Hong Kong police in accordance with law, and accused the Hong Kong National Security Law of being a clear breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, undermining the One Country, Two Systems framework, and curtailing the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. 7. On 12 March 2021, foreign ministers of the United States and other G7 countries and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy issued a joint statement on Hong Kong. The statement claimed that the changes made by the Chinese government to Hong Kong's electoral system were aimed at eliminating dissent in Hong Kong and would undermine Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy. 8. On 5 May 2021, the G7 foreign ministers' meeting attended by the United States and other relevant countries issued a joint statement which smeared the Chinese government's policy on Hong Kong, distorted the policy of One Country, Two Systems, made irresponsible comments on the internal affairs of the HKSAR, and supported those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. The United States also proposed at the meeting the setting up of an international group called "friends of Hong Kong", in an attempt to get other Western countries on board to interfere in Hong Kong affairs. 9. On 13 June 2021, the G7 Summit issued a communique which made groundless comments on Hong Kong and called on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. 10. From 21 June to 14 July 2021, during the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the United States and 43 other countries signed a joint statement against China initiated by Canada, expressing "concern" over "human rights abuses" in Hong Kong. On 1 July, the United States led a side event on the one-year anniversary of the Hong Kong National Security Law which slandered the Hong Kong National Security Law and the rule of law in Hong Kong. Twenty governments and nine non-governmental organizations were asked to attend it. 11. On 10 July 2021, the U.S. Department of State website published a joint statement made by 21 countries including the United States and some European countries, all being members of the so-called Media Freedom Coalition, expressing "strong concerns" about the closure of Apple Daily and the arrest of those who are opposed to China and attempt to destabilize Hong Kong. The statement also made groundless accusations against the law enforcement efforts of the HKSAR government, the Hong Kong National Security Law, and the central government's policy on Hong Kong. Abdulrazak Gurnah won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday. The prize has been awarded to novelist Gurnah "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents," the Swedish Academy said. An unending exploration driven by intellectual passion is present in all Gurnah's books, according to the Academy. Gurnah's novels "recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world," the Academy added. Gurnah has published ten novels and a number of short stories. The theme of the refugee's disruption runs throughout his work. He began writing as a 21-year-old in English exile, and although Swahili was his first language, English became his literary tool, the Academy said. Gurnah was born in 1948 and grew up on the island of Zanzibar but arrived in England as a refugee at the end of the 1960s. Until his recent retirement, he was Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury. Hebei Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School located in north China recently held an online class for trainees overseas as part of a three-month online training program. The training program has been tailored for students in Laos and Cambodia and will see the participation of more than 10 acrobatics experts, according to the school. Owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been difficult for acrobatic training classes to meet the demands of trainees in developing countries, therefore, the school decided to start online training, according to the school authorities. "Acrobatic training generally uses face-to-face teaching and guidance because of the high requirements of physical movements and details involved," said Duan Yong, an official with the school. Body movements like facial and eye expressions are hard to observe during online training, and the whole process needs explanation and guidance, so the school has adopted live streaming mode, Duan added. During the online training sessions, skilled Chinese students demonstrate standard actions in front of multiple high-definition cameras, while teachers provide guidance on the spot. The school started to recruit foreign trainees in 2002 and more than 500 trainees from over 40 countries have so far taken part in the training. Wuqiao is considered the cradle of Chinese acrobatics and the performance style can be traced back some 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.). In 2006, Wuqiao acrobatics was listed as state-level intangible cultural heritage. Wei Qi, a graft fugitive suspected of duty-related crimes, has returned to China, surrendering to the authorities, said an official source. Born in May 1960, Wei used to own a private company based in Harbin in the northeast Heilongjiang province. He had allegedly offered bribes to state functionaries and fled overseas in September 2014. In March 2015, a county-level procuratorial agency launched an investigation into the case. An Interpol Red Notice was issued against Wei in March 2016. His surrender marks a significant achievement in implementing the policy of punishing both parties involved in corruption -- those who take bribes and those who offer them -- and China's continued hunt for duty-related crime suspects, said an official in charge of fugitive repatriation and asset recovery. China will continue cooperation with anti-graft agencies worldwide and remain relentless in pursuing fugitives and embezzled assets, the official added. You are here: China Chinese authorities on Thursday issued a blue alert for a possible typhoon in the south as well as a yellow alert for geological disasters triggered by heavy rainfall in parts of the northern and western regions. A tropical depression in the sea area southeast of Wanning, Hainan province, is likely to move northwestward and strengthen into a typhoon Friday, according to the National Meteorological Center (NMC). The NMC expected the typhoon to make landfall on the eastern coast of Hainan between Friday evening and Saturday morning. From Thursday evening to Friday evening, gales and rainstorms are likely to hit areas including parts of the South China Sea, the island of Hainan and the coast of Guangdong province, the observatory said. The Ministry of Natural Resources and the China Meteorological Administration on Thursday issued a yellow alert for geological disasters triggered by heavy rainfall in parts of the northern and western regions. Authorities warned of relatively high risks of geological disasters in parts of Shanxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu from 8 p.m. Thursday to 8 p.m. Friday. Local residents have been advised to take precautions, especially in areas with hidden geological dangers. China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue. Flash Greece's Parliament ratified on Thursday an agreement with France on the establishment of a strategic partnership for cooperation in defense and security, the Greek national news agency AMNA reported. The agreement, which was signed last week in Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, passed by 191 votes in favor in the 300-member assembly. "It is an accord that upgrades bilateral cooperation in defense, security and foreign policy," Mitsotakis said in Parliament. Calling it a historic agreement, he said that "for the first time there is a clear clause of military assistance in the event of an attack by a third party on one of the two states." In the context of the new accord, Greece will also purchase three French frigates in addition to an earlier order of French fighter aircraft. The first Rafale planes are scheduled to be delivered this year, and the first Belharra frigate in 2025, the Greek leader said. Flash Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday thanked outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel for playing a "decisive role" in shaping the future of the European Union (EU). His remarks came at the conclusion of what likely was Merkel's last official meeting with Italy's top officials, as she prepares to leave the stage as soon as a new German federal government is formed after the recent parliamentary elections. "I thank the chancellor on behalf of the government and myself personally for the decisive role she has had in designing the future of Europe" over the past 16 years, Draghi said at a joint press conference here. In turn, Merkel noted that Draghi had played an essential role in safeguarding the euro. "I believe the euro symbolizes our (EU) unity, therefore no effort has to be spared to further strengthen and develop it and there is still much to be done in this field," she told reporters. Merkel's talks with Draghi touched on other issues, such as the goals of the G20, whose rotating presidency is held by Italy this year; the need to boost COVID-19 vaccine supplies across the world; and the situation in Afghanistan, on which Germany and Italy hold the same position. The two leaders also discussed climate change and environment protection in view of the major United Nations Climate Change Conference (or COP26) to be held in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, between Oct. 31 and Nov. 12. You are here: World Flash Moscow will invite Taliban representatives to take part in international talks on Afghanistan later this month, Russian Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said Thursday. Taliban representatives will be invited to take part in Moscow-format talks on Afghanistan on Oct. 20, the TASS news agency reported citing the official. Kabulov did not specify which Taliban representatives would take part in the talks. Russia launched the Moscow-format consultations in 2017 as part of its diplomatic efforts to press for political solution to the Afghan issue. Flash The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday an initiative to vaccinate 40 percent of the population of every country against COVID-19 by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022, by prioritizing vaccine delivery to low-income countries, particularly those in Africa. "Today, WHO is launching the Strategy to Achieve Global COVID-19 Vaccination by mid-2022," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing. "The strategy outlines the road we must all take together to achieve our targets of vaccinating 40 percent of the population of every country by the end of this year, and 70 percent by the middle of next year." According to Tedros, achieving these targets will require at least 11 billion vaccine doses, which is an allocation problem instead of a supply problem. "With global vaccine production now at nearly 1.5 billion doses per month, there is enough supply to achieve our targets, provided they are distributed equitably," he said. According to WHO's records, more than 6.4 billion vaccine doses have now been administered globally, and almost one-third of the world's population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. However, low-income countries have received less than half of one percent of the world's vaccines. In Africa, less than five percent of people are fully vaccinated. Earlier this year, WHO set a target for all countries to vaccinate ten percent of their populations by the end of September, but 56 countries didn't make it. That has prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to join the WHO chief to launch the latest strategy. "Vaccine inequality is the best ally of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Guterres, but "through dose sharing, swaps, technology transfers and other priority actions, it is possible to reduce deaths and minimize suffering, prevent health systems from being overwhelmed, resume social and economic activities, and reduce the risk of dangerous new variants." The UN chief also renewed his appeal to G20 for help, adding that "their meeting later this month will be an opportunity to deliver." "I urge all global stakeholders to step up, mobilize their resources and turn this strategy into a reality," he said. No Approved COVID-19 Shots Available NEWS PROVIDED BY Liberty Counsel Oct. 8, 2021 WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- There are currently no fully FDA-approved licensed COVID shots available. All COVID shots remain under federal Emergency Use Authorization, meaning individuals have the "option to accept or refuse" the product. On September 22, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a follow-up letter to the original approval to Pfizer pharmaceutical company that stated, "having concluded that revising this EUA is appropriate to protect the public health or safety under section 564(g)(2) of the Act, FDA is reissuing the August 23, 2021 letter of authorization in its entirety with revisions incorporated to authorize for emergency use the administration of a single booster dose of COMIRNATY." On page 6, footnote 12 of that letter the FDA clearly states, "Although COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) is approved to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 16 years of age and older, there is not sufficient approved vaccine available for distribution to this population in its entirety at the time of reissuance of this EUA. Additionally, there are no products that are approved to prevent COVID-19 in individuals age 12 through 15, or to provide: an additional dose to the immunocompromised population, or a booster dose to the authorized population described in this EUA" (emphasis added). On August 23, 2021, the FDA sent an approval letter to Pfizer regarding the BioNTech injection, Comirnaty. The letter states: "Under this license, you are authorized to manufacture the product, COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA, which is indicated for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 16 years of age and older." The FDA did a bait and switch by announcing it approved its "first COVID-19 vaccine" in order to push the "vaccine" mandates and protect the Pfizer pharmaceutical company from legal liability. The Pfizer injection, on the other hand, is still considered experimental under U.S. law. There is a legal difference between products approved under authorization of emergency use (EUA) compared with those the FDA has fully licensed. The FDA issued another letter for the existing Pfizer shots which confirms they are still under EUA, are not fully approved, and has a liability shield. That means people must be told the risks and benefits, and they have the "option to accept or refuse" the product. The federal Emergency Use Authorization law and the FDA, including the FDA Fact Sheet, state unequivocally that each person has the "option to accept or refuse" the shots. Therefore: All existing Pfizer vials (in the hundreds of millions), remain under the federal Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) (meaning people have the "option to accept or refuse"); The third or "booster" Pfizer shot is identical to the above and remains under the EUA with limited use to certain categories of people; BioNTech received FDA approval for people ages 16 and above under the name Comirnaty, but there are no Comirnaty doses available in the United States; In other words, there is currently NO FDA-approved COVID-19 injection available anywhere in the United States. Every COVID shot in America remains under the EUA law and thus people have the "option to accept or refuse" them; and Even when an FDA-approved COVID shot becomes available, individuals are protected by federal law and many state laws from being forced to get these shots based on their sincere religious beliefs or conscience rights. Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "The FDA has clearly stated there is currently no fully FDA-approved licensed COVID shot available to the population. The Pfizer injection that is currently available in the U.S. is not FDA approved and remains under emergency use authorization only. That means that people have the option to accept or refuse the shots." 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 Related Links lc.org/ Space News space history and artifacts articles Messages space history discussion forums Sightings worldwide astronaut appearances Resources selected space history documents advertisements Astronauts name next new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule 'Endurance' October 8, 2021 SpaceX's next new capsule to launch astronauts now has a name to last. NASA astronaut Raja Chari, who is set to command SpaceX's Crew-3 aboard the fresh-off-the-factory-floor spacecraft, revealed the new moniker at his and his crewmates' pre-mission press conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Thursday (Oct. 7). "We can stop calling it Capsule 210, which is the serial number for our SpaceX Dragon. The crew has come up with name of the vehicle, which is 'Endurance,'" Chari said. Endurance will carry Chari and fellow NASA astronauts Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, as well as German astronaut Matthias Maurer with the European Space Agency (ESA), to the International Space Station for a six-month stay. The Crew-3 launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for Oct. 30. "Endurance" was among a number of names that the crew "tossed around," Chari told collectSPACE in an interview. "Honestly, I don't know who it was who initially suggested 'Endurance,'" he said. "I think maybe more than one person may have come up with it." Ultimately, all of the crew agreed to "Endurance," but for a variety of reasons. "First off," said Chari, "it is a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit as we push humans and machines farther than we ever have, going both to stay and extended stays in low Earth orbit, opening it up to private companies and private astronauts and knowing we will continue our exploration to go into even further and continue." "Also, it is a nod to the development teams, production teams [and] training teams that got us here, who have endured through a pandemic," he said. The Crew-3 astronauts also recognized that whatever name they chose would outlast their own mission. SpaceX's Dragon is the first capsule to be reused on crewed flights, such that the capsules' names can and will span multiple crews and flights. "We'll be the first ones to use Endurance, but it won't be the last time it is used. It is going to be used many times by many missions and it will continue to support long duration missions," said Chari. Lastly, there was a historical connection one that spoke to the mission they are about to embark on and the skills it will take for it be successful. "I go straight to the Shackleton voyage," said Marshburn, referring to Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to cross Antarctica. Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, was trapped in ice and he and his crew endured months of hardship before being rescued. "If you haven't read the book 'Endurance,' then you should. That book [by Alfred Lansing, written in 1959] is actually in the astronaut library we have a bookshelf up there [on the station] and that is what we call it, the astronaut library. It is one of the best examples of real-life leadership in literature in my mind," Marshburn told collectSPACE. "Throughout all he [Shackleton] went through in 18 months, one person lost a toe to frostbite but otherwise the crew did fine, which is just miraculous," Marshburn said. "If you're in a different situation, whether it is during training or in space, keep it in mind that is not your forever life. Endurance is a mindset, as well as a physical challenge." The christening of Capsule 210 continues a tradition of having the first astronauts to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon give it its name. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew on SpaceX's first crewed flight to the station, named their capsule "Endeavour" after the space shuttle by the same name. Crew-2, who is currently aboard the space station, reused the same capsule (206) and kept "Endeavour" as the vehicle's designation. Crew-1 named Capsule 207 "Resilience" as a tribute to the NASA and SpaceX teams who worked through the height of the pandemic to keep their mission moving forward and on schedule. The privately-funded Inspiration4 mission, which spent three days in Earth orbit aboard the same capsule in September, continued the custom by retaining use of the name "Resilience." Although not cited by the Crew-3 astronauts, "Endurance" has a few other ties to spaceflight. NASA previously funded the ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer), which autonomously mapped the underwater terrains of Antarctica as a means of learning more about exploring ice-covered worlds such as on Jupiter's moon Europa. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity explored the crater Endurance, also named after Shackleton's ship, in 2004. Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who currently holds the record for the single longest spaceflight by an American at 340 days, titled his 2017 account of his time on board the space station "Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery." "Endurance" was also the name the fictional NASA starship in director Christopher Nolan's 2014 science fiction drama "Interstellar." "We're proud to carry on [the name] and excited to fly on Endurance," Chari said. Crew-3 commander Raja Chari revealed the name of his and his crewmates' SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. "Endurance" will launch Chari, pilot Tom Marshburn and mission specialists Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer to the International Space Station. (SpaceX) SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour approaches the International Space Station as seen through a window on the Dragon Resilience in April 2021. (NASA) NASA patch for SpaceX's Crew-3 mission, representing Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer. (NASA) 2021 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 30 giorni fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Communication in military is the backbone of modern warfare and are key to any military campaign. This sector is expected to experience a tremendous change in coming years due to high investment in military expenditure by some major powers. Military Communication includes all the aspects of communication that is required to make a successful operation. The competency to fight in wide geographical region, rigid terrains & challenging environment communications holds an integral part. Products that include Military Communication are Alert measurement systems, Cryptography, Military radio systems, Nuclear command control, Satellite systems etc. Among the radio system many kinds are being used a few are ACP-131, AN/ARC-164, AN/ARC-5, HWU transmitter, Hallicrafters SX-28, SCR-197, SCR-203, and SCR-270 radar. Request for Report Sample: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/13459 Investment in communication will remain strong throughout the next decade with greater focus on deployment of new technology, new regulations also technological modification of existing network structures as well as development of new SATCOM technologies. Europe & US is the major market for Military Communication but the demand is more than twice in Asia and North America. The private sector plays a pivotal role in procurement of defense equipment across the World mainly for the supply of non sensitive, non urgent, non core equipment. Place a Direct Purchase Order @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/checkout/13459/Single The market of military communication is driven with the increase of weapon imports & demand for technology advances, as the efficiency gains with newer equipment using sophisticated technology with the deployment of new regulations & market solution. The global economic downturn has a serious implication for defense procurement with is being considered as the major constraints. The global military communication equipment market is highly competitive with players like Boeing, BAE systems, Raytheon, General Dynamics, General Electric, Honeywell, Saab, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, United Technologies & many others. Get Request for Table of Contents: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/requesttoc/13459 Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 30 giorni fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global Dead Sea mud cosmetics market size is expected to reach USD 2.2 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 10.6% over the forecast period. Increasing awareness about the product benefits such as skin metabolism enhancement, anti-toxic, and rejuvenation is expected to be a key driving factor. In addition, the growing demand for natural beauty products among consumers is projected to upscale the requirements of the product in the upcoming years. Body products held the largest share of 36.0% in 2018. An extensive range of products including moisturizers, creams, face washes, scrub, mask, soaps, and body wash acquired a large share of the total sales. Over the past few years, spas and salons have been using Dead Sea mud mask and scrub increasingly due to the benefits associated with the products. Online distribution channel is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR of 11.9% from 2019 to 2025. Beauty products are one of the most common items purchased through online retailers. As a result, the manufacturers have been focusing on the expansion on their online distribution channels. Major online retailers of this industry include Amazon, Sephora, Walmart, Strawberrynet, and FEELUNIQUE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED. Browse Details of Market Report @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dead-sea-mud-cosmetics-market Key competitors of this industry include Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, Limited; Aroma Dead Sea; KAWAR-Dead Sea Products; Aqua Mineral; Biscol Group; H&B Health and Beauty Ltd., AVANI Supreme Inc., SabonNYC; Lush; and Asutra. Presence of a small number of competitors in the industry may benefit the players to expand their market share. Over the past few years, the manufacturers of this industry have been emphasizing on advertisement in order to spread brand awareness over the world. Further key findings from the report suggest: Body products held the largest share of 36.0% in 2018 owing to their increasing popularity among high and middle-class consumers as they are capable of enhancing the skin by cleansing, detoxifying, and stimulating it Hair products are expected to witness the fastest growth due to growing concerns about hair fall, scalp problems, and hair growth, particularly among adults The online distribution channel is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR of 11.9% from 2019 to 2025 North America dominated the Dead Sea mud cosmetics industry with a share of exceeding 35.0% in 2018 owing to rising demand for natural products in U.S. and Canada Middle East and Africa is expected to expand at the fastest CAGR of 12.6% from 2019 to 2025. Grand View Research has segmented the global Dead Sea mud cosmetics market on the basis of product, distribution channel, and region: Dead Sea Mud Cosmetics Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) Facial Hair Body Eye Dead Sea Mud Cosmetics Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) Offline Online Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 30 giorni fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The global microarray market size is expected to reach USD 7.44 billion by the year 2026, growing at a CAGR of 8.7%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Market drivers propelling market growth include a global rise in cancer cases and a wide range of applications of microarrays in sequencing, genome mapping, personalized medicines, and others. A rise in global R&D investments is also key in propelling growth as this would lead to a rise in the use of microarrays for research purposes to advance and improve in healthcare. Microarrays have a wide range of applications such as research applications, drug discovery, disease diagnosis, genomic and proteomic research, plant and food research, agricultural research, among other applications. According to a report published by the American Academy of Neurology, chromosomal microarray analysis can be used to diagnose intellectual disabilities and disomic features, this test has also been recommended as a first line diagnostic test. Recent advances in proteomics and genomics coupled with human genome sequencing have led to an increase in several screenable drug targets. According to a report published by PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), a miniature 3D cell culture microarray has been developed for high throughput toxicological assays. The introduction of various types of array platforms offered by leading companies is also another factor anticipated to boost market potential. For instance, R&D Systems, a biological products company offers proteome profiler antibody array, a protein microarray used to measure over 119 proteins in one sample. With the use of this product, laboratory technicians do not need any specialized equipment additionally eliminating the need for western blot experiments. Browse Details of Market Report @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/microarray-market The Asia Pacific region is expected to witness lucrative growth during the forecast period owing to rising regulatory approvals received by leading companies for microarrays. For instance, in 2015, Agilent Technologies Inc. received the China FDA approval for its SureScan Dx microarray scanner. The Middle East & African region is also anticipated to showcase immense opportunities due to the launch of new products in the region to improve the diagnosis of diseases. For instance, in 2017, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. launched Axiom Africa array, this array captures genome-wide variation in African populations as well as in Europe and Asian populations. Microarray Market Report Highlights Consumables held the largest microarray market share owing to the repeated purchase of these products and their incessant requirement in all procedures. Software and services are expected to witness the highest CAGR in the product segment owing to rising adoption in drug discovery and disease diagnostics. North America held the largest market share followed by Europe and is anticipated to maintain their dominant positions throughout the forecast period. Major market players include Abcam plc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck KgaA, Cell Signaling Technologies, and Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. among others. Microarray Market Segmentation Grand View Research has segmented the global microarray market report on the basis of product, microarray type, application, end use and region: Microarray Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026) Consumables Software and Services Instruments Microarray Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026) DNA Microarrays Protein Microarrays Other Microarrays Microarray Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2026) Research Applications Drug Discovery Disease Diagnostics Other Applications According to Stratistics MRC, the Metal Chelates Market is accounted for $425.23 million in 2017 and is expected to reach $981.54 million by 2026 growing at a CAGR of 9.7% during the forecast period. The factors driving the market growth are an expansion in increasing demand for high yield from crop production and rising awareness about nutrient deficiencies in crops. However, poor impact of non-biodegradable is restraining the market. Request For Report Sample@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/11321 Metal chelates are the type of compounds in which a metal ion is bonded to an anion at more than one attachment sites. Chelation is a naturally occurring process to prevent the absorbed nutrients from precipitating. Organic substances which are present in the soil and produced by microorganisms are natural chelating agents. Based on crop type, the fruits and vegetable segment is expected to display a significant rise in the market during the forecast period. Increasing demand for fruits & vegetables and their sensitivity towards nutrients is driving the demand for this market. By Geography, Asia Pacific in the global scenario has a positive impact on the market due to rising demand for food products. Countries such as China, India and Australia are increasing in the purchasing power of the population. Some of the key players in Metal Chelates market include BASF SE, Akzo Nobel N.V., Aries Agro Limited, Deretil Agronutritional, Haifa Chemicals Ltd., Nufarm Limited, Protex International, Syngenta AG, Valagro SPA, Van Iperen International. Types Covered: Secondary Nutrients Primary Nutrients Micronutrients Other Types Applications Covered: Cereal Fertigation Foliar Rapeseed, Beans Soil Other Mode of Applications Get Complete TOC with Tables and Figures@ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/11321 Crop Types Covered: Cereals & Grains Fruits & Vegetables Oilseeds & Pulses Other Crop Types End-Users Covered: Water treatment Industrial and household Feed Agriculture Other End Users Regions Covered: North America o US o Canada o Mexico Europe o Germany o UK o Italy o France o Spain o Rest of Europe Asia Pacific o Japan o China o India o Australia o New Zealand o South Korea o Rest of Asia Pacific South America o Argentina o Brazil o Chile o Rest of South America Middle East & Africa o Saudi Arabia o UAE o Qatar o South Africa o Rest of Middle East & Africa What our report offers: Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments Market share analysis of the top industry players Strategic recommendations for the new entrants Market forecasts for a minimum of 9 years of all the mentioned segments, sub-segments, and the regional markets Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations) Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements <<< Get COVID-19 Report Analysis >>> https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/11321 Free Customization Offerings: All the customers of this report will be entitled to receive one of the following free customization options: Company Profiling o Comprehensive profiling of additional market players (up to 3) o SWOT Analysis of key players (up to 3) Regional Segmentation o Market estimations, Forecasts and CAGR of any prominent country as per the clients interest (Note: Depends on feasibility check) Competitive Benchmarking o Benchmarking of key players based on product portfolio, geographical presence, and strategic alliances You can Buy This Report from Here @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/checkout/11321/Single Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 30 giorni fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Electric Powertrain Market Growth & Trends The global electric powertrain market size is expected to reach USD 654.95 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 33.5% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market for pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles has been growing significantly, in turn, creating an increasing demand for automotive electric powertrains. Governments in various countries are taking initiatives to promote the development of Electric Vehicles (EVs). For instance, in 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a public investment of USD 400 billion in clean energy. The investment would help develop 500,000 charging outlets for electric vehicles by the end of 2030. The rising sales of EVs have propelled prominent automotive component manufacturers to aggressively focus on developing essential EV components to gain a competitive edge. Prominent manufacturers in the market are primarily focusing on enhancing their facilities in countries, such as China and the U.S. For instance, in February 2020, Nidec Corporation invested around USD 1.8 billion to expand its EV powertrain business. The companys three new facilities located in Poland, China, and Mexico would deliver up to 8.4 million electric motors every year. Asia Pacific is projected to grow at a substantial CAGR over the forecast period owing to the increase in demand for EVs and the rise in the per capita income of people. Countries, such as China, South Korea, and India, are among the prominent manufacturers of automobiles. Stringent government regulations and emission norms, including BS-VI in India, are also expected to contribute to the growth of the Asia Pacific market. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the ten consecutive years of robust growth of EVs, mainly impacting sales in countries, such as China. With factory shutdowns, declining vehicle sales, and decreasing use of public transit, the automotive supply chains have been heavily disrupted by the pandemic. Europe is a crucial market for electric powertrains and holds a substantial share of automotive production. Countries, such as Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands, have the highest adoption rate of EVs in the world. This, along with the presence of several automotive OEMs, is estimated to drive market growth in Europe. Request a free sample copy or view report summary: Electric Powertrain Market Report Electric Powertrain Market Report Highlights The motor/generator component segment is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR from 2021 to 2028 The growth is credited to the increasing penetration of BEVs and PHEVs across the globe The HEV/PHEV segment is anticipated to witness the highest CAGR exceeding 36% over the forecast period This growth can be attributed to the charging flexibility benefits offered by these vehicles Asia Pacific is expected to expand at a high CAGR of more than 34% over the forecast period The regional market is driven by the increasing adoption of EVs in countries, such as China and India Access Press Release@ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-electric-powertrain-market Electric Powertrain Market Segmentation Grand View Research has segmented the global electric powertrain market on the basis of electric vehicle, component, and region: Electric Powertrain EV Outlook (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028) BEV HEV/PHEV BEV Electric Powertrain, By Component (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028) Motor/Generator Battery Power Electronics Controller Converter Transmission On-Board Charger HEV/PHEV Electric Powertrain, By Component (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028) Motor/Generator Battery Power Electronics Controller Converter Transmission On-Board Charger Electric Powertrain Regional Outlook (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028) North America US. Canada Europe Germany UK. France Norway Sweden Asia Pacific China Japan South Korea Rest of the World List of Key Players of Electric Powertrain Market BorgWarner Bosch Ltd. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Magna International Inc. Schaeffler AG ZF Friedrichshafen AG Valeo Nidec Corp. Continental AG Magneti Marelli CK Holdings 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. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 30 giorni fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. San Francisco, 8 Oct 2021: The Report Chemical Anchors Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Injectable Adhesive, Capsule Adhesive), By Resin (Epoxy Acrylate, Hybrid Systems), By Application (Infrastructure, Industrial), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2028 The global chemical anchors market size is expected to reach USD 1.20 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2020 to 2028. Rising demand for chemical anchors across industrial and infrastructure projects owing to their superior performance and durability is expected to propel market growth. Furthermore, the growing demand for anchors that are easy to install and are more efficient and reliable, coupled with the popularity of the technologies used in its production, is driving manufacturers to continuously engage in innovation, requiring them to take the necessary steps to maintain and improve the product standards. Technological improvements have increased the functioning of the product. The product provides a fair shelf life and a high level of corrosion resistance that is at par with its counterpart two-component epoxy polyamide coatings. Epoxy is an important component in the chemical anchoring formulation, hence boosting its application as compared to its counterparts. One of the major factors influencing the production is raw material availability, distribution network, and favorable geographical locations. The primary raw material used in the manufacturing of chemical anchors is polymer, which is directly being sourced from China. Major manufacturers have long-term tie-ups with key raw material suppliers from the country owing to the low cost and efficient supply chain. However, in the post-pandemic scenario, manufacturers are looking for a diversified supply chain by focusing on raw material procurement from multiple locations. Thereby creating opportunities for a large number of manufacturers who are looking to build long-standing partnerships. The use of the Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled companies to harness data in industrial environments, wherein they have started collecting data to understand and improve operational performance. Hilti Group in February 2020 paved the way for IoT to enter into the fasteners market by launching IoT-enabled smart fasteners that identify and document anchors, screws, and bolts installed. Access Research Report of Chemical Anchors Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/chemical-anchors-market-report Chemical Anchors Market Report Highlights By product, capsule adhesive anchors are expected to register the fastest CAGR of 5.0% over the forecast period owing to the increasing use of the product in the infrastructure and commercial segments In terms of resin, unsaturated polyester chemical anchors are primarily used in masonry and uncracked concrete applications. However, methacrylates and pure epoxy type anchors are better suited for more demanding applications, including rebar and fractured concrete The rising construction spending, particularly in the emerging economies, is a key factor promoting growth in the chemical anchor industry. Rising product awareness, coupled with the high consumer spending in the residential sector, is propelling the demand for chemical anchors In the U.S., the demand for chemical anchors is expected to increase on account of the growing investments in infrastructure repair and rebuilding. Chemical anchors are being used in a majority of steel constructions, column bases, and scaffold anchoring Manufacturers in the chemical anchor industry are involved in adopting several strategies, including acquisition, joint venture, new product development, and geographical expansion, which aid in enhancing their market penetration List of Key Players of Chemical Anchors Market Hilti Group MKT Fastening Power Fasteners FIXDEX Fastening Technology Illinois Tool Works Inc. Sika AG Simpson Strong-Tie Company, Inc. Henkel AG & Company, KGaA EJOT Ripple India KoelnerRawlplug IP MungoBefestigungstechnik AG Chemfix Products Ltd. Leviat B.V. Access Press Release of Chemical Anchors Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-chemical-anchors-market Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 30 giorni fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. USA, 08 October 2021 In the present day, several sicknesses are unquestionably ruling people, comparable to opioid addiction, long term painfulness, high blood sugar standards, brain-related troubles, and many others. These types of health problems acquire the number one poker hand at the rear of the difficult living guys. There are plenty of those individuals that need to have rid of individuals illness issues, but pick up decided not to overcome vary difficulty with each. Persons have countless cures answers shopping around that will help cut back on any of these health hazards. 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Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. A new report titled Islamic Clothing Market Size, Growth Analysis & Forecast to 2027 by "Value Market Research" covers key players along side their market share and strategic development adopted by them which provides market scenarios and future situations along side an analysis of market trends, current and future, drivers, challenges, recent trends, opportunities, advancements, and competitive landscape. The broad Islamic clothing market has been sub-grouped into product. The report studies these subsets with respect to the geographical segmentation. The strategists can gain a detailed insight and devise appropriate strategies to target specific market. This detail will lead to a focused approach leading to identification of better opportunities. Request a FREE Sample Copy of Islamic Clothing Market Report with Full TOC At: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com/contact/islamic-clothing-market/download-sample By Product Ethnic and Womenswear Abayas & Hijabs Prayer Outfits Burkha & Naqaab Thobes & Jubbas Others Sustainable Fashion Sportswear Browse Full Global Islamic Clothing Market Research Report With TOC At: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com/report/islamic-clothing-market The report also covers detailed competitive landscape including company profiles of key players operating in the global market. The key players in the Islamic clothing market include Aab, Dolce & Gabbana, Hennes & Mauritz AB (H & M), House of Fraser, Mango, Marks & Spenser (M & S), Saqina, The Donna Karan Company LLC, Tommy Hilfiger and Uniqlo Co., Ltd. An in-depth view of the competitive outlook includes future capacities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial overview, partnerships, collaborations, new product launches, new product developments and other developments with information in terms of H.Q. Furthermore, the report comprises of the geographical segmentation which mainly focuses on current and forecast demand for Islamic clothing in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The report further focuses on demand for individual application segments in all the regions. Purchase complete Global Islamic Clothing Market Research Report At: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com/contact/islamic-clothing-market/buy-now About Us: Value Market Research was established with the vision to ease decision making and empower the strategists by providing them with holistic market information. We facilitate clients with syndicate research reports and customized research reports on 25+ industries with global as well as regional coverage. Contact: Value Market Research 401/402, TFM, Nagras Road, Aundh, Pune-7. Maharashtra, INDIA. Tel: +1-888-294-1147 Email: sales@valuemarketresearch.com Website: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com VMR News: https://www.vmrnews.com MANCHESTER, England, Sept. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --A REVIV is pleased to announce that our President and CEO Sarah Lomas will be profiled in a prestigious new book which celebrates leadership across the full spectrum of British society: from Parliament and Crown to captains of industry and those pushing the boundaries of innovation. In 300 Years of Leadership & Innovation, published by St James's House, Sarah discusses the growth of REVIV's doctor-led services, the huge potential that lifestyle genomics could have to improve people's health and how advanced research is fuelling her ambition to use artificial intelligence to make genome education more accessible to all. The beautifully presented book will be launched in September in partnership with The History of Parliament Trust. Publication will coincide with the 300th anniversary of the appointment of Britain's first prime minister, Robert Walpole in 1721, and in the year of Her Majesty The Queen's 95th birthday. It is authored by a team of distinguished academics and award-winning writers and features expertly written articles on those who have shaped British society, past and present; from Walpole to Cromwell, Churchill to Blair, The Queen and Prince Charles to captains of industry. In the book, Sarah discusses how REVIV's doctor-led services a which recommend personalised nutritional solutions for preventative health a have expanded from one clinic in 2012 to 90 clinics operating in 47 countries today. She also explains how REVIV's DNA swab sequencing can help clients live healthy, balanced and enriched lifestyles. This includes giving a guideline on foods that could be beneficial to them while also offering other services, such as testing for vitamin deficiencies, intravenous (IV) therapies and vitamin injections. Sarah Lomas, President and CEO of REVIV, says: "I feel honoured to have the opportunity to discuss REVIV's services in the prestigious 300 Years of Leadership & Innovation, in the company of other business leaders, renowned politicians and royalty, and also to champion my ambition to change people's lives by making available products and services that would historically only be accessible to the wealthier community. Sarah adds: "Genome sequencing has huge potential to revolutionize the health and wellness industries and to improve people's overall health, not just at an individual level but also within a working environment. My passion is to improve health based on genomics and personalized nutrition and I truly believe this could drive down the cost of treatment and make it more accessible to all, not just the wealthy. Therefore, important issues regarding health could A be introduced to a person early on in life. REVIV is changing lives all over the world and seeing those results drives our future vision." 300 Years of Leadership & Innovation will be launched at a special ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London, England, on 22 September 2021. For more information about REVIV Global visit our website: www.revivme.com or email Emma Robertson on erobertson@revivme.com A Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1625867/REVIV_President_and_CEO.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1625868/REVIV_Leadership_Innovation.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1625869/REVIV_Global_Logo_Logo.jpg A The prosecutions case against Adams focused largely on the manslaughter charge and self-defense claims, but Fahey argued Adams also tampered with evidence by at least coordinating with Cerrato to clean and hide the knife that killed Brady inside the Cerrato home. Fahey did not present any testimony directly to that argument, however, and experts testified neither Adams DNA nor fingerprints were found on the knife that obviously had been washed and cleaned. Only trace amounts of Bradys blood were identified. That August, leaders of the Foundation for the Advancement of Catholic Schools, met with officials from the Hartford Bishops Foundation to express concern that the [the new groups] fundraising efforts would undermine and hurt [the Foundation for Catholic schools] fundraising efforts as there is a finite number of donors and the existence of two foundations would lead to donor confusion,' according to the lawsuit. The driver didnt realize how serious the damage was, police said. Both cars could be driven afterward, but the one inside the garage sustained damage to both the front and back ends. Hamel told the clerk to come from behind the counter and took him out the front door to safety, Stephens said. The robber ran out the back door and jumped a fence. A loaded Glock pistol with a round in the chamber and three more in the clip, along with cash, were found at the bottom of the fence, Stephens said. Cigna said it will continue to operate its international health businesses and local market services in the Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and joint ventures in Australia, China and India. It said it expects to realize about $5.4 billion of net after-tax proceeds and will use the proceeds primarily for share repurchase. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said their research shows younger children should get one-third of the dose now given to everyone else. After their second dose, the 5- to 11-year-olds developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as those that teens and young adults get from regular-strength shots. State Agency Vaccination Status The chart below shows state agencies and their compliance rates with Gov. Ned Lamont's mandatory vaccination and testing requirements for state workers. This data will change as more employees comply with the state mandate and as employees are replaced or placed on leave. Vaccinated Testing Non-Compliant Agency Emp. Fully Vac. Test Non-Comp. Dept of Correction 5,290 57.1% 40.5% 2.3% Mental Health/Addiction Svcs 2,990 83.7% 12.6% 3.7% Dept of Transportation 2,885 77.8% 20.5% 1.8% Dept of Children and Family 2,788 82.5% 16.3% 1.2% Dept of Developmental Services 2,313 80.8% 17.6% 1.6% Department of Education 2,078 83.3% 9.6% 7% Department of Social Services 1,599 81% 17.9% 1.1% Dept Emergncy Srvc Pub Protect 1,565 77.1% 20.2% 2.7% Dept Enrgy & Envir Prot 1,221 86.1% 11.5% 2.4% Department of Labor 922 81% 17.7% 1.3% Department of Motor Vehicles 709 74.8% 22.4% 2.8% Dept of Admin Services 700 86.6% 12.7% 0.7% Public Health 671 93.3% 6.6% 0.1% Dept of Revenue Services 537 82.5% 16.2% 1.3% Div of Criminal Justice 463 94.4% 5% 0.6% Public Defender Services Comm 422 89.6% 9% 1.4% Dept of Aging & Disability Srv 340 87.6% 11.2% 1.2% Office of the Attorney General 296 91.2% 8.8% 0% Department Veterans Affairs 277 88.8% 10.1% 1.1% Off of State Comptroller 260 86.9% 12.7% 0.4% Dept of Consumer Protection 207 83.1% 15% 1.9% Off of Policy and Management 151 90.1% 9.9% 0% Dept of Insurance 147 87.1% 12.2% 0.7% Off of State Treasurer 121 86% 14% 0% Agricultural Exp Station 117 93.2% 6.8% 0% Office of Early Childhood 116 87.9% 12.1% 0% Dept of Banking 114 86.8% 13.2% 0% Economic and Community Dev 103 90.3% 4.9% 4.9% Workers Comp Comm 103 95.1% 4.9% 0% Military Department 101 81.2% 16.8% 2% Small agencies <100 emp. * 614 91% 8.1% 0.8% Total 30,220 78.5% 19.3% 2.2% Agencies with less than 100 employees include Office of Govt Accountability, CT State Library, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Secretary of State, Commission on Human Rights & Opportunities, Council on Environmental Quality, CT Siting Council, Dept of Housing, Dept of Agriculture, Freedom of Information Commission, Office of the Governor, Office of the Lt. Governor, Office of the Healthcare Advocate, Office of the Consumer Council, Office of Health Strategy, Office of Higher Education, Office of State Ethics, State Elections Enforcement Commission, Teacher Retirement Board. Look, over a period of time, we hold your job open, Lamont said when asked by The Courant. Wed like to think that, after a little bit of unpaid furlough, you want to come back. You get tested, vaccinated, whatever it might be. If it goes on longer than that, were going to have to hire somebody to fill your job because theres a real need. We cant go without. At that point, theres no guarantee of your job back. He added, Were reaching out to people, making sure there is no confusion, making sure they know that this is what the rules are. One more chance if you want to play by the rules vaccination or testing. Heres your opportunity. Otherwise, you cant work for us now. We made sure it wasnt a matter of misunderstanding.' Images Sorry, there are no recent results for popular images. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Helseth, who also considered delivering via aerial drones and Segways, said the campaign for delivery bots will be paused for this winter at least, since his targeted customer base is only active during the tourist season. Even so, hes planning to host a site visit soon with one of the companies and hopes to recruit other Yorktown business owners in his plans before bringing the issue back to county government. The A Taste of New Kent Wine Festival is one of our largest events. It brings together a vast number of people, both in and outside of our community. ATONK is truly a multicultural and multigenerational event. said Ericka Johnson, vice president of the Chamber and the coordinator of the volunteers for the event in a news release The Virginia General Assembly has provided authorization to move forward with working drawings and construction. There is a looming problem, though, as the initial cost was estimated at $76.5 million. However, the current market climate is driving costs above the budget, the report said. The revised budget is estimated at $85.8 million (and) W&M will need to seek supplemental funding from the governor and General Assembly to complete the project. Third-year biochemistry major from Houston Aleeza Mason was awarded the title of Miss Black Texas Tech in April of 2021. She will now represent Black Student Association as their homecoming queen nominee. After a thorough selection process, the 2021 queen will be announced at the homecoming game on Oct. 9 versus Texas Christian University. Senior advocare S. Niranjan Reddy, appearing for the colleges, said that the state government has no role and it is for the AICTE to decide the commencement of new courses and colleges across the entire country. (PTI) Hyderabad: A division bench of the Telangana High Court, comprising Justice A. Rajashekar Reddy and Justice T. Vinod Kumar, issued an interim order, suspending the regulations of the JNTU, which mandated that all educational institutions a no-objetion certificate (NoC) from the state government for starting a new course in an existing college. The bench was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by a group of 11 engineering colleges affiliated to JNTU, Hyderabad, including Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, Keshav Memorial, CMR, VNR, Vardhaman and others. They challenged the affiliation regulations of JNTUH. These colleges were keen on starting courses like artificial intelligence and some submitted that they were ready to reduce the seats in other courses. Senior advocare S. Niranjan Reddy, appearing for the colleges, said that the state government has no role and it is for the AICTE to decide the commencement of new courses and colleges across the entire country. V. Ramchander Goud, standing counsel for JNTUH, contended that the state government is empowered under Section 20 of the Telangana Education Act, 1982 to grant permission for establishment of educational institutions and opening new courses in existing institutions. Government counsel said that all engineering courses are continuing in colleges and the government is directly or indirectly providing financial aid. So, an NoC must be required, he said. The court did not go by the contentions of the JNTUH and directed it to give affiliation to these colleges, without seeking an NoC. New Delhi: The Centre has assured it will supply more COVID-19 vaccine to Karnataka as the state targets to inoculate 70 per cent of its eligible population with the second dose by December-end, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Friday after meeting Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya here. The Union minister in the meeting said he was happy with the vaccination drive undertaken by the state, which has achieved 1.48 crore doses of vaccination last month, he told reporters. "The minister assured us that he will give more (vaccines) if required. We have a stock of 51 lakh doses and a special drive is being undertaken. We are focusing on giving the second dose to people," Bommai said. So far, the state government has administered first dose to 81 per cent of the eligible population, while the second dose has been given to 37 per cent of the eligible population of the state, he said. "By the end of December, Karnataka's target is to provide first dose to 90 per cent (of the eligible population) and second dose to 70 per cent of the eligible population. The Union minister has assured full support for this drive," the chief minister said. Bommai informed that the Union minister is scheduled to visit Bengaluru to attend the convocation programme of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Science on October 15 and also review health infrastructure in the state. State Health Minister K Sudhakar and Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar were present at the meeting. Bommai plans to meet Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and BJP National President J P Nadda later during the day. KCR said various assemblies and political parties in the country have been urging the Centre to take up this census. (Photo: PTI/File) Hyderabad: The Telangana Assembly on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution, urging the Centre to take up caste-wise census of the Backward Classes in the general census for 2021 to facilitate their upliftment. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who moved the resolution, said various assemblies and political parties in the country have been urging the Centre to take up this census. Observing that Backward Classes constitute up to 50 per cent of Telangana's population, he said there is a general view in the state that justice should be ensured to the BCs in various fields. "In view of the upliftment of poorer sections of society, it is necessary to maintain accurate statistics for taking up various welfare measures for benefiting the poorest of the poor," Rao said, moving the resolution. Citing various provisions of the Constitution regarding the Backward Class of citizens, he said... "the assembly urges the Central government that a caste-wise census of the backward class of citizens be conducted while holding the general census for 2021." Speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy announced that the resolution was adopted unanimously. Rao on October 5 supported the demand of caste census of Backward Classes and favoured the Assembly passing a resolution on the demand and sending it to the Centre, which has maintained that it is an "administratively difficult and cumbersome exercise." The Centre on September 23 informed the Supreme Court that conducting caste census of Backward Classes is "administratively difficult and cumbersome" and called exclusion of such information from the purview of the census a 'conscious policy decision." In its affidavit in the apex court, the government said that caste enumeration in Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 was 'fraught" with mistakes and inaccuracies. The bypolls to the two segments are scheduled for October 30. (Photo: PTI/Representational Image) Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced fielding Shivaraj Sajjanar from Hanagal and Ramesh Bhusanur from Sindagi Assembly constituencies respectively for the by-polls to the two segments on October 30. The BJP said in a statement that the BJP national general secretary and Karnataka in charge Arun Singh communicated that Sajjanar and Bhusanur will be fielded in the by-polls. Fielding Sajjanar has come as a surprise as there were strong rumours that the party would give ticket to former Hanagal MLA late C M Udasi's daughter-in-law Revathi Udasi. It was Udasi's demise in June this year, which had necessitated the bypoll to Hanagal constituency. Sajjanar is a former BJP MLA from Haveri and a long time close aide of former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, BJP sources said. On the other hand, Ramesh Bhusanur's candidature was in the offing and it was quite certain that he would get the ticket. Rao said the GSDP and the per capita income of Telangana are much higher than that of the national level figures, and asked BJP leaders to tell where the Centre has the funds to support TS. (Twitter) Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao said on Friday that the TRS government had spent Rs 74,165 crore for the welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and Minorities in the last seven years -- against Rs 21,663 crore spent by the Congress governments in 10 years from 2004 to 2014. The CM announced that the state government will soon launch a new scheme to extend a financial assistance of up to Rs 6 lakh to enable the poor construct houses on their own plots as was promised in the TRS manifesto during the 2018 assembly polls. This would be done while continuing with the existing 2BHK housing scheme for the poor, he said. Replying to a short discussion in the Assembly on "Government welfare programmes in the state", the CM came down heavily on BJP leaders for their repeated statements that Telangana welfare schemes were being funded by the BJP government at the Centre. "I clarified several times earlier that what the Centre gives to Telangana for welfare schemes is peanuts. The Centre gives meagre funds to states under centrally-sponsored schemes. What Telangana got in the last seven years from the Centre is just Rs 42,000 crore while what Telangana spent on these schemes is Rs 2.74 lakh crore. I urge you to stop telling (lies) like the Centre funds our welfare scheme. At least now, after seeing these figures, please (talk sense). You may think that it might help you to gain political mileage but this false propaganda will prove to be counter-productive and finish you off politically in Telangana," the CM warned BJP leaders. Rao said the GSDP and the per capita income of Telangana are much higher than that of the national level figures, and asked BJP leaders to tell where the Centre has the funds to support TS. "It's Telangana which is funding the Centre and not vice versa. The recent RBI report categorically stated that Telangana is one of the four states contributing the highest to the nation's GDP. What does the Centre have, to give us? In fact, we give more funds to the Centre every year," the CM remarked. Basketball is underway throughout the Sac-Joaquin Section and we want to know what you think about this season's teams. You voted: Micha Zamora (third from left), the City of Elk Groves Wellness Director, along with officers with Elk Grove Police Department held a cancer fundraiser Saturday, Oct. 2, Reps for Ryan. Participants did as many push-ups, pull-up or burpees as possible in one hour. The event was inspired by officer Chris Rahall (second from right), honoring a former colleague in Ohio. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. Written by ACM *Strasbourg/Angelo Marcopolo/- With an Important Series of Moves, which may Affect, Directly several European States, (but Also, indirectly, USA and Other Countries in the World, holding a Special Status at the CoE), the Strasbourg-Based PanEuropean Court of Human Rights (ECHR), strong of 47 Member States (including Russia), for the 1st Time, Raised Critical Questions versus making Compulsory a Few Controversial Vaccines, (while Many Others, Already at the 3rd, Final Stage of Tests, are Still Not Authorized in the EU : See http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/majorityvaccinesclassicbutnotyeteu.html, etc), against Human Rights, particularly in France, Expecting a full Reply well Before the Crucial, forthcoming Presidential and Parliamentary Elections of April and June 2022, respectively. ECHR's relevant Moves Follow a Critical Warning by CoE's Secretary General, Marija Buric-Pejcinovic, (former Vice-Prime Minister in Croatia), Published as Early as, Already Since March 2021, (See: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/coewarnsoneuvaccinationpassports.html), and a Damning Resolution by CoE's Parliamentary Assembly, Later this Year (on June 2021 : See http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/coeslamsviruspassrisks.html, etc), After a Critical Report by CoE's Committee on BioEthics, as well as Several concrete Points Raised, meanwhile, by the French Higher Administrative Court ("Conseil d'Etat"), in the Meantime, and Refers, in Addition, to Similar (but Not Identical) Legal Complaints recently Lodged against equivalent Controversial Measures taken in Greece, (even if in Partly Different Circumstances and/or Official Motivations). ECHR stands at the Core of the CoE, the PanEuropean Organisation for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights, which hosts Also the International Treaty on "BioEthics" (alias Human Rights and Medicine or Biology), the Only Legaly Binding Convention, Open for signature by Any Country in the World, in that Topical Area, known as "Treaty of Oviedo" (since 1998). ECHR's Presidency had Recently expressed, on 2020, its Readiness into Interpreting such BioEthical Legal Principles and Rules, (See, f.ex.: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/coesgburiconechrbioethicsinterpretation.html, etc). --------------------------- The Main Case of Today concerns a Legal Complaint lodged by a French Fire-Fighter, Pierrick Thevenon, aged 33, against a Law of August 5, 2021, which Imposes, to some Categories of Workers, a Compulsory Full Vaccination, with one of 4 Vaccines Authorized in the EU, (Comp. Supra + Infra), Otherwise being Suspended from their This is, Currently, the Only such Application Pending on that "Hot", Topical Issue, as some Other, Similar but Not Identical Cases, in France and Greece, have been Rejected, for Procedural Reasons, related to their own Claims. + But 712 Other Persons have Already Declared their Intention to Lodge an Identical Application to the ECHR, as Thevenon did, on this Same Issue asap, the EuroJudges observed. The 4 Questions Raised by the Court's 5th Section, Chaired by ECHR VicePresident Miss Siofra O'Leary from Ireland, Professor at Cambridge University, and Vice-Chair Martins Mits, University Professor from Lund, Sweden, include, in particular, whether the Suspension sine die of his Salary, after Refusal to get Vaccinated by certain Jabs, was "a Breach of his Right to the Enjoyment of his Posessions" (Article 1 of the 1st Protocol to the ECoHR, which Protects mainly Private Property), and/or if he faced a "Discrimination, based on his Occupation", because, "Unlike Other Workers", he was "Obliged" to Obey to that as Order, (in Violation of Articles 14 and 8 of the ECoHR). In addition, ECHR Also asked whether such a "Compulsory Vaccination" with certain Jabs was "a Breach of his Right to Respect for his Private Life", (but also if he had "Exhausted Domestic Remedies" in France, as a purely Procedural Requirement). The competent French Authorities were given by the ECHR a Time Deadline for Reply until January 27, 2022, i.e. Well Before the above-mentioned Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, but in the Middle of the relevant Socio-Political Debates, (Comp. Supra). In ECHR's Long History and relevant Case-Law, the Violation of Private Property clause (Comp. Supra), has Notoriously been Used by EuroJudges also in order to Sanction some Very Grave Violations of Human Rights, such as, f.ex., the still Persisting Deprivation of Greek-Cypriot Refugees/Displaced Persons' access to their Family Homes, Belongings, and Ancestral Land, by the Turkish Military Invasion and Occupation of the Island's Northern Territories since 1974 : - "That's what we really Wanted to Condemn, But the Tragedy is that most EuroJudges prefered to put it under the <> clause", had characteristicaly Told "Eurofora"'s Co-Founder Refugee Miss Tina Loizidou, Already since 1994, when she was the 1st to Win such a Landmark and World-Famous case... Even if this 1st Individual Application by Mr. Thevenon might, Eventually, be Rejected Later-on for Purely Procedural Claims, (as, f.ex., the "Non Exhaustion of Domestic Remedies", i.e. if he DidN't yet Find the Time to Previously Address himself to All the Competent French Courts, as All Applicants routinely have to do Before comming to Strasbourg), then, Obviously, Nothing Hinders Both Himself, Afterwards, and/or Any of those Other 712 Victims of the Same Problems, who have Already Declared their Intention to Lodge asap. a Similar Application to the ECHR, as EuroJudges noted (Comp. Supra), to eventualy Repeat All or Part of those Same Other 3 Key Points, mentioned in Today's ECHR's Decision. + Moreover, Earlier, (as ECHR's Services Reminded Today), a somewhat Similar, But Not Identical, Collective Application Lodged by Greek People, (30 Health Workers, Private Doctors or Public Hospital staff), had Also Raised Many Other, Interesting Legal Points, including Also, f.ex., alleged Violations of the Human Right to Life, Inhuman/Degrading Treatment, Forced Labour or Slavery, Liberty and Security, Fair Hearing, etc.., referring to Articles 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. (Even if their 1st such Move had been Droped, on September 2021, for Various Points Specific to the Particular Way that They had Presented that Initial, concrete Application, then). On "Liberty", a Fundamental Principle of CoE's landmark Convention on BioEthics is the Need of a well "Informed Consent" to Any eventual Intervention on Human Health : A Rule Notoriously steming from the Nuremberg Trial against Nazism's notorious InHuman Methods in Concentration Camps, where Detainees were abused as "Cobays" submited to various "Tests", (as those Abused Previously by the Ottoman Turkish Empire against Armenians)... Concerning at least the Life/Inhuman-Degrading Treatment/Security relevant Issues, Nowadays, After a Notorious Discreditation of "Astrazeneca"'s Jab, Following several Deaths and Many Suspensions in Various Countries accrosss the World, it's Yesterday Also "Johnson Johnson"'s "Jennsen" Jab which was Suspended in current EU President Slovenia, after a Death, and even the Controversial "m-RNA" Novel Tool used by "Moderna" and "BioNTech/Pfizer", which was Suspended Today in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, (on the Occasion of "Moderna"), after Several Tragic Incidents, particularly on Heart Inflamations, Even of Young and Healthy People. Meanwhile, a North American Judge reportedly Suspended a similar Mandatory Vaccination as "BioNTech/Pfizer"/"Moderna", etc., on certain Workers, as in Europe, for Questions of Violation of Christian Religious Beliefs, because of Human Parts from Aborted Embryos allegedly used in such Controversial Jab, (an Issue that has Not Yet been Raised at the ECHR). In Addition, Something Fishy Seems to exist around the Precise Numbers of Deaths due to Side-Effects of suh m-RNA "Fake Vaccines" as those of "BioNTech/Pfizer", given the Fact that some Mainstream Medias cite about "5" Cases throughout all Europe, (plus anOther in New Zeland), while Others, later, cite "6" Cases Only in France. ! But Official Sources are Also cited for alleged ..."386" (sic !)Deaths Questioned after taking a "Pfizer/BioNTech" "Vaccine", Only in France, Just at the Beginning of 2021... However, Astonishingly, ..."Only 1" among them was reportedly Examined as, perhaps, due to those Controversial "Fake Vaccines" ! + Similar Inconsistencies also in USA's relevant Data : Some mainstream Medias (at close periods of Time) point at "Hundreds" of Deaths after taking such "m-RNA" so-called Vaccines, while Others speak of ...several "Thousands" ! Obviously, much More Clarity and Serious Criteria are Needed, in order to Ensure that there is Not any Hidden Blunder or Massacre there... *Already from the Beginning, Top Medical (pro-vaccine) Doctors in France had been reportedly Surprized, since 2020, according to Mainstream Press, by an Exceptionaly Long List of Side Effects in this case, to the point that they had Initialy Advised to Better leave such "Vaccines", at least for the Time being, withOut Using them, in order to "Wait", rather, for some "Better Vaccines" than that, (with the Unique Exception of those Too "Fragile" People who Could Not take the Slightest Risk to Wait, Not Even a bit)...*But Others had Even gone Further, f.ex. Warning that Such kind of "m-RNA" Novel Tools Risked, inter alia, Particularly Also to, Sooner or Later, in one way or another, Reveal some Serious Problems against Human Health, concerning mainly "Hemorragies" and/or "Inflamations", with Dangers around "Thrombosis" and/or Heart Issues, as "MyoCardite", "PeriCardite", etc. Indeed, such kind of Dangerous Issues, (including, particularly, Even Young People, apparently in Good Health), seem to have been Multiplying, Recently, Even to the Point to Raise Life or Death matters, (as Recent Facts have just Shown : Com. Supra). + However, the Worse, may Still Remain to be Discovered Later-on : Indeed, in Addition to some Possible Syndroms of Facial or Arms' Muscles' Immobilisations, (sometimes Painful, for the latter), etc., at least in Medical Theory, it's not exAcluded a priori that Such "m-RNA" Novel Tools might, Eventualy, Trigger some "Toxic" Reactions "in X Years", certain Medical Experts Warned, according to Mainstream Medias. +More Important Concern, at least from "Eurofora"s point of view : As "BBC" and Others have, Already, Warned, "Proteins", which Notoriously are the "Target" Number 1 of such "m-RNA" Novel Tools, have, Generally, a so "Complex" Molecular Structure, that it has to be Clearly Known and Carefuly Handled, as Any Eventually erroneous or clumsy Change about them "might Provoke Catastrophes !" around the Human Genome... Particulary when such "m-RNA" Novel Tools of "BioNTech" allows "Individualized" Treatment, Special to "Each" Person, Group or Category in the Society, as Mainstream, Professional Medical and/or Financial Medias had Already Noted when Bill Gates Suddenly Invested more than 55 Millions $ in "BioNTech" as Early as Back on September 2019, (i.e. Just at the Eve of a Premonitory "Pandemic" Event Conference that he Notoriously Sponsored at Hopkins University on October 2019 ("Event 201")... ++ At any case, concerning at least alleged "Efficiency", t's Certainly a Noteworthy Fact that, While "BioNTech" and "Pfizer" Initialy Announced an Only 90% Efficacy to the American FDA, on the Contrary, just After Competitor "Moderna" Announced a "94,5" Efficiency against the Virus, ... then, Immediately, they Changed and, (in Only 1 Day's Time !), Suddenly Claimed that an "Error" had been Committed, Modifying his "BioNTech/Pfizer" Vaccine's alleged Efficacy by considerably Upgrading it all the way Up to ..."95%", Back on December 2020 ! (But, Nowadays, i.e. After the Middle of 2021, "Pfizer" Finaly Acknowledged an Efficiency of Just about 91%, ...and that Only for a Few Months' Time : See Infra). +++ However, it's Obviously much More Grave that "BioNTech/Pfizer" did Not Warn at all, at that Time, (i.e. When USA's FDA and EU's EMA were Considering, Back on December 2020, whether and in which Conditions to eventualy give an "Urgent" Authorisation for his Merchandise), that their "Vaccine" might be Unable to Prevent Infections (by a Pseudo-"Vaccinated" Recipient) to Other People in the Society, (Contrary to what is Traditionaly done by All Other, Real Vaccines, during some 200 Years since European Louis Pasteur's Invention against All kinds of Viruses : 1821-2021) ! So that Both the USA and EU competent http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/pfijfyjhjh.html, etc). In Consequence, Nowadays, (i.e. Later than Middle 2021), when such a Risk has Become, at last, Obvious throughout the whole World, (Even at ..."Nature" prestigious Scientific Review, on August 2021), throwing Countries like the USA, UK, Israel, etc. into a Mess of Growing Massive Infections, it has Become Inevitably Too Late to fully Rectify things and Re-Start from scratch... The Dangers provoked by giving Credit to such Novel Tools Before any real Scientific Evidence on a so Crucial Point, can, indeed, have "Devastating" Effects, as also the Council of Europe clearly Warned on June 2021 (See : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/coeslamsviruspassrisks.html, etc) ! ++++ In Addition, they did Not Warn Even on anOther Important Risk : that for all those Pseudo-"Vaccinated" Recipients of his "BioNTech/Pfizer" "Fake-Vaccine", to get later ...Infected Themselves ! So that when the current US President Biden was Surprized on 2021 to Find that Even several Pseudo-"Vaccinated" Staff ...in the White House had been Infected by the Deadly Virus, he didN't hesitate, among others, also, f.ex., to Block Also such Pseudo--"Vaccinated" Individuals' Entry into the USA by Crossing the Borders of Canada, Recently, as well as to Order "Mask-Wearing" also for them Even Inside their own Family Home's Confined spaces, (etc)... While, in France, even an important New Region's (PACA) President-elect, Despite the fact that he had been "Vaccinated" by such Novel Tools, Neverheless was Found severely Infected, soon After his Election, inevitably making his Mandate Difficult to serve, almost at the Same Time that simple Young Women were Desperately spreading Tears, Schocked by the Fact that they were ...Fired from their Jobs, Because they had been Hired with "Certificates" of being "Vaccinated", but Soon Found ...Infected by the Virus, Despite such "Fake-Vaccines", as those Sold (Expensively) by "BioNTech/Pfizer". +++++ But, When their Merchandise had been Authorized, as an "Emergency" Measure, Back on 2020, they had Not Warned the People, Neither the Government Officials, No More, for anOther kind of Big Problem, Even More Heavy and still UnExplored in its Real Dimension, which Remains UnKnown : - I.e. that the Duration of such "Fake-Vaccines" was, in fact, very much Limited in Time, Because their alleged "Efficiency" was ...Evaporating too Fast, so that All Recipients would Soon have to take anOther, "3rd" "Boosting" Dose, in a Semester, (and withOut Excluding also the Possible Need, perhaps, for an Additional ..."4rth" Dose, Before the Year ends, as some Officials reportedly just Thought at Israel, under condition of Anonymity)... Medical Experts are Cited by Mainstream Press as Attasting that Such Problems had Never been seen Before in Any Vaccine in the World's History, (and "Doubt" whether the People would Accept to be Submitted in so Many "Doses" Each Year). => It's for All those Reasons that Experienced French Professor Christian Perronne Rafused to even Call such Novel Tools as "Vaccines", (Except, may be, of "Fake Vaccines")..., Prefering the more Realistic Name : "Gene Therapy" Tools, (in a December 2020 Publication, already)... - It's True that some Health Ministers, (as f.ex. the French one), Recently Focused their Claims on Repeatedly supporting that the existing "m-RNA" "Fake-Vaccines", at least, would "Protect from Death or Heavy Hospitalisation up to 95%"... (F.ex., See, inter alia, Also Official Motivation in Text presented to the Highest Administrative Court, "Conseil d'Etat", in the Middle of 2021, etc). >>> But, then, What to say, f.ex., for China's "Classic" Vaccine "CinoVac", which Protects People's Lives or Health from Death or Heavy Hospitalisation reportedly for Up to ..."100%" Each (sic !), according to Official Data of the "WHO" itself, Published since the End of August 2021 ? (It may be true that, Aged People's situation wasN't, reportedly, Sufficiently examined yet in these cases. But, then, all Other Ages are, already, OK). Meanwhile, however, the Absolute Majority of Anti-COVID Virus' Vaccines having Reached the 3rd, Final Stage of Tests, are of a "Classic" Technology, similar to that of World-Famous Inventor Louis Pasteur, i.e. already Known and Tested during almost 2 Centuries since his birth : 1821-1921 (See : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/majorityvaccinesclassicbutnotyeteu.html). But None among them hasN't been Yet Authorized by EMA inside the EU... Not Even those which have been Authorized by the WHO, f.ex. as China's CINOVAC + CINOPHARM, etc ! And that, Despite even German CDU/CSU Health Minister Span's recently Expressed view that the Authorisation of, at least, Some "Classic" Vaccines, would Incite several Hesitant People to get Vaccinated... And/or Despite the Fact that Countries where such a Plurality and Diversity of Vaccines exist, Included of "Classic" Technology, i.e. Based into Stimulating the Natural Human Immunioty System, (in Addition to Public Health Protection [Non-Pharmaceutical] Measures), Tragic Errors of the Past have been Bypassed Efficiently, as Infections and Deaths have almost Stopped, (f.ex. in Hungary, San Marino, etc, added to China, etc). Contrary to those Countries where People have been Traped into the Narrow area of Only 4 Fake "Vaccines" affecting the Human Genome, (as Most EU Member States, Until Now, UK, Israel, the USA, etc), where the Deadly Virus Explodes, according to WHO's Official Data... ------------------------------------ Meanwhile, in order to practicaly Facilitate Citizens' Access to the ECHR for the Judgement of such cases, during the few Time still Available Before the Situation becomes Too Hard for those affected, ECHR took,; Today, the Exceptional Initiative to Publish even : - (1) a Video-Guide on how to Lodge Applications in Strasbourg, (2) added to an Overview of All its current Case-Law on Issues concerning the Virus' Pandemic Crisis, and (3) an Analysis of "Interim" Measures, that EurJudges can take in case of Urgency, (including via Critical "Questions" Raised to Governments, as those which were used in Today's above mentioned affair)... Interestingly, on this occasion, the ECHR reveals that, Recently, its Case Law Multiplied the Number and the Categories of Cases in which EuroJudges accept to Take "Interim Measures" in order to Face Urgencies Seriously Threatening to Provoke Irreversible Harm. In other words, they, indirectly but Obviously, Warn that they Might Soon take relevant "Interim" Decisions asap, withOut having to Wait until a Final Judgement, probably Also in such Cases of Compulsory Imposal of a few Controversial "Vaccines" Affecting the Human Genome, (while Still Excluding all the Others)... Inter alia, this Might become Necessary Also because of an Astonishing Spread of "Hate Speech", recently, against Dissidents, (Scandalously Including often Even Public Officials fuelling Intolerance), which can Obviously Undermine elementary Human Solidarity, pushing towards Dangerous Hate even inside Socio-Medical and/or Public Hospital areas, considerably Aggravating Risks against Human Health and Lives. (../..) ("Draft-News") Galt, CA (95632) Today A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. High 61F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Increasing clouds with showers arriving overnight. Low 47F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. The special relationship between the US and UK will save a possible free trade deal and let Brexit stand as it is and not be an issue. This comes after President Joe Biden snubs UK PM Boris Johnson on several occasions. Sleuthing investigated the real deal if Biden and Johnson are at odds have shown differences in a free trade agreement and Brexit. Despite the British PM's cajoling and being patient in dealing with the US leader, he has been left holding the bag with nothing to show for all his efforts. Biden scoured for interference with UK negotiations One of Johnson's staunch allies at a Conservative Party conference held this week had enough of the White House and said the US president should stop incepting his ideas concerning the Brexit debate, reported the Express UK. Lord David Frost, who led the UK's negotiations with the European Union last year, stated that Ireland is for Britain to sort out. He scours Biden for interfering with an unwanted input on the matter; dealing with America is far more critical. One month ago, he spoke to the British prime minister and said the US had some investment in the money. Frost made it clear that the Irish border is for them and the EU to sort out, saying outside will keep out because they are just onlookers, not to lose. The British politician has called the interference of the US leader, who has not taken a cognitive test, not warranted. He does not have a say in how the UK does a trade deal with Brussel. Having a special relationship between the UK prime minister and the US president is not helpful so far. Read Also: British PM Reportedly Fuming Over Joe Biden's Silence on Lifting of the UK Travel Restriction to the US Johnson's comment of ex-POTUS criticized by many One media source, the Diverse Bulletin, noted that Ashish Prashar, one of those connected to Harris-Biden, said that the British PM is not liked for what he said, especially the White House, with some members not forgiving his remarks. Prashar added that Johnson has approved of Steve Bannon, even about details of ex-President Obama. It seems he was not for Brexit in 2016, which Johnson did not like. According to Johnson, the ex-president was not for Brexit due to his part-Kenyan origin, a comment that many critiqued severely. But the Administration representative said that the UK and US would keep their relationship due to history together. One unnamed source state that if Joe Biden does not like the British leader, his VP-Kamala Harris would rather despise him altogether. Former UK ambassador Sir Kim Darroch stationed in the US said that Biden and Johnson might not meet personally. He added that ex-Obama members in the current US administration would remember Johnson's remarks about Obama; they won't be too kind about it, citing The Independent UK. President Biden's reactions might be due to disparaging remarks before, as compared the current prime minister to Donald Trump. Darroch contrasted the two leaders, whom he said are almost the same. Both are cordial on the world stage, but the US leader shot down any chance of a UK-US trade deal. Johnson is not expecting anything from the White House. According to Professor Charles A. Kupchan in a January 2020 interview, a trade deal is not Washington's agenda. This special relationship between the UK and the US might not be in play because Biden has some issues with Johnson that do not take a back seat. Related Article: UK Foreign Secretary Says US Snub Costs Brexit Nothing but More Chances at Better Deals Globally @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Poseidon underwater missile is a robot submarine that can inch its way to a target on the seafloor stealthily. The next question is whether it is better to deploy it instead of a newly developed hypersonic missile that travels at Mach 5-plus. The fast development of arms is staggering, but unlike the Poseidon that circumvents the skies, being a robotic undersea vehicle that can go deep and reach a target slower than other armaments. But, maybe the reason for it developing is another dimension to the modern battlefield, which is getting asymmetrical. Russian new stealth underwater robot submarine Compare it to traditional nuclear-armed inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and hypersonic missiles that are not likely to get intercepted. So, how can such a system be an effective deterrent, reports the Nationalist Interest. The question lies on why inch an uncrewed submerged vehicle close enough to take out an aircraft carrier with a nuke warhead. One of the best ways to sink a US carrier is to send several super-fast missiles like the Mach 5-plus Khinzal. When it comes to substantive nuclear weapons, Russia has many ways to deliver them to destroy American ships. Russia's Poseidon thermonuclear torpedo The Poseidon is an 80-feet long autonomous submarine with a nuclear engine or a sea-going ICBM, autonomously navigating on the ocean floor to finally reach a coastal zone of the target. Poseidon underwater missile destroys the enemy by exploding the nuclear core in the sea to create a massive tsunami to flood coastal areas. Read Also: Robotic Unmanned Ghost Ship 'Ranger' Fires Missiles Autonomously, Is This the Next Generation Vessel for Maritime Combat? One Russian defense official mentioned to TASS news agency, who said the testing of the submarine drone is a means to prevent snooping by the US. The source reported the reactor is placed in the hull but is considered an experimental design that is not under complete sea trials. Why do the Russian forces need the USV when it being a first-strike weapon system is not its use. It is a vengeance weapon with a two-megaton warhead if the US will fire the firsts nukes at Moscow. Still, there is an intention to overwhelm American defense systems to destroy. What matters is the robot submarine, once released, will be navigated and attack with its AI until it explodes to incur casualties on Russia's enemies by unleashing a tsunami irradiated to drown cities, cites Interesting Engineering. Another use is to set lose the Poseidon USV against the vaunted aircraft carriers of the US Navy. Equipped with nukes and able to swim fast, anti-sub defenses are supposed to keep up with difficulty. In a speech in March 2018, Vladimir Putin said the system would dive deep and move faster than a submarine in the water. Quiet and very agile help it skirts detection, defenses that it will be almost impervious to attempts to stop it. Putin added that Russian engineers had developed a smaller nuclear-fueled power unit with great power to weight. Significantly small and very adaptable to function in a combat mode at 200 times faster when swimming. In the end, the Poseidon underwater missile can wreck coastlines and destroy ships, and it is one doomsday weapon that Russian has to make nations think twice. Related Article: US Navy Develops Sea Drones to Join Surface Fleet for Joint Attack @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Shortly after the World Health Organization said it would reopen its investigation into the origins of COVID-19, former State Department official Thomas DiNanno criticized the Biden administration for "denying that there is a problem." On Thursday, DiNanno spoke on "America's Newsroom," accusing the Biden White House of ignoring the entire matter. In September, the WHO stated that it would reopen the investigation into how and when the virus first emerged, as the initial investigation left many issues unanswered. China has received international pressure, notably from the United States, to review the findings, but it has refused chiefly, as per Fox News. As a result, China has drawn widespread international condemnation, with the lab-leak theory and other concerns about the country's origins largely unanswered. Biden administration accused of ignoring COVID-19 origins issue According to the Wall Street Journal, the inquiry would likely include around 20 experts who will focus on gathering more information on the virus's origins. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) may have links to the Chinese government, according to DiNanno. After reviewing sales data for testing equipment in China, an Australian internet security firm reported that coronavirus was "spreading virulently in Wuhan" by mid-2019. After analyzing 1,716 procurement contracts for equipment potentially used to test for COVID-19 in Hubei province, Internet 2.0, located in Canberra, came to a devastating conclusion. The allegations add to a growing body of evidence that the Chinese authorities suppressed information and even outright misled about many aspects of the deadly virus. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese army, the local disease prevention center, and a local university all had "abnormal and significant increases" in equipment, according to Internet 2.0's white, Procuring for a Pandemic. Per Daily Mail, the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 4.5 million people over the previous 22 months, and it has irrevocably harmed companies, cost governments trillions, and dominated government policy in nearly every country on earth. Read Also: Merck's COVID-19 Pill Reportedly Reduces Risk of Hospitalizations, Deaths: Is it a Game-Changer or Just Another Tool? US, China presidents to conduct virtual summit According to a former White House official, a summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping might be the only option to go forward in the strategic struggle between the world's two largest economies. Former President Barack Obama's senior Asia-Pacific adviser, Evan Medeiros, believes that only Beijing's top leadership can assist in resolving the most difficult problems at the heart of the US-China rivalry. On Wednesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi met in Zurich, Switzerland, for high-level talks. That was their first face-to-face meeting since a March meeting in Alaska, which began with an unusual public airing of both sides' concerns. Both parties struck an "agreement in principle" to have a virtual meeting between Biden and Xi during the discussions in Zurich, sources told CNBC's Kayla Tausche on Wednesday. In recent years, relations between the United States and China have remained tense. Both sides have had disagreements on various topics, including trade and technology, human rights, and the origins of COVID-19. However, analysts say that although communication between the two nations appears to be improving, bilateral relations are not on the verge of a "grand thawing." The projected Biden-Xi virtual meeting, according to Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, suggests a "limited thaw" in bilateral ties. However, he believes it will contribute to stabilizing the US-China competition and avoiding accidents. Related Article: Joe Biden, China's Xi Jinping Agree To Hold Virtual Summit; US Argues Establishing "Guardrails" Amid Growing Contest Between Two Powers @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Russia has been asked to provide additional supplies to Europe to alleviate the increasing energy crisis. The appeal came as the National Grid warned that the danger of power shortages in the UK this winter would be at its worst level in five years, with "significant price spikes" possible. This week, gas prices have already surpassed previous highs. According to the International Energy Agency, Russia may increase winter shipments to Europe by 15%, which advises the international community on energy policy. However, the nation has stated that more gas would be accessible only once Germany's Nord Stream 2 pipeline is permitted. Russia to expand energy supply to Europe Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, asked Putin yesterday to demonstrate that he is a "reliable supplier" by assisting in relieving the worldwide supply shortage that has pushed energy prices soaring. Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said yesterday that there was "potential" to expand supply to Europe and that Nord Stream 2 was the best way to do it, The Sun reported. It only took a few words from Vladimir Putin on Wednesday regarding gas output in his nation for the commodity's price to plummet on the wholesale markets. For some, his quick remark revealed Europe's complete vulnerability to Russia and raised concerns about the ease with which gas could be weaponized. It occurred amid a dispute about the inauguration of a new Russia-Germany gas pipeline, as the price of some gas equities had nearly doubled since the start of the year to trade at a new all-time high. Russia is already the EU's largest gas supplier, and some have speculated that the Nord Stream 2 project will expand European reliance. Concerns about Russian gas's involvement have existed since 2009 when a disagreement between Russia and Ukraine over claimed non-payment for Russian gas caused supply shortages in at least 18 European nations until a solution was reached. During the Crimea conflict in 2014, there were worries that Russia might cease delivering gas through Ukraine, affecting southern and central Europe - something that did not happen, despite Western sanctions. Read Also: Joe Biden, China's Xi Jinping Agree To Hold Virtual Summit; US Argues Establishing "Guardrails" Amid Growing Contest Between Two Powers Moscow rejects US' plea for assistance amid energy crisis Moscow is currently Europe's principal supplier, delivering 43 percent of the 27-nation European Union's needs. As the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is turned on, this is likely to rise, as per Sky News. As skyrocketing expenses in Europe and Asia spread worldwide, rising gas prices have struck the United States, putting economic stability in jeopardy. Now, a group led by Russia has rejected Joe Biden's pleas for assistance. Natural gas and coal prices are at an all-time high, as a shortage of energy sources in Europe and Asia drives up prices for millions of people in the UK and elsewhere. The energy crisis has now expanded to the United States, with OPEC and OPEC+ - the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Allies - refusing to assist the Joe Biden administration in resolving the problem. The group, which is made up of 13 oil-producing nations including Russia, Algeria, Iraq, and Venezuela, has refused to heed pleas from the White House to speed up plans to boost crude output to address the increasing energy crisis. OPEC+, which has included Russia since 2016, said on Monday that it would adhere to a plan put in place last summer to progressively increase oil output by 400,000 barrels per day each month, despite concerns of a rising supply-demand gap. Per Express.co, the move risks inflaming relations between OPEC countries and big oil consumers such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and China amid fears that rising energy costs would stymie economic recovery following the pandemic. Read Also: UK Gas Crisis: Prices May Rise To $1260 Per MWh as Energy Firms Face Collapse Due To Botched Strategy @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. United States President Joe Biden received widespread criticism for his Thursday statements where he claimed credit for the country's coronavirus vaccination program, despite former President Donald Trump being responsible for the rollout of the treatments. In his address, the Democratic leader claimed he was responsible for starting the country's vaccination program that was able to supply enough shots for eligible Americans. He argued that the federal government was able to inoculate three million residents every single day. Biden Claims Credit For Trump's Work Many people, including some fact-checkers, have blasted the Democrat for his remarks and boasting about programs that were not his doing. Biden was also scrutinized for downplaying former President Trump's work regarding the coronavirus. In February, shortly after he took office, Biden noted that four weeks before his seat as president of the United States, there was no plan to distribute the coronavirus vaccine to most Americans. However, in September of last year, the Trump administration was already working on administering residents with the injections. During the same address, Biden claimed that Trump's administration could not acquire enough vaccines to protect all of the United States residents. He also argued that the Republican businessman failed to mobilize the effort to administer the shots to the country's people, the New York Post reported. Biden also said that his newly announced vaccine mandates that required Americans to get inoculated or risk losing their jobs was good for the economy. He added that his programs had received broad public support. Read Also: Donald Trump Accused of Lying After Saying Nov. 3 Is the Real Insurrection Due to 'Fake' Election Results, Not the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot The Democrat also called on more businesses to implement vaccine mandates to protect their employees and families better. Despite his efforts to vaccinate more Americans, Biden's approval rating slumped at only 48%. His disapproval ratings also shot up and were now at 50%, with many criticizing his response to the pandemic. Vaccine Mandates Last month, the president announced plans to mandate vaccines for employees of firms with 100 or more workers. Individuals who refused to get the vaccines would be required to undergo weekly testing to ensure they were not infected with the virus. Authorities estimated that the mandate would affect more than 100 million workers nationwide, VOA News reported. The situation comes as Biden continues to promote his vaccine mandates to businesses during his scheduled trip to Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday. The Democrat will meet with officials from both the private and public sectors. Biden is set to discuss the mandates and stress that they would "accelerate" the end of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. Some of the leaders that Biden is set to meet with include Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby. The Democratic president will also visit an Elk Grove Village construction site that Clayco is building. The firm, which is one of the largest construction companies in the Midwest, is set to announce "strong support" of Biden's vaccine mandates. "Vaccination requirements work. Vaccination requirements get more people vaccinated, helping to end the pandemic and strengthen the economy. That's why he's leading on implementing vaccination requirements for 100 million workers - two-thirds of all workers in the U.S.", a White House official said ahead of Biden's trip, Fox News reported. Related Article: Hunter Biden Debuts First Art Exhibition Amid Ethical Concerns After President's Nominee Attends The Show @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The CIA has announced a significant internal restructuring as part of its efforts to strengthen its technical skills and capabilities in order to outperform other espionage organizations. CIA Director Announces the Creation of "China Mission Center" In a recently published article in MSN News, CIA Director William Burns announced the establishment of a "China Mission Center" on Thursday, which would address the worldwide challenge presented by the People's Republic of China, which Burns referred to as a "key competitor." The CIA is shifting its attention to a stronger emphasis on technology. Burns announced the creation of a chief technology officer post and a "Transnational and Technology Mission Hub," a nerve center for the spy agency's technology-related information collection. Furthermore, efforts to hire for technology-related positions will be made, as well as regulatory reforms to make it simpler for the agency to attract talent. According to Burns, the CIA has always risen up to meet whatever difficulties the nation has faced throughout its history, as per The Wall Street Journal reports. Read Also: US-China Conflict Will Allegedly Escalate; Geopolitical Expert Says US Should Prepare to Face War Against China in the Next Century CIA Finds Itself Behind Its Allies and Rival Intelligence Groups In a number of high-profile instances, the CIA, which has long been the world's leading intelligence organization, has fallen behind both allied and adversary intelligence. Though the CIA and its sister intelligence organizations, such as the National Security Agency, continue to have a technical advantage over competitors, allies have criticized the CIA for lack of sight into key nations. Because of the deterioration of intelligence networks, policymakers have been oblivious to important issues such as the roots of the COVID-19 epidemic in China and the stability of the Afghan government in Kabul, according to a report published in The New York Times. Following a revelation from a news source that revealed an internal CIA document detailing the agency's shortcomings in establishing espionage networks in China, Iran, Russia, and Pakistan, the newest adjustments were made. Broader American National Security Community The report concluded that the CIA, like the rest of the American national security establishment, had grown careless in screening sources over the last two decades as it concentrated on counterterrorism operations, according to a report published in One News Page. As a consequence, other intelligence services learned how to breach CIA spy networks inside their nations using modern technology such as face recognition, artificial intelligence, and monitoring. The CIA's statement is part of the Biden administration's larger strategy to retool the U.S. military, diplomatic, and intelligence apparatus to better compete with competitor nations like China, Iran, and Russia while also meeting the requirements of the U.S. and its allies. China as a Challenge for the U.S. Intelligence Community In a published article in ALJAZEERA, given the insularity of its Communist Party leadership, its massive military and security agencies, and its development of sophisticated technology that may thwart espionage, China is seen as a particularly tough task for the U.S. intelligence community. According to the New York Times and the Washington Post, the CIA recently issued a letter to its operatives across the globe stating that it was facing a scarcity of informants from other nations, with some being caught or murdered. Related Article: Joe Biden, China's Xi Jinping Agree To Hold Virtual Summit; US Argues Establishing "Guardrails" Amid Growing Contest Between Two Powers @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Alabama authorities reported that at least four people, including one child, lost their lives during the devastating flooding that resulted from heavy rains battering the state as rescuers continue to search and retrieve stranded residents across the region. Authorities discovered the lifeless bodies of a man and a woman inside an S.U.V. in the Riverchase residential development in Hoover, just south of Birmingham. The area is where lakes were overflowing due to the water that the rain brought, causing the bodies of water to merge, said Mayor Frank V. Brocato on Thursday. Alabama Flash Flood The official reported that the two victims were believed to have been driving down a hill when they encountered the flooding that overran Riverchase Parkway West. Brocato noted that the couple most likely did not see that there was so much water coming their way that was able to sweep away their car. On Thursday, the couple was identified as Latin Marie Hill and Myles Jared Butler, who were both 23 years old, Shelby County Coroner Lina Evans said. The official noted that the floodwater was so deep that it carried the victims' vehicle over some guardrails and into a swollen creek before it was flipped upside down, the New York Times reported. Authorities revealed that the child that died was only four years old and was in Arab, about 25 miles south of Huntsville during the incident. The last victim was a teenager whose body was found on Thursday morning on a road in the nearby Union Grove area. Read Also: Republicans Urge Biden To Recognize Threat at Southern Border Amid Reveal of 10-Point Plan To Address Situation The child, on the other hand, was reportedly swept away by floodwater while inside a vehicle. Marshall County residents were urged by emergency officials to avoid traveling to keep themselves safe as several roads were closed or damaged in the western parts of the region. Overnight, rescuers worked tirelessly when they discovered the bodies of the couple inside the S.U.V. During the time that the car was swept by floodwater, first responders were addressing other calls in the area, said Hoover Fire Department Division Chief Duane Prater during a Thursday news briefing, The Weather Channel reported. Water Rescue Operations In a Facebook post, the Hoover Fire Department said that the city observed an "unprecedented intense rainfall" that was responsible for causing the devastating flash flood in various areas. The department's statement added that many of the affected regions have not seen flash flooding in the last two decades. The incident forced authorities to immediately deploy numerous water rescue operations and was able to save people trapped inside stranded vehicles in the area with no injuries. The Birmingham Fire and Rescue Battalion conducted 26 water rescues and successfully retrieved residents who were stranded inside their cars due to the floodwater, said Chief Sebastian Carrillo. It was also reported that between four and 1- inches of rain fell in the city on Wednesday night, further endangering the lives of many residents. Gov. Kay Ivey posted on Twitter on Thursday that many parts of Alabama have suffered heavy rains and flash floods that created dangerous situations for many residents, CBS News reported. Related Article: Taiwan on the Edge After Chinese Warplanes Invade Controlled ADIZ; Presence of US, UK Carrier Groups Rattles PLA Forces @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Senate resolved a political standoff over the nation's debt limit that threatened to roil global financial markets on Thursday night, agreeing to a temporary extension that foreshadows a new confrontation in early December. Senate Approves the Two-Month Extension In a recently published article in MSN News, the two-month extension was approved by the Democratic-led Senate on a 50-48 vote. Some Republican senators joined Democrats in breaking a filibuster, enabling the measure to reach the floor and pass with a simple majority. The Senate impasse was the most significant roadblock to avoiding a default, which experts say would devastate the global economy. The House, which will be out of session next week, must still approve the bill before the United States Treasury defaults on October 18. Democrats voted to increase the country's borrowing limit by $480 billion while Republicans voted no. Despite President Biden's repeated warnings this week that inactivity threatened to plunge the nation into a new recession, the gap remained, according to a report published in The Washington Post. Read Also: Biden Slams Republicans Over Opposition Debt Ceiling Negotiations, Warns US Could Default as a Result Biden To Sign the Extension If It Reaches His Desk Members of the House of Representatives may be summoned early for a vote, according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. President Joe Biden has said that if one reaches his desk, he will sign it. When Congress passes legislation to increase the debt ceiling, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the president looks forward to signing it. Meanwhile, Biden has been pressuring Congress to act in recent days, criticizing Republicans for blocking a long-term rise in the borrowing limit while huddling with business leaders around the country to make a case for quick action, according to a published article in USA Today. Furthermore, according to Treasury officials and analysts, if the US defaults on its debt for the first time, the consequences may result in a worldwide recession. 401(k)s and other assets would suffer if the stock market fell. In 2013, a debt limit impasse cost the economy 1 percent of its GDP. McConnell Offers Extension Until December The blockage was spearheaded by McConnell as part of the GOP's larger campaign against Biden's spending plan, which includes a still-forming package of up to $3.5 trillion in expenditures that GOP legislators reject fiercely. Late Wednesday, though, McConnell backed down, giving Democrats a two-month respite. In a published article in The New York Times, Republicans eventually gave Democrats the 10 votes they needed to end discussion the next day, but GOP legislators shortly after voted against raising the debt limit itself. Some Republicans let the bill pass despite former President Donald Trump's last-minute effort to torpedo it. Trump released a statement just before the vote blasting McConnell. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), with a short-term solution in hand, praised the development on the Senate floor late Thursday as a crucial step toward averting a first-ever, Republican-manufactured national debt default. Meanwhile, McConnell said on Thursday that he still wants the measure to be passed via reconciliation. He said that because of the short-term extension, legislators would have "no doubt" that they would have enough time to address the debt limit via that process. Senate Democrats indicated on Wednesday that they would not budge on McConnell's demand in December. Related Article: US Lawmakers Scuffle With Debt Discussions, Threatening Massive Government Shutdown @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For quite a while, China has been lining up an array of high-tech weapons to face the United States on an equal playing field. Beijing knows how important is technological superiority is to tramp the Americans in any conflict, not be with it, then prepare to lose. Beijing is ramping up its military technology to fight a war in the Indo-Pacific and get the upper hand, to dictate what follows next. The United States military held back in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia due to the current administration. It is imminent that the best weapons be at Beijing's fingertips, to be the winners. America could fight a near-peer battle Chinese aerial forces have been bold in penetration incursion into Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in mounting numbers of aircraft. The mainland administration promised that the US and allies would pay dearly, reported the Sun UK. The head of the US military is fretting that they've been left behind in a great power struggle with China and Russia. President Xi Jinping wants to pour in money for research and defense to outdistance the US by 2050. A different war was fought to defeat insurgents for the past twenty years, but the fighting equipment is for the Cold War. Stuck in mostly low-tech wars, perfect for a cold war, is not so applicable now. The Air Force's Air Combat Command commander, General Mark Kelly, said many weapons systems are considered towards obsoletion. He added there is a need to modernize as well, as China is lining up an array of high-tech weapons. Read Also: Taiwan on the Edge After Chinese Warplanes Invade Controlled ADIZ; Presence of US, UK Carrier Groups Rattles PLA Forces People's Liberation Army (PLA) units have the latest technological arms that have been steadily updated, soldiers trained hard to focus on a high-end fight. In this case, the US has been left behind relevantly. Chinese weapons of new technology Beijing is expected to use the Pacific Ocean's enormous vastness to overwhelm Washington by building these scary missile systems capable of taking down the US Navy's largest ships. One particular weapon is the Carrier Killer missile or hypersonic missile that will fly as high as 25 miles into the sky, then the Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV) will be unleashed, noted Future Tech Trends. The missile is high-speed and flies ten times faster than sonic speed, installed with incredible artificial intelligence, which points to the autonomous drone that knows where to go. Like the B-2 Spirit, the PLA engineers are making a home-grown version that can attack US bases in the Indo-Pacific with nukes. But, there is a question of how stealthy it can be without US technology. Called the Xian H-20 'the god of war in the sky' and, with a claimed 5000-mile operational radius, is supposed to be a gamechanger. One of the recent weapons platforms developed by the Chinese is the WZ-8 drone which is supposed to fly hypersonic and AI-powered, and the CH-6 made to sink US ships. As if taking a cue from a sci-fi, Beijing has suicide drone swarms to attack personnel, with tanks that are robotic as a well. Chinese military strategy is now focused the drone type platforms, cited Defense One. In the armory of the CCP is the Type 094A, a new type of nuclear submarine with the JL-3 ballistic missile with a 6000-miles range of attack. According to Rusi Professor John Louth, it is a preparation for something big, and China is lining up an array of high-tech weapons, which is deeply concerning. Related Article: South China Sea Edges To Conflict As the US, UK Carrier Strike Groups Stokes Tension with China @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. UK Brexit Minister David Frost said the interference of Joe Biden in the Northern Ireland Protocol is not welcome. The British politician made it clear that Washington had no right to dictate to London how to settle European Union concerns. Like many in Britain, Lord Frost thinks that Washington has its own problems and the left, tearing the US apart. For the US president to impose his opinion after the Afghan Fall, the mess of the AUKUS deal should be getting his undivided as it has fallout in Asia and Europe. Joe Biden told to stay out of Brexit Officials in the Biden presidency have voiced concerns about the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol, which was set up to avoid a hard border and its potential impact on the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement (GFA), reported the Express UK. Lord Frost, Brexit Minister, is already overseeing consultations with the EU about executing goods controls in Belfast. The UK has warned to invoke Article 16 and cancel the deal if no progress is made. Aiming a jab at the White House, the Brexit negotiator was not pleased with the actions of President Biden. He states London will decide the protocol and what is necessary to achieve goals. Instead of agreeing on the UK decision, the US administration insists the Belfast Agreement be followed, not the UK, as per Biden's conditions. But Brexit Minister David Frost thinks that Joe Biden is not aware of what is happening. Politicians are unimpressed over the way things turned out recently in the US foreign policy. TIMES EXCLUSIVE Joe Biden ordered a near unprecedented formal diplomatic of the UK government over its approach to NI last week David Frost was summoned to a meeting with US officials, who warned that White House believed opposition to protocol was jeopardising peace process https://t.co/sU1jYbQUQQ Patrick Maguire (@patrickkmaguire) June 9, 2021 Read Also: Does the Special Relationship Between the UK PM and US President Still hold after Zero Agreements in Several Meetings? What happens next is Lord Frost issues statements that the US is out of line and should not dictate to the UK what to do. This comes as Biden faces problems abroad and how bad he is tanking in the US, in surveys disparaging him, noted TW News. With the most clarity, Lord Frost said the London will always honor the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to keep peace in Northern Ireland, cited France 24. Biden once again wades into Brexit but at the cost of barbs directed at him It should have been the Biden White House that should not have enraged the British on the other side of the Atlantic. Some netizens have posted their thought, which would be show anger at the US president especially. One of the users who is apparently fed up with the Democrat president antic is wearing on nerves and tells the president to mind his own business. Another user wrote harshly to Joe that criticizing the UK should be avoided. The post remarked that the border is out of control, and he caused misery and deaths in Afghanistan. One said that Sleepy Joe should get out of British business, and Brexit does not want a free trade agreement with the US. Also, he should get it in his head that Britain will trigger Article 16 to protect the UK. He added he wouldn't like it if Alaska or Texas were cut off from the United States. Another netizen commented that the Biden gang is confused about the protocol that affects the Good Friday Agreement. The Northern Ireland Protocol said Brexit Minister David Frost should be hands off to Joe Biden, who has problems on many fronts. Related Article: UK Foreign Secretary Says US Snub Costs Brexit Nothing but More Chances at Better Deals Globally @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The new Princess Diana film 'Spencer,' starring Kristen Stewart, has been panned by royal experts, who claim it degrades the late princess and is overly harsh. Princess Diana, who died in a car accident at the age of 36, breaks down in tears in front of her son Prince William as she battles her eating issue and self-harm in scenes from the film. In one of the film's most frightening sequences, Princess Diana fantasizes of hurling herself down the stairs and choking on a pearl necklace given to her by her husband, Prince Charles. Royal experts slam new Princess Diana film Her bulimia is depicted in other portions of the film, as she vomits and even has hallucinations about her own death. "It is really cruel to portray her like this. It's just pointless," Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty Magazine, told The Sun of the film. Prince William begs his mother to come down for supper in another scene after she locks herself in her room after self-harming with wire cutters. Princess Diana then walks out of the room, her makeup dripping down her cheeks, and asks her son if he saw Camilla Parker Bowles at the church on Christmas morning. It came after royal experts slammed violent sequences depicting Princess Diana's bulimia in The Crown in November. Following a violent fight with Prince Charles, Emma Corrin's Diana was seen shoving her fingers down her throat to be sick. In another, she was seen gorging herself on sweets before pushing herself to vomit in the palace's toilet. The scenes depicting her bulimia were so brutal that viewers were given an on-screen warning at the start of each of the three episodes. Royal biographers have questioned if 'The Crown' could have handled the situation more delicately, as per Daily Mail. Read Also: Prince Charles Plans To Downsize Royal Residency, Paying Prince William $950,000 Rent To Avoid Staying in Buckingham Palace Kristen Stewart's Princess Diana film launched in London Last month, the first trailer for Spencer was published, including Kristen Stewart's rendition of the late Royal's accent for the first time. The short film, set in 1991 and due to be released on November 5, depicted the Hollywood star wandering the grounds of Sandringham Estate over the Christmas season as her marriage to Prince Charles crumbles in the aftermath of divorce and infidelity allegations. The story chronicles Princess Diana's realization that she needs to "veer from a course that puts her in-line to one day be Queen," as written by English screenwriter Steven Knight, who also wrote 'Peaky Blinders.' The drama, according to director Pablo Larran, will not focus on Princess Diana's terrible death, but rather on her connection with her Royal husband and her love for children Prince William and Prince Harry. Meanwhile, Kristen Stewart insists that her new film on Princess Diana was made with great care and consideration. The Twilight actress, 31, plays the Princess of Wales in the highly anticipated film 'Spencer,' which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on Thursday night. Stewart stated she was mindful of not exploiting the late princess's legacy as she arrived for the film's premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Per METRO, the star acknowledged that premiering the film in Princess Diana's hometown of London was "a little nerve-wracking," but added, "I hope everyone's happy with it... I'm hoping she's watching." Related Article: What Is Prince William's Heartbreaking Promise to Princess Diana That Left Her in Tears? @YouTube @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The United Nations has decided to appoint a new special rapporteur in Afghanistan to investigate human rights breaches committed by the Taliban and other warring parties amid rising worries over the loss of civil rights as Afghanistan moves to a "Islamic emirate." On Thursday, the UN Human Rights Council approved a resolution proposed by the European Union to send a special rapporteur to the region in March 2022, backed by UN experts in legal analysis, forensics, and women's rights. Twenty-eight nations voted in favor, 14 abstained, and five voted against the 47-member state forum. The motion was opposed by China, Pakistan, Russia, Eritrea, and Venezuela. Taliban has accused of human rights abuses Amnesty International applauded the ruling, adding that ensuring justice will need an independent, international investigative body with the authority to document and amass evidence for future cases. Last month, 50 non-governmental organizations requested UN member states to set up a fact-finding mission or other impartial investigative body for Afghanistan, as per Al Jazeera. Amnesty International has accused the Taliban of human rights abuses that may amount to war crimes, including targeted executions of civilians and surrendering troops, as well as the blockade of humanitarian aid. Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, already has a mandate from the Security Council to monitor the situation in Afghanistan until March, as a result of a resolution introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in August. Pakistan's ambassador, Khalil ur Rahman Hashmi, said on Thursday that the establishment of a "unnecessarily duplicative" special rapporteur was something his nation could not accept. Per Reuters, China's envoy Jiang Duanthe said EU resolution has "serious flaws." He said that the United States was responsible for human rights crimes in Afghanistan during the last two decades. Read Also: Russia Sends More Gas to Europe To Ease Escalating Energy Crisis; Is Vladimir Putin Using Supply as Weapon? Afghanistan's evolving human rights situation "Given the seriousness of the human rights situation engulfing Afghanistan, the latest resolution falls short," said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard. Some nations, notably Pakistan, wanted a rapporteur imposed during the UN Security Council's extraordinary session on Afghanistan on August 24. Since assuming power on August 15, the Taliban have attempted to persuade Afghans and the rest of the world that their government will be less cruel than the one they had from 1996 to 2001. Michelle Bachelet, the EU and UN human rights head, has returned to the cause in recent weeks, pushing the council to establish a framework to monitor human rights breaches in Afghanistan. The rapporteur's job is to keep track of Afghanistan's evolving human rights situation and provide suggestions to improve it. The expert will also be responsible for assisting the government in meeting its human rights commitments and providing "support and advice to civil society." The resolution also demands an "immediate halt to all human rights breaches and abuses in Afghanistan, as well as violations of international humanitarian law." It also demands that fundamental freedoms, such as the right to peaceful assembly and expression, be respected. China's proposals, which called for the rapporteur to look into breaches committed by international forces in Afghanistan, were rejected. The rapporteur, who will be selected at a later date, will have a year to present a written report to the council, as per The Strait Times. Related Article: UN Security Council Accepts Haiti's Election Delay; Fired Justice Minister Calls For PM To Resign Over Investigation @YouTube @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The editor of China's main English-language newspaper proposed on Thursday that the country must launch airstrikes to kill American military troops stationed in Taiwan with airstrikes. Editor-In-Chief of the Global Times Says China Should Take Action In a recently published article in Newsweek, after an exclusive story from a news outlet revealed that two dozen US forces had been covertly stationed there helping train the Taiwanese military, Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, tweeted that China should take action against American "invaders" in Taiwan. Xijin said that the US should deploy 240 soldiers in US military dress to a public location and make their location known. He also added that Chinese government should check to see whether the PLA (People's Liberation Army) will conduct a targeted air attack against the US invaders following the secretive deployment of American troops in Taiwan. The American troops have been helping members of the Taiwanese military for at least a year, according to reports. They include members of the US Marine Corps and several other special forces units, according to a published article in VOA News. Read Also: Taiwan Reports Chinese Aircraft Entering the Island's Air Defense Identification Zone; Military Deploys Missile Systems To Monitor Them Tensions in the area have been rising, and Chinese military aircraft have been seen off the coast of Taiwan's territory, with 150 flights recorded in the last week. China has vowed in the past to seize the island country by force if necessary. Meanwhile, both the White House and the Pentagon are said to be worried about the Chinese military's preparedness for a possible attack on Taiwan, as well as their continuing military fortification, according to a published report in US News. Furthermore, Taiwan's defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, said on Wednesday that he believes China would be able to conduct a "full-scale assault" on Taiwan by 2025 with minimal fatalities. Additionally, China has repeatedly said that any hint that the US has sent military troops to Taiwan will be met with quick and decisive retaliation. Dozens of Chinese Aircraft Enter Taiwan's Territory On Friday and Saturday, the date of China's annual celebration marking the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, dozens of warplanes entered Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone, technically outside the island's self-described airspace, followed by more than 50 on Monday, nearly doubling the scale of its previous provocation in June. The latest round of threats comes at a particularly contentious time for relations between China and the United States, which have reached an all-time low in many ways as a result of the Trump administration's combative economic and diplomatic policies, as well as Beijing's increased aggressiveness in recent months. China may attempt to invade Taiwan in as short as six years, according to US military officials, taking territory it claims as a renegade province of the mainland. The island has been dubbed "Fortress Taiwan" by Pentagon strategists. In a published article in News7H, it was unclear if the recent revelation would impact any indications of warming between the Biden administration and President Xi Jinping's administration. National security adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterparts in Zurich, Switzerland, earlier this week, their first meeting since contentious discussions in Anchorage, Alaska in March. Related Article: China Violates Airspace of Taiwan Nearly 150 Times; Biden Administration Warns the Communist Country @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Merck signed a supply and purchase deal with Singapore on Wednesday, ensuring access to its experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral medication. Singapore is the latest Asian nation to request supplies. Singapore's Health Ministry Confirmed the Deal In a recently published article in MSN News, Molnupiravir is an antiviral medicine that works by introducing mistakes into the coronavirus's genomic coding. It would be the first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19. The transaction was verified by Singapore's health ministry, which refused to disclose the number of dosages bought due to commercial sensitivity. Molnupiravir will be accessible for use once Merck, commonly known as MSD Pharma in Singapore, submits data to the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and receives approval for use in Singapore, according to the ministry. Meanwhile, Merck did not yet conduct a clinical trial in Singapore. Singapore's Health Ministry said, "The addition of molnupiravir to our portfolio of COVID-19 therapeutics ensures that we have a range of treatment options for different patient groups," according to a recently published article in Reuters. Read Also: WHO, Others, Warn Using Ivermectin as Treatment to COVID-19 Merck Seeks For U.S. FDA Authorization Merck & Co. said on Friday that it would seek government clearance for the emergency use of molnupiravir, a novel antiviral tablet that has been shown in a clinical study to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death in high-risk individuals infected with COVID-19. Merck CEO and President Robert Davis said in a company statement that more tools and therapies are urgently required to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which has become a significant cause of mortality and continues to have a devastating impact on patients, families, and communities across the globe, as well as burden health care systems, according to a report published in U.S. News. Merck's vice president of infectious diseases and vaccine development, Daria Hazuda, told a news source that antivirals, particularly oral antiviral, have long been seen to make a significant contribution to the pandemic. Keeping patients out of the hospital is decisive given the development of variations and the virus's ongoing mutation. Because the drug's advantages to patients were compelling, an independent board of specialists reviewing the trial's data advised that the trial be stopped early, according to Merck. The decision has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to the firm. Other Countries To Buy Merck's Antiviral Pill Australia has also purchased Merck's antiviral pill, and it is being considered by Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia. The Philippines is hoping that their drug trial would provide it access. Data from preliminary clinical studies published on Friday showed that the medication might decrease the probability of hospitalization or death for individuals at risk of serious illness by approximately 50 percent of COVID-19. Moreover, patients who are eligible for monoclonal antibody therapies, potentially elderly individuals, and those with medical comorbidities that place them at high risk of poor consequences from COVID-19 infection may be included in this group at first. However, scientists predicted that the medication would be utilized in a large number of individuals who tested positive for the virus in the future. Related Article: Merck's COVID-19 Pill Reportedly Reduces Risk of Hospitalizations, Deaths: Is it a Game-Changer or Just Another Tool? @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Prince Andrew's legal team will have access to a previously undisclosed settlement, which his lawyers think would protect him from a sex abuse case in the United States. The Duke of York's attorneys were permitted to acquire a copy of a private agreement between the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre by a US District Judge yesterday. Giuffre, 38, sues Prince Andrew in the United States, accusing him of sexually abusing her two decades ago. The 61-year-old monarch, who is not facing any criminal charges, vehemently refuted Giuffre's allegations. In 2009, Giuffre, who has also accused Epstein of sexual assault, settled with the financier as part of a Florida state lawsuit in which the duke was not a party. Prince Andrew had prolonged stay at Balmoral The agreement she struck with Epstein, who died in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, has been a well-guarded secret. The estate of Epstein consented to allow Prince Andrew's legal team to review the legal document, but judicial clearance was required, as per Daily Mail. District Judge Loretta Preska gave the clearance at a hearing held Monday in Manhattan. Andrew Brettler, a lawyer representing the prince, told the court supervising Giuffre's case at a hearing last month that he felt the agreement absolved our client of any liability. Per MIRROR, after being given legal documents in a sex assault case, Prince Andrew was seen grabbing the reins as he emerged after a prolonged stay at Balmoral. On Wednesday, the Duke of York was observed horseback riding near his Royal Lodge house at Her Majesty's Windsor estate. It was his first public appearance since being photographed at Balmoral on September 30. It comes after his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson claimed her family "moves together as a unit" in the aftermath of the Duke of York's recent scandal. Despite getting divorced in 1996, the 61-year-old, who is the former wife of Prince Andrew, claimed that she still stands by her marital vows. When she visits the UK, Sarah still stays with Andrew at Royal Lodge in Windsor and continues to admire her former mother-in-law, the Queen. Prince Andrew denies partying with Giuffre at a London nightclub on March 10, 2001, after stepping down from royal responsibilities amid a scandal over his connection with pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Read Also: New Princess Diana Film Causes Outrage as Graphic Scenes Show Young Prince William Begging His Mom To Stop Harming Herself Queen reportedly spends millions to support Prince Andrew's legal battle According to reports, the Queen will spend millions of pounds privately supporting the Duke of York's defense against sexual assault claims. Soon after her son's automobile accident Newsnight appearance, in which he discussed his connection with notorious billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, she promised to pay for his legal defense. He added Melissa Lerner to his legal team in America, where she will work alongside lead counsel Andrew Brettler. The lawsuit is said to be highly costly, with Brettler reportedly costing $2,000 per hour, as per The Independent. Prince Andrew must also pay his UK legal team, managed by Gary Bloxsome, a criminal defense lawyer. The Queen will foot the bill for the protracted legal struggle, using revenue from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate. Last year, the estate's income increased by 1.5 ($2.04) million, bringing the total yearly income to more than 23 ($31.30) million. The prince's legal team in the United Kingdom allegedly brings the Queen up to speed on the case's progress. Related Article: Prince Andrew Acknowledges US Sex Assault Lawsuit, Sells $23 Million Swiss Ski Chalet To Settle Separate Dispute @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A 14-year-old mountain gorilla who became viral and famous on the internet for a selfie photo, named Ndakasi, has reportedly died after years of deteriorating health conditions while in the arms of the caretaker that rescued her when she was only two months old. Ndakasi became viral in 2019 after posing for a selfie captured by a ranger, which garnered widespread support and affection from people worldwide. The Virunga National Park located in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the one that reported the mountain gorilla's death last month after years of battling illness. 14-Year-Old Selfie Star Mountain Gorilla Dies In a statement, the park said they expressed with heartfelt sadness the passing of the beloved orphaned mountain gorilla who spent more than a decade under the care of the Park's Senkwekwe Center. Authorities added that Ndakasi died while being held by Andre Bauma, her caretaker who was also the one that saved her when she lost her family to an armed militia. "I loved her like a child and her cheerful personality brought a smile to my face every time I interacted with her. She will be missed by all of us at Virunga but we are forever grateful for the richness Ndakasi brought to our lives during her time at Senkwekwe," Bauma said, adding that it was a privilege he was able to care and support such a loving animal, CBS News reported. When Ndakasi was only two months old, Bauma found her still clinging to her mother's dead body, who was killed by an armed militia. Later in 2019, Ndakasi and another gorilla, Ndeze, rose to online fame after posing for a selfie taken by a ranger. Read Also: At Least 4 Dead, Including 1 Child, in Devastating Alabama Flood; Officials Continue Rescuing Stranded Residents The man later posted the image on Instagram, where it immediately went viral after showing himself, Mathieu Shamavu, and Ndakasi, looking over her shoulder with her chin down and expressing a just-another-day look. Ndeze, on the other hand, leaned forward to try and get into the shot of the two. The image also showed another ranger at the back looking intensely at the group who were posing for the photograph. In a caption, the park confirmed that the photo was indeed real and not photoshopped in any way, the New York Times reported. Rescued From a Young Age Park authorities deemed Ndakasi to be too vulnerable to remain in the wild and decided to transfer her to the Senkwekwe Center. The area was an orphanage for mountain gorillas in the park. Ndakasi spent 11 years of her life before succumbing to her illness. Before her viral photograph in 2019, Ndakasi rose to fame after being featured in various films and documentaries. The famous selfie of the mountain gorilla and her friend received nearly 100,000 likes on the social media platform. The Virunga National Park considered Ndakasi's life as a symbol of survival for her race which was once considered endangered. There were only an estimated 720 mountain gorillas in the year that the selfie star was born. But in 2021, authorities estimated the number to have grown to more than 1,000, USA Today reported. Related Article: Brian Laundrie's Father Joins Police in Search For Son as New Details of Fugitive's Movement Emerge @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A report released by the United States Department of Investigation (DOI) alleged that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio misused resources of the New York Police Department (NYPD) for personal agendas. The DOI report states that de Blasio used the resources to assist in his adult daughter moving out of Brooklyn and transport his campaign staff when he was running for president. The agency discovered that the lawmaker directed his Executive Protection Unit (EPU) members to assist his daughter, Chiara de Blasio's, move in 2018. New York Mayor's Alleged Misuse of Resources Personnel of the NYPD helped the mayor's daughter carry furniture and used a department sprinter van to bring her belongings to Gracie Mansion. The property was de Blasio's official residence and was located in Manhattan. Detectives from the mayor's EPU also took the lawmaker's son, Dante de Blasio, to and from Yale University located in New Haven, Connecticut, on separate occasions. The travels were conducted without the presence of either the mayor or his wife and first lady, Chirlane McCray. At the time, it became common practice for the EPU to drive Dante to multiple locations around New York City without being escorted by either of his parents. These were conducted under the direction of EPU superiors, Fox News reported. Read Also: Former State Department Official Slams Biden Administration After WHO Announces COVID-19 Origins Probe Reopening Mayor de Blasio received widespread criticism after the DOI report, which showed that the Democratic lawmaker owes the city nearly $320,000 in taxpayer funds. The mayor allegedly used the money to fund the official's security detail that accompanied him to Iowa and South Carolina during his failed 2020 presidential run. Additionally, the numbers put out by the DOI did not include money used for officer salaries or overtime. The DOI also found that neither de Blasio nor his presidential campaign has paid back the money they owed to the city. Taken Out of Context However, the mayor's office criticized the report, saying it was unprofessional and was conducted without interviewing the official who led the intelligence for New York. In a statement, de Blasio's spokesman argued that the DOI's report was inaccurate and was based on illogical assumptions and a naive view of the complex security challenges that elected officials faced in the modern era, Yahoo News reported. Amid the criticisms, Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams expressed his support of de Blasio on Thursday regarding his alleged misuse of resources. The former NYPD captain expressed his support of the embattled mayor and his recent fight against scrutiny. "If his children, if his wife - if there were credible threats, then he must do everything that's needed to ensure that they are safe. He signed up to run for mayor, they did not," Adams said, despite not yet reading the entirety of the 49-page report against de Blasio, the New York Post reported. The mayoral nominee said that many people often do not understand or try to understand that while de Blasio is the New York mayor, he was also a father to his children. He said that as a husband and a father, he wanted to do everything to protect his family from threats. Related Article: Biden Claims Credit For Trump-led Vaccination Program, Announces Vaccine Mandates in Illinois @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Police in Rio de Janeiro raided the home of an alleged pedophile and discovered $3.5 million worth of Nazi uniforms, memorabilia, and weapons and arrested the suspect and owner of the home on Tuesday. The 58-year-old suspect was identified as Aylson Proenca Doyle Linhares who was accused of abusing his neighbor's 12-year-old son. The arrest of the man and the raid were announced by Police Commissioner Luis Armond. Nazi Pedophile's Massive Treasure Trove Law enforcement personnel revealed that they discovered more than 1,000 Nazi-related items inside Linhares' home. Police said they found images and busts of German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, uniforms, publications, paintings, insignia, flags, and medals of the Third Reich. Police also found multiple weapons, including firearms inside the suspect's home, a machine gun, and a rifle. The guns were accompanied by ammo from the Nazi era and were stored along with a Nazi membership card that featured Linhares' photograph. Authorities charged the suspect with weapons possession, racism, and pedophilia after they found photographs of minors inside his home, said Armond. "He is a smart guy and articulate, but he's a Holocaust denier, he's homophobic, he's a pedophile, and he says he hunts homosexuals," Armond said, Fox News reported. The police commissioner noted that he has never seen anything like what they found inside Linahres' home. He called the scene "appalling" and compared the place to a scene in the movie "Inglourious Basterds." Read Also: Former State Department Official Slams Biden Administration After WHO Announces COVID-19 Origins Probe Reopening However, Armond noted that they have only just begun their investigations related to the suspect and noted it was not a common case. He said that authorities were working on determining how Linhares was able to acquire such a massive trove of Nazi memorabilia. Storing Away The Items The police commissioner also said that their biggest problem in the meantime is how they will be storing the seized items. Armond noted it would be an issue since the items can deteriorate or be stolen, CNN reported. But law enforcement personnel have an initial theory of how the suspect was able to get a hold of the goods. They believe that Linhares bought the items from illegal auctions on the internet that were conducted from different parts of the world. A single Nazi uniform of a high-ranking official from the Holocaust era could fetch a price of up to $290,000. Armond noted that Linhares was likely able to afford the expensive stash of items due to coming from a wealthy family of investors, NBC News reported. Police are also looking into Linhares' connection to the Nazi group and other far-right groups while trying to determine whether or not he was active in the marketplace for the items. Police commissioner Armond said the large stash of items needed a museum to keep them all in one place. Many Nazi members traveled to South America after World War II as a safe haven from prying eyes and authorities. The number of escapees included war criminals and officials who were escaping prosecution. Germany and Brazil, which both had large fascist parties outside of Europe at the time of Holocaust era, had strong ties prior to the war. Related Article: Biden Claims Credit For Trump-Led Vaccination Program, Announces Vaccine Mandates in Illinois @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Donald Trump reportedly did everything he could to stay in power even after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election. A report titled "Subverting Justice: How the Former President and His Allies Pressured DOJ to Overturn the 2020 Election," was released this week. It details some information about a meeting that took place three days before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Trump attended the meeting and fought with top officials after they refused to overturn the 2020 election results in his favor. The ex-POTUS wanted to retain power even after Biden by more than 6 million votes. The top officials reportedly threatened to resign if Trump pushed through with his plans. He eventually decided not to follow through with his threats. Donald Trump failed to convince told officials to follow him White House counsel Pat Cipollone likened Trump's efforts to a murder-suicide pact, and she was one of the people that threatened to resign alongside his deputy. The 394-page document also features interviews with top DOJ officials, including Jeffrey Rosen, the acting general during Trump's reign, Rosen's deputy, Richard Donoghue, and former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, Byung Pak. The document also provides more information regarding Jeffrey Clark's involvement in convincing Americans that election fraud occurred last year. Read Also: Donald Trump Beats Joe Biden In 2024 Presidential Election Poll After Afghanistan Chaos; Civil Unrest Brexit Warning The Huffington Post described Clark as a little-known Justice Department official that Trump himself assigned to be his acting attorney general. Clark reportedly spoke with Trump on multiple occasions to develop tactics on how to cast doubt on the election results. Clark also urged his bosses to write a letter to officials in Georgia and say that they have some concerns with the state's election results. On the other hand, Donoghue was pressured by Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania to make false claims about the election in the state. Pak was also mentioned in the documents because Trump reportedly forced him to resign so that he could hire another lobbyist that donated to his campaign. Donald Trump election fraud claims continue Following the report's release, Sen. Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the reports show how the Americans became so close to having a constitutional crisis. "Thanks to a number of upstanding Americans in the Department of Justice, Donald Trump was unable to bend the department to his will. But it was not due to a lack of effort," Durbin told the New York Times. Auditing of votes takes place in Texas Even though Trump was unable to get his way at the time, he's still making false claims regarding the results of the 2020 election. Several states have been auditing their votes to ensure that Biden was declared as the rightful winner. Arizona just completed their Republican-led audit by Cyber Ninjas, and results confirmed that Biden won in the state. Texas is auditing the votes from their four biggest counties, three of which named Biden as the winner. Other states that may also undergo auditing in the coming weeks include Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia. Related Article: Donald Trump Defends Supporters Prosecuted On Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Investigations; Melania Continues To Ignore Issue @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. According to US Navy sources, a US nuclear-powered attack submarine impacted an unknown object in the South China Sea. What hit the submarine was not known, but the impact did not cause any significant damage to the hull. This revelation comes as the South China Sea becomes a hub of activity with major powers moving assets to get the best advantage. Identified is the submarine USS Connecticut, which is the Seawolf-class that can dive up to 2000-feet underwater. Another mystery is how serious the collision was and where exactly, but the Navy gave no details. USS Connecticut collides with unknown underwater object The Seawolf was transiting the South China Sea to the naval base in Guam when the unknown collision occurred, reported the Sun UK. For the moment, the accident comes in the heels of the spiraling peace in the Taiwan Strait, after the PLAAF sent 129 jets flying into the air defense identification zone (ADIZ). For three days, the airspace over the island was buzzed, fostering fears of an invasion. Covert operations were in progress as US troops were on the island, with the Republic of China (ROC) forces to help mount a defense if the communists were to attack and invade. Reports from Navy sources verified that crew members were injured but no fatalities as well. Also, the submarine's nuclear systems were intact, with no leaks or hull damage, cited Live Mint. The Navy says the USS Connecticut "struck an object" while submerged. https://t.co/wHmJyZbrKy ABC News (@ABC) October 8, 2021 Read Also: South China Sea Edges To Conflict As the US, UK Carrier Strike Groups Stokes Tension with China Is it one of China's unmanned submerged vehicles? Carriers from the US fleet, USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Carl Vinson, with Royal Navy's HMS Queen Elizabeth and Japanese Navy light carrier for helicopters, were in the South China Sea on the way to do drills elsewhere. It is no secret that Beijing has underwater drones for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Recently, one of these drones was fished out by an Indonesian fishmonger last year. The USS Connecticut or its crew and the Navy brass have not revealed what bumped in the deep-diving Sea wolf. Whether the submarine hit a submerged landmass that was in its path has not been revealed cited the Naval Times. Much of the South China Sea is claimed by Beijing in the name of UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), which classified the Paracel's and Spratly chains as theirs. Those areas hold rich oil and mineral deposits underneath. These islands were built on the reefs and made into faux islands to station its forces. The UNCLOS says any land in the sea has a 12-mile no pass zone used by Beijing for their claim. Other nations do FONOPS as a response. USS Connecticut remains operational with no damage from the collision It could sail on without any evacuation needed for the crew, no leaks or cracks were seen yet, but the US Pacific Fleet and the Naval Safety Center will look into it. Furthermore, the submarine can go its missions and stay operational, USS Connecticut's nuclear reactor is still safe. However, the Navy will do checks to avoid problems. The US nuclear-powered attack submarine that impacted an unknown object at a depth remains still operational. No statement from the US Navy has been issued yet other than the submarine and crew are okay. Related Article: Taiwan on the Edge After Chinese Warplanes Invade Controlled ADIZ; Presence of US, UK Carrier Groups Rattles PLA Forces @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Elon Musk just announced that the Tesla headquarters would be moving to Austin, Texas. Prior to this, the Tesla was located in Palo Alto, California, which is near the company's original headquarters in San Carlos and its first factory in Freemont. Musk first announced his plans to move Tesla headquarters to either Texas or Nevada last year. The owner's announcement came after he got into a dispute with officials from Alameda County, California, over the safety of Tesla's factory in Fremont during the COVID-19 pandemic. Elon Musk explains decision to move Tesla headquarters to Texas On Thursday, Musk shared the news during a Tesla shareholders meeting. He also explained why it is more sensible to move the headquarters to Texas. The SpaceX founder said that there is a limit to how big the company can scale in the Bay Area, according to CNN. Houses in Texas are also much cheaper compared to California. And the long commutes between San Carlos and the airport are no longer feasible. Read Also: Tesla Plant Records Hundreds Of COVID-19 Cases Whereas in Austin, the factory and the airport are just five minutes away from each other. And the new headquarters is just 15 minutes away from downtown. The median price for properties in Palo Alto is $3.3 million. The median price for homes in Austin is just over half a million. However, the move doesn't mean that Tesla will no longer operate in California. Musk said that the company would continue to expand in the state. Texas officials excited to have Tesla in the community Austin Mayor Steve Adler released a statement expressing his excitement to have the Tesla headquarters in Texas following the announcement. "We welcome Tesla home! It's a tech company that creates the clean manufacturing, middle-skill jobs Austin needs. We're one of the safest big cities, with a strong innovative, entrepreneurial, environmentally focused culture and Tesla fits right in. Tesla is now an even larger part of a community that works together to meet our challenges and to enjoy a magical city," Adler said via KXAN. Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott also welcomed Musk and Tesla to Texas. TexasTesla@elonmusk announces @Tesla's new headquarters will move to Austin. The Lone Star State is the land of opportunity and innovation. Welcome.https://t.co/MoqBTe4gwC Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) October 7, 2021 Laura Huffman, the president and CEO of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, called the move a home run for the state. After all, the arrival of Tesla in Texas means 10,000 job opportunities will become available for the residents of Austin. And these jobs will be available for those who just graduated from high school, as well as those that finished two-year and four-year courses. Elon Musk believes government shouldn't meddle with business Musk has not responded to the positive comments that government officials made after his announcement that Tesla headquarters will move to Texas. But last year, the Tesla CEO said that the government and business do not mix. He urged the government to stay in their field, according to CNBC. At the time, Musk proudly said that Tesla and SpaceX were the only two companies still manufacturing in California after other car and aerospace companies left the state. Musk also confirmed that he had already relocated to Texas last year even though his companies continued to operate in California. Related Article: Bill Gates Shades Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos For Pursuing Space Travel; James Corden Calls Dig 'The Classiest Burn' @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Chinese Foreign Ministry is urging US forces to stop providing military aid to Taiwan. According to reports, two dozen members of the US special operations and support troops have been training a small group of Taiwanese ground forces throughout the past year. The local maritime forces in Taiwan have also been getting help from the U.S. Marines. After the report, China immediately responded and said that the move could violate contentious agreements between Washington and Beijing. Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of China's Global Times, sarcastically questioned the decision of the US only to send two dozen military troops when they could otherwise send more help to Taiwan, according to US News. China will retaliate against the US, Taiwan Prior to this, China already vowed to retaliate to any indication that the US deployed military forces to Taiwan. In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry reminded the US that it takes all the necessary steps to protect the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. As of press writing, there are growing concerns that China could invade Taiwan very soon. Last week, China flew nearly 150 warplanes near the island in an attempt to intimidate Taiwan. The latter has also been preparing to go to war against China. Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng acknowledged that the current tensions between China and Taiwan had been the worst in 40 years. Read Also: China Not Pleased With Japan, Taiwan Talks; Tries To Coerce Both Countries To Silence Taiwan, US relationship According to The Hill, the US and Taiwan have a unique working relationship. The US has been providing various types of support to Taiwan since 1949, following the Chinese Civil War. But in 1979, Washington held back from making the country's ties to Taiwan official following the agreements made between the US and Beijing. Under these agreements, the US agreed to cut ties with Taiwan. In recent years, the US has started to provide aid to Taiwan following its strained relationship with China over issues on human rights, trade, security, and more. Joe Biden's comments about Taiwan caused tensions Last year, the US and Taiwan also appeared united following Joe Biden's comments. In August, Biden was asked about the effects of withdrawing from Afghanistan and the Chinese media's comments that the US cannot be relied on when it comes to its defense. Biden said that South Korea, NATO, and Taiwan are very different situations compared to Afghanistan. And the POTUS's comment seemingly showed the US' support for Taiwan because he mentioned it alongside countries that Washington has defense commitments. "They are... entities we've made agreements with based on not a civil war they're having on that island or in South Korea, but on an agreement where they have a unity government that, in fact, is trying to keep bad guys from doing bad things to them," he said via Reuters. Biden added that the country had kept its commitments, which means that if any of the nations, including Taiwan, are attacked, the US will take action. Immediately after, a spokesperson for Biden said that the policy with Taiwan had not changed. Related Article: China Violates Airspace of Taiwan Nearly 150 Times; Bided Administration Warns The Communist Country @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A New Jersey man reportedly jumped from the ninth floor of a high-rise building but survived. The 31-year-old did not recall what happened because he asked an onlooker what had just transpired. New Jersey man's suicide attempt failed Eyewitness Christina Smith, 21, said that she heard a big boom but did not think someone fell somewhere. When she looked in the area, she saw the man in the back window of a BMW. After plunging into the car, the man jumped up and started screaming. Smith said that the man's arm was dangling and twisted. "I was like, 'Oh my God!' I was shocked. It was like being in a movie. He was like, 'What happened?' And was like, You fell. I was thinking, thank God, it probably helped that he had a fluffy jacket on," Smith told the New York Post. After calling 911, Smith took photos of the 31-year-old man on the scene, and the pictures were uploaded online by the publication. Shortly after the accident, the man was rushed to a hospital and was declared to be in critical condition. He hasn't been identified either because he refused to cooperate with the police. As of late, it is still unclear why the man jumped from the building and why he was there in the first place. However, reports confirmed that he did not work in the building. Another eyewitness said that the unidentified man said that he wanted to die, so that's why he initially refused the help that was being offered to him. However, when he started to get out of the scene, concerned citizens prevented him from leaving. Read Also: 11-Year-Old Commits Suicide To Comply With Perverted Online Challenge Suicide by jumping off buildings take place in other states According to Fox News, this isn't the first time that someone jumped off a building in other cities. In California, a man jumped from a parking garage and landed on a woman. The accident killed both of them. Two years ago, a 7-year-old Bronx resident died after falling from the ninth floor of his family's apartment. The young boy made it to the hospital, but he died shortly after due to his injuries. Last month, a suicidal man jumped off the roof of an apartment and landed on a 61-year-old man. Both of them died at the scene. Vessel in Manhattan reported four suicides In July, a teenager jumped to his death from the Vessel at Manhattan's Hudson Yards. The 14-year-old's identity wasn't made public following the accident, but it was confirmed that he leaped off the eighth floor of the spiral and interlocking staircases near W. 33rd St. and 10th Ave. Shortly after, a spokesperson for Hudson Yards released a statement saying they were heartbroken by the tragedy and were conducting a full investigation into the incident. The spokesperson also confirmed that the teen was with his family when the accident took place. The unidentified teenager's death is the fourth suicide from the structure since it opened in March 2019, according to the New York Daily News. A New Jersey man was the first to take his life by jumping off the Vessel in February 2020. In December 2020, a 24-year-old Brooklyn native also took a plunge. And on Jan. 11, a 21-year-old fugitive also jumped to his death at the Vessel. Related Article: Boy Dies After Jumping From 12-Story Apartment Building, Landing on a Car in New York @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The NASA Hubble Space Telescope captured a weird celestial phenomenon of three identical objects in space. It took astronomers and space researchers eight years to understand the image, caused by an invisible galaxy cluster approximately seven light-years away. The amazing space discovery also revealed more about the mysterious "dark matter" in space. According to NASA, astronomers saw many weird things happening in the vast universe, including events like exploding stars and colliding galaxies. With all these available researches on space, astronomers are shocked to see celestial objects they could not recognize. On 2013, a rare phenomenon was captured by the Hubble. The said event featured three blobs of galaxies that eerily resemble one another. Interested researchers immediately investigated the case. NASA Hubble Images: The Mysterious Double Galaxy NASA Hubble tweeted the strange image on Wednesday evening, featuring space objects that look like mirror images of each other. NASA captioned the tweet, "Gravity warps the fabric of space, creating optical illusions like the ones in this Hubble image!" Gravity warps the fabric of space, creating optical illusions like the ones in this Hubble image! When astronomers discovered two objects that appeared to be mirror images of each other, it took years to unravel the mystery. Find out more: https://t.co/T05SDxTffz pic.twitter.com/Hfwf9GjdWJ Hubble (@NASAHubble) October 7, 2021 The tweet contained three magnified images of three parallel split streaks, taken from one specific galaxy. The discovery was made by an astronomer of Shawnee State University in Portsmouth (Ohio), Timothy Hamilton. The "single" image, located at the top right of the tweet, is a wide stretched distant galaxy, easily recognized by its bright central core. This image, in itself, is perfectly "normal." What shocked researchers were the second image labeled "mirrored image." The space object appeared as a perfectly identical image of the previously mentioned galaxy, duplicated into two parts. Astronomers called it a "three neatly parallel split streak" in the galaxy. Read Also: NASA Asteroid Deflection Mission: DART Spacecraft Launch Date, Mission Details, and MORE NASA Hubble Space Telescope: Hamilton's Object Explained Research revealed the image as a trick of nature by gravitational lensing. This is a space phenomenon when a galaxy cluster's immense gravity affects, magnifies, distorts and emphasizes the galaxy behind it. Gravitational lensing often generates multiple images like funhouse-mirror distortions. What's special about the latest NASA Hubble image is its nearly perfect duplication of the same galaxy in different segments of the sky. Richard Griffiths, a researcher at the University of Hawaii in Hilo, explained the phenomenon as bright wave patterns on the bottom of a swimming pool. "These bright patterns on the bottom are caused by a similar kind of effect as gravitational lensing. The ripples on the surface act as partial lenses and focus sunlight into bright squiggly patterns on the bottom," per NASA. Griffiths also said it was an exciting discovery because the mysterious dark matter had a part to play in the celestial phenomena. "We know it's some form of matter, but we have no idea what the constituent particle is. So we don't know how it behaves at all." The recent discovery, called "Hamilton's Object," might be one of the earliest determiners for dark matter research. Related Article: Elon Musk Tweets Wild Video of SpaceX Starship Becoming a Lightning Rod--And It's Real! Art and theosophy The Birth of Theosophy On 14 October 1874, an encounter stranger than fiction took place at a small farm in Vermont. The chance meeting was between Henry Olcott, a retired American army colonel who had written a bestseller on sorgho and imphee (substitutes for sugar cane), and 43-year-old Helena Blavatsky, a wandering Russian aristocrat. Both had been drawn to the farm by reports of ghostly apparitions and levitations. Their meeting marked the beginning of a bizarre and unlikely partnership that yielded the major esoteric revival of modern times. A year on from the Vermont encounter, and almost by accident, Olcott and Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in a New York apartment. Although Olcott assumed the mantle of president, it was Blavatsky's personality that dominated the organisation. A compulsive confuser of fact with fiction, Blavatsky claimed that she had ridden bareback in a circus, toured Serbia as a concert pianist, opened an ink factory in Odessa, traded as an importer of ostrich feathers in Paris, and worked as an interior decorator for Empress Eugenie. The speculative outline of her life also included meetings with Red Indians in Canada, fighting with Garibaldi's army in the Battle of Mentana, shipwreck off the Greek coast at Spetsai, and dealings with cabbalists in Egypt, secret agents in Central Asia, voodoo magicians in New Orleans and bandits in Mexico. But the central event of her Wanderjahre was a meeting with a dematerialising Tibetan called Master Morya. It was this encounter that alerted Madame Blavatsky to the existence of the 'Secret Doctrine', which was the key to the truth of life itself. Who better to mediate this wisdom to the world than Blavatsky herself? Hastily synthesising oriental religion, Western magic, Asian scripture and Rosicrucian, Masonic and Templar mythology, she came up with Theosophy, and charged her followers with the duty of collecting and diffusing the 'knowledge of the laws which govern the universe'. Organised occultism in the West had begun. Modernism, Mondrian and mumbo-jumbo More than 100 years after the founding of the Theosophical Society, a major retrospective of the work of Piet Mondrian has been organised at the Gemeente Museum in Amsterdam. Cool, elegant, rational - Mondrian's horizontals and verticals, his squares and grids show again and again an artist committed to exploring the parameters of perception and meaning. From naturalism to Cubism, to the arrival at a grammar of almost total abstraction, Mondrian is rightly represented as a pivotal figure in the unfolding story of Modernism. But while they promote this view of Mondrian as the very model Modernist, the exhibition's organisers have found it necessary to suppress one astonishing fact: Mondrian was a card-carrying Theosophist. He was, by his own admission, influenced by Madame Blavatsky's intoxicating brew of hocus-pocus, and he was fascinated by her monumentally opaque tome, The Secret Doctrine, a work in two volumes that Blavatsky claimed contained the key to all knowledge. In other words, while Mondrian was straining for an art that broke completely with the past, he was also meddling with spiritualism and mouthing the mumbo-jumbo of the ancients. And he was not alone. Some of the greatest artists and writers of his time were steeped in the magic and mysteries of the occult. There was plenty of it on offer as the new century broke into its stride. After Darwin had given the world his theory of evolution, it took a lot of faith still to believe that the world had been created in six days. Nietszche had decided that God didn't exist after all, and Freud was conferring enormous powers on the id and the ego. These revelations, coupled with revolutionary breakthroughs in science and technology, produced a crisis in conventional belief systems. The Christian church saw congregations shrinking as people looked elsewhere for answers to the new and totally absorbing set of questions that the modern age posed. Summing up this atmosphere of doubt and expectation, the artist Wassily Kandinsky later wrote, 'Suddenly thick walls crumbled. Everything was soft, uncertain, vacillating. It would not have astonished me to see a stone melt in the air and evaporate.' It was in this context that spiritualism became modish in the first decades of the 20th century. Pablo Picasso, a robust atheist, spent many a turn-of-the-century evening reading tarot cards (smoking opium at the same time gave added piquancy). Amedeo Modigliani was partial to Ouija boards, and attended seances to see if there was anybody out there in the 'great beyond'. And W. B. Yeats liked to dabble in magic, and claimed it was the 'most important pursuit' of his life next to poetry. Yeats experimented with a wide range of esoteric 'sciences', including cheirosophy (palmistry), celestial dynamics (astrology), chromopathy (healing by colours) and polygraphics (automatic writing). Kandinsky, Paul Gauguin, Constantin Brancusi, Theo van Doesburg, Johannes Itten, Walter Gropius (for a while), Robert Delauney, Aleksandr Scriabin, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Blok, Katharine Mansfield, T. S. Eliot - all were great pioneers of Modernism, and all were involved in Theosophy and its unpronounceable spin-offs, such as Anthroposophy, Christosophy, Theozoology and Aiosophy. In fact, from fin de siecle Paris to 1950s' New York (Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock were both one-time disciples of Eastern gurus), a fascination with magic, the occult and the supranatural were integral to the Modernist spirit. An embarrassing secret: Mondrian's Evolution The idea that Modernism enjoys a formal relationship with Theosophy is anathema to many critics. As its texts are largely indecipherable, and Madame Blavatsky (alias Koot Hoom La, alias Mahatma Morya) is widely considered a charlatan, many art historians flinch at the association of the avant-garde with what they see as the loony fringe. But the link does exist, and it plays havoc with the conventional history of Modernism. The central claim of this history is that Modernism is something that pushes forward, that represents a caesura, a complete rupture with the past. But the truth is that, if Modernism is a great juggernaut that moves inexorably forward along the road of progress and formal innovation, it also looks in its rear-view mirror at the road stretching out behind it. Significantly, the curators of the Amsterdam exhibition seem determined to play down Mondrian's association with Theosophy. The matter receives only a glancing mention in the catalogue, where it is treated as a kind of teenage crush from which Mondrian later recovered. And his explicitly Theosophical works have been excluded from the exhibition. Instead they sit, unseen, in the vaults of the Gemeente Museum, hidden reminders of Mondrian's embarrassing secret. This group of paintings is dominated by a triptych called Evolution. Three large panels show the figure of a woman in different states of consciousness. Painted with garish colours and punctuated with occult symbols, the work is shockingly crude compared to the poised and elegant composition of Mondrian's other work. Evolutionis kitsch, gaudy, excruciatingly naive, like a contemporary New Age 'get well' card. If this is what Theosophy led him to, it's understandable that critics should want to side-step the issue. But the steps that took Mondrian to Evolution were to take him much further. Theosophy and abstraction Mondrian had been a member of the Theosophical Society for three years when he painted Evolution. He had joined in 1909, after spending a summer in the Dutch village of Domburg, a retreat favoured by avant-garde spiritualists. 'All the time I'm driven to the spiritual,' he explained. 'Through Theosophy I became aware that art could provide a transition to the finer regions, which I will call the spiritual realm.' Mondrian - and many other Modernists - believed that art could change the objective conditions of human life. He saw art not as an end but as a means to an end - spiritual clarification. But it soon became clear that traditional ways of seeing would not satisfy this imperative. Artists now understood that the key to understanding the universe could not be found just by looking at ordinary day-to-day matter. 'What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things,' wrote Brancusi. 'It is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface.' This was the key to abstraction, which began to emerge around 1910. And it was also the key to Theosophy. Both busied themselves with investigating the process of cosmic and human evolution, with finding the 'essence of things'. Both looked for a universal grammar that could communicate this essence. Both were instinctively drawn into the ancient philosophical and religious controversy concerning the relationship of appearance and reality. And both were essentially anti-intellectual movements: they shared the belief that one could understand emotionally the secrets of creation in a way that transcended scientific observation or sheer logic. Wassily Kandinsky in Germany, Frantisek Kupka in Czechoslovakia, Kazimir Malevich and others of his circle in Russia, Piet Mondrian in the Netherlands - all now moved away from representational art towards the creation of a pure abstract vision that embodied their involvement with esoteric thought. In an attempt to draw upon deeper and more varied levels of meaning, they replaced natural colour with symbolic colour, perceived reality with signs, direct observation with ideas. Abstraction was not just about making pretty patterns. For the Modernists, it indicated the existence of a level of reality higher than the merely material. Kandinsky: the artist as messiah The existence of a reality that transcended the material world was precisely the selling point of Madame Blavatsky's 'secret doctrine': 'In the 21st century this earth will seem a paradise compared to what it is now,' she wrote. 'Literature, music and art are the first and most sensitive spheres in which the spiritual revelation will be felt.' This was encouraging news for many Modernists. For the Russian composer Aleksandr Skryabin, it was like pennies from heaven. He dreamed of bringing the physical world to an end in an ecstasy of religious fulfilment at a ceremony of music, poetry, light, perfume and dance that he planned to stage in a Himalayan temple. Unfortunately, Skryabin died from an infected mosquito bite before he could realise this apocalyptic ambition. Like Skryabin, Kandinsky was committed to using art as a way of changing the world. For him, the artist was a kind of messiah or prophet (or even magician) whose job it was to communicate a higher truth to humanity. 'Our minds are infected with the despair of unbelief, of lack of purpose and ideal,' he warned. 'The nightmare of materialism which has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past; it holds the awakening soul still in its grip.' Kandinsky would do everything he could to loosen the grip of the material on the soul, and he exhorted his fellow artists to do the same: 'Every man who steeps himself in the spiritual possibilities of his art is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid which will some day reach to heaven.' Together with his lover Gabrielle Munter (who had an impressive occult library), Kandinsky travelled to Tunisia to see the whirling dervishes. These mystics could reach a state of trance by praying and spinning round. Thus elevated, they would feel no pain as they inserted glass into their mouths or sabres through their stomachs. Kandinsky wanted his art to have the same effect as the whirling dervishes. He believed that people could arrive at their 'superior selves' simply by looking at abstract art. He wanted to lock the viewer into a meditative trance. Further reading Concerning The Spiritual In Art by Wassily Kandinsky, Dover, 1977 Ancient Wisdom Revived: A history of the Theosophical movement by B. F. Cambell, University of California Press (US), 1980. Madame Blavatskys Baboon by Peter Washington, Secker & Warburg, 1993. Mondrian: The art of destruction by Carel Blotkamp, Abrams (US), 1995. The Spiritual in Art: Abstract painting 1890-1985 edited by Maurice Tuchman & Judi Freeman (LA County Museum exhibition catalogue), Abrams (US), 1986. The Spiritual Image in Modern Art by Kathleen J. Regier, Quest, 1987. The Spiritualists: The passion for the occult in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by Ruth Brandon, Alfred Knopf Inc. (US), 1983. The Table Rappers by R. Pearsall, Michael Joseph, 1972. Wholeness and the Implicate Order by D. Bohm, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980. Note This article is perhaps a bit dated. The connection between Mondriaan and theosophy is no longer denied as frequently because the work of art-historians like Marty Bax whose PHD thesis has recently been published as a book (in Dutch) 'Het web der schepping; Theosofie en kunst in Nederland van Lauweriks tot Mondriaan'. This article was found online in 2003 and has since disappeared from the Internet. The facts on theosophy are slanted, but the information on the link between theosophy and art are generally sound. Published on Katinka Hesselink net in 2006. The Met Gala has officially come and gone, and people have had mixed opinions about everything that went on. Critics say nobody was on theme, some attendees should not have been invited, and other random concerns. One of the biggest controversies of the night, however, was Alexandria Ocasio- The English subtitles of the Netflix series, "Squid Game," have started a debate online. Courtesy of Netflix By Lee Gyu-lee Netflix's smash-hit series, "Squid Game," has caused controversy online as some viewers allege that its subtitles were inadequately translated. The thriller survival-themed series, which follows hundreds of cash-strapped people playing deadly children's games to win 45.6 billion won ($38 million) in prize money, has become a global cultural phenomenon, watched by audiences around the world. Korean American comedian Youngmi Mayer posted on Twitter last week that the English translation for the series changed the meaning of the original lines. "I watched 'Squid Game' with English subtitles and if you don't understand Korean you didn't really watch the same show. The translation was so bad," she wrote. "The dialogue was written so well and zero of it was preserved." She shared a video showing some of the examples from the closed-caption subtitles for the English dubbed version that were mistranslated. In one of the scenes, the character, Han Mi-nyeo (Kim Joo-ryeong), tells a guard: "Go Away." But Mayer explains that the actual line says, "What are you looking at," and the mistranslated line misses a lot of Mi-nyeo's character. She also pointed out the part where Mi-nyeo tries to convince other participants to take her on their team, in which the subtitles say, "I'm not a genius, but I still got it worked out." Mayer claims that the line actually should have been translated into, "I am very smart, I just never got a chance to study," which better portrays her character as a victim of socioeconomic inequality. A more accurate direct translation of the line is, "I just didn't try at studying, but I'm unbelievably smart." "Almost everything she says is being botched translation-wise," Mayer said. "It seems so small, but it's the entire character's purpose of being in the show." A scene showing the character, Han Mi-nyeo, played by Kim Joo-ryeong / Courtesy of Netflix A scene from the musical "I am Koryoin" / Courtesy of ACC By Park Ji-won The 2021 Asia Culture Week will be held under the theme of "empathy" at the Asia Culture Center (ACC) in Gwangju from Friday to Oct. 24, to promote cooperation among Asian countries. Poster for "Empathy, Asia" / Courtesy of ACC gettyimagesbank By Anna J. Park Following the resumption of short-selling on local stock markets in May, the trading system is once again being largely dominated by foreign investors. Kim Han-jung, a two-term lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, stated that the system still presented an uneven playing field, calling for the financial authorities to curtail the current unlimited borrowing periods for foreign investors to 60 days, the same as that for retail investors. He also asked them to come up with fundamental measures to improve the system for the sake of a sounder and healthier development of the local stock markets. According to the latest figures by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), retail investors only accounted for about 1.9 percent of short-selling transactions, while foreign investors accounted for 76 percent of them. Since the resumption of the system in May, after a yearlong temporary ban due to the shock from the COVID-19 pandemic, foreigner investors have disposed of 46.5 trillion won ($39 billion) worth of local stocks through short-selling. This represents more than 10 percent of the entire net-selling in this category by traders over the past five months. Kakao was the most shorted stock, followed by Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Merchant Marine, SK hynix and LG Chem. "Short-selling is supposed to provide liquidity to a market and prevent it from overheating. Yet most short-selling transactions are focused on a few stocks that have been net-purchased by retail investors," Kim said. "In the end, the system serves the interest of foreign investors at the expense of retail investors." The FSC recently announced plans to extend retail investors' borrowing period from the current 60 days to 90 days, in order to widen access to the system for retail investors. However Kim criticized this move, saying, "Instead of extending retail investors' borrowing period, it's more desirable to reduce that for foreign investors to 60 days, the same as retail investors." The main opposition People Power Party's Hong Joon-pyo, a five-term lawmaker, also criticized the short-selling system, saying it triggered plunges in stock markets. "Short-selling, mostly used by institutional investors, is a wrong trading system that is innately disadvantageous to retail investors," he wrote on social media. People walk past an indoor waterfall at Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore, Oct. 7. Korea and Singapore agreed Friday to exempt or ease vaccinated travelers from mandatory quarantine upon arrival, in a step to help revitalize people-to-people exchanges between the two sides in the midst of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Reuters-Yonhap South Korea and Singapore agreed Friday to exempt or ease vaccinated travelers from mandatory quarantine upon arrival, in a major step to help revitalize people-to-people exchanges between the two sides in the midst of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, according to related ministries here Friday. Under the measure, effective from Nov. 15, passengers arriving in Singapore from South Korea will be exempt from the seven-day mandatory quarantine currently required by the Singaporean authorities. Seoul has already been allowing quarantine exemptions for vaccinated people coming in from most countries, including Singapore, but on limited grounds, such as humanitarian or other essential reasons, like family visits, business-related or public duties. Friday's deal removes the limitations on the purpose of visits for arrivals from the city-state, reopening the border for individual or group tourists, officials said. It also marks South Korea's first agreement with a foreign country on mutually recognizing the COVID-19 vaccination, they said. All COVID-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as mix-and-match vaccines, will be accepted. The two sides formalized the agreement during a video meeting between Land Minister Noh Hyeong-ouk and his Singaporean counterpart, S. Iswaran. "This agreement between Korea and Singapore will allow free travel between the air hubs representing Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, and can be seen as a symbol of trust between the two countries," Kim Yong-seok, a senior land ministry official said. The official added it will also serve as a chance to meet the domestic demand for outbound travel and reinvigorate tourism, so as to help the pandemic-hit aviation and travel industries overcome difficulties. Incoming travelers will need to submit proof of documents showing that they have been fully vaccinated for more than two weeks, and have tested negative for the virus in the past 48 or 72 hours. They are also required to have stayed in the country of departure for at least two weeks before leaving there and travel only via direct flights to qualify for the quarantine exemption. Upon this deal, the two countries also plan to resume their visa-waiver agreement, which has been suspended since April 2020, officials said. (Yonhap) A visitor uses a smartphone to film North Korea from the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Oct. 5. AP-Yonhap More than six out of every 10 American adults believe the United States should get involved when and if there is an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula, a survey showed Thursday. In an annual survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 63 percent of respondents said they would support using U.S. troops to defend South Korea in case North Korea invaded. The figure marks the highest among four hypothetical instances that also asked those surveyed if they would support using U.S. troops to defend Taiwan from China, Israel from its neighboring countries and a European ally from a Russian invasion. For Israel, 59 percent of respondents said they would support using U.S. troops, while 52 percent said the same about Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, U.S., Aug. 16. Reuters-Yonhap The United States supports efforts to alleviate the suffering of North Korean people and is engaged in efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to such people in the reclusive North, a State Department spokesman said Thursday. Ned Price also noted the U.S. would support humanitarian assistance for the North even if its efforts to denuclearize the country do not move forward. "Even when we disagree with a particular regime, we believe that we must work to the best of our ability to do all we can to alleviate the suffering of the people," he said when asked about the U.S. position on the recent shipments of COVID-19 medical supplies to North Korea. The World Health Organization said on Thursday (Seoul time) that it has begun sending such supplies to the North. "And so we continue to support international efforts aimed at the provision of critical humanitarian aid to the DPRK," Price added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The department spokesman, however, emphasized that the North Korean regime itself was largely to blame for the suffering of its own people. "The regime continues to exploit its own citizens, to violate their human rights, to divert resources from the country's people to build up its unlawful WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missiles program," he said. Still, the United States is involved in efforts to facilitate and also expedite the provision of humanitarian assistance to the North Korean people, Price noted. gettyimagesbank A row between Iran and South Korea is intensifying, with Tehran threatening legal action unless Seoul releases more than $7 billion in funds for oil shipments frozen because of U.S. sanctions. The Islamic republic was South Korea's third-largest Middle Eastern trade partner before the United States unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and reimposed crippling sanctions. Iran had been a key oil supplier to resource-poor South Korea and in turn imported industrial equipment, household appliances and vehicle spare parts from Seoul. "We have $7.8 billion of our money blocked in South Korean banks," said Iranian lawmaker Alireza Salimi, who is involved with the case. South Korea took delivery of the Iranian oil "but did not pay for it", he told AFP. "It is not a reliable trading partner and it should pay interest on the money it is improperly holding," he charged. A foreign ministry official in Seoul told AFP that "it is difficult to confirm" the exact amount of money involved. South Korea stopped purchasing Iranian oil after former U.S. president Donald Trump exited the nuclear deal in 2018, reimposing the harsh sanctions and threatening to punish anyone buying crude from Iran. That year, Iran-South Korea trade fell by half compared to 2017, when it had stood at $12 billion, according to Iran's embassy in Seoul. The volume of trade tumbled to just $111 million by mid-July 2020, according to embassy figures. In January, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a South Korean-flagged tanker, the Hankuk Chemi, and held it and its captain for three months, ostensibly over alleged environmental violations. The seizure was widely seen in South Korea as an attempt to force Seoul's hand over the frozen funds, though Tehran repeatedly denied there was any connection. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian / AP-Yonhap 'Unacceptable' Last week, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned that his country would sue South Korea if it continued to refuse to honor its debt. "U.S. pressure (on Seoul) is a fact but we cannot continue... to turn a blind eye to this question," he said. If Seoul fails to unblock the funds, the government would allow Iran's central bank to take legal action against two South Korean lenders holding the money, he said. Amir-Abdollahian said he spoke with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong about the issue at the end of last month. "I told him it was unacceptable for our people to wait for three years" for the funds, he said. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, right, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Ministerial Council Meeting, in Paris, Oct. 5. AP-Yonhap The foreign ministry official in Seoul said there was no way to send the money due to U.S. sanctions. "We have been transferring the cost of crude oil imports to a Korean won account under the name of the Iranian central bank. And when a South Korean company exports to Iran, it receives payments from that account in Korean won," the official added. South Korea also has used the frozen fund to pay around $16 million in Iranian arrears to the United Nations, the official said. President Joe Biden's administration says it is ready to return to the 2015 deal and lift sanctions but negotiations have stalemated. Rob Malley, the U.S. pointman on Iran, spoke Thursday by telephone with South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Jong Kun Choi. "We appreciate (South Korea's) vigorous enforcement of existing sanctions. These sanctions do remain in effect, as you know, until and unless we are able to reach that mutual return to compliance," State Department spokesman Ned Price said. People shop in a supermarket in north Tehran, Sept. 25. AP-Yonhap Citizens mourn in front of a photo wall of the late former staff sergeant Byun Hee-soo, who was forcibly discharged from the Army after receiving a gender-reassignment operation, in front of the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul, Thursday, after a local court ruled the discharge should be cancelled. Yonhap By Bahk Eun-ji The military plans to begin a comprehensive policy review and study about the issue of whether to allow transgender people to serve in the armed forces. The move comes after a local court ruled posthumously in favor of deceased Staff Sergeant Byun Hee-soo who was forcibly discharged after undergoing gender-reassignment surgery a decision which rights groups say will set milestone on the protection of sexual minorities' rights in the military. The Ministry of National Defense said, Friday, it will launch a study this year regarding whether and how to change the regulations to accept transgender service members. Earlier in March, after Byun killed herself, Defense Minister Seo Wook told a National Assembly National Defense Committee meeting that the ministry hadn't conducted research on transgender people's military service or a policy review to support soldiers who underwent gender-reassignment surgery, adding he believed that such a study should be carried out. On Thursday, the Daejeon District Court ruled in favor of Byun who had filed a suit to reverse the Army's decision to discharge her. Byun, who underwent male-to-female sex-reassignment surgery during her leave in November 2019, was discharged in January 2020, because the Army classified her loss of male genitalia as a physical and mental disability under the Military Law. She filed the suit but then committed suicide in March this year, however, her bereaved family continued with the legal action. The court said the military had to consider Byun as a woman when reviewing whether she could perform her duty because her gender had already been legally changed to female following the surgery, and thus the loss of male genitalia was not a valid reason for her discharge. Civic groups that advocated for Byun welcomed the ruling, as they had claimed that the relationship between having gender-reassignment surgery and the health status required for military service was unclear. In December, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea also recommended the Army reverse its decision to discharge Byun as it infringed on her human rights. "The Army arbitrarily interpreted the person who received gender-reassignment surgery as a person with a mental and physical disability with no clear legal basis," the commission said at the time. It also said there was no reason to believe that Byun's health was "unsuitable for active duty service." The Daejeon court also said in its ruling that whether a male service member who changes sex to female would be fit for military duty as a female member should be decided through legislation and state policy by considering various factors, such as the nation's defense situation, sexual minorities' human rights and public opinion. Civic groups argue that the Army should not appeal the ruling. However, the Army, which had insisted that the discharge was a legitimate administrative measure, has not decided on this. About 20 countries, including some in Europe, Australia and Israel, legally allow transgender people to serve in the military. Immediately after taking office in January, U.S. President Joe Biden allowed transgender people to serve in the military, which was banned by the former Donald Trump administration. Some noted that given the U.S. is Korea's main ally and service members of the two countries participate in joint drills, it could be problematic if the Korean Army regards transgender soldiers as physical and mentally unhealthy. Military prosecutors on Friday sought a 15-year prison sentence for a noncommissioned Air Force officer for the alleged sexual abuse of a female colleague that led to her death by suicide, officials said. The master sergeant, surnamed Jang, is suspected of sexually harassing the victim of the same rank inside a car on their way back to their base in the western city of Seosan after a private gathering in March. Following the military's poor initial responses to the case, she took her own life in May. During the first court hearing on the case against Jang, the military prosecutors requested the General Military Court in Seoul sentence him to 15 years behind bars, according to the officials. (Yonhap) Civil servants of Busanjin-gu, Busan, collect ginkgo nuts from the streets, Tuesday. Collected nuts are donated to senior citizens' centers and welfare facilities after going through a safety test. Yonhap By Lee Hae-rin Local governments here are collecting nuts from roadside ginkgo trees before they fall naturally, following continuous complaints every autumn about the pungent stench released when they are crushed on the streets. The Seoul Metropolitan Government, along with 25 district offices in the capital, organized a "ginkgo collection taskforce" and initiated an early harvest from the ginkgo trees, starting Sept. 15, at a cost of 242 million won ($202,697). About 25 percent of the 106,000 ginkgo trees along streets in the capital are the nut-producing female of the species. "The primary target of the ginkgo collection are areas with a large number of passersby, including bus stops, metro exits and shopping complexes. For efficient collection, special equipment is used including tower wagons, excavators and mesh," an official from the Landscape Management Division of Seoul City told The Korea Times, Friday. Major cities in other parts of the country, including Suwon and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province, Chuncheon and Gangneung in Gangwon Province, and Busan are also taking similar measures to deal with the ginkgo smell. The government of Chuncheon adopted mechanical tree shakers, which shorten the nut harvest time from 20 minutes for workers doing this manually to only two minutes. The collected nuts go through a safety test at the Public Health and Environment Research Institute, and are donated to senior citizen or welfare facilities. Ginkgo nuts are known to contain antioxidants, and help in blood circulation, and combating fatigue and hangovers. According to the Korea Forest Service, ginkgo trees are the most common roadside trees here and account for 12 percent of the total 8.25 million planted on streets. Despite growing complaints over the smell of the nuts, the trees provide several benefits in urban settings. "Ginkgo trees require little water, don't easily catch fire, resist harsh winter weather and offer beautiful autumn colors. Most of all, they can absorb city pollution including sulfurous acid gases and fine dust, making them suitable for planting along city streets," an official from the Urban Forest and Landscape Division of the Korea Forest Service told The Korea Times. Some suggest planting only male trees, but it used to be difficult to distinguish whether a tree was male or female until the first harvest, which happens after about 20 years of growth. As a result, both male and female trees were planted in urban areas. However, these days the gender of trees can be determined before being planted via DNA testing. President Moon Jae-in speaks during a leaders' dialogue at the P4G Seoul Summit at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, May 31. During the summit, Moon pledged to raise Korea's emissions cut target, and the government, on Friday, announced a strengthened goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent compared to their 2018 level by 2030. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae By Nam Hyun-woo The government has strengthened its 2030 emissions cut target by promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent of their 2018 level, up from the earlier goal of 26.3 percent. The enhanced target is expected to result in an additional reduction of 100 million tons from Korea's existing plan. The government will announce the new goal as the country's nationally determined contribution (NDC) during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) scheduled for between Oct. 31 and Nov. 12 in Glasgow, the U.K. The NDC refers to respective countries' long-term goals to contribute to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is aimed at limiting global warming in this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius preferably to no more than 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels. According to the government, Friday, it made a "sharp increase" in the country's 2030 NDC to 40 percent, up 13.7 percentage points from 26.3 percent. Since Korea first set up its NDC in June 2015, there have been a number of changes in setting the goal and year on which to base the cut, but this year is the first time that the government made a major increase in the overall target. The new target, which is a middle step toward the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, is even higher than the 35 percent stated in the Carbon Neutrality Act passed at the National Assembly on Aug. 31. The government described Korea's enhanced NDC as "a challenging and ambitious goal," because the country's emissions have to decline on average 4.17 percent every year until 2030, which is far higher than the U.S.'s 2.81 percent, the U.K.'s 2.81 percent and the European Union's 1.98 percent. In 2018, Korea's emissions stood at 727.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (a measure for comparing various greenhouse gases and their global warming potential) and the enhanced NDC seeks to reduce this amount to 436.6 million tons, down 291 million tons from 2018 and 99.5 million tons from the previous NDC. The government plans to achieve the target mostly through an energy transition and controlling industries so as to reduce coal-fired power generation, expand renewable energy and increase energy efficiency through new technologies. The government will hold online debates to gather opinions on its proposed NDC, and will finalize the target in a Cabinet meeting on Oct. 18. Korea will announce the enhanced target at the COP26 and submit it to the United Nations in December, according to the Prime Minister's Office. Businesses, however, are expressing concerns over the government's enhanced NDC, as they believe that the pace of transition outpaces that of eco-friendly technology development, and thus, that the new NDC could affect their operations negatively. According to a survey announced by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) on Monday, 68.3 percent of 350 businesses here said that the government's NDC drive is excessive, and 84.1 percent said that such an initiative will affect their management negatively. The survey assumed that the government will set 35 percent as its new NDC target, which was 5 percentage points lower than the actual target announced on Friday. Kim Yoon, Chairman of Samyang Holdings and the chair of FKI's subgroup for environmental social and corporate governance (ESG) management, said Thursday, "Carbon neutrality is the path we should pursue, but it also requires proper studies on the appropriate pace of cutting emissions and the potential impact to the market." Yun Sun-jin, co-chairperson of the presidential committee on carbon neutrality, answers lawmakers' questions during a parliamentary audit into the trade, industry and energy ministry at the National Assembly, Seoul, Oct. 5. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun Regarding these concerns, Yun Sun-jin, co-chairperson of the presidential committee on carbon neutrality, said that achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 has become a norm in the international community which we can't avoid. "We have to achieve carbon neutrality not because we can, but because we must," she said at the beginning of the meeting between members of the committee and relevant government organizations. "Without a swift change (towards greenhouse gas reduction), Korea may face economic consequences arising from the change in the global economic system," she said, stressing that the initiative is a means for Korea not to lag behind in the global trend of strengthening regulations for environmental protection. Indeed, some environmental and civil society organizations called on the government to increase the target further. "The government should consider the environmental disasters that will likely take place if we fail to carbon neutrality, as well as damage from a potential global food crisis," a member of the civic group, Energy Transition Korea, said. Court ruling should serve to boost rights of sexual minorities A district court delivered a ruling in favor of a deceased transgender soldier who was forcibly discharged from military service after undergoing gender reassignment surgery. The Daejeon District Court said Thursday the military's decision to dismiss Staff Sergeant Byun Hee-soo was unfair and should be retracted. "It should have considered Byun as a woman when determining her eligibility for the military service since she reported a sex change to the Army after applying for it to the court," the court ruled. The ruling is meaningful as it is the first rejection of the military's judgment of gender reassignment surgery being either a physical or mental handicap. It is an appropriate ruling in light of the recent trend of expanding opportunities for sexual minorities to join Korea's military. For instance, many countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel allow transgender people to serve. It is regrettable that the ruling came belatedly after Byun committed suicide. Yet, it is significant in that it has opened a new chapter toward boosting the human rights of minorities. Byun had the surgery in 2019 while on leave and wanted to come back to the military; only to be dismissed under Army regulations. Byun appealed the decision, expressing hope that she would be able to leave a decent precedent that a sexual minority could also become an excellent solider in service of the country. The U.N. Human Rights Commission and the National Human Rights Commission, alike, called for the cancellation of the military decision, describing it as a "rights violation." But the military continued to avoid Byun's case by referring to her as a discharged "civilian." This reveals the low level of human rights awareness and "closure" within the military. Byun made a tragic choice, unable to deal with the military's negligence coupled with the prejudice and discrimination from a sector of Korean society. Yet, she has been vindicated, albeit posthumously, following the court's ruling. The Army said it respected the court's decision, though it has yet to decide whether to appeal the ruling. The human rights of sexual minorities should be respected and embraced by all. In doing so, the nation's prestige could be heightened to another level. Against this backdrop, it would be natural for the Army to drop any planned appeal against the ruling and make a sincere apology to Byun and her bereaved family members. In a belated move, the Ministry of national Defense has embarked on research into possible ways to allow the military service of transgender people including assistance in gender reassignment surgery. The ministry should take steps to improve the overall human rights situation in the military instead of mere makeshift moves to avoid the barrage of salvos against it. It needs to prepare comprehensive measures that match international standards, the only way to honor the deceased solider and console her family, albeit too late. Jang Kee-hwan, CEO of Coupang Eats, speaks during an audit held by the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, Friday. Yonhap By Kim Jae-heun The CEOs of major retail firms here failed to show up at the annual National Assembly audits, where they could have faced tough questions regarding controversial issues their companies have been involved in over the past year. Coupang CEO Kang Han-seung justified his absence by claiming health problems, and so was able to avoid questions regarding allegations of unfair trade practices, such as his company abusing its power over subcontractors. LG Household & Healthcare (LG H&H) CEO Cha Suk-yong also skipped questioning by the Fair Trade Commission, Oct. 5, where he was supposed to speak about an issue related unfair trade practices regarding its franchises. Cha said that the case in question was currently involved in a lawsuit, so he could not comment on it. McDonald's Korea Managing Director Antoni Martinez's name was removed from the list of witnesses compiled by the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee. Rep. Lee Jong-seong of the conservative main opposition People Power Party said that he decided to leave Martinez out after McDonald's Korea promised to come up with measures to prevent a recurrence of several recent incidents that breached the public's trust. According to a KBS report, the American fast food chain used expired hamburger buns and tortillas at a restaurant in Seoul last year. McDonald's Korea punished the store manager of the branch and a part-time worker but took no further action. Police are still investigating the case. On top of this incident, McDonald's Korea breached the Food Sanitation Act 76 times over the past three years. Shin Dong-won, the chairman of Nongshim, and Ham Young-joon, the chairman of Ottogi, who were earlier listed as witnesses for audit by the Agriculture, Food, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Committee, were also exempted from questioning. The two companies had executives-in-charge attend the audit on their behalf, after promising to pursue plans supporting the mutual growth of their companies and farmers. gettyimagesbank China has imported $30 million worth of Australian copper concentrate and increased purchases of cotton from the country amid international sanctions over Xinjiang, despite unofficially banning the products in November last year, Chinese trade data shows. Chinese importers also snapped up the lion's share of Australia's bumper wheat harvest for the 2021-22 season, making it the country's largest buyer just as global supplies fall. Global shortages and political tensions have forced China to turn to Australian products, especially as its economy has bounced back from the coronavirus pandemic, although there are few signs the trend will be permanent. Despite taking punitive trade action against Australia over several issues, including Canberra's push for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, China will avoid shooting itself in the foot economically, said Stephen Olson, a former trade negotiator with the United States Trade Representative. China will demonstrate pragmatism when it comes to balancing its economic prospects with its political interests, he said. "Any punitive actions will be carefully calculated to maximize pain on Australia and minimize disruptions in China," said Olson, who is also a senior research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation. "Given the high levels of trade and investment between China and Australia, this will not always be easy to do. "And the exact composition of the package of punitive actions will occasionally need to be reassessed and potentially adjusted to reflect evolving commercial and economic realities." In June, official trade data shows that China bought 11,000 tons of copper concentrate from Australia for the first time since November, when Beijing unofficially banned traders from importing a number of Australian goods as tensions escalated between the two countries. As China's post-pandemic economic recovery ramped up, it stepped up copper imports, particularly from key exporters in South America, but did not buy from Australia until supplies in Chile and Peru were hit by market changes and political risks, respectively, in the middle of the year. "Interestingly, this year China bought its first copper concentrate cargo from Australia in June after a gap of six months ... [although] it might be too early to anticipate Australian copper concentrate shipments to resume into China as again there were no copper concentrate shipments arriving in July 2021," said Pranay Shukla, associate director at market intelligence firm IHS Markit, while pointing out the 11-ton cargo load was much lower than China's pre-ban monthly imports from Australia. Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen speaks next to the French Senator Alain Richard during their meeting in Taipei, Oct. 7. Reuters-Yonhap Taiwan should be called a country, a senior French senator said on Friday during a visit to Taipei, doubling down on earlier comments that have angered Beijing, which views the island as one of its provinces, and not a country. Taiwan's name is a tricky issue. Formally called the Republic of China, it is not recognized by most of the world, which has diplomatic ties with Beijing, and its de facto embassies generally use the name "Taipei" to describe the island, to ensure host nations do not upset China. Meeting President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday, former French defense minister Alain Richard said Taiwan's representative office in Paris was doing "a very good job in representing your country". In Beijing, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said to call Taiwan a country was a "flagrant violation of the universal consensus of the international community, including France". The spokesman, Zhao Lijian, added, "People like Richard either lack the most basic respect and understanding of international relations norms, or they kidnap state-to-state relations based on personal selfishness. "China strongly condemns and firmly opposes this." Speaking to reporters on Friday, Richard, who heads the French Senate's Taiwan Friendship Group, acknowledged that what to call Taiwan's representative offices was a tricky issue. "It's a fine diplomatic issue, but what is striking to me is that the name of this island and this country is Taiwan," he said, speaking in English. "So there is no big point in trying to, you know, prevent this country to use its name." The remarks come at a time of growing international concern over rising tension between Taiwan and China after almost 150 Chinese aircraft flew into the former's air defense zone over a four-day period since last Friday. Taiwan has lived under the threat of invasion by China since the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed. France has official relations only with Beijing, not Taipei, but maintains a relatively large de facto embassy on the island staffed with diplomats. Richard, who was French defense minister from 1997 to 2002 under President Jacques Chirac, has visited Taiwan twice before. He is being accompanied by three other French senators on his visit, despite strong warnings against it this year by China's embassy in Paris after the trip was first mooted. (Reuters) A man remembers the fallen victims of 9/11. UK Army and Air Force ROTC placed nearly 3,000 flags this morning in front of the administration building and had speakers read out the names of fallen victims of the terrorism attacks of September 11th, 2001 on Tuesday, September 11, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. Photo by Michael Clubb | Staff At The Standard, you'll join a team focused on putting our customers first. Our continued success is driven by a high-performance culture. We're looking for people who are collaborative, accountable, creative, agile and are driven by a passion for doing what's right - across the company and in our local communities. We offer a caring culture where you can make a real difference, every day. Ready to reach your highest potential? Let's work together. What You'll Do The primary responsibility for the Bilingual Participant Services Representative role is to provide an excellent quality experience while answering phone calls from customers regarding their Retirement Plans with The Standard. This is an inbound phone center where customer service, critical thinking, problem solving, and adaptability are key skills. While the primary calls will be incoming, outgoing calls are also required as well as responding to customer emails. The Bilingual Participant Services Representative will communicate with both English and Spanish speaking customers. Frequent questions include online account access and navigation, loan and distribution eligibility, rollovers, and RMD's. More complex questions and requests include statements, plan entry eligibility, deferral rate changes, rebalance transactions, fund to fund transfer transactions and future directive change transactions. Key Responsibilities Leverage retirement plans industry knowledge and internal systems to assist customers. Review transaction history, account statements, and other financial data to help customers understand their account activity Personalize and relay accurate information to customers about their retirement account by phone and email striving for a first contact resolution experience. Problem solve, perform initial research and follow-up with customers Navigate multiple systems while talking with customers Meet standard performance metric expectations Interact with internal departments to help resolve customer questions Support contact center team projects including user acceptance testing as needed The Skills and Background You'll Need Must be fluent/bilingual in Spanish Associate'sdegree preferred. 2+ years customer service, contact center and financial services background preferred. Experience in a high volume, direct customer contact service environment preferred. Please note that you must be in your current position for a minimum of 6 months as a non-exempt and 12 months as an exempt employee to be eligible to apply for internal positions. #LI-Remote Note:The Standard is required to provide a reasonable estimate of thepay ratefor this role when hiring a Colorado resident. Thesalaryfor employees working in Colorado in this role is listed below.The Standard's package also includes incentive planparticipationincluding medical, dental, vision, retirement, and paid time off. Please note, eligibility to participate in an incentive program is subject to the rules governing the program and plan. Any award depends on various factors, including individual and organizational performance. Hourly Pay Range: 17.40 - 29.42 Standard Insurance Company, The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York, Standard Retirement Services, Inc., StanCorp Equities, Inc. and StanCorp Investment Advisers, Inc., marketed as The Standard, are Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status or any other condition protected by federal, state or local law. The Standard offers a drug and alcohol free work environment where possession, manufacture, transfer, offer, use of or being impaired by an illegal substance while on Standard property, or in other cases which the company believes might affect operations, safety or reputation of the company is prohibited. The Standard requires a criminal background investigation, drug test, employment, education and licensing verification as a condition of employment. All employees of The Standard must be bondable. Category Customer Service Representatives Job type Full time Position Objective: Contributes to the provision of high-quality, cost-effective healthcare as a provider of direct and indirect patient care and by effective of the health care team. Functions as a competent member of the health care team. Essential Job Duties: Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 1. Clinical Decision Making/Judgment Demonstrates clinical nursing knowledge and skill in the specialization of the unit. Demonstrates the ability to apply the nursing process effectively in the care of culturally diverse patients and families. Demonstrates the ability to utilize all applicable laws, policies, standards, guidelines and evidence-based practice in the provision of patient/family care. Organizes and reprioritizes patient care activities based on subtle and overt and/or environmental changes. Consistently and thoroughly assesses patients to collect data and identify learning needs according to established standards and policies. Utilizes a systematic, continuous and complete analysis of assessment data to develop individualized problem lists for assigned patients. Develops and individualizes a plan of care for each patient in accordance with established standards, appropriate prioritization of problems/needs, and mutually agreed upon goals. Efficiently implements the patient's plan of care in accordance with applicable standards, policies, procedures and guidelines. Demonstrates proficiency in medication administration, pain management and other unit or initiative specific skills. Continuously evaluates the effectiveness of the plan(s) of care, making revisions and recommendations based on analysis of patient responses to interventions. 2. Nurse-Patient Family Relationships Demonstrates the ability to assess the patient's/family's learning needs, readiness to learn, learning style, and presence of barriers to learning. Demonstrates the ability to develop, implement and evaluate teaching plans for patient populations in unit specialty in accordance with applicable standards. Demonstrates the ability to apply knowledge of growth and development across the life span to the care of patients. Provides direct patient care to patients and families in a culturally, developmentally and ethically appropriate manner. Plans of care address the physical, psychosocial, spiritual and learning needs of the patient/family. 3. Clinical Scholarship Participates in QI, CPI and risk management activities at the unit, department or organizational level. Demonstrates the ability to effectively perform and improve all processes in order to achieve excellence with regard to AAMC's quality standards and benchmarks. Supports the use of evidence based guidelines and organizational policies and procedures to promote safe patient care and a safe practice environment. 4. Clinical Leadership Participates in unit shared governance according to departmental standards. Participates in the education and orientation of new staff. Delegates patient care activities as appropriate; evaluates delegated activities for expected patient care outcomes. Employs real time computer documentation when completing patient record. Educational/Experience Requirements: Graduate of an accredited school of nursing Adherence to the credentialing requirements of AAMC as stated in the nursing bylaws. Required License/Certifications: Current licensure as a registered nurse by the Maryland Board of Nursing. CPR - American Heart Association Healthcare Provider certification Working Conditions, Equipment, Physical Demands: There is a reasonable expectation that employees in this position will be exposed to blood-borne pathogens. Physical Demands - Medium work. Exerting up to 50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 30 pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects. The physical demands and work environment that have been described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The above job description is an overview of the functions and requirements for this position. This document is not intended to be an exhaustive list encompassing every duty and requirement of this position; your supervisor may assign other duties as deemed necessary. Location: Milwaukee - Wisconsin Job Description The primary responsibility of the Senior Remote Support Engineer position is to provide technical support to Rockwell Automation customers, field engineers, technicians, and product support personnel who are diagnosing, troubleshooting, repairing, and debugging systems. Senior Remote Support Engineer will be responsible for providing technical expertise for Rockwell Automation PlantPAx, FactoryTalk Batch, and Process Safety products and technologies. ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Provide customer support by troubleshooting and solving customer issues via the phone, chat and email. Manage customer interactions including and not limited to, setting expectations with customers prior to concluding an interaction, capturing the customer issue/resolution/steps taken to troubleshoot within Service Ticket notes, executing the Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) process and following up with customer(s) in a timely manner Handle complex customer system issues from start to finish and serve as company liaison to the customer for multiple product families and various types of customer inquiries. Participate in the establishment, measurement, and achievement of customer satisfaction metrics Adhere to all necessary company policies and procedures, standard operating procedures and completing company/organization-wide required documentation/trainings. Support entire core area of Automation Control, develop domain expertise within core area of Process Control and mentor other engineers. Update and author Technical Notes and other documentation with solutions or workarounds to commonly experienced problems, installation practices that create problems, how-to guides, etc. to improve customer satisfaction and acceptance. Understand and troubleshoot system level issues as it relates to Connected Enterprise. Work independently to optimize work activities and revenue generation while providing field service support for customers. Handle escalations that involve interfacing with other products, or group of other products outside of their core area. EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS: Bachelor of Science in Electronics, Electrical Engineering or Computer Science with at least five years' related experience. At least three-years of experience working with industrial automation products / systems. DESIRED SKILLS: Three years of experience designing, starting up, and/or troubleshooting industrial automation systems. High level of system/product expertise on Rockwell Automation products including but not limited to PlantPAx, FactoryTalk Batch, ControlLogix, Trusted, AADvance, 1715 SIL2, 1756 SIL2, FactoryTalk ViewSE. Ability to handle high pressure work situations Self-initiative, ownership, excellent listening skills, a drive to follow issues to resolution commercial sensitivity, and superb attention to detail. Responsiveness, customer-centric mindset, collaborative, technical engineering expertise, and business acumen. Specific expertise in applying automation technology to a process (e.g., burner management, press control, etc.) Ability to interpret information gathered by tools and act upon it. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer including disability and veterans. If you are an individual with a disability and you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation during the application process, please contact our services team at +1 (see application details). Stock Market News UK Economic Data - US warns Russia over energy crisis, as UK consumer groups warn on fuel poverty live 08-10-2021 03:14 Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk We will be at home during the Thanksgiving holiday. We will make a brief trip away from home. We will spend most of the Thanksgiving holiday away from home. Vote View Results On Wednesday, 6 October, Guido Bellido resigned from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and President Pedro Castillo announced a new cabinet that represents a clear shift to the right. Those ministers that the bourgeois press described as radicals and senderistas [Shining Path supporters] were turfed out. In their place came businessmen, the moderates", and the so-called caviar left committed to the stability of the bourgeois regime. Finance Minister Francke, the fifth column of CONFIEP business federation in the government, remains in his post. The Peru Libre parliamentary group has declared it will not support the new government. The fall of Bellido is the culmination of an incessant, 69-day-long campaign of harassment and demolition directed against Castillo and his government by the capitalist oligarchy of Peru and the multinationals, and the resultant tensions and disagreements that this caused between the government of Bellido and President Castillo. The campaign of the capitalist oligarchy against the Castillo government As early as the second round of the presidential elections, which culminated in the victory of teacher trade unionist Castillo, we saw the candidate of Peru Libre sending clear messages to the bourgeoisie and the multinationals, re-assuring them that their interests would not be touched. The appointment of Pedro Francke, first as campaign advisor and then as Minister of Economy and Finance, was the clearest of those messages. A World Bank economist, Francke promised CONFIEP a responsible fiscal and monetary policy and protection of private property a far cry from Castillos original programme of nationalisation. On 29 July, the very night that Castillo appointed Bellido's cabinet, the contradictions at the heart of his government were already coming to light. Francke threatened not to join the government if Bellido, seen as a radical, was the premier. Eventually the conflict was resolved with a public statement by Bellido in support of Francke's pro-capitalist economic programme. The next major conflict led to the dismissal/resignation of Foreign Minister Hector Bejar. A former guerrilla and agrarian reform activist during the Velasco Alvarado government, Bejar was the first minister against whom the capitalist oligarchy opened fire. Just two weeks after his swearing in, the capitalist press brought to light statements by Bejar from November 2020 in which he had demanded an investigation into the role that the Navy and the Army had played in terrorist acts during the conflict with the Shining Path. This was a direct questioning of the state apparatus, something that could not be allowed. There was a concerted campaign on the part of the state apparatus, particularly high-ranking officials of the Navy, and the ruling class in a joint offensive against a minister of a democratically elected government. They wanted his head on a platter. Faced with this onslaught, both president Castillo and premier Bellido relented, which led to the departure of Bejar from the government. As is often the case, giving in to the pressure of the ruling class and its public opinion did not have the effect of increasing the stability of the government, but on the contrary, it emboldened the oligarchy to continue and increase its offensive. Next in the firing line was the Minister of Labour, Iber Maravi, a teacher unionist and former leader of the SUTE union in Ayacucho. Mysteriously, police reports were leaked to the El Comercio media group dating back to 1980 more than 40 years ago allegedly implicating Maravi in a terrorist bomb attack, which was published alongside all kinds of other accusations. We already know the line of argument: the minister is a senderista, a terrorist and therefore he must be sacked. The objective was clear and twofold: on the one hand, to get rid of a minister close to the trade union movement and as such a nuisance for big business, and at the same time to undermine the authority of Castillo himself. In this whole affair, the national leadership of the SUTEP teachers union played a despicable role, joining in the chorus of the bourgeoisie against the Minister of Labour. At the same time, while the right-wing concentrated their fire on Maravi, the capitalist state apparatus continued the offensive in other directions, with state prosecutors filing accusations of corruption and terrorism (!!) against Prime Minister Bellido, the leader of Peru Libre Vladimir Cerron and dozens of prominent members of his party. In the case of Maravi there was a lot of toing and froing. Under pressure from the capitalist media and opposition members of parliament, he was forced to appear before congress. He later submitted his resignation, which the president did not accept. The CGTP union confederation mobilised, albeit timidly, in his defense. The right-wing opposition did not give up its efforts and collected signatures for a motion of no confidence. The Peru Libre parliamentary group and Bellido himself threatened to bring a muerte cruzada motion. That is, if Congress voted no confidence in the President, the powers of Congress would automatically also cease, thus forcing new congressional and presidential elections. On 6 October, the judiciary issued preventive detention orders against several leaders of Peru Libre investigated for money laundering, including the partys national organisation secretary, Arturo Cardenas. The fall of Bellido Finally, the constitutional conflict between Congress and the president over the Maravi case was resolved with the resignation of Bellido (forced by Castillo) and the appointment of a new cabinet by Castillo, of which Iber Maravi is not a part. Clearly, this is a further concession to the capitalists and multinationals by Castillo. Moreover, this is a fairly important concession that represents a qualitative change in the political situation. After the resignation of Bellido, the leader of Peru Libre, Vladimir Cerron, made some quite harsh statements in which he stated that the President will have to choose and is faced with the options of what is conservative or what is revolutionary, and added: [the] cabinet reshuffle must exclude right-wingers, caviar [leftists] and traitors. It is time for Peru Libre to demand its rightful share of power, guaranteeing its real presence or else the parliamentary group will have to take a firm position. Betssy Chavez Chino - the only member of Peru Libre in the new government - came out publicly in opposition to the convention of a constituent assembly / Image: Presidencia Peru, Flickr However, President Castillo did just the opposite. Presiding over the new government is Mirtha Vasquez, a moderate left-wing deputy from the Frente Amplio, who briefly served as president of the congress during the November 2020 unrest, playing the role of a reasonable left-wing figure who could guarantee bourgeois governance at a time of social convulsion. Not only has Minister of Labour Maravi been removed, but in the new government there are no members of Peru Libre, the party for which Castillo ran. The only exception, significantly, is Betssy Chavez Chino, a Peru Libre congresswoman who came out publicly in opposition to the convention of a constituent assembly who has been described as a traitor by the rest of her parliamentary group. The new minister of energy and mines is businessman Eduardo Gonzalez Toro. Francke, the man whose presence guarantees to the capitalists that the government is not going to get out of control, remains as Economy and Finance Minister. In case we are left in any doubt as to the nature of this change of government, let's see what the imperialists think. The most serious newspaper of the British bourgeoisie, the Financial Times, celebrated these developments with this headline: Perus president reshuffles cabinet in shift towards centre and in the subtitle adds: Pedro Castillo makes seven changes and ousts Marxist prime minister [all our emphasis]. The article continues, in the same jubilant tone: a significant cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, ousting his divisive prime minister Guido Bellido and distancing himself from the Marxist party that helped to put him into power. And it continues along the same lines: In his boldest move since he took office in late July, Castillo replaced Bellido with Mirtha Vasquez, a young former congresswoman and moderate leftist who does not belong to the Marxist Free Peru party. [Financial Times, 6 October, emphasis added.] In reality, neither Peru Libre nor Bellido are Marxists, although they define themselves as such. However, what the Financial Times wants to highlight is that Castillo is breaking with these Marxists. The substantive issues: multinationals and the constituent assembly It is clear that the change of government is not simply a change of names, but rather reflects a substantive political conflict on two central issues. The first is the question of multinationals, mining and gas. In his programme, and in the first part of his presidential campaign, Castillo clearly proposed the nationalisation of the Camisea gas field operated by a consortium of multinational companies (Argentine, US, Korean, and Spanish) if it did not agree to renegotiate the contract on more favourable terms for Peru. The same threat (renegotiation on better terms or else nationalisation), were also left hanging over the countrys mining operations. This threat was all but dropped in the second round of the elections. Francke, on behalf of Castillo, produced a blunt statement in which he spoke of the legal security for foreign investment. His message was clear: There will be no nationalisations, no expropriations. During President Castillo's recent trip to Mexico (to the CELAC summit) and to the United States (to attend the meeting of the OAS and the UN General Assembly), the Peruvian president reiterated the message in an attempt to convince multinationals to invest in the country. The capitalists will not be satisfied with having twisted Castillo's arm and having changed the character of the government. Their victory in this round will only embolden them / Image: Presidencia Peru, Flickr In a meeting with capitalists hosted by the American Peruvian Chamber of Commerce, the president stated the commitment of his government to guarantee the economic stability and legal security of the country, to promote an adequate investment climate. Later, at the OAS meeting, he was even clearer: We are not communists, we have not come to expropriate anyone, we have not come to scare away investments, on the contrary we call on large investors, businessmen to go to Peru. (RPP Noticias). The message was clear, although it was accompanied by well meaning platitudes creating jobs", fighting poverty", ending corruption all of which are incompatible with the interests of multinationals and with the capitalist regime in crisis in general. The problem was that while Castillo and Francke courted the multinationals in the US, Prime Minister Bellido was insisting on his threats towards the Camisea Consortium: We summoned the Camisea gas exploitation and commercialisation company to renegotiate the distribution of profits in favor of the State, otherwise, we will opt for the recovery or nationalisation of our gas field, he declared on Twitter on 26 September. Castillo was quick to rebut his premier: We have a clearer conception of what private business is after we have gone abroad and we have seen many commitments from private companies and many businessmen from whom we have taken their commitment to come to Peru to invest. They should be at ease and if there have been some outbursts by the premier or another person we have corrected him. (RPP Noticias) The other underlying issue was the question of the Constituent Assembly. Bellido had promoted the collection of signatures for a referendum on convening a constituent assembly. The change from one bourgeois constitution to another would not really solve the serious problems faced by workers and peasants in Peru. However, the truth is that, in their eyes, this slogan represents the desire for a profound change to sweep away the whole regime based on Fujimori's constitution. The ruling class, which now has Castillo under its control through the mechanisms of parliamentary arithmetic, fears that the turmoil around the constituent assembly could open a gap through which the masses might express their aspirations to take their destiny into their own hands. All the Peru Libre ministers have therefore been eliminated from the government as the only ones consistently pushing forward this electoral promise. Meanwhile, Betssy Chavez, the PL congresswoman who broke with the PL parliamentary group precisely over this question, has been awarded a ministry. One cannot serve two masters In reality, there was an insoluble contradiction in the heart of the government between a policy in favour of the majority of workers and peasants, which inevitably would involve confronting the interests of the multinationals and the capitalists (represented, albeit timidly, by PM Bellido); and a policy of protecting the interests of the mining companies and CONFIEP, imagining that doing so would benefit the people (a policy represented by President Castillo, and above all by Francke and the moderate or caviar left). Such a contradiction could not last long. The capitalist oligarchy launched a relentless campaign to destroy the Bellido cabinet, using all the means at its disposal: the state apparatus (including the secret services, the Army,Navy, and the judiciary), the monopoly capitalist media, bourgeois public opinion, etc. In this campaign, a broad spectrum of forces, ranging from Keiko Fujimori to the parties of the moderate (read: bourgeois) left and sectors of the union bureaucracy, acted in a united front. In his resignation speech, the president of the Council of Ministers, Bellido, explained it clearly, and it is worth quoting him at length: The people are a witness that above the Executive Power there are forces and de facto powers that govern, pressure, coerce and persecute... starting from not wanting to recognise the electoral triumph of Peru Libre to opposition to the formation of the government itself. These financial, business and economic powers have captured the judicial bodies that, protected by the euphemism of the separation of powers, do not submit to elections and want to govern by criminalising all political opponents. The renegotiation of the Contract with the Camisea Consortium marks the breaking point between a surrendering, privatising and individualist State and a new one, which should rescue [natural resources] and is supportive, humanistic and sovereign. The question that we must ask is, if this is the case then why did Bellido accept the demands of the powers-that-be without putting up a fight? This onslaught could only be resisted effectively with the mobilisation of workers and peasants in the streets. Peru Libre has just 37 of the 130 deputies in congress, far from a majority, and therefore governs with the permission of the parties of the moderate left, but above all of the centre and the centre-right bourgeoisie parties. Bellido's threat to close down congress if a vote of no confidence was passed against the president was correct. The people voted for Castillo, if the congress does not want to accept the popular will, let's go to new elections and let the people decide. That is something that the bourgeoisie did not want in any way, because a new electoral campaign, in which PL would present itself with a radical programme, would further polarise the situation and could give rise to a left-wing majority. However, no strategy for the defence of the Bellido government could rely solely, nor primarily, on parliamentary manoeuvres. The mobilisation of the worker and peasant masses in the streets would have been the only way. During the vote count in the second round of the presidential election, workers and peasants took to the streets, organised demonstrations and vigils to defend their victory at the polls. The CGTP, although mildly, called for the defence of the labour minister. But there was never on the part of Bellido, and much less on the part of Castillo any serious attempt to confront the offensive of the capitalists and the multinationals with revolutionary methods of struggle. Bellido resigned instead of fighting, just as Bejar had done before. It should also be noted that neither Bellido himself, nor Peru Libre, nor Vladimir Cerron, at any time advanced a socialist and anti-capitalist strategy, but rather clung to the idea that a popular economy with markets is possible, in which, supposedly, multinational mining companies are going to donate part of their wealth for the development of the country. That's like imagining that you can convince a tiger to become a vegetarian! In fact, the utopian character of this idea has been demonstrated in practice. At the first timid attempt by the government to renegotiate the Camisea gas contract... the bourgeoisie and the multinationals have overthrown the democratically elected government! We must further warn that the capitalists will not be satisfied with having twisted Castillo's arm and having changed the character of the government. Their victory in this round will only embolden them. They have tasted blood and now they will want more. An editorial of El Comercio (the most representative organ of the bourgeois campaign against the government) with the title Cerron is still present, celebrates that finally, after 69 days, Guido Bellido fell yesterday afternoon. This was a person who should never have reached the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM) and who debased such an important position. But then it goes on to demand the heads of three other ministers! We ask ourselves, who should appoint the government: the president or the editorial board of El Comercio? It is obvious that the capitalists know that, in a bourgeois democracy, they are the ones who rule, regardless of parliamentary facades. It is possible that the ruling class will want to use a domesticated Castillo to apply the policy they need without causing a social explosion. If the break with the Peru Libre parliamentary group is confirmed, Castillo is now a prisoner of the bourgeois parties (the moderate left is insignificant in parliament). But deep down they don't trust him he's not one of them. At most they will squeeze him like a lime and then throw him away when he is spent. When we celebrated Castillo's election we wrote: Castillo will now be faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, he can rule for the masses of workers and peasants who have elected him, which would mean a radical break with the capitalists and the multinationals. That can only be done by relying upon extra-parliamentary mass mobilisation. Or he can give in, water down his programme and accommodate to the interests of the ruling class, meaning he will be discredited among those who have voted for him, preparing his own downfall. If he attempts to serve two masters (the workers and the capitalists) at the same time he will please neither. (Peru: Castillo's election, a major political earthquake, 9 June) And we added: The struggle has only begun. Every step forward which Castillo takes should be supported. His vacillations or retreats should be criticised. The workers and peasants can only trust in their own forces and these should be mobilised to strike blows against the oligarchy. The dilemma seems to have been resolved fairly quickly, in just 69 days. Lessons needed to be learned It may take time for the broad masses who voted for Castillo to draw all the conclusions from these events. The political-emotional bond that has been established between the oppressed of Peru and Castillo is strong, but inevitably practical experience will prevail. It is crucial that the most advanced sectors of the working class and the youth draw the necessary conclusions from this episode. We must speak clearly. The fall of the Bellido government and the entry of the Vasquez government represent the culmination of Castillo's turn to the right and the betrayal of the hopes raised by his campaign. It is necessary to re-group the vanguard around a clear revolutionary socialist programme. It is not possible to negotiate a mutually beneficial pact with multinationals and businessmen, especially not in the context of the global crisis of capitalism. Only the revolutionary expropriation of mining and energy resources and large Peruvian companies under the democratic control of the working class can lay the foundations so that there are no poor people in a rich country. The revolutionary transformation of Peru would become an example for the workers and peasants of the continent, a continent in which the class struggle is in full swing. The Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) has announced the winner of its flash social media campaign, #TakeMeToMauritiusNow, offering a luxury trip for two for seven nights to the Indian Ocean island paradise. Juliette Ronteltap, from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, is the lucky recipient of the prize, having been the successful one of 40,000 social media users to enter the competition draw, which was launched on World Tourism Day on 27th September. The social media competition, which was open to entrants on a global scale, saw an extraordinary number of entries throughout, reaching over 1,025,901 worldwide throughout the competition, including a total of over 110,000 interactions, and 71,000 comments as social media users tagged and shared with their friends over the course of four days until 30th September. Entries were submitted from all over the world, with the majority coming from the UK, France and Germany. The draw for the winner of the competition took place on the same day Mauritius opened its borders to fully vaccinated international travellers. Juliette will be able to enjoy quarantine-free travel to Mauritius to enjoy the islands luxury resort hotels, miles of pristine coastline, white sandy beaches, and nature trails as well as world-leading historical, cultural and culinary attractions. Juliette said: At first I couldnt believe it was real. My friend Carmen entered me after seeing the competition on the Mauritius Tourism Instagram page and I was so excited to hear I actually won! Of course I am taking her with me to this beautiful country. I have heard great things about Mauritius and I am really grateful for the opportunity to travel to the island. After 18 months of restricted travel, now is the perfect time to get away. Arvind Bundhun, Director of MTPA, said: We launched the #TakeMeToMauritiusNow campaign on World Tourism Day to offer social media users everywhere the opportunity to win a prize to come and experience everything our country has to offer. We are delighted with the sheer number of entries and engagement with the competition, which exceeded expectations and highlighted the enthusiasm travellers have for Mauritius, but also tourism on a wider scale. Seeing over 110,000 Instagram and Facebook users share and comment on our posts emphasises why Mauritius is an idyllic luxury destination for so many. We cant wait to welcome Juliette to the island and help coordinate a tailored holiday to suit her and her travelling companions needs and desires and showcase what Mauritian life is truly about. The social media competition invited users to like and comment on posts on the MTPA official Facebook and Instagram pages, which would guarantee them a place in the prize draw. Mauritius double vaccination rate of 85% is one of the highest in the world and is the highest across Africa meaning Juliette will be entering a Covid-safe and secure environment as the winner of the unique prize. With borders now fully open, vaccinated travellers can enjoy and roam the island as they please, with the only requirement being the presentation of a negative PCR test from 72 hours prior to departure and to take a lateral flow test on day of arrival and day five of their stay. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Week leading to 3rd October, day three of the official border re-opening of Mauritius, saw a net increase in fresh forward bookings of 6,214 tourists. An 18% increase over the previous weeks booking numbers. 27% of total bookings were received out of the UK, followed by a share of 23% of the bookings coming out of France. South Africa continues to provide encouraging indications of forward bookings, with additional 462 reservations received in one week. General Cancelations continue to hover around 4%, and the trend is on the decrease. Cancellations are dominated by French travelers for the time being. Booking lead days are increasingly shortened, with the bulk of all fresh bookings coming in for the month of October 2021. Compared to the Indian Ocean regions other tourism destinations, the Maldives picked up nearly 50% of all fresh bookings from last week. Mauritius secured 17% of all bookings, and this is an improvement over recent weeks. Comparatively to 2019, Q4 of the current year shows a 71% reduction in booking numbers, but this number is improving in the right direction, down from 74% the previous week. Mauritius consolidates its role as leader in the French markets forward bookings with a total of 48% of all bookings taken last week. Market share out of the UK also progresses to 38% oa all bookings. Scheduled seat capacity is growing in line with demand forecasts, growing by 382% from the month of September to the month of October, with an end of months capacity of 82,000 seats available in October. Expected to grow by an additional 70% seat capacity by the end of December. For the time being it would appear that sufficient seats are available, but close monitoring is recommended. Flight costs remain a critical issue to take stock. Our main competitors in the Indian Ocean remain cost efficient by a staggering average of 21% in October for business class seats, and 15% in economy. Q1 2022 forward booking numbers remain limited, but this is explained by the very lead time of bookings coming in. Predictions for 2022 are challenged by the nature of booking trends. The French market dominates future bookings for 2022 though. Early October saw a peak in Google traffic for Mauritius. The same can be said of the Maldives. Social Media activities for Mauritius have seen some important growth in audiences and engagements in early October, with +11% engagements on Facebook and a staggering +70% on Instagram. Despite lagging the Maldives on Instagram activities engagements, Mauritius is a clear leader on the Facebook ladder. From a quality reputation angle, Mauritius is doing rather well. The Global Rating Score of Mauritius on the ReviewPro scale is 86.2%, whilst we are seeing competing destinations dropping their weekly scores significantly on the back of poor services and possibly value for money concerns. auritius also improves its Semantic key words reputation index. As a whole the perception of the destinations quality is improving. On the hospitality front, our pricing remains comparatively very low in the 5 star and 4 star categories when benchmarked against the Maldives and the Seychelles. From a large sample of hotels, entry pricing for mid-November indicates Mauritius hotel rooms in 5 star hotels are 72% cheaper on average. Whilst they are 56% cheaper in the 4 star category. In conclusion, our destination can hardly pretend being a luxury destination with such pricing variances. Conflicting issues to further evaluate with expensive air tickets and cheap hotels. A concern when one can imagine that tourists picking cheaper hotels will likely look at the air ticket pricing with concern? Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Im not a licensed counselor, but I do offer family mentoring to help people get unstuck from whats hurting them, Delgado said. I opened this shop so I can fund that and also so we dont ever have to ask anyone for anything. Its faith-based, but you dont have to be a Christian or religious at all to come talk to me. Police spoke with a woman who told them she had been with Aviles and Leon earlier that night. She and Aviles planned to go to Wind Creek Casino and Aviles picked her up with Leon already in his car. After stopping for gas around 11:45 p.m., they drove to the casino and went inside. After a few minutes at the casino, Leon told Aviles he needed to get something from Aviles car and asked for the keys. So, the message to the flying public is this: Check your bags five times if you have to, but make 100% sure that your carry-on bags do not contain a firearm or other dangerous weapon. Thats responsible gun ownership, which is essential to protect the flying public, Kaufman said. : WCNMLGB (CCC), : Military : : BBS (Thu Oct 7 13:39:50 2021, ) Murdaugh Murder Mystery Timeline: New lawsuit, questions raised about Alex and Maggie's marriage The latest information on the investigation into the deaths of Paul Murdaugh and Maggie Murdaugh, as well as Mallory Beach, Gloria Satterfield and Stephen Smith. Updated: 5:19 PM EDT Oct 6, 2021 Graham Cawthon Digital Media Manager A son and mother found shot to death on their Lowcountry property. News of the deaths of Paul Murdaugh, 22, and Maggie Murdaugh, 52, has led to national headlines. Not only for the mystery surrounding their murders but for the ties to other death investigations in the area: Stephen Smith in 2015, Gloria Satterfield in 2018 and Mallory Beach in 2019. Advertisement The Murdaugh Murders: Interactive Map Here you will find a timeline of all the events surrounding the Murdaugh murder mystery. Check back for updates. 1920-2005: For three generations, members of the Murdaugh family serve as the South Carolina 14th circuit solicitor, the top prosecutor representing Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, Allendale and Colleton counties. July 8, 2015: Stephen Smith, 19, is found dead on Sandy Run Road in Hampton County. No arrest is made in the case. Feb. 26, 2018: Gloria Satterfield, 57, dies after a trip and fall accident at the Murdaugh family home. For more than two decades, she had served as the family housekeeper and nanny. According to court documents, Alex Murdaugh tells Satterfield's sons that he was responsible and plans to sue himself so they are financially taken care of. The family says they never receive any money. Feb. 24, 2019: Mallory Beach, 19, goes missing after a boat crash near Parris Island. A 911 call is placed from the scene of the crash at Archer's Creek. Photos from the scene capture damage to the boat, bloodstains and numerous containers of beer. March 3, 2019: Following a week of searches, a boater discovers Mallory's body in a marsh area near the Broad River boat landing in Beaufort County. March 2019: The Beach family files a wrongful death lawsuit against a Beaufort County bar, convenience store and two homeowners all of whom, the suit claims, served Beach and her underage friends alcohol the night of the crash. The lawsuit was later amended to only name Richard Alexander "Alex" Murdaugh Sr., Richard Alexander "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., and Parker's convenience store. April 18, 2019: Paul Murdaugh is indicted on charges of boating under the influence causing death and two counts of boating under the influence causing great bodily injury. May 6, 2019: Murdaugh pleads not guilty to all charges. June 4, 2021: Court ordered mediation in the wrongful death lawsuit fails, which appears to make the case bound for trial. June 7, 2021: Alex Murdaugh discovers the bodies of his son Paul and wife Maggie at their 1,770-acre hunting lodge on Moselle Road in Islandton, Colleton County. A 911 call is placed at 10:07 p.m. "I need the police and ambulance immediately," Alex Murdaugh says in the 911 call. "My wife and child have been shot badly!" The Colleton County Sheriff's Office responds and secures the scene. South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division is contacted at 10:28 p.m. to assist. SLED agents arrive at 11:47 p.m. Murdaugh family friend Tangie Ohmer tells WJCL: "It was just siren after siren..." June 8, 2021: Authorities confirm the identities of the deceased, referring to the incident as a double homicide. However, they say there is no threat to the public. June 11, 2021: A graveside service is held at Hampton Cemetery for both Paul and Maggie Murdaugh. June 14, 2021: The Colleton County Coroner confirms both Paul and Maggie Murdaugh died from multiple gunshot wounds. The estimated time of death is somewhere between 9 and 9:30 p.m. June 16, 2021: SLED creates a 24-hour dedicated tipline for the case: 803- 896-2605. June 17, 2021: Alex Murdaugh's brothers, Randy Murdaugh IV and John Marvin Murdaugh, appear in an exclusive interview with ABC News in which they plead with the public to come forward with any information. They say they don't know whether the family has enemies but Paul Murdaugh had received threats. June 21, 2021: SLED releases a handful of heavily-redacted documents shedding light on what deputies discovered the night of the murders. June 23, 2021: Based on information gathered in the Murdaugh investigation, SLED says it is looking into the 2015 death of Stephen Smith in Hampton County. SLED does not elaborate on what information it obtained. June 25, 2021: Members of the Murdaugh family formally announce a $100,000 reward for information that leads to arrest in the double homicide. July 7, 2021: Attorneys representing a survivor of the boat crash that killed Mallory Beach filed a petition alleging law enforcement tried to shift the blame from Paul Murdaugh to their client, Connor Cook. July 14, 2021: During a court hearing, Circuit Judge Bentley Price said he would review the redactions made by SLED in publicly-released documents pertaining to the case and if he felt they werent legal, order more information released. July 22, 2021: SLED releases the 911 call placed by Alex Murdaugh the night Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were killed. Aug. 6, 2021: People magazine spotlights the double homicide of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh. The South Carolina Attorney General's Office drops all charges against Paul Murdaugh in the death of Mallory Beach due to his own death. Aug. 11, 2021: 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone sends a letter to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson stating he intends to recuse himself from the investigations into the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. Aug. 17, 2021: Following a Freedom of Information Act request, WJCL receives photos and videos from the South Carolina Attorney General's Office collected as evidence following the boat crash that killed Mallory Beach. Sept. 2, 2021: The PMPED law firm begins an investigation into Alex Murdaugh after finding a suspicious check on his desk. They say their investigation reveals Murdaugh had been taking money from the firm and clients for personal use. Sept. 3, 2021: Murdaugh is confronted about accusations of taking money from PMPED. He is asked to resign and does so that afternoon. Sept. 4, 2021: Alex Murdaugh is shot in the head while changing a tire in Hampton County, according to a family spokesperson. SLED is investigating. He is hospitalized in Savannah and said to be conscious and speaking. Sept. 6, 2021: Alex Murdaugh releases a statement that says, in part, he is resigning from his law firm and entering rehab. Later that day, the PMPED law firm says Murdaugh was stealing money from them. This is disappointing news for all of us. Rest assured that our firm will deal with this in a straightforward manner. Theres no place in our firm for such behavior, the law firm said in a statement. Sept. 8, 2021: The South Carolina Supreme Court suspends Alex Murdaugh's law license, effective immediately. Sept. 9, 2021: Following a Freedom of Information Act request, WJCL receives an incident report from the Hampton County Sheriff's Office regarding law enforcement response to Alex Murdaugh's shooting. Sept. 10, 2021: A spokesperson representing Alex Murdaugh releases a statement saying, in part, Murdaugh's shooting was not self-inflicted, he sustained a skull fracture and the gunman was driving a blue pickup truck. Sept. 13, 2021: SLED announces it has opened an investigation into claims Alex Murdaugh was misappropriating funds from his former law firm. Sept. 14, 2021: Curtis Edward Smith, 61, is arrested in connection to the assisted suicide shooting of Alex Murdaugh. Authorities say Murdaugh admits that the scheme was set up so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. Attorneys representing Alex Murdaugh issue a statement that Murdaugh has battled opioid addiction for 20 years and Smith was one of his drug dealers. Sept. 15, 2021: Smith appears via video conference in a Colleton County court for the charge of distribution of methamphetamine. Because it was his first offense, he was able to post a $5,000 bond. His next appearance is set for November 8. Smith is transferred to Hampton County court to face charges in connection to the Murdaugh shooting. Alex Murdaugh is named the chief defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the sons of longtime Murdaugh housekeeper and nanny, Gloria Satterfield. SLED announces it is opening a criminal investigation into Satterfield's 2018 death. Murdaugh's attorney says his client will surrender to authorities the following day in connection to the insurance fraud charges. Sept. 16, 2021: Alex Murdaugh turns himself in to authorities at the Hampton County Detention Center. Murdaugh is given a $20,000 bond for insurance fraud charges stemming from his attempted assisted suicide plot. He is ordered to appear back in court on October 25. Smith is given a $55,000 bond for his charges. He is released from custody at noon and ordered back in court on November 8. Sept. 17, 2021: WJCL provides a look at whether Alex Murdaugh received preferential treatment in court as well as the severity of his head wound. Sept. 18, 2021: In an interview with the New York Post, Curtis Edward Smith says he's being set up by Alex Murdaugh. Sept. 20, 2021: Connor Cook, who was onboard the boat the night Mallory Beach was killed, files a lawsuit in Hampton County against Alex Murdaugh, son Buster Murdaugh, as well as Gregory M. Parker, Inc., and Parker's employee Tajeeha Cohen for their alleged roles in the crash. Sept. 23, 2021: SLED releases a statement saying agents have "uncovered other potential crimes" as part of their investigation into the double homicide of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina have been contacted. Sept. 26, 2021: WJCL airs a special presentation, 'Murdaugh: Death & Deceit, ' focusing on the investigations to date. Sept. 27, 2021: In paperwork filed in Hampton County, the sons of Gloria Satterfield say they want Alex Murdaugh arrested until he pays them the money they are owed from the settlement from their mother's death. Sept. 28, 2021: In an interview with WJCL, Sandy Smith, mother of Stephen Smith, says a fundraising effort is underway to finally get Stephen a headstone. Curtis Edward Smith gives an interview with WCIV in which he says he feels betrayed by Alex Murdaugh and that he considered Murdaugh like a brother to him. Sept. 29, 2021: A Murdaugh spokesperson releases a statement regarding the pending expiration of the $100,000 reward offer in the double homicide of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh. We are disappointed that no one has stepped forward with any leads to solve the murder and claim the $100,000 reward. At this time the family is evaluating what additional steps can be taken to solve the murders of Maggie and Paul. Sept. 30, 2021: Responding to claims made in a People magazine article about problems in the marriage of Alex and Maggie Murdaugh, a family representative releases the following statement: "The most recent allegations by People Magazine regarding the state of Maggie and Alex Murdaughs marriage are totally inconsistent with what we have been told by friends and family members. Also, we have reviewed many years of text messages on Alexs phone, and the conversations between Alex and Maggie portray a very loving relationship. It is our hope that the media will continue to focus on covering the investigation of the person or people responsible for the murder of Maggie and Paul and not reporting salacious stories with no credible sources connected to the Murdaugh family." Oct. 4, 2021: The law firm representing the Estate of Gloria Satterfield, the former housekeeper of the Murdaugh family who died back in 2018, announced that a settlement has been reached in the case. Oct. 6, 2021: The PMPED law firm files suit against Alex Murdaugh for damages after claims he took money from them and clients for his own personal use. Jim Griffin, one of Alex Murdaughs lawyers, responds to the lawsuit saying , "This is a very sad development. Alex holds every member of the Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick law firm in very high esteem. He has pledged his full cooperation to the firm." Advertisement WJCL SAVANNAH Hearst Television logo Contact Us News Team Apps & Social Email Alerts Careers Internships Advertise Digital Advertising Terms & Conditions Broadcast Terms & Conditions RSS EEO Reports Captioning Contacts Public Inspection File Public File Assistance FCC Applications News Policy Statements Hearst Television participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. 082021, Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of WJCL-TV. Privacy NoticeYour California Privacy RightsInterest-Based AdsTerms of UseSite Map -- iPhone 1.24.11 -- :WWW mitbbs.com [FROM: 2600:8807:5054:] The Furnace, Oct. 9. Jake Howell stands before a crowd of dozens of Missoula music fans, singing a song he wrote, Saturdays when I forget Behind him is the band, four men he trusts with his life. Their first studio album, self-titled Cosmic Sans, has just dropped, and they are celebra State Naga talks: Rio to leave for Delhi today DIMAPUR, OCT 8 (NPN) | Publish Date: 10/8/2021 2:14:28 PM IST Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio is likely to hold meetings with Central leaders and Naga Political Groups (NPGs) presently camping in Delhi in connection with efforts to secure an early settlement of the Naga political issue. Rio is scheduled to leave for Delhi Saturday after a brief meeting with union minister of state for communications D. Chauhan, who will arrive Dimapur from Bokajan. It was also reported that Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is also likely to join Rio for a preparatory meeting with NPGs and also Central leaders. Currently, top leadership of the NSCN (I-M) led by ato kilonser and chief negotiator Th. Muivah and yaruiwo Q. Tuccu besides WC/NNPGs led by convenor N. Kitovi Zhimomi have been holding talks with Centre's representative, AK Mishra. Niki Sumi-led NSCN (K) members who were also in Delhi returned to Nagaland on Friday after meeting Mishra. As reported in this newspaper, with talks back on track sources said that something can be expected very soon. A sense of urgency prevails in Nagaland where the all-party UDA government has been seized with getting all on board for a final agreement. A new dimension was added after Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also became involved with Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio in holding parleys with NPGs.The two CMs were engaged in talks to convince the NSCN (I-M) leaders to reconnect with the peace process after negotiations between NSCN (I-M) and the then Interlocutor RN Ravi hit a dead end. The NSCN(I-M) had practically boycotted further contacts over differences with Ravi regarding inclusion of Naga flag and constitution in the agreement. With the crisis being resolved to the satisfaction of the NSCN (I-M) and the state government with the removal of Ravi as both governor and interlocutor by Centre, all eyes are now on the new Interlocutor A.K. Mishra on whether he can pull a rabbit out of the hat. State Niki-led NSCN (K) hold talks with Mishra in Delhi DIMAPUR, OCT 7 (NPN): | Publish Date: 10/7/2021 1:37:04 PM IST Niki-led NSCN (K) collective leadership gen. (retd) Niki Sumi and Starson Lamkang Naga reportedly met with interlocutor AK Mishra in Delhi on Thursday. According to the MIP, the group conveyed to Mishra about its commitment to peace and the Naga peace talks. He was also apprised that the group revived the ceasefire agreement with Government of India heeding to the clarion call of the Nagas for peace and inclusive and amicable political solution as per the wishes and aspirations of the Naga people. MIP said that the group being a separate entity in the Naga peace process, reiterated its stand to the Government of Indias representative that NSCN/GPRN would go by the aspirations and wishes of the Naga people. MIP said it was also conveyed that the group would not impede the Naga peace talks as long as it was the Naga peoples desire for inclusive and amicable political solution. Naga peoples aspirations and wishes will be the guiding principle and objective of NSCN/GPRN, MIP stated. Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-07 19:23:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang delivers a keynote speech at the online Forum on Tourism, Hospitality and Cultural Exchange co-hosted by the U.S.-Asia Institute and Las Vegas Sands Corp., in Washington, D.C., the United States, Oct. 6, 2021. Qin Gang on Wednesday shared with Americans seven buzzwords that are currently popular in China to illustrate what is going on in his country. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang on Wednesday shared with Americans seven buzzwords that are currently popular in China to illustrate what is going on in his country. "The buzzwords I shared with you today reflect the changing and unchanging elements in our values when China experiences rapid economic growth and profound social transformation," said Qin in his keynote speech at the online Forum on Tourism, Hospitality and Cultural Exchange co-hosted by the U.S.-Asia Institute and Las Vegas Sands Corp. The first buzzword Qin mentioned was "People First, Life First," which was widespread during China's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and reflects a deep concern for humanity. Likewise, "Heroes in Harm's Way" has also gone viral in China, which refers to the everyday heroes who put their mission before their lives and made fearless sacrifices to fight the pandemic, Qin said. To "Lie Flat" is a term to describe the youngsters who give up ambitions and do the bare minimum to get by, Qin said, adding "lie-flatters" are either people from well-off families or those who believe in whatever comes their way. "Versailles," originally from the "Palace of Versailles" in French, was borrowed to describe the self-claimed aristocratic spirit. On social media, it is used to label humble-braggers, he said. "Involution," one of the latest buzzwords in China, indicates irrational or involuntary competitions, while "Double Reduction" is a recent policy formulated by the government to address involution in education, which aims to restore the original purpose of education by restricting capital in the sector, Qin said. The last buzzword, "Celebrity Fan Clubs," refers to the phenomenon that some celebrities use internet to hype up themselves and cause their fans to admire them in an irrational manner, while such abnormalities stem from a chain of interests dominated by online platforms and the capital that supports them, he said. In his speech, Qin said that socialism with Chinese characteristics requires material progress and cultural-ethical advancement, adding, "We need to keep fine traditional values, uphold fairness and justice, and not get lost in a market economy." "(Being) rooted in traditional Chinese values is a concern for the common good of humanity," he added. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-07 23:31:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TOKYO, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 on late Thursday struck Japan's Tokyo region, but no tsunami warning has been issued, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The temblor occurred at around 10:41 p.m. local time, with its epicenter at a latitude of 35.6 degrees north and a longitude of 140.1 degrees east, and at a depth of 80 km. The quake logged 5 plus in some parts of Tokyo Prefecture and Saitama Prefecture on the Japanese seismic intensity scale which peaks at 7. According to utility officials, as of around 11:00 p.m. local time, the earthquake had triggered a blackout affecting around 250 households in Tokyo. Some train services including subways operated by Tokyo Metro Co. and shinkansen bullet trains had been suspended following the earthquake, railway companies said. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters late Thursday he had ordered officials to help quake victims and prevent further damage. A task force to assess and monitor the earthquake's impact has been set up at the prime minister's office. According to prefectural government officials, no abnormalities have been detected at Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tokai No. 2 nuclear power plant in Ibaraki Prefecture near Tokyo. There were no reports of damage at Narita airport in Chiba east of Tokyo after the strong quake. Runways at Tokyo's Haneda airport were temporarily closed for inspections, but later reopened as no damage was reported. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-07 23:57:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Palestinian workers are seen outside the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce in the city of Gaza to apply for work permits inside Israel, in Gaza City, on Oct. 6, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) GAZA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Palestinians gathered for the second day in a row in front of the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce in the city of Gaza to apply for work permits inside Israel. The Palestinians, most of whom are suffering from poverty, said they came there to have their voices heard that they wanted to work in Israel to avoid poverty. In 2007, Israel imposed a tight blockade on the coastal enclave, home to more than two million people, right after the Islamic Hamas movement forcibly seized it. The blockade has deteriorated the economic situation in the Strip, where many residents live in severe poverty. The poverty rate among the residents of the Gaza Strip rose to 53 percent and the extreme poverty rate reached 33.8 percent, according to the latest official statistics issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. "For more than three years, I could not buy any clothes for my three kids," Mohammed al-Zaharna, a resident from Gaza, told Xinhua. The 38-year-old driver said he graduated from university in 2009 while his wife graduated in 2010, but they have not found any jobs to keep their family afloat. Moen Awwad, a 52-year-old carpenter from Gaza, told Xinhua that he was lucky to work inside Israel 17 years ago. The father of nine said he built his four-floor house with the money he earned in Israel. "I was taking about 120 U.S. dollars a day, but now I make about 200 U.S. dollars a month," he added. Awwad hopes he could return to Israel to make decent money again. "I need to build my sons' future as my father did for us by working inside Israel," he said. Before 2005, Israel allowed the Gazan workers to work inside its cities based on the Paris Economic protocol signed between the Israelis and the Palestinians in 1994. More than 12,000 Gazans worked then in Israel, contributing about 20 percent of the total of the national economy in Gaza, according to Moen Rajab, a Gaza-based economist. "If Israel allows workers to work inside it again, it will be a step that would achieve the interests of both sides," he said, adding that "Israel needs qualified workers and it will also help the Palestinians, who will be able to overcome poverty and get a dignified life." He added this will have a direct impact on the national economy in the Gaza Strip and will continue to pump liquidity into the markets, which means that the Strip will witness a recovery of commercial activity. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 00:04:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) march in Cape Town, South Africa, on Oct. 7, 2021. A major South African trade unions federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), on Thursday went on a nationwide strike and marched to push both the government and the private sector to act in the issues of economy and those affecting workers and South Africans in general. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran) CAPE TOWN, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- A major South African trade unions federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), on Thursday went on a nationwide strike and marched to push both the government and the private sector to act in the issues of economy and those affecting workers and South Africans in general. Members of COSATU, which represents about 20 trade unions and over 2 million people, took to the streets in over 28 cities and towns including the two biggest cities, Johannesburg and Cape Town, while holding banners and cardboards with their demands written on them. COSATU president Zingiswa Losi led the morning march in Cape Town, which temporarily stopped the traffic of major roads, where police were deployed with high alert. "The living condition of workers are very bad, they can't even last for a whole month to wait for their salaries. So we are saying, the city must come to the party to look at the workers, because workers are the ones who make cities alive," COSATU Western Cape provincial secretary Malvern De Bruyn told Xinhua before the march began. The workers' lives "are very very hard" and the impact of COVID-19 has been "very devastating for them," Sheila van Rensburg, Western Cape provincial secretary of Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU), an affiliate of COSATU, told Xinhua, while her fellow protesters were shouting "viva" loudly. She indicated that some workers in her union lost jobs after two big companies were liquidated due to the impact of COVID-19. Supporters of the ruling party African National Congress (ANC), which is in tripartite alliance with COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP), also joined the march, waving the ANC flag. The strike comes as the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) indefinitely downs tools for a wage increase after the negotiation with the employers broke down. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 00:48:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi (R, Front) welcomes visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L, Front) in Rome, Italy, on Oct. 7, 2021. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday thanked outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel for playing a "decisive role" in shaping the future of the European Union (EU). (Str/Xinhua) ROME, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday thanked outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel for playing a "decisive role" in shaping the future of the European Union (EU). His remarks came at the conclusion of what likely was Merkel's last official meeting with Italy's top officials, as she prepares to leave the stage as soon as a new German federal government is formed after the recent parliamentary elections. "I thank the chancellor on behalf of the government and myself personally for the decisive role she has had in designing the future of Europe" over the past 16 years, Draghi said at a joint press conference here. In turn, Merkel noted that Draghi had played an essential role in safeguarding the euro. "I believe the euro symbolizes our (EU) unity, therefore no effort has to be spared to further strengthen and develop it and there is still much to be done in this field," she told reporters. Merkel's talks with Draghi touched on other issues, such as the goals of the G20, whose rotating presidency is held by Italy this year; the need to boost COVID-19 vaccine supplies across the world; and the situation in Afghanistan, on which Germany and Italy hold the same position. The two leaders also discussed climate change and environment protection in view of the major United Nations Climate Change Conference (or COP26) to be held in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, between Oct. 31 and Nov. 12. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 03:42:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The video screenshot taken on May 7, 2021 shows World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attending a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua) Over 6.4 billion vaccine doses have now been administered globally. However, low-income countries have received less than half of one percent of the world's vaccines. In Africa, less than five percent of people are fully vaccinated, according to WHO's data. GENEVA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday an initiative to vaccinate 40 percent of the population of every country against COVID-19 by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022, by prioritizing vaccine delivery to low-income countries, particularly those in Africa. "Today, WHO is launching the Strategy to Achieve Global COVID-19 Vaccination by mid-2022," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing. "The strategy outlines the road we must all take together to achieve our targets of vaccinating 40 percent of the population of every country by the end of this year, and 70 percent by the middle of next year." According to Tedros, achieving these targets will require at least 11 billion vaccine doses, which is an allocation problem instead of a supply problem. "With global vaccine production now at nearly 1.5 billion doses per month, there is enough supply to achieve our targets, provided they are distributed equitably," he said. A medical worker receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Aug. 3, 2021. (Photo by Herman Emmanuel/Xinhua) According to WHO's records, more than 6.4 billion vaccine doses have now been administered globally, and almost one-third of the world's population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. However, low-income countries have received less than half of one percent of the world's vaccines. In Africa, less than five percent of people are fully vaccinated. Earlier this year, WHO set a target for all countries to vaccinate ten percent of their populations by the end of September, but 56 countries didn't make it. That has prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to join the WHO chief to launch the latest strategy. "Vaccine inequality is the best ally of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Guterres, but "through dose sharing, swaps, technology transfers and other priority actions, it is possible to reduce deaths and minimize suffering, prevent health systems from being overwhelmed, resume social and economic activities, and reduce the risk of dangerous new variants." The UN chief also renewed his appeal to G20 for help, adding that "their meeting later this month will be an opportunity to deliver." "I urge all global stakeholders to step up, mobilize their resources and turn this strategy into a reality," he said. An elderly person receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 17, 2021. (Photo by Yeshiel/Xinhua) Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 13:13:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Undated file photo shows security manager Liu Jingkun (1st R) talking with colleagues at the construction site of a vast business district in Egypt's new administrative capital. (CSCEC Egypt/Handout via Xinhua) by Mahmoud Fouly, Wu Danni CAIRO, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic, a security manager at a construction site needs to care more. Some 50 km east of the capital Cairo, where a Chinese firm has been building a vast business district in Egypt's new administrative capital, Liu Jingkun inspects the staff accommodation every day, ensuring the anti-coronavirus precautions are observed by all. Before the inspection, as the project's security manager, Liu tours the beehive-like building site. His daily routine also includes morning meetings with security staff to instruct them to guarantee the safety of workers and the implementation of precautions, and to check the increasing number of vehicles accessing the site. A veteran of security work for nearly 20 years, Liu joined China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) Egypt in 2019. The firm has been carrying out the 20-tower Central Business District (CBD) project, a task made even more complicated by the pandemic. "Although it's somehow tiring, it makes us more relieved and safer in the end," the 39-year-old man from China's coastal Shandong Province told Xinhua. Over a dozen of towers have appeared high in the sky since the project started in January 2016. Back then, Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, and said that China was willing to participate in Egypt's key projects including the development of the Suez Canal Corridor and the construction of a new administrative capital. Xi also proposed in the talks that the two countries work together to build Egypt into a pivot of the Belt and Road and that China and Egypt should conjoin their development strategies and visions and focus on cooperation on infrastructure construction and production capacity. Al-Sisi said Egypt was willing to connect its own development plans with the Belt and Road Initiative and expand infrastructure cooperation with China under the framework of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The new administrative capital is one of the mega projects in Egypt through which the country hopes to leap towards development and modernization. Liu remembers how colleagues' got sunburned at the early stage of the project, as they worked outdoors in blazing hot and dry days, with their food and drinking water delivered to the site from outside. Part of the CBD project is the 385-meter-high 80-floor Iconic Tower, which will be the tallest skyscraper in Egypt and in Africa upon completion. In August, the tower's steel structure was roofed as the last beam was accurately docked. "This project has set a number of construction records," said Wei Jianxun, general manager of the Iconic Tower project, noting that many technical problems need to be overcome to build skyscrapers in the desert area, such as preventing gradual settlement of buildings. Waleed Salah, one of the CBD project's Egyptian engineers who was trained by Liu, is impressed by China's skyscraper construction techniques and finds his participation an opportunity to exchange expertise with and learn from his Chinese peers. "I like the Chinese people's punctuality and dedication to professionalism," he said, noting that he respects and maintains the preventive measures against the virus. The CBD project once had more than 9,000 Chinese and Egyptian workers living and working together. Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, who visited the CBD site several times over the past couple of years, said during a visit that the architectural project was a miracle. "It's a wonderful project that will be a landmark in all Egypt and a symbol for modern Egypt." The ongoing COVID-19 challenges did not slow the progress of the project, said Chang Weicai, general manager of CSCEC Egypt. "Our staff will keep on working to accomplish our mission, and we're looking forward to seeing the beautiful skyline of Egypt in the future," he said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 18:45:25|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Yagang Luo, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) specialist, massages his patient at his clinic in Istanbul, Turkey, Oct. 5, 2021. (Photo by Osman Orsal/Xinhua) by Zeynep Cermen ISTANBUL, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- "These spots lining up along the spine of the human body, correlating to several vital organs, such as the lung, heart, liver, and kidney, are very important," Yagang Luo told his patient during a Chinese massage session in his clinic in Istanbul. "I should act as a traffic police and open the congestion in these points," he continued, adding that "otherwise, you may get sick in the upcoming period." After graduating from China's Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Luo, a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) specialist, came to Turkey eight years ago and opened a clinic on the Asian side of the Turkey's biggest city. Since then, he has been healing his patients with acupuncture, a Chinese method using tiny needles to stimulate the nerves under the skin, as well as herbal medicine, and Chinese massage. "When I first came here, I found that most patients here consider surgery for their pains," he told Xinhua in his clinic. "However, in China, we solve most cases with massage and acupuncture before the patient gets sick." If Turks learn more about the culture and the philosophy behind TCM, they would be more comfortable in preferring these methods to cure their diseases, Luo said. The most common complaints of his Turkish patients are obesity, smoking addiction, and especially migraine-type headaches and hernia pains. To enlighten Turkish people and answer all their questions about TCM, Luo has been translating the Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon), an ancient Chinese medical book, from Chinese to Turkish. The classic book contains rich knowledge about TCM, including its philosophy, diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of diseases. There are also some natural herbs with healing power that Luo is using in his treatments. He has begun to grow some of these on his terrace, bringing the seeds from China, such as Codonopsis and Udihindi. In Luo's view, in the upcoming post-pandemic era, numerous congresses and workshops will be held between China and Turkey, and this field will be even more known among Turks. Ceyhun Dundar, a Turkish specialist, said the TCM became known after 2015 when Turkish authorities allowed Turkish specialists to perform these practices in their clinics. He has been dealing with the complementary medicine in Istanbul for six years. "The experience of Chinese doctors is extremely precious to us as their expertise dates back 5,000 years. In addition, their views on the philosophy of TCMs are priceless," Dundar told Xinhua while placing acupuncture needles on the head of a patient who has been suffering from migraines, in his clinic on the European side of the city. He said the concepts of yin and yang, the vital life energy, are very atypical for Turkish people in terms of having something invisible and intangible in the body. In ancient Chinese philosophy, "yin and yang" explains dualism, expressing how opposite forces may be complementary and interconnected and widely used in every sphere of life, Dundar said. "In that sense, working and cooperating with Chinese doctors is Turkish specialists' one of the most important advantages," he said, noting that he is looking forward to going to China and learn more about TCM in the post-pandemic era. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-09 00:20:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close -- China on Friday issued the country's first white paper on biodiversity, detailing how the world's most biodiverse country has endeavored to protect its ecosystems in pursuit of harmony between humans and nature. -- To address biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, China has taken creative and up-to-date approaches, forming a new pattern of biodiversity conservation, according to the white paper. -- A thriving ecosystem is proof of the country's biodiversity conservation progress. According to the white paper, the population of giant pandas in the wild has grown from 1,114 to 1,864 over the past four decades, while the Asian elephant population in the wild has grown from 180 in the 1980s to about 300 at present. -- Over the past years, China has firmly practiced multilateralism and actively carried out international cooperation on biodiversity conservation, with stronger South-South cooperation in biodiversity conservation and improved multilateral cooperation mechanisms for green development under the Belt and Road Initiative, according to the white paper. BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday issued the country's first white paper on biodiversity, detailing how the world's most biodiverse country has endeavored to protect its ecosystems in pursuit of harmony between humans and nature. The white paper, titled "Biodiversity Conservation in China," came days ahead of a key United Nations (UN) biodiversity meeting to be held in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming. The move bears great significance as the UN begins its Decade of Action after the world sought to reach the Aichi Biodiversity Targets during the 2011-2020 period, Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), said at a press conference on Friday. The vice minister said that China's implementation of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets was better than the global average, as the country recorded expectation-beating progress in three of the 20 goals and key progress in 13 others. The issuance of the white paper will increase the international community's understanding of the country's efforts in the sector, contributing Chinese wisdom to global biodiversity protection, Zhao said. Photo taken on Oct. 8, 2021 shows a press conference where the white paper "Biodiversity Conservation in China" is issued by China's State Council Information Office in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai) CHINA'S BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION To address biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, China has taken creative and up-to-date approaches, forming a new pattern of biodiversity conservation, according to the white paper. China was the first globally to propose and implement the red line strategy for ecological conservation, an important institutional innovation in its land-use planning and eco-environmental reform. The country's proposal "Drawing a 'Red Line' for Ecological Protection to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change" has been selected by the UN as one of the 15 best Nature-based Solutions around the globe. Liu Dong, a senior researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences under the MEE, said that such an innovative strategy allows the most important areas to be controlled, producing the greatest environmental benefits from the smallest areas, and drawing attention in the international community. China has also optimized its in situ and ex situ conservation, making efforts to build a protected area system with national parks as the mainstay, and to launch systematic campaigns to save endangered species, the document said. A thriving ecosystem is proof of the country's biodiversity conservation progress. According to the white paper, the population of giant pandas in the wild has grown from 1,114 to 1,864 over the past four decades, while the Asian elephant population in the wild has grown from 180 in the 1980s to about 300 at present. To improve biodiversity governance, China has elevated biodiversity conservation to a national strategy, rolling out measures to improve the legal and policy frameworks, expand oversight on law enforcement and encourage public participation, the document said. Photo taken on Aug. 26, 2021 shows a view of the Zedang Lake at Guan'egou national forest park in Dangchang County of Longnan, northwest China's Gansu Province. (Xinhua/Ma Xiping) AMBITIOUS YET VIABLE GOALS Despite the progress achieved, the pressure on global biodiversity is still aggravating as the trend of biodiversity loss has not been fundamentally reversed, Zhao said. At the upcoming UN biodiversity meeting, participants are expected to sit around the discussion table and delineate a "post-2020 global biodiversity framework." Experience over the past decade will be reviewed and transformative changes in the global biodiversity drive might take place, Zhao said. The vice minister said that ambitious yet feasible biodiversity goals and strategies should be put on the table. He said he expects the next decade's global biodiversity goals to boost the world's ambition and confidence, but also underscored that participants should fully consider the accessibility and feasibility of new targets when drawing a biodiversity blueprint. "The raging pandemic has reminded us that humans and nature have a shared future. The international community needs to intensify cooperation in the face of the challenges of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation," Zhao said. Aerial photo taken on Aug. 13, 2021 shows a herd of wild Asian elephants in Mojiang County of Pu'er, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (Photo by He Yougang/Xinhua) Over the past years, China has firmly practiced multilateralism and actively carried out international cooperation on biodiversity conservation, with stronger South-South cooperation in biodiversity conservation and improved multilateral cooperation mechanisms for green development under the Belt and Road Initiative, according to the white paper. Wei Fuwen, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the biodiversity conservation drive entails a global perspective as many species live not only in China, but also in surrounding countries. "China will continue to actively participate in and promote international cooperation on global biodiversity through various means," Wei said. (Video reporter: Yang Zhigang, Video editors: Liu Ruoshi, Zhang Yuhong) Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 16:59:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Namibia said thousands of Angolans crossing into the country to escape hunger is adding extra pressure to its already strained public facilities. Speaking in parliament on Thursday evening, Home Affairs Minister Albert Kawana said Namibia is in touch with authorities in Angola, but the Angolan nationals are refusing to go back. While there is no international legal obligation for Namibia towards the migrants, the country has "a moral obligation to ensure that their return to their country of origin is made in a humane manner," said Kawana. "The situation is not ideal, either for the regional government, traditional authorities or local communities, but we are working to see how to address the situation. This is giving extra pressure to mostly the health system and other public facilities," he added. According to Kawana, the number of people seeking refuge is increasing daily, but the country cannot grant the "economic migrants" refugee status because they do not meet the required conditions. "The Angolans are not crossing into Namibia as a result of instability or persecution, these are economic migrants leaving Angola due to drought. They are crossing into Namibia for survival," Kawana said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 20:44:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), has hailed the introduction of the world's first malaria vaccine as a game changer. Speaking during a virtual press conference on Thursday, the Africa CDC chief said as malaria is one of the biggest killers especially of young children on the continent, the introduction of the vaccine will reduce child deaths. "A combination of Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS accounts for around one million deaths a year in Africa," he told journalists. "Regarding Malaria, most of the deaths occur in younger children in Africa, so having a vaccine that shows that level of effectiveness and preventing severe illness and deaths in children is remarkable," Nkengasong noted. The Africa CDC also emphasized the introduction of the world's first malaria vaccine is a culmination of nearly a century-long effort. "Malaria is a uniquely difficult parasite to fight because of the way it keeps invading the immune system," he said. Nkengasong further mentioned African countries who took part in malaria clinical trials and succeeded. "I want to congratulate Malawi, Kenya and Ghana that took part in the malaria vaccine clinical trials. It shows African leadership and (a) can-do attitude to bringing solutions to some of our health problems." Earlier this week, the World Health Organization announced that it has endorsed the vaccine. According to the WHO, the vaccine is the result of 30 years of research and development by British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with international non-profit organization Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, and with a network of research centers in Africa. The WHO said its recommendation is based on results from more than 2.3 million doses of the vaccine that were administered to more than 800,000 children in pilot countries including Ghana, Kenya and Malawi since 2019. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 21:05:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Namibia on Friday officially launched an updated hydrogeological map of the southwestern African arid nation, using the latest technology to make the map available to various groundwater stakeholders. The digital application will allow Namibia to move with changing times, giving access to real-time groundwater data as it is collected from the national monitoring network, said the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform spokesperson Chrispin Matongela. "The map comes with six inset maps and an updated handbook which gives a detailed explanation of how the map was developed with a description of how to use the map," he said. According to Matongela, the additional twenty years of data has provided a much more detailed historical evaluation of aquifer recharge and storage, alluvial riverbeds and aquifer vulnerability. "Aquifer vulnerability is particularly pertinent where there is a high risk of pollution or where the demand for groundwater resources is growing. This increased demand demonstrates the importance of an effective permitting system which is needed to support the ministry's prime responsibility as the custodian of groundwater resources in Namibia," he added. Matongela added that the updated map was developed with financial assistance from the Southern African Development Community-Groundwater Management Institute. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 21:12:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAKAR, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Senegalese government lifted restrictions on travellers to Senegal on Thursday evening, marking the reopening of the country's air borders to all passengers with a negative COVID-19 PCR test within five days, a senior official announced on Friday. The announcement was made by the Senegalese Minister of Tourism and Air Transport Alioune Sarr who signed a circular. Airlines, whose operating programmes have been approved by the Civil Aviation Authority of Senegal or which have a specific authorisation, are authorised to embark and disembark their passengers who possess a negative COVID-19 PCR test within five days, it said. Due to the COVID-9 pandemic, Senegal closed air borders to passengers from a number of countries. After a sharp increase in new infections and deaths between July and August, Senegal experienced a drastic drop in COVID-19 cases since mid-September. Since the first case of COVID-19 recorded in March 2020, Senegal has recorded 73,825 positive cases, including 71,908 recoveries and 1,864 deaths, according to the statement. The number of people receiving at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines reached 1,266,665. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 22:05:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WINDHOEK, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- As Namibia's youth unemployment rate draws nearer to a staggering 50 percent, a number of youths have had to come up with innovative ways to make a living and lessen hardships that have also been exacerbated by COVID-19. Jose Claasen, a 22-year-old new media student at the Namibia College of the Arts has ventured into the mobile car washing business. "I started my business in 2019 when I realized that I would need to make extra money for myself and my family. It started as a joke and many of my friend would actually laugh at me but it has now turned into a lucrative business. I am actually making money," he said. After finishing Grade 12, the determined young man made moves to start his business which he says is actually flourishing. With a bucket in hand and cleaning supplies, Claasen would walk door to door in his neighborhood offering to wash cars for a small fee establishing a client base which has grown bigger stretching to nearby neighborhoods. "My business is doing well even though it started very slow. I first had to establish trust with my clients and now that they are comfortable, they always book for my services. I am always busy these days, especially on weekends," he said. When COVID-19 first hit Namibia in March 2020, it not only impacted people's health but also affected many who faced and continue to experience economic hardships as well as food insecurity. For Claasen, the mobile car washing business does not only cater for his needs but also for his family who like everyone worldwide has been affected by COVID-19. "It is quite evident that COVID-19 brought about many changes and from the looks of things it is here to stay so we all just have to do what we can to get by. You can not sit and wait for someone to employ you, you just have to think outside the box and find something to give you an income, no matter how small," he said. Claasen makes about 150 Namibian dollars(10 U.S. dollars) per car and about 5,000 Namibian dollars a month, he then could pay bills and also help his family. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Namibia, with one of the youngest populations in Africa where more than a third is between 10-24 years of age, youth unemployment could reach 50.30 percent by the end of this year. The 2018 National Labor Force Survey results point to an increased need to address youth unemployment which is estimated to have increased from 43 percent in 2016 to 46 percent by 2018. In July this year, Namibia launched the third National Youth Policy which is supposed to act as a framework to guide government in its employment efforts for the youth. Speaking at the launch, Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service Agnes Tjongarero said the country's youth cannot continue to be job seekers, but must also become employment creators. "We envisioned that by 2030, young Namibians should be empowered, self-reliant and be productive citizens through improved services in education, health, economic empowerment as well as civil and political participation," she said. The youth policy aims to promote access to youth-friendly health information and wellbeing, to facilitate access to economic empowerment opportunities, promote youth participation and representation in democratic and civic engagement as well as address contemporary challenges the youth face in personal and national development sphere. Claasen is now expanding his business and also introducing some of his former classmates to the booming service of mobile car washing. "I just give them advice to a start the same initiative in their neighborhoods. This business might not make money every day but whenever you make the money, however little, it helps," he said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 20:39:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIEV, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine is willing to deepen cooperation with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states and partner countries in the Black Sea region, authorities said on Thursday. "NATO countries, together with Ukraine, Georgia and even Moldova, can unite their efforts on the issue of the Black Sea region," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was quoted by Interfax-Ukraine news agency as saying. The Ukrainian official made the remarks during his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Ukraine's western city of Lviv. Kiev is already in talks with the alliance over strengthening security partnerships in the Black Sea, said Kuleba. Ukraine, which actively cooperates with NATO, has been seeking to join the organization since 2014. Last year, the alliance recognized Ukraine as its Enhanced Opportunities Partner. Enditem Madzibaba Steven A HARARE based self-confessed prophet is seething with anger after he was reportedly forced to drink a clients urine during a healing session. Madzibaba Tanya is accusing Madzibaba Steven Muchanyu for using him before duping him of US$5000 which they had agreed on as his payment. It is reported that Madzibaba Steven hired Tanya to help him heal a client suspected to have come from Zambia seeking help. The client was reportedly having death dreams, Tanya was requested to help since Steven was unable to solve the problem. All hell broke loose when Steven refused to give Tanya his dues of US$5K as agreed from the US$15K which was charged. Madzibaba Tanya told H-Metro that he was in pain, he was used and drank urine which is causing some complications to his health. Madzibaba Steven looked so desperate when he approached me seeking help. He said he had someone who was coming from Zambia or Botswana not sure who was having problems of pulse beating uncontrollably when driving. He also said he was having dreams in which every time he dreams of his funeral and wakes up feeling very sick. So he begged me to help him heal the person and I accepted his request to which we agreed that I would get USD$5000 from the USD$15 000 which the client was to pay. After five days he told me that the person had arrived but I refused to perform the miracles at his church since he would get the credit, he said. Madzibaba Tanya added: Takawirirana kuti ndomurapira munhu wake since he was unable to and I wanted kuti aitewo mbiri. I got possessed during the healing process with a spirit which I dont even understand. I was told that the spirit wanted me to drink the clients urine and it was the same spirit which wanted to kill the client. So I drank the urine in which the client got healed, hana yake yakabva yangoti zii kurova fast kwayaiita and he (client) confirmed that he was healed and was grateful. He promised to pay the USD$15K, he added. He said he was surprised to be given US$100 instead of US$5000. I went to the shrine in Budiriro expecting my US$5000 but he gave me USD$100 to my surprise. I had done a good job and he knew that I was good at healing the problem. I drank his clients urine just to heal him. Ndakatobatwa nemhepo zvekutosvika pakumwa weti yemunhu. Right now I am sick every week. I dont know if it was real urine because I cant recall zvandakamwiswa chaizvo when I was possessed. There are a lot of things which happened on that day. I left the place feeling ill and I wanted my USD$5000 so that ndozvirapisawo, I want to know how this spirit came upon me. And why I drank urine, I also want to know why this urine is making me sick, said Madzibaba Tanya. The angry Madzibaba Tanya said the money he was given is too little. I am a prophet but handikwanise kuzvirapa and each time I visit other churches I am told they are seeing death ahead of me due to the spirit which came upon me. I am being told the spirit is of a foreigner and for this I was supposed to be paid. However, Madzibaba Steven disputed the allegations. I have issues with this man. We used to pray together before I left him over his conduct of getting drunk whilst at the shrine. He would also sleep with married women in the bushes, so he is trying to tarnish my image so that my church collapses. He is lying, he said. Madzibaba Steven further threatened his erstwhile friend with unspecified action. If you are taking mutoriro yenyu chirega kundinyangadza. I am coming to your office, do as you want. I am H-Metros client, I want to read what you will write and then take it from there. I will come on Friday when I am free, handidi zvekujairirwa naye, handitambe naye handina kupusa. Mumuudze kuti kana achida kufamba panze ngaadzikame, he added. H Metro MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora has threatened to boycott the 2023 election unless President Emmerson Mnangagwas government implements electoral reforms. Addressing a Press conference in Harare yesterday, Mwonzora said Mnangagwa last month responded to his plea for dialogue, describing it as a positive development for his push for electoral reforms before the 2023 elections. Mwonzora indicated that he was confident that his dialogue with Mnangagwa would be fruitful, adding that his party would not participate in the 2023 elections without electoral reforms. MDC-T remains committed to dialogue. We are going to push for electoral reforms and we are going to get them, he said. Our mentality is focused on getting these reforms. We know how to get them through dialogue and this dialogue will be inclusive, genuine and unconditional. Therefore, with regards to what will happen if certain things do not happen in 2023, we are not able to postulate. We cant tell which reforms we would be able to get and those we would not have attained. Mwonzoras threats come a week after his national chairman Morgen Komichi called for the suspension of both by-elections and the 2023 harmonised polls to negotiate with Mnangagwa for an inclusive government. In July this year, Mwonzora met Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga under controversial circumstances to allegedly push for the suspension of by-elections as well as postponement of the 2023 polls. Komichi on Sunday said dialogue with Mnangagwa was key to determining the partys participation in the 2023 elections, arguing that holding elections without reforms was a waste of time. Ironically, Mwonzoras legislators are the majority of opposition representatives in Parliament after purging the MDC Alliance members, but his MPs have assisted Mnangagwa make controversial constitutional amendments to assist the ruling Zanu PF party clamp down on the countrys democratic space. We want reforms and then elections. Unlike our colleagues in the opposition who are calling for an election whether or not there are reforms, Mwonzora said. That government has not allowed reforms over some years is not a good enough reason to explain why we should not insist on them. We shall not give up until there are reforms which guarantee secrecy of the vote and security of both the vote and the voter. Yesterday, he refused to disclose details of Mnangagwas responses to his request for dialogue, saying it was a private matter. We will make the substantive matters available at the right time. Right now, we are consulting within the MDC-T structures then thereafter we will consult the people of Zimbabwe, based on what our structures would have said. The MDC-T has been under criticism for having a sinister agenda in the postponement of elections. Observers say they are not prepared for a direct contest with the mainstream opposition MDC Alliance party led by Nelson Chamisa. Newsday The study that influenced the four countries noted the risk to patients is very small, but pointed to an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle or the pericardium, which contains the heart and roots of the main vessels. Several justice reform organizations filed a since-diseintegrated lawsuit against the county over its jails COVID conditions, with the department insisting all new inmates are tested and all inmates and staff must wear masks, according to the outlet. Testing and vaccination are also made available on-site, the paper reports. In other words, you watch him and you think not only of your own parents but all the other people in whatever community you grew up in who helped you find your way. And if some or all of the above are no longer here, then you find yourself taking the same resonant, 90-minute journey as Santiago-Hudson. We didnt really think about so much [about] ... how it was going to be received, said Rapace. We created something that was honest and very personal for us and then everything thats happening now [the reception] is just overwhelming and amazing and quite a shock. Adams, who would take over the Education Department in January, campaigned on promises to keep the gifted exam for 4-year-olds and expand the number of separate gifted classes across the city. He also won the endorsement of PLACE NYC, the parent group that has vocally supported the gifted admissions test and separate fast-track classes. We are also the only police oversight agency in the country with a prosecution unit, which means when we substantiate misconduct, and determine the officer needs to be disciplined, we pursue that result for the people of New York, he said. That is not bias, that is a pursuit of justice. The firing of a bad actor as a result of a trial presided over by an NYPD judge should be seen as justice served for the whole city. His girlfriend at the time, Shadae Clarke, 23, told the Daily News he was a doting father to his son in Florida and to her own young son. The couple had recently suffered a loss, the death of their stillborn son. A man who chased and beat two paramedics giving him medical treatment was back on the street the next day, outraging an Emergency Medical Service union leader who says more needs to be done to protect his members. The shooting followed an incident in the same area last Friday in which a gunman fired at an SUV driver on Flatbush Ave. near Atlantic Ave. The motorist, who swerved into oncoming traffic to try and flee, was hit in the shoulder. Police said Alfred Johnson, shot in the chest, was rushed by medics to Lincoln Hospital but could not be saved. The autopsy results noted bruises and cuts on both of the teens arms, legs, the back of his neck, chest, and back and face, consistent with being hit with hard objects, something belt-like or strap-like, and hands, the complaint said. Bermans role came one day later when she posed as Dursts wife for a phone call to the Albert Einstein School of Medicine and told the dean that Kathie was too ill to come to class giving her friend an alibi in his spouses disappearance, authorities said. Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Santiago, a signal support systems specialist, is facing one count of murder in the death of Meghan Santiago and one for injury of an unborn child, according to a release from Fort Campbells Public Affairs Office obtained by CNN. The 33 year-old soldier was taken into custody on Sept. 28, a day after the deadly episode unfolded inside the military facility, located on Kentuckys border with Tennessee. There are numerous school shootings that have occurred across this country which are tragic, she told reporters. All school shootings are tragic. However, in this situation, this was not someone who was just out to go and shoot a school and had made up their mind [and said], You know, hey, Im upset and Im just going to shoot anyone I see. It seems the water in the preserve is receding and certain areas are more accessible to search, attorney Steve Bertolino said in a statement. The entire Laundrie family is grateful for the hard work of the dedicated members of law enforcement that have been searching the preserve for Brian over the last few weeks. Hopefully, Brian will be located soon. The Connecticut, based at Bremerton, Wash., is one of three Seawolf-class attack submarines in the Navy fleet. Those subs were designed during the Cold War, with the navy of the former Soviet Union in mind, to improve the U.S.s ability to attack submarines and surface ships. Each is operated with a crew of about 140. A California man who allegedly robbed a Southern California Chase bank was apprehended by police after he was caught attempting to rob the same Chase branch the next day. At 12:30 p.m., Thang told his brother he was leaving to get something to eat, according to the cops. At 1:30 p.m., he called his brother and told him hed never see him again before quickly hanging up. One of the women was found in a hallway and another in an office following the attack at the National Church Residences Gateway Village in Capitol Heights, police said. The accused shooter, who surrendered to police without any incident, was believed to be a resident at the facility who was reportedly upset at the staff. When it came to the economy, taxes, the military and foreign police, the presidents approval numbers were all in the 30s while his disapproval ratings were in the 50s. Even in his handling of coronavirus, an early priority to the administration, pollsters found 48% of Americans asked thought Biden was doing a good job, while 50% were displeased. In May, 65% of respondents told pollsters they were pleased with Bidens handling of the pandemic. Alessandra Mussolini, her stepsister, served as a member of parliament. Their grandfather ran Italy from 1922 to 1943, when he was booted from office nearly three years after siding with German dictator Adolf Hitler in World War II. In 1945, Il Duce was killed by a firing squad. His corpse was dragged through the streets of Milan, beaten, spat upon by civilians, then hanged upside down before being buried in an unmarked grave. Im honored to be the mayor of the city, but my first responsibility is as a father and a husband, de Blasio said. I think of the safety of my family all the time. The ultimate decisions when it comes to safety must be made by security experts. Bidens plan also restores protections in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean, southeast of Cape Cod. Trump moved to allow commercial fishing at the marine monument, an action that was heralded by fishing groups but derided by environmentalists. Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities, Biden wrote. It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them. Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa personify the values of press freedom and the reason it matters. These are journalists under personal threat who continuously defy censorship and repression to report the news, and have led the way for others to do the same, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement. This Nobel Peace Prize is a powerful recognition of their tireless work, and that of journalists all around the world. Their struggle is our struggle. Police said he was being monitored after numerous neighbors reported him approaching children in his condo development and trying to lure them back to his home. He was also suspected of raping at least one minor, and had possibly abused others. And there was also the infamous like Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz Angel of Death, whose drowning in Brazil Sher help solve. OSI did find and expel Nazis like John Demjanjuk, the quiet immigrant autoworker from Ohio who was also a death camp guard at Sobibor, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were gassed. But other monsters escaped justice, remaining here because the State Department again and again blocked Justice from deporting these arch criminals, despite them having been soaked in the blood of millions. Manhattan: I totally respect not wanting to get vaccinated, whether because of fear, mistrust or just plain stubbornness. Its my body, my choice too, and Im the only one who makes decisions on what does or doesnt go into my body. But this virus is deadly, and we have to fight it together to eradicate it, the same way we did with measles, smallpox, polio and other diseases. As long as youre going to live in a society with other people, especially in a crowded city like New York, do whats best for everyone and get vaccinated. Otherwise, go live out in the sticks somewhere so you can do as you damn well please and you and everyone will be safe. And yes, I am vaccinated. Lynne Henderson In 1938, 15,000 Teamster truck drivers went on strike in New York City, shutting down shipments in and out of the five boroughs. They were demanding a 40-hour workweek, down from 47 hours. While on strike for two weeks, they inspired drivers in New Jersey to join them. They didnt win everything they asked for, but they reduced their hours while maintaining their weekly pay. Future union members built on that victory to eventually win the 40-hour week and other benefits we take for granted today. New York has inspired superheroes for decades, and theres something to be said for New Yorkers being made of the same stuff. Weve faced some epic battles of our own, in the past 20 years alone including 9/11, the Great Recession, at least four devastating hurricanes and now the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet were just as tough and tenacious as ever. What we may have lost a little, though, is our tireless optimism and tolerance. Maybe its time superheroes inspire us back. I just came back from The View and saw my old friend Whoopi. As you well know she has a phenomenal sense of humor and Ive known Whoopi for years, Corcoran said. I made a joke at Whoopis expense which I now realize wasnt funny. For anyone who I may have offended unintentionally, I just want to say I really am very sorry. Representatives from Flays management team at WME did not comment on the news, saying that it is their policy not to address ongoing negotiations. Despite WMEs claims of negotiations still taking place, Food Network sources told Variety that the Discovery-owned cabler has made its decision and wont be able to agree on the financial terms. Actually no, thats not the truth, Ellen, you were invited, said Johnson in a clip that quickly went viral and became a much-used meme. Last time I was on the show, last year, you gave me a bunch of s--t about not inviting you, but I didnt even know you wanted to be invited. Legend is right in pocket on the melodious song penned by Robert Wells and Mel Torme that Cole first recorded in 1946. Hes had plenty of practice since previously recording a solo version for his 2018 set A Legendary Christmas. An attorney who works with foreign investors, de la Torre said hes looked for homes in his neighborhood. Its practically all built out, so there arent new homes coming, he said. And with existing inventory, everything winds up under contract in a couple of days, he added. Afterward, users are given the option to pay for Lightning Lane to access specific rides. The first options given include the attractions priced a la carte, or per person, per ride. Visitors can choose up to two of these per day, and their price varies daily. Sample prices for Genies launch date, a Tuesday, included $15 for Rise of the Resistance, $10 for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, $9 for the recently opened Remys Ratatouille Adventure and $7 for Expedition Everest. A patient testimonial on the website of a chiropractor in Georgia proclaims, Dr. Lou has taught me how toxic shots and vaccinations are. Another, for a chiropractor in Pennsylvania, says that in less than two months of treatments, the vaccination against contracting diphtheria (that was given to me as a child over 50 years ago) had been expelled from my body! A chiropractor in Hollywood warns of the dangers and unfortunately the EVIL associated with the new covid-19 vaccine. What I find really exciting and important about this position for me, said the associate professor who joined UCF in 2011 and is excited to be tenured, is that I get to be an example of si se puede. Yes you can make a successful life for yourself as an artist. Yes you can make a successful life for yourself as a professor and without compromising certain aspects of who I am, who I have been. The letter was supported by former Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., who died in April, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., along with several other Florida representatives. In January 2021, Hastings introduced H.R. 469, the Comprehensive Breast Reconstruction Act of 2021, which aims to legally require Medicare and Medicaid to cover nipple and areola tattoos after a mastectomy. This act had bipartisan support, but the last action taken was when it was referred to the Subcommittee on Health in February, according to the official website of Congress. But Sheriff John Mina responded at a press conference Wednesday evening, explaining that deputies did not at the time have probable cause to detain or arrest Caballero. He also noted Marcano is believed to have died before deputies were even called to check on her. However, Mina added that his agency would review its response to ensure everything was handled properly. Chauvin was convicted in April of two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter for killing Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes in May 2020. Floyds death sparked protests nationwide and calls for police reforms intended to reduce confrontation and violence. The Cypriot, who resides in Miami, wowed local media in Panama and Florida less than a year later in March 2018 when workers crowbarred Trumps name from hotel signs, one letter at a time. This photo provided by Polk County Sheriff's Office on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021 shows Ronald Donovan. Authorities say Donovan is facing murder charges after a woman riding on his motorcycle died following a high-speed shootout with a rival biker gang. The Polk County Sheriffs Office says the 33-year-old woman died hours after she was shot in the head early Friday, Oct. 8, in the gun battle on Interstate 4 between Lakeland and Orlando. Donovan is charged with felony murder for his female passengers death.(Polk County Sheriff's Office via AP) (AP) The rise in single people has been driven by a three-decade decline in marriage. The share of adults ages 25 to 54 who are married dropped from two-thirds in 1990 to just over half in 2019, and the share of people who have never married grew from 17% to 33%. While the unpartnered population includes people who are separated, divorced or widowed, all the growth comes from people who have never been married, the Pew report said. Hagstrom Miller said her Texas clinics called in some patients early Thursday who were on a list in case the law was blocked at some point. Other appointments were being scheduled for the days ahead, and phone lines were again busy. But some of the clinics 17 physicians were still declining to perform abortions, fearful they might be held liable despite the judges order. Masks in schools have become one of the latest fronts in the partisan fight over coronavirus regulations. Like DeSantis, some Republican governors have moved to ban mask mandates, though policies on face coverings, testing and quarantines in schools vary widely across the country. If DeSantis knew Ladapo at all, it might have been from the doctors published writings not from peer-reviewed medical journals, but on the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, where his op-eds argue that fear of COVID is worse than the virus itself. Pandemic policies forged in fear and panic, he wrote last September, have wrought tremendous damage in exchange for benefits that were attainable at a much lower cost. Republicans are especially wary of power-hungry bureaucrats who use rulemaking to write laws that legislators never intended, which is what happened here. If Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran were still in the House he once ruled as speaker, hed be screaming bloody murder at this bureaucratic overreach (he once took a swipe at bureaucrats in an Orlando Sentinel op-ed). Though this issue has been largely politicized understandably so with voting at the center of political power as a data scientist and professor, I dont approach voting rights with a political lens. Rather, I study data, including what we can learn and derive from this information to make the most informed and responsible decisions for Americas democratic future. This considers allegations of rampant fraud from the right, to insistences of racial and minority targeting through laws and voting restrictions from the left. We read your column about Valencia and would like to share how the Rotary Club of Orlando is trying to do its small part. Our foundation is providing $3,000 scholarships for at least 12 students. It may not seem like a large sum for many, but for the student with limited means, it can be life changing. So here is our request: Will you ask your readers and companies to join with us to help fund Valencia scholarships? Sincerely, Heidi Isenhart and Rich Ungaro, The Rotary Club of Orlando A lawsuit filed by female inmates alleged that prison officials often moved them to solitary housing at a local county jail, to keep them silent or in fear. They also said officers took them to dead spots in the womens facility, where surveillance cameras could not capture them being raped. I strongly believe that this federal grant program improperly attempts to interfere with the state boards authority to manage our states educational system. Education is a state responsibility, not a federal one, and one given to this board under our states Constitution, Corcoran said. Though plaintiffs claim that they and their members fear that it (the law) will be used against them based on the color of their skin or the messages that they express, its vagueness permits those in power to weaponize its enforcement against any group who wishes to express any message that the government disapproves of, Walker wrote in a 90-page order. Thus, while there may be some Floridians who welcome the chilling effect that this law has on the plaintiffs in this case, depending on who is in power, next time it could be their ox being gored. The East Carolinian has created a forum that centers around topics within the community where readers can express their experiences and concerns. With November being Native American Heritage Month, do you think East Carolina University has increased its efforts to recognize and honor Native and Indigenous cultures and students, faculty and staff on campus. Survey Abbot Ephraim The custody decision against a clergyman renowned world wide for his charitable work and spiritual mission a few days before Christmas comes to add to the woes which befell the country as a result of the gloomy political and financial conditions. Needless to say no one has so far been accused or found guilty or imprisoned for the countrys degradation! It was only yesterday that the Vice President of the government, E. Venizelos told the plenary of the House of Representatives that any investigation into money laundering in Switzerland on behalf of Mps constitutes a mockery since anyone can set up an offshore company rather than keeping a personal account. Deep down no one wants to remember those who confessed that they had accepted bribes from Siemens, which they either put in their pockets (as in the Manteli case) or in the party coffers (as in the Tsoukatou case). Yet justice and the political system have found a monk as a target for their purging; a monk whom for a long time they hold hostage to political intrigue without any evidence as to his personal involvement in any issue under investigation. In this indescribable Greek reality show, monk Ephrem is judged as likely to leave the country and is remanded into custody. Yes, during the entire time of his judicial ordeal, this likely to leave monk has visited several countries and gave 48 presentations. Recently he even visited Moscow at the invitation of the Russian President and the Prime Minister. At the end of these visits, Elder Ephrem always returned to his country and his monastery even though he suspected that the outcome of this whole process might be regrettable. Elder Ephrem of Vatopaidi is therefore accused of financial machinations, him that once returned from Russia, gave away all the money he had gathered from donations (made by the faithful venerating the Holy shrine: the belt of the Virgin during his recent pilgrimage to Russia) to the Greek dioceses and a philanthropic canteen from the cities of Thessaloniki and Athens, to help the suffering believers due to Greece recent economic crisis. Abbot Father Ephraim received the unexpected news with Christian love and deep faith in the divine providence. He appeared ready to comply with any provision of the authorities, including preventive detention. Elder Ephrem addressing to his monastic community of Vatopaidi, had asked the fathers of Vatopaidi to receive these news with spiritual eyes and not to condemn those who accuse him, and to continue their religious asceticism in unity, love and harmony. Source If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East Moscow court to hear appeal against detention of Sberbank vice-president case defendant RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 10:26 08/10/2021 MOSCOW, October 8 (RAPSI) The Moscow City Court has set October 20 as the date for an appeal filed against detention of one of the defendants in the embezzlement case involving former Deputy Education Minister and Sberbank vice-president Marina Rakova, the courts press service has told RAPSI. Ex-employee of the Fund for New Forms of Education Development Maxim Inkin was among first three defendants detained in the case in late September. Also, On September 30, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow ordered detention of another ex-fund employee Eugeny Zak and executive director of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences Christina Kryuchkova for two months. Rakova was arrested on October 6. Earlier, the woman was placed on a wanted list as she had escaped. Also, on October 6, Rakovas partner Artur Stetsenko, the common-law husband of Rakova and CEO of the Federal State Autonomous Institution "The Fund for New Forms of Education Development. According to investigators, in 2019, Rakova, then Deputy Minister of Education, and Stetsenko were involved in the embezzlement of 50 million rubles ($700,000) from the Fund during the execution of education state contracts. The United States and NATO are talking about a strategic failure in Afghanistan after twenty years of war and the massacre of tens and thousands of innocent Afghans and handing over Afghanistan with $85 billion worth of weapons and military equipment to their Taliban stooges. Today, Afghanistan is in a more catastrophic state than in 2001, in the grip of terrorism, barbarism, drug mafia, foreign intervention and other devastating miseries, and is facing economic collapse, poverty and mass exodus of its citizens. Meanwhile, the situation of Afghan women under the Taliban's medieval oppression is the most painful. However, the courageous protests of women in Kabul and several other provinces in the early days of the Taliban takeover, and their glorious resistance to the group's formidable gunmen showed that these ignorant people will never be able to hold Afghan women captive in their tyrannical chains like they did under their previous period of rule. When the US and NATO whitewashed the Jehadi oppressors at the beginning of their occupation of Afghanistan, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) warned the world in a statement (March 8, 2002) that a new period of disaster has arrived for Afghanistan: One fundamentalist band cannot be fought by siding with and supporting another. In its war on the Taliban and the al-Qaeda, the US has taken the "Northern Alliance" into service through wooing and arming certain infamous warlords. By so doing, the US is in fact abetting the worst enemies of our people and is continuing the same tyrannical policy against the people and the destiny of Afghanistan which successive US administrations adopted during the past two decades. The Taliban and the al-Qaeda cannot be eradicated through military and financial might alone. War on the Taliban and the al-Qaeda is not only a war on the military and financial fronts, it is a war on the ideological front too. Until such time as mindsets and thoughts characteristic of the Taliban and Osama & Co. remain, it is inevitable that we shall witness their trademark barbarism erupt yet once again, be it in Afghanistan or in any other part of the world. RAWA has repeatedly and consistently asserted that under the prevailing circumstances no power except the Afghan people themselves can or will succor them against fundamentalism, and there is no precedent in history wherein a foreign nation or nations who have themselves been patrons and abettors of agents of bondage and fundamentalist affliction have granted liberty to a nation held in thrall by those very same agents. The intellectuals who worshipped the US and coined the term of Afghanistan turning into another Japan while riding the massive wave of propaganda accused us of negativity and an organization that accepts none, stuck in the past and so on. But after twenty years of betrayal and murder by the US, most of RAWA's critics suddenly turned into the critics of the US and its policies when they were orphaned with the departure of the US forces and had to flee the country in the humiliation in the disastrous evacuation through Kabul airport. US officials each spoke of being surprised by the fall of Kabul but the reality is that everything went according to plan. The US, in accordance with its usual policy, spent twenty years playing the Tom and Jerry game with these Taliban criminals, maintaining and strengthening them for future use. The release of several Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay, the removal of some of them from the UN blacklist, the signing of an agreement, the opening of an official office in Qatar and the dignified transfer of their leaders there, the release of more than 5,000 of the most savage murderers from the prison of Afghanistan, were the prelude to their installation in Kabul and led to their recognition, raising their morale in escalating the war and killings. Even if Ashraf Ghani and his corrupt entourage had not fled in that shameful way, this sad fate awaited our people. During the Doha talks, Western media outlets and clowns of the corrupt Ghani government which included the filthiest and most infamous figures, tried to portray the Taliban as changed. Fawzia Koofi went so far as to deceive the public by declaring that the Taliban's view of women has changed and they have good plans for Afghan women. Zalmai Khalilzad, who played a treacherous role in infecting Afghanistan to the virus of fundamentalism, appeared in media outlets such as TOLO TV to try to soften this blow and recently enlisted the help of his villainous wife, Cheryl Benard to this end. In an article in the National Interest (August 24, 2021) she shamelessly defends the Taliban and by covering up the bitter truths and fabricating false facts, paints these bloodthirsty criminals as changed and compassionate to the people. Suppose everybody, especially Afghan women, forget the barbarism, suicide attacks, bombings, and massacres, in less than two months of their bloody rule, our people have felt the pain of the changed Taliban through their brutal attacks on women, individual freedoms, education, science and art, the media and press, and crimes against ethnic minorities. As expected, there is nobody in their cabinet except Mullahs and clerics and Sheikhs trained in Pakistani suicide-bomber manufacturing factories, most of whom are also on the UN blacklist. This has been subject to widespread ridicule by our people on social media as well. How is it possible for a force dependent on foreigners and enemy of all the manifestations of a modern and humane society, to change overnight and become the savior of the nation? On the other hand, the US and most Western and regional governments have each sought to establish relations with the Taliban regime, citing only the establishment of an inclusive government as one of the main conditions for recognizing the Islamic Emirate. In the final analysis, the Taliban will be the enemies of democracy and women, violating the most basic human rights. For Western governments, safeguarding their strategic interests is far more important than the fate of Afghan men and women and they are willing to make any disgraceful deal with the barbaric Taliban regime. They fear that Afghanistan and its vast mineral wealth will be completely in the hands of Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran and its other rivals, and they will not benefit from them. Our call to the freedom-loving, anti-war and peace-loving people and organizations of the US and other Western countries is to stand by the people of Afghanistan so that this land and its unfortunate women do not fall prey to the inhumane policies of the imperialist powers once more. Over the past two decades, the US and NATO have misused the name of Afghan women under deceptive slogans to justify their occupation, terrorism, and crimes in Afghanistan. A handful of mercenary women were promoted everywhere as fake symbols of womens achievements and a few women were installed in government positions. However, in the last two decades, the lives of millions of poor Afghan women have not changed. The rates of violence, oppression and sexual abuse of women has reached new heights and we have witnessed the most shocking atrocities against women. Afghanistans twenty-year history has repeatedly shown that a country that relies on a foreign power, especially the US, will face the catastrophic fate of Afghanistan. Contrary to this reality, mercenary intellectuals who have a fiery love for the USs criminal empire, propagated it as the savior of our people and screamed about the benefits of signing the Bilateral Security Agreement. Rangin Dadfar Spanta shamelessly called the opponents of this agreement the enemies of national interests; Javed Kohistani called it water of life for Afghanistan; Daud Muradian claimed that this agreement will give us the opportunity to fly (which it did, even if it was at the cost of the lives of several people who fell off the American planes while flying!); Daud Sultanzoi ridiculed the meaning of independence in the twenty-first century, saying, We must have strong allies to find political, economic and military stability! (and today it is thanks to this stability that he himself is acting as the footman of Kabul Talib mayor!); Malik Sitez vehemently spoke of security, USs reconstruction and modernization of Afghanistan's infrastructure and good governance and the securement of democracy and human rights as outcomes of the agreement; Lina Roozbeh was so offended by Belquis Roshans courageous act when she raised the slogan The pact with US is treachery against the nation! in the Loya Jirga that she called it a foolish act for gaining fame; and many such acts. Do these persons have a glimmer of conscience left in them to express their remorse over their ostentatious and Americanistic remarks? The US withdrawal from Afghanistan is not due to a military defeat in Afghanistan but due to the gradual decline of this superpower and its severe internal problems. When US officials declare that none of their soldiers have been killed in the war in Afghanistan in the last eighteen months, what defeat should we speak of? The truth is that over the past few years, with the catastrophic failure of the US imperialist policies in Syria, the inability to defeat COVID-19, the furious black movement, the monstrosity called Trump and the scandal of his supporters occupying the Capitol were events that showed its decay to the world and worsened its crisis. White House leaders were forced to end the costly longest-running war in American history and focus more on domestic issues. Of course, the US will not give up on Afghanistan entirely and will try to keep it as the epicenter of terrorism and insecurity to harm the interests of its rivals. Considering the analysis of the current disastrous situation, Afghanistan is waiting for more painful and dark days. The US and NATO have already laid the groundwork for the relocation of other terrorist groups, such as ISIS, to Afghanistan and have announced that their drone strikes will continue (the main victims of these strikes, as was in the past, will be the common and innocent people). The Taliban are also incapable of meeting the smallest requirements of the society and will only strengthen their administration by suppressing protesters and controlling womens clothing and the length of mens beards through their Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Although the Taliban gained power, they have no place in the minds and hearts of the people and will not be able to rule except by relying on guns and fascism. A nation that has realized the benefits of acquiring knowledge and has become aware of progress around the world through the media and social media cannot be imprisoned in the chains of ignorance and medieval laws for long. Given the atmosphere of deep hatred and protests of women who are the prime victims of these criminals, the struggle for liberation, and popular uprisings under independent leaderships in different parts of Afghanistan against these foreign agents, their desire for a smooth rule will never come true. The departure of the American and NATO occupiers and the escape of its henchmen and agents, even though accompanied by the rise of the odious Taliban regime, will in the long run pave the way for the establishment of a new justice-seeking movement so that the truly committed and democratic elements can use it to fight against fundamentalists and imperialists. The treacherous Jehadis, these brethren-in-creed of the Taliban, who are one of the main causes of todays miseries were immediately thrown away as they did not have any real foundation of support from the people. However, they are still falsely chanting the slogan of national resistance from their hiding places and they need to be unmasked for their true nature so they do not deceive our injured nation once more. At a time when a wave of despair has overtaken our nation, especially among the youth and intellectuals who want to flee, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) calls on all nationalist, freedom-seeking and revolutionary individuals and forces to join the struggle and use every possible window, even if dangerous, to play their role in healing the deep wounds on the body and soul of our homeland, and to fight honestly to mobilize the masses. Those who evade this vital cause under any pretext will be shamed by history. Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) October 7, 2021 A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Rockport, TX (78382) Today Rain early. A mix of sun and clouds by afternoon. Thunder possible. High around 70F. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Low 54F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. The Congress party's fortunes in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls next year, would not be revived despite all the "hype" generated around the Lakhimpur-Kheri incident, and the subsequent arrest of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, political strategist Prashant Kishor said on Friday. "People looking for a quick, spontaneous revival of GOP led opposition based on #LakhimpurKheri incident are setting themselves up for a big disappointment. Unfortunately there are no quick fix solutions to the deep-rooted problems and structural weakness of GOP," Kishor, who played an instrumental role in propelling Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress back to power in the West Bengal assembly polls held in March-April this year, wrote on Twitter. GOP stands for Grand Old Party -- a term often used for the Congress. The Congress, however, refused to comment on Kishor's remarks. Senior party leader and spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: "I do not comment on the remarks made by any consultant." Kishor's assertion has not gone down well within the Congress provided that both Priyanka Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi have raised the issue of Lakhimpur-Kheri, and even visited the families of the victims. The remarks have come amid "strong speculation" that Kishor would join the Congress and the party was deliberating on the issues raised by him. Even as no one in the party is averse to the idea of Kishor joining the Congress, the party leaders have said that he should not be given sweeping powers regarding elections. The Congress is preparing for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. In the politically crucial north Indian state, the Congress is pitted against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni on Friday said that his son Ashish Mishra, an accused in the Lakhimpur incident, has not fled as reported in the media. "My son will go to the police tomorrow and assist the probe. He has not escaped anywhere," Mishra said on his arrival in Lucknow. He said that his son was very much in their house in Lakhimpur. On calls for his resignation, Mishra said: "The Opposition just wants resignation on every issue. Let the investigation begin, truth will prevail." He later went to the Chief Minister's residence to meet Yogi Adityanath and also attend the party meeting for Avadh region. Two men who tried to uproot a private bank ATM in a bid to get funds for their addictions, been arrested, Delhi Police said on Friday. According to the police, the Manager of the Axis Bank Lajpat Nagar branch had filed a complaint that on the intervening night of October 5-6, two persons had tried to break the ATM. Police set up a team, which "immediately swung into action and analyzed the CCTV footage. Through CCTV footage, the team found itself able to recognise both the offenders," Deputy Commissioner of Police, Southeast, Esha Pandey said. Acting on a tip-off about the presence of the accused persons near the Ring Road, the team carried out a raid and apprehended both the accused with the help of their photographs obtained from the CCTV footage. The two were identified as Rohit Chauhan, of UP's Kasganj, and Pawan Kumar, of Ghaziabad. On sustained interrogation, both the accused persons disclosed they were addicted to alcohol and drugs and used to work in a private company on a temporary basis but could not earn enough to meet their requirements. The police have seized an iron rod and a screwdriver and registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. NewYork, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/08/2021 -- Soft Covering Flooring Market size is forecast to reach $54 billion by 2026, after growing at a CAGR of 5.6% during 2021-2026 owing to an increase in the growth of the commercial replacement market, as well as a growing need for green building materials. In the flooring sector, manufacturers specialized in soft covering flooring also provide a wide variety of lightweight and recycled raw materials including linoleum, polypropylene, nylon, and other synthetic fibers. Furthermore, the massive expansion of the tourism and hospitality industries, as well as the increased construction of commercial and residential buildings in developing countries such as China, India, and South Korea, are likely to fuel demand for soft covering flooring. The increasing R&D activities of major manufacturers for innovative designs and services are further expected to drive the demand for the soft covering flooring market. However, the global soft covering flooring industry is anticipated to be hampered by fluctuating raw material prices. COVID-19 Impact However, COVID-19 has negatively impacted the soft covering flooring market in 2020 with the halt in production across various countries. The global lockdowns to curb the virus have led to a decrease in manufacturing sectors including residential and commercial building construction, which significantly resulted in the decline of the market. Adding to this, the development of new COVID strains in countries such as the USA, UK, Nigeria, and so on from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2021 is further resulting in the lockdown and impacting the manufacturing sector thereby constraining the market growth rate. Soft Covering Flooring Market Segment Analysis By Type Carpet tiles segment held the largest share in the soft covering flooring market in 2020, due to the ease of rotation and replacement provided by the carpet tiles made of linoleum, polypropylene, nylon, and other synthetic fibers. Furthermore, carpet tiles facilitate access to electrical, sub floor air delivery systems, telephone, and computer wirings with minimal disruption, and thus its demand is increasing. Carpet tiles remove the unsightly appearance and cumulative damage caused by traditional carpet cutting during disruption and connections. High demand is likely to open new avenues for market expansion, especially from retail spaces, educational and other institutions, airports, health facilities, and workplaces. Broadloom is the most conventional and popular carpeting choice in both residential and commercial sectors. Broadlooms have a moisture backing that provides good stain resistance and can be chemically welded to hide seams. Broadloom flooring's enhanced aesthetics are also predicted to fuel growth. Request for Sample Report @ https://www.industryarc.com/pdfdownload.php?id=503438 Report Price: $ 4500 (Single User License) Soft Covering Flooring Market Segment Analysis By End Use Industry The residential application held the largest share in the soft covering flooring market in 2020 and is growing at a CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period. This was owing to its excellent insulating capabilities, which prevent the floor from being too cold, lowering energy use. In addition, throughout the projection period, population expansion along with an increase in the number of nuclear families is predicted to stimulate demand from the residential application segment. For, instance, in 2019, China government invested 1.9 billion on 13 public housing projects. According to International Trade Administration (ITA), the Chinese construction industry is forecasted to grow at an annual average of 5% in real terms between 2019 and 2023. By 2022, the Indian government's "Housing for All" plan aims to build over 20 million affordable homes for the urban poor. This will further drive Soft covering flooring market growth. Soft Covering Flooring Market Segment Analysis By Geography North America held the largest share in the soft covering flooring market in 2020 up to 30%, as a result of the development and subsequent sale of environmentally friendly and sustainable carpets The United States is the region's primary growth engine. Construction of residential and commercial structures is predicted to increase significantly in the United States over the projection period, resulting in significant growth. In addition, during the next eight years, an increase in residential renovations is predicted to boost the market growth in the country. According to the US Census Bureau, the value of residential and non-residential development placed in place in January 2020 increased to $567,555 million and $470,986 million, respectively, from $546,532 million and $466,436 million in December 2019. Mexico is also experiencing high housing demand, which has resulted in significant construction expenditure. For example, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) granted the Mexican company Procsa a local currency financing program worth up to 150 million Mexican pesos ($7.8 million) in January 2019 to fund land acquisition, development, and commercialization of housing for low and middle-income families in the country. Therefore, these factors are influencing soft covering flooring market growth. Soft Covering Flooring Market Drivers Increased Construction of Residential and Commercial Buildings and Rise In Disposable Income of Individuals The demand for soft covering flooring has been boosted by rising global earnings as well as increased construction of residential and commercial buildings. For instance, the Singapore government spends at least S$2 billion on public infrastructure each month, according to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission. Furthermore, the Government-wide Circular Economy Initiative, which aims to create a circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050, is boosting the country's construction industry. India expects to invest US$ 1.4 trillion on infrastructure over the next five years, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). In addition, in India, construction project like "100 smart cities" is influencing soft covering flooring demand. Aspiring homeowners are not only purchasing new homes but also lavishing on their interior designs. The same is true for office upgrades to give them a more sophisticated appearance. Aside from that, the introduction of high-end products to the market are rising demand and sales. At the moment, the market is being boosted by the growing sales of carpet tiles made of linoleum, polypropylene, nylon, and other synthetic fibers. Furthermore, the market benefits from the increased focus on research and development to generate better goods and improve production processes. Savvy players are capitalizing on the latest eco-friendly material trend in floor coverings. Inquiry Before Buying @ https://www.industryarc.com/reports/request-quote?id=503438 Soft Covering Flooring Market Challenges Change in Raw Material Prices Changes in raw material prices as a result of changing market conditions have a substantial impact on the final product price. The market's development prospects are likely to be hampered by a movement toward hard floor coverings like wood and ceramics, as well as a high vulnerability to economic swings. Carpet, on the other hand, is under tough competition in commercial and residential applications from the much-desired hard surface floors. The proper disposal of carpets, and rugs, broadlooms, which generate a lot of garbage, is another challenge for the market. Environmentalists and regulatory organizations have already expressed their disapproval of this, and the market is likely to suffer the consequences. Soft Covering Flooring Market Landscape Technology launches, acquisitions and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the Soft Covering Flooring Market. Major players in the Soft Covering Flooring market includes Cargill Inc, Abbey Carpet Company Inc., Beaulieu Group LLC, AstroTurf LLC, Dixie Group Inc., and Bentley Mills Inc., among others. Key Takeaways North America Dominated the soft covering flooring market in 2020, owning to the product's great penetration in residential and commercial buildings due to its great durability and ease of installation. The growing number of green buildings being built in the United States is predicted to boost demand for eco-friendly and lightweight floor coverings. In addition, rising consumer spending on residential construction, along with increased per capita income, is projected to help consumers afford home interiors, particularly pricey flooring solutions. Product demand is expected to be boosted by technological advancements aimed at giving a choice of dying technologies to create diverse patterns, solid colors, and design continuity. Related Reports: A. Commercial Flooring Market - https://www.industryarc.com/Research/Commercial-Flooring-Market-Research-503476 B. Wood And Laminate Flooring Market https://www.industryarc.com/Research/Wood-And-Laminate-Flooring-Market-Research-503530 For more Chemicals and Materials Market reports, please click here About IndustryARC: IndustryARC primarily focuses on Cutting Edge Technologies and Newer Applications market research. Our Custom Research Services are designed to provide insights on the constant flux in the global supply-demand gap of markets. Our strong team of analysts enables us to meet the client research needs at a rapid speed, with a variety of options for your business. Any other custom requirements can be discussed with our team, drop an e-mail to sales@industryarc.com to discuss more about our consulting services. New revelations by a whistleblower prove that the worlds largest social media platform understands clearly its negative impact on society, but that profits are a greater lure than preserving democracy. by Sonali Kolhatkar Facebooks former employee Frances Haugen, in an interview on 60 Minutes, explained to host Scott Pelley that the social media giant has conducted internal experiments that demonstrate just how quickly and efficiently its users are driven down rabbit holes of white supremacist beliefs. The 37-year-old data scientist who resigned from Facebook earlier this year and became a whistleblower explained how the company knows its algorithms lead users down extremist paths. Facebook, according to Haugen, created new test accounts that followed former President Donald Trump, his wife Melania Trump, Fox News and a local news outlet. After simply clicking on the first suggested links that Facebooks algorithm offered up, those accounts were then automatically shown white supremacist content. Within a week you see QAnon; in two weeks you see things about white genocide, said Haugen. Haugens testimony and the documents she shared confirm what critics have known for a long time. Weve already known that hate speech, bigotry, lies about COVID, about the pandemic, about the election, about a number of other issues, are prolific across Facebooks platforms, said Jessica Gonzalez, co-CEO of Free Press, in an interview. However, what we didnt know is the extent of what Facebook knew, she added. Three and a half years ago, in the midst of the Trump presidency, I wrote about giving up on an older white man related to me via marriage and who, generally speaking, has been a loving and kind parent and grandparent to his nonwhite relatives. This mans hate-filled and lie-filled Facebook reposts alienated me so deeply that I cut off ties with him. In light of Haugens testimony, the trajectory of hate that he followed makes far more sense to me now than it did in 2018. Active on Facebook, he constantly reposted memes and fake news posts that he likely didnt seek out but that he was exposed to. I imagine such content resonated with some nascent sense of outrage he harbored over fears that immigrants and people of color were taking advantage of a system that was rigged against whites by Black and Brown politicians like Barack Obama and Ilhan Omar. My relative fit the profile of the thousands of right-wing white Americans who mobbed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, egged on by a sense of outrage that Facebook helped whip up. In fact, Haugen related that Facebook turned off its tools to stem election misinformation soon after the November 2020 electiona move that she says the companys employees cited internally as a significant contributor to the January 6 riot in the nations capital. The House Select Committee investigating the riot has now invited Haugen to meet with members about Facebooks role. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg understands exactly what Haugen blames his company for, saying in a lengthy post, At the heart of these accusations is this idea that we prioritize profit over safety and well-being. Of course, he maintains, Thats just not true, and goes on to call her analysis illogical, and that it is a false picture of the company that is being painted. Except that Haugen isnt just sharing her opinions of the companys motives and practices. She has a massive trove of internal documents from Facebook to back up her claimsdocuments that were analyzed and published in an in-depth investigation in the Wall Street Journal, hardly a marginal media outlet. The Wall Street Journal says that its central finding is that Facebook Inc. knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands. The crux of Facebooks defense against such accusations is that it does its best to combat misinformation while balancing the need to protect free speech and that if it were to crack down anymore, it would violate the First Amendment rights of users. In his testimony before House Representatives this March, Zuckerberg said, Its not possible to catch every piece of harmful content without infringing on peoples freedoms in a way that I dont think that wed be comfortable with as a society. In other words, the social media platform maintains that it is doing as much as it possibly can to combat hate speech, misinformation, and fake news on its platform. One might imagine that this means a majority of material is being flagged and removed. But Haugen maintains that while Facebook says it removes 94 percent of hate speech, its internal documents say we get 3 percent to 5 percent of hate speech. Ultimately, Facebook makes more money when you consume more content, she explained. And hate and rage are great motivators for keeping people engaged on the platform. Based on what Haugen has revealed, Gonzalez concluded that Facebook had a very clear picture about the major societal harms that its platform was causing. And, worse, the company largely decided to do nothing to mitigate those problems, and then it proceeded to lie and mislead the U.S. public, including members of Congress. Gonzalez is hopeful that Haugens decision to become a whistleblower will have a positive impact on an issue that has stymied Congress. During Haugens testimony to a Senate panel on October 5, she faced largely reasonable and thoughtful questioning from lawmakers with little of the partisan political grandstanding that has marked many hearings on social media-based misinformation. We saw senators from both sides of the aisle asking serious questions, she said. It was much less of a circus than we usually see in the United States Senate. What Gonzalez hopes is that Congress passes a data privacy law that treats the protection of data gathered from users as a civil right. This is critical because Facebook makes its money from selling user data to advertisers, and Gonzalez wants to see that our personal data and the personal data of our children isnt used to push damaging content that doesnt provoke hate and violence and spread massive amounts of lies. The calculus of Facebooks intent is very simple. In spite of Zuckerbergs denials, Gonzalez says, the system is built on a hate-and-lie for profit model, and Facebook has made a decision that it would rather make money than keep people safe. It isnt as though Facebook is selling hate because it has an agenda to destroy democracy. Its just that destroying democracy is not a deal-breaker when huge profits are at stake. This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of Rising Up With Sonali, a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. She is a writing fellow for the Economy for All project at the Independent Media Institute. Homestead, FL (33030) Today Thunderstorms - a few could contain very heavy rain, especially this afternoon. High near 80F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 71F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. HamSphere 4.0 CW contest in November 2021 The HamSphere 4.0 Fall CW contest 2021 will start the 6 November 2021 at 04:00 UTC and finish 24 hours later on the 7 November 2021 at 04:00 UTC. Bands 10 to 160 meter. HamSphere is open to amateur radio with a call sign but also to all operators who like DX like SWL, CB radio operators. You will receive a call like 14HS12345 for a French, 26HS for UK, etc like on 11 meter. HamSphere 4.0 since 2014 use VoIP via internet with a very realistic propagation on HF amateur radio bands, we can use SSB, CW and digital modes. Include with the virtual tranceiver we have a directive antenna and we can exchange QSL E-QSL cards directly via the HS 4.0 system. You can have a one month free trial http://hs40.hamsphere.com/download and you can visit my blog to look at my QSL cards received from more of 180 DXCC entities via hamSphere https://dxccf0duw.blogspot.com/ Thank you, i hope to meet you soon on HS 4.0 the virtual HAM radio via internet over Voip. 73 de Frank FDUW near Paris France on HamSphere since 2012. Bir Lehlu (Sahrawi Republic), Oct 08, 2021 (SPS) - Units of the Saharawi People's Liberation Army (SPLA) launched new attacks against various entrenchment points of the Moroccan occupation forces along the Wall of Shame. According to War Report No. 330 issued by the Ministry of National Defense, Thursday, units of our army carried out intense and concentrated bombardments, which caused panic and fear in the ranks of enemy soldiers in the following positions: - The Udei Echderiya region, in the Farsia sector. - The Uad Lazal region, in the Farsia sector. - The Lagaad region, in the Mahbes sector. - Enemy bases in the Sabjat Tanuchad region, in the Mahbes sector. The War Report also reports that SPLA advance detachments had concentrated their artillery fires Wednesday against the occupation forces positioned in the regions of Tinilik and east of Udei As-sfa, in Bagari and Smara, respectively.SPS 125/090/TRA Dili (Timor Leste), Oct 08, 2021 (SPS) - Several political parties, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and human rights activists from Timor Leste have expressed their unconditional solidarity with the Sahrawi activist Sultana Sidbrahim Khaya, who continues to suffer a siege with his family in the occupied city of Bojador. In a joint statement made public after the launch of the Solidarity Campaign with Sultana Khaya, Timorese activists and civil society organizations expressed their solidarity with the Sahrawi activist and her family, who under permanent siege by the repressive forces Moroccans. The communique calls on the International Committee of the Red Cross to take urgent measures to guarantee the safety of defenseless Sahrawi civilians, dispatching an urgent medical mission to the occupied city of Bojador to investigate the continuous violations of International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva conventions against Sultana Khaya 's family . SPS 125/090/TRA This column has long maintained that the US has been deeply involved in massive international corruption. by Eric S. Margolis The really wealthy, vexed by tax collectors, pesky relatives, ex-wives and just plain thieves, long ago learned the wisdom of hiding their money and property. This is twice true for politicians. An investigation by an international consortium of journalists just examined a massive leak of 11.9 million records of offshore financial firms that have been evading taxes and financial disclosure for their many clients. The result of what is known as The Pandora Papers has been a cascade of scandals. This column has long maintained that the US has been deeply involved in massive international corruption. Chief tawdry examples are the largest recipients of US aid, Israel, Afghanistan and Jordan. Washington spent over two trillion dollars on the now lost, 20-year Afghan conflict. All that money has vanished. Among the largest recipients was the Afghan Communist Party and the drug mafias that made US-run Afghanistan the worlds largest producer of illegal heroin and morphine. The third recipient of US largess, Jordan, has gotten $22 billion from the US since the 1950s. Last year it received $1 billion alone from Washington, mostly to support the Trump administrations crude attempts to buy, threaten and cajole Arab dictatorships into a security pact with Israel that seriously screws the Palestinians. In addition, the US has also given $ 1.7 billion to Jordan to care for the large numbers of Syrian refugees it shelters. But they were the result of a war stared by the US to overthrow Syrias Assad regime, one of the last independent Arab nations. In addition, Jordans royal family received tens of millions in secret funding from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and, reportedly, from Israel. Jordan and Oman have long been known as favorite dependencies of Britains MI6 intelligence service and the CIA. All this money for a small, barren nation of only 10 million is remarkable. Yet one must understand that it is a key piece of the US Mideast Empires architecture. Interestingly, 60% of Jordans population is believed to be made up of Palestinian refugees from the creation of Israel in May, 1948. Today, 20% of Israels population is Palestinian. Britain and then the US kept Jordans ruling Hashemite dynasty in power. It turned out to be one of the regions more civilized and efficient rulers though it too often relied on the US-trained secret police to crush unrest. My mother interviewed the late King Hussein in the 1950s and at that time discovered that one million Palestinian refugees were subsisting in tents. Many still do today. Jordan is a very poor nation that lives on the edge. So why was King Abdullah II secretly buying more than $100 billion of prime property in Malibu, London and the French Riviera? All through a web of complex companies designed to disguise the ownership? Palace spokesmen claim it was only to assure security. Saudi and other Gulf royalty make the same claim for their important holdings in Spain and France. So does Spains recently deposed monarch, King Juan Carlos. Many of the Mideasts monarchs and dictators received secret US cash and property. This has been a fact since the days of Egypts Anwar Sadat, who was on the CIAs payroll since 1952. France is in charge of payoffs to North African and black African leaders. Its hard to find an African leader who does not own luxury buildings on the French Riviera or chic Alpine ski resorts. Why not? These strongmen risk being overthrown daily. Make hay while the sun shines. Interestingly, some of the Third World leaders most vilified by the west have been relatively honest rulers. Good examples are Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, Khomeini and Ahmadinejad in Iran, and Arafat of Palestine. But it was the crooks and cleptos like Irans late Shah, or Afghanistans Ashraf Ghani who got all the good press in the West. Copyright 2021 Eric S. Margolis We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Kiesha Davis, director of partnership and capacity building at Deaconess Foundation - The Deaconess Foundations support of Justine PETERSEN has helped the non-profit on its initiative to increase wealth and assets through participation in asset-building services. This includes supporting first-time homebuyers like Jerry Johnson. I am so happy that I do not pay rent anymore. It feels great to come home every night. Gabriella Gabby Currie enjoys some play time with her father, Justin Cotton. She is medically fragile child who needs around-the-clock care. If passed in Missouri, the family Home Health Aide Program would provide support to families like Gabbys who require frequent medical care. Obviously this is a very difficult decision, Halker said in a statement on Friday. The impact COVID has had on our industry over the last 18+ months, and continues to have, is devastating. That combined with our building lease coming up for renewal has made this the right decision for us at this time. Burke was the school districts longtime chief financial officer. Back when they were thinking of who in the district might be best suited to take the seat from Fennoy, School Board Chairman Frank Barbieri said that Burke immediately came to mind. The district will benefit from his experience as CFO, Barbieri said, as he has the knowledge to do both academic side and the operations side of the job. The information from the study, Rhode-Barbarigos said, could be used to help convince resilience planners to incorporate reef restoration in efforts, including a $4.6 billion plan created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Biscayne Bay. Miami-Dade County has rejected the Corps plans and wants to revise it to include more natural solutions. But to get federal funding, the Corps will need to justify the work under a cost-benefit analysis required by law, something the agency has struggled to do with reefs and mangroves. During that split second decision, a screeching sound is not a good sound to hear, he said. You hear it all the time. I was very fortunate and very lucky. Theres countless troopers I know who are not so lucky. They died or got seriously hurt.... These are career-ending events. I always look up to the man above that protected me. The extra help follows reports that police found signs of a recent campsite in the preserve. Brian Laundrie, who is wanted on a charge of bank card fraud, was reported missing on Sept. 17, days after he told his parents he was going to the Carlton Preserve area for a hike, according to his family. Even after finishing graduate school, the former White House intern said she was unsuccessful in putting her mistake in the past. As time went by and the internet came of age, Lewinsky said she saw other people being targeted for humiliation like she was following the 1998 White House scandal. She said that when someone is humiliated on a grand stage, as she was, your narrative runs away from you your identity is stolen. Plaintiffs demand documents privileged under the First Amendment, the response said. The Constitution guarantees a right to engage in activities that the First Amendment protects, including the right to petition the government, the right to associate and the right of speech. The right to petition entitles citizens to communicate with their government officials to express ideas and concerns. Florida spent years trying to wean homeowners off Citizens and back into the private market. But Citizens now expects to have more than 1 million policyholders next year, maybe as many as 1.3 million. Thats more than double the number of policies it held in June 2020, putting far too much of the property insurance burden on the state. The Botticelli Affair Written by: Traci L. Slatton Available In: eBook|Paperback Author Website: http://www.tracilslatton.com/ Luscious art forger Laila Cambridge has a little vampire problem. Shes a high-spirited woman with a sordid past, trying to go straight. Enter gorgeous John Bolingbroke, a half-vampire with news of her missing father. From New York through Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome, while fleeing ruthless vampires, Laila searches desperately for her father and a lost painting that holds a coveted secret. Nikolai Returns Written by: Michael Tanner Available In: eBook|Paperback Author Website: http://www.michaeltannerbooks.com/ In 1920, a glittering Russian Orthodox monastery is dynamited by the Bolsheviks into piles of rubble. Years later, Nikolai RazkazovKolyagrows up in the shadow of the ruins. A veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the deadly Russian arms trade, Kolya learns that he and the old monastery share a special connection and that his life has a purpose, a dangerous purpose. if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi... SUBSCRIBER E-EDITION AND ONLINE LOGIN DIRECTIONS Current print subscribers: click "Get Started" below and use your subscription account number (Found on the top left of your newspaper mailing label) to activate your FREE access to the e-Edition and online stories. Log in with the username and password you registered on this website. by Nina Baker bakernin@grinnell.edu A student body without internet access. A student body in confined quarters. A student body where the possibility of solitary confinement for COVID-19 outbreaks was ever-present. These were the conditions for students at Newton Correctional Facility (NCF) enrolled in Grinnell Colleges Liberal Arts in Prison Program (LAPP). After a year of remote coursework through paper handouts, videoconferencing and closed-circuit TV channels, the Liberal Arts in Prison Program has shifted back to in-person instruction once more. We have changed things during the pandemic, but we have never stopped. And we are committed to doing this as high quality as we can, said Emily Guenther `07, director of the LAPP. The LAPP has facilitated the teaching of faculty-led and student-led courses at NCF since 2003. In 2009, students admitted to the accredited program began to receive educational credits transferable to other academic institutions upon release from NCF. Applicants to the LAPP write an admissions essay which is reviewed by a panel of faculty who have previously taught at NCF. Applicants who pass this stage are then interviewed. Approximately 15 students are enrolled in the LAPP each semester. Since the beginning of the pandemic, prisons have been an especially high-risk location for virus transmission due to less social distancing opportunities and lower sanitation levels. When the College went remote in March of 2020, classes at the prison went remote as well. Because students at NCF arent allowed to access the internet, the LAPP shifted to paper handouts delivered to the prison as the spring 2020 semester ended. Beginning in the summer semester, NCF granted faculty the ability to run courses through a speaker phone system. Soon after, NCF approved the LAPP to run classes through videoconferencing. An NCF staff member would run the virtual lecture on their laptop and project the class onto a large screen, and the students would gather around the screen. Early on in the pandemic, it was higher quality, because they were still meeting together, and having in-person discussions amongst themselves, said Guenther. They were already incarcerated so there wasnt any more risk for them to gather for class. The LAPP also received approval from NCF to create a closed-circuit television channel called Grinnell TV, where educational content could be streamed to each student through TVs located in their cells. NCF Warden Kris Wetzel did not respond to request for comment on the organization of the cells. Grace Duffy `22 began working for the LAPP during her first year and worked remotely as a student coordinator for the LAPP during the 2020-21 year. Duffy and other student coordinators created a schedule for the channel, which aired videos at certain times each day. Other student volunteers continued to tutor and provide research assistance virtually throughout the pandemic. Concrete Perspectives, NCFs literary magazine which is based on submissions by the incarcerated and put together by students at the College, has also continued during the pandemic. COVID-19 Lockdown NCF had no positive COVID-19 cases prior to December 2020. The first incarcerated person tested positive in mid-December, and the prison went into total lockdown. People incarcerated there were confined to their cells for 23 hours every day. It was essentially solitary confinement for everyone, said Guenther. They slowed it down enough so that they basically hit one living unit at a time. As of Sept. 23, 2021, 843 of the 1050 incarcerated men at NCF have tested positive for COVID-19. One man has died from the virus. During the lockdown, classes stopped being conducted via call and were switched to lectures transmitted through Grinnell TV. The professor teaching the class would record lectures and transmit them through the network. While students continued to write essays, they werent able to be collected from the students. The channel also began airing nature documentaries, yoga videos and other programs Guenther hoped would relieve stress for inmates during the lockdown. We wanted to create a positive focus for students who were not getting much other interaction, said Duffy. Total lockdown ended in mid-March as the capacity for vaccines became available for the incarcerated. While the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) included the incarcerated as an at-risk group for COVID-19, they were in the least prioritized group of Phase 1B in IDPHs vaccination distribution campaign. Vaccines are not mandated for the incarcerated or correctional officers in Iowa, but as of September, over 70 percent of inmates at NCF are vaccinated. Masks are also not mandated at NCF. However, all in-person faculty-taught classes require students to wear masks while in session. Looking Forward In June of 2021, as COVID-19 cases began to decline in Newton and Grinnell, the College approved professors to begin teaching in-person again at NCF. The LAPP also moved back to offering three courses at once, with each professor teaching twice per week. This summer and fall, the LAPP offered Composition 1 and 2, Literary Analysis, Playwriting and Humanities 101: Ancient Greek World. Being in person is a really bedrock value of the program. Its about equity, because thats how classes are taught on campus now, said Guenther. Assuming that the pandemic doesnt go south again, well have a lot more we need students to take on. We did admissions this summer and had more people apply than in recent memory. The interest among the incarcerated for college is sky-high and has remained sky-high. Guenther added that its possible the increase in applications was due to the pent-up demand among the incarcerated at NCF for stimulation after lockdown. The LAPP also received approval from the College for student volunteers to go into the prison, who did the week of Sept. 19. Its important for the incarcerated to interact with people who are not prison guards. And so hopefully we can start moving back towards students going back into the prison and interacting with the program, said Duffy, whose original intent in working for the LAPP was to work directly with the students at NCF. Even though her involvement in the program was not how she anticipated, Duffy said that her working with the program during the pandemic was a learning opportunity to understand how to navigate unexpected challenges in a system as bureaucratic as the U.S. criminal justice system. My involvement in the program definitely has charged the entire way I see our criminal justice system, and the way I think about education overall. I think that its really informed the way I see my own education and the value of education, said Duffy. The pandemic heightens all of those feelings for me. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov received the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Co-chairman of the Intergovernmental Turkmen-Russian Commission on Economic Cooperation Alexey Overchuk, who arrived in Ashgabat on a working visit. During the meeting, the head of state and the Russian Deputy Prime Minister discussed the current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, noting the considerable potential for intensification of cooperation in key areas. The sides stressed that the trade and economic sphere, fuel and energy complex, agriculture, chemical and processing industry, transport and communication and a number of other areas present promising areas of partnership. In this regard, the sides emphasized the role of the Intergovernmental Turkmen-Russian Commission on Economic Cooperation as an effective mechanism for implementation of the agreements reached earlier and building up economic ties. The sides also discussed partnership in the fight against coronavirus infection, including the exchange of experiences between specialized structures. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021 AP drug mafia established links with Afghanistan gangs with support of top people: Naidu Vijayawada, Oct 8 (UNI) Telugu Desam Party National President and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday asserted that it would not be possible for the drug mafia in Andhra Pradesh to establish direct links with gangs in Afghanistan without the active support of the top people in the state. Naidu asked how an ordinary person like Machavaram Sudhakar of Aashi Trading Company could open direct channels with the Afghan heroin mafia. It was high time for the investigating agencies to nab those bigwigs in the state who were behind the illegal activities of Sudhakar. The AP mafia has emerged as a threat not just to the state but to the entire country as a whole, he said. The TDP chief welcomed hundreds of the ruling YSRCP activists and leaders who arrived from the Kanigiri segment in Prakasam district under the leadership of former MLA Ugra Narasimha Reddy. They joined the TDP in the presence of key leaders. Lakhimpur Kheri, Oct 8 (UNI) Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni's son Ashish has not reported at the crime branch here on Friday till 1000 hrs. Entire police teams are stationed at the crime branch but Ashish Mishra is still absconding, sources here said. On the other hand it has been reported that Ashish could have fled to nearby Nepal through Uttarakhand as his last mobile location was detected at Gaurifanta in Uttarakhand last night, which is very close to the Nepal border, the sources added. The police team would wait for another 2 hours for Ashish and then will proceed for formalities to declare him absconding, if there is no response from him. Yesterday, Ashish was asked to appear before the police at 1000 hrs at the crime branch on Friday and the summons were pasted outside his residence in Shahpur Kothi locality. The summon was issued under section 160 of the CrPC. It was presumed that Ashish would be arrested after his interrogation today. Police had arrested two persons identified as Luvkush Rana and Ashish Pandey yesterday. The two arrested are close aides of Ashish Mishra and more raids are going on to arrest the prime accused. Half a dozen other suspects have been also detained for interrogation in the matter, disclosed a senior officer. Besides Ashish, another high profile accused, Ankit Das, whose name came up in one of the videos and who was allegedly present in his SUV, behind the Thar jeep of Ashish Mishra, was also absconding. Ankit is nephew of former BSP MP Akhilesh Das and SUV (burnt by the mob later) also went crushing the farmers after the Thar Jeep hit the farmers. Sources said that Ankit is very close to union minister Ajay Mishra and was often seen with ministers son Ashish. It may be mentioned that the Lakhimpur Kheri violence has triggered a major political storm as the main accused Ashish Mishra, who has been named in police FIR, is the son of the minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni. The police have booked Ashish Mishra on multiple charges, including murder and criminal conspiracy. However, he has not been arrested yet. As the opposition leaders are raising demands for the removal of Ajay Mishra, the minister of state on Wednesday met Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. Ajay Mishra has been claiming that his son was not there in the car which ran over the protesters. He claimed the driver lost the balance after being attacked by stone pelters and then some protesters came under the car. Later, his driver was lynched and the car was set on fire, the minister had claimed. UNI MB ASN New Delhi, Oct 8 (UNI) In a push to increase vaccination coverage, The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) ordered on Friday that government employees who have not taken the COVID-19 vaccine will be barred to attend office from October 16 onwards. Additionally, all such unvaccinated government employees, including healthcare workers frontline workers and teachers will be marked "on leave" till they get the at least the first dose, it added. The decision was taken in a meeting held on September 29 to ensure 100 per cent vaccination of government employees, the order noted. "..it was decided to ensure 100% vaccination of all Government employees, healthcare workers, frontline workers as well as teachers and other staff working in schools/colleges, as these categories of persons have frequent interaction with general public/vulnerable section of the society," the order read. The DDMA directed all the government employees to get vaccinated, at least with the first dose, by October 15. The employees "who do not get vaccinated (at least first dose) by 15.10.21 shall not be allowed to attend their respective offices/healthcare institutions/educational institutions with effect from 16.10.21 till they have obtained the first dose vaccine," it said. The heads of departments concerned will verify vaccinated employees through the Aarogya Setu app or vaccination certificate, it stated. The order, issued by Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, said that the central government "may consider issuing similar directions in respect of its employees working in Delhi." According to the DDMA directions, the heads of concerned departments will have to verify the vaccination status of their staff employees through the Aarogya Setu app or vaccination certificates. Meanwhile, the order, issued by Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, also said that the central government "may consider issuing similar directions in respect of its employees working in Delhi." UNI ASH RKM 1755 Congress reconstitutes disciplinary committee 18 Nov 2021 | 9:35 PM New Delhi, Nov 18 (UNI) Congress on Thursday reconstituted it's disciplinary committee with former defence minister AK Antony as it's chairman. see more.. Other states following development model of Haryana: Khattar 18 Nov 2021 | 9:26 PM New Delhi, Nov 18 (UNI) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said the state is doing well at every front in comparison with other states and they are even following the development model of Haryana. see more.. Congress reconstitutes disciplinary committee (lead) 18 Nov 2021 | 9:24 PM New Delhi, Nov 18 (UNI) Congress on Thursday reconstituted it's disciplinary committee with former defence minister AK Antony as it's chairman. see more.. IT searches in WB leads to recovery of Rs 200 Cr of unaccounted income 18 Nov 2021 | 9:21 PM New Delhi, Nov 18 (UNI) The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on a prominent Kolkata-based group engaged in manufacturing of cement and real estate on November 16, 2021, it was reported on Thursday. see more.. Telemedicine is here to stay, but how much you pay for a visit could change remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, puppy nanny Hope Lyberg holds a mini-goldendoodle before flying with it across the country to a new owner. Address to the Fourth Committee of the United Nations "Madam Chair, I have the honour to address you today as the representative of the Government of Gibraltar in the United States of America." "I do so on behalf of the Chief Minister of Gibraltar who has tested positive for COVID-19, which means that neither he, nor the Deputy Chief Minister as a close contact, have been able to travel to New York. It is an honour for me to represent the people of Gibraltar here today. Though small in number, we are a proud people who have inhabited our home at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, the famous Rock of Gibraltar, for over three hundred years. Three hundred years is a long time, Madam Chair. Three hundred and seventeen to be exact. This is longer than Italy, Germany or the United States have existed as nation states. Indeed, it is longer than many of the Member States of the United Nations have existed. And in those 300 years, a unique population has made Gibraltar their home. A population separate and distinct from that of the Administering Power, the people of Gibraltar have distinct characteristics of their own. We are also the product of immigration from all over the planet. Traders and merchants from Genoa in Italy settled on the Rock in the eighteenth century. Sephardic Jews from North Africa followed them. Workers from Malta in the late nineteenth century, others from the United Kingdom, from Spain and elsewhere too. And many merchants from India made Gibraltar their home in the twentieth century. Morocco, our neighbours to the south, provided human and material resources in the 1960s, helping Gibraltar to survive the blockade imposed by General Francos Spain. They all represent an important component of the Gibraltarian identity. Because that agglomeration of nationalities, religions and races, over three hundred years, have made the modern day Gibraltarian of today. This is nothing new in the construction of a nation. Many countries represented in this chamber have undergone that same journey. The people of Gibraltar are a distinct people in their own right. They are the only ones who must freely and democratically determine their own future. Madam Chair, The people of Gibraltar are protected by the United Nations. That can be the only legitimate reason why Gibraltar remains on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories maintained by the Committee of 24. All Members of the United Nations have a sacred duty towards the people of the territories in that list. It is your duty to ensure that we attain full self-government and decolonization, so that we can take our rightful place among the family of nations. Gibraltar has been listed as a Non-Self-Governing Territory since 1946. There were over seventy countries listed then. Many of you have achieved your political emancipation, your decolonization and your removal from that list. The people of Gibraltar wish to follow in the footsteps of all those of you who have gone before. They are entitled to exercise the right to self-determination and decolonization. The UN cannot have one rule for some and a different rule for others. Madam Chair, Gibraltar has always supported the international effort over many decades for the eradication of colonialism. In all that time we have heard plenty of good intentions expressed in this Committee and elsewhere. But make no mistake, we want to see action. The first three Decades for the Eradication of Colonialism have failed in their main objective. This is partly because of a collective failure to learn the lesson that one size does not fit all. There is a need for imagination and for tailor-made solutions where required. Gibraltar wants to work with the United Nations. We want the United Nations to work with us too. Sadly, too often our words have fallen on deaf ears. All too often when it comes to Gibraltar the UN has whistled and looked the other way. That is why you should urge your colleagues in the Committee of 24 to send a visiting mission to Gibraltar. If that Committee continues to ignore our invitations to visit and learn about our country first-hand, how can it provide you with useful information, suggestions and recommendations regarding Gibraltar and the legitimate aspirations of our people? How can you even pretend to have an informed debate in these circumstances? You cannot fulfill your mission if you do not venture out from the boardrooms and the offices here in New York. Madam Chair, Gibraltar was proud to have been the first country in the world to vaccinate its entire adult population. We did so with a free supply of vaccines from the United Kingdom. And we also vaccinated many thousands of frontier workers of different nationalities who live in Spain and work in Gibraltar. When our businesses went into lockdown because of the covid pandemic, we helped those same workers economically too with regular cash payments. That is, Madam Chair, how neighbouring countries should behave. For many years we have had a relationship of conflict and confrontation with Spain. This has stemmed from the Spanish governments outdated territorial claim to our homeland, which we will always reject. We cannot redraw the boundaries of Europe back to what they were three centuries ago, when Spain ceded Gibraltar to Great Britain in perpetuity. We have to accept the reality before us today. That reality is the emergence, over hundreds of years, of the people of Gibraltar with a right to their land. This means that Gibraltar must be looked at and understood from the perspective of where we are today and not through the prism of how it was three hundred years ago. The well-being and aspirations of people must be the first priority. There are hopeful signs, Madam Chair. The Governments of Gibraltar, the United Kingdom and Spain negotiated a political agreement on 31 December for a new UK-EU treaty on the future relationship of Gibraltar with the European Union. The European Council has now given the green light for negotiations to commence. Gibraltar remains committed to an outcome based on that New Years Eve Agreement. However, if an agreement with the European Union cannot be reached on those terms, Gibraltar is also making preparations for the eventuality of No Negotiated Outcome. But as I said, our preferred option remains to secure an agreement. This is as much in the interests of Gibraltar as it is in the interests of our neighbours in the surrounding region of Spain. Gibraltar continues to make a positive economic contribution to the neighbouring region of Andalucia in southern Spain. There are some fifteen thousand people who live in Spain and work in Gibraltar, over nine thousand of whom are Spanish citizens. Gibraltar imports over 1.7 billion dollars of goods and materials from Spain. We account for over 20% of the GDP of the neighbouring area. Madam Chair, The people of Gibraltar may be small in number. Some 30,000 in all. The territory of Gibraltar may be small in size. Some six square kilometres. But we are a proud people and a proud nation. And once again we reassert here, in the right forum and in the right way, our right to self-determination. Once again, we remind you that we are a distinct people, whose identity has been enriched by the contributions of people from around the world, whose character has been forged over 300 years, and who are more than ready to take our rightful place in the family of nations. Once again, we request that you recognise, respect and ratify our right to self-determination. And I urge you not only to listen, but also to act. That is your sacred duty." Autumn Classical Concert Gibraltar Cultural Services, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, has announced the details for this years Classical Concert as part of its Autumn Programme. The concert will be held on Monday 18th October 2021 at St Michaels Cave at 8pm. The Gibraltar Philharmonic Society, who organises this concert on behalf of the Gibraltar Government have been able to acquire the services of the following performers: Saulo Guerra, Clarinet Gerard Korsten, Conductor European Sinfonietta The Programme includes: G Rossini: II barbiere di Siviglia Overture C.Weber: Clarinet Concerto No 1, in F minor, Op 73 L.Beethoven: Symphony No 5, Op 67 Maestro Karel Mark Chichon, Artistic Director of the Gibraltar Philharmonic Society, commented: "I am delighted that eminent conductor Gerard Korsten and Clarinettist Saulo Guerra together with the European Sinfonietta will open our 2021/2022 season of concerts with such a magnificent programme and in the unique venue of St Michaels Cave. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the first of our full orchestral concerts since the COVID restrictions began in March 2020. Music is food for the soul and The Gibraltar Philharmonic Society, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, is more committed than ever to bringing world-class artists to Gibraltar and making classical music accessible to everyone" Minister for Culture John Cortes said: I am so pleased that we are once again able to enjoy live classical music on stage, and in this natural auditorium in the heart of the Nature Reserve. I thank the Philharmonic Society, and in particular James Lasry, for their excellent work in keeping classical music alive in Gibraltar over the years, and in particular through the pandemic. Tickets priced at 22 are available via buytickets.gi. A limited number of tickets priced at 10 for Senior Citizens and Students will be available from the John Mackintosh Hall Reception at 308 Main Street. Tickets price include a return shuttle service from the Public Market and opposite the Cable Car as from 18.30pm. On arrival at the Concert the following will be required together with your ticket: Proof of full vaccination prior to the event (at least one dose) OR A COVID-19 rapid negative test on the same day of the event. The result must be presented to the Organiser at Front of House. From 4 to 6 October 2021, at the invitation of the State Revenue Committee of Kazakhstan and with the support of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Brussels, WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya visited Kazakhstan to observe Customs operations at the countrys southern borders with Uzbekistan and meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and other political leaders, including Prime Minister Askar Mamin. During his visit to the strategically-located crossroads connecting East and West at the borders between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Secretary General Mikuriya had an opportunity to see how the newly modernized B. Konysbaev Customs checkpoint operates. The checkpoint was opened earlier this year by Kazakhstans Prime Minister and is fitted out with modern equipment using the latest technology to facilitate the movement of goods at transit and import. When meeting with President Tokayev, Dr. Mikuriya discussed the way forward in terms of further Customs modernization, taking into consideration the use of advanced technology of the type he witnessed at the countrys borders. The President, in turn, expressed his appreciation for the WCOs work as a technical, practical and result-oriented organization. He also supported the WCOs efforts to bolster and strengthen connectivity in Central Asia. President Tokayev added that Kazakhstan paid particular attention to cooperation between his country and the WCO and greatly welcomed the personal support offered by the WCO Secretary General. He concluded by mentioning that comprehensive work was being carried out in Kazakhstan to support the national economy and international trade during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secretary General Mikuriya went on to meet with Prime Minister Mamin who stressed the importance of increasing the transit potential of his country by building border checkpoints in accordance with WCO standards. After stating his appreciation for the WCOs assistance, Prime Minister Mamin shared his countrys plan to modernize nine roads and one railway checkpoint by 2024. Dr. Mikuriya also attended high-level follow-up meetings with the Minister of Finance, Mr. Yerulan Zhamaubaev, and the Chairman of the State Revenue Committee, Mr. Ali Altynbayev, on issues addressed during the meetings with the Heads of State and Government, including the challenges of improving trade data quality, strengthening law enforcement activities and further improving working conditions to promote professional career paths for Customs officers. The State Revenue Committee also organized a dialogue session between Dr. Mikuriya and new recruits, during which they discussed the current challenges faced by Customs together with potential solutions. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 16:22:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's unemployment rate in August declined to 4.6 percent, from 4.8 percent in July, official data showed Friday. The number of unemployed decreased by 3.8 percent to 748,800 persons in August from 778,200 persons in July, the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement This was the first decline in unemployment after registering increases in June and July 2021, said the DOSM. Meanwhile, the number of employed persons rose by 0.5 percent month-on-month to 15.38 million persons in August, with the employment-to-population ratio picked up by 0.2 percentage points to 65.2 percent. "An encouraging labor force situation was observed in August as more economic activities were permitted to resume in compliance with the standard operating procedures. This was indicated by the rise in employment while unemployment decreased during the month," said the DOSM. It said that COVID-19 indicators in Malaysia are starting to decrease while the number of vaccinated adults has reached more than 88 percent, thus leading to the reopening of the economy. This positive movement signals that the performance of Malaysia's economy will rejuvenate gradually as more businesses are resuming their operation at a greater capacity, it added. "Although the challenges will remain in the upcoming months due to the uncertain public health situation, the reopening of the economy may partly navigate the country's economy to progressively recover," it said. It also said that the encouraging economic performance may increase labor demand including the creation of more job opportunities in the economy. "Therefore, the revival of the economy and the labor market is foreseen in stages in the forthcoming months,'' it said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 18:33:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The China-Laos railway engineering companies, including the China Railway International Group (CRIG) and the China Railway No.2 Engineering Group (CREC-2), hand over donated sports facilities and anti-epidemic supplies to the China-Laos Friendship Nongping Primary School in Vientiane, Laos, Oct. 8, 2021. The China-Laos Friendship Nongping Primary School in Lao capital Vientiane received a donation of newly-constructed sepak takraw court, ping-pong tables and anti-epidemic supplies from China-Laos railway engineering companies on Friday. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua) VIENTIANE, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The China-Laos Friendship Nongping Primary School in Lao capital Vientiane received a donation of newly-constructed sepak takraw court, ping-pong tables and anti-epidemic supplies from China-Laos railway engineering companies on Friday. At a ceremony held on the sepak takraw court built by the China Railway International Group (CRIG) and the China Railway No.2 Engineering Group (CREC-2), Phanthong Khamthongmy, principal of the Nongping primary school, said that the school and the CREC met and held exchanges during the construction of the Laos-China railway, and the "extracurricular counselors" from CREC, the mother company of the CRIG and CREC-2, have really helped the pupils expand their knowledge and enrich their extracurricular activities. She wished the Laos-China Railway a successful opening in this December, and her teachers and pupils are hoping to take the trains to China as soon as possible. Huang Hong, general manager of the CREC China-Laos Railway Project Headquarters in Vientiane, expressed his hope that with joint efforts, the CREC can help create a better school environment for pupils, and that the two sides will continue to deepen their close ties and friendly exchanges, as the witnesses and inheritors of the China-Laos friendship. During the construction of the China-Laos railway, the CREC has carried out "extracurricular counselors" activities for the Nongping primary school, invited the teachers and pupils to visit the railway construction sites, as well as celebrated Lao New Year and Children's Day. The China-Laos Railway is a docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert itself from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub. The electrified passenger and cargo railway is built with the full application of Chinese management and technical standards. The construction of the project started in December 2016 and is scheduled to be put into operation in December 2021. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-10-08 22:01:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday gave a full shape to his cabinet nearly three months after taking office by introducing 16 ministers and two state ministers from four ruling parties. President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office to the newcomers, including five from the Nepali Congress, four from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), five from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) and four from the Janata Samajbadi Party. "President Bhandari has administered an oath of office and secrecy to 16 ministers in addition to two state ministers," Jagannath Panta, a spokesperson for the President's Office, told Xinhua. Among the ministers, Minendra Rijal from the Nepali Congress headed by Deuba takes over the Ministry of Defence. Deuba took office on July 13 as head of a five-party coalition, but had only five ministers and one state minister under his command for nearly three months, well short of the 25-member target as envisioned under Nepal's constitution. The Rastriya Janamorcha Party, which has only one lawmaker, does not take a post in the cabinet despite being part of the coalition. Enditem Swaziland (eSwatini) Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini who tested positive for coronavirus has been airlifted to neighbouring South Africa for treatment prompting anger from prodemocracy activists in the kingdom. Dlamini announced he had tested positive on 16 November 2020 and the government downplayed the seriousness of his condition. A local newspaper later reported he had been put into the intensive care unit at Mbabane Government Hospital. On Tuesday (1 December 2020) Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku released a statement saying Dlamini had been transferred to an unnamed hospital in South Africa 'to guide and fast track his recovery'. No other details about his condition were given. The announcement prompted the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SNN), a group campaigning for democracy in the kingdom ruled by absolute monarch King Mswati III, to call on South Africa not to accept Dlamini into the country. In a statement SSN said, 'The Swazi Prime Minister is part of a government that has collapsed the country's health system, turning it into a death waiting room for ordinary Swazis who cannot afford to go to South Africa or overseas for medical attention. He too should go to a hospital in Swaziland so that he can fully understand what Swazis go through every time they go to hospital.' Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis started in March heath care workers in Swaziland have been calling for protective equipment. They have threatened to take the government to court saying there is also an acute shortage of drugs in the kingdom. King Mswati III of Eswatini disembarks from a plane at Sochi International Airport as he arrives to take part in the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, 23 October 2019. Swaziland's coronavirus recovery strategy has been derailed after Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi announced the tiny kingdom would no longer use the AstraZeneca vaccine. Only last week she announced the vaccine would play the major tole in the first phase of the recovery plan for kingdom (also known as eSwatini). Swaziland, which borders South Africa, was due to receive AstraZeneca doses from the COVAX Facility, the global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO). South Africa has stopped the rollout of AstraZeneca shots, after researchers published preliminary data showing the vaccine was less effective against the new variant of coronavirus (COVID-19) that is spreading in southern Africa. The eSwatini Observer newspaper reported close to 90 percent of coronavirus cases in South Africa have the variant. Nkosi told state television on Tuesday (9 February 2021) the Swazi Government would consider getting doses from Pfizer or any other supplier endorsed by the WHO. Swaziland had expected to receive 108,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of February. Frontline healthcare workers would have been the first to get the vaccine. As of Tuesday 16,288 people had tested positive for coronavirus and 610 had died, according to Ministry of Health figures. King Mswati III of Eswatini welcomed at Sochi International Airport as he arrives to take part in the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, 23 October 2019. King Mwati III, the absolute monarch in Swaziland (eSwatini), has banned public pro-democracy demonstrations in the kingdom. Thousands of protestors have marched mainly in rural areas across Swaziland over the past weeks. More marches were planned for the coming days. Political parties are banned from taking part in elections and groups advocating democracy are outlawed under the Suppression of Terrorism Act. The King appoints the Prime Minister, and top government ministers. He also appoints senior judges and civil servants. The protestors want widespread reforms including political parties to be allowed to contest elections and the right to elect their own prime minister and government. They had been marching on local government centres known as tinkhundla to deliver petitions. Themba Masuku, the Swazi Acting Prime Minister, speaking on behalf of the King on Thursday (24 June 2021) said marches to deliver petitions would be banned with immediate effect. 'The full might of the law will take effect to anyone who will continue to ignore the rule of law,' he said. He added there would be 'zero tolerance' shown to those who break the order. Later, Mlungisi Makhanyamo president of the Peoples' United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), one of the leading pro-democracy groups that is banned in Swaziland, said a planned march to deliver a petition in Mbabane on Friday would go ahead. document On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I congratulate the people of Djibouti as you celebrate the 44th anniversary of your nation's independence. The United States and Djibouti are partners in fostering security, stability, and peace in the Horn of Africa. We commend Djibouti's leadership in the region, from its hosting the Executive Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development to its contributions to the African Union Mission in Somalia, and the important mediating role it plays. We will continue to work with the government and the people of Djibouti to strengthen democratic institutions, expand economic opportunities, and advance our common interests. The EU could tighten visa requirements for Gambians following Banjul's refusal to accept deportees from Germany. Experts say Gambia's decision to reject its citizens may be political but not without consequences. The European Union is mulling over Gambia's decision to deny landing permits to flights carrying Gambian deportees from EU countries - particularly Germany. Over 2,000 Gambian migrants who have exhausted their asylums in Germany are waiting to be repatriated. According to initial plans, the first batch of the "failed Gambian asylum seekers" was expected to arrive in Banjul on September 1. But an official from Gambia's Foreign Ministry responsible for diaspora affairs told local media that Gambia's new position is not to accept requests for deportations. The Gambia has cited security concerns and the inability to reintegrate as reasons for its decision. Gawaya Tegulle, a Ugandan expert in international law, said the move is unlawful. He argued that each sovereign state has an obligation to welcome back its nationals to its territory at any time. "Therefore, the action per se by the government of The Gambia has no place under international law," Tegulle told DW. "It is illegal before we start even to list the demerits of the circumstances surrounding the decision." Tegulle also added that he disagreed with Germany's move to send hundreds of Gambians back home."We are seeing two wrong decisions. I do not agree that the decision to deport all these people is lawful," Tegulle said. EU contemplating visa restrictions The European Union plans to tighten visa requirements for Gambian nationals -- a decision that may affect the entire African continent. "Looking at history, I suspect we may be going close to sanctions against government officials of The Gambia," Tegulle said, adding that we could see visa restrictions from the EU and the broader Western community against Gambia and Africans in general. "There will be the fear that because the Gambia is being seen as defiant, we may see increased visa restrictions against Gambian nationals and also African nationals by the EU and the broader western community because there is the fear that there are migrants from these countries and they will not be able to get them back." "The European Commission presented a draft implementing an act on the adoption of restrictive measures regarding short-stay visas for Gambian applicants," the German Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement. There are almost 7,000 Gambians without residence rights in Germany alone. For Tegulle, it is unwise for the EU to deport over 2,000 people into a country grappling with soaring unemployment. "The Gambians would be more comfortable if their people come back with their arms full of gifts of gold and silver," Tegulle said. Moreover, Tegule insisted that there is no reason why the EU should be treating people as "less than humans" in the age of globalization. "They didn't go to Europe to be deported back to Africa." With thousands of Gambians set to be deported from Germany, Yahya Sonko, a refugee activist in Germany's state of Baden-Wurttemberg, said German and Gambian authorities should negotiate a deal and a clear way forward to solve this problem. "The Gambia should come up with an official statement that indicates its position in this issue. Then we will use that official position of our government to challenge different courts here, and these people will be free," Sonko told DW. Playing politics with migrants? Gambian authorities have avoided making allusions to the political benefits of the move. Instead, they say the refusal to accept migrants is because of their remittances to the country's economy. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Gambians in the diaspora remitted $588 million (495 million) in 2020, making up for the loss in tourism revenues. Remittances from an estimated 118,000 Gambians living abroad account for over 20% of the country's GDP. Political observers say that President Adama Barrow could be seeking political capital from his decision not to welcome migrants expelled from the EU. Gambia's presidential election is scheduled for December 2021. But for some, like Emmanuel Bensah, an ECOWAS and AU policy analyst, several factors, including the pandemic, need to be considered before taking in the migrants. "Gambia's president cannot be sure of the COVID-19 status of those who are being deported. In addition, the Gambia is a small country, and the health system has not been coping so well with COVID-19," Bensah told DW. According to him, the arrival of migrants could be an added burden for the country. "The other thing is that the Gambian government since 2017 has become quite unpopular. The euphoria connected with Barrow winning the presidency when ECOWAS intervened to get rid of Jammeh has died down." The former Gambian ruler was criticized for human rights violations which included the jailing of journalists and political opponents. When President Barrow was sworn in for the first time on February 18, 2017, Gambians were optimistic that the country would usher in a new era of democracy. But Barrow's decision to stay on for five years instead of the three he had earlier promised dented any hopes that the tiny west African nation would witness genuine democratic reforms. Blaming Gambia's government Most Gambians have accused the government of abdicating its responsibilities. "This government is not serious about the plight of Gambians both at home and abroad," Smith Omar, a young Gambian in Banjul, said. "On the contrary, to the credit of European institutions, this government has received millions of euros in aid, especially for youth empowerment. But what is the impact of this youth empowerment project?" Omar asked, "It is quite clear that these projects have failed," Omar told DW. "I think they lost the trust of the people," another Banjul resident told DW. "They [Gambia's government] are doing it for their own benefit. But it is not for the benefit of people who are supposed to be deported." Is The Gambia setting a precedent? There are fears that The Gambia's refusal to welcome home migrants expelled from the EU may become the new normal for African countries. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Gambia Legal Affairs External Relations By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. International law expert Gawaya Tegulle says the recent Gambian decision is not isolated, citing similar incidents involving Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Eritrea. He adds that in 2016, Gambia had taken similar measures, only caving in later after being threatened with sanctions by the West. But ECOWAS policy analyst Emmanuel Bensah disagrees. He thinks that no African country can copy the Gambian example. "Sometimes these cases are rather isolated," he said, pointing to Uganda that has been very active in receiving migrants from Afghanistan after the Taliban took control. "With what Uganda has done and is doing even for Afghans, I don't foresee that this is going to spark a trend in other African countries." Bensah also regrets that the standoff between The Gambia and the EU is a test to the West African country's diplomacy. "The EU is going to restrict visas for Gambians. That is not a good sign," Bensah said. "But I think if they can appeal such an EU decision through ECOWAS, for example, they can get ECOWAS as an honest broker to help roll back some of the restrictions the EU wants to impose," Bensah said. Tegulle believes it is high time both parties held a frank discussion over the migration crisis. "This is a very delicate issue that has to be reshaped in a broader and deeper and more sincere conversation. This issue concerns human beings who deserve better than they are getting now," he said. Omar Wally in Banjul contributed to this article The imminent return of former Gambian strongman, Yahya Jammeh, is dividing the public in the smallest country within mainland Africa. Jammeh, who was forced into exile in Equatorial Guinea in 2017, might return under an 'amnesty' arrangement in a coalition deal reached between the ruling National People's Party (NPP) and the opposition Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC). The coalition deal that was announced by President Adama Barrow effectively signalled a 'handshake' moment in the Gambia, bringing erstwhile rivals into new cooperation. However, the developments have caused ripples within Mr Barrow's setup. His top adviser for strategic communications, Fatou Jaw Manneh, quit her job in the wake of the announcement. Ms Manneh had lived in exile during Jammeh's rule for fear of persecution for her activism. Mr Jammeh, who was known by many titles including Dr, Prof, Sheikh and al-Haj, left behind a trail of atrocities that may now go unpunished. Since President Barrow, who defeated Jammeh before the latter fled the country, announced the deal, there has been both celebration and uproar. Human rights campaigners say it amounts to betrayal of the victims of Jammeh's 22-year rule. Mr Jammeh is wanted for human rights violations during his 22-year reign. The alliance was confirmed by Jammeh's party Alliance For Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party. "We have formed an alliance of political parties with the National People's Party (NPP)," Fabakary Tombong Jatta, APRC's interim leader, told a meeting of party supporters on Saturday. "We are convinced that the two parties have come together in the best interest of the Gambia and for speedy reconciliation," he added, noting that the deal was contained in an MoU signed on September 2. According to Mr Jatta, it was agreed that APRC will be part of the next government together with Barrow's NPP, after the forthcoming elections slated for December 4. He also indicated a plan to facilitate the eventual return of their leader. The announcement ended months of speculation about talks between the two parties, ahead of the first election since the disputed poll that saw the end of Jammeh's rule in 2016. The coalition that masterminded Jammeh's downfall has since disintegrated, leading Barrow to form the NPP after ditching his old party for his desire to stay in power against the spirit of an MoU that required him to step down after one term. Jammeh, a former military head of state, first came to power in a bloodless coup in 1994. He went on to contest elections and won on four occasions. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Gambia Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. After conceding defeat in the 2016 election, Jammeh backtracked, citing electoral irregularities. Weeks later, he was forced to board a plane as instructed by the regional grouping, Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which had threatened military action. He left the country as part of a deal brokered by the now deposed former Guinean President Alpha Conde, who was then chairman of the African Union. Jammeh's reign was marred by reported human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial killings. The recently concluded Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC) hearing unearthed many of those crimes. Critics, including the political opposition and human rights groups, are concerned that the alliance between the APRC and the NPP will kill the spirit of the TRRC and deny victims their right to justice. The Gambia Victims Center, an umbrella body collectively seeking justice for the victims of Jammeh's rule, described the news about alliance as "utterly shocking and deplorable." "The Victim Center and the community of victims of the former regime of the APRC see this alliance as outrageous and unpatriotic. Therefore, we expect all Gambians, regardless of party affiliation, to express their disappointment," the group said in a statement. The development followed the publication of the latest Afrobarometer survey, which showed that the majority of Gambians wanted the former Gambian leader extradited to face charges for his alleged crimes. Six in 10 Gambians (61 percent) say the government should seek the extradition of Jammeh, the survey shows, indicating a 10 percent point increase from a previous survey in 2018. analysis The start of the news broadcast on Radio Lesotho is signalled by an unforgettable vibrating sound, rather harsh, as if made by a large bird. This is the lesiba, a musical bow. The lesiba was played by boys and men as they herded cattle, before radios and cellphones began to take the place of the national musical instrument. Nowadays, there is little apparent concern for maintaining interest in the lesiba at school or any other national level in Lesotho. The unique sound of the instrument - once evocative of a rural way of life - seems to exist in a disconnected, disembodied fashion on the radio. And the people who do still play Lesotho's traditional instruments - musicians, instrument builders and innovators of their art - are seldom recognised or rewarded for their expertise. But a collaboration led by the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, aims to return attention to Lesotho's musical tradition. The collaboration involves filming musicians and exhibiting related artworks. We recorded musicians playing four instruments that are also depicted in clay figurines made by the late Lesotho artist Samuele Makoanyane (1909-1944). Iziko South African Museum, in collaboration with Dijondesign (heritage consultants for the Lesotho National Museum and Art Gallery), have created a virtual exhibition of the delicate figurines. They used photogrammetry - recording, measuring, and mapping - to make 3D digital models of the sculptures. These digital models are between 8cm and 18cm in height. They allow for detailed and interactive exploration. The figurines are being exhibited through Iziko South African Museum. The new Lesotho National Museum and Art Gallery will also show them at its official opening in 2022. We also worked with the Morija Museum and Archive, the Morija Art Centre and the Lesotho National Museum and Art Gallery to create a film. Called Music in the Mountain Kingdom, it documents Lesotho musical culture and accompanies the exhibition of figurines. Before the pandemic lockdown, we had also planned to include live performances by the musicians at the exhibitions. Makoanyane figurines The seven exquisite, little-known clay figurines in the exhibition were made by Makoanyane in the 1930s. They were commissioned by musicologist Professor Percival Kirby of the University of the Witwatersrand, in order to document Lesotho musicians and their instruments. Made in the age-old tradition of low temperature pit firing, they are extremely fragile. They are being cared for in the Kirby Collection of Musical Instruments at the South African College of Music. Makoanyane lived mostly in Koalabata, in the Teyateyaneng District. This is about 89km north of Lesotho's capital, Maseru. To make the figurines, he worked from pictures in Kirby's 1934 tome, The Musical Instruments of the Native Races of South Africa. The figurines are recorded in the University of Cape Town's Humanities Digital Collection. They are named as: thomo musical bow, setolotolo musical bow, seketari (guitar), lesiba musical bow, lekolilo pipe, moropa drum and pipe. The Morija Museum and Archive, Lesotho's oldest and best known museum, also has 33 Makoanyane clay figurines in its collection. The museum helped to find living musicians to perform on four of the instruments depicted. The musicians We recorded five musicians for the virtual exhibition. An older woman, Matlali Kheoana, plays the lekope (unbraced mouth-resonated musical bow) and the sekebeku (jaws harp). Sekebeku is technically not part of the collection, but a modern manufactured instrument similar to the setolotolo in the collection. Leabua Mokhele, an older man, and Molahlehi Matima, a younger man, both play the lesiba (unbraced mouth-resonated musical bow). Malefetsane Paul Mabotsane and Petar Mohai, two younger men, play the segankhulu (single-stringed bowed lute with an oil can resonator). Although two instruments were doubled, the performers played very differently. In the case of the segankhulu, they even constructed their instruments differently. The lesiba and segankhulu seem to still attract younger, innovative players. But the lekope is particularly at risk and Matlali Kheoana is in all likelihood one of the last few performers of this instrument. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Entertainment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Live performances at the exhibition would have provided the musicians with exposure and possible earnings from their expertise. Other outcomes could have included workshops and demonstrations at universities or through museum programmes. We are still working on creating learning and teaching materials for the study of Lesotho music. We hope that the repatriation of the music and musical instruments through the exhibition and film will revitalise Basotho interest and the pursuit of a sustainable indigenous music culture. The project wishes to acknowledge Steven Sack (independent curator), Jon Weinberg (Dijondesign lead exhibitory consultant) and Stephen Wessels (Dijondesign photogrammetry specialist) for the virtual installation. Sylvia Bruinders, Associate Professor of Musicology, University of Cape Town press release State House, Freetown, Wednesday 8 September 2021 - His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio has launched a $156 million new Global Fund Grant to strengthen healthcare systems and the control of Malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and the new Delta Variant of the Covid -19 pandemic in the country. The Global Fund is a partnership designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, Tuberculosis, and malaria as epidemics. The Fund was created in 2002 to support programs run by local experts, including governments, civil societies, technical agencies, the private sector, and people affected by the diseases. Since 2004, the Global Fund has invested over $347.3 million in Sierra Leone. Its Executive Director, Peter Sands, thanked President Bio for his leadership in the fight against COVID-19 and praised his commitment to being the co-funding partner in the fight against Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and the current scourge of the Coronavirus. He added that the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Catholic Relief Services, CRS, were the two main principal recipients who would work alongside other sub-recipients to roll out the 2021-2024 programme of the Global Fund. Peter Sands further noted that in 2004 Sierra Leone received the first Global Fund grant and since that time the country had continued to benefit immensely from the Fund in the response to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and malaria, adding that they had enabled the country fight those three diseases. "Significant results have been achieved through the Global Fund in Sierra Leone. The ambitious target would have great implication on the people to build a prosperous future for the country," he told the meeting. Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr Austin Demby, said it was a special day in the relationship between the government of Sierra Leone and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria, adding that as the principal recipient of the Fund, his ministry was determined to intensify surveillance and epidemiology efforts to better understand the burden of HIV infections in the country, to reduce stigma, and to intensify efforts towards attaining the 95/95/95 goals and epidemic control of HIV. The 95-95-95 strategy was announced by UNAIDS in 2014, aiming to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 by achieving 95% diagnosed among all people living with HIV, 95% on antiretroviral therapy among diagnosed, and 95% virally suppressed among treated. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Coronavirus Health Sierra Leone By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to working with our partners to set ambitious targets and associated metrics to measure progress gained in the march towards the global goal of TB elimination by 2035," he assured. President Julius Maada Bio noted that in spite of disruptions occasioned by COVID-19, he believed that it was possible to get back on track in the country's fights against the burdens of HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria, noting that getting back on track would require significant resource mobilisation. "That is why my Government has been working hard to establish strong partnerships with reputable institutions and donor partners around the world. One such partner is the Global Fund. "I am also pleased to further inform you that the Government of Sierra Leone has committed additional funding of $9,465,377 (Nine Million, Four Hundred and Sixty-Five Thousand, Three Hundred and Seventy-Seven United States Dollars) as counterpart funding to fight HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and Health system strengthening for the period spanning financial year 2021-2024," he said. The President further reiterated the fact that the Global Fund had been the largest investor in grants to build resilient and sustainable health systems in the country, adding that their investments in tools, systems, health workers, and laboratory resources were underpinning the government's COVID-19 responses and other disease burdens in the country. "Be assured that Sierra Leone will continue to be a strong ally in all your high-level advocacy campaigns for strengthening health systems," he concluded. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), in exercise of its mandate under Section 46 of the Constitution of The Gambia and Section 40 of the Elections Act, has stated that the election to the office of the President of the Republic of The Gambia will be conducted on Saturday 4 December 2021. According to a statement from the IEC, acting under Section 47 of the Constitution and 42 (1) of the Elections Act, political parties or Electoral Commission will receive nomination of their candidates for the election from 30th October 2021 to 5th November 2021 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the IEC Headquarters, Bertil Harding Highway. The release further states that the campaign period for the Presidential Election would be from Tuesday 9 November 2021 to Thursday 2 December 2021. Soldiers in a Conakry street, September 6, 2021, the day after a military coup. The African Union has followed in the footsteps of regional bloc Ecowas and suspended Guinea, as punishment for last Sunday's military coup. The AU Political Affairs, Peace and Security department made the announcement via its Twitter handle on Friday morning, confirming the continental bloc would remove Guinea from official business until it returns to constitutional order. "Council, in accordance with relevant AU instruments, decided to suspend the Republic of Guinea from all AU activities and decision-making bodies and calls on the United Nations Security Council to endorse the final Ecowas Communique and has been also endorsed by the PSC." The statement also calls on the AU Commission President, Moussa Faki, to engage with stakeholders in the region with the goal of resolving the Guinean crisis. More on this: Guinea putchists release first batch of 'political detainees' Also read: Ecowas suspends Guinea, announces mediation mission The AU's decision comes a day after Ecowas suspended Guinea after soldiers from an elite unit within the army arrested President Alpha Conde and dissolved his government. Pursuit of democracy The coup leaders, led by Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, accused the deposed President of corruption and nepotism. The junta has promised to set up a government of national unity to preside over a transition to democracy, but has not given a timeline. An Ecowas mediation team promised by the heads of State of the regional bloc at an emergency summit held on Wednesday is expected to arrive in Conkary on Friday. The team is expected to pressure the junta to return the country to civilian rule and release detainees, among them the former President. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Guinea Governance Peacekeeping By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. According to Alpha Barry, Burkina Faso's Foreign minister, the delegation will include him and foreign ministers from Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. The outcome of the team's visit will inform Ecowas' next move on the Guinean situation, Barry told reporters earlier on Wednesday, at the end of the Ecowas leaders' summit. Since the beginning of the week, life continues to return to normal in Guinea, where the public has largely hailed the coup. Conde was serving the first year in his third term as President, after controversially changing the country's Constitution last year to allow him stay in power. Hundreds of opposition protesters were killed or detained as part of the protests. At the Ecowas leaders' summit, Liberian president George Weah made headlines when he questioned the role that a growing trend of constitutional amendments is playing in increasing military coups in the region. He urged the bloc to look into the issue. Government has clarified that in spite of roving public speculation that all donated Covid-19 vaccines to the country are entirely free, taxpayers were parting away with US$5 for each given dose through couriering. It means for the 372 000 Pfizer doses the country is expected to receive this month, announced by Secretary for Health Charles Mwansambo, government will spend roughly around US$1 860 000 (about K9, 300, 000). State House director of communication, Sean Kampondeni, said on Monday at Kamuzu Palace during the routine weekly briefing that in essence the vaccines were not necessarily free. "We get them for free from donors, of course. But government has to pay for their transportation to reach here. For each dose government has to pay US$5. That means that if we are going to get a million doses, it means we will have to pay US$5 million dollars for them," Kampondeni said. He emphasized that it was President Lazarus Chakwera's intention to make sure that the doses could be development within Africa for easy access. "The President has spoken intensively about the same as chairperson of SADC as well as when he was in London a few months ago," he said. Malawi is expected to receive its first batch of Pfizer vaccine this month, making it the third brand of Covid vaccines being administered to people. According to Mwansambo, the expected batch will be on top of Oxford-AstraZeneca doses that are also expected into the country. On September 8, the United States (US) government donated vaccine storage equipment that is being distributed to all districts across the country. US-based United Parcel Service Foundation donated 30 state-of-the-art-ultra-cold chain equipment to be used for storing Pfizer vaccines. US Ambassador to Malawi, Robert Scott, said his government was committed to fighting the Covid pandemic. "One tool that we now bring to confront the pandemic is ultra-cold chain equipment. The common work that this donation will do is to facilitate a unique collaboration between the Ministry of Health and its partners," Scott said. The 30 portable freezers can store up to 6,000 vaccine doses at a temperature as low as 80 degrees Celsius. The equipment, which is fitted with monitoring gadgets, would be used for carrying vaccine doses from storage facilities to vaccination sites. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Malawi Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Ministry of Health (MoH) spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe told local press that the latest instruction is that Pfizer doses can still be stored in normal refrigerators, so long as they are used within 30 days. He said if the doses were to be stored for longer than 30 days, then they are supposed to be kept at a temperature as cold as -80 degrees Celsius. However, Chikumbe said Malawi was yet to make a decision on whether Pfizer vaccine doses should also be given to those that are under 18 years, although other countries have started doing so. "We know that, in other countries, Pfizer is also being given to those as young as 12 years old but, as for Malawi, we made a decision that we should start from those that are 18 years or older. "Now that Pfizer has a different allowance in terms of age, we, as a nation, want to decide," he said. Last month, MoH Expanded Programme on Immunisation Manager, Dr Mike Chisema, said the ministry was working with United Nations Children's Fund officials to purchase 1,600 litres of storage space to be used for storing Pfizer vaccine doses. Currently, Malawi is using two brands of Covid vaccines: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Oxford-AstraZeneca. The latter requires two doses while J&J and Pfizer vaccines require a person to get a single jab. The State House has announced that Malawi will be decorated for its efforts in ensuring that there is an admirable prevailing aura of democracy during the sitting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) later this month. Among others, we understand, the award is in recognition of the country's efforts to maintain peace and democracy prior and after the June 23 Fresh Presidential Elections - a phenomenon that is rare in most African countries. Sean Kampondeni, Director of Communication and Executive Assistant to President Lazarus Chakwera, said the award will be given on September 21, 2021 in New York, United State of America. Kampondeni made the announcement on Monday at Kamuzu Place in Lilongwe during a state house media briefing and said the "'Africa America's Institute' has recognized Malawians for consolidating democracy for the past two years which has been noticed by the international community." Said Kampondeni: "The international community through the Africa America's Institute will at the UNGA sitting this month, award Malawi for doing all things possible to consolidate democracy in the country. "It is worthwhile for us, as a country, to celebrate this recognition which the international community has bestowed on us. The president will virtually represent the citizens in receiving this award." The State House communications chief responded to a number of questions from various media houses on a number of topics including the Affordable Input Programme (AIP) in which he said being a crucial issue the president was very committed to address the increase on prices of fertilizers on the market. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Malawi Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The president personally said anyone who works against AIP is poking into his eyes and he takes that seriously because AIP is key towards achieving food security. Already there is a positive response where some companies have started reducing the price of fertilizer chemicals," he said. He added that the government is very committed to making history, as such there are deliberate policies and efforts being made to achieve food security by all means possible. Kampondeni further said that government projects will be implemented for the benefit of the citizens including roads, railways and many other projects. President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, will virtually attend the UNGA Summit and many other important meetings on the sidelines of the event like the 'Food System Summit, prior to the main sitting. - (Additional reporting by Nyasa Times) Suspended Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) director general, Advocate Mahlomola Manyokole, has been given until next Friday to file his full response in the proceedings to determine his fitness to hold office. Retired High Court judge, Teboho Moiloa, this week stamped his foot down and demanded that Adv Manyokole file his response by 17 September 2021. This after the embattled DCEO boss seemed to want to bargain for more time and delay proceedings. He had requested that he be given until 17 September to only provide the prosecution with a list of documents and DCEO staffers he wants interviewed in his defence. But Justice Moiloa declined the request. He gave Adv Manyokole until yesterday to have submitted the list of documents and DCEO staffers he wants interviewed. He then ordered him to file his full response to the allegations he is facing by Friday next week. Justice Moiloa, who told Adv Manyokole that he was bending over backwards to accommodate him, said the tribunal would resume full proceedings on 20 September 2021. Prior to the orders, Justice Moiloa had sought a progress report from the state's lawyers on their negotiations with Adv Manyokole over his legal fees. Adv Manyokole had recently told the tribunal he had no money to fund his legal fees. The tribunal is headed by Justice Moiloa. He is assisted by High Court Judge, Polo Banyane, and retired judge, Semapo Peete. Adv Manyokole is represented by Adv Tekane Maqakachane while the government is represented by Attorney Monaheng Rasekoai and Advocates Christopher Lephuthing and Kuili Ndebele. Attorney Rasekoai said he had spoken to the Attorney General (AG), Adv Rapelang Motsieloa, who had duly granted Adv Manyokole's request for legal assistance. But Mr Rasekoai said he had still not been furnished with details of documents and witnesses required for Adv Manyokole's response. Justice Moiloa demanded to know if the two parties had agreed to timeframes on the filing of affidavits. Mr Rasekoai said they hadn't because of Adv Manyokole and his lawyer's lackluster attitude to the proceedings. Justice Moiloa then asked Adv Manyokole to explain himself. He said Adv Maqakachane had told him that he could not proceed with defending him without a signed contract with the AG. Adv Manyokole said he had also wanted legal advice on the list of documents required for his defence. He could thus only finalise his submissions after his lawyer and the AG's office had signed a formal contract for the payment of his legal fees. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Governance Corruption By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The response seemed to incense Justice Moiloa who saw it as a delaying tactic. Mr Rasekoai was also unhappy with Adv Manyokole's response. "I feel that we have done all we can to extend the olive branch. We can only go so far... ," said Mr Rasekoai, adding that he had engaged Adv Maqakachane repeatedly to try and resolve outstanding issues. He then detailed the efforts he had made and read the letters he had exchanged with the AG in which the latter undertook to pay Adv Manyokole's legal fees. Mr Rasekoai was thus miffed by any impression that the AG had not fully cooperated to Adv Manyokole's prejudice. Justice Moiloa asked Adv Manyokole to explain why his lawyer was not prepared to proceed with the case on the strength of the AG's undertaking to pay for the legal fees. Adv Manyokole said he was not in a position to speak on behalf of his legal representative. Justice Moiloa reminded Adv Manyokole of a of Court of Appeal ruling that the dispute be resolved expeditiously in the interests of justice. He then gave Adv Manyokole until yesterday to provide the list of the documents and DCEO staffers needed for his defence. He ordered that Adv Manyokole's responding papers be filed by 17 September to allow the tribunal proceedings to continue on 20 September. It remains to be seen whether Mr Mayokole will meet the deadlines. A 33-year-old self-styled female prophet from Glen Norah, Harare, has been arrested on allegations of killing a patient after administering a concoction on Tuesday. Shylet Chatikobo (33) allegedly gave the concoction to Linet Mbesa (whose age has not been given by police) in Glen Norah, leading to her death. Mbesa, who reportedly had a growth on her body, had gone to the prophetess with a friend for spiritual healing and allegedly during the healing process, Chatikobo prepared some concoction that was boiled and given to the two to drink. They are reported to have drank about three cups each before Mbesa's friend started vomiting and Mbesa developed a running stomach before her health deteriorated. Chatikobo took the two to a nearby house where Mbesa died and a report was made to the police. National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed Chatikobo had been arrested on murder charges over the death. This is not the first time that self-styled prophets have been arrested after deaths in healing ceremonies. In March this year, two female prophets from the Johanne Marange Apostolic sect were arrested in Harare on murder charges after allegedly cutting with a surgical blade the swelling veins on the left leg of a man who had sought spiritual assistance at their house in Highfield. Prosper Chinagwe (43) died after being admitted to Sally Mugabe Central Hospital after bleeding profusely. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Legal Affairs Zimbabwe Religion By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Investigations revealed that Chinagwe visited the suspects at their Highfield home for spiritual healing before the two used the surgical blade to cut his leg, resulting in him losing a lot of blood. Police then arrested Elina Rumhangu (36) and Dorothy Mbano (48) on murder charges. In January, another self-styled prophet allegedly raped a woman who had visited his shrine seeking prayers for her sick child. Samuel Guta (45) of Apostle of Power of Unity in Christ Church allegedly prescribed a concoction mixed with lemons that resulted in the woman passing out during the healing session and he then raped her. In Kariba, a 15-year-old girl recently revealed to her boyfriend that she was raped several times by a self-styled prophet on several occasions at a lodge six years ago. The victim had been left in the company of the prophet, who claimed that he wanted to cast out evil spirits. Police say the girl was threatened with harm if she revealed the rape. Meanwhile, police have arrested Michael Mazenge (25) in connection with a case of attempted murder which occurred in Western Triangle, Highfield, Harare on Monday. Following a two-year hiatus due to funding constraints in 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Zimbabwe International Film Festival is making a return to the cultural event calendar this year. While still recovering from the adversities experienced in the recent past, the Zimbabwe International Film Festival Trust (ZIFF) is determined to make a memorable comeback in a four-day series of hybrid (in-person and online) events from the 8th to the 11th of December 2021, under the theme Owning Our Story (Narratives from Zimbabwe). "Narratives from Zimbabwe" is a project initiated by ZIFFT in 2019, that has so far travelled around many parts of the country, documenting Zimbabwe's rich history and heritage. The interviews, footage and photographs captured during this first phase of the project will be used to create a multi-media digital archive and interactive website that filmmakers and other creative content producers will be able to draw from as a reservoir of indigenous knowledge and inspiration. "Discussions and workshops to be hosted during the 21st edition of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival will be a convergence of artists, academics and the public, deliberating on how best to move forward with the Narratives from Zimbabwe project, through which our historical and cultural legacy will take its rightful place on the global arena, into the digital domain and beyond," said ZIFFT founder and executive Nigel Munyati. The highlight of the festival will be the Hi5 and Smartphone Short Film Competitions that will both be taking a different and exciting competition format this year. The two competitions will run under the theme "My Heritage", giving an opportunity for emerging filmmakers to showcase their talent, freely express their inner voice, and contribute to an all-important national discourse. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Entertainment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The Hi5 Competition invites filmmakers to produce and submit original documentary or drama films under five minutes in length. Since its inception in 2015, this competition continues to be a platform for young and emerging filmmakers to show off their filmmaking craft and skills, using any genre and format, provided the duration of each production is five minutes or less. The Smartphone Short Film Competition, on the other hand, is focused on Zimbabwe's youth, giving them a platform to freely express their inner voice, and contribute to an all-important national discourse. Participants must be ages 14 - 34 years and must be Zimbabwean residents or Diasporans who have at least one Zimbabwean-born parent. Films must also be under 5 minutes long, in any format, as long as they are created using a mobile phone. Again, the theme is "My Heritage". Zimbabwe International Film FestivalZimbabwe International Film Festival Trust (ZIFF) This year's Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah for his body of work detailing the refugee experience and how colonialism shaped African culture. At a news conference at the Swedish Academy's headquarters in Stockholm, Permanent Secretary Mats Helm said Gurnah received the award for "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents." Gurnah, born in 1948 and raised on the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean, arrived in England as a refugee himself in the late 1960's. He has published ten novels and a number of short stories. In its statement, the academy said, "In Gurnah's literary universe, everything is shifting - memories, names, identities. An unending exploration driven by intellectual passion is present in all his books." The statement said that quality is as evident in his latest novel, 2020's "Afterlives," which he began writing as a 21-year-old refugee. The academy went on to say Gurnah's writing is "striking" for its dedication to truth and "his aversion to simplification. His novels recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world." Gurnah will receive a $1.1 million cash prize, but for writers, the prize also adds prestige and publicity by exposing their work to much wider audience. The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry were awarded earlier this week, with the Peace Prize to be awarded Friday, and economics on Monday. The awards will all be formally presented in December. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the academy announced this year's ceremony will be a mixture of digital and physical events. Laureates will receive their Nobel Prize medals and diplomas in their home countries. Some information in this report comes from Reuters. President Muhammadu Buhari has said the two recessions witnessed by the country in four years affected the growth of the economy despite the reforms introduced. He said this while giving an overview of the 2021 budget performance before the joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday. This was the prelude to the presentation of the 2022 budget before the National Assembly for consideration. The President said while oil revenue target performance was below expectation, non-oil revenue rose above target by 7% in 2021. He noted that the production shortfall of oil is the main factor that was also exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the 2022 budget of N16.39 trillion was tagged "Budget of Growth and Sustainability" which was predicated on certain parameters to reflect current realities. Deficit financing amounting to N5.01 trillion will be through loans and other sources. He said, although there were concerns, the country came out of the two recessions it witnessed in the last few years. Buhari assured that Nigeria has no debt sustainability problem but a revenue challenge. It could be recalled that the National Assembly had earlier approved the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP. The lawmakers approved an oil price benchmark of $57 per barrel which is higher than the $40 per barrel in 2021. They also approved an exchange rate of N410/$, daily crude oil production of 1.88mbpd, 2.23mbpd, and 2.22mbpd for 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively. The Nigeria's economy slipped into recession in 2016 and 2020. President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that the government used borrowing to stimulate the economy as response to the two recent economic recessions the country experienced. Mr Buhari in his budget presentation speech said the government had to use borrowing to "spend its way out of the two recent recessions." The president, who laid the 2022 estimates before the joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday, said the country would not have exited the two recessions fast enough without resorting to borrowing. "As you are aware, we have witnessed two economic recessions within the period of this administration. In both cases, we had to spend our way out of recession, which necessitated a resort to growing the public debt. It is unlikely that our recovery from each of the two recessions would have grown as fast without the sustained government expenditure funded by debt," he said. Despite the growing debt profile, the Buhari administration will borrow N5.01 trillion to fund the proposed 2022 budget. According to the Debt Management Office, as of December 2020, the total national debt was put at N32.915 trillion. Nigeria's economy slipped into recession in the third quarter of 2020 after a negative growth of 3.6 per cent. The recession was exited after positive GDP growth in the 4th quarter of 2020. In 2016, the economy had earlier fallen into recession following two consecutive quarterly declines. According to the proposal presented by Mr Buhari, the budget has a deficit of N6.26 trillion which represents 3.39 of the estimated GDP. This figure is once again above the three percent threshold set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007. The government plans to fund the deficit through "N5.01 trillion, N90.73 billion from privatization proceeds and N1.16 trillion drawdowns on loans secured for specific development projects." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Governance Debt By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Mr Buhari stated that the "debt level of the federal government is still within sustainable limits. Borrowings are to specific strategic projects and can be verified publicly." The president insisted that Nigeria does not have a debt problem but a revenue problem. He said the government is setting a target to increase Revenue-to-GDP ratio to 15% by 2021, noting that a 15% Revenue-to-GDP will help to allay fears over Debt-Service-to-Revenue ratio. "Our target over the medium term is to grow our Revenue-to-GDP ratio from about 8 percent currently to 15 percent by 2025. At that level of revenues, the Debt-Service-to-Revenue ratio will cease to be worrying. "Put simply, we do not have a debt sustainability problem, but a revenue challenge which we are determined to tackle to ensure our debts remain sustainable." The proposed budget has N3.61 trillion debt servicing proposal. "In both instances, whether VAIDS or VOARS the law would take its full course on an individual that fails to disclose assets that are taxable." The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has vowed actions to determine and punish possible tax offences following the landmark Pandora Papers investigation in which a number of rich and powerful Nigerians have been named. The Pandora Papers project involves 617 journalists and 151 media outlets collaborating to investigate a vast amount of previously hidden offshore records of the powerful and super rich in the world. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained the trove of 11.9 million confidential files and led the partners, including Nigeria's PREMIUM TIMES, that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down sources and digging into court files and other public records from dozens of countries. The leaked records come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows. In the Nigerian series, published by PREMIUM TIMES, a number of Nigerian serving and past public officers have been reported as having links to offshore companies, many undeclared in accordance with the law and some others used to anonymously acquire UK properties. Offshore firms are not necessarily illegal and they are used for legitimate purposes. But they feature prominently in illicit financial flows. Corrupt politicians use them to steal and launder proceeds of corruption across international jurisdictions. In a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, a spokesperson for the FIRS, Johaness Wojuola, said the service will go after people reported in the leaks and suspected to have broken the law. Nigerians reported so far include ex-governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi; governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Bagudu; former minister and serving senator, Stella Oduah; NPA acting chief Mohammed Bello-Koko; and Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State as well as their associates. PREMIUM TIMES will publish more reports in the series. FIRS Full Statement I have taken a look at the Pandora leak and I think the scheme that is best applicable is the Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme (VOARS), which though like VAIDS, applies more in particular to the ownership of offshore assets and the voluntary declaration of same. This VOARS office was set up by the Attorney General's office and is managed by the same. It provides an opportunity, or say, an amnesty for taxpayers or tax defaulters as the case may be, to voluntarily declare their offshore assets and incomes from sources outside Nigeria and in return obtain some benefits. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs Investment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The Scheme, which came into existence under Executive Order 008 was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018, was meant to operate or run for twelve months and covers assets and income from sources outside Nigeria relating to the preceding thirty years of assessment. The scheme has long ended. For VAIDS, the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme launched in 2017, is a scheme designed to encourage voluntary disclosure of previously undisclosed assets and income for the purpose of payment of all outstanding tax liabilities. Like VOARS, it was time-bound as well, and its amnesty ended. In both instances, whether VAIDS or VOARS the law would take its full course on an individual that fails to disclose assets that are taxable (assets that are of Nigerian origin). So with this Pandora leaks that exposes hidden offshore assets of various world citizens, if there are any persons who are suspected to have a taxable asset by Nigerian laws among the revealed pool, the applicable processes with regards to investigation, charges, enforcement procedures, loss of the right to enjoy the amnesty the scheme offers, liability to pay in full the principal sum due, and the full penalties and interests that have arisen, as well as prosecution for tax offenses. Mr Obi continued to hold his position as a director of his UK company, NEXT International (UK) Limited, 14 months after becoming the governor of Anambra State. The ex-governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has reacted to a PREMIUM TIMES report on his opaque and illegal activities but he largely went off the tangent in an apparent effort to confuse the public. In the PREMIUM TIMES opening story in the Pandora Papers series, this newspaper exposed Mr Obi's secret businesses and how he broke Nigeria's law in at least three ways. One, Mr Obi continued to hold his position as a director of his UK company, NEXT International (UK) Limited, 14 months after becoming the governor of Anambra State in contravention of Section Six of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act. Two, Mr Obi set up complicated layers of secrecy to hide his offshore holdings, which he admitted to failing to declare to the Code of Conduct Bureau, apparently hoping the public and the authorities would never get to know, thereby breaching Section 11, Part of the Fifth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution. Three, Mr Obi as a governor was also operating a foreign account in breach of the constitution and the public service code of conduct rules. However, in a reaction sent to PREMIUM TIMES by his spokesperson, Valentine Obienyem, Mr Obi insisted he did not break any law - without specifically debunking any of our claims - and then tried to switch the lane by raising what PREMIUM TIMES did not allege in the paper's report. "It was exhilarating that nowhere in the article was he accused of any form of corruption, whether in the form of diversion of public funds or in any other manner during and after his stewardship as the governor of Anambra State," Mr Obi said in his premise to claim no breach of law. But our report did not accuse him of diverting public funds as we did not uncover such evidence for such conclusion during our reporting. When we faced Mr Obi with our findings, he did not deny failure to comply with the law with regards to asset declaration, operation of a foreign account, and directing a private company as a governor. He, however, claimed he was ignorant of the law: "I don't declare what is owned with others. If my family owns something I won't declare it. I didn't declare anything I jointly owed with anyone." This is contrary to the position of the Constitution, which specifies the declaration of all assets, whether jointly or partly owned, PREMIUM TIMES' reporters told Mr Obi. He said he was not aware of that provision of the law. Nevertheless, leaked records show Mr Obi is the sole ultimate beneficial owner of the offshore companies. So he lied in claiming to be a part-owner. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs Investment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Yet, Mr Obi, who admitted to ignorance of the provisions of the constitution, which he swore to uphold twice as a two-term governor, claimed PREMIUM TIMES' writers "displayed ignorance on matters of Trust and International Investment Practices." Even when the federal government introduced the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme, VAIDS, and Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme (VOARS) in 2017 and 2018, respectively, to encourage people like Mr Obi with previously undisclosed assets to declare and settle any possible tax liabilities, the ex-governor shunned the two schemes and continued with his opaque activities. The schemes were to curb illicit financial flows and those that complied were offered clearance from prosecution for tax evasion. The Federal Inland Revenue Service told PREMIUM TIMES that the law "will take full course" regarding any tax offences committed by those exposed in the Pandora Papers. The Pandora Papers, the biggest cross-border collaboration of journalists in history, is an investigation into a vast amount of previously hidden offshore companies, exposing secret assets, covert deals, and hidden fortunes of the super-rich - among them more than 130 billionaires - and the powerful, including more than 30 world leaders and hundreds of former and serving public officials. The leaked records came from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients like Mr Obi, who seek to shroud their financial activities, often suspicious, in secrecy. analysis Graca Machel has described South Africa as a society at war with itself, where grotesque violence against women and children has been normalised, where protectors have become predators. In an impassioned speech at the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture on Thursday evening, Graca Machel decried the level of violence against women and girls in South Africa, describing the country as at war with itself and locked in a vicious cycle of pain. Machel, a co-founder and deputy chair of The Elders, a women's and children's rights advocate and the former first lady of South Africa and Mozambique, where she also served as education minister, cited teenage pregnancy figures from the Gauteng Department of Health. More than 23,000 girls under the age of 18 gave birth in the 12 months to March 2021, 934 of whom were between 10 and 14 years old. Machel said the number of teen mothers had increased by 60% during the coronavirus pandemic. "Nearly 1,000 children have given birth to other children in the past year. Why is there not an outcry of what is, in essence, a statutory rape epidemic in this country?" asked Machel. "There are precious lives between these cold numbers. These are... The Nigerian Army has said Nollywood Actor, Chiwetalu Agu, was arrested for soliciting support for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Daily Trust had reported how the veteran actor was arrested in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Wednesday. Reports of his arrest had triggered outrage on social media. In a statement on Thursday, Onyema Nwachukwu, army spokesman, said Agu was nabbed while inciting people. Denying reports that the actor was assaulted, Nwachukwu said Agu is currently being questioned. "Troops of Nigerian Army(NA) have arrested one Chiwetalu Agu while inciting members of the public and soliciting for support for the proscribed Indeigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)." "Dressed in a very well known attire of the proscribed group, Chiwetalu Agu was picked up for questioning while inciting members of the public to join the proscribed group. Though he attempted putting up some resistance when troops made effort to take him into custody, he was not assaulted or subjected to brutalization. "While the NA recognizes the inalienable rights of the citizenry to freedom of movement and expression as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is apparently a violation for any individual or group to incite the public to cause mayhem or break down of law and order. It is therefore pertinent to state that while exercising such freedoms, it must be done within the confines of the law, bearing in mind the imperative for peace, and national security. "For the avoidance of doubt and emphasis, the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) remains proscribed . Therefore, any individual or group seen to be projecting and advancing the cause or activities of the group is viewed as brazenly challenging the constitutionality of Federal Republic of Nigeria. More worrisome, was the fact that considering the prevailing security situation of the region, coupled with the ongoing Exercise GOLDEN DAWN , his action could be a tacit endorsement and support for the proscribed group. We have all witnessed the activities of the group take a violent dimension in recent times. "Chinwetalu Agu has clearly demonstrated uncharitable disposition to negate peace and security in the region, hence, he is taken into custody for preliminary investigation. It is important to once again place on record that the allegation that he was brutalized is false and should be disregarded accordingly. "While the NA would not allow IPOB and its sponsors to hold the region captive and allow the security situation to degenerate, it is instructive to restate that national interest supercedes any parochial consideration. Individuals or groups who fan the embers of violence are warned to desist or face the consequences of their actions. The ongoing Exercises are on course and will rid the region of all forms of criminality. "The peace loving and law abiding people of the South East are enjoined to pleasego about their normal activities, as efforts are ongoing to bring perpetrators of violence to book. They are equally urged to continue to support the security agencies to restore normalcy to the region in furtherance of peace." Dressed in a very well known attire of the proscribed group, Chiwetalu Agu was picked up for questioning while inciting members of the public to join the proscribed group. Though he attempted puting up some resistance when troops made effort to take him into custody, he was not assaulted or subjected to brutalization. The army claimed that contrary to reports, the actor was not brutalised but only detained. The statement read in part, "Troops of Nigerian Army have arrested one Chiwetalu Agu while inciting members of the public and soliciting for support for the proscribed IPOB. "Dressed in a very well known attire of the proscribed group, Chiwetalu Agu was picked up for questioning while inciting members of the public to join the proscribed group. Though he attempted puting up some resistance when troops made effort to take him into custody, he was not assaulted or subjected to brutalisation." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Arms and Armies By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The army said while it recognises the inalienable rights of Nigerians to freedom of movement and expression as enshrined in the constitution, it is a violation for any individual or group to incite the public to cause mayhem or break down of law and order. "It is therefore pertinent to state that while exercising such freedoms, it must be done within the confines of the law, bearing in mind the imperative for peace, and national security," it said. The army stated that IPOB remains proscribed any individual or group seen to be projecting and advancing the cause or activities of the group. It said Agu had clearly demonstrated uncharitable disposition to negate peace and security in the region, hence, he is taken into custody for preliminary investigation. The army added, "It is important to once again place on record that the allegation that he was brutalised is false and should be disregarded accordingly Nairobi Tanzanian authorities should unconditionally release cartoonist Opptertus John Fwema, and drop investigations into Mgawe TV journalist Harold Shemsanga and the media outlet's owner, Ernest Mgawe, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 24, police arrested Fwema at his home in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and have since detained him at the Oysterbay police station, according to a statement by the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders' Coalition (THRDC), as well as Florence Fwema, the cartoonist's brother, and Robert Mwampembwa, the head of the Creative Industry Network, a local industry body, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Police say that Fwema is under investigation on cybercrime offenses, but have yet to arraign him in court, according to his brother, Mwampebwa, and a THRDC lawyer familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ via messaging app but asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns. Fwema was arrested days after publishing on his Instagram page a political cartoon that was critical of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, according to those sources. Separately, on October 2, police in Kawe, a suburb in Kinondoni District of the Dar es Salaam region, arrested Shemsanga, a reporter with the recently established YouTube news channel Mgawe TV, while he was covering an event by members of BAWACHA, the women's league of the Tanzania's leading opposition party, CHADEMA, according to the Defenders' Coalition statement, as well as Shemsanga, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Mgawe told CPJ that police detained him later that day when he went to seek bail for Shemsanga. Both men told CPJ that they were released on the evening of October 4, but that police are still investigating them on allegations of illegal assembly, alongside several members of BAWACHA. Shemsanga told CPJ that police had yet to return electronic devices confiscated during his arrest. "Critical political commentary and coverage of the opposition are essential to Tanzania's democratic discourse, and it is deeply worrying that police are equating this kind of journalism to criminal activity," said CPJ's sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. "Police should unconditionally release cartoonist Opptertus John Fwema. Authorities should also discontinue any ongoing investigations into Mgawe TV's Harold Shemsanga and Ernest Mgawe, return their confiscated devices, and abandon the habit of throwing journalists behind bars for their work." Fwema publishes illustrations and cartoons on his Instagram account and takes commissioned work in Dar es Salaam, according to Mwampembwa. On September 16 and again on September 20, Fwema published a political cartoon that depicts Hassan as a child playing with a basin of water painted with the Tanzanian flag, while a large man wearing a black coat printed with the words "Kiwete"--"cripple" in Kiswahili and a play on words that refers to former President Jakaya Kikwete--stands behind her, telling a group of concerned people that "she leads the country well." The cartoon is a critical commentary on Hassan's governance and depicts Kikwete being weak but also acting as her protector, according to CPJ's review of the cartoon and a statement published by Cartooning for Peace, an international network of press cartoonists, calling for Fwema's release. On September 24, police initially claimed that they were arresting Fwema in connection to investigations into the theft of a motorbike, but the following day they told him that he was under investigation for misuse of the internet, according to Florence. The cartoonist did not have legal counsel present when he was initially questioned by police, who asked him about the cartoon, according to Florence Fwema and Mwampebwa. Yesterday, a lawyer acting on behalf of the THDRC filed a bail application for Fwema at a Dar es Salaam court, which set a hearing in the case on October 11, according to a statement by the THRDC that was reviewed by CPJ. In the October 2 incident, police approached Mgawe TV reporter Shemsanga while he was interviewing BAWACHA members following a jogging event in Kawe, according to the journalist. Even though Shemsanga identified himself as a journalist, the police officers demanded that he come with them to a local police station. The BAWACHA members, who demanded an explanation for his arrest, accompanied them to the station, Shemsanga said. At Kawe police station, the officers confiscated his devices including a camera and laptop; reviewed footage of his interviews; and locked him up in a cell, Shamsange said. Several of the women were also arrested, according to Shemsanga and an October 2 statement from BAWACHA that was posted on Twitter by the league's secretary general, Catherine Ruge. Police said they had detained all of them on suspicion of illegal assembly and after a few hours they were transferred from Kawe to a police station about 24 kilometers (15 miles) away in Mbweni, according to these same sources. Mgawe told CPJ that when he went to the police station in Mbweni later that day to seek bail for Shemsanga, police also arrested him. He said that they are investigating him for being complicit in the act of illegal assembly because he had sent the journalist on the assignment. Following their release on October 4, both Shemsanga and Mgawe were ordered to report periodically to the police station in Mbweni. Shamsange told CPJ that Mbweni is far from his home and that his journey to and from the station on October 5 took about five hours on public transport. Shemsanga told CPJ they were due back at the police station on October 8. Since mid-September BAWACHA has been organizing jogging meets for its members, saying that the events are supposed to promote good health among women in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to media reports. Videos posted on Twitter by Ruge and on CHADEMA's YouTube channel show women at several such events jogging in t-shirts printed with the words "Tume Huru" ("Independent Commission") and chanting the same words, a reference to CHADEMA's campaign for reforms to the country's electoral commission. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Tanzania Legal Affairs Media By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In a phone call on October 7, Tanzania government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa referred CPJ to police, and specifically the force's spokesperson David Misime, for comment on Fwema's detention, and the arrest of Mgawe and Shemsanga. Someone who answered Misime's phone today did not say anything and CPJ's queries to Misime, sent via WhatsApp and SMS, were also unanswered. When reached for comment on his phone, Kinondoni police commander Ramadhani Kingai referred CPJ to the Dar es Salaam special zone police commander, Jumanne Muliro, whose phone rang without answer today. Muliro did not immediately respond to a text message from CPJ asking about Fwema's detention and the arrest of the Mgawe TV journalists. However, the local Dar Mpya news blog quoted Muliro saying that those arrested in Kawe had "indications of breaching peace by using exercise as pretext to rouse political sentiments," according to an October 2 tweet from the outlet. A phone number for Tanzania's Inspector General of Police Simon Sirro that was listed on the police's website did not connect today. CPJ's email to the police headquarters and an address for the Kinondoni regional police, asking about the detention of Fwema and the arrest of the Mgawe TV journalists, also went unanswered. New York Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Amer Ayad, drop all charges against him, and allow ZaytounaTV to resume its work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 3, Tunisian police arrested Ayad, a talk show host for privately owned channel Zaytouna TV, at his home in Tunis on orders from the military judiciary, which accused him of conspiring against state security, according to Ayad's lawyer, Malek Ben Amor, who spoke with CPJ over messaging app, and news reports. On October 5, the investigative judge at the Permanent Military Court ordered the continued detention of Ayad, pending an investigation, according to Ben Amor andnews reports. As of today, Ayad remains in pretrial detention in the Mornaguia Prison in Tunis, according to Ben Amor. Ayad's arrest came after commentary he made on the October 1 episode of his show "Hassad 24," during which he criticized President Kais Saied for appointing a new prime minister and recited an anti-dictatorship poem by Iraqi poet Ahmed Matar, according to news reports, Ben Amor, and CPJ's review of the episode posted on Zaytouna's official YouTube channel. Yesterday, security officers raided Zaytouna's office in Tunis and confiscated the channel's equipment at the request of the media regulatory body, the Independent High Authority of Audiovisual Communication (HAICA), according to news reports. Nouri Lajmi, the president of HAICA, stated in those reports that Zaytouna has been broadcasting without a license for many years. Lajami did not respond to CPJ's emailed request for comment. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Media Legal Affairs Entertainment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. As of today, Zaytouna is still on the air broadcasting older shows, according to local journalist Maher Sghaier, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. "Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Amer Ayad, drop all charges against him, and return Zaytouna TV's equipment to allow it to operate in the country," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. "Ayad's arrest is not only an attack on press freedom in Tunisia, but an attack on the country's democracy as a whole." CPJ emailed Tunisia's Central Police Office for comment but did not receive an immediate response. On October 3, police also arrested member of parliament Aloui Abdellatif, who also criticized Saied on "Hassad 24," at Abdellatif's home in Tunis, and released him on October 5, according to news reports and Ben Amor. Zaytouna is among several local channels that have been broadcasting in Tunisia without a license for several years, and it has close ties to Ennahda political party, which opposes the president, according to news reports. On July 25, Saied fired Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and froze the parliament's activities, amid anti-government protests, according to news reports. The following day, authorities raided and shut down the Tunis office of the Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera, confiscated its equipment, and ordered its staff to leave the building, as CPJ documented at the time. As of today, Al-Jazeera's office in Tunis remains closed, according to Sghaier. Some governors from the North West would soon meet with their colleagues from the Niger Republic over security challenges in their states. The governors are Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) and Aminu Masari (Katsina). They would meet the governors of Dosso, Maradi and Tahoua of Niger Republic in order to stop killings by bandits in the region. Tambuwal announced this during a one-day visit to the state of Maradi in Niger Republic, where thousands of refugees displaced by bandits from the region settled. The governor explained that the primary objective of the proposed meeting was to deepen cooperation with the Nigerien region. "It is unfortunate that this has happened. It wasn't our desire, but we are working hard with our government, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, to re-establish peace in all of the affected areas, not only in Sokoto State, but in the entire country. "On this note, let me extend the felicitations of President Buhari to the President of Niger Republic, President Bazoum, for the hospitality and courtesies extended to our citizens that have had reasons, unfortunately, to leave their comfort zones and be here at these IDP camps," he said. With the confirmation of the board members of the newly created Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has been scrapped, Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said. After the confirmation of the board members yesterday, Lawan said with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the confirmation of the nominees sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the new commission would take over the functions of the defunct DPR. Lawan said the establishment of the commission would provide a foundation for the stabilisation of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. He said, "The board has the enormous and huge responsibility of setting and establishing the commission as provided in the Petroleum Industry Act. They have the unenviable responsibility of ensuring that they commit themselves and work hard to provide the solid and stable foundation for that matter, that they don't waste any time because time is of essence. "The petroleum industry will go through a reform process and the process has already started. This commission is one of the huge arms of those reforms that will stabilise the petroleum industry in Nigeria. "While the Senate confirms them, we expect nothing less than commitment and patriotism on their side," he said. Lawan said it is expected that the other regulatory authority for downstream and midstream will also be confirmed as soon as possible, so they also can start their work immediately." The nominees confirmed were Isa Ibrahim Modibbo as chairman; Engr Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive; Hassan Gambo, executive commissioner, Finance and Accounts and Ms Rose Ndong, executive commissioner, Exploration and Acreage Management. The chairman of the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Albert Bassey Akpan, in his presentation, said that the nominees demonstrated sufficient knowledge of the workings of the petroleum industry, especially the upstream petroleum sector, as well as the economics of petroleum exploration and production. He said the appointments satisfy the requirements of Sections 11 and 18 (1-5) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021. Haki Africa, a human rights organization, has blamed the government for ignoring the plight of Kenyans working in Saudi Arabia. Salima Macharia, The organization's program assistant, told Nairobi News the Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia had been ignoring Kenyans who either report complaints or claim to be stranded in the Asian country. In one such case, the family of Mary Wanjiru Mbugua, claims she Nairobi for Riyadh in February via a registered agent but she has since been receiving threats and mistreatment from her employer. "Wanjiru told us through the phone that she has not been receiving her salary since she was employed as a house help. She said she has unsuccessfully waited for the longest period for the Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia to help her return home," claimed Leah Wambui, sister to Wanjiru. Another affected family is that of Brandy Wakulele Lokuu who is said to be stranded in Saudi Arabia after leaving left the country on November, 25, 2019. Her family claims their daughter is overworked and being subjected to inhumane treatment. These reports come a week after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommended a temporary ban on recruitment and export of domestic workers to Saudi Arabia until adequate protection measures are put in place. Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau told MPs he had asked the Labor Ministry in July to impose a temporary blockade. Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), on Friday, October 8 will publish the Rwanda Governance Scorecard (RGS) 8th Edition, which will among other things, reflect on the implication of Covid-19 effects on the performance of some sectors. The RGS is a national index published every year to consistently assess the state of governance in Rwanda. It tracks the country's performance in relation to her national, regional and global governance commitments, looking at the key pillars of governance in the country which are: the rule of law, political rights and civil liberties, participation and inclusiveness, safety and security, investing in human and social development, quality of service delivery, economic and corporate governance, as well as anti-corruption, transparency and accountability. According to RGB, the objectives of RGS are to generate credible and reliable data on governance, and serve as an evidence-based source to inform policy, decision making and implementation as well as contribute to current scientific and contextualised knowledge about economic, social and political governance in Rwanda. "This index places global governance standards and home-grown approaches at the centre of its method which makes it uniquely relevant to both the international and national contexts," read a statement from RGB. In the previous RGS edition, the pillar of Security ranked first with a score of 95.44 per cent while the pillar of Investing in human and social development ranked the least with 73.32 per cent. The safety and security pillar measures the extent to which safety and security are provided, including personal and property safety, reconciliation, social cohesion and national unity, as well as how national security is safeguarded. Among others, the indicator of citizen participation scored 82.53 per cent in 2020, increasing from 72.68 per cent in the previous edition, while the performance of local governments scored 81.31 per cent against 70.70 per cent scored in the previous edition. Investing in Human and Social development was the least performing pillar in 2020 with a score of 73.32 per cent. This year's event will take place at Kigali Serena Hotel and will be attended by representatives from government institutions, private sector, civil society, research and higher learning institutions as well as development partners' agencies. The United States will on Thursday, October 7, deport Oswald Rurangwa, alias Oswald Rukemuye, a genocide fugitive who was the leader of Interahamwe militia in the Gisozi neighbourhood of Kigali during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. In a statement released Thursday, the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA), commended the move by US authorities. "The NPPA commends the US judicial authorities for the deportations of genocide fugitives, continued cooperation in matters of mutual legal assistance, and contribution to the global effort to fight impunity," read part of a brief statement signed by Faustin Nkusi, the Spokesperson of NPPA. NPPA commends the US Judicial Authorities for deporting RURANGWA OSWALD, a genocide fugitive.@JusticeSectorRw @RIB_Rw @rbarwanda @NewTimesRwanda @IGIHE pic.twitter.com/Lv0MBSkjPl - Rwanda Prosecution (@ProsecutionRw) October 7, 2021 The statement also indicates that Rurangwa was born in 1962, in Gasharu cell, Gisozi sector, in Kigali. In mid-2008, the notorious Genocide fugitive - convicted and sentenced in 2007 to 30 years in prison in absentia by a Gacaca court - was sighted in the United States. During the Genocide, Rurangwa was headmaster of Gisozi primary school. He also headed the then ruling Mouvement Revolutionaire National pour le Developpement (MRND) party in Gisozi. He was, reportedly, in charge of recruiting and mobilizing Interahamwe militia, and was responsible for the massacre of majority of the more than 250,000 people whose remains are interred at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Gisozi. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Legal Affairs U.S., Canada and Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The report titled; "Oswald Rurangwa in the US - Turning Gisozi Into A Mass Grave"'- a copy of which The New Times obtained, contains testimonies of 20 eyewitnesses. The latter include Genocide convicts he commanded who linked him to massacres at the Parish of Sainte Famille and at Saint Paul's Centre in Kigali. He is said to have set up numerous roadblocks and took part in killings in different parts of Kigali. Rurangwa featured in the trial of Maj. Gen. Laurent Munyakazi, a former army officer who was sentenced to life by the Military tribunal in a case in which he was jointly accused with Fr Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Parish Priest of St Famille Church in Kigali, where hundreds of people were killed. Rurangwa worked closely with the former Mayor of Kigali, Col. Tharcisse Renzaho. In 2009, Col. Renzaho was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by the now defunct International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for his role in the Genocide. The United States government on Thursday, October 7, deported Oswald Rurangwa, alias Oswald Rukemuye, a genocide fugitive who was the leader of Interahamwe militia in the Gisozi sector of Kigali during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. In a statement, the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA), commended the move by US authorities. "The NPPA commends the US judicial authorities for the deportations of genocide fugitives, continued cooperation in matters of mutual legal assistance, and contribution to the global effort to fight impunity," read part of a brief statement signed by Faustin Nkusi, the Spokesperson of NPPA. Shortly after law enforcement officers handcuffed and led the deportee away, at Kigali International Airport, Nkusi told reporters that Rurangwa was immediately provided with a Rwandan lawyer. "The Rwanda Bar Association assigned him a lawyer who will assist him accordingly and, among other things, inform him about his rights to appeal," Nkusi said. "He is heading to Mageragere prison, from here, where he will serve his 30-year sentence but he has rights to appeal. He will be notified of his gacaca conviction." According to Nkusi, Rurangwa's genocide charges include murder as a crime against humanity and complicity to commit genocide Rurangwa was born in 1962, in Gasharu cell, Gisozi sector, in Kigali. Mid 2008, this reportedly notorious Genocide fugitive - convicted and sentenced in 2007 to 30 years in prison in absentia by a Gacaca court - was sighted in the United States. During the Genocide, Rurangwa was headmaster of Gisozi primary school. He also headed the then ruling Mouvement Revolutionaire National pour le Developpement (MRND) party in Gisozi. He was in charge of recruiting and mobilizing the Interahamwe militia, and was responsible for the massacre of majority of the more than 250,000 people whose remains are interred at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Gisozi. The report titled; "Oswald Rurangwa in the US - Turning Gisozi into a Mass Grave"'- a copy of which The New Times obtained, contains testimonies of 20 eyewitnesses. The latter include Genocide convicts he commanded who linked him to massacres at the Parish of Sainte Famille and at Saint Paul's Centre in Kigali. He set up roadblocks and took part in killings in different parts of Kigali. Rurangwa featured in the trial of Maj. Gen. Laurent Munyakazi, a former army officer who was sentenced to life by the Military tribunal in a case in which he was jointly accused with Fr Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Parish Priest of St Famille Church in Kigali, where hundreds of people were killed. Rurangwa worked closely with the former Mayor of Kigali, Col. Tharcisse Renzaho. In 2009, Col. Renzaho was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by the now defunct International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for his role in the Genocide. Who are the other Genocide fugitives who were deported by the US? Since the Genocide Fugitives Tracking Unit (GFTU) was established in 2007, it has issued 1,146 indictments and arrest warrants against Genocide fugitives in 33 countries. Nkusi said 23 of these indictments went to the US. In April, a genocide survivor implored the US government to fulfil its international obligation and bring to book an indicted mass murderer - Vincent Nzigiyimfura - who lives there. Nzigiyimfura's known address is a town called Dayton in the State of Ohio, where he runs a successful grocery store ironically called Ikaze East African Market. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Legal Affairs U.S., Canada and Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Rurangwa's is not the first Genocide fugitive deported by US authorities, but the sixth. In April, this year, the US deported to Rwanda, Beatrice Munyenyezi, a wanted fugitive who played a major role in the 1994 Genocide in the former Butare Prefecture, now Huye District. Munyenyezi is the wife of Arsene Ntahobali, who, together with his mother Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, were sentenced to life in prison by the ICTR for their role in the Genocide. In September 2016, Leopold Munyakazi, one of the key ideologues of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, was handed over to Rwandan authorities, ending his 12-year stay in the US. In 2011, the US government deported two Genocide fugitives - Jean Marie Vianney Mudahinyuka (alias Zuzu) and Marie-Claire Mukeshimana. In May 2005, Enos Kagaba, became the first Genocide suspect to be deported from the United States. The Ministry of Environment and the Finnish Meteorological Institute have signed an agreement to cooperate in the fields of meteorology, climatology and air quality. The agreement was signed by Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Vincent Biruta, and the Director General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Jussi Kaurola on Wednesday. The partnership will see Rwanda and Finland work together to expand meteorology and air quality observation networks and modernise equipment and laboratories. It will develop and modernise data management and information systems, as well as improve weather and air quality modelling and forecasting. "We are pleased to expand our strong partnership with Finland to the fields of meteorology, climatology and air quality. This agreement will enable both countries to share expertise and experience, and ultimately support us to better respond to climate change and increase our resilience to extreme weather," said Vincent Biruta, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Rwanda. Through the agreement, Finland will support Rwanda to improve its weather, climate and air quality service delivery platforms and create new services that benefit citizens and everyone who depends on accurate and timely meteorological information. The two countries will also share skills and knowledge in data mining, quality management systems as well as engineering and maintenance of meteorological equipment. The two countries will partner to establish a world-class early warning system for weather and air quality extremes that will enable Rwanda to take early action in the face of these growing challenges. "We look forward to working with our colleagues in Rwanda and strengthening cooperation in meteorology, climatology and air quality. Through this partnership, we will harness the power of meteorological information to support environmental, social and economic development in Finland and Rwanda," said Jussi Kaurola, Director General of the FInnish Meteorological Institute. The Finnish Meteorological Institute produces observation and research data on the atmosphere, the near space and the seas, as well as weather, sea, air quality and climate services for the needs of public safety, business life and citizens. The government has set up a team to investigate the cause of the fire that gutted Kibagabaga Referral Hospital laboratory on Wednesday afternoon. Preliminary reports suggest that the fire was caused by an electric circuit. However, hospital officials said a joint team which is comprised of experts from Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Rwanda Energy Group (REG) and Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) has been constituted to ascertain the real cause. No deaths or injuries were reported in the fire, which broke out from a laboratory room. "No one died or got injured," said the hospital's Director General, Ernest Munyemana, disclosing that investigations were launched on Wednesday. However, management confirmed that some equipment including three desktops, five laptops, 12 printers, eight UPS and a router among other office tools were destroyed. Police were quick to arrive at the scene and put out the fire. Laboratory services were halted but the RBC team was quick to bring and install some equipment as plan B, Munyemana said. The hospital also brought in some equipment from Kinyinya Health Centre while some medical tests that had to be carried out for patients were taken to Kacyiru Hospital for further results. He confirmed that this was the first time the fire outbreak happened at the hospital. "The laboratory is expected to resume operations as usual," he assured. A House team is investigating possible collusion between Energy ministry officials and vessel owners amid revelations that Sh1.3 billion was paid this year in demurrage costs, which ended up increasing fuel prices. The National Assembly Finance and Planning committee claimed suspicious payments were made to owners of some vessels that docked at the Port of Mombasa. The MPs now want both Petroleum and Mining Cabinet Secretary John Munyes and his Principal Secretary Andrew Kamau to appear before them and explain. The committee chaired by Homa Bay woman representative Gladys Wanga says documents before them indicate there was a deliberate delay of vessels at the Port of Mombasa in order to siphon taxpayers' billions in demurrage charges. Demurrage is the cost levied for the time a ship takes to offload cargo at the Mombasa port. In the case of fuel, the costs accrue until the consignment is stored by Kenya Pipeline Company. Taxpayers pay vessel owners Sh4.5 million per day for any delay at the port. Documents tabled before the committee indicate taxpayers have paid Sh1.3 billion for the vessels at the port between January and August. The lawmakers expressed concern that the figure is likely to hit Sh2 billion by the end of the year, hence the need for Mr Munyes and Mr Kamau to appear before them today and explain the inefficiency at the port that leads to unnecessary penalties that ultimately increase fuel prices. According to the committee, about 60 vessels are currently at the Port waiting to offload fuel, which arrived on diverse dates between January and June. The committee yesterday protested over the decision by both Mr Munyes and Mr Kamau to snub them. "I'm dismayed that we are dealing with a serious matter that affects the public yet both the CS and the PS have failed to appear before us. I found this contemptuous and an indication that the ministry officials are hiding something about the demurrage charges," Ms Wanga said. "It is suspicious that some vessels stay at the Port for up to six months and therefore the owners get paid millions of taxpayers' money, a cost that has a direct impact on the fuel prices, which eventually is borne by the public at the pump," Ms Wanga added. Ms Wanga said the public could not continue to pay billions to vessel owners over inefficiency of public officials who are paid to do their work efficiently. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Petroleum By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. A draft report of the committee has recommended that Kenya Ports Authority should fast-track the completion of Kipevu Oil terminal 2 in order to reduce or eliminate the demurrage costs. On Tuesday, Speaker Justin Muturi, while granting the committee an additional seven days, said the issue of demurrage needs to be looked at in depth as it contributes to the increase in fuel prices. Roysambu MP Ndirangu Waihenya accused the PS of deliberately delaying the committee's work, yet it was only given an extension of seven days to table its report since Kenyans are suffering due to high fuel prices. "We have powers to summon him from wherever he is to come and explain to the public about these demurrages unless he is an accomplice of the people misappropriating the demurrage funds," Mr Waihenya said. Mr Kamau is said to be out of the country on official duties and requested the committee to postpone the meeting on demurrage charges by two weeks. The committee, however, has to table its report next week, debated and passed or rejected by the House. Residents of Kadzuhoni in Magarini, Kilifi County, have begun their journey out of poverty after Maseno University and the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (Kemfri) reintroduced Artemia farming to produce fish feeds. The project is under the Artemia Production Technology for Sustainable Aquaculture Development. The programme is funded by the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association. Artemia is an aquatic insect that thrives in salty water. Farmers will now apply biofloc technology to produce it. For decades, residents have struggled to earn a living in the salt mines. Speaking to journalists in Kadzuhoni during training for farmers, Dr Erick Ogello, Maseno University principal investigator in the Department of Fisheries and Natural Resources, said the new biofloc technology will increase the production of Artemia biomass and cysts. Increase bacteria flocs "Farmers were producing Artemia, but they died due to lack of food. The new technology will increase bacteria flocs in the ponds for the Artemia to feed on," he said. The floc formation is encouraged by local ingredients such as molasses and chicken manure. Dr Ogello said fish farmers in Kenya face a scarcity of feeds for fingerlings, threatening production. He added that Artemia is also a component in preparing salt. "There is no salt without Artemia because that is what makes salt to be of high quality," said Dr Ogello. Artemia also produces high-quality cysts that are expensive in the international market. He said the researchers project to increase Artemia cyst production from the current 15kg to 100kg per hectare in six months. "A kilogramme of Artemia is sold at $70 (Sh770) in the international market. There is an opportunity to change the poor economic status of the community who do not practice agriculture but depend on the salt mines for a living," said Dr Ogello. "Artemia production comes as an alternative source of income for the residents apart from salt production." He said Aetemia has existed on the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts for more than three decades. Not adequately exploited However, Artemia in Kenya has not been adequately exploited for local aquaculture production. "The main objective of the project is to improve the livelihoods of coastal communities in Kenya through the establishment of innovative Artemia value chain linkages that involve the production of Artemia biomass and cyst, and application in the emerging larviculture initiatives," he said. He added that other products generated through the Artemia value chains include Artemia powder for making baby porridge, Artemia soup and cake. Kemfri mariculture research scientist Maureen Mukami said Artemia was introduced in the salt ponds in Magarini in 1985 by Belgian scientists from Ghent University in collaboration with researchers from Kemfri. But the project did not involve the community at that time. "The eggs of the Artemia introduced in the salt ponds in Magarini were from the San Francisco bay. They are used by fish farmers worldwide to feed fingerlings and any other types of fish because of their small size," she said. She said Artemia is also used to feed crabs and prawns. Ms Mukami said that in 2010, Kemfri, in collaboration with Ghent University, surveyed whether the community was to be involved in Artemia production with the aim of increasing output. Kemfri purchases a kilo of Artemia from locals for Sh800. Feeds for fish "We purchase the Artemia from the farmers then process the feeds to sell to fish farmers," she said. She added that the collaboration between Maseno University and Kemfri saw the introduction of the new technology to increase production. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Food and Agriculture By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Dr Maureen Cheserek, from Egerton University's Department of Human Nutrition, said they are collaborating with Maseno University and Kemfri to form a nutrition group to research on the nutritional benefits of Artemia for humans. "Artemia is not well utilised in our country when it comes to nutrition but it is consumed as food by people in Asian countries," she said. Egerton, she said, will research on how Artemia can be used in reducing malnutrition in children and women. John Sulubu, the chairperson of Kadzuhoni Farmers Self-Help Group, said they started the project in 2011. "Farmers were trained and sensitised about Artemia farming and we were happy and appreciated the project," he said. The support from Kemfri, he said, has seen the group harvest many kilos of Artemia for sale. "We are now earning money from our harvests, and at this rate, we are going to fight poverty in our area," he said. Foreign fishing vessels have invaded Kenya's Indian Ocean waters after a French company terminated a surveillance contract with the government, exposing the country to billions of shillings worth of losses. Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS), a French-based company, has suspended vessel monitoring services with the Kenyan government citing a Sh16 million arrears accrued for more than ten months. The lack of surveillance capability has exposed Kenya to a loss of at least 20 million tons of seafood, valued at more than Sh10 billion, this year alone. A subsidiary of the French Space Agency, CLS has been offering data collection and sea monitoring services to Kenya at the Liwatoni Vessel Monitoring Centre in Mombasa. Termination of the service left Kenya vulnerable to foreign trawlers since the beginning of this year. The technology helped to monitor Kenya's waters in the exclusive economic zone, keeping away foreign trawlers. Patrol ship grounded The situation was further complicated after the only patrol ship, Mv Doria, which requires a reported Sh1 million to operate per day, was grounded after the Ministry of Fisheries, Livestock and Agriculture allegedly failed to allocate cash to run the vessel. "The Vessel Monitoring Centre at Liwatoni Mombasa is not working at the moment. The satellite Machine bought to monitor fishing activities is also currently not working and in the circumstances, we cannot monitor and actually know what is happening in the high seas. Whereas the government may have had a good intention of providing a good environment and facilities for Kenyans to explore the Blue Economy, the management of these facilities has remained largely ineffective..." reads part of a petition tabled in the Senate by Mombasa Senator Mohammed Faki on Friday last week. Mr Faki says that despite the Fisheries, Livestock and Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya assuring stakeholders in the industry that the government will pay the Sh16 million debt and begin its operations to monitor deep waters against international invasion in August, the status quo remains. In a previous interview with the Nation, CS Munya said the government has adequate allocation to pay CLS so as to resume offering its monitoring services to Kenya since there are fishing vessels seeking Kenyan resources. "Sh16 million is little money, we will clear the debt. Those vessels that are here are licensed to fish but, of course, there could be poachers, foreign criminals doing that. We cannot rule out that possibility," said Mr Munya. CLS works in sustainable fisheries management, environmental monitoring, maritime surveillance, fleet management, and energy and mining. It processes environmental data and positions from 80,000 beacons per month, ocean and inland waters observations. It also monitors land and sea activities by satellite. Monitoring Kenya has been monitoring its waters using Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and the Mv Doria, with assistance from other countries. But with the system failing and a lack of funds to operate Mv Doria, the country relies solely on other countries for monitoring. The Sh3.5 billion MV Doria is the only vessel available for use by the Kenya Coast Guard Services (KCGS) for monitoring the country's territory along the Indian Ocean. It was commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta in Mombasa in 2018 has been used only twice due to its high cost of operation. "The Ocean Patrol Vessel Doria does not go out to sea, she is moored at the Mkunguni Naval. The 54-metre long offshore vessel which operates over a range of more than 1,500 nautical miles off the East coast of Africa requires more than Sh1 million (per day) to cater for 3.5 tons of fuel and amenities of about 12 crew making it expensive for the government," said a KCGS official. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Oceans By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The vessel's first assignment was during inauguration of the Lamu port on 20th May, 2021. She then returned to Mkunguni Naval base where she is moored. Mv Doria is equipped with Servogear Ecoflow Propulsor, achieving a speed of 35.9 knots. It also has a deck on the back that can accommodate a five-ton helicopter. Chinese-owned vessels Meanwhile, the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) has withdrawn a fishing certificate for six Chinese-owned vessels after its Kenyan crew raised concerns over mistreatment while working on the vessels. KMA Head of Commercial Shipping, John Omingo, said KMA deregistered the vessels following complaints from Kenyan crew. Tens of Kenyan-registered seafarers working in Chinese vessels within Kenyan waters last week raised concerns over torture and mistreatment; including being forced to engage in illegal businesses in the ocean. The government has announced a raft of measures to contain drug trafficking along the Isiolo-Moyale road following the re-emergence of the illegal trade. Bhang worth over Sh2 million has been seized along the route in the last two months with the latest cache being recovered on Thursday at Archer's Post. Four young men were arrested while ferrying 30 kilogrammes of bhang in a private vehicle, hidden under the bonnet. Isiolo County Commissioner Geoffrey Omoding said a special anti-trafficking police unit had been created to deal with the drug menace. He said most of the traffickers use routes in Kom and Yamicha areas to evade security checks. The highly trained team, he said, will also deal with firearms dealings by some of the drug traffickers. Inspect vehicles Also, all vehicles including those belonging to government officials will be subjected to searches in an effort to ensure no narcotics sail through unnoticed. "The drug lords should know that the government is several steps ahead of them and we will continue embracing more technology to eradicate the illegal business," Mr Omoding said. Accompanied by County Police Commander Joseph Kigen and his Criminal Investigations counterpart Betty Chepng'eno, the administrator said sniffer dogs will be increased along the route for easier identification of vehicles with narcotics. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Drug traffickers have in the recent past changed tack, with majority of them, besides using off the highway routes to avoid police surveillance, colluding with rogue police officers and tasking boda boda riders to ferry the huge consignments in small 'unnoticeable' quantities. Mr Omoding said the fight against drug not only focuses on those transporting the narcotics but all those involved, from the source to the consumers. Arrest big fish "We are committed to arresting the big fish who are using the young men to transport the drugs. The four (arrested on Thursday) are being interrogated to share crucial information to assist us in making the arrest of other people involved," he noted. Youths are likely targets for being used to transport narcotics due to their desire to earn quick money. The administrator asked operators in the car hire business to take personal details of their clients as some are hiring the vehicles to transport drugs. While lamenting that drug proliferation had destroyed lives of many youth, he attributed it to the rising crime and suicide cases and the number of mad persons in Isiolo town and neighbouring trading centres. He announced a countywide crackdown on traders selling substandard goods and those not remitting the required taxes. Two men who were repairing a septic tank in Kapiti area of EPZ Kitengela Wednesday died after suffocating while one of their colleagues escaped death by a whisker. According to the management of the apartment where they were working, a plumber had been engaged to do some routine repair work on the septic tank that was leaking before tragedy struck around 4pm Wednesday. Eyewitnesses said three men inspected the drainage system of the apartment before opening the three septic tanks within the compound with the intention of doing some repairs. One of the men who was inside the septic tank was heard screaming, prompting the other to rush to save him but, unfortunately, he also drowned. The screams of the other colleague attracted tenants of the two-storey building and neighbours. "My friend made a living by repairing septic tanks. I was with him in the morning and we were supposed to meet in the evening to catch up. It's unfortunate he died this way," said one of the victims' friends. Surging crowd Officers from Kitengela Police Station who were notified of the incident arrived immediately to contain the surging crowd that had turned up to witness the incident. The officers and county government officials had a rough time containing the curious onlookers. Those who turned up following the screams narrated how they were unable to help owing to the depth of the septic tanks that require skills to access. "Distress calls brought us from our respective houses but we could not help much. A dangerous gas was coming from the septic tank and we were scared," said a tenant. It took the Kajiado emergency department and Kenya Red Cross officers more than an hour to retrieve the bodies. Confirming the incident Isinya Sub-County Police Commander Charles Chepkonga urged landlords to be cautious while handling sewerage systems to avert such deaths. Kitengela town has no sewerage system and landlords rely on septic tanks which are regularly emptied and the waste dumped in Machakos and Nairobi counties. The bodies of the two were moved to Kitengela Sub-County Hospital mortuary awaiting identification and post-mortem. Former Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu risks losing Sh52 million in a dispute over a failed real estate transaction. Mr Waititu had paid the money to General Properties Ltd as a deposit to buy a commercial building in Nairobi's city centre three years ago. The money constituted 10 per cent of the purchase for the property known as Solar House. Mr Waititu was to buy the property for Sh520 million but was unable to pay the balance of Sh468 million even after he was given more time to do so. He made the May 30, 2018 sale agreement using his company, Saika Two Estate Developers Ltd, where he is a director. Saika later came under the scrutiny of the State anti-graft watchdog EACC over allegations that Mr Waititu was using it to receive kickbacks from county government contractors. In a pending corruption case, he is said to have received Sh18 million from a contractor known as Testimony Enterprises Ltd between July 2018 and March 2019. When Mr Waititu failed to complete paying for the property, the seller retained the deposit, which was 10 per cent of the purchase price, and now wants the court to declare that its decision was legal. General Properties also wants to terminate the sale agreement, a move that would see the politician lose the property and the deposit fee. "It was a term of the agreement that upon default by Saika, the General Properties Ltd had the right to rescind the agreement and forfeit the 10 per cent deposit as liquidated damages for breach," says Charles Muhia, the real estate firm's director. But Mr Waititu's company has opposed the move, threatening General Properties with legal action. Court papers show that Saika also lodged a caution against the property to compel the seller to refund the deposit. General Properties says the sale agreement was approved by Mr Waititu's lawyers, who also advised him to execute it. He was to pay the balance within 90 days. "It was a condition of the agreement that time was of essence and that the balance of Sh468 million was to be paid to the vendor advocates within 90 days from May 30, 2018. The defendant (Saika) has blatantly breached the conditions in the agreement," the seller says. General Properties wants the court to allow forfeiture of the Sh52 million as damages for breach of contract. It also wants Mr Waititu's company barred from lodging any caution or interfering with the property. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Court papers indicate that on August 22, 2018, Saika wrote to the property seller confirming that it had started talking to Equity and Family banks to secure financing. Saika also said it had been promised funding but provided no evidence. Saika directors then started dodging phone calls and text messages from the seller's advocate, as well as delaying to respond to correspondence. On September 21, 2018, Saika directors informed the seller that they were now dealing with Co-operative Bank to secure funding and that they needed 90 more days. A meeting was held with Mr Waititu to allow Saika 60 more days to complete the deal and for the firm to forfeit 10 per cent. But Saika introduced a twist, claiming that it was given false information about rent income from the property. Three people have been killed and another one seriously injured in separate road crashes in Kirinyaga County. In the first incident, an 80-year-old woman died on the spot after she was run over by an Embu-bound car as she was crossing the road on Monday evening in Kangu village. The victim was heading to Kianjiru market for a prayer meeting when she met her death. Following the fatal crash, angry residents came out in protest and attempted to lynch the driver, but he was rescued by the police. The body of the victim was taken to Kibugi Funeral Home while the car was towed to Wang'uru Police Station where it was detained for inspection. Crushed to death And at the Nyamindi bridge, two people were crushed to death while a boda boda rider was wounded when they were hit by a lorry. The victims were riding on a motorcycle when the lorry, which was travelling towards Makutano from Embu, hit them. The rider sustained serious injuries and was rushed to Embu Referral Hospital where he was admitted for treatment. Mwea East Sub-County Police Commander Daniel kitavi said investigations into the crash had been commenced. However, he warned drivers plying local routes against flouting traffic rules. He blamed increasing road accidents in the area on careless driving. Former Kenya Power boss Samuel Gichuru has lost his bid to block Chief Justice Martha Koome from participating in a case involving his extradition to Jersey Island to face theft and money laundering charges. Mr Gichuru wanted Justice Koome to recuse herself from the petition that is seeking the Supreme Court's clarification on whether he and former Cabinet minister Chris Okemo can be extradited to the British territory for a criminal trial. The petition was filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Through lawyer Benson Muchiri, Mr Gichuru told the Supreme Court that Justice Koome should stay away from the case because she had handled it as a Court of Appeal judge. He also argues that she had disqualified herself from the matter in that court. But the Supreme Court threw out his application, which was made orally and informally by his lawyer on Thursday morning at a hearing. In a brief ruling read by Justice William Ouko, the court said that given the limited number of judges at the Supreme Court, Justice Koome's recusal at the Court of Appeal could not be applied to the apex court. The court said considering the limited number of judges at the apex court and the doctrine of necessity, the bench will remain as constituted. The bench comprises the CJ and justices Mohammed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung'u and William Ouko. "(Justice Koome's recusal) at the Court of Appeal was not on the question of bias or perceived bias or prejudice or perceived prejudice. It was said that she was avoiding sideshows," the judges said. Lawyer Muchiri said that on July 25, 2016, CJ Koome (then a Court of Appeal judge) recused herself from the bench that was hearing the case following an application by Mr Gichuru's lawyer, Gershom Otachi, now chairman of the National Land Commission. She was the presiding judge of the bench that included herself and justices Hellen Okwengu and Festus Azangalala. In disqualifying herself, she said she would not allow sideshows to delay the matter. "She recused herself from presiding over this matter and I am drawing the court's attention to that order by your ladyship (CJ Koome). It is the position of Mr Gichuru that the same position at the Court of Appeal should prevail," Mr Muchiri told the Supreme Court judges. He was supported by lawyer Fred Ngatia, for Mr Okemo. Mr Ngatia said that for consistency the DPP's petition should be heard by a bench not involved in the matter previously. But the judges noted that Mr Muchiri had not tabled the ruling or the order of the Court of Appeal. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. But the judges allowed his request to adjourn the hearing on the grounds that Mr Gichuru's lead counsel, Waweru Gatonye, is sick and could not participate in the proceedings. The court postponed the hearing to October 21, saying that it will not entertain any other application for adjournment. Immediately after the ruling, CJ Koome complained that lawyers were taking the Supreme Court casually. She, in particular, told off Mr Muchiri and a Mr Ruto from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, who said he learnt about the proceedings on Thursday through Mr Ngatia. "This court takes its work seriously. It is the apex court. Yesterday we took long - not less than two hours - in a pretrial hearing to prepare for this hearing," she said. She was angry that during the pretrial session the court was not informed of the factors that would cause an adjournment. "This morning we all wake up prepared to hear the appeal and the application together. We are sitting here robed and then Mr Muchiri just appears in a very casual manner to draw our attention to another decision of the Court of Appeal which he does not even place before us but goes on and asks for another adjournment," she said. "Moving forward for those who practice in the Supreme Court, this casual manner of treating the court will not be entertained at all.... I wish to say no more but caution them to be more serious. Mr Ruto... his office sat with a hearing notice and then he just appears to say he knows nothing about the matter." To an onlooker, the rusty chimney and corroded metallic equipment at Pan African Paper Mills situated along Webuye-Eldoret highway paints a picture of a dilapidated factory. However, the situation is quite different. The factory's run down exterior doesn't give the slightest hint of what has been going on inside the factory for the last four years. In 2009, when Pan African Paper Mills collapsed the economy of Webuye town was dealt a heavy blow. Hundreds of employees were rendered jobless and Webuye almost turned into a ghost town. Many residents of the town, including small-scale traders, relocated to other towns. Market centres like T Junction, Sango, Generation, Wananchi, Lions and Dinaa became deserted overnight. Learning institutions, which were situated near the mills, also suffered a major setback due to dropped leaner population as jobless parents with their school going children moved to upcountry. Thankfully, the factory's gradual revival is slowly attracting the erstwhile stalled economic activities back to the town. But revival process has been a smooth journey for the company. In 2018, just when Pan African Paper Mill was about to start milling, the government imposed a ban on logging in both public and community forests. The government's directive did not stop Rai Group, though, from continuing with its plans to turn around the fortunes of the once hugely profitable company. Prior to this, in 2016, the new management injected about Sh1 billion to the factory and settled on locally sourced recycled waste papers as alternative raw material for the manufacture of papers. It is now three years since the factory resumed its operations. The factory had been inoperational between 2009 and 2016. According to the company's General Manager, Palanapian Psubramaniam, the factory's journey to its glorious days has been fraught with many challenges, particularly the ban on logging. Initially, the factory relied on logs of trees to make papers. Being a chemical processing industry, Mr Psubramaniam said most of the equipment had corroded beyond repair at the time the new investor came on board, thereby increasing the cost of investment required to restart the plant. Mr Psubramaniam said one machine is already fully operational while a second one is awaiting official commissioning at the end of this month. However, he did not reveal how much has been pumped into the factory, only stating that a substantial amount of money has been sunk into Pan Paper's revival which is being carried out in phases. "The journey has not been easy but we are happy that things have so far worked for us. We have made substantive investment in the factory and we are continuing to invest in it. We found most of the equipment in bad condition so that first thing we did was to replace them. That process is ongoing," said Psubramaniam. With the logging ban still on, Psubramaniam said they will continue using recycled waste paper as raw materials. The factory, which had once been written off, is now a beehive activity and has employed at least 600 employees, a majority of whom are locals. The factory has also put in place graduate trainee programme which absorbs fresh graduate to enable them gain the much-needed experience in the areas they studied in university. Presently, the factory has the capacity to produce at least 18,000 tonnes of paper annually. Production is expected to go up once two more machines are operationalised before end of this year. Meanwhile, the factory's revival has come as good for hundreds of former employees who lost their jobs more than a decade ago. Some 469 employees have been recalled by the current management. Among them is Wellington Omido, who joined the company in 1978 as a trainee supervisor. At the time of the company's collapse, he had risen to the position of deputy superintendent of stock preparation. Omido recalls the devastating news of the company's closure. "People had nothing to hold on to. Some died because they had no other livelihood," he recounted. Like Omido, John Were has also been lucky enough to have been recalled, although in his case he was initially reluctant to accept the offer. But with hindsight, he says he is glad he accepted the offer. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Company By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "I have educated one of my children up to university with the salary I get every month," he says. Richard Omondi, another employee who returned to serve under the new management, also recalled his plight after the company went under. Initially, he says, all the employees were asked to go home for three months with a promise from the management that they would receive 30 per cent of their salary over than period to keep them going. That was in January 2009. But no payments were made by the company for seven years. This was until 2015 when they were recalled under the new management. Now with things looking up, Rai Group is confident that they are on the right track and sooner rather than later, the paper milling factory will be fully operational. "We are doing everything possible to make all machines operational. Decommissioning of corroded parts and asbestos is also going on smoothly. Residents should not expect heavy smokes and pungent smell like it was before because we are now using new technology," said Psubramaniam. Nairobi The government has pledged a slight reduction in fuel prices when the Energy Petroleum and Regulatory Authority (EPRA) concludes its monthly price review on October 14. Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi gave the assurances on Thursday after meeting with officials from the Kenya Power and Lightening Company (KPLC) and those drawn from the Ministry of Energy and the National Treasury. "As a result of the many actions that have been taken you will see some reductions in the cost of fuel as we go forward. I mean government never makes promises in vain, we have been working on this and we have sincerely heard the cries of our citizens," he said. In its September review, EPRA hiked pump prices by a Sh9.5 shillings average with the prices for super petrol, diesel and kerosene subsequently going up by Sh7.58, Sh7.94, and Sh12.97 per litre respectively in Nairobi. The regulator had imposed consecutive hikes in April, May, and June after which the prices remained unchanged for two months as a result of retention of the fuel costs. President Uhuru Kenyatta formed a Cabinet Sub Committee in February to assess the running KPLC with the aim of, among other things, coming up with solutions to permanently address the high cost of fuel in the country. Matiangi noted that the government is fully cognizant of the challenges that Kenyans are facing owing to the increase of prices of petroleum and petroleum products and committed to providing permanent solutions. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Petroleum By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We live in the same country and we pay the same high bills that the rest of the Kenyans are paying but I want to assure Kenyans that the government is committed to address the issue," he said. With the committee working round the clock to come up with the solutions and present a report to President Kenyatta in December, Matiangi also announced the suspension of ongoing and pending negotiations with independent power producers in line with recommendations of a task force which presented its report on September 29. He noted that the government will be prioritizing review of existing power purchasing agreements in a bid to lower the cost of electricity procured by KPLC. To foster transparency at the power utility firm, Matiangi also announced that a multi-agency team comprising of the DCI, Financial Reporting Center (FRC), Assets Recovery Authority and other investigative agencies will be assembled to investigate alarming system losses within KPLC, procurement practices, insider trading, conflict of interests and suspect transactions involving KPLC staff and others. "Work has started now to deal with the challenges in this sector with the aim of ensuring that we reduce the cost of power. We are all concerned and the President himself is also concerned," he said. A meeting of all state agencies in the energy sector is to be convened urgently to synergize and align the country's demand-vs-supply needs of the country and to work out modalities of bringing down energy costs. Parliament is also looking into the issue with the National Assembly Committee on Finance expected to table a report before the House attached with a draft Bill that is aimed to guide the review on the taxation of petroleum and petroleum products. Nairobi Chief Justice Martha Koome now says that the Judiciary will continue to formulate judicial policies that are child-friendly in order to protect them. Speaking Thursday during the Annual Child Justice Summit, Koome called on all justice system stakeholders to understand who a child is and protect them from finding themselves in the corridors of justice unnecessarily. "Judicial Service Act specifically established the national council on the administration of justice and court users committee. We in the Judiciary are moving ahead to ensure that judicial services are child friendly," Koome said. She reiterated that the aim of the summit is to understand the challenges faced by children in the Justice system and find solutions. "We have this vision where children should not be in the justice system, children belong to the homes, to the family, to the schools and they should be playing instead of hanging around the corridors of the courts," she said. "Particularly those in conflict and in contact with the law. Towards social justice for vulnerable children, we have resolved to work by outing together a system that looks out at the best interest of the child," said Koome. The summit was held earlier Thursday at the Strathmore University in the capital Nairobi. Nairobi Mt Kenya Foundation (MKF) leaders said Thursday they were yet to decide on the presidential candidate they will back to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta in next year's election. The foundation that is made up influential tycoons from the region have so far hosted luncheons for presidential aspirants Raila Odinga and principals of the One Kenya Alliance (OKA) to listen to their agenda for the country and Mt Kenya. They first held a meeting last week with Odinga, the former Prime Minister who is also the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party before hosting OKA principals Musalia Mudavadi of the Amani National Congress (ANC), Gideon Moi (KANU), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper) and Moses Wetangula (Ford Kenya). During the Thursday luncheon, MKF officials said, "We have not made up our mind on who to support. We have not endorsed anyone." There has been wide speculation that MKF favours Odinga who is a close ally of President Kenyatta since their March 2018 handshake. "Our meetings with Odinga and OKA was meant to invite them to Mt Kenya to campaign and sell their policies to the people," the foundation said, "we will make that decision later and it will include consultations with the people." Kisumu The burden of Malaria has reduced by 18 per cent in Kisumu County which is endemic to the disease in the wake of a new vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO on Wednesday announced the approved use of the RTS,S malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. Liliana Dayo, a malaria program officer in Kisumu County says the drastic reduction in the prevalence of malaria is attributed to the vaccine that was piloted in Kisumu. Dayo says the announcement by WHO on the vaccine is a big win for the children in Kisumu. "Over the years we have had reports of children having severe symptoms of malaria, both in the community and in the facility," she said. The officer says the severity of the disease has reduced in the last two years since the vaccine was introduced as a pilot in the county. The recommendations by WHO is based on results from an ongoing pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800,000 children since 2019. Dayo says according to the Malaria Indicators Survey that was done in 2020 and findings released early this year polled Kisumu at the lowest in terms of prevalence. "We know that the malaria vaccine has greatly contributed to reducing that burden to this proportion," she said. She noted that the vaccine was on trial in Kisumu County during the implementation. She says five sub counties had been selected to participate in the trial phase with Nyakach and Nyando as controlled sub counties. During the trials, the caregivers of the children below the age of 24 months realized that those who were given the vaccination were not having frequent attacks of malaria. "They were even having less severe symptoms, an indication of a break through," she said. Dayo says communities must be encouraged to continue using other existing interventions of preventing malaria. "We have the use of bed nets, which you know we concluded the mass distributions sometimes in April and the primary health care, keeping the environment clean," she said. She says the national government must invest in awareness creation on the new vaccine with a call on the communities not to abandon the already existing interventions. Dayo further noted that the new vaccine will drastically reduce the cost of managing malaria at the household level and at the hospital facility. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Malaria Kenya By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The frequent travel to the hospitals will now be reduced once the children are vaccinated, this will cut costs on transport at the family level," she said. Salome Situma, a paediatric nurse at Kisumu County hospital says the number of patients, mainly children seeking medication as a result of malaria, has drastically reduced. "Even though we might still get cases of malaria, the severity of the disease has greatly reduced," she said. Situma says a number of vaccines are available in the hospitals and proper uptake will ensure hospital beds are empty. "Like pneumonia, vaccines are there, rotavirus is also there and I think the reduction in the number of patients in the ward is as a result of interventions being undertaken," she said. She says communities must accept the interventions in place to fight some of the diseases without believing in myths associated with some vaccines, which hampers the uptake. Malaria has been a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa with more than 260,000 African children under the age of five dying from malaria annually. Nairobi Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the National Treasury and Planning to extensively review its internal mechanisms to ensure transparency in implementing the cash transfer programme launched during the COVID-19 pandemic Speaking during a stakeholders meeting on irregularities in the government's COVID-19 cash transfer programme, Carine Keneza, Africa Advocacy Director at HRW said there was need to ensure timely transfer of cash funds given to the vulnerable people in the society. "It is important that the office assess the effectiveness of internal controls and overall implementation including transparency and frequency of cash dispersals," Keneza said. She said lack of transparency makes it difficult to audit the process, including how beneficiaries are selected. "It is important to undertake a timely and through audit of the entire process of the governments pandemic related cash transfer and publish the findings including the criteria of selecting the vulnerable households," she added. The government launched a cash transfer programme for vulnerable families in various parts of the country at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic so as to cushion them against the tough economic times. The programme targets 669,000 people. According to the HRW representative, not all the people have received the funds with others missing out on some months "The implementation of these initiatives is obviously undermined by the negligence and inadequate oversight by the authorities. Take the cash transfer Programme, for instance, it was vulnerable to fraud, errors like our research showed, corruption and embezzlement of funds," she said. The programme was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in March 2018 when he announced a range of measures to cushion the economic impact of the pandemic, including adding Sh10 billion ($100 million) to a social protection fund for the older people, orphans and those with underlying health conditions. He also announced a cash transfer program for the most socio-economically vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities, pointing out that his administration was already paying out Sh250 million ($2.5 million) to the most vulnerable households each week. Kenya has no system of social security to pay income to those who lose jobs and although government stated this as one of the objectives of its Covid-19 cash transfer program, the outlined criteria did not include job loss as one of the factors to be considered during the selection of beneficiaries. Kenya does not guarantee social security for all and does not protect the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food and shelter at all times, even during an emergency. Human Rights Watch's analysis of available government data and information provided by government officials indicate that the Covid-19 cash transfer program provided support to less than five percent of the socio-economically vulnerable families in Nairobi, and an even smaller percentage across the nation, which means that the government failed to guarantee the right to an adequate standard of living for more than 95 percent of vulnerable households. Kenya is a lower-middle income economy whose population has doubled over the past three decades from 23.72 million in 1990 to 47.5 million in 2020, which means that, even in the absence of emergency situations like the coronavirus pandemic, a growing number of Kenyans have been struggling to attain an adequate standard of living. Along with burgeoning population growth has come alarmingly widening economic disparities both between and within the nation's eight regions and among the same population in a given region. At least 36.1 percent of the population - 17.1 million Kenyans - live below the international poverty line, a measure of extreme poverty defined as earning less than $1.90 a day, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, while 66.2 percent live on less than $3.20 a day, and 86.5 percent on less than $5.50, according to the World Bank. As of 2015, half of Kenyans were living in multidimensional poverty, a measure that uses a weighted index of ten factors related to health, education, and living standards. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Coronavirus Human Rights By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Poverty rates are especially high - above 70 percent - in the remote, arid and sparsely populated northeastern parts of Kenya. Some large cities also have high poverty rates; for example, 44 percent of Mombasa residents are classified as poor, compared to 42 percent of people in the capital of Nairobi. However, the abysmally low poverty line of $1.90 per day masks the huge numbers of people in higher-cost cities like Nairobi who struggle to afford basic necessities. Despite stubbornly high poverty rates, Kenya's existing social protection system is not as robust and does not guarantee social security to everyone, which made it even more difficult to expand existing programs to identify and reach families in need of support during the pandemic. Nairobi Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi has appealed to Kenyans to examine their presidential aspirants carefully and decide based on a proven track record to deliver so as to guarantee economic development in the country. He castigated Deputy President William Ruto's hustler narrative and the bottom-up economic model, saying Kenyans need empowerment not handouts. "What we want is not a hustling nation. We want a thriving nation. We must make sure our policemen, teachers are paid adequately. We must allow businesses to grow and give them support to grow," he said on Thursday during a luncheon hosted by the Mount Kenya Foundation (MKF). The former Vice President challenged Kenyans to put in power leaders who can be trusted by the leadership of the country and not those who can plunder the public coffers. He said Kenya requires leaders who want to work towards improving the lives of the ordinary citizens and one who has demonstrated respect for the rule of law. "Who can you trust with the leadership of this country. Examine us, how many of us respect the rule of law. How many of us respect the will of the people. We must ask ourselves, who can you trust that given a position of authority, that individual who will not in any way misuse the office to visit hell and trouble on other Kenyans because they believe there is a grudge to settle," Mudavadi said at the meeting with Central Kenya influential tycoons. The ANC leader who spoke last at the event attended by his co-principals Gideon Moi (KANU), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper) and Moses Wetangula (Ford Kenya) packaged himself as the "best pair of hands", assuring that he will entrench democracy, scrap unnecessary unfriendly business taxes among other key policies that can guarantee economic development in the country. All the OKA principles spoke at the event and assured of their resolve to unite the country. He also committed to building capacity for Small-Medium Enterprises, offering affordable loans and formulating a post Covid-19 resilience to insulate businesses. Mudavadi urged the Mt Kenya community to pull together as a country, embrace peace and unity for us to achieve a working economy that will benefit all Kenyans. "This initiative is important because it is introducing a new way of interacting, a new way of sieving a leadership that Kenya is going to get. The process can lead to a very united nation," the ANC leader said. During the Thursday luncheon, MKF Vice-Chairman Titus Ibui said they were yet to decide who to support for the presidency. "We have not made up our mind on who to support. We have not endorsed anyone," he said. It still remains unclear if the tycoons will also meet Deputy President William Ruto who is seeking the presidency under his United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party. The group started with luncheon for Odinga month. There has been wide speculation that MKF favours Odinga who is a close ally of President Kenyatta since their March 2018 handshake, but they denied the claim saying they are open for choices. "Our meetings with Odinga and OKA was meant to invite them to Mt Kenya to campaign and sell their policies to the people," the foundation said, "we have not decided on who to support. We will make that decision later and it will include consultations with the people," Ibui said in his closing remarks at the luncheon. The foundation however, asked politicians and presidential aspirants to respect the president. "We only ask you one thing, as you go out to sell your policies, do not disrespect our President. If you don't respect our President, the people of the Mt Kenya region will not be with you Uhuru to us is not just a leader, he is muthamaki (The King)," Ibui said. United Democratic Party Leader Cyrus Jirongo, who is a member of the OKA team cautioned the foundation against preferring any candidate at this stage. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We are willing Raila to be our President tomorrow if the programme is fair; but you must be willing to make Musalia, Gideon or Kalonzo to be a President's tomorrow because all of them are equally and fairly... msikuje na preferred candidate, mtaaribu karibu kabisa (you'll spoil)," he said. Embu Governor Martin Wamobora said it was imperative for Mt Kenya leaders to meet the presidential aspirants to get to understand their aspirations for the country. "Mount Kenya is agitated because we are not going to field our own candidate and we know we are exposed. We have done statistics and found that the economy of Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan cannot match the economy of Mt Kenya region and yet we as the 11 Governors in the region cannot give exceptionally brilliant students from our region Sh10,000 University bursary because we are not getting our fair share. This cannot continue, that is why we are afraid," he said. The British Government on Thursday announced that Kenyans travelling to the United Kingdom will no longer need to quarantine or present a negative Covid-19 test, if fully vaccinated. The decision, which takes effect on Monday, October 11, will come as relief following months of refusal by UK authorities to recognise Kenyan vaccine certificates. A spokesperson from the British High Commission in Kenya said that fully vaccinated Kenyans will no longer have to quarantine or present proof of a negative test on arriving in the UK as has been the rule and that Covid-19 vaccine certificates from Kenya will now be recognised in the UK. "Thanks to our strong partnership with the Ministry of Health, we have completed the process to recognise vaccine certificates from Kenya," the spokesman said. "This is great news for our peoples, Kenya-UK trade, and the tourism sector as we move closer to getting back to normal. The full guidance on entry requirements can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-to-england-from-another-country-during-coronavirus-covid-19#if-you-are-fully-vaccinated," said the official. The decision could end a long tussle between authorities in Nairobi and London over the nature and features of certification for those who have received Covid-19 jabs. Vaccination programmes But travellers will have to be vaccinated from a list of jabs approved by the UK to enjoy the privilege. These include Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca. The UK Mission said the decision was reached after talks between experts from both sides, although the UK also included several other countries whose exclusion had caused an uproar across the world. "I'm delighted people vaccinated in Kenya will be able to travel to the UK without quarantine, or taking a Covid-19 test before departure. This is excellent news for our peoples, businesses, and tourism after a tough 18 months," Jane Marriott, the British High Commissioner to Kenya, said. UK's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps added 37 new countries to the list of those whose vaccination programmes his government now recognises. Their exclusion had been criticised as discriminatory as it includes countries as diverse as India, Brazil and South Africa. All these will now have their vaccination certificates recognised in the UK from Monday. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Coronavirus Europe and Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Namibia and Morocco will also be recognised. The United Kingdom began adopting a new system of admittance for international travellers on October 4, opting to allow in fully vaccinated foreign travellers as opposed to those who test negative. Vaccine donations Unvaccinated travellers from these countries may still enter the UK, but as long as they undergo quarantine and take tests. In a list publicised on Monday night, the UK government said only people vaccinated with adequate doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and John & Johnson (Janssen) will be considered inoculated, as long as they come from a region whose vaccination programme is approved by the UK. The initial list of 70 countries had excluded the entire African continent, where the UK has incidentally has donated vaccines and provided other logistical support through the Covax programme. "You must be able to prove that you've been fully vaccinated under a vaccination programme with approved proof of certification," says a notice from the UK's Department of Transport. "To qualify under the fully vaccinated rules for travel to England, you must have been fully vaccinated with a full course of an approved vaccine in the UK or one of the countries and territories listed below." The AU had criticised the move as one that could raise vaccine hesitancy in Africa. Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu has been ordered to appear in court for failing to pay 19 doctors their salaries for four months. Ms Ngilu and the county public service board were ordered to appear before Justice Monicah Mbaru to explain why they defied directions to pay the doctors their dues by October 5, 2021. Justice Mbaru ordered the governor to attend court in person on October 14, 2021 for sanctioning. The judge had earlier directed the governor to attend court on October 7, 2021 to confirm she had paid the medics. "The 19 medics have not been paid their salaries since July 1, 2021," lawyer Henry Kurauka, who is representing the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentist Union (KMPDU), said. KMPDU moved to court to secure payment of the outstanding salaries of the aggrieved doctors. In the petition, the union says the doctors have not received their salaries since July 2021. "Failure by the respondents to pay the doctors July 2021 salaries is in breach of employment rights according to Section 17 of the Employment Act and Article 41 of the Constitution," Mr Kurauka told Justice Mbaru. Post graduate studies The judge was told that the affected doctors had been allowed to pursue two-year post graduate studies with full pay. However, the doctors were abruptly recalled from Ukraine, Tanzania and America where they had gone to further their studies. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs Health By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The respondents then proceeded to institute disciplinary proceedings against the doctors on August 5, 2021. Consequently, KMPDU moved to court to stop the disciplinary proceedings, terming them malicious and callous. KMPDU states that the respondents are in breach of Section 4.2 of the Discipline Manual for the Public Service by withholding the doctors' salaries during the pendency of the disciplinary process. The manual says that a public officer is entitled to half of his or her basic salary, full house allowance and medical insurance cover during the disciplinary proceedings. In the suit, KMPDU is seeking an injunction to restrain the Kitui county government from stopping payment of salaries or dismissing the doctors from employment. The union is also seeking payment of damages equivalent to 12 months salaries to all the aggrieved doctors. The county government and its various committees had allowed the doctors to pursue specialised courses overseas to improve public health in Kitui. Guinea's military president Colonel Mamady Doumbouya has appointed a former diplomat as prime minister in the transitional government. Mr Mohamed Beavogui, who once served as United Nations Assistant Secretary General, was named on Wednesday through a presidential decree read on state broadcaster RTG. Beavogui, as prime minister, will be the head of the transitional government which will be charged with steering the country to civilian rule. He will be responsible for organising local, legislative and presidential elections at a yet to be specified date. His appointment marks fulfilment of a major promise by the junta as contained in a transition charter published late last month, which entails the roadmap of the country's return to democratic rule. The country came under military rule following the September 5 coup in which special forces soldiers led by Col Doumbouya ousted former president Alpha Conde. The junta has been under pressure by the international community, particularly the African Union and Economic Community of West African States, to return the country to civilian rule. The appointment of Mr Beavogui comes six days after Doumbouya was sworn in as president of the transitional government. An engineering graduate of the Leningrad Polytechnic University in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Beavogui also holds a degree from the prestigious Kennedy School of Governance at Harvard University in the United States. The 68-year-old son of a former diplomat is a development expert with stints within the UN system, having worked with, among others, the FAO, IFAD and UNOPS. He notably served as United Nations Assistant Secretary General, Climate Risk Management. Since 2015, Beavogui has been the Director General of the African Capacity Building Agency. Alpha Franks, a member of the Makua community, at home in Chatsworth on September 19, 2021. Durban The Makua are one of many African communities still battling the after effects of colonial-era slavery and land grabs Apartheid land grabs drove Makua families from their homes Elders fight for 'full victory' after land claim win Bureaucracy, disagreements keep Makua from their property Abey Canthitoo was eight when tractors roared in to demolish his home and turn his neighbourhood into a white-only area during South Africa's apartheid regime. Six decades on, his community is reviving its fight to get back the confiscated land. Canthitoo is one of thousands of descendants of freed northern Mozambican slaves - known as the Makua people - brought to South Africa by the British in the 1870s after they intercepted illegal slave ships en route to Zanzibar. Now 67, Canthitoo said his memories of the eviction forever called to mind his great-grandmother's kidnapping by slave traders in Mozambique - and her struggle to build a new life in South Africa's eastern coastal city of Durban. "I remember children screaming and crying and my parents having to throw our belongings into a truck," said Canthitoo from his home in Bluff - the neighbourhood his family was forced to leave and where Canthitoo later returned to buy a house. "That's why this land claim means so much, we need a place for all of us to call our own," Canthitoo, a businessman, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as his grandchildren ran and played through his house. The Makua were taken to Bluff in what is now KwaZulu-Natal to fill the province's labour shortage - an idea British Empire officials found so useful that they sent for more Makua to expand this growing labour force, according to community elders. Kim Harrisberg / Thomson Reuters Foundation Abey Canthitoo, a member of the Makua community, outside his home in Bluff in Durban, South Africa, September 27, 2021. From the Ogiek in Kenya to the Hai//om in Namibia, the Makua are one of many African communities still battling the after-effects of colonial rule including slavery, land grabs and racial classification. The KwaZulu-Natal Land Claims Commission ruled in 2004 that the Makua were the rightful owners of the land. But Makua elders say that the handover process has been unclear and that reaching an agreement with some of the current land owners has stalled. When contacted, Durban authorities and the commission said they thought the land had already been handed back to the community. "We would like an opportunity to go back and find out what is going on so we can try and do some mediation for parties involved and figure out why it has been delayed for so long," said Nokuthokoza Zulu, a commission spokesperson. Frustrated by the impasse, in August some Makua elders asked the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), an independent institution, to help facilitate the land handover. The SAHRC acknowledged receipt of the complaint and said they were assessing the information provided. "Winning the land claim was a partial victory, but we want a full victory, we want what is due to us," said Canthitoo, adding that they plan to build housing, a business park and a cultural centre for the country's 200 Makua families. DIVIDE AND RULE Although Britain once enthusiastically promoted the slave trade, the Slave Abolition Act in 1833 outlawed slavery throughout the Empire, so naval patrols were set up to intercept illegal traders, according to Durban-based researchers. Kim Harrisberg / Thomson Reuters Foundation Houses in Chatsworth, established in the 1950s to segregate the Indian population in Durban, South Africa. September 19, 2021. The interception of the Makua - also known as the Zanzibaris because some passed through or were en route to the Tanzanian island - changed their descendants' lives forever as they were pulled into the beginnings of white-minority rule. South Africa became a nation state within the British monarchy in 1934 and over a decade later, after earlier wars between the British and Afrikaans Dutch descendants, the country was ruled by Afrikaner nationalism and racial segregation. The Group Areas Act of 1950 used a divide-and-rule method to physically segregate racial groups into specific residential and business areas. Racial categories were often arbitrarily assigned as embodied in the "pencil test" that saw apartheid officials stick a pencil into a person's hair to determine their race. If the pencil did not fall out, they were considered "non-white". For the Makua - as with other communities in South Africa - the forced racial classification split up families with different shades of skin or hair types. "They wanted us to fit into boxes, families were torn apart," said Alpha Franks, a Makua leader and activist from his home in Chatsworth, a township established by the apartheid government in the 1950s to segregate the Indian population. Despite being uprooted, more than once, and segregated from family, the Makua held onto their traditions and culture, said Franks, pointing to the vegetable patch he had set up on his street where cassava and other traditional crops are grown. Kim Harrisberg / Thomson Reuters Foundation The graves of Makua descendants in Durban, South Africa, September 27, 2021. The Makua are now one of South Africa's smallest and lesser-known minorities - many still speak the Makua language alongside Zulu or Afrikaans and practice their ancestral traditions. "Land would afford us the chance to keep our community together and our culture alive," said 64-year-old Franks, sitting in his family lounge. JUSTICE When the KwaZulu-Natal Land Claims Commission handed over title deeds to 5.2 hectares (12.8 acres) of land in Bluff, it felt "like a dream", said Canthitoo, who has been working with an attorney since the late 1980s to pull together a case. But logistics, bureaucracy and failed talks with some of the landowners - as well as what the Makua view as suspicion from surrounding homeowners - have prevented the Makua's return. The delay has left many members of the community "disillusioned and divided", said Franks. "We're trying to rekindle the passion," he said. Canthitoo often visits the cemetery where some of his ancestors are buried in Bluff, as well as the mosque built on the original worship site of his Makua forebears. "What keeps me going is justice for my community. We were robbed of something and this land won't heal us, but it will help us close an ugly chapter," he said. Presidente @PedroCastilloTe : La @naval_peru tiene presencia en todo el territorio nacional, garantizando la independencia, nuestra soberania y la integridad territorial. Sin seguridad no hay desarrollo para establecer una sociedad democratica y justa para todos los peruanos. pic.twitter.com/2fTI20JY5f Presidente @PedroCastilloTe: Los integrantes de la @naval_peru han contribuido en la pacificacion nacional, en la lucha contra el terrorismo, y mantienen una frontal lucha contra el narcotrafico, la mineria y la pesca ilegal. Por ello, mi eterno agradecimiento.#BicentenarioMGP pic.twitter.com/SV0AB2qQYg " " New Mexico resident Jude Sparks poses near the Stegomastodon skull he discovered in 2016. Researchers excavated the fossil find in May 2017 for study and preservation. Peter Houde Imagine you're 9 years old again. You're on a hike with your family, exploring rocky crags of a desert landscape not too far from the U.S.-Mexico border. You run ahead of the group, hoping to get out of sight so you and your brothers can test out your walkie-talkies. As you're jogging, you trip on what looks like a rock. Looking up from the dust, you're face to face with a massive jawbone protruding from the desert ground. That's precisely what happened to Jude Sparks, who literally stumbled onto a 1.2-million-year-old fossil find last year. When the Sparks family returned to their Las Cruces, New Mexico, home after their hike, they turned to the internet to look for advice and found New Mexico State University (NMSU) biologist Peter Houde in a YouTube video discussing a similar fossil find a decade ago. Advertisement In May, Houde and a team of NMSU scientists retrieved a fossilized skull (mostly intact), jawbone and tusks identified as belonging to a prehistoric giant animal called a Stegomastodon, one of three species of animals from the order Proboscidea that lived in the Rio Grande Valley region during the Pleistocene era. (The only living proboscideans today are elephants.) "A Stegomastodon would look to any of us like an elephant," said Houde in a press release announcing the retrieval. "For the several types of elephants that we have in the area, this is probably one of the more common of them. But they're still very rare. This may be only the second complete skull found in New Mexico." The weeklong extraction process happened several months after the initial discovery due to its location on private property, and the delicate nature of the fossilized skull. "As we were brushing away the fossil as soon as we removed the sediment," said NMSU geology student Danielle Peltier, "we needed to put a type of hardener on there to preserve the structural integrity, otherwise it would just crumble after a few days being left in the sun." Once the complete fossil, which weighs more than a ton, was unearthed, researchers took it to their research lab for study and reconstruction. "I have every hope and expectation that this specimen will ultimately end up on exhibit," said Houde, "and this little boy will be able to show his friends and even his own children, look what I found right here in Las Cruces." As for Jude Sparks, now 10 years old, his interest in fossils has been reinvigorated. "I'm not really an expert," he told The New York Times, "but I know a lot about it, I guess." Learn more about the discovery, the excavation and the preservation processes in this NMSU video: Now That's Interesting In 2015, a farmer in Michigan found the complete skeleton of a Jeffersonian mammoth while plowing his fields. Those remains were only 15,000 years old. " " Of the 1,510 fly pupae scientists X-rayed, 55 were found to contain well-preserved parasitoid wasps, including four new species. Nature Communications Scientists named a fossilized wasp after Xenomorph XX121 the vicious creature lieutenant Ripley battles from the 1979 movie "Alien." And like that fictional killer, this actual (albeit prehistoric) insect reproduced in a way squeamish people might find disgusting but it worked. In 1944, Eduard Handschin, a Swedish insect scientist, wrote a paper describing hundreds and hundreds of odd, oval-shaped stones that had been found by some French phosphorite miners five decades earlier. Capsule-like in appearance, each specimen was roughly 3 millimeters (0.1 inches) long. Advertisement Radiometric dating showed that they were between 34 and 40 million years old. The curiosities eventually found a home at the Natural History Museum of Basel, Switzerland. Handschin recognized that they were the fossilized pupae of prehistoric flies. A pupa is like a housefly cocoon; it's a hard case in which squirming maggots transform into adult flies. But sometimes, a rather unfortunate thing interrupts the metamorphosis. While Handschin was studying his pupal fossils, he cut a few of them up into thin slices. One cross-section revealed an eye-catching blot inside a pupal fly's abdomen area. Handschin thought but couldn't prove that this smudge was the body of a parasitic wasp. Around 50 percent of all extant animals are regarded as parasites by scientists. It's one of the most common lifestyles on the planet, and it comes in many forms. An especially unsettling group of parasitic organisms are the "parasitoids" insects whose larvae develop inside a host that they eventually kill. Delightful. Parasitoid wasps make up 10 to 20 percent of the world's living insect species. Given their modern success, there's no reason to doubt that they were also a big component of many prehistoric ecosystems. Since parasites rarely fossilize however, scientists don't know much about their evolutionary pasts. Now we've learned that a motherlode of parasite fossils was staring us in the face this whole time. On Aug. 28, 2018, Nature Communications published a new study about the pupa remains that Handschin looked over back in the 1940s. Led by insect expert Thomas van de Kamp, an international research team X-ray scanned 1,510 prehistoric fly pupae. (Some were being housed at the Basel museum, others resided in the Swedish Museum of Natural History.) This was a huge collaborative undertaking, one that required biologists, paleontologists, physicists, computer scientists and mathematicians to join forces. But boy did it pay off. Of the 1,510 pupae they looked at, 55 were found to contain well-preserved parasitoid wasps. Unfolded wings and intact antennae were clearly visible on several of the parasites. The degree of preservation was so good that van de Kamp and his colleagues were able to identify four new species of long-extinct wasp on the basis of these specimens. "The most numerous species we named 'Xenomorphia ressurecta,'" van de Kamp explains in a nature.com blog post. "The genus name refers to the Xenomorph creature of the 'Alien' media franchise, which was discovered in old eggs and also develops as a parasitoid (at the expense of an unfortunate human host, though)." Hey, all the best science fiction leans on scientific fact. NOW THAT'S INTERESTING A piece of fossilized dinosaur dung that was described in 2006 contains parasitic worm eggs and cysts made by a single-celled protozoan, providing evidence that dinosaurs had intestinal parasites. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The hearings at the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, over Armenias request to indicate provisional measures against Azerbaijan will be held on October 14-15. On September 16, 2021, Armenia instituted proceedings against the Republic of Azerbaijan before the International Court of Justice with regard to alleged violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Armenia also requested the Court to indicate certain provisional measures as a matter of extreme urgency, including the return of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives from Azerbaijan, as well as the closure of the so-called Military Trophies Park in Baku. Armenias Representative before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Yeghishe Kirakosyan, who will represent Armenias interests at the International Court of Justice over this case, has provided details to ARMENPRESS. This is the first time that Armenia is submitting a request to the UNs International Court of Justice. I think this is an unprecedented step made by Armenia, he said. He stated that the evidence, facts, claims and demands presented in the request are quite large-scale and relate to the gross violations of the Convention, which we witness even today. For that purpose, Armenia, in addition to the proceedings, has also requested to indicate urgent or provisional measures. The hearings over this are scheduled on October 14 and 15, and a group has been formed for participating in those hearings, which involves also famous international experts who will help to present Armenias interests, Kirakosyan said. The examination stage of an urgent measure will be followed by the stage of examining the main request. The investigation of the main case will last for years, but the court is expected to make decision over the request on applying urgent measures in 1-1.5 month. I think the evidence we have presented are very convincing, the legal facts as well, he said. The fact that we already have an international legal process in the International Court of Justice where Armenia presents very clearly its demands and legal explanations, I think, will have quite a big impact on the formation of international public opinion and a right international public environment, he added. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The Italian city of Turin has won the race to become the Host City of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest, having triumphed over 16 other competing bids, the Eurovision reports. The Grand Final will be held in PalaOlimpico on Saturday 14 May with Semi-Finals on 10 and 12 May. The capital of Piedmont will be the third Italian city to host the event after Naples (1965) and Rome (1991), thanks to Maneskins magnificent victory in Rotterdam the previous year. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Chairman of the Competition Protection Commission of Armenia Gegham Gevorgyan and President of the Competition Commission of Greece Ioannis Lianos have signed a memorandum of cooperation in Greece, the Armenian CPC said in a statement. In his remarks Gegham Gevorgyan said that the signing of the document puts the cooperation between the two commissions at a high level, which, according to him, will give a new impetus to the further development of the relations. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Alongside with the physical damage inflicted upon Shushis Ghazanchetsots Church, Azerbaijan does not stop attempts to distort the Armenian identity of the church, which is carried out by changing the architectural look of the church under the pretext of renovation, Armenian Foreign Ministrys spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan said in a statement on the occasion of the anniversary of the double bombing of the Cathedral by the Azerbaijani armed forces. During the military aggression unleashed against Artsakh and its people on October 8, 2020, the Azerbaijani armed forces launched air strikes twice on Shushis Ghazanchetsots Church with high-precision weapons, causing significant damages to the latter. Shortly after the November 9 trilateral statement the same church was vandalized and desecrated, Vahan Hunanyan said. According to him, the deliberate bombing of the church is not only a criminal act to be condemned by the international law, but also is a symbolic discovery of intentions, as it is an obvious demonstration of the policy of Azerbaijan to eliminate any trace of Armenian presence in the territory of Artsakh. A year after the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, the fate of nearly 1500 historical-cultural heritage and worship sites, as well as thousands of museum exhibits in the territories of Artsakh, which came under the Azerbaijani control, remains uncertain and in danger. There are numerous cases proving the deliberate destructions and vandalism of Armenian churches, cultural and other religious monuments by the Azerbaijani armed forces. Moreover, alongside with their physical destruction, we witness Azerbaijans consistent attempts to falsify historical facts and distort the identity of the Armenian monuments, he said. Hunanyan says that its not accidental that Azerbaijan continues blocking or restricting as much as possible the access of the UNESCO expert mission to the endangered Armenian cultural heritage sites, trying to hide its war crimes. The atrocities against historical-cultural monuments and worship sites, which are the peoples cultural and religious heritage, grossly violate the international law, are against the universal values and must be strongly condemned. Shushis Holy Savior Cathedral is one of the key centers of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Artsakh, and the servants and followers of the Armenian Church must have an unrestricted access to that site of worship, the MFA spokesperson said. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Moscow warns the UK against provoking a cyber arms race, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday, commenting on UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, who said that London will carry out cyberattacks against hostile states that would attempt to harm the United Kingdom - including against Russia, Tass informs October 8, 2021, 10:53 Moscow urges London not to provoke cyber arms race. Zakharova STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 7, ARTSAKHPRESS: "We urge our opponents not to lose their heads and not to provoke a new cyber arms race," she said. "For many years, the idea of a necessity to ramp up offensive means in informational and cyberspace has been introduced in NATO member states public conscience, under the pretext of countering threats allegedly coming from our country - not Russia alone, but Russia gets mentioned, probably, more often than any other state," the diplomat noted. Zakharova underscored that Russia consistently opposed the militarization of the informational space and advocated using the information and communication technologies for peaceful goals only. "This is our priority. We repeatedly proposed - to our British partners, in particular - to hold bilateral expert consultations. However, London prefers such hostile, aggressive and simply unbalanced statements and groundless outbursts at Russia to constructive specialized contacts," she added. "Moscow proposes to cooperate on the entire spectrum of international informational security issues instead of resorting to aggressive rhetoric," the diplomat concluded. Uzbekistan has enough capacity to ensure its security and does not plan to resume membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said in an interview with Pravda Vostoka on October 8. October 8, 2021, 15:27 Uzbekistan not planning resumption of CSTO membership STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 8, ARTSAKHPRESS: "In accordance with the national legislation, our country does not participate in military blocs. Besides, our country has own significant potential to ensure national security," the foreign minister said, as quoted by the source. Recent participation of Uzbekistan in CSTO Summit as guest of honor, as well as SCO and CSO Summits in Dushanbe on September 17 where the situation in Afghanistan was discussed is element of pragmatic diplomacy of the country, FM Kamilov said. It is reminded that in 1992, Uzbekistan signed the Collective Security Treaty in Tashkent but didn't extend extend its participation in the Treaty in 1999. In 2006, Uzbekistan resumed CSTO membership, but suspended it already in 2012. About 100 people were killed and dozens were injured in a powerful explosion in a Shia mosque in the Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan, news.am informs. October 8, 2021, 17:13 About 100 people killed by explosion in mosque in northern Afghanistan STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 8, ARTSAKHPRESS: The attack reportedly happened at about 13:30 local time, when a large number of people gathered for a Friday prayer. According to the preliminary information, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the mosque building. Meanwhile, Ariana News reported that at least 50 bodies have been delivered to local morgues. The explosion report was confirmed by Taliban (outlawed in Russia) spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. "This afternoon, an explosion happened in a mosque of our Shia compatriots [] in the Kunduz Province, leaving a number of our compatriots killed and wounded. A special Mujahedeen unit arrived at the scene and started an investigation," he tweeted Friday. According to Taliban representative Mohammad Jalal, the attack was carried out by the Islamic State Khorasan (ISKP) terror group, a branch of the IS terror group. This is the first explosion that happened in the Kunduz Province since it went under the Taliban control on August 8, media report say. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that degradation in Russia-EU relations is getting chronic, Tass informs. October 8, 2021, 17:16 Lavrov points to seven years of lost opportunities in Russia-EU relations STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 8, ARTSAKHPRESS: "Degradation is getting chronic. The past seven years of Russia-EU relations were years of lost opportunities," Lavrov said at a meeting with members of the Association of European Businesses in Russia on Friday. The sole constructive proposal made in recent months - the initiative put forward by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron for an urgent Russia-EU summit "lost its way and was buried in the thicket of an absurd logic," he remarked. "Some EU members decided that such a summit would be a gift to Russia. We do not need gifts, we do not expect them from anybody, and we keep working not for the sake of getting any," he said. Lavrov stressed that the current state of affairs had gone too far and nobody would manage to reverse it overnight. "Trust has been damaged too seriously as a result of a series of unilateral measures by Brussels. But we believe it is important not to aggravate this state of affairs, which we regard as very serious, and at least to refrain from introducing to our relations more annoyances and negative factors, which would merely maintain and build up the negative inertia of recent years," he said. "Ideally, we would like to achieve points of agreement there where our interests coincide. Business cooperation, business projects, mutual investment and trade are the obvious spheres where such opportunities do exist. The more so, since despite all the sanctions that our counterparts in Brussels keep building up we remain near neighbors. Also, we remain each other's very important economic partners," he added. In this connection, Lavrov said that despite a certain pandemic-induced decline in trading relations trade turnover in January-July 2021 exceeded $150 billion, showing a 40%-growth against the same period last year. Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, ABC News reported. October 8, 2021, 17:55 Nobel Peace Prize goes to journalists Maria Ressa, Dmitry Muratov STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 8, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is responsible for selecting the Nobel Peace Prize recipients each year, decided to award this year's prize to both Ressa, of the Philippines, and Muratov, of Russia, "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." Along with the notoriety and a gold medal, they will receive a cash award of 10 million Swedish krona, or about $1.14 million. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Ressa and Muratov for being "representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions." "Maria Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines," the committee said in a statement Friday. "Dmitry Muratov has for decades defended freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions." Peace was the fifth and final prize category that Swedish inventor and scholar Alfred Nobel mentioned in his last will and testament. He left most of his fortune to be dedicated to the series of awards, the Nobel Prizes. Every Friday, The Citizen features a pet available for adoption from the Finger Lakes SPCA of Central New York. This week, we spotlight Midnight. BREED: Labradoodle/standard poodle mix AGE: 1 year old COMMENTS: Midnight has been with us for a very short time, but so far it's been a whirlwind for him. Within a few days of arriving, Midnight received all of his vaccinations (rabies, distemper, kennel cough), was tested for heartworm disease and was neutered. He is the sweetest dog ever and even though he didn't get all the attention he deserved as a puppy, he has surpassed every expectation we had of him. As you can see from his picture, he gets to spend time in the front office just hanging out. He is very friendly with staff, visitors and volunteers. He loves to go into the play yard and run like crazy. He has a lot of energy! And he learns quickly. Midnight is looking for a family that will treat him like the treasure he is. He needs daily walks, and brushing and periodic grooming is an absolute requirement for Midnight. At least basic obedience training would be an excellent beginning to Midnight's new life. Please stop by to check out this totally awesome boy and consider giving him the second chance he so deserves. Q. Who is your best friend? A. Well, if a guy can have more than one BFF, I would say that Reese and Eddie are mine! Reese lives in the condo next to mine and Eddie lives in the condo next to Reese, and we came here at the same time. Reese is a very nice beagle girl and Eddie is a fox terrier mix. They are also looking for new homes. If I am not to your liking, which I can't imagine, please come and check them out and tell them I sent you! They want to go home too. Q. If you could visit any place in the world where would that be? A. Most people think that we poodles originated in France. Wrong! We originated in Germany. However, we are the national dog of France. Well, never mind. We can talk about that some other time. To answer your question, I would like to make my first trip to Paris! Then, maybe Germany if time permits. Q. Do you have an interesting fact to share today? A. I do! Although we poodles are the national dog of France, our breed name comes from the German word "pudel," or "pudelin," which means "to splash in the water." The term "French poodle" is actually incorrect. In France, our breed is called "caniche," which is French for "duck dog." Do you have any idea how much research I had to do for this interview? Q. How would you describe yourself? A. Look at my picture and you can clearly see that I am very handsome yes? Yes! Now that we have settled that, I want you to know that I was not treated very well in my previous life. I am over being sad about that, but I am still a little insecure. I was not socialized and did not have a very great puppy-hood. My shelter people are so kind to me and they are making me feel loved and wanted, so I hope my new family will do the same. Oh, and did I mention that I am very smart! So some training would be awesome. OK, I'm done. Q. If you could have a job, what would that be? A. Not to sound big-headed, but we poodles are among the smartest dog breeds. Our intelligence and eagerness to please make us great service dogs. I have recently learned that poodles can be employed as guide dogs, assistance dogs for people with physical disabilities and therapy dogs. However, I hope I don't have to earn a living and that my new family will spoil me beyond words. Q: Do you have any advice for our Citizen readers? A. I do and this is the last reminder we can give you. There will be this really fun event on Sunday yes, the day after tomorrow, which is Oct. 10. It is the Howl-O-Ween Pet Walk and Parade and will be held at the Austin Park in Skaneateles. There is still time to register for the event, or you can register the day of. Please go to our Facebook page and our website (flspcaofcny.org) for all up-to-date details. This promises to be a really fun event, so don't miss it. Thank you for helping me and my canine and feline friends. Much love and many licks, Midnight and friends. The Finger Lakes SPCA of Central New York is a New York state-registered shelter/rescue, registration No. RR-181. Pursuant to Article 26-A, Section 408 of the Agriculture and Markets Law, the registrant is authorized to operate as a registered pet rescue, in compliance with such law. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 After a zoning roadblock prevented its move into a former school building, the Moravia Hope Pantry has found a new home. Better yet, the building used to serve food. The pantry is now operating in the former Betty Blue restaurant at 76 W. Cayuga St. in the southern Cayuga County village. Its president, Barbara Adams, told The Citizen that the pantry purchased the 1,900-square-foot building this spring. As of September, it is open to residents of the Moravia Central School District from 9:30 to 11:30 the first and third Saturday mornings of each month. Prior to buying the building, the pantry was hoping to move into the former Moravia High School at 48 Church St. But the building's owner, OmniTech Computing owner Gary Debele, has encountered resistance from the village ever since purchasing the property in 2018. The village has argued that a food pantry would not comply with local zoning law, which classifies the property as residential. Adams said the years of back-and-forth with the village were discouraging for the pantry as it bounced from its last home at 66 Aurora St., which was sold, to temporary ones at the Moravia Volunteer Fire Co. and then St. Matthew's Episcopal Church. (Food Bank of Central New York deliveries will continue at 4 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at St. Patrick's Church at 51 Grove St.) "It was just never going to happen, realistically," Adams said of the pantry's move into the former school. "We gave it our best shot, but after a while you have to be realistic." This spring, Adams learned that the Betty Blue closed last August after several years in business. The pantry felt the property was too expensive at first, but eventually decided to secure financing from the First National Bank of Groton and make the purchase. The limited availability of rental properties in Moravia influenced the decision, said Adams, who is a former real estate agent. But the former restaurant has its perks, too. With about 30 parking spots, the pantry is able to serve the 40 or 50 families who depend on its aid each morning it's open, Adams said. Due to COVID-19, services are limited to drive-thru for now. What also makes serving those families easier is the building's walk-in cooler, where the pantry can store produce, milk and more safely until it's distributed. The pantry would like to remove the bar from the building, Adams said, to get the most out of its square footage. But for now, she and the pantry are just happy to have an accommodating new home. "We've done amazingly well," she said, "even as we were vagabonds." To learn more For more information on the Moravia Hope Pantry, find the pantry on Facebook or call (315) 209-9420. Lake Life Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @drwilcox. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. As Cayuga County reported nearly 200 new COVID-19 cases since Oct. 1, a portion of those infected with the virus either attend or work in local school districts. The Citizen's review of the state's COVID-19 report card, which publishes case and testing data provided by schools, found the nine districts in the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES system had 52 new cases in the last seven days. A majority of the cases (29) were in Auburn, the largest local school district. Auburn had 29 new cases, including 27 students, in one week. Two employees also tested positive for COVID-19. Six of the new cases five students and one employee were reported on Thursday. Skaneateles had five new cases. Cato-Meridian and Jordan-Elbridge each had four. Port Byron, Union Springs and Weedsport had three apiece. Southern Cayuga had one new case, a teacher who tested positive for COVID-19. Moravia is the lone district with no new cases since Oct. 1. Health officials were concerned when school resumed that there would be more COVID-19 cases with students and teachers returning to in-person classes. Schools have taken precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus. New York has a mask mandate for anyone, including students and teachers, inside school buildings. What's unknown is whether any of the COVID-19 cases are linked to school-related activities. Since the state's COVID-19 report card was revived by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sept. 13, Cayuga County-area schools have reported 190 cases. Most of the cases (106) are in Auburn, including 90 students, nine teachers and seven employees. Union Springs has 16 COVID-19 cases in four weeks 14 students, one teacher, one employee. Port Byron has 15 (13 students and two staff). Two districts Cato-Meridian and Weedsport each reported 14. Cato-Meridian had 13 students and one teacher test positive, while there were 11 students, one teacher and two employees infected in Weedsport. Jordan-Elbridge had 13 cases, including nine students, one teacher and three employees. Skaneateles reported seven positive cases, all students. Moravia (three) and Southern Cayuga (two) have the lowest number of COVID-19 cases among local school districts. While most students in Jordan-Elbridge and Skaneateles may reside outside of Cayuga County, a bulk of the students in the other seven districts live in the county. Cayuga County remains in the midst of a wave with increased cases, hospitalizations and deaths. There were 747 new cases in August, followed by 1,079 in September. Through the first week of October, the county has 189 new cases, including 27 (17 unvaccinated and 10 vaccinated) on Thursday. Hospitalizations briefly decreased at the start of the week but rose again over the last few days. Twenty county residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, most of whom are age 60 or older. There are a handful of younger patients, including two people in their 30s and one in the 10-19 age group. Half of the patients are unvaccinated, according to the local health department. Cayuga County health officials are encouraging more residents, including school-aged children, to get vaccinated. There is an incentive: Any child age 12-17 who gets their first or second dose of the Pfizer vaccine will receive a $25 Amazon gift card. The gift cards are part of the state's #VaxtoSchool campaign. The state Department of Health says 50% of Cayuga County children ages 12-15 have received at least one vaccine dose. In other news: The next COVID-19 vaccination clinic will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 16, at Fingerlakes Mall. Registration is required. Appointments can be made at cayugacounty.us/health. The three COVID-19 vaccines will be offered at the clinic. Pfizer will be available for children ages 12-17 who are accompanied by a parent or guardian. Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. City James R. Behme, 47, 105 N. Hoopes Ave., Auburn, was charged Oct. 4 with a sentence violation. Michael J. Chapman, 32, 2539 Sittser Road, Auburn, was charged Oct. 4 with second-degree manslaughter and third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. Michael J. Gatewood, 42, 24 Sheridan St., Auburn, was charged Oct. 4 with first-degree criminal contempt, endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree assault. Mohamed M. Alali, 30, 290 Grant Ave., Apartment 8, Auburn, was charged Oct. 5 with second-degree obstructing governmental administration. Sara K. Gatewood, 35, 24 Sheridan St., Auburn, was charged Oct. 5 with endangering the welfare of a child. Richard K. Mcdowell, 35, 732 Milton Ave., Syracuse, was charged Oct. 5 with petit larceny. Marcella M. Redmond, 30, transient, Auburn, was picked up on a bench warrant Oct. 5. Tara T. Waite, 30, 41 Morris St., Auburn, was picked up on a bench warrant Oct. 6. Nathan T. Hobby, 19, 22 Canal St., Port Byron, was charged Oct. 7 with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Ramaine R. Williams, 37, 5 Washington St., Upper, Auburn, was charged Oct. 7 with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. William K. Nearing, 62, 110 E. Genesee St., Auburn, was charged Oct. 7 with third-degree robbery, resisting arrest and second-degree obstructing governmental administration. Bishop T. Prenatt, 27, 229 Woodlawn Ave., Auburn, was charged Oct. 7 with endangering the welfare of a child and resisting arrest. Zachary C. Trufant, 32, 9 Fort St., Auburn, was picked up on a bench warrant Oct. 7. County Aaron D. Tyrrell, 27, 4751 Cat Path Road, Locke, was picked up on a bench warrant Oct. 5. Tara T. Waite, 30, 41 Morris St., Auburn, was picked up on a bench warrant Oct. 6. Andrew R. Wilbur, 42, 1107 Old State Route 31, Memphis, was charged Oct. 6 with third-degree unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and operation of a motor vehicle while registration or privilege is suspended or revoked. Abdikadir A. Bakar, 36, 1117 Park St., Syracuse, was charged Oct. 7 with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Jason J. Zirbel, 31, 37 Olympia Ave., Brogan, Auburn, was charged Oct. 7 with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. State Rhett W. Myers, 37, Sterling, was charged Oct. 5 with second-degree criminal contempt. Michael B. Podolak, 37, Moravia, was charged Oct. 5 with first-degree criminal contempt. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 3 The New York State Thruway is one step closer to launching a pilot program designed to crack down on speeding in work zones and make the areas safer for workers. The Thruway Authority held a two-hour public hearing on Wednesday to discuss the program. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Sept. 6 that allows for cameras to be used to enforce speed limits in work zones. Matthew Driscoll, executive director of the Thruway Authority, said the pilot program would include up to 10 locations in work zones along the Thruway. Employees will be trained on how to use the cameras. "Images from work zone speed cameras will be exclusively used for speed violations only," Driscoll said. The program will last five years. Driscoll and others hope that it will have a similar effect as a speed camera program in Maryland. Before Maryland adopted speed monitoring devices in work zones, seven out of every 100 drivers were exceeding the limit by at least 12 mph. A decade later, the rate is down to 1% of drivers. The purpose of the speeding cameras isn't just to crack down on fast drivers. It's also to make work zones safer for workers. Michael Osborne, president of CSEA Local 058, which represents Thruway employees, said 57 union members have been killed in work zones since 1983. "This number is unacceptable and way too high," Osborne said. "We need to do everything we can to protect our work zones and protect our workers in those zones." Several speakers during the public hearing said they hope the speed monitoring devices will change driver behavior in work zones. Osborne, who said he's worked in many work zones during his career with the Thruway, has witnessed vehicles operating at speeds over 100 mph in 55 mph work zones. He has also seen accidents occur and employees injured in work zones. Sarah Patrie, vice president of transportation services for Associated General Contractors New York State, believes the use of the cameras will be a step toward safer work zones. Work zone intrusions, she said, are "almost exclusively because someone is speeding and not paying attention." If someone fails to obey the speed limit in a work zone, Patrie said they should be penalized with a fine. The Thruway Authority's board of directors will have the final say on the pilot program. By law, drivers who are caught speeding by work zone cameras can be fined $50 for a first offense, $75 for a second offense within an 18-month period and $100 for a third offense. Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Love 8 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. After two months in which most new COVID-19 cases in Cayuga County were unvaccinated, a new trend has emerged in October: A majority of cases are fully vaccinated. Cayuga County has 162 new cases in October, 87 of which are vaccinated. "Breakthrough" infections, as they are known, are possible. But the local health department noted earlier this week that only a small number of vaccinated residents (2%) have contracted the virus. The three vaccines available in the U.S. Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer have been found to be highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death in a vast majority of vaccinated people. Health officials across the country, including those in Cayuga County, continue to urge people to get vaccinated. The county's vaccination rate lags behind the national average. While 60.2% of eligible residents ages 12 and older and 61.4% of adults are fully vaccinated, 52.6% of the county's total population is vaccinated. Nationally, 56.2% of Americans are fully vaccinated. Cayuga County continues its efforts to boost the vaccination rate. A clinic is scheduled for 4 to 5 p.m. Friday at Fingerlakes Mall. Another is set for 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 16, at the same location. Registration is required for both clinics. To register, go to cayugacounty.us/health. The health department is participating in a statewide program to encourage more young people to get vaccinated. New York launched the #VaxtoSchool campaign targeting children ages 12-17. As an incentive, a $25 Amazon gift card is being offered to any child who gets their first or second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The promotion runs through Nov. 19. "COVID-19 is still a risk for individuals of all ages, including children and adolescents, and getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself, friends, family and our school communities from the virus," the health department said. In other news: Twenty Cayuga County residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the health department's latest update. Eleven of the patients are unvaccinated. The hospitalized residents range from one in the 10-19 age group to 15 who are age 60 or older. Two patients are in their 30s and two others are in their 50s. One statistic that is on the rise again is Cayuga County's active case count. Two days ago, there were 174 active cases. It's now up to 226 after 70 more new cases in the past two days, including 40 on Wednesday. Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Company Ltd. (DPCA), a passenger vehicle (PV) manufacturing joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Corporation and Groupe PSA, said its deliveries reached 10,089 new vehicles in September 2021, representing year-on-year growth for 10 consecutive months and exceeding 10,000 units for the first time over the past 21 months. Versailles C5 X; photo credit: Dongfeng Citroen For the first three quarters of 2021, DPCA delivered 62,008 vehicles in total, posting an 86% year-on-year surge. In October 2020, DPCA launched the YUAN + strategic plan, under which the joint venture would roll out 14 new models that meet Chinese consumers' demands in the following five years. Under the YUAN + plan, DPCA has launched such new models as the new C5 AIRCROSS, the all-new Peugeot 4008, the all-new Peugeot 5008, the new Citroen C3-XR, the 2022 Peugeot 508L, and the Citroen Versailles C5 X that just hit the market at the end of September. As a B-segment car starting at 143,700 yuan ($22,280), the Versailles C5 X is manufactured at DPCA's Chengdu plant, while will be sold globally. The automaker said it had received over 12,000 orders for the Versailles C5 X as of September 24. In addition, the first Versailles C5 Xs exported to Europe departed from the Chengdu factory on September 6. Beijing (Gasgoo)- VOYAH, the high-end EV subsidiary brand of Dongfeng Motor more than doubled its monthly deliveries to over 900 vehicles in September, according to the companys report. the VOYAH FREE; photo credit: VOYAH In September, VOYAH delivered 908 vehicles of its VOYAH FREE model, surging 122% from Augusts 408 vehicles, accumulating to 1316 vehicles in total for the two months since delivery started. The company said, as of now, it has users across 137 cities in China. The CEO of VOYAH, Lu Fang said, the VOYAH FREE is the only electric SUV within the industry which offers both battery electric version and range extension version. Order and production volume of the said model continued to grow in September. The company is very optimistic regarding its goal of being the new energy vehicle brand that sells 10,000 vehicles using the shortest possible time span since its debut. By the end of September, VOYAH has established 50 direct distribution channels in China, covering 21 cities. The company intends to open up at least 110 showrooms in 30 cities by October. In addition, VOYAH is expected to realize 100% electrification by 2025, according to Zhu Yanfeng, the chairman of the brands parent company, Dongfeng Group. On September 30, NIO officially launched its ES8 in Norway and commenced user delivery. NIO House | Oslo will open to the public on October 1. NIO adopts global pricing strategy. After adjusted for logistics, local taxes and operating costs, the ES8 has a starting price of NOK 609,000 with the standard-range battery (75 kWh), and NOK 679,000 with the long-range battery (100 kWh) with which the ES8 boasts a WLTP range of 500 km. NIO's Battery as a Service (BaaS) is also available in Norway. With comprehensive services enabled by vehicle-battery separation, battery subscription and the chargeable, swappable and upgradable batteries, it marks a breakthrough both in technology and business model. BaaS users can choose to purchase a car without battery, and subscribe to batteries of various capacities according to actual needs by paying a monthly subscription fee accordingly. At the same time, BaaS can address problems that have long been affecting the wide adoption of electric vehicles, including battery degradation, inflexible capacity upgrades, and fluctuated vehicle resale value. Those who subscribe to BaaS will be able to enjoy services of NIO Power Swap network and flexible battery upgrades. BaaS users choosing the standard-range battery can have a deduction of NOK 90,000 from the car purchase price and only need to pay a battery subscription fee of NOK 1,399 per month. And the price deduction for the long-range battery stands at NOK 160,000 with a monthly subscription fee of NOK 1,999. By the end of 2022, NIO will build 20 Power Swap stations in Norway, covering Norway's five largest cities and their main roads. The first integrated station of battery charging and swapping in Norway will be up and running at the end of October. Located at Karl Johans Gate 33, Oslo's center of commerce and culture, NIO House | Oslo has a total area of 2,100 square meters, and is the largest user center in Norway. The two-story structure has an upper floor for the display of products and services, and a lower floor for the NIO Cafe, Library, Forum, Lab, Living Room and Joy Camp areas exclusive to NIO users. NIO's Service and Delivery Center in Oslo will open in October. With a floor space of 1,800 square meters, it offers services including vehicle delivery, maintenance and repair, mobile service fleet and car pick-up and delivery service. NIO will also provide worry-free service in the other four cities in Norway together with authorized service partners. The Norway Collection jointly designed by NIO Life, NIO's lifestyle brand, and two Norwegian artists, Anette Moi and Sandra Blikas, is now available in Norway and China. Today marks a significant moment in the history of NIO. Today the very first European users have the opportunity to experience what it means to be part of the NIO community, says NIO Europes CEO Alexander Schwarz. Norway is our starting point of our journey in Europe and beyond. Our vision is clear: to provide our users with seamless and worry-free services as well as supreme and joyful user experiences. We offer to be their friend and partner on their personal journey to a brighter and more sustainable future. From our NIO Houses, such as the first one in Oslo, through to our battery swap stations, our worry-free Battery-as-a-Service subscription models and our convenient online services, Being part of the NIO community will bring joy, friendship and meaningful interaction. Nearly two months in and Flagstaff Unified School District Superintendent Michael Penca says he feels really good about the start of the school year and its going fast. The district has been adjusting its approach to COVID-19, but its overall focus is on student learning, he said. FUSD renewed its mask requirement last week after an Arizona judge ruled the law banning such mandates unconstitutional. Penca said he hadnt received much feedback from parents and staff since the meeting where the FUSD Governing Board made the decision. People were expecting that thats where we were headed, he said. He added that there was some anxiousness as the Sept. 29 deadline came closer, but mostly he heard from families and staff that they wanted to maintain the requirement. The county's high transmission rate and students younger than 12 still ineligible to be vaccinated were main reasons for wanting it to continue. The requirement was renewed with the condition that the board would need to reconsider should the law change. Penca said he didnt expect things to change, but the motion was made that way to say we understand the state is appealing [and]...that the district intends to follow the required laws of our state. We have to...stay tuned, be ready to pivot if necessary, Penca said. ...We would much prefer to be able to maintain a mask requirement until we saw the numbers significantly reduced or that time when we can have our younger students have the opportunity to get a vaccine." He said being able to encourage rather than require masks would be a great thing because that would mean the COVID conditions are improving and the entire school population would be eligible to receive vaccines. Lifting the requirement would correspond with CDC transmission levels and younger vaccine eligibility, though FUSD has not mentioned specific trigger points. For now, the district is going forward with its COVID mitigation strategy. It expanded recently with the approval of an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Coconino County Health and Human Services (CCHHS) and a pop-up vaccine clinic available at Coconino High School last Friday. A lot of [our strategy is to] continue to inform our school community about the effectiveness of the vaccines and the opportunities that are available locally to receive those, Penca said. This now includes booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine, since school employees were some of the first eligible to receive vaccines at the beginning of the year. While the district doesnt require employees or students to disclose their vaccination status, Penca estimated that more than 90% of FUSD staff were vaccinated, most in January or February. He also said around 30-40% of eligible students in the district had been vaccinated. The vaccine clinic a week ago was very successful, Penca said. Over 100 doses were administered among FUSD students, staff and community members. He said nearly all students vaccinated at the clinic were with a family member. Having it available at their work site makes it more accessible so they don't have the transportation or the time barriers that come into play for students. We have lots of families that come in the mornings or at dismissal times, we have a lot of people coming to our campuses and it's a way to, again, save time, make it more accessible...It's really about coming where people are, he said. ...Having [vaccine clinics] throughout the community. I think removed that barrier. FUSD is planning to host more clinics. The newly created IGA position is part of a vaccine equity project and will last for three years. The position is responsible for outreach and education about COVID-19 and flu vaccines as well as other childhood immunizations. Though Penca expected the focus to shift as transmission levels improve, the position is currently mostly COVID-centered. Cases in the district have remained at a relatively steady level (around 30 a week) over the course of the school year. I maintain our schools are some of the safest places in our entire community. There's not too many other places in the community that require masks or don't have as many of the mitigation strategies that we have input, Penca said. He said the district hadnt had any closures other than Sinagua Middle School in early September and that there were currently seven outbreak schools in the district. FUSD is using ventilation upgrades done last year as well as breaks, weekends, masks and distancing to maintain a safe environment for in-person learning. We start with the belief that keeping schools open is critical to our students and to the functioning and impact of our whole community, Penca said. It's a high bar -- 30 cases a week and we have over 9,100 students and 1,300 employees. We have a lot of people in our school sites, so if you try to do the calculations it would be probably below 1% of our population having COVID-19. He said students were also glad to be back in a classroom. Students share with me that they feel like theyre learning more by being at school than compared to last year when they were in remote learning, he said. A defendant was sentenced to one year in Gage County jail this week for failing to meet registration requirements as a sex offender. Isaac W. Anderson, 45, was arrested by Gage County deputies on a warrant in March and was sentenced Thursday in Gage County District Court on the single charge, a class 3A felony. He will spend nine months on post release supervision upon his release. Anderson is required to register as a sex offender for a 1992 conviction out of McDonald County, Mo. for sexual assault of a 14 year old girl. In February police conducted a compliance check of Andersons registered address, which was at the Travelers Lodge in Beatrice. Employees told deputies Anderson was not registered at the motel. Deputies found the registered room at the motel to be unoccupied, and were informed Anderson was associated with a woman who had rented a room at the motel on multiple occasions. Authorities also checked a prior address Anderson was registered at and were told he moved out of the residence around one month earlier. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 October 9, 2021, was "World Migratory Bird Day in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. It was May 8, 2021, in Canada and the USA. Many summer migrants are leaving or have left Montana for the October 9 regions, and winter migrants are arriving here now, so Migratory Bird Day for Montana is pretty easy to justify any day. Some of us appreciate these birds for their beauty, some for keeping insect populations in check, and yes some people just dont appreciate birds. On World Migratory Bird Days and every day we might come together with respect for what these birds bring to us all, what they do to exist, and admire that they travel thousands of miles from north to south and back again, and again and again, year after year. Some migrant birds like Swainsons Hawks travel about 10,000 miles round trip each year to get to and from Montana, their summer residence. In January 2018, Signal Peak Energy failed to report as required the injury of an employee, identified as John Doe 1, who was working at the mine when his finger was crushed and required amputation. Doe 1 was moving large mining equipment as part of his duties when some of this equipment fell onto his hand. Doe 1 met with the safety manager, who began driving him to the hospital for medical treatment. On the way, Doe 1 had a telephone conversation with the vice president of underground operations. The vice president of underground operations pressured Doe 1 not to report the injury as work related and said that he would make it worthwhile for Doe 1. The safety manager witnessed this but did not intervene. The safety manager then dropped off Doe 1 at the hospital rather than accompanying him inside, pursuant to mine policy. Doe 1 falsely stated that the injury had occurred at home and was not work related. When Doe 1 returned to work sometime later, the vice president of underground operations gave Doe 1 an envelope containing $2,000. The first case of abuse was reported in 2009 and involved two sisters, ages 4 and 7, who were then removed the custody of White's mother, who was their foster mother, court records said. White was also charged in April 2009 with sexually assaulting two other girls. White was charged again in April 2012 with four counts of abusive sexual contact and two counts of attempted abusive sexual contact involving the first four girls and two more, with one of the cases dating back to 2005. In one of the six cases, White's mother told a victim's mother that White had an ability to heal people through touching, prosecutors said. A federal psychiatric evaluation in 2013 found White's mental defect did not create a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person, court records said. There were no allegations of any sexual abuse of young girls while White lived with his brother in New Mexico at times over the years, court records said. However, White returned to Montana in December 2013, and a 6-year-old girl reported he sexually assaulted her while she spent the night at White's mother's house, court records said. Charges in that case were filed in Crow Tribal Court in 2014, the prosecution was again deferred and White was released in June 2016. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, agreed with Daines the matter was important to Montana and other northern border states, but said in his objection the Homeland Security committee, of which he is a ranking Democrat, needed more time to shore it up, citing concerns of its broad effects. "Given the importance of this issue, I will be more than happy to work with our colleague from Montana on a path forward from this time," Carper said. "I am concerned, having said that, that this legislation, as is, is a bit too broad and could have unintended consequences, including making it hard to address future challenges at our at our borders." Carper's lone objection was enough to block the procedural move. Daines issued a statement after the attempt charging Democrats, which control the Senate, with carrying the political water for the president. In a statement Friday, Tester again criticized the Biden administration's decision to extend the border closure. A spokesperson for Tester did not comment directly on Carper's objection. In an interview when the emergency rule was issued, Teresa Blaskovich, a pediatrician at the Childrens Clinic of Billings and the secretary and treasurer for the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the language of the rule amounted to undercutting doctors' credibility with patients. Its really confusing because as a physician I know my job and sometimes when legislators that have less education than I do try to provide rules and regulations that dont make medical sense for me or my patients, its frustrating and then its also very confusing for the general population of who is right, Blaskovich said at the end of August. I think the general population is getting bombarded by so much information they dont know who to trust and its making it more difficult for them to trust me as a physician, which is heartbreaking and frustrating. The epidemiologists also said it was demoralizing to have the department issue a public health emergency rule that is not founded in the science of public health. The rule additionally jeopardizes local public health department efforts and adds additional challenges to their ability to keep their communities informed and safe. HELENA An Oregon man said he survived a recent train derailment in Montana by holding onto a grab bar in the bathroom of a passenger car that ended up on its side and separated from the rest of the train. I was on the left side (of the train car) and looking down at the ground, Justin Ruddell, of Klamath Falls, said Thursday. The outside door was peeled open and the bathroom door, the lock failed for whatever reason, and it flew open. Ruddell said he could see all the gravel and dirt outside getting scooped up into the car as it was skidding down the side of the tracks. If I would have let go, I would have fell down and out that door and got crushed by the train or ground up in the dirt," he said. Ruddell, 40, said he suffered two broken vertebrae, five broken ribs and strained arm muscles from hanging on for dear life, during the Sept. 25 derailment near Joplin, Montana. He said he hit his head on something and has jaw pain that makes it difficult to eat. Ruddell spent five days in the hospital in Kalispell. I saw death and destruction around me that I will never be able to forget, he said in a statement. Yellen said the Wyoming Republican misunderstood what Treasury was asking of banks, who already report account interest information annually on form 1099-INT. In fact, nothing in Treasurys fiscal year 2022 revenue proposals asks for Congressional approval to require banks to report on customer transactions of $600 or more. Testers concerns about privacy are synced up with Daines. The Democrat thinks the account threshold of $600 value is too low. He believes any changes made to reporting need to consider both Montanans' right to privacy as well as any costs and burdens that compliance with any new regulations would impose on small Montana financial institutions, said spokesman Andy Bixler in an email. That said, Senator Tester also thinks it's important that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay their fair share in taxes just like hardworking Montanans do, which is why he thinks that a $600 threshold for reporting is too low, and that the IRS and Congress should be focused on the wealthy who are avoiding paying their fair share. The Biden administration has said it intends to boost audits on people making more than $400,000 a year, not less. The requested funding increase to beef up the IRS is $80 billion. Another theme, this one shared by all four states, is the desire to be first. Early adopters of successful technologies are often rewarded with business advantages, local supply chain development and job growth, Greenwald said. If the three existing proposals are completed on time, rapid commercial expansion could come as soon as the late 2020s or early 2030s, with the fastest-moving states and utilities reaping the most significant benefits, the report found. Advanced nuclear is one of a handful of power sources with bipartisan appeal. The fledgling technology promises electricity thats reliable, carbon-free and able to supplement the variability of wind and solar so long as it can overcome supply-chain barriers like high construction costs and a lack of domestic fuel sources. This is one of the few ways that our political system seems to be able to come to an agreement, Greenwald said. We dont agree on why were doing something, but we agree on the thing. So this might be one of those examples where, for different reasons, people come around to the same solution. Unlike conventional nuclear plants, which nearly always operate at full capacity, the three proposed projects are intended to be more flexible. Each one does it differently. Tax benefit Tax experts say Mellons decision to donate stock instead of cash could yield a tax benefit for the billionaire. Normally, a person has to pay taxes on profits made on their investments when they are sold. But investors who donate stock to charity avoid paying a tax on the earnings on their investment and get a tax deduction for the full amount of stock. Its common to give stock thats increased in value because they can get rid of the gains and they can deduct the donations, said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School. Such donations are usually made to nonprofit organizations. But under the tax code, a charitable contribution to a state would likely be tax-deductible if it is made exclusively for public purposes. Some people, for example, get tax deductions for donating money to cut the federal debt. The only hurdle is ensuring the money is only used for public purposes. Some of those discussions occurred between me and a fellow Montana legislator, Polly Holmes of Billings. Holmes was both a spirited idealist and a deep thinker. Our topic was when life began at the time of conception or at the time of viability? The Roe v Wade framework, based on dividing the nine-month human gestation period into trimesters, seemed imprecise and arbitrary to Holmes and me. The conclusion we came to was that there was an accepted consensus that life ended with the cessation of the brain function. If a brain dead person was legally dead, then we reasoned that a developing fetus could not be considered a life until it emitted detectable brain waves. Nothing arbitrary about that, we concluded. And so whether to have an abortion should be merely the choice of a pregnant woman prior to brain function, but subject to the protection of the laws of society afterward. We shopped our idea around to other legislators, but found no support for it. None. The sides had become locked in. The pro-choice faction was uncompromisingly behind the verdict of Roe. The pro-life people were unyielding in their belief that life began exactly at the instant of conception. I didnt realize it at the time, but I think the uncompromising nature of the abortion issue became the symbol for an age of uncompromisable issues, which sums up where we are today. Montana passed a grim milestone recently: More than 2,000 of our neighbors have died from COVID since the start of this pandemic. Montana has been and continues to be ranked among the worst states in the nation for rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalizations, and deaths. For the first time in recent history, some Montana hospitals are implementing crisis standards of care, meaning not everyone who needs care is guaranteed to receive it, and other hospitals are close to that point. Inside our hospitals, health care workers are experiencing the darkest days of this pandemic so far. We didnt have to end up here, but given the lack of leadership from Governor Gianforte, it isnt surprising that we did. Gianforte spent the spring and the summer hiding behind talking points, instead of using the power of his office to make sure our state was taking the steps necessary to put this pandemic behind us. Because he has been well informed of the risks, at the very least, he should have been planning and preparing for a worst-case scenario of the delta variant ripping through our communities. But he didnt, and now more than 2000 of our family and neighbors have died and our health care workers are getting sick themselves and are overwhelmed by a second wave of COVID that never had to happen. U.S. mining operations already pay between 40 to 50 percent of earnings in federal, state, and local royalties, taxes and fees, similar to other major mineral-producing countries. This proposed legislation would push the U.S. well above the upper limit of that range, destroying the viability of existing operations and sending a clear signal for miners to go elsewhere. Not only would this legislation undercut efforts to rebuild the front end of the nations industrial base, but it would destroy the opportunity to re-shore thousands of family-supporting jobs in places where investment and job creation is often scarce. The average U.S. miner earns more than $81,000 per year working in an industry that makes generational investments. The United States needs more mining, not less. Just a week ago, when rolling out plans for $11 billion in new EV and lithium-ion battery manufacturing projects, the head of Ford Motors made a plea for more domestic mining. He said that we have to bring battery production here, but the supply chain has to go all the way to the mines. He continued, are we going to import lithium and pull cobalt from nation-states that have child labor and all sorts of corruption, or are we going to get serious about mining? The man convicted of killing four people at a property management business in Mandan 2 years ago will be sentenced Dec. 28. A Morton County jury in August found Chad Isaak, 47, of Washburn, guilty of four counts of murder in the deaths of RJR Maintenance and Management co-owner Robert Fakler, 52; and employees Adam Fuehrer, 42; Bill Cobb, 50; and Lois Cobb, 45. The Cobbs were married. The four were shot and stabbed April 1, 2019, in the RJR building on the Strip in Mandan. The case drew national attention for its brutality -- the victims suffered more than 100 stab wounds -- and its lack of a definite motive. Jurors saw video of the crime scene; weighed DNA, forensic and fiber evidence; and heard testimony from dozens of police and expert witnesses -- all of which Assistant Morton County States Attorney Gabrielle Goter said pointed to Isaak. The wounds targeted vital vessels and organs, something Goter said Isaak knew about because of his chiropractor and Navy medic training. He possessed that anatomical knowledge, Goter said during closing arguments. Isaaks defense team maintained during the nearly three-week trial that investigators didnt seriously consider other possible suspects. Attorney Bruce Quick called it a classic case of confirmation bias, in which investigators believed theyd solved the killings and focused their efforts on trying to prove that theory. The six men and six women on the jury deliberated a total of about 4 hours. South Central District Judge David Reich ordered a presentence investigation after the verdict. The jury also found Isaak guilty of burglary, unlawful entry into a vehicle, and a misdemeanor count of unauthorized use of a vehicle. Isaak faces the possibility of life in prison on each of the murder convictions. A life sentence can come with or without a chance at parole. Chiropractic license revoked North Dakota's Board of Chiropractic Examiners recently revoked the license of Chad Isaak. The seven-member board's vote at its Sept. 24 meeting to revoke Isaak's state chiropractic license was unanimous, according to board Executive Director Lisa Blanchard. "It was a simple motion at that meeting," she said. The 47-year-old Washburn chiropractor and the board agreed in 2019 to the suspension of his license until his criminal case was resolved. The agreement included a clause that Isaak's license would be revoked if he pleaded guilty to or was convicted of any charges in the case. Isaak opened Isaak Chiropractic of Washburn on Main Avenue in 2015, according to a feature story on Isaak in a 2015 supplement to the McLean County Independent. Isaak first opened a practice in Hazen in 2006, the news story said. Reach Travis Svihovec at 701-250-8260 or Travis.Svihovec@bismarcktribune.com Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. TRAVIS SVIHOVEC Crime and Courts Reporter Follow TRAVIS SVIHOVEC Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today A popular Bismarck-based photography business notified clients Thursday night that it is closing and will not offer refunds, sending couples who have booked its services for weddings scrambling and prompting the North Dakota Attorney Generals Office to investigate. Glasser Images Owner Jack Glasser wrote in an email to some of the studios customers that the past and ongoing effects from the pandemic have caused irreparable damage that has forced this decision to happen extremely rapidly and immediately. Due to closing, if there is anything paid, we will not be able to provide any refunds, he wrote. For this, we cannot apologize enough. The email prompted an outcry on social media, as couples who had paid the company to shoot their weddings convened in a Facebook group to discuss how to recover their money and find new photographers. Other local and regional photographers also joined to let people know of their services and availability, and some were offering discounts to Glassers clients. The abrupt closure has left Johnny Thompson and his wife Crystal Brunner-Thompson wondering if they will ever receive photos of their August wedding. Glasser photographers shot the event in Bismarck, but the couple has not yet received the edited images aside from a sneak peak of several. "I'm an only child," Brunner-Thompson said. "My parents are never going to get to do this again. I have no photos with my parents. I'd never seen my dad get emotional. It's just stuff you can't get back." The couple had asked guests to refrain from taking their own photos of the celebration so as to avoid having cellphones on display in the background of professional photos. Brunner-Thompson said the photographers who shot the ceremony told them the card with the raw photos on it is in the Glasser Images studio, which they are unable to access. "Our photos are just hanging there," she said. "I don't care if they're edited or not. I just want my photos." The photography services the couple booked cost more than $2,000. They had already paid most of it but had two more payments to make, Thompson said. Were at a loss, he said. Katy Rasmussen had paid a similar amount up front for Glasser Images to photograph her wedding in Bismarck next September. She lives in New York but is from Bismarck, and a wedding photographer was one of the first things she booked as she started making plans for the event. I wanted to pick a business that I thought was really established just because Im planning from a distance, she said. I have so many friends who used them and had no issue whatsoever. Theyre so highly recommended. She plans to contact her credit card company to see if she can cancel the charge. I feel so bad for brides who have their wedding this weekend, she said. Luckily Im far out enough that I can easily find a new photographer. The North Dakota Attorney Generals Office said it had fielded more than 170 complaints about the situation by Friday afternoon and had begun investigating. Spokeswoman Liz Brocker said people affected can file a complaint by going to www.attorneygeneral.nd.gov and clicking on Consumer Complaints listed under the Consumer Resources tab. At least one North Dakota couple filed a claim against Glasser Images and Jack Glasser on Friday in small claims court. Glasser did not respond to a phone call and email from the Tribune. The photography studio's downtown Bismarck office was empty Friday morning. In his note to clients, Glasser directed questions to the companys attorney, Jon Sanstead. Sanstead told the Tribune early Friday that he was not representing Glasser after all as a result of a conflict that was discovered last night. He did not elaborate. Fargo attorney Tim OKeeffe late Friday issued a statement saying he was now representing Glasser. Glasser in the statement reiterated what he had said about the pandemic's impacts in his email to customers. Weve been in business for 16 years and up until COVID-19 hit, we were successful and growing, but then things drastically changed for the worse, he said. We pivoted and made changes, but simply couldnt keep up with our ongoing costs, debt repayment, salaries, rent and other business expenses. These factors have caused irreparable damage to the business and has forced us to make this decision rapidly. Closing our doors is extremely heart wrenching for me. O'Keeffe told the Tribune in an interview that he and Glasser will be working to communicate with customers in the next couple of days. "He's going to do the best he can to take care of everybody, but there are a lot of moving parts right now," O'Keeffe said, adding, "At this point, there's not an answer that everybody is going to be satisfied with." Glassers LinkedIn page says that he founded the company in 2005. Glasser Images photographed weddings throughout the Dakotas, Minnesota and Colorado without charging for travel costs, according to the companys website. It also shot senior portraits, families and babies, and it provided commercial photography services. The company's website lists about 60 photographers as part of the Glasser team. Its unclear how many were employees and how many worked as contractors. A database maintained by the investigative news outlet ProPublica shows that Glasser Images received two loans totaling more than $500,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program, a federal effort to provide loan and grant money to small businesses to keep them open and workers employed during the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic forced many couples to postpone or otherwise curtail their wedding celebrations, affecting a number of wedding vendors including photographers. Glasser Images Facebook page had disappeared by Friday morning. Its Instagram page was still active, however. Its most recent post had more than 200 comments by Friday morning, many of them made by upset clients. The midweek post featured a shot of a wedding venue with the caption, Were here to capture every moment and turn them into the best memories to look back on! Lets chat! Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com. Love 1 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 3 Angry 10 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Active cases of COVID-19 in North Dakota dropped on Friday, but hospitalizations increased again and test positivity continued a climb that began three months ago with the surge of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, new test data released this week shows the impact the pandemic has had on student learning in North Dakota. State School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said the impact is "unprecedented, (and) so will have to be our recovery. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations nationally have been decreasing since late September. Modeling by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that cases in North Dakota might begin tailing off in a couple of weeks. But it's too soon to speculate if this might be the beginning of the end of the recent pandemic spike, according to Kirby Kruger, head of the Health Department's disease control division and forensic pathology section. "Our cases have leveled off this week compared to last week," he said. "Test positivity, however, has continued to increase. At the state level, hospitalizations have also continued to increase. I think it is too early to tell if this is a peak or a plateau of new cases." The Health Department reported 696 new virus cases on its coronavirus dashboard Friday. Since Sunday, there have been 3,625 new cases confirmed. That's down slightly from last week's Sunday-Friday total of 3,641. Active COVID-19 cases also dropped slightly Friday, to 4,485 statewide and to 1,182 in Burleigh-Morton counties. But the state's 14-day rolling average test positivity rate increased to 8.07%. It has been rising steadily since a recent pandemic low of 1.05% on July 5, and it's been above the state target of less than 5% for more than seven weeks. COVID-19 hospitalizations also rose again Friday, to 184 -- nearly a 20% increase from the start of the week. Hospital capacity has been a concern in North Dakota for weeks. The most recent state data showed 192 available staffed inpatient beds and 11 available intensive care unit beds statewide. In Bismarck, Sanford Health had four available inpatient beds and no ICU beds; CHI St. Alexius Health had no available beds listed in either category. Sanford Health Bismarck incoming President and CEO Todd Schaffer on Thursday said that hospital believes it's seeing the peak of COVID-19 patients, with modeling showing the peak will continue for about the next seven to 10 days before slowing down. CHI St. Alexius didn't respond to a Tribune request for comment on the status of COVID-19 capacity at its hospital. There have been 137,126 confirmed COVID-19 cases in North Dakota during the pandemic, with 131,006 recoveries, 5,451 hospitalizations and 1,635 deaths. Friday's dashboard reflected one new death. The state no longer publicly reports the county, sex and age range of newly confirmed deaths, but the dashboard totals for Burleigh and Morton counties did not change, at 220 and 104, respectively. Confirmed delta cases in North Dakota rose by 142 over the past week, to 1,439, according to Kruger. There have been no new cases in North Dakota over the past three weeks of any of the other five variants that have been confirmed in the state: alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon and mu. Kruger has said that's because delta, which is as contagious as chicken pox, outcompetes the other variants. North Dakota's state lab has identified 2,834 cases of the six variants, though the actual number is almost certainly higher than the data indicates, since only a fraction of virus test samples undergo the more complex process through which variants are determined. There have been 229 hospitalizations and 25 deaths linked to variants in North Dakota; about half of each are linked to delta. Learning impact New test information shows a decline in student math and English proficiency during the 2020-21 school year, according to Baesler. Students in grades 3-8 and 10 take the State Assessment in English/Language Arts and math each spring. During the 2021 spring tests, 42% of students scored as proficient or advanced in English/language arts, a 5% decline from pre-pandemic testing in spring 2019. Only 38% of students scored in those two categories in math, a 7% drop from spring 2019. The tests were not given in the spring of 2020 because of the onset of the pandemic. This decline is significant, and it presents a challenge to all of us as educators in North Dakota, Baesler said. Fortunately, our schools have been provided unprecedented resources to use in reversing these trends. We have experienced significant loss, and we now are presented with an opportunity to make a significant comeback. North Dakota is receiving a total of $305 million from the federal American Rescue Plan's Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund. The U.S. Department of Education in August approved the state's plan to use the aid. Highlights include efforts to boost vaccinations and to address lost instructional time through various measures, including a project that blends digital and online curriculum with traditional classroom instruction. For more information on North Dakota school data, go to https://insights.nd.gov/Education. More information The state's vaccine dashboard shows 54% of eligible North Dakota adults and 31.7% of adolescents in the 12-18 age group are considered fully vaccinated. North Dakota has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the U.S., according to the CDC. People can go to https://www.ndvax.org or call 866-207-2880 to see where COVID-19 vaccine is available near them. The coronavirus transmission risk is considered substantial or high in all 53 North Dakota counties except Renville, according to the CDC's COVID-19 data tracker website. The CDC recommends people in those risk categories wear masks in public indoor settings. A list of free COVID-19 testing offered by local public health units is at health.nd.gov/covidtesting. For more detailed information on coronavirus in North Dakota, go to www.health.nd.gov/coronavirus. For more information on coronavirus variants, go to https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html. Reach Blake Nicholson at 701-250-8266 or blake.nicholson@bismarcktribune.com. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Right now, stepping into a hospital in North Dakota is like stepping into an alternate reality." -- Joshua Ranum, vice president of the North Dakota Medical Association and a physician at West River Health Services in Hettinger, on the recent COVID-19 surge that is on the verge of overwhelming hospitals. q q q "Why he would think to not stop, I don't understand." -- Jerry Knutson, father of Craig Knutson, who was shot and killed by Highway Patrol Trooper Steven Mayer on Interstate 94 west of Mandan on Sept. 7 after initially refusing to pull over and then brandishing a gun. Mayer was cleared of any wrongdoing. q q q "I see it, I hear it, but I'll never understand their pain." -- Tawacin Wasake Win, 22, of Bismarck, reflecting on stories her grandparents told her about the years they spent alongside other Native American children in boarding schools. Was'ake Win took part in a recent memorial walk. q q q If we have six guys and get six birds were happy. Were not diehards. -- Hettinger-area hunter Loren Luckow, discussing the joys of pheasant hunting with friends. North Dakotas pheasant season opens this weekend. q q q "You can expect during the session to be very, very busy." -- Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, talking to other lawmakers about the upcoming session to divvy up federal coronavirus aid and to approve a new legislative district map. q q q It was important for me to show our people, especially the younger generation, to research and learn and know about your history of your people, your culture, your agreements that have been put in place. And you cannot let it be diminished. -- Spirit Lake Tribal Chairman Doug Yankton, on the reservation's boundaries being remapped and restored as dictated by treaty. q q q "The bottom line is safer communities on the reservation. That's the whole intent and purpose of doing it." -- Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Chairman Mark Fox, as the tribe and the North Dakota Highway Patrol signed an agreement aiming to improve emergency responses on the vast Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. q q q "We ask that our families speak to their children about social media, current trends taking place, and how these temporary fads can ultimately impact their future." -- Mandan Middle School Principal Ryan Leingang, in a letter to parents addressing a TikTok internet challenge that is leading to school vandalism and thefts across the country, including in Bismarck-Mandan. q q q Were grateful for the courageous men and women of the North Dakota National Guard for their readiness to protect our great state and nation when needed. We know they will serve with professionalism, compassion and integrity as they support efforts to end this humanitarian crisis and secure the southern border. -- Gov. Doug Burgum, announcing the sendoff date for 125 National Guard soldiers with the Bismarck-based 957th Engineer Company who will support U.S. Customs and Border Protection in securing the southern border. q q q "It is clear that school districts should step up and utilize some of the largess sent from Washington in support of their teachers. -- North Dakota United President Nick Archuleta, encouraging school districts to use federal coronavirus aid to offer teachers and staff paid family medical leave. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Frances Haugens recent whistleblower testimony regarding Facebook will only stoke the fires of the battle heating up in courts and legislatures over provisions originally addressed in Rule 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Limits placed by private internet companies on individuals and organizations have raised an alarm on both ends of the ideological spectrum. Justice Clarence Thomas recently stated in a concurring decision that we will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms. A second issue addressed by the rulethe liability of internet companies for illegal content posted by third-party providershas till now received less attention but is potentially just as dangerous and will undoubtedly receive more attention after Haugens testimony before Congress. After some reflection, most who approach such issues from a foundation of individual freedom recognize that private companies right to choose what and what not to post is very much in line with free markets and appropriately subject to the same rules of competition relied on elsewhere. Concerns about large entities controlling what information the public has access to are alleviated by the right to enter and compete in the market. Traditional avenues for content sharing, such as newspapers and broadcasters, have a long history of competition. As for social media, the flurry of activity following the riot at the U.S. Capitol is a telling example of what can happen. Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon, Twitch, Snapchat, Reddit, Shopify, and TikTok each took action to eliminate President Donald Trumps ability to use their platforms to post information. In response to these actions, alternatives emerged. Millions are reportedly turning to alternative sites such as Gab, MeWe, Telegram, and Discord. In general, any bias shown by one competitor creates an opportunity for others to fill the gap. Competition is a powerful force. Some have also argued that decisions by the internet providers to exclude content is a violation of free speech. It is not. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution as a way of preventing the government from interfering with the rights of individuals and private firms to say what they wish and only what they wish. It is not a tool for requiring private entities to say or to disseminate even what they wish not to. Often overlooked, but most alarming, is the question of the alternative. If the companies themselves dont determine what content is biased and what isnt, what content they believe to be accurate and what isnt, who will? What is and isnt acceptable to publish would have to be defined by someone, and that someone would probably be in the government. Whatever the costs are of having companies in control of content, having the government in control presents its own set of dangers. Requiring platforms to publish whatever the government insists they publish could, for example, risk having the government itself use major media platforms as spokespersons or propagandists for whatever the government happens to favor. Is that what advocates of forced publication wish to promote? When compared to the alternatives, competition comes out looking pretty good as a way of regulating bias. Competition subjects decisions of bias to the judgment of the broad population in the form of the market, as opposed to the judgement of a single individual or small group of individuals (who might themselves be biased) at a regulatory agency. A more difficult but equally problematic issue addressed by Rule 230 is the immunity provided for internet companies for all content posted on their platforms. Holding companies and individuals accountable for actions that harm others is consistent with traditional views on liberty dating back to J.S. Mills argument in On Liberty: that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. However, not all who would normally subscribe to libertarian views believe it is appropriate in this case. A recent Cato Institute article defends Rule 230s immunity for internet companies, stating that Section 230 leaves the responsibility for online posts with the appropriate agent: the (content provider). The costs and benefits of holding internet companies liable for the content they post must be assessed relative to the alternatives. Holding content providers, who may be private citizens merely making comments on a web posting, responsiblenot the internet company that provides the platform for the content/commentsrelies on the ability of the regulator to monitor content providers and, as mentioned above, creates the possibility that the regulator will use that authority to limit the information available that is damaging to the regulator itself. The regulator is not always going to be a disinterested third party. Despotism thrives on control over information. Holding the internet company liable would still require the regulator to monitor content; however, the regulators job would be easier and less easily used for nefarious purposes. The regulators job would be easier because the internet company has an incentive to assist in the monitoring. The internet provider is likely able to do this more efficiently than can the government (more on that below). Internet companies already develop algorithms to monitor content and can be expected to do so more earnestly as the punishment for failure increases. Further, and importantly, any violation of the law by the internet company is likely to end up in court, where the regulator will present its case and the internet company will have the opportunity to defend itself before a branch of government independent of the regulator. An individual content provider could also go to court under the existing law, but if their resources are more limited, as in the case of a private citizen posting controversial comments, there is a smaller likelihood of them doing so. By consolidating the incentive to challenge a regulators allegations of illegal content within a single internet company, as opposed to a diffuse group of content providers, a law that holds internet companies liable for content decreases the potential for a corrupt regulator to restrict content just because it is harmful to the regulator, even when the content is not illegal. Holding internet companies responsible may be more efficient as well. Ronald Coase introduced the idea that came to be known as the least-cost avoider. Coase argued that society is better off if the liability for an action is assigned to the party that can best keep the costs of that action low. What would be the cost of enforcing the law when only the content providers are liable, and how does it compare with the cost of enforcing the law when the internet company is liable? Internet companies will almost certainly prove more efficient than government regulators at developing mechanisms for monitoring content. Theyre already doing thisboth in the interests of making their platforms more attractive and doubtless out of fear of government regulationwith sophisticated programming designed to identify pornography or threatening material. If they are legally responsible for ensuring that content isnt published, they can be expected to develop more and more sophisticated methods for doing so. Internet companies will bristle at the idea of being held liable for third-party content posted on their sites. That isnt surprising, given the current deal they havefree to publish anything they like and power to restrict what they dislike, with little responsibility for any harm caused by content they permit. There is no doubt that if they are held liable, any given internet provider would have to be more selective about what gets published, or how long illegal content remains on its site, thereby reducing the total amount of content available to the public. Thus, it is possible that imposing liability would reduce the amount of content provided by each internet provider. However, as long as other internet companies are allowed to enter the market, the total content would not necessarily be lessit could just be dispersed among more outlets. The benefit is that the amount of illegal information about individuals (e.g., libel), events (e.g., threats of violence), or organizations would be lower because the internet providers would have effectively been hired to monitor content. In short, the same basic principles of private property, freedom of choice, and competition that are relied on in other product and service markets can be used in the market for information as well. And the same basic principles of efficient liability rules can best address the posting and dissemination of illegal content. Recent events, including the decisions by internet companies to eliminate President Trumps ability to use their platforms to post information and the competitive response of alternative mechanisms suggest that the marketplace is performing just as we would expect based on years of observing competitive behaviors in product markets. It is an imperfect process that is better than any realistically achievable alternative. Anti-vaxxers bullied families walking to school in Beverly Hills Wednesday, which happened to be National Walk to School Day. One woman in particular, Shiva Bagheri, is seen on camera (below) telling a mom that masks are propaganda and that her son "is going to be traumatized" for wearing one. But it looked like the kid was traumatized by the protestor instead, covering his ears and ending up in his mother's arms. His mother defends her freedom to wear a mask, saying, "It's my choice. You better respect my choice." Bagheri later shouted, "This is rape. They're trying to rape our children with this poison. They're going to rape their lives away." Beverly Hills Mayor Robert Wunderlich stepped in to diffuse the tension, asking that they pick three protestors to talk about this with him, away from the school later in the day. But Bagheri was having too much fun being angry to quit. "You don't care about the kids!" she says, trying to keep it going. To which the mayor calmly held his ground, until the protestors simmered down and agreed to meet with him later (video below). From Vice: Disinformation researchers believe that groups like Bagheri's are beginning to mimic the actions of other extremist groups. "Some small, hateful anti-vaxx groups, like this one in LA, are starting to look a lot like the Westboro Baptist Church," John Scott Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog organization at the University of Toronto, tweeted. Another disturbing aspect of the protest is that it was promoted by a group of Beverly Hills firefighters who themselves are protesting a vaccine mandate. At a Tuesday protest in support of firefighters who have refused to get vaccinated, one speaker urged those in attendance to also protest at the National Walk To School event the following day. "They think it's gonna be a fun and safe photo opportunity with parents and kids," David Hakimfar, a West Hollywood attorney and anti-vaccine activist said at the protest Tuesday. "Let's show up here and show them it's not. Let's show them how we really feel. Let's make them afraid." Reporter Samuel Braslow (@SamBraslow) posted the following videos on Twitter: In the morning around 8:15, the group confronted Mayor Robert Wunderlich. He proposed that three members of the group meet him in the afternoon to allow him to walk to school with parents and kids. pic.twitter.com/GoaF7ng9Ye Samuel Braslow (@SamBraslow) October 6, 2021 Whether it's promotional videos for your business or memorable trips to far-off lands, shots taken from a birds-eye view can really ramp up your photography and video game. And thanks to the wide range of drones you can find out there today, creators of all experience levels can experiment with this art. And luckily for you, these eight innovative drones are on sale. Check out all their awesome features! From its f/2.0 professional lens and full 4K resolution to its 3-axis gimbal that can stay steady at every twist and turn, this drone is one of the most powerful photography tools around. It also gives you complete creative control right from the start thanks to its slow-motion capabilities, hyper-lapse capture, and internal GPS that lets you pin locations for the drone to fly to. It even boasts 8km image transmission, which is a faster file-transfer time than any other drone. This drone has all the features you'd want in an advanced gadget of its kind, including 4K video, an enhanced 3-axis gimbal, and hands-free image mapping. You can also create dynamic shots thanks to the drone's hyper-lapse feature that speeds things up, or slow things down by up to 40% for that heart-thumping slow-motion capture. And unlike other drones out there, this guy boasts more than 85 hours of airtime with all its batteries. Deemed the most stellar-grade camera drone at this price on the market, the Cinemaster boasts an array of top-notch features, including a safety auto-return thanks to its built-in GPS, a dual camera that offers dynamic range, and an HD instant live feed that lets you see exactly what your drone sees in real-time. Plus, it flies like an absolute dream, with its brushless motors, 24MPH sport mode speed, and replaceable propellers. From its real-time fly dynamics that you can easily view on your phone to its fitted external LEDs that let you fly it at night, the Cinemaster drone offers you a photography experience like no other. It also gives you ample flying time thanks to its interchangeable batteries that provide 25 minutes of flight each. No matter where you fly this thing, you can always expect a smooth ride with crystal clear, crisp 4k video. Touting 4.1 out of 5 stars on Amazon, this crowd favorite features a dynamic dual camera, incredible camera control with a 120 camera tilt, and a 720p live feed so you be completely in tune with what's getting captured. The drone is great for those who want to fully immerse themselves in the creation process, offering you quick start tutorials, dedicated live-chat pilot support, and built-in features that make filming an absolute dream. Perfect for those looking to get into drones but don't know where to start, this beginner package has everything you need to become a pro. With stellar image quality on dual cameras and a 3 axis gimbal, this drone makes any shot clear and smooth as ever, no matter how much turbulence it meets along the way. And thanks to its interchangeable batteries, you can get some great fly time in without having to worry about the drone dying on you. From its easy-to-use accompanying app to its stellar image quality, this drone always gets the job done. Partnered with Sony to get you a 2K video camera, complete with a 1/3 in-camera sensor and a 3 axis gimbal, shots are incredibly dynamic, vibrant, and smooth. It also boasts an internal GPS so it knows exactly where to take off. If you're new to the drone game and aren't quite ready for the big Hollywood guns yet, this drone has everything you need to get your footing. Not only does it feature great dual cameras that give you crystal-clear picture quality, but this gadget also lets you zoom in on what you're capturing up to 50 times digitally on its accompanying app. The high-rated EXO even has an added one-year crash insurance, perfect for those learning how to fly. Independent Health this week notified more than 500 members from the Williamsville Central School District that their protected health information was inadvertently attached to secure reports sent out over a two-year period, potentially exposing their names, member ID numbers and medical diagnosis codes and descriptions. Independent Health spokesman Frank Sava said in a statement Friday that the insurer believes it is "extremely unlikely" any of the members' health information was accessed or misused because the recipients of the files work for business partners of HIPAA-covered entities that understand the requirements to keep data private. The embedded data that inadvertently remained in the secure report was due to human error and Independent Health has already implemented the necessary safety steps to address this and prevent further occurrences," Sava said. "Protecting our customers privacy and keeping their information secure is critically important to Independent Health and we deeply regret that this event occurred. Sava said the members' data that was mistakenly shared did not include Social Security numbers or any personal financial information. All affected members have been notified, he said, and Independent Health is arranging to provide them with two years of free identity protection and monitoring services. Rod Watson: Want real reform? Look at the back of the ballot on Nov. 2, not just the front: It's not only the mayoral or sheriff races that should matter to voters, Watson writes, but also the proposals on the back of the ballot. One proposal, an alteration of the redistricting process, is one where "citizens get to decide on policy," said Lori Robinson, the president of the League of Women Voters of Buffalo Niagara. Read more Judge hopes killer never gets paroled for Cheektowaga 7-Eleven slaying: A stranger with a shotgun killed Hannah Morse in March 2020. On Wednesday, before her killer was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, the judge said he hoped the defendant never gets paroled, Aaron Besecker reports. Read more Thomas Sibick eventually turned over the muddy badge, which he had buried in his backyard, according to an FBI affidavit. The radio has not been recovered. Eugene Sibick said he donated $200 to Garcias campaign because he sees Garcia as the best candidate. Meanwhile, he is appealing for money for his son. My son is a political prisoner, Eugene Sibick says in a plea for prayers and for $150,000 on the fundraising website Give Send Go. Thomas went alone to D.C. for the sole purpose to hear the former president speak, he said. This is going to be a long haul as his life has been turned upside down. He asks people to consider donating so Thomas will be allowed to get his life back together. For a few days in March, Eugene Sibick housed his son in his Amherst home on home confinement, which a federal magistrate judge in Buffalo had allowed. But prosecutors called Thomas Sibick dangerous and, citing his past convictions, persuaded a federal judge in Washington to detain him until his trial. He is now in a D.C. jail. Eva Hassett stood at a podium Sept. 2 to help lead a fundraising drive for Afghan evacuees. What she didn't know at the time was that a vote to remove her as executive director of the International Institute of Buffalo had occurred days earlier. Hassett, a fixture among those in the city's refugee and immigrant support organizations, learned of her firing that evening from the board of directors. The board remained silent about Hassett's removal three weeks later when announcing the appointment of an interim executive director and a search for a permanent replacement. During Hassett's 12 years at the International Institute, she became a prominent advocate on behalf of immigrants and refugees coming to Buffalo. Myron Glick, CEO of Jericho Road Community Health Center, called Hassett's departure "a real loss to our community." "Eva was a tireless advocate on behalf of the immigrant and refugee communities here in Buffalo, and her stellar work leading the International Institute all these years was much appreciated," Glick said. Hassett declined to be interviewed. A Buffalo native and longtime aide to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is refusing to give up his post on the Public Service Commission despite Gov. Kathy Hochul's request he resign. John Maggiore, whose career as a state official dates to Cuomo's father, the late Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, said Friday that he intends to remain a commissioner of the agency, which regulates and oversees the electric, gas, water and telecommunication industries in the state. "I intend to serve my term and uphold my oath of office," he told The Buffalo News, declining any other comment. The New York Post reported Thursday that Maggiore and John Howard, another veteran Cuomo aide whom the former governor had appointed PSC chairman, were resisting Hochul's demands for their resignation. The new governor has emphasized her intention to remove those linked in any way to Attorney General Letitia James' report outlining the complaints of 11 women accusing Cuomo of sexual harassment. The charges, along with other problems dogging Cuomo for the past several months, forced his resignation Aug. 24. The DEC said in a statement that such complaints should be directed to the Niagara County Health Department, but Daniel J. Stapleton, county public health director, said residents should call the state. "The first thing we will tell them is to make sure they're talking to their primary care physician, and the second thing would be that we do not have physicians on staff and I'm not a physician, and we would not be able to answer medical questions or give medical advice," Stapleton said. "We will record complaints and have been talking with the DEC when we get complaints, but the DEC is the lead agency on this." The state Health Department has received no inquiries about health issues around the Cascades plant, a spokeswoman said. Cascades blamed this year's odors on the repeated breakdown of an anaerobic reactor in which microbes are supposed to digest the organic material, including paper fibers, left over after the plant turns recyclable paper into cardboard. At the DEC's behest, Cascades spent about $2 million on plant improvements that are supposed to control the odor. Company spokesman Hugo D'Amours said the reactor is being reactivated after another round of repairs. "We are at 40% of its capacity," D'Amours said. "As we ramp it up, it will definitely reduce odors." Kids have returned to school and are inside the classroom, Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein said this week, and people are returning back to in-person work. That offers more opportunities for disease transmission of both Covid-19 and influenza. Q: When is the best time to get the flu shot? WNY's hospitals, at lowest bed capacity so far this year, face more pressure The region's health care system, already squeezed after hundreds of workers lost their jobs or were put on leave because of the state vaccine mandate, is facing even more constraints if unionized workers at Mercy Hospital go on strike Friday. Burstein got hers last week. It usually takes about two weeks for the body to build immunity to dead or weakened virus in the vaccine, providing protection for about six months. Q: Why get one? The flu shot won't prevent or ease a case of Covid-19, but greatly reduces the odds you won't end up trying to fight both back-to-back, or together. More than 400,000 Americans were hospitalized with influenza during 2019-20 flu season. At least 24,000 died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you are healthy and get vaccinated, you are less likely to get an infection and pass the virus to loved ones, said Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. After phone calls to schools, texts and a meeting at the placement office, we came away with: In your case you cannot transfer now, the deadline to request school transfers was in March (who knew this? Certainly not this family), fill out applications for next school year, and if there are openings, they can transfer then. For this Burgard student, who will be a junior next year, there is no chance he will then be able to catch up academically. There should be no transfer deadlines. School choice should be an ongoing process that puts the needs of the student first. I worry about these students future. What schools are left for them? I think we have too many third-tier schools and too few spaces in the good schools. (I worked with the School 56 principal who conceived of and implemented the Olmsted Gifted and Talented Program. The problem of too few openings was evident even back then.) Why cant each academic high school offer an honors program open to all students who want to learn and work hard? And, more importantly, what happens to the two students this year? Pamela Murphy, a Bennett High School honors program graduate, retired from a 30-year career as a school psychologist with the Buffalo Public Schools. Once upon a time in this country, political debate was attentive to fact. But since the former presidents introduction of alternative facts and the constant spewing of specious notions on various social media platforms, we have somehow begun to think of facts as malleable things, instead of provable truth. Consider the recent missive in this column that blames Joe Biden for unconditional surrender in Afghanistan. The writer conveniently ignores the fact that his champion the one-term, twice impeached former president negotiated the Doha pact with the Taliban (and without the Afghan government) months before Joe Biden was elected that called for the withdrawal of American forces by May of 2021. In return, the Taliban would cease attacks on American and coalition forces. Had troops remained in Afghanistan, they would have been subject to resumed attacks. The withdrawal of our troops was pre-ordained before Biden became president. The writer also demonstrates convenient ignorance of the memo signed by the outgoing president on Nov. 11, 2020 directing his Defense Department to effect troop withdrawals by Jan. 15, far earlier than Bidens action. Thankfully, that directive was overruled once the Defense Department considered the implications of the memo. FILE PHOTO: Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, attends a news conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will call for a sharp rise in defence spending in its election manifesto to be unveiled ahead of an Oct. 31 general election, a draft of the policy platform showed on Friday. Delivering his first policy speech to parliament, new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who leads the LDP, said on Friday he was determined to protect Japan's territory and its people in an increasingly tough security environment. Japan faces China's rapid military build-up and North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes. The LDP aims to raise the defence budget, which has been about 1% of gross domestic product in recent decades, "with an eye on bringing it even above two percent", the party said in a draft of the manifesto reviewed by Reuters. The LDP will promote measures to enhance Japan's deterrence including acquiring the capability to intercept ballistic missiles within enemy territory, according to the draft of the manifesto, which will be unveiled next week. On the response to the coronavirus, the party aims to see that everyone who wants a vaccination can get one by early November, while making preparations for booster shots. The LDP will push for legislation to give the government more powers to secure medical resources and curb people's movements. The number of daily COVID-19 cases have been on a downtrend in recent weeks, and a long state of emergency was lifted this month, but experts say another wave of infections is possible. The LDP also states in the manifesto that it welcomes Taiwan's bid to join a pan-Pacific free-trade pact known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Taiwan and China both applied last month to join the CPTPP, which includes Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand. But China says it opposes Taiwan - which it claims as its own territory - joining. (Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto, writing by Kiyoshi Takenaka; editing by Richard Pullin) Abhijaat Mishra, relative of Ashish Mishra speaking to reporters on Friday. (Photo/ ANI) Lakhimpur Kheri (Uttar Pradesh) [India], October 8 (ANI): A relative of Ashish Mishra, an accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and son of Minister of State (MoS) Ajay Misha Teni, on Friday denied the speculations about Ashish fleeing to Nepal and said that he will appear before the police today. Speaking to media persons here, Ashish Mishra's relative Abhijaat Mishra said, "He is currently here (in Lakhimpur Kheri) and he will cooperate with the investigation." "He will not run away and will face the special investigation team (SIT). I cannot say when he will appear before the police, but he will definitely come today," he added. The Uttar Pradesh police, on Thursday, pasted a notice outside the residence of Ajay Kumar Mishra in Lakhimpur Kheri, asking his son Ashish Mishra to appear before it today in connection with the incident. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh police arrested two accused in connection with Lakhimpur Kheri violence. The arrested persons have been identified as Luvkush and Ashish Pandey. A total of eight people died in the violence that took place in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3. The Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday filed an FIR for murder against Ashish Mishra, son of MoS Ajay Mishra. It has been alleged that Ashish ran his car over the protesting farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district on October 3. (ANI) A health care worker vaccinates a resident in Peru, one of the six countries to receive new vaccine doses from Canada. Peru, which has a population of 33 million, has logged nearly 200,000 COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic. (AFP/Getty Images - image credit) Canada donated over three-quarters of a million doses of its surplus AstraZeneca vaccines to Caribbean and South American countries over the last two months, and plans to donate more doses from its stockpile of mRNA vaccines in the coming weeks. While Health Canada found the AstraZeneca vaccine to be safe and effective, most Canadians now receive one of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization said last May that the mRNA vaccines were "preferable" because of the risk of rare, but serious, blood clots in some AstraZeneca recipients. That left Canada with a significant inventory provinces were no longer using. International Development Minister Karina Gould's office says 762,080 AstraZeneca doses were delivered to six countries late this summer. Canada sent 762,080 AstraZeneca doses to 6 countries this summer These donations were bilateral agreements, separate from Canada's participation in the COVAX global vaccine-sharing initiative. All but the first shipment of donated doses happened after the start of the writ period for the federal election campaign, when the government was in "caretaker" mode. Because vaccine doses expire over time, the urgent work of trying to ensure Canada's inventory does not go to waste continued during the caretaker period. Canada signed agreements with suppliers to purchase up to 22 million doses of AstraZeneca, but just over 3 million were delivered and distributed across Canada for use in provincial and territorial vaccination campaigns. COVAX donations funding Chinese vaccine deliveries Separate from these bilateral donations, Canada also has agreed to donate 40 million doses to developing countries through COVAX. So far, 2.7 million of these doses have been delivered to countries in Africa, Central and South America. Many of the COVAX deliveries to date have been supplied by manufacturers of the AstraZeneca formulation. Because of ongoing international supply shortages, however, COVAX also offers countries the option of receiving Sinopharm, a Chinese vaccine approved by the WHO for emergency use last May. Story continues Over the past two weeks, for example, Canada's financial support to COVAX has helped to fund Sinopharm deliveries to Nicaragua and Zimbabwe. Sinopharm is not approved for use in Canada. International travellers who received vaccines not certified for use by Health Canada are not considered fully vaccinated by the federal government. B.C. handing back Moderna doses At her regular briefing Tuesday, British Columbia's Chief Medical Officer of Health Bonnie Henry said that her province was preparing to return to the federal government 300,000 "mostly Moderna" doses it will not use. "These vaccines are not required at this time right now in B.C. and we still have a large number of vaccines that are available to meet our needs over the next few months," she said. "These vaccines will be part of the Canadian donation to the COVAX initiative." Henry said it's incredibly important for people around the world to be protected from the virus. "That's the only way that we will get out of this global pandemic, and it's important that we do our part to support that as well," she said. "We are proud that we are doing that in B.C." The federal government is still consulting with provinces to find out how many doses they may have sitting spare in their inventories. While some of these doses may be distributed through COVAX, as Henry suggested, others may be donated through bilateral agreements like the recent AstraZeneca shipments. Ben Nelms/CBC Contracts partially disclosed by the federal government last June left it unclear whether Canada would be allowed to donate doses of Moderna or Pfizer the way it could with other vaccines it had contracted to purchase. Agreements to donate mRNA doses would have to be negotiated in consultation with the companies that supplied them. The recipient countries must also be capable of assuming the strict transportation and cold storage requirements for these vaccines, something that could be a challenge in parts of the developing world. Global inequities persist The World Health Organization released a new strategy Thursday to vaccinate 40 per cent of the population of every country by the end of this year, and 70 per cent by mid-2022. The WHO failed to meet its earlier target of vaccinating 10 per cent of the population in every country, economy and territory by the end of September. Fifty-six countries did not meet that mark. "Science has played its part by delivering powerful, life-saving tools faster than for any outbreak in history," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "But the concentration of those tools in the hands of a few countries and companies has led to a global catastrophe, with the rich protected while the poor remain exposed to a deadly virus." While countries in the developing world continue to struggle to access and pay for COVID-19 vaccines, estimates compiled by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) suggest Western democracies could be holding over 870 million excess doses by the end of this year. In Canada's case, MSF estimated its excess could exceed 60 million doses, although the federal government may not be taking delivery of all the doses available through its advance purchase agreements. Scientists have warned for months that COVID-19 variants can develop in unvaccinated populations. While existing vaccines provide effective protection from many of the variants that have emerged so far, that may not always be the case. Haitians deported from the United States recover their belongings scattered on the tarmac of the Toussaint Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (The Associated Press/Joseph Odelyn - image credit) Some Quebecers are calling on the provincial and federal governments to take in some of the Haitian refugees who have been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border and are likely facing deportation back to the impoverished Caribbean island. A makeshift encampment under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas, along the border, was a temporary home to about 15,000 Haitian refugees last month while they waited to be processed for asylum in search of a better life in the U.S. But members of Montreal's Haitian community denounced the "inhumane" treatment of migrants at the camp, where images that went viral showed American border patrol agents using aggressive tactics to prevent them from entering the U.S., such as hitting them with leather reins. In the end, 7,000 asylum seekers were expelled to Haiti from the U.S., with Mexico sending back 200 people total. The last remaining migrants, who were living in squalid conditions in the camp, were cleared out by Sept. 24. Franca Mignacca/CBC "We feel betrayed by this kind of policy," said Frantz Voltaire, a Montreal-based documentary filmmaker. His family comes from the southwestern region of Haiti and he has been researching the country since the 1980s. Voltaire says the conditions many are going back to on the Caribbean Island are devastating. "We live in a situation where you have kidnappings, where you have rape, you have violence," he said, adding migrants at the border are not all from Haiti, but rather people who travelled from as far as Brazil, Chile and Argentina. "It's in contradiction with the Geneva Convention that you can expel the people to a country where their lives are at risk," Voltaire said. 'Canada has a responsibility in this situation' Quebec's association of immigration lawyers, which goes by its French acronym, AQAADI, is calling on Quebec and Canada to step up and take in some of the Haitian refugees as many haven't had their asylum claims heard, says lawyer Dan Bohbot. Story continues "It is not right for a country to return refugees without letting them have a chance to explain why they want to apply for asylum, if they're having reasons to fear returning to their country," said Bohbot. Haiti is embroiled in humanitarian and political crises in the wake of a presidential assassination, gang violence and a major earthquake. Bohbot says the province should step in and offer asylum. "There's a very strong community of Haitians, they contribute a lot to our community, to our province, and I think that it would be only normal for [Premier Francois Legault] to say 'Hey there's room here for some of them,'" he said. The Associated Press/Julio Cortez Bohbot says the province has done this before for refugees from Vietnam and Syria. He says federal leaders also need to speak out against the mass deportations. Legault's office did not respond to CBC News' request for comment. In a statement, Peter Liang, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, said Canada has been "engaging directly with the interim government and other actors" to promote an inclusive dialogue with all political parties. "We want to continue to strengthen our efforts to improve the lives of the Haitian people," Liang said. Voltaire says Canada shares part of the blame for the chaos in Haiti after supporting the country's corrupt government for years. The Canadian government is part of the Core Group, which comprises ambassadors to Haiti from Germany, Brazil, Spain, the United States, France and the European Union. Many members of the Haitian community and its diaspora have accused the group of meddling in their home country's affairs and contributing to its instability. "Canada has a responsibility in this situation and can help solve part of the problem," said Voltaire. CBC For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here. Artificial Intelligence AI-Enabled Tech Matches Massachusetts Students to Mental Health Counselors The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education is rolling out student wellness and mental health solution Uwill to provide counseling services at public colleges and universities across the state. Uwill's technology and network of counselors allow students to be matched with therapists based on their unique needs and preferences. Using artificial intelligence, Uwill takes into account a student's issue/treatment, gender, ethnicity, language, immediacy and availability, and immediately connects them with a licensed counselor bypassing traditional lengthy referral processes. The technology provides a secure teletherapy platform where students can communicate with their therapists via multiple modalities, including video, phone, chat and message. The counseling is provided at no cost to students. "Our team is honored to be chosen by the state at a critical moment for student mental health," said Michael London, Uwill founder and CEO, in a statement. "Uwill's ability to eliminate the time-consuming manual mental health referral process will appeal to all Massachusetts campuses, their students and families." A Dane County circuit judge on Friday ordered Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to release records related to the Republican-led investigation into Wisconsins 2020 election. The ruling came within hours of a public records lawsuit being filed and as the involvement in the investigation of Andrew Kloster, a Republican attorney and former member of President Donald Trumps administration, continued to raise questions about the credibility of the inquiry, which is being led by retired state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. The mayors and clerks in the states five largest cities had been ordered to testify as part of the investigation later this month. But in an about-face Thursday, Kloster called Madison City Attorney Michael Haas to inform him that the investigation had backed off its initial request for interviews. Then on Friday morning, Gableman told WISN-AMs conservative radio host Dan ODonnell he still plans to require city officials to testify at some point. Gableman also compared newspaper reports about Klosters conversation with Haas to Nazi propaganda. In exchange for the voluntary cooperation from Madison and Kenosha and Racine, we said, OK, well work with you, you dont have to show up at the office, Gableman said. But Ill tell you what, theyre going to show up now. All of them, unless we reach an agreement specifically otherwise. While city officials said the decision to pare down the initial request which would have included potentially millions of election-related documents was good news, the inquiry was still mired in confusion. Given Gablemans public comments today there still seems to be a lack of clarity about this issue, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said. A subpoena is a legal directive, and Rep. Vos should formally rescind it. Vos, who signed the subpoenas and is the only one authorized to issue them, has not responded to multiple requests for comment. Calls to a phone number listed for Gablemans investigation also were not returned. In a video last month, Gableman said hes not trying to overturn the election results, even though he told Trump supporters in November, without evidence, that he thought the election had been stolen. Gableman has said he planned to look into advice the bipartisan state Elections Commission gave to clerks and donations the Facebook-funded nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life gave to Wisconsin communities to help run the 2020 election. A recount and court decisions have affirmed that President Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. Four voters out of roughly 3 million who cast ballots have been charged with fraud. Trump official involved While Gableman has not disclosed who is working for him, an email sent last month to clerks asking for records as part of the investigation came from a Gmail account under the name John Delta and included a document created by Kloster, who served as deputy general counsel at Office of Personnel Management and associate director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Haas said Kloster was the one who informed him Thursday that interviews with city officials scheduled for Oct. 15 had been canceled. Kloster emailed Haas on Friday confirming that the city will need to provide all responsive communications you may reasonably produce including election-related records the city already has produced in response to public records requests by next Friday and makes no mention of any interviews being conducted. Active with the conservative Federalist Society, Kloster has been an outspoken supporter of Trumps baseless claim that the 2020 election was rigged. Kloster is a graduate of the New York University School of Law and the University of Miami and currently works as an attorney in Washington, D.C., according to his bio with the Federalist Society. Before joining Trumps administration, Kloster worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Federalist Society also notes that Kloster has 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 in April posted online that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, fair and square and Wisconsins election training was woefully inadequate. The issue is that we need our own army of local bureaucrats. And we need to fight for our locales. We need our own irate hooligans (incidentally, this is why the left and our national security apparatus hates the Proud Boys) and our own captured DA offices to let our boys off the hook, Kloster wrote, in reference to members of the far right who were involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Richard Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California-Irvine, said Klosters involvement in the audit further underscores that the effort is far from credible. Hasen described the ongoing investigation as ludicrous and nothing more than a PR stunt, as is happening around the country, that is aimed at placating the Republican base and Donald Trump. It just adds fuel to the fire and it shows how lacking in credibility this so-called investigation is to bring in a Trump loyalist who has suggested that prosecutors not fairly consider the charges against those who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, Hasen said. If youre trying to build confidence that youre doing a fair investigation and youre trying to bolster the integrity of the election process, this is exactly how to not do that. Kloster did not respond to requests for comment. Others involved in probe Efforts to learn who else is assisting Gableman in the probe have proved largely fruitless. Fond du Lac County Clerk Lisa Freiberg said she and other clerks she declined to name initiated a conference call Sept. 29 with Gableman, an aide named Zakory Niemierowicz, and a female attorney from California whose name she couldnt recall. During the call, Freiberg invited Gablemans team to her office to see how elections are conducted, and the next day, Kloster and the female attorney spent about two hours with her as she explained chain of custody, Election Day voter registration and other Wisconsin election basics. She said they had been unaware that county vote totals are not sent to a central location controlled by state officials. I wanted to show them that I was preserving the information from the 2020 election, she said. Freiberg said Kloster and the other attorney were respectful during the visit and did not take photos or otherwise attempt to collect any evidence. Vos, R-Rochester, hired Gableman in June at a cost of about $676,000 in taxpayer money. Documents filed in the Dane County public records lawsuit include pay rates for Gableman, an administrative assistant and five investigators. The investigators are not identified. Vos signed contracts with former Milwaukee police Detective Mike Sandvick and former Eau Claire Police Detective Sgt. Steven Page to serve as investigators, but Page on July 27 resigned from the role and recommended a different investigator, according to records in the case. The documents also name a fourth investigator who was to work with Sandvick and Page, but it doesnt appear she ever signed a contract to do so. The Wisconsin State Journal is not naming the other two people because it doesnt appear they ever worked on the Gableman probe. Neither responded to phone messages on Friday. Freiberg on Friday did not recognize Page, Sandvick or the other two potential investigators names coming up in her contacts with Gablemans office. Records lawsuit Liberal watchdog group American Oversights records lawsuit alleges Vos and Assembly Chief Clerk Ted Blazel failed to release documents related to the investigation submitted in an open records request. The Wisconsin State Journal, as well as other media outlets, also have requested similar documents, which have not been provided. On Tuesday night, Special Counsel Gableman appeared at a Green Bay council meeting and stressed the importance of transparency to promote election integrity, American Oversight executive director Austin Evers said in a statement. He should talk to his boss, Speaker Vos, who has steadfastly failed to release records about the so-called investigation. Wisconsin has a right to know how this taxpayer-funded investigation is being orchestrated. According to court documents posted by American Oversight, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn ruled Friday that Vos and Blazel had unjustifiably withheld and refused to release the records and are ordered to immediately provide the documents or show cause to the contrary at a hearing scheduled for Nov. 5. State Journal reporter Chris Rickert contributed to this report. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 MILWAUKEE The U.S. Justice Department announced Friday that it will not pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against Kenosha Police officer Rusten Sheskey for his involvement the August 2020 shooting of Jacob Blake. The shooting, which left Blake, 30, paralyzed, sparked several days of civil unrest during which several Kenosha businesses were damaged or destroyed and also led to the deaths of two protesters. Kyle Rittenhouse is awaiting trial next month in the shooting deaths and injuring of a man during rioting on Aug. 25. According to a news release issued Friday afternoon, officials from the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin informed representatives of the Blake family of their determination. Officials said that the department made the decision because the evidence obtained was insufficient to prove that Sheskey willfully used excessive force. Following more than four months of investigation and review of Blakes shooting, officers involved including Sheskey were cleared in January of criminal wrongdoing by Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley. Graveley also did not file criminal charges against Blake. Sheskey returned to work with the department on March 31, but he has not returned to patrol. Sheskey had been placed on administrative leave immediately after the Aug. 23 shooting. Evidence reviewed According to a Justice Department news release, a team of experienced federal prosecutors from the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorneys Office reviewed evidence obtained by the FBI and state investigators to determine whether Sheskey violated any federal laws, focusing on the application of deprivation of rights under color of law, a federal criminal civil rights statute that prohibits certain types of official misconduct. The prosecutors said they conducted a detailed and lengthy analysis of numerous materials, including police reports, law enforcement accounts, witness statements, affidavits of witnesses, dispatch logs, physical evidence reports, photographs and videos of some portions of the incident. Officials said that under the applicable federal criminal civil rights laws, prosecutors must establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an officer willfully deprived an individual of a constitutional right, meaning that the officer acted with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids. This is the highest standard of intent imposed by the law. Neither accident, mistake, fear, negligence, nor bad judgment is sufficient to establish a willful federal criminal civil rights violation, the news release stated. After weeks of studying the investigation into the shooting by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, and in a review by an independent use of force consultant, Graveley said in January that he could not justify that charges be brought against Sheskey, or the other officers who responded to the Aug. 23 domestic disturbance call involving Blake. Attempts Friday to reach the Blake family for response to the federal decision were unsuccessful as of press time. In March, attorneys representing Blake filed a civil against Rusten Sheskey, which is pending. Graveley responds Reached Friday afternoon, Graveley reiterated what he had said from an early stage about how important it was for the Kenosha community to get the second legal opinion on this case, because that was going to be crucially important for the community to heal. Whats really important about this second opinion is that the folks who have rendered this opinion are the national experts on both civil rights and on police misconduct. So, when the Biden Justice Department weighs in with the attorneys who reviewed this, we have the best possible authorities who every day consider these type of issues, Graveley said. The district attorney also underscored the objectivity of the federal review of the incident. The second piece is that the review from this second opinion are attorneys who do not have a close working relationship with the Kenosha Police Department, Graveley said. Those persons in the community who had reason to be concerned that the Kenosha DAs Office was rendering an opinion, knowing that every day, we worked with the Kenosha Police Department, now have an opportunity to hear a second opinion from people who do not have that same experience. Graveley stressed that even with his and federal prosecutors decision not to charge Sheskey there is still a lot of work needed to be done in Kenosha regarding race and inequality issues. It closes this particular book (in the case), but I think the community is engaging in very, very healthy discussions and processes right now for us to make progress on racial equity and these kind of issues, Graveley said. Its really important that we dont stop that and no one in the process says, Were done, because of these decisions. Deneen Smith of the Kenosha News contributed to this report. Deneen Smith of the Kenosha News contributed to this report. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Editor's note: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN. (CNN) Like so many of Maria Ressa's former CNN colleagues, I have followed her career with admiration and with more than a little concern for her safety. The indomitable journalist has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was asked, shortly before being sworn in, what he would do about the high murder rate of journalists, and declared, "Just because you're a journalist you're not exempted from assassination, if you're a son of a b*tch," I shuddered for one of the most courageous journalists I've ever known. But she kept on. Ressa, a Filipino American who spent nearly two decades at CNN, founded the online news organization Rappler in the Philippines in 2012. Since then, Duterte's government has done almost everything in its power to silence her and put Rappler out of business. But the most important thing everyone should know about her work is that it's about much more than the Philippines. As she has taken on the brutality of Duterte's rule, and faced down a relentless legal campaign, which has included her repeated arrest (the government had filed 10 arrest warrants against her, she said with seven legal cases still pending), Ressa has become a fighter for the right of fact-based journalists everywhere to do their job, which means she is struggling for everyone's right to know the truth. She is now an icon in the drive to defend democracy against autocrats who manipulate public opinion, misuse the legal system against perceived enemies, unleash hordes of social media followers against their critics, who distort the truth and flood society with fake news, accusing those telling the truth of lying. It's Big Lies and small lies -- the kind familiar to many Americans by now -- designed at creating a morass of confusion to serve the demagogue's purpose. In other words, Ressa is fighting everyone's fight. I've been following her career and writing about her plight for years, through her arrests, the threats against her and her rising profile on the global stage. I never saw her seek the limelight, but she has deservedly achieved fame. That's not only because she's good at her job, but because her struggle resonates within the great conflict of our time, the world's drift toward autocracy, and the efforts of millions of people across the planet to save democracy. A free press is a bigger part of that struggle than it has ever been. According to Reporters Without Borders, journalism is "totally blocked or seriously impeded in 73 percent" of the 180 countries it ranks. This is a global battle, and Ressa, Muratov, and many other journalistic heroes, are literally risking their lives to win it. For those of us who saw Ressa's dogged earlier years as an international reporter for CNN, this is hardly surprising. She was CNN's Manila bureau chief, later Jakarta bureau chief. She covered Asia with an intensity, integrity and courage that foreshadowed her stature today. It is not an overstatement to say there was no dictator, no terrorist, no coup plotter she was afraid to upset. She got the story, even if it made powerful, dangerous men angry. Perhaps her diminutive size (she is 5' 2") caused them to underestimate her -- a phenomenon I've experienced. Perhaps that's why Duterte thought he could easily brush her off. When he first came to power, he thought Rappler could be helpful. A pioneer in social media manipulation, Duterte spoke to Rappler to reach the Facebook crowds. But then Rappler started reporting on Duterte's vicious "war on drugs," a campaign that human rights groups confirm has killed thousands of people without any semblance of due process. (For a horrifying look at how Duterte weaponized the social media mobs to hound her, click on this investigation.) The efforts of Muratov, editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, are no less heroic. Muratov founded the paper with a group of journalists back in 1993, and they have managed to continue their vital investigative work even as Vladimir Putin's regime crushes other truth-tellers. Muratov told the TASS news agency that the award belongs to "those who died defending the people's right to freedom of speech." Some may question whether the battle for free speech and for a free press belongs in the same category as the quest for peace, the formal objective of the Nobel Peace Prize. The answer is an unequivocal yes. Misinformation kills. Disinformation has started wars. Without journalism, without a clear distinction between fact and fabrication, we cannot hold people to account, we cannot obtain the knowledge to protect against those who would sacrifice their countries and their people to gain, increase or keep power. When truth is inaccessible, freedom begins to fade and peace becomes elusive. I'm glad and grateful that my friend Maria Ressa has made it this far. Bravo, Maria and Dmitry! Bravo, and thank you. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Maria Ressa's Nobel is for all of us." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) The head of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday digital transactions below 500 must be spared from the proposed imposition of a 12% value-added tax (VAT), which may hit users of tech giants such as Netflix and Lazada. BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno welcomed the proposed bill seeking to impose 12% VAT on digital transactions. "Its better to tax people on the basis of what they take away from society, which is consumption, rather than what you contribute to society which is income," he said during a virtual briefing. However, Diokno said small amount transactions should be exempted from the value-added tax to still entice Filipino consumers to tap online services. "In general, I think VAT is a good tax, pero yung small transactions for example less than 500 pesos ay i-exempt natin," he said. [Translation: In general, I think VAT is a good tax, but those smaller transactions, for example, less than 500 should be exempted.] In September, the House of Representatives passed on third and final reading House Bill No. 7425, which requires digital service providers to register for value-added tax if their gross sales exceeded 3 million during the past year. Covered in the imposition of the 12% VAT on digital transactions are subscription-based video and audio streaming services, online advertising services, and other online electronic services. An additional 5% VAT will be imposed on registered but non-resident digital service providers, which render services to the government. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) Several members of President Rodrigo Duterte's Cabinet are eyeing Senate seats in the 2022 polls. Those who filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) for senator on Friday were Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Gringo Honasan, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, and Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Greco Belgica. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello's COC was filed by a representative. Bello, Castriciones, and Panelo are part of the Cusi-led PDP-Laban faction backed by Duterte. Honasan is running as an independent while Belgica is among the Cusi wing's guest candidates. Honasan is making a Senate comeback, having served as senator from 1995 to 2004 and 2007 to 2019. Meanwhile, this is Belgica's third attempt to win a Senate seat. The filing of their COCs came days after resigned Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar formalized his senatorial bid. Villar - also a PDP-Laban guest candidate - is running under the Nacionalista Party. The President himself graced the filing venue Friday afternoon to raise the hands and take photos with the aspirants, along with fellow senatorial hopefuls House Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta, broadcast journalist Rey Langit, and actor Robin Padilla. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque earlier said the Cabinet officials' filing of COCs "will have the effect of resignation," but he assured the public there will be no "leadership vacuum." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) Early analysis indicated the recent decline in the country's COVID-19 cases is not artificial, an official said Friday. "Because we are seeing that positivity rate and admissions are also going down, that is why we pointed to that analysis already that really cases are going down," DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an online media forum. "We just need to further analyze how much of this antigen test affected our outputs," she added. The DOH earlier checked whether the downtrend in new cases was "artificial" due to the recent drop in COVID-19 tests done. The department has been logging around 9,000 to 10,000 cases daily in the past few days. There were days in September when the case counts hit above 20,000. But Vergeire urged the public not to let their guard down and continue to comply with health protocols, as some areas still have high hospitalization rates and increasing cases. She noted cases remain high in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, and Cagayan Valley while a spike in infections was observed in Bicol Region, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Mimaropa. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) The Inter-Agency Task Force has eased restrictions on travel of Metro Manila residents to areas with more relaxed quarantine status, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Friday. Roque said in a virtual briefing that the pandemic response task force is now allowing the interzonal point-to-point movement of individuals from Metro Manila to areas under general community quarantine and modified general community quarantine. The new travel protocols also cover those below 18 years old, fully vaccinated individuals over 65-years of age, fully vaccinated individuals with comorbidities or other health risks, and fully vaccinated pregnant women. Metro Manila is on a pilot implementation of the COVID-19 alert level system. It is under Alert Level 4 until Oct. 15 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) The pandemic task force has decided to reduce the quarantine days for incoming travelers from "green" and "yellow" countries, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said. In a virtual briefing on Friday, Roque presented the Inter-Agency Task Force's updated testing and quarantine protocols for arriving passengers in the Philippines. He said individuals from "green" and "yellow" countries, who have completed their coronavirus shots, need to undergo a facility-based quarantine until the release of their negative RT-PCR test result taken on the fifth day. They will then spend the rest of their quarantine period at home until the 10th day. Travelers who are partially vaccinated or have yet to get the COVID-19 vaccines have to stay in a quarantine facility, with testing on the seventh day. Once they test negative for the virus, they will be required to do home quarantine until their 14th day. "For both instances, the Bureau of Quarantine shall ensure strict symptom monitoring while the individuals are in the facility," he said. Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat, in a separate statement on Friday, said the decision of the IATF was an "encouraging development" for the local tourism industry. "The easing of travel restrictions, particularly quarantine protocols, is a promising development as we inch closer to our goal of making the prospect of travel more appealing to our potential visitors," she said. "The faster we are able to adjust to this situation, the faster we can bounce back better and regain our position in the global tourism market, the tourism chief added. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) The tandem of Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Kiko Pangilinan on Friday released their initial list of senatorial bets for the 2022 elections. The tandem is fielding Senators Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno, and former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat. The leader of the opposition said she cannot disclose other names yet, but they will be coming from different political parties. "Continuing pa ang pagbuo ng aming slate, but I will assure you na ang slate namin is not just composed of the representatives from the Liberal Party, pero representatives from many different parties," Robredo said in a media briefing. [Translation: We are still completing our slate, but I assure you it is not just composed of representatives from the Liberal Party. There will be representatives from different parties.] The final list is expected to be released next week. Robredo is running as an independent candidate, while vice presidential aspirant Pangilinan is still listed under the Liberal Party. He said the party will continue to "mobilize" for her campaign. Metro Manila (CNN Philippine, October 8) Despite calls from supporters for her to run for president next year, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte on Friday maintained she will push through with her reelection bid. "I am presenting myself to the Dabawenyos as Mayor for the third and last time in my life as a politician," the President's daughter said. Mayor Duterte's statement came hours before the closing of the filing of certificates of candidacy for national posts. Netizens and supporters earlier expressed hope the presidential daughter will decide to go for the country's highest post, with the hashtag #RunSaraRun trending on social media. The Davao City mayor thanked her supporters and called for an "an honest, orderly, and credible" polls in 2022. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is urging Philippine authorities to publish findings of their investigation into the Duterte administrations drug war. I encourage publication of the panels findings so its work can be evaluated, Bachelet said in her speech during the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council. She also urged officials to involve the national human rights commission and other relevant actors including by sharing information on cases under investigation to ensure an effective and victim-centered process. The national government earlier formed an inter-agency panel led by the Department of Justice to look into anti-illegal drug operations in the country. On Oct. 5, Justice Undersecretary Adrian Sugay said authorities identified possible criminal liabilities of around 150 police officers involved in over 50 drug-related cases that the panel reviewed. Findings will be turned over to the National Bureau of Investigation, which will conduct case buildup and file criminal complaints if warranted by evidence. Bachelet also expressed concern on the continuing and severe human rights violation and abuse across the country and the persistent red-tagging of human rights and environmental defenders, journalists, union activists, church workers, and humanitarian workers. As the Philippines heads into an election year, I urge all sides to set aside the ugly rhetoric and destructive narratives that label human rights defenders, attack independent media, or condone extrajudicial killings and other violations and abuse, she said. The government should take action to ensure free civic space and protection for those who engage in peaceful civic action and debate at this particular important time, she added. Last month, the International Criminal Courts pre-trial chamber found basis to start investigating killings committed under the drug war from July 1, 2016 to March 16, 2019 and similar crimes committed from November 1, 2011 to June 30, 2016 involving the so-called "Davao Death Squad. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan vows to work towards successful, independent and impartial investigation to bring justice to the victims and affected communities. (CNN) The CIA announced a number of structural changes on Thursday, including a new mission center for China, the result of a months-long review and a reflection of the intelligence community's view of China as the greatest long-term threat to the United States. The new China Mission Center "will further strengthen our collective work on the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century, an increasingly adversarial Chinese government," CIA Director William Burns said in a statement, echoing what the veteran diplomat had said during his Senate confirmation hearings would be among his main priorities at the helm of the agency. Other adjustments included a new Transnational and Technology Mission Center and a chief technology officer position. This second mission center will focus on issues "critical to US global competitiveness," a senior CIA official said, including global health, economic security, climate change and technology. The CIA's mission centers integrate key functions of operations and analysis, says former CIA China analyst Rodney Faraon, pointing to other key mission centers like counterterrorism and counterintelligence. "The idea is that the closer they work together, with more communication and collaboration, the better the outcomes for collection and intelligence production. Better targeting of assets, better insight into human sourcing," says Faraon, who also served on the presidential daily briefing team. The two mission centers naturally overlap, since "the main area of competition with China is technology," the official added. "It's about innovation and making sure we're staying apace with the revolution in technology." At the same time, two other traditionally high-priority areas will no longer be standalone but rather part of their regions: The Iran and Korea mission centers will be folded into the Near East Mission Center and the East Asia and Pacific center, respectively. The Korea Mission Center had been created in 2017 to respond to the nuclear and missile threats from North Korea. "That really reflects the regional nature of those issues in a lot of ways," the senior CIA official said, while "China is really global." The official declined to say who would lead the two new mission centers. The CIA statement said Deputy Director David Cohen would oversee implementation. "Folding in the other missions into bigger centers is probably a function of resourcing and bureaucratic convenience. It doesn't mean that the issues are less important," said Faraon. "But elevating China and [Technology] does indicate increased importance. It also better aligns CIA functions with counterparts at [the Departments of] State and Defense." Burns' statement Thursday also reiterated the CIA's need to diversify its ranks, an effort undertaken by leadership in both the Trump and Biden administrations (though earlier this year Trump's first CIA director, Mike Pompeo, criticized a recent post featuring a Latina officer, saying: "We can't afford to risk our national security to appease some liberal, woke agenda."). Part of that effort is accelerating the period from applying to join to being cleared to start. It has been known to take years, and the goal is to reduce that to less than a year on average, the senior official said. The current process is "way too long," Cohen said at a conference last month. "One of the things that we're doing as part of this initiative is shrinking that timeline and using technology as a way to identify people who are not going to make it through the process and get them out quickly, so we can focus our resources on the ones who we think have a chance to make it," he continued. This story was first published on CNN.com CIA will focus on China with new mission center (CNN) When its Chang'e-5 mission landed on the moon in December 2020, China became only the third country to collect lunar rocks and soil. The mission, named after the mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, brought back the first fresh lunar samples in more than 40 years to Earth later that month. An international team of scientists has studied the rocks and delivered one of the first results from the mission: The moon was volcanically active more recently than previously thought. A study detailing the findings was published Thursday in the journal Science. The lunar rocks collected by Chang'e-5 have been dated to 1.97 billion years old -- relatively young, astronomically speaking, for the 4.5-billion-year-old moon. The mission's goal was to retrieve rocks from the youngest areas on the lunar surface. "It is the perfect sample to close a 2-billion-year gap," said Brad Jolliff, study coauthor and the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University and director of the university's McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, in a statement. "All of the volcanic rocks collected by Apollo were older than 3 billion years," he said. "And all of the young impact craters whose ages have been determined from the analysis of samples are younger than 1 billion years. So the Chang'e-5 samples fill a critical gap." Rocks on the moon act like a time capsule for its history and evolution. Unlike Earth, the moon doesn't have tectonic plates or other processes that wipe away the existence of craters over time. Instead, these craters help scientists date different regions of the lunar surface. Having a definitive date for the Chang'e-5 rocks helps scientists better establish the chronology of events on the moon -- and even provides a good model for dating craters on other rocky planets. "Planetary scientists know that the more craters on a surface, the older it is; the fewer craters, the younger the surface. That's a nice relative determination," Jolliff said. "But to put absolute age dates on that, one has to have samples from those surfaces. The Apollo samples gave us a number of surfaces that we were able to date and correlate with crater densities. This cratering chronology has been extended to other planets -- for example, for Mercury and Mars -- to say that surfaces with a certain density of craters have a certain age." The composition of basalt, or dark, fine-grained volcanic rock, in the samples also shows volcanic activity was still occurring on the moon about 2 billion years ago. The Chang'e-5 mission landed in Oceanus Procellarum, which is an area of solidified lava from an ancient volcanic eruption. This means there was once likely a source of heat in the region to spur volcanic activity, but there isn't any evidence of this heat source. That means that researchers will have to investigate alternate possibilities behind the activity. "The task will now turn to finding a mechanism that will explain how this relatively recent heating of the Moon may have supported the formation of basaltic magmas with temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) -- and ultimately help researchers improve age dating of the entire Solar System," said Gretchen Benedix, study coauthor and professor at Curtin University's Space Science and Technology Centre in Australia, in a statement. China is targeting 2024 for its next lunar landing with the Chang'e-6 mission, which will collect and return samples from the South Pole-Aitken basin on the far side of the moon. The research to understand all of the secrets locked within the Chang'e 5 lunar samples is really just beginning, according to the researchers. And the team leading this research is global, working together from across the world. "The consortium includes members from China, Australia, the U.S., the U.K. and Sweden," Jolliff said. "This is science done in the ideal way: an international collaboration, with free sharing of data and knowledge -- and all done in the most collegial way possible. This is diplomacy by science." This story was first published on CNN.com New lunar samples reveal more recent volcanic activity on the moon (CNN) Pfizer and BioNTech said Thursday they are seeking US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization from for their Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. If authorized, this would be the first Covid-19 vaccine for younger children. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is approved for people age 16 and older and has an EUA for people ages 12 to 15. Last month, Pfizer released details of a Phase 2/3 trial that showed its Covid-19 vaccine was safe and generated a "robust" antibody response in children ages 5 to 11. The trial included 2,268 participants ages 5 to 11 and used a two-dose regimen of the vaccine administered 21 days apart. This trial used a 10-microgram dose -- smaller than the 30-microgram dose that has been used for those 12 and older. Participants' immune responses were measured by looking at neutralizing antibody levels in their blood and comparing those levels to a control group of 16- to 25-year-olds who were given a two-dose regimen with the larger 30-microgram dose. Pfizer said the levels compared well with older people who received the larger dose, demonstrating a "strong immune response in this cohort of children one month after the second dose." Pfizer began submitting its data on the vaccine for younger children to the FDA late last month, but had not formally requested authorization until now. FDA officials had said that once vaccine data for younger children was submitted, the agency could authorize a vaccine for younger children in a matter of weeks -- not months -- but it would depend on the timing and quality of the data provided. In anticipation of the request, the FDA last week scheduled a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to discuss the vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 on October 26. If the FDA OKs it, a panel of CDC vaccine advisers will meet to consider whether to recommend its use. "We know from our vast experience with other pediatric vaccines that children are not small adults, and we will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of clinical trial data submitted in support of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine used in a younger pediatric population, which may need a different dosage or formulation from that used in an older pediatric population or adults," Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement about the October 26 meeting. (CNN) The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) acknowledged Friday that access to a "safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment" is a basic human right for the first time. Despite criticism from some countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, ahead of the UNHCR session, the new resolution -- proposed by Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia and Switzerland -- passed with significant support of 43 votes, according to a press release. Russia, India, China and Japan abstained. The vote -- which comes weeks before the crucial COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland -- also created a Special Rapporteur role to address the human rights impact of climate change. Special rapporteurs are independent human rights experts with "mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective," according to the intergovernmental organization. Human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in a statement that "recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is about protecting people and planet -- the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat." Bachelet added that she felt "gratified" by the way in which the decision "clearly recognizes environmental degradation and climate change as interconnected human rights crises." She continued: "Bold action is now required to ensure this resolution on the right to a healthy environment serves as a springboard to push for transformative economic, social and environmental policies that will protect people and nature." The vote "acknowledges the damage inflicted by climate change and environmental destruction on millions of people across the world," the press release added. "It also underlines that the most vulnerable segments of the population are more acutely impacted." Yolande Wright, Global Director of Child Poverty, Climate and Urban at Save the Children, hailed the "landmark" resolution in a statement, noting it could have "huge implications for children's rights to a safe and sustainable future." "Both resolutions adopted today by the UN Human Rights Council show that finally, the people in charge are listening to what children are saying," Wright added. "Children we work with are increasingly telling us that they want to see more action from leaders to limit this crisis." Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, also welcomed the resolution, calling it "a breakthrough moment for environmental justice." "The decision, taken today in Geneva, is a shield for individuals and communities against a plethora of risks to their health and livelihoods. The recognition of the right to a healthy environment is a historic landmark in our ongoing work for social and environmental justice," Andersen said in a statement. "It is a message to one billion children at extremely high risk of the impacts of a changed climate: a healthy environment is your right. No one can take away nature, clean air and water, or a stable climate from you." This is not the first time the UN has been pushed to expand its institutions mandates to tackle climate change. At a UN Security Council meeting on September 24, Ireland put forward a proposal to add the threat posed by climate change to the Security Council's routine agenda. This story was first published on CNN.com, "UN says access to a 'clean, healthy' environment is a human right." (CNN) A suicide blast ripped through a Shia mosque in northern Afghanistan Friday, killing and injuring at least 100 people, a UN agency said. The attack occurred during Friday prayers at the Sayed Abad mosque in Kunduz, provincial spokesman Matiullah Rohani told CNN. At least 20 people were killed and 90 injured according to Sara Chare, an official with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), who said some of the casualties had been brought to the NGO's facility. A Taliban spokesman said security forces were on the scene and an investigation was underway. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the blast, according to a statement released by the group's media wing, Amaq. It added that a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest among Shia worshipers inside a mosque during Friday Prayers in Khan Abad district in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz. Friday's mosque bombing "is part of a disturbing pattern of violence" and the third deadly attack this week "apparently targeting a religious institution," the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Twitter. The bombing comes days after another mosque was targeted in central Kabul, killing at least seven people. That attack on Monday targeted the gates of the Eidgah Mosque in the Afghan capital, where a funeral service was being held for the mother of Taliban spokesman Muhajid. The Islamic State affiliate IS Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing, one of a series of attacks the terror group has launched since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan more than a month ago. Others include a suicide attack at Kabul's airport in August and a spate of bombings targeting members of the Taliban in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. The group poses a threat to the country's stability and the Taliban's rule. In recent days, the Taliban have conducted several operations targeting ISIS-K militants. The Taliban claimed to have killed at least nine ISIS-K members and detained five others in two operations last week, targeting ISIS hideouts in the central Afghan province of Parwan, according to local Taliban police chief Maulvi Abdul Qadir Haqqani. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Explosion at mosque in Afghanistan kills and wounds at least 100." Near the end of September, Nebraska's total hospital capacity hit a COVID-19 pandemic low. "(On) Sept. 30 the (available staffed) ICU bed and the surgical bed capacity for both adults and pediatric (patients) were at the lowest they had ever been," said East-Central District Health Department (ECDHD) Chief Public Health Officer Chuck Sepers. There may be many reasons why, though. During a Sept. 30 Zoom call for a monthly COVID-19 situation update, Butler County Health Care Center CEO Don Naiberk said he was concerned about losing staff members in the coming months as federal vaccine mandates go into effect for health care workers. He said Nebraska already has seen the effect of vaccine mandates on health care staffs in Omaha and Lincoln. "Locally, as I've talked to a lot of long-term care facilities, hospitals, etc., everyone is nervous about that," Sepers said. "Because it is just a little bit easier to get out of health care and do something else -- our local unemployment is extremely low and there are a lot of options." Anecdotally, though, Sepers said he hasn't seen a lot of people leaving because of looming vaccine mandates. "I think sort of what's driving the hospitalization staff shortage is, with COVID-19 surging, there are a lot of health care workers that are doing traveling. You can make $80 an hour traveling," Sepers said. Those people still may be working in health care, even employed at the same facilities, but traveling to administer care or doing telehealth reduces their number of in-office hours. Sepers said burnout may also be a contributing factor, something to which Naiberk also alluded. "A lot of people have left the industry," Naiberk said. "They were close to retirement, they felt responsible to get through that first wave and then once the first wave was over, they were done." Naiberk added that many hospitals are busier now than they were last year. "We came off of a period of time where we had almost no one in hospitals because we shut down surgeries and all of this stuff at the beginning of the pandemic," Naiberk said. "... There were a lot of people sitting on health conditions that were being neglected then. I think that's finally starting to catch up to us." Around the same time available staffed ICU and medical/surgical beds reached a pandemic low in Nebraska in September, the state seems to have hit the peak of its second major COVID-19 wave. Sepers said it's important to remember to think of the ebb and flow of COVID-19 in terms of waves, rather than calendar years. The peak of last year's major wave came in November 2020. Sepers indicated that it looks like Nebraska is now coming down from the peak of a second major wave. There is some good news, though. For one thing, this wave was less severe. "We are not seeing as many hospitalizations overall in this wave and that's largely due to vaccinated persons," Sepers said. Sepers compared the COVID-19 waves to a skateboard rolling back and forth on a half-pipe -- it loses a little bit of energy each time it peaks, resulting in progressively lower peaks. Vaccines help remove energy, while viral COVID-19 variants -- like the Delta variant -- may add it. Those who come down with the delta variant -- which is almost every Nebraska COVID-19 patient as of Oct. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- get sicker than they did with the original strain of COVID-19. However, the existing COVID-19 vaccines remain effective against variants of the virus, including delta. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccinated people who do get COVID-19, including the delta variant, tend to have less severe symptoms. According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services online dashboard as of 10:30 a.m. Thursday, approximately 59% of Platte County's 12 and older population is fully vaccinated, compared to roughly 67% statewide. ECDHD has started administering boosters. Many health districts are giving boosters to certain groups first, including health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. As of Thursday morning, the Food and Drug Administration only had approved the Pfizer vaccine for booster shots. Sepers said ECDHD received some Pfizer at the beginning of the vaccine rollout, much of which went to employees at Columbus Community Hospital. "(CCH is) the group that has the largest number of folks at this time that qualify for the six-month Pfizer booster," Sepers said. Molly Hunter is a reporter for The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at molly.hunter@lee.net. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Ann Preister of rural Humphrey had been at Columbus Community Hospital for her annual mammogram when she learned the next several months of her life would be spent battling breast cancer. In February earlier this year, Preister received a 3D mammogram when the doctor gave her some bad news. He came in and said, I dont like the look of this spot. Were going to do an ultrasound, Preister said. That same day she underwent an ultrasound and biopsy, the results of which showed she had cancer. Upon hearing her diagnosis, Preisters first thought went to her family. I have a granddaughter that is fighting a disease and I just kind of asked God, give me what you need to keep my granddaughter safe, Preister said. And I just said, This is what He wants me to go through and I can do that. Its curable so I wasnt too shook up about it; Im like, No, God will get me through this and it will be fine. Preisters daughter, Karla Rosendahl, noted she had been at her moms home when she was told the news. She has always had a positive attitude, she didnt get too emotional, Rosendahl said. She said, Were going to get through this. Its a very small spot. Preister received a lumpectomy in March, where her cancerous tissue was removed. The doctors were confident they took out all of the cancerous tissue, Preister said, but they also had her undergo radiation due to the location of the cancer. We started radiation April 13. I did 32 treatments and I went every day except for Saturday and Sunday, she said, noting that she started feeling really tired from the treatment. Preister said theres a history of cancer in her family, so the doctor had her complete genetic testing. I did not have the BRCA (BReast CAncer) gene and so I did not have to have a mastectomy, otherwise I would have probably had to have a mastectomy, she added. According to the American Cancer Society, women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation have up to a seven-in-10 chance of getting breast cancer by the age of 80. Now they (the doctors) say Im cancer-free and I have to take a hormone replacer pill for five years, Preister said. (The cancer) grows on estrogen, so Im taking a pill that doesnt give me estrogen. Preister noted she does experience side effects from the medication, though she said doesnt think it of that much of an inconvenience considering what other cancer patients must go through. For example, she said, her sister passed away from ovarian cancer and had struggled quite a bit. Preister said her family was very supportive through her cancer battle. They helped with whatever needed to be done, she said. They sent flowers, they sent gifts, cards. It was very nice; it kept my spirits up. Rosendahl said she attended some of Preisters medical appointments and encouraged her mother to undergo cancer treatment locally instead of driving to a bigger city. We wanted to keep her healthy so she could finish her radiation without missing a beat, and she didnt miss one which was great, Rosendahl said. There are all those who support her, kind of realizing that life is short and we need to rally around her and our family to be able to just enjoy those memories together. One of those memories included celebrating Preisters 60th birthday in August with a girls trip, Rosendahl added. It was a tough year, but (there was) a lot to celebrate and focus on that positive, Rosendahl said. The doctors and nurses also gave her the support she needed as well, Preister said. I did get very tired about the 16th week or so, the 19th week, she said. Im getting my energy back now, though. Were just trying to get back to normal now. Preister added that she encourages others to get their mammograms done because thats how her breast cancer was caught early. According to the American Cancer Society, women ages 40 to 44 should have the choice to start their annual breast cancer screening with mammograms. Women 45 to 54 years of age should get mammograms annually while women 55 and older can switch to mammograms every two years or they can continue with yearly screening. Rosendahl said she will be turning 40 in November; her mammogram is scheduled for the day after her birthday. You just never know when something can happen so you just want to have peace in your heart that things are going to be OK and have peace with everybody, Rosendahl added. Those who do undergo cancer treatment should remember to rest when needed and that its OK to rely on others. Rest when you need to rest and do what your body tells you to do it, Preister said. If youre tired, then rest. Its something you can get through, its curable. And depend on your family and friends when you want help; dont be afraid to ask for help. Hannah Schrodt is the news editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at hannah.schrodt@lee.net. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. " " Just how vulnerable is your cloud computer network? Aitor Diago/Getty Images Whether you have years of computing behind you, or you've just bought your first laptop or desktop PC, tablet or smartphone, you've probably already heard about the dangers of not protecting yourself from malware viruses, worms, trojans and other programs used by hackers to damage computers and other devices, steal your personal data, hijack your machine and turn it into a bot, or even lock up your device and hold it for ransom. [source: Fruhlinger] To protect yourself from such threats, you need security software. One increasingly popular option is to use a cloud antivirus product. In contrast to a conventional antivirus program, cloud antivirus does most of its processing on the internet rather than your computer's hard drive. Advertisement Cloud antivirus software consists of client and web service components working together. The client is a small program running on your local computer, which scans the system for malware. Full locally installed antivirus applications are notorious resource hogs, but cloud antivirus clients require only a small amount processing power. Instead, the heavy lifting is done by software running on cloud servers, which continually update their lists of malware files and risky websites. Cloud antivirus is capable of transmitting real-time data on those threats to your device, so that you don't have to rely upon manual or scheduled automatic updates to keep your defenses up-to-date. [source: Kapersky] Cloud antivirus can provide more powerful protection for your devices, and it has numerous other benefits as well. Here are a few: Your malware database is updated without the need to download all the signatures the clues that a program is malicious on your device. The service can do behavioral-based scanning, which can spot new threats. Less demand on your device's storage space and memory. The ability to use artificial intelligence, machine learning and other advances, so that your protection evolves with the threats [source: Steinberg ]. Cloud antivirus has some disadvantages, too. One drawback is that you have to remain connected to the internet, and if your connection is slow, that can interfere with files being scanned. And since everything is checked against cloud databases, some scans may take longer [source: Steinberg]. In this article, we'll tell you more about the features of cloud antivirus programs and how you can use them to protect your devices. Information is from police reports and may be incomplete depending on the status of an investigation. Phone numbers are nonemergency. The state Department of Health reported 145 cases of COVID-19 and two deaths for Cumberland County Friday. The county totaled 15 deaths due to COVID 19 in the past seven days, and has now had 100 or more cases in 15 of the past 17 days. The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 increased to 109 in Friday's report, up five from Thursday. There are 20 adults in intensive care (down two from Thursday) and 15 on ventilators (down one from Thursday). Thirteen adult ICU beds remain open of the 115 currently staffed across the county, and 37 of 95 ventilators in the county are in use. Friday's report included 363 test results, with 39 probable cases. Comparing just the number of negative tests (218) and confirmed positive tests (106), the county saw 32.7% of its tests come back positive. The countys seven-day average of cases now sits at 131.14, the highest rate since Feb. 3. Its 14-day per capita rate sits at 683.98, the highest rate since Feb. 2. The southcentral region reported 937 cases and eight deaths Friday, with 221 cases in York County, 113 cases in Dauphin County and 92 cases in Franklin County. Franklin County reports 83 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 Friday (down two from Thursday), with one of 29 currently staffed ICU beds available in the county and 21 of 35 available ventilators in use. There are 15 adults in intensive care and 12 on ventilators. Dauphin County reports 122 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 Friday (down four from Thursday), with 27 of 198 currently staffed ICU beds available in the county and 70 of 177 available ventilators in use. There are 32 adults in intensive care and 22 on ventilators. School-age children In its weekly update for the sixth week of the school year, the department reported another 176 cases among children aged 5-18 in Cumberland County during the week of Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, a decrease of 14 from the previous week. That brings the total number of cases in Cumberland County for this school year to 949. Statewide, the number of cases among 5- to 18-year-olds decreased for the second week in a row with 7,046 cases reported. The state said the total number of cases in that age group for the school year thus far is 42,182. Early Warning Dashboard Cumberland County saw an increase in its in percent positivity and its incidence rate per 100,000 people in the Health Department's weekly update to its Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard Friday. Cumberland County saw its percent positivity rise to 13.1% for the week of Oct. 1-7, up from 11.5% the previous week. The incidence rate per 100,000 people increased to 259.3, up from 241.1 the previous week. Philadelphia County, which includes the city of Philadelphia, holds the second lowest percent positivity in the state for the week of Oct. 1-7 at 4.5% and the lowest incidence rate per 100,000 people at 91.4. Penn State Health update (Oct. 8) Penn State Health lists a COVID-19 dashboard on its website tracking cases at each of its acute care hospitals Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center, Hampden Medical Center and Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center. The dashboard will be updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Friday's update shows 106 total cases (99 adults, 7 pediatrics) in the health system's four hospitals 22 are fully vaccinated (20.7%) with three in an ICU and one on a ventilator, 66 are nonvaccinated (62.2%) with 23 in an ICU and 13 on a ventilator, and 18 adults are unknown status patients. Five of the seven children hospitalized are unvaccinated (with two at unknown status), with one in an ICU and one on a ventilator. Holy Spirit Medical Center in Camp Hill has 21 COVID patients. Eight are fully vaccinated adults (one in ICU and no one on a ventilator) and 13 unvaccinated (one in an ICU and no one on a ventilator). Hampden Medical Center has seven COVID patients. Five are not fully vaccinated (two in an ICU) and two are fully vaccinated. Vaccinations The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention labels Cumberland County as having "high" transmission of the virus the highest level, which is the transmission level for every county in the state except Sullivan County, which is in "substantial" transmission. Community transmission is determined by the number of new cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days and the positivity rate over the last seven days, so the classification could vary from day to day based on those numbers. In data updated Thursday evening, the CDC says Cumberland County has seen 60.8% of its total population of 253,370 become fully vaccinated. For the county's vaccine eligible population of people ages 12 and older, 70.1% have been fully vaccinated. County numbers in the southcentral region (for Oct. 8): Adams County (pop. 103,009): 42 new cases; 12,398 total cases (10,197 confirmed, 2,201 probable); 43,296 negatives; 206 deaths; 48.4% of county population vaccinated 42 new cases; 12,398 total cases (10,197 confirmed, 2,201 probable); 43,296 negatives; 206 deaths; 48.4% of county population vaccinated Bedford County (pop. 47,888): 44 new cases; 6,287 total cases (4,288 confirmed, 1,999 probable); 12,082 negatives; 155 deaths; 33.8% of county population vaccinated 44 new cases; 6,287 total cases (4,288 confirmed, 1,999 probable); 12,082 negatives; 155 deaths; 33.8% of county population vaccinated Blair County (pop. 121,829): 86 new cases; 16,017 total cases (12,607 confirmed, 3,410 probable); 46,060 negatives; 360 deaths; 45.1% of county population vaccinated 86 new cases; 16,017 total cases (12,607 confirmed, 3,410 probable); 46,060 negatives; 360 deaths; 45.1% of county population vaccinated Cumberland County (pop. 253,370): 145 new cases; 26,298 total cases (20,792 confirmed, 5,506 probable); 98,353 negatives; 582 deaths (+2); 60.8% of county population vaccinated 145 new cases; 26,298 total cases (20,792 confirmed, 5,506 probable); 98,353 negatives; 582 deaths (+2); 60.8% of county population vaccinated Dauphin County (pop. 278,299): 113 new cases; 32,819 total cases (28,211 confirmed, 4,608 probable); 124,567 negatives; 604 deaths (+3); 56.8% of county population vaccinated 113 new cases; 32,819 total cases (28,211 confirmed, 4,608 probable); 124,567 negatives; 604 deaths (+3); 56.8% of county population vaccinated Franklin County (pop. 155,027): 92 new cases; 20,540 total cases (17,017 confirmed, 3,523 probable); 63,174 negatives; 426 deaths; 43.8% of county population vaccinated 92 new cases; 20,540 total cases (17,017 confirmed, 3,523 probable); 63,174 negatives; 426 deaths; 43.8% of county population vaccinated Fulton County (pop. 14,530): 10 new cases; 2,032 total cases (1,033 confirmed, 999 probable); 4,870 negatives; 26 deaths; 29.7% of county population vaccinated 10 new cases; 2,032 total cases (1,033 confirmed, 999 probable); 4,870 negatives; 26 deaths; 29.7% of county population vaccinated Huntingdon County (pop. 45,144): 34 new cases; 6,383 total cases (5,273 confirmed, 1,110 probable); 19,538 negatives; 150 deaths; 45.2% of county population vaccinated 34 new cases; 6,383 total cases (5,273 confirmed, 1,110 probable); 19,538 negatives; 150 deaths; 45.2% of county population vaccinated Juniata County (pop. 24,763): 14 new cases; 2,700 total cases (2,453 confirmed, 247 probable); 6,410 negatives; 111 deaths; 38.7% of county population vaccinated 14 new cases; 2,700 total cases (2,453 confirmed, 247 probable); 6,410 negatives; 111 deaths; 38.7% of county population vaccinated Lebanon County (pop. 141,793): 65 new cases; 19,534 total cases (16,735 confirmed, 2,799 probable); 61,488 negatives; 317 deaths; 49.2% of county population vaccinated 65 new cases; 19,534 total cases (16,735 confirmed, 2,799 probable); 61,488 negatives; 317 deaths; 49.2% of county population vaccinated Mifflin County (pop. 46,138): 42 new cases; 6,636 total cases (6,266 confirmed, 370 probable); 17,165 negatives; 186 deaths; 47% of county population vaccinated 42 new cases; 6,636 total cases (6,266 confirmed, 370 probable); 17,165 negatives; 186 deaths; 47% of county population vaccinated Perry County (pop. 46,272): 29 new cases; 4,947 total cases (3,827 confirmed, 1,120 probable); 12,842 negatives; 111 deaths (+1); 45.4% of county population vaccinated 29 new cases; 4,947 total cases (3,827 confirmed, 1,120 probable); 12,842 negatives; 111 deaths (+1); 45.4% of county population vaccinated York County (pop. 449,058): 221 new cases; 58,042 total cases (47,306 confirmed; 10,736 probable); 189,436 negatives; 921 deaths (+3); 53.4% of county population vaccinated ZIP code-level counts (updated Oct. 8): 17013: 3,197 positives, 15,122 negatives - +135 since Oct. 1 17015: 1,908 positives, 7,446 negatives - +78 since Oct. 1 17050: 3,032 positives, 15,476 negatives - +75 since Oct. 1 17055: 3,382 positives, 17,762 negatives - +81 since Oct. 1 17011: 3,158 positives, 14,795 negatives - +104 since Oct. 1 17007: 462 positives, 1,886 negatives - +15 since Oct. 1 17065: 333 positives, 1,310 negatives - +14 since Oct. 1 17324: 354 positives, 1,389 negatives - +10 since Oct. 1 17241: 855 positives, 3,345 negatives - +31 since Oct. 1 17257: 2,221 positives, 7,592 negatives - +54 since Oct. 1 17240: 206 positives, 678 negatives - +2 since Oct. 1 17025: 1,438 positives, 6,005 negatives - +58 since Oct. 1 17070: 1,343 positives, 5,733 negatives - +49 since Oct. 1 17043: 460 positives, 2,170 negatives - +11 since Oct. 1 17019: 1,570 positives, 5,883 negatives - +66 since Oct. 1 17266: 25 positives, 132 negatives - +2 since Oct. 1 School district and college case counts (updated Oct. 7) The Sentinel's case counts for Cumberland County school districts and colleges or universities are updated Monday and Thursdays. The policy for each school districts reporting is noted in the list below. Big Spring School District (reports active cases in past 14 days with school exposure): 34 student cases and 3 staff cases as of Oct. 6. (reports active cases in past 14 days with school exposure): 34 student cases and 3 staff cases as of Oct. 6. Carlisle Area School District (reports cases as they occur and updates a chart): 23 cases since Oct. 4; 130 cases this school year (started Aug. 25.) (reports cases as they occur and updates a chart): 23 cases since Oct. 4; 130 cases this school year (started Aug. 25.) Camp Hill School District (posts chart that includes total case count): 1 student case since Oct. 4; 29 student cases and five staff cases this school year (started Aug. 25.) (posts chart that includes total case count): 1 student case since Oct. 4; 29 student cases and five staff cases this school year (started Aug. 25.) Cumberland Valley School District (reports weekly and total number of cases with school exposure): 19 cases since Oct. 4; 141 cases this school year (started Aug. 31.) (reports weekly and total number of cases with school exposure): 19 cases since Oct. 4; 141 cases this school year (started Aug. 31.) Mechanicsburg Area School District (chart lists total cases actively being monitored, updated Tuesday and Friday): 10 positive and presumed positive cases being monitored as of Oct. 5. (chart lists total cases actively being monitored, updated Tuesday and Friday): 10 positive and presumed positive cases being monitored as of Oct. 5. Shippensburg Area School District (reports weekly and total confirmed case counts involving school exposure on Mondays): 15 new cases since Sept. 28; 120 cases this school year (started Aug. 19.) (reports weekly and total confirmed case counts involving school exposure on Mondays): 15 new cases since Sept. 28; 120 cases this school year (started Aug. 19.) South Middleton School District (posts notices as cases occur, updates table of case counts weekly on Tuesdays): 17 new cases since Sept. 28; 57 cases this school year (started Aug. 25.) (posts notices as cases occur, updates table of case counts weekly on Tuesdays): 17 new cases since Sept. 28; 57 cases this school year (started Aug. 25.) West Shore School District (reports active cases with school exposure within past 14 days): 63 student cases and 9 staff cases as of Oct. 7. (reports active cases with school exposure within past 14 days): 63 student cases and 9 staff cases as of Oct. 7. Dickinson College : 5 student cases and 5 employee cases since Oct. 4; 14 student cases and 17 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 30.) : 5 student cases and 5 employee cases since Oct. 4; 14 student cases and 17 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 30.) Messiah University : 6 new student cases and 1 new employee case since Oct. 4; 42 student cases and 14 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 7.) : 6 new student cases and 1 new employee case since Oct. 4; 42 student cases and 14 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 7.) Shippensburg University: 2 new student cases and no new staff cases since Oct. 4; 125 student cases and 10 employee cases this semester (started Aug. 1.) (Counties with a percent positivity above 5% in a week go on the Department of Health's watch list) Pennsylvania: Percent Positivity - 9.6% last 7 days (9.0% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 215.5 (205.6 previous 7 days) Adams County: Percent Positivity - 15.6% last 7 days (15.9% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 259.2 (283.5 previous 7 days) Cumberland County: Percent Positivity - 13.1% last 7 days (11.3% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 259.3 (241.1 previous 7 days) Dauphin County: Percent Positivity - 13.6% last 7 days (13.3% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 299.7 (285.7 previous 7 days) Franklin County: Percent Positivity - 18.3% last 7 days (19.1% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 270.3 (339.3 previous 7 days) Lebanon County: Percent Positivity - 14.9% last 7 days (14.0% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 271.5 (226.4 previous 7 days) Perry County: Percent Positivity - 19.9% last 7 days (16.6% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 272.3 (263.7 previous 7 days) York County: Percent Positivity - 15.6% last 7 days (14.1% previous 7 days) last 7 days (14.1% previous 7 days) Incidence Rate per 100,000 people last 7 days - 287 (276.4 previous 7 days) Email Jeff at jpratt@cumberlink.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelPratt. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. For Kevin Wagner, studying history isnt supposed to bring comfort. It shouldnt be easy. It should be uncomfortable, he said. From those who are 6 years of age to 60 years of age, you learn more from discomfort than comfort. The learning process is so much richer. Whether its 1607 or 1997, there are going to be some ugly spots, and we cant just sweep those under the rug, he said. Teachers, likewise, often cant ignore whats in the news and what students want to talk about in the classroom. Teachers are tasked with talking about diversity without division and in the context of events when they happened, said Wagner, who has been the history teacher at Carlisle High School for 25 years. We try to teach without labels or shaming people based on what group theyve been born into, because they cant help that. Understanding other people is critical to being understood yourself. The way teachers aim to help students understand that is at the heart of a larger national debate regarding diversity and inclusion in public schools. Critical race theory Critical race theory is a term that local teachers say has been largely misconstrued in the current arguments regarding race in the classroom. Wagner, who belongs to the Pennsylvania Teachers Advisory Committee, said he looked into CRT as the issue gained more attention locally and nationally. The term is strictly a theory and form of critical analysis of law and graduate studies introduced more than 40 years ago, he said. Its a concept, not something you teach to students, he said. It was meant for graduate level work. Even on that graduate level, before this year, CRT had not been on the radar of Matthew Pinsker, Dickinson College professor of history and director of the House Divided Project, which provides learning material to K-12 students. Its just a political debate that has nothing to do with public education, he said. Its barely had any impact on college classes. Its not a threat in middle school or high school classes. Theyre struggling to teach the facts, they dont have time to push an agenda, he said. If they tried to indoctrinate kids with this, the kidsll laugh at them or ignore them. For some, CRT mostly seems like an umbrella term that covers a much wider scope of issues. The term has been co-opted in a politically motivated effort to push an issue thats created a lot of confusion as to what critical race theory is and what anti-racism is. The terms are conflated with each other, said Chris Lilienthal, assistant director of communications for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. No teachers at the elementary, middle school or high school level are teaching critical race theory, but they are teaching students a diverse and inclusive curriculum. Lilienthal said their teachers believe its important to address topics that may not be easy to hear. Thats what education is all about: facing difficult questions and grappling with that, he said. Students will be better critical thinkers if we give them the opportunity to grapple with difficult questions. Though local school board discussions on CRT have been rare or brief due to more recent masking issues taking the forefront, residents have been far more vocal in South Middleton School District regarding what they felt were diversity and inclusivity initiatives that were not approved by parents. In those board meetings over this past summer, parents brought forth concerns regarding a new form of indoctrinated segregation where white students are meant to feel ashamed for moments of history, and that efforts with inclusivity skewed in one direction, failing to provide information on some perspectives, such as anti-abortion. Like the larger, national discussion, South Middleton Superintendent Jim Estep said the concerns stemmed initially from a misunderstanding before branching out. Estep, who was only recently hired to the superintendent position, said the diversity initiative (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) was meant for internal use with staff and not meant for any curriculum changes. A teachers own changes to a list of required reading was then lumped in the discussion, though it hadnt been part of the JEDI initiative. South Middleton School District has been aligning with and teaching toward the Pennsylvania academic standards as (directed) in the Pennsylvania state code, Estep said. That aligning is ongoing as part of the curriculum development cycle. Regardless of how the concerns came about, South Middleton is moving ahead with a steering committee to better address diversity and inclusivity efforts with the school community. For myself, well continue to be as transparent as we can, Estep said, adding that curriculum meetings are open to the public. Will topics cover racism and identity? Im sure that we will have those discussions with parents, and it will be an open discussion, and while Im here, it will be an adult discussion. Legislation Transparency is the key term used for one of two House bills that address concerns brought up in inclusivity discussions. House Bill 1332, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Lewis, R-Dauphin, is steadily making it through the Pennsylvania Legislature. The bill would amend the Public School Code to require schools to post all offered curriculum on a publicly accessible website with information updated each time the school introduces new or revised curriculum. Lewis said his legislation, which he introduced in May, was prompted by reports from parents who did not know what their child was learning until after they reviewed the homework. Lewis is the prime sponsor of the bill, but there are a number of local co-sponsors, including Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Franklin; Rep. Greg Rothman, R-Hampden; Rep. Dawn Keefer, R-Dillsburg; and Rep. Torren Ecker, R-South Middleton. Not all school district websites offer such information online, though new courses and new curriculum are voted on during public school board meetings. The bill was approved along party lines by the Education Committee last week, and on Wednesday, the House voted 110-89 to pass the bill, with three Republicans and all present Democrats voting against it. A more direct piece of legislation from CRT discussions is House Bill 1532, which proposes the Teaching Racial and Universal Equality Act. The prime sponsor is Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, but Rep. Barb Gleim, R-Carlisle, joined him in sending out a memorandum to all House members regarding the legislation back in late May. Gleim declined to comment for this story. Rothman, Keefer, Kauffman and Rep. Perry Stambaugh, R-Perry County, each co-sponsored the bill. In the memorandum for the legislation, which was sent to the education committee in June and has yet to come up for a vote, Diamond and Gleim say the bill is aimed at curtailing the divisive nature of concepts more commonly known as critical race theory under the idea that white students are being maligned in school classrooms during discussions of race. Our legislation makes it clear that no Pennsylvania school district, public postsecondary institution, or state or local government entity shall teach that any race or sex is superior to another, that any individual based on their race or sex is inherently racist or sexist, or that any individual should receive favorable treatment or be discriminated against based on their race or sex, Gleim said in the memorandum. The legislation would penalize any local or state government or public school entity including secondary education institutions that receive state money that teaches racist or sexist concepts. The bill proposes that the state attorney general would investigate such accusations and make their findings public, but a resident of the state can also file a civil complaint against these institutions if they believe they have violated a provision of the legislation. The court would rule on whether a violation has taken place. With Democratic opposition to both bills, its unlikely that Gov. Tom Wolf will sign either piece of legislation if it makes it to his desk, but Lilienthal said these bills already pose issues. What concerns us about that legislation is that it really undermines what school districts can do to meet state education standards, he said. These standards are rigorously reviewed by the state legislature. It completely undermines that process. Lilienthal said the association has tracked at least 25 bills across the country that aim to restrict what teachers can say about race and racism in the classroom. A lot of this is initiated by politicians and talking heads with political motives. This isnt about politics. Its about teaching students the whole history of the country, he said. We worry about this being a slippery slope. How far does that go or what will politicians censor next? Lesson in history While English literature courses have come under scrutiny for what books are required reading and in some cases what books are banned its history that has been the subject of some discontent for those opposing a change in curriculum. Arguments have mostly circled around teachers changing history by focusing on diversity and inclusion. Its a concept historians are eager to correct. Wagner said there has been a shift over the past several years to teach history as critical analysis rather than memorizing dates. That change in teaching style has largely been due to how often new historical documents are discovered that change how a historical event or person is perceived. Were continuously looking to bring unheard voices to the table over the years, Wagner said. Were always finding new things. For example, Wagner cited the Bacons Rebellion in which Nathaniel Bacon just a few decades ago was considered a traitor for having started a rebellion nearly 100 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Letters later unearthed from a freed Black man, an indentured servant and others, however, painted him in a very different light, going from villain to merely a rebel of colonial rule. [The letters] didnt exist, he said. We didnt have those then. Thats not what we were taught 20 years ago. History is always going to be fluid. Its not erasing the past; its building the past, Pinsker said. Pinsker is largely of the same mind as Wagner, though he does take heed of some peoples worries over how the past is judged. Some people can legitimately worry about taking present day values to judge the past judge people who lived in different ages, he said, adding that tearing down or renaming monuments and buildings should not be a knee-jerk reaction. I think its important to be deliberate and not to rush. Its not just tearing statues down and vandalizing monuments. You have to take time and build a case, persuade the community and change minds. You still need to hold people accountable and recognize evil, he said. But its also important to lift up the stories of people who contributed but got left behind when they wrote the textbooks or made the markers. Thats what Pinsker aims to do with his work at Dickinson College, which included the new Dickinson & Slavery Walking Tour, featuring outdoor markers that better addressed the history of the colleges founders and the slaves they owned and later freed. The college will also have an official renaming ceremony for one of its buildings on Nov. 20, a move sparked by Pinskers work, that he hopes will feature descendants of the slaves and former slaves they hope to honor. According to Wagner, these efforts and in-classroom discussions are simply meant to better educate students on perspectives of those who didnt get to write the history books. They may not agree with it, but they can appreciate that point of view, he said. Kids still walk out believing what they believe, but at least they hear other points of view in the conversation. Its not just one man singing solo. Email Naomi Creason at ncreason@cumberlink.com or follow her on Twitter @SentinelCreason Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Christina Spielbauer will step down as superintendent of the Carlisle Area School District effective Dec. 31. A district employee for 22 years, Spielbauer submitted her resignation on Oct. 1, School Board President Paula Bussard said Friday afternoon. Word of her resignation went out to teachers, staff and families earlier Friday. I hold Christina in high regard, Bussard said. She has really taken our district forward. Her leadership during the COVID pandemic has been steady, thoughtful and caring. Were going to miss her. A press release issued Friday said details on the search for a replacement superintendent will be announced in November. Since a search is likely to last several months, the board will appoint an interim superintendent in December. The release said Spielbauer plans to continue her career in education with an organization that supports students with special needs and at-risk youths across Pennsylvania. Bussard deferred comment on career plans to Spielbauer, who was unavailable for comment by press-time. Board members recently rated Spielbauer as exceeding expectations during her annual performance evaluation. The board reviewed the outcome of that evaluation during a committee meeting Thursday night. We had completed it before she tendered her resignation, Bussard said Friday. It was important for the board to complete that work. Christina is leaving the district on really good terms. We wish her the very best. Spielbauer was the assistant superintendent under John Friend when the board appointed her acting superintendent in June 2017. Friend retired from public education later that summer. In February 2018, the board approved a four-year contract that appointed Spielbauer permanent superintendent effective March 1 of that year. The four-year contract was set to expire on Feb. 28, 2022. Like her predecessor, Spielbauer spent much of her career with the Carlisle school district. The child of a military family, she first came to the area when her father was a student at the Army War College, and she continued on as a faculty member. Spielbauer earned a bachelors of science degree in elementary and special education before becoming a learning support teacher and homebound instructor for the district in 1998. She worked as a teacher for Carlisle for four and a half years before becoming assistant principal at Wilson Middle School for two and a half years. Spielbauer then worked as the assistant director for special education at Northeastern School District in York County for almost two years before returning to Carlisle as its director of special education for three years. During that time, she earned a masters degree in educational leadership along with a superintendents letter of eligibility from Shippensburg University. She also participated in a doctoral study program at Widener University. The board is very proud of all the hard work accomplished under Spielbauers leadership during the past four years, Bussard said. The board is confident the district will continue to flourish in the coming years because of the initiatives begun under her leadership, the engagement of our families, and the strong community ties the district has forged. The press release issued Friday listed the following as her accomplishments during Spielbauers tenure as superintendent: Increasing family engagement through the establishment of a family advisory group and the use of Thought Exchange, an online tool. Strengthening the schools career and technology program to the point where almost one-third of Carlisle High School students take one or more career and technology courses. Strengthening the collaborative relationship between the district and the Carlisle Area Education Association. Leading the districts comprehensive planning effort that has led to improvements in the curriculum and schedules at the elementary, middle and high schools. Expanding the Carlisle Virtual Academy to include greater use of Carlisle teachers and curriculum. Restructuring the alternative education program to meet the needs of some of the districts more vulnerable students. Reorganizing the finance and business office to increase efficiencies and financial management. Strengthening the districts approach to school safety and security through facility enhancements and staff training. Restructuring the information technology department to ensure access to high quality IT services and to make the districts network more secure. Email Joseph Cress at jcress@cumberlink.com. Love 0 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. HARRISBURG The governors of Pennsylvania and three other northeastern states agreed Thursday to share information about firearms purchases to help detect and investigate straw buyers and other gun crimes. Chief executives in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania signed an agreement to exchange gun crime data for use only by law enforcement, with provisions governing security and mandated notice if the information is misused or improperly accessed. The four Democratic governors said the initiative will help target gun networks that cross state lines. Despite our best gun safety laws, we have more damn guns on the street than we ever had before, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in an online announcement with the other three states. And if you're not taking guns seriously, you're not taking law and order seriously. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said about 85% of guns recovered by police in his state over a recent six-month period came from other states. None of us on the screen here are blind to the fact that our individual states' gun laws are only as good as those in the rest of our neighborhood, Murphy said. Murphy has regularly pointed to gun control legislation he has signed as he seeks reelection this year in New Jersey. Hes also promised, if reelected, to mandate safety courses for those seeking gun permits, require lockboxes to store firearms and make gun manufacturers liable for the harm caused by their products. The states plan to share details they get from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives through eTrace reports that show who first bought and sold guns recovered during criminal investigations. The states can also share gun data that predates the Thursday agreement. They are not required to share traces that are considered priority and/or sensitive, according to the agreement. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said gun violence has spiked during the pandemic and called the four-state memorandum transformative and a potential model across the United States. If Congress would simply allow us to share this nationally, what a better place this would be," Hochul said. The White House applauded the agreement Thursday, saying it encourages other state and local officials to follow these governors lead and collaborate to reduce our shared challenge of gun violence. CeaseFire PA, an organization that seeks to reduce gun violence in Pennsylvania, hailed the agreement as a step forward but said state lawmakers also could help by passing other measures, such as mandatory reporting of lost and stolen firearms. Until the General Assembly starts acting to reduce in-state illegal firearm trafficking, well continue to lose lives to this epidemic," CeaseFire PA executive director Adam Garber said. The memorandum of understanding expires in five years but will automatically be renewed annually after that unless a state wants to get out. States may also withdraw with a 30-day notice. The deal requires each state to designate and screen the law enforcement people who will be allowed access to the data, and it must be kept on computer systems dedicated to criminal justice. The states must notify each other if the information is misused, including unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, modification, storage or deletion. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Winsome Sears, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, will not say whether she is vaccinated against COVID-19. Sears, in an interview with CNN, declined to say, prompting criticism from Hala Ayala, the Democratic nominee. Sears told CNN: My life is very public. Its just the way it is. But I want to hold certain things close. She and her campaign spokesman, Tucker Davis, did not respond to voicemails and a text message on Thursday. Ayala, a delegate from Prince William County, said in a statement: Real leadership is about leading by example. Real leadership is not being evasive and hiding from Virginians at a time when they need to hear from you most. GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin has said he got the vaccine and encouraged others to get one as well. Sears tweeted that she encourages people to get vaccinated, but no one should have to disclose that, especially not to liberal hack reporters at CNN. Richmond Registrar Keith Balmer said the city has gotten back about 1,300 mailed absentee ballots so far. Of those, 110 have a problem that needs to be fixed. Almost all of them 102 are missing the witness signature. If you do not have a witness to sign your envelope, your ballot will be rejected, so we dont want that, Balmer said. Voters who mailed in ballots without the witness signature have an opportunity to fix the problem. A law that took effect July 1 sets up a formalized cure process that enables voters to fix procedural errors on absentee ballots. If a general registrar finds that the witness signature is missing, the registrars office will notify the voter within three days. The voter will have until noon on Nov. 5, the third day after the election, to correct the ballot in order for it to be counted. This fall, Virginia voters will elect the states governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general and will fill all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. In addition, a number of localities have local contests. In Richmond, voters will determine the fate of a proposed casino. Tuesday, Oct. 12, is the deadline to register to vote 5 p.m. in person at a registrars office, or 11:59 p.m. online. In a world full of egocentric activists and would-be change-makers, Leigh Middleditch proved that power didnt have to be blatant to be effective. Middleditch, who died this week at age 92, was effective by sharing power, building coalitions and hewing to a centrist philosophy that encouraged people to find common ground. Such an example is all the more striking today because it is so rare. Middleditch helped found institutions that will continue to benefit Virginians for decades to come. They include what is now the Sorenson Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia, first established in 1993 with the partnership of local businessman Michael Bills. The institutes very purpose exemplifies the cooperation and centrism for which Middleditch was known: Our non-partisan mission is to strengthen and enhance the quality of government at all levels throughout Virginia. ... At the heart of every Sorensen program are three central themes: ethics in public service, the power of bipartisanship, and a concentrated study of public policy issues. Alumni include 27 current members of the General Assembly, plus the states governor, Sorensons website says. COMMENTARY How DevSecOps software factories are closing the delivery gap for DOD One of the biggest challenges facing the Department of Defense today is how to quickly get mission-critical capabilities into the hands of personnel. Much of that acceleration is dependent on software development and certification, and the reality is that too much software is already out of date by the time it reaches the field. Commercial behemoths like Uber, Netflix and Walmart routinely deploy software at the speed of business, and while DOD has unique security requirements, it still cant compromise on speed. The mission cant afford lag times in delivering innovative software, applications and capability to the field. Recognizing the need to develop and deploy software at the warfighting speed, DOD leadership has led the charge on embracing DevOps to streamline delivery cycles, empowering a continuous workflow for developers and operations specialists to collaborate as they build, test and deploy software. The need to keep pace with rapidly evolving cyber threats gave rise to DevSecOps -- integrating security teams and best practices into development efforts. DevSecOps is regularly cited as foundational to the success of major strategic concepts like Joint All-Domain Command and Control, and the DOD Enterprise DevSecOps Initiative holds incredible promise. Its goal is to bring automated software tools, services and standards to DOD programs so that warfighters can create, deploy, and operate software applications in a secure, flexible, and interoperable manner. Accelerating delivery while continuously improving cyber posture will require governance, tooling, training and collaboration across stakeholders within DOD, and all of this will have to happen fast, at the speed of the mission. The best way to achieve this kind of success for DevSecOps initiatives in the DOD is through software factories. Why DevSecOps software factories work A software factory is a digital version of its physical manufacturing counterpart. Software factories bring together development resources to leverage economies of scale and automation to optimize the speed and quality of software development. DOD has been a global leader in embracing the software factory concept, using innovation hubs like Kessel Run to execute its DevSecOps vision. By bringing security teams into the same room as the developers and operations professionals, zero-trust principles are incorporated into every new release from the start. Backed by automation, this upfront security investment streamlines testing, compliance and ultimately approvals -- often the largest barriers to faster delivery. The result is preapproved tools that personnel can easily access to build new solutions. With centralized resources in the cloud, these economies of scale can be delivered DOD-wide, empowering continuous feedback loops, continuous monitoring, continuous rapid prototyping and ultimately continuous authority to operate. Building the data foundation to streamline the ATO process The DOD ATO process to accredit software takes an average of eight months. The process is rigorous for very good reasons -- there are no organizations with more critical or unique security requirements like those of DOD -- but approving individual component software tools is onerous and time-intensive. As a result, capabilities are often out of date and irrelevant to the mission by the time they are approved for use in the field. Software factories can help usher in an approve once, use many operating picture. This is made possible through DevSecOps by first identifying all relevant data required for the softwares ultimate operation. Software development and eventual deployment cant be expected to race along if those working on the project are bogged down by manually searching through the millions of datasets scattered across the DOD. Ensuring developers are set up for success can minimize changes required of the software after its development, allowing for quicker approvals and drastically speeding up the authorization process. A great example of how software factories have transformed this process already comes from the Air Force's Platform One program. Platform One supports the Air Forces overall DevSecOps structure to provide agencywide ATO services. Through automation, the Air Force has been able to dramatically reduce software release timelines, achieving in one week what was previously accomplished in three to eight months. Platform One has empowered a continuous ATO posture, which enables the teams to regularly push software updates, get new releases approved and make them available on an ongoing basis to the mission personnel that rely on them. The future of software factories and industrys role That old adage, everything is bigger in Texas? Try again. Everything is bigger in the Defense Department. Due to the complicated, competitive and globe-spanning nature of DOD and its missions, the challenges defense agencies face are that much larger. Industry has a major role to play in empowering the DOD DevSecOps evolution, and we must step up our game. As we partner on these incredibly important efforts, we must deliver tools that maximize flexibility through open platforms that ensure application portability. We have to help the DOD avoid vendor lock-in while optimizing security and agility. We have to remove hurdles to embracing our software and make procurement as fast and simple as possible. Because industry plays a key role in building future mission-critical partnerships, we have to move at the speed of DevSecOps as well. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and you and your family members should get the jab for your own safety and the health and economic well-being of your communities and the country in general. But the word should is an important distinction. Venturing into the realm of must leaves our editorial board uncomfortable, and especially so regarding schoolchildren. The Corvallis School District is working with the Oregon Health Authority and other agencies to explore the possibility of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all medically eligible 12-18-year-olds, and were against the idea for reasons well explore here in a bit. Theoretically, Corvallis students wouldnt be able to attend in-person classes if they werent vaccinated or didnt have an exemption. Classes with the districts Corvallis Online program would be offered as an alternative. While determining to investigate this course of action, board members stressed that vaccinations are a key part for keeping schools open, and thats an admirable goal a recurring theme in our reporting is that many students said they struggled with online learning during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The more students who are vaccinated, the safer things are for children, the reasoning goes. Corvallis, to be frank, is the only community in our coverage area where such a mandate could even be considered at this point. Thanks to Oregon State University, the high tech sector of the workforce and other factors, Corvallis may be the most educated and progressive area in the state. There will be protests against the concept of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in Corvallis schools, but the greater community is likely overwhelmingly in favor of such a move. If the Greater Albany Public Schools or the Lebanon Community Schools attempted a vaccine requirement for students, the public uproar would be deafening. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Still, a jab mandate for the Corvallis School District would be a distraction. It would face vigorous challenges in court, but we believe the schools would prevail in any civil lawsuit. This is probably within the districts legal rights, but proving so could be expensive at this point, and thats one potential drawback. The COVID-19 vaccines for adolescents and teens also arent fully FDA approved right now, and that also complicates matters. To be sure, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other organizations have recommended the COVID-19 vaccines for nearly all individuals age 12 and up. But without the FDA stamp of approval, there is slim chance that Oregon would take any action with its own mandate, and a patchwork of regulations could result throughout the state. Other districts, such as the Portland Public Schools, also are looking into vaccine requirements, but most schools wont want to deal with the headaches. That patchwork in particular opens up a whole can of worms. Would nearby districts welcome a surge of transfers from Corvallis and others with vaccine requirements? If students are required to have a COVID-19 vaccination to participate in in-person classes and activities in Corvallis, what does that mean for parents of students in the district? Must they be vaccinated to attend events? What about athletes from other schools? Can a Lebanon Warrior set foot on Crescent Valley High Schools Field of Dreams or play in the outfield at Corvallis High Schools Taylor Field if theyre not vaccinated? A blanket mandate from the state would eliminate piecemeal regulations and would be a much better solution than districts acting individually, but even then there are questions. For example, what happens in a school or even a classroom where unvaccinated 11-year-olds are mingling with vaccinated 12-year-olds? But even more than the potential uncertainties and the expenses is our resistance to a mandate for children. In general, we believe in encouraging people to get the vaccine rather than forcing it upon them, and thats especially so when it connects directly to an inalienable right. A K-12 public education is defined in the United States as integral to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe New spy satellites can provide data on North Korea and other key areas Ceske Radiokomunikace, a telecommunications company in the Czech Republic, has entered into a strategic partnership with Vantage Towers, which manages approximately 4,000 broadcasting base stations in the country. The five-year framework agreement for the LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) network of CRA is for 500 Vantage Towers locations, said a press release. Open LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) technology allows you to wirelessly connect smart devices, such as sensors, probes, or other measuring devices, over longer distances with minimal energy requirements. Through the partnership, the two companies join forces to enable companies in the Czech Republic to digitize their business models and introduce new applications that help reduce energy consumption and costs. Vantage Towers provides its infrastructure, which is unique in terms of site density as well as service and maintenance. CRAs can thus quickly expand their network. "Cooperation with Czech Radiocommunications supports our mission, which is sustainable digital transformation. We offer infrastructure throughout the Czech Republic and thus give space to new applications and solutions in the field of the Internet of Things, " said Jiri Svarc, director of the Czech branch of Vantage Towers. Pavel Kos, Technical Director of Ceske Radiokomunikace, said: Cooperation with Vantage Towers will enable us to further increase the coverage of the LoRaWAN network, for which we now provide IoT services throughout the Czech Republic. We have a choice of almost four thousand locations, where it will be possible to place our equipment in an accelerated mode. This will enable us to respond to the needs of our customers and offer better services. Moscow, ID (83843) Today Cloudy with rain and snow this morning. Snow showers for the afternoon. High around 45F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Occasional rain. Low near 35F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Miller and Miller Nissan is getting into the act for Chipola Colleges latest theatre production. The dealership has loaned the college a new 2022 Nissan Frontier SV for the musical, Hands on a Hardbody, which runs Oct. 14-17. Miller and Miller Executive Manager Michael John Mitchell said lending the truck for the show was a win-win decision for the business for a couple of reasons. Its a brand new body style, they just came out with it, he said, adding that he thinks this is a great way to showcase the truck in a special way. Additionally, he said, most of the people that work at Miller and Miller attended Chipola College and are happy to be part of helping their old school in this way. Chipola Director of Fine Arts Evelyn Ward drove the notion forward. We are so thankful to Miller and Miller for loaning us this beautiful vehicle, Ward said in a press release. I didnt know what to expect when I approached (Mitchell) with our outrageous request of borrowing a brand new truck, but he was quick to offer support for our program. We simply could not do this show without them. BERLIN (AP) Germany's network regulator said Tuesday that it has suspended its procedure to certify the operator of a new pipeline that would bring Russian gas to the country under the Baltic Sea because of an issue with the company's status under German law. Paul Rasch carries the last jugs of Wilsons Orchard & Farm apple cider vinegar off a delivery truck and through the backdoor of a massive, barn wood-clad restaurant. Iowa Citys Rapid Creek Cidery is just one of several businesses on this property. It perches atop a shallow valley with rows of trees spilling out in all directions. With a panoramic view of the orchard as a backdrop, Rasch takes a break to sit in the Ciderys dining hall. He shares that his family has been in the apple business for generations. Five, to be exact. Born into the apple-growing tradition Back in Michigan, Raschs dad and his four brothers owned apple orchards. With 44 children between them, Rasch and his cousins all picked apples starting at 10 cents an hour, from the age of six to 16 years old. I think we earned a nickel raise each year, he chuckles. But, the day I turned 16, I left. Rasch rode freight trains and hitchhiked around the country; studied engineering, sustainable farming and political science; and traveled around India and Nepal. It was on a Nepalese farm that he decided to return to his apple-growing roots. Shortly after, Rasch took a job in 1993 building the first commercial apple juice company in China. He, his wife and children didnt return to the U.S. until 2006, after selling the company to Del Monte Foods. Home sweet home in the Hawkeye State Rasch and his family were drawn to Iowa Citys college-town atmosphere and had heard of Wilsons Orchard & Farm, then run by Bob Chug Wilson, a sporting goods businessman with a serious apple-growing hobby. Rasch tried to buy his farm after moving to the town about an hour west of the Illinois border. But the timing wasnt right, and he instead found a nearby farm. After planting his first trees on that property, Wilsons was back on the market. This time, Rasch purchased the orchard. With two plots now in his possession, the original farm became the epicenter for cider production, vinegar making, sheep paddocks and a high-density, private orchard. There Rasch also experiments with small-batch cultivars to see how they manage Iowas winters and army of Midwestern pests. Wilsons became Raschs U-pick farm, with over 120 original apple varieties. When we took over, we had this incredible gene pool, Rasch remembers. But, the trees hadnt been pruned well or protected from deer. Rasch quickly updated the farming and business practices and reduced the trees to a more manageable amount encompassing 80 to 90 varieties. Today, both orchards are flourishing. Business has expanded, and concerts and family events fill the calendar. These were important business changes for us, Rasch says. When apple sales and picking only happens for roughly 12 weeks out of the year, farmers have to get creative and be smart. Maintaining sustainability at Wilsons: Its all about balance As most Midwestern farmers know, finding an eco-friendly solution for pest management can be challenging. When I grew up, every insect was abhorred. No matter what the bug was, we just killed it, Rasch shares. But weve learned over the years that 97% of bugs can be beneficial to our trees, although 3% may be bad, he says. One of the biggest insect problems for Iowa apple growers is the codling moth, a pest that feeds inside the apple, making it inedible. They're ubiquitous. It seems like anywhere you grow apples, theyre there, laments Rasch. Pheromone disruptors are a welcome solution: Male moths are attracted to a specific pheromone excreted by females, and flooding an orchard with this pheromone disorients the males, impeding reproduction. Weve been doing this for several years, and its incredibly effective, reports Rasch. It eliminates a disruptive insect and doesnt hurt our pollinators. So, were protecting our bees. Sustainable soil improvement and management efforts are important to Rasch. The roots and the spaces between them are rich with microorganisms: flora, fauna and fungi, he explains. They bring the vitamins and minerals to the party, and the sugars created from photosynthesis feed the roots which in turn feed the microorganisms. Family and community, the center of Wilsons business For orchards with a direct-to-consumer model, business is compressed into three short months. So, what do farmers do for the other nine months? We ultimately decided a year-round business was the answer, answers Rasch. For his farm, this includes the Farm Market, Bakery, Smokehouse, various Wilsons Orchard & Farm products, including hard and sweet ciders sales and apple cider vinegar, and the stand-alone restaurant and events center. Today, Rasch partners with his daughter, Katie, owner and manager of Rapid Creek Cidery, as well as the orchards bakery; and his son, Jacob, who heads-up sales and marketing. It is a family affair, says Rasch. Family, community and sustainability have always been central to Raschs mission. We want to do something more than run a business, says Rasch. We want to grow fruit crops without a lot of pesticides. We want to advocate for sustainable agriculture and manage a community business that in turn benefits the community. A Maryland man accused of killing his pharmacist brother, his sister-in-law and an 83-year-old woman told his mother he wanted to "confront" his brother over "him administering COVID vaccines," according to charging documents obtained from Howard County District Court. Jeffrey Allen Burnham, 46, also allegedly told a tipster "that his brother was 'killing people with the COVID shot,'" according to the statement of charges obtained by CNN affiliate WBAL. Burnham's mother called the Cumberland Police Department over her son's "mental stability" on Sept. 29, according to the charging documents filed in Allegany County obtained by WBAL. That was the same day Cumberland Police found the body of 83-year-old Rebecca Reynolds. They said her car was missing. On Sept. 30, the Howard County Police Department said they were searching for Burnham in connection with the shooting deaths of his brother, 58-year-old Brian Robinette, and his sister-in-law Kelly Sue Robinette, 57, whose bodies were found that day in their Ellicott City home. A motorbike driver is seen on a deserted road in Ho Chi Minh City on Sept. 7, 2021 during a social distancing period. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa In the last four months Covid-19 has turned life in HCMC upside down and dented its economy, but improving vaccination figures stir hopes of a recovery. Tents, blankets, sheets, mats and buckets became sought-after items in June when companies started preparing to house their employees at the workplace after the city mandated stay-in-place restrictions to contain the pandemic. "It was almost like a battle," the director of a manufacturing company said. A fourth wave of Covid had broken out, and companies were required to either close or have employees stay on-site starting from July 15. But by September only around 20 percent of production could be maintained, Chu Tien Dung, chairman of the HCMC Union of Business Association, said. In the central business area of District 1, the financial streets of Ham Nghi and Nguyen Cong Tru, usually filled with stock brokers and bankers, were deserted, while nearby Bui Vien Street, a popular tourist hangout, was unusually quiet as bars and karaoke parlors were shut. Traditional markets were closed and supermarkets restricted the number of customers at a time, which at times made vegetables and meat prized items. With around 6,000 Covid-19 cases being found each day by early September, Vietnams biggest city had been brought to its knees, with an economic collapse even threatening stability. When the locomotive derails HCMC, dubbed the locomotive of the nation, started off the year on a bright note with its economy growing at 5.46 percent to VND680.34 trillion ($29.97 billion) in the first six months. But things changed in the third quarter. In August trade fell 39 percent from June, while services and retail sales plummeted to 30 percent of pre-pandemic figures. The situation did not improve in September, with the index of industrial production declining by 12.9 percent year-on-year. Only 594 new businesses were registered in the entire month, lower than the average daily rate before the pandemic. An estimated 381,400 people lost their jobs. Ninety percent of companies said they were struggling more in the third quarter than in the second, according to a survey by the General Statistics Office. Foreign direct investment in September was 27.7 percent down year-on-year. "The negative economic growth, over half of the population in difficulty and over 80 percent of companies reporting challenges were all unprecedented in Ho Chi Minh City," Nguyen Trong Hoai, a lecturer at the University of Economics HCMC, said. Caught by surprise The fourth wave came just after Vietnam was hailed as one of the most successful countries in containing the pandemic. "No one expected the fourth wave," Nguyen Thanh My, president of printer manufacturer Rynan Technologies, said, adding that businesses, authorities and the public were equally at sea in dealing with the outbreak. Nguyen Anh Duc, CEO of retail chain Saigon Co.op, said though the cost of food items rose, supermarkets were not allowed to increase their prices. Labor shortage due to lockdowns and social distancing also caused challenges and there were times when Ducs staff had to work 18-20 hours a day and still could not provide enough goods to shoppers. At times Saigon Co.op had to close 25 percent of its outlets due to labor shortage though still meeting overhead expenses like rent. For manufacturing companies, the stay-at-work model was financially disastrous since testing workers regularly cost billions of dong every month (VND1 billion = $44,014). It was a time of stress also for employees. With 295 workers living at the Binh Minh Plastic factory premises, the atmosphere of tension was overwhelming, CEO Nguyen Hoang Ngan said. "News had a major impact on workers, and rumors and fake information dominated." The situation was similar at dry fruit producer Vinamit. Nguyen Lam Vien, its CEO, said: "There were meetings in June when we only discussed how to stop Covid-19 from spreading. It was terrible". Disruptions in supply chains made the situation worse. The countrys biggest port, Cat Lai, stopped accepting oversized and overweight cargo at the end of July after a container pileup due to transport restrictions and closure of businesses that had to take delivery of them due to Covid. But even after the port resumed normal operations in early August, companies faced trouble with goods delivery since they had to have their drivers tested every two or three days, delaying transport. Shippers wait to be tested of Covid-19 before work in Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City on Sept. 20, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran Only half the travel permit requests were approved as of the end of August, chairman of the HCMC Cargo Transport Association, Bui Van Quan, said. Delivery within the city was also difficult due to the shortage of drivers and costs surged as a result. Inconsistent implementation of regulations and arbitrary definition of "essential goods" by officials plunged the citys 34 delivery companies into a state of uncertainty. The impact on HCMC, the locomotive of the economic train, threatened to have a ripple effect on the entire southern region. "Growth in the southern region could plunge, unemployment could rise, and the governments revenues could be negatively impacted," a report by the University of Economics and Law said. Breaking point "The endurance of society has reached breaking point and the economy is hurt, which calls for initiating a recovery process," HCMC general secretary Nguyen Van Nen said at a meeting on Sep. 17, one day after the city allowed three districts to gradually reopen. In the event, the rest of the city was allowed to reopen two weeks later, ending four months of varying levels of social distancing. Vehicles are seen in Ho Chi Minh City on Oct. 1, 2021 as the city begins to resume activities after months of social distancing. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran But the threat has not gone away. With 3,000-4,000 new cases and around 100 deaths every day, the reopening must be accompanied by safety measures, Hoai of the University of Economics HCMC said. If 80 percent of the city population is fully vaccinated by the end of this year or early next year, the city can reopen fully, but for now the main approach should be risk management since there are still infected people in the community, he said. As of Oct. 3, the rate of people who had got both vaccine shots was 60.6 percent. Other experts concurred. Pham Thi Thanh Xuan, a lecturer at the University of Economics and Law, said the city needs to have a mechanism in place for businesses and people to go about normally while still limiting contagion. "They should be empowered to live with Covid-19 and take responsibility to prevent transmission." Businesses continue to face problems. "Some electronic parts take 10 weeks to be delivered," My of Rynan Technologies said, referring to the disruptions in the supply chain. Labor is set to be an issue as many workers have left the city for their hometowns while those who want to come back are unable to because they are not vaccinated. Hoai said workers who want to return to the city should be prioritized for vaccination and travel. "There will be risks but we should be optimistic" because the city has the highest vaccination rate in the country and within two weeks the number of new cases could drop noticeably, he added. Vietnams footwear exports plunged 44.2 percent year-on-year to about $700 million in September, according to the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (Lefaso). Meanwhile, handbag exports also decreased by 48 percent. However, the industry still recorded positive growth overall thanks to increased momentum in the first half of the year. In the first nine months of 2021, footwear exports crossed $13.3 billion, up nearly 10 percent over the same period in 2020, while handbags exports slipped 3.7 percent year-on-year to around $2.24 billion. The U.S. remained a major export market for Vietnamese footwear and handbags, accounting for 41 and 44 percent of the total, respectively. EU ranked second at nearly 23 and 22 percent of footwear and handbag exports. Lefaso said prolonged social distancing has forced 80 percent of leather and footwear factories in HCMC, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, An Giang, and Kien Giang, accounting for 70 percent of the industry's import and export turnover, to stop production. Businesses in the northern and central regions reduced production by 30-50 percent due to labor shortages, supply chain disruptions and other factors. The lack of containers, high cost of logistics and international shipping (5-10 times), expensive fuel and the rising price of imported raw materials have majorly impacted the industry. The association also said that conditions for receiving Covid-19 relief were too tough and relevant administrative procedures too complicated, making it difficult for businesses to access the promised support. Although the situation has improved since the end of September, production under the "new normal" has a long way to go, it said. Lefaso recommended that leather and footwear businesses reduce costs, take advantage of supportive policies and create favorable conditions, in line with safety protocols prescribed by the Ministry of Health to attract workers back to work. Businesses also need to make good use of incentives under free trade agreements, especially CPTPP and EVFTA, to boost exports in the last months of 2021, the association said. The auction house has withdrawn the painting it posted alongside the name of Vietnamese painter Nguyen Van Ty pending further investigation. On its website, Sotheby's Hong Kong said the 'L'image traditionnelle d'une maison de paysan' ('Nha Tranh Goc Mit' or rough translation, 'Cottage By Jackfruit Tree') painting has been withdrawn from the upcoming Modern Art Day Sale on Oct. 10. It also sent a letter to Ace Le, a Vietnamese art curator living in Singapore, saying: "Sothebys has become aware of concerns over the authenticity of Nguyen Van Tys L'image traditionnelle d'une maison de paysan (Lot 778, Modern Art Day Sale, 10 October, 2021)." "Sothebys takes issues of authenticity seriously, and will withdraw this work from auction and conduct further investigations," Le quoted on his Facebook page. The 'L'image traditionnelle d'une maison de paysan' lacquer on Sotherby's Hong Kong website. Photo courtesy of the auction house Le previously raised questions over the authenticity of the painting, which was later said to be a copy of Tys work by his daughter, painter Nguyen Binh Minh, former deputy director of Vietnam Fine Arts Museum. The auction house had posted on its website a lacquered wooden screen titled 'L'image traditionnelle d'une maison de paysan' along with the name of Ty for an expected price of HKD700,000-1,000,000 ($89,000-128,500). The site stated that: "This work is comparable to 'L'image traditionnelle d'une maison de paysan' (1958) by Nguyen Van Ty at the Musee des Beaux-Arts (Vietnam Fine Arts Museum) in Hanoi." "My father didn't make a painting of a jackfruit tree like that. It's not allowed to associate his name with the artwork," Minh said, confirming the work being auctioned by Sotheby's is not authentic. Ty's family said they had no intention of contacting Sotheby's, but simply wanted to inform the public about the incident. In September 2019, Sotheby's Hong Kong pulled two artworks, 'La Thu' (The Letter) by To Ngoc Van and 'Hai Co Gai' (Resting Ladies) by Tran Van Can, after both were believed to be fake. Doi Song Gia Dinh (Family Life) by Le Pho, sold for $1.1 million in 2017, was also said to be a fake version by many art experts. Storm Lionrock near Vietnam's north-central coast, October 8, 2021. Photo by the National Center for Hydro - Meteorological Forecasting A tropical depression over Vietnamese waters has intensified into Storm Lionrock and is expected to hit the countrys north-central coast Monday. According to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, the storm lay northwest of the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands in the East Sea, known internationally as South China Sea, at 4 a.m. Friday with winds of 60-75 kph. It is likely to become stronger today and move north at 10 kph. By 4 a.m. Saturday it will reach the southeastern part of Chinas Hainan Island packing winds of up to 88 kph. A day later Lionrock will be 50 km to the east of Bach Long Vi Island off Hai Phong before weakening into a tropical depression and making landfall over the northern and north-central regions. Under its influence, the northern and central regions would see winds of up to 75 kph and rough seas with waves as tall as four meters, the weather bureau said. Lionrock is the seventh storm over the East Sea this year. Another five to seven are expected. Shot taken in Hue wins second prize at UK photo contest A photo capturing a Vietnamese woman in traditional ao dai costume in ancient town Hue earned a British lensman the second prize at the National Geographic Traveler Photography Competition. Walter Monticellis shot taken during his trip to Hue in central Vietnam shared the runner-up award in the People category with India-based photographer Rajiv Joshi. Photo taken by Walter Monticelli in Hue, Vietnam. "While walking between temples in the Imperial City, I heard a faint melody playing in the distance," Monticelli told National Geographic. "Following the sound, I reached a room in which a group of women wearing traditional clothing were playing music with traditional Vietnamese instruments. "I'd been standing there for a while, taking in the sound, when I noticed this lady sitting next to the entrance enjoying the music her friends were playing." Hue was the seat of the Nguyen Dynasty, the last royal family to rule the country from 1802 to 1945. It is home to royal tombs, ancient palaces and pagodas that attract millions of foreign visitors every year. The winner of the category was Claire Waring for a shot of ice fishing on the frozen sea in Hokkaido, Japan. The contest, which is in its 10th year, seeks "to highlight the best in travel photography," its organizer said when announcing the winners on the National Geographic website. This year's competition opened for entries in March 2021 and received thousands of submissions across all categories. From time to time, the United States identifies certain individuals as crucial to the operation of terrorist organizations. The U.S. Government then places such a person's name on the Specially Designated Nationals List under Executive Order 13224, as amended. Their assets within U.S. reach are frozen. No U.S. citizen or company may conduct business with a designated individual. This is one way the United States disrupts financial support networks for terrorists and terrorist organizations. In mid-September, the United States identified five al-Qaida supporters operating in Turkey who contribute to the terrorist groups nefarious activities by providing the group with a range of financial and travel facilitation services. These targeted sanctions highlight the United States unwavering commitment to sever financial support to al-Qaida, said Director of the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control Andrea Gacki. We will continue working with our foreign partners, including Turkey, to expose and disrupt al-Qaidas financial support networks. Majdi Salim is an Egypt-born, Turkey-based lawyer and one of the primary facilitators al-Qaida activities in Turkey. In addition to performing other functions for the terrorist group, he acts as a financial courier within the al-Qaida network in Turkey. Muhammad Nasr al-Din al-Ghazlani, an Egyptian national and long-time al-Qaida facilitator, is a Turkey-based financial courier who used cash transfers to support al-Qaida. Nurettin Muslihan, is a Turkish national and a Turkey-based al-Qaida financial facilitator. He maintained contact with al-Qaida senior leadership and worked to establish direct communications with al-Qaida extremists. Another Turkish national, Cebrail Guzel, worked with, and provided material support to Nurettin Muslihan as part of Muslihans efforts to support al-Qaida. Soner Gurleyen, also a Turkey-based Turkish national, is an al-Qaida extremist and financial facilitator. He provided another al-Qaida violent extremist with assistance in preparation for the latters travel. The United States will continue to work closely with our partners and allies, including Turkey, in identifying, exposing, and disrupting al-Qaidas financial support networks, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a written statement. We will keep a vigilant eye on these networks to deter them from abusing the international financial system to generate revenues for terrorist operations. The United States will never forget the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks and al-Qaidas other plots around the world. We will continue to target those who seek to inflict harm on the United States, our citizens, and our interests, Blinken said in the statement. The United States is committed to leading the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, we have shared over 110 million vaccine doses globally and are in the process of providing over 500 million more to over 100 nations. The United States is not asking for payment of any kind, and there are no strings attached to these donations. During a recent trip to Thailand, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced that the United States is providing more than $50 million in critical humanitarian assistance to the people of Burma, including those forced to flee violence and persecution. In addition, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield announced $5 million in aid to help Thailand fight COVID-19. As noted by State Department Spokesperson Ned Price: This funding comes at a critical point of rising humanitarian needs and will help mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the lives of people of both Thailand and Burma. Five million dollars of these new funds will go toward providing support to Thai health care workers administering vaccines. It will also help strengthen the ability of Thailands health care system to respond to COVID-19. The rest of the aid package, 50 million dollars, will provide critical humanitarian assistance to the people of Burma, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield. The money will also aid those who had been displaced and forced to flee violence and persecution in the wake of the military coup. The 50 million dollars in humanitarian aid will flow directly through international and non-governmental organization partners to provide emergency food assistance, lifesaving protection, shelter, essential health care, water, sanitation, and hygiene services to vulnerable people from [Burma], including more than 700,000 refugees and internally displaced people. These resources will help ensure Thailand, NGOs, and international organizations can both respond to the COVID crisis and meet the needs of vulnerable people, particularly in the Thai border area, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield. These are extremely tough times here and across the globe. And I want the people of Thailand to know the United States will continue to stand with you. The United States urges other donors to generously support the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Burma. We further urge the international community to join us in doing more to combat COVID-19 and bring the pandemic to an end in Thailand and around the world. For the last two weeks I predicted that sometime in the near future you will buy an electric vehicle because thats all there will be available and it would be good to learn the different types of motors that power these cars of the future. Just like people back in the 1900s had to learn the words: gasoline and carburetor (they really never existed before that time), you too will learn about SR motors because they are destined to be a big part of this revolution. As a case in point, this week GM made the announcement they plan to launch 30 new electric vehicles around the world by 2025, more than two-thirds of which will be available in North America. The vehicles will span GMs entire brand portfolio, including Cadillac, Buick, GMC, and Chevrolet. They are going to position themselves to be the largest manufacturer of electric cars and trucks in the United States. By 2035, only a short 14 years away, there may only be one or two gas pumps at Maverick when you drive up and perhaps one Diesel pump the rest will be electric charging pedestals. To understand how a switched reluctance motor operates is not too hard if you have ever seen a solenoid valve work. These are the devices that control water flow in outside water sprinklers and work with an electric current. When the system is energized, an electromagnet pulls a small plunger made of iron into its center. This opens a flapper valve allowing water to flow. Likewise, the clunk you hear from a running washing machine is the opening or closing of internal solenoid valves when it adjusts the hot and cold water flow from the supply line. It is the pulling of the iron core piece that utilizes the principle of magnetic reluctance to make mechanical movement from an electric current. Sometimes magnetic reluctance can be described as anything that opposes the path of a magnetic loop. Electrical engineers say that magnetic reluctance is something akin to electrical resistance. Whereas Ohms Law relates to the flow of current due to a potential, Hopkinsons Law is the magnetic equivalent. The term reluctance as a parameter dealing with magnetism was first coined by Oliver Heaviside, an English scientist in 1888, the same year Tesla patented his motors. We have all seen and maybe have made electromagnets with a bunch of wire wound on an iron nail and powered from a battery. When energized, small iron filings can be picked up by the end because the electromagnet turns each particle of iron filing into a tiny magnet itself with opposite poles facing each other, forcing the attraction. This is magnetic reluctance in operation because as we all know, a feature of magnetic fields is that opposite poles attract. Air, having a high reluctance, does not move to a magnetic pole. Iron has low reluctance and moves to the point of higher field, hence the attraction. Looking at Nikola Teslas patent drawing, one can see the inside two pole iron rotors surrounded by a stationary assembly of eight coils. Because the rotor is made up of just iron laminations, and does not contain any copper, it spins just on the coils attraction to the metal. To supply each coil in line with a current was not any easy task for poor Nikola and as you can see he used the output of a multi-phase generator to achieve this drive. Nevertheless, the motor spins because each coil gets its turn in line to attract the spinning rotor. Gary Hanington is Professor Emeritus of physical science at Great Basin College and Vice President of Engineering at AHV. He can be reached at: garyh@ahv.com or gary.hanington@gbcnv.edu Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 ELKO An Elko woman accused of strangling her adult daughter went on trial Thursday in Elko District Court. Judith Zavala, 63, is charged with open murder in the death of her 24-year-old daughter April on June 14, 2020, at their Elko residence. Zavala says she was her daughters primary caregiver as April was autistic and required special needs care. Jurors heard opening arguments Thursday from Elko County Deputy District Attorney Justin Barainca and Public Defender Kelsey Angeley in District Judge Al Kacins court. Public Defender Matthew Pennell is also serving as defense co-counsel for the case. About 15 months ago, Zavala was arrested for allegedly strangling her daughter in their bedroom while she tried to get her dressed. The death was discovered after Zavalas husband returned home from a fishing trip with their son. Prosecution opening arguments Barainca described the events of that day to the jury, stating that this case is about a mother strangling her daughter. He explained that April had special needs, but it was unclear what exactly those were because she was not evaluated. It was guessed by the family that April was autistic, Barainca said. She may have been, she may not have been. We dont know. The one thing that is for sure is that April did have those special needs that required a lot of extra care. April was able to speak and communicate, but when she was having difficulties she became upset if she was interrupted, Barainca explained. Aprils care required Zavala, the primary caregiver, to stay home all day with April, with her husband working and doing the grocery shopping, Barainca said. Eventually Zavala and April shared the same bed and her husband began sleeping in the basement. That afternoon, April wanted to dress herself and resisted Zavalas efforts to help, a struggle ensued and April hyperventilated and gasped for air, collapsed and stopped breathing, Barainca said, recalling Zavalas first statement to police. After she realized April had died, Zavala remained in the house and did not call 911 because there was no landline, and her husband, who was out fishing with his son, had the only cellphone in the household, Barainca recounted. Zavalas husband discovered what happened after he got home and called their son, who then called 911. Barainca also described the events at the Zavala home following a call to police by Zavalas son, and how the investigation by detectives began. Investigators noticed marks on Aprils neck, and the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner determined later that the cause of death was strangulation. According to police reports, Zavala confessed the next day, telling detectives she put her hands around Aprils neck and squeezed until April stopped breathing, Barainca recounted. Zavala told investigators that April was a high-functioning autistic until her behaviors changed several months before the incident. Jurors were told to expect testimony over the next several days from family members, investigators and the Washoe County Medical Examiner Dr. Laura Knight, who would testify that April was 5-foot, 5-inches and weighed 94 pounds at the time of her death. This isnt a whodunit case. We know what happened, we know how this goes down, Barainca said. At the conclusion of this, I will be asking that you as the jury find Mrs. Zavala guilty of first-degree murder. Defense opening arguments Angeley gave the opening statement for the defense, telling jurors the case was about the story of the Zavala family, with daughter April as a child trapped in the body of an adult. She described how Zavala broke upon the stress of caring for her daughter around the clock since 2018 as Aprils behaviors and moods changed, not leaving the house for about two years. In the years and months leading up to Aprils death, the family responded differently to her condition, leaving Judith the primary caregiver who was abandoned and alone and imprisoned in her house, Angeley said. On the day April died, after years of exhaustion and months of desperation, after weeks of sleepless nights, on one day, June 14, 2020, everything in Judy broke, she continued. As April grew up, the family noticed she had characteristics for someone on the autism spectrum, such as inability to make eye contact, sensitivity to loud noises, and she did not like large crowds or strangers, Angeley explained. She was able to take care of her personal hygiene until a few years ago when there were some shifts in the home. Particularly, her brother moved out of the house and her father quit his job due to stress and suffered an emotional breakdown, anxiety and depression, which changed his relationship with April and Judith, eventually moving downstairs to the basement apartment, Angeley told the jury. Aprils behavior became more compulsive and she was having more and more trouble expressing herself, which took extra time for her family to communicate with her. April was also refusing to eat, and sometimes took three hours to finish a meal. It was hard enough to get her to sit down and even take a glass of water, Angeley said. Judith also helped April fall asleep, talking, praying and reading to her. She would repeat the routine to help April get up the next day. Once April became incontinent, Judith also changed her adult diapers. Throughout the years, April became more and more dependent on Judith, and did not want her mother to leave her, even in the same house, Angeley said. Sometimes Judith took short breaks in her office, but April would bang on the door and shout while she was inside. All Judy could to do was hide under her desk and block her ears and try to escape for a minute, Angeley said, adding that Zavala never had a day off or took time for herself. She served as Aprils caregiver for about 10 years, working every single day caring for April, about 3,650 days in a row. No days off, Angeley said. As Aprils health declined, it took more and more and more of Judy, Angeley said. Judy didnt have help. The evidence will show that Judy did not have opportunity to go out at all, Angeley said. The evidence will show you that Judy cared for her daughter day in and day out without a break. Angeley recalled Zavalas husbands preliminary hearing testimony where he said he didnt spend that much time with [April]. She was difficult to be around and she had a lot of needs. Witnesses will testify for the defense that Zavala never lost her temper, that Judy never yelled. She never raised her voice. Being with April and caring for April took patience and that Judy had this patience, Angeley said. But Zavala was trapped in that upstairs bedroom with Aprils compulsions, and she was exhausted, had lost weight and had many sleepless nights when April could not sleep. Zavala became desperate and hopeless, Angeley added. In the last year of Aprils life, Angeley said Zavala could not take her to the doctor because she was not on her husbands insurance plan for his new job and the familys savings had been depleted while he was out of work. As the trial progresses, Angeley promised that the defense would provide evidence to show that Judy was alone and that on June 14, 2020, Judy broke. Thats what youll hear her say, Everything inside of me broke. As we go through the next few days, Im asking you to keep in mind that Judy was alone and abandoned, Angeley said. Im asking you to keep in mind that years of exhaustion built up, there were months of desperation leading to this moment on June 14, when Judys mind broke, when everything in her broke. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 23 Angry 0 In an extraordinary 21-page rebuke of the top two members of the Board of Regents, Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Melody Rose outlined an alleged pattern of hostility ultimately designed, she said, to force her from her position as the systems top administrator. That document, obtained Wednesday by The Nevada Independent, alleges that Board Chair Cathy McAdoo and Vice Chair Patrick Carter engaged in a pattern of abuse and harassing behavior since their selection to the boards leadership positions in June. In the time since, Rose alleges that such incidents have snowballed as McAdoo and Carter have sought to minimize her influence, undermine her ability to do her job and create a pretense for her dismissal. Neither McAdoo nor Carter responded to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the chancellor declined to comment, saying NSHE does not comment on personnel matters. The hostile work environment complaint sent to NSHEs general counsel lays out a series of alleged incidents that include gender discrimination, in addition to harassment based on the personal political persuasions of our Board officers (McAdoo and Carter). In the second paragraph of her lengthy complaint, Rose points out that she is paid substantially less than the male presidents leading UNR and UNLV. She earns $437,000, while UNR President Brian Sandoval and UNLV President Keith Whitfield make $500,000. Upon my arrival I immediately heard stories about NSHEs persistent disregard for female employees, Rose wrote. System Administration colleagues, presidents, reporters and community members warned me about a pervasive sexist culture and wanted both to alert me to this Old Boys Club environment and to ask for my assistance is [sic] changing it. But the incidents alleged and detailed by Rose span months and occurred during several high-profile decisions made by the Board of Regents, Rose in her role as chancellor, and the system as a whole through that time. It is unclear how Roses complaint may be resolved, but multiple sources, who requested anonymity in order to share details of the conversations in question, confirmed to The Nevada Independent this week that an outside firm, Kamer Zucker Abbott, has been retained by NSHE to lead an independent investigation. Sources also confirmed that the complaint has been sent to the attorney generals office, as it involves a pair of constitutional officers in the two named regents. However, it remains unclear if the attorney general will investigate separately. A spokesperson for the attorney generals office, John Sadler, later confirmed in a statement Thursday that a copy of the complaint had been received, but also that a formal complaint had not been filed with the office. Sadler declined to comment on the possibility of a future investigation, however, to protect the integrity of any potential investigation. Erratic, hostile and secretive decision-making Rose devotes a substantive chunk of her complaint to detailing incidents that allegedly happened while regents were considering COVID mitigation efforts in the summer. One incident occurred in May, as Roses office published a press release instructing students to prepare for the possibility of a vaccine mandate, as had been implemented in several other major higher-education systems at that time. The release which Rose said was not properly vetted and suffered from the effects of staffing gaps in the communications department went out with stronger language than she intended. Like most collegiate systems nationwide, NSHE had begun to pull back on restrictions as the spring semester ended and the summer began, anticipating and witnessing rapidly improving conditions with widespread availability of highly effective COVID vaccines. Those expectations culminated in a full, maskless in-person return to campus facilities on July 1. But Rose wrote, by July 23, the systems internal COVID task force had recommended a new mask requirement for all NSHE campuses, and that a week prior, an institution president (anonymized in the document as President #3) had requested such a mandate. Rose said she spoke with McAdoo and the pair agreed the issue needed board input and that it should be system-wide. Three days later, when the board met for an officers meeting on July 26, Rose said McAdoo had reversed her position. McAdoo allegedly said that the regents had no place deciding COVID policy, deferring instead to Gov. Steve Sisolak (who, on the day after, mandated masks on a county level based on then-new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria). I left this meeting with no direction and very confused about the chairs position, Rose wrote. Did she want the [regents] to be involved in COVID policy? Should I delegate to campuses? How do I provide meaningful and timely advice to the campuses? This meeting was the beginning of what would become erratic, hostile and secretive decision-making related to COVID policy. Rose alleges these issues continued when the possibility of vaccine mandates, both for students and for NSHE employees, emerged in early August. Those early weeks of August marked a particularly tumultuous period for the systems pandemic management policy, as it sought to clarify publicly if or how such mandates might materialize. System General Counsel Joe Reynolds then issued a legal opinion on Aug. 2 asserting that it was the Board of Healths legal prerogative to issue a mandate under existing Nevada law not the Board of Regents. Rose wrote that one day later, she received a request from the governors office to meet and discuss [Board of Health] interest in a mandatory student vaccine. They met that evening. That same day, McAdoo called a member of Roses cabinet to complain, among other things, that the chancellor was involved in some illusive plan that I supposedly had with the governor regarding student vaccines (false), and that she wants nothing to do with it. A day later, on Aug. 4, McAdoo allegedly called a cabinet member and told them God gave her a plan for resolving the student vaccine issue, before adding that that information should be kept confidential. Since then, on COVID: the chairwoman has been wildly inconsistent, indecisive, and attempting to shift blame for inaction to me and my team, at times calling me obstructionist, Rose wrote. She also routinely appears to make her decisions based on direction from God. A shocking series of secret decisions When UNR announced this summer that it intended to acquire the Tahoe campus of the private Sierra Nevada University, it came as something of a shock a major financial and physical gift to the states oldest university that could put UNR functionally on the shores of Lake Tahoe. But, according to Rose, the element of surprise wasnt only intentional on the part of UNR, which was bound to secrecy during the earliest phases of negotiations with SNU. Rose alleges McAdoo and Carter also purposely kept it under wraps. Rose described UNRs acquisition of SNU as a shocking series of secret decisions and abuses of power that ultimately undermined my authority with the UNR leadership and the board as a whole. In her timeline of events, Rose said she was told by Sandoval about the possibility of the acquisition on June 7. By the week of June 30th, however, Rose alleges that McAdoo and Carter sought to withhold information surrounding the deal from both Rose and NSHE Chief General Counsel Joe Reynolds on the advice of a former regent, Rick Trachok, who was representing SNU. Rose further alleges that Trachok told McAdoo and Carter to withhold information because both she and Reynolds had become obstructionist, and that would slow things down both allegations Rose denies. Instead, she says her efforts to obtain information about the deal before its public release came as due diligence to serve our regents in their role as fiduciary. Trachok did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. On July 7, UNR officially announced the possibility of the deal in a press release, which came as a surprise to Rose, all other NSHE presidents and members of the cabinet. In the UNR/SNU process I had an early window into the new chairs modus operandi: to give the campus permission to circumvent protocols and best practices which ultimately had the impact of undermining my rightful role, Rose wrote. But Rose did not fault Sandoval, whom she said likely felt on firm footing with advice from the current and former chairs of the Board of Regents. Sadly, I do not think he received sound advice, but that is in no way his fault. It felt like an assault on my professional integrity Rose also referenced a number of incidents that she said further undermined, embarrassed or sought to minimize her. Carter allegedly chastised Rose in public settings or via email for a lack of knowledge on the boundaries and uses of shared governance, or the involvement of all invested groups, such as faculty and staff, in top-level decisions despite Roses three-decade career in higher education, including years as faculty. Rose described one such email as shocking, and that it felt like an assault on my professional integrity and identity. Another incident involved a planned welcome reception for the then-incoming president of Nevada State College, DeRionne Pollard, the first permanently-appointed Black woman to lead an NSHE institution. The reception was coordinated by Berna Rhodes-Ford, the general counsel for NSC and the wife of Attorney General Aaron Ford. Both officers voiced outrage, suggesting the effort was racist, Rose wrote. How would it look if the white community held a reception for a white president?! Chair McAdoo insisted. Rose alleges that McAdoo and Carter circumvented her and the then-acting president of NSC to confront Rhodes-Ford about the event. This effort was embarrassing, she wrote. Not only was the accusation of exclusion and impropriety abusive, tone-deaf and baseless, but it was yet another effort to undermine my authority on the campuses and by taking matters into their own hands and confronting staff three levels down without my knowledge. Roses allegations come as the latest internal dispute to rock a system historically plagued by personnel issues at the top of the chain. In 2018, regents engaged in a lengthy dispute with then-UNLV President Len Jessup over his handling of donor money for the nascent UNLV Medical School. An outside review of the agreements involved ultimately found Jessups conduct extremely troubling, and he would leave the system for California later that year. And in 2016, the system was rocked by revelations that then-Chancellor Dan Klaich had played a key role in allegedly misleading legislators during the high-stakes renegotiation of the systems byzantine funding formula in 2011. Though Klaich denied wrongdoing, he resigned shortly after the story was made public. These personnel issues, among a range of others, have centered in a broader political debate about the Board of Regents itself and whether it should continue to hold a place in the state Constitution. A political movement to undo that special status spearheaded by legislators, key donors and individuals alike ultimately failed in 2020 as Ballot Question 1, rejected by voters by just .3 percentage points. Another effort by lawmakers to pull regents from the Constitution was revived in 2021, though it remains unclear how these new allegations from Rose may play into the political debate over the regents future. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 4 Headlines Capitol Hill Round Up: All you need to know regarding the debt ceiling, reconciliation bill, and more. - Second poor jobs report in a row as only 194,000 new jobs in September, despite end of extra benefits. - New details over changes to Medicare premiumsreleased. - To pay for the reconciliation bill, the Biden administration has proposed a new rule that would allow the IRS to track transaction in bank accounts with a balance over $600. - California sends out third batch of $600 Golden State stimulus checks. - How have stimulus checks impacted the economic recovery? - Some states are preparing to send their residents a stimulus check in October. - Many across California are still waiting to receive their stimulus check, how many more batches will be sent? Useful Information/Links Social Security and Medicare - How long does it take for Social Security to change direct deposit? - What medical conditionsqualify you for Social Security checks? - What are the work requirements to receive Social Security? - What are thefour types of Medicare? California Golden State Stimulus Checks -How many more payments remain to be sent in 2021? - When will the payments arrive and who qualifies? Take a look at some of our related news: Volcanic ash darkens salt flats on La Palma A blanket of volcanic ash has turned Andres Hernandez's pristine white salt flats black, ruining about a third of his annual production in the past two weeks since the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on the Spanish island of La Palma. The Hernandez family is used to living under the threat of volcanoes - in La Palma's last eruption 50 years ago, lava stopped just 200 metres short of his family's saltworks, putting them out of business for two years. Now, Hernandez, a third-generation salt flat owner, is resolved to cleaning up and carrying on making salt. "It will take lots of work but we will be able to recover this area," he told Reuters, adding that many islanders were far less lucky as they had lost their homes and livelihoods. The volcano, 18 km (11 miles) from the saltworks in Fuencaliente, has been blasting out jets of lava and ash since 19 September 19, destroying hundreds of buildings and farms and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. But the economic damage has yet to be properly evaluated. "When the ash fell we were about to collect the salt, but it completely covered everything creating a crust on top and we cannot separate the salt from the ash. It has completely penetrated the grain. It's impossible to separate," Hernandez said, adding that up to 200 tonnes of salt had been ruined. The eruption has also deterred visitors to the saltworks, which are also one of the island's tourist attractions. "As owners of this place who live here we feel very sad to see the salt flats in this condition. It looks abandoned, with no activity," Hernandez said. But the salt flats will survive. "Our experience with volcanoes goes (back) a long way, many generations," he said. Photo: REUTERS/Juan Medina US officials announced that a US submarine collided with an unidentified object underwater, causing injuries to its crew. The late announcement, as the crash happened October 2, comes amid renewed tensions in the region. The Chinese government has flown regular sorties over the island in recent days, which it sees as a breakaway province, testing the US commitment to defending its Indo-Pacific ally. The US has called on the Chinese to stop their posturing, but you may have questions why the US government cares so much about such a small island next to China. Why is the US that near to China anyway? The US has defensive commitments to Taiwan, China's neighbor or province, depending on your politics. This dates back to the Second World War when the Taiwanese government ruled China. At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 the Kuomintang, China's government, fled to the island of Taiwan. Despite being much smaller than its new communist brother, Taiwan kept its permanent seat at the UN until the 1970s when most of the world accepted the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the sole representative of China. Despite this, the US has maintained a military presence on the island. A treaty in 1955 affirmed the US defense of Taiwan. The PRC has never controlled Taiwan militarily due to the protection offered by the US. The US sells billions of dollars to Taiwan each year to defend the island from Chinese encroachment. The Chinese regularly test Taiwanese resolve by conducting military tests nearby and flying military aircraft into Taiwanese airspace. US designates China as its new enemy Hawks, meaning pro-war American lawmakers, have designated China as its target for the 21st century. As undisputed global hegemon, with the threat of a rising power coming to meet it, the US has deemed China an existential threat. This is compounded by China's socialist government, a political ideology loathed by the US political class and much of its populace. Conservative media regularly runs stories on how Taiwan is preparing for a Chinese invasion at any moment, usually accompanied by a new sale of American weapons to the island. Whether China invades or not, the US is really the only power that can do something to prevent an attack. Yang Jiechi (1st R), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, meets with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (1st L) in Zurich, Switzerland, on Oct. 6, 2021. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia) ZURICH, Switzerland, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met here Wednesday with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The two sides, in a candid manner, had a comprehensive and in-depth exchange of views on China-U.S. relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern. The meeting was described as constructive, and conducive to enhancing mutual understanding. The two sides agreed to take action, following the spirit of the phone call between Chinese and U.S. heads-of-state on Sept. 10, strengthen strategic communication, properly manage differences, avoid confrontation and conflict, seek mutual benefit and win-win results, and work together to bring China-U.S. relations back to the right track of sound and steady development. Yang said that whether China and the United States can handle their relations well bears on the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples, as well as the future of the world. When China and the United States cooperate, the two countries and the world will benefit; when China and the United States are in confrontation, the two countries and the world will suffer seriously, said Yang, also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee. The U.S. side needs to have a deep understanding of the mutually beneficial nature of China-U.S. relations and correctly understand China's domestic and foreign policies and strategic intentions, said Yang, adding that China opposes defining China-U.S. relations as "competitive." Yang said that China attaches importance to the positive remarks on China-U.S. relations made recently by U.S. President Joe Biden, and China has noticed that the U.S. side said it has no intention to contain China's development, and is not seeking a "new Cold War." China hopes the U.S. side could adopt a rational and pragmatic China policy, and, together with China, follow a path of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, with respect for each other's core interests and major concerns. During the meeting, Yang expounded China's solemn position on issues related to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and human rights as well as on maritime issues, urging the United States to truly respect China's sovereignty, security and development interests, and stop using the above issues to interfere in China's internal affairs. The U.S. side expressed its adherence to the one-China policy. The two sides also exchanged views on climate change and regional issues of common concern. The two sides agreed to maintain regular dialogue and communication on important issues. Editor: Zhang Zhou Ukrainian parliamentarian Anton Polyakov died after feeling unwell in a taxi in Kyiv last night, the press center for the city police said. A criminal investigation has been launched. "The Kyiv police were alerted today, on October 8, that Anton Polyakov, a Ukrainian MP, was found dead in the capital's Dniprovsky district. An on-duty officer immediately sent an investigative group and other specialized services to the scene of the incident," a statement published on the Kyiv police website on Friday said. Polyakov is believed to have felt unwell while traveling in a taxi. He died despite paramedics' efforts to resuscitate him. Investigators, a crime laboratory and a forensic expert are working at the site, the police said. Law enforcement agencies are carrying out all necessary urgent investigative procedures to establish the circumstances of Polyakov's death. His body will undergo a forensic examination to establish the cause of death. A criminal case has been opened on a count of premeditated murder, though investigators are not ruling out that it might be a natural death. A Ukrainian soldier was wounded in Donbas since Friday midnight, two shelling attacks from the side of Russia-occupation forces were recorded, the press center of the JFO headquarters has reported. "As of 7:00 on October 8, two violations of the ceasefire regime were recorded ... As a result of enemy shelling, one soldier of the Joint Forces was injured. The soldier was provided with urgent pre-medical assistance, he was evacuated to a hospital. His health condition is of moderate severity," the JFO staff said in its morning update on Facebook on Friday. Enemy attacks were recorded near Zolote-4, where Russian mercenaries used hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers and small arms. Near Troyitske, the enemy fired from large-caliber machine guns and small arms. "To force the enemy to stop firing, the Ukrainian defenders opened fire without using weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements," it said. Over the past day, on October 7, the enemy violated the ceasefire six times. Rada calls on European Parliament to recognize prospect of Ukraine's membership in EU The Verkhovna Rada has called on the European Parliament and the parliaments of the European Union member states to recognize the prospect of Ukraine's membership in the EU. The corresponding statement "On priority issues of Ukraine's integration into the EU" (resolution No. 6132) was supported by 304 MPs at the plenary session of the parliament on Friday. In the statement, the Verkhovna Rada once again confirmed Ukraine's strategic course towards acquiring full membership in the European Union, enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada has supported the appointment of Ruslan Stefanchuk, who previously held the post of First Deputy Speaker, to the post of Chairman of the Parliament. The corresponding decision was supported by 261 MPs at a plenary session on Thursday. Before voting for Stefanchuk's candidacy for the post of speaker, deputies had held a rating vote, which was headed by Stefanchuk (257 votes in support), an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported. MPs from the European Solidarity faction, who also ran for the post of speaker,Oleksiy Honcharenko and Yana Zinkevych, respectively, gained 44 and 146 votes in support. As previously reported, five deputies applied for the post of chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, but Yaroslav Zhelezniak (Holos faction) and Geo Leros (non-factional) withdrew their candidatures on Thursday. MPs of the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation elected Stefanchuk as the first deputy chairman of the parliament on August 29, 2019. Stefanchuk was born in Ternopil on October 29, 1975. He graduated from the Khmelnytsky Institute of Regional Management and Law and the Podillia Technological University (now the Khmelnytsky National University). He is Doctor of Law, Professor; corresponding member of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine. He was engaged in advocacy. During the 2019 presidential campaign, he oversaw the work of expert groups. Since 2019, he has been working as advisor to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, presidential representative in the Verkhovna Rada. The Verkhovna Rada recalled Dmytro Razumkov from the post of chairman of the parliament on October 7. From May to November 2019, Razumkov headed the Servant of the People political party, he was the first number on the list in the early parliamentary elections in 2019. He held the post of speaker of the Ukrainian parliament since August 29, 2019. A source of the Interfax-Ukraine agency reported that the Servant of the People parliamentary faction was considering Stefanchuk as the only candidate for the post of speaker of parliament in the event of Razumkov's resignation from this post, and the post of first deputy speaker, in turn, may now be taken by the first deputy head of the faction Servant of the People in the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniyenko. On October 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released Stefanchuk from the duties of his representative in the Ukrainian parliament. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine will ask the court to choose a measure of restraint for MP from the Opposition Platform - For Life faction Viktor Medvedchuk in the form of arrest with an alternative bail of UAH 1 billion as part of a new suspicion of high treason and assistance in financing terrorist organizations. "If we evaluate all that we have heard, the totality of the materials that we have, I would ask for an uncontested option, in the form of an arrest," Head of the SBU Ivan Bakanov said during a joint press conference with Iryna Venediktova, answering a question about which the measure of restraint will ask the investigation. In turn, the prosecutor general said "it is impossible to go without alternative in this category of cases." "Therefore, the prosecutor's office will address [to the court] with a petition for custody or a bail of UAH 1 billion," Venediktova said. On Tuesday, October 12, at 11.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host roundtable talk titled "How COVID-19 vaccination affects seasonal flu vaccination. Where can Ukrainians get vaccinated against influenza?" Participants include Head of the National Technical Group of Experts on Immunoprophylaxis Fedir Lapiy; Head of UNICEF Ukraine's Health Programme Andrej Slavutskij; Head of the Pharmacy Professional Association of Ukraine Volodymyr Rudenko; Director of the Doc.ua Medical Online Hub Booking Division Olena Hrytsay; physician, head of the therapeutic department of the Adonis Clinic Ekaterina Ivaschenko-Koronkova. The experts of the Center of Public Health, representatives of the Health Department of Kyiv City State Administration, representatives of private medical companies are also invited (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. On Tuesday, October 12, at 12.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host press conference titled "Flour and bread market: what should Ukrainian consumers expect from record wheat harvest?" Participants include Director of the Ukrainian Flour Mills Association Rodion Rybchynsky; Head of the Ukrkhlibprom association Oleksandr Vasylchenko; President of the Ukrainian Bakers' Association Yuriy Duchenko; Director of the Roma company (Kharkiv region) Serhiy Tsymbalov (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. Details at phone: (067) 634 2616. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. On Tuesday, October 12, at 15.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host press conference with the participation of candidate for the post of Kharkiv mayor Denys Yaroslavsky entitled "Raising utility rates: how to break vicious circle of current government's deception." The problem of modern water supply and heating systems will be arisen, as well as provided options and ways to resolve them (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. NCT 127 To Perform On 'The Kelly Clarkson Show' Tomorrow (Photo : (News In Star)/CC BY 3.0) K-Pop band NCT 127 has updated their social media profiles on October 8 at midnight KS to make a new announcement. The South-Korean boys' group is going to release the repackaged version of its third studio album called "Sticker". Advertisement The repackaged album will be titled "Favorite" and it will be releasing on October 25. Along with making the announcement, NCT 127 also changed its profile and header on social media to reflect the title and logo of the repackaged album. NCT 127 released "Sticker" on September 17 with 11 tracks. Since its release, the album achieved double-million seller status as they recorded 2.27 million copies sold on October 7, and also entered the Top 40 in the United Kingdom for the first time. "Sticker" also got a ranking in the Official Music Chart Album Top 100 of Germany, QQ Music Digital Album Sales Chart of China, Japan's Line Music Album Top 100 and Oricon Weekly Album Chart, Australia's Aria Chart Album TOP 50 category, and ranked No. 1 on the United World Chart. The band set the fourth-highest album sales record in the history of Hanteo, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. This record has now made the K-pop boys' group take first place on the Gaon monthly album chart. On October 7, the group also gave a behind-the-scenes glimpse of its visit to "The Late Show with James Corden", where the group performed "Sticker" last month in a pre-taped show. The clip showed the band discussing the performance while rehearsing on a stage with neon lights and desert-themed props. In the clip, the members said that they had been preparing for the James Corden performance for quite some time, were thrilled to be able to finally film it, and would give it their all. "Sticker", which was released on September 17, made the band win its tenth music show as it took the third consecutive win, for three weeks in a row, on Mnet's M Countdown. The show was broadcast on October 7 where NCT 127's "Sticker" competed against ITZY's "Swipe". The win taken by NCT 127 was based on album sales, song sales, broadcast scores, live broadcast real-time voting, global fan voting, and social media presence. NCT 127, who made their debut on July 7, 2016, with the single "Firetruck", have released albums in both Korean and Japanese. Abdulrazak Gurnah reads for a Canterbury Cathedral project in Canterbury, Britain June 2021, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. (Photo : CHAPTER OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL/via REUTERS) Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee," the award-giving body said on Thursday. Based in Britain and writing in English, Gurnah, 72, joins Nigeria's Wole Soyinka as the only two non-white writers from sub-Saharan Africa ever to win what is widely seen as the world's most prestigious literary award. Advertisement His novels include "Paradise", set in colonial East Africa during the First World War and short-listed for the Booker Prize for Fiction, and "Desertion". "Gurnah's itinerant characters in England or on the African continent find themselves in the gulf between cultures and continents, between the life left behind and the life to come," Anders Olsson, head of the Swedish Academy Nobel Committee, told reporters. "I dedicate this Nobel Prize to Africa and Africans and to all my readers. Thanks!" Gurnah tweeted after the announcement. He told Reuters the prize was "such a complete surprise that I really had to wait until I heard it announced before I could believe it." Gurnah left Africa as a refugee in the 1960s amid the persecution of citizens of Arab origin on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar, which would unite with the mainland territory Tanganyika to form Tanzania. He was able to return only in 1984, seeing his father shortly before his death. His selection for the top honour in literature comes at a time of global tensions around migration, as millions of people flee violence and poverty in places such as Syria, Afghanistan and Central America, or are displaced by climate change. Olsson said the committee's choice was not a response to recent headlines, and it had been following Gurnah's work for years. Though Swahili was his first language, English became Gurnah's literary tool when he began writing as a 21-year-old. He has drawn inspiration from Arabic and Persian poetry as well as the Koran, but the English-language tradition, from William Shakespeare to V. S. Naipaul, would especially mark his work, the Swedish Academy said. 'CONSCIOUSLY BREAKS CONVENTION' "That said, it must be stressed that he consciously breaks with convention, upending the colonial perspective to highlight that of the indigenous populations," said the academy, a 235-year-old Swedish language institute which awards the 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.14 million) prize. It was the second literature Nobel in a row awarded to a writer in English, and the fourth of the last six, an unusually long stretch for the prize to be dominated by a single language. In an interview with the Academy, Gurnah said many Europeans misunderstood the idea of migration. "When many of these people who come, come out of both need, and also because, quite frankly, they have something to give," he said. "They don't come empty handed . A lot of them are talented, energetic people who have something to give." "So that might be another way of thinking about it. You are not just taking people in as if they are poverty stricken nothings." Eliah Mwaifuge, a professor of literature at Tanzania's University of Dar es Salaam, said Gurnah "truly deserves this award", although the writer's work was better known abroad than in Tanzania itself. FEARLESS Peter Morey, a scholar at the University of Birmingham, singled out Gurnah's "fearless understanding of the connections between people and places and how they change over time in the face of the boundaries and borders designed to keep them apart." "In one of his novels he describes the memory of the exile as being 'a dim, gutted warehouse with rotting planks and rusted ladders where you spend time rifling through abandoned goods'," Morey said. Since Soyinka became the first African to win the prize in 1986, it has been won by Egypt's Naguib Mahfouz and three white African writers - South Africans Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee, and Doris Lessing, raised in British-ruled Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Past literature winners have primarily been novelists such as Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison, poets such as Pablo Neruda, Joseph Brodsky and Rabindranath Tagore, or playwrights such as Harold Pinter and Eugene O'Neill. But writers have also won for bodies of work that include short fiction, history, essays, biography or journalism. Winston Churchill won for his memoirs, Bertrand Russell for his philosophy and Bob Dylan for his lyrics. Last year's award was won by American poet Louise Gluck. Beyond the prize money and prestige, the Nobel literature award generates a vast amount of attention for the winning author, often spurring book sales and introducing less well-known winners to a broader international public. ($1 = 8.7856 Swedish crowns) New York City Mayor and former Democratic U.S. Presidential candidate Bill de Blasio, with his wife Chirlane McCray, speaks at a news conference after announcing that he was ending his presidential bid in New York, U.S., (Photo : REUTERS/Jefferson Siegel) New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's security detail was misused for personal tasks, including helping his daughter move and shuttling his son to and from college, a watchdog agency said on Thursday, likening the actions to a "concierge service." It also said the mayor has not paid back the city for more than $300,000 in security expenses related to his presidential campaign. Advertisement In a 47-page report, the city's department of investigation (DOI) found that a police van and members of the mayor's protective police detail aided Chiara de Blasio's move from her Brooklyn apartment to the mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion. Investigators also found that members of the detail drove Dante de Blasio, the mayor's son, between the city and Yale University in Connecticut, as well as transporting him to destinations within the city. In a lengthy rebuttal delivered at a news briefing, de Blasio said he always deferred to New York City Police Department security experts and called the report unfair, unprofessional and inaccurate. He also faulted investigators for failing to consult with the NYPD's top security official, John Miller, in preparing the report. "I am literally shocked at the number of inaccuracies in this report," he said. Miller, who accompanied de Blasio to the City Hall briefing, told reporters the police had logged 308 threats against the mayor and his family over the last eight years. The mayor and the police inspector in charge of his detail both told investigators the children were entitled to protection, according to the report. But DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett told reporters that the city's police department did not assess whether the mayor's children had "legitimate security needs" before providing assistance. The detail's transportation of Dante de Blasio, she said, appeared to be little more than a "concierge service." "Either it's not good security, or it's not good government, or it's both," she said. The city also spent close to $320,000 so members of de Blasio's security detail could accompany him on campaign trips in 2019, when he briefly ran for president, the report found. The mayor's office previously filed an appeal with the city's conflicts of interest board, arguing his campaign should not be forced to pay for such costs. De Blasio, who cannot run for reelection this year due to term limits, is reportedly considering a run for New York governor next year. The inspector who oversees the mayor's detail deliberately sought to destroy internal messages in an effort to obstruct the investigation, Garnett said. His actions have been referred to the Manhattan district attorney's office. The DOI investigates city government, including the use of public money. Daniel Craig Weighs In On Rami Malek Offering to Baby Sit Prince William and Kate Middleton's Kids (Photo : REUTERS ) Rami Malek caused quite a bit of a ruckus once he revealed that he offered to babysit the kids of Prince Henry and Kate Middleton kids. His co-star has quite a bit to say about it after he found out about the reveal. Daniel Craig doubts how Rami Malek could fair with the three kids of the two royals. We recently talked about how Malek was on the show Jimmy Kimmel Live! Last October 5 to promote his role in No Time to Die. Advertisement He gleefully shared how he offered the royal parents time off as he would be willing to babysit their children as he talked to Kate about it. Of course, we all know how that went, as Kate didn't seem to take him up on the offer. Now it was Craig's turn to talk to Kimmel as he went to the show the next day. He said that it seemed to be quite forward of Malek to say that and jokingly said, "what was he gonna charge an hour?" The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge graced the film's premiere with their presence. Malek told Kimmel that it was easy enough for him to strike a conversation as he had a familiarity with the two. Craig said to Kimmel that he doesn't remember Malek being thrown off the bus after the startling offer, so maybe there was a deal that was struck. Just maybe. A quick recap as to what happened with the conversation between Malek and Kate, Malek told Kate that it must have been exhausting for the royal pair to do what they're doing, given that they just gave birth to their third child recently. Of course, Malek was genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of the two as he asked that. As for Kate, she was "taken aback," and in the most regal way possible, she composed herself and gave Malek a look that explains it all. Malek seemed to have caught her off guard for a quick instant but continued with the conversation. That was the time that Malek got the chance to offer his services as a babysitter for their three kids if ever they would need time off and just enjoy each other's company. Craig even added that Malek's charm might have saved him and was able to work around the situation. Egypts religious authorities have issued a decision banning the longtime practice of direct donations in boxes in mosques nationwide. The Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Memorandum of Understanding (ACSMoU), which Egypt and the US signed on 27 April, establishes a framework for the Egyptian and US militaries to exchange logistical support, supplies, and services. Military officials in Cairo described the MoU as a framework agreement that reflects the growing bilateral military relationship between Cairo and Washington. There have been many stops along the way to these closer military ties, says Mohamed Qashqoush, professor of national security studies at the Higher Nasser Military Academy. Egypt is growing in importance as a strategic partner for the US, and regional developments have lent the Egyptian military establishment a significant role, Qashquosh told Al-Ahram Weekly before pointing to some of the many collaborations between the two countries over the years in the battle against terrorism and other regional threats. According to the US Embassy website, the MoU will facilitate logistics and US force participation during Bright Star 2021, a multilateral exercise that will continue the proud tradition of the United States, Egypt, and partner nations working together to promote readiness to respond to regional threats, while building a mutual framework of countering terrorism and maintaining regional peace and security. It added: While the MoU does not obligate either side to provide support, it does create a standing mechanism to ensure that US and Egyptian military forces can effectively offer reimbursable support to each other when required. Future joint exercises, exchanges, and training events can use the MoU to simplify cross-servicing and logistical requirements rather than signing short-term or activity-specific agreements. Noting how the bilateral military relationship has been the foundation for the US-Egyptian strategic partnership for more than 40 years, US Ambassador to Egypt Jonathan Cohen said: US equipment supports the Egyptian Air Force, Land Forces, Navy, and Border Guards in countering threats to Egypts security. Defence cooperation with Egypt is a cornerstone of our strategic partnership, spanning counter-terrorism, border security, and joint training and planning to address complex geopolitical challenges. The signing of ACSMoU comes two weeks after Egypt joined the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). Established in 2002, CMF has been described as an enduring multinational coalition committed to upholding the rules-based international order by countering illicit non-state actors on the high seas and promoting security, stability, and prosperity. The CMFs area of operations encompasses some of the worlds most important shipping lanes with more than three million square miles of international waters, including the key chokepoints of the Suez Canal, Bab Al-Mandeb, and Strait of Hormuz, the US Embassy in Cairo explained in its mid-April announcement that Egypt had just become the 34th member of the coalition. An Egyptian Armed Forces communique announced that the Egyptian navys commander, Lieutenant General Ahmed Khaled, had met with Vice Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Naval Forces, US Fifth Fleet, and of CMF, in the Ras Al-Tin Naval Base in Alexandria to discuss ways to promote military cooperation, coordinate efforts to address common threats and challenges to the security and stability of the region, and optimise Egypts participation in CMF in a manner commensurate with Egypts central role as an influential power in the region. Egypts membership will improve mutual awareness and ability to operate in the central and northern Red Sea, Paparo said, as cited in the US Embassy statement. Egypt brings a wealth of operational experience in the region and maritime capabilities to CMF, and now provides coalition partners on both sides of the Red Sea, a waterway of significant strategic importance accounting for 10 per cent of the worlds trade. According to US military sources, the CMF furnishes military assets to support rotations among partner nations of Coalition Task Forces (CTFs) and staff to the CMF headquarters in Manama, Bahrain. There are three CTFs: CTF 150, which focuses on maritime security operations throughout the area; CTF 151, which conducts counter piracy operations, and CTF 152, which focuses on maritime security in the Arabian Gulf. With Egypts entry into CMF, this cooperation and interoperability will only grow, Paparo said. In a related development, a high-ranking US delegation arrived in Cairo this week on one leg of a regional tour that includes the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. According to sources in Cairo, the tour relates to a variety of bilateral, regional and international developments and issues, ranging from developmental issues and security cooperation to climate change. The question of the Iranian nuclear programme and its regional implications is of particular importance to these countries which have previously voiced concerns over the original version of the agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, especially as it relates to the Iranian missile programme and drones. Iran has used drones extensively in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and in other areas that intersect with the vital sphere of Egyptian national security. Egypt has also repeatedly condemned missile and drone attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen against Saudi Arabia. The recent MoU, and exchanges of meetings between Egypt and the US, reflect not just awareness of the need for closer cooperation and coordination and more enhanced capacities and interoperability in order to respond to common threats and challenges, but also the need to incorporate this into more systematic regional frameworks. Cairo was a key member of the US-led coalition to liberate Kuwait in 1990-1991 and, since the 11 September attacks against the US, Cairo and Washington have been working together in many ways to combat terrorism. As recent developments show, they are now taking this partnership to higher levels. After a decade of anarchy, when instability and security breakdowns swept the region, violent waves of terrorism proliferated, and non-state actors in the form of militias with access to advanced military capacities challenged standing armies, jeopardising regional and international security and threatening US interests in the region, there is every reason to strengthen bilateral military relations. The US also has an additional reason: it wants to withdraw militarily from the region after 20 years of direct military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. This will require developing a new mode of US involvement that sees Washington engage more closely with its regional partners, foremost among them Egypt. *A version of this article appears in print in the 6 May, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Al-Ahram Weekly reports on the mixed reactions which greeted news that Washington will block part of its annual military assistance to Egypt Western media reported last week that the US administration has decided to withhold part of its military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns. Though no official announcement has been made, a US State Department spokesperson told Reuters on 14 September that the Biden administration will withhold $130 million of the $1.3 billion of military aid given to Cairo each year. Reuters cited the US State Department as saying that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will move forward with the use of $130 million if the government of Egypt affirmatively addresses specific human rights-related conditions. Other media reports said the conditions set by the Biden administration for the release of the blocked aid include Egypt dropping a case against NGOs and foreign civil society workers including 16 Americans who face charges, dating back 2011, of receiving unauthorised foreign funds. Gamal Zahran, a political science professor and former MP, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Biden administrations decision had less to do with human rights than dropping the case in which American citizens are defendants. Two weeks ago, on 30 August, Ali Mokhtar, the investigating judge appointed by the Cairo Court of Appeals to look into the case, announced that the charges being pressed against four foreign NGOs had been been dropped for lack of evidence, bringing the number of NGOs now removed from the charge sheet to 67. Charges filed against 63 NGOs and asset freezes and travel bans on their staff have been dropped in the wake of four judicial rulings issued in the last two years, said Mokhtar. With this latest decision, a total of 67 entities and 180 persons have been acquitted. News that the US had opted to withhold part its military assistance to Egypt was welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood. Brotherhood activist Mohamed Sultan praised the decision in an article in the Washington Post on 15 September, and demanded more action by Washington to pressurise Egypt on human rights. On 17 September, a US court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Soltan against former Egyptian prime minister Hazem Al-Beblawi. Sultan had alleged that he was beaten and tortured after being detained following the dispersal of Brotherhood sit-ins in 2013. Al-Beblawi, who was the prime minister at the time, said in a TV interview with Sada Al-Balad channel on 19 September that the US court had dismissed Sultans case as groundless and that his torture allegations were no more than propaganda. Muslim Brotherhood television channels broadcasting from Turkey hailed the US administrations decision, an unsurprising response, says political analyst Gamal Zahran, given the Muslim Brotherhood is in love with the Democratic Party and people like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. What does the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood want from Joe Biden? is a study released last week under by the Egyptian Centre for Strategic Studies (ECSS), argues that the Brotherhood has been trying since Biden came to office to secure his administrations support for the release of Brotherhood members involved in terrorist activities. They exerted the same pressure when Barack Obama was in office, trying to introduce themselves as moderate and defenders of human rights, but at the end he failed, said the study. Leftist human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch (HRW), which echoes the Muslim Brotherhoods rhetoric, told the US media that they were disappointed by the decision and would have liked to have seen $300 million cut from military assistance to Egypt. Some Democratic Party lawmakers also saw the decision as a compromise, acknowledging that it may disappoint some activists but was nonetheless more human-rights friendly than actions taken by the previous administration. Bloomberg news agency published an article last week pointing out that the growth of the Egyptian economy has made American aid less critical for Cairo while an opinion article published in The Hill on 7 September accused Joe Bidens Democratic Party of harming Americas relations with key partners like Egypt. The Hill article, written by former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for Middle East policy Simone noted that Egypt is facing massive security challenges both internally and externally and the United States needs Egypt to continue as a key regional leader in maintaining peace and stability, which are in Americas long-term interest. Congressional Democrats must abandon their anti-Egypt rhetoric and acknowledge that Cairo has taken a leadership role in addressing a number of important regional security challenges, and so it should be encouraged and supported, not threatened with a cut in aid. Zahran agrees with Bloomberg that the sum being withheld is insignificant to Egypt. The Biden administration is being cautious. It wants to please the Democratic Party, media and human rights organisations, and at the same time it does not want to alienate Egypt, said Zahran. US assistance has played a substantial role since the early 1980s in modernising the Egyptian economy, infrastructure and army, but over the years Egypt has managed to diversify its sources of funding and is far less dependent on conditioned assistance. Khaled Qandil, the deputy chairman of the Wafd Party, said Egypts economic progress in recent years means a cut by $130 million will have little impact. But is not good that the US uses the military or economic assistance for political reasons or uses the radical agenda of leftist human rights organisations to interfere in internal affairs, said Qandil in an article on 18 September. Mahmoud Khalaf, a strategic expert with Nasser Military Academy, stresses that US military assistance is far from being a one way street. America gets a lot from Egypt in return, says Khalaf, in the form of military facilities, including priority for American warships crossing the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Cairo issued a statement on 5 September saying the US, along with forces from partner nations, is taking part in Exercise Bright Star 2021 at Mohamed Naguib Military Base. Exercise Bright Star builds on the strategic security relationship between Egypt and the US, which plays a leading role in regional security and efforts to combat the spread of extremism, the embassy said. *A version of this article appears in print in the 23 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Chair of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund James Harmon explains its plans to help grow Egypts private sector to Al-Ahram Weekly The Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund (EAEF) was established by the US Congress in 2011 as a non-profit investment fund to support Egypts private sector. The Congress authorised $300 million for the EAEF to provide direct investments, loans, technical assistance, and other forms of support to help stimulate private-sector investment in Egypt following the countrys 2011 Revolution. The EAEF helps seed first-time investment managers in Egypt that invest in companies that can generate financial returns in alignment with the countrys development priorities such as education, healthcare, and financial inclusion. It is committed to building strong and sustainable private equity and venture-capital markets in Egypt by supporting new fund managers that will continue to invest in businesses and attract foreign capital into Egypt long after the EAEFs mandate ends in 2028, stressed James Harmon, chair of the EAEF since 2012, in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly. According to Harmon, early in its mission the EAEF had realised that to be successful it would have to be an Egyptian-led effort. To advance the funds mandate in Egypt, it was Egyptianised by seeding a team of talented Egyptian financial professionals to serve as its investment advisors in 2014. In recent years, it has supported four additional first-time investment managers in Egypt. Today, all the EAEFs portfolio managers are Egyptian, and almost all the members of the board of directors are Egyptian or Egyptian-American, speak Arabic, and have extensive private-sector experience in Egypt, Harmon said. He said the EAEF was eager to support additional Egyptian fund managers, especially women-led funds, to build a sustainable investment ecosystem. The enterprise fund model was originally created by the first Bush administration in the early 1990s to help build private sector-led economies in Central Asia and Eastern Europe following the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The EAEF is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). According to Harmon, EAEF investment managers have invested in over 70 companies in sectors ranging from healthcare, agriculture, and food manufacturing to financial services and pharmaceuticals. Its total investments are $314.5 million, but the market value of its assets is close to $600 million. It has also helped to attract an additional $447 million in foreign capital to Egypt, he said, adding that I expect the market value of our investments to exceed $1 billion at the time of our liquidation in 2028. As a long-term investor in Egypt, we invest in companies that will generate healthy financial returns and have a strong development impact by contributing to job creation, support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and the growth of a strong private sector, he said. The EAEF is not committed to any one sector, he stressed, but recently had focused on investing more in high-impact development sectors such as healthcare, education, and agriculture, and is now considering investments in new sectors, such as infrastructure. Harmon, who also serves as co-chair of the World Resources Institute, a leading global environmental think tank, is hoping to leverage this expertise to help Egypt tackle climate change and urban transport problems. He acknowledged Egypts success in completing a bold structural reform programme under IMF guidance from 2016 to 2019. These reforms had helped to stabilise the economy and boost investor confidence in Egypt, he said. They had also allowed Egypt to enter the Covid-19 pandemic with strong fiscal and external accounts that facilitated the governments rapid response. Looking forward, Harmon said, the government should continue efforts to help the private sector become the leading engine of growth in Egypt. These include, but are not limited to, reducing the bureaucratic red tape that discourages entrepreneurs from registering their businesses, supporting policies that encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) outside of the oil and gas sectors, and narrowing the gender gap in Egypts labour market, he stressed. He also called for greater support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as these are the backbone of Egypts economy, accounting for over 80 per cent of private-sector employment. He said the government had implemented a variety of policies to help SMEs, many of which are informal micro enterprises. These policies include establishing the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency to coordinate efforts among government agencies to support the development of SMEs, improving access to finance for SMEs via Egypts Central Bank, and streamlining business license processes. Concurrently, the government has launched initiatives to support start-ups and make Egypt a regional hub for entrepreneurship. Harmon believes the government should continue efforts to support SMEs and start-ups by making it easier to register businesses, provide more incentives to join the formal economy, streamline government efforts to support SMEs, and increase educational resources for entrepreneurs to effectively manage and scale their businesses. He is optimistic that the government will continue to build on the success of its IMF-supported reform programme by pursuing additional opportunities to grow the private sector, reduce the role of the state in the economy and debt-financing obligations, and attract new sources of non-oil FDI. We are bullish on Egypt, Harmon said, adding that the country is one of the main cultural and political hubs of the Arab world, has one of the highest populations in Africa that represents a large domestic market, maintains a talented workforce, and occupies a strategic location as a gateway to Africa, Asia, and Europe. Egypt is also becoming one of Africas leading hubs for tech entrepreneurship, he added. Egypts entrepreneurs are tackling tough societal challenges, such as financial services and mobility, with tech-enabled solutions that are attracting the interest of international investors, Harmon said. These prospects bode well for the future of the economy, and we are excited to play a role supporting Egypts growth. The Covid-19 pandemic did not affect the work of the EAEF, which doubled efforts to support Egypts private sector. It loaned $10 million to the microfinance subsidiary of Fawry, the leading Egyptian e-payments platform and one of the EAEFs portfolio companies, to support micro and small businesses during the pandemic. We agreed to take the first loss, if any, on the loan, which banks generally do not do, to expand additional financing to businesses impacted by the pandemic, Harmon said. To support Egypts private healthcare market, the EAEF co-invested in the Al-Tayseer Healthcare Group in Zagazig as the largest healthcare provider in the Nile Delta region, a historically underserved and heavily populated area north of Cairo. It also committed $50 million to investment advisor Lorax Capital Partners closing of its first independent investment fund. This was one of the only private equity closings in the Middle East and North Africa region in 2020 and helped demonstrate to investors that one could still do business in Egypt, even during a pandemic, Harmon said. This year, the EAEF is hoping to commit additional funding to Ezdehar Management and Algebra Ventures, two highly regarded private equity and venture-capital investors, he added. We are eager to continue supporting the growth of the private sector, including Egypts exciting ecosystem of tech start-ups. *A version of this article appears in print in the 7 October, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Discussions between Iran and Saudi Arabia are on the right track but it will take more time to restore bilateral ties, Iran's foreign minister said in Beirut Friday. Shia-majority Iran and Sunni world leader Saudi Arabia, on opposing sides in multiple regional conflicts, have been engaged in talks since April with the aim of improving relations, for the first time since cutting ties in 2016. The discussions were launched under Iran's former moderate president Hassan Rouhani and have continued since his ultraconservative successor, Ebrahim Raisi, took office in August. "The Iran-Saudi dialogue is on the right track," Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said during a news conference at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, on the second day of a 48-hour visit to Lebanon. "We have achieved results and agreements, but we still need more dialogue," he added. "The two parties will announce these agreements at the appropriate time. We welcome the continuation of the talks and the results that benefit both sides and the region," he said. Abdollahian added: "It was not us who broke off diplomatic relations -- that was a Saudi decision." The two countries cut ties in 2016 after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic republic following the kingdom's execution of a revered Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi Arabia and Iran are at odds over several regional issues. In Yemen, Iran supports Shia rebels who control the capital Sanaa and are battling the internationally recognized government, despite more than six years of Saudi-led military efforts to crush them in support of the . Tehran has also been the main regional backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against Sunni rebels since civil war broke out in 2011. In Lebanon, Iran-backed Shia group Hezbollah plays a pivotal role in political life, while its fighters have been heavily involved in neighbouring Syria in support of Assad's government. "Saudi Arabia is a significant country in the region. The Islamic Republic of Iran likewise," Abdollahian said in Beirut. "The role of these two countries in (ensuring the) sustainable security of the region is significant," he added. *This story was edited by Ahram Online Search Keywords: Short link: Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayyeb told the World Meeting for Peace in Italy that the global philosophy of coronavirus vaccines' production and distribution have failed to reach the required level of human responsibility. "The result was the death of five million victims in less than two years," El-Tayyeb said on the closing of the World Meeting for Peace, Peoples as Brothers, Future Earth Religions and Cultures in Dialogue", promoted by the Rome-based Community of Sant'Egidio. A fatal flaw in the distribution system has left entire continents without access to the vaccines, the grand imam of the world's leading Sunni institution said. The crisis revealed severe poverty in the field of duty, conscience and responsibility, in which our contemporary world has regressed despite efforts undertaken by the worlds religious institutions, their symbols and leaders to promote the philosophy of cooperation and exchange of good among people and to prioritize the interests of the community over the interests of individuals, he added. In a meeting held on Thursday at the Vatican on the sidelines of the "Faith and Science: Towards COP26" summit, El-Tayyeb and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called for increased awareness about the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine, expressing their fear of some people's refusal to be vaccinated. The two religious leaders called for practical solutions to ensure a fair distribution of vaccines, especially for the poorest African countries . Search Keywords: Short link: The Egyptian Administrative Prosecution has started an investigation on Friday after a large quantity of Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines were found discarded in a canal in Minya governorate, Upper Egypt. Villagers discovered the packages of the Chinese vaccine in a canal in the Abshaq villages near Beni Mazar town on Thursday. The residents shared photos of the discarded doses on social media, creating an uproar among users. The prosecution ordered the seizure of the doses, a statement by the Egyptian Administrative Prosecution said on Friday without specifying the number in question. Meanwhile, Minya Governor Osama Al-Kadi said the authorities are comparing the seized doses against the logs of vaccines which have been stored in the governorate's health directorates. MP Ahmed Hetta, a parliamentary representative of the governorate, has submitted an urgent request to the House of Representatives speaker to hold a hearing on the incident, calling on Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Health Minister Hala Zayed to promptly disclose the causes and circumstances surrounding the matter. The health ministry is currently operating nearly 17 vaccination centres in Minya, including Beni Mazar town, as part of 1,100 centres nationwide. The ministry has fully vaccinated more than 7 million citizens since a nationwide innoculation campaign started in January by using the Sinopharm jabs, according to the latest official count. Egypt is currently administrating Sinopharm, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Sputnik and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, and is also set to receive Pfizer BioNTech vaccine doses Egypt has so far obtained 60 million doses of different vaccines and the country is in talks with several international bodies to obtain more doses to reach its target of vaccinating 40 million people by December. Search Keywords: Short link: After adopting a virtual education system for the past year and a half, Egypt seeks to address the new wave differently. In the first three waves, lockdown and tighter measures were imposed. "The entire world suffers from the coronavirus, [but] the educational process goes on," Education Minister Tarek Shawky said on TV last week. As part of broader restrictive measures, schools and universities suspended in-person classes in March 2020, almost a month after detecting the first coronavirus case in Egypt. The government instead introduced a hybrid system of in-person and online classes the following year with optional attendance in an effort to contain the pandemic's subsequent waves. Though many parents have felt the shortcomings of online learning over the past two years, they are still anxious about close contact and rooms' ventilation since all students and teaching staff will be showing up every day. "Going back to classrooms is a proper decision," Ahmed Nassar, a father of a primary school pupil, told Ahram Online. Nassar, who opposes online learning and supports the reopening of classrooms, is still wary of laxity in following the preventative measures, especially as the country is destined to see a peak in cases in the coming days. The fourth wave is now driving up daily infection and death rates locally for the third consecutive month, with its peak expected in the coming weeks. Detected cases of the highly contagious Delta Plus have further mounted parents' worries. In the previous academic year, Egypt had 25.3 million pre-university students and 3.3 million university students, according to Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). Schools and universities have launched health awareness campaigns to urge students, teaching staff, and workers to adhere to all precautions, including maintaining physical distance, wearing face masks, conducting periodic sterilisation, and taking entrants' temperatures. Universities also will depend on e-books instead of hard copy books. Rana Mukhtar, a teacher at an international school, which reopened a month earlier than public and private schools, said all preventive measures are maintained, including sanitization and wearing face masks. "We also avoid sharing materials and supplies," she added. International schools have been gaining notoriety in Egypt in recent years, but they serve a smaller number of students, compared to public and private schools. According to the state's statistical agency CAPMAS, the percentage of students enrolled in public schools reached 88.4% of the total number of students, compared to 11.6% in private schools during the 2019/2020 academic year. Mukhtar indicated that maintaining precautions in classes of early childhood years has been challenging, though, as kids do not wear masks. "It is really hard to keep masks on kids' faces they cough and sneeze everywhere We only make sure they are not feverish during school days. If they cough really bad, we send them to the doctor," Mukhtar told Aram Online. The country has mandated coronavirus vaccination for all teaching staff, employees, and workers, as well as students who are 18 years or older. The jury is still out on inoculating students under the age of 18. However, the health authorities are currently considering including high school students who are younger than 18 years old in the country's vaccination drive using the recently-received Pfizer vaccine shots. "Primary and prep schools should apply precautions strictly since their students will not be vaccinated," Nassar stressed. The health authorities also handed each educational facility an infrared device to monitor temperatures, with students having a fever of 38 degrees Celsius or higher to be transferred to designated isolation rooms. This comes as schools and universities were ordered to implement a serious attendance tracking system for both students and teaching staff as of Saturday. Dealing with the density inside educational halls will be a challenge as the country has over 20 million university and pre-university students, according to official estimates. Schools and universities during the past three waves recorded poor attendance as most students have remained at home, with assignments being given online. The country, according to Shawky, seeks to avoid dropping more parts of the curricula, as was the case last year due to the pandemic. Online learning drawbacks Relying on virtual classes has impeded interaction with teachers and negatively affected students' soft skills, according to many teachers and parents. "Remote education is a very tricky system that does not live up to the quality of the traditional learning methods in terms of evaluating the students' level and performance," Nassar added. "Teaching throughout the preceding three waves laid bare the drawbacks of online learning," Dina El-Azab, a secondary school teacher, told Ahram Online, adding, "technology has a major influence on many domains, but when it comes to education, both students and teachers feel perplexed." El-Azab, who is a math teacher, highlighted that her laptop webcam does not allow her to closely follow students, saying, "I need to look at the pupils' eyes to see their light bulb moments to make sure they understand me I need to make sure they are keeping on track by monitoring every step they take to complete a math problem." The matter under the virtual classes, she added, is worsened when connectivity issues come up, especially amid heavy traffic on the local network in Egypt during the pandemic with thousands of Egyptian students having switched to e-learning. Mukhtar also echoed El-Azab's point of view, saying "definitely face-to-face learning is richer with teaching techniques and resources." "Plus, teaching in classrooms is also way better for early childhood years," she added. Indeed, the education minister explained that online learning had a negative impact on the assimilation of students, especially younger generations who do not have the ability to deal with the Internet. We had to be keen on reducing losses for students," Shawky said. He previously stressed that the digital and educational resources will be a complement to the educational process in schools and not an alternative to it, except in extreme necessity. Shawky also stressed that the regularity of the educational process in schools is a state decision and came based on the recommendations of the Crisis Management Committee headed by the prime minister. We seek a full-fledged academic year and avoid [the repercussions of] the coronavirus, and we will not cancel in-class education except in the worst circumstances, the minister added. Plan B on the table Universities seem to be having alternative plans to handle any upcoming surge in COVID-19 cases, according to recent televised remarks by Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar. "We always have an [alternative] plan and we know when to move to a hybrid system in case there is a surge but from our experience, the situation is getting better in Egypt," he commented on the likelihood of suspending the academic year in case the country witnessed a surge in cases. He also played down the current fourth wave-driven infection rise saying, "it is a cautious increase." As for schools, the education ministry already announced in a circular handed to all educational directorates countrywide steps to be taken in the event cases are detected in classrooms: - A class will be closed for 28 days in the case that more than one student tests positive for coronavirus in two weeks. - A school will be closed for 28 days in the case two or more classes in the school are closed due to the spread of COVID-19. - A school complex will be shut down for the same period in case one of its schools is closed and then a class of another school in the same complex is closed. - Schools in a village or city can be closed on orders of the governorate in the event of quarantining this village or city, and until the period of the quarantine is over. - Schools in a governorate may also be closed based on recommendations by the Crisis Mnagement Committee, for at least 28 days if required. Health Minister Hala Zayed said the academic year, under any circumstances, would go on even if the country witnessed a surge in positive cases, arguing that the high vaccination turnout among students, workers, and employees in the education sector will be a helpful factor. According to a government order, unvaccinated workers and students will not be allowed into workplaces and universities unless they are jabbed with at least one dose of a vaccine or provide proof of negative COVID-19 testing more than once a week. Abdel-Ghaffar stated in late September that only vaccinated students will be allowed to live in university dorms. Until last week, up to 70-80 percent of school staffers nationwide have already received the vaccine, while the rate in universities stands at 90 percent. As for university students, around 35 percent have also received jabs, Zayed said in a press conference last week. In an attempt to intensify vaccinations, the health ministry has dedicated 270 converted youth centres for vaccinating university students without prior registration on its website. Iraqis go to the polls Sunday for parliamentary elections, two years after a wave of anti-government protests swept the war-scarred country, but analysts say the vote is unlikely to deliver major change. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi's political future hangs in the balance, with few observers willing to predict who will come out on top after the lengthy backroom haggling that usually follows Iraqi elections. A new single-member constituency system for electing Iraq's 329 lawmakers is supposed to boost independents versus the traditional blocs largely centred on religious, ethnic and clan affiliations. The election is being held a year early in a rare concession to the youth-led protest movement that broke out in 2019 against a political class widely blamed for graft, unemployment and crumbling public services. Hundreds died during the protests, and dozens more anti-government activists have been killed, kidnapped or intimidated in recent months, with accusations pro-Iran armed groups have been behind the violence. Many activists have urged a boycott of the polls, and record abstention rates are predicted among Iraq's 25 million eligible voters, while experts predict the main parties are likely to maintain their grip on power. The vote is "unlikely to serve as an agent of change", said Ramzy Mardini of the University of Chicago's Pearson Institute. "The election is meant to be a signal of reform, but ironically those advocating for reform are choosing to not participate... as a protest against the status quo." Security fears Security forces, displaced people and prisoners cast the first ballots in the election on Friday, two days before the rest of the country. In Baghdad, a heavy presence of security personnel guarded polling stations. Iraq is mired in corruption and economic crisis, and nearly a third of its people live in poverty despite the country's oil wealth. The risk of violence is rising amid a proliferation of armed factions and a jihadist resurgence, even as Iraq tries to emerge from almost two decades of conflict. With the main political blocs linked to armed groups, many Iraqis are worried about security in the wake of the result. A dozen Western governments including the US and the UK on Wednesday called on "all parties to respect the rule of law and the integrity of the electoral process". The United Nations and the European Union have deployed vote monitors and observers. Iraq's political scene remains deeply polarised over sensitive issues including the presence of US troops and the influence of neighbouring Iran. But even in the fragmented parliament, where alliances are stitched up and then undone, political blocs will have to overcome their differences when it's time to name a prime minister -- a position usually reserved for a Shia Muslim. Shia account for around 60 percent of Iraq's 40 million people, while Sunnis make up 32-37 percent. The pick for PM will "depend on the level of representation of the different blocs, particularly in the Shia camp," said Iraqi political scientist Ali al-Baidar. He noted the ambitions of the Sadrist bloc, headed by firebrand Shiite populist cleric Moqtada Sadr, the former leader of an anti-US militia. Also known for his anti-Iran rhetoric, Sadr is considered a favourite in the polls, and would like a free hand to name the prime minister. But the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Forces, also wants to hold onto its gains. The powerful network of mainly Iran-dominated former paramilitary groups helped defeat the Islamic State group in 2017. Shiite rivals of Sadr, Hashed MPs first entered parliament a year after Iraq declared victory over IS. Meanwhile, in the Sunni camp, the young and influential speaker of parliament, Mohammed al-Halbussi, will be looking to consolidate his popular base after his rapid rise as a key political player. 'Bargaining tactic' Any compromise candidate for prime minister will have to have the tacit blessing of Tehran and Washington, arch-foes that are both Baghdad allies. When it comes to forming a government, Shiite parties will likely face initial internal disagreement, according to Mardini, "but that's a bargaining tactic". "The core of government formation will remain the established political parties and bosses. Independents can only be a superficial accessory to it." Baidar left open the possibility that incumbent Kadhemi would hang onto his position. "He's not the preferred pick of the pro-Iran factions, but they will accept him if the alternative is a candidate that takes a harder line towards Tehran," Baidar said. Far from the political horse-trading, many Iraqis feel deeply disillusioned by a political establishment that they blame for the country's ills. Jawad, an elderly man who declined to provide his surname, lost his son two years ago when authorities used force to put down the anti-government protests. He said he was still waiting for justice and wouldn't vote on Sunday, charging that "my son was killed by the same militias that make up the corrupt government". Search Keywords: Short link: As Iraq votes in parliamentary elections Sunday, here is a timeline of the troubled Middle Eastern country since the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. 2003: Fall of Saddam The US and British invasion begins with dawn air strikes on March 20, 2003, after then-US president George W. Bush accuses Saddam of holding "weapons of mass destruction". By April 9, US forces have taken central Baghdad, where a large statue of the Iraqi dictator is toppled. Bush announces the end of major combat operations on May 1 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Gulf under a banner that reads "Mission Accomplished". But by October, Washington admits it has found no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam is captured hiding near his home town of Tikrit in December. He is hanged three years later. 2004: Transfer of power The US-led administration hands political power back to the Iraqis in June 2004, two months after images of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib US military prison shock the world. The following year, the country votes in its first multi-party election in half a century, a poll boycotted by the Sunni Muslim minority to which Saddam belonged. A 2005 constitution enshrines autonomy for the Iraqi Kurdistan region in the north. 2006: Sectarian conflict flares In February 2006, Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists blow up one of the country's main Shia shrines in Samarra, sparking a wave of sectarian killings which leaves tens of thousands dead and lasts until 2008. In August 2007, more than 400 people die in the deadliest attacks in four years, against the Yazidi minority in the north. 2011: US troops leave The last US troops pull out on December 18, 2011, ending a near nine-year occupation and leaving behind a country mired in political crisis. Between 2003 and 2011 more than 100,000 civilians have been killed, according to the Iraq Body Count database. The US lost nearly 4,500 Americans. 2014: Islamic State offensive The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), later rebranded the Islamic State (IS), captures the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in a lightning offensive in January 2014. In June, they seize second city Mosul and by the end of the year the group holds one-third of the oil-rich country. After Baghdad appeals for help, a US-led coalition helps drive IS from the northern cities, with victory declared at the end of 2017. 2018: Elections and stalemate Firebrand pro-Iranian Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose militia battled US troops after the invasion, wins a surprise victory in legislative elections in May 2018. But the ensuing talks to form a new parliament with other blocs lead to four months of political paralysis. In October, the moderate Kurd Barham Saleh becomes president after a parliamentary vote and instructs former vice president Adel Abdel Mahdi to form a government. 2019: Bloody protests Youth-led protests break out against corruption, unemployment and poor public services in October 2019. Nearly 600 people die and 30,000 are injured as the rallies are bloodily put down. Dozens of activists have been killed or kidnapped since. Mahdi resigns. 2020: Soleimani assassination Top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani is killed in Baghdad in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020, ordered by then-president Donald Trump, sending tensions soaring. Five days later, Iran retaliates by firing missiles at military bases in Iraq housing US troops. In April, Mustafa al-Kadhemi, who is well connected both in Tehran and Washington, becomes premier after two others fail to form a government. 2021: US combat mission over With Kadhemi at his side, US President Joe Biden declares an end to the US "combat mission" in Iraq and says he wants a "new phase" of military cooperation. Early elections Parliamentary elections are brought forward by a year to appease the popular protest movement that began in 2019. Search Keywords: Short link: Investigative journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work promoting freedom of expression at a time when liberty of the press is increasingly under threat. Ressa, also a US citizen, is co-founder of Rappler, a digital media company for investigative journalism. Muratov is a co-founder of Russia's leading independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The pair were honoured "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace," said the chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen. "They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions," she said. Ressa, 58, the only woman to win a Nobel so far this year, said the prize shows that "nothing is possible without facts", referring to the links between democracy and freedom of expression. "A world without facts means a world without truth and trust," the outspoken critic of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told a livestreamed interview with Rappler. She told Norwegian TV2 the honour would give her and her colleagues "tremendous energy to continue the fight". Muratov dedicated his half of the prize to his newspaper's six journalists and contributors killed since 2000, who include the prominent investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. "I can't take credit for this. This is Novaya Gazeta's," he was cited by Russian news agency TASS as saying. The newspaper on Thursday commemorated 15 years since Politkovskaya's killing. Muratov also said he would have given the award to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The Kremlin meanwhile congratulated Muratov, with President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters: "He is talented. He is courageous." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a global effort to protect a free press. "No society can be free and fair without journalists who are able to investigate wrongdoing, bring information to citizens, hold leaders accountable and speak truth to power," he said. 'Killings and threats' Ressa and Rappler, which she co-founded in 2012 and heads, have faced multiple criminal charges and investigations after publishing stories critical of Duterte's policies, including his bloody drug war. The former CNN correspondent is on bail pending an appeal against a conviction last year in a cyber libel case, for which she faces up to six years in prison. The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Rappler has "focused critical attention on the Duterte regime's controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign. "The number of deaths is so high that the campaign resembles a war waged against the country's own population," Reiss-Andersen added. Ressa and Rappler have also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse. Time magazine named her a Person of the Year in 2018. Muratov, 59, has defended freedom of speech in Russia for decades, under increasingly challenging conditions. Novaya Gazeta, founded in 1993, is one of the few media outlets left voicing criticism of Putin. Muratov has served several times as chief editor since 1995. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the first investors, using part of his own 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winnings to fund it, according to the paper. He said the prize was "good news" for the world's press. "This award raises the importance of the press in the modern world to great heights." Novaya Gazeta's opponents have responded with harassment, threats, violence and murder. "Despite the killings and threats, editor-in-chief Muratov has refused to abandon the newspaper's independent policy," Reiss-Andersen said. "He has consistently defended the right of journalists to write anything they want about whatever they want, as long as they comply with the professional and ethical standards of journalism." 24 journalists killed in 2021 According to the latest rankings by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the situation for press freedom is "difficult or very serious" in 73 percent of the 180 countries it evaluated, and "good or satisfactory" in only 27 percent. According to RSF, 24 journalists have been killed since the beginning of the year, and 350 others are imprisoned. From the murder of Saudi reporter Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 to the shutting of the pro-democracy Apple Daily in Hong Kong earlier this year, attempts to stifle the media abound. Against that background, media watchdogs had been tipped as contenders for the prestigious prize ahead of Friday's announcement. The award's image has been hit hard over the past years as one of its previous laureates, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, became embroiled in a war. Another, Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, was accused of defending the massacre of members of the Rohingya minority. The prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a cheque for 10 million kronor (980,000 euros, $1.1 million). Search Keywords: Short link: The new board of the National Council for Human Rights gets a thumbs-up from MPs. The House of Representatives General Committee has ratified the new list of members of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR). The 27-member NCHR will be led by Moushira Khattab as chairman, and Mahmoud Karim Mahmoud as deputy chairman. Khattab, 77, served as minister for family and population between 2009 and 2011, and secretary-general of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood between 1999 and 2009. She has held many diplomatic posts, including serving as assistant minister of foreign affairs, and ambassador to Czechoslovakia and South Africa. In a statement on Monday, Khattab said the reconstitution of the NCHR comes at a very critical time, when Egypt is moving towards building a new republic. The new republic requires a system for improving human rights that integrates the Egyptian Constitution, the implementation of international conventions on human rights and Egypts 2030 vision on sustainable development, said Khattab. NCHR Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Karem is a former ambassador to Belgium and Japan (2000-2009). Karem served as NCHR secretary-general between 2010 and 2012, and was the coordinator of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisis presidential election campaign in 2014. The councils new board includes a mix of public figures, and includes prominent human rights and political activists; George Ishak and Nehad Abul-Qomsan. Ishak was a founder of the Kefaya Enough movement which ptotested against the re-election of Hosni Mubarak in 2005. In a recent article in El-Shorouk newspaper, Ishak called for a national dialogue on human rights and political freedoms in Egypt and argued there is an urgent need to amend laws on pre-trial detention. Abul-Qomsan, who founded the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) with her late husband Hafez Abu Seada, is currently president of the Egyptian Centre for Womens Rights. She joins the NCHR along with Cairo University political science professor Nevine Mosaad; Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Weekly and Ahram Online Ezzat Ibrahim; journalist Mahmoud Bassiouni; lawyer and human rights activist Essam Shiha and Chairman of the Reform and Development Party Mohamed Esmat Al-Sadat. Al-Sadat, a nephew of late president Anwar Al-Sadat and a former MP, is the coordinator of a national campaign that seeks the release of activists remanded in custody pending trial. He revealed that the speaker of the Senate had promised him that hearing sessions will soon be held with civil society organisations to address the human rights and media freedom files. The appointment of the NCHR comes three weeks after Egypt declared a new National Strategy for Human Rights, launched on 11 September in the New Administrative Capital, in the presence of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. The strategy runs until 2026 and addresses political, 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. The strategy, prepared by the Foreign Ministry and a number of civil society organisations, also aims to amend laws on human rights. MP Amr Al-Sonbati said the reconstitution of the NCHR represents the first step towards turning the new Strategy into fact on the ground. The council is entrusted with supervising the human rights situation in Egypt, releasing periodical reports, and recommending new legislation that can push the human rights agenda forward, he said. MP Ayman Abul-Ela, deputy chairman of parliaments Human Rights Committee, argued that the declaration of the new National Human Rights Strategy and the reconstitution of NCHR reflects serious political will to draw up a new roadmap for political rights in Egypt. The new make-up of the NCHR includes prominent figures with a proven record in defending human rights and freedom of speech. Khaled Qandil, a member of the Senates Human Rights Committee, said the reconstitution of NCHR sends a message that Egypt is serious about respecting human rights and is taking concrete steps in this direction. While Egypt has been under pressure in recent months, and since Joe Biden became US president, to implement the agenda of radical Western human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch, the new Human Rights Strategy implements an exclusively national agenda. MP Sanaa Al-Said, a member of the Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party, said the NCHR now includes a mix of professional human rights experts, opposition figures, journalists, lawyers and political science professors. The most notable thing about the NCHR board, however, is that it will be led by a woman who has extensive experience in the field and who maintains good relations with most international organisations. The fact that new members of the NCHR come from different political backgrounds shows the state is serious about pushing the human rights agenda, continued Al-Said. She added that she is optimistic that the law on pre-trial detention will soon be amended. *A version of this article appears in print in the 7 October, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: The visit by the vice president of Brazil to Cairo aimed at giving bilateral relations a push, Egyptian Ambassador in Brasilia, Wael Abul-Magd, tells Al-Ahram Weekly. In the first high-level visit between the two countries since 2017, Antonio Hamilton Mourao, the vice president of Brazil, made a visit to Cairo last week. He was received by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and held talks with top Egyptian officials including Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli to discuss ways of giving bilateral relations a boost over the coming years. This visit and the talks that Vice President Mourao of Brazil held in Cairo and the fact that he was received by President Al-Sisi will certainly provide momentum to the bilateral relations on all fronts, said Wael Abul-Magd, Egypts ambassador to Brazil. Despite the geographical distance separating the two countries, both Egypt and Brazil are keen to engage with one another, and to further advance their bilateral relations, Abul-Magd added. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly by telephone from Brasilia, Abul-Magd noted that economic, trade, and cultural cooperation are among the top objectives for the expansion of bilateral relations between the two countries. According to figures shared by Abul-Magd, Egypt is one of the top destinations for Brazilian exports among the Arab countries. During the first half of this year Brazilian exports to Egypt came to around $768 million. During the same period, Brazilian imports from Egypt came in at around $315 million. Brazilian exports to Egypt for the first six months of the year dropped by 14 per cent, but Brazilian imports from Egypt saw a 215 per cent rise. However, according to Abul-Magd, these figures do not reflect the actual potential for trade relations between two economies the size of Egypt and Brazil, who are not only two main emerging economies but also each can serve the other as a gateway to their respective regions and markets. Egypt has a free-trade agreement with MERCOSUR, the South American trade bloc, that was signed in 2017. Since this agreement went into effect, Egyptian exports to the four member states of the group, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, have increased by around 115 per cent. The potential to expand trade with MERCOSUR is very high. We held the bilateral joint Egypt-MERCOSUR trade talks earlier this month to assess progress and address any potential impediments to fully benefiting from this important agreement, Egypts ambassador in Brasilia said. Abul-Magd added that the despite our satisfaction with the gradual growth in trade between our two countries, we are working hard to expand our economic relations beyond just the import and export of goods and products to the broader realms of mutual investments, joint ventures, exchange of expertise, and cooperation in broader areas such as information technology, pharmaceuticals, and much more, commensurate with the capabilities of both countries. We also need to do more to familiarise businesses on both sides of the opportunities available in both countries for mutual investments, particularly in the free-trade zones and the industrial zones, he said. He added that direct flights between Cairo and Brasilia once launched would be a game changer in the bilateral relations, facilitating more frequent high-level interaction, easier contacts between business communities on both sides, as well as more people-to-people interaction through increased tourism and cultural exchange. The details for launching these flights, he added, were currently being discussed between the competent bodies in the two capitals. I am hopeful things will move forward with the direct flights sooner rather than later, he said. But he declined to offer any specific dates. Abul-Magd said that the opening of a regional office of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce on the sidelines of the visit of Mourao to Cairo last week will surely help to move things forward. The chamber is constituted of world-class Brazilian businesses who have interests and investments in several Arab countries, he said, and hence they appreciate the potential gains incurred from having a presence in Egypt. I am confident that they will play a central role in building bridges and connecting businesses from both sides as well as providing relevant information and data with regard to potential trade and investment opportunities both in Brazil and in Egypt, Abul-Magd said. He added that the two countries, with their two very rich cultures, have a lot more work to do to expand their cultural cooperation. I am really inspired and impressed by the interest that Brazilians have in Ancient Egyptian culture and civilization and I am sure they will be equally fascinated by other aspects of our civilisational heritage be it the Coptic Christian, Graeco-Roman, or Islamic, and I am confident that once direct flights are operating the volume of tourism between the two countries will jump dramatically, he said. Government statistics indicate that the average number of tourists coming from Brazil to Egypt on an annual basis during the past five years has not gone far beyond half a million. In 2017, upon the signing of the free-trade agreement with MERCOSUR, the Ministry of Tourism targeted a doubling of this figure. However, things have not picked up. Abul-Magd partially attributes this to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global travel and tourism industry as well as the consequent economic slowdown worldwide which have taken their toll on the overall volume of international tourism. He said that as we gradually recover from the effects of the pandemic and when direct flights start operating, the situation would improve. On the political front, he said that the visit of the vice president to Egypt was also an opportunity to update him of the most recent developments regarding regional issues particularly as Brazil is about to assume a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council starting 2022. We are in constant consultation with officials in Brasilia. We keep them fully updated, and we trust that Brazil will continue to uphold its traditional positions based on the respect of International law and the peaceful settlement of disputes, Abul-Magd said. In New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings a couple of weeks ago, foreign minister SamehShoukri met with his Brazilian counterpart Carlos Franca. The talks took place shortly before the visit of the vice-president of Brazil to Egypt "we hope these high-level engagements will usher in expanded cooperation on all fronts, the Ambassador added. Mourao visited Cairo on his way to take part in the Expo2020 in Dubai. His trip will also see him visit Athens, Greece. *A version of this article appears in print in the 7 October, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri paid a three-day visit to Moscow this week during which he met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. The two top diplomats discussed bilateral relations as well as the latest developments in the Libyan crisis and the situation in Syria, and Shoukri conveyed a message from President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Shoukri also met with Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev to discuss ways to boost cooperation and coordination between Cairo and Moscow. Rakha Hassan, a former assistant to Egypts foreign minister, told Al-Ahram Weekly both states agree on the importance of combating extremism and terrorism on the bilateral and international levels, solving the problem in the Middle East and settling differences among its countries in order to focus more on the development of the region. Shoukris visit came less than two months after Minister of Defence and Military Production Mohamed Zaki headed a high-level military delegation to Moscow. Zaki attended the seventh meeting of the Egyptian-Russian Joint Military Committee and held talks that aimed to enhance military cooperation between the two countries. Regular visits reflect the growth in relations between Cairo and Moscow, says political science professor Nourhan Al-Sheikh. Moscow helped with most of the major projects implemented in Egypt during the 1950s and 1960s. It also aided Egypt with the launch of satellites for scientific research in 2014 and 2019 and is a partner in many development projects, not least the Dabaa nuclear power station. According to Hassan, the visits provide an opportunity to discuss and coordinate stands in the light of regional developments in various important files in the region. Citing the Syrian crisis, he said the two states needed to address opening the Syrian-Jordanian border, plans to deliver Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon via Jordanian and Syrian pipelines, and ways to return Syria to the Arab League, a demand that both Cairo and Moscow are pushing for. On the Libyan issue, Hassan says both states need to discuss the fate of mercenaries, and whether they should withdraw simultaneously, before or after the presidential and parliamentary elections due in December. On the bilateral level, military cooperation is a key element in the growing relations between Egypt and Russia. Since 2014, Egypt has signed several military deals to buy Russian weapons, including fighter jets, assault helicopters, air defence systems, and frigates. Egypt and Russia have also held regular joint military exercises since 2016 that have bolstered their military relationship. In addition to the Dabaa nuclear power plant project, likely to cost $25 billion, the two countries have signed an agreement to establish a Russian industrial sector in the Suez Canal Economic Zone which is expected to increase the number of Russian companies and investments in Egypt and generate thousands of jobs. Yet despite cooperating on various bilateral and regional projects, said a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity, Moscow failed to support Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam [GERD] before the UN Security Council. Cairo, added the diplomat, had expected full Russian support on the GERD file, and when that support was not forthcoming Egypts local media widely criticised Moscow, describing its position towards Cairo during the session as unfriendly. The tensions first surfaced when Russian representative Vasily Nebenzya told the Security Council in July that diplomacy is the only option for resolving the disputes surrounding GERD. Days later, Moscow and Addis Ababa signed a military agreement. El-Sheikh believes the media campaign was misdirected, pointing out that the Russian ambassador to Egypt had explained that Russia fully supports a return to negotiations. Egypt was for long a favoured destination among Russian tourists. By 2014, Russia was dominating Egypts tourism market, especially in the Red Sea resorts, with the number of Russian tourists surpassing 3.1 million that year. In October 2015, following the downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai, Moscow ended all direct flights between Russia and Egypt. The ban was finally lifted in July this year and Egyptian operators are hopeful that Russian tourist numbers will soon recover. Relations with Russia date back to 1943, when Egypt and the then Soviet Union exchanged ambassadors. Bilateral relations reached an apex in the 1950s and 1960s when Egypt was awash with Soviet experts. The Soviet Union was Egypts principal arms supplier from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, when president Anwar Al-Sadat began a reorientation toward the US. Relations have been growing since President Al-Sisi came to power in 2014, a year in which trade between the two states saw an 80 per cent rise. In October 2018, presidents Al-Sisi and Putin signed a comprehensive partnership agreement covering military, security, trade, and economic cooperation. In December 2020, Egypts parliament ratified a second bilateral comprehensive agreement under which two countries agreed to exchange regular visits at the presidential level, and the level of foreign and defence ministers. *A version of this article appears in print in the 7 October, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: The US national security advisors stop in Cairo as part of a regional tour provided an opportunity to touch base on a range of issues of mutual interest to Egypt and the US. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivans regional tour last week included Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The visit covered a range of complex and interrelated issues. In Egypt, according to a statement from the Egyptian Presidency, Sullivan and President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi discussed Palestine, Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Tunisia, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). According to unofficial sources, they also discussed the US administrations decision to withhold $130 million in US military assistance to Egypt over human rights concerns. Observers in Egypt strongly criticised the decision, claiming it failed to take into account positive developments in human rights, including Egypts recently launched National Strategy for Human Rights. Sullivans visit to Cairo followed Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts visit to Sharm El-Sheikh to meet with President Al-Sisi. The Israeli prime minister was quoted in the Israeli press as describing the meeting as important and very good. An Egyptian source told Al-Ahram Weekly that Bennetts trip had raised hopes that it may be possible to revive the peace process, though that remained conditional on rehabilitating the Palestinian question after years of deferral. The US has a crucial role in this process, said the source, who added that Washington appreciates the importance of Egypt in securing the ceasefire between Palestinian factions and Israel. Egypt also has a critical role to play in the reconstruction of Gaza, another subject on the agenda of Sullivans visit, together with an Egyptian-brokered Palestinian-Israeli prisoner exchange deal. According to a statement by US National Security Council Spokesperson Emily Horne, these subjects, as well as the outcomes of Bennetts visit, would form the framework of Sullivans talks with Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata during the latters visit to Washington on 5 October. Horne said that while in Egypt, Sullivan would discuss Egypts role in promoting security and prosperity for both Israelis and Palestinians following the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to Egypt earlier this month. The same Egyptian source spoke of a shared Egyptian and US belief in the need to push the Palestinian-Israeli issue forward, and said Hornes statement underscored the confidence Washington has in Egypts contributions to this process. On Libya, another area where Egypt has an important peace-making role, the presidency said discussions reflected the alignment of views on the need to intensify joint coordination between the two sides and international partners on preparations for holding the upcoming elections, ensuring the withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign forces, and uniting security and military institutions. According to sources in Egypt, there considerable factors overlap between Cairos and Washingtons approach to the Libyan question, though shades of difference remain over some details. Both sides are determined to help the Libyans hold elections on schedule in December, and to push for the removal of foreign mercenaries from the war-torn country. In a noteworthy development, the day after Sullivans visit to Egypt the Libyan foreign minister announced that some progress has been made on the issue. Meanwhile, the 5+5 Joint Military Commission is scheduled to meet in Geneva this week to discuss security-related issues ahead of the poll. While the US is focussed more on the presence of the Russian Wagner Group in Libya, Cairo wants Ankara to reduce the Turkish military presence and to remove the thousands of mercenaries it introduced. Libyan sources told the Weekly that while some of the mercenaries will be evacuated as a confidence-building step, Turkey is insisting on maintaining the military bases it established within the framework of agreements concluded with Libyas former Government of National Accord. As Sullivan headed to Cairo the commander of the US Africa Command, General Stephen Townsend, was concluding a two-day visit to Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria to push for the implementation of the Libyan roadmap leading to elections. In Tripoli he met with the 5+5 Joint Military Commission. Following the meeting he said: We [US Africa Command] also support the UN-facilitated political reconciliation process and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Libya. His meeting with the 5+5 Joint Military Commission was a gesture of US support for the reunification of the Libyan military establishment, a goal Cairo has long been promoting. According to UN sources, UN peace-keeping forces will soon be deployed in Sirte. Egyptian sources say the issue should be discussed with Cairo given its crucial role in paving the way to the Libyan ceasefire agreement in October 2020. In June that year, President Al-Sisi had declared a red line from the central coastal town of Sirte southwards, effectively forcing a halt to hostilities on that front. He made it clear that the area east of the line fell within the immediate realm of Egypts national security. Iraq was another subject on the agenda of the meeting between Sullivan and Al-Sisi. The US is winding down its military presence in Iraq, transferring most of its remaining troops to Kuwait, and will retain only a small presence for training purposes. Egypt, meanwhile, is part of the tripartite mechanism for development and cooperation recently agreed between Cairo, Baghdad, and Amman. Observers in Iraq say the development track is now vying with Irans militarisation project in Iraq. According to Iraqi political analyst Ihsan Al-Shammari, head of the Iraqi Centre for Political Thought, the situation is governed by Arab regional balances: what is important it to restore stability to Iraq and not to reduce the situation to one side against the other. He also believes that efforts to help Iraq recover its regional role will help alleviate tensions, citing Baghdads hosting of the Saudi-Iranian dialogue as a case in point. According to observers, the US is encouraging the tripartite mechanism, as evidenced by Washingtons support for the gas supply line to Lebanon which will pass through Jordan and Syria. On GERD, Egypt continues to favour resolving outstanding differences diplomatically. Washington has been sympathetic to Egypts position. According to the presidencys statement, Sullivan renewed the US administrations commitment to exerting efforts in order to ensure Egypts water rights, in a way that preserves the water and development rights of all parties. It is difficult to say at this point how Washington might pressure Addis Ababa on this issue, though some believe the US might impose fresh sanctions on Addis Ababa in relation to what the UN has described as gross human rights violations during the conflict in the Tigray region. In mid-September, the UN Security Council adopted a statement calling on Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan to resume negotiations over GERD under the auspices of the African Union which Egypts Foreign Ministry welcomed as encouraging. Sullivans visit to Cairo followed an aborted coup attempt in Khartoum. Tensions are running high within the transitional authority, against a backdrop of growing economic concerns and security-related problems in eastern Sudan. Cairo is keen to support the political framework in Sudan and keep the country from a precipitous slide, an outlook that Washington shares. *A version of this article appears in print in the 7 October, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Next weeks parliamentary poll in Iraq will determine not only the government of the country, but whether Iraq has a viable future as a state. After months of preparations, Iraqis go to polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament which will then choose the prime minister, president, and government. Voters will elect 329 members of the Council of Deputies in polls that were originally scheduled for next year but then brought forward after demonstrators took to the streets in 2019 to protest against rampant corruption, poor services, and a political class perceived to be interested only in enriching itself. The key question now is whether the vote will bring about a drastic change in Iraqs politics and sound the death knell of the forces entrenched in government and which have overseen the massive spread of corruption and mismanagement. There is a great deal at stake. For Iraq to escape its current political quagmire the entire political system needs to be rebuilt, democracy strengthened, the economy revived and the existing kleptocracy eliminated. Protecting Iraqs sovereignty and curtailing foreign interference in the face of rising Iranian influence and Turkish military incursions, will also weigh heavily on voters minds. Iraqs Shia political factions, which following Saddam Husseins fall maintained a more or less united front and succeeded in dominating the government, are hoping Iraqs majority Shia population will secure their political power. Yet deep differences between the various Shia groups mean they will be running separately in the election, opening the polls up to fierce competition. The Sadrist Movement, named after its leader, cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, is hoping to emerge as the largest faction in parliament and have a decisive say in the formation of the government. The Sadr-led Saeroon alliance won 54 seats in the 2018 election, making it the largest parliamentary grouping, and used its parliamentary sway to expand its control over vast swathes of the state. Al-Fatah Alliance, a grouping of the political wings of pro-Iranian Shia militias, came second in 2018 with 48 seats. It is headed by Hadi Al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organisation, and includes Asaib Ahl Al-Haq and Katab Hizbullah , both groups with strong ties to Tehran. Former prime minister Haider Al-Abadi, and the Hikma Movement of Shia cleric Ammar Al-Hakim, have joined forces to create the National State Forces Alliance. A bloc led by Al-Abadi came third in 2018, winning 42 seats, a performance he hopes the new alliance can surpass. Nouri Al-Maliki, leader of the Islamic Dawa Party and prime minister between 2006 and 2014, heads the State of Law Coalition which won 25 seats in 2018. The fact that Al-Maliki is widely blamed for fuelling corruption and failing to confront the Islamic State could impact on the coalitions chances at the polls. Sunni Arabs are fielding candidates in three main groups along with dozens of independent candidates. Parliament Speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi leads the Taqaddum, while Khamis Al-Khanjar, a business tycoon, and former speaker Osama Al-Najafi, each lead a rival group. Widely seen as divided and weak the Sunni parties tend to appeal to tribal and clan loyalties they are unlikely to succeed in rivalling Shia power. Iraqs northern Kurds, who under Iraqs post-Saddam constitution form an autonomous region, care more about consolidating their position, and the mechanics of power and wealth sharing in the autonomous region, than who controls parliament or central government. The two main Kurdish parties, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which dominates the Kurdish government in the capital Erbil, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which controls areas along the Iranian border, are fielding candidates in the national election in hope of advancing their agendas. The KDP won 25 seats in 2018, the PUK 18, followed by a number of smaller parties. They will again retain the lions share of Kurdish votes, but under the new electoral law the Kurds may lose some of the 58 seats which they won in 2018. While much attention has been focused on younger voters, particularly those who took part in the 2019 anti-establishment protests, the consensus is that it is a demographic beset by apathy, and which has little hope the polls will result in changes in the way Iraq is governed. A number of protest leaders who wanted to stand in the election have been kidnapped or assassinated, forcing others to abandon the race and call for a boycott. Fears are now growing that the turnout will be low. In the face of a devastated economy, subdued campaigning by the same old faces, and a surge in coronavirus cases, voter apathy is running deep among the countrys 25 million eligible voters. As the deadline for receiving ballot cards ended this week, the High Election Commission reported that only 17 million biometric voting cards had been delivered, feeding concerns that a low voter turnout could trigger a crisis of legitimacy. Iraqs senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, has called for wide participation in the elections, saying that despite shortcomings voting remains the best way for Iraqis to take part in shaping their countrys future. He also urged voters to make a good choice in selecting candidates. Low turnout is one problem. Another will be ensuring the credibility of the results. The government has called for the UN and the European Union to play a role in monitoring the polls, and invited foreign embassies in Baghdad to observe the vote and certify the election is fair and free. But while the government thinks foreign observers can give the poll legal cover, large swathes of the public are sceptical about whether international observers have any objective way of validating the vote. The UN mission, in any case, provides technical electoral assistance, making it impossible for it to assume an observer role, while the EUs team has remained non-committal over whether its final report on the election process will be made public. As Shia rivals make claims and counterclaims over their shares of voter support there are mounting fears that the vote will be followed by accusations of irregularities and manipulation which could spill over into violence, and even lead to the collapse of the political system. The upcoming election clearly represents a turning point for Iraqs increasingly fragmented politics. Whatever the outcome, the election will bring extraordinary challenges that test the Iraqi state and society at a time when it is facing multiple political, social, and security problems and a raging pandemic. While the chances are that Iraqs political class will be able to overcome their bickering to form a new government, following the usual long drawn-out process, tensions between the entrenched elite and the pressing need for change triggered by the protest movement could easily be exacerbated. What does seem clear is that Iraqs political system is nearing the end of its course and needs a radical reinvention. If the election fails to hasten this process the political system will not be the only casualty. Ongoing conflicts, and the challenges of reconstruction and reintegration, will serve only to exacerbate sectarian tensions, and in a way that could herald the break-up of Iraq. *A version of this article appears in print in the 7 October, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Iran is negotiating with the Biden administration over a return to the nuclear talks, but it still has its eyes on the former Trump presidency There is growing unease in Western capitals about prospects for the resumption of negotiations on the nuclear deal with Iran, with the last few days being full of conflicting signals. Tehran has for the first time set out what looks like a timetable for the resumption of the nuclear negotiations, but the US has hardened its tone and reiterated that it has other options in the event of the failure of negotiations with Iran. Optimism about a successful outcome is waning in the European capitals amid the growing realisation that Tehran is negotiating with the Biden administration while setting its sights on former US president Donald Trump. Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi want guarantees that in the event of a return to the nuclear agreement, the deal must be protected from a unilateral withdrawal of any country, as happened during the administration of former president Trump. In 2018, Trump withdrew the US from the multilateral deal and began reimposing a wide range of sanctions on Iran. Tehran has gradually rolled back its nuclear commitments since 2019. A European diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly that the European capitals understand Irans concerns, but there are political complexities that stand in the way of its demands. The most that the Biden administration can achieve is to resume negotiations with Tehran and return to the agreement, but giving guarantees related to the behaviour of future US administrations is not viable, he added. As much as Iran wants and needs the international community to return to the nuclear deal, it would be catastrophic for Iran, Khamenei and the conservatives in the country to return to the deal only to see it binned again under a new US administration. While Iran is stuck between a rock and a hard place on the deal, it also has to keep moving. For the first time since Raisis election, Tehran has suggested a date for a possible return to the negotiating table. Iran foresees the talks could be resuming by early November, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday. I dont think it will take us the same amount of time as it took the Biden administration to come, Khatibzadeh said, referring to US diplomats indirectly joining the Vienna talks. The government of [President] Ebrahim Raisi has been in power for fewer than 55 days I dont think that the [return to the talks] will take as long as 90 days, he added, indicating that Iran believes the talks will be underway again by the second week of November. While Khatibzadeh reiterated that Tehran was ready to resume the talks soon, he cautioned that details and issues needed to be reviewed. The biggest issue is the removal of the 800 new unilateral and illegal sanctions imposed on Iran after Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear deal back in May 2018. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has demanded assets worth $10 billion to be released as a goodwill gesture. He said that US officials had used intermediaries at the UN meetings last month to discuss the restarting of the nuclear talks, but he insisted that Washington must first release the frozen funds as a sign of goodwill. Iran has been unable to obtain tens of billions of dollars of its assets in foreign banks, mainly from exports of oil and gas, due to US sanctions on its banking and energy sectors. The Americans tried to contact us through different channels [at the UN General Assembly] in New York, and I told the mediators that if Americas intentions are serious then a serious indication was needed... by releasing at least $10 billion of blocked money, Amirabdollahian said. They are not willing to free $10 billion belonging to the Iranian nation, so that we can say that the Americans once in the past several decades considered the interests of the Iranian nation, he added. The Western powers have urged Iran to return to the negotiations and said time is running out as Tehrans nuclear programme is advancing well beyond the limits set by the earlier deal. Amirabdollahian reiterated that Iran would soon return to the stalled nuclear talks but declined to give a date. Tehran says the steps it has taken on its nuclear programme are reversible if Washington lifts the sanctions. Iranian and Western officials have said many issues remain to be resolved before the accord can be revived. But Germany said it would reject any Iranian demands for the US to release frozen Iranian assets as a condition for the nuclear talks to resume, its Foreign Ministry said on Monday. If new conditions are being set by Iran for the talks to be resumed, then we reject that, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said. We call on Iran to resume the talks as soon as possible, the spokesman added, saying he expected an agreement on a specific date. Meanwhile, top US officials told their Israeli counterparts on Tuesday that the Biden administration remained committed to diplomacy with Iran, but it would be prepared to pursue other avenues to ensure Tehran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, a senior US official said. A visit to Washington by Israeli National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata will allow the two allies to share intelligence and develop a baseline assessment of how far Tehrans nuclear programme has advanced, the official said. Under the 2015 deal, Iran curbed its uranium enrichment programme, a possible pathway to nuclear arms, in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. Then-US president Donald Trump quit the deal in 2018. In broad terms, US experts believe that the time it would take Iran to achieve nuclear breakout enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb has gone from about 12 months down to a period of about a few months since Trump pulled out of the pact, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Obviously, that is quite alarming, the official told reporters ahead of Hulatas talks with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Iran has consistently denied it is developing nuclear weapons. Echoing Bidens stance that the US remains committed to a diplomatic path, the US official said that if that doesnt work, there are other avenues to pursue, and we are fully committed to ensuring that Iran never develops a nuclear weapon. Asked what actions were under consideration and whether they included military options, the official said well be prepared to take measures that are necessary but did not elaborate. The official said that Iran was sending indications to a number of parties that they are preparing to come back to Vienna, where the US and Iran held indirect talks earlier this year. But he signalled that obstacles remain, referring to Tehrans demand for the US to first release $10 billion of Tehrans frozen funds as a sign of goodwill, something the Biden administration has shown no willingness to do. The European capitals find themselves in a delicate situation as returning to the nuclear deal has proven to be much more difficult than they may have envisioned. The conservatives in Iran do not want to suffer the same slap in the face that the reformists suffered. As for the Biden administration, as the Europeans discovered during the hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August, its foreign policies are designed to address domestic audiences, leaving only a very narrow road for success on the global stage. *A version of this article appears in print in the 7 October, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Search Keywords: Short link: Donald Trump intends to assert executive privilege in a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, a move that could prevent the testimony of onetime aides, according to a letter on behalf of the former president. Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas on July 11, 2021. [File photo: AFP] The letter went to at least some witnesses who were subpoenaed by the House committee and it makes clear that Trump plans to invoke privileges meant to protect presidential communications from being shared with Congress. The substance of the letter from a lawyer for Trump was described Thursday by a person familiar with it who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the letter was not yet public. Spokespeople for Trump did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Trump said in a statement last month that he would fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country. The move sets the stage for a likely clash with House Democrats who are investigating the roles of Trump and his allies in the run-up to the riot, when a large mob of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol as Congress was certifying the results of the presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden. The committee is rapidly issuing subpoenas to individuals who are either connected to Trump or who helped plan the massive rally on the morning of Jan. 6 at which he told his supporters to fight like hell." The committee, which was formed over the summer, last month issued subpoenas to Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff; Dan Scavino, the former deputy chief of staff for communications; Kashyap Patel, a former Defense Department official; and Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser. It was not immediately clear how those witnesses would respond to Trumps action or what consequences they might face if they refuse to cooperate. Patel said in a statement that he will continue to tell the American people the truth about January 6. It did not say whether he would comply. Committee members have said they plan to try and move swiftly to obtain testimony and documents should any witnesses refuse to cooperate. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tweeted that if the Trump associates do not comply, they can be subject to criminal contempt. Charging the Trump associates with contempt could still be a lengthy process, including votes of the full House and potential court proceedings. Because Trump no longer is in office, he cannot directly assert privilege to keep witnesses quiet or documents out of the hands of Congress. As the current president, Biden will have some say in the matter. The committee has issued more than a dozen subpoenas to people linked to plans for the Jan. 6 protests, including three additional witnesses announced Thursday. Those individuals would be less likely to get help from Trumps executive privilege claims, which would be limited to people who worked in the White House. The committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said subpoenas had gone to Ali Abdul Akbar, also known as Ali Alexander, and Nathan Martin, as well the organization Stop the Steal, " to learn more about a rally that was planned on the Capitol grounds at the same time as the larger gathering on the National Mall. The committee earlier subpoenaed 11 other individuals connected to the planning of that larger rally. According to the committee, Alexander released a statement after the riot linking Stop the Steal to the Capitol rally permit and explaining that the intention was to direct attendees of the larger rally to march to the Capitol. The panel cited reports that Alexander had made reference to the possible use of violence to achieve the organizations goals and had been in communication with the White House and members of Congress. The rally on the Capitol grounds on January 6th, like the rally near the White House that day, immediately preceded the violent attack on the seat of our democracy," Thompson said in a statement. Over the course of that day, demonstrations escalated to violence and protestors became rioters. Thompson said the committee needs to understand all the details about the events that came before the attack, including who was involved in planning and funding them. Alexander has claimed lawmakers helped him plan the rally that led to the siege on the Capitol. He has been in Trumps orbit for a few years, even being among the participants of Trump's Presidential Social Media Summit in July 2019 that included dozens of other conservative voices and far-right provocateurs. In October 2020, the Arizona Republican Party appeared to ask supporters to consider giving their lives to keep Trump in office, retweeting Alexanders pledge on Twitter that he was willing to give my life for this fight. KYODO NEWS - Oct 8, 2021 - 14:17 | All, Japan, Coronavirus The health ministry said Friday that it has signed a contract with U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. to receive an additional 120 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine starting in January. Shigeyuki Goto, the new minister of health, labor and welfare, said at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting that "we will work toward the smooth provision of vaccines." The contract was signed on Thursday. The government has already signed contracts to import an additional 50 million doses of U.S. biotechnology firm Moderna Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine next year and 150 million vaccine doses of U.S. pharmaceutical giant Novavax Inc. with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., which will handle the vaccine distribution in Japan. The country decided in September to start administering third shots of coronavirus vaccines by the end of this year to increase protection. The health ministry is considering who will be eligible for the third shots and the newly contracted Pfizer vaccine is also expected to be used. According to the ministry, Pfizer's Japanese subsidiary has submitted an application to change part of the approved content to allow for the third shots. KYODO NEWS - Oct 8, 2021 - 06:42 | All, World A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine collided with an unidentified object while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region last weekend, the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet said Thursday, while reporting no life-threatening injuries. The Connecticut struck an object while submerged Saturday afternoon, but the fast-attack submarine remains in a "safe and stable condition," according to the press release. CNN said the incident took place in the South China Sea and a number of sailors on board were injured. While the submarine's nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational, the extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed, the Pacific Fleet said. The announcement came as tensions have been growing between Washington and Beijing over the Chinese military's increasingly frequent incursions into Taiwan's air defense identification zone. The United States, Japan and other U.S. allies also engaged in military exercises over the past weekend in waters southwest of Okinawa, which involved three U.S. and British aircraft carriers as well as Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers and other ships, according to the MSDF. KYODO NEWS - Oct 8, 2021 - 14:25 | World, All, Japan North Korea has reiterated that the issue of its abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s has been "already resolved," after new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to make efforts to settle the long-standing matter. Pyongyang also warned that bilateral relations would worsen further unless Tokyo changes its stance on the abduction issue, in a statement released Thursday, in which the nuclear-armed nation first referred to the Kishida administration formed earlier this week. "The abduction issue was long ago resolved perfectly and completely with the visits to Pyongyang by the then Japanese prime minister in September 2002 and May 2004, and the subsequent sincerity and efforts from our side," a researcher of North Korea's Foreign Ministry said, mentioning the visits by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Following the launch of his Cabinet on Monday, Kishida said at a press conference that he is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "without preconditions" to resolve the issue of the country's past abductions of Japanese nationals. North Korea, however, said, "The key to DPRK-Japan relations is thorough apology and reparation for the immeasurable human, material and mental loss inflicted upon our nation," the researcher studying Japanese affairs said in the statement. DPRK is the acronym of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name. "It is most likely that DPRK-Japan relations would be set gloomier if the Japanese prime minister makes a wrong start from the beginning, as he is doing now," the researcher added. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 through the end of World War II in 1945. Pyongyang and Tokyo have no diplomatic ties. On Friday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a regular news conference, "We cannot totally accept the claim that the abduction issue has been already resolved," adding that settling the matter is a "top priority for our Cabinet." "We will do our best to achieve the return of victims as soon as possible," said Matsuno, the government's top spokesman who doubles as minister in charge of the abduction issue. Since five abductees were brought back to Japan in 2002, Tokyo has been seeking the return of 12 others whom it has officially recognized as having been abducted by North Korea. It also suspects North Korea's engagement in other Japanese citizens' disappearances. Pyongyang has argued that the abduction issue has been "already resolved," saying eight of them, including the iconic abductee Megumi Yokota, have died and the other four never entered the country. In May 2014, when Kishida served as foreign minister, Japan and North Korea reached an accord in Stockholm on principles for negotiations toward the settlement of the abduction issue. Japan relaxed its sanctions on Pyongyang, which in turn promised a full-scale investigation into it. But North Korea repeatedly postponed reporting the survey results. The nation then disbanded its investigation team and suspended the probe after Japan levied further sanctions in February 2016 in reaction to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests. North Korea is banned from firing ballistic missiles under U.N. Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions on the country. By Ryotaro Nakamaru, KYODO NEWS - Oct 8, 2021 - 17:55 | All, Japan Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday vowed to implement a "new capitalism" to put the world's third-largest economy on a growth track and redistribute the fruits of that success to build up a stronger middle class in his first policy speech since taking office. Addressing the lower house of parliament, he also promised to bolster the government's response to COVID-19 while laying out plans for a sweeping review of security strategy and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific in the face of an increasingly assertive China and missile threats from North Korea. "Only when we properly distribute the fruits of growth will we be able to realize more growth," Kishida said, arguing that neoliberal policies had created a "deep rift between the haves and the have-nots." As part of his strategy to spark economic growth, the prime minister said his government will invest in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence and seek legislation to prevent the leakage of technology to overseas competitors. Kishida also said Japan will promote drastic monetary easing and fiscal spending to ward off deflation as did former prime ministers Shinzo Abe and Yoshihide Suga. But Kishida's comments on redistribution appeared aimed at addressing criticism that "Abenomics" had boosted corporate earnings and stock prices but that the benefits had failed to trickle down to the middle class. Kishida, who took office Monday after being named leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, promised to implement tax incentives for companies that raise wages. The speech was essentially a list of the LDP's campaign promises for an upcoming general election. The prime minister is set to dissolve the House of Representatives next Thursday for a vote Oct. 31, looking to capitalize on a lull in COVID-19 cases and leaving the opposition scrambling to organize. On COVID-19, Kishida warned against becoming complacent following the lifting of the state of emergency and vaccination progress, pledging to ready booster shots and medical treatments as well as legislation to make it easier for the government to impose restrictions on movement and secure medical resources when future waves of infections happen. "The key to crisis management is to be always prepared for the worst-case scenario," Kishida said, adding that cash handouts will become available for businesses hit hard by the pandemic, as well as people in need such as those without regular employment or who are raising children. Throughout the speech, he emphasized the importance of communication and building trust, whether with the public or with other countries, seemingly an acknowledgement of the poor articulation of policy that eventually forced his predecessor Suga to resign after just over a year in office. Quoting an African proverb -- "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together" -- Kishida made the case for building "a kind and warm society based on human connection." Yukio Edano, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, blasted the speech as "filled with pretty words but having no substance." "There wasn't a word on giving married couples the option to use separate surnames or LGBTQ issues," he told reporters. Turning to foreign policy, Kishida vowed to work with partners including fellow members of the so-called Quad -- Australia, India and the United States -- to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region, an undertaking that comes amid China's growing economic influence and military buildup. Maintaining stable Japan-China relations is important for the region and the international community as a whole, but Japan will cooperate with like-minded countries to "say what needs to be said," the prime minister said. In order to counter threats including North Korea's recent resumption of ballistic missile tests, the government will revise its National Security Strategy, drawn up in 2013 under Abe, as well as the National Defense Program Guidelines and the Medium Term Defense Program, he said. Kishida also reiterated he is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "without preconditions" to resolve the issue of the country's abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s. On Russia, the prime minister said there can be no signing of a postwar peace treaty without first resolving a decades-long territorial dispute, and that he wants to build a relationship with President Vladimir Putin to push negotiations forward. Kishida, who hails from a political family in Hiroshima, said that as the only country to be hit by an atomic bomb in war, Japan will serve as a bridge between nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states to work toward "a world without nuclear arms." On constitutional revision, he said he expects constructive debate in parliament and more public discussion on a way forward. The LDP has proposed a set of four amendments including the addition of a reference to the Self-Defense Forces in the war-renouncing Article 9 in order to legitimize their existence and giving the Cabinet the ability to wield emergency powers during national crises. Related coverage: Japan PM Kishida instructs Cabinet to compile economic package Kishida Cabinet's approval rate at 55% ahead of general election Japan to consider when to restart "Go To Travel" tourism campaign New Delhi: Launching a fresh salvo at the Congress over the issue of national security, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday slammed the former and its mahagathbandhan friends for going soft on terror and accused them of weakening the fight against Jihadi terrorists. In his blag named Prime Minister Modis Evolving National Security Doctrine, Jaitley said that the Pulwama terror attack brought back into focus the key issue of national security. Slamming the opposition for linking the fight against terrorism with vote banks, he said: The Government led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee legislated POTA. It took the Government a joint session of both Houses of Parliament to approve the law. The Congress promised to repeal the law. The distinction between an anti-terrorism and an anti-minority law is significant. The Congress and its allies tried to obliterate that difference. Since then the Congress started going soft on terror. It started an appeasement of terror. Jaitley said the Congress party is one with the government on condemning Pulwama terror attack resulting in death of 41 CRPF jawans, but is disturbed about air strikes in Balakot, Pakistan. He said the Congress has repeatedly rubbished the surgical strikes of September 2016 and contends that they have either taken place in the past also or alternatively they never took place under Prime Minister Modi. "On the air strikes, their conduct is even more dubious," the minister said. While giving "lip sympathy" to the Indian Air Force for the first two days, the Congress started a multi-pronged attack and questioned the success of the strikes. The grand old party, Jaitley said, started demanding proof that terrorists had died at Balakot and even contended that the strike had taken place not against terror but to ensure BJP's victory in the forthcoming elections. "This was a self-goal by the Congress in domestic politics. This was also playing into the hands of Pakistan where statements of Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, were played out on television channels in Pakistan. "Pakistan Government cited these statements to bolster their own falsehood," Jaitley said in the blog. He further said the Congress had no structured plan during ten years of UPA on how to deal with the problems of Jammu and Kashmir. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi inherited this as a legacy issue. He experimented the conventional method of trying to soften the relationship with Pakistan in a hope that wiser sense would prevail, but Pakistan responded with Pathankot, Uri and Pulwama. "He encouraged the mainstream political parties of the Valley to be a part of the national coalition in Kashmir but unfortunately the double talk of support from Delhi and the pressure from the Jamat-e-Islami were to the detriment of anti-separatists policy," Jaitley said. The finance minister also said the BJP-led government, both at the Centre and in Chhattisgarh, had a consistently strong position against the Left wing extremism. "From JNU to Chhattisgarh, the Congress has struck a deal with them. There are increasing instances of Left wing extremists actively encouraging the Kashmiri Jehadis in the Kashmir valley. "The Congress does not oppose the idea of a pro-active approach in destroying terror at its point of origin. It is disturbed with regard to the political fallout of this pro-active approach on the image of Prime Minister," he said. At a time when India is battling ultra-Left and Jehadi terrorists, facing with serious threat of cross border terrorism, Jaitley wondered if electorate could trust those who have weakened the fight against terrorism. "This is a choice before the electorate in the 2019 general elections. Can an over-ground ally of Left wing extremism be put in power at New Delhi? Can those who have weakened the battle against terror for the cause of vote bank politics be trusted? "Should not those who have played into the Pakistani hands be taught a severe lesson in these elections? Unhesitatingly the answer to the above question is a big ?yes'. This country is safe and secure under the NDA Government led by Prime Minister Modi," he said. The Modi-led NDA government will be seeking a second term as 900 million people are expected to vote in the Lok Sabha elections beginning April 11. Counting of votes will be taken up on May 23. Several non-BJP parties like the Congress, SP, BSP, and TMC have joined hands to form a grand coalition 'Mahagathbandhan' to take on Narendra Modi-led NDA in the forthcoming elections. The polling will be held on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19 for 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country. In 2014, Modi-led BJP had won 282 seats out of 543 constituencies in the Lok Sabha, handing out a crushing defeat to the 10-year-rule of the United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto on Wednesday attacked Pakistan government for lack of action against groups that killed children in Pakistan and carried out attacks on foreign soil. Earlier, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had said no militant group would be allowed to operate from Pakistani soil to carry out attacks abroad, days after his government announced a crackdown against Islamist militant organisations. Bilawal Bhutto has claimed there are at least three ministers from Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party who have links to banned groups. Ties between India and Pakistan have plummeted since a Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed the Pulwama attack. On February 14, at least 42 CRPF personnel were killed in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district when a Jaish suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 30 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district that also left many critically wounded. More than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir. Earlier, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured the world that Pakistani soil will not be used for carrying out terrorist strikes in other countries. Addressing a public a rally at Chachro in southern Sindh province near border, Khan had accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of resorting to the "politics of hatred" and beating war drums just to win the coming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in May this year. "The politics of hatred, dividing people for votes, is easy politics. This is the politics of Narendra Modi. Divide humans, spread hatred and when a leader starts this, the workers under him do what we saw happened to the Kashmiris in India after Pulwama," Khan had said referring to a series of attacks on Kashmiris across the country. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: What can be termed as a major jolt for the Congress and NCP, Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar on Tuesday said his political front, Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh, will contest all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Making the announcement in Akola district, located around 590 km from Mumbai, Ambedkar said no further talks would be held with the Congress to join the anti-BJP coalition. The Congress and NCP have been working to forge a 'grand alliance' with the Prakash Ambedkars party against the BJP. "Several proposals were made for forging an alliance with the Congress but there hit a roadblock. We cannot negotiate further with the Congress leadership," Ambedkar told reporters. Asked how many seats his Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi would contest, he said, "We have already announced candidates on 22 seats and will declare the remaining names soon. We will contest 48 seats in Maharashtra." Ambedkar is likely to contest from Solapur Lok Sabha seat against senior Congress leader and former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. BJP's Sharad Bansode defeated Shinde in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll from Solapur. Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of the architect of Indian Constitution Dr B R Ambedkar, is founder of the Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh. He forged an alliance earlier with Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Maharashtra and has been holding rallies across state. New Delhi: Expelled Trinamool Congress MP Anupam Hazra on Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in presence of party's general secretary and in-charge of West Bengal affairs Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy in the national capital. Besides Hazra, Congress MLA Dulal Chandra Bar and CPM legislator Khagen Murmu also joined the party ahead of forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections. Earlier in the day, Hazra wrote on his Facebook - 'A fresh beginning.' Reacting to the development, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said that every individual was important for the party. "Hazra was suspended from the Trinamool because he was in touch with the BJP. BJP will be benefitted from this.. more people are likely to join us in the coming days," he said. Hazra, the MP from Bolpur, was suspended by Trinamool Congress in January. He was once considered very close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Time and again Anupam Hazra has done activities that don't match with the ideologies of the party. We have suspended him, Trinamool Secretary-General Partha Chatterjee had said at that time. Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal will begin on April 11 and polling would be held over seven phases through May 19, the Election Commission announced on Sunday. The Trinamool Congress, the BJP, the CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress will vie for 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. As per the News Nation poll survey in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (AITC) is projected to get 29 seats whereas the BJP and the Congress are likely to bag 9 and 2 seats respectively. Left Front may get 2 seats in Lok Sabha Elections 2019. As far as the vote share is concerned, the survey shows that the Trinamool Congress is likely to get 36 per cent votes, followed by the BJP (23 per cent), Left Front (23 per cent), and the Congress (10 per cent). New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sakshi Maharaj has demanded the Lok Sabha ticket from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh and warned the aconsequences may not be positivea if he is not given a ticket to contest. Sakshi Maharaj has registered a resounding performance from the Unnao constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In a letter to BJP state unit president Mahendra Nath Pandey, Sakshi Maharaj said: "I want to get your attention to the Unnao constituency. In this seat, I had won by three lakh fifteen thousand votes. Congress and BSP had to forfeit their deposits. SP was placed second. As per the SP-BSP alliance, this seat has been given to SP." "If from Unnao, the party decides to field any other candidate, then this would hurt crores of my workers in the state and across the country. Its consequence won't be positive." BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj in a letter to Mahendra Nath Pandey, UP BJP Chief: Therefore, I request you to approve my candidature from Unnao constituency once again for the upcoming #LokSabhaElection2019 https://t.co/jZNkufPTGW a ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 12, 2019 The BJP leader has also urged that he should once again be allowed to contest the Lok Sabha election from the Unnao constituency. He also claims that he would defeat his rivals by four to five lakh votes. "I would further like to add that I have no intention of fighting the election from any other constituency. I am confident that you would understand my emotions and will not allow any injustice to happen." Last year, Sakshi Maharaj had dared Congress president Rahul Gandhi to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls against him, saying he will leave politics if he defeats him. "I challenge Rahul Gandhi to contest the 2019 general elections against me (from Unnao). I will leave politics if he wins, but if he loses, he should leave (India) for Italy," the BJP MP had said. New Delhi: Amid buzz over Puri, latest media report says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to stick with Varanasi for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections. It should be noted that the temple town of Uttar Pradesh was the parliamentary constituency, which PM Modi had retained in 2014. Fiver years ago, on May 16, 2014, with over five lakhs votes, the Prime Minister registered a stunning victory. According to an NDTV report, the BJP feels that PM Modi contesting from Varanasi will also help the party in overall performance in the state. In 2014, BJP had won 71 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. PM Modis 2014 victory margin happened to be his first electoral attempt anywhere outside Gujarat. It was also the highest ever for the Lok Sabha seat.The NDTV report also said that its not PM Modi, but BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra who will contest from Odishas temple town. Varanasi will vote on May 19, in the last round of seven-phase polls that start on April 11. The results will be declared on May 23. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought people's "blessings" for the NDA in the Lok Sabha polls, saying his government has made possible what was earlier deemed impossible, but opposition parties said voters will throw it out of power for "wasting" its historic mandate and practising "all talk no work".As the Election Commission declared a seven-phase general election starting April 11, political parties welcomed the much-awaited announcement with the ruling alliance making a pitch for its re-election while its rival expressing confidence of unseating it. Seeking people's support for the BJP, its president Amit Shah said the Modi government has taken bold decisions for their welfare in its first term and will ensure India's giant leap to make everyone "happy and prosperous" in its second. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government has achieved "phenomenal results" in various spheres of governance during this term, he said, citing a number of its welfare initiatives. (With agency inputs) Mumbai: Budget carrier IndiGo is offering jobs to pilots of Jet Airways along with compensation for overdue salaries from the cash-strapped full-service airline. IndiGo, the country's largest airline in terms of market share, Tuesday also said that all job offers are in line with its current terms and conditions. Crisis-hit Jet Airways has not paid salaries to its pilots, engineers and other senior management for more than three months now. "IndiGo is offering Jet Airways' pilots job opportunities," an IndiGo spokesperson told PTI. The no-frills airline's response came to queries on whether it was looking to hire pilots from Jet Airways and also offering them significant amount as joining bonuses. The queries were sent to IndiGo's Chief Operating Officer Wolfgang Prock-Schauer. "We are not offering a signing bonus. We are offering a compensation for overdue salaries," the spokesperson said. On whether IndiGo is offering a bonus after third year of contract for pilots who would join from Jet Airways, the spokesperson replied in the negative. Regarding shortage of pilots, IndiGo said it has an internal upgrade programme in place and is able to upgrade pilots in sufficient manner. "Our pilot hiring programme always includes hiring from the market and Jet Airways is part of the external hiring programme," the spokesperson said. IndiGo is facing acute shortage of commanders amid aggressive expansion of its fleet. The carrier has more than 210 planes in its fleet. Earlier, an aviation industry source told PTI that IndiGo was wooing Jet Airways pilots with attractive pay packets to meet the shortage of commanders. "We are conducting open house interviews to getting contact with pilots. That's a common practice in the aviation industry not specific to Jet Airways," the spokesperson noted. Shortage of trained and experienced pilots has been a problem for domestic airlines amid capacity expansion to meet rising passenger traffic. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: SpiceJet Airlines, one of the major private players in India aviation sector, has decided to suspend the Boeing 737 MAX operations with immediate effect. The development comes after the aviation watchdog -DGCA- banned use of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Safety and security of our passengers, crew and operations are of utmost importance to us, SpiceJet said in a brief statement on Wednesday. We are abiding by the guidelines of DGCA and suspending Boeing 737 Max flights from today onwards, the airlines said on Twitter. The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday decided to ban the use of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft by the country's airline companies, official sources confirmed to News Nation. "DGCA has taken the decision to ground the Boeing 737-MAX planes immediately. These planes will be grounded till appropriate modifications and safety measures are undertaken to ensure their safe operations," the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a tweet. "As always, passenger safety remains our top priority. We continue to consult closely with regulators around the world, airlines, and aircraft manufacturers to ensure passenger safety," it added. Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said that he has directed DGCA Secretary to hold an emergency meeting with all the airlines to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to passenger. "Directed Secy to hold an emergency meeting with all Airlines to prepare a contingency plan to avoid inconvenience to passengers. While passenger safety is a zero tolerance issue, efforts are already on to minimise the impact on passenger movement as their convenience is important," he tweeted. The order basically means SpiceJet will have to immediately ground the 12-13 B 737 Max planes it has. The five such planes of Jet Airways are anyways grounded for quite some time now, from before the Ethiopian plane crash on Sunday, due to non-payment of lease rentals. In a tweet on Monday, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu had said that he directed the DGCA to undertake safety assessment of Boeing 737-MAX planes being flown by domestic carriers. The moves follows the growing number of countries and carriers grounding the Boeing 737 MAX 8, with some of them even banning the aircraft from their airspace following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that claimed 157 lives on Sunday. Countries other than India which have banned Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft European Union, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Singapore, South, Turkey and others. The crash of Ethiopian Airlines plane came five months after another Boeing 737 MAX 8 of Lion Air crashed in Indonesia that killed 189 passengers and crew. Reports said there were similarities between the Ethiopian and Indonesian air crashes as they both occurred during take-off, involving new aircraft that had just been delivered. On the other hand, despite a wave of countries grounding the Boeing aircraft involved in another deadly crash, US authorities on Tuesday said it would not make any decision until it has more evidence. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Assam government over inadequacies in the functioning of the foreigners' tribunal and sought details on it by March 27. A bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi along with Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna was informed by the Assam government that in past 10 years over 50,000 migrants were declared as foreigners by the tribunal. This has gone too far. This has become a joke, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said during the hearing. How seriously Assam is considering this matter is quite evident from the absence of any officer to brief you in the matter. An officer sitting here (resident commissioner) files affidavit on detention centres in Assam, the Supreme Court bench said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Assam government, said around 900 people were kept in six detention centres of the state. The bench said the state government would have to specify whether the foreigners tribunals functioning in the state were adequate and how they were functioning. You must have gone through the order passed by this court in 2005 where this court has said Assam is facing the threat of external aggression... We would like to know what Government of India and Assam has done about it to meet this threat of external aggression, the top court said on the issue as it recalled its 2005 order. The top court said at present it was not insisting on presence of Assam chief secretary in the court, but would like to know through an affidavit filed by the state whether foreigners tribunals functioning in the state were adequate or not. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday said that her party will not stich an alliance with the Congress in any state for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. aIt has been reiterated once again that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will not have any alliance with Congress party in any state, to contest the upcoming elections,a Mayawati was quoted by ANI as saying. The clarification by the BSP chief comes days after days after three of the party leaders a Pradeep Ahirwar, Devdutt Soni and Satyaprakash Sakhwar a shifted loyalty to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. The development comes as a setback for the Congress which was hoping to mend its ties with the BSP, which was forged an alliance with the Samajwadi Party and RLD in Uttar Pradesh.A In January this year, the SP and BSP announced their alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh and later included RLD in the pact, while elbowing out the Congress. Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati later extended their alliance in Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.A While the Samajwadis will field candidates on three of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, the BSP will contest on the remaining 26. Akhilesh's party will contest Balaghat, Tikamgarh, and Khajuraho seats in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, in the hill state of Uttarakhand which has just 5 Lok Sabha seats, the BSP has left Garhwal (Pauri) seat for Akhilesh's party, rest four will be fought by the BSP candidates.A A In UP, the BSP would contest on 38 seats, SP on 37 and RLD on three seats. Two seats of Gandhi bastions have been left untouched by the two parties. While the Congress was kept cautiously out of the alliance in UP, Akhilesh recently had claimed that the grand old party was very much a part of the alliance as they had left Amethi and Rae Bareli seats for it. It is widely believed that it was because of the BSP supremos insistence that theA was kept out of the formidable alliance her party has stitched with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, even though Akhilesh Yadav was reportedly not as averse to having its old ally on board. New Delhi: Arrested for expressing love? Yes! An Iranian couple was arrested after their proposal in a mall went viral. The Iranian man, who had supposedly wanted to give his lady love the most romantic of proposals took them to an ugly turn altogether after his well-planned romantic proposal with rose petals with colourful balloons let, but, to their arrest. While onlookers cheered as they looked on, many saw the proposal as going against the Islamic traditions calling the act ashamefula and aimmorala. Following their arrest, Mostafa Norouzi, deputy police chief in Arak, told theA Shahrvand DailyA that it is unacceptable for the young "to do whatever is common in other places of the world and disregard mores, culture and religion" in Iran. Norouzi added that the pair's "offence is very clear and there is no need for an explanation" on the reason of the arrest. Y Man publicly proposes to woman at shopping mall in Arak, central #Iran Both arrested for "marriage proposal in contradiction to islamic rituals... based on decadent Western culture," then released on bail pic.twitter.com/eKdlNX9Bte a Sobhan Hassanvand (@Hassanvand) March 8, 2019 Twitter is, however, infuriated with the stringent imposition on the new couple. The video which was shared by Sobhan Hassanvand has had over 3 million views with people expressing their anger over their arrest. One user, who congratulated the new couple wrote, aaIranian fanatics turn a beautiful moment into something ugly. Shame on Iran. Congratulations to the lovely coupleaa while one user clearly shocked with the reason of the arrest wrote, aaArrested for whataa. Twittersphere in fact, has poured in thousands of supports the duo, who was later, as reported, released on bail. For all the Latest Offbeat News News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. London: The UK's Royal Mint Tuesday unveiled a new commemorative 50 pence coin inspired by the late legendary British physicist Stephen Hawking's seminal work on black holes. Hawking, one of the world's best-known theoretical physicists who died aged 76 last year, joins the ranks of other eminent scientists such Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin to have a commemorative coin in honour of one of his greatest discoveries that black holes should not be all black. "This work, which used a tentative unification of Einstein's theory of general relativity with quantum mechanics, reported that black holes should not be completely black, instead emitting radiation, meaning they evaporate and eventually disappear," Royal Mint said in a statement. The coin, on sale in silver and gold forms for a price range between 55 and 795 pounds on the Royal Mint's website, is a nod to Hawking's research into black holes and his ability to make science accessible for all. "We are very pleased to honour Stephen Hawking on his own coin. As one of the world's most brilliant physicists he was a great ambassador for science. His popularisation of science and breakthrough work on black holes stand as great achievements and significant contributions to humanity," said Nicola Howell, director of consumer at the Royal Mint. Edwina Ellis, who designed the unusual coins, explained her inspiration behind it. "Stephen Hawking made difficult subjects accessible, engaging and relatable and this is what I wanted to portray in my design, which is inspired by a lecture he gave in Chile in 2008," Ellis said. "Hawking, at his playful best, invites the audience to contemplate peering into a black hole before diving in. I wanted to fit a big black hole on the tiny coin and wish he was still here chortling at the thought," she said. The cosmologist and author of 'A Brief History of Time' had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease in his 20s and went on to defy all predictions of his life-span as he made numerous discoveries as a wheelchair-bound scientist being able to speak only through a voice synthesiser. Hawking's daughter Lucy, who recently visited the Royal Mint with her brother Tim to see the coins, said, "It is a great privilege to be featured on a coin and I hope my father would be pleased to be alongside Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin as scientists who have made it on to money". Hawking, who died on March 14 last year, had once said that he thought his discovery that black holes were not entirely black would be his "greatest achievement". For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Three female foetuses were reportedly found at Jammu and Kashmirs Kishtwar district hospital on Tuesday. One of the foetuses was found inside the washroom of the hospital, while the other was discovered inside a dustbin on the premises and the third one was found on the rear side of the hospital, reported MirrorNow. Officials told the news channel that all three of the foetuses were female indicating that this could be a case of female foeticide while adding that an investigation into the matter is underway. After getting information about the foetuses, the police reached the spot and are trying to ascertain the reasons behind abortions. According to reports in the local media, the abortions were done in the district hospital of Kishtwar. Two suspects have been arrested by the police till now. New Delhi: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, addressing her maiden rally after making the political plunge, on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Modi government over a host of issues ranging from women's safety to the BJP's pre-poll promise of 2 crore jobs. "Where is the Rs 15 lakh that was promised to the people? What happened to the promise of assuring safety to women? Where are the 2 crore jobs?" she said. "I realised that this country is built with love and harmony. I feel sad at the current situation of the country. There is no better nationalism than being aware. Your vote is your weapon," she added. RELATED She was addressing her first political rally in Gujarat after assuming charge as Congress general secretary. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairpersonSonia Gandhi were present at the rally near Adalaj village ofGandhinagar district. Priyanka said the Modi government did not fulfil its promises of providing jobs to crores of people in the country. "Our institutions are being destroyed. Wherever you see, hatred is being spread. Nothing matters more to us that you and I protect this nation, work for it and move forward together," Priyanka alleged. Appealing to the voters to make a wise choice in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, she said: "Do not get distracted with unwanted issues. You should realise what benefits you, how you will get employment, how women can be safe. I appeal to you to take your decision with caution." Amid slogans comparing her with Indira Gandhi, she made a short speech in a conversational style in Hindi, saying this was her first visit to Gujarat. "When I went to the Gandhi Ashram in Sabarmati, I was almost driven to tears," she said, adding that it was "crucial that the message about real issues should go out from this land of the Mahatma. Amid slogans comparing her with Indira Gandhi, she made a short speech in a conversational style in Hindi, saying this was her first visit to Gujarat. "When I went to the Gandhi Ashram in Sabarmati, I was almost driven to tears," she said, adding that it was "crucial that the message about real issues should go out from this land of the Mahatma. Priyanka Gandhi said the real India was not about spreading hatred everywhere. "The true nature of India is love and compassion towards one and all, not hatred. It is this very ethos which is being destroyed," she said. The Congress held a rally in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state to sound its poll bugle for the crucial Lok Sabha elections. Lahore: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Tuesday awarded death sentence to 20 gangsters for killing six policemen in the country's Punjab province. The court also imposed a fine of PKR 6.2 million on each of the convicts. The Multan court awarded the death sentence to the notorious Chotu gang members of Rajanpur Kutcha area, some 400 km from Lahore, for killings six policemen and injuring several others in 2016. The convicts included its ring leader Ghulam Rasool alias Chotu who had become a "symbol of terror" in the district and adjoining areas. Two minor convicts -- Qasim and Abdul Samad -- were awarded life imprisonment. On April 13, 2016, a police team conducted an operation against the Chotu gang in a forest area. The teams, however, came under attack from the criminals, in which six policemen were killed and eight were injured. Twenty-four other policemen were taken hostage by the gangsters following which the Pakistan army was called in rescue the hostages. Army helicopters and over 2,000 army personnel were involved in the operation to free the 24 hostages and arrest the gangsters. The Chotu gang used to kidnap wealthy people of south Punjab for ransom. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday commenced the hearing on pleas seeking review of its judgement in Rafale fighter jets deal case. Yesterday, the Centre had told the apex court that documents filed by the petitioners seeking review of its Rafale deal verdict are "sensitive to national security" and those who conspired in photocopying the papers have committed theft and put the security in jeopardy by leaking them. The Ministry of Defence said an internal enquiry commenced on February 28 and is in progress over the leakage of sensitive documents and it is of "utmost concern" to find out where the leakage took place. The affidavit filed by the ministry said documents attached by the petitioners -- former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie as also activist advocate Prashant Bhushan -- relate to war capacity of combat aircraft and have been widely circulated, available to the country's enemy and adversaries. The affidavit assumes significance as Attorney General K K Venugopal on the March 6 hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had alleged that the review petition was based on the documents which were stolen from the ministry. Two days later, Venugopal claimed the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry and he had meant in his submission before the top court that the petitioners in their application had used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed secret by the government. The review pleas were filed against the December 14 verdict dismissing all the pleas against the deal procured by India from France. The Indian government scrapped a $500 million deal with Rafael for 321 Spike ATGM systems and 8,356 missiles in favour of the MPATGM system in December 2017. 16:19 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Supreme Court reserves order on Centre claiming privilege over leaked documents in Rafale fighter jet deal case. 16:03 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Cant we even look into documents to decide if they are privileged, Justice Joseph asks AG 16:00 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In None of the documents we have relied upon has nothing to do with national security, submits Prashant Bhushan. 15:57 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Section 123 of Evidence Act does not apply here because it deals with unpublished documents; In this case documents have already been published, submits Prashant Bhushan 15:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Prashant Bhushan now citing Pentagon Papers case of USA. "This was a case on whether defence documents relating to Vietnam war could be published. The US Supreme Court in an emphatic judgment rejected the govt claim of national security," says Prashant Bhushan. 15:53 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In There is no government to government contract in Rafale jets deal as there is no sovereign guarantee by France, Bhushan tells SC. 15:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Press Council of India Act provides provisions for protecting source of journalists, Bhushan to SC 15:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In In that case, the Supreme Court had turned down forner CBI Director Ranjit Sinha's request to diclose identity of whistleblower who had accessed the visitors Register of Sinha's residence, submits Prashant Bhushan. 15:43 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Prashant Bhushan cites 2G case wherein "same issue arose regarding disclosure of source" with respect to a register of visitors of former CBI Director's residence. 15:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Prashant Bhushan submits that certain documents which have been objected to by Centre now was already part of submissions of the petitioner when main case was filed in November last year. 15:39 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Responding to Prashant Bhushan's submission, Justice Joseph reiterates the RTI Act brought a revolution. "In 2009, your own Govt said file notings can be made available under the RTI. Let us not go back now," the judge says. 15:37 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In No one can publish documents which relate to national security. Security of state supercedes everything, AG tells SC. 15:37 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In SC asks Bhushan to restrict himself to submissions on Attorney General's preliminary objection. Only if we overrule the preliminary objection, we will go into other details, submits CJI Ranjan Gogoi. 15:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In There has been no instance so far of pricing details being redacted in CAG report, submits Prashant Bhushan. 15:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In All kinds of details regarding defence purchases are disclosed in CAG report also, says Prashant Bhushan. 15:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In From time to time, government itself has leaked these documents to friendly media like leak of file notings of Raksha Mantri, submits Prashant Bhushan. 15:30 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In In this case, the documents in question have already been disclosed and are already in public domain, says Prashant Bhushan. 15:30 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Citing SP Gupta judgment, Prashant Bhushan says: "It laid down that only test to be applied is test of public interest; That is whether public interest would outweigh national security if such documents are disclosed." 15:29 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In These documents are already in public domain, says Prashant Bhushan. 15:29 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The objection by Centre against disclosure of documents is malafide; the purpose of this objection is not to protect national security or defence secrets, says Prashant Bhushan 15:26 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Attorney General K K Venugopal claims privilege over Rafale documents, refers to section 123 of Evidence Act and provisions of RTI Act. 15:26 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In RTI Act of 2005 intended to bring a revolution, let us not go back, Justice KM Joseph stresses on RTI jurisprudence and its effect on disclosure of information which used to be withheld earlier on the grounds of security of State. 15:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In What privilege do you (Attorney General) claim? They have already produced them in court. Attorney General: They have produced it after stealing it. State documents can't be published without explicit permission. 15:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Attorney General KK Venugopal says Supreme Court should direct removal of the leaked pages from the review petitions as the government claims privilege over these documents For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Pakistan on Tuesday again violates ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir's Akhnoor sector around 3:20 pm onwards. However, Indian army is retaliating effectively. On Saturday, Pakistan had violated the ceasefire in the Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district. Pakistani troops had violated ceasefire along the LoC on Saturday by targetting forward post in Keri Battal area of Akhnoor, Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has used heavy artillery guns prompting strong and effective retaliation by the Indian Army. Earlier on Friday, Pakistan violated ceasefire along Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, breaking a two-day long lull in the border skirmishes. There has been a spurt in ceasefire violations by Pakistan after India's preemptive air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp in Balakot on February 26 following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Last week, amid continuous ceasefire violations by Pakistan, Indian Army on Wednesday warned it not to target civilian areas. The Army said that situation along the Line of Control (LoC) is relatively calm after that, however, the ceasefire violations continue. Meanwhile, Pakistan army on Wednesday targeted dozens of forward posts and villages with artillery guns along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri and Poonch districts, officials said. The intense shelling and firing from across the border continued throughout the night in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district, while it started in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch in the early hours of Wednesday, they said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The Parliament of Greece has ratified an agreement with France on the establishment of a strategic partnership for cooperation in defence and security, according to an official statement. The agreement, which was signed last week in Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, passed October 7th by 191 votes in favour in the 300-member assembly, reports Xinhua news agency. "It is an accord that upgrades bilateral cooperation in defence, security and foreign policy," Mitsotakis said in Parliament. Terming it a historic agreement, he said that "for the first time there is a clear clause of military assistance in the event of an attack by a third party on one of the two states". In the context of the new accord, Greece will also purchase three French frigates in addition to an earlier order of French fighter aircraft. The first Rafale planes are scheduled to be delivered this year, and the first Belharra frigate in 2025, the Greek leader said. Greece and Turkey are currently in conflict over the extent of their continental shelves and their maritime boundaries, a fact that has hindered any expansion by Athens of its territorial waters to 12 miles in the Aegean. Read More News Here Italian Prime Minister hails Angela Merkel for shaping EU's future Tanzanias Abdulrazak Gurnah secures 2021 Nobel Prize in literature White House: Economists warn of potential global financial crisis if US defaults on debt Lucknow: Ashish Mishra, the main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, has not appeared before the crime branch even today. Where is Ashish Mishra missing? No one is aware of this at the moment. Ashish's brother Amit Mishra's statement has surfaced amid fears that he was hiding. Amit claimed that Ashish will appear for investigation soon. Talking to the media, Ashish Mishra's cousin Amit Mishra said there is no question of escape. Ashish will appear before the SIT, if not now or by evening, Ashish will be present before the SIT. Amit said it was propaganda spread by the Congress, Ashish was in Banvirpur at the time of the incident in Lakhimpur, meaning he was not present at the event-e-incident. Amit said the things of Ashish running out are all fabricated. He is not a criminal who ran away and the video doesn't show anything like that, the driver who died. Amit Mishra further said, 'Ashish has given the evidence he had to give. The police have issued summons late last night, we do not have contact with them, but Ashish will definitely appear before the SIT.' Meanwhile, there is speculation that Ashish Mishra has fled the country to Nepal, though no one knows what the truth is so far. 'People consider him a saint,' Rakesh Tikait's controversial statement on Khalistani terrorist Bhindranwale Greek parliament endorses defence agreement with France Reserve Bank retains economic growth forecast at 9.5 for FY 22 Moroccos new prime minister, Aziz Akhannouch, named his cabinet as the North African nation plans an ambitious economic revamp. A billionaire tycoon close to the palace who will face pressing economic problems exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. The 24-member cabinet, formulated after Akhannouch's National Rally of Independents (RNI) trounced incumbent Islamists in elections last month, includes 7 women, up from four in the previous administration. It is largely made up of technocrats, with veteran diplomat Nasser Bourita keeping his role as foreign minister, in a context of regional tensions, especially with neighbouring Algeria. King Mohammed VI presided over a ceremony where members of the government were named, as per reports. They include Nadia Alaoui as minister of economy and finance, Abdellatif Loudiyi as defense minister and Leila Benali as minister of energy transition and sustainable development. Nasser Bourita remains as foreign minister. The formation of a new govt follows the September elections in which Moroccos long-dominant Islamist party witnessed a humiliating defeat. Voters frustrated over unemployment and corruption instead backed pro-business candidates seen as close to the royal palace and the King. India likely to emerge as 2nd fastest-growing major economy: World Bank Greek parliament endorses defence agreement with France Italian Prime Minister hails Angela Merkel for shaping EU's future Kathmandu, October 8 The Ministry of Health and Population has informed that Nepals Covid-19 tally has reached 893,836 as of Friday afternoon. The ministry said 764 new cases were confirmed in the country in the past 24 hours. In this period, 9,466 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which returned 715 returned positive. Likewise, 1,222 people underwent antigen tests for the virus, of which an additional 49 tested positive. Of total tests, 7.51 per cent of the PCR and 4.00 per cent of antigen samples returned positive, keeping the overall per-day positivity rate at 7.14 per cent. As of today, there are 15,614 active cases across the country. Of them, 1,153 are hospitalised, 313 in intensive care units and 113 on ventilators. In the past 24 hours, 1,033 people have achieved recovery whereas 10 deaths have been reported. Of the total cases so far, 774,173 people have achieved recovery. Likewise, 11,210 died, according to the ministry. The countrys recovery rate is 96.7 per cent and the death rate is 1.4 per cent. Meanwhile, 43,941 people were vaccinated today. Description The Art League of Long Island invites artists from Suffolk, Nassau, Brooklyn, and Queens to submit entries to the upcoming juried exhibit featuring works by artists who call the four counties of the Island home. The 60th Long Island Artists Exhibition is now a biennial exhibit and will be on view in the Art Leagues spacious Jeanie Tengelsen Gallery December 4, 2021 through January 21, 2022. The deadline to submit applications is Friday, November 5, 2021. Entry for each artist is limited to five works not previously exhibited in the Art League of Long Islands gallery, one of which may be chosen from among submissions by the exhibition juror. Two and three-dimensional original work in any medium may be submitted, including photography and fine craft, with the exception of videos. The Art League is honored to have Joshua Ruff serve as juror for the Long Island Artists Exhibition. Joshua Ruff is the Deputy Director and Director of Collections & Interpretation at the Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages, in Stony Brook, NY. Mr. Ruff is a graduate of Syracuse University (BAs in Broadcast Journalism and also in History) and Stony Brook University (MA in History). He has worked at the Long Island Museum for 24 years in a variety of positions, including as Curator of its History and Carriage Collections. He was also Senior Lecturer in History at St. Josephs College in Patchogue, NY for 20 years. He has served as an editor of the Long Island History Journal since 2009. Mr. Ruff has curated more than 60 exhibitions, including, most recently, Fire & Form: New Directions in Glass (2021) and Perfect Harmony: The Musical Life and Art of William Sidney Mount (2019), which traveled to the Fenimore Art Museum, in Cooperstown, NY. In addition to co-authoring several books and exhibition catalogs, he has articles in publications that include Magazine Antiques; American Art Review; American History magazine; and the Long Island History Journal. Mr. Ruff lives in Stony Brook, NY. Full details are available in the exhibition prospectus. To obtain prospectus email info@artleagueli.org or visit www.artleagueli.org. Applications must be submitted online at www.client.smarterentry.com/alli. Gallery Visit is free of charge and open to the public. Artists Submission Fees Apply and vary by number of images submitted. Art League Members receive a discount. FCW Insider: October 8, 2021 Rising IT and cyber budgets may lay ahead as the Defense Department moves forward with implementing zero trust architecture and begins relying more on artificial intelligence. In a survey, 88% of federal employees working full-time in technology or IT-focused roles say agencies have fallen behind on modernization plans, citing cultural resistance to change and the inability of contractors to quickly implement new initiatives. Despite increasing competition among the public and private sectors in hiring top cyber talent, CISA Director Jen Easterly said she has high hopes for a new personnel management system which reduces friction in hiring and offers new career paths. The program, meant to wipe the student debt of eligible public servants, has rejected the vast majority of applications it's received. Quick Hits *** The Los Angeles Times reported on a company called EnQ that directs large volumes of telephone traffic to the overtaxed IRS switchboard and then sells access to calls at the front of the queue to its customer base of tax preparers and accountants. According to the latest annual report from the independent Taxpayer Advocate at IRS, the busiest agency hotline logged 85 million calls during the 2021 filing season with just 3% of callers reaching an IRS representative. *** The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency along with the Office of Management and Budget released the latest Trusted Internet Connections 3.0 guidance, this time covering the remote user use case. This covers telework as well as personal devices connecting to agency networks. *** Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced legislation to curtail the practice of federal law enforcement conducting warrantless searches of Americans' electronic devices at border crossings. A companion House bill is being introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) "Americans travel with phones and laptops holding nearly our entire lives. Traveling near the border shouldn't give the government a free pass to throw out our rights and thumb through our phones without any suspicion of wrongdoing," Wyden said in a statement. Major hospital deploying Infor CloudSuite Healthcare for financial administration, procurement and logistics UTRECHT, Netherlands, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infor, the industry cloud company, together with system integrator Apex Systems, will deliver an ERP platform to Amsterdam UMC. Infor CloudSuiteTM Healthcare is a modern industry-specific cloud solution that is specifically designed for operational processes and integration needs of healthcare organisations. The solution can be used for the financial administration, procurement and logistics of the hospital. Amsterdam UMC, which consists of the Academic Medical Center and the VU Medical Center, is one of the largest hospitals in Europe. In the hospitals, over 16,000 employees provide care to 350,000 patients per year. Amsterdam UMC is an existing customer of Infor and already uses Infor Cloverleaf for interoperability. Apex Systems, formerly known as Avaap, is a system integrator specialized in the healthcare sector and is one of the key players in the implementation process. Apex Systems is supported by NextMed and Enovation. The total implementation process will take about two years. "We are very pleased to be able to deploy our cloud solution together with our partners in one of the most prestigious teaching hospitals in Europe," said Jelle Brouwer, Infor senior account executive for healthcare. "This is an important step in using our expertise to further extend these cloud services to European hospitals. Our ERP solutions and the strong implementation through our partners contribute to efficient processes in the medical centers and lay a strong foundation for building healthcare-specific innovations." About Infor CloudSuite Healthcare Infor CloudSuiteTM Healthcare is a platform specifically designed to support the operational processes and integration needs of healthcare organizations. The multi-tenant cloud platform connects the business of healthcare with the mission of healthcare by providing ERP solutions for finance, workforce planning, and the supply chain, among others. With this, the platform works to further optimize and automate healthcare organizations to build healthcare-specific innovations. Story continues About Infor Infor is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. Providing mission-critical enterprise applications to 65,000 customers in more than 175 countries, Infor software is designed to deliver more value and less risk, with more sustainable operational advantages. We empower our 17,000 employees to leverage their deep industry expertise and use data-driven insights to create, learn and adapt quickly to solve emerging business and industry challenges. Infor is committed to providing our customers with modern tools to transform their business and accelerate their own path to innovation. To learn more, please visit www.infor.com. About Apex Systems Apex Systems is a world-class technology services company that uses industry insights and experience to deliver solutions that fulfill our customers' digital visions. We offer a continuum of services ranging from workforce mobilization and modern business solutions to digital innovation to achieve better results and create more value for our clients. Apex transforms our customers with modern enterprise solutions tailored to the industries we serve. Apex is present in more than 70 markets in the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Netherlands, Spain, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Apex is a segment of ASGN Inc. (NYSE: ASGN). For more information, please visit www.apexsystems.com. For more information: Richard Moore Infor PR Richard.Moore@infor.com +44 7976111243 Copyright 2021 Infor. All rights reserved. The word and design marks set forth herein are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Infor and/or related affiliates and subsidiaries. All other trademarks listed herein are the property of their respective owners. www.infor.com Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amsterdam-umc-chooses-erp-platform-from-infor-and-apex-systems-301395910.html SOURCE Infor VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 8, 2021 /CNW/ - The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) alleges that an ultra-low-cost airline failed to disclose material information and that its director committed insider trading. Mark Morabito of North Vancouver was the director and chairman of Canada Jetlines Ltd., which at the time of the alleged misconduct was a reporting issuer in British Columbia with shares trading on the TSX Venture Exchange. It is now known as Global Crossing Airlines Inc. In September 2017, Canada Jetlines issued a news release announcing that it had entered into a letter of intent (LOI) to lease two aircraft, with delivery in April 2018. The airline also publicized that it would start flight operations in June 2018. However, the LOI was terminated in December 2017 after Canada Jetlines tried unsuccessfully to extend the payment terms. This termination of the LOI, and the fact that it led to a delay to the start of flight operations, were material changes and material facts. However, this information was not made public until three months later, when Canada Jetlines issued a news release after the market closed on March 13, 2018. Following the news release, Canada Jetlines' share price decreased 38 per cent over two days, and its daily trading volume increased 126 per cent in one day. In addition, a month before the news release, Morabito transferred 352,945 shares in the company to his spouse, with the knowledge that his spouse would sell the shares. The BCSC alleges that Canada Jetlines and Morabito, in delaying the announcement of the terminated LOI and its impact on the start of flight operations, failed to disclose material information as required by B.C.'s Securities Act and National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations. The BCSC also alleges that Morabito's transfer of shares to his spouse contravened securities laws regarding insider trading. The BCSC's allegations have not been proven. The commission will schedule a hearing date in November 2021. Story continues About the British Columbia Securities Commission (www.bcsc.bc.ca) The British Columbia Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating capital markets in British Columbia through the administration of the Securities Act. Our mission is to protect and promote the public interest by fostering: A securities market that is fair and warrants public confidence A dynamic and competitive securities industry that provides investment opportunities and access to capital Learn how to protect yourself and become a more informed investor at www.investright.org SOURCE British Columbia Securities Commission Cision View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2021/08/c4640.html WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Japan's new foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi to reaffirm the U.S.-Japanese alliance, the State Department said on Thursday. The two also shared their concerns about North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs in Wednesday's call, it said. They "reaffirmed their commitment to address and resolve these issues through U.S.-Japan-Republic of Korea trilateral cooperation towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." (Reporting by Doina Chiacu;) RADNOR, Pa., Oct. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP announces that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against HyreCar Inc. (NASDAQ: HYRE) (HyreCar) on behalf of those who purchased or acquired HyreCar securities between May 14, 2021 and August 10, 2021, inclusive (the Class Period). Deadline Reminder: Investors who purchased or acquired HyreCar securities during the Class Period may, no later than October 26, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information or to learn how to participate in this litigation please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453; toll free at (844) 887-9500; via e-mail at info@ktmc.com; or click https://www.ktmc.com/hyrecar-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=hyrecar HyreCar operates a web-based marketplace that allows car and fleet owners to rent their cars to Uber, Lyft and other gig economy service drivers. HyreCar operates a platform that connects gig drivers with automobiles, while also providing insurance and tactical support. The truth about HyreCars insurance revenue was revealed on August 10, 2021. After the market closed, HyreCar issued a press release announcing deeply disappointing results for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2021, including net losses of $9.3 million compared to losses of $3.8 million in the same period the prior year. Furthermore, HyreCars adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) loss for the second quarter of 2021 was $7.1 million (four times higher than the $1.7 million adjusted EBITDA loss experienced in the second quarter of 2020) and its gross profit for the second quarter of 2021 was just $0.8 million (less than one third HyreCars gross profit in the second quarter of 2020), with a gross profit margin of just 24%. Story continues Following this news, the price of HyreCar stock fell nearly 50% in a single day to close at $9.85 per share on August 11, 2021. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, the defendants failed to disclose the following adverse facts, which were known to defendants or recklessly disregarded by them: (1) HyreCar had materially understated its insurance reserves; (2) HyreCar had systematically failed to pay valid insurance claims incurred prior to the Class Period; (3) HyreCar had incurred significant expenses transitioning to its new third-party insurance claims administrator and processing claims incurred from prior periods; (4) HyreCar had failed to appropriately price risk in its insurance products and was experiencing elevated claims incidence as a result; (5) HyreCar had been forced to dramatically reform its claims underwriting, policies and procedures in response to unacceptably high claims severity and customer complaints; and (6) as a result of the above, HyreCars operations and prospects were misrepresented because the company was not on track to meet the financial estimates provided to investors during the Class Period, and such estimates lacked a reasonable basis in fact, including HyreCars purported gross margin, EBITDA and net loss trajectories. HyreCar investors may, no later than October 26, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class members claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country involving securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties and other violations of state and federal law. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. The firm represents investors, consumers and whistleblowers (private citizens who report fraudulent practices against the government and share in the recovery of government dollars). The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com. CONTACT: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP James Maro, Jr., Esq. 280 King of Prussia Road Radnor, PA 19087 (844) 887-9500 (toll free) info@ktmc.com OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 8, 2021 /CNW/ - Today is the 25th anniversary of World Egg Day. To celebrate, Egg Farmers of Canada is shining a spotlight on the humble egg and the over 1,200 Canadian egg farmers coast to coast who work hard to produce them year-round, while contributing to the vibrancy of their local communities. To mark the day, Egg Farmers of Canada has created a fun and educational animation, giving us all a taste of Canadian egg farmers' dedication to agricultural sustainability as well as their support of their local communities and their commitment to producing enough eggs to meet Canadian demand, all topped off with a few fun egg facts. Egg Farmers of Canada has also partnered with Canadian chefs and culinary influencers this World Egg Day to encourage everyone to take their taste buds on a journey with globally-inspired recipes that showcase the versatility of eggs. Canadians' hunger for eggs remains strong. Over the last 14 years, Canada's egg sector has seen per capita egg consumption increase by nearly 40%. To match that demand, Canadian egg farmers produce over 9 billion fresh, local, high-quality eggs, year round. "Eggs are a staple in kitchens all across the country, and thanks to our dedicated farmers, and the system of supply management, we always have a steady supply of fresh, local, high-quality eggs to meet Canadians' needs", says Roger Pelissero, Chair of Egg Farmers of Canada. "Not only that, we recognize the significant contributions egg farmers make to Canadian society and to our nations' food system, which is why this World Egg Day we're celebrating their ongoing commitment and support." Click HERE to watch the video and click HERE to try your hand at one of these globally-inspired World Egg Day recipes, from some of Canada's best-known chefs and culinary influencers. Join us in the World Egg Day celebration by sharing how much you love Canadian eggs and egg farmers using the hashtag #WorldEggDay and tagging @eggsoeufs on your favourite social platform. Story continues To learn more about Egg Farmers of Canada: Website: eggfarmers.ca Instagram: @eggsoeufs Twitter: @eggsoeufs Facebook: facebook.com/eggsoeufs About Egg Farmers of Canada Now in its fifth decade as one of Canada's leading agriculture organizations, Egg Farmers of Canada manages the national egg supply and promotes egg consumption while representing the interests of regulated egg producers from coast to coast. Visit eggfarmers.ca for more information. About World Egg Day World Egg Day is an international celebration on the second Friday of October every year. The day is meant to raise awareness of the nutritional benefits of eggs and the role they play feeding families across the globe. World Egg Day was established at the International Egg Commission conference held in Vienna in 1996. This year, World Egg Day is Friday, October 8, 2021. Egg Farmers of Canada Logo (CNW Group/Egg Farmers of Canada) SOURCE Egg Farmers of Canada Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2021/08/c9376.html Northampton, MA --News Direct-- Fifth Third Bancorp Fifth Third Bank actively promotes inclusion and diversity through 65 regional business resource groups overseen by inclusion councils in each of the Banks 13 regions and through eight virtual Enterprise Business Resource Groups led by Enterprise committee executives. All of Fifth Thirds BRGs are focused on the following three pillars: employee development, community involvement and business innovation. BRGs are open to all Fifth Third employees, whether theyre members of the groups constituency or allies. The Latino BRGs across the Company have planned a variety of events and activities to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Here is some of whats in store: The Cincinnati Latino BRG will host a virtual Hispanic Heritage Month Kickoff event that will recognize the contributions and influence of Hispanic and Latino Americans. They will also host a Fiesta Latina event featuring food, music, performances and a discussion about diversity in the workplace. The Chicago Latino BRG hosted a school supplies drive during the month of August and they delivered the items to a local school as a way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. They will also host an employee celebration with the other Chicago BRG groups to promote inclusion. The Indiana BRG plans to support a local small Latino-owned restaurant throughout the month. The members of the Northern Ohio Multicultural BRG will host a session that will feature a guest speaker to discuss strategies and systems to diversify workplaces and empower Latino individuals. The Eastern Michigan BRG members will celebrate virtually by sending out facts throughout the month about Hispanic Heritage Month. They will also e-mail links to employees where people can learn about various Spanish-language movies, television shows, books and podcasts. They will also donate art supplies to a local art academy that supports Latino youth. In North Carolina, BRG members will do a virtual presentation about Hispanic Heritage Month during the Carolina Small Business Development Funds Celebracion del Mes de la Hispanidad. Members will also attend a local event that will feature a cooking demo of Latino cuisine. In Western Michigan, the BRG is hosting a hybrid virtual and in-person event that will focus on food, music and art. They will host networking icebreakers, share family history and recipies, and give raffles and prizes Learn more about Fifth Thirds BRG groups and diversity efforts at www.53.com/diversity. View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Fifth Third Bancorp on 3blmedia.com View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/fifth-thirds-latino-business-resource-groups-celebrate-hispanic-heritage-month-882155042 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 7, 2021 / Labaton Sucharow, a nationally ranked and award-winning shareholder rights law firm, announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of investors that purchased or otherwise acquired The Honest Company, Inc. ("Honest Company" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:HNST) securities pursuant and/or traceable to the offering documents issued in connection with Honest Company's May 2021 initial public offering (the "IPO"). Honest Company investors have until November 15, 2021, to file a lead plaintiff motion. Approximately two months after the IPO, on August 13, 2021, Honest Company reported a net loss of $20 million for the second quarter of 2021, as compared to a net loss of only $0.4 million for the second quarter of 2020. Honest Company also disclosed that its revenue grew only 3% as compared to the second quarter of 2020, because it was negatively impacted by "an estimated $3.7 million COVID-19 stock-up impact primarily in Diapers and Wipes in the prior year period." Honest Company also disclosed that its Diapers and Wipes product category revenue declined 2% compared to the second quarter of 2020. Honest Company further disclosed that "Household and Wellness revenue declined 6% from the second quarter of 2020 as consumer and customer demand for sanitization products decreased as consumers became vaccinated and customers managed heavy levels of inventory." On this news, the Company's stock price fell approximately 28%, damaging investors. The complaint filed in this class action alleges that the Registration Statement was materially false and misleading and omitted that (1) prior to the IPO, the Company's results had been significantly impacted by a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 stock-up for products in the Diapers and Wipes category and Household and Wellness category; (2) at the time of the IPO, the Company was experiencing decelerating demand for such products; (3) as a result, the Company's financial results would likely be adversely impacted; and (4) 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. Story continues If you purchased Honest Company shares pursuant and/or traceable to the IPO and want to receive additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please contact David J. Schwartz using the toll-free number (800) 321-0476, via email at david@labaton.com, or by filling out this form. About the Firm Labaton Sucharow LLP is one of the world's leading complex litigation firms representing clients in securities, antitrust, corporate governance and shareholder rights, and consumer cybersecurity and data privacy litigation. Labaton Sucharow has been recognized for its excellence by the courts and peers, and it is consistently ranked in leading industry publications. Offices are located in New York, NY, Wilmington, DE, and Washington, D.C. More information about Labaton Sucharow is available at www.labaton.com. CONTACT: David J. Schwartz (800) 321-0476 david@labaton.com SOURCE: Labaton Sucharow LLP View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/667223/HNST-ALERT--Labaton-Sucharow-Reminds-Investors-of-November-15-Deadline-in-Securities-Class-Action-Against-The-Honest-Company-Inc BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary has agreed to join the agreement on a global corporate minimum tax as the conditions it proposed, which included a 10-year transitional period, have been met, Finance Minister Mihaly Varga told reporters on Friday. "We have managed to reach a breakthrough on the global minimum tax deal ... so Hungary could join the deal with a good heart," Varga said, adding that Hungary's 9% corporate tax rate will not change, as there will be a targeted solution to collect the global tax. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Alison Williams) NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 7, 2021 / Labaton Sucharow, a nationally ranked and award-winning shareholder rights firm, is investigating potential securities violations and breach of fiduciary duty claims against The Boston Beer Company, Inc. ("Boston Beer" or the "Company") (NYSE:SAM). On September 8, 2021, after the market closed, 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 3rd party brewers, and other costs associated with the drop in demand during the remainder of fiscal year 2021. On this news, Boston Beer's share price fell approximately 10% during after-hours trading on September 8, 2021, thereby injuring investors. Investors who purchased the Company's securities between April 22, 2021 and September 8, 2021, inclusive (the ''Class Period''), are encouraged to contact the firm before November 15, 2021. If you currently own stock or options in The Boston Beer Company, Inc. and suffered a loss, click here to participate. If you want to receive additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please contact David J. Schwartz using the toll-free number (800) 321-0476 or via email at david@labaton.com. About the Firm Labaton Sucharow LLP is one of the world's leading complex litigation firms representing clients in securities, antitrust, corporate governance and shareholder rights, and consumer cybersecurity and data privacy litigation. Labaton Sucharow has been recognized for its excellence by the courts and peers, and it is consistently ranked in leading industry publications. Offices are located in New York, NY, Wilmington, DE, and Washington, D.C. More information about Labaton Sucharow is available at labaton.com . Story continues CONTACT: David J. Schwartz (800) 321-0476 david@labaton.com SOURCE: Labaton Sucharow LLP View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/667302/INVESTOR-ALERT--Labaton-Sucharow-is-Investigating-The-Boston-Beer-Company-Inc-NYSESAM-for-Potential-Securities-Violations-and-Breach-of-Fiduciary-Duty By Gianluca Semeraro and Valentina Za MILAN (Reuters) - Mediobanca on Friday endorsed a request by its top shareholder Leonardo Del Vecchio to ditch a rule reserving up to three board seats to managers of the Italian merchant bank. Welcoming the decision "with deep satisfaction," Del Vecchio in turn withdrew a second proposal to amend the company's bylaws, which had been criticised by Mediobanca's board. Mediobanca also complained that Del Vecchio had failed to discuss with the company proposals he wanted to put to a shareholder vote at the Oct. 28 general meeting, disregarding what is considered standard practice for listed companies. Del Vecchio last month proposed modifying Mediobanca's governance rules to make the board more diverse and independent from management, in his first formal move to promote changes at the group since becoming its single largest investor. The 86-year-old founder of spectacles giant Luxottica bought 19% of Mediobanca after gaining clearance from European regulators on the condition that he would not interfere with the running of the bank. Del Vecchio in the past has been critical of the strategy of Mediobanca CEO Alberto Nagel, although he has praised Nagel's latest business plan. The two are also embroiled in a governance tussle at Generali, Italy's biggest insurer, in which both Del Vecchio and Mediobanca are investors. Mediobanca said that while the company had benefited from having top managers among its directors, this was a statutory requirement it had been planning to axe next year in light of discussions with institutional investors and shareholder advisory firms. Mediobanca was critical of Del Vecchio's second proposal, which it said risked penalising institutional investors that own half of Mediobanca. Del Vecchio's holding company, Delfin, said late on Friday it would withdraw the proposal to avoid confusing investors, given that Mediobanca's board had decided to present an alternative proposal if the one by Del Vecchio was rejected. Story continues At present, a majority of Mediobanca's directors come from the list that gets the most votes from shareholders, with two seats reserved for the second most-voted list. Del Vecchio had proposed increasing to three or four the number of seats reserved for the minority lists, which would each appoint a director based on the number of votes, provided they cross a 5% threshold. Under the alternative proposal by Mediobanca's board, a fifth of directors would come from minority lists, with at least one seat reserved for representatives of institutional investors. The 5% threshold would be lowered to 2%. "Delfin has finally been able to set in motion a process to improve Mediobanca's governance ... to increase management's accountability," Delfin said. "In light of this fundamental result, while Delfin believes its proposal is preferable ... it is in the interest of the bank and its shareholders ... that only the board's proposal get put to shareholders." (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Valentina Za in Milan; Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Louise Heavens and Matthew Lewis) CHICAGO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Missile Defense System Market by Technology (Fire Control System, Weapon System, Countermeasure System, and Command and Control System), Range (Short, Medium, and Long), Threat type, Domain (Ground, Air, Marine, and Space), and Region - Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Missile Defense System Market size is projected to grow from USD 23.9 billion in 2021 to USD 29.7 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2026. The market is driven by various factors, such as increasing defense programs of nations to protect against various threats, significant investments in indigenous missile defense systems, increasing need for missile detection systems, and increasing use of early warning systems for potential air and missile attacks. MarketsandMarkets_Logo Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=16924979 The missile defense system market includes major players Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Boeing Company (US), Raytheon Technologies Corporation (US), Northrop Grumman Corporation (US), and General Dynamics Corporation (US). These players have spread their business across various countries includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. COVID-19 has impacted their businesses as well. Industry experts believe that COVID-19 has affected missile defense system production and services globally in 2020. Increasing defense programs of nations to protect against various threats will drive the market The performance of the US's weapon systems is unmatched, ensuring a tactical combat advantage for the US military over any adversary. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 acquisition (Procurement and Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E)) funding requested by the US Department of Defense (DoD) totals USD 247.3 billion, which includes funding in the Base budget and the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, totaling USD 143.1 billion for Procurement and USD 104.3 billion for RDT&E. The funding in the budget request represents a balanced portfolio approach to implement the military force objective established by the National Defense Strategy. Of the USD 247.3 billion in the request, USD 83.9 billion finances Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs), which are acquisition programs that exceed a cost threshold established by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. Story continues According to the Missile Defense Agency, there has been an increase of over 1,200 additional ballistic missiles over the last 5 years. The number of ballistic missiles outside the US, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia, and China has risen to over 5,900. Hundreds of launchers and missiles are currently within the range of US defense. The weapon system technology segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the missile defense system market during the forecast period. A weapon system plays an important role in missile defense systems majorly for land, air, and marine platforms. The weapon system segment has been further sub-segmented into interceptors, gun/turret systems, and missile launchers. The weapon system technology segment consists of interceptors, gun/turrets and missile launchers. The long range segment is projected witness the highest CAGR growth during the forecast period Based on range, the missile defense system market has been segmented into short (up to 1,000 km), medium (1,000-3,000 km), intermediate (3,000-5,000 km), and intercontinental (more than 5,500 km). Increasing threats of intermediate-range missile launches and asymmetric warfare are some of the factors fueling the growth of the missile defense system market. An increasing threat from intercontinental ballistic attacks across the world is fueling the growth of the intermediate long range missile defense system segment. Browse in-depth TOC on "Missile Defense System Market" 228 Tables 48 Figures 257 Pages Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=16924979 The hypersonic missiles threat type segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the missile defense system market during the forecast period. Based on threat type, the missile defense system market has been segmented into subsonic missile, supersonic missile, and hypersonic missile. Technological advancements, continuous R&Ds, as well as the need for advanced missile defense systems across the globe are some of the major factors driving the growth of the threat type segment of the missile defense system market. The space domain segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period Based on domain, the missile defense system market has been segmented into ground, air, marine, and space. The need for advanced, multi-domain integration capable missile defense systems across the globe is one of the major factors driving the growth of the domain segment of the missile defense system market. The ground domain segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The North American market is projected to contribute the largest share from 2021 to 2026 North America is projected to be the largest regional share of missile defense system market during the forecast period. Major companies such Northrop Grumman Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, and General Dynamics Corporation are based in the US. These players continuously invest in the R&D of new and advanced technology used in missile defense system. Related Reports: Airborne Countermeasure System Market by Application (Jammers, Missile Defence, and Counter Countermeasure), Platform (Military Aircraft, Military Helicopters, and Unmanned systems), Product and Region - Global Forecast to 2026 Electromagnetic Weapons Market by Product (Lethal Weapons, Non-lethal Weapons), Application (Homeland Security, Military), Platform (Land, Naval, Airborne), Technology (Particle Beam Weapons, Laser-induced Plasma Channel), and Region - Forecast to 2026 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. 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Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/missile-defense-system-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/missile-defense-system.asp Cision View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/missile-defense-system-market-worth-29-7-billion-by-2026--exclusive-report-by-marketsandmarkets-301396000.html SOURCE MarketsandMarkets The voting period for Mt. Gox creditors regarding the proposed the civil rehabilitation plan has now ended. The groundbreaking cryptocurrency exchange, based in Tokyo, shut down in 2014 after thousands of bitcoins were stolen by unknown hackers. The process of making the exchanges victims whole has been a lengthy, drawn-out process, characterized by delays and legal disputes. Today marks the end of yet one more milestone in the process: It is the deadline for creditors to approve or reject a civil rehabilitation proposal for compensation. The voting process started on May 31, so creditors had over four months to cast their votes either by mail or electronically. At least 50% of the creditors voting shares will need to have voted yes for the plan to pass; the votes of those who did not respond at all will automatically be considered a no. According to the plan, should it be accepted, creditors would be at least partially compensated for their lost funds in Japanese yen, bitcoin and bitcoin cash. Read more: Voting on a Proposal to Reimburse Mt. Gox Victims Begins Today A coordinator of the creditors group MtGoxLegal (who asked not to be named) said the creditors have been asking the Tokyo District court representative and the Trustee to give some indication as to whether the 50% threshold had been crossed, but to no avail. If we had been able to get an update, say, after half of the voting period had passed, and that update indicated that the participation rate in the vote was worryingly low, then we could have tried to fundraise and allocate those funds to bring more attention to the issue, he told CoinDesk in a Telegram message. He added that he hoped the voting still goes through and the rehabilitation plan gets approved because, otherwise, some creditors fear that instead of civil rehabilitation, the process would revert to the Mt. Gox bankruptcy, which its CEO, Mark Karpeles, filed for soon after the exchange became insolvent. Story continues Its such a huge difference between what creditors receive under the civil rehabilitation plan and what creditors would receive if we reverted to bankruptcy, so its difficult to see anyone voting against, the creditor said. A long, frustrating process A third creditor, Nicholas, who talked to CoinDesk, said he was pessimistic about the whole idea of getting compensated, but conceded there is no way left for creditors other than to approve the plan and move forward. The lawyers are drawing out the process and milking fees. Many of us dont even think this process will play out after years of disappointment from Mt. Gox to any favorable conclusion. If this doesnt pass we are in for more drama and hell, Nicholas said. Another creditor, going by the name of Max, said he appreciated the Trustee approaching the process with all due diligence and allowing both online and offline voting. However, the transparency and timing could have been better, he said. Theres no reason to vote for such a long time and tally all votes at the end of deadline, Max said. There are some large creditors, Josh Jones, Fortress, etc. and they could easily cast 50% of the votes, as voting power is based on the claim size. He added that it would have been helpful if the voting progress had been shared with creditors in a form of an online ticker, but understandably, the Trustee is old-school and might not be well versed with tech. Kim Nilsson, the Mt. Gox creditor who also investigated the theft of coins back in the day, told CoinDesk he didnt see any point in being angry at how the process was handled. Sure, everyone can imagine how all this could have been done far more easily if you just make up new rules as you go along, but thats not how anything works, and to cynically attack people who have been bending over backwards to try to secure a much, much better outcome for creditors is just dumb, Nilsson said. UPDATE (Oct. 8, 00:32 UTC): Corrects spelling of Josh Jones name. ORION CORPORATION STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE / MAJOR SHAREHOLDER ANNOUNCEMENTS 8 OCTOBER 2021 at 9:00 EEST Orion Corporation: Disclosure Under Chapter 9 Section 10 of the Securities Market Act (BlackRock, Inc.) Orion Corporation has received a disclosure under Chapter 9, Section 5 of the Securities Market Act, according to which the total number of Orion shares owned directly or indirectly by BlackRock, Inc. and its funds decreased on 6 October 2021 below five (5) per cent of Orion Corporations total shares. Total positions of BlackRock, Inc. and its funds subject to notification: % of shares and voting rights (total of point A) % of shares and voting rights through financial instruments (total of point B) Total of both in % (points A + B) Total number of shares and voting rights of issuer Resulting situation on the date on which threshold was crossed or reached 4.98% shares Below 5% voting rights 0.33% shares Below 5% voting rights 5.32% shares Below 5% voting rights 141,134,278 shares 804,531,324 voting rights Position of previous notification (if applicable) 5.08% shares Below 5% voting rights 0.04% shares Below 5% voting rights 5.13% shares Below 5% voting rights Notified details of the resulting situation on the date on which the threshold was crossed: Point A: Shares and voting rights: Class/type of shares ISIN code Number of shares and voting rights % of shares and voting rights Direct (SMA 9:5) Indirect (SMA 9:6 and 9:7) Direct (SMA 9:5) Indirect (SMA 9:6 and 9:7) FI0009014377 7,037,827 shares Below 5% voting rights 4.98% shares Below 5% voting rights POINT A SUBTOTAL 7,037,827 shares Below 5% voting rights 4.98% shares Below 5% voting rights Point B: Financial instruments according to SMA 9:6a: Type of financial instrument Expiration date Exercise / Conversion Period Physical or cash settlement Number of shares and voting rights % of shares and voting rights Securities Lent N/A N/A Physical 476,456 shares Below 5% voting rights 0.33% shares Below 5% voting rights CFD N/A N/A Cash 2,974 shares Below 5% voting rights 0.00% shares Below 5% voting rights POINT B SUBTOTAL 479,430 shares Below 5% voting rights 0.33% shares Below 5% voting rights Orion Corporation Story continues Timo Lappalainen President and CEO Olli Huotari SVP, Corporate Functions Contact person: Tuukka Hirvonen, Investor Relations, Orion Corporation tel. +358 10 426 2721 Publisher: Orion Corporation Communications Orionintie 1A, FI-02200 Espoo, Finland http://www.orion.fi/en http://www.twitter.com/OrionCorpIR Orion is a globally operating Finnish pharmaceutical company a builder of well-being. Orion develops, manufactures and markets human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. The company is continuously developing new drugs and treatment methods. The core therapy areas of Orion's pharmaceutical R&D are neurological disorders, oncology and respiratory diseases for which Orion develops inhaled pulmonary medication. Orion's net sales in 2020 amounted to EUR 1,078 million and the company had about 3,300 employees at the end of the year. Orion's A and B shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. Idaho mother and mental health advocate Mehri Coulter says PGx testing helped her get healthy Northampton, MA --News Direct-- Illumina My family won the genetic bipolar lottery, says Mehri Coulter, 36, of Boise, Idaho. My great-grandma, grandma, mom, sister, and nephew had or have bipolar. But it wasnt something her family talked about growing up and she didnt know bipolar existed in her family. So when Mehri was diagnosed with bipolar disorder out of college, she was shocked. She had a brand-new degree in business, a new fianceand this new diagnosis. Mehri was extremely depressed and withdrawing from others, prompting her doctors to put her on an antidepressant commonly known as an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor). For more than ten years, she says she felt just mediocre. I thought that was normal. Talking about mental health and mental health history within families is a positive step, and it is only recently that mental illness has entered the national and global conversation. Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) is October 3-9, 2021, and the World Health Organization (WHO) marks October 10 as World Mental Health Day. The purpose of MIAW is to raise awareness about mental illness; destigmatize conditions such as bipolar, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder; and show support for the millions of people who suffer, as well as the loved ones and colleagues who are affected. MIAW was first designated by US Congress in 1990. Bipolar had only been identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) ten years earlier, and it would be another 13 years before the human genome was fully sequenced. The healthcare system still has a long way to go toward understanding and managing various disorders, but organizations like National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), as well as researchers in the field of genomics, have made great strides in supporting patients and studying how precision medicine might help them and their families. Story continues Symptoms and side effectsOver the years, Mehri suffered in a myriad of ways. She was angry, depressed, suicidal, and had a lot of anxiety. She also experienced hypomania and hypersexuality. Mehri was very sensitive to medications, which were changed often. I had some of the most horrific side effects from the medications. One was the exploding head syndrome, she says. It literally sounded like my head was exploding. It was the scariest thing Ive ever experienced. Also horrific was not being able to hold my baby because some of the medications made my muscles not function correctly. It was devastating. Mehri and her husband had three small children, and he traveled for work. It was a lot to balance. She not only endured multiple symptoms and side effects, but she also lost time going to countless doctor visits and incurred innumerable expenses. When you get a $300 bottle of pills and you try it for a week and it doesnt work, its like pouring money down the drain, she recalls. But mostly she remembers the frustration of not having answers. Moving through a stormMy husband, Logan, would say, Were just going to keep trying. Like the buffalo. Theyre the only kind of animal that will not seek shelter but actually move as a herd through a storm. My husband and I have decided were always going to head strongly into the storm together. Cause well get to where were going faster. About three years ago, Mehri flew to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to do genetic testing. The test required a single blood draw and can tell a patient how he or she might respond to certain medications, according to that persons genetic variants. The study of pharmacogenomics, also known as PGx, involves understanding the human genome and pharmaceutical drug metabolism, and can advance personalized medicine. While Mehri had to travel to a specialized clinic for PGx testing, today there are several companies that will send a test in the mail. The test, which can be prescribed by a healthcare provider, is a simple cheek swab that a patient can return through the mail. PGx companies then connect the person with a health care professional trained in using PGx data for prescriptions. After Mehri received her test results, the doctors at Mayo recommended an SNRI (serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor). It was a matter of a few weeks really before my life completely changed. I remember calling my husband crying and of course he was on full alert. He was like, Oh no, another ones not working. But I said, Honey, I feel normal for the first time in forever. And I really was genuinely terrified that it was going to be taken away from me. I was so used to trying a new med and something going wrong. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. But it never did. For me to be this stable for the last three years in comparison to the rest of my life is a freaking miracle. Pharmacogenomics absolutely saved my life and not only my life, but my kids lives, too. For my husband, it saved our marriage in many ways. It saved our family. But having bipolar has made me who I am. Ive developed a lot of grit from it. And Ive been reading that grit is what determines happiness. So theres my silver lining. Read Mehris So Bipolar blog or follow her on Instagram @so_bipolar. Learn more about pharmacogenomics and PGx testing here. View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Illumina on 3blmedia.com View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/pharmacogenomics-saved-my-life-188005286 NEW ORLEANS, October 08, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until October 15, 2021 to file lead plaintiff applications in securities class action lawsuits against SelectQuote, Inc. (NYSE: SLQT), if they purchased the Companys shares between May 20, 2020 and August 25, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period") and/or pursuant to the Companys May 2020 initial public offering. These actions are pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. What You May Do If you purchased shares of SelectQuote and would like to discuss your legal rights and how these cases 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-slqt/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in the class actions, you must petition the Court by October 15, 2021. About the Lawsuits SelectQuote and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period and/or in the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in conjunction with the initial public offering, violating federal securities laws. On May 11, 2021, the Company disclosed that its fourth quarter results would be impacted by a "negative cohort and tail adjustment" due to "lower second-term persistency [renewal rates] for the 2019 cohort," which it attributed to increased "switching activity" in the Open Enrollment Period. On this news, the Companys share price fell $5.50, or 20%, to close at $21.90 per share on May 12, 2021, on unusually heavy trading volume. Then, on August 25, 2021, the Company disclosed that lower than anticipated policy renewal rates affected both the 2019 and 2020 cohorts, and that the Company was including a $65 million placeholder for the risk of an additional cohort tail adjustment the following year. Story continues On this news, the Companys share price plummeted an additional $6.46 per share, or 45%. The first-filed case is Hartel v. SelectQuote, Inc., No. 1:21-cv-06903. A subsequently filed case, West Palm Beach Police Pension Fund v. SelectQuote, Inc., No. 1:21-cv-08279, expanded the class period. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nations 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/20211008005496/en/ Contacts Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com 1-877-515-1850 LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 8, 2021 / The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Waterdrop Inc. ("Waterdrop" or "the Company") (NYSE:WDH) for violations of the federal securities laws. Investors who purchased the Company's shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's initial public offering conducted in May 2021 (the "IPO"), are encouraged to contact the firm before November 15, 2021. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at brian@schallfirm.com. The class, in this case, has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. According to the Complaint, the Company made false and misleading statements to the market. Waterdrop achieved its past revenue growth through illicit means likely to draw the attention of Chinese regulators for violating their rules. The Company was ordered by the Chinese government to shut down its mutual aid platform because it did not comply with Chinese law. The Company's operating losses increased significantly in the first quarter of 2021 based on shutting down the mutual aid platform and increased customer acquisition costs. Based on these facts, the Company's public statements were false and materially misleading throughout the IPO period. When the market learned the truth about Waterdrop, investors suffered damages. Join the caseto recover your losses. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. Story continues This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. CONTACT: The Schall Law Firm Brian Schall, Esq., www.schallfirm.com Office: 310-301-3335 info@schallfirm.com SOURCE: The Schall Law Firm View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/667362/SHAREHOLDER-ACTION-NOTICE-The-Schall-Law-Firm-Announces-the-Filing-of-a-Class-Action-Lawsuit-Against-Waterdrop-Inc-and-Encourages-Investors-with-Losses-in-Excess-of-100000-to-Contact-the-Firm NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE /October 7, 2021 / The Law Offices of Vincent Wong announce that class actions have commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in the following companies. If you suffered a loss you have until the lead plaintiff deadline to request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff. There will be no obligation or cost to you. Selectquote, Inc. (NYSE:SLQT) If you suffered a loss, contact us at:https://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/selectquote-inc-loss-submission-form?prid=20228&wire=1 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: October 15, 2021 Class Period: February 8, 2021 - May 11, 2021 Allegations against SLQT include that: (1) SelectQuote's 2019 cohort was underperforming; (2) as a result, the Company's financial results would be adversely impacted; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. HyreCar Inc. (NASDAQ:HYRE) If you suffered a loss, contact us at:https://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/hyrecar-inc-loss-submission-form?prid=20228&wire=1 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: October 26, 2021 Class Period: May 14, 2021 - August 10, 2021 Allegations against HYRE include that: (a) HyreCar had materially understated its insurance reserves; (b) HyreCar had systematically failed to pay valid insurance claims incurred prior to the Class Period; (c) HyreCar had incurred significant expenses transitioning to its new third-party insurance claims administrator and processing claims incurred from prior periods; (d) HyreCar had failed to appropriately price risk in its insurance products and was experiencing elevated claims incidence as a result; (e) HyreCar had been forced to dramatically reform its claims underwriting, policies and procedures in response to unacceptably high claims severity and customer complaints; and (f) as a result, HyreCar's operations and prospects were misrepresented because the Company was not on track to meet the financial estimates provided to investors during the Class Period, and such estimates lacked a reasonable basis in fact, including HyreCar's purported gross margin, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), and net loss trajectories. Story continues Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPPI) If you suffered a loss, contact us at:https://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/spectrum-pharmaceuticals-inc-loss-submission-form?prid=20228&wire=1 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: November 1, 2021 Class Period: December 27, 2018 - August 5, 2021 Allegations against SPPI include that: (i) the manufacturing facility for ROLONTIS, an investigational granulocyte-colony stimulating factor analog, maintained deficient controls and/or procedures; (ii) the foregoing deficiencies decreased the likelihood that the Food and Drug Administration would approve the ROLONTIS biologics license application ("BLA") in its current form; (iii) Spectrum had therefore materially overstated the ROLONTIS BLA's approval prospects; and (iv) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. To learn more contact Vincent Wong, Esq. either via email vw@wongesq.com or by telephone at 212.425.1140. Vincent Wong, Esq. is an experienced attorney who has represented investors in securities litigations involving financial fraud and violations of shareholder rights. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: Vincent Wong, Esq. 39 East Broadway Suite 304 New York, NY 10002 Tel. 212.425.1140 Fax. 866.699.3880 E-Mail: vw@wongesq.com SOURCE: The Law Offices of Vincent Wong View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/667321/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-SLQT-HYRE-SPPI-The-Law-Offices-of-Vincent-Wong-Reminds-Investors-of-Important-Class-Action-Deadlines SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics". The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace. Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 9; Released: April 2021 Executive Pool: 453 Companies: 44 - Players covered include AmeriGlobe LLC; BAG Corporation; Berry Plastics Corporation; Bulk Lift International, LLC.; Conitex Sonoco; Global-Pak, Inc.; Greif, Inc.; Halsted Corporation; Intertape Polymer Group, Inc.; J & H M Dickson Ltd; Jumbo Bag Limited; Langston Companies, Inc.; LC Packaging International BV; MiniBulk Inc.; Mondi Ltd.; Plastipak Holdings, Inc.; RDA Bulk Packaging Ltd.; Taihua Group and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: End-Use (Chemical, Food, Pharmaceutical, 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 Story continues ABSTRACT- Global Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container Market to Reach 947.1 Million Units by 2026 Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container estimated at 702.2 Million Units in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of 947.1 Million Units by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 4.9% over the analysis period. Chemical, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 5.6% CAGR and reach 313.8 Million Units 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 Food segment is readjusted to a revised 4.1% CAGR for the next 7-year period. The U.S. Market is Estimated at 201.6 Million Units in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach 190.5 Million Units by 2026 The Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container market in the U.S. is estimated at 201.6 Million Units in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of 190.5 Million Units by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 7.6% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 2.6% and 4.4% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 3% CAGR. Pharmaceutical Segment to Reach 137.7 Million Units by the year 2026 In the global Pharmaceutical segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 4.1% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of 78.9 Million Units in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of 104.4 Million Units by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. 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 Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/valued-to-be-947-1-million-units-by-2026--flexible-intermediate-bulk-container-slated-for-stable-growth-worldwide-301396031.html SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Hydropower experts from across the country reconvened at the industry's annual national event to discuss advancing projects and investments including hydropower refurbishments, pumped storage hydro, inter-provincial transmission, and green hydrogen in Canada to achieve 2030 Paris Agreement climate goals. OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 8, 2021 /CNW/ - More than 300 participants and national leading experts in hydropower came together over the past three days for the 2021 Canadian Waterpower Week Canada's preeminent event for hydroelectricity producers, supply-chain partners and policy makers, hosted by national trade association WaterPower Canada. Waterpower industry talks solutions on urgency to act on net zero at Canadian Waterpower Week (CNW Group/WaterPower Canada) "What was most striking about this year's event was the strong sense of urgency shared by presenters and participants," said Anne-Raphaelle Audouin, President and CEO of WaterPower Canada. "We've got less than a decade now to meet ambitious and essential emissions reduction targets, and our industry is ready to play what can only be an instrumental role. But what the Conference also highlighted is the need to move from targets to action." Dolf Gielen (Director, Innovation and Technology Center, International Renewable Energy Agency) helped set and reinforce the tone of hydropower as critical element in energy transition during his opening keynote address at the conference. "The world needs an accelerated energy transition going forward, and hydropower has to play a key role," said Gielen. "We need new hydropower capacity, but also we need modernizing and upgrading of the existing hydropower capacity. Flexibility and storage systems of hydropower can complement solar and wind going forward, and sustainability of hydropower is key in this development." WaterPower Canada was pleased to welcome Amanda Lang (Anchor, BNN Bloomberg), Hilde Bakken (EVP Production and Industrial Ownership, Statkraft), Sophie Brochu (President and Chief Executive Officer, Hydro-Quebec), Will Gardiner (CEO, Drax Group), and Chris O'Riley (President and CEO, BC Hydro) for a timely pre-COP 26 discussion on the role of hydropower with respect to the twin goals of decarbonization and electrification. Story continues "At Statkraft, we have been doing hydropower for the past 100 years. Given the energy transition, in addition to new renewables, we have to look into the existing fleet, and look into hydropower that will play a big role in the market of supplying zero emission generation and power going forward," said Bakken. "Another big responsibility is making sure that we are developing transmission across. I think it's important for policymakers not to become too national because then you're not solving the problem." WaterPower Canada was also honoured to host an exceptional panel on diversity, equity and inclusion, and to provide a platform for the prestigious Woman of Waterpower Award. We were thrilled to announce Claudine Bouchard (Executive Vice President TransEnergie and Construction, Hydro-Quebec) as the winner of the Award! "I am both moved and honoured to receive the Woman of Waterpower Award today. To me, accepting your recognition is propelling to help even more younger women feel that they too can have their place in the hydropower and renewable energy ecosystem," Claudine Bouchard noted in her acceptance speech. "On behalf of all the employees I work with, who get up every morning to make the world a more sustainable place, and on behalf of the men, who have reached out to me and allowed me to be who I am, merci." The Conference concluded with Ryan MacDonald (Senior Editor, Climate, Environment and Resources, The Globe and Mail), Nicolle Butcher (Senior Vice President, Renewable Generation and Power Marketing, OPG), Terry Miles (Director, Integrated Resource Planning, Manitoba Hydro), and David Murray (Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Vice President, Hydro-Quebec) reflecting on the key projects and investment opportunities discussed during the conference that will play a central role in "Building Toward Net Zero". "It's interesting when you look at the role that hydro historically has played. Certainly, in Ontario hydro is synonymous with electricity," said Butcher. "That legacy is what we need to build upon. There are really three elements that we're working on at OPG. That's maintaining our current assets, so how to refurbish them in a way that allows us to ensure that they're going to be there for the next 100 years. The second thing we're working on is highlighting the expansion of hydro, so how can hydro help from a storage perspective, or how does hydrogen play with hydro. And then finally building new. So whether it's completely redeveloping some of our old sites, or building new greenfield sites. Those are critical element that we're going to develop more in the coming decades to be able to address climate change." WaterPower Canada thanks all presenters, attendees, and sponsors for making the Conference a success. A special thank you to BC Hydro, Hydro Quebec, and VOITH for supporting the event as Conference partners. "We are seeing major renewed interest around the world by governments and industry in Pumped Storage Hydro projects. Their contribution to reliability and resilience is really invaluable for clean power grids," - said Stanley J. Kocon, President and CEO of Voith Hydro North America. "We were very pleased to partner with WaterPower Canada to help raise awareness as to the role Pumped Storage can play in the clean electric future of Ontario, Alberta and other parts of Canada." In addition to attending a full roster of virtual presentations, attendees were also able to use the virtual event platform to connect with one another, download material from sponsors, as well as play an interactive game for a prize. We hope to you see in person next year at the Canadian Waterpower Week in Toronto, September 21-23, 2022! SOURCE WaterPower Canada Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2021/08/c0432.html NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global law firm White & Case LLP announced the promotion of 59 lawyers around the world to its partnership today. The promotions are effective on January 1, 2022, and represent 12 of the Firm's global practices across 24 locations throughout the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. "Our new partners represent a rich and diverse set of skills, experience and backgrounds," said White & Case Chair Hugh Verrier. "This is our largest class of White & Case partners ever. It reflects our commitment to deliberate, strategic growth that supports exceptional service for our clients globally. We are investing in our people for the long term." Listed by the regions in which they are based, our new partners are: Americas (22 new partners) Joshua Weedman has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in New York. Joshua focuses on commercial and bankruptcy litigation, and also has experience with M&A-related disputes. Tami Stark has been named a partner in our Global White Collar Practice. Based in New York, Tami focuses on white collar criminal and regulatory defense. She is a former Assistant Regional Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. Kerrick Seay has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in New York, Kerrick advises financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. Neeta Sahadev has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Silicon Valley, Neeta focuses on tech-related M&A transactions as well as SPAC transactions. Nicole Rodger has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice in Los Angeles. Nicole advises private equity funds and corporate borrowers, financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. F. Paul Pittman has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in Washington, DC, Paul advises on data privacy and cybersecurity issues. Abraham Paul has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Sao Paulo, Abraham represents Latin American issuer and underwriter clients on unregistered equity and debt capital markets offerings, as well as US-registered offerings. Daniel Nussen has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Daniel represents SPAC sponsors, investors and underwriters in SPAC IPOs and deSPAC business combinations. He also advises issuers on SEC filings and capital raises. Amara Mullins has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in Los Angeles. Amara represents technology companies in litigation and regulatory disputes. Katherine McCullough has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Washington, DC, Katherine advises investment funds, both on the sponsor and investor side. Her investor-side work includes representing sovereign wealth funds and university endowments. Scott Levi has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in New York. Scott advises public companies and companies going public on corporate governance matters, including compliance with US securities laws. Julian Lamm has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Julian represents multinational corporations in complex civil litigation, with a focus on the technology sector. Daniel Kozin has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Daniel advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. Sam Hershey has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in New York, Sam represents clients in federal and state court litigation, with a focus on bankruptcy matters. Matthew Hendy has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Matthew advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. Fern Han has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Houston, Fern acts for both lenders and borrowers on a wide variety of finance, project finance and project development matters. Emilio Grandio has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Houston, Emilio focuses on domestic and cross-border M&A transactions with an emphasis on cross-border transactions in Latin America. Elodie Gal has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in New York. Elodie focuses on securities offerings, advising on complex securities law issues for capital markets transactions and for SEC reporting companies. Aaron Colodny has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Aaron focuses on chapter 11 proceedings, out-of-court restructurings and complex litigation, representing both debtors and creditors. Christoffer Adler has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Christoffer advises sponsors, banks and direct lenders on leveraged and investment-grade financing transactions. Kevin C. Adam has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in Boston, Kevin focuses on complex litigation and counseling in matters concerning both antitrust and intellectual property law issues. He has experience advising clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Adam M. Acosta has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in Washington, DC, Adam focuses on antitrust litigation, government investigations and related counseling. EMEA (32 new partners) Story continues Derin Altan has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Istanbul, Derin focuses on equity and debt capital markets, and also advises on public mergers and acquisitions. Julien Bensaid has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Paris, Julien acts for private equity firms, other financial sponsors and corporate clients in a diverse range of transactions that includes public and distressed mergers and acquisitions as well as general corporate matters. Orion Berg has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in Paris, Orion advises on foreign direct investment and regulatory matters, notably in the electronic communications and energy sectors. Tim Bracksiek has been named a partner in our Global Tax Practice, based in Frankfurt. Tim's tax practice covers transactional, structuring, advisory and controversy work. Victoria Burton has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in London, Victoria advises private equity and corporate M&A clients on a range of issues including founder and shareholder disputes, investor concerns, directors' duties, corporate governance and conflicts of interest. Alexandra Diehl has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Alexandra has national and international dispute resolution experience, with a focus on investment arbitration. Olga Fedosova has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Paris, Olga advises corporations, financial institutions and sovereigns on debt capital markets products in France, the CIS and Africa. Cristina Freudenberger has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Cristina advises issuers and investment banks on a range of debt, equity and hybrid corporate finance products. Thomas Glauden has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Brussels, Thomas advises on general corporate law, domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures and venture capital transactions. Felix Hopker has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Felix focuses on insolvency administration, serving as a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts. Samy Markbaoui has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Paris, Samy acts for sovereign and commercial clients in international arbitration matters and related disputes. Sara Nordin has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in Brussels, Sara focuses on economic sanctions, export control, customs- and import-related regulations and trade policy. Jean Paszkudzki has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Paris, Jean has experience handling complex cross-border carve-out transactions for large corporate clients, and managing M&A and corporate aspects of SPAC and traditional IPOs. Lars Petersen has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice in Hamburg. Lars focuses on EU and German public law and regulatory work, including litigation, and public procurement. Sebastian Pitz has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Sebastian advises on complex mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on financial institution and fintech transactions. Sherief Rashed has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Cairo, Sherief advises clients on project development and commercial contracts, project finance and the banking aspects of complex and cross-border transactions, including conventional and Islamic financing structures. Mark Richardson has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in London, Mark advises multinational corporations on a range of corporate matters, including private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and large-scale reorganizations. Neha Saran has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in London. Neha advises financial institutions on a range of cross-border capital markets transactions, with a focus on regulatory capital issuances and liability management exercises. Marek Sawicki has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Warsaw, Marek advises on mergers and acquisitions for private equity and corporate clients, with a focus on international transactions. Adrianus Schoorl has been a named partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Riyadh, Adrianus focuses on financial services regulatory matters. Hans-Georg Schulze has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in Berlin. Hans-Georg advises on mergers and acquisitions with a focus on transactions in the energy and technology sectors. Daniel Schwartz has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Daniel is a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts, and he also focuses on international restructuring cases. Alessandro Seganfreddo has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Milan, Alessandro advises on both public and private mergers and acquisitions, as well as private equity matters. Laetitia Souesme has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in London, Laetitia advises on international arbitration matters, with a focus on the energy, infrastructure and mining sectors. Jan Stejskal has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Prague, Jan advises private equity funds, financial groups and international corporations across industries on domestic and cross-border transactions. Stephanie Stocker has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in London. Stephanie focuses on complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes, primarily on behalf of energy sector clients. Her experience includes international arbitration and the enforcement of arbitral awards. Will Stoner has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in London, Will advises companies, insolvency practitioners, banks, investment funds and other financial institutions on cross-border restructurings, special situations and distressed debt investments. John Timmons has been named a partner in our Global Intellectual Property Practice. Based in London, John advises on data protection and cybersecurity issues. Ates Turnaoglu has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Istanbul, Ates advises on leveraged, structured and acquisition financings as well as financial restructurings. Ben von Maur has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in London. Ben focuses on private equity transactions and equity investments, and also advises on corporate transactions. Louise Vun has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Dubai, Louise advises real estate developers on master community planning and real estate title structuring. She also advises on hotel and hospitality management agreements regarding third-party operators and on a range of real estate development projects. In a historic downtown where riverfront property rarely emerges, how often do you read this? Theres a brand-new home for sale on the river in downtown Fredericksburg. Anyone that is even remotely familiar with downtown Fredericksburg knows just how rare of an opportunity 1119 Sophia St. presents. Sitting on a .3-acre lot on the banks of the Rappahannock River, this stunningly exquisite and contemporary offering is now officially on the market. Its listed with Alex Belcher of Belcher Real Estate for $2,249,900. Alex Belcher was honored among REALTOR magazines 30 Under 30 selections in 2015 and in his decade-plus in the business hes sold more than 1,500 homes. Belcher Real Estate is focused on it clients and helping them through every step of the selling process. Alex Belcher is consistently one of the top agents in the state of Virginia while selling homes for his clients in record time for top dollar. Everything here is luxury and there is nothing that the builder didnt upgrade, said Belcher. It was all planned so meticulously from the beginning. I think one of my favorite things that came to life here is that you not only have views of the river, but you have views of the Fredericksburg skyline, too. There is nothing else quite like this on the market. The pandemic did give me a new a perspective, he said. One is I want to help as many people as I can. Its nice to design very elegant buildings for insanely rich people, but in the end, its more meaningful if I can help normal people. Osborne said he felt disconnected from his roots while designing houses that cost $30 million to $40 million. He recently shared some of those experiences at his high school alma mater, where he was a guest speaker in a drafting class taught by Cathy Croppthe same teacher who instructed him. Resorts are a lot of fun because youre basically designing paradise and that makes you feel really nice until you realize you cant afford to go there, he said. Drawing plans for luxurious resorts was an imaginative exercise while designing the farmhouse was something he could do for himselfand hopefully, provide a benefit to others. His goal is for those interested in architecture, along with builders or potential homeowners, to learn from the plans, which show each slice of a floor plan two ways. On one side is a rendering; on the other, the technical drawings. Weve given them instructions to take them off, you cannot sell them, she said. Youve either got to send them back to the distributor and have them put stamps on them or we can sell them the stamps. Weve had three stores to purchase stamps from us and put them on. The rest of them have sent them back. Stores can face fines or have unstamped cigarettes seized under Virginia law. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} When supervisors thanked her for the update, she said shed return when the tax generated a million dollars. Were gonna hold you to that, said Supervisor Chair Annie Cupka. While Supervisor Jeff Bueche said the total revenue sounds great, he reminded fellow members that the county anticipated making about $1 million each quarter in cigarette tax revenue for an annual total of $4 million. I know we just started, but were falling a little short in the overall budget for that, Bueche said. Thats concerning to me. Six years ago, King George County earned the dubious distinction of being one of the top two counties in Virginia for smuggling cigarettes out of state, according to retired Sheriff Steve Dempsey. At the time, the state had the second-lowest excise tax in the nation. YOUR Fredericksburg School Board would like to clarify a few points and explain our rationale for why a new middle school is needed. The line item for a new school first appeared in the citys Capital Improvement Plan in 2016. According to the 2016 CIP, a new school was to have opened this year2021. The last new school building built in Fredericksburg was constructed in 2006. Enrollment in our Fredericksburg City Public Schools has increased by 1,200 students since then. Our current enrollment is nearing 3,700 students, yet we have only two elementary schools. The average size for an elementary school in the state of Virginia is 535. Our elementary schools have enrollments of 800 and 924! Nearly twice the state average. There has also been Free LanceStar coverage recently about our school divisions rankings on internet school ranking sites. We must do better and make the necessary changes to improve achievement for all students. There is not a simple solution. Improving student outcomes requires a multi-layered approach which we have begun. We are working diligently as a district to remedy this situation with the implementation of new programs and increased student support structures. Please review our recent School Board meetings for details. Welcome to Free Republic! 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From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" -- Ronald Reagan, January 20, 1981 ~ Free Republic Memorial Wall ~ Several area fire departments will host pancake feeds this weekend to raise funds and awareness for Fire Prevention Week. Come on out and have a good time, said Chief Carl Nielsen of the Fremont Rural Volunteer Fire Department. I know the firemen all enjoy it, and we have a good time meeting everybody. Fremont Rural, Snyder Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department and Valley Fire and Rescue Department will have their annual breakfast events on Sunday. Its a good opportunity to come out and meet the firemen, see the equipment in the station and have a decent meal and a good time, Nielsen said. Fire Prevention Week, sponsored by the National Fire Protection Association, runs from Oct. 3-9. This years campaign theme is Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety. This weeks theme includes learning the different sounds of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, including differentiating between a low battery and an emergency. Fremont Rural will host a pancake feed from 8 a.m. to noon at its fire station at 110 Boulevard St. The event will take freewill donations and opportunities to meet the firefighters. If they have any questions, they can hopefully get them all answered, Nielsen said. They can see the equipment that their tax dollars are paying for and meet the guys that get to come and see them on their worst days. Snyders breakfast fundraiser will take place 8 a.m. to noon at the Firemens Ballroom at 210 Maple St. The department will also host an open house at the station from 9 a.m. to noon. At Snyders fundraiser, takeout meals will be available for the public. A raffle drawing for a 65-inch LED smart TV from Engelhardt TV & Communications will also be held. Valleys fundraiser and open house will be held 7-11 a.m. at the fire station at 210 W. Church St. and feature activities for children to take part in, including balloons and coloring. Well have all the trucks on display, and kids can hop up in the trucks and look at all of the equipment and things like that, Assistant Fire Chief Vince Sunde said. Sunde said the event was unable to be held last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I think were in the same boat as everybody else, kind of tired of being cooped up, he said. And we think that COVIDs kind of settled down enough that were comfortable doing this again. Along with the breakfast, the department will also collect funds through a silent auction with items donated from local businesses. The fundraiser will feature a variety of events from different organizations, including the Douglas County Sheriffs Office with cruisers and the Valley Police Department with its new K-9 unit. It was something that the community kind of rallied together to get purchased in the last year, so that dog will be there as well with the handler, Sunde said. Additionally, the Nebraska State Patrol will bring its seat belt demonstrator and a LifeNet helicopter will make an appearance. They usually do a fly-in, they show people around the helicopter, they come and get breakfast and they leave, Sunde said. So I think they enjoy it just as much as everyone else does. Sunde said like with many departments, the breakfast feed is the biggest fundraiser all year and goes toward purchasing cutting-edge fire or emergency equipment. This is kind of what we use that money for, is to fund any purchases that we think would benefit the department and the community that we otherwise wouldnt be able to afford, Sunde said. On the other side, Sunde said the event also benefits members of the public, who are able to come in and see the equipment and firefighters. They see us flying by their house all the time going to a call, so its nice to see whos actually sitting in that truck and put some names to faces, he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Platte Institute on Thursday promoted its support for a proposal to dramatically overhaul Nebraska's tax system as the key to unlock the state's economic future during a legislative summit in Lincoln. The Blueprint Nebraska "tax modernization plan" would reduce state income taxes, broaden the sales tax base to include a range of exempted services and reduce the burden on local property taxes. The plan would allow taxpayers to earn up to $50,000 free from the state income tax, dedicate an additional $2 billion to property tax relief over the next 10 years and eliminate the state's inheritance tax. While a host of sales tax exemptions would be scrapped, the plan would protect the exemption for food defined as unprepared grocery items. Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, chairwoman of the Legislature's Revenue Committee, moderated a panel discussion of the plan constructed by Blueprint Nebraska under the leadership of former Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion without expressing her own views. Smith is now chief strategy officer for the Platte Institute. Linehan, however, did say: "My constituents tell me all the time that tax policy is a concern and a priority." They want a tax system that is "competitive and fair," she said. Jim Greisch, a panelist and executive at RSM US, a company that provides financial services, said Nebraska's current sales-income-property tax system results in "overdependence on income and property taxes." Looking ahead outside of the tax reform agenda, Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers of Lincoln said "next year is the opportunity to do big, transformative change" in Nebraska as its leaders reach decisions on how to spend more than a billion dollars of federal pandemic recovery funding allocated to the state. Hilgers is heading the Legislature's so-called STAR WARS study committee that is preparing recommendations for developments along the Platte River, at Lake McConaughy near Ogallala, at Lewis and Clark Lake along the border with South Dakota and at Niobrara State Park in the northeast corner of the state. Flood control, recreation, tourism and water resource sustainability are on the table. Pointing to Mahoney State Park between Lincoln and Omaha as "a treasure," Hilgers said state parks enrich the lives of Nebraskans. Hilgers said he believes the state has "the best set of leaders we've had in 30 years" and that they are positioned with "the opportunity to transform the state." Norfolk Mayor Josh Moenning outlined opportunities in cities in rural Nebraska, pointing to the transformational change underway in his own community. River restoration, parks and recreation development, downtown revitalization, affordable housing development, infrastructure investment, development of renewable energy. "Target entrepreneurs, not smokestacks," Moenning said. "Break down some of the barriers to growth and development. "You can see changes," Moenning said. "Partisan does not matter nearly as much, or at all, in local government," he said. Discussion also focused on the need for expansion of broadband service in rural Nebraska and the urgency of workforce development across the state. Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The U.S. Justice Department says an Afghan man already facing charges in the United States in a 2008 kidnapping case has now been charged with additional crimes, including an attack that killed three U.S. soldiers later that same year. Haji Najibullah, who was brought to the United States last year to face the original charges related to the kidnapping, was indicted on October 7 for attacks on U.S. service members in Afghanistan. The revised indictment says the new charges stem from Najibullahs role as a Taliban commander in Afghanistan, the Justice Department said in a statement. The indictment charges Najibullah with attacks on U.S. troops conducted by him and the Taliban fighters under his command, the statement said, adding that a federal grand jury in New York unsealed the indictment on October 7. Najibullah, who allegedly served as a Taliban commander in 2007 and 2008, is charged with numerous terrorism offenses relating to attacks against the U.S. military in Afghanistan, including an attack that killed three U.S. service members, and others relating to taking an American journalist hostage in Afghanistan, said acting Assistant Attorney General Mark J. Lesko for the Justice Departments National Security Division. He will now be held accountable in an American courtroom. The attack that killed the three U.S. Army soldiers and their Afghan interpreter in June 2008 hit their convoy in the vicinity of Sayed Abad in Wardak Province with improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades, and automatic weapons fire. The indictment also alleges that Najibullah or troops under his command targeted a U.S. helicopter in October 2008, bringing down the aircraft, also near Sayed Abad. The Taliban claimed responsibility for downing the helicopter, falsely saying that everyone on board was killed. The Justice Department said no troops died as a result of the attack. The statement said Najibullah, 45, also known as Najibullah Naim, Abu Tayeb, Atiqullah, and Nesar Ahmad Mohammad, "was previously charged with crimes related to the 2008 kidnapping of an American journalist and two Afghan nationals." The kidnapping victims were not identified in the Justice Departments statement, but the description of events matched the kidnapping of New York Times journalist David Rohde, Afghan journalist Tahir Ludin, and their driver. Najibullah and his co-conspirators held the hostages captive in Pakistan for seven months, the statement said. During their captivity, they were forced to make calls and videos seeking help, including one in which the journalist was forced to beg for his life while a guard pointed a machine gun at his face. Rohde and Ludin escaped in November 2008, and their driver, Asadullah Mangal, got away a few weeks later. Najibullah was arrested in October 2020 and was extradited from Ukraine to the United States, where he remains in federal custody, the statement said. An attorney for Najibullah declined to comment on the new charges, AP reported. Najibullah is scheduled to be arraigned on October 15 in federal court in New York City. If convicted, he faces life in prison. With reporting by Reuters and AP Dear Reader, Welcome to Gandhara's weekly newsletter. This briefing brings you the best of our reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan. If youre new to the newsletter or havent subscribed yet, you can do so here. Two decades of hope and loss Radio Azadi reports on how Afghans look back on the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. war on terror. The success of the American-led military campaign and unprecedented international commitment to rebuilding raised Afghan hopes in 2001, but those were dashed when the Taliban returned to power in August even before the final U.S. withdrawal was complete. "I was able to get a proper education. Our financial means improved," Alireza, a resident of Bamiyan, told us as he counted how democracy had contributed to the well-being of Afghans and brought them new freedoms and prosperity. "We knew the Americans would leave one day," he added. "But we didnt think they would leave so chaotically and suddenly." The main U.S. objective for attacking Afghanistan -- the destruction of Al-Qaeda -- remains only half fulfilled as the global terror network is poised to return to Afghanistan now that its Taliban allies are back in power. "Al-Qaeda's literature shows that it had planned the 9/11 attacks to drag the U.S. into a long war with the jihadists in Afghanistan so that it can be defeated there," Abdul Sayed, a researcher following jihadist groups, told me, adding that militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda already enjoy safe havens there. (For a visual journey through the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, check out our timeline . ) Minorities under attack I write about the plight of Afghanistans Hazaras, a historically persecuted Shiite minority that is bracing for more oppression after the Sunni Taliban evicted hundreds of Hazaras from their land. The move raised fears about the predominantly Pashtun group targeting Hazaras -- a hallmark of the militants first stint in power during the 1990s. "One day they came in six [Ford] Ranger trucks and ordered us out of our homes, Jamilah, a widow forced off her farm in Daikundi, told us. Now, we are forced to sleep in the open. We are hungry and thirsty. What will we do when its winter?" Already on the verge of extinction, Afghanistans tiny Hindu and Sikh minority faces new pressures as armed men stormed and briefly occupied a Sikh temple in Kabul this week. Security officials did not tell us if they were thieves or the Taliban," Gurnam, the keeper of the temple, told us. He described how more than a dozen armed men broke security cameras, tied up guards, and occupied the temple for half an hour. The deteriorating situation prompted the UN Human Rights Council this week to appoint a special rapporteur on Afghanistan to monitor and probe rights abuses by the Taliban and other parties involved in the Afghan conflict. Pakistan, China, and Russia, notably, voted against the appointment. Dealing with the Islamists Weeks into the Talibans new regime, relations with Afghanistans weary neighbors are already being defined by the groups support or opposition to militant groups these countries see as top national security threats. In an apparent effort to assuage Beijings concerns, the Taliban removed Uyghur militants from Badakhshan, which connects Afghanistan to Xinjiang through the Wakhan Corridor. The Taliban have sought to avoid embarrassment with China as a result of any Uyghur militant activities, but it would be a very different matter if they actually handed them over, Andrew Small, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin, told us, adding that the move replicates Taliban efforts to address Beijings concerns in the 1990s. Along its border with Tajikistan, on the contrary, the Taliban is being accused of equipping Jamaat Ansarullah. Dushanbe banned the group a decade ago for its avowed goal to overthrow the secular regime of President Emomali Rahmon. The controversy is pulling the two neighbors further apart as Dushanbe solidifies its status as the Talibans No. 1 opponent. The bombing in Kunduz underscored that some Islamist militants are prepared to go to any length to further destabilize Afghanistan. The country's neighbors are debating how best to address the threats they now see emanating from the country. Russia will be hosting the Taliban for several high-profile meetings this month in an apparent effort to address the humanitarian and political crises in Afghanistan. No clean shave in Taliban country The Taliban has revived its hard-line regime with remarkable speed, most visibly in its efforts to control peoples lives by curtailing personal freedoms. The militants have a strong preference, to say the least, that men should grow out their facial hair. "We cannot shorten our beards or trim our hair," Hekmatullah, a resident of Uruzgan, told us. "If we cut our beards the Taliban catch us and say: 'Youre a member of the former government,' and they beat us." Momin, a barber in Uruzgans capital, Tarin Kowt, said hes lost 90 percent of his business since the Taliban takeover in August. "Our jobs are vanishing, our economy is weak, and we have no flour at home," he said. (Read our deep dive into how the Talibans interpretation and implementation of Islamic law is different from other Muslim countries.) Afghan pilots hiding in Tajikistan In an exclusive, we visit a state-owned sanatorium in Tajikistan that is secretly hosting dozens of U.S.-trained Afghan pilots after they flew their aircraft there in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August. The place we are living is not suitable for us, one of the pilots, who are not buying the Talibans offers of amnesty, told us. The food is bad. Nobody eats it. We make our own salads instead. Another complained about their lodging. The rooms are cold, he said, adding that many of them did not have warm clothes as they fled abruptly with only the clothes on their backs. Rebuilding lives For the Afghans reeling under the Taliban rule, there is still joy to be found in ones passions, the birth of a child, or the determination to rebuild shattered lives. Artist Omar Khamosh escaped from Taliban militants who threatened him over his paintings and killed his father. He fled to Vahdat, Tajikistan, where he has opened an art studio for young students. Theres little money in it, but the classes bring together a small community of Afghans for whom art provides a respite from the uncertainties of life in a new country and the trauma they left behind. A young couple also fled to neighboring Tajikistan to have their baby. Tahmina Talash and her husband, Tamim, feared for their lives in Afghanistan as they had both received death threats over their work for civil society organizations. The future remains uncertain for the new parents, but Tahmina maintains they wouldnt have been able to afford to leave if theyd waited till after baby Mohannas birth. We had a lot of trouble getting here, she told us. It was the end of the ninth month. I didnt want to leave. But for the sake of the future, we took our situation into account. For others, rebuilding a life has meant sifting through the rubble and starting again. Seventy-year-old Khan Agha and his family fled their home in Maidan Wardak Province four years ago. Now that the Talibans in power, he felt it was safe to return to his homeland -- only to find his house and orchards destroyed by the conflict. Everything is in ruins, he says, adding that he plans to rebuild his house so that his family can also return. Other returning residents are holding out tentative hope that schools and businesses can reopen, and a semblance of life can return to the bullet-pocked town. I hope you found this weeks newsletter useful, and I encourage you to forward it to your colleagues. If you havent subscribed yet, you can do so here. I encourage you to visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Yours, Abubakar Siddique Twitter: @sid_abu P.S.: You can always reach us at gandhara@rferl.org. TASHKENT -- During a visit to Kabul, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov discussed economic cooperation with the Taliban leadership and said he received clear assurances that the militant group will never pose any security threat to Uzbekistan. Kamilov met separately with the acting deputy head of the Taliban-led government, Mulla Abdul Kabir, and the acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, when he visited the Afghan capital on October 7, Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted a video on social media showing Kamilov saying he had received from our Afghan brothers strong and clear assurances that Afghanistan will never impose any threat or danger on Uzbekistan. Mottaqi told reporters after his talks with Kamilov that the Taliban seeks to expand relations with Uzbekistan with a focus on economic projects. "Talks were held with the friendly Uzbek foreign minister on electricity, railways, as well as the reconstruction of Mazar-e Sharif airport," he said. The Taliban has sought to reassure Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan that it poses no threat after it gained control over much of Afghanistans territory in August. The hard-line Islamist group's takeover has triggered alarm among Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan over possible security threats emanating from the country and the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to cross the border. According to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry, the sides discussed the situation in Afghanistan, humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, and infrastructure projects in the war-torn countrys energy and transportation sectors. The ministry statement also quoted Taliban leaders as expressing gratitude to Tashkent for calling on the international community to seek a "constructive dialogue" with Afghanistans new rulers and to release Afghanistans frozen assets held abroad. The sides agreed to meet in the Uzbek city of Termiz, near the Afghan border, "in the nearest future" to discuss trade and economic cooperation between the two neighboring countries, it said. This story includes reporting by Radio Azadi correspondents in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld for their protection. Tattered Cover, the state's largest independent bookstore and an iconic retail name in Colorado for a half century, will open a location next year in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs. An 8,400-square-foot Tattered Cover will open in early 2022, likely between Feb. 15 and March 15, at 112 N. Tejon St. The more than century-old building, now being redeveloped with multiple users, formerly housed the Zeezos costume and magic shop and, before that, Bryan & Scott Jewelers. There is a vibrancy and excitement in downtown Colorado Springs and I think, in general, Colorado Springs is experiencing massive growth, said Tattered Cover CEO and co-owner Kwame Spearman. Tattered Cover will be a magnet for Colorado Springs residents and tourists, area supporters predict. As such a longstanding and beloved iconic brand that will be so attractive to both locals and visitors, it will lure them (locals and tourists) to downtown and theyre then going to also get to see and explore all our other great shops and restaurants, said Susan Edmondson, president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership advocacy group. A business like this really serves as an anchor, among many of our other anchors like Terra Verde or Mountain Chalet and others that attract people, and then they get out on foot and see all the other great things going on downtown," she said. Downtown might not be Tattered Cover's only store in Colorado Springs, however; Spearman said the retailer will consider additional locations. Tattered Cover is the latest addition to downtown, where new construction and redevelopment projects in recent years have brought hundreds of apartments, a half-dozen hotels and the opening of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum and the Weidner Field multiuse stadium. Many new stores and restaurants gravitate to Colorado Springs' hot suburban areas, such as InterQuest on the north or the Powers Boulevard corridor out east. But downtowns influx of apartments and other activity mimics that of Denver, Spearman said. I dont want to go down a path of comparing Colorado Springs and Denver because its not fair to Colorado Springs, he said. Its its own amazing, vibrant city. But the growth that you saw, particularly in sort of the Denver core, it feels like thats happening in Colorado Springs and I think its happening in a lot of cities, particularly out west that are seeing this massive growth. Tattered Covers first location opened in 1971 in Denvers Cherry Creek North area. As it grew to become the states largest locally owned bookstore, it gained a reputation as a community gathering place, tourist destination and hub for independent literary culture. Today, Tattered Cover has three stores in Denver and another in Littleton, a childrens store in Aurora, a pop-up store in the Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree and three satellite locations at Denver International Airport. A Westminster store thats targeted to open in late October or early November will be its latest location, Spearman said. The Springs location will be the first outside of the Denver metro area. Spearman, a Denver native, and other investors purchased Tattered Cover in December from book industry veterans Len Vlahos and Kristen Gilligan. The husband-and-wife team had taken over Tattered Cover in 2017 from longtime owner Joyce Meskis. In addition to an extensive selection of books from bestselling and independently published authors, Tattered Covers downtown Colorado Springs store will have a coffee bar, beer and wine bar and a kids zone area, Spearman said. Like its other locations, Tattered Cover expects to host authors and artists in the Springs. While Amazon and other internet retailers pose stiff competition for brick-and-mortar stores, and consumers embrace electronic reading devices, Spearman remains optimistic that the Tattered Cover and other bookstores have a bright future. The notion of the physical book is not going anywhere, he said. The demise of physical books due to Kindles and other e-readers was predicted a decade ago. It hasnt materialized. Similar to what to youre seeing with vinyl and other physical objects, I think theres just an experience of reading with an actual book that is going to continue to drive book purchases." Amazon and other e-retailers, meanwhile, threaten bookstores and other brick-and-mortar retailers because of what Spearman called their predatory pricing polices. That being said, this notion that people are just going to order everything online, I also think thats premature," he said. "More than anything, people are trying to go out and connect and be a part of the communities where they live. And I cant find a better example of what could be a community institution than an independent bookstore. Tattered Cover will lease space in the 112 N. Tejon building from The Baldwin Cohn Group, a local real estate company that purchased the property in 2019. The location is just a block south of a storefront occupied by the Chinook Bookshop, downtown's longtime popular book seller that closed in 2004 after 45 years. Tattered Cover's lease agreement with The Baldwin Cohn Group was attractive because it allows the retailer to make rent payments based on a percentage of its sales, something not all property owners and landlords are willing to do, Spearman said. Principals Brent Baldwin and Derek Cohn declined to discuss specifics of their deal with the Tattered Cover, but called the retailer a perfect tenant for the history-rich building. The building was constructed in the late 1880s as an upscale grocery, Cohn said, based on his research of the property, though the El Paso County Assessors Office shows it was built in 1900. A clothier purchased the building in 1918 and hired renowned architect Thomas MacLaren to redesign the Tejon Street facade and rear of the building. MacLaren added Van Briggle tile, intricate brickwork, leaded glass transoms and large display cases, among other features, Cohn said. Today, the building still has its historic red brickwork, original skylights and maple floors that have been in place for more than 100 years, Cohn said. The really neat character and the rich history of the building combined will really provide the perfect home for Tattered Cover, where you can sit down and enjoy a book and let your imagination run wild, almost like youre reading a book in (Harry Potters) Hogwarts," he said. "Thats what I think is going to set this location apart from any new building that we could build today. Tattered Cover wont be alone in the building. Because of its roughly 18,000-square-foot size, finding a single user for the building is a tough go, Baldwin and Cohn said. Tattered Cover will occupy 8,400 square feet on the main floor and also have a patio on the buildings backside for customer use, Cohn said. Bell Brothers Brew Pub will have a 1,500-square-foot, first-floor tasting room and roughly 1,700 square feet in the buildings basement as part of its business, Cohn said. Downtown restaurateur Joseph Campana, meanwhile, plans to open the 3,500-square-foot Shrunken Head, a tiki bar, in the building's basement, Cohn said. Dog Haus Biergarten, a restaurant known for its hot dogs, will not occupy a portion of the building as was once planned, Cohn and Baldwin said. 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. Regulators terminated Dr. Moma Health and Wellness Clinic in Colorado Springs as a COVID-19 vaccine provider, the state announced Friday morning, six months after its storage practices were placed under investigation. Dr. Moma, a medical spa, has been suspended from administering vaccines since April 9, when the state Department of Public Health and Environment discovered "irregularities" in how the clinic stored and handled vaccines. Regulators also expressed concern about documentation and the clinic's procedures for observing patients post-vaccination. Thousands of people vaccinated at the clinic were told in the spring that they'd need to be restart the entire process, and the Colorado National Guard seized thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses after the clinic was suspended. According to a Friday morning press release, the state's months-long investigation determined that the clinic failed to properly store, handle and monitor the temperature of its COVID vaccines; did not observe practices including social distancing and masking requirements within the clinic; and failed to comply with billing requirements. The clinic's phone number led directly to an automated response and answering machine Friday morning. A message left by The Gazette was not immediately returned. Follow-up questions sent to the state seeking information about the length of the investigation and other details were not immediately answered. Dr. Moma is still a federally approved provider of COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, the state health department said. "(The agency) has communicated the investigation findings to our federal partners and recommending not continuing with this provider," the health department wrote Friday. This is the first time the state has announced the termination of a vaccine provider, of which there are well over 1,000 in Colorado. The initial inquiry into the clinic began after the El Paso County Public Health officials noticed a large number of appointments scheduled within the business. After a site visit, inspectors discovered poor social distancing, inconsistent mask use, unlabeled vaccine doses, a lack of observation for patients immediately after vaccination, and improperly stored vaccine vials. In April, Scott Bookman the state's COVID-19 incident commander said officials were "incredibly disappointed" in the clinic. He said the state was stepping up its inspections and oversight elsewhere "to ensure ... that this doesn't happen again." Mark Redwine was convicted Friday of killing his 13-year-old son Dylan of Monument almost a decade ago. A La Plata County judge sentenced Mark Redwine to 48 years behind bars for the 2012 killing of his 13-year-old son Dylan, a Monument student who went missing for months before the murder was uncovered by investigators. After a trial that lasted weeks in a case that faced several lengthy delays, Redwine was found guilty by a La Plata County jury of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. On Friday, District Court Judge Jeffrey Wilson sentenced Redwine to 48-years to be followed by 5 years of parole if he's released. Redwine received more than four years of credit against the sentenced for his time served in jail while awaiting his trial and sentence. "I have trouble remembering a convicted criminal defendant who has shown such an utter lack of remorse for his criminal behavior," Wilson said before announcing the sentence. Cory Redwine and Brandon Redwine Dylans older brothers and Elaine Hall, Dylans mother, spoke to the court ahead of the sentencing addressing statements to Mark Redwine. It is very frustrating what you put this family through and what you put this community through, Hall told the court. Prosecutor Fred Johnson, a special district attorney with the 20th Judicial District in Boulder who tried the case said no prison term would bring justice. This man right here doesnt have enough years left to give back what he did to Dylan, Johnson said. Dylan was reported missing Nov. 19, 2012, during a court-ordered visit to his father's home outside Durango. Some of Dylan's remains were found seven months later and in 2015 hikers found Dylan's skull. Dylan's disappearance followed a confrontation with his father about graphic photos that showed Mark Redwine dressed in women's underwear and engaged in vulgar acts. Police in Washington arrested Redwine on suspicion of murder in 2017. Jury selection began for the trial in mid-June of this year. There had been many postponements to the trial in the past four years. Michael Karlik contributed to this report. A man suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend has other cases involving sex crimes and violence, court records show. Saul Bujanda was arrested in August and faces first-degree kidnapping and second-degree sexual assault, among other charges, for allegedly breaking into his ex-girlfriend's apartment, kidnapping her, and taking her to his Colorado Springs home and sexually assaulting her several times over a ten-hour period. If convicted of the top charges, Bujanda, 29, could face life in prison. The night of August 7, a Colorado Springs woman, who hasnt been identified for her safety, arrived at her apartment sometime around 11 p.m. When she got inside, she found Bujanda, an ex-boyfriend whod been stalking her in the month since theyd broken up, and whod apparently broken into her apartment. After briefly shouting at her about her new boyfriend, Bujanda attacked her, seriously injuring her, before forcing himself on her, according to Colorado Springs police. From there, police said, Bujanda forced her into his car and drove to his home, where he kept her, sexually assaulting her several more times, for over ten hours. Eventually, the woman told police, Bujanda dozed off, allowing her to text 911 for help. Almost six months before, on April 22, Bujanda was also arrested for drunkenly beating, choking, and threatening to kill his then-girlfriend. It isnt clear if the woman involved in that incident, also not being identified for her safety, is the same person kidnapped in August. That night, as she watched a movie in her bedroom, the woman told police Bujanda burst through the door and started shouting at her, telling her that she disrespected him and that he wanted to kill her and her ex-husband. The woman told police that as she backed away from Bujanda, he continued to approach, still shouting, and bit her nose, drawing blood. He then proceeded to lift her by the throat, throw her on the bed, and choke her until she almost blacked out. At one point, he also head-butted her forehead, sending blood gushing from her face. In that case, Bujandas facing two counts of second-degree assault, in addition to several other crimes. In 2011, when he was 19 years old, Bujanda was also sentenced to prison for having sex with someone under the age of 16 in Kansas. He was released in 2016. Bujandas next due back in court in mid-November for a disposition hearing, where hell either accept a plea bargain with prosecutors or see all his cases sent to trial. Colorado Politics senior political reporter Joey Bunch is the senior correspondent and deputy managing editor of Colorado Politics. His 32-year career includes the last 16 in Colorado. He was part of the Denver Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 and he is a two-time finalist. A man accused of shooting a Colorado Springs police officer before going on the run saw his trial delayed on Friday. During a court hearing Friday morning that would have determined whether or not Jacob Sedillo would head to trial for allegations he tried to murder a police officer in June, a district judge extended Sedillos trial date to December as his attorneys continue to negotiate with prosecutors in the case. Sedillo, 26, is next due back in court on Dec. 1. The judge also ruled to drop an assault charge in Sedillos case, at prosecutors request. Hes still accused of two counts of attempted first-degree murder, one of a police officer. Just after 8 p.m. the night of June 4, Officer K. Bergstreser was giving a ride-along to a police academy recruit when he noticed two bikers without license plates attached their motorcycles and pulled them over in the parking lot of the AutoZone at 3010 N. Nevada Ave. As he walked up to the two, he told the bikers Jacob Sedillo and Paege Bolt who he was and why hed pulled them over. Sedillo, who didnt have his drivers license, told Bergstreser that neither he nor Bolt had registrations, endorsements or insurance for their motorcycles. Bergstreser turned back toward his vehicle to run Sedillo and Bolt through police databases. When he did, Bolt later told police, Sedillo leaned over to tell him he had "get out of here." As Bergstreser searched, he found Sedillo was wanted on an active felony warrant. Just as he did, Sedillo hopped on his motorcycle and started the engine, prompting Bergstreser to spring from his vehicle and run over to pull Sedillo, loudly revving, from the bike. Sedillo fought Bergstreser back, and during a brief lull in the grapple a woman inside the AutoZone watched Sedillo whirl off his bike, pull a gun from his hip, and point-blank unleash a volley of bullets at the officer. Bergstreser, in full retreat, said he felt his right arm go limp as Sedillo continued to shoot at him, and aired that hed been shot and needed backup. Sedillo jumped back on his bike and zoomed away, leaving Bolt at the scene and Bergstresers ride-along to put him in a tourniquet. Backup soon arrived, and sent Bergstreser to Penrose Main Hospital, where he was treated for three gunshot wounds, including one that had broken his right arm, and was released a few days later. Sedillo was captured by Colorado Springs SWAT units, who were assisted by other federal agencies, on June 8. Sedillo, who appeared in court in custody on Friday, is being held without bond until his next court date in December, when hes expected to either enter a plea agreement or go to trial. Colorado Springs parks leaders have a deal in place to buy a major chunk of land along the city's southwest foothills. Referred to as Fisher Canyon, the proposed 343 acres start from a meadow behind the Broadmoor Bluffs neighborhood and rise to ponderosa pine forests and granite outcrops bordering Cheyenne Mountain State Park to the south and Pike National Forest to the west. On Monday, City Council will hear a presentation about a two-part purchase amounting to an anticipated $4.2 million out of the Trails, Open Space and Parks (TOPS) budget. The TOPS working committee members representing the program that collects sales tax portions to acquire and develop recreation lands have unanimously approved the first part of the purchase: about $1.5 million for the majority 258 acres. The Conservation Fund has agreed to buy and hold the entire parcel while TOPS restores already-drained funds to reimburse the rest of the cost to the nonprofit in 2022. "It's absolutely worth it," said Richard Skorman, City Council president, who compared Fisher Canyon with Stratton Open Space, boasting "lots of meadows" and "very healthy trees" and offering both leisurely and rigorous recreation across almost 2,000 vertical feet. He foresaw future trails taking pressure off Stratton and other popular preserves. "Having said that, it's a good case to be made for increasing TOPS," Skorman added, referring to the choice voters will have next month to double the program's sales tax allotment. "We don't ever want to say no to something because we don't have the money today." Fisher Canyon emerges on the heels of a busy year of spending for TOPS. The program has annually built in between $3 million and $3.5 million for open space acquisition, a category determined by the voter-approved initiative that also sets aside certain percentages for maintenance and operation. In total, TOPS has worked with a budget of about $9.5 million in recent years. "Often times, TOPS doesn't have open space opportunities (every year), because there isn't a willing seller or the market just isn't producing an open space candidate," explained Britt Haley, the program manager. Thus, funds tend to stack up. But "in 2020, many of those open space dreams came true," Haley said. TOPS unloaded $11.3 million on almost 900 acres, including the Black Canyon Quarry, buffer property to the Pikeview Quarry and expansions to Corral Bluffs and Jimmy Camp Creek open spaces. "So now we're back in the rebuilding process," Haley said. "This property came along, and 343 acres with development potential, you can't hesitate. And it's really the partnership with the Conservation Fund that makes it all possible." The organization that has helped secure more than 280,000 acres in Colorado since the 1980s is no stranger to the city. The Pikeview deal is a recent example of partnership. "This is a very typical role for us," said Justin Spring, the Conservation Fund's statewide coordinator based in Boulder. "We can often move more quickly than local governments or state or federal government partners." Spring, a Colorado College graduate, said he and city officials moved fast after hiking Fisher Canyon together this summer. For several years, the land now held by Cheyenne Mountain Bluffs LLC has been eyed for home building. Spring and Haley said the owner obliged to "stand still" on offers while they sought a land survey, appraisal and environmental review. "Sometimes you pull out an old puzzle and you're like, 'Oh shoot, one piece is missing. Where is it?'" Spring said. "Fisher Canyon to me is that missing piece." The city indeed sees the swath "filling a gap" in the western mountain backdrop listed as a top preservation priority in the 2014 park system master plan. Officials also see Fisher Canyon as key to connecting Chamberlain Trail, long envisioned as a 26-mile tour of the backdrop between Blodgett Peak and Cheyenne Mountain. "Not only Chamberlain Trail, but then the opportunity to connect into Cheyenne Mountain State Park and the Top of the Mountain Trail," Haley said, referring to the loop reached after a long, hard ascent on hiking-only Dixon Trail. Dixon "right now is limited, because mountain bikers and equestrians can't use the very top," Haley said. "If there was a way to connect up there, that would be fantastic." Bob Falcone, TOPS working committee's chairman, called the possible acquisition "a great opportunity." Though, in visiting the base of the proposed land from Broadmoor Bluffs, he said he expressed concern for potential access. "When we make these purchases, we want to be good neighbors and not negatively impact the neighborhood," Falcone said. "I pointed to all the houses around and asked, 'Are we good with the neighborhood here?' I know (the parks department) is working with them to make sure we're good neighbors." Following City Council review Monday, the proposal is set to move to a vote by the parks board Thursday. City Council could decide on the purchase later this month. State and Pikes Peak region officials celebrated Thursday the completion of the first phase of a long-awaited two-part project that will one day directly connect Interstate 25 to Powers Boulevard on Colorado Springs far north side. After 20 months, construction has wrapped on one of the largest interchanges in the region a $63 million project that included construction of a four-lane divided highway between I-25 and Voyager Parkway, south of North Gate Boulevard. The new full-access interchange, which also includes six new bridges and drainage upgrades, provides direct access to the Polaris Pointe retail complex at the citys far north end. Polaris Pointe includes dozens of businesses, including Bass Pro Shops and Magnum Shooting Center. Before the interchange was complete, drivers coming from I-25 had to travel on a heavily trafficked stretch of North Gate Boulevard. Motorists can drive the new interchange when it fully opens in about 10 days, developer Gary Erickson said. The project finished on time and about $2 million under budget, a feat Erickson called a miracle, as much of the work was completed during the pandemic, which caused skyrocketing construction materials costs, as well as materials shortages and shipping delays, he said. The project is privately financed, with bonds to be repaid by revenues from Polaris Pointe. The new interchange will help create an essential loop of major roadways around the city, reducing pressure on crossroad and city traffic and allowing for future growth, officials said. We have to recognize the significance this project has for our military installations, our airport, the economic development impact it will have and future traffic mitigation on adjacent roads, Colorado Springs Public Works Director Travis Easton said. City, county and state officials have for decades dreamt of connecting Powers Boulevard to I-25, making the completion of this first phase all the more special, they said. Its never easy trying to put an interchange into a federal highway like I-25, said Max Rothschild, a retired former director of El Paso County Development Services, congratulating Erickson. The project, Rothschild said, was envisioned before he began working for El Paso Countys transportation department in 1975, but various roadblocks prevented it from moving forward. Were really happy that you resurrected the project and made it happen, he said. Erickson said Thursday he hopes his vision for a full circular link can be realized in the next three years. Another project, which will extend Powers Boulevard from Colorado 83, where it now ends, to Voyager Parkway, still has not broken ground. Funding hasnt been secured for the final link. Currently, the only funding identified for this portion of the project will come from the sale of future bonds, which is dependent on future development in Polaris Pointe, Erickson said. It was still unclear whether money from President Joe Bidens $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan unveiled this spring which includes $621 billion to fund road, bridge, railway and other infrastructure improvements could help pay for the project, but Erickson said he would explore different grant funding options to do it. Powers Boulevard is also getting a face lift on the city's east side, where construction crews continue reconstructing the highway at Research Parkway to make left turns easier for drivers and crossing the road safer for pedestrians while removing a stoplight on Powers that has snarled traffic. The intersection will become a "diverging diamond interchange" like the one at Fillmore Street and I-25, with vehicles on Research Parkway crossing to the opposite side at a traffic light so left-turning drivers don't have to cross oncoming traffic to reach Powers. Powers Boulevard will run above Research with no stoplight. Crews are also adding sidewalks and bike lanes on Research, improving access to local schools and access via other modes of transportation. Beginning in early November, crews will fully close a portion of Research Parkway from the west side of Powers Boulevard to Channel Drive and will restrict access on Research east of Powers to construct the new interchange, Colorado Department of Transportation officials announced Thursday. The closure will last two months and drivers should expect delays, they said. To get around the closure, eastbound traffic on Research Parkway and traffic moving to Powers Boulevard from the west side will turn left on Austin Bluffs Parkway then continue north to Briargate Parkway and turn right. Drivers can then continue east to access Powers, or continue to Grand Cordera Parkway, turn right, and continue south to get to Research Parkway. Westbound traffic on Research Parkway and traffic moving to Powers Boulevard from the east will turn right on Grand Cordera Parkway then continue north to Briargate Parkway and turn left. Motorists can continue west to access Powers, or continue to Austin Bluffs Parkway, turn left and continue south to access Research. Access to area businesses and schools will remain open during the closure, transportation officials said. The closure is intended to speed up initial work needed to raise Powers over Research as well as underground drainage work on Research, ultimately reducing the construction timeline and project costs, officials said. More than $25 million in federal stimulus funding will pay for more than half of the estimated $43.6 million project. The remaining funds will come from the state transportation departments budget, a spokeswoman previously told The Gazette. The work is expected to be complete by fall 2022. Challenge seeks mobile fingerprint capture tech for responders The National Institute of Standards and Technologys Public Safety Communication Research (PSCR) Division is looking for applications and hardware accessories that will allow law enforcement officers capture high-quality fingerprints in the field with a mobile device. The Mobile Fingerprinting Innovation Technology (mFIT) Challenge is open to innovators in any field who want to submit whitepapers and prototypes for a chance to win awards worth up to $430,000. The goal of the challenge is to inspire the development of commercial and open source products that could be added to the FirstNet App Ecosystem for first responders to use. Specifically, NIST wants innovators to create or improve a smartphone or tablet application that accesses the devices sensors and captures high-quality digital fingerprint images that can be interpreted by existing fingerprint management systems. The challenge came about after members of the Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board expressed a need for high-quality fingerprints that could interact with the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), a national system for digitally storing, comparing and exchanging fingerprint data that the FBI has maintained since 1999. Sometimes [officers are] still using the ink, most of the time theyre using the digital readers quite different from what you can do on a smartphone, said John Beltz, IT security manager at PSCR and technical lead for mFIT. You actually place your fingers on a reader at the fingerprint facility -- very high-quality, FBI-certified way to do things. However, that involves the officer leaving whatever job theyre doing and taking a suspect to a facility, and in rural areas that can be two to three hours each way. Also currently available and FBI-certified are small boxes with sensors that scan a print and store it locally. When officers plug the device into a computer, they can upload the print to the database for processing. Apps for fingerprinting exist already, but IAFIS doesnt accept them because theyre not high-quality and trustworthy enough, Beltz said. Were a long way off from being able to take a fingerprint and actually enroll it in the FBI database, for example, he said. What were hoping is that you can do a search function. So if you come across an individual and they dont have ID, they wont tell you who they are or they have fake ID, you can collect a fingerprint sample and do a search against the database. You cant become part of the database, but you can run a search and get a reasonable assumption of who youre dealing with, judging by the match rate. Other potential use cases that could benefit from such technology are physical security and access control systems, border control and military identification tracking systems as well as health care and disaster response patient tracking. For instance, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency has the Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission program, which lets defense industry users with clearances submit electronic fingerprints and demographic information to the agencys Fingerprint Transaction System. The reason for using a challenge rather than a typical procurement process is two-fold, said Gary Howarth, prize challenge specialist at PSCR. For one, he anticipates there being many types of solutions, and it opens the aperture of potential innovators beyond industry, to include universities and individual researchers. We know that there is a fair amount of basic research out there in this area and that people may have pieces or components of a complete solution, so this competition will allow these individuals to potentially work with other teams, groups to then have a combined solution, Howarth said. The challenge identifies six technology gaps, and participants can produce solutions that address one, all or even none, he said, adding that innovations could uncover something completely new. The six gaps are: accurately measuring distance, flattening a distorted image and identifying distortion, improving the efficiency of rendering algorithms, accessing available sensors on mobile devices, developing sensors that could be used on mobile devices and modifying mobile devices or using add-on components. The challenge will happen in two phases. In the first, competitors must submit a whitepaper detailing their concept by Oct. 18. Winners of that phase will be invited to enter the second phase, although participants who do not submit papers may still participate as walk-ons. During Phase 2, which kicks off Nov. 17, competitors submit prototypes -- hardware and code -- by April 4, 2022. NISTs director will select a panel of subject-matter experts to evaluate the submissions based on criteria such as cost, ruggedness, user satisfaction and creativity. The experts will likely include NIST engineers and scientists, law enforcement officers, law technologists and representatives from FirstNet. Winners will be announced May 4. The local health department will stage a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site next week in Danvilles Ballou Park. The event is open to all ages, but tests will not be administered to anyone who walks up to the site. The clinic is planned from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, at the Ballou Park Recreation Center located at 760 W. Main St. or until supplies of the 200 free tests run out. Those wanting a test are asked to enter the site from the West Main Street entrance, then turn left toward the main parking lot. Those with symptoms of respiratory illness are encouraged to come and be tested, but anyone who seeks a test will receive one, said Dr. Scott Spillmann, director of the Pittsylvania-Danville Health District. Everyone is welcome. The city of Danville is teaming up with the health department to offer the free event. No appointment is needed. But test results are only part of the picture, Spillmann said in a news release. And a negative test today is not a vaccine; it doesnt protect you from a possible exposure tomorrow. Spillmann said community transmission of COVID-19 is widespread. GREENSBORO Health officials are restarting COVID-19 vaccination efforts at the Greensboro Coliseum this time, to give booster shots as well as pediatric vaccines if they become available. The Saturday clinics should make it easier for those eligible for a booster vaccination to get one, Cone Health officials said in a news release. Both Cone and the Guilford County health department will offer clinics on three Saturdays in October and November. Currently, booster doses are authorized only for certain people who took the Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago specifically, to those who are immunocompromised, over 65 years or older or who work in areas where the risk of being exposed to COVID-19 is high. Data shows a booster dose of the vaccine increases protection against the coronavirus. Authorization of booster vaccinations for Moderna and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines may come later this month. Pediatric vaccines are not currently available. However, the Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to allow COVID-19 vaccinations in children ages 5 to 11 using kid-sized doses. Until now, only those 12 and older could be inoculated in the U.S. with shots for children limited to the vaccine made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Two seventh-graders could face criminal charges after officials said they slapped a substitute teacher at a middle school in Eastern North Carolina as part of TikTok challenge. The incident occurred Thursday at Lumberton Junior High School in Robeson County, district spokesperson Glen Burnette told McClatchy News in a statement. Roughly 700 sixth, seventh and eighth grade students attend the middle school, which is 100 miles south of Raleigh just shy of the South Carolina border. School administrators said the two students accused of slapping the substitute have been disciplined. It wasnt immediately clear what their punishment was, but Burnette said the school district also plans to petition the court for assault charges against the students. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Once our school district was made aware of students potentially participating in these reckless TikTok Challenges, we were very clear that these actions were not going to be tolerated and that there would be consequences for students that choose to engage in this behavior, he told McClatchy News. We must make sure that no patient in North Carolina is ever left alone in a hospital or nursing home while their spouse or family members are forced to wait at home or in the parking lot while their loved one is receiving care, Daniel said in May during the Senates floor debate on SB191. A video call to a hospitalized patient, many who dont know how to use a computer, cannot become a substitute for having a family member present during potentially life-and-death health care situations. Krawiec has said that non-COVID-19 patients are being adversely affected by the visitor restriction as well. There are a multitude of cases where residents are still not allowed to have visitors, Krawiec said. It should never happen again where patients are dying alone in facilities. There are also those who have diminished cognitive abilities who dont understand why they are abandoned without loved ones or caregivers being allowed to visit them. Isolation is a reason many residents in facilities fail to thrive, she said. Which is not to absolve Facebook of its sins. The Journal report depicts a company that harmed people, that knew from its own research that it harmed people and that did precious little to stop harming people. This, while cosplaying as a responsible corporate citizen that only wants to help you share your cat pictures. Too bad the facts, as reported by the Journal, say otherwise. They say that Instagram, owned by Facebook, exacerbates eating disorders, depression and isolation in teenage girls, and the company knew this, but played it down. They say that drug cartels, human traffickers and ethnic cleansers use Facebook to conduct their dirty business and that the company knows this, but does little to stop it. They say Facebook is a superspreader of misinformation that helped enable the Jan. 6 insurrection and that the company resisted making changes to more effectively address the issue for fear of hurting the bottom line. This is a trillion-dollar behemoth whose customer base is roughly 40% of the human race and it has consistently shirked the responsibility that comes with its power, refused to let what was right stand between it and the next dollar. So yes, one hopes lawmakers will impose consequences. But one is also realistic about how much good that can do. Which is to say, a limited amount. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. This came through a statement issued by the Syrian Democratic Council on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries in the areas of Serekaniye and Gire Spi, and said in the statement: October 9th, marks the second anniversary of the Turkish aggression against the cities of Serekaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad), which were civilianly administered by its components as two areas of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, the AANES. This aggression left after the occupation of Turkey And its mercenaries to these two cities have killed hundreds of martyrs, wounded civilians and soldiers, and caused great damage to the infrastructure, as well as the displacement of tens of thousands of residents of the region, against whom war crimes and a policy of extermination have been committed, through the smooth demographic change, and the inclusion of housing numbers of mercenary families and extremist jihadists from all over the world to create a new administrative reality and change the features of the region in all cultural, national, ethnic and religious aspects. We in the SDC, while recall the Resistance of Dignity in Ras al-Ain and bowing before its martyrs, condemn and denounce the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries for the areas of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad, and we call on the United Nations and the Security Council to assume their full responsibilities until the end of the Turkish occupation of these two cities and all of northern Syria, primarily Afrin. We also call for accountability for the criminals who committed crimes that are shameful to humanity and to carry out field executions against families and civilians, as happened against the martyr fighter Hevrin Khalaf, Secretary General of the Future Syria Party, and we call without further delay for an integrated approach that ends the occupation of Turkey and secures the safe return of all displaced and displaced Ras al-Ain, Tal Abyad, Afrin, and every Syrian city and village against which crimes and calamities have been committed. Finally, we call on our Syrian people and all Syrian national parties to adopt dialogue aimed at real Syrian leadership in the political process that leads to the resolution of the Syrian crisis in accordance with UN Resolution 2254 and the establishment of a Syria with civil, decentralized, democratic rule that embraces all its ethnic, cultural and religious components; A country that enjoys normal relations with all neighboring countries according to its historical position. A ANHA St. Peters Health officials said Thursday they would raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour as part of an effort to attract and retain critical staff. The raises are to be implemented between now and April and will impact more than 400 employees, including staff who will receive equity increases due to rising pay scales or for longer tenure in the organization. St. Peters Health said in a news release that these adjustments represent $500,000 of a more than $3 million investment this year in employee compensation, over and above the standard 2% annual increase it offers every employee. Officials said that since March the organization has benchmarked hundreds of positions and increased wages for staff, nurses and providers. By April of next year, this $3 million investment in compensation will benefit more than 1,400 St. Peters employees. Montana's minimum wage is $8.75 an hour. The starting pay for lowest minimum wage scale at St. Peter's is $11.88, a hospital spokeswoman said. During the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit hospitals hard, officials have said the challenge of treating coronavirus patients has been compounded by staff shortages. St. Peter's now has 230 positions posted. St. Peters officials said keeping pace with rising wages in the market and offering attractive benefits are critical given staffing shortages and competition for talent. They said this is part of a redesign of the organizations compensation and benefits program following a restructuring of the human resources department earlier this year. The decision to invest in the local workforce is the right long-term strategy, but comes at a challenging time financially for St. Peters, officials said in their news release. "As a not-for-profit community health system, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the organizations bottom line given more COVID-19-related expenses and lost revenue from canceling surgical procedures and scaling back services," St. Peter's officials said. St. Peters typically budgets for at least a 4% operating margin but only achieved 2.7% for the past fiscal year ending May 31, officials said. Were fortunate to have a strong financial foundation with the ability to weather these storms and stay focused on our mission, St. Peters Health Chief People and Communications Officer Andrea Groom said in the news release. When we support, empower and invest in our people, we know in turn they provide the very best care for our patients. St. Peters Health said it has more than 1,700 providers, nurses, administrative and support staff, and other clinicians. The community health system is Helenas largest private employer and pays $127 million in total salaries and $31 million in employee benefits. According to a June 2021 report published by the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research, St. Peters represents 3.5% of Lewis and Clark Countys total earnings. Anyone interested in applying for a job at St. Peters should visit sphealth.org/careers. Love 11 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 1 By the time Republican lawmakers push to investigate Montanas elections burst into public view last week, theories attacking the validity of the 2020 election results had been building in the states far-right circles for months. Unsubstantiated election claims made by Republicans at the national level have filtered down to Montana despite the state GOP's historic success in the 2020 general election where local politicians are rallying behind what some see as an emerging purity test in a long-running feud between factions of the party. Most recently, hundreds of people gathered for a pair of events in western Montana two weeks ago, including an Election Integrity Symposium sponsored by the Ravalli County Republican Women. It featured speeches by nationally prominent members of a group that has for months sought to overturn the election results and insist that Donald Trump was the true winner of the 2020 presidential race. Earlier that day, more than 100 attendees had listened to a similar series of presentations during an event in Missoula. Just a week later, all but a dozen of Montanas 98 Republican lawmakers had signed onto a letter to their leadership in the House and Senate, urging them to form a special committee that would probe the states election security. That letter, spearheaded by GOP legislators who have advanced unsubstantiated allegations that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud, culminated from a monthslong effort to cast doubt on the election results and pressure elected officials in the state to respond. The local events in western Montana were attended by several state lawmakers central to that push. In early August, six of them had traveled to Sioux Falls for a three-day Cyber Symposium organized by Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and a prominent Trump donor who has worked relentlessly since Election Day to overturn the official results. In Hamilton, speakers outlined several theories that have failed to hold up to scrutiny in court, have been previously debunked or are reliant on methodology that experts say is insufficiently transparent to evaluate. Douglas Frank, teacher and chemist from Ohio, has become a minor celebrity on the right after former President Donald Trump seized on his theories that the 2020 election was rigged. In presentations at both events in Western Montana, Frank claimed to have discovered an algorithm showing that hackers infiltrated election machines in nearly every county in the United States. He offered up graphs which he claimed illustrated how the voter rolls were inflated based on census data. The inflated numbers were then funneled through the complex equation to create a predetermined election result, he claimed. He acknowledged that his predicted turnout failed to align with three of the states 56 counties. These are the three that Im not predicting too well; I bet you theyre real, Frank told the audience in Missoula. So we need to go talk to those counties and find out what theyre doing right. Why are their elections not hacked? Like some others who have advanced theories of widespread election fraud, Franks allegations hinge on the assumption that internet-connected vote-tabulating machines were infiltrated throughout the country by unnamed assailants. But 10 counties in Montana still dont use voting machines at all, and instead hand-count each paper ballot cast. An analysis of Franks methods by the Washington Post found that instead of pointing to major statistical anomalies, his approach essentially uses a complicated process to demonstrate that voter turnout was strongly correlated with age groups a well-known phenomenon. The fact-checking website Politifact, run by the journalism nonprofit Poynter Institute, reached similar conclusions. Part of the difficulty in challenging those ideas, University of Montana political analyst and professor Lee Banville said, is that they force elections experts and others to attempt to prove a negative, rather than putting the onus on the skeptics to actually prove their allegations. This isnt just people hanging out on Reddit, sharing conspiracy theories, Banville noted in an interview last week. Its a message thats being clearly outlined by many leaders in the Republican Party, as well as on Reddit, as well as the former president. So its not a message thats on the fringe of the Republican Party, and so its not believing in something thats extreme, as its seeing the system as broken and (full of) widespread corruption. It's also a message that found purchase with many of the attendees at the two events in western Montana. Barbara Starmer, who attended the morning session in Missoula, said afterwards that she gives more credence to what she heard at the event than the news media, which she views as corrupt. "This is all information that's good for us," Starmer said. "And the more information you can get and give out and distribute to people, they give it to 10 people, and then they give it to 10 people, and it just mushrooms." Casting doubt in Missoula County Among nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers who attended the local events last month was state Rep. Brad Tschida, who has for months sought to cast doubt on the 2020 election results in Missoula County, where his district is located. A group including Tschida and a group of local Republican activists calling themselves the Missoula County Election Integrity Project in January conducted a count of ballot envelopes from the general election, which they claimed showed a discrepancy with the vote totals reported by Missoula County. The group and its allegations were outlined at length in an initial draft of the legislators' letter obtained by the Montana State News Bureau, but were dropped from the final version sent to leadership. While Tschida has argued that their count proves the need for a more thorough investigation, local election officials have stood by the countys election results, calling the groups methods imprecise and error-prone. Sharing the stage with Republican state Rep. Theresa Manzella at last weeks event in Hamilton, Tschida advocated for a door-to-door canvass of the Missoula County electorate. "What we're attempting to do with these meetings and with other meetings like it, whether it is a special select committee or other kinds of meetings, is to meet the demands of you folks," Tschida said. "Because you have been telling us, 'We're not happy with what went on. We know something went wrong.'" Tschida declined to provide more detail on the proposals for the would-be special committee. During a brief phone call last week he confirmed the number of legislators that had signed onto the letter before saying he had to hang up. He could not be reached afterward. Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen has declined to weigh in publicly on the Missoula County allegations. Jacobsen, a Republican, has also declined to elaborate on a letter from her office distributed to the media in April, which appeared to reference the allegations, and laid out several vague goals for improving integrity and transparency in the elections. Her office has not responded to repeated interview requests, including during the last two weeks. But her offices elections director, Dana Corson, in August emailed the Flathead County Commissioners regarding the countys proposal to replace its aging vote-counting machines. In it, he rebuffed the central premise of allegations that Montana election-tabulating machines were connected to the internet and subsequently hacked during the states 2020 general election. Before being certified in Montana, all currently approved voting systems had already received federal accreditation and testing by the Election Assistance Commission, Corson wrote. To be clear, in Montana, a system will not be approved, certified, or maintain prior authorization/certification if it is unprotected from fraudulent tampering in any form. Montana has not certified modeming, cellular, or networking capabilities for any voting system in this state. He also noted that the process that local election offices are required to follow precludes the connection of those devices to the internet. Other states top election officials havent been as silent as Jacobsen on the issue, though. Last week, Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denneys office denounced claims, supposedly authored by Lindell, that vote totals had been electronically manipulated in all 44 of the states counties. Hand recounts of ballots in two counties reaffirmed the official election results, Denneys office explained in a press release. During a legislative session in which her office pushed hard for the implementation of bills that created more restrictive voter ID requirements and ended Election Day voter registration, Jacobsen offered testimony framing the state's election system as secure but in need of further safeguards. Rep. Bob Phalen of Lindsay is one of the six GOP lawmakers who traveled to South Dakota for Lindells symposium in August. Phalen said he returned convinced that the theories demonstrated rampant fraud throughout the nations election systems. I think we need to be auditing every state in the union, Phalen said. He added, It means going county-to-county and looking at the voter rolls, and those need to be updated after every election and they arent being done, and so thats where a lot of the fraud is coming from, besides the machines. Regina Plettenberg, Ravalli Countys top election official and the legislative chair of the Montana Association of Clerks and Recorders, pointed out that county election offices are required each election cycle to check those rolls against death certificates and obituaries to ensure dead voters dont stay registered to vote. And if two ballots were cast for the same voter such as someone who didnt update their address the local election officials would be alerted about the second ballot and would contact the voter to figure out what the issue is. You would have thought that if all these ballots have been voted with fraudulent people, especially with the turnout we had in the last election, people would have come in and said, Hey, you said I cast my ballot, and I didnt, Plettenberg said. I just didnt hear from any voters this last election here in Ravalli. Speaking last week, Phalen added that he had recently returned from an election-focused event in the tiny town of Circle, where the local House member, Republican Rep. Jerry Schillinger, was also in attendance. Schillinger also attended Lindells symposium. We had over 80 people (attend), and there was not an exception, all 80-plus people wanted an audit of the state, Phalen said. An eye toward the primaries Sen. Doug Kary, a Billings Republican who was one of a dozen GOP lawmakers that didnt sign the letter, suggested another motivation for some of his more moderate colleagues backing the special committee: 2022 primary challenges. Kary is termed out after serving the maximum number of consecutive years in the Legislature. Are they looking for purists? Kary asked during an interview last week. If you dont sign on here, were going to primary you? I dont know. I suppose if I was running for reelection I would think about it, but I wouldnt think about it very long. Some of the more moderate Republicans who signed on argued that while they believe there was nothing wrong with the election, they hope a special committee can help put the fraud theories to bed. Trump loomed large over both of the election integrity events in Missoula and Hamilton, with nearly every speaker praising the former president, who has refused to concede the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. At the Ravalli County Fairgrounds, a Supertrump banner accompanied reelection signs for several local GOP politicians. But almost equally prominent were calls to depose elected Republicans who they say have failed to sufficiently back policy prescriptions from the far right. Manzella, a Republican from Hamilton who has been central to the push for the special select committee, was explicit about that goal during a speech at Lindells symposium. In Montana, we have a little problem with something called RINOs, Manzella told the audience. ... I dont care what you call them, but you have to know that theyre a problem in our state and we need to continue educating our electorate and having them know their candidates and vet their candidates, so that we can continue to put patriots, Christian constitutional conservatives, in place, so that we can win this. Of the 12 Republican lawmakers whose names didnt appear on the letter, two of them are the House and Senate leaders to whom the letter was addressed, and a third is resigning to take a job in Gov. Greg Gianfortes administration. Five others are either termed out or arent up for reelection until 2024. Its emerged as an issue that is a bit of a litmus test within the Republican Party, Banville, the UM professor, said. Think of Corey Stapleton and his position when he was Secretary of State, that the election was run fairly, that Trump lost, and he has disappeared from the Republican conversation since then." After certifying Montana's 2020 general election results in November, Stapleton broke with many of his GOP colleagues in the state, including U.S. Sen Steve Daines, when he sent out a tweet telling Trump to "Tip your hat, bite your lip, and congratulate" Biden on his win. At the time Jacobsen was an employee in Stapleton's office, before succeeding him in January. While acknowledging that serious election security discussions are worthwhile, he noted that multiple audits of Montana's elections have affirmed the 2020 election results and uncovered no evidence of fraud. And for Montana's Republican Party, 2020's historic turnout coincided with a wildly successful year for Republicans, who expanded majorities in the Legislature and won every statewide race. "I think instead, right now, it's a way for Republicans sort of proving their standing within the party," Banville said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 9 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A memorandum of understanding has been signed by Montana State Parks and the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe turning over management of Hell Creek State Park on Fort Peck Reservoir. Hank Worsech, director of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, announced the MOU to the Montana State Parks Board at its Thursday meeting. The details of the MOU werent outlined, but Hope Stockwell, Parks and Outdoor Recreation Division administrator for FWP, said she planned to have an agreement in front of the board at its December meeting. Worsech said he hoped the department could walk away from Hell Creek by the end of next summer. Before that can happen, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which oversees the no-cost lease for the property north of Jordan must approve the Little Shells lease application. Its moving along at a pretty good pace, Worsech said. Everyone here has done a Herculean effort to get this done. In the meantime, the department will be pouring gravel at the bottom of the boat ramp to reduce rutting in the lake shore. On the boards agenda, the state also reported spending $60,000 at the park on repairs to staff housing and the comfort station as well as replacing picnic tables. Stockwell said the tribe is also working with Hell Creek Marina concessionaire Clint Thomas to repair a fuel tank. The marina is operated by the Thomases under a lease agreement with the state that has created tension between the two at times. Im pleased with the helpful attitude of the department, said board member Mary Moe. I hope we continue to do everything we can to make it a successful transition. Montana State Parks has taken heat in the past regarding its management of the rural state park and vacillated under different leaders over whether the state would continue managing the park or walk away. Hell Creek is a popular location for campers from across the state and region, most of which are anglers fishing on Fort Peck Reservoir. The campground offers 71 campsites, a comfort station, potable water, fish cleaning station and RV dump station. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Todays Highlight in History: On Oct. 8, 1985, the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro killed American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, who was in a wheelchair, and threw his body overboard. On Oct. 8: In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted; fires also broke out in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and in several communities in Michigan. In 1918, U.S. Army Cpl. Alvin C. York led an attack that killed 25 German soldiers and resulted in the capture of 132 others in the Argonne Forest in France. In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was indicted by a grand jury in New Jersey for murder in the death of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In 1945, President Harry S. Truman told a press conference in Tiptonville, Tennessee, that the secret scientific knowledge behind the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada. In 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series to date as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5, 2-0. In 1981, at the White House, President Ronald Reagan greeted former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, who were preparing to travel to Egypt for the funeral of Anwar Sadat. Recommended for you In 1997, scientists reported the Mars Pathfinder had yielded what could be the strongest evidence yet that Mars might once have been hospitable to life. In 1998, the House triggered an open-ended impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton in a momentous 258-176 vote; 31 Democrats joined majority Republicans in opening the way for nationally televised impeachment hearings. In 2002, a federal judge approved President George W. Bushs request to reopen West Coast ports, ending a 10-day labor lockout that was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 to $2 billion a day. In 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake flattened villages on the Pakistan-India border, killing an estimated 86,000 people. In 2010, British aid worker Linda Norgrove, whod been taken captive in Afghanistan, was killed during a U.S. special forces rescue attempt, apparently by a U.S. grenade. In 2011, Scott Anderson became the first openly gay ordained Presbyterian minister during a ceremony at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin. Al Davis, the Hall of Fame owner of the Oakland Raiders, died at age 82. Pianist Roger Williams, 87, died in Los Angeles. In 2015, chef Paul Prudhomme, 75, whod sparked a nationwide interest in Cajun food, died in New Orleans. In 2016, Donald Trump vowed on Twitter to continue his campaign even though he said the media and establishment wanted him out of the race so badly; many Republicans were calling on Trump to abandon his presidential bid in the wake of the release of a 2005 video in which he made lewd remarks about women and appeared to condone sexual assault. In 2020, authorities in Michigan said six men had been charged with conspiring to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in reaction to what they viewed as her uncontrolled power. (One of the six pleaded guilty and was sentenced to just over six years in prison.) Separately, seven others linked to a paramilitary group were charged in state court for allegedly seeking to storm the Michigan Capitol and seek a civil war. Democrat Joe Biden said President Donald Trumps tweet earlier in the year to LIBERATE MICHIGAN may have encouraged the alleged kidnapping plot. Trump insisted that he was ready to resume campaign rallies and said he felt perfect one week after his diagnosis with the coronavirus. Whitey Ford, a Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Yankees, died at 91. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 DECATUR A Decatur man wanted for several domestic violence offenses has been arrested in connection with an unrelated attack on an woman in downtown Decatur, authorities said. Decatur police in a statement said the woman said she had walked outside of the Decatur Club around 6:15 p.m. Saturday to retrieve something from her vehicle. The woman told police a man followed her as she returned to the building, where he pulled her into an empty room, propped a chair against the door and grabbed her by the arms pulling and pushing her around. The victim was able to get away from the suspect and ran to the womens bathroom where she found another female who yelled at the man until he ran out of the building and got into a gray or silver Chevrolet Impala. On Monday, around 10 a.m., police said, a different woman reported that as she was pulling out of a parking spot on Merchant Street, a man got out of an Impala and walked in front of her vehicle, causing her to stop. The woman told police she rolled her window down partially and the man asked her where a business was located. During the exchange, the woman, who police said didn't feel threatened, decided to roll her window all the way down. It was then, the woman told police, that the man reached into her vehicle and grabbed her inner thigh near her groin. Recommended for you The victim rolled her window up, trapping the man's arm and began honking the horn while driving forward. After stopping, she rolled the window down, freeing the man's arm. Police said the woman then exited her vehicle and yelled at the suspect that she was calling 911, as she believed he was going to approach another woman she saw standing nearby. The suspect then left in the Impala. Police said the description provided by the women was similar to that of a man wanted for several offences related to domestic violence. According to police, the man was positively identified as being involved in the Oct. 2 incident and faces preliminary charges of kidnapping and unlawful restraint. Official said the investigation into the Merchant Street incident is ongoing. Jeff Ingle, general manager at the Decatur Club, said he was able to provide security camera footage of the incident that helped identify the suspect and have added external cameras to monitor the parking lot more closely. A doorman is also being added to the lobby for Friday and Saturday evenings. "We were thrilled to be able to provide the Decatur Police Department with accurate security footage," Ingle said. "I believe we can stay ahead of anything that could potentially occur in the future." The news release said the man was able to elude capture Monday night in Springfield by the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force. The man was taken into custody at 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 6, after leading police on a foot chase at Jasper and Wood streets in Decatur. He was also reported to be driving a stolen vehicle at the time of his arrest. The man is currently being held in the Macon County Jail. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. DECATUR The Decatur City Council will gather off-site Friday morning for its biennial goal-setting session. Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe, the six other council members and city manager Scot Wrighton will meet at the Decatur Club at 8 a.m. to revisit the citys priority goals ahead of the 2022 budget process. The purpose of the meeting is to do strategic planning, said assistant city manager Jon Kindseth. The city council got together at a retreat two years ago ... and they established goals for staff (and) the city manager's office to accomplish. And so the session on Friday is basically to revisit those priorities. The goals are viewed as a crucial guide in determining the citys budget priorities. Here are the goals the council adopted in 2019: Neighborhood revitalization Grow, enhance and better prepare the local workforce to meet current and future demands Take downtown Decatur to the next level Implement selected new technologies that will improve municipal service delivery and create operational efficiencies Implement new revenue initiatives and cost reduction measures designed to make Decatur more financially secure and its operation more sustainable Collaborate with other stakeholders so that the management of Lake Decatur and adjoining public open spaces is integrated into a coordinated plan Create an inspirational vision for Decatur and chart a pathway that ensures current and existing strategic plans are linked so that future visions are implemented and realized Recommended for you Since a quorum of council members is present, it will be an official council meeting thats open to the public. The conversation will be facilitated by an outside consultant. Kindseth likened the gathering to a brainstorming session meant to give a big picture direction to city staff. The meeting will he held in the Decatur Clubs third floor conference room. The building is located at 158 W. Prairie Ave. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 HAMMOND Illinois State Police announced Thursday the latest in a series of three arrests and the filing of charges in connection with the murder of 65-year-old Michael Brown of Hammond. Brown had been found shot to death Jan. 26 at his home on South C Street and was killed, police allege, during the course of a burglary. In a news release, police said Blayton M. Cota, 19, of Granite City and two juveniles aged 16 and 17 of Springfield have all been charged by Piatt County States Attorney Sarah Perry with first degree murder. Police said the 16-year-old juvenile had been arrested Sept. 30, followed by Cota on Oct. 4 and the 17-year-old on Oct. 5. Cota is being held in the Piatt County Jail with bail set at $1 million. Both the teenagers were described as being confined in juvenile detention facilities. State Police said the investigation to find and arrest Browns killers was a large operation involving the Illinois Attorney Generals Office, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the sheriffs offices of Logan, Menard, Piatt and Sangamon counties and the police departments in Lincoln, Petersburg and Springfield, along with the Piatt County coroner. Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. DECATUR A drunken Decatur man took two young children on a terrifying late night car ride as he careened along residential streets at speeds topping more than 80 mph, prosecutors allege. A police patrol gave chase and a sworn affidavit from Decatur Police said officers caught up with driver George L. Austin in time to see him climb out of his car and drop an empty pint bottle of brandy onto the ground. In the backseat of Georges Lincoln were two children (boys aged 8 and 10), said Officer Christopher Skalon, who signed the affidavit. The children appeared frightened, and were screaming. Austin, 43, appeared in Macon County Circuit Court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing where he denied three counts of aggravated driving under the influence. He also pleaded not guilty to two counts of causing children to be endangered and driving while his license was already revoked. The sworn affidavit said the case dates back to just before 12 a.m. on July 16 when Austin had gotten into an argument with his 29-year-old fiance. ... During which George woke up (the) children and told her he was going to Milwaukee, said Skalon. She stated she tried to convince George not to drive anywhere, especially with the children, due to his level of intoxication. Recommended for you The woman said he left anyway and she followed him in her car. She stated she started following George due to her concern for the children, Skalon added. She stated George started driving recklessly by driving extremely fast and taking fast/sharp turns. Skalon said he watched Austins car rocket past him on Grand Avenue at a speed he estimated to be faster than 60 mph. The Lincoln continued to accelerate on Grand and reached estimated speeds in excess of 80 mph in the 35 mph zone, said the officer. He described Austin as having a strong smell of liquor on his breath and said he was uncooperative with officers while continuously stating he wanted us to take him to jail. Evidence against Austin was given in court by Officer Austin Clark, who was cross-examined by defense attorney Michelle Sanders. Did Mr. Austin submit to any preliminary breath testing or evidentiary breath testing? she asked. I dont believe so, Clark replied. Did an officer obtain a warrant to get a blood draw so that you could have an accurate indication of the concentration (of alcohol) in his system? asked Sanders. Not to my knowledge, replied Clark. Judge Rodney Forbes found probable cause to try Austin on all of the charges and scheduled a pretrial hearing for Dec. 1. A check of Macon County Jail records Thursday showed that Austin remained in custody with bail set at $5,000, meaning he must post a bond of $500 to be released. Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. DECATUR The Macon County Health Department reported 32 new cases of COVID-19 in the county Thursday. This brings the total number of COVID-19 cases to 15,115 since the start of the pandemic. Macon County has reported a total of 242 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began, and as of Wednesday, 20 residents were hospitalized. A more detailed breakdown of positive cases and deaths is released on Fridays. The health department will be offering COVID-19 vaccination clinics next week in Decatur. The first dose of the Pfizer vaccine will be offered to those ages 12 and older at two locations: Macon County Health Department, 1221 E. Condit St., Decatur, 1 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13. Must return Wednesday, Nov. 3, to receive a second dose. Millikin University, 1184 W. Main St., Decatur, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15. Must return Friday, Nov. 10, to receive a second dose. Recommended for you The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be offered at one location: Macon County Health Department, 1221 E. Condit St., Decatur, 1 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13. Do not attend if you are pregnant or nursing unless you have a doctor's note; or if you have previously received a COVID-19 vaccine of any kind. Bring an insurance card and photo ID if possible. Minors must be accompanied by an adult parent or guardian. If someone other than a parent or legal guardian is planning to bring a child, the permission/proxy form will need to be filled out and signed beforehand. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. After a week and a half of testimony, Cook County jurors have begun deliberations to answer the question: Who is ex-Northwestern professor Wyndham Lathem? Is he, as prosecutors framed him, a cold-blooded murderer animated by despair who stabbed his young boyfriend to death? Or is he, as his defense argued, a traumatized bystander who was framed by the actual killer, a catfishing gold-digger who committed the stabbing in a jealous meth-fueled rage? Jurors were sent back to deliberate about 3:30 p.m. Thursday after a few hours of closing arguments. Those arguments summarized wildly different narratives about what happened that night in July 2017 when 26-year-old Trenton Cornell was stabbed nearly 80 times and left for dead in Lathems Near North high-rise. Prosecutors noted that whatever the motive, the physical evidence points to Lathem having an active role in the slaying. He also sent a video confession to his parents in the days after the stabbing. And Lathem went on the run with his co-defendant, Andrew Warren, for more than a week after Cornells death. Eight days he spends on the run with Andrew Warren, the real killer, Assistant States Attorney Yolanda Lippert said, holding up her fingers to put air quotes around the words real killer. Recommended for you That is not the action of an innocent person. It is not the actions of a victim of circumstance, it is the actions of a murderer, she told jurors Thursday. By contrast, the defense focused much of their efforts on discrediting Warren, who testified against Lathem. Defense attorney Barry Sheppard characterized Warren as, alternately, a moral leper, a homicidal creep, and a depressed psychopath. Lathem escaped to another room while Warren, who had used meth, killed Cornell in what was supposed to be a kinky threesome gone terribly wrong, the defense argued. Lathem was frozen with fear, then felt despondent and morally responsible for the slaying, Sheppard argued. Hes flown (Warren) in, hes furnished him with drugs, he didnt act courageously in defending his boyfriend, Sheppard told jurors. You could say he was cowardly you could say he feels lousy about it, he froze, he panicked, but doesnt panic sound like a real thing given that? He doesnt want to be apprehended. While jurors heard extensive testimony from forensic experts and law enforcement officials, their verdict may come down to a credibility contest between Lathem and Warren. They were the only two other people in the apartment when Trenton Cornell was killed, and both took the stand to tell strikingly different stories about his death. Warren took the stand last week and said Lathem flew him to Chicago to fulfill a suicidal death pact. Both were experiencing severe depression, Warren said, and they discussed Warren shooting Lathem while Lathem stabbed Warren. But during the course of Warrens visit, he said, Lathem began speaking about killing other people, and in the middle of the night texted Warren to say he wanted to kill Cornell. Warren went over to Lathems apartment, he testified, and Lathem showed him a jagged drywall knife, told Warren to take video, then walked into the bedroom and began stabbing Cornell while he presumably slept. Warren testified that he could not bring himself to take video, but he did come into the bedroom to try and restrain Cornell as he struggled, then went to grab a knife and stabbed Cornell twice himself. I dont know why. Ill never know why, he testified. Lathem, however, told a very different story. Far from being suicidal, he said, he flew Warren to Chicago as part of a budding online romance - one that would have been within the boundaries of his open relationship with Cornell, though he testified that he was not honest with his boyfriend about the nature of Warrens visit. When Warren touched down at OHare, Lathem was disappointed in his looks, and there was no chemistry between them in person, he testified. But the two spent a few days together before Lathem let Warren know there would not be a romantic future, Lathem testified. After that, he invited Cornell over to his apartment, where Cornell woke him in the middle of the night wanting to have sex. Lathem texted Warren to invite him over for a threeway, he testified. When Warren came over, they did some crystal meth and Lathem showed Warren the drywall saw, suggesting they could use it, Lathem testified. Lathem said he intended the knife to be used as part of safe, consensual kinky sex, but did not make that explicitly clear to Warren. Lathem got in bed with Cornell and began running the dull side of the drywall knife down his back, then felt Warren get in bed with them, he testified. All of a sudden Trent, he freezes, and a split second later he starts screaming, Lathem said on the stand Tuesday, breaking down in tears. ... His head is right next to mine screaming in my ear. Hes screaming in my ear. Lathem managed to get out of bed during the melee and went to hide in the bathroom, he said. The two men then fled town for more than a week, during which Lathem sent tearful videos to his parents and friends about his role in the slaying. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SPRINGFIELD The process of redrawing congressional district maps in Illinois got off to a slow start Thursday when only one person showed up to testify at the first legislative public hearing, which was held in Chicago. Ryan Tolley, policy director for the advocacy group CHANGE Illinois, urged the House Redistricting Committee to listen to community groups and afford them more opportunity than they had during the legislative redistricting process to review any proposed new maps before they are voted on. I had trouble finding one group that participated in the legislative remap hearings that publicly endorsed the legislative maps. But there are a lot that rejected those maps, Tolley said. And I just want us to think about how can we have a map that reflects the interest of communities if almost every group that tries to engage with this process says their voices were ignored and their communities were harmed. Their efforts really should not be in vain. In May, and again in August, lawmakers drew new maps for state legislative districts. Those new maps are now the subject of two federal lawsuits one by Republican leaders in the General Assembly and one by a Latino advocacy group who argue, among other things, that the new districts dilute Latino voting power. Recommended for you But lawmakers have not yet addressed the issue of congressional district maps, something required under the U.S. Constitution once every 10 years following the decennial census. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Illinois population fell by 18,124 people over the previous 10 years, or about 0.14%. As a result, Illinois will lose one of its congressional districts, bringing the number down to 17. Allie McNamara, a legislative aide who works on redistricting, said the largest population losses occurred in downstate Illinois, led by Alexander County, which lost 36.4% of its population. But Calhoun, Coles, Gallatin, Greene, Hardin, Henderson, Jackson, Mason, McDonough, Pike and Pulaski counties also all saw double-digit losses. Meanwhile, there was a marked shift in the states overall population away from rural areas toward urban centers and the suburbs. The city of Chicago grew 2%, or about 50,000 people, McNamara said, although there were significant demographic changes within Cook County. The white population there declined by about 15% and the Black population fell by about 2%, but the Asian and Hispanic populations both grew substantially, she said. Those changes will need to be reflected in whatever new maps lawmakers draw, something they are expected to take up during the fall veto session, which begins Oct. 19. That process will be watched closely at both the state and national level. Democrats hold only an eight-vote majority in the U.S. House while three seats are vacant two Democratic seats and one Republican seat. Historically the party that holds the White House currently, Democratic President Joe Biden loses seats in the presidents first mid-term election, which means there is a strong possibility that Republicans could regain control of the House. But Democrats are firmly in control of the Illinois General Assembly, where they hold supermajorities in both chambers, and they hold 13 of the states 18 congressional seats. Because of the way Illinois population shifted in the 2020 census, the most likely region to lose a congressional seat will be in heavily-Republican southern Illinois. But Democrats in the General Assembly are expected to use their strong majorities to draw maps in a way that will help Democratic candidates in some of the states more toss-up regions. State Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, the minority spokesman on the Redistricting Committee, said he fully expects Democrats to engage in gerrymandering in order to protect Democratic congressional candidates. Illinois has a terrible history of drawing grotesquely gerrymandered districts for political power, he said. And it's been done on a bipartisan level. The current map that we're in, certainly the congressional district that I live in the 13th congressional district was no-bones-about-it drawn to try to elect a Democrat by linking together university towns from Champaign, Normal, Springfield, Edwardsville, across the state in a diagonal manner, where friends and neighbors get divided for pure political gain. That seat actually is now held by a Republican, Rodney Davis, who has indicated that he might consider running for governor in 2022, depending on how lawmakers redraw that district. Both the House and Senate Redistricting committees have scheduled a series of public hearings leading up to the fall veto session. The Senate panel is scheduled to hold its first hearing at 10 a.m. Friday at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines. The next House committee meeting on congressional maps is slated for noon Tuesday, Oct. 12, at the Plumbers Local 130 United Association building in Joliet. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced last week that 13,000 Haitian asylum seekers have been conditionally permitted to enter the United States, and 3,000 are in detention. The entry news is welcome, but ongoing detention of thousands of asylum seekers and other recent treatment of Haitians by the government are not acceptable. We watched with great disappointment and indignation as the U.S. government, which purports to put human rights first in its foreign policy, made the inhumane and counterproductive decision to expel thousands more Haitian asylum seekers last month. They were returned to a place where violence is endemic and a recent earthquake took the lives of more than 2,500 people and left thousands of homes and businesses in ruins. While there appears to be no political consequences for the Biden administration, save for a stern statement from the head of the UN Refugee Agency, the moral failure is clear. Under U.S. law, people who are physically present in the United States or who arrive in the United States (no matter how they arrive) may request asylum and should be given the chance to make the case that they have a credible fear of persecution or fear for their lives if they return to their country of origin. The Haitians who had gathered in Del Rio, Texas, asked for nothing more than an opportunity to realize their right to request protection in the United States. Yet many were expelled by the United States back to Haiti, where gangs pose a constant threat that the government is unwilling or unable to address. Recommended for you The international community and the United States well know the conditions people face in Haiti. Yes, Haiti is a poor country, but more than this: It is a failed state. Unemployment is the norm, and corruption rules in places of power. More than 4 million people face starvation. Family members are kidnapped and held hostage by armed gangs, and the government is unable to stop the violence. This past summer, political violence boiled over into a destabilizing assassination, opening a crater where sound political leadership should be. Now, as the U.S. deports asylum seekers to Haiti, many are unable to return to their places of origin because so much of the capital is controlled by gangs. Others have nowhere to go because of the damage from the earthquake. And for the past 50 years or so, the U.S. government has done little to support good governance and refused to help stop the proliferation of gang violence and the spread of corruption in Haiti. Instead, the United States, a nation that promotes science, is abusing public health policy by enforcing Title 42 and using the global pandemic as an excuse to ignore its obligations to asylum seekers, including thousands of Haitians, turning them away to face dangerous conditions in Mexico and Haiti. Epidemiologists and public health experts across the U.S have opposed Title 42 as a public health measure and urged the Biden administration to restart asylum. Even American federal courts have found these expulsions to be illegal. This wave of Haitian asylum seekers will not end as long as the country continues to suffer from gang rule, violence and the irresponsibility of its elites. The opportunity to seek asylum is a human right that shouldnt be denied. These facts cannot be wished way, rounded up with horses or put on a plane to another place. The United States and its leaders can pretend that after 50 years of failed aid it doesnt understand the threats Haitians face, but not without risking their humanity. Fr. Jean Denis Saint-Felix SJ is the Jesuit Superior of Haiti. Joan Rosenhuaer is the executive director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Neither Republicans nor Democrats want to admit the shocking truth about 2020: The U.S. election system performed well. Americans went through a pandemic and had to change voting procedures in response to it, with all the partisan controversy that entailed. Both parties made irresponsible statements during the campaign that eroded trust that it would be conducted fairly. President Donald Trump warned that mail-in ballots were not secure, and Democrats that they would not be counted. Given all of that, we might have expected a catastrophe. Instead, a record number of Americans voted, and a determined search for evidence of a significant amount of voter fraud has not turned up any. Liberal worries about voter suppression and conservative worries about a lack of election integrity both proved overblown. Nobodys celebrating. Instead, Republican state legislators have been trying to change voting procedures in the name of deterring fraud, and Democratic legislators in Washington have been pressing for big changes of their own to rescue what they say is a democracy in crisis. The parties misguided focus is a consequence, of course, of Trumps campaign to convince people that he won a landslide in an election he actually lost. Republican legislators, even those keeping their distance from this delusion, say their voters doubts about the election buttress the case for policies they have long supported, especially a requirement that voters show photo identification. Democrats say the Trumpist threat to democracy justifies reform of everything from the Senate filibuster to gerrymandering to campaign finance. Recommended for you Neoconservative foreign policy scholar Robert Kagan recently made the case for a coalition including Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans that would cooperate on pro-democracy measures at a minimum, and ideally reach a temporary governing consensus on a range of other issues. While giving credit to Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska for voting to convict Trump after impeachment for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, he faults them for not having shown any interest in this project. They have, in his view, taken too much comfort in Trumps failure to overturn the 2020 election and not enough alarm at how it could easily have gone the other way. Kagan speaks for many in saying that Trump came close to bringing off a coup earlier this year. It ought to be possible to be alarmed by Trumps conduct, and the number of Republicans who have indulged it, without such overstatement. No Republican state legislature sought to overturn the verdict of the voters. There were no dueling electors. The courts were all unanimous in dismissing Trumps legal challenges. Vice President Mike Pence rejected the lawless course that Trump and his associates were pushing: that he should throw out the electors from seven states that went for Biden. To say that Trumps effort to reverse the election results was doomed to failure isnt revisionism. Its what his opponents were rightly saying through much of the period between the election and the end of his term, even though everyone knew full well that Trump wanted to challenge Bidens electors. To the extent that Trumps post-election campaign compels any policy response at all, it is a reform of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which contains confusions and imperfections that an unscrupulous and nimble political leader could exploit. It should, for example, be amended so that it takes more than one senator to force a vote on an objection to a states electors. The bar for Congress to throw out a states electors should also be raised. But Democrats have not been pushing for this kind of narrow reform. Democrats have put more effort which is to say some effort into getting taxpayer funding for congressional campaigns. As with the Republicans and voter identification, they prioritized a longstanding policy priority over anything responsive to Jan. 6. If American democracy is in crisis, nobody is acting like it. Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 DAMASCUS, Va. Damascus Town Council struck down proposals to change the rules of transient lodging at Thursdays council meeting. I think we need to let this situation cool down, said Town Council member Beaty Jackson. This is a hornets nest. Earlier this year, a committee spent five months preparing a new list of rules for property owners who rent lodging to transient or temporary visitors, who typically stay overnight or a few days. Damascus relies on tourism for its economy. The towns tourist traffic is driven by its proximity to the Virginia Creeper Trail, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Appalachian Trail and the nearby Cherokee National Forest. Newly appointed Town Council member Robert Van de Vuurst headed the committee that studied the transient lodging issue. Van de Vuurst also cast the lone vote against Jacksons motion to table the issue. There are more important issues, Jackson said. Neighbors arent talking to each other. People arent being civil about it. Some citizens have complained that they dont like being neighbors next to houses that are continually rented by strangers. PINEY FLATS, Tenn. Fall festivities will be prevalent this weekend at Rocky Mount State Historic Site for the annual Harvest Festival. The site, in Piney Flats, Tennessee, will celebrate the fall season of 1791 at the original capital of the Southwest Territory. Rocky Mount showcases life on the frontier in the late 1700s. Guests are invited to soak up the fall season and join the Cobb family the settlers who resided at Rocky Mount as they celebrate, according to a news release. Living history tours of the Cobb farm will be held all weekend. Demonstrations on-site will include blacksmithing, fireplace cooking, apple butter making, apple cider pressing and more. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} There will also be toys and games, including sack races, corn hole and 18th-century games for all ages. Crafts, including pumpkin painting, Halloween decoration painting, corn shuck dolls and candle making are also planned. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for children ages 5-17. Children under 5 and RMHA members are admitted free. Tickets can be purchased at www.rockymountmuseum.com/fallfestival. The other [characteristics] is that the leader thinks hes above the law, the press is seen as an enemy and there is no discussion among various groups, Albright said. The best quote she could find to depict fascism from Mussolini was, If you pluck a chicken one feather at a time, nobody notices. That is what makes me a worried optimist, Albright said. That what one has to do is talk about the characteristics and point out what feathers are being plucked and what is happening in terms of undermining the system. Albright said she thinks its important to spend time talking with those you disagree with and think before labelling them as scapegoats. I think we need to respect those that have different views and listen and try to figure out what is motivating them, she said. The former U.N. ambassador additionally said she thinks misinformation is a problem in the U.S. and people need to do better at learning the facts. The role of information and where it comes from is absolutely essential for democracy, Albright said, adding democracy is not a spectator sport. Long before the U.S. Supreme Court launched its new term Monday, it was clear that more than the usual lower court rulings would be on trial this term for several reasons. First, Americans are seeing the nine justices less and less like careful, impartial and independent interpreters of the law and more like political hacks. Dont take our word for it: Thats what the latest Gallup polling numbers show. Public approval of the court is down to 40%, the lowest ever recorded by Gallup since it began asking the question in 2000. But second, the six-member conservative majority appears ready to do some serious rewriting of U.S. laws, beginning with womens reproductive rights and likely extending to Second Amendment and religious rights, as well. Is anyone shocked by that? Its what President Donald Trump promised with his appointments, and its what other leading Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have been counting on for years. Yet what happens when the barking dog finally catches up to the car? The Supreme Courts majority is so out of step with public sentiment in the U.S. that it is likely to make rulings that many Americans will find deeply disconcerting. That was foreshadowed in the courts shadow docket decision last month to let stand a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy even in cases of rape or incest. The measure was unusual in that it left enforcement to private lawsuits, but the adverse effect on womens constitutional rights as spelled out in Roe v. Wade was obvious. Still, five justices did not care. They were only too happy to vote 5-4, without live argument or public scrutiny, to let Texas shut down its abortion providers while the law is litigated. And now what lies ahead? In less than two months, the court is expected to hear a Mississippi case that bans abortion at 15 weeks and represents the most serious challenge to Roe in years. Only 45.4% of K-12 students passed state reading, math and science exams given during the 2020-21 school year. North Carolinas 1.5 million public school students received only limited amounts of in-person instruction last school year due to the pandemic. A state report about learning loss is scheduled to be presented to the state board in March. The data validates to me, here again after years and years and years, nothing replaces a qualified teacher face-to-face with a group of students on a daily basis, said J. Wendell Hall, a state board member. The states Read To Achieve program was created in 2012 to try to get more students proficient in reading by the end of third grade. But state scores are lower for third-grade students than they were in the 2013-14 school year. As part of the program, state officials must report annually on the reading performance of students in first through third grades. This years 31% retention rate for third-grade students is much higher than the 15.5% rate at the end of the 2017-18 school year and the 17.7% rate at the end of the 2018-19 school year. No state exams were given at the end of the 2019-20 school year. The New North Carolina Project has hired a Native American engagement director as part of its outreach, which includes door-to-door canvassing, phone and text banking, in-person events and partnerships with other groups already on the ground. Our special sauce is meeting and talking to voters at their door, meeting them where they are. We did not do that in 2020, and the Republicans figured that out, said state Sen. Sydney Batch, who lost her 2020 election but was appointed to the legislature by Gov. Roy Cooper, during the virtual launch event. Batch, a Wake County Democrat, said the Democratic Party is losing Black men at an alarming rate. In 2020, Republicans won the presidential and U.S. Senate elections in North Carolina, won a majority of Council of State races, held their majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly and won all statewide judicial races. Thats because we arent meeting voters where they are, said Batch, who is Black. We cannot assume that Black voters as a monolith, and that we all believe the exact same thing. And so the issue that we constantly have is when we start ignoring our base, and we dont turn out, then we are in a position in which you saw what happened. Under the Dome On The News & Observer's Under the Dome podcast, were unpacking legislation and issues that matter, keeping you updated on whats happening in North Carolina politics twice a week on Monday and Friday mornings. Check us out here and sign up for our weekly Under the Dome newsletter for more political news. The need for truck drivers was at an all-time high in 2018 and 2019. Or at least, thats what industry leaders thought. In 2018 and 2019, everyone said this would be a flash in the pan, we may never see anything like it again until now, said Eric Wright, director of TransTech, a commercial drivers license (CDL) training business based in Newton. Now, people are spending more than ever, which means goods need to be shipped across the country, and CDL tractor-trailer drivers are in demand. Without enough drivers, shipments are delayed getting to the consumer. Because of delays in shipping, seaports are piling up with containers waiting to be taken out by truck drivers, Wright said. Container ships of cargo are left waiting for room to unload, Wright said. Wright hesitates to blame the situation on COVID-19, but when the pandemic hit, orders took off, he said. The economy was already in good shape and the demand for truck drivers was already high before March of 2020. Businesses expected orders to slow, but instead, people started ordering more, Wright said. Consumption hasnt slowed since. Another factor in the need for drivers is that about a quarter of drivers in the nation are over 55, Wright said. Many decided to retire during COVID-19. ANALYSIS A detailed security report from Microsoft somewhat predictably claims that 58% of state-sponsored network attacks in 2020-21 came from Russia. But the 134-page Digital Defence Report which can be downloaded here makes no mention of any malware generated by America's NSA, an organisation which has the biggest budget by far of any intelligence organisation. [This report will only cover some of the data on state-sponsored attacks.] Given that Microsoft has access to Windows telemetry data and the operating system is used on more desktops than any other it would have been a useful statistic for the company to include at least some mention of NSA-sponsored malware in a report this long. But given that the company is an active participant in US defence projects, perhaps that would not have sat well with Biden & Co. On the plus side, there are a few mentions of Windows being the access point or staging ground for attacks. This is a perspective which the entire security industry is wary of canvassing as Microsoft is the source of an enormous amount of business. Among the most targeted countries, the US was top with 46% of the attacks directed its way. But apart from Ukraine (19% of attacks) and Moldova (2%) there was hardly any mention of countries apart from those in Europe and the Middle East. Japan was the only Asian country that figured (3%). The SolarWinds attacks, which were attributed to a Russian source, raised the percentage of attacks in Ukraine, the report claimed. "We also noted targeting increases consistent with increasing geopolitical tensions between nations," it said. "Russia-based NOBELIUM [Microsoft's name for the alleged actors behind the SolarWinds attacks] raised the number of Ukrainian customers impacted from six last fiscal year to more than 1200 this year by heavily targeting Ukrainian government interests involved in rallying support against a build-up of Russian troops along Ukraines border. This year marked a near quadrupling in targeting of Israeli entities, a result exclusively of Iranian actors, who focused on Israel as tensions sharply escalated between the adversaries." Unsurprisingly, the countries named in what is called a "sample of nation state actors and their activities" includes all four countries that the US has on its blacklist when it comes to network attacks: Russia, China, Iran And North Korea. There is one outlier: Vietnam. [Unfortunately, the chart for this is too large to reproduce at the size iTWire uses images.] Later in the report, Turkey was also listed for its attempts to target telecommunications companies in the Middle East and Balkans. The report said one noticeable change in state-sponsored attacks was the targeting of IT service providers "in order to more successfully exploit victims downstream who receive services from those IT providers". "The most glaring examples of the use of this kind of strategy from the last year are the Russian SolarWinds attacks and the Chinese exploitation of a vulnerability in on-premises Microsoft Exchange servers." In a detailed account of the SolarWinds attack, the most interesting takeout was in the screenshot below: The report claimed that the success rate of Russia-backed attackers was 32% for the period covered and 21% in the July 2019 to June 2020 period. The rate of success for Chinese-backed actors was higher (44%) even though overall they accounted for less than 1 in 10 of the total attacks listed. The report has detailed sections on IoT security, disinformation (which is, strangely, called an emerging threat!), cyber crime, and hybrid workforce security. All graphics taken from the report, courtesy Microsoft EDGEWOOD Three men have been charged with first-degree murder and residential burglary in Clay County in connection with the death of 80-year-old Roger Courson. Authorities said Courson was found dead on Spt. 26 in his home near Edgewood. Charges were filed against Walter L. West, 30, of Edgewood, Christopher B. Gallatin, 27, of Centralia, and Jamie L. Charlton, 39, of Salem. According to the news release, the charges allege they either committed the acts or acted as accomplices in the residential burglary and killing of Courson. Crime Stoppers tips provided to the Clay County Sheriff's Department and the Effingham Police Department helped develop the evidence needed to identify these suspects, said the Illinois State Police in a statement. Gallatin and West were arrested Sept. 30 and remain jailed on $2.5 million bond, which means each would have to post $250,000 to be released. Charlton, who was arrest Oct. 6. will have his bond set during a court hearing Friday, Oct. 8. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 MAZON - An 18-year-old from Joliet is in custody for allegedly shooting a Grundy County sheriffs deputy late Thursday afternoon, the Grundy County sheriffs office said. The deputy was hit three times in his left forearm, his chest, and to his back shoulder-blade area about 5:10 p.m., Sheriff Ken Briley said. The rounds to his chest and back were stopped by a ballistic vest. Briley said the deputy was released from the hospital Friday morning and he appeared to be in good health. Hes doing very well, Briley said. I checked on him this morning. Hes sitting up in bed, talking. The deputy attempted a traffic stop on Illinois Route 47 at DuPont Road, but the vehicle fled. The vehicle crashed into two other vehicles before stopping near the railroad crossing at Grand Ridge Road in Mazon, according to the sheriffs office. As he ran away from the final crash, the man fired off several shots at the deputy. Briley said they do not believe the deputy returned fire. The teenager in custody was found inside an apartment building in Mazon, the sheriffs office said, where he was arrested after a SWAT negotiator talked him out of the building. The man told the negotiator he had been shot in the arm as well, and Briley confirmed that we believe that he was injured during the shooting. Briley referred other questions about that to the Illinois State Police, who are handling the investigation and didnt respond immediately to a request for comment Friday. A woman near the apartment building was also taken into custody near the scene on a warrant. Police believe she knew the suspect. The man has not yet been charged, but Briley said he will be working with the states attorneys office Friday morning. During a news conference Thursday night, police said there has not been an officer shot in Grundy County in the past 15 years. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 ELK GROVE VILLAGE President Joe Biden on Thursday championed COVID-19 vaccination requirements, determined that the roughly 67 million unvaccinated American adults must get the shot even as he acknowledged that mandates weren't his first instinct. Biden had ruled out such requirements before taking office in January, but they now are a tactic he feels forced into using by a stubborn slice of the public that has refused to be inoculated and has jeopardized the lives of others and the nation's economic recovery. There is no other way to beat the pandemic than to get the vast majority of the American people vaccinated, Biden said in suburban Chicago at an event promoting the mandates. While I didnt race to do it right away, thats why Ive had to move toward requirements. In the coming weeks, more than 100 million Americans will be subject to vaccine requirements ordered by Biden. And his administration is encouraging employers to take additional steps voluntarily that would push vaccines on people or subject them to onerous testing requirements. Forcing people to do something they do not want to do is rarely a winning political strategy. Yet with the majority of the country already vaccinated and with industry on his side, Biden has emerged as an unlikely advocate of browbeating tactics to drive vaccinations. Look, I know that vaccination requirements are a tough medicine unpopular to some, politics for others but theyre lifesaving, theyre game-changing for our country," Biden said. But the requirements have drawn widespread public support. People are hoping to put behind a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 700,000 in the United States, and businesses see vaccinations as a road map toward a revitalized economy. Biden took that message to a construction site run by Clayco, a large building firm that announced a new vaccinate-or-test requirement for its workforce in conjunction with Biden's visit. The company is taking action weeks before a forthcoming rule by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that will require all employers with more than 100 employees to require that their staffs be vaccinated or face weekly testing for the coronavirus. Youre setting an example and a powerful example," Biden told company officials. Im calling on more employers to act. Biden encouraged other businesses to follow suit by taking action before the OSHA rule and to go even further by requiring shots for their employees without offering a test-out option. Biden also met with the CEO of United Airlines, Scott Kirby, whose company successfully implemented a vaccine mandate, with no option for workers to be tested instead. Less than 1% have failed to comply and risk termination. Biden's mandates have worked spectacularly well, said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown Universitys law school. He added that the president's rules have also had a modeling effect for cities, states and businesses. Thats what the White House intended. U.S. officials began anticipating the need for a more forceful vaccination campaign by April, when the nation's supply of shots began to outpace demand. Political conditions meant immediate steps to require shots would have likely proved counterproductive. The idea of mandatory vaccination faced pushback from critics who argue it smacks of government overreach and takes away peoples rights to make their own medical decisions. So first, officials engaged in a monthslong and multibillion-dollar education and incentives effort to persuade people to get the vaccines of their own accord. It wasn't enough. By midsummer, the more transmissible delta variant of the virus was eroding months of health and economic progress and the rate of new vaccinations had slowed to a trickle. Biden's strategy shifted from inducement to compulsion, with a slow, and deliberate heightening of vaccination restrictions. Its a good political strategy, but it also is a good public health strategy, because once you have a lot of people that have already been vaccinated. then mandates become more acceptable, Gostin said. It started with a vaccination requirement for federal frontline health workers serving veterans in VA hospitals. Then the military, followed in steady succession by all healthcare workers reimbursed by the government, all federal workers, and then the more than 80 million Americans who work at mid- and large-size companies. Nearly 100 million adult Americans were unvaccinated in July. That figure has been cut by one-third since federal, state and private-sector mandates have been imposed. Heres the deal: These requirements are already proving that they work, Biden said Thursday. In conjunction with the president's trip to Chicago, the White House was releasing a report that outlines the early successes of vaccine mandates at driving up vaccination rates and tries to make the economic case for businesses and local governments to put mandates in place. It points to everything from reduced employee hours to diminished restaurant reservations in areas with fewer vaccinations, not to mention markedly reduced instances of serious illness and death from the virus in areas with higher vaccination rates. Millions of workers, the White House notes, say they are still unable to work due to pandemic-related effects, because their workplaces have been shuttered or reduced service, or because they're afraid to work or can't get child care. The evidence has been overwhelmingly clear that these vaccine mandates work," said Charlie Anderson, director of economic policy and budget for the White House COVID-19 response team. "And so now, I think its a good time to lift up and say, Nows the time to move, if you havent yet. While mandates are the ultimate tool to press Americans to get vaccinated, Biden has resisted, at least thus far, requiring shots or tests for interstate or international air travel, a move that legal experts say is within his powers. Officials said it was under consideration. We have a track record, and I think its clear, that shows that were pulling available levers to require vaccinations, said Jeff Zients, the White House COVID-19 coordinator. And were not taking anything off the table. SPRINGFIELD The process of redrawing congressional district maps in Illinois got off to a slow start Thursday when only one person showed up to testify at the first legislative public hearing, which was held in Chicago. Ryan Tolley, policy director for the advocacy group CHANGE Illinois, urged the House Redistricting Committee to listen to community groups and afford them more opportunity than they had during the legislative redistricting process to review any proposed new maps before they are voted on. I had trouble finding one group that participated in the legislative remap hearings that publicly endorsed the legislative maps. But there are a lot that rejected those maps, Tolley said. And I just want us to think about how can we have a map that reflects the interest of communities if almost every group that tries to engage with this process says their voices were ignored and their communities were harmed. Their efforts really should not be in vain. In May, and again in August, lawmakers drew new maps for state legislative districts. Those new maps are now the subject of two federal lawsuits one by Republican leaders in the General Assembly and one by a Latino advocacy group who argue, among other things, that the new districts dilute Latino voting power. But lawmakers have not yet addressed the issue of congressional district maps, something required under the U.S. Constitution once every 10 years following the decennial census. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Illinois population fell by 18,124 people over the previous 10 years, or about 0.14%. As a result, Illinois will lose one of its congressional districts, bringing the number down to 17. Allie McNamara, a legislative aide who works on redistricting, said the largest population losses occurred in downstate Illinois, led by Alexander County, which lost 36.4% of its population. But Calhoun, Coles, Gallatin, Greene, Hardin, Henderson, Jackson, Mason, McDonough, Pike and Pulaski counties also all saw double-digit losses. Meanwhile, there was a marked shift in the states overall population away from rural areas toward urban centers and the suburbs. The city of Chicago grew 2%, or about 50,000 people, McNamara said, although there were significant demographic changes within Cook County. The white population there declined by about 15% and the Black population fell by about 2%, but the Asian and Hispanic populations both grew substantially, she said. Those changes will need to be reflected in whatever new maps lawmakers draw, something they are expected to take up during the fall veto session, which begins Oct. 19. That process will be watched closely at both the state and national level. Democrats hold only an eight-vote majority in the U.S. House while three seats are vacant two Democratic seats and one Republican seat. Historically the party that holds the White House currently, Democratic President Joe Biden loses seats in the presidents first mid-term election, which means there is a strong possibility that Republicans could regain control of the House. But Democrats are firmly in control of the Illinois General Assembly, where they hold supermajorities in both chambers, and they hold 13 of the states 18 congressional seats. Because of the way Illinois population shifted in the 2020 census, the most likely region to lose a congressional seat will be in heavily-Republican southern Illinois. But Democrats in the General Assembly are expected to use their strong majorities to draw maps in a way that will help Democratic candidates in some of the states more toss-up regions. State Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, the minority spokesman on the Redistricting Committee, said he fully expects Democrats to engage in gerrymandering in order to protect Democratic congressional candidates. Illinois has a terrible history of drawing grotesquely gerrymandered districts for political power, he said. And it's been done on a bipartisan level. The current map that we're in, certainly the congressional district that I live in the 13th congressional district was no-bones-about-it drawn to try to elect a Democrat by linking together university towns from Champaign, Normal, Springfield, Edwardsville, across the state in a diagonal manner, where friends and neighbors get divided for pure political gain. That seat actually is now held by a Republican, Rodney Davis, who has indicated that he might consider running for governor in 2022, depending on how lawmakers redraw that district. Both the House and Senate Redistricting committees have scheduled a series of public hearings leading up to the fall veto session. The Senate panel is scheduled to hold its first hearing at 10 a.m. Friday at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines. The next House committee meeting on congressional maps is slated for noon Tuesday, Oct. 12, at the Plumbers Local 130 United Association building in Joliet. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 On Sept. 14, an opinion-editorial letter was published throughout the state of Illinois asking for control and accountability to be restored back to locally elected officials. Representatives, superintendents or boards of education from 84 districts all around the state signed onto the letter. Shortly after its release, the Oakland CUSD 5 Board of Education was asked why it or the district superintendent did not sign on to fight for local control. READ THE LETTER HERE The Oakland CUSD 5 board has discussed local control many times in the past. Be it related to unfunded system/procedural mandates, unfunded curriculum mandates, or now with COVID-related mandates, the board of education has always felt that locally elected officials should be making decisions that affect our students and our schools. Members of the board of education have even gone to Springfield to discuss local control with state legislators. Support for the Op-Ed letter is simply one more measure the Oakland CUSD 5 Board of Education is taking to voice its opinion that local control is a vital component of governing a school district. Oakland CUSD 5 Board of Education Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 What we have seen throughout the pandemic is that whenever there has been an increase in cases, weeks later there has been an increase in deaths, Forsyth health director Joshua Swift said Thursday. Swift said that was the scenario as well in January and February. Those daily cases may go down after reaching a peak, but folks with COVID still may be dealing with complications that could lead to death, particularly among the unvaccinated, Swift said. Statewide DHHS listed 4,078 new cases statewide in Fridays report, compared with 3,781 on Thursday, 3,598 on Wednesday and 2,703 on Tuesday. There were 84 COVID-19-related deaths reported statewide since noon Thursday. Across North Carolina, there have been 1.42 million COVID-19 cases and 17,104 deaths. Dr. David Priest, an infectious diseases expert with Novant Health Inc., said last week that unvaccinated people represent 97% of ICU patients in the Novant system, as well as 98% of COVID-19 patients on ventilators. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Cone Health have said that unvaccinated people represent between 90% and 94% of their hospitalized patients. Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law Friday a state House bill that eases restrictions on stormwater permits. House Bill 218, sponsored by Forsyth representative Jeff Zenger, cleared the state legislature Sept. 23. The law goes into effect Nov. 1. The bill was approved 28-12 in the Senate, and the House voted 60-39 to approve two Senate amendments. According to a bill summary by the N.C. chapter of the Sierra Club, the original version of the legislation would direct local governments to consider building expansions of no more than 20% to be minor modifications. That could mean those expansions would not need approval or would need only administrative approval. There was some Democratic opposition to the bill based on the idea it could weaken the states stormwater regulations as increasing severe thunderstorms and hurricanes lead to massive flooding. What this bill does is enable businesses, whose buildings were built prior to stormwater requirements and watershed regulations, the option of expanding if they will capture all the water from the expansion and the existing facility and run it through a stormwater system, Zenger said. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Her husband, meanwhile, had gone over to help the neighbor clear the driveway. And he managed to get a word with the tree cutter, whod left a business card with Lawson. The tree man naturally denied any involvement or even being at the neighbors home. But there was one problem. He was caught on a doorbell camera (at the neighbors house), Lawson said. We have his picture. The Lawsons, too, filed a report with the Winston-Salem police telephone reporting unit. And like Nelson before them, they were given the same pat advice: If the man comes back around, call 911. Not exactly what anyone was hoping to hear. They told us it wasnt a priority, Nelson said. With all the shootings, the guns in schools and drive-bys, you name it. I get it. Still, the victims would have liked to see more attention paid. Especially considering that they have a business card, a doorbell camera photo and the license tag of the mans truck. It doesnt seem like it would take Sherlock Holmes, or Barnaby Jones for that matter, to run a license plate or ask a couple questions. Help me understand The Sept. 18 letter writer (The Bible says) who used various Scriptures to support abortion felt very strongly when he wrote, if were going to follow what the Bible says, lets really follow what the Bible says and not what patriarchal, politically motivated preachers say that the Bible says. Which did get me to re-read Numbers 5 and conclude that Ive never heard a sermon preached on that text in all my years attending church. That Old Testament lesson does look a lot like sanctioned abortion by the priestly class. (When the priest has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall discharge, her uterus drop, and the woman shall become an execration (a person under a curse) among her people. NRSV) A former Moses Cone nurse who interpreted for the U.S. military in Afghanistan served as a translator. And a local refugee resettlement agency, the N.C. African Services Coalition, as well as Church World Service and World Relief Triad, are coordinating the arrivals of Afghan refugees locally. All told, about 1,200 Afghan refugees are expected to resettle in North Carolina over the next 30 days. Nationally, tens of thousands will enter the U.S. over the next several months. Around 30 to 40 are expected to wind up in Winston-Salem, according to World Relief Triad. This is the least we can do. Afghans who risked their lives to aid U.S. troops during the 20-year war faced reprisals and possibly death at the hands of the Taliban. As for that first family to arrive, neither the exact location of the house or the names of the family have been released to preserve their privacy and allow them time to adjust. But we should know their story and we should know why bringing them to safety here is the only right and decent thing to do. HOLDREGE BD has completed an expansion at one of its Nebraska plants that will help the company continue providing hundreds of millions of needles and syringes to the U.S. government to help with the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The company said Thursday that the $70 million expansion of production lines at its plant in Holdrege was completed with the help of a $42 million investment from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As the fight against COVID-19 continues, we are steadfast in our commitment to securing the nations supply continuity of these critical injection devices, said Rick Byrd, president of Medication Delivery Solutions for BD. Dawn OConnell, HHSs Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, said having a ready supply of domestically manufactured needles and syringes has been critical to the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Taking action now to increase U.S.-based manufacturing capacity will allow us to meet the needs of patients and health care providers while also creating valuable U.S. jobs, OConnell said. In addition to the Holdrege plant, BD has Nebraska-based manufacturing plants in Broken Bow and Columbus. The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the request of convicted murderer Aubrey Trail to serve as his own attorney. Trail, who was found guilty and sentenced to death for the 2017 slaying and dismemberment of Lincoln store clerk Sydney Loofe, had recently asked to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers and instead be appointed to handle his own legal affairs. He said that he had reached an impasse with his attorneys on how to handle the legally required appeal of his death sentence and that he had the common sense to serve as his own lawyer. In an email from prison to The World-Herald, Trail said his attorneys had opposed his desire to waive his automatic appeal and set an execution date within a year. I dont want to appeal, the court sentenced me to death, carry out the sentence, he wrote. Last week, the Nebraska Supreme Court overruled his motion to serve as his own attorney, saying he had failed to serve notice of his request to the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office. Regents did not respond to any commenters, nor did they take any action with regard to vaccines, vaccine mandates, or the use of the Safer Communities App at UNL. Deb Fiddelke, UNLs chief communications officer, said administrators have received very few complaints about the Safer Communities App from the nearly 25,000 students enrolled at UNL this fall. In fact, Fiddelke said UNL students have applauded the choice theyve been given take a vaccine or submit to a non-invasive weekly testing protocol developed in partnership with the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department that has allowed life on campus to start returning to normal. We have taken steps to be basically back to our pre-pandemic posture as far as classes, she said. But, were in the middle of a pandemic; you have to be willing to take steps to do so safely. Most of the students have been perfectly happy to follow the procedures needed to be on campus and in-person." After Fridays meeting, UNL Student Regent Batool Ibrahim said there have been some minor complaints about technical issues with the Safer Communities App, particularly early in its deployment, but no widespread opposition to the protocols from students. Over the last three decades, Americans have witnessed the gradual erosion of our civility and maturity due to corrosive politics. If you've ever wondered what it would look like when we hit rock bottom, now we know. We're there. And it was, of all things, the debate over an infrastructure bill that took us to the bottom. I would have put my chips on guns, abortion or immigration. When did fixing roads, repairing bridges and modernizing airports get to be so controversial? It was probably around Election Day 2020, when Joe Biden was elected president as a moderate despite opposition from progressives, and then he proceeded to govern by attempting to please both factions. Biden, who has been in politics since 1973, should have known better. Trying to make everyone happy only makes everyone angry. So what does rock bottom in our political discourse look like? It looks like left-wing protesters harassing Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona on Sunday and chasing her into a bathroom stall at Arizona State University, where the freshmen senator has taught since 2003. The entire sophomoric episode was -- naturally -- videotaped and posted on social media. The zealots probably thought they were embarrassing Sinema; they have no idea that the joke is on them. That targeted effort should help students overcome the learning loss experienced over the last year. But it must be continued for longer than a school year to ensure that the students have caught up from the pandemic loss, even after the federal funds have expired. The return to enrollment growth also resumes the pressure to build enough schools to accommodate increasing numbers of students in future years that LPS, its board and Lincoln voters have had to address over the last couple decades. To that end, Lincoln Northwest, one of two high schools being built with a $290 million bond issue that passed last year, will open next fall. Standing Bear High School is set to open in the fall of 2023, while Robinson Elementary School, also being paid for by the bond issue, will open in the fall of 2022. Given that the average increase of 250 students per year is much smaller than the 1,000 or more experienced a decade earlier, the new schools will be sufficient in the near term. But with the number of immigrants increasing and the resumption of refugee resettlement in the city, particularly those from Afghanistan, LPS enrollment is very likely to rise at higher numbers than 250 a year in the near future. Such an increase can only be good for LPS and Lincoln. But it will continue to create the kind of challenges that have to be welcomed after last years enrollment drop and this years rebound of more students in the system. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The head of a Republican investigation into Wisconsins 2020 election has backed off an initial request for subpoenas and interviews with mayors and city clerks in five cities, Madisons city attorney said Thursday. During the past week, retired state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who was hired by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to lead the investigation, requested a swath of election-related documents from city officials in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha representing hundreds of thousands of documents. Investigators also demanded interviews with the mayors and city clerks in those cities later this month. However, Madison City Attorney Michael Haas said he was notified Thursday by officials with the investigation that the subpoenas and interview requests have been canceled and the request now only pertains to records the city already has produced in response to public records requests. Haas said the same information was conveyed to officials in all five cities. Of course all of this could have been provided without a subpoena in the first place, Haas said. We do appreciate that they have recognized that the initial request would have been impossible to fulfill by (Oct.) 15. Haas said he was not sure if Gablemans change of course also applies to a subpoena issued last week to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Haas said investigation officials plan to follow up Friday with an email regarding the new request and they have reserved the right to request interviews or additional documents in the future. Mayors in Wisconsin dont play any role in administering elections, so its unclear what Gableman was hoping to learn from the latest round of subpoenas. In an interview Tuesday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gableman said, Most people, myself included, do not have a comprehensive understanding, or even any understanding, of how elections work. Democrats have decried the Gableman investigation as a farce and an attempt to undermine public confidence in elections. A recount and court decisions have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. Only four voters out of roughly 3 million who cast ballots have been charged with fraud. Regardless, Trump still refuses to concede defeat and has pressured GOP legislators to investigate election fraud. Vos hired Gableman in June at a cost of nearly $680,000 in taxpayer money for the one-party investigation. Gableman has said he planned to look into advice the bipartisan state Elections Commission gave to clerks, and donations the Facebook-funded nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life gave to Wisconsin communities, to help run the 2020 election. In a video last month, Gableman said hes not trying to overturn the election results, even though he told Trump supporters in November, without evidence, that he thought the election had been stolen. Gableman has not disclosed who is working for him. An email sent to clerks asking for records as part of Gablemans investigation came from a Gmail account under the name John Delta and included a document created by a former Trump administration official. Gableman, Vos and other city officials could not immediately be reached Thursday night. Massive request The subpoenas to the cities clerks and the state Elections Commission call for them to turn over all documents contained in your files and/or in your custody, possession, or control pertaining to the Election. Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl on Thursday provided one example of the strain Gablemans subpoena would put on her office. She said that whenever someone registers to vote online, the Elections Commission will send her an email, with a duplicate to her office, notifying her of the registration and including the voters date of birth, drivers license number, and last four digits of the voters Social Security number. Similar emails come in when someone requests an absentee ballot online, she said. All the emails combined are enough to overwhelm her offices email system, she said. Just prior to last years presidential election, her office had as many as 2,000 emails coming in per day from people registering to vote online, she said, and while she didnt have a grand total for how many registration and ballot-request emails her office received in 2020, her conservative estimate was about 100,000. If that is the case, our information technology professionals say it would take more than 10 days just to save these e-mail messages as pdf files, she said. And then we would need to redact the personally identifiable information. Mayor responds Reached Thursday evening after the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel first reported Gablemans rescission, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said she had not personally received notification that the subpoena had been rescinded, but if that were the case she called it good news. I hope this means he understands our Wisconsin clerks and poll workers did a great job running not only the November 2020 election but all elections in Wisconsin, she said. Rhodes-Conway on Thursday emailed a campaign fundraising appeal referencing Gablemans investigation. In the email, Rhodes-Conway said she is proud of how the citys elections are run while criticizing Gablemans request to appear behind closed doors at a strip mall in Brookfield, in reference to the location where clerks and mayors had been summoned for an interview. But we all know they arent really interested in the process of our elections they just didnt like the outcome, Rhodes-Conway said. And they especially dont like that Madison has consistently terrific turn out, providing the margin of victory in statewide elections. State Journal reporters Chris Rickert and Dean Mosiman contributed to this report. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 The 2021 Racine Holiday Parade was held on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021 in Downtown Racine. The parade and tree lighting are the annual kickoff to CALEDONIA The Racine County Sheriffs Office is getting a new training facility, one which officials say will hopefully begin construction this year. The Caledonia Planning Commission met last week and discussed a building, site and operations plan for an approximately 4,050-square-foot RCSO training facility located at 3710 Seven Mile Road. The plan was submitted by Wisconsin Electric Power Co., otherwise known as We Energies. The Plan Commission recommended to the Village Board that the proposal be approved. The Village Board then approved the plans at its Monday meeting. The motion to approve came from Trustee Tom Weatherston, was seconded by Trustee Dale Stillman and carried unanimously, 5-0. Trustees Lee Wishau and Kevin Wanggaard were excused from the meeting. Nuts and bolts The new facility will enhance existing training facilities on the site. The lot is approximately 29 acres and is currently zoned for P-2, Recreational Park District, A-2, General Farming and Residential District II. The building use will not adversely affect the surrounding property values, according to a Planning Commission report. The building will be located approximately 630 feet from Lake Michigan. No daily operations are planned on site. According to village plans, the applicant will be removing approximately 5,390 square feet of concrete on the northern portion of the site. The building will have a primary exterior of split-face concrete blocks on all four sides of the building. The brick will be painted to differentiate a bottom and middle. The gable portion of the building will be clad in fiber cement siding, providing a top. The roof will be asphalt shingles. No windows are proposed, village plans say. No additional parking is proposed; parking is located to the west of the building. This facility will not have any staff or customers, nor any specific hours of operation. The site will be operated to accommodate parking needs if more than one training facility is being used at the same time. This development is part of the training facility that is located down a bluff and cannot be seen from the road. The only exterior lighting being proposed would be located on the south and west side of the building and would be cutoff fixtures. Sgt. Michael Luell, public information officer for the Sheriffs Office, said in a statement that the new building has been in the works for four or more years. The RCSO is hoping to break ground this year and is hoping to have training there next summer. The current training facilities on-site include a classroom, physical hands-on mat room and outdoor shooting range. The new training facility will provide more realistic, scenario-based trainings for county law enforcement, Luell said. (The) current building does not have (the) ability to move walls around to change up layouts, Luell said in the statement. He described scenario-based trainings as an extraordinary useful and widely used tool in creating and maintaining law enforcement officers. Scenario-based training has a multitude of possibilities that are only limited by the creativity of the training staff and the tools at their disposal, he said. I can assure you that the new facility will allow for a higher level of training that will enable the Racine County Sheriffs Office to provide professional, prepared and quality service while protecting the community. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. KENOSHA A stolen vehicle that led to a chase and eventually a crash that injured two passengers has landed a Village of Pleasant Prairie man a slew of criminal charges. Anthony A. Massie, 55, remains in custody in the Kenosha County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond. Massie is charged with felony counts of operating a vehicle without owners consent, attempting to flee an officer, two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety, two counts of hit-and-run causing great bodily harm and knowingly operating a motor vehicle without a valid license. The defendant also is charged with misdemeanor counts of obstructing an officer and resisting an officer. Court records also show that Massie faces two felony counts of failing to update his information with the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry. Massie was convicted in 2010 of sexual assault and third-degree sexual assault and is a lifetime registrant. Massie is due back in Kenosha County Circuit Court for a jury status hearing Oct. 20 in both cases. If convicted of the most recent felony charges, Massie faces a total possible fine of $140,000 and 46 years, three months in prison. Massie also is charged as a repeat-offender on all nine counts. According to the criminal complaint, a Pleasant Prairie Police Officer on patrol at 2:21 a.m. May 12 observed a Toyota Sedan reported stolen out of Chicago pass his location. When the officer attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver allegedly fled and eventually reached speeds of more than 70 mph on 39th Avenue. When the driver, later identified as Massie, attempted to make a right turn east on 55th Street, he missed the turn and struck a residence, which caused moderate damage, according to the complaint. Massie reportedly exited the drivers seat and fled north through the front yards of residences, but he was taken into custody by Kenosha police officers two houses away. Two passengers inside the vehicle both were injured in the crash and transported to the hospital. One of the passengers suffered a broken wrist, the complaint states. The extent of injuries to the other passenger were unknown. Police stated the second passenger complained of leg pain and had an open cut above his right eye. Police reportedly found a broken glass pipe with noticeable drug residue in Massies pocket. The complaint also states that Massie was extremely uncooperative with jail staff and physically resisted correctional officers while in the holding cell. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 RACINE After allegations of racism and bigotry came out against Racine Lutheran High School, its administration said Friday that its response had fallen short. We recognize that our plans to curb this behavior have not proved to be effective, the Racine Lutheran High School Board of Directors said in a statement released Friday morning. We are calling on outside sources to guide our staff and students to understand and prepare to make RLHS a safe place where Gods children can gather to learn more about their Heavenly Father as they prepare for their lifes work. This will be an ongoing plan to restore peace to RLHS. We know there is a lot of work to be done. The statement Friday follows a series of incidents at the school, including students wearing shirts reading Trumps border wall during Homecoming activities; vandalism that included a racial slur and anti-Semitic symbolism; accusations of students of color being punished harshly than their white counterparts; and a school-affiliated Mount Pleasant Police officer allegedly making what was called a veiled threat about a student who brought forth concerns about discrimination. Mount Pleasant Police Chief Matthew Soens said Thursday the officer is under investigation. The Racine Lutheran High School Board of Directors said it would not tolerate acts of hate and individuals that commit such acts will be held accountable according to our policies. During a news conference on Thursday, a number of allegations against the school were discussed. Darryl Morin, president of Forward Latino, said theres been an effort by some to intimidate and persecute and demonize the students who have come forward. Among the allegations: Rules and disciplinary measures being handed out unfairly, with students of color being punished more harshly. Students who have negative lunch account balances have also allegedly had their struggles with poverty discussed out loud by staff in front of other students, including having food taken away from them in public repeatedly. Latino students also said that they had wanted to put up displays to celebrate , which began Sept. 15 and ends Oct. 15, but were not allowed to. In the statement released Friday, the RLHS Board of Directors quoted Scripture. Our school community is part of the body of Christ. In the Apostle Pauls first letter to the Corinthians, he wrote about being members of the body of Christ, the board of directors said in the statement. In verse 26, Paul wrote that if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:26). We have members of the body of Christ here at Racine Lutheran High School who are suffering, and so, we are all suffering. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A temporary COVID-19 booster vaccination clinic will open Tuesday at the Alliant Energy Center, Public Health Madison and Dane County said Thursday. The clinic at the Arena building at the Alliant Center will offer booster doses for those who are eligible, as well as first and second vaccine doses for anyone 12 and older. The booster clinic will start with five active vaccination booths capable of accommodating about 220 booster vaccinations per day. Health officials strongly encourage residents to make an appointment, but drop-ins will be accepted. To make an appointment at the Alliant Center clinic, or one of the other Public Health clinic locations visit publichealthmdc.com/vax. COVID-19 vaccines are also available throughout the county through health care providers and pharmacies. This clinic will differ from the previous clinic we had set up on the grounds of the Alliant Energy Center for a couple of reasons, Sarah Hughes, COVID-19 vaccine deputy for the city-county health department, said in a statement. First, it is in a different part of the facility and second, people will park and walk-in, as opposed to the previous drive-through approach. Hughes said the department is ready to expand vaccination capacity as soon as children under 12 are eligible. Pfizer made its formal application for children between the ages of 5 and 11 on Thursday. Health officials are recommending booster shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for people who already got two Pfizer doses if they: are 65 and older; are at least 50 and have underlying conditions such as cancer, diabetes or lung disease; or live in long-term care facilities. People 18 and older with underlying conditions and those 18 to 64 in higher risk occupations such as first responders, teachers and grocery store workers may get boosters, officials said. Boosters should be given at least six months after the second dose. Boosters are not yet recommended for people whose initial doses were of the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but such approval and guidance is expected in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services on Thursday said it was relaunching a Community Testing Support Program to help local health departments and providers offer more COVID-19 testing. The announcement came as the delta variant surge continued in the state even as it has ebbed in some parts of the country, with 2,770 new COVID-19 cases and 17 more deaths reported in Wisconsin. State Journal reporter David Wahlberg contributed to this report. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. America loves its freedoms. Right near the top of those constitutionally protected freedoms is freedom of speech. And, yes, that includes coarse, vulgar and offensive speech which can rile up a neighborhood or city just as it has in Burlington in the past couple of months. At issue is a brightly colored red, white and blue flag flying on a flagpole outside a rental home in a residential area on Schemmer Street, that is emblazoned with the message: F- Biden and F- you for voting for him! Some neighbors are offended, others see it as a sad commentary on the state of the country and the virulent political divisiveness that has emboldened rude behavior. One neighbor last month asked the Burlington City Council whether the flag is prohibited under an ordinance that restricts public nuisances actions of property use that continues to substantially annoy others or greatly offend(s) the public morals or decency. The issue was put on the councils agenda Sept. 7, but was pulled at the last minute and City Attorney John Bjelajac said enforcing the nuisance ordinance would run the risk of violating the flag owners First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The flag owner has not been publicly identified, but the owner of the rental house said he has told the renter to take it down, saying: We cant have swearing on a flag in public. Lets be clear, this is not the only such flag around. We have heard of at least one other flying outside a residence on Racines north side in a residential area near the zoo which has also caused a kerfuffle among neighbors there. And theyre easy to come by. For the low, low cost of $12.99 plus $6.99 shipping you can find the F- Biden banner for sale online and post your own profane disagreement with the election of the president. If you swing to the other side of the political aisle, in a few keystrokes you can also find a 3-foot by 5-foot Trump lost. F- your feelings banner for $16.98, plus free shipping with Amazon Prime. Vulgarity is apparently one place where you can find bipartisan agreement, at least for some people. Flags and banners have long been used to express thoughts, stir emotions and instill pride. The Star Spangled Banner, Old Glory the symbol of our country has often been the center of disputes over flag desecration laws passed by Congress and states. In a 5-4 decision that still riles many Americans, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 ruled that burning the U.S. flag in protest was symbolic speech that was protected by the First Amendment. It underscored that ruling again in 1990 when it struck down Congress Flag Protection Act as unconstitutional. If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable, Justice William Brennan wrote. Remarkably, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative who cast the deciding vote in the 1989 case, said in one of his last public appearances, If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag. But I am not king. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 1. Yes. Council members appear to have taken time to review each section carefully. 2. Yes. The council has set up town halls and a public hearing to inform the residents. 3. No. The council should have set up a charter review committee, including residents. 4. No. Some of the items proposed so far benefit the council more than the community. 5. Unsure. Its hard to say until after the public has had more opportunities to weigh in. Vote View Results Killeen, TX (76540) Today Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 63F. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Clear skies. Scattered frost possible. Low around 35F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. As part of the 20-year commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Fort McCoy hosted a presentation by the last survivor to be pulled out of the World Trade Center debris. Genelle Guzman-McMilan shared her experiences with Fort McCoy community members Sept. 1 at the Noncomissioned Officer Academy. The event was organized by the NCOA and Fort McCoy Army Community Service. Guzman-McMilan was working for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which was located on the 64th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center, at the time of the attacks. The north tower was the first building to be hit but the second to collapse. She said that when the first plane hit her building, she at first thought it was an earthquake, having been through earthquakes in her native country of Trinidad and Tobago. Or perhaps a small plane had hit the building, she said she was thinking, which the World Trade Center was built to withstand. A few people left immediately, while others in her office, including Guzman-McMilan, tried to figure out what was happening first. She said theyd recently had an emergency drill, and because the alarms and emergency lights werent going off, she thought it couldnt be that bad. It wasnt until they turned on a television in a conference room and saw the images being broadcast that they realized how bad things were. Guzman-McMilan said she couldnt believe the images she was seeing or what she was being told when she called family. Me, the little island girl? In a terrorist attack? she asked. Emergency personnel told them over the phone to stay put; rescue workers would come find them. They checked stairwells to see if they were clear and tried to keep smoke out of their office with wetted jackets and sweaters. The building shook again. It swayed. And thats when ... the other building collapsed, Guzman-Mcmilan said. I thought, Oh no. Were going down. ... Were not getting out of here. One of the managers decided they couldnt wait any longer for emergency personnel, and their coworkers checked the stairwells again to find one with working lights that seemed clear. About 15 of them began making their way down the staircases. Guzman-McMilan said she was wearing high-heel boots that day her friend and coworker Rosa Gonzalez kept urging her to take them off so they could move faster but she kept them on, wanting something to protect her feet when she got outside. At one point, they passed firefighters heading upstairs to check the upper floors, who told them to keep heading outside. Somewhere round the 15th floor, she said, she finally had to pause to take off her shoes because her feet were hurting so badly. That was when the second tower collapsed. The dust, the darkness... everything just came crashing down, she said. It happened so fast. She lost hold of Gonzalez during the collapse, whose hand shed held most of the way down. She said she covered her head as best she could and told herself she was having a bad dream. When she came to herself again, she realized she couldnt move. Her body was twisted in an odd position and her legs felt like they were being crushed. She said she could feel steel pushing into her back, and her head was trapped between two pillars. I keep being alert. I keep hearing the radios. I keep hearing the firetrucks. I keep hearing the walkie talkies and the communication going on, Guzman-McMilan said. And for some reason, I just couldnt speak. I wanted to, but my voice just couldnt open up to say help. Guzman-McMilan was trapped in the rubble for 27 hours before rescuers found her. She said, after the initial shock, she was awake and aware the entire time, though she couldnt tell how long it had been. At one point, she wanted to fall asleep so she wouldnt have to feel the pain anymore. During her ordeal, she began praying, despite not being religious beforehand, asking for a second chance. She credits God and possibly a guardian angel for her survival. At some point, she said, she felt a hand reach through the rubble and grasp the one that wasnt entirely trapped. The hands owner said his name was Paul and began encouraging her to hold on and reassuring her that she was going to make it through. When the radio noise came closer, Guzman-McMilan said, Paul told her she had to speak up so that rescuers would find her. The hand let go of hers before the rescuers reached her, and Guzman-McMilan said shes never found out who Paul was, leading her to believe he was a guardian angel. She spent months in the hospital afterward; medical workers thought at one point that her leg might need to be amputated. None of the coworkers shed left the office with made it through the collapse, and she didnt find out until much later that she was the last person to make it out of the rubble alive. Guzman-McMilan said she doesnt know why she made it out when so many others, especially her friends and coworkers, didnt, but she is grateful for her second chance. She said she put her faith in God after her survival and shares her story with others. She ended her presentation with a prayer, asking God to share his grace and plan with those around her. According to her biography at her website, Guzman-McMilan is an active member of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church and serves as a volunteer for the American Red Cross and the 9/11 Tribute Center. She also is the recipient of several awards and proclamations by mayors and senators of New York since Sept. 11, 2001, including receiving a Medal of Honor from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Hi. Vern here. So, have you ever wished you could be in more than one place at one time? I sure do. Most every day someone will say, Hey Vern In a recent column I stated that we are already away from it all. For the most part, we are. We dont have television, reception, we dont have a subscription to Netflix or any other service of that kind. We live a third of a mile from our closest neighbor. But theres the daily work around the place that keeps us very busy most of the time. Wed been planning a trip to Colorado for months. Dave, especially, kept foremost in his mind all the things that needed to be done here, and all the things we needed to bring along. His experience in the going west department far exceeds mine. He has hunted antelope, mule deer, coyotes, and elk in Wyoming and Colorado for decades. For me, when invited to go along, its an opportunity to do something vastly different from anything I have ever done, before. My preparation was in the daily work I do around here, and I moved along at my usual steady pace, checking off my list. Traveling day was upon us. I had my vegetables canned. The grass was mowed. Why, then, did I find it so difficult to get away from our little homestead and head west? Well, I had a rock wall to rebuild. I had pulled it apart so we could dig out the thousands of Siberian Iris that were growing not only in the terrace, but in between the rocks in the wall. The now empty space will house perennials that I need to move in preparation for new construction. Were going to add a little addition so we can put in a real furnace. Wood heat is wonderful, and I hope to never do without it. But as things are right now, Dave and I cant go away in the winter at the same time, with no one to keep the woodstove going. Time to modernize. Then there is the daunting task of finding takers for all these lovely flowers. But work near the house can wait until I get back. Ill tell you what it is. Its the countdown to hunting season. Once bow hunting begins, I will have all the time in the world to do my landscaping. There is work to do. Recent weeks of high winds have taken down trees all over the woods. Every trail needs to be cleared and valued firewood hauled out. I want to snowshoe this winter, and do not relish climbing over tree trunks with my cumbersome snowshoes on. Then theres the habit of working. I like it. I dont easily set it aside for weeks of days to do whatever I want to do that isnt work, like trout fishing in the Colorado Rockies, reading for hours, walking in the mountains, or getting a good nap. Amazing, isnt it? With no internet or cell service the need to constantly correspond simply isnt there. Who wouldnt jump at the chance? And Ive done it before. We headed west for Daves elk hunt and time away from the constant work of the homestead a few years ago. I spent hours trout fishing in the secluded mountain brook, learning the pools where the fish were hiding, learning how to keep my hook from snagging rocks. It was wonderful. Now I was going back. It took three days, from climbing into the truck on an early Monday morning, until well into a long hike into the mountains on Wednesday, to even begin to relax and enjoy myself. A few more days have gone by, as I write this, and I feel no pressure, no time constraints. I do have a couple chores filtering brook water for washing and cooking is one of them. The other is having a hot supper ready when Dave gets back after dark, but cooking is a creative endeavor for me, and I dont consider it work. How does trout loaf with piquant sauce sound? It was pretty good, for a first try. I have been thinking about the it all that we all want and need to get away from. There are those mandatory responsibilities like jobs. There is the constant ding of our cell phones to answer. There are those things we choose to do that we dont really have to do on any schedule. We are so habituated to the work of getting everything done before we decide to relax and enjoy ourselves, that enjoying ourselves takes a back seat much of the time. Take it from one who likes structure, comfort, and predictability. Just do it. There were many, many years when I could not afford to get away like this. Maybe you cant afford a big trip, either. Perhaps you could visit a friend in another city. Or (and it takes a lot of discipline to do this, as its so easy to fall into work mode), take a staycation. Use your house as a home base and take day trips to places within driving distance that you have always wanted to see. Be sure to eat things that are real treats for you. For me, that would include a big bag of Sun Chips and Culvers turtle sundaes, and dinner at The Freighthouse in La Crosse. It might take a day or two to adjust, but then the delightful freedom of doing nothing will descend upon you. Think of it an extended Sabbath. The work will be right there when you get back. I bet you wont even miss it. Doreen moved to the woods from Green Bay in 1984, married back-to-the-lander Steve ODonnell, and stayed to raise their three children after he died in 1997. Dave Short joined her there in 2016. Doreen welcomes feedback at doreenshort2021@gmail.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Today is Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. Let's get caught up. Here are today's top stories, celebrity birthdays and a look back at this date in history: TOP STORIES Journalists from Philippines, Russia win Nobel Peace Prize OSLO (AP) The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia. They were cited for their fight for freedom of expression. Ressa in 2012 co-founded Rappler, a news website that has focused "critical attention on the (President Rodrigo) Duterte regime's controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign," the Nobel committee said. Muratov was one of the founders of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 1993. Novaya Gazeta is the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power, the Nobel committee said. *** Taliban official: At least 100 dead, hurt in Afghan blast KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) An explosion at a mosque in northern Afghanistan on Friday that targeted Shiite Muslim worshippers left at least 100 people killed or wounded, a Taliban police official said. The official, Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said that the majority of them have been killed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place in the city of Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province, but Islamic State militants have a long history of attacking Afghanistans Shiite Muslim minority. If confirmed, a death toll of dozens would be the highest since U.S. and NATO forces left Afghanistan at the end of August and the Taliban took control of the country. *** US Senate avoids debt disaster WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate has dodged a U.S. debt disaster, voting to extend the governments borrowing authority into December and temporarily avert an unprecedented federal default that experts warned would devastate the economy and harm millions of Americans. The party-line Democratic vote of 50-48 in support of the bill to raise the government's debt ceiling by nearly a half-trillion dollars brought instant relief in Washington and far beyond. However, it provides only a reprieve. Assuming the House goes along with the Senate's Thursday night vote, which it will, Republican and Democratic lawmakers will still have to tackle their deep differences on the issue once more before year end. *** California fires may have killed hundreds of giant sequoias LOS ANGELES (AP) Northern California wildfires may have killed hundreds of giant sequoias as they swept through groves of the majestic monarchs in the Sierra Nevada, an official said. Its heartbreaking, said Christy Brigham, head of resource management and science for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. The lightning-caused KNP Complex that erupted on Sept. 9 has burned into 15 giant sequoia groves in the park, Brigham said. *** Click on the links below for full version of today's top stories. Keep scrolling for a look back at this day in history and today's celebrity birthdays: *** IMAGE OF THE DAY *** TODAY IN HISTORY Today in history: Oct. 8 In 1998, the House triggered an open-ended impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton in a momentous 258-176 vote, and more events tha Today in sports history: Oct. 8 In 1956, Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitches the only perfect game in World Series history. See more sports moments from this date: *** HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ... Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Benvenutos Italian Grill, which opened across from Warner Park in early 2003, closed Thursday. The restaurant is known for its meatballs and large portions. The lease for that location is up, said owner Brian Dominick. All of the other locations are owned or are on long-term leases and will continue to be ready to serve our guests as we have for over 25 years. Dominick said the closing was not COVID-19-related. He said some of Benvenutos six other locations have flourished during the pandemic with carryout and delivery business. He said that after 18 years, the 7,600-square-foot location at 1849 Northport Drive needed remodeling, which didnt make sense to do in a building he doesnt own. Benvenutos has two other Madison-area locations, in Middleton and Fitchburg. The first Benvenutos opened in Beaver Dam, 40 miles northeast of Madison, in 1996. The North Side location was Dominicks second. Dominick, 53, said hes looking to add other locations within the next two years, including in Sun Prairie. Dominick was 25 when he began planning the Beaver Dam restaurant. He opened it two years later. He said hes not involved in the day-to-day operations any more. Tonya Clark, whos worked for him from the beginning, runs the restaurants with Chad Webster. Employees from the North Side restaurant were given the option of moving to another of the other locations, Dominick said. While each location has a slightly different look, all have the same menus featuring pastas, steaks, seafood, sandwiches, pizza and calzones. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A Dane County circuit judge on Friday ordered Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to release records related to the Republican-led investigation into Wisconsins 2020 election. The ruling came within hours of a public records lawsuit being filed and as the involvement in the investigation of Andrew Kloster, a Republican attorney and former member of President Donald Trumps administration, continued to raise questions about the credibility of the inquiry, which is being led by retired state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. The mayors and clerks in the states five largest cities had been ordered to testify as part of the investigation later this month. But in an about-face Thursday, Kloster called Madison City Attorney Michael Haas to inform him that the investigation had backed off its initial request for interviews. Then on Friday morning, Gableman told WISN-AMs conservative radio host Dan ODonnell he still plans to require city officials to testify at some point. Gableman also compared newspaper reports about Klosters conversation with Haas to Nazi propaganda. In exchange for the voluntary cooperation from Madison and Kenosha and Racine, we said, OK, well work with you, you dont have to show up at the office, Gableman said. But Ill tell you what, theyre going to show up now. All of them, unless we reach an agreement specifically otherwise. While city officials said the decision to pare down the initial request which would have included potentially millions of election-related documents was good news, the inquiry was still mired in confusion. Given Gablemans public comments today there still seems to be a lack of clarity about this issue, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said. A subpoena is a legal directive, and Rep. Vos should formally rescind it. Vos, who signed the subpoenas and is the only one authorized to issue them, has not responded to multiple requests for comment. Calls to a phone number listed for Gablemans investigation also were not returned. In a video last month, Gableman said hes not trying to overturn the election results, even though he told Trump supporters in November, without evidence, that he thought the election had been stolen. Gableman has said he planned to look into advice the bipartisan state Elections Commission gave to clerks and donations the Facebook-funded nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life gave to Wisconsin communities to help run the 2020 election. A recount and court decisions have affirmed that President Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. Four voters out of roughly 3 million who cast ballots have been charged with fraud. Trump official involved While Gableman has not disclosed who is working for him, an email sent last month to clerks asking for records as part of the investigation came from a Gmail account under the name John Delta and included a document created by Kloster, who served as deputy general counsel at Office of Personnel Management and associate director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Haas said Kloster was the one who informed him Thursday that interviews with city officials scheduled for Oct. 15 had been canceled. Kloster emailed Haas on Friday confirming that the city will need to provide all responsive communications you may reasonably produce including election-related records the city already has produced in response to public records requests by next Friday and makes no mention of any interviews being conducted. Active with the conservative Federalist Society, Kloster has been an outspoken supporter of Trumps baseless claim that the 2020 election was rigged. Kloster is a graduate of the New York University School of Law and the University of Miami and currently works as an attorney in Washington, D.C., according to his bio with the Federalist Society. Before joining Trumps administration, Kloster worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Federalist Society also notes that Kloster has 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 in April posted online that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, fair and square and Wisconsins election training was woefully inadequate. The issue is that we need our own army of local bureaucrats. And we need to fight for our locales. We need our own irate hooligans (incidentally, this is why the left and our national security apparatus hates the Proud Boys) and our own captured DA offices to let our boys off the hook, Kloster wrote, in reference to members of the far right who were involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Richard Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California-Irvine, said Klosters involvement in the audit further underscores that the effort is far from credible. Hasen described the ongoing investigation as ludicrous and nothing more than a PR stunt, as is happening around the country, that is aimed at placating the Republican base and Donald Trump. It just adds fuel to the fire and it shows how lacking in credibility this so-called investigation is to bring in a Trump loyalist who has suggested that prosecutors not fairly consider the charges against those who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, Hasen said. If youre trying to build confidence that youre doing a fair investigation and youre trying to bolster the integrity of the election process, this is exactly how to not do that. Kloster did not respond to requests for comment. Others involved in probe Efforts to learn who else is assisting Gableman in the probe have proved largely fruitless. Fond du Lac County Clerk Lisa Freiberg said she and other clerks she declined to name initiated a conference call Sept. 29 with Gableman, an aide named Zakory Niemierowicz, and a female attorney from California whose name she couldnt recall. During the call, Freiberg invited Gablemans team to her office to see how elections are conducted, and the next day, Kloster and the female attorney spent about two hours with her as she explained chain of custody, Election Day voter registration and other Wisconsin election basics. She said they had been unaware that county vote totals are not sent to a central location controlled by state officials. I wanted to show them that I was preserving the information from the 2020 election, she said. Freiberg said Kloster and the other attorney were respectful during the visit and did not take photos or otherwise attempt to collect any evidence. Vos, R-Rochester, hired Gableman in June at a cost of about $676,000 in taxpayer money. Documents filed in the Dane County public records lawsuit include pay rates for Gableman, an administrative assistant and five investigators. The investigators are not identified. Vos signed contracts with former Milwaukee police Detective Mike Sandvick and former Eau Claire Police Detective Sgt. Steven Page to serve as investigators, but Page on July 27 resigned from the role and recommended a different investigator, according to records in the case. The documents also name a fourth investigator who was to work with Sandvick and Page, but it doesnt appear she ever signed a contract to do so. The Wisconsin State Journal is not naming the other two people because it doesnt appear they ever worked on the Gableman probe. Neither responded to phone messages on Friday. Freiberg on Friday did not recognize Page, Sandvick or the other two potential investigators names coming up in her contacts with Gablemans office. Records lawsuit Liberal watchdog group American Oversights records lawsuit alleges Vos and Assembly Chief Clerk Ted Blazel failed to release documents related to the investigation submitted in an open records request. The Wisconsin State Journal, as well as other media outlets, also have requested similar documents, which have not been provided. On Tuesday night, Special Counsel Gableman appeared at a Green Bay council meeting and stressed the importance of transparency to promote election integrity, American Oversight executive director Austin Evers said in a statement. He should talk to his boss, Speaker Vos, who has steadfastly failed to release records about the so-called investigation. Wisconsin has a right to know how this taxpayer-funded investigation is being orchestrated. According to court documents posted by American Oversight, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn ruled Friday that Vos and Blazel had unjustifiably withheld and refused to release the records and are ordered to immediately provide the documents or show cause to the contrary at a hearing scheduled for Nov. 5. State Journal reporter Chris Rickert contributed to this report. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 The head of a Republican investigation into Wisconsins 2020 election has backed off an initial request for subpoenas and interviews with mayors and city clerks in five cities, Madisons city attorney said Thursday. During the past week, retired state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who was hired by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to lead the investigation, requested a swath of election-related documents from city officials in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha representing hundreds of thousands of documents. Investigators also demanded interviews with the mayors and city clerks in those cities later this month. However, Madison City Attorney Michael Haas said he was notified Thursday by officials with the investigation that the subpoenas and interview requests have been canceled and the request now only pertains to records the city already has produced in response to public records requests. Haas said the same information was conveyed to officials in all five cities. Of course all of this could have been provided without a subpoena in the first place, Haas said. We do appreciate that they have recognized that the initial request would have been impossible to fulfill by (Oct.) 15. Haas said he was not sure if Gablemans change of course also applies to a subpoena issued last week to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Haas said investigation officials plan to follow up Friday with an email regarding the new request and they have reserved the right to request interviews or additional documents in the future. Mayors in Wisconsin dont play any role in administering elections, so its unclear what Gableman was hoping to learn from the latest round of subpoenas. In an interview Tuesday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gableman said, Most people, myself included, do not have a comprehensive understanding, or even any understanding, of how elections work. Democrats have decried the Gableman investigation as a farce and an attempt to undermine public confidence in elections. A recount and court decisions have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. Only four voters out of roughly 3 million who cast ballots have been charged with fraud. Regardless, Trump still refuses to concede defeat and has pressured GOP legislators to investigate election fraud. Vos hired Gableman in June at a cost of nearly $680,000 in taxpayer money for the one-party investigation. Gableman has said he planned to look into advice the bipartisan state Elections Commission gave to clerks, and donations the Facebook-funded nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life gave to Wisconsin communities, to help run the 2020 election. In a video last month, Gableman said hes not trying to overturn the election results, even though he told Trump supporters in November, without evidence, that he thought the election had been stolen. Gableman has not disclosed who is working for him. An email sent to clerks asking for records as part of Gablemans investigation came from a Gmail account under the name John Delta and included a document created by a former Trump administration official. Gableman, Vos and other city officials could not immediately be reached Thursday night. Massive request The subpoenas to the cities clerks and the state Elections Commission call for them to turn over all documents contained in your files and/or in your custody, possession, or control pertaining to the Election. Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl on Thursday provided one example of the strain Gablemans subpoena would put on her office. She said that whenever someone registers to vote online, the Elections Commission will send her an email, with a duplicate to her office, notifying her of the registration and including the voters date of birth, drivers license number, and last four digits of the voters Social Security number. Similar emails come in when someone requests an absentee ballot online, she said. All the emails combined are enough to overwhelm her offices email system, she said. Just prior to last years presidential election, her office had as many as 2,000 emails coming in per day from people registering to vote online, she said, and while she didnt have a grand total for how many registration and ballot-request emails her office received in 2020, her conservative estimate was about 100,000. If that is the case, our information technology professionals say it would take more than 10 days just to save these e-mail messages as pdf files, she said. And then we would need to redact the personally identifiable information. Mayor responds Reached Thursday evening after the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel first reported Gablemans rescission, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said she had not personally received notification that the subpoena had been rescinded, but if that were the case she called it good news. I hope this means he understands our Wisconsin clerks and poll workers did a great job running not only the November 2020 election but all elections in Wisconsin, she said. Rhodes-Conway on Thursday emailed a campaign fundraising appeal referencing Gablemans investigation. In the email, Rhodes-Conway said she is proud of how the citys elections are run while criticizing Gablemans request to appear behind closed doors at a strip mall in Brookfield, in reference to the location where clerks and mayors had been summoned for an interview. But we all know they arent really interested in the process of our elections they just didnt like the outcome, Rhodes-Conway said. And they especially dont like that Madison has consistently terrific turn out, providing the margin of victory in statewide elections. State Journal reporters Chris Rickert and Dean Mosiman contributed to this report. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 When it comes to celebrating fall, Lancaster County does it best. This year, the county has a full slate of fall and harvest season celebrations and events, including apple cider making, pony riding, trunk-or-treat events and more. Here are 11 fall festivals to go to in October. Amish Farm & House Amish Farm & House's fall farm celebration will feature a blacksmith and wood carver, baby goats to cuddle, apple cider milkshakes and other family activities. More information: Saturday, Oct. 9 | Amish Farm & House, 2395 Covered Bridge Drive, Lancaster | Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Cost: $13 for adults, $9 for children ages 6-11, free for children younger than 5 years old | More info Bright Side Opportunities Center Bright Side Opportunities Center will host a fall festival featuring vendors, kids activities, food, bingo and more. More information: Saturday, Oct. 9 | Bright Side Opportunities Center, 515 Hershey Ave., Lancaster | Hours: 12 to 5 p.m. | Cost: Free | More info Memorial Park Encounter Church will throw a fall harvest party featuring kids activities, pony rides, pumpkin tossing and food. More information: Saturday, Oct. 9 | Memorial Park, 299 Park Ave., Quarryville | Hours: 1 to 4 p.m. | Cost: Free | More info Aberdeen Acres This fall festival will feature bluesy band Mama Tried and all proceeds go towards grants and scholarships for the Lancaster Sunrise Rotary Club. There will be a silent auction featuring prizes like Barnstormers tickets with a skybox and $500 food voucher, a portrait sitting from artist Lara Koppmann and more. More information: Saturday, Oct. 9 | Aberdeen Acres, 406 Aberdeen Road, Elizabethtown | Hours: 2 to 7 p.m. | Cost: $50 | More info Terre Hill Terre Hill's fall festival will feature games, hayrides, food, live music, pumpkin painting and more. More information: Saturday, Oct. 9 | Terre Hill Community Memorial Park, 210 Lancaster Ave., Terre Hill | Hours: 2 to 8 p.m. | Cost: Free | More info Haldeman Mansion This fall festival is apple-themed, and will feature bobbing for apples, apple desserts of all kinds and apple cider making, as well as tours of the mansion, activities for kids and adults and more. More information: Sunday, Oct. 10 | Haldeman Mansion, 230 Locust Grove Road, Bainbridge | Hours: 12 to 4 p.m. | Cost: $5 per adult | More info Friendship Fire & Hose Co. This Elizabethtown fall festival will have food trucks, vendors and raffles. More information: Friday, Oct. 15 | Friendship Fire & Hose Co., 171 N. Mount Joy St., Elizabethtown | Hours: 5 to 8 p.m. | Cost: Free | More info Ephrata Farm & Art Market This fall festival will also be a car cruise and trunk-or-treat event. Costumes are encouraged. More information: Saturday, Oct. 16 | Ephrata Farm & Art Market, 1185 Division Highway, Ephrata | Hours: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Cost: $10 for car cruise | More info Lancashire Hall Lancashire Hall's fall festival doubles as a free family event and trunk-or-treat event for kids. More information: Friday, Oct. 22 | Lancashire Hall, 2829 Lititz Pike, Lancaster | Hours: 4 to 6 p.m. | Cost: Free | More info Lititz United Methodist Church Lititz UMC will host an event with trunk-or-treating, a mini carnival, crafts, and lots of events for kids. More information: Saturday, Oct. 30 | Lititz United Methodist Church, 201 Market Street, Lititz | Hours: 12 to 4 p.m. | Cost: Free | More info Freedom Life Church Christiana's Freedom Life Church will host a combination fall festival and trunk-or-treat event, recommended for kids in fifth grade or younger. Registration is encouraged. More information: Saturday, Oct. 30 | Freedom Life Church, 447 Noble Road, Christiana | Hours: 4 to 5:30 p.m. | Cost: Free | More info Ever evolving from its initial use as a furniture store almost a decade ago, Tellus360 is set to debut its newest component this weekend. Boogie360 will open its glam doors on Friday, Oct. 8. Think palm trees, a light-up floor and classic disco and funk vinyl from the late 70s, according to concept mastermind Andy Metz. We already have the dance thing that happens downstairs on Friday and Saturday nights that kind of appeals to a younger crowd, Top 40 crowd, so this will be a little different than that, Metz says over the phone. We're going to have a red carpet, velvet ropes it's going to be classy. Over the course of the pandemic, Metz says that hes been developing a business plan for Boogie360, and at the same time stocking up his record collection with the likes of KC & the Sunshine Band, Sylvester and many more. Youve got to check your heart rate if you're not moving along to that music, says Metz. From 8 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. every Friday night in the second floor area between the extensive whiskey bar and Pubforge work space, guests can expect a fully immersive dance experience. Beyond the significantly boosted loudspeakers, courtesy of Tellus360 sound engineer Brett Keller, Boogie360 will also boast live dancers from the Arthur Murray School of Dance, as well as live drummer Christy Engel of Lancaster band Dimestore Dolls. Metz says that he will lean into the familiar for the first few Boogie360 sessions before moving into more obscure territory, like the electronic dance music of Italy and France in the 1970s. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Boogie360 will make its debut on a crowded Tellus360 calendar on Friday night as an alternative to the sold out Guided by Voices show in The Temple area, among other events. If you get lost, just follow the people dressed in jumpsuits and boogie shoes. The main thing is, while COVID is still prevalent, to just make people happy, Metz says. Make people dance and sing along, and give people a really enjoyable time. To keep up with Boogie360, visit tellus360.com or @boog_ie360 on Instagram. (Note: Boogie360 will take a break on Friday, Oct. 15, while the Lancaster Roots & Blues Festival is taking place, and will return the following weekend) A Lancaster County jury convicted Rahmir Hopkins of third-degree murder Thursday afternoon in the shooting death of Luis Perez two years ago in Lancaster. Hopkins was 14 at the time, just two weeks shy of his 15th birthday, making him one of the youngest people convicted of murder in the county. Hopkins, dressed in a wrinkled white dress shirt and tan pants, did not appear to react as the jury foreman announced the verdict, reached after about two hours of deliberation. His family members sighed in relief as the foreman first announced a verdict of not guilty on the charge of first-degree murder, then wept as the third-degree murder conviction was read. Perezs family left the courtroom with a victim services staffer and did not comment. Hopkins attorney, Perry Paul de Marco Sr., said he was disappointed in the conviction, but could understand how the jury reached its verdict. We came into this case facing an offer from the D.A.'s office of pleading to the first-degree murder for a sentence of 25 years to life, he said. So we saved a bunch of years by going to trial. While first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole for adults, thats not the case for juveniles. A 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling determined a mandatory sentence of life without parole for a juvenile is unconstitutional in some cases. Hopkins faces a sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison on the third-degree murder charge. Third-degree murder means a person killed with malice, but lacked the specific intent of first-degree murder. De Marco said he hopes Judge Jeffery Wright will have some mercy, because he's a good kid he can definitely be rehabilitated and become a productive citizen. Wright will sentence Hopkins after a presentence investigation is completed. The jury of seven men and five women also convicted Hopkins of two weapons charges related to the firearm used to kill Perez, which was never found. Prosecution and defense In closing arguments earlier in the day, Assistant District Attorney Cody Lee Wade argued to the jury that Hopkins chose to end a fist-fight with a gun. The shooting happened on Oct. 9, 2019, on South Lime Street after Hopkins and two friends went to a corner store for a soda. Along the walk to the store, Hopkins group exchanged words with Perez, 25. It began when Perez asked the trio what they were looking at. When Hopkins and his friends passed by Perezs house again, Perez went over to them and punched Hopkins in the throat so hard that both he and Hopkins fell to the ground. Hopkins friends then began punching and kicking Perez. Surveillance video captured the fight, but it didnt record who fired the fatal shot. Hopkins red soft drink was found later on the sidewalk, several feet away from where Perez was shot. That fact taken together with other testimony and evidence pointed to Hopkins as the shooter, Wade told the jury. An autopsy determined that Perez was shot from at least several feet away, and not at close range, which would rule out Hopkins friends, according to Wade. He suggested that Hopkins put his drink down so he could pull out his gun and shoot. Rahmir Hopkins pointed a gun at someone he intended to kill, Wade told the jury. This was payback with a purpose. This was retribution at the end of a gun. Wade told the jurors do not temper your verdict because of what Luis Perez did that day. Do not temper your verdict because of Rahmir Hopkins age. Wade told the jurors the evidence should lead them to a first-degree murder conviction, arguing that Hopkins showed he had formed the specific intent to kill a legal element of first-degree murder. That was by waiting five seconds the amount of time that passed from Hopkins getting up after being punched and walking away while his friends continued to fight Perez, to when he shot Perez, based on Perezs body movements as shown in the surveillance video footage, according to Wade. And Hopkins showed he intended to kill Perez by shooting him in the back. Hopkins did not pursue a strategy of self-defense. Instead, Hopkins attorney argued that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hopkins was the shooter. Even so, de Marco appealed to the jurys emotions, arguing that Perez set in motion his own death. Family members tried to pull Perez back from confronting Hopkins and his two friends, but he broke free and attacked the runt of the litter after one of the three insulted him, de Marco said. Telling the jury, Justice always occurs in the courtroom if you apply reasonable doubt, DeMarco suggested that it was someone else who fired the fatal bullet perhaps one of Perez family members or friends, who were nearby. They might have aimed for one of his attackers, but instead hit Perez. Isnt it just as likely? The question is, since you werent there, you dont know how it happened, he argued. But Wade told the jurors he had met his burden of proof. Besides the video footage pointing to the prosecutions theory, Wade recounted witness testimony during the trial, which began Monday. Alex Sanchez, who did not know Perez or Hopkins, testified that he heard a gunshot while getting into his car, then looked in that direction and saw Hopkins tucking a gun into his waistband, Wade argued. Wade also replayed recordings for the jury of two people who said Hopkins told them he shot Perez. On a recording made shortly after the shooting, Cameron Williams, one of the two men who was with Hopkins, told an investigator that Hopkins told him he shot Perez. Another woman also told investigators at that time that Hopkins told her he shot Perez. Hopkins did not testify, but de Marco put on two witnesses who testified they've known Hopkins for years and that he has a good reputation as a peaceful, nonviolent person. Update on Rivera shooting death Another case of a boy charged with homicide at age 14 also moved forward this week. Elijahuwon Ashmeir Brown waived his preliminary hearing in the Aug. 27 shooting death of 23-year old Rolando Rivera in the 500 block of Third Street, next to Rodney Park. Brown will turn 15 on Dec. 28. According to police, video from nearby residences shows Brown shooting Rivera. An autopsy found Rivera died as the result of multiple gunshot wounds to the head and torso. In a preliminary hearing, prosecutors must present sufficient evidence that a crime was committed and that the defendant probably is responsible and, therefore, that a jury or judge should hear the case at the county court level. The next step in Browns case will be a formal arraignment, where a judge will read the charges to him and he will enter a plea of not guilty or guilty. That's scheduled for Oct. 22. Pennsylvania Rep. Matt Dowling was seriously injured in a crash on his way to an event in Lancaster County Wednesday night, according to a statement from state House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff's office. Dowling, a Republican serving parts of Fayette and Somerset counties, was taken to Lancaster General Hospital and treated for "significant trauma" following the single-vehicle crash, Benninghoff's office said Thursday. "Currently, he is in serious but stable condition, and our thoughts and prayers are with Rep. Dowling, his wife and two young sons as he and they deal with his injuries," the statement read. WellSpan Health, which operates in Pennsylvania eight hospitals including WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital and employs about 20,000 people, is implementing the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its workers. WellSpan Health is requiring workers to receive their first COVID-19 dose if taking a two-dose regime by Dec. 1 and their second dose by Jan. 5, 2022. Exemptions will be granted for religious and medical reasons. Employees who fail to meet the vaccine requirement or obtain an exemption will lose their jobs. WellSpan continues to believe that vaccination is the single best way to reduce the spread of COVID-19, Ryan Coyle, a WellSpan spokesman, said in an email. Coyle pointed to the fact that the majority of WellSpan patients admitted with COVID-19 requiring breathing support (99%) or ICU care (90%) are unvaccinated. President Joe Biden announced an employee vaccine mandate for health care workers last month. Initially, two of the three major health systems in the county - WellSpan and UPMC - had said they would wait on further guidance before implementing the mandate. Only Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health has a staff vaccine mandate in place, which went into effect Sept. 1. Amber Depew, a UPMC Lititz spokesperson, said Friday the health system has no plans yet to implement a staff vaccine mandate. UPMC follows all current governmental requirements and will continue its vaccine advocacy and outreach efforts, make vaccines easily and readily available for all, Depew told LNP | LancasterOnline by text message. We continue to monitor any governmental guidance and testing requirements where our employees live and work. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC has more than 90,000 employees at 40 hospitals, including UPMC Lititz. UPMC has said its staff vaccination rate, across the system, is about 70%. Depew declined to provide an updated rate. Before implementing its mandate in May, roughly 66% of LG Health employees were vaccinated. Last month, the rate was more than 98%. WellSpan Health again declined to provide its staff vaccination rate. Nationally, health care workers account for roughly 18% of reported COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Pennsylvania, 2% of the total reported infections are among health care workers. When: Council meeting, Oct. 4. What happened: Council was asked to allocate $5 million of the citys $39.5 million in American Rescue Act funds toward affordable housing projects. Why it matters: Lancaster is seeking feedback through the end of October on how the city should use its ARPA funds. (engage.cityoflancasterpa.com/en/projects/american-rescue-plan) Mayor Danene Sorace said this request is coming before thats finished because affordable housing is already a known priority and because there is time-sensitivity with three potential projects that could result in 50 to 60 new affordable housing units for the city, possibly more. Wording: The ordinances wording is broad and general and does not tie that $5 million to specific projects. The amount, however, was set with three projects in mind, Sorace said. She did not share details, but Sorace said council would hear specifics on two if not all of them before a vote. Whats next: A first reading is slated for Oct. 12, as is an in-depth presentation on affordable housing needs and strategy. A vote could follow on Oct. 26. More ARPA funds could later be tapped for affordable housing. It may be more over time, Sorace said. We dont want to bite off more than we can chew at this moment. Project details: Sorace said the three projects involve organizations with affordable housing as part of their missions rather than traditional private developers. Weve been approached by a couple of private developers who are interested in allocating a certain number of units to be affordable, she said. While weve never done (that) and do not have plans at this moment to engage in any project like that, we are continuing to have conversation about what that could potentially look like. She said the time sensitivity involves time limits on real estate transactions for two projects and, for the third, the organizations pro forma and the degree to which they can secure other funds. Snow removal: Council discussed proposed snow-related amendments to the citys streets and sidewalk ordinance that could be put up for a vote on Oct. 26. A proposed change states that when a snow emergency has ended, all city parking restrictions that apply to regular street cleaning would be immediately reinstated. In other business: Council discussed amending the capital improvement plan to redirect unspent or unallocated bond fund money to projects such as design and engineering for the Water Street bike boulevard and Ewell Plaza stormwater management. Council also heard the Lancaster Public Librarys request to co-submit an application seeking a $750,000 Keystone Grant for Public Library Facilities through the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The library applied for a $2.5 million grant from the states Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program and will also seek public donations. Library board member Henrietta Heisler told council that, due to supply chain and other issues, cost estimates for the new library expected to open during the first quarter of 2023 in Ewell Plaza have risen from $6.9 million to $8 million or more. Quotable: We dont fully know the total yet. But from the first budget to now, which is still not 100% sorted out, its gone up at least a million dollars, Heisler said. Thats a lot more money for us to have to raise. So everything we can get from support of the city and the state is incredibly helpful. THE ISSUE: "Even after COVID-19 cases rose among children and district leaders worked to contain outbreaks among students, Pennsylvania schools have been slow to opt into a multimillion-dollar Wolf administration program providing free weekly testing," Spotlight PA's Jamie Martines wrote in an article published on its website Thursday. "Just 396 schools signed up between mid-August and Sept. 30, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Thats out of more than 5,000 charter, private, and public schools statewide." Spotlight PA is a nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer; its partners include LNP Media Group. We understand that its been a difficult start to put it mildly to the school year in Pennsylvania. School boards and administrators have been dealing with loud, partisan opposition to measures meant to help contain the spread of COVID-19. There are long, often contentious, public meetings. We can only imagine what its like to spend a day in the shoes of administrators, school board members, teachers, school staff or students. And all this while the surge of the delta variant brought another troubling chapter in a 19-month pandemic that has everyone exhausted. But thats precisely why we find it hard to understand why the overwhelming majority of Pennsylvania schools, public or private, have failed to avail themselves of the free weekly COVID-19 testing program being offered by the state. Again, it comes at no cost to schools. All schools in Lancaster County should be taking advantage of this resource. The pandemic is continuing. And we are still seeing the effects it can have here. Landis Run Intermediate School in the Manheim Township School District has shifted to virtual instruction through Wednesday, due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, LNP | LancasterOnline's Alex Geli reported. That affects the building's nearly 1,000 students. We should also find this troubling: State Health Department data from the last few weeks shows thousands of school children across Pennsylvania are contracting COVID-19, WITF reported Thursday. More than 7,300 kids between 5 and 18 years old tested positive for COVID in a single week last month, up from about 750 at the same time last year. Even when COVID-19 numbers take a dip, as they have now in some places after weeks of rocketing upward, we cannot let down our guard. Dr. Tom Frieden, an infectious disease physician and former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tweeted this Thursday morning: "Average daily diagnosed cases in the US will soon fall below 100,000. That's progress. But ... really? 100,000 diagnosed cases means many times that number of infections. This wave is receding, but unless we vaccinate the unvaccinated, future deadly waves are likely." He is right, and we continue to urge all those who are eligible to get vaccinated to do so. But Americans under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated. We are greatly encouraged that U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, have officially asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize their vaccine for emergency use for children ages 5 to 11. But that's just a step in the process. FDA officials say that the authorization could occur between Halloween and Thanksgiving, The Washington Post reported Thursday. While we await that authorization, schools must use the resources at their disposal to help protect students and staff, and to inform their decision-making processes while the virus continues to spread. To that end, the state Department of Health hired Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks in July to administer a statewide school testing program, Spotlight PA reported. It was hoped that such a program would help to head off outbreaks and thus keep children in school. Spotlight PA described how the testing works: "Students and teachers who choose to participate are typically tested weekly. Each person swabs their own nostril, and the samples from each classroom are mixed together in a process called 'pooled testing.' Results are returned in one to two days, and show whether the virus is present among that group of people. If the result is negative, its unlikely that anyone in that group is sick. If the pooled test is positive, its possible that someone in that group has COVID-19." With those results in hand, school leaders can decide whether to recommend additional testing or quarantine. This seems to us like essential information in helping to keep the spread of the virus contained. So why are only 60 of Pennsylvania's 500 public school districts taking part in the program? "Wolf administration and school officials offered different reasons for the lack of participation, including fear of finding too many cases and simply being too overwhelmed by a chaotic start to the academic year," the Spotlight PA article noted. "Weve tried, ad nauseam, to make sure schools are aware of it," acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said. If school officials are "overwhelmed," they should consider that school closures and the problems they bring would only add to their worries. Testing programs aren't guaranteed to stop closures from happening, but they can help. In order to be able to operate in person, which (schools) werent doing to the same extent last year, you need this extra safety precaution to just keep a check on things and make sure it doesnt go undetected, Abby Rudolph, an epidemiology and biostatistics professor at Temple University, told Spotlight PA. More school officials should heed that guidance and take advantage of the testing program the state is paying for and has made available to all. Compton Community College District 2021-2022 Final Budget Approved At its regular meeting on September 7, 2021, the Compton Community College District (CCCD) Board of Trustees approved the 2021-2022 CCCD Final Budget. The 2021-2022 Final Budget may be viewed online: http://www.compton.edu/district/administration/businessadmin/docs/2021-2022_FinalBudget-Final.pdf. Even during these unprecedented times, the Compton Community College District Board of Trustees is focused on ensuring Compton Community College District remains fiscally solvent for our students and community, said CCCD Board of Trustees President Sonia Lopez. We have allocated much-needed resources to support distance education and student resources, including laptop and WiFi hotspot loan programs, emergency grants, and food resources for the 2021-2022 year. ADVERTISEMENT The budget is based upon the information currently available from the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office. The 2021-2022 CCCD Final Budget was based on 5,980 Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTES). Compton College will offer 1,389 course sections to meet this FTES goal. The 2021-2022 Compton District Final Budget includes Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA); filling six faculty positions, one classified position, and one management position; future funding for the Compton College Enterprise Resource Planning system cost of $3,700,000; future funding for Compton College Equipment Replacement cost of $1,000,000; future funding for the Compton College Fire Academy of $350,000; and the future cost associated with the Compton District Personnel Commission of $400,000. The 2021-22 CCCD Final Budget also includes the following transfers to the Capital Outlay fund in the amount of $3,500,000 to pay the District required match for the Visual and Performing Arts Building replacement project, and $350,000 to pay for a future E-Sports facility project. Finally, the 2021-2022 Compton District Final Budget includes the following expenses to address Compton Districts long-term liabilities: Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) payment of $1,250,000; California Public Entity Pension Stabilization Fund State Teachers Retirement (STRS)/Public Employees Retirement (PERS) fund payment of $500,000 to address future STRS/PERS obligations; and the line of credit repayment of $1,681,841. The proposed 2021-2022 Compton District Final Budget maintains a reserve above the minimum 10% level as required by Compton Community College District Board Policy 6200. Help Find Daniel: Search continues for Missing Geologist, 24 A $10,000 reward is offered for any information on the whereabouts of Daniel Robinson, 24, who went missing more than two months ago from a remote Buckeye, Arizona, worksite. The Arizona Informant received exclusive details regarding the status of search efforts to locate the young geologist who was last seen leaving his job site near Sun Valley and Cactus Road on June 23. From having allegedly walked off the job and not showing up to having walked off naked into the desert and joined a monastery to become a monk, the family is steadfast in efforts to find their loved one and get the truth about what happened, causing Daniel Robinsons prolonged disappearance. ADVERTISEMENT As of September 30, there were no further updates available from the Buckeye Police Department, according to Zachary Astrup, a sergeant and patrol/bike squad member. The organization issued a second press release on July 21, after the department was notified of Daniels jeep discovered by a rancher on his property about four miles southwest of the job site where he was last seen. His jeep, reportedly discovered in a ravine, had rolled, and landed on its side with its airbags deployed. Reports indicated that he was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident. His personal effects including clothes, cell phone, wallet, and keys were recovered at the scene, according to the report. Detectives allegedly conducted a ground search by foot with help from the Department of Public Safetys Ranger helicopter, the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office and the search and rescue dogs. However, the search was said to have come up empty. Detectives reportedly continue to analyze evidence from his vehicle and reevaluate further searches but as of this point, no foul play is suspected, the report noted. Once the police department received the initial report, the case was investigated as a missing person immediately. At this time, no facts or evidence have been presented that indicate any foul play. The Buckeye Police Department used all available resources to include off-road vehicles, police helicopters, searches on foot, and the civil air patrol to help search a large area, Astrup said. Unsurprised that there was no updated information from the Buckeye police about the case, the family has sought its own private investigator to proceed with exhausting all efforts and resources to search for the missing geologist. ADVERTISEMENT The father, David Robinson II, has taken the helms of locating his son. He recounts receiving a call from his daughter, who lives in Phoenix, on June 23, alerting him in South Carolina that Daniel was missing; she was informed by one of Daniels coworkers. Naturally, Davisha was very worried, and so was I about his whereabouts. However, since Daniel usually calls his family when he decides to take a trip, I was not too alarmed until I found that it was more than six hours since anyone has heard from him, said the father, noting how perturbed he became with no word from his son. Unable to search for him from South Carolina, he called Daniels job for information with no success in finding him. Then, he called the Tempe Arizona Police Department to file a missing person report but was directed to the Buckeye Police Department since that would be the right precinct for the area where Daniel was last seen. After contacting the Buckeye Police Department, the next two days of trying to pull their teeth to go out and look for my son proved to me that I had to leave immediately from my home and search for Daniel myself. The Buckeye Police Department showed no interest in searching for my son, he said. Instead, they quickly adopted a theory that my son decided to abandon his family and friends. On a couple of occasions, the Buckeye Police suggested that my son may [has] joined a monastery and became a monk. It was offensive to me, and it motivated me even more than I was; all ready to do whatever I had to do to find my son. He constantly contacted the Buckeye Police Department and Daniels job, Matrix for all the information he could get as he traveled. I did everything that I could to put pressure on the police department to go out and search for him. Unfortunately, it took pressure from my auntie in Philadelphia to get them to get a helicopter almost a week later. It was another sign that the Buckeye Police Department didnt take my sons disappearance seriously, he said. The father added how he was even told by Buckeye police that they couldnt do much because my son is a grown man, so he took matters in his own hands, he said, interviewing the last person who saw his son. I needed to look that person in the eyes who said that my son got into his jeep and drove off into the desert and vanished. I had to find a way to get into that desert, find that worksite and see for myself, said the father. He described how he kept going to the gate with binoculars on Sun Valley Parkway in Buckeye and decided to get in there one way or another because something, everything that was being told to me about my sons disappearance, was not adding up. The Buckeye Police Department had started searching over a week after my son went missing and said nothing was found each time. I became frustrated and tired with the police departments lack of enthusiasm, so I created my search. Finally, I started a search with hard work and meeting the right people, he said. During that search, he said, about five remains of other people in the desert were recovered. The remains of people were found in areas where the Buckeye Police Department told me they searched for my son but have not found these themselves. I have deep doubt that Buckeye did one thorough search for my son. If so, why didnt they find the remains? Because of my lack of trust in the Buckeye Police Department, I decided to need my investigator on the search, he said. After checking with detectives, I am aware of one set or partial human remains that has been recovered. If there were any additional remains recovered, it may not have been within the jurisdiction of the Buckeye Police Department. The remains that were discovered are pending identification by the Office of the Medical Examiner, said Astrup when asked about the discovered remains. An investigator came onboard and uncovered evidence the Buckeye Police Department did not, said David Robinson II, adding some evidence came from the Buckeye Police Departments report, but unfortunately, they either didnt know how to read their data or didnt care to read it correctly. The Buckeye Police Department refuses to look at any possibility other than their initial theory that my son decided to abandon his family, he said, recalling his interaction with police from viewing pictures of the scene to seeing the vehicle. The detective once again suggested that my son most likely walked off naked into the desert and joined a monastery to become a monk. I was angry inside and already emotional about seeing my sons jeep for the first time wrecked, he stated. The concerned father detailed how the police kept insisting that he touch the vehicle when he went to see it, but he was too emotional to do so, he said, noting that the officer opened the back door and pointed out things that were still in it, took a bag with his sons items and dumped it on a seat. I still didnt touch that vehicle even though they kept suggesting that I do. Finally, I told him that I was ready to leave. He then said that I needed to make arrangements to have the vehicle removed from their impound because they will have it towed away to a towing company, and I would have to pay for storage. I didnt have a chance to breathe before I had to worry about finding some place for it. I explained that I needed time, and he agreed to give me a few more days, said the father. With more questions looming, he vividly recalled sitting in his hotel room, thinking about what transpired and realized that they didnt do any forensics work. He requested a meeting with the Buckeye chief of police, Larry Hall and his detectives, noting the lack of forensics work at the scene where his sons vehicle was found. Their explanation was they didnt do any because there was no blood in the vehicle and no sign of foul play. I asked how they know that my son was even driving the vehicle. The detective said that he was obviously driving because its his vehicle. I asked again how they knew that it was my son driving or someone else was also in the vehicle. They didnt have a response, he stated. Two days later, the father said a detective called to state they were doing forensics, dusting for fingerprints, which is something he said should have been done at the scene before removing the vehicle and releasing personal effects that were all in evidence bags but marked as safekeeping. The items were never considered evidence to the Buckeye Police Department because their theory that my son walked away naked and probably became a monk was clear to them. Unfortunately, they refuse to change position until now that my investigator shared his findings with them. They so far have asked me one question; and I have not heard from them again, he added. We were originally supposed to be working along with Buckeye P.D., but that fell through, and we have been gathering all of our information on our own, said Phoenix-based vehicular crimes investigator and expert, Jeff McGrath. Referred by an attorney friend, who the Robinson family initially contacted for assistance, McGrath was unaware of the missing Robinson saga until he got involved per the fathers request. When I was told that they found Daniels vehicle wrecked in the desert, then I started to understand why my friend was asking me to help, he said, calling the case unique. While he said his team is slowly answering some of the many questions that were left unanswered, the biggest question remains, which is the whereabouts of Daniel Robinson. This case started with a short investigation and final determination where Mr. Robinson was still left with confusion and a lot of questions. When we were brought onboard, a month had passed, and time was critical. As soon as we began our investigation, a month after Daniel went missing, we were able to uncover some issues with the initial investigation, McGrath said. It appeared to us that the original detectives did not know there were some problems with how Daniels car was damaged. They had the information that they downloaded from the cars Airbag Control Module (black box) and they did not see or understand that it did not match with the vehicles damage and location. It was brushed off as, Daniel crashed and walked away from his vehicle, never to be seen again and that was it. As we began to unravel those questions, we would come across more new questions, he stated. Since he began investigating, although the focus has narrowed, with help from many volunteers and the many hours devoted to the case, answers are slowly revealed, but the big answer to where Daniel is keeps eluding us, said McGrath. He explained how families regularly seek outside professionals to investigate crimes against them or crimes they are accused of and many other non-criminal incidents. A lot of times our local, county, state, and federal law enforcement do a great job, but there are a handful of times where they get it wrong, or its just rushed. This is not because they dont care, but a lot of times because they not properly or adequately trained. Its like going to the wrong doctor for a heart condition and that doctor thinking they can treat you just fine. Well maybe they will, but if theyre wrong because they dont know what theyre doing, the result(s) could be devastating. There are outside professionals Private Investigatorsthat specialize in all types of matters and thats where we come in, McGrath said. In the five years, McGrath has been involved in private investigation work, he boasts a 99% success rate, noting how he can count on one hand how many cases weve lost, but the disappearance of Daniel Robinson is presenting challenges as time passes by. At this point, two months have passed since Daniel went missing. I dont want to say the chances are grim, but we have to be realistic in that if he is out in that desert, with temps reaching as high as 115 degrees, its not ideal for survival, he said, adding the next step in this process is to conduct more interviews and continue working with his team and many volunteers to help find Daniel. Meanwhile, the Robinson patriarch described feelings of worry and fear as he wonders if his son is hurt, in danger. I am afraid to hear that something has happened to him. Not having answers to where Daniel is or what happened to him keeps me up at night; it makes me anxious. I feel like a big part of myself is missing, said the United States Army veteran, who is an entrepreneur and businessman. Tips and information can remain anonymous as the family awaits calls or texts to 803-200-7994. Friday, October 8, 2021 A RAND Corporation report estimates the number of undocumented and asylum-seeking children enrolled in the nations public schools between late 2016 and 2019. Their researchers describe students challenges and the needs of their districts for more funding to maintain teacher:student rations. The total number, 321,000, represents a subset of the 491,000 children under age 18 who arrived at the southern border seeking asylum in early 2020 from Central America and more recently from Haiti and Afghanistan. Roughly 75 percent of the children in the RAND study landed in 10 states: California, Texas, Florida, New York and Louisiana. Their needs are fundamentally different from those of many other immigrant children, and they are part of the future of the United States... They also have resilience and hopes and dreamsand by federal law they have a right to a public education. said senior policy researcher Shelly Culbertson. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2021/10/rand-study-says-undocumented-children-need-more-teachers-funding.html The African Unions top health official wants to get the worlds first approved malaria vaccine to African countries as soon as possible. This comes one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) said the vaccine should be given to children across Africa to stop the spread of the disease. John Nkengasong is the director of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He told an online news conference Thursday, "We will be engaging with GAVI (the vaccine alliance) and WHO in the coming days to understand first of all the availability of this vaccine. He noted that by the end of 2021, malaria will likely have killed many more people in Africa than COVID-19 will have. WHO recommends malaria vaccine WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it a historic moment Wednesday after the health agencys advisory groups approved the use of a vaccine to fight malaria. Dr. Matshidiso Moeti is the WHOs Africa director. She said, We expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults. The WHO said its decision was based largely on results from ongoing research in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The research followed more than 800,000 children who have received the vaccine since 2019. The WHO said side effects were rare, but sometimes included a high temperature that could result in temporary sudden movements called convulsions. The vaccine, known as Mosquirix, was developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in 1987. While it is the first to be authorized, the vaccine is only about 30 percent effective. It requires up to four treatments and its protection decreases after several months. But scientists say the vaccine could have a major effect against malaria in Africa. Most of the worlds 200 million cases and 400,000 malaria deaths each year are in Africa. Julian Rayner, director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, said, Its an imperfect vaccine, but it will still stop hundreds of thousands of children from dying. Dr. Alejandro Cravioto is head of the WHO vaccine group that gave the guidance. He said designing a shot against malaria was difficult because it is a parasitic disease spread by insects called mosquitoes. Were confronted with extraordinarily complex organisms, he said. We are not yet in reach of a highly efficacious vaccine, but what we have now is a vaccine that can be deployed and that is safe. Azra Ghani is chair of infectious diseases at Imperial College London. She said the WHO guidance would hopefully be a first step to making better malaria vaccines. She added that efforts to produce a second-generation malaria vaccine could receive help from messenger RNA technology. The drug company BioNTech recently said it would begin researching for a possible malaria vaccine. The company and its partner Pfizer made one of the most successful COVID-19 vaccines with mRNA. Im Caty Weaver. Hai Do adapted this story from Associated Press and Reuters reports. Mario Ritter Jr. was the editor. ___________________________________________________ Words in This Story engage with v.(phrasal) to give serious attention to someone authorize v. to give legal or official approval for something imperfect adj. having mistakes and problems; not without mistakes parasitic adj. living in or on another living thing to get food or protection; an organism that uses other living things to live often causing sickness efficacious adj. having the power to produce a desired result or effect confront v. to deal with or face a problem or a danger We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. The recent oil spill off the California coast has environmental activists once again asking for a ban on drilling. While new oil drilling leases have not been given for about 50 years, a large number of existing wells are still being used. In addition, the state is still giving permits for drilling in the waters covered by the old leases. The United States government, as well, is looking to stop selling drilling leases in federal waters near California. But none of the current oil wells will be asked to stop production. California Governor Gavin Newsom spoke recently from Huntington Beach, the city closest to the oil spill. He said the state needs to find a way to close the oil wells, but keep workers employed. He called it the deeper question. There are over 1,200 active oil and gas wells off the coast of California. Earlier this month, one of the pipelines run by an energy company in Houston, Texas, broke and spilled over 500,000 liters of oil. Newsom said the spill created a sense of urgency to end the oil and gas drilling business in California. While many people would like to see it stop, the state economy depends on drilling. It is the seventh-largest oil producing state and there are 150,000 workers. Newsom said the state needs to stop thinking that oil and gas production are part of the future. This is part of our past, he said. Newsom noted that he is working to reduce the states oil use by banning the sale of gas-powered cars after 2035. In addition, the state says it will end oil production by 2045. A group called the FracTracker Alliance has research showing there are close to 1,200 active wells. About 1,300 other wells are no longer being used. Newsoms government permitted five new wells to open since 2019. Closing wells is costly. For example, in an area close to Long Beach, known as the Wilmington Oil Fields, it will cost about $800 million. The state, however, only has $300 million saved for the job. Deborah Sivas is an environmental law professor at Stanford. She called the old oil platforms fragile and noted that many of the structures were built 50 years ago and have reached the end of their lifespan. She said the state is being inconsistent by putting forward environmental rules while also issuing new drilling permits. The problem has hurt politicians for years. Many California voters are in favor of environmentally-friendly regulation. But political leaders think cutting oil production will hurt the economy in both California and the U.S. Alan Lowenthal represents the area of southern California closest to the spill in the U.S. Congress. He said the state needs to make a plan to not only stop new drilling, but to figure out how do we stop all drilling thats going on in California. Newsom said he understands some people may be unhappy with the speed of well closures and drilling areas, but he is proud of the states work. Im Dan Friedell. Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by The Associated Press. Susan Shand was the editor. How can California close oil wells in the ocean without hurting its economy? Tell us in the Comments Section and visit our Facebook page. __________________________________________________________ Words in This Story drill v. to make a hole in something with a drill lease n. a legal agreement that lets someone use a car, house, etc., for a period of time in return for payment fragile adj. very delicate well adj. a deep hole made in the ground through which water (or oil) can be removed pipeline n. a line of connected pipes that are used for carrying liquids and gases over a long distance urgency n. something that needs immediate attention inconsistent adj. having parts that disagree with each other Reporters Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The two won the prize for their fight for freedom of expression in countries where journalists have faced continuing pressure, attacks and even murder. Berit Reiss-Andersen chairs the Norwegian Nobel Committee. She said the two were awarded "for their courageous fight for freedom of expression" in their countries. Reiss-Andersen added, "They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions," She added, "Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda." Maria Ressa Ressa is the first winner of a Nobel prize in any field from the Philippines. The Nobel committee noted that, in 2012, Ressa co-founded Rappler. The news website has centered critical attention on what the Nobel committee called President Rodrigo Duterte's controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign in the Philippines. Rappler has also shown how social media is being used to spread false news and attack opponents. Ressa was found guilty last year of libel and sentenced to jail. In August, a Philippine court dismissed the case. Ressa said she hopes the Nobel Peace prize will help investigative journalism that will hold power to account. Dmitry Muratov Dmitry Muratov is the first Russian to win the Nobel Peace prize since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Gorbachev used some of his prize money to help what would become Novaya Gazeta newspaper. The money went toward buying office equipment and computers. Muratov was one of the founders of Novaya Gazeta. The Nobel committee called the publication the most independent newspaper in Russia today. The committee praised the paper for providing Russians with important information rarely mentioned by other media. Muratov dedicated his award to six Novaya Gazeta journalists who were murdered for their reporting on human rights violations and corruption. He said, "Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Natasha Estemirova - these are the people who have today won the Nobel Prize. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that 17 media workers were killed in the Philippines over the past 10 years. Twenty-three were killed in Russia, the group reported. The French group Reporters without Borders, or RSF, has worked with Ressa and Muratov to defend journalism in their countries. RSF noted, This prize is a great signal a very powerful message to defend journalism everywhere. Reiss-Andersen told Reuters that she believes the awards will force leaders of both the Philippines and Russia to defend the present situation." She added, "I am curious how they will respond. Im Ashley Thompson. Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on reporting from The Associated Press and Reuters. Ashley Thompson was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story journalist - n. reporter courageous - adj. very brave ideal - n. something that you admire and want to imitate adverse - adj. bad, not good libel - n. the act of publishing a false statement that causes people to have a bad opinion about someone dedicate - v. to officially honor or remember someone or something respond - v. to do something as a reaction to something that has happened or been done LEXINGTON A new mural painted on the side of El Viejo Rinconsito in Lexington celebrates the Salvadorian heritage of both the restaurants owner and artist. Julia Guadron is the owner of El Viejo Rinconsito, located on West 4th St. Guadron has operated this location for two years. Guadron was connected with Josh Arias, who was a participant during the virtual United by Culture event hosted in August. She said she had been thinking of a mural idea for some time but couldnt find anyone who could paint it. Arias has been working since 2020 to paint natural murals on the cabins at Camp Arrowhead, where his parents, Reynaldo and Alba, work as park rangers. So far he has painted 15 cabins spray painted murals. In designing the mural, I worked with Julia to work out some ideas. We settled on an artistic style inspired by El Salvador folk art, said Arias. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} I wanted to bring something of El Salvador here, Guadron said. As I started to work with my design team we found an image of a woman making pupusas and after completing the design, Julia and I settled on the idea of adding her grandmother into the image instead, Arias said. You have permission to edit this collection. Edit Close This blog post is about how to explain things in writing. You should learn to explain things in writing because its the most efficient way of conveying an idea to a large, distributed audience. Whether digital or printed, plain text is portable and takes little space on a drawer or hard drive. Plain text is also easy to share and index. Furthermore, good writing leads to good thinking, especially if youre writing to explain something. Explaining forces you to find logical connections between subjects and reduce complex pieces of knowledge to concrete examples and actionable advice. To teach you how to explain through writing, first, Ill cover the basic structure of an explanatory text. Then, Ill use examples to demonstrate why its helpful to go from concrete stories to abstract facts. Finally, Ill give you a few tips regarding format, grammar, voice, and style. With this post, I expect to show you that explanatory writing can be entertaining and allow authors to explore novel formats. Beware: this blog post is highly meta. The basic structure of an explanatory text Most explanatory texts adhere to the following three-step structure: Explaining what theyll explain and how theyll explain it Explaining it Summarising what theyve just explained Imagine, for example, that youre trying to write a blog post to explain how to wash clothes. In that case, your post should start by delimiting what is it that youll write about. Do not waste time talking about the history of washing machines nor the chemistry of fabric softeners. People are not interested (yet). Simply tell people youre going to teach them how to wash their clothes. Once youve told people that youre writing about washing clothes, tell them how much better theyll look using clean clothes. Perhaps spend a paragraph or two talking about the ways in which clean clothes make people smile more often and get more dates. Sometimes, it might be worth switching the order of these first two steps. If youre going to explain something as dull as washing clothes, it may be hard to get people to read it without embellishing the subject first. In other words, you need to make your readers want to read. And, to learn with your text, readers need to know what youll write about. Once your readers are hooked, tell them how youll teach them to wash clothes. Make it clear that youll talk about separating clothes first and about their washing machines settings second. Finally, youll explain in detail how readers should wash their clothes. This is the ideal moment to explain the thousands of options in their washing machines dial and when to use each (or not to). As youre explaining the subject matter in detail, make sure not to deviate from the promise with which youve begun the text. If you want to talk about the manufacturing of washing machines or discuss which is the most environmentally friendly detergent, you should do that in a separate blog post. Remember: youre teaching people how to wash clothes, no more, no less. Finally, once youve taught people everything they need to know to have clean clothes, summarise the most important parts of your text, as Ill do in the next paragraph. As you can see in this post, Ive started by telling you exactly what Ill write about. Right after, I convinced you to continue reading by explaining why its valuable to explain things in writing. Otherwise, youd not have gotten to this paragraph. Then, I started explaining the subject in detail; and will continue to do so for the next couple of sections. Eventually, as youll see at the end of this blog post, Ill summarise everything Ive taught you. Also, remember that this structure applies to each sub-unit of your piece. As you write, you should use these three steps in your whole post and each of its sections and subsections, as I just did. Put another way, your pieces should have a fractal structure; the three-step pattern repeats itself within smaller parts of the text. From concrete stories to abstract facts Its easier for readers to process stories and images than for them to process abstract facts. In this section, Ill demonstrate how examples help and show a few instances in which fiction has helped teach people something. Imagine youre explaining a Monte Carlo simulation, for example. Explaining it in mathematical terms is complicated and inefficient. No one ever learned how to do a Monte Carlo simulation by reading its Wikipedia entry. Instead, its much easier to tell a story of how Laplace used a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate pi. Or, even better, how John, the readers fictional colleague, used a Monte Carlo Simulation to estimate how likely it was for two people in the office to share the same birthdate. Sometimes inventing a story might feel silly, but people do learn better with a bit of storytelling. As I was writing my last book, I felt silly myself by using Louis, a fictional baker in East London, to teach people about software testing. After writing the first three chapters, I thought to myself: theres no depth in Louis. Who do I think I am? Dostoevsky?. Luckily, I didnt erase Louis from my hard drive and submitted the first few chapters for review, including his story. When I got my reviews back, I was surprised that the vast majority of readers said their favourite part about the book was how helpful and captivating Louis story was. The baker had helped them learn better. Furthermore, creating concrete examples is a great way to get past writers block. When youre telling a story, you dont have to think much about cold hard facts or how accurate is the information youre writing. You simply imagine and write. Great examples of this principle are The Phoenix Project, by Gene Kim, George Spafford, and Kevin Behr and The Goal, by Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt and Jeff Cox. All of those books convey valuable knowledge through fictional stories. As Ive done in this section, use concrete examples to explain things. Then, once youve used examples, generalise the learnings from those examples, and present them in abstract form. Format, grammar, voice, and style Images and other visual aids, jokes, and tone will enrich your text so that its not exclusively about pure, distilled facts. In this section, Ill show you how jokes, visual aids, and style (in this order) can make your text much more entertaining than it would typically be and keep readers hooked. Take some time to appreciate Randall Munroes geniality in the classic story of little Bobby Tables, for example. This is the perfect comic to illustrate a blog post about SQL injection. In four panels, Randall uses a concrete example to explain what SQL injection is and why its important. Given the comics example, more perspicacious readers would perhaps not even need to go through the rest of the blog post to understand SQL injection. Images like the one above serve as excellent concrete examples and give your readers a bit of a break from slow, dense pieces of text. Especially on the internet, where peoples attention span is slower, images help to keep them engaged. Furthermore, when someone opens a link, theyre more likely to stay if they see meaningful visual content. The same principle is valid for books. As I was writing my book, I was told by my publisher that when people browse a stores books, theyre more likely to buy it if its content is visually pleasing and includes images. In addition to images, the way you write is paramount to keeping readers engaged. Short sentences are better than long ones. They give readers breathing room and dictate the rhythm at which they read. As a non-native English speaker who relies on reading experience rather than written rules, I dont really feel comfortable elaborating that much on punctuation or grammar. Therefore, Ill delegate to Pinker, William Strunk, and E.B. White the task of teaching these subjects. If youre willing to read them, Id recommend A Sense of Style and The Elements of Style. Finally, Id like to give you some advice on finding your voice. Finding a voice is one of those things in literature Ive never understood that well. To me, it didnt feel like authors had voices until I tried to do some writing myself. As I committed pen to paper, I was highly self-critical, and, as I re-read myself, I thought I sounded utterly arrogant. My writing didnt sound like me at all, or, at least, I didnt like to think I sounded that arrogant when I talked. To find my voice, I had to write a lot. Looking back, I think I only found a voice after writing a third (approximately two hundred pages) of Testing JavaScript Applications. Writing that much and that frequently helped me merge my talking voice with my writing voice. Now, it feels like I write just like I talk, as Paul Graham would put it. Yet, it took a lot of effort to make it seem effortless. Therefore, if you want to find your voice, you must write a lot and do it often. As a summary for this last rather fragmentary section, just remember that you can use tools other than writing to keep readers engaged. Those tools are images and visual aids and your voice and style. Summarising Now that Ive told you what Id explain and explained it, its time to tell you (again) everything Ive just explained. First, you must remember not to bury the lede: as you start your text, tell your readers what youll explain. Ideally, you should also inform readers of how youll explain it. As you do that, you should make sure to engage readers so that they go from one paragraph to the next, all the way to the end of your piece. If you need to use jokes, hyperboles, or images to convince someone to keep reading, do that. After you got readers hooked, explain in detail what you promised, no more, no less. To make explanations more digestible, start with concrete examples and then generalise those examples to abstract pieces of knowledge. Sometimes, inventing a story is a great way to engage readers and get rid of writers block. Finally, after teaching everything you promised, circle back and summarise what youve explained, as I just did. Local featured Event brings attention to domestic violence JESS HUFF/The Lufkin Daily News Angelina County Sheriffs Office investigator Taylor Lopez hangs a puzzle piece as part of the theme of the Family Crisis Centers 2021 Campaign for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. JESS HUFF/The Lufkin Daily News White puzzle pieces tell the stories of individuals who lost their lives at the hands of abusers. The Family Crisis Center of East Texas brought these to an event Thursday to serve as a reminder for attendees about the realities of domestic violence. JESS HUFF/The Lufkin Daily News Family Crisis Center executive director Whitney Burran addresses attendees at an event Thursday about Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The Family Crisis Center of East Texas brought domestic violence out of the shadows and into the spotlight to bring awareness to its prevalence within the community during an event at the Angelina County Courthouse Thursday morning. One hundred eighty five Texans lost their lives at the hands of their intimate partner, Family Crisis Center director Whitney Burran said. And thats just the reports that we know. We know there are probably more. The center recently kicked off its 2021 campaign to combat domestic violence during Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. This years theme is Peace by Piece, and event organizers used a jigsaw puzzle to allude to the connection the community has with the criminal justice system and agencies like the center to combat domestic violence. If were not talking about these issues, how can we fix them? How can we move forward? Burran said. A table at the front of the crowd held puzzle pieces with stories of people who experienced domestic abuse. The center had five other speakers: John Bounty, with the Angelina County Attorneys office; Kim Riddle, a medical advocate and SANE coordinator; Serena Holland, a detective and mental health officer with the Angelina County Sheriffs Office; Monica Ibarra, a legal advocate; and Jade Dye, a survivor. Bounty spoke to the number of people he watched change from victims to survivors those, who in the process of obtaining justice for the violence conducted against them, found strength. He worked with one woman who he said had been mentally, emotionally and physically destroyed by her abuser. But as the case moved through the system, she regained confidence and saw it through. Dye shared a little of her experience and said she is one of the success stories. Sept. 14, 2021, marked one year since she left her abuser, she said. It was several more months, I think Nov. 11, when he was finally arrested for the stalking and harassment, and the psychological and verbal abuse stopped, she said. This man physically, psychologically and verbally abused me severely. And he finally gets arrested and its all supposed to be peaceful, right? But its not. I had this legal fight ahead of me and it just never ended. Protective orders and court dates and charges. And I had to tell the same story over and over. It was exhausting. It was the connections she made in the system that helped her to get through the ordeal, she said. She received advice at a point when she wanted to quit, to rest, that her time to rest would come. But it was time to fight and to let the legal system work. We got him to sign a plea deal for one 15-year sentence and two 10-year sentences for everything he has done to women, she said. A lot of women who come forward dont make it that far. She had a journal entry from the October after she left her abuser; in it she talked about wanting to die, how she didnt know who she was and how the pain would never stop. But she is happy now, she said. He told me I was unlovable, I was pathetic, disgusting, worthless and my life was going to be miserable and that I was going to die well, Im not dead, she said. Im very much alive, very much loved by others, making others laugh. Im helping other women, and thats my success story. Riddle spoke to how domestic violence affects children. They grow up thinking its normal and this perpetuates the abuse cycle, she said. She encouraged the law enforcement officers in attendance to continue to fight for those families because they need it. The roles you play are so important, she said. Never think the little something you did for someone isnt going to be the big change in their lives. Holland spoke about how many people believe domestic violence is a private issue and said that is a big reason it goes unreported. This is why he said it is important for police to help people struggling with these fights, because they do not know how long the abuse has gone on that may be the first time it has been reported. Instead of making it a private issue, we need to make it a community issue, she said. We need to make everybody aware of it. It affects everyone across the community and can happen in any relationship regardless of age, race, gender or creed, she said. It takes many forms beyond just what people usually include in its definition, and Holland asked how many people face it every day who just go on saying nothing. She agreed with Riddle that it affects the children in the relationship and follows them in the rest of their encounters with adults. An estimated 3.3 million children are exposed to violence against their mother or female caretaker, Holland said, quoting what she said was an old statistic. These children have higher levels of anger, hostility, disobedience and withdrawal. Ibarra thanked the people who attended, including law enforcement officers, elected officials and more, for their work to help tackle domestic violence. We, the community, need to take action, both in our personal and professional lives, to help others in our community who find themselves in this situation, she said. A panel of three federal judges on Wednesday paused a consolidated redistricting lawsuit, but doubled down that it will step in to draw the maps if necessary. The suit, which was originally filed as two separate actions by two liberal legal groups, found itself in limbo when the Wisconsin Supreme Court last month made the unprecedented decision to accept original jurisdiction over a redistricting lawsuit. The panel said it will pause the federal case until at least Nov. 5, but asked the involved parties to update the court on that date about the Wisconsin Supreme Court proceedings with a joint submission, setting out any points of disagreement. Regardless of what happens in the states high court, the federal judges wrote, they are still planning on holding a trial on the matter in January, despite the wishes of Republican lawmakers. The goal of the panel is to complete the trial by Jan. 28 so, if necessary, it can draw the maps by March 1 of next year. Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. JUNEAU A 42-year-old Beaver Dam man was found guilty of carrying a pipe bomb in his vehicle on Tuesday. Chad Leitner is being housed in the Dodge County Jail. He appeared before Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Kristine Snow. Leitner entered no contest pleas to a felony charge of possession of improvised explosives and one count of bail jumping. Snow accepted Leitners pleas and found him guilty. An additional count of bail jumping was dismissed but read into the record. According to the criminal complaint, a Beaver Dam Police Officer responded to a suspicious person complaint in the 100 block of Riverview Drive on Feb. 27 at 2:45 p.m. A Nissan Maxima had been driving past the area for 20 minutes and made several stops in the block. The vehicle had left the block and pulled into a driveway on Kelly Circle. While police were speaking to Leitner, they saw the backpack in his vehicle and asked to look in it. According to the criminal complaint, the officer opened the bag and found a silver pipe with a green fuse protruding from the center of the pipe and two end caps on it. The officer observed a small green Coleman propane cylinder wrapped in duct tape and multiple screws and bolts. The Federalist Society also notes that Kloster has 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 in April posted online that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, fair and square and Wisconsins election training was woefully inadequate. The issue is that we need our own army of local bureaucrats. And we need to fight for our locales. We need our own irate hooligans (incidentally, this is why the left and our national security apparatus hates the Proud Boys) and our own captured DA offices to let our boys off the hook, Kloster wrote, in reference to members of the far right who were involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Want to steal an election in Wisconsin? It's harder than you think The state has multiple, overlapping safeguards aimed at preventing ineligible voters from casting ballots, tampering with the ballots or altering vote totals. Richard Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California-Irvine, said Klosters involvement in the audit further underscores that the effort is far from credible. Hasen described the ongoing investigation as ludicrous and nothing more than a PR stunt, as is happening around the country, that is aimed at placating the Republican base and Donald Trump. WASHINGTON U.S. senators of both parties at a hearing Tuesday rejected House Democrats plans to impose billions of dollars in royalties and other fees on companies that mine for gold, copper, lithium and other minerals, largely in Southwestern states. Among the opponents was Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, who said she objected to the House proposal because of its unfair, outsized impact on her gold-producing state and because it is included in a sweeping, $3.5 trillion package that would move through the budget reconciliation process. Under that procedure, Democrats would need just a simple majority for passage in the Senate. The mining royalty issue is likely to re-emerge when senators mark up their version of the $3.5 trillion bill, which is also likely to be scaled back considerably after disagreements between moderate and progressive Democrats over its price tag. An 1872 federal law set the standard for hard-rock mining, allowing companies to skip paying royalties on minerals taken from public lands. Environmentalists, fiscal hawks and some congressional Democrats have for decades sought to add a royalty rate for miners of hard-rock minerals. During the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, two Democrats Chairman Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Angus King of Maine questioned why hard-rock miners should pay no royalties on the value of the resources they extract from federal lands while oil, gas and coal developers do. Manchin, whose advocacy for his coal-rich state at times puts him at odds with environmental advocates, said he wanted to avoid undue burdens on the industry, but repeatedly argued for hard-rock mining companies to pay royalties as coal mining companies do. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that the total annual income that would be subject to royalties under a similar bill was $5 billion to $7 billion, with most of that coming from gold mining. The fact that over $5 billion in minerals can be mined each year, taken off the federal land and sold without a single penny of royalties is just crazy, Manchin said. It makes no sense at all. Western Democrats wary of proposed hard-rock royalty plan But other Democrats on the committee panned a proposal included in the House version of a $3.5 trillion social spending plan that is part of President Joe Bidens Build Back Better agenda. The House Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Arizona Democrat Raul Grijalva, wrote a provision into the $3.5 trillion budget plan that would impose an 8% royalty rate on new mines and a 4% rate on existing operations. It would also create a 7 cents-per-ton fee on material displaced during mining, a provision that Senate Republicans, including ranking member John Barrasso of Wyoming, derided as a dirt tax. Cortez Masto said she asked for Tuesdays hearing on the topic in part because she opposed changing the mining law through reconciliation. Moving this type of reform through a short-term budget process would create uncertainty for the industry, an industry that supports thousands of jobs, she said, adding that an open, regular process would lead to an acceptable compromise. Changes to hard-rock mining policy would have an outsized effect on Nevada. Gold producers in that state alone accounted for $4.2 billion of the $5-$7 billion in nationwide hard-rock mining that would be subject to royalties, according to the CBO. Sen. Martin Heinrich, (D-N.M.), said the industry supported important jobs, but that reforms were overdue and compromise was possible. Heinrich authored an amendment to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate earlier this year but is stalled in the House that would provide $3 billion for abandoned mine cleanup. That amendment, co-sponsored by Sens. Steve Daines, (R-Mont.), and Mark Kelly, (D-Ariz.), did not include a revenue source. Heinrich said Tuesday royalties could provide a funding stream in the future. Still, the House proposal went too far, Heinrich said. I would urge us to maybe not take the zealous approach that the House of Representatives took, but to find a fair and transparent way for taxpayers to be compensated for these minerals and to create a revenue stream so that we can start cleaning up the tens of thousands of abandoned mines that litter every Western state, he said. The industry strongly supports using royalties to pay for cleanup, National Mining Association executive vice president and general counsel Katie Sweeney said, though she warned that excessive fees would lead to U.S. operators closing down, pushing development to countries with less stringent environmental regulations. Net vs. gross royalties in mining industry One of the main differences between fees the industry said it would support and those it would oppose had to do with how royalties are calculated. Rich Haddock, the general counsel of Nevadas Barrick Gold Corp., said a federal royalty system should be based on Nevadas. Haddock advocated for so-called net royalties, which would allow mining companies to deduct the cost of processing minerals. That framework is more fair because hard-rock mining requires significant work after the mineral is taken from the ground to separate it from non-valuable rock and dirt, Haddock said. A mine may be operating at a loss as it sorts through that material, but would still be liable for gross royalties, Sweeney said. The issue split Democrats from Western states and Eastern ones. Cortez Masto asked Haddock and Sweeney to explain the extra steps required for hard-rock minerals to reach markets, giving them the opportunity to argue for net royalties. Manchin and King said they didnt understand why hard-rock miners should operate under a different royalty scheme than other extractive industries. Sen. Jim Risch, (R-Idaho), said comparing oil extraction and hard-rock minerals was apples and oranges. Republicans, including Barrasso and Kansas Roger Marshall, also called for an overhaul of the permitting system for hard-rock mining. Barrasso said he was open to supporting adding federal royalties, but only if accompanied by permitting reforms and done outside the reconciliation process. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 NAMPA It wasnt just the typical traffic that slowed down a busy freeway Tuesday in Nampa. A great horned owl was spotted on the pavement of Interstate 84. Its talons tied up in plastic, there wasnt much it could do to escape. And then a motorist called police. Idaho State Police Sgt. Brandalyn Crapo arrived, looking for the bundle of feathers, eyes, claws and plastic. Some time had gone by since the call had come in. After locating the owl, Crapo stopped her car on the shoulder to protect the bird of prey from being run over as she waited. This one took some careful searching on a busy freeway, ISP Col. Kedrick Wills said in a tweet. Crapo called for more help, this time from James McKinley a retired 50-year wildlife researcher, and now wildlife rehabilitator. He works independently from organizations like the Animals in Distress Association and the Ruth Melichar Bird Center, but they often go to him for help with birds of prey. The owl still had its wings free, which could have spelled trouble during the rush hour traffic. It is so dicey when you go to grab the bird, McKinley said. Sometimes it doesnt want to get grabbed, and that can get ugly, which was my main concern. His focus for his career has been working with raptors. He holds government permits that allow him to house and rehabilitate state and federally protected birds. He does this as a volunteer. McKinley spends his retirement days driving around town on calls, or tending to the birds of prey in his care. He has worked about 600 cases already this year, and not all of them go as well as it did with this owl. Working along the inner shoulder of the interstate, there wasnt much room for error, with a stream of cars, trucks and tractor-trailers passing by. Many raptors are nocturnal animals, McKinley said, and they hunt the roadways at night. He suspects the bird saw the plastic bag as prey. The animal used its foot and clenched it, and thats how it got hung up, McKinley said. Im speculating he thought the movement of the bag was a prey at night. It might have been attracted to the movement. But McKinley was able to get the owl separated from the bag, and after some photo ops with Crapo, the bird was set free away from the busy interstate. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 If the Big Lie didnt happen in Idaho, then it probably didnt happen anywhere else. Thats because when the same fellow who alleged fraud robbed former President Donald Trump of victory over President Joe Biden My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell leveled the same exact charge at Idaho, Republican Secretary of State Lawerence Denney debunked it. A webpage tied to Lindell asserts widespread fraud stole a 6 million vote win from Trump and handed a 7 million vote victory to Biden. It alleges the tactic flipped eight states to Biden: l Arizona Biden won it by 10,457 votes; the webpage says Trump won by 269,979 votes. l Georgia Biden won it by 11,779 votes; the webpage says Trumps margin was 403,265 votes. l Michigan Bidens 154,188 vote margin actually was a 304,536 vote win for Trump. l Minnesota Bidens 233,012 vote win dissolves into a 36,194 vote margin for Trump. l Nevada Biden got 33,596 more votes; the webpage says it was really a 81,920 vote victory for Trump. l New Hampshire Bidens 59,277 vote edge morphs into a 6,989-vote win for Trump. l Pennsylvania Biden won it by 80,555 votes; the webpage puts it in Trumps column with a 494,429 vote margin. Idaho was as solidly for Trump as any state in the union. The former president got nearly 64 percent of the vote compared to 33 percent for Biden. But even that wasnt enough for the Lindell webpage. It asserts that election irregularities in the reddest of red states deprived Trump of more than 35,000 votes and fraudulently added nearly 71,000 votes to Bidens tally. What grabbed the secretary of states attention were some obvious fallacies: l The skullduggery was the result of hacking tabulation machines. Two problems with that: First, seven of Idahos counties do not have tabulation machines. They tally the results on a paper ledger. And the machines themselves are the equivalent of a closed-circuit television; they are linked to each other, not the internet. (Thats pretty much the case across the country.) l The webpage gets a lot of other things wrong. For instance, it timed the hack in Payette County at 1:52 a.m. on Nov. 3, 2020 almost six hours before voting actually commenced. l A standardized formula explains every discrepancy the webpage assigns to all 44 Idaho counties. First, it disregards the five third-party candidates and write-ins who collectively took 3.1 percent. Then it multiplies the Biden-Trump tally by the same fraction and rounds down to the next smallest number. Denney and his chief deputy, Chad Houck, looked over the results in three other states Alabama, New York and Utah and identified the same technique. Heres what they found in Idaho: l In Camas County, the webpage asserted that 27 of Trumps votes shifted over to Biden. In the recount, the secretary of states office found no change in Bidens tally and one additional vote for Trump. l In Butte County, Lindells webpage claimed 58 of the former presidents votes wound up in Bidens column. The recount found no new votes for Biden, but Trump got nine more. l Bonner County was accused of handing over 1,122 of Trumps votes to Biden. When they sampled nearly 7,700 votes roughly 29 percent of all the ballots cast the secretary of states office found an undervote of nine ballots that were too light for the scanners to pick up. Thats a discrepancy of less than one-tenth of 1 percent. It added one vote for Biden and eight for Trump. While I generally agree with Mike Lindells focus on massive vote fraud in six-plus key states, his facts regarding Idaho quite miss the mark, Bonner County Clerk Michael W. Rosedale wrote. Well, completely miss the mark. All of which raises the question: If Lindell can be so wrong about electoral terrain we know sufficiently well to verify, why would anyone take it on faith that hes right anywhere else? When you throw in all the court rulings and all the recounts including the politically motivated session in Arizona that support last falls election result, dont you think its time to admit Biden won? M.T. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Many Idaho court watchers figured the former Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, Roger Burdick, would slow down to smell the roses when he retired at the end of June. It was not to be. On Sept. 25, Burdick played an instrumental role in the arrest of two individuals on a variety of charges in Bingham County. While traveling on the Interstate near Blackfoot, Burdick called State Police to report that a man in another car had pointed a firearm at him. The news report of the incident did not indicate what might have evoked this aberrant behavior, but that is of little import. An arrest was made and a number of incriminating items were discovered in the gunmans vehiclemeth, fentanyl, and four firearms. The man, a formerly convicted felon, is facing a long prison term if convicted on these new charges. This latest episode in Burdicks life is an interesting twist on a legal career that started as a public defender in several Magic Valley counties, then to election as Jerome County Prosecutor, capped by a remarkable forty years as a judge. He was appointed as Jerome County Magistrate Judge in 1981, as District Judge in 1983, as presiding judge for the Snake River Basin Adjudication (SRBA) in 2001, and as the 53rd Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court in 2003. He was chosen by his peers to serve two 4-year terms as Chief Justice. He distinguished himself by hard work, a keen sense of justice and fair treatment of all who came before him in each position. I started practicing law in Jerome in 1973 and met Roger when he came to town in 1976 to practice with another Jerome attorney. He was a worthy opponentprepared, congenial, honest, down-to-earth, a man of his word. He also kept things lively with a robust sense of humor. I moved to Boise in 1982, but kept track of Rogers ascension through the judicial ranks from that vantage point. After joining the Supreme Court in 2005 and serving twelve years alongside Roger, I am amazed at the impact he has had on the development of Idaho law, the improvement of the judicial system and the advancement of the rule of law. Rogers work in the water arena stands out, both as SRBA judge and as a member of the Supreme Court. His decisions have helped to modernize the protection and administration of this most precious resource. With many years of service on the Idaho Judicial Council, which evaluates and recommends judges for gubernatorial appointment to the district and appellate courts, Roger was instrumental in placing highly qualified men and women in those key judicial positions. Idaho takes a back seat to no state with its excellent judges. Roger was a leader in efforts to professionalize Idahos public defender system, to improve management of Idahos courts, to support problem-solving courts which help criminal defendants get their lives back on track, to dramatically improve Idahos guardianship and conservatorship laws, and to inform the public about the workings of the court system. It was interesting to work with Roger in the extremely important job of dispensing justice to parties in about 135 cases per yearmostly civil disputes, but around 10% of the States most important criminal cases. He has a finely honed sense of justicesensitive to the concerns of each side, but dedicated to come down on the side with the best argument under the law. It is a tough business and I witnessed a number of occasions where Roger ruled against the side that he would prefer to have won. Thats what an excellent jurist must do. Roger has taken senior status on the Court so he will occasionally participate in cases where another Justice has a conflict. I know he will continue to do a good job there. I only hope he can resist getting involved in any more law enforcement matters where his opponents are armed to the teeth. Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran, who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as Idaho Supreme Court Justice (2005-2017). His columns can be found at JJCommonTater.com. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) If Bob Geringer had another shot, he says he wouldnt have pulled the trigger. The 79-year-old Salol, Minnesota, man had been in Jackson Hole for several days while out on his first-ever elk hunt. Checking out a new-to-him area alongside the scenic Snake River on a recent morning, Geringer and two pals finally found what they were looking for: a pile of elk, bunched up on a mid-river island. Treading along Emilys Pond Levee they got to within shooting range, squeezed off about seven shots and watched three cow elk and a calf fall which was legal, because the non-resident hunters had several licenses each. But soon after, everything took a turn for the worse, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports. It turned out to be a friggin nightmare, a solemn Geringer said the following day. We didnt realize the river was quite the way it was, and it happened fast. It was a stunner of a weekend day. The elk went down around 9 a.m., and soon people started showing up to dogwalk, jog and stroll with friends and family in numbers that Geringer and his fellow Minnesotans never would have anticipated. There was one heated confrontation and about a dozen people phoned the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to report what they suspected was illegal activity on a dike that can attract hundreds of people seeking some recreation on any given day. The elk carcasses, meanwhile, sat untouched and bloating up in the sunlight for hours. The elderly hunting party hadnt thought out how theyd get to the elk, and once they sized up the Snake they realized theyd risk their lives if they tried to ford it. This was the scene that Jackson Hole resident Brad Nielson came upon while out on the levee around 3 p.m. It made him hot. Opening fire on a group of elk stranded on a barren island, he told them, was not fair to the animals. Its an ethical question, Nielson told the News&Guide. Thats not fair chase, cornering them on an island and mowing them down. Nielson, whos a hunter himself, told the Minnesotans that they were doing other hunters no favors. I told them theyd set back years of effort to create goodwill between the non-hunting community and hunters, Nielson said. Reached over the phone Monday, Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Brian Nesvik didnt want to comment specifically on the levee incident because he hadnt heard the details from his staff. But the former warden agreed on one point: When it comes to hunting, just because something is legal doesnt mean its the right thing to do. Hunter ethics are very important, Nesvik said. We do have laws that are based on ethics and fair chase, but you cant regulate all of it. Youve got to hope that hunters will do the right thing and be respectful of both the wildlife theyre hunting as well as the rest of the public. One of Nesviks employees, warden Jon Stephens, was able to rendezvous with Geringer and his crew while they strategized that evening about how to reach their downed elk. Even though their harvest was legal, he gave them a talking to. I chewed on them a little bit for the eyesore that they created, Stephens said. Then the warden helped them out. Through some connections to people in town, the Upper Midwesterners procured a canoe and wheelbarrow as tools for extracting the meat. But the Snake River is running unseasonably swift, and their first attempt at a crossing resulted in a capsize, a soaked Minnesotan and an unmanned canoe being carried downstream. Stephens could see that the makeshift meat recovery plan was futile, and he instructed the hunters to gut out the animals and then to get back across the river before nightfall. On Monday afternoon the Minnesotans returned, this time with the assistance of a local resident they commissioned to float out their elk meat with a raft. That operation went smoothly, the warden reported, and by 6 p.m. some 33 hours after their gunfire the Minnesotans meat was being rafted downstream toward the Wilson boat ramp. Geringer and his friends, who he declined to identify, were hunting in Game and Fishs elk unit No. 78. That zone, which largely falls on private land, stretches from the south end of Grand Teton National Park to Highway 22. Hunting elk there can be tricky, and a non-resident who lacked local knowledge and showed up early morning at a place like the Emilys Pond Levee wouldnt know that its a recreational hub. Volunteer poop fairy Jane Frisch walks the levee almost daily and knows it as well as anybody. Her big concerns about mixing hunting with other uses along that swath of the Snake is public safety. There were young families playing in the river that day, Frisch said. On a Sunday afternoon theres a lot of people out there, and a lot of people of all ages. The visual, she said, was really upsetting to a lot of people who passed by. The next afternoon, Hannah Pollat biked to just beyond where Geringers pals were cutting up elk on the island. The Jackson resident, who went for a quick swim, didnt know what the commotion was about, but said that seeing people shoot elk in such a high-use area would have rubbed her wrong. I would have been like, Are you kidding me? Pollat said. But not all of the interactions the veteran hunters had with passersby that Sunday were unpleasant. You cant imagine how many people congratulated us and were happy for us, Geringer said. Its just that the timing was wrong. If we had to do it again, theres no way in the world any of us would have done that. It just happened. Both Frisch and Nielson made the point that Game and Fish and the Bureau of Land Management probably ought to look at the regulations. What should we do to make sure that doesnt happen again? Nielson said. These guys were literally packing their rifles up and down the levee and were blasting elk in the middle of the river. The apologetic Minnesotan agreed. If its a walking trail, Geringer said, why is it open for public hunting? Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 5 The official, Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said that the majority of them have been killed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place in the city of Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province, but Islamic State militants have a long history of attacking Afghanistans Shiite Muslim minority. If confirmed, a death toll of dozens would be the highest since U.S. and NATO forces left Afghanistan at the end of August and the Taliban took control of the country. *** US Senate avoids debt disaster WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate has dodged a U.S. debt disaster, voting to extend the governments borrowing authority into December and temporarily avert an unprecedented federal default that experts warned would devastate the economy and harm millions of Americans. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Regardless if CPR was performed, a rescuing bystander reduced the odds of severe disability or death in pediatric drowning victims by 80%," according to a study abstract presented at the AAP 2021 virtual National Conference & Exhibition. The retrospective study in Harris County, Texas, "Bystander Resuscitation in Pediatric Drowning," examined EMS, hospital and fatality data from 2010-2012 in 264 pediatric drowning victims. Drowning is a leading cause of unintentional injury death in children ages 1 through 14 years old. "Bystanders play a critical role in preventing poor outcomes in childhood drowning by instituting safe, early and effective rescue and resuscitation of pediatric drowning victims," said abstract author Rohit P. Shenoi, MD, pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine and Attending Physician, Emergency Center, Texas Children's Hospital. "Early rescue can lead to good outcomes in victims of drowning." Children who were submerged under water less than five minutes were significantly less likely to experience severe disability or death, according to the research. Researchers also found that, regardless of whether cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was performed, a child's odds of not suffering an unfavorable outcome were 80% higher when a bystander intervened. Many bystanders rescue drowning victims by virtue of their proximity to the victim, according to the research. They tend to interrupt the drowning process at the respiratory arrest stage before full cardiopulmonary arrest has occurred. "Bystander" was defined as a parent, relative, babysitter, lifeguard, friend or other person who was present at the site. The study included all pediatric drowning victimsthose who sustained respiratory arrest and those who sustained cardiac arrest. Most were between ages 1 and 4, and most drowning incidents occurred at a swimming pool. "The drowning chain of survival is key to reducing drowning deaths and injury," Dr. Shenoi said. "The steps of the chain are to prevent drowning, recognize distress, provide flotation, remove from water, and provide care and CPR as needed." Co-author Colleen Driscoll, a 4th year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine, will present the study abstract at 11:15 am CT Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021. Explore further 1999 to 2019 saw drop in rate of unintentional drowning deaths More information: Abstract Title: Bystander Resuscitation in Pediatric Drowning Children with asthma use inhalers to relieve some of their symptoms, which include coughing, wheezing, chest tightness and shortness of breath. Credit: Tradimus, Wikimedia commons. Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a novel machine learning algorithm and used it to identify previously unknown mixtures of toxic air pollutants that appear to be linked to poor asthma outcomes later in a child's life. The study examined early exposure to dozens of pollutants potentially experienced by 151 children with mild to severe forms of the disease. While some cases could be linked to an individual, established air pollutant, others appeared to be linked to mixtures of pollutants that had never been associated with asthma. The results and a description of the new algorithm were described in an article in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. "Asthma is one the most prevalent diseases affecting children in the United States. In this study, we developed a list of air pollutants a young child may be exposed to that can lead to longer-term problems with asthma," said Supinda Bunyavanich, MD, MPH, MPhil, Professor of Pediatrics, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, at Icahn Mount Sinai and a senior author of the study. "Our results show how breathing individual and combinations of pollutants may lead to poor asthma outcomes. We hope that having a more comprehensive, holistic view of air pollution may one day be able to reduce the chances that children will be burdened by asthma." Affecting about seven percent of children in the United States, asthma is a lung disease that can cause people to wheeze, suffer chest tightness, and bouts of coughing. Although several studies have shown that breathing individual toxic air pollutants, or "air toxics", raises the chances a child may suffer from asthma, little is known about what happens when the pollutants mix. In this study, the researchers used a novel machine learning algorithm to find that 18 individual chemicals may be linked to poor asthma outcomes later in life. Specifically, they looked at whether a child needed daily asthma-controlling medication or had to visit an emergency room or spend time in the hospital as a result of their condition. However, they also found new associations between the outcomes and 20 different pollutant mixtures. Several of the chemicals in the mixtures had never been linked to long-term asthma risk. "Like many scientists, we wanted to provide a more comprehensive picture of how air toxics contribute to childhood asthma," said Gaurav Pandey, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and a senior author of the study. "Traditionally, for technical reasons, it has been difficult to study the health effects of more than one toxic at a time. We overcame this by tapping into the power of machine learning algorithms." The study and development of the algorithm was led by Yan-Chak Li, Ph.D., a bioinformatician in the Pandey lab, and Hsiao-Hsien Leon Hsu, ScD, Assistant Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Icahn Mount Sinai. The researchers first mapped emissions estimates for 125 known pollutants to the residential areas and birth years of 151 children from the New York metropolitan region who were part of Mount Sinai's Airway in Asthma study. The emissions data were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency's National Air Toxics Assessment resource. Then, the researchers applied a novel algorithm, which they named "Data-driven ExposurE Profile (DEEP) extraction", to test out whether increased levels of the pollutants observed early in the child's life were correlated with asthma problems reported around 12 years of age. DEEP relies on a powerful machine learning algorithm called "eXtreme Gradient Boosting (EXBoost), which builds hundreds of "decision trees," or possible ways that each pollutant, alone or in combination with others, could be associated with the asthma problems seen later in the patient's lives. The results showed that some pollutants may have worked alone. For instance, exposure to the ammonia-scented waterproofing agent trimethylamine raised the chances that a child with asthma would have to spend a night in the hospital. Other pollutants could act alone or in mixtures. Most notably, exposure to acrylic acid raised the chances a child needed daily medication. Mixing acrylic acid with other chemicals not only increased this possibility, but also raised the chances of emergency room visits and overnight hospitalizations. Interestingly, the researchers also found that some pollutants, such as toluene and cobalt compounds, were only associated with poor outcomes when mixed with other compounds. In fact, 16 of the chemicals they evaluated fell into this category. "As a physician who treats children with asthma, I was struck by how many potential air toxics are not on our radar," said Dr. Bunyavanich. "These results changed my view of the heightened risk some children face." Finally, the researchers found that demographic factors may play additional roles. For example, exposure to a combination of hydroquinone and ethylidene dichloride was the strongest predictor of overnight hospitalizations. The study found that children who fell into this category were also younger and from lower family incomes than ones who were not exposed to the pollutants. "Our study is an example of how machine learning has the potential to alter medical research," said Dr. Pandey. "It is allowing us to understand how a wide variety of environmental factorsor the exposomeinfluences our health. In the future, we plan to use DEEP and other computer science techniques to tackle environmental factors associated with other complex disorders." Explore further In utero exposure to tiny air pollution particles is linked to asthma in preschoolers More information: Yan-Chak Li et al, Machine learning-driven identification of early-life air toxic combinations associated with childhood asthma outcomes, Journal of Clinical Investigation (2021). Journal information: Journal of Clinical Investigation Yan-Chak Li et al, Machine learning-driven identification of early-life air toxic combinations associated with childhood asthma outcomes,(2021). DOI: 10.1172/JCI152088 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain More children swallowed small magnets and batteries as compared with other foreign objects in 2020a year when a COVID-19 stay-at-home order was in placethan in prior years, research shows. The abstract, "Feast or Famine: A National Stay-At-Home Order Is Associated with an Increase in Pediatric Foreign Body Ingestions Presenting to Emergency Departments in 2020 Compared to 2011-2019," will be presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2021 National Conference and Exhibition. Researchers analyzed data from more than 100 hospitals provided by the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database to evaluate the frequency of suspected foreign body ingestions in children ages 17 and under. They found that the number of foreign body ingestions remained roughly the same each year from 2017 through 2021, but the proportionate number of button or cylindrical battery and magnet ingestions increased significantly. "Button batteries and small-rare-earth-magnet-sets represent the most dangerous objects a child can ingest," said CPT Patrick T. Reeves, MD, FAAP, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Naval Medical Center at San Diego. "Due to their abilities to cause electromagnetic force discharge, these objects can tear through tissue, cause bleeding and even death. Parents should treat these objects like the Dark Side of the Force and strive to decrease children's access to these items in the home." Emergency rooms see approximately 55,000 and 60,000 children for foreign ingestions annually, according to the research. The majority of children who ingest foreign objects are between ages 0-5 who have ingested batteries, magnets, coins, toys, desk supplies, bathroom items, jewelry, fasteners (screws, nails, etc.) and holiday items, such as Christmas ornaments and decor. Most foreign bodies that are ingested by children will pass into the stomach and eventually leave the body through defecation. However, some objects, such as electronic button batteries or small-rare-earth magnets, pose a significant to danger for children that can lead to death. Recently the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled some small high-powered magnet sets, but more work is needed, according to the authors. They call for the design of dedicated campaigns to include education for children, parents, other caregivers, and clinicians to prevent the purchase of these items and ways to remove them from the home. Elyse M. Geibel, MD, LT, MC (NFS/FMF), USN with the Naval Medical Center San Diego Pediatrics will present the study abstract at 2:30 pm CT Sunday, October 10, 2021. Explore further Increase in foreign body ingestions among young children More information: Abstract Title: Feast or Famine: A National Stay-At-Home Order Is Associated with an Increase in Pediatric Foreign Body Ingestions Presenting to Emergency Departments in 2020 Compared to 2011-2019 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain College students whose classes transitioned to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced difficulties concentrating and balancing responsibilities at home, as well as mental health issues, according to research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2021 National Conference & Exhibition. A study abstract, "Barriers to Academic Performance in Distance Learning Settings Among College Students," is based on results of a survey emailed to academic student groups from 166 accredited colleges and universities across 44 states in June 2020. Students responding to the anonymous, voluntary survey reported barriers to virtual learning, with nearly 80% of the 307 respondents reporting difficulties in concentrating. A notable number of students reported having limited access to a computer or device to use for remote learning and difficulty accessing food, according to the survey. Hispanic students reported experiencing more responsibilities at home, including taking care of siblings and doing chores, than non-Hispanic students. Sample sizes for other racial or ethnic groups were inadequate for analysis. "It is vital for educators to consider the varying barriers to virtual learning while making policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," said abstract author Nelson Chow, a Princeton University student and Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Research intern at Cohen Children's Medical Center. "It is especially important to have a particular awareness of the cultural and socioeconomic factors that may impact students' outcomes." Besides trouble concentrating, students surveyed reported barriers to distance learning that included: responsibilities at home (57.6%), and mental health issues (46.3%). Also, 8.5% of students reported having limited access to a computer or device to use for remote learning and 6.8% of students reported having difficulty accessing food. Only 14 students (4.6%) reported experiencing no barriers to academic performance in a distance learning environment. The research suggests that the prevalence of students reporting that mental health issues, limited access to technology, and food insecurity as a barrier to distance learning is concerning. Nelson Chow will present the study abstract at 3:34 pm CT Saturday, October 9. Explore further College drinking declined during the pandemic More information: Abstract Title: Barriers to Academic Performance in Distance Learning Settings Among College Students Credit: Anatomy Image, Shutterstock A new optical imaging system in the works could revolutionize the diagnosis of colon cancer. Currently, colonoscopies only manage to detect 39 % of bowel cancer cases in the early stages. Now, the EU-funded PROSCOPE project's novel screening platform has the potential to save up to half of the 160 000 lives lost in Europe every year because of this disease. Today's colonoscopy procedures are based on white light video or optical narrow-band imaging. They have limited ability to spot different types of cancerous and pre-cancerous lesions early. "It is tough to discriminate serrated lesions from hyperplastic polyps," notes project head Dr. Peter Andersen of PROSCOPE coordinator Technical University of Denmark in a news item posted on Photonics21. The new approach combines conventional white light in a camera with more advanced photonics and optical imaging toolsoptical coherence tomography (OCT), multi-photon microscopy and Raman spectroscopyfor a clearer, more sensitive and deeper analysis of bowel tissue. "A good analogy for our imaging concept is like the Google Earth of colonoscopies: we start with a map of the country and then zoom into a town, then a street, then a building," explains Dr. Andersen. "Similarly, our imaging procedure starts with conventional white light to identify a suspicious area a clinician would like to inspect further. Next, we can zoom into the depth of the lesion using first OCT, then multi-photon microscopy for metabolic information, and finally Raman spectroscopy for molecular information (almost a molecular fingerprint of cancerous cells) to assess the suspected lesion." Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Europe. Thankfully, survival rates rise dramatically when it's caught early, which is why it is important to spot lesions as early as possible. "Success in this aspect relies on ongoing and reinforced continued research in lasers and photonics across Europe; results that translate into further improvement of diagnostic capabilities," observes Dr. Andersen. An all-in-one, label-free tool The senior researcher goes on to describe the new platform's capabilities: "Cancerous cells have a higher metabolism than the adjacent, non-cancerous cells, implying higher blood flow and vessel growth surrounding suspected lesions. Once zoomed in on a lesion at the cellular length scale, we can measure blood flow, metabolism and molecular-specific information to identify cancerous lesions at cellular resolution. Our technology is, for the first time in colon inspections, an all-in-one device and, most importantly, label-free, meaning we do not have to inject a patient with dyes or biomarkers to flag up something suspicious." Lack of awareness and negative attitudes regarding colonoscopies currently hinder early detection of the disease. According to Dr. Andersen, only 14 % of the EU population undergo screening at present. "With early intervention, we could do so much more, save more lives and reduce healthcare costs," he concludes, describing the project as "a crucial step in this journey to tackling this disease." PROSCOPE (Point-of-care instrument for diagnosis and image-guided intervention of Colo-Rectal Cancer) plans to conduct clinical trials at project partner Medical University of Vienna before it concludes its work at the end of 2023. Explore further Raman spectroscopy shows promise for diagnosing oral cancer More information: PROSCOPE project website: PROSCOPE project website: www.proscope-h2020.eu/ Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE from researchers at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) has found that young adults feel highly responsible for protecting themselves and others against the spread of COVID-19, but face confusion when trying to comply with public health orders due to inconsistent messaging and ineffective outreach strategies. The qualitative study, co-led by SFU Faculty of Health Sciences professor Scott Lear and UBC Okanagan Psychology professor, Lesley Lutes, used focus groups to examine the attitudes and perceptions of 50 young adults in British Columbia between the ages of 18 and 40. The study found many in this age cohort are employed as essential workers. As a result, participants were acutely aware of their roles in protecting themselves and their communities during the pandemic. Overall, this age group is known to face a higher risk of depression and anxiety compared to other age groups, especially when they take on multiple social roles such as caregivers and parents. Participants also found public health messaging to be confusing and often negative, especially when media reports covering the rise of COVID-19 cases focused on 'blaming and shaming' rather than contextualizing this group's exposure risks. They also noted public health information outreach methods for their group were ineffective and did not enable two-way communication, thus missing an opportunity for this group to engage directly with institutions to ask questions and/or relay their concerns. The researchers recommend tailoring public health messages to consider the context and lived experiences of young adults, and suggest keeping messages positive to increase their effectiveness. They also emphasize strengthening social platforms that facilitate interaction to better enable their compliance with public health ordersand allow this group to voice their concerns and feel heard. Explore further Six ways COVID-19 risk was expressed on social media during the early stages of the pandemic More information: Tina Cheng et al, The Role of Tailored Public Health Messaging to Young Adults during COVID-19: "There's a lot of ambiguity around what it means to be safe", PLOS ONE (2021). Journal information: PLoS ONE Tina Cheng et al, The Role of Tailored Public Health Messaging to Young Adults during COVID-19: "There's a lot of ambiguity around what it means to be safe",(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258121 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Have you noticed large, tender veins in your legs? Do you experience aching or swelling in your legs at the end of the day? Do suffer from restless legs? Have you noticed changes in the color or texture of the skin near your ankles? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, you may have varicose veins or venous insufficiency. As the heart pumps blood, your body depends on thin-walled veins to return it. In the leg, gravity works against this flow. Muscle contractions of the leg act as a pump, helping this system. Tiny valves in these veins open as blood flows toward your heart, then close to stop blood from flowing back. If these small valves become damaged or weak, blood can flow backwards and pool in the vein, causing the veins to stretch or twist, leading to varicose veins. Some risk factors for varicose veins include age, sex, pregnancy, family history and trauma to the leg. Standing or sitting for an extended period can decrease blood circulation in your legs and increase your risk for developing varicose veins. Many careers, especially those in health care or factory work, require people to stand on their feet most of the day. If you notice symptoms, try one or more of these 7 tips to improve the health of your legs: 1. Change your position frequently. Moving is better than standing still. Shift your weight often, and stretch or walk around least every 30 minutes, to keep the blood from settling in your veins. 2. Exercise regularly. Make exercise a priority when not at work. Regular exercise can strengthen your heart and improve your circulation. Walking and yoga are great ways to encourage blood circulation in your legs. 3. Watch your weight. Shedding extra pounds takes pressure off your veins. Losing just 10% of your body weight can make a difference. 4. Watch what you wear. Avoid clothing that is tight around your waist, legs and groin area. Wear low-heeled shoes instead of high heels. 5. Don't smoke. If you do, quit. Being smoke-free is good for your veins and overall health. 6. Wear compression stockings. You can purchase compression stockings at most medical supply stores. Be sure to speak with your health care provider or pharmacist before you purchase stockings, as your legs should be measured for proper fit. 7. Elevate your legs. Before or after work, raise your legs above your heart for 15 minutes. There are minimally invasive treatment options if your varicose veins do not respond to these tips. In the past, people with varicose veins were treated with vein stripping, a surgical procedure that produced long scars. Today's treatment options produce good results, both cosmetic and symptomatic, with little downtime and scarring. Radiofrequency or laser ablation uses heat or light to damage the vein and cause it to collapse and fade. Another option is sclerotherapy, which injects a solution through a small incision at in the ankle to cause the vein to collapse. After either procedure, most people can return to work the next day and see full results in two months. Jared Slater, M.D., is a general surgeon in Mankato and New Prague, Minnesota. Explore further When to treat varicose veins 2021 Mayo Clinic News Network. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Dr. Eneida Roldan administers a COVID-19 vaccine at FIU vaccination site. January 27, 2021. Credit: Florida International University COVID-19 vaccine choices are getting more complicated. So don't feel bad if you are confused about the different COVID-19 vaccines and who's eligible for what. In addition to the three original vaccines approved by the Food and Drug AdministrationPfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnsonbooster shots and third doses are now available. But they are not for everyone. And they are not the same thing. Dr. Eneida Roldan, FIU Health CEO and clinical director of FIU's vaccine initiative, explained the difference between the new shots. "A booster shot is for people whose immune response may have weakened over time," Roldan said. "A third dose is for people who may not have had a strong enough immune response from the first two doses." Consult your health care provider about which might be right for you. Here are some guidelines on eligibility from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Booster shot: Pfizer only The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has only approved booster shots for the Pfizer vaccine. Who is eligible for a booster? Only people initially vaccinated with Pfizer can get the booster. And they must have completed their initial vaccination series at least 6 months ago. 65 years and older 18+ years living in a long-term setting 18+ years with underlying medical conditions including cancer, chronic liver, and kidney disease, weakened immune system. The CDC has a complete list of eligible conditions. 18+ years who live or work in high-risk settings including health care, schools, correctional facilities, homeless shelters. Third dose- Pfizer and Moderna Third doses have been approved only for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. "You need to get the same vaccine for all three doses. And you need to wait at least 28 days after your second dose," Roldan said. Who is eligible for a third dose? People with moderately to severely compromised immune systems. This includes people undergoing cancer treatment, organ or stem cell transplant recipients who take medicine to suppress the immune system, and people with immunodeficiency diseases. Why get these additional shots? The CDC says, "an additional dose may prevent serious and possibly life-threatening COVID-19 in people who may not have responded to their initial vaccine series." There is no approved booster shot or third dose for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. However, on Oct. 5, the company asked the FDA to authorize boosters for people who received its one-shot vaccine. Who is eligible for the initial COVID-19 vaccines? The CDC currently recommends COVID-19 vaccination for all people 12 years and older. Only the Pfizer vaccine is currently approved for children younger than 16, but the pharmaceutical company is hoping to expand to younger children. Pfizer just applied for approval for use in children ages 5 to 11. Explore further Pfizer seeking FDA OK for COVID-19 vaccine booster dose In this April 26, 2021 file photo, a nursing student administers the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center at UNLV, in Las Vegas. Philanthropies are pouring millions into programs aimed at persuading Americans to get vaccinated for COVID-19. The money is being spent on community-based organizations, local social media influencers and other things aiming to dispel myths and misinformation. Credit: AP Photo/John Locher, File Finland has joined other Nordic countries in suspending or discouraging the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in certain age groups because of an increased risk of heart inflammation, a rare side effect associated with the shot. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare said Thursday that authorities won't give the shot to males under age 30. They will be offered the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine instead. The government agency said it found that young men and boys were at a slightly higher risk of developing myocarditis. The move by Finland followed similar decisions by three neighboring countries on Wednesday. Sweden suspended the use of Moderna for people under 30, Denmark said those under 18 won't be offered the Swiss-made vaccine, and Norway urged those under 30 to get the Pfizer vaccine instead. All four countries based their decision on an unpublished study with Sweden's Public Health Agency saying that it signals "an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle or the pericardium"the double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the main vessels. It added: "The risk of being affected is very small." The preliminary information from the Nordic study has been sent to the European Medicines Agency's adverse reaction committee to be assessed. Explore further Finland halts Moderna vaccinations for young men 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Credit: CC0 Public Domain In the state of Washington, a planned home birth with a licensed midwife is just as safe as a birth at a licensed birth center. Researchers from the University of British Columbia and Bastyr University (Wash.) arrived at this conclusion after analyzing outcomes of more than 10,000 community births in Washington state between 2015 and 2020. The research team of midwives, epidemiologists and obstetricians published the findings Thursday in Obstetrics & Gynecology. "The birth setting had no association with increased risk for either parent or baby," said Elizabeth Nethery, a Ph.D. candidate at UBC's school of population and public health who was lead author of the study. "Our findings show that when a state has systems to support the integration of community midwives into the healthcare system as Washington has done, birth centers and homes are both safe settings for birth." Home birth remains controversial in the U.S. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has stated that birth is safest at a hospital or an accredited birth center. They recommend against home birth because of studies that show higher rates of neonatal death among home births across the entire U.S. However, states vary widely in their licensing requirements, regulatory status and access to medications for midwives. These variations might contribute to differences in outcomes at the state level that are reflected in nationwide numbers. Washington has done more than most other states to integrate midwifery into the healthcare system. It has one of the highest rates of community birth in the U.S., with at least 3.5 percent of all births (approximately 3,000 per year) occurring with midwives either at home or at a state-licensed birth center. The result is a low rate of 0.57 perinatal deaths per 1,000 births, which is comparable to other countries where home birth is well-integrated into the health system. It's also identical to the ACOG's benchmark for low-risk birth. "Washington provides a model for midwifery care and safe community birth that could be replicated throughout the U.S.," said Nethery. "Currently, some U.S. states currently have no licensure available for community birth midwives at all, and this could be contributing to poorer birth outcomes in those states." The study analyzed data from 10,609 home and birth center births from midwives who were members of the state's largest midwifery professional association. Births met the professional association guidelines and were within regulatory standards for birth center births in Washington state. This included individuals with healthy pregnancies who were carrying to term with no history of cesarean delivery, and a fetus oriented for head-first birth. Explore further For low-risk pregnancies home births do not increase risk of complications More information: Elizabeth Nethery et al, Birth Outcomes for Planned Home and Licensed Freestanding Birth Center Births in Washington State, Obstetrics & Gynecology (2021). Journal information: Obstetrics & Gynecology Elizabeth Nethery et al, Birth Outcomes for Planned Home and Licensed Freestanding Birth Center Births in Washington State,(2021). DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000004578 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Iceland on Friday suspended the Moderna anti-COVID vaccine, citing the slight increased risks of cardiac inflammation, going further than its Nordic neighbours which simply limited use of the jabs. "As the supply of Pfizer vaccine is sufficient in the territory ... the chief epidemiologist has decided not to use the Moderna vaccine in Iceland," said a statement published on the website of the Health Directorate. This decision owed to "the increased incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination with the Moderna vaccine, as well as with vaccination using Pfizer/BioNTech," the chief epidemiologist said in a statement. For the past two months, Iceland has been administering an additional dose "almost exclusively" of the Moderna vaccine to Icelanders vaccinated with Janssen, a single-dose serum marketed by America's Johnson & Johnson, as well as to elderly and immunocompromised people who received two doses of another vaccine. This will not affect the vaccination campaign in the island of 370,000 inhabitants, where 88 percent of the population over 12 years old is already fully vaccinated. Since Thursday, Sweden and Finland have also suspended the use of the Moderna vaccine but only for those under 30, because of a risk of inflammation of the myocardium, the heart muscle, and the pericardium, the membrane covering the heart. Denmark and Norway have formally advised against it for those under 18. According to Swedish authorities, most of these inflammations are benign and pass on their own, but it is recommended medical advice be sought should symptoms occur. Explore further Finland halts Moderna vaccinations for young men 2021 AFP Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Russia's Federal Statistics Agency Rosstat said on Friday that 49,389 people died of coronavirus in Augustmore than double the official government figure. This would bring the agency's tally of COVID-19 deaths in Russia to over 400,000. Russiathe fourth worst-hit country in the world in terms of COVID-19 caseshas struggled with the aggressive Delta variant and sluggish vaccination rates. Rosstat's figurereleased late on Fridaypainted a far darker picture of the pandemic's toll in the country than other figures suggest, with a government tally saying 24,661 Russians died as a result of COVID-19 in August. Government figures only take into account fatalities where the virus was established as the primary cause of death after an autopsy. Rosstat, however, publishes figures under a broader definition for deaths linked to the virus. Russian authorities have been accused of downplaying the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. While the number of daily infections is now on the rise, Russia hit record daily deaths several times in August. 2021 AFP Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A new study published in The Lancet Digital Health has revealed a link between screen time and higher risk and severity of myopia, or short-sightedness, in children and young adults. The study was undertaken by researchers and eye health experts from Singapore, Australia, China and the UK, including Professor Rupert Bourne from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). The authors examined more than 3,000 studies investigating smart device exposure and myopia in children and young adults aged between three months old and 33 years old. After analyzing and statistically combining the available studies, the authors revealed that high levels of smart device screen time, such as looking at a mobile phone, is associated with around a 30% higher risk of myopia and, when combined with excessive computer use, that risk rose to around 80%. The research comes as millions of children around the world have spent substantial time using remote learning methods following the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Bourne, Professor of Ophthalmology in the Vision and Eye Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: "Around half the global population is expected to have myopia by 2050, so it is a health concern that is escalating quickly. Our study is the most comprehensive yet on this issue and shows a potential link between screen time and myopia in young people. "This research comes at a time when our children have been spending more time than ever looking at screens for long periods, due to school closures, and it is clear that urgent research is needed to further understand how exposure to digital devices can affect our eyes and vision. We also know that people underestimate their own screen time, so future studies should use objective measures to capture this information." Explore further Researchers tackle mystery of short-sightedness increasing in children This digitally-colorized transmission electron microscopic image depicts the ultrastructural details of an influenza virus particle. Credit: CDC, Frederick Murphy New research warns that the United States could experience a severe influenza outbreak after public health measures like face masks and social distancing are lifted. These measures have protected people from COVID-19 and influenzaincidence of influenza declined 60 percent during the first ten weeks following the implementation of the measuresbut is also leading to greater numbers of Americans susceptible to the flu as immunity to the virus wanes. The findings by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health are published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. The use of public health measures like face masks and social distancing has declined substantially since the 2020/2021 flu seasons, although not yet to pre-pandemic levels. To what extent the flu might reassert itself in the U.S. this winter likely hinges on how much these behaviors continue. "In the short term, measures to control the spread of the coronavirus will likely continue to suppress the number of influenza infections, but after these measures are relaxed, with greater population-wide immune susceptibility to influenza could lead to a large outbreak," says senior author Sen Pei, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental health sciences. "This year, it's more important than ever to get your flu shot. While we're rightly focused on protecting ourselves against COVID-19, we shouldn't forget about the flu, which can be fatal." Pei and colleagues used a computer model of influenza A/H1 and B, which circulated in early 2020, to quantify the reduction of incidence and transmission after the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) in most states on March 15, 2020. NPIs include travel restrictions, face masks, social distancing, public education on prevention measures, and school closures. They also projected influenza transmission at the national scale over the next five years. The model used data from the CDC FluView website. A Large Outbreak Followed by Years of Severe Flu Seasons According to the model's projections, as public health measures are relaxed, a large-scale influenza outbreak will likely take place. In subsequent seasons, outbreaks will also be elevated, gradually return to pre-pandemic levels. Over the last decade, U.S. influenza deaths ranged from 12,000 in 2011-12 to 61,000 in 2017-2018. "Our projections show that the downstream, ripple-effects of pandemic public health measures could persist for a number of years," says Pei How Bad Could the Flu Outbreak Be? It could be really bad. The longer the control measures are in place before they are lifted, the greater the number of individuals who will be susceptible to an influenza infectiona situation that could lead to a more severe outbreak in parts of the country that had high levels of adherence to masking and other public health measures during the pandemic. Additionally, the researchers anticipate that the global suppression of influenza activity during the pandemic may make it difficult to predict future circulating strains to inform the production of influenza vaccines. As a result, vaccine effectiveness might be reduced. Furthermore, suppression of influenza during the pandemic could lead to a surge of multiple influenza strains, including the A/H3 strain which has a high mortality rate and hasn't been widely circulating since the 2018-2019 season. All these factors would contribute to a more severe outbreak. Or maybe not. The suppression of influenza during the 10-week study period could be overstated in the data due to people's reluctance to seek medical care for non-emergencies during the pandemic. Another question is whether or not antigenic escape (viral mutations that allow it to evade the immune system) rather than waning immunity is the predominant mechanism in the accumulation of population susceptibility to influenza. If so, influenza would have less opportunity to mutate while public health measures are in place. A more durable influenza immunity would also result in fewer people being susceptible to influenza when public health measures are lifted. All these possibilities would contribute to a less severe outbreak. Regional Variation in 2020 Influenza Activity During the study period, changes in Influenza A activity varied by public health region, from a reduction of 68 percent in Region 3 (Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) to 88 percent in Region 5 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio). Influenza B activity ranged from 32 percent in Region 1 (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont) to 91 percent in Region 7 (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska). Unusually, Region 2 (New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) saw an increase in influenza incidencean outcome the authors attribute to elevated medical visits early on in the pandemic that detected influenza cases that would have otherwise gone undetected. Due to this bias, the authors excluded Region 2 from their projections. Explore further Masking and social distancing during pandemic stopped spread of flu and RSV during 2020 cold and flu season More information: Yuchen Qi et al, Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions on influenza transmission in the United States, The Journal of Infectious Diseases (2021). Journal information: Journal of Infectious Diseases Yuchen Qi et al, Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions on influenza transmission in the United States,(2021). DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiab485 The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein drives the viruss entry into cells because its receptor-binding domainconsisting of a head region (red) and a core region (blue)binds to the human ACE2 protein (gray). Credit: 2021 Shinnakasu et al. Researchers in Japan have developed a vaccination strategy in mice that promotes the production of antibodies that can neutralize not only SARS-CoV-2 but a broad range of other coronaviruses as well. If successfully translated to humans, the approach, to be published October 8, in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, could lead to the development of a next-generation vaccine capable of preventing future coronavirus pandemics. The SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19 enters human cells by using its spike protein to bind to a cell surface receptor called ACE2. The receptor-binding domain of the spike protein consists of two parts: a "core" region that is very similar in all coronaviruses, and a more specialized "head" region that mediates binding to ACE2. Antibodies that recognize the head region of the spike receptor-binding domain can block the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells but offer little protection against other coronaviruses, such as the SARS-CoV-1 virus responsible for the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak of 2002. Antibodies that recognize the core region of the spike receptor-binding domain, in contrast, can prevent the entry of various coronaviruses into human cells. Unfortunately, however, individuals exposed to the viral spike protein tend to produce lots of antibodies against the head region but few, if any, antibodies that recognize the core region. "This suggests that, although the generation of broadly neutralizing antibodies is possible, SARS-CoV-2 infection and current vaccines are unlikely to provide protection against the emergence of novel SARS-related viruses," explains Professor Tomohiro Kurosaki from the WPI Immunology Frontier Research Center at Osaka University in Japan. "Given that prior coronavirus epidemics such as SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV have occurred due to zoonotic coronaviruses crossing the species barrier, the potential for the emergence of similar viruses in the future poses a significant threat to global public health, even in the face of effective vaccines for current viruses." Kurosaki and colleagues decided to test a new vaccination strategy that might enable the immune system to produce more broadly neutralizing antibodies. The researchers genetically engineered the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, covering its head region in additional sugar molecules. These sugar molecules could shield the head region from the immune system and boost the production of antibodies against the unshielded core region of the receptor-binding domain. Indeed, mice immunized with these engineered proteins produced a much higher proportion of antibodies recognizing the core region of the spike protein receptor-binding domain. These antibodies were able to neutralize the cellular entry of not only SARS-CoV-2 but also SARS-CoV-1 and three SARS-like coronaviruses from bats and pangolins. Much work will need to be done to translate this strategy to humans, but, says Kurosaki, "our data suggest that engineered versions of the spike receptor-binding domain could be a useful component for the development of broadly protective, next-generation vaccines to prevent future coronavirus pandemics." More information: Ryo Shinnakasu et al, Glycan engineering of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain elicits cross-neutralizing antibodies for SARS-related viruses, Journal of Experimental Medicine (2021). Journal information: Journal of Experimental Medicine Ryo Shinnakasu et al, Glycan engineering of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain elicits cross-neutralizing antibodies for SARS-related viruses,(2021). DOI: 10.1084/jem.20211003 Ambassador of Belarus P.Utyupin meets the Minister of Healthcare of Kazakhstan On October 8, 2021, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Kazakhstan Pavel Utyupin met with Minister of Healthcare of Kazakhstan Alexey Tsoy. The interlocutors welcomed the interaction of healthcare organizations and medical educational institutions of the two countries within the framework of the concluded cooperation agreements, as well as consistent mutual support at international platforms. P.Utyupin thanked the Kazakh side for the assistance provided to Belarusian citizens in the most acute period of the spread of coronavirus infection, as well as for the work done by the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan to recognize Belarusian vaccination certificates. The parties also discussed issues of cross-border restrictions in the context of the current epidemiological situation. The Ambassador of Belarus confirmed his readiness to promote the development of further cooperation between the countries in various areas in the field of healthcare. print version Ambassador of Belarus V.Rybak meets the President of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey On October 7, 2021, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Turkey Viktor Rybak met with Chairman of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey Erol Ozvar. The head of the Belarusian foreign mission congratulated E.Ozvar on his appointment to the post of the head of the Council. The parties discussed the prospects for the development of Belarusian-Turkish cooperation in the field of higher education in the context of the joint work done over the past two years. The interlocutors focused on the modalities of organizing the visit to Turkey of a delegation of representatives of Belarusian educational institutions and holding of the Second Forum of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions of the two countries. print version A scene shop and a full-sized theater make for a good place to build some haunted houses. Thats what the University of Montana School of Theatre & Dance did for Haunted, a series of four rooms in the Montana Theatre. Besides folklore tales of vampires and cannibal witches, youll get to see sets up-close and the magic of how theater works. It's a way to let our audiences see something they dont normally see which is to actually see a show in motion and what happens backstage, said Brian Gregoire, scene shop manager and technical director. This is the schools first theater production of the academic year, and follows Dance on Location, held last month outside. Haunted is the first show since 2019 in which the school has invited the public back into the PAR/TV Center, although there are no actors present in the rooms. The four immersion experiences are rooted in a diverse set of stories from around the world. Rather than setting students imaginations loose on traditional Montana haunted house staples like horror movies, they needed to look back to literature, myths and legends. Dracula shouldnt require much explanation. Others include Russian witch Baba Yaga, Japanese winter forest ghost Yuki-Onna, and The Haunting of Hill House, a ghost story recently adapted into a Netflix series. You get to see the backstage of the Montana Theatre along the way. In the Haunting of Hill House, you enter a study with a spiral staircase in the center. The wooden walls are lined with bookshelves, but the shelves are stacked with digital images of book spines that the audience would read as real if they were seated out in the audience. The staircase appears to be metal, but the steps are wood. The ghost (spoilers ahead) will appear on the stage, and video projections will help bring a picture on the wall to life. For Yuki-Onna, they constructed a bamboo forest, deliberately resembling a maze whose floors are brushed with piles of fake snow. The 150-some trees are made from carpet cobs, the centers of large rolls of carpet. The other goal is that the story needed to be conveyed only through design, sans text. The ghost (a mannequin in a white dress) will make an appearance, although Gregoire cautioned that theyre trying to show the workings of theater, not fake you out by slathering everything in fake blood. While the school had long been throwing around the idea of a haunted house, during the pandemic last year it was a project for the students to work on and get design experience without the logistical hurdles of a cast and audience. They could see their design go from paper into real life, Gregoire said. With the help of an usher, your pod will get the full arc of the Dracula story, from asylum to the courtyard where Lucy gives in to the vampires powers, Gregoire said. With the help of audio and lighting, youll get the idea of Renfield locked in a cell. They built an oversized coffin that will make an appearance, too. The students worked on the design concepts in Scenic Design II with professor Alessia Carpoca last year. Their peers in a scenery construction class built them with the schools tech staff. Jacquelyn Simmonis was assigned Baba Yaga, a female ogre who eats people. The room, filled with actual trees (mostly pine), is the graduating seniors final project toward her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in technical theater with a specialization in scenic design and props. If you dont know who Baba Yaga is, dont feel bad. Simmonis did plenty of research into the variations of the folk tale, too. I definitely leaned toward the cannibalistic side of her, and the creepy witch vibes, since were doing a haunted house theme, she said. Without having to use actors, the room will give you a general sense of the legend youll walk into the forest, which has an artificial sense of depth courtesy of mirrored material strategically placed on the walls. A red light will cast a silhouette of the ogress. Youll hear someone reading poems about Baba. Youll have to make a choice on your journey veering toward her house, set atop chicken legs? Or the other path. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Seven Missoulians died of COVID this week and Missoula again broke its daily record for cases, with 178 more reported on Friday. Missoula also broke its incident rate record, with 96 cases per 100,000, meaning the virus is circulating at a high rate among the population. There are now 2,546 cases. As a source of comparison, there were just 29 active cases on June 30. Since that point, cases have increased to disastrous levels. On Friday, Missoula County Emergency Management Director Adriane Beck said a request for an additional two weeks of help from the Montana National Guard was approved. Hospitals have been at or near capacity for weeks. There are 56 people hospitalized due to COVID in the county, 34 of whom are county residents. Honestly, what I think is driving (the case increases) is that people have COVID fatigue, said Cindy Farr, the health departments incident commander for the COVID-19 response. Nobody wants to believe that were still in the middle of a pandemic. Farr also mentioned again as have many health care professionals, local politicians and others within the health department that counties in Montana are hamstrung by laws passed during the last legislative session. The Missoula City-County Health Department would likely reinstate a mask mandate if it had the legal authority, Health Officer DShane Barnett said on Sept. 17. For now, Farr is asking Missoulians to follow Centers for Disease Control guidelines that have been in place for the majority of the pandemic. The only thing that we can do is ask people to do the right thing by limiting their social circles, wearing a mask when youre out in public places, social distancing as much as possible, staying home when youre sick and getting tested for COVID, especially as we move into cold and flu season, Farr said. Its going to be particularly important because our hospitals are already a bit overwhelmed at this point. We have yet to see flu cases in Missoula, but we know its coming. The health department is offering walk-in flu shots on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 301 W. Adler Street in Missoula. Appointments are available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the location. The best thing we can do is try to reduce the numbers of COVID cases that we have in order to protect our health infrastructure, Farr said. Of the COVID cases, the vast majority are in the 20 to 39 age range, accounting for nearly 37%, according to health department data. There are also 509 active cases between the ages of 0 and 19. Vaccination rates in the county continue to climb, though slowly. Nearly 71% of Missoula Countys eligible population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Breaking that number down further, 57.12% of the countys total population is considered fully vaccinated against COVID an increase from late June, when around 52% of the total population was fully vaccinated. Theres definitely concern from us in public health that we could just continue to see these kind of numbers throughout winter, unless people choose to change their behavior, Farr said. Jordan Hansen covers news and local government for the Missoulian. Shout at him on Twitter @jordyhansen or send him an email at Jordan.Hansen@Missoulian.com Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Montana University Faculty Association Representatives (MUSFAR), which represents the faculty of the Montana University System, urges the Board of Regents to institute a vaccination requirement to help end the COVID pandemic. Numerous vaccines are already required for the Montana University System. The Montana Annotated Code Title 20, Chapter 5, Part 4 states that postsecondary schools may impose immunization requirements as a condition of attendance that are more stringent than those required by this part. Further, the constitutional authority and moral responsibility to implement a vaccine requirement for the campuses in the Montana University System lies with the MUS Board of Regents. The regents have full power, responsibility, and authority to supervise, coordinate, manage and control the Montana university system, according to Section 9 of the Montana Constitution. To date, the Board of Regents has not publicly discussed their position or justification for not requiring vaccines to protect the entire campus community. The board is charged with the health, safety, and wellbeing of the Montana University System. Why is the Board of Regents failing to act? Why are they not requiring vaccinations, which we know is the best-known solution to end the pandemic? Communities across the state are in crisis and our campuses are at risk. Every county in the state with a MUS campus is at a high level of community transmission for COVID-19 as defined by the CDC. Our hospitals are at capacity, considering crisis of care standards, and the National Guard has been deployed to help support our health care system. Montanans are dying each week because we are well under the vaccination percentage required to limit and end the spread of the disease. We implore the Montana State University Board of Regents to require vaccinations for students and staff across the Montana University System to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus in our campus communities. We are gravely concerned about the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff. We are watching COVID cases rise, following reports on the rising deaths in our communities, and continue to stress the necessity for evidence-based mitigation strategies, at the system-wide level. Vaccinations are the most effective means to end the pandemic. With the full FDA approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Aug. 23, over 1,000 public institutions across the country have instituted vaccine requirements for all members of their campus communities. We now have the best tool available to end this pandemic in an effective and safe vaccine. Colleges across the nation, and in Montana, already require students to be vaccinated against viral diseases like mumps, measles, and rubella. These measurements are required for public health and the wellbeing of students and the campus. The COVID-19 vaccines are FDA-approved, safe, and effective, and they should be required in the Montana University System. There are no logistical barriers to providing vaccines. Indeed, it has never been easier to provide access to vaccinations, as the infrastructure to administer vaccines in Montana is already up and running. Health care providers across our communities already provide vaccination clinics, many of them on college campuses. There is no shortage of vaccinations, they are easy to get, and free for everyone. Without a vaccination requirement we are putting our students lives at risk, we are failing to provide them with access to a safe education; we are contributing to the crisis in our communities; and we are damaging the long-term health, safety, and economic stability of our state. We want to work collectively towards ending this global pandemic and ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of our communities throughout Montana. We implore the Board of Regents to expand vaccination requirements to include the FDA approved COVID-19 vaccine. Bradford Watson, MSU, Chair, Faculty Senate; Chair, MUSFAR Dr. Jennifer Lynn, MSUB, Chair, Academic Senate; Vice Chair, MUSFAR Dr. Kimber McKay, UM, Chair, Faculty Senate Dr. Jenn Bell, University of Montana, Chair-Elect, Faculty Senate Dr. Michael Brody, MSU, Chair Elect Faculty Senate Dr. Joy C. Honea, MSUB, President, Faculty Association Jana Parsons, Great Falls College, Chair, Faculty Senate Steve Lewis, Helena College, President Faculty Senate You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 6 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 4 Turns out Tesla isn't just building a factory in Austin, Texas it's also moving its headquarters to the city from California. Elon Musk has announced the move at the company's most recent annual shareholder meeting, where he also clarified that Tesla still plans to expand production at its California plant by 50 percent. He explained, however, that there's "a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area," because house prices are sky high, which means long commutes for workers who have to live elsewhere. The move doesn't come entirely as a surprise: Musk previously threatened to move Tesla's headquarters out of California after coronavirus lockdowns forced the company to suspend production in the state. He even called the lockdown orders "fascist" during an earnings call in 2020 and then personally relocated from LA to Austin a few months later. That said, it's worth noting that Tesla is now based in a state where it can't sell its cars to buyers directly, which has been its approach from the beginning, due to pro-dealership laws. As CNBC notes, Musk moving to Texas means he'd be paying less taxes. The state has no personal income tax, whereas California has some of the largest income tax rates in the country. Further, the state has been offering companies tax breaks to build facilities in the state under the Texas Economic Development Act. During the meeting, shareholders also voted on proposals to improve company governance. The New York Times said they agreed on most of the proposals aside from a couple that the company opposed, one of which would require the company to publish reports on its efforts to diversify its workplace. Tesla said in a report (PDF) last year that its leadership in the US is still mostly white and male, while its workforce is 79 percent male and 34 percent white overall. Just a few days ago, the company was ordered to pay $137 million in damages to a former Black worker. The plaintiff accused the automaker of turning a blind eye to discrimination and racial abuse while he was working at its plant in Fremont, California. People who want to vote in the upcoming school board and municipal elections in Burke County have until the end of the week to get registered to do so. Those already registered also can update their registration, if needed, during the week. And the Burke County manager has made his intentions known that he plans to run for an election in 2022. The regular voter registration deadline for the Nov. 2 elections is Friday. To register to vote in Burke County, a person has to be a citizen of the U.S. and a resident of the county at least 30 days before the election and at least 18 years old, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. To update registration, a voter can use the registration application on the State Boards website at ncsbe.gov to change any voting information, including name, address and party affiliation. The change notification has to be signed and sent to the Burke County Board of Elections by Friday, according to information from the State Board of Elections. Updates to name, address and party affiliation must be signed, but can be provided by fax or email. A physical signature is not required, according to state election officials. We built a brand thats really important in the southeast, and the guys that are buying us, they think like we do, and they are so excited to grow those brands, Billy said. No, its not going to change. The cool thing about it is people who live in Florida, that have wanted our beers for forever, will have an opportunity to get them. Theyre going to expand us and do the things that we always hoped we could do, so its just great. Alexi Sekmakas, CEO of Made By The Water, said he and Billy shared a vision for craft beers in the southeast. His company owns and operates Oyster City Brewing Co., which has brewery locations across the Florida coast and in Alabama, according to the press release. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} A big part of this vision that Billy and I have shared was the southeastern craft collective, Sekmakas said. This was something where Palmetto, Catawba and Oyster City beers all presented very unique brands and very unique beers from their different walks of life across the southeast, or different geographies and different people. He said they want all of the beers Catawba, Palmetto, Twisp and Oyster City to be available in the taprooms across the southeast, and that he wants that to happen as soon as possible. The National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg has issued a flash flood warning for Burke County and surrounding areas until 3:15 p.m. Thursday. Between 2 and 5 inches of rain have fallen in the area and the expected rainfall rate is 1 to 2 inches in two hours, the NWS said. The flash flooding in ongoing with many roads across the county already flooding and impassable. Some water rescues are in progress, the NWS said. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Many roads in Morganton already are experiencing flooding, especially in flood-prone areas. As of 10:15 p.m. West Fleming Drive near Case Farms was flooded as well as College Street at Collett St., according to a News Herald reporter. Other areas expected to experience flooding are Marion, Salem, Drexel, Glen Alpine, Lake James State Park, Lake James, Table Rock, Lake Rhodhiss, Nebo, Oak Hill, Ashford, North Cove, Dysartsville and Woodlawn, according to the NWS. Residents are encouraged not to drive unless attempting to escape flooded areas to allow emergency crews to handle ongoing flooding impacts, the NWS said. Those who must drive should avoid all flooded roads, obey all barricades, and heed all guidance from local officials. Do not attempt to drive through flooded areas. If it has happened in Butte-Silver Bow County over the past 45 years, chances are good its chief executives knew about it, talked about it, wrote about it and compiled information about it. Well, a ton of their letters and notes and files has been saved since the city and county consolidated in 1977. And ton might not be a stretch. There are 124 giant boxes of them at the Butte-Silver Bow Archives, from former Mayor Mario Micone, who became the first chief executive, to his successor, Don Peoples, to all those who followed. Their letters and records touch on most everything, from big topics like mining and crime and poverty to smaller subjects like sick leave policies and neighborhood meetings, to specific things like Uptown liquor store problem. Theres a folder on Evel Knievels proposal in the late 1980s to turn the old Webster Garfield School into a museum about himself. He said it would bring 200,000 visitors to Butte each year, but despite lots of talk, letters and meetings, it never came to pass here. Theres even a folder about a county officials ass chewing, apparently at the hands of Peoples in May 1983. It consists of a two-page, hand-written letter from the county official to Peoples referencing an obviously terse conversation they had. I hope you dont judge this department on a few mistakes we have made, the employee wrote in his letter to Peoples. I feel that if you dont make mistakes, you're not doing your job. It ends with, Heres hoping that our next meeting will be nicer than this last one. The collection is a great archive of events, conditions and local governments hand in them. So much so, the Archives wants to scan every page and make them digitally available through their catalog. Theyre seeking a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to fund most of the projects estimated $89,000 cost. The Archives would provide $22,000 of that in staff time to prepare records and transfer them to an E-Docs USA Inc. facility in Butte for scanning, and Friends of the Butte Archives would steer $7,000 to the project. It would just really ease the process of research and getting that first level of research done when we have a question about government function or specific projects in our community, said Assistant Archives Director Aubrey Jaap. Some of them are kind of exciting, some of them are quite frankly boring, but theyre all helpful, she said. Its not surprising so much information stems from Butte-Silver Bows chief executives, since the charter establishing the consolidated local government put a lot of power into the position. The chief executive not only serves ceremonial functions, like ribbon-cuttings and appearances at community events, he or she directs city-county operations, is boss to hundreds of county employees and oversees annual budgets that now exceed $130 million. The records to be scanned actually go back before consolidation. When Micone became the first chief executive, he transferred many of the files he had created as mayor to his new office, adding to them as situations dictated, according to a very detailed Archives description of the collection. There are records and correspondence from all past chief executives: Micone (1977-1979), Peoples (1979-1989), David Fisher (1989-1990), Jack Lynch (1990-2000), Judy Jacobson (2001-2004), Paul Babb (2005-2012), Matt Vincent (2013-2016) and Dave Palmer (2017-2020). J.P. Gallagher took office this year. Records from the first three are grouped together and the bulk of those are from the Peoples administration. He was prolific as a community and economic development leader, social ambassador and contributor to state and national municipality panning, the Archives says. He also led Butte-Silver Bow during the 1980s, an incredibly difficult time for Buttes citizens with the closure of the Anaconda Companys mining, milling and smelting operations. His records chronicle city-county happenings, local business and nonprofits, and to a lesser extent, political campaigns and state legislation. Even some of his talks are included. Peoples routinely gave verbal presentations and regularly saved transcribed copies, which are now housed in this collection, the Archives says. There is a detailed list of subject files covering time frames and topics, and even now, Archives staff can point to files that might help people find what theyre looking for or researching. Digitizing it all should make searches by keywords and text possible, making the search-and-find process easier and faster for staff and the public. It would be right at our fingertips as opposed to going downstairs and having to do a small bit of digging, Jaap said. If the Archives wins the grant, it could still take up to two years to complete the project. Love 6 Funny 4 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Firefighters have made progress in containing a wildfire in Fergus County, while a burst of rain and snow is expected to hit the region this weekend. The South Moccasin fire has burned through nearly 13,000 acres in Fergus County. Crews had the fire at 45% containment as of Thursday afternoon, and anticipate having it it completely under control by Sunday. With the weather conditions, and whats happening on the ground with crews, thats what went into the decision of containment by the 10th, said Alex Schwier, the public information officer assigned to the fire. Since the South Moccasin fire was first reported Monday, nearly 250 people from state and county agencies responded. The fire is burning through timber and grassland on mostly private land about seven miles northwest of Lewistown. Five structures were damaged as the fire spread earlier in the week, but none of them were homes. Crews had built fire lines around the north, east and southeastern edges of the fire by Thursday morning, according to an update from the County Assist Team assigned to the fire. They will mop up hot spots through the end of the week. Fergus County Sheriff Rick Vaughn said the efforts of local ranchers, along with BLM and DNRC firefighters prevented the fire from spreading through the South Moccasin Mountain Range. Since the fire started, the focus has been on putting it out. Now that were rounding the corer on that, we can go back and focus on the investigation into how it started, he said. Montana Highway 81, also known as the Denton Highway, was still closed from mile marker 24.8 to 42, according to the Montana Department of Transportation. To the south of the fire, officials also had Hanover Road closed while crews work toward complete containment. In Rosebud County, the Coal Bank fire has grown to 6,100 acres, according to the Bureau of Land Management. The fire has spilled into the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, and 112 people are working to control the fire, which was at 0% containment as of Thursday. The fire is burning about 18 miles southwest of Ashland. Al Nash, the communications chief for the BLMs Montana and Dakotas State Office, said no buildings have been damaged in the fire, but 10 minor structures are still threatened. The state has recorded 2,525 wildfires so far in 2021, with 33 reported within the past week. Nearly 940,000 acres of Montanas land has burned in wildfires this year. The average wildfire season between 2011 and 2020 ended with about 400,000 acres burned per year, according to the Northern Rockies Coordination Center. The entire state is still in the grip of a drought going into October, with every county reporting severe to extreme drought conditions. This year is on track to being one of the driest on record for Montana, according to data from the National Weather Service. A fall weather system moving into southeastern Montana has caused the NWS to announce a hazardous weather outlook. Rain of an inch or more is expected to cover an area from Livingston east to the state border by Monday, with possible snowfall at higher elevations. Cold temperatures caused MDT announce that the Beartooth Highway, a portion of Highway 212 running across the states border with Wyoming out of Red Lodge, closed early for the season. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Pregnancies and human life are older than recorded time, and so, it follows, are abortions. The procedures by which abortions have been conducted, however, have only very recently in human history been recognized in law and made safe by regulations. In 1973, the Roe v Wade decision declared abortion a constitutional right within certain health-related restrictions, and all states have been bound to safely implement that decision for nearly half a century. In Montana, however, the legalization of abortion became an issue two years before the Roe decision. The 1971 legislative session was the setting for the debate of a subject which had been taboo in most public forums until that time. Young freshman Representative Dorothy Bradley introduced an abortion legalization measure that immediately triggered an explosion of shock and red-hot reaction across the state. The Bradley bill only survived long enough to be the subject of one procedural debate and received only five votes. All Republicans, including myself, voted to keep the bill tabled in committee. So spirited and overwhelming was the spontaneous opposition, that the number of the abortion bill was confused with that of another bill, and legislators, even realizing the obvious mistake, overwhelmingly killed both. The specific right to privacy in the 1972 Montana Constitution, and the Roe interpretation of the federal constitution based on that implied right, suddenly transformed abortion rights from the unspeakable into the status quo. The 1970s were thus the time when the esoteric question of when life begins surfaced prominently in troubled discussions, both public and private, across the country. Some of those discussions occurred between me and a fellow Montana legislator, Polly Holmes of Billings. Holmes was both a spirited idealist and a deep thinker. Our topic was when life began at the time of conception or at the time of viability? The Roe v Wade framework, based on dividing the nine-month human gestation period into trimesters, seemed imprecise and arbitrary to Holmes and me. The conclusion we came to was that there was an accepted consensus that life ended with the cessation of the brain function. If a brain dead person was legally dead, then we reasoned that a developing fetus could not be considered a life until it emitted detectable brain waves. Nothing arbitrary about that, we concluded. And so whether to have an abortion should be merely the choice of a pregnant woman prior to brain function, but subject to the protection of the laws of society afterward. We shopped our idea around to other legislators, but found no support for it. None. The sides had become locked in. The pro-choice faction was uncompromisingly behind the verdict of Roe. The pro-life people were unyielding in their belief that life began exactly at the instant of conception. I didnt realize it at the time, but I think the uncompromising nature of the abortion issue became the symbol for an age of uncompromisable issues, which sums up where we are today. If the U.S. Supreme Court abandons the national application of Roe, the whole question of abortion will be thrown back to the states, where it will be legal in some and not in others. Women wealthy enough to travel will be little affected. All others will be forced into the unregulated risks of the back alley. Regardless of their circumstances, most women dread making the abortion choice. This has been so for eons of time. They shouldnt have to choose between making that choice a safe or dangerous one. Bob Brown of Whitefish is a former Montana Secretary of State and State Senate President. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 In a recent guest column, State Senator Greg Hertz (Republican, Polson) decried the Biden administrations call to restore the federal corporate tax rate to a reasonable level, still lower than it was prior to 2017. Hertz reiterates the same tired arguments his Republican colleagues have recited for years that tax breaks for big, out-of-state corporations will stimulate the economy and that increases in their tax rate will simply be passed on to workers and their families. History, however, clearly shows that trickle down economics simply do not work. Republicans in Washington DC pushed through the GOP tax breaks in 2017. The corporate tax rate was made permanent, while the modest individual income tax cuts for working Americans will expire in 2025. Additionally, the GOP plan immediately adjusted income tax withholding to give workers the appearance of a larger paycheck, resulting in many taxpayers finding they owed taxes the following April. While Hertz implies that big, multinational corporations are paying too much in federal taxes, dozens of the countrys wealthiest corporations paid no federal tax last year by exploiting every available loophole. Republicans would ask you to believe that corporate tax breaks will lead to higher wages for workers and an increased corporate investment in jobs and manufacturing. Neither have been proven to be true. In fact, independent analysis of the GOP tax breaks indicate that they are expanding the federal deficit by two trillion dollars this decade. Ironically, Republicans in Congress are currently shirking their responsibility to raise the debt ceiling, a necessary move to prevent the country from defaulting on the very debt we have accrued as a result of the GOP tax breaks. According to an independent report, An analysis of Fortune 500 companies found that just 20 percent of increased cashflow (the corporate tax cut windfall) in 2018 was spent on increasing capital expenditures or research and development. The remaining 80 percent of cashflow went to investors through buybacks, dividends, and other planning adjustments. The 2017 GOP tax breaks simply consolidated more wealth in the hands of a few, lining the pockets of shareholders at everyone elses expense. The Biden administrations Build Back Better initiative, coupled with the infrastructure bill, will stimulate the American economy. Thousands of workers will be employed to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and expand broadband access to underserved rural communities. These dollars will roll over through our economy multiple times. Medicare will be enhanced, expanding to include dental and vision care as well as sustaining our rural hospitals. Expanded childcare credits will afford parents, primarily mothers, the opportunity to return to the workforce. Expanded educational opportunities will raise the prospects for all Americans. Hertz and his Republican colleagues show us their priority is to cling to the failed policies of the past where a nurse pays more in taxes than a big corporation or its executives. Now, however, is the time to invest in Americas future. Mark Thane, a Missoula Democrat, represents House District 99 in the Montana Legislature. Love 7 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from R. Greg Vaughan, research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. There are many satellites that collect data of Earths surface and atmosphere, which help us advance our knowledge and understanding of Earths interconnected systems. Many of the images acquired by Earth-observing satellites including those launched and operated by NASA, NOAA, ESA, and the USGS are freely available to the public. Here, we provide a how-to guide for searching, downloading, and viewing satellite data from Yellowstone, using Landsat 8 as an example. Landsat 8, launched in 2013, is a collaborative mission between NASA and the USGS that acquires visible and thermal infrared images of Earths surface. These data are used to measure surface temperatures across the broad expanse of Yellowstone National Park and were used to identify a new thermal area in the east part of the caldera. One way to search for, view, and download satellite images from Yellowstone (or anywhere else) is by using the USGS Earth Explorer web tool (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). To download data, you have to create an account (which is free), but no login is required just to search for data. Lets start the search by defining the search criteria. First, go to USGS Earth Explorer; notice the interactive map that allows you to move around anywhere in the world (by clicking and dragging your mouse or using your finger if on a touch screen). You can also zoom in and out (using the roller on your mouse, clicking the + and icons in the upper right corner of the map, or using two fingers if you have a touch screen). For this example, move the map to the northwest corner of Wyoming and zoom in a little bit. There are two primary search criteria: geographic area and date range. To define a search area you can create a point anywhere on the map just by clicking with a mouse or a finger tap on a touch screen. You can create a polygon of any shape or size by defining several points and can edit the location of individual points by clicking and dragging them. You can delete them one at a time by clicking the red X icon, or delete them all by clicking the Clear Coordinates button. To define the date range, go to the Date Range tab and enter the from: and to: dates using the calendar icons or by typing them in. Dates must be entered using the format: MM/DD/YYYY. Next, click the Data Sets button to see the list of all the data sets than can be viewed. There are a lot of them. Just focus on Landsat by clicking the + icon next to Landsat to expand all the options. Again, there are a lot of options. What you probably want are the Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 data. (To understand what the other options are, see the appendix below). Click on the + icon next to the Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 data, then click the Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS C2 L1 box. OLI stands for Operational Land Imager this is the instrument that measures surface reflected radiance in visible, near infrared, and shortwave infrared wavelengths. TIRS stands for Thermal Infrared Sensor this is the instrument that measures surface emitted radiance in thermal infrared wavelengths. C2 = Collection 2; and L1 = Level 1. Next, click the Results button to see what images are available for the data collection, time frame, and area on the ground that you specified. Search results are listed in the panel to the left of the map. For each scene, there is a thumbnail image, which you can click on to see a larger version of the low-resolution browse image, along with its metadata (detailed information about the image). Why are some of the thumbnails black? Because these are dates when Landsat 8 acquired data at night the default browse image is a color visible image, which shows no data at night. But if you click on the thumbnail you can scroll to see the thermal infrared browse image. Landsat 8 data are acquired at night over selected volcanic or active geothermal targets, so if you are searching for Landsat 8 scenes over another area, you may only get daytime scenes. To download data, you can create a free account by clicking the Login link in the upper right of the main page. On the Login page, click Create New Account and follow the instructions to create a username and password. Once you have your account and are logged in, and are viewing your search results, the download icon will be available. To download one of the scenes, just click on the download icon. A new window will open with lots of options. There are three different types of images, plus the full-resolution scientific product bundle. The Quality image provides a visual description of the quality of the pixels within a scene that may help the user determine its utility. For example, it tags pixels that are cloudy. The Natural Color image is the one that uses Landsat 8s visible channels to simulate what you would see with your eyes. The Thermal image is a greyscale image that shows the intensity of radiance measured in the thermal infrared channels (bright areas are warmer and dark areas are cooler). The full-resolution scientific product bundle (usually about 1Gb in size) has the full-resolution GeoTIFF images for each Landsat 8 channel, as well as metadata and quality assessment data. For the Quality, Natural Color, and Thermal images, there are two different file formats available: JPG and GeoTIFF. JPGs are just images. GeoTIFFs are images that contain geographic location information, which can be opened into various geographic information system (GIS) applications or geographic browsers. Some of these data can also be viewed in the online Geology of Yellowstone map. Thats all there is to it. It might seem complicated, but once youve tried it a few times youll quickly get the hang of it, and can download a variety of satellite data from all over the world. With the recent launch of Landsat 9 on Sept. 27, 2021, we will soon have even more data to use for studying and monitoring Yellowstones thermal areas. Appendix: Landsat data types listed in USGS Earth Explorer: Landsat Legacy data are images and image mosaics that were acquired from previous Landsat missions, going back to 1972. Collection 1 data are data that were calibrated in the early stages of the Landsat 8 mission. These data have all been reprocessed using improved calibration techniques and have been replaced by Collection 2 data. Collection 1 data will no longer be available after Dec. 31, 2021. Collection 2 data are the data with the most up-to-date advancements in data processing, algorithm development, improved radiometric calibration and geolocation accuracy, and data access and distribution capabilities. Level-2 data are specific high-level science data products, such as calibrated surface reflectance and surface temperature. Analysis Ready Data are data that have been calibrated and processed to a very high level for scientific analysis in monitoring and assessing landscape change. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A roundup of campaign news items of interest for Wednesday, October 6, 2021: FINKENAUER FUNDRAISING: The campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer said it raised more than $1 million during the most recent three-month federal reporting period, Finkenauers first of the campaign. Finkenauer is running for the right to face longtime Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who first faces a Republican primary. Other Democrats in the race include Dave Muhlbauer and Glenn Hurst. The Finkenauer campaign said her $1 million-plus haul is the largest non-election year fundraising quarter ever for a candidate challenging Grassley, and that donors ranged from all 99 Iowa counties. Together, were going to send a message to Washington D.C. and those at the top that Iowa doesnt quit, Finkenauer said in a news release. We are building a campaign that Sen. Grassley has never seen before. We are not backing down and we will and must win. The National Department of Health officially launched South Africas Covid19 vaccine certificate system on Friday. While the system has been available since Tuesday, the department said it was busy being tested. It has now been formally launched and is generally available to the public. Vaccinated people can retrieve their certificate from the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) by going to the website and selecting Get my vaccine certificate. EVDS project manager and chief director for policy coordination and integrated planning at the Department of Health, Milani Wolmarans, explained that you must provide the following information to download your certificate: Name Identification number ID no. / passport / asylum no. Cellphone number used to register on EVDS Proof of vaccination number Wolmarans said that you would have received a proof of vaccination number on the registered cellphone number when you received your shot. Those who received the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine would therefore have received two proof of vaccination numbers. If you have lost your proof of vaccination SMS, Wolmarans said you could phone the national Covid19 hotline. They will be able to send you the SMS immediately or provide you with your vaccination code, she stated. Similarly, if you havent received your SMS, Wolmarans advised that you call the hotline. The national Covid19 hotline contact details are as follows: Once you have entered your name, ID, cellphone number, and proof of vaccination code, you will receive a one-time PIN (OTP) to the registered cellphone number. Only after the OTP has been entered will you be able to download your vaccination certificate. Wolmarans said this is to ensure that peoples private information remains protected. She said that you would be able to download the certificate the moment you receive your SMS with your proof of vaccination. These are usually sent immediately after vaccinations are administered. Wolmarans also said that it would be possible to download your vaccination certificate more than once, though there is a rate limit of 34 times per day to protect the system. She said that the infrastructure to enable verification of South Africas digital vaccine certificate is being rolled out and should be available from the end of October. This includes QR code readers that can scan the certificate and verify it against the EVDS. The QR code will have cryptographic signature linked to public key infrastructure (PKI) to prevent any fraudulent production of vaccination cards, explained Wolmarans. Wolmarans said that a cybersecurity specialist is working with the department and is helping to ensure that they are putting stringent security measures in place. They also conduct regular penetration testing with security specialists, Wolmarans stated. On the question of whether South Africas vaccine certificate would be recognised internationally, Wolmarans said that most countries would accept our digital vaccination certificate. However, she said it depends on the policy of the country you are visiting and their verification requirements. South Africa will share security codes with other countries to verify vaccine certificates using our public key infrastructure. It is a huge, complicated technology platform we are creating, Wolmarans said, adding that they are ensuring South Africa is adhering to international standards. Michelin and General Motors (GM) have introduced a prototype airless tyre dubbed UPTIS (or Unique Puncture-proof Tyre System). GM will begin testing the prototype on numerous Chevy Bolts, with plans to launch the airless tyre system for passenger vehicles by 2024. The new tyre technology uses glass-fibre fortified vanes to replace the support provided by air pressure, potentially eliminating flats and reducing the use of raw materials and waste. Michelin and GM have indicated that the implementation could reduce the number of tyres thrown away by 200 million per year. By extension, this could also abolish the need for jacks and spare tyres, and there will be no need to check tyre pressure. General Motors is excited about the possibilities that Uptis presents, and we are thrilled to collaborate with Michelin on this breakthrough technology, said Steve Kiefer, senior vice president of Global Purchasing and Supply Chain at General Motors. Four giant brass and glass lanterns that flank the historic Franklin Station post office under wraps since the 2014 earthquake were briefly revealed earlier this month. The lanterns were unwrapped by a team of volunteers from Napa County Landmarks. But it wasnt a permanent unveiling. About an hour later, the lanterns were once again secured, this time with new durable plastic and other padding. Napa County Landmarks president Ernie Schlobohm said that right after 2014's 6.0 earthquake, the lanterns were quickly covered. No one could know that theyd remain in hibernation more than seven years later. Yet over the past years, the original materials that sheltered the lanterns were disintegrating, said Schlobohm. 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! Schlobohm said if the lanterns werent securely recovered, they were at risk of being damaged by weather, rocks being kicked up by passing cars or even vandalism. The lanterns feature important architectural features, said Schlobohm. The Franklin Station is an iconic building, which is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Schlobohm said. It is located at 1351 Second St. in downtown Napa. According to Napa historian Rebecca Yerger, they originally came from the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco. They are a wonderful example of architectural artistry, Yerger said. Yes, after so many years, some locals might look right over them, but if we lost those, wed lose so much of the integrity of the building from a visual perspective, said Yerger. They are a vestige of an artistic craftsman style and technique that for the most part we no longer have. Such significant architectural elements are worth preserving and treating with respect, Schlobohm said. After connecting with property owner Jim Keller and architect Stephen Cuddy, a plan to examine and rewrap the lanterns was hatched. We felt it was time, to take action, he said. After receiving permission from Keller, a small team met at the post office on Oct. 1. They started by removing the existing protective materials. Each lantern stands about 7 feet, 9 inches tall and is about 4 feet wide. When youre looking at it from a distance, it doesnt look that large, but when youre up against it, its a pretty good size, Schlobohm said of each lantern. Luckily, there was no new significant damage, he said. The lanterns are made of what looks like brass, steel and glass, he noted. They are quite durable. Next, thick moving blankets were trimmed into pieces fit to cover and protect the glass panels in each lantern. Following that, we covered the whole lantern with very thick silver tarp, thats made with woven fiberglass, said Schlobohm. Those tarps should last up to five years, he said. The rewrapping project only cost about $400 and took about an hour, Schlobohm said. For one hours work, we get to save it for a few more lifetimes, Schlobohm said. Preserving the lanterns was never a sure thing. After the 2014 Napa earthquake, the USPS originally moved to demolish the damaged post office building. The agency said that it would cost $8 million to repair quake damage, while it would cost only $500,000 for demolition. The Napa Franklin Station was built in 1933 with funding from the federal Public Works Administration. After considerable public outcry, the USPS decided to try selling the building to a buyer who could repair the structure and preserve its architectural integrity. However, those plans have not progressed. Unfortunately we lost a year on the project with the pandemic, but hospitality is back stronger than ever, said Keller. I hope to have something to report on the development and restoration of the post office very soon. You can reach reporter Jennifer Huffman at 256-2218 or jhuffman@napanews.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Pacific, Gas & Electric will build a regional service center in American Canyon's industrial area as home base for its local maintenance, installation and emergency response operations. The center will be located at 500 Boone Drive in the Napa Logistics Park. It is to include three buildings totaling 98,800 square feet and 210 parking spaces for employees, visitors and fleet storage on 24.5 acres. PG&E presently uses services centers in the city of Napa and Vallejo to tend to its local electric and gas systems. Boris Letuchy of the utility said the intent is to combine the centers in a central location. 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! He described the project as a very large and very strategic initiative. Details emerged at the Sept. 30 American Canyon City Council meeting. Commissioners approved a design permit for the service center. A regional service center might conjure up visions of an unsightly, sprawling maintenance yard. PG&E officials said that won't be the case. We will make sure this project is of the greatest excellence that your city deserves, utility spokesperson Mark van Gorder told commissioners. The operations building nearest to the street is to have earth tone colors, bay windows, a stone veneer and glass-fronted lobby. The perimeter fence is to be, not chain link, but wrought iron. Site constraints pose challenges to meeting all of the citys landscaping requirements. The solution: PG&E will do a quarter-acres worth of landscaping at a totally different site three miles across town, at the substation it owns at Highway 29 and American Canyon Road. Its a better use of the landscaping if we can bring it to the middle of the city, city Associate Planner William He said. This substation is at one of American Canyons most visible locations. The metal circuits and equipment provide the incongruous backdrop for a tourist-orientated Highway 29 sign saying American Canyon, where your Napa Valley experience begins. Resident Chris James favored letting PG&E transfer some of its landscaping requirements from the regional service center to the substation. Im excited about that. It is a bit of an eyesore in the city, James said. But Commissioner Eric Altman said hes heard promises before from PG&E to enhance the landscaping at the substation. As far as hes concerned, these promises havent been fulfilled and now theres another approach. I admit, Im a skeptic, he said. PG&E had no final plans for the landscaping at the substation. The commission decides it wants to see the plans before the city issues the first building permit for the regional service center. Altman also had concerns about the regional service center. PG&E officials talked about plans to produce enough renewable energy onsite to power the operations building. They would accomplish this by mounting photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on the canopy of the employee parking area. If this isnt enough PV, well put some more PV on the roof of the building in order to help us achieve that, project architect Richard Price said. Or the utility will mount mini-wind turbines on the buildings parapet, he said. Altman wanted more. All three buildings could have solar panels. The fleet parking area could be covered and have panels, he said. Portions of the site with exposed concrete could have panels. He didnt accept PG&Es contention that it makes more financial sense in the short-term to use renewable energy generated elsewhere, such as out-of-state, for some of the center's power needs. Isnt this supposed to be an energy-efficient showcase project for PG&E, to show how theyre moving in a new direction, to be more energy-efficient and conscious and so on? Altman said. This is not a showcase. This is a very good regional operations center, where we operate from to serve our customers, Letuchy responded. In the end, the commission decided to focus on the operations building. It made PG&Es net-zero power use goal for this particular building a requirement. On Tuesday, PG&E spokesperson Deanna Contreras said the American Canyon regional service center should open in late 2022. Employees from the existing Napa and Vallejo service centers will be transferred there, with no job losses expected. The utility is working with its employees and unions on the transition. The Napa service center is located at 300 Burnell St. next to Napa Valley Expo and includes a substation. PG&E officials didn't say what might happen to the property when the consolidated American Canyon center opens. You can reach Barry Eberling at 256-2253 or beberling@napanews.com. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Fortunately, wines present themselves in a variety of styles and colors to match a broad range of simple to exotic cuisine. Whether were enjoying a white, red or rose, they all flow from black and white grapes with diverse characteristics and handled individually within the winery. However, its not so simple when referring to grapes as black or white because sub-groups appear for both. Although considered white grapes, Pinot Grigio (aka Pinot Gris), Sauvignon Gris (often blended with Sauvignon Blanc), Grenache Gris (a relatively obscure mutant of Grenache), Gewurztraminer and others can range in color from pink to a light bluish-gray. The conventional wisdom that all black grapes have clear juice is contradicted by Teinturier grapes (from the French for dye) such as Alicante Bouschet, Sousao (from Portugal) and a handful of others where anthocyanins normally found only in the skin of black grapes concentrate in the pulp creating red juice. These grapes may appear as varietal bottlings but are most often used in blending to impart additional color and tannin to the finished wine. So when we hear, Will it be white, red or rose? the choice may not be as simple as it sounds. Red wines range from the delicacy of Beaujolais to the intense depth of Barolo and whites also can be found in a similar spectrum from elusive dry German Rieslings to the weight and breadth of a rich full-bodied California Chardonnay. The same is true of rose as we appreciate the pale hue from Provence to the deeper colors found in Bandol. Winemaking is too often considered a simple process of growing and harvesting grapes, transporting them to the winery and then on to bottling. It may seem a simple straightforward procedure. But each step is complex involving multiple decisions and best practices. Each conclusion is based on whats been learned over the history of wine during the last 7,000 years along with the experience and expertise of the individual winemaker. For the most part, white wines begin in the press where the juice is separated from the skins and fermented on its own with either native or inoculated yeasts. Lately, the practice of keeping the skins in contact with the juice has been adopted for the production of the newly created category of orange wines (a far deeper color) and is also a favorite of the emerging natural wine phenomenon. Red wines are fermented on their skins to extract color, aromatics, flavors and tannins. As fermentation begins, alcohol and CO2 are produced while the skins and seeds form a deep rigid cap. The cap then floats to the top of the tank, thanks to the lifting pressure of CO2. The winemaker then decides to either pump the juice over the resulting cap or to periodically submerge it (referred to as punch down) into the juice. Both methods work well for the necessary component extraction and its the winemaker who makes the final decision on which is preferred. When fermentation is complete, the free run juice (aka wine) is then drawn off and the cap goes to the press for further extraction. The pressed wine is far more concentrated and may be discarded, sold off or added in part to the blend if deemed desirable. The depth of color we find in red wines is often based on the thickness of the skin. Varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Syrah (aka Shiraz) and Petite Sirah produce deeper hues while thinner skinned varieties such as Pinot Noir, Gamay and Zinfandel typically show on the lighter more transparent side. But, through blending and/or extended skin contact before fermentation (cold-soaking) or after (extended maceration) the color will deepen. Zinfandel is often blended with Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet and others to enhance its color and add dimension. Theres an old story that in ancient years, Pinot Noirs in Burgundy were so light they were secretly blended with Algerian Syrah to deepen the hue and add body to the wine. While this may or may not be the case, a small addition of Syrah is occasionally used for the same reasons with some Pinots today. Dry roses (as opposed to sweeter blush wines such as White Zinfandel) are more complicated and a variety of methodologies are employed to reach the desired stylistic expression. The traditional method is widely practiced in both the New and Old Worlds. It is based on the early harvesting of black grapes to maintain acidity and hold down the sugar levels, thus yielding lively lower-alcohol wines meant for early enjoyment and adding brightness to the meal. In this traditional method, black grapes are first pressed as with a white wine but are left for a sufficient time on the skins (depending on the winemakers stylistic choice) to absorb the desired level of color. The pink juice is then separated from the skins and fermentation begins. Another traditional method practiced in Champagne and elsewhere to produce sparkling wine is the Methode Champenoise referred to as Methode Traditionnelle when used outside of Champagne. Here the red and white wines are fermented and aged separately, then blended just prior to bottling for the secondary fermentation. The saignee (bleeding in French) method, involves making rose as a by-product of red wine. Here the winemaker elects to drain off (or bleed) a portion of the pink juice in the early stages of fermentation to concentrate the final wine. In the past the bled wine was discarded as unusable. However, with the gaining popularity of dry rose in the last 20 or so years, some producers have elected to separately ferment the saignee juice to create a rose. Roses made in this style are contrary to the traditional method carrying essentially the same higher alcohol of the original red being produced and are typically bolder on the palate. We know that black grapes are primarily used in the production of red wines and occasionally for roses but in some rare cases, they are also used for whites. Sparkling wines may carry Blanc de Noirs on the label that loosely translates to white wine from black grapes. Here the black grapes are pressed and the juice is immediately removed from the skins so no color is imparted. In Champagne, for example, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are handled this way and often blended with Chardonnay to create the finished wine in a variety of styles or used on their own for a Blanc de Noirs. When only white grapes (overwhelmingly Chardonnay) are included the title of Blanc de Blanc may appear. Color is an important attribute in wine and gives us a visual sense of whats in the glass. It forms our first impression when either critically assessing a wines quality or just enjoying a glass for the fun of it. And most importantly, a wines color gives us our initial clue of the pleasures to come. Share your experiences with other readers by commenting on this article with an e-mail to me at allenbalik@savorlifethroughwine.com. Allen Balik, a Napa resident, has been a wine collector, consultant, author, fundraiser and enthusiast for more than 35 years. In 2017, as the LNU Fire closed in on St. Supery Estate Vineyards and Winery's Dollarhide Ranch in the northeastern hills of the Napa Valley, neighbors showed up with bulldozers, shovels and tractors to help build firebreaks and stop the advancing flames. 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! "We lost 98% of our crop but they halted the fire's progression," said St. Supery's CEO Emma Swain. This got her thinking about people "around the word who just show up to help." On Oct. 2, she hosted a lunch to introduce the fruits of this thinking: a new photo show celebrating "Everyday Heroes." Through March 2022, the upstairs gallery at the winery will be filled with larger-than-life photos of people who quietly make a difference in in Napa County. It's part of the ongoing #InJoy project Swain initiated in 2016, which she hopes will "inspire people to give back and spread joy." The #InJoyEverydayHero Art Exhibit, curated by Virgie Giles Foundation founders Topher Delaney and Calvin Chin, includes 25 large-scale black-and-white photographs by eight professional visual artists and photojournalists of volunteers working throughout the valley on issues like food security, mental health, animal rescue and youth mentorship. Stroll the gallery and you'll meet people like Susan Davis from the St. Helena Community Food Pantry, Michael Caldarola from UpValley Centers of of Napa County, Jim Gladfelter from If Given a Chance, and Carol Poole from the Napa Wildlife Rescue. There's also: Joe Martinez from Collabria Hospice, Richard Seiferheld from the Landtrust of Napa County, Caroline Templeton, Collabria Care; Chuck McMinn, Napa Valley Vine Trail; Kimberly Gomez, Direct Action for Farmworkers, Nadja Havenhill, Alameda County Fire, Lupe Hernandez, Child Start, Inc.; Rick Jones, Napa Valley Education Foundation, Joanna Letz, Bluma Flower Farms, Rosanna Mairena, Cope Family Center Ken Frank, from La Toque restaurant which has been donating hot lunches for the homeless Jeanna Coursey, from NEWS, Domestic Vioence & Sexual Abuse Services Margarita Contreras, ParentsCAN Maria Cisneros, 10,000 Degrees Yasmine Amparo, Girls on the Run, Napa and Solano Christopher Barefoot, Mentis Deassa Binstock, Ripple Effect Animal Project Calvin Chin from the Virgie Giles Foundation. Three group photos show the teams from Ole Health, Eakle Construction and Trucking and Community Resources for Children's Toy Library. Each person was nominated by their organization and each has a story to tell. As part of our #InJoy celebration, we are recognizing those individuals whose actions and commitment to community bring joy to others, Swain said. There are amazing volunteers everywhere who just keep giving, and this year we will highlight their ongoing acts of kindness. Taking the photographs were Keith Blodgett; Nancy Blum; Harvey Castro; Mimi Chakarova,; Topher Delaney; Claudia Escobar; Rebecca Letz, Photojournalist and Sally Seymour. St. Supery has done its own share of giving as well with its support of ongoing projects like Auction Napa Valley and the Napa Valley Foundation. But in 2020, Michael Scholz, the vice president of winemaking and viticulture, said they had been harvesting for two days, when lightning ignited the fires. They went ahead and made "a very small amount of Sauvignon Blanc" from the grapes that had been harvested before the fire, and then donated $5 from every bottle they sold to the Napa Community Disaster Relief Fund in honor of those, like David Eakle, who, unasked, helped save Dollarhide Ranch. To me, thats what volunteering is all about, Swain said. You came and you helped. Whether youre there for your neighbors or you volunteer for an organization, thats the one of the greatest gifts you can give. The gallery is open free of charge to view the Everyday Heroes exhibition, although if you want to taste wine while you're there, reservations are required (stsupery.com). During your visit, you might also want to take in three other photo exhibits all studies of the nature of Northern California. "Coastal Access: Sightings from the Edge" by Keith Blodgett is a study in black and white of the edge of the Pacific and surrounding communities. "Napa Wild Life" by John Comisky, an award-winning wildlife photographer and president of Napa Wildlife rescue comprises breathtaking color photographs of Northern California wildlife. "The Fruits of Dollarhide Ranch," by Sally Seymour, a great fan of trees of Napa and beyond, focuses on fruit harvested from the Dollarhide Ranch. You are also invited to nominate your own hero to be featured on social media platforms at stsupery.com/everydayheroes/. St. Supery also hosts #Injoy Sharing & Caring Virtual Tastings on the first two Thursdays in November and December at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to meet some of the featured everyday heroes and hear their stories. As an extra bonus around for closing culinary tips for the holidays from St. Supery Executive Chef Tod Kawachi will share culinary tips for the holidays. Indeed, Kawachi was applauded as a hero himself for the lunch he served to those who had gathered to for the opening of "Everyday Heroes." Sasha Paulsen is features editor at the Napa Valley Register. Email her at spaulsen@napanews.com. Pop the cork on Napa Valley wine! Discover the hidden stories of Napa Valley wine and the people behind it -- plus expert analysis from our columnists and more with our weekly email newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Pikeville, KY (41501) Today Rain likely. High 56F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 31F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Armenia FM holds phone talks with Cypriot counterpart, presents situation created after Azerbaijani attack Mirzoyan, Zas discuss CSTO's possible actions to stabilize situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border, if necessary Mothers of deceased servicemen demand Armenia PM's resignation Azerbaijani Armed Forces open fire at tractor in Armenia's Verin Shorzha village Putin: Events unfolding on Armenia-Azerbaijan border attest to fact that situation has not calmed down in the region Lithuania supports Armenia's territorial integrity NEWS.am daily digest: 18.11.21 Ex-ruling party official: Incumbent authorities created deliberately organized chaos in Armenia Armenia Prosecutor General's Office to examine news about 6 Azeri servicemen captured and then secretly returned Dollar goes up in Armenia Armenia MOD planning training camps for reservists Sergey Lavrov, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office to discuss assistance to resolve situation in Karabakh High-tech industry minister receives Chinese recipient of Armenia State Prize for global contributions to IT sector Eurasian Intergovernmental Council's narrow-format session kicks off in Yerevan Pashinyan views Eurasian integration as one of Armenia's priorities Two Armenian citizens found in Afghanistan Armenian health ministry gets $ 2.5 million to fight COVID-19 OSCE Chairperson-in-Office has telephone conversation with Jeyhun Bayramov Deceased Armenian soldier Taron Sahakyan's brother refutes news that he was captured and tortured to death Armenia seeks to develop cooperation in food safety within EEU Armenia Ombudsman, UNICEF Representative discuss problems with right of children of borderline villages to education Armenia allocates AMD 462 mln for 4 subvention programs ahead of local self-government elections Major incidents not recorded in Armenia's border zones as of 2 p.m., operative situation is under army's control Armenia parliament approves several legislative amendments PMs discuss prospects for development of Armenia-Kyrgyzstan collaboration Turkish Nationalist Movement Party gifts Erdogan a map of Turkic World, with a part of Russia 'seized' Man, 49, found dead inside truck near Armenia village sand mine Armenia emergency ministry uses off-road vehicles to provide for needs of Syunik Province border villages, says minister There is investment activeness in Syunik Province, says Armenia economy minister Russia PM arrives in Yerevan Minister on Armenia economic growth: We are from optimistic realist to optimist Armenia President, Singapore deputy PM discuss avenues for expanding bilateral cooperation Ombudsman: Armenophobia, propaganda of enmity have reached extremist fascism in Azerbaijan (VIDEO) Russia peacekeepers carry out round-the-clock monitoring of ceasefire in Karabakh 1 more person dies of coronavirus in Artsakh Armenia premier: There is no Syunik Province settlement that is under blockade Office of Armenia commissioner for diaspora, SADA Global Delivery Center sign memorandum of cooperation Armenia government approves 2021-2026 action plan Armenia PM: Russia MOD made proposals on preparatory phase of border delimitation with Azerbaijan 1,019 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Senator calls for end to US military aid to Azerbaijan Armenia is elected to UNESCO Executive Board Whose body is brought from Baku to Yerevan by Russian Southern Military District deputy commander? Armenia MOD: Azerbaijan opened random fire at some directions of Tavush Province late Wednesday evening World oil prices still dropping Newspaper: Armenia has set task to change its foreign policy vector, Russia analysts say Newspaper: Coronavirus death statistics in Armenia are incomplete Armenian immigrant couple in California sentenced to prison for $20M fraud EEU countries PMs to arrive in Yerevan for intergovernmental council meeting Armenian army commander: Azerbaijan wants corridor, leader of Armenia gave consent to that, but refused later Armenia FM holds phone conversations with Russian counterpart, Karen Donfried and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office MTS launches inspection of its 'daughter' operations in Armenia upon request of U.S. Armenia MOD: Defense minister receives Rustam Muradov, who brought body of deceased Armenian soldier to Yerevan Taliban call on US Congress to ease sanctions and unfreeze Afghanistan's assets Armenia PM: The meaning of being captured and the circumstances of captivity need to be investigated Moscow, Ankara agree to not release details about joint manufacturing of S-400s OSCE Chairperson-in-Office welcomes ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan after Russian mediation Armenia Ombudsman discusses Armenian captives' issue with acting Head of ICRC Delegation Armenia PM refutes possibility of giving order 'to not open fire' when it comes to homeland defense Armenian PM tries to clarify situation regarding use of names "Eyvazli" and "Chayzami" IAEA Director General to visit Iran Armenia PM: Our goal is to sign a peace treaty Rustam Muradov brings body of one Armenian serviceman Reuters: UAE's high-ranking delegation to visit Tehran soon James Langevin: Azerbaijani government again unleashed a volley of unprovoked violence against Armenia Ambassador to the Holy See: Armenia calls on its international partners to condemn Azerbaijan's actions Armenia President provides Singapore PM with information about Azerbaijan's aggressive actions Armenia PM: Trilateral task force's work is not interrupted Armenia Police's Educational Complex has new head Jackie Speier: We're witnessing Aliyev's attempted land grab in real time Mass media: Rustam Muradov bringing bodies of Armenian soldiers to Yerevan Yerevan to host subsequent session of Eurasian Intergovernmental Council Earthquake hits Turkey Zakharova on possibility of enforcing Armenia-Russia Treaty, says consultations are being held NEWS.am 17.11.21 digest: Latest on Armenia-Azerbaijan border situation European People's Party issues statement on recent hostilities on Armenian-Azerbaijani border Opposition 'Armenia' Alliance MP: Resistance movement will help get rid of this catastrophe, namely authorities soon Armenia PM explains why he appointed new defense minister Opposition MPs remind Armenia PM about treason, get into dispute with ruling party deputies Armenian PM: There are territories of Soviet Azerbaijan that are under Armenia's control Armenia ruling party MP Andranik Kocharyan continues to talk about creation of professional army Armenia and Russia Security Councils' Secretaries discuss regional security issues Armenia Security Council Secretary: Azerbaijan fails to maintain ceasefire and isn't implementing reached agreements Cavusoglu blames Armenia 'for terrorist attack against Azerbaijan' Opposition 'Armenia' Alliance: Authorities' goal is to stay in power through ongoing concessions Armenia PM: Our proposals are in effect, including proposal for start of delimitation and demarcation Resident of Armenia's Shaki village panic when they hear the Azerbaijanis' gunshots Armenia ruling party MP: Enemy can't achieve any success in Syunik Province Armenia PM and ministers answering MPs' questions (LIVE) Ambassador: Armenia Security Council Secretary will probably have separate meeting with Nikolai Patrushev Armenia health minister: Kapan and Goris will have additional SUVs for paramedics Armen Sarkissian presents situation on Armenia's borders at Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore Armenia FM: International community reaction to Azerbaijans provocative, aggressive actions was not targeted, proper Armenia Prosecutor General receives Egypt Ambassador Council of Europe Secretary General concerned about tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan Armenian Assembly of America: Russian-brokered ceasefire is not enough Armenia Security Council secretary: Yerevan expects diplomatic, military assistance from Moscow Turkey and US hold talks on defense and security issues Peskov: Moscow calls for restraint to parties to conflict on Armenia-Azerbaijan border CSTO chief: There is still tension on line of contact between Armenian, Azerbaijani sides We agree with the Russian Federation that Iran should not be able to acquire a nuclear weapon. That is precisely why we and the Russians agree on this one issue that we should resume negotiations in Vienna as soon as possible. Ned Price, the spokesperson for the US Department of State, noted at Thursdays press briefing. According to Price, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, focusing on the reciprocal return of the Iran-US Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)i.e., the nuclear deal. The Russians similarly read out this call, made similar points. This is one of those issues where our interests do, in fact, overlap, Price added. He said the US was ready for a diplomatic solution to the issue, noting that Tehran had recently stated that Iran would return to talks soon. We hope their definition of soon matches our definition of soon, added the spokesperson for the US Department of State. We would like negotiations to resume in Vienna as soon as possible. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is calling on key committees in the U.S. Senate and House to exercise their Congressional oversight responsibilities over the U.S. State Department and related agencies through investigations into system-wide failures of U.S. policy on U.S.-Armenia bilateral and regional relations, ANCA reported. On Thursday, letters to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-NJ), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Greg Meeks (D-NY) and key Committee members, ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian called for the inquiry into multiple, fundamental, and repeated failures of U.S. bilateral relations with the Republic of Armenia and regional diplomacy prior to, during, and after Azerbaijans attack last September against the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), and its ongoing attacks and occupation of Armenia. The called-for investigation would review the conduct of the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development with regard to shortcomings in a broad array of areas outlined by Hamparian, including: Failures to adequately prevent violations of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act and other U.S. laws related to U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan. Failures to hold U.S. manufacturers, the Turkish government, and private sector stakeholders responsible for violations of U.S. laws related to the discovery of U.S. parts in Turkish drones deployed by Azerbaijan. Failures to confront Turkey or hold its leaders accountable for recruiting foreign terrorist fighters, including jihadists from Syria, to fight with Azerbaijani forces against Artsakh. Failures to confront Azerbaijan or to hold its leaders accountable for using cluster bombs, white phosphorous, and other prohibited munitions against Artsakh. Failures to confront Azerbaijan or to hold its leaders accountable for illegally holding, abusing, and even causing the deaths of Armenian Prisoners of War. Failures to confront Azerbaijan or to hold its leaders accountable for invading and occupying sovereign Armenian territory. Failures of the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group to adequately represent U.S. interests in a peaceful resolution of Artsakh-related status and security issues. Failures regarding U.S. government foreknowledge and/or fore-warning of Azerbaijans attack. Failures to provide anything approaching adequate levels of humanitarian assistance to the over 100,000 Armenians ethnically-cleansed from their indigenous Artsakh homeland. The ANCA Chairman called specific attention to the effects of these diplomatic failures on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the Artsakh crisis. Failings of U.S. engagement have only invited malign actors most notably Turkey to violently project power into the Caucasus in a way that undermines U.S. interests and runs counter to our American values, emphasized Hamparian. The full text of the ANCAs letter is available here. There is always a threat of war, but I dont think it is possible in the near future. This is what former Minister of Defense of Armenia, leader of the opposition Armenia faction of the National Assembly Seyran Ohanyan told reporters today. According to Ohanyan, there are certain threats in the region that mainly arise from the cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan, but the Armenian authorities havent conducted a proper analysis of those threats. I believe it is the format of this tandem that compelled Iran to hold military exercises, which are aimed at ensuring security within Irans borders. Nevertheless, it is necessary to have possess information in order to give a realistic evaluation and draw conclusions on the possible launch of combat operations, and the Security Council, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces possess this information. I believe there is always a threat of war, but I dont think it is realistic in the near future, Ohanyan added. The authorities of Azerbaijan need to release the Armenian prisoners of war immediately and without any precondition. This is stated in the resolution adopted by the regional parliament of the Basque Country on Friday. Member of Parliament Oihana Etxebarrieta Legrand declared that Azerbaijan isnt implementing the provision stated in the trilateral agreements and regarding the release of all Armenian prisoners of war detained during and after the conflict, adding that the Azerbaijani side needs to maintain the ceasefire and renounce attempts to invade Armenian territory. The MP also stated that the conflict requires a global solution and that, in this stage, it is necessary to condemn the Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh. We express our full support to Armenia with regard to social and territorial rights, she said. In addition, the Parliament of the Basque Country affirms the position of the European Parliament which stated that the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh is a key issue that needs to be solved through political discussions, based on no use of force, the territorial integrity of states, equal rights and the right of peoples to self-determination. Armenias Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan today had a meeting with Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See to Armenia Jose Avelino Bettencourt. As reported the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the interlocutors touched upon the relations between Armenia and the Holy See that are hinged on historical ties and common Christian values and highlighted the importance of the establishment of a resident Apostolic Nunciature in Armenia, noting that it will contribute to further deepening of the interstate relations and centuries-old cooperation between Armenia and the Vatican. During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on the humanitarian issues that emerged as a result of the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression. In this context, Mirzoyan stressed the need for the speedy repatriation of the Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages detained in Azerbaijan, as well as the urgency of preservation of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories that are currently under the control of Azerbaijan. The Armenian foreign minister added that Armenia praises the messages that Pope Francis delivered during and after the 44-day war [in Nagorno-Karabakh], as well as the calls of Pope Francis for the immediate release of prisoners of war. Yerevan and Baku are synchronously working to destroy Armenian statehood. This is what deputy of the With Honor faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Anna Mkrtchyan told reporters today. She stated that Aliyev talks about the need to make amendments to the Constitution of Armenia, and discussions on this issue are held after a while. The Armenian authorities are downsizing the army, and Aliyev says Armenia has no right to keep an army. The With Honor faction says shift of power is necessary so that negotiations are led with the adversary and so that Baku will no longer be able to exert pressure on the Armenian side. The authorities are doing everything they can to make sure the word Artsakh is not uttered in parliament, and this is why they led the oppositions initiative to set up a committee on Artsakh to failure. The ideas of maintenance of Armenias territorial integrity are currently utopian. The authorities dont deny the fact that they are traitors and have already starting making threats, and they are also threatening the opposition. Law-enforcement authorities are apprehending and detaining people under Pashinyans instructions and are imprisoning those whom Pashinyan wants to isolate. However, I am certain that such methods wont intimidate the opposition, Mkrtchyan added. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Armen Ghevondyan, who is in Minsk for the purpose of holding consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Belarus, was received by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Vladimir Makey today. The main issues related to cooperation between Armenia and Belarus were discussed and the need for using the potential for interstate cooperation were highlighted during the meeting. During the consultations, the Armenian deputy foreign minister and the Belarusian foreign minister substantively considered the course of development and perspectives of the Armenian-Belarusian cooperation in the bilateral format, as well as in the formats of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States and other multilateral formats. They attached importance to the role of intergovernmental commissions and interparliamentary committees and, during a discussion on the issues on the global and regional agendas, they stated the modernity of further development of cooperation, taking into consideration the main provisions of the Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation signed on May 26, 2001 between Armenia and Belarus. After the consultations, within the scope of the joint efforts for expansion of the legal-contractual field, the parties signed the Protocol for Making a Supplement to the Intergovernmental Agreement on Reciprocal Visits of Citizens without Patents, as well as the Intergovernmental Agreement on Readmission. Now it is very important for us to be able to turn this page over, and I believe we will be able to do it. This is what Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan said in an interview with RBC, responding to the question whether Armenian society has come to its senses after the war. Its very hard for Armenians to come to their senses when they receive news about prisoners of war every day and when relatives wait for their sons, brothers and husbands. Its very hard for Armenians to come to their senses when Turkey and Azerbaijan hold military exercises at a distance of a few kilometers every month. This is a situation which simply doesnt allow us to forget what happened, Simonyan stated. Simonyan also recalled that the Armenians are a nation that survived genocide and noted that the Armenians won the war in the 1990s. We Armenians have achieved victories and suffered defeats, but now it is important for us to be able to turn this page over, and I believe we will be able to do it. I see that Armenia is on the right track. We understand that it is necessary to build peace in our region and leave peaceful coexistence as heritage for our generations. There will be small steps, but we will move towards the establishment of peace since there are no winners in wars. I dont think the boys who died in Armenia and Azerbaijanthis situation can be referred to as victorious since we cant bring the boys back, and its hard to explain this to the families. Armenia hasnt supported a military solution in the past as well. We have always said that it is necessary to find a solution peacefully, within the scope of the OSCE Minsk Group. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Stephane Visconti of France, Andrew Schofer of the United States of America, and Igor Khovaev of the Russian Federation) released the following statement today: The Co-Chairs held consultations with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Vice President Gilles Carbonnier in Geneva 7 and 8 October. The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office (PRCiO) Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meetings. All participants stressed the importance of full, unimpeded access by international humanitarian organizations to carry out their work. In light of the recent constructive meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the margins of the UN General Assembly, the Co-Chairs welcomed Azerbaijans release of one Armenian serviceman and also discussed possible de-escalatory and humanitarian measures, including with regard to detainees, missing persons, and the voluntary return of all displaced persons. The Co-Chairs emphasized their intention to continue working with the parties to find areas of agreement. The Co-Chairs have taken positive note of President Aliyevs and Prime Minister Pashinyans public statements expressing their readiness in principle to meet with each other under the auspices of the Co-Chairs. The Co-Chairs look forward to engaging the sides on modalities and details of such a meeting and reiterate their willingness to visit the region in the near future to discuss next steps in the process. Story Highlights 66% of Japanese adults say it's a bad time to find a job 47% say their local economies are getting worse 63% lack confidence in their national government WASHINGTON, D.C. -- If Japan's new Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, hopes to win over voters ahead of elections at the end of the month, he will need to convince them that he can heal his country's pandemic-battered economy. Before Kishida took office on Monday, 66% of Japanese adults said it was a bad time to find a job where they lived, and nearly half (47%) said economic conditions were getting worse in their local area. Line graph. Japanese adults' perceptions that it is a good or bad time to find a job where they live. Currently, 66% of the Japanese public say it is a bad time to find a job, while 18% report it is a good time. This is compared with 46% who said it was a good time to find a job and 33% who indicated it was a bad time in 2019. These latest data come from Gallup's World Poll survey conducted in mid-June through mid-August, as Japan continued to struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan had already been contending with slow economic growth for years before the pandemic and suffered some of worst declines during it. The pessimism that Japanese adults currently feel about their job market reflects that situation and is a drastic departure from the cautious optimism they expressed in the years immediately preceding the pandemic. In 2019, nearly half (46%) of Japanese adults said it was a good time to find a job where they lived, while 33% said it was a bad time. The Japanese public's views on their local job markets darkened during the pandemic, with 14% saying it was a good time to find a job and 74% reporting it was a bad time in 2020. The current 18% who now say it is a good time to find a job and the 66% indicating it is a bad time is only a modest improvement and well below levels of most of the past decade. Japanese pessimism on local job markets reflects that in 2020, the country's economy had the lowest ratio of available jobs to applicants in nearly 50 years. Japanese Adults Cynical About the Direction of Their Local Economy Although their outlook on the economy has improved somewhat since 2020, when the majority saw it getting worse, Japanese adults are still not positive about where it is headed. Nearly half of Japanese adults (47%) in 2021 say economic conditions in their local areas are getting worse, while 29% say they are getting better. This remains down from 2019, when 37% Japanese adults said their local economies were improving, and 34% reported their local economies were getting worse. Line graph. Japanese adults' perceptions of the trajectories of their local economies. Currently, 47% of the Japanese adults say their local economies are getting worse, while 29% report they are getting better. This is compared with 34% who said they were getting worse and 37% who indicated they were getting better in 2019. Most Japanese Adults Lack Confidence in Their National Government In addition to the economic woes facing the country, Kishida also faces a crisis of confidence in the country's government. Before he took office, 29% of Japanese adults said they had confidence in their government, while 63% said they did not. Current levels of confidence in the government are at their lowest levels since 2012. Line graph. The percentage of Japanese adults who have confidence in their country's national government. Currently, 63% lack confidence, while 29% have confidence. This is compared with 41% who said they had confidence and 50% who did not in 2019. Confidence in the Japanese national government had held steady during the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, 42% of the Japanese public said they had confidence in the national government, and 51% reported they did not, compared with 41% who had confidence in the government and 50% who did not before the pandemic in 2019. Confidence in the country's government may have been dinged, at least in part, by a perceived slow rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in the country. Bottom Line Kishida comes to office facing serious challenges to the country's economy, which are compounded by people's lack of confidence in the Japanese government. These would be daunting issues for any leader and are only made more pressing by parliamentary elections, set for Oct. 31. This gives Kishida little time to make progress on these daunting issues, particularly as the pandemic continues around the globe. Japanese politics has long been described as a struggle between the various factions of Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The party has been the predominant force in governing Japan since the end of the Second World War, having been the ruling party in Japan for 90% of the time since its inception in 1955. The LDP has only been out of power between 1993-1994 and 2009-2012. However, given the country's economic woes, low confidence in the government and the short time to turn things around before the election, political change may be on the horizon for Japan. To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on Twitter. For complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup's Country Data Set details. Learn more about how the Gallup World Poll works. Choosing the right graduate program can be a tedious and challenging process. Just ask University of Miami alumnus Jesse Kornbluth. Torn between choosing a graduate program at UM or New York University, Kornbluth, who is currently based in Washington, D.C., decided to continue his academic career in the Sunshine State. Truth be told, I decided to attend the University of Miami because I was looking for a vibrant, diverse, international campus environment and an individualized course of study and felt that UM offered the best experience for me, says Kornbluth, who earned a B.A. in sociocultural anthropology with a focus in global health from Boston University and graduated from UM in 2016 with a Master of Arts in International Administration (MAIA) degree from the College of Arts and Sciences. Before enrolling in the MAIA program, Kornbluth, an experiential learner, decided to visit the Coral Gables campus to explore the program in person, a decision he says helped him solidify his choice in picking the right graduate program. While visiting campus, I was able to meet faculty, administrators, and students as well as attend courses offered in the MAIA program, recalls Kornbluth. From day one, everyone at the U was welcoming and responsive to my questions about the program and the University. They treated me like a member of the family. Kornbluths career path lies in international relations, social impact, public policy, and global health initiatives. Before attending UM, he worked for a variety of small but impactful international non-profits in health care, primary education, and refugee resettlement, as well as in private sector strategic communications. When considering graduate programs and mapping out long-term career goals, Kornbluth was looking to hone his leadership and cross-cultural communication skills, and he says the MAIA program was the perfect fit to achieve these goals. MAIA provided me with me a practical, comprehensive educational experience, says Kornbluth. When I started, I had a broad set of interests in the realm of international affairs and was unsure where that would lead after my degree. The faculty and coursework helped me identify areas of interest and pursue my studies accordingly. During and after graduate school, Kornbluth discovered that he did not necessarily have to choose one path, but rather, he has been able to employ a dynamic, international skillset to make an impact in any organization he joins. Kornbluth says that he especially enjoyed the international business and management courses in the MAIA program, which came as a surprise to him. Some of my favorite courses were taught by Dr. Bradford McGuinn, Ambassador-in-Residence Paul Trivelli, Dr. Joseph Ganitsky, and Dr. Dina Moulioukova, all of whom provided valuable mentorship in addition to their deep scholarship, he adds. While in the MAIA program, Kornbluth also worked full-time running international programs for Global Medical Training (GMT). He was responsible for the operation of rural health clinics in Latin America and India with local physicians and student volunteers from North American pre-medical and medical university programs. During breaks between semesters at UM, Kornbluth led the launch of new GMT operations in India and Peru. On the weekends, he bartended in South Beach. I had the quintessential Miami academic experience, recalls Kornbluth. While in school and working remotely for GMT, I was able to take what I learned in the classroom and apply it directly to my work with GMT, and vice versa, he adds. During his time at the Brookings Institution, Kornbluth served in a variety of roles, most recently as a development manager in the Foreign Policy program. At Brookings, he worked on projects and international collaborative initiatives aimed to create more effective American foreign policy with the goal of fostering a more open, democratic, and equitable international order. Outside of work and study, Kornbluth has kept himself busy doing what he loves the most, traveling and photography. Several of his photographs were featured in a Vice News documentary on the 2020 racial justice protests in Washington, DC. Currently, he sits on the board of the Sundara Fund, a women-led, nonprofit organization that provides mentorship and financial support to female social-impact entrepreneurs who live in low- to middle-income countries. He has also guest lectured for Dr. Moulioukovas international relations courses and regularly participates in panel discussions with other UM alumni, offering career and academic advice to undergraduate and graduate students. Kornbluth enjoys the collaborative campus environment and has always enjoyed mentoring younger colleagues and students. Whether near or far, I will always remain an active member of the University of Miamis global community. Eventually, I would love to come back to the U to lead international programs and teach. I would not be where I am today without my classmates, professors, and mentors at the U, says Kornbluth. What were Cubans on the island protesting on July 11, 2021? Was the image of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro romanticized by Latin Americans? What is the meaning of community? These were some of the themes discussed in the University of Miami panel discussion Stories from Cuba that was held virtually on Wednesday evening. The event was part of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs Brave Spaces series, which provides continuous virtual spaces for student support, dialogue, and community building. Sponsored by the student organization Federacion de Estudiantes Cubanos (FEC), panelists included Michael Bustamante, associate professor of history and Emilio Bacardi Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban American Studies; Stefanie M. Rodriguez, community relations and events assistant for the University of Miami Otto G. Richter Library; and Sidney Stropes, president of FEC. The following are highlights from each of the panelists. Bustamante: Cuba is often referred to as a place frozen in time. You get references to old cars, ruins, etc. . . .You get a concept of a place that is seen by outsiders as a historical theme park, a place stuck in the past. Cuba is really a place of 11 million people, and these are people who have as diverse opinions about their ever-evolving reality and the countrys reality as you would expect in any place. The protests were the results of a confluence of factors. Cuba is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in 30 years. The reasons are multiple: mismanagement of the Cuban economy, changes in international policy, and the flip-flops in what U.S. policy toward Cuba has been from the Obama administration to the Trump administration. Sanctions imposed by the U.S. have intensified. This summer, the COVID-19 Delta variant had devastating effects. The Cuban health system was under stress, and there were no beds in hospitals. And there were pent up political grievances. In the protests, you see people shouting everything from, we want medicine, to we want food, to we want freedom. It stands to reason, that in the midst of an economic crisis, it would compel people to evaluate what they think about the government. Stropes: Stropes may not be the most Cuban sounding name. I was born in Australia, and we were the only Cubans in the entire island. I moved around a lot as I was growing up. In my entire time growing up, I never met another Cuban student in a classroom. That was isolating because l knew I had a story and the story I heard in history class was not the same as I heard at home from my relatives. There was a huge disconnect there. Coming to UM was a great opportunity to reconnect with my Cuban roots. There is something very special about connecting with people who understand where you are coming from. Having spaces like this and the FEC office and being with people that you dont have to explain yourself to is truly special. When the protests took place in Cuba, I saw a lot of raw emotions from our students and there was a need to get together and have these conversations. As Cuban Americans, we have the responsibility to educate our classmatessome have no idea where Cuba is. We are in a unique spot where we can make sure that people on our campus get to know that Cuba is more than fancy cars, dominoes, and rum. Rodriguez: I straddle two worlds: my immediate past job was working with the Cuban Heritage Collection (of the UM Libraries) and that is where my scholarly intellect comes from in regard to Cuba. I grew up in Miami and my family came from Cuba in the Freedom Flights. I have the community aspect and then the scholarly perspective of working in an archive where I learned a lot of history that I frankly did not know. Thinking of these protests in Cuba, you have to straddle your familys perspective with those you have from historywhat you learn from academics and historical records versus what you get from conversations with your family. Conversations with your family are very emotional. The ways the diaspora reacted was similar to how my family reacted. It is easy to react with that trauma response because you have family there. But this protest was different in a myriad of ways. Following remarks from the panelists, there was additional discussion that included the attendees of the Brave Spaces event. And many shared their experiences as Cubans in Miami. Hernandez fires France into Nations League final Frances Theo Hernandez, left, scores his sides third goal during the Uefa Nations League semifinal match against Belgium in Turin. France won 3-2. Photo: AP Theo Hernandez shot France into a Nations League final with Spain on Thursday with a last-gasp strike which earned Les Bleus a thrilling 3-2 win from two goals down against Belgium. AC Milan full-back Hernandez netted his first France goal in the 90th minute of his second international appearance after France had come back from 2-0 down at half-time at the Allianz Stadium in Turin through strikes from Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappe. Didier Deschamps' side will face La Roja in Sunday's final at the San Siro in Milan after an exciting encounter which Belgium thought they had won in the final minutes when Romelu Lukaku netted from Yannick Carrasco's cross. However with the Red Devils players still celebrating, Lukaku's first-time finish was ruled out for offside. And with the match looking like it was heading to extra-time, Hernandez collected the ball on the left before rifling home the winner. He had started the match alongside his brother Lucas Hernandez, making the pair the first two brothers to play for France since Herve and Patrick Revelli featured in a friendly against Romania in 1974. "Winning that match from where we were proves the strength of character of this team," Deschamps told TF1 after the match. "Nobody thought it possible at half-time, and I understand that looking at the score, but they were here to not leave anything on the pitch and to play in the final." The match had been fairly even for most of the opening period, although Hugo Lloris had to be at his best to stop Kevin De Bruyne's close range finish in the fourth minute. Three minutes later Benjamin Pavard should have done better when he met Mbappe's cross from the left with a volley that he sent straight at Thibaut Courtois. Mbappe, who became the youngest ever player to earn 50 caps for France, also fired too close to Courtois midway through the first half. Belgium's opening goal came eight minutes before the break, Carrasco cutting inside Pavard and then drilling a low shot between Lloris and his near post. And three minutes later Lukaku, who flopped in the same stadium last week in a Chelsea shirt, doubled Belgium's lead with his sixth goal in six games for his country. The 28-year-old did brilliantly to spin Lucas Hernandez while collecting De Bruyne's pass down the right flank before charging into the box and slamming home a high shot that again beat Lloris at his near post. Left with a tough task to make the final France came out firing after the restart, and Mbappe was the key to drawing them level. First he burned Carrasco in the 58th minute before sending in a low cross that Antoine Griezmann couldn't turn in. Then, four minutes later, he tricked his way past Youri Tielemans and passed to Benzema, who flashed home despite being surrounded by Belgium defenders. He then crashed home the spot-kick which set up an exciting finish after Tielemans' clumsy foul on Griezmann was spotted following a VAR check. De Bruyne and Paul Pogba then both had shots well saved before frantic finale saw Lukaku score what he thought was the decisive goal and Pogba smash a free-kick against the bar. Hernandez then snatched a win which highlighted all the qualities which made the French world champions. (AFP) Investigational evobrutinib is the first Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor to complete Phase III clinical trial enrolment in relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) Data from oral presentations at ECTRIMS show evobrutinib has a positive impact on important biomarkers of disease progression New independent data also presented found that patients treated with MAVENCLAD (cladribine tablets) had increased antibody IgG titer levels similar to that of the general population after a complete course of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine Not intended for UK and U.S. based media DARMSTADT, Germany -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced enrolment has been completed in the Phase III EVOLUTION RMS clinical trial programme, which is evaluating the efficacy and safety of investigational Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor evobrutinib in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS). This milestone comes just ahead of the 37th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS), taking place virtually from 13-15 October 2021, where 39 abstracts from the Companys multiple sclerosis (MS) portfolio will be presented. Data will include two oral presentations and a late-breaking ePoster on evobrutinib as well as late-breaking ePosters on MAVENCLAD (cladribine tablets), including new interim data on patient-reported improvements in quality of life (QoL) and new independent data on MAVENCLAD patients who have received a complete course of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The breadth of our data at ECTRIMS, paired with the rapid enrolment in our evobrutinib Phase III EVOLUTION RMS clinical trial programme, further exemplifies a commitment to continue breaking boundaries in the science of MS, said Danny Bar-Zohar, Global Head of Development for the Healthcare business of Merck. By generating new data on MAVENCLAD to demonstrate the positive real-life impact it can have for people with RMS, and also on progressing evobrutinib with its dual mode of action targeting both B-cells and innate immune cells in the central nervous system and periphery, we are hoping to address the needs of people with RMS now and in the future. Key MAVENCLAD (cladribine tablets) data include: Updated post-approval safety of MAVENCLAD demonstrating consistency of real-world experience with the profile reported in the Phase III and ongoing Phase IV trials, and providing evidence that patients receiving MAVENCLAD do not appear at increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes In an independent open label study, patients treated with MAVENCLAD were found to increase antibody immunoglobulin G (IgG) titer levels similar to healthy controls after a complete course of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine A new interim analysis from the Phase IV CLARIFY-MS study demonstrating that patients living with RMS reported an improvement in physical and mental health at one year of MAVENCLAD treatment Real-world MAVENCLAD data from the MSBase Registry demonstrating adherence to MAVENCLAD and an annualised relapse rate similar to clinical trial data Late-breaking data including: Long-term Efficacy for Patients Receiving Cladribine Tablets in CLARITY/CLARITY Extension: Primary Results from 915 Years of Follow-up in the CLASSIC-MS Study Cladribine tablets after treatment with natalizumab (CLADRINA) trial Interim analyses Key evobrutinib data include: Data from a post-hoc analysis in the Phase II trial with evobrutinib demonstrated a reduction in volume of slowly expanding lesions (SELs), an in-vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) correlate of chronic active inflammation and axonal loss within the central nervous system (CNS), which may be predictive of subsequent clinical disease progression in MS Results from the same trial showed that increased levels of blood neurofilament light chain (NfL), a marker of neuronal damage, at baseline were predictive of increased relapse and MRI lesion activity in the study and evobrutinib significantly reduced MRI and relapse outcomes Safety profile characterisation of evobrutinib in over 1000 patients from Phase II clinical trials in MS, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus demonstrating that overall evobrutinib treatment (all doses) was generally well tolerated across indications and elevations in liver enzymes were asymptomatic and reversible Additional Company activities at ECTRIMS 2021: Satellite symposium: Supporting patient needs in MS every step of the way co-chaired by Prof. Gavin Giovannoni, Chair of Neurology, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and Prof. Barbara Kornek, Department of Neurology at the University of Vienna (13 October 2021, 15:0016:00 CEST) Medical education symposium MS innovation in practice: the continuing search for novel therapeutic targets co-chaired by Prof. Patrick Vermersch, Vice President for research in biology and health at the University of Lille, and Dr. Xavier Montalban, Chairman & Director Neurology-Neuroimmunology Department & Neurorehabilitation Unit, Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia (Cemcat), Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain (13 October 2021, 17:45-18:45 CEST). Medical and healthcare journalists interested in attending can register at merckneurology.com/newsroom To keep up-to-date with our activities at ECTRIMS, along with future data and information, visit merckneurology.com/newsroom or follow us on Twitter @MerckHealthcare and LinkedIn: Healthcare Business of Merck #ECTRIMS2021 #MSInsideOut Below is the full list of Merck-related abstracts accepted for presentation at ECTRIMS 2021: Oral Presentations: Abstract Name Authors Presentation ID Presentation Details Effects of evobrutinib, a Brutons tyrosine kinase inhibitor, on slowly expanding lesions: an emerging imaging marker of chronic tissue loss in multiple sclerosis D.L. Arnold, C. Elliott, X. Montalban, E. Martin, Y. Hyvert, D. Tomic 115 Session: Free Communications 2 - Treatment trials - Immunomodulation Date: 14 October 2021 Time: 16:57-17:04 CEST Presenter: Douglas L. Arnold Evobrutinib significantly reduces relapses and magnetic resonance imaging outcomes in patients with multiple sclerosis: association with baseline neurofilament light chain levels J. Kuhle, L. Kappos, X. Montalban, Y. Li, K. Thangavelu, Y. Hyvert, D. Tomic 116 Session: Free Communications 2 - Treatment trials - Immunomodulation Date: 14 October 2021 Time: 17:04-17:11 CEST Presenter: Jens Kuhle Single cell analysis of cerebrospinal fluid leukocytes in treated multiple sclerosis patients M. Heming, I. Lu, N. Schwab, D. Schafflick, C.C. Gross, H. Wiendl, G.M. zu Horste 134 Session: Free Communication 3: Pathology Date: 15 October 2021 Time: 12:33-12:40 CEST Presenter: Gerd Meyer zu Horste Activated Tfh1 cells infiltrate the cerebrospinal fluid in early multiple sclerosis J.Morille, M. Mandon, S.Rodriguez, A.Garcia, S.Wiertlewski, L.Berthelot, K.Tarte, C.Delaloy, P.Ame, D-A.Laplaud, L.Michel 025 Session: Scientific Session 2: Blood-Brain Barrier Date: 15 October 2021 Time: 14:04-14:11 CEST Presenter: Marion Mandon MAVENCLAD (cladribine tablets) ePoster Presentations: Long-term Efficacy for Patients Receiving Cladribine Tablets in CLARITY/CLARITY Extension: Primary Results from 915 Years of Follow-up in the CLASSIC-MS Study G. Giovannoni, T. Leist, A. Aydemir, E. Verdun Di Cantogno, on behalf of the CLASSIC-MS Steering Committee P975 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Gavin Giovannoni Cladribine Tablets after treatment with natalizumab (CLADRINA) trial Interim analyses P. Sguigna, A. Okai, J. Kaplan, K. Blackburn, L. Tardo, B. Hayward, U. Boschert, L. Lebson, N. Manouchehri, R. Hussain, O. Stuve P987 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Peter Sguigna Improvements in QoL at 1 Year in Patients Treated With Cladribine Tablets for Highly Active Relapsing MS: An Interim Analysis of CLARIFY-MS A. Solari, X. Montalban, J. Lechner-Scott, F. Piehl, B. Brochet, D. Langdon, R. Hupperts, K. Selmaj, E.K. Havrdova, F. Patti, Brieva L, Maida EM, N. Alexandri, P. Kamudoni, A. Nolting, B. Keller P238 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Alessandra Solari Post-Approval Safety of Cladribine Tablets With Particular Reference to COVID-19 Outcomes: An Update G. Giovannoni, J. Berger, T. Leist, D. Jack, A. Galazka, A. Nolting, D. Damian P766 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Gavin Giovannoni High Adherence to Treatment With Cladribine Tablets for Multiple Sclerosis: Value-Added Benefit of a Nurse/Pharmacy-led Patient Support Programme During the COVID-19 Pandemic J. Oh, M.S. Freedman, K. Vernon, M. Ayer, C. Lemieux, K. Morgan, T. Quinn, T. Vella, A. Allignol, M. Stein, E. Verdun di Cantogno, M. Sabido P741 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Jiwon Oh Incidence of Infections and Severe Lymphopenia in Patients Newly Initiating Cladribine Tablets or Fingolimod for Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis: CLARION Study J. Hillert, H. Butzkueven, M. Soilu-Hanninen, T. Ziemssen, J. Kuhle, J.R. Berger, A. Aydemir, J. Sonajalg, I. Bezemer, M. Sabido P767 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Jan Hillert Disease-Modifying Treatment Patterns of Patients With Multiple Sclerosis and Newly Treated With Cladribine Tablets or Fingolimod: An Interim Analysis of the CLARION Study H. Butzkueven, J. Hillert, J. Sonajalg, M. Soilu-Hanninen, A. Aydemir, T. Ziemssen, J. Kuhle, M. Magyari, S. Wergeland, I. Bezemer, M. Sabido P742 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Helmut Butzkueven Risk of Cancer with Disease-Modifying Drugs in Multiple Sclerosis: A New-User Cohort Design in the French Nationwide Claims Database P. Bosco-Levy, M. Sabido, E. Guiard, P. Diez, C. Foch, C. Favary, J. Jove, E. Boutmy, P. Blin P756 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Meritxell Sabido A Multi-Country Cohort Database Study to Assess Pregnancy and Infant Outcomes in Women Exposed to Cladribine Tablets: CLEAR Study K. Hellwig, M. Magyari, T. McDonald, K. Gembert, S. Wergeland, M.k. Leinonen, A. Aydemir, M. Sabido, A. Kawai, A. Arana P185 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Kerstin Hellwig MASTER-2 trial: Cladribine tablets in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and active secondary multiple sclerosis after suboptimal response to prior infusion/oral disease-modifying therapy (interim baseline results) E.J. Fox, A.D. Bass, J. Aldridge, L.A. Lebson, D. Robertson P851 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Edward Fox Evaluation of therapy satisfaction with cladribine tablets in RMS patients Final results of the non-interventional study CLEVER C. Grothe, L. Cepek, G. Reifschneider, T. Ziemssen, J. Richter, T. Wagner P859 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Joachim Richter Finnish cladribine tablets registry study 2 year data S. Atula, E. Jarvinen, H. Kuusisto, I. Rauma, M. Ryytty, J. Sipila, M. Soilu-Hanninen, M. Viitala P691 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Ilkka Rauma Outcomes after late Cladribine re-dosing in the Australian MSBase cohort H. Butzkueven, T. Spelman, S. Hodgkinson, A. Van der Walt, K. Buzzard, O. Skibina, T. Kalincik, J. Lechner-Scott, R. Macdonell, E. Verdun di Cantogno P865 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Helmut Butzkueven Real-world experience with cladribine in the MSBase Registry H. Butzkueven, T. Spelman, MSBase Investigators (TBC), E. Verdun di Cantogno P825 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Helmut Butzkueven Molecular biomarker signature associated with cladribine treatment N. Fissolo, L. Calvo-Barreiro, H. Eixarch, U. Boschert, C. Espejo, X. Montalban, M. Comabella P584 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Nicolas Fissolo Effect of cladribine on differentiation of human neural precursor cells H. Eixarch, L. Calvo-Barreiro, N. Fissolo, U. Boschert, M. Comabella, X. Montalban, C. Espejo P899 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Herena Eixarch Economic Analysis for Introduction of Cladribine Tablets as a Treatment for Relapsing-Remitting and High Disease Activity Multiple Sclerosis in Kuwait R. Alroughani, M.A. Al-Melh, S. Farouk, A. Abokoura, E. Alsultan, A Boshra, R. Alcharif, R. Ojeil, S. Basu, A. Verma P280 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Raed Alroughani Effect of cladribine on COVID-19 serology responses following 2 doses of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine in patients with multiple sclerosis A. Vaknin-Dembinsky P780 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Ariel Rechtman Effect of cladribine tablets in highly active MS monitored by global and regional brain atrophy status A. Raji, G. Winkler P709 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Alaleh Raji Clinical Effectiveness and Safety of Cladribine Tablets for Patients Treated at least 12 Months in the Swedish post-market surveillance study "Immunomodulation and Multiple Sclerosis Epidemiology 10" (IMSE-10) V. Rosengren, E. Ekstrom, L. Forsberg, S. Kagstrom, J. Hillert, P. Nilsson, C. Dahle, A. Svenningsson, J. Lycke, A-M. Landtblom, J. Burman, C. Martin, P. Sundstrom, M. Gunnarsson, F. Piehl, T. Olsson P743 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Victoria Rosengren Real-world patient profile of cladribine tablets in multiple sclerosis patients from Argentina Rojas JI, Alonso R, Luetic G, Pappolla A, Miguez J, Patrucco L, Cohen L, Garcea O, Casas M, Silva B, Deri N, Liwacki S, Silva E, Piedrabuena R et al. P853 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Juan Ignacio Rojas Seroconversion following vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in people with MS: impact of disease modifying therapy N. Vickaryous, A.N. Asardag, J. Bestwick, S.N. Shah, K. George, K. Schmierer, G. Giovannoni, D. Baker, A. Kang, R. Dobson P950 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Nikki Vickaryous Rebif (interferon beta-1a) subcutaneous injection ePoster Presentations: Development and Interrelation of Whole-Brain Atrophy and Lesion Volume During 5 Years Treatment With Subcutaneous Interferon Beta-1a in Patients With a First Clinical Demyelinating Event in the REFLEX/ION Study R.M. Mattiesing, G. Gentile, I. Brouwer, D. Jack, A. Seitzinger, F. Barkhof, N. De Stefano, B.M.J. Uitdehaag, J.W.R. Twisk, M. Battaglini, H. Vrenken P430 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Rozemarijn Mattiesing Development and Interrelation of Spatiotemporal Patterns of Brain Atrophy and Lesions During 5 Years Treatment With Subcutaneous Interferon Beta-1a in Patients With a First Clinical Demyelinating Event in the REFLEX/ION Study G. Gentile, R.M. Mattiesing, I. Brouwer, D. Jack, A. Seitzinger, F. Barkhof, N. De Stefano, B.M.J. Uitdehaag, H. Vrenken, M. Battaglini P458 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Giordano Gentile Exploratory Analysis of Serum GDF-15 Levels in Patients Receiving Subcutaneous Interferon Beta-1a in the REFLEX Trial M. Coray, A. Seitzinger, S. Roy, M.S. Freedman, F. Barkhof, G. Comi, N. De Stefano, L. Kappos, J. Kuhle, M. Mehling P674 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Mali Coray INFORM Interferon-Beta Exposure in the 2nd and 3rd Trimester of Pregnancy a Register-Based Drug Utilisation Study in Finland and Sweden M. Sabido, K. Suzart-Woischnik, N. Grimes, L.M. Prach, L. Zhao, K.M. Hakkarainen P794 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Meritxell Sabido Evobrutinib ePoster Presentations: Safety profile characterization of evobrutinib in over 1000 patients from phase II clinical trials in multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus X. Montalban, D. Wallace, M.C. Genovese, D. Tomic, D. Parsons-Rich, C. Le Bolay, A. Kao, H. Guehring P727 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Xavier Montalban The role of human and mouse BTK in myeloid cells C. Bassani, M. Molinari, V. Martinelli, R. Grenningloh, U. Boschert, G. Comi, G. Martino, L. Muzio, C. Farina P656 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Cinthia Farina Targeting BTK in chronic CNS autoimmunity inhibits activation of microglia A. Geldaris, S. Torke, R. Grenningloh, U. Boschert, W. Bruck, M.S. Weber P971 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Anastasia Geladaris Non-Product Specific ePoster Presentations: DISCOntinuation of disease-modifying therapies in MS (DISCOMS) Extension Study Design and Baseline Demographics E. Engebretson, G. Cutter, R. Fox, I. Kister, A. Miller, C. Morgan, R. Seale, J.R. Corboy P751 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: John Corboy Genome-wide mapping of patients autoantibody targets to understand and predict Multiple Sclerosis pathogenesis and patient responses to Interferon -1a therapy E.B. DiCillo, E. Kountikov, M. Zhu, W. Zhang, B. Hayward, D.E. Harlow, S. Lanker, J.L. Bennet, T.F. Tedder P361 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Europe B DiCillo Towards a new resource for the MS brain: a cross-brain bank proteomic atlas of non-lesional neocortex P. Bouman, D. Pitt, D. Reich, J. Schneider, D. Bennett, R. Nagra, R. Reynolds, J. Geurts, J. Corboy, P. De Jager P317 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Philip De Jager Multiplexed imaging of the multiple sclerosis meninges using mass cytometry V. Ramaglia, M. Zuo, N. Fransen, S. Zandee, A. Prat, I. Huitinga, A. Bar-Or, J.L. Gommerman P319 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Valeria Ramaglia Interprofessional collaboration and patient-provider communication challenges in MS care: A mixed-methods needs assessment S. Peloquin, K. Schmierer, J. Oh, T. Leist, S. Murray, P. Lazur P903 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Sophie Peloquin Neuropsychological measures associated with disease severity in pediatric onset multiple sclerosis N. Gur, E. Ganelin Cohen, T. Pilowsky Peleg P990 Date: 13 October 2021 Time: 16:45-18:45 CEST Presenter: Noa Gur About MAVENCLAD MAVENCLAD is a short-course oral therapy that selectively and periodically targets lymphocytes thought to be integral to the pathological process of relapsing MS (RMS). In August 2017, the European Commission (EC) granted marketing authorization for MAVENCLAD for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS) in the 28 countries of the European Union (EU) in addition to Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. MAVENCLAD has since then been approved in over 80 countries, including Canada, Australia and the U.S. Refer to the respective prescribing information for further details. The clinical development programme for cladribine tablets includes: The CLARITY (Cladribine Tablets Treating MS Orally) study: a two-year Phase III placebo-controlled study designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of cladribine tablets as a monotherapy in patients with RRMS. The CLARITY extension study: a Phase III placebo-controlled study following on from the CLARITY study, which evaluated the safety and exploratory efficacy of cladribine tablets over two additional years beyond the two-year CLARITY study, according to the treatment assignment scheme for years 3 and 4. The ORACLE MS (Oral Cladribine in Early MS) study: a two-year Phase III placebo-controlled study designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of cladribine tablets as a monotherapy in patients at risk of developing MS (patients who have experienced a first clinical event suggestive of MS). The ONWARD (Oral Cladribine Added ON to Interferon beta-1a in Patients With Active Relapsing Disease) study: a Phase II placebo-controlled study designed primarily to evaluate the safety and tolerability of adding cladribine tablets treatment to patients with relapsing forms of MS, who have experienced breakthrough disease while on established interferon-beta therapy. PREMIERE (Prospective Observational Long-term Safety Registry of Multiple Sclerosis) study: a long-term observational follow-up safety registry of MS patients who participated in cladribine tablets clinical studies. In the two-year CLARITY study, the most commonly reported adverse event (AE) in patients treated with cladribine tablets was lymphopenia (26.7% with cladribine tablets and 1.8% for placebo). The incidence of infections was 48.3% with cladribine tablets and 42.5% with placebo, with 99.1% and 99.0% respectively rated mild-to-moderate by investigators. Adverse Events reported in other clinical studies were similar. About Rebif Rebif (interferon beta-1a) is a disease-modifying drug used to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) and is similar to the interferon beta protein produced by the human body. The efficacy of Rebif in chronic progressive MS has not been established. Interferon is thought to help reduce inflammation. The exact mechanism is unknown. Rebif, which was approved in Europe in 1998 and in the US in 2002, is registered in more than 90 countries worldwide. Rebif has been proven to delay the progression of disability, reduce the frequency of relapses and reduce MRI lesion activity and area*. Rebif can be administered with the RebiSmart electronic auto-injection device (not approved in the US), or with the RebiDose single-use disposable pen, or the manual multidose injection pen RebiSlide. Rebif can also be administered with the autoinjector Rebiject II or by manual injection using ready-to-use pre-filled syringes. These injection devices are not approved in all countries. In January 2012, the European commission approved the extension of the indication of Rebif in early multiple sclerosis. The extension of the indication of Rebif has not been submitted in the United States. Rebif should be used with caution in patients with a history of depression, liver disease, thyroid abnormalities and seizures. Most commonly reported side effects are flu-like symptoms, injection site disorders, elevation of liver enzymes and blood cell abnormalities. Patients, especially those with depression, seizure disorders, or liver problems, should discuss treatment with Rebif with their doctors. *The exact correlation between MRI findings and the current or future clinical status of patients, including disability progression, is unknown. Rebif (interferon beta-1a) is approved in the United States for relapsing forms of MS. About Evobrutinib Evobrutinib (M2951) is in clinical development to investigate its potential as a treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS). It is an oral, highly selective inhibitor of Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK) which is important in the development and functioning of various immune cells including B lymphocytes and macrophages. Evobrutinib is designed to inhibit primary B cell responses such as proliferation and antibody and cytokine release, without directly affecting T cells. Evobrutinib is currently under clinical investigation and not approved for any use anywhere in the world. About Multiple Sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory condition of the central nervous system and is the most common non-traumatic, disabling neurological disease in young adults. It is estimated that approximately 2.8 million people have MS worldwide. While symptoms can vary, the most common symptoms of MS include blurred vision, numbness or tingling in the limbs and problems with strength and coordination. The relapsing forms of MS are the most common. Merck in Neurology and Immunology Merck has a long-standing legacy in neurology and immunology, with significant R&D and commercial experience in multiple sclerosis (MS). The company`s current MS portfolio includes two products for the treatment of relapsing MS Rebif (interferon beta-1a) and MAVENCLAD (cladribine tablets). Merck aims to improve the lives of patients by addressing areas of unmet medical needs. In addition to Merck`s commitment to MS, the company also has a pipeline focusing on discovering new therapies that have the potential in other neuroinflammatory and immune-mediated diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). All Merck Press Releases are distributed by email at the same time they become available on the Merck Website. Please go to www.merckgroup.com/subscribe to register online, change your selection or discontinue this service. About Merck Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and electronics. Around 58,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of peoples lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene-editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices the company is everywhere. In 2020, Merck generated sales of 17.5 billion in 66 countries. Scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to Mercks technological and scientific advances. This is how Merck has thrived since its founding in 1668. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science and EMD Electronics. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211004005317/en/ CONTACT: Tone Brauti Fritzen tone-brauti.fritzen@merckgroup.com +49 151 1454 2694 Chicago Tribune The Kyle Rittenhouse jury on Thursday began its third day of deliberations something that seems almost inconceivable to the social media pontificators who made up their minds about the case more than a year ago. For many legal experts, however, Kenosha County jurors are working right on schedule. I dont think the length of time says anything about what the jurors are thinking, veteran ... By Allison Lampert MONTREAL (Reuters) - Commercial aviation's key players are backing a target of net zero emissions by 2050, but high costs and opposition from China remain obstacles toward reaching a global climate goal at a United Nations aviation meeting next fall. Major plane and engine makers joined airlines gathering in Boston earlier this week to commit https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/airlines-accelerate-climate-pledge-industry-talks-2021-10-04 to the goal, as aviation faces mounting pressure to reduce emissions from flights. But state-controlled Chinese airlines objected at the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) meeting, saying developing countries should not be held to the same standards as developed nations, reflecting longstanding divisions that some see as a dress rehearsal for the 2022 gathering in Montreal. The same divide seen at IATA could make it difficult for countries to come together behind a common goal for aviation. Airlines want members of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to support a global long-term goal that would influence governments to take action to achieve the target, like funding the production of sustainable aviation fuel. The ICAO "faces an enormous challenge and its credibility is really on the line," said Annie Petsonk, the U.S. Transportation Department's principal deputy assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs. IATA's 2050 plan requires large amounts of sustainable aviation fuel, but supply is not widely available and it is more expensive to produce than conventional jet fuel. "If ICAO is able to identify and agree on a clear long-term aspirational goal, that will make an enormous difference in pointing the direction ... toward meeting that goal," Petsonk told a recent forum. ICAO cannot impose rules on governments but holds clout among its 193 member countries. Aviation was excluded from the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord, where countries agreed to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and preferably to 1.5 degrees. To do that, scientists say the world needs to cut emissions to net zero by 2050. Story continues IATA's new commitment brings the industry into alignment with the 1.5-degree target for the first time, airline industry officials said. Environmentalists say this is not enough. The association's net-zero goal comes weeks ahead of a follow-up U.N. COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. For aviation, talks will come to a head at ICAO's assembly, where the West wants a long-term goal supported by China, expected to be the biggest aviation market by the end of this decade. ICAO's governing council is weighing the impact of a long-term goal on growth and on costs to aviation, especially for developing countries. "We need a fair goal," Angie Elyazzy, ICAO's council member from Egypt, told a recent industry forum. "The goal shouldn't be one-sized-fits-all," she said, adding is should follow the notion of developed countries shouldering more responsibility since they produced more emissions in the past. State carrier China Eastern also called at IATA this week for recognition of the challenges faced by developing countries - one of the most divisive issues in past climate negotiations. "I think we're going to see the same debate play out at ICAO during the next assembly," said Dan Rutherford, aviation director at the International Council on Clean Transportation, an environmental research group based in Washington. More than 130 countries have set or are considering a target of reducing emissions to net zero by 2050, the United Nations says. China instead aims to be "carbon neutral" by 2060, but scientists have said the target won't go far enough to curb more severe impacts of climate change. "Its going to be challenging to get an agreement at ICAO next year," said one aviation official involved in the talks. Disputes "are not necessarily always technical, but political," the official said. Rutherford said follow-up actions by the Chinese carriers at IATA could bode well for ICAO's assembly, since their objections did not derail the outcome of the airlines' meeting. "The fact they (Chinese carriers) chose not to obstruct is important." (Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Peter Henderson) BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An Argentine judge on Thursday dismissed the case against former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner over an alleged cover-up of Iran's possible role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. The case made international news in 2015 when the prosecutor leading the case against then-President Kirchner was found dead in his apartment, leading to speculation that he had been murdered. The judge on Thursday ruled that the allegations against Fernandez and other administration officials "do not constitute a crime", according to news reports in local media. The judicial case looked into the Fernandez administration's attempt to sign a memorandum with Iran to investigate who was responsible for the car bombing. In his indictment in 2015, Nisman said that in signing the memorandum, Fernandez was trying to clear former Iranian officials, who were wanted internationally, in exchange for commercial benefits. The judge dismissed the case because it had not been proven that there was a coverup regarding the memorandum, or that benefits had been exchanged. Fernandez served as President of Argentina between 2007 and 2015, and now serves as Vice President. The judge's decision can be appealed. (Reporting by Nicolas Misculin. Editing by Gerry Doyle) They're calling it "Buckxit": The proposal by the affluent Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead an epicenter of urban luxury to break off into a municipality known as Buckhead City. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free. Why it matters: The petition, now before the Georgia legislature, raises squirm-inducing issues of class, race and crime. Buckhead City, with 90,000 residents, would carve off a fifth of Atlanta's population and be about three-quarters white. (Atlanta itself is currently 51% Black.) The secession "would strike at the power of Atlantas Black political class," per Bloomberg Businessweek. "Today, a mostly Black cast of elected officials is in charge of the largest city in the South, which has one of the highest concentrations of Fortune 500 company headquarters in the nation." Where it stands: While there are many "political hurdles" to jump (as Bloomberg Businessweek put it), the measure will probably be put to a vote next year, and the city could be established by June 2023. Proponents cite rising crime as a big motive: We are living in a war zone in Buckhead, Bill White, CEO of the Buckhead City Committee, told Bloomberg Businessweek. "Shootings and killings, it just never ends. Opponents of "Buckxit" say the proposed municipality comes with a host of complexities about operating city services and schools, as Thomas Wheatley writes in one of our newest local newsletters, Axios Atlanta. Questions include whether Buckhead City would be on the hook for things like bond debt and pensions, and how these might affect Atlanta in the future. Losing the affluent swath of north Atlanta neighborhoods would cost City Hall as much as $116 million and Atlanta Public Schools $232 million in recurring tax revenue, according to a study by KB Advisory Group and paid for by the Buckhead Coalition, the north Atlanta business group opposed to cityhood. What they're saying: White, the Buckxit leader, tells Axios the new city intends to honor its fair share of Atlanta's debt and pension obligations. And it would pay for police and most city services but would opt to contract water service and schools. Story continues What's next: White says that on Jan. 1, cityhood boosters will give the legislature an as-of-now-unreleased start-up budget. Read the Axios Altanta story Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free. The Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office has released the name and age of a third person whose dismembered body was found last month inside a dumpster in Fort Worth. Jason Thornburg slashed Maricruz Mathis throat and cut up her body and the bodies of two other people, drove the pieces in containers to a dumpster and ignited a fire, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Mathis was 33. Slain with her was Lauren Phillips, 34, and David Lueras, 42. Their bodies were found on Sept. 22. The medical examiners office did not release the cities in which Mathis and Phillips lived. Thornburg, 41, is charged with capital murder of multiple persons in the deaths. Over the course of several days in September, Thornburg killed Lueras, Mathis and Phillips at a motel where he had been living in Euless, according to Fort Worth police. Wearing a full hazmat body suit, Thornburg loaded containers into his Jeep Grand Cherokee, drove to Fort Worth, put the dismembered parts in a dumpster in the 3100 block of Bonnie Drive and set it on fire, police said. He was arrested on Sept. 27 after police connected him to the crimes through surveillance video recorded near the dumpster and the motel. Thornburg said he sacrificed Lueras, Phillips and Mathis when they came to his Euless motel room separately, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. Thornburg told police that after he killed Lueras and Mathis by cutting their throats, Phillips arrived at his motel room. He tried to stab her, but he ultimately strangled her, he told police, according to the warrant. Thornburg also confessed to killing a roommate, Mark Jewell, 61, and setting their west Fort Worth house on fire in May, police wrote in the warrant. He also told police he killed his girlfriend, Tanya Begay, in Arizona. Begay, 36, was last seen in New Mexico in 2017, and her body has not been found. Thornburg told police he felt biblically called to sacrifice the victims, a detective wrote in the warrant affidavit. We expect a lot from our winter boots. (Getty Images) Yahoo Life's editors are committed to independently selecting wonderful products at great prices for you. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Boots are a winter wardrobe staple that'll be worn day in, day out, so we expect a lot from a pair before we'll invest. Comfort is key, but it's not only our feet that need warming we also want to bask in the glow of knowing that our boots are sustainably made. We've scoured the internet for brands which are taking steps to be more sustainable, by reducing the negative environmental impact from the production of their shoes. Scroll down for our picks of the best sustainable boots for women and men this winter. (Lots of these brands carry both men's and women's sizes, so do click through to explore their whole collections too). 5 sustainable boots for women Best lace up chunky boots Grenson Nanette G-Two Vegan | 325 at Grenson Also available: ASOS, Trouva Holly Willoughby is a fan of this heritage British brand's chunky lace up Nanette boots and we're pleased to report that the lace-up style can also be bought in a vegan-friendly leather alternative. The upper is made from microfibre, which can be recycled, plus it is breathable, antibacterial, washable and (importantly) lightweight. Grenson's shoes are designed to be easily repairable, so you can expect them to last you a fair few years. Best walking boots The Weekend Boot | 154 Alice & Whittle The Weekend Boot (Alice & Whittle) Not only are these sturdy walking boots vegan-friendly, they're also 98% virgin plastic free. The nylon upper is made from repurposed marine plastic, while the sole is made with natural rubber (45% of which is recycled). Comfortable and water-resistant, one happy shopper commented in a review that she's "never taking them off". "These boots are some of the best boots ive ever owned," she continued. "They are so comfortable, made impeccably, and look really good. Really happy to own them." Story continues Best Chelsea boots These Chelsea boots strike just the right balance between sleek and tough, with a statement chunky rubber sole. Designed as part of Net-A-Porter's curated Net Sustain collection, they are made from supple leather produced in Leather Working Group medaled tanneries - which means the tanneries are audited yearly to access whether they meet standards of good environmental practice. Best heeled boots Medusa B Black Block Heel Knee High Vegan Boots | 295 at Beyond Skin Medusa B Black Block Heel Knee High Vegan Boots (Beyond Skin) These classic evening boots, with a thick 9cm block heel and curved toe, are handmade in Spain from vegan faux suede. The lining is made from 100% recycled faux leather and they earn extra Brownie points as the packaging is also completely recyclable. Best high-tops V-15 CWL White Rouille Butter Sole | 130 from Veja Both Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton are fans of French brand Veja's low top styles, but for the winter we recommend switching to a pair of these high tops, which are made from a vegan alternative to leather: organic cotton coated with resin from corn and castor oil. Veja has also been praised as a brand for its transparency, use of organic materials and fair trade sourcing. 5 sustainable boots for men Best high tops Neven High Hemp Brown | 260 from Yatay Lots of vegan shoes are made from plastic - but not these high tops. Yatay's shoes are handmade in Italy using eco-friendly products (bio-polyols, polymers extracted from cereals and corn, wood, rubber, and recycled plastic). This style is also available in an array of pleasingly bright colours - but sizes are limited on these. Best Chelsea boots Timberland Stormbucks Waterproof Leather Chelsea Boots, Brown | 140 from John Lewis & Partners Timberland Stormbucks Waterproof Leather Chelsea Boots, Brown (Timberland) Smart enough for the office but also waterproof and hardwearing, these boots will be your staples all winter. They are are made with nubuck Better Leather from a sustainable tannery rated Silver by the Leather Working Group for its water, energy and waste management practices. Plus, the lining is made with at least 50% recycled plastic bottles and the rubber soles are partly-recycled. Best brogue boots Grenson Fred G-2 Vegan | 325 at Grenson Fred G-2 Vegan (Grenson) Grenson aims to be the opposite of throwaway fashion, with boots designed to last a lifetime and with the option to have them repaired should they need a bit of TLC. Featuring oversized brogue punching, big eyelets and a chunky sole, these boots are completely-free of any animal products. The upper is made from microfibre that mimics cowhide, while the insoles are a hard-wearing, absorbent board that is made from paper and can be recycled. Best wool boots "Wool boots? In winter?" We hear you ask. But we promise you these aren't going to end up like soggy socks after a downpour. Oh no, the ethically-sourced wool upper is treated with a fluorine-free water repellent coating. Every inch of these shoes has been designed with sustainability in mind, even the laces are made from a recycled plastic bottle, and if that's not enough green credentials for you, these shoes are also carbon neutral thanks to Allbirds' sustainable practices, (using natural materials and buying offsets). Best walking boots Scot III Eco Men's | 145 at Vivobarefoot Made from from 100% leather-free, vegan, recycled materials, these durable water-resistant walking boots feature wide, thin and flexible soles, designed to promote your foot's natural movement. These boots were not only made for walking, (if you'll pardon the pun) but were also designed to be remade and reworn. When you are finished with them visit revivo.com to find out how to keep them out of landfill. Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images Biden asked the Education Department six months ago to review his authority to cancel student debt. On Friday, 14 Democrats demanded the results of that review be released by October 22. Biden's administration has been quiet on broad cancellation but enacted targeted loan forgiveness. A group of House Democrats has given President Joe Biden's Education Department a deadline. They want to know by October 22 if the department has determined the legality of Biden canceling at least $50,000 in student debt per borrower. Six months ago, Biden asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to prepare a memo on this legal authority. Friday's letter from 14 Democrats led by Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, called on Cardona to make the memo public by October 22. They wrote that with the pandemic pause on student-loan payments lifting in February, borrowers were "anxiously awaiting the administration's actions." "The time has come to release the memo and cancel student debt," they wrote in the letter obtained by Politico. "Doing so will benefit every citizen and support our communities," they added. "With a single signature, you can improve the economy, create new jobs, transform the lives of 45 million Americans, narrow the racial wealth gap, and maintain the trust of voters." The Democrats also noted the student-loan companies that are ending their services this year, which requires over 16 million borrowers to be transferred to new servicers. They wrote that restarting payments during those transfers, while remaining "silent" on debt cancellation, "will result in unnecessary confusion and harm." This letter came after White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked during a Monday press briefing where the memos on student-debt cancellation stood. She did not have any update and said Biden would support legislation brought to him from Congress to cancel student debt. Story continues But Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leader in the push to broadly cancel student debt, previously said that she didn't want to go the legislative route. "We have a lot on our plate, including moving to infrastructure and all kinds of other things," she said, adding: "The president can do this, and I very much hope that he will." In February, Psaki said Biden would ask the Justice Department to review his authority to use executive action to cancel student debt, but it's unclear when the department began that review. But White House chief of staff Ron Klain told Politico in April that Biden had also asked Cardona to create a memo on the president's legal authority to forgive $50,000 in student loans per person. He said Biden "hasn't made a decision on that either way, and, in fact, he hasn't yet gotten the memos that he needs to start to focus on that decision." Psaki on Monday did not give a reason for what might be holding up those memos. Biden has canceled student debt for targeted groups of people, but Democrats remain persistent that broad student-debt cancellation is vital to address the $1.7 trillion student-debt crisis falling on the shoulders of 45 million Americans. "Even during times of economic normalcy, student debt is a policy failure," the Democrats wrote. "Turning student-debt payments back on in the middle of a pandemic is an act of policy failure. Canceling student debt is both the morally right and economically sound thing to do." Read the original article on Business Insider On Oct. 7, 2021, the Interior Department announced that President Biden was restoring protection for three U.S. national monuments that the Trump administration sought to shrink drastically: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts in the Atlantic Ocean. President Trumps 2017 orders downsizing these monuments, originally created by previous administrations, ignited debate over whether such action was legal. Here are five articles from our archives that examine this controversy. 1. A law rooted in presidential power Presidents can designate lands as national monuments quickly, without seeking consent from Congress, under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Congress passed the law to protect historically valuable archaeological sites in the Southwest that were being looted. But as the late John Freemuth, a public policy scholar at Boise State University, observed, presidents soon were using it much more expansively and affected interests pushed back: Use of the Antiquities Act has fueled tensions between the federal government and states over land control and not just in the Southwest region that the law was originally intended to protect. Communities have opposed creating new monuments for fear of losing revenues from livestock grazing, energy development, or other activities, although such uses have been allowed to continue at many national monuments. Freemuth predicted in a 2016 article that future designations will succeed only if federal agencies consult widely in advance with local communities and politicians to confirm that support exists. Read more: How the Antiquities Act has expanded the national park system and fueled struggles over land protection 2. Can presidents alter monuments their predecessors created? Many environmental advocacy groups and tribes opposed President Trumps order to remove large swaths of land from these three monuments and sued to block it. The Antiquities Act is silent on this question. But when The Conversation asked environmental lawyers Nicholas Bryner, Eric Biber, Mark Squillace and Sean Hecht, they argued based on other environmental statutes and legal opinions that such acts would require congressional approval: Story continues Courts have always been deferential to presidents use of the law, and no court has ever struck down a monument based on its size or the types of objects it is designed to protect. Congress, rather than the president, has the authority to alter monuments, should it decide that changes are appropriate. Read more: President Trump's national monument rollback is illegal and likely to be reversed in court 3. Monuments have scenic, cultural and scientific value National monuments protect many unique resources. For example, Bears Ears conserves land where Indigenous people have lived, hunted and worshiped for centuries. The Bears Ears designation was requested by an intertribal coalition and approved by President Barack Obama after extensive consultation with tribal governments. Many national monuments contain scenic lands and areas that are critical habitat for endangered species, such as desert tortoises and California condors. The underwater canyons of Northeast Canyons and Seamounts house sponges, corals, squid, octopus, numerous fish species and endangered sperm whales. Monuments also can have important scientific value. President Bill Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante partly to protect thousands of unique fossil sites, most of which had yet to be studied. Many were located in areas near potential shale gas, coal or uranium extraction zones. Decades of ongoing research in this region have literally rewritten what scientists know about Mesozoic life, especially about the ecosystems that immediately preceded the final extinction of the dinosaurs, Indiana University earth scientist P. David Polly writes. Paleontologists like me know that the still-pristine Grand Staircase-Escalante region has divulged only a fragment of its paleontological story. Read more: Shrinking the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a disaster for paleontology Scientists sitting in the dirt brush soil away from fossilized bones. 4. How a Native American Interior Secretary sees it The stark difference between the Trump and Biden administrations public land policies can be summed up by comparing their respective interior secretaries. President Trump chose U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana to head the agency, which manages more than 480 million acres of public lands, including national monuments. Zinke, who supported opening public lands for oil and gas development and mining, led a review that proposed shrinking the three monuments Biden has just restored. President Bidens interior secretary, former U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico, is the first Native American to head the agency that maintains government-to-government relationships with and provides services to Native American Indian tribes and Alaska Native entities. For Native Americans, seeing people who look like us and are from where we come from in some of the highest elected and appointed offices in the U.S. demonstrates inclusion. Indian Country finally has a seat at the table, writes Arizona State University Indigenous studies scholar Traci Morris. Read more: 'Indian Country' is excited about the first Native American secretary of the interior and the promise she has for addressing issues of importance to all Americans 5. Monuments arent always beloved at first Some of the most popular U.S. national parks initially were protected as national monuments, then expanded and given national park status by Congress years later. They include Acadia in Maine, Joshua Tree in Southern California, and Arches in Utah. But a sites merit may not be obvious at first. As Arizona State Universitys Stephen Pyne writes, the first Europeans who explored the Grand Canyon in the 18th and 19th centuries thought it was unremarkable or worse; one called it altogether valueless. Then geologists working for the federal government traversed the canyon, and wrote rapturous accounts that recast it as a marvel a shift that Pyne calls an astonishing reversal of perception: The geologic mystery of the canyon is how the south-trending Colorado River made a sudden turn westward to carve its way, cross-grained, through four plateaus. This is also more or less what happened culturally. Intellectuals cut against existing aesthetics to make a place that looked nothing like pastorals or alpine mountains into a compelling spectacle. President Theodore Roosevelt agreed. After making multiple visits to the canyon, he designated it as a national monument in 1908. Read more: Grand Canyon National Park turns 100: How a place once called 'valueless' became grand Editors note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversations archives. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Read more: By Chris Kahn NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Bidens approval rating has increased somewhat over the past few weeks, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, as coronavirus infection rates slowed. The latest national public opinion poll, conducted Oct. 6-7, found that 48% of U.S. adults approved of Bidens performance in office, which is up by 4 percentage points from a similar poll that ran in mid-September. Meanwhile 47% disapproved of Biden in the latest survey, which is down 3 points from the September poll. The rise in Bidens approval has mirrored a recent drop in U.S. coronavirus cases. A Reuters tally shows there are a little more than 100,000 reported cases on average each day, which is 40% of the peak infection rate in January. The president's standing with the American public recently has been entwined with the state of the U.S. pandemic. Many voters supported Biden's presidential bid in 2020 because they thought he would be better than former President Donald Trump at pulling the country out of the health crisis. And since he was elected, Biden has routinely received higher levels of support for his response to the coronavirus than for other parts of his agenda. When the Delta variant drove up infection rates around the country this summer, Biden's approval numbers took a hit. The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English throughout the United States. The latest poll gathered responses from a total of 1,005 adults, including 414 Democrats and 365 Republicans. It has a credibility interval - a measure of precision - of 4 percentage points. (Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) At least 100 people were killed or wounded in an explosion at a mosque in northern Afghanistan, according to reports. The Friday explosion took place at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque in Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province. The deputy police chief for Kunduz province, Dost Mohammad Obaida, said that most of the victims died. AFGHANISTAN SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL ASKS LAWMAKERS TO 'HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE' FOR WAR The blast occurred during the mosques Friday prayer service, when members of the Shiite religious sect generally turn out in large numbers. ISIS took credit for the attack, according to the Associated Press. The attack will likely result in the most casualties in an attack since U.S. and NATO forces left Afghanistan at the end of August amid the Talibans takeover. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a large number of worshippers were injured or killed in the explosion. He noted that Taliban special forces would be investigating. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER The Taliban, now that theyre running the government, are being forced to grapple with threats from ISIS-K, the local Islamic State affiliate. Several ISIS-K insurgents were killed earlier this week when Taliban forces raided a hideout in Kabul, Afghanistan, after a previous bombing, this one outside the Eid Gah mosque, killed five people. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Afghanistan, ISIS, Bombing, Terrorism, National Security, Foreign Policy, Taliban Original Author: Mike Brest Original Location: Bombing at northern Afghanistan mosque kills, wounds dozens President Joe Bidens response to the arrival of Haitian migrants at the border has angered top lawmakers in both parties, who aired a cascade of condemnations just as top officials are descending on Mexico City for a major dialogue with the southern neighbor. We write to add our names to the groundswell of voices expressing outrage and disappointment over the cruel treatment of Haitians at our border, and their summary deportations, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, wrote in a letter co-signed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Texas Sen. John Cornyn and more than three dozen other Senate Republicans issued an equal and opposite rebuke. The Administrations response to the ongoing border crisis only makes it more likely that we will continue to experience surges like the one in Del Rio, they wrote. Menendez and his allies directed their criticism at Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The DHS chief received their missive and Cornyns letter on Thursday, but both sides publicized their protests on Friday, as Blinken, Mayorkas, and Attorney General Merrick Garland met with Mexican officials to coordinate migration policies and an array of other U.S.-Mexico issues. BLINKEN RETURNS FIRE: HAITI ENVOY BAILED ON A CHALLENGING JOB When they finally arrived at Del Rio, Texas, many Haitians, including family groups with children who had never even been to Haiti, were summarily expelled and deported without best interest determinations for children or screenings for international protection concerns, the Democratic lawmakers wrote. Their dueling rebukes center on the Biden administrations stated continuation of a policy employed by former President Donald Trumps team, which invoked a provision of public health law known as Title 42 to deport incoming migrants without giving them a chance to make the case for long-term residency in the U.S. This practice, which has been justified as a way to prevent an influx of migrants whose arrival might worsen the coronavirus pandemic, turned into a political grenade in recent weeks, as two senior U.S. officials resigned over the measure, while Republicans accuse Biden of failing to carry it out. Story continues We are concerned that DHS did not actually carry out this plan, deployed resources in a manner that weakened border security, and undermined the deterrent effect of any future statements that the Biden Administration will enforce our immigration laws at the border, Cornyn and the Senate Republicans wrote. Blinken has faced substantial internal pressure to scuttle the Title 42 plan. Two senior State Department officials, including the diplomat tapped by Blinken to lead the U.S. engagement with Haiti following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, resigned in protest of the deportations. State Department special envoy Daniel Foote described the deportation policy as inhumane in a scalding resignation letter. He was followed out the door by State Department legal adviser Harold Koh, who argued that the refusal to let incoming migrants make their case for residency in the United States violate[s] our legal obligation not to expel or return individuals who fear persecution, death, or torture, especially migrants fleeing from Haiti. Bidens policy plans have come under further pressure from a federal judge who ordered the administration to reinstate the "Remain in Mexico" agreement on the grounds that the Biden team had not followed the proper legal process for scrapping it. DHS intends to comply with the court order in good faith, as we said we are going to do, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday in a preview of the trip to Mexico City. And we continue to have an open and robust dialogue with Mexico on that matter. The Democratic lawmakers, a group of 16 that includes Senate Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy, urged Biden to appoint a successor to Foote and abandon the policy that he and Koh criticized. Yet Republicans insisted that Title 42 remains necessary on public health grounds and as a signal to human traffickers. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER It is vital that DHS preserve this important authority as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, Cornyn wrote. "And failing to follow through on a promise to expel or expeditiously remove migrants will only further convince them and the smuggling organizations that exploit them that the Biden Administration is not serious about enforcing our immigration laws at the southwest border. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Foreign Policy, National Security, Antony Blinken, Alejandro Mayorkas, Bob Menendez, John Cornyn, Senate Democrats, Senate GOP, Border Crisis Original Author: Joel Gehrke Original Location: Border crisis crossfire: Top senators slam Biden administration as officials head to Mexico BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil is in talks to buy up to 150 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for next year, according to a document sent by the Health Ministry to a Senate inquiry on Thursday. The document was shared with the inquiry, which is probing Brazil's handling of the pandemic, after senators requested information on plans for the country's vaccination campaign next year. The Health Ministry said it was negotiating the purchase of 100 million doses with Pfizer, with a possibility of acquiring another 50 million doses. On top of the Pfizer vaccine, Brazil will rely on the Astrazeneca shot which it produces in the country - currently with imported active ingredients. Brazil has the world's second highest COVID-19 death toll, behind only the United States. President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticized by health experts for his mismanagement of the outbreak, railing against lockdowns and regularly refusing to wear a mask in public. Despite a slow start, Brazil has ramped up a successful vaccination campaign. Over 70% of Brazilians have now received a first dose, compared to 65% in the United States. (Reporting by Ricardo Brito; writing by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Sandra Maler) BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony quit the race on Friday to be the Hungarian opposition's candidate in a national election next year, saying he would back conservative Peter Marki-Zay in a bid to unseat Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The move could weaken the chances of Klara Dobrev, the leftist Democratic Coalition's candidate, who last week won the first round of the primary vote that will select the leader of the united opposition for the election next spring. Karacsony came in second in the primary, ahead of Marki-Zay, mayor of the southern Hungarian city of Hodmezovasarhely. Dobrev won 34.8% of the votes, Karacsony had 27.3%, and Marki-Zay had just over 20% of votes. "I believe that Peter Marki-Zay can unite the opposition," Karacsony said, adding that Marki-Zay knew the problems of the countryside. Orban's ruling Fidesz party is traditionally strong in smaller towns and villages. In next year's parliamentary vote Orban will, for the first time since he came to power in 2010, face a united front of opposition parties that also includes the Socialists, the liberals and the formerly far-right - and now centre-right - Jobbik. Opinion polls put Orban's nationalist Fidesz party and the opposition coalition neck and neck, raising the prospect of the tightest election in more than a decade. The second round of the primary will take place between Oct. 10 and 16, the organizers announced on Sunday. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Toby Chopra) Oct. 8Covid has put landlords and tenants in a tough spot. The Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Housing is stepping in to try and make a difference at the Doris W. Jones Community Center in Niagara Falls as well as the Lockport Housing Authority. Richard Thomas, LMSW, is program director and was present at a family fund day celebration in Niagara Falls last week. "There are several agencies people are told they can call," he said, "but we are told we are the one who answer the phone." Right now it takes a cooperating tenant and a landlord working together to get the program to work. Tenants everywhere are behind on rent. Thomas said he strives to make a difference. "I go hard for the landlord in terms of getting them taken care of because no one talks about their end of things," he explained. In addition to rent assistance, BFNC offers a host of other services for families, according to CEO Chandra Redfern. Assistant Program Director Alicia Hutton helps focus on the restorative justice end of things. Hutton said too often the justice system focuses on incarceration rather than rehabilitation and reintegration. She works with juveniles mandated to the program to help them learn anger control, moral reasoning and maturity as well as empathy. The programs were founded by the late Rev. Jimmie Seeright. Lockport and Niagara Falls face similar problems with drugs, violence, mental health and poverty even if the demographic skew racially. "We've had youths out for placement who come back, finish high school, got to college and end up employed in the community," Hutton said. Redfern explained the BFNC works hard to be inclusive. "You can't service kids without servicing the family as a whole," she said. "We try to pivot to keep the kids on the straight and narrow." More information in Lockport is available by calling (716)-727-3021 or visiting 301 Michigan St. For information in Niagara Falls, visit 2002 Forrest Ave. or call (716)-282-2217. Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. Although, when we looked at Greenbrier Companies (NYSE:GBX), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes. Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on Greenbrier Companies is: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) 0.0073 = US$18m (US$3.2b - US$764m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to May 2021). So, Greenbrier Companies has an ROCE of 0.7%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Machinery industry average of 9.5%. View our latest analysis for Greenbrier Companies roce Above you can see how the current ROCE for Greenbrier Companies compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Greenbrier Companies here for free. What Does the ROCE Trend For Greenbrier Companies Tell Us? On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Greenbrier Companies doesn't inspire confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 32% over the last five years. Given the business is employing more capital while revenue has slipped, this is a bit concerning. This could mean that the business is losing its competitive advantage or market share, because while more money is being put into ventures, it's actually producing a lower return - "less bang for their buck" per se. Story continues In Conclusion... We're a bit apprehensive about Greenbrier Companies because despite more capital being deployed in the business, returns on that capital and sales have both fallen. But investors must be expecting an improvement of sorts because over the last five yearsthe stock has delivered a respectable 43% return. In any case, the current underlying trends don't bode well for long term performance so unless they reverse, we'd start looking elsewhere. Since virtually every company faces some risks, it's worth knowing what they are, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Greenbrier Companies (of which 1 is potentially serious!) that you should know about. For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. Chinese officials demanded extensive details about a collision involving a U.S. nuclear submarine in the South China Sea, which Beijing cited to continue arguing against American military operations in a region that the rising communist power seeks to dominate. We are gravely concerned about the incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters, per the official transcript. As the party involved, the U.S. should clarify in specific details what happened, including the exact location of the incident, the U.S. side's navigation intention, the details of the incident, the object the submarine struck, whether the collision caused a nuclear leak or damaged local marine environment, etc. U.S. Pacific Fleet officials revealed that the USS Connecticut struck an object while submerged last Saturday and emphasized that the submarine remains in a safe and stable condition. That incident, which occurred just weeks after the announcement of a landmark agreement for the United States and the British government to provide Australia with nuclear submarines, provided grist for Chinas broader objection to U.S. and allied operations in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. This is just kind of classic Chinese line, right, where they're trying to argue that U.S. operations in the South China Sea are inherently risky and dangerous, the American Enterprise Institutes Zack Cooper told the Washington Examiner. The fact that it was a nuclear attack submarine means that theyve got a little but more ample reason to try and critique this at the moment, given the AUKUS deal. US WARNS CHINA: TAIWAN THREATS COULD TRIGGER MAJOR ACCIDENTAL CONFLICT The South China Sea is a vast and important waterway that Beijing is attempting to claim as sovereign Chinese territory at the expense of several neighboring states with South China Sea shorelines. The U.S. has long been making trouble in the South China Sea in the name of freedom of navigation, which poses a grave threat and major risks for regional peace and stability, Zhao said in the briefing. The U.S. and the U.K. recently decided to conduct nuclear submarine cooperation with Australia, a non-nuclear-weapon state, and flagrantly proliferate nuclear submarines in the Asia-Pacific. ... The odds of a nuclear incident will also increase dramatically. Story continues Australia sought the nuclear submarines as part of a military buildup designed to offset growing threats from China, which built artificial islands in the South China Sea and deployed military assets to those outposts. U.S. and European states have increased their military presence in the region in order to underscore that they are not acquiescing to Beijings legal claims, which have been rejected by an international tribunal. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER USS Connecticuts nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational, Pacific Fleet officials said. The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Foreign Policy, National Security, China, Nuclear Submarine, Energy and Environment, South China Sea Original Author: Joel Gehrke Original Location: China demands information on whether US submarine collision caused a nuclear leak BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday he had agreed in his first talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office on the need to work together on issues of shared concern. "I frankly raised concerns between both countries from my side, and I suggested we should continue dialogue in the future," Kishida said in comments aired by public broadcaster NHK after he spoke with Xi on the telephone. Kishida said the issues he had raised included the disputed islands that are known in Japan as the Senkaku and in China as the Diaoyu, as well as Hong Kong and Beijing's treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. He did not elaborate on what was said. "Xi and I agreed to work together on various shared issues, including North Korea," Kishida, a former foreign minister, also said about the 30-minute talks. The Chinese Communist Party's official People's Daily said Xi had told Kishida in their conversation that the two nations should handle sensitive issues such as Taiwan "appropriately". Kishida's new government signalled on Tuesday a more assertive stance on China's posture towards self-ruled Taiwan, suggesting Tokyo would prepare for "various scenarios", while reaffirming its close security ties with the United States. Tension has been rising over Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, to be taken by force if necessary. Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend its freedoms and democracy. "At present, China-Japan relations have both opportunities and challenges," the daily quoted Xi as saying to Kishida. Xi also told Kishida that China and Japan should actively strengthen their dialogue and economic policy coordination and promote regional cooperation, the People's Daily reported. (Reporting by Gabriel Crossley in Beijing and Daniel Leussink in Tokyo;Editing by Gareth Jones) By Anshuman Daga, Scott Murdoch and Clare Jim SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) -China Evergrande Group offshore bondholders are concerned that it is close to defaulting on debt payments and want more information and transparency from the cash-strapped property developer, their advisers said. Evergrande, which could trigger one of China's largest defaults https://www.reuters.com/article/china-evergrande-debt-property-bonds/update-1-building-default-fears-pummel-chinese-property-firms-idUSL8N2R433Z as it wrestles with debts of more than $300 billion and whose troubles have already sent shockwaves across global markets, missed payments on dollar bonds, worth a combined $131 million, that were due on Sept. 23 and Sept. 29. With Evergrande staying silent on dollar debt payments and prioritising onshore creditors, offshore investors https://www.reuters.com/business/investors-grappling-with-evergrande-fallout-weigh-risk-wider-pain-2021-09-20 have been left wondering if they will face large losses at the end of 30-day grace periods for last month's coupons. [nL8N2QP1H5] A group of bondholders have enlisted investment bank Moelis & Co and law firm Kirkland & Ellis to advise them. Offshore bondholders want to engage "constructively" with the company, but are concerned about lack of information from what was once China's top-selling property developer, said Bert Grisel, a Hong Kong-based managing director at Moelis. "We all feel that an imminent default on the offshore bonds is or will occur in a short period of time," Grisel said on a call with bondholders on Friday. "Unfortunately, so far, we have had a couple of calls with the advisers," but there had not been any "meaningful dialogue with the company or provision of information", he said Evergrande, which faces nearly $150 million in offshore payment obligations next week, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Neil McDonald, a restructuring partner in the Hong Kong office of Kirkland & Ellis, said the bondholders would like more transparency, and hoped Evergrande would meet disclosure obligations under stock listing rules. Story continues The offshore bondholders are also demanding more information about Evergrande's plan to divest some businesses and how the proceeds would be used, the advisers said, adding that the creditors group they represent was growing. The two advisers said that, including the parties that have expressed an interest to be part of the group, they represent bondholders who currently hold $5 billion worth of Evergrande nominal offshore bonds. Evergrande said last month it would sell a $1.5-billion stake it owns in Shengjing Bank https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-evergrande-transfer-15-bln-stake-shengjing-bank-state-firm-2021-09-29 Co Ltd. The bank, one of Evergrande's main lenders, demanded cash from the sale go towards settling the developer's debts with Shengjing. Trading in Evergrande shares has been halted since Monday pending a major deal announcement. Trading in its Evergrande Property Services Group unit was also halted. China's state-backed Global Times https://www.reuters.com/business/china-evergrande-share-trading-halted-hong-kong-2021-10-04 said Hopson Development was to acquire a 51% stake in Evergrande Property for more than HK$40 billion ($5.1 billion), citing other media reports. "Whilst we don't want to overstate this, we are obviously at this point in time preparing contingency plans to ensure that there are no dissipation of assets," McDonald said. "And if there is such activity, we will be prepared to take steps to protect the rights and interests of U.S. creditors, and we really hope that that's not necessary," he added. The advisers for offshore Evergrande bondholders had reached the developer on Sept. 16, but had not received any assurance from the developer, demanding more transparency. SECTOR SLUMP In another development, Evergrande dollar-bond trustee Citi has hired law firm Mayer Brown as counsel, a source familiar with the matter, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters earlier on Friday. Citi and Mayer Brown declined to comment. The possible collapse of one of China's biggest borrowers has triggered worries about contagion risks in the world's second-largest economy, with other debt-laden property firms hit by rating downgrades on looming defaults. With few clues as to how local regulators propose to contain the contagion from Evergrande, the price of bonds and shares in Chinese property developers slumped again on Friday. "The potential lack of transparency and clarity are leaving investors more skittish and it will be very difficult for people to want to refinance any debt coming due in that particular sector," said Cliff Corso, chief investment officer of Advisors Asset Management. An index tracking China's property sector dropped 1.53%, against a 1.31% blue-chip share rise. The Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday suspended trading of two bonds issued by smaller developer Fantasia Group China Co, with one dropping more than 50%, after controlling shareholder Fantasia Holdings Group missed the deadline on a $206 million international market debt payment on Monday. Fantasia Holding said in a stock exchange filing on Friday that it had appointed Houlihan Lokey and Sidley Austin as its advisers to assess its capital structure, evaluate liquidity and explore solutions to ease its current liquidity issue. Most of Evergrande and Fantasia's bonds have already lost around 80% of their value. Meanwhile, bonds issued by Greenland Holdings, which has built some of the world's tallest residential towers including in Sydney, London, New York and Los Angeles, and Kaisa Group both took another beating on Friday. [L8N2R433Z]. "Market participants are questioning if this may be a precursor for voluntary defaults by other developers with healthy short-term liquidity positions, but large unsustainable longer-term debt," Chang Wei Liang, Credit & FX Strategist at DBS Bank, said in a note. (Reporting by Andrew Galbraith, Anshuman Daga, Scott Murdoch, Clare Jim, Vidya Ranganathan, additional reporting by Megan Davies and David Randall in New York; Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Sam Holmes, Stephen Coates, Ana Nicolaci da Costa, Alexander Smith and Nick Zieminski) Workers remove sand fouled by oil Thursday in Huntington Beach. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Officials say the amount of oil that leaked from a pipeline off the Orange County coast, fouling stretches of sand and threatening ecologically sensitive areas from Huntington Beach to San Diego County, may be smaller than originally projected. In the first days of the spill, officials warned that possibly 126,000 gallons had flowed out of a pipeline that runs from the Port of Long Beach to an offshore production and processing platform. That number was raised on Monday to potentially 144,000 gallons. However, Capt. Rebecca Ore, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard's Los Angeles-Long Beach sector, said Thursday that after further assessments officials had determined that a minimum of about 24,696 gallons, or 588 barrels, and a maximum of 131,000 gallons, or 3,134 barrels, of oil was released from the pipeline. The 131,000-gallon estimate is a maximum worst-case discharge that is a planning scenario based on a volume in a pipeline," Ore said. Officials were unable to narrow that estimate, leaving another unanswered question as the mystery surrounding how the leak occurred continues to unfold. Were nearly a week into this, and while our cleanup and our emergency response is well underway, we still dont know answers to how this happened, why it happened and who is ultimately responsible, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said. Coast Guard officials said Friday that damage to the pipeline could have occurred several months to nearly a year before the spill. Investigators suspect an initial anchor strike from a large vessel displaced a portion of the pipeline 105 feet and stripped away its concrete casing, causing it to be more vulnerable to other possible anchor strikes or environmental stressors. As they attempt to determine when that first strike occurred, investigators are focusing on a storm that brought strong winds to the area over the course of two days in late January, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jason Neubauer said during a press conference Friday afternoon. Story continues He added that it's still not clear when the pipe began leaking. Its very possible that the initial strike just deflected the pipeline with no fracture and then additional stresses added later by another incident or geological events...either increased the fracture or caused the whole thing, Neubauer said. Cleanup efforts along the coast have accelerated through the week. More than 900 people have been surveying beaches and clearing oil from Sunset Beach in Huntington Beach to San Diego County. By the end of the week, officials expect to ramp that number up to 1,500. Officials said theyve made progress in the cleanup and hope to advance further over the weekend. But a storm that meteorologists say could bring winds gusting up to 23 mph began moving in Friday afternoon, raising concerns that more oil could reach the shore. Similar wind speeds are expected Monday and Tuesday, meteorologists with the National Weather Service in San Diego said. So far, much of the crude has remained offshore, but striations have been seen in Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. The beaches and water that have been fouled by the spill in Orange County are on the ancestral homelands of the Acjachemen and Tongva people. Stretches of sand in Huntington Beach and parts of Newport Beach have been the most severely affected. Tar balls that officials suspect came from the oil spill have also washed up in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas and Del Mar in San Diego County over the last day. Images from satellites over the oil spill Friday morning show some oil nearing the coast in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and San Clemente. Loren Sibrian thought it was strange that no one was swimming or walking along the shore in Huntington Beach as she made her way onto the sand Friday afternoon. The 37-year-old Anaheim resident pulled out her phone and Googled, Why is the beach closed? It was then that Sibrian, who described herself as not much of a news person, learned about the spill that has sullied the beaches along the Orange County coast for the last week. What a bummer, she recalled thinking. Still, she unfurled her purple blanket just behind the caution tape and laid down in the sand to read a book. You can still enjoy it, she said looking out at the waves, but not quite as close. A pollution-control vessel has been working off the Huntington Beach coast, where a plume of oil has lingered since the spill. Three other vessels were tackling another slick that has slowly moved south and is now off the coast of San Clemente. A fourth vessel was working along the coast of Corona del Mar, maps show. More than 5,500 gallons of crude oil have been recovered off the coast. Roughly 172,500 pounds of oily debris has been collected from shorelines since the spill and 13 barrels of tar balls were recovered Thursday. Coast Guard officials have deployed 14,060 feet of containment booms in an effort to contain the spill. One of the long, white booms snaked across the water at Talbert Marsh on Friday morning. Cleanup crews that had swarmed the 25-acre marsh over the last week had moved on, but a woman in a neon yellow vest and rain boots walked slowly along the water line. She bent down, running her fingers over a stubby, ground-covering plant blanketing the marsh. She nodded. Looking good, she said. Crews are also surveying the coast in search of wildlife disturbed by the spill. As of late Thursday, they had recovered 25 live oiled birds: seven western grebes, seven snowy plovers, three sanderlings, an eared grebe, an American coot, a ruddy duck, a double-crested cormorant, a Clarks grebe, a California gull, a western gull and a brown pelican. Three double-crested cormorants, three Brandt's cormorants, an American coot, a black-crowned night heron, a red-footed booby and a western gull were found dead, according to the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. It's unclear how long it will take for the beaches to be cleaned and the water to reopen. Some officials have estimated it could take weeks. The spill has prompted increasing calls from environmentalists and some lawmakers to end offshore oil drilling in the region. Gabriel Vargas stood along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach late Friday morning holding one end of a long banner that read END OFFSHORE DRILLING." Vargas, an underwater cinematographer, said although he cant go into the water right now, hes spent the last few days gathering film of cleanup efforts. He may eventually make a short documentary about the oil spill, he said. His partner, Bronwyn Major, who works as a surf coach, said she hopes the spill will serve as a catalyst for change. Its past time to turn away from subsidizing big oil companies and move toward clean technology, she said. Were in the middle of a climate crisis, she said. Ive had it. Enough is enough. Along the shoreline, a small team of workers in white hazmat suits and helmets paced back and forth surveying the stretch of sand along Pacific Coast Highway. Some took notes. One worker pointed at the backlog of cargo ships waiting to enter port lined up on the horizon. Another cleanup crew dressed in yellow vests and holding rakes and shovels stood in a nearby parking lot waiting to be deployed. A newcomer to the crew asked those around her for tips. What does the oil look like? she asked. Little black balls," another responded. Just like tar? Exactly. She nodded, gripping her rake, ready to begin. Lets do this, she said. San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Joshua Emerson Smith contributed to this report This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. By Ana Mano SAO PAULO (Reuters) - U.S. pesticide and seed maker Corteva Inc will take up to three times longer to break into Brazil's genetically modified soy seed market than it did in the United States, where Corteva's sales grew rapidly in recent years, the company said. Corteva is launching new genetically modified (GMO) soy seeds in top soybean grower Brazil, where rival Bayer AG has enjoyed a virtual monopoly since planting of GMOs began in the early 2000s. Bayer has a vast network of sales staff and longstanding relationships with farmers, seed developers and manufacturers in Brazil, relationships Corteva is just now establishing. Brazil's adoption of genetically modified crops helped it become the world's biggest seller of soy used for livestock feed. But weeds and pests have become resistant to the chemicals those crops can withstand. So Bayer and Corteva are each striving to convert Brazilian growers to their next-generation GMO seed varieties that can tolerate newer herbicides. At stake are billions of dollars in annual sales of seeds and herbicides to the important Brazilian market. Moreover, the seeds that Brazil's farmers choose, by playing a role in the size of their harvests, will influence world supply and prices for commodities that many countries rely on to feed their people and livestock. Soybeans are already scarce and prices are at a seven-year high. Bayer and Corteva do not produce seeds themselves in Brazil. Rather, local genetic improvement companies tailor new varieties for the local market to address local soil and climate conditions -- a process that can take years. Then, seedmakers mass produce seeds to sell to farmers for planting. "The adoption of the Enlist system in Brazil will take a little longer than in the United States," Corteva said in an e-mail to Reuters, because seed quantity in Brazil is limited. The company had ample Enlist E3 seeds, the GMO technology that quickly took off in the United States, available for U.S. farmers in 2019 when Enlist received U.S. regulatory approvals. Story continues Corteva, spun off in 2019 after a merger of Dow Chemical and Dupont, captured 35% of U.S. soy-planted area with Enlist in three years. In Brazil, Corteva estimated it will take five to 10 years to reach that level. Corteva is also launching a more expensive soybean seed in Brazil called Conkesta E3, but Enlist is its primary focus in the campaign to win market share from Bayer. BAYER EDGE Bayer's long dominance in Brazil's seed market gives it an edge as it introduces a new product in Brazil at the same time as Enlist and Conkesta are entering the market. Bayer acquired seedmaker Monsanto in 2016 and inherited Monsanto's seed and chemical empire. Monsanto launched the Intacta RR2 Pro soybean seed technology in Brazil seven years ago. In the 2020/2021 cycle, 80% of Brazilian soy was grown with Intacta. This year Bayer is launching its Intacta2 Xtend seed line in Brazil that resists the herbicide dicamba - a chemical Bayer is betting on globally as crops grow resistant to its earlier herbicide glyphosate. Bayer said in an e-mail more than 30 seed varieties had been developed using its Intacta2 Xtend technology for the Brazilian market. That gives it an advantage over Corteva's Enlist, which has not yet been adapted to the Brazilian market by local genetic seed companies. Even so, at least one factor may work in Corteva's favor. Dicamba is the target of U.S. lawsuits and a U.S. government review because of its tendency to drift away from where it is sprayed and damage crops on neighboring farms. Bayer agreed to pay up to $400 million to resolve lawsuits by U.S. landowners who said their crops were damaged by neighbors spraying dicamba. Problems with dicamba encouraged U.S. farmers to turn to Corteva's Enlist products, and Brazilian farmers have followed the U.S. experience with dicamba closely. "I will not buy the herbicide (dicamba)," said Eduardo Godoi, a farmer in Brazil's top soy growing state of Mato Grosso who will try Intacta2 Xtend for the first time. (Reporting by Ana Mano; Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Cynthia Osterman) A high-speed rail viaduct is shown parallel to Highway 99 near Fresno in October 2019. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The California bullet train is facing at least another billion dollars of proposed cost increases from its contractors, following a history of sharp cost growth on construction work over the last eight years, The Times has learned. The state's High-Speed Rail Authority has mostly approved such increases in the past, and if it does so again, contractors could proceed with one of the biggest price escalations since bullet train construction began in the San Joaquin Valley. The continued cost increases and the likelihood of similar problems surfacing over the next few years are deepening the already difficult financial condition of the $100-billion project. The state has budgeted $22.8 billion to build a partial segment from Bakersfield to Merced. Originally, construction of the Los Angeles to San Francisco system was pegged at $33 billion. But the surging costs will probably force the state to dig deeper into its future funding just to complete that 171-mile leg in the valley. The teams building bridges, viaducts, trenches and overpasses in the valley have submitted dozens of new claims for delays and design changes, asserting they are the authority's fault, according to several of the project's technical and business officials and internal documents reviewed by The Times. The officials asked to remain nameless because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The costs are being driven by changes in designs submitted in the original contracts, delays in moving underground utilities and long-standing problems buying all of the land along the right of way. Rail authority Chief Executive Brian Kelly declined to discuss the size of the cost increases, but said they are growing due to erroneous past decisions. Kelly, who became CEO in January 2018, said he had fully expected some of the additional construction expenses, because not all of the designs were completed when contracts were previously issued. In an interview, Kelly said, "I do not endorse their numbers. We do not see the evaluations the same way," but added that he has been prepared for the potential overruns. Story continues "I have budgeted for those costs. It is not new," Kelly said, adding that the project is addressing past problems and will avoid repeating them in the future. In May, Kelly issued a written report that acknowledged there were significant pending change orders, though it did not include the proposed prices. The report indicated that at least some of the proposed change orders were in dispute. The scope of the new cost increases has not been disclosed in any public documents and the rail authority has declined to provide lawmakers with updates on change orders as they are submitted by contractors. Under rail authority policy, change orders are only disclosed after they are approved. Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), chairwoman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, has urged the rail authority to amend its plans as the costs have risen. "You have to make sure people support this project as the costs continue to rise," she said in an interview. "It is safe to say this is going to be a very expensive project. What we want is that it has to have utility to a lot of people on the day it opens." Friedman said the current plan to build the segment from Bakersfield to Merced will not demonstrate the value of high-speed rail unless it provides services to major urban areas. Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) has sought to transfer some of the funds from the Central Valley to high-speed rail segments in Southern California and the Bay Area. Friedman led the negotiations for the Legislature on the appropriations. She said the Legislature offered Gov. Gavin Newsom $1 billion for construction and another $1.5 billion for change orders in August. The offer indicates that the Legislature appears braced for growing costs. But Newsom held out for the full $4.2 billion, according to officials close to the negotiations. Friedman, backed by a large contingent of Assembly Democrats, wants to withhold some of the $4.2 billion in funding to retain control over the troubled project. In the interview, Kelly said he did not want to discuss the details of the negotiations. But he said it was important for the rail authority to have confidence in its revenue sources to plan and execute future construction. Whether change orders can be controlled is problematic. At its September meeting, the board adopted a new "change order control committee," which would increase internal scrutiny and improve documentation, though it may not reduce their volume. Kelly said he did not think the committee could have prevented any of the past change orders if it had existed years ago. The board has limited ability to intervene. Board members are not provided with proposed change orders or their proposed amounts before the staff approves them, according to two former board members. Efforts to strengthen outside control of the project have also faltered. In 2016, then Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed bipartisan legislation to strengthen oversight. The bulk of the change orders come from two teams, building rail segments through Madera, Fresno and Kings counties in the heart of the San Joaquin farm belt. Tutor Perini, which leads a team that is building about 31 miles of rail structures around Fresno, has submitted paperwork seeking about $600 million in additional payments, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. So far, the team has received approval of 383 past change orders that largely accounted for its contract growing from $1 billion to $2.4 billion. Among Tutor Perini's demands that the rail authority approved was $50,410.40 for 15 months of local and long-distance calls, according to records. Included in the new filings is a claim for $131 million for delays that the company says were caused by the rail authority's failure to obtain land for the construction and to complete utility relocations along the right of way. The project still needs 370 more parcels of land and in the most recent month acquired only nine pieces of land. Other claims involve design changes for various east-to-west highway overpasses across the future bullet train tracks. Dragados, the Spanish construction firm that is leading a team for 65 miles of work around Kings County, has submitted new delay claims and change orders of more than a half-billion dollars, according to officials and documents. It has already received approval of 297 prior change orders that boosted its contract from $1.4 billion to $2.1 billion. Officials at Dragados and Tutor Perini declined requests for comment. The pace of construction remains well below the budgeted level across the San Joaquin Valley, as each month the project fails to meet its projected spending rate. In the most recent report, for example, Tutor Perini was scheduled to build $49 million worth of structures in July, but completed only $28 million. So far in 2021, the Tutor Perini team has averaged construction of $22.5 million per month and has a remaining contract balance of $845.1 million. At the current rate of progress, the Tutor Perini segment is likely to be completed by mid-2024, according to a Times analysis of rail authority progress reports and the judgment of officials in the project. Dragados is working even slower, invoicing $16.25 million per month with a remaining balance of $740.6 million, indicating a completion of its work by mid-2025 or later. Officials close to the project expect work to drag on for both segments until about 2026, years past the current scheduled completion in 2022. The rail authority is in the process of revising the completion dates, the officials said. The delays should be covered by the state, the firms contend. But Kelly said that the rail authority will dispute at least some of the Dragados demands, including two creek crossings and collision barriers along the future tracks. Tutor Perini and Dragados have a large volume of additional orders that have not yet been submitted to the authority, which could add hundreds of million of dollars in additional demands, according to officials who described the change orders. The Legislature has grown more concerned about the project and refused in August to appropriate the $4.2 billion that Newsom requested in the session that ended in August. The deadlock in negotiations forced the rail authority in late September to cut the construction budget in the Central Valley by $900 million over the next year. The cutbacks could be reversed if and when the Legislature approves the appropriation. But at its September board meeting, the authority said the lack of appropriation would cause it to delay work on laying its first track, a high-voltage electrical system and installing a complex signaling system to control trains. The current plan would start train operations by 2030, but officials working on the project say privately that it appears difficult, if not impossible, to meet that timetable. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba announced Friday it would conduct annual military exercises on Nov. 18-19, leading up to a day of civilian defense preparedness on Nov. 20, the same date dissidents plan human rights protests around the country. The Communist-run country was rocked by social unrest for two days in July, with the biggest anti-government protests in decades resulting in hundreds of arrests, one death and calls for U.S. intervention by some Cuban-Americans. A brief armed forces communique published in state-run media said the defense exercises, canceled last year, would resume in tandem with other activities as a vaccination campaign nears its goal of immunizing the entire population against COVID-19. The aim of the Nov. 20 demonstrations, called by a Facebook group named Archipelago, is to call for civil liberties including the right to peaceful protest and an amnesty for imprisoned government opponents. Well-known government opponents are among those who remain behind bars following the July 11-12 unrest, some facing long sentences. Archipelago members say the group has some 20,000 members, many of whom live outside the country. The government's defense preparations are part of a military doctrine known as the War of the Whole People designed to respond to a U.S. invasion. The last day features thousands of civilians evacuating work centers, tending to the wounded, engaged in weapons training and logistical support such as making bullets and cooking. Civilians have also been used in the past to bolster the government in times of public dissent, with protesters harassed by members of local block committees known as Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, for example, or official trade unions. 'THREAT OF ARMS' They intend to further militarize the country for 20N, (Nov. 20) tweeted playwright Yunior Garcia, administrator of Archipelago and leader of the planned protests. Unlike the July unrest, which was largely spontaneous, the group has requested permission for marches in various cities on Nov. 20, to which the government has yet to respond. Story continues Faced with the civility of our march, they respond with the threat of arms. Why so afraid that people will speak their minds? Weapons, no! Rights, Garcia said. Authorities in Cuba have long termed dissenters small groups in the pay of the United States. They charge their opponents are working with Washington to whip up unrest during the pandemic and to impose ever harsher economic sanctions in hopes of overthrowing the government. Residents have faced food, medicine and other shortages amid coronavirus lockdowns and a severe blow to the tourism industry, and have had to endure long lines, high prices and power blackouts for the last few years. (Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Frances Kerry) Biden Congress Debt (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) Democratic data analyst David Shor warned in an interview with The New York Times Ezra Klein that Democrats face potential catastrophe risk being out of power for a decade. Mr Shor, who worked on the 2012 Obama campaign and now leads data science at Blue Rose Research, was fired from his job at Civis Analytics after he tweeted after the killing of George Floyd that violent protests have historically been bad for Democrats in elections. But since then, hes become a much-sought-after voice, particularly after Democrats underperformed with Latino voters in the 2020 presidential election. Obviously, in retrospect, he told Mr Klein, it was positive for my career. Mr Shor warned that his model, which he calls the power simulator, shows that if Democrats win 51 percent of the popular vote in 2024, they could lose seven seats and they would need to win it by at least 54 percent. Similarly, he warned that the divide between college-educated and non-college-educated voters is becoming wider, not just among white voters but also among black and Latino voters. Mr Shor also noted that Trump was a net positive for the Republican Party. Sure, maybe he underperforms the generic Republican by whatever, he said. But hes engineered a real and perhaps persistent bias in the Electoral College, and then when you get to the Senate, its so much worse. In addition, Mr Shor warned that fewer voters split their tickets, which is to say that fewer people who vote Republican or Democratic for president vote for the opposite party for down-ballot races. As a result, Mr Shor told The Times that Democrats need to appeal to voters who may not be traditional liberals like the ones who traditionally donate to Democratic campaigns or staff them and in turn, should do polling to figure out the most popular parts of their agenda and weed out the unpopular parts. Traditional diversity and inclusion is super important, but polling is one of the only tools we have to step outside of ourselves and see what the median voter actually thinks, he said. Story continues The concept has now developed the term popularism. I think the core problem with the Democratic Party is that the people who run and staff the Democratic Party are much more educated and ideologically liberal and they live in cities, and ultimately our candidate pool reflects that, he said. At the same time, Mr Shor said this does not mean abandoning all progressive or liberal ideas, since polling shows letting Medicare negotiate drug prices is incredibly popular, despite moderate Democrats like Sen Kyrsten Sinemas protests. He also added that the party doesnt represent the nation at a mass level. I dont think its a coincidence that the people weve lost are likely to be low-socioeconomic-status people, he said. If you look inside the Democratic Party, there are three times more moderate or conservative nonwhite people than very liberal white people, but very liberal white people are infinitely more represented. Thats morally bad, but it also means eventually theyll leave. A still from the video, posted to Twitter, showing police following Jacob Blake. @davenewworld_2/Twitter The police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times will not face federal charges. Prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to prove Rusten Sheskey "willfully used excessive force." Blake was paralyzed from the waist down following the incident and now lives in constant pain. The Department of Justice will not pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against Rusten Sheskey, the police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back, according to a statement posted Friday. The decision comes after a team of prosecutors from the Civil Rights Division and the US Attorney's Office determined there wasn't enough evidence to prove Sheskey "willfully used excessive force." "After a careful and thorough review, a team of experienced federal prosecutors determined that insufficient evidence exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the KPD officer willfully violated the federal criminal civil rights statutes," the statement said. "Accordingly, the review of this incident has been closed without a federal prosecution." On August 23, 2020, Blake was trying to break up a fight between his girlfriend and their neighbor. As Blake tried to remove his children from the scene and drive away, Booker called 911, telling the dispatcher he was trying to steal her rental car. Blake had a warrant out for his arrest, so when officers arrived, they tried to arrest him. After a failed attempt to subdue Blake with a Taser, Sheskey grabbed Blake and shot him seven times in the back. In January, the district attorney of Kenosha County announced he wouldn't file charges against Sheskey and the other two officers on the scene because prosecutors determined the shooting was in self-defense. The video of Sheskey shooting Blake went viral. Protests against racial injustice and police brutality followed. While Blake survived the incident, he has neuropathy, a condition where damaged nerves cause sharp pain. Two of the shots blew out two of his vertebrae, damaging his spinal cord, colon, small intestine, kidney, and liver. Read the original article on Insider A fire broke out at the stadium on the eve of the match (Simon Peach/PA) (PA Wire) Englands World Cup qualifier in Andorra will go ahead despite a spectacular fire at the stadium on the eve of the game. The Three Lions are in the Pyrenees to take on the side ranked 156th in the world and trained at the Estadi Nacional on Friday lunchtime, before Gareth Southgate and stand-in skipper Kieran Trippier faced the media. Shortly after England left the 3,300-capacity stadium a fire broke out on the TV gantry, with black smoke filling the air as flames ripped through the structure in Andorra la Vella. Stadium staff tried to get the blaze under control with sprinklers before the fire brigade arrived, with one onlooker telling the PA news agency that welders had been working there when the fire started. The Football Association was initially unsure whether there would be an impact on Saturday evenings qualifier, but the Andorran Football Federation confirmed the match is unaffected by the fire. A spokesperson for the governing body said: As we all know there has been a small accident and a fire. No personal harm has been reported, only material damages and the schedule will continue as foreseen. No changes there (with) press conference and training. There has been an official statement given by our minister of sport and the president of the federation. The match will be played. The clean-up operation was under way as Andorra trained on Friday evening, with cones laid out to show the area for players to avoid. The fire has caused significant damage (Simon Peach/PA) (PA Wire) The damaged surface is set to be replaced before Saturdays game, with head coach Koldo Alvarez relaxed about the entire situation. Ive no idea about the fire, how it started or any information about it, the Andorra boss said. The people that are in charge are the ones who are arranging it. I think that what we have to do is congratulate everybody because there has been no personal harm, which is the most important part. But I have no doubt that the same as we are going to train, we will be able to play tomorrow. Story continues Part of the dugout melted and the fourth official shelter was destroyed, as was the video assistant referees monitor. The walls were blackened and there was debris on a part of the much-discussed artificial surface. The VAR monitor and TV gantry have been damaged and there is concern about the state of the playing surface (Simon Peach/PA) (PA Wire) Wales raged about the Estadi Nacional pitch after a European Championship qualifier in 2014, with Gareth Bale saying it was by far the worst Ive ever played on. The Andorran Football Federation said it was improved last year to what an official called a hybrid surface and Southgate is not overly concerned by the pitch. A lot of those interviews were from when Wales played here and it has been re-laid so it is a more up-to-date surface, the England boss said on Friday, which marked five years to the day since he took charge of his first match against Malta. We have played on some really difficult grass pitches where teams have kept the length of the grass long and have moved the ball quickly, so for us to have a surface where you know you can move the ball quickly is good. All the players have grown up in academies, in under-ages playing on these pitches. We played in Lithuania on one, so we have to adapt. All the players have grown up in academies, in under-ages playing on these pitches. We played in Lithuania on one, so we have to adapt Gareth Southgate The game is slightly different. The risk is you always play to feet, would be an observation from matches I have seen on this surface and we have to make sure we play as much as our normal game as well can. Englands 24-man squad got a feel for Andorras artificial pitch on the eve of the game and Southgate does not feel he has to protect any players like Harry Kane albeit Trippiers role as captain all but confirms the striker will not start. No, every player is available, the Three Lions boss said. To be honest there are players with different medical issues that would be less likely to be available than Harry. But none that would stop them playing a part in the game. We are conscious that one or two have small ongoing problems, the sort of things that changing a surface can create a problem. Changing one grass surface to another is one of the biggest injury risks you have. But with the artificial its a similar thing, its the change from one to the other that can create a problem. But were not concerned with Harry at all. By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. delegation will meet with senior Taliban representatives in Doha on Saturday and Sunday in their first face-to-face meeting at a senior level since Washington pulled its troops from Afghanistan and the hardline group took over the country, two senior administration officials told Reuters. The high-level U.S. delegation will include officials from the State Department, USAID and the U.S. intelligence community, will press the Taliban to ensure continued safe passage for U.S. citizens and others out of Afghanistan and to release kidnapped U.S. citizen Mark Frerichs, the officials said. Another top priority will be to hold the Taliban to its commitment that it will not allow Afghanistan to again become a hotbed for al Qaeda or other extremists while pressing the group to improve access for humanitarian aid as the country faces the prospect of a "really severe and probably impossible to prevent" economic contraction, U.S. officials said. U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, who has for years spearheaded U.S. dialogue with the Taliban https://www.reuters.com/world/us/brokering-exit-afghanistan-us-envoy-khalilzad-became-face-diplomatic-debacle-2021-09-10 and been a key figure in peace talks with the group, will not be part of the delegation. The U.S. team will include the State Department's Deputy Special Representative Tom West as well as top USAID humanitarian official Sarah Charles. On The Taliban side, cabinet officials will be attending, officials said. "This meeting is a continuation of the pragmatic engagements with the Taliban that we've had ongoing on matters of vital national interest," said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "This meeting is not about granting recognition or conferring legitimacy. We remain clear that any legitimacy must be earned through the Taliban's own actions. They need to establish a sustained track record," the official said. Story continues The United States' two decades-long occupation of Afghanistan culminated in a hastily organized airlift in August which saw more than 124,000 civilians including Americans, Afghans and others being evacuated as the Taliban took over. But thousands of other U.S.-allied Afghans at risk of Taliban persecution were left behind. Washington and other Western countries are grappling with difficult choices as a severe humanitarian crisis looms large over Afghanistan. They are trying to formulate how to engage with the Taliban without granting it the legitimacy it seeks while ensuring humanitarian aid flows into the country. Many Afghans have started selling their possessions to pay for ever-scarcer food. The departure of U.S.-led forces and many international donors robbed the country of grants that financed 75% of public spending, according to the World Bank. While there was an improvement for humanitarian actors get access to some areas that they haven't been in a decade, problems still persisted, the U.S. official said, adding that the U.S. delegation would press Taliban to improve. "Right now, we are facing some real access issues....There are a lot of challenges in ensuring that female aid workers are provided unimpeded access to all areas," the official said and added that Washington needed to see an improvement by the Taliban on this front "if we are to contemplate even more robust humanitarian assistance." PRESSURE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS While the Taliban has promised to be more inclusive than when it led the country from 1996 to 2001, the United States has repeatedly said it will judge the new Taliban government based on its deeds not its words. The Taliban drew from its inner high echelons to fill top posts in Afghanistan's new provisional government announced last month, including an associate of the Islamist militant group's founder as premier and a wanted man on a U.S. terrorism list as interior minister. There were no outsiders and no women in the cabinet. The European Union foreign policy chief said on Sunday its behavior up to now was "not very encouraging." "We will certainly press the Taliban to respect the rights of all Afghans including women and girls and to form an inclusive government with broad support," the U.S. official said. He added that there were discrepancies between the Taliban's promises of continued safe passage and implementation. "As a practical matter, their implementation of their commitments have been uneven. It is true that sometimes we receive assurances from certain levels but then follow through on those assurances has truly been uneven," the official said. The United States has directly facilitated the departure of 105 U.S. citizens and 95 lawful permanent residents out of Afghanistan since Aug. 31, when U.S. withdrawal was completed, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday. He declined to provide a precise figure for those remaining, but said the agency was in contact with "dozens of Americans in Afghanistan who wish to leave" but that the number was dynamic and constantly changing. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Michelle Price and Alistair Bell) Roy McGrath, the former chief of staff to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan who faces a slew of state and federal criminal charges, was defiant in a social media post Thursday night, blasting politically-motivated bullies. McGrath resigned from his job as top aide to the governor after 11 weeks in the job in 2020, just days after The Baltimore Sun reported that he negotiated a six-figure payout to switch from one state government job to another. This week, McGrath was hit with federal and state charges, as prosecutors allege he lied about having Hogans support for the payout, secretly recorded conversations with the governor and others, improperly directed the Maryland Environmental Service to pay for donations to an art museum and a Harvard University course, and put on his time card that he was working when he was really on vacation. If convicted, he faces significant time in prison. At the time the charges came down Tuesday, McGrath declined to comment to The Sun, saying his attorney would address what he called political persecution. McGraths attorney, Bruce L. Marcus, issued a statement saying McGrath denied any criminal wrongdoing and looks forward to trial. McGrath offered broader comments on Facebook on Thursday, in a post that was obtained by The Sun from multiple sources. He opened by thanking his friends for their support. Over a year ago, politically-motivated bullies originated this twisted mess, McGrath wrote. In the time since, not one impartial person has asked me for the facts, while my loyalties and our systems prevent me from speaking freely. He continued: The time will come, however, when Im confident the exculpatory facts will come to light and speak for themselves. When his six-figure severance package was first reported by The Baltimore Sun last summer, McGrath initially defended it as common practice at the Maryland Environmental Service, the agency that he was leaving. He said the environmental services operated with some similarities to a private business. Story continues Officials at the Maryland Environmental Service testified before the state legislature that they were unsure about making the severance payment equal to one years salary of about $233,000 plus about $5,000 in tuition reimbursement without the governors blessing. McGrath led them to believe Hogan supported the payment, the officials said. Hogan has denied having knowledge of McGraths severance package at the time it was being negotiated. Asked about the case during a news conference Thursday, Hogan said he sat for an interview with criminal investigators and that his office complied with the investigation. Hogan said McGraths alleged actions are kind of an outrageous situation and kind of disgraceful. When McGrath resigned from his job in August 2020, however, Hogan had more praise for him: I have always known Roy to be someone of the highest character, and I wish him well in his future endeavors, Hogan said in a statement at the time. Baltimore Sun reporter Bryn Stole contributed to this article. The Florida Board of Education voted unanimously on Thursday to financially sanction eight school districts that enforced mask mandates in their schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These district mask policies, which adhere to federal guidance, go against state rules that require parents to have the "sole discretion" in whether their children wear masks to school. The decision was made at Thursday's meeting after board members weighed comments from the public, superintendents and board officials about whether districts for Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Duval, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties were in compliance with the state's rules. Five of the counties, including Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Palm Beach and Duval, have some of the highest numbers of COVID cases in the state, according to John's Hopkins. In late September, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new rule that says schools can require mask-wearing on campus, but that students can opt out of the requirement "at the parent or legal guardian's sole discretion." The rule also allows students who have been directly exposed to COVID-19 to keep going to school if they are asymptomatic. Around the same time this guidance came out, the CDC published two studies that show enforcing masks in schools helps reduce the spread of COVID-19. The state's Department of Education said in a statement that the counties "willingly and knowingly violated the rights of students and parents by denying them the option to make personal and private health care and educational decisions for their children." While discussing Alachua County, Board Commissioner Richard Corcoran urged the Board of Education to penalize noncompliant districts by withholding funds equal to 1/12 of all school board members annual salaries. He also recommended that the board withhold state funds "in an amount equal to" any federal grant funds for districts that "support noncompliance" with state protocols. Story continues The board unanimously authorized his recommendation, giving districts 48 hours to adhere to state law. "[Districts] can't pick and choose which parts of the law they want to follow. ...Education is a state responsibility, not a federal one," Corcoran said. In September, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Alachua County $147,719 in Project SAFE funds to support the district's efforts "to protect students as they return to safe, in-person learning despite the state's actions to prohibit implementation of strategies to limit the spread of COVID-19." "We will not be strong-armed," Corcoran said in regards to the grant, "nor will we allow others to be." The board said during the meeting that none of the aforementioned schools allowed students to opt out under their parents' or guardians' "sole discretion," with some of the districts requiring medical reasoning. Superintendents argued, however, that they did not allow the opt-outs to protect students so they could continue in-person learning. Alachua Superintendent Carlee Simon pointed to the state's "Parents Bill of Rights," which states that entities cannot infringe on parental rights "without demonstrating that such action is reasonable and necessary to achieve compelling state interest and that such action is narrowly tailored is not otherwise served by a less restrictive means." "Our current policies are reasonable and necessary to protect the health of our students, which is certainly a compelling interest," Simon said. In August, the district required masks be properly worn in buildings at all times. Despite the board's decision to penalize districts, Simon said after the meeting that her district will maintain its current protocols, saying it is "our constitutional obligation to provide students with a safe learning environment." Alachua, as well as Broward, have already had some of their state funding withheld this year over their mask policies. Alachua County Public Schools said that the U.S. Department of Education has told Florida that the withholding of state funds because of a federal grant may be illegal. Diana Greene, superintendent for Duval County, said that eight days into the school year, there were 492 COVID cases reported to the state, most of which were students. Two weeks into the fall semester, 10 district employees had died because of COVID-19. "Today, we have more than 2,800 positive cases," she said. Several community members said they supported their districts' decision to enforce mask mandates, but the board members urged people to only mention facts about compliance to state rules, not about concerns for school COVID safety. One woman told the board that her son, JJ, is wheelchair-bound, and uses an iPad for communication. She said he uses his nose to type on the iPad, and as such, cannot wear a mask. "JJ is currently stuck at home because, during a pandemic that's killed nearly 5 million people, this board decided to give unvaccinated, unmasked students the final say on whether they want to spread a highly contagious airborne virus," she said. "This means JJ has not had any form of education so far this school year." From September 24 to September 30, there were more than 37,700 new cases of COVID-19, according to state data. The cases are part of a decline in statewide cases after several weeks of a sharp increase. Children and teenagers made up more than 9,800 cases in Florida that week. Debt ceiling extension bill heads to House after late-night Senate vote Migrants caught in deadly "hybrid warfare" along Poland-Belarus border Taliban official: 100 dead or hurt after blast at Shiite mosque in Afghanistan TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) A former Australian prime minister accused China of being a bully and expressed enthusiastic support for Taiwan while visiting the democratically ruled island on Friday. Nothing is more pressing right now than solidarity with Taiwan, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said at a conference. Chinas government has been seeking to isolate Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory. It has stepped up military harassment of the island by flying fighter jets toward Taiwan, with a particularly large number of flights this past week. Abbotts comments were at a conference organized by a think tank backed by Taiwan's government. The Australian government has said his visit to Taiwan is unofficial. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen launched the forum with a more restrained speech, omitting any direct mention of China. She said Taiwan is fully committed to collaborating with regional players to prevent armed conflict in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait. Abbott said that two years ago, he hesitated to attend the meeting, called the Yushan Forum, for fear of provoking Beijing. China until recently was Australias biggest export market for coal and other commodities. Things have changed since then, he said, with Beijing tightening controls over Hong Kong and weaponizing trade against Australia. Beijing has imposed official and unofficial trade barriers against Australian products including wine, coal and barley following Australias call for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, essentially shutting down imports of these products. Abbott said the Chinese Embassy in Australia had issued a list of demands that essentially ordered that we become a tributary state. Be a friend, and youll have friends, be a bully and youll only have clients who cant wait to escape, Abbott said. He added, though, that collaboration is still possible, and trust could yet be rebuilt. Abbott represented Australia this year as a special trade envoy for India. He angered Beijing in August when he described a potential Australia-India free trade agreement as a signal of the democratic worlds tilt away China. Story continues Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday that Abbott had flown to Taiwan as a private citizen and took no message from the current government. However, the government granted him an exemption to a pandemic travel ban that keeps most Australians at home. Abbott was also accompanied at engagements by Australias top diplomat in Taiwan, Jenny Bloomfield, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. He hosted Chinese President Xi Jinpings state visit to Australia in 2014 and was the government leader when a free trade deal was finalized with China. The deal took effect in 2015 after Abbott was replaced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who addressed the same Taiwan forum online last year. Abbott said the most important thing is to ensure Taiwans self-determination. Chinese leaders have said they are determined to unite the island and the mainland, by force if necessary. He praised Taiwan's transition to democracy and its economic growth, and said Australia should not be indifferent if Taiwan were threatened. Abbotts trip coincides with a visit by a group of four French senators as part of a parliamentarian exchange with the island, who also praised the islands democracy and commented on the importance of stability in the region. Alain Richard, the senator who led the visit, said France is committed to maintaining "stability, open communications, free navigation in the Indo-Pacific region. The senators' visit faced Chinese pressure as well. Asked about recent Chinese pressure and flights by fighter jets toward Taiwan, Richard said these were messages of threats" that both Taiwan and the powers committed to stability" in the region understood clearly. Abbott called on other countries in the world to support Taiwan in the face of such threats. Our challenge is to try and ensure that the unthinkable remains unlikely and that the possible does not become the probable, Abbott said. Thats why Taiwans friends are so important now, to stress that Taiwans future should be decided by its own people and to let Beijing know any attempt at coercion would have incalculable consequences. ___ Associated Press videojournalist Taijing Wu contributed to this report. Arizona Republicans have admitted that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in a free, fair and accurate election in the state in 2020. Election officials from Maricopa County, the states most populous, told Congress that a review of 2.1m ballots did not find the debunked widespread fraud claimed by the defeated one-term president. Those GOP officials testified to the House Oversight Committee that Mr Biden beat Mr Trump by 45,000 votes in the county, and overall won the state and its crucial 11 electoral votes by more than 10,000 votes. The election of November 3rd, 2020, in Maricopa County was free, fair and accurate, said Jack Sellers, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Maricopa County is the second-largest voting district in the United States of America. I sit before you today as a Republican who was voted into office in November of 2020. Mr Sellers was elected to a four-year term. And the boards vice chairman, Bill Gates, warned about the repercussions for democracy if politicians refused to accept electoral results. This is without a doubt the biggest threat to our democracy in my lifetime, said Mr Gates. If elected officials continue to choose party over truth, then these procedures are going to continue on these privately funded, government-backed attacks on legitimate elections. I dreamed of one day going to a nation that was trying to build a democracy, and help them out. Perhaps a former Soviet republic like Belarus or Tajikistan. I never could have imagined that I would be doing that work here in the United States. The officials were called to testify after Arizonas state Senate hired Florida firm Cyber Ninja to carry out a review of the countys election results. And in the end that review actually found 350 more votes for Mr Biden. The tax-payer funded review cost the county $400,000 and Doug Logan, the chief executive of Cyber Ninjas, declined an invitation to appear before the committee. Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, told the committee that even the GOP election leaders in Maricopa County believed they had overseen the most secure, verified election in our history. Story continues They have told us that the attacks on the election are a scam to keep people angry and donating, said Mr Raskin. They have said that the attacks on the election are lies. They have explained to us that the elections in Arizona were free, fair and accurate and that Joe Biden won by more than 45,000 votes. And yet still, we have people today in this hearing trying to perpetrate the big lie, which their own concocted audit itself discredited. Mr Raskin then asked lawmaker Andy Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, who had won the 2020 election. We dont know, the congressman replied as he still refused to acknowledge Mr Bidens victory. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Police in Georgia detained four protesters on Friday outside a prison holding ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, local media reported, a week after he was jailed after returning from exile and calling for post-election protests. Saakashvili, who was sentenced in absentia in Georgia in 2018 for abuse of power and concealing evidence when he was president, returned to the country ahead of last weekend's municipal elections after spending years abroad. His supporters staged a rally outside the prison near the capital, Tbilisi. They clashed with police as they tried to paint the words "Freedom for Misha" -- his nickname -- on a fence surrounding the facility, the Sputnik Georgia news outlet reported. The ex-president's supporters have pledged to continue rallying to call for his release. Saakashvili declared a hunger strike after being jailed on Oct. 1. His lawyer said he was in good spirits but that his health had begun to deteriorate and that he had lost a lot of weight, RIA news agency reported on Friday. Saakashvili, who led the Rose Revolution in 2003 that ended the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze, is a charismatic figurehead for some in the opposition, but is derided as a clown by detractors in the ruling Georgian Dream party. Georgian Dream won 46.7% at the local elections https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/georgia-ruling-party-takes-lead-local-voting-amid-political-crisis-2021-10-03 last weekend, beating the United National Movement opposition party founded by Saakashvili that received 30.7%. Nika Melia, chairman of UNM, is set to take part in the second round of Tbilisi's mayoral election on Oct. 30. (Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber; Editing by Frances Kerry) The armed passenger who died in a gunfire exchange with police officers aboard an Amtrak train, where theyd just uncovered a massive amount of marijuana, has been identified. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Mike Garbo was fatally struck and another two officers were wounded when the violence unfolded at a Tucson train station on Monday. The suspect, identified as Darrion Taylor on Thursday, was also killed in the gun battle. Police said the 26-year-old took refuge amid the shootout inside the double-decker trains second floor bathroom, where he was later found dead. Medical Examiner Dr. Gregory Hess said Taylor died from gunshot wounds of the trunk and extremities. He noted that they were not self-inflicted. A regional task force of DEA agents and police officers, including Garbo, boarded the Sunset Limited, Train 2 traveling from Los Angeles to New Orleans at the time as soon as it arrived at the station in Tucson just before 8 a.m. Theyd been called to the scene to investigate tips regarding a number of passengers traveling out of California. A quick search of the train turned up backpacks containing a total of 2.39 kilograms, or over 5 pounds, of raw marijuana, 50 packages of Gooberz edibles and other marijuana and cannabis products, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities were in the process of detaining the bags suspected owner, identified earlier this week as Devonte Mathis, when the shooting started. Mathis was arrested and faces federal charges of knowingly and intentionally possessing with the intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana, according to the complaint. His relationship to the gunman is unclear. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., hasn't changed his mind on the filibuster, which he supports. WASHINGTON President Joe Biden's far-reaching plan to expand the social safety net and address climate change takes direct aim at the fossil fuel industry through a series of proposals to wean the country off oil, gas and coal that contribute to climate change. It has an obstacle: Sen. Joe Manchin. The West Virginia Democrat from coal country, who opposes efforts to quickly phase out fossil fuels as Biden's plan calls for, has already come out against a key part of the bill that would reward utilities that speed up their transition to clean energy and penalize them if they don't. "The transition is happening," Manchin told CNN recently, citing the growth over the past 20 years of renewable energy as a share of the electric grid. "Now they're wanting to pay companies to do what they're already doing. Makes no sense to me at all." In the evenly divided Senate, Manchin's words matter because he holds enormous sway over the Democratic caucus and, therefore, the Biden agenda. His opposition to an aggressive phase-out of fossil fuels is causing heartburn for environmental advocates who hope climate provisions remain intact as Biden's bill is pared down to appease moderates like Manchin. Since January, Manchin a moderate Democrat in the Senate has been instrumental in killing a plan to raise the federal hourly minimum wage to $15 (he wanted $11) and limiting wealthier households from receiving payments in the president's COVID-19 relief bill. He has been a deciding factor on Biden Cabinet appointments, with his thumbs up (Interior Secretary Deb Haaland) or thumbs down (budget director nominee Neera Tanden). Recently, he and Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema got Biden to scale back the price tag of his $3.5 trillion budget bill funding social safety net programs by more than $1 trillion after they raised concerns about the size and scope. The budget bill's environmental pieces include, among other things, a penalty for electricity suppliers that do not transition fast enough to clean energy; a fee on methane; a major expansion of electric vehicle charging stations; and help for nonprofits and local governments to bring cleaner energy to underserved communities. Story continues So environmentalists worry when Manchin touts the benefits of natural gas, an abundant resource in his home state (sixth in the nation in natural gas production). Although It's cleaner than coal or oil, natural gas usage would face significant reduction under the Biden plan because it emits greenhouse gasses that warm the planet. "Natural gas has helped manage prices and reliability," Manchin said last week during a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which he chairs. "We have vast reserves of this commodity right in our backyard that can continue to support our energy independence." More: Democrat dust-up over infrastructure underscores Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema's hold on Biden's agenda Manchin's history of supporting the fossil fuels industry, a significant economic driver in his state, worries at least one key senator who is demanding the dramatic action to combat global warming that the science community says is necessary to protecting the planet. Does Sen. Manchin not believe what the scientists are telling us, that we face an existential threat regarding climate change and that it is absolutely imperative, that we move boldly to cut carbon emissions?" Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., told reporters Wednesday. "Does Sen. Manchin not believe that our children and grandchildren are entitled to live in a country and in a world that is healthy and is habitable? "I'm really hopeful that Sen. Manchin will see the interests of West Virginia's people in fighting climate change. They're as much harmed by it as anyone," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. "I'm hoping he'll come around." Will Manchin dig in on Biden's climate policies? Manchin's ability to make Biden come significantly down on the size of his budget bill has environmental activists concerned the West Virginia senator could compel the president to scale back on the climate provisions as well. The House Energy and Commerce Committee adopted those provisions last month as part of a bill that would enact Biden's plan. "I think you would have to be living in a bubble to think that there aren't going to be some changes from what the House Committee approved," said Matthew Davis, senior director of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters told USA TODAY. "That said, I think Sen. Manchin understands that one in three people in the United States have felt the impacts of climate change this summer and that includes folks in his state. The flooding that they've experienced this spring has been severe and has really opened a lot of eyes." Biden and Democratic leaders have been meeting with Manchin over the past few weeks to cut a deal on the bill. But compromise has been difficult especially because progressives in Congress contend that $3.5 trillion is not enough to address the nation's social, economic and climate needs. But Manchin is not willing to go along with a phase-out of fossil fuels, doubling down instead on the importance of an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy that assumes a mix of renewable and fossil fuel sources. "It makes no sense to take tools out of the toolbox because we know that none of these energy resources are 100% immune to weather disruptions, whether that be freezing wind turbines, disruptions to our natural gas production and delivery systems, or frozen coal stockpiles all of which we saw happen last winter," Manchin said during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last week. "We have to maintain a diverse and reliable energy mix with the technologies necessary to reduce our emissions. Manchin's clout derives from both his chairmanship of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and his standing as the most conservative member of a 50-50 Senate that Democrats only control by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote. If Manchin digs his heels in on climate, some fellow Democrats say they have no plans to back down either. Environmental activists rally on Capitol Hill for climate change policies on Sept. 24, 2021. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., one of the leading climate voices in the Senate, said he feels "pretty good" that the final bill will go far to address global warming. "There are a considerable number of senators who feel very strongly abut this issue, enough to offset any Manchin effect," he said. "Everyone knows what he's said about it but at the end of the day what matters is overall total emissions effect of the package that we put together." Sanders aside, most Democrats in Congress have been careful not to criticize Manchin openly during a delicate phase of negotiations over Biden's climate proposals. Instead, they say the West Virginia senator can be convinced to support certain measures provided they help his Mountain State constituents. More: 'Worst is yet to come': Disastrous future ahead for millions worldwide due to climate change, report warns "What we have to do is make sure that states like West Virginia, and fossil fuel-dependent states benefit the most from the clean technology investments," said Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and leading progressive. "What I've said is we should sit down with Senator Manchin and others, and see what he needs for his State of West Virginia in terms of clean tech jobs. And if the bill has more clean tech jobs going to a state like West Virginia than California because of their historical dependency on fossil fields. I'm fine with that." Some environmental advocates are optimistic as well that Manchin can be swayed, in part because of the mounting toll that a warming planet has exacted in all corners of America, including West Virginia. Most of the state has warmed one-half to one degree Fahrenheit in the last century and heavy rainstorms are becoming more frequent, according to the EPA. "Manchin needs to realize that the fossil fuel industry is about to keel over and we refuse to let it drag the rest of us down with it," said John Noel, senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace USA. "Congress cannot fall for big oils false choice between a healthy economy and a healthy planet." President Joe Biden announced "climate change is here" while touring areas devastated by the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Ida. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said Manchin was always going to be a key player on the climate debate because he chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. So far, Schatz said he's optimistic Manchin can be convinced to support many of the climate-related provisions. "These issues are hard," the senator from Hawaii said. "You know Joe comes from a different state than I do but there are good-faith negotiations happening. What climate provisions are in the $3.5T budget bill? The bill as written addresses climate in several ways. The centerpiece is the creation of a $150 billion Clean Electricity Performance Program, which would require electricity suppliers that do not transition fast enough to clean energy (4% increase per year) to pay a penalty. That's the program Manchin was referring as unnecessary during his CNN interview. More: Joe Manchin suddenly seems to influence everything Washington does. The West Virginia senator says he wants to make Congress work again The goal of the program is to power at least 80% of the nation's electric grid through clean energy sources by 2030, or about double the current share. But industry advocates argue that penalizing utilities for not moving fast enough will leave less money for them to make the transition climate activists want. And Manchin points out that the share of renewable energy sources in the power grid has risen from 9.5% two decades ago to about 20% in 2020 without the pressure of a federal program. "We have proven that. And we will continue to transition," he told CNN while also warning that accelerating the volume of wind and solar sources "could be very, very vulnerable to the reliability" of the power grid. Biden's proposal also includes billions to expand electric vehicle charging stations, help manufacturers transition to clean energy sources and assist states in setting up clean energy transmission networks. It also aims to "de-carbonize" federal buildings and fleets, and provide clean energy grants for nonprofit organizations and local governments in historically underserved communities. The bill also includes a proposed fee on methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more damaging than carbon dioxide, targeted at the oil and gas industry. More: Joe Manchin suddenly seems to influence everything Washington does. The West Virginia senator says he wants to make Congress work again The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the climate provisions Sept. 15 but the overall bill enacting Biden's plan remains stalled in the House awaiting a deal from Manchin, Sinema and the White House. The climate crisis is worsening by the day, and we must confront it with historic investments in clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction to help meet our aggressive climate goals," House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. said in a statement provided Wednesday to USA TODAY. Energy, fossil fuels in particular, is crucial to West Virginia Manchin hails from a state known for its energy production, which is rooted in fossil fuels. West Virginia ranked fifth among the states in total production in 2018, accounting for 5% of the nation's energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 2019, it was the second-largest coal producer in the nation (after Wyoming) and coal-fired electric power plants accounted for 91% of the state's electricity net generation. More: Earth is 'dimming' because of climate change, research suggests. Experts say it's 'concerning' Manchin's fellow West Virginia senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, said the climate provisions in Biden's proposal would put coal miners in her state out of work. And she assailed the plan as far too aggressive, unrealistic and costly considering 60% of the nation's energy grid still relies on fossil fuels to operate. "This rushed reconciliation package doesnt allow time for any sort of transition," she said Tuesday on the Senate floor. "Wind and solar energies still have serious gaps theyre growing, yes but they still have serious gaps in reliability and stability. When the wind stops blowing and the sun isnt shining, our country still relies heavily on coal and natural gas and nuclear." Scott Segal, an energy lobbyist from Bracewell who represents utility companies, said Manchin's positions have always been grounded in what he views as the best interests of his home state. "At the end of the day, he doesn't want an energy policy that excludes sources of baseload power production, like natural gas or coal," Segal said. "He wants a policy that improves our energy portfolio. And that might mean including more renewables, but it might also mean finding pathways for continued use of fossil fuels." Contributing: Savannah Behrmann This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Manchin's coal advocacy's impact on Joe Biden's budget bill Netflix sure hopes you'll be home for the holidays this season ... as in, staying at home to watch all of the end-of-year Christmas (and other programs) it has in store. And on Wednesday, the steaming service dropped an early present: a lineup that includes (according to a news release): "28 new holiday additions, 11 festive films, 6 series that sleight, 5 gifts for the family, 3 Vanessa Hudgens, 2 Elves on Shelves, all in 1 merry sneak peek jubilee." Sure, it's only October, but the end of 2021 is coming on fast, so get out your notebooks and start making your list right now! Holiday Films Coming Down the Chimney "The Claus Family" Holiday-hating Jules learns about his family's magical legacy when his grandfather falls ill, and he's the only one who can save Christmas. (Nov. 1) "Love Hard" A single Los Angeles journalist jumps on a flight to the East Coast to surprise her crush for the holidays ... but finds she's been catfished by an equally unlucky-in-love man. And yes, it's a romantic comedy! (Nov. 5) "The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star" After a priceless relic is stolen, Queen Margaret's (Hudgens) and Princess Stacy (also Hudgens!) enlist Margaret's look-alike cousin (also also Hudgens!) who teams with a man from her past to retrieve it. (Nov. 18) A BOY CALLED CHRISTMAS (Netflix) "A Boy Called Christmas" Ordinary kid Nikolas heads into the snowy north to find his father, who's on a quest to discover a fabled elf village. (Nov. 24) "A Castle for Christmas" An author (Brooke Shields) heads to Scotland to buy a small castle of her own, but the current owner (Cary Elwes) doesn't want to sell to a foreigner. They butt heads, but also manage to touch hearts. (Nov. 26.) "Single All the Way" Peter (Michael Urie) talks his BFF Nick (Philemon Chambers) into joining him for the holidays and fake a relationship. But Peter's mom has other ideas. (Dec. 2) Story continues "A California Christmas: City Lights" A year after Callie and Joseph fell in love, they're now running a dairy farm and winery, but business and family obligations call him back to the city and threaten to derail their romance. (Dec. 16) Also worth checking out: Nov. 7 "Father Christmas is Back" Coming in December "A Naija Christmas" Dec. 6 "David and the Elves" Dec. 22 "Grumpy Christmas" Dec. 24 "1000 Miles from Christmas" Series Wrapped In a Bow "Christmas Flow" Christmas romance blooms between a famous rapper and a journalist, but can they make it work? (Nov. 17) "Blown Away: Christmas" A spectacular Holiday showdown on the glass blowing competition series will award a winner and the charity of their choice $10,000 each. (Nov. 19) "School of Chocolate" You'll love the final exam in this class, as eight pastry and chocolate pros come to the School of Chocolate to bring their careers to the next level. The winner of Best in Class will receive a prize package with a career-altering opportunity. (Nov. 26) "The Great British Baking Show: Holidays" (Season 4) Deck the halls with sugar, butter and chocolate in this special add-on episode from the flakiest pastry lovers we know. (Dec. 3) Also worth checking out: Nov. 28 "Elves" Coming in December "How to Ruin Christmas" (Season 2) Related: The Korean thriller adds a deadly twist to some childhood classic games all in the pursuit of a top $38 million cash prize. Family Sized Fun ROBIN ROBIN (Netflix) "Robin Robin" This stop-motion holiday musical comes from "Wallace and Gromit" and "Shaun the Sheep" creators Aardman. A robin's egg rolls into a rubbish dump, and the bird that emerges is raised by mice. (Nov. 24) "Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas" This 30-minute special features the mischievous sheep in his own winter tale as Timmy goes missing. Can Shaun get him back before he's someone else's present? (Dec. 3) "StarBeam: Beaming in the New Year" When all of StarBeam's enemies team up on New Year's Eve, Zoe trains Zane to be the next family superhero. (Dec. 14) Also worth checking out: Nov. 1 "An Elf's Story" "Elf Pets: Santa's St. Bernards Save Christmas" "My Dad's Christmas Date" Nov. 14 "Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You" Nov. 15 "Snowbound for Christmas" Nov. 23 "Waffles + Mochi's Holiday Feast" Nov. 30 "Charlie's Colorforms City: Snowy Stories" Happy holidays! International Criminal Court judges on Friday said they asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the ICC's governing body for assistance in identifying who represents Afghanistan at international bodies, Reuters reports. Driving the news: The request comes after the ICC said Friday that it can't make a ruling on a request by the court's prosecutor to resume an investigation into alleged war crimes of Afghanistan. Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free. "The request cannot be legally adjudicated without addressing the question of which entity actually constitutes the state authorities of Afghanistan since 15 August 2021," the ICC wrote on Friday, per Reuters. The ICC asked for a determination from Guterres and the court's governing body on which group officially rules Afghanistan from an international law standpoint by Nov. 8. The United Nations has not yet determined who should represent Afghanistan at the UN following the Taliban's swift takeover of the nation. What they're saying: The judges in a written ruling wrote: "For several reasons including the fast pace of relevant developments, and the short time elapsed since they materialized, there is still a large margin of uncertainty as to the legal implications of those events, including for the purposes of international law and international relations," per AP. Go deeper: Afghanistan did not address UN General Assembly after dispute Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free. On Wednesday, a shooting at a North Texas high school thrust Mansfield ISD onto the national news. Throughout the day, members of the community faced a situation theyve trained for countless times, but still were never really prepared to face. Based on Star-Telegram interviews, court documents and social media, this is an account of the lockdown and evacuation at Timberview High School. School day begins First period went by normally at Timberview High School, a two-story, 416,000-square-foot campus with about 1,900 students. At about 8:55 a.m., student Dylan Jones talked with Timothy Simpkins during passing period. Jones, 16, said he and Simpkins are not exactly friends, but they were cool. Dylan and a group of students were considering skipping the second period and grabbing burgers at MOOYAH, a restaurant about seven minutes from the school. But Simpkins said no, and they ended up not skipping. Simpkins did not seem angry or upset when they were talking, Jones said. We were gonna get burgers, Dylan said. If he had said yes to the burgers, this wouldnt have happened. The shooting Second period began at 9 a.m. Simpkins was inside his class in the English department, according to an arrest warrant affidavit from Arlington police. As the period began, another student, a 15-year-old identified by his family as Zacchaeus Selby, walked into the classroom and started to fight with Simpkins, witnesses said. Video of the fight shows Simpkins, wearing a light-colored sweatshirt, bent over as the other student hits him repeatedly. The two topple into a black bookshelf, scattering papers and large, white letters spelling the word READ to the classroom floor. Students can be heard yelling in the background for help. Teachers and coaches rushed into the classroom to break up the fight, the arrest warrant said. Two of the teachers were Calvin Pettitt and Pariesa Altman, both English teachers. As staff tried to contain the fight, the 15-year-old student ultimately gave up and stopped being combative, the arrest warrant said. As the 15-year-old was being restrained, Simpkins walked to an orange backpack. Simpkins pulled out a handgun, according to the arrest warrant, pointed it at the other student and fired. Story continues Selby fell to the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. His family said he was shot four times. Multiple shots were heard across the school; the exact number witnesses told police they heard varied from three to eight shots. Pettitt was shot and Altman was injured in a fall during the commotion, according to police. A third student was grazed by a bullet. Inside other classrooms Meanwhile, classes nearby heard the sounds of fighting and screaming. Mario Gonzalez, a senior, was in the classroom below where the shooting happened. He and his classmates heard fumbling around above them and thought there must be a fight. Suddenly, he heard six shots ring out. The class could hear screaming and people running around above them. Video from one classroom shows people jumping to their feet and yelling at the bangs echo through the room. About a minute later, an warning sounded over the schools intercom the school was on lockdown. My daughter just texted me that there was a school school shooting at Timberview H.S. In Mansfield ISD in Arlington, TX. She sent this video thats out. Her nearby school is on lockdown also, and we hear police sirens rushing in. Police confirm there is an active shooter. Praying pic.twitter.com/m90QzZUfTz Nerissa Knight (@nerissaknight) October 6, 2021 Catherine Esquivel heard fighting from her classroom. Her teacher opened the door to take a look in the hallway, and thats when they heard the gunshots. Her teacher shut the door quickly and locked it. She didnt tell us what to do we knew exactly what to do from the drills we have always done, 16-year-old Catherine said. And she put tables in front of the door and we hid. Jaylene Maldonado, a sophomore at Timberview, was a hallway away from the room where the gunfire broke out. Our class could feel the vibration of the shots fired and it was really loud, so it was really scary, Jaylene said. In Kaleb Coss classroom in the English department hallway, the class reacted as soon as they heard gunshots. They ran into the corner and hid, he said, just like they have practiced in drills. They could see shadows moving around in the hallway. They heard crying and screaming from other rooms, but the students in Kalebs room kept quiet. People were crying in our class, too, he said. Just very quietly. Students started to text their parents about what was going on. Hey bro if anything happen I love you, Mario texted his brother. We got a school shooter. Catherine texted her mom to tell her there was an active shooter, and that she loved her. She told her to tell her siblings she loved them, too. She started to pray. It was just the scariest moment of my life, Catherine said. I was praying to myself, Lord, keep me safe and keep other people safe. At 9:15 a.m., the police were dispatched to the school. We are looking for a shooting suspect in todays incident at @mansfieldisd Timberview School. Please call 911 if you know the whereabouts of 18-year old Timothy George Simpkins who may be driving a 2018 Silver Dodge Charger with license plate PFY-6260. pic.twitter.com/npaNVBDXRp Arlington Police, TX (@ArlingtonPD) October 6, 2021 Students and teachers barricaded the doors. At 9:25 a.m., teacher Dale Topham posted a photo on Facebook of chairs and desks stacked on top of one another in front of his classroom door. Students texted one another and circulated a video of the fight that preceded the shooting. Rumors were rampant as students waited for whatever came next. Waiting during lockdown Hours ticked by as students waited inside their classroom and multiple police departments secured the building. Officers quickly determined the suspected shooter had left the campus, Arlington police said. Word spread among students that the active shooting had ended. In Kalebs classroom, after about an hour of waiting in the corner of the room, kids started to talk a little more normally as they waited to be evacuated. The WiFi was shut off at the school by 11 a.m. Officers steadily went room to room checking on classrooms. One video on Instagram shows a group of officers opening a classroom door with flashlights held out in front of them. Hands up, hands up, an officer says in the video as police turn on the classroom lights. Anybody injured? Anybody come in or out after shots were heard? Sean Larry said police came into his classroom with guns and flashlights about an hour after the lockdown started. The police talked to students and staff, but told them they could not leave yet. Police steadily searched each student for weapons and led them out to waiting school buses. Each students ID was scanned. Some students were given pizza in Styrofoam to-go boxes. As they got onto the buses, students were able to text their parents again, who were anxiously waiting about six miles away at the established reunification center. Parents wait, pray Sherry Fragale is an assistant principal at a school near Timberview. She first knew something was amiss when her campus school resource officer ran out of the building on Wednesday morning. She texted her son, Hayden Smith, and asked him if he was OK. Kandy Schiele got a text from her son, a freshman at Timberview, around 9 a.m. while she was at work. He said, Mom, Im scared, Im scared right now. Im on lockdown, she said. He said, As soon as lockdown is over, please come get me and dont make me go to school tomorrow. Parents across the city left their jobs to pick up their students. Some, like Marcus Lomax, drove directly to the school to try and pick up his daughter. He had texted her at 9:41 a.m. when he heard about the shooting on the news but did not hear back. He was sent to the reunification center along with the other family members. He did not hear back from his daughter until 12:15 p.m. I was just praying that she wasnt one of the ones who got shot, he said. Traffic was already backed up at the Mansfield ISD Center for the Performing Arts on Debbie Lane at 10 a.m. Police officers blocked off several lanes of traffic and waved cars through to the large parking lot. Staff and law enforcement officers directed people to the front of the building, where a line was forming on the steps. Parents and other family members were told to have their IDs at the ready to pick up their children. Volunteers from nearby churches handed out water and snacks to the hundreds of people waiting in the heat. As the day went on, several people fainted and needed medical attention from medical crews. Parents pick up their children at Mansfield school districts Center for Performing Arts after a shooting at Timberview High School Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, in Mansfield. The first students arrived at the center at about noon; some of the buses were held up by traffic on Highway 360. Relieved parents and family members met their kids behind the main entrance to the building and walked them to their cars in the parking lot. Some students seemed shaken. Other teenagers talked animatedly with one another and their family, detailing what they had been through. Some families stopped to talk to reporters, who were mostly relegated to a patch of grass on the side of the parking lot. In some classrooms, students waited for hours to be evacuated. In Kalebs classroom, students started to complain about having to go to the bathroom. Someone had brought in a bag of candy, and the students shared it among themselves. Kaleb said someone pulled on the door handle to their classroom at one point he believes it was the police. After about four hours, police came into his classroom to evacuate them. He was reunited with his mom, Ariana Coss, at the center at 3:40 p.m. At about 5 p.m., the last of the students and family members left the parking lot. Aftermath When Dylans brother picked him up at the reunification center at about 1:30 p.m., he still could not believe that he had been talking with Simpkins just minutes before the shooting. I just cant believe he would crash and burn like that, Jones said. He was cool before. I didnt think he was going to do what he did. But he did. Dylan said Simpkins and Selby used to be friends with one another, but were not friends anymore. He did not know what they were fighting over. Sean found out sometime during the day that the student who was shot and the shooter are two of his friends. He said the 15-year-old is always good to me all the time and is always the life of the party, really fun to be around. On Wednesday, Sean said he was hoping to visit his friend in the hospital soon. As of Thursday, the 15-year-old was in critical condition, police said. School was canceled for the rest of the week for Timberview and will resume Tuesday. The district set up counseling services in-person and virtually for students, staff and families Thursday to help individuals begin to process what has happened. Some students were already thinking about how the shooting would impact them in the future. While she stood in the parking lot with her mom Wednesday, Catherine said she hopes to share her experience for people who have gone through this, and for people who are going to go through this. I can be the person who says, Its going to be OK, you just have to be strong, she said. Reporter Jessika Harkay contributed to this story. Insulate Britain have blocked Old Street roundabout in central London (PA) Protesters from Insulate Britain have blocked a junction of the M25 motorway and a major road in central London, sparking fury among motorists as emergency services vehicles were obstructed. The climate activists said about 40 demonstrators are sitting on the road at junction 25 of the M25 at Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, and on the A501 at Old Street roundabout. The group was set up with the ambition of improving the quality of UK homes - something they say is fundamental to achiev[ing] the British Governments climate change, fuel poverty and water reduction targets. The protests have provoked much furore social media after images and videos of the protests emerged online showing ambulances being slowed down by the blockade. In response, Insulate Britain said: Our policy is, and has always been to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with blue lights on. The protests caused long queues of rush hour traffic on Friday morning. Insulate Britain admitted its actions on the M25 are in breach of an injunction obtained by the Government last month. Tracey Mallagan, a spokeswoman for the group, said: If governments dont act soon to reduce emissions, we face a terrifying situation. We wont be worrying about shortages of pasta or loo rolls because law and order breaks down pretty quickly when there is not enough food to go round. The Government wont be wondering if there are enough hospital beds or ventilators, but whether there are enough people left to bury the dead. The Government is destroying our country. Boris Johnson should be taken to court for treason. Our flesh and blood are being tossed aside as expendable. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has since hit out at members of Insulate Britain, calling them glued fools who are absolutely wrong to launch fresh demonstrations. He told LBC: Its dangerous, its really outrageous, and actually, ironically, it probably adds to pollution as cars idle, waiting for their nonsense for them to be unglued from the road. Story continues He said: Existing laws need toughening up to get these glued fools off the road, and the Home Secretary has said she will do that in the Crime and Sentencing Policing Bill that is going through Parliament. In the meantime, I have been applying actively for court injunctions, which cover the national highway network around London, around the South East. Now these people can go to jail for what theyre doing. I very much imagine that the courts will take very dimly of the view that theyre ignoring a court injunction. It can be unlimited fines, it can be six months in jail, we have been actively serving door-to-door individuals over 100 have been served. And I think well start to see the courts take a very, very dim view and lock some of these people up, it is unacceptable. He added: I can tell you that those injunctions may well have been breached and people may be going to prison as a result. Read More Sierra Nevada lakes change more in past 100 years than three millennia How the climate crisis played a role in fueling Hurricane Ida Against the odds: The fight to save sea turtles in Ras Baridi Netflix subscribers call for removal of Dave Chappelle special mocking trans people Katherine Ryan says she regrets shaming sex workers who slept with her exes Sarah Silverman criticises long tradition of casting non-Jews in Jewish roles Associated Press Chinese coast guard ships blocked and sprayed a powerful stream of water at two Philippine boats carrying supplies to troops at a disputed South China Sea shoal, prompting Manila to order Beijings ships to back off and warn that its supply vessels are covered by a mutual defense treaty with the United States, Manilas top diplomat said Thursday. Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said no one was hurt in the incident on Tuesday, but the two supply ships had to abort their mission to provide food to Filipino forces occupying Second Thomas Shoal, which lies off western Palawan province in the Philippines internationally recognized exclusive economic zone. Locsin said in a tweet that the three Chinese coast guard ships actions were illegal and urged them to take heed and back off. New York City restaurant Spencer Platt/Getty Images The latest U.S. jobs report is another big disappointment. The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 194,000 jobs in September, below economists' expectations that around 500,000 jobs would be added, CNBC reports. The unemployment rate declined 0.4 percentage points to 4.8 percent. "Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in retail trade, and in transportation and warehousing," the Labor Department said. This comes after the U.S. jobs report for August also came in significantly under expectations. The Labor Department said last month that 235,000 jobs were added in August when economists had expected around 720,000, though this number was revised on Friday to 366,000. Both reports came amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in the United States driven by the more contagious Delta variant. Ahead of the newest report's release, Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao wrote that "many economists had hoped that September school reopenings would unlock parents to return to the workforce" but that "the resurgence of the pandemic seems to have dashed those hopes." Still, the Times notes that the latest report was based on data collected in the middle of September and that COVID-19 cases have started to decline since then, so Zhao observed that it's a "glimpse in the rearview mirror" and that there's "still a case for optimism in the coming months." You may also like 'Wholly inappropriate': Kyrsten Sinema responds to Arizona State University bathroom confrontation Afghans reportedly escaped Kabul through a CIA gate so secret not even the Taliban knew it existed Jimmy Fallon and Nicole Kidman almost make it through an interview without residual awkwardness from dating miss Oct. 7A Lebanon man faces rape and kidnapping charges stemming from an incident that occurred in May. According to a media release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Randall C. Johnson, 49, of Lebanon, was charged by a grand jury and arrested on Monday. Johnson's full list of charges include aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated assault. Per the Davidson County Criminal Court website, Johnson's bond was set at $76,000. He is scheduled to appear before Judge Cheryl Blackburn for an arraignment hearing on Oct. 13. Detective Amery Milligan led the investigation, which was reportedly aided by a citizen's tip. Per the release, on May 24 at approximately 2:45 a.m., the victim and a male acquaintance left a downtown Nashville bar. The black, four-door Chevrolet pickup reportedly had a front vanity plate that led the two to believe it was a rideshare vehicle like Lyft or Uber. The driver of the vehicle reportedly drove the two individuals to a "short-term rental on 9th Avenue North." According to the release, upon arrival, when the male exited the truck, he attempted to assist the victim getting out as well, but before he could, the driver sped off with the victim remaining inside. The victim told investigators that she was then driven to a field some 30 minutes away, where she was sexually assaulted before being taken back to Nashville and dropped off. A pro-Trump county's GOP wants an audit of the 2020 election results, despite the county's state senator expressing confusion over the need to verify votes in a county where former President Donald Trump won 65% of the vote. The Lexington County South Carolina Republicans passed a resolution this week calling for Republican leaders to produce a plan to investigate questionable activities in the 2020 presidential election, an idea state Sen. Katrina Shealy, who represents the county, called a waste of taxpayer money. I mean, who else is going to pay for that? Shealy asked. I mean, we won three [state] Senate seats, we won two [state] House seats, we turned back over a [U.S.] congressional seat, and Trump won 55% in the state and 65% in Lexington County. What are we looking for? TRUMP'S CHOICE: BUILD A 2024 CAMPAIGN OR BECOME 2020 BORE? The county GOP said in the resolution that voter rolls have not been sufficiently cleaned as required by law throughout the state, therefore, allowing for illegal votes via residency, citizens located on the death registry and other circumstances. But the South Carolina Election Commission said there is no evidence whatsoever to indicate the 2020 General Election was anything but fair, secure, and accurate, and election officials have repeatedly insisted votes were secure. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Trump and some of his supporters pushed the idea that the election was stolen to ensure the election of President Joe Biden, prompting numerous recounts and audits throughout the United States. These efforts have supported the original results, the most recent coming from a monthslong audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, that affirmed Biden's victory. The results of that investigation were referred to the state's attorney general last month. The Washington Examiner reached out to the Lexington County Republicans and Shealy but did not immediately hear back. Story continues Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, South Carolina, 2020 Elections, Voter Fraud, GOP Original Author: Virginia Aabram Original Location: 'What are we looking for?': GOP state senator questions party's calls for audit in county Trump won handily Lucas Digne has pulled out of Frances Nations League squad due to injury (Bradley Colyer/PA) (PA Wire) Everton defender Lucas Digne has withdrawn from the France squad due to a minor hamstring injury. Left-back Digne, 28, was an unused substitute in Frances Nations League win against Belgium and will play no part in Sundays final against Spain Everton said on their official website: The Everton left-back will return to USM Finch Farm to be assessed by the clubs medical team. Digne was on the bench for Frances 3-2 Nations League semi-final victory over Belgium in Munich on Thursday night and will now miss the world champions final clash against Spain on Sunday. The French Football Federation added in a statement: Lucas Digne felt a little muscle pain on Tuesday during training. He was taken care of by Les Bleus medical staff. But with his presence Sunday evening for the final of the League of Nations against Spain in Milan being impossible, the defender will leave the group on Friday. Digne has been an ever-present for Everton in the Premier League this season under manager Rafael Benitez and played the full 90 minutes for France in their World Cup qualifiers against Bosnia & Herzegovina and Ukraine last month. QUINCY, Mass. A Massachusetts lawyer is suing the online retailer Amazon, alleging false imprisonment, after he was blocked in by one of the company's delivery drivers for two to three minutes while he was working as a ride-share driver. Matthew Donnelly is asking a judge to award him $150,000 for the loss of his freedom of mobility and for anxiety and humiliation. Donnelly, who is representing himself in the lawsuit, said in court documents that he picked up a rider at a restaurant in Falmouth, Massachusetts, on Sept. 7 and was about to back out when an Amazon delivery van pulled in behind him. Donnelly got out of his car and tried to confront the driver, who told him to wait a few minutes. Most of the parking lot was empty, Donnelly said in court documents. A second delivery person was in the passenger seat and Donnelly asked him to move the van. The man refused and told Donnelly to wait, he said in court documents. Season of giving: Your holiday mail service will be slower and more expensive this year. These charts show why. An Amazon delivery truck heads out of online retail giant's fulfillment center on Industrial Road in Milford, Mass., recently. Two to three minutes later, the delivery driver walked out of restaurant and Donnelly told him he was going to file a complaint, he said in court documents. The delivery driver told Donnelly that their boss wouldn't care and mocked him as they left the parking lot, Donnelly alleges. Donnelly is suing the two delivery employees for a civil conspiracy to commit an unlawful act, Amazon for its liability for employing the two drivers and Amazon and the two employees for false imprisonment. Amazon has not filed a response and no court dates have been set. The Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School defines false imprisonment as confining someone against their will, with no way to escape that does not cause physical harm. Donnelly said he would not comment on his lawsuit because he doesn't have the names of the two delivery drivers. Amazon did not return a request for comment. More: A FedEx driver claimed he would not deliver to homes with BLM flags. Now he's out of a job Follow Wheeler Cowperthwaite on Twitter: @WheelerReporter. This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Amazon, delivery drivers sued by Mass. lawyer for false imprisonment Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images, Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Jannique Martinez says that since July, her family has had to endure recordings of loud, screeching monkey noises and recordings of racial slurs directed toward their Virginia Beach, Va., home every time they leave or enter their residence. Martinez who is Black claims her neighbor has set up motion sensors to detect the familys movements and harass them. But police, citing no physical confrontation or verbal threats, have said there is nothing they can do. This week, following national news attention, Martinez said the loud noises coming from her neighbors home have finally stopped. But, she says, the neighbor continues to display dizzying strobe lights. I feel like it shouldnt have to be violent to be against the law, Martinez told Yahoo News. She also says that the neighbor still has eight cameras pointing at her home. This isnt about me, Martinez said. Racism affects so many people in this country. ... No family should have to live with this kind of harassment. Martinez says it began in 2017 when her neighbor began playing loud music, about a year after the Martinez family moved into a cul-de-sac in the Salem Lakes neighborhood. This past July, Martinez called local police to file a noise complaint after hearing what she describes as deafening music coming from the neighbors home. Virginia Beach, Va. (Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) The situation then got much worse, with the neighbor allegedly beginning to play loud sounds of monkeys. The family says they often heard the N-word coming from the neighbors home. Earlier this week, footage of the neighbors home complete with pulsating lights, loud banjo music and clips of South Park characters saying the N-word went viral on social media. Martinez says her 7-year-old son is frightened by the neighbor and would ask what the N-word meant because he heard it so often. But when Martinezs family reached out to police to end the alleged harassment, they were told the neighbor had not broken any laws. As appalling and offensive as the neighbors behaviors are, the city attorney and Virginia magistrates have separately reported that the actions reported thus far did not rise to a level that Virginia law defines as criminal behavior, the Virginia Beach Police Department said in a statement last month. This means the VBPD has had no authority to intervene and warrants were not supported. Story continues The VBPD did not return Yahoo News request for comment. Martinez believes if the roles were reversed, or if she were a different skin color, there is no doubt something would be done. I feel like if we were a white family, a lot more would have been done, she said. Some legal experts say that police can, in fact, intervene in the case. Kim Forde-Mazrui, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, believes the police inaction on the outrageous situation is a cause for concern. He also says that the neighbors alleged behavior may run afoul of the fighting words doctrine that allows the government to sometimes step in when language could incite violence. Forde-Mazrui said that police should attempt to stop the alleged harassment and let the courts decide from there. Courts read that [doctrine] narrowly ... but if you understand the nature, I think its reasonably likely this could cause the family to react. A sign for the Virginia Beach Municipal Center in Virginia Beach, Va. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images) But other law enforcement experts say that bringing a hate crime case against the neighbor could be tricky. You can walk a fine line and not cross over into something actionable, Dana Schrad, executive director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, told the Washington Post. This neighbor knows exactly how to walk the line, but it doesnt make his actions any less harmful to the family. Meanwhile, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring told the Post on Wednesday that the neighbors alleged behavior is unacceptable and that his departments Office of Civil Rights had been in touch with Martinez. The situation has roiled Virginia Beach. Michael Berlucchi, a member of the City Council, said last week at a town meeting that while the neighbors alleged harassment may be legal, its not right. The safety and dignity of everyone in Virginia Beach has to be prioritized, Berlucchi told Yahoo News. And Berlucchi said that while some of his colleagues have publicly denounced the alleged actions of the neighbor, others have not. [Black people] should feel safe in every neighborhood, he added. We really need to make sure that everyone knows that the city wont stand for this, and Im committed to that. Berlucchi said police have received a verbal agreement from the neighbor that the noise activity will stop, but Martinez says other harassment continues. Other neighbors have also come to Martinezs defense. Nine complaints have been filed against the neighbor, mostly for noise violations and parking complaints, according to WAVY News. So far, however, the neighbor has not been charged with a crime. Virginia Beach, a coastal city in southeastern Virginia, is home to nearly 500,000 people. About 66 percent of its residents are white, while 19 percent are Black. Two of the 11 City Council members are Black, although the city has traditionally been dominated by white politicians. Virginia Beach also has a history of racial unrest, including a riot in 1989 that damaged scores of businesses. Police in riot gear prepare to move down Pacific Avenue in Virginia Beach, Va., on Sept. 4, 1989. (Getty Images) Martinez credits her 11 years of military experience in helping her keep her cool in the ongoing confrontation with her neighbor. The calmness and levelheadedness has been embedded with me through my military career, she said. You are constantly being tried and tested and you have to maintain your military bearing. ... I [also] worked really hard to get where I am, and I cant let one person who is a coward get the best of me. Martinez says her immediate community and family have been supportive in helping her navigate this ordeal, but she maintains that something needs to change. Police could have done more ... but they have a choice not to, she said. The issue is really what the law will enforce and what it wont. I feel like racism is not an issue in this country because it doesnt affect white people, she added. It affects us in a country that was never for us. Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images, Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Just a few are at the two lowest levels, including the Dominican Republic and Cayman Islands (AP) As winter approaches and travellers start dreaming of warm weather, the Caribbean beckons. But 19 months into the pandemic, much of the region is struggling with the delta variant surge and insufficient access to the coronavirus vaccine. Late last month, the Pan American Health Organization warned that health systems in some Eastern Caribbean islands were becoming overwhelmed with the increase of cases and shortages of workers and supplies. The majority of destinations in the Caribbean as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas are characterized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as Level 4 because of very high rates of Covid-19, which means the public health agency recommends avoiding travel. Those countries and territories include such popular spots as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Aruba, the U.S. Virgin Islands and, as of Monday, Barbados. In all, more than 20 destinations are listed as Level 4. Another handful including Anguilla, Bonaire, Turks and Caicos, and Trinidad and Tobago are Level 3, which means Covid-19 is high and only vaccinated people should visit. Just a few are at the two lowest levels, including the Dominican Republic and Cayman Islands. The road to recovery in the region is not smooth, Neil Walters, acting secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, said in an emailed statement. The changes in the health situation and the ever-shifting travel arena could create much turmoil. The tourism group said that in the first half of the year, international tourist arrivals to the Caribbean reached 6.6 million down 12 per cent from the first half of 2020, and more than 62 per cent from 2019. But some destinations have seen growth. In the Bahamas, for example, visitation through August increased nearly 50 per cent from last year to more than 612,000 as airlines increased service. I. Chester Cooper, Bahamas deputy prime minister and the minister of tourism, investments and aviation, said in an emailed statement that the country is optimistic that a robust holiday season is possible. Story continues Throughout this pandemic we have had to pivot and evolve to strike the delicate balance between protecting the health and safety of our citizens and visitors and creating opportunities that enable our vital tourism economy to begin recovering, he said. That is the balance the entire region has been trying to find as destinations have reopened with a variety of entry procedures. In the Caribbean, tourism is our bread and butter, so we really needed to ensure that we are able to keep our borders open, said Vanessa Ledesma, acting CEO and director-general sceptical of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association. Everything we can do to mitigate the impact, we will continue to do so. In some countries, that means vaccine requirements, quarantines, mandatory testing, travel insurance coverage - or some combination of those rules. The hotel and tourism association maintains a grid online with various protocols to try to help potential visitors keep track. We know its been challenging and we have lobbied for harmonization across the region as much as possible, Ledesma said. Every destination has different limitations or requirements. That can be confusing for travellers who are trying to choose from a region with more than two dozen destinations - and just as many different mandates for entry. That lack of consistency has added complexity and concern for clients, said travel adviser Mike Salvadore, of 58 Stars Travel. And many clients are concerned that policies will change quickly, and they may be stuck or lose their investment, he said in an email. One thing that isnt really discouraging visitors, Salvadore said: travel advisories. While there was a dip of interest in the summer after Europes reopening and during hurricane season, he said interest in the region moving into the fall and holiday period is robust. Caribbean travel was the first to see a resurgence in early 2021, and while most destinations continue to maintain a level 4 status with the CDC, it hasnt kept travelers away, Salvadore wrote. Within the Caribbean, the foreign travel advisories are viewed with some frustration. Ledesma wrote last month that the industry has gone to great lengths to protect visitors and those who work in the tourism industry. Clive Landis, who chairs the Covid-19 task force at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, said the recent change from Level 3 to 4 in Barbados doesnt change anything about entry or exit protocols. We wonder what the value of it is, he said. Landis said the region has been skeptical of the travel warnings, especially when they are applied to countries that have overall low case rates such as Anguilla. More important, he said, is helping those destinations get all the vaccine doses they need. I think here in the Caribbean, our record even now with the surge of the delta variant is still, in terms of cases per capita ... well below the US, Landis said. Its not as if theyre stepping into some kind of a hot spot that theyre not used to in their own country. WASHINGTON POST Read More Economists fearful as a dismal 194,000 US jobs added in September Biden called hospital as friends wife couldnt be admitted because it was crowded Indigenous Peoples Day: Why many Americans celebrate it instead of Columbus Day Robert Durst looks out at the gallery in a Los Angeles courtroom during his murder trial. Prosecutors in New York will seek criminal charges against Robert Durst in connection with the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathie McCormack, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation. The Westchester County district attorney's office will convene a grand jury within the next few weeks to weigh charges against the 78-year-old, who was convicted of murder in Los Angeles last month, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. During a five-month trial in Inglewood, L.A. County prosecutors repeatedly invoked McCormack's disappearance as the motive behind Durst's decision to gun down his close friend, Susan Berman, inside her Benedict Canyon home in 2000. Police have long believed that Durst killed McCormack in 1982 and that Berman placed a phone call that obscured the timeline of her disappearance. The Westchester County district attorney's offices and Durst's lead defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office declined to comment. The convening of the grand jury was first reported by News 12 in Westchester, and later by the New York Daily News. Westchester County Dist. Atty. Miriam Roach reopened her office's investigation into McCormack's disappearance when she took office in 2021, and publicly commended prosecutors for winning a conviction against Durst in Los Angeles last month. Otherwise, she has said little publicly about the case. Durst is scheduled to be sentenced in Berman's killing on Oct. 14. Since the Los Angeles jury upheld the special circumstance allegation that Durst killed Berman because she was a witness to another crime, he can only be sentenced to life without parole or death under California law. Los Angeles County prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty against Durst, so he must face a life sentence. Story continues The convening of a grand jury is the latest twist in a four-decade-long legal saga that has seen Durst face two criminal trials after being linked to three separate deaths and vanishings in New York, California and Texas. Durst was arrested for Berman's murder in 2015, but it took nearly six years to bring him to trial. Over the course of 11 weeks, prosecutors meticulously laid out their case against Durst, claiming he shot Berman to cover up the death of his wife 19 years earlier. By his own admission, Durst had abused McCormack, physically and emotionally. Prosecutors argued that Durst killed his wife in 1982 inside their home in South Salem in Westchester County. The next day, a woman called a dean at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Manhattan, where McCormack was studying to become a doctor. The caller identified herself as McCormack and told the dean she was too ill to come to class. That caller, the prosecution argued, was Berman. At the same time, Durst made calls from a pay phone in Ship Bottom, N.J., a beach town close to the states Pine Barrens forest, where prosecutors believe he disposed of McCormacks body. Durst has long denied having any role in either his wife's disappearance or Berman's murder. During 15 days of dramatic testimony during his Los Angeles trial this year, Durst said that he discovered Berman's body and alerted authorities to her death. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A transgender Dear White People showrunner is writing a Dear John letter to Netflix. Jaclyn Moore, the showrunner for Netflix's Dear White People, said on Wednesday she will no longer work with the streaming service after watching Chappelle's The Closer. Moore, who was born male but identifies as a woman, condemned the special, saying she could not work for a company profiting off of "blatantly and dangerously transphobic content." BILL MAHER SAYS AUDIENCES HUNGRY FOR MOCKING 'WOKENESS' Moore, who described Chappelle as "one of my heroes," took offense to several anecdotes in the comedian's special, such as "compar[ing] my experience to someone doing blackface" and "end[ing] his special with a 'but I had a trans friend' story." "He's not listening. Those words have real world consequences. Consequences that every trans woman I know has dealt with. Bruises and panicked phone calls to friends. That's real," Moore wrote. Chappelle is enjoying the reaction to his special, saying at Los Angeles's Hollywood Bowl, "If this is what being canceled is like, I love it." F*** Twitter," Chappelle told the crowd. "F*** NBC News, ABC News, all these stupid-a** networks. I'm not talking to them. I'm talking to you. This is real life. Chappelle's special, which premiered Tuesday, featured the comedian defending Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, whom he said was canceled for identifying herself as a "TERF," or "trans-exclusionary radical feminist," in 2019. "Gender is a fact," Chappelle said in the special. Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. That is a fact. Now, I am not saying that to say trans women aren't women, I am just saying that those p*****s that they got you know what I mean? I'm not saying it's not p***y, but it's Beyond P***y or Impossible P***y." Story continues While some criticized Chappelle's special, saying the program was traumatic for transgender viewers, others applauded Chappelle's defiance of cancel culture. "Dave Chappelle seems to have figured it out. They can't cancel you if you don't let them," writer Mark Hemingway tweeted. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Dear White People, a liberal series touching on U.S. race relations, was renewed for a fourth and final season of 10 episodes that were released on Netflix on Sept. 22. Chappelle has released a handful of specials on Netflix since 2017. He has also released stand-up specials on other platforms, including HBO and YouTube. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Netflix, Race and Diversity, LGBT, Comedy Original Author: Asher Notheis Original Location: Netflix's transgender Dear White People showrunner to boycott streaming platform due to Dave Chappelle's 'transphobic' special Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin, the two major party candidates to become Virginias next governor, participated in a roundtable discussion with WAVY News 10 anchors Anita Blanton and Andy Fox that aired on Thursday evening. The event came in the form of separate interviews of the two candidates, whose answers went unedited. Here are a few notable excerpts from the event: McAuliffe Wont Admit Fault on 2000 Election McAuliffe went first and doubled down on 2000 election trutherism in his answer, refusing to admit that Republican George W. Bush fairly defeated Al Gore. Asked specifically if he believed the Bush was legitimately elected, McAuliffe responded thusly: Well we went through a very contentious 2000, if you remember. And I remind you it went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and it took them way through the second week in December to actually make a decision, and the Supreme Court for the first time in the history of our country stopped the counting of ballots in Florida, and overturned the local Florida Supreme Court. Pressed on the issue, McAuliffe would only concede that Yeah he got sworn in, once youre sworn in we gotta move on. McAuliffe has hammered Youngkin for indulging former president Donald Trumps 2020 election conspiracies, thought Youngkin has readily admitted that we not only need to move on but that Biden was legitimately elected. The only difference that the Democrat could cite between his thoughts on 2000 and some Republicans on 2020 was the involvement of the Supreme Court in the former case. And Doubles Down on Keeping Parents Out of Schools Presented with polling suggesting that by a nineteen point margin, Virginians believe parents should have more influence over classrooms than school boards, McAuliffe declined to back down from his assertion in a debate last week that he doesnt think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. McAuliffe tried to argue that his statement came in the context of a particular bill, which is true, but the two candidates were also discussing their broader philosophies on education policy at the time as well. During Thursdays roundtable event, he would only go so far as to say parents should be able to have input on matters of education. Story continues Notably, McAuliffe also told Blanton, an African-American, that even bringing up critical race theory (CRT) in the context of discussions about public school curriculums was racist and a dogwhistle, when she asked for a definition of the term. He refused to provide such a definition on the grounds that CRT is not taught in Virginia. McAuliffe professed to be in this race because of education. Youngkin Defends Comments about Abortion and Electability The first question posed to Youngkin had him address comments he made at a campaign event in which he told conservative voter, which have been featured in ads broadcast by the McAuliffe campaign. Youngkins words were When Im governor and I have a majority in the House we can start going on offense. But as a campaign topic, sadly, that in in fact wont win my independent vote that I have to get. So youll never hear me support Planned Parenthood. Asked directly if he would support taxpayer funding going to Planned Parenthood, Youngkin called himself pro-life except for in the cases of rape, incest, or when a mothers life is in jeopardy. He also called McAuliffe the most extreme abortion candidate thats ever run. When the Planned Parenthood question was repeated, Youngkin stated that he doesnt believe taxpayer funds should be used to fund abortions and that it depends on what the money is used for. A flurry of interruptions prevented him from answering in full. And Draws a Contrast on Critical Race Theory Like his opponent, Youngkin was asked to define critical race theory. Unlike McAuliffe, he did not decline to do so. Critical race theory is a political agenda and it is based on the idea that were going to separate everyone based on the lens of race and then were going to put people into buckets. He went on to allege that it was first introduced into Virginias school system during McAuliffes first term as governor between 2013 and 2017. Youngkin also decried the fact that were at a moment in time where were more divided than weve ever been before and echoed Martin Luther King Jr. in calling for a society where were judged by the content of our characters than the color of our skin. He also insisted that our entire history should be taught including that which is abhorrent. The Republican finished on the topic by asserting that the key thing is to teach our children how to think, not what to think. More from National Review Michigan police officer Kevin Coates made what at first seemed like a routine traffic stop last week. But video released by the Sterling Heights Police Department on Wednesday showed him and two other officers going above and beyond the call of duty to help a 79-year-old man in need. On September 30, Coates pulled over a man identified only as "David" for speeding, according to the police department. After exiting his vehicle, David told him that "everything's going wrong," and was "visibly upset" and crying. His wife was sick, he said, and their adult son had special needs. He had bought their family a new 50-inch television but he couldn't get it to work. "I bought a new television today because I wanted to make my wife happy," David said. "And I can't get it hooked up." When he was pulled over, he said, he had been driving between stores trying to find someone to help. Instead of a ticket, Officer Coates let David off with only a verbal warning, police said. He also told him he'd try to stop by later to help. Approximately an hour later, Coates and two others, Officers Remi Verougstraete and Jeremy Jaushevich, were at David's door, police said. After they connected the TV, the officers showed David how to navigate the channels. David told the officers he would have never been able to set up the TV on his own, and said how much he appreciated their help. Sterling Heights Police Chief Dale Dwojakowski praised the three officers for the act of kindness. "The officers involved did what so many officers across the country do every single day without a 'thank you' or accolades," Dwojakowski told CBS News in an email. "I believe this story struck a chord on the simple principle of taking care of one another. Sometimes we all need this lesson." Journalists awarded Nobel Peace Prize Annual yard sale funds woman's random acts of kindness Dozens killed in Afghanistan mosque bombing Kaylan Park, 10, returns to her seat next to her mother Kenyona "Sunny" Matthews, right, as she is applauded after speaking on supporting the school districts' mask mandate despite being repeatedly interrupted by opponents of the the mask requirement during a board of education meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 6. AKRON, Ohio The youngest person who spoke in favor of masks at Wednesday night's school board meeting in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, decided she wasn't going to let anti-maskers steal her thunder. Before 10-year-old Kaylan Park stepped up to the microphone at the contentious meeting, she had watched other pro-mask speakers get interrupted by heckles and boos from people who oppose the district's mask mandate. A couple of those opponents ended up walking out of the meeting in anger. Critics were protesting the district's decision earlier this month to extend its mask mandate until at least Oct. 29 to protect students and staff against COVID-19. But Kaylan, a fifth-grader, didn't let the tense environment intimidate her. 'Terrorism and hate crimes': School boards say death threats, unruly meetings require FBI A man yells at a speaker supporting the mask mandate as he walks out of the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 6. 'You guys should be able to know that masks save lives' "It is super weird to be here because adults don't think that their children should wear masks," Kaylan said when it was her turn to speak. "A lot of you guys are adults. You guys should be able to know that masks save lives." When some audience members voiced disagreement, Kaylan responded: "Can I please speak? Let me speak before you guys go off." Her demand was met with applause. But some audience members continued talking, which prompted Kaylan to say emphatically: "Please be quietIt's inappropriate that you guys can't stay quiet." Kaylan, who was wearing a mask bearing the message "Masks Save Lives," noted that donning a face covering is an act of kindness toward others. Opponents of the mask mandate repeatedly interrupted speakers in support of the mask mandate during a Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 6. "You're doing it for your safety," she said. "It's like kindness. My teacher tells me when you do something for other people, they can do it back. Wear a mask for them and they'll wear it back. Just wear a mask for kindness. You're showing kindness." Some audience members stood up and applauded and others were seen patting Kaylan on the shoulder after she returned to her seat. Story continues More: Shooting death of young California woman raises questions about armed school safety officers Board meetings typically occur in the high school library, but Wednesday's session was relocated to the Natatorium and police presence was requested after the previous meeting last month was cut short when several people refused to wear masks. Facial coverings are not required where the meeting took place. When discussing the mask mandate at the conclusion of Wednesday's meeting, Superintendent Dr. Todd Nichols pointed to Kaylan and said, "The reality is, I need to keep her in class." Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education President Karen Schofield said Kaylan's interaction with audience members served as a reminder that listening respectfully to different perspectives is an important element of civil discussions. "Whether you're a child or whether you're an adult, I think continuing to conduct yourself responsibly and respectfully is still an ingredient [of civil discourse] regardless of where you stand on a particular issue," Schofield said. "[Kaylan] just reminded us that to have civil discourse, one needs to listen respectfully." Follow Phil Keren on Twitter: @keren_phil This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio fifth grader stands ground against adults opposing masks A health worker applies a pad on the arm of a man after inoculating him against the coronavirus at a drive-through vaccination centre in the city of al-Wakrah, north of the capital Doha, on March 31, 2021. Anne Levasseur/AFP via Getty Images A study from Qatar found protection against asymptomatic infection with Pfizer's vaccine declines a few months after the second dose. Another Pfizer study from Israel showed neutralizing antibodies waning dramatically after 6 months. But Pfizer's protection against severe disease and death is still well over 90% for at least 6 months. People who get Pfizer's two-shot vaccine may still catch COVID-19 in the months after they are fully vaccinated - though those infections may be so mild they fly entirely under the radar. Two new studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, show that Pfizer's mRNA shots still remain effective in guarding against hospitalization and death for at least six months, though protection against milder disease as well as antibody levels can fall - or at least they did in the face of the Beta and Delta variants. The new findings affirm what Pfizer, Moderna, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have indicated in recent weeks - that the mRNA vaccines' ability to protect the body from coronavirus infection may wane over time, meriting a third shot. Strong protection against the worst things COVID-19 can do persisted for at least half a year A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination site in Doha on February 18, 2021. Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images In the first study, researchers in Qatar (a highly inoculated country with more than 82% of people fully vaccinated) investigated more than 900,000 PCR tests of people vaccinated with Pfizer (the most popular shot there), and found that their protection against any infection started to decrease markedly about four months after their second jab. The researchers found that Pfizer's protection against infection was "negligible" just after a first dose, rising to 36.8% three weeks later. When people then received their second shot, their vaccine protection jumped to 77.5% within about four weeks, and protection against "any severe, critical, or fatal case of COVID-19 increased rapidly," the researchers said, reaching 96% or higher in the first two months that people were fully vaccinated. Story continues That strong protection against the worst things COVID-19 can do to a person persisted for at least half a year. "No evidence was found for an appreciable waning of protection against hospitalization and death, which remained robust - generally at 90% or higher - for 6 months after the second dose," the researchers said. 'Protection against asymptomatic infection diminished more quickly' Meanwhile, Pfizer's protection against milder and more negligible COVID-19 infections declined. After people had been fully vaccinated for about five to seven months, the researchers observed Pfizer's vaccine effectiveness hovering around 20%, though only about a third of those infections were diagnosed "on the basis of symptoms," suggesting that many of them were silent, asymptomatic infections. "Protection against asymptomatic infection diminished more quickly than that against symptomatic infection, as would be expected in a vaccine that prevents symptoms," the researchers said. "These findings suggest that a large proportion of the vaccinated population could lose its protection against infection in the coming months." Other research from Qatar suggests that breakthough infections are less infectious than those in unvaccinated individuals, making them less likely to spread. The second NEJM study, conducted in Israel, looked at 4,868 healthcare workers who'd been fully vaccinated with Pfizer's vaccine. It reported that their neutralizing antibodies to COVID-19 are "substantially" lowered by six months after receiving their second dose of Pfizer's vaccine - a trend that's especially true for men, people over age 65, and people with weakened immune systems. Even so, only 20 of those healthcare workers had breakthrough infections during the study period, suggesting, again, that vaccine protection remains robust for many months after people get jabbed. It's normal for neutralizing antibodies to decline after vaccination, and neutralizing antibodies are not the only element of immune response that protects us from reinfection, but vaccines for other conditions such as mumps, measles, and rubella only show small decreases of about 5% to 10% each year in neutralizing antibody levels, the researchers said. Read the original article on Insider WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland summoned the Belarusian charge d'affaires on Friday, a foreign ministry spokesman said, after border guards accused the Belarusian side of shooting at Polish soldiers patrolling the frontier. Poland has imposed a state of emergency on the Belarusian border amid a surge in migrants from countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq trying to cross, in what Brussels and Warsaw say is a form of hybrid warfare designed to put pressure on the bloc over sanctions it imposed on Minsk. "A Belarusian patrol fired shots at Polish Army soldiers who are patrolling the border with us," the state-run PAP news agency quoted Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska as saying. "It was probably using blank ammunition. Nothing happened to anyone." Foreign ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina said the charge d'affaires Alaksandr Czasnouski had been summoned to discuss "provocations" from the Belarusian side on the border, including the reported shots. As he left the ministry Czasnouski denied there had been any shooting at the border. In August, Poland began building a barbed wire fence along its border with Belarus to curb illegal border crossings despite criticism that some migrants were being treated inhumanely. Poland plans to strengthen its border with a system of motion sensors and cameras, modelling it on the Greek border with Turkey, its interior minister has said. (Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Gareth Jones) (Photo/US Dept. of the Interior) President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021 that will restore the original boundaries of Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monuments, the White House confirmed Thursday evening. Late in his presidency, President Barack Obama proclaimed Bears Ears a national monument that included about 1 million acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and 290,000 acres managed by the US Forest Service. President Obamas proclamation came to fruition as the result of strong advocacy by the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalitionmade up of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe and Pueblo of Zuni. The coalition advocated successfully to protect the cultural, historic, and natural values of the monument. The Grand Staircase-Escalante was declared a national monument by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Both sites are considered sacred by American Indian tribes in the region. In 2017, by presidential proclamation, President Donald Trump ordered an 85 percent reduction of Bears Ears and about 50 percent reduction in size of Grand Staircase-Escalante. The intention was to open up energy exploration in the areas reduced in size. The area subsequently saw a rash of exploitation and abuse by vandals, commercial interests, and misinformed tourists. At the beginning of his administration, President Biden issued through Executive Order 14008 a review of the two national monuments by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland visited both national monuments in April for fact-finding purposes before making her recommendations to the president. While there she met with tribal, state and local leaders who had opposing views. I am proud to stand with President Biden in restoring these monuments and fulfilling his commitment to the American people, said Secretary of the Interior Haaland in a statement. On my visit to Utah, I had the distinct honor to speak with many people who care deeply about this land. The historical connection between Indigenous peoples and Bears Ears is undeniable; our Native American ancestors sustained themselves on the landscape since time immemorial and evidence of their rich lives is everywhere one looks. This living landscape must be protected so that all Americans have the profound opportunity to learn and cherish our history. Story continues With the proclamation, President Joe Biden will overturn these measures taken by the Trump administration. Further, the proclamation will demonstrate President Biden took the recommendation Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), the first Native American presidential cabinet secretary, presented to the president in a report in early June. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, praised the Biden administrations decision to restore the national monuments to their original boundaries. President Bidens decision to restore full federal protection to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase Escalante and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monuments shows this administrations commitment to conserving our public lands and respecting the voices of Indigenous Peoples, Grijalva said. Its time to put Trumps cynical actions in the rear-view mirror, restore rightful protections, and restart the Bears Ears co-management arrangement with the tribes who have held this place sacred since time immemorial. The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) represents the Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in their efforts to have the monuments restored. President Bidens proclamation will roll back unpopular and illegal efforts to rip away needed protections for these ancestral lands and cultural resources. The regions Native Nations joined together and fought long and hard to safeguard Bears Ears. We look forward to seeing one of the countrys most sacred landscapes properly protected, and we look forward to seeing that it happens in a culturally appropriate way, NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Campbell said in reaction to President Bidens expected action. About the Author: "Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net." Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net In new partnership campaign with Novo Nordisk called, Its Bigger than Me, Latifah works to change the conversation around obesity Queen Latifah is a rapper, singer, producer and award-winning actress. She is also one of the Black communitys most beloved icons. Her statuesque height made her a powerful presence in the hip-hop community. She has, however, rarely addressed her voluptuous shape. In a new partnership campaign called, Its Bigger than Me, with the pharmaceutical giant, Novo Nordisk, Latifah is working to change the way we talk about obesity. The 51-year-old Hollywood veteran and the company hope to ease the stigma often placed on larger people, as well as the self-shame that can accompany obesity. Instead, they plan to focus on issues like hormones and biology which are frequent causes of obesity. Queen Latifah attends the BET Awards 2021 at Microsoft Theater on June 27, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images) In a series of short videos that are styled like television shows, Latifah plays several characters always coming back to address the stigma of obesity. She told ESSENCE, If theres something we can spark with one of these shorts, with one of these videos, that stops someone from saying something insensitive or stops someone from hurting themselves with their own words that they say to themselves internally, then were making a difference. In the interview with the legacy Black womens publication, Latifah recounted her own battles with accepting her larger size as well as convincing others to accept her in her rise to stardom in Hollywood. I remember when I was doing Living Single, the word came down that we needed to lose weight, and it was like, what? she recounted. Now mind you, we have the number one show among Black and Latino, Latinx audiences, at the time. And we have a hit show and youre telling us we need to lose weight. Telling us this exactly. Why are you telling us this? We look like real people. We look like real women. We all look different. And those are the kind of things that come to you that can chip away at your self-esteem. Story continues Living Single (Credit: Fox) Latifah noted that at the time, nothing changed in Hollywood, but that the experience did make her cognizant of adverse opinions toward overweight women. She noted that with the Its Bigger than Me campaign, she hopes to change the narrative about obesity and encourage obese women to love themselves wherever they are in their health journey. The beloved entertainer also addressed her own journey to self-love telling the publication, And around 18, I just remember looking in the mirror and I said to myself, I was like, Dana, you have a choice. You are either going to choose to love yourself, or youre going to choose to hate yourself. What you going to do? And I chose to love myself. It really is a journey into self-love for those of us who are going through it, she said. And it is a journey of love for those who care to find their way into a new narrative. Have you subscribed to theGrios Dear Culture podcast? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today! The post Queen Latifah recalls Living Single cast being told to lose weight appeared first on TheGrio. Members of both parties expressed frustration during a House committee hearing this week on a federal report critical of Missouris foster care system. Almost a thousand children went missing at some point from foster care in 2019 in Missouri, according to a report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The report stated thousands of children nationwide will be missing from their foster care placements on any given day and those children often experience adverse outcomes. In August 2019, OIG agents joined the Department of Justice and local law enforcement in Missouri metropolitan areas to locate children who were missing from foster care. Concerns by agents prompted an evaluation. Foster care programs receive federal funding and oversight from the Administration for Children and Families. The 35-page report found Missouri doesnt have policies for identifying children who may be at heightened risk of going missing or interventions to reduce the risk. The agency reviewed 59 cases in detail and found: Missouri rarely demonstrated attempts to reduce childrens risk of going missing. The majority of the children going missing (49 of 59 children) had risk factors associated with a higher risk of going missing. Missouri rarely provided these children with services to reduce their risk from going missing as only seven of 49 case files indicated the children received those services. Missouri failed to protect children who went missing and didnt effectively use resources to assist in locating them. The report stated these children were exposed to a heightened risk for sex trafficking and poorer outcomes related to health, safety, education and involvement in the criminal justice system. State Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold and chairman of the committee on children and families, stated near the end of the two-hour hearing her frustration with the first witnesses, Acting Department of Social Services Director Jennifer Tidball and Interim Childrens Division Director Joan Rogers. Story continues What I heard was a department that has left the hearing early that didnt have answers to the questions we were asking, Coleman said. I'm really disappointed at what I'm seeing in Jefferson City. I do not know enough to know what's happening on the front line except to see that children are hurting. And there are people on this dais who are furious. Tidball and Rogers produced 2016 documentation from a previous administrator allowing caseworkers latitude in documenting risk of children fleeing foster care. We wanted to show this is a pervasive practice, Rogers said. As a result, you do the work but documenting it in our system of record is optional. Ranking minority member Keri Ingle, D-Lees Summit, disputed the practice from personal experience. I was working in the Children's Division at the time this came out and that was definitely not what was expressed by our program managers and administrators, Ingle said. I'm aware of the huge change in structure, but I'm not seeing that change in documentation. It was definitely not optional. Tidball said Accenture, a consulting company, is conducting a comprehensive review of the department. Compensation packages for caseworkers are being reviewed and compared to compensation of private partners. I wanted to let you know, for the record, that those are things that we are working on right now, Tidball said. I want to be able to say that this is the work you've asked for when you asked about staff. We will have a thoughtful, thorough review to lay that out. Rep. Dottie Bailey, R-Eureka and vice chair of the committee, used the harshest language to address the situation. We have a real problem, a huge problem, Bailey said. We need to get protocols and we need to abide by state and federal law because, for one, we might not get funding. If this goes on and more kids are sex trafficked from foster care, what do we do? So those two things are extremely, extremely disturbing. We've sat here a whole year at these oversight committee hearings and it's the same thing over and over: I don't know. I have to go back and check. That doesn't cut the mustard. Kids are getting made prostitutes and I do not like it. I don't know where we go from here, but it's all in this report. And it's just disturbing. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Missouri, State Original Author: Joe Mueller | The Center Square Original Location: Representatives, sparked by critical federal report, express frustration with leaders of Missouri's foster care system MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has asked the U.S. embassy in Moscow to lift the diplomatic immunity of three of its staff suspected of stealing things from a Russian citizen, the Interfax news agency quoted the foreign ministry as saying on Friday. If the United States refused to lift their diplomatic immunity, the three employees would have to leave Russia immediately, the foreign ministry was cited as saying. Earlier this week the Russian foreign ministry said a U.S. congressional proposal to expel 300 Russian diplomats from the United States would lead to the closure of U.S. diplomatic facilities in Russia, if implemented. U.S. Democratic and Republican senators urged President Joe Biden on Tuesday to expel Russian diplomats if Moscow did not issue more visas for Americans to represent Washington in Russia. Interfax, citing a source with Russia's law enforcement, reported earlier on Friday that three U.S. citizens from the Moscow embassy under the influence of alcohol stole a backpack from a Russian national on Sept. 18. The Moscow police identified the three men as servicemen of the U.S. Marine Corps aged 21 to 26, Interfax reported, citing police spokesman Vladimir Vasenin. The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. (Reporting by Andrey OstroukhEditing by Andrew Osborn and Howard Goller) Councilmember Kathy Lambert sent the mailer below to thousands in her district. Given that every police-related policy Ive supported has had majority Council approval, I wonder why she singled out and used her only Black colleagues face for fear mongering on the East Side. pic.twitter.com/ckXHmSmuVQ Girmay Zahilay (@GirmayZahilay) October 6, 2021 A county council member in Washington is being criticized after a mailer was deemed "racist" and "xenophobic" by members of the county's legislative body. King County Council member Kathy Lambert's campaign is accused of sending out a mailer portraying her challenger, Sarah Perry, as a "socialist puppet" controlled by others, according to images of the mailer posted to Twitter. The Washington Examiner reached out to Lambert but did not receive a response. Those controlling Perry in the image included Vice President Kamala Harris; Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent; and two local officials, County Council member Girmay Zahilay and Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant. COLUMBUS DAY CANCELED: BOSTON'S ACTING MAYOR CHANGES TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY IN CONTROVERSIAL EXECUTIVE ORDER "I wonder why she singled out and used her only Black colleague's face for fear mongering on the East Side," Zahilay said Wednesday on Twitter. Zahilay reportedly believed the mailer was the product of an outside group and asked Lambert to denounce it. He was "livid" when he discovered her campaign had made it, Zahilay said. "Painting the Black elected official with a foreign-sounding name as an enemy to suburban and rural values is nothing new," he said in a tweet thread. "In my 2 years on the Council the number of racist and xenophobic messages, and even threats, I get weekly has been alarming. It's sad that my own colleague would fuel these attacks for cheap political points in a race that I'm not even in." Story continues The mailer was unsurprising and part of a smear campaign, Perry said in a tweet Wednesday. "My opponent is currently engaged in a shocking smear campaign against me, choosing fear mongering and racist tropes over substance," Perry said. "Her conduct is not surprising, but still disappointing nonetheless. When someone shows you who they are, believe them." My opponent is currently engaged in a shocking smear campaign against me, choosing fear mongering and racist tropes over substance. Her conduct is not surprising, but still disappointing nonetheless. When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Elect Sarah Perry (@PerryElect) October 6, 2021 Democratic members of the council said the mailer has no place in either public or private discourse, according to a joint statement. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER "Planning, authorizing and mailing a communication like this betrays ignorance at best, deep-seated racism at worst," they wrote. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Racism, Washington, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Twitter, Campaigns Original Author: Luke Gentile Original Location: Seattle-area council member's campaign mailer deemed 'racist' and 'horrifying' Senate Democrats voted Thursday night to raise the nations debt limit by $480 billion, a short-term fix to postpone until December the threat of economic disaster that had been looming later this month, when the Treasury Department was set to exhaust the extraordinary measures it has been employing to keep paying the governments bills. The 50-48 party-line vote came after 11 Republicans joined with Democrats to overcome a GOP filibuster and allow the debt limit increase to advance, enabling Democrats to approve it with a simple majority. Securing those 11 GOP votes reportedly required a furious whipping effort by Republican leaders. But the weeks-long political drama surrounding the debt ceiling increase didnt end there. Because of course it didnt. Schumer sparks criticism: Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) had teed up the final vote with a short speech from the Senate floor tearing into the GOP. Republicans played a dangerous and risky partisan game, and I am glad that their brinksmanship did not work. For the good of Americas families, for the good of our economy, Republicans must recognize in the future that they should approach fixing the debt limit in a bipartisan way, he said. I thank, very much thank, my Democratic colleagues for our showing our unity in solving this Republican-manufactured crisis. Despite immense opposition from Leader McConnell and members of his conference, our caucus held together and we have pulled our country back from the cliffs edge that Republicans tried to push us over. Republicans complained about the partisan nature of Schumers remarks, as did Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat. Seated behind Schumer during the speech, Manchin could be seen shaking his head and burying his face in his hands before walking away. Manchin reportedly told Schumer his speech was f---ing stupid. Manchin denied dropping an f-bomb but told reporters that he didnt think the comments were appropriate. We have to de-weaponize, he said, adding, Civility is gone and Im not going to be part of getting rid of it. Im going to try to bring it back and I speak out when I see someone do something I dont like. Whats next: The House is set to take up the debt limit extension on Tuesday, and both parties will then resume their clashes over infrastructure and Democrats multitrillion-dollar social spending plans. But the two sides will be revisiting their battles over the debt ceiling issue within weeks. Republicans still insist that Democrats must use the budget reconciliation process to enact a longer-term increase in the borrowing limit on their own. Democrats still insist that wont happen. The coming battles may be even more fraught since former president Donald Trump and his allies are accusing McConnell of folding to Democrats on the issue, which will likely make Republicans even more wary of being linked to an increase. The next debt limit deadline, December 3, may also be trickier to navigate because it coincides with a recently established deadline to again fund the government and avoid a shutdown. Late November and December are going to be rough, Punchbowl News predicts. It seems exceedingly unlikely that Republicans will help Democrats with lifting the debt limit again -- no matter what Schumers world says. Then well really have a default crisis and a government shutdown showdown on our hands. Its possible, though, that the next debt limit deadline will actually come in 2022. An extra $480 billion on top of existing cash balances and extraordinary measures probably pushes the X date into February, tweeted Donald Schneider, an economist at Cornerstone Macro and former chief economist for House Ways and Means Committee Republicans. Either way, enjoy this brief intermission while it lasts. Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter. FatCamera / Getty Images/iStockphoto Keeping your grocery spending to $99 a month or less might seem impossible, but there are a few tricks to ensure your trips to the store only cost you $25 a week on average. By looking for deals both at the store and local businesses, and getting crafty about buying in bulk, you can keep your time and money spent in grocery stores relatively low. Find Out: Explore the Cost of Education in the United States Follow Along: 31 Days of Living Richer Switch to a Discount Grocery Store Look for stores like Grocery Outlet and Aldi near you and start shopping there. Discount stores often dont carry brand names and tend to have a smaller selection than bigger name stores, but restocking takes less time and you can find all the basics, like fruit. Reports have found that fruit such as melons can cost as much as $3 less a piece at Aldi versus a neighborhood grocery store. Learn: The Most Genius Way to Save Money on Groceries Next Year Buy in Bulk This might seem counterintuitive, since you have to spend more upfront, but buying in bulk saves you from having to spend money later in the month. For example, if you tend to make a lot of sandwiches with lunch meat, consider buying a full ham, turkey, or chicken and slicing it up instead. You can freeze what you dont use right away, which guarantees you wont have to buy meat next time youre at the store. You can also apply this thinking to items like butter, which might cost you $5 a pound at the grocery store, or $11 for 4 pounds if you buy at Costco. Though the membership stores have a yearly fee, the savings might be worth it. Check Out: Shopping Mistakes Youre Making and How To Stop Become a Coupon Guru Instead of ditching the weekly ads filled with coupons that arrive in your mailbox without a look, its time to start clipping them. But that doesnt mean you have to act like someone from Extreme Couponing. It just means you should seek out coupons for items you actually need, because scoring discounts is only useful if the items are practical. Ten cases of grape soda, for example, wont benefit your life in any way. Many grocery and warehouse stores like Costco offer a slew of samples one or more days per week. Aside from getting a free snack, the person passing out samples will also have a stack of coupons on-hand for those who like the product, so dont miss this opportunity to save money if you sample something youd like to buy. Story continues Think About This: 15 Times You Should Splurge, Settle or Skip When Shopping Go For Cheap Meals A 3-ounce, 12-pack of chicken or beef flavored Nissin Top Ramen costs $2.38 at Walmart a price youre probably not going to beat. Cheap meals dont have to be tasteless though, so mix your 19-cent pack of ramen with cheese, Sriracha, peanut butter, soy sauce, beans, frozen vegetables, Thai curry paste, eggs or a cheap cut of meat for a tasty and nearly balanced meal. Save Your Money: 11 Things You Should Never Buy New Check Expiration Dates While you should never eat something thats going to make you sick, you might be surprised at how often meats and vegetables go on sale just as theyre expiring. Andrea Woroch, a consumer and money-saving expert, recommended Allrecipes.com for when youre stumped on what to cook. The site allows you to plug in random items to make something out of whatever foods are in your fridge. Another way you can make sure you have double the food without doubling the cost is simply doubling the recipe. Many times, you have leftover ingredients by just making one serving of something, so double the recipe so you use all your ingredients have a second helping to save as leftovers. More From GOBankingRates Laura Woods and Megan Craig contributed to the reporting for this article. Last updated: Oct. 8, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How To Spend Just $99 on Groceries This Month Covington High School, LA: Student punches 64 year old teacher to the ground in unprompted attackpic.twitter.com/QOc0KELmUg Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) October 7, 2021 A student at a Louisiana high school was arrested after a video showed her allegedly attacking a disabled teacher that police believe may have been provoked by a disturbing "slap a teacher" trend that reportedly originated from TikTok. The Covington Police Department arrested Larrianna Jackson, an 18-year-old student at Covington High School, on charges of battery Wednesday afternoon. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS UNION WARNS SCHOOLS ABOUT 'SLAP A STAFF MEMBER' TIKTOK CHALLENGE The video, which is grainy and taken at an angle from across the classroom, allegedly shows Jackson approach the teacher, who is sitting at a desk. After conversing for a moment, the student starts to close-fist punch the teacher until she is on the ground, after which the video cuts off. According to a report published on the police departments Facebook, the 64-year-old teacher went to the hospital for injuries sustained during the attack. The report says the police may arrest more people involved in the attack. I was just devastated to know what our teachers go through on a day-to-day basis just to educate students, said St. Tammany Schools Superintendent Frank Jabbia in a statement to local news. For this teacher to be having a conversation with a student and then to be assaulted in this manner was very disturbing. TikTok denied that slapping a teacher is a current trend on its platform and said any videos depicting it would be removed. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER The rumored 'slap a teacher' dare is an insult to educators everywhere, Tik Toks communication account said on Twitter. And while this is not a trend on TikTok, if at any point it shows up, content will be removed. Story continues The rumored 'slap a teacher' dare is an insult to educators everywhere. And while this is not a trend on TikTok, if at any point it shows up, content will be removed. Learn more about practicing responsible behavior here: https://t.co/68VWesl9rf TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) October 6, 2021 The Washington Examiner was unable to reach the school district for comment. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, TikTok, High School, Attack, Louisiana Original Author: Virginia Aabram Original Location: Student arrested after allegedly attacking teacher in suspected Tik Tok trend CAIRO (Reuters) -Syrian air defenses intercepted an Israeli missile attack above the Homs countryside, injuring six soldiers and causing some material damage, official media said on Friday. Israeli military declined to comment. The attack occurred around 9:33 p.m. (1833 GMT), Syria's official news agency quoted a military source as saying. "The Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the military area of Al-Tanf with bursts of missiles towards the T-4 military airport in the central region," the source said, adding that the air defenses had brought down most of the missiles. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Rami AyyubWriting by Ahmad ElhamyEditing by Leslie Adler) DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad has allowed his exiled uncle Rifaat to return to Syria, pro-government Al Watan newspaper said on Friday, citing sources. "Rifaat Al-Assad arrived in Damascus yesterday, in order to prevent his imprisonment in France after a court ruling was issued and after the confiscation of his property and money in Spain as well," it added. Reuters could not immediately verify the Al Watan report. A former Syrian vice president who was sent into exile in the 1980s, Assad was living in France, where he was put under investigation for tax fraud and money-laundering. He was handed a four year jail sentence earlier this year that he was unlikely to serve because of his age but the ruling cleared the way for all his property in France to be seized. His properties in Spain were confiscated before that on the back of a money laundering investigation as well. Rifaat al-Assad is widely held responsible for the suppression of an Islamist uprising in 1982 against then-president Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father. Many thousands were killed. He left Syria after a failed coup against Hafez al-Assad in 1984. The al-Watan report cited sources as saying that he would play no political or social role. (Reporting by Kinda MakiehWriting by Ahmad Elhamy and Maha El DahanEditing by Sonya Hepinstall) TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan does not seek military confrontation, but will do whatever it takes to defend its freedom, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday, amid a rise in tensions with China that has sparked alarm around the world. Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, reported close to 150 Chinese air force aircraft flew into its air defence zone over a four-day period beginning last Friday, though those missions have since ended. Taiwan has complained for more than a year of such activities, which it views as "grey zone warfare", designed to wear out Taiwan's armed forces and test their ability to respond. "Taiwan does not seek military confrontation," Tsai told a security forum in Taipei. "It hopes for a peaceful, stable, predictable and mutually-beneficial coexistence with its neighbours. But Taiwan will also do whatever it takes to defend its freedom and democratic way of life." China says it is acting to protect its security and sovereignty, and has blamed the United States, Taiwan's most important international backer and arms supplier, for the current tensions. Tsai said that prosperity in the Indo-Pacific needs a peaceful, stable and transparent environment and there are many opportunities in the region. "But this also brings new tensions and systemic contradictions that could have a devastating effect on international security and the global economy if they are not handled carefully." Taiwan will work together with other regional countries to ensure stability, she added. "Taiwan is fully committed to collaborating with regional players to prevent armed conflict in the East China, South China Seas and in the Taiwan Strait." Taiwan has been seeking the support of other democracies as the stand-off with China worsens, and is this week playing host to four French senators and former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, though he is visiting in a personal capacity. Story continues Abbott, speaking at the same forum, condemned China for its aggressive actions, aimed not only as his country but also Taiwan. "Its relative power might have peaked with its population aging, its economy slowing and its finances creaking. It is quite possible that Beijing could lash out disastrously quite soon," he said. Abbott added that he did not believe the United States could sit by and watch China "swallow up" Taiwan. "I don't believe Australia should be indifferent to the fate of a fellow democracy of almost 25 million people." (Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Michael Perry) Tesla is moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, CEO Elon Musk announced at the companys shareholder meeting Thursday. The meeting took place at Teslas vehicle assembly plant under construction outside Austin on a property that borders the Colorado River, near the citys airport. However, the company plans to increase production in its California plant regardless of the headquarters move. To be clear, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California, Musk said. Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50 percent. If you go to our Fremont factory, its jammed. But, he added, Its tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away. ... Theres a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area. Regarding the plant in Austin, he noted that it would take some time to reach full production even once its completed. It takes Tesla less time to build a factory than to reach high-volume production, Musk said. For example, Teslas Shanghai plant was built in 11 months, but took a year to reach high-volume production. He expects Teslas new plant near Austin will follow Shanghais example. Musks growing dissatisfaction with California has been apparent for some time. In April 2020, on a Tesla earnings call, Musk lashed out at California government officials calling their temporary Covid-related health orders fascist in an expletive-laced rant. Later, Musk personally relocated to the Austin area from Los Angeles, where he had lived for two decades. Doing so enabled Musk, who is also CEO of aerospace company SpaceX, to reduce his personal tax burden and be closer to a SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. Teslas board granted Musk an executive compensation package that can earn him massive stock awards based on the automakers market cap increases and some other financial targets. If he sells options set to expire in 2021, he could generate proceeds of more than $20 billion this year, according to InsiderScore. Story continues California levies some of the highest personal income taxes in the country on its wealthy residents, but Texas has no personal income tax. Tesla is not the first company to its headquarters out of California to Texas. Oracle and Hewlett Packard are among the tech giants who decided to make that move last year, for example. Texas has been actively recruiting companies via its Texas Economic Development Act offering tax breaks to put new facilities in the state. Austin, with a top tech university and cultural events like South by Southwest, is a draw for tech employers. Making such a move is not particularly burdensome, explained business attorney Domenic Romano, managing partner of Romano Law in New York City. A Delaware business that has operated as a foreign corporation with headquarters in California, like Tesla has, could relocate its domicile by establishing a facility in a new state, hiring there and relocating key employees. They would not have to shut down operations in other states, although they typically do pare them back. From a legal perspective, theres less of a regulatory burden in Texas, Romano said. Its a more business- and employer-friendly state in many ways. You have to jump through far fewer hoops in Texas or Florida as an employer than you do in California in terms of reporting requirements and more. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the Tesla CEO supported his states social policies as well. However, Elon Musk declined to weigh in on Texas restrictive new abortion law after Abbott made that claim. In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness, Musk wrote on Twitter at that time. That said, I would prefer to stay out of politics, said Musk.Tesla has generally garnered a huge amount of support from the state of California since it was founded there in 2003. It has enjoyed grant funding, tax breaks, incentives and favorable policies from the likes of the California Air Resources Board, California Energy Commission and California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority, among others. While Movado Group, Inc. (NYSE:MOV) might not be the most widely known stock at the moment, it saw a decent share price growth in the teens level on the NYSE over the last few months. Less-covered, small caps sees more of an opportunity for mispricing due to the lack of information available to the public, which can be a good thing. So, could the stock still be trading at a low price relative to its actual value? Lets take a look at Movado Groups outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if the opportunity still exists. See our latest analysis for Movado Group Is Movado Group still cheap? Great news for investors Movado Group is still trading at a fairly cheap price according to my price multiple model, where I compare the company's price-to-earnings ratio to the industry average. In this instance, Ive used the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio given that there is not enough information to reliably forecast the stocks cash flows. I find that Movado Groups ratio of 10.29x is below its peer average of 18.74x, which indicates the stock is trading at a lower price compared to the Luxury industry. However, given that Movado Groups share is fairly volatile (i.e. its price movements are magnified relative to the rest of the market) this could mean the price can sink lower, giving us another chance to buy in the future. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for share price volatility. What does the future of Movado Group look like? Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the company's future expectations. With revenues expected to grow by a double-digit 13% in the upcoming year, the outlook is positive for Movado Group. If the level of expenses is able to be maintained, it looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation. Story continues What this means for you: Are you a shareholder? Since MOV is currently trading below the industry PE ratio, it may be a great time to increase your holdings in the stock. With a positive outlook on the horizon, it seems like this growth has not yet been fully factored into the share price. However, there are also other factors such as capital structure to consider, which could explain the current price multiple. Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on MOV for a while, now might be the time to make a leap. Its prosperous future outlook isnt fully reflected in the current share price yet, which means its not too late to buy MOV. But before you make any investment decisions, consider other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to make a well-informed investment decision. If you'd like to know more about Movado Group as a business, it's important to be aware of any risks it's facing. For example, Movado Group has 3 warning signs (and 1 which is concerning) we think you should know about. If you are no longer interested in Movado Group, you can use our free platform to see our list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. Oct. 8Gerald Peregoy of Toledo did not hesitate to interfere when he saw a robber threaten a female pharmacy cashier with a revolver that had its hammer pulled back, ready to fire. "I didn't think I just reacted," Mr. Peregoy, 46, said. "It's not fair when someone sticks a gun into a woman's face or abuses a woman in any other way." Mr. Peregoy was one of 56 officers and civilians the Toledo Police Department recognized Thursday during an annual awards ceremony to honor members of the department and community for outstanding service. When opening the event, Chief Kral noted that three law enforcement officers were shot in the line of duty the night before the event a police officer in Sidney, Ohio, a state trooper near Findlay, and a Michigan State Police trooper in Niles, Mich. "This is a reminder that this job is getting more and more dangerous every day. ... And today we will hear the stories of other police officers and citizens who put others above themselves," Chief Kral said. Attended by about 200 hundred people both police officers and civilians the event featured readouts of synopses of the events that led to the awardees' recognition. The 60-minute event was held in Toledo City Council chambers. Other award recipients included the late Officer Anthony Dia, whose family received the Blue Star Medal on his behalf from Police Chief George Kral. Officer Dia, 26, was fatally shot by an intoxicated man in a parking lot at a Home Depot store on Alexis Road shortly after midnight July 4, 2020, after he responded to a report of a disturbance involving that man. Mr. Peregoy received the meritorious public service award for his action Jan. 5, 2019, at a local Rite Aid store. Police said he happened to be at the store when another man pushed him out of the way, pulled out a gun, and demanded the cashier give him all $20 bills in the register while threatening to shoot her if she did not comply. Story continues Mr. Peregoy then noticed that the gun's hammer was pulled back, "quickly" grabbed it, fought the robber for control of the gun, and eventually tackled him, causing him to hit his head on a corner of a display counter and lose control of the weapon, according to a police statement read at the Thursday event. Once he retrieved the gun, Mr. Peregoy chased the fleeing robber for a short distance before returning to the store. The robber was the only one injured in the incident. "This is how my mother raised me," Mr. Peregoy said. "I feel confused about being recognized today for something like this." Toledo police Sgt. Tom Killen, 43, gave a similar response when asked about his role in saving a boy who had fallen through ice on a pond Jan. 18, 2019. Sergeant Killen's letter of recognition Thursday made him one of four officers to receive the honor for that rescue. Of those four, two including Sergeant Killen Officer Killen at the time and another officer also fell through the ice after failed attempts to use a rope to rescue the boy, who was in the water, holding himself up by his armpits on the ice. Once Mr. Killen fell through the ice as he tried to get closer to the boy, the first thing he did was push up another officer already in the water, at which time yet another officer pulled the latter onto the ice; the fourth officer then pulled Mr. Killen out of the water. The officers and Toledo firefighters who joined them on the scene eventually got the boy out of the water. "Helping others is what we are trained for," Sergeant Killen, 43, said when asked why he would help his sinking comrade before trying to help himself, noting that he and other police officers involved had not been trained in ice rescue. Besides, the other officer was closer to the boy, so Sergeant Killen said he feared the child couldn't be saved without rescuing that officer first, he said. The 1996 Bowsher High School graduate said he realized his childhood dream when he joined the police department in 2013 after 10 years of service in the Coast Guard. He was promoted to sergeant Sept. 30 and is the married father of a 16-month-old son with another child "on the way." Those honored Thursday included awardees receiving a meritorious public service award, a letter of recognition award, a meritorious service medal, and other awards and letters of recognition. First Published October 7, 2021, 4:20pm No vacation? No problem! Staycations are here to stay. (Photo: Gettyimages) Singaporeans might be starved for vacation, but from the looks of shopping trends and data online, it seems like we have found other ways to cope with cabin fever. According to Tripadvisor, 86 per cent of those surveyed in Singapore expressed travel intent domestically, which for us, means intent to use the services of hotels, cruises, restaurants and spas. When it comes to hotels, the keywords Singaporean travellers are searching for are "clean (COVID-19 safe) hotels" and "modern hotels". The most popular hotel styles in Singapore are family and mid-range hotels. In terms of amenities, restaurants, bars/lounges and spas are top-of-mind, and Singaporeans are spending SGD487 on average per trip. How are you going to spend the final few months of this year? Our editorial team is dedicated to finding and telling you more about the products and deals we love. If you love them too and decide to purchase through the links below, we may receive a commission. Prices were correct at the time of publication. Subscribe to Yahoo Singapore Telegram and visit Yahoo Shopping for first dibs on shopping deals If you are thinking of booking a staycation, why not check out one of the 2021 Tripadvisor Travellers Choice Best of the Best award winners? Note that prevailing government regulations apply, so do check the current guidelines before you make any bookings! WASHINGTON Does a president who tries to overthrow the republic to remain in power get to keep those planning conversations secret for decades to come? Or is there a coup-plotting exception to executive privilege? That is the question former President Donald Trump could force federal courts to confront after his successor, President Joe Biden, on Friday approved the release of all the documents that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol had asked for in its initial request. President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents, wrote White House counsel Dana Remus in a letter to the National Archives. The letter goes on to offer a framework that would, if applied to future document requests, release virtually everything related to Jan. 6 that was generated during the Trump administration. The constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield, from Congress or the public, information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself, Remus wrote. In a Friday letter of his own, Trump nevertheless claimed executive privilege over 47 numbered documents in the first batch as well as anything else the committee might ask for in the future. I hereby make a protective assertion of constitutionally based privilege with respect to all additional records following the first tranche, he wrote. In an accompanying statement, Trump referenced the investigation of the assistance he received from Russia in his 2016 election, both his impeachments, which he called hoaxes, and his often-repeated lies about having won the 2020 election: We won two elections, did far better in the second than the first, and now perhaps have to do it a third time! Norm Eisen, who served as an ethics lawyer in the Barack Obama White House and more recently worked for the House committee overseeing Trumps first impeachment, said Bidens approach will keep very little about Jan. 6 under wraps. The administration has waived the privilege first as to the testimony, now as to this batch of documents, but both based on reasoning that will sweep broadly and rightly so, he said. Story continues Trump, who tried to overthrow American democracy after losing his reelection bid in November, has been trying to quash both the document requests by the select committee as well as subpoenas it has issued to his former aides and allies. Friday saw the first public flashpoint on both efforts, as the committee released a statement saying that Mark Meadows, Trumps former chief of staff, and Kash Patel, Trumps handpicked chief of staff to his acting defense secretary in the final weeks, were so far, engaging with the select committee. The statement said that Trumps onetime chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was not complying with the subpoena demands. It did not mention at all Dan Scavino, Trumps social media adviser, who reportedly has so far managed to avoid accepting service of the subpoena. We will enforce subpoenas, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the committee vice chair, wrote on Twitter. Committee members, including chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, have previously stated that those defying subpoenas will be referred to the Justice Department for criminal charges of obstructing Congress. Bannon attorney Robert Costello, in a letter to the committee Thursday, said Bannon would not comply with his subpoena because Trump was asserting executive privilege and had asked Bannon not to comply. Costello said Friday that what happens will depend on the success of Trumps legal challenge. Its a decision made by the court, not by us. Meadows, Patel and Scavino did not respond to HuffPost queries. The White House had previously stated that, though each request for documents would be treated on a case-by-case basis, Bidens view was that Jan. 6 and the weeks leading up to it were an unprecedented attack on American democracy and that his inclination would be to release Trumps documents related to that to the committee. Fridays letter to the National Archives restated that view. These are unique and extraordinary circumstances, Remus letter said. An unprecedented effort to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power, threatening not only the safety of Congress and others present at the Capitol, but also the principles of democracy enshrined in our history and our Constitution. The documents shed light on events within the White House on or about Jan. 6 and bear on the select committees need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the federal government since the Civil War. Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump climb the west wall of the the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. While lawmakers inside voted to affirm President Joe Biden's win, the right-wing mob marched to the building and broke inside. (Photo: Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press) Trump became the first president in 232 years of U.S. elections to refuse to turn over power peacefully to his successor. He spent weeks attacking the legitimacy of the Nov. 3 contest he lost, starting his lies in the predawn hours of Nov. 4 that he had really won in a landslide and that his victory was being stolen from him. Those falsehoods continued through a long string of failed lawsuits challenging the results in a handful of states. Trump and some of his advisers even discussed using the U.S. military by invoking the Insurrection Act or declaring martial law to retain power despite having lost the election, including by seizing voting machines and ordering re-votes in states narrowly won by Biden. But military leaders had earlier made it clear they would not involve themselves in the political process, so after the Electoral College finally voted on Dec. 14, making Bidens win official, Trump instead turned to a last-ditch scheme to pressure his own vice president to canceling the ballots of millions of voters in several states Biden had won and declaring Trump the winner during the pro forma congressional certification of the election results on Jan. 6. Trump asked his followers to come to Washington that day and then told the tens of thousands who showed up to march on the Capitol to intimidate Mike Pence into doing what Trump wanted. The mob of supporters he incited attempted to do just that by storming the building. They even chanted Hang Mike Pence after Pence refused to comply with Trumps demands. A police officer died after being assaulted during the insurrection, and four others took their own lives in the days and weeks that followed. One of the rioters was fatally shot as she tried to climb through a broken window into an anteroom containing still-evacuating House members, and three others in the crowd died during the melee. Though the House impeached Trump for inciting the attack, all but seven Senate Republicans, led by Kentuckys Mitch McConnell, chose not to convict him, thereby letting Trump continue his political career even as faces several investigations into his post-election actions. Trump and his allies are now engaged in a campaign to portray the rioter who was shot, Ashli Babbitt, as a martyr and the hundreds of others who have been arrested as victims of political persecution. Trump continues to suggest he will run for the 2024 GOP nomination for president and is using his Save America committees money to continue spreading the falsehoods that culminated in the violence of Jan. 6. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court on Friday acquitted all 19 defendants charged over their participation in an LGBT+ Pride march on a university campus, saying their actions did not constitute a crime. Most of the 18 students and a faculty member from the Middle East Technical University (METU) had been charged with "refusing to disperse" after being arrested at the Pride march in 2019 by police, who used pepper spray, plastic bullets and tear gas. After a failed military coup in Turkey in 2016, local governments were given the power to ban public gatherings, and authorities across the country used this to outlaw Pride marches. Their power to do so has since been rescinded. Defence lawyer Oyku Didem Aydin, holding a rainbow flag in protest, had demanded the acquittal of the defendants, saying freedom of expression was a constitutional right. "What harm can this flag cause when I hold it in my hand? Does that mean I refuse to disperse despite a police warning? A student gets taken into custody simply for holding a flag." "Police video taken during the protest shows clearly that one policeman is shouting 'We are against your existence'," Aydin said. Following the ruling, Aydin told Reuters outside the Ankara courthouse that the ruling was right, but that it was a shame that young people had been criminalised for two years. Homosexuality is legal in Turkey, but Pride marches have been repeatedly banned in recent years. Being lesbian, gay or bisexual is often equated with a lack of morality. Turkey has been ruled for two decades by President Tayyip Erdogan's socially conservative AK Party. Turkey ranked second last out of 49 European countries for LGBT+ rights protections in 2021 rankings compiled by advocacy group ILGA-Europe. One student was given a fine for "insulting" authorities with hand gestures during the protest. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Gareth Jones) By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian prosecutors said on Friday they had widened an investigation into pro-Russian lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, accusing him of colluding with senior officials to finance separatist forces in the eastern Donbass region. In May, authorities put Medvedchuk, the Kremlin's most prominent ally in Ukraine, under formal suspicion of treason as part of a crackdown on his circle that has fuelled tensions between Kyiv and Moscow. Law enforcement officials on Friday accused Medvedchuk of colluding with officials during the previous administration of Petro Poroshenko to buy coal from mines in separatist-held areas as a way of financing the separatists. "We are talking about the sale of state interests and the financing of Russian terrorists," Ivan Bakanov, the head of the state security service (SBU), told a joint briefing with Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. Poroshenko's party called the accusations a smokescreen to divert attention from the government's own wrongdoing. Medvedchuk's Opposition Platform For Life party on Friday said the latest accusations showed the "complete helplessness" of prosecutors in failing to substantiate earlier accusations against him. In a statement, the party accused President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government of trying to "divert people's attention from their catastrophic failures." During the prosecutors' briefing, they played recordings of telephone conversations in which people with voices supposedly similar to those of Medvedchuk, Russian officials and separatist leaders, discussed coal supply schemes. Ukraine faced an acute fuel shortage after separatists seized territory where coal mines were located. Prosecutors accused Medvedchuk of colluding with state officials to block coal purchases from the international market. "While our soldiers were being killed at the front, the state sent suitcases of cash to the leaders of terrorist organisations," Venediktova said. Story continues Ukraine has been at war with Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass region since 2014. Venediktova said prosecutors would ask the court to arrest Medvedchuk or set bail of 1 billion hryvnias ($38 million). Medvedchuk, whose political party is the second largest in parliament, is a Ukrainian citizen but has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has said the Russian leader is godfather to his daughter. Bakanov said the SBU would investigate what part Poroshenko and the Central Bank Governor at the time, Valeriia Gontareva, may have played in Medvedchuk's alleged activities. Gontareva, who left Central Bank in 2018 and lives abroad, dismissed Bakanov's statements as "nonsense". "I have never had anything to do with Medvedchuk, whom I have never seen in my life, nor with the financing of terrorism, nor with the purchase of coal or electricity," she said in a statement to Reuters. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets, additional reporting by Ilya Zhegulev; editing by Matthias Williams and John Stonestreet) Oct. 7The chair of the UND Space Studies department is being honored by NASA during Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs Sept. 15-Oct. 15. Argentina native Pablo De Leon was notified in September by a video producer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., that NASA video and social media productions he contributed to will be featured on the space administration's media channels. The videos are being highlighted during the observance of Hispanic Heritage Month. De Leon and his work are also being featured on NASA's website, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's website. "It is sincerely a big honor for me to have my work displayed by NASA, an organization I admire so much, and that was so important in my career," De Leon said. "The fact that we can connect NASA with UND here in North Dakota, creating state-of-the-art research relevant to the future of humankind in space, is one of my biggest prides." De Leon spent time at NASA working in multiple roles, including a stint as the space shuttle payload manager and general designer. Previously, he worked with the space shuttle as payload manager and general designer for a package of seven scientific experiments that flew on a 12-day mission to the International Space Station in 2001. De Leon has spent 30 years working in space engineering research, both in Argentina and the United States. He specializes in human spaceflight, extravehicular activities, spacesuit design and surface planetary exploration and habitability. De Leon was also a principal investigator in several NASA programs. At UND, De Leon worked on various fabrics and fully-functional spacesuits. He recently received a $750,000 grant to work on developing a spacesuit from plastic, over the next three years. "It will be the first of its kind," De Leon said. "It's a suit that instead of being built in a traditional way, with sewing machines and fabrics, it will be 3-D printed with special plastics." Story continues His team is also continuing to advance research on space exploration and habitability with the Inflatable Lunar/Mars Habitat, a structure that passersby can see in a field near UND, next to the National Weather Service office. On Sunday, Oct. 10, four researchers from American Public University will emerge from that structure, after having spent two weeks inside, conducting experiments. In 2019 the ILMH had its first international mission, when four students from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, stayed in the facility for two weeks. The students ran NASA experiments for future exploration on the moon and Mars. De Leon said he is looking forward to continuing work with NASA. "Now, we are working to create a joint research laboratory, so in the future we will be more involved with NASA than ever before," he said. "This will create lots of new opportunities for our students." De Leon said he came from modest beginnings, and is a firm believer in education as a way to realize one's dreams. He gives talks in the United States and every country south of the nation, down to Tierre Del Fuego, the southernmost province in Argentina, about the possibilities education can bring to students. "If you're really passionate about something and you have that persistence that it takes to fulfill your dream, you can do it," he said. The crew stands atop the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut in this 2018 photo. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images A US Navy submarine collided with an object in the Indo-Pacific, the Navy revealed Thursday. A former Navy submariner told Insider reports suggest the submarine was operating along the sea floor. The collision, which took place in the South China Sea, is currently under investigation. The US Navy Seawolf-class submarine USS Connecticut collided with an unknown object in the South China Sea recently, damaging the powerful fast-attack boat and injuring nearly a dozen crew members. The US Navy statement on the collision said specifically the Connecticut collided with an "object," and service officials talking with Navy Times indicated it was not another vessel and not likely to have been a land mass. Navy officials told the Associated Press that the object the submarine hit might have been a sunken ship, a shipping container, or some other uncharted object. Public details on the incident are still very limited, but a former US Navy submariner and defense expert told Insider reports on the collision indicate the submarine was probably operating close to the bottom, possibly on a surveillance mission. The South China Sea is already a challenging operating environment for submarines because it is, for the most part, actually quite shallow, especially compared to the waters of the nearby Pacific Ocean, with depths of thousands of feet. Comments from Navy officials speculating that the nuclear-powered submarine may have collided with a container or shipwreck suggests that the ship was not only in shallow waters but likely close to the sea floor, said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. And reports that only about a dozen crew members suffered only minor injuries suggest the submarine may have been moving slowly, possibly because it was near the bottom or possibly to remain undetected or both. "The things you might do near the sea floor are hide, if you are just trying to surveil Chinese submarine operations, or try to put something on the sea floor or pick something up, which might be a sensor," explained Clark, who is a retired submarine officer and former special assistant to the chief of naval operations. Story continues A potential point of interest for surveillance would be Yulin Naval Base on Hainan Island, from which China operates an unknown number of submarines. Beyond surveillance, other possible operations could include activities like sea floor mapping. Clark told Insider he "would not be surprised if the Connecticut was up there doing some kind of surveillance operation on Chinese submarine operations out of Hainan Island and it was close to the bottom because it was trying to hide and it ran into something while it was doing that." It is unclear what kind of operations the Connecticut was conducting at the time of the collision, but a Navy official characterized them to the AP as routine. The challenge with operating near the sea floor is that there is debris down there that can pose a threat to the submarine. For instance, the South China Sea is an important strategic waterway through which trillions of dollars in global trade pass each year, and shipping containers are frequently lost at sea. Submarines have a rudder and use water and compressed air in ballast tanks to control its depth. And "you can operate fairly closely to the sea floor pretty competently because you have good maps and you've got a bathometer that's measuring the distance between you and the sea bottom," Clark said, explaining that topography charts, depth senors, and passive sonar allow a submarine to steer clear of most obstacles. But if there is a big uncharted object, like a massive shipping container possibly standing on end, the submarine may not be able to detect it until it is right on top of it. "That's the problem you run into with operating near the sea floor in an area like that, where there's lots of objects on the sea floor," Clark said. The Navy is conducting an investigation into the submarine collision, an uncommon occurrence that happened on October 2 but was not reported until five days later due to concerns about operational security, according to the Associated Press. Read the original article on Business Insider Facebook/Victoria Manning A school board member who runs a wokeness checker snitch site has pressed a Virginia school district to purge six books from its shelves, alleging that the booksincluding a seminal Toni Morrison novelare rife with pornographic content. In an email sent to Virginia Beach City Public Schools Superintendent Aaron Spence earlier this week, at-large school board member Victoria Manning said that another board member, Laura Hughes, joined her in demanding four books be removed from circulation or use in the districts curriculum due to their pornographic nature. It has been brought to my attention by some parents that there are some disturbing books in our district that are available to students, Manning wrote on Oct. 5. I would like to ask that you pull these books from shelves and also block any electronic access by students to getting these books IMMEDIATELY. Manning demanded that staff involved in approving the books be disciplined. Spence replied that four of the books that were not a part of district curriculum had been removed, pending a review. Far-Right Group Wants to Ban Kids From Reading Books on Male Seahorses, Galileo, and MLK The list of disturbing titles included Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. According to Spence, Manning had also separately requested the review of two other books, Beyond Magenta and Good Trouble: Lessons from the Civil Rights Playbook. The review, first reported by The Virginian-Pilot, comes weeks after another Virginia district, Fairfax County Public Schools, pulled two books attacked by Manning from high school libraries after complaints at a school board meeting about sexually explicit and homoerotic content. The emails were made available through a public records request and later obtained by The Daily Beast. Manning said in her Oct. 5 email, that she had skimmed through Lawn Boy, and alleged that the graphic novel Gender Queer depicted people performing oral sex and discussing masturbation and many other things that I dont feel comfortable mentioning. Story continues Both Lawn Boy and Gender Queer were recognized by the American Library Association as texts with special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18. After reeling off other complaints about the books, she took aim at A Lesson Before Dying, which addresses racism and racial identity in 1940s Louisiana, and was approved for use in 11th grade curriculum. It needed to be booted because it included a scene of a couple getting undressed, and moving on from there, she wrote. Although Manning admitted she had not read The Bluest Eye or confirmed its contents firsthand, she said she was convinced by the accounts of others that the text was unfit for 12th graders. I have not been able to get a copy of this book in my hands but I should be able to get a copy by tomorrow to confirm what is in it, Manning wrote at the time. After quoting one line she had heard that made references to sexual desire, Manning said: Ive been told there is much more and although I have not confirmed this firsthand but I believe this should be removed from our curriculum and shelves immediately pending review. Morrisons text is a frequent target of book banning, and routinely appears on the ALAs list of the most challenged books because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sex abuse. Spence told The Daily Beast on Friday that the outrage over the books was unwarranted. Concerns from parents are supposed to be turned over to the superintendent to resolve, Spence said, but he noted that he had not seen complaints from parents about the texts and he was not aware of a challenge to the books at a district-level since he became superintendent in 2014. Ive only heard through these board members, he said, adding that the books were neither widely available nor frequently checked out. We had one copy of Lawn Boy and it has never been checked out, he said. He had also looked into copies of Gender Queer and located a copy of the book in three high school libraries. There are 11 high schools in the district, according to the districts website. It had only been checked out one time in one of the schools, he said. So this isnt a rampant issue. In a series of emails to the board, Spence said that four of the books challenged by the women had been brought to the school boards attention and were removed from student circulation last month for review, as part of its policy when a book is challenged. He said that the book Gender Queer had been permanently removed from our shelves, while staff were directed to use the districts formal review process to decide the fate of the other books, a process which involves a committee reading the book and convening to discuss concerns over its obscenities, age appropriateness, and academic freedom. Books that landed in the districts libraries and that were included in curriculum were vetted carefully by library media specialists who also consulted recommendations from national professional organizations and were expected to follow guidelines outlined in the school districts policies on selection of media and teaching materials, Spence said. He cautioned that wholesale decisions based on the positions of some stakeholders do not necessarily represent the thinking of all or serve the best interests of our students as a whole. Manning fired back in an email on Oct. 7, that after finally acquiring a copy of The Bluest Eye, she was disgusted within the first few pages. She said she was disturbed by the review process for the books, alleging that making the material available to children could be against the law. What one person finds offensive, others may not, Spence wrote back. Thats why we have this process. On a personal website linked from her school board campaign Facebook page, Manning writes that she had been made aware by conservative media outlets, including The Daily Wire, to be on the lookout for sexually explicit materials in our schools. The website includes a page, entitled Wokeness Checker, where Manning declares that Wokeness and Critical Race Theory (CRT) practices are becoming embedded in our nation's schools, including here in Virginia Beach. The page provides a link for visitors to submit documents related to CRT in Virginia Beach schools. Declining to comment about Manning specifically, Spence told The Daily Beast that he has witnessed a clear, politically motivated effort to conflate even unrelated topics with critical race theory. It would be great if those conversations were a little more civil and evidence-based, he said. Manning also represents herself as a kind of whistleblower on classroom discussions about race, posting videos on Rumble, including one where she said was disgusted and appalled after reading The Racial Healing Handbook, which she claimed had been read by a group of teachers in Virginia Beach last year as part of a monthly book study. In March, she made an appearance on Fox and Friends, accusing teachers of disguising critical race theory in classrooms under notions of equity and culturally responsive practices. Our students and our teachers are being taught that our country is innately racist, and students and teachers are being pitted against one another based on their skin color, she said at the time. Hughes and Manning did not immediately respond to The Daily Beasts request for comment on Friday but Manning shared a lengthy statement on Facebook slamming The Virginian-Pilots story which she said makes it seem like Im a book burner. The VA Pilot published a one-sided article about me regarding the pornographic and sexually explicit books with pedophilia that I exposed, she wrote. I just dont want our children exposed to this sick pornography. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) included A Lesson Before Dying and The Bluest Eye on its list of the Top Ten Banned Books that Changed the Face of Black History. In a letter to a school board in Alabama that was weighing a similar decision to ban the book last year, the NCAC defended the text. Precluding students from reading literature with sexual references and language that some find objectionable would deprive them of exposure to vast amounts of important material, NCAC executive editor Joan Bertin and American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression president Chris Finan wrote. They cited as examples, the Bible and works by Shakespeare, in addition to texts written by celebrated American authors John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others. In 2009, Gaines book was also awarded the ALAs distinction of Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. The Earths average global temperature is 1.2 degrees Celsius (around 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than in preindustrial times, causing shifts in weather patterns and more frequent and severe extreme weather events such as storms and droughts. This global warming, also known as climate change, is the result of humans filling the air with gases that intensify a process called the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect occurs when the suns rays reach the Earths atmosphere and the majority of the radiation bounces back out into space. When this happens, a small portion is absorbed by chemicals in our atmosphere. These are known as greenhouse gases. By looking at air bubbles from hundreds of thousands of years ago until today, scientists have found that temperatures go up or down in lockstep with the amount of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide. Human activity has started to change the delicate balance of chemicals in our atmosphere. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, humans have been burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas for energy. When these substances are burned, they emit excess greenhouse gases, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide. According to measurements taken in February and March from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now reaching levels 50 percent higher than in the preindustrial period. More greenhouse gases means more heat trapped in the atmosphere and, over time, a warmer planet. When the average temperature of the Earth is raised, even by just a few degrees, we see some pretty dramatic effects. For example, it can cause a rise in ocean temperatures that can lead to more extreme storms and flooding. Simple illustration of the greenhouse effect on Earth. (Getty Images) Klaus Jacob, a special research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, explained one consequence of warmer oceans. As the ocean gets warmer, it expands, Jacob said. So as sea level rises, you need only smaller and smaller storms to reach the same elevation in New Orleans, or New York City, or anywhere else where we have storms. ... And so you get much more frequent flooding. Story continues At the same time, some areas are dealing with long droughts because warmer temperatures cause more evaporation and dry out the land and vegetation, which leads to problems like crop shortages and widespread forest fires. The severe current, and potential future, consequences of climate change were laid out in a landmark report conducted by the U.N.s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was released in August. The assessment found that if the world follows the scenario of very low greenhouse gas emissions, its plausible that warming of greater than 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures can be avoided. But if that scenario which involves very drastic, rapid and sustained cuts in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, enforced by governments and businesses is not followed, the world could be heading toward being 3 degrees Celsius warmer by 2100. In all cases, there will be more extreme events like hurricanes and heat waves that cause flooding, wildfires and droughts. Its only a question of how severe we allow the situation to become. When it was published, the report was described as a code red for humanity by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The U.N. timed the reports release to lead into the U.N. Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. The ongoing fight to limit global warming and to deal with its effects hinges on successful talks between world leaders at the conference, which will take place in early November. ____ Read more from Yahoo News: Inge was sentenced to life in prison plus seven years for the two crimes, and Judy Smith has continued to ask the board not to release her husbands killer. Every year, I have chosen to open these wounds caused by this evil crime for over 36 years to meet with the parole board, as I feel this is the only option I have to express my deepest concerns regarding parole, she read from a statement. This has taken a tremendous toll on my family and me, but we continue because this is all we can do. In May 2020, Smiths son merely a toddler when his father was killed received an anonymous call from one of the Virginia Parole Boards employees, hinting Inge would be released without the Smiths being notified, theyve said. When Smith responded with a letter from the board stating Inge shouldnt have been up for parole again until February 2021, the board stated it didnt have that letter on file, and the Smiths turned to contacting local legislators to elevate it amid the other scandals surrounding the board. Inge, 73, comes up for parole again in December, and Smith said while she has a meeting scheduled, she and her family want the security of knowing hell spend the rest of his life in jail. The University of Tokyo plans to start investing in startups spawned at the institution drawing from a new 60 billion yen ($536 million) fund, Nikkei has learned, as it aims to support the creation of unicorns and help Japan catch up in the global tech race. The fund is expected to become Japan's largest university-launched startup fund. The University of Tokyo will begin by investing 10 billion yen. It will seek further funding from outside investors. The plan is to increase the size of the fund to around 60 billion yen in 10 years and to financially support the formation of 300 startups. This will double the number of startups originating from the university to about 700. The university will consider making direct investments in the future. Universities are currently prohibited from directly investing in startups, but a legal amendment will take effect in April, allowing the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Tohoku University and six other institutions conducting world-class research to directly invest in new companies. The university has already invested in over 110 startups through a partnership with The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, a private sector venture capital firm. After research and development, startups then need vast funds to mass produce and commercialize their products or services. The fund is expected to give the university some flexibility when it comes to making decisions, but the institution will establish a financial management department to make accurate investment decisions. The university will finalize details after consulting investment experts. Japan lags its global peers, including the U.S., when it comes to university-led startup businesses. The University of Tokyo hopes it can help form a virtuous cycle that can facilitate the establishment of emerging companies. The startup fund is a part of the university's operational goals and will be included in its action plans through fiscal 2026, which will be announced on Friday. According to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the University of Tokyo leads in the creation of startup companies, with 323 under its name as of October 2020. Kyoto University is second with 222 startups. New Delhi: As many as 100 people were killed and several injured, owing to the suicide mosque explosion in Afghanistans northeastern Kunduz province on Friday. The attack was targeted towards the Shiite Muslims of Afghanistan. Our initial findings show that it is a suicide attack, reported Matiullah Rohani, director of culture and information in Kunduz. Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province stated that majority of people there have been killed. Reportedly the Taliban stated that the attack was part of suicide bombing, and the count of the number of casualties may go up. The attack occurred in Shiite mosque during Friday prayers, the most important of the week for Muslims. According to a doctor at Kunduz Central Hospital stated, So far we have received 35 dead bodies and over 50 wounded people in our hospital. On the other hand, a worker at the Doctor Without Borders hospital received at least 15 dead bodies. This afternoon, an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shiite compatriots in the Khan Abad district of Bandar, the capital of Kunduz province, as a result of which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded, said Zabihullah Muhajid, Taliban chief spokesperson. The reason for the attack could not be cleared immediately. Besides, no group so far has claimed responsibility for it. Several video footage going around on social media, which could not be verified, showcase bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque. A local businessman named Zalmai Alokzai rushed to the Kunduz Provincial Hospital to check with the doctors if they need blood donors. He described the horrific scene stating, I saw more than 40 dead bodies. Ambulances were going back to the incident scene to carry the dead. Shiite Muslims are often targeted by Sunni extremists who have previously been the victims of some of Afghanistans most violent assaults, including, rallies bombed, hospitals targeted and commuters ambushed. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} We monitor our COVID numbers on a daily basis, and we pay a lot of attention to numbers rising and falling in specific buildings over a multiple-day period, he said in the message. We have no plans to put a districtwide mask mandate for everyone in place at this time, as some of our buildings currently have extremely low numbers. We will continue monitoring each separate building, paying specific attention to our rolling three-day averages at the end of each week. We would be monitoring for a threshold of 3% positivity rate within the student and staff population of each building. The plan calls for requiring masks only at specific buildings that reach a 3% positivity rate and only for two weeks at a time, Knost said. If any building has a rolling three-day average on Friday that meets a threshold of 3% or higher, we would require mask utilization for an incremental time of the next two weeks (just that building), he said in the letter. At the end of the two-week period, if the three-day rolling average is below 3%, the building would return to a voluntary mask protocol. However, the district might impose a mask requirement in the middle of the week, if the positivity rate in a building suddenly surged to 5%, Knost said. Again, the policy would only apply to that building and only for two weeks, pending a review of the positivity rate. Patricia Timm, who has represented Southeast Nebraska's District 5 on the state school board of education for more than 17 years, intends to resign from her post Friday. Timm, 74, of Beatrice, said in a letter dated Sept. 10 to Nebraska Department of Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt and state board President Maureen Nickels she plans to resign "due to personal health reasons." The state school board will vote on Timm's resignation as part of the consent agenda during Friday's meeting in Lincoln. Timm, who couldn't be immediately reached for comment Thursday, plans to release a statement Friday, said David Jespersen, state Department of Education spokesperson. Timm, a Republican on the officially nonpartisan board, does not plan to attend Friday's meeting, Jespersen said. After the meeting, the ball will be in Gov. Pete Ricketts court to appoint Timm's replacement in 45 days. The District 5 seat is up for election in November 2022, in which case any appointed member would have to run to keep the position. SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for shooting arrows at police during a standoff. Mitchell Smith, 47, pleaded guilty Sept. 3 in Woodbury County District Court to intimidation with a dangerous weapon and two counts of assault on a peace officer. As part of a plea agreement, a charge of attempted murder was dismissed. District Judge Jeffrey Neary ordered the sentences for each count to run consecutively, or one after another, for the 20-year term. Officers were called to a home in the 1800 block of Rustin Street on Dec. 1 for a disturbance in which Smith reportedly had threatened a neighbor's wife. After a brief encounter with Smith, two officers were in the street preparing to leave when Smith walked around his house with a bow and arrow and fired an arrow over the head of one of the officers. The two drove about a block away and pulled over when Smith fired a second arrow, which hit the roof of a house near them. Other officers were dispatched to the scene and attempted to make contact with Smith, who fired a third arrow that struck the roof of a house. An hour later, he shot a fourth arrow, which fell in the street. DES MOINES U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Des Moines, has filed financial disclosure statements whose absence came to light in a recent government watchdog report, a spokesman for her office said Friday. Axne was among seven members of Congress who failed to properly disclose some financial transactions, according to the nonpartisan government watchdog The Campaign Legal Center, which asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate the matter. She represents the 3rd District, which includes Council Bluffs and much of southwest Iowa. Axnes office at the time said the failure to disclose some financial transactions was an unintentional error that would soon be remedied. On Friday, Axnes spokesman said the reports were filed and steps have been taken to ensure the oversight will not occur again. Approval of President Joe Bidens trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure package would be a win for Iowa, according to Democratic legislative leaders, but 1st District Rep. Ashley Hinson says it doesnt do enough to meet the states needs. The plan, stalled in Congress as majority Democrats try to reach agreement on its scope and price tag, will be huge for this state, Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, said last week. Republicans for decades have underinvested in public infrastructure. It's time to get caught up, he told reporters. The need is evident in Iowas crumbling roads and bridges, said Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn, a state representative from Ames. Bidens proposal also includes the largest investment in rural broadband in history, which House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, called critically important, especially because of the challenges for Iowans working and learning from home during the pandemic. Hinson said last week she remains opposed to the bipartisan infrastructure package, in part because its tied to Democrats $3.5 trillion budget proposal. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Jurors were showed a series of 21 autopsy and hospital photos as Linde testified on the wounds and the bullet pathways through Torres body. Linde testified one bullet passed through Torres upper left arm and into his chest. Another entered his left lower stomach area and traveled upward before it opened a hole near the top of the right ventricle of his heart. Allen shot Torres with a Glock 21 handgun, chambered in .45 ACP. The incident happened after Torres pulled his green Chevrolet Tahoe into the alley alongside a blue Ford Focus driven by Amanda Beall, with whom he had been in an on-again, off-again relationship. Allen was a passenger in the Focus. Allen used hollow-point ammunition, which has a divot in the very tip of each bullet. Amy Weber, a firearms expert with the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab, said that causes the tip of the bullet to expand outward or mushroom as it passes through a mass. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} It also tends to cause more damage and is designed to remain in an object. When it passes through an object, the hollow-point bullet creates a larger exit wound than normal. The Lincoln County commissioners will continue discussion on three interlocal agreements with the city of North Platte at Mondays regular meeting. The three items were continued from last weeks meeting so the county could gather more information on costs. The board will consider an interlocal agreement with the city of North Platte for network services, emergency management services and for maintenance of roads in the countys jurisdiction. The commissioners will also discuss several resolutions to close accounts at various financial institutions. Those accounts are held in Lincoln Countys name at Union Bank & Trust, Nebraska Public Agency Investment Trust, Flatwater Bank and Hershey State Bank. The board will also consider a resolution to open accounts at Western Nebraska Bank. The board also will: Conduct a public hearing regarding the application of Old Depot Vineyard and Winery, 33651 E Banner Road, Brady, for a Class K catering license. Following the meeting, the board will consider a recommendation to the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Discuss and consider setting a date to accept bids for a truck for Region 51 Emergency Management. A New Jersey man learned about a Cozad 5-year-old with pediatric brain cancer and decided to walk across Nebraska to raise funds for her. Paishence Hansen started chemotherapy last December, and her familys medical expenses have risen dramatically. Jim Hickey said he contacted Tara Meyer, Paishences mom, and asked if he could walk for her. From what I saw (Tara) wasnt getting the help that she needed, Hickey said. I thought that needed to change. On Friday morning, Hickey was in North Platte, having started in Scottsbluff about three weeks ago. He averages about 21 miles a day. I started on Sept. 15, which is Paishences birthday, Hickey said, and September is also childhood cancer awareness month. Meyer said in a phone interview that she appreciates Hickeys efforts. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Jims walk means a lot to us, Meyer said. Hes helping our family out just with the love and support, getting the word out for pediatric brain cancer and for my daughter. Over the past four years, Hickey has left his hair uncut. On Friday morning, he stopped into Allure Salon at 203 S. Chestnut St. A Gomez Heritage Elementary School security guard is accused of sexually assaulting two children, one of whom is a former student at the South Omaha school. Jose Luis Carreno, 39, has been charged with three counts of first-degree sexual assault of a minor and one count of third-degree sexual assault of a child. The first assaults allegedly occurred about 18 to 20 years ago, according to the criminal complaint, and the second assaults allegedly occurred between 2016 and 2018. Omaha police said a woman came to detectives on Sept. 13 and said that she had been sexually assaulted by Carreno years ago when she was a child. A week later, detectives spoke to a girl who said Carreno had sexually assaulted her when she was a student at Gomez Heritage Elementary about three years ago. An arrest warrant was obtained Wednesday. Carreno turned himself in Thursday. Investigators think others may have been abused and are telling the public to call 911 or the child abuse hotline at 800-652-1999 if parents think their children have been abused. This is at least the second OPS security guard who has been arrested this year on charges of sexual assault. Jim Greisch, a panelist and executive at RSM US, a company that provides financial services, said Nebraska's current sales-income-property tax system results in "overdependence on income and property taxes." Looking ahead outside of the tax reform agenda, Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers of Lincoln said "next year is the opportunity to do big, transformative change" in Nebraska as its leaders reach decisions on how to spend more than a billion dollars of federal pandemic recovery funding allocated to the state. Hilgers is heading the Legislature's so-called STAR WARS study committee that is preparing recommendations for developments along the Platte River, at Lake McConaughy near Ogallala, at Lewis and Clark Lake along the border with South Dakota and at Niobrara State Park in the northeast corner of the state. Flood control, recreation, tourism and water resource sustainability are on the table. Pointing to Mahoney State Park between Lincoln and Omaha as "a treasure," Hilgers said state parks enrich the lives of Nebraskans. Hilgers said he believes the state has "the best set of leaders we've had in 30 years" and that they are positioned with "the opportunity to transform the state." A Taiwanese soldier stands guard as a Chinook helicopter carrying a Taiwanese flag flies over a military camp. Photo: NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images The United States is more involved in the existential dispute between China and Taiwan than was previously known. According to The Wall Street Journal, a small contingent of American troops has been deployed in Taiwan for over a year involving a special-operations unit of around two dozen with supporting Marines. U.S. officials told the Journal the troops are working with local maritime forces on training missions involving small boats. The instruction comes amid Chinese encroachment on Taiwanese airspace and an increased naval presence in the 81-mile strait between the powerhouse country and the sovereign island nation, which was controlled by Beijing prior to the Chinese Communist Revolution. For decades, the U.S. has provided Taiwan with billions of dollars of military equipment, though because of the One China policy, Washington does not formally acknowledge Taiwan as a sovereign nation. American troops have not been officially stationed on the island since 1979, shortly after the Carter administration established diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China. In March, Admiral Philip S. Davidson, the commander for the Indo-Pacific region, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee warning that China could attempt to reclaim Taiwan using military force within the next six years. Taiwans defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, added on Wednesday that China could launch a major attack with minimal losses by 2025. A Chinese offensive against Taiwan is widely considered the most likely flash point to potentially spark a direct conflict between the U.S. and Beijing. The two powers recently concluded a trade war and constantly spar for influence through economic involvement in Latin America and Southeast Asia. With the situation in the South China Sea potentially heating up, the CIA announced Thursday that it has established a new mission center to further strengthen our collective work on the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century, according to director William Burns. The day before, Chinas foreign ministry had weighed in, advising the U.S. to end military aid to Taiwan. China will take all necessary steps to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the statement read. LONDON, October 08, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Laurent Rousseau, the newly appointed chief executive of Scor, will be the keynote speaker at AM Bests annual Europe Insurance Market Briefing and Methodology Review Seminar in London. Rousseau, who took the reins at Scor in June 2021, will join AM Best analysts and a host of insurance industry experts for the event, which takes place on Wednesday, 20 October 2021 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (GMT) at etc.venues St. Pauls in London. This year delegates will also be able to follow the event virtually with an online registration. Other highlights include Chandra Chadalawada, head of asset-liability management at Legal & General, leading a session on responsible investing in the insurance industry, plus Jessica Turner, managing director, Catastrophe Advisory, Guy Carpenter, and Shane Latchman, vice president and managing director, AIR Worldwide, participating in a panel discussion on the growing complexities around climate risk. Delegates will also hear senior AM Best rating analysts discussing the impact of prevailing economic and political conditions on the operating environment for insurers and reinsurers in key segments of the European (re)insurance sector and London market, as well as in the Middle East and Africa. Other topics to be discussed during the briefing include implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on insurers; evolving risks and opportunities in the cyber insurance market; and an update on AM Bests Credit Rating activity and outlooks. The annual afternoon seminar will review benchmarking analysis of EMEA insurers and look at what AM Best expects in terms of future methodology updates, highlighting how the rating agency is addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in the credit rating process, as well as the latest developments surrounding IFRS 17. To register for an in-person or virtual place at the briefing and seminar, or for more information, please visit https://www.ambest.com/conferences/imbeurope2021. Story continues 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 Company, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005023/en/ Contacts Richard Banks Director, Industry Research EMEA +44 20 7397 0322 richard.banks@ambest.com Dual enrollment is a proven approach to increase access to higher education, Vice President for Enrollment Joffery Gaymon said. We know that if students take dual enrollment, they are more likely to finish high school and continue college. Auburn First has proven to be a successful model in ensuring an Auburn education remains affordable and accessible to the best and brightest students. As we continue to advance and fulfill the university's land-grant mission, we are eager to see this program's positive impact on students for years to come. Students who complete the dual-enrollment program also increase their chance of being accepted to the university. Students who earn at least six credit hours of approved Auburn coursework and maintain a 3.0 GPA in those college classes by Aug. 15 of their senior year qualify for automatic admission to the university. According to Auburn University, during the 2020-21 academic year, 89 percent of the students who completed the admission requirements received automatic admission to Auburn. Dual-enrollment courses are also designed to be affordable with courses costing about a third of the on-campus rate. "This is a huge step forward," said Julian Rayner, director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, who was not part of the WHO decision. "It's an imperfect vaccine, but it will still stop hundreds of thousands of children from dying." Rayner said the vaccine's impact on the spread of the mosquito-borne disease was still unclear, but pointed to coronavirus vaccines as an encouraging example. "The last two years have given us a very nuanced understanding of how important vaccines are in saving lives and reducing hospitalizations, even if they don't directly reduce transmission," he said. Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, chair of the WHO vaccine group that made the recommendation, said designing a shot against malaria was particularly difficult because it is a parasitic disease spread by mosquitoes. "We're confronted with extraordinarily complex organisms," he said. "We are not yet in reach of a highly efficacious vaccine, but what we have now is a vaccine that can be deployed and that is safe." WHO said side effects were rare, but sometimes included a fever that could result in temporary convulsions. NATE's "Be Your Brother's Keeper" video focuses on the importance of the planning, procedures, equipment, and training necessary to perform a successful tower rescue. The video was unveiled as part of Volume 3 of the association's popular Climber Connection series, made its debut during the AGL Local Summit in Kansas City, Mo. The video includes an interview with an experienced industry safety instructor walking through a rescue scenario and discussing the measures that must be planned for and implemented in order to successfully perform a rescue of a technician working on a communications tower. The video also includes live mock demonstrations highlighting different rescue options and techniques available to utilize by trained personnel working at a tower site. "It is paramount that all tower crews working in the industry receive consistent rescue training and refresher training in accordance with the NATE Tower Climber Training Standard guidelines," said Denise Frey from D&A Construction Management, Inc. in Branford, Conn. "Today's tower technicians are the first responders when it comes to performing a potential rescue of their fellow co-workers on a tower. This NATE video does a great job of providing an overview of the important elements that lead to a safe and successful rescue." Chinese authorities have ordered 72 coal mines in Inner Mongolia to boost production by almost 100 million tons amid an energy crunch that has seen factories shut down and prompted fears of a disruption to the global economy. "This demonstrates the government is serious about raising local coal production to ease the shortage," one trader told Reuters. The energy crunch that started in Europe and quickly spread to Asia has hit Chinaas well as Indiaparticularly hard because of their energy consumption rates and the high dependence on imports. Earlier this week, media reported China had resorted to Australian coal once again to plug the supply hole gaping in its energy security. Last year, China imposed an unofficial ban on Australian coal imports amid a political spat between the two governments. Last week, China restricted power use in at least 20 regions and provinces that contribute more than half to the Chinese economy. It has also stepped up gas imports, contributing to a price rally that may before long become unprecedented. Whether local production could respond so quickly to the deepening gap between supply and demand for energy remains to be seen. The 72 mines that were asked to start boosting production immediately have a combined capacity of 178..45 million tons annually, so the proposed boost, at 98.35 million tons, represents quite a substantial one. This is only the latest attempt by Beijing to ensure enough energy supplies for the winter. At the end of September, the authorities told energy companies to do whatever it takes to make sure China has enough raw materials for power generation and heating, with Bloomberg reporting the message, loud and clear, was "blackouts will not be tolerated." Yet blackouts remain a possibility not only in China but in part of Europe as well if the crisis continues and forecasts for a cold winter turn out to have been accurate. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads from Oilprice.com: Two recent reports warned that oil and gas production needs to be significantly reduced if the world is to meet the Paris Agreement goals and curb the effects of climate change. They add to a growing body of research calling on Big Oil to stop pumping. But Big Oil seems to be doing the opposite. At the beginning of September, Italy's Enione of the most ambitious oil majors when it comes to emission reduction commitmentsannounced a new oil discovery offshore Ivory Coast. The company estimated the potential reserves of the new discovery at between .5 billion and 2 billion barrels of crude and 1.8-2.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Last week, Exxon reported yet another discovery off the coast of Guyana - its twentieth in the Stabroek block. It adds to reserves already estimated at 9 billion barrels of crude, which the Guyanese government plans to exploit to the best of its abilities. Meanwhile, a report from University College London has warned that the oil industry must start cutting production at a rate of 3 percent annually by 2050 to meet the 1.5-degree Celsius target of the Paris Agreement, which is the more ambitious scenario of the agreement. This, according to the researchers led by environmental and energy economist Dan Welsby, means some 60 percent of global oil reserves, along with 90 percent of coal reserves, need to remain in the ground. Another report, by Carbon Tracker, calls on oil companies to plan for a future where demand will be much lower. So much lower, in fact, that they needed to plan for 50-percent lower output over the next decade or so if they really want to take part in efforts to curb the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. "Oil and gas companies are betting against the success of global efforts to tackle climate change," one of the authors of the report, Carbon Tracker's head of oil, gas, and mining, Mike Coffin, said. He couldn't have put it better, and while it is not news that the interests of the oil and gas industry are at odds with a lot of climate change efforts, there is more than one reason for this. Related: The Top Two Commodities To Watch In The Short Term Consider another recent news report. Canada's Enbridge paid $3 billion for Moda Midstream Operating, a company that owns the biggest oil export terminal in the United States, the Ingleside Energy Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, to be renamed Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center (EIEC). "EIEC's highly advantaged outer harbor location, with direct connection to low-cost, long-lived supply, combined with VLCC capability and rapid loading rates, position it as one of the most competitive export facilities globally," Enbridge said. The deal comes at a time when the United States is making a mad rush for climate change legislation to catch up with Europe, and this rush is largely unfavorable for the oil industry. And yet, Enbridge is betting big on the continued demand for U.S. oil globally. The reason: oil demand outlook. Oil demand, which stunned the energy world last year, sending Big Oil reeling and many small companies sinking, is back with a vengeance, exceeding all expectations, some of which predicted that the shift to renewables would kill oil demand growth pretty soon. It now appears these predictions were premature. It is because of this demand outlook that Big Oil is risking, as the Carbon Trackers report notes, up to a trillion dollars worth of oil and gas projects that will not be competitive in a low-carbon world. Because this low-carbon world is quite uncertain, even with all the legislation and the support of asset managers with trillions of dollars in assets. Last week, record-high gas prices and low wind speeds, which together served as an unpleasant surprise for the UK grid, forced National Grid ESO to fire up a coal plant. The portion of energy the plant supplied was minuscule, at 3 percent, but the fact remains that one of the most ambitious emission cutters in the world was forced to resort to dirty coal because less dirty gas was too expensive, and green wind fell too short because of the weather. Related: Iraq Secures New Investments In Its Booming Oil Industry Meanwhile, the same record-high gas prices and low wind speeds are causing protests in parts of Europe as electricity bills swell. With gas, it's about a shortage that was the result of a rare combination of events, including a prolonged winter and a strong rebound in economic activity in Asia, which has been gobbling up more LNG cargos. With wind, it's the weather. It may well be the case that Big Oil continues with its business as usual in anticipation of more such discrepancies between energy demand and supply. French TotalEnergies, the latest oil major to rebrand itself away from its core business, earlier this month announced a $27-billion investment in Iraq over the next 15 years. The money will go towards boosting the rate of oil recovery at several southern fields, reducing gas flaring to use the gas for local power generation, and building a solar farm. Some might call this greenwashing. Others would call it hard cold reality, where people need energy, and getting it on a consistent, reliable basis trumps its emission footprint. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Europe may not have enough natural gas to meet demand in a cold winter, especially if Asias winter is cold too, unless Russian gas deliveries to European customers are increased, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said on Friday. There is a risk that European storage levels could drop to zero in case of colder-than-usual temperatures in the northern hemisphere. With only 29 bcm of gas in storage, there is a risk storage levels could drop to zero. If this plays out, Europe would be wholly dependent on Russian flows above existing capacity, said Massimo Di Odoardo, Vice President, Gas and LNG Research, at WoodMac. Weather will be the crucial factor in determining the demand and prices of natural gas over the next few months, analysts say. According to Wood Mackenzies Di Odoardo, under normal winter weather conditions, Europe will not have a problem with meeting its winter demand, despite the low storage levels going into the heating season. However, a colder winter in Europe, Russia, and Asia will boost demand so much that Europe will not be able to compete with Asia for incremental liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes. At the same time, Russias gas giant Gazprom could have limited capability to increase supply to Europe as it will first cater for the domestic market, Di Odoardo noted. A cold winter in both Europe and Asia would risk European storage levels dropping to zero, leaving Europe dependent on timely approval of Nord Stream 2 or Russian willingness to ship more gas through Ukraine if it is to avoid demand curtailments, he added. The sky could be the limit for European gas prices this winter, Di Odoardo said. Gazprom is on track to have filled Russias underground gas storage by the end of this month, a senior executive said on Thursday, which could potentially mean that the Russian gas giant could send more gas to Europe after that. The Russian gas monopoly, a major supplier to Europe, has been accused in recent weeks of deliberately withholding additional supply to its customers, thus exacerbating the natural gas crunch and sending prices to record highs. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Gazprom could send more gas to Europe. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads from Oilprice.com: Record-high natural gas prices are prompting more utilities to switch from gas to oil derivatives, fanning the flames of an already strong oil price rally. A Reuters report quoted an OANDA analyst as saying that there were a lot of bullish factors for oil right now, and they weren't going away anytime soon. Among these factors was rising fuel demand due to growing economic activity and persistent fears that the coming winter will be cold and energy supplies will be tight. This means that the current deficit on oiland gasmarkets will also continue, potentially pushing prices even above $100 per barrel, which level Bank of America said earlier this month would tip the world into a recession. According to JP Morgan, gas-to-oil switching is still not so widespread as to lift oil prices much further. "This means that our estimate of 750,000 barrels per day of gas-to-oil switching demand under normal winter conditions could be significantly overstated," the bank's analysts said in a note quoted by Reuters. Yet, another report, also by Reuters, said that other analysts expected a lot of gas-to-oil switching this winter, which would drive oil prices higher and drive some UK energy suppliers out of business. "This has never happened before at such a global scale. The market has always tried to substitute from costly oil to much cheaper natural gas," Reuters quoted a SEB commodity analyst as saying. Now the tables have turned, and both commodities are soaring amid not only forecasts for a cold winter, however inaccurate they might be at this point in time, but also expectations for higher energy demand during this winter season. Meanwhile, supply remains tight. OPEC+ refused to boost production by more than 400,000 bpd monthly. Russia's President Vladimir Putin said the country will step up gas deliveries to Europe, but some analysts doubt that it has the capacity to do so, even if it is willing to do it without expecting concessions in return, which is likely. "Currently, the Russian domestic gas market remains tight, with its inventories running low, output already near its peak and winter looming in Russia as well, limiting gas export capacity," said Adeline Van Houtte from the Economist Intelligence Unit. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads from Oilprice.com: Natural gas prices have reached unhealthy levels for both producers and consumers, Saad al-Kaabi, Qatars Energy Minister and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, the worlds top LNG exporter, said on Thursday, a day after spot liquefied natural gas prices in Asia hit a new record high. While natural gas prices are an outcome of basic market fundamentals including supply and demand, the current price levels observed in global markets are unhealthy for both producers and consumers, al-Kaabi said, as carried by Bloomberg, after a virtual dialogue with European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson today. Last month, al-Kaabi said on the sidelines of the Gastech industry conference in Dubai that the surging gas prices were partly the result of underinvestment in the industry, also driven by the attempts at fast energy transition. Theres a euphoria around the energy transition thats forcing companies not to invest, al-Kaabi said. There is a huge demand from all our customers, and unfortunately we cannot cater for everybody. Unfortunately, in my view, this is due to the market not investing enough in the industry, al-Kaabi said at the event in September, as carried by Reuters. Back then, when spot LNG prices in Asia were only $20 per million British thermal units (mmBtu)a record for September ahead of the winter heating seasonthe Qatari energy minister said he hoped the high prices wouldnt last because they would not be good for consumers. We dont want these high prices, we dont think it is good for the consumers. We dont want $2 and we dont want $20, we want to have a reasonable price that is sustainable, al-Kaabi told Reuters at the end of September. This week, the worsening global energy crisis sent Asias spot LNG prices soaring by 40 percent on Wednesday, as a cargo for delivery into North Asia in November was priced at as much as $56/mmBtua record high that beat the previous record from last week of $34.52/mmBtu. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads from Oilprice.com: Im glad that it was available, she said, because I feel it was easier for them to test, and we knew to keep them out of school. The childrens doctor, in fact, told her there was no need for them to take another test. Geigers test, however, was negative. She took a rapid test at a lab the next day and it, too, was negative. On Day 3, she took a PCR test that was positive. Geiger said she persisted in getting tested even though she was vaccinated because of her exposure to her children and their friend and the fact that she had a lot of symptoms. Safranek said Nebraska already is using rapid tests in nursing homes. If residents are tested regularly, the tests can pick up a missed infection a couple of days later. But there can be consequences if the tests are done incorrectly, he said, such as failure to isolate a sick person. A recent study that compared the BinaxNOW with PCR at four sites in Florida found that antigen test results were more likely to agree with positive PCR tests when viral load was high. Do we have courts for lay people and courts for people of privilege? Its a good question, said McChesney, who clerked for judges for nearly two decades before she became an attorney 10 years ago. Its my experience that the expectation that courts be open is taken seriously. We have an above-reproach bench who does not take sealing records lightly. Attorneys sometimes try to keep court filings quiet while bemoaning that courthouses are the worst places to try to keep a secret. The irony of Paynes efforts to seal: It is doubtful that Nebraska court observers would have noticed his divorce filing, even without the sealing. It was filed as Constantine A. Payne vs. Maria K. Payne. Payne goes by his middle name, Alexander. The World-Herald was sent a copy of the filings in the case. It is not clear who originally leaked them. As in most cases, the filings arent tawdry. Courts have long since turned to no-fault divorces, where it doesnt matter who, if anyone, was in the wrong. Both Marias filing and Alexanders filing give no reason for the divorce, other than the standard language of irreconcilable differences and the marriage being irretrievably broken. Heres where the divorce gets unusual: Von Lutz, clinical services supervisor with the Two Rivers Public Health Department, said the testing that has been available has been mostly through doctors offices and pharmacies. But a lot of those appointments have been filling quickly. Some residents dont have a primary care provider to go to for testing. Lutz has heard from residents who have made appointments to get tested and then received emails canceling the appointment because the provider didnt have testing supplies. If they re-register, it can take a couple more days to get in, putting them four to six days out before getting tested. Often, asymptomatic people havent been able to get tested. People seeking negative PCR tests for international travel also have been having a difficult time, because most doctors offices and clinics dont perform tests for that purpose. When TestNebraska was running, he said, the health department had nine test sites open per week in its seven-county territory. It will launch its test site with TotalWellness on Monday and offer tests on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Mark McCurdy, owner of Marks Pharmacy, said the business previously served as a provider for TestNebraska. LINCOLN Omaha defense attorney and former county prosecutor Stu Dornan announced his candidacy Thursday for the Nebraska Legislature. He will seek Omaha's District 20 legislative seat. The newly redrawn district stretches from 72nd Street to roughly 155th Street and from Pacific Street to Interstate 80. The district is now represented by State Sen. John McCollister, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection. Dornan was appointed as Douglas County Attorney in 2003 but was defeated in 2006 by the current officeholder, Don Kleine. He also spent three years on the Westside Community School Board and is currently an elected member of Educational Service Unit #3. Over the years, he has represented a number of high-profile defendants. Last year, he was one of the attorneys representing Jake Gardner, an Omaha bar owner who was indicted for manslaughter in connection with shooting James Scurlock during the summer's racial justice protests. Gardner killed himself before he could be taken into custody. A Republican with long ties to the district, Dornan has lined up support from Kleine and from Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert. He lists education, property taxes, public safety and mental health services as key issues. San Francisco's OMI Neighborhoods: 1862-1959 by Richard Brandi and Woody LaBounty In 2009 the Western Neighborhoods Project received a grant from the Historic Preservation Fund Committee of the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development to produce a historical context statement on the Ocean View, Merced Heights, Ingleside, and Ingleside Terraces neighborhoods (often grouped together and called "OMI"). A historical context statement is more than a general history of an area; it can be an invaluable resource for planners, developers, and residents to evaluate individual properties under review for proposed alteration or demolition. The link below is to a pdf document that is 3.0mb, almost 60 pages long, with dozens of historical photos. This document was adopted by the City of San Francisco's Historic Preservation Commission on February 3, 2010. Context Statements are by their nature always subject to updating as knowledge from surveys and research is increased and honed. This statement will no doubt change over time. OMI Historical Context Statement Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places! "Spanish Town": Street Names in Western San Francisco by John Freeman Have you ever driven south from Geary Boulevard on Park Presidio and noticed the names of the streets you pass? The alphabetical streets seem to be in a pattern. The first street is Anza, then Balboa, followed by Cabrillo. You say to yourself "ah, there is an alphabetical pattern here. They named the streets after Spanish explorers." If you are on 19th Avenue or Sunset Boulevard, heading north, you'll observe a similar pattern of alphabetical street names that seem tied to early exploration and settlement by Spaniards in this region. The theory seems very valid until your reach the streets on the south side of Golden Gate Park lettered I, J, K and L. These are NOT Spanish. They are alphabetical, but they seem an aberration of a pattern. There is an interesting story of how Irving, Judah, Kirkham and Lawton streets got their names. In the post-earthquake period, there was an attempt to correct a great many street names that were confusing for mail delivery. In 1909, a special commission was created by the Board of Supervisors to address these confusions and recommend changes to the Board. One of the biggest problems the Street Naming Commission encountered was the confusion between the numbered streets running from First Street downtown out to 34th street in the Mission District, and the numbered "avenues" in the western part of the city. After the earthquake and fire there had been a lot of new residents moving out to the avenues and in a pre-zip code era, the mail confusions were greatly increasing. To further complicate matters, the Bayview District was also using numbered streets, but as Avenue, "south" or just "S". The Richmond and Sunset had streets lettered A through X and the Bayview had streets lettered A south through U south (O was never used for a street name there). To address this numerical and alphabetical confusion, the Commission hit upon a novel solution. They proposed eliminating all the numerical avenues and lettered streets in the Richmond and Sunset and replacing them with Spanish names in alphabetical order. In the Bayview, they proposed a similar elimination, but replacement with names of historic civic and military men in an alphabetical pattern. The pattern proposed to replace the numerical avenues in the Richmond and Sunset was simple. The streets would run Arguello, Borca, Coronado, De Soto... to Zamorano for 26th Avenue. Some of the proposed names had historical significance; others were Spanish names that fit the pattern. After the 26th letter, the pattern would be Spanish saints, so that 27th Avenue would be San Antonio and 47th Avenue would be Santa Ynez. Unable to find a saint's name for K, Q, W or Z the Commission had two streets left over and recommended Alcatraz and La Playa to end the sequence. After the proposal had its first reading before the Board of Supervisors on November 8, 1909, the western neighborhoods had an immediate hostile reaction. The more populated Richmond District took the lead and fiery orators were chosen to speak out at the Board meeting a week later. When the Board met on November 15, the speakers from the two western neighborhoods decried the idea of changing streets to these "unpronounceable" Spanish names. Orators got up and berated the Board for "selling out" to the Spanish we had so nobly defeated only a few years previously in the Philippines. The over-riding sentiment was that the accepting of these names would be a humiliation and henceforth the Richmond and Sunset would be mocked as "Spanish Town". Despite the vigorous oratory, the Board of Supervisors voted 12 to 5 to accept the recommended changes. Outraged, the residents of the western avenues got organized to fight this imposition of Spanish names on their streets. The Richmond District had the oldest continuous neighborhood improvement club and had actively been fighting City Hall for years to get services for its growing population. (They had just won a battle against the Ocean Shore Railroad, which had proposed a steam train system running from the end of the United Rail line at 11th and Fulton, out to the beach.) Meetings were held, petitions were signed and the population of the two neighborhoods was mobilized to fight against this imposition of foreign names for its avenues. Responding to the intense political pressure, the members of the Street Naming Commission agreed to a community meeting at Richmond Hall on Saturday November 20. The residents spoke passionately against street name changes and the Commission backed down. They agreed to go back to the Board of Supervisors with a new recommendation. The "save face" compromise was that the two western neighborhoods could have back their numbered avenues, but would retain two of the Commission's changes. Since La Playa is Spanish for "beach" no objection was raised. Two choices were suggested for First Avenue, either Arguello or St. Francis Boulevard. At one of the meetings in late November, a lawyer got up and attempted to read a letter from one of the Arguello family, complaining about the slandering of their honored name. When the Chairman ruled him out of order he yielded the floor reluctantly, pausing before taking his seat to shout angrily, "Talk about Arguello being a bandit! Let me remind you that when you propose to call First Avenue 'St. Francis Boulevard' you suggest giving it the name of one of the very worst pirates who ever sailed the seas. That's what your St. Francis was." "St. Francis a pirate?" queried the dazed Chairman. "Why, of whom are you talking, Sir?" The attorney shot back "I mean St. Francis Drake, the pirate!" "But our St. Francis," the chairman mildly reminded, "was St. Francis of Assisi, a priest, not a sea rover." Amid uproarious laughter, the lawyer beat a hastily exit from the chambers. This was indicative of the farcical tenor of the hearings. Since it seemed like the new park to be made from the City Cemetery at 33rd Avenue and Clement would likely get named St. Francis Park, Arguello was recommended for First Avenue. With a compromise on Avenues completed, the attention turned to the cross streets in the Richmond and Sunset Districts. There remained the question of the alphabetical streets A through X to be named. A - C would need to be named. D Street was already being called Fulton, since it was an extension from downtown. Golden Gate Park had eliminated E - G. It was suggested that H Street be renamed to honor President Lincoln with no objection. That left I - X in the alphabetical sequence to be named. There was a solidarity pact between the two neighborhoods now. Still stinging from the "Spanish Town" controversy, the mood in the neighborhood was for names of American heroes. The Richmond only had 3 streets to name, the Sunset had 16. The Richmond toyed with "Custer" for it's C street, but ended up giving it back to the Bayview District (Although only suggestions, many patriot American names had been assigned to the Bayview.) Instead the Richmond went with three Spanish explores, Anza, Balboa and Cabrillo. The Sunset had a more difficult task. The powerful Parkside Realty Company, who were developing the southern portion of the Sunset, had already been using Pacheco, Quintara, Rivera, Santiago, Taraval , Ulloa, Vicente and Wawona for its tract. That left I through N to name, plus X. Xavier had been passed by the Board, but was deemed too confusing to pronounce and it was dropped for Yorba. The Sunset representatives borrowed two names from the proposed Bayview street name list and suggested Irving and Judah. A literary American, Washington Irving was deserving of recognition. Theodore Judah, the engineering genius who got scant credit for the monumental task of planning the transcontinental railway through the Sierra to link the East and West, was an ironic choice. The railroad tycoons who made the fortunes eclipsed him, but he was the most deserving of recognition for his truly heroic contribution to the West. Ralph Wilson Kirkham had the right credentials as a general from the Civil War and Mexican War, so his name was chosen. Henry W. Lawton was an Army general recently killed in the Philippines, so he more than met the American patriot criteria. The Sunset men had made their point by choosing names of Americans. We can only assume they had no fight left in them when it came to the last three letters (M-O). Moraga had been second in command under Anza. Noriega had been the commander of both the Santa Barbara and Monterey presidios. Ortega deserved credit for discovering San Francisco Bay while on the Portola expedition. On November 29, 1909 the final vote on the street name changes for the entire city (with the exception of the Bayview) was unanimously approved. The Richmond and Sunset street names had used up so much time and energy, that the Board of Supervisors delayed those name changes until there was full community input from the Bayview District. (see http://sfhistoryencyclopedia.com/articles/s/streetNaming.html) The streets that run east and west through the Richmond and Sunset Districts do have a pattern. There is alphabetical integrity and there once was an attempt to maintain recognition of our Spanish heritage. But in attempting to create that pattern, the bureaucrats offended the residents. The Sunset District asserted their muscle and proudly chose four American-born heroes to represent them. Read a fuller account from John Freeman on the Street Naming controversy on the Encyclopedia of San Francisco site. Images: The Sunset District objects to wearing the "Spanish Clothes" put on by the Committee on Street Names while Mayor Taylor looks on. Cartoon from the San Francisco Examiner, November 23, 1909. Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places! West Portal - Introduction Welcome to the "virtual" version of the West Portal History Walk, a self-guided historical tour along West Portal Avenue. With support from the California Council for the Humanities, participation from the merchants of West Portal Avenue and a great deal of work by Richard Brandi, the walk debuted in storefront windows on February 1, 2002. Richard is a West Portal resident and fourth-generation San Franciscan who dug through historical collections for representative images and wrote this brief history of the neighborhood. Surrounding the West Portal neighborhood are the unique urban developments of Forest Hill, St. Francis Wood, Balboa Terrace, and other "residential parks" that were designed with prohibitions on commercial use. West Portal Avenue acted as the commercial strip serving these neighborhoods. This almost complete separation of commercial and residential districts later became commonplace with the advent of true suburbs after World War II. In the setting of a major city, and with neighborhoods whose very existence was owed to the construction of mass transportation (the Twin Peaks streetcar tunnel), this balanced relationship between developments is historically significant. We hope you enjoy yourself on this trip to one western neighborhood's past! The West Portal History Walk First stop Index of the walk: Introduction (Poster) Image: Poster of the downtown and outlying districts shaking hand through the Twin Peaks Tunnel. Courtesy of the California Historical Society. Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places.! BLOOMINGTON Kim Mattson knows how it feels to walk into a store and not see any clothes in her size. Sure, she could buy jewelry but why should she settle? So, she opened her own store, where she stocks womens tops, jeans, dresses, leggings and more in sizes up to 6X. The Middle Sister: A Curvy Boutique opened in August at 211 S. Prospect Road, Suite 15A, Bloomington. I wanted to offer something more to the community, Mattson said. Its so much needed. Theres nowhere else to go. The name of her store is inspired by her place as the middle sister in her family. I have an older sister and a younger sister who are regular sizes. I am not, and I used to be, but I had kids, put myself on the back burner, life takes hold and, like most women, I put myself last, Mattson said. I finally accepted my size its just a number. She put her background in bookkeeping and office work to use in planning for The Middle Sister, which opened its online storefront Aug. 1 and its brick-and-mortar site Aug. 6. Knowing that sizes vary greatly by brand, with sizes 4X to 6X being the hardest to find, Mattson aims to carry several different brands to accommodate all shapes and sizes. If you have three or four women who are, say, a size 20, theyre all going to be shaped differently. They may be apples, pears, triangles, tall, short, she said. She looks for clothing and accessories that will appeal to all ages, from her 27-year-old daughter-in-law to her 72-year-old mother. Also on her list of must-haves: comfort, convenience and class. The store has super-soft sweaters and tops, matching pajama sets, and pockets aplenty, even in leggings and scarves. Its gotta be comfortable, Mattson said. Comfort is key. But also classy. We all want to be comfortable, but we also want to look nice. But the passion for Mattsons business goes beyond filling a void in the retail industry. In November 2020, Mattsons granddaughter, Ava, developed a fever she couldnt get rid of, and her abdomen began to swell. Doctors sent the family to OSF Childrens Hospital of Illinois, where doctors found a mass in the babys liver and diagnosed it as a malignant rhabdoid tumor. They gave her a 5% chance of survival, even with chemotherapy. Ava died April 2 of this year, missing her first birthday by two weeks. In Avas memory, Mattson set aside a section of her store as Avas Corner, where 80% of proceeds from those items will be donated to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital and its local affiliates. You dont realize how important the fight against childhood cancer is until it happens to your own family or to someone whos close to you, Mattson said. In the future, Mattson would like her store to host small gatherings with a charity aspect. Other future plans include expanding her hours in November, finding the perfect line of jeans and intimates to carry, and maybe, someday, expanding with stores in other cities. I want women to know that they are enough. They are beautiful on the inside and the outside, Mattson said. Dont let anyone make you feel that you are unworthy or that you are not the same just because you are a larger size. The Middle Sister is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The store is closed Sunday and Monday. For more information, go to facebook.com/themiddlesistercurvy or www.themiddlesister.net, or call 309-262-3020. Contact Robyn Skaggs at (309) 820-3244. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLOOMINGTON Under metrics set by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of estimated COVID-19 cases per 100,000 McLean County residents has fallen to a low not seen in more than a month. The McLean County Health Department began including the CDC's estimate of cases per 100,000 people in its daily COVID update as a way of measuring the impact of the virus's community spread. As the Delta variant surged across Illinois, so too did cases in McLean County, and the average number of cases per 100,000 pushed past 100 to nearly 300 in mid-August and September. MCHD's report Thursday shows the CDC estimates about 177 cases per 100,000 people, a low not seen since Aug. 17. McLean County still remains under a designation of "high" rates of community spread, which is where it's been since early August. MCHD reported another 50 cases of the virus were confirmed in the past day, bringing the total for October so far to 254. There have been 22,447 cases in the past year, 21,856 of which are considered recovered. No additional deaths were reported Thursday, leaving that total at 263 deaths. As of Wednesday, the percentage of tests that returned positive for COVID in the past seven days fell slightly, down to 2.3% from 2.4% on Tuesday. More than 514,500 tests have been run in the past year, giving the county a cumulative positivity rate of 4.4%. One McLean County resident was released from a COVID-related hospitalization, bringing the total of county residents considered COVID patients down to 27 from 28 the day before. Between OSF St. Joseph and Carle BroMenn medical centers, there are now 27 COVID patients, a two-person increase since Wednesday. MCHD said both hospitals reported 92% of all intensive care beds in use Thursday, along with 90% of all beds in use at both hospitals. BLOOMINGTON A traffic stop near Interstate 55 in McLean County Thursday has led to cannabis trafficking charges for a California man. Prosecutors said Martin Bonilla-Hernandez, 57, of Red Bluff was in possession of about 86 pounds of cannabis. The marijuana was packaged in individual pounds, prosecutors said. Bonilla-Hernandez told police he grew the cannabis in California and that he was on his way to Ohio where he planned to sell it, prosecutors said. He is charged with one count each of cannabis trafficking of more than 2,500 grams and unlawful possession of more than 5,000 grams of cannabis with the intent to deliver. Each charge is a class X felony. Prosecutors said the estimated street value of the 86 pounds of cannabis is between $170,000 and $430,000 depending on the quality of the cannabis. Bonilla-Hernandez was jailed in lieu of posting $50,035. An arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 5. Contact Kade Heather at 309-820-3256. Follow him on Twitter: @kadeheather Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. NORMAL Illinois State University students and employees led by the Black Student Union commemorated late student Jelani Day with a candlelight march from campus to a memorial service at Redbird Arena. "Jelani was a strong, intelligent man who was making an impact in his community and our program. This meant everything to him," said Amanda Regez, of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, where he was a graduate student. Day, 25, started in the Speech Language Pathology program and was reported missing on Aug. 25 by his family. His car was found on Aug. 27 in Peru, in a wooded area. His then unidentified body was found in the Illinois River on Sept. 4. The identity of the remains was released to the public on Sept. 23. The circumstances of the death have brought international attention, and it's still unclear how he died. Prior to ISU, Day had attended Alabama A&M University, a historically Black university in Huntsville, Alabama. Heaven Moore, a representative from the BSU, spoke during the memorial. She applauded Day for choosing a historically Black university and said she hoped he would have found a similarly welcoming community at ISU through the BSU. "While many of us didn't get the pleasure of meeting Jelani, he still was a member of our community," Moore said. ISU President Terri Goss Kinzy was the first speaker of the evening. She expressed her condolences to Day's family and friends and encouraged the community to support each other. I hope that in this evening, we will lean on one another, we will find strength and support in those we love," Kinzy said. Avery Spranger and Rodrigo Villaobos from the universities Student Government Association said that the SGA would be pursuing ways to officially honor Day's legacy. His story will impact the lives of young individuals across the nations. Jelani will not be forgotten, Regez said. Multiple speakers, including Day's family, asked for the community's continued support as they pursued justice and answers in Day's death. Ximena Sanchez-Ramirez, of the Association of Latinx American Students, said the community needed to continue to bring awareness of the case. Speaking to The Pantagraph after the memorial, ISU undergraduate Artxmis Burton agreed, saying police agencies needed to have full transparency during the investigations. "(Police need to make sure) that there's at least closure for the family and community at large," Burton said. The memorial also featured a specially formed ensemble, the Jelani Day Memorial Ensemble. They and many other speakers noted Day's deep faith and commitment to his church. Members of Day's family came to the stage at the end of the memorial. His mother, Carmen Bolden Day, described Jelani Day as the child in the family that could always get what he wanted from her and his father, Seve Day. "Thank you for realizing Jelani was important, not just to us, he was important to everybody," she said. She asked for the community's support as the family continues to pursue answers, even if they have to keep pushing the investigators for answers. She needs the agencies, from Bloomington Police Department to Illinois State Police to the FBI to do their jobs and get the family answers. "I want the world to know that Black and Brown people deserve the same as any other folks," she said. Two of Jelani Day's siblings and his father, Seve Day, spoke as well. His older sister, Dacara Bolden, talked about the strong bond that the five siblings hold. "We call ourselves the five heartbeats, and that will never changes, because through us, Jelani's heart will beat on," she said. Dr. Christina Platt, director of ISU's Multicultural Center, presented the family with condolences and gifts from the ISU community. That includes a mural of Jelani Day which was painted on a wall in Normal and removed by the Town, sparking a protest Monday night. A celebration of life in Day's hometown, Danville, is planned for Saturday at noon at Danville High School. There will also be a community choir for the service, anyone interested in joining is invited to arrive at 11 a.m. His mother also announced at the memorial Thursday that the family would be leading a balloon release at the IL 251 bridge in Peru on Friday at 3 p.m. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. NORMAL The womens march at Illinois State University is still on despite a delay from last weekend due to rainy weather. Organizers say it will kick off at 10 a.m. Saturday on the ISU Quad. The Facebook page for the event is hosted by students Zoe Meier and Cara Conner. However, it has been a large group effort, including organizers from Illinois Wesleyan University and the Bloomington-Normal community, Conner said. I am very proud and very excited to be involved in this event, she said. The event can be found on Facebook under the title "Women's March ISU." There is both a Facebook event page and a group. Womens marches across the country were organized for Oct. 2 in response to recent legislation in Texas called the Texas Heartbeat Act. The law limits abortions to before a heartbeat is detected, which usually happens around six weeks into a pregnancy. The law also allows private citizens to sue doctors in the state who perform an abortion after six weeks, even if the citizen bringing the suit has no connection to the abortion or the doctor. This is the most restrictive limitation on abortions in the country, Conner said. The marches are a nationwide response as a way to show support for women in Texas. A lot of women dont even know that theyre pregnant by the six-week mark, Conner said. On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman blocked the law, saying it is unconstitutional, a move encouraged by the federal Justice Department. Pitman granted a preliminary injunction. The state plans to appeal the decision. The ISU march was delayed because storms were expected in Bloomington-Normal at the time the march was scheduled last Saturday. The organizers were disappointed that they could not march in solidarity with others across the country but did not want anyone to be hurt during the march, Conner said. On the events Facebook page, organizers acknowledged that some people still marched last Saturday, with some posting videos to the page. Conner was impressed by the support she saw from the community, including the involvement of three ISU student organizations: Black Girl Code, Women in Business and Ladies of Virtue and Excellence. President Terri Goss Kinzy was expected to speak last Saturday, but Conner said the organizers were not sure if Kinzy, and other planned speakers, could make the postponed time. Just having her (Kinzys) support in this was huge for us, Conner said. As of Wednesday afternoon, almost 300 people had RSVP'd to the Facebook event. Saturday's weather forecast from the National Weather Service shows partly sunny skies with a high around 81 degrees. The march and rally will start at 10 a.m. Saturday. Organizers have not yet released the expected route, but Conner said it will mostly be around the ISU campus. Marchers should meet on the north side of the Quad near the Bone Student Center. Contact Connor Wood at (309)820-3240. Follow Connor on Twitter: @connorkwood Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CHICAGO Noting progress in combating a resurgence of COVID-19 and saying the nation was headed in the right direction, President Joe Biden warned the country to keep its eye on the ball as he touted his mandate that large employers require workers to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. Speaking at a manufacturing site in Elk Grove Village, making up for a canceled trip a week ago, Biden restated his belief that this has been a pandemic of the unvaccinated that has overtaxed the countrys health care system and personnel who are getting the living hell kicked out of them. The unvaccinated overcrowd our hospitals, overriding emergency rooms and intensive care units. The unvaccinated patients are leaving no room for someone with a heart attack or a need of a cancer operation and so much more because they cant get in the ICU, they cant get into the operating room, Biden said. The unvaccinated also put our economy at risk, because people are reluctant to go out, he said. Heres the deal, these requirements are already proving that they work. Despite his mandate, Biden implored more businesses to require employee vaccinations on their own. I know these decisions arent easy but theyre an example, a powerful example. Get vaccinated. For folks who havent gotten vaccinated, get it done. Do the right thing. It can save your life. It can save lives of those around you, he said. We can end this thing. Its easy. Its accessible and its free to get the vaccine. Biden met with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and visited a construction site being built by Clayco. Clayco is owned by Bob Clark, a major Democratic donor. Company officials are scheduled to announce a system of required vaccinations or weekly testing for all employees. In advance of the trip, the Biden administration produced a report in support of his vaccine mandate, saying that without requiring vaccines, we face endless months of chaos in our hospitals, further detrimental impacts on our economy, and anxiety in our schools. With them, we will accelerate our path out of the pandemic. The report said more than 185 million Americans are fully vaccinated, up from just 2 million when Biden took office, about a month after the federal Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization for the Pfizer vaccine. The White House contended the unprecedented pace of the presidents vaccination campaign saved over 100,000 lives and prevented 450,000 hospitalizations. The report said vaccination requirements have increased inoculation rates by more than 20 percentage points to over 90% in many organizations, have already helped cut the rate of unvaccinated Americans by one third and are backed by the public in opinion polls. More than 3,500 organizations have already stepped up to require vaccinations, and thousands more will require vaccinations in the weeks ahead under Bidens mandate, the administrations report said. Vaccination requirements are in place at 25% of businesses, 40% of hospitals, and colleges and universities serving 37% of all graduate and undergraduate students. Bidens second trip to the Chicago region as president comes a week after he canceled a planned appearance here in order to stay in Washington to handle negotiations over raising the debt ceiling and efforts to advance his social and infrastructure economic package. Bidens recovery proposals remain mired in the same stalemate that resulted in his earlier decision to cancel but there was progress on the debt ceiling issue. Discussions continue over Bidens "Build Back Better" agenda amid divisions among Democrats over the price and scope of the package. Those divisions also threaten progress on a bipartisan infrastructure bill of more than $1 trillion that also is key to Bidens economic pandemic recovery efforts. Late Wednesday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell indicated he could go along with a short-term extension of the debt ceiling, pushing off a long-term solution until December. On Thursday, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer agreed to the deal, which would raise the debt ceiling by $480 billion setting up another fight over the issue late in the year. The amount of the increase represents what the Treasury Department estimates will be needed to pay the governments bills through Dec. 3. On both his pandemic efforts and economic agenda, Biden has found a strong supporter in Pritzker. In recent weeks, members of Bidens administration have traveled to the state to promote the presidents legislation on issues ranging from child care and early education to affordable housing. Even as signs appear in some higher vaccinated states, including Illinois, that COVID-19 cases are slowing, the Democratic president has made clear that he views vaccination hesitancy a significant obstacle to restoring the economy and a fuller sense of pre-pandemic normalcy. He has encouraged private businesses to impose their own vaccination mandates aside from his still-pending federal rule. Biden issued his vaccination mandate Sept. 9 on businesses with 100 or more workers. The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still putting together rules, and there is no implementation date. It would affect an estimated 80 million Americans. In issuing the mandate, Biden cited Chicago-based United Airlines as an example of companies taking action. United implemented its requirement for all of its employees in August and said nearly all employees have been vaccinated. Corporate workers for Chicago-based McDonalds and Deerfield-headquartered Walgreens also face similar company-imposed mandates. Violation of Bidens mandate would result in penalties of up to $14,000 per occurrence. The mandate also will require those businesses to provide paid time off for workers to get vaccinated or to recover from the shot. Bidens mandate has faced opposition from many Republican governors and some GOP-aligned business groups who have warned of lawsuits to challenge the presidents action. But in Illinois, Pritzker has made his handling of the pandemic a centerpiece to his reelection campaign next year against prospective Republican challengers who have criticized his mitigation efforts, including mandatory vaccination or testing of health care and education workers and mandatory masking of school students, as usurping personal rights and local control. Bidens trip to Elk Grove Village served as a reward to a loyal Democratic donor. Clark, the founder and executive chairman of Clayco, has made more than 385 federal campaign contributions totaling $1.57 million to Democratic candidates and causes over the last 30 years, according to records from the Federal Election Commission. That includes more than $260,000 in contributions to Bidens 2020 campaign and the Democratic Party in key presidential swing states. The St. Louis-based development executive also served as a bundler for Bidens campaign, securing at least $100,000 in contributions from donors. Clark was among the most loyal donors to Rahm Emanuel, gifting travel to the former mayor several years in a row and contributing more than $120,000 to his campaign. Emanuels administration approved developments built by Clayco in the city, and the mayor appeared at an event with Clark when the executive announced his firm would relocate its headquarters to Chicago. Bidens visit followed a July event the president held at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake to highlight his plan to help working- and middle-class families. The presidents focused on human infrastructure, but Chicagos ongoing struggles to tamp down rampant gun violence emerged as the dominant theme of the day as two federal agents and a Chicago police officer were shot hours before Biden touched down in the city. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 October is Respect Life Month. Legalized abortion is the Holocaust of our generation. Millions of human lives have been sacrificed for convenience, embarrassment, sexual freedom, etc. There are millions of post-abortion women daily regretting their abortions and suffering deeply. Many are literally forced into abortions by boyfriends, husbands, counselors and parents, and quite often more concerned with their own self-interests. Women and unborn children deserve better. Recently, Texas restricted their abortion laws. So, last Wednesday, Governor Pritzker sent several letters to Texas businesses, inviting them to re-locate to Illinois where abortion laws are liberal. (The governor wants to make Illinois abortion laws a draw-card for businesses.) In Illinois, thousands of helpless unborn children are aborted daily children endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness children who have been denied everything. Ask yourself: Does human life have value? Or are we garbage? Should unborn children be loved? Or killed? Should innocent children be given birth? Or death sentences? Are unborn children from God? Or Satan? Are civilized? Or barbaric? Are we Christian? Or heathen? Are we caring? Or selfish? Should we love? Or hate? Should we hope? Or be hopeless? Do we believe in life? Or death? Are we responsible? Or are we irresponsible? Is abortion a right? Or a wrong? Women and their unborn children both deserve better. Sue Martensen, Loda Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Former Deputy Minister for Power in the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama administration, John Jinapor is calling for the dissolution of the Interim Management Committee of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) with immediate effect. According to the Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu, the Interim Management Committee for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has failed to live up to its mandate for which it was set up as it could not prevent the disappearance of 105,927 litres of Gas Oil, a wrongful loading of 252,000 litres of Aviation Turbine Kerosene, the disappearance of 18 drums of electrical cables, the disappearance of LPG and loss of Naphtha. Speaking on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, John Abdulai Jinapor debunked the assertion by some government communication machinery that it was the interim management committee that discovered the missing oil and other items, hence, deserves a commendation. He intimated that the thievery happened under the watch of the interim management committee whose mandate should have been to protect and prevent any such occurrence, making the committee irrelevant to be maintained. So where is the commendation for this so-called interim management committee? They were supposed to prevent it; that is their core job and so they should not come and say that the oil has been stolen and so they are going to investigate it. Then what is the use of the interim management committee? The committee was set up to serve as a watchman or security man and since you came, things are still getting stolen and you want to investigate it, he indicated. This committee has to be dissolved immediately for the reason that they slept on the job. They did not put in place the right structures to prevent the loss of that oil. That is what they should have done. They should have put in place mechanisms that will make sure that the missing oil will stop at TOR. You dont sit there for the things to get missing before you investigate. They are supposed to prevent that and that is the truth, he chided. TOR interdicts staff over product losses The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has been hit by financial and product losses in excess of GH20 million, which has led to the interdiction of some workers of the refinery. The incidents leading to the interdictions occurred between 2012 and 2015, with others occurring in April and September this year. The incidents border on the disappearance and wrongful loading of products, leading to TOR incurring debts, the failure of staff to pay TOR debtors their due, in spite of the availability of funds, and the taking of decisions with financial implications without recourse to the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the refinery. Details The statement listed the issues to include the disappearance of 105,927 litres of gas oil that belonged to a bulk oil distribution company on September 4, this year and the wrongful loading of 252,000 litres of aviation turbine kerosene (ATK), instead of regular kerosene, into bulk road vehicle (BRV) trucks at the loading gantry between September 21 and 25, 2021. It said the rest were the disappearance of 18 drums of electrical cables worth GH10.4 million from the technical storehouse of TOR, discovered in April 2021; the disappearance of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) belonging to a client between 2012 and 2015, as a result of which TOR became indebted to the client to the tune of $4.8 million, as confirmed by an Ernst and Young audit, and the loss of Naphtha (a type of flammable oil) to a bulk distribution company. The IMC Chaired by Mr Nobert Cormla-Djamposu Anku, with Messrs William Ntim Boadu and Okyere Baffuor Sarpong as members, the IMC was put in place in June this year, after the Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, had relieved the substantive management members of their positions. It was tasked to, among other things, ensure a smooth transfer from the outgone directors, undertake technical and human resource audits, as well as receive and assess viable partnerships for TOR, if any. Minority Caucus To Launch Parliamentary Probe The Minority Caucus in Parliament says they will launch a probe into the unexplained disappearance of 105,927 litres of Gas Oil, a wrongful loading of 252,000 litres of Aviation Turbine Kerosene, the disappearance of 18 drums of electrical cables, the disappearance of LPG and loss of Naphtha. The estimated cost of the stolen items according to them is in excess of GHS42 million, that is, excluding the value of the Naphtha. "This unfortunate development comes on the heels of several corruption scandals that have characterized the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP Government particularly, in the energy sector which is fast becoming a sector noted for naked thievery and flagrant disregard for due processes," the statement said. In a statement signed by John Abdulai Jinapor, Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu and Ranking Member for Mines and Energy, he explained that the Tema Oil Refinery has its standard operating procedures requiring the daily briefing to management on stock accounting and inventory, which confirms to management the total quantity and quality in their tanks and the identities of parties who own such stocks. "It is therefore untenable to hear of such huge losses without any tangible explanation," the statement added. Watch Video Below Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah, Convener for Fixing The Country Movement has called for strict adherence to the laws governing LGBTQI+ communication in the country describing the menace as a "Deadly Virus". According to him homosexuality is un-African because Ghana is a country of faith and values, and called on Parliament to safeguard our cherished values as a country. In a statement copied to Peacefmonline.com, he stated that; We must tighten our laws and deal ruthlessly with members of LGBTQI+ community lest they run down the values and cultural systems in this country. "We are absolutely aligning with the fact that homosexuality is a 'deadly virus' which should be radically expunged from the human race, a portion of the statement read. Read the full statement below; The LGBTQI bill and matters arising The Fixing The Country Movement is alarmed at the twist and turns of the debate surrounding the Proper Human Sexual and Ghanaian Family Bill, 2021, otherwise known as the LGBTQI bill currently before parliament of Ghana. We have become aware of the attempt by some members of the academia and the legal fraternity boldly campaigning against the LGBTQI bill. There are growing concerns among right thinking Ghanaians that this last minute attempt is geared towards the disruption of the entire parlimentary process, paving way for the withdrawal of the bill. And this is generating collective resentment in almost every facets of our body politics. The Fixing The Country Movement wishes to remind parliament and all stakeholders that, Ghana is a country of faith and values, and Parliament ought to safeguard our cherished values as a country. We are absolutely aligning with the fact that homosexuality is a deadly virus which should be radically expunged" from the human race. We abhor homosexuality. It is un-African. Indeed, there is a scientific basis why over 90% on average across Africa abhors this phenomenon. As a matter of fact, the latest Afrobarometer survey by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) confirms that the majority of Ghanaians do not want to tolerate same-sex relationships or people with different sexual orientations. The survey shows a whopping 93% of the Ghanaian population saying no to LGBTQI+ community. Parliament needs to pay serious attention to the numbers. As civil society advocacy group, we have the democratic right to raise our voice against the LGBTQI+ community and express our counter-stance on the bill before parliament. We are enthused about the fact that the bill before parliament is seeking to have a well-established law to confronts LGBTQ+ practices head-on in Ghana. We call on Parliament not to kowtow to any group of persons to soften its position on the LGBTQI bill. Ghana must not remove restrictions on LGBTQI+ and same-sex marriages. We must tighten our laws and deal ruthlessly with members of LGBTQI+ community lest they run down the values and cultural systems in this country. Long live the Ghana. Signed: Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah (Convener, Fixing The Country Movement) Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video 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 Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, yesterday marked his 58th birthday with cured lepers at the Weija Leprosarium in Accra, during which he called on Ghanaians to extend a hand to lepers to make them feel very welcomed and part of society. He said there was nothing wrong with showing love and affection to cured lepers by holding them, eating or talking with them, and that was the reason he decided to host cured lepers to lunch to open his official residence about three years ago. That gesture, Dr. Bawumia explained, was to disabuse the mindsets of people about cured lepers and continue to send that positive signal. It is very important that we let lepers feel very welcome as part of society, so that they can have happy existence, and this is why, today, on the occasion of my 58th birthday, I want to spend this day with lepers at Weija because it gives me a lot of happiness internally to be able to spend time with all of you. God being so good, He has given us positions and we can use this platform to disabuse the mindsets of people about cured lepers. There is nothing wrong with holding, eating with cured lepers or talking with a leper, the Vice-President emphasised. He expressed regret at the fact that lepers had traditionally been ostracised in society, observing that not many people even wanted to sit next to lepers, hold their hands of or talk with them. Serving lepers Wearing an all-white Kaftan, Dr. Bawumia, who was accompanied by his wife, Hajia Samira Bawumia, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, with the assistance of the Chairman of the Lepers Aid Committee, Rev. Father Andrew Campbell, and the Weija/Gbawe Municipal Health Director, Dr. Mrs. Abena Okoh, gave out food to the cured lepers. He also donated GH10,000 and assorted items, including bags of rice, drinks, bottles of water and a bull, to the lepers. The Vice-President and his team also interacted with the cured lepers. Mixed feeling Dr. Bawumia, who lost his mother last month, described the day as one of mixed feeling because he had celebrated his last birthday together with his late mother, Hajia Mariama. He urged the cured lepers and everyone to continue to pray for the repose of the soul of Hajia Mariama. The Vice-President, who is the Patron of the Lepers Aid Committee, was happy about the efforts and the support of the government to improve the welfare of the lepers, saying: Thanks to the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and the government in general; you are paying a lot of attention to issues that concern lepers. He told the cured lepers that President Akufo-Addo took a keen interest in the welfare of lepers, and that even when the country recorded COVID-19 cases, the President followed up to him (Dr Bawumia) to make sure that lepers got vaccinated. Rev. Father Campbell expressed appreciation to Dr Bawumia and the government for the continued support to lepers and said phase one of a new accommodation project for lepers at the Weija Leprosarium had been completed and ready for use. He also said work on a research centre was also underway and appealed for an auditorium for the leprosarium. In Wa, where we have about 700 active leprosy cases, you have built a laboratory which is completed and must be handed over. We also have seven blocks at Ankaful in Cape Coast. Kokofu needs renovation and Ankaful needs equipment for the laboratory, while in Ho we need a borehole, he added. The retired priest of the Christ the King Catholic Church in Cantonments, Accra also asked that all the lepers in Ho, Wa, Weija and Ankaful be enrolled on to the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme and also appealed for an increment in the funds for lepers. He expressed concern about the continued harassment of the cured lepers by some family members for financial assistance, pointing out that instead of supporting and helping the lepers, the families were rather overburdening them with requests for money and other needs. Appreciation A cured leper, Mr. John Ampao, on behalf of his fellow inmates, thanked Dr. Bawumia and his wife for their unending support to them. He called on all Ghanaians to continue to celebrate women, saying but for Dr. Bawumias late mother and his spouse, Hajia Bawumia, there would not have been a Dr. Bawumia to organise a party for them. He expressed the hope that Dr. Bawumia would continue to stay in power for long, so that he (Mr. Ampao) and the other cured lepers would continue to benefit from his gesture. Mr. Ampao, who is a visual artist, also took the opportunity to present a painting to Dr. Bawumia. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., has called for open and objective discussions and analysis of the proposed bill against LGBTQ+ activities in Ghana. He is urging people to discuss the issues devoid of passion and anger. The anti-LGBTQ+ bill called Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill has been opposed by a group of academics, lawyers, Civil Society Organizations and Professors as they argue it's an infringement on fundamental human rights enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. The group comprising lawyer Akoto Ampaw; author, scholar and former Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa; the Dean of the University of Ghana (Legon) School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba; the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Information and Communication Studies, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo and the former Chief Executive Officer of erstwhile Ghana at fifty Secretariat, Dr Charles Wereko Brobbey among others have indicated they won't allow the bill to be passed into law because certain portions of it infract the human right provisions in the constitution. However, Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament, Sam George and a host of NDC Parliamentarians together with one Parliamentarian belonging to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) are strongly pushing for the bill. The opposing group has also come under intense criticisms with some Ghanaians purporting they are homosexuals or gaining financially from it, hence the reason they don't want the bill to be enacted. But Kwesi Pratt has implored Ghanaians to dispassionately listen to both the proponents and opposers of the bill. Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', he argued that those against the bill are no ordinary people but rather well-read, well-educated intellectuals whose contributions need to be dealt with with utmost importance. "Let's lend listening ears to all of them and find ways that we will enact laws that will bring about Ghana's development, that we will enact laws that won't infringe on any person's rights, that we will make laws that won't breach our constitution; that is the task before us. Not the name-calling, not the passion, not the hatred and so on!", he stated. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A primary school teacher caused drama at the Milimani law courts in Nairobi moments when he was slapped with a 20-year jail term for defiling a standard six pupil five years ago. Fredrick Mwangi Wango who acted unperturbed in court ignored the judge and distracted himself with a small Bible he was reading throughout the sentencing. In a fit of anger, Fredrick Mwangi Wango, 45, cast down a New Testament Bible he was earlier reading before the sentence was passed. And at the corridor outside the trial court, Wango who was being escorted to the cells by a lady prison warden attempted to sprint away but she had held him firmly. The warder beckoned a colleague to assist escort the defiler to the prison cells to start his term. Before senior principal magistrate David Ndungi announced his verdict Wango had said prayers while covering his face with a white face towel. He was also spotted reading the scripture while in the dock. But after he was sentenced, he cast down the New Testament Bible together with the face towel then yelled, Jesus why have you forsaken me yet the scriptures I read assured me l will be set free. While lifting his hands towards heaven he again quipped, God you are righteous what has happened to me now? Jesus my savior do I really deserve this jail term. What have I done to deserve it.Inside the cells, he clung at the grilled prison door as he continued wailing. While sentencing him, Mr. Ndungi said he violated the rights of the minor instead of protecting them. He rejected the accused mitigation that he should be given a second chance in life to reform and take care of his two children. Your childrens rights are not superior to those of the girl you defiled repeatedly until she lost count between 2015 and 2016, Mr Ndungi said. Wango, a father of two, who teaches in a city school, begun his drama last week when he collapsed upon being convicted then cried uncontrollably. After the accused recuperated he was asked to remain seated so that the court could finalize delivering the judgment. The magistrate said the accused had made it a routine to defile the girl. The girl could not remember the number of times the accused defiled her then threatened her with dire consequences should she disclose the illicit and illegal affair, Mr Ndungi stated. The magistrate said the accused lured the girl to his Mathare Estate residence around 6.00 am when she was heading to school on the day his illicit affair was discovered. Wango locked up the girl then went to school and returned after 9 am to carry out his secret mission. The teacher Fredrick Mwangi Wango was said to have defiled the said student who was in standard 6 at Moi primary school, when he accommodated her in his house at Mathare Estate in Nairobi within Nairobi county on March 2016. According to the police report, the father of the complainant who was too drunk left her under the care of Mwangi who is a married man with two children for half a year. The police report read She was taken to two different schools but would always go back to Mwangis house making us suspicious. When first interrogated by gender and children desk officers to establish whether there was any relationship between her and Mwangi, she denied it. However after police officers escorted the girl to the hospital for a check-up, she was later subjected to vigorous counselling before she opened up. She said Mwangi had been sexually violating her since she started living with him in his house, threatening her not to disclose it to anyone. While passing the sentence, senior principal magistrate David Ndugi said; The accused is a teacher but he defiled a child, the right of his children are not superior to that of the child he defiled, I hereby sentenced him to 20 years in prison as provided by law. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video OFFICIALS OF the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), its licensed allied agencies and farmers, will henceforth enjoy police escort services to prevent further criminal attacks. Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akufo Dampare, who disclosed this yesterday to journalists in Accra after he met management of COCOBOD and licensed buying companies to discuss security lapses within the sector and how the police could provide strategic assistance to the sector, said by the arrangement, officials disbursing funds, farmers receiving cocoa funds and trucks carrying cocoa beans from farming communities to the ports would be given escort services. In attendance were members of the Police management board, senior police officers, officials of COCOBOD led by Dr Emmanuel Opoku, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Administration. ACP Kwesi Ofori, who also briefed the media after a two hour close door discussions between the police and Cocobod officials, said the there had been reports on attacks on COCOBOD officials disbursing funds, farmers and trucks transporting the cocoa beans to the various ports over the past years. We have resolved to put in security measures in terms of conducting snap checks in these areas, providing escort services and providing security to the farmers who come into contact with money to ensure that they are safe and run their businesses without fear, he noted. He said cocoa was the back bone of Ghanas economy and as such, the police would not sit aloof and watch criminals misbehave in the sector. The police has indicated its readiness to ensure that these problems do not occur and have directed all regional commanders in these areas to assist in this regard. On his part, Fifi Boafo, Head of Public Affairs at COCOBOD, thanked the police for their readiness to provide security to officials and agents. It is the first time we are meeting with the police who have been very helpful in this regard he said adding that over GH2.5 billion have been pumped into the sector and needs to be protected. 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. Featured Video A 30-year-old taxi driver, Kwame Osei Banaman, has been shot and killed with his 2021 registered Toyota Vitz taxi robbed at Greda Estate in Accra. Police say his body was found in a pool of blood with gunshot wounds on his head. The Teshie District Police Commander, DSP Ransford Nsiah spoke to Citi News about the incident. We saw him lying in a pool of blood. So while we were trying to organize ourselves to convey the body to the mortuary, one man who claimed to be the owner of the taxi car which the victim was using came to tell us that he knows the victim and that he gave him the car to operate on a work and pay basis. He then proceeded to give the car number, the car type, and the colour of the car to us. However, upon inspection of the body, we found gunshot wounds on him. DSP Ransford Nsiah called on the public to assist police investigations with relevant information to nab the perpetrators. We have information that the perpetrators have removed the car number plate and have embossed another number, but we dont have the actual number now to confirm it. Just yesterday, Thursday, October 7, 2021, a 35-year-old worker of G4 Security was found dead at the premises of the Atonsu-Agogo branch of the Adansi Rural Bank Limited in the Ashanti Region. The lifeless body of Alex Opoku was bundled with his mouth sealed. Source: Citi News Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video After claiming to have had affairs with males for two decades, Aaron Adjetey Akron has disavowed the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) community, describing their practices as unnatural. At a press briefing on Friday, Mr Adjetey Akron, now a pastor, argued that being attracted to the same sex is an abnormal choice and not genetic, as many LGBTQ+ movements claim. According to him, No one was born gay it is just a feeling, thus, It is possible [for gays and lesbians] to come out. On October 6, some top officials of the Church of Pentecost marched to Parliament to present a memorandum supporting the passage of the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill. Officially known as the Proper Human Sexual and Ghanaian Family Bill, 2021, the drafted legislation prohibits the activities and advocacy of LGBTQ+. Opposers, however, argue that when the bill is passed into law, it will be in violation of the fundamental human rights of individuals who identify with the group. But, the supposed reformed gay insisted that legalising what he described as ungodly will be signing the countrys death warrant. Mr Adjetey Akron further cited the Holy Bible, indicating that LGBTQ+ activities are desires of the flesh; thus, individuals must practise self-control. Sharing his experience, Mr Adjetey Akron said he almost married his partner until he met Christ and turned over a new leaf. At the age of 9, I started having affairs with boys, and in 2018 when I met Christ, I changed. Naturally, you may say that is how you feel, but it is unnatural, he said. Source: Ama Cromwell Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ashanti Regional Chairman for the New Patriotic Party, Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, has wished Vice President Bawumia the best of luck as he celebrates his 58th birthday. In a brief message sent by the NPP Chairman also known as Chairman Wontumi, he stated that he wishes Dr. Bawumia well in all his endeavors. He encouraged Dr. Bawumia to be strong and bear in mind that his late mum is very proud of what he has become. Vice President Bawumia, today marked his 58th birthday anniversary by having breakfast with cured lepers in Accra. Together with his wife, Samira, they visited the Weija Leprosarium to interact with the cured lepers, majority of whom have been abandoned by their families. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A political analyst and lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr. Kobby Mensah, has stated categorically that the Vice President Dr Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia has no solid foundation in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that could make him to become the Presidential Candidate for the party after the exit of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo. According to him, Dr Bawumia hasnt grown into the party stalwart that could keep taps on party agitation and ensure coherence. The researcher pointed out that on the other hand, the Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, who he reckons as a formidable candidate for the flagbearer in the NPP has a consolidated constituency over the period of having contested three consecutive primaries of the party. According to Dr Mensah, the other party stalwarts and their followers who have been in contests with Mr Kyerematen and President Akufo-Addo all these while, such as the Former Member of Parliament for Offinso North constituency, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Member of Parliament for Essikado, Hon. Joe Ghartey amongst others will find it humiliating to accept Dr Bawumia leadership and that can destabilise the NPP. He underscored that going into the flagbearership race, the contribution of the contestants to the party since its formation would be critical. According to him, the NPPis an establishment party and that the internal party campaign is fought on stewardship, loyalty and electability - based on your ability to mobilise a coalition of votes. Dr Mensah explained that there has been a particular voting preference in Ghana and across the African continent that limits the winnability coefficient of young presidential aspirants during general elections. He told the host of Good Evening Ghana, Mr. Paul Adom-Otchere, that Ghanaians like most African countries easily trust their votes with elderly candidates than younger ones who contest elections. You realize that the Ghanaian voter often goes for an elderly person, and not only that, almost all African country, you see a certain level of age. And I think a reason why President Mahama struggled was because of the age-factor. People associated young persons with a certain lifestyle he noted. The political analyst stressed that his argument are not based on any empirical research but on mere observations of voting preferences in Ghana and across Africa. Dr. Mensah posited that the only factor that could alter his prediction is the pending primaries of the New Patriotic Party. Albeit he believed his analogy could find prominence in the NPP's internal election, adding that "it's more of a contest between Alan and Dr Bawumia." Dr. Kobby Mensah avers the NPP has an inherent leadership path that had remain typically traditional, which ascribes power to persons in an ordered sequence based on 'seniority' and consistency. Although the President hinted to the Asantehene in Manhyia last week that Mr. Kyerematen and Hon. Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Agriculture would be contesting for the Presidential slot, so far, only two persons have declared their intention to contest the flagbearership. Hon. Joe Ghartey, former Minister for Railway Development, was the first to have announced his interest for the flagbearer-ship. Former Minister for Energy, Mr Boakye Agyarko had recently announced his interest too. Dr Bawumia and Mr Alan Kyerematen are yet to publicly declare their intention but the rumours and secret campaign makes it obvious they will soon join the race when the party gives the green light for them to campaign. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Mahama Ayariga, a member of the constitutional, legal and parliamentary affairs committee of Parliament, has said that the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 needs to be looked at again because there are a number of issues with it. This comes after a group of 18 prominent Ghanaian citizens rejected the bill, saying it constitutes an impermissible invasion of the inviolability and human dignity of the LGBTQI community. Ayariga, who called in to The Asaase Breakfast Show to express his views on the topic, said portions of the anti-gay bill should be revised. Definitely, there are a number of issues that need to be flagged. Academic freedom, the professors have raised it, the MP for Bawku Central said. Ayariga added: It is so fundamental that our constitution has gone out of its way to guarantee the set up for academic freedom, and that is one issue that we need to respond to and respond to properly as a committee. People have raised right to healthcare and how a bill like that will go a long way to undermine access to healthcare by people in the gay and lesbian community. Sponsors The bill was initiated by eight MPs, seven of whom are from the National Democratic Congress and one from the governing New Patriotic Party. The NDC MPs are those for Ningo-Prampram (Samuel Nartey George), Kpando (Dela Adjoa Sowah), Ho West (Emmanuel Bedzrah), Tamale North (Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini), Krachi West (Helen Adjoa Ntoso), La Dadekotopon (Rita Naa Odoley Sowah) and South Dayi (Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor). The NPP MP is the Member for Assin South, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour. Motivation The MPs say it is their ardent belief that the passage of the bill to deal with LGBTTQQIAAP+ is apt, considering that the 2017 report of the Science Research Council, communicated at the fourth National HIV and Aids Research Conference in Accra, showed that roughly 18.1% of people living with Aids were gay. On the issue of advocacy and other promotional activities, they say there is currently no legislation that specifically criminalises advocacy for, funding, promotion or encouragement of LGBTTQQIAAP+ activities, except the inchoate provisions in Act 29, namely, preparation for committing certain criminal offences, abetment of a criminal offence and conspiracy. This gap in the law creates opportunities for advocates of LGBTTQQIAAP+ activities to sponsor and promote the proliferation of those sexual activities. The effect of these [sic] sponsorship and promotion is that young persons are lured to assimilate otherwise unacceptable forms of sexual expressions. Credible reports from the Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values indicate instances when young persons are promised travel opportunities, allowances and other gifts to cause them to engage in or advocate LGBTTQQIAAP+. In some instances, young persons, mostly students in colleges, are awarded commission for luring other young persons to join LGBTTQQIAAP+ groups, they say. A memorandum accompanying the bill shows that it contains 25 clauses which will be subjected to amendment during consideration by the committee to which the draft bill has been referred. Clauses Clause 1 of the bill prohibits, among other things, a person from holding him or herself out as a lesbian, a gay, a bisexual, a transgender, a transsexual, queer, an ally, a pansexual or a person of any other socio-cultural notion of sex or sexual relationship that is contrary to the socio-cultural notions of male and female or the relationship between male and female, as well as a person who may be questioning that persons sexuality. Clause 4 prohibits a person from engaging in acts that undermine the proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values provided for in the bill. In particular, individuals must refrain from instigating, commanding, counselling, procuring, soliciting or purposely aiding, facilitating, encouraging or promoting, whether by a personal act or otherwise, either directly or indirectly, any activity which undermines the proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values stipulated in the bill. A person who undermines these proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values commits an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of not more than 2,000 penalty units or a term of imprisonment of not less than two months and not more than four months, the memorandum says. Clauses 6 to 11 deal with LGBTTQQIAAP+ and related activities. Under Clause 6, a person commits an offence if he or she engages in sexual intercourse between or among persons of the same sex, or between a man and an animal, or a woman and an animal. 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. Featured Video " " Paa Joe is a renowned master craftsman who creates fantasy coffins as part of Ghana's tradition of abebuu adekai, which started in the 1950s. Photo courtesy of Benjamin Wigley, director of "Paa Joe and the Lion" Renowned for its amazing wildlife sanctuaries, the Republic of Ghana is often called West Africa's "golden child." International companies like Google, Guinness and Coca-Cola have set up facilities in Accra, the nation's capital city. But Accra is also known for another industry this one more homegrown. And it's, well, a business so unique that it's caught the eye of death care providers all over the world. You see, in Ghana there's big demand for big coffins, oftentimes shaped like chili peppers, taxi cabs, even Nike sneakers just about any object imaginable. Each one's a vibrant work of art, requiring skillful carpentry. In the Ga language, the funerary boxes are called "abebuu adekai," which means "proverbial coffins." English-speakers know them by another name: "fantasy coffins." The practice of building fantasy coffins is effectively limited to Ghana and Togo (a neighboring country). According to Genevieve Keeney, this region has a corner on the highly specialized artform. A licensed embalmer, Keeney's the president and chief operating officer of the National Museum of Funeral History (NMFH) in Houston, Texas. Keeney says she's never "come across or been presented with" any parallels to fantasy coffins from other parts of the globe. "I get made aware of quite a lot of interesting rituals and customs and have yet to hear of anything close," she says. Her museum houses the largest collection of fantasy coffins outside Ghana. Altogether, the NMFH has a dozen on permanent display, their shapes ranging from a Mercedes-Benz to a red-legged crab. Similar coffins have been showcased at the University of Iowa, the Brooklyn Museum and the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France. " " This pink fish fantasy coffin carved by Ghana's Eric Kpakpo Addotey is an example of one often used to bury fishermen and fishmongers. These fantasy coffins are designed to reflect the personality, career, accomplishments or unfulfilled dreams of the deceased. Nana Kofi Acquah/Getty Images for Lumix Advertisement Honoring the Departed The ornate coffins reflect traditional beliefs about ancestry and death. Modern fantasy coffins were devised by the Ga people, who are members of the greater Accra region's Ga-Adangme ethnic group. In their culture, dying is seen as a period of transition. It's also thought that the deceased have the power to affect living relatives from beyond the grave. Keep your loved ones happy post-mortem, and they might grant you some blessings down the road. So making a good impression on newly dead family members is considered hugely important. That's where fantasy coffins come in. Traditionally, it was common practice to bury a corpse with some personalized trinket like a miniature canoe that represented the individual's former career. Back in the 20th century, an Accra-area carpenter by the name of Seth Kane Kwei did something similar, but on a much larger scale. Kwei was born in 1922 and by all accounts, he had an entrepreneurial spirit. When Kwei was a young man, he persuaded the family of a local chief who died unexpectedly to bury the leader in a cocoa pod-shaped palanquin he had ordered just before his death. Then in the 1950s, Kwei's grandmother died. Remembering the chief, he crafted an elaborate coffin for her in the shape of an airplane, as a way of celebrating her lifelong interest in aviation. The project changed his life. Soon, Kwei was approached by mourning clients requesting personalized coffins whose designs would tell the stories of their occupants. One early customer commissioned a boat-shaped unit for his dead father, a fisherman. And the rest was history. " " This fantasy coffin resembling a lion is on display at the Artists Alliance Gallery in Accra, Ghana. Wikimedia Advertisement Going Out in Style Kwei probably wasn't the sole inventor of fantasy coffins as we now know them. Yet he undoubtedly deserves credit for popularizing the artistic funerary boxes. Artistic coffins did become the specialty at Kwei's workshop, where his skills were passed on to his sons and grandson. Some of Kwei's other apprentices, like the carpenter Paa Joe, would go on to found competing fantasy coffin businesses in Accra. Paa Joe is now considered one of Ghana's most renowned coffin artists, and his works have been exhibited in New York City's premier American Folk Art Museum. Given their often-elaborate shapes, it's easy to forget that first and foremost the caskets must be functional. "The body and coffin are buried in the ground after the funeral service," Keeney notes. On the Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop's official website, patrons are told that a fantasy coffin can usually be completed within a week or two of the down payment. Building materials vary. Most fantasy coffins are intended for use in funerals. But some are tailor-made display pieces built to wow the guests at foreign art galleries and museums. The latter tend to be made of hard woods like African mahogany. A coffin of this sort can easily sell for $3,000 to more than $9,000. Meanwhile, funeral-ready coffins will consist of cheaper, lightweight woods. Regardless of where the coffins are headed, they all need to be sanded, painted and re-sanded before the client hauls them off. As for the shapes, that's up to the buyers. A Delaware man once asked Eric Adjetey Anang (Seth Kane Kwei's grandson) for a coffin modeled after a Leinenkugel-brand beer bottle. Other artists have built human-sized wooden cameras, eagles and hairdryers for their customers. In Ghana, bodies often spend months or even years inside refrigerated storage units while the family of the deceased organizes the funeral. After the date and time are set, and the coffin's paid for, the event can proceed. Ghanaian funerals are lengthy, expensive affairs that can last for three full days at a time. Apart from the guests, a typical list of attendees can include musicians, DJs, photographers, caterers and bartenders. Visitors can help the family recoup some of the costs by raising funds on-site while also making time to dance the night away. Now That's Interesting Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter is said to have purchased two fantasy coffins during a visit to Ghana. " " A colorful sand mandala being created by Tibetan monks Jamyang Zangpo/Getty Images Upon arriving in Ubud, Bali, last spring, one of the first things that struck me about my surroundings, besides the city's bumper-to-scooter traffic jams and awe-inspiring views was the abundance of mandalas at every turn. I recognized the intricate, circular designs from texts I'd read during my yoga teacher training program, but truthfully hadn't learned much about the significance of their design and presence. Thankfully, a couple of talented artists helped answer all my mandala questions. Advertisement What Is a Mandala? A spiritual and ritual symbol seen throughout Asian cultures, the mandala is a geometric design produced in many forms: on paper, cloth, with threads, wood, metal, stone or in a variety of other artistic modalities. Hinduism, Buddhism, as well as other religions and cultures use the mandala to signify different aspects of the universe, and the most basic form of the symbol consists of concentric circles arranged around a single point. "The word mandala comes to us from the Sanskrit language and loosely translates as 'circle," says Jamie Locke, mandala hand carver, resident artist and founding member of the Red Barn Arts Collective in Indianapolis, Indiana. "Mandalas are central in Hinduism and Buddhism but can also be found in many cultures and religions around the world such as Native American, Jewish, Christian and Islamic art for example. Typically containing symbolic geometric designs, which can be simple, intricate or complex, the mandala is often used to teach about spirituality and one's place in the universe. Mandalas are believed to represent different aspects of the universe such as unity, wholeness, harmony and our relation to infinity." According to experts like Stephen Meakin, owner and principal of United Kingdom-based The Mandala Company & The Academy of Geometric Arts, the symbols have deep roots dating back to ancient Nepal. "They are patterns originally created by Tibetan monks as ritualistic symbols made with colored rice powder, often depicting gateways and temples surrounding a principal deity," Meakin says. "It should be understood that these monks were keen to point out that they were expressing an inner reality and noble path and as such, the artist expression was of little importance beyond the symbolic." While the mandala may have appeared as early as the first century B.C.E., it took hundreds of years for it to gain popularity in the West. "In 1938, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung visited an ornately decorated monastery near Darjeeling," Meakin says. "It was here that Lama Rimpoche Gomchen introduced him to the painted artwork as the 'khilkor' or 'mandala.' Jung was amazed by the artwork and recognized images and patterns that were repeated in not only the artwork of his patients, but also in the arts and architecture of the ancient world. Jung was well known for taking notes and now the word mandala has a much broader metaphysical meaning which he brought back to the West." And while traditional mandalas consist of those signature concentric circles, modern mandalas often integrate a variety of geographic elements. "These days, the word 'mandala' is used to describe any 2D circular pattern or 3D form," Meakin says. "Everything from a gothic cathedral rose window to a child's painted flower pattern could be called a 'mandala' or perhaps 'mandala'-esque?" Advertisement Mandalas and Meditation Creating and reflecting on the mandala's signature design elements are both considered meditative practices, but many also view mandalas as tools for relaxation and creativity. For Locke, a self-taught artist who began creating mandalas in 2007, the creative process is as centering and rewarding as the final outcome. "As far back as I can remember, I've always been drawn to designs concentric in nature, as evidenced by most of my childhood doodles!" she says. "It wasn't until I discovered the Hindu art form of mehndi that I really started exploring the mandala. As I began to create mandalas, it didn't take long to notice the benefits widely known to those who engage in this practice such as increased focus, mental clarity, creativity and overall happiness. It's an active meditation that has become my centering practice. It reminds me of my essence and propels me to dig deeper into my own healing and growth. I always say that, for me, the process of creating a mandala is always one of inspired revelation, elemental surprise and pure bliss." "It seems beyond doubt that there is something visually nourishing about the mandala no matter how simple or infinity complex they may be," Meakin says. "Could it be that reassuring sense of resolve or wholeness that we can experience on looking for a fleeting moment or longer?" Advertisement Creating Modern Mandalas Today's mandalas can be found everywhere from yoga studios to dream catchers to art exhibits, and the artists who create them say they continue to draw inspiration from their own spiritual connections to the process and when it comes to the creative process itself, Locke says the possibilities are limitless. "There are countless ways to create and display a mandala," she says. "I have personally seen mandalas created using sand, stones, leaves, food, flower petals, tattooed, stain glass, ink and paper and paint on canvas or walls. Personally, for me, carving mandalas on wood is my one of my favorites. I typically start in the middle of the wood canvas, creating a circle and then working concentrically, build on each layer by carving intricate, geometric and floral designs. However, it is my personal belief that almost every surface can be used as a canvas for mandalas." If observing the unique appearance of mandalas inspires you to create your own, Locke says there's no need to be intimidated by the symbol's rich history and complexity. "You don't have to be an artist to create a mandala!" she says. "While I have put in a lot of effort and practice creating my own style of mandala making, I have no formal training whatsoever. I simply had a deep desire to learn and practice! Should you find yourself drawn to mandalas and have the desire to create your own, I encourage to just begin! There are numerous tutorials online that can get you started. It's a personal journey, so letting go of judgment and comparison will greatly benefit your mandala practice." Now That's Interesting Some experts say the different colors used in mandalas hold symbolic significance as well. For example, white represents purity and consciousness, violet stands for insight and intuition, yellow means laughter, wisdom and happiness, and black is for deep reflection and individuality. Senegal's Interior Minister, Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome, visits flooded areas after heavy rain in Dakar. Senegal's Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome is up to his knees in water, in a suburb of the West African country's capital, surveying flood damage. He's inspecting a home in the eastern Keur Massar district: The first floor and courtyard have been submerged in brown water for three days. Dragonflies hover over the swampy courtyard, which a lone pump is struggling to drain. Inside, furniture has been raised off the ground. The owner of the home, who declined to be named, is scathing. "They are incapable," he tells AFP, gesturing towards the minister and his entourage. Anger has been growing over the increasingly routine flooding in Dakar. Diome and other officials were booed as they toured Keur Massar, and protesters elsewhere in Dakar blocked a highway. Comprising about 3.7 million people, the city regularly floods during the July-October rainy reason. But the problem is getting worse. This year, heavy flooding struck after only two days of rain. The floods have also come after repeated government promises to solve the problem. Moise David Ndour, another Keur Massar resident, is also fed up. "Nothing has been done," he says. "Some people have even moved away because of this". Dakar regularly floods during the July-October rainy reason, but the problem is getting worse. Many are expecting worse flooding to come as the rains continue. According to experts interviewed by AFP, whole districts are built on flood plains, and on soft soils close to the water table. Planning is haphazard and local authorities appear to exert little control. 'Worrying paradox Senegalese President Macky Sall launched a 10-year plan to combat flooding when he came to power in 2012, with a budget the equivalent of about 1.14 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Water pumps and culverts have been installed in some areas of Dakar, successfully warding off flooding. However, other districts of the rapidly expanding city have been left untouched. About a quarter of Senegal's population of 16 million people live in the seaside city, where there is fierce pressure to build because of housing shortages. The government has sought to relieve inundated areas without tackling the reasons underlying regular flooding, according to Senegalese geologist Pape Goumbo Lo. "The construction of housing must take into account the nature of the soil," he said, adding that there is a need for more studies of the land and the water table. Free-for-all construction has also exacerbated flooding even as downpours have become less frequent. "This is a very worrying paradox," says Cheikh Gueye, a geographer and researcher at the Dakar-based NGO Enda Tiers-Monde. "Less and less rain is causing more and more damage," he adds. The government has sought to relieve inundated areas without tackling the reasons underlying regular flooding, experts say. Horses to the rescue In Mbao, another Dakar suburb, it hasn't rained in three days, but the main road is still flooded with stagnant water. Motorbikes, scooters and public transportation vehicles can no longer use it. Ibrahim Cisse, a local with water lapping round his ankles, says "we have no choice but to get wet or use the horse-drawn carriages to cross the street". In front of him, about a dozen people are perched on a horse-cart, which are common in Senegal but are mostly used to transport goods. "There is a lot of damage, the shopkeepers can't open," says another local, who declines to be named. "We have to get past this". But Cheikh Gueye, the geographer, is pessimistic. "We build in flood zones: Every day new neighbourhoods are created, and the same mistakes are made". Explore further Hospitals overwhelmed in Senegal's capital as virus surges 2021 AFP Across Madagascar's vast southern tip, drought has transformed fields into dust bowls. More than one million people face famine. Nothing to eat, nothing to plant. The last rain in Ifotaka fell in May, for two hours. Across Madagascar's vast southern tip, drought has transformed fields into dust bowls. More than one million people face famine. Across tens of thousands of acres, the countryside is desolate. Harvest season begins in October, leaving long, lean weeks before the meagre crops come in. Some villages are abandoned. In others, people should be working the fields, but instead are languishing at home. There's nothing to reap. Hunger weighs people down, both in mind and body. They move slowly, and struggle to follow conversation. "I feel sick, and worried. Every day I wonder what we're going to eat," says Helmine Sija, 60 and a mother of six, in a village called Atoby. Eating cactus and weeds A petite woman with grey hair and a hardened face, Sija tends a boiling pot of cactus in front of her home. She chopped the pricks off with a machete to prepare them for cooking. It can't really be called food. The concoction has little nutritional value, but it's a popular appetite suppressant, even though it causes stomach aches. Doctors Without Borders has dispatched a mobile clinic to travel from village to village. Her three oldest children have left home to look for work in other towns. She's caring for the young ones. "I want to move somewhere more fertile, where I can farm. But I don't have enough money to leave," she says. Arzel Jonarson, 47, a former cassava farm worker, now gathers firewood to sell, earning about a 25 US cents a week. Enough to buy one bowl of rice. In Ankilidoga, an elderly couple and their daughter are making a meal of wild herbs, which they season with salt to cut the bitterness. In better times, these were cast off as weeds. But their crops of corn, cassava and sweet potato have failed. Their village does have a reservoir to collect rain water. No one can remember the last time it was full. "I haven't received any aid for two months," said Kazy Zorotane, a 30-year-old single mother of four. "That last time, in June, the government gave me some money." About $26 (22 euros). The current drought is the worst in 40 years, according to the United Nations. Climate crisis Malnutrition afflicts southern Madagascar regularly. But the current drought is the worst in 40 years, according to the United Nations, which blames climate change for the crisis. Around the town of Ifotaka, people said the government had brought some rice, beans and oil. But that was in August. Of 500 people designated for financial aid, about 90 received the $26. Doctors Without Borders has dispatched a mobile clinic to travel from village to village. Children clutch at packets of "plumpy", a peanut butter-flavoured paste designed to help the severely malnourished. Through the waiting crowds, nurses and aides spot the most urgent cases, guiding them to the front of the line. Small children are weighed in a blue bucket. Measuring tapes are wrapped around their tiny arms, to get an indication of just how acutely malnourished they are. In Befeno, another village, nine-year-old Zapedisoa came with his grandmother. He's sluggish, his eyes look vacant. At 20 kilos (44 pounds), he's showing alarming symptoms, and is given medicine and food supplements. Satinompeo, a five-year-old with short hair, weighs only 11 kilos. She's severely malnourished, but she's terrified of the doctors. She hangs onto her father's yellow shorts and cries. Across tens of thousands of acres, the countryside is desolate. Families are sent home with a two-week food supply, based on the number of children in the house. In Fenoaivo, two sisters and a brother, all retirees, share a home. "It's been a long time since we grew anything. On good, days, the three of us share a bowl of rice," said Tsafaharie, 69. At another home in this town, a 45-year-old man holds watch over his father's body. While it is hard to determine an accurate death toll from hunger, that is why he died in in June, his family say. "We don't have enough money to buy a (cow) to feed mourners, so we can't have a funeral," Tsihorogne Monja said. The corpse is in a separate hut, partially covered by a cloth. "My father was very hungry. He ate too much cactus and tuber bark. That's what killed him. It's like he was poisoned." Explore further Nothing to eat but cactus in Madagascar's hunger capital 2021 AFP In this Sept. 16, 2017, file photo, a person uses a smart phone in Chicago. Nearly all Americans agree that the rampant spread of misinformation is a problem. Most also think individual users, along with social media companies, bear a good deal of blame for the situation. That's according to a new poll from The Pearson Institute and the Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Credit: AP Photo/File Nearly all Americans agree that the rampant spread of misinformation is a problem. Most also think social media companies, and the people that use them, bear a good deal of blame for the situation. But few are very concerned that they themselves might be responsible, according to a new poll from The Pearson Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Ninety-five percent of Americans identified misinformation as a problem when they're trying to access important information. About half put a great deal of blame on the U.S. government, and about three-quarters point to social media users and tech companies. Yet only 2 in 10 Americans say they're very concerned that they have personally spread misinformation. More, about 6 in 10, are at least somewhat concerned that their friends or family members have been part of the problem. For Carmen Speller, a 33-year-old graduate student in Lexington, Kentucky, the divisions are evident when she's discussing the coronavirus pandemic with close family members. Speller trusts COVID-19 vaccines; her family does not. She believes the misinformation her family has seen on TV or read on questionable news sites has swayed them in their decision to stay unvaccinated against COVID-19. A new Pearson Institute/AP-NORC poll finds about half of Americans are at least somewhat concerned that they have spread misinformation online. More are concerned that they have been exposed to it. In fact, some of her family members think she's crazy for trusting the government for information about COVID-19. "I do feel like they believe I'm misinformed. I'm the one that's blindly following what the government is saying, that's something I hear a lot," Speller said. "It's come to the point where it does create a lot of tension with my family and some of my friends as well." Speller isn't the only one who may be having those disagreements with her family. The survey found that 61% of Republicans say the U.S. government has a lot of responsibility for spreading misinformation, compared with just 38% of Democrats. There's more bipartisan agreement, however, about the role that social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, play in the spread of misinformation. According to the poll, 79% of Republicans and 73% of Democrats said social media companies have a great deal or quite a bit of responsibility for misinformation. This Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021 file photo shows the mobile phone app logos for, from left, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in New York. Nearly all Americans agree that the rampant spread of misinformation is a problem. Most also think individual users, along with social media companies, bear a good deal of blame for the situation. That's according to a new poll from The Pearson Institute and the Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File And that type of rare partisan agreement among Americans could spell trouble for tech giants like Facebook, the largest and most profitable of the social media platforms, which is under fire from Republican and Democrat lawmakers alike. "The AP-NORC poll is bad news for Facebook," said Konstantin Sonin, a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago who is affiliated with the Pearson Institute. "It makes clear that assaulting Facebook is popular by a large margineven when Congress is split 50-50, and each side has its own reasons." During a congressional hearing Tuesday, senators vowed to hit Facebook with new regulations after a whistleblower testified that the company's own research shows its algorithms amplify misinformation and content that harms children. "It has profited off spreading misinformation and disinformation and sowing hate," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said during a meeting of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. Democrats and Republicans ended the hearing with acknowledgement that regulations must be introduced to change the way Facebook amplifies its content and targets users. The poll also revealed that Americans are willing to blame just about everybody but themselves for spreading misinformation, with 53% of them saying they're not concerned that they've spread misinformation. Subcommittee ranking member Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and subcommittee chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., listen during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington. Credit: Drew Angerer/Pool via AP "We see this a lot of times where people are very worried about misinformation but they think it's something that happens to other peopleother people get fooled by it, other people spread it," said Lisa Fazio, a Vanderbilt University psychology professor who studies how false claims spread. "Most people don't recognize their own role in it." Younger adults tend to be more concerned that they've shared falsehoods, with 25% of those ages 18 to 29 very or extremely worried that they have spread misinformation, compared to just 14% of adults ages 60 and older. Sixty-three percent of older adults are not concerned, compared with roughly half of other Americans. Yet it's older adults who should be more worried about spreading misinformation, given that research shows they're more likely to share an article from a false news website, Fazio said. Before she shares things with family or her friends on Facebook, Speller tries her best to make sure the information she's passing on about important topics like COVID-19 has been peer-reviewed or comes from a credible medical institution. Still, Speller acknowledges there has to have been a time or two that she "liked" or hit "share" on a post that didn't get all the facts quite right. "I'm sure it has happened," Speller said. "I tend to not share things on social media that I didn't find on verified sites. I'm open to that if someone were to point out, 'Hey this isn't right,' I would think, OK, let me check this." Subcommittee chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., questions former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington. Credit: Drew Angerer/Pool via AP ___ The AP-NORC poll of 1,071 adults was conducted Sept. 9-13 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. West African migrations. Credit: Saoni Banerji/Wikimedia Researchers from Estonia and Italy developed an innovative method by combining neural networks and statistics. Using this newly developed method, they refined the "Out of Africa" scenario. The researchers claimed that the African dynamics around the time of the Out of Africa expansion are more complex than previously thought. Archaeologists and geneticists agree that all modern humans originated somewhere in Africa around 300 thousand years ago. The population movement that colonized the rest of the globe occurred approximately 60-70 thousand years ago. Both Y-chromosomal data (which follows patrilineal lineage) and the Mitochondrial genome (which follows the matrilineal line) agree on this. However, the exact relationship between the people who left Africa and the human populations currently inhabiting the continent is not fully understood. A simplistic model would see the first phase of within-Africa population subdivisions, followed by a separation between the ancestors of modern Eurasians and the ancestors of modern East or North-East Africans. New research on this topic, recently published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, argues that the Out of Africa expansion was preceded by a significant population turnover from East to West Africa. This event likely homogenized West and East Africans. This turnover, which may account for up to 90% of the contemporary West African gene pool, increased the affinity between West Africans and Eurasians. This event better explains the lower bound (~60 thousand years ago) inferred from genetic data for the separation time between Africans and non-Africans. "A similar hypothesis was proposed before for the Y chromosome. But this is the first time we demonstrated it for autosomal DNA," said Francesco Montinaro, a Lead author in this study from the University of Bari. Autosomal DNA comes from both parents, instead of Y-chromosome or Mitochondria, which comes only from one of our parents. "It is fascinating to see how our understanding of the human past becomes ever more complex and detailed. Our new model can give us a clue why West Africa shows such a young separation time from the out of Africa populations," said Vasili Pankratov, a lead co-author from the University of Tartu. Explore further Researchers shed new light on the origins of modern humans More information: Revisiting the Out of Africa event with a Deep Learning approach, American Journal of Human Genetics (2021). Journal information: American Journal of Human Genetics Revisiting the Out of Africa event with a Deep Learning approach,(2021). doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.09.006 Provided by Estonian Research Council Dam removal project completed in 2018 along the Paulinskill River in New Jersey. Credit: Josh Galster. Since the 1970s, dams have been removed from the U.S. at an increasing rate, with the aim to improve the ecology of river ecosystems, fish migration pathways, water quality, and recreation spaces. "We have about 90,000 dams here in the United States and these dams were built for a whole host of reasons, and many of them are reaching the end of their lifespans. So it's starting to be recognized that their removal will have net benefits for society," said Josh Galster, an associate professor in the department of Earth and Environmental Studies at Montclair State University. In 2018, Galster was working on a dam removal project on the Paulinskill River near Columbia, New Jersey, doing scientific monitoring of the river. Since the dam was being removed to improve the natural setting of the recreation areas in an already quite scenic area of New Jersey, Galster wondered where else dam removals were happening nationwide and if they were being done in an equitable fashion. Galster teamed with his father, George Galster, an emeritus professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Wayne State University, to evaluate the environmental justice of dam removal. "My father and I feel that it's important to recognize and analyze where we're doing these [dam removals] and where these resources are being spent because if we're spending that much to improve the local conditions around that dam, then who are the people that are living near that dam that are going to benefit the most?" said Galster. They examined dam removals since 2010 and compared that information to a database of existing dams in the U.S. and demographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau, broken down into four regions: Northeast, South, Midwest, and West. Almost half of the dams removed since 2010 were in the Northeast, while the South had the fewest removed. Areas that had a dam removed had significantly larger populations of non-Hispanic white residents when compared to other areas with dams or to the nation as a whole. "We found that really the racial gap in where dams are being removed is basically entirely being created by dams being removed in the South," said Galster. Even controlling for the type of dam, whether it was shorter, older, made of earthen versus concrete material, they found that dams were still being disproportionately removed in the southern region from areas with a higher degree of white residents. A potential complicating factor in dam removal is the variability in procedures based on the state in which the dam is located and who owns the dam. Dams can be owned by either the federal government, state or local governments, utility companies, private businesses, or individuals. States like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have led the way in dam removals, with some of the highest numbers of dams removed in the nation, while states like Oklahoma have only had one dam removed between 1912 and 2020. "Dam removals are an important way to restore rivers, and we should keep doing them. However, we should also be aware of the larger picture of where those have been done and where we should do those in the future to make sure that everybody benefits from all of these resources that we are spending on dam removals, and so that we can make that group of people that benefits from them be more diverse," said Galster. Galster will present this research on Sunday at the Geological Society of America's GSA Connects 2021 annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. Explore further Dam removal study reveals river resiliency More information: Session 31: D23. Recent Advances in Quaternary Geology and GeomorphologyPaper 31-1: Dam removals and environmental justice Sunday, 10 Oct., 1:351:50 p.m.Oregon Convention Center Room D137 Session 31: D23. Recent Advances in Quaternary Geology and GeomorphologyPaper 31-1: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2021AM/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/369553 Sunday, 10 Oct., 1:351:50 p.m.Oregon Convention Center Room D137 Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study by UC Santa Barbara researchers speaks to the importance of public awareness programs in keeping residentsand emergency management officesinformed about rare but potentially lethal natural events in their area. The paper, co-authored by geology professor Ed Keller and colleagues Summer Gray, an assistant professor of environmental studies, Keith Clarke, a professor of geography, and Erica Goto, a postdoctoral scholar who completed her Ph.D. in geography, is published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. The work is part of an ongoing effort to understand and improve how communities prepare for future disasters. "There were a lot of problems because people didn't know what to do," said Keller. "We need to learn from that." The Montecito debris flows that occurred in January 2018 were the result of a rare confluence of two uncommonly severe events: the Thomas Fireat that time the largest wildfire in California historywhich which for weeks burned through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties; and the intense winter storm that followed, at one point dumping half an inch of rain in a five-minute period on the newly charred mountainside. Add to that combination a topography that is prone to swift floods, as rain-swollen creeks jump their banks, creating new channels. "All of Montecito was built on these alluvial fans," Keller said. "The whole place." Residents of Montecito were made aware of the possible disaster and given an evacuation order the day before the storm's arrival, but many chose to stay. In surveys and interviews with hundreds of respondents, the researchers sought the residents' reasons for choosing not to evacuate. Lack of knowledge of debris flows seems to have contributed to a false sense of security. "From the interviews, we learned that they did not know about previous debris flows in Santa Barbara County and in Montecito, and that they didn't know what a debris flow was," said Goto, the lead author of the study, which is likely the first paper to dive into the physical systems of and the behaviors surrounding catastrophic debris flows. "And so, they did not understand their risk." Unlike wildfiresregular events for Californiansdebris flows of the magnitude that occurred in Montecito are exceptionally rare, with an average recurrence interval of about 1,700 years, and a 6% chance of such a catastrophic event occurring in the next 100 years, according to the paper. However, said the researchers, it is important to remember that rare events based on probability do not mean they cannot occur again at shorter time periods. Smaller debris flows are common when rains follow wildfires, Keller pointed out, but they usually don't make it out of the mountains. Nevertheless, the researchers said, smaller but hazardous debris flows have flowed beyond the mountain front in recent decades. Also, with climate change bringing more intense wildfire and rainstorms, hazardous debris flows may become more common. "These big events, such as the one that happened in Montecito in 2018, are a whole different beast," said Keller, both for the community and for the county, whose job it was to manage the evacuations. "I think (the county) did the best they couldthey didn't understand what they were dealing with, like many people," he said. The lack of experience with and knowledge of this type of natural hazard led to a low perception of risk in many of the respondents, who reported that they "felt safe," and had "no idea about debris flows," or "did not think I was at risk." Others, many of whom recently had to leave their homes due to the still-burning Thomas Fire, cited evacuation fatigue and pets as reasons for staying. The dominant reason for staying given by the respondents was that they were placed in the voluntary evacuation zone in the county's evacuation map, which at the time of the event was based on Thomas Fire evacuation zones and not on the estimated movement of water, silt and boulders down a hillside. Thus, according to the paper, "many residents were told to evacuate who lived out of the debris flow hazard area, and many residents in the voluntary evacuation zones were in areas subject to debris flows (that is, along a stream corridor close to the channel)." In the uncertainty before the storm, residents also turned to their social networks to help them decide whether to stay or go, Goto said, something that was "surprising, but also expected since residents did not understand their risk." Lack of understanding about debris flows is also thought to be a factor behind some last-minute decisions to flee and try to outrun the 30 mile-per-hour flows, which resulted in some residents being swept up in the rush of mud and rocks. The interviews and surveys also addressed subsequent evacuation notices in March 2018, ahead of heavy storms. The researchers wanted to see whether evacuation compliance would increase significantly after residents had been primed with the experience of the first disaster. Contrary to the research group's expectations, evacuation compliance between the January and March orders increased slightly, but was not statistically significant, an outcome the study says could be attributed to the relative moderate to high rates of compliance (more than 60% in both cases)and possibly also loss of confidence in the county after the tragedy of the January debris flows. Though catastrophic debris flows are uncommonand precisely because we're not likely to see another one in the same area in our lifetimesGoto, Keller and colleagues have been working to glean as much knowledge as possible about the Montecito debris flows from a variety of perspectives, including physical processes, social implications and vulnerability. The memory of the disaster should be kept alive, they say, if only to serve as a warning to present and future residents that the ground under their feet is not as stable as they might think. And with climate change increasing the intensity and frequency of severe events such as wildfires and winter rains, rare events might become more common. According to Goto, who specializes in the combination of physical and social aspects of disaster risk reduction, residents, particularly those who are new to the area, would benefit from a long-term, onging public awareness program and educations about the risks. Explore further New study examines 2017-2018 Thomas Fire debris flows More information: Erica Akemi Goto et al, Evacuation choice before and after major debris flows: The case of Montecito, CA, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (2021). Erica Akemi Goto et al, Evacuation choice before and after major debris flows: The case of Montecito, CA,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102400 Credit: Shutterstock The New South Wales government has released a draft plan to deal with feral horses roaming the fragile Kosciuszko National Park. While the plan offers some improvements, it remains seriously inadequate. Feral horses trample endangered plant communities, destroy threatened species' habitat and damage Aboriginal cultural heritageall the while increasing in numbers. The draft plan would keep many horses in the national park, locking in ongoing environmental and cultural degradation. The number of horses has grown dramatically in recent years under the Wild Horse Heritage Protection Act, which became law in 2018 and was championed by then NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. He and others argued the horses were important to Australia's history of pioneering, pastoralism and horse trapping, and were related to rural legends and literary works. But the cultural heritage of an introduced species should not override the needs of a highly vulnerable alpine environment. Barilaro quit politics this weekand with the driving political force behind feral horse protection now gone, we have an 11th-hour chance to safeguard this significant national park. What's in the draft plan? On the positive side, the draft plan aims to: remove feral horses from 21% of the park reduce feral horse numbers to 3,000 by 2027 prevent feral horses from invading new areas. These are critical measures. As the draft plan notes, achieving them will need a set of carefully considered control methods, including ground shooting and putting down trapped horses. Contrary to recent counter-productive management, reproductive-age females will no longer be released back into the park after being trapped. But on the flip side, the plan will also: allocate one third (32%) of the national park to feral horses maintain 3,000 horses within the protected area in perpetuity attempt to control horse numbers without using the most humane and cost-effective method: aerial shooting. Aerial shooting is ruled out because of fears around losing social license to remove horses from the park. But this may make it impossible to achieve effective horse control across rocky, difficult-to-access terrain. It also means feral horse control will drag out over years. This will result in larger numbers of horses being culled, compared with completing a cull within one year. Maintaining 3,000 feral horses in this reserve means accepting the removal of at least 1,000 animals every two years in perpetuity, based on a conservative rate of population growth. Error bars are 95% confidence limits. Credit: Don Driscoll, Author provided Over 14,000 horses, and rising To understand the challenge, it's important to understand the numbers. The chart belowusing population data collected by ecologist Don Fletcher for a Reclaim Kosciuszko reportcompares the number of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park since 2000, with the number removed by trapping. The number of horses in Kosciuszko was last measured in November 2020 at just over 14,000. With an the ongoing rate of increase of 18% per year and two years of population growth, numbers will have increased by 5,500. This means there'll likely be almost 20,000 feral horses before control can start in 2022, under this plan. Compare this with the 3,350 horses trapping has removed between 2008 and 2020, and it's clear culling, including via aerial shooting, is urgently needed. The huge, growing number of horses roaming Kosciuszko combined with the likelihood of immigration from outside the park, is also the main reason fertility control cannot work. The draft report is therefore right to reject fertility control as a workable solution. 33 threatened species in greater peril We are most concerned about the draft plan's allocation of one third of the park to at least 3,000 feral horses, and likely many more given the limitations on control methods. These areas harbor important ecosystems and threatened species. Using publicly accessible data from NSW Bionet and Atlas of Living Australia, we estimate at least 33 threatened species live within the horse retention zone. About half of these are either already known to be impacted by feral horses or we suggest will likely be impacted because they're vulnerable to trampling, grazing or habitat damage. For example, the only place the critically endangered stocky galaxiasAustralia's most alpine-adapted fishoccurs is within the horse-retention area. This hardy fish was recently rescued from bushfires and faces grave risks associated with the Snowy 2.0 scheme. It's currently protected from feral horses thanks to a stock-exclusion fence, and the draft plan notes fencing is only a short-term solution. The endangered Riek's crayfish also has a restricted range within Kosciuszko. If horses are removed in the southern part of the park, as the draft plan outlines, then damage to their habitat will decline by 2027. But horses remain a threat to their habitats in the north. Alpine sphagnum bogs and associated fens are a nationally threatened plant community with a stronghold in Kosciuszko. It is particularly vulnerable to impacts from feral horses, and we calculate 28% of its distribution in Kosciuszko will be inside the horse-retention zone. The overlapping distribution of feral horse retention areas under this draft plan, and threatened species. Credit: Desley Whisson, Author provided Horses heritage value a non-sequitur The draft plan's main reason for keeping feral horses in the national park is to protect heritage values. However, the plan does not explain why heritage must be celebrated by keeping 3,000 feral horses in a national park. In our view, while the horses have cultural heritage value to some, letting them continue to damage a fragile national park is an unacceptable trade-off. Consider the recent Aboriginal cultural values report. It noted Indigenous Australians share similar heritage associations as skilled horse riders on farms since early colonial times. However, the report recommends acknowledging this heritage with information in a visitor center. Preservation of huts and interpretive signs are another way of acknowledging the heritage values of pastoralists past. A social license Research released this month surveyed 2,430 Australians and found 71% accept that feral animals can be culled to protect threatened species. As the researchers write, this sentiment is not fully reflected in existing policy and legislation. Barilaro's exit may be an opportunity for NSW politicians to capitalize on this social license. This draft plan is one step towards protecting our native species, natural places and Indigenous heritage, and will be open for submissions until November 2. But if aerial culling was also on the table, those goals could be achieved with fewer horses culled and at lower cost. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Perseverance rover taking a selfie over the rock it collected two core samples from on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Since the Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater on Mars in February, the rover and its team of scientists back on Earth have been hard at work exploring the floor of the crater that once held an ancient lake. Perseverance and the Mars 2020 mission are looking for signs of ancient life on Mars and preparing a returnable cache of samples for later analyses on Earth. Katie Stack Morgan is the Mars 2020 Deputy Project Scientist and a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and will be providing an update on early results on the Mars 2020 rover mission on Sunday, 10 Oct., at the Geological Society of America's Connects 2021 annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. With Perseverance's high-tech suite of on-board instruments, the scientific team has been analyzing the rocks of the crater floor, interpreted for now as igneous rocks, presumably a volcanic lava flow. "The idea that this could be a volcanic rock was really appealing to us from a sample return perspective because igneous rocks are great for getting accurate age dates. Jezero was one of the few ancient crater lake sites on Mars that seemed to have both incredible sedimentary deposits as well as volcanic deposits that could help us construct the geologic time scale of Mars," said Stack Morgan. The lake system and rivers that drained into Jezero crater were likely active around 3.83.6 billion years ago, but the ability to directly date the age of the rocks in laboratories on Earth will provide the first definitive insight into the window of time that Mars may have been a habitable planet. Using Perseverance's abrasion toolwhich scratches the top surface of the rock to reveal the rock and its texturesthe team discovered that the crater floor seems to be composed of coarser-grained igneous minerals, and there are also a variety of salts in the rocks. Observations suggest that water caused extensive weathering and alteration of the crater floor, meaning that the rocks were subjected to water for a significant duration of time. After using its on-board tools to analyze characteristics of the crater floor, the next phase was for Perseverance to collect a rock sample using its drill feature. However, after Perseverance completed its first attempt at drilling, the core sample tube came up empty. "We spent a couple of days looking around the rover thinking that the core might have fallen out of the bit. Then we looked back down the drill hole thinking it might never have made it out of the hole. All these searches turned up empty. In the end we concluded that the core was pulverized during drilling," said Stack Morgan. The rock likely became so altered and weakened from interactions with water that the vibrations and strength from the Perseverance drill pulverized the sample. Scientists then targeted another rock that appeared more resistant to weathering, and Perseverance was able to successfully collect two core samplesthe first in its sample collection. Perseverance's cache of samples will be part of a multi-spacecraft handoff, still in development, that will hopefully be returned to Earth in the early 2030s. From there, scientists in laboratories on Earth will date and analyze the rocks to see if there might be any signs of ancient Martian life. "The rocks of the crater floor were not originally envisioned as the prime astrobiology target of the mission, but Mars always surprises us when we look up close. We are excited to find that even these rocks have experienced sustained interaction with water and could have been habitable for ancient martian microbes," said Stack Morgan. Explore further Mars rocks collected by Perseverance boost case for ancient life More information: Session 14: T117. Perseverance at Jezero CraterCharacterizing an Ancient Crater Lake Basin on MarsPaper 14-1: Early results from the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater, Mars Session 14: T117. Perseverance at Jezero CraterCharacterizing an Ancient Crater Lake Basin on MarsPaper 14-1: Early results from the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater, Mars https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2021AM/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/367543 Sunday, 10 Oct., 88:15 a.m., Oregon Convention Center, Portland Ballroom 256 (Hybrid Room) Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain New analysis of ancient writings suggests that sailors from the Italian hometown of Christopher Columbus knew of America 150 years before its renowned 'discovery'. Transcribing and detailing a, circa, 1345 document by a Milanese friar, Galvaneus Flamma, Medieval Latin literature expert Professor Paolo Chiesa has made an "astonishing" discovery of an "exceptional" passage referring to an area we know today as North America. According to Chiesa, the ancient essayfirst discovered in 2013suggests that sailors from Genoa were already aware of this land, recognizable as 'Markland'/ 'Marckalada' mentioned by some Icelandic sources and identified by scholars as part of the Atlantic coast of North America (usually assumed to be Labrador or Newfoundland). Published in the peer-reviewed journal Terrae Incognitae, the discovery comes ahead of Columbus Day 2021, alternatively celebrated as Indigenous Peoples' Day across many states in the US. The findings add more fuel to the fire for the continuing question of 'what, exactly, did Columbus expect to find when he set out across the ocean?' and come following a period in which his statues have been beheaded, covered with red paint, lassoed around the head and pulled down, set on fire and thrown into a lake. "We are in the presence of the first reference to the American continent, albeit in an embryonic form, in the Mediterranean area," states Professor Chiesa, from the Department of Literary Studies, Philology and Linguistics at the University of Milan. Galvaneus was a Dominican friar who lived in Milan and was connected to a family which held at the lordship of the city. He wrote several literary works in Latin, mainly on historical subjects. His testimony is valuable for information on Milanese contemporary facts, about which he has first-hand knowledge. Cronica universalis, which is analyzed here by Chiesa, is thought to be one of his later worksperhaps the last oneand was left unfinished and unperfected. It aims to detail the history of the whole world, from 'Creation' to when it was published. In translating and analyzing the document, Professor Chiesa demonstrates how Genoa would have been a "gateway" for news, and how Galvaneus appears to hear, informally, of seafarers' rumors about lands to the extreme north-west for eventual commercial benefitas well as information about Greenland, which he details accurately (for knowledge of the time). "These rumors were too vague to find consistency in cartographic or scholarly representations," the professor states, as he explains why Marckalada wasn't classified as a new land at the time. Regardless though, Chiesa states, Cronica universalis "brings unprecedented evidence to the speculation that news about the American continent, derived from Nordic sources, circulated in Italy one and half centuries before Columbus." He adds: "What makes the passage (about Marckalada) exceptional is its geographical provenance: not the Nordic area, as in the case of the other mentions, but northern Italy. "The Marckalada described by Galvaneus is 'rich in trees', not unlike the wooded Markland of the Grnlendinga Saga, and animals live there. "These details could be standard, as distinctive of any good land; but they are not trivial, because the common feature of northern regions is to be bleak and barren, as actually Greenland is in Galvaneus's account, or as Iceland is described by Adam of Bremen." Overall, Professor Chiesa says, we should "trust" Cronica universalis as throughout the document Galvaneus declares where he has heard of oral stories, and backs his claims with elements drawn from accounts (legendary or real) belonging to previous traditions on different lands, blended together and reassigned to a specific place. "I do not see any reason to disbelieve him," states Professor Chiesa, who adds, "it has long been noticed that the fourteenth-century portolan (nautical) charts drawn in Genoa and in Catalonia offer a more advanced geographical representation of the north, which could be achieved through direct contacts with those regions. "These notions about the north-west are likely to have come to Genoa through the shipping routes to the British Isles and to the continental coasts of the North Sea. "We have no evidence that Italian or Catalan seafarers ever reached Iceland or Greenland at that time, but they were certainly able to acquire from northern European merchant goods of that origin to be transported to the Mediterranean area. "The marinarii mentioned by Galvaneus can fit into this dynamic: the Genoese might have brought back to their city scattered news about these lands, some real and some fanciful, that they heard in the northern harbors from Scottish, British, Danish, Norwegian sailors with whom they were trading." Cronica universalis, written in Latin, is still unpublished; however, an edition is planned, in the context of a scholarly and educational program promoted by the University of Milan. Explore further Countdown begins to discover where Columbus came from More information: Paolo Chiesa, Marckalada: The First Mention of America in the Mediterranean Area (c. 1340), Terrae Incognitae (2021). Paolo Chiesa, Marckalada: The First Mention of America in the Mediterranean Area (c. 1340),(2021). DOI: 10.1080/00822884.2021.1943792 Analysis of newly returned rock samples from Oceanus Procellarum, a vast volcanic plain on the Moon (seen here in a topographic rendering with purple colors indicating lower elevations), has revealed the timing of when widespread lunar volcanism drew to a halt. Credit: Rendering by Jay Dickson Billions of years ago, lakes of lava on the surface of the moon eventually dried to form the vast dark patchesthe lunar mariavisible today on the lunar nearside. Now, thanks to rock samples recently returned to Earth by China's Chang'e 5 mission, scientists have a new estimate for when one of the last of those lava flows ran dry. In a study published in the journal Science, an international team of researchers found that basalt rocks gathered from the vast volcanic plain known as Oceanus Procellaruma region thought to have hosted the most recent volcanism on the moonare about 2 billion years old. The firm radiometric age not only puts an endpoint to the moon's most active volcanic period, but also serves as a guidepost to calibrate the timing of other events on the moon before and since. Jim Head, a research professor in Brown's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and co-author of the new study, says these samplesthe first to be returned to Earth in 45 yearsfill critical gaps in scientists' understanding of the moon's history. He discussed the findings in an interview. Q: Where did these samples come from, and why are they important? These samples come from a region of the moon that's been largely unexplored by landed spacecraft. Previous samples from the Apollo missions and the Soviet Luna missions all come from the central and eastern part of the moon's near side. But it became clear as we collected more remote sensing data that the most recent volcanism on the moon was absolutely in that western portion, so that region became a prime target for sample collection. Specifically, the samples came from near Mons Rumker, a volcanic mound in the largest of the lunar maria, Oceanus Procellarum. Q: This study looked at both the composition and age of the samples. Let's start with age. Why is it important to know how old these samples are? First of all, it helps us piece together just how long lunar mare volcanism lasted, which is critically important for all of our thermal evolution models for the moon. This isn't quite the youngest volcanic deposit on the moon, but it's one of the youngest. So having the age of this deposit puts some constraints on the timeframe of mare volcanism. But it's also critical for establishing absolute ages of other features on the moon and elsewhere. When we look at a surface or a feature on the moon from which we don't have samples for radiometric dating, we try to estimate its age through the size-frequency-distribution of impact craters. Basically, as time goes by, larger impacts become more rare. So by counting craters of different sizes, we can establish a relative age of a surface. But between about one billion and three billion years ago, we don't have many good data points to tell us what the impact flux looks like. So having an absolute radiometric date for this surface helps us to calibrate the flux curve, which helps us to date other surfaces. And that's not true only for the moon. This helps us calibrate ages for Mars, Venus and elsewhere. Q: What are the big takeaways in terms of the chemical composition of the samples? The region from which these samples were taken is a unique terrane on the moon, which looks like it may have really high concentrations of radioactive elementsparticularly thorium. So one idea for why volcanism lasted so much longer in this region compared to others was that you had all these radioactive elements concentrated together, which creates a lot of heat. That heat melts the mantle and you get volcanic flows. However, in these samples we didn't actually see an elevated radioactive element composition. If these radioactive elements are driving the volcanism in this region, we expect to see enhanced radioactivity in the samples. But we didn't. Instead, the composition was similar to mare basalts from older deposits. So that casts some doubt on that hypothesis for long-lasting volcanism. Q: Could you share details about your involvement with this mission? Yes, it's been absolutely wonderful working with our Chinese colleagues on what's been just a fantastic mission. I've been traveling to China for about a decade to work with Chinese researchers and students. I've given lectures at the Chinese National Space Agency about my work with the Apollo program, and we've been able to discuss the science goals of their lunar program. And we've maintained that collaboration through visiting graduate students and other kinds of things on the basic planning of the mission and execution of the mission, and now the analysis of the samples. Right now, Yuqi Qian from the China University of Geosciences-Wuhan is visiting with us at Brown and has played a tremendous role in our work on this mission. Brown has a long history of this kind of international collaboration, going back to our work with the Soviet Union on the Luna program and the Venera missions to Venus. Q: What does the future hold for this collaboration? China has major ambitions in terms of its lunar exploration program, and we hope to continue working with them. One potential mission is a robotic sample-return from the lunar far sidea region called the South Pole-Aitken Basin. We want to explore that area for a variety of reasons: It could have exposed deposits of the lunar mantle, and it is the oldest large impact basin and we could radiometrically date that with the returned samples. So it's a real hot spot of future exploration. We're also working with our Chinese colleagues on their Mars program and their recent Mars rover. So it's a really exciting time for international collaboration in exploration. Explore further Samples returned by Chang'e-5 reveal key age of moon rocks More information: Xiaochao Che et al, Age and composition of young basalts on the Moon, measured from samples returned by Chang'e-5, Science (2021). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl7957 Journal information: Science Xiaochao Che et al, Age and composition of young basalts on the Moon, measured from samples returned by Chang'e-5,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abl7957 Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology, holds a one-cent coin from 1817 on Wednesday Oct. 6, 2021, in Williamsburg, Va. The coin helped archaeologists confirm that a recently unearthed brick-and-mortar foundation belonged to one of the oldest Black churches in the United States. Credit: AP Photo/Ben Finley The brick foundation of one of the nation's oldest Black churches has been unearthed at Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum in Virginia that continues to reckon with its past storytelling about the country's origins and the role of Black Americans. The First Baptist Church was formed in 1776 by free and enslaved Black people. They initially met secretly in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating. By 1818, the church had its first building in the former colonial capital. The 16-foot by 20-foot (5-meter by 6-meter) structure was destroyed by a tornado in 1834. First Baptist's second structure, built in 1856, stood there for a century. But an expanding Colonial Williamsburg bought the property in 1956 and turned it into a parking lot. First Baptist Pastor Reginald F. Davis, whose church now stands elsewhere in Williamsburg, said the uncovering of the church's first home is "a rediscovery of the humanity of a people." "This helps to erase the historical and social amnesia that has afflicted this country for so many years," he said. Colonial Williamsburg on Thursday announced that it had located the foundation after analyzing layers of soil and artifacts such as a one-cent coin. For decades, Colonial Williamsburg had ignored the stories of colonial Black Americans. But in recent years, the museum has placed a growing emphasis on African-American history, while trying to attract more Black visitors. The museum tells the story of Virginia's 18th century capital and includes more than 400 restored or reconstructed buildings. More than half of the 2,000 people who lived in Williamsburg in the late 18th century were Blackand many were enslaved. Reginald F. Davis, from left, pastor of First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Connie Matthews Harshaw, a member of First Baptist, and Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology, stand at the brick-and-mortar foundation of one the oldest Black churches in the U.S. on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, in Williamsburg, Va. Colonial Williamsburg announced Thursday Oct. 7, that the foundation had been unearthed by archeologists. Credit: AP Photo/Ben Finley Sharing stories of residents of color is a relatively new phenomenon at Colonial Williamsburg. It wasn't until 1979 when the museum began telling Black stories, and not until 2002 that it launched its American Indian Initiative. First Baptist has been at the center of an initiative to reintroduce African Americans to the museum. For instance, Colonial Williamsburg's historic conservation experts repaired the church's long-silenced bell several years ago. Congregants and museum archeologists are now plotting a way forward together on how best to excavate the site and to tell First Baptist's story. The relationship is starkly different from the one in the mid-20th Century. "Imagine being a child going to this church, and riding by and seeing a parking lot ... where possibly people you knew and loved are buried," said Connie Matthews Harshaw, a member of First Baptist. She is also board president of the Let Freedom Ring Foundation, which is aimed at preserving the church's history. Colonial Williamsburg had paid for the property where the church had sat until the mid-1950s, and covered the costs of First Baptist building a new church. But the museum failed to tell its story despite its rich colonial history. "It's a healing process ... to see it being uncovered," Harshaw said. "And the community has really come together around this. And I'm talking Black and white." The excavation began last year. So far, 25 graves have been located based on the discoloration of the soil in areas where a plot was dug, according to Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology. Gary said some congregants have already expressed an interest in analyzing bones to get a better idea of the lives of the deceased and to discover familial connections. He said some graves appear to predate the building of the second church. It's unclear exactly when First Baptist's first church was built. Some researchers have said it may already have been standing when it was offered to the congregation by Jesse Cole, a white man who owned the property at the time. Reginald F. Davis, from left, pastor of First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Connie Matthews Harshaw, a member of First Baptist, and Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's director of archaeology, stand at the brick-and-mortar foundation of one the oldest Black churches in the U.S. on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, in Williamsburg, Va. Colonial Williamsburg announced Thursday Oct. 7, that the foundation had been unearthed by archeologists. Credit: AP Photo/Ben Finley First Baptist is mentioned in tax records from 1818 for an adjacent property. Gary said the original foundation was confirmed by analyzing layers of soil and artifacts found in them. They included an one-cent coin from 1817 and copper pins that held together clothing in the early 18th century. Colonial Williamsburg and the congregation want to eventually reconstruct the church. "We want to make sure that we're telling the story in a way that's appropriate and accurateand that they approve of the way we're telling that history," Gary said. Jody Lynn Allen, a history professor at the nearby College of William & Mary, said the excavation is part of a larger reckoning on race and slavery at historic sites across the world. "It's not that all of a sudden, magically, these primary sources are appearing," Allen said. "They've been in the archives or in people's basements or attics. But they weren't seen as valuable." Allen, who is on the board of First Baptist's Let Freedom Ring Foundation, said physical evidence like a church foundation can help people connect more strongly to the past. "The fact that the church still existsthat it's still thrivingthat story needs to be told," Allen said. "People need to understand that there was a great resilience in the African American community." Explore further New book explores how plague shaped Christianity in the Americas 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Faxonius virilis. Credit: Zachary Rozansky In a study of crayfish in the Current River in southeastern Missouri, researchers discoveredalmost by chancethat the virile crayfish, Faxonius virilis, was interbreeding with a native crayfish, potentially altering the native's genetics, life history and ecology. Reported in the journal Aquatic Invasions, the study highlights the difficulty of detecting some of the consequences of biological invasions, the researchers say. "The virile crayfish is probably the widest-ranging native crayfish in North America," said study co-author Christopher Taylor, a curator of crustaceans at the Illinois Natural History Survey. Even though it's native to North America, F. virilis is considered invasive in many parts of the U.S. because it quickly dominates new habitats when introducedfor example, by fishermen moving crayfish from one stream to another in a bait bucket, he said. Taylor conducted the research with Eric Larson, a professor of natural resources and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Zachary Rozansky, a graduate student who led the research. "The Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas are just a great place to be a crayfish," Larson said. "The streambeds are rocky so you can hide from fish predators, the water chemistry is good, there's lots of calcium in the stream and there are a lot of groundwater springs that feed into the main river. That's why there are so many native crayfish there." Christopher Taylor, left, Eric Larson and their colleague Zachary Rozansky, not pictured, report that an invasive crayfish is interbreeding with a native species in the Current River in Missouri. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer The virile crayfish was not native to the Current River watershed, however, and its presence could lead to declines in native crayfish species, he said. Other invasive crayfish have disrupted the ecosystems they invade, Larson said. For example, the rusty crayfish is native to the Ohio River Basin but has invaded the waters of many other regions in the U.S. and Canada. It hybridizes with native crayfish, displacing them and reducing their reproductive output. It also consumes large quantities of aquatic plants and other invertebrates, undermining populations of some sport fish and crayfish species. The spothanded crayfish, Faxonius punctimanus. Credit: Zachary Rozansky The virile crayfish was first detected in 1986 in the Current River, a pristine watershed, parts of which are administered by the U.S. National Park Service. "The spread and impacts of an invasive species could cause substantial harm to this unique ecosystem," Larson said. The researchers hoped to determine the extent of the F. virilis invasion by collecting and identifying mitochondrial DNA from environmental samples, an emerging approach for invasive-species surveillance known as "environmental DNA," or eDNA. However, as they started collecting crayfish for genetic analysis to develop their eDNA sampling method, they discovered a surprising problem. The Current River, in southeast Missouri. Credit: Zachary Rozansky "Initially, we were finding that some of the native spothanded crayfish, Faxonius punctimanus, had mitochondrial DNA sequences that were aligning with invasive virile crayfish," Rozansky said. "We also discovered the inverse: Some virile crayfish had the mitochondrial DNA of spothanded crayfish." This meant that the two species were hybridizing with one another, he said. "We did not observe any differences in colors or patterns indicating they were hybrids," Rozansky said. "They looked like one or the other." The virile crayfish, Faxonius virilis, was first detected in the Current River in Missouri in 1986. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer The discovery should come as a warning to those using environmental DNA to look for an invasive species in an area with closely related native species, said Larson, whose laboratory specializes in the use of eDNA. "It was by chance that we found an invasive crayfish that had native spothanded crayfish mitochondrial DNA," he said. "Currently, most eDNA detection markers use mitochondrial DNA, so the results of this research highlight the possibility of missed detections of invasive species if hybridization is occurring." Eric Larson, left, and Christopher Taylor inspect a captured crayfish. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer "Although it is rarely documented, researchers working with invasive crayfishes should not discount the possibility that the invaders are hybridizing with native species," Rozansky said. The implications for the native crayfish in the Current River system in Missouri are still unknown, the researchers said. Explore further Two Missouri crayfish species may be listed as 'threatened' under Endangered Species Act More information: Zachary Rozansky, Invasive virile crayfish (Faxonius virilis Hagen, 1870) hybridizes with native spothanded crayfish (Faxonius punctimanus Creaser, 1933) in the Current River watershed of Missouri, U.S., Aquatic Invasions (2021). Zachary Rozansky, Invasive virile crayfish (Faxonius virilis Hagen, 1870) hybridizes with native spothanded crayfish (Faxonius punctimanus Creaser, 1933) in the Current River watershed of Missouri, U.S.,(2021). DOI: 10.3391/ai.2021.16.4.07 SARANAC LAKE Historic Saranac Lake has been awarded $70,000 in state and federal grants to recuperate from the coronavirus pandemic, support its ongoing Pandemic Perspectives exhibit and produce a new film, showing the history of the region. The money comes from the federal American Rescue Plan stimulus package $50,000 of it funneled through the National Endowment for the Humanities and $20,000 through New York Humanities. Film A portion of the $50,000 grant will go toward producing a new short film on the history of the region to be shown to visitors at the museum. Historic Saranac Lakes director, Amy Catania, described the region as the land inside the Saranac Lake school district, which is the largest, geographically, in the state. The film will include a segment on the history of Indigenous peoples who lived here for thousands of years before white settlers arrived. In the past, we have failed to present this history in any meaningful way, and its time to make a change, she said in a statement. Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center co-owner John Fadden will consult on this part of the film, which Catania said will be a starting point for learning about local indigenous history. The film will be directed by local filmmaker Kirk Sullivan, who owns Bing Bang Boom, a commercial video production company on Main Street. Sullivan has directed feature films and worked on ad campaigns for Disney and President Joe Bidens 2020 campaign. Reflection, recovery Some of the $20,000 NYH grant will go toward online and in-person events for the organizations Pandemic Perspectives exhibit. Panels for the exhibit were installed at the museum this summer and will be up through next year. The exhibit and events focus on pandemics, from tuberculosis to COVID-19. Tuberculosis was already a big part of the museums stories, as the building it occupies was once the Saranac Laboratory, the first TB research center in the country. It was built in 1894 by Edward Livingston Trudeau, who made Saranac Lake the base for his research on and treatment of the disease. The humanities grants will underwrite expanded programs and support our general operations as we bounce back from the economic damage caused by the pandemic, Historic Saranac Lake board President Amy Jones wrote in a statement. Catania said the organization was hit hard economically by the pandemic, as many other museums were. The museum was closed to the public, the gift shop was dark and fundraisers were canceled. Staffing was cut back. Historic Saranac Lake opened the laboratory museum in 2009, and in 2019, bought Trudeaus home and medical office next door with plans to expand. The Trudeau Building provides the space to tell a broader story beyond the story of tuberculosis, and to discuss the important history of TB more in-depth and in context, Catania said. The cost of the expansion is estimated at $4.1 million. The funds from the American Rescue Plan will not be used toward this project, Catania said. The museums own fundraising campaign has raised $2.2 million thus far. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (RIA Novosti/Vladimir Astapkovich) No one has any appetite for intervention. Behind the scenes, I have a feeling they are praying that Russia and China go on blocking intervention, as sanctioning it would mean they must act and they are not ready, Lavrov told journalists on a flight back to Moscow from an EU summit in Brussels. The FM was assessing the current mood in the UN Security Council after NATO cleared the stationing of Patriot missiles in Turkey. Ankara and the alliance say this is a containment tool to prevent any further Syrian violence from spilling over the border, but political analysts believe the step might signal the West and their Middle East allies are preparing to intervene in Syria. Chemical weapons so far secured, but US needs to decide on priorities Syrias chemical arsenal remains one of the major international concerns since the topic first emerged in July. Lavrov says that President Bashar Assads government is doing whatevers possible to secure the weapons. So far, the arsenal is under control. The Syrian authorities have gathered all the stock in one or two locations. It used to be scattered all over the country, the FM said adding that Moscow and Washingtons intelligence agree on the matter. Syria is reportedly in possession of nerve agents, including mustard gas, as well as the Scud missiles needed to deliver them. The country is a non-signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which outlaws their production. Since July, Assads government has repeatedly stated that chemical weapons will not be used on Syria, but Syrian officials have not excluded the possibility they might be deployed in the event of a foreign attack. The threat has drawn international condemnation. The EU, US and many others are also worried that Syrias chemical weapons might fall into the hands of the Syrian rebels, some of whom have links to Al-Qaeda. But Lavrov pointed out at some inconsistency in Washingtons approach where the chemical arsenal issues overlap with US support for the Syrian opposition. Our American partners admit that the main threat is rebels seizing the chemical arsenal. The opposition forces include all kinds of groups even ones the US has recently proclaimed terror groups. We tell them: Guys but you support the opposition and its armed struggle. This armed struggle might result in exactly what you fear. You decide on your priorities. But there is no clear response to that, said Lavrov. No one will win this war Russia refuses to act as an intermediary trying to Assad into fleeing, Lavrov also said. At the same time Moscow is not going to accommodate the Syrian president should he step down: Assad is not going anywhere, no matter what anyone says, be it China or Russia. On being asked whether the rebels will eventually oust President Assad, Lavrov replied: Listen, no one is going to win this war. The situation in Syria remains volatile with new deaths reported daily by human rights groups. According to those reports, the death toll in the country which has been engulfed in the civil unrest since March 2011 has exceeded 40,000 people. The UN Human Rights Committee also says the conflict made 164,000 refugees. Moscow insists the Syrian conflict should be resolved through direct and unconditional negotiations between the government and opposition. Russia insists the country should be given the right to self-determination and neither side should be supported. The US, the UK, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries in the West and the Middle East, on the other hand, call on President Assad to step down immediately and grant financial and military support to the Syrian opposition forces. But despite all the support, the Syrian National Coalition which was deemed to become an umbrella for all the Syrian opposition groups still failed to unify Assad's opponents and therefore does not have leverage on all the forces fighting the goverments troops on the ground. The UN says the Syrian war is growing more sectarian than civic with each day and that there is no end in sight to the conflict. Russia Today Big winners I would like to congratulate the breweries that brought home bling from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo., recently. Spellbound once again came away with a medal for their Palo Santo Porter. This exceptional beer received its third medal, including a Silver this year to add to its other Gold and Silver from years past. First-timer Mechanical Brewing in Cherry Hill took a Gold medal for their Momentum in the English Mild or Bitter category. Also, Departed Soles in Jersey City won a Silver medal for its None Shall PATH gluten free beer. Brewery BytesCape May Brewing will shift into fall with several new brews and a few reprised brands. Longliner is the brewerys latest lager release that is only available at the Tasting Room, so fans of the now-retired Cape May Lager and current Helles lager Boat Ramp Champ should make a trip down to the Cape May to grab a six-pack of this brew. Next up on the docket are some stouts, new brews and some returning favorites. For fans of dark beer, Honey Porter and Cape May Coffee Stout return in late October throughout the region. Honey Porter will be in 12-ounce cans for the first time. Sea Mistress, a session IPA at 4.2 percent brewed with Citra, Amarillo and Simcoe hops, is a draft-only release available throughout New Jersey as is Strawberry Radler, a 2.5-percent ABV traditional German-style pilsner paired with housemade lemon soda. Spiced Ale Mop Water and seasonal Double IPA White Caps will also release throughout New Jersey, Delaware, and eastern Pennsylvania in October and early November. Ties the Room Together, their 8.5-percent White Cream Stout in honor of The Big Lebowski with coffee, cocoa nibs, vanilla, and lactose and Biscuits and Honey, a true-to-style ESB made with East Kent Golding hops, will both return for distribution in November. Crushin It fans will be happy to note that fan-favorite Mango Crushin It makes its return in mid-November. Look for a tap takeover at Tilton Inn in Northfield 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7. At 6:42 a.m., another camera captures an individual, who is holding what appears to be an orange garment or bag, in the backyard of Enders home. The individual jumps over the fence, walks between the two houses and cuts through the property toward Sixth Street. Police investigating suspicious deaths in Surf City Authorities are investigating the deaths of two people in Surf City, the Ocean County Prosec Based on the height of the fence, police determined the person in the video was just under 5 feet, 8 inches tall. Heffernan is listed as 5-foot-8 on her drivers license, according to court documents. At 6:58 a.m., the white RV was captured on surveillance cameras traveling west on the bridge out of Long Beach Island. Members of the Pennsylvania State Police were surveilling Heffernans home in Landenberg when they made a motor vehicle stop to speak with her son Joseph Heffernan. According to court documents, Joseph Heffernan began speaking about the death of Enders without being questioned and was taken to police barracks to provide a taped statement. Police said Joseph told them Heffernan believed Pitoy was the reason Enders was selling his home in Surf City. Joseph also told police Heffernan drives a Winnebago and was the sole operator of the vehicle. ATLANTIC CITY A Press reader question prompted one of the most honest and disarming answers in Wednesday nights debates for Senate and Assembly in the states 2nd Legislative District. Excluding perhaps the Bible, what has been the most influential book that youve read in your lifetime, and how has it helped to form your character and integrity? Nick Huba, local news editor at The Press, asked of four candidates for two Assembly seats. The question had been submitted by reader Ron Smith, of Brigantine. Im not a book reader, said incumbent Assemblyman John Armato, D-Atlantic, but I do get inspiration from talking to constituents about stories of families struggling. I take those with me. A rougher moment came when Senate candidates Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, a Democrat, and Sen.-select Vince Polistina, a Republican, argued over whether Polistina had supported lowering municipal budget spending caps to 2% from 4% in 2010 the last time he was in the Legislature. Mazzeo said Polistina had voted against the 2% cap, while Polistina insisted he voted for it, and remembered because it happened on one of his childrens birthdays. Turns out they were both right. In 1971, when Stockton State College opened, this polarized country was grappling with an increasingly unpopular war, social unrest and a growing civil rights movement. The first class of 1,000 students was opinionated, motivated and ready to change the world. The new college offered the promise of a four-year degree close to home and all of the opportunities that would provide. Stockton is celebrating its 50th anniversary of teaching in 2021-22, an ideal time to reflect on whether we are upholding our mission and how it will be defined during our next half-century. I am proud today that our more than 60,000 alumni include teachers, nurses, accountants, police officers, business owners and CEOs who have helped South Jersey and the state grow and diversify. More than 60% of those alumni still live in South Jersey and 80% have remained in the state. As a student in that first class, I have also watched the university grow and adapt to the needs of the region. Stocktons mission has been to serve not just students, but all of South Jersey. With support from the community, Stockton has added locations in Hammonton and Manahawkin, preserved a museum in Woodbine, and created a new campus in Atlantic City. Our main campus, surrounded by trees on 1,600 acres in the Pinelands National Reserve, is a daily reminder to not just build, but also preserve what makes South Jersey unique. Fortunately, it soon became clear most people infected with West Nile virus dont feel sick. About 20% develop a fever and other symptoms. Only 1 infected person in 150 develops a serious form of the illness that is neuroinvasive and can cause paralysis. About a tenth of these are fatal, giving West Nile a fatality rate for those infected of one in 1,500. In the U.S. that has worked out to about 130 deaths a year. This year one was a Camden County man in his 60s who was infected in July. Thats the first New Jersey death from West Nile since 2018. So far this year, three New Jersey cases have been reported, just the fatal one neuroinvasive. Nationwide, neuroinvasive cases are 315 of the total 479 cases reported. But as with the COVID-19 virus, analysis suggests many more cases are unreported, 50 times as many in the case of West Nile virus. Atlantic County this year found its first West Nile carrying mosquitoes in Somers Point on Aug. 3. Since then they also have been found in Buena, Egg Harbor City, Egg Harbor Township, Hamilton Township, Linwood and Mullica Township. The county sprays to control mosquitoes and did so in Hammonton in August and Northfield in September. Cape May County sprayed in Cape May Court House, Dennis Township and West Cape May recently. I got a kick out of the recent letter submitted by Bill Bloom. In the first paragraph he states that when Donald Trump was president (everyday)... "there (were) [h]ints of new disastrous 'evidence,' attacks on his policies..." I am guessing much unlike the "evidence" that Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell presented in court in their fraudulent election claims. And recently, while under oath, these two admitted that their "evidence" was nothing more than "theories" that they read on social media. No fact checking, just belief that their right-wing social media source was being truthful. Folks, these are supposedly two top-notch lawyers that got admonished over and over in court by numerous judges and threatened with disbarment. In the next few paragraphs, Bloom states how Trump's "results" were "grossly under-reported." A question: Did you think Trump was sincere when he said this virus would pass in a few months? Oh, whoops, let's not mention any of his huge failures that have cost hundreds of thousands of American lives. The pandemic? Fiscal policies to ensure the rich get richer and that have pushed trillion-dollar deficits to the brink? And a healthcare system on the brink of collapse, thanks to inaction and lack of trust in science and his ego-centrism? If elected, Gilbraith would serve as the first Black mayor of Davenport and the second woman to serve as mayor. Gilbraith noted growing up in an interracial household. Her father grew up in Kewanee, Ill., to a Black family "who navigated their way from Tennessee" to the Midwest "during segregation." Gilbraith's mother, who is white, grew up Anchorage, Alaska. "As a mixed-race Black woman, I've been told it is impossible to fight discrimination and be involved in politics at the same time. And, yet, here I am," Gilbraith said. Gilbraith has led the charge locally pushing for equity in policing and to address issues of implicit bias, systemic racism, police brutality and a range of reform issues. "The steady increase of crime in Davenport implores us to come together in unity," she said. "But, we need leadership that can look at the cause of violence and who is willing to re-invest in our disadvantaged neighborhoods, the infrastructure of our neglected schools." If elected, Gilbraith said she would push for more expansive implicit bias training for city staff and seek to address racial disparities in police arrests and traffic stops. She said arguments that municipalities will be bankrupted and officers will leave the field if qualified immunity is repealed are overstated. Thats because in the vast majority of cases officers are indemnified by state law, meaning municipalities pay civil penalties, and her research showed lawsuits in police misconduct cases amount to well less than 1 percent of most cities and counties budgets. It would mean that for the relatively small percentage of cases where people have shown constitutional violations, but there happens to not be a prior case on point, those people would be able to get justice through the courts, she said of ending qualified immunity. William Baude, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, said he was previously a clerk with Chief Justice John Roberts, and he views qualified immunity as problematic based on constitutional concerns. He said one of the countrys fundamental principles of the rule of law is that a person whose rights have been violated should have the opportunity to remedy the situation. One of the most important remedies is being able to bring the issue before a judge and jury. Fred Smith, a professor at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, said qualified immunity creates distrust in the rule of law. Counterfeit fentanyl pills have been responsible for several overdoses recently in the Rapid City area, according to Sgt. Casey Kenrick of the Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team. The team is a joint venture between the Pennington County Sheriff's Office, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation and the South Dakota Highway Patrol. "We run the local drug task force that investigates drug trafficking and drug dealers in our area," he said. Kenrick warned of the influx of counterfeit fentanyl pills, noting that most are trafficked from the Denver area or border states before arriving in South Dakota. "The Drug Enforcement Administration had mentioned them being sold on social media and E-commerce platforms," Kenrick said. "I'm not saying that doesn't happen here, but that's generally not our experience. They sell them to local folks after trafficking them up here." Kenrick said the main danger posed by the counterfeit pills is no two pills are alike in fentanyl toxicity. "The problem is what we refer to as hot spots," he explained. "You could take one pill and it has a certain level of fentanyl. The next pill could have a completely different level of fentanyl in it. You could take one pill and be alright after that. You could take another pill and that pill could potentially kill you." Kenrick said one pill has the potential to kill a person. "In the last year, we've seen a significant sharp increase in overdoses, both fatal and nonfatal," he said. "Of all the ones I've gone out on in the last year, 80% to 90% of the overdoses can be contributed to these pills at this point." Kenrick said both children and adults have been ingesting the pills. "Generally, in my experience people know exactly what they're doing," he said of the pill users. "They know they're fentanyl, but there has been a few that I believe they legitimately didn't know what they were taking." Kenrick noted a change in state law, which prevents a person who believes they have overdosed from being arrested on drug charges. "If I were to overdose and you were to call it in, even if I was high, neither of us would get charged with it. We just want to know where you got it from and stomp that out as fast as we can," Kenrick said. "Most of the time, they make it sound like people are accidentally getting these pills but that's not the case out here. However, you should not take a prescription pill unless you got it from a doctor and got it from a pharmacy. I would be less concerned with that and more concerned with the fact that you literally have no idea what you're taking." Kenrick said there's no way to tell the difference between a counterfeit Percocet pill made with fentanyl and a prescribed pill. "If I take one of those pills and held it together with an actual Percocet pill you wouldn't be able to tell the difference," he said. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 2 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Jennie Haas tends to sample the first few pages of a book preferably a physical book with real paper pages before she decides whether shed like to keep reading. It has to catch me in the first six or seven pages, she said. Haas is among three stewards of a Little Free Library thats now perched on the property of Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Hermosa. Church Pastor Deb Grismer and Jamie Roder are the other stewards. Roder started the process in motion. As an avid book reader myself, I wanted to begin the process to develop the love of reading in others, she said. Roder said some research led her to a discovery of the Little Free Library, a nonprofit organization based in Hudson, Wisconsin, and designed to help expand book access to people throughout the world, according to the organizations website. The Little Free Library stewards in Hermosa are planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 3 p.m. Sunday at Our Saviors Lutheran Church at 386 Main St. Refreshments will include hot apple cider and hot chocolate, Grismer said. Miranda OBryan, who works with the social initiative called Page Turners: Fall in Love with Reading as part of her involvement with the Miss South Dakota organization, will be present at the ribbon-cutting, Grismer said. So will Cali James, a Custer High School senior who will bring a therapy dog named Zippit. People can grab a book and sit and read to Zippit, Grismer said. Grismer said people who bring books to donate can participate in a prize drawing. Grismer and Haas talked about the project on a recent morning at the church. Grismer said Roder applied to Little Free Librarys Impact Library program, designed to help rural and other sorts of neighborhoods where access to books might create a challenge. The program enabled the group to receive the library structure and a box of books. We wanted to be able to get actual physical books in the hands of people, Grismer said. A map produced by Little Free Library reveals a number of other Little Free Library projects throughout the area. People can view the map at https://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/. Grismer said people are invited simply to come and pick up a book, with no requirements. When you are done reading the book, there are no expectations, other than you cannot sell it, she said. It is yours to keep in your library, or you may pass it on to someone else. Both Grismer and Haas emphasized the importance of physical books. My first thought is that smells are so critical, Haas said. They release things in your brain. You grab a book and you flip those pages, and you get that whiff. You get the feeling in your hands. Youre physically there. Your eyes arent staring at a screen. Grismer, who used to teach preschool, thought about the effects of physical books on children. As a former educator, I would say that holding a book encompasses all learning styles, she said. Grismer emphasized the escape from blinking, humming screens. There are so many other things that take screen time, and our brains need a break from that, she said. Haas, who owns the Heartland Hair salon in Hermosa, said the salon would serve as a drop-off station for book donations. I have an office space, she said. Were looking for a bookshelf, or a few bookcases, and I will store books there. As we see which books are being utilized, and being taken out of the library, then we will replace them accordingly. The group began the library, which has been up for a little more than a week, with a box of books from the Little Free Library organization. From now on theyre relying on book donations, including book swaps when people come to the library. But Grismer emphasized that no one who takes a book is expected to replace it with another. Grismer and Haas said the range of books they welcome is wide, including fiction and nonfiction, books designed for children and books for adults. The group accepts book donations at Heartland Hair, at 300 E. Main St. in Hermosa, during business hours. Contact Michael Neary at michael.neary@rapidcityjournal.com. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The report from a state-appointed task force that's been studying operations and functions of the public university system contains 35 recommendations some of which affect western South Dakota in particularly direct ways. The South Dakota Board of Regents accepted the Senate Bill 55 Task Force report on Wednesday, according to a news release, and directed staff to submit it in final form to the governor and the legislatures Joint Committee on Appropriations. Brian Maher, the regents executive director and CEO, said in a statement that the report represents significant work by a 20-member task force that met six times as a whole, and many more hours as subcommittees to study in detail academic programs, administration, and infrastructure." Janelle Toman, director of communications for the South Dakota Board of Regents, noted that many of the recommendations are still in early stages of development and will later require either legislative approval, Regents approval or further study. These are all recommendations or suggestions, she said in a telephone interview. This is the beginning step toward addressing these recommendations. The recommendations include, according to the report, issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for a system-wide food contract, moving to a single nursing program in Rapid City and utilize the West River Health Science Center for nursing program space needs, working with the Legislature to ease statutory requirements for high performance green building standards, and devising incentives to encourage additional energy and utility savings at each institution. Another 31 recommendations follow. Some of the suggestions are further along than others. The recommendation to ease requirements in relation to green buildings, for instance, has already been passed in the Legislature in the form of Senate Bill 34. Some hit particularly close to the western part of the state. One recommendation, for instance, is for Black Hills State University and South Dakota Mines to work toward greater collaboration and/or consolidation of common functions, contracts, and services that exist at both institutions. The report mentions consolidating travel reimbursement and audit functions, Student Identification Card functions, cost-saving energy and water conservation efforts and the purchasing functions between the two institutions. The report notes that South Dakota Mines, Black Hills State University and the central office are currently working through the implementation of the collaborations recommended here. The report also recommends consolidation of functions involving other universities in the state. Another recommendation that bears particular impact to this region is the proposal to transition to a single nursing program in Rapid City and utilize the West River Health Sciences Center for nursing program space. Two universities South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota had been offering bachelor-of-science degree nursing programs in Rapid City. Now only SDSU will offer such a program. The Task Force overwhelmingly expressed concern over the perceived inefficiency of two institutions offering competing nursing bachelors degree programs within the same city, the report says. During a break at a recent Board of Regents meeting in Rapid City, Janice Minder, vice president for academic policy and planning with the South Dakota Board of Regents, offered some additional insight. She noted that the program will be run in what is slated to be called the West River Health Sciences Center in Rapid City. The Center will be housed in a facility thats operated by Black Hills State University. In June, Regents approved the plan to name South Dakota State University as the sole university offering a bachelor of science in nursing degree in the Rapid City area. Toman said the June vote did not address the facility needs. But a vote on Thursday approved a facility design plan to expand the West River Health Sciences Center so that it can accommodate the nursing program in one space. Students can already earn a two-year applied health sciences degree with Black Hills State University before moving on to work on a bachelor of science degree in nursing in Rapid City, but now, officials say, they will have a more centrally located program. Were trying to merge them all to West River Health Sciences, Minder said. Minder also noted a goal to increase the number of students who can be accommodated in the program a number that currently stands at 72. She said she hoped 120 students will be served within five years. Laurie Nichols, president of Black Hills State University, addressed the plan at a recent Board of Regents outreach session at BHSU. The whole idea is to increase our production of nurses, Nichols said. The task force report can be found on the South Dakota Board of Regents' website at https://www.sdbor.edu. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. East Rapid City will be seeing another 212 apartments that make up more than half of the citys September building permit valuation. The city issued 289 building permits in September with a valuation of $34,626,013. The apartment buildings make up about 63.76% of that, totaling $22,078,360. One hundred eighty of the apartment units will go in the Creekside Heights Apartments off of Jim Street in the Orchard Meadows subdivision in Rapid Valley. Orchard Meadows is a 161-acre subdivision off of Elk Vale and Highway 44 done by Dream Design International. Plans call for the project to eventually have 100 single family homes, over 100 townhomes, apartments and commercial buildings. The apartments are part of a four-phase plan for 659 apartments, according to the overlay project report. Norman Drake, CEO of Legacy Development in Sioux Falls that sponsors the Creekside Heights Apartments, said the 659 units will be built over the course of about five years with plans to have the first building done by September 2022. The first project will be a 59-unit complex with a community building and pool. Drake, who manages the Creekside Heights LLC, said about every four months after that, the company would open another building. The buildings would have either 59, 32 or 27 units. "We've been investing in Rapid City for about five years now," Drake said Thursday. "We really felt like it was the time. ... We like the demographics and we like the Rapid City business environment. We're also going to see a great influx of people moving there." Creekside Heights will be adding a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments at "market rate." Drake said they're not luxury apartments, but the company plans to have quality finishes, 9-foot ceilings and other amenities. Legacy Development has the Palms Apartments on Meade Street and The Elements, a four-story mixed-use building with 99 loft-style apartments on St. Joseph Street in downtown Rapid City. Drake said it's too early to talk about any other developments, but the company will continue to develop in Rapid City "without a doubt." Two of the building permits were for 59-unit apartment buildings valued at $5.9 million each. The other two were for 32-unit apartment buildings valued at $3.2 million each. The city also issued a building permit for a community center valued at $600,000. Two other permits were issued to the Red River Valley Investment Group for 15-unit apartment buildings on Valley Drive, valued at $1,939,180 each. The city also issued a building permit for a footing foundation for the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic on Promise Road for $1,398,000 and a $950,000 permit for an entry relocation for the Fairfield Inn on Elk Vale Road. Correction: This article was corrected at 2:49 p.m. Oct. 8 to reflect that Legacy Development is the sponsor of Creekside Heights and Norman Drake is the manager of the Creekside Heights LLC. Contact Siandhara Bonnet at siandhara.bonnet@rapidcityjournal.com You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The clock is ticking on one of the Biden administrations major prioritiesclosing the digital divide and advancing equity for our students by nominating a strong, proven leader as chair of the Federal Communications Commission. That is why the National Education Associationon behalf of our 3 million members and the 50 million students they serveis urging President Joe Biden to nominate current Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to lead the FCC. The digital divide was with us before the COVID crisis, but the pandemic has exposed the huge gap between our nations internet haves and have nots. Last year, NEA released Digital Equity for Students and Educators, a report exploring the digital divide, revealing that one-quarter of school-aged children (ages 5 to 17) dont have what they need for online learning during the pandemic. That study additionally showed this is a problem that disproportionately impacts students of colorparticularly Black, Latinx, and Native students as well students from rural communities. Even as students return to physical classrooms this school year, internet access remains essential for learning. It is critical for conducting research, doing homework, and, when school buildings are closed, attending class. Jessica Rosenworcel has been sounding the alarm on the digital homework gap for years. She has worked tirelessly to shine a spotlight on this problem, which forces students to do their schoolwork outside fast-food restaurants or linger in community centers until late at night to get the broadband access they need to succeed in school, apply to college, and pursue internships and enrichment opportunities. The Biden administrations Build Back Better agenda promises a historic investment in broadband access, including nearly $100 billion in the infrastructure legislation working its way through Congress now. This new infusion of funding would build on the down payment in the American Rescue Plan that Biden signed into law in March. Already, Acting Chair Rosenworcel is leading the Biden administrations efforts to address this problem, delivering an initial $1.2 billion in emergency connectivity funds to schools and libraries around the country. Her foresight on this issue and her successful ability to lead a divided FCC toward bipartisan progress make her the right candidate to oversee the deployment of these vital broadband funds. This nomination is urgent as we approach the final legislative push of 2021. Indeed, failure to nominate and confirm a permanent chair before Acting Chair Rosenworcels current term expires at the end of the year would hamstring the FCC and undermine efforts to help Americas students. Thats why 25 Democratic senators have written the administration urging the quick nomination of Acting Chair Rosenworcel, pointing out she has already been vetted and confirmed more than once by the U.S. Senate. This followed an earlier call by 33 House Democratic women urging her nomination as the first woman to be confirmed by the Senate as FCC chair. With years of service as an FCC commissioner and after now serving as acting chair since the beginning of the Biden administration, Jessica Rosenworcel would continue leading on administration priorities on Day One. She has broad support. including progressive groups who celebrated her elevation to acting chair and major civil rights groups who urged the president to nominate her as permanent chair this August. And last week, 17 education associations representing educators, principals, school administrators, and librarians made the case for Acting Chair Rosenworcel. Time is too short for any further delay on this vital matter. Biden has a historic opportunity to close the digital divide, strengthen opportunities for our students, and address the homework gap. Becky Pringle is a middle school science teacher and president of the National Education Association. Follow her on Twitter: @BeckyPringle. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 U.S. Senator Jon Tester visited with AP government students at Hamilton High School via Skype on Monday. Educator Kiah Nisly had arranged the opportunity for her students to have a visit with the senator. The future electorate of America sits in my classroom so I like to create as many opportunities as possible for the future voters to talk to elected officials, she said. These visits also let students hear how the government is run straight from the horse's mouth. Tester started the online session with a brief family history then launched into answering the questions students had prepared. Senior Broncs asked about Second Amendment rights, the process of a bill through committee and Testers opinion on abortion. Emma Mitchell asked the question, What could you do to help alleviate the trafficking and disappearances of Native American women? Tester explained that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) are working on the problem but both are understaffed. Indian tribes are also understaffed, Tester said. There is a lack of trust between Native American people and law enforcement that needs to be re-established. Often these crimes dont get reported in a timely manner and they need to be reported as soon as the person comes up missing. When Cadogan Wheat asked if defense spending should be decreased to allow for more spending on social services, Tester quickly answered, Not right now. I can tell you with the threat that China poses to us in this world, and its a serious threat, we need investments in the China region to keep this country safe and to keep China at bay, Tester said. We need to make the military justify every expense they have, but I can tell you there are some investments we need to make in the Pacific and Indochina region that are critical. Students also asked Tester why he was elected in a red state and what are his goals for this term. Tester answered that he believes he was elected because of his record, accomplishments and his excellent staff. Im proud of my record and they need to look at it from a Montana perspective and a national perspective, he said. His goals for this term, which hes already achieved, include two chairmanships Defense Appropriation and Veterans Affairs. The [defense] goal is to make sure they have the money they need and make sure theyre spending it properly, Tester said. [For the VA] weve got a bill called the Cost of War Act that deals with toxic exposure. Its been around with us for generations. Weve never given the VA the ability to deal with toxic exposure very well, so it has taken an act of Congress to get those covered. Other topics included climate change, fossil fuels, bipartisan support, the budget, the infrastructure and the debt ceiling. Tester was passionate about the country of origin labeling of beef. The problem is that if you go to the meat market and look at a package of hamburger it will have a USDA seal on it, Tester said. People think it is a product of the U.S.A., it isnt. What it means is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected it and it is safe to eat. He said the meat could have come from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the United States, or any other country in the world. The consumer should have a choice and if it a product of USA it should be labeled as a product of USA along with the USDA sticker, Tester said. Which if it didnt have the USDA inspection sticker it wouldnt have been in the meat counter to begin with. I think it would give consumer choice. We raise the safest meat in the world. He said the USA labeling would allow the nations cow-calf operators and small and medium-size feeders the opportunity to market their meat to the American consumer. I think that would result in more profit, Tester said. Everything else has the label Product of Canada or Product of Mexico. Why not do the same thing for beef? Our bill gives the USDA a year to get a WTO (World Trade Organization) mandatory manufacture of origin labeling law in place. Its about the consumers and the producers, both can win. Tester closed the Internet video chat with advising students to maximize their opportunities in school. Take advantage of the opportunities you have in Hamilton High School and challenge your teacher, Tester said. Montana has some of the best schools in the world and when you get done in Hamilton, if youve taken advantage of the opportunities, youll be well prepared for the real world. After the session, students said they appreciated the time with Tester, enjoyed hearing his point of view and valued that he wasnt just siding with his party but choosing what was best for Montana. Students shared some of their thoughts on the session with Tester. Lauran Roberts said, "Senator Tester seemed levelheaded and I supported some of his positions on certain issues. I really liked how he made time to talk to students" - "He was genuinely friendly and didn't avoid tough questions, said Mykhel Brubaker-Paddock. Ryan Jordan said that Tester, did a good job not alienating one side and was incredibly knowledgeable. "Overall, [Tester is] a nice guy and not what I thought a politician would be like, said Johnny Dang. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Sapphire Community Healths plans to build a new health care center in Hamilton received a boost recently with news it will get $519,360 in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars. The money will pay for site preparation for a three-story community health care facility that will include dental services on five acres the organization owns on the northwest side of Hamilton. We were thrilled to receive the news, said Sapphire Community Health CEO Janet Woodburn. Sapphire Community Health rents the building it operates out of on Hamiltons North Third Street. With an active patient list nearing 2,800, Woodburn said they have outgrown that space. This has been a wonderful place to get started, but now its not large enough to fit our needs, she said. I have two people who are currently working out of what used to be a closet. After decades of work toward bringing a community health care center to Hamilton by a core group of residents and others, the centers focus on serving the underinsured and uninsured with a holistic approach that addresses both physical and mental health under one roof has been well-received. I dont think that we expected to grow as rapidly as we have, but we are pleased to have been able to fill this need in the valley, Woodburn said. We do have a sliding fee scale thats based on a persons ability to pay, but what really makes us different is that we can address all medical and behavioral health needs under one roof with one medical record. Adding dental to the mix in the new building will add to that holistic approach. We know that dental infections can create significant problems for cardiac issues, Woodburn said. It can impact a persons physical health significantly. This most recent funding package will help pay site preparation costs. A second Community Development Block Grant would pay for architectural designs that will be developed following community input. Early estimates suggest the cost of the new building could top $5 million. There is no certain timeline on when the building will be constructed, but hopes are work could get underway in a couple of years. Sapphire Community Healths board chair, Jim Morton, also serves as head of western Montanas Human Resources Council. He said the board is gratified with the growth of the Sapphire Community Health and the impact that its already had on the community, including its outreach programs for school nurses in Hamilton and Victor and the fledgling drug court program. The predevelopment work paid for through the ARPA funding will allow the board and community to begin envisioning what the new building will look like and what services it will house. We want to be very deliberate in the way we move forward with the design of the new building, Morton said. We will be inviting the public to talk to us. We want to make sure the design is right and fits the needs of the community. While Sapphire Community Healths mission is to serve the medically underserved, everyone is welcome. We work with people who have Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance of all types, Morton said. Our target is lower-income people. The underinsured certainly have a challenge sometimes in meeting high deductibles. Our focus is on primary care. Overall, Morton said the board is thankful the center has been welcomed into the community after a long struggle to get the funding to make it happen. For the first dozen years, we werent sure that we could get this started, Morton said. We applied four times. After being approved, the funding fell short one year. Another time, they lost the grant. Along the way, we got a lot of encouragement and thats what kept everyone going. We knew there was a need and that had been borne out by the patient numbers. Board member Carlotta Grandstaff has been working on this idea of bringing affordable health care to the Bitterroot Valley since its inception. Its been a long and slow project, Grandstaff said. We had to be really patient and willing to persevere We had a long-term vision and from there its just been one step at a time. Sapphire Community Health purchased a building on South Third Street to house administration and some behavioral health specialists to free up space at the center. Everyone is really squeezed in there right now, she said. Weve been growing at a pretty good clip. Coronavirus set us back a little bit, but were back now to our pre-pandemic numbers and were growing. A former reporter and county commissioner, Grandstaff said she was naive when she first started down this path. I figured that we needed to have a clinic that would serve people who can afford health care in this community, she said. Im pretty glad that I didnt know then what I know now. There is nothing more complicated than health care as a business. The rules that go along with health care are kind of like a moving target that changes all the time, Grandstaff said. You wouldnt invent what we have now if you wanted to design health care from scratch. Were fortunate that we have committed and very smart board members, she said. Im very proud of them all Im a patient there. Im very happy with my health care. The funding was part of a $7 million package to upgrade and expand 12 community health centers in Montana. Health centers help increase access to important primary care services by reducing barriers such as cost, lack of insurance and distance for patients. Sen. Jon Tester was the only member of the Montana congressional delegation to vote for the funding. Community Health Centers provide folks across Montana with affordable, high-quality health care and have been on the frontlines of protecting Montanas frontier communities from the COVID-19 pandemic, Tester said. I was proud to secure this funding through the American Rescue Plan Act because those centers are a critical piece of the health care system in Montana and I will keep fighting to make sure they have the resources and support they need to continue providing the high-quality care communities across the state rely on to stay healthy. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The first work on Stevensvilles new John Owen Fishing Access Site got underway this last week with hundreds of holes punched through hard-packed soil along the bank of the Bitterroot River. Filled with a combination of topsoil and compost, the holes will soon become home for new trees and shrubs that will eventually stabilize the bank while creating new habitat for trout and wildlife. Its just the first of several projects that will transform the popular recreational site over the next year or so. None of it would have been possible without the generosity of the neighbor, Myla Yahraus of the Fort Owen Ranch. Yahraus donated 6.25 acres on the east side of the Bitterroot River just below the Cutoff Road Bridge for the fishing access site. The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission approved the project in 2018 to build a new site that will include enough parking for about 30 vehicles and trailers, four campsites, a concrete latrine and trail connections. The sites construction was pushed back for a couple of years while work was completed on a second project on the Yahraus property at Fort Owen State Park. It started out as a fishing access site project, but that turned into a second parks project, said Rory Zarling, FWPs Fishing Access Site Program manager. We owe Myla Yahraus a debt of gratitude for making it all possible. The work on the larger project at the fishing access site will occur either next spring or the following fall, depending on a number of factors including weather and the contractors schedule. This year, the focus is on the ground just below the gravel bed that people have used to launch their boats for decades. FWP partnered with the Bitter Root Water Forum to re-vegetate the bank denuded by foot and motorized traffic over the years. A crew of three FWP employees spent seven days drilling and digging holes that will be filled with ponderosa pine, cottonwood, larch, aspen, chokecherries, dogwood, snowberries and other native vegetation. The plans call for building a drip line to help the trees and shrubs get established in the rocky soil along the river. A post and rail fence will be constructed this fall to help keep people and critters away from the young plants. Its been gnarly tough work to get the holes dug, Zarling said. The ground is really rocky and hard-packed. That area looks really rough and abused, but give it a couple of years and it will look great. The hope is the trees and shrubs will be planted on Oct. 14 and 15, with the help of Bitter Root Water Forum volunteers. I think this area is really beloved by the public and a community gathering place, said Bitter Root Water Forums restoration coordinator Andrea Price. We are glad to have the opportunity to be able to help preserve it. Its an exciting way to start off the work of building a new fishing access site. The Bitter Root Water Forums talks about partnering with the FWP on the site date back to 2018. The forum received a Montana Department of Environmental Quality 319 Program to help offset some of the costs of rehabilitating the site. Its used the same source of funding for restoration work at Hamiltons Skalkaho Bend Park and on private lands on Burnt Fork Creek. Weve been able to help bring some funding and create some additional capacity to help get the work completed, Price said. FWP has pretty full plates Well help coordinate volunteers on the planting days that will happen next Thursday and Friday. A number of people have already signed on to help with the project but there is room for more. People interested in helping with the planting project can call the forums office at 406-375-2272 or email at bswc.member@brwaterforum.org. We would love to get some more people signed up, Price said. We want to engage with people from different parts of the valley. What we have here is a place thats very well loved by the community and its condition right now is a part of the consequences of the amount of use that it receives, she said. There are not a lot of younger shrubs and trees. There is a handful of cottonwood and ponderosa pines but some are already dying. We have to think decades ahead on the trees timeline, Price said. We will plant about 250 native plants and protect them with a fence while they get established. Longtime fishing outfitter and Stevensville resident Eddie Olwell said it wasnt long ago there was a lot of contention with the previous landowner over the public use at the popular site. We faced a risk of losing that access, Olwell said. Fortunately, the land changed hands and Myla has generously allowed the public to use the property and then donated the land that will create an access site that generations will enjoy. We all owe her a debt of gratitude. The site is one of the most popular for access to the Bitterroot River due to its proximity to Missoula. Theres great fishing above and below that access, Olwell said. From a fishermans standpoint, it has great value. Beyond that, the town has a riverfront park that adjoins the property thats used by lots of people for dog walking, fishing, and bird watching. Its going to get used by lots of different recreationists, not just fishermen. As a fishing guide, fishermen and Stevensville resident, my family and I spend a lot of time at that park, Olwell said. We certainly appreciate that its there. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A bipartisan push in Congress to reopen the U.S.-Canadian border hit a roadblock Thursday, while the northern border has been closed to Canadians traveling south now for 19 months. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines attempted Thursday to lift his bill to allow Canadian traffic into the U.S. out of committee and through the Senate, which would have sent the legislation to the House. The procedure, which requires unanimous approval from the Senate, was stifled by a single objection, leaving the bill in place. "Weve got Democrats and Republicans who want to see the northern border opened up," Daines, a Republican, said in a phone interview Thursday evening. "What Montanans are tired of is the lack of action coming from the White House." In September, the Biden administration once again extended the border closure, which includes the border with Mexico, through Oct. 21. The administration has cited concerns over COVID-19, which in Montana has surged nearly back to levels predating vaccine availability. Daines' "Restoring Northern Border Travel Act" bill, which would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to expand its categories of essential travel at ports of entry on the U.S.-Canadian border, has been sitting in the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs since June 23. Daines and House sponsor Rep. Elise Stefanik had issued a letter to Schumer Sept. 1 urging him to take action on the legislation. Montana's Republican senator on Thursday tried to accelerate the bill's progress by lifting the bill out of committee and through the Senate, saying in a floor speech Canada's vaccination rate is among the highest in the world at over 80%. According to Canada's online vaccine tracker, more than 87% of Canadians over age 12 have been fully vaccinated. Roughly 75% of Alberta's eligible population is fully vaccinated, higher than any U.S. state. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, agreed with Daines the matter was important to Montana and other northern border states, but said in his objection the Homeland Security committee, of which he is a ranking Democrat, needed more time to shore it up, citing concerns of its broad effects. "Given the importance of this issue, I will be more than happy to work with our colleague from Montana on a path forward from this time," Carper said. "I am concerned, having said that, that this legislation, as is, is a bit too broad and could have unintended consequences, including making it hard to address future challenges at our at our borders." Carper's lone objection was enough to block the procedural move. Daines issued a statement after the attempt charging Democrats, which control the Senate, with carrying the political water for the president. In a statement Friday, Tester again criticized the Biden administration's decision to extend the border closure. A spokesperson for Tester did not comment directly on Carper's objection. I was bitterly disappointed to learn that the Biden Administration once again decided to unnecessarily keep Montanas northern land border closed for at least another month, Tester said. The Biden Administration needs to follow the science and reopen the border to fully vaccinated Canadians so that both of our economies can continue recovering from this crisis. The Biden administration announced last week that fully vaccinated foreigners would soon be able to travel to the U.S. by air. In response, Tester joined a bipartisan group of senators in cosigning a letter to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky questioning the medical justification for allowing Canadians to enter the U.S. by plane, but not by car. Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Republican elected to Montana's currently lone U.S. House seat last year, began lobbying to reopen the border to Canadians in February. Both Republican members of Montana's congressional delegation have also used the northern border closure as a springboard to attack the movement of migrants into the U.S. Daines said Thursday the southern border remains "wide open" to illegal immigrants while northern border communities are being stifled in their economic recovery from the pandemic. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. This is the second delay in reopening offices for Capital One and Genworth, one of the Richmond regions largest private employers with about 850 local workers. In the Richmond area, Capital One employs about 13,000 workers at its campus in the West Creek office park in Goochland County, and offices in Henrico County. The company also has two Capital One Cafe banking locations. The McLean-based financial services and credit card giant, had planned to have employees come back on Sept. 7, but in early August the company announced a delay until Nov. 2 because of the rising number of cases related to the delta variant. Capital One announced in June that it was planning to become a hybrid work company going forward, with employees spending part of their time working at home and part of their time at the office. When the company said in August that it was postponing the return to the office to November, Capital One told employees who have not been vaccinated that they should continue to work from home and will be supported in doing so. Employees going to Capital One offices will be required to show proof they have been vaccinated. The company has said all contractors, vendors and visitors to Capital One sites must also be vaccinated. Several large companies across the country, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Starbucks and Wells Fargo, also have announced plans to delay their return-to-the-office plans until next year. Lambert recently intervened after Muhammad submitted a petition that she said had more than 1,000 signatures. That compelled the Department of Public Works to pave over six of the 14 new bump-outs and put a hold on the parklet project weeks before it was scheduled for installation across from Ms. Bees Juice Bar, a Black-owned business. Some are livid, saying that their civic associations were not consulted before the city changed course on those plans. Muhammad, on the other hand, said it was a victory for longtime residents who feel they were being ignored and usurped by newer community members. Theres a disconnect, he said. Theres two different worlds on Brookland Park Boulevard: You have the gentrification world thats mostly Caucasian. And then you have people who have been here, working and struggling through the highs and lows, that are mostly Black. The tension came to a head Sept. 30 at a community meeting Lambert held to discuss the citys decision to freeze the parklet project and remove the bump-outs. Brandi Battle-Brown, the owner of Ms. Bees, sought to build the parklet after hearing about five others the city built earlier this year as part of a program with the nonprofit Venture Richmond. An alarm was activated at 3:23 a.m., but due to the large amount of civil unrest in the area at the time, Capitol Police determined it was unsafe to immediately send officers to the museum, the affidavit said. Numerous fires were set during this time frame. They included the United Daughters of Confederacy headquarters at 328 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. at 12:15 a.m.; a DTLR apparel and shoe store at 1500 W. Broad St. at 2:41 a.m.; and the Rite Aid store at 520 W. Broad St. at 3:27 a.m. One male stayed outside the museum as a lookout, and the other three are seen inside the museums gift shop after they shattered a glass window with a pipe. One suspect then smashed the cash register and, when that failed to open the device, he picked it up and tossed it to the ground, according to the affidavit. Less than a minute later, three suspects appeared in the museums rotunda and rummaged through the drawers at the admissions desk. Then at 3:32 a.m., the three suspects can be seen leaving the museum near the loading dock and walking in the same direction of the fourth suspect, toward DMV Drive. Why place a cornerstone for a pedestal that hadnt been designed? There was a lot of debate about where to place the Lee statue, Driggs said. Libby Hill and Gambles Hill were considered. But city leaders decided that if the Lee statue were placed in a new neighborhood, it could raise property values and bring more tax revenue to the city. Placing the cornerstone ended the debate, Driggs said. If the time capsule isn't farther in, maybe its farther down, hidden under a few feet of mortar and rock, said Dale Brumfield, an author and historian who has studied the time capsule. The northeast cornerstone looked special. It was finished on all six sides and looks like it was meant to be displayed during the large ceremony held in 1887 when the cornerstone was placed. A newspaper account says workers embedded the time capsule in masonry, so Brumfield believes the capsule is more or less where workers looked for it. They just didnt go deep enough. The farther under the rock and rubble, the less likely the time capsules contents have survived the air and water that can destroy them, he added. But burying it that deep isnt consistent with other time capsules, said Givens, the Jamestown Rediscovery archaeology director. Time capsules are meant to be found. He believes its in one of the other corners. Carruthers said she believes the commissions awesome charge has the reconstitutive power to lead to a transformation and healing, not just of Virginia, but of this nation. Virginia played an unparalleled role in the early history of America [and] so, too, can Virginia play an unparalleled role in this historic season in which, I believe, Americas very soul and very future is at stake. Carruthers implored the commission to create a framework that, at its core, is inclusive of but not solely focused on African Americans as objectified beings. She said equally as important are the causes, the individual and institutional systems of authority and privilege that often predetermined African American outcomes in everything from education to generational wealth. This commission is as much for the needs of white America to rid itself of the ills of racism and misplaced notions of superiority, Carruthers said, as it is for Black America to be healed from the harm done. She talked about reparations and cautioned the commission that todays conversations should widely encompass the issue as a process of remembering, repairing, rejoining and reconciling evils that started in the past and exist today. He added: I think you saw among senators a level of optimism and camaraderie. Amid Fridays commotion, it was not clear when or whether the commission would meet again. If it does not convene, the task of drawing the maps will head to the Virginia Supreme Court, which is made up of a majority of GOP-appointed judges a key criticism of the process by Democrats who opposed the commission. The commission also faces an Oct. 25 deadline to reach agreement on a new map of the states congressional districts, but has not begun that task. It was unclear Friday whether or how that will proceed. Ongoing discord For weeks, the commission has held long meetings, spending hours poring over maps and making only incremental progress. At the core of its ongoing troubles is the fact that the commission was rarely if ever tinkering on a single map. Instead, mapmakers aligned with Democrats and mapmakers aligned with Republicans drew separate maps. Changes and adjustments would be made to Democratic- and GOP-drawn maps for each legislative chamber. The panels efforts to start merging those maps never proved successful. The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has issued a cease and desist order to decentralised exchange operator (DEX) RimauSwap for operating without authorisation. This came following information received from the public. SC will also seek the assistance of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block RimauSwaps website. Additionally, RimauSwap has been placed on the SCs Investor Alert List, said the commission in a statement yesterday. Within hours of the SCs order yesterday, RimauSwaps native token, RIMAU plunged over 50% from the $12 mark to a low of around $5.50. It has since recovered, and is trading at around $8 at the time of writing. RimauSwap claims that it is the first of its kind to be made for the Malaysian community, operating on the Binance Smart Chain. The underlying technology is based on PancakeSwap, which has proven to be secure and reliable, RimauSwap stated in its whitepaper. Its goals were supposedly to support sustainable environmental, social, and governance (ESG) for Malaysians benefitting Malaysians, though there werent any specifics as to how it would be done. In its latest statement, the SC also went on to emphasise that it has yet to grant authorisation to any DEX operators in Malaysia to date, and warned all unregistered DEX operators within the country to immediately cease their activities. It further said that entities that are interested in operating a DEX in the country should apply to be registered as a Recognised Market Operator (RMO) before doing so. (Image: Business Today) In return, RimauSwap issued its own official response in response to the cease and desist order. RimauSwap is a decentralised exchange that exists as a series of smart contracts within the blockchain; and serving global communities. RimauSwap is unaware of any regulator that regulates DEXes, as DEXes have no associated legal entities. All activities happen within the blockchain. RimauSwap also does not transact with MYR fiat currency in anyway, it said via its Telegram channel, adding that out of respect for the SC, it will remove any reference of Malaysia from all materials within the website with immediate effect. (Sources: Securities Commission Malaysia, RimauSwap [Telegram]) 0 0 votes Article Rating SHARE He was a true politician," said Billie Wayne Stockton, a member of the Rocky Mount Town Council who spent 26 years working for Overton, serving as his chief deputy. "And he was not just a politician on Election Day, but all the time." Stockton said Overton had a concern for everyone his employees, members of the public, even the people he dealt with on the wrong side of the law that was genuine in a way that some politicians are not. When there was a funeral, Overton assigned three or four deputies to guide the procession. Many times, he attended in plain clothes. When residents complained about trash, he would send jail inmates to clean it up. Tim Tatum, vice chairman of the county board of supervisors, who worked as a deputy and school resource officer for Overton for two decades, recalled that not only did Overton attend the funerals and assign escorts hed also assign a deputy to watch the grieving familys house while they were out. In the days before voicemail, Overton's desk was littered with pink phone messages from people with problems. Some could be solved by the sheriff's office; others could not. Overton returned every call. Winsome Sears, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, will not say whether she is vaccinated against COVID-19. Sears, an in interview with CNN, declined to say, prompting criticism from Hala Ayala, the Democratic nominee. Sears told CNN: My life is very public. Its just the way it is. But I want to hold certain things close. She and her campaign spokesman, Tucker Davis, did not respond to voicemails and a text message on Thursday. Ayala, a delegate from Prince William County, said in a statement: Real leadership is about leading by example. Real leadership is not being evasive and hiding from Virginians at a time when they need to hear from you most. GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin has said he got the vaccine and encouraged others to get one as well. Sears tweeted that she encourages people to get vaccinated, but no one should have to disclose that, especially not to liberal hack reporters at CNN. Richmond registrar Keith Balmer said the city has gotten back about 1,300 mailed absentee ballots so far. Of those, 110 have a problem that needs to be fixed. Almost all of them102are missing the witness signature. If you do not have a witness to sign your envelope, your ballot will be rejected, so we dont want that, Balmer said. Voters who already mailed in ballots without the witness signature have an opportunity to fix the problem. A law that took effect July 1 sets up a formalized cure process that enables voters to fix procedural errors on absentee ballots. If a general registrar finds that the witness signature is missing, the registrars office will notify the voter within three days. The voter will have until noon on Nov. 5, the third day after the election, to correct the ballot in order for it to be counted. This fall Virginia voters will elect the states governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general and fill all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. In addition a number of localities have local contests. In Richmond voters will determine the fate of a proposed casino. Virginia Beach school officials are reviewing six books after two board members asked to have them banned them from the divisions schools. In an email sent to Superintendent Aaron Spence, members Victoria Manning and Laura Hughes asked that four books be pulled because of pornographic content. The four books in question: Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Spence wrote in an email to board members that Manning also asked for a review of two additional books Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin and Good Trouble: Lessons from the Civil Rights Playbook by Christopher Nixon but it is unclear why they are being questioned. In emails obtained through a public records request, Manning wrote that the first four books contain sexually explicit content and pedophilia. She urged that the books be removed from the libraries circulations and blocked electronically and asked for the district to review every book in the systems libraries. She also asked for staff who approved the books to be disciplined. Manning wrote that she had not read all of the books personally but said of The Bluest Eye that just reading a few of the pages gives me utter disgust. In short, it is a vastly different world now. Temperatures continue to increase, seas continue to warm, flooding is growing more frequent, widespread and destructive. Adjusting for those factors makes practical sense and is a responsible move by the federal government. The new system, called Risk Rating 2.0, will take into account a number of factors in setting the premium, such as distance to a body of water, flooding frequency, type of building and, importantly, what resilience measures are in place to mitigate damage. No need to sugarcoat it: That wont be great for plenty of Hampton Roads residents, especially those who own valuable property in flood-prone areas. About 48% of policyholders are expected to see increased premiums, according to FEMA. But it will be cheaper for many others; about 47% will see immediate decreases in their premiums. And property owners wont be asked to swallow that huge jump in pricing all at once. The law limits annual premium increases to 18% so it will take several years before the changes are fully implemented. By taking resilience improvements and other mitigation measures into account, the program will emphasize those investments not only by individual property owners, but by communities, municipalities and states. Generation warfare goes back to the Greek ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and can be found in the strangest of places, including the mafia. It is a fact that older generations are traditionally disgruntled with younger ones. They dislike their money saving habits, house buying priorities, stock investing, how they dress, how they speak, how they educate themselves, and generally how they dare to change things for better or worse Now, imagine a mafia youngster speaking to his boss in the same manner as that trending now on the internet: OK, Boomer. But organized crime isnt immune to the generational shifts. Just like any other industry, it has to deal with the gap. That necessity came to light in September when the Feds arrested Colombo crime family boss Andrew "Mush" Russo and a dozen of his close associates, charging them with a series of crimes in Brooklyn federal court, ranging from labor racketeering and extortion to money laundering. The majority of the defendants are 65-years-old or older. Russo himself is 87. The underboss Benjamin The Claw Castellazzo is 83, and Colombo family head Vincent Ricciardo is 75. Its a rather old age to be in this business, but they didnt trust their younger clan members. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Scott Curtis, the former FBI agent who investigated the Colombos, said that Russo has been too hands-on, suggesting he should have retired long ago and he wouldnt have ended up in jail. Custis said that Russo and other crime families bosses have failed to follow established practice by past generations of mobsters: maintaining a healthy distance between the actual crime itself and the boss man. Thats why you see some of these guys getting arrested repeatedly They have to get their hands on all these minute details of the plan, Custis said. The WSJ also cited a former member of the Colombo family as saying that old-school crime bosses dont trust younger generations of mafiosi because theyre softer and dumber, not as loyal as mobsters of the past and are too attached to technology. Indeed, one millennial-aged Colombo associate reportedly violated the code of silence while threatening a union official over extortion collections in text messages. Hey this is the 2nd text, there isnt going to be a 3rd, the associate wrote, according to court records. In another case of Boomer-Millennial discord, an alleged 66-year-old special adviser to the crime Colombo clan head surrendered to the authorities a day after his son uploaded a photo on Twitter of him standing in a glistening swimming pool in Florida. Special advisor Ralph DiMatteo had been the only one mentioned in the federal indictment to have evaded arrest until his son Tweeted his fate. The mafia will have to deal with their millennial successors eventually. Millennials number some 80 million in the U.S., and they already outnumbered Boomers in 2019. Whether they truly are lazy, entitled and narcissistic, as the older generations love to claim, is irrelevant. " " Researchers in Madagascar discovered the remains of a horned crocodile in a water-filled cave. Barry Coleman Winding through the South Carolina low country, the Cooper River is a reed-lined haven for sportfish and shorebirds. The waterway originates in Berkeley County's Lake Moultrie. From there, it proceeds all the way down to Charleston, where it merges with the Ashley and the Wando to form that city's world-famous harbor. (Ever hear of Fort Sumter?) The Cooper River took its name from Anthony Ashley Cooper, a 17th-century English lord. As time wore on, it became a lifeline in the region's burgeoning rice trade. But the Cooper also bears the hallmarks of a far more ancient chapter in South Carolina history. If you know where to look, and you've got scuba gear handy, you just might find a mammoth tusk lurking beneath the water's surface. Matthew Weas knows that feeling. He and his father, Joe Harvey, are experienced local divers who patrol the Cooper for fossils many of which end up on display at the Berkeley County Museum in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. Not all the giants they encounter are prehistoric. To hear Weas tell it, run-ins with living modern-day river-beasts aren't uncommon. "I have had a [catfish] swallow my hand in a log jam underwater, a manatee break the surface while I was swimming back to the boat... [and] alligators swim toward me," he says via email. Once, he came "nose-to-nose" with a gator measuring about 10 feet (3 meters) long. " " This skull was from an extinct lemur that was part of a primate community in Madagascar that disappeared during the last 1,100 years. Barry Coleman Advertisement Cave of Wonders The American alligator may be synonymous with the South, but underwater fossil-hunting is a global pastime. Outside the U.S., divers have encountered paleo-treasures in such places as Australia, Bali, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and the Bahamas. Back in 2014, a bona fide "lemur graveyard" was discovered in the submerged caves of Madagascar's Tsimanampetsotsa National Park. The big find was made possible by an international collaborative effort between anthropologists, paleontologists and scuba divers. Hundreds of bones appeared in the underwater sediments. Some came from contemporary species like the invasive black rat. Other remains were left behind by animals that went extinct within the past few millennia. The site quickly established itself as the world's biggest cache of Pachylemur fossils. An ancient relative of the ruffed lemur, this creature was about twice as heavy, weighing an estimated 22 pounds (10 kilograms). It would've been utterly dwarfed by the gorilla-sized Mesopropithecus, a gargantuan lemur also represented in these caves. Pygmy hippo, elephant bird and horned crocodile material was also recovered by the dive team along with the rare, virtually complete skull of yet another bygone lemur species. Getting access to the bounty wasn't easy. The caves in question were likely dry at some point, but today they're part of a flooded sinkhole. Right now, the system's most fossil-laden cave runs 82 feet (25 meters) deep. It's a dark environment with a complex layout, full of horizontal passageways and murky waters. In short, this is no place for novice divers. Cave-diving in general is a high-risk sport; if you wander off-course, you can't always ascend straight up to the surface. So to avoid getting lost, the scuba specialists on that 2014 team tracked their pathways with about 879 feet (268 meters) of safety lines. " " This 30-inch piece of Mastodon tusk was recovered during a dive in the Cooper River in South Carolina. Joe Harvey Advertisement Preparation Is Key Another precious sinkhole is the Page-Ladson site in northwestern Florida. Hidden below the Aucilla River, it's yielded some of the oldest-known human artifacts in North America. Equally fascinating are the locality's mastodon bones, including some 14,550-year-old fossils bearing scars that suggest the animals were butchered by ancient Floridians. Here, tannins are a real nuisance. A vital component in leather, tannins are chemical compounds released by various plants. When these seep into ponds or rivers, they can turn the water blackish-brown. Needless to say, this impairs visibility. In some corners of the Aucilla, the tannins help block out sunlight, shrouding everything deeper than 10 feet (3 meters) beneath the surface in inky darkness. Back north in the Cooper River, divers face this same problem. To see clearly, they and their Aucilla-based colleagues make good use of high-wattage underwater lights. Weas says he and his father wear Dive-Rite "cave lights" attached to their helmets. The rest of the duo's equipment would look pretty familiar to other recreational divers. "We use the standard tank, regulators and BCDs," Weas says. (For the record, BCD stands for "Buoyancy Compensating Device," a wearable gadget used to keep divers at their desired depth.) On summer dives, Weas and Harvey can comfortably don pants and T-shirts. But under some weather conditions, dry suits, semi-dry suits or wetsuits might be more appropriate. Since the Cooper gets strong tidal currents, the water's speed at any given moment affects their schedule. Faster currents make for shorter excursions. " " This cache from a dive in the Cooper River includes several shark's teeth as well as a brass Colonial belt buckle. Joe Harvey Advertisement Giant Sharks ... And Beavers?! Why do people go through all this trouble when there are loads of fossils hanging out on dry land? Well for one thing, immersion in water has some preservation benefits. Deep in the bowels of a sunken cave, bones are less likely to be disturbed either by scavengers or the ravages of open-air climates. And whereas land fossils are often caked in rock, some of the bones in flowing rivers get polished clean by the currents. Most of the material Weas discovers out in the Cooper River comes from two different points in geologic time. The river's most sought-after fossils are probably shark teeth from the Miocene Epoch, which lasted from 23 million to 5.3 million years ago. Some of these chompers get quite large: A tooth from the extinct megalodon shark can be up to 7.6 inches (19.3 centimeters) long! "Shark's teeth are the most common finds," says Weas, "though whale ear bones come [in] a close second." Other Cooper River fossils were laid down during the more recent Pleistocene Epoch. That began just 2.6 million years ago and ended a mere 11,700 years before the present. Back then, sea levels were lower and the Carolina coastline lay farther to the east. Over the years, Weas and Harvey have extricated the bones of Pleistocene mammoths, capybaras, hoofed herbivores and giant beavers. The latter calls for an explanation. During the last ice age, North American wetlands were occupied by Castoroides, 8-foot (2.5-meter) beavers that likely weighed 220 pounds (100 kilograms) or more. Having a manatee sneak up on you is undoubtedly scary. But just imagine taking a dip with one of those mega-rodents! Thanks, but no thanks. NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Great Britain was connected to the rest of mainland Europe as recently as 8,200 years ago. For this reason, mammoth bones are periodically dredged up out of the North Sea, which separates the U.K. from its continental neighbors. " " Ghost guns secured by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department were put on display during a Feb. 28, 2020, press conference held by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. Mayor Bowser announced new legislation to ban the import of kits and parts used to make untraceable ghost guns showing up on the streets of D.C. The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Images On a late afternoon in August 2019, California Highway Patrol officer Andre Moye, Jr., 34, pulled over a pickup truck on a freeway for driving illegally in a carpool lane. The driver, a 49-year-old felon named Aaron Luther, had an expired license and no registration. Moye decided to impound the vehicle and was filling out the paperwork when Luther grabbed a military-style semi-automatic rifle from his truck and began firing at him. Officer Moye was fatally wounded, and when other CHP officers arrived on the scene, Luther fired at least 100 more rounds at them before he was shot by police and killed, according to an account in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Luther, who had served 10 years in prison for attempted second-degree murder and other offenses, could not have purchased a firearm legally. But that restriction didn't stop him from obtaining one. Advertisement What Is a Ghost Gun? As law enforcement sources told CNN and NBC News, Luther's rifle was a "ghost gun." Such weapons are assembled by individuals from parts or kits or that include one unfinished piece typically the frame or receiver that requires the purchaser to do some drilling to make the gun fully functional. Because of a loophole in federal gun regulations, these DIY weapons don't need to have serial numbers, and the kit or individual pieces can be sold without the background check that someone who purchased a gun from a federally licensed dealer would have to undergo. Ghost guns in the hands of criminals are a growing problem for law enforcement. In California, for example, 30 percent of guns recovered by law enforcement agencies in investigations now lack serial numbers, as The Trace has reported. It's easy to find both individual parts for guns and complete kits for sale on the internet that provide everything needed for assembly, David Chipman explains. He served for 25 years in the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and is now a senior policy adviser for Giffords, the gun control organization co-founded by former Democrat Arizona Congress member and shooting survivor Gabrielle Giffords. "Building a gun in your home has always been lawful, but it wasn't a big issue, because being a gunsmith requires some serious skills and equipment," Chipman says. "The people who did it were mostly hobbyists, who had a lot of time on their hands." Such homemade weapons seldom showed up in crimes, he says. But now, according to Chipman, it's easy for just about anybody to build an untraceable firearm. "This is literally now happening every day it's becoming routine for criminals and gun traffickers," Chipman says. "They used to have to use straw purchasers and then obliterate the serial number or alter. Now, smart traffickers would just build the guns." In February 2020, for example, a North Carolina man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for simultaneously trafficking in guns, methamphetamine and cocaine. Five of the seven weapons that he was transporting from his state to Virginia were ghost guns, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. In addition to street criminals, Chipman says that domestic abusers, terrorists and extremist groups also could take advantage of the ghost gun loophole "people who can't go into a store and pass a background check or people who want to amass guns and not have the government know about it." Advertisement When Is a Gun Not a Firearm? " " The ATF determines when a frame or receiver blank, casting or machined body, becomes a regulated firearm part. ATF ATF, where Chipman used to work, prefers to call such weapons "privately made firearms," and the criteria that the bureau sets on whether a DIY firearm is subject to regulation isn't easy to figure out. It hinges on the nuances of what legally constitutes a firearm frame or receiver, which the Code of Federal Regulations defines as "that part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock, and firing mechanism, and which is usually threaded at its forward portion to receive the barrel." (That piece looks something like this.) "The design characteristics examined by ATF to determine when a frame or receiver blank, casting, or machined body becomes a [regulated] frame or receiver depend on the kind and type of firearm," ATF representative CeCe Gwathmey explains in an email. She cites the example of an AR-15-type rifle receiver blank, depicted on the ATF website. "In that example, if the receiver blank has a solid, un-machined cavity area with no holes or dimples ('indexing') for the selector, trigger or hammer pins, it does not meet the GCA [Gun Control Act of 1968] definition of a 'firearm,'" she explains. "However, where the fire-control cavity area of the receiver blank is partially machined, or has holes or dimples for the selector, trigger or hammer pins, then the receiver blank has reached a stage of manufacture to be classified as an AR-15 type frame or receiver." Advertisement Guns and Serial Numbers Though it's easy enough to produce parts that fit through the legal loophole, according to the ATF's website, some companies sell supposedly blank receivers or frames that actually are finished to the point that they qualify as regulated firearms. "Depending on the circumstances, ATF may open a criminal investigation or take other enforcement action when it becomes aware that a person is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms without a license or to out-of-state residents, to include the unlicensed sale of firearm frames or receivers over the internet," Gwathmey explains. It didn't used to be that arcane. The Gun Control Act of 1968, passed in the wake of the assassinations of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., mandated that firearms be marked with serial numbers on the frames or receivers to make them traceable by law enforcement agencies. But the law didn't require the rest of a gun's parts to be marked as well. "Congress said, we're not going to regulate every spring, but we're going to regulate receivers so you can't get around the law," explains Rob Wilcox, director of policy and strategy for Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that pushes for more regulation of firearms. " " Ghost guns, including ones sold as DIY kits like this seen here, are not traceable because the parts lack serial numbers. MDXArms What qualified as a finished, regulated frame or receiver, however, was left up to the ATF, which indicated how it defined them through enforcement letters. Up until the mid-2000s, according to Wilcox, the bureau focused on the issue of how easily a blank part could be converted into a functional receiver. "Is it easy to build, like Ikea furniture, or does it require actual machining skill," Wilcox says. But then, "they moved to an enforcement scheme that focuses upon technical aspects of the product," such as whether holes are drilled in the needed places. Gun control advocates say that the shift makes it possible to sell gun kits and parts that are simple to put together, even for a person with no training as a gunsmith, as long as he or she can figure out how to use a drill and other tools and follow instructional videos available on YouTube. "We don't think it is complicated," Wilcox says. "A gun is a gun, whether it's made from a kit, or purchased fully assembled. It causes the same harm in the wrong hands." Advertisement Regulating Ghost Guns Legislation introduced in the Senate in May 2020 would do that, essentially by requiring that all frames and receivers even unfinished ones be marked with serial numbers, and making DIY gun builders go in person to federally-licensed dealers to buy them, so that they would have to undergo the same background checks as purchasers of assembled weapons. "These proposals wouldn't burden law-abiding citizens who want to build guns," Wilcox says. "But they would make it more difficult for convicted domestic abusers, gun traffickers, felons and terrorists to acquire untraceable ghost guns." As of this update, the Untraceable Firearms Act of 2020 the bill appears to be stalled in committee. Now That's Interesting Chipman says that it's possible to use a 3D printer to create a frame or receiver and then combine it with metal parts to create a ghost gun. "They're not as reliable as metal frames or receivers, but they can fire 1,000 or 2,000 rounds" before failing, he explains. Advertisement Originally Published: Jun 8, 2020 " " Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system (left) intercepts rockets fired by Hamas toward southern Israel in the northern Gaza Strip May 14, 2021. ANAS BABA/AFP via Getty Images When Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system was unveiled in 2011, it was cutting-edge stuff, a state-of-the-art-of-war tool that virtually plucked incoming short-range rockets from the air before they could inflict any damage on their intended targets. If the Iron Dome, 10 years later, is no longer the world's undisputed state-of-the-art missile defense system America has, among others, the bigger THAAD (terminal high-altitude area defense) and Patriot systems, Israel boasts David's Sling, and there are others it's still way up there, especially for shorter-range threats. It's become the most-used, most-combat tested and, as many suggest, most effective missile defense system in the world. Ever. More than that, as the latest outbreak of violence between Israel and Palestine has shown the militant group Hamas fired thousands of short-range missiles at Israeli positions beginning May 10, 2021 the Iron Dome has proven itself absolutely indispensable. Advertisement How the Iron Dome Works The American defense company Raytheon, in cooperation with Israeli-owned defense contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, builds the Iron Dome system. Here's how Raytheon describes the weapon: Iron Dome detects, assesses and intercepts a variety of shorter-range targets such as rockets, artillery and mortars. It is effective day or night and in all weather conditions including low clouds, rain, dust storms and fog. It features a first-of-its-kind multi-mission launcher designed to fire a variety of interceptor missiles. And here's Rafael's take: IRON DOME Is a multi-purpose combat proven system that detects, assesses and intercepts incoming artillery such as: C-RAM [counter-rocket, artillery and mortar], Cruise Missiles, Precise Guided Missiles (PGM), UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones], Air Breathing Threats (ABTs) and dense salvos. Iron Dome consists of three main parts. A sophisticated radar that detects incoming threats. A control system developed by Israeli firm mPrest that takes the information from the radar, instantly analyzes it and computes next steps. And the mobile "firing units," each of which contains 20 Tamir rockets that intercept the incoming fire. Israel employs several of these batteries, which cover roughly 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) each and reportedly cost $10 million apiece. What makes Iron Dome so effective is its ability to quickly detect what is a real threat (say, a rocket headed toward the heart of a city, a military base or a deployment of troops) and what isn't (say, a flock of birds or a rocket that is on trajectory to cause no harm), and then fire the Tamir interceptor rockets as needed. According to Raytheon, Iron Dome is designed to detect threats from about 2.5 to 43.5 miles (4 to 70 kilometers) away. It does this, too, as Hamas often fires dozens and dozens of rockets at once ... in addition to mortar, other artillery and even drones. " " Israel's Iron Dome defense system includes mobile "firing units," like this one launching a missile to intercept a rocket from the Gaza Strip May 17, 2021. Each mobile unit contains 20 Tamir rockets. AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Command and Control "Arguably, one of the most impressive elements of this system is its command and control," says Ian Williams, a fellow in the International Security Program at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic & International Studies, and the deputy director of CSIS's Missile Defense Project. "These rockets move in very quickly. The engagement timeline, [when] you have to establish control and engage, is very short. It's seconds to minutes. And, also, it's not like these [rockets] come in in ones and twos. They come in in 10s and 20s and 30s or more." The Tamir rockets, which travel at subsonic speeds (maybe a couple hundred miles per hour), are not guided by human hands. But they are equipped with all sorts of onboard sensors, including things like GPS and electro-optical sensors, and steering fins so that they can automatically adjust their paths en route to track down their prey. Their "fuze blast warheads" explode near the incoming targets (they're not designed to actually hit them, though it happens), destroying them in-air. "The idea is it will detonate the warhead," Williams says. "It doesn't obliterate the rocket completely. It kind of neuters it." It's not always clean. Fragments from the airborne explosions sometimes cause damage as they return to Earth. But Iron Dome's record is impressive. Rafael claims a success rate of better than 90 percent. " " Citizens take cover as Israel's Iron Dome defense system intercepts a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip, May 11, 2021. This type of psychological impact is considered a success by Hamas. JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images Advertisement What the Iron Dome Doesn't Do If Hamas or another of Israel's enemies were ever to launch a more potent missile, say a ballistic missile, Iron Dome is not equipped to handle that. Those missiles are bigger and faster, with longer and steeper trajectories. Iron Dome is specifically for shorter-range threats. As many incoming missiles as Iron Dome can negate, there's some question, too, about its limits. But as long as someone is willing to sell (or give) Israel's enemies ammunition Iran is a source the rockets will be a threat and a resolution to the long-simmering conflict seems remote. Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by many nations (including the United States), may see some long-term advantage in continuing its bombardments, too, despite the Iron Dome. Even though the rockets aren't particularly powerful, and even though maybe only 10 percent get through, that can be dozens, maybe even hundreds of threats Israel has to dodge over an extended conflict. "The damage is cumulative," Williams says. "It's the volume of them that is the concern, certainly. The destruction of life in general. And just the psychological impact. "If you read Hamas' and some of the Iranians' remarks and propaganda, they'll talk about the effects of it. They'll say, 'Oh we sent 3 million Israelis scurrying to their bomb shelters.' It's that kind of effect." Whatever shortcomings it may have, though, the Iron Dome is undoubtedly successful at exactly what it was built to do. NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Raytheon and Rafael are teaming up to bring an Iron Dome production facility to the U.S. And Raytheon, which supplies most of the components for Israel's Tamir rocket, is building a U.S. version of the Tamir, dubbed SkyHunter, for use at home and abroad by the U.S. and its allies. Some have suggested that the U.S. deploy its own Iron Dome in places in the Middle East, too, to protect its troops. FLORENCE, S.C. Florences efforts to examine how to improve its stormwater system will get helping hand from the South Carolina Office of Resilience Disaster Recovery Office and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The state disaster recovery office has distributed nearly $2.48 million in federal funds to the states Seventh Congressional District including $250,000 to the city of Florence for a stormwater master plan. Additional funding for the development of a stormwater master plan is included in the projects that the city council approved when it voted to raise its stormwater fees earlier this year. The money being distributed also includes $175,000 to Francis Marion University for infrastructure improvements. Congressman Tom Rice, the Seventh District representative, said he was pleased to learn of the allocations. Our district becomes improved and better prepared for future disasters because of investments like these, Rice said. I was proud to help secure $162 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and I thank the state for working diligently to manage and distribute these funds to South Carolinas communities. Still time to register for day two of "Understanding Drug Sentencing" conference | Main | Council on Criminal Justice presents data on "Homicide Trends: What You Need to Know" October 8, 2021 Third Texas inmate gets execution stay based on religion claim SCOTUS considering in Ramirez As reported in this post, the Supreme Court last month stayed the execution of John Ramirez and granted certiorari to consider Ramirezs request that his pastor be allowed to physically touch him and pray aloud in the execution chamber while Ramirez is put to death by the state of Texas. In this follow-up post, titled "A short de facto execution moratorium?: could other condemned inmates secure a stay until SCOTUS decides new Ramirez case on religious liberty?", I wondered if the SCOTUS cert grant in Ramirez could produce a short de facto execution moratorium based on other death row inmates making a religious liberty claim like Ramirezs request. Since those posts, as noted here, Texas has been able to complete one execution; but, as noted here, another Texas inmate was able to secure an execution stay based on religion claim SCOTUS is considering in Ramirez. And, as detailed in this new local article, headlined "Man on death row for killing pregnant Wichita Falls woman gets stay of execution," it appears another scheduled Texas execution was been delayed: A death row prisoner convicted of murdering a pregnant Wichita Falls woman and her 7-year-old son more than 16 years ago will not be executed next week. 54-year-old Stephen Barbee was set to die next Tuesday, October 12. However, a federal court Thursday, October 7, stayed the execution after Barbees request that his pastor be able to touch and pray aloud with him in the death chamber had been rejected by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Barbee is on death row for the suffocation deaths of 34-year-old Lisa Underwood and her son Jayden in their Fort Worth home in February, 2005.... Prosecutors said Barbee killed Underwood because he thought he was the father of Underwoods unborn son, and he was afraid she would tell his wife. Prior related posts: October 8, 2021 at 09:42 AM | Permalink Comments I looked and see that the state made the argument that the claim was made too late but the judge dealt with that matter. I think with SCOTUS oral argument pending in a month or so, it would make sense to hold an execution since it is likely the Supreme Court (especially this one) will decide the matter quickly. One can read the opinion to see how the judge specifically answered the question. We had the to me absurdity (on some level) of an execution in the Glossip state before the case was decided. The Supreme Court ultimately (by a strongly divided vote) decided the state's procedure was appropriate. But, there was clearly a shroud over the procedure (the state itself held up executions to study it), and executing someone first and then deciding the question comes off as improper. This is so even if you can cite cases where something somewhat similar happened. It is not clear why this is the first person who cited this wish for final request after the Ramirez case was granted, which holds up the execution (at least for now) scheduled next week. Perhaps, the others did not wish for that sort of religious exercise (though someone might cynically suggest this is but a delay tactic). Finally, I again recognize -- like an amicus brief I cited in a previous comment -- there is something silly about focusing on this narrow question above wider problems with the death penalty. But, religious liberty claims are important, and in this Court something realistically open to winning. And, to give them credit, conservatives on the Supreme Court are consistent to some degree on religious claims -- Alito, e.g., wrote an opinion protecting Muslim prisoners to have beards. Posted by: Joe | Oct 8, 2021 4:04:45 PM Post a comment Representative Image By Rajnish Singh New Delhi [India], October 8 (ANI): Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) backed new Kashmiri terror group 'The Resistance Front (TRF)' is suspected as the prime terror outfit behind targeted killings in Jammu and Kashmir in the past few days that led the Centre to call a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday at his North Block office. "The TRF, which is an offshoot of LeT, has been created by Pakistan in an apparent bid to make terrorist groups in Kashmir look like indigenous ones. The group has been getting regular support from the neighbouring country," said officials in National Investigation Agency (NIA). IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar told ANI that the state police's intelligence inputs as well as previous records of the terror acts committed by the TRF clearly raise fingers towards the group behind the recent target killings in the valley. When asked about the prime suspect behind targeted killings in Kashmir, Kumar responded with "LeT (TRF)". The officer said the police has got some key leads against LeT's TRF wing and its supports and appealed to the minority communities not to panic as the security forces are maintaining peace to secure a safe environment and to ensure better law and order in the valley. Sources in the intelligence agencies underscored the killing of two TRF terrorists identified as Abbas Sheikh, the top Commander of LeT and self-claimed chief of TRF, and his deputy Saqib Manzoor in Srinagar's Aloochi Bagh area in August end during a shootout between terrorists and Jammu and Kashmir Police. "As per police records, both the killed terrorists were involved in the elimination of several political workers, police personnel and civilians. Saqib Manzoor was involved in the killing of Advocate Babar Qadri last year," said the agency sources, adding that the pattern of recent killings has raised fingers towards TRF's prime role. Story continues Besides, the sources said, the TRF terrorists have been involved in several grenade attacks on security establishments as well as in several other terror crimes and civilian atrocities. As per J&K Police data, 28 civilians have been killed by terrorists this year so far that include five from local Hindu or Sikh communities and two non-local Hindu labourers. Both Jammu and Kashmir Police and agency sources confirmed that the recent attacks on civilians are a part of the new strategy of LeT's TRF wing to spread terror among residents and security forces as the terrorist handlers have got frustrated due to the killing of huge numbers of terrorists of all outfits especially their leaderships, destruction of their support structures and continuous and effective maintenance of law and order in the valley. As per the inputs, sources said, unarmed policemen can also be targeted by the terrorist groups along with the ongoing attack on innocent civilians and politicians and now innocent civilians from minority communities including women. The use of pistols in all the recent killings, the sources said, clearly indicates that it is the handy work of newly recruited terrorists or those who are about to join terrorist's rank. "TRF is currently in process of recruiting more and more locals to commit such terror acts," they added. In some cases, the Jammu and Kashmir sources said, Over Ground Workers (OGWs) have also been found directly involved and the police are working hard in identifying all such part-time or hybrid terrorists. "Jammu and Kashmir Police as well as intelligence agencies have received several leads and are working on it," said Jammu and Kashmir police sources, adding that they have also been launching operations along with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other state security forces as well as Rashtriya Rifles soldiers as per need. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while chairing a high-level meeting on Thursday, specifically discussed the targeted killings in Jammu and Kashmir where a principal and a teacher of a government school were killed by terrorists earlier on Thursday, the latest in a spate of targeted killings in the Kashmir valley. The issue was discussed thoroughly as terrorists stormed into the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Srinagar's Eidgah area and shot the principal and the teacher at close range. The attack comes less than 48 hours after three persons were shot dead in strikes on Tuesday and seven people have been killed in terror attacks in Kashmir in the last five days. NIA officials said that Pakistan-based ISI handlers of proscribed terror outfit LeT has been using the pseudo-acronym TRF to take responsibility for terror strikes in Jammu and Kashmir aimed at maintaining "plausible deniability and evade Law Enforcement Agencies". TRF has taken the responsibility for various terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir in the recent past. Run by "local Kashmiri residents" having affiliation to LeT and other terror groups, TRF is a face-saving wing of the outlawed terror organisation being named in terrorist acts. NIA recently got inputs against the TRF as its name came during the investigation of the Bathinda Improvised Explosive Device (IED) recovery case. Days after a massive show of strength by the BJP in the form of Tiranga Yatra and celebratory programmes across the Kashmir valley to mark the 73rd Accession day of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India in October last year, three BJP workers were shot dead by militants in south Kashmir's Kulgam district and TRF took the responsibility of the attack minutes after the incident. The security forces believe that TRF was floated after the Centre's move to abrogate Article 370 in 2019. The LeT handlers across the border devised the plan to float the TRF by using its cadre and other militant groups. The plan was to increase the militancy related activities as a reaction to August 2019 changes. The TRF has been involved in several attacks in the past two years. In one of its first attacks, a grenade was lobbed by the group's men on CRPF in the Lal Chowk area of Srinagar in February last year which led to injuries to two CRPF men and four civilians. The group also came in the news between April 1 to April 4 last year when its men managed to kill five Indian Army soldiers, including four Special Forces men (Paras), near the Line of Control at the Keran sector in Kupwara. Five TRF men were also killed in the encounter eventually. (ANI) Iran and Pakistan flags Islamabad [Pakistan], October 8 (ANI): Pakistan and Iran reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations and discussed the regional security situation since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Iran Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani led a delegation that held talks with a team led by Pakistani Foreign Minister Sohail Mahmood in Islamabad on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported. "During the session, the two sides reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations in all areas including political, economic, trade, connectivity, security, energy, education, and people-to-people exchanges," said a Pakistani statement on the meeting. Iran's foreign ministry did not release a statement on the meeting, and the official news agency IRNA quoted from the Pakistani statement. The Pakistani statement said talks were also held on the regional situation, in particular developments in Afghanistan. "The current situation [in Afghanistan] demanded positive engagement of the international community, urgent provision of humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people, and measures to help build a sustainable economy," said the Pakistani statement. The two countries affirmed that they would "coordinate closely at bilateral and regional" forums on Afghanistan, the statement said. Separately, the Iranian deputy foreign minister also met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad on Tuesday, Pakistan's foreign office said. "[Qureshi] said that Afghanistan required immediate provision of humanitarian assistance and that the international community should fully support the Afghan people at this critical juncture," a statement said. "He stressed the importance of continued economic engagement with Afghanistan to avert economic collapse, which could lead to refugee influx and regional instability," it added. (ANI) 8 Oct Mohammad Kareef Daniel Abdullah, formerly Dan Tyler, and most known by Malaysians by the nickname Mat Dan, recently admitted that he wouldn't know how his life would be if he didn't decide to one day visit Malaysia - a country he didn't even plan on visiting prior to his success. In an interview with Emily Webb on BBC Radio UK, Mat Dan confessed that Malaysia was never a country in his list of travel destinations when he first decided to join his friends on their adventure in South East Asia. "It was Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore and then fly to Australia. So, literally, all the countries surrounding Malaysia apart from Malaysia," he said with a chuckle. As to how he ended up in the country, the Cheltenham man stated that he was in southern Thailand and had a month before his next flight when someone suggested to him to travel to Malaysia, a country he didn't even know that was only three hours away. "To be honest, I didn't know where Malaysia was, someone asked why don't you go to Malaysia and I was like, where's Malaysia? It's just like three hours down the road, and I said oh, all right. Okay." Mat Dan and his lovely missus Mat Dan stated that his first interest in the country sparked as soon as he arrived, when a family decided to pay for his drinks at a cafe, telling him that he seemed like someone who had just arrived and looked lost. "It was such a nice gesture that at that time that it sort of took me aback and wanted to sort what to figure out about this country that I've just arrived in," he said. Mat Dan then went on to work in Pulau Kapas doing various work, not realising that he would then become famous for his ability to speak like a Terengganu local, when some university students who were there for a teen building course recorded him speaking in the said dialect. "I didn't know for a good part of maybe a year that it had been uploaded on YouTube. All of a sudden I got a call from a friend of mine over the mainland, he gave me a call and said there's a couple of TV producers just got in touch with me and they're coming down tomorrow to see you. I was like "What? Why?" and he said I don't know," he said, and added that it was then he realised that he had gone viral. Story continues The viral video and the interviews gave way to a travel show, "Mat Dan Kaki Jalan" and several other similar programmes. As to how he ended up converting to Islam, the 31 year-old responded, "I've always believed that there is something, some sort of supreme being that sort of made this all possible, but what I did know at the time about Islam was negative that you've seen in the mass media and in the press. I came here with a complete open mind and with no idea I'd end up converting to Islam. But after a few years of being here and a few experiences that really sort of stuck with me and then being on Kapas, my colleagues and workers who were with me were all Malay or Muslim. I was slowly asking more and more questions to them and then asking more and more questions to myself. But it's just something that has given me a good path in life." Mat Dan stated that he is still the same person he was before he left the UK, but it has changed him in such a positive way. "I'm married with two kids, so that's obviously a huge change. I don't know what would have happened to me if I wouldn't have found Malaysia, if I wouldn't have found Islam, if I wouldn't have sort of found this career and life that I've built now. Probably wouldn't have been in a good place. Yes, I'm completely happy with the way everything has turned out. Yes, thank God." He's happily married with two kids (Photo Source: Mat Dan Instagram, BBC Twitter) Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Corrie ten Boom Ive admired Corrie ten Boom most of my life. Her first book, The Hiding Place came out when I was in high school. A few years later the movie of the same name was released. Corrie was a watchmaker like her father, Casper ten Boom. She lived with her father and her sister, Betsie, in Holland. They were Christians who daily lived out their faith. Her dad loved the Jewish people, Gods chosen people. In May 1940 Hitler took over the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Within six months anti-Jewish laws were established. Eventually, the Jewish people were put in ghettos. Separated for simply being Jewish, they were ultimately taken by train to concentration and extermination camps. Three-fourths of the Jewish people living in the Netherlands were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust during World War II. Corrie and her family did not stand by watching this happen without acting. They soon became part of the Dutch underground resistance and hid Jewish people in their home. Its estimated that they helped 800 Jewish people escape. Eventually Casper, Corrie, Betsie and other family members were betrayed to the Gestapo and taken to the camps. Casper, 84, died in the Scheveningen prison. Corrie and Betsie were together in Ravensbruck concentration camp. Betsie died on December 16, 1944. Just days before her death she told Corrie, There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here. Twelve days later Corrie was released from Ravensbruck. A week later all the women in her age group were murdered. How did this happen? Corrie says that her name mysteriously moved from the death list to the freedom list. It was a clerical error, but Corrie knew that it could only be the Lord who made that change. Through the kindness of a rich woman, Corrie opened up a home for those who survived the camps. I read once that Corrie said the people who were able to forgive those who were so cruel to them, were the ones who eventually left the home and moved on with their lives. The ones who couldnt forgive, didnt get better. Later, at age 53, Corrie became a tramp for the Lord, spreading the Gospel all over the world. She traveled to more than 60 countries for 33 years. She shared Gods hope and love with many. She often said that You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have. Corrie also talked about forgiveness. She was speaking in a church in Munich. Afterward, a man made his way to her. She remembered him. He was an S.S. man who stood guard at the shower door at Ravenbrucks processing center. A flashback came to Corrie. The mocking men. The humiliation. Her sister Betsies face. The former guard reached out to shake her hand. Corrie writes, He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein. He said, To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away! He thrust his hand out to shake mine. And I who so often preached the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. The first time I read these words so many years ago, I thought to myself, Well, of course you cant forgive a man like that. I was wrong. Corrie writes, Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed. Forgive me and help me to forgive him. Still, Corrie couldnt raise her hand. She prayed another silent prayer, asking Jesus to give her His forgiveness. Then something amazing happened. Corrie writes, As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our goodness that the worlds healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself. The Lord not only commands us to love our enemies, He also supplies the love. We simply have to ask. It sounds so simple, but its life changing. It can change the world. Are you holding onto unforgiveness? Are you unable to forgive yourself or others whove harmed you? Does bitterness grow inside you? Maybe you feel justified in your unforgiveness. Corrie was surely justified in hers. And yet, she knew it was a sin to harbor it. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:14-15). Knowing that she couldnt forgive on her own, she asked the Lord to help her. He did. She not only forgave her former jailer, the Lord gave her a great love for him. Let go of unforgiveness, of hatred, of bitterness today. Ask the Lord to remove it from you. He will. Kathy Yoder is a devotional writer. She may be reached at Kathyyoder4@gmail.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SIOUX CITY -- A McCook Lake man who illegally purchased guns that he later traded for drugs was sentenced Wednesday to four years in federal prison. Brandon Christiansen, 40, pleaded guilty in May in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Christiansen bought 56 firearms from Feb. 6, 2013, to June 30, 2020, and lied about his drug use when buying them. He then traded the guns to drug dealers in exchange for drugs. During a June 29, 2020, search of his home, Christiansen told authorities he was a gun collector, but no firearms were found in his possession. Purchase records confirmed that he had bought at least 23 firearms from five different stores in Sioux City and Sioux Falls. Five of them were recovered by authorities during unrelated drug investigations and a sixth was recovered in another unrelated case. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Tesla will relocate its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, though the electric car maker will keep expanding its manufacturing capacity in the Golden State, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday. Musk, who last year said he was moving to Texas from California, gave no timeline for the move when he addressed shareholders at Tesla's annual meeting. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Musk clashed with San Francisco Bay Area health authorities trying to enforce shelter-in-place orders. At the time, he threatened to relocate Tesla's operations to Texas or Nevada. On Thursday, however, Musk cited the cost of housing in the Bay Area that has made it tough for many people to become homeowners, translating into long commutes. "We're taking it as far as possible, but there's a limit how big you can scale it in the Bay Area," he said Thursday. "Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. This is not a matter of leaving California." Musk stressed he plans to expand the company's factory in Fremont, California, where Tesla's Models S, X, Y and 3 vehicles are built, in hopes of increasing its output by 50%. The announcement drew cheers and applause from the small audience at Tesla's manufacturing plant in Austin, where Musk delivered his remarks, which were webcast live. While applauding Tesla's announcement that it will expand production in Fremont, Bay Area business leaders bemoaned the headquarters move as the latest sign of the region's ongoing issues. "Mr. Musk's announcement highlights yet again the urgency for California to address our housing affordability crisis and the many other challenges that make it so difficult for companies to grow here," said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the business advocacy group Bay Area Council. Last year, tech giant Oracle Corp. decided to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, saying the move would give its employees more flexibility about where and how they work. One of Silicon Valley's founding companies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has also said it will move to the Houston area. Here are 13 electric vehicles coming in the next few years: Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected the request of convicted murderer Aubrey Trail to serve as his own attorney. Trail, who was found guilty and sentenced to death for the 2017 slaying and dismemberment of Lincoln store clerk Sydney Loofe, had recently asked to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers and instead be appointed to handle his own legal affairs. He said that he had reached an impasse with his attorneys on how to handle the legally required appeal of his death sentence and that he had the common sense to serve as his own lawyer. In an email from prison to The World-Herald, Trail said his attorneys had opposed his desire to waive his automatic appeal and set an execution date within a year. I dont want to appeal, the court sentenced me to death, carry out the sentence, he wrote. Last week, the Nebraska Supreme Court overruled his motion to serve as his own lawyer, saying he had failed to serve notice of his request to the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office. His court-appointed defense attorneys, Ben and Joe Murray of Hebron, are in the process of preparing written arguments opposing Trails death sentence. The Attorney Generals Office will also have the opportunity to submit arguments. By law, the Supreme Court is required to expedite its ruling on the arguments, giving it precedence over other civil and criminal cases. Trail, a 55-year-old Tennessee native with a long criminal record for fraud and writing bad checks, used social media and phone calls and emails to reporters to initially claim his innocence. Later, he used some of those same channels to maintain that he alone was responsible for Loofes death. Loofe had arranged a date with Trails girlfriend, Bailey Boswell, via the dating app Tinder and disappeared after arriving at the Wilber apartment shared by Trail and Boswell. Loofes body was not found until three weeks later, scattered along gravel roads in Clay County. Boswell, 27, was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and improper disposal of human remains. A hearing is set next month to decide whether she will be the first woman in the states history sentenced to death. The two trials were shocking, with three young women testifying that Trail and Boswell had talked about witchcraft and gaining powers by murdering someone. They said Trail offered to become their sugar daddy in exchange for obedience and sexual favors. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WATERLOO A Waterloo man has been arrested for allegedly robbing three children on their way home Tuesday afternoon. Waterloo police arrested Marcus Angelo Gardner Jr., 39, of 236 Boston Ave., for first-degree robbery and intimidation with a weapon. Bond was set at $50,000. Authorities said two 12-year-olds and a 13-year-old were walking home from school in the 300 block of Lester Street when Gardner threatened them with a gun. He allegedly pointed the weapon at one students head, and another began filming the incident with his phone. Gardner allegedly demanded $50 and took the phone, police said. No injuries were reported, police said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Gov. Pete Ricketts was among 10 Republican governors who joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott near the border with Mexico on Wednesday to call upon President Joe Biden to take action to secure the border and end what Ricketts described as "this humanitarian and security crisis." Mass migration into the United States is spreading "health hazards across our country," the governor said during a news conference in Mission, Texas, claiming that thousands of COVID-positive people have entered the country illegally. The Biden administration needs to "properly resource the border" with U.S. Border Patrol personnel and National Guard troops, Ricketts said. The president "thinks he can ignore" this crisis, the governor said. "We are here to shine a light," he said, and force action to "help us stem this mass migration crisis." The Nebraska National Guard is scheduled to deploy units from Grand Island and Columbus this month to help provide assistance at the border. The deployment could last up to a year, Maj. Scott Ingalsbe, spokesperson for the Guard, said previously. A total of about 150 guardsmen from the 1-376th Aviation Battalion, based in Grand Island, and the 128th Engineer Battalion, based in Columbus, will deploy at the direction of the federal government, according to Ingalsbe. They're replacing units from other states that have been deployed there, he said. The federal government will pay for the deployment, Ingalsbe said. The Nebraska State Patrol deployed 25 troopers to the Texas-Mexico border earlier this summer, in response to a joint request from Texas and Arizona. Public records obtained by the Omaha World-Herald revealed the state would be on the hook for the costs of the deployment, which Gov. Pete Ricketts and State Patrol officials estimated at $500,000. Joining Abbott and Ricketts at the border on Wednesday were Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. Meanwhile, in Washington, Republican Sen. Deb Fischer joined 37 of her Senate colleagues in sending a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers on the agency's response to a surge of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas. "While we applaud the administration's original stated intent to expel the majority of migrants (or) to expeditiously remove them, we are concerned that DHS did not actually carry out this plan (and) undermined the deterrent effect of any future statements that the Biden administration will enforce our immigration laws at the border," they wrote. Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Iowas oft-hailed nonpartisan redistricting process sure didnt feel nonpartisan this week. The Iowa Legislature met to vote on the first proposed set of new maps. That vote and the fallout were anything but nonpartisan. Lets try to cut through the noise and make sense of what happened and where this process is headed. First, the prerequisite background: Every 10 years, U.S. states redraw their political boundaries to reflect shifts in the population. This is called redistricting. Iowas process is widely praised for limiting partisan political interference. Unlike many other states where the elected officials draw the maps, Iowas maps are drawn by the states egislative Services Agency, a department of nonpartisan legal and data analysts. Guided by state law that does not allow for political considerations, LSA draws the maps, and state legislators approve or reject them. If lawmakers reject the first proposed set of maps, as they did this week, LSA draws up a second batch. If lawmakers reject the second batch, LSA draws a third. If the process reaches that point, lawmakers must accept those third maps. However and heres where the process is vulnerable to partisan political shenanigans lawmakers are allowed to amend those third maps. So if one party has a majority in both chambers of the Iowa Legislature as Republicans do they could put their finger on the scale and redraw some districts more to their liking. They would still be bound by some criteria set forth in state law, but the process does allow them an opportunity to use the map-drawing pencil. That is what Iowa Democrats are warning against. To be clear, what the Democrats are warning against remains a hypothetical: that statehouse Republicans plan to push this process to the third and final stage. That could still happen, but it doesn't mean this weeks vote to reject the first set of maps violated the spirit of the states redistricting process. In voting to reject the first maps, Senate Republicans did nothing illegal or even unseemly. Their vote wasnt even unprecedented. Previous Iowa legislatures also rejected the LSAs first set of proposed maps in 1981 and 2001. In 1981, legislators also rejected the second set of maps, then approved the third maps without amending them. But this weeks step in the redistricting process was anything but nonpartisan. All Republicans voted against the proposed maps, while all Democrats voted to accept them. Then Democrats said Republicans "took a big step closer to rigging Iowa elections," "one step closer to rejecting the principles of our nonpartisan process to manipulate our maps," and "chose politics over the common good." Again, that is all hypothetical and could turn out to be hyperbole. Republicans may approve the second set of maps, or the third, without amendment. If that happens, Democrats warnings will have been as accurate as Chicken Littles. Shortly after this weeks vote, I asked Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, if indeed Democrats warnings are rooted in a fear of the unknown. "Yeah. Look, we are in uncharted territory. Were here in a special session I believe for the first time ever for redistricting," Wahls said. "I think that people want fair maps and we dont want to have any thought prospect of amendments that would be gerrymandering. Today we had the opportunity to put those concerns to rest. And obviously we saw on a party-line vote Republicans rejected the plan. But just because Republicans rejected the first maps does not automatically mean they are headed toward a gerrymander. That said, Senate Republican leaders did not say anything that would assuage the concern of anyone who is genuinely concerned about Iowa remaining true to the nonpartisan spirit of its redistricting process. Senate President Jake Chapman, R-Adel, declined to rule out any possibility over the next steps. And when I asked Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, what he would say to anyone who has concern that Republicans could take this process down a partisan political path, he said Republicans are staying true to the process. "Were using (state law) as its written. And part of that process is an up or down vote on Map 1. We took the vote to not accept Map 1. Were going to Map 2," Whitver said. "Were using that process." The only problem with that answer is the process does allow for some partisan political influence at that third step. So Whitvers answer does not rule out statehouse Republicans putting their thumb on the scale. If anyone is looking for some hope in Whitvers response, he also noted the time crunch legislators are operating under. The redistricting process is already months behind because Census data was delayed by the pandemic. The Iowa Supreme Court granted legislators an extension until Dec. 1, but LSA has 35 days to produce each set of maps, and if it takes the full 35 days, there will not be enough time before Dec. 1 to even get to a third set of maps. (On Wednesday, LSA said it intends to submit a second plan by Oct. 21.) All these questions will be answered soon enough. Meantime, heres hoping the next steps feel more nonpartisan than did this weeks. Erin Murphy covers Iowa politics and government for Lee Enterprises. His email address is erin.murphy@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter at @ErinDMurphy Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Late last week, Gov. Kristi Noem hit the reset button on an effort to revise South Dakotas social studies standards after the end product of the recent process drew criticism from several sides, even from those who were tasked with crafting those standards. This most likely wont end the controversies, but for now, starting over is the best course. Since this effort began several months ago, one specter hovering over it was Noems intent to come up with something that closely mirrored the 1776 Project proposed by former President Donald Trump a year ago. The mission of that project was to, in effect, promote Americas greatness while mostly glossing over some of the more problematic terrain such as the role of racism in this country. The group tasked with writing South Dakotas new social studies standards began its work several months ago. According to former Yankton High School teacher Paul Harens, who was part of that group, they were told by a Department of Education (DOE) representative that the state was criticized the last time the standards were redrawn for not being inclusive enough in terms of Native American culture and history. The DOE rep advised them, I would like to see every group have at least one standard for the Native Americans, Harens told the Press & Dakotan The group did its work with that in mind, he said, including the crafting of a preamble to serve as a mission statement for its efforts and submitted the final document in late June. But when those proposed standards were released several weeks later, they had been greatly revised. Harens said only two sentences of the preamble had been kept, with the rest rewritten. Also, they eliminate(d), I think it was, three-fourths of the Native American standards, he said. We were told to do one thing. We did it, and they took it away. Thats why we were so shocked. Harens said efforts to find out who authorized those changes have made little headway. But he said the fact that the final document closely mirrors the 1776 Project recommendations which he said whitewashes U.S. history and massively skip(s) over the indigenous population in the United States likely offers some guidance. Its basically the 1776 Project or comments that (Noem) has made, Harens said. Somebody had to tell the Department of Education to make those changes, and it wasnt somebody in the Department of Education. I dont know who it was, but I can make a guess. The uproar over this has been quite strong, and Noem, who had earlier put a delay on the process, pulled the plug last week and announced a do-over. Our focus remains the same: ensuring that South Dakota students learn a true and honest account of American and South Dakota history, the governor said. But how it will be done over remains to be seen. Many education officials were unhappy with the final proposal issued, while some conservative entities have been critical of what are viewed as liberal efforts in crafting the document. Also, Noem took to social media recently and said radical education activists were trying to impose a left-wing agenda. Restoring honest & true American & South Dakota history in our schools wont be easy but we must win, she said in words that were echoed in last weeks statement. So, you can see where this might be headed. It seems that the best place to start, or re-start, this process is to follow the DOEs original advice: Be inclusive. We cant shunt the Native American aspect of the states history to a back burner. Indigenous views need to be well represented on whatever group is formed to write these standards. Weve made enough mistakes in education, Harens said. Lets not make another one. Revising the standards should be seen as an effort to cultivate some constructive honesty in the educational process, and that needs to be the mission going forward. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Redistricting at the Nebraska Legislature is difficult enough under normal circumstances during a 90-day legislative session. But this year, lawmakers had to attempt the map changes in an extraordinarily compressed time frame, due to late release of the census data. The special session last month stretched over a mere three weeks. Yet the lawmakers succeeded. The initial dust-ups were heated, to be sure, and at various stages the process seemed headed toward deadlock and failure. But ultimately, strong majorities of lawmakers across lines of party and philosophy voted yes to the final maps for the congressional districts and state legislative seats compromise maps achieved after hard, complex negotiating. No member of the Legislature was fully satisfied with the final maps, but thats the nature of compromise. In bringing the redistricting process to a successful conclusion, lawmakers served the public interest. Approval of the maps enables state and local election officials to prepare for the 2022 primary and general election. Nebraskans considering running for office now know what district theyre in. And, not least, the Legislature showed the public that on redistricting one of the most divisive of issues lawmakers could summon the needed resolve to find solutions rather than succumbing to Congress-style bitterness and stalemate. Various factors came together to produce this positive outcome. The time pressure compelled lawmakers to seek out compromise. Speaker Mike Hilgers added to the pressure by telling lawmakers that if they failed to reach agreement by the end of September, the Legislature would adjourn, rather than stewing in lawmakers recriminations, and take up the issue in January. The positive working relationship between the Redistricting Committees chairwoman, Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, and the vice chair, Sen. Justin Wayne, contributed well to the process. Lawmakers who had legitimate complaints over boundary changes in the end did not seek to derail the process given the limited time available. Normally hardline partisans refrained from seeking 100% of their demands, acknowledging that there werent enough votes to prevail. In the face of a seemingly intractable stalemate over which rural district would be moved to the east due to population trends, Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg broke the deadlock by agreeing that his district could be moved. Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha, whose district wound up being radically changed, did not mount an all-out fight to block the map, acknowledging that the need to incorporate a new district in the Omaha area unavoidably required changes in boundaries. The session pointed out long-term issues that lawmakers and the public must consider. Given the population trends, state legislative districts in western Nebraska seem destined to become ever-larger. If only a handful of districts is available to represent areas west of Kearney, westerners trust in the Legislature could erode. Its appropriate, then, for Nebraskans to consider increasing the number of seats in the Legislature. The urban-rural percentage allocation of seats would still rightly reflect growing urban numbers, to ensure that all votes are given equal weight. Future stalemate over redistricting remains a significant possibility in Nebraska, and an independent redistricting commission, as in Iowa, is a worthy goal. Hard feelings linger among some Nebraska state senators, given their legitimate disappointment over some of the map details. But once the next session begins in January, lawmakers must move past that emotional roadblock. Senators must not let ill will from this years redistricting debate sidetrack the chances for legislative progress in 2022. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 On a recent episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick spoke with Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, about the ongoing legal ramifications of Sept. 11 and the forever wars. Azmy has been challenging the U.S. government repeatedly over the past two decades, litigating matters from the rights of Guantanamo detainees to discriminatory policing practices, to government surveillance, to the rights of asylum-seekers and accountability for victims of torture. A portion of their conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, has been transcribed below. Advertisement Dahlia Lithwick: You were the third civilian lawyer to set foot in Guantanamo, and that was in October 2004, after the Supreme Courts decision in Rasul. And you went on to represent Murat Kurnaz, who was being detained there. Do you mind giving us the CliffsNotes version of how you advocated for him? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baher Azmy: After the Rasul decision came down in June 2004, the Center of Constitutional Rights and others started identifying additional detainees who had been in touch with CCR who needed lawyers, and one lawyer Id worked with on another prisoners rights matter in New Jersey asked me if I wanted to represent this individual, Murat Kurnaz. I knew nothing about him. I had a conversation with his mother and she was understandably anxious, and then I had to get security clearances to go down to Guantanamo. Advertisement So I went down. I knew almost nothing about him. I entered the room with a handwritten note from his mother that was written in Turkish. I still remember, it was very simple: You will be visited by an American lawyer you can trust. We have been vacationing in Turkey, your brothers go to school, we saw his ex-wife, and she is loving you. And I just saw the look on his face transform a little bit, like a crack in the matrix. And we talked, we got along really well. The only rights detainees seemed to have was the right for their lawyers to bring them food. So he had coffee from McDonalds for the first time. Later, they would open a Starbucks in Guantanamo, and just a little piece of absurdist, American consumerism trivia, Murat preferred McDonalds to Starbucks, as it turns out. Im not sure I can get him an advertising gig, but for those of you interested in coffee dynamics. Advertisement Advertisement When I got back to the United Statesit was very hard leaving him that first timewe finally learned the reasons that the government offered for his detention. They had these combatant status review tribunals. These were administrative show trials that they were going to say satisfied the mandate of Rasul and gave them adequate process. But these were out of law and into the domain of literature, just preposterous. You were presumed an enemy combatant, and without a lawyer and having been in Guantanamo, you had to disprove your enemy combatant status, when in the majority of cases, enemy combatant status was based on classified evidence. Advertisement In his case, they said his friend from Germany was a suicide bomber and committed a suicide bombingalthough they misspelled it, we ultimately figured outin Istanbul in a synagogue. Murat said, Oh, he did that? I do not need a friend like that. I did not know. So putting aside the astonishing legal proposition that someone could spend the rest of their life in detention because of the unknown and unknowable. Look, this happened in 2003 when Murat was incommunicado in Guantanamo. Put that astonishing proposition aside, it was just made up. Within 24 hours, were on the phone with him and had an affidavit for him saying, Hi, Im alive. Just totally made up. And at the same time, no one shared the classified file, which I ultimately made public, that showed the U.S. had been convinced that he was innocent and the Germans as well. Nevertheless, he spent five more years there. Advertisement Advertisement And we became very close, as a lot of lawyers had with their clients. I was his only connection to the outside world, to learn about his family, to learn about politics, to the extent that we could talk about it. He had a rapid ripping sense of humor that was so delightful, but also this very rooted faith in Islam that got him through this. One advantage, I think, some of these prisoners had is praying five times a day helps break up the monotony, to some extent. He was released in 2006. I was there for the reunion with him and his family, which was remarkable. And I was there for his wedding. Its been a while since Ive been in touch, but hes thriving. Advertisement Thats a tragic, but ultimately, kind of a happy story about someone whos eventually released and reunited with his family. But I feel like we cant really leave this conversation without talking, at least for a moment, about Abu Zubaydah, who you no longer defend, but defended for over a decade. Hes the subject of torture, unlawful detention, unlawful questioning, and hes still there, the No. 40 guy at Gitmo. What does that leave us to think about the project of the 40 people still left behind at Guantanamo? Advertisement Advertisement There were other faces of indefinite detention. Previously I would say it was Adnan Latif, who had been cleared for release and after pleas to the Supreme Court to please take his case and undo the damage that the D.C. Circuit had been doing. The Supreme Court passed, and two months later, Adnan Latif took his life. He used to be the face of indefinite detention. Advertisement Now, Abu Zubaydah was at the intersection of so many pieces of the war on terror. Apprehended in Pakistan; flown to Thailand, where there was initial interrogation by the FBI, by Ali Soufan, who suggested he was making some progress and got some major leads from Abu Zubaydah. Nevertheless, civilians in D.C. thought we needed to do more and then he became one of the first victims of the systematic program of torture and dehumanization and brutalization through waterboarding, all sorts of physical violence, and then sent to European black sites for more torture interrogation, and after the 2006 decision in Hamdan that basically said the Geneva Convention prohibit this kind of brutalization, brought to Guantanamo. He is the iconic face of indefinite detention now because there are some people who are cleared for release who, in theory, the government should be working on returning. There are some people who are slated for military commissions, so will be tried, although, we can talk about why that probably wont happen, and then some who Obama said theres not enough evidence to try, but too dangerous to release. In our opinion, in a place that believes in due process, that should be a null set. You should only be prosecuted based on what youve done, not on predictions of how black your soul is based on some expert prognostication about returning to the fight. But nevertheless, he is in that category. But ultimately, I think this is about keeping him secret. He has a lot of stories to tell, some of which have gotten out through his drawings, but it is hard to know what the government would ultimately do with Abu Zubaydah after what they have done to Abu Zubaydah. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to normalizing and becoming complacent, these things grow and expand and take different forms. And Im guessing you would say so much of the conversation now that were hearing, even in the last few weeks around leaving Afghanistan, has that same throughline of Oh, well. Mistakes were made. Human life was lost. We learned. And yet again, no sense of real stock taking, no sense of real accountability. This must feel awfully resonant for you after what you just talked about in terms of Gitmo. Yeah. Thats a really a good point. The sort of Oops, we did our best to describe calamitous war-making, total distortions of American institutions that really have become normalized only through this bizarre filter of American exceptionalism that makes us ignore the genocide of Native Americans and minimize the violence of slavery. We just have this immense capacity to put our outrages behind us. And I think there are consequences. I dont want to try and oversell this, but I do think theres a throughline between these forms of soft authoritarianism the hard authoritarian in Trump. We tortured people. Thirty years ago, we wouldve said, America wouldnt do that, and we systematically did it. We rationalized it through high-level legal counsel, albeit fraudulent lawyering, and no one was held accountable. The outrages go totally unpunished or unreconciled, and so they become normal and we just get inoculated to one absurdity and one governmental abuse after another. Advertisement I dont want to overstate what youre saying, but it does feel a little bit as though part of the trick here is if it comes in a different bottle, wearing a different cloak, in a different iteration, then its easy just to say, Well, we dont torture people anymore, without seeing all of what comes after it, the iterations that follow, but also to tell an American exceptionalist story about how were learning and getting better. Advertisement Yes. Right. We wont do it again, but of course, as youre saying, itll come up in a different garb. So maybe we stopped formally torturing, but at the Southern border, we separated parents from babies, an alternative form of torture, designed to maximize cruelty. Another throughline is weve posited a vision of freedom through these past wars, and certainly Trump embraces this. Its also like an Andrew Jacksonian vision of freedom, where ours is increased at the repression of others. So theres a little bit of Adam Serwers point that the cruelty is the point. You maximize cruelty, shock, and awethe iconography of terror, of showing subdued and cloaked Guantanamo detainees tied together. Were winning, so you are free, and by the way, they hate us for our freedom, which I still cant quite figure out how to unwrap from some massive flag of narcissism. Trump has taken that mantle and said, We deserve to inflict cruelty on other people and we will feel better about ourselvessome of us willwhen we do that, but that started before him. Read more about Azmys Guantanamo experience in the collection Crisis Lawyering: Effective Legal Advocacy in Emergency Situations. And to hear the entire discussion, listen below, or subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Wednesday, a U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the Department of Justice to confirm that Texas now-infamous S.B. 8 bill could not stand as it was, which in theory means that the previous consequences that could be enforced on those aiding and abetting abortions past six weeks of pregnancy (namely, a $10,000 fine) were, at least temporarily, lifted in Texas. And yet, two days later, its still very unclear who can get an abortion, who is providing abortions, and just exactly whats happening in clinics right now. Advertisement Which is to be expected. When abortion becomes the subject of an intense legal battle with high-stakes consequences, any new developmenteven a positive one in the eyes of reproductive health care providersleaves both doctors and patients confused and disoriented. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his opinion blocking the enforcement of the law 36 days after it went into effect, Judge Robert Pitman called that it an offensive deprivation of such an important right. The provider Whole Womans Health, which operates four clinics in Texas, tweeted in celebration. This is amazing news. Texans never once stopped seeking abortionswere thrilled there is a path to provide them. But the very next tweet acknowledged the messiness of the situation: Note: this block is temporary and we arent sure what this means for care yet. We will update as we know morebut this is good news. Advertisement Soon, Whole Womans Health would announce that starting Thursday morning, they would begin to offer abortions again for women after fetal cardiac activity was detected, which happens at around six weeks of pregnancy. In this climate, every single abortion we can provide is a win, the company wrote on Twitter. Headlines in local and national news soon announced that Texas abortion clinics were resuming services. But almost all the articles primarily quoted a press conference given by Whole Womans Healths founder and CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller, in which she said the clinics began calling patients who had previously been turned away. Advertisement The remaining clinics waffled when asked about their plans. The Center for Reproductive Rights said its clinics hope to resume full abortion services as soon as they are able but didnt say when that would be, instead noting that it was a tenuous situation. Planned Parenthood said it was evaluating and waiting on next steps, acknowledging in a statement that the fight was far from over. Other clinics, when contacted by Slate, either did not respond or declined to comment. Advertisement Almost all of the statements emphasized hesitancy over the very temporary nature of the injunction. As the Associated Press put it, doctors across the state did not rush to resume normal operations with the court battle far from over. If an appeals court reinstates the law in a matter of days, everything could change again, making the efforts to restart in vain. This seems possibleon Friday afternoon, Texas asked for an emergency stay of the district courts order. Advertisement The evolving situation helps to explain why many doctors are still genuinely afraid. According to the Texas Tribune, the anti-abortion organization Texas Right to Life has indicated that it would retroactively sue providers for any abortions provided after Sept. 1 if Pitmans order is eventually lifted. We are going to be vigilant, the organization told the Tribune. A senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights told reporters that the retroactive provision remains a serious piece of concern for physicians. Advertisement Advertisement At least one clinic has said that the decision not to immediately provide abortions again wasnt just based on the worry over punitive lawsuits or any other financial hurdles: It accounted for the cost to women as well. According to Kathy Kleinfeld, an administrator for Houston Womens Reproductive Services, the clinic is not providing abortions for the next few days in large part because of their experience during the earlier days of the COVID pandemic, when Gov. Greg Abbott shut down all abortion services by claiming they fell under the category of elective surgery rather than urgent medical care. An appeal led to an injunction from a judge, immediately followedwithin a dayby an appeal to the conservative 5th Circuit. So we had to call patients who were hours away from coming to their appointment after being turned away already, she said. The thought of having to do that again is really cruel, to do that to women when theyre in a really sensitive situation in their lives. So we thought it would be wise to wait a day or two before making changes. Advertisement It seems likely that the situation will shift as clinics continue these conversations around risk. But even those clinics that have landed on a policy in response to the injunction are dealing with a logistical issue: Updating websites and voicemails and blogs and social media takes time. I called one clinic that, as you were on hold, informed you that the clinic planned to fight S.B. 8 before it was enacted in September; when I tried a different line, I was told that the law was already in effect. There was no hold information that mentioned that law was currently paused. Advertisement The confusion can easily deter patients, which clinics also understand. If you visit any of their websites, most will hit you with a pop-up reminding you that abortion is still legal in Texas. But, for the most part, they go on to clarify that abortion is legal in Texas for those who have discovered their pregnancy within the extremely narrow timeframe allowed under S.B. 8. Few had yet updated their language to reflect the latest injunction. And who knows when theyll be able to: Many are already strapped, dealing with an influx of calls from confused and desperate patients. According to Kleinfeld, the clinic saw a surge in calls from women who had seen the news and wanted to know if they could schedule abortions. Well schedule them next week, with the understanding that if theres a change, well have to notify them, she said. Its not as easy as flipping a switch. Theres considerations for these women, who are impacted by these moves the state of Texas has done. In other words, the Texas abortion law is a method of intimidation as much as it is a legal strategy. As Slates Christina Cauterucci reported, when S.B. 8 went into effect, many clinics stopped providing abortions of any kind to avoid frivolous lawsuits. Now, it seems that even a legitimate legal victory is hampered by the fear, confusion, and dread that lingers . There really is such a thing as too much information. Say, for instance, youre an astronomer scanning the cosmos for black holes, or a climate scientist modeling the next century of global temperature change. After just a few days recording observations or running simulations on the most sophisticated equipment, you might end up with millions of gigabytes of data. Some of it contains the stuff youre interested in, but a whole lot of it doesnt. Its too much to analyze, too much even to store. Advertisement We are drowning in data, says Rafael Hiriart, a computer scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico, soon to be the site of the next-generation Very Large Array radio telescope. (Its precursor, the first Very Large Array, is what Jodie Foster uses to listen for alien signals in Contact.*) When it goes online in a few years, the telescopes antennae will collect 20 million gigabytes of night sky observations each month. Dealing with that much data will require a computer that can perform 100 quadrillion floating-point operations per second; only two supercomputers on Earth are that fast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And its not just astronomers who are drowning. I would argue just about any scientific field would be facing this, says Bill Spotz, a program manager with the U.S. Department of Energys Advanced Scientific Computing Research program, which manages many of the countrys supercomputers, including Summit, the worlds second-speediest machine. Advertisement From climate modeling to genomics to nuclear physics, increasingly precise sensors and powerful computers deliver data to scientists at blistering velocities. In 2018, Summit performed the first ever exascale calculation on, of all things, a set of cottonwood tree genomes, computing in an hour what would take a regular laptop about 30 years to finish. (An exabyte is a billion gigabytesenough to store a video call that lasts for more than 200,000 years. An exascale calculation involves a quintillion floating-point operations per second.) Supercomputers in the works, such as Frontier at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will go even faster, and generate even more data. These humongous data volumes and incredible speeds enable scientists to make progress on all sorts of problems, from designing more efficient engines to probing the link between cancer and genetics to investigating gravity at the center of the galaxy. But the sheer amount of data can also become unwieldyBig Data thats too big. Advertisement Advertisement This is why in January, the Department of Energy convened a (virtual) meeting of hundreds of scientists and data experts to discuss what to do about all this data, and the even larger data deluge coming down the pipeline. The DOE has since put up $13.7 million for research on ways to get rid of some of that data without getting rid of the useful stuff. In September, it awarded funds to nine of these data reduction efforts, including research teams from several national laboratories and universities. Were trying to wrap our arms around exabytes of data, says Spotz. Advertisement Its certainly something that we need, says Jackie Chen, a mechanical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories who uses supercomputers to simulate turbulence-chemistry interactions within internal combustion engines to develop more efficient engines burning carbon-neutral fuels. We have the opportunity to generate data that gives us unprecedented glimpses into complex processes, but what to do with all that data? And how do you extract meaningful scientific information from that data? And how do you reduce it to a form that somebody thats actually designing practical devices like engines can use? Advertisement Another field that stands to benefit from better data reduction is bioinformatics. Though its currently less data-intensive than climate science or particle physics, faster and cheaper DNA sequencing means the tide of biological data will keep rising, says Cenk Sahinalp, a computational biologist at the National Cancer Institute. Cost of storage is becoming an issue, and cost of analysis is a big, big issue, he says. Data reduction could help with data intensive -omics problems like these. For instance, data reduction could make it more feasible to sequence and analyze the genomes of thousands of individual tumor cells to target and destroy specific groups of cells. Advertisement But reducing data is especially challenging for scientific problems because it must be sensitive to the anomalies and outliers that so often are the source of insight. For instance, attempts to explain anomalous observations of a form of light emitted from hot, black objects ultimately led to quantum mechanics. Data reduction that lopped off unexpected or rare events and smoothed every curve would be unacceptable. If youre trying to answer a question thats never been answered before, you may not know which data will be useful, Spotz says. You dont want to throw away the interesting part. Advertisement Advertisement The researchers funded by DOE will work on several strategies to tackle the problem, including improving compression algorithms, enabling scientific teams to have more control over which quantities are lost to compression; minimizing the dimensions represented within a data set; building data reduction into instruments themselves; and developing better ways to trigger instruments to start recording data only when some phenomenon occursfor instance, an astronomer searching for exoplanets might want a telescope to only record data when it senses the slight dimming that occurs when a planet passes across a star. All will. to some extent. involve machine learning. Byung-Jun Yoon, an applied mathematician at Brookhaven National Labs, is leading one of the data reduction teams. Over a Zoom call fittingly plagued by bandwidth issues, he explained that scientists already often reduce data out of necessity, but that its more a combination of art and science. In other words, its imperfect and forces scientists to be less systematic than they might like. And that doesnt even consider the fact that many of the data that are being generated are just dumped because they cannot be stored, he says. Advertisement Yoons approach is to develop ways to quantify the impact of a data reduction algorithm on signals in a data set precisely defined by scientists, e.g., a planet crossing a star, or a mutation in a particular gene. Quantifying that effect will enable Yoon to tinker with the algorithm to get it to preserve an acceptable resolution within those quantities of interest, while carving away as much of the irrelevant data as possible. We want to be more confident about data reduction, he says. And thats only possible when we can quantify its impact on things that we are really interested in. Yoon aims for his method to be applicable across scientific fields, but will start with data sets from cryo-electron microscopy, as well as particle accelerators and light sources, which are some of the biggest data producers in science, expected to soon regularly generate exabytes of data, which just as soon will need reducing. If we learn nothing else from our exabytes, at least we can be sure, less is more. Correction, Oct. 8, 2021: This article originally misspelled Jodie Fosters first name. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. ARCHIVED - Congress in Spain to debate banning bullfighting Deputies will debate a number of amendments to control the practice in Spain With the 40th Federal Congress set to take place in the Community of Valencia next week, the PSOE intends to table discussions on a number of controversial items, not least the continuing practice of bullfighting in Spain. The delegates will look at several requests to cease the promotion and subsidisation of the sport as a cultural element, preventing minors under the age of 16 from attending the shows and even the ultimate extinction of bullfighting. The move comes just days after the central government announced that the new annual youth grant for cultural endeavours will exclude bullfighting, with many socialist groups arguing that the traditional sport should not be considered part of Spanish culture. With so many new proposals in recent weeks dedicated to extending the rights of animals , an amendment to the current text suggests that as society advances and changes, people in Spain should not tolerate the mistreatment of any living beings for leisure reasons. This is why several politicians are insisting that bullfights and street shows with these animals should not be promoted or supported. The PSOE has yet to take a definitive stance on bullfighting, but the Minister of Finance, Maria Jesus Montero, has defended the governments decision to leave the activity out of the cultural bonus payment, insisting that officials had to choose carefully which industries to prioritise in the new 2022 budget. For its part, the Socialist Youth of Spain (JSE) has proposed an amendment which would prohibit the attendance of minors under 16 years of age to shows based on animal abuse, such as bullfighting. Image: Archive Space rover, flight simulator and two hydrogen vehicles will be the highlights of Slovakias pavilion. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Slovakia, the world leader in traditional car production, wants to show that it is ready to dip into new technologies. The work of some companies on cutting-edge hydrogen technologies has led to tangible results: a functional hydrogen bus and a hydrogen concept car. The vehicles will be the highlight of Slovakias presentation at the Expo 2020 Dubai. Expo 2020 Dubai From October 1, 2021 until March 31, 2022 More than 190 countries will participate 25 million visitors are expected More info at www.expo2020dubai.com The price of a ticket for adults (18-59 years) will be USD 142.86 When more than a million cars are produced every year in a small country like Slovakia, it's not possible to say that we are just a kind of assembly hall, said Economy Minister Richard Sulik as he presented Slovakias pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. We are much more than that and this is what our exhibits show. Sulik wants to make sure Slovakia does not miss the train. His aim is for the country to be prepared for the commercial launch of hydrogen technologies. By presenting hydrogen technologies at this international forum, we can make ourselves visible as a relevant player, said Sulik. Expo 2020 Dubai, which will open on October 1, will present three sub-themes: opportunity, mobility and sustainability. Slovakias pavilion will be located in the centre of the Mobility zone with its leitmotif Motion of the Future: Cutting-Edge Hydrogen and Aerospace Technologies Taking Green Mobility Beyond Horizons. In some cases, possession of marijuana in Slovakia carries a harsher sentence than manslaughter. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled This story was produced in partnership withReporting Democracy, a cross-border journalism platform run by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. In early December 2019, when police raided a pub in Kosice, a youngster called Robert Dzunko was found sitting there with 7.7 grams of marijuana on him. He has been in custody ever since. Unfortunately, this was not the first time Dzunko had been found carrying marijuana. In 2017, he received a suspended sentence of 30 months after he was caught in possession of 12 grams. As he awaits a final verdict, the 27-year-old faces an additional 12.5-year prison sentence. If that sentence is handed down, and with his suspended sentence added, by the time he gets out he will have served 15 years in prison for possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana. Robo is a young man, he likes sport, nature and music, his family describes him in an open letter to Slovak MPs. He participated in various activities, such as picking up rubbish in nature, helping homeless people, organising concerts and meeting with friends. His family and friends have launched the Sloboda pre Roba (Freedom for Robo) initiative, which is highlighting his story and those of others charged with marijuana-related crimes, to bring to the publics attention the disproportionately harsh sentences that these people face. There were several attempts to change marijuana-related legislation in early 2021, all unsuccessful due to a lack of agreement between coalition parties. Yet via an amendment of the Criminal Code coming out of the Justice Ministry, which should be presented this autumn, change is finally in sight. Repeat offenders When a person is caught with marijuana for the first time, they face up to three years in prison if it is for their own personal use. The judge can, in this case, decide to impose a suspended sentence or impose a fine or community service. https://sputniknews.com/20211008/australian-ex-pm-warns-china-could-lash-out-disastrously-soon-amid-soaring-taiwan-tensions-1089771827.html Australian Ex-PM Warns China Could Lash Out Disastrously Soon Amid Soaring Taiwan Tensions Australian Ex-PM Warns China Could Lash Out Disastrously Soon Amid Soaring Taiwan Tensions After China sent almost 150 military aircraft close to Taiwan in recent days against the backdrop of drills conducted by the US and other allied forces in the... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T15:41+0000 2021-10-08T15:41+0000 2021-10-08T15:41+0000 tony abbott news world china australia south china sea /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/102673/80/1026738041_0:255:4896:3009_1920x0_80_0_0_e6c86f55ed3492c68e93f2012e39f0e5.jpg Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned that amid heightened tensions with Taiwan, China could lash out disastrously quite soon.Abbott, speaking in Taipei City on Friday at the annual Yushan forum, a conference organised by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, referred to the recent intimidatory sorties against Taiwan carried out by Beijing and called on democracies to show solidarity with the island.Abbott, visiting Taiwan to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen in a private capacity, was speaking after a weekend when China flew dozens of military jets near Taiwan while US and other allied forces conducted drills in the South China Sea.China has repeatedly warned of the volatile situation in the Taiwan Strait, earlier in the year slamming Washington for allegedly undermining stability in the waterway after its warships yet again passed through in a provocative manner.The island nation of Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, is seen by Beijing as a breakaway Chinese territory that must be returned to the jurisdiction of the mainland. Taiwan, long a self-governing nation, has consistently stated that it will protect its autonomy at any cost, having purchased billions of dollars of weapons from the US over the years.Abbott suggested that the US and Australia would likely join Taiwan in repelling any possible Chinese military aggression.Abbott, who led Australia from 2013 to 2015, lambasted China, claiming it had flown ever-more intimidatory sorties against Taiwan.He continued his diatribe against Beijing, saying:Tony Abbott nevertheless underscored China's economic growth, saying "collaboration is still possible, and trust could yet be rebuilt."Amid mounting tensions between China and the island, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo Cheng noted on Wednesday that military exchanges were likely between the two in just a few years' time.During a parliamentary appearance, the minister acknowledged that the current situation with China elevated concerns regarding the possibility of a "misfire" over the Taiwan Strait."By 2025, China will bring the cost and attrition to its lowest. It has the capacity now, but it will not start a war easily, having to take many other things into consideration," he added, indicating that Taiwanese officials see the possibility of a military invasion by China in the next few years. vot tak Standard zio-media propaganda article presenting only the israeloamerican propaganda and leaving it unchallenged. Thumbs down, 5th column. 4 md74 the anglo saxon poodle doesn't understand that Taiwan will be his & his masters downfall. Either a swift military defeat or a humiliating retreat, there are no other options. 3 6 china australia south china sea Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko tony abbott, news, world, china, australia, south china sea https://sputniknews.com/20211008/beijing-concerned-over-incident-with-us-nuclear-submarine-in-international-indo-pacific-waters-1089761283.html China Urges US to Reveal Details About Incident With Nuclear Sub in Int'l Indo-Pacific Waters China Urges US to Reveal Details About Incident With Nuclear Sub in Int'l Indo-Pacific Waters On 2 October a US Navy nuclear-powered submarine stuck an object while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region. 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T07:41+0000 2021-10-08T07:41+0000 2021-10-08T10:35+0000 world us china submarine /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/08/1089761609_0:135:1024:711_1920x0_80_0_0_d1edb34f06e1a8330680fa2659a6e83d.jpg China is deeply concerned about the incident with the US nuclear submarine in the international waters of the Indo-Pacific region, the foreign ministry's spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said on Friday.Zhao Lijian stressed that the United States and other countries involved should provide relevant details, including the exact location of the incident, the purpose of this trip, and details of what the submarine encountered.A US Navy nuclear-powered submarine stuck an object while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region, the Pacific Fleet Public Affairs Office said on Thursday. The US Navys Pacific Fleet said that the submarine remained in safe and stable condition and that the nuclear propulsion plant remains unaffected and fully operational. According to the Navy, 11 sailors received moderate to minor injuries during the incident.The boat, which did not give distress signals, is moving towards the base in Guam and due to arrive there on Friday. Tim6311 The US is playing with fire. 14 Charlie McD They don't even know what they hit ahaha. 8 28 us china Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 world, us, china, submarine https://sputniknews.com/20211008/blast-hits-shia-mosque-in-northern-afghanistan-several-people-injured-eyewitnesses-say-1089763580.html Up to 100 People Killed in Shia Mosque Explosion in Northern Afghanistan - Report Up to 100 People Killed in Shia Mosque Explosion in Northern Afghanistan - Report KABUL (Sputnik) - A blast hit a Shia mosque in Afghanistans northern Kunduz province on Friday, an eyewitness told Sputnik. 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T10:03+0000 2021-10-08T10:03+0000 2021-10-09T01:41+0000 asia & pacific afghanistan /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105715/05/1057150579_0:138:2132:1337_1920x0_80_0_0_d183e2c0e0bc45a88997cc84bb8448f0.jpg The number of people killed following a blast in a Shia mosque in Afghanistans northern Kunduz province on Friday surpassed 100, an eyewitness told Sputnik. Earlier in the day, the media reported that the explosion killed 60 people and injured over 100.According to reports, the attack took place at about 13:30 local time; a large crowd of people had gathered for Friday prayers. According to preliminary data, the suicide bomber detonated an explosive device while inside a religious building.Iran International senior correspondent Tajuden Soroush tweeted that than 100 people had been killed and more than 200 were injured.According to the eyewitness, several people were taken to a hospital.Earlier, an explosion occurred near the Eid Gah mosque in Kabul. 12 people were killed in the blast, while 32 were injured. Three people have been arrested in connection with the attack.In mid-August the Taliban* entered Kabul, and announced the next day that the war was over. The last province to resist the group, Panjshir, surrendered on 6 September. As international troops withdrew from the country and foreign evacuations came to a close, the Taliban announced the composition of their interim cabinet, headed by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a former foreign minister during the previous Taliban rule, who has been under UN sanctions since 2001.*A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries. Tim6311 Looks like another operation by CIA mercenaries (read Al Queda). 6 Charlie McD God be good to them. 2 6 afghanistan Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 asia & pacific, afghanistan https://sputniknews.com/20211008/elon-musk-company-spacex-valuated-at-over-100bln-after-secondary-share-sale-reports-say-1089772663.html Elon Musk Company SpaceX Valuated at Over $100Bln After Secondary Share Sale, Reports Say Elon Musk Company SpaceX Valuated at Over $100Bln After Secondary Share Sale, Reports Say WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Elon Muskss aerospace company SpaceX hit a valuation of over $100 billion after a new secondary sale of shares in the company by... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T14:53+0000 2021-10-08T14:53+0000 2021-10-08T14:53+0000 elon musk us spacex /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/1e/1089535562_0:166:2783:1731_1920x0_80_0_0_08af0b4d110e7c6770899d5cdc960279.jpg The company reportedly reached a deal with investors to sell up to $755 million worth of stock at $560 per share, multiple people familiar with the agreement said. This increases the companys valuation to $100.3 billion.The valuation makes SpaceX the second most valuable private company in the world, according to CB Insight. The companys valuation has increased substantially over the last several years due to growing investor interest in their Starship and Starlink projects, which aim to produce a spaceship capable of bringing humans to Mars and a global, high-speed satellite internet network respectively.Musk announced on Thursday that SpaceX will be moving its headquarters from California to Austin, Texas. This places the company closer to their Starship testing location in Boca Chica, Texas.The Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans published on Tuesday placed Musk in the number two spot behind Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $190.5 billion. https://sputniknews.com/20211008/russias-space-chief-warns-musks-starlink-satellites-could-hijack-cruise-missiles-mid-flight-1089765311.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 elon musk, us, spacex https://sputniknews.com/20211008/eus-josep-borrell-says-australia-sought-best-protection-in-aukus-move-to-ditch-french-sub-deal-1089763726.html EU's Josep Borrell Says Australia Sought 'Best Protection' in AUKUS Move to Ditch French Sub Deal EU's Josep Borrell Says Australia Sought 'Best Protection' in AUKUS Move to Ditch French Sub Deal After the AUKUS agreement promised Australias Navy US and UK assistance with technology for nuclear submarines, the contract for their construction replaced... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T10:47+0000 2021-10-08T10:47+0000 2021-10-08T10:47+0000 aukus jean-yves le drian australia josep borrell france scott morrison uk /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/0f/1082904354_0:177:3011:1871_1920x0_80_0_0_83099e42230541d6f081d0a3527d96b2.jpg European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has acknowledged that Australia's decision to abandon an earlier diesel-electric submarine procurement contract with France as part of its new AUKUS security alliance with the US and UK was "rational".The statement appears to show the EU official adopting a more conciliatory stance on the issue. Earlier in September, Australias security pact with the US and Britain was described by the EU's top diplomat as showing that the European Union must develop its own defence and security strategies, particularly in the Indo-Pacific.Speaking on 16 September to outline the EUs new strategy for the Indo-Pacific region, Borrell had deplored the fact that he was not consulted on the agreement for Washington to help Canberra build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.The EU's chairman, Charles Michel, responded to the US accord with Australia and Britain as further demonstrating the need for a common EU approach in a region of strategic interest." AUKUS Row Last month a transatlantic row was triggered after the security pact between Australia, the US and UK AUKUS was announced on 15 September. While allowing for greater sharing of intelligence, the trilateral deal offers Australia American and British technology to build nuclear-powered submarines, albeit not equipped with nuclear weapons. AUKUS, widely interpreted as targeted to offset Chinas growing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea, angered France as it prompted Australia to cancel a multi-billion deal struck in 2016 for France to build 12 conventional submarines. Paris, which discovered about the new pact only hours ahead of the public announcement, felt jilted and deplored the move as a stab in the back. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers that "someone lied" regarding Australia's intention to ditch the sub contract immediately after joining the pact while continuing to assure Paris to the last moment that the agreement was still in place. "Something doesn't add up and we don't know what," he said.The head of the French defence contractor Naval Group, Pierre Eric Pommellet, also reiterated the companys astonishment and stupefaction at being told the submarine contract with Australia was being torn up. In the wake of the announcement, France recalled its ambassadors from both Canberra and Washington. After it was first announced that the envoy to Washington would return to his post two seeks ago, Australia ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault is also now returning to Canberra to help redefine the terms of our relationship with Australia, stated Le Drian in front of a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday. Clear Solidarity with France European Union officials had rallied around France amid the diplomatic row. The blocs foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly that the blocs foreign ministers had expressed clear solidarity with France over the AUKUS deal, and suggested that the agreements announcement ran counter to calls for greater cooperation with the European Union in the Indo-Pacific. One top official warned that something appeared to be broken in the transatlantic alliance. As trade talks between Australia and the European Union, scheduled to start on 12 October, have also been postponed for a month, on Friday a spokespeople for the European Commission dismissed speculations that it was "punishing anybody". The decision would "allow us to prepare better", it was added. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected all accusations of blindsiding the French side over the sub deal. He insisted the French government "would have had every reason to know that we had deep and grave concerns" regarding the submarine procurement agreement . australia france Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko jean-yves le drian, australia, josep borrell, france, scott morrison, uk https://sputniknews.com/20211008/fearsome-predators-from-sea-with-long-stinging-tentacles-emerge-on-uk-shores-1089771192.html 'Fearsome Predators' From Sea 'With Long Stinging Tentacles' Emerge on UK Shores 'Fearsome Predators' From Sea 'With Long Stinging Tentacles' Emerge on UK Shores The creatures in question can apparently be spotted in the UK between September and December, when strong westerly winds blow them ashore on the west coast of... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T14:00+0000 2021-10-08T14:00+0000 2021-10-08T14:00+0000 sea coast sighting viral predator cornwall /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107274/70/1072747087_0:10:1000:573_1920x0_80_0_0_76e80c16af4fbfe14478e9c184410a7c.jpg Potentially dangerous aquatic creatures capable of delivering extremely painful stings to humans recently started washing up on the UK shores, Cornwall Live reports.According to the media outlet, the creature know as the Portuguese Man OWar is often mistaken for a jellyfish. They have been spotted by onlookers at several coastal areas in Cornwall.The creatures have also been spotted at Portheras Cove, with the "Friends of Portheras" sharing images of these "seasonal visitors" on Twitter and warning people not to touch them.The Portuguese Man OWar can grow to around 30 centimetres in length and its tentacles can reach up to 20 metres long. They are a relatively rare sight in the UK, the media outlet notes, citing The Wildlife Trusts website.These aquatic denizens can apparently be spotted in the UK between September to December, when strong westerly winds blow them ashore on the west coast of the United Kingdom. cornwall Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Andrei Dergalin Andrei Dergalin News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Andrei Dergalin sea, coast, sighting, viral, predator, cornwall https://sputniknews.com/20211008/indian-army-detains-chinese-troops-as-pla-tried-to-damage-bunkers-in-arunachal-sector-report-says-1089757629.html Indian Army Detains Chinese Troops as PLA Tried to Damage Bunkers in Arunachal Sector, Report Says Indian Army Detains Chinese Troops as PLA Tried to Damage Bunkers in Arunachal Sector, Report Says Last Week, Indian Army Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane said that incidents at the border with China will continue to occur "as long as the boundary is not... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T11:32+0000 2021-10-08T11:32+0000 2021-10-08T11:33+0000 pla ladakh region china india indian foreign ministry indian army arunachal pradesh indian defence ministry people's liberation army (pla) navy india /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/08/1080399240_0:1:1200:676_1920x0_80_0_0_eb9c5495742759b0a3bc363d13921cad.jpg Around 200 People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops came face-to-face with Indian soldiers in Arunachal Pradesh near Yangtse in the Tawang Sector last week during a patrol, News18.com reported on Friday, citing government sources.Describing it as "routine business", sources told the web-site that the incident had taken place last week as China's soldiers crossed India's line of perception of the LAC during a patrol and tried to destroy unoccupied bunkers in the area.The physical engagement reportedly lasted for a few hours before disengagement, but there was no damage to infrastructure.According to News18, a "few Chinese soldiers" were temporarily detained during the physical engagement but were later released after the matter was resolved at the local commanders' level. China has yet to comment on the report.Over the last few weeks, Chinese troops reportedly transgressed the border in areas such as Barahoti and Arunachal Pradesh, besides the ongoing stand-off in eastern Ladakh.On 30 September, Indian Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane said incidents would continue to occur due to differences in perception of the LAC. Later, after reviewing the security preparedness in Eastern Ladakh for two days, the Army chief said "considerable numbers" of deployment all across the northern front by China remained a "matter of concern for India". The military commanders of the two armies are expected to meet in the second week of October to discuss the disengagement process in several areas such as Depsang plains and Gogra in Eastern Ladakh. On Thursday, India's Ministry of External Affairs said that it expects an early resolution of the remaining border issues along the line of control in Eastern Ladakh. June last year, a violent face-off broke out between two armies in the Galwan Valley over infrastructure development in which 20 Indian soldiers and 4 Chinese troops were killed. https://sputniknews.com/20211005/india-set-to-take-delivery-of-s-400-order-by-december-as-china-plants-air-force-at-lac-iaf-chief-1089679201.html ladakh region china india arunachal pradesh Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg pla, ladakh region, china, india, indian foreign ministry, indian army, arunachal pradesh, indian defence ministry, people's liberation army (pla) navy, india https://sputniknews.com/20211008/indias-national-airline-air-india-back-in-founder-tata-sons-hands-after-68-years--1089767602.html India's National Airline 'Air India' Back in Founder Tata Sons' Hands After 68 Years India's National Airline 'Air India' Back in Founder Tata Sons' Hands After 68 Years The Indian government has been trying to sell its debt-ridden national airline Air India for the last few years. In 2018, it made an unsuccessful attempt to... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T13:53+0000 2021-10-08T13:53+0000 2021-10-08T13:53+0000 india air india tata group india /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/17/1080547844_0:63:1201:738_1920x0_80_0_0_c174aab37b0bc31192f57b00d01f900c.jpg On Friday, Air India returned to its founders after 68 years as Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Sons won the government's privatisation auction. The takeover announcement was made by Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, the government body responsible for privatisation. Tata Sons placed a winning bid of INR 180 billion ($2.4 billion). Of the total money, 15 percent will go to the government and the rest to clear the massive debt. "The transaction is planned to be closed by December," said Pandey. He revealed that a group of ministers, comprising federal Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia cleared the winning bid for Air India on 4 October. Air India operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft flying to over 100 domestic and international destinations. Tata Sons now has control of 4,400 domestic and 1,800 international landing and parking slots at Indian airports along with 900 slots at overseas airports. The Tata Group owns a majority stake in two other airlines, AirAsia India and Vistara. Apart from the 100 percent stake in Air India and its low cost arm Air India Express, the winning bid also includes a 50 percent stake in ground handling company Air India Airport Services Private Limited.Air India, which has the Maharaja as its mascot, was founded by Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata in 1932. It was originally called Tata Airlines. In 1948, the Air India International was launched with flights to Europe the service was among the first public-private partnerships in the country. In 1953, control over the airline was handed over to the federal government, however, over seven decades debts piled up and unpaid staff frequently staged protests. https://sputniknews.com/20200814/indias-top-business-group-tata-sons-plans-to-purchase-ailing-national-carrier-air-india-1080161842.html india Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Priya Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/01/1081944855_0:29:2048:2077_100x100_80_0_0_fcca548f1670eac15afebf8b8e336044.jpg Priya Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/01/1081944855_0:29:2048:2077_100x100_80_0_0_fcca548f1670eac15afebf8b8e336044.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Priya Yadav https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/01/1081944855_0:29:2048:2077_100x100_80_0_0_fcca548f1670eac15afebf8b8e336044.jpg india, air india, tata group, india https://sputniknews.com/20211008/indias-top-court-raps-bjp-led-uttar-pradesh-govt-for-delayed-action-over-lakhimpur-violence-1089766993.html India's Top Court Raps BJP-led Uttar Pradesh Govt for Delayed Action Over Lakhimpur Violence India's Top Court Raps BJP-led Uttar Pradesh Govt for Delayed Action Over Lakhimpur Violence At least eight people were killed on 3 October in the Lakhimpur Kheri District of India's Uttar Pradesh state after a protest by farmers - demanding last... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T15:55+0000 2021-10-08T15:55+0000 2021-10-08T16:55+0000 bharatiya janata party (bjp) world india uttar pradesh world india /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/06/1089706085_0:0:3071:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_98b2e538cddd9f46235f7621734e886e.jpg India's Supreme Court on Friday issued the government of Uttar Pradesh with a severe rebuke and said how dissatisfied it was with the way it has investigated and acted over the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri."We expect this to be a responsible government," the court said. "When there are serious allegations of murder and gunshot injury What message does it send (to the country)?" the three-judge bench, headed by India's chief justice Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, said in its observation. "If a section 302 [murder charge] case is registered in normal circumstances, what should the police do? Go and arrest the accused," the bench added, lambasting the state's constabulary for its apparently lackadaisical attitude. Violence in Lakhimpur Kheri left as many as eight dead on 3 October - including four farmers - after two SUVs belonging to a federal minister allegedly mowed down demonstrators blocking the road as part of a peaceful protest. Eyewitnesses claimed that rounds of gunshot were fired from the SUVs, hitting the deceased farmers. However, the autopsy report of the four farmers who died in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri revealed that they died from shock and internal haemorrhaging, and that no bullet injury was found.On Thursday evening, Uttar Pradesh police arrested two people and summoned Ashish Mishra - the son of Ajay Kumar Mishra, the federal minister for home affairs - for questioning. Farmers claim that Ashish Mishra was present in the car which mowed the farmers down. However, his father the minister denied the allegations. Noted Lawyer Harish Salve, representing the Uttar Pradesh government in the case, said: "I agree that not enough has been done."Chief justice Ramana added that the local government was all mouth. "Your seriousness is only in words and not in deeds," he said.Replying to this, Salve stated: "I have been assured at the highest level that action will be taken.".The court has now set aside 20 October as the date for the next hearing. india uttar pradesh Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg bharatiya janata party (bjp), world, india, uttar pradesh, world, india https://sputniknews.com/20211008/israel-hamas-inmate-swap-a-matter-of-time-but-jewish-state-needs-to-be-less-stubborn-says-analyst-1089757416.html Israel-Hamas Inmate Swap a 'Matter of Time' But Jewish State Needs to Be Less Stubborn, Says Analyst Israel-Hamas Inmate Swap a 'Matter of Time' But Jewish State Needs to Be Less Stubborn, Says Analyst The Islamic group that controls the Strip has called on Israel to release more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners held in jails on charges of terrorism... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T04:36+0000 2021-10-08T04:36+0000 2021-10-08T04:36+0000 hamas israel gaza middle east /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/16/1082966700_0:158:3079:1890_1920x0_80_0_0_76d811a8f93b21424416bcd71764f0e9.jpg Talks between a senior Hamas delegation and Egyptian intelligence representatives continue in Cairo.According to reports, the two sides are discussing a number of pressing issues. Those include the so-called Jerusalem file, Israel's activity in the city and ways to curb it; the reconstruction of Gaza, which has been partially destroyed in the recent round of hostilities; and Egyptian efforts to mediate and unite the Palestinians.Long-Lasting QuietAn Egyptian source who is involved in the negotiations has told Sputnik that the talks also revolve around a potential long-lasting truce between Israel and Hamas.Although the Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip has denied it (probably to avoid leaving the impression that it is giving concessions to Israel), the Egyptian official reassures that the talks are ongoing, but "things are still up in the air, with no breakthrough achieved".Reportedly, Hamas has green-lit a steady truce with Israel in exchange for the latter lifting its 15 year-long blockade of the Strip, which was imposed following the capture of the enclave by the militants from the terrorist group.Hussam al-Dajani, a Palestinian political expert affiliated with the Islamic group, who has been following the recent developments, says that the lifting of the blockade, if it ever happens, would be a major "Hamas achievement"."Such a move would end Gaza's isolation, it would improve the lives of the Palestinians and potentially pave the way for an independent Palestinian state".Prisoners' Swap on the Horizon?The lifting of the blockade is far from being the only condition that the Hamas officials are putting forward in exchange for a long-lasting quiet. They also demand that Israel ease its restrictions on the entry of construction materials into the enclave, they're calling on the Jewish state to let more Palestinian workers into Israeli territories, and they're urging that the continued reconstruction of Gaza, especially as many residential units, roads and government buildings were destroyed.Previously, Israel has conditioned its involvement in the reconstruction efforts, saying it would only be willing to invest money if Hamas released two civilians and returns the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed during operation Protective Edge in 2014.Recently, it has been reported that Israel has backed down from its previous demands but the negotiations around the prisoners' swap deal continue.So far, Israel and Hamas have been struggling to reach an agreement on that front. Hamas is demanding the release of more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, held in Israeli jails on charges of terrorism. They are also likely to urge the Jewish state to free the six Palestinian inmates, who escaped from the Gilboa prison in early September, a move that turned them into national heroes.Israel, for its part, objects to those demands, especially given the fact that the previous prisoners' swap -- which took place in 2011 following the release of the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit -- resulted in 15 percent of the freed inmates returning to terrorism activity.Yet, al-Dajani is certain that a deal will eventually be brokered."Egypt will do its best to make headway in this file, which is considered to be the most complicated issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The fact that Hamas' leader Yehiya Sinwar is attending the talks is an indication that a prisoners' swap is on the table. And I think, it is only a matter of time, until an official declaration is issued." https://sputniknews.com/20210914/with-israel--hamas-locking-horns-again-a-gaza-based-expert-says-full-fledged-war-still-unlikely--1089052255.html mandrake The failed geopolitical experiment to give the hews access to palestine must be stopped and the criminal jews sent on their next and everlasting diaspora - there is no need for the jews in the world since they steal kill and lie consistently! 0 1 israel gaza Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Elizabeth Blade Elizabeth Blade News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Elizabeth Blade hamas, israel, gaza, middle east https://sputniknews.com/20211008/mussolinis-granddaughter-gets-majority-of-votes-in-romes-elections-causes-uproar-1089779142.html Mussolini's Granddaughter Gets Majority of Votes in Rome's Elections, Causes Uproar Mussolini's Granddaughter Gets Majority of Votes in Rome's Elections, Causes Uproar ROME (Sputnik) - One of the granddaughters of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, Rachele Mussolini, won a majority of votes in Rome's city council... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T21:20+0000 2021-10-08T21:20+0000 2021-10-08T21:20+0000 benito mussolini italy rome city council elections senator right-wing /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/08/1089779098_0:0:2917:1640_1920x0_80_0_0_aee61830d2624e869ee5fb833fa27ee8.jpg The 47-year-old politician from the right-wing opposition party Brothers of Italy (Fratelli dItalia) has been a member of the Rome City Council for the past five years. In the recent election, she received 6,522 votes, more than any other candidate, and thereby won a second term as a city councilor.This immediately became the subject of heated debate on social media, as many Italians expressed anger that a granddaughter of the fascist dictator could earn such political recognition. Many local media outlets joined in on the criticism, aimed at the Brothers of Italy.In response to the criticism, Rachele said that her victory had nothing to do with her surname. According to the politician, the voters simply showed support for her hard work.Rachele Mussolini is a daughter of the famous jazz musician Romano Mussolini, the dictator's fourth child, and brother-in-law of Italian actress Sophia Loren. Rachele's half-sister Alessandra Mussolini was also involved in politics and was elected five times as a member of the national parliament, once as a senator and twice as a European parliamentarian, before retiring in 2020.Rachele also says that she has "many left-wing friends." Hess She "Cause uproar". What a load of Bullshit? The daughter of war criminal Dick Cheney is a US Congresswoman. Social media are NOT worried. 4 Preterist-ADSeventy Judea orchestrated WW2 to their advantage when they first declared war on Germany in 1933. They didnt like it when Hitler got rid of them in Germanys banks At the time they owned Germany with their private Rothschild bank. When Germany did that they declared war. They used their fascist USA along with their fascist Soviet Union to defeat Germany. They used Germany as a scapegoat accusing Germany of the very thing they were guilty of. Judea, the USA and the Soviet Union were the fascists not Germany or Italy. Their false accusations of Germany ultimately led to their creating the false, unBiblical fascist Israel we have today. 2 6 italy rome Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 benito mussolini, italy, rome, city council elections, senator, right-wing https://sputniknews.com/20211008/netflix-k-drama-my-name-cranks-up-the-tension-as-it-unveils-character-posters-1089765223.html Netflix K-Drama 'My Name' Cranks up the Tension as it Unveils Character Posters Netflix K-Drama 'My Name' Cranks up the Tension as it Unveils Character Posters After the huge international hit that was 'Squid Game', K-Drama is now flavour of the month so far as the streaming services are concerned and Netflix is no... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T12:18+0000 2021-10-08T12:18+0000 2021-10-08T12:18+0000 k-dramas south korea film /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/08/1089768193_0:0:1024:576_1920x0_80_0_0_0d0603f82151b84a7ecb2857367c5557.jpg 'My Name', the latest K-Drama Netflix original series which is due to hit our screens soon, on 8 October unveiled individual posters of the main actors in the thriller - Han So-hee, Park Hee-soon, and Ahn Bo-hyun.The plot revolves around a young woman, Ji Woo (Han So-hee), who seeks revenge for the death of her father. To do this she must infiltrate the police, a task made all the more problematic as she works for a gang boss Mu Jin (Park Hee-soon), who, as an old friend of her father, has vowed to help her track down her father's murderer. After joining the police, Ji Woo is partnered with hard-bitten, misanthropic cop, Pil Do (Ahn Bo-hyun), who looks down on his rookie with contempt and treats her with ineffable scorn. Three out of eight episodes were screened at the 26th Busan International Film Festival in the newly created 'On Screen' section on 7 October and the series will premiere on 15 October in 190 countries through global streaming platform Netflix. K-Drama all around the world are keenly looking forward to a new thrilling noir detective series. south korea Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Martha Yiling https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1a/1081573806_0:0:404:404_100x100_80_0_0_4dc70f9169ad4580a8dff86e9af042ca.jpg Martha Yiling https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1a/1081573806_0:0:404:404_100x100_80_0_0_4dc70f9169ad4580a8dff86e9af042ca.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Martha Yiling https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1a/1081573806_0:0:404:404_100x100_80_0_0_4dc70f9169ad4580a8dff86e9af042ca.jpg k-dramas, south korea, film https://sputniknews.com/20211008/no-fun-and-games-danish-parliament-shows-lawmaker-the-door-for-bringing-in-baby-1089761392.html No Fun and Games: Danish Parliament Shows Lawmaker the Door for Bringing in Baby No Fun and Games: Danish Parliament Shows Lawmaker the Door for Bringing in Baby This is the second time in recent years when a Danish MP has been asked to leave the parliament after taking a baby along. By contrast, New Zealand Prime... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T08:07+0000 2021-10-08T08:07+0000 2021-10-08T08:16+0000 denmark news women parliament scandinavia /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/08/1089761682_0:6:3072:1734_1920x0_80_0_0_371d094f2734654c92b3dfca432b858f.jpg MP Pernille Skipper of the Red-Green Alliance, who brought her baby to Thursday's hearing, has been asked to leave the parliamentary chamber.Following the incident, the Red-Green Alliance's former political spokeswoman refused to comment, but sarcastically described her quiet, sleeping baby as the biggest headache of Pia Kjrsgaard, who was Acting Speaker at the time, filling in for Henrik Dam Kristensen.According to the newspaper Ekstra Bladet, Kjrsgaard asked Skipper to leave the room via two post-it notes which were passed on to her by an assistant. Kjrsgaard, the founder and former leader of the Danish Peoples Party defended her decision and said that fellow MPs sided with her.Speaker Henrik Dam Kristensen said Kjrsgaards actions were legally justified.The presidium took in 2019 the decision that babies dont belong in the parliament chamber. That decision has not been changed, he said.This is the second time in recent years when a Danish MP has been asked to leave parliament after taking their infant along to a debate. Incidentally, Pia Kjrsgaard was involved in both instances.In March 2019, she ordered Conservative MP Mette Abildgaard to remove her infant daughter from the parliaments chamber. This episode sparked an international debate and a bout of self-searching in a country that is hailed as a pioneer of womens rights.This also appears to go against the current internationally. In 2016, an Icelandic MP made headlines over breastfeeding her infant while speaking at the podium. The same year, New Zealandic Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was hailed for bringing her baby to the UN General Assembly. Hess YOU ARE THE DIRTIEST SCUM I KNOW. 0 1 denmark scandinavia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Igor Kuznetsov Igor Kuznetsov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Igor Kuznetsov denmark, news, women, parliament, scandinavia https://sputniknews.com/20211008/ohio-pennsylvania-im-from-pennsylvania-biden-delivers-fresh-round-of-gaffes-1089776337.html 'Ohio Pennsylvania, I'm From Pennsylvania': Biden Delivers Fresh Round of Gaffes 'Ohio Pennsylvania, I'm From Pennsylvania': Biden Delivers Fresh Round of Gaffes In one remark of his, Biden spoke about Ohio Pennsylvania," while seemingly trying to refer to the President of the State Senate of Illinois, Don Harmon. 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T18:51+0000 2021-10-08T18:51+0000 2021-10-08T18:51+0000 joe biden us illinois speech gaffe /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/16/1089292327_0:0:3073:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_246165caf66a5fe61ba8dde10a82d279.jpg US President Joe Biden has left a number of social media users amused and/or scratching their heads following remarks he made during his recent visit to the state of Illinois.During a speech he delivered at Elk Grove Village, Biden said: "Mr. Mayor, thanks for the passport into town. I tell you, every time I come to the Greater Chicago Area, there's somebody I want to steal and bring back to Washington.This remark of his elicited a somewhat mixed reaction online, as while some argued that he was referring to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, thus misgendering her, others insisted that he was actually referring to Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson.The president, however, later went on to deliver this line as he was apparently trying to refer to Don Harmon, President of the State Senate of Illinois: "And the Ohio Pennsylvania, the Ohio Pennsylvania, I'm from Pennsylvania, the Illinois President Don Harmon."And in yet another remark of his, Biden first proceeded to say that he was on the television, before correcting himself and explaining that he was actually on the telephone with a person at an emergency hospital ward. illinois Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Andrei Dergalin Andrei Dergalin News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Andrei Dergalin joe biden, us, illinois, speech, gaffe https://sputniknews.com/20211008/ottawa-fails-to-order-whistleblower-manning-to-come-to-canada-to-deport-her-reports-say-1089769634.html Ottawa Fails to Order Whistleblower Manning to Come to Canada to Deport Her, Reports Say Ottawa Fails to Order Whistleblower Manning to Come to Canada to Deport Her, Reports Say MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Canadian government has asked the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) to order former US army intelligence analyst and whistleblower... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T12:37+0000 2021-10-08T12:37+0000 2021-10-08T12:37+0000 chelsea manning whistleblower world /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107849/87/1078498781_0:161:3067:1886_1920x0_80_0_0_ab6e785d2fa6c694720d6ef7b307e7bb.jpg The request was sent last week in anticipation of the hearing on whether Manning, who was responsible for the leak of thousands of US classified documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has the right to enter Canada. Manning said she wanted to go to Canada to visit friends. The hearing was held by videoconference.The newspaper reported that lawyers asked the IRB, on behalf of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair, to postpone the hearing until Manning is in Canada to attend it in person, rather than via internet from her home in the United States.The IRB dismissed the request on Monday, saying that its goal is to ensure that people who are not allowed to be in Canada are not in the country.In August 2013, Manning born male as Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for leaking scores of military and diplomatic files and documents to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. She was credited with exposing US human rights violations and potential war crimes in Iraq, among other abuses. While in prison, Manning completed her gender change.In January 2017, Manning's defence requested a pardon from former US President Barack Obama and received a reduction of the sentence to a total of seven years. She was released in May of that year. Manning was later summoned to the court to testify against Julian Assange, which she refused to do, ending up in prison once again. It was not until the analyst attempted suicide in March 2020 that the court ceased action against her. Sputnik User mohammed, why don't you go fuck yourself? 0 Willyspit He can't, his cock is too sore from all the herpes. 0 2 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 chelsea manning, whistleblower, world https://sputniknews.com/20211008/outrage-as-denmark-evacuates-more-daesh-women-and-children-from-syria-1089759664.html Outrage as Denmark Evacuates More Daesh Women and Children From Syria Outrage as Denmark Evacuates More Daesh Women and Children From Syria Opposition parties called the repatriation completely wrong, reminded of the fact that the women turned their backs on Denmark and joined the terrorists of... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T07:51+0000 2021-10-08T07:51+0000 2021-10-08T07:51+0000 denmark news syria scandinavia daesh /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/07/1089753220_0:303:3072:2031_1920x0_80_0_0_fe8b84b1e958b28b0e68cf1f350a406f.jpg Three Daesh* women and their fourteen children have been repatriated to Denmark in a government effort from the al-Roj detention camp for former terrorists, militants and sympathisers in Syria, Danish Radio reported.The women, who willingly travelled to Syria and joined Daesh in 2014, were placed police custody and are scheduled to appear at preliminary court hearings behind closed doors, charged with joining Daesh.The National Board of Social Services said that the children will have calm futures and would not be given special treatment of either positive or negative variety.Earlier, Abdulkarim Omar, the head of foreign affairs in the de facto Kurdish-administered part of Syria, said that the continued presence of these children in this area will create a new generation of terrorists, nurtured by the desire for revenge. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen pledged that these women were the last of their kind and that the government would not repatriate any more parents from the camps in Syria, in effect repeating her previous stance that the government is willing to help children, but not adults who turned their backs on Denmark.However, the repatriation decision sparked outrage in Danish parliament.The liberal-conservative Venstre Party's foreign spokesman Michael Aastrup Jensen called it sad, referencing Mette Frederiksen's U-turn on the repatriation issue. In 2019, she firmly said that Denmark would assist neither former jihadists, nor their children, yet backed down, not least following the pressure from allied parties. This stance was echoed by Danish People's Party foreign affairs spokesperson Pia Kjrsgaard who said it was completely wrong to take them to Denmark.Contrary to what the Prime Minister has repeatedly said. Breach of promise that will be costly for taxpayers. Denmark is not responsible for those who have turned their backs on it, Kjrsgaard tweeted.Earlier this year, a majority of Danes (56 percent) argued that children from the prison camps should not be followed home by their mothers.According to Henrik Qvortrup, political editor at the newspaper BT, this puts pressure on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and may even become crucial in the future. Earlier, he called the issue life-threatening and ventured that Frederiksen may survive the children, but not necessarily the mothers.By contrast, former Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard of the Social Liberal Party called the evacuation a relief. He ventured that the women could not be properly prosecuted in Syria and emphasised that it was completely in line with the Danish Security Service PET's recommendations for the country's own security, even though it maintained that some of the children were approaching an age group particularly vulnerable to indoctrination, radicalisation, or even arms training.Overall, about 150 Danish residents are estimated to have left the country to join forces with jihadists and terrorists in the Middle East. As of now, at least four women with five Danish children remain in the camps in Syria. The women were administratively deprived of their Danish citizenship, and are not eligible for repatriation.* Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/"Islamic State") is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and other countries denmark scandinavia daesh Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Igor Kuznetsov Igor Kuznetsov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Igor Kuznetsov denmark, news, syria, scandinavia, daesh https://sputniknews.com/20211008/over-70-palestinians-hurt-in-clashes-with-israeli-troops-red-crescent-says-1089778968.html Over 70 Palestinians Hurt in Clashes With Israeli Troops, Red Crescent Says Over 70 Palestinians Hurt in Clashes With Israeli Troops, Red Crescent Says GAZA (Sputnik) - Seventy-four Palestinians were hurt in clashes with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T21:06+0000 2021-10-08T21:06+0000 2021-10-08T21:06+0000 west bank israel clashes palestinians israeli settlements /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/08/1089778940_0:320:3072:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_c66145ec4644b1cb60326a5ea2dc7b56.jpg Fighting erupted south of the city of Nablus where a Jewish settlement is being built in violation of international laws. The United Nations considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal.The Israel Defense Forces told Sputnik that hundreds of Palestinians set tires on fire and hurled rocks at the personnel guarding the construction site. The army used crowd-control techniques to break up the demonstration. TruePatriot The zio-criminals continue with genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes. 2 Debbie I've been thinking today about giving some people someone else's property and then everyone watching while the true owners have to eat the givens shit. 1 2 west bank israel Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 west bank, israel, clashes, palestinians, israeli settlements https://sputniknews.com/20211008/projectile-hits-king-abdullah-airport-in-saudi-arabias-jazan-5-civilians-injured---reports-1089777847.html 10 Injured After Houthi Drone Attack at King Abdullah Airport in Saudi Arabia's Jazan - Reports 10 Injured After Houthi Drone Attack at King Abdullah Airport in Saudi Arabia's Jazan - Reports This comes after Houthis launched an explosive-laden UAV towards Abha International Airport in the Kingdom's southwestern Asir Province, injuring four airport... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T20:03+0000 2021-10-08T20:03+0000 2021-10-08T23:35+0000 houthis saudi arabia yemen airport drone attack injuries rebels /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107909/79/1079097931_0:52:1000:615_1920x0_80_0_0_e1f27e9bc9254b100e9006e19a645762.jpg An explosive-laden drone, reportedly fired by Yemeni Houthi rebels, has struck the King Abdullah International Airport in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led coalition announced on late Friday.Initial reports suggested there were at least five injured as a result of the attack, but state media later raised that number to 10.Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki, the official spokesman for the coalition forces, said via state media that there have been minor injuries among passengers and airport workers, adding that the incident is being followed up by the requisite authorities.First pictures allegedly showing the aftermath of the attack have emerged on social media.The Houthis often use drones with explosives to attack Saudi border areas.Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces, led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthi rebels for several years, with the Houthi movement taking control of large parts in the country's north.Since March 2015, the Saudi-led Arab alliance, working in cooperation with Hadi's forces, has been conducting air, land and sea operations against the rebels, who control the capital of Sanaa and large areas in northern and western Yemen. By 2019, the conflict was deemed a military stalemate.At the same time, the developments have been largely described as a proxy war between Iran and Saudia Arabia. The two regional powers have been vying for political and economic influence in the region while avoiding serious confrontations. https://sputniknews.com/20211003/saudi-arabia-says-in-robust-dialogue-with-us-to-end-war-in-yemen-1089626294.html newGeneration yemen won the war against the world, nobody helped them nobody bothered. Well done my houthis brothers and sisters that dont sell out to riba 9 Charlie McD Ya beauty ye! 4 5 yemen Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Nevin Brown Nevin Brown News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Nevin Brown houthis, saudi arabia, yemen, airport, drone attack, injuries, rebels https://sputniknews.com/20211008/shot-ourselves-in-the-foot-graham-says-gop-blinked-on-debt-ceiling-opposition-pledge-1089777230.html Shot Ourselves in the Foot: Graham Says GOP Blinked on Debt Ceiling Opposition Pledge Shot Ourselves in the Foot: Graham Says GOP Blinked on Debt Ceiling Opposition Pledge Republicans are licking their wounds on Friday after 11 senators crossed the aisle the day prior to vote for increasing the debt ceiling after pledging for... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T19:14+0000 2021-10-08T19:14+0000 2021-10-08T19:15+0000 lindsey graham us senate us debt ceiling filibuster /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/07/13/1083411330_0:0:3071:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_1e3d43151069f54c7deb5ee64a32b1c2.jpg In a surprising move on Thursday, 61 senators - all 50 Democrats plus 11 Republicans - moved to clear the way for a vote on raising the debt ceiling. In the vote that followed, the 50 Democrats succeeded in passing the bill as 48 voted against it and two abstained.In exchange for their support, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) changed the increase to be by a specific dollar amount - $480 billion - instead of the outright suspension the Democrats had sought. The increase will last the federal government until December.Speaking to Fox News Sean Hannity on Thursday evening after the vote, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was not one of the 11 aisle-crossers, said the GOP had blinked after two months of promising their supporters they would oppose the Democratic agenda.Two things have happened: We let our people down, and we made Democrats believe that we are all talk and no action. At the end of the day, every Republican voted against raising the debt ceiling, every Democratic senator voted for it. But we had a process in place. We made a promise, for two months, that we would make them do it without our help and we folded, and I hate that. Were in a hole; weve got to dig out of this hole and we can. We shot ourselves in the foot tonight, but we will revisit this issue in December, he added.When Hannity pressed him on why Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had buckled at the last minute, Graham said the Democrats had threatened to invoke the nuclear option, a parliamentary procedure that would annul the filibuster rule. We cannot live like that, he said.The filibuster has been an essential tool for Senate Republicans to stonewall much of Bidens political agenda, including the massive infrastructure bill currently being debated, as well as the American Families Plan and the Equality Act. The rule allows lawmakers to continue debate indefinitely, preventing a bill from being brought to a vote, and can be overridden by a 60-vote supermajority.Things can change quickly in Capitol Hill politics, as the sudden debt ceiling deal proves, but as late as Wednesday, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat seen as a kingmaker for any Senate deal, said he would be against invoking the nuclear option to force the debt ceiling bill through.Raising the debt ceiling allows the federal government to borrow more money, which is used to both finance its programs, as well as to service the interest on the existing debt. If the ceiling had not been raised, the US would have faced a default on its debts, something its never done before that could seriously affect its credit rating.Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who formerly chaired the Federal Reserve, the USs state bank, warned that if the debt ceiling wasnt raised by October 18, it would plunge the US into an economic recession and undermine the worlds confidence in the US dollar as a reserve currency.The debt ceiling isnt an inherent part of American politics, either: it was created in 1917 as the US government sold massive amounts of Liberty Bonds to finance its entry into the First World War. Since then, it has been increased more than 100 times and presently stands at $28.5 trillion. Unless the federal government ends its annual deficit spending - either by slashing costs or raising taxes and tariffs - the US national debt will steadily increase. fluttershield mlp No, Congress continues to shoot Americans in the back. 2 NthrnNYker59 Talk about 'blinking' ---- I CANNOT believe that Russia is going to allow Nuland into the country ! ! ! ! ! ! 1 4 us Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Morgan Artyukhina https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/04/17/1082703728_0:0:800:800_100x100_80_0_0_0b6ce8daa7411284d60c8a0b6d84186d.jpg Morgan Artyukhina https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/04/17/1082703728_0:0:800:800_100x100_80_0_0_0b6ce8daa7411284d60c8a0b6d84186d.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Morgan Artyukhina https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/04/17/1082703728_0:0:800:800_100x100_80_0_0_0b6ce8daa7411284d60c8a0b6d84186d.jpg lindsey graham, us senate, us, debt ceiling, filibuster https://sputniknews.com/20211008/uk-launches-biggest-flu-campaign-in-nhs-history-amid-warning-60000-lives-may-be-lost-this-winter-1089758288.html UK Launches Biggest Flu Campaign in NHS History Amid Warning 60,000 Lives May Be Lost This Winter UK Launches Biggest Flu Campaign in NHS History Amid Warning 60,000 Lives May Be Lost This Winter A report released by the Academy of Medical Sciences in July predicted that COVID-19, the flu, and the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), could push the UKs... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T05:26+0000 2021-10-08T05:26+0000 2021-10-08T05:39+0000 flu flu vaccine national health service (nhs) respiratory problems uk news sajid javid covid-19 /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/03/07/1082278394_0:151:3105:1898_1920x0_80_0_0_2029ac558a19d23477a24122fd5ff586.jpg UK health chiefs have warned that there is a "realistic possibility" the country will have to grapple with a surge in flu cases this winter, reported Sky News.National Health Service (NHS) deputy vaccination programme head, Dr. Nikki Kanani echoed the warning: "We do have an increased risk from flu and COVID this year."As extremely low flu infection rates were registered the previous winter, experts warn of a lack of immunity.Furthermore, this winter is facing a triple threat of flu (influenza), COVID-19 and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).All this is compounded by the fact that social distancing measures, earlier in place amid the pandemic, have been removed in the country, resulting in increased mixing and travel borders opening up.According to Jonathan Van-Tam, the winter of 1989/90, when around 19,000 excess flu deaths were registered, can be considered a "marker".Triple ThreatThis year, experts from the Academy of Medical Sciences predict deaths and hospitalisations from flu could double.A report commissioned earlier in summer from the Academy concluded that the National Health Service (NHS) could be pushed to near breaking point amid the extra winter health challenges.The report, "COVID-19: Preparing for the future, looking ahead to winter 2021/22 and beyond", found that hospital admissions and deaths from flu and RSV could be more than double those seen in a normal year. Modelling for the report showed that this could result in an estimated 60,000 flu deaths and 40,000 children in hospital with RSV.Experts emphasized that as a possible surge in flu cases would coincide with an increase of COVID-19 infections, the NHS would be faced with a backlog of routine care, while also operating with a reduced number of beds due to infection control measures.The report warned of a staff shortage of nearly 84,000 experienced by the NHS.Furthermore, flu, RSV and other respiratory viruses share the same symptoms as COVID-19, so the importance of tests to distinguish between was underscored. The health experts called for measures to ensure those eligible for a flu vaccination get the shots.Massive Flu Jab RolloutIn response to concerns about the triple health threat, the UK government has launched the biggest flu jab programme in the history of the NHS. Over 35 million people in England are eligible for a free vaccine, including secondary school pupils up to year 11.The NHS hopes to administer the flu jab to at least 85 percent of people aged 65 and over. At least 75 percent of people with underlying health conditions, 75 percent of pregnant women, 70 percent of eligible children and at least 85 percent of all health and social care workers are also to be targeted.A new campaign film is out, urging people to book jab appointments. People are urged to get flu inoculations as well as COVID-19 booster vaccines. Around 1.7 million people have received the third coronavirus jab so far, with another 28 million people in England eligible.While an average of 11,000 people die from flu in England, a recent survey commissioned by the Cabinet Office revealed that over half of the 3,000 respondents (55%) believe the number is lower than that.Nearly one in three of those surveyed did not know that flu and COVID-19 could circulate simultaneously. Over a quarter of those polled were unaware that flu can be fatal. TruePatriot LOLOLOLOL - what they mean is that they will call it the flu, but it's actually those that got the death in a bottle jabs keeling over. Last year, the flu got re-labelled as covid, so the jabbed folks will be re-labelled as flu sufferers. Time to end the medical malpractice and the tyranny. 5 tim So let me understand this. We have just had what is claimed to be a pandemic of covid 19, but the social distancing measures, handwashing, vaccination, and quarantines failed to stop it, but simultaneously prevented the same sort of flu incidence? Why are these people, Mrs "Van Tam" included, such blatant liars? Is it not the case that by vaccinating millions of people, their immune systems have been dealt a fatal blow, thus rendering them much more likely to succumb to other viruses? 0 4 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko flu, flu vaccine, national health service (nhs), respiratory problems, uk, news, sajid javid, covid-19 https://sputniknews.com/20211008/us-to-meet-taliban-officials-in-doha-this-weekend-will-not-legitimize-group---reports-1089781678.html US to Meet Taliban Officials in Doha This Weekend, Will Not Legitimize Group - Reports US to Meet Taliban Officials in Doha This Weekend, Will Not Legitimize Group - Reports WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A US delegation will travel to Doha, Qatar, over the weekend to meet with senior Taliban* officials to discuss issues in Afghanistan... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T23:23+0000 2021-10-08T23:23+0000 2021-10-08T23:33+0000 us talks islamists afghanistan /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/15/1089282914_0:0:3104:1747_1920x0_80_0_0_aa093902fac9f8fb9396d22c046c9c71.jpg The US delegation will be made up of officials from the State Department and the US intelligence community, the report said.The topics of discussion at the meeting will be ensuring the safe passage of Americans and others out of Afghanistan, the release of US citizen Mark Frerichs, and warning about the potential resurgence of extremist groups, the report said.US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad will not be included in the meeting, the report said.In mid-August, the Taliban entered Kabul, and announced the next day that the war in the country was over. The last province to resist the group, Panjshir, surrendered on September 6. As international troops withdrew from the country and foreign evacuations came to a close, the Taliban announced the composition of their interim cabinet, headed by Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a former foreign minister during the previous Taliban rule, who has been under UN sanctions since 2001.*A terrorist organization banned in Russia FeEisi Russia and the Taliban can make an agreement to open a drone base to fight ISIS. Russia can operate drones in Afghanistan and help the Taliban fight ISIS. Russia can also help the Taliban secure the northern border. This will stop ISIS from spreading into Tajikistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. 3 FeEisi Russia can also provide funding to the Taliban to help secure the northern border. Russia and the Taliban can explore other areas of cooperation. 3 3 us afghanistan Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 us, talks, islamists, afghanistan https://sputniknews.com/20211008/warmonger-congress-is-a-hindrance-to-peace-us-making-plans-for-failed-jcpoa-talks-1089756993.html Warmonger Congress is a Hindrance to Peace; US Making Plans for Failed JCPOA Talks Warmonger Congress is a Hindrance to Peace; US Making Plans for Failed JCPOA Talks The ultra hawkish United States Congress is blocking moves to reset relations with China and adopt a "no first use" of nukes policy. 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T11:17+0000 2021-10-08T11:17+0000 2021-10-15T09:55+0000 nord stream pipeline project abu zubaydah new york times gas scotus joint comprehensive plan of action (jcpoa) eu jcpoa the critical hour /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/08/1089756968_55:0:1299:700_1920x0_80_0_0_2688bcabeba06a6e7e7b4b81572617f1.png Warmonger Congress is a Hindrance to Peace; US Making Plans for Failed JCPOA Talks The ultra hawkish United States Congress is blocking moves to reset relations with China and adopt a "no first use" of nukes policy. Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, joins us to discuss Iran. The US and Israel are discussing "other options" when the US does not re-enter the Iran nuclear plan. Also, we discuss the twisted logic of the JCPOA opposition in which these war hawks argue the opposite of reality.Teresa Lundy, principal and founder of TML Communications, a leading public relations, communications, and advocacy firm in Pennsylvania, and business columnist at Metro Philly, joins us to discuss Roe v. Wade. A federal judge has blocked the implementation of the Texas anti-abortion law. Also, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in another draconian abortion law passed in Mississippi.Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss Eastern Europe. NATO has expelled eight Russian diplomats over alleged claims of "undisclosed espionage." Also, natural gas prices in Europe are falling after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he will boost supplies to Europe.Dan Lazare, investigative journalist and author of "America's Undeclared War," joins us to discuss Congressional warmongers. The ultra hawkish United States Congress is blocking moves to reset relations with China and adopt a "no first use" of nukes policy. Congress is a major hurdle to peaceful change in the US because they use foreign policy bravado for domestic political purposes.Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst, joins us to discuss US foreign policy. US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to a virtual meeting as the US empire's aggression towards China threatens to spin out of control. Also, the US State Department claims that they are ready to deal directly with the Taliban in what appears to be a de facto recognition of their authority.Steve Poikonen, national organizer for Action4Assange, joins us to discuss the media. Our hosts discuss the methods that Western media currently uses to propagandize and mislead their readers regarding China. Also, The New York Times publishes a fake news report and continues to spread falsehoods after the information in the article is proven to be incorrect.John Kiriakou, journalist, author and host of The Back Story, joins us to discuss the CIA's torture program. He argues that Guantanamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah should be released by the Supreme Court. Zubaydah has been held and tortured for many years in violation of US and international law.Gary Flowers, host of The Gary Flowers Show on radio station Rejoice WREJ-AM 990, joins us to discuss militarized police. US police departments have been armed with military weapons and trained in violence by international groups. We discuss whether the police need these weapons and why they are employed against citizens of the US empire. Is the War on Terror coming home?We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com Truth 101 CHRISTIAN LAW --- ABORTION --- Matthew 5:38 --- "Do not use force to overcome evil. If they strike you on the right cheek, turn to them the other. If they take you to court to steal your coat, give them your suit as well." For the individual right of conscience, the right of a woman to choose of her own freewill to endure the main cause of death among women of child bearing age, the act of giving birth, this must be granted. For if giving birth is not a freewill act of love, but instead a legal obligation, than we are all creatures of the state and a human conscience does not exist. 0 1 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Wilmer Leon https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/12/1082114047_0:-1:238:238_100x100_80_0_0_4e3adef3e334e381bffe19d388f4b776.jpg Wilmer Leon https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/12/1082114047_0:-1:238:238_100x100_80_0_0_4e3adef3e334e381bffe19d388f4b776.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Wilmer Leon https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/12/1082114047_0:-1:238:238_100x100_80_0_0_4e3adef3e334e381bffe19d388f4b776.jpg nord stream pipeline project, abu zubaydah, new york times, gas, scotus, joint comprehensive plan of action (jcpoa), eu, jcpoa, the critical hour, , radio https://sputniknews.com/20211008/zodiac-killer-still-unknown-say-authorities-dismissing-cold-case-breakers-circumstantial-proof-1089760539.html 'Zodiac Killer' Still Unknown Say Authorities, Dismissing Cold Case Breakers Circumstantial' Proof 'Zodiac Killer' Still Unknown Say Authorities, Dismissing Cold Case Breakers Circumstantial' Proof The so-called Zodiac Killer, who was never caught, operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. He left five known victims in the San Francisco Bay Area... 08.10.2021, Sputnik International 2021-10-08T07:07+0000 2021-10-08T07:07+0000 2021-10-08T07:21+0000 us serial killer san francisco police cold cases /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/0a/06/1089721313_0:133:3000:1821_1920x0_80_0_0_32fcf63982b85f544071a4aa35e15197.jpg The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and law enforcement agencies have batted down claims that an infamous serial killer who murdered at least five people in northern California in the late-sixties has been identified. According to officials in California cited by the San Francisco Chronicle, the man identified by a posse of private investigators as the so-called Zodiac Killer is not currently a suspect in the case.Circumstantial Evidence San Francisco and Riverside police dismissed what has been presented by a team of cold case specialists comprising around 40 volunteers from law enforcement, military, legal and academic backgrounds as circumstantial evidence. On Wednesday, the Case Breakers announced, via press release, that a now-deceased man named Gary Francis Poste was the Zodiac Killer. The team claimed to have "signed up eyewitnesses, filed court affidavits, and secured decades of pictures from Poste's former darkroom" to back up their allegations. Citing new physical and forensic evidence, they also added that Poste, an Air Force veteran who died in 2018, was "a very strong suspect" in the death of a waitress named Cheri Jo Bates, an assumed-but-not-definite Zodiac victim.a teenage girl hundreds of miles away from the area where the slayings had occurred, in a case never linked to the Zodiac. Among the evidence presented were "irrefutable" similarities between Poste and a 1969 police sketch of the Zodiac, such as the furrowing or lines on their foreheads. Ex-Army counterintelligence agent Jen Bucholtz, a member of the team, said the deciphered letters that the Zodiac killer had taunted the police with contain anagrams of Poste's full name. The Zodiac killer throughout his slaying spree had sent mysterious ciphered letters and cards to the newspapers and to police. The serial killer also claimed to have murdered 37 people, yet investigators had been working on the basis of seven known victims, five of them homicides. Deciphering Breakthrough in CaseIn December 2020 independent code-breakers finally cracked a 340-character cipher consisting of rows of capital letters and symbols, which was purportedly sent to the San Francisco Chronicle by the so-called Zodiac Killer. Three people: Virginia web-designer David Oranchak, Australian applied mathematician Sam Blake and Belgian code-breaking software engineer Jarl Van Eycke had ostensibly revealed the letter said:The code-breaking team said they dedicated their efforts to the killer's victims and their relatives. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, two other encoded messages attributed to the killer remain to be decoded. The first murders attributed to the Zodiac killer began in December 1968, with a man and a woman were shot dead in their car. Another man and woman were shot in July 1969, with the man surviving. That same year a couple were stabbed next to a lake, with the man surviving. In October 1969, a cab driver was shot dead in San Francisco. Among a plethora of theories and speculations regarding the identity of the killer, Who himself originated the name Zodiac for himself, only one suspect was ever named by authorities. The man, Arthur Leigh Allen, a former elementary school teacher and convicted sex offender, died in 1992. Two films have been inspired by the unsolved serial killer mystery: Zodiac, featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal, in 2007, and Dirty Harry in 1971 starring Clint Eastwood. Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko us, serial killer, san francisco police, cold cases Housing and transportation is scarce. Since there is no U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan anymore, those she is assisting with special immigrant visas are also needing help getting out of the country safely to embassies in other countries. Its a high risk to try and cross the border, Cervantes said. Many Afghans do not have visas. They did not plan to leave the country. Now they dont have a choice, she said. Cervantes said there are some 300,000 people who worked with the American government and military during the 20-year occupation. Some 50,000 were helped out in the hectic days after the government fell, she said. Cervantes is doing much of her work pro bono or with minimal fees to cover things like shipping and printing. This is a great injustice, and I need to speak up for those who dont have a voice, she said. Cervantes said she fell in love with the Afghan people through the ongoing process and that the Afghan people love America. They experienced democracy and want to be a part of it and are very upset it failed. They wanted to build this great future with our soldiers and the governmentall that hard work and sacrifice erased in the blink of an eye, she said. They are hoping to be part of the U.S. where they can be part of that again. Ava Thomas, the president and publisher of the Lincoln Journal Star, also will take on the same roles at the Omaha World-Herald, Lee Enterprises announced Friday. Thomas, 48, replaces Julie Bechtel, 59, who has overseen the Omaha paper's operations since 2018. Bechtel plans to run a family business in Iowa with her son. The move is effective Nov. 1. Despite having the same publisher, Thomas said, the papers will continue to operate independently. As a native of Nebraska, I have always admired The World-Heralds commitment to Omaha and the state, Thomas said. I look forward to working with this great team and contributing to its long legacy of civic leadership and business innovation. Thomas joined Lee Enterprises in 1995 and held several leadership positions at the Journal Star, including advertising director and general manager, before being named publisher in 2014. She was named a senior corporate sales executive by Lee in 2015. Besides serving as publisher of Nebraska's two largest newspapers, Thomas also will serve as group publisher for Lee properties in Nebraska and Iowa. About Buckboard Therapeutic Riding Academy | Gering NE Since 1998, Buckboard - Located in Gering, Nebraska - has been offering equine-assisted activities and pleasure horseback riding to disabled adults and children. This program combines instruction in traditional horsemanship skills with the concepts of physical therapy. We have assisted hundreds of disabled persons through our unique combination of therapy riding, riding instruction, and recreational riding. The program provides services tailored to meet the specific needs of each individual rider, regardless of age or disability. Buckboard continues to empower individuals with the beauty of horses and is only able to do so by the generous support of its volunteers and donors! Therapeutic horseback riding for disabled persons first began in Europe over sixty years ago. It found its way to the United States in the 1940s. There are two forms of horseback riding that can be utilized. The form that Buckboard uses, Therapeutic Riding, is the use of horses for any combination of recreation, education, and medical therapy for people with disabilities. More About Buckboard Therapeutic Riding Academy | Gering NE Enhancing the quality of life of people with disabilities through participation in equine assisted activities. The riders enjoy benefits physically, psychologically, behaviorally, and cognitively. They develop increased social interaction, abstract learning, self-awareness, functional mobility, posture, and balance. Buckboard's Indoor Arena Project In Full Swing! Buckboard's Indoor Arena Project, our founder's 20 year dream, is moving fast! We have secured the property that was so graciously donated, the contracting bids are in, and we are now ready to raise the funding needed to finally begin the building phase! Buckboard has raised about half of the funds needed to complete this project, so if you or anyone you know would be willing to help buckboard help the special needs children/adults and veterans of this area, you can donate to Buckboard Therapeutic Riding Academy's Indoor Arena Project Fund account at either the Scottsbluff or Gering First State Bank! Message Buckboard, Kathleen Gatch, or Makinzie Gregory on Facebook with questions! Or, call 308-783-2319! Volunteers are always welcome. If you know a child that could benefit from our program please give us a call! We are currently taking registrations for Riders and Volunteers Click here to sign up as a rider Click here volunteer You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Driving and flying are huge contributors to carbon emissions and climate change. So Google is helping users make more informed decisions about how they travel. The company is releasing features on Google Maps and Google Flights to show how travel plans may contribute to climate change. Eco-friendly routes In addition to showing drivers the fastest way to get to their destination, Google Maps will now show the route that's the most fuel-efficient. To provide the new feature, Google incorporated data from the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which estimates that eco-friendly routing has the potential to prevent more than one million tons of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere per year. That's the equivalent of removing 200,000 cars from the road, Google claims. On the Google Maps app, the most eco-friendly route will display with a small green leaf next to it. The route option will include information about how long the trip will take and how much fuel the driver could save. Options for bikers Similar arrests have been made across the country over the past few weeks. In a press conference last Thursday, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said the DEA, in partnership with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, launched a public safety surge to combat a flood of fentanyl and fentanyl- laced pills across the US. At least nine overdose deaths are being investigated in connection with the probe. As part of the surge, Milgram said nearly 100 investigations had been launched and more than 60 search warrants had been executed resulting in 810 arrests and the seizure of 1.8 million fentanyl containing pills. Milgram said felony charges are pending in both state and federal courts. To put it simply, in eight weeks the DEA and our partners have seized enough fentanyl-laced pills to kill 700,000 Americans, she said. Milgram said the counterfeit pills were being made by drug cartels in Mexico using precursor chemicals supplied by Chinese companies, and are then sent to the US where they are sold both on the street and on social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram. The counterfeit pills are made to look nearly identical to prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet and Xanax, Milgram said. Its a game-changer for southwest Virginia, he said. Lot 24 is located southwest of the Gatorade plant in Progress Park. Plans for the lot began to materialize around 2007 after the countys success with bringing Gatorade and Amcor to Progress Park. Officials realized the park had a shortcoming in not having a large lot prepared. Business leaders said that because of the areas rolling hills, discussions with interested parties would often end quickly when they realized all of the expensive grading that would have to be done for a site. So, the county decided to do the grading ahead of time. But right as the county started to mull over the idea of preparing the mega lot, the economy hit the skids, putting plans on hold until 2009. The bad news was that during the economic downturn, many businesses abandoned the search for empty lots on which to build and started pursuing facilities that were already built and ready to go. The good news was that the slowdown allowed the county to get the grading done for half the price it would have paid in 2007. Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Failure to register Cowlitz County Sheriffs deputies Wednesday arrested Scott Wayne Baldwin, 51, city of residence unknown, on suspicion of failure to register as a sex offender. Drugs, parole violation Longview police Wednesday arrested Noah George Allen Janicki, 22, city of residence unknown, on suspicion of possession with intent to distribute and parole violation. Theft, failure to register Woodland police Wednesday arrested Chad Thurston Lee, 55, city of residence unknown, on suspicion of third-degree theft, failure to appear on a charge of third-degree theft and failure to register as a sex offender. Assault, harassment Longview police Wednesday arrested Jamie Senbad McElroy, 24, of Longview, on suspicion of second-degree assault, harassment and interfering with reporting. Unlawful imprisonment, assault, interfering, burglary Longview police Wednesday arrested Traditia Dawn Wood, 42, of University Place, Washington, on suspicion of exhibiting or carrying a dangerous weapon, second-degree burglary, interfering with reporting, fourth-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and a warrant for contempt of court. Burglaries 200 block of Fishers Lane, Kelso. Wednesday. 700 block of Grade Street, Kelso. Wednesday. Jewelry. 1200 block of Kessler Boulevard, Longview. Wednesday. Stolen vehicles 900 block of Tennant Way, Longview. Wednesday. Black 2017 Chevy Silverado. 2600 block of Harding Street, Longview. Wednesday. Gold 2002 Mercedes C240. WA BUU4506. Thefts 100 block of Olson Road, Kelso. Wednesday. Gas. 200 block of 10th Avenue, Kelso. Wednesday. Cellphone. 1400 block of Baltimore Street, Longview. Wednesday. Keys. 500 block of Seventh Avenue, Longview. Wednesday. Cellphone. 3000 block of Ocean Beach Highway, Longview. Wednesday. Catalytic converter. 1200 block of Atlantic Avenue, Woodland. Wednesday. Catalytic converter. Vandalism/malicious mischief 1400 block of Second Avenue, Kelso. Wednesday. Tires slashed. 100 block of Minor Road, Kelso. Occurred several weeks ago, reported Wednesday. 300 block of 23rd Avenue, Longview. Wednesday. Car windows broken. 300 block of 23rd Avenue, Longview. Wednesday. Vehicle prowls 400 block of Second Street, Kalama. Wednesday. Sig Sauer P365. 800 block of 15th Avenue, Longview. Wednesday. 500 block of 15th Avenue, Longview. Wednesday. M57 pistol. 700 block of 11th Avenue, Longview. Wednesday. 1900 block of Belmont Loop, Woodland. Wednesday. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. More Than 1 in 5 Companies Have Suffered a Ransomware Attack, Survey Finds Ransomware study conducted by cybersecurity firm Hornetsecurity also found that almost 1 in 10 ransomware victims paid the ransom. Note: TDWIs editors carefully choose press releases related to the data and analytics industry. We have edited and/or condensed this release to highlight key information but make no claims as to its accuracy. A recent survey of more than 820 businesses found that 21 percent of respondents had been the victim of a ransomware attack to date. Ransomware is one of the most common and effective forms of cyber threat, whereby attackers encrypt an organizations data, rendering it unusable until a ransom is paid. Of the 21 percent of companies that reported a ransomware attack, 9.2 percent recovered the data by paying the demanded ransom. The remaining respondents recovered the ransomed data through backups, though some still reported loss of data in the process. According to the survey, companies with 201-500 employees reported the highest incidence of ransomware attacks (25.3 percent), while those employing 1-50 had the lowest (18.7 percent). In geographical terms, 19.6 percent of North American companies reported attacks, while those 21.2 percent of those based in Europe reported the same. More than One in Seven Companies Do Not Protect Backups from Ransomware Approximately 15.2 percent of all survey respondents indicated that their company does not protect their backups from ransomware. Moreover, the survey also found that 17.2 percent of reported ransomware attacks targeted backup storage. These results reveal a cause for concern: that standard on-site backups do not offer 100 percent protection against ransomware attacks. Indeed, backups must be protected against ransomware attacks through methods such as air-gapped, offsite storage or immutable storage -- two commonly reported protection methods in this survey. Additionally: 9 percent of respondents also reported having no disaster recovery plan in place, meaning they are typically unprepared and unequipped to deal with an attack. 7 percent of companies do not provide training to end-users on how to recognize and flag potential ransomware attacks. End users represent one of the most effective methods of entry for ransomware attackers. Through social engineering techniques such as email phishing, end users are manipulated into providing opportunities for malicious software to be introduced into company systems. According to this survey, more than 1 out of every 4 organizations (28.7 percent) do not provide training to end users about how to recognize and handle potential ransomware threats. Most Common Forms of Backup and Ransomware Protection and Prevention Slightly more than 7 in 10 (71.3 percent) companies changed the way they back up their data in response to the threat of ransomware. The two most common forms of prevention observed in the survey are end-point detection software with anti-ransomware capabilities (75.6 percent) and email filtration and threat analysis (76.1 percent). Air-gapped, offsite storage is reported to be used 47.8 percent of the time -- a low percentage when considering its effectiveness at enabling extraordinary data recovery. To read more survey results and more in-depth analysis, click here. In this March 14, 2019, file photo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks before unveiling the Model Y at the company's design studio in Hawthorne, Calif. Tesla says it will relocate its headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif., to Austin, Texas, though the electric car maker will keep expanding its manufacturing capacity in the Golden State. Musk gave no timeline for the move late Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, when he addressed the company's shareholders at Tesla's annual meeting. Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File Tesla will relocate its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, though the electric car maker will keep expanding its manufacturing capacity in the Golden State, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday. Musk, who last year said he was moving to Texas from California, gave no timeline for the move when he addressed shareholders at Tesla's annual meeting. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Musk clashed with San Francisco Bay Area health authorities trying to enforce shelter-in-place orders. At the time, he threatened to relocate Tesla's operations to Texas or Nevada. On Thursday, however, Musk cited the cost of housing in the Bay Area that has made it tough for many people to become homeowners, translating into long commutes. "We're taking it as far as possible, but there's a limit how big you can scale it in the Bay Area," he said Thursday. "Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. This is not a matter of leaving California." Musk stressed he plans to expand the company's factory in Fremont, California, where Tesla's Models S, X, Y and 3 vehicles are built, in hopes of increasing its output by 50%. The announcement drew cheers and applause from the small audience at Tesla's manufacturing plant in Austin, where Musk delivered his remarks, which were webcast live. While applauding Tesla's announcement that it will expand production in Fremont, Bay Area business leaders bemoaned the headquarters move as the latest sign of the region's ongoing issues. "Mr. Musk's announcement highlights yet again the urgency for California to address our housing affordability crisis and the many other challenges that make it so difficult for companies to grow here," said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the business advocacy group Bay Area Council. Last year, tech giant Oracle Corp. decided to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, saying the move would give its employees more flexibility about where and how they work. One of Silicon Valley's founding companies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has also said it will move to the Houston area. At Thursday's meeting Musk also touted the company's record vehicle deliveries this year, while noting that global supply-chain disruptions that have led to a shortage of computer chips remain a challenge. "It looks like we have a good chance of maintaining that into the future," he said. "Basically, if we get the chips, we can do it." As a result, production of Tesla's angular Cybertruck pickup isn't likely to begin before the end of 2022, Musk said, estimating that the company would reach "volume" production on the vehicle in 2023. "We should be through our severest supply chain shortages in '23," he said. "I'm optimistic that will be the case." Tesla said last week that it delivered 241,300 electric vehicles in the third quarter even as it wrestled with the shortage of computer chips that has hit the entire auto industry. The company's sales from July through September beat Wall Street estimates of 227,000 sales worldwide, according to data provider FactSet. Third-quarter sales rose 72% over the 140,000 deliveries Tesla made for the same period a year ago. So far this year, Tesla has sold around 627,300 vehicles. That puts it on pace to soundly beat last year's total of 499,550. Explore further Tesla reports stronger-than-expected Q3 sales 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Flown from Liege Airport in Belgium on an Ilyushin cargo carrier, Galileo satellites 27-28 touched down in Cayenne Felix Eboue Airport in the evening of 6 October 2020. The two satellites, each in their own transport container, were placed on lorries and driven to Europe's Spaceport. Credit: ESA-P. Muller The latest pair of Galileo satellites have touched down at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, ahead of their launch together next month. Cocooned safely within environmentally controlled containers, the satellites were carried across the Atlantic aboard an Ilyushin cargo carrier. The satellites left ESA's ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on Tuesday morning heading for Liege Airport in Belgium. From here they flew to Cayenne in French Guiana via a stop in Oporto Airport in Portugal, arriving at their final destination on Wednesday evening local time. Once unloaded from the aircraft, the satellites were then driven through the tropical dusk to the cleanroom surroundings of the spaceport nearby Kourou, where they could be safely unpacked to begin the satellite launch campaign. These two satellites are the first of the last batch of Galileo First Generation satellites, known as 'Batch 3', made up of 12 satellites in all. They are built by OHB SE in Bremen, Germany, with their navigation and search and rescue payloads contributed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in Guildford in the UK. Before being cleared for launch, the satellites have gone through rigorous testing at ESA's ESTEC Test Centre, the largest satellite test facility in Europetheir last stop before flying to South America. Galileos 27-28 seen atop their gold-wrapped Fregat upper stage within their Soyuz launcher fairing. Credit: ESA-P. Carril These two satellites will be launched together aboard a Soyuz launcher from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The launcher incorporates a Fregat upper stage, which will carry them to their planned 23 222 km altitude medium-Earth orbit. These satellites will add to the 26-satellite Galileo constellation already in orbit and delivering Initial Services around the globe. Next month's lift-off will be the 11th Galileo launch in 10 years. Two further launches are planned for next year, to allow Galileo to reach Full Operational Capability in its delivery of services, to be followed by the launches of the rest of the Batch 3 satellites which are currently all undergoing pre-flight testing. In parallel to Batch 3's completion of Galileo First Generation deployment, the new Galileo Second Generation satellites, featuring enhanced navigation signals and capabilities, are already in development with their deployment expected to begin by 2024. Galileos 27-28 pictured during their ascent to orbit on their Soyuz launcher. The satellites are protected by a launch fairing, but once the Soyuz has passed through the atmosphere, this fairing can then be ejected. Credit: ESA P. Carril The complete Galileo constellation will consist of 24 satellites along three orbital planes, plus two spare satellites per orbit. The result will be Europes largest-ever fleet, providing worldwide navigation coverage. Credit: ESA-P. Carril Galileo is currently the world's most precise satellite navigation system, serving more than two billion users around the globe. Explore further Galileo in place for launch Ireland is home to several global multi-nationals, including Facebook, Apple and Google. The day after Ireland backed plans for a minimum global corporation tax of 15 percent, tech firms lured to the Republic by its historically low levy are waking up to the possibility that their situation might now change radically. "Ireland has long sold stability and certainty of its regime as being an attractive feature for foreign investments," economics lecturer Seamus Coffey, from University College Cork, told AFP. "I don't think such stability and certainty can be considered to be as reliable now." On Thursday, finance minister Paschal Donohoe said Ireland had relented its holdout against global tax reform efforts helmed by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The scheme aims to stop multinationals cutting tax bills by setting up bases in nations with low rates. Since 2003, Ireland has taxed corporations at a rate of 12.5 percent. While that has drawn accusations that the country is a tax haven, Dublin insists that the low levy is key to attracting foreign investment and jobs. Coffey said an increase in corporation tax of 2.5 percentage points will not lead to an exodus of employers from Ireland over the short or medium term. But the manner in which Ireland was strong-armed into change by the OECD and G7 nations may stick in the mind of employers considering Ireland as a new prospect in the longer term. A low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent has been seen as a big draw. "The significance of Ireland's corporate tax rate being changed as a result of outside, external influences... shouldn't be discounted," he said. "The pipeline of investments may not be as readily available as it was in the past." Tax 'brand' Facebook, Google and Apple all maintain large offices in Ireland. The digital sector accounts for 13 percent of the country's gross domestic product and employs 210,000, according to industry lobby group Technology Ireland. The tech boom is most starkly visible in Dublin where the "Silicon Docks" host metal and glass office hubs for Google and Facebook, towering over the capital's skyline. Government investment agency IDA Ireland said the country "has become the global technology hub of choice when it comes to attracting the strategic business activities of ICT companies". In a country of just five million, the 12.5 percent rate has been a key draw. Ireland's finance minister Paschal Donohoe won a key concession to remove a clause calling for 'at least 15 percent' tax. "The importance of the 12.5 percent now is really that it's known worldwide by anybody with an interest in this area," said Trinity College Dublin professor Frank Barry. "It has become almost a brand now, so that's the main problem in changing it," he said. There are also suggestions that removing Ireland's tax advantage would cede ground to larger and more populous economies capable of outmatching it on a level playing field. Two pillars But Ireland siding with a majority of nations on the tax deal has also given firms the certainty they have long craved for. Donohoe said Dublin won a key concession in the OECD draft deal, to remove a clause about a minimum rate of "at least" 15 percent that would have left the door open to further rises and made investors skittish. "It is a sensible and pragmatic decision made by the government in the interests of our country," he told reporters on Thursday. "The fact that we are closer to that elusive certainty and stability has definitely been welcomed by clients," EY Ireland tax partner Joe Bollard said. Digital accounts for 13 percent of Ireland's GDP and employs 210,000 people. "The fact that Ireland is seen as a positive stakeholder in that respect is also playing well with investors." Crucially, the OECD pact also contains proposals to levy corporate profits in the nations where they operate, rather than where they choose to be based. That would have far-reaching implications for digital firms, and would undermine the business argument for leaving Ireland for different shores. Barry said that beyond the damage to Ireland's "brand name" as a low-tax nation, he was "sanguine" about the nation's prospects for courting tech talent and investment. "The big countries... want to get their hands on the tax revenue," he said. "Even though it collects a vast amount in corporation tax, Ireland has always been more concerned with the employment implications." 2021 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain When urban development takes place, a traffic impact assessment is often needed before a project is approved: What will happen to auto traffic if a new apartment building or business complex is constructed, or if a road is widened? On the other hand, new developments affect foot traffic as welland yet few places study the effects of urban change on pedestrians. A group of MIT researchers wants to alter that, by developing a model of pedestrian activity that planners and city officials can use in much the same way officials evaluate vehicle traffic. A study they have conducted of Melbourne, Australia, shows that the model works well when tested against some of the most comprehensive pedestrian data available in the world. "Our model can predict changes in pedestrian volume resulting from changes in the built environment and the spatial distribution of population, jobs, and business establishments," says Andres Sevtsuk, an associate professor in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) and lead author of a newly published paper detailing the results. "This provides a framework to understand how new developments can affect pedestrian flows on city streets." As a test using several years of Melbourne data shows, the model predicts changes in pedestrian volume at the individual property level with accuracy ranging from 74 percent to 82 percent, allowing planners and government officials to better understand how particular new buildings influence people's walking patterns. The paper, "We shape our buildings, but do they then shape us? A longitudinal analysis of pedestrian flows and development activity in Melbourne," appears in the journal PLoS ONE. The co-authors are Rounaq Basu, a Ph.D. candidate in DUSP; Bahij Chancey MCP '21, a researcher at the MIT City Form Lab; and Sevtsuk, who is the Charles and Ann Spaulding Career Development Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning. The purpose-driven pedestrian The MIT researchers first developed their model using pedestrian movements in Cambridge's Kendall Square, home to MIT and many science and technology firms. The model uses individual buildings as trip origins and destinations, routing pedestrian journeys over sidewalk networks. Purpose-driven pedestrian trips linking transit stops, homes, offices, eateries, and other retail shops can vary during different times of a day. Rather than assuming that people take shortest paths, the model assumes people may walk any of the available routes, up to 15 percent longer than the shortest possible path. To conduct the study, the MIT researchers used pedestrian counts during the morning and evening rush hours, and during lunch hours from a long-term data-collection project in Melbourne, the Pedestrian Counting System (PCS). Since 2014, city officials there have deployed automated sensors to monitor levels of foot traffic, currently in 92 locations throughout the downtown. Of course, Melbourne has not remained static since 2014, with a shifting population and new buildings of varying kinds developed each year. The researchers used the city's Census of Land Use and Employment (CLUE) to record changes at the level of individual buildings, while accounting for population and local work force levels, the number of students at local universities, and even weather patterns (there are consistently fewer pedestrians on rainy days). Additionally, the long-term nature of the Melbourne data collection means the researchers could test their model on an iterative basis. Using data from a particular month in one year, they could then forecast how built environment changes that followed would alter pedestrian flows during the same month for the following year, then examine how the predictions fared. With each set of forecasts the model could use updated data, involving things like new housing and business locations. "We were drawn to Melbourne for this study because they have both a sophisticated system of automated pedestrian counters on many sidewalks in the downtown area, and accurate spatial information on sidewalks and crosswalks city-wide," Basu says. "The longitudinal nature of pedestrian count data also allowed us to validate our model predictions." Ultimately the studies found that the model's accuracy remained quite stable over time, with some slight decreases year over year, likely due to changes either not captured in the city data, or perhaps due to an increase in ride-sharing during the 2014-2019 time period. During morning and evening rush hours, Melbourne's heaviest foot traffic was near its train stationsnearly 4,000 pedestrians an hour on some streetswith a substantial amount moving between parking lots and jobs as well. About 10 percent of Melbourne's foot traffic involves trips to and from local parks. Limited sensors, many predictions In general, the researchers, say, the Melbourne tests validate one of the key aspects of the modelthat it can generate thorough predictions of foot traffic for a large number of streets even when there are a relatively limited number of locations where pedestrian data is being monitored for calibration. "The model can generate estimates of foot-traffic on all street segments in a specific area while requiring count data from sensors on a limited number of street segments," Chancey says, while also noting that such predictions "can inform sidewalk and public space investments" for planners and government decision-makers. Other scholars say the new findings are a useful extension of the pedestrian activity model. "Sevstuk and his team have created a robust tool that can be used for estimating pedestrian activity on city streets, for which data are usually nonexistent, and for predicting changes in pedestrian flows in response to changes in the built environment over time," says Susan L. Handy, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California at Davis. "It is about time we had a tool like this to support planners in their efforts to improve the pedestrian environment and reduce car dependence." The scholars' aim is to do for pedestrians what cities currently do for automobiles, namely, count them closely and consider them stakeholders in urban design. The research group is now working on a related project for Beirut, Lebanon, along with scholars from American University in Beirut. "The model allows us to conduct 'pedestrian impact assessments' for newly planned sites or developments," Sevtsuk emphasizes. "This is a sorely required addition to the 'traffic impact assessments' that developers in many U.S. cities are currently required to conduct as part of environmental impact analyses." Explore further Counting pedestrians to make pedestrians count More information: Andres Sevtsuk et al, We shape our buildings, but do they then shape us? A longitudinal analysis of pedestrian flows and development activity in Melbourne, PLOS ONE (2021). Journal information: PLoS ONE Andres Sevtsuk et al, We shape our buildings, but do they then shape us? A longitudinal analysis of pedestrian flows and development activity in Melbourne,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257534 Dozens of local clergy stood in solidarity and prayer at the Glynn County Courthouse Tuesday morning to rebuke defense lawyer Kevin Gough and to say his statements in court about Black ministers attending the Ahmaud Arbery trial do not represent the community. Looking for in-depth reporting on labor issues? You're in the right place. Subscribe to The Chief and get stories that cover every side of civil service in New York City and beyond. You can sign up in minutes for immediate access. NOT ALL SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS: Social-distancing and coronavirus testing protocols were called into question at an Oct. 6 City Council hearing, where United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew called reductions in quarantine and test-and-trace procedures 'disgusting.' A NEW FIRE TO PUT OUT: The Fire Department earlier this year suspended nine Firefighters who shared racist memes mocking George Floyd's murder by a white Police Officer in Minneapolis, with one of them agreeing to resign when his six-month suspension ends rather than face firing. It was the latest racial conflagration for the FDNY, and followed a situation last year when black firefighters reached out to Eric Adams to intervene with top department officials after three Lieutenants advocated using fire hoses on black protesters, a tactic made infamous by racist white officials in the Deep South during the Civil Rights Movement. PICKING UP THE PIECES: Three weeks before Eric Adams celebrated his narrow win in the Democratic primary for Mayor June 22, the United Federation of Teachers had instructed its members not to list him on their ballots because of his support for charter schools. The union's Delegate Assembly will vote Oct. 13 on its recommendation that they endorse the Brooklyn Borough President, who is heavily favored to win the Nov. 2 general election. Aggie Spirit Gallery, through Nov. 19 at the Arts Council of Brazos Valley, 4180 Texas 6 in College Station. The exhibit includes the winning pieces from the Aggie Spirit Community Contest, in which community members were asked to submit anything that evokes the Aggie spirit. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. Birds: Masters of Adaptation, through Oct. 23 at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History in Bryan. The exhibit includes specimens, artifacts and photos exploring the diversity of birds. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults. Celebrating 60 Years, through January at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History, 3232 Briarcrest Drive in Bryan. A celebration of 60 years of service to the Brazos Valley through vintage photographs, artifacts and specimens. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults. Richwood, TX (77531) Today A mix of clouds and sun early followed by cloudy skies this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 72F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low around 50F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. With EagleView, people can see more images than with just Google Earth. EagleView is a technology provider of aerial imagery, data analytics and GIS solutions which uses 3D aerial measurement software. Actual boots on the ground bring Blue Ridge Parkway treasures even closer to being experienced. Walters and Rotenizer walked about six miles on the parkway due to a closure for road repairs. Rotenizer said he was glad for the walk and gained a better appreciation for the parkway. It changed my whole view on the parkway and forced me to see things I would otherwise never see, he noted. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} In addition to story-mapping as a drawing card to experience Franklin Countys presence on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Walters helped collect GPS coordinates for mile posts within and near Franklin County so they could be documented to enhance public safety with 9-1-1 calls by providing a specific point of reference. In its 469-mile length, the Blue Ridge Parkway passes through 29 counties in North Carolina and Virginia. There are 275 overlooks along the parkway, of which Franklin County is host to six. They are as follows: Slings Gap, Bull Run Knob, Cahas Knob, Devils Backbone, Pine Spur and Smart View (which accesses the 500 acre Smart View Recreation Area). New state legislative boundaries took effect Oct. 1. Before the Legislatures recent action Hall County was divided into three legislative districts: 33, 34 and 35. With the new map, Hall County is no longer in District 33. Hall County is now in districts 34, 35 and 41. District 41 is represented by Tom Briese of Albion. Hall County Commission Chair Pam Lancaster called it an interesting combination and said she is glad Hall County remains in only three state legislative districts. There was a map a bit ago that divided us up into four districts, and that was very difficult, I think, she said. Three isnt even ideal, but Ill take three over four. Lancaster lamented losing District 33 state Sen. Steve Halloran as a representative. Hes been a wonderful support to Hall County, she said. He was always there for us, always interested in what was going on, but Im sure Sen. Briese or whoever follows him, will do a great job. She added, In Hall County weve always had a great rapport with the senators that represent us. Healthcare workers normally face work-related stress, but working with a new, unfamiliar virus during a pandemic has multiplied those stressors. We've recognized that the staff has been under unreasonable pressure in 18 months during this pandemic. It's been hard; it's been incredibly hard," SIH President and CEO Rex Budde said. Early in the pandemic, hospital staff was taking care of patients and trying to determine the best way to treat the symptoms of COVID-19. Nothing existed to help prevent the disease from spreading. Since the more contagious Delta variant started to hit hospitals in mid-July, Budde said the conversation with staff has changed. Just taking care of people that are that sick and they're dying, is emotionally draining. And on top of it it didn't have to happen. You know, if people would have been vaccinated, they wouldn't have been there, Budde said. SIH Vice President of Human Resources Pam Henderson and her team looked at how SIH was paying its employees, given the difficulty of working through the pandemic. We changed our philosophy a little and offered some market adjustments that I believe included benefits that total some $13 million, in terms of increases to those folks closest to the bedside, Budde said. Market adjustments included: Increasing the entry level wage from $12.14 an hour to $14 hour; increasing the starting wage for patient care techs to $15 an hour; increasing the hourly wage for bedside registered nurses by $4.15 an hour; increasing hourly wages for additional direct care clinicians such as respiratory therapists, rehabilitation and physical therapists, lab techs, imaging specialists and others. It wasn't a one-time bonus, it's an increase in in their base compensation, Budde said. In addition, eligible employees received a 3% merit raise on top of the market adjustments. He added that the pay increases were a way to take care of people, stabilize the workforce, say thank you and make working in healthcare attractive. Henderson believes the employees are happy with the new pay levels. They're very happy about that. They're very appreciative. We're still getting all the details out there, but it kind of put a little spark back in. You tell people that you appreciate them, but this is actually showing them that they're appreciated. It's gone a long way, Henderson said. She said hiring managers are getting more applications, too. Last week, SIH received 1,300 applications. A total of 68 new employees started, with 49 or 50 of them attending on-boarding class. At the end of September, SIH leaders said they were advertising more than 600 positions most of which were not related to the system's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. At the time, SIH also reported 97.4 percent of the organizations employees are vaccinated against COVID-19 or have received at least one dose of the vaccine. About 160 employees, plus 60 at Harrisburg Medical Center, had voluntarily resigned or have had their employment terminated for lack of compliance with the vaccine mandate. SIH has a total workforce of 3,600 to 3,700 employees. Henderson said the number changes daily. It's not just the salaries, not just one thing. We also have a new director of talent acquisition who's got a lot of great creative ideas. It's a combination of all those things, Henderson said. Other healthcare providers in the region also are assessing their workforces. SSM Health, which operates Good Samaritan Hospital in Mount Vernon, has announced it will implement a new minimum wage of $15 per hour throughout its four-state system on Oct. 10. This increase will impact nearly 3,000 team members across Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma and Wisconsin about 7% of SSM Healths total workforce of nearly 40,000 employees. As a leading employer in each of our communities, our ongoing commitment is to foster a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace which includes providing fair and socially just wages and benefits for our team members, along with robust programs and resources designed to promote wellness, Laura S. Kaiser, president and CEO of SSM Health, said. Reva Weems, regional director of employee relations for Quorum Health, said their local property, Heartland Regional Medical Center, currently employs a staff of 430, many of whom over 64% have been there for five or more years. Like almost all hospitals in the country, we continue our efforts to recruit and retain qualified nursing staff as we manage the ongoing impact of COVID-19. At present, we have a wide range of position openings across our hospital and associated clinics. The specific number of open positions varies day-to-day, and the number of applications is consistent with what we typically receive in non-pandemic years, Weems said. Some of the hospital's employment benefits include: Sign-on bonuses for select positions; outstanding shift and weekend pay; vacation, sick and holiday paid time off; medical, dental and vision benefits for full and part-time employees; educational assistance eligibility after a 90-day introductory period; and a 401k. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 4 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. DU QUOIN More than 150,000 people attended the Du Quoin State Fair this year, up 22.1% from 2019 attendance numbers of nearly 124,000 people, according to recently released figures. Along with overall attendance being up, grandstand shows saw their highest attendance numbers since 2012. Eight performances drew a collective 20,780 people, with classic rock band REO Speedwagon leading the way selling over 4,000 tickets. The 2021 grandstand generated over $413,000 in revenue, the highest in 20 years. To come off of a year where we were unable to hold a fair due to the pandemic and generate these numbers is fantastic, Josh Gross, Du Quoin State Fair manager, said in a news release. Our goal once we started planning for 2021 was to give people something to look forward to and I think we did that. Starting with the return of free admission to the fair in 2019, to bringing in top grandstand performances this year, the Du Quoin State Fair keeps improving year after year. Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton said this years Du Quoin State Fair was a "testament to our states strength, resiliency, and growtheven during unprecedented times." The Du Quoin State Fair is the stage to elevate and uplift Illinois diverse communities, including our agriculture industry that connects all of us. As head of the Governors Rural Affairs Council, Im proud of the fairs success and look forward to what we will accomplish in the years to come," she said. Jerry Costello II, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, said he and his family look forward to the Du Quoin State Fair every year. It is an annual tradition that allows southern Illinois an opportunity showcase what makes our area so special," he said. In a news release, Governor J.B. Pritzker said this year's fair "marked not only a successful return to the fairgrounds but a return to treasured traditions, community competition, and family fun." With record attendance and one of the most successful grandstands in years, it is clear that the Du Quoin State Fair will continue to be an economic engine for the region for years to come. Best of all, the Department of Agriculture and the organizers of this years fair were able to welcome us back safely making sure the health and safety of fairgoers came first as we enjoyed all the fair has to offer," he continued. Overall revenue numbers are not final, but the 2021 Du Quoin State Fair is estimating an overall revenue of over $1.2 million, ranking sixth for total revenue in the last two decades. The 2022 Du Quoin State Fair will run August 26- September 5. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Each fall, Southern Illinois University officials and community leaders eagerly anticipate the release of official tenth-day enrollment numbers, crossing fingers and hoping for higher enrollment. This year, the campus community was encouraged by the second consecutive year of a larger freshman class and a very slight dip of total enrollment 100 fewer students than fall 2020. Total enrollment at SIU, counting both undergraduate and graduate students, is 11,266. When the official enrollment figures were released, SIU Chancellor Austin A. Lane was optimistic looking forward. Its refreshing, he said. Weve had a downward spiral and this brings hope that if we continue to work hard and do as much as we can were going to continue to move the needle and change the trajectory where we want to be. But what about the other state institutions which compete with SIU for students? How are their numbers and what are the universities saying about their enrollment figures? Eastern Illinois University The Charleston university reported fall 2020 total enrollment of 8,608 students, down 0.2% from last year. EIUs media release on tenth-day enrollment figures said campus officials describe 2021 enrollment as solid, steady and poised for additional growth. However, Easterns reported enrollment includes area high school students enrolled in dual-credit programs; actual on-campus students number 4,625 116 lower than in 2020. Illinois State University Illinois State University also reported an increase in new freshmen and transfer students, but overall the institution enrolled 487 fewer students for fall in what ISU called a modest 2% decline. Fall 2021 enrollment at the Normal campus stands at 20,233. Northern Illinois University Like SIU, Northern Illinois University is focusing on the growth of freshmen numbers, boasting the largest year-over-year increase in freshman in more than 20 years. However, overall enrollment for fall at NIU is down 3% from last year, with 16,234 total students. In its official news release about student numbers, the university said the decline was largely attributed to disruptions caused by the global pandemic and its impact felt by college students nationwide. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Southern Illinois University Edwardsville continues to grow, and remains the largest university in the SIU system. Fall enrollment at SIUE grew 1.2% (150 students) to 13,010, mostly due to more than 3,000 graduate students, the largest number in 44 years. International enrollment at SIUE grew by 48% and first-year undergraduates number 1,992 for fall. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign A news release from the University of Illinois flagship campus makes it clear: With a freshman enrollment of 8,303, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has welcomed a record-breaking freshman class for the 2021-22 academic year. The new class brings total student enrollment to 56,299, the largest in university history. The increase amounts to nearly 4,000 more students in Urbana-Champaign. The university, however, may be looking at reducing enrollment in the future. We do not plan to increase by this percentage every year, Director of Undergraduate Admissions Andy Borst said in the news release. Next year, in order to ensure that we are maintaining our undergraduate enrollment within the bounds of university resources, we are planning to intentionally reduce our target by approximately 600 students to be more in line with previous years. Western Illinois University At Western Illinois University in Macomb, total fall enrollment stands at 7,455 students, down 45 students from the previous year. WIU boasted a historical high of international students and a 26% increase in graduate students. The number of undergraduates traditional college students actually dropped by 460 students. Like Eastern, WIU enrollment includes 86 dual-credit high school students. Across the Rivers Southern Illinois University competes for students not only with other Illinois public schools, but also with universities in neighboring states. Murray State University in Kentucky and Southeastern Missouri State University, both of which recruit extensively in SIUs backyard, are on that list. Southeastern Missouri State University Southeastern Missouri State Universitys enrollment continues to decline. According to SEMOs Three Year Enrollment Report, the combined number of undergraduates and graduate students at the Cape Girardeau university is 9,851, down 150 (or 1.5%) over 2020. Further analysis at previous reports indicates SEMO enrollment has slid downward every year since 2015 when enrollment was 11,987. Murray State University Illinois is a very good state for us Institutions in Kentucky do not report tenth-day enrollment as Illinois schools do. Official numbers from Murray State University for the fall semester will not be released until Mid-November. For fall 2020, the college reported enrollment of 9,456, down 113 students from 2019. However, the Murray Ledger-Times recently reported comments made by MSU officials at the September meeting of the universitys Board of Regents regarding enrollment. Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Planning Renee Fister told the board that preliminary fall enrollment numbers were flat compared with 2019 and about 2% above 2020. She said in-state enrollment was down, but an increasing number of students are enrolling from other states. Murray State Vice President of Student Affairs Don Robertson said, Illinois is a very good state for us, and so we really benefited from Illinois," according to the publication. University President Bob Jackson told the regents Illinois is the No. 2 state in the country, second only to California, for exporting students. He explained that there are not enough available college slots for in-state students in California, but added that students from Illinois want to come here," according to the publication. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 MONTICELLO A Central Illinois woman has been convicted in the neglect death of her brother, whose body was found surrounded by garbage and other filth prosecutors said contributed to his death. A Piatt County jury convicted Christie Brown, 64, on Thursday of criminal neglect in Ronald Blankenship's the August 2018 death. A judge set her sentencing for Dec. 7. Blankenship, 64, was found dead in his bedroom in the Monticello home the siblings co-owned. His body was surrounded by used adult diapers, overflowing garbage bags and other filth, The News-Gazette reported. Six medical professionals testified that those deplorable conditions made it easier for Blankenship to catch ailments. A forensic pathologist found Blankenship's main cause of death was bronchial pneumonia due to chronic bronchitis, but also listed medical neglect as a contributing factor. Blankenships physician said he got pneumonia easily because his long-term tracheotomy gave bacteria a more direct route into his body, and it was important to keep that area clean. Assistant States Attorney Victoria Dedman told jurors it was logical to conclude that the home's unsanitary conditions contributed to Blankenships death. Defense attorney Andrew Wessler said Blankenship, a former nurse, had been sick for years and had to use a walker. He contended Blankenship did not seem to want medical help. Brown was also convicted of animal cruelty after two ailing dogs found at the residence had to be euthanized. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SPRINGFIELD A new state task force continued discussions Thursday as to what changes could be made to the way state law approaches qualified immunity for law enforcement officers. Qualified immunity is a court doctrine granting protection for law enforcement officers and other government officials from certain civil lawsuits seeking monetary damages for civil rights violations that occurred during the course of their regular duties. Courts have ruled that unless a plaintiff can prove the officer has violated a clearly established right meaning a court has ruled on a case thats almost exactly similar to the one it is considering qualified immunity can be used as a defense to shield the officer from civil liability. The Illinois Constitutional Rights and Remedies Task Force was created under the SAFE-T Act, a criminal justice reform omnibus bill that became law earlier this year. It met virtually Thursday in its second of four meetings. Scholars seeking to end qualified immunity told the task force reforms are necessary to ensure that all individuals who believe theyve had their rights violated by police officers have the opportunity to seek justice in court. But police group representatives painted qualified immunity as a little-used defense thats been blown out of proportion and manipulated in the press. Ending qualified immunity, the law enforcement-affiliated panelists said, would make it more difficult to retain police officers by making them live in fear of frivolous civil lawsuits. It could also increase financial pressures on municipal budgets by increasing litigation and insurance rates. Both sides agreed that cases dismissed on qualified immunity grounds are a relatively small fraction of the overall cases focusing on rights violations by officers. Larry James, a partner at the Crabbe, Brown & James law firm in Columbus, Ohio, and general counsel for the National Fraternal Order of Police, noted qualified immunity doesnt protect against termination or discipline for officers, but protects against only civil suits. It protects officers who had to make split-second discretionary decisions based on training they received and the limited information available. He also said the Supreme Court, which has largely affirmed qualified immunity as a defense, denied two cases of qualified immunity in recent months. They said where it is so egregious, that it is obvious that these officers have violated someone's civil rights, they're not going to grant qualified immunity, James said. What you're seeing around the country in these egregious cases, the officer is terminated, the officers indicted, and, of late, you're seeing convictions and you're seeing officers do time. If an officer is fired by a department and criminally indicted, he said, the government is not going to afford him or her any defense whatsoever. So qualified immunity is not going to even come into play, he said. John Murphey, with the firm Odelson, Sterk, Murphey, Frazier, McGrath, Ltd., frequently represents cities and police departments. He said one of the most important components of the SAFE-T Act is the accelerated requirement of adoption of body cameras, which will resolve a great deal of the litigation. But qualified immunity in the excessive force context is important too, because officers typically are reacting, he said. They don't know for the most part what is behind that door, they don't know what's in the front seat of that car, or what's in that glovebox. So these are truly split-second decisions that police officers have to make. Larry Rogers, a Cook County Board of Review commissioner and attorney at Power Rogers LLP, said, the real issue is protecting individual civil rights, and qualified immunity creates circumstances where officers dont feel theyre going to be held accountable. Joanna Schwartz, a UCLA law professor who has published reports on the subject, said the main problem with qualified immunity is that cases dismissed on the precedent are cases that could not be dismissed on any other grounds. They are cases where there has already been proof of a constitutional violation. And the reason that they've been dismissed is because there happens to not be a prior similar enough incident of unconstitutional plaintiffs, she said. She said arguments that municipalities will be bankrupted and officers will leave the field if qualified immunity is repealed are overstated. Thats because in the vast majority of cases officers are indemnified by state law, meaning municipalities pay civil penalties, and her research showed lawsuits in police misconduct cases amount to well less than 1 percent of most cities and counties budgets. It would mean that for the relatively small percentage of cases where people have shown constitutional violations, but there happens to not be a prior case on point, those people would be able to get justice through the courts, she said of ending qualified immunity. William Baude, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, said he was previously a clerk with Chief Justice John Roberts, and he views qualified immunity as problematic based on constitutional concerns. He said one of the countrys fundamental principles of the rule of law is that a person whose rights have been violated should have the opportunity to remedy the situation. One of the most important remedies is being able to bring the issue before a judge and jury. Fred Smith, a professor at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, said qualified immunity creates distrust in the rule of law. When people don't view the law as fair, they're less likely to comply with the law, he said. So that is to say that it actually kind of it creates its own public safety problem. Baude said while qualified immunity is a federal court doctrine, the Supreme Court has, to some extent, left it in place because it is counting on the democratic deliberations to investigate what the doctrine should be. The scholars agreed that any changes at the state level would largely affect state courts as opposed to federal precedent. When asked for potential changes to the states approach to qualified immunity, Schwartz said it should either be eliminated or made an affirmative defense for the officer, and Smith and Baude agreed. If there is concern about eliminating qualified immunity entirely, then make it an affirmative defense where the defendant really has to come forward and show the policy, the training or the law that they relied upon, that they were trained about, that they received, that made them think that what they were doing was constitutional, she said. Lance LoRusso, a lawyer and law enforcement officer who has trained officers in more than 30 states, for federal agencies and in nine countries, suggested task force members take part in use-of-force decision-making and scenario-based trainings that law enforcement officers must take. If you could see the absolute decision making that has to take place in a compressed time space, he said, you would understand why the courts created a concept of qualified immunity for discretionary acts. The task force will next meet on Oct. 21, and task force members requested staff prepare a review of how many cases have been dismissed under qualified immunity in Illinois in recent years and how many misconduct cases have been filed. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 CHICAGO - They include a retired nurse from Chicagos South Side, a former teacher from Mount Vernon and a lawyer in Carbondale. They joined others from all races and ethnicities, from deeply Republican to deeply Democratic parts of the state, more old than young, but all adding up, day after day, to propel Illinois to reach one more grim milestone for the pandemic this month: 25,000 official COVID-19 deaths, and counting. Illinois crossed that threshold Oct. 1, after closing out its deadliest month since last winter, tallying more than 1,000 deaths in September alone. And the 25,000 doesnt count about 2,700 additional deaths deemed as probable COVID-19 cases. As the known death toll has grown over 18 months, a Tribune analysis of state and federal data shows how the pandemics deadly waves have evolved since March 2020 amid starkly different mask-wearing and vaccination habits across the state. Deaths were originally clustered in Chicagos more Black and Latino neighborhoods, but then spread beyond the Chicago area, to the point the virus has killed a greater proportionate share of residents in rural southern Illinois than dense Chicago. Those trends were accentuated by the fourth and most recent of the pandemics surges, which began after vaccines were widely available. The Tribune found residents near Illinois southern tip the least vaccinated were nearly eight times as likely to have died in the latest surge than those living in the most vaccinated region, covering DuPage and Kane counties. Weve had a pandemic now thats among the unvaccinated, said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of Illinois Department of Public Health. And that just makes it more sad that we havent been able to get that same message across to everyone: that vaccines are one of the key strategies to preserving life and wellness in the midst of this ongoing pandemic, she said. As Illinoisans approach another winter battling the pandemic, the latest data may offer some comfort: The last two surges havent been nearly as deadly as the first two, and the latest one appears to be waning. But in other ways, the latest data may fuel even more frustration, particularly Downstate: Deaths surged while huge swaths of residents didnt take vaccines widely deemed safe and effective, and shunned masking rules meant to contain the virus spread. Weve had a rough ride, and a lot of people died, said southern Illinoisan Robert Hughes, whose mother was among the victims. Those kind of behaviors have caught up with us. Left to try to make sense of the last 18 months are Hughes and others whose loved ones died from the virus. Among them is Robert Chapman, a Lincoln Square resident whose vaccinated father, Jim, died in mid-August. You still have the feeling that someone was taken from you before they should have been, he said. And Im sure there are hundreds of thousands of families who had the same feeling. For them, the tragedy can be traced to the first news of a new, unusually deadly virus from a city halfway across the world, and the first indications it had crossed the ocean and entered Chicago. First wave: Chicago hit hard In early March 2020, Patricia Frieson hosted a family birthday party in her three-flat in Auburn Gresham. There was singing and hugging. Over the coming days, they got together twice more. Then the retired nurse began having trouble breathing. This was in an era of confusion and mixed signals over what was being called the novel coronavirus. In just a few months, this strange new virus had hitched a ride in travelers from China and other infected countries, then began spreading here. Public health officials werent yet telling people to mask up or stay apart. Then-President Donald Trump had declared the infection was totally under control and complained his enemies were exaggerating the viruss danger to help him lose reelection that fall. Frieson, 61, wouldnt live to the election. She died March 16, 2020 marking Illinois first officially recorded death from COVID-19. Experts now believe other Illinoisans likely had died sooner of undiagnosed cases, in a time when few people were being tested and symptoms could be confused for another respiratory disease. But, with Friesons death and more consistent testing, the official death figures quickly grew. And what developed was a pandemic that, initially, left a devastating toll in the Black and Latino neighborhoods of Chicago, like Friesons. Epidemiologists have blamed that in part on the long-standing health inequities. Even before the pandemic, Black and Latino residents suffered from more underlying medical conditions and typically died younger than white residents. On top of that, Black and Latino residents have been more likely to work essential jobs, such as bus drivers and grocery store clerks, that require they interact with others outside their homes, making it easier for the virus to infect them and their families. By late July 2020, Latino Chicagoans were nearly twice as likely to have died as white Chicagoans. For Black Chicagoans, the rate was even higher: about 2 times as likely as whites. And that helped fuel trends that have lingered since. Killing the vulnerable Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicagos public health commissioner, said another key reason COVID-19 killed a greater share of Black Chicagoans in the first wave was that Black residents make up a larger share of long-term care residents. The state had barred visitors from facilities and required that workers be screened for symptoms. But the virus often got in anyway. It was able to infect and spread from people not showing symptoms, entering often-understaffed facilities that struggled early on to get adequate testing or protective gear for workers, while the state cut back on health and safety inspections. By late April 2020, the majority of COVID-19 deaths each week were tied to those living or working in long-term care. That spring, the virus had inundated long-term care facilities in dense urban neighborhoods as well as the Chicago regions farthest edges, killing not only residents but workers, too. In one Kane County facility, the virus killed nearly a fourth of the residents in less than a month. In a Niles facility, the death toll approached 50 by the fall, as one nursing assistant recalled to the Tribune that nobody knew how to handle this situation. The virus also had infiltrated some Downstate facilities too. Jacey House, a funeral director at the Hughey Funeral Home in Mount Vernon, recalled times when her home would get two or three calls a night from one long-term care facility alone, because everyone there had it. Deaths shift downstate Early in the pandemic, most COVID-19 deaths were concentrated in the Chicago area. And that was true even after adjusting for population differences in the 11 health regions set up by the state. One glaring statistic: By August 2020, a Chicago resident was six times as likely to have died from COVID-19 as a resident in the states South region, which covers 20 counties spread from roughly Mount Vernon to Illinois southern tip and east to the Indiana line. But as fall 2020 approached, experts warned that rural Illinois was ripe to be hit hard by a second infection wave. Then came the second surge, the deadliest of them all. When adjusting for population difference, the Tribune found the hardest hit was the states South region. By New Years Day, the South regions death rate had caught up to and surpassed Chicagos. And the gap widened still through the spring and summer. Even as deaths skyrocketed Downstate, state surveys showed rural residents were less likely to wear masks than those in the suburbs or cities. In September 2020, only about half of rural residents said they always wore a mask in public. Masking did grow in rural areas during the second surge, but still remained well behind rates in suburban and urban areas. With the virus infiltrating all parts of the state, the death toll rose faster and faster. By late October 2020, while updating reporters to the increasing pace of deaths, Ezike turned away from TV cameras to wipe tears, after noting the roughly 9,400 dead, by then, were people who started with us in 2020 and wont be with us at the Thanksgiving table. Two weeks later, Illinois crossed the 10,000 threshold. By mid-February, the state had crossed the 20,000 threshold. Among the victims: Jane Marlene Hughes of Mount Vernon. She grew up during the Great Depression on a hardscrabble farm in Missouri. She went on to become a schoolteacher in southern Illinois and raise five children, while bringing food and clothing to students who would have otherwise gone without. She hoped to make 100, but died of COVID-19 at 98, in early January, before she had access to the COVID-19 vaccine, said her son, Robert Hughes, also of Mount Vernon. Roberts wife, Elizabeth Hughes, said she hears from people who still believe COVID-19 doesnt exist or that its just like the flu and not meant to be taken seriously. Others will minimize the death count, saying its mainly the elderly who have been killed by the virus. Its very hurtful, Robert Hughes said. Every moment is precious. I never thought Id see people in Illinois southern Illinois become so hardhearted. Vaccination gap The most recent surge offered the first time that the vast majority of Illinoisans could arm themselves with free, effective and easy-to-get vaccinations. And, with a heavy push to vaccinate those in long-term care, that could help explain why that group makes up a far smaller share of those dying in more recent surges. But other groups have been less likely to seek the shots. Their hesitancy has been fueled by massive disinformation campaigns that fed misleading and false information on social media. That disinformation came on top of already-deep distrust of the medical community by some Black and Latino residents, mindful of past racism in health care. In that atmosphere, Black and Latino Chicagoans have continued to lag behind white and Asian neighbors in the rate of vaccination. A Tribune analysis of city and census data found roughly 41% of Black Chicagoans were fully vaccinated, compared with nearly 65% of white Chicagoans. Arwady told the Tribune that the racial and ethnic gap in vaccinations has fueled the racial and ethnic gap in deaths. During the first wave, Black and Latino Chicagoans were two to three times as likely to die than white Chicagoans. From mid-March through late July, when vaccination became plentiful, the lower vaccination rates meant Black and Latino men were five to six times as likely to die than white men in Chicago. Now, the disparity is simply because of vaccine uptake, she said. Black Chicagoans and, to a lesser extent, Latino Chicagoans are joined by another group that has been far less likely to get vaccinated: residents of rural, mostly white, parts of the state. Its a trend tied to Republicans being far less likely than Democrats to get the vaccine, with some conservatives stoking distrust in vaccines, downplaying the virus severity or painting vaccine refusal as patriotic pushback of government overreach. Its hardened vaccine resistance in Illinois more rural areas, particularly in the struggling South region, where several residents told the Tribune this summer they were shunning the shots. Ten months into the mass vaccination campaign, the South region continues to have barely 4 in 10 of its residents fully vaccinated. And, as experts feared, simple math became a key predictor of what areas would be hit the hardest, with less vaccinated areas seeing higher death rates in the latest surge. For example, the South region saw a death rate of nearly 46 per 100,000 residents in the past two months. During the same period, in the states most vaccinated region of DuPage and Kane counties, the death rate was less than 6 or just one-eighth of South regions rate. The troubling gap can be found in other state and federal data analyzed by the Tribune. When looking at weekly data that compares statewide death figures for vaccinated Illinoisans compared with unvaccinated ones, the Tribune found the rate of death was more than triple for those yet to be fully vaccinated, compared with those who have been. Risk to vaccinated, too The analysis also highlights how the infection surge raised the risk even for those vaccinated. No vaccine works perfectly for everyone, meaning the vaccine can dramatically lower the odds of death, but not eliminate them. So in areas where the virus is spreading rapidly, its floating droplets are more likely to be inhaled by the vaccinated, some of whose immune systems still may not be up to the fight. That creates so-called breakthrough cases, some of which can still be deadly, such as Jim Chapmans. Chapman grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood, graduated from Harvard Law School and dedicated much of his life helping the incarcerated and impoverished. He spent about two decades as president of the Uptown Peoples Law Center in Chicago, then moved near the states southern tip and started a Carbondale nonprofit to support those in need. He got vaccinated and continued working, at age 91, until he got sick with COVID-19. His two sons, Robert and Richard, could visit their dad only briefly in the hospital, and to do so, they had to don a gown, N95 mask, plastic shield and gloves. Robert Chapman said he wishes those avoiding COVID-19 shots could see the pandemics toll on families like his. If they could think more about others, or if they themselves had to go through that experience, they might view their decision about not getting vaccinated differently, he said. And there could be other deaths tied to the pandemic, even if not directly to COVID-19. Researchers study so-called excess deaths, which are how many more deaths are occurring than typically have in the past. While many recent ones are attributed to the virus itself, there also has been a rise in other deaths, according to data kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not counting the approximately 25,000 known COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic, or another roughly 2,700 the state deems probable COVID-19 deaths, the Tribune found the state had at least 5,000 additional deaths beyond the average for the past 1 years. Researchers blame these additional, non-COVID deaths on a host of factors, from sick people more leery of seeking care, to an overwhelmed hospital system that has to delay surgeries for the chronically ill to treat surges of COVID-19 patients. And, nationally, theyve hit Black and Latino communities disproportionately. How many more will die? If there is positive news in the fourth surge, its that it has been nowhere near as deadly as last falls, and it appears to be waning. Illinois deaths from COVID-19 now average a little more than 30 a day, after topping out near 40 in the most recent surge, which in turn was far less than last falls peak average of more than 150 deaths a day. Deaths are expected to drop even more in the coming weeks because cases and hospitalizations generally have been dropping too in Illinois, with an increase in vaccinations and more natural immunity built up in survivors. Plus, new treatments continue to be developed, the latest being a pill that its drugmaker said halves the chance of hospitalization and death in those recently infected. (It could be approved by regulators later this year.) And regulators are now weighing a request from Pfizer to OK their vaccine for kids 5 to 11, which if approved could limit spread in schools and lessen the chance adults catch COVID-19 from kids. That said, epidemiologists have warned that Illinois could still see another surge. The virus could mutate into something more contagious or vaccine-resistant. As the weather turns colder, people may mingle more indoors without wearing masks, giving the virus an easier time spreading. And immunity, from vaccination or a prior infection, can lessen over time. Health officials say booster shots are needed for Pfizer recipients who are six months past their second shot, if they live in long-term care facilities, are seniors, or are at least 50 with underlying health conditions. Other Pfizer recipients can get booster shots too, and regulators are considering OKing them for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recipients. As the infection rate ebbs and flows, one near constant may be the grief over the dead, and frustration the toll continues rising 18-plus months after the first COVID-19 death. Somehow were able to normalize the fact that ... 700,000 American people died in the last year and a half, Robert Chapman said. Thousands of people are dying every day from this. Somehow, we act as though this is normal. The sun shone brightly in the clear, blue sky, highlighting the simple white cross adorning the steeple of Chapel Hill Baptist Church in Santee as Sunday morning churchgoers attended the 8 a.m. park and praise anniversary worship service celebrating 142 years of history. Guest pastor the Rev. Edmund Riggins of Eleventh Hour Baptist Church in nearby Holly Hill shared a message from II Chronicles 15:7, Pressing Forward in the Storm. Similar to many institutions that have existed four decades past their centennial mark in the Palmetto State, CHBC has had its share of challenges and obstacles to overcome. From its meager beginnings in an open-air gathering place to its comfortable brick building that sits vacant due to health concerns during a pandemic, this remarkable historic site once again finds itself welcoming all who seek to hear the word of God, in an outdoor setting. Attendees were given a 12-page program to outline the ceremony. The booklet credits the Anniversary Committee as well as Mary Felder, Rosa Lee Mallard Adgerson, Veola Sumpter and Queen Ester Gilmore for providing a current church accounting. The committee states that the churchs history was compiled by using the original history as written by Jestin Grayton, Deacon Adam Green and Celia V. Gilmore-Hezekiah and includes a November 2000 update by Patricia R. Middleton and an August 2019 update by Cynthia Funderburg. According to church records, CHBC began in 1879 when services were held in a bush arbor where branches were arranged over a pole structure to provide shelter from the weather. Under the leadership of Rev. Snider, a Caucasian evangelist from St. Matthews, church members gathered under the bush arbor through the mid-1880s. In 1885, under the leadership of the appointed pastor, Rev. Duncan, the church became a framed building. During those earlier years, members who lacked money for tithes and offerings would bring eggs to church for the collection. The church superintendent would sell the eggs and return the money to the church. In the early 1900s, church members were baptized in the Chapel Branch pond until an outdoor baptismal pool was constructed on the grounds in 1929. The church was destroyed by fire in 1964 and, until a new structure was built later that year, church services were held under a borrowed tent. At this time, an education building was also erected on the site. Through the years the church has continued to grow, and in 1964, the Rev. P.L. Welfare was appointed as pastor. Under his leadership, the church added a gospel choir and an usher board and began designating second Sundays as Youth Sunday to encourage its younger members to take on more active roles in the church. Around 1978, as Welfares health began to deteriorate, the Rev. Isaac Jenkins, a licensed minister, volunteered to carry on from the pulpit and was appointed pastor in 1979. CHBC became a bricked structure and added a fellowship hall during his time there. The indoor baptismal pool was constructed under the pulpit and the church began a formal collections system to receive and track individual contributions. The Rev. James E. Council was installed as pastor in October of 1994. During his tenure, the Rev. Franklin Hezekiah Jr. was ordained in March of 1997, and Minister Edmund Riggins was licensed in November of 2000. Additions to the church included a conference room, a clerk room, a finance room, a choir room and a nursery. The baptismal pool was moved from beneath the pulpit to its current location behind the choir. The formal collections process was replaced by the envelope system that is still in use today. Rev. Council left CHBC Aug. 1, 2005, without a pastor to lead the congregation. The Deacon Ministry at Chapel Hill, which included Clarence Gilmore, Johnny Thrower, Simon Gilmore, Joseph Gadson, Silas Seabrooks Jr., Harold Bowen and Johnny Ravenell, took over the church services until November of 2006 when Dr. D.L. Grant Sr. was installed as CHBCs 10th and current pastor. The church has seen an increase in membership and attendance of weekly services since then and has established a praise dance group and a health awareness ministry. The church participates in the National Baptist Convention, State Baptist Education and Missionary Convention of South Carolina. In 2009, for the first time in the churchs history, three females were added to the Trustee Ministry. In 2010, the Youth and Childrens Church was reorganized and a complete sound system was added to include a sound room and audio ministry personnel. The Church Bus Campaign Project was also implemented in 2010. The Sanctuary Choir was established in 2011 and the church hosted the South Carolina Baptist E&M Convention and later was able to purchase a 32-passenger church bus. In 2013, the puppet ministry was started to help teach and spread the gospel to young people and older members as well. On March 15, 2020, after morning worship, CHBC closed its doors because of a quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Pastor Grant has been leading the church through virtual worship with the use of online technology by live-streaming on Facebook and with Zoom sermons for Sunday school. Grant has also kept in touch with the CHBC family through quarterly newsletters, telephone calls, texts and emails. With windows rolled down in the cool morning air, attendees of the praise and worship event shared their enthusiasm and approval by honking their vehicle horns during the service, which was broadcast locally via loud speaker system and live on social media. We thank God for the leadership from the present and the past that have paved the way for our existence, said Pastor Grant. The late Rev. John Glover lead the congregation during the churchs first experience with a pandemic, but today, God has allowed us the advancement of social media and technology to further our cause through hybrid worship, he said. Aldean Gilmore gave the occasion saying, We must continue our journey no matter the circumstance. We, as a church family, must continue to serve the Lord, and to annually commemorate the distance the Lord has allowed us to come. God has truly blessed this church since 1879 to this present hour, said Gilmore. Orangeburg Councilman Johnny Ravenell, a deacon of CHBC, presented the guest preacher, Rev. Riggins mentioning that he is a family man, married with four children. Riggins graduated Holly-Hill Roberts High School and Denmark Technical College. He was employed as an auto body repair instructor at Bamberg Job Corps for 20 years. He was ordained by the Orangeburg-Calhoun Baptist Association in March of 2002. He has been the pastor of Eleventh Hour Baptist Church in Holly Hill for the past 17 years. Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded, quoted Riggins from II Chronicles 15:7. In our text today, we saw that there was a small group of people that wanted to do right, but there was a large group of people that didnt want to do right, he explained. There is always a group of people that are going to be faithful no matter what is going on in their lives, but there is always going to be a discouraging crowd. You need to keep on pressing. People dont understand what you are going through, but if you keep on pressing God will make a way, said Riggins. You need to understand that God is on your side, he said. Pastor Grant prayed to God for continued blessings for the 142-year old church and reminded church members to pray each day at noon for the sick, shut-ins and bereaved. Lord, we thank you for the reminder to press forward and onward and upward," said Grant. "Lord, bless this Chapel Hill Church, bless this ministry that we will flourish." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 BAMBERG SouthernCarolina Alliance Project Manager Garrett Dragano says his group is working to recruit several businesses to its seven-county region, including some that are considering Bamberg County. Just over the region, currently we have 75 active projects, Dragano said. Dragano brought Bamberg County Council up to date on the economic development group's efforts during councils Monday meeting. The SCA serves Bamberg, Allendale, Barnwell, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties. He said 14 total announcements have been made in the region, generating $121 million in capital investment and 411 jobs. Were up to 14 active projects in Bamberg County right now, nine site visits generated from 35 projects being submitted and then, of course, in Bamberg County weve had two announcements, he said. Those announcements included Arnett Engineered Solutions LLC, a pump and valve manufacturer and provider, which announced on Aug. 11 that it plans to establish operations in Bamberg County. The company plans to invest $2.5 million and create 19 new jobs. The other project is South Carolina Oak to Barrel LLC, which recently announced it would invest $6.8 million and create 122 new jobs at the former Black Water Barrels plant at 3914 Bamberg Highway. Dragano said two promising projects for Bamberg County include Project Canvas, which could make a $400,000 investment and create 80 jobs, and Project Superior, which could invest $1.5 million and create 25 jobs. If things keep going the way theyre going, potentially were looking at a $11.7 million capital investment and 256 jobs for 2021, Dragano said, noting that hes been meeting with area companies to provide them with needed resources. In other matters, Council approved a resolution to transfer the existing fee-in-lieu of tax agreement the county established with Black Water Barrels in 2016 to South Carolina Oak to Barrel. It was a 20-year agreement set up back in 2016. Five years have gone by. So theres only 15 years left. And youre assigning that agreement to them, Dragano said. In other business: Phil Clarke, ambulance operations supervisor for Medshore, introduced six of eleven EMT students who have received their certificates of completion from Denmark Technical College. Medshore provides the countys ambulance services. The $2,500 course was offered at no cost to participants thanks to a grant from the S.C. Department of Labor through Apprenticeship Carolina. This is the first Emergency Medical Technician Academy in what will be an ongoing collaboration between Denmark Tech and Medshore. Through the apprenticeship program, students can begin employment with Medshore and attend class at the same time with an earn-while-you-learn model. Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College instructor and retired Orangeburg County EMS Director Danny Rivers was introduced as one of the academys instructors. We are starting the next EMT Academy probably in November. Its been a great program. Council has been very supportive of the technical college, and youve been very supportive of Medshore. The next class is going to allow us to hopefully fill the majority of our vacancies that we have, Clarke said. Hopefully by January well have all of our slots filled. He said, Medshore has a program that were fixing to start probably toward the end of the year or the first of next year, where we will be sending folks to paramedic school through Midlands Technical College, and most of it will be done virtual. Were hoping to be able to train some of our folks internally through that class. County Administrator Joey Preston gave his report to council, stating that the countys first fire service banquet will be held 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, at the Andrew Jackson Academy gymnasium. A link to the countys code of ordinances dating back to the mid-1970s is now available on the county website, he said. Preston also reported fuel sales at the airport were up. In September we had 64 sales, that's up from 31 in August. ... Every time a plane flies in and flies out, that's part of that overall formula that the feds use when they start setting aside federal money for the grants to make infrastructure improvements at the airport," he said. Preston reported 58.7 percent of county residents have had at least one vaccine shot, up from 54 percent in August. Also, 50.1 percent of residents have had both vaccinations, up from 45 percent since his last report. The administrator also announced that Columbia-based Alpha Team Tech Solutions donated more than $50,000 worth of computer equipment to Denmark Tech. Im not talking old stuff, not junk brand-new equipment to help them set up their computer lab. I just want to publicly thank this company for doing that, Preston said. Council approved a resolution recognizing pharmacist Donna Avant and Ehrhardt Pharmacy as official county ambassadors for their service to the community, including providing telehealth opportunities to county citizens. Council approved a proclamation honoring the 140th birthday of The Times and Democrat newspaper. Council approved resolutions recognizing October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the county. County resident Miriam Beard asked for more information on the benefit of airport improvements to residents quality of life and also cited a need for improved animal control services. She also asked about the buildings which will be left vacant once the countys Department of Social Services and sheriffs office are moved into the countys old hospital. She suggested an emergency shelter be created in at least one of the buildings. Preston said he would be contacting Beard by phone about her concerns. Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow "Good News with Gleaton" on Twitter at @DionneTandD. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Democrats have a problem. They want Republican fingerprints on their big-government socialist reconciliation bill. But first, they need to raise the debt ceiling to clear the way for trillions in new spending. Republicans are united in opposition to the reconciliation bill. And they have made clear since the beginning that Democrats with full control of the government will have to raise the debt ceiling on their own. There has been no confusion on this point. All it would take for Democrats to raise the debt ceiling is a one-sentence bill. They could have gotten it done months ago. They could start the process today. But theyve refused. In 2006 then-Sen. Joe Biden and all Democrats voted against the debt ceiling increase when Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House. Republicans raised the debt ceiling on their own. Biden said at the time, Because this massive accumulation of debt was predicted, because it was foreseeable, because it was unnecessary, because it was the result of willful and reckless disregard for the warnings that were given and for the fundamentals of economic management, I am voting against the debt limit increase. Joining Biden in the no vote: Sens. Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Democrats know the reconciliation bill is unpopular, which is why they pretend it costs nothing. They do not want the media and voters to talk about the contents of the bill: The biggest tax hike since 1968. Higher business taxes than China and Europe. Small business tax hikes. Capital gains and dividend tax hikes. Special tax cuts for media allies and people purchasing e-bikes costing up to $8,000. Democrats hope voters wont know who to blame if and when the bill is enacted. Democrats fear a midterm election wipeout. Just like 1993-94 under Clinton and 2009-2010 under Obama, they overreached with tax increases and overspending. Many incumbent senators are vulnerable. For example, New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan is trying to keep a low profile by staying out of the national media spotlight. But Democrat leadership claim they already own her vote. So she will have to explain to her constituents why she just imposed on her state a higher federal-state corporate income tax than China and Europe. Shell have to explain why utility bills will go up. Democrats must also face the fact that corporate income tax rate increases are borne by workers in the form of lower wages. Even progressive economists acknowledge this. And recently the Joint Committee on Taxation testified that the corporate tax was shouldered by labor, laborers. Biden and the Democrats plan to increase the size and power of the IRS. They want $80 billion in new funding over the next decade in order to hire 87,000 new IRS agents and auditors. Thats enough people to fill the Roman Colosseum nearly twice. Biden claims the agency will target people like Scrooge McDuck and Rich Uncle Pennybags. But the IRS itself has already announced a goal of a 50 percent increase in small business audits. After getting battered by the pandemic and forced closures, the last thing small businesses need right now is an audit, which can easily take 2-3 years. The IRS could not even pass one of its own audits. Inspector General reports consistently show the agency is unable to account for its assets such as vehicle fleets. A small business owner with such shoddy records would be in big trouble with the IRS. It gets worse. Democrats want to snoop on your bank account and your PayPal, Venmo and CashApp accounts. They want to give the IRS automatic access to the inflows and outflows from these accounts. The agency would acquire and store this information, likely forever. The Democrats dont seem to understand why anyone would have a problem with this. The long-term goal for progressives is real-time IRS access to all of your financial transactions. No financial privacy. Theyll dismiss any concerns by saying: What have you got to hide? Americans already know the IRS is unable or unwilling to safeguard the information it already has. You can expect this bank account information to coincidentally find its way to progressive groups who will use it against conservative households and organizations. Democrats also want to impose price controls on American pharmaceutical manufacturers. The importance of medical innovation is clearer now more than ever, yet this proposal would threaten the development of hundreds of new cures in the future. It would also threaten jobs across the country. On the spending side of the reconciliation bill, there is a long list of woke programs and earmarks. The bill spends $3.5 billion to create a Civilian Climate Corps a make-work program for unemployed climate activists. Taxpayers will provide these uniformed youngsters with lodging, food, transportation, and salary and the workers will even be unionized. Perhaps theyll knock on your door with a clipboard and ask you to put on a sweater instead of heating your home adequately. This program is a big priority for AOC, and that means Chuck Schumer does not dare think about cutting it from the bill. He fears a primary challenge from her. Its no wonder the Democrats dont want people to notice what is in their bill, and why they want GOP fingerprints on a debt ceiling increase. Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform. He wrote this for InsideSourcers.com. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 President Joe Biden hopes the political fallout from his botched Afghanistan withdrawal will fade quickly, but the Senate hearing this past week with the secretary of defense and two top generals doesnt cast his decisions in a better light. The hearing underscored that the president acted against the advice of the military in yanking the residual U.S. force from the country. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie both made clear in their testimony that they recommended that about 2,500 U.S. troops stay in Afghanistan to delay a Taliban takeover. Thats not what Biden said he was told. Asked in an ABC News interview days after the August fall of Kabul if his military advisers urged him to maintain Americas small footprint in the country, Biden said, No one said that to me that I can recall. The scandal isnt that the president ignored military advice hes the decision-maker. Its his refusal to own his decision. Biden wants political credit for ending Americas involvement in Afghanistan, but hes not willing to take the political risk of admitting he overruled the brass in the process. The generals also undercut Bidens spin about their advice as the chaotic withdrawal was underway. He said the generals unanimously supported his Aug. 31 deadline for the departure of U.S. troops. But as Milley confirmed in questioning by Sen. Tom Cotton, that advice was given on Aug. 25 10 days after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Waiting that long essentially presented the generals with a fait accompli, since the Taliban were already entrenched in Kabul. It didnt have to unfold that way. Once it became clear Kabul was going to fall in mid-August, the U.S. could have told the Taliban that it was going to secure a wide perimeter around the Kabul airport and control the city until the withdrawal of Americans and Afghan allies was complete. The administrations sunny assurances about the impact of the withdrawal on U.S. national security were also undercut by the brass. When Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona asked Gen. McKenzie, are you confident that we can deny organizations like al Qaeda and ISIS the ability to use Afghanistan as a launchpad for terrorist activity? the general said, I would not say I am confident. Milley similarly called the outcome in Afghanistan a strategic failure as the enemy is in charge in Kabul a break in tone for an administration that has been casting the Taliban as a potential partner. He still insisted it was a logistical success a dubious designation. Milley was also in the hot seat for the reports of his actions late in the Trump years as relayed in a book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book paints a picture of a general freelancing on national security during and after the 2020 election, reviewing nuclear protocols and calling his Chinese counterpart to say hed warn him if President Donald Trump started a war. Milley confirmed he spoke with Woodward. Yet he said his communications with China were standard practice, and he wouldnt say whether his portrayal in the books was accurate as he hadnt read them. Thats a dodge. Milley has surely seen the Washington Post report on the book that portrays him as undertaking extraordinary efforts to circumvent a president. It has damaged Americans perception of civilian control over the military. Yet Milley didnt take responsibility for that entirely predictable outcome any more than Biden has the consequences of his Afghanistan retreat. The Afghan withdrawal is the greatest U.S. foreign-policy humiliation in decades. The damage is made worse by the failure of accountability, starting with the commander in chief. This editorial is from The Wall Street Journal via The Associated Press. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 This subscription will allow existing subscribers of The World to access all of our online content, including the E-Editions area. NOTE: To claim your access to the site, you will need to enter the Last Name and First Name that is tied to your subscription in this format: SMITH, JOHN If you need help with exactly how your specific name needs be entered, please email us at admin@countrymedia.net or call us at 1-541 266 6047. Today Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. Morning high of 64F with temps falling to near 45. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Tonight Generally clear skies. Low 32F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow A mainly sunny sky. High 57F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Sen. John Barrasso was one of 11 GOP senators to join Democrats in voting to advance a bill that would extend the nations debt ceiling for the short term. The 61-38 procedural vote allowed the debt ceiling bill to achieve final passage in the Senate. Sixty votes were needed which necessitates the support of at least 10 GOP senators to help get it over a procedural hurdle that was preventing it from moving to a full vote. The bill was then passed by the Senate along party lines, with all 50 Democrats voting in favor (meaning Barrasso ultimately voted against it). The House is expected to vote on the bill Tuesday. Senator Barrasso voted against the bill to raise the debt ceiling for two months. Democrats will have to raise the debt ceiling in December, and he will oppose it again, said Laura Mengelkamp, a spokeswoman for the senator. The debt ceiling increase would raise the countrys borrowing limit by $480 billion and prevent a federal default that experts warned could cause an economic calamity. The Treasury Department estimates the U.S. government would reach the new debt ceiling around Dec. 3, at which point Congress may risk defaulting on their debt once again. Some of the other Republican senators who broke party ranks and voted to move the bill forward included Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Senate minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Wyomings other senator, Cynthia Lummis, voted against it. I understand and appreciate the concerns that have led to this short-term debt limit deal. But the fact of the matter is, we actually need to address the spending problems driving our national debt, and soon, Lummis said in a statement to the Star-Tribune. We are already saddling future generations of people in Wyoming and America with a debt they will never be able to repay. And soon, interest payments on that debt will crowd out other spending. This year, Lummis and Barrasso have voted together 95% of the time, only deviating from each other on one major issue: Whether or not they objected to Pennsylvanias Electoral College vote in the 2020 presidential election. Lummis was one of seven senators to sustain the objection, while Barrasso rejected it. If the U.S. defaulted on its debt, it would likely send the nation into a fiscal tailspin. Everything from federally funded school lunches, the child tax credit, social security payments, SNAP (formally food stamps) and Medicare and Medicaid providers could be hindered. According to the Wyoming Department of Family Services, the state had 13,524 SNAP households with total 29,666 participants this last fiscal year (this issuance includes all the extra pandemic supplements as well, not just base SNAP). If federally funded lunch programs are affected, roughly 33,000 students in Wyoming who are eligible for free or reduced lunch may be impacted. The House which has a Democratic majority still has to pass the legislation, and it is likely to be signed into law by President Joe Biden. Congress could very well face this same issue again on Dec. 3, and the economy, and Wyomingites federal assistance programs, will hang in the balance once again. Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. RIVERTON Recent data suggests Indigenous people continue to make up a disproportionate amount of Wyomings homicides and missing persons cases, but tribal members say even the best numbers are not telling the full story. A report from the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center says that of 22 reported homicides in the state during the last fiscal year (which ended in June), five were Indigenous people or 23%. Since 2000, Indigenous people have accounted for 21% of reported homicides. Wyomings population is just 3% Indigenous. In the same time period, 17% of 1,126 reported missing people were also Indigenous, and nearly 60% of those were women. Of those missing people, around 87% were under the age of 18. A three-year report on crime data from the Bureau of Indian Affairs also showed that other crimes including sexual and aggravated assault are more common on the Wind River Reservation than in the state as a whole. In 2020, there were 7.3 reports of sexual assault on the reservation, compared to 5.2 But reporting and data likely underestimate the problems, representatives from the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Wind River Reservation said during a meeting Thursday of the Legislatures Select Committee on Tribal Relations. Nationally, numbers for sex and other violent crimes are almost always undercounted, said Cara Chambers, director of victim services in the Wyoming Attorney Generals office. In Wyoming, very little of the information produced by statewide or non-indigenous agencies includes interviews with actual tribal members whove experienced these losses firsthand, said Northern Arapaho member Rep. Andi Clifford, D-Riverton. It comes down to a mentality of not respecting our knowledge and our experience, Clifford said. (Law enforcement officials) think they have all the answers and know whats best for us, and theyre not listening to understand. Most law enforcement in the state is headed and staffed by white people. There is work being done on missing persons cases in Wyoming a Casper woman is leading the charge for legislation to create a uniform reporting database, and DCI recently updated its missing persons list to make it easier to use. But the problem, Clifford said, is that few of the active efforts bring Indigenous people to the decision-making table. I want to empower our tribal law enforcement, she said. Our tribal people have enough expertise and educated people that can do it I understand we need to collaborate, we need to partner, there are resources we dont have, thats important. But we need true tribal consultation. The Indigenous people that are working those cases are spread thin across the Mountain West. Bureau of Indian Affairs special agent Garrick DeClay works on the newly created Missing and Murdered Unit under the Office of Justice Services. Hes based in Montana, DeClay said, but until recently he and one other agent covered Wyoming, Oregon and Washington as well. The unit, which was established as part of the 2019 Operation Lady Justice, deals with both active and cold cases. Its meant to work with local agencies here, those would be the Wind River Police Department, Fremont County Sheriffs Office and DCI to pool resources and try to solve cases. Theres the structural piece of how we tackle this, the procedural, Sen. Affie Ellis, R-Cheyenne, said. But then it also comes down to boots on the ground, whos actually doing the work. Right now in Wyoming, there are five actively missing Indigenous people. Chambers said that both nationally and statewide, interest in missing and murdered Indigenous people has skyrocketed since Gabby Petitos disappearance began making headlines last month. The media covering Petitos case quickly pivoted to highlight the much more common disappearances and killings of Indigenous people in the region, after many pointed out that her case was receiving a disproportionate amount of attention. Data from WYSAC shows that last year, 51% of white homicide victims had their cases appear in newspapers. For indigenous victims, that number was roughly 30%, but only 18% for cases with female victims. The study also found that media coverage of Indigenous homicide cases tended to be more violent, negative towards the victim and contained less information than coverage of white victims. The other side effect of the recent media frenzy, Chambers said, was having far more people on the ground in Yellowstone and the surrounding area looking for missing people. That helped find the body of 49-year-old Robert Lowery, who had been missing for more than a month, in September. Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Police responded to an incident at Laramie High School on Thursday regarding the school districts face mask requirement, Laramie chief of police Dale Stalder confirmed. Stalder could not say how that incident concluded, but that it involved a juvenile. He confirmed that two school resource officers were at the high school Thursday because of what occurred up there today. When asked for details on the situation, he said he could not comment on an incident involving a juvenile and criminal violations. He did say the incident dealt with concerns between the school district, parents and other community members regarding the districts face mask requirement. The departments call log lists officers responding to a trespassing incident at the high schools address at 8:37 a.m. Thursday. Laramie High School Thursday morning was locked down due to a student disciplinary disturbance in the main office, according to a statement from the district. The lockdown was lifted once the issue was resolved. All students are safe; the lockdown was issued in order to prevent further interruptions to academic learning. The school district does not comment on individual student discipline matters, the statement concluded. The district also confirmed to the Star-Tribune that just one school resource officer is typically assigned to the high school. Those officers are employed by the Laramie Police Department. Meanwhile, videos posted largely among conservative Wyoming Facebook groups and on Youtube on Thursday show what appears to be two officers wearing Laramie Police Department patches engaging with a teenage girl about a trespassing violation. The videos indicate the girl was suspended for two days for violating a school rule concerning face masks. In one video, the girl attempts to return to class despite being suspended, prompting a lockdown. Another video shows the girl in handcuffs after being cited and refusing to leave. When asked if those videos were legitimate, Stalder said he had not seen them and could not comment. When asked broadly about officers being called to Laramie schools regarding face mask compliance, he said officers have dealt with situations at both the middle and high schools within the last two weeks. He could not say if any of those instances resulted in criminal citations being issued, reiterating that he can not provide details on incidents involving juveniles. He did say officers have been involved on two occasions regarding disruptions from interested parties over face mask disagreements within the school district, but that neither rose to criminal violations. Albany County School District trustees approved a district-wide face mask requirement in early September. Its set to expire Oct. 15. Trustees will have the opportunity to reconsider the policy at their Wednesday board meeting, according to the districts website. Some students and parents have lamented that requirement. Parents have testified at school board meetings opposing the policy, and students earlier this month protested the policy by walking out of class and holding signs outside of the school. Stalder stressed that officers would not intervene over an administrative policy, such as a face mask requirement. Rather, someone would need to be clearly violating the law. We look to specific statute violations before we take action, he said. Stalder again would not say if a student was cited at the high school Thursday. He did say that an officer would be able to issue a citation or put a student or any member of the public under arrest if they violated the law. If a student were asked to leave campus for any reason and refused, officers would warn the individual that they were trespassing, he explained. If the individual still refused to leave, officers would statutorily be able to cite or arrest the individual under Wyomings trespassing statutes. Follow health and education reporter Morgan Hughes on Twitter @m0rgan_hughes Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. LARAMIE Laramie High School was locked down for about 90 minutes Thursday morning during a showdown of wills between school administration and a 16-year-old junior who was arrested and removed from the school in handcuffs. Grace Smith returned to LHS on Thursday morning after serving two consecutive two-day suspensions for not complying with Albany County School District No. 1s mask mandate, which says anyone inside a district building must have his or her face covered. The rule, brought on by an upsurge in COVID-19 cases, was put in place last month and will be reviewed by the school board next week, ahead of a scheduled Oct. 15 sunset. Until then, Smith said she believes the mandate violates her constitutional rights and that she wont wear a mask. As a result, she has been warned by LHS administration and faces two days of disciplinary suspension and a misdemeanor trespassing citation for every time shes in the building and declines to mask up. The first time she was suspended, I just left, Smith said. Then, after talking with our attorney, we decided to push it, so on Tuesday I didnt (leave) and took the citation for $500 and then left. By not leaving, she was ticketed by the Laramie Police Department for trespassing. After serving a two-day suspension, she returned Thursday and again was ticketed for trespassing. When she still refused to leave the school, saying she has a right to be there, she was arrested. A pair of LPD officers had Smith put her hands in front of her, placed her in handcuffs and transported her to the police station in downtown Laramie, where Smith was released. The episode was captured on video by Smith on her phone and shows the interactions were calm and respectful on all sides. While she knew another $500 citation was coming her way, Smith said she was surprised the incident evolved to include a schoolwide lockdown and her arrest, especially as she wasnt making a scene, wasnt yelling and had made no threatening comments or actions. They told me they were going to do that, she said about the time leading up to her arrest. I was surprised they followed through. They came up to me probably 20 minutes before I was arrested and said that if you continue to not leave, we will arrest you. That also was a departure from an early conversation the Smith family had with Laramie police about what would happen if Grace continues to show up to school and not mask up, said Andy Smith, Graces father. They told us how this was going to play out before it happened, he said. They all said they were not going to arrest kids. But she was taken into custody, handcuffed and brought down to the detention center. In a short statement, the school district acknowledged the brief lockdown, which was done in response to a student disciplinary disturbance at the main office of the school. Sean OSullivan, a spokesman for the school district, said principals across the district were in one location for a weekly meeting at the time and that nobody was hurt. Everyone is safe, he said. Thats the big key right now. The statement also says the lockdown wasnt done because of any specific threat of violence or potential for harm. The lockdown was issued in order to prevent further interruptions to academic learning, the statement says. When asked about how many suspensions have been handed down because of students not wearing masks, OSullivan declined to answer, citing the statement, which says that the school district does not comment on student discipline matters. As for any disturbance at the school, Grace said there was none. She was calm and quiet, as were school officials, and that for the most part she just sat in the office. Now, with the potential for future mask refusals to also result in lockdowns, Grace said she is concerned other students and teachers could retaliate. But shes prepared for that, and said there already has been some bullying from people she used to consider friends. Its pretty likely some will hold (the lockdown) against me, too, but I would never purposely try to hurt anybody, she said. When asked why shes making such a dramatic stand about wearing a mask, Grace said its because she feels morally obligated to stand up for her beliefs. Its because Im growing up in a country where Im supposed to have my God-given rights to protect, and theyre being taken away, she said. Everybody has the freedom to wear a mask if they choose, but I believe everybody also has the right to not wear a mask if they choose. While she has the support of her parents, Andy and Erin, Grace denied they influenced her to act out. It was my choice, she said. I started refusing masks, and I told them about that. But theyve been supporting me, and theyve made it clear this is my choice. Andy said he and his wife will continue to support their daughter. They have retained an attorney to fight the citations and, if necessary, the school districts mandate. That would be a last resort, he said, because he would consider the school or city having to defend a lawsuit a waste of public money. As for the rest of the school year, it may be over for Grace as an in-person student at Laramie High. She can return after her latest two-day suspension Monday. But when the suspensions add up to 10 days, the potential for expulsion kicks in. For a straight-A student who takes Advanced Placement classes, not attending school is a sacrifice, she said. She also would have to give up her lead role in the school play and her spot on the dance team. As eye-opening as being placed in handcuffs and arrested has been, Grace said she has had another type of education since organizing a Sept. 10 walkout and public protest over masks. I get cussed out a lot, she said. People have called me mean names. Nobody has physically harmed me, but some of my best friends now wont talk to me. She also said the bullying doesnt just come from students. The discrimination from the teachers is just absurd, Grace said. I had one teacher who tried to force a mask onto my face. In a news release last week, the school district said students who refuse to wear a mask would no longer be allowed inside a district facility. The only exception is for a student who is unable to remove a mask independently. Superintendent Jubal Yennie said last week that, overall, mask compliance has been good. In all things, theres always those situations that arent good, and (Laramie High School Principal Jeff Lewis) and I are working through those as best we can, he said. The Albany County School District #1 Board of Trustees approved an operation plan Sept. 8 that includes a universal mask mandate in all buildings and buses. It runs through Oct. 15, and the board is scheduled to revisit the plan during its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, which will be held virtually. To consider lifting the mandate, the county will need to be in the COVID Yellow Zone for three weeks, indicating moderate transmission, or have its vaccination rate hit at least 70%. The Wyoming Department of Health reports that as of Monday, the county is in the Red Zone, indicating high transmission levels and a vaccination rate of 49%. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 3 Sad 0 Angry 4 A Wyoming billionaire who has previously bankrolled attempts to defend controversial immigration laws is responsible for nearly all the donations to Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts $54 million border wall fund. A member of one of Americas richest family dynasties, Timothy Mellon, contributed nearly 98% of the funds total donations when he donated $53.1 million in stock to the state of Texas in August, according to public records. Mellon is the 79-year-old Wyoming-based grandson of banking tycoon and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Before Mellons donations, Abbotts private fundraising campaign had stalled at about $1.25 million around mid-August, two months after its launch a drop in the bucket for a project with a price tag estimated in the billions of dollars. But on Aug. 27, a state website that tracks donations to the crowdfunding effort said the fund had jumped to nearly $19 million. By the end of the month, it had topped $54 million. The donations have since stalled again. Mellon did not respond to multiple requests for comment made to his company, New Hampshire-based Pan Am Systems, and a marketing firm that handled publicity for his 2015 autobiography. Abbott declined to comment. Mellon does not appear to have close ties to Texas. But he was a top donor to the reelection campaign of former President Donald Trump, who made building a border wall a top priority, and has previously donated money to defend legislation targeting immigrants. In 2010, he gave an unsolicited $1.5 million to the legal defense of an Arizona law that required police to determine the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to The Washington Post. Critics said the law would lead to racial profiling. The law was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down parts of it but left intact the section allowing officers to ask about immigration status. Last year, Mellon gave $20 million to America First Action, the main super PAC supporting Trumps reelection. Since 2018, hes donated $30 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House GOP super PAC, and he gave $30 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which tries to elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate, in 2020. Mellon has not donated to Abbott, but he gave $2,500 to Republican gubernatorial challenger Allen West when West ran for Congress in Florida in 2012. Mellon ramped up his political donations in 2018. While he overwhelmingly supports conservative campaigns and Republicans, Mellon also gave to two Democrats: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York in 2018 and former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii for her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Ocasio-Cortezs campaign later said it did not solicit the donation and would return it. Mellon has taken heat for using offensive stereotypes to describe Black Americans in his self-published autobiography. In the 2015 book, Mellon wrote that after the Great Society programs of the 1960s, which were intended to tackle poverty and racial injustice, Black people became even more belligerent and unwilling to pitch in to improve their own situations, according to The Washington Post. He also called social safety net programs slavery redux. Mellon is the chair of Pan Am Systems, a privately held transportation and freight holding company. In the 1980s, he founded a rail company called Guilford Transportation Industries. In the 1990s, he rebranded the company after buying the brand of bankrupt Pan Am Airways. Forbes estimated Mellon was worth almost $1 billion in 2014, and last year the magazine estimated the Mellon family was worth $11.5 billion. Abbotts crowdsourced wall Abbott, a two-term Republican, has made border security his top priority this year as he seeks reelection next year and is fighting off challenges from his right. Abbott has blamed the Biden administration for an increase in migrants at the border. In March, Abbott deployed state military and police resources to the border to help federal authorities enforce immigration law. In June, he announced a state of disaster in 34 counties that were seeing large increases in migrant crossings and he unveiled his plan to build a state-funded border wall, picking up where Trump left off. The Texas Legislature has approved nearly $3 billion over the next two-year budget cycle toward border security, with about $1 billion going to the governors office for grants, including $750 million dedicated to construction of a border wall. Texas is already paying $25 million for a nearly 2-mile concrete barrier along State Loop 480 in Eagle Pass. Portions of the federal border wall started by the Trump administration, and put on hold by the Biden administration, ranged from $6 million per mile to $34 million per mile for construction. Abbotts office said it has identified 733 miles of border that may need some type of barrier. While the state displays the aggregate of private donations to the border wall on its website, it does not readily provide the names of individual donors, despite a commitment from Abbott early on that the crowdfunding effort would have transparency and accountability. Outside of Mellon, the fund received more than 12,100 individual donations as of Sept. 14, totaling about $1.3 million. The median donation was $50. That level of fundraising is more in line with a similar crowdfunding attempt by Arizona lawmakers 10 years ago to raise private money for constructing a fence on the Mexican border. That effort received about $270,000 in three years, according to The Arizona Republic. During the Trump administration, a nonprofit called We Build The Wall, which included his former political adviser Steve Bannon as a board member, raised $25 million for a border wall. Bannon and Brian Kolfage, the groups leader, were accused by the federal government in August 2020 of looting the charity for personal gain. Bannon was later pardoned by Trump. Tax benefit Tax experts say Mellons decision to donate stock instead of cash could yield a tax benefit for the billionaire. Normally, a person has to pay taxes on profits made on their investments when they are sold. But investors who donate stock to charity avoid paying a tax on the earnings on their investment and get a tax deduction for the full amount of stock. Its common to give stock thats increased in value because they can get rid of the gains and they can deduct the donations, said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School. Such donations are usually made to nonprofit organizations. But under the tax code, a charitable contribution to a state would likely be tax-deductible if it is made exclusively for public purposes. Some people, for example, get tax deductions for donating money to cut the federal debt. The only hurdle is ensuring the money is only used for public purposes. In the case of [a] border wall, presumably built upon public land, I think itd be hard to argue there are private purposes, said Lisa De Simone, an accounting professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. But Mayer said such donations raise questions about undue influence by wealthy donors on governmental policymaking. In June, Tennessee billionaire Willis Johnson offered South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem $1 million to help pay for a state National Guards deployment to the border to aid Texas efforts to catch people crossing illegally. The states soldiers were then sent to the Texas border. The thing thats controversial about these kinds of donations is whether theyre distorting government priorities. If government collects money in taxes and the government Legislature and governor decide how to spend it, theyre setting their priorities based on the political environment, Mayer said. But if you open it up to donations, youre handing what the government should spend their money on to wealthy donors. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 ASSET by asset, the liquidators of the CL Financial group are selling off the company that it took Cyril Duprey and his nephew, Lawrence, 73 years to build up. The liquidators are plodding through the sale of thousands of acres of land, millions of dollars worth of shares in a local conglomerate, a major local insurance firm, a manufacturer of resins and a security company. Sponsored: Ministry of Planning In previous articles weve covered a few of the most significant issues facing the environment today and how our Government is addressing these. A large part of our, and indeed many other countries, strategy to do this involves being part of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and a crucial factor for the successful implementation of MEAs is our youth. More here Leonard Bernstein and wild mustangs. The Beatles in India and the sci-fi classic Alien on stage. While COVID continues to dominate the headlines in 2021, Film Fest Tucson is offering a bit of an escape through cinema, Oct. 14-17, as it returns this year with a hybrid schedule of streaming and in-person screenings. Festival founder Herb Stratford said the fest has between 30 and 35 films total this year, with six of those films slated to be shown for free at two outdoor venues: the lawn of the Childrens Museum Tucson downtown and the newly built LED wall at Main Gate Square, behind The Graduate Tucson hotel. The LED wall is super awesome, Stratford said. It is incredibly crisp and bright. It allows us to expand our footprint. We can be closer to the students, too. After canceling the film festival altogether in 2020, the initial plan in 2021 was to go completely online to keep the events mostly volunteer staff safe from COVID and because film festivals take a lot of effort and money and there are no certainties during a pandemic year. When the opportunity to use Main Gate Squares outdoor LED wall presented itself, Stratford reconsidered. The state Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Nov. 2 on that case. Separate pots of money There are multiple pots of money under the American Rescue Plan, which is a COVID-19 relief program. The $862 million distributed Thursday by the Department of Education comes from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund. It is the final payment in the $2.5 billion Arizona was allotted. It also is money going to the state Department of Education and not subject to gubernatorial discretion. Among the programs funded here is a Ready for School Campaign to encourage parents to send their children back to the classroom for in-person instruction. The state will also carry out separate programs to expand summer and after-school instruction programs, to deal with time lost while schools were closed. There also is a separate partnership with the states three universities to help schools recruit and retain faculty. By contrast, the money given to Ducey to distribute came from a separate Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund established under the American Rescue Plan. Those dollars are administered by the U.S. Treasury. Arizona environmentalists have followed through on their threat to sue the federal government over stray cows in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity and the Phoenix-based Maricopa Audubon Society accuse the Bureau of Land Management of violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to keep trespassing cattle away from a rare plant called the Huachuca water umbel. The San Pedro River harbors one of the few remaining populations of the plant, but damage from livestock is pushing the species to the brink of extinction, said Robin Silver, co-founder of the center. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tucson cites dozens of complaints since 1995 about wayward cattle in the conservation area, but says the bureau has all but ignored the problem. Nearly all the core population of these highly endangered, delicate plants have been annihilated. They dont stand a chance against the cows, said Silver in a written statement. Weve been fighting for decades to save the San Pedro and its plants and animals. The BLM is either too timid or too apathetic to protect this fragile ecosystem from neighboring ranchers. The court was not impressed by the Senates arguments that it did not have the records. The requested records are no less public records simply because they are in the possession of a third party, wrote appellate judge Maria Elena Cruz. That was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court. The trick now is actually getting them: Beauchamp told the judge the company is balking. Cyber Ninjas is not going to give to the Senate all of the documents that the Senate is obligated to produce pursuant to the Court of Appeals order and pursuant to this courts order, he said. He wants Kemp to order the Senate to do more than simply send a letter. If and when that happens, there would still be Langhofers argument about legislative privilege. He said theres a reason to keep certain documents secret, including things that lawmakers and, in particular, Fann as Senate president get from outside contractors like Cyber Ninjas. But the system can be adapted to detect any range of pathogens by updating its software, supporting applications in other industries. Botanisol Analytics CEO Dave Talenfeld, a UA law school graduate who got an MBA from the Eller College of Management in 2010, said the company already has achieved very high accuracy detecting viruses in under a minute and it is working on a version that will be faster and even more accurate. He noted that the device has not been approved, nor have the companys claims been examined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The study results will support an application for an emergency use authorization from the FDA that would clear the device for public use, Talenfeld said, adding the company is planning to file for the authorization around March. The companys laser scanners are already in use by the military, Talenfeld said. Botanisol has really just been rocking it in the past year, Hockstad said, citing the companys pivot to disease detection. Talenfeld, who worked in the UAs former Office of Technology Transfer while a student in 2010, said the UA has significantly boosted its support of UA entrepreneurs under Tech Launch Arizona, which replaced the former tech-transfer office in 2012. Gold mining in Glen Canyon reached a zenith from 1883 to 1912; the canyon had been explored by Native Americans and Spanish explorers much earlier. Imagine a society in which there are no rules regarding how each person drives a car. We would have total liberty to drive as fast as we want, While we are still working through the details of the federal requirements, it is clear that team members who choose to remain unvaccinated will not be able to work at American Airlines. Team members who cannot be vaccinated because of a disability or sincerely held religious belief can request an accommodation . American will provide an extra day of vacation pay and other incentives for those vaccinated by the Nov. 24 deadline. We have consistently advocated that all American Airlines team members and all eligible individuals around the world should get vaccinated, and we appreciate the tens of thousands of team members who did so during our incentive program, Parker and Isom said in last weeks letter. For those colleagues who did not, we realize this federal mandate may be difficult, but it is what is required of our company, and we will comply. No deadline for vaccination was set in that Oct. 1 letter. At the urging of his physician, Danker completed his COVID inoculation in February. I followed my doctors orders, he said. I didnt follow the orders of some company and some government telling me to go get it. OWASSO Gary Akin this week announced his plans to step down as longtime president of the Owasso Chamber of Commerce. Akin revealed the news of his retirement to attendees at the Chambers monthly luncheon on Wednesday. This is just a chapter that is closing, Akin said from the podium at the Tulsa Tech Owasso campus, but thats not the end of the book; a new chapter opens up with a great story to tell in a great city. Akin will leave the chamber next spring after serving at the helm of the organization for the last 27 years, aiming to spend more time with family, traveling and pursuing some personal goals. The community leader started his longstanding career in Tulsas northernmost neighboring suburb as a banker at Owasso Bank in 1976. He served on the chamber board for six years before accepting a full-time executive position at the organization in 1995. In 1997, he was named executive of the year by the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce Executives. Under Akins direction, the chamber has expanded its reach by continuing to support small businesses, promote economic development, engage in legislative advocacy and host a variety of networking events and activities, among other local and statewide initiatives. He said the synagogue, which has become an official partner of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, is collaborating closely with Catholic Charities officials as they develop housing and food options. In large part, our program will mirror the work theyre doing, he said. As an agency, the synagogue will have to add staff. Kaiman said a director of refugee resettlement was hired this week and that caseworkers also will be added. Volunteers will be super critical, Kaiman said. Tulsa refugee arrivals officially began Sept. 24. So far, about 20 are now in Tulsa and receiving support, Catholic Charities reported. Kaiman said theres no timetable for when the synagogue will receive its first refugees. He said the Jewish community has only to look to its own history to know the difficulties refugees face. Going back to the time of Moses, Jews have faced frequent displacement and relocation, he said. And, unfortunately, reaching the Promised Land does not mean an end to the struggle. On the contrary, even when we make it to our destination, the challenges we face are immense and ongoing. Update (Friday): The family of Lauria Bible opened the new day of searching with a prayer. "Hopefully we find the girls today," Lorene Bible said of her daughter and Lauria's best friend Ashley Freeman. "If not, we can mark this place off the list." The search began before 10 a.m. with the Quapaw K9 search team out with three dogs, in addition to earth-moving equipment. At first, the Dutch shepherd, British Labrador and Malinois shepherd were being run across dig sites from previous search efforts. The Bible family for the past three weeks had been out to the search site to clear the property with yard equipment and chainsaws. "We think there are wells either on the property or right behind," Bible said Friday, looking down an alleyway at the search site. The story below published Friday in the Tulsa World: PICHER A search team is returning to a familiar site on Friday to look again for the remains of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman, two Craig County teens who have been missing for two decades. Oklahomas top Republicans didnt have much to say Thursday about State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeisters unprecedented decision to switch to the Democratic Party and challenge GOP incumbent Kevin Stitt for the governorship. State party Chairman John Bennett did not respond to a request for his reaction. Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, had no comment, and House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, was traveling and not readily available, according to his office. Inquiries to Stitt were referred to reelection Campaign Manager Donelle Harder, who responded with a summary of the governors record. Under Gov. Kevin Stitts leadership, the state has increased its funding of public education to historic highs and enacted another teacher pay raise all while lowering taxes and building the states largest savings account, Harder said. Oklahomans across the state overwhelmingly support Stitts results-oriented, conservative leadership. After decades of politicians leaving us in last place, Stitt has already established a proven track record of progressing Oklahoma towards Top Ten in critical categories while protecting our freedoms and core values. OKLAHOMA CITY The state has continued to see an encouraging decline in COVID-19 cases, numbers and hospitalizations this week, Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said Thursday during a virtual news conference. We remain cautiously optimistic that we have seen the worst of this delta variant in Oklahoma, he said. The states new seven-day average of new cases was 1,224, which is 56% lower than the peak number of 2,806 on Aug. 30, he noted. Our populations immunity against this virus is improving thanks to the available vaccines that are safe and highly effective and all the Oklahomans who have stepped up to receive their vaccine, Frye said. The data reinforce the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines at preventing infections, hospitalizations and deaths, Frye said. He referred to a newly released report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that documents that vaccinations have helped reduce COVID-19 infections by 7,500, hospitalizations by 2,800 and deaths by 1,100 among Oklahomans age 65 and older. No one is surprised Oklahomas school test scores fell during the pandemic; it follows national trends and commonsense expectations. The scores ought to inform, not shame, districts on how to proceed. Youth are remarkably resilient and able to catch up with the right supports. Teachers know how best to teach their students. District leaders remain on high alert to keep the COVID-19 virus from buildings or from spreading. Its the only way to keep the schools open. That should be the takeaway: Do whatever is necessary to support educators to keep schools safe and with bolstered academic resources. About 20 months ago, districts across the country went into distance learning as society temporarily shut down. It forced a type of education that had not been done on that scale. It was clunky, frustrating and not ideal for kids or teachers. In returning to classrooms, schools implemented mask mandates to curb the spread. Emerging research and anecdotal evidence found that mask mandates worked, both for cities and in schools, particularly in areas with high community spread. Simply, local entities with mandates curbed the spread faster, eventually showing fewer new cases, than in places without mandates. A Vietnamese travel company has proposed a special tourism model that, if approved, may allow tens of thousands of Russian tourists to visit several famous destinations in the Southeast Asian country every month. The proposal was submitted to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism by Anex Vietnam Travel and Trading Company. Fully-vaccinated Russian tourists will be able to purchase tours to Phu Quoc Island, Nha Trang City, and Da Nang City under a closed tourism model named 7+, meaning that the minimum length of each package is seven days, according to the firm's plan. During the first seven days, travelers have to stay at designated resorts and hotels that meet pandemic safety requirements, while complying with several travel restrictions. If tourists test negative for COVID-19 on the seventh day of the itinerary, they will be allowed to visit, eat, and shop at places arranged by the tour operator. Visitors will also be able to change accommodation after the seventh day. If they are diagnosed with COVID-19 during their stay, they will have to undergo paid quarantine in accordance with regulations. During the pilot phase, the model will only target visitors from Moscow, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok, a representative of Anex Vietnam told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. The firm will coordinate with Russias Azur Air and Anex Tour Company to promote and tailor package tours as well as offer them to Russian tourists who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Tourists will be taken to Phu Quoc, Cam Ranh, and Da Nang International Airports on charter flights with the frequency of one flight per airport per week. They will be required to present a legitimate certificate of vaccination and test negative for the coronavirus via the real-time RT-PCR method within 72 hours before their arrival. After arriving at the airport, they will have to undergo a rapid coronavirus test. Children under 18 who travel with parents or guardians need to have a negative test result and travel insurance that can cover the cost of COVID-19 treatment. During the pilot phase, which lasts for three to five months, we expect to welcome about 6,000 tourists to Phu Quoc, 6,000 travelers to Nha Trang, and 2,000 others to Da Nang every month, the representative stated. When the plan becomes official, the number of visitors is anticipated to double. The tours are designed to last at least seven days as Russian visitors usually stay in Vietnam for about 14 to 16 days, he added. Anex Vietnam is headquartered in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa home to the popular beach city of Nha Trang. The company has specialized in the Russian tourist market for many years. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A Hanoi man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for repeatedly raping his girlfriends 12-year-old daughter over a span of eight months. The municipal Peoples Court on Thursday carried out the trial of Pham Thanh Tung, 31, a resident of Ha Dong District. Tung was sentenced to 19 years behind bars for raping an individual under 16 years old. According to the indictment, Hoang Thi Thu Huyen, 34, divorced her husband and lived with her three children, including 12-year-old H.H.B., at a tenanted house in Hanoi. Huyen often tortured B. by hitting the girl with plastic pipes, wooden sticks, and electric wires. The indictment also stated that Huyen usually neglected her other children. In early May 2020, Tung had a romantic relationship with Huyen and the two moved in together. They also had a baby. From May 2020 to January 2021, Tung raped B. on nine occasions when Huyen was not at home. He also threatened to beat the young girl if she tried to resist or if she told anyone. B.s aunt eventually became aware of the situation and reported the case to police officers. She brought B. and her younger siblings to her home. Tung was arrested in February of this year. At the trial, Huyen was sentenced to three years in jail for torturing her daughter. The woman is also being probed for the illegal trade of narcotics. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Authorities in Thua Thien-Hue Province in central Vietnam have fined on a local branch of Thai-owned C.P. Vietnam Corporation VND640 million (US$28,117) for discharging wastewater that did not meet safety requirements into the environment. C.P.s Thua-Thien-Hue branch is located at Phong Dien Industrial Park in the provinces Phong Dien Disrict. Before the fine was announced on Thursday, residents living near the industrial park had complained of mass fish deaths in nearby ponds and canals, leading many to believe that one of the companies operating in the park was discharging untreated wastewater. Upon receiving reports of the situation, functional forces determined that the local branch of C.P. Vietnam Corporation had discharged about 734.3 cubic meters of wastewater into the environment. Samples collected from the firms discharge pile system showed that their chemical concentration was many times higher than the national standards stipulated for the aquatic product processing industry. The Peoples Committee of Thua Thien-Hue Province thus levied a fine of VND640 million on C.P. Vietnam Corporation. The committee also requested the firm to take remedial measures, including reviewing and renovating its wastewater treatment systems to ensure they meet the technical requirements on environmental protection. In addition, the company must pay VND3 million ($132) for the assessment, inspection, measurement, and analysis of wastewater samples. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The U.S. has just delivered two more Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shipments to Vietnam, bringing its total donations to the Southeast Asian country to nearly 8.5 million doses. The latest batch of 397,800 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in Hanoi on Friday morning, while the previous shipment of 608,400 jabs reached Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, the U.S. Consulate General said on its verified Facebook page on Friday. This delivery is the example of our commitment to Vietnam in fighting against COVID-19 pandemic. And more is on the way in a few days! the diplomatic agency said. Regarding Thursdays shipment, the page read: The U.S. is committed to working with our friends in Vietnam to help end the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay tuned for more good news. Before these two batches, the U.S. gifted Vietnam a total of nearly 7.5 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses in four deliveries. Acting U.S. Consul General Robert Greenan has recently handed over 30 USAID-donated oxygen concentrators to Blue Sky Social Enterprise, a community-based organization working on HIV, the U.S. Consulate General reported on its Facebook account on Wednesday. This life-saving equipment enables families to provide COVID-19 care at home," the agency said. "We are proud to stand with Vietnam in the fight against COVID-19." The U.S. has committed more than US$26.7 million in related assistance to Vietnam since the start of the pandemic. Vietnam has received COVID-19 vaccine donations from many other countries, including Japan, Australia, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, the Czech Republic, and China, among others. The nation aims to secure 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to cover two-thirds of its 98-million population, and it has so far got over 61 million jabs from different sources, including COVAX, contractual purchases, and donations. Vietnams Nano Covax vaccine candidate is undergoing the procedures to be authorized for emergency use, having gone through successful trials. By Thursday evening, the country had administered around 49 million coronavirus vaccine doses to people nationwide, including 36 million first shots and 13 million second jabs, the Ministry of Health reported. Since the pandemic erupted in Vietnam in early 2020, the Southeast Asian country has documented 826,837 COVID-19 cases, including 758,488 recoveries and 20,223 deaths, in 62 out of the countrys 63 cities and provinces. The only locality staying free from the coronavirus is Cao Bang Province, where measures to prevent virus penetration have been strictly applied. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnams Ministry of Health recorded 4,806 new coronavirus cases in the country on Friday, while logging 994 recoveries and 114 fatalities. The latest cases, including 4,795 local and 11 imported infections, were documented in 43 provinces and cities, the health ministry said, noting 2,451 patients were detected in the community. Ho Chi Minh City registered 2,215 of the new cases, Binh Duong Province 828, Dong Nai Province 612, An Giang Province 182, Tay Ninh Province 92, Kien Giang Province 89, Tien Giang 74, Khanh Hoa Province 55, Can Tho City 48, and Hanoi five. Vietnam had confirmed 4,147 locally-acquired infections on Thursday. The country has found 827,033 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth and worst virus wave emerged on April 27. Ho Chi Minh City has been hit the hardest with 407,399 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 220,480, Dong Nai Province with 53,752, Long An Province with 33,092, Tien Giang Province with 14,433, Dong Thap Province with 8,539, Khanh Hoa Province with 8,152, Da Nang with 4,925, Hanoi with 4,267, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 4,292. Vietnam documented only 1,570 locally-transmitted infections in total in the previous three waves. The health ministry reported 994 recoveries on Friday, bringing the total to 759,482. The toll has jumped to 20,337 deaths after the ministry logged 114 fatalities on the same day, including 78 in Ho Chi Minh City and 17 in Binh Duong Province. Vietnam has registered 831,643 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck it early last year. Health workers have administered over 50 million vaccine doses, including 1,498,557 shots on Thursday, since inoculation was rolled out on March 8. Above 13.6 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. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! On Sundays 60 Minutes Nick McKenzie exposes behaviour at a major corporation and Karl Stefanovic looks at the final days of the Trump presidency. A Major Investigation On 60 Minutes this Sunday, award-winning investigative reporter Nick McKenzie will reveal substantial evidence of disgraceful behaviour at one of Australias most prominent companies. His report will expose an arrogant workplace culture and a flagrant disregard for corporate regulations and ethical practices. Reporter: Nick McKenzie Producer: Joel Tozer All the Presidents Venom When Donald Trump begrudgingly handed back the keys to the White House, there was a thought that he might quietly fade into history. After all, in the wake of the deadly riots on Capitol Hill and his false claims that the election was rigged, the polarising Presidents standing had taken a battering. But legendary reporter Bob Woodward, the man who broke the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon, says Trump is far from giving up. Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Robert Costa have been investigating the chaotic last days of Trumps administration and what theyve discovered is frightening. In an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes, they tell Karl Stefanovic just how close Donald Trump took the United States, and the world, to a perilous reckoning. Reporter: Karl Stefanovic Producers: Thea Dikeos 8:30pm (ish) Sunday on Nine. Anne Edmonds, Fifi Box and Marty Sheargold are all guests on Mondays Have You Been Paying Attention? We tried to gather the brightest minds in Australia to artfully glean the most interesting and insightful learnings from the past seven days and spin it into comedy. Alas, no luck. Instead we have stand-up comic Anne Edmonds and radio legends Fifi Box, Marty Sheargold, Sam Pang and Ed Kavalee. Theres no show without Quizmaster Tom Gleisner, who will be there to declare which of our five contestants is adequately attentive. 8:30pm (ish) Monday on 10. We finally have a winner. The Italian city of Turin has won the race to become the Host City of the 66th Eurovision Song Contest. The Grand Final will be held in PalaOlimpico on Saturday 14 May 2022 with Semi-Finals on 10 and 12 May. Turin was chosen by host broadcaster Rai over 16 other competing bids. The capital of Piedmont will be the third Italian city to host the event after Naples (1965) and Rome (1991). Executive Supervisor Martin Osterdahl said, Turin is the perfect Host City for the 66th Eurovision Song Contest. As we saw during the 2006 Winter Olympics, PalaOlimpico exceeds all the requirements needed to stage a global event of this scale and we have been very impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment from the City of Turin who will welcome thousands of fans next May. This will be the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Italy in 30 years and, together with our Host broadcaster Rai, we are determined to make it a special one. Turin is about 880,000 people, the 4th-largest city in Italy after Rome, Milan and Naples. The city covers a total area of 130 square kilometres. Heavily raided during WWII, it later became a major European crossroad for industry, commerce and trade, and is part of the famous industrial triangle along with Milan and Genoa. The 2006 Winter Olympics ushered in a building boom, including a brand-new metro system, transforming a staid industrial centre into a vibrant metropolis. PalaOlimpico seats some 12,000 people, small by European standards, and has hosted major sporting events plus Madonna, U2, 5 Seconds of Summer, Ariana Grande & Shakira. SBS will choose Australias representative at Eurovision: Australia Decides on February 26th on the Gold Coast. CDC, along with many other professional healthcare experts, are committed to increasing awareness of AFM. Listen to members of our community of experts as they express their dedication to learn more about AFM. Charged with capital murder, William George Davis stands on trial Sept. 28 accused in the death of four patients at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital in Tyler. The trial continues in the 114th District Court at the Smith County Courthouse. (Michael Cavazos/News-Journal Photo) Sports Editor I am a native Tylerite and I grew up reading the Tyler Morning Telegraph and The Tyler Courier-Times. My parents took both the morning and afternoon papers. I came to work here 35 years ago at the age of 23, right after college. The Greater West Dayton Incubator will soon begin accepting applications for a new microloan program, which aims to support Black-owned, women-owned and other underrepresented businesses as well as those serving the Greater West Dayton community. Microloans are important to help grow small businesses, especially for historically marginalized entrepreneurs who have faced barriers to traditional funding, said Vince Lewis, director of UDs Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, which oversees the program. Our goal in offering these loans, along with other support services, is to champion equitable opportunities, and by doing so, create jobs and economic value that help shape a brighter future for our community. The Cultural Capital microloans, which will range from $500 to $20,000, can be used toward operating expenses, new equipment, website development, marketing, hiring staff, and other costs of running a business. Applications will be evaluated based on more flexible criteria emphasizing passion, persistence and planning. "This program has the potential to provide direct access to capital to the Greater West Dayton community through intentional outreach, said Cherrelle Gardner, who serves on the risk review committee. A lot of businesses could be successful if they had even a small loan to help get them off the ground; however, those channels are limited for Black and brown founders. The microloans represent the opportunity for more purposeful support in the community where entrepreneurs live and work from a program that is more invested in their success than traditional transactional lending models. CityWide and UDs student-run Flyer Consulting are partners in distributing the microloans and supporting entrepreneurs with the loan process, financial wellness education and other services. We are excited to be a part of this collaboration and help bring these much-needed resources to underrepresented businesses, said Brian Heitkamp, CityWide president. UD undergraduates will gain experience in lending and managing the loan portfolio. They also will be involved in assisting applicants who do not meet the loan criteria on their first application to re-apply, as well as to help businesses that do receive loans prepare to apply for additional funding from traditional banks. Students in Flyer Consulting are passionate about real-world impact, especially in our local community, said Bryan Johnson, managing director for Flyer Consulting. The Cultural Capital Microlending Program will not only expand Flyer Consultings impact, but it will also allow our students to engage with the Greater West Dayton community. Furthermore, our students will have the opportunity to support underrepresented business owners, an experience that cannot be found in the classroom. The microloan fund is supported by an anonymous gift to the University, and the Greater West Dayton Incubator continues to seek more partner banks and foundations to grow the size of the funding pool. Underrepresented business owners in the Greater West Dayton area that meet certain eligibility requirements, including being in operation for at least one year, can apply. Applications open Oct. 4. More information, including details on upcoming informational sessions, is available online. The microloan program builds on the efforts of the Greater West Dayton Incubator, created in partnership between community and University leaders to support underrepresented businesses as they launch and grow by providing access to co-working space, consulting, training, capital and other resources. More information about the incubator is available online. (LNP) France threatened to cut off supplies of Christmas turkeys unless continental fishermen are allowed to work in British waters. European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune lashed out at the UKs Brexit failures in a series of incendiary remarks. He said that Frances trawlermen would not pay the price for the UKs decision to leave the EU. Mr Beaune, senior ally of president Emmanuel Macron, continued: Stop telling us you do not need us anymore, stop being obsessed with us, stop believing that we will solve your problems. They made a mess of Brexit. Its their choice and their failure, not ours. It was a bad choice, we see that today. Its not by badmouthing our fishermen, threatening us every day, being bad players and creating red tape or problems for Europeans, the French, and our fishermen in particular, that you will solve turkey shortages at Christmas. We will hold firm. Britain needs us to sell their products, including from fishing, they need us for their energy, they need us for their financial services, they need us for their research centres. All this gives us pressure points. (AP) Paris has previously suggested Britains imported energy supply could be disrupted in retaliation for a lack of access to UK waters. Mr Beaune said France could reduce, but not entirely cut, electricity supplies to Jersey as part of targeted retaliation measures if Britain continues not to respect the agreement. Reducing supplies is possible; cutting the power to every Jersey resident this winter that will not happen, the minister said. Mr Beaune said France had asked for 450 fishing licences in the Brexit deal, but had only been granted 275. In all of this, France could reduce its degree of co-operation with the UK, he warned. Earlier this week, French fishing industry representatives threatened to block the port of Calais and stop cross-Channel exports to the UK in the run-up to Christmas. (Rex) French fury was sparked after the Government announced last month that it had approved just 12 of the 47 applications it had received from French small boats. Story continues Those denied licences were unable to prove a track record of fishing activity in the six-to-12 nautical mile zone in the years before the UKs departure from the EU. According to a UK Government spokesman, the approach had been fully in line with the UKs commitments in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement agreed as part of the Brexit divorce deal. The cross-Channel tensions over-fishing have been long-running, with earlier rows leading to Navy ships being scrambled to Jersey amid concerns of a blockade of the island. The French have also previously used the energy supply threat to try to gain ground in the Brexit row. Read More How we expect Spain and France to line up in Nations League final Bletchley Park codebreaker awarded Frances highest honour 6,000 Dominos pizza bill to feed migrants arriving in UK The death of James Brokenshire has drawn tributes from across the political spectrum in Northern Ireland. Senior political figures in the Irish Republic also expressed condolences for the late Conservative MP who served as Northern Ireland Secretary for 18 months, resigning in January 2018 after his lung cancer was diagnosed. The period coincided with the collapse of powersharing at Stormont due to a row between the main parties over a botched green energy scheme and much of Mr Brokenshires time in post was dominated by efforts to restore the crisis-hit institutions. Former DUP leader and Stormont first minister Arlene Foster, one of the key players during that time of intense political upheaval in the region, described him as one of the good guys. I am so shocked and saddened by Jamess death one of the good guys in politics who handled his diagnosis with such grace, she said. I am of course sending my love and prayers to Cathy and their children as well as all his colleagues and friends. James Brokenshire and former prime minister Theresa May meet ex-first minister Arlene Foster and late deputy first minister Martin McGuinness (Liam McBurney/PA) Sinn Fein vice president and current deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill posted: Sad news. My thoughts and prayers are with the family of James Brokenshire. Current DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson tweeted: This is desperately sad news. James was one of the genuinely nicest people I have worked with in politics. He often spoke warmly of his time in Northern Ireland as Secretary of State. My thoughts & prayers are with his dear wife Cathy & his colleagues in the Conservative Party. Irish premier Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who was on a visit to Belfast on Friday, praised Mr Brokenshires commitment. Deeply saddened to hear of the passing of former NI Secretary James Brokenshire. A dedicated politician and public servant, whose sincerity and commitment shone through, especially in the context of his work in NI. My sympathies to his wife Cathy, children and family. Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) October 8, 2021 He was a dedicated politician and public servant whose sincerity and commitment always shone through, specifically in the context of his work in Northern Ireland, he said. Story continues He brought integrity, energy and commitment as secretary of state, and was a constructive partner for the Irish Government throughout. My sincere condolences to his wife Cathy, children and whole family. Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney also took to Twitter to pass on his condolences. Deeply saddened to hear of the passing of James Brokenshire, he wrote. Working with him as (Secretary) of State for NI, his dedication & commitment shone through. A genuine public servant who made a real positive impact. My thoughts are with his family at this very difficult time. James Brokenshire with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney (Niall Carson/PA) Former foreign affairs minister Charlie Flanagan said: In all my dealings with him, I found him courteous and a politician with a strong sense of duty and integrity. He was a person of character, someone who could be trusted. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood described Mr Brokenshire as a willing negotiator, an engaged minister and a good man. This is very sad news today, he said. James faced the news of his illness with immense courage and a real determination to get well for his family and to return to the job he loved representing people. Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie said: I am shocked at the unbelievably sad news of the death of James Brokenshire. James was an honourable and courageous man who served with distinction as secretary of state for Northern Ireland. My thoughts are with his family and friends in these difficult times. Alliance Party leader and Stormont Justice Minister Naomi Long tweeted: He was a real gent to work with and we all wished him well in his battle with lung cancer which he fought valiantly. My thoughts are with his wife Cathy, his 3 children, and his friends and colleagues at this very sad time. Photo credit: Sean Rayford - Getty Images Late Thursday afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a scalding interim report about the previous administration*s attempt to enlist the Department of Justice in the former president*'s campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Beginning on the day former Attorney General William Barr announced his resignation and continuing almost until the January 6 insurrection, Trump directly and repeatedly asked DOJs acting leadership to initiate investigations, file lawsuits on his behalf, and publicly declare the 2020 election corrupt. Documents and testimony confirm that Rosen, and in some cases other senior DOJ leaders, participated in several calls and meetings where Trump directly raised discredited claims of election fraud and asked why DOJ was not doing more to address them. In attempting to enlist DOJ for personal, political purposes in an effort to maintain his hold on the White House, Trump grossly abused the power of the presidency. He also arguably violated the criminal provisions of the Hatch Act, which prevent any personincluding the Presidentfrom commanding federal government employees to engage in political activity. Low bridge for Mark Meadows here. Meadows asked Rosen to have DOJ investigate at least four categories of false election fraud claims that Trump and his allies were pushing. Between December 29 and January 1, Meadows asked Rosen to have DOJ: Investigate various discredited claims of election fraud in Georgia that the Trump campaign was simultaneously advancing in a lawsuit that the Georgia Supreme Court had refused to hear on an expedited basis; Investigate false claims of signature match anomalies in Fulton County, Georgia, even though Republican state elections officials had made clear there has been no evidence presented of any issues with the signature matching process. Investigate a theory known as Italygate, which was promoted by an ally of the Presidents personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and which held that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and an Italian IT contractor used military satellites to manipulate voting machines and change Trump votes to Biden votes. Meadows also asked DOJ to meet with Giuliani on Italygate and other election fraud claims. Story continues Investigate a series of claims of election fraud in New Mexico that had been widely refuted and in some cases rejected by the courts, including a claim that Dominion Voting Systems machines caused late-night vote dumps for Democratic candidates. You may recall that the last two items were prominently featured in the Giuliani-Powell road show during the post-election period. (I remember when the Italian Satellite theory was broachedin Michigan, I think. I nearly dislocated my spine popping my head up in surprise.) They were all singing from the same hymnal for a very long time. And, inevitably, theres a straight line to the events of January 6. In addition to Trump White House officials, including the President himself, outside Trump allies with ties to the Stop the Steal movement and the January 6 insurrection also pressured DOJ to help overturn the election results. The allies included Cleta Mitchell, the Trump campaign lawyer who also was on the call with the president* when he pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find him 11,780 votes. Gradually, between this, the special commission, and the endless avalanche of new books, the story of what happened in the White House in the aftermath of the election is becoming very rounded and complete, one thing leading inexorably to another, the same actors playing different parts in all the dramas. It is coalescing into a very well-plotted, easily accessible horror story. It is all beginning to make awful sense. You Might Also Like After Irans military deployment on its border with Azerbaijan, the two allies, Baku and Ankara, are conducting joint military drills in the Nakhchivan province of the Turkic state, sending signals to Tehran, TRT World writes. In what appears to be a counter tactic to Tehran's military buildup close to the border of Azerbaijan, Baku and Ankara have joined forces, conducting military drills. Iran has recently sent military units to its border with Azerbaijan after Baku reclaimed most of its occupied territories in the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh, defeating Armenia with the help of Turkeys drones. Tehran has quietly supported Armenia, a Christian-majority country, in the conflict. Azerbaijan also disrupted Tehrans transportation in the Karabakh region, which is a crucial supply route connecting Iran with West Asia, imposing customs on it. That further sparked Irans anger as Turkey, Azerbaijan and Pakistan conducted trilateral military drills across Caucasia last month. But Turkey, with its newly-started joint drills with Azerbaijan, has indicated that Ankara fully supports Baku against Yerevan and will not allow Tehran to bully its Turkic neighbour, according to experts. It could be indeed that Turkeys and Azerbaijans current military drills in Nakhchivan (an Azerbaijani territory neighbouring Turkey) are ratcheting up that tension with Tehran, says Matthew Bryza, the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. While Turkey-Azerbaijan military maneuvers escalate tensions, it might also mean to send a political message to Yerevan, according to the former diplomat. Turkey and Azerbaijan might also be sending a signal to Yerevan that its time to have serious discussions about defining or demarcating the international border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, he says. Transportation links Demarcating the international border between Baku and Yerevan is crucial to reopen transportation links between Azerbaijan and Turkey and also among other regional states. Its clear that Turkey and Azerbaijan are eager to move that process forward, Bryza says. But primarily defining borders regarding the Karabakh region is also important to make trade routes available between Baku and Yerevan and also Turkey and Armenia, ensuring economic growth and investment across the region, according to the former diplomat. There is a strategic route, which lies across what Azerbaijanis called Zangezur corridor, connecting Azerbaijan's main territory with Turkey through Armenia and the Nakhchivan province, where the current joint drills of Ankara and Baku are also being conducted. That route is not operational yet. Opening the crucial route through the Zangezur corridor between Turkey and Azerbaijan, following Azerbaijans Karabakh victory, concerns Iran much, says Otabek Omonkulov, an Uzbek academic, who is an expert on Central Asia politics. Iran considers Turkey's land connection with Azerbaijan and its opening to Central Asia via Azerbaijan as a threat to its national unity and territorial integrity, Omonkulov tells TRT World. Tehrans nervousness Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, whose father was an ethnic Azerbaijani, defended Tehran's military exercises on the country's border with Azerbaijan. While emotions are high, they have usually died down in the past, Bryza says. But he also adds that the situation is not so predictable. Turkeys increasing political role in the region is another thing Iran finds difficult to accept. Irans regional isolation also angers Tehran much, says , an Azerbaijani expert and professor of international relations at Ege University. Increasing strategic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey particularly makes Iran feel lonely in the region, Ibrahimov tells TRT World. But the Azerbaijani professor also thinks that recent tensions will deescalate at some point. While Iran feels alone and angry, its also aware of the fact that neither Azerbaijani nor Turkish leadership has ever attempted to interfere with Tehran's internal issues like its large Azeri populations aspirations, according to Ibrahimov. Both Azerbaijan and Turkey have never provoked Iranian Azerbaijanis on any political grounds. Iran respects both Ankaras and Bakus careful act regarding Iranian Azerbaijanis, the professor says. Bryza also thinks that Iranian foreign ministers visit to Moscow is probably related to recents tensions between Tehran and Baku. Its clear that Iran, Russia and Turkey have a plan to try to work together to open up transport links across all directions between Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as other involving powers like Russia, Turkey, Iran and Georgia, he says. The foreign ministry didn't mention it, but I believe that there is a connection, Iran can not lose its access to West Asia, and to keep it, it will need some regional negotiations. One of them, of course, should be with Russia, Karimkhan sees. Ibrahimov also thinks that Russia, Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan will find a way to address their own differences. They will reach an agreement, he says. Amid an attempt to drive a post-coronavirus economic rebound, a number of countries in the Gulf have introduced new immigration measures to help attract skilled foreign workers. One of the major players on this front has been the UAE, which is the process of launching 50 new projects and initiatives to boost diversification efforts, Modern Diplomacy writes. The first tranche of 13 initiatives were announced in early September. Alongside measures that will expand the UAEs tech sector for example, the launch of a Fourth Industrial Revolution Network, and plans to train new coders these included two new visas. The first is the green visa, which will be open to highly skilled professionals, as well as investors, entrepreneurs and students. The second is a freelancers visa, the first such to be offered by the UAE. These visas are partly intended to address an issue that was highlighted by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Foreign workers are a cornerstone of the UAE economy, constituting nearly 90% of its total population. However, visas have traditionally been pegged to a specific work contract, giving workers a grace period of only 30 days once that contract had expired or been cancelled. This meant that nearly 10% of the population left the country during the height of the pandemic, an exodus which had a significant impact on the broader economy. By contrast, the green visa allows workers to stay in the country for up to 180 days after losing or leaving a job, giving them time to find another one. Additionally, green visa holders will be able to sponsor their parents and other family members to come and join them. These characteristics will increase a workers sense of security and stability, encouraging them to settle in the country, rather than simply complete a contract. Meanwhile, the freelancers visa is intended to attract younger workers who are more accustomed to flexible, non-traditional approaches to work approaches that the previous visa regime had militated against. In this sense, this visa represents an attempt to attract the new generation of digital nomads that has emerged out of the pandemic, and which is currently being courted by a range of emerging markets, as OBG has detailed. Such workers also bring with them the skills needed to boost the development of the UAEs tech sector. These new visa offerings follow on from several related developments. A new five-year renewable retirement visa was announced in August 2020, while in December eligibility criteria for the coveted Golden Visa were expanded to include people with PhDs, engineers, investors and graduates from accredited universities. Meanwhile, at the end of 2020 Abu Dhabi launched its own renewable, two-year Freelancer Licence, available to citizens, residents and non-residents alike. Tellingly, one of the groups at whom this licence is aimed is skilled individuals who have lost their job, but want to stay in the UAE. A region-wide tendency While the UAE has taken the most action to attract foreign workers, some of its neighbours have also taken steps to bring in expert expats without losing sight of the need to train a new generation of national workers. In Saudi Arabia, for example, Saudiisation efforts have been ramped up, but authorities have also been working to ensure that the Kingdom is seen as an attractive destination for highly skilled foreigners. To this end, the government recently introduced a Temporary Work Visit Visa, while its immigration sponsorship system has been modified; among other expat-friendly changes, foreign workers will now be able to move between employers in the private sector. In Oman a similar change came into effect in January this year, while in May Omans Ministry of Labour announced that foreign workers may now enter the country on a visitor visa and later convert it into a work visa. Oman has also announced a new visa, called the Investment Residency Programme. This will provide five- and 10-year renewable residency visas to foreign investors who contribute to key sectors such as tourism, real estate, education, health, and information and technology. However, other countries in the region have taken an opposite tack, curtailing the flexibility of their respective immigration regimes in order to increase employment opportunities for nationals. In Kuwait, foreign nationals over the age of 60 who do not hold a university degree may no longer renew their residency permits, while an expats family members as well as the foreign wives of Kuwaiti nationals, among others have seen the length of their renewable residency permits reduced from two years to just one. A fine balance This variety of approaches reflects differing visions as to the best way to maintain a balance between creating employment opportunities for nationals and bringing in the best foreign talent. Economies across the region are stepping up diversification efforts, with the Covid-19 pandemic being only the most recent global crisis to underline the dangers of an over-reliance on hydrocarbons. Diversification requires a rapid upskilling of local workers, as well as the development of local innovation ecosystems. In parallel, however, foreign expertise is needed in a range of sectors to ensure optimised growth. For Saudi Arabia and its neighbours, the adoption of more restrictive or more open visa rules is the result of carefully balancing targets regarding the nationalisation of the workforce, with goals related to attracting foreign talent, Abdulrahman Bin Sulaiman Almohaimid, CEO of Abdal Human Resources, told OBG. While cocaine use is far less prevalent in emerging Europe than many other parts of the continent, a vast network of criminal organisations based in the Western Balkans is feeding the habit of Western Europe, the worlds second largest consumer of the expensive illicit drug cocaine, surpassed only by North America. Now, a new report, Cocaine Insights, published jointly by Europol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has exposed just how much influence these criminal organisations wield, Emerging Europe writes. With the majority of the worlds cocaine sourced in countries in Central and South America, especially Colombia, its transportation to Europe has become a lucrative business venture which Albanian-speaking and Western Balkans criminal networks have been actively pursing, the report claims. The research finds that these Western Balkans groups have become so prolific, they now challenge the supremacy of well-established networks such as the Italian Ndrangheta. Albanian-speaking and Serbo-Croatian-speaking groups are increasingly active in procuring large amounts of cocaine at source [in South America], the report says. It is further claims that the increased involvement of Albanian-speaking groups in the trafficking of cocaine to Europe over the past decade has led to an overall decrease in the wholesale price of the drug throughout the continent from 2012 onwards. According to Fabian Zhilla, senior national advisor for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) and professor of law and ethics at the Canadian Institute of Technology in Albania, the incentives for organised groups originating in Albania and neighbouring states to get involved are numerous. The cocaine trade is seen as a very lucrative business and worth taking risks for, he tells Emerging Europe. The drug yields a high profit in a short amount of time, and so most of these criminal organisations have shifted to this product. Other factors include geographic position and high levels of corruption in the Western Balkans, which in turn facilitates money laundering, poor economic standards, and a low risk of investigation, Zhilla explains. Bojan Elek, an organised crime researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, offers a similar explanation as to why criminal groups from Serbia and elsewhere in the region have been so successful in the cocaine business. Several factors influence the prominence of organised crime groups from the Western Balkans on the global drug trafficking scene, he tells Emerging Europe. There are geographical ones, with the infamous Balkans Route being one of the major channels for drugs transiting into Europe. There are socio-economic ones too, emerging from the wars of the 1990 sanctions, and economic hardship which gave rise to criminality which became a normalised part of everyones life. Addressing the problem The Europol/UNODC report says that the scale of the problem is increasingly significant, making it important that local leaders take action to curb the presence of drug trafficking groups. Local leadership can first eradicate corruption and give hope to young people by attracting and promoting meritocracy. Similarly, attracting investment and creating job opportunities which can compete with the demand of the cocaine market could also be beneficial, says Zhilla. Cooperation between civil society and local influential actors is also important to raise awareness about the risks that grey money poses both to society and the economy, he further argues. Elek offers a more sceptical account of the ability of local leaders to handle a problem of this magnitude. The most important factor for the existence of drug trafficking groups in the Western Balkans is political, with several governments in the region having direct and proven ties with such groups, he argues. Some success Nonetheless, cooperation between the EU, the Western Balkans states and other relevant actors in the region has yielded some results. According to the report, in 2019, Operation Familia, coordinated by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Europol, led to the seizure of more than a ton of cocaine from a Balkan-based trafficking network. During the operation, authorities also confiscated two million euros in cash and more than one million euros in luxury goods, including watches and vehicles which were confiscated in Croatia, Czechia, Serbia, Slovenia and Switzerland, all linked to the same network. In 2020, a joint investigation across the continent led to the dismantling of Kompania Bello, which has been described as one of Europes most active Albanian-speaking networks trafficking cocaine into Europe. The operation found and seized four tons of cocaine and over 5.5 million euros in cash, with 20 arrests being made across Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Spain, Albania, and the United Arab Emirates. Exactly a year ago, on September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan's Patriotic War began. On that day, Armenia's occupying forces subjected the positions of the armed forces of Azerbaijan along the front line and the adjacent populated areas in Azerbaijan to intensive fire with the use of large-calibre weapons, artillery and mortars. Baku decided to launch a counter-offensive operation to ensure the safety of the civilian population. Vestnik Kavkaza offers its readers to follow the events of the 44 days of Azerbaijan's Patriotic War as they were covered a year ago. On the twelfth day of the war, October 8, Armenia's occupying forces fired at the front-line and remote settlements of Azerbaijan all night from the occupied territories. Also, they started to use unmanned aerial vehicles to attack the Azerbaijani population outside the combat zone. In the village of Shahmemmedli of the Goranboy region, a civilian was killed, two women were wounded in the village of Alibeyli. After 9:00, one of the shells fired at the city of Barda hit the school, injuring seven people. By noon, Armenia's Grad missile launcher which attacked Barda was destroyed. Banned cluster shells were found in the Goranboy region of Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijan Liberation Army continued its counteroffensive in the northern and southern parts of the occupation zone, eliminating the military infrastructure of the occupiers, as well as military columns. The retreating invaders were leaving even their tanks. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained why Yerevan accuses Turkey of involvement in the Karabakh conflict. At about 11:00, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan dismissed the head of the Armenian National Security Service. Pashinyan also said that one of the residents of the occupied Armenian Armed Forces of Khankendi urged the invaders to lay down their arms. An Orthodox divine service was held at the Baku's Holy Myrrhbearers Cathedral in the name of peace to be established throughout entire Azerbaijan. Famous researcher of Middle East history Philip Ekozyants called on Yerevan and the Armenian diaspora not to lie about the Karabakh conflict. The Kremlin reported that a summit of the heads of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia is not being discussed yet. Negotiations between the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister began in Geneva at about 14:00. Meanwhile, Pashinyan announced that he was sending his son to the front. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied accusations of shelling of historical and cultural monuments in the combat zone, and also stressed that the ultimate goal of the counter-offensive operation is the de-occupation of Azerbaijani land. The news about the deployment of Turkish F-16s in Ganja was proved to be fake. After 17:00, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the preparation of a meeting between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow. Austria, in turn, offered Baku and Yerevan to hold a summit in Vienna. After 18:00, negotiations were held between the heads of the governments of Russia and Azerbaijan. A collective prayer was held in Israel for the liberation of the territories of Azerbaijan. In the evening, a report by the Vestnik Kavkaza correspondent on the state of the cities of Azerbaijan, which are under the daily shelling of Armenian troops, was published. The rating agency Moody's warned about the risks of continuing the battles for Armenia's ratings. The day ended with the official invitation of President Vladimir Putin to the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to Moscow for negotiations. Thus, on the twelfth day of the war, the Azerbaijani army continued its counteroffensive in the north and south of the occupation zone, preparing for the liberation of the city of Fizuli and the village of Hadrut, and consistently eliminated the military equipment of the invaders. To compensate for this, Armenia stepped up terrorist attacks on the settlements of Azerbaijan, including with prohibited shells, killing civilians. Russia was actively involved in the diplomatic process of ending the war by organizing the first meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia in Moscow. About 100 people were killed and dozens were injured in a powerful explosion in a Shia mosque in the Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan, Aamaj News reported Friday. The attack reportedly happened at about 13:30 local time, when a large number of people gathered for a Friday prayer. According to the preliminary information, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the mosque building. Meanwhile, Ariana News reported that at least 50 bodies have been delivered to local morgues. The explosion report was confirmed by Taliban (outlawed in Russia) spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. "This afternoon, an explosion happened in a mosque of our Shia compatriots [] in the Kunduz Province, leaving a number of our compatriots killed and wounded. A special Mujahedeen unit arrived at the scene and started an investigation," he tweeted Friday. According to Taliban (the movement banned in Russia) representative Mohammad Jalal, the attack was carried out by the Islamic State Khorasan (ISKP) terror group, a branch of the IS terror group. This is the first explosion that happened in the Kunduz Province since it went under the Taliban control on August 8, media report say. U.S. President Joe Biden arrived for his televised appearance in the Prairie State to call on private employers to introduce vaccine mandates. But throughout his speech, the former Delaware Senator stumbled his lines and even appeared to misgender Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Joe Biden, 78, said of Ms Lightfoot: "Mr Mayor, thanks for the passport into town." It has since been suggested the President could have been referring to Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson, Express reported. He stumbled over his words again when he was trying to refer to the President of Illinois' State Senate Don Harmon. Blundering Biden said: "And the Ohio Pennsylvania, the Ohio Pennsylvania, I'm from Pennsylvania, the Illinois President." Later on, Mr Biden confused a television for a telephone when he told viewers about a conversation he had with a hospital worker. "Last night I was on the television, on television, I was on the telephone with a person at an emergency hospital ward," he recalled. India is to begin granting tourist visas for foreign visitors after an 18-month pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the country's government announced. Tourists arriving by chartered flight will be able to do so from October 15, according to a press release from India's Ministry of Home Affairs. Other arrivals would be permitted from November 15, it said. The move follows a tentative reopening in recent months to travelers on business, diplomat or student visas. "All due protocols and norms relating to Covid-19 as notified by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from time to time, shall be adhered to by the foreign tourists, carriers bringing them into India and all other stakeholders at landing stations," CNN cited the release as saying. India welcomed 10.6 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2019, the year before the pandemic, according to official figures. In 2018, foreign exchange earnings from tourism amounted to $28.6 billion. Earlier this year, India was the global center of the Covid-19 pandemic with thousands of deaths daily during the April-May peak, with many blamed on the Delta variant that was first identified here. To date the country has had 449,856 Covid deaths and 33,894,312 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data. So far, 18.63% of the population has been fully vaccinated. The Tutu.ru service has compiled a rating of popular destinations based on flight bookings with departure dates from December 30, 2021 to January 9, 2022. The leader was the direction Moscow - Simferopol - 7.8% of the total number of bookings. It is followed by the direction Moscow - Sochi (6.9%). Flights from Moscow to Kaliningrad, Moscow to Mineralnye Vody and Moscow to Krasnodar were also popular among Russians. It is noted that over the year the tickets' cost to all popular destinations from Moscow has decreased. Residents of St. Petersburg are especially often looking for tickets to Krasnodar, the average cost this year is 7% more than a year earlier. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed his commitment to work to resolve the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty with Russia. "I will pursue developing the entire complex of Japanese-Russian ties, including signing of a peace treaty," the prime minister announced on Friday. At the same time, he stressed there will be no peace agreement with Russia without resolving the territorial issue, TASS reported. The day before, the Japanese Prime Minister held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone. Following the conversation, he emphasized that a peace treaty between the two countries could be concluded only after resolving the ownership issue of the Kuril Islands southern part. According to Kishida, Tokyos stance on this issue remains unchanged. As the prime minister noted, during the talks, the sides agreed to further negotiate a peace treaty based on existing agreements, in particular, those reached in 2018 in Singapore after a meeting between Putin and then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Meanwhile, Kishida expressed his willingness to build trusting relations with the Russian leader and hold personal meetings with him. Moscow is ready for cooperation with Washington, Brussels and NATO on the situation in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Friday at a meeting with the Association of European Businesses members. "We are open to cooperation with the US, the EU and NATO, because I believe that the NATO countries should certainly bear the main share of responsibility for Afghanistans reconstruction," the top diplomat said. Lavrov emphasized Moscows firm stance "against the transfer of military facilities from Afghanistan or the deployment of new military infrastructure in the Central Asian republics" in order to attack Afghanistan if necessary. "These countries can become targets for terrorists," the Russian foreign minister explained. "Completely different methods are required in this fight. And, of course, those who cooperated with these specific people should be responsible for the flows of refugees. Currently, many are trying to persuade Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan to take refugees for a couple of months, explaining that they need to issue documents for them. If they have been cooperating with Western countries, the US and others for many years, is it really necessary to draw up documents for two months? This is not really true," TASS cited him as saying. The foreign minister pointed out that the stability of its Central Asian neighbors was very significant for Moscow, noting that the Russian capital would host talks on Afghanistan soon. "This is a step towards the preparation of a global conference, which is already being announced. The reconstruction of Afghanistan is likely to be addressed, and we have a lot of reasons for cooperation," Lavrov said. Russia provided its response to the request of the so-called concerned states - Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) members on the Alexey Navalny situation, and initiated its own request for Germany, France, Sweden and the OPCW Technical Secretariat, Russian Permanent Representative to OPCW Alexander Shulgin said Thursday. "Today, effectively two days ahead of the deadline, Russia provided its worthy and legally calibrated response to the request of the 45 states," TASS cited him as saying. "Simultaneously, we have initiated a request of our own," the diplomat said, adding that it was addressed to Germany, France, Sweden and the Technical Secretariat. "On the record and in attendance of all members of the OPCW executive committee, we once again handed over an entire list of questions to Germany, France and Sweden regarding this muddy story and their role in this spectacle they have staged themselves. "We expect exhaustive, sufficient answers to out questions," Shulgin underscored. "The questions that we asked earlier still remain relevant today. But, new questions have risen over new details in the Navalny case situation." Earlier, U.S. State Department announced that the US and 44 other countries sent questions to the Russian Federation about the Navalny situation via the OPCW. Alexey Navalny was hospitalize in Omsk on August 20, 2020, after his health rapidly deteriorated aboard a plane en route from Tomsk to Moscow. Later, he was transferred to the Charite clinic in Berlin. On September 2, 2020, the German government claimed that the blogger was poisoned by a Novichok-family nerve agent. Russian authorities repeatedly underscored that no poisonous substances were detected in his body before his transfer to Berlin. Russia stated its readiness for a comprehensive cooperation in the investigation of the incident and sent several official requests on this case. NATO is ready for a dialogue with Moscow, including convening the Russian-NATO Council, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, adding that he discussed this with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the UN headquarters in New York in September but was unable to reach an agreement. "NATOs position on approach to Russia is consistent and clear. We base it on a dual-track approach towards defense and dialogue. We are ready to engage in a meaningful dialogue with Russia. We are also ready to convene a NATO-Russia Council meeting. We have actually invited Russia for now a long time. So far, Russia has not responded positively and therefore there hasnt been any meeting in the NATO-Russia Council," he said. Stoltenberg noted that it is important to "sit down and talk," especially "when times are difficult, tensions are high." "And therefore we will continue to strive for a meaningful dialogue with Russia," Stoltenberg said, noting that he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in September, but was unable to negotiate a new Russia-NATO Council meeting. On Wednesday, NATO announced that it was cutting the Russian Mission to NATO from 20 to 10 people: the accreditation of eight diplomats was withdrawn, while two vacant positions were eliminated. The Russian diplomats were given until the end of October to leave Brussels. Turkey has made a request to the U.S. to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes, as the NATO ally looks to modernize its Air Force after the purchase of F-35 jets fell through, sources familiar with the matter said. The deal, worth billions, is still working its way through the Foreign Military Sales process which is subject to approval by the U.S. State Department as well as the U.S. Congress which can block deals. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deal, Reuters reported. "As a matter of policy, the Department does not confirm or comment on proposed defense sales or transfers until they have been formally notified to Congress," a spokesperson for the State Department said. The Turkish Embassy in Washington declined to comment. Ankara had ordered more than 100 F-35 jets, also made by Lockheed Martin Corp, but was removed from the program in 2019 after it acquired Russian S-400 missile defense systems. National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said 2,136 PKK terrorists have been neutralized since the beginning of 2021 in Turkey. According to Turkeys National Defense Ministry, Turkish soldier was killed in a terror attack in northern Syria. The attack occurred in the vicinity of Operation Euphrates Shield operations, the ministry said in a statement. Akar announced that five PKK terrorists were neutralized when the Turkish Armed Forces immediately responded to the attack, Anadolu Agency reported. Operations are ongoing and the number of neutralized terrorists can increase, he said. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that cooperation with Russia on Iran is constructive. "There are areas where our interests do align, and this is one of them. Russia has been constructive in its engagements in the context of the P5+1. We agree with the Russian Federation that Iran should not be able to acquire a nuclear weapon," Price said. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said earlier that talks on reviving Iran's nuclear deal will resume soon in Vienna. The head of the United Nations Antonio Guterres has called for an additional $8 billion to ensure that 40% of the world is vaccinated by the end of the year. Speaking at the launch of a World Health Organization plan that sets out how to vaccinate 70% of the global population by the middle of next year, UN Secretary general Antonio Guterres said if the virus is allowed to spread "like wildfire" in the world's poorest nations new variants will emerge. "And all the vaccination effort made in developed countries will fall apart, and these people will not be protected," The Telegraph cited him as saying. He added: "With vaccine production now at nearly 1.5 million doses per month, we can reach 40% of people in all countries by year's end if we can mobilise some $8 billion to ensure that distribution is equitable." Guterres added that inequitable distribution of vaccine was not only a "question of being immoral, but also a question of being stupid". So far, more than 6.3 billion doses of vaccine have been administered globally but 75% of these doses have been given to people in high income countries - which make up half the worlds population. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed the negotiations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran and said he was ready to help at any time, according to a press conference held by the spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric at the permanent UN headquarters in New York. Iranian Foreign Minister, Houssein Amir Abdoullahian, told a press conference in the Lebanese capital on Thursday that his country had come a good distance in talks with Saudi Arabia. On Sunday, Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan revealed that his country had organized on September 21, a fourth round of direct negotiations with Iran and that it is still in its exploratory phase. In comment, the spokesperson for the Secretary-General told reporters in New York that the talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran were of paramount importance for stability in the region. "We welcome the negotiations between the two countries and we are, of course, ready to provide assistance in any form whatsoever, if requested," Morning Express cited him as saying. With the current low prices, farmers will take a loss of VND2 million when selling a pig. If the prices keep decreasing, farmers will give up farming, resulting in pork shortage for Tet (lunar New Year) sale season. More than 10 days ago, Nguyen Cong Bac, the owner of a pig farm with 10,000 pigs in Son La, had to sell pigs at VND42,000 per kilogram of live weight, which made him incur big loss. And he sold another 600 pigs on October 6-7 at VND36,000 per kilogram only. With the current price, I take a loss of VND2 million for every pig sold, Bac said. The households farming in small scale would incur a bigger loss, VND2.5 million per pig." Meanwhile, the prices are continuing sliding. In the north, the prices are between VND36,000 and VND42,000 per kilogram. In the central region, the price is VND40,000-43,000 and in the south, the figure is VND42,000-45,000. These are the lowest price levels since late 2019, when ASF epidemic appeared for the first time in Vietnam. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the total herd of pigs in the country has increased by 3.8 percent compared with 2020, raising the total amount of live weight pork to VND3.06 million tons, up by 5 percent compared with the same period last year. The herd is gradually recovering from ASF, but farmers are facing difficulties as animal feed prices have increased by 16-30 percent since late 2020, while pork prices have been decreasing since late April because of the demand decrease. Nguyen Van Trong from MARD confirmed that pork prices are decreasing because of the sharp fall in demand in large markets. The husbandry sector is under pressure because of the disruption of the supply chain during Covid-19. Meanwhile, the transportation cost increase has led to a big difference between the prices of pigs at farms and the prices of pork at retail markets. Trong warned that as farmers incur big losses, they are reluctant to re-herd. If things keep going this way, the possibility of pork shortage for Tet sale is very high, he said, adding that it would take 40 days only to re-herd fowls, but it would take six months to have merchandise pigs to launch in the market. Therefore, local authorities need to support pig farmers to re-herd and avoid farming interruption. Its also necessary to create favorable conditions for the transport of pigs, animal feedp, breeding and merchandise pigs. Commercial banks should extend debt payment deadline or freeze debts to help farmers keep farming. MARD said it is working with livestock companies on re-herding pigs to ensure sufficient pork supply for the year-end sale season. Chau Giang Pork prices plummet, breeders bemoan heavy losses The price of live pigs is from VND47,000 to VND49,000/kg in some northern provinces and VND48,000 to VND52,000/kg in the central and southern regions, a strong drop compared to the previous months. In the Draft Power Development Planning 8, one of the power source scenarios with the highest scores is the development of power sources associated with renewable energy under Resolution 55 of the Politburo. The proportion of renewable energy in the Draft Power Development Planning 8 will increase to nearly 30% by 2030 compared to 16.3% in the adjusted Draft Power Development Planning 7. However, the development of wind power and solar power in the near future will not be as easy as before. Regulations in renewable energy investment will be stricter, creating fierce competition among investors, especially in terms of price, according to the criterion that the investor with the lowest price will be given priority. According to the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN)'s statistics, the proportion of wind and solar power sources in the national power system is on the rise. On a national scale, the proportion of wind power and solar power in the total capacity in 2020 reached 24% (16,941 MW/ 69,342 MW). In 2021, this proportion will further increase, including thousands of MW of wind power. The explosion of solar power and wind power plants, mainly in the Central and South regions (accounting for 96%), has caused many problems in power transmission and capacity overload. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is developing a new strategy on renewable energy with significant changes. Accordingly, the MoIT will no longer apply the FIT price as before. It will set the price annually and announce the ceiling price and price for wind and solar power. Under the Draft Power Development Planning 8, wind and solar power capacity will be allocated to provinces based on their grid transmission capacity and demand, etc. Based on this, provinces will organize bidding to select investors. However, they will have to consult the MoIT on the conformity with the electricity planning and the EVN on the connection, operation and capacity release plan. Investors must have experience and financial capacity, ensure at least 30% reciprocal capital, have participated in investment or have been the main contractor of at least 3 projects in the energy sector or in the infrastructure sector. Priority is given to investors who offer low prices The investor in wind and solar power projects will be selected based on the price framework for solar and wind power generation issued by the MoIT. Investors who meet the technical criteria and propose the highest discount rate compared to the ceiling price are ranked first and are recommended for being chosen. In case there are two or more investors offering the same prices with the highest discount rate compared to the ceiling price, the one with the higher technical score will be selected. If they have the same technical score, they will be asked to re-propose the electricity price reduction rate and the one with the highest rate will be chosen. After that, the two sides will negotiate and sign the contract. If this procedure is failed, the investor who ranks second in the bidding round will be invited for negotiation. After signing the agreement with the local government, the investor will compile a dossier of electricity price negotiation and signs a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the EVN. The negotiation period is 6 months for solar power and 24 months for wind power. If the negotiation fails, the investor will be rejected and they will bear the costs of bidding and project development. Thus, forecasting selling prices for wind and solar power projects will be much more difficult. If the Government implements this plan, only capable and experienced investors are able to offer low selling price to be selected. Luong Bang A paradox of power consumption and generation Renewable energy output is being reduced even as Vietnam is seeing blackouts as power consumption is off the charts. The high school finals in 2022 will be organized with the same basic principles as the 2021 ones as shown in a plan released by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). Cities/provinces will organize high school finals in their localities within the time frame to be set by MOET. The time may be adjusted depending on the pandemic situations in localities. The exam content will be within the current high education program, while exam questions will mostly relate to the 12th grade curriculum, not including the content MOET cuts to make the teaching and learning adaptable to the Covid-19 pandemic situation. The exam questions will be designed in a way to satisfy the requirements of the high school final examination, which ensures reasonable classification of students, prevent students from cramming only the learning subjects likely to be asked about, and encourage students creativity. MOET will build the structure and format of exam questions, publicize specimen exam questions; build a question bank and create sets of exam questions with specialized software, and provide them to localities organizing exams, while ensuring harmonization between provinces, regions and exam campaigns (if many exam campaigns are organized). Tertiary education establishments and junior colleges will have autonomy in enrolling students in accordance with the laws and the enrollment mechanism set by MOET. MOET recommends that schools and the training majors with high competitiveness level use the results of the high school finals only to shortlist students. They should not only consider the results, but also apply additional methods to be able to select the best students for them. National universities and regional universities, as well as the groups of schools which have conditions, can organize standardized tests to select students in 2022 and share the results with other schools if they have demand. According to Mai Van Trinh, director general of the Quality Control Department, the results of the high school finals have been used by universities for many years to select students. However, under the spirit of enhancing university autonomy, diversifying enrollment methods is necessary. MOET will join forces with local authorities to inspect all the stages of the exams and tests to ensure safety, seriousness, transparency and justice. For students, the 2022 high school finals wont have considerable changes compared with 2021. Therefore, schools, teachers and students can feel secure in overcoming difficulties in the context of the pandemic to fulfill the tasks of the 2021-2022 academic year and best prepare for the 2022 high school finals. Regarding the plan on organizing high school final examinations in 2023-2025, MOET will draft a plan and collect public opinions before making public in Q1 2022. Thanh Hung Universities told to change enrollment methods Universities need to organize standardized tests and apply specific methods to enroll students instead of relying on the high school finals to select students. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang. Photo baochinhphu.vn HA NOI At a press conference held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam on Thursday, spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang addressed the Chinese film "Wang Bais Army", a film about the border conflict between the two nations in the 1980s. Spokesperson Hang said that Vietnamese authorities have taken note of the controversial production. Viet Nams consistent policy on historical issues is to put aside the past, look into the future, and look at things in a correct and objective way, Hang said. She also said Viet Nam wants the two countries to continue "practical activities to enhance understanding between people, contributing to the friendship, cooperation and development among the countries of the world. We ask the Chinese side to strictly implement the common perception of the two countries senior leaders on promoting friendly and objective propaganda, and consolidating social relations that are favourable for the development of relations between the two countries, she said. VNS Square dancing meeting Texas Association of Singles Square Dance will host its annual Presidents Meeting on Friday and Saturday at Allemande Hall, 106 Westlake Drive. Cost is $8 per dancer. For more information, visit squaredancetx.com or hotsrda.org. COVID-19 vaccination clinic The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District will host a drive-through COVID-19 clinic from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday at the Lee Lockwood Library and Museum, 2801 W. Waco Drive. Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will be available. Registration is strongly encouraged, at www.covidwaco.com or 254-750-5460. Participants getting a second or third dose should bring the card showing dates of previous vaccinations. Down on the Bayou Youth Connection will hold its 15th annual Down on the Bayou fundraising event from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday at The Exchange Event Center in McGregor, 300 S. Jefferson Ave. Guests will dine on cajun/mixed cuisine while dancing the night away to The Steve Smith Group. Youth Connection offers services that provide guidance and knowledge to help youths make wise choices in life. KANSAS CITY, Mo. As a police officer, Sarah Brummer has had to deal with the tragedy of deceased babies. As an expectant mom, she read and heard horror stories in which COVID-19 killed either an unvaccinated mother or her child. It was 10 times more intense than any child that I have seen pass on a case, Brummer said of her research on unvaccinated pregnancies. And then a nurse friend told her of caring for a new mother on a ventilator. The baby had died, and the dad was in the intensive care unit. All had COVID-19. You better believe Brummer got the COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant. Not just twice, but three times, including a booster. Meanwhile, down the hall from where she gave birth to a healthy baby boy in a Kansas City area hospital Sept. 24, unvaccinated mothers have had crisis pregnancies in the intensive care unit. Problems among unvaccinated expectant mothers have gotten so bad that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an urgent health advisory for pregnant women to get vaccinated. Alarmingly, only 31% of them across the nation have been. Tragically, some 22,000 pregnant women have been hospitalized for COVID-19, with more than 160 dying in some cases, having never seen their babies. Pending regulatory and shareholder approvals, the transaction is expected to close during the first calendar quarter of 2022. The conversion of GWB branches to First Interstate Bank is expected to take place during the second calendar quarter of 2022. Were excited to join forces, and confident that both companies stakeholders will benefit from this partnership, said Mark Borrecco, GWB president and CEO. Well be able to offer customers access to additional branch locations and new products and services, provide new growth and professional development opportunities to our employees, deliver additional returns to our shareholders, and have an even greater impact on our communities. Upon close of the transaction, five directors from GWB will join the FIBK Board of Directors. FIBKs existing dual-class stock structure will sunset at the record date of FIBKs next annual shareholder meeting. At that time, existing FIBK Class B common stock will be converted 1:1 into Class A common stock and FIBK will no longer be a controlled company. The Imperial War Museums Battle of Britain Air Show by George Land Over the weekend of September 18th/19th the Imperial War Museum at staged a Battle of Britain air show at their facility in Duxford, Cambridge, the last major show of the year at the former RAF Duxford. The weather conditions varied significantly over the two days from bright sunlight to dull and hazy, but luckily the predicted rain failed to arrive. As might be expected for an air show with Battle of Britain in its title, the events primary emphasis focused upon the two classic Royal Air Force fighters of that period, the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane. While four different Hawker Hurricane Mk.Is took part in the weekend show, a total of 17 different Spitfires participated, representing nine different marques from the Merlin-powered Mk.I to the Griffon-powered Mk.XIV. The shows opening act represented the Spitfires development from the early days of WWII through to its close. The three ship formation featured the Battle of France combat-veteran Spitfire Mk.Ia (N3200) powered by a silky-smooth Merlin III (1030hp), to the throaty growl of the mid-war Mk.IX, represented by HF Mk.IXe TD314 and its 1720hp Merlin 70, through to the thunderous roar from the Griffin 65 (2050hp) powering the late-war Spitfire FR Mk.XIVe (MV293). Following the Spitfire trio came a four-ship featuring the Hawker Hurricane Mk.I, arguably the most important of the British types serving during the Battle of Britain, as they were more numerous, and had the lions share of victories in that stage of the war. Being incredibly complex to restore in comparison to the Spitfire, airworthy Hawker Hurricanes are significantly rarer. Indeed, it wasnt that long ago when you could count the number of airworthy examples on just one hand, but the type has experienced a slow-but-steady renaissance over the past couple of decades, with a dozen or so now flying. To see four of them at the same air show is still a remarkable feat though! These two opening formations later starred in the massed Balbo for a Big Wing fly past featuring fifteen fighters eleven being Spitfires while the other four were Hurricanes. Between the opening and closing acts, the show featured an interesting and highly varied collection of warbirds and other types of fixed-wing and rotary aircraft After aerial demonstrations by privately-owned Spitfires and Hurricanes, two Spitfires from the Royal Air Forces Battle of Britain Memorial Flight made an appearance. This was closely followed by the uniquely-schemed Russian Spitfire Mk.IX PT879 wearing the colors it wore while serving in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. Following the Russian Spitfires solo came a selection of American types, which featured the The Fighter Collections ultra-rare Curtiss H-75 Hawk and Merlin-engined Curtiss P-40F Warhawk, along with the B-17 Charity Trusts Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress affectionately as Sally B. The latter aircraft is the only example of the breed presently flying outside the United States and is a crowd favorite at her home base in Duxford (and elsewhere!). Keeping up with the theme of bombing raids over Europe, the next act featured three Hispano Bouchons (representing Lutfwaffe Bf 109s) beating up the field, only to fall afoul of the Little Friends portrayed by the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt Nellie and two P-51D Mustangs, Contrary Mary and Miss Helen. Both Mustangs and Thunderbolts were based at Duxford during World War II. Following the adrenaline of the warbird tail-chase came a break from the WWII theme which included a formation aerobatics performance from Team Raven, who took to the air in their flight of five Vans RV8s. The Great War Display Team then took to the skies with six of their WWI-era fighters. These scaled replicas of a Fokker Dr.I and Sopwith Triplane along with a brace of Royal Aircraft Factory SE5As and Junkers CL.Is offered an extremely entertaining representation of what it may have been like to witness an aerial battle above the trenches during World War I. The show returned next to its World War II theme with a solo performance from Supermarine Spitfire Mk.V BM597, resplendent it its livery commemorating Flying Officer Wiktor Strzembosz of No.303 (Polish) Squadron. Sadly, Strzembosz lost his life over France during a mission to escort three Short Stirling bombers on July 8th, 1941. What followed the Spitfire solo display was quite a contrast to the usual Duxford display, but a welcome one none-the-less. Three vintage military rotary wing aircraft made an appearance, part of the remarkable Historic Helicopters collection based in Chard, Somerset. The three aircraft on show, Westland Whirlwind HAR.10 XJ729, Wessex HU.5 XT761 and Sea King HAR.3 XZ597, represent types which were long stalwarts of Britains armed forces, but it has been many years since their operational days. As such, it was wonderful to see them in the skies again. Their performance was followed by several vintage types representing the British Army Air Corps, these all being based with the Historic Army Aircraft Flight at Army Aviation Centre Middle Wallop in Hampshire. The participating airframes included de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver AL.1 XP820, Auster AOP.9 XR244, Westland Sioux AH.1 XT131 and Westland Scout AH.1 XT626. The next segment featured naval aircraft, which included Duxford-based Plane Sailings magnificent Canadian Vickers Canso A (essentially a Canadian-built Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina) and two legendary flat top fighters belonging to The Fighter Collection: Goodyear FG-1D Corsair BuNo.88297 and Grumman F8F-2P Bearcat BuNo.121714. The air shows penultimate offering featured Duxfords traditional Balbo formation. However, rather than a massed formation of everything on hand, this Balbo featured only the Spitfires and Hurricanes. Mimicking a Big Wing operation from WWII, the formation comprised eleven Spitfires and four Hurricanes, while a solo Joker routine took place when the formation was away from show-center. This solo Joker routine was extraordinary, one of the best such displays over Duxford in some time. It featured Spitfire Mk.V JG891, painted to represent a Malta-based aircraft of No.249 Squadron flown by Flt/Sgt John Jack G Hughes (RCAF). The fighters which featured in the Big Wing included the following: Spitfire F.Mk.1A N3200 QV (Sqd/Ldr Geoffrey Stephenson, No.19 Squadron, RAF Duxford) Spitfire F.Mk.Vb BM597 RF-M (Flying Officer Wiktor Strzembosz No.303 (Polish) Squadron, Tadeusz City of Warsaw) Spitfire F.Mk.Vc EE602 DV-V Mabel (No.129 (Mysore) Squadron RAF) Spitfire L.F Mk.Vc AR501 DU-E (No.310 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF) Spitfire H.F.Vlllc MV154 as MT928 ZX-M (Sqdn/Ldr G.R.S.McKay No.145 Squadron , RAF Middle East Command Italy) Spitfire H.F.Mk lXe TD314 FX-P (No.234 (Madras Presidency) Squadron, RAF Bentwaters) Spitfire Tr.9 (L.F.lX) PV202 5R-H (No.33 Squadron RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force) Spitfire Tr.9 (L.F.lXc) ML407 OU-V (F/O. Johnnie Houlton, No.485 Squadron RNZAF, 145 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force) Spitfire Tr.9 (L.F.lXe) NH341 DB-E Elizabeth (Flt Lt Hugh Charles Trainor, No.411(Grizzly Bear) Squadron RCAF, Airfield B4 Beny sur Mer Normandy) SUNDAY ONLY Spitfire Tr.9 (L.F.lXe) PT462 SW-A (No.253 Squadron, Mediterranean Air Command, Middle East Command Italy, RAF) Spitfire P.R.Xl PL983 L (No.4 Squadron RAF, c/w THANK U NHS under wing) Spitfire F.R.Mk.XlVe MV293 as MV268-JE-J (AVM Johnnie Johnson, No.443 Squadron, 127 Wing RCAF, 2nd Tactical Air Force, RAF) SATURDAY ONLY Hurricane Mk.1 P3717 SW-P Soph/Hugh (P/O W.M.C Samolonski No.253 Squadron RAF) Hurricane Mk.1 R4118 UP-W (P/O Bob Foster, No.605 (County of Warwick) Squadron, RAF, 1942) Hurricane Mk.1 V7497 SD-X (P/O E B Rogers SD-X No.501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron RAuxAF, Kenley) Hurricane Mk.1 P2902 DX-R (Pilot Officer (later Sdn/Ldr Kenneth McGlashan AFC), No.245 Squadron, RAF) The show closed with another Spitfire solo performance from the Aircraft Restoration Companys PR Mk.XI PL983, which carries an under-wing salute to the amazing people of Britains National Health Service in honor of their sterling service during the Pandemic. Overall, the air show was a very well organized affair with plenty of variety and content, and the aircraft were flown with amazing skill. The author wishes to extend a hearty congratulations to the personnel at Imperial War Museum Duxford for their endeavors this show was needed by all whom attended! WATERLOO A former professional boxer at the heart of a fatal 2020 armored truck robbery and a spree of business fires and home burglaries said drugs were behind the crimes. Kevin Josue Cruz Soliveras, 30, apologized to the court and those he harmed Friday as he was sentenced to up to six decades in prison. I let drugs numb by senses and take control of my life and manipulate my morals taught to me growing up in a good family. My actions have brought them much shame. I am remorseful and embarrassed and ashamed of myself. I dont know what I was thinking; in fact I cant say that I was thinking, Cruz said. I stand here today to say I regret every single thing Ive done. I am truly sorry. On Friday, Judge Andrea Dryer sentenced Cruz under a plea agreement to a string of prison stints adding up to 60 years behind bars with at least 20 years before he is eligible for parole. Assistant County Attorney Brad Walz said the sentence was warranted because of the number of crimes and the extent of the damage. The defendant did cause damage to a great deal of homes and businesses, obviously the arsons to the Wishbone restaurant and the Maple Lanes bowling alley were significant. Both had to be fully done, Wishbone never reopened. Obviously, the armored car robbery caused the loss of like of one of the defendants co-conspirators and placed the guards at great danger, Walz said. Charges of trafficking stolen firearms were dismissed as state authorities anticipate a federal indictment in that matter. Authorities said Cruz and others were involved in a string of home and business burglaries. The crimes eventually escalated to a break-in and arson at Maple Lanes Bowling Center where they overpowered a night maintenance worker and left him in the burning building and the fiery destruction of The Wishbone restaurant, where a firefighter partially fell through the floor and was momentarily trapped. The spree came to an end in hail of gunfire March 11, 2020, when Cruz and others pulled up to a Rochester armored car outside a bank in an attempted robbery. Alleged robber Bryce Altman Miller, 37, who was wielding two pistols, was shot and killed by guards. Cruz, who was the initial getaway driver, and Rogelio Gonzalez, who jumped out with Miller, suffered minor gunshot wounds and fled the scene before they were captured. Justina Lynn Davis, 29, who was waiting in a second getaway car, was also arrested. None of the victims spoke during Fridays sentencing but some had submitted written statements to the court, Walz said. Davis earlier pleaded to a reduced charge of second-degree robbery and in August was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. The last holdout of the armored car robbery crew, Gonzalez, had been set to begin trial later this month. But on Friday he also pleaded guilty and requested immediate sentencing. I want to apologize for my mistakes and I take full responsibility, Gonzalez said. He entered a plea to a lesser charge of second-degree robbery as a habitual offender. Because of prior felony convictions for possession of meth with intent to deliver in 2001 and 2007, his sentence was enhanced to 15 years in prison with 10 years and six months before parole eligibility. Gonzalezs sentence will run concurrent with a parole violation for the most recent drug charge. Love 2 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 1 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO A Waterloo man has been arrested for allegedly robbing three children on their way home Tuesday afternoon. Waterloo police arrested Marcus Angelo Gardner Jr., 39, of 236 Boston Ave., for first-degree robbery and intimidation with a weapon. Bond was set at $50,000. Authorities said two 12-year-olds and a 13-year-old were walking home from school in the 300 block of Lester Street when Gardner threatened them with a gun. He allegedly pointed the weapon at one students head, and another began filming the incident with his phone. Gardner allegedly demanded $50 and took the phone, police said. No injuries were reported, police said. Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 13 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO Jane Lindaman didnt expect to stay long when she arrived in Waterloo Community Schools almost 17 years ago. She had gotten married shortly before being named principal of Bunger Middle School in 2005. After six years of teaching and a decade as an administrator, Lindaman was seeking a new challenge and thought Waterloo Schools would be only a stop on her way to a job elsewhere. She did move into other positions, but never left Waterloo Schools. I didnt anticipate that I would find my place, find my passion, Lindaman said in an interview. She became a district-level administrator after a year and was appointed superintendent in 2014. At the end of her eighth year leading the district, though, she is stepping down. On Thursday, Lindaman announced she is retiring, effective July 1. This is a year earlier than the superintendent, who will be turning 55, planned to retire. Its allowing me to find some balance between my family and my professional life, said Lindaman. There have been some changes in my extended family, she explained. My sister passed away in February. So, Im playing a little different role in my family, trying to support my dad. Additionally, she and her husband have two sons in district middle and high schools. The family plans to remain in Waterloo. Lindaman is Waterloo Schools first female superintendent and has served longer in the role than any of her predecessors since 1983. Prior to leading the district, she spent four years as associate superintendent for educational services. She had also served as director of learning and results and middle school education after her year at Bunger. She notified the Board of Education of her plans to retire during its recent annual performance review. The decision to announce now is really planned and intentional, Lindaman said, allowing the board ample time to find a successor. Board president Shanlee McNally called the early notification a gift for members. The process takes many months. It isnt just a two-week process. She praised Lindamans work during her time with Waterloo Schools. Dr. Lindamans ability to develop notably strong collaborative relationships with Waterloo Schools staff, families, and the larger community has been the driving force of our success over the years, said McNally. The board has held her to high standards during her tenure and we are incredibly proud of her contributions to Waterloo as a community-focused, visible, and fiscally-responsible leader. Under Lindamans leadership, the district launched the Waterloo Career Center, which includes 18 programs with plans for 12 more. The center has grown its enrollment, partnership and donor support, internships, and apprenticeship offerings. It has also expanded to serve students from 10 school systems in the Cedar Valley. The Waterloo Career Center is one of the major reasons my family and I will stay in Waterloo, said Lindaman. We believe so strongly in our district and in the WCC as a unique and valuable academic experience for kids that we absolutely want our own children to be able to benefit from it. During her time as superintendent, Waterloo Schools has enhanced advanced programs; diversified school district staff, including in administrative roles; and developed various career-readiness pathways for students. Other accomplishments during her tenure include: Raising the district graduation rate by nearly 15% to 84.3%, and nearly closing the graduation rate gap between racial subgroups. Achieving the highest percentage of growth in early literacy across the state for four straight years. Securing more than $18 million in grants for the district, including $1 million for the career center and $3 million for work on the achievement gap. Launching the Dual Language and Twice Exceptional signature programs and continuing to expand the International Baccalaureate program. She has set us up, having been here eight years, said McNally. The district is in a great position. She noted Janes stewardship during the last few years after the Legislature made changes to limit public employee bargaining in 2017 and banned use of voluntary diversity plans this year, which resulted in an increase in open enrollment out of the district. She also highlighted multiple years of decreases in the districts property tax rate and the solid unspent balance maintained in its budgets. I am going to work as hard as I can over the next months to make sure we are in a really, really good place, said Lindaman. Every good leader wants the next person to be even better, because thats how you honor the legacy. The board will formally initiate the search for the next superintendent of Waterloo Schools in the coming days. We plan to be transparent, involve our stakeholders, and offer regular updates to our staff and community, said McNally. She anticipates the position of superintendent will be posted in late November. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Approval of President Joe Bidens trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure package would be a win for Iowa, according to Democratic legislative leaders, but 1st District Rep. Ashley Hinson says it doesnt do enough to meet the states needs. The plan, stalled in Congress as majority Democrats try to reach agreement on its scope and price tag, will be huge for this state, Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, said Thursday. Republicans for decades have underinvested in public infrastructure. Its time to get caught up, he told reporters. The need is evident in Iowas crumbling roads and bridges, said Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn, a state representative from Ames. Bidens proposal also includes the largest investment in rural broadband in history, which House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, called critically important, especially because of the challenges for Iowans working and learning from home during the pandemic. Hinson said Thursday she remains opposed to the bipartisan infrastructure package, in part because its tied to Democrats $3.5 trillion budget proposal. Unfortunately, I dont think there was enough for the priorities that Iowans want thats the hard infrastructure, the roads and bridges, locks and dams and broadband, she said. By linking the bipartisan infrastructure package to the $3.5 trillion soft infrastructure proposal, Democrats have wasted the possibility for a real bipartisan infrastructure package to move forward. Instead, Hinson said, shes continuing to advocate for those targeted investments and resources wherever possible, while working to make sure taxpayers get the best deal throughout this entire process. As examples, the Marion Republican referred to securing $5 million dollars to upgrade the Port of Dubuque and $2.9 million for upgrades of Lock & Dam No. 11 at Guttenberg. However, state Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Hiawatha, told 1st District Democrats on Wednesday that Hinson is trying to have it both ways. There are many projects that I know she has listed that she wants to fund with infrastructure despite opposing the bipartisan infrastructure package, said Mathis, who is running for the U.S. House. And Im not sure you can have it both ways. Love 0 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 CEDAR FALLS From form-based zoning to diversity initiatives to their own management styles, the candidates vying for mayor and council presented voters with a variety of choices for the upcoming city election. But it was the citys public safety officer model that got the most attention at Thursdays candidate debate. The Cedar Falls mayoral debate proved the most contentious of the evening Thursday at City Hall. It was the second debate for those candidates. Mayor Rob Green, seeking reelection to a second two-year term, sparred at times with at-large Councilor Dave Sires and former council member Tom Blanford. Green noted their differences were perhaps most stark over the issue of the citys first-in-the-state combined police and fire department. A certain percentage of Cedar Falls residents believe the PSO model is perfectly fine as it is, with those people preferring Blanfords stance, Green said. Others have valid concerns about how its carried out; Im in that camp. Others want to get rid of PSOs entirely; theyre with Mr. Sires. Sires asked why Greens plan to reorganize the department, released in July, wasnt tried earlier. Green said he didnt have the support from the council and wanted voters to weigh in. Blanford contended the reorganization, including reclassifying the public safety directors position and implementing physical fitness standards, wasnt necessary. They are absolutely qualified and capable of keeping us safe, Blanford said. Sires disagreed, saying the citys more expensive fire insurance and community pushback showed the model wasnt appropriate. The mindset of a firefighter is different than a mindset of a police officer, Sires said. Those are two occupations that I want them to be the very best at. Candidates running for City Council also discussed the PSO issue at length. Kara Bigelow-Baker, one of three candidates running for the Ward 3 seat, claimed the PSO model was not working well, pointing to two recent house fires in the city, one of which led to the death of a resident. In fact, the house fire on First Street, they did not even find the deceased until they were preparing to leave, Bigelow-Baker said. That is not how fires should be fought anywhere. That is not what we are paying for as citizens. Incumbent Daryl Kruse countered that the model was effective and saved us over $600,000 in our budget over the previous year. Carole Yates, another Ward 3 challenger, said the perceived issues are perhaps misconceptions. I think people need to be better informed about how well it is working, Yates said, though she said she was open to whether PSOs needed more training. In the Ward 5 debate, incumbent Frank Darrah said the PSO model was doing exactly what its supposed to do keeping the city safe and saving a lot of money. He contended it was those misconceptions that are causing a morale problem within the department. Im most concerned about people actually doing the work, and they tune into a council meeting or hear from neighbors about how unsafe they feel, Darrah said. Its the message being sent that needs to be changed. But challenger Dustin Ganfield pointed to conflicting cost analyses on how much the city was actually saving. He also cited a power outage in downtown Cedar Falls on Wednesday night as an example of the PSO programs shortcomings. Twenty minutes later and there was still no one there controlling traffic, Ganfield said. That, to me, is a deficiency in our current model, and it at least needs an evaluation to see if were on the right track. In the at-large debate, challenger T.J. Frein called the PSO rollout extremely poor, but stopped short of saying he would vote to return to separate police and fire classifications, saying he isnt interested in revenge politics. I think its unfortunate we put those hard-working people in a seemingly lose-lose situation to get something accomplished to eliminate a fire department union, if you will, Frein said. Incumbent Kelly Dunn, elected in a special election last year, contended the city saved money and had less use of overtime. She said cross-trained personnel were fully trained like any other person that would serve as a firefighter. We have separate police and fire that is a common misconception in our city, and it makes people feel unsafe and its simply not true, Dunn said. In the Ward 1 debate by himself, as opponent Derek Peisen was a no-show, Gil Schultz said the lack of transition to the PSO model bothered him initially, particularly the loss of several professional firefighters with years of experience. But, he said, after talking with PSOs, he thought they were all perfectly equipped and perfectly trained for the job. That scarred our community, and its going to be a scar forever, he said. That being said, were six years down the road. We have professionals in those positions and theyre well trained. The debate was sponsored by Northern Iowa Student Government, Women of Action, Cedar Valley Activate and American Association of University Women. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Hart will deliver the address at 10 a.m. Oct. 21 at the Waterloo Convention Center. Area business leaders, City staff members, and residents from across the city will join him on stage and through video to talk about the city's successes, showcase important projects, and preview the 2030 Community Vision and Strategic Plan. Please join the Native and Indigenous Student Union in our upcoming celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Week. Every day you can learn about a new topic affecting indigenous people. Watch the calendar for next week's in-person events, including trivia night Monday in Montag Den and a Resource Hub Discussion on Friday in the Alumni Lounge, where we will reflect on and discuss the topics we learned throughout the week. Monday is also Indigenous Peoples' Day. What is IPD? Indigenous Peoples Day replaces the federally recognized Columbus Day. It is a day to celebrate and honor Native American and Alaska Native people as well as commemorate their histories. Why do we celebrate IPD? This shift in name is a significant step towards shedding light on the true nature of colonization and naming the wrongs done to our communities. Indigenous Peoples Day recognizes that North America was peopled by groups with distinct relationships to place when Columbus arrived and that these people and their cultures were violently disrupted by explorers, colonizers, and settlers. What does it mean to NISU? a time to reflect on how far I've come in claiming my indigenous identity, and to celebrate various traditions with my peers. a time to slow down and recenter. it highlights indigeneity as current and not in past tense. reflecting on how we [Native and Indigenous people] move, gather, and exist at this primarily white institution (PWI) and on this land. Related Link(s) I would like to sit down and have a cup of coffee with this guy. This is not a smart ass thing I say. I actually would love to sip coffee and listen to the line of Bull this guy would spin as you talk. Mikheil Saakashvili is one of those people on this planet that is able to help you understand the degree of mental illness present within the human mind. We all have it, yet some just live by it and to get more insight over a cup of coffee would be fantastic At the end of a previous article I added the tidbit about Sassy in love Well it seems to be true and his wife kinda seems to have been kept out of the loop on this love affair. Which seems normal if you are cheating around on someone The wife of former Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili has described her shock at his unexpected declaration of love for a top Ukrainian lawmaker before dramatically flying back to his homeland to be arrested and put on trial.On Wednesday, Sandra Roelofs revealed that the news of her husbands relationship with Yelyzaveta Yasko, an MP from the governing Servant of the People party, came out of the blue.Many confused friends and associates are asking me about my personal life. I will not hide from you that the content of the video, made on Friday night, was unexpected for me, and the form it took was completely unacceptable, Roelofs wrote on Facebook. Source: Bombshell announcement ex-Georgian president Saakashvili is in love with sultry Ukrainian politician came as surprise, wife admits RT Russia & Former Soviet Union Sassy Sassy Sassy, you are in a pickle and now your wife is gonna kick your Brassy Sassy Assy also Sassy have you not ever heard of the saying? You went full retard man. Never go full retard. Tropic Thunder. So all I can say is ~~ Free Sassy Free Sassy Free Sassy! ~~ WtR Westend61/Getty Images En espanol Your eyes may be the window to your soul, but your mouth is the gateway to your health. After all, theres a reason one of the first things doctors do at a checkup is make you open up and say ahh. Clues to a number of conditions can manifest on the tongue, lips, teeth and gums. Here are a few to keep an eye on: Lumps or lesions on the tongue Its completely normal to get a canker sore on the tongue or along the gums every now and then. But if you notice a lesion that doesnt go away after a week or two, make an appointment with your health care provider. The concern: cancer. Some cancers are in plain sight you can see them when you stick out your tongue. But they can also lurk under the tongue or at the base, says Nadeem Karimbux, a periodontist and dean of Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston. So in order to do a good cancer screening, you really want to pull the tongue out and look on either side, he says. Smoking and drinking alcohol increase ones likelihood of developing cancer on the tongue and other parts of the mouth. Age is another risk factor for oral cancer, including tongue cancer, and so is human papillomavirus (HPV), according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Look for an ulcer-like sore that is grayish-pink to red; it may also bleed easily, the experts at Cedars-Sinai say. Numbness on the tongue is another possible symptom. And dont forget to check the rest of your mouth: Oral cancer can also pop up on the tissue lining the mouth and gums, and where the back of the mouth and throat meet. While rare, psoriasis, a skin disorder, could be another cause of redness and bleeding in the mouth and on the tongue, the National Psoriasis Foundation says. Talk to your dentist or dermatologist if you experience these symptoms. A white layer on the tongue If your pink tongue has taken on a new hue, pay attention. A thin, white layer that looks similar to cottage cheese could indicate thrush, which is a fungal infection on the tongue, says Elena Zamora, M.D., assistant professor in the department of family medicine at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. Oral thrush is most common in people who are immunocompromised, including those with HIV/AIDS and untreated diabetes. Taking drugs that suppress the immune system can also make developing thrush more likely and so can using an inhaler for a condition like asthma. Zamora explains that when people who regularly rely on inhalers don't wash their mouth after each use, then fungus can actually grow because you're creating a more immunocompromised state by constantly [being exposed] to things like steroids just through an inhaler. Wearing dentures and having dry mouth can also increase risk for oral thrush. Reach out to your health care provider if you think you have it; an antifungal medication may be needed. A condition known as leukoplakia could also be to blame for white patches on the tongue. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the cause is unknown, but irritation from tobacco or alcohol may be an explanation. A weakened immune system could also be to blame, and age is another risk factor. Leukoplakia usually doesn't lead to permanent damage in the mouth, but it can increase your risk of oral cancer, so it's best to consult a health care provider if you recognize its symptoms. A dry or swollen tongue Your doctor may be able to tell if youre dehydrated just by looking in your mouth. When you stick out your tongue, there should be some sort of glare, Zamora says. Sometimes light bounces off the tongue, but if it's very dry, you may only see some buildup of saliva or a cracked tongue. A dry mouth, which can also be a side effect of medication, can have some oral health implications, including tooth decay, Karimbux says. Because saliva kind of bathes the teeth, and when you lose that you can be more prone to getting cavities, he says. If you notice your tongue looking puffier than normal, especially after a meal, you may be developing an allergy, says Zamora, who adds that a scratchy feeling in the back of the throat can also signal an allergic reaction. Its also possible to be allergic to toothpastes and mouthwashes, so start cataloging everything you put in your mouth. Laughter is good medicine Since a person cant laugh and cry at the same time, Christie says, we did some really dumb, stupid things to make the guys laugh. Sometimes they laughed at us. Sometimes they laughed with us. Sometimes we laughed at them. But it was very good medicine for the time being. We were a shift in the mindset. Even her name badge, Sam, was a laugh line. One day she had forgotten hers and a Marine handed her a substitute. From then on, her Vietnam handle was Sam. There were dark times, too. Rowan said a close friend of hers in the program was sexually assaulted in their quarters and the attacker court-martialed and imprisoned in Long Binh Jail. The women also had to stave off Peeping Toms and propositions. Three Donut Dollies died in Vietnam: one from an illness, one in a Jeep accident and one, newly arrived in 1970, was stabbed to death in her quarters in Cu Chi, outside Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. Two faces of war Rowan had two tours in Vietnam: 1967-1968, when U.S. troop strength hit 540,000, and 1970-1971, amid a force draw-down. I saw two very different wars, she says. During the second stint, heroin use among American troops was so common there were amnesty boxes (to dispose of contraband) in a lot of places, she says. And respect for senior U.S. officers had plummeted, leading to "fraggings," in which enlisted men used hand grenades to kill unpopular officers. Amid such tragedy and turmoil, Rowan says her experiences measured up to what a Red Cross recruitment brochure promised: the best year of your life. Or in her case, the best two years. I never felt so useful, she says. I never felt so appreciated. I never had such fun with other women like that in the close relationships that we developed. Some former Donut Dollies seem to have disappeared into the mists of time, as the three women tell it, but other alumnae are close. They bonded after witnessing suffering, losing friends in uniform and enduring hardships that ranged from monsoons to mortar fire. Now some gather at funerals, Vietnam commemorations and screenings of a 2019 documentary, The Donut Dollies. Norm Anderson, 45, wrote and directed the movie. It showcases his mother, Dorset Anderson, 76, of Cummington, Massachusetts, and her return to Vietnam decades after she was a Donut Dolly. Seven days a week for a full year, the Donut Dollies acted as therapists, confidants, comedians and one-woman versions of the U.S.O., he says. They all share bravery and a big heart and empathy to be willing to go into the unknown and go into a war. Veterans still grateful Given the vast number of troops and the small number of these civilian noncombatants, some men serving in the Vietnam War never saw a Donut Dolly. Others remember them and call them sisters. Some even greet them with a military salute. The job was psychological health and welfare, Christi says. We did an awful lot of listening to the guys, especially when they would vent. Years later, a veteran wrote to her saying the Donut Dollies left a lasting impression on men who had to face the enemy not knowing whether their last moment on earth was at hand. You made us feel less lonely, less abandoned, less cut off from all we hold dear, he wrote. You made life a little easier for us, took us back home while you were with us and earned our undying gratitude. A survey of registered voters 18+ in Washington reveals that a majority of Washington voters support WA Cares. Support for the program increases as people learn more about the specific features of WA Cares and how it differs from what is currently available from private long-term care insurers. Overall, 51% of voters support the WA Cares Fund, 33% oppose, and 15% were not sure of their support or opposition. However, after hearing about five features of the Fund, many say they were somewhat more or much more likely to support it. Most voters would prefer to receive care at home instead of a nursing home if they or a loved one needed long-term care. However, voters appear unsure of exactly what will help them pay for long-term care stay. Only 4% could correctly identify which of seven options would help pay for a long-term stay in a nursing home. Similarly, only 3% could correctly identify which of seven options would help pay for home visits from a paid caregiver. Just over half of voters had heard about the WA Cares Fund, and of these about eight in 10 were at least somewhat familiar with it. Methodology This AARP Washington survey of registered voters 18 years and older who reside in Washington was conducted from August 10, 2021 through August 24, 2021. The data are weighted by age and gender according to the sample source. For more information, please contact Terri Guengerich at tguengerich@aarp.org. For media inquiries, contact External Relations at media@aarp.org. Suggested citation: Guengerich, Terri. Long-Term Care in Washington: Opinions about the WA Cares Fund - 2021 AARP Survey of Washington State Adults Ages 18 and Older. Washington, DC: AARP Research, October 2021. https://doi.org/10.26419/res.00498.001 Jordyn Romero travels the world to create documentary films. Yet when shes back in her hometown of Santa Fe, she relishes the time. The filmmaker is presenting her short film We Are Like Waves at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, which runs Wednesday, Oct. 13 through Sunday, Oct. 17. The Santa Fe natives film will screen at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, at the Jean Cocteau Cinema. Its my second appearance at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, Romero says. Im really excited, because I get to screen the film in front of my family at the festival. It will be fun to share this story that has taken over my life. We Are Like Waves takes place on the south coast of Sri Lanka, where surfing is king. Yet only foreigners and local men dominate the lineups, because surfing is not seen as a sport for girls. Romero says this is a result of cultural and societal expectations that place women inside the household, particularly in rural areas. Young girls are expected to follow certain standards: be kind, look nice, and smile, Romero says. Attend school, study, work. Get married, and start a family. Be a housewife, cook, and clean. Most importantly, stay at home and put family first. Romero followed Sanu, who watched her brother surf. When Sanu turned 18, she began working in the kitchen at a surf camp alongside her brother, who worked as a surf instructor. At the surf camp, Sanu was often invited by foreigners to try surfing, but her fear of the ocean and going against her communitys expectations made her decline the offers again and again. One day, Sanu was asked by her boss and mentor, Sophie, to join her at SeaSisters, a weekly swim and surf program established for Sri Lankan girls to help inspire and empower through surfing. Hesitant but curious, Sanu took the risk and has never looked back. Its easy to look at this film as a surfing story, Romero says. But I think the story itself can be applied to any hobby. Especially women in the world. They will see what Sanu is doing by going against cultural norms and succeeding. Its about following your heart and chasing your dreams. Romero knows she comes from more privilege than Sanu. But she wanted to tell her story in a way that inspires. Thats why Romero also enlisted an all-female production crew. It was important for us not only to be in front of the lens, but behind the scenes, she says. Women are slowly changing the field, where they are being accepted as amazing filmmakers. Welcome back, Mr. Bond. This is your most important mission yet. The fate of the movie business depends on your success. Thats how it feels, anyway, so high are industry expectations around No Time to Die. The 25th James Bond adventure is finally hitting screens a year and a half after its originally scheduled April 2020 release date, and its central to Hollywoods hopes of luring pandemic-weary audiences back into movie theaters. Moviegoers certainly get a lot of Bond for their buck in Daniel Craigs fifth and final adventure as the suave but by now battered secret agent. At 2 hours, 43 minutes, its the series longest film yet. Big, brash, explosive and occasionally even tender, the movie nods fondly to the spy series past while moving somewhat into a more diverse, less male-dominated and Eurocentric era. And it definitely provides a respite from weary reality. The coronavirus does not trouble James Bonds world in No Time to Die. Much else does, though, from terrifying bioweapons to family legacies of violence. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the first American entrusted with this treasured British export, the film opens with two sequences strikingly different in tone. The first is a chilly Scandinavian horror vignette, beautifully shot by cinematographer Linus Sandgren, that introduces themes of imperiled children and poisoned inheritances that will ripple through the film. The second sequence offers one of those brief idylls Bond is occasionally allowed. Bond is retired from the world of spycraft and relaxing in Italian splendor with Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). Soon, though, the strains of Billie Eilishs theme song swell over the opening credits, and Bond is back on more familiar and hazardous terrain. All is not well in the world. There are strains in the U.K.-U.S. spying relationship, and a deadly feud among international evildoers. Bonds old nemesis Spectre and a rival crew are fighting for control of Heracles, a DNA-targeting biological weapon that could wipe out humanity. (A potential killer inside us: Maybe the real world is not so far away after all.) From there on, its a protracted but fast-paced thriller with a plot that twists like a double helix. All Bond films are made from essentially the same ingredients; what sets them apart is the chemistry of their combination. No Time to Die has all the required elements: gorgeous locales, from Cuba to Norway to a chilly, handsome London. There are gorgeous cars, including, of course, a supercharged classic Aston Martin. Theres cool and faintly ridiculous technology: Nanobots and a bionic eye both feature prominently. Screenwriters Fukunaga, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Phoebe Waller-Bridge some moments of left-field humor seem to bear the Fleabag creators stamp satisfyingly tweak the recipe. Female characters who are there to kick ass rather than tempt Bond include Ana de Armas unflappable CIA agent Paloma and Lashana Lynchs Nomi, a Black double-O spy who has no time for Bonds patriarchal platitudes. Theres a respectful but playful sense of the series six-decade past. Craig delivers some of the mandatory lines Bond. James Bond with a touch of Roger Moores raised eyebrow. Bad guys speak Russian. Rami Maleks facially scarred villain, Lyutsifer Safin, prowls a brutalist bunker lair that Dr. No would be proud of. Malek gives a performance full of quiet menace, although a British charity, Changing Faces, has chastised the filmmakers for equating disfigurement with evil. The movie has a valedictory, lets get the band together one more time feel, as Bond enlists old comrades including Naomie Harris Moneypenny and Ben Whishaws Q to destroy the weapon of mass destruction. This is Craigs swan song as Bond, a role he has played since Casino Royale, in 2006. Characters make frequent reference to Bonds supposed decrepitude, although he seems nigh-on indestructible in the entertainingly elaborate, if sometimes visually chaotic, action sequences. Craig brought a well-received muscularity to the part, along with a sensitivity that is particularly on display here. This is a Bond who mulls on his mistakes and even gasp talks about his feelings. One of the most enduring characters in the cinematic universe has evolved. That feels like a good place to end. By the explosive finale, its clear No Time to Die is closing a chapter, if not the story, of James Bond. WASHINGTON Abortions in Texas can resume under a federal judges ruling late Wednesday, but for how long? A conservative federal appeals court, and ultimately the Supreme Court, might take a more skeptical look at the Biden administrations lawsuit over Texas six-week abortion ban. The state law prohibiting abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks, had been in effect for more than a month. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman temporarily blocked it, in a 113-page ruling that found the law violates a womans right to an abortion. But the legal fight over the law at this point isnt focused on abortion rights, but rather on who has the ability to mount a legal challenge to it and what a court can do. Both the Supreme Court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously rejected pleas from abortion providers to keep the law from taking effect until courts could definitively rule on its constitutionality. Its not clear how they will rule in the new case or when they might be expected to weigh in. Texas already has said it will appeal to the 5th Circuit and the loser there almost certainly will ask the high court to intervene. The justices are separately hearing a major challenge to abortion rights in a case from Mississippi that could dramatically curtail a womans right to an abortion in roughly half the states. But that case, being argued in December, wont be decided until next spring. In the meantime, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the courts two most significant abortion rulings, remain in effect. The administration said it was suing Texas because its law is clearly unconstitutional under those rulings. Whats more, the administration argued, Texas lawmakers wrote it in a way to evade early federal court challenges. Private citizens, not the state, have the power to enforce the law through civil lawsuits from which they can receive $10,000 a suit. Federal government lawsuits against a state are not common, and when they occur as they sometimes do in the area of voting rights, they usually are based on a provision of federal law explicitly authorizing the Justice Department to sue. In his ruling Pitman laid out point by point why he felt the federal government had a claim in the case and therefore standing to file the lawsuit. The question is whether his reasoning will hold in higher courts. Theres no such federal law addressing the current situation, but then the Texas provision is itself unusual. It does feel novel for the federal government to sue a state on this relatively diffuse basis, said University of Notre Dame law professor Samuel Bray. But novel things happen. The way the Texas statute is set up is novel. Novel serve, novel return. Brigitte Amari, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Unions reproductive rights project, said the Texas law is unlike anything shes seen in more than 20 years of abortion rights work. The fact that Texas had been able to end most abortions in the state even under the current legal framework shows how uniquely cruel the law is and does create this very unique situation for the federal government to step in, Amari said. In pressing the states appeal, Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Twitter: The sanctity of human life is, and will always be, a top priority for me. The administrations intervention is not the only aspect of the case Texas is likely to challenge on appeal, legal experts said. Pitman ordered all Texas state judges and county clerks who might handle the citizen lawsuits to refrain from doing so. Typically, a judge tells an attorney general or law enforcement folks you cant enforce it. Here, this law is written in a way that bars the state from enforcing it. The question is whether you can preemptively issue an order to other courts saying theyre not allowed to hear these cases, said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Adler said past Supreme Court decisions dont provide a clear answer. Pitman said he had another reason for siding with the administration, to prevent copycat laws in other states. Pitman wrote that any number of states could enact legislation that deprives citizens of their constitutional rights, with no legal remedy to challenge that deprivation, without the concern that a federal court would enter an injunction. The reprieve for abortion providers may only be temporary and is itself not without risk, said Columbia University law professor Carol Sanger, who has written about abortion. Sanger pointed to a section of Texas law that makes doctors fear they could still be sued for providing abortions without a more permanent legal decision in place. And she said that could mean even if Pitmans decision were to stay in place for some length of time, some providers may not resume the abortions they were providing before the law went into effect. On Thursday, with Pitmans order in place, abortions resumed at some clinics, but other doctors across the state did not rush to resume normal operations. Even if it is eventually struck down, the Texas law could have the same effect as a previous Texas abortion clinic law that was later overturned by the Supreme Court, a drop in the number of abortion clinics in Texas. There were more than 40 abortion clinics in Texas when the earlier law took effect. Twenty clinics remain. ___ Associated Press reporter Jessica Gresko contributed to this report. CATCHES OF THE WEEK Izzy Torres, 12, and Izzack Torres, 5, of Alamogordo caught seven carp at Caballo Lake using strawberry marinade with sweet corn and Panko, and five catfish using carp cut bait and shad Oct. 2. Frances Jaramillo of Santa Fe caught a 20-inch rainbow trout at Canjilon Lakes using pink PowerBait worm Sept. 29. Madison Silva, 11, of Los Lunas caught an 18-inch rainbow trout at Cowles Ponds using garlic peach PowerBait on Sept. 18. Jim Carmichael of Artesia caught a 22-inch kokanee salmon at Eagle Nest Lake using a red Dardevle spoon Sept. 21. Diego Olivas, 11, of El Paso caught and released an 8-pound blue catfish at Elephant Butte Lake using cut gizzard shad Oct. 2. Azariah Vigil, 9, of Albuquerque caught a 20-inch rainbow trout at Quemado Lake using salmon peach PowerBait on Sept. 24. Seth Hardy of Red River caught and released a 22-inch brown trout on the Rio Grande using a black and white Barely Legal fly Oct. 2. He also caught and released a 20-inch cutbow and an 18-inch brown trout using a Barely Legal fly near the Wild Rivers Recreation Area on Sept. 29. John E. Peabody of Espanola caught a 17.5-inch rainbow trout at Santa Cruz Reservoir using PowerBait on Sept. 30. If you have a catch of the week story send it to funfishingnm@gmail.com. NOTES FROM GAME AND FISH Northeast fishing report Cabresto Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Charette Lakes had no reports from anglers this week. Streamflow on the Cimarron River near Cimarron on Monday morning was 15.7 cubic feet per second. Fishing for trout was fair to good using worms and spinners. Fishing for trout at Clayton Lake was fair to good using nightcrawler worms and PowerBait. Fishing for catfish was fair to good using chicken liver. Conchas Lake State Park has closed access to all boat ramps due to dropping water levels. The boat ramps on the south side of the lake managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are open. Fishing for bass was fair to good using shad pattern crankbaits. At Costilla Creek, fishing for trout was good using caddis dry flies. The department has implemented the final phase of a project to expand Rio Grande cutthroat trout in 120 miles of the Costilla watershed in northern New Mexico. The final phase involved removal of fish within a designated area (Rio Costilla from Costilla Dam downstream to the Valle Vidal Boundary including all tributaries and Comanche Creek from the road culvert crossing on Forest Road 1950 downstream to its confluence with Rio Costilla and all tributaries) with a tentative restocking of Rio Grande cutthroat in spring 2022. Places to fish nearby include Costilla Creek below the fish barrier, Upper Comanche Creek, Shuree Ponds, Middle Ponil Creek, Upper Powderhouse Creek, Little Costilla Creek, Vidal Creek and McCrystal Creek. Please check the department website for additional information on the project and to identify alternative angling opportunities in the interim. Fishing for trout at Cowles Ponds was fair to good using garlic peach PowerBait. Coyote Creek had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Eagle Nest Lake was fair using PowerBait. Fishing for kokanee salmon was fair using red Dardevle spoons. Fishing for pike was good using perch colored spoons. Fishing for trout at Eagle Rock Lake was good using pink and orange PowerBait. Fishing for trout at Gallinas River was fair using nightcrawler worms. Fishing for trout at Hopewell Lake was good using black Pistol Pete spinner flies and grey bunny leech flies. Lake Alice had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Lake Maloya was fair to good using Pistol Pete spinner flies, PowerBait and dry flies. Fishing for trout on the Los Pinos River was good using small beadhead nymph flies. Maxwell Lake 13 had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Monastery Lake was fair to good using PowerBait. Fishing for trout at Morphy Lake was good using silver spinners, Pistol Pete spinner flies and PowerBait. Streamflow on the Pecos River near the town of Pecos on Monday morning was 55.6 cfs. Fishing for trout was fair to good using red annelid flies and pheasant tail nymph flies. Streamflow on the Red River below the hatchery Monday morning was 41.2 cfs. Fishing for trout was good using brown Pistol Pete spinner flies, small streamer flies and tungsten nymph flies. Streamflow on the Rio Grande at the Taos Junction Bridge on Monday morning was 252 cfs. Fishing for trout was very good using streamer flies, Barely Legal flies and dry fly with dropper nymph fly setups. Streamflow on the Rio Hondo on Monday morning near Valdez was 14.3 cfs. Fishing for trout was good using attractor dry flies. Streamflow on the Rio Mora on Monday morning near Tererro was 23.6 cfs. Streamflow on the Rio Pueblo near Penasco on Monday morning was 15.6 cfs. Fishing for trout was fair to good using dry flies. Anglers reported that the water level is very low and the water is clear. Fishing for trout at Santa Cruz Reservoir was fair to good using worms and PowerBait. Fishing for trout was good at Shuree Ponds using zebra midge pattern flies. Springer Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Storrie Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Stubblefield Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for white bass at Ute Lake was fair to good using Whopper Plopper top water lures. Fishing for bass was fair to good using drop shot rigs with Berkley Gulp minnows, Senko worms and crankbaits. Fishing for walleye was slow. Fishing for catfish was fair using Berkley Gulp minnows. Fishing for bluegill was good using bug pattern flies. The water surface temperature was in the upper 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the main lake color was clear. Northwest fishing report Fishing for catfish at Abiquiu Lake was fair using nightcrawler worms and shrimp. Fishing for carp was fair using corn. Waterflow on the Animas River below Aztec on Monday morning was 126 cfs. Albuquerque Area Drains had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for tiger muskie at Bluewater Lake was good using chartreuse lipless crankbait lures, swimbaits, hotdogs and silver spoons. Fishing for trout on the Brazos River was fair to good using beadhead nymph flies. Fishing for trout at Canjilon Lakes was good using dry flies and pink PowerBait worms. Monday-morning flows on the Chama River, below El Vado and Abiquiu, were 107 cfs and 109 cfs, respectively. Fishing for trout below El Vado Lake was good using nightcrawler worms and brown Roostertail spinners. Fishing for trout below Abiquiu Lake was fair to good using beadhead nymph flies. Please remember, from the river-crossing bridge on U.S. Highway 84 at Abiquiu upstream 7 miles to the base of Abiquiu Dam is special trout waters with a bag limit of two trout only. Fishing for walleye, pike and bass at Cochiti Lake was good using white and silver crankbaits near the dam. Fishing for trout at El Vado Lake was fair to good using PowerBait at the North El Vado Day Use Area off State Road 95. Fishing for smallmouth bass, perch and trout was fair to good near the Dam Day Use Area. Fishing for trout at Fenton Lake was fair to good using worms, PowerBait and flies. Please remember, only two cutthroat trout are allowed to be harvested per day within the regular five-fish limit. Willow, Sierra Vista and La Laja boat launches are closed at Heron Lake. The primitive boat launch is open. Shoreline fishing is available between Sierra Vista and the spillway or in Rincon. Fishing for trout was slow. The Quality Waters of the Rio Chama can be accessed at the Rio Chama Trailhead. The stairs are closed so use the road to the spillway. Non-quality waters can be accessed at the North El Vado Day Use Area located on State Road 95, 13 miles west of U.S. Highway 84. At the Jemez Waters, streamflow on the Jemez near the town of Jemez on Monday morning was 19.3 cfs. Fishing for trout was fair to good using nymph flies and salmon eggs. Fishing for trout at Laguna del Campo was good using orange PowerBait. Lagunitas Lakes had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for bass at Lake Farmington was good using nightcrawler worms and Senko worms. Due to extremely low water levels and unstable ground conditions, stocking efforts have been suspended at McGaffey Lake. Lake conditions will be monitored and stockings will resume once conditions improve. Fishing for bass at Navajo Lake was fair to good using crankbait lures and green with red flake Senko worms. Fishing for pike was good using crankbait lures. Fishing for kokanee salmon was good using Fire Tiger spinners, pink squid and orange spinners tipped with corn. Fishing for catfish on the Rio Grande was fair using worms and shrimp near Albuquerque. San Gregorio Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Streamflow on the San Juan River on Monday morning was 692 cfs. The Bureau of Reclamation has scheduled a decrease in the release from Navajo Dam from 700 cfs to 500 cfs Oct. 4. Fishing for trout in the quality waters was good using olive, brown and grey midge emerger pattern flies, Baetis flies and leech pattern flies. Fishing for trout in the bait waters was good using PowerBait and nightcrawler worms. Fishing for trout at Seven Springs Brood Pond was good using PowerBait and flies. Tingley Beach had no reports from anglers this week. Trout Lakes had no reports from anglers this week. Southwest fishing report Alumni Pond had no reports from anglers this week. The water level is extremely low at Bear Canyon Lake and will remain low through October for dam repairs. Fishing for all species at Bill Evans Lake was slow. Fishing for catfish at Caballo Lake was good using cut carp bait and shad. Fishing for carp was good using strawberry marinade with sweet corn and Panko. Fishing for white bass at Elephant Butte Lake was fair using topwater lures, Whopper Ploppers, white slab spoons and chartreuse slab spoons. Fishing for largemouth bass was fair to good using live shad and crawdads. Fishing for crappie was fair using small green grubs at Dam Site Marina. Fishing for catfish was good using cut carp bait, live worms, dough bait, crawdads and cut gizzard shad. Escondida Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Streamflow on the Gila River on Monday morning was 56.1 cfs. Glenwood Pond had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Lake Roberts was slow using PowerBait and Pistol Pete spinner flies. Percha Dam had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Quemado Lake was good using salmon peach PowerBait. Rancho Grande Ponds had no reports from anglers this week. Streamflow on the Rio Grande below Elephant Butte on Monday morning was 0.31 cfs. Fishing for catfish north of Elephant Butte Lake was good using cut bait. Snow Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Trees Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Young Pond had no reports from anglers this week. Southeast fishing report Fishing for trout at Alto Lake was good using nightcrawler worms. Fishing for bass was good using nightcrawler worms. Bataan Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Please visit the Open Gate webpage for more information on Berrendo Creek. Fishing for bass was fair to good using nightcrawler worms. Streamflow on the Black River at Malaga on Monday morning was 4.80 cfs. Blue Hole Park Pond had no reports from anglers this week. Bonito Lake is closed until further notice by the city of Alamogordo due to fire damage. It appears that the lake will be out of commission until 2022. Bosque Redondo Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Bottomless Lakes had no reports from anglers this week. Brantley Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for catfish at Carlsbad Municipal Lake was fair using nightcrawler worms. Fishing for catfish at Chaparral Park Lake was fair to good using shrimp and hotdogs. Corona Pond had no reports from anglers this week. Eunice Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for catfish at Green Meadow Lake was good using nightcrawler worms 24 inches beneath a bobber. Fishing for catfish at Greene Acres Lake was good using hotdogs and shrimp. Fishing for trout at Grindstone Reservoir was fair to good using nightcrawler worms and garlic PowerBait. Fishing for catfish was good using shrimp, nightcrawler worms and hotdogs. Jal Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for catfish at Lake Van was good using worms. Fishing for catfish at Oasis Park Lake was good using cut bait and worms. Streamflow on the Pecos River below Sumner Lake on Monday morning was 82.0 cfs. Perch Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Streamflow on the Ruidoso River on Monday morning at Hollywood was 5.03 cfs. Fishing for trout was fair using worms. The boat ramp at Santa Rosa Lake has opened as water levels have increased due to recent rains. Due to low lake levels, Santa Rosa Lake State Park will operate as a no-wake lake until conditions improve. Fishing for catfish at Sumner Lake was fair to good using chicken liver and cut bait. Detectives released the name of a man who was shot and killed in a road rage incident Wednesday morning near Old Town. Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, identified the man as Nelson Gallegos Jr. It was Gallegos 52nd birthday when he was shot around 8:40 a.m. following an altercation with another driver along Central, near Rio Grande. Police have not released any details on a possible suspect but said they believe the shooting stemmed from a road rage incident. Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE A proposal to redraw New Mexicos congressional map by establishing a new district with a strong Hispanic majority is generating both vocal support and accusations of gerrymandering. The proposed map submitted by the left-leaning Center for Civic Policy and a coalition of other groups would move the South Valley and parts of Albuquerques West Side into the southern-based congressional district now held by Republican Yvette Herrell of Alamogordo. Hispanic residents would make up 60% of the population. The measure would also split the conservative stronghold of southeastern New Mexico into all three districts not unified in one, as now and pair together some disparate communities. Parts of Hobbs in the oil patch, for example, would share the northern-based district that includes Santa Fe; the South Valley would be linked with Carlsbad; and most of Albuquerque would share a district with Roswell. Oriana Sandoval, CEO of the Center for Civic Policy, said the proposed map described by advocates as the Peoples Map is the result of more than a year of meetings with community groups and residents throughout the state. As the most heavily Hispanic state in the nation, New Mexico ought to have at least one congressional district with a strong Hispanic majority, Sandoval said. The way were approaching mapmaking is really through a racial-equity lens and making sure communities of interest across the state have fair representation, she said Thursday in an interview. The proposed map just one of many up for consideration has triggered intense opposition from Republican leaders in southeastern New Mexico. Will Cavin, a Roswell resident and chairman of the Chaves County Commission, said the Center for Civic Policy proposal would dilute the voting strength of rural voters in his part of the state. New Mexico hasnt had enough population growth, Cavin said, to merit wholesale shifts in U.S. House boundaries. If youre changing our congressional maps up so dramatically, theres only one reason for it and thats political, Cavin said. About 48% of New Mexicos population is Hispanic, according to redistricting data. Establishing a strong Hispanic majority in the southern New Mexico-based district has been a source of intense debate at the Roundhouse in past redistricting cycles, too, though it never made it into law. In the map approved 10 years ago, about 47% of the adults in the 2nd Congressional District were Hispanic, according to analysis at the time. The Center for Civic Policy-backed map this year would create a southern-based district with about 56% of the adult population Hispanic. The map designed by the Center for Civic Policy illustrates some of the challenges facing New Mexico policymakers as they try to balance the population among three congressional districts. The sharpest growth in the state over the past 10 years has occurred in southeastern New Mexico where an oil boom has boosted state revenue and in Rio Rancho and the West Side of Albuquerque. As it stands now, the 2nd Congressional District now covering the southern half of New Mexico has too many people. Conversely, the 1st Congressional District, now based in Albuquerque and the East Mountains, has too few people. The Citizens Redistricting Committee itself has issued seven initial maps for public comment with a host of competing concepts for balancing the congressional districts. The ideas include status quo-oriented proposals, establishing an urban Albuquerque-Rio Rancho district, pushing the South Valley into the southern-based district, or even creating an Albuquerque-Santa Fe district. But members of the public and outside groups are also free to submit proposed maps via the redistricting committee website. Thats how the Center for Civic Policy map surfaced in the discussion. The states 19 pueblos and the Jicarilla Apache Nation have also submitted a congressional map. The seven-member citizen committee is led by retired Supreme Court Justice Edward Chavez. Its charged with recommending at least three maps for the U.S. House, in addition to proposals for legislative seats and the Public Education Commission. The citizen committee is barred from using partisan data as it crafts maps. The state Legislature where Democrats hold large majorities will make the final decision on which congressional map to send to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, also a Democrat. A special legislative session is expected in December. Unlike the initial seven maps proposed by the Citizen Redistricting Committee for public comment, the Center for Civic Policy map would establish two competitive, but Democratic-leaning, congressional districts and one highly competitive district, according to FiveThirtyEight, a website that uses statistical analysis to analyze elections. Most of the first seven maps issued by the redistricting committee itself would create a solidly Democratic district; a competitive, but Democratic-leaning. district; and a competitive, but Republican-leaning district, according to the FiveThirtyEight analysis. Under the existing map, the analysis suggests New Mexico has one solidly Democratic district; a competitive, but Democratic-leaning. district; and a competitive. but Republican-leaning. district. A garbage truck driver with the city of Albuquerque is being recognized for saving another driver from a fiery situation. Phil Davis has worked for the citys Solid Waste Department for 16 years. In June, he was driving near Pan American and Jefferson when he saw a mattress on fire. A truck caught fire after hitting it. Theres a lot of crazy stuff that happens, but nothing like this, Davis said. KOAT-TV is featuring the story as part of its Good News Files. Davis blocked both lanes of traffic to control the scene and went to help the driver. I made sure the guy was out of the vehicle and made sure he was OK, he said. I went to the side of my truck and grabbed my fire extinguisher and put out the flames. Davis actions caught the attention of the mayor. Thats truly a public servant approach to every day life, Mayor Tim Keller said. Davis said he couldnt imagine not helping and would do it again.Were all human. Were all in this together, he said. What if you were in that situation? Wouldnt you want someone to help you? The Good News Files is a collaboration between the Albuquerque Journal, 96.3 News Radio KKOB and KOAT-TV. The stories highlight good news stories in the community. Albuquerque police have identified a gray pickup truck they believe was used during the fatal road rage shooting of a man who was driving his 7-year-old grandson to school Wednesday morning. Nelson Gallegos Jr. was shot to death around 8:40 a.m. in front of the Central Grill and Coffee House on Central, near Rio Grande. In the car with him was his young grandson, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman confirmed Friday. It was Gallegoss 52nd birthday. His death comes a year and a half after his cousins son was also killed in a suspected road rage shooting. Alexandra Jaramillo describes Gallegos as a father figure and said she lived with him for about 13 years since she was about 7 years old. He had been married to her aunt and the couple raised her. We went to church every Sunday and Wednesday, he was super into church, Jaramillo said. He always had a smile on his face. He was involved in the lowrider community. He just had open arms to everybody around him. Gallegos was a former Marine and worked at the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. Jaramillo said when he wasnt working or at church he loved to go camping at a spot up in the Jemez. She said he was also an advocate against gun violence. Family and friends held a candlelight vigil at the scene of the shooting Thursday night. Kyle Martinez, who was the son of Gallegos cousin, was also the victim of a suspected road-rage shooting. Martinez was 15 when he was shot and killed while driving on Central and Unser in April 2020. Kevin Metzgar has been charged with murder in that case. On Friday, police released photographs taken from security camera footage showing a gray pickup truck they believe was being driven by the person who shot Gallegos. Witnesses had told investigators there had been a confrontation between at least two people in different vehicles. Security camera video obtained by the Journal shows Gallegos out of his car walking around and standing in the street next to the passenger side of a car. A gray truck passes by him. Thats when, an APD spokesman confirmed, the suspect opened fire from the cab of the truck, striking Gallegos. He fell to the ground. Gallegos died at the scene. Jaramillo said Gallegos grandson doesnt quite understand what happened but has been telling family, Grandpa got shot and now grandpa is in heaven. He gave a description of what kind of car and how many people were in the car, Jaramillo said. Tourists and everybody came by right away and saw he was in the car and took him to a nearby restaurant. Tips: Police ask anyone with information about the case to contact Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP. Facebook Celebrity Friends and fans are quick to offer prayers and condolences after the Jazz Butcher star is confirmed to have died 'suddenly but peacefully' at the age of 64. Oct 8, 2021 AceShowbiz - The Jazz Butcher star Pat Fish has died, aged 64. The sad news has been confirmed by Fish's frequent collaborator Max Eider via the official Jazz Butcher Facebook page. A cause of death has not yet been revealed. "Very sad to announce that my old friend Pat Fish died suddenly but peacefully on Tuesday evening," Eider wrote. "Pat rocked my world in every way and his death leaves a big hole in my life and in my memory, much of which was only stored in his outsized brain. Goodbye mate and thanks for everything. I'm going to miss you." Born Patrick Huntrods in 1957, Fish formed The Jazz Butcher with Eider in the early 1980s. Their debut album, "In Bath of Bacon", was released in 1983. The last Jazz Butcher album, "All the Saints", was released in 2016. Back in June, Pat Fish told his fans on Facebook that he was starting to "work on the new Jazz Butcher LP for Tapete Records of Hamburg." He later posted a series of pictures from the "studio days." Tributes and condolences poured in for the late star following his passing. Band The Monochrome Set wrote, "A wonderful human beinghe supported The Monochrome Set at their Tokyo gigs in 2014. He was also due to be a label mate as he'd recently finished recording his first album for Tapete. It's devastating news." A few days before his death was announced, a post on Pat Fish's facebook informed fans that the musician would go on with his show on October 7 "despite the weekend's little health scare drama." WENN/Joe Celebrity The 'American Horror Story' actress has opened up on her difficult childhood and learned from her relationship with late mother not to put pressure on her own son. Oct 8, 2021 AceShowbiz - Billie Lourd's experience growing up with mum Carrie Fisher taught her "what not to do" with her own son. The "American Horror Story" actress opened up on the New Day podcast about the "pressure" she felt taking care of her mum, who sadly died in December 2016. While Billie didn't have the greatest upbringing, she admitted it made her realise she shouldn't put the same pressure on her own little boy Kingston, who turned one last month (Sep21). "My main job when (Carrie) was alive was taking care of her and making sure she was okay," she said. "I was her main support, and I was 7, for a lot of the time, and that was really hard and that's why I grew up really fast because I was her best friend. I was her mother, I was her kid, I was her everything. And that's one of the things I'm learning not to do with my kid." "There's a lot of things that my mom taught me to do and then there's a lot that is, honestly it might be more valuable, of what not to do. And that's one of the things that I will not do to my son is put this pressure on him that I had on me." Kingston is Billie's first child with her fiance Austen Rydell. The couple got engaged in June 2020 when she was pregnant with their son. Celebrity The producers of 007 spy agent movie franchise have offered prayers and condolences shortly after legendary publicist Jerry Juroe passed away at the age of 98. Oct 8, 2021 AceShowbiz - The marketing veteran who helped sell James Bond to the world has died. Jerry Juroe handled publicity for the first 14 Bond movies. Paying tribute to the 98 year old, current Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said, "He made a huge contribution to the success of the series from the very first promotional tour to Italy in 1962 for Dr. No with Sean Connery to his retirement as director of marketing on Licence to Kill." Juroe died on 30 September (21) at his home near Valencia, Spain. While serving in the U.S. Army, Juroe volunteered for the Office of Special Services and escorted stars like Rita Hayworth and Bob Hope around military bases. He participated in the D-Day landing at Normandy, France and was presented with France's Legion of Honor medal by French president Emmanuel Macron in 2009 on the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Following his honourable discharge in 1945, Juroe returned to his native San Francisco, California and became a publicist for Fox West Coast Theaters. In 1950, he landed a job in Paramount's publicity department in Hollywood, where he promoted 1950's Sunset Boulevard and Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth and The Ten Commandments, among other classics. He returned to Europe after taking a post at Arthur P. Jacobs' publicity firm, and was given the task of looking after Marilyn Monroe during the production of 1957's "The Prince and the Showgirl" - something he covered in his memoir "Bond, The Beatles and My Year With Marilyn: 50 Years as a Movie Marketing Man". He also met producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, who would change his life by making him 007's marketing man. He travelled the world with the Bond films, enjoying highs and lows - he met Princess Diana at a premiere and had to pass the phone to Pierce Brosnan when Broccoli decided the Irish actor's run as Bond was over. WENN Celebrity Sad news comes from Lindsay and her family as Marilyn Lohan, the mother of her father Michael, has passed away at the age of 80 after she was hospitalized following a head injury. Oct 8, 2021 AceShowbiz - Lindsay Lohan is mourning the loss of her grandmother, who has passed away after a fall at her home. Marilyn Lohan, the mother of Lindsay's father Michael, died on Tuesday (05Oct21), aged 80, after suffering a head injury when she took a tumble on Friday. According to RadarOnline.com, Marilyn was previously hospitalised for heart surgery and was at home recovering when the accident occurred. The outlet reported the family matriarch wasn't discovered until the day after she fell, when Lindsay's aunt found her unconscious. Michael Lohan quickly asked for "prayers" for his mum, after she was re-admitted to the medical facility, begging his Facebook followers on Friday (01Oct21), "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PRAY... I AM WRITING THIS FOR ONE REASON......YOUR PRAYERS for a beautiful person, mother grandmother, and friend all that know her...MY MOM (sic)." He explained his mother was "still a little groggy from the anethesia (sic)" following her operation when she stumbled and hit her head. Michael added, "Last night rather than use the bathroom next (to) her bedroom she walked upstairs to use the one on the second floor. Nobody knows why!... On her way down she fell and hit her head. They found her this morning unconscious. She now has a brain bleed and is intubated. Please PRAY to God for her recovery." On Thursday, following his mum's passing, he wrote, "No words can ever express the love and loss of a LOVED ONE!" Lindsay Lohan, who is currently living in Dubai, has yet to comment on the loss of her grandmother. She is not expected to return to the U.S. for Marilyn Lohan's funeral, scheduled for this Friday (08Aug21) in New York, according to RadarOnline. WENN/Instar/Adriana M. Barraza Celebrity During his appearance on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!', Daniel weighs in on his 'No Time to Die' co-star offerring to watch the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William's three kids while they met at the 2019 BAFTAs. Oct 8, 2021 AceShowbiz - Daniel Craig has reacted to Rami Malek's shocking offer to Kate Middleton. During his appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Wednesday, October 6, Daniel weighed in on his "No Time to Die" co-star offerring to watch the Duchess and Prince William's three kids while they met at the 2019 BAFTAs. "That seems quite forward to me," Daniel jokingly told host Jimmy Kimmel about the Bond villain. He went on to question, "What? Was he gonna charge an hour?" Rami shared the story during his own appearance on the late-night show on October 5. In the episode, the award-winning actor recalled his conversation with the Duchess of Cambridge at the BAFTAs back in 2019. At the time, Kate had just welcomed their third child Prince Louis. "The funniest thing about that was, I said, 'If you ever need a day off, some time off, I'm backup for you,' " so the "Bohemian Rhapsody" star recounted. "She's like, 'What do you mean?' I go, 'I can babysit, you guys go out, have a good time.' " The "Mr. Robot" actor also asked how she was doing after giving birth to her third child. "(I asked,) 'You just had a baby, right?' I think she was taken aback... She said, 'How are you doing?' (I'm like,) 'No, how are you?' " he shared. "And in the most regal, elegant way, she gave me a look. But you can tell. Imagine, you're dressed to the nines, have to talk to all these actors." Referring to the royal family members, Rami continued, "They're so careful. But it was so cool. I think I caught her off guard for a second. And, you know, had that look of - in the most elegant, professional, royal way - 'Yes, it's a lot, having a kid.' " WENN/Adriana M. Barraza TV The Oscar winner, who portrays real-life killer Pam Hupp on the NBC series, is completely unrecognizable when she is caught on camera sporting the controversial suit during filming. Oct 8, 2021 AceShowbiz - Renee Zellweger decided to wear a fat suit instead of gaining weight for "The Thing About Pam". The Oscar winner, who portrays real-life killer Pam Hupp on the NBC series, looked unrecognizable when she's spotted donning the controversial suit during recent filming. When shooting in New Orleans earlier this week, the 52-year-old was seen wearing the suit underneath a red T-shirt and jeans. She finished off her outfit with a puffy white jacket and matching boots. In some pictures surfacing online, she could be seen carrying a supersized "Chill Chugz" soda cup. "The Thing About Pam" is based on the bizarre real-life case of Betsy Faria, whose husband Russ was convicted of her brutal murder, although he insisted he did not kill her. His conviction was later overturned. The brutal crime set off a chain of events that would expose a diabolical scheme that involved Pam Hupp, who is serving a life sentence for the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger. On the true-crime show, the "Bridget Jones's Baby" actress is set to star opposite Josh Duhamel. As for the ex-husband of Fergie (Stacy Ferguson), he will star as Russ' defense attorney. It remains unclear why Renee opted for a fat suit for the project. Fellow actresses such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Sarah Paulson previously expressed their remorse for wearing it for their roles after being dragged for promoting fatphobia. Sarah, who wore the suit for her role as Linda Tripp on "Impeachment: American Crime Story", recently admitted to The Los Angeles Times, "It's very hard for me to talk about this without feeling like I'm making excuses." She added, "There's a lot of controversy around actors and fat suits, and I think that controversy is a legitimate one." "I think fat phobia is real. I think to pretend otherwise causes further harm," Sarah further acknowledged. "And it is a very important conversation to be had." Instagram Celebrity When making an appearance on 'Today' show, the former First Lady says that the Bush family's newest addition 'is doing great' though she was born 'just a little tiny premature baby.' Oct 8, 2021 AceShowbiz - Laura Bush is giving a health update on her granddaughter Cora, who was born premature and placed in the NICU. In a new interview, the former First Lady hopes that the Bush family's newest addition will be out of the hospital "pretty soon." In the Thursday, October 7 episode of "Today" show, the 74-year-old sat down with her daughter and Barbara Bush's twin sister Jenna Bush Hager to talk about the family's new bundle of joy, who was born six weeks sooner than expected. "Cora Georgia Coyne arrived a bit early, but right on time for our family, who adores her," Jenna said during the segment. "The baby who was supposed to be born in New York was born instead in Portland, Maine. We're thrilled with that darling little baby and I know Barbara and Craig are too," Laura said of her granddaughter. She then shared, "I went every day to hold the baby at the hospital. So we're looking forward to the baby being able to get out of the intensive care nursery. Pretty soon, I hope." Offering more details of the newborn girl's current condition, Laura explained, "She's just a little tiny premature baby, but she's doing great." Mrs. Bush also told the viewers how her husband, former President George W. Bush, reacted to being a namesake for the baby girl. "It was really great. Cora Georgia, she'll have to be his favorite," Laura said with a laugh. In response, her daughter Jenna, who shares 8-year-old Margaret Laura, 6-year-old Poppy Louise and 2-year-old Henry Harold with her husband Henry Hager, quipped, "No! What about my children? Don't tell him that. He liked the namesake, of course." Laura's daughter Barbara welcomed her first child with her husband Craig Coyne on Monday, September 27. Announcing the exciting news was the Bush family via Twitter. "With full hearts, Laura and I are delighted to announce the birth of our new granddaughter," the statement began. "Barbara gave birth to Cora Georgia Coyne on September 27, 2021, in Maine not far from our family home where Barbara and Craig were married." In a separate Twitter post, the announcement continued to gush over the family's new addition. "Cora is healthy and adorable, and we are proud and grateful," so read the statement from the former president. Barbara's twin sister Jenna also took to her Instagram page to celebrate the baby's arrival. "Dearest Cora Georgia, Today is the day I got to meet my most beautiful, precious, feisty, niece (a bit earlier than we expected!)" wrote the TV host. "I witnessed in awe as my dearest, toughest @barbara.p.bush became a mama," Jenna continued alongside a series of photos from the hospital. "And today is the day I fell in love! Some cousins are anxiously waiting to play with you, but not just yet love. Xx auntie j." Instagram TV Peacock has yet to set a release date for 'Joe Exotic' (working title), but the upcoming limited series will be based on journalist Robert Moor's Wondery podcast 'Joe Exotic: Tiger King'. Oct 8, 2021 AceShowbiz - The first set picture from Peacock's "Tiger King" series has found its way out online. In the new photos, Kate McKinnon can be seen channelling Carole Baskin, the controversial CEO of Big Cat Rescue that she will be playing on the series. Kate was spotted for the first time in character while filming in Queensland, Australia. For her transformation, the "Saturday Night Live" star donned hair extensions. The actress completed the look with a cardigan over a printed blouse and denim jeans. Also photographed on the set was Kyle MacLachlan. The "Twin Peaks" alum portrays Carole's second husband Howard Baskin. He could be seen wearing grayed hair, glasses and a flannel button-up shirt. Peacock has yet to set a release date for "Joe Exotic" (working title), but it will be based on journalist Robert Moor's Wondery podcast "Joe Exotic: Tiger King". The series will be exploring Carole's rivalry with Joe Exotic, the former zookeeper of Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. Back in September 23, Carole blasted Netflix following a new teaser for upcoming season 2 of its popular documentary "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness". The teaser also includes a brief appearance of Joe, who is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence for attempting a murder-for-hire plot aimed at Carole and violating federal wildlife laws. In an interview with Variety, Carole criticized "Tiger King" directors Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode for putting out season 2 too soon. "I know some people who have been involved in it and they were doing more filming, so I assumed at some point they would come out with a 'Tiger King 2'," the animal rights activist said. "It took them five years to put together the first one, so I thought it would be a lot longer." In another statement, the Big Cat Rescue owner questioned they put out a 'Tiger King 2' when Joe Schreibvogel a.k.a. Joe Exotic was in jail. She added, "Rebecca Chaiklin [director of Tiger King] said she wanted to 'clear the air' about what they did to me in 'Tiger King'. I told her to lose my number. There is no explanation for such a betrayal and false portrayal." Instagram Celebrity In related news, police has responded to claims that freshly abandoned campsite is discovered by authorities while scouring the Carlton Reserve in Florida. Oct 9, 2021 AceShowbiz - Brian Laundrie's father has joined effort to find the YouTuber, who has been named as person of interest in his fiancee Gabby Petito's (Gabrielle Petito) murder. According to the Laundrie family attorney Steven Bertolino, Chris Laundrie started joining the search on Thursday, October 7. "Chris Laundrie is assisting Law Enforcement today in the search for Brian," Bertolino shared in a statement. "Chris was asked to point out any favorite trails or spots that Brian may have used in the preserve." The lawyer also noted that Laundrie's parents "provided this information verbally three weeks ago," but "it is now thought that on-site assistance may be better." The statement continued, "The preserve has been closed to the public and the Laundries as well, but the parents have been cooperating since the search began." In related news, police has responded to claims that freshly abandoned campsite was discovered by authorities while scouring the Carlton Reserve in Florida. A source previously told that traces of a campsite, which was believed to belong to Brian, were found inside the 25,000-acre nature preserve consisting primarily of swampy wetlands. However, a police spokes person confirmed to PEOPLE that no such campsite was found. Brian has been wanted after police issued a warrant arrest for him for his credit card activities following Gabby's disappearance. Gabby was reported missing by her parents on September 11 as she was on a cross-country trip with Brian. However, it turned out that he returned home to Florida alone in the van they had been using for the trip on September 1. He and his family stayed silent even after Gabby's parents texted and called them, asking for Gabby's whereabouts when they could not get contact with her. Brian's parents then reported that Brian himself was missing on September 14, but many believed that he's just hiding. WENN Movie The cast member of 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' disagrees with Sarah Silverman about her recent suggestion that only Jewish actors should play Jews on screen. Oct 9, 2021 AceShowbiz - "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Tony Shalhoub has slammed Sarah Silverman's suggestion that only Jewish actors should play Jews on screen. The actress and funnywoman caused a storm last week (ends01Oct21) when she called out Hollywood bosses for casting Gentiles to play Jewish roles in films and on television. Speaking on The Sarah Silverman Podcast, she raged, "There's this long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews...'Jewface' - doesn't feel good to say - is defined as when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with the Jewishness front and centre, often with makeup or changing of features, big fake nose, all the New York-y or Yiddish-y inflection." She zeroed in on Kathryn Hahn's recent casting as the late Joan Rivers, who was Jewish, in an upcoming limited series, and on "The Amazing Mrs. Maisel", about a Jewish stand-up comedian, noting that neither Emmy winners Rachel Brosnahan, who plays the title character, or Shalhoub, who plays professor Abe Weissman on the show, are Jewish in real life. Now Shalhoub has responded, calling Silverman's views "limiting" and "troubling." "I always feel that we're actors. We were trained to - at least I was - to not play myself, to play characters and so it's troubling to me that they're limiting actors," he told Page Six at the New York premiere of his new movie Mass. Ironically, Silverman was previously a recurring character on Tony's hit show "Monk", on which she played an overzealous admirer of his character. "I just don't know," Tony continued. "If we start to go down that road, I don't know where it ends. Are people who are members of the Mafia, are they going to be upset that people who haven't actually committed those types of crimes are playing those roles?" "When you extrapolate it all the way out, (that) way lies complete chaos." Instagram Celebrity Kathy Hilton 'did what [she] had to do' during daughter's early fame as the mother was scared for her daughter because her partying got out of control. Oct 9, 2021 AceShowbiz - Paris Hilton's mother allowed the young socialite to hit the town when she first found fame - because tabloid editors told mum where her girl was partying. "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star would wait up all night until Paris came home after club hopping in New York City - but she never worried too much about her daughter's whereabouts, because she had contacts in the know. "I used to call the city desk at the New York Post," Kathy tells the "Lunch with Bruce" podcast. "I would call the city desk and say, at one in the morning, 'Excuse me, hi, it's Kathy Hilton. Uh, do you by any chance know Paris, where she is right now?' " And the New York Post staffmembers would usually pinpoint Paris' location right away. "They'd be able to track (her) exactly: 'She was seen at 11.47 or 12.43 at O Bar or this (spot),' " she laughs. "This is the way I lived for years. My husband (Rick Hilton) had to get up and work in the morning. So eventually he'd go to sleep. But I was up waiting all night." But Paris didn't always come home, often staying away for days at a time. "She was sneaking out and she'd go missing and I wouldn't be able to find her," Kathy remembered. "Let's put it this way - it got very out of control and I was scared for her. And my husband was very scared for her. And, you know, those nightclubs go on all night." And Paris' mum recalled one scary night when she apparently got a call from her daughter. "How about for two days not knowing where your daughter is, and once hearing blood-curdling screaming, and then the phone hangs up," she said. "There's a lot of stuff people don't know. And I did get some flak (for being overprotective). Well, trust me. I did what I had to do." Mother and daughter now have a great relationship and are busy planning Paris' upcoming wedding to venture capitalist Carter Reum. CHICO, Calif. - Geralyn Sheridan is mad that someone broke into her jewelry store, Aicora Gems Jewelry Box, again. I'm pissed off, said Sheridan. The first break-in at her store happened in 2013. While Sheridan said insurance will cover the cost of the recent damage, she is still really frustrated about what happened. Since the incident occurred on Oct. 7, smashed glass is still visible on the floor, including bloodstains left behind by the intruder, as well as a hammer and some pills. Sheridan said she doesnt understand why someone would try to break into her store since the cases inside the shop have no jewelry. As an artisan with a small business, its hard enough to keep business going, explained Sheridan. And for senseless things like this to happen when the case was empty, it couldve been seen from the front, so theres just a lot of damage. Sheridan estimates the damage done to her store could be between $18,000 to $20,000. It just seems like theres a lot of violent crime going on right now, which makes me wonder if it is new groups, said Sheridan. Or is it somebody new in town doing all this stuff? Sheridan also shared she is concerned about an empty building located right next to her store because many people hang out by that building at night, and she doesn't feel like her property is safe. Luckily for Sheridan, she learned new owners recently acquired that property. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the electric car maker will relocate its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas. Musk says, though, that the company will keep expanding its manufacturing capacity in the Golden State. Musk gave no timeline for the move late Thursday when he addressed the company's shareholders at Tesla's annual meeting. Musk stressed he plans to expand the company's factory in Fremont, California, where Tesla's Model S and Model X cars are built, in hopes of increasing its output by 50%. He also touted the company's record vehicle deliveries this year, while noting that global supply-chain disruptions that have led to a shortage of computer chips remain a challenge. SHASTA LAKE, Calif- Shasta Lake firefighters confirmed they have stopped forward progress of a vegetation fire off Interstate 5 in the City of Shasta Lake. The fire burned an eighth of an acre west of Interstate 5 between Shasta Dam Blvd. and Fawndale Rd. and is believed to have been started at a homeless camp, according to Shasta Lake firefighters. The cause is still under investigation but firefighters said it is lightly a cooking fire. BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. - An Oklahoma woman has been sentenced for stealing thousands from an elderly Camp Fire victim, according to Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey. This afternoon, Brenda Rose Asbury, 31, of Oklahoma, was sentenced to felony probation with a 120-day suspended sentence for embezzling over $63,000 of Camp Fire insurance money from the Camp Fire victim, who had raised Asbury since she was 11. Ashbury called the 75-year-old woman her adoptive mother, according to Ramsey. Asbury appeared before Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems on Thursday after she previously entered a plea of no contest to grand theft. The District Attorney and Probation Departments requested that Asbury be imprisoned for 120 days in county jail as part of formal probation. However, the judge felt that Asburys previously served 17 days in jail awaiting her plea, her clean record, and desire to pay back the money to the victim deserved no further jail time, Ramsey said. Ramsey noted the Camp Fire victim had received insurance payments totaling over $127,000 for the loss of her Paradise home in the November 2018 fire. After relocating to Lake County, the victim had taken Asbury into her new residence to help the defendant escape a bad relationship in Oklahoma. The victim had paid travel costs so that Asbury could come to California. Ramsey said Asbury convinced the victim to put Asburys name on the bank account containing the victims insurance settlement to protect it from any attempt by the state to recoup money used for the care of the victims dying husband. The victim agreed to Asburys plan and put her on the account, in name only, so that nothing would happen to the money, which was supposed to help the victim rebuild her life, Ramsey said. Asbury was not given permission to use any of the money in the account but still drained $63,100 from the account and fled back to Oklahoma, according to Ramsey. At sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Dong-Jin Lee said that disasters can bring out the best in people, and the worst, and Asbury, unfortunately, chose to commit the most despicable of crimes, by taking advantage of the person who had raised her and treated her like a daughter. Judge Deems placed Asbury on felony probation with the conditions that she participates in a job training program, works full time, or submits proof of 10 job searches a week so she could begin paying back the $63,100 that was embezzled. Clouds continue to stream over northern California this evening, and it will stay that way tonight and early tomorrow. The mountains can expect a few showers Friday while the valley will have breezy weather and fewer clouds. The mountains had a few showers and isolated thunderstorms this afternoon, but they're moving into western Nevada. We will still have a lot of clouds late tonight through Friday morning as another trough arrives. Overnight lows will range from the 30s and 40s in the mountains and foothills to the upper 40s and lower 50s in the valley. Friday will begin mostly cloudy and we'll have fewer clouds and stronger breezes in the afternoon. Highs will range from the 50s in the mountains to the 60s in the valley. A ridge of high pressure will deliver more sunshine and a brief warming trend both Saturday and Sunday to northern California. The quieter weather won't last very long, however, as a more vigorous storm approaches the West Coast late Sunday. We'll have breezes developing Sunday, but the wind will be stronger Monday and Tuesday in the valley, and a Fire Weather Watch has already been issued for that time. The mountains will have a chance of rain and snow, but it will be light. The wind will be a little weaker Wednesday, and we'll have quieter and warmer weather next Thursday. Valley lows and highs will stay below average with lows in the 40s and lower 50s, and highs from the mid and upper 60s to the mid and upper 70s. CHICO, Calif. - Some students shared how they feel about the school's decision to ban the unvaccinated from campus. "I don't necessarily disagree with it but I find it concerning that they can just force us to do something, said Chico State student Daisy Chavez. Though Chico State student Daisy Chavez doesn't think the university should force students to get vaccinated, she knows it is in the student's best interest. "Ultimately, with the delta variant going around, it does make me feel safer to be in class versus someone who is not vaccinated, said Chavez. Within a few days of the university dropping over 300 students from their classes, 170 of them showed up with proof of at least one vaccination and were allowed back in class. As it stands today, 98% of students at Chico State are vaccinated. "Most of my friends are vaccinated but I do have friends that are not, said Chavez. I feel like if the school is going to be doing any sort of mandate, as long as they are communicating on their end, then it shouldn't be a problem for students, and I feel like they have done a good job at communicating it. To make sure students aren't showing up to class if unvaccinated, faculty is checking and updating their roster daily. If an unvaccinated student shows up, the teacher discreetly pulls them aside and lets them know they have been dropped from the class due to their vaccination status. Up until tomorrow, students can show proof of one vaccination at the registrars office and be put back into class. If a student wants to return to in-person classes, they must show proof of vaccination by next Thursday and get the instructor to sign off on their return. After that, they must go through an appeal process to return to the classroom. Debt markets platform, CredAvenue, today has announced the appointment of Niren Yadav as Head of Communications and PR. In his new role, Niren will play an instrumental role in setting up and leading the corporate and integrated communications vertical and build the profile of the company in line with the firms vision, values and brand story. He will report to Karanpreet Bindra, who was recently appointed as Chief Marketing Officer and will work closely with the Founder/CEO and leadership team. Niren will be based out of the firms Bengaluru office, which will also double up as the upcoming Technology Hub and Marketing HQ of CredAvenue. Niren brings with him over 11 years of experience in successfully strategizing, implementing, and strengthening corporate narratives for businesses across multiple sectors such as Fintech, Technology, Skill Development, Education, HR, Infrastructure and Smart Lighting. Speaking on the appointment, Karanpreet Bindra, Chief Marketing Officer, CredAvenue, said, We are excited to have Niren on board as he brings in deep and wide expertise in the field of Marketing Communications and Reputation Management. He has a clear vision for building and scaling a robust communications function. I am excited to welcome him to the team and partner with him to further our strategy and we are confident that he will bring in the right set of skills to help build CredAvenues brand image as we march ahead in building a first-of-its-kind category. Commenting on his appointment, Niren said, I am elated to be a part of CredAvenue and look forward to narrating the company's growth story. The sheer magnitude of the addressable market coupled with the quality of talent, the companys vision, global mandate, long-term investor confidence and CredAvenue pioneering the concept of Startup 2.0 is a terrific combination. I am excited to work with a capable team to contribute to and enhance our brand love by driving strategic and impactful communications and experiences for all our stakeholders. Prior to joining CredAvenue, Niren worked as a Group Head at 20:20 MSL. He was also associated with prominent firms such as Mastercard (South Asia Comms team), Cohn & Wolfe and Ogilvy & Mather. Niren has completed his Post Graduation in Communication Studies from Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai and graduated from Loyola College, Chennai with a B.B.A. (Business Administration). Most recently, CredAvenue raised $90 million of equity capital in its Series A round of funding led by Sequoia Capital and co-led by Lightspeed, TVS Capital Funds, Lightrock and others. The largest-ever Series A funding values the company at approximately $410 million. Enterprise Ireland, which manages the Education in Ireland national brand under the authority of the Minister for Education and Skills, is responsible for the promotion of Irish Higher Education Institutions overseas. Enterprise Ireland has appointed TechDivine as its digital partner for their Education in Ireland brand to create increased awareness about Ireland as a study destination for students across South Asia. TechDivine, as a service provider based in India, will work closely with Education in Ireland to support the activities of the team and will undertake a number of digital marketing projects to advance the activities of Education in Ireland in the South Asia regions. This includes designing and implementation of a digital strategy to build the Education in Ireland brand in the region among higher education students and other stakeholders, development and management of a virtual community across social media platforms, as well as supporting promotional efforts of the members of the brand like Irelands higher education institutions. According to Barry ODriscoll, Regional Manager - India & South Asia, Education in Ireland South Asia is one of the top-emerging markets for students planning to study abroad, especially in the West. With widespread digitization and rising dependence on online marketing for outreach, we have partnered with TechDivine Creative Services to manage Education in Irelands digital mandate to establish Ireland as an educational hub for international students. TechDivines team understands the nuances of the digital media especially in the education landscape and we are happy to have them on board... I am positive that the teams creative approach will help us achieve our goals in South Asian markets. Ananthanarayanan V, Founder and CEO of TechDivine Creative Services mentions, TechDivine Creative Services is extremely thankful to the entire management team at Enterprise Ireland (EI) for their trust in us. We are elated at this exciting opportunity to work with the brilliant and wonderful team of EI. Ireland has world-class institutions and enriching career opportunities. This, coupled with their warm Irish welcome & being an English speaking nation are a boon for individuals planning a great career ahead. Our role is to get this message across to the students in South Asia, who are planning to pursue higher education abroad. We look forward to strategizing and delivering digital marketing campaigns that have an impactful ROI while adding exceptional value for Enterprise Ireland, the educational institutions and their students. With Dussehra/ Durga Puja festivities beginning, the country is in the throes of festive fervour. After no Dussehra/ Durga Puja celebrations last year due to the pandemic, consumers and brands are looking at a return to markets with a vengeance. With the vaccination drive gathering momentum and most of the COVID-19 restrictions lifted, there is a general air of optimism. Offices, market places, educational institutions, malls and cinema halls all have now opened, giving people a sense of return to normalcy. Like the rest of India, the East and North-East markets are in a resurgent mood. Durga Puja is the biggest festival in West Bengal and Tripura and is also celebrated extensively in Assam and other parts of the North-East. Markets are seeing the return of shoppers, and some marketers see a revenge shopping trend gaining precedence. Amid COVID-29 protocols, the shopping frenzy has started and will only increase in the coming days. Experts believe that this is not just revenge shopping, but also a re-assertion and reclaiming of a life that one was living before the pandemic struck. This festive season, Adgully turns the spotlight on the East and North-East markets and is speaking to a cross-section of brands, marketers and market experts to gauge the mood of the shoppers and brand sentiments. In conversation with Adgully, Smita Murarka, Chief Marketing Officer, Duroflex, speaks about how the company is ensuring an omni experience for consumers, fortifying national presence through Experience Centers and more. What kind of sentiments do you see in the East markets during this festive season? Are these sentiments close to the pre-COVID-19 levels? With the festive season around the corner and most places out of lockdown, consumer sentiments are bouncing back. This year, people are looking forward to upgrading their consumer durables and are interested in making high-value purchases. They are excited to celebrate with their loved ones after a long time. The pandemic has also brought health to the forefront of all our lives. So, a lot of purchase decisions are also pivoted on health and wellness. There has been a lot of focus on immunity-boosting habits like getting 8 hours of good sleep. This has led to a renewed interest in high-quality scientifically engineered mattresses like our signature Duropedic range, which is recommended by the doctors at the National Health Academy. How are you planning your strategy for online and offline sales? What kind of footfalls are you expecting during this festival? We are ensuring an omni experience for the consumer, irrespective of the channel the consumer journey is starting. We have fortified our national presence through our Experience Centers, where the customer can experience our wide range of mattresses and sleep accessories before they buy it and consult sleep experts to know what would be best for them. We are rapidly expanding and will have close to 40 Experience Centers pan India by the month end. This is also in conjunction with our category expansion furniture and bed linen being our big festive launches. The footfalls are actually higher than ever this festive season. Our Diwali campaign with Alia Change Your Sleep, Change Your Life has been encouraging consumers to consider their sleep essentials as a festive investment and a harbinger of change. Any specific campaign strategies planned for the festival season? What kind of discounts and offers have you come up with for your customers this year? We had kickstarted our national campaign with Alia Bhatt to build the message of Nothing Like Duroflex when it comes to branded mattresses in August. Our Diwali campaign with Alia Change Your Sleep, Change Your Life encourages consumers to consider good sleep essentials as a festive investment option. For Pujo, we have collaborated with eminent actress Monami Ghosh in the East to double down on the message of meaningful changes this festive season. While there are attractive discounts, we have a nationwide scheme of a free anti-viral protector with any mattress. Natures Basket, part of RP-Sanjiv Goenka group, Indias foremost retail destination for fine foods from around the world, collaborated with KOTRA Mumbai introduces SWAD KOREA, Korean food festival starting from Oct 9 to Oct 24, 2021. This event will be held across 20 stores, in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata. The popularity of Korean culture & food is rising rapidly in India, and it is not surprising that Indians are drawn towards Korean Food. Ingredients such as rice, noodles, vegetables, meat and ingredients such as sesame oil, chilli, pepper, soy, and spices are common across Korean as well as Indian cuisine. Swad Korea is an initiative that marries Korean food with Indian cuisine to fulfil K-food desires of people across India. As a part of the initiative, a Korean food enthusiast and chef Nikhil Bendre will share his go to recipes when he is craving a fusion of Korean and Indian cuisines on 9th October at the Juhu store of Natures Basket. Apart from this, Natures Basket to also invite food bloggers from around the country to take part in the festival and get the first-hand experience of shopping at the store. Natures Basket has been a pioneer in the premium food space and this transformation journey will ensure growth in a sustainable and profitable manner. Natures Basket is known for bringing in gourmet food from across the world to India. The Gourmet retail chain boasts of stocking the best international and domestic wines, cold cuts, meats, cheese, organic foods and a large variety of pastas, noodles, beverages, exotic and rare ingredients, meals, sauces, preserves and packaged food from around the world. Every item in the assortment is handpicked from the very best that Europe, Australia, Asia and the US have to offer. It caters to the refined needs of urban consumers for irresistibly authentic world food and ingredients. Mr. Devendra Chawla, CEO, Natures Basket and Spencers Retail, Indias recent obsession with Korean culture made Natures Basket focus more on Korean food, especially instant noodles, sauces & condiments. We plan is to explore & expand the Korean food range to ingredients, spices, health foods, snacks & beverages very soon. It is commendable that KOTRA Mumbai brought in various the Korean companies & their products into the Indian market, and we are delighted to associate with them. Natures Basket was and continues to be an iconic and much-loved brand, owing to strong brand loyalty and equity among our customers. The food experience and business, both, are going to grow exponentially in the coming years and we are committed to raising the bar and redefining the freshest and finest food experience for India. Mr. Kee Young Hong , Director General , KOTRA Mumbai, Food is prime category of focus for KOTRA Mumbai office and shall open gateway for as many Korean companies to venture into India. We are delighted to be associated with Natures Basket who understands the importance of bringing cuisines from various part of the world to Indian households. With Swad Korea, we hope to enter the Korean food industry in India and provide to the Korean food enthusiasts. Nature's Basket has an online shopping facility through their website, www.naturesbasket.co.in as well as through their mobile application. Nature's Basket has a strong ecommerce presence which is in alignment with the Omni channel strategy at Spencer's. OnePlus, the global premium technology brand, welcomed Bollywoods celebrity power couple Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput Kapoor as brand ambassadors for its OnePlus TV product category. The collaboration reiterates the brands philosophy of Never Settle, while highlighting the companys vision towards building a seamless connected experience. In 2019, OnePlus entered the smart TV industry with the highly acclaimed OnePlus TV Q1 Series . The following year, OnePlus expanded the portfolio with the OnePlus TV U Series and OnePlus TV Y series with the aim to make the burdenless OnePlus experience more accessible to millions of customers across the country. In June 2021, the company also unveiled the OnePlus TV U1S, the latest addition to its smart TV portfolio. Available in three variants, the OnePlus TV 50 U1S, OnePlus TV 55 U1S and OnePlus TV 65 U1S, the smart TVs offer a best-in-class 4K cinematic display, seamless IoT connectivity with OnePlus Connect 2.0 and is co-tuned with Dynaudio, the premium Danish loudspeaker maker, for an unparalleled audio experience. OnePlus has successfully witnessed a 20% growth QoQ in Q2 2021 in its smart TVs segment. Within a short span of two years since OnePlus entry into the category, the company stands among the top five smart TV brands in the INR 20K-30K smart TV market and among the top three smart TV brands in the INR 40K-50K smart TV market in India as per the latest India TV Tracker Q2 2021 report by Counterpoint Research. Speaking on the association, Saurabh Kapoor, Head of Brand and Category Marketing, OnePlus India shared, We are delighted to partner with Shahid and Mira for our OnePlus TV category in India. Both Mira and Shahid are known for their zeal in life and their passion with a purpose which resonates with OnePlus' Never Settle spirit. They truly embody the smart and youthful spirit of OnePlus as well as our user community. Therefore, we are confident that this exciting association will certainly disrupt the status quo in the India smart TV market and we are positive that our community would be equally thrilled for our new partnership." Further addressing the start of the partnership, Ishita Grover, Head of Marketing Communication and Government Relations, OnePlus India shared, In 2021, we at OnePlus focused on strengthening our vision to build a premium and accessible connected ecosystem, thereby bringing in our OnePlus TV U1S with a host of smart features. With the launch of our new ad film, we aim to showcase our innovative OnePlus TV U1S, highlighting the exciting hands-free voice control feature using Speak Now on the OnePlus TV U1S. The ad film further brings to life the ease and seamless functioning of the smart TV serving as the hub of one's smart home. The campaign also embodies the quirky vibe of the popular couple, Shahid and Mira, offering a refreshing take to the larger creative film. We hope our community and India audience enjoys the ad film along with positive product insights" Sharing his thoughts on the association, the renowned Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor said, As passionate enthusiasts of technology and innovation, Mira and I are thrilled to be partnering with OnePlus. The companys commitment to quality, rich features and premium accessibility is sure to make OnePlus TVs a preferred smart home and lifestyle product for any home. Speaking on the ad-film for the OnePlus TV U1S, Mira Rajput Kapoor said, Our latest ad campaign for the OnePlus TV U1S plays on a dream that we have all had at some point, where we wished to control everything with just a phrase. It is truly exciting to see how OnePlus has now transformed this dream to reality with the innovation-first approach to technology. The 360-degree campaign has been kickstarted with an enjoyable ad film for the OnePlus TV U1S, with the concept centered around the hands-free voice control feature using Speak Now on the OnePlus TV U1S. Bringing alive the product feature, the ad film showcases how Shahid Kapoor goes on a dream-like journey where he imagines a life in which he can control everything with his voice. His dream is cut short when his wife - Mira Kapoor humorously gives him a reality check. The campaign was conceptualised by BBH India and created in partnership with Chrome Pictures. The ad film was directed by Hemant Bhandari and edited by Shahnawaz Mosani with music by Micu. The ad film which premiered today can be watched here. WATConsult (an Isobar company), the hybrid digital agency from dentsu India, has unveiled its first report of WATInsights - Digital Commerce Series. This five-part report by Recogn, the agencys research division, provides consumer and business insights to its audience and explores the components of digital commerce in India. It will be released at an interval of 20 days, hereon. Titled Digital Commerce in India - Festive season shopping, the research has been conducted online and maps the sentiments of consumers in Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities. Currently, India has around 297 million online shoppers. This number is expected to grow at a rate of 25% to reach around 372 million by the end of 2022. Despite the economic uncertainty due to the pandemic, the e-commerce sector has witnessed an uptick. During the pandemic, owing to the lockdowns and social distancing norms, hypermarkets have witnessed lower footfalls although online shopping skyrocketed during last years festive season. There has been an increase in the number of orders in the online groceries, e-pharmacy, fashion apparel and electronic item categories. With an increase in the pandemic-led work/study-from-home model, the usage of smartphones in India has increased significantly. The post-pandemic era has observed huge shifts in buying habits of customers with increased adoption of online shopping, and contactless payments. Key insights from the report: Online shopping during the festive season: More than 30% of unique shoppers visited Amazon.in during Diwali compared to the pre-Diwali period. During Diwali, the shopping festival on Amazon.in witnessed more than 85% of the shoppers come from Tier-II and below cities. There were more than 67% of first-time shoppers during Diwali 2020 compared to the pre-festive season baseline. More than 103% of shoppers made purchases across new categories during the festive season compared to the pre-festive season baseline. Festive shoppers behaviour: 12% increase in the number of branded searches per generic search. First-time shoppers spend similar to regular shoppers. First-time shoppers spend more time researching. Change in consumer shopping behaviour during the pandemic: More than 75% of new-to-Amazon customers acquired are from Tier-III or below towns. 17% increase in time spent on Amazon.in - from 5.4 minutes to 6.8 minutes. The daily average keyword search increased by 143%. 40% increase in sub-categories purchase. The number of orders placed per week per customer grew by 17%. Digital media has now become the primary mode of product discovery. Therefore, businesses need to respond with interesting value propositions and superior customer experience to complement this behavioural shift. A full-funnel strategy can help drive a significant lift in metrics across the entire funnel consideration, customer acquisition, and sales. During the previous festive season, there was a considerable lift of more than 35%. There was a more than 45% lift in the number of new customers along with more than 60% sales uplift for full-funnel advertisers when compared to search-only advertisers. Commenting on the latest issue of WATInsights - Digital Commerce in India- Festive season shopping, Heeru Dingra, CEO, Isobar India group, said, The festive season has always been important to Indian shoppers and it has become more so in the post-pandemic period. The pandemic has given Indian e-commerce a major push beyond the metro consumers. The growing economy, expansion in the availability of products and services, and easy availability of credit has given rise to the new consumer segment which also includes consumers from Tier 2 and Tier 3. Its interesting to note that these new consumers that make their first online purchase during the Diwali period majorly continue to shop online thereafter. I believe, this latest issue of WATInsights will be an invaluable resource for anyone who intends to demystify e-commerce in India. Sahil Shah, Managing Partner, WATConsult, added here, The world is moving towards a connected commerce future and India is rightly placed to lead the next phase of growth. With the festive season setting in, its always a bonanza as consumers increase their usage and brands increase their investments in digital as a medium. This report by WATInsights is a fantastic one as it gives you a slice into not only India on eCommerce, but also Bharat on eCommerce. And what better than seeing a portion of it through one of the largest eCommerce marketplaces in India, that is, Amazon. I am certain you will have a very insightful read and definitely gather more focus areas in your business through this report. For the record, WATInsights are periodically published reports based on primary research conducted by Recogn, the agencys research division that provides consumer and business insights to its audience. WATInsights delve into the different aspects of the digital industry, consumer behaviour and more. Additionally, the research also covers some relevant topics like Instagram in India users perspective, voice technology in India and the usage of the internet in the local language. WATConsults research vertical, Recogn, in the past, has published many detailed and comprehensive pieces of research such as Digital Diverse and Multilingual India, Voice Technology in India: Now & Future and Instagram in India, to name a few. Multi-million dollar investors, brilliant entrepreneurial minds, and a leader on the ratings chart Shark Tank is one of the most successful entrepreneurial reality shows of all time. The business reality show offers budding inventors a once in a lifetime chance to score the funding that can transform their side hustles into a prosperous empire. Given a chance to present their pioneering ideas in front of a memorable panel of esteemed tycoons, these promising businesses go through the wringer as the Sharks negotiate their investment in these upcoming companies. Shark investors Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec and Kevin OLeary will be joined by four new guest sharks appearing this season. Actor, investor and entrepreneur Kevin Hart will be joined by an esteemed panel, including Indian-American Cofounder of Nextdoor, Nirav Tolia, CEO of Good American, Emma Grede and BBCs Dragon Dens Peter Jones, who will also be joining the panel as guest Shark investors throughout the upcoming season. Entrepreneurship has always been a driving force in my life. I grew up seeing my parents thrive as Indian immigrants and their success in business and as respected community leaders shaped my understanding of what was possible and inspired my own journey in Silicon Valley, said Nirav Tolia. Im humbled to be a part of Shark Tank and have the opportunity to play a role in the stories of other entrepreneurs seeking to leave their mark. Shark Tank season 13 will premiere on 9th October, exclusively on Voot Select. Volkswagen India, as a brand, has been a pioneer in the automotive industry that has created innovative, class-leading marketing & advertising campaigns for their product portfolio. The campaigns have generated massive buzz and awareness all across India and have been widely recognised & rewarded. Hence, it is only fitting for a brand that dedicated 2021 as the year of the Volkswagen Taigun to work towards creating a huge spectacle for Indian customers. The Volkswagen Taigun is the newest entrant in the mid-size SUV segment that is Bold, Dynamic and a German-engineered SUVW. Based on the locally adapted MQB A0 IN platform by Volkswagen Group, the Taigun reflects vibrancy, stands out from the crowd, safe and is extremely fun-to-drive with the globally acclaimed TSI technology of Volkswagen. Volkswagen India entrusted Showtime Events with the responsibility to conceive, conceptualise, design and execute the pre-launch and launch on-ground activation for the Taigun. For a 360-degree amplification approach, it assigned its partners PHD, 22Feet and VICE Media Group to take the campaign closer to customers. The brief for the activation was to create, A high impact, engaging and evocative activation that represents the new stunning SUVW, the Taigun. Team Showtime vividly brought to life the personality of the Taigun by using cutting-edge technology in the heart of the nation, the capital city of New Delhi. Creating an incandescent experience over four days leading into the launch, Showtime orchestrated a visual spectacle at Central Park in Delhis iconic Connaught Place. Enthralling every viewer, live or virtual, the dynamic show represented the different facets, vibe and colours of the Taigun, keeping viewers engaged and asking for more. At the heart of this spectacle, that captured the imagination of India, was a robust grid that housed 2500 LED pixel balls specifically designed and developed in collaboration with overseas partners. This dynamic canvas took over 144 hours to construct on the rain-swept, open-air surface of Central Park, and was then programmed to precision to produce millions of light and colour combinations in sync with the accompanying music. In addition, towers as high as 70 feet were also installed around the venue to support cameras and broadcast paraphernalia required to stream the spectacle worldwide. Delightedly sharing his views on the concept, Mr. Ashish Gupta, Brand Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India said, The excitement around the Volkswagen Taigun has been building for well over a year, so the final countdown to its launch had to be anything but ordinary. We wanted it to reflect the vibrancy, fun and dynamism of the brand while also being a first-of-its-kind in the country. Rightfully so, the Taigun Spotlight lit up the heart of India with the vibe, colors and personality of the Taigun. Enthralling and engaging millions across the country virtually, depicting the #HustleModeOn in a thrilling countdown to the great launch. Avik Prabhu, CEO & Managing Director, Showtime Events, shared his thoughts on conceptualizing and executing this spectacle, The Taigun & the Volkswagen brand both stand for a very creative, bold & vibrant expression so our endeavour as Volkswagen agency partner was to stay true to this and reflect it as clearly as possible at every touch point. The LED pixel balls installation in Connaught Place was an extension of this strategy. Adding to the experience of this spectacle were performances by contemporary & unique artists that resonate with the products positioning of #HustleModeOn, namely - When Chai Met Toast, Bandish Project, Kings United and Raghav Meattle. Monaz Todywalla, Chief Executive Officer at PHD Media India, said of the collaboration, "Elegant dynamism meets everyday practicality in the new Volkswagen Taigun and everything from its modern, charismatic design to spacious, adaptive interiors deserve a closer look. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Volkswagen on this one-of-its-kind experiential launch that celebrates the vibrant uniqueness of the brand. In our unified goal to create excitement for the Taigun launch, build awareness, and drive engagement for the event, PHD Media has collaborated with the iconic automobile brandharnessing our data-centric and uniquely innovative approach to brand storytelling to deliver a 360-degree strategy built for success. We are confident that this milestone will further bolster the premium aspirational imagery of the Volkswagen brand in India and accelerate its positioning as a key player in the AO SUV segment." Having set the bar high with the thrilling activation spectacle, Showtime needed to up the ante for the launch event and market introduction of the Volkswagen Taigun. It did so by creating an immersive 360-degree audio visual experience for the audience in the room, and virtual participants the world over; with 2500 sq. feet of LED screens, surround sound, and over 90 minutes of seamless, precisely mapped content designed to showcase the relentless efforts and strategy of brand Volkswagen. However, the piece de resistance of the show was the unveiling sequence where the virtual showcase of the Taigun seamlessly extended into the real SUVWs emerging from the screen; with as many as 6 of them driving amidst and around the audience in an exhilarating choreography on an intricate network of roads created within the venue; enabling each guest to experience #HustleModeOn truly up close. Mr. Prabhu added, The much-awaited SUVW Taigun needed a dynamic and enthralling reveal so a 360-degree immersive arena which housed a unique interplay of surround content, dynamic sound, a criss-crossed network of runways and 10 turntables ensured the Taigun made its debut in a very distinctive manner. This kind of an undertaking required courage and conviction from the very outset which both the team at Volkswagen & Showtime showed consistently throughout the process from conceptualisation to actualisation. It was a satisfying & fulfilling team effort. Sharing his experience while working on this campaign, Rohit Tugnait, Commercial Director, Vice Media Group said, When Volkswagen reached out to us, we were amazed to learn the magnitude of what they were creating with the light and sound display in Connaught Place. The challenge thrown was to make this spectacle reach a larger audience across the geography of India. That is how 'Taigun Spotlight' came to life. We brought in path-breaking artists from Indias music and dance industry with personal journeys embodying the hustle that Taigun champions. Integrating their performances with the light and sound spectacular gave us high octane videos that heralded the launch of the Taigun and were loved across all social media platforms alike. Creating content of this nature is not only part of our DNA at Vice, but also something we truly enjoy. The experience of creating Taigun Spotlight was only elevated working with the team at Volkswagen India and their partner agencies. The new Volkswagen Taigun was launched on 23rd September 2021 for the Indian market and has been overwhelmingly received amongst customers in India. The Taigun Spotlight documentary can be viewed at New Volkswagen Taigun | Hustle Behind the Launch | After Movie. Federal Department of Finance Bern, 08.10.2021 - On 8 October 2021, the Inclusive Framework of the OECD, in which 140 member countries including Switzerland participate, specified the July 2021 key parameters for the future taxation of large, internationally active companies. Switzerland demands that the interests of small, robust economies are taken into account in the implementation, and that legal certainty is established for the companies concerned. The Inclusive Framework of the OECD published the initial key parameters at the beginning of July 2021. Since then, important points have been clarified for Switzerland: the new taxing rights for market jurisdictions are moderate, and unilateral digital taxes are to be abolished with binding effect. The global minimum tax rate is to be set at 15%. Furthermore, the minimum taxation rules are to be introduced in stages. This measure benefits countries like Switzerland with a comparatively long legislative process. Other points of importance for Switzerland are still open and to be detailed in the coming months. In this context, Switzerland is committed to rules that foster innovation and prosperity, that are applied uniformly worldwide and that are subject to a dispute settlement mechanism. The aim is to create legal certainty for the companies concerned. Switzerland like other countries is critical of the OECD's timetable, as it does not yet sufficiently respect national legislative processes. It will not be possible for Switzerland to introduce the new rules by 2023, as envisaged by the OECD. Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer emphasised this once again at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris on 5 and 6 October 2021. In parallel with the ongoing work of the OECD, the Federal Department of Finance, in close collaboration with other Departments and the involvement of the cantons, cities, businesses and academia, will, by the first quarter of 2022, draw up internationally accepted proposals for the Federal Council that will continue to offer businesses the best possible framework conditions for sustainable growth. Address for enquiries Peter Minder, Head of Communications Federal Department of Finance FDF Tel. +41 79 437 73 61, peter.minder@gs-efd.admin.ch Publisher Federal Department of Finance https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html State Secretariat for International Financial Matters http://www.sif.admin.ch MADISON, Wis. The Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative met to discuss policy during the recent World Dairy Expo. Among the issues discussed were the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021, milk pricing and dairy-farmer sentiment heading into the 2022 congressional mid-term election year. Mykel Wedig, associate director of government affairs for the cooperative, said agricultural labor is the main concern of Edges members. The Farm Workforce Moderation Act would create a new temporary-worker visa program for current farmworkers. We like the bill, said John Holevoet, director of government affairs for Edge. It already passed in the (U.S.) House and were hopeful it will pass in the (U.S.) Senate. The U.S. Congress is currently working on several pieces of legislation, but there are still opportunities for action this fall on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, Wedig said. Many in the agricultural industry have long been advocating for legislative reform concerning foreign workers. Because of labor shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, legislative reform recently has gained greater attention from the non-farming public. That could be a negative or a positive, Holevoet said. At least more people are talking about the labor issue, he said. The bipartisan bill was introduced by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren-D-California-19-San Jose, and U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse-R-Washington-04-Yakima. It establishes a program for agricultural workers in the United States and their spouses and minor children to earn legal status through continued agricultural employment. Illinois Farm Business Farm Management (FBFM) classifies leases as cash rents or share rents, with flexible cash rents falling in the cash rent category. For example, 49% of the leases were classified as cash rent in northern Illinois in 1994, meaning that the remaining 51% of leases were share leases. DEKALB, Ill. Matt Gehrke is sometimes surprised he could have farmed 240 acres of land in northern Illinois for so many years and known so little about soil. Time wise, it was becoming too difficult to crop his 240 acres and carry on the more than 90-year-old family construction business, so the carpenter by trade stepped back from farming and concentrated on the contracting business. Then, he learned his wife Christa and three daughters, especially Maggie, wanted to stay involved in agriculture. The family determined that if they did so, they would produce grass-fed beef and do it sustainably. So eight years ago, they started Gehrke Grass-Fed Beef on 43 acres of land. Gehrke was one of the speakers at the DeKalb Area Agricultural Heritage Associations Evening with Innovators on Sept. 16. Known as DAAHA, the organization preserves memorabilia and promotes an understanding and appreciation of innovations in agriculture in northern Illinois. Since starting their beef business, three years had record-setting wet weather and this year was a record setter for dry weather in DeKalb, but the Gehrkes have seen the health of their soil improve as they grew their herd while carefully managing their soil. I didnt know the power of the soil, Gehrke said. We are in a drought and our farm is excelling. He wont be running out of hay. They may also sell extra hay in the future as they grow. Gehrke has also seen his cattles health improve as he learns more about the pastures and the hay they eat. In the early days, the cows were eating minerals like candy not anymore. The about 40 head of cattle use much less minerals and are thriving. Detected about 10 miles southwest of Colstrip, Mont., in Rosebud County, the Richard Springs fire on Aug. 8 left its mark as the most destructive wildfire of the year in Montana. Started by a coal seam, the wildfire ripped through 171,130 acres before it was deemed 100 percent contained. Wildfires, unfortunately, show no mercy once their fury is let loose. Fueled by wind, warm temperatures, and dry conditions, the Richard Springs fire threated communities, burned 12 structures, engulfed haystacks and consumed thousands upon thousands of grazing lands. The blackened devastation left in the wake of the fire brought many ranchers to their knees. Although the brazen selfishness of the Richard Springs fire tugged at the heart strings of many Montanans who were lucky enough to experience the fire through a news source, those closest to the tragedy knew they could not sit idly by. They call it a ranching community for a reason, and the tight-knit bond shared by Montana stockmen and women is a force to be reckoned with. It was the ranching women and members of the Rosebud County Cattlewomen who readily offered their assistance when the magnitude of the Richard Springs fire became evident. We really jumped in right away, said Tamara Robertson, a member of the Rosebud County Cattlewomen. What can we help with? What do you need? The women-led organizations initial relief efforts came in the form of food for the firefighters. Someone from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation contacted the organization during the height of the fire and confessed they were short meals for some 250 firefighters. No one has ever gone hungry under the care of a ranch wife, and with years of experience cooking for branding crews, the Rosebud County Cattlewomen were more than willing to whip up some food. New Tool Helps Patients Develop Questions for their Doctors Appointments and Provides the Latest Information on COVID-19 Press Release Date: October 8, 2021 Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a Spanish version of its QuestionBuilder app, which can help Latino patients prepare for their in-person or telehealth appointments. The HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) built QuestionBuilder en Espanol, which is being released during Hispanic Heritage Month and Health Literacy Month, to improve health care access and equity for Latinos. Latinos have among the highest uninsured rate of any racial or ethnic group within the United States. "Making health care easily accessible is critical to boosting health outcomes and getting more people covered," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. "The QuestionBuilder App in Spanish will be a gamechanger for many Latinos who struggle to communicate with their providers due to language barriers. The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to promote health equity and make health care accessible for all Americans." HHS also released a report today that shows insurance coverage and access to care improved significantly for Latinos between 2013 and 2016 after passage of the Affordable Care Act. Despite these improvements, however, Latinos are still more likely to delay care and are less likely to have a usual source of care disparities that are even larger among Spanish speaking individuals. Spanish speakers will now be able to use the QuestionBuilder app to prepare themselves for their medical appointments regardless of whether they are visiting a new medical provider or not. The HHS report found that Spanish-speaking Latino adults are more likely to worry about medical bills compared to their English-speaking counterparts, and previous research shows that Latinos with limited English proficiency are less likely to obtain outpatient care and receive prescriptions than English-speaking Latinos. By helping patients to prepare for medical appointments, the Spanish-language QuestionBuilder improves health care decision making for Spanish-speaking patients. "Research clearly shows that when patients communicate effectively with their health care team, clinical care and outcomes improve," said AHRQ Acting Director David Meyers, MD. "Given that most U.S. medical visits average 20 minutes or less, the app helps patients maximize the value of the time they have with their health care providers." Users of the QuestionBuilder in Spanish choose questions they want to ask their doctor, starting with a list of common questions that can be customized to fit individual needs. The QuestionBuilder in Spanish also allows users to input details of their upcoming appointments, such as date and reason for the visit. Through the app, users can email information to themselves or others for reference and make notes during their medical visit. Other features include: Content and questions organized by type of medical encounter, such as medical visit or preparing for surgery. Consumer education materials and videos about the importance of asking questions and sharing information. A camera option that allows users to document visual information such as a skin rash, upload insurance or prescription medication information, and other photo-enabled features. Links to helpful resources, including to the most up-to-date information on COVID-19 in Spanish from HHS and where to find the nearest vaccination site. The QuestionBuilder in Spanish is available for phone, tablet, or laptop at no charge through Apple App Store and Google Play. Research shows that Latinos are avid consumers of digital content and the use of mobile phones in this community is about 85 percent. The mission of AHRQ is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within HHS and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used. For more information, visit www.ahrq.gov. The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is the principal advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on policy development, and is responsible for major activities in policy coordination, legislation development, strategic planning, policy research, evaluation, and economic analysis. For more information on the ASPE Issue Brief, visit: https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/health-insurance-coverage-access-care-among-latinos. For more information on Hispanic Heritage Month, visit: https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/hispanic-heritage-month/. Aurora Learning Community Association (ALCA), in partnership with Northwestern Oklahoma State University, has received the 2021 Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Regents Business Partnership Excellence Award. This award is designed to highlight successful partnerships and to further cultivate a higher learning environment through the State Regents' Economic Development Grants. ALCA provides education portfolios for bachelor and master-level students, and faculty with an online portfolio platform. The system also provides a platform for employees at Northwestern to track institutional assessment plans and goals for each year. The ALCA team presented Northwestern with a customized option that meets the needs specific to the university. The president of ALCA, Gary Sacket, is also a Northwestern alumnus. "The ALCA team has developed a robust system that has been great for our student and faculty portfolios," Dr. Shawn Holliday, dean of graduate studies, said. "Their customer service is impeccable, and I can call Gary anytime." ALCA started partnering with K-12 entities and created a way for schools to track data. In 2015, ALCA partnered with NWOSU to open doors for other institutions to see the options within the system. Forty-one members of Zion Lutheran Church, ranging from very young children to adults in their 80s, joined together to fight hunger in Haiti on Sunday, Sept. 19. The group spent that afternoon packing meals for people in need through Stamp Out Starvation (SOS) of Cherokee. SOS Director Monte Stewart said the meals will go to help people in Haiti. "We like to support our local missions and tried to do this event last fall, but Covid caused us to postpone it," said Zion Lutheran pastor Tim Roggow. The church's board of education members had suggested the effort as something both the youth and adult congregation could be involved with. The large group helped pack 12,456 meals during that one afternoon. The meals consisted of more than 1,200 pounds of rice, along with other dried vegetables and nutrients. The meals were partially funded by a $250 Action Grant from Thrivent Financial that Zion Lutheran applied for and received. The grants, made available to members of the organization, "are designed to be a kick-start in raising funds to help those in need in the church, community and beyond," said Roggow. The grant paid for about a third of the cost of the 1,200 pounds of rice; a freewill offering from church members helped pay more of the cost to SOS. People who volunteer time to pack meals for SOS don't have to pay for the meals, said Roggow, "but it helps to donate some funds to help cover their cost as they are a mission and fund their ministry with donations." The church regularly helps people around the world. "The Lutheran Mission Women's League just got done collecting items (soap, towels, nail clippers and combs) for some health kits for Lutheran World Relief that will be sent overseas," said Roggow. The local women's league put together more than 100 kits using more than $500 donated to the project, he said. In communist Yugoslavia, where I lived for a year, Marshall Tito claimed at least 34 villas as his "home," though officially all were "owned" by the state. Many of these palatial homes were seized from the nation's former royalty, the Karaorevic family. Just like communists everywhere, Tito appropriated both the properties and the lifestyle of his predecessors. As far as ordinary Yugoslavs were concerned, the only difference was that the communists were more brutal than the royals. of Yugoslavia In reality, the "vanguard of the proletariat," as Marx called them, live like members of a royal court headed by a monarch. Like Ceausescu in Romania or the Kim family in North Korea, Marxists everywhere construct huge palaces while working people go hungry. Their goal is to perpetuate their rule and secure it through spending on internal security (the purpose of which is not national defense but the defense of the ruling family or leadership). A nearby example is communist Cuba, where Fidel Castro amassed a fortune estimated at between $500 million and $900 million while his brother Raul possessed $100 million. Fidel's son Antonio was photographed vacationing on his yacht in the Aegean in 2015, where he lived in luxury while his countrymen lived on $20 a month. There is speculation as to the net worth of Cuba's current president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and as to how much he may amass in the future. Marxist disdain for one's people is not the exception it's the rule for all communist leaders and their families. Vladimir Putin, who has been variously compared to Stalin, Brezhnev, and the Russian tsars, has amassed a fortune at between $70 and $200 billion, according to recent estimates. Putin is not a communist per se, but he is an authoritarian who resembles Russian communist rulers and tsars. There is little evidence that Marxists attempt to make life better for their people. By definition, the USSR, PRC, and PRK were or are workers' dictatorships, not free-market economies in which workers can easily enter the middle class, as they can under capitalism. In these and other communist states, the existence of an educated and prosperous middle class, capable of dissent, would threaten the ruling class. An educated and affluent middle class is essential in a democracy, but it is poison to communists. For this reason, communist rulers demand that workers remain in their place, which is vastly beneath that of the leadership and party membership: the difference between $20 a month and Fidel's $500 to $900 million is greater than any "wealth inequality" in America. Surprisingly, Soviet-era art is quite forthright about this: it shows the proletariat as impoverished, struggling, and collectivized working and living under harsh conditions, marching to war or to work in sinister, inhuman factories, exhausted from labor and in this sense, it is entirely realistic. At the same time, Soviet art concealed the sybaritic lifestyle of the communist leadership, including that of Joseph Stalin, with his fine wines, tobacco, luxury cars, and endless choice of residences, and of mistresses. A recent biographer describes Stalin as "a promiscuous and faithless serial seducer and libertine" a description that applies to many communist leaders, from Mao to Castro to Kim Jong-un, with the revival of his grandfather's "pleasure troupe." The income inequality that exists in a communist system is not just a matter of degree greater than exists in Western democracies. It is a qualitative difference separating workers and rulers. Rulers and ruled are separated by the great difference in their material well-being, by their opportunities for education, travel, and social connections, and even physically by the right to live in gated compounds vs the necessity of living in block housing or worse. In the communist state, the ruling class has access to luxury goods sold at special stores that are off-limits to workers. The elite drive luxury cars, enjoy protection from arrest, and behave in every way like the princes and princesses of times past. And it is not just the difference in wealth it is a matter of life and death. Every communist state has its gulag and its firing squad, a genocide that does not exist in the US or in Israel, despite Kamala's nodding to the contrary. Beyond that, the very bodies of the poor are at the disposal of their betters. Men are forced into what amounts to slave labor or deadly military service. Attractive women become playthings of the elite, as they were in Communist China where Mao was said to have taken thousands of mistresses. In The Private Life of Chairman Mao Li Zhisui, Mao's former personal physician reveals the extraordinarily privileged life Mao lived. As Andrew J. Nathan writes in the "Foreword" to Li's book: "Women were served to order like foodMao's sex life was a central project of his court." (ix). Li's Private Life documents the fact that Mao enjoyed a lavish lifestyle at his many villas, surrounded by servants, mistresses, and armed guards. His life reflected a contempt of the masses similar to what was known in China's imperial courts. While communist rulers like Mao exhibit an extraordinary contempt for their own people, Marxists in democratic states must appear more restrained. Those who set themselves above the people, as did Hillary Clinton with her "deplorables" moment, find themselves quickly dismissed. But that doesn't make them any less arrogant. The very nature of Marxism, in which a "vanguard" is supposed to govern perpetually in the name of the masses, creates an inevitable gulf between rulers and ruled. In every case, Marxists reward themselves with lavish comforts at the expense of common people. This principle applies in America as well. It is liberals like JFK, Clinton, Obama, and Biden, along with Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry, who claim the spoils of political victory. Working-class Joe has never, to my knowledge, worked an hourly job, and he is not only living in luxury but appears to be amassing millions by selling access and influence. Ideally, democratic capitalism is a system in which the masses enjoy the greatest possible opportunity. In practice, that is not always the case, and especially today with the advent of huge unelected bureaucracies ruling beyond the control of elected officials, we face a situation that is not unlike the rule of communist elites of the past and present. Whether Biden is another Tito, Castro, or Stalin is not the issue clearly, he is a Marxist. Marxism is the greatest threat to democracy and to ordinary citizens in America, and it is the opposite of what should exist under democratic capitalism. Biden's administration is the most radical expression of the Marxist ideology ever to exist in our country. And with plans for an additional $5 trillion in spending and huge tax increases to pay for it, America is closer to communism than ever before. Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011). Image via Max Pixel. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Democrats claim that its just the Squad, but it is time to say the quiet part out loud. From remaining silent on the antisemitic Iran Deal to not supporting the U.S. embassy move, to re-instating funding to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, supporting the antisemitic Black Lives Matter -- its the whole damn party. In the Democrat partys latest unsurprising political stab against Israel, on Sept. 21st, House Democrats voted against funding Israels Iron Dome missile defense system; $6.3 billion for African refugees remained in place. The Iron Dome has prevented not just the deaths of numerous Jews, Muslims, and Christians living in the only Jewish country, but averted more frequent large-scale defense wars with two of Irans proxies: Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Though the Iron Dome will continue to be funded via a stand-alone bill that was passed days later, the Democrats are solidifying their hatred of Jews, both in Israel and domestically. A moderate Democrat who has a massive history of antisemitism currently occupies the White House. In 1982, then-Senator Biden threatened to cut aid to Israel, which prompted Israeli Prime Minister Begins most famous speech, I am Not a Jew with Trembling Knees. Jihad Joe, as he should be titled, made possible the latest Hamas war against Israel last May by reinstating funding to the terrorist Palestinian Authority, and provided humanitarian aid money to Gaza -- which is equivalent to funding Hamas, since Hamas not-so-surreptitiously steals 10% of such aid. But most damning was the easing of economic sanctions on Iran, which rapidly funded Irans terror proxies against Israel. The entirety of the Democrat party remained silent as Biden attacked Israel through his antisemitic policies. To add further insult, Democrats had the temerity to establish a Palestinian Affairs consulate in Jerusalem. His Vice President is of the same antisemitic stock; just recently, Kamala replied with "your truth should not be suppressed" to a George Mason University student who spewed lies about Israel's ethnic genocide. The Iran Deal, Obamas much-lauded (from within party lines) success was yet another antisemitic tool, enabling Iran to produce enough uranium for a nuclear bomb, an achievement Iran itself has boasted it wishes to use against Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry was too busy threatening the Israelis over sovereignty of Judea and Samaria rather than fastidiously negotiating a tough deal with Iran. Democrat antisemitism did not originate with the Iran Deal. In 1993, Bill Clinton orchestrated the heinous Terrorist Accords, aka Oslo Accords, which established the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority, carved up Israels historical heartland, Judea and Samaria, into Areas A, B, and C, with Area A designated legally Judenrein, despite Jewish holy sites located in the region. The Democrats remained silent during the ensuing intifadas and in fact, urged Israel to showcase restraint. Domestically, the party of slavery and of the KKK continues to assault Jews. Recently, FDR Drive in New York City was vandalized with antisemitic anti-Israel graffiti. NY Governor Hochul feigned outrage, yet she and then-Governor Cuomo pushed bail reform in 2019, which immediately released antisemitic assaulters all throughout 2019. A smattering of local Democrat officials decried the vandalism, but their voices were utterly silent during BLMs anti-Israel chants in Brooklyn last year. And their voices were nowhere to be found while Jews were being attacked all over New York for supporting Israel during the latest Hamas war. The Global Intifada protests have been given permits from the de Blasio administration. In my own neighborhood of Columbus Circle, I witnessed numerous days of pro-Hamas rallies this past May. Never did I think that terrorist flags would be flying in the epicenter of a city with the largest Jewish population in the world. All attempts at communication with my representative in Congress, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, went unanswered. It is an open secret that Democrats have been awful to Jews throughout American history -- from the KKK to FDRs atrocious handling of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, to their stance on Israel. JFK was the only exception, his Zionism is greatly appreciated and remembered to this day. President Truman recognized Israel, thankfully, but failed to provide military support as Israel was fighting for its very existence against an onslaught of Arab armies. And who could forget Carter and his accusations against Israel on its actions in Gaza, which is a legal blockade, for the same reason Egypt blockades Gazaterrorism. Carter also called on Hamas to be recognized as a legitimate peace partner to Israel, and for the UN to investigate Israels crimes. From local Democrat politicians to White House administrations, current and former, the party of pronouns, illegal migration, and Socialist leanings has proven that Jews do not matter. Israel, from which we obtain invaluable intelligence and military research and development without which America would need a greater presence in the Mediterranean, deserves better. Many liberals decry that Republicans have politicized Israel. Nay, it is the Democrats who have not just abandoned Israel but also actively harm Jews within the U.S. Laureen Lipsky is the Co-founder & CEO of Taking Back the Narrative, a Zionist education initiative. Her writing has been featured in JNS, The Federalist, American Thinker, Washington Examiner, Times of Israel, and Israel Hayom. She has written an exclusive piece, "The semantics of anti-Semitism" for The Center for Security Policy, and was recently a featured guest on a webinar episode of America's Voice. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Shortly after the War Against COVID began, the government designated two new categories of American citizens -- the largely arbitrary classification of essential and nonessential workers. Firefighters and paramedics were deemed essential, for good reasons. But now, like their colleagues on the frontline in the medical profession, these brave men and women -- once heralded as heroes -- are now scorned as villains. In the state of California, they have gone from heroes to zeroes in the eyes of despotic Democrats, who have given them an ultimatum: get vaccinated or get fired. In August the Los Angeles City Council voted 13-0 to approve a law requiring all city employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Since then, a group of more than 600 L.A. City firefighters have banded together to sue the city of Los Angeles to prevent the mandate from being enforced. While the results of that lawsuit are yet to be determined, come October 20th, those firefighters who have not been fully vaccinated will be terminated. At present, that means approximately 1,600 -- nearly 50 percent -- of the approximately 3,200 LAFD personnel will be unemployed. I interviewed three L.A. City Firefighters, who are willing to sacrifice their careers and livelihoods to defend their constitutional and moral right to choose. These men arent mere statistical casualties in this un-American and asinine war against the American citizen. They have names, families to support, and mortgages to pay. Two of the firefighters I interviewed, Jeff and Rob, are both married and in their 30s. Combined, they have nearly three decades of experience as paramedics in L.A. City. Jeff has two children and rents his home. His wife is a stay-at-home mom. He is the sole financial provider. Robs wife is a nurse. They own a home, have a mortgage, and want to start a family. But come October 20th, the livelihoods and careers of both Jeff and Rob will likely be destroyed -- because they choose not to get vaccinated. The mandates are purportedly for the immediate protection of the public peace, health, and safety. But CDC director Rochelle Walensky recently admitted that vaccines cant prevent transmission. This admission negates the entire argument for these mandates. Jeff also pointed out that most of us have gotten COVID, given it to our friends and family. We have natural immunity. He also explained that because they wear goggles, N-95 respirators, gloves, and gowns, we are the most protected person going into someones home. And while those they treat day in and day out have the right to choose or deny treatment, they do not. Jeff explained that They have to make treatment decisions in life-threatening situations and dangerous circumstances on a day-to-day basis. But while theyre entrusted to make treatment decisions for others, now theyre being told they cant be trusted to make their own personal health decisions. Still, their command staff insists that the L.A. City firefighters have the right to choose. But Jeff explained, if they dont choose what they want, they lose their jobs that isnt a choice, its an ultimatum. They shouldnt have to make a choice between getting vaccinated and losing their jobs. And then theres veteran L.A. County firefighter John Knox, who has even more to lose. Hes 53 years old and has been with the department for nearly 21 years. But because he was forced to take nearly two-and-a-half years off due to illness, he is just short of the 20 years required to collect his pension. If he gets fired on October 20th, he loses his job and his pension. But Knox is willing to lose it all because he believes, my freedom is more important than a paycheck. More importantly, he explained with deep conviction that this is a movement to restore liberty and freedom to this country. All three firefighters, John Knox, Jeff, and Rob, understand that this is bigger than them. John told me that whatever happens in Los Angeles in California spreads across the rest of the country like wildfire. These firefighters are truly selfless heroes. Jeff explained, I think of the kids out there, I think of the elderly, that are in skilled nursing facilities, the people that count on us for their daily medical care. Theres a lot of people that dont have medical insurance and they rely on the 9-11 system for their care. But if L.A. City fires half their force later this month, the city will be crippled. We are running an average of 1,500 to 2,000 calls a day, Jeff explained. It is precisely those the mandates are supposedly intended to protect who will be hurt the most. This is a fight for their freedom and ours. These brave men and women have sacrificed to serve and protect the citizens of Los Angeles day in and day out. Now theyre willing to do the same with their own careers and livelihoods, to serve and protect America. While Jeff, Rob, and John are zeroes in the eyes of L.A. City politicians, they are patriots and heroes in the eyes of tens of millions of Americans. You can listen to my three-part series of interviews with these patriots on my podcast, The Drew Allen Show. Drew Allen is the host of The Drew Allen Show podcast. He is a Texas-bred, California-based and millennial author, columnist, and political analyst. His work can be read and seen and heard at drewthomasallen.com Image: Pixabay To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. President Biden spread what the social media giants like to call harmful misinformation when censoring conservatives. In the case of Bidens speech yesterday on Elk Grove Village, a Chicago suburb, the misinformation was downright dangerous, encouraging people to engage in hazardous conduct that could result in catching Covid. As many on the left believe that Covid is a virtual death sentence despite a 99.5% recovery rate, the lack of a hysterical response from social media labeling this harmful misinformation is a notable example of partisan application of the rules they claim they follow. Biden was in Illinois campaigning for private employers to fire people who dont get vaccinated. In the course of doing so, he claimed that vaccinated people cant spread the virus, a total lie. Here is a tweet, so far unmolested by Jack Dorses minions, containing a clip of him making this false claim (at about the one minute mark), along with a transcript: President Biden on enacting vaccine mandates: "We're making sure healthcare workers are vaccinated because if you seek care at a healthcare facility, you should have the certainty that the people providing that care are protected from COVID and cannot spread it to you." pic.twitter.com/eiS2nQM4QA Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 7, 2021 As ZeroHedge points out: Biden's latest false statement comes one week after his own CDC director Rochelle Walensky said that vaccines "can't prevent transmission." "Our vaccines are working exceptionally well. They continue to work well for Delta with regard to severe illness and death - they prevent it, but what they can't do anymore is prevent transmission ," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "So if youre going home to someone who is not vaccinatedI would suggest you wear a mask in public indoor settings," she continued. [bolding in original] Bidens mental decline was on display, too, of course. Dan Bongino highlighted about a minute of it during which he repeatedly stumbles trying to read his teleprompter: So, Joe Biden's speech went well. pic.twitter.com/1eZpxYMceV Bongino Report (@BonginoReport) October 7, 2021 Biden crowed about getting people fired for refusing an experimental gene therapy that has not been fully tested, whose long-term side effects are unknown: BIDEN: "When you see headlines and reports of mass firings, and hundreds of people losing their jobs, look at the bigger story...United went from 59% of their employees [vaccinated] to 99%..." pic.twitter.com/nOAKjLkfVM Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 7, 2021 Many wags on Twitter wondered about the math: I might be missing something but I don't remember seeing that united fired 40% of their employees. Nick Czernel (@Nick_Czernel) October 8, 2021 Who is/are the 1% that dont have to get the vax? Cole Dial (@ColeDial) October 8, 2021 Photo credit: Twitter video screeengrab To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. For many years now, Democrats in one of the nations wealthiest suburbs have been sporting a bumper sticker that may well encapsulate what is wrong with the Democratic Party. The bumper sticker reads, Yes, Virginia, There Are Democrats in Great Falls. While its an obvious allusion to Virginia OHanlon, of Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus fame, once you unpack the message behind this bumper sticker, you will arrive at a nucleus of truth explaining what is wrong with voters who toe their Democrat party line. Superficially, though, Democrats must think that they are an adorable lot. Located in affluent Fairfax County, Virginia, Great Falls is a bedroom community of Washington, DC. Notable residents have included Steve Case, former CIA director Stansfield Turner, Peggy Noonan... you get the picture. Bloombergs 2020 Richest Places ranked Great Falls at number 20 in the nation. But first a few words about the phrase that this bumper sticker is riffing on: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. On September 21, 1897, New Yorks The Sun published an unsigned editorial. The actual writer was Francis Parcellus Church, a veteran newsman, and he was responding to a letter to the editor from Virginia OHanlon, an 8-year-old resident of 115 West Ninety-Fifth Street. Virginia had written in to inquire as to whether there really was a Santa Claus. Churchs heart-warming affirmation is the most reprinted newspaper editorial in history. No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and he lives forever is his conclusion. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. Of course, the Democrats Great Falls bumper sticker is a coy play on words. Its not addressing any young girl named Virginia but rather the state of the same nameand a shrinking number of residents in that state who havent yet recognized the Democrat partys charms. The bumper sticker is self-congratulatory, while simultaneously assuming the driving public little understands how the left operates and what it delivers. First to the self-congratulation. Those sporting this sticker seem to be preeningYes, we conform to the expectation that Great Falls residents are affluent, but look at me. As a Democrat, I do not vote my self-interest; I vote for the interests of the downtrodden. Arent I noble? But are these drivers really voting against their self-interest? Absolutely not. Democrats expand on the welfare statecall it big government if you will. But for all the Democrats nastiness about trickle-down economics, its not the poor who benefit from these policies, it is residents of locales such as Great Falls who are the true beneficiaries of such government largess. Thats because Great Falls residents often either possess a well-remunerated high-level government post or, in one way or another, they feed off big government contracts (government spending, if you will). This bumper stickeroften seen as Christmas nearsassumes that most of the public hasnt caught on to the Democrat con. But day by day, people seem to be learning that it is these preening, falsely humble Democrats in Great Falls who are the elite, for they are not creating jobs and donating great works as Andrew Carnegie did, but they are, instead, feeding from the government trough. Image by Andrea Widburg To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Just imagine if no one knew that there has been a 'novel' COVID-19 virus 'pandemic' sweeping our nation and the world for the past 20 months or so. What if people weren't subjected to nonstop body count and 'case' tallies? What if they didn't know about the hyper-wrong, grossly inflated death projections in early 2020 from that mathematical virus model and its always-wrong author in England? What if we hadn't had a similarly accuracy-challenged little Fauci-gnome-man spreading fear and hysteria? What if the CDC hadn't illegally changed the death coding requirements in early 2020 to count anyone dying with COVID-19 as dying from COVID-19? What if more people knew that the CDC has stated that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 alone is around 6% of the total deaths claimed? What if people knew that the survival rate of those infected with COVID-19 is about 99.7%? What if hysterical, tyrannical, Constitution-abstaining politicians hadn't illegally issued lockdown, masking, and other useless counterproductive decrees? What if people knew that there has been no justifiable COVID-19 state-of-emergency in any state? What if politicians hadn't authorized unimaginable, unbelievable levels of spending to put 'pandemic' money in every pocket and pay hospitals for every COVID-19 death? What if politicians, their medical establishment and media cronies hadn't blocked, censored and suppressed safe, effective, and cheap medications such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine? What if virus-ridden patients in hospitals weren't ordered into nursing homes by brain-dead state governors? What if billionaire social media tyrants hadn't censored, blocked, and de-platformed bona fide experts who expressed facts and opinions that differed from the COVID hysteria party-line? What if emergency-use only 'vaccines' hadn't been illegally forced on people? What if the actual, horrendous level of adverse effects of these 'vaccines' hadn't been suppressed and censored to keep people in the dark? What if people knew that more victims have died from these 'vaccines' (~15,000 as of October 6, 2021) than have died from all other vaccines in the past 30 years? What if people knew that vaccines in past years have been pulled off the market if as few as 30 people died from them? There are so many what-ifs. The answers are quite simple. If the layers of hysteria, greed, political opportunism, monstrous stupidity, and just plain gutless cowardice are peeled back, the conclusion is this: very, very few people would have even known that anything out of the ordinary was going on during this 'pandemic'. Yes, people have died, as they do every flu season, but the average age of those dying is no different than the age before this 'pandemic'. How can that be, if this has been such a horrific period of time? Lockdowns, masking, school closures, supply-chain disruptions, failed small businesses, unemployment, increased drug use, more suicides, higher crime levels, government spending beyond belief, and a host of other terrible consequences have resulted from the actions of a very few. These actions have affected virtually every single person in this nation. The virus itself has affected relatively few. That is truly something to think about and to imagine that it did not have to be this way. What has been done to so many people by so few people has been orders of magnitude worse than anything that the COVID-19 virus has done. Can we or will we learn from all this? Image: Kches16414 To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Chinas aggressiveness in the face of Bidens weakness could plunge the world into war. Its dictator Xi Jinping is thinking about issues that few Americans understand or even know about. China has been violating Taiwans airspace with massive numbers of aircraft, including nuclear-capable bombers accompanied by fighters in recent days. But October 5th was the last such incursion, a pause that has no public explanation. The Chinese government feels no need to explain itself to its own people or to the world. These provocations could well be a prelude to an attack against what the Beijing regime considers a rebel province. There is even danger that this testing of Taiwans air defense systems could accidentally trigger a war if a defensive missile or some other countermeasure is launched by accident. Bidens abandonment of Afghanistan, complete with the abject surrender of a huge stockpile of armaments is an example of provocative weakness a demonstrated unreliability that encourages bad actors to believe that now is their opportunity to attack because Bidens military is so demoralized and preoccupied with race and because he is so mentally incapacitated. Biden has just spoken of a mysterious Taiwan agreement. President Joe Biden, on Tuesday, October 5th, said that he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping and both of them had agreed to stick to the Taiwan agreement. The only known recent conversation between Biden and Xi took place on September 9th. The read out provided by the White House says nothing either about Taiwan or the Taiwan agreement. So we are left rather in the dark about what transpired. Even so, given Mr. Bidens statement about the Taiwan agreement, his statement is extremely worrisome. The nature of that conversation and Mr. Bidens description was not lost on the Taiwanese or the Japanese, so much so that the State Department moved immediately to clarify its meaning to Taiwans President. That would not have been necessary if the State Department was not alarmed by what President Biden said. Japan also announced that it would come to Taiwans aid if Taiwan was attacked. What took place between Biden and Xi requires some explanation. To begin with, there is no Taiwan agreement per se. What is in place are three US-China communiques issued on different dates (February 28, 1972, January 1, 1979 and August 17, 1982). (snip) The second communique was on the establishment of U.S.-China diplomatic relations and included the U.S. declaration that it would end formal diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (aka Taiwan). The third communique reiterated the previous two and included a declaration that the U.S. intended to gradually decrease arms sales to Taiwan. We have no way of knowing if the pause in airspace violations reflects Chinas reconsideration of the provocations based on the conversation with Biden, or if it is a prelude to something else, possibly (for example) a naval maneuver in the South China Sea, where China is building artificial islands with military installations, and claiming territorial sovereignty over the worlds busiest sea lanes, through which Japan and South Korea receive almost all their energy supplies. Chinas territorial claims and military buildup in these sea lanes could enable it to strangle both of these countries should it choose to attack shipping. But in understanding what is really going in China as the fate of Taiwan (and potentially the world) may hang in the balance, it is essential to understand the real nature of the regime, one that is not acknowledged in the formal structures and arrangements of power. Throughout its thousands of years of history, China has been characterized by covert factional politics. Xis opponents operate in secrecy, now more than ever in the wake of his ending term limits and installing himself as virtual dictator-for-life. More than any other goal, Xis focus is on maintaining his own, and his regimes, power. Goals related to the welfare of the Chinese people have no priority at all. Nor does the establishment of mechanisms and practices that would allow for the peaceful transition of power. To begin to understand what is weighing on Xis mind as he plots the future course of China, I highly recommend this article, The hidden enemies in Xis midst, on the Asia Times, reprinted from Settimana News. It begins with the purge of a senior member of the regime: On the eve of Chinas October 1 National Day celebrations, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expelled former vice minister for public security Sun Lijun not for corruption but serious political crimes almost tantamount to something like an attempted coup. Specifically, he was accused of serious violations of discipline and building cliques and cabals to take over a key government department. Sun, apprehended about a year ago, is guilty of overweening political ambitions and arbitrarily disagreeing with central policy guidelines, the mighty party disciplinary committee CCDI wrote in a statement on its official website. The ex-vice minister had created and spread political rumors, taken actions against others, wove a web of deceit to obtain political capital and used unscrupulous means to form gangs, cliques, and interest groups within the party and build his personal power, the statement said, thus implying he had gravely violated party centralism and allegiance to the top leadership. He formed a cabal to take control over a key department(s), seriously jeopardizing political security and party unity, the CCDI statement added. Sun is also said to have been harboring hugely inflated political ambitions and having evil political qualities. YouTube screengrab via Asia Times The article goes on to discuss other purges in recent years. I dont suggest that it is essential to know all the names and senior positions affected, but rather to become aware of the depth and intensity of the factional and personal rivalries that characterize the regime. Now that Chinas property market is shaky, and the economic prospects are uncertain, Xi faces many dangers from within. The legitimacy of the regime depends on delivering and sustaining the prosperity that has radically lifted standards of living that were, within the memory of many, abysmally poor. Xi has been cracking down on billionaires -- and China now has more of them than any other country apparently to prevent the accumulation of private sources of power. This policy creates many enemies, even as it seeks to disempower them. Dealing with China now, or even being able to predict its behavior, requires extensive networks of confidential insider informants. The information needed to guide our policy is not publicly available. But at exactly this moment, we are finding out that the informants we need have been discovered by the Chinese and neutralized (quite possibly killed), as the New York Times reports in an article titled, Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants. Top American counterintelligence officials warned every C.I.A. station and base around the world last week about troubling numbers of informants recruited from other countries to spy for the United States being captured or killed, people familiar with the matter said. The message, in an unusual top-secret cable, said that the C.I.A.s counterintelligence mission center had looked at dozens of cases in the last several years involving foreign informants who had been killed, arrested or, most, likely compromised. Although brief, the cable laid out the specific number of agents executed by rival intelligence agencies a closely held detail that counterintelligence officials typically do not share in such cables. The cable highlighted the struggle the spy agency is having as it works to recruit spies around the world in difficult operating environments. In recent years, adversarial intelligence services in countries such as Russia, China, Iran, and Pakistan have been hunting down the C.I.A.s sources and in some cases turning them into double agents. We are flying blind right at a moment when we need inside sources. That is another factor on Xis mind as he contemplates how to take advantage of our provocative weakness. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Have any questions? Please give us a call at 907-561-7737 Pets hold a special place in our hearts. For a flat rate of $50 along with a photo, celebrate their life and a special message through placing a Pet Obituary today. Pet Obits are published once a week in the Anchorage Press and on AnchoragePress.com. Our customer service team will contact you directly if there are any questions during our regular business hours. Thank you and please accept our deepest sympathies for your loss. Click here to submit The Japan Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it would investigate tech giants Apple and Googles alleged anti-competitive practices in the region. More specifically, the agency wants to determine whether the two companies are limiting options for customers and eliminating potential competition with the Android and iOS mobile operating systems. The FTC will interview app developers, OS operators, as well as smartphone owners for these investigations, the commissions Secretary-General Shuichi Sugahisa said on Wednesday. In addition to exploring violations with smartphones, the agency will also look into smartwatches and other wearable devices. The Japanese FTC will partner with the governments Digital Market Competition Council towards these investigations The Commission will put together a report detailing the market structure of these operating systems. Further, the report will look into why the competition has remained stagnant. It will also list out possible violations under Japanese law. The FTC will work in conjunction with the Japanese governments Digital Market Competition Council. Advertisement Earlier this year, the Japanese government put together the Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms (TFDPA). Officials now have to establish whether the new law is applicable to the smartphone OS market. If they concur, Google and Apple may have to submit regular reports on transactions to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. Apple enjoys a healthy 70% smartphone OS market share in Japan. Meanwhile, Android only has a 30% market share in the region. App developers are required to adhere to the software specifications of Android and iOS. The watchdog is considering whether this is a violation of local regulations. As Nikkei points out, Google was previously accused of asking OEMs to include its Search app by default. This meant that customers couldnt use other search apps on their phones. Advertisement The FTCs investigation will determine if Google and Apple are leveraging their market dominance to crush the competition. This is one of the several investigations Google is facing globally. Recently, European Union regulators began investigations into the companys practices with Google Assistant. Officials want to determine whether Google is forcing OEMs to install Assistant as the default virtual assistant on Android devices. A report went on to say that regulators are also eyeing Amazons Alexa and Apples Siri voice assistants for similar violations. Samsung had last month announced that the 2021 edition of its annual developer conference will take place on October 26th. The company said the event will be packed with announcements, covering everything from Bixby and SmartThings to One UI, Infinity Flex Display, Tizen, and more. It has now revealed the full program for the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2021, including the keynote speakers. This years SDC will be the first to be held fully virtually. But Samsung promises that there will be no lesser opportunities for developers and creators to shape the future of consumer experiences. The company plans to provide updates on its software, services, and platforms that enable smarter, seamless connectivity. This ecosystem will enable developers to create cutting-edge solutions for millions of consumers across the world. Samsung Mobile head DJ Koh will open the SDC 2021. He will address the companys strategy of bringing innovation to the consumer experience. Six other keynote speakers will subsequently discuss the Korean giants strategies for various other platforms, ecosystems, and solutions. They will discuss topics like Bixby, SmartThings, and Tizen and also address the security and privacy of these expansive ecosystems. Advertisement Samsung Developer Conference 2021: what to expect Samsung is diving the conferences highlight sessions into three groups: Platforms Designed For Connected Experiences, Innovating Mobile Experience Across Samsung Galaxy Ecosystem, and The Evolution of Tizen and Innovative Screen Experiences. The first group will explore the cross-device experience of Bixby and SmartThings. Samsung will provide updates on how it plans to leverage these AI-powered solutions to build a connected Smart Home experience. We will then have the company talking about the innovations in mobile software. The Android 12-based One UI 4 will be a talking point but Samsung will also discuss the foldable devices. With the number of foldable devices in the market growing steadily, many developers would be wanting to optimize their apps to adapt to the new form factor. The Korean company will take a look at it. Advertisement Lastly, Samsung will discuss its Tizen operating system that powers its Smart TV lineup. The company will provide updates on the latest version of the platform, Tizen 6.5. In addition to this, Samsung will host Tech Talk sessions where developers will be able to talk to the companys top experts for industry insights. The Digital Tech Hub will let attendees get on-hand with the latest Samsung technology virtually. Samsung will also allow developers to remotely try their codes on devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 for a hands-on coding experience. Last but not least, the company will also announce the winners of 2021 Best of Galaxy Store Awards during the SDC 2021. The SDC 2021 will kick off at 10 AM PT/5 PM GMT on Tuesday, October 26th. You can live stream the event on Samsung Newsroom and the SDC website. We will be also covering all the latest and greatest announcements at the SDC 2021 here at Android Headlines. So stay tuned. 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(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 8 - A five-year-old boy who was abducted by his Romanian father and three accomplices in Padua Tuesday has been found in Romania, police said Friday. The man and his son were caught by Romanian police on a train, police said. Bogdan Hristache and three other Romanian men abducted David on Tuesday, taking him from the arms of his mother in Padua and making off in a van, police said. The boy and his father were caught on a train on the Hungary-Romania border and Hristache was arrested by Romanian police. David was taken to a shelter. (ANSA). CAIRO - Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most respected seat of learning, has firmly condemned a ruling of an Israeli court allowing Jewish prayer at a holy site known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Egyptian news agency Mena reports, quoting a statement. Al-Azhar said the move (a recent ruling issued by an Israeli court on Thursday) is considered a clear violation of international agreements and traditions and a clear provocation for Muslims around the world. The Cairo-based religious institution was quoted as urging the international community to take responsibility and promote the necessary measures against Israeli occupation of Palestinian sites of prayer. Yesterday, the premier of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Muhammad Shtayyeh reacted to the Israeli court's ruling - which according to local media established that silent prayer is not "a criminal act" - and condemned "Israel's decision to allow 'silent prayer' on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem". The Palestinian premier warned about "Israel's attempts to impose new facts carried out" at the site. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that he also called on the US administration to maintain "the status quo" there. Then - after recalling the coordination in this regard with Jordan - he called on Arab and Islamic nations to "take serious positions to stop the Israeli measures". According to international measures in force, Jews are allowed to visit the holy site in Jerusalem - located in the eastern part of the city under Israeli control since the Six-Day War in 1967 - but not to pray. Med5 to EU, progress on cooperation with third countries Letter by Italy, Spain, Malta, Greece, Cyprus (ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 8 - The ministers of interior of the Med5 - Italy, Spain, Malta, Greece, Cyprus - in a letter to Brussels asked for an acceleration on cooperation with third countries on migrants, repatriations and the management of external borders, in parallel with talks on the Pact on asylum. In the document, dated October 5, "further efforts" are demanded "in collaboration with countries of origin and transit on matters of common interest" with "tangible progress in funding" and "more concreteness and certainty on the path" in the short term, in terms "of days or weeks". (ANSAmed). BRUSSELS - New tools to protect the external borders of the European Union from migrant flows, including with European funding for border walls, have been requested by the ministers of interior of 12 countries (Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia) in a letter addressed to the European Commission and the rotating presidency of the European Council. The issue of tightening the Union's external borders will be discussed at a meeting of interior ministers of the 27 members on Friday in Luxembourg. In the letter to the Commission and the rotating presidency of the EU Council, the 12 countries asked for "new tools allowing to avoid, rather than confront afterwards, the grave consequences of overburdened migration and asylum systems and drained hosting capabilities that in the end negatively affect confidence in the ability to act with decision when necessary". "At the same time - a passage of the document also said - these European solutions should aim to safeguard the common asylum system by reducing pull factors". Med5 to EU, progress on cooperation with third countries BRUSSELS - The ministers of interior of the Med5 - Italy, Spain, Malta, Greece, Cyprus - in a letter to Brussels asked for an acceleration on cooperation with third countries on migrants, repatriations and the management of external borders, in parallel with talks on the Pact on asylum. In the document, dated October 5, "further efforts" are demanded "in collaboration with countries of origin and transit on matters of common interest" with "tangible progress in funding" and "more concreteness and certainty on the path" in the short term, in terms "of days or weeks". Baroness Casey of Blackstock will lead the review of culture and standards at the Metropolitan Police in the wake of Sarah Everards murder. Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick announced the appointment on Friday, saying it was an important step in our journey to rebuild public trust which would scrutinise the forces vetting, recruitment, leadership, training and all manner of processes to see how they reinforce the best possible standards. An urgent examination is also now under way into all current investigations of sexual and domestic abuse allegations against Met police officers and staff, the force said. The news comes as the Met chief was reportedly told her two-year extension as the head of Scotland Yard comes with conditions attached. Dame Cressida said: Louise is extremely experienced and highly respected and I know will ask the difficult questions needed for this thorough review. The review is expected to take six months, with the findings and recommendations published so that the force can improve and make sure the public have more confidence in us, Dame Cressida said, adding: This will build a stronger Met, ensure lasting improvement our service to London and public confidence in us. I hope her appointment and the significant urgent actions we are taking will go some way to provide immediate and vital reassurance to Londoners. Baroness Casey, a crossbench peer in the House of Lords as well as an independent advisor on social welfare and former government official, said: Trust is given to the police by our, the publics, consent. So any acts that undermine that trust must be examined and fundamentally changed. This will no doubt be a difficult task but we owe it to the victims and families this has affected and the countless decent police officers this has brought into disrepute. London Mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed her appointment as public trust in the citys police has been severely damaged and requires urgent rebuilding. He said in a statement on Twitter: Ive been clear with the Met Commissioner about the scale of the challenge we face and the change thats needed, and I will continue to play my full part in holding the Met Police to account on behalf of Londoners. The spotlight will also be shone on the forces Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command which killer Wayne Couzens worked for with a root-and-branch review looking at whether there are any specific issues within the unit. Armed officer Couzens used his police issue handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest so he could kidnap 33-year-old Ms Everard before he raped and murdered her. Baroness Casey will lead the review (Ian Nicholon/PA) It later emerged the 48-year-old was known as the rapist by staff at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary because he made female colleagues feel so uncomfortable. He had been accused of indecent exposure in Kent in 2015 and in London in the days before Ms Everards murder, but was allowed to continue working. Officers from the professional standards department will review each current case of sexual or domestic abuse allegations against those on the force, looking at vetting and conduct history, to make sure the investigations are absolutely thorough and that victims are being properly supported. The significant piece of work will also look at a sample of cases from the last decade of sexual misconduct and domestic abuse allegations where those accused remain on the force to check appropriate management measures (including vetting reviews) have been taken, the Met said. The number of investigators will be boosted and an action plan will be published within weeks to set out the steps the force is taking to improve how we tackle the issues women and girls tell us make them feel unsafe. Sarah Everard (family handout) The Met review is separate to the independent inquiry announced by the Home Secretary Priti Patel on Tuesday to look into the systematic failures that allowed Ms Everards killer to be employed as a police officer. Other probes are also being carried out by Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC). According to The Times, Ms Patel has set Dame Cressida three key targets to meet in order to keep her job: Statistics must show that serious violence and knife crime in London is falling; the Met must show evidence they are improving their response to violence against women and girls; and the force must co-operate with an independent inquiry into its failures that led to Couzens murdering Everard. Meanwhile, police data for England and Wales forces has shown The Met has the lowest success rate for solving sexual and violent crime, with just one in 20 offences resulting in a charge, according to the Daily Telegraph. IOPC director general Michael Lockwood said in two years the watchdog has seen 394 referrals where abuse of power for sexual gain by police officers was a factor. Of these, 106 were serious enough to warrant an investigation by the police watchdog. The Duchess of Cornwalls pets have been given their moment in the limelight as their status as rescue dogs was celebrated with a pair of matching bandanas. Camilla is backing Battersea Dogs and Cats Homes Wear Blue for Rescue campaign, which is highlighting animals given new homes by loving owners. Pictures of the duchesss Jack Russells, Beth and Bluebell, were featured on her official Twitter account wearing the bandanas part of a range of items from beanies to badges for cats, dogs, their owners and anyone wanting to raise awareness. The duchesss dog Beth wearing a bandana (Clarence House/PA) Peter Laurie, Batterseas chief executive, said every year thousands of animals need a new home for a range of reasons. He added: Wear Blue for Rescue is Batterseas exciting new campaign that aims to champion our love for the wonderful, quirky rescue dogs and cats who just need a second chance in life. All the underdogs who have become top cats and are now living their best lives and bringing joy to their owners lives on sofas, on laps, and even on life-saving missions, around the world. Camilla with Beth unveiling a plaque with the help of a sausage (Steve Parsons/PA) Camillas pets are rescue dogs from the famous animal charity. She took on Beth in 2011 from the organisations London headquarters, and Bluebell a year later. They have joined her during her visits to Batterseas centres around the country, with Beth memorably helping the duchess unveil a plaque on one occasion. As part of Wear Blue for Rescue, Battersea is also launching a symbol in support of rescue animals around the world. The charity is calling on everyone to show their love of rescues and to unite behind the new symbol. The UK and EU are in solution mode on the Northern Ireland Protocol, with the next two months offering a window of opportunity to resolve the stand-off, Irelands premier has said. Taoiseach Micheal Martin was in Belfast on Friday to hold talks with Stormonts political leaders on issues including the contentious post-Brexit trading arrangements that have created economic barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. His visit came on the back of an announcement by European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic on Thursday that the EU was preparing to table far reaching proposals aimed at reducing the Irish Sea trade friction. Taoiseach Michael Martin with First Minister Paul Givan (Mark Marlow/PA) Mr Martin said he accepted problems with the practical operation of the protocol were issues of genuine concern to people in Northern Ireland. They do need resolution, he told reporters. Maros Sefcovic has been really applying himself to this issue. I am in no doubt that the European Union is in solution mode and will be coming forward with proposals in relation to this issue. The United Kingdom government are signalling that theyre solution-focused as well. So, there is a window of opportunity over the next six weeks to two months to try and get these issues resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all, so that we can make the protocol work operationally for the benefit of the people of Northern Ireland. Mr Martin added: I have a view that given my dealings with Maros Sefcovic and my engagement with the European Commission, my engagement with the British government for the last number of weeks, that there is a view that people are in solution mode here, people want to get a solution to this, including the political parties in Northern Ireland. So, whenever people are in that mode of thinking, I think one can be hopeful, but I wouldnt underestimate the challenges. I do believe that United Kingdom government and the European Union have to get down to really serious discussions on the proposals that will emerge shortly. He said the proposals from the EU and UK should be used as a platform to find resolutions. European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic (Brian Lawless/PA) Earlier, Mr Martin told a climate change event in Belfast that Brexit has brought unique and significant implications for the island of Ireland. He insisted the protocol was a compromise, agreed between the EU and the UK, as the best possible way to mitigate those implications. I, and my Government, recognise the genuine concerns of some in Northern Ireland on certain aspects of the operation of the protocol, Mr Martin added. We are engaging closely on these issues with all communities in Northern Ireland. My consistent position has been to get the protocol working as smoothly as possible for people and for business in Northern Ireland. I have no doubt about the readiness of the EU to engage in good faith in this same spirit. The Taoiseach said the EU Commission has been engaging constructively with the UK Government on what could be done to limit the impact of the protocol in Northern Ireland. Progressing this work, in a spirit of partnership, working at EU-UK level for agreed solutions is the way forward, Mr Martin added. I know that for business, certainty and predictability is key. He referenced the dual market access that the protocol offered Northern Ireland traders to sell unfettered into the UK internal market and the EU single market. The protocol does offer significant trade, business and employment opportunities for Northern Ireland. Business recognises this, he said. Indeed, Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerces own survey of members in July of this year found that two-thirds of firms believe that Northern Irelands unique status post-EU exit presents opportunities for the region. These opportunities are no accident. They are a positive consequence for Northern Irish business of the long and difficult negotiations on the protocol. Realising these opportunities in trade and investment should be the focus of all in this room, and we are ready to work with you in this. Footfall in Scottish retailers last month was down by a fifth on the same period pre-pandemic as the country saw the biggest drop in shoppers in the UK outside of London. Footfall in Scotland dropped by 19.9% in September compared to the same month in 2019, compared to the UK average decline of 16.8%. In shopping centres only, the drop was 30% in September in Scotland, according to figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and retail analysis platform Sensormatic IQ. Industry bosses have expressed concern over the stark figures, with the sustained weakness in shoppers on high streets a worrying sign before the festival period. The September figures represent a tepid 1.3 percentage point increase since August and come despite September being the first full month since physical distancing restrictions were lifted in Scottish stores. Shoppers on Edinburghs Princes Street (Jane Barlow/PA) SRC director David Lonsdale said: September saw a tepid third consecutive monthly improvement for shopper footfall as customers continued to gradually return to Scotlands high streets. That said, retailers will be disappointed to see figures continuing to languish a fifth down on pre-pandemic levels, with Scotland once again the weakest part of the UK outwith London. This sustained weakness is especially unnerving coming as it does ahead of the crucial festive trading period, when many shops have to generate the revenues which will tide them over the leaner winter months. North west England saw the smallest decrease compared with September 2019, with an 11.1% drop, while London saw the largest with a 26.3% drop. In Wales the figure was 16.2% and in England overall it was 16.7%. Mr Lonsdale continued: Policy-makers have taken welcome steps to loosen stultifying Covid restrictions, while stores themselves are providing a welcome and safe shopping experience and a wide range of products with enticing offers. However, these stark figures lend urgency to the need for concerted action to bring energy and footfall back into our city centre retail destinations action which for the moment at least feels like the proverbial hole in a Polo Mint, missing. Andy Sumpter, retail consultant for Sensormatic Solutions, said: We saw a slight slowdown in Septembers footfall recovery, which was particularly marked in the second half of the month as fears of fuel shortages prompted consumers to limit shopping journeys to essential trips. However, while we saw a levelling off in shopper traffic counts last month, September still represented the highest recovery point compared to pre-pandemic levels yet this year, pointing to a steady, albeit marginal, upward trajectory even in spite of supply chain disruption and petrol shortages at the pumps. He added countries such as France and Germany were experiencing footfall down by over a third, suggesting the UKs footfall recovery is far from tanking. The honeymoon is definitely over. Less than nine months after taking office with the most votes ever received by a presidential candidate, President Bidens approval rating has hit a new low as a majority of those surveyed question his administrations competence. A Quinnipiac Poll released Thursday shows the 46th presidents job approval rating stands at 38% positive to 53% negative. This is the first time a majority of those asked are not satisfied with the job Bidens administration is doing. A survey three weeks ago had his negatives at 50%. The 78-year-old former vice president got 80% approval from Democrats, but only 32% consent from independent voters and 4% from Republicans in the findings published Wednesday. More than half of respondents 55% versus 42% believe Bidens White House is not competent in its handling of the federal government. A breakdown of the issues show little faith in the longtime lawmaker either. How Biden got it so wrong: What explains the presidents epic Afghanistan miscalculation US President Joe Biden gestures to the media after arriving on Airforce One at Chicago OHare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois on October 7, 2021, as he travels to promote the importance of Covid-19 vaccine requirements. US President Joe Biden gestures to the media after arriving on Airforce One at Chicago OHare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois on October 7, 2021, as he travels to promote the importance of Covid-19 vaccine requirements. (NICHOLAS KAMM/) Biden scored particularly poorly in his handling of crowding at the U.S. border with Mexico, where 23% or respondents approved of his teams performance and 67% did not. That was nearly identical to the administrations numbers on immigration overall. When it came to the economy, taxes, the military and foreign police, the presidents approval numbers were all in the 30s while his disapproval ratings were in the 50s. Even in his handling of coronavirus, an early priority to the administration, pollsters found 48% of Americans asked thought Biden was doing a good job, while 50% were displeased. In May, 65% of respondents told pollsters they were pleased with Bidens handling of the pandemic. What were regarded as strong suits for the commander-in-chief in the spring are no longer seen that way in the fall. In April 52% of Americans approved of his leadership skills. Now, 56% do not and only 41% judged him favorably in that regard. That same month, 51% of respondents found President Biden honest, to 42% who did not. Those numbers now stand at 56% disfavor to only 44% appreciation. Most Americans still believe Biden cares about average Americans, but by a slim margin of 49% to 48%. In April, 58% of the country reportedly felt that he did while 38% disagreed. Trump puts 2024 presidential run on hold for now Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said Bidens numbers are reminiscent of those seen by his predecessor. Battered on trust, doubted on leadership, and challenged on overall competency, President Biden is being hammered on all sides as his approval rating continues its downward slide to a number not seen since the tough scrutiny of the Trump administration, he said. The Quinnipiac Polling Institutes study included 1,326 adults in the U.S. and took place on the first four days of October. Its margin for error is 2.7%. Leilani Lutali, foreground, and Jaimee Fougner pose for a photo, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Lutali recently found out her hospital wouldn't approve her kidney transplant surgery until she got the COVID-19 vaccine. Even though she has stage 5 kidney disease that puts her at risk of dying without a new kidney. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) When a Colorado woman found out her hospital wouldnt approve her kidney transplant surgery until she got the COVID-19 vaccine, she was left with a difficult decision pitting her health needs against her religious beliefs. Leilani Lutali, a born-again Christian, went with her faith. Even though she has stage 5 kidney disease that puts her at risk of dying without a new kidney, Lutali, 56, said she could not agree to be vaccinated because of the role that stem cells have played in the development of vaccines. As a Christian, I can't support anything that has to do with abortion of babies, and the sanctity of life for me is precious, she said. UCHealth requires transplant recipients to be vaccinated because recipients are at significant risk of contracting COVID-19 as well as being hospitalized and dying from the virus, spokesman Dan Weaver said. Unvaccinated donors could also pass COVID-19 to the recipient even if they initially test negative for the disease, he said. Studies have found transplant patients who contract COVID-19 may have a mortality rate of 20% or higher," he said. Its not clear how common this type of policy is. The American Hospital Association, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems and networks in the United States, said it did not have data to share on the issue. But it said many transplant programs insist that patients get vaccinated for COVID-19 because of the weakened state of their immune system. Leilani Lutali wears a cross around her neck at her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. Lutali recently found out her hospital wouldn't approve her kidney transplant surgery until she got the COVID-19 vaccine. Even though she has stage 5 kidney disease that puts her at risk of dying without a new kidney. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) While any type of surgery may stress a patients immune system and leave them vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 later, organ transplants recipients are even more at risk because they have to take a powerful regime of drugs to suppress their immune system to keep their body from rejecting the new organ, which is seen by the body as a foreign object, Nancy Foster, AHAs vice president for quality and patient safety policy said in a statement. Further, if patients were to wait to get their vaccine until after the surgery, it is unlikely that their immune system could mount the desired antibody reaction given that they are taking anti-rejection medications, she said. Transplant centers in Washington, Vermont, Massachusetts and Alabama have polices requiring that recipients be vaccinated, according to news reports. Cleveland Clinic recently decided to require COVID-19 vaccinations for both transplant recipients and living donors, the organization said in a statement. Some health care systems recommend or strongly encourage vaccination for transplants, including the Mayo Clinic and Sentara Healthcare, two of the nation's largest. The University of Alabama Birminghams School of Medicine transplant program only recommends that living donors receive a vaccine, but it does not require it for the donation process. The best time to get a COVID-19 vaccine is before an organ transplant. If time allows, patients should get their second dose of the available vaccines at least a couple of weeks prior to transplant so that your body has a good immune response to the vaccine, said Dr. Deepali Kumar, the American Society of Transplantation's president-elect and an infectious disease physician. J&J has stressed that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine 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 a role, 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 & Johnsons 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. Ethical considerations should take both individual and societal perspectives into account, Dr. Kumar said. Its really whats best for the patient at this time and from a societal perspective as well," she said. The more patients that get vaccinated, you know, we have better outcomes. To Lutali, a recruiter for tech companies, it seems like her hospital was so insistent on saving her from COVID-19 that is is willing to let her possibly die by blocking her transplant surgery. Lutali, who does not belong to a denomination, said she does not live in fear of dying because of her belief in the afterlife. She is searching for another hospital, possibly in Texas or Florida, where she could get a transplant without being vaccinated. I have hope that something will come along that is something I can live with in terms of my choices, she said. A federal program failed to fulfill its promise of offering student debt relief to thousands of public workers, including teachers, police officers and firefighters. Now, the government is trying to make it right. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced sweeping changes to its Public Service Loan Forgiveness program after thousands of borrowers applied for forgiveness, with nearly all of them being rejected by the federal government. After making a decade of payments, many found out that they had the wrong type of federal loan or repayment plan to be eligible for the program. Thousands have been straddled with debt that they thought would be erased. Student loan forgiveness: Half a million people to benefit from overhaul, some immediately Millennials quit jobs to day trade: Here's the risk, reward. Under temporary changes through October 2022, those borrowers will be eligible to get their loans cleared. The overhaul is also designed to let borrowers correct errors and count payments they were trying to make toward the program. It is expected to shorten the amount of time more than 550,000 borrowers those who have already consolidated their loans are required to make payments to qualify for forgiveness, the government said. The changes will immediately erase the debt of 22,000 borrowers to the tune of $1.7 billion, the agency said. The government estimated another 27,000 borrowers could see about $2.8 billion in debts forgiven if they prove they were employed in an eligible job. If you have these loans, here are the steps you can take to get relief: The changes are designed to let borrowers correct errors and count payments they were trying to make toward the program. What is Public Service Loan Forgiveness? How did it originate? The Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a program that was launched in 2007 in an effort to steer more college graduates into public service. As long as they made 10 years of payments on their federal student loans, the program promised to erase the remainder. The program, however, has proved anything but forgiving. Before Wednesdays announcement, only 16,000 borrowers had seen their debt forgiven via the program, according to the Education Department. About 1.3 million people are trying to have their debts discharged through the program. One of the most problematic pieces of Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Many borrowers had the wrong type of loan and didn't realize they weren't eligible for relief. When the loan forgiveness program was first introduced, many of the loans offered from the federal government were Family Federal Education Loans (FFEL), or loans made through private entities but insured by the federal government. The government stopped offering those loans in 2010 and now relies on direct loans the kind eligible for forgiveness. The Education Department said about 60% of borrowers with an approved employer hold FFEL loans. Who is eligible for student loan forgiveness? The government previously restricted eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to only certain types of federal student loans and specific repayment plans. However, through October 2022, borrowers who have made 10 years worth of payments while in a qualifying job such as positions in federal, state or local governments, a nonprofit organization or the U.S. military will now be eligible for loan relief no matter what kind of federal loan or repayment plan they have. Past loan payments that were previously ineligible will now count, moving some borrowers closer to forgiveness. That is expected to especially help those borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans. Among other changes, the department will allow military members to count time on active duty toward the 10 years, even if they put a pause on making their payments during that time. How do I figure out if my past or current employer qualifies for PSLF? Use this help tool of the Federal Student Aid website to check if you work for a qualifying employer: https://studentaid.gov/pslf/ It provides information on which employers meet requirements for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. How do I check which federal loans I have? If borrowers are unsure about what type of loan they have, they can request that information from their loan servicer or they can check on the federal government's website for financial aid, according to Betsy Mayotte, president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors. If you don't know what kind of federal loans you have, you can see which loans by logging into your account on StudentAid.gov, going to the My Aid page and scrolling down to the Loan Breakdown section. If I qualify, what steps do I need to take? Changes to the loan forgiveness program will take place in two parts. The agency will first loosen some of the rules that had prevented eligible borrowers from discharging their loans, via a limited waiver. The government, for example, will allow payments on any of a person's loans to count toward the total number required for forgiveness. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness waiver will be available to borrowers who have direct loans, Federal Family Education Loans and Perkins Loans. Parent PLUS loans are not eligible under the limited waiver. The department said it would automatically credit borrowers who already have direct loans and have proved they work in an eligible field. Others who haven't enrolled in the program or have ineligible federal loans will have to apply for forgiveness, which may require them to consolidate their loans. Borrowers will have until October 2022 to apply. To find out more about loan consolidation, visit StudentAid.gov/Manage-Loans/Consolidation. The Education Department also plans to review all Public Service Loan Forgiveness applications that had been denied and to give federal employees automatic credit toward forgiveness. Other changes will come about more slowly via regulations made by "rule-making," a lengthy and complicated bureaucratic back-and-forth between the government and other stakeholders. For more information, visit StudentAid.gov/PSLFWaiver. How do you receive credit for past payments under the new rules? For a limited time, borrowers may get credit for past payments made on loans that would otherwise not qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. There are two requirements to receive additional qualifying payments: Full-time employment and loan consolidation. For instance, you must have worked full-time for a qualifying employer when prior payments were made, according to Federal Student Aid. Some part-time workers may qualify under certain circumstances. Say you were employed in more than one qualifying part-time job at the same time. You would be considered full-time if you worked a combined average of at least 30 hours per week. It may take several months for a borrower's account information to reflect the new payment count, according to Federal Student Aid. How far back can I get credit for payments? To be sure, you can only receive credit for payments made after Oct. 1, 2007, since that is when the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program began. For any period you may receive additional qualifying payments, you must file an application. Who may need to consolidate their loans? If you have Federal Family Education Loan Program loans, Federal Perkins Loans or other types of federal student loans that arent direct loans, you must consolidate them into the direct loan program by Oct. 31, 2022, according to Federal Student Aid. This is important for borrowers because you can't receive credit for payments if you consolidate after that date. Once the consolidation process is complete, you must then submit a PSLF form to your loan servicer. The help tool on the Federal Student Aid website will be updated in the coming months to process applications for borrowers in the Federal Family Education Loan Program and those with Perkins loans. Right now, employment can still be verified for them in Step 1 of the help tool, and loan consolidation can still be requested, Federal Student Aid said on its website. But an application for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program through the tool may not be available in the near term for those borrowers. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Public service student loan forgiveness: eligibility and how to apply Marysville, CA (95901) Today A mix of clouds and sun early followed by cloudy skies this afternoon. High 59F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional showers. Low near 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Election season is here and the Alpharetta-Roswell Herald wants to help. We put this page together as a resource and will update it regularly. Be sure to bookmark it, check back for more information and share it with a neighbor if you find it helpful. Contents: What is on the ballot? Who is on the ballot? Frequently Asked Questions Candidate Questionnaires Additional Coverage More Resources Voting FAQs Im registered to vote in Roswell. What will I see on my ballot? Roswell residents will vote for the Mayor and three City Council seats (Posts 4, 5 and 6). As part of Fulton County, Roswell voters will be asked whether to renew the .75-cent Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or TSPLOST. (Read more about Roswell's TSPLOST vote here.) Voters will also whether to continue the one-percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for education for a sixth, 5-year term. (Read more about Fulton County's education SPLOST here.) Which City Council seats will I vote for? All city council seats are At-Large, meaning that residents of Roswell are able to cast votes for every seat. Three of the six seats are up for election in 2021. Voters will elect Post 4, Post 5 and Post 6. For two of the seats, incumbents are seeking reelection. When can I vote? Election Day is Tuesday, November 2. What about early voting? Voters may cast their ballots early in-person from Tuesday, October 12 to Friday, October 29. Polling places will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Where can I vote? There are two polling places in the City of Roswell: The Roswell Branch Library (115 Norcross Street, Roswell, GA, 30075) (115 Norcross Street, Roswell, GA, 30075) The East Roswell Branch Library (2301 Holcomb Bridge Road, Roswell, GA, 30076) Voters are required to vote at their designated polling place. See where you are assigned to vote here. What about absentee voting? Georgias General Assembly changed the process for absentee voting in 2021. For more information please see this guide from Fulton County. The last day to request an absentee ballot is October 22. How do I know if I'm registered to vote? You can check your registration status here. I'm not registered to vote. Is it too late? Yes. The voter registration deadline was October 4. Candidate Guide Mayor All Roswell voters are eligible to vote in the mayoral race. The mayor serves four-year terms. Lori Henry (Incumbent) Kurt Wilson Jason Yowell City Council There are six Roswell City Council seats. They are all At-Large, meaning that any registered voter can cast a ballot in each race, regardless of where they live in Roswell. Members of city council serve for four years, and three are up for election every other year. In 2021 voters will elect Posts 4, Post 5 and Post 6. Post 4 Marie Willsey (Incumbent) Peter Vanstrom Post 5 Michael Dal Cerro Yalonda Freeman Will Morthland Matt Tyser currently holds the Roswell City Council Post 5 seat. He is not seeking re-election. Post 6 Matt Judy (Incumbent) Lee Hills Candidate Questionnaires Additional Coverage Aug. 20 - The qualification period ends for candidates. You can read the coverage from Chamian Cruz here. Sept. 20 - The three mayoral candidates participated in a debate hosted by the Roswell Community Masjid. You can read the coverage from Chamian Cruz here. Sept. 22 - Seven city council candidates participated in a debate hosted by the Roswell Community Masjid. You can read the coverage from Chamian Cruz here. Oct. 7 - The public had a chance to meet candidates one-on-one at a forum hosted by the Roswell Womans Club, Roswell NEXT and League of Women Voters of Atlanta-Fulton. You can read the coverage from Chamian Cruz here. ROSWELL A 47-year-old man is accused of disguising and funneling drugs into several Georgia prisons. Roswell Police spokesman Tim Lupo said that officers were searching for stolen vehicles or wanted persons in the parking lot of a Roswell Comfort Inn on July 11 when they came across a vehicle belonging to Stephen Mott, of Columbus, who was wanted out of Cobb County on felony drug charges. The officers confirmed with the front desk that Mott was staying there and proceeded to knock on his room door. After knocking a second time and receiving no answer, the police report states the officers heard someone lock the door from the inside and turn up the volume of a TV or radio. Moments later, the officers saw Mott drive eastbound on Holcomb Bridge Road and pull into a BP gas station, where they initiated a felony traffic stop. The report states the officers drew their weapons and pointed them at Mott. He cooperated, and the officers placed him under arrest. During the arrest, the police report states, the officers discovered three cell phones, numerous syringes, scales, drug testing kits and other drug-related objects inside Motts black 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche. Lupo said officers also executed a search warrant on Motts hotel room, where they found more items including 8.5 pounds of synthetic cannabinoids, 1.57 ounces of methamphetamine, 14.7 grams of heroin and numerous items used to manufacture or process drug materials. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation Clandestine Laboratory Response Team helped to safely process and dismantle the items that were found in the hotel room, Lupo said. Detectives with Roswells Special Investigations Section conducted a months-long probe following the arrest and determined that Mott is a known member of the Ghostface Gangsters. According to the Department of Justice, the Ghostface Gangsters is a whites-only prison gang that formed in the Cobb County jail system in 2000. The gang has since expanded outside the prison system, and its membership is now estimated at 5,000. Members follow written gang literature, use violence to enforce gang rules and facilitate the gangs criminal activities from within prisons using contraband cell phones, the Department of Justice stated. Lupo said Mott is believed to have been purchasing synthetic cannabinoids in powdered form and converting the powder into a liquid before soaking it into paper and disguising it as official correspondence. It is alleged that he would then mail the drug-infused paper to various contacts within the Georgia prison system for consumption. Lupo said he may have been doing this since at least the beginning of this year. But likely longer, Lupo said. There have been no other arrests in connection with our investigation at this time. Mott has been in custody at the Fulton County Jail since July 13. He is facing nine charges including trafficking in heroin, trafficking in methamphetamine, use of communication facility in committing a crime and participating in criminal gang activity. Online Access for Print Subscribers. Do you have a print subscription with the Argus-Press? If yes, then click here to enjoy complimentary access to our Online Content! YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan received on October 8 Ambassador of Sweden to Armenia Patrik Svensson, the foreign ministry reports. The officials highly valued the positive dynamics of the Armenian-Swedish relations in bilateral and multilateral formats, emphasizing the importance of activating the mutual visits in various levels and expanding the cooperation in areas of mutual interest. Minister Mirzoyan thanked the Swedish side for the constant support provided to the Armenian governments reforms, which, he said, contributes to the strengthening of democratic institutions, human rights and rule of law in Armenia. Touching upon the regional security-related issues, FM Mirzoyan stressed the necessity of the comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict under the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. In the context of addressing the humanitarian problems caused by the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression, the Armenian FM in particular highlighted the importance of quick and unconditional repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives illegally held in Azerbaijan, as well as preservation of Armenian cultural, historical and religious heritage in the territories of Artsakh which came under the Azerbaijani control. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The next NATO summit will take place in Madrid on June 29-30, 2022, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after the meeting with Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez. The participants of the summit will adopt a new strategic concept and will discuss the strengthening of the military alliance. I am happy to announce that the next NATO summit will be held in Madrid on June 29-30, Stoltenberg said. A number of important decisions will be adopted, they will discuss the consequences of climate change for the security and will approve the alliances new strategic concept. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Vice Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan received today Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin, the Parliament reports. The Ambassador assured that he will continue making efforts to expand the allied relations of Russia and Armenia. The officials highlighted developing the Armenian-Russian friendly relations, talked about deepening the partnership at inter-parliamentary platforms. The sides also exchanged views on the development of ties in economic and atomic energy sectors. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Support local journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Born in 1948, Gurnah has published 10 novels and a number of short stories focusing post-colonialism and the plight of refugees DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzania's government hailed Zanzibar-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah on Thursday for winning the Nobel Literature Prize, calling it a "victory" for the country and the African continent. Gurnah, who grew up on the island of Zanzibar but arrived in England as a refugee at the end of the 1960s, is the fifth African to win the prize. "You have certainly done justice to your profession, your victory is for Tanzania and Africa," the government's chief spokesperson said on Twitter. Born in 1948, Gurnah has published 10 novels and a number of short stories focusing post-colonialism and the plight of refugees. The Swedish Academy said Gurnah was honoured "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents." "His novels recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world," the Nobel Foundation added. Gurnah told the Nobel Prize website he was stunned to get the call from the Swedish Academy. "I thought it was a prank," he said. "These things are usually floated for weeks beforehand... so it was not something that was in my mind." Graveside services for James "Jimmy" Gary Hope 67, of Athens, are scheduled for 11 a.m., Saturday November 20, 2021, Union Cemetery in Crossroads, TX. Pastor Jeff Jackson will be officiating. Jimmy passed away peacefully in his home on Sunday, October 24, 2021. Jimmy was born on July 3, 1954 WLTP kWh But first, let us get to the rating part. The EQS has a maximum range estimate of 485 miles (ca. 781 km) in thecycle. Naturally, the former works in kilometers, but if you do the conversion to miles, it will be 485.With that in mind, you would expect EPA figures to be close, right? Well, not quite, as there are different measuring standards at play.The Mercedes EQS 450+ , a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive model, got a 350-mile (563 km) range rating. Meanwhile, its sibling with all-wheel drive and two motors, called EQS 580, had an EPA range estimate of 340 miles (ca. 547 km).Both versions of the EQS come with a 108-battery, so the difference comes in weight and the presence of the second motor for the 580 version. We must also note that both variants have the same 0.20 drag coefficient, which is remarkable for a production car.If we look around in the market, Mercedes-EQ's latest sedan beats the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-Tron GT in the range department, which should be considered a win for the brand from Stuttgart.Two electric cars that may be direct competitors of the EQS, the Tesla Model S and the Lucid Air, have variants that offer higher range estimates according to the EPA standards. The Model S in long-range trim received an estimate of 405 miles (ca. 652 km) of range.Meanwhile, the Lucid Air took things to the next level with a 520-mile (836 km) range estimate. There is a lower trim in the Lucid Air range, which offers a range estimate of just 516 miles (ca. 830 km).Evidently, the European and the U.S. spec models come with the same powertrain configurations, so the difference is set in the way that the different homologation institutions test each new model to provide a rating.Independent testing has demonstrated that the WLTP test cycle may be a bit on the optimistic side, while the EPA's test tends to be pessimistic. If you insist on comparing these models on range ratings alone, using just one of the standards would not be fair in our view.If the comparison is on those figures alone and just on paper, you might as well do an average between the EPA and WLTP estimate for each version to get a different view, just for comparison's sake. This only works if the car is offered in both the U.S. and European markets in the same version, as is the case with the Tesla Model S, the Mercedes EQS, Porsche Taycan, and many more.However, EPA range estimates do matter because automakers must cite the figures in their marketing, as Slashgear notes. SkyService, a business aviation operator, has become the first one in Canada to offer SAF for private aircraft, with AirSprint Private Aviation being the first customer to start using SAF for its fleet. This is an important step for the Canadian aviation operator, who intends to become 100% carbon-neutral by 2050.SkyService will provide SAF produced by World Energy, considered the first company in the world and the only one in the U.S. to produce commercial-scale SAF. The aviation companys Toronto South Terminal, located at the Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), will be the first to receive SAF shipments.The green jet fuel is expected to reduce emissions by 20% throughout the entire life cycle, compared to conventional jet fuel. Since most types of SAF havent achieved a level of performance that can match that of conventional fuel, these alternative fuels are integrated into various proportions in jet fuel blends.SkyService will provide a blend of 30% Neat SAF and 70% JET A-1 fuel. The JET A-1 fuel is used on a large scale in Canada, as the main fuel for jet turbine engines. Also known as kerosene, its compatible with most aircraft and it complies with international aviation standards, such as the NATO F-35 specification.Until the day when aircraft will be able to operate effectively using 100% sustainable fuel, SAF blends are the most reliable alternative approved by official aviation standards. As more and more private jet companies will follow the example of AirSprint, more aviation operators, like SkyService, will feel encouraged to provide SAF to their customers. The Music City Party Tub is a hot tub party bus and one of the biggest attractions in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. Its basically a trailer with a roof and protective panels, tables and seating, and a hot tub inside, with enough space to hold a party of about a dozen people in comfort. Its an alternative to a regular party bus or one of those outrageous limo rentals for bachelor and bachelorette parties, and it includes the services of a DJ and bartender, and photographer.According to the states health department, its also a public pool and, as one, it lacks permits. Authorities have filed a lawsuit against the operator of the hot tub party bus, alleging failure to comply with the request to file for public party permits, The Tennessean reports. In other words, in order to haul the trailer around town, with people inside the hot tub, the operator needs a permit to operate a public pool.As per documents published by the publication, the owner of the business went to the health department on his own in August 2019, sometime after launching the business. An inspection of the trailer informed him he needed to seek a permit as a public pool, but he never followed on the recommendations. In September 2020, authorities pulled over the trailer and warned the owner that he was in violation of regulations, because of the you guessed it missing public pool permit.Despite the warning, the party bus is still in service and still bookable throughout the month of November. Perhaps just as worse, the business is not licensed and registered in the state.The hot tub party bus was inaugurated in 2019 and was widely covered by both national and international media. It was never as famous as, say, the record-breaking Carpool DeVille , but it is still pretty well-known. For a public pool on wheels, that is. EV kWh ICE Are electric cars as bad as the @FT wants us to believe? That's something I study at the @TUeindhoven so I always read such stories with interest. tl;dr All cars are bad but the advantage of EVs is much bigger than the @FT visual storytelling team wants you to believe. https://t.co/ZjfvVKOGRW AukeHoekstra (@AukeHoekstra) October 6, 2021 Auke Hoekstra praised the FT visual storytelling team for the nice graphic work but not for their information use. When the story used the findings of a Chinese study to say EVs emit 60% more carbon in their production, the researcher checked the study. It indeed says that is what happens in China but mentions that anemits only 20% more in the U.S. Hoekstra questioned why FT did not mention that and went a little further.According to the researcher, the Chinese study was based on 2015 data. Six years ago, battery production emitted 200 kilograms of carbon dioxide per. In 2021, that fell to 75 kg per kWh 62.5% less. In other words, the Chinese study is outdated.The FT story then says that mining for raw materials is a problem, which is correct. However, the only negative effect numerically presented is that mining 1 ton of lithium emits 5 to 15 tons of CO2. This would be equivalent to the carbon emissions of the electricity used by one to two houses in the U.S. for a year.Hoekstra puts that information under the proper perspective: 1 ton of lithium is enough to make about 100 battery packs. The researcher then mentions that the lithium in an EV would equate to the emissions of the electricity consumption of a house for a week or even less.A little further, FT states that battery pack building emissions represent a third of all the CO2 emissions in making an entire EV. Hoekstra argues that this would invalidate that manufacturing EVs emits 60% more than with a combustion-engined car. If you do not consider the battery pack, EVs emit less carbon dioxide because the electric powertrain is much lighter than combustion engines.The final mistake made by FT concentrates on an ICCT study about which we also wrote on July 21, 2021 . Ironically, the study was meant to demonstrate how EVs are cleaner thanvehicles even when they are charged from the most pollutant sources of electricity.FT used its information but chose a 2018 European Environment Agency report to say that EVs are only 17% to 30% cleaner than combustion-engined vehicles in Europe from manufacturing until the end of their lifecycles. The ICCT study shows they are 70% cleaner.If you happen to have read the FT story or know people who have, show them this article and Hoekstras thread on Twitter. Theres plenty to criticize about EV manufacturing without having to appeal to outdated information. Addressing the correct negative points is the only way to move forward and let the past rest in peace. The hydrological cycle of the now-dry lake from the Jezero Crater is more complex than previously thought, a new study reports. The evidence is based on precise imagery provided by NASA's Perseverance rover of steep slopes known as escarpments.These escarpments formed from rock layers accumulated at the mouth of an ancient river billions of years ago, when Mars had an atmosphere thick enough to support water flowing across its surface. The sediments were carried by an old river that flowed into the crater's lake."Without driving anywhere, the rover was able to solve one of the big unknowns, which was that this crater was once a lake," said study co-author and MIT planetary scientist Benjamin Weiss.The area has only been imaged from orbit prior to Perseverance's arrival on Mars . Now, the rover's images reveal the order and position of the rock layers for the first time, right from the planet's surface. The inclined and horizontal stratification is similar to what a geologist usually finds in a river on Earth.A better understanding of Jezero's lake could provide insight into why the planet dried out. The sediments will serve as the foundation for the rover's second science campaign, which will take place next year. One of its main objectives is to collect samples that will be sent back to Earth and analyzed by scientists using powerful lab equipment that is too large to carry to Mars.The new images also suggest where the rover should search for rock and sediment samples, including those that could hold evidence that there once existed life on Mars "The finest-grained material at the bottom of the delta probably contains our best bet for finding evidence of organics and biosignatures," said Sanjeev Gupta, a Perseverance scientist and a co-author of the paper. However, customers could also order the car with a choice of several V8s, and the standard unit was the 289 (4.7-liter) Windsor 2-barrel with 200 horsepower. A 4-barrel version was also available with 225 horsepower.The 2-barrel V8 is also the one putting the wheels in motion on this absolutely fabulous 1966 Mustang, which eBay seller classiccarhunter says they recently purchased from the original owner of the car, whos now more than 90 years old.Thats right, the car had just one owner since new, and its a lady who always took proper care of it, while also maintaining everything in the original condition, with absolutely no modification or change that would have altered the Mustang legacy.The car looks impeccable, but its worth knowing that the engine has also been rebuilt, and the paint and the body got a refresh many years ago. But since then, the Mustang has been babied just the way it deserves.As you could easily figure out by simply checking out the photos in the gallery, this Mustang looks just like a new car, so it wouldnt require any fixes. Just get behind the wheel and drive it, and this makes the find overall even more impressive, especially since the Mustang spent all these years with a single owner.Coming with a clear Missouri title in the name of the eBay seller, the car was originally purchased by the first owner on November 13, 1965, though no information has been provided as to whether any original documents are still around today.Buying this Mustang wouldnt be cheap, as the car comes with a $44,950 price tag. Its located in Missouri if you want to check it out live. AWD Competition breeds excellence. Looking at the automotive industry, manufacturers have constantly been engaged in "battles" against each other. After all, if you're building the fastest cars on the planet, that's an excellent tool for attracting more customers. And the competition was intense in the last decade of the 20th century. Companies like Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, Bugatti , McLaren, and Jaguar were all fighting for the spotlight. Ferrari 's flagship back in the day was the F50. With an F1-derived V12 engine, it had a claimed top speed of 202 mph (325 kph). Ferrari built 349 cars in total between 1995 to 1997. Jaguar launched the XJ220 in 1992, but most potential customers withdrew their deposits after the switch was made from a V12 engine to a turbo V6. 275 of these cars were built, and they were supposedly capable of going up to 212 mph (341 kph).Then there was the Bugatti EB 110. Built between 1991 and 1995, these were even rarer than the Jaguar, with less than 150 units ever built. Only about 30 of those were built to Super Sport specifications, and those were capable of going up to 218 mph (351 kph). The fastest Lamborghini Diablos of the '90s could also go past the 200 mph (322 kph) marker. But Porsche was slightly behind, even if considering the extreme 911 GT1 Straenversion.But there's always a bigger fish. But I'm not going to go into the Dauer 962 topic now, because that's a race car for the street. Instead, let's have a look at what RUF was doing at the time. The German company scored an impressive achievement in 1987 when they released the CTR, also known as Yellowbird. The CTR was the fastest production car in the world when it was released, with a top speed of 213 mph (342 kph).Fast forward to 1995, RUF introduced the CTR2. While the CTR was based on the 3.2-liter Carrera, the CTR2 was built from the 993 version of the 911 Turbo. Understanding why the CTR and the CTR2 are so special is rather simple. You just have to look at the name: Group C Turbo Ruf. That means that the CTR2 is running an engine with a similar architecture to the one used in the Porsche 962 Le Mans Group C car.RUF built less than 30 units of the CTR2, 12 of which were upgraded sport versions. What makes this particular car even more special is that it comes with anchassis, and it was built in 1997. That means it has more power than the cars built in 1995 and 1996. The twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter unit was capable of producing 580 horsepower and 506 lb-ft (686 Nm) of torque. According to RUF, this vehicle should be capable of hitting speeds of 220 mph (354 kph).That makes it one of the fastest production cars of the 1990s. It may not be as fast as a McLaren F1, but who knows what a bit of extra tuning can achieve in that sense. It's a good thing that it has an integrated roll cage for extra added safety. The CTR2 weighs in at less than 3,000 lbs (1,360 kg) and should be capable of running the quarter-mile (402 meters) in about 11 seconds.This particular vehicle is no garage queen, as its odometer reads 30,447 miles (49,000 km). Admittedly, the Arctic Silver Metallic isn't the coolest color for a CTR2, but the green leather interior looks rather special. It's currently located in London, in the United Kingdom. The asking price is no joke, as it's set at 625,000 ($852,630) . That's considerably less than what you would pay for a 918 Spyder . But it's also more expensive than one of the newer, top-spec 911 models. SUV This time, when it happened, we got a front-row ticket courtesy of Teslas road monitoring camera system. Boy, did it capture some spicy police evidence!The Tesla driver in question is Geoff Gardiner of Auckland, New Zealand. He was in his grey Model X when he used the right passing lane to casually overtake a slower driving Mitsubishi Galant. It was apparently a maneuver that infuriated the Mitsubishi driver, who started chasing the Model X, endangering himself and other traffic participants.The Mitsubishi driver spent the next three miles tailgating the Model X and harassing Geoff Gardiner, getting dangerously close to a collision at multiple points. He even blocked the way for the Tesla, ready to jump out of his car and attack the other driver. Gardiner floored his electric car to get away but was eventually stopped by upcoming traffic, giving his attacker time to catch up with him.The attacker would ultimately try sideswiping Gardiners Tesla in a maneuver that ultimately wiped out his own car as well as Gardiners. The Mitsubishi driver exited the vehicle and spent minutes banging and pawing at the Teslas door, daring Gardiner to come out and fight.Amazingly, he even stood directly in front of a Hyundai, assuming the female driver would be a witness that would testify that the Tesla driver actually crashed into him. The man did this for an extended period of time before the police arrived and brought him into custody. Police suspect the man was under the influence of powerful intoxicants.Over $45,000 worth of damage was done to Gardiners Model X. His insurance policy covered everything, but sources claim it took him three months to get his car back from Teslas bodyshop. Teslas camera system may not be impeccable when it comes to autonomous driving, but it most certainly makes for video evidence thatd make any prosecutor get all hot and sweaty. The most common problem with storing your bicycle indoors is the lack of space, especially when youre dealing with small flats in which everything has to be carefully organized because every inch matters. In fact, thats how it all started for the BikeStow Up.Its creator, George Laight (who is also the founder of BikeStow, a U.K.-based family business that specializes in bike rack manufacturing), ran into the lack of space problem when he went to college and had to move into a small student flat. Enter the freestanding, vertical bike storage solution.The BikeStow Up is designed for indoor use only and is great for anything from homes to offices, garages, flats, and so on. Its space-saving design even allows you to store your bike in your bedroom.This versatile and completely free-standing bike stand comes only partially assembled, but BikeStow provides instructions on how to quickly install the rest of its components, headache-free.Made of birch plywood and brushed aluminum (for its v sliders), the BikeStow Up is compatible with a variety of bikes that have up to 5-inch tires, from mountain bikes, to cross, road, fat bikes, and e-bikes. You can use the stand with bikes that have wheel sizes between 26 and 29.When you order the stand, you also get a rear panel for it, two-seat post cradles, two braces, two Allen keys, and several bolts. Theres also a strap available that goes between the front wheel and the bikes frame, to stop the handlebars from turning.While it was mainly designed to use less floor space, the BikeStow Up stand can be used both vertically and horizontally, depending on your needs and preferences.The product is available to order on BikeStows official website and it starts at 100 (approximately $140). Back in the 1930s, the idea of rolling in your living room wasnt that common. The realization of it was even less so.Todays episode of autoevolutions month-long Iconic Vehicles coverage takes us way back to the Stout Scarab, which is widely recognized as the first production minivan in the world and the ultimate Art Deco icon. It was a revolutionary vehicle both in terms of design and build, packing countless innovations in a very strange-looking (for that era) package. Believe it or not, but the Stout Scarab, which would be described as beautiful by most of todays car enthusiasts, was considered ugly and downright blasphemous at the time.The Stout Scarab was ahead of its time in all aspects, and this was ultimately its biggest flaw.Designed and build by William B. Stout, a former Ford engineer with vast experience in aircraft design (Stout is recognized as the father of modern aviation, signing his name to the Ford Trimotor commercial airplane), the Scarab was his attempt to make automobiles better. Stout believed that many aircraft design principles could carry into the automobile industry to ultimately build a lighter and more reliable, safer, and easier to handle car . He never explicitly set out to build a lounge on wheels, but he did want to build a car that would deliver a smooth and comfortable ride for the entire family on a cross-country trip The Scarab looks just like the bug whose name it carries. Egyptians believed the scarab was a symbol for rebirth and renewal, and Stout chose it because he thought this was what his car would do to the industry. Similarities with the Dymaxion car are probably not coincidental, since Stout was an admirer of inventor Buckminster Fullers work.The Scarab featured a 135-inch (343-cm) wheelbase and a total length of just 16 feet (488 cm), making it similar-sized to other cars from that time. The inside, though, was twice as spacious because Stout moved the engine to the back, deleted running boards, and made sure the floor was flat and low to the ground. Power came from an 85 hp Ford flathead V8 paired to a three-speed manual transmission that sent power to the rear wheels. The top speed was 80 mph (129 kph) and 0 to 60 (96.5 kph) acceleration of 15 seconds.The first running prototype was completed in late 1932 and was followed by eight more vehicles, each with a slightly different and unique interior due to the fact that they were assembled by hand. Of the nine Scarabs built, only five survive. The first one had aluminum panels riveted onto an aluminum space frame, but later models would use steel to cut costs. The last unit was a revival attempt, introduced at the end of WWII and called Project Y: it would become the worlds first car with a fiberglass bodyshell and air suspension.Stout believed sales would pour in, despite the prohibitive price. He estimated a 100-unit limited production, with prices starting at $5,000 almost three times the average of that time and almost $105,000 in todays money. All units produced were sold to investors and members of the board, but despite intense marketing, the high price and unexpected design ultimately worked against Stout.It was a shame: the Scarab was an odd-looking vehicle, alright, but it was packed with features that had never been seen before in an automobile. In addition to the fact that it was rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive and boasted ample cabin space, it also featured push-button electric doors with hidden hinges, flush glass windows, independent suspension, hydraulic brakes, and an aerodynamic body.The cabin came with amenities like a customizable layout (only the drivers seat was fixed, and the other seats could fold down for sleeping), a foldable table, lacewood interior work and leather seats for easy maintenance, thermostat-controlled heating and ambient lighting, and dust filter and AC.The Scarab had high maneuverability, though close to zero rear visibility. We wont get into how safe it was to have those loose seats inside the cabin because we all know that back in the 30s , safety concerns did not exist. It was spacious and comfortable, smooth and reliable, and it came with decent fuel economy. It was, in short, the perfect car that Stout could design and build but, sadly, the industry was not kind to his first attempt.The Stout Scarab was ahead of its time by some four decades, laying out the blueprint for todays minivans and rear-engined passenger vehicles . It was also a thing of beauty. kW Personal dissatisfaction is often the source of the greatest creations. This was certainly the case for John Ordovas, who was disappointed by everything he found on the mid-sized yachting market. Determined to bring the spectacular features of superyachts to this category, and offer a truly inspiring design, he eventually established his own brand, Hanstaiger, in 2015.Chief engineers Antonio Claro and Nerea Perez led the work on the brands first project, built at the companys boutique shipyard in the historic Mediterranean port of Alicante, in Spain. This is how the X1 was born, a trimaran designed to be ergonomic, highly functional and exceptionally beautiful. Construction began in 2019, and the X1 passed its first sea trials in 2021.First of all, the 64-foot (19,72 meters) long trimaran is an engineering masterpiece . Its single-piece, vacuum-infused hull requires less power and fuel to reach maximum speed, at the same time enabling incredible precision and agility. Made from a composite of carbon fiber, Kevlar and vinyl ester PRFV, the hull is lightweight yet resilient, for exceptional durability.Customers can opt for the powerboat or sailboat version. The majestic sail version has a sails surface area of 245 square meters (2,637 square feet), and the innovative custom design, with captive winches, allows the sails to be raised and set with the simple touch of a button. The powerboat version features two Volvo Penta IPS 1350CV engines, with a glass cockpit and auto-prop feathering propellers.The X1 can reach a top speed of 20 knots (the sailboat version) or 30 knots (powerboat version), and it also delivers an outstanding range, thanks to the custom electric system based on a massive 50battery pack, on one hand, and the large fuel tank (enough to cover 600 miles/966 km), on the other hand. Plus, the trimaran is CE Category A certified, which means that it can be self-sufficient for extended journeys.Everything is controlled by a state-of-the-art helm station, enclosed in a fighter jet-inspired canopy that provides protection from the elements, but can also open up during sunny days. With no less than 12 cameras on hand, the captain has full control of the X1 at any time.Hanstaigers flagship isnt only remarkably performant, but also stunningly beautiful and luxurious. With a design meant to make the owner feel as though he were inside a luxury home, X1 breaks the norm by offering 80% of the interior space on the same level. Without any narrow corridors or complicated internal structures, the layout feels like a luxury loft.The 70 square meters (753 square feet) lounge area converts into a giant beach club, with an additional 25 square meters (269 square feet) of deck and a swimming platform. With ceilings over 3-meter (9.8 feet) tall, the living areas feel incredibly spacious. The master cabin alone is over 30 square meters (323 square feet), and the fully-equipped galley is more impressive than a designer kitchen.Going up to the stunning flybridge, youll literally feel on top of the world. The generous surface allows enough room for seating, sun beds and a jacuzzi. Every element is meant to enhance the feeling of a five-star hotel, including hand-crafted wood furniture, the finest materials, such as premium leather, and sumptuous carpets.Ordovas wanted to stay away completely from the conventional layout of mid-sized yachts. This is why, beside the single level configuration and convertible transom, the X1 also boasts one of the largest glass-to-structure-ratios in the industry. Natural light overflows, pouring through the glass roof and oversized windows. Plus, the windows feature a smart glass technology that allows temperature adjustment and dimming the sunlight whenever its too strong, or for more privacy.Its safe to say that the X1 is in a league of its own, blending an otherworldly beauty with cutting-edge technology . Ordovas is determined to destroy the molds used for the trimarans exceptional hull, once all the three boats are built, to make sure that it will never be replicated.A handful of people might still be able to get their hands on this masterpiece, via Northrop & Johnson, Hanstaigers exclusive sales partner. Others will have to wait for the future X2 and X3, which will take the brands inspiration and creativity even further. Their goal is to get authorities to ban private car use in a zone that is surrounded by the S-Bahn ring train route. The result would be the world's largest car-free urban area in the world. The surface that would be private car-free has an area of 34 square miles (88 square kilometers).If you need to put 34 square miles into perspective, think of Manhattan, then enlarge it by about 30 percent. For even more context, you can think of an area as big as Disney World in Florida, or half of Washington D.C., or one-fourth of Detroit.When the initiative had already received 50,000 signatures, out of which 20,000 were required to provide enough quorum to enable the next phase of the legal process that such changes need to go through to grow from initiatives to laws, the people behind the idea deposited those signatures at the country's Senate.After this step, Germany's Senate has five months to examine the initiative's legislative proposal, and then it can make a recommendation to the country's House of Representatives. The proposal can be stopped by the latter institution or by the Senate if its legality is under question.If it does not pass the House of Representatives, German media reports that those who started the initiative want to raise at least 175,000 signatures to trigger a referendum, which would mean that Berlin residents would have to vote on the matter. The said vote would take place in 2023, and the initiative would need to pass just like any other referendum, so even more votes would need to be cast.If Germany's House of Representatives refuses the proposal, and does not pass the referendum, that would be the end of the Berlin Autofrei private initiative.Unlike other bans, this would not focus on internal combustion engines alone, as it would also ban electric vehicles or hydrogen-powered vehicles. The group behind the ban considers that these categories of vehicles still pose similar issues to conventional vehicles, as they can pollute the air through tire wear.However, do not think that such a large area in Berlin would become entirely car-free. Instead, it would be free of private cars, except for those used by delivery drivers or people with restricted mobility. Furthermore, the ban would also allow twelve renter car journeys per year in the area, which are supposed to cover one extraordinary situation per month, presumably.The area would not be free of commercial vehicles making deliveries, emergency services vehicles, or even taxis. Any private individual who wanted to drive a vehicle in the said area would be affected if the ban were to be set in place. The worst-affected people will be those who live in that area and own vehicles, as they might effectively not be able to drive their cars home anymore. With all things going around the automotive and normal worlds, its no wonder that everyone is trying to ensure their survival. For car companies, that means ditching or not caring about certain segments of the market.And because everything revolves around crossovers, SUVs, and trucks these days, its no surprise some brands dont even have entries into so-called dying segments. Lexus , for example, has decided to focus on sedans, coupes/convertibles, and crossover SUVs above all else.Look as much as you like, but theres no Lexus station wagon in the real world right now. Unlike the virtually limitless plains and canyon roads of imagination land, where practical Lexus models are all the rage for a certain pixel master.Sugar Chow, the virtual artist behind the sugardesign_1 account on social media is on a mission of digitally touring the world! So, its only logical to imagine that hes focused on station wagons above all else. And thats usually true, save for the occasional derailment into other territories.But as far as Lexus is concerned, he is relentlessly making sure we hope the Japanese company sees his creations and decides to act upon the first impulse. And hes catering to the needs of every segment, it seems. So, he recently started with a cool IS F Sportwagon that looked decidedly ready for an elegant V8 performance life.Now, while the work on the flagship LS wagon is ongoing, he found time to portray a possible (yet improbable) ES Estate station wagon. Depicted here in a matching ritzy environment, the executive sedan based on the Toyota Avalon shows theres still a need for practical yet luxurious cars in our life.If only automakers would act upon impulses based on such elegant projects. Then, if they only fitted such an ES wagon with an F Sport Performance V8 powertrain... that would certainly make the day for station wagon fans! Idaho Chief Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck announced Thursday the state plans to bill MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for the cost of auditing three counties to disprove allegations of election fraud, the Idaho Statesman reports. Why it matters: Houck's remarks come days after the audit concluded, reporting a 0.1% margin of error across the three counties. Lindell previously alleged that presidential election results across 44 counties were "electronically manipulated" to favor Biden, per the Statesman. The office said that totaling the expenses and sending the bill would take at least another two weeks. What they're saying: "Why not try and get Lindell to reimburse the state for having to refute his false claim?" Houck told the Statesman. "While our team is always looking for possible vulnerabilities, this allegation was patently without merit from the first look," he added. "It takes hard work to build confidence in a state's elections system, and careless accusations like this can cause tremendous harm. Doing nothing and saying nothing would have been like conceding its truth." Go deeper: Dominion files $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Armenian law entitles opposition members to heading three of the 12 parliament committees. It stipulates that the deputy chairpersons of several other parliamentary panels should also represent the opposition minority in the National Assembly. The main opposition Hayastan alliance nominated this summer one of its deputies, Artur Ghazinian, as deputy head of the parliament committee on defense and security. He was also backed by the Pativ Unem bloc, the second parliamentary opposition force. Seven members of the 11-member committee representing Civil Contract first blocked Ghazinians appointment on August 31. Hayastan responded by re-nominating him for the vacant post for five more times. On each of those occasions, the pro-government deputies voted against Ghazinian after attacking him during tense committee meetings. Some of them cited Ghazinians harsh criticism of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians handling of last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Ghazinian has continued to hold Pashinian responsible for Armenias defeat in the six-week war that left at least 3,800 Armenian soldiers dead. Hayastan and Pativ Unem have made clear that they will continue to back his candidacy. Vahagn Aleksanian, a Civil Contract deputy, said on Friday that the pro-government majority has started drafting amendments to the parliaments statutes which would not allow parliamentary groups to nominate the same lawmaker for a vacant post for more than two times. Pativ Unems Tigran Abrahamian denounced the initiative. Its not the authorities whims that must determine who will be our candidate for the position, he told journalists. Aleksanian said there are many reasons why Ghazinians appointment is unacceptable to Pashinians party. In particular, he said, Ghazinian did not serve in the Armenian army and lacks elementary knowledge of military issues. Aleksanian downplayed the fact that Pashinian too did not serve in the armed forces. Under the Armenian constitution, the prime minister becomes the armys commander-in-chief in times of war. You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter. Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. One of the highest ranking Aryan Circle Gang leaders has been sentenced to federal prison for his role in a gang-related beating in the Eastern District of Texas. The 38-year-old Michael Martin, of Santa Fe, who also is known as Aryan Prodigy on March 4 pleaded guilty to committing assault resulting in serious bodily injury in aid of racketeering. Earlier this week, he was sentenced to just over seven years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield, a news release from the office of Easter District of Texas Acting U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei. The defendants violent actions demonstrate his commitment to a hateful and dangerous ideology, Ganjei said in the release. Todays sentence shows that no gang is above the law. The release said Martin joined the violent, race-based, prison-based gang in the early 2000s. The Aryan Circle has hundreds of members operating inside and outside of both state and federal prisons nationwide. The AC enforces its rules and promotes discipline among its members, prospects, and associates through threats, intimidation, and acts of violence including, but not limited to, acts involving murder and assault, the release said. Members are required to follow the orders of higher-ranking members without question. At the time of the offense, Martin held the rank of upper board member. He was one of the five highest-ranking AC members in the country, the release said. In this role, Martin made decisions and directed the actions of other gang members regarding a range of issues including who to recruit and admit as members of the gang, who should be disciplined or removed for violating the AC rules, and which rival gangs the AC would fight, the release said. According to court documents, Martin learned that another member wanted to switch his gang affiliation, or patch over, to a different gang, the release said. Martin ordered AC members to attack the former member to X him, or remove him from the gang, because it violated the ACs rules to join a different organization, the release said. On Martins orders, two AC members violently beat the victim, including by kicking him in the head while he was on the ground. The victim was treated for their injuries, but will suffer long term, the release said. meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/megzmagpie A Port Arthur man previously convicted of murder has been indicted again on multiple charges, including bringing a gun on a Jefferson County school campus, adding to a long but recent list of prior convictions. Last Wednesday, a Jefferson County grand jury indicted Darius Rashard Stevenson, 37, for deadly conduct, possession of a weapon in a prohibited place, possession of a controlled substance and obstruction or retaliation. The offenses are from separate cases and filed by multiple agencies in Jefferson County, where Stevenson has racked up numerous felony convictions in a brief period. Stevenson was convicted of evading detention with a motor vehicle, a third-degree felony, on Sept. 12, 2005; felony first degree murder on September 27, 2010; and felony second degree aggravated assault on September 27, 2010. In Kames County, he was also convicted of felony third degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a public servant on December 2014, according to court documents. Deadly Conduct Stevenson was charged with deadly conduct, a third degree felony, for allegedly firing a gun at Gilberto Zamora shortly before 3:40 p.m. on June 3 in the 3900 block Twin City Highway in Port Arthur. The report was referred from the Port Arthur Police Department to the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office on June 8. According to court documents, Zamora said he was stopped at red light on 32nd Street behind a green Chevrolet Suburban, which did not go through the light when it turned green. After honking to alert the driver of the Suburban, which authorities say was Stevenson, both vehicles turned north on Twin City Highway. Zamora said he noticed the man, who was later identified as Stevenson, yelling at him from the front driver window of the truck while they were driving side-by-side. The victim then saw Stevenson produce a handgun and shoot at his vehicle, the affidavit said. Stevenson then fled on 39th street at a high rate of speed. During the investigation, the affidavit said it was discovered Stevenson was also being investigated for another incident and was driving the same green Suburban. That investigation later led to Stevenson being connected to the June 3 incident after Zamora wasnt able to pick Stevenson from the lineup, the affidavit said. On July 9, the officer said he received a phone call from Zamora who said he recognized Stevenson as the man that shot at his vehicle from a news report about an incident in Orange County. Weapon Possession Stevenson was indicted for possession of a weapon at a school, which is a third-degree felony. Related: Port Arthur man arrested on PAISD police warrant According to Port Arthur ISD Police Department, Stevenson was allegedly driving a black Chevrolet Suburban on June 8 at approximately 2:05 p.m. when he became involved in another road rage incident near Memorial High School. Court documents said Stevenson exited the Suburban and waited a few minutes for two vehicles occupied by Memorial High School students to arrive at the schools parking lot. Stevenson, who was angry, approached the driver side door of the black car on foot and began talking to the driver, Kendrick Sam, before he could exit the car, the affidavit said. He accused Sam of trying to race him along the roadway, passing him and disrespecting him as they were approaching the high school. Sam told the Stevenson that he was not trying to race with him. Another student, Kelby Blanchette, then approached the car to find out what Stevenson was so angry about, which resulted in an argument. Stevenson then approached his black Suburban and removed an assault style weapon from the rear seat of the suburban behind the drivers side seat. He held the weapon under his arm, barrel pointing towards the ground, while at the same time displaying the weapon, between the parked cars, to where several students could observe the weapon, the affidavit said. The court documents said a mother of one of the students then approached Stevenson and began shouting at Stevenson, telling him to stop arguing with the students. The affidavit said Stevenson put the assault style weapon back inside of the Suburban before the mother could see the weapon. He then drove away. Three students were later able to pick Stevenson out of a lineup of photos as the person they saw displaying the gun. He was arrested on an outstanding warrant for the charge on July 7 in the Walmart parking lot in Groves. On July 8, the Orange County Sheriffs Office reported that its Criminal Investigations division secured a murder warrant for Stevenson, who was allegedly linked in July to the shooting death of Brennon Harlan Lee Flores, 21, in Vidor, according to a previous Enterprise article. Related: Authorities name suspect in Tuesday Vidor shooting Other Charges Stevenson has also been indicted for possession of methamphetamine, which is a state jail felony, as well as retaliation, which is a third-degree felony. According to court documents, the incident allegedly occurred while a Groves Police Department officer was patrolling on June 25 at approximately 4:44 p.m. at the Americas Best Value Inn in Groves. While checking the parking lot, the affidavit said the officer got an anonymous tip that a man, alleged to be Stevenson, was possibly selling narcotics in the back of the complex. He informed the officer that Stevenson was sitting in a blue Suburban and that he was allegedly running girls in room #213, the affidavit said. The person advised Stevenson had a lot of traffic in and out all day. The officer drove to the back of the complex and observed Stevenson sitting in the driver seat of the car, which the officer recognized from an drug-related incident that occurred the week before. The officer was previously informed by those deputies that they were investigating Stevenson for pulling a gun during a disturbance. Fearing that this Stevenson might be armed, the officer notified a sergeant to assist him with contacting Stevenson. Upon the sergeants arrival, the officer eventually initiated contact with Stevenson, who had moved his Suburban to the west side of the complex. The officer allegedly observed Stevenson make several furtive movements towards the center console and back floorboard. He then discarded an object and placed his hands into the air, the affidavit said. Fearing that the suspect was attempting to conceal or possibly retrieve a weapon, I then gave him verbal commands to slowly open the driver side door, the officer said. Stevenson then allegedly bladed his body away, took his right hand to his mouth, and opened the door, the affidavit said. The officer said he could smell a strong distinct odor of marijuana emitting from his persons and vehicle, and removed Stevenson from his seat. Stevenson was placed in double-locked handcuffs. In the process of applying the handcuffs to the suspects wrist the officers noticed Stevenson had a baggie in his mouth, the affidavit said. The officer said Stevenson allegedly started to quickly chew the object in his mouth and refused to spit it out. The officer said he and the sergeant and made every effort to prevent him from swallowing what we thought to be narcotics, the affidavit said. The officer said after several attempts were made that Stevenson allegedly advised that he had swallowed marijuana but changed his story to say he swallowed cocaine. The officer was concerned that Stevenson would overdose and requested an EMS to the location to treat Stevenson, the affidavit said. For officer safety reasons and to ensure the suspect did not have any more narcotics on his persons, I then checked his inner pocket clothing for weapons and contraband, the officer said. While checking the suspects pockets, I located a cigarette box that concealed a small baggie that contained a crystal-like substance. The officer recognized the substance which returned a positive result for methamphetamine, he said. He also found a brown paper bag that concealed six blue rectangular pills that were scored four times and inscribed B707t, and identified to be Alprazolam. He was not charged with the suspected Alprazolam at the time due to pending analysis, the affidavit said. Stevenson identified himself and the officer confirmed he had two outstanding City of Groves warrants totaling $707. A field test returned positive results for the presences of methamphetamine, including packaging weighing approximately 1.07 grams, court documents said. While being taken to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas for medical clearance for the jail, the officer said Stevenson threatened him, which resulted in a charge for obstruction or retaliation. While at the hospital, a clear baggie that contained a white powdery substance fell out from the back side of the suspects pants, the affidavit said. An assisting PAPD officer handed the small bag to the Groves Officer who tested the substance, which returned a positive result for cocaine. The packaging weighed about half a gram. According to jail records on Thursday, Stevenson bond was set on July 7 at $500,000 after he was linked to a murder and arrested on outstanding warrant for possession of a weapon in a prohibited area. He was held for deadly conduct at $250,000, possession of a controlled substance at $25,000, retaliation at $25,000 and failure to appear. meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/megzmagpie Villagers stand near a bank of the Padma River eroded by increased water flow in Bangladeshs Manikganj district, near Dhaka, Sept. 16, 2021. Weather variations from climate change are linked to the spread of infectious diseases and mental health problems in Bangladesh, officials and experts said Friday, agreeing with a new report by the World Bank that highlights such a connection. Changing and erratic weather patterns have affected peoples health, leading to an increase in respiratory diseases, mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, along with deteriorating mental health conditions in the South Asian nation, according to the Climate Afflictions Report, released on Thursday. The World Bank has rightly pointed out the impending health burdens caused by climate change that Bangladesh is going to face, Mirza Shawkat Ali, the director of the climate change cell at the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, told BenarNews. In 2018, Bangladeshs government published a study, which looked into how health problems could develop in the coming decades as a result of climate change, he said. It found that an increase in the frequency of vector-borne diseases, such as kala-azar, dengue, and malaria, and waterborne diseases, like cholera and diarrhea, were likely to happen because of the changing climate. Climate change will also result in under-nutrition, food insecurity, and mental health problems, Ali said, adding that government agencies were working to strengthen the resilience of people and communities as well as bolster the health system to adapt to climate change. The likelihood of contracting an infectious disease is about 20 percent higher in the monsoon season, which has become longer in Bangladesh in recent decades due to climate change, compared with the dry season, the World Bank report said. According to analyses of primary data collected from 3,600 homes, a quarter of households suffered from vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, and associated symptoms in the monsoon season compared with 14 percent in the dry season. For a 1 degree Celsius increase in mean temperature, the likelihood of a respiratory illness increases by 5.7 percent, the report found, while for a 1 percent increase in humidity, the chances of catching a respiratory infection rise by 1.5 percent. The report found that incidences of respiratory diseases can increase due to extreme temperatures that aggravate airborne allergens and pollution. Mental health can also be affected because the increase in mean humidity and mean temperature increases the probability of anxiety by 0.3 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, the report said. Nazrul Islam, a former chairman of the virology department at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka, said the global temperature increase is a huge health burden. There is a close relationship between temperature and spread of vectors and vector-borne diseases, Islam told BenarNews. This year, we have seen an increasing number of dengue patients and deaths. The World Bank report said that climate change had contributed to the number of dengue cases recorded annually doubling every decade since 1990. Dengue is a disease spread by mosquitoes. Changing seasons in Bangladesh According to the reports findings, summers in the South Asian country are getting hotter and longer, winters are warmer, and the monsoon seasons now go from February to October instead of March to September. With these changes, Bangladesh appears to be losing its distinct seasonal variations, the report said. Bangladesh has gotten warmer over the past 44 years, with an increase in annual mean temperature by 0.5 degrees Celsius between 1980 and 2019, the report said. By 2050, the temperatures are predicted to rise by 1.4 degrees Celsius in Bangladesh, the report said, while the annual rainfall is expected to increase by 74 millimeters by 2040-59. The deleterious effects on human physical and mental health are likely to escalate due to the projected changes in climate, the report said. Bangladesh has remarkably tackled climate change challenges, despite being among the most vulnerable countries. It has built resilience against natural disasters and introduced homegrown solutions to improve agricultural productivity, Mercy Tembon, the World Banks country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, said in a statement on Thursday. With more evidence showing a pronounced impact of climate change on physical and mental health, Bangladesh needs to build on its success in adaptations to ensure a stronger health system that averts outbreaks of emerging climate-sensitive diseases. Bangladesh ranked seventh on the list of countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, created by Germanwatch, an environmental NGO. According to the World Bank, Bangladesh has the highest mortality rate in the world caused by natural disasters, with more than half a million people lost to disaster events since 1970. The report said that these extreme weather events, including severe floods, cyclones, storms, are expected to be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. That means more physical and mental health issues are likely to emerge. The most vulnerable are children and the elderly, and those living in large cities like Dhaka and Chattogram, the report said. A 2019 dengue outbreak in Dhaka, where 77 percent of the countrys total dengue-related deaths occurred, could be partially explained by weather patterns uncharacteristically heavy rainfall in February, the report said. The rain was followed by high temperatures and humidity levels conducive to mosquito breeding, from March to July 2019. With falling humidity levels, rising temperatures, and increasing rainfall in the summer months, the risk of spread of dengue may be higher in Dhaka city in the future, the report forecast. [B]y ensuring stronger data collection, Bangladesh can better track the evolution of climate-sensitive diseases, Iffat Mahmud, a co-author of the report, said in a statement. Particularly by recording accurate weather data at local levels and linking it with health data, it will be possible to predict potential disease outbreaks and to establish a climate-based dengue early warning system. Journalist Kanak Sarwar maintains this YouTube page to report on the Bangladesh government, Oct. 8, 2021. A Bangladeshi journalist living in the United States and media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists have urged officials in Dhaka to release his sister who he claims was arrested in retaliation for his reporting on the government. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) police raided the suburban Dhaka home of Nusrat Shahrin Raka early Tuesday, according to her brother, journalist Kanak Sarwar. I am sure they have arrested my sister to scare me. You will see, even in RABs statement they mention she is my sister, Sarwar told BenarNews on Friday. There could not be any other reason to arrest her but to teach me a lesson. Sarwar said some of his recent reports might have been the catalyst for Rakas arrest. I guess her arrest is a reaction to my programs during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas recent visit to the U.S. and U.N. I ran a few programs where we questioned her personal visit to Finland, questioned bringing a large team to the U.N., he said. Sarwar said Raka may not have seen any of his programs, as she was not active on social media. In a press release, RAB claimed Raka was involved in destroying peace and order in the country by spreading false, defamatory and provocative information about the government and important personalities of the state on social media. It added that police had accused her of involvement with an unnamed group engaged in conspiratorial propaganda activities with Sarwar. Police filed a criminal complaint linked to violation of the Digital Security Act and one linked to alleged drug possession authorities confiscated a passport, mobile phone and methamphetamine. The journalist said Raka and her sons were taken to police headquarters in Dhaka where she remains in custody after a magistrate ordered she be held for questioning. Her sons have been released. She is still in police remand which will end on Sunday. A bail petition will be submitted, but it will depend on the government whether she will be granted bail, Sarwar said. When they arrested my sister, RAB also took her 17-, 14- and 7-year-old sons to their office and after more than 30 hours those boys were released to their lawyer, Sarwar said, adding the youngest suffered from trauma. Nusrat Shahrin Raka is seen in this undated photo. [Courtesy Kanak Sarwar] Mainstream media is almost silent Sarwar had reported for national dailies in Bangladesh before ending up at Ekushey TV where he worked until 2015. In January of that year, the station ran a speech from London by Tarique Rahman, exiled son of opposition leader Khaleda Zia. The speech was to mark the anniversary of the 2014 general election that Khaledas Bangladesh Nationalist Party termed Democracy Killing Day. Sarwar was arrested, made bail and lost his job a couple of months later. He arrived in the United States in April 2016 and requested asylum after first stopping in Malaysia. Sarwar, who lives in New York, runs a YouTube channel, Kanak Sarwar News. I do my journalism using the YouTube platform now. My areas of work are mainly restoration of democracy, freedom of expression, human rights and corruption in Bangladesh, he said. In Bangladesh, mainstream media is almost silent, so we have to find alternative platforms to inform people about the facts and the truth. So I present this content through my YouTube platform. CPJ joined Sarwar in calling for his sisters release from custody. Punishing exiled journalist Kanak Sarwar by arresting his sister, Nusrat Shahrin Raka, is a crude and barbaric form of retaliation that should shame the government of Bangladesh, Steven Butler, CPJs Asia program coordinator, said in a statement on its website. Authorities must immediately release Raka, cease targeting critical journalists or their family members, and allow the media to operate without interference. Rohingya in Chittagong carry their belongings as they make their way to a Bangladesh Navy ship which will take them to Bhashan Char Island in the Bay of Bengal, Jan. 30, 2021. After months of negotiation, the United Nations refugee agency will begin humanitarian operations on a remote island where Bangladesh has moved almost 19,000 Rohingya and plans to relocate more than 80,000 others, a senior minister told BenarNews on Friday. The government and UNHCR are set to sign a memorandum this weekend, according to Enamur Rahman, state minister at the Disaster Management Ministry. He did not say when the refugee agency would begin its work on the island. The UNHCR has finally agreed to start their operation in Bhashan Char. They will sign an MoU [Memorandum of Understanding] with my ministry on Saturday, Rahman told BenarNews. Bangladesh has built homes on the remote Bay of Bengal island so it can move the refugees there from congested camps in Coxs Bazar, a mainland southeastern district near the Myanmar border. BenarNews contacted the refugee agencys office in Dhaka and its headquarters in Geneva on Friday, but did not immediately hear back. However, UNHCR confirmed to news agency Agence France-Presse that it was signing the memorandum. After the signing of the MoU, the UNHCR will carry out operations in the same way they currently do at Coxs Bazar camps the UNHCR will provide food, health and other humanitarian services to the Rohingya in Bhashan Char, minister Rahman said. Currently, local NGOs provide food and health services for the Rohingya in Bhashan Char, he said. The refugees on the island have said they get food free of cost, but the quality and variety is better at Coxs Bazar. Health care facilities also are better on the mainland. Rahman said he hoped more Rohingya would want to move to the island from crowded Coxs Bazar once UNHCR begins its humanitarian work there. We have been planning to relocate some 83,000 more Rohingya to Bhashan Char in phases, he said. Coxs Bazar hosts about 1 million Rohingya. The refugees include more than 740,000 who fled Myanmar after the military launched a brutal offensive in August 2017 against the community in their home state of Rakhine. But the influx of such a large refugee population has strained the economy and host communities in the coastal border district. In addition, the makeshift shanties in the 34 refugee camps on the mainland are fire hazards. To ease that pressure, and as the refugees repatriation prospects got grimmer, Bangladesh built facilities on Bhashan Char it says it spent $280 million with the aim of moving 100,000 refugees there. The first batch of Rohingya moved in December 2020. Some rights groups have alleged that the Rohingya did not move to the island voluntarily, as the Bangladesh government insisted. Others alleged that the government falsely promised the refugees citizenship if they moved to Bhashan Char. BenarNews has not been able to substantiate any of these allegations. Meanwhile, some Rohingya and rights groups have said that since the move, hundreds of refugees have fled the remote island, some at the cost of their lives. In August, 11 Rohingya died and 15 went missing after their boat capsized in bad weather when they tried to escape the island. Some fled because of poor facilities and others because they had nothing to do there. They claimed tht they were not allowed to leave for the mainland for shopping trips or to meet relatives. Senior UNHCR officials Gillian Triggs (center) and Raouf Mazou (left) respond to questions from reporters in Dhaka as Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen looks on, June 2, 2021. [Jesmin Papri/BenarNews] Better facilities Abdul Kader, a Rohingya leader on the island, said he had moved to Bhashan Char hoping there would be economic opportunities there. But there is no source of income here, Kader told BenarNews by phone on Friday. Md. Yunuch, a leader of a cluster eight of settlements on Bhashan Char, said he was hopeful about UNHCR starting operations on the island. We are happy that the UNHCR will provide us humanitarian services in Bhashan Char. We will get facilities like the camps in Coxs Bazar, and the trend of fleeing the camps would come down, Yunuch told BenarNews by telephone on Friday. As the UNHCR does not work here, we do not get facilities like the Coxs Bazar camps, Yunuch said. Md. Zbair, secretary of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, said he wanted to wait and see how things would change with the presence of the UNHCR on the island. If they get better facilities, more Rohingya would be interested in relocating to Bhashan Char, he told BenarNews. For years, international rights and refugee groups, including the U.N., had criticized Bangladesh for planning to move the Rohingya to the island, which they said lacked adequate facilities and was barely habitable. In part, their criticism stemmed from the U.N. claiming that Bangladesh had, for more than two years, refused several requests for its officials to visit Bhashan Char. The world body wanted to carry out a technical assessment of the island using international experts, it had said. U.N. officials were finally allowed to visit in March. Their trip was followed by separate visits conducted by the Red Cross and envoys from several countries contributing to the Rohingya response. Then in June, U.N. officials for the first time endorsed Bangladeshs decision to relocate the Rohingya to Bhashan Char, but said economic activities should be created for residents of the isolated site in the Bay of Bengal. Munshi Faiz Ahmad, a former chairman of the foreign ministrys think-tank, the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, said the UNHCR agreeing to work in Bhashan Char would give Rohingya the confidence to move and would benefit those on the mainland as well. The housing and other facilities in Bhashan Char are much better than that of Coxs Bazar. The camps in Coxs Bazar will be less congested if more Rohingya people relocate to Bhashan Char, he said. Rohingya people were being pushed into illicit drug peddling, internecine violence and other social evils [in Coxs Bazar]. But in Bhashan Char, they will not face such problems. They would involve themselves in economic activities. Rappler CEO Maria Ressa speaks to journalists in Manila after she was convicted on a cyber- libel charge, June 15, 2020. Updated at 2:05 p.m. ET on 2021-10-8 Maria Ressa, the crusading editor of Philippine news website Rappler which has shone a light on thousands of extrajudicial killings carried out under the Duterte administrations war on drugs, has won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Oslo-based organization announced Friday. In a rare citation honoring the work of journalists, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Ressa and Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov, a newspaper editor in Vladimir Putins Russia, would share the 2021 peace prize in recognition of their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition of democracy and lasting peace. Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time, the committee said in its announcement. The Nobel committee lauded Ressa and Muratov as representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions. Ressa, 58, is the CEO of Rappler, a digital media news agency, which President Rodrigo Duterte has attacked as a source of fake news. Elsewhere, Rappler has received accolades for its reporting, especially its dogged coverage of the drug war despite Rappler reporters being harassed, singled out and criticized at official press briefings. It could not have come at a better time, a time when journalists and the truth are being attacked and undermined, Rappler said in a statement. We thank the Nobel [Committee] for recognizing all journalists, both in the Philippines and in the world, who continue to shine the light even in the darkest and toughest hours. Journalism has never been as important as it is today yet its so difficult to do the job that weve set out to do, Ressa said. Rappler lives with the possibility of a shutdown on a daily basis. Were on a quicksand. Yet, at the same time, if you keep the North Star ahead of you, you protect the facts, she said. You hold power to account. In a span of five years, Philippine courts, which are notorious for slow resolution of cases, have issued 10 arrest warrants against Ressa. In June 2020, she and a former colleague were convicted of cyber libel and could face up to six years in prison. They are free on bail pending an appeal. Since then, two other cyber-libel cases against Ressa were dismissed. Ressas conviction was part of President Dutertes attempt to muzzle journalists reporting on the drug war, human rights and press freedom advocates said. The International Criminal Court in The Hague is investigating his five-year-old administrations bloody crackdown on narcotics. Ressa and Muratov are only the seventh and eighth journalists to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in its 119-year history and the first since Yemeni journalist, activist and politician Tawakkol Karman in 2011, according to Rappler. Muratov heads Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper. Since its start-up in 1993, Novaya Gazeta has published critical articles on subjects ranging from corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, electoral fraud and troll factories to the use of Russian military forces both within and outside Russia, the committee said. Fearless defender The committee recognized Ressa as a fearless defender of freedom of expression. It also acknowledged Rapplers coverage of authorities using social media to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse. The committee released a YouTube audio recording of Ressa receiving an official phone call notifying her that she would share the peace prize with another journalist one of five Nobel Prizes awarded in different categories each year. The two co-winners will receive the prize on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobels death. I am speechless, she told the caller. Oh my gosh. Thank you so very much. Later, Ressa said she would not have won the award without her organizations small army of young journalists. In addition, Ressa told reporters in Manila that standing up against Duterte was a battle of facts. I guess what this just shows is that the Nobel Peace Prize committee realized that a world without facts means a world without truth and trust. If you dont have any of these things, you certainly cant conquer coronavirus, climate change, Ressa said. International recognition Praise for Ressa came from the Philippines and across the globe, including from one of her international attorneys, Amal Clooney. She has sacrificed her own freedom for the rights of journalists all over the world and I am grateful to the Nobel Committee for shining a light on her incredible courage, Clooney said in a statement. I hope the Philippine authorities will now stop persecuting her and other journalists and that this prize helps to protect the press around the world. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said the prize awarded to Ressa and Muratov is not only a recognition of their work but of the importance of freedom of the press and of expression in the countries and throughout the world. We commend them for defending these freedoms in increasingly challenging conditions in Ressas case, these challenging conditions have included a raft of cases and legal proceedings are proud to be in the community of independent journalists ready to hold the line with them, the NUJP said. The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines said Ressas win shines a light on the Filipino press in general. Her win is a victory for press freedom advocates across the Philippines, which remains one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, the association said in a statement. Reporters routinely face online harassment, local newsrooms face pressure to self-censor, and regional journalists remain the most vulnerable to violence, including detention and killings. In Washington, leaders of the National Press Club said Ressa deserved the recognition. Maria has been an inspiration to the world as she fought for the truth and for her rights and in fact the rights of free people everywhere as the leader of Rappler, Lisa Nicole Matthews, president of the National Press Club, and Angela Greiling Keane, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, said in a statement. We know she has a smile on her face this morning because she is almost always smiling. We do too. The Nobel Committee could not have picked a better person to represent journalists. Philippine opposition leader and Vice President Leni Robredo congratulated Ressa for the recognition of her tireless efforts to hold the line for truth and accountability. I applaud your courage, Robredo, who on Thursday filed to run for president in 2022, said via Twitter. There was no immediate comment on Friday from the presidential palace in Manila. A U.S. nuclear submarine struck an object while submerged in the South China Sea last weekend, the U.S. Navy said, at a time when rival nations are stepping up military activities in the busy and disputed waterway. Eleven sailors were reportedly injured. The U.S. Pacific Fleet issued a statement late Thursday saying the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) struck an unknown object on the afternoon of Oct. 2, while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region. The statement said there are no life-threatening injuries to the sailors. It added that the submarine remains in a safe and stable condition with nuclear propulsion plant and spaces being unaffected and fully operational. While the extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed, the U.S. Navy has not requested assistance and the incident will be investigated, the Pacific Fleet said. Incidents on naval ships are often reported after a delay for security reasons. The U.S Naval Institute, an independent forum that specializes in the U.S. Navy and naval issues, quoted an unnamed U.S. defense official as saying that 11 sailors were hurt in the incident that occurred in the South China Sea and that the submarine is now headed to the Pacific U.S. island territory of Guam on the surface. The USS Connecticut is believed to have been conducting routine operations in the area where the U.S. Navy is seeking to safeguard freedom of navigation amid Chinas increased maritime claims and activities. Its unclear what object the USS Connecticut struck, and speculation is rampant on defense forums. Some say it may have been a shipwreck or a sunken container. Others point to the possibility of a mobile object. We'll have to await the U.S. investigation report, if ever it does materialize, said Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. Until then, we have a lot to speculate about what that unidentified underwater object is. It can be really an inanimate object such as a shipwreck or even an uncharted seamount, or it could be a mobile object such as another manned submarine or drone, he told Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews. In my mind, this collision in South China Sea would have been inevitable anyway considering the intensifying spate of military activities by regional and extra-regional countries in the area, Koh said. The South China Sea like the other littorals throughout this region isn't exactly the best place for subs to operate in, honestly. It has been a busy time in the South China Sea, with three aircraft carriers from the U.S. and the U.K. conducting exercises with regional partners. The U.S. say their activities are to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific but China, which claims most of the South China Sea, says theyre aimed at countering its rising maritime power. On Friday, a two-week naval exercise called the Bersama Gold 21 involving U.S. allies Australia, the U.K., Singapore, New Zealand and Malaysia kicked off in the South China Sea. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China was gravely concerned about the submarine incident and demanded the U.S. to provide details, its purpose of cruising, and whether it caused a nuclear leak or damaged the marine environment." The U.S. has long been making trouble in the South China Sea in the name of freedom of navigation, which poses a grave threat and major risks for regional peace and stability. This is the root cause of this incident, Zhao was quoted as saying in a transcript on the ministrys website. China itself is very selective about publicizing its maritime activities in the South China Sea. It has the largest navy in the world including a dozen nuclear-powered submarines. This number is likely to increase to 21 by 2030, according to the U.S.s Office of Naval Intelligence. Observers say the South China Sea has become a flashpoint of tensions between the U.S. and China and a potential conflict zone between the two powers. The USS Connecticut is one of three Sea Wolf-class boats, commissioned in the Cold War era. It is 107 meters long and can carry around 130 sailors and officers. The submarines home is the Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton in Washington state. The collision was not the first time the Connecticut unexpectedly came into contact with an unfamiliar object. In 2003, after surfacing in an ice pack between the North Pole and Alaska, it was approached by a polar bear. The bear reportedly stalked the submarine for around half an hour but only chewed briefly on the rudder and didnt cause any damage. A polar bear stalked the submarine USS Connecticut in the Arctic in 2003. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Naval Institute] In 2013 another nuclear submarine, the USS Jacksonville, collided with a fishing vessel in the Persian Gulf and lost one of its periscopes but no one was hurt. In 2005 near Guam, the sub USS San Francisco struck a seamount at full speed, killing one sailor and injuring 24 others. In February 2001, the USS Greeneville, a Navy submarine, accidentally rammed into the Ehime Maru, Japanese training vessel for fisheries students, in waters near Hawaii, killing nine of the Japanese fishermen. Villagers and relatives of a suspected separatist rebel who was gunned down by government security forces attend his funeral in Dugu, a village in southern Thailands Narathiwat province, Oct. 8, 2021 Thai forces killed another suspected rebel on Thursday in the countrys Deep South, officials said, as part of an ongoing counter-insurgency operation that has claimed the lives of four government security personnel and five rebels since it began in late September. Col. Kiatisak Neewong, spokesman for the militarys regional command (ISOC-4), said he was not sure when the operation would end because insurgents have been hiding out in a 35-acre swamp in and around Hutaelueyo, a village in the Bacho district of Narathiwat province. Yesterday there was another shootout after noon, and one of those in the jungle died. We retrieved the body today and returned it to his family, Kiatisak told BenarNews on Friday, referring to the slain suspect, 43-year-old Maragree Urae. The operation at the Hutaelueyo swamp forest has so far led to five insurgents being killed they were identified and their bodies were sent back to their families for funeral rites, Kiatisak said. Police and soldiers had previously said that a total of seven rebels had been killed since Sept. 28, when the operation began. They later revised the total rebel death toll to five, saying the terrain and poor visibility made it difficult for them to immediately determine how many people had been killed. A relative of Maragree, the man slain on Thursday, complained about what he called misinformation about the number of suspects killed. All the villagers are okay with the deaths. We know the fights yield losses and they died as martyrs by choice, Mue Yue, a relative of Maragree, told BenarNews. We just want to give them proper funerals, but officials did not give us the correct death toll. We have to find out from elsewhere and did not have a clue. At Maragrees funeral on Friday, his relatives and other villagers were visibly agitated about the deaths, even though they said the rebels were martyred for a just cause. But military command spokesman Kiatisak said the rebel group had incited them with wrong information. The villagers are discontented, I believe, because the insurgent group distorts the information about the operation at Hutaelueyo to rouse the emotions of the people and damage the image of officials, Kiatisak said. He claimed that officials had brought together suspects relatives and religious leaders to convince the rebels to surrender, to no avail. This spate of violence comes after a Sept. 6 message linked to Barisan Revolusi Nasional (the National Revolutionary Front or BRN), the largest of armed separatist insurgent groups operating in Thailands mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region. The message appeared to urge combatants to resume self-defense operations because, Siams security forces set up raids and conducted summary executions despite COVID difficulties. A combatant and analysts confirmed that the page was linked to the rebels, but at that time Kiatisak questioned whether the page represented the militant group. In April 2020, the BRN had declared a unilateral ceasefire to allow Thai health workers to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The ceasefire was announced a month after face-to-face peace talks between the Thai government and BRN leaders stalled because of the pandemic. But both sides said they continued to meet online through technical-level panels, with neighboring Malaysia serving as facilitator. The last virtual meeting occurred in February, Abdul Rahim Noor, the Malaysian broker of the talks, confirmed to BenarNews at the time. Since the decades-old insurgency reignited in January 2004, more than 7,000 people have been killed in the region along the Thai-Malaysia frontier, according to Deep South Watch, a think-tank based in Pattani, one of the provinces there. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. Patrick Leahy is Vermonts senior United States Senator. The current Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, a former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senates President Pro Tem, he is the lead author of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media. Cosy Sheridan, right, seen here with her husband Charlie Koch, will teach a songwriting for the ukulele workshop and participate in a concert at the 10th annual Berkshire County Uke Festival on Oct. 17. The Pittsfield City Council voted 9-1 to ask the Attorney General's Office to step in and look at the permitting process for the Verizon Wireless cell tower on South Street. Councilors said they hope an investigation will give residents answers. Senate President Karen Spilka, right, and state Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, center, toured care facilities in greater Boston on Tuesday. After a Hinds-chaired committee released its first report Tuesday, Spilka said, Its clear to me that if we wish to have a full and equitable recovery, we must take a look at the factors that affect women's employment at every level and in every sector. Advocates on Thursday pitched the state's Higher Education Committee on legislation that would direct the Department of Higher Education to establish a Hunger-Free Campus Initiative and a corresponding grant program, and to dedicate an office to supporting the 29 public higher education campuses as they work to address their students' food needs. No federal storm help for Berkshires, despite extensive damage Berkshire County reported $630,000 of storm damage due to record rainfall, straight-line winds, bridge washouts. It was still not enough to meet FEMA threshold. The jury selection in the trial of the actor of Jussie Smollett is set to start on Nov. 29, according to the New York Times, a Cook County judge announced at a hearing on Tuesday (Oct. 5). Smollett is charged with disorderly conduct after prosecutors say he staged an attack in 2019. He pleaded not guilty. BET previously reported that the case of the former Empire first began back on Jan. 29, 2019, after allegations that two men assaulted him in a racist and homophobic attack while he was returning home from a sandwich shop in Chicago. Smollett claimed that he was beaten, called racist and homophobic slurs, had an unknown chemical substance poured on him, and had a rope put around his neck. Cook County states attorney, Kim Foxx, charged Smollett with filing a false police report on Feb. 20, 2019. The charges were soon dropped, and in August of the same year, special prosecutor Dan K. Webb was appointed to the case by a judge, the Times notes. Webb later indicted Smollett on six felony counts of disorderly conduct. Prior to the jury selection, on Oct. 15, a hearing will take place on a new motion to dismiss the case. A New Jersey man who used dating apps to meet and kill women, has been sentenced. According to the Associated Press, Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, 25, was sentenced to 160 years in prison ater being convicted of three murders, one attempted murder and other counts including kidnapping, aggravated arson and desecration of human remains. The trial and sentencing comes after friends of one of the victims did their own detective work on social media in tracking down the suspect. Wheeler-Weaver showed no emotion as the judge gave him his sentence in Newark. The sentencing was preceded by emotional statements by family members of victims Sarah Butler and Robin West. Prior to the family members statements, Wheeler-Weaver told Superior Court Judge Mark S. Ali that he was framed and denied responsibility for the slayings. The Essex County, N.J., prosecutors office credited friends of Butler with using social media to help police find Wheeler-Weaver by setting up a fake account and luring him to a meeting. At Wednesdays (October 6) sentencing, Tiffany Taylor, a survivor of one of Wheeler-Weavers attacks, described how it changed her life. My whole life is different; I dont wear makeup anymore; I dont have friends. Im always paranoid. But Im happy to still be here, she said. I hope you dont show him any remorse, because hes not showing any remorse. During the trial, investigators presented evidence from Wheeler-Weavers cell phone that placed him where the victims disappeared and where their bodies were found. Spearfish, SD (57783) Today Partly to mostly cloudy. High 46F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 35F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. LEWISTON - The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has reduced the bag limit for steelhead in sections of the Clearwater River to one fish per day and three in possession in response to low steelhead returns, which means all Idaho rivers open to steelhead harvest will have a bag limit of one fish per day and three in possession. Adjustments were made to the following sections, which except for the North Fork of the Clearwater, will open for harvest of hatchery steelhead on October 15: Clearwater River - Lower (Memorial Bridge to Orofino Bridge) Clearwater River - Upper (Orofino bridge to Confluence of South Fork and Middle Fork of the Clearwater rivers) North Fork Clearwater River - (Mouth to Dworshak Dam) Note: Reduced bag limit takes effect Oct. 15. Middle Fork Clearwater River - (Mouth to Clear Creek) South Fork Clearwater River Fish and Game biologists estimate that 35,000 to 40,000 steelhead will return to Lower Granite Dam, which is the last of four Snake River dams the fish cross before reaching Idaho. About 59,000 crossed last year, and the 10-year average is about 100,000 annually. We anticipated this years poor steelhead return and have been working with our Tribal and State Fishery Managers to implement conservative fisheries throughout the Columbia River, Fisheries Bureau Chief Lance Hebdon said. In September, the Commission also reduced the bag limit for steelhead anglers to one fish per day and three in possession in the following river sections. BOISE - The State of Idaho received a State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) Grant of $445,000 to support the growth of Idaho small business exporters. The grant will fund projects occurring from September 30, 2021, through September 29, 2022. The STEP program is funded in part through a grant with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and is administered by the Idaho Department of Commerce. The goals of STEP are to increase the number of small businesses that export, increase the value of exports and increase the number of small businesses exploring significant new trade opportunities. The STEP Grant allowed us to take the risk of investing our time and money into pursuing an international market, Air Vise and Workholding Business Manager Austin Jones said. Whereas before we only had the resources to focus on sales here in the U.S. Without the grant, we would not have been able to grow our exports in the way we have done this past year. In the past grant year, participating companies reported more than $12 million in sales as a result of the program. Eligible companies received funds on a competitive basis to target approved export plans with awards ranging from $2,000 to $9,000 per project. Idaho small businesses were awarded $600,000 in industry sectors ranging from manufacturing and agriculture to aerospace and outdoor recreation. The STEP grant program has been incredibly beneficial for Idaho businesses and the Idaho economy to expand trade internationally, Idaho Commerce Director Tom Kealey said. Our Idaho Commerce International Team is looking forward to administering the funds for another successful year of this program. Learn more about the STEP Grant by clicking HERE. View past grant recipients by clicking HERE. BIG RAPIDS Among the famous buildings on Ferris State Universitys campus, there are two that are infamous during the Halloween season. The campuss Alumni Building and West Buildings are known to be the host of some paranormal activity. The Alumni Building is the oldest existing structure on Ferris campus, and custodial staff members have reported sounds of high heels clicking down empty hallways and the murmur of voices from darkened rooms. The buildings themselves have been explored by the Michigan Area Paranormal Investigative Team, which began in 2006 with founder Daniel Mackin, of Traverse City, his brother Dave Mackin, and their cousin Roger. The team has traveled throughout Michigan, and beyond, to investigate hauntings. Investigations have taken them to the Island House Hotel on Mackinaw Island, the City Opera House in Traverse City and the Blue Pelican Inn at Coral Lake. Daniel Mackin said exploring the paranormal has always been an interest and he enjoys educating people on the topic. For private investigations, our goal is to help the client in whatever way they feel they need. Some people just want confirmation that they have spirited visitors, while others want a full house cleansing and to not have any ghosts left in their house, he said. For public hunts, we try to teach our audience about what we do and why, what techniques we use, and ultimately try to give the attendees a great experience. According to Daniel, he had paranormal experiences starting at a young age. Once the first ghost hunting shows came out, he decided to give it a shot. Paranormal shows helped to make investigating more acceptable to the mainstream public. Daniel wanted to find the answers he never had as a kid, but he has since learned that for every question that gets answered, 10 more arise. At Ferris, there is a purportedly common spirit who haunts the Alumni Building named Michael. Apparently, the staff enjoys having him around as a type of protector. Ferris State approached the paranormal team to investigate after receiving many reports from students and faculty of activity happening throughout the campus and the team felt it would be a great opportunity to expand their repertoire. Before being contacted to investigate, the team had not heard of any of the spirits, Daniel said. We were filled in on the various activities and suspected spirits that were reported after being contacted. We felt like we had encountered some of the more well-known spirits, and we had activity in the rooms that had the most reports. Most of our activity was in the 'scary room,' as it has been named by students, he added. We often look for shadow apparitions, objects being moved, AVP or audio voice phenomena heard with our ears, and EVP which stands for electronic voice phenomena, which can be heard only when reviewed later. The team then went back to the campus to present the evidence it had gathered, and many students and staff came forward to share that they had the same or similar experiences and were happy to have their experiences validated. In hunting paranormal activity, there are special instruments that can be used to pick up activity and attempt to communicate with spirits. Daniel said the different instruments can help the team identify what kind of activity is present during and after the investigations. Some of the more basic tools are video camera, DVR system and audio recorder, Daniel said. The Spirit Box quickly sweeps through radio frequencies, and we hope to catch voices that carry over several frequencies/stations. "An Echovox is a phoneme generator, and theoretically, it should not be able to generate full words on its own, as it only has a data bank of consonant and vowel sounds. When we are using Echovox, we are looking for full sentences that directly answer the question. However, the biggest and best tool is our own senses. Daniel said the evidence review is not as fun and glamorous as the TV programs show, but it is very rewarding. The first piece of advice he had for people interested in getting into paranormal hunting is to start small. Evidence review takes a lot longer than the 15 minutes they show on TV, Daniel said. My advice is to start small. You don't need thousands of dollars of equipment to collect evidence. A lot of the time we go in with just a handheld camera and voice recorder. Be wary of phone apps and do your research before using them. Try to debunk evidence scientifically before you present it as paranormal. Daniel said he and the paranormal team hope to make it back to Ferris someday to explore more of the haunted campus attractions to collect more evidence. For more information on the Michigan Area Paranormal Investigative Team, and their latest paranormal hunt adventures visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MI.Area.Paranormal. MECOSTA COUNTY A collaboration between the Mecosta and Osceola County sheriff's departments and Meceola Central Dispatch plans to bring critical crisis training to area first responders. The Mecosta County Board of Commissioners authorized submission of a grant application to the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority Risk Avoidance Program to help fund mental health and crisis intervention training during its meeting Thursday. The RAP was established in 1997 to assist in projects that are innovated with a high potential of solving specific risk management problems of government agencies, including specific education or training programs. The grant program has helped to buy cameras for law enforcement vehicles, storage for camera data, tasers for police officers, EMS equipment and other useful items. The Risk Avoidance Program is a program that the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority funds each year, Mecosta County administrator Paul Bullock said. They are funding it right now to the tune of $1.7 million $1 million of that is available for members to use for things that help reduce risk." The sheriffs departments, the EMS directors and dispatch all came together and said they are seeing more and more first responders walking into situations they dont really know how to deal with, he continued. There are trainings out there that can help them. Two things we think would be helpful for our first responders and local law enforcement are mental health first aid and crisis intervention. Bullock said because of the concerns of law enforcement agencies ability to deal with mental health crises and engage with those experiencing a mental health crisis, they are asking the MMRMA to assist with the proper training required to avert negative outcomes. We see in the news quite often where a mental health crisis can result in a really bad outcome for somebody and we would like to avoid that if at all possible, Bullock said. This training curriculum, we believe, will give us the ability to respond quickly to determine if the situation is the result of criminal activity or a mental health crisis, and will result in more appropriate responses for law enforcement and first responders. We have been trying to do this for years and this will formalize it and get our people this type of training, he continued. What we are asking the authority to do is help us train our trainers who will then train our first responders. Bullock explained that plan to develop four trainers for Mecosta and Osceola counties. Those four trainers, in turn, will train first responders within the two counties, including law enforcement, EMS, fire department, corrections officers and dispatch center workers. The beauty of having in-house trainers is that we can train anybody that is interested," Bullock said. "The local trainers will work with our first responders and we can do it right here when they are available. We wont limit the training to just our people. We have the Big Rapids Department of Public Safety, the Ferris State University Department of Public Safety. We have the Osceola County local police departments. We would offer the training free of charge and they would just have to pay for materials. The fee to train a trainer in mental health first aid is $2,500, and for crisis intervention is $2,900. The subsequent training of all other first responders will cost $52 per person for materials. It looks like we are talking about $30,000, and we are asking MMRMA to cover 50% of that, which means that locally we will have to come up with $15,000, Bullock said. That would be between us, Osceola County and Meceola Dispatch. I am going to ask you to set aside funds for this during the budget process, he continued. We are looking at 2022, because it will take that long to get everything lined up and schedule classes. The RAP grant is a reimbursable grant, so the agencies would have to appropriate the money, spend the money and then get reimbursed." Bullock added that, whether or not they get the grant, he would like to see them implement the program because he believes it would be worth it, and recommended they budget for the full amount. The first time one of our officers has the ability to de-escalate instead of the situation rising to the level of having to put their hands on someone, it pays for itself, because every time you have to put your hands on someone, the potential for a really bad outcome is there, he said. We will never be able to quantify a return on investment, but from the standpoint of dealing with people in crisis, it will save money and save lives. Is it going to stop every bad outcome no, he added. But it will give our first responders a much better chance to avoid a bad outcome. This is something we can be really excited about and proud of. Joe Bidens approval rating plummets, Details emerge about the terrorist who killed 13 Americans in Kabul, Gas prices hit record highs heading into the fall, Los Angeles imposes vaccine mandates for most indoor locations. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, the truth about the harms of marijuana. CAN REVERSAL PROGRAMMES BEAT DIABETES? Our modern way of life is at odds with the optimal functioning and upkeep of the human machine. Unreasonable demands on the body and mind, coupled with erratic food habits has only added to the overall deterioration of the body-mind equilibrium, leaving us with numerous lifestyle disorders, which could have been avoided with a hard reset of our erring way of life as it stands. Unfortunately, there hasnt been much of an improvement in that department and consequently we are faced with a burgeoning diabetes-affected population. Healthcare providers are in the fray to launch various diabetes reversal programmes, to tackle this calamitous national (and international) healthcare challenge. We shall try and find out just how effective and viable these programmes are. Malaria vaccine pilot programmes in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have shown high impact in real-life childhood vaccination settings The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine, developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission. The recommendation is based on results from an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800 000 children since 2019. GSK is working with partners to develop solutions to ensure equitable and long-term access to the RTS,S vaccine for the people who need it. GSK has committed to donate up to 10 million RTS,S doses for use in the pilots, and to supply up to 15 million doses annually, following a recommendation and funding for wider use. A Product Transfer, including technology transfer for long-term antigen production, is also underway with Bharat Biotech. GSK will now work closely with partners, funders and governments to support additional supply of the vaccine, and has committed to make the 15 million annual doses available at no more than 5% above cost of production. Dr Maheshwari has to his credit more than 60 publications in national and international journals and has a wide experience of management of urinary calculus disease patients Dr Pankaj Nandkishore Maheshwari, Consultant Urologist, Fortis Hospital Mulund and honorary assistant professor of Urology at Grant Medical College has won the Urology Gold Medal award for the year 2020 for his exemplary services in the field of urology was held in Goa recently, during the conference of the West Zone chapter of the Urological Society of India. Dr Maheshwari has contributed to society through multiple medical camps, awareness programmes, NGOs like Lions Club and educational articles in newsletters. Dr Maheshwari has to his credit more than 60 publications in national and international journals and has a wide experience of management of urinary calculus disease patients. He is a pioneer in the use of Holmium Laser in urology in India. He started performing Holmium Laser enucleation of the prostate for management of benign enlargement of the prostate in late 1998. He popularised Holmium Laser enucleation of the Prostate across India and has been one of the initial persons to start therapeutic flexible Ureteroscopy in India. He has demonstrated HoLEP in most major centres in India, Bangladesh and Kunming in China and has delivered nearly a hundred guest lectures in national and regional conferences. He was invited as a faculty member to various international Urology society meetings like Society Internationale Urology, European Urology, World Endo-urology Congress, Society Internationale Urology, Singapore Urology Association, Indian section of American Urology Association, Golden Bridge Urology Association at Kunming & Vietnam Urology & Nephrology association. His written work is said to be quite compelling and informative. His eight publications are quoted in the Campbell textbook of Urology. Being a member of the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Urology, he has reviewed more than 20 national and international Urology and medical journals. Ursula Van Niekerk recently joined Leagas Delaney as MD of its newly established Johannesburg office. Congrats on your new appointment. How do you feel about joining Leagas Delaney, heading up the newly established Johannesburg office and your new role? Youre going to be responsible for the Investec account again. What did you enjoy most about working with Investec when at Ireland Davenport, and what are you most looking forward to with regard to working with Investec now? What are some of your short-term goals at the agency or some of the objectives youre setting out to achieve in the next few months? You have an entrepreneurial background tell us more about your career path to date. And some career highlights. What do you love most about your career, the creative industry and what you do? What impact do you hope to make or see in the industry? Any exciting plans in the pipeline youre allowed to mention? The independent and integrated creative agency, founded by Tim Delaney, with established offices in London, Hamburg, Milan, Shanghai and Los Angeles, was appointed as Investec's global brand agency in February this year and is in the process of hiring a team in South Africa to work on the account. The firm has worked with Investec in the UK for the past three years.Moreover, Van Niekerk previously led the Investec account at Ireland Davenport, so she said the opportunity at Leagas Delaney was too good to turn down. "Their people are outstanding and the chance to work with Investec again was a huge draw. Its an exciting time for everyone concerned.She joins from her role as GM of WPP-owned Wunderman Thompson, where she ran the Cape Town office, with responsibilities including new business, business planning and operations. Whilst there her remit also included leading the Pepsico, J&J and Diageo Nigeria accounts as well as developing the growth strategy for the Wunderman Thompson business across their advertising, digital, consulting and technology divisions.Im incredibly excited about joining the Leagas Delaney team. Their impressive heritage is obviously a huge draw, as is their independence, but what really motivates me is the marriage of creative excellence and technology that sits at the heart of the business. Its a very different model to other agencies and thats something that Ive already heard referenced a lot.I enjoyed the people and the spirit with which they do things. So many people I worked with are still at Investec now. That says so much about the environment and the culture. Investec people are true brand ambassadors and they live and breathe the brand and are passionate about it and so proud to be a part of it.The people! I am excited to bring onboard great talent but also nice human beings. People who inspire you and you want to surround yourself with every day that you go to the office.I have lived in a number of countries and have started a few ventures. I have, however, always returned to advertising. Its a passion, I guess. The feeling of being part of making really great creative work alongside people who inspire you is something really special.Funny that. Some of the best years of my career were spent working on Investec. Travelling to the Amazon to make an incredible ad for them was certainly a big highlight of my career.I love the eclectic bunch of people I get to engage with and learn from and have fun with. I love the conceptual thinking and working alongside the creatives. I always find myself spending lots of time with the teams I work with to come up with ideas together.We talk a lot about the rate of change thats happening in the media landscape, we call it the digitally accelerated culture. Its our view that the landscape is changing fast and the best ideas acknowledge and respond to it. And equally, so do the best agencies.Were building our team and are close to announcing a number of key hires, so watch this space! South Africa has been removed from the United Kingdom's red list. This means that vaccinated travellers returning to Britain from SA no longer have to spend 10 days in quarantine as of Monday, 11 October. Tourism industry elated SA is travel ready However, travellers will have to book and pay for a Covid-19 test that they will have to do by day two of their arrival to the UK. They will also need to fill out a travel disclosure 48 hours before their flight stating where they have travelled to, according toThese rules apply to fully vaccinated people only, with quarantine still applying to those who are unvaccinated.Tourism Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu welcomed the decision of the UK government to take South Africa off the red list, saying that she is delighted to see the UK restrictions on travel to South Africa lifted, and that the country looks forward to welcoming British visitor over the summer season. She added that government will continue to work with all national and international partners to ensure the success of South Africas tourism recovery.Travel and tourism authorities also welcomed the announcement made yesterday by Grant Shapps, UK Secretary of State for Transport.Andrew Stark, Flight Centre Travel Group MD said: "We are delighted by the long-overdue announcement that such decisions are now being made on firm scientific evidence and that travel between the UK and South Africa will now be much easier."Oz Desai, Corporate Traveller GM said that the "removal of South Africa from the UK red list from 11 October is a game-changer for South African business travellers."David Frost, CEO Satsa added that "this decision is long overdue, but it will come as a huge relief to hundreds of thousands of tourism workers in South Africa, in addition to scores of holiday companies in the UK."Our UK operators have already seen a surge in enquiries from sun-starved Brits looking for a winter escape, and early estimates suggest that upwards of 300,000 British passport holders expect to visit friends and family or take advantage of highly competitive holiday deals across Southern Africa in the coming months."Rosemary Anderson, Fedhasa national chair shared that the industry body is elated for our industry. "Supporting 1.5 million people, our tourism and hospitality sector will enjoy a significant boost with our largest source market being open to travel which in turn means a boost for job security and livelihoods."According to a release published by Cape Town Tourism, the red list saw strenuous rules and quarantine periods for those wishing to return to the UK from countries such as South Africa, Argentina and Mexico - all of which have now been removed.CEO, Enver Duminy added his delight saying that "Cape Town Tourism is definitely delighted at the news that South Africa has been taken off the UKs restrictive red list after months of lobbying. We would like to acknowledge our partners Satsa, especially David Frost, our other partners Wesgro together with the City of Cape Town and the members of Cape Town Tourism for our continuing months of lobbying against these restrictions.Duminy continued: "As an organisation, we have always heeded the call to be removed, and Cape Town is and always has been ready to welcome all international guests with open arms. While this is a much-needed victory for us, we need to continue to encourage our citizens to get vaccinated. Even now, after this good news, many will still be looking at the vaccination rates within South Africa as an indication of whether they are confident about booking a trip to our country." Low demand and fewer airlines meant higher prices for South African air passengers in recent times. Now with the return of SAA, relief is in sight. The return of the national carrier is certain to bring more competitive pricing after 16 months of high prices in the airline industry. These lower costs and fewer lockdown restrictions, coupled with SAs impending removal from the UKs red list, mean more passengers, which could also have a positive impact on the embattled tourism industry.Initially, the airline will focus on the busy route between Cape Town and Johannesburg, which is the busiest route in Africa. The airline also offers flights to African destinations like the DRC, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Ghana.SAAs board chairman, John Lamola, vows that SAA has turned over a new leaf after its previous struggles and is now more streamlined and better able to offer its customers cheaper prices.Lamola adds that having SAAs national colours back in action also contributes to national pride after a difficult spell. With fewer staff and a fleet of just eight aircraft, the airline has slashed its operating costs considerably, and is now able to offer some of the most competitive pricing.Currently, SAA offers the cheapest flights on its Johannesburg to Cape Town route, leaving the pricing ball firmly in the courts of its competitors.While bookings will determine the effectiveness of this long process, the airline is already receiving enquires from other African airports wondering when theyll be added to the flight roster.In response to SAAs return, several domestic carriers have come up with ways to stay competitive as the industry re-awakens.There havent been any major shifts in pricing yet, but you can compare current ticket prices on browser search engine such as SA Airlines, Direct Flights South Africa, and Travelstart.Flysafair is branching out to include Mauritius in its offering, with the first flights heading out in December. These two weekly flights should impact air fares on this route, traditionally dominated by Air Mauritius and British Airways.Already, passengers can shave at least R2,000 off the price of their ticket by booking with Flysafair instead of the other two operators.Whats more, the airline has just released a flight subscription service to help travellers spend less when they take to the skies.This service, called the FlyMore club caters to regular flyers, like commuters, villa owners, boarding school students, and business travellers. These passengers pay a fixed monthly fee for batches of flight assignments ranging from two to 10 flights per month.In addition to fixed budget fares, the club has special offers as well as free flight incentives.Comair was back with a bang in September with three convenient and affordable bundled packages offered via its Kulula.com brand. The current offering includes Fly Light which is a hop-on, hop-off option with low fares for travellers with carry-on baggage only.Pack and Go includes one piece of checked luggage under 20kg and the Fully Loaded option offers Q-jump, two checked bags, and unlimited booking changes.Meanwhile, newcomer Lyft has launched its premium package, offering an all the bells and whistles option for travellers at just over R2 800 for a return ticket from Johannesburg to Cape Town.Airlink has turned its attentions toward the north, reopening its route to Polokwane, and offering a competitively priced fare between Johannesburg and Luanda three times a week. Both these routes offer business travellers more options and serve to get these important commercial corridors flowing once again.Airlink has also entered into a codeshare agreement with Emirates that offers inbound travellers from abroad access to over 40 domestic destinations and 12 African countries.Its been a while since weve seen such innovation amongst airlines on domestic flights in South Africa , especially in such a short time. Theres no doubt that these ongoing attempts among airlines to outmanoeuvre each other will bode well for both travellers and the broader tourism industry. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 814-368-3173 or email nfinnerty@oleantimesherald.com. After clearing some of the major obstacles earlier this year, Manitoba Infrastructure is finally looking for a contractor for the majority of the work to replace the aging Daly Overpass. Advertisement Advertise With Us TIM SMITH/THE BRANDON SUN Workers demolish some of the smaller buildings on the former Kulberg's Furniture Warehouse property at 18th Street and Pacific Avenue in April in preparation for the expansion of the Daly Overpass. After clearing some of the major obstacles earlier this year, Manitoba Infrastructure is finally looking for a contractor for the majority of the work to replace the aging Daly Overpass. According to a tender posted online last month, the province is looking for a contractor to build a two-span bridge over Pacific Avenue and the nearby Canadian Pacific Railway tracks, a second two-span bridge in the same location for pedestrian traffic, a single-span bridge over McDonald and Stickney avenues, and demolish the existing bridge and roadworks. Documents attached to the tender also provide clarity on the timeline for the remainder of the project. By Aug. 22, 2022, all steel beams for the foundation of project must be driven into the ground. On Oct. 15 that same year, the embankments for the new bridges must be completed and most of the pavement must be laid. The big milestone will come by June 25, 2023. On or before that date, the northbound traffic lanes must be open, the pedestrian bridge must be fully opened and the old overpass closed. By Oct. 15, 2023, the two southbound traffic lanes must be open and the rest of the pavement laid. The old Daly Overpass must be demolished by Dec. 31, 2023, and the final completion of all elements including landscaping and restoring the area around the project must be completed by Aug. 23, 2024. If the contractor with the winning bid wants to receive an exemption from the City of Brandon nuisance bylaw that prevents road maintenance or construction from taking place between the hours of 10 p.m. through 7 a.m., it must apply separately for permission from the city outside of the tender process. The tender documents also reveal that Manitoba Infrastructure has yet to come to an agreement with CP Rail regarding the project. Work on or adjacent to the railways right-of-way cannot start without CP Rails consent, but Manitoba Infrastructure anticipates that a deal should be hammered out by April 1, 2022. That agreement will include CP providing 400 working days of flaggers, who will provide guidance when work is in or above the railways right-of-way. Signs for the Co-op gas bar on 18th Street North and the Cornerstone Mall on the south side of the overpass will be in the way of the project and the contractor will have to make arrangements with the affected businesses to relocate them. Applications for the project close on Oct. 28 at noon. cslark@brandonsun.com Twitter: @ColinSlark HALIFAX - A Halifax-area school is being temporarily closed to contain the spread of COVID-19, Nova Scotia health officials announced Friday. Dr. Robert Strang, chief medical officer of health, arrives to deliver an update on health system preparations in Nova Scotia for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, in Halifax on Friday, March 6, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan HALIFAX - A Halifax-area school is being temporarily closed to contain the spread of COVID-19, Nova Scotia health officials announced Friday. Chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang said 14 cases have now been linked to Duc d'Anville Elementary School and the school will be closed to students from Oct. 12 to 15 to prevent further spread. "More concerningly, from some of those cases, there's been widespread exposure beyond a single classroom in the school," Strang told reporters Friday. Public health will bump up testing and vaccination efforts in the surrounding community, and students and staff will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test before they return to class on Oct. 18, Strang said. Remote learning will begin Tuesday, after the Thanksgiving holiday, he said. It marks the first time during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that public health officials have shut down a school in Nova Scotia. But Strang said the situation was not an outbreak. "What we're trying to avoid is a widespread outbreak with transmission in the school," he said. Health officials said the cases were likely the result of "multiple introductions" from staff, teachers and students. "People may be infectious when they go back home, somebody else in their family then becomes infected, and they reintroduce the virus into the school," Strang said. "So there's this movement back and forth of the virus between community and school, all of which points out to, ultimately, why schools can't be viewed in isolation from their surrounding community." Meanwhile, the province reported 25 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 38 more recoveries from the disease. Officials said 17 new cases were in the Halifax area, four were in the province's eastern zone, three cases were in the northern zone and one was in the western zone. There were 234 active reported cases of COVID-19 across the province and 15 people in hospital with the disease, including four in intensive care. About 81.5 per cent of Nova Scotians had at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly 76 per cent were fully vaccinated. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. VANCOUVER - Politicians accustomed to sparring in British Columbia's legislature have joined forces outside the house to push for higher vaccination rates in the north, but a longtime member of the Opposition Liberals says the "Alberta influence" is a factor in a part of B.C. where intensive care units can't accommodate the influx of COVID-19 patients. B.C. Liberal MLA Mike Bernier arrives for a news conference in Vancouver on Thursday January 14, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck VANCOUVER - Politicians accustomed to sparring in British Columbia's legislature have joined forces outside the house to push for higher vaccination rates in the north, but a longtime member of the Opposition Liberals says the "Alberta influence" is a factor in a part of B.C. where intensive care units can't accommodate the influx of COVID-19 patients. Mike Bernier said proximity to neighbouring Alberta "set us back from day one" when it comes to some northern residents shunning vaccination. "It would be the Alberta influence. A good portion of people in Dawson Creek, Pouce Coupe, the Fort St. John area, are very closely related, whether it be for personal reasons or through work, with Alberta," he said. "And we've seen the problems in Alberta with a solid message of trying to get people vaccinated until just recently, and the crisis that they're in." Bernier said some were so angry when B.C. introduced vaccine passports that they posted online messages about shooting him for supporting the policy. Most residents in the B.C. region aren't anti-vaxxers, Bernier said. "They're strong willed and do not like government intervention. They just want to work and raise their families and are very skeptical of government officials in general telling them what to do." Bernier, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 two days before his appointment for a first dose of a vaccine last May, has steadfastly spoken in favour of vaccination, making him a target of threats. About 100 people rallied last month outside his office in Dawson Creek, where Northern Health says 55 per cent of those eligible had received a second dose as of Tuesday. B.C.'s overall vaccination rate was about 82 per cent on Thursday. "I got contacted by the RCMP because they had made a big Facebook rally page, and somebody went on there about 10 minutes beforehand saying 'perfect, now we know where he is. Let's get our guns and go shoot this guy so we don't have to listen to him any more,'" Bernier said. "I can't back down on the message of what I know and think is right for the people in my region. And, you know, nobody's going to deter me from that just by making some threats." Bernier responded to the crowd by standing in the back of a pickup truck and saying that such online comments make the job of people in public life harder as they're trying to represent all constituents. Premier John Horgan commended Bernier and his colleague Dan Davies, whose Peace River North riding includes Fort St. John, at a news conference Thursday for their vigilance in encouraging vaccination. Health Minister Adrian Dix has also publicly thanked Bernier and Davies, along with local mayors. While provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and politicians on opposite sides of the legislative aisle are pleading for more people to get vaccinated, at least one mayor in the northern region has questioned whether the high number of hospitalizations is actually due to people being unvaccinated. Pouce Coupe Mayor Lorraine Michetti said politicians create divisions in a community by encouraging people to get vaccinated because that's a personal choice. "People have paid property taxes, they've paid income taxes. They have rights not to be vaccinated if they don't want to be," said Michetti in an interview, adding she is fully vaccinated. In the case of First Nations, there are other reasons for lower vaccination rates. Dr. Shannon McDonald, acting chief medical officer of the First Nations Health Authority, said Indigenous people who have not been vaccinated "really have carried on a historic distrust of government, generally of health systems," noting anti-Indigenous racism in British Columbia's health-care system as outlined in a report earlier this year was "triggering." McDonald said the number of COVID-19 cases has risen dramatically in the 203 communities across the province where it has responsibility, going from 10 to 15 a day in mid-August to 256 after the Labour Day weekend. Fifty-two of those communities are in northern B.C. McDonald said there are lower vaccination rates among those in the 19- to 39-year-old age groups in those communities, where it stands at "the mid-50s to 60s." The health authority has recently changed tactics to raise vaccination rates, going from mass clinics to having vaccine doses on hand in the community at all times so people who come for regular medical appointments can get their questions answered and decide if they want to get vaccinated on the spot. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. GJOA HAVEN, Nunavut - The sister of a Nunavut man shot by a Mountie says she's relieved a jury in a coroner's inquest has ruled his death a homicide. GJOA HAVEN, Nunavut - The sister of a Nunavut man shot by a Mountie says she's relieved a jury in a coroner's inquest has ruled his death a homicide. Charles Qirngnirq, 21, was killed Dec. 19, 2016, after RCMP received reports of a male with a rifle at the Gjoa Haven airport. Charles Qirngnirq is seen in an undated family handout photo. A jury in a coroner's inquest is to start deliberations Friday in the shooting death of Qirngnirq by an RCMP officer in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, in 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO Speaking after the jury read its verdict Friday, Shantel Qirngnirq said she feels stronger. "I don't have that ache in my heart anymore," she told The Canadian Press. "He never wanted to hurt people. He wanted to make sure that he saw people smiling or taking care of each other or just having fun," she said through tears, hanging her head in her lap. Eva Qirngnirq, Charles' grandmother, said she misses her grandson every day. "He was outgoing, he was always happy ... he did so much for me." She said five years was a long time to wait for the inquest. Lawyers for the Nunavut coroner's office and Qirngnirq's family had argued his death was a homicide, while the RCMP's lawyer said it was a suicide. After deliberating for about five hours, the jury made 11 recommendations to prevent similar deaths, including suicide prevention training for the RCMP and having more than one mental-health nurse in each Nunavut community. The jury also recommended the RCMP carry first aid kits on service calls and the Nunavut government and Hamlet of Gjoa Haven create a group for young men in the community. Cpl. Ian Crowe testified during the inquest that Qirngnirq yelled out to himself that he wanted to die before he appeared to lift his rifle at Crowe and another Mountie. Ottawa police investigated the shooting and cleared Crowe, saying the officer's use of force was reasonable. Sheldon Toner, the coroner's lawyer, had cautioned the jury that coroner's inquests must have a presumption against suicide. The inquest heard that Qirngnirq went to the airport that morning because he was upset his girlfriend and young son were trying to fly out of the community. The jury was also told that Qirngnirq was at a higher risk for suicide because of his age and background. But Toner said there's no indication he wanted to take his own life. "He's not a walking stereotype. He's a person," Toner said in closing arguments. He also said Crowe testified that he heard Qirngnirq make suicidal comments while walking with the rifle outside the airport that day, but Qirngnirq didn't direct the comments at the two officers. Qirngnirq's rifle was later found to be unloaded. He was carrying two bullets, but the inquest heard they would not have worked in the rifle. "A reasonable inference could be that he was just raging at the world. He was upset, but that does not mean he was suicidal," Toner said. "He wanted to live." RCMP lawyer Magnolia Unka-Wool had argued that Qirngnirq intentionally disobeyed the officers, pointed his rifle at them and used them to end his life. "Charles, without a doubt, could see the police vehicle in the flat snowy tundra," Unka-Wool said. She said his family had made previous calls to the RCMP saying he had suicidal thoughts. She told the jury that he took his rifle to the airport that day with the intention of dying. "He was leaving the officers with no choice but to shoot him," she said. Nikolai Sittmann, the Qirngnirq family's lawyer, said the inquest didn't hear any evidence that Qirngnirq knew the officers were actually there. "This is about two police officers that saw an upset young man walking with a rifle and felt so threatened that they shot him," Sittmann said. The inquest heard that after the shooting, when the officers reached Qirngnirq, he asked, "Why you shoot?" "Thats the reaction of someone who did not want to be shot," Sittmann said. The RCMP said Crowe is currently on administrative duty. He was charged with assault earlier this year after he responded to a call for service in Sanirajak, Nunavut, in August of 2020. Crowe told The Canadian Press he has no comment on the assault allegation. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. ___ This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship. OTTAWA - Jagmeet Singh warned Thursday that he is willing to "withhold votes" for Liberal legislation he does not agree with, including the budget. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks during a news conference after the party's first caucus meeting of the 44th Parliament, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang OTTAWA - Jagmeet Singh warned Thursday that he is willing to "withhold votes" for Liberal legislation he does not agree with, including the budget. The NDP leader signalled a tougher stance on co-operation with the Liberals in Parliament, stating that he will "not take pretty or nice words for granted" from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Singh said promises from Trudeau would not be enough to win NDP support in Parliament. The price would be "concrete action" on NDP priorities, such as extending COVID-19 benefits that are set to expire this month. At a news conference in Ottawa, Singh said he wants to see a "positive signal" from Trudeau that he is willing to work with the NDP. He revealed that Trudeau had not yet picked up the phone to discuss co-operating in Parliament on policies they agree on, or to negotiate. "They havent reached out and they havent signalled they want to negotiate or talk so far thats fine," Singh said. "I am not concerned because they know where we stand." As in the last Parliament, Trudeau's minority government will rely on votes from other parties to push his legislative program forward. Singh made clear that Trudeau could not take NDP support for granted. "We are prepared to withhold our votes and that is why we are calling on the government to show that they are interested in working together," he said. The concrete action Singh is demanding includes guaranteed paid sick leave for workers and a halt to clawbacks of financial supports for low-income pensioners who collected pandemic benefits. Ensuring Indigenous communities have clean, safe drinking water is another priority. "I look forward to them signalling their interest (in working together) by doing any of these things we have talked about, he said. The NDP leader said he is "very skeptical of the words and the promises of Mr. Trudeau and the Liberals. Because they dont follow through. Promises made by Trudeau in the past, such as on pharmacare, had not materialized into policies, Singh said. However, the NDP leader added that if he sees evidence from the Liberals that "they are really interested in working for people" they could "count on my support." "We withheld our votes in the past and we are prepared to do that again," he warned. On Wednesday, Singh met with the members of the NDP caucus for the first time since the election. The NDP returned 25 MPs to Parliament only one more than at the last election, despite spending $25 million on their campaign. Singh said that a review would look at whether the party should have campaigned harder on the ground. It will also look at whether Singh's tour of the country, which saw him visiting more than 50 target ridings, paid off. Singh said he was "proud" of the overall campaign, but "disappointed" that so many NDP candidates had narrowly missed out on a seat in Ottawa. In around 12 ridings he said the NDP came within one or two per cent of winning. Melanie Richer, NDP director of communications, confirmed that the review, headed by veteran party strategist Bob Dewar, would also examine why the party had not broken through in key targets in Toronto or Quebec. The NDP announced Thursday that its caucus had elected MPs to fill key jobs, including Vancouver MP Jenny Kwan who will serve as caucus chair and Blake Desjarlais, a two-spirit Metis leader newly elected in Edmonton, as deputy caucus chair. Quebec MP Alexandre Boulerice will continue as deputy leader of the NDP, and B.C.s Peter Julian will continue as House leader. Im very proud of our team and I know that these MPs are going to work hard to ensure people have a voice they can count on Ottawa, said Singh in a written statement. I will be relying on the MPs in these important leadership roles as New Democrats work to deliver for Canadians in this minority parliament. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2021. MIRAMICHI, N.B. - The coroner's jury investigating the police killing of Rodney Levi ruled Friday that his death was a homicide, rejecting the notion that he died from suicide by cop, which had been suggested during the hearings. A house is surrounded by police tape where a man was fatally shot, near Miramichi, N.B., on Saturday, June 13, 2020. A coroner's jury in New Brunswick, examining the 2020 fatal police shooting of Rodney Levi, has resumed deliberations.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ron Ward MIRAMICHI, N.B. - The coroner's jury investigating the police killing of Rodney Levi ruled Friday that his death was a homicide, rejecting the notion that he died from suicide by cop, which had been suggested during the hearings. Members of Levi's family applauded the jury and hugged each other after the decision was read. "Hearing suicide by cop (during the inquest), that was the hardest thing," Rodney's sister Rhoda Levi told reporters Friday. "I'm just glad today we can finally breathe. We remember our brother and he did not want to die." Levi, 48, from the Metepenagiag First Nation, was shot dead by RCMP in Sunny Corner, N.B., on June 12, 2020, after officers responded to a complaint about a man with knives at the home of pastor Brodie MacLeod of the Boom Road Pentecostal Church. The two RCMP officers who responded to the call testified that Levi had refused to surrender the two kitchen knives. They said they used a stun gun on him three times. Const. Justin Napke said Levi then told them, "You're going to have to put a bullet in me.'' Levi allegedly moved toward the two officers before he was fatally shot twice. During the inquest, witnesses spoke about Levi's mental health and long history of addiction to drugs. The jury was told he often expressed thoughts of suicide. One expert, forensic suicidologist Greg Zed, told the inquest that in his estimation, Levi exhibited several factors that led him to believe the man wanted to die. "Rodney Levi died as a result of the phenomenon known as suicide by cop,'' Zed told the inquest. But jurors did not agree. Instead, they ruled Levi died by homicide. Jurors issued a long list of recommendations Friday dealing with Indigenous policing, the RCMP, and mental health services. They called for the reinstatement of the Indigenous band constable program and for detox centres and more mental health services to be located in First Nation communities. They also recommend that RCMP officers not be first responders during wellness checks, but should be on standby. They said the province's health authorities should deploy more mobile mental health crisis units. The three-woman, two-man jury also recommended more suicide intervention training for the RCMP and for the acceleration of programs across the country to equip officers with body cameras. And they called for mandatory First Nations cultural sensitivity training for police and for suicide intervention training at the cadet level of the RCMP. The shooting was investigated by Quebec's police watchdog, the Bureau des enquetes independantes (BEI), and New Brunswick prosecutors determined the officers on the scene believed Levi was using force against them and were justified in killing him. Members of the Levi family are critical of the BEI report, however, They say there were holes in the investigation and they question the choices investigators made regarding whom to speak with to base their findings. After he read the jurors' decision Friday, coroner John Evans told reporters he was "pleased with the outcome." "We can only hope that the process will roll out with changes that will be positive in terms of all the recommendations that were made." He stressed the recommendations are not binding. "They are not directives," Evans said. "They are not obligatory for implementation on the part of the various agencies that are implicated or to whom they will be directed." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. The 3469 sq m parcel of land on the corner of Chapel and Grosvenor streets and Brighton Road has been owned by the Thurston family for nearly 50 years. The Thurstons had the first Toyota dealership in Australia and used the site for servicing cars for many years. More recently it has been occupied by Australia Post as a distribution centre. Stonebridge Property Groups Julian White, Justin Dowers and Chao Zhang handled the transaction. The buyer is a first-time Chinese-backed developer who beat 13 other parties. Offers were received from a range of local and Asian-based apartment developers, four build to rent groups, as well as a party looking to complete a vertical retirement living project, Mr White said. The local planning scheme allows for five to six levels on the site. Mazda site The Mazda showroom site on the eastern side of Ringwood has changed hands after 40 years. The Coopersmith Group, which developed the 8878 sq m holding at 391 Maroondah Highway, sold it to the owner of the Mazda dealership for $15 million. The deal reflected a 4.33 per cent yield. Its one of the largest Mazda dealerships in Australia along a seven hectare stretch of car yards, developed by the Coopersmith Group, including Nissan, Volkswagen and Ford. CBRE agent David Aiello struck the deal. Over the course of four decades, Coopersmith Group has built a landmark, and growing hub of car dealerships in Melbournes east, Mr Aiello said. The Coopersmith Group paid just $400,000 for the site in 1981, buying it from the Patterson Cheney Holden Group. The car yards that once dominated Ringwoods central business district are now being replaced by apartments or office buildings. Records show the Honda showroom at 85 Maroondah Highway sold earlier this year for $7.26 million to a company called Ivory Horse which is owned by Globird Energy. Its neighbour, the old Jooce nightclub and currently a Rivers outlet, sold for $13.5 million to Staley Properties last December. Bottle shop Still on cars, the former Flinkier used car yard at 264-276 Kings Way is on the market, with expectations of more than $5.5 to $6 million. The 696 sq m triangle-shaped property was an Ampol petrol station in an earlier incarnation. The Flinkier family bought it in 1996 for just $655,000. It had been leased to the popular Europa drive-through coffee shop since 2013, but is sub-let to The Thirsty Camel bottleshop and returns $250,000 a year in rent. Colliers agents Tom Isaksson, Daniel Wolman, Oliver Hay and Leon Ma are handling the campaign. They are also selling the banana yellow Just Tools shop around the corner at 174-180 Clarendon Street. On 334 sq m, that high-profile property is expected to fetch more than $4 million. Family office A local investor has splashed $5.5 million on a Carlton office building that was owned by the same family for more than 30 years. Its on 296 sq m of land at 135-139 Leicester Street, behind the University of Melbournes Laws School, and sold for a strong land rate of more than $20,000 per sq m. 135-139 Leicester Street, Carlton Credit: Its across the road from Oxfams head office, which was acquired last year by student accommodation provider Scape for around $15 million. CBRE agents Nathan Mufale, Scott Hawthorne, David Minty and JJ Heng negotiated the deal. While the purchaser was a local buyer, it was interesting to note the strong level of interest from student accommodation groups, Mr Mufale said. While COVID-19 has impacted the number of students travelling into Victoria, the student accommodation groups were dealing with are looking to fuel their respective development pipelines well beyond the next 18-24 months, Mr Mufale said. Corner cafe An investor who sold her apartment investments has snapped up the historic Parkville Store well ahead of its scheduled auction. The 82 sq m shop is currently leased to Cafe Piccolina. Credit: The buyer, who is after a more stable income, paid $2.85 million for the 52 Morrah Street shop and residence giving it a super-sharp 1.81 per cent yield. The 82 sq m shop is leased to Cafe Piccolina, whose managers also operate Naughtons hotel around the corner. Stonebridge Property Group agents Max Warren, Dylan Kilner and Nic Hage handled negotiations for the vendor, Ubertas development director Simon Barr. It sold at a land rate of $16,700 a sq m which is a record for the northern city fringe, Mr Kilner said. Batman market Coburgs Batman Markets site is back on the market and carrying a $40 million tag. In this novel he is pitted against a worthy adversary in the schools new principal, the first-ever female Headmaster (as he persists in calling her), and the story is told from their alternating points of view. Its wildly entertaining but it also has some serious things to say about education, gender, and class. Credit: A Dream Life, Claire Messud, Tablo Tales, $22.99 After the cheery Teddy Armstrong has been posted to Sydney, his family moves from their two-bedroom apartment in New York to a palatial, if rented, mansion with spectacular views of Sydney Harbour. But his wife Alice, unsure whether this posting is actually a promotion, feels she has been sent to the end of the earth, harbour view notwithstanding. The need for household help sets off a parade of colourful characters and provides an opportunity for Messud to reflect on different kinds of naivete, pretension and deception. This strangely charming novella has about it a whiff of Madeleine St Johns The Women in Black and, further back and fainter, the Katherine Mansfield stories set in New Zealand. In each case the focus is on family and class dynamics and the style and point of view are sweet and sharp by turns, like a Granny Smith apple. Credit: The Bride of Almond Tree, Robert Hillman, Text, $32.99 The Second World War is over and Wesley Cunningham has returned home to the little town of Almond Tree, a fictional place somewhere in central Victoria. As a Quaker, Wes was a non-combatant but had an important role to play in the army. Meanwhile, his neighbour Beth Hardy has become an ardent supporter of the Soviet Union and isnt interested in Wes attraction to her. What happens over the next 15 years or so is told in very plain language, which, given its dramatic nature, is probably just as well. After various Cold War machinations, Beth ends up near death in a Moscow prison, while Wes goes crazy worrying about her back in Almond Tree. The best things about this novel are the way that it explores the nature of belief systems Quakerism, Communism, Buddhism and the vivid and moving evocation of its rural setting. Credit: NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK Mortals, Rachel E. Menzies & Ross G. Menzies, Allen & Unwin, $34.99 Death comes to us all, yet we spend much of our lives in denial, striving for immortality through power, fame, offspring, art, religion, science. In Mortals, psychologists Rachel and Ross Menzies excavate the evolution of death denial and its cultural manifestations across Western history. They argue that the cure for this pervasive anxiety and the destructive behaviours it generates is to follow the Stoics and look death in the face. Only then can we live fully, grateful for every moment. To this ambitious project the authors bring a satisfying mix of scientific rigor and philosophical reflection, recognising that the subject cannot be regarded solely through a clinical lens. By showing us the extent to which we are driven by the fear of death, Mortals releases from its grip, freeing us to joyfully embrace our fate. Credit: The Brumby Wars, Anthony Sharwood, Hachette, $32.99 The divide between the two camps in the brumby wars those who believe the wild horses of the High Country are essential to Australias identity, and those who say they are pests destroying the alpine environment appears, at first, to be unbridgeable. But as Anthony Sharwood traverses the terrain made famous by Banjo Patersons The Man From Snowy River in order to understand the conflict, he is also on a mission to find middle ground. And by the end of his journey, there is reason for hope. Along the way, he spins a yarn that is genial yet urgent, ranging from the Indigenous origins of the man who inspired Patersons poem to the anxiety of belonging that underlies the wars, guiding the reader through this complex landscape and the mythology hovering over it. Lets keep small pockets of brumbies ... Let them be a flash through the trees ... A vague hint, not a vast herd. Credit: Die Laughing: The Biography of Bill Leak, Fred Pawle, Institute of Public Affairs, $49.95 As a young man, Bill Leak threw himself into the dream of becoming a great artist. But after his first cartoon was published, he felt hed found his true vocation vent[ing] my spleen on paper as an intervention in public affairs. This biography of Leak, written by friend and colleague Fred Pawle, evokes him through the eyes of those who knew and loved him, flaws and all. A man of extremes, he was both insecure and supremely confident, depressive and the life of the party, an iconoclast who longed for the validation of the art establishment, a larrikin of the left who turned right in the name of free speech. While his story is framed by the provocative political obsessions of his later years, Leak emerges from this kaleidoscopic portrait as too conflicted and contrarian to be neatly pigeon-holed as an ideological crusader. Broken, Camilla Nelson & Catharine Lumby, La Trobe University Press, $37 Credit: When the Family Law Act was passed in 1975, it emphasised the wishes of the child. Yet since then, say Camilla Nelson and Catharine Lumby, a series of conservative judges and legislators have ignored and overruled those wishes. The belief that parents brainwash their children in their quest for custody or that childrens testimony is not credible is still so prevalent that a significant number of judges in Australia are opposed to hearing the childs view directly. FICTION: Wild Abandon, Emily Bitto, Allen & Unwin, $32.99 Emily Bittos debut novel, which won the Stella Prize in 2015, was called The Strays. This new book, her second, is called Wild Abandon, an equally suggestive but more intense and violent version of the same idea. They are both books about the abandonment of order, wherein an innocent character from an ordinary family is first attracted and then infected by perceived glamour that turns out, once experienced, to be both a driver and a product of disorder and dysfunction. Both Emily Bittos novels are about the abandonment of order. Credit: The main character, Will, has been dumped by his Melbourne girlfriend Laura, his first love, and he deals with the unhappiness of this by running away to the US in search of both escape and experience. So the tale of Will is both a flight and a quest as well as a coming-of-age story. He ends up working as an assistant to an unstable Vietnam veteran called Wayne Gage who runs a private zoo, and this part of the novel is based on an extravagantly tragic and bizarre true-life series of events that happened in Ohio in 2011. Despite his youth and his essentially sweet nature, Will is a climber, as he acknowledges himself. He despises his small-town parents and their little lives; he thinks of himself as a pleb and country boy, as a product not of provincial Melbourne but of his bog-provincial home town his own climbing had merely raised his head to chin level above that pervasive element, his upbringing. He persists in believing that his parents lack of sophistication is the reason Laura dumped him, even after she tells him something very different, and this sharpens his resentment of them. My Friend Fox begins in a residential mental health facility. Anyone who has visited such a place, or been admitted to one, must wonder why their physical environment needs to be quite so bleak. I have one white sheet covering a blue plastic mattress that farts if you sit down too quickly. Everett daubs her canvas with these bright blotches of misery: even her mattress is a form of discomfort. She is enclosed rather than held: within this chemical straitjacket I am the final tiny babushka. You get the impression that here is a writer accustomed to observing the world while herself being largely overlooked. The result is more profound than many accounts of debilitating mental illness. Even in its darkest moments, of which there are many, My Friend Fox is somehow uplifting. The book holds the reader tenderly by the hand whilst at the same time looking you dead in the eye. Heidi Everett has an exquisite turn of phrase. Reading this book for a second time, I was often caught short by the sheer poise of her sentences and paragraphs. She drops a disconcerting word at the perfect moment but never expects it to do more than its job. She probes raw emotion without ever needing to be shrill or histrionic. The description of mealtime in a psych ward is scarcely human. Is the cuisine, if you can call it that, in such places made deliberately worse than other hospitals as a kind of incentive for people to get well? I have no idea. Surely if you want people to be comfortable within the human community, the place to start is treating them as humans. Everett does not find healing so much as she learns to play the system well enough to get released. Mental illness, lets not forget, is seldom evidence of a lack of either intelligence or self-awareness. Credit: Everett shares the personal story (quite a few circles round the sun) that brought her to the brink. It is not a diagnosis. Part of the power of this book is that it doesnt settle for explanations and spends precious little time on the technical terms that have blanketed the author. Her story is a series of confusions, a list of places where Everett does not so much live as where she does not quite fit in. There is a deep emotional homelessness in this book. Her family came from a small rural community in south Wales and emigrated to Australia, eventually landing in the struggling Melbourne suburb of Doveton. Everett observes wryly that there wasnt a dove in sight. She was bullied at school. Then a rare turn of financial luck enabled her to have a small horse, Bobbi. Later there will be a dog, Tigger. On many occasions, a bond with nature is the most significant and life-giving connection in Everetts life. This is where the fox comes in. Some of Everetts writing sent me back to the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2018) who chose a solitary life in which nature became a kind of primary community. She wrote a number of poems about foxes, creatures that are surely real and, at the same time, point her imagination beyond the real. It was probably a painful death for the eastern barn owl that Blairgowrie resident Kent Stannard found while walking on the Mornington Peninsula in September. The owl lay on its stomach with its pale, heart-shaped face turned towards the sand, and next to it lay the body of its intended prey, a dead rat. A dead owl, and its rat prey, found on the Mornington Peninsula by a local resident, believed to have died after eating anticoagulant rodent poison. When Stannard shared the image on social media the next day, other residents also said they had come across the bodies of dead birds of prey in the area, and one posted a photo of a dead goshawk. The dead owl and rat lying together offered Stannard, a marine researcher, a clue about the likely cause of death: the lethal effect of anticoagulant rodenticides, also called second-generation rat poisons, which kill birds of prey like owls and kites. Note to readers from Roy: We had closed the blog a few minutes ago but this late news came in from Sydney. We have added it after our farewell post. A COVID-19 exposure has occurred in an intensive care unit at Sydneys Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. A Sydney Local Health District spokesperson confirmed on Saturday afternoon that a patient who was receiving treatment in the hospitals designated non-COVID unit had returned a positive test. A COVID-19 exposure has occurred in an intensive care unit at Sydneys Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Credit:Wolter Peeters Surveillance testing has not identified any further cases and NSW Health is undertaking contact tracing to identify all close and casual contacts. Staff who have been identified as high risk have been asked to isolate, the spokesperson said. The ICU has been thoroughly cleaned and remains open. In the past fortnight, large COVID-19 clusters have emerged within Sydneys Liverpool and Campbelltown hospitals. Thirty-five cases, including 30 patients, have tested positive after acquiring the virus at Liverpool and an additional 20 cases, including 16 patients, resulted at Campbelltown after a patient was transferred from Liverpool while infectious. Two patients at Mount Druitt Hospitals dialysis unit died earlier this month after a patient, now deceased, returned a positive test after receiving treatment. NSW has reported 11 deaths and 646 new local coronavirus cases overnight, bringing to a halt a week of daily declining numbers. The slight uptick in infections comes as NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said that investigations have uncovered eight COVID-19 cases with a different genome sequence of the current Delta strain circulating in Sydney. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said a new Delta strain had been identified in eight cases . Credit:Jessica Hromas However, she said there was no indication that this new strain presents any differences regarding transmission or vaccine effectiveness or severity. Weve been having a program throughout this response to the pandemic around genome sequencing... and those investigations have identified eight cases with this particular Delta strain, seven people in one household within one additional case, Dr Chant said. Queensland police are considering dropping a traffic fine against prominent Greens councillor Jonathan Sri after it emerged the officer who issued the fine had made several comments critical of the councillor over the previous two years. Cr Sri, who represents the Gabba ward in the Brisbanes inner-south, had been riding his bicycle home from a protest on January 26 when he passed through a yellow traffic light and was then stopped by the officer with lights and sirens running. Greens councillor Jonathan Sri says he will contest the fine in court this month. Credit:Jocelyn Garcia After later learning the officers full name, Cr Sri recognised it as a Facebook user who had left a number of comments on posts made from his public profile, some of which dated back to October 2019. In one, the account commented on a post by Cr Sri apologising for a hoax voicemail call to a state MP saying he was not the victim of a smear campaign but a dishonest grub. On a post of Cr Sris condemning Israels actions against Palestinian people, the account wrote: the greens do love a terrorist organisation. Dr Cheng said vaccine hesitancy peaked in both low and high socioeconomic populations. We also see, on the flip side, vaccine hesitancy in the very well-educated [and] health literate. Deakin University epidemiologist Catherine Bennett said while they were small in overall numbers, anti-vaccine or hesitant people often lived in similar geographic areas and tended to be city-based. Theyre often males who work in a science related area, not health, but data or engineering. Then, you have a lot of women, and a few males, who [are into] natural therapies or wellbeing, as a professional career ... the people [who] are actually saying we should rely on our immune systems, she said. Similarly, Professor Bennett said unvaccinated children often came from educated, affluent families who understood herd immunity. Sometimes, education works in a strange way because people understand it enough to rely on other people to do the heavy lifting, she said. Katie Attwell, a vaccination social scientist and policy expert from the University of Western Australia, said her qualitative research showed anti-vaccine inner-urban hipsters tended to live in clusters. We do know, of course, that there is an overlap with wellness communities. Its the people who can afford to eat organic, its the people who can afford to invest in their health in ways that may make them feel that they are not, perhaps, as much at risk of COVID, she said. We know Brunswick was the site of a measles outbreak a few years ago, so if were seeing now that thats a lower uptake rate of COVID-19 vaccination that doesnt surprise me. Dr Attwell said families from wealthier backgrounds that often refused or delayed vaccines for their children were hard to motivate with incentives or no jab, no play penalties as they could afford alternative care and didnt need government payments. Data from the National Health Performance Authority in 2015 showed some of Melbournes wealthiest suburbs had the lowest immunisation rates in the state, including South Yarra, Prahran and St Kilda, which each now have low COVID-19 uptake. Loading Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly said low vaccination rates in his municipality could not be blamed on poor people and migrants as it was overwhelmingly wealthy and educated compared to outer regions. City of Melbourne is last, Yarra is second last and other leftie, greenie, progressive heartlands of the professional middle class are near the bottom too, he said. My theory is we have a relatively large cohort of Byron Bay-type lifestylists into alternate medicine who think they know better than the health professionals. They go to the gym every day, they have their decaf almond latte every morning, and they think theyre immune. Inner-city mayors defended their low vaccination rates, arguing that it was due to young populations. Three-quarters of our residents are under 40. That means they only became eligible for Pfizer in August, Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp said. Melbourne is the youngest municipality in the state, while Yarra is seventh, Moreland is 10th, Darebin is 15th and Port Phillip is 16th. However, Yarra Council officer Lucas Gosling told Tuesday nights meeting that its seven-day uptake range was the lowest in the state. I dont believe that its a youth issue. I believe that its a general issue of vaccine hesitancy in our community, he said. Young people, generally across the Victorian community, are taking up the vaccinations in record numbers. Yarras mayor, Gabrielle de Vietri, confirmed vaccine uptake within its cultural and linguistically diverse communities was strong. The Victorian government released vaccine data on Tuesday that drilled down to postcodes. It showed Collingwood and Abbotsford, where 60-65 per cent of residents had received their first vaccine dose, as the worst areas in Yarra. The CBD (50-55 per cent), Carlton (40-45 per cent) and North Melbourne (50-55 per cent) had the lowest first-dose rates in the City of Melbourne, which is also the last in the state for double vaccination (38.4). Cr Capp said the 2019 data was skewed due to the high numbers of international students who had left Melbourne since the start of the pandemic. Demographer Glenn Capuano, from research firm Informed Decisions, said this was probably true and that Victorias total population had fallen by 43,000, with much of it coming from the inner-city. In Moreland, where Brunswick (60 to 65 per cent) and Fawkner (55-60 per cent) had the lowest first-dose rates, mayor Annalivia Carli Hannan blamed access and language barriers. It is clear that there is some vaccine hesitancy among a minority in Victoria, but no evidence to show this is stronger in Moreland than other municipalities, she said. Low first-dose rates are centred in St Kilda, St Kilda West, St Kilda East and Windsor (each with 60-65 per cent) in Port Phillip. Loading Close contacts change Victorian health authorities are no longer monitoring secondary close contacts, due to the sheer volume of cases being found in the state. Ms Matson announced the change on Saturday, saying primary close contacts may choose to notify their close contacts they are in isolation, but the secondary contacts will not need to isolate. About 16,000 secondary close contacts will receive a text message this weekend releasing them from quarantine. The measures are not changing for primary close contacts who have come into contact with a confirmed case. Ms Matson said while the multiple rings of COVID-19 isolation had been extremely successful, the change was an acknowledgement of the changing risk, and the changing environment that were in, as were no longer chasing COVID zero. This is good news for people who are isolating as primary close contacts because their household members will not need to isolate with them and theyll be able to easily get the support they need, she said. If anyone thinks theyve been anywhere near a confirmed case or is concerned and developed symptoms, please go and get a test. She said the measure had already been in place in Melbourne but would now occur statewide. Five more deaths A woman and four men have died from COVID-19 in Victoria in the latest reporting period, with more than 570 people in hospital with the virus. Health authorities confirmed that a woman in her 90s from Moreland, a man in his 70s from Moreland, a man in his 60s from Banyule, a man in his 50s from Hobsons Bay and a man in his 50s from Hume have died from the virus. Mr Pearson said there were now 578 people in hospital with COVID-19, with 117 people requiring intensive care and 83 on ventilators. Around 85 per cent of the eligible population over 16 have received their first dose over a COVID-19 vaccine, while about 57 per cent have received two doses. South Australia concern Ms Matson said a COVID-positive airline crew member travelled on flights across three states, including South Australia, while infectious in recent days. The Virgin Australia cabin crew member had worked on six flights spanning Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, she said. The positive case was found through routine testing of staff members, with all fellow crew members now isolating as close contacts. The flights of concern include: October 4: VA219 Melbourne to Adelaide; October 4: VA218 Adelaide to Melbourne; October 5: VA827 Melbourne to Sydney; October 5: VA808 Sydney to Melbourne; October 6: VA1593 Melbourne to Newcastle; and October 6: VA1595 Newcastle to Melbourne Passengers on those flights are being contacted by the relevant jurisdictions and weve been in close contact with both New South Wales and South Australia, and working closely with them to contract for relevant passengers, Ms Matson said. Mildura concern Regional city Mildura was locked down on Friday and Ms Matson said there was concern that the number of cases went from one to 37 in a single week with 20 new cases discovered on Friday. Mildura has entered a snap lockdown after case numbers went from one to 37 in a week. Credit:iStock We believe there may be additional cases out there that we have not found, she said. Todays 20 new COVID cases are spread across a number of households, and there are links over into New South Wales. The next seven days will be crucial for us to have a really stringent public health response. Ms Matson acknowledged the announcement that the city would be going into lockdown had come quite late, but the decision had to be made on the latest advice. If there was any inconvenience caused by our late notice, we do apologise for that, but we will never apologise for taking the right public health actions to protect Victoria. Ninety cases were discovered in regional Victoria yesterday and included in Saturday mornings numbers. Overseas help Australia will allow 2000 overseas nurses and doctors to enter the country for work under a plan being finalised by the federal and state governments. Loading The health system reinforcements will be flown in over the next six months and predominantly dispatched to outer suburban and regional hospitals and GP clinics. This will be a one-off boost to provide additional support, Health Minister Greg Hunt told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. The Commonwealth is committed to it and the states are working constructively with us on it. Two childcare centres in Melbournes outer suburbs were identified as exposure sites overnight, forcing children and staff into two weeks of isolation, with a regional cinema screening also identified as a site of potential COVID-19 exposure. Pakenhams Cardinia Lakes Early Learning Centre, in Melbournes south-eastern suburbs, is listed as a tier-1 exposure site between September 27 and September 29. Anyone who visits a tier-1 exposure site needs to isolate for 14 days and get tested immediately. Childs Play Early Learning Centre in Tarneit, around 25 kilometres west of Melbournes CBD, was labelled a tier-1 exposure after a positive case visited on September 30, and again on October 4 and 5. An October 1 screening of horror film Dont Breathe 2 has also been listed as a tier-1 exposure site at Showbiz Cinemas in Ballarat. The Victorian city of Mildura, which sits on the Victoria-NSW border, entered a seven-day lockdown at 11.59pm on Friday night after a spike in COVID-19 cases. But we need to be very careful that we just dont want to throw down the blunt gauntlet across the line, when there is a process that we can take that is reasonable and balanced. Councillor Brian Stockwell feared the council was being too conservative, referring to the stark warnings contained in a 2019 report on climate change impact on Queenslands economy by consultants Ernst and Young. It is really important that we dont underestimate the risk and that we do provide the information for our planners to make sensible decisions and also for individual lot owners, Cr Stockwell said. Council research shows erosion on two beaches immediately south of Noosa will significantly worsen by 2040. The areas most at risk are Sunrise and Sunshine beaches, with erosion not only threatening picturesque beaches but potentially luxury homes along the waterfront. Nearby Peregian Beach is also at risk. As sea levels continue to rise, an increasing number of private assets are projected to be exposed to coastal erosion, with some considered at very high risk as soon as the year 2040, the research shows. So what can be done about it? According to the council, replacing the sand washed away from Peregian Beach and Sunshine Beach would cost more than $200 million by 2100, but have a positive net present value of $239 million. Sand replenishment is one of the cheaper responses to rising sea levels. A cost-benefit analysis of proposals for buried seawalls - one to protect the Peregian to Sunshine Beach section and a second to protect the Teewah Beach on Noosas North Shore - found the massive cost could not be justified, partly because such interventions would still impact on tourism, scenery and the environment. The analysis found the Peregian to Sunshine Beach seawall would equate to a loss of $2.77 billion to the area, while the northern Teewah Beach seawall would come in at a $77 million loss. And seawalls would still exacerbate erosion by slowing the replenishment of the beaches. The loss of sandy beach that would be a virtually inevitable result of this option would negatively affect recreation, tourism, scenic and ecological values associated with the beach on a significant scale, the council was told. Other more controversial options ruled out in the latest iteration of the plan include temporary council lease-backs of private land to allow extensive dune repair. However, tidal and sea level monitoring to be enhanced at the request of residents would still be on the cards. The second draft of Noosa Council Coastal Hazards Adaptation Plan was passed unanimously at a special meeting on Friday and will be subject to further consultation. Noosa on Friday considered the multibillion-dollar costs of rising sea levels on beach erosion and rising tides. Its second report is now open to community consultation before going to the Queensland government. Credit:Paul Smith It acknowledges low-lying stretches along the Noosa River, in particular between Noosaville and Tewantin, will be flooded by rising tides and storm surges. King tides will become far more frequent, the research shows, and erosion at Noosa Heads main beach is now a major problem. The assessment of coastal erosion risks in Noosa Heads show the level of risk to all built assets along the Noosa Main Beach beachfront is already considered intolerable, the draft plan says. In addition, risks to the natural assets within the Noosa Woods area will become intolerable by 2070. Councillors agreed the economic impact on Noosas main beach should be identified separately to the impact on Noosas Hasting Street business precinct. How rising tides and storm surges will impact small businesses in Noosaville and Tewantin along Noosa River. Credit:Noosa Council Coastal Hazard Adaptation Plan 2021 Once finalised, Noosas plan will be the third to be completed under a $13 million Queensland government QCoast2100 initiative, compelling 32 councils to act on rising sea levels. Bundaberg and Sunshine Coast councils have already responded. The Noosa council says the plan will have no impact on privately-owned land, but could shape future development options in the town plan. The Noosa region is home to more than 55,000 people and 45 kilometres of coastlines from Peregian Beach north to Great Sandy National Park on Noosas North Shore. The scale of possible changes has generated considerable community tension in the Noosa region. Fridays special meeting followed six weeks of community consultation, then three months of detailed meetings prompting 230 submissions. Oslo: The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their courageous defence of freedom of speech and expression in the Philippines and Russia. The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Anderson, made the announcement at a ceremony in Oslo on Friday evening AEDT. Maria Ressa, CEO of Rappler. Credit:AP The committee is convinced that freedom of expression and freedom of information help to ensure an informed public, she said. These rights are crucial prerequisites for democracy and protect against war and conflict. is in advanced stages to raise $1 billion through a stock sale of its electric vehicle unit, the Times of India reported on Friday. The planned fund-raise will value Tata Motors electric vehicle (EV) unit at $8 billion, said the report. It has attracted multiple private equity funds from the US, Middle East and Southeast Asia. TPG, California Public Employees Retirement System, Temasek, among others, have held discussions to lead or co-lead the financing exercise, the newspaper reported citing unnamed sources. The Tata Group flagship has been building the EV business at a rapid pace to ride on the government's electric mobility plans and is now the largest EV maker in the passenger vehicle (PV) market. A spokesperson declined to comment on the development. The major would announce its fundraising plans to support the EV business, N Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Motors, told shareholders at the companys 76th annual general meeting in July. At present, EVs account for 2 per cent of the companys PV sales. The reports of raising funds comes close on the heels of the Productivity-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the auto sector that incentivises manufacturers to make fresh investment in new technologies over the next five years. has a very ambitious goal for EVs. We have planned at least 25 per cent of our total PV sales to come from electric in the medium to long term, Chandrasekaran had said. As part of the plan, it would launch 10 EV models before 2025. We have aggressive growth plans, and towards this, we will also raise capital at an appropriate time. The company is also looking to set up a battery plant outside of Tata Motors, he had said. The company has already launched the e-Tigor with a higher range earlier this year. It will also bring more affordable vehicles to target the mass market. Most other manufacturers, as of now, have their products positioned in the premium end of the market. Setting up 10,000 charging points in 25 cities with Tata Power in the coming years, is also in the works. Chennai-based automobile major Company has announced the launch of an advanced range of TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles in the Indian market. The product is equipped with a new headlamp assembly and signature daytime running lamp (DRL), and three ride modes. The Company also introduced TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition, equipped with first-in-segment features including adjustable clutch and brake levers, an exclusive matte black colour with red alloy wheels, and a new seat pattern besides the new headlamp. TVS Apache RTR 160 4V and TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition will now be available in three ride modes Urban, Sport, and Rain, gear shift indicator and radial rear tyre. The top-end variant of the Apache RTR 160 4V will be equipped with TVS SmartXonnectTM. TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles are fitted with a new headlamp assembly where the signature DRL continues to glow, changing its stance to a Front Position Lamp (FPL) which functions with low and high beam simultaneously. The TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles will be available at authorised Company dealerships in India in a price range between Rs 1,15,265 to Rs 1,21,372. Commenting on the launch, Meghashyam Dighole, Head(Marketing) Premium Motorcycles, Company, said, TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles have always lived up to the growing expectations of our aspirational customers, by delivering cutting edge technology to racing enthusiasts. Backed by four decades of racing pedigree, we are delighted to introduce the advanced range of TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles, offering an array of first-in-segment features in its class. We are also excited to present TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition, which compliments the TVS Apache series product portfolio, further strengthening TVS Motor Companys premium two-wheeler offering. is a "nostalgic airline" for most employees and the IT services major will offer its complete support in whatever form it can, to contribute to the revival of the airline to its former glory, CEO said on Friday. The comments by the top honcho come on a day when Tata Sons won the bid for acquiring Tata Sons will retake - the airline it founded nearly 90 years back - as the government accepted its winning bid of Rs 18,000 crore to acquire 100 per cent of the debt-laden state-owned carrier. "Air India is quite a nostalgic airline for most TCSers. Almost all of us took our first international trip on Air India, and we used to go with this return ticket and that used to be our safety guard that if all else fails, we just have to get to an Air India office somewhere, and we'll get back home," Gopinathan recalled. He added that TCS will do its best "to contribute in whichever form we can, to revive it (Air India) to the glory that it had as one of the best airlines in the world". Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of Tata group, made the winning bid of Rs 2,700 crore cash and Rs 15,300 crore in debt takeover. The transaction is targeted to be closed by December. Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, who previously served as TCS CEO, termed this a "historic moment". "This is a historic moment, and it will be a rare privilege for our group to own and operate the country's flag-bearer airline," he said. Air India will be the third airline brand in the Tatas' stable - it holds a majority interest in AirAsia India and Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines Ltd. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata founded the airline in 1932. It was called Tata Airlines then. In 1946, the aviation division of Tata Sons was listed as Air India and in 1948, Air India International was launched with flights to Europe. The international service was among the first public-private partnerships in India, with the government holding 49 per cent, the Tatas keeping 25 per cent and the public owning the rest. In 1953, Air India was nationalised. Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata tweeted an old photograph of company's former chairman JRD Tata getting down from an Air India aircraft, minutes after Tata Sons regained control of the government airline - nearly 70 years after its nationalisation. "Welcome Back, Air India," he said. "The Tata Group winning the bid for Air India is great While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hopefully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata Group's presence in the aviation industry." Tatas, he said, will have the opportunity of regaining the image and reputation it enjoyed in earlier years. "On an emotional note, Air India, under the leadership of Mr J R D Tata had at one time gained the reputation of being one of the most prestigious airlines in the world," Tata said. "Mr J R D Tata would have been overjoyed if he was in our midst today," he said thanking the government for its opening of select industries to the private sector. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) More than three years after it failed to get even a single bid for Air India, the government on Friday announced the sale of the national carrier to the salt-to-software conglomerate at an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore. This is the first major privatisation step in about two decades. With this, will return to the Tatas after 68 years. Along with the brand and the slots of the debt-ridden state-owned airline, the Tatas will get the low-cost subsidiary Express and a 50 per cent stake in ground handling firm AISATS. Of the bid amount of Rs 18,000 crore, the Tatas will pay Rs 2,700 crore in cash, while taking the remaining Rs 15,300 crore as debt. The group will also have to pay around Rs 9,185 crore on account of capitalised lease obligations of 42 leased aircraft, primarily the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Apart from Air India's 12,000-odd employees who have to be retained during the first year of operation, the Tatas will have to ensure business continuity. ALSO READ: Air India: How the government got rid of the albatross around its neck The new owner cant transfer the logosthere are eightat least for five years. After that, these can be transferred only to an Indian entity. The second contestant, the consortium led by SpiceJet Chairman Ajay Singh, placed a bid of Rs 15,100 crore, of which Rs 12,835 crore will be the debt to be retained, and Rs 2,265 crore would have been the payment in cash. The reserve price for the airline was set by the government at Rs 12,906 crore. In what experts termed a win-win transaction, Tata Sons, which operates two airlines Vistara and AirAsia India, will become the second-largest airline in domestic market with around a 25 per cent market share while becoming the largest Indian airline on international routes. ALSO READ: Tata Group patriarch Ratan Tata welcomes Air India back into the fold Sources said the Tatas planned to integrate Air Indias operations with Vistara to build an international premium airline while Air India Express would be merged with AirAsia India to straddle the low-cost space. The airline has 4,486 domestic and 2,738 international slots across Indian and major international airports. The first initial step will be to do a significant restructuring of the network where Vistara, AirAsia India, Air India Express, and Air India dont cannibalise each other and cross-sell tickets on each others platform and on the super app that the group is planning. We may see some changes in network optimisation from the winter schedule itself, said a person in the know of things The government, which has invested Rs 54,584 crore since 2009-10 as cash support and Rs 55,692 crore as guarantee support for Air India, has not succeeded in turning around the company. An estimate by the government said it would cost the government Rs 620 crore per month to operate the airline, which is losing Rs 20 crore daily, said Department of Investment and Public Asset Management Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey. ALSO READ: Full circle: AI returns to Tatas who have to revive a much-diminished brand Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, said: The winning the bid for Air India is great news! While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hopefully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata Groups presence in the Aviation industry. Chairman N Chandrasekaran said: This is a historic moment, and it will be a rare privilege for our Group to own and operate the countrys flag bearer airline. Itll be our endeavour to build a world-class airline which makes every Indian proud. Ever since Air Indias disinvestment process started in 2020, the pandemic ravaged the aviation business, ballooning Air Indias debt to Rs 61,562 crore. Even after disinvestment, the government will have to service Rs 46,262 crore of debt and Rs 15,834 crore of current liabilities like accumulated airport charges and vendor payments which would be transferred to Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL), a special purpose vehicle set up to transfer Air Indias debt. ALSO READ: Air India has broken 19-year privatisation jinx After netting the value of non-core assets worth around Rs 14,718 crore and Rs 2,700 crore of cash from Tatas which will be transferred to AIAHL, the impact on government finances after transferring excess liabilities would be around Rs 44,679 crore, said Pandey. ALSO READ: Air India to boost Tatas' aviation ambitions AIAHL will raise money through government guaranteed bonds and pay off lenders, or the government will ask the lenders to novate the guarantee to AIAHL as most of these loans are not backed by assets, especially aircraft, he said. In 2019, AIAHL mopped up Rs 21,985 crore by way of bond issues to repay debt that was transferred. For the Tatas, it will be a formidable challenge to turn around the airline. Air India, despite having an envious fleet, has been reporting losses primarily due to operational inefficiencies and huge debt. India is the fastest-growing aviation market poised for a strong recovery in the post-Covid times. Tata Group, with its experience in Vistara and AirAsia, is expected to bring in efficiency and cost optimisation, which will help in cutting down the losses, said Vipula Sharma, director (ratings) and head (infrastructure rating), Brickwork Ratings. Chennai-based Dr Agarwals Eye is planning to invest at least Rs 1,000 crore in expanding its footprint across the country by adding another 100 eye and around 500 outreach centers in the next three years. The company is also planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in 18-24 months. On Friday, Aditya Jyot Eye hospital, one of Maharashtras leading eye care facilities, merged with Dr Agarwals Eye Hospital, becoming the 100th centre of the eye hospital chain. We are looking to expand our footprint to 200 and 500 outreach station in the next three years, at an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore, said Adil Agarwal, chief executive officer of Dr Agarwals Eye Hospitals. A large chunk of this investment is going to come in Maharshtra, where it is planning to come up with 20 eye hospitals and 100 outreach clinics in the next three years at an investment of Rs 300 crore. He said that the company will raise the money from existing investors, internal accruals and by going for a fresh round of fundraising. Once we achieve a sizable chunk of our expansion of at least 150 hospitals, we may go for an in the next 18 to 24 months, he added. The Groups presence spans across 11 countries and over 10 states in India. Its facilities are staffed by a team of over 400 ophthalmologists and 4,000 employees. The company claims to have treated over 12 million patients so far and also offer academic and research programmes in ophthalmology and related fields. The chain has been on a growth spree across the country, with more than 60 units added to its network in the past five years alone. Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital is a four-storey facility in Wadala in Central Mumbai. The first NABH-accredited eye hospital in the city, it is one of the very few facilities with all specialities of eyecare under one roof, making cross consultation easy and seamless. Dr Amar Agarwal, Chairman, Dr Agarwals Eye Hospitals, said: We are absolutely delighted that Aditya Jyot eye Hospital, which is counted as among Mumbais top eyecare facilities, is now a part of Dr Agarwals Eye Hospitals. This is a very significant milestone for us as we have literally hit a century with this merger. Aditya Jyot Hospital becoming a part of our chain has taken our total tally of eyecare facilities across India and abroad to 100. co-promoter Rakesh Gangwals petition seeking a direction to his partner Rahul Bhatia and his firm Enterprises to conduct an Extra Ordinary General Meeting was disposed of by the Delhi High Court on Friday. Gangwals petition was in reference to the ruling by London Court of Arbitration that the companys Article of Association be amended to scrap a provision that gives the right of first refusal to both the promoters over each others shares in the company. The court said that the arbitration order itself has allowed 90 days to implement the directions and pass any directions now as Bhatia may want to challenge the arbitration order. "Even with an EGM being called under Section 100 of the Act, Bhatia would not have been required to vote in favour of amending the articles due to the time period for compliance with the award and the right to appeal the award still running. With this plea rejected, Bhatia now holds all the cards - he can freely challenge the LCIA award, prevent any further attempts at enforcement of the award for now, as well as use the strength of his shareholding to prevent the passage of a special resolution for amending the articles in any EGM that Gangwal may consider calling under Section 100," said Mohit saraf, founder& Managing PartnerSaraf & Partner. Gangwal who co-founded in 2006 with Bhatia had also asked the court to ask Bhatia to jointly call for the EGM and support the resolution to amend the AoA. Without Rahul Bhatias support, its impossible for Gangwal to pass the resolutions, as any EGM resolution requires support of 75 per cent shareholders. Enteprises- along with Bhatias family owns 38.20 stake in while Gangwal along with family trust holds 36.63 percent stake. Gangwal, who is being represented by law firm Khaitan & Co, argued that EGM requires a notice of 21 days to shareholders. Hence, they wanted the court to direct the company to start preparatory works for the EGM. The shareholders agreement between Gangwal and Bhatia, according to clauses in the agreement, was valid for four years after the IPO in 2015. A clause in the agreement conferred on the founders the right of first refusal for each others shares in case one of them wanted to sell. The agreement also contains a tag-along clause, which stipulates that the other promoter has the right to join any share-sale transaction and sell his stake along with the one who is exiting. If any member of either the RG Group or the IGE Group proposes to transfer its shares to a third-party purchaser (not being an affiliate) otherwise than on a stock exchange or by way of a pre-negotiated sale on a stock exchange, then the other group will have the right of first refusal and tag along right, it says. Rakesh Gangwal has to comply with the shareholders agreement and the Articles of Association, and its voting during general meetings is to be dictated by IGE. On September 24, in a regulatory filing, IndiGo said it had received the final arbitral award, dated September 23, issued in the arbitration proceedings, by which the company was named respondent. The differences between the promoters became public in July 2019 after Rakesh Gangwal wrote to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, seeking its intervention to address corporate governance issues at the company. Bhatias IGE Group had rejected the allegations. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Kolkata Bench, admitted an application filed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for initiating insolvency proceedings against Infrastructure Finance (SIFL) and Equipment Finance (SEFL). Rajneesh Sharma has been appointed administrator, but the order was not uploaded till the time of going to press. The central bank moved the tribunal on Friday after the Bombay High Court dismissed a writ petition by Adisri Commercial, a promoter entity of Srei, seeking a stay on insolvency proceedings, on Thursday. The in a statement said that it had filed applications for initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against Infrastructure Finance and at the Kolkata Bench of the NCLT. An interim moratorium shall commence on and from the date of filing of the application till its admission or rejection, it said. In a statement on the moving the NCLT, Hemant Kanoria, founder Srei group, said, It is indeed unfortunate for us. Our objective right from the beginning has been resolution, that is the reason we had moved to NCLT last year for payment to all creditors under section 230, which was not considered. Subsequently when the administrator was appointed this Monday, we moved to the Bombay High Court primarily so that the investor process could be completed and a resolution is arrived at expeditiously and till that time the IBC proceedings could be stayed, he added. ALSO READ: Lenders to make Rs 5,000-crore provisions for Srei bad loans, say bankers Kanoria, however, said that he would fully cooperate with the regulator to arrive at a solution. We have full faith in our country's regulator, government and judiciary that fair justice would be done, he added. On October 4, the superseded the boards of the two Srei owing to governance concerns and defaults by the in meeting various payment obligations. The lead bank in the consortium, UCO Bank, had written to the RBI requesting to move under the insolvency code, counsel representing the RBI mentioned. The date of default on the principal amount for UCO Bank was January, 2021 and interest default was February 1, 2021. But then the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was under suspension. Even after that nothing happened, the counsel pointed out. So, the RBI had to ultimately take control. Srei was in talks with investors for raising equity capital. The company had received non-binding term sheets from Arena Investors and Makara Capital, who were ready to put in Rs 2,000 crore each. However, Kanoria indicated recently they would make the investment if bankers agreed to debt realignment. Sreis total borrowings are to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore, which includes bank exposure. There are about 15 banks in the consortium. A resolution will now be worked out within the framework of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). This is the second instance of insolvency proceedings against a financial services provider after DHFL, which was recently acquired by Piramal Enterprises. Ola Electric is raising another $200 million (around Rs 1,500 crore) from a clutch of investors in a fresh funding round, valuing the electric vehicle maker at over $5 billion, according to sources. The latest round is seeing participation from existing investors and some US-based bluechip tech funds, the sources said. When contacted, Ola declined to comment. On September 30, Ola had announced raising over $200 million in funding from Falcon Edge, SoftBank and others, valuing it at $3 billion. While the round was closed around June, the official announcement was made recently. The company has previously raised over USD 600 million from investors, including Tiger Global and Matrix India. This included a $100 million debt from Bank of Baroda that was announced in July. The fresh funding will help Ola Electric to accelerate vehicle development across its range of scooters including mass-market scooters, motorbikes, 4Ws and other vehicle form factors. In September, Ola had stated that the sales of its S1 electric scooters crossed Rs 1,100 crore in two days. The two e-scooters - Ola S1 and S1 Pro - were unveiled in August this year. The purchase window will re-open in November. Ola has completed phase I construction of its manufacturing plant, spread across 500 acres, in Tamil Nadu. The company had announced an investment of Rs 2,400 crore towards the facility. The factory will be run entirely by women and employ over 10,000 women at full scale. The company had previously stated that it would initially start with a 10 lakh annual production capacity and then scale it up to 20 lakh, in line with market demand, in the first phase. Ola Electric had claimed that its plant - when fully completed - would have an annual capacity of one crore units, "that is 15 per cent of the world's entire total two-wheeler production". The new owners of will have to retain all the employees of the national carrier for at least one year post which they can offer a VRS. The gratuity, pension fund and post retirement medical benefits of existing and past employees too would be honoured by the new owner, Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal said. Tata Sons has emerged as the winning bidder for with the government accepting its Rs 18,000 crore offer to acquire 100 per cent of the debt-laden state-run carrier. Briefing reporters, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the outstanding dues of employees of Rs 1,332 crore as per the report of Justice Dharmadhikari would be paid by the government. has 12,085 employees - 8,084 permanent and 4,001 contractual. Besides, Air India Express has 1,434. In the next five years, about 5,000 permanent employees will be retiring, he said. Free travel by government employees on Air India flight will stop post handover, free passage to retired employees will be as per industry practice. "The restrictions that government employees will have to travel only through this will go. The passage rights will be as per industry practice, there is nothing that we are mandating," Pandey said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After 10 years of efforts by the previous governors and state governments to resist efforts to bring the Raj Bhavan under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai on Friday, threw open the doors of the gubernatorial institution to RTI queries. The announcement was made by Pillai at a public function in Raj Bhavan in presence of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, while also refusing to blame the past Governors for not taking such a decision earlier. "I would like to publicly declare my policy that Governors are bound to furnish information to the people and people are supreme," the Governor said. "I do not want to blame anybody, but hereafter RTI with respect to Raj Bhavan will be available for all the citizens," he further said. The Raj Bhavan has been at the Centre of a controversy for nearly a decade now, over its refusal to acknowledge itself as a "public authority", ever since the State Information Commission passed an order in 2011, stating that the institution should share information under the RTI act, because it was a "public authority". Following the Commission's order, which was passed while hearing a petition by local activist Aires Rodrigues, the Raj Bhavan had appealed in the Bombay High Court of Goa challenging the contents of the order. In the same year, 2011, the High Court also upheld the order of the Commission, following which the Raj Bhavan had appealed in the Supreme Court. Earlier in his speech, Pillai had extolled the virtues of Mahatma Gandhi in his speech, especially the prism with which the Father of the Nation viewed the people of a country as more powerful in a democracy than an elected representative or one holding a constitutional post like a Governor. "The basis of democracy is that people are supreme rather than the Governor, Chief Minister, or opposition leader... all are expected to serve the people. They are not the boss of the people," Pillai said. --IANS maya/pgh (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Friday reported a net reduction of 3,977 in active cases to take its count to 240,221. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 1.33 per cent (one in 75). The country is ninth among the most affected countries by active cases. On Thursday, it added 21,257 cases to take its total caseload to 33,915,569 from 33,894,312 an increase of 0.1%. And, with 271 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 450,127, or 1.33 per cent of total confirmed infections. With 5,017,753 more Covid-19 vaccine doses being administered on Thursday, Indias total count of vaccine shots so far reached 931,717,191. The count of recovered cases across India, meanwhile, reached 33,225,221 or 97.96 per cent of total caseload with 24,963 new cured cases being reported on Friday. Now the ninth-most-affected country by active cases, third by deaths, second by total cases and recoveries, India has added 148,862 cases in the past 7 days. India now accounts for 1.33% of all active cases globally (one in every 75 active cases), and 9.29% of all deaths (one in every 11 deaths). India has so far administered 931,717,191 vaccine doses. That is 2747.16 per cent of its total caseload, and 66.69 per cent of its population. Among Indian states, the top 5 in terms of number of vaccine shots administered are Uttar Pradesh (117536307), Maharashtra (90334942), Madhya Pradesh (67407215), Gujarat (66920196), and West Bengal (66019330). Among states with more than 10 million population, the top 5 in number of vaccine shots per one million population are Kerala (1093247), Delhi (1057341), Gujarat (1047717), Uttarakhand (999154), and Jammu and Kashmir (974566). Backwards from here, the last 1 million cases for India have come in 35 days. The count of active cases across India on Friday saw a net reduction of 3,977, compared with 2,489 on Thursday. States and UTs hat have seen the biggest daily net increase in active cases are Maharashtra (219), Mizoram (144), Odisha (53), Delhi (29), and Jammu and Kashmir (25). With 24,963 new daily recoveries, Indias recovery rate stands at 97.96%, while fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.33%. The Indian states and UTs with the worst case fatality rates at present are Punjab (2.75%), Uttarakhand (2.15%), and Maharashtra (2.13%). The rate in as many as 16 is higher than the national average. Indias new daily closed cases stand at 25,234 271 deaths and 24,963 recoveries. The share of deaths in total closed cases stands at 1.07%. Indias 5-day moving average of daily rate of addition to total cases stands at 0.1%. Indias doubling time for total cases stands at 1105.6 days, and for deaths at 1151.0 days. Overall, five states with the biggest 24-hour jump in total cases are Kerala (12288), Maharashtra (2681), Tamil Nadu (1390), Mizoram (1080), and West Bengal (771). Among states with more than 100,000 cases, the five with worst recovery rates at present are Kerala (96.95%). India on Thursday conducted 1,385,706 to take the total count of tests conducted so far in the country to 580,043,190. The test positivity rate recorded was 1.5%. Five states with the highest test positivity rate (TPR) percentage of tested people turning out to be positive for Covid-19 infection (by cumulative data for tests and cases are Dadra & Nagar Haveli-Daman & Diu (14.74%), Kerala (13.27%), Goa (12.8%), Sikkim (12.34%), and Maharashtra (10.99%). Five states with the highest TPR by daily numbers for tests and cases added are Kerala (12.37%), Mizoram (11.08%), Manipur (4.33%), Sikkim (4.3%), and Nagaland (2.63%). Among states and UTs with more than 10 million population, five that have carried out the highest number of tests (per million population) are Delhi (1500205), J&K (1116570), Kerala (1005744), Karnataka (717291), and Telangana (677442). The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (6570472), Kerala (4763695), Karnataka (2979773), Tamil Nadu (2674233), and Andhra Pradesh (2055306). Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 2681 new cases to take its tally to 6570472. Kerala, the second-most-affected state by total tally, has added 12288 cases to take its tally to 4763695. Karnataka, the third-most-affected state, has reported 442 cases to take its tally to 2979773. Tamil Nadu has added 1390 cases to take its tally to 2674233. Andhra Pradesh has seen its tally going up by 643 to 2055306. Uttar Pradesh has added 15 cases to take its tally to 1709917. Delhi has added 44 cases to take its tally to 1439097. The subject expert committee (SEC) advising the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has allowed US pharma major (J&J) to conduct clinical trials on adolescents for its two-dose Covid-19 vaccine, albeit with some conditions. The firm had on August 17 sought approval from the CDSCO to conduct trials on children aged 12-17 years. The SEC said after detailed deliberations, the committee recommended granting of permission to conduct the proposed study with some conditions the firm should submit interim safety data from part 1 (28 days after vaccination) of the study before the committee and only after its review, the second part of the study may be initiated. Moreover, the SEC has asked the company to closely monitor the adverse events, including Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), post- dose 1 and 2 for 42 days to 3 months under the primary end-point. ALSO READ: India to make available 8 mn doses of J&J Covid vax: PM Modi at Quad Summit An email sent to the company remained unanswered till the time of going to press. had started trials globally for a two-dose regimen of its last year. In April this year, the firm expanded the study to include adolescents in the 12-17 age bracket. In August, got an emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the Indian drug regulator for its single-shot Covid-19 Phase 3 clinical trial (ENSEMBLE trial) had demonstrated that the single-shot vaccine was 85 per cent effective in preventing severe disease across all regions studied, and showed protection against Covid-19-related hospitalisation and death, beginning 28 days after Studies have shown that the J&J vaccine has 66 per cent efficacy against moderate to severe Covid disease, and about 85 per cent efficacy in severe cases. As for seeking permission to conduct trials on adolescents, J&J had said in August, is committed to facilitating global equitable access to its Covid-19 vaccine and recognise the unmet needs of children. To achieve herd immunity, vaccine trials must be done on children, it had said. To ultimately achieve herd immunity, it is imperative that Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials continue to move forward, and we remain deeply committed to the critical work needed to make our Covid-19 vaccine equitably accessible for all age groups, the spokesperson had said. J&J has an Indian manufacturing partner Hyderabad-based Biological E. Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech has submitted data from its clinical trials on children aged two years and above to the drug regulator this month. Zydus Cadila has got approval for use among those aged over 12 for its DNA vaccine. Serum Institute of India has started trials on children seven years and above recently for the Novavax vaccine. A fake website which has attempted to imitate the official website of the has been created to defraud gullible people, authorities cautioned on Friday. In a statement, the Rail Corporation said some social media accounts are also trying to "misguide job aspirants" by promising employment opportunities in the A fake website by the name of https://dmrccareer.in has been created, which has attempted to imitate DMRC's official website, and is offering fake employment opportunities to gullible respondents, it said. "It is asking for money from the respondents and already some people may have become the victim of cyber fraud by this weblink," the statement said. It added, the general public is hereby warned again that DMRC's employment notifications appear only on its official website -- www.delhimetrorail.com. "Delhi Metro's employment processes are done as per the government rules. The recruitment process in is fully computerised and transparent, and selection is purely based on the merit of the candidates. The official website also warns against such fraudulent activities," the DMRC said. The job aspirants are advised to exercise "extreme caution" while applying for job opportunities with the DMRC, and do so only through the official website, as no other such platform has been authorised to carry out such a process on behalf of it, the statement said. While, this particular fake link has come to our notice, there may be more such fake links, social media accounts, middlemen promising in DMRC etc, it added. "The DMRC has initiated necessary action against this website as per the laws in place. The general public is also requested to immediately bring to our notice any such fake recruitment based online or offline activity, in the future," the statement 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.) Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a brief face-off near Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh last week and it was resolved following talks between local commanders of the two sides as per established protocols, people familiar with the development said on Friday. It is learnt that the face-off took place after a Chinese patrol tried to enter Indian territory and the troops of China's People's Liberation Army were forced back. The incident came to light days before another round of high-level military talks between the two sides on the eastern Ladakh row. The Corps Commander level talks are likely to take place within the next three-four days, said one of the people cited above. About the fresh face-off, the people said both sides undertake patrolling activities up to their line of perception and whenever the troops come face-to-face, the situation is managed according to established protocols. "Physical engagement can last for a few hours prior to disengaging as per mutual understanding. However, there has been no damage to defences," said the person cited above. "The India-China border has not been formally demarcated and, hence, there is a difference in perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the countries," the person said. The people said maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the areas of differing perceptions has been possible by adherence to existing agreements and protocols between the two countries. The incident took place in the midst of continuing stand-off between Indian and Chinese militaries in several areas along the LAC in eastern Ladakh for nearly 17 months. (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.) Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a brief face-off near Yangtse in Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh last week and it was resolved within few hours following talks between commanders of the two sides according to established protocols, people familiar with the development said on Friday. It is learnt that the face-off took place around 10 days ago when nearly 100 personnel tried to enter the Indian territory but were forced back. The people cited above indicated that there were some physical engagement between the two sides. When asked to comment on news reports about Indian troops detaining a few Chinese military personnel after crossing the border last week, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhou Lijian said in Beijing that he was not aware of it. I am not aware of relevant information, the official said. The fresh incident of the face-off came weeks after around 100 Chinese troops transgressed the LAC in Uttarakhand in the Barahoti sector in Uttarakhand. The India-China border has not been formally demarcated and hence there is a difference in perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the countries. Peace and tranquillity in these areas of differing perceptions have been possible by adherence to existing agreements and protocols between the two countries, said a source. It said both sides undertake patrolling activities up to their line of perception. Whenever patrols of both sides physically meet, the situation is managed according to established protocols and mechanisms agreed by both sides, the source said. Physical engagement can last for a few hours prior to disengaging as per mutual understanding. However, there has been no damage to defences, the source said. The incident came to light days before another round of high-level military talks between the two sides on the eastern Ladakh row. This is routine business whenever patrols meet wherever there's differing perceptions on LAC.Both sides patrol. Just that in this instance, the patrols happened to meet, said another source. The Corps Commander level talks are likely to take place within the next three-four days, said a source. Last month, close to 100 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) transgressed the LAC in the Barahoti sector in Uttarakhand. The transgression took place on August 30, and the Chinese troops returned from the area after spending few hours. The incident in Tawang came in the midst of continuing stand-off between Indian and Chinese militaries in several areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh for nearly 17 months. India has significantly bolstered its military deployment in all sensitive areas along the nearly 3,500-km LAC including in the Tawang sector following the eastern Ladakh standoff. The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year in eastern Ladakh following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry. As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the Gogra area in August. In February, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in line with an agreement on disengagement. Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sensitive sector. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre has assured it will supply more COVID-19 vaccine to as the state targets to inoculate 70 per cent of its eligible population with the second dose by December-end, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Friday after meeting Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya here. The Union minister in the meeting said he was happy with the vaccination drive undertaken by the state, which has achieved 1.48 crore doses of vaccination last month, he told reporters. "The minister assured us that he will give more (vaccines) if required. We have a stock of 51 lakh doses and a special drive is being undertaken. We are focusing on giving the second dose to people," Bommai said. So far, the state government has administered first dose to 81 per cent of the eligible population, while the second dose has been given to 37 per cent of the eligible population of the state, he said. "By the end of December, Karnataka's target is to provide first dose to 90 per cent (of the eligible population) and second dose to 70 per cent of the eligible population. The Union minister has assured full support for this drive," the chief minister said. Bommai informed that the Union minister is scheduled to visit Bengaluru to attend the convocation programme of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Science on October 15 and also review health infrastructure in the state. State Health Minister K Sudhakar and Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar were present at the meeting. Bommai plans to meet Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and BJP National President J P Nadda later during the day. (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.) Amid protest by the opposition alleging under-reporting of COVID deaths in Kerala, the state Government on Friday decided to include 7,000 more victims of the pandemic in its official death list. State Health Minister Veena George said 7,000 more deaths, which occurred before the hospitals started uploading the data of such deaths online, will be added to the COVID death list in the state. The hospitals started uploading the COVID-19 deaths online in June this year. These are deaths that have not been documented and added to the official death list, she told reporters here. When the matter came up in the Assembly today, the minister rejected the opposition charge that a large number of families of COVID victims in the state were being denied the compensation ordered by the Supreme Court and said no deserving family would be excluded from the financial aid in the southern state. George said was the first in the country to set up COVID Death Assessment Committees as per the revised guidelines of the Centre and expedited proceedings to provide COVID death certificates to the family members of the victims hassle-free. A new information portal was also developed to help family members of those not included in the list of pandemic fatalities to register their names via online, she said while replying to a notice seeking adjournment motion by the opposition Congress-led UDF members. Those who are facing any difficulty in applying via digital way can register at their nearest primary health centre also, she said. "The concerns of the registered families will be resolved within the next 30 days," George said. The death of any person within 30 days of his admission as COVID patient at the hospital would be considered as COVID death, she said, adding that an order had already been issued to allot Rs 50,000 as financial aid to the close relatives of such people from the state distress relief fund. "The state government has acted very swiftly to implement the directives as per the Centre's new guideline. We are moving ahead with a clear, concrete and time-bound plan to ensure the assistance to all applicants," the minister said. The LDF government has a strong policy that compensation should not be denied to any deserving family, the minister added. However, opposition leader V D Satheesan alleged that the southern state was facing a dire situation that tens of thousands of COVID victims were being denied the deserved financial assistance. The government was reluctant to release the before June 16, he said, adding that it also violated the ICMR guideline that deaths of people, suffering from deadly diseases like cancer and who died due to infection, should be considered as COVID death. The state was yet to announce any financial aid other than the Rs 50,000 compensation ordered by the Supreme Court. P C Vishnunath (Cong), who sought notice for the motion, alleged that 60 per cent of the total COVID deaths in India was reported in However, Speaker M B Rajesh denied leave for the motion based on the minister's reply. (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 Friday said it is not satisfied with the steps taken by the government in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case in which eight persons were killed on October 3 and questioned it over not arresting the accused against whom FIR has been lodged. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana told senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the UP government, to communicate to the top most police official that evidence and other relevant materials in the case are not destroyed. What is the message you (state) are sending, said the bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli. It asked the state whether accused in other cases lodged under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code are treated the same way. If you see the FIR, section 302 is there. Is it the same way you treat other accused, the bench asked, while terming it as a very serious charge. The top court has posted the matter for hearing on October 20. Four farmers were mowed down by an SUV in Lakhimpur Kheri when a group agitating against the Centre's three new farm laws was holding a demonstration against the visit of UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on October 3. Two BJP workers and a driver were beaten to death allegedly by the angry protesters, while a local journalist was also killed in the violence. An FIR under section 302 of the IPC has been registered against the Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra and others in the incident in Tikonia police station but no arrest has been made so far. Farmer leaders have claimed that Ashish was in one of the cars that allegedly knocked down the protesters but the minister has denied the allegations. Several farmer organisations are protesting against the passage of three laws -- The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 since last November. The apex court had stayed the implementation of these laws in January. Initially, the protests started from Punjab in November last year and later spread to Delhi, Haryana, and (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.) Dissatisfied with the steps taken by government in the brutal murder of eight persons including four farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri, the Friday questioned non-arrest of accused, directed preservation of evidence and mulled transferring probe to another agency, saying proof of the pudding is in the eating. Without mincing words, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said, the law must take its course against all accused and the government has to take all remedial steps in this regard to inspire confidence in the investigation of brutal murder of eight persons. The UP government will have to make another pudding and make it palatable, senior lawyer Harish Salve, appearing for the state, said, adding that whatever is done so far is not satisfactory. He assured the bench that between today and tomorrow whatever is the shortfall (in the probe) will be filled up because the message has gone. My son is innocent The Police issued a fresh notice to Union minister Ajay Mishras son Ashish Mishra asking him to appear before it by 11 am on Saturday in connection with the violence, after he missed his 10 am deadline on Friday. Hours later, the minister told reporters his son was not well and that he will appear before the police tomorrow and give his statement and evidence as he is innocent. The latest notice, pasted outside Ajay Mishra's house Friday afternoon, warned that legal action will be initiated against Ashish Mishra if he fails to appear before the investigators on Saturday. Deputy Inspector General (Headquarters) Upendra Agarwal who is heading the team probing Sunday's incident waited for him at the police lines but he didn't show up, after which the fresh notice was issued. As Ashish Mishra did not show up, reports emerged that he may have fled to Nepal. Asked about it, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said, If this is true, the Centre should intervene and get the accused arrested from Nepal. In a statement issued here, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said, ...there is no trace of him (Ashish Mishra). News reports indicate that he is changing locations and is absconding, with several Police teams searching for him. The morcha expressed its serious concern and shock at Mishra not yet being arrested. Talking to reporters at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in Lucknow, the Union minister of state for home said, We have full faith in law. My son is innocent. He got a notice on Thursday but he said he was not well. He will appear before the police tomorrow and give his statement and evidence as he is innocent. On the Opposition's relentless attack on him and demand for his resignation, the minister said, Vipaksh to kuch bhi mangta hai (Opposition can demand anything). This is a BJP government which works in an unbiased manner. Action will be taken against those found guilty, he said. On allegations that attempts are being made to save Ashish Mishra, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, There is no such video. We have issued numbers, and if anyone has evidence, they can upload it. All will be crystal clear. There will be no injustice with anyone. No one will be allowed to take the law in his hand but no action will be taken under any pressure. We will not arrest anyone on allegations. But yes, if someone is guilty, he will also not be spared irrespective of who he is, he said. After two men were arrested on Thursday, the police pasted a notice outside Ajay Mishra's house asking him to appear before it at 10 am on Friday. The arrested men were identified as Luvkush of Banbirpur village and Ashish Pandey of Nighasan tehsil, two of the seven people mentioned in an FIR lodged by the police in connection with the A nine-member team headed by DIG Upendra Agarwal has been formed to investigate the FIR lodged against the minister's son and others. Four of the eight people who died on Sunday were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles carrying BJP workers. Angry farmers then allegedly lynched some people in the vehicles. The other dead included two BJP workers and their driver. Farmers claimed that Ashish Mishra was in one of the vehicles, an allegation denied by him and his father who say they can produce evidence to prove he was at an event at that time. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Aerospace major is expected to deliver all 36 jets well before the schedule despite lockdown for a few days to contain the spread of COVID-19 in France, French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain said on Friday. Speaking on the sidelines of the fourth edition of Indo-French Investment Conclave here, organised by the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IFCCI), Lenain said firms belonging to the European country have invested over 10 Billion Euros in India providing employment to 2.50 lakh Indians. "It ( delivery of aircraft) will be ahead of the schedule. We are very proud of that. In spite of Covid it has not been disturbed at all on the contrary," the envoy told PTI. India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for the procurement of 36 fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The first batch of five jets arrived in India on July 29 last year "The factory producing Rafale was closed (during lockdown). We had a commitment to India. After the lockdown teams worked extra shifts working nights and weekends to make sure that these planes were delivered on time. And so right now Dassault has delivered to India 29 and 26 have already been ferried to India," he said. Describing the recent developments in Afghanistan as "worrying" , the Ambassador said some of the countries including France have asked the Taliban regime to allow free flow of humanitarian assistance to the beleaguered country besides not to provide shelter for terrorists. "Today they have not fulfilled any and that is deeply worrying. They can't ask us any form of recognition until they fulfilled some of these commitments," he further said. On the Indo-French trade, the Ambassador said the trade volumes are not big as most of the companies from his country prefer investing in India rather than exporting. "We are doing local investment a lot. So far French companies have invested more than 10 Billion Euros in India and it is going very fast and they are employing 250,000 Indians," he explained. In 2020, the India-France bilateral trade stood at 9.04 billion euros (-21.99 per cent) as compared to the previous year. India's exports to France were valued at 4.80 billion euros, down by 22.9 per cent during this period. Indian imports from France also decreased by 20.95 per cent to 4.23 billion euros, according to Indian official figures. (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 just-concluded visit of Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to New Delhi was an opportunity for the United States to deepen its strategic partnership with India, a official has said. "Overall, this was an opportunity for the United States to deepen our strategic partnership with India, a partnership that affords opportunities for both the countries, and a partnership that is incredibly important to as we seek to underscore and to underline a free and open Indo-Pacific," State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Thursday. "And India, to us, as a member of the Quad, as an important geopolitical partner, is an instrumental element to that overarching goal," he said responding to a question on the just-concluded visit of Sherman. After spending three days in India, the top American diplomat on Thursday night flew to Pakistan. In addition to her meeting with her Indian counterpart Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, she also had a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. During her trip, Price said Sherman had an opportunity to engage substantively and constructively with some of the key interlocutors. "She had a meeting with the Foreign Secretary, Harsh Shringla. They discussed, as we often do, with our Indian partners, growing security, economic and Indo-Pacific convergence between and the United States, including around topics that are of mutual interest to both of our countries: ending the COVID-19 pandemic, combating the climate crisis, and accelerating clean energy deployment, deepening trade and investment ties and expanding cooperation on cyber security and emerging technology," he said. "We, of course, have worked closely with over the course of many months now, after an announcement that emerged from the first virtual Quad Leaders' Summit about India's role as a key Covid vaccine manufacturer for the region. And so, this is one of the many areas where we have enjoyed a deep and collaborative relationship with India," Price said. "In the course of that meeting, they also discussed pressing regional and global security challenges that included those posed by events in Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, the People's Republic of China. They also discussed the ongoing efforts to return Myanmar to a path to democracy. The deputy also had an opportunity to meet with Indian Minister of External Affairs, Dr Jaishankar, they discussed some of these same issues," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unvaccinated Delhi government employees will not be allowed to attend office from October 16, according to a Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) order on Friday. All such unvaccinated Delhi government employees, including teachers and frontline workers, will be treated as "on leave" till they get the jab, the order stated. The employees "who do not get vaccinated (at least first dose) by October 15 shall not be allowed to attend their respective offices/healthcare institutions /educational institutions with effect from October 16 till they have obtained the first dose vaccine," it said. The heads of departments concerned will verify vaccinated employees through Aarogya Setu app or vaccination certificate, it stated. The order, issued by Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, stated that the central government "may consider issuing similar directions in respect of its employees working in Delhi. (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 of government-owned companies has resumed after a hiatus of almost 19 years with the Narendra Modi government deciding to sell to Tata Group. The Centre had been trying to privatise public sector enterprises (PSEs) for four years through what it safely labels strategic sale. A list of 20 firms was drawn up in 2017 but the investor community evinced little enthusiasm for them. The last time a PSE was privatised was by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which demitted office in May 2004. There were a series of controversies that came with it, leading to successive governments dropping strategic sale from their agenda. While was on the initial list of 2017, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Container Corporation of India, and Shipping Corporation of India were later added to the governments plans on November 20, 2019. In its second term, a more confident BJP-led government decided to go headlong into the initiative to help it meet its disinvestment target. Under a new policy notified in February 2021, government ownership in four notified strategic sectors will be kept at a bare minimum. The companies in these sectors will be considered either for privatisation, merger, or making them subsidiaries of other PSEs, or closure. Privatisation will be the course of all PSEs in the non-strategic sectors wherever feasible, or else they will be closed. With this, the strategic sectors of petroleum, airlines, railways, and shipping became part of the governments privatisation programme. The Modi government till now has followed the less risky route of selling PSEs to its own companies rather than private promoters. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, for instance, bought 51.1 per cent in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation in January 2018. Power Finance Corporation bought Rural Electrification Corporation in March 2019 while NTPC bought NEEPCO and THDC the following year in March 2020. The Vajpayee government courted controversy when it divested Bharat Aluminium Corporation in 2001 and Hindustan Zinc in 2002. Both companies went to the Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta group. The Centre, both in the 10-year Manmohan Singh tenure and even the first term of Narendra Modi, however, continued to hold residual shareholding in them despite contractual obligations to divest, owing to legal tangles. The Vajpayee government sold majority stake in nine firms Modern Food Industries, Balco, Hindustan Teleprinter, Computer Maintenance Corporation, Hindustan Zinc, Videsh Sanchar Nigam, Indo Burma Petroleum, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation, and Paradeep Phosphates between 1999-2000 and 2002-03 through the strategic sale route in which blocks of shares, along with the management control, passed on to strategic partners. Barring IBP, which was bought by Indian Oil Corporation, the remaining companies were privatised. Besides, the government divested its stakes in two smaller firms, Lagan Jute Manufacturing Company and Jessop & Company, and 19 properties of Indian Tourism Development Corporation and three properties of Hotel Corporation of India during 1999-2000 and 2003-04. After political and legal controversies erupted over this, the UPA government in May 2004 adopted a cautious approach. Its National Common Minimum Programme spelt out the policy of giving full managerial control and commercial autonomy to profit-making companies instead of privatisation. Parts of government equity were to be sold through initial public offers and follow-on offers without changing the character of the PSEs with the government retaining at least 51 per cent control. Prominent companies listed during the UPA tenure included NTPC, Power Finance Corporation, Coal India, and Power Grid. The UPA government on January 27, 2005, decided to list profitable CPSEs with a net worth of more than Rs 200 crore either in conjunction with a fresh equity issue or divesting government stake. There is a need to re-negotiate the existing trade relationship and relook at the free trade agreement with 10-member bloc with an aim to eliminate barriers and misuse of the FTA, Commerce and Industry Minister said on Friday. The two-way trade between India and (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is about USD 80 billion and removal of non-trade barriers and other impediments would help take this figure to USD 200 billion in the coming years, he said. "It is unfortunate that in the recent past, we had to deal with several restrictive barriers on our exports in the region particularly in the agri and the auto sector. I think these only result in reciprocal action from other countries including from India and will hurt the long-term desire of our leaders to expand trade between the countries. "Therefore, I think there is a need for re-negotiating the existing trade relationship, trade barriers, relooking at our with ASEAN and focusing on new rules to eliminate the misuse of the FTA, eliminating non-tariff barriers, and that can ultimately lead to building confidence on both the sides to reduce tariffs for inter-Asean and India trade," Goyal said. He was speaking at CII's Indo-ASEAN Business Summit. The minister urged his ASEAN counterparts to support the effort for early conclusion of scoping exercise and commencement of the trade pact review. To make trade successful, he said it needs to be fair, equitable, transparent, reciprocal and inclusive. "Let me also underscore that if we were to review the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement, it can truly promote trade on both sides, support industry and manufacturing on both sides and help us support each other truly to become modern progressive economies," he added. The minister said that India has currently been witnessing exponential growth in imports from the ASEAN region while exports have been impeded by non-reciprocity in concessions, non-tariff barriers, import regulations, quotas and export taxes from ASEAN countries. "Such a review will enable alignment with contemporary trade practices, procedures and regulatory harmonisation, curbing the misuse of FTAs, often by third parties outside the ASEAN region. This will help us to build vibrant supply chains through deeper trade and investment relations," he added. The ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement was signed on August 13, 2009. It came into force on January 1, 2010. Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are: Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos. Further the minister said India has a big role to play to mitigate global health risks in future as 70 per cent of global vaccines are now produced here. "We assure ASEAN full cooperation in generic drug manufacturing. There is an opportunity for collaboration in pharma production including vaccines and capacity-building between India and the ASEAN," he said, adding one of the critical challenges to be tackled is the underdeveloped infra and connectivity in this region. He added that nine of 10 ASEAN nations touch the sea, therefore this region has potential to become a major hub of port logistics. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minister of Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav on Friday said more than 3 crore unorganized workers have registered on e-Shram portal. In a tweet, the minister said across the country more than 3 crore unorganised workers have registered themselves on e-Shram portal, the first ever National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW) in India. Earlier on Friday, the said the Governing Body Meeting and Annual General Body meeting of the Dattopant Thengadi National Board for Workers Education and Development (DTNBWED)was held at Hyderabad. The meeting was chaired by Vrijesh Updadhyay, Chairman of the Board along with Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), DPS Negi and several important decisions were taken. Informing about the e-Shram portal Negi said, Earlier, we did not have any means to provide benefits to unorganized workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, since we did not have data on them. But now, the e-Shram Card will serve as a single card to avail government benefits across the country, it will be One Nation One Card. In another important development, benefitting 10,19 contract workers, a memorandum of settlement was signed between the management of Celebi (a firm providing ground and cargo handling services), DIAL, and their contract workers represented by Airport Employees Union in New Delhi. Each worker shall receive an amount Rs 58,400 and total amount disbursed among the workers this year will be Rs 6,08,41,600, the ministry stated. (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.) Observing that there is overhand of Rs 13 lakh crore in the system, RBI Governor said on Friday that the exceptional measures undertaken during pandemic will be dealt in sync with macroeconomic developments to preserve financial stability. Since the onset of the pandemic, the Reserve Bank has maintained ample surplus to support a speedy and durable economic recovery, he said while announcing the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. The level of surplus in the banking system increased further during September 2021, with absorption under fixed rate reverse repo, variable rate reverse repo (VRRR) of 14 days and fine-tuning operations under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) averaging Rs 9 lakh crore per day as against Rs 7 lakh crore during June to August 2021, he said. The surplus liquidity rose even further to a daily average of Rs 9.5 lakh crore in October so far (up to October 6). The potential liquidity overhang amounts to more than Rs 13 lakh crore, he said. As the economy shows signs of emerging from the COVID-19 inflicted ravages, he said, a near consensus view emerging among market participants and policy makers is that the liquidity conditions emanating from the exceptional measures instituted during the crisis would need to evolve in sync with the macroeconomic developments to preserve financial stability. "This process has to be gradual, calibrated and non-disruptive, while remaining supportive of the economic recovery," he said. As part of the liquidity management, Das said the need for undertaking further G-Sec Acquisition Programme (G-SAP) operations at this juncture does not arise given the existing liquidity overhang, the absence of a need for additional borrowing for GST compensation and the expected expansion of liquidity in the system as government spending increases in line with budget estimates. "The Reserve Bank, however, would remain in readiness to undertake G-SAP as and when warranted by liquidity conditions and also continue to flexibly conduct other liquidity management operations including Operation Twist (OT) and regular open market operations (OMOs)," he said. The total liquidity injected into the system during the first six months of the current financial year through open market operations (OMOs), including G-SAP, was Rs 2.37 lakh crore, as against an injection of Rs 3.1 lakh crore over the full financial year 2020-21. With the resumption of normal liquidity operations since mid-January 2021, he said, 14-day variable rate reverse repo (VRRR) auctions have been deployed as the main instrument under the liquidity management framework. Market appetite for VRRRs has been enthusiastic. Moreover, the higher remuneration which VRRR offers vis--vis the fixed rate reverse repo is also rendering the former relatively attractive, he said. "Keeping in view the market feedback, it is proposed to undertake the 14-day VRRR auctions on a fortnightly basis in the following manner: Rs 4 lakh crore as already notified; Rs 4.5 lakh crore on October 22; Rs 5 lakh crore on November 3; Rs 5.5 lakh crore on November 18; and Rs 6 lakh crore on December 3," he said. Further, he said, depending upon the evolving liquidity conditions especially the quantum of capital flows, pace of government expenditure and credit offtake the RBI may also consider complementing the 14-day VRRR auctions with 28-day VRRR auctions in a similar calibrated fashion. The RBI also retains the flexibility to conduct fine-tuning operations of varying amounts as and when required. Even with all these operations, the liquidity absorbed under the fixed rate reverse repo would still be around Rs 2 to 3 lakh crore in the first week of December 2021, he said. Assuring market, Das said, the RBI will ensure that there is adequate liquidity to support the process of economic recovery. "The Reserve Bank will continue to support the market in ensuring an orderly completion of the borrowing programme of the Government. Further, our focus on orderly evolution of the yield curve as a public good also continues," he said. Sharing the global perspective on quantitative easing, the governor said, diverging monetary policy stances are not being dictated by country groupings but by country circumstances. Among EMEs, some are tightening monetary policy, others are undertaking further monetary stimulus, while a few are on a resolute pause, he said. "In India, the MPC has maintained a pause and given time and state contingent forward guidance from time to time on maintaining accommodation. The conduct of monetary policy in India will continue to be oriented to our domestic circumstances and our assessment," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) * 1932 J R D Tata pilots Karachi-Mumbai flight carrying mail, the first such mail service by an Indian company * 1946 Tata Airlines became a public company and renamed * 1948 - operates Bombay-London flight using Lockheed Constellation aircraft * 1952 Planning Commission recommends merger and nationalization of private airlines * 1953 Nine private airlines merged into two and Indian Airlines. The government agreed to Tatas demand to keep separate entities for domestic and international operations and appointed him chairman of Air India. * 1960- Air India receives its first Boeing 707 aircraft enabling non-stop flights Mumbai and London. By 1962 it became the world's first all jet airline. * 1971 Air India receives its Boeing 747 aircraft * 1978 J R D Tata removed as Air India chairman * 1985 Indian Airlines becomes first airline in the world to operate flight by all women crew * 1986-89 Ratan Tata serves as Air India chairman * 1990 Air India and Indian Airlines evacuate 116,000 Indians following Iraqs invasion of Kuwait. The airline operated 451 flights to Ammman. * 1994 Government repeals Air Corporation Act paving way for scheduled private airlines * 2005 Air India Express commences operations * 2005 Air India orders 68 Boeing aircraft. Launches non stop flights to New York two years later * 2007 Air India and Indian Airlines merged into a single airline * 2012 Govt approves turnaround plan which included equity infusion, loan guarantees and restructuring of debt. Over Rs 30,000 crore equity pumped in till 2019. * 2013 Air Indias engineering (AIESL) and ground handling subsidiaries (AIATSL) begin operations. These two companies are not part of the airline disinvestment. * 2014 Air India joins Star Alliance, a grouping of global airlines to provide seamless connections to its customers * 2018 Air India operates flights to Israel via Saudi Arabia. This is first time ever Saudi Arabia opened airspace for commercial flights to Israel * 2021 Govt announces Tata Sons as the winning bidder for 100% stake in Air India for Rs 18,000 crore Secretary TUHIN KANTA PANDEY on Friday told reporters that any further delay in selling off would have cost the government Rs 7,200 crore a year. Edited excerpts: How will debt of be treated post the sale? The debt position of the airline post acquisition by Tatas would be Rs 46,262 crore. Excess liabilities of Rs 15,834 crore would be transferred to the government. After netting the value of non-core assets (Rs 14,718 crore) that will be transferred to AIAHL ( Assets Holding), the impact on the Centre after transferring of excess liability would be Rs 44,679 crore. AIAHL will raise money through government-guaranteed bonds and pay off lenders or the government will ask the lenders to novate the guarantee to AIAHL as most of these loans are not backed by assets, especially aircraft. The government has also ranked the order of debt to be retained by the buyer, and high ranking or priority debt will be taken over by the buyer, and lower ranking debt with government guarantee would remain with the Centre. How will losses be treated after signing the deal with the new buyer till deal completion? After closing of the deal, and post getting all approvals, a latest balance sheet of Air India will be prepared. This will have net current liabilities of zero. A new balance sheet will be given to the buyer on the cut-off date, and if they have an issue with it, they can refer to a chartered accountancy firm approved by the The determination by the CA will be final. When the deal is signed, there will be standstill obligations on the company that it cannot take big contracts and will have to undertake normal business. If such decisions need to be taken, the new buyer will have to be consulted. The closure of the deal will take place in December-end. Will there be any other conditions that will have to be met post signing the deal until the handover? There is an agreement on aircraft that a certain number of them need to be in fly-worthy condition. About 58 A320 aircraft, among others, are in fly-worthy condition. How would Air India One and missions such as Vande Bharat be treated? Rescue missions such as Vande Bharat are on a cost recovery basis. Air India One has been transferred to the Indian Air Force. This will also be on a cost recovery basis. How was the reserve price set? Discounted cash flow methodology, comparative multiples, market multiples, balance sheet method and asset valuation method were followed to derive before finalising the reserve price. Covid period was not considered while deciding the value of the airline, and recovery phase should be considered. A weighted average of certain parameters was used to derive the valuation. To arrive at the terminal value, FY21-FY24 were not considered because it would have otherwise been negative. FY25 to FY27 post recovery scenario average was considered while arriving at the terminal value. How much would a delay in the Air India sale cost the government? The government had also considered a scenario where it would have to wound up the airline, which would have cost it Rs 60,000 crore. Accumulated losses of the airline is Rs 83,916 crore and its net worth is (-) Rs 44,507 crore as on March 31. Industry is expected to recover in 2023-24 and there are a number of uncertainties going forward. Apart from uncertainty, the Centre would also have to factor in the cost due to the support to the airline in the interim which based on past records (pre-covid period) would involve a very significant outgo of Rs 600 crore a month or Rs 7,200 crore per year. The value of assets would have further depreciated. When will the new buyer vacate the Air India building/offices? The new buyer can use three buildings of Air India The Air India Building at Nariman Point in Mumbai, one training centre, and the Airlines House in Delhi for a period of two years. Apartments of Air India can be occupied for six months. Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao on Friday said the central bank is examining whether deposit acceptance by Google and Amazon is within the prescribed laws and regulations, at a time when concerns about firms' play in the financial space are at a heightened level. Both Google Pay and Amazon have announced partnerships with lenders to accept deposits in the country through their mobile phone apps. "We are examining the issue regarding the regulatory implications, having regard to the applicable laws and the regulations that are prescribed for the thing. So, we are examining it," Rao told reporters. He added that the entry of big techs into the financial sector space is a global phenomenon which is engaging the attention of central banks around the world as well. In its last financial stability report in June this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had warned against allowing firms into financial services. "While this holds the promise of supporting financial inclusion and generating lasting efficiency gains concerns have intensified around a level-playing field with banks, operational risk, too-big-to-fail issues, challenges for antitrust rules, cybersecurity and data privacy," the had said then. Both the GPay and Amazon tie-ups for deposit collection happened after went public with its concerns. Amazon Pay India has a tie-up with investment platform Kuvera.in through which the former's customers will be able to invest in mutual funds and fixed deposits, while Google Pay has tied up with Equitas Small Finance Bank for booking deposits. (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.) To further ease the financial woes of the states hit by the pandemic, the Reserve Bank has decided to continue with all the enhanced borrowing limits through the ways and means advances (WMA) and overdraft facility this fiscal. Since the beginning of the pandemic and resultant higher borrowings, states have been paying higher interest to their bondholders - trending close to 7 per cent all so far this fiscal. This is despite many of them borrowing less than the notified amount by tapping the WMA window more often this time around, and as of July, it has risen 35 per cent to Rs 92,000 crore. As recommended by the Sudhir Shrivastava-led panel that reviewed the WMA limits for states and UTs, the Reserve Bank has enhanced the interim WMA limits and has given Rs 51,560 crore till September-end to help states tide over the difficulties during the pandemic, the central bank said on Friday, announcing the fourth monetary policy review wherein it left all the key policy rates unchanged. Considering the uncertainties related to the ongoing pandemic, it has been decided to continue with the enhanced WMA limits up to March 31, 2022, Governor Shaktikanta Das said. It has also been decided to continue the liberalised measures introduced to deal with the pandemic, such as enhancing the maximum number of days of OD in a quarter from 36 to 50 days and the number of consecutive days of OD from 14 to 21 days, up to the end of this fiscal, the governor added. These measures are expected to help the states and UTs manage their cash flows better. The details in this regard will be issued separately, he said. According to Care Ratings, most of the states have been meeting their revenue shortfalls by tapping into the financial accommodation being provided by the through short-term borrowing via the special drawing facility (SDF) and WMA. Till July 21, the WMA borrowings rose 35 per cent to Rs 92,000 crore from last year level. However, this moderated during mid-July and August thanks to the receipt of GST compensation shortfall to the tune of Rs 75,000 crore from the Centre as well as the easing of the lockdowns across states, the rating agency said. This fiscal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Telangana, and Punjab were the major states that have drawn down from the special windows. The states were also paying for their debt, which as of October 5 rose to 6 bps over the previous week to 6.91 per cent, further extending the spread between the 10-year state bonds and the same tenor G-secs to 68 bps from 65 bps a week ago. At the latest state government securities auctions on October 5, 17 states raised Rs 22,809 crore, taking the cumulative amount raised so far this fiscal to Rs 3.32 lakh crore (by 27 states and Delhi), which is 12 per cent less than Rs 3.76 lakh crore raised by 28 states and two UTs during the same period last fiscal. Also, the borrowings so far in FY22 are 10 per cent lower than the borrowings as per the indicative auction calendar for this period. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Andrew Galbraith and Vidya Ranganathan SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Bonds and shares issued by Chinese developers slumped on Friday as onshore returned from a week-long holiday with few clues as to how regulators propose to contain the contagion from cash-strapped Group's debt problems. Evergrande, whose shares remain suspended since it requested a trading halt on Monday pending a major transaction announcement, is facing one of the country's largest defaults as it wrestles with more than $300 billion of debt. The company last month missed coupon payments on two dollar bond tranches and faces three more early next week totalling nearly $150 million. The possible collapse of one of China's biggest borrowers has triggered worries about contagion risks to the property sector in the world's second-largest economy, as its debt-laden peers are hit with rating downgrades on looming defaults. That uncertainty battered bonds issued by property firms such as Kaisa Group, Central Real Estate and Greenland over China's National Day break. On Friday, onshore bonds caught up to the selling. The Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended trading of two bonds issued by smaller developer Fantasia Group Co, with one dropping more than 50%, after controlling shareholder Fantasia Holdings Group missed the deadline on a $206 million market debt payment on Monday. "Typically, a default by a small firm will be viewed as idiosyncratic. However, given tight liquidity for many Chinese developers now, market participants are questioning if this may be a precursor for voluntary defaults by other developers with healthy short-term liquidity positions, but large unsustainable longer-term debt," Chang Wei Liang, Credit & FX Strategist at DBS Bank, said in a note. In a statement on Thursday evening, Fantasia Group said its operations were normal and it was maintaining close contact with investors. It also said it was "actively promoting debt service protection measures." Onshore bonds of Xiamen Yuzhou Grand Future Real Estate Development, Yango Group and Guangzhou R&F Properties also slumped on Friday. China Aoyuan Group on Friday said in a statement that it had deposited funds for the payment of an onshore bond maturing Oct. 12, after another of its onshore bonds dropped more than 7.5% in morning trade. Worries around contagion also hit mainland share prices, pulling an index tracking the property sector down 1.75% in afternoon trade, against a rise of around 1% for blue-chip shares In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Property and Construction index fell more than 0.6%, versus a 0.1% drop for the broader Hang Seng index. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that some dollar bondholders were invited by advisers to a call on Friday 0630 EST (1030 GMT) to discuss strategy and how to broaden the group. Furthermore, dollar-bond trustee Citi has hired law firm Mayer Brown as counsel, according to a source familiar with the matter. Citi and Mayer Brown declined to comment. A group of bondholders previously selected investment bank Moelis & Co and law firm Kirkland & Ellis as advisers on a potential restructuring of a tranche of bonds, two sources close to the matter said in September. Chinese regulators have not made any comments specifically on Evergrande during the week-long holiday from Oct. 1, although the central bank last Wednesday urged financial institutions to co-operate with relevant departments and local governments to maintain the "stable and healthy" development of the property market and safeguard housing consumers' interests. In a commentary late on Thursday, the state-backed Global Times said that authorities' adherence to debt caps known as the "three red lines" indicated that "China has its own set of priorities and maintains the focus on deflating the real estate bubble and reducing risks." Investors have been waiting to hear from the company after it requested a halt in the trading of its shares in Hong Kong on Monday pending an announcement about a major transaction. Evergrande Property Services Group, a spin-off listed last year, also requested a halt and said it referred to "a possible general offer for shares of the company." While a sale of assets would temporarily ease concerns around Evergrande's cash flows, analysts also reckon the indebtedness of Evergrande and some other Chinese property firms is too large to be resolved quickly. An index of China high-yield debt, which is dominated by developer issuers, has been sliding through the week and on Friday morning hit its lowest level in more than five years. It could soon see spreads at their widest on record. (Reporting by Andrew Galbraith and Vidya Ranganathan, additional reporting by Megan Davies in New York and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Sam Holmes and Stephen Coates) (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.) Group offshore bondholders are concerned that it is close to defaulting on debt payment obligations and are demanding more information and transparency from the cash-strapped property developer, their advisers said. Evergrande, which could trigger one of China's largest defaults as it wrestles with debts of more than $300 billion, had already missed two payments on dollar bonds, worth a combined $131 million, last month. This has left investors wondering if they will have to swallow large losses at the end of 30-day grace periods for coupons that were due on Sept. 23 and Sept. 29. A group of bondholders have enlisted investment bank Moelis & Co and law firm Kirkland & Ellis to advise them. Offshore bondholders want to engage "constructively" with the company, but are concerned about lack of information from what was once China's top-selling property developer, Bert Grisel, a managing director at Moelis, said. "Unfortunately, so far, we have had a couple of calls with the advisers," Grisel said, adding that there had not been any "meaningful dialogue with the company or provision of information". "We all feel that an imminent default on the offshore bonds is or will occur in a short period of time," he added. Evergrande, which faces nearly $150 million in offshore payment obligations next week, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment Neil McDonald, a restructuring partner in the Hong Kong office of Kirkland, said the bondholders would like more transparency, and hoped would meet its disclosure obligations as part of the stock listing rules. SLUMPING SECTOR With few clues as to how local regulators propose to contain the contagion from Evergrande, the price of bonds and shares in Chinese property developers slumped again on Friday. In another development, dollar-bond trustee Citi has hired law firm Mayer Brown as counsel, a source familiar with the matter, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters earlier on Friday. Citi and Mayer Brown declined to comment. The possible collapse of one of China's biggest borrowers has triggered worries about contagion risks in the world's second-largest economy, with other debt-laden property firms hit by rating downgrades on looming defaults. That uncertainty battered offshore bonds issued by property firms such as Kaisa Group, Central Real Estate and Greenland over China's week-long National Day break that ended on Friday. Evergrande shares have been suspended since it requested a trading halt on Monday pending a major transaction announcement. (Reporting by Andrew Galbraith, Anshuman Daga, Scott Murdoch, Vidya Ranganathan, additional reporting by Megan Davies in New York; Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Sam Holmes, Stephen Coates, Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Alexander Smith) (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 vast overhaul of corporate taxation won support from 136 countries, as nations resolved key differences over the level of a global minimum rate and an end to new digital taxes that the US has deemed discriminatory. The group includes all nations in the Group of 20, European Union and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the announced Friday. After years of missed deadlines and wrangling over how to handle global tech firms such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.s Google, Fridays deal included a 15% minimum rate for corporations and the main parameters to slice the profits of multinationals to be taxed in more countries. The OECD, which has chaired the talks, said a minimum rate could ultimately raise government incomes by $150 billion a year, while new rules would reallocate $125 billion of profits to be taxed in nations where big corporations generate revenue but may have little physical presence. In addition, countries agreed not to impose new digital services taxes as of Friday. Fridays accord builds on a preliminary July deal, when governments agreed on key aspects of the plan for the first time -- including which companies would be subject to the profit reallocation rules. The years-long talks at the Paris-based organization are split into two so-called pillars. The first deals with questions of allocating profits for tax, while Pillar Two seeks to create a global minimum corporate tax rate. Of the countries involved in the talks, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka havent signed the deal, the said. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday expanded his Cabinet by inducting 17 ministers and two ministers of state from the five-party ruling alliance, three months after he assumed office. With this, the government's strength has now reached 25, including 22 ministers and three ministers of state. Earlier, there were only six members in the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister and one state minister. Prime Minister Deuba was unable to expand his Cabinet due to prolonged power sharing negotiations among the five-party ruling alliance. He himself was heading 17 ministries. Five ministers have been inducted from newly formed CPN-Unified Socialist, four ministers and one minister of state from Madhes-based Janata Socialist Party and 5 ministers and one minister of state from CPN-Maoist Centre led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda". Similarly, Nepali Congress led by Deuba got eight ministers and one minister of state, according to sources at the President's Office. Bal Krishna Khand of Nepali Congress has retained the portfolio of Home, while Narayan Khadka of the same party has retained the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs. Kadhka was last month appointed as the Foreign Minister by President Bidya Devi Bhandari. Similarly, Minendra Rijal and Gyanendra Bahadur Karki of Nepali Congress have got the ministries of Defence and Information and Communication respectively. Birodh Khatiwada of CPN-Unified Socialist has been appointed as Minister for Health and Population. Janardan Sharma of CPN-Maoist Centre has retained the ministry of Finance. The five-party ruling coalition includes Nepali Congress (NC), CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) and CPN (Maoist Centre). (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.) Warning that any instability in could have severe implications for Pakistan, a high-level meeting of the country's civilian and military leadership on Friday emphasised the urgent need for the community to provide assistance to avert a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn neighbouring country. During the meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, he was given a detailed briefing on the evolving regional security situation, particularly the recent developments in and their possible impact on Pakistan, the Dawn News reported, quoting a press statement released by the Prime Minister's Office. The NSC is the highest forum in for coordination on security issues. "The participants noted, with concern, the dire humanitarian situation in and emphasised the urgent need for the community to provide assistance to avert a humanitarian crisis," the statement said. The importance of coordination on "constructive political and economic engagement" with the interim government in Afghanistan was also highlighted during the meeting. The swept across Afghanistan in August, seizing control of almost all key towns and cities in the backdrop of withdrawal of the US forces that began on May 1. On August 15, the capital city of Kabul fell to the insurgents. The claimed victory over opposition forces in the last holdout province of Panjshir on September 6, completing their takeover of Afghanistan three weeks after capturing Kabul. The have put in place a hardline interim 33-member Cabinet that has no women and includes UN-designated terrorists. The Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. The NSC members stressed that the evolving situation in the region was "extremely complex", and that any instability in Afghanistan could have severe implications for "Agreeing with this view, the prime minister stressed the need for a coordinated policy effort," the PMO said. Khan issued directions for the establishment of a dedicated cell to synergise various streams of efforts on Afghanistan across the government, including international coordination for humanitarian assistance and effective border management to prevent "any negative spillover" into The meeting was attended by Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed told reporters at a press conference held after the meeting. The outgoing Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed was also present at the meeting. According to interior minister Rasheed, border management formed part of the discussion, besides all issues pertaining to the current situation in Pakistan. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An explosion went off Friday among Shiite Muslim worshippers at a mosque in northern Afghanistan, killing or wounding at least 100 people, a police official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place in Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province, but militants from the Islamic State group have a long history of attacking Afghanistan's Shiite Muslim minority. Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said that the majority of them have been killed. He said the attack may have been carried out by a suicide bomber who mingled among the worshippers. I assure our Shiite brothers that the are prepared to ensure their safety, Obaida said, adding that an investigation was underway. If confirmed, a death toll of dozens would be the highest since U.S. and NATO forces left at the end of August and the took control of the country. The Taliban have been targeted in a series of deadly IS attacks, including shooting ambushes and an explosion at a mosque in the capital of Kabul. The explosion went off during the weekly Friday prayer service at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque. The Friday noon prayer is the highlight of the Muslim religious week, and mosques are typically crowded. Witness Ali Reza said he was praying at the time of the explosion and reported seeing many casualties. Photos and video from the scene showed rescuers carrying a body wrapped in a blanket from the mosque to an ambulance. The stairs at the entrance of the mosque were covered in blood. Earlier Friday, the chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Shiite mosque was the target and that a large number of worshippers were killed and wounded. He said Taliban special forces had arrived to the scene and were investigating the incident. The Taliban leadership has been grappling with a growing threat from the local Islamic State affiliate, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan. IS militants have ramped up attacks to target their rivals, including two deadly bombings in Kabul. IS has also targeted Afghanistan's religious minorities in attacks. The local Islamic State affiliate claimed responsibility for the horrific Aug. 26 bombing that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel outside the Kabul airport in the final days of the chaotic American pullout from Since the U.S. pullout, IS attacks have been mostly in eastern the regional base for the IS affiliate and in Kabul. Ethnic Hazaras, who are mostly minority Shiite Muslims, make up about 6% of Kunduz's population of nearly 1 million people. The province also has a large ethnic Uzbek population that has been targeted for recruitment by the IS, which is closely aligned with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Friday's attack, if claimed by IS, will also be worrying for Afghanistan's northern Central Asian neighbours and Russia, which has been courting the Taliban for years as an ally against the creeping IS in the area. (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.) Taiwans TSMC and Japans Group Corp are considering jointly building a chip factory in Japan, with the government ready to pay for some of the investment of about 800 billion yen ($7.15 billion), the Nikkei reported on Friday. The plant in Kumamoto, southern Japan, is expected to produce semiconductors for automobiles, camera image sensors and other products which have been hit by a global chip shortage, and is likely to start operations by 2024, the report said. Both and TSMC declined to comment. But TSMC, the worlds largest contract chipmaker and major Apple Inc supplier had said in July that it was reviewing a plan to set up production in Japan. TSMC has been concerned about the the concentration of chipmaking capability in Taiwan, which produces the majority of the worlds most advanced chips. China does not rule out the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control. Japanese officials are also worried about the supply chain stability of its industries, with a global chip shortage forcing automakers to cut production. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Analysts have given a thumbs-up to the takeover of Air India by Tata Sons and suggest that the diversified conglomerate has acquired the struggling state-owned entity at an attractive price. The deal, they say, is a win-win for both the government and Tata Sons and can help fast track the rest of the divestments lined up in fiscal 2021-22 (FY22). That apart, it will help re-rate stocks of most public sector enterprises (PSE) at the bourses. The Air India deal going through is in itself is a big development can will trigger a rerating of PSEs, especially Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Container Corporation (CONCOR), Shipping Corporation, SAIL, Hindustan Copper etc., where government the has already shown its intent of divesting its stake. That apart, banks whose money had been stuck in the loss-making entity will also get some relief, said A K Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital. Besides Air India and BPCL, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam are some of the other public sector companies that are likely to see government cut its stake in, reports suggest. The target for FY22 was set at of Rs 1.75 trillion. The sale of Air India would be at an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore, out of which Rs 15,300 crore would be the debt retained by the winning bidder. Tata Sons will pay Rs 2,700 crore in cash. By definition, the enterprise value (EV) is a measure of a company's total value, which includes not only includes market capitalisation of a company, but also short-term and long-term debt as well as any cash on the company's balance sheet. Considering what all Tatas will get stakes in Air India and its low cost arm, Air India Express, ground-handling company etc., the deal for Tatas is very attractive. Given that Tatas already have stakes in Air Asia and Vistara, the takeover of Air India will only strengthen their foothold in the aviation space. If Tata Sons chooses to consolidate all its aviation businesses and list it at the bourses, we may well have another TCS-like company from the Tata stable in the aviation space. If the government could find a solution for Air India, it can also find ways to divest other entities. augurs well for the governments divestment agenda as well, said G Chokkalingam, founder and chief investment officer at Equinomics Research. According to the contours of the deal, besides the 100 per cent stake in Air India and its low-cost arm, Air India Express, the deal also includes a 50 per cent stake in ground-handling company, Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited (AISATS). Air India had become a sore thumb for the government. It had made several attempts to revive the airline, but it made no sense in putting good money after bad. I think it is a win-win for both. While the Tata Group has the experience, capability and knowledge to run an airline, the government, on the other hand, has finally exited this venture. If the government looked for a higher price for Air India, it would have dragged the divestment process further, which was not a sensible thing to do, explains Gaurang Shah, senior Vice President at Geojit Financial Services. Crypto platform CoinSwitch Kuber on Friday said it has onboarded Bollywood actor as its brand ambassador. Through this association, CoinSwitch Kuber aims to leverage Singh's mass appeal, along with his popularity among the Gen Z and millennial customers, a statement said. CoinSwitch Kuber and Singh will work towards highlighting the growing acceptance of crypto in India while enhancing crypto awareness and trust in this emerging asset class, it added. The company has recently reached unicorn status in India, valued at USD 1.9 billion serving over 10 million Indian customers. Singh will feature in three ad films for CoinSwitch Kuber's ongoing Kuch Toh Badlega' campaign. The ad films drive the narrative of the potential of to become the preferred choice of investment for the diverse Indian population, especially those living in tier II and III cities. Each of the ad films is designed to convey a different key trait of the CoinSwitch Kuber platform, the statement said. Our aim is to make crypto accessible to billions in India while making it as simple as ordering food online. I am confident that Ranveer, with his youth appeal, will enable us to make strides towards achieving that goal while aiding CoinSwitch Kuber to become a household name, CoinSwitch Kuber co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal said. By featuring Singh in the 'Kuch Toh Badlega' campaign, CoinSwitch Kuber is tapping into the significant interest it has witnessed from tier II and III cities, he added. This is an exciting time for the crypto landscape in India. I am glad to come onboard as the brand ambassador of CoinSwitch Kuber, India's largest crypto asset platform. The company is a key player in the crypto revolution in India, Singh 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.) rallied up to 8 per cent on the bourses in Friday's intra-day trade as the Indian hotel industry is reporting a consistent and rapid recovery in occupancies after a dull period amid the second wave of Covid-19. Further, a recovery in the business travel and permitting foreign tourist to travel in India would further give a boost to the occupancies in the quarters ahead, analysts say. On Thursday, the government said India will issue fresh tourist visas to foreign nationals coming to the country in chartered flights from October 15. Foreign tourists travelling to India by flights other than chartered aircraft will be able to do so from November 15, said a statement by Home Ministry. Indian Hotels Company, Chalet Hotels, Lemon Tree Hotels, Royal Orchid Hotels, EIH and Taj GVK Hotels & Resorts gained 5 per cent to 8 per cent on the BSE in the intra-day trade today. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.58 per cent at 60,026 points at 09:50 am. Among individual stocks, Indian Hotels Company hit a record high of Rs 211.50, surging 8 per cent in the intra-day trade. The stock of the Tata Group company surpassed its previous high of Rs 200.90 touched on September 27, 2021. Brokerage firm Sharekhan has a 'Buy' rating on Indian Hotels Company with a revised price target of Rs 215 as rapid vaccinations lifted domestic leisure travel, helping occupancies to scale up to close to 60 per cent in July 2021 and further improve in August. India's occupancy rates were trending upwards of 60 per cent during July-August 2021 after having dropped to 20 per cent in May. International such as the US and the UK have seen a significant improvement in occupancies in the recent months. "With strong room inventory, Indian Hotels Company will benefit from a robust recovery in domestic leisure travel. This will be further boosted by a gradual recovery in the business travel and permits for foreign tourist arrivals. With focus on Asset-light model, Indian Hotels Company aims at reducing debt substantially through improved cash flows and equity infusion," the brokerage firm said. Nifty futures on SGX were up 44 points at 17,859 around 8.45 am, indicating a firm start for the benchmark indices on Friday. Here are the top stocks to track in today's session: TCS: Most brokerages are pencilling in double-digit growth in net profit and revenue for TCS, led by improvement in demand from BFSI, healthcare and retail, acceleration in digital technologies and ramp-up of deals along with recovery from the India market. Furthermore, persistent market share loss of key players such as Capgemini and Cognizant is also expected to directly benefit READ MORE ZEEL: As the feud continues between Zee and Invesco, appellate body NCLAT on Thursday directed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to give reasonable opportunity to the media major to reply to Invesco's plea for holding a meeting of shareholders, and also remarked that the tribunal made an "error" by not providing sufficient response time. Rate sensitive stocks: Expect rate-sensitives like auto, banks and real-estate shares to be in focus on Friday on account of RBI policy outcome. InterGlobe Aviation: IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal has moved Delhi High Court to enforce an arbitration order of the London Court of International Arbitration. Sources said the order had mandated relief in terms of the shareholders agreement, which gives greater control to co-promoter Rahul Bhatia and puts restrictions on transferring shares. READ MORE Oberoi Realty: The company reported over two-fold jump in its sales bookings at Rs 828.52 crore for the quarter ended September on improved housing demand driven by low mortgage rates. Its sales bookings stood at Rs 327.30 crore in the year-ago period, the company said in a regulatory filing. Hero MotoCorp: The company has launched an all-new XPulse 200 4 Valve bike priced at Rs 1.28 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). JSW Energy: The company has entered into a contract with GE Renewable Energy for the supply of 810 MW wind turbines. It said the supply of 810 MW onshore wind turbines is for its under-construction pipeline of 2.5 GW of renewable projects in India. Ratnamani Metals & Tubes: The company has received a new order of Rs 98 crore for the supply of carbon steel pipes from the domestic oil and gas sector, to be executed in 5 to 12 months. KPI Global Infrastructure: The company has signed new long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with GHCL Limited, Bhilad for sale of 1.25 MW solar power for a period of 20 years under Independent Power Producer (IPP) business vertical. IL&FS Transportation Networks: The company has entered into a share purchase agreement with Vishvaraj Infrastructure, to sell and transfer the entire equity shareholding held by the company in Warora Chandrapur Ballarpur Toll Road (WBCTRL). The Mandhana Retail Ventures: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala sold 8.52 lakh shares in the company via open market transactions during October 5-7, reducing shareholding to 2.40 per cent from 6.26 per cent earlier. JSW Energy said that it has signed a contract with GE Renewable Energy for supply of 810 MW of onshore wind turbines for the company's under construction pipeline of approximately 2.5 GW of renewable projects in India. The supply of the turbines will start by the second quarter of CY2022. These turbines will produce enough green energy to meet the annual electricity requirements of more than 2.1 million households in the country. GE Renewable Energy, a division of General Electric, focuses on production of energy from renewable sources. Its portfolio of products includes wind (onshore and offshore), hydroelectric and solar (concentrated and photovoltaic) power generating solutions. Prashant Jain, joint managing director and CEO of JSW Energy, said: We are proud to partner with GE, a high-tech industrial company, to contribute to India's renewable energy goals. Our company has set a target to reach 20 GW of power generation capacity by 2030, by when the share of renewables in our entire portfolio will become 85%. The projects being implemented in Tamil Nadu is our first large scale wind power project. We look forward to working with GE to achieve our energy transition and growth targets. Around 2.5 GW renewable projects of the company are currently under-construction - approximately 2.2 GW of wind and solar projects, tied with SECI and JSW Steel, are expected be commissioned in the next 18-24 months, while the 240 MW Kutehr hydro project is expected to be commissioned in the next 36-40 months. With the commissioning of these projects, the company's total generation capacity will increase to approximately 7 GW, with renewable energy contributing more than 50%. JSW Energy is engaged in the business of power generation and transmission primarily in the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh. The company has its presence across power sectors including generation, power transmission, mining, power plant equipment manufacturing and power trading. It has a 4,559MW generation capacity, out of which 3,158MW is thermal power, 1,391MW is hydropower and 10 MW is solar power. The company's consolidated net profit declined 5.7% to Rs 201.10 crore on a 4.3% fall in net sales to Rs 1,727.54 crore in Q1 FY22 over Q1 FY21. The scrip shed 0.52% to end at Rs 379.20 on the BSE yesterday. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) K P I Global Infrastructure surged 6.4% to Rs 137.50 after the company signed new long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with GHCL Limited, Bhilad. In a regulatory filing on Thursday, the company informed that it signed a new long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with GHCL, Bhilad for sale of 1.25 MW solar power for a period of 20 years under Independent Power Producer (IPP) business vertical. K.P.I. Global Infrastructure Limited generates and sells solar power under Solarism brand name in India. It develops, builds, owns, operates, and maintains solar power plants as an independent power producer and captive power producer. On a consolidated basis, the company posted a net profit of Rs 7.99 crore in Q1 FY22 as compared to a net loss of Rs 1.45 crore reported in Q1 FY21. Net sales soared by 104.9% to Rs 35.42 crore in Q1 FY22 over Q1 FY21. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Seamless gained 1.49% to Rs 371.20 after the company bagged a Rs 237 crore order from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. The scope of the order is to supply seamless casings pipes. The announcement was made during market hours today, 8 October 2021. Maharashtra Seamless manufactures carbon and alloy steel seamless pipes, ERW (Electrical Resistance Welding) steel and castings pipes. The company also owns a wind power mill. On a consolidated basis, the company posted a 113.7% rise in net profit to Rs 96.16 crore on a 50.4% increase in net sales to Rs 690.48 crore in Q1 FY22 over Q1 FY21. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The key equity benchmarks further pared gains in early afternoon trade. The Nifty was trading below the 17,900 mark. Hotel stocks were in demand after the government said that it will soon start issuing tourist visas. At 12:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 254.27 points or 0.43% to 59,932.10. The Nifty 50 index added 74.65 points or 0.42% to 17,865. In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.09% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.49%. The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1719 shares rose and 1437 shares fell. A total of 163 shares were unchanged. Investors rejoiced after the RBI kept the repo and reverse repo rates unhanged and continued its 'accommodative' stance. Derivatives: The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 1.84% to 15.86. The Nifty 28 October 2021 futures were trading at 17,851, at a discount of 14 points as compared with the spot at 17,865. The Nifty option chain for 28 October expiry showed maximum Call OI of 20.6 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 34.7 lakh contracts was seen at 17,000 strike price. Buzzing Segment: Shares of six hotel companies advanced after the Union Government announced its decision to start the issue of tourist visas from 15 October 2021. The Central Government had been receiving representations from several State Governments as well as various stakeholders in the tourism sector to start Tourist Visas also, to allow foreign tourists to come to India. On Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that it has decided to begin granting of fresh tourist visas for foreigners coming to India through chartered flights with effect from 15 October 2021. Foreign tourists entering into India by flights other than chartered aircraft would be able to do so only with effect from 15 November 2021 on fresh Tourist Visas. As per media reports, the Indian hotel industry is witnessing a consistent and rapid recovery in occupancies after a dull period amid the second wave of COVID-19. Further, a recovery in the business travel and permitting foreign tourist to travel in India would further give a boost to the occupancies in the quarters ahead, media reports said. Lemon Tree Hotels (up 5.67%), Royal Orchid Hotels (up 4.32%), EIH (up 3.95%), Indian Hotels Company (up 3.39%), Chalet Hotels (up 3%), and Taj GVK Hotels & Resorts (up 2.92%) advanced. Stocks in Spotlight: Bajaj Auto were trading 0.28% higher at Rs 3,839.65. the auto maker said that has resigned from the position of chief financial officer of the company to explore other opportunities. The same has been accepted by the company. His last date in the company will be 20 December 2021. The company further added that it is in the process of identifying and appointing a suitable person for the said position. Multi Commodity Exchange of India jumped 5.77% to Rs 1927.80. On the BSE, over 1.96 lakh shares of the company were traded in the counter so far as against an average trading volume of 0.61 lakh shares. The Power Ministry said on Thursday said that the resolution of the jurisdiction issue between market regulator SEBI and electricity regulator CERC will further deepen the power market and pave the way for the introduction of longer duration delivery-based contracts on exchanges. The resolution has opened the gate for introduction of longer duration delivery-based contracts on the power exchanges which has been currently restricted to only 11 days due to the pendency of the case, the ministry informed. This will further deepen the power market from the present level of approx. 5.5% of the volume to the targeted volume of 25$ by 2024-25. The commodity exchanges viz. MCX etc. can now introduce financial products viz. electricity futures etc. which will enable discoms and other large consumers to effectively hedge their risks of power procurement, it stated. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will announce its Q2 September 2021 earnings today, 8 October 2021. Hero MotoCorp launched the all-new XPulse 200 4 Valve. The new XPulse 200 4 Valve is an addition to the X-range of premium portfolio of Hero MotoCorp. Oberoi Realty said it sold 200 units in the July-September quarter compared to 45 units last year. In terms of volume, it sold 4.43 lakh square feet in the second quarter, compared to 1.30 lakh square feet in the corresponding period of the previous year. JSW Energy has signed a contract with GE Renewable Energy for procurement of 810 MW of onshore wind turbines for the company's under-construction pipeline of renewable energy projects. KPI Global Infrastructure said that it has signed new long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with GHCL, Bhilad for sale of 1.25 MW solar power for a period of 20 years under Independent Power Producer (IPP) business vertical. Ratnamani Metals & Tubes has received a new order of Rs 98 crore (excluding GST) for supply of Carbon Steel Pipes from domestic Oil & Gas Sector, to be executed in 5 to 12 months. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TVS Motor Company announced an advanced range of TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles today equipped with a new headlamp assembly and signature Daytime Running Lamp (DRL), and three ride modes. The Company also introduced TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition, equipped with first-in-segment features including adjustable clutch and brake levers, an exclusive Matte Black colour with red alloy wheels, and a new seat pattern besides the new headlamp. TVS Apache RTR 160 4V and TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition will now be available in three ride modes - Urban, Sport, and Rain, gear shift indicator and radial rear tyre. The top-end variant of the Apache RTR 160 4V will be equipped with TVS SmartXonnectTM. TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles are fitted with a new headlamp assembly where the signature DRL continues to glow, changing its stance to a Front Position Lamp (FPL) which functions with low and high beam simultaneously. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The has submitted a list of star campaigners for the bypolls, which includes some prominent leaders from the G-23 list and Kanhaiya Kumar, who has recently joined the party. Anand Sharma, who belongs to Himachal Pradesh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Chief Minister of Haryana, and Raj Babbar are the three members of G-23, who have been included in the list. Apart from them, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel are also in the list with Sachin Pilot and while Ashok Gehlot is excluded,sources said, adding that Gehlot is looking after the elections in Rajasthan. The is slated to hold a CWC meeting this month and ahead of the meet, the party has tried to reach out to the dissenters, who have demanded the meeting of the highest decision making body of the party. announces 20 star campaigners for all bye-elections to Lok Sabha&Legislative Assembly of Himachal Pradesh to be held on 30th Oct List includes Bhupesh Baghel, Charanjit S Channi Bhupinder S Hooda, Anand Sharma, Rajeev Shukla, Sachin Pilot, Navjot S Sidhu &Kanhaiya Kumar pic.twitter.com/T3ReARTTZB ANI (@ANI) October 8, 2021 Former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had written for an early meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). Azad in his letter had pointed out about the need for a permanent president and to discuss party affairs in the present scenario. He had reiterated his demand for organisational elections in the party. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had launched an attack on Rahul Gandhi and wondered who in the party was taking decisions. He said that the party leaders' demand for organisational elections had not been met. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sibal had said, "There is no president in our party, so we do not know who is taking all the decisions. We know it, yet we don't know." The bypolls are going to be held in 15 states and union territories, including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal on October 30 and the counting of votes will take place on November 2. --IANS miz/dpb (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 has included among its star campaigners for the October 30 in Himachal Pradesh, just days after he created a fresh crisis in the unit by submitting his resignation as its chief. In a letter sent to the Election Commission of India Friday, General Secretary KC Venugopal has submitted a list of 20 star campaigners -- which also includes new inductee Kanhaiya Kumar -- for the by-elections to Mandi Lok Sabha and Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly seats of Himachal Pradesh. Sidhu had submitted his resignation as the chief last month, saying he could not compromise on his state's future and its welfare. However, it was not yet clear if the party high command has accepted or rejected his resignation. Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Chaani, actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar, Shimla (Rural) MLA Vikramaditya Singh, former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Punjab minister Gurkirat Singh Kotli have also been included in the list of star campaigners for the by-polls. Chhattishgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma, Rajeev Shukla, Asha Kumari, Dhaniram Shandil, Sachin Pilot, Sanjay Dutt, Thakur Kaul Singh, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu have also been named among the star campaigners. Others in the list are Kuldeep Singh Rathore, Mukesh Agnihotri, Rajender Rana, Dharamvir Singh Rana and Kanhaiya Kumar. The Congress general secretary KC Venugopal has also sent the copy of its star campaigners to Himachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer. Sidhu was made the Punjab Congress chief after a bitter feud with then chief minister Amarinder Singh. The infighting in the Punjab Congress also saw Singh resign as the chief minister. However, Sidhu later put in his papers as the Punjab unit chief of the party, igniting a fresh crisis in the state's ruling party. The party high command has not made it clear yet if his resignation has been accepted. Sidhu, meanwhile, led a delegation of Congress leaders from Mohali to Lakhimpur Kehri to meet the families of farmers who were killed in violence in the Uttar Pradesh district on October 3. He met the families Friday. The Congress has been attacking the government over the issue. (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 Police issued a fresh notice to Union minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra asking him to appear before it by 11 am on Saturday in connection with the violence that killed eight people, including four farmers, after he missed his 10 am deadline on Friday. The latest notice, pasted on the wall of Mishra's house Friday afternoon, warned that legal action will be initiated against him if fails to appear before the investigators on Saturday. Deputy Inspector General (Headquarters) Upendra Agarwal who is heading the team probing Sunday's incident waited for him at the police lines but he didn't show up, after which the fresh notice was served. As Mishra did not show up, reports emerged that he may have fled to Nepal. Asked about it, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said, "If this is true, the Centre should intervene and get the accused arrested from Nepal." In a statement issued here, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said, "...there is no trace of him (Ashish Mishra). News reports indicate that he is changing locations and is absconding, with several Police teams searching for him." The morcha expressed its "serious concern and shock" at Mishra not yet being arrested. After two men were arrested on Thursday, the police pasted a notice outside Mishra's house asking him to appear before it at 10 am on Friday. The arrested men were identified as Luvkush of Banbirpur village and Ashish Pandey of Nighasan tehsil, two of the seven people mentioned in an FIR lodged by the police in connection with the violence. A nine-member team headed by DIG Upendra Agarwal has been formed to investigate the FIR lodged against the minister's son and others. Four of the eight people who died on Sunday were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles carrying BJP workers. Angry farmers then allegedly lynched some people in the vehicles. The other dead included two BJP workers and their driver. Farmers claimed that Ashish Mishra was in one of the vehicles, an allegation denied by him and his father who say they can produce evidence to prove he was at an event at that time. In its statement, the morcha alleged that two other men -- Sumit Jaiswal and Ankit Das -- were also involved in the violence, but they are not being arrested by the police. "There is only information on a notice issued to Ashish Mishra summoning him for questioning. The UP government and Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra are adopting protective tactics to ensure that Ashish Mishra roams free," it said. It alleged that Sumit Jaiswal was in the Thar vehicle that mowed down the farmers and was clearly seen escaping from the vehicle. Similarly, a video clip where a police official was seen questioning a person caught during the incident revealed that Ankit Das was in the Fortuner vehicle that was also involved in the violence, the morcha said. The morcha demanded immediate arrest of Ashish, Sumit and Ankit. (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.) Civil Aviation Minister Friday announced a new helicopter policy under which dedicated hubs and corridors would be established and landing charges and parking deposits abolished to boost commercial operations. "Today, I want to announce a new helicopter policy for the whole country. We have ten steps that are going to be part of this policy," Scindia stated during his speech at the 3rd Helicopter Summit organised by industry body FICCI in Dehradun. Under the new policy, the government is going to put together a dedicated helicopter-acceleration cell in the that will look at helicopter industry's issues, the minister mentioned. "It is going to be a resource that you can use to facilitate your growth," he added. The minister stated that according to the new policy, there will be no landing charges or parking deposits for heliports or helicopter companies from now onward. Officers of Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) will engage with the helicopter industry stakeholders so that adequate training is given to all individuals regarding helicopter issues, the minister noted. Under the new policy, an advisory group has been set up in the to discuss any pain points of the industry, he mentioned. Heli-Disha, a booklet that was released on Friday in Dehradun, would be given to every collector of every district of the country, he said. The booklet contained all regulations and issues related to helicopter size, weight, operations, etc, and it would be distributed so that awareness about them is created in the district administrations across the country, he added. As per the new policy, a centralised Heli-Seva portal will be upgraded to a level so that all permissions for a helicopter flight could be granted online, the minister mentioned. He said the government is going to make four Heli-hubs to start with -- one at Juhu in Mumbai, second in Guwahati, third in Delhi and fourth at HAL airport in Bengaluru. The minister said 10 cities and 82 routes have been identified to develop helicopter corridors. "As a beginning, we are going to start with three dedicated corridors for -- Juhu-Pune-Juhu, Mahalakshmi race course-Pune-Mahalakshmi race course and Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar," Scindia noted. He said the government has chosen three expressways -- Delhi-Bombay expressway, Ambala-Kotputli expressway and Amrisar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar expressway -- where the heliports would be set up along the expressway so that evacuation of accident victims can be done immediately. In the health sector, it is said that the first seven minutes are the golden minutes when we have to evacuate victims of a road accident, he added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 8 (ANI/Hunk Golden and Media): Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) has entered into an MOU with Amravati EV Consulting and Trading Private Limited (AEV), a subsidiary of the EV OEM Smart Manufacturer, Dao EV Tech Pvt. Ltd. to develop and up-skill delivery personnel and provide employment opportunities in South India initially. DAO EV Tech, a 'Make in India' dedicated smart electric mobility manufacturing start-up based out of Hyderabad. India, being a country with 1.3 Billion people, has the capacity to elevate poverty and generate large-scale earning opportunities for young people from Tier-3, Tier - 4 cities and towns simply by upskilling them to work in Tier -2 and Tier -1 cities, providing an Electric vehicle, food & accommodation and opportunities to work as 'Delivery Personnel'. During the pandemic, India witnessed unprecedented growth in the online delivery industry. The growth that was meant to take place in the next ten years took place in just 8 weeks, according to a McKinsey report. Hence, the order-fulfilment and last mile-delivery is currently facing a challenge and dearth of delivery personnels. The sudden increase in demand for order-fulfilment and last-mile delivery personnel in the e-commerce industry has created an opportunity for 'Delivery Personnel'. However, in the current scenario the delivery personnel is required to own their vehicle. This modality has reached its saturation. There is acute shortage of such delivery personnel and such resources are facing 30-40% attrition rate. So AEV has come with an innovative solution by tapping the untapped resources from smaller towns and villages who are equally eligible and willing but do not own their vehicle. This will bring long-term relief to the last-mile delivery resource crunch. Amravati EV Consulting (AEV) has seen this as an issue facing the industry and approached Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC). Andhra Pradesh has one of the largest migrants to the cities who primarily join the construction industry. Today this can change.For the enablement of such skilled manpower in this sector, it is obligatory on the part of The Government of Andhra Pradesh to develop a large pool of skilled manpower to cater to the needs of the industry and related service sectors. Towards this endeavour, the State has earnestly decided to address the skill shortage projected by the Industry through APSSDC. K. Ajay Reddy, Chairman and Bangara Raju, MD of APSSDC spoke on the occasion and said, "As per the instructions of Hon'ble Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh should be a role model for skilling. DAO EV Tech's Recruit, Train and Deploy (RTD) model will empower and enable rural unemployed youth to make a decent livelihood." Through the MOU, the APSSDC will help AEV in selection of right training partners in various rural parts of state of Andhra Pradesh for providing the infrastructural facilities required for running the Skill Development Program and related recruitment and training management for the last-mile delivery business in the e-commerce industry. Dr. Michael Liu, Chairman and CEO, DAO EV Tech said, "We have a scientific process to recruit the delivery personnel. Without upgrading the skills and proper training we do not onboard any delivery personnel. Through this MOU, the Government of AP and APSSDC and AEV will enable recruitment, training and onboarding of 'Delivery Personnel' while AEV will further take the responsibility to migrate them to Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities and provide employment opportunities". Maneesh Singh, VP Strategic Development, DAO EV Tech said, "This MOU is a strategic way forward for closing the industry gap. We at AEV are constantly seeking corporate contracts with tier-1 and tier-2 e-commerce companies, major 3PL players and national food delivery companies." The APSSDC shall select reputed and authorised 'Training institutions' through a stipulated procedure. Provide a platform for registration of trainees online and mapping of institutions' potential and interested 'Delivery Personal'. AEV will provide the Training Module to these training partners and the training partners will ensure the Deliver Personnel complete the required skill development course so that they are employment ready. AEV takes responsibility to get 'Delivery Personal' on-boarded with the Tier-1 and Tier-2 e-commerce players and enable further onsite training at e-commerce companies and ensure they get on-boarded. AEV will also enable hostel accommodation and food arrangements in migrated cities at a subsidised rate. This residential accommodation will be near the delivery hubs of e-commerce players. AEV will further assist through it's parent company Dao EvTech Private Limited to provide '2 Wheeler Electric Vehicles' to the delivery personnel at zero cost through 3PL micro-investors (Fleet Owners). This story is provided by Hunk Golden and Media. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Hunk Golden and Media) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi [India], October 8 (ANI/India PR Distribution): EZ Rankings, a digital marketing agency specializing in (https://www.ezrankings.org/seo-services.html) SEO services helps you maintain and increase your clients with their SEO Reseller Program. The company makes sure to follow the correct process of first preparing an action plan that involves the details of your client. To get more focused results, they create an effective action plan that helps your client in achieving their business goals. EZ Rankings' main focus is to create a personalized strategy that puts your clients' business on the front, as per their requirements. Not only the planning, but EZ Rankings' robust execution is what has made them a trusted name in the internet marketing business. On the benefits of their reseller program, Mansi Rana, the managing director of EZ Rankings stated, "We offer you competitive pricing, guaranteed results, access to paid, and project management tools, no contract clause, and pre-sale and post-sale assistance. With that being said, this definitely makes EZ Rankings your perfect partner for all kinds of SEO, SMO, PPC, web designing, development project outsourcing company". (https://www.ezrankings.org/seo-reseller-services.html) SEO Reseller has several benefits that can help you derive the results that are required for any successful business. EZ Rankings have provided and continue to provide the following benefits with their SEO Reseller Program: 1. EZ Rankings helps you focus on your core tasks and allows you to concentrate on what you're good at. At EZ Rankings, professionals take care of your client SEO needs allowing you more time to build relations and deliver stunning results to your business clients. 2. You get professional assistance that can help you accomplish big and scalable projects. A professional team takes care of your clients' requirements even if the dynamics change. 3. EZ Rankings has a wide niche that assists you in accomplishing projects from any domain. The experts at EZ Rankings are always working on a broad array of subjects and delivering consistent results leading to a substantial increase in your ROI. 4. The company works on the 'On-Demand' model. There are no subscription plans or contracts. Therefore, you pay for what you need. EZ Rankings is an ISO-certified, Google partnered digital marketing agency based in Noida, India. With multiple projects delivered for businesses of all sizes, the company guarantees marketing results, making them a known name in the internet marketing sphere. EZ Rankings has featured on HubSpot, Silicon India, Daily Herald, Hindustan Times, among many others. Mansi Rana, the managing director of EZ Rankings, won the Digital Marketing Leader Of the Year at Women Leadership Awards. This story is provided by India PR Distribution. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/India PR Distribution) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi (Delhi) [India], October 8 (ANI/NewsVoir): Ezetap, a digital payments leader, has joined hands with Axis Bank, who has been at the forefront of driving innovation in retail acquiring, to introduce the latest offering My Vyappar to retail businesses in India. Through My Vyappar, Axis Bank will introduce a host of services enabling effective digital payments management for the merchants across the country. As part of the partnership, over 50,000 smart POS devices have already been deployed with My Vyappar across 1600+ cities. The medium and small-sized retailers of the country have been at a financial disadvantage to compete against the large businesses. The pandemic worsened the situation further as the sales plummeted and customers shifted to digital mode of transactions owing to the fear of contracting the virus. There was a significant movement from cash to digital payments with an increasing number of Indian businesses accelerating their digital transformation journey. While India surpassed the world with an astonishing 25 billion real-time online transactions in 2020, the relatively smaller merchants didn't have the bandwidth or budget to pivot as quickly as large businesses. Through My Vyappar, Axis Bank brings in a wide array of attributes curated specifically for the retail segment in India. My Vyappar offers a full suite of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options that can boost revenue. EMI facilities would be available for ticket sizes as small as even INR 3000. The app also aims at motivating the merchants to increase the use of digital payments, by incentivizing them with exciting rewards, upon achieving bank goals. My Vyappar app provides businesses with a single view of all credit transactions that can be accessed anytime anywhere. This would help merchants to go paperless and access their digital records even at home. My Vyappar also provides the much-needed multilingual capability by adding Hindi as an additional language to help retailers understand digital payments better and speed up their tech adoption. To ensure seamless user-experience for merchants, My Vyappar app offers a simplified interface, similar to existing mobile platforms. To make retailers more agile and flexible with digital payments, the app ensures complete handholding in the form of in-app training. It also establishes a direct channel through which banks can communicate directly with merchants and offer personalized plans including loan options and reward schemes. Speaking about the role of My Vyappar in improving digital payment adoption, Byas Nambisan, Chief Executive Officer, Ezetap, said, "We, at Ezetap, took a deep look at the pain-points of the merchants using digital payments and were determined to solve the challenges that still limit the business benefits of adopting the digital route. Through My Vyappar app, we aim to solve these issues while providing the merchants with effective ways to expand their businesses. With all its features including in-built training and support functions, we are confident that the app will provide the much-needed efficiency in managing and tracking digital payments. This also serves as a testament to our commitment to provide innovative solutions to simplify digital payments for banks as well as businesses." Commenting on the association, Sanjeev Moghe, EVP & Head - Cards & Payments, Axis Bank, said, "We have been continuously working on partnership led models & digital solutions to expand our offerings to the merchant community. In this endeavour, we are delighted to join hands with Ezetap to bring My Vyappar app for our retail merchant customers. The app would empower our customers to be more flexible and agile with digital payments thereby aiding their business growth. While adoption of digital payments has improved in the country in recent times, there has been much scope for improvement and simplification. My Vyappar app addresses all these gaps and will prove to be highly beneficial not only for the merchants, but also for us in improving our communication and engagement with our customers from the merchant community." Currently, Ezetap hosts about 3 lakh merchants on their platform. The company expects this base to grow by about 70 percent over the course of the year with My Vyappar being a critical element to aid that growth. At Ezetap, veterans from payments, hardware, cloud, and SaaS industries have joined hands for the sole purpose of ushering in a new era of a frictionless digital payment ecosystem in India. Ezetap has deployed over 3,00,000 smart service points on its platform with customers ranging from brick-and-mortar retailers, e-commerce players, leading enterprises, and financial inclusion organizations. Ezetap processes over US$5 billion annually and has been ranked thrice in-a-row by CNBC in their Global Top 50 Disruptor List. Having raised $51 million in funding, investors include Social Capital, the Silicon Valley firm led by former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, Helion Advisors, American Express, Li Ka-Shing's Horizons Ventures, JS Capital (Jonathan Soros), and Prime Venture Partners. Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India. Axis Bank offers the entire spectrum of services to customer segments covering Large and Mid-Corporates, SME, Agriculture and Retail Businesses. With its 4,600 domestic branches (including extension counters) and 11,061 ATMs across the country as on 30th June 2021, the network of Axis Bank spreads across 2,628 centers, enabling the Bank to reach out to a large cross-section of customers with an array of products and services. The Axis Group includes Axis Mutual Fund, Axis Securities Ltd., Axis Finance, Axis Trustee, Axis Capital, A.TReDS Ltd., Freecharge and Axis Bank Foundation. For further information on Axis Bank, please refer to the website, (https://www.axisbank.com). This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 8 (ANI/Mediawire): For award-winning young entrepreneur Zarine Manchanda, sprawling cosmopolitan Mumbai offers its residents and tourists in search of food and beverages just about anything one could ever want. From opulent 5-star hotels specializing in four course dinners to street vendors hawking a cup of chai or simple street foods, Mumbai has it all for every taste and price range. But for Zarine Manchanda, there is one glaring omission to this list: a true 7-star coffee bar cum cafe. And so, in 2020 - despite India's long initial COVID lockdown - this determined young woman's focus was to open India's first genuine 7-star cafe experience. And in early October last year, she did just that, opening Zarine Manchanda Cafe in Versova. A visitor entering Zarine Manchanda Cafe immediately is jolted with a "Wow" factor. From floor to ceiling, wall to wall, ZMC captures attention with its meticulous attention to sophisticated design and decor. The flooring is elegant ceramic tile and from the ceiling are suspended chandeliers (contemporary Modo and antique brass with crystal pendant). The walls are adorned in textured wallpaper, with framed European-style drawings. Each table and seating arrangement is unique, from cowhide chairs, richly cushioned armchairs accented with gold legs, to matte black and mirrored tables. The plant stands, and floor lamps complement the decor. The overall ambiance dazzles as am eclectic blend of museum-quality pieces. The outdoor patio space features cushioned chairs, distinctive tables, plants aplenty, a Buddha statue and an overall Zen vibe' But the luxury does not stop there. The dining experience includes showpiece earthenware crockery. All of the cups, glasses, saucers, serving trays, plates evoke what lunch with the Queen Mum must be like. The same with the refined and delicate cutlery. Even the beverage straws and napkins are highest quality; there are no plastic straws and cheap paper napkins. To top it all off, the Cafe's USP includes a gorgeous collection of Tibetan Bells displayed near the counter. The bells, which come from Dharamsala, accentuate the rich decor. Each time the ZMC waiter staff brings food and drink to a patron's table, one of the bells is rung with a brief blessing provided to each cafe patron. For Zarine Manchanda, her vision for ZMC started as a young girl living in Himachal Pradesh. The daughter of an influential minister and prominent businessman and hotelier, Zarine spent her youth in 5-star hotels both in Delhi and abroad. "I was always mesmerized by the elegant hotels, from their lobbies to their restaurants. I noticed the rich detail and also the overall ambiance. These were happy memories growing up, and obviously the design and decor aspect stayed with me." Zarine opened her own interior design firm, Zarine Manchanda Interiors, and ZMI created ZMC in line with her long-held vision. She specifically wanted to be the Founder of the 7-star cafe experience in India. Says Zarine: "Mumbai is a sophisticated city, it's the home of Bollywood and its celebrity cache. But for the coffee bar/cafe experience, there is no 7-star experience. I wanted to change that." She goes on to say: "Sure, Starbucks is a successful, worldwide American brand. They are ubiquitous in India, seemingly on every corner. And other chains have followed this basic coffee bar/cafe template. But I'm proud ZMC is an Indian brand, and each cafe to come will be unique in its layout, design and decor. The only constant will be the 7-star experience which people seem to crave." ZMC is now a hotspot for film industry professionals. Zarine is planning to open her second cafe in Mumbai, and she has bold and ambitious plans to turn this successful business model into a global brand. "I am receiving queries from all over the world seeking franchising opportunities. We have a targeted growth plan through 2023 to first open other cafes in Mumbai, then in other major cities of India, and then in the cosmopolitan banking and media centres such as London, Dubai, Singapore, Paris, Istanbul, New York and other cities." With these expansion plans in the works, Zarine pauses for a moment to say, "I am really proud of ZMC, and that I'm seen as the Founder of the 7-star cafe experience. For the longest time I wanted Mumbai to have a truly luxurious cafe. I'm pleased I gave the same to the city I love. And other locations are soon coming. Our slogan is 'Delicious, Luxurious, Spiritual Charm' and our patrons always tell us we have offer delicious food and drink, in a luxurious setting, filled with spiritual charm." To reach Zarine Manchanda Cafe; Visit our website;(http://www.zarinemanchandacafe.com) Instagram - (https://www.instagram.com/zarinemanchanda123/?utm_medium=copy_link) (https://www.instagram.com/zarinemanchandacafe123/?utm_medium=copy_link) This story is provided by Mediawire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Mediawire) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi [India], October 8 (ANI/NewsVoir): Room to Read India runs a nationwide campaign called #Harkadambetikesang: Leadership ki Tarang 2021 - An influential, two-week campaign in solidarity with girl students across the country and in light of the upcoming International Day of the Girl Child on 11th October '21. Phase I of the campaign was implemented in July earlier this year, and phase II began on 28th September '21 and will continue till 12th October '21 across 6 Indian States. A series of online and offline activities are implemented in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Uttarakhand. Further, Room to Read India plans to do a Podcast Series called "Hausle Ki Dagar" narrating stories of girls and women who have stood in these times of adversities and despite the several challenges, especially last year, have made considerable efforts and demonstrated Leadership in various ways to create hope for themselves as well as their peers and community. Despite the constraints and challenges, adolescent girls have continued to maintain learning rhythms, have demonstrated focused attention towards digital learning and online safety, and negotiated vital life decisions on education, health and relationships and in several other ways. They have shown Leadership in their own lives, for their families, as well as their communities. On the occasion of the upcoming International Day of the Girl Child on 11th October '21, Room to Read will organize a Webinar with national and international participants. As governments prepare for reopening educational institutions, focus adolescent girls will need additional support and commitment. The webinar's objective will be to identify the issues at heart and outline possible actions as a first step. Room to Read is actively working to strengthen girls' education and works together in multiple directions - at the level of community & family, governments, supporters, civil society, schools, teacher training, and the girls themselves. The webinar will bring everyone together to identify the actions needed to link the girls back to school and ensure they have successfully caught on. This 120-minute webinar will be scheduled on zoom platform with the Ministry of Education officials, education practitioners, and other interested partners, like-minded organizations, and stakeholders together to discuss Curriculum and Pedagogy in a Post COVID World - Identifying aspects for teacher education and preparedness to reach out to girl students especially and make education a gender transformative space Highlighting Learnings and Gains from the pandemic for girls' education: especially relevant from a life skills perspective Ensuring Teaching and Learning approaches are able to take on from digital and blended learning solutions designed during COVID induced school lockdowns Policy Level changes and priorities by Civil society Room To Read's approach and strategy to ensure this "I urge you all to join us in strengthening our commitment to girls' education. Let's make sure that our girl leaders be appreciated and applauded for their leadership efforts. Through our collective effort, let us ensure that no girl should have to discontinue education, and they are able to pursue learning from their homes till schools are safe to open. Let us join hands and stand together not just to make this campaign a huge success but also celebrate the small drops or large waves of Leadership by adolescent girls' through #Harkadambetikesang: Leadership Ki Tarang 2021," said Poornima Garg, Deputy Country Director, Room to Read India. RtR has already reached out to 15k girls across India and expects a higher reach through the #Harkadambetikesang campaign; despite the many hurdles plaguing distance and online learning, adolescent girls have recognized and understand their strengths and talents and contribute positively to their surroundings. Girls have demonstrated critical thinking and displayed the ability to complete tasks, chores, or assignments successfully, even amid challenges and obstacles. The campaign will attempt to bring forth such stories of Leadership and hope by adolescent girls and their caregivers. Room to Read India was established in 2003 and presently has programs in 9 states- Chhattisgarh, Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Our Literacy Program has been implemented in 15642 government schools, training 25,741 teachers trained in library management and reading activities. Over the same period, our Girls' Education & Gender Equality Program has benefitted over 71,626 girls. Till date, we have benefitted 4.7 million children, distributed ten crores of age-appropriate storybooks, and set up more than 10,000 libraries in government schools. Room to Read is a global organization transforming the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children, our innovative model focuses on deep, systemic transformation within schools during two time periods that are most critical in a child's schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls' education. We work in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations, and governments to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensure girls can complete secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions. By focusing on the quality of education provided within the communities and ensuring these outcomes are measured, we have created a model that can be replicated, localized and sustained by governments. With its, global headquarters in San Francisco, Room to Read has benefited 23 million children across over 30,000 communities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Grenada, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Zambia. Website: (https://www.roomtoread.org/countries/india). Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/roomtoreadindia). Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/roomtoreadindia). This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is facing the prospect of large-scale power cuts, as the countrys power plants are running dangerously low on coal, the fuel which accounts for 70% of the countrys electricity output. According to the Central Electricity Authority data, 67% of the 135 thermal plants tracked had just four days of supplies or less. At the start of August, these plants had 13 days of supplies on average. What is worse is that sixteen of these plants have completely run out of supplies, and 75 have just three days supplies or less. The demand for electricity is rising with economic activity resuming in the country. The power demand in August 2021 was 17% higher than the pre-Covid-19 level of August 2019, according to the government. Facing record global prices on the back of a strong demand and an increase in freight costs, Indian buyers have avoided importing the fossil fuel in recent months. Instead, they have relied mostly on domestic stock. That has reduced the domestic stock to the lowest level in more than three years, with state-owned India failing to keep up with the surge in local demand. Coal India, which produces more than 80% of the countrys coal, bumped up production towards the end of August but was facing bottlenecks in transporting the coal to power plants. The company has kept prices unchanged over the past year. The shares of most companies in power and coal mining business have seen a positive impact of this demand surge. The scrip of and other power producers like NTPC, Tata Power and Torrent Power have risen between 5% and 30% in recent weeks. produced 42.6 million tonnes of coal in August, an increase of almost 15% from the same month a year ago. Its production in September was roughly the same as last year, at 40.7 million tonnes. Excessive rains in coal-mining areas of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha in August and September aggravated the problem, leading to lower despatches during the period. The price of coal from Indonesia, one of Indias major suppliers, has surged more than 200% since March. India mainly imports coal from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa, besides Colombia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Mozambique. Coal India had warned the Power Ministry of a potential crisis as early as February 2021. The company told power generators to increase their coal stocks before the monsoon. Despite its request, utilities were using existing stockpiles and limited fresh purchases amid a rising power output. A majority of the power plants also did not adhere to guidelines of maintaining a 22-day coal stock. This may have been a mistake on the part of the power-generating companies. Electricity generated from coal rose 20% in the first eight months of this year. However, government officials have now pointed out that the drop in is not leading to any energy crisis. According to data available with grid regulator Power System Operation Corporation, or POSOCO, there is currently no energy shortage in the country. A senior coal ministry official told Business Standard said the demand supply mismatch would in no way impact consumers like in other countries. But Power Minister R K Singh told a daily that the coal crisis could last for as long as six months. He added that power demand usually started coming down in the second half of October, but the situation right now was uncertain. In China, for example, several provinces have begun power rationing in order to conserve the fuel ahead of the peak winter demand season. That countrys power shortage has reached such an extent that homes in some parts are experiencing unannounced power cuts. According to an estimate by Goldman Sachs, up to 44% of Chinas industrial activity has been impacted by power shortages. Chinas order to its state energy companies to secure coal supplies to avoid any winter shortage is driving up prices for other major importers like India. At the same time, some local authorities are also curbing power use by industry to meet energy consumption and efficiency targets set by Chinas central government. China has promised to cut energy intensity by around 3% in 2021 to meet its climate goals. Even though India is on an aggressive path to increase the proportion of renewables in its energy mix, coal still remains the backbone of the power sector. Indias dependence on coal also contributes heavily to its trade deficit. To address the current crisis and help in import substitution, the government has allowed companies with captive mines to sell 50% of their annual output in the open market. Additionally, to avoid a demand-supply mismatch, the power and coal Ministries have jointly decided to draw up a monthly programme for thermal power units. The goal is to build a 40-million-tonne stockpile at power plants by March, which marks the beginning of the high power demand period. The current stock stands at 7.6 million tonnes. Any power cuts to the industry will damage Indias rebound as the economy is recovering from a historic 7.3% contraction in FY21. In fact, Jindal Steel and Power has warned that steel prices are expected to increase in the coming months, as companies are buying coal at three times the rates just a month ago. While blackouts like those in China seem unlikely in the immediate future, Indias power producers will need to increase domestic coal purchases, as well as imports, regardless of the price. The Irish government will today officially sign up to the OECD agreement on international corporate tax changes after approval was given at cabinet yesterday. The decision comes on the back of assurances received that the effective minimum tax rate would not go above 15% and that Ireland could maintain a lower rate of 12.5% for businesses with revenues under the 750m threshold. Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe stated that the change would impact 1500 foreignowned multinationals and 56 Irish-owned multinationals operating in Ireland. There are still important details to be ironed out and the deal must also make it through in various countries, although it is expected that the new regime will come into play in 2023. The 12.5% corporation tax rate and the stability of that rate has long been an attraction for multinational investment into Ireland. However, it has long been recognised that international tax changes were inevitable. Ireland has said from the start that the OECD is the appropriate forum for agreement. Goodbody Stockbrokers today said the 15% global minimum tax rate could have been a lot worse for Ireland. The new rules provide a global framework to prevent profit shifting behaviour, but Ireland still has one of the lowest corporation tax rates in Europe. On the other hand, its biggest competitor for FDI, the UK, has decided it will increase corporation tax rates in the coming years in addition to the restricted access it now has to the EU Single Market. According to Goodbody Stockbrokers, "Although Ireland would have preferred the minimum tax rate to settle at 12.5%, the outcome is better than would have been feared when US Treasury Secretary Yellen called for a 21% rate earlier this year. Previous studies (ESRI) have shown that decisions around the location of FDI are very sensitive to changes in the corporation tax rate, particularly when coming from a low level. This assumes that everything else is equal. But everything is not equal." Ibec, the group that represents Irish business, has said that the new international agreement on corporate tax reform is the right decision, at the right time. The group say accession to the OECD accord may pose a competitiveness challenge but Irelands regime will retain the advantages of certainty on the most competitive rate possible, Ireland's existing track record of significant substantial activity and delivery, access to the single market for trade and talent and a business-friendly environment generally. IDA Ireland, the agency responsible for the attraction and retention of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) into Ireland, also welcomed the news. The IDA say that the changes resulting from Irelands participation in the global tax deal are not likely to adversely impact Irelands existing base of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The agency say Ireland will remain competitive from a tax perspective and the recent changes to the draft OECD agreement secured by Ireland provide clarity on the global minimum rate that will apply for large companies, making it possible for Ireland to continue to provide stability for investors. Source: www.businessworld.ie Heavy fog enveloped cities across China Thursday morning, causing low visibility in several regions. The fog started to appear in cities like Wuhan in Central China and Urumqi in Northwest China earlier this week, creating traffic jams. On Thursday, Beijing authorities shut down multiple highways to avoid accidents, while the northeastern city of Shenyang issued the highest-level alert as visibility reduced to less than 20 meters in some areas Nov 18, 2021 06:18 PM St. Johnsbury, VT (05819) Today Becoming cloudy with occasional rain during the afternoon. High 57F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Cloudy with rain ending overnight. Low 32F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. FILE - In this Thursday, May 16, 2019, file photo, Salesforce chairman Marc Benioff speaks during a news conference, in Indianapolis. Business-software company Salesforce says it will help employees leave Texas if they are worried about a new law that severely restricts abortion in the state. Benioff made his position clear by retweeting on Friday night, Sept. 10, 2021, a CNBC story describing the company's offer to help employees relocate. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File) Ike Rettenmair, left, director of the fixed wing division at Fleet Readiness Center East, briefs Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment James Balocki during tour of the depot Tuesday. (Contributed photo) A parking lot near the Atlantic Beach causeway bridge abutment has pervious pavement in its parking spaces, a retrofit that could be used in other parts of town to address stormwater runoff. (Mike Shutak photo) Melrose (Atkinson-Sanbornville, NH) - Atkinson-Sanbornville: With deep sadness we announce that Lewis Charles Stevens "Chucky" passed away on Thursday, October 21, in the comfort of his son's home. He fought a hard battle with cancer and heart disease and was blessed to be surrounded by love Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and consider subscribing for only $7 per month to get access to more articles and news as it happens. Carroll, IA (51401) Today Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High 39F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low 22F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. As it expands its feature animation slate, Lucasfilms Industrial Light & Magic has hired or rather rehired two executives to help lead the charge. Rob Coleman (image at top, left) is joining as a key creative for feature animation, Randal Shore as an executive producer in feature animation. Here are the details: A few weeks ago I was devastated to wake up to the news of Troy Gustafsons passing. You never expect to find out one of your closest friends passed away via a text message, until it happens. Troy is gone. The animation industry has lost a legend. And I, and countless others who were lucky enough to know him, have lost a friend. Troy Gustafson was not just the animator who inspired me to become an animator, nor just my professor and later mentor. Troy was one of my closest friends, and for that blessing I feel endlessly lucky. To Troy, all that ever mattered was knowing the people in his life were happy. He never asked for gifts, never expected all of your time, and never wanted anyone to feel as if they needed to earn his love. The only times I ever saw him truly upset with a student were the very rare occasions when he learned that one was a bully or inappropriate towards women students. He had no tolerance for bigotry, harassment, or cruelty. He always stressed that we were a crew, and we were there to help each other thrive, not tear each other down. If you were one of his students, he truly loved you, and I can tell you this for a fact, because he told me. I want to share my own positive memories of him. I urge anyone reading this to seek out all the stories that have been written about him, because, like one of his famous 2d effects assignments, I am but one rock in a very large pond. Troy openly treasured every single day knowing all of us, and in my own grief, I have realized just how much we all treasured him as well. One snow day as a junior in high school, when I was thinking about becoming a pediatrician or a psychiatrist, I watched two Disney movies Troy had worked on: Brother Bear and Mulan. For the first time I was noticing all these big, incredible 2d effects animation shots, and it hit me at that moment: people do this for a job. This is a job I can do. I did not know the animator behind the scenes, but he changed my life that day. I started taking art classes at 16, far later than many of my peers, and I worked hard to build a portfolio. I was accepted into all of the colleges and animation programs I applied to. Without knowing who Troy even was yet, I chose to attend SCAD. At the start of sophomore year I started taking his class in principles of animation, but it was not until I stepped into his classroom that I realized just who he was. In our very first class, he made it clear that he was going to kick all of our butts, and that the industry we were heading toward was extremely high-standard and competitive, but that he would do all he could to help us succeed in it. I rushed back to my dorm after class to tell my parents how absolutely terrified yet excited I was, and how much of a cowboy he was, hailing from the Midwest with his hat and boots. After our third assignment, my most treasured memory in life occurred. After critique, while I was waiting for the bus and Troy was on one of his signature smoke breaks, he whistled for me to come over. He told me I was one of the most professional students he had ever had and that I reminded him of his younger self. He asked if I would be interested in him becoming my mentor. He wanted to train me like he had been trained at Disney. I accepted without hesitation. I had never been so happy in my life, and its the moment I keep with me for when I need to cheer myself up, or whenever I doubt myself. He had told me that it was me who inspired him now. They say never meet your heroes, but I am so glad I met mine. As a professor Troy held us all to such a high standard, and yet he always gave every student the option of a redo. He wanted to foster an environment where we were challenged to do our best, but could also learn and grow without fear of failure. He also pushed these redos because he was always concerned with peoples scholarships and their ability to stay in school. But he was also concerned with our mental and physical health. He explained on the very first day of class that if we ever had something going on in life, if we told him as soon as possible, he would do what he could to make adjustments for us in the fairest way possible, privately. Out of fear of having an absence on our record, many of us would drag ourselves to class even if we were so sick we could hardly move. Troy would always immediately tell us to go home and get some rest, and that there would be no absence marked off. Troy was so perceptive. In my sophomore year, he could see I was depressed, so he told me to take a walk with him, even though he usually rushed home in the afternoons to get back with his family and horses. He told me how at Disney, many of his coworkers had depression, anxiety, or some other mental illness, or were going through really hard times. He wanted me to know that I was not alone. I have so many great memories with him. One time I greeted him and fellow SCAD professor John Webber, and Troy held up his hand for a high five. I, being over a foot shorter than him, did not notice the gesture, so he immediately flipped me off with a mock-furious face, until we were all laughing. We had so many inside jokes. Some students and I came up with a joke project we were going to collaborate on one day called Water Fire Smoke Horse, the joke being that Troy would either be very impressed with us or, more likely, would cringe at our overzealousness. I later learned Troy was planning on making Water Fire Smoke Horse an assignment for a class. Another time, my roommate Cor Young and I were both joking around about how, since 2d animation frames were measured in fields, we should organize an animation department field day. Since we always worked in 10 Field, we could call it the 10-Field Games, and we could make it Team Webber vs. Team Troy, since they were the two 2d animation professors at the time; students would split performatively into mock teams. The event immediately went viral, and people began donating money for us to buy inflatable sumo suits for Troy and Webber to wrestle in as the grand finale. The actual games were an amazing success. So many students came out for the multiple field day events, and Troy will live forever in the many videos and memes of him wrestling John in those sumo suits, or fighting him in a duel with foam costume swords. Troy wrote a long post thanking us for giving him one of the happiest days of his life. It has moved me to see photos and videos from those games used in the majority of memorial posts about him from students I attended school with. One final goofy memory I have of Troy is of a day in effects class, where he was doing one of his demos. His classes were always in traditional, hand-drawn, paper-and-pencil animation, so we all stood behind him as he animated. I was standing right behind him with a latte that morning, exhausted from little sleep, and at some point I dropped my coffee all over his animation paper. I was mortified, and awaited the well-deserved anger and lecture. It never came. Instead Troy stopped, turned around to look at me, blinked a few times as if to say, That really just happened, huh?, and then turned back to his demo. He never brought it up again. He was a big believer in extending grace towards honest mistakes. If anything, he could often find the humor in it. I learned a lot from him about how to be a better person, and how to be strong and love life no matter what it throws at us. In our last conversations, he made sure to let me know that he was still so immensely proud of me and how he loved me like a father. Im so thankful for that, yet so devastated that I cant thank him and hear his voice just one more time, or get one more hug from him. Sending one final goodbye text to him was one of the hardest things Ive ever had to do. In a recent conversation with him, I joked that I needed to get a real cowboy hat and boots now that I lived in Texas, even though I would be a poser from Connecticut. He told me that birth doesnt make the cowboy: the cowboy makes themself. I said that maybe one day I would take up the mantle and become the intimidating professor who deep down was a big softball. He told me that he would like that a lot. Ive officially put it on my to-do list. Im now the lead effects animator on a major project for a major studio and client, and I would never have got here without his teaching and support. Fly high Troy Gustafson, Disney effects supervisor, cowboy, professor, and friend. You were one of the best people God, the universe, fate, or chance could have given to this earth. You touched so many lives, and we all miss you so much. You made my life a lot more magical and you will always hold one of the most special places in my heart. I will work my hardest to do even a fraction of the monumental work you did for other people and for the arts. See you, space cowboy. I look forward to showing you all the art I will make one day, and reading the librarys worth of notes youll have waiting for me. Pixote Hunts career in animation spans over 40 years. He has had the opportunity be a director and art director on both feature films and shorts, yet he retains the same enthusiasm for the possibilities of the medium as when he first started. He is now sharing his knowledge with a new generation of artists at CAT Animation, an online school founded by Dave Kuhn and Dave Pruiksma. Hunt took time recently to sit down with the two Daves to discuss his passion for art direction and why its a crucial part of any production. These days, the position of art director seems to be a rather misunderstood part of the animation process. Many people use the term almost interchangeably with visual development. As Hunt puts it: I think they were using these phrases quite liberally, back and forth. If I were to sit down with them, chances are its the visual development aspect of filmmaking that theyre talking about. But its different than what you can Google about the flashy paint splatters and derivative design shapes that are loosely termed as art direction. Some people believe that art direction is developing ones own specific style and applying that style, like a template, to whatever project they are on. Hunt disagrees: The position of art director is such a wonderful opportunity to reinvent yourself over and over. I think the first thing that comes to mind whenever I get a script is, Oh my God! because I dont know whats going to happen next, Im not really sure at first, and thats so exciting. When asked what he feels is an art directors job in animation, Hunt says: I believe the art directors job is to show the films leaders what their film could look like. First, we start with the biggest picture, something so big that it doesnt appear in anyones film. We are world builders: we build that world to give the directors and producers opportunities to home in and get closer and closer to what they want. And finally, well come up with an establishing shot that is suitable for the film, with everything harmonious and as if from one hand. But were world builders first. As for the character designs, the world is open. We consider character designs as a casting director does, meaning, Here is who I think might fit these opportunities. Lets start the conversation by talking about who these characters might be. If we need to change the direction or refine the direction that were going in, we do. Hunts patient, soft-spoken demeanor cant disguise his unbridled exuberance over the art of animation and his good fortune in working with and learning from legends in the field: Eric Larson, Ted Kierscey, Mel Shaw, Walt Peregoy, and Iwao Takamoto. Like many artists of his era, Hunts first real awareness of animation was from television and watching Walt Disneys Wonderful World of Color (in black and white) at a very early age. Around that time, a neighbor drew a cartoon character for him, and it dawned on him that there were real people and artists who made animation. He thought: People can make something [inanimate] live! With that I was hooked! Hunt describes a seminal moment on his pathway to knowledge: when he was introduced to a clip from the 1958 Disneyland educational film 4 Artists Paint 1 Tree. The film shares the process and insights of four top Disney artists Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle, Joshua Meador, and Walt Peregoy as they paint the same subject matter. Hunt says: I was just amazed at how an individual artists voice can be expressed, influence a whole body of work, and end up on the big screen. After high school, Hunt studied at the prestigious School of Visual Arts, which led to animation work in New York and eventually Florida. It was while animating short sequences for Disney World that Hunts talent was brought to the attention of Eric Larson, one of Walts so-called Nine Old Men, who immediately offered the young artist an opportunity to train with him at the Disney Animation Studios in California. Hunt leapt at the offer and, during those months of his training, enjoyed almost exclusive access to Larson and other top artists at the studio. After being successfully promoted from trainee, Hunt worked as an effects animator at Disney for nearly six years. But, ultimately, it was his passion for the foundational artistic and design aspects of production that led the young artist to move to Hanna-Barbera, where he could develop greater skills in the area of visual development with renowned designers Iwao Takamoto and Walt Peregoy (whose work in 4 Artists Paint 1 Tree had inspired him in his youth). Says Hunt: And that was the really beginning of that journey into the world of art direction for me. I was privileged enough to work with Peregoy (famed for, among other things, the dramatic styling of 1961s One Hundred and One Dalmatians), and gain his insight into color and design, and even hi life and professional philosophies, for the next 30 years, until the end of his life. While at Hanna-Barbera, Hunt worked up to the positions of director and art director of the animated sequences in the feature film The Pagemaster. Afterwards, he returned to Disney Feature Animation, where he worked as art director for The Rescuers Down Under. He was subsequently director and art director for one of the more abstract pieces produced at Disney, the segment for Beethovens Symphony No. 5 in Fantasia 2000 (image at top), and later the hauntingly beautiful short One by One for an unproduced future version of Fantasia. Of his role at CAT Animation, Hunt says: This art direction class I will be teaching for CAT Animation this summer semester is important to me, personally, because I have never experienced a class like this before. It is an opportunity for students to see the big picture. What I hope students will take away from my class is, first of all, just experiencing and remembering that this is an art form. This is their voice. This is their contribution to what we love, what I love so much about this wonderful art of animation. Its not just a title: its a real thing. Theyll learn not to focus on how they can find their style. I am proud to say that I dont have a style, and I will probably never have a style. I feel this way because I believe that each for film and art direction each time one gets a chance to develop a film the experience should be wonderfully different than the one before. So, if Im known as the person who does a particular shape of a particular tree, thats kind of it. One-note. Done. What if your next opportunity is not that shape of tree, or a rock, or building? Then as an art director, youre relying on some other mechanical way to get there. So, rather than finding their style, I hope that my students will learn to find and cultivate their voice, which is how they see the world differently than the person next to them. Then, no matter what story is placed in front of them, the trained artist can see the world differently than the person next to them. And thats as close to a style as I can possibly hope for any artist to get, as opposed to a formula. The next session at CAT Animation starts in June. To learn more about the classes and personal mentoring CAT Animation offers, visit the schools official website. Photo: Alaska Highway News The provincial government announced $65 million in funding Thursday to support land and cultural restoration in northeast B.C., following the B.C. Supreme Court ruling that the province breached its treaty obligations to the Blueberry River First Nation north of Fort St. John. The province also said that a majority of forestry and oil and gas projects permitted and authorized before the courts decision in June will still proceed. Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister Murray Rankin and Blueberry River Chief Marvin Yahey made the joint announcement as part of an initial agreement following the courts ruling. Its the first step and it's an important step," Rankin said. Its something that will support what we call healing the land. It helps provide stability and certainty for permit holders in Blueberry territory and in the immediate term provides that certain that industry has spoken to me about. As part of the agreement, the province says it will establish a $35-million fund for Blueberry to undertake activities including: land, road and seismic restoration; river, stream, and wetland restoration; habitat connectivity; native seed and nursery projects; and training for restoration activities. Another $30 million will be allocated to support Blueberry River for other activities including: work on cultural areas, traplines, cabins and trails; educational activities and materials, including teaching traditional skills and language; expanding Blueberry River resources and capacity for land management; and restoring the health of wildlife through wildlife management, habitat enhancement including prescribed burning, and research. Chief Yahey said he was pleased to see the province take the Supreme Court ruling seriously, which he said sets a new path for Blueberry's future. Todays initial arrangement provides stability. It allows us to get to work straight away, Yahey said. "This includes our members and everyone living and working on our territory. Rankin said 195 forestry and oil and gas projects will still be able to move forward under the agreement, or 90% of the permits that were already authorized before the court's decision, he said. Twenty authorizations in areas of high cultural importance have been deferred, Rankin said. Our next step is to develop an interim approach for decision making for new applications that will come forward, one that can be in place before the end of this year, and that meets our commitment to recognize and respect Blueberry Rivers treaty rights, Rankin said. That will set the stage to work together collaboratively with other Treaty 8 nations, with industry, with local governments on long term solutions," he said. In June, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled the province breached its treaty obligations to Blueberry River due to the cumulative impacts of industrial development in the region. Justice Emily M. Burke said the province cannot authorize further development activities that breach its treaty obligations and promises, or otherwise unjustifiably infringe on Blueberrys exercise of treaty rights. Burke gave the province and Blueberry River six months to negotiate changes. The trial was lengthy and complex, taking place over more than 160 days in 2019 and 2020 after Blueberry first brought the claim to court in 2015, and which was later postponed in 2018 and restarted in 2019 as the two parties tried to negotiate an agreement. The province said it would not appeal Burke's decision, the first of its kind in Canada. It also said Thursday that it is reimbursing Blueberry's legal costs. "I can't tell you how important this court decision is for our community, our people," Yahey said. "We felt fear, anger, helplessness, and so much frustration as we tried for years to get government to listen, to stop, but they wouldn't," he said. "The court's decision sets a new path for the future, for our children, and our children's future for generations." Photo: The Canadian Press At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Colin Bates could only watch helplessly as many of his clients shut their offices and sent people home. The world changed dramatically for us here at that time as well," said the owner of several Jan-Pro commercial cleaning franchises in Ontario. "The next two weeks were terrifying for us because almost a third of our customer base called us up and stopped services. Before long however, the company saw a sharp increase in demand for disinfection services and enhanced cleanings for businesses that remained open, as employers looked to try and make the environment safe and reassure staff. Some large companies wanted the services daily, or even every few hours, he said. The extra demand helped buffer the cleaning industry during the shutdowns, and companies say business is returning to normal even as many office buildings across the country remain sparsely staffed or empty. "We continue to have strong demand for our business; were pretty much back at pre-COVID levels now," said Bates, who also heads the Ontario division of Jan-Pro. "A big part of this is we need to help our customers, employees and visitors feel comfortable being back in the office," he added. The company places decals at entrances, certificates in employee areas, and tent cards at reception to let people know the business has been disinfected. "Its important to signal to people, we understand it's not business as usual, we understand it's a different environment, and we are doing things as an employer to protect you. He said that the vast majority of businesses they serve have returned, although some have gone under. They also picked up new business when other cleaning operators shut down during the pandemic. But while activity has improved, Bates said the Delta variant has stalled reopenings for the past three or months now, and business hasn't grown to where he expected it would be. The business has not picked up in the way we were hoping it would have at this point. Some larger players have seen growth during the pandemic, despite being exposed to the downtown office market that has seen so much pullback. Quebec City-based GDI Integrated Facility Services Inc., one of the biggest operators in the space and one of the few publicly traded ones, said in its latest quarterly earnings that it had seen a 14 per cent increase in revenue compared with a year earlier, and an eight per cent gain when controlling for the unusual dip in 2020 revenue caused by the initial response to the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to positively affect most of our businesses during the quarter, said Claude Bigras, chief executive of GDI on their earnings call in August. He said that the company, which cleans large offices as well as a wide range of other facilities like hospitals and hotels in both Canada and the U.S., has seen about 80 per cent of its usual business return. Whiles some businesses have still not fully or even partially returned to the office, Bigras said the company has found that additional specialty services like high-frequency cleaning has made up for the shortfall in the number of businesses they serve. There continues to be speculation about how many businesses will make remote work more permanent, which could reduce the demand for cleaning, but the companies are banking on a return to work. I think the trend is to come back to the office," said Joseph Imbrogno, president of JDI Cleaning Systems in Burlington, Ont. We have hundreds and hundreds of customers, theyre ramping up to get back to work." But he notes that it isn't likely to happen quickly. Many customers he speaks with say they want to get back to about 75 per cent capacity over the next six months. In the meantime, Imbrogno said he continues to see fairly steady demand, even if it sometimes means going in less frequently because there are so few people in the office. Youd be surprised at how many offices, even though they were sort of skeleton staff, owners still invested in cleaning services to keep the folks that were there as safe as possible. Photo: Unsplash/MChe Lee Last months return to classrooms delivered big gains to the labour market, with B.C. adding 12,300 jobs in September. The unemployment rate fell 0.3 percent points compared with August to land at 5.9%, according to new Statistics Canada data. British Columbia was the lone province with employment notably above its pre-pandemic level, the national statistics agency said in its Friday report. The country as a whole added 157,000 jobs in September while Canadas unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentages points to 6.9%. The latest national data represents the first time Canada has fully recouped the three million jobs lost at the outset of the pandemic in spring 2020. And those national gains were led by women last month with another 99,700 jobs added after that demographic suffered disproportionate losses during the course of the pandemic. Just because employment has now returned to pre-pandemic levels does not mean that labour markets have recovered, RBC senior economist Nathan Janzen said in a note. The unemployment rate is still more than a percentage point above February 2020 levels. Employment in higher-contact service sectors is still running more than 200k below pre-shock levels, even as government support programs begin to unwind. The province, meanwhile, made substantial gains in public administration (+9,000 jobs), while sectors such as healthcare (-13,800 jobs) and wholesale/retail (-3,400 jobs) experienced notable losses. Vaccine mandates go into effect for B.C. health-care workers later this month, raising questions over whether more attrition might be ahead. Government support programs such as the Canada Recovery Benefit expire at the end of October, which could lead to more people rejoining the workforce in October, that is, unless it is extended, TD senior economist Sri Thanabalasingam said in a note. Photo: The Canadian Press Protesters used a 1,200-year-old slice of a tree to block entrance to Premier John Horgan's office on Monday. A Vancouver-based environmental group says more than 200 people including scientists, Indigenous leaders, politicians, actors and artists, have signed a letter calling on British Columbia Premier John Horgan to halt old-growth logging. Canopy says those signing the open letter and sending messages to Horgan range from Union of BC Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip to former NASA scientist James Hansen and actors William Shatner and Dame Judi Dench. Shatner's message says standing beside a giant cedar makes it clear how "small our place in the universe really is," and the premier should let the forests "live long and prosper." A statement from Canopy says only fragments of old-growth forests remain in B.C., and logging continues, despite recent deferrals announced by the province covering "relatively small areas." The Squamish Nation reported in June that it had identified at least 20 cut blocks within 150 kilometres of Vancouver where old-growth logging is planned and it echoed three Vancouver Island First Nations that say they will defer all old-growth harvesting while developing long-term sustainability plans in their territories. Forests Minister Katrine Conroy told the legislature during question period this week that B.C. has deferred harvesting of old growth in 11 areas this year, totalling nearly 200,000 hectares, and brought in big-tree regulation that protects over 1,500 groves. The B.C. government commissioned an independent panel in 2019 to make recommendations on its approach to transforming old-growth forestry management and Conroy said it is implementing all 14 recommendations. "We've protected forest habitats for caribou, spotted owl, vulnerable species like the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk," she said. Primatologist Jane Goodall is another of the signatories to the letter and her message demanding a halt to old-growth logging says it's "increasingly urgent" that voices be raised to protect forests. "Every ancient tree felled, every species that becomes extinct, represents another threat to the future of our planet, Goodall says in the statement. Nicole Rycroft, Canopys executive director, says the many calls to protect B.C.'s oldest trees "underscore the breadth of support for conservation and how important it is for planetary health. This latest letter builds on a similar one Canopy sent in June containing the signatures of 100 old-growth logging opponents. Photo: Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom Dr. Charles Hoffe A Lytton doctor accused of spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines is under investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. Dr. Charles Hoffe, a family physician in Lytton, has been vocal about his concerns about the vaccines, claiming several of his patients suffered disabling long-term side-effects after receiving their immunizations. He recently attended the Sept. 1 protest outside of Kamloops' Royal Inland Hospital with a sign that said Just say no to the clot shot. A recent press release issued by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom, which is representing Dr. Hoffe, claims Interior Health has suspended the doctor's emergency room privileges, and he's under investigation by College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia for promoting vaccine hesitancy. Interior Health confirms the doctor is no longer supporting Interior Health emergency services at the St. Bartholomews Health Centre in Lytton, as of this past spring. The College did not respond to Castanet's request for comment by publication, but last May, the College issued a statement condemning B.C. physicians spreading information that contradicts public health orders and guidance. But the College did not go so far as to name Dr. Hoffe. Public statements from physicians that contradict public health orders and guidance are confusing and potentially harmful to patients, Dr. Heidi Oetter, registrar and CEO of the College, said in the statement. Those who put the public at risk with misinformation may face an investigation by the College, and if warranted, regulatory action. Serious adverse effects to the vaccine are recorded by the BC Centre for Disease Control. As of Oct. 2, there have been 7,842,664 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in B.C., and 3,723 reports of an "adverse event following immunization." Of these, 271 were considered "serious." This works out to a rate of about 3.5 serious adverse effects per 100,000 doses administered. More information on the recorded adverse effects can be found here. But Dr. Hoffe has claimed he's found evidence of microscopic blood clots in 62 per cent of his patients who've received the vaccine, found using a D-dimer test. D-dimer is a blood protein that's released when blood clots begin break down. While high D-dimer levels can be due to a blood clot, multiple specialists have clarified there are many other potential causes of these high levels. "The experiment reported by Dr. Hoffe is not a scientific study, and does not fall under the heading of 'evidence-based medicine.' Therefore, no credit can be given to these results," the French Society of Hematology told AFP Fact Check. "We don't know how he chose his sample among his patients: if he took six patients from his practice who are over 75 years old, they will necessarily have a high D-dimer level, said Marie-Antoinette Sevestre-Pietri, president of the French Society of Vascular Medicine. "The scientific method used is not described and the results are not published." The Alberta-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom previously represented a number of B.C. churches in their failed attempt to overturn the province's previous public health order that temporarily banned in-person services. In July, the president of organization stepped down after admitting to hiring a private investigator to follow a Manitoba judge who was overseeing a case involving church public health orders in that province. In its statement, the Justice Centre says it will work to defend Dr. Hoffe. Dr. Hoffe has an ethical and legal obligation to ensure that the medical community is aware of his observations of his patients reactions to the Moderna vaccine, said Michael Alexander, Senior Constitutional Litigator at the Justice Centre. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects his right to fulfill this obligation based on the guarantees of the freedom of expression and conscience, and we are prepared to defend Dr. Hoffe on this basis, so that he and the other doctors across Canada can fulfil their overriding duty as healers to give priority to the well-being of their patients. LatAm cement building the new normal: Alberto Valerio, UBS BB Investment Bank (Brazil) Cement sustainability and energy in Mexico: Yanina Navarro, CANACEM (Mexico) The time is now and we are ready to act ambitiously: Edgar Martinez, Argos (Colombia) The roadmap to carbon neutrality a more sustainable world shaped by concrete: Rick Bohan, Portland Cement Association (USA) Reduce oil & maintenance cost in your cement plant: Steffen Nyman, CC Jensen (Denmark) Successful experience of building a 5800tpd cement production line in Argentina as EPC contractor: Yang Lei, Sinoma Overseas Development (China) Using 3D AI-based analytics to extend kiln refractory useful life: Mark Israelsen, Quantum IR Technologies (USA) Increase profitability with conveyors: Jerad Heitzler, Martin Engineering (USA) Overcoming challenges of grinding systems: Kaushik Ghosh, Koppern (Germany) Calcined clay technologies and the potential in cement: Carlos Aramburo (Colombia) View the full programme here Van Aalst wins repeat ship unloader order 08 October 2021 Van Aalst Bulk Handling has won a contract to deliver a second ship unloader to one of the largest cement manufacturers in Bangladesh. The pneumatic ship unloader is designed to handle fly ash and is built to cope with the hot and humid conditions in Bangladesh. The ship unloader is rail mounted and located on a jetty at the riverfront. Space is limited on the jetty, therefore we designed a gantry frame for the ship unloader so it can move over the existing conveyor belt. The unloader has a multiple kettle system with filter receiver and transfer kettles, ensuring a smooth continuous discharge process. The ship unloader unloads typical Bangladeshi river barges and conveys the fly ash to a storage silo over a distance of 350m. Published under This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions Chatham, VA (24531) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 76F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight Rain showers this evening with mostly clear conditions overnight. Low 34F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%. A citizen requested personal information on all students in the system, but he has withdrawn it after the school system resisted the request. Brendan Jennings, who headed the Chattanooga Tea Party when it was in operation and is associated with Friends of Hamilton, said, "On Thursday afternoon, Hamilton County Schools notified parents of an open records request for publicly accessible information. While we were aware that such a notification would be sent to parents, we were not notified in advance about the specific timing of that notification. We apologize for not being quite prepared with a ready response for the deluge that followed. "We have heard from many parents and listened to their concerns. Our intent in no way was to invade anyones privacy, but rather to help foster closer communications among parents while increasing transparency in the classroom. Sort of an electronic PTA or NextDoor for parents. "The past year has been a challenging one for parents, including many in our group. We have previously been involved in political campaigns, including the statewide effort to end forced annexation in Tennessee, and we wanted to help create a more advantageous playing field for parents in presenting their concerns to school boards and school administrators. "Based on the response we received, we are hereby rescinding the open records request. We will continue to work with other like-minded groups to help parents get their voices heard at school boards and help make sure curricula and teaching methods more appropriately reflect what parents want in their schools." County school officials earlier on Thursday said, "Based on the guidance of our board attorney and in an effort to be transparent, Hamilton County Schools advised its community in an email earlier today that a private citizen has requested certain contact information pertaining to our students and families. Under Tennessees Public Records Act, much of this information, including the names and addresses of students, are available to the public. Ordinarily, this information is used to honor graduates, scholars, and athletes. "In this case, however, the citizen seeks information of all 45,000 plus students and parents in our district. The request encompasses home addresses, phone numbers, emails, and additional information. We consider this request to be an invasion of the privacy of our students and parents. "While the Board is bound by the law, we respect the privacy of our students and their families. We understand that families are considering what legal action they can take to block this request, and the Board stands ready to support and partner with them however we can. "No information will be shared with the requestor unless and until we have exhausted all legal options. We will provide an update to our families on this matter once we have satisfactorily resolved the issue." Lincoln Michael Lumpp, was lovingly welcomed into the world by his parents, Matthew and Brianna Lumpp on the night of September 21, 2021, at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Thirteen short days later, Lincoln went home to be with Jesus on October 4, 2021. He passed away in the NICU surrounded by his daddy, mommy, loving grandparents, and doing his favorite thing, being held. In his short time here on earth, God used him to impact the lives and faith of many and he was so loved. Even on his hardest days, he had a sweet and gentle nature. He had beautiful light blonde hair just like his big sister and the most adorable, crooked smile. Lincoln was well known for always sticking his pinky fingers up, which became a precious memory and new signature wave. He was so strong and such a fighter, he fought hard until the Lord called him home. Lincoln is the son of Matthew and Brianna Lumpp. He is survived by his two siblings, Brooklyn and Jackson, his paternal grandparents, Tom Lumpp and Cindy Burke, his maternal grandparents, Mike and Brenda Dreiling, his great grandmother, Patsy Dreiling, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. If you would like to make a memorial donation, the family would love for you to consider donating blood in honor of Lincoln at your local blood bank, as both he and his mommy were personally impacted by the value of blood donation. In Lincolns short life, he received many transfusions that gave the precious time that they were able to have with him. If youre unable to donate blood, please consider donating to one of these pro-life organizations so that babies like Lincoln can have a chance at life Save the Storks (https://savethestorks.com), Choices Medical Center (https://www.choicesmedicalclinic.org, or Choices Chattanooga https://choiceschattanooga.org). A visitation will be held on Saturday, Oct. 9, from 4-6 p.m. at Chattanooga Funeral Home, East Brainerd Chapel. Funeral services will be scheduled and held in Derby, KS, at a later date. Please share your memories of Lincoln with the family at www.chattanoogaeastbrainerdchapel.com Arrangements are by the East Brainerd Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory and Florist, 8214 E. Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, Tn. 37421. Tennessee heads into its final two football games with a very real chance to finish the regular season with seven victories. Raise your hand if you saw that coming back in September? More than a few of you probably did. Youre already counting on wins over South Alabama (this Saturday) and Vanderbilt on Nov. 27. If anything, youre probably lamenting a couple of games ... (click for more) Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn invited Tennesseans to participate in the full review of the states education funding formula and explore possibilities for a more student-centered approach. We will pursue a rigorous review of our states education funding to ensure we are properly investing in students and stewarding our resources well, said Governor Lee. I invite every Tennessee parent to tell us about their current experiences as well as their hopes for the education, environment and experience in our K-12 public schools. The states current school funding framework, also known as the Basic Education Program, has not been meaningfully updated in more than 30 years. Tennessees students are the future of our state, and we've got to be sure our public schools are well-equipped to prepare each and every one of them for lifelong success," said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. "Consistent with our focus to continuously improve the academic achievement of all Tennessee students, we are excited to open public conversations and discuss an investment strategy that aligns with those goals and values. District and school leaders, elected officials, families, education stakeholders and members of the public will be engaged in the coming months through committees, survey opportunities, local meetings and more. Public engagement will focus on a student investment strategy that incorporates the following: Prioritizes students over systems Empowers parents to engage in their childs education Incentivizes student outcomes Ensures all students, regardless of location or learning needs, are served at a high-level Reflects Tennesseans values Creates flexible funding that prepare students for postsecondary success How we fund education is one of the most important conversations that we can have as a state, said House Education Administration Committee Chairman Mark White. Today's announcement and the engagement opportunities to follow will better equip leaders at all levels as we ensure that school funding works to serve all students. I am excited for the opportunity to work alongside my colleagues in the General Assembly, the administration, local officials, educators, and parents on this important topic. Opening up the opportunity for conversations to look at funding for education in Tennessee is vital to continued growth of not only the academic but also nonacademic needs of students across the state, said Dr. Joey Vaughn, director of Schools, Manchester City Schools. Tennessee has been a leader in education and focusing on strategic investments for our kids and their futures is essential to continue the great work in our district and statewide. "The education landscape is constantly evolving, as well as the different challenges educators face in providing quality instruction to students, said Dr. Jared Bigham, senior advisor on Workforce & Rural Initiatives, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry. It's critical that our investment in K-12 education supports the best individual student experience possible and prepares students for success upon graduation. Our state's continued success in the future depends on our good stewardship of resources today." With Tennessean's commitment to becoming one of the strongest states in the nation for education, it is timely for us to examine this ambitious and worthwhile goal to invest in our students and our state, said Dr. Cathy Beck, director of Schools, Cheatham County Schools. The state needs a funding strategy reflective of the needs of all our students, educators and communities, and we are thrilled to be part of these robust conversations. As the chief funding mechanism for our public schools, the BEP formula is an essential part of our education system," said Senate Education Committee Chairman Brian Kelsey. "I am glad that through this listening tour and working groups, we will be able to receive feedback from various stakeholders across the state on ways to potentially enhance public education funding. Any future improvements will focus on our students to find innovative solutions for better student outcomes. I applaud this effort to bring greater clarity to this widely misunderstood and complicated system. I look forward to working with the Tennessee Department of Education, educators, parents and local leaders throughout this process to ensure our education system offers a top-quality education to all Tennessee students. I am supportive of the call from Governor Lee to convene a special exploratory committee to dig deep into the steps necessary to rewrite the Basic Education Program formula, said Dr. Russell Dyer, director of Schools, Cleveland City Schools. The current BEP has served Tennessee educators, families, and students for a number of years. However, now is the time to actually move past the rhetoric, sharpen our pencils, and make real changes that will benefit Tennesseans for years to come. I feel confident that together we can and will make this take place and I look forward to working with Governor Lee, Commissioner Schwinn, members of the General Assembly, my fellow superintendents and others to make this happen. The timing is right in Tennessee to take a comprehensive look at the way we fund K-12 education, said Teresa Sloyan, president, Hyde Family Foundation. A funding formula that better supports the diverse needs of individual students could have an important impact in accelerating academic outcomes. We support Governor Lee, Commissioner Schwinn and state policymakers in advancing this important conversation. The BEP as it exists was formulated many, many years ago. Since that time, the needs of our state and its schools have changed drastically, said Dr. Shawn Kimble, director of Schools, Lauderdale County Schools. I appreciate Governor Lees efforts in working to find a more equitable and adequate funding formula. This is important work that is needed for meeting the many needs of our students, our employees, and our communities. Tennessee students deserve better than a nearly three-decades-old education funding formula. We applaud todays announcement and view this action as an appropriate step in elevating the conversation around public school funding, said Adam Lister, CEO, Tennesseans for Student Success. As this process advances, Tennesseans for Student Success looks forward to challenging those involved to prioritize solutions that serve all of Tennessee students. The needs of our students are much different today than they were fifteen years ago as are the expectations and responsibilities placed on Tennessee's educators, said Dr. Ted Horrell, director of Schools, Lakeland School System. A thorough reexamination of our state's K-12 funding formula is both necessary and welcome as we strive to provide the best possible education to Tennessee's students. I am looking forward to hearing from our local districts in regards to Governor Bill Lee and Commissioner Penny Schwinns important announcement on school funding, said House Education Instruction Committee Chairlady Debra Moody. Since our districts are so unique their collective input is vital to begin the conversation. With last weeks announcement of Blue Oval City, Governor Lee and Commissioner Schwinns call for an exploratory committee on education funding comes at a critical time for our community, region, and state, said Joey Hassell, director of Schools, Haywood County Schools. School districts play a key role in community development, economic development, and workforce development. While Tennessee continues to place the highest priority on quality education for our state's children, the time is definitely overdue to examine our current method of K-12 educational funding, said Dr. Nancy Dishner, president and CEO, Niswonger Foundation. Our decades-old method includes a number of issues that are causing unnecessary difficulty for school district leadership. Educational needs and opportunities have changed since the last major reform. We need to make certain that funding is equitable and adequate for all demographic areas of our state. It is time to listen to those concerns and seek the solutions that ensure the best quality education for Tennessee's children and our future. We are excited to engage in conversations about the states funding formula and the important work around providing additional needed supports for students in Tennessee, said Kristy Brown, director of Schools, Jackson County Schools. This is a great opportunity for districts large and small. In order to advance student learning, Tennessee needs a modernized school finance system that reflects the education needs of today, said David Mansouri, president and CEO, State Collaborative on Reforming Education. This prioritization from Governor Lee and state leaders comes at the right time as we all help students and schools urgently recover from the disruption of the pandemic. We should consider the individual needs of Tennessee students and work towards a way of funding education that is more transparent and better supports those unique needs. "The pandemic and extended school closures have had a massive impact on students, particularly on the economically disadvantaged and black and brown students who were already most at risk of falling behind academically," said Victor Evans, Executive Director, TennesseeCAN. "We need a bold approach for the future, and we can't pay for that approach with an outdated funding system that prioritizes where a child lives over who a child aspires to be. So we applaud Governor Lee, Commissioner Schwinn, and our legislative leaders for their leadership at this critical time to explore ways to adjust and modernize school funding for the future and to help quickly close the learning gaps that too many of our students now face." Tennesseans for Student Success released the following statement in response to Governor Bill Lee's call for review of the state's education funding formula: Tennessee students deserve better than a nearly three-decades-old education funding formula. We applaud todays announcement and view this action as an appropriate step in elevating the conversation around the Basic Education Program (BEP), said Adam Lister, president and CEO of Tennesseans for Student Success. As this process advances, Tennesseans for Student Success looks forward to challenging those involved to prioritize solutions that serve all Tennessee students. The State Collaborative on Reforming Education released this statement from President and CEO David Mansouri about Governor Lees plan to review the state education funding formula: "In order to advance student learning, Tennessee needs a modernized school finance system that reflects the education needs of today. "Todays announcement and this prioritization by Governor Lee and state leaders comes at the right time as we all help students and schools urgently recover from the disruption of the pandemic. "The states decades-long climb to reach the top of the nation in student achievement cannot be fully achieved without addressing the lingering disparities that are holding back a large proportion of the states 1 million students. "SCORE has spent the last year studying how education finance and school resources can be used to support better outcomes for students. Based on this research looking at best practices from across the country, talking with school finance experts, studying financial modeling, and considering Tennessees unique needs clear priorities emerge for how Tennessee could improve. "For all students to be successful, the states education funding formula should be driven by student need, provide more predictability and transparency, provide autonomy so that schools and districts can respond to local needs, and be modernized so that the funding formula corresponds with what is needed to provide an education for all students today. "Given Tennessees strong financial standing, the outcomes of Tennessee students, and research and data about what works to improve student outcomes, Tennessee is in a good position to address this timely issue. SCORE looks forward to engaging in the process that was announced today." Visit this webpage for more information and learn how to get involved: https://www.tn.gov/education/tnedufunding. Food Lion Feeds is donating 5 million meals equaling $500,000 to 11 Feeding America partner food banks throughout its 10-state footprint. The donations of gift cards, announced during Feeding Americas Hunger Action Month, will assist these food banks in meeting unprecedented demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America estimates that due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, more than 42 million people may experience food insecurity, including a potential 13 million children (up from 10 million children prior to the pandemic). Since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Food Lion Feeds has donated the equivalent of 220 million meals to hunger relief efforts. No one should have to choose between paying for dinner or rent, or gas or groceries, but far too many of our neighbors are faced with those impossible decisions every day, said Meg Ham, president, Food Lion. Our neighbors are counting on us. Thats why we continue to stand with our longstanding community partners to fight hunger and nourish neighbors in the towns and cities we serve. The gift cards will allow families to purchase grocery items of their choice and will be distributed at the discretion of the food banks during their upcoming, existing food distributions. Food banks receiving gift cards through the most recent $500,000 donation include: Food Bank of Delaware (Newark, De.) Feeding the Valley Food Bank (Midland, Ga.) Feeding America, Kentucky's Heartland (Elizabethtown, Ky.) Maryland Food Bank (Baltimore, Md.) MANNA Food Bank (Asheville, NC) Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC (Raleigh, NC) Inter-Faith Food Shuttle (Raleigh, NC) Harvest Hope Food Bank (Greenville, SC) Chattanooga Area Food Bank (Chattanooga) Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee (Nashville) Food Bank of Southeastern VA and the Eastern Shore (Norfolk, Va.) A celebration of Glenn Frasers life will be held on Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. at Christ United Methodist Church, 8645 East Brainerd Road in Chattanooga. Please wear a mask. The celebration is also a chance to thank others who continue to work to make a safer community. Glenn Fraser died August 31, 2021, at the age of 53, in his office by the hands of another. Glenn was a licensed professional counselor by the State of Georgia, with offices in Ringgold and Rome. At the University of West Georgia, he was president of Phi Beta Lambda business fraternity/sorority and was on the judo team. He graduated in 1993 with a masters degree in psychology. He was also a graduate of Woodward Academy in Atlanta. Early work experiences included Crescent Pines Psychiatric Hospital, Lookout Mountain Community Services and Laurel Heights Psychiatric Hospital. He was an approved treatment provider for sex offenders in the States of Georgia and Tennessee. The treatment program he created was approved by the state of Tennessee. He worked closely with law enforcement and testified in county, state and federal courts. Professional ethics were always important to him. As referrals from clients, pediatricians and schools came in, his work with children and families grew to be his main focus. He also served on the board of directors of the Family Center in LaFayette. He was a gentle and caring man who dedicated his life to helping others, often providing pro bono services or food to those who needed it. Glenn was the son of David S. Fraser and Linda M. Fraser of Atlanta, and the brother of Craig D. Fraser of New York City. Former 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days stars Jesse Meester and Jennifer Tarazona may have found love on 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2 with each other. There were plenty of rumors about whether or not Jesse and Jennifer were an item, but The Single Life trailer confirmed fans suspicions. Jennifer Tarazona and Jesse Meester on 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2 | discovery+ Jesse and Jennifer join the cast of 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2 On the 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2 trailer, Jesse admits that his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Darcey Silva, was never meant to be. Now Jesse is looking out for someone with a pure soul that he can fall in love with. Jennifer Tarazona on 90 Day: The Single Life | discovery+ Jennifer starts by talking about how horrible her relationship was with ex-fiance Tim Malcolm. She says, Dating Tim was a complete disaster. it was terrible. She continues, But I do believe that I could fall in love with Jesse. However, it appears shes keeping her options open. Jennifer says, But Ive been dating someone else too. The Single Life Season 2 trailer confirms Jesse and Jennifer are in a relationship On October 6th, the official 90 Day Fiance Instagram account dropped the trailer for 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2. In the trailer, Jesse is showering with Jennifer. Jesse says, I feel like a virgin, rediscovering, like, woah. In the next scene, Jennifer and Jesse making out on a bed. Jesse tells Jennifer, It feels like Im falling in love with you. In recent months, Jennifer and Jesse have been hinting at a relationship together. Theyve been posting photos of themselves in the same cities, at identical apartments, or the same streets. It was obvious that they were together, but to what extent, fans didnt know. That is, until now. Are Jesse and Jennifer still together? So now that its confirmed that Jesse and Jennifer will appear on The Single Life Season 2, what is the status of their relationship now? According to their recent Instagram posts, the two are still going strong. Jesse posted on his Instagram on October 1st a video of him and Jennifer bungee jumping together in Colombia. Jesse Meester on 90 Day: The Single Life On Jennifers Instagram, she posted many photos of her and Jesse kissing on their Colombian vacation. It appears that the couple has been dating for a while. Their Instagrams show that theyve been traveling together for many months. Its going to be interesting to watch their romance unfold on 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2. The new season airs on November 12th on discovery+. RELATED: 90 Day: The Single Life Season 2 Trailer: Everything We Know About the Explosive New Season Article Highlights: What The Beatles schedule was like in 1965 George Harrison said The Beatles wanted to make more films than tour What George Harrison didnt like about filming George Harrison filming Help! with The Beatles in the Bahamas in 1965 | William Lovelace/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The Beatles will forever be known as musicians first. But in a 1965 interview that was aired on KRLA Beat, George Harrison said that he, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr actually preferred making films over touring. Over their time together as a band, The Beatles made five films: A Hard Days Night (1964), Help! (1965), Magical Mystery Tour (1967), Yellow Submarine (1968) and Let It Be (1970). Heres what Harrison said about his acting career in 65, while he was filming Help! in the Bahamas. In 1965, The Beatles were busy, busy, busy (and a little clueless about their schedule) In his interview with David Hull and Derek Taylor, Harrison was asked to detail The Beatles current schedule, before the bands next trip to America. I think in the meantime well have a new record out, doing TV and things in England, he said, as recorded in the book George Harrison on George Harrison. And then with a bit of luck the film will probably be out around about that time. So then well have the film songs out to plug and well have a premiere. And then I think itll be the American trip. Or maybe the premiere will be after the American trip, which is in August. The Beatles filming 'Help!' in the Bahamas, 1965 pic.twitter.com/bdxe8vQy4t Eric Alper (@ThatEricAlper) May 30, 2021 RELATED: George Harrison Said It Was Embarrassing to Talk Music With Elvis Presley There seemed to be a lot up in the air. Harrison, as well as the other boys, didnt fully know what their schedule entailed in the coming months because no one had told them. We cant tell, really, because we havent really been told exactly whats happening, he said. We just vaguely know that its America, and then for all we know we may start on our third film after the American trip. The Beatles were hoping to do two films a year Taylor noted that the band had fit two films into one year. He asked if the plan was to keep up that pace. Were trying to, said Harrison. I hope so because we enjoy it so much more than anything else. A revelation. The Beatles preferred films to touring. When the films finished you get more satisfaction from it, said Harrison. You feel as though youve done something worthwhile, more so than a tour. Not only was making a film incredibly gratifying, but it was also easier and more enjoyable than going on tour. Wed like to do more films and naturally a little less touring because [touring is tiring], said Harrison. People dont realize that each day you jump out of bed onto an airplane and fly two thousand miles to do a show you know thats not much fun, really. The downside to filming for George Harrison Of course, filming does have its downsides. For Harrison (a notorious sleep-lover), the biggest downside was having to wake up early. I like it fine except that were up at 7:00 in the morning every day on the set filming, he said. RELATED: George Harrison Once Said The Beatles Were all Crummy Musicians, Really The days were typically nine hours long. Well, we get up at 7:00 and we usually start about 8:00 or 8:30, right through and then have lunch for about a half hour, and then we work right through until the sun goes and theres no more light, which is usually about 5:30, he said. But it wasnt so bad, because if the band wasnt filming they found luxuriating in the Bahamas sun a tad dull. Its good really because if youre off work theres nothing much to do, he said. It gets boring just sitting in the sun and wed all prefer to be up and working. Keeping up with the personal lives of celebrities can be a full-time job of its own. With high-profile hook-ups, splits, and new relationships regularly hitting the headlines, it can be hard to keep track of just whats happening in the celebrity world. Lately, Jesse Watters has been getting attention for his new marriage. When did Watters get divorced, and how quickly was he back down the aisle? Fox News host Jesse Watters was married to Noelle Watters Jesse Watters on The Five | John Lamparski/Getty Images Jesse Watters is known for his work on Fox News, mainly serving as one of the hosts of The Five, a weekday round-table program that tackles the hot button issues of the day. Things took a turn when Watters himself has become one of the One More Thing-style conversations for many of his fans. The gossip around Watters revolves around his love life. Previously Watters was married to Noelle Watters. The pair had met while on the job. As The Daily Mail reports, Noelle Watters was then working in advertising and promotion while Jesse Watters was working his way up the ranks and in a role for Bill OReilly. The pair married in 2009 and then welcomed twin daughters in late 2011. Noelle Watters left Fox for maternity leave and then didnt return to the job. He had a high-profile affair with a co-worker Fox News host Jesse Watters to divorce after affair with employee https://t.co/pQ1uk3o36C pic.twitter.com/opClNCac6f New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) March 11, 2018 Jesse and Noelle Watters marriage was torpedoed amidst revelations that Jesse Watters was having an affair with a much-younger Fox staff member who worked as an associate producer on his show Watters World. As Daily News reports, Watters reported the consensual relationship with Emma DiGiovine in the light of the way Fox had strengthened its human resources department and implemented extensive sexual harassment training following the ouster of its influential founder, Roger Ailes. When Watters made the announcement in 2017, DiGiovine was moved to a different program within the network to keep in line with these updated protocols. Shortly after that, Noelle Watters filed for divorce. The news broke to the public in spring 2018, and the divorce proceedings took a while to complete. The couple was set to head to court to hash out the details in March 2019, but they reached an undisclosed settlement agreement at the last minute. Jesse Watters and Emma DiGiovine have gotten married In late 2019, Jesse Watters once again walked down the aisle. This time, he did so with a much higher profile and a much more impressive guest list. He and Emma DiGiovine got married in Naples. Guests included Real Housewives of Orange County former cast member Kelly Dodd, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric and Lara Trump. As one of Donald Trumps most staunch and unwavering supporters on the Fox Network, Watters had made inroads with the Trump family. Less than a year after tying the knot, DiGiovine and Watters announced that they were expecting their first child. Their son Jesse Bailey Watters Jr. was born in spring 2021, as Fox News reported. At the time, Watters told viewers, He and Emma are both doing fantastic and we are blessed to bring another proud American into the world. After the childs birth, Watters became the subject of mockery on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the staunchly conservative pundit came forward in support of paternity leave. While some have pointed to hypocrisy in such a rigidly conservative public persona having an affair and starting a second family, Watters and DiGiovine happily share glimpses of their life with no sense of scandal. The couple frequently takes to social media to post pictures of their travels, including ski trips and a trip to the Dominican Republic. Now that the growing family has a new baby in the house, Watters fans can likely expect some updates that include his growing son as well. RELATED: Sean Hannitys Divorce Could Cost Him More Than You Think Mean Girls is one of those movies with a surprising reach and impressive staying power. Though star Lindsay Lohan saw her career spiral shortly after the hit film debuted, Mean Girls arrived in a small window of her efforts to move into more mature roles from her child star days that was actually working. The movie, released in 2004, is approaching 20 years old but still captures the attention and admiration of fans who werent even born when it came out. A big part of the films enduring qualities comes from Tina Feys influence. The comedian adapted the screenplay from the book Queen Bees and Wannabes. She also made an important choice about her lead characters name. So, how did she land on Cady? Tina Fey adapted the screenplay for Mean Girls and played a major role Tina Fey | John Lamparski/Getty Images Most people who saw Mean Girls remember Tina Feys portrayal of Ms. Norbury, the calculus teacher who sees the potential in newcomer Cady even as shes spiraling into a chasm of peer turmoil. Cady, who was homeschooled in Africa before attending North Shore High School, is the films main protagonist, and its her downfall into the Plastics clique that catalyzes the rest of the films story. As she pretends to befriend Queen Bee Regina (played by Rachel McAdams), shes actually sabotaging Reginas efforts to maintain her reign over the school. Eventually, Cady realizes shes becoming exactly what she hates about Regina, but not before her cruel words about Ms. Norbury are plastered around the whole school when Regina makes copies of the infamous Burn Book. In addition to playing this key role in the film, Fey also brought the drama to the big screen by adapting the original book into a screenplay. There, she put her signature comedic flair into Mean Girls, helping it cross the line into a dark comedy, making it infinitely quotable. Why did Tina Fey name the protagonist Cady? Both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling wanted to have a Cady Heron moment but the Golden Globe is simply too hard to break. #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/hOjhRcoyWu Refinery29 (@Refinery29) January 9, 2017 The source material for Mean Girls was not a novel. Instead, it was a self-help book by Rosalind Wiseman designed to help parents of teen girls navigate the social pressures of high school. Though Fey was deeply inspired by the descriptions of the cliques and social networks at play in Wisemans book elements Wiseman had witnessed firsthand while giving workshops in real high schools the source material didnt include individual characters the way the film did. That meant Fey had plenty of creative freedom to bring the action to life. Along the way, she also had to pick a name for her lead. According to Mental Floss, this gave Fey the perfect opportunity to pay homage to her old college roommate, Cady Garey. The pair once shared an apartment while Fey attended the University of Virginia. We really didnt have any furniture, Gary told the University of Virginia Magazine, just mattresses on the floor and a bean bag in the living room. Fey went on to do more writing work In addition to her successful acting career, Tina Fey has made a name for herself as a comedic writer. Even before Mean Girls, she had written for Saturday Night Live. But after the success of her screenplay for Mean Girls, Feys writing work became even more impressive. She wrote many episodes for 30 Rock, where she was both the creator and star of the series that ran from 2006 to 2013. She jumped from there to creating and writing for The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Her latest project sees her serving as creator and writer for Mr. Mayor, a comedy starring Ted Danson as a wealthy businessman who becomes mayor of Los Angeles. RELATED: Do You Know Why October 3 Is Mean Girls Day? The Alpinist is an acclaimed 2020 documentary following Marc-Andre Leclerc, who was a well-known name in the world of mountain climbing. He was considered the best alpinist of an entire generation of climbers. A mountaineer climbing near the Mont Blanc mountain | Olivier Chassignole/AFP via Getty Images This young Canadian dominated many of the worlds most iconic summits. Leclerc was only 25 when he traveled to Alaska with a fellow climber to conquer a first ascent just outside of Juneau. Neither were ever heard from again. What happened to Marc-Andre Leclerc? We may never know what exactly happened to Marc-Andre Leclerc, but thankfully we can piece part of the story together. Outside Online details the events of the fateful climb. A helicopter chartered out of Juneau touched down on the Mendenhall Glacier on Sunday, March 4, 2018. Leclerc and his climbing partner, Ryan Johnson, set out for Main Tower, which is taller than Yosemites Half Dome. Leclerc and Johnson stored their gear, including skis, avalanche probe, and reflective vest, at the base for their return trip home. From there they would ski 10 miles back to Juneau. The plan was to return on Wednesday, the 7th. The route was not the hardest these experienced climbers completed in the past. One can only speculate how the climb went. But, around 5:35 pm, the sun had set, and the climbers camped on the black granite face for the night, enjoying trail mix and melted snow for water. They would start again at first light. It was right before 10:30 am on Monday, March 5 when Leclercs girlfriend, Brette Harrington, received a text message from Leclerc saying, Love, Im at the summit! It was an incredible climb. He also texted his mother with an image of surrounding peaks and the word, Beautiful. A few photos were posted to Instagram with the caption, Rare live update here. That is Mt Fairweather in the distance Finally, Leclerc shot a video for Harrington of him spinning in a circle to show the cloudless sky. Leclerc always texted Harrington when he was out of the mountains to let her know he was OK. Wednesday the 7th and the text never came. She called Juneau Mountain Rescue to check-in. The Alpinist's compelling profile of climber Marc-Andre Leclerc comprises a mountain of existential contradictions. Leclercs winningest attribute is his indifference to attention while The Alpinist pours it on.https://t.co/jj4r1NU8JC Willamette Week (@wweek) September 10, 2021 A search and rescue team did find their skis, leading them to believe the pair did not make it down, and a helicopter with an infrared camera could not pick up any body heat on the north face nor the surrounding glacier. It was assumed they were swept up by an avalanche. The search and rescue mission had to be slowed down due to horrible weather. All helicopters were grounded, but hopes still remained high. Maybe the climbers were able to find a crevasse to shelter in. Come Tuesday, March 13, the weather cleared and the helicopter went up. They found two sets of footprints and a piece of orange rope sticking up. With further calculations it was determined the two climbers were buried 15 feet below the surface and were presumed dead. They were only half a mile from their skis. Who was Marc-Andre Leclerc? Mountain climbing has grown in popularity in pop culture over the last few years thanks to documentaries such as Free Solo, The Dawn Wall, and Valley Uprising moving from niche showings to mainstream theaters. The climbers have surged to being celebrities thanks to social media and viewers. In the midst of that, there was a young climber who never sought fame but still had achievements many of his fellow climbers could only dream about. Sunset details how Marc-Andre Leclerc was a 20-something who much preferred an off-the-grid existence to a place on the pop culture radar. And: Far removed from the limelight, the nomadic Leclerc climbs alone, disappearing into his surroundings like a ghost longing for the echoes of solo adventure. He uses no ropes and no communication devices while summiting daunting faces in British Columbia, Alaska, and Patagonia. The Arc'teryx Climbing Academy kicks off TONIGHT with an evening in memory of Marc-Andre Leclerc. Join us in downtown Squamish at 7pm: https://t.co/dLztHwFO4k pic.twitter.com/5xQ1cImZex Arc'teryx (@Arcteryx) July 19, 2018 Leclerc did great things, and he did them without asking for applause. He did them oftentimes without anyone even knowing what he did. Leclerc is especially known for his affinity for scaling peaks of mixed rock and ice, summits that most professional climbers would choose to leave alone. Some of Leclercs most notable climbs as detailed in UK Climbing are: First solo of the Corkscrew First solo winter ascent of Torre Egger First ascent of the Reverse Torre Traverse First winter ascent of Navigator Wall on Mt. Slesse The Alpinist documentary details a climbers last days This year we said a difficult goodbye to our dear friend Marc-Andre Leclerc. Read about the impact he left on the climbing world: https://t.co/dN1B6WSnxW pic.twitter.com/jLgBD3SgKN Arc'teryx (@Arcteryx) December 28, 2018 The Alpinist was the project of filmmakers Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen who also produced Valley Uprising and The Dawn Wall. If you like awe-inspiring free solo climbing footage on rock and ice, The Alpinist is your next destination. Mens Journal reports that Mortimer and Rosen got word of this elusive young climber who was hitchhiking across the Trans-Canada Highway and achieving ropeless ascents of ice routes. They finally found him living in a tent with his girlfriend, Brette Harrington. They followed his escapades for two years in order to understand Leclercs drive. Mortimer and Rosen are able to capture Leclercs free solo ascents of countless rock and ice faces. The film builds up to Leclercs winter solo climb of Torre Egger in Patagonia. It is a complex tower range known for having some of the worst weather. The weather was indeed horrible, and it forced Leclerc to return to camp but only to return to the climb once the weather cleared. It was the perfect victory for wrapping a film project two years in the making. And then Mortimer and Rosen hear that Leclerc had gone missing and was ultimately declared deceased. Mountain climbing is a dangerous sport and climbing free solo is especially dangerous. The Alpinist details the life and accomplishments of an amazing climber who knew well the risks of his passion. And yet, he continued to follow his passion to the end. RELATED: The Eiger Sanction: Clint Eastwoods Dodged Death But His Stuntman Tragically Didnt The number of Christians in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country, has increased by 1 percent, according to new research. According to data from the Directorate General of the Department of Population and Civil Registration of the Ministry of Home Affairs and International Christian Concern, Indonesia now has 20.4 million Protestants and 8.42 million Catholics. In total, both groups make up nearly 11 percent of the total population of about 272 million. The 2010 census showed that 9.87 percent of the population was Christian at that time. In comparison, the Muslim population in Indonesia is 236 million. Indias Constitution is based on the Pancasila doctrine, which states the five core beliefs in one God, social justice, humanity, unity and democracy. However, according to The Christian Post, there are some groups in the country that oppose Pancasila and churches sometimes face opposition from groups that try to obstruct the construction of non-Muslim houses of worship. More than 1,000 churches in the archipelago have reportedly been forced to close because of pressure from opposing groups. This years Easter service in Indonesia was guarded by heavy security after there was a suicide bombing outside a church just before Easter. The married couple had reported ties with a terror network, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, and had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. The JAD terrorist network has also been blamed for coordinated attacks on three other churches in May 2018. At least 13 people died in the attacks at Immaculate Saint Mary Catholic Church, Indonesia Christian Church and Surabaya Central Pentecost Church. Worldwide, Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population. Pakistan is second on the list. Also according to the Pew Research Center, from 1951 to 2011, the number of Hindus in the country grew to 966 million, Muslims to 172 million, Christians to 28 million, Sikhs to 20.8 million, Buddhists to 8.4 million, and Jains to 4.5 million. Photo credit: Getty Images/Tinnakorn Jorruang Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner. George Barna shares 4 ways Christian parents can combat medias influence in childrens lives Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A prominent Christian researcher is urging parents to take an active role in combating the influence of the media on their children, which he believes has led Americans to embrace teachings that run contrary to the biblical worldview. The third day of programming for the Family Research Council Action's Pray, Vote, Stand Summit, formerly known as the Values Voter Summit, was held on Friday. The annual gathering of social conservatives took place at the Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia, this year. The first panel of the day discussed the crisis in the church that has developed because Christians dont have a biblical worldview. Moderated by David Closson, the director of the Family Research Councils newly launched Center for Biblical Worldview, the panel included George Barna, director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, Joseph Backholm of the Center for Biblical Worldview and Nancy Pearcey, professor and scholar in residence at Houston Baptist University. While much of the discussion focused on problems that've resulted from the decline in the number of Americans who hold a biblical worldview, the panelists also provided advice to parents and faith leaders about how to instill a biblical worldview in their children. The most significant influence on the development of a worldview in America today is what we absorb from the media," Barna contended. "And if thats the case, then that says to me as a parent or a grandparent or somebody who cares about the development of the worldview of children that Ive got to pay attention to what media is investing in those childrens minds and hearts. Barna then listed four Ms that parents should employ to combat the harmful influence of the media on their children. He first advised parents to monitor what these kids are being exposed to because our research shows that most parents are happy to buy their children every device the kids want, and then they leave the kids up to determine what theyre going to take in through all those devices. They dont even know what their kids are being exposed to. Barna also suggested that parents minimize it because our research also shows that in America, the biggest addiction in our country is media. We spend more time literally absorbing messages from media than anything else we do except for sleep. Illustrating the need to limit the enormous exposure that we have to that kind of information, Barna maintained that parents do not tell their children to eat everything in the house, but rather eat a certain amount of things three times a day. He told parents that we need to do the same kind of ingestion methods with media. Introducing mediate as the third M, Barna called on parents to serve as the mediator between what the media is trying to get you to believe and what we, as followers of Jesus, believe based on what the scriptures teach. He remarked that if parents are watching a show with their children that exposes them to an idea that runs contrary to the biblical worldview, they should tell them: We know thats a lie because the Scriptures teach us this. The final M Barna urged parents to rely on was moralize. In other words, helping them to understand the difference between right and wrong. He predicted that if parents simply did that in the lives of their kids, it would revolutionize America today. Setting the stage for the conversation, Barna pointed to research that found only 6% of adults have a biblical worldview, a number that rises to 9% among people who call themselves Christian. Another statistic that's particularly concerning is that only 19% of born-again Christians have a biblical worldview. Barna further noted that only 21% of those who attend evangelical churches have a biblical worldview. He implied that the small share of Americans who have a biblical worldview stems from the fact that a large proportion of our senior pastors dont have a biblical worldview. Describing worldview as a critical element, he explained that a persons worldview begins forming at 15 to 18 months of age and is almost fully formed by the age of 13. Acknowledging the important role that pastors have in shaping peoples worldview, Pearcey advised faith leaders to teach apologetics from the pulpit, specifically any time you introduce a biblical doctrine, you tell people how to defend it. Pearcey added: We need to be equipping people with the tools to face the attack that theyre going to face as soon as they go out of the sanctuary. She stressed that the exposure to the media and internet alone are not the only factors causing many children to develop a non-biblical worldview: What youre seeing now is a trend toward I got it at school. Pearcey also emphasized that young children are given the idea that gender is a social construct from schools as well as from childrens programming, saying, "Our kids are being exposed to secular worldviews from a very young age from the Saturday morning cartoons. Panelists also elaborated on what constitutes a worldview. Backholm defined a worldview as assumptions about origin, meaning, morality and destiny. He indicated that a persons worldview is formulated by answers to questions asking where did I come from, does my life have meaning, yes, no and why, who determines what is right and wrong and what happens when I die? Backholmattributed the lack of Americans who actually subscribe to a biblical worldview to the fact that we dont take those assumptions and then connect the dots to everything that we believe in public policy. He pointed to pressure to believe the correct things politically about gender, about human sexuality [and] about marriage as the reason why rather than making sure their worldview forms their politics, many people allow their politics to form their worldview. As Christians, were supposed to start with the foundation of this is what God said is true about the world. I know thats true, therefore Im going to make sure everything I think about X,Y and Z is actually based on these assumptions about what God said is true, but most of us arent doing that, he lamented. We have all this pressure to be good people and to prove were good people by thinking the correct things about X,Y and Z, and we know we have to think these things to prove that were good people, and so were going to form a worldview deductively after weve concluded, after weve formed our political opinions and made sure our worldview fits our political conclusions rather than make sure that our political conclusions are based on our worldview. Noting that there are 16,000 hours between kindergarten and 12th grade, Backholm proclaimed that you cannot overcome the impact of those 16,000 hours by taking them to church on Sunday and maybe taking them to youth group on Wednesday night. He also elaborated on the effects of what children learn at school on their worldview: Theyre cucumbers that are becoming pickles. And the brine that they soak in has a lot to say about what they become. Backholm warned that even if children are not introduced to pagan lies by their teachers, Theyre still soaking things in from the culture thats around them thats influencing what they love, which the research tells us, what they love determines what they ultimately believe is true. Barna added that children experience 32,000 hours during that same period of time of media exposure. He accused schools of laying a foundation that the media then supports, exposing children to 48,000 hours' worth of content that runs contrary to the biblical worldview. Christians slam Playboy magazine's 'flood of ever-degenerating filth' for featuring young gay man on cover Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Many people have condemned Playboy this week for its decision to feature a young gay man dressed in the magazines iconic sexy bunny outfit on its most recent digital cover. Playboy, one of the most recognized pornographic magazines in the world, featured Bretman Rock on the cover of its latest issue. Described as an iconic influencer and social media personality, the Filipino American Rock is not the first male to wear the bunny costume or appear on the cover, but he is the first gay man to do so. The Playboy bunny outfit includes satin bunny ears, a black bowtie, a low-cut leotard-style suit and a bunny tail. Tights and various types of footwear frequently accompany the costume. In Rocks case, he wore tights in the cover photo while donning tight pants and high-heeled boots for the extended photoshoot. In several of the additional pictures taken as part of his photoshoot, Rock posed shirtless, without the suit. Rock shared pictures from the photoshoot on his Instagram page, where he has nearly 18 million followers. The magazine shared Rocks reaction to appearing on the cover on its Twitter account: For Playboy to have a male on the cover is a huge deal for the LGBT community, for my brown people community and its all so surreal. A total is this even f******g happening right now? type of vibe. And Im so pretty. Several Christians criticized Rocks inclusion on the cover of Playboy, highlighting it as the latest example of a coarse popular culture that celebrates sexual degeneracy in all forms. In his syndicated op-ed published in The Christian Post, Michael Brown cited Rocks appearance on the cover of Playboy as a crystallization of the magazines moral degeneration over the course of its nearly 70-year history from lewdness to perversion. Jennifer Roback Morse of the Ruth Institute, a global interfaith coalition committed to upholding and promoting the ancient Christian teachings about marriage, family, and human sexuality and ministering to those negatively affected by the sexual revolution, shared her concerns about Rocks appearance on the cover of Playboy in an interview with CP, saying, Playboy has gone from degrading women to erasing women. Playboy Mexico had a man who says hes a woman on the cover last year. Now they have a self-described gay man on the cover. Evidently, men are better at being a woman than a woman is, she quipped. This cover blurs the boundary between male and female, she added. I suspect they think they are defying the gender binary as the radicals like to call the differences between male and female. Morse told CP that the Playboy cover proves that the Sexual Revolution really is a unified ideology. She added: People initially embrace the ideology because it furthers some specific sexual interest or proclivity of their own. But once theyve embraced the ideology, many people will hang on to every part of it, even the parts that are superficially unrelated. Morse asserted that proponents of the sexual revolution see sex as a sterile recreational activity with no moral or social consequences. Brown agreed with Morses analysis about the sexual revolution, writing that the story of Playboy magazine is the story of the sexual revolution, from its first cover featuring Marilyn Monroe in 1953 to its current cover featuring a gay man dressed as a Playboy bunny. Playboy had helped swing the door wide-open, and what followed was a flood of ever-degenerating filth, often at the primary expense of women, he contended. Brown suggested that a desire to push back on the narrative that it was behind the times and not lewd enough, not racy enough and not pushing the boundaries enough motivated Playboys decision to feature a gay man on the cover. Brown expressed hope that the American people, including Rock, will learn to celebrate a healthy sexuality, within the bonds of marriage, one man and one woman together for life, as intended by God. In a Twitter thread posted Monday, Playboy lamented that it had received far too many negative comments in response to releasing its first-ever cover with an openly gay model. The magazine likened such criticism to the same kind of comments Playboy received when we put Darine Stern, an African American woman on the cover in 1971, [and] when we featured transgender model Tula Cossey in 1991. Standing for freedom and equality is in the DNA of this brand. Today, Playboy is much more than a magazine. Our digital covers are creative snapshots that drive and reflect the current dialogue around pleasure, sexuality, equality and culture. The Twitter thread went on to ask If a gay man feels sexy in a bunny costume, an iconic symbol of sexiness, why shouldnt he [be] able to wear it proudly? The magazine vowed that serving as a platform for representation and freedom of expansion is and will always be what Playboy stands for. Last week, we released our first-ever cover with an openly gay model, @bretmanrock. Since posting, we've received a lot of great comments, but far too many offensive ones as well. Playboy (@Playboy) October 4, 2021 Crisis in pastoral leadership: Are the apostolic and prophetic offices being restored? Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment This is part 2 of The Christian Post's article series on the crisis of leadership in American evangelicalism. Read part 1 here, part 3 here and part 4 here. Amid seemingly unending church and ministry leadership scandals and the exposure of unhealthy structures and institutions that enabled them, are long-lost offices of the Church being recovered? The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:20 that the Church, the household of God, is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Ephesians 4:11-12, Paul continues that the Lord gave fivefold offices for the edification of the Church, specifically apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Yet many Christians today have no theological or experiential grid for the first two offices listed, perhaps because the canon of Scripture is closed and the apostles who were alive during Jesus' time are no longer walking the Earth. This view, which is called cessationism, holds that after the death of the last apostle, spiritual gifts like prophecy and the office of a prophet are no longer operating. In practice, however, some churches and denominations adhere to degrees of this view, allowing for certain expressions of the gifts to operate in the church. Others have admitted to believing in the continuation of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirt but being, for all intents and purposes, "functional" cessationists. With such a theological paradigm, the absence of the offices of prophet and apostle in the contemporary church has yielded an often top-heavy congregational structure that is led by a pastor. Teachers teach the Bible in Sunday school. When many think of the office of evangelist, guest preachers and the-late Billy Graham and his stadium crusades come to mind. To dive more deeply into these ecclesiological issues, The Christian Post spoke with Ron Myer and Larry Kreider, two leaders with DOVE International an interdenominational global family of churches and ministries on six continents. CP also spoke with Pastor Derwin Gray of Transformation Church, a nondenominational evangelical congregation in Indian Land, South Carolina. The interviews explore what has gone right and what has gone wrong in recent years, and where they see God taking the Church at-large in the coming decade. Substantial paradigm shifts are occurring for many Christians, they say, and sincere believers would be wise to heed what the Holy Spirit is doing, even if it seems unfamiliar. How have the fivefold offices gotten lost and how are they being reclaimed? According to Kreider, a major issue afflicting the Church is what he calls clergy-laity mentality. He describes it as a pervasive mindset where the paid clergy leads the church and they are called pastors. They do most of the ministry work and laypeople serve the ministry of that pastor. But whatever terms are used, DOVE International contends that leaders in the local church are more like elders or overseers. "We do believe that all five of these gifts are needed. And on a broad-based level, you need the apostles and prophets working together, hearing from God together. To use military terminology: apostles [are] the generals. The prophets being the seers, theyre the ones getting the intel [from God], Kreider asserted. For a local church, there needs to be impartation from all those gifts, equipping from all those offices. Yet, this is strange doctrinal territory for many people, as it was for Myer. In my upbringing, there was nothing ever spoken about apostles and prophets. There was no grid for it, Myer explained. But that all changed as he became filled with the [Holy] Spirit and into an understanding that Ephesians 4 is here to equip the saints for ministry and that the equipping of the saints is a primary role of the Church." "To equip people to minister to those who are not part of the Church, not just to minister to each other," he detailed. The apostles are the builders, the church-planters, those who are trainers and equippers. And the prophetic is to come alongside them to help guide and speak to that what is the Lord saying right now in the present, Myer said. He added that all five offices are needed to work together so that the Church can hear the full counsel of God. I think somewhere along the line we slipped into [the church mode] where its easy to just have a pastor to lead the church. So well just call him a pastor," Myer said. "And in some cases, you have evangelists thats their primary gift but they only knew pastors, so they put the term pastor on them. But theyre frustrated because they're not functioning as a pastor because that is not their primary gifting. People put that label on them, and then theyre trying to be somebody that theyre not versus truly functioning in who they truly are." Myer believes that God has given a "greater definition" that brings "greater freedom." "With greater freedom then comes greater function," he contends. "With greater function comes the ability to be who God really created them to be. Were working to usher in and continue to expand the Kingdom of God, His way of doing things, as we pray, 'Father, let Your Kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.' If the fivefold gifts can work together to see each and every believer functioning and bringing the Kingdom into their workplace, in the marketplace, into their school, a greater expression of Jesus is manifested in society, he maintained. What are small-a apostles? Kreider believes that an apostolically inclined small-a apostle is motivated by and is thinking on a macro, big-picture level, and wants to see the Kingdom of God extend across their city, state, region, nation and world. As with any other spiritual gift and vocations, this gifting is to be called out and affirmed by others in the Body of Christ. To function in these gifts, one needs to see the giftings in others, Myer added. Its not just someone who prophesies or carries a prophetic gift, but someone who trains up and pours into others so they can mature spiritually. For those who are hesitant to embrace this thinking because they have concerns about what has been referred to as the New Apostolic Reformation or the abuse or misuse of spiritual gifts, the DOVE leaders urge Christians to revisit the Word. The New Apostolic Reformation is a phrase coined by C. Peter Wagner to describe a movement within Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity reclaiming the apostolic and prophetic offices. I think what has happened is that when the church is run by pastors and administrators, it has played right into the clergy-laity mentality that has ruined the Church," Kreider said. "When you read the book of Acts and the Epistles, you see God using common, ordinary people. You see them being resourced through apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers." The title pastor is used for ministry and church leaders today, even those in pastoral roles, but are not particularly pastoral-gifted people, he added. If they lead a megachurch, they are probably apostolic. But since we dont have room for this language, I think it holds us back from expressing the heart of Christ to people and to be trained to full maturity and fulfill the call of God that is on their lives, Kreider said. In fact, the first time he went to a Pentecostal gathering, he sat in the back row so he could leave early in case it got too crazy. Myer added: For those who have had negative experiences, and there are certainly plenty of them out there, my response is: Im sorry you had a negative experience. Theres no excuse for it." For those who get hung up on titles, DOVE International shies away from them and leans more toward adjectives. Im not apostle Ron, but I do apostolic ministry, Myer said, defining it as being a spiritual father to a number of people who I pour my life into ... with one goal, to see them succeed and be all that God made them to be. These gifts need to be in operation until the return of Jesus, he maintains, to bring the Church to full maturity and bring as many people into Gods Kingdom as possible. The clergy-laity mindset trap Although careful not to blame any particular person or group for the creep of the clergy-laity mentality, Kreider and Myer said that those in clerical roles think they are the paid professionals who need to do all the ministry and that the laity is not equipped to do it. From the laity side, they argue that the thought process is one that always defers to clergy who are paid to do it, and therefore, they do not have to minister. If COVID has done anything, it has helped much of the Body of Christ realize that when two or three gather in His name, He is in the midst of us. And we believe there is a place for larger gatherings, but the focus is on the two or three, Kreider said. We have great hope for the Body of Christ. It has been a mess, we agree with that. Weve all been a mess. But He is leading us by His Spirit, and were excited about the future of the Body and the future of the Kingdom. While not all churches are top-heavy or afflicted by this clergy-laity mentality, Myer believes that amid all of the changes that the pandemic brought, the circumstances have come to model what the fivefold ministry should look like and what true apostles really are. There are some places in the world that you cant even use that term [apostle] because of the abuse and control in the past versus a spiritual father that wants to see those around him succeed. That has a heart and a passion to plant, but then to empower and release those around him, Myer said. I think we have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate what are the gifts of the Spirit and they are to bring about change, to help people, to see them transformed, to help them with problems and to demonstrate the love of Christ. In May 2020, Myer said he sensed the Lord tell him that in times of uncertainty, youd better be sure what youre certain about. Anytime were in chaos, that which we really believe will be challenged. And it shouldnt be changed, because if its built on Gods Word, my circumstances dont change what I believe. I continue to believe until my circumstances change, he said. I think the opportunity of the fivefold ministry is ... that even when theres chaos around us, even when theres a storm around us, there can still be peace in the midst of that. We can still walk in confidence; we can still walk in security. Kreider emphasized that American Christians tend to think about the United States, but the truth is that the Church is part of a global Kingdom. Theres nothing new under the sun," he said. "Were believing God for good things in our nation, obviously, but we know theres a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thats what we stand in." Episcopal Church lost 61K members, faced declining attendance before pandemic in 2020 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Episcopal Church lost a little over 61,000 members in 2020 and saw a decline in worship attendance even before the pandemic lockdowns occurred, according to data released by the denomination. The Episcopal Church's General Convention posted reports this week on the liberal mainline denomination's 2020 statistics and how they compared to previous years. Baptized Episcopal Church membership declined from approximately 1.798 million in 2019 to approximately 1.736 million in 2020 a loss of about 61,760 people. The total for 2020 is approximately 350,000 less than the 2.096 million members reported in 2011 and is less than half of the 3.6 million members reported in 1966. Another report shows that the total of "active baptized members" is even lower. In 2020, there were just over 1.5 million active baptized members of the Episcopal Church, compared to over 1.6 million in 2019. Unlike past years, the denomination calculated average Sunday attendance by using the numbers reported from Jan. 1 to Mar. 1, 2020, as COVID-19 pandemic-related cancellations of worship began in March. Even before government lockdowns compelled Episcopal congregations to suspend worship for months on end, the average Sunday attendance in 2020 dropped considerably compared to past years. Sunday attendance declined from approximately 547,000 in 2019 to 483,000 in 2020, about 210,000 fewer average Sunday attendees than the roughly 698,000 reported in 2011. Jeff Walton of the theologically conservative think tank Institute on Religion & Democracy, an expert on Anglican and Episcopal church politics, wrote Wednesday that the Episcopal Church "took a major hit in the year 2020." "These numbers indicate a doubling in the rate of membership decline and a tripling in the rate of attendance decline over the previous year," wrote Walton. "From 20192020, weddings across the denomination dropped from 6,484 to 3,530, down 46% (an additional 309 weddings were reported conducted online in virtual services). Children's baptisms dropped from 19,716 to 7,286, down 67%. Adult baptisms dropped from 3,866 to 1,649, down 57%." Multiple factors have often been attributed to the decline in membership and attendance in Episcopal Church, which traces its origins back to the 18th century and is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion. These include an aging demographic and the overall decline in religious affiliation in the United States. Additionally, the increasing theologically liberal direction of the Episcopal Church has prompted considerable numbers of conservatives to leave. In February 2020, Kristine Stache, interim president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America-affiliated Wartburg Theological Seminary, told the Episcopal Church's Executive Council that, at the current rate of decline, worship attendance may effectively cease to exist by the year 2050. "[Data] depicts a church that appears to be dying," said Stache, according to the Episcopal News Service. Last November, similar thoughts were echoed by Episcopal priest Rev. Dwight Zscheile, an associate professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. "The overall picture is dire," Zscheile was quoted as saying, according to ChurchLeaders. "Not one of decline as much as demise within the next generation unless trends change significantly." Atheist group FFRF demands NC school district stop holding Christian prayers at meetings Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation has demanded that a school district in North Carolina quit the practice of beginning meetings with Christian prayers. The Union County Board of Education received a letter from the Madison, Wisconsin-based atheist organization demanding that it stop offering Christian prayers at school board meetings. The Union County Board of Education has received the letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation and is evaluating the request, read a statement from school district spokeswoman Tahira Stalberte to The Christian Post. Last week, FFRF sent a letter to Michele Morris, general counsel with Union County Public Schools, expressing opposition to the boards practice of allowing Christian clergy to open meetings with prayer. We write to remind the Board that opening school board meetings with prayer is unconstitutional and to request that it end this practice immediately, wrote FFRF staff attorney Christopher Line to Morris. Board members are free to pray privately or to worship on their own time in their own way. The school board, however, ought not to lend its power and prestige to religion, amounting to a governmental endorsement of religion which alienates non-religious Americans. In 2014, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Town of Greece v. Galloway that prayers, even sectarian ones, could be given at government meetings. The Court must decide whether the town of Greece, New York, imposes an impermissible establishment of religion by opening its monthly board meetings with a prayer. It must be concluded that no violation of the Constitution has been shown, wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority. As practiced by Congress since the framing of the Constitution, legislative prayer lends gravity to public business, reminds lawmakers to transcend petty differences in pursuit of a higher purpose, and expresses a common aspiration to a just and peaceful society. However, in 2018 a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction against a California school districts practice of allowing school-sponsored Christian prayers at meetings. The Board's prayer policy and practice violate the Establishment Clause. The invocations to start the open portions of Board meetings are not within the legislative prayer tradition that allows certain types of prayer to open legislative sessions, read the panel ruling. This is not the sort of solemnizing and unifying prayer, directed at lawmakers themselves and conducted before an audience of mature adults free from coercive pressures to participate, that the legislative-prayer tradition contemplates. Is America headed for a national crack up? Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Are ominous signs revealing deep divisions in American society serving as harbingers or warning alarms that the nations continuing unity is truly imperiled? There are certainly multiple reasons for deep concern. The University of Virginias Center for Politics has published a survey revealing that 41% of President Bidens voters believe that the nation is so hopelessly divided that they think the nation needs to be divided into blue nation and red nation. Sadly, 51% of President Trumps voters agree with them. When you drill down on the survey the results are even more ominous. If you add 41% of Bidens voters (=38 million) with 52% of Trumps voters (=38 million), we are confronted with the fact that 71 million Americans who actually voted in the 2020 presidential election are ready to give up on the American experiment. Their disdain and hostility toward their fellow countrymen, and their lack of tolerance of their differing convictions, have now reached the point of advocating national divorce. This appalling state of affairs might shock us, but it should not come as a surprise. We have seen the signs of this extreme division surfacing with increasing regularity. On the eve of the 2016 election, polls showed that if Trump won, approximately 60% of the citizens of our most populous state, California, were willing to secede from the Union. Just as ominously, approximately 60% of the residents of the nations second-most populous state, Texas, said they were willing to secede if Mrs. Clinton won. Many would argue, myself among them, that Donald Trumps candidacy and presidential tenure were more a manifestation of Americas deep divisions rather than being causative. In Washington, D.C., the Congress also increasingly mirrors these deep fissures in the nations body politics. As The Wall Street Journals Gerald Seib has observed, Increasingly, Americans have sorted themselves into red enclaves and blue enclaves where they live with people who share their cultural and ideological mindset. This increasing division and divergence in our nations Capital are exacerbated by bipartisan manipulation of congressional district maps for maximum partisan advantage. The results feed division and lack of compromise. By the Cook Political Reports measurements, in 1997, there were 154 swing districts (districts where no presidential candidate had more than a 5% advantage). By the same measurements, today there are only 78 such swing districts. Consequently, the conservative Republican congressmen are more conservative and the liberal Democratic congressmen are more liberal. Currently, there is no overlap in the voting records of the current House of Representatives. In other words, the most conservative Democrat has a more liberal voting record than the most liberal Republican. If representatives of either party step out of line or reach across the aisle, they will often be threatened with a primary challenge because they are not loyal to the most partisan version of their respective partys policy positions. Concluding his discussion of this phenomenon, Seib reports, This stratified environment is why compromise is so hard, both between and within parties. The bipartisan political center has been hollowed out. As one former Congressman put it, It makes the things that ought to be relatively easy hardand the things that are hard become impossible. Things are getting worse. In the redistricting process following the 2020 Census, recent reports show the states of New York and Texas, for instance, are actually working to gerrymander their states to an even greater advantage for Democrats (New York) and Republicans (Texas). However, while there are many contributing factors to this serious national crisis, the main underlying factor which dwarfs all other causes is the baneful influence of social media. The recent revelations of the Facebook whistleblower Francis Haugen have revealed the malignant influence of social media in breeding and feeding divisions in our society. There is ever-increasing evidence that the new and unprecedented phenomenon known as the Internet and its dangerous spawn of all the varieties of social media are altering, and in some cases dissolving what President Lincoln called our bonds of affection, those mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land. (Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.) The ever-present Internet-fueled social media has allowed and encouraged Americans to self-congregate in self-identifying homogenous groups where they see, read, and hear only opinions and facts from perspectives agree with and desire to hear. What we are witnessing and experiencing is the Internet as a centrifugal force of unprecedented power that is rending us asunder. It is encouraging Americans to live in virtual communities of only like-minded individuals. This allows the unprecedented and rapid permeation of ideologies such as Critical Race Theory which leads to perpetual racial animosity and racial and ethnic divisions. The Internet (i.e. social media) has demonstrably challenged John Donnes declaration that No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main Any mans death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind; And therefore never send to know For whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. (Meditation17) The Internet has proven Donne wrong. Internet-driven social media is atomizing our society into one in which increasingly every man is his own island, and there is no whole. Let us pray that this dangerous drift is reversed while there is still an America left to save. If the divorce is to be avoided, we as Americans will have to insist that the Internet, high tech, and social medias power be curbed, regulated, and monitored. We will also have to consciously seek to create those virtual public squares and spaces where we can listen to our fellow citizens and talk to, not at, each other and learn from our fellow countrymens differing perspectives. Further, we must educate ourselves and our fellow Americans, young and old, on the genius of the system our founding fathers bequeathed to us and we must all shoulder our responsibilities as participants and citizens in this great republic we call America. May God give us the grace, courage, and wisdom to prevail in this struggle and to bequeath to our children and our childrens children the great inheritance passed on to us by our ancestorsthe great privilege and responsibility of being an American. Nearly 4 in 10 American adults live without spouse or partner as single population grows: Pew Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment About four out of 10 adults in the United States are living without a romantic partner, which is part of a growing trend, according to a new report by Pew Research Center. Using census data, Pew noted in a report Tuesday that 38% of U.S. adults in 2019 were neither living with a spouse or other romantic partner, which was an increase from the 29% reported in 1990. By contrast, 53% of adults in 2019 were married, representing a decline from the 64% reported in 1990. Meanwhile, 6% of adults were cohabitating in 2019, up from 4% in 1990. "The growth in the single population is driven mainly by the decline in marriage among adults who are at prime working age," Pew Senior Researcher Richard Fry and Pew Director of Social Trends Research Kim Parker wrote in an analysis. "While the unpartnered population includes some adults who were previously married (those who are separated, divorced or widowed), all of the growth in the unpartnered population since 1990 has come from a rise in the number who have never been married." The researchers concluded that this growing single population had "broad societal implications, as does the growing gap in well-being between partnered and unpartnered adults." "Looking across a range of measures of economic and social status, unpartnered adults generally have different often worse outcomes than those who are married or cohabiting," the report continued. "Unpartnered adults have lower earnings, on average, than partnered adults and are less likely to be employed or economically independent. They also have lower educational attainment and are more likely to live with their parents." In recent years, much has been made about the growing population of American adults experiencing what some have described as a loneliness epidemic. In January 2020, before the pandemic lockdowns occurred in the United States, global insurance company Cigna released a survey of around 10,400 adults, which found that 61% of respondents reported feeling lonely. "The trends shaping how we work increasing use of technology, more telecommuting and the always-on work culture are leaving Americans more stressed, less rested, spending more time on social media, and less time with friends and family," Cigna President and CEO David M. Cordani said in a statement at the time. "For the business community, it is resulting in less engagement, less productivity and lower retention levels. To confront these issues at home and at work, we are helping people build stronger connections and driving deeper health engagement to improve overall well-being and vitality." Last year, the Virginia-based Institute for Family Studies released a report drawing data from the U.S. Census Bureaus American Community Survey. The report found that the U.S. experienced its lowest rate of divorce in about 50 years in 2019. The data showed that for every 1,000 marriages, 14.9 ended in divorce in 2019. People are getting married later in life these days, and they are less likely to rush into a marriage which they may regret later on. On the other hand, we've seen the record low marriage rate happening in the U.S., IFS Director of Research Dr. Wendy Wang told The Christian Post at the time. College-educated adults are more likely than those without a college degree to get married, and their divorce rate is lower. In April 2020, the National Center for Health Statistics produced a report on the marriage rates from 1900 through 2018. The report stated that marriage rates had reached their lowest point in more than 100 years. New youth program helps teens overcome barriers to answer God's call to ministry Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A new youth program launched by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is working alongside churches to help teenagers who feel called into ministry overcome societal, emotional and personal barriers to answering God's call in their lives. Founded in early 2021, The Called to Ministry Initiative provides mentorship to teens ages 14 to 18 who feel called to be pastors, evangelists or ministry leaders. So far, about 12 to 15 teenagers have been attending the online program since its inception. "There is a lot of openings for youth pastors and ministry leaders that aren't being filled, and we realized we aren't developing teens to go into ministry enough," Chris Trent, who has worked for Georgia Baptist Mission Board for the past nine months as the Next Generation Catalyst ministry leader, told The Christian Post. "We wanted to help play a role in putting an end to this. I'm a product of mentors who have gone before me to help me become who I am today, so I'm passionate about mentoring as well." Data has shown that Generation Z is largely not engaged in Scripture but eager for mentors, including religious leaders, to invest in their lives. Meetings for the program, held over Zoom once a month for hour-long sessions, provide teens with answers to questions about various ministry vocations as they engage in conversations on spiritual and ministerial topics. The ministry leaders have mapped out 11 foundational topics they say are essential for someone going into ministry to develop in their lives. Each meeting, a new topic is covered. Every student who participates in the program is responsible for finding their own ministry mentor either a pastor or someone who understands the components that go into leading a ministry on a full-time or part-time basis. In addition to attending the program's sessions, teens must meet with their mentors once a month to further discuss the topic discussed in each month's program session. Trent said the goal is to help teenagers overcome and tackle any obstacles that might delay or deter them from fulfilling their calling to go into ministry. There are various barriers that teens called to ministry can face, such as feeling outcasted among peers, having a fear of pursuing the calling, a lack of understanding of the calling and lack of guidance or support in pursuing a calling into full-time or part-time ministry. "Going into ministry is not very common," he said. "It's counter-cultural and it's not like public schools are addressing this as something youth should have as career goals." "I'm not saying that all churches are like this, but it's not that common for churches to help provide guidance to youth about answering a calling into ministry," Trent added. "And other times, teens are the only ones in their friend groups considering this calling, which also presents challenges." Many churches have stopped asking their youth to consider a future in ministry, and in some cases, family members are a barrier in the pursuit to answering God's call, according to Trent. "Many churches have just stopped calling out the called," he said. "Sometimes parents can be an obstacle not necessarily because they are against their children going into ministry but because they occasionally lack understanding of what the calling is." Doubt and fear are also leading causes that can derail or delay a youth's desire to pursue a career in ministry as a young adult, Trent said. "If a teen feels a calling, but they don't have anyone or any resources to understand their calling and they don't know what school to go to or what major to do, they might encounter a roadblock of doubt or fear," he said. "A lot of times, people who have this calling don't enter into it until way later in life due to doubt about if they are qualified enough or fears about if working in ministry will be able to provide them with enough financial stability and comfort. And so, we want to challenge this and make teens approach doubt and fear head-on so they can answer the call." The program discusses what it means to be in ministry and how to prepare for the calling. Trent said he accepted Christ as his Savior in his senior year of high school in 1987. He said that answering his call into ministry did not come without guidance from his youth pastor at the time. "I didn't even know that ministry could be a career until my youth pastor helped me to understand what to do to prepare for the calling," Trent recounted. "The first example of a mentorship relationship is Jesus and how He mentored His 12 disciples. Also, Scripture shows how Paul led Timothy through mentorship. In any career, it's important to have people to show you the ropes and accomplish goals." Under the direction of his pastor, Trent attended a private, Baptist institution University of Mobile in Alabama and later attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas for seminary school. "We don't think we are rescuing teens because there is no guidance that exists out there. In every church, there's someone who can help a young person navigate what it means to be in ministry," he said. "And that's why we encourage them to find a mentor. Because we know this exists." He said that The Called to Ministry Initiative is just a "starting point" to encourage youth to reach out to mentors in their church. "Many teens don't know where they should start once they are called," Trent said. "We are working alongside churches for this mission to help these teens begin to navigate their calling." The ministry also teaches teens that "ministry leaders and pastors are held to a higher standard in the overall Body of Christ." "One of our lessons talks about having a ministry plan, how they currently live their life, preparing for the call and how they spend time with the lord," Trent said. Trent hopes to expand the ministry to college students and young adults in their early 20s and provide participants opportunities to network and engage in hands-on ministry experiences. "We hope to help more older young adults who feel called to ministry and we are having conversation about how to do that," he concluded. "We hope to eventually connect participants to churches to allow them to have additional connections and opportunities to serve." Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment We have all seen the horrible violence in Seattle in the last year or so. But now theres a new battle, virtually under the radar. In 1932, the Union Gospel Mission began serving the poor and downtrodden in Seattle. But now this ministry which has been serving millions of meals through the years and providing many other services, may have to shut its doors because of a decision by the Washington Supreme Court. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is defending the mission. They write: A Washington Supreme Court decision forces a religious nonprofit, Seattles Union Gospel Mission, to hire employees who do not share the organizations religious beliefs. The mission chose not to hire a potential candidate to work for them, who by his own profession does not share their beliefs. He is not a Christian. So he sued. Yet, Christianity is at the core of what they do. Scott Chin, the president of the mission, told Virginia Allen of Heritage Foundations Daily Signal: We are 89 years old and [at] Seattles Union Gospel Mission, we exist to love and serve and share the Gospel with our homeless neighbors. We do that by providing food and shelter, addiction recovery services, job placement services, and legal services. For example, their website explains one aspect of their mission: 11,751 of our neighbors in the greater Seattle area are homeless. Every night, Search + Rescue vans drive to the darkest places in the greater Seattle area to hand out life-saving supplies and care to men and women. Who knows how many homeless they might have spared from freezing to death? But all of their good works for Christ might grind to a screeching halt because the Washington Supreme Court is ignoring the true meaning of the First Amendment. On June 12, 1788, James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution, declared: There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. The founders did not intend for the state to run the church, nor did they intend for the church per se to run the statehowever, thats a far cry from saying the church would have no influence in the state. A month after he was sworn in as our first president, George Washington wrote to a group of Baptists: If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it. In short, if you believe that the Constitution allows for government to interfere with religious organizations, youll find no support from the father of our country. The legal battle is an important one, says Chin: And so weve asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on this critical issue, Does the government have the power to punish religious organizations for living and operating consistently with their faith in this way? Appealing to the U. S. Supreme Court is always a long shot. But the irony is that the Supreme Court has even spoken on this type of issue. Imagine a Supreme Court decision in which both the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the late Antonin Scalia agreed upon. Ginsburg was on the left and Scalia was on the right. But they both agreed on this: A religious organization has the autonomy under the Constitution to hire according to its religious beliefs. This was a 2012 case out of Missouri involving a Lutheran school, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC. In the unanimous decision (9-0), Chief Justice Roberts wrote: The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important. But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission. When a minister who has been fired sues her church alleging that her termination was discriminatory, the First Amendment has struck the balance for us. The church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way. Jeremy DysSpecial Counsel for First Liberty Institute, which fights for religious liberty told me: No one should be surprised when a religious organization acts religiously. It is only surprisingand unconstitutionalwhen the state insists a religious institution shed its faith commitments or be punished. If the mission loses this case, imagine the potential impact on the hungry and downtrodden of Seattle. But for the Left, this isnt about suffering people. Despite First Amendment protections and clear Supreme Court rulings, these dedicated secularists are wholly devoted to undermining the influence of religion and religious organizations in Americaand we see the results as our society comes unglued around us. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The month of October kicks off Respect Life Month in the Catholic Church. With the U.S. Supreme Court scheduled to hear the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization case on December 1, Christians across the country have begun praying in earnest for the case that could overturn Roe v. Wade. How will Americans react to the possibility of the Court altering the long-standing Roe ruling concerning abortion? Many Americans wonder why abortion remains such a high-profile issue after all these years. The explanation is simple. Almost 50 years ago, seven appointednot electedjustices decided that killing unborn babies should be a constitutionally-protected act. Since that time, more than 62 million unborn babies have been killed in our nation. Rest assured, that fact has not gone unnoticed by the God who knitted together those babies in the wombs of their mothers. Recent worldview research provides helpful insight into Americans views about abortion. The annual American Worldview Inventory undertaken by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University shows that after a half-century of energetic public debate about abortion, the abortion perspectives of millions of Americans remain surprisingly tenuous and pliable. Keep in mind that very few adults are capable of applying a biblical worldview to this (or any other) issue. Although 51% of Americans think they have a biblical worldview (according to a Center for Biblical Worldview survey), the American Worldview Inventory reveals that only 6% of Americans actually have one. Since most Americans (88%) are driven by a Syncretistic worldviewan inconsistent, unpredictable combination of elements originating in various competing worldviewsthe nations thinking about the morality and permissibility of abortion is more likely to be based on current emotions and popular thought, not on biblical principles related to life. Indeed, the American Worldview Inventory underscores the morally wayward thinking of Americans. Not quite four out of 10 adults (39%) believe that life is sacred. An equal proportion of Americans argue that life is what we make it or that there is no absolute value associated with human life. The remaining two out of 10 adults possess a variety of other views about life, including outright uncertainty as to whether or not life has any intrinsic value. Views about life are closely related to worldview and faith commitments. For instance, more than nine out of every 10 adults (93%) who have a biblical worldview believe that human life is sacred. Eight out of every 10 (81%) SAGE Cons (i.e., the Spiritually Active, Governance Engaged Conservative Christians) possess that view as well. Surprisingly, only six out of 10 theologically-determined born-again Christians (60%) say that human life is sacred. Those proportions dwarf those among people associated with non-Christian faiths (25%) or those who are spiritual skeptics (15%). Many people are surprised to discover that Millennials are not a pro-life generation. Less than one-quarter of them (22%) believes that human life is sacred. Meanwhile, twice as many in Gen X and a slight majority of Boomers and their elders contend that human life is sacred. Americans views about abortion continue to shock many observers. For instance, two out of three adults (64%) either say that the Bible is ambiguous in its views about abortion or that they dont know what those views are. For a nation where roughly seven out of 10 adults call themselves Christian, that represents a mindboggling degree of biblical ignorance concerning one of the most high-profile social issues of the past half-century. Not everyone falls into that vacuum of wisdom, though. More than nine out of 10 people who have a biblical worldview a group known as Integrated Disciples reject the notion that the Bible contains ambiguous ideas about abortion. Similarly, eight out of 10 SAGE Cons reject that position as well. But the idea that the Bible is ambiguous about abortion is held by a variety of population segments. More than 70% of people who draw heavily from non-biblical worldviews specifically, Marxism, Secular Humanism, Modern Mysticism, Postmodernism, and even Moralistic Therapeutic Deism believe the Bible can be interpreted multiple ways regarding abortion. At least seven out of 10 adults aligned with a non-Christian faith or spiritual skeptics also embrace that point of view. And two-thirds of adults under the age of 50 harbor that misconception as well. Given these perspectives, then, it should not shock us to find that nearly six out of 10 adults (57%) believe that a woman who chooses to have an abortion because her partner has left and she believes she cannot reasonably take care of the child is making a morally acceptable decision. Again, the survey shows that such a decision is a direct reflection of ones worldview. Just 2% of the Integrated Disciples support abortion under such circumstances. In contrast, more than eight out of 10 who are adherents of other worldviews support that decision. That includes 89% of those who often draw their worldview from Postmodernism; 88% who often rely upon Secular Humanism; 82% who draw frequently from Modern Mysticism; and 81% who lean heavily upon Marxist philosophy. Previous research by the Cultural Research Center also revealed that national opinion is roughly equally divided as to whether the Supreme Court should overturn its disastrous Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. The subgroup numbers line up similarly to the segmentation patterns related to the responses to the other abortion-related questions described earlier. In general, those most desirous of the Court overturning the 1973 ruling are led by Integrated Disciples (67% consider a reversal of Roe to be a priority) and by SAGE Cons (75%). Those who want the Court to affirm Roe are led by groups that are not favorable to Christianity. The Courts ultimate decision, whatever it may be, will not satisfy everyoneor, perhaps, even a majority of Americans. But for biblically informed Christians, the abortion issue is not about pleasing a majority of the public or persuading a majority of jurists; it is a matter of understanding and obeying Gods principles and standing for His truth. Originally published at the Family Research Council. Indifference is killing us: SBC Pres. Ed Litton tells pastors at racial reconciliation event Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ed Litton, warned an audience that gathered for a racial reconciliation event at his Redemption Church in Mobile, Alabama, that indifference is killing us and in order to overcome racial prejudice, we outta go and work at it. Litton who won the SBC presidency in June amid a raging debate over the denominations stance on critical race theory and other issues with the backing of the conventions first and only black President, Fred Luter leaned into his long history of promoting racial reconciliation at the fourth annual Shrink the Divide conference to drive home his point. Shrink the divide is a project of The Pledge Group, which is a movement of leaders from different racial, denominational, and vocational backgrounds who want to shrink the racial divide in the Mobile, AL area. Ill tell you whats killing us today. Nobody in the Southern Baptist Church that I am a part of, nobody in my church, probably nobody in your church would ever want to be called a bigot, but indifference is killing us, Litton said, urging the diverse pool of participants at the conference to not look away from the suffering of people outside their communities. Racial stereotypes and hard feelings, pre-judgements dont instantly go away we outta go and work at it, he said. Critical race theory, which is an ideological framework that some legal scholars say interrogates the relationship between race, law and power, became a lightning rod for disagreement in the denomination in 2020, leading some prominent black Southern Baptist leaders to leave the denomination. The tipping point for many of the pastors who left came after the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the revised Baptist Faith & Message in 2020 when the SBCs Council of Seminary Presidents, comprised of the leaders of the denominations six seminaries, voted to reject CRT as incompatible with their faith while condemning racism in any form. The situation then led several outspoken SBC pastors to call for the denomination to rescind Resolution 9 On Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality, which was adopted with much dissent in the summer of 2019. At their annual meeting in June, Southern Baptist messengers affirmed their commitment to racial reconciliation and the sufficiency of Scripture to address issues of race by adopting a resolution that avoided the contentious debate over critical race theory. On Sunday, Litton focused on the Gospel to explain that racial reconciliation requires more intentional action to achieve because time doesnt heal all wounds and prayer isnt enough by itself. Ignoring doesnt heal all wounds. Just praying and saying its going to get better doesnt heal all wounds. Believing in a God who heals, yes, thats what heals wounds, Litton said. But God also requires that we make intentional treatments of those wounds that we are persistent and consistent with one another, that we are always a source in the Body of Christ, all of our churches, to experience love and prayer and care for one another. To help him illustrate how Jesus ministry transcended racial lines, the SBC leader cited the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 and that of the woman at the well in John 4. Only Christ can change the heart. We have a sin problem, not a skin problem. The only solution is Jesus. And I know people in the name of Jesus have done some horrific things, which makes [the] responsibility [of those] who name Him today even greater, Litton said. Hundreds of Thousands of Students to Take Part in 'Bring Your Bible to School Day' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Hundreds of thousands of students across the United States are expected to take part in a Focus on the Family-sponsored event that involves them taking their Bibles to school. The annual "Bring Your Bible to School Day" is scheduled to take place on Thursday. Last year, the observance had an estimated 356,000 students participate. Candi Cushman, FOTF education analyst and spokesperson for the Bring Your Bible observance, told The Christian Post that this year's observance "comes at a time of brokenness for the nation." "We've all seen the headlines from the hurricanes last month to the horrific tragedy in Las Vegas earlier this week," said Cushman. "In the midst of this brokenness, Christian students are equipped through this event to share encouraging Bible verses and point to the comfort that God brings in the midst of pain." Cushman also told CP that students "have the chance to express the foundation of their own hope one that's not shaken by trials and uncertainty, but that is built on a strong faith." "The Word of God has the power to heal, to comfort and to shine light in a dark world. These kids will be communicating hope for the future," continued Cushman. "The Bible reminds us that good will overcome evil in the end, no matter how heavy the darkness feels. John 16:33 says 'I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.'" Meant as a way for Christian students to express their faith and First Amendment rights, Bring Your Bible to School Day has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. In an interview with CP from 2016, FOTF President Jim Daly explained that while in 2014 about 8,000 students participated, by 2015 the number had increased to 155,000. Daly also told CP last year that religious freedom is a key component of Bring Your Bible to School Day, calling the observance "a nationwide, religious-freedom initiative for students from kindergarten to college." "On this day, they celebrate religious freedom and share God's hope by taking a simple action bringing their Bibles to school and talking about it with friends before and after class," said Daly. "Unfortunately, too many schools are sending the message that Christian kids need to hide their faith. So I think the exponential response among youth has do to with the fact that it's something positive, redemptive, and tangible that Christian students can easily do in their schools to celebrate their faith and to visibly see that they are joined by thousands nationwide." Cushman told CP that she hopes kids see the observance as "a chance to remind Americans that students don't have to check the eternal hope that lives within their hearts or their First Amendment rights at the school door." "They can bring that hope into conversations they're having with friends at school," added Cushman. "'Bring Your Bible to School Day' provides a great opportunity to educate and increase awareness of the religious freedoms and freedom of expression that all students enjoy, even those in public schools." Pro-life students receive threats as over 7K sign petition against them at UK university Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment University students in the United Kingdom say they have received threats from those opposed to their new pro-life activist group on campus, while over 7,000 have supported an online petition calling for the new organization to be abolished. Meeting for the first time this semester at the University of Exeter, students affiliated with the campus chapter of Students for Life recently reported receiving death threats online from pro-choice students. According to the groups lawyers at Christian Legal Centre, one student allegedly told the group's members that they would end up at the bottom of the Quay a local area next to the River Exe and the Exeter Ship Canal. The Exeter University Students for Life group is described as a society that takes a stand for the rights of pre-born children respectfully and sensitively. Devon and Cornwall police, as well as university authorities, have been informed of the threats. As a society we speak up for and take a stand for the rights of pre-born children, 200,000 of which lose their lives to abortion every year in this country, said Alireza Ghazi-Torbati, the president of the Exeter University Students for Life. Our student group should enjoy the same rights as every other student group on campus, free of discrimination or harassment. The death threats made against members of our society are completely unacceptable and deeply disturbing. We have contacted the university. We would like them to take immediate action on this. In a statement, the University of Exeters Student Guild said that it supports freedom of speech for its students. [W]e want to foster an environment where our members can participate fully, feel able to question and challenge, express new ideas, discuss controversial and or unpopular opinions within the law all without fear of intolerance or discrimination, the statement reads. Over 7,700 individuals supporters backed a Change.org petition that opposes what they call the existence of a pro-life single issue society. The petition accuses the Students for Life chapter of hate speech. University must be a safe space for healthy debate; a place where intellectual curiosity is able to flourish and people are in turn able to learn and develop their opinions. However, by allowing the existence of a society based around an opinion, that belief is shielded from the necessary scrutiny that would normally occur, the petition argues. It is especially alarming when this society has adopted such a controversial and harmful point of view, a view which is a direct attack on womens rights. The petition further contends that the pro-life group represents those in society [who] wish to perpetuate the fallacy that no woman really wants an abortion, or that to have an abortion is comparable to murder. Ghazi-Torbati assures that the group aims to equip pro-life students to advocate for the pro-life position and provide a space to discuss the issue while striving to support prospective and current student parents and those who may be suffering post-abortive trauma. Exeter University must be a marketplace for free thinking, which is what universities are designed to be. As George Orwell said: If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they dont want to hear, Ghazi-Torbati added. The U.K. has traditionally been a bastion of free speech, but in recent years that has been eroded and the trend has been reflected in over 100 of our universities. Pro-life groups in particular have been targeted and faced attempted censorship for valid beliefs held by many across the world. Ghazi-Torbati told CP in an email that the organization has received thousands of comments on Instagram and had to close the comments sections to "give us a break from the vitriol and viciousness of people online." She said the specific threat about drowning in the "bottom of the Quay," she said, was directed at the group's vice president. "The University of Exeter and the Students Guild are in conversation with us to consider how best to support us," she stated. "The Wellbeing Team is in touch and hopefully we will feel safe to continue our studies on campus soon enough." Christian Legal Centre Chief Executive Andrea Williams, who will represent the pro-life society, told The Christian Post that through her work, she had seen a shocking increase in assaults on university pro-life groups in the U.K. She commends the university for defending free speech and not bowing to the cyber-mob by seeking to punish the pro-life society merely for existing. Unfortunately, violent threats and personal attacks are becoming commonplace when such situations arise and in the United Kingdom, free speech is still free, so too, is the freedom to associate and the right to hold and manifest pro-life beliefs, she said. In a number of these situations, the university was not nearly as supportive as the Students Union has been here and legal action was required to remedy the wrong done to pro-life groups. Williams advises pro-life groups to know and exercise their legal rights to enjoy the same freedoms on campus as any other society. It is disturbing that we appear to be living in a world where students advocating on behalf of our preborn children, are being subjected to death threats, Williams concluded. A pro-life society has just as much right to enjoy its freedom of association as any other society at the university. The treatment the society is receiving at the hands of cancel culture activists is very disturbing. Students nationwide take part in 'Bring Your Bible to School Day' to speak God's truth into culture Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Hundreds of thousands of Christian students nationwide were encouraged to bring their Bibles to school on Thursday as part of a Christian advocacy organization's annual Bring Your Bible to School Day. Focus on the Family spearheaded its eighth annual Bring Your Bible to School Day as students were emboldened to share the word of God with their classmates. The purpose of the occasion is to have students "read and treasure Scripture as God's Holy Word, to encourage others with the hope we have in Christ Jesus, and to celebrate our religious freedoms in the United States." "This annual campaign empowers Christian students of all ages to speak God's grace and truth into the culture around them, starting with two simple steps bringing their Bibles to school and sharing what God's word means to them," Focus on the Family Program Manager Bret Eckelberry said in a statement. "It opens doors for students to talk to their friends about the gospel. It connects them with other believers in their school. And it allows them to celebrate their religious freedoms in the United States." Focus on the Family's Vice President of Parenting and Youth Danny Huerta told The Christian Post that it was too early to say whether participation in this year's event surpassed the more than 514,000 students who participated last year. However, he noted that this year's registration totals "surpassed last year's registration numbers." "Our eventual goal is to get 1 million kids bringing their Bible to school or more," he added. "It's basically just a starting point for kids to maybe start Bible studies in their school, [or] pray together in their school." Huerta said that while the bulk of participants in Bring Your Bible to School Day are high school students or junior high school students, students can participate "all through college." He emphasized that students have "the freedom to bring their Bible to school in a public school setting as long as they're not disruptive in the school." Huerta said lunch, recess as well as before and after school are appropriate times for students to share the word of God with others. In the past, students attempting to participate in Bring Your Bible to School Day have faced headwinds from school staff despite their established right to do so. Huerta told CP that the religious liberty law firm Alliance Defending Freedom "has been a resource that we have pointed parents to and/or students that have faced that adversity." He stressed that as long as Bring Your Bible to School Day at a particular school is student-led, "a teacher can participate in it and a principal can participate in it." Huerta expressed hope that the annual day can unify American students at a time that has become very divisive. "We've really been focused even more so now on the opportunity to offer hope, to invite peers and students into conversation about God's word and about their faith and just standing courageously and with love and hope," Huerta said. "This is more about [standing] united and pray[ing] for one another and lov[ing] our school, pray[ing] for our school, pray[ing] for our nation engag[ing] in God's word so that we're guided and seek wisdom." He said the goal is "much more unity and love and hope rather than where the world is at right now." "It's about inviting people into something that is very loving, which is a relationship with their Heavenly Father and with God's word," Huerta added. As the coronavirus pandemic significantly changed the aspects of day-to-day life in the U.S. and around the world last year, Focus on the Family saw a new opportunity to engage with homeschool students. "It gave us an opportunity to remind homeschool students that 'Hey, you can also participate, go on social media, intentionally engage with God's word throughout the day [and] share your favorite scriptures," he said. "As a homeschooled student, as a private school student, it's so important to also participate in Bring Your Bible to School Day. And so through the pandemic we did a full online Bring Your Bible to School Day where kids shared [pictures] of themselves with the Bible," he recalled. While Bring Your Bible to School Day only happens once a year, the Bring Your Bible to School Day website has activities that can help children and their families remain engaged with the Bible all year long. "When they sign up and register, they get Live Your Faith challenges once a month," he explained. "And so, it's a starting point either as a family or as a friend group to live out their faith." Huerta sees Bring Your Bible to School Day and the "Live Your Faith" challenges as a way to create "contributors in God's Kingdom's story rather than consumers." Biden admin. rescinds Trump-era rule barring abortion clinics from receiving Title X funding Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Biden administration has reversed a Trump administration rule that prevented federal tax dollars from funding family planning organizations that refer their patients to abortion counseling, drawing criticism from pro-life organizations and praise from the abortion lobby. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule, "Ensuring Access to Equitable, Affordable, Client-Centered, Quality Family Planning Services," Monday. The rule is slated to take effect Nov. 8 and will allow "Title X providers to provide truly nondirective counseling and refer their patients for all services desired by the client, including abortion services." The final rule rescinds a 2019 Trump administration policy labeled by critics as the "gag rule." The Trump-era regulation prevented "the use of Title X funds to perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning." Under the current rule, companies that wish to provide both abortions and Title X family planning services are required to establish a "strict physical and financial separation between abortion-related activities and Title X project activities." Since 1970, Title X family planning clinics have received millions in federal funding to provide low-income and uninsured individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. In a statement, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra described the new rule as "a step forward for family planning care as it aims to strengthen and restore our nation's Title X program." "Our nation's family planning clinics play a critical role in delivering health care, and today more than ever, we are making clear that access to quality family planning includes accurate information and referrals based on a patient's needs and direction," Becerra said. Advocacy groups on both sides of the abortion debate weighed in on the new rule. Pro-life activist groups were quick to condemn the Biden administration for reversing what they refer to as the "Protect Life" rule. "Abortion is the destruction of innocent human life, not 'family planning,'" Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life lobbying organization Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement. "The strong majority of Americans oppose using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion on demand. The Protect Life Rule respected their will, as well as the plain statutory language of Title X - yet from day one, Joe Biden and his administration have worked to pay back the abortion lobby that spent millions to elect them." Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life, agreed that "Taxpayer funds should not be used to subsidize an industry that preys on women and their unborn children." "The vast majority of Americans believe that using taxpayer funds to pay for abortion is wrong," she said. "Supplementing the abortion industry through taxpayer funds is offensive to tens of millions of Americans," Tobias added. "Far from uniting this nation, the Biden administration has done everything it can to divide it by facilitating abortion on demand." Overall, abortion rights advocacy groups reacted favorably to the new rule. Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider which backed out of the Title X program in response to the Trump administration rule, praised the Biden administration for "ending the gag rule." However, the organization suggested that the new rule does not go far enough. In a tweet, Planned Parenthood lamented that "this new rule still allows Title X grantees to refuse to counsel pregnant patients about abortion as a health care option." Characterizing conscience protections in the rule as "unnecessary and harmful," the abortion provider asserted that a "provider's personal beliefs shouldn't stop patients who deserve full information about health care options." Unfortunately, this new rule still allows Title X grantees to refuse to counsel pregnant patients about abortion as a health care option. This is unnecessary and harmful: a provider's personal beliefs shouldnt stop patients who deserve full information about health care options. Planned Parenthood (@PPFA) October 4, 2021 The pro-abortion research organization Guttmacher Institute issued a statement on Twitter cheering the reversal of the "Trump-era 'domestic gag rule' that devastated the #TitleX National Family Planning Program" as "a crucial step toward restoring a vital source of care for millions of people in the US!" BREAKING: The Biden-Harris administration just finalized regulations to overhaul the Trump-era domestic gag rule" that devastated the #TitleX national family planning program. This is a crucial step toward restoring a vital source of care for millions of people in the US! Guttmacher Institute (@Guttmacher) October 4, 2021 The new HHS rule is not the first time the Biden administration eliminated a pro-life policy implemented by the previous administration. Shortly after taking office earlier this year, President Joe Biden rescinded the Mexico City Policy, which prevented the funding of nongovernmental organizations that promote or perform abortions overseas from receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars. Additionally, the Biden administration's Food and Drug Administration lifted the requirement that women wishing to have chemical abortions receive the abortion pill in person. The in-person dispensing requirement was the subject of litigation last year, as pro-choice activists argued that visiting a doctor during the coronavirus pandemic put women at risk of exposure to COVID-19. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Revivalists throughout history have been disliked by many. However, those whose ministry is revealed by the scripture are often referred to as prophets. While they serve a similar purpose, in todays world people calling themselves prophets make some people nervous. Charles Finney, who has been called The Father of all Revivals, never called himself a prophet. Yet Finneys message, as a former lawyer, took Gods Word as a legal covenant to his listeners and proclaimed under a prayer, God says if you will obey my Word then I will do what I say! The result was an estimated 800,000 souls coming to Christ. Modern-day prognosticators who are popular in some circles seem to be those who believe that they operate in the Word of Knowledge, and the Word of Wisdom, often claiming to have insight into peoples future. Although God will be their final Judge, some of these individuals have a concerning similarity to the psychics and the clairvoyants of our day. While predictive prophecy as it relates to individuals and their specific situations are in the book of Acts, proportionately, they are very rare. One example was Peters prophecy over Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). A second one was when the Apostle Paul desired to go into Jerusalem, certain New Testament prophets warned Paul against it (Acts 21). A third prophecy in New Testament was one that predicted a coming famine (Acts 11:27-29). While there are multiple end times related prophecies in the book of Revelation, the aforementioned three demonstrate that the biblical use of that gift was unique and limited. A revivalist is first and foremost called to reach professing believers who are living lukewarm spiritual lives, or who are not seeking God with their whole hearts. The prophets of old repeatedly rebuked the Israelites who were not fully seeking the Lord and were instead mixing in idolatry and worshiping false gods. To me, one of the most foolish statements in the entire Old Testament occurred when Moses came down off of the mountain after receiving the Ten Commandments and found that Gods people had melted down all of their golden earrings to worship a golden calf. When Aaron disingenuously denied responsibility by claiming, We threw all of our gold in the fire and out came this calf! Moses response to Aarons obvious lie reveals that he was a revivalist. Well-known prophets of the Old Testament, such as Elijah, Elisha, and Jeremiah, were revivalists as well. Their calling was to speak forth the words, often of rebuke, which God by His Holy Spirit gave them. They often warned of coming judgments if the Israelites did not comply. God knows that the fear of judgment can motivate us to put Him first and to seek Him with all of our hearts. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, stands tall above all the revivalists of the Bible. His countless teachings trumpeted the heartbeat of the Father, which was to reclaim His children back to Him in all that Jesus did and said. The Apostle Paul comes in second on the list, doing all he could to mirror Jesuss desire to deliver everyone spiritually. There is a reason that the ministry of the revivalist is so rare in todays world. It is because it is a ministry that historically faces a lot of resistance from the established church at large. Considerable In house persecution comes with it, also increased spiritual battles. Find a person who is a true revivalist, and I will show you a person who knows how to love eternally. A person who knows how to speak the truth in love is a person like Paul whose credentials are authenticated by the consistencies of his suffering. Seeking prophetic gifts is popular and all too easy in our day and age. Seeking to proclaim the Gospel to a hostile world, to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a daily sacrifice. May the Lord raise up more revivalists in the years to come. Chinas new restrictions on abortion are anti-abortion, not pro-life: Al Mohler Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler Jr. said he believes China's recent efforts to restrict abortion for "non-medical reasons" shows that an entity can be anti-abortion and yet not be pro-life. On an episode of Mohlers podcast The Briefing posted online Monday, Mohler gave his opinion about the recent decision of China's communist regime to curb abortion access. Mohler began by contrasting the totalitarian system of communist China with Western civilization, noting that with the latter, there is a distinction between the public and the private as well as an acknowledgement of the right of private citizens to engage in what are called mediating institutions. That is to say, such as churches, they're neither private in the sense of being individual nor public in the sense of being under the control of the government, explained Mohler. But you're not going to find any of that in China, where the totalitarian nature of the government comes down to the meaning of the word totalitarian. The government claims total power over everything, everyone, everywhere, all the time. Mohler talked about the previous policy of China to restrict couples to having only one child per household and how this situation led to forced abortions, forced sterilization, even infanticide, and a dire future if it does not have a higher birth rate. The Chinese Communist Party wants more babies, it wants more control, it is going to exercise its totalitarian dominion as it claims, and it is going to crack down on abortion, he continued. But you'll notice, it's not out of concern for the sanctity and dignity of human life. That's not a part of the Marxist communist worldview. It's simply because they want more children to be little soldiers and little industrial workers. Mohler concluded that this is not rooted in an argument for the sanctity of human life. And that just shows you that you can be anti-abortion and yet not be pro-life. In 1979, Communist China adopted a one-child policy that resulted in millions of forced abortions, with the intention of countering overpopulation in the densely populated nation. This fueled the practice of sex-selective abortion, in which a cultural preference for sons led parents to disproportionately abort female babies when being restricted to only having one child. China announced in June that it would allow families to have up to three children instead of capping families at two kids as its population ages and birth rates continue to decline. The decision to alter China's controversial birth policy came after a meeting with politburo, a top decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party. The meeting was chaired by President Xi Jinping, according to state-sponsored media. China ended its decadeslong one-child policy in 2015 by implementing a two-child policy, where women were forced to abort their children after they already had two kids. Some authorities in China are offering financial incentives for couples who have more children, CNN reported. So far, their efforts have been met with a lukewarm response at best. Many women, who now enjoy greater educational and career opportunities than in the past, are reluctant to expand their families," it added. Canadian tribunal rules that using wrong pronouns violates human rights, awards $30K to trans-identified woman Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Canadian human rights tribunal has ruled that a restaurant wrongfully fired an employee who demanded that the business use nonbinary pronouns, awarding the ex-employee $30,000. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal released a ruling last week in favor of Jessie Nelson, a former employee of Buono Osteria who prefers the pronouns of they/them. At issue was the restaurant using female pronouns for Nelson, with the business firing her and claiming that she had become too militant in the demand to be identified as nonbinary. Tribunal Member Devyn Cousineau authored the opinion, concluding that the refusal to use Nelson's preferred pronouns amounted to discrimination. All employees have the right to a workplace free of discrimination. Trans employees are entitled to recognition of, and respect for, their gender identity and expression. This begins with using their names and pronouns correctly, wrote Cousineau. Like a name, pronouns are a fundamental part of a persons identity. They are a primary way that people identify each other. Using correct pronouns communicates that we see and respect a person for who they are. The decision contrasted the actions of someone who uses a correct pronoun at first before accommodating a person by using the individual's preferred pronoun and someone who intentionally refuses to use the preferred pronouns of an individual who identifies as nonbinary. I order Buono Osteria to include a statement in its employee policies that affirms every employees right to be addressed with their correct pronouns, continued the tribunal. I also order Buono Osteria to implement mandatory training for all staff and managers about human rights in the workplace. This training should be no less than two hours. I understand that Jessie Nelson has recommended a wellregarded training provider and I encourage the restaurant to avail itself of this option. Tanner Hnidey, a Christian writer from Alberta, penned a column on his website denouncing the ruling as a rejection of objective truth and a disturbing restriction on free speech. Now its one thing for a person to think they are a different gender than they actually are. Its one thing for a man to believe hes plural when hes singular in reality, wrote Hnidey. Its quite another thing to force us to believe what another believes; coercing us to say what others want us to say. And thats precisely what the BC Human Rights Tribunal ruled. Christianity grows by nearly 1% in Muslim-majority Indonesia Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The latest data released by the government of Indonesia suggest that the number of Christians in the Muslim-majority archipelago has slightly increased, a U.S.-based group has noted. The Southeast Asian country, which is home to the worlds largest Muslim population, now has 20.4 million Protestants and 8.42 million Catholics, who together comprise 10.58% of the total population of 272.23 million, according to data from the Directorate General of the Department of Population and Civil Registration (Dukcapil) of the Ministry of Home Affairs, International Christian Concern said, adding that the 2010 census data showed that 9.87% of the population was Christian. Among Indonesia's population, 236.53 million (86.88%) identify as Muslim. Geographically, there are 30 Muslim-majority provinces. Only in four provinces is Islam a minority religion or below 50%, including West Papua. Indonesias Constitution is based on the doctrine of Pancasila five principles upholding the nations belief in the one and only God and social justice, humanity, unity and democracy for all. However, there are many extremist groups in Indonesia that oppose Pancasila. Churches often face opposition from groups that attempt to obstruct the construction of non-Muslim houses of worship. Human Rights Watch previously said that more than 1,000 churches in the archipelago had been closed due to pressure from such groups. Indonesia is ranked No. 47 on Open Doors USAs World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most extreme levels of persecution. The Christian minority in Indonesia attended this years Easter service under heavy security following a suicide bombing outside a church carried out by a married couple affiliated with a homegrown terror network that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Two days before Good Friday, police had shot dead a 25-year-old woman, identified as Zakiah Aini, who pointed a gun at police officers at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta and fired at least six shots, Jakarta Globe reported at the time, adding that Zakiah was a university dropout who supported ISIS. On Palm Sunday, a 26-year-old man, identified as Muh Lukman, and his wife, Yogi Sahfitri Fortuna, a.k.a. Dewi, blew themselves up in front of the gate of the Cathedral Church in the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi province at about 10:30 a.m. as the church was preparing for its third service. Police have said many of the suspects and the two suicide bombers had been part of a homegrown terror group, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, or JAD, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to ISIS. The JAD, Indonesias most active terror cell for the last two years, was also behind coordinated attacks on three churches Immaculate Saint Mary Catholic Church, Indonesia Christian Church and Surabaya Central Pentecost Church in Surabaya on May 13, 2018, which killed at least 13 people. Nurse punished for refusing to hide cross necklace sues London hospital: 'Attack on my faith' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Christian nurse claims she was discriminated against, bullied, pressured and eventually coerced into resigning from her job because she wouldn't comply with a policy to either remove or cover up her cross necklace while on duty. London resident and nurse practitioner Mary Onuoha, 61, has filed a legal complaint against Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. She alleges that she was told that a small gold cross she wore around her neck for over 40 years as a symbol of her devout Christian faith was a safety risk and "must not be visible." A hearing was held before the Croydon Employment Tribunal Tuesday. Onuoha, who has worked as an NHS theatre practitioner for Croydon University Hospital in South London for the past 18 years, is alleging that she had to endure a two-year-long investigative process headed by her superiors for her continued refusals to remove the pendant. The nurse claims that she was eventually suspended from her clinical duties and demoted to working as a receptionist because she would not stop wearing the necklace, which she said gave her no other choice but to resign from her job. She claims she was moved from one administrative role to the next until she resigned in August 2020. She further claims that other clinical staff members at the hospital were allowed to wear jewelry, saris, turbans, hijabs and other religious adornments and that only the cross was subject to specific rules. She is represented by lawyers from the Christian Legal Centre. "This has always been an attack on my faith," Onuoha said in a statement. "My cross is part of me and my faith, and it has never caused anyone any harm. At this hospital, there are members of staff who go to a mosque four times a day and no one says anything to them. Hindus wear red bracelets on their wrists and female Muslims wear hijabs in theatre. Yet my small cross around my neck was deemed so dangerous that I was no longer allowed to do my job." A spokesperson for the Croydon Health Services NHS Trust told media outlets that the entity could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings. On Aug. 21, 2018, the lawsuit claims that Onuoha was interrupted by the head of the hospital department and asked to remove her cross while she was in an operating theatre caring for a patient under anesthetic. Onuoha said the patient's life was put at risk and that she was ordered to leave the operating theatre to put on another scrub so that it would cover up the cross. She again refused. She claims that at the same time, her manager ignored a blue pendant and earrings being worn by another healthcare worker in the operating theatre. According to the lawsuit, this was one of many similar incidents in theatre and wards where Onuoha said she was concerned about patients' safety. "I was astonished that senior staff were prepared to potentially endanger a patient's life in order to intimidate me to remove it," Onuoha said. "Patients often say to me, 'I really like your cross.' They always respond to it in a positive way and that gives me joy and makes me feel happy. I am proud to wear it, as I know God loves me so much and went through this pain for me." Growing up in Nigeria, Onuoha said that she always felt naturally drawn towards caring for people because it was in her blood from a young age. She said she was determined to become a nurse after one of her brothers tragically died from measles due to a lack of medical provision. In 1988, she immigrated to the United Kingdom and fulfilled her ambition by beginning work at Croydon University Hospital, where she remained for nearly two decades. During that time, she reports wearing her religious pendant without any complaints or health and safety concerns from colleagues or patients. But beginning in 2015, things changed when a succession of line managers allegedly asked Onuoha to either remove her cross, conceal it or face "'escalation.'" Each time, Onuoha said she "politely" declined the requests and explained that her necklace is a symbol of her deeply held Christian faith. But in August 2018, bosses at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust reportedly ordered her to remove the cross because it was "a breach of the Trust's Dress Code and Uniform Policy" and, therefore, a health risk to herself and patients. Onuoha argues in the lawsuit that NHS management was violating its own dress code, which states: "The Trust welcomes the variety of appearances brought by individual styles, choices and religious requirements regarding dress; this will be treated sensitively and will be agreed on an individual basis with the Manager and Trust and must conform to health, safety and security regulations, infection prevention and control and moving and handling guidelines. The wearing of saris, turbans, kirpan, skullcaps, hijabs, kippahs and clerical collars arising from particular cultural / religious norms are seen as part of welcoming diversity." Contrary to the policy, the lawsuit alleges that Onuoha was required at all times to wear several lanyards that did not have anti-strangle clasps. While at the same time, the Trust claimed wearing items from the neck posed a "risk of injury or infection." "All I have ever wanted is to be a nurse and to be true to my faith," Onuoha explained. "I am a strong woman, but I have been treated like a criminal. I love my job, but I am not prepared to compromise my faith for it and neither should other Christian NHS staff in this country." In a letter addressed to Onuoha on Aug. 9, 2018, her line manager and clinical lead practitioner wrote: "I offered you a compromise of using a longer chain so your necklace was out of sight, but you refused." "Please note that the necklace is not only a breach of dress code policy but also a health and safety risk to patients and yourself," the letter stated. "I understand that you wear the necklace due to religious belief. I am prepared to offer you a compromise in that you can wear a high-necked t-shirt so that the necklace is out of sight, below the v of your scrubs and out of reach of potential angry or agitated patients. I am also writing to offer you another compromise in that you can wear a high-necked t-shirt/vest top under your scrub top to cover the necklace." "I do hope you will see that I have tried to support your religious beliefs by allowing you to wear your necklace, but it cannot be visible when you are on clinical duties," the letter added. "This is both to adhere to Infection Control guidelines and to protect you from possible injury if confronted by angry patients or carers." Christian Legal Centre is challenging Croydon Health Services NHS Trust on the grounds of "harassment, victimisation, direct and indirect discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal." Onuoha's lawyers will reportedly argue that the dress code was "applied inconsistently, with other nurses and members of staff frequently wearing various types of jewelry, hijabs, saris, turbans and religious bracelets in wards and theatre without being asked to remove them." Andrea Williams, the chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said that Onuoha's case is about "one or two members of staff being offended by the cross." "It is upsetting that an experienced nurse, during a pandemic, has been forced to choose between her faith and the profession she loves," Williams said. "Why do some NHS employers feel that the cross is less worthy of protection or display than other religious attire?" "How Mary was treated over a sustained period was appalling and cannot go unchallenged," she added. "Mary's whole life has been dedicated to caring for others and her love for Jesus. We are determined to fight for justice." Researchers claim biblical Sodom was destroyed by massive asteroid, scholars disagree Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Tall el-Hammam, an archaeological site in Jordan also known as TeHEP, is the biblical Sodom referenced in the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah, Steven Collins, chief archaeologist and co-director of the project, has claimed. His claim comes on the heels of a report suggesting that Sodom, the ancient Syrian city God destroyed with burning sulfur because of sin, might have been razed by a massive asteroid. In a YouTube interview with Gary A. Byers, dean of the College of Archaeology, Collins, a Trinity Southwest University and TeHEP assistant director, who originally went to the site in Jordan because he thought it was the biblical Sodom, confirmed Friday that he believes is. I was really convinced, based on the geography and its size, which is way bigger by several orders of magnitude than all the other sites around it. [Its] 10 times bigger than Jericho at the time, 10 times bigger than Jerusalem at the time. So its really, really big, and so I thought this has to be it. We now know that it is. Its the site of biblical Sodom, Collins told Byers. Tall el-Hammam is located in the Eastern section of the lower Jordan Valley near the mouth of the Jordan River. Its the subject of a joint scientific project between Trinity Southwest University's College of Archaeology & Biblical History in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Veritas International University's College of Archaeology & Biblical History in Santa Ana, California, and the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The claim from Collins, who is also dean of the College of Archaeology, Veritas International University and a consulting research professor at Trinity Southwest University, comes less than two weeks after the publication of a new study, titled A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea. The study suggests the story of Tall el-Hammam is the story of Sodom. We present evidence that in ~ 1650 BCE (~ 3600 years ago), a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea. The proposed airburst was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, where a ~ 50-m-wide bolide detonated with ~ 1000 more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, researchers noted. A city-wide ~ 1.5-m-thick carbon-and-ash-rich destruction layer contains peak concentrations of shocked quartz (~ 510 GPa); melted pottery and mudbricks; diamond-like carbon; soot; Fe- and Si-rich spherules; CaCO3 spherules from melted plaster; and melted platinum, iridium, nickel, gold, silver, zircon, chromite and quartz. Researchers said they dismissed eight out of 10 possible causes for the evidence they found at the Tall el-Hammam site including volcanism, warfare, and tectonism that can account for at least some, but not all, of the evidence. We conclude that the only plausible formation mechanism that can account for the entire range of evidence is a crater-forming impact or a cosmic airburst, most likely somewhat larger than the 22-megaton airburst at Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908. The data also suggest an airburst occurred a few kilometers SW of Tall el-Hammam causing, in rapid succession, a high-temperature thermal pulse from the fireball that melted exposed materials, including roofing clay, mudbricks, and pottery, they wrote. This was followed by a high-temperature, hypervelocity blast wave that demolished and pulverized mudbrick walls across the city, leveling the city, and causing extensive human mortality." They further noted that an anomalously high salt content in the debris matrix is consistent with an aerial detonation above high-salinity sediments near the Jordan River or above the hypersaline Dead Sea. This event, in turn, distributed salt across the region, severely limiting regional agricultural development for up to ~ 600 years. In the account of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible, God destroyed the city during the time of Abraham because of wickedness. While two angels were visiting Lot in the city, a gang of men attacked his home and demanded that he give up the angels so they could rape them turning down even an offer of Lots virgin daughters. The angels blinded the men during the attack before leading Lot and his family out of the city, warning them not to look back. Because Lots wife disobeyed the order, she turned into a pillar of salt. In the study, researchers argue that the Genesis account of what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah is the only known ancient writing that provides a plausible explanation for the evidence they found at Tall el-Hammam. Regarding this proposed airburst, an eyewitness description of this 3,600-year-old catastrophic event may have been passed down as an oral tradition that eventually became the written biblical account about the destruction of Sodom, they said. There are no known ancient writings or books of the Bible, other than Genesis, that describe what could be construed as the destruction of a city by an airburst/impact event. This airburst/impact hypothesis would make Tall el-Hammam the second oldest known city/town to have been destroyed by an airburst/impact event that produced extensive human casualties, after Abu Hureyra, Syria. Collins explained in his interview Friday that Sodom was really a hub where several trade routes converged, attracting virtually every biblical character of note. The Bible puts a lot of stuff in this area and if you know the geography, its easy to see that virtually every biblical character of note came to this area at one time or another in their life, he said. You go back, of course, Abraham and Lot and all of his sons and Isaac and Jacob were there. Jacobs body was actually taken to the area. Kind of a mourning and a funeral was done there, he continued. Moses and Joshua were there, and Elijah was later there. The Bible talks about King David crossing just everybody was there. You get to the New Testament, Jesus came over and preached in this area. John the Baptist was baptizing in this area. Mark Boslough, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, has raised a number of concerns about the study. On Twitter, Boslough noted that my model of asteroid airbursts is cited as the mechanism by which God smote this evil city. He pointed out that the senior author of the study was Phillip Silvia, an engineer, theologian, archaeologist who also serves as director of publications at Trinity Southwest University, an unaccredited evangelical school located in a strip mall in Albuquerque. Retraction Watch also noted that Silvia earned his Ph.D. from Trinity Southwest in 2015. Elisabeth Bik, a Dutch microbiologist and scientific integrity consultant, also raised concerns about the study being overseen by an unaccredited evangelical Christian institution. This does not necessarily mean something, but it is remarkable that this archeological research was overseen by an unaccredited evangelical Christian institution that pursues a divine authority and the Bible as the only written representation of reality, she wrote on Twitter. Archaeologist Steven Ortiz, director of Lipscomb Universitys Lanier Center for Archaeology and co-director of the recent Tel Gezer excavations, also rejected the meteor hypothesis in a report from the Biblical Archaeology Society. He argued that destruction layers similar to those found in Tall el-Hammam have been found at Bronze and Iron Age Gezer and were attributed to Egyptian and Assyrian armies. Aren Maier, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University and long-time excavator of Tell es-Safi (biblical Gath), also noted that evidence for King Hazaels ninth century B.C.E. destruction of Gath looks much like what was found at Tall el-Hammam. Silvia, in a statement to Retraction Watch, called the criticisms leveled at the study ad hominem attacks against the authors (including myself) and the institutions (like TSU) and affiliations (like the Comet Research Group) with which we are associated. None of their comments address the science within our paper, probably because they have nothing of value to add to the discussion. Its a classic example of character assassination substituted for a rational discussion of the evidence. What motivates it? Whos to say? he added. Collecting guide: 10 things to know about Louise Bourgeois Famous for her huge spider sculptures and the Personnages series, the French-American artist ranks among the greats of the 20th century. Illustrated with works offered at Christies 1. Louise Bourgeois was born on Christmas Day Louise Bourgeois, one of the great sculptors of the 20th century, was born in Paris on 25 December 1911. Her parents ran a gallery in the 6th arrondissement that dealt in medieval and Renaissance tapestries. Not long after her birth, the family set up a workshop for tapestry restoration in Choisy-le-Roi, south-east of the capital. It was here that the young Louise produced her first art, making drawings of lost sections of tapestry as a template for the stitching repairs to follow. 2. Her English teacher became her fathers mistress In 1919, Bourgeoiss mother, Josephine, contracted Spanish flu, a disease from which she never really recovered. Louises education was frequently interrupted so that she could help care for her. Things werent helped by the arrival of a British au pair, Sadie Gordon Richmond, to teach Louise and her two siblings English. Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), Spider. Bronze. 128 x 298 x 278 in (326.3 x 756.9 x 706.1 cm). Conceived in 1996 and cast in 1997. Sold for $32,055,000 on 15 May 2019 at Christies in New York. Artwork: The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2021 Living with the family for almost a decade, Gordon Richmond became Mr Bourgeoiss mistress. This complex family arrangement would, by the artists own admission, inspire work throughout her career. For example, her many pieces with a spiral motif such as Labyrinthine Tower were born out of a desire, she said, to wring the neck of my fathers mistress. Josephine died in 1932. 3. Bourgeois was encouraged by Fernand Leger to become a sculptor Aged 20, Bourgeois entered the Sorbonne to study mathematics and geometry. This was just months after her mothers death, and she said later that the choice of subject had helped with her emotional and psychological struggles at the time. I got peace of mind, she said, through the study of rules nobody could change. She soon decided that she wanted a career in art, however, and left the Sorbonne to enrol in a series of schools (including the Ecole des Beaux-Arts) and to study in the atelier of Fernand Leger. It was he who insisted that her talents and her future lay in sculpture. 4. She dismissed the Surrealists as smart alecks In 1938, she married the American art historian Robert Goldwater, whom shed met while he was on a trip to Paris. The couple moved to New York, where in 1945 Bourgeois had her first solo exhibition. Held at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery, it consisted of 12 paintings. Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), Breasted Woman. Bronze, paint and stainless steel. 54 x 12 x 12 in (137.2 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm). Conceived in 1949-50 and cast in 1991. Sold for $2,887,500 on 17 May 2017 at Christies in New York. Artwork: The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2021 In the run-up to the Second World War, and also at its outbreak, many of the Surrealists shed known in Paris, such as Andre Breton and Max Ernst, joined Bourgeois in New York, fleeing the Nazis. In later life, however, she rejected the attempts of commentators to interpret her art as Surrealist in any way, insisting that she had had nothing to do with the Surrealists, who were only smart alecks. 5. Bourgeoiss breakthrough works include the Personnages sculptures In the late 1940s, Bourgeois shifted to making sculpture. Her breakthrough works included the skinny, totem-like offerings called Personnages, today regarded as among the finest pieces of her career. Made from scavenged wood and, in cases such as Breasted Woman (above), subsequently cast in bronze they represent the family and friends in France with whom Bourgeois had lost contact during the war. She had a career-long interest in the human body, but always tackled it in an oblique rather than a naturalistic way. 6. Inclusion in the exhibition Eccentric Abstraction boosted Bourgeoiss career The artists production levels dropped in the 1950s and early 1960s, as she devoted time to bringing up her three sons. She also immersed herself in psychoanalysis following her fathers death in 1951. Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), Untitled, 2002. Fabric, stainless steel, glass and wood. This work is unique. Sculpture: 6 x 9 x 9 in (16.5 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm). Overall: 53 x 16 x 16 in (136.3 x 41.5 x 41.5 cm). Sold for 622,500 on 15 October 2021 at Christies in London Her career then took an upward turn in 1966, when the writer and curator Lucy Lippard included works by her in the group show Eccentric Abstraction, at the Fischbach Gallery (alongside pieces by younger artists such as Eva Hesse and Bruce Nauman). Made predominantly in plaster and latex, her sculptures from that time moved towards the bulbous, organic and amorphous. A good example is Avenza (1968-69), a cluster of bulges, simultaneously connected and separate, which perhaps call to mind an animals udder or a range of hills. 7. Through her work, Bourgeois addressed motherhood, loneliness and the home Over time, Bourgeois expanded her repertoire to the point where, at the peak of her career, she never felt bound by a particular style, material or technique. Some works are carved in stone, others woven in fabric. Some are soft, others jagged. With their evocative lumps, bumps, craters and coils, her sculptures can be sexual or they can be sinister. Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), Untitled, 2002. Embroidered with the artist's initials LB (on the reverse). Woven fabric. 11 x 8 in (29.8 x 21.6 cm). Sold for 43,750 on 16 October 2021 at Christies in London What unites Bourgeoiss disparate works are certain recurring themes, such as motherhood, loneliness and the home. The popular Nature Study, a solitary, sphinx-like figure with no head but two rows of breasts, directly addresses the first two of those themes. 8. Moving into an abandoned garment factory allowed her to work on a larger scale In 1982, Bourgeois had her first retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York aged 70. By the time she was invited to represent the USA at 1993s Venice Biennale, her reputation as one of the greats of international art was confirmed. Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), Spider II, 1995. Bronze. 73 x 73 x 22 in (185.4 x 185.4 x 57.2 cm). Sold for $11,562,500 on 15 November 2017 at Christies in New York. Artwork: The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2021 She was now making works on a much bigger scale, something made possible by her move into a larger studio an abandoned garment factory in Brooklyn. For example, each of her celebrated series of Cells consists of a caged architectural space filled with a dreamlike mix of furniture and other objects, into which the viewer peaks from the outside. For dreamlike, you can usually read nightmarish. 9. Bourgeois described her famous spiders as an ode to my mother If theres one subject with which Bourgeois is most associated, it is spiders. They first appeared in her work in 1947, in a small drawing. More than half a century later, she created the giant (35ft tall) spider sculpture, Maman, for the opening of Tate Modern in London in 2000. Bourgeois was the first artist invited to make work for the gallerys Turbine Hall now a prestigious annual commission. She said the spider sculptures were an ode to my mother, adding that like spiders, my mother was very clever helpful and protective. The arachnoid pieces are by far the most coveted of Bourgeoiss works on the market. At the time of writing, theyre responsible for every one of the 10 most expensive works by the artist ever sold at auction. The record price stands at $32,055,000, for Spider a bronze conceived in 1996 and cast a year later which sold at Christies in 2019. Sign up today Christies Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe Other strong performers at auction have been the Personnages sculptures, which make up seven of her 30 highest-priced works. It was at the tender age of nine that Washington Ballet dancer Andile Ndlovu first fell in love with dance: not as a performer, but as a spectator. His sister regularly took part in local dance competitions in his native Johannesburg, and at the time, Ndlovu used to just hang around, he recalls. But I never wanted to dance. It was only once he was asked to fill in for an absent dancer that his sisters teacher approached him and conveyed that she had glimpsed in him a talent for the art form. Quickly, Ndlovu says, dance began to feel like a place where (he) belonged. He soon branched out from Latin American and ballroom into contemporary and, finally, ballet, which, his teacher said, was the only way to show people that youre serious about what youre doing. After his first major performance, at 14, Ndlovu saw the love from the audience and the whole atmosphere. I loved it, he says. It made me happy. Now in his ninth season with the Washington Ballet, Ndlovu has embraced two very different dance cultures. In South Africa, he says, within his Zulu community, we dance when we mourn; we dance when were celebrating. We dance when were happy. Were always dancing! Its an experience that stands in stark contrast with his first brushes with ballet. After all, alongside his teachers encouragement, Ndlovu recalls people attempting to dissuade him from embracing the Western style where, they said, he would not be welcome. The culture of ballet is to keep one uniform color, or keep one uniform look, he says. Its not really a sustainable way of producing dance, because dance is just dance. It doesnt really belong to a culture or belong to a color, or belong to a language. Black dancers have been vocal in calling out the racist policies pervading the world of ballet, such as being asked to wear white makeup for shows like Swan Lake. And while the ballet world is taking strides in embracing dancers who would have once quite literally been in the wings (in 2019, six-year-old Charlotte Nebres became the first Black dancer to be cast as Marie in the New York City Ballets The Nutcracker), Ndlovu says, were not there yet. Despite there still being work to do in diversifying ballet, when it came to his own experience, he says, I think I just never thought of all of that. I was very dedicated and diligent, he says. I didnt look at all the loud noises. He has certainly hit his stride in the multicultural capital, where he can take full advantage not only of his position within the Washington Ballet but also of instructors and facilities in Mount Rainier that allow him to practice cultural dance. We have so many different cultures in America, in the D.C. area, he says. The diaspora in D.C. is so vast that I didnt feel out of place. Nardia Boodoo and Andile Ndlovu in Silas Farleys Werner Sonata XMB Photography With stay-at-home orders last year, he had to get creative with his workouts and routines. Instead of his regular gym visits, he took everything outdoors, becoming a regular at public running tracks in Bethesda and choreographing from home. And now that the city has reopened, hes back at work, preparing a new choreography to debut in October and immersing himself in the thing he loves most about his adopted city: its art scene. Washington is sprinkled all over with different kinds of art. And thats what I like to do, he says. I like to do something that I am not a part of. Art in all of its myriad forms has thus become at once his inspiration and his favorite leisure activity. I put myself in places where I can experience a Japanese artist showing their art, an Iranian musician or an Iranian folk dancer or a Russian spoken word artist, even if I dont understand it, but just because Im there. I love curiosity, because Im curious, he continues. So its that curiosity, I think, that really drives me. And when I find another person thats very curious, I try to talk to them and hear what they have to say. Below, Ndlovu shares his favorites spots to mix and mingle with fellow creatives in D.C. National Museum of African Art This museum is home to 9,000 works of contemporary and traditional African art. Its one of Ndlovus favorite spots in D.C., just because of the artistry of the whole thing. How they put it together and what is inside. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Ndlovu is drawn to the national museum of modern art thanks to his interest in art history. I love to learn the history of an art, and then I like to know how it progressed, he explains. And so contemporary museums, I love them for that. Because theyre very explorative, and they try to find new voices who are trying to say something. Eastern Market Capitol Hills Eastern Market is a D.C. destination for local, farm-fresh food. But for Ndlovu, it has another draw. You get to see what we call America, he says. The difference, and the vast majority of different cultures in one space. This article was featured in the InsideHook DC newsletter. Sign up now for more from the Beltway. The post Where the Washington Ballets Andile Ndlovu Finds Inspiration in DC appeared first on InsideHook. Within days of regulators clearing the nation's first vaccine for younger children, federal officials say they will begin pushing out as many as 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine to inoculate school-age kids across America in a bid to control the pandemic. The kickoff of the long-awaited children's vaccination campaign could begin as soon as early November. And this time round, the government has purchased enough doses to give two shots to all 28 million eligible children, ages 5 to 11. Still, federal and state officials and health providers say that vaccinating children is likely to be a more challenging process than it was for adults and teens. The federal government plans to allocate shots in the initial rollout according to a formula to ensure equitable distribution, likely based on a state's population of eligible children, according to a federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share planning. Enlisting besieged health providers and persuading reluctant parents will complicate the process. "Everyone is so busy right now. Kids have gone back to school, we're seeing disease increases in pediatrician offices because of exposures to other viruses and we're needing [children] to come in for flu vaccine," said Patsy Stinchfield, a former senior director of infection prevention and control at Children's Minnesota, a pediatric health system in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Clinicians are still completing coronavirus vaccinations for those 12 and older, giving third shots to immunocompromised individuals, and boosters to older adults and others at high risk for severe disease. "And now this population. Phew," Stinchfield said. "There is great worry about how the United States will manage the new wave of kids coming in for covid vaccines." The long-running efforts to clear the nation's first vaccine for younger children moved into high gear this week when Pfizer and BioNTech filed a formal request with the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a regimen of two 10-microgram doses in 5- to 11-year-olds - one-third the amount given those 12 and older. An FDA expert panel is scheduled to hear presentations on the vaccine's safety and efficacy Oct. 26, with vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meeting a few days later. If regulators and the CDC give the go-ahead, children could start getting the shots the first week of November. "We're ready, we have the supply," said Jeff Zients, the White House c Response coordinator, appearing on CNN Thursday. "We're working with states to set up convenient locations for parents and kids to get vaccinated, including pediatricians' offices and community sites. We'll be ready pending the CDC and FDA action." But the government will initially distribute only a portion of the 65 million doses the government has purchased, according to a senior federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share planning discussions. Up to 20 million doses will be available the first week, the official said. Federal officials are "also making sure that we're not having folks unnecessarily stockpile product," the official said. That's one of the reasons the first doses are expected to be allocated according to a formula, most likely based on a state's population of eligible children, according to information shared this week with state immunization officials. Once the vaccines go out, it will be up to state officials to decide where and how many doses should be given to pediatricians, pharmacies and school-based or other clinics. But many questions remain unanswered only weeks from the possible launch. "How do you get clinicians to want to participate in the program? What will the role of pharmacists be? What will the role of schools be? How will we help parents get their questions answered quickly and by whom?" said Michael Fraser, executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers. Such concerns are of particular concern at a moment when many health systems and clinicians' offices are slammed, with many health care caregivers in their 19th month on the pandemic's front lines. In a Wednesday conference call with CDC officials, immunization officials were told there would be vaccine allocation, but were given few specifics, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, who took part. While overall supply may be sufficient, Hannan said, a key challenge will be ensuring the children's vaccine can be shared with all the providers who may want to administer it. Pfizer's packages contain 10 vials, each containing 10 doses, for a total of 100 doses. The size of those packages will make it hard to share the vaccine with many providers, she said. "If you have 100 kids across one county, you can only send one package of those 100 doses somewhere," Hannan said. "That's not really what I consider sufficient. If they were single-dose vials, you could spread them around." And unlike adults and teens accustomed to getting their shots at national pharmacy chains, which can store and administer large numbers of doses, many parents of younger children will prefer to bring their children to their pediatricians' offices, which may not have that capacity. "Everyone does recognize that for younger kids, the pediatric office is the trusted place for vaccines," said Lee Ann Savio Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. But information about dose distribution and other key details "is not yet clear to us," she said. "We hope to hear soon, exactly how that is going to happen." Federal health officials say they have scheduled meetings in the coming days to discuss vaccine preparations with AAP leaders and pediatric provider groups. Meanwhile, school-based clinics, often used for children's flu vaccination, take six to eight weeks of planning, said Tiffany Tate, executive director of the Maryland Partnership for Prevention, a nonprofit that works on childhood and adult immunizations. "Are we going to have covid and flu clinics at the same time? Are we going to do flu and then covid? And how do we get consent forms for everyone? It's a lot of logistical challenges," Tate said. Storage, handling and administration requirements are different for covid and flu vaccines, she said. While the challenges are not insurmountable, Tate said, "You can't just show up with needles and nurses." Planning has also been made more difficult because of unanswered questions about whether providers can administer the existing Pfizer product at the smaller dosages for children younger than 12. Some large pediatric practices, for instance, had planned to pull child-sized doses from existing Pfizer-BioNTech vials for vaccination clinics, and were surprised to learn this week that Pfizer is discouraging that. Pfizer spokesman Kit Longley said the company will be shipping separate pediatric vials, with unique labels and different color caps to distinguish those from the vials used for those 12 and older. "The lack of disseminated information is frustrating," said Marc Lashley, a pediatrician who heads covid vaccinations at New York-based Allied Physicians Group, one of the largest pediatric groups in the country with about 180,000 patients. He said Allied may have to delay or cancel its plans to turn 2,000 adult doses into 6,000 pediatric doses for a vaccination clinic if Allied cannot use existing vaccine and is unable to get the new formulation quickly. Even as he expressed disappointment, Lashley said in an email that "we are grateful to have a vaccine to use in children at all, and we are looking forward to implementing it as soon as possible." Federal health officials said that some answers must await the completion of the regulatory process. "That process has to happen before you can give the kind of precise, direct guidance that people are going to need," the senior federal official said. But they note the CDC has enrolled tens of thousands of providers around the country - more than 70% of clinicians who are part of a federally funded program that provides vaccines at no cost to children - into the covid-19 vaccination program. The Health and Human Services and the Education Departments also plan to run a "robust messaging/outreach campaign" to encourage vaccination for children, the official said. Some families won't need such prodding. For them, the availability of children's vaccines can't come soon enough amid a sharp increase in serious covid-19 infections among school-aged children. But others are likely to have questions and move more deliberately. A survey last month from the Kaiser Family Foundation found about one-third of parents of children in the age group - roughly 9 million kids - wanted their child to get vaccinated "right away" once they became eligible. A similar share said they would wait and see, and about a quarter said their children will "definitely not" get a coronavirus vaccine. CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said the agency expects to send more detailed information about pediatric vaccine implementation in the coming week. Steve Bannon sent a letter through his lawyer announcing his intent to defy a subpoena from the Select Committee investigating January 6th, citing executive privilege. The onus now falls on House Democrats to force him to comply or face criminal consequences. The Select Committee has at least said theyre going to take action, issuing a statement on Friday noting that they will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral for any witness who defies a lawful subpoena. Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Pentagon official Kashyap Patel are cooperating with subpoenas they received from the committee, so far. Bannon, on the other hand, has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President. In the letter Bannon sent to the committee Friday morning, his lawyer, Robert Costello, wrote that the former White House strategist intends to honor former President Trumps intent to invoke executive privilege. It is therefore clear to us that since the executive privileges belong to President Trump, and he has, through his counsel, announced his intention to assert those executive privileges we must accept his direction and honor his invocation of executive privilege, Costello wrote. As such, until these issues are resolved, we are unable to respond to your request for documents and testimony. NEW Bannon rebuffs congressional subpoena, with lawyer citing Trump team seeking executive privilege, despite Bannon not working for the executive branch when these events took place. Says theyre waiting for the issue to be resolved before proceeding. pic.twitter.com/8kT9mGKKXB Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 8, 2021 Earlier this week, Trump sent a letter to four of his former advisers who had been subpoenaed by the committee Bannon, Meadows, Patel, and communications guru Dan Scavino advising them to not cooperate. Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of President Trump and his administration, but also on behalf of the Office of the President of the United States and the future of our nation, Taylor Budowich, director of communications for Trump, said in a statement, according to The Washington Post. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), who sits on the select committee, said executive privilege only applies to the current president. The former president, it is not his role to claim privilege. That is the current occupant in the White House, Aguilar said Thursday on CNN. On the same day that Bannons lawyer communicated that he will not cooperate, Bannon pandered to election conspiracy theorists on his War Room podcast, promising Trump will return by 2022 or even before. Steve Bannon backing the idea of a Trump reinstatement, says that the "return of Trump" will be in "2022 or maybe before." pic.twitter.com/sxneKCHp8i Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) October 8, 2021 The anxiety, the hand-wringing, the pearl-clutching is the Democrat Partys fear of the return of Trump, he said. Thats what all these committees are, thats what theyre trying to do. The return of Trump, and it aint gonna be in 2024. Its gonna be in 2022, or maybe before, as we start the decertification process out in Arizona. Bannon is clearly relishing sticking it the Democrats trying to get to the bottom of his potential involvement in the events of January 6th. Thompson and Cheney have said theyll swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt referral. Lets hope so. Click here to read the full article. About $11 million a minute. Thats the amount of direct and indirect subsidies the International Monetary Fund calculates the global fossil fuel industry receives to ensure that cooking the planet remains profitable for them. If you do the math, it comes to about $5.9 trillion a year. As The Atlantics Robinson Meyer has pointed out, only $826 billion of that comes from actual price cuts or tax breaks. The rest is calculated from damages caused from the environmental and health costs of carbon pollution. But thats sorta the point. This is an antiquated industry that is knowingly and willfully poisoning the planet and killing millions of people every year. And governments of the world which ultimately means you and me and everyone else who pays taxes are essentially paying them to do it. Its no wonder the rallying cry for upcoming demonstrations in Washington D.C. is People vs. Fossil Fuels. For decades, the fossil fuel mafia has been pretending to be a good citizen, pretending that it didnt really understand the risks of climate change, and pretending that fossil fuel consumption is really your problem, not theirs. If the world is burning, its because youre too lazy to switch your lightbulbs, not because the industry has shoveled millions of dollars into lobbying efforts to make sure that the energy that powers our world is generated by coal or gas, even if there are better, cheaper, cleaner alternatives. The fossil fuel mafia has used money and political muscle to stall and derail action on the climate crisis, and they will do everything they can to draw out the inevitable transition to clean energy as long as possible. Given the stunning decline in the cost of solar and wind power in most of the world, they know their days are numbered. Its not a question of if they go. Its a question of how fast. But every day they wait, every delay tactic they come up with, imperils the rest of us. To put it another way, this is no longer an economic issue. It is a climate justice issue. Climate justice is the simple idea that those who have done the most to cause the climate crisis and who have the most resources must also do the most to fix it, Brandon Wu, the director of policy and campaigns at ActionAid USA, has said. In global terms, this means that wealthy countries like the U.S. must lead by example when it comes to climate action by undertaking urgent emissions reductions at home and providing hugely ramped-up financial support for action in poorer countries. An essential opportunity to move the ball on climate justice is coming up fast, in the next round of international climate talks, known as COP26, which will begin in Glasgow on October 31st. Maybe its too much to say that life on Earth depends on the outcome of these talks. So lets just say that climate negotiators have a lot of work to do. A recent U.N. analysis found that even if nations meet their current promises for CO2 emissions reductions, the climate would still warm by 2.7 C by the end of the century a path U.N. Secretary Antonio Guterres has described as catastrophic, dramatically boosting the frequency and intensity of heat waves, wildfires, storms, and drought, as well as increasing the risk of ice sheet collapse in West Antarctica and disrupting planetary-scale systems like the circulation pattern of current in the Atlantic. Since a central tenant of a just climate transition is that the countries and people most responsible for climate change should take the most responsibility in stopping it, the question then becomes, who is most responsible? A lot of people like to point the finger at China. Just google CO2 emissions by nation and you will see why: In 2019, China emitted about 10 billion tons of CO2, which is about 28 percent of the global total. The U.S., in contrast, emitted 5.3 billion tons, or about 15 percent of the global total. The EU is third, with about 10 percent of global total, and India below that with 7 percent. In addition, Chinese emissions are continuing to rise fast, while U.S. emissions have plateaued and started to decline in recent years. And a lot of Chinas emissions growth has come from continued reliance on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Last year, China built more than three times more new coal power capacity than all other countries in the world combined, equal to more than one large coal plant per week, according to estimates from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland. What all this means is that without a big commitment from China, there will be no meaningful progress toward the goal of keeping warming below 1.5 C, which is the threshold scientists have identified to maintain some semblance of a stable climate. Chinese President Xi Jinping seems to understand this. He has promised his country will start reducing CO2 emissions from coal, gas, and oil by 2030 and then stop altogether by 2060. But will they? Xi has made some moves to show they are serious about addressing the climate crisis. He recently pledged to finance no new coal plants outside of China, which is a big deal. But as John Kerry, President Bidens international climate envoy, recently pointed out, the Chinese still plan to build 247 gigawatts of new coal power within China. That is nearly six times Germanys entire coal power capacity. Chinas plan would actually undo the ability of the rest of the world to avert climate catastrophe, Kerry said. So if youre looking for a fall guy in the climate crisis, China fits the bill. But thats not the whole picture. Chinas current status as the biggest emitter has been very convenient for U.S. politicians who have been protecting the interests of the fossil fuel industry. China has been their perfect whataboutism foil. A classic example: During a congressional hearing in 2019, Rep. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana), then the ranking Republican on the Climate Crisis Committee, tried to use the example of China as a reason the U.S should hang back on climate action. So while in the United States we need to continue investing in innovative solutions and exporting clean energy technologies, it makes no sense for us to be doing it if were simply watching for increases in China, he said. Jamie Margolin, a teenage climate change activist from Seattle who was testifying before the committee, dismantled Graves argument: When your children ask you: Did you do absolutely everything in your power to stop the climate crisis, when the storms were getting worse and were seeing all the effects Can you really look them in the eye and say, No, sorry, I couldnt do anything because that country over there didnt do anything, and if theyre not going to do anything then Im not. That is shameful and that is cowardly, and there is no excuse to not take action. How you judge a nations responsibility for the climate crisis also depends on how you count emissions. For one thing, CO2 the main greenhouse gas is not like other forms of air pollution, such as sulfur dioxide, which rain out of the sky quickly once you stop emitting them. Most fossil fuel CO2 stays in the atmosphere for centuries before it is removed by geologic processes. But about 25 percent of it remains in the atmosphere essentially forever. The climatic impacts of releasing fossil fuel CO2 to the atmosphere will last longer than Stonehenge, University of Chicago oceanographer David Archer writes in his book The Long Thaw. Longer than time capsules, longer than nuclear waste, far longer than the age of human civilization so far. So when you ask, Who is responsible for the climate crisis? what matters is not just current emissions, but also historic emissions. From a strictly scientific perspective, a ton of CO2 emitted in 1921 is just as potent as a ton emitted in 2021. A new report by Carbon Brief lays all this out. If you do the math this way, the U.S. has done twice as much to cause the problem as China. (The Carbon Brief calculation also takes into account land use and deforestation, as well as the burning of fossil fuels, which is the main reason why Brazil and Indonesia are high on the list.) You can see why this gets complicated. U.S. climate negotiators use Chinas booming emissions to argue justifiably that the climate problem wont be solved unless China takes dramatic action now to reduce emissions. Furthermore, they argue that weighing historic emissions is unfair, because in, say, 1920, nobody knew anything about climate change. Meanwhile, the Chinese argue justifiably, also that because of the U.S.s large historical emissions, the U.S. has the moral duty to take the lead and make a much bigger contribution to emission cuts. But in the midst of a climate emergency, when island nations are disappearing beneath the waves, and drought is leaving millions without food and heat waves are killing a billion marine creatures in the Pacific Northwest, it feels almost comically self-destructive to be wasting time doing math and finger-pointing while the world burns. For us, it is inexplicable the world isnt taking action and it suggests we in small islands are to remain dispensable and remain invisible, Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, recently said. The point is, we need both China and the U.S., and every other big, rich polluter, to go full speed on transitioning off fossil fuels now. But the foot-dragging and the squabbling and the bowing to Big Oil and Big Coal over and over and over again reveals the heartbreaking dynamic at the foundations of the climate crisis: The rich pollute. The poor suffer. And the rich dont really care. At the moment, the primary mechanism for dealing with the inequities of the climate crisis is the Green Climate Fund, by which wealthy nations of the world promised $100 billion a year in funding to developing nations to help them transition to clean energy and adapt to climate impacts. But that isnt going so well. The latest figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development show that in 2019, rich nations channeled $79.6 billion to vulnerable countries, up just 2 percent from $78.3 billion in 2018. An analysis by aid charity Oxfam put the real figure for 2018 much lower, between $19 billion and $22.5 billion, when counting only grants and not loans that have to be paid back. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, the 46 least-developed countries between 2014 and 2018 received just $5.9 billion in total for adaptation. This is likely to be a key issue in Glasgow. President Biden recently vowed to double the aid the U.S. gives to developing nations to $11 billion, but that is only a fraction of what is needed. African negotiators have already signaled they want to up contributions to $1.3 trillion by 2030. As climate impacts accelerate, the gap between rich and poor, between the saved and the suffering, will only grow. It may be that Glasgow marks a new turning point in the climate fight, one where the justice and equity finally take center stage and access to power and money shifts from the old to the new. After all, we know now that the climate crisis is not some kind of inadvertent and unfortunate consequence of two centuries of fossil fuel consumption, or because we humans dont give a shit about the planet we live on. It is the deliberate and willful consequence of a handful of powerful corporations and their political enablers who have knowingly stolen our future and cashed it in for a quick buck. And we have let them get away with it. Until now, anyway. Just as there are climate tipping points, there are also human tipping points, where the path to a better world suddenly becomes clear and the journey to it becomes unstoppable. Lets hope Glasgow is one of them. COVID is still a thing, but United Airlines is betting big that Americans will still travel this winter. The airline just announced a slew of new routes to popular destinations across the country, including adding seven new Texas-to-Florida routes. I tested out the new, lightweight carry-on luggage from July United detailed its winter schedule in an October 7 release, which will "add nearly 150 flights to warm-weather destinations across the U.S and is increasing service to Latin beach and leisure markets." Houston, one of United's major hubs, will get seven of these new routes. Beginning in November, United passengers flying out of Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) can now enjoy service to popular Florida vacation destinations including Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach. Robert Alexander/Getty Images As of press time, United is offering nonstop deals from Houston to Miami ($112 round trip), Orlando ($117 round trip), Tampa ($117 round trip), and Fort Lauderdale ($117 round trip). Be warned that they are subject to change. "Celebrating the holidays with family and loved ones in 2020 was a challenge, and we know our customers are already eager to plan winter vacations and gatherings in person this year to make up for time that they lost," said Ankit Gupta, vice president of network planning at United, in a release. "As pandemic restrictions ease, people are becoming more confident in planning travel further in advance, so we want to make sure to offer our customers as much choice as possible." Most of these additional flights will be operated on United planes featuring United FirstSM, Economy Plus, and standard Economy seat options, notes a release. Complimentary snacks and onboard Wi-Fi are also provided. Along with the additional Houston routes, United said it's also increasing frequency of flights to Central and South America by 30 percent compared to pre-pandemic 2019. Those routes include Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico; Liberia, Costa Rica; and Nassau, Bahamas. Parents may be getting a step closer to having a chance to get their children vaccinated for COVID-19 as Pfizer continues to push to get the green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make the shot available. On Thursday, Pfizer asked the U.S. government to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters ages 5 to 11. Last week, Pfizer submitted research to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine in children, however, the shots may not be available until next month, according to the Associated Press. Company officials said they have provided health regulators with the data from a recent study. The two-shot Pfizer vaccine is currently available for those 12 and older. An estimated 100 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated with it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the AP reported. The drug maker said last week that researchers found the vaccine developed coronavirus-fighting antibody levels in children that were just as strong as those found in teenagers and young adults getting regular-strength doses. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said their research shows younger children should get one-third of the dose now given to everyone else. After their second dose, the 5- to 11-year-olds developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as those that teens and young adults get from regular-strength shots. Earlier this month, FDA chief Dr. Peter Marks told the AP that once Pfizer turns over its study results, his agency would evaluate the data hopefully in a matter of weeks to decide if the shots are safe and effective enough for younger kids. On Oct. 26, an independent expert panel that advises the FDA will publicly debate the evidence. If the FDA authorizes emergency use of the kid-size doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make a final decision, after hearing from its outside advisers. The AP also reported U.S. vaccine maker, Moderna, also is studying its shots in elementary school-aged children. Results are expected later in the year. In Montgomery County, the number of those fully vaccinated has climbed to 292,304, just over 58 percent of the population older than 12 years of age. The Montgomery County Public Health District confirm seven new virus-related deaths Friday as health officials continue to urge residents to get vaccinated. The number of deaths is now 425. Those deaths include a Conroe man in his 30s, a Conroe woman in her 40s, a Willis man in his 50s, a Conroe man in his 60s, a New Caney woman in her 60s, a Magnolia man in his 60s and a Conroe man in his 60s. All patients were hospitalized and none were vaccinated when they died. All but the Willis man had other health conditions. MCPHD also reported active cases dropped by 379 to 5,804. Total hospitalizations also decreased by 12 to 177. To date, 79,729 people have recovered. The countys total number of cases is now 86,176. The Montgomery County COVID-19 Call Center can be reached at 936-523-3916 Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Associated Press contributed to this report. cdominguez@hcnonline.com Six months ago, 16-year-old Honduran Jeffrey Flores arrived in Fort Worth with his family without knowing a word of English but secure in the knowledge it would be among the first things to tackle in his new country. Its important I learn English so I can have a good job, Flores said in Spanish. Flores is one of about a million Texas students roughly 20% of the states 5.4 million public school students who are enrolled in English as a second language classes. He and his two siblings attend Fort Worth Independent School Districts International Newcomers Academy, which is tailored for students new to the country and who need to learn English. Students like Flores and his siblings arent alone in their journey. Each year, more people of color, especially Hispanics, come to Texas, with nearly 2 million additional Hispanic people calling Texas home over the last decade, according to the 2020 census. Texans of color as a whole accounted for 95% of the states population growth. So the importance of teaching non-English-speaking children has never been higher. But the pandemic is threatening what was a fragile area of education to begin with. A recent pre-pandemic study from Rice University suggests that Texas is getting worse at teaching students English, which impacts both their academic success and potential lifetime income. Across the state, researchers have found that the number of English learners who failed to become proficient in the language after five years of ESL classes is increasing. The study tracked students who entered first grade between 2000 and 2015 to see if they would become proficient basically, graduate from ESL by the time they reach fifth grade. Those who did not were labeled long-term English learners. For several years, the number of long-term English learners remained steady. But that started to rise after 2008. By the 2014-15 school year, nearly 7 in 10 students who began first grade as English learners in Texas public schools failed to become proficient within five years. Children need to be English proficient by fifth grade as that gives enough time for intervention, said researcher Lizzy Cashiola. Early on, the study shows that kids who do not reclassify and are likely to begin middle school as an English learner are much more likely to drop out, theyre much more likely to be retained a grade in high school and and theyre much less likely to graduate on time, Cashiola said. Fellow researcher Daniel Potter said they havent pinpointed an exact reason for the significant rise in students failing to graduate from ESL classes but noted that factors include a lack of funding, teacher shortages and where students live. I don't know that at this point youre going to identify a silver bullet, Potter said. It is a multipronged issue. Now even having said that, I dont mean to suggest theres nothing that we can do. But again, that path to progress is complicated by the school interruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Potter and Cashiola dont yet know the full extent of the pandemics effect on English learners, but they know it hasnt made things better. School may have been one of the few spaces where those students were exposed to an English-majority environment, and COVID just completely evaporated that space, Potter said. Cashiola said second graders starting this fall might have an easier time catching up with the learning they lost, but it might be harder for those who are older and were on the cusp of reclassifying. Its no secret that the shift to virtual learning and the uncertainty the pandemic brought have impacted students and resulted in skill gaps, especially for poorer students and students of color. Faiha Al-Atrash, parent coordinator at International Newcomers Academy, said the last year was a massive challenge for kids at the school because in-person learning is crucial for students who are new to the country and are learning the language. The teacher is talking to them, they can see their reaction [and] see if they really understood, Al-Atrash said. Teachers have encountered several problems with virtual learning, such as students not logging on to their computers, or logging in but not paying attention. The distractions brought on by the pandemic have taken a toll on student learning and kids ability to retain information, she said. Parents of ESL students also are not able to help their kids because they dont know the language. This was an issue before, but the pandemic made it worse, especially if parents couldnt navigate the technology. Flores father, Jorge Flores Gutierrez, said in Spanish that he cant help his son with his homework, and attending classes in person is the best way for his son to learn the language because he is able to practice speaking with others. Lotus Hoey, an ESL teacher at Pershing Middle School in Houston, said a return to in-person classes this fall has been the toughest on her English learners. They have been out of touch for more than a year, and its clear that not having a structure eroded their English-speaking skills. They dont have the stamina because theyve been in their bed learning in their pajamas, Hoey said. Hoey said she and her colleagues are just trying to go slower with the kids so they can catch up. Ovidia Molina, Texas State Teachers Association president, said the problems with attaining proficiency within that five-year window can be tracked before the pandemic. As an ESL teacher for 11 years, she felt like there was pressure to make these kids pass a test instead of giving thoughtful instruction to help them succeed. I taught seventh and eighth graders, my seventh and eighth graders were at first and second grade level, she said. Theres no way that we can move them from first and second grade level to seventh grade levels. Molina says that ESL programs need more funding, smaller classroom sizes and goals that shouldnt be contingent on passing a test. Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 560. The measure calls for educators to come up with a more strategic plan to improve bilingual education by looking for ways to increase the number of bilingual teachers and dual-language programs, and have educators come up with better ways to identify students who need to be enrolled. David Feigen, policy associate for Texans Care For Children, said dual-language programs, where students learn both in their native language and English, must increase as students who are in these programs tend to be more academically successful. Only about 1 in 5 English learners are enrolled in such programs. Before the pandemic, only 1 in 12 bilingual students were college ready by the time they graduated, Feigen said. The pandemic threatens to make things worse if this law doesnt pan out. Feigen said giving these students a quality education will help not only them but also the state as a bilingual workforce represents a valuable piece of society. When the next legislative session comes around, lawmakers need to have a plan and a timeline to execute what the law is intended to do. Feigen said for things to even get going, its imperative that Texas recruits, retains and grows bilingual teachers. Texas is a bilingual state, he said. We are a state that welcomes immigrants of different backgrounds. More bilingual teachers are sorely needed, said Andy Canales, Texas executive director at Latinos for Education. Canales said having more teachers of color enhances the learning of ESL students. He also pointed out that the pandemic revealed how economic inequities play a large part in learning success. Many English learners live in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and maybe dont have access to after-school programs and other learning opportunities that others have, he said. As a society, we need to figure out how do we give our most vulnerable students access to enrichment and learning opportunities, Canales said. Disclosure: Rice University, Texans Care for Children and Texas State Teachers Association have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/08/texas-students-esl/. The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org. Tesla is officially coming to Texas. But theres just one problem: Texans cant buy Tesla vehicles from factories in the state. CEO Elon Musk announced at an annual shareholder event Thursday that he is moving the electric car companys headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, citing housing affordability and long commutes for the move from its current location. Our factory is like five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown, and were going to create an ecological paradise here because were out on the Colorado River, the CEO said. Its going to be great. Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce President Laura Huffman called the company's decision a "home run" and projected the move would bring 10,000 jobs to the city, per CBS Austin's Jessica Taylor. The announcement drew big welcomes from Gov. Greg Abbott and Austin Mayor Steve Adler on Twitter. Despite the announcement, it may be premature for Texans to begin celebrating the dawn of the electric vehicle revolution in the state. Texas franchise laws will require the electric car maker to ship its Texas-made vehicles out of state before they can be sold and shipped back to Lone Star buyers. State statutes prohibit automakers from making direct sales and requires them to instead sell their cars through independently owned car dealerships, according to a report by Business Insider. House Bill 4379 would have applied a loophole for companies like Tesla, but the measure failed to pass in the state legislature, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The bill, authored by state Rep. Cody Harris would have allowed makers of vehicles powered solely by electricity or batteries to act as their own dealers under state law, allowing them to sell directly to customers. Texans can order a car from the companys website but wont be able to place an order in the new Texas facility, according to Business Insider. Residents would also be required to drive to another state to buy the Tesla, or have paperwork sent to another state for processing. In May, Musk tweeted that he would "sure appreciate changing the law so that this is not required." With the next regular Texas legislative sessions scheduled in distant 2023, this complication may stick around some time for Texansbarring a special session courtesy of the governor. Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy were allowed in Texas on Thursday for the first time since the nation's most restrictive abortion law went into effect there on Sept. 1. Some abortion providers resumed offering the procedure after a federal judge issued an order Wednesday evening blocking enforcement. But many providers said they would keep complying with the ban until the legal issues are resolved. Less than two hours after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman granted the Biden administration's request for an injunction, Texas said it would appeal to the conservative-leaning U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Regardless of how the appeals court rules, the issue could quickly make its way back to the Supreme Court, which last month turned down a request by abortion providers to stop the law from taking effect. Under the Texas law, doctors and others who help facilitate an abortion after cardiac activity is detected in the womb - typically around six weeks - can be sued by private citizens and are subsequently responsible for legal damages, the plaintiff's legal fees and a $10,000 award for anyone who files a successful lawsuit. The law also states that those who enable such abortions can be retroactively sued up to four years after the procedure if an injunction is lifted. Pitman said that provision was "of questionable legality." Yet many providers remain worried that they could be sued in the future. John Seago, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, which helped draft the law, said in an interview Thursday that he was confident any doctor who offered abortions would be sued if Pitman's ruling is overturned. "The big question is, how will abortion providers respond?" Seago said. "They can't just say, 'I was acting under the protection of the injunction.' Will a doctor or the industry be willing to take the risk?" The legal uncertainties have left Texas abortion providers in limbo. At Whole Woman's Health, one of the largest abortion providers in Texas, the decision to perform the procedure after six weeks has been left to individual doctors. Many have opted to continue complying with the new law, said Joe Nelson, an abortion provider at Whole Woman's Health in Austin. The network's doctors performed several abortions on Thursday, according to Whole Woman's Health chief executive Amy Hagstrom Miller. In a call to reporters, Miller said the abortions were performed thanks to "brave providers," saying she also understood those who felt the situation was too "tenuous." She declined to say how many physicians were willing to risk being retroactively sued. "There may be other providers who are willing to take the risk, and I applaud them," Nelson said. "But for me, the risk felt too great." Other clinics have decided to comply with the law entirely. Houston Women's Reproductive Services, an independent clinic, is not providing abortions after six weeks, clinic director Kathy Kleinfeld said. Representatives from Planned Parenthood did not answer questions about whether they would begin offering abortions past six weeks again. "We are regularly assessing what's possible during this period of uncertainty but, given the state's appeal, our health centers may not have the days or even weeks it could take to navigate new patients through Texas's onerous abortion restrictions," leaders from three Planned Parenthood locations in Texas wrote in a joint statement. Administrators at Whole Woman's Health have been anticipating this scenario for weeks. Andrea Ferrigno, the organization's corporate vice president, said she has been calling every doctor on the roster to discuss the possibility of retroactive enforcement. In a phone interview on Tuesday, she said she asked each one: How would you feel about performing abortions during an injunction? With so much up in the air, many doctors weren't sure how to answer. Blair Cushing, a California-based doctor who performs abortions in McAllen, Texas, said she hasn't decided what she's going to do if the injunction is still in place when she returns to McAllen next week. If she does choose to perform abortions after six weeks, she said, she is confident that Whole Woman's Health will support her decision. "I think they're hopeful that some of us will be like, 'Yeah, let's do it,' " Cushing said. In the months before Senate Bill 8 took effect, Cushing said she spent a lot of time thinking about how much legal risk she was willing to assume. "I wasn't going to be doctor [Alan] Braid, the first one to stick my neck out publicly," she said, referring to the San Antonio doctor who explained why he violated the Texas law in a Washington Post op-ed on Sept. 18, prompting three lawsuits to be filed against him. But she'd accepted the fact that she would probably get sued. "If it happens to me, it happens to me," said Cushing, who said she has been promised pro bono legal representation. "I had come to terms with that." Pitman, a nominee of President Barack Obama, issued his order Wednesday in response to a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department after the Supreme Court allowed the law to stand. The justices said last month that abortion providers challenging the statute "raised serious questions" about the constitutionality of the law. But in a 5-to-4 decision, the high court's conservative majority said opponents had not shown they were suing the proper defendants. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, R, is expected to argue on appeal that the federal government lacks legal grounds to sue the state because the law is not enforced by Texas government officials. Private individuals tasked with enforcing the law, Paxton has said, are not "state actors" who can be subject to an injunction from the court. But Pitman rejected that argument and said individuals who file lawsuits under S.B. 8 are helping to carry out the state's "blueprint to potentially deprive Texans of their constitutional rights" to abortion before viability, usually around 22 to 24 weeks. Abortion opponents said they weren't surprised by the injunction. Brittany Green, executive director of Pflugerville Pregnancy Resource Center outside of Austin, said she remains "hopeful" that Pitman's order will be lifted. "I believe the intention of the law is good and is protecting the health and safety of women," she said. Abortion rights advocates say the retroactive enforcement provision could itself end up in litigation. Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project said: "This is an unprecedented law, and while every doctor and facility has to make their own choice, we think the retroactive piece is unconstitutional and violates fundamental concepts of fairness. "Common sense and just fundamental due process would tell you that if the law is legal, you can act accordingly to what is lawful at the time," Amiri said. "There are strong legal arguments to be made on that issue if anyone is retroactively sued." Cushing, the California-based doctor, worries that the injunction may lead pregnant patients in Texas to wrongly assume they can access abortion. The news coverage of the ruling has been "really misleading," she said, indicating that it suggests that abortion care is back to normal across the state. In McAllen, she said, she expected that her staff had been fielding calls all day from patients seeking to schedule abortions. No procedures - over or under six weeks - will be performed in McAllen until Saturday, she said, when a doctor will first be available to see patients. "Every person now, you have to break it to them all over again," Cushing said. At Houston Women's Reproductive Services, clinic director Kathy Kleinfeld decided to continue complying with the law because she expects the 5th Circuit to lift the injunction. "The last thing we want to do to women right now, in such a vulnerable state, is schedule them for an appointment and at the last minute call and cancel," she said. "That would be cruel and unusual." When patients called the clinic on Thursday to schedule appointments after six weeks, Kleinfeld said she and her staff had to let them down gently. She said the same thing to every caller: "We have no idea what the 5th Circuit might do." WASHINGTON (AP) Donald Trumps extraordinary effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos, and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign, a Senate Judiciary Committee report found. The report released Thursday by the Democratic-run committee offers new insight into how the Republican incumbent tried to undo the vote and exert his will on the department, asking leaders to declare the election corrupt" and disparaging its top official for not doing anything to overturn the results. Trump's actions led to a near-revolt at department headquarters that receded only after senior officials warned of a mass resignation, with one White House lawyer describing efforts to undo the election as a murder-suicide pact. In attempting to enlist DOJ for personal, political purposes in an effort to maintain his hold on the White House, Trump grossly abused the power of the presidency and arguably violated a federal law that prevents anyone from commanding federal employees to engage in political activity, the report says. While the broad outlines of what took place after the Nov. 3 election have long been known, the Senate investigation based on a review of documents and interviews with former officials lays bare the extent of Trump's all-out campaign to remain in the White House. It shows how Trump benefited from the support of a little-known Justice Department lawyer who championed the then-president's efforts to challenge the vote but how, in the end, other senior officials stood together to face down Trump. The outcome suggests how reliant the fragile U.S. election system is on the integrity of government officials. Trump's effort, now the subject of a Justice Department inspector general investigation, did not succeed and Biden took office on Jan. 20. Even so, the false claims over the election have fractured the nation, with millions of Americans wrongly believing the contest was stolen. Rage about the election compelled a mass of Trump supporters to violently storm the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to disrupt the congressional certification of Bidens victory. The rioters beat and bloodied an overwhelmed police force, sent lawmakers running for their lives and caused $1 million in damage. More than 630 people have been charged criminally in the riot, the largest prosecution in Justice Department history. Republicans, who have mostly stayed loyal to Trump since the insurrection, issued their own report that downplays the concerns raised by Democrats and paints Trump as a hero who ignored the suggestions from the lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, and who refused to fire top Justice Department officials. Their rebuttal makes the astonishing claim that Trump was concerned about the election system writ large and not about himself, even though he was publicly fighting to stay in office and pressured Vice President Mike Pence to help him. The Democrats' report chronicles Trump's relentless prodding of the Justice Department during a turbulent stretch in December and early January to investigate suspected voter fraud and to support his efforts to undo the results. Trump had laid the groundwork for that effort even before the election when he attacked the vote-by-mail process. But he escalated it significantly after Election Day and particularly after the December resignation of Attorney General William Barr, who weeks before he left the Justice Department told The Associated Press that the department had not found fraud that could affect the outcome of the election. In one White House meeting recounted for Senate investigators, Jeffrey Rosen, who served as Barr's deputy and briefly led the department after Barr left, described how Trump, in an effort to initiate a department inquiry, showed videos of somebody delivering a suitcase of ballots." Rosen said he recalled saying to Trump, I really want to suggest to you, sir, respectfully, that it would be a better thing for everyone to use this last month to focus on some of the things that had been accomplished in the last four years, a tax reform and the vaccine, Operation Warp Speed, and not go into this the election was corrupt. The pressure campaign by Trump and his allies included a draft brief the White House wanted the Justice Department to file with the Supreme Court to overturn the election results. The department refused to file the document, which the Senate report describes as raising a litany of false and debunked claims. The conflict culminated in a contentious, hourslong meeting at the White House on Jan. 3 in which Trump openly considered replacing Rosen as acting attorney general with Clark, an assistant attorney general. The Democrats' report says Trump told Rosen: "One thing we know is you, Rosen, arent going to do anything to overturn the election. Clark had positioned himself as more sympathetic to pursuing Trumps fraud claims even though the results were certified by states and Republican election officials. Courts rejected dozens of legal challenges to the election and Barr, Trump's own attorney general, had said Biden won fairly. Clark declined to be interviewed voluntarily by the committee. His lawyer declined to comment Thursday. The committee said it was submitting a complaint to the District of Columbia Bar to assess whether discipline is warranted. Several officials in the Jan. 3 meeting told Trump they would resign if he put Clark in charge at the Justice Department. According to witnesses interviewed by the Senate committee's majority staff, White House counsel Pat Cipollone referred to a draft letter from Clark pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session on the election results as a murder-suicide pact. Cipollone threatened to quit. Richard Donoghue, Rosens deputy at the time, told Clark there was no chance he would sign that letter or anything remotely like this." Donoghue told the committee that he told Trump that all the assistant attorneys general, and perhaps U.S. attorneys and other senior department officials, would resign if the president replaced Rosen with Clark. Georgia emerged as a particular area of focus for Trump, who sought the removal of the top prosecutor in Atlanta, Byung Jin ("BJay") Pak, claiming he was a never Trumper," the report said. Pak had originally planned to stay on in the position until Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, but resigned weeks earlier than that because of the pressure from Trump. Besides Clark, Trump found another ally in Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who has disputed the validity of Bidens victory in Pennsylvania and called Donoghue last December to say the department wasnt doing its job with respect to the elections. Perry encouraged Donoghue to elicit Clark's help because hes the kind of guy who could really get in there and do something about this," the report said. If its cloudy, it isnt possible to peek inside this house for sale in the Detroit suburbs. But trust us, this residence in Highland Park, MI, is worth the wait. It's also high time to take a second look at this one-of-a-kind home. It is one of the most unique houses that I've ever seen, and Detroit has a lot of unusual properties, but this one really goes above and beyondand outside the box, says the listing agent, Ben Ness. I thought I was stepping inside Liberaces house, just because of the over-the-top design style of the interior, the crushed velvet on the walls, the carpet on the ceiling. It's just very creative, very unorthodox, and decorative. Known as Lion Gate Estate, it's now listed for $345,000, after several price reductions over the past three years. Back in 2018, it landed on the market for $550,000. It made quite a viral impact, thanks to the daring decor shown in the listing photos. However, all that initial interest hasn't yet resulted in a sale. The process this time is just trying to find somebody who can sort of step into the mind of the owner and see all the incredible work and attention to detail that went into customizing the house, Ness says. It's going to be sold without the furnishings, so there's going to be an estate sale, and they're going to try to sell as much of the contents as they can. Meanwhile, the custom cars that were also on offer with the property have been sold. Their owner, Ronald Nassar, aka Mr. Ronnie, was a former car customizer known for his elaborate designs in the 1970s. He worked on cars for a lot of different celebrities, including, according to local lore, Middle Eastern royalty. "He took that same mentality to decorating the house, Ness explains. Trying to find a buyer who can appreciate all that, in addition to embracing some of the edgier decorative choices, is a big challenge. Exterior of home in Highland Park, MI Marc Gregor Interior Marc Gregor Entry Marc Gregor Exterior Marc Gregor Exterior Marc Gregor Living space Marc Gregor Living space Marc Gregor Kitchen Marc Gregor Kitchen Marc Gregor Kitchen Marc Gregor There's a ton of decorative metal on the outside of the house and around the pool. The decor also includes several lionshence the name Lion Gate Estate. The lion is a very powerful symbolic animal in human culture and mythology. The lion represents strength and fidelity, and so he took it on as the symbol of the house, Ness says of Nassar. When you look around the house, youll find little lions in a lot of the detail work. Garage Marc Gregor Garage Marc Gregor The experience intensifies when you open the front door to the 3,212-square-foot house, which has a total of 11 total rooms, including three bedrooms. Most people are overwhelmed," says the agent. "Doing a showing is really almost like doing a museum tour." Every room in the house, he says, has its own delights. Mirrors are everywhere, as well as hand-decorated ceilings, vintage 1970s appliances (which all work), plenty of velvet, and more color than an eye can take in. In the garage, there are murals on the walls and custom light fixtures embossed with vignettes from the story of Cinderella. Bedroom Marc Gregor Interior Marc Gregor Interior Marc Gregor Bathroom Marc Gregor With so much detail, its almost impossible to see everything the home has to offer. I am 100% sure that there are little esoteric elements to the design that are only known by the owner, Ness says. He adds he sees something new every time he goes into the house. Nassar has lived in the house off and on since he was a child. It was built in 1951, and his family purchased the place shortly thereafter. His father was also in the car customization business, so the eye for distinctive design runs strong. He is quite the character," says Ness, who says he is in awe of Nassar's creative powers. "I really applaud him for having the courage to do his place up in the style that he thought was the coolest and brought him the most happiness. Sunshine is important to Nassar, and he has stipulated that the house can only be shown on sunny days. He loves sunny days," Ness says. We asked Ness if Nassar would show the house on a cloudy day if someone were to offer him a million dollars in cash. I'd have to talk with Mr. Ronnie, but Im 90% sure hed say, I appreciate that, but tell him to come back on a sunny day,' Ness says with a laugh. Outdoor space Marc Gregor Living space Marc Gregor Bathroom Marc Gregor Bedroom Marc Gregor Bathroom Marc Gregor Bedroom Marc Gregor Dining room Marc Gregor Outdoor space Marc Gregor Exterior Marc Gregor The post 3 Years Later, a Wildly Decorated Michigan Home Is Still Looking for a Daring Buyer appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. A. A sales tax would have meant visitors contributed to repaving. B. We already are taxed too much. C. Money for repaving should be put into the county's annual operational budget. C. The road resurfacing program is behind schedule so the county needs to act ASAP. Vote View Results An internal IRCC briefing note suggests the focus this past quarter was to invite as many in-Canada Express Entry candidates as possible. Express Entry Q3 2021: Focus on CEC and PNP candidates An internal IRCC briefing note suggests the focus this past quarter was to invite as many in-Canada Express Entry candidates as possible. Express Entry Q3 2021: Focus on CEC and PNP candidates An internal IRCC briefing note suggests the focus this past quarter was to invite as many in-Canada Express Entry candidates as possible. Express Entry Q3 2021: Focus on CEC and PNP candidates An internal IRCC briefing note suggests the focus this past quarter was to invite as many in-Canada Express Entry candidates as possible. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Express Entry slowed down in the third quarter of 2021. The previous two quarters were both record-breakers, so the smaller number of invitations in Q3 made it the slowest three months of the year. Throughout July, August, and September, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued 20,981 invitations for Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence. This is the lowest number since Q4 2019 when IRCC invited 18,000 candidates. That being said, on September 14 the number of Invitations to Apply (ITAs) issued in 2021 surpassed the amount for the entire year in 2020. Last year, IRCC issued a total of 107,350 ITAs. As of the last Express Entry draw on September 29, IRCC has issued 109,696 invitations with three months left in the year. Get a Free Express Entry Assessment IRCC held a total of 12 draws last quarter, seven were specifically for Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates, and five Canadian Experience Class (CEC) draws. The majority, about 81 per cent, of all invitations went to CEC candidates. There have still not been any draws for Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) candidates, nor Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) candidates. The only movement on these programs was seen in July, when IRCC updated the proof of funds requirements for candidates in these programs. IRCC rationale for Q3 Express Entry draws IRCCs operations team designed a plan to achieve the 2021 admissions targets by focusing on applicants who were already in Canada, according to an internal memo obtained by CIC News through an access to information request. The memo, dated June 8, says the department planned to hold record-breaking CEC draw sizes of 6,000 for June and July. IRCC had already held invitation rounds of 6,000 starting in April, and the memo was created to seek approval for the large draws to keep going. IRCC expects that the CEC will be the main source for immigration admissions in 2021. The large February 13 round helped with meeting the target of 141,000 final decisions on CEC applications this year. In order to do this, IRCC would need to accept 25,000 CEC applications by the end of July. The department estimates, for CEC applicants, there is a four to eight month window from invitation to admission, so people invited after July have a smaller chance of being admitted this year. The memo also said that any pivot from the departments plan to focus on immigrants in Canada would reduce productivity, and may result in fewer admissions in 2021. They have ramped up efforts to process CEC candidates to help meet their 2021 targets. IRCC anticipated that the provinces, territories, and other stakeholders would criticize them for inviting Express Entry candidates with low scores. So they analyzed Express Entry candidates who had a CRS of 350 who were in the pool on March 1, 2021. They found these candidates were slightly more likely to have a college education than those at 380 or 400. Although they had a lower language proficiency on average, they were more likely to have work experience in a skilled trade or technical occupation which requires intermediate language skills. This would likely indicate that their language proficiency aligned with the demands of their occupations. This year, IRCC held two draws for candidates in the 350s, on July 22 and June 24. The department also anticipated that invitation round size would drop to about 2,500 CEC candidates bi-weekly after July. In August, there were two rounds of 3,000 and September had one round at 2,500. IRCC anticipated the CRS score requirements of each draw would increase as the pool of CEC candidates grew in volume, which did happen. The September 14 draw had a cut off of 462. IRCC wrote that it would finalize and admit the vast majority of CEC applicants in 2021 who applied by September 2021. At the time, the operations sector had taken capacity from the international network to increase the CEC processing in lieu of other overseas economic categories. This was before approved permanent residents were allowed to come to Canada to complete their permanent residency landing. The memo also said the focus of final decisions could shift back to FSWP candidates in early 2022, pending the COVID-19 situation. Due to the travel restrictions which barred approved permanent residents from completing their landing in Canada, IRCC had an inventory of more than 58,000 FSWP applicants who are unable to enter Canada in June. This does not necessarily mean there will not be any FSWP draws before the end of the year, but it does mean those who have applied may expect delays in processing. The memo was authored prior to Canada lifting travel restrictions on all Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) holders on June 21. In theory, this makes it easier for IRCC to process overseas Express Entry applications as it seeks to achieve its immigration levels goal. In practice, however, it seems like IRCC continues to stick to its pre-June 21 plan of focusing on processing in-Canada Express Entry applications. Get a Free Express Entry Assessment CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. Wilkes-Barre, PA (18701) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High 66F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Becoming partly cloudy after some evening light rain. Low 34F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. You will receive 5-day a week delivery of the Citizen Tribune newspaper to your home or business, plus full, ad-free access to CitizenTribune.com as well as full access to the Electronic Edition of the newspaper. ONLY $13.99 per month for the first 3 months! Only $16.00 per month after promotional period. Or ONLY $169.99 for a full year Only $192.00 per year after promotional period. The NYU School of Laws Brennan Center for Justice, in its annual report on crime, finds that the murder rate in Americas 30 largest cities rose 13.1 percent in 2016an alarming figure, especially considering last years identical increase. Striking a calming note, the Brennan Centers press release accompanying the report begins by reminding us that Americans are safer today than they have been at almost any time in the past 25 years. But downplaying the recent uptick in the homicide rate distracts from the fact that there is more than one America when it comes to violent crime: indeed, 51 percent of all U.S. murders are committed in just 2 percent of the nations counties, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center. No city more starkly illustrates this disparity than Chicago. Many scoffed at President Trumps tweets about federal help to stop the carnage there. Chicagos murder rate wasnt even in the top 10 among large cities, tweeted USA Today law and justice reporter Brad Heath in response. The Atlantic observed that there are a number of cities . . . that have much, much higher homicide rates. A CNN column argued that a deeper dive into the numbers shows fears over the citys violence can be overblown when compared to cities much smaller. But Chicagowhich, the Brennan Center concedes, accounted for 55.1 percent of the total increase in urban murders in 2016deserves its reputation as an American murder capital, or at least a significant part of it does. If policymakers, journalists, and others really wanted to take the deeper dive into the numbers that CNN suggests, they should try looking at neighborhood crime statistics. Doing so reveals that, within Chicago, a large sub-city exists that is, in fact, the most dangerous big city in the United States. Its true that Chicago, with a citywide homicide rate of 27.9 per 100,000 people, has relatively fewer murders than seven other large cities, including St. Louis, Baltimore, Memphis, and Detroit. Much of Chicago sees few murders. A better way to understand Chicago homicides is to break them down by police district. To see how concentrated the citys murders are, I isolated the precincts in which approximately 75 percent of the homicides occur and compared that areacall it Sub-Chicagowith the U.S. cities that are supposedly more dangerous than the Windy City. During the 365-day period beginning June 7, 2016, Chicago had 711 first- and second-degree homicides. Of those, 556 (or 78.1 percent) occurred in just ten of the citys police districts. Those districtswhich are contiguousconstitute a geographical area almost half the citys size and house 40.3 percent of the citys nearly 2.7 million residents. With a population of almost 1.1 million, Sub-Chicago would itself be one of Americas largest cities, and, with a homicide rate of 51.2almost double Chicagos 2016 citywide rateit would be in the running for the title of Americas most dangerous, as it is just shy of surpassing the 2016 citywide rates of Baltimore and St. Louis. Nowhere else in the country is there an area so large and so heavily populated with a murder rate this high. Even when you look at the areas of concentrated homicide in other citiesi.e., those that encompass close to 75 percent of a citys murdersSub-Chicago stands out. In St. Louis, for example, 184 murders were committed during the period beginning May 1, 2016, and ending April 30, 2017. Of those, 136 (or 73.9 percent) occurred in three of the citys six police districts (Sub-St. Louis). Those three districts cover 50.6 percent of the citys 63.8 square miles, which, according to the city website, house 135,920 (or 42.5 percent) of the citys 319,294 residents. A similar tract of Sub-Chicago, made up of police districts 11 and 15, with 140 murders and a population of 129,932, posted an annual murder rate of 107.7 per 100,000 during the 365-day period studiedslightly higher than the area constituting Sub-St. Louis (100.05). In Memphis, murders in 2016 were more evenly distributed than in Chicago and St. Louis. Last year, 76.3 percent of the citys 228 murders occurred in six of the citys nine police districts, which cover about 80 percent of the citys land area and house 76 percent of its population. The murder rate of those six districts was 34.8 per 100,000less than three points higher than the citywide rate and almost 20 points lower than that of Sub-Chicago. Analyses of Detroit and Baltimore yield similar results. In Detroit, 72.8 percent of the citys 302 murders in 2016 occurred in seven of the citys 11 police precinctsan area that constitutes 64.1 percent of the citys 137 square miles and accounts for almost 70 percent of its 672,972 residents. Sub-Detroits 2016 homicide rate was 47.1 per 100,000 residentssignificantly lower than Sub-Chicagos and less than three points higher than Detroits citywide rate. Seventy-six percent (242) of Baltimores murders occurred in six of the citys nine precinctsan area that houses 53.1 percent of the citys 624,271 residents. That areas murder rate is a scary 72.9 per 100,000 residents. But Sub-Chicago has almost double the population of Sub-Baltimore. Sub-Chicagos four most dangerous police districtsthe 11th, 7th, 15th, and 16thexperienced 273 murders during the period analyzed. With a population of 291,844, it posted a murder rate of 93.5more than 20 points higher than that of Sub-Baltimore. What this analysis shows is that, in many American cities, a substantial number of residents live through what can only be described as a homicide epidemic. And, despite assurances to the contrary, nowhere is that epidemic more pronounced than in Sub-Chicago, which happens to be 88 percent black and Latino. If were serious about improving life in places like South and West Chicago, we must confront the uncomfortable truths about crime concentration in U.S. cities. Step one is recognizing that while most of the country is relatively free from such violence, a portion of the country lives in the urban equivalent of a killing field. These Americans dont need to be told that crime is down nationwide; they need protection. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images To hear the news media tell it, its game over for Americas flyover countrythe vast expanse of land between the East and West Coasts, which, on the presidential-election map, is usually colored predominantly red. Yet the American interior is hardly monolithic, consisting of a collection of disparate regions: theres Mountain West, seen in some respects as an extension of the West Coast; the Great Plains, where rural areas have long been shrinking but cities are showing surprising growth; the South, with its mix of boomtowns and struggling urban and rural regions (Texas is a land unto itself); and the Midwest and the postindustrial sections of the Northeast, still often known as the Rust Belt. The American heartland suffers from severe problems in many places, as press coverage, including in these pages, has documented. (See Trouble in Trump County, U.S.A., The Shape of Work to Come, 2017.) Many postindustrial cities, especially smaller ones with few world-class assets, have struggled to find a place in the technology and innovation economy. Such cities tend to lag the coasts in per-capita income and GDP, and many have lost population. Flint, Michigan, is an example. The birthplace of General Motors, the city was the site of the famed sit-down strike of 1936 and 1937 that helped make the UAW such a powerful labor union. GM once employed 82,000 people in Flint, a figure representing nearly half the citys population at that time. Over 90 percent of those jobs are now gone. Flint spiraled into poverty and fiscal crisis, culminating in the state appointment of an emergency managera move that didnt prevent a treatment failure in the water system, which contaminated the citys water with lead and made Flint a national symbol of failed urban governance. Other cities, ranging from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Youngstown, Ohio, have struggled as well with severe economic and fiscal stress, along with entrenched poverty. Large swaths of rural and small-town areas continue to suffer from an epidemic of opioids, involving both prescription and illegal drugs. According to an investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, drug companies shipped nearly 800 million opioid pain pills into the state between 2007 and 2012more than 9 million of them to one pharmacy in the town of Kermit (population 392) alone. Scott County, Indiana, made national news after an HIV epidemic related to needle sharing, with 203 new cases in about 18 months in a county home to only about 25,000 people. Though the opioid crisis affects urban areas, too, some of the hardest-hit places heavily overlap with Appalachia. Some heartland northern cities remain hyper-segregated, with working-class and poor black residents often isolated in dysfunctional neighborhoods and inner suburbs. Abandoning a region that they once flocked to for economic opportunity, many blacks are returning to the South, this time to its urban centers. So yes, the portrait of heartland despair holds a great deal of truthbut it tells an incomplete story. Substantial portions of the nations interior are doing well. Whats more, just as macroeconomic forces such as technological innovation and globalization have undermined the interior, other factors are working in its favor. These include structural housing-cost advantages, new-economy strongholds, and strength and dynamism in old-economy sectors. In short, Americas interior has significant potential for reinventionbut not without pain. As life on the coasts becomes increasingly unaffordable, the heartlands foremost advantage is livability at reasonable prices. Its communities remain pro-growth. Major coastal cities and states have become infamous for placing restrictions on developmentwhether housing, infrastructure, or commercial space. Overregulation has sent housing prices soaring, pricing out most new residents unless they earn high incomes or enjoy some kind of special deal, such as a below-market subsidized apartment. Absent major housing reform, New York City and San Francisco, with their populations at record highs, are essentially full. As a result, population growth in coastal cities has lagged. Of the 15 fastest-growing major metro areas since 2010, only one, Seattle, is a coastal city. Limited urban land and anti-sprawl, anti-development politics make it unlikely that these places will solve their affordability and growth challenges anytime soon. Growth is moving to the nations interior. Certain regions are already showing the signs. In the Mountain West, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Boise are growing fast. Major cities in Texas and the central plainsDallas, Oklahoma City, Des Moines, and othersare also expanding, as are parts of the Southeast. The Midwest on the whole has not kept up, but cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, are thriving. And a number of older, northern midwestern citiessuch as Cincinnati and Milwaukeecould, if redeveloped, provide an alternative to overflowing coastal centers. Most now possess the amenities once unavailable except on the coasts, whether its top-quality coffee, local microbrews, fresh farm produce, exceptional restaurantsor, with the advent of Uber and Lyft, de facto cab service. Heartland universities boast critical strengths. Pittsburghs Carnegie Mellon University hosts the nations top-ranked computer-science department. Business schools at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago are among Americas top-ranked. The interior is also home to elite medical facilities like the Mayo and Cleveland Clinics. Some heartland communities also maintain dominant positions in more traditional and old economy sectors. Some heartland cities have become new-economy strongholds. Downtown employment is at an all-time high in Chicago, which boasts key strengths in finance and professional services, along with an emerging technology clusternotwithstanding the citys grave fiscal problems. (See Chicagos Debt Dereliction.) Detroit is crowded with engineers. Nashville is a major health-care center and also a creative capital, thanks to its music industry. Drawn in part by low costs, coastally based companies have set up shop in the interiorJPMorgan Chase employs more than 20,000 in Columbus, Ohio, for example, and Indianapolis is the second-largest hub for San Franciscobased tech giant Salesforce.com. Beyond knowledge-economy industries, some heartland communities also maintain dominant positions in more traditional and old economy sectors: manufacturing, logistics, energy and natural resources, and agricultureindustries that often provide a critical source of employment for many without traditional college degrees. Detroit remains the center of the North American auto industry, for example, even if it employs far fewer factory workers than it once did. Virtually every major global auto-parts supplier has its North American headquarters in Detroit. Houston is the global capital of the energy industry. For all the virtualization of our world, we still need food, energy, and physical products. (See Brawn in an Age of Brains, The Shape of Work to Come, 2017.) We can either grow and produce them here or import them from elsewhere. Even the most committed globalist might be troubled by a world in which the U.S. completely outsourced food production and manufacturing. This is the premise of Michael Lind and Joel Kotkins Report on the New American Heartland (to which I was a minor contributor), which points out that while many new products, especially those involving technology, will be designed on the coasts, they will be manufacturedwhen thats done domesticallyin the nations interior. U.S. manufacturing jobs are down about 30 percent since 2000, in part because this sector continually improves its efficiency, with labor productivity growing robustly and industrial production having rebounded from the recession. The coasts retain significant manufacturing, especially in cities like Seattle; but on the whole, coastal manufacturing has underperformed. Since 2000, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston have lost a higher share of their manufacturing jobs than has Detroit. The heartland also plays a key role in the nations logistics. The American interiors rail lines, highways, pipelines, and inland waterways distribute natural resources and agricultural and manufactured products across the country. The often-overlooked Gulf Coast is increasingly critical, especially at major ports in Houston and New Orleans, with their recent evolution into export hubs for liquefied natural gas. The interior is home to some of Americas most important hubs for air travel, in Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta, and air freight, in Memphis, Louisville, and Indianapolis. Here, as with manufacturing, new technologiesin this case, driverless trucks and increasing warehouse automationthreaten some existing employment, but logistics will remain a key industry. While American coal production is declining, oil and natural gas are booming, thanks to the fracking revolutiona heartland success story. Employment booms in North Dakotas fracking fields sent local wages soaring, with even Walmart paying over $17 per hour in some areas. A highly cyclical business, energy remains an important part of many states economies. Finally, the interior remains Americas breadbasket, a major exporter of products like corn and soybeansand thus, a central player not only in U.S. food production but also in feeding the global population. U.S. farm production leads the world in many food categories. New technologies, like GPS data and driverless tractors, will only enhance the American advantage. In this environment, some cities success stands out. Columbus, Indiana, is one. Home to the headquarters of Cummins Engine, a Fortune 500 company, Columbus (2016 population: 46,850) has flourished, even as it remains manufacturing-dependent. Starting in the 1950s, J. Irwin Miller, CEO of Cummins and owner of Columbuss largest bank, invested in an architectural program that brought international renown to the city. The Cummins Foundation, the companys nonprofit charitable organization, would pay the architectural fees for public buildings if the city agreed to pick from Millers list of architects. The result: a collection of landmark buildings by a Whos Who of renowned architects, such as Eero Saarinen, Cesar Pelli, and I. M. Pei. Today, Columbus enjoys strong job and population growth. Its home to 20 factories owned by Japanese companies, such as Toyota, NTN, and Enkei. Firms based in Germany, China, and France also run factories there, as does Canadian-based Dorel, which is relocating its operations for manufacturing childrens car seats to the city, from China. Quality of life is excellent. Columbus has managed to attract highly educated immigrants despite being a small manufacturing city. And it continues to make national news for its civic initiatives. It was recently featured in a film, Columbus, and profiled in the New York Times for a new art program, Exhibit Columbus. Oklahoma City is another high-achiever. Formerly a backwater, the city was forced to regroup after the energy-market collapse of the 1980s, during which it lost out, over quality-of-life issues, on a major United Airlines facilitynot to a coastal city but to rival Indianapolis. It then embarked on a series of improvement initiatives called MAPS (metropolitan area projects) to improve downtown, build parks, add sidewalks, and renovate or replace the citys schools. The 1995 federal building bombing was a major blow, but civic unity helped the city rebuild. Nowadays, Oklahoma City is making the transition to becoming a major American city. Oklahoma Citys model is more typical than Columbuss. The cities that have adapted have tended to be larger regions with more than 1 million people. Successful smaller cities are usually state capitals, college towns, the largest city in small states, or possessed of some other unique asset. What should smaller, purely industrial cities like Youngstown or Flint do, especially when they lack such assets? First, political leaders across the interior should protect the regions crucial industries. This cannot be taken for granted: the coasts are hostile to old-economy businesses. Coastal-based activists want to end industrial agriculture and stop energy development. New York governor Andrew Cuomo has banned fracking. California is also refusing to develop its own vast oil resources. When Democrats like Hillary Clinton say, Were going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, people should take them at their word. Second, the region must address its own serious problemsamong them racial segregation, fiscal mismanagement, and drug abuse. Many of these woes are self-inflicted. Nobody forced Illinois to become arguably the most corrupt state in the union and a financial wreck. Coastal elites did not impose segregation on Milwaukee. Problems like these need to be solved locally, though some, like drugs, are national in scope. Cultural attitudes can also be crippling, particularly in the Rust Belt and rural areas. Theres a deep hostility to change and often an active suppression of the pursuit of excellence. In some communities, young people find their college ambitions squelched. Other communities have seen so little influx of newcomers that theyve become culturally narrow and unwelcoming to outsiders, making it hard to build social networks in these insular places. Changing this social trait wont be easyyet it is, arguably, essential to all future change. The fact that the civic attitude in Columbus, Indiana, is so different from that of much of the Midwest is a key reason that it has outperformed. Third, the region needs to develop its human capital. Todays manufacturing jobs often require computer or other technical skills, for example, so communities need labor-force training programs to help workers develop advanced skills in these sectors. The knowledge-worker labor force also needs upgrades. The heartland suffers because of the superstar effect. In todays world, the spoils often go to the very top of the hierarchy. The heartland is too often good, even very good, but not the best. An exception that proves the rule is Carnegie Mellon Universitys computer-science department, which attracted companies like Uber and Google to set up shop in Pittsburgh. The heartland needs to develop more such leading departments in its universities and attract some top talent. To do that, changes in cultural attitudes will be crucial. Finally, the nations interior regions need to find ways to innovate in new, next-generation industries and technologies. The fracking revolution is an example of a homegrown technology disruption that developed local wealth and jobs, while having a global impact on energy prices. Until the heartland can start leading with some of its own innovative industries and technologies, it will always be in a reactive position. It needs to learn how to play offense, not just defense. These challenges will be especially difficult for places hit hard by decades of deindustrialization and suffering from corresponding social problems. Yet the interior of the country, Americas heartland, is far from being a wasteland. Many sections are prospering already, and many structural advantages, such as pro-growth development policies, will keep working to their benefit. In sum, the interior has real potential to extend or rebuild its past successes. To help ensure the future of the American dream for those who cant liveor dont wish to livein the coastal metropolises, its important that it succeeds. Photo: Thriving Columbus, Indiana, has won a reputation for its architecture: pictured here, Isaac Hodgsons Bartholomew County Courthouse, completed in 1874; and Maryann Thompsons Veterans Memorial, built in 1997. (MIKE BRINER/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO) Over the summer, Republicans in the Senate issued a threat that was really a promise: that they wouldnt vote to raise the US debt ceiling, an artificial borrowing cap that is a peculiarly American tradition. They cited Democrats current spending plans, which was disingenuous, given that the need for a hike was a function of debt already incurrednot least in the Trump era, during which Democrats repeatedly joined Republicans in voting to raise the ceiling. At the end of July, a 2019 agreement to suspend the ceiling expired, forcing the Treasury Department to use extraordinary measures to meet Americas obligations, and raising the specter of default sometime in October or November. The story was quickly subsumed by the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Congressional negotiations around Bidens agenda, and other big news; then, last month, it inched up the news cycle again, as Republicans not only refused to vote to raise the debt ceiling but also blocked Democrats from doing so unilaterally without resorting to reconciliation, a time-consuming budget process involving big numbers that might look scary on campaign literature. This week, with other Congressional business stalled and the default date pegged at October 18, coverage again kicked up a notch. CNN put a COUNTDOWN TO DEBT LIMIT CLOCK on screen. The 2013 energy was off the scale. As the story intensified, numerous media watchers savaged major news organizations for framing it not as a Republican-contrived crisis but a showdown or stalemate for which both sides were responsible, including coverage that lamented President Bidens failure to negotiate with Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, even after McConnell explicitly told Biden that Republicans have no list of demands apart from that Democrats handle the debt limit alone. On his blog, Press Watch, Dan Froomkin wrote that such coverage itself channeled 2013, when major outlets indulged similar false balance (bitter budget standoff; failure to reach agreement) in coverage of a government shutdown; numerous observers, meanwhile, took particular issue with a headline in the New York Times asserting that Americas Need to Pay Its Bills Has Spawned a Political Game. Josh Marshall, of Talking Points Memo, took aim at the media assumption that Republicans break things and Democrats clean up after them. He elaborated on CNN: None of us tend to focus on the things we take for granted This happens every few years, so its taken for granted. ICYMI: Whistleblower turns up the heat on Facebook and Instagram James Fallows, a longtime press critic and contributing writer at The Atlantic, was so concerned by the prospect of a default and the medias framing of it that he posted regular updates on Substack in which he assessed the clarity of coverage in asserting Republican culpability for the situation, linked to good and bad examples, and quoted from The Great Gatsby and Plutarch to underscore his point. (The latter quoted the philosopher Bion of Borysthenes as saying: Boys throw stones at frogs in fun. But the frogs do not die in fun, but in earnest.) As September came to a close with Republicans still dug in, Fallows observed, in hopeful terms, that media framing appeared to be edging away from presenting the debt-limit prospect as Oh, another impasse in Washington toward this is an intentional Republican threat. But his optimism wouldnt last. Yesterday, after McConnell agreed to let Democrats vote to raise the debt ceiling, but only through December, Fallows criticized swathes of the press for responding with a sigh of relief to the standoff being resolveda framing that, in his view, risked normalizing the Republicans tactics. Again, Fallows wasnt the only critic of such coverage. We are *this* close, Froomkin wrote, to headlines declaring McConnell, Democrats, save nation from crisis. The dealand the vote yesterday to execute it, which saw eleven Republicans vote with every Democrat to overcome a filibuster and no Republicans vote with every Democrat to raise the debt ceiling itselfwas also framed, in much coverage, as the Senate taking action following a climbdown from McConnell, who, we were told, had blinked, caved, and other verbs to that effect. This notion trickled down, in part, from a political narrative with bipartisan backing, as Democrats lined up to claim victory over McConnell, and hostile Republicansled by, who else, Donald Trumplined up to ridicule McConnell for capitulating. According to various news reports, McConnell may have allowed a vote primarily out of concern that the conservative Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who are normally staunch opponents of filibuster reform, were prepared to abolish its use for debt ceiling votes; Politico said that the politics of filibuster preservation enticed McConnell to play dealmaker rather than obstructionist for the second time this year, the other being his support for Bidens bipartisan infrastructure bill as he tried to show anti-filibuster Democrats that bipartisanship was still possible. Some of this framing, too, was questionable: it was Senate Democrats, not the Senate, that raised the ceiling; all Republicansand a minority of them at thatdid was get out of the way. And the vote served only to kick the can not very far down the road, with McConnell still insistent that Democrats must use reconciliation in the longer term. Some dealmaker. Much of this weeks coverage has emphasized the short-term nature of the vote. Rachel Martin said on NPR that she didnt understand why delaying this whole thing for a couple of months is helpful; Alayna Treene, a Congressional reporter for Axios, described the deal on Twitter as a temporary bandaid, to which Seung Min Kim, a White House reporter at the Washington Post, responded that it was more like the scrap of kleenex that you found lying around that you have to use because you cant find a band-aid anywhere in your house. (Kim was also overheard near the Senate chamber saying, Everything about this is so dumb. No disagreement there.) Not that such acknowledgements fixed the framing issues identified by Fallows et al; ultimately, the deal probably just kicked those down the road, too. I suspect Ill be seeing you all again in December. Sign up for CJR 's daily email For now, McConnell himself has suggested that Democrats shouldnt celebrate the debt vote; if anything, he just pushed a reckless anti-Democrat stunt closer both to the holidays and next years midterms, neither of which are synonymous with public tolerance of perceived dysfunction. In the immediate term, it might be true that McConnell blinked, but its a stretch to characterize this as a defeat for himhe contrived a crisis practically from thin air, succeeded in wasting our time with it, and got to keep the filibuster, which is one huge, ongoing Republican victory. This, of course, is not a new playbook for McConnell; the press cant stop it, but it could stop covering for his contrived stances by framing them, as Fallows notes, as things that just kinda happened. Each time we do, the ground underneath political journalism shifts in a direction that, ultimately, favors Republicans. The relevant frog parable here is the one where they boil. Below, more on the debt ceiling and coverage of Republicans: Hurricane season: In 2017, Brooke Gladstone, of WNYCs On The Media, spoke with Zachary Karabell, an analyst of economics among other topics, about press coverage of the debt ceiling. This week, the show re-aired the episode in light of the current news. For years, the media have treated the perennial debt ceiling debate like hurricane season, Gladstone said. When will calamity strike? Whats the projected damage? Why do we have to keep reliving this crisis in the first place? In 2017, Brooke Gladstone, of WNYCs On The Media, spoke with Zachary Karabell, an analyst of economics among other topics, about press coverage of the debt ceiling. This week, the show re-aired the episode in light of the current news. For years, the media have treated the perennial debt ceiling debate like hurricane season, Gladstone said. When will calamity strike? Whats the projected damage? Why do we have to keep reliving this crisis in the first place? The audience: Neal Rothschild, of Axios, mapped public interest in the debt ceiling over time by analyzing search trends on Google; interest spiked in 2011 and 2013, and was on its way to matching the latter years level when McConnell allowed a vote. This week, debt limit stories have generated more social media interactions (likes, comments, shares) than those about the California oil spill, Squid Game and Tom Brady, per NewsWhip data, Rothschild added. Over the last couple days, the story has attracted as much interest as the Gabby Petito case. Neal Rothschild, of Axios, mapped public interest in the debt ceiling over time by analyzing search trends on Google; interest spiked in 2011 and 2013, and was on its way to matching the latter years level when McConnell allowed a vote. This week, debt limit stories have generated more social media interactions (likes, comments, shares) than those about the California oil spill, Squid Game and Tom Brady, per NewsWhip data, Rothschild added. Over the last couple days, the story has attracted as much interest as the Gabby Petito case. The coup: Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee published a report on Trumps coup attempt after losing the election. It concluded that Trump tried nine times to get his Justice Department to undermine the results; Republicans on the committee rebutted this finding on the grounds that a coup didnt end up happening, a stance the political journalist Olivier Knox likened, on CNN, to the Sideshow Bob defense. Also on CNN, Jake Tapper pressed Dick Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee, on what Democrats plan to do to avert the possible threat of a coup in the future. Durbins answers, as Tapper suggested, were not especially reassuring. Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee published a report on Trumps coup attempt after losing the election. It concluded that Trump tried nine times to get his Justice Department to undermine the results; Republicans on the committee rebutted this finding on the grounds that a coup didnt end up happening, a stance the political journalist Olivier Knox likened, on CNN, to the Sideshow Bob defense. Also on CNN, Jake Tapper pressed Dick Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee, on what Democrats plan to do to avert the possible threat of a coup in the future. Durbins answers, as Tapper suggested, were not especially reassuring. In Windsor, Veritas?: Trip Gabriel, of the Times, profiled Lauren Windsor, a liberal activist who approaches senior Republicans posing as an ideological ally and films the resulting exchanges. Windsor calls herself an advocacy journalist, though her methods fall beyond the pale of mainstream journalism, where reporters generally shy away from assuming false identities and secretly recording conversations, Gabriel writes. She says her stings are justified by Republicans efforts to spread disinformation about the election. Windsor also defended herself against comparisons to the right-wing sting group Project Veritas; indeed, Project Veritas once infiltrated a liberal group tied to her. Some news from the home front: Steve Coll will step down as dean of Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Journalism at the end of this academic year, after nine years in the role. When I joined the J-School, Facebook seemed benign if disruptive; BuzzFeed and Vice looked like juggernauts of news; and many of us worried about the future of public interest reporting, Coll said, in a note to staff. Weve been on quite a journey since then. Kyle Pope, CJRs editor and publisher, praised Coll as an enormous advocate for CJR, adding that having someone with his journalistic chops as our enthusiastic adviser has been invaluable. All of this to say that I, and CJR, will miss him. Other notable stories: ICYMI: Watch the 2021 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop. 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. JOHANNESBURG, South Africas Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled Santam is liable to cover the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on hotel group Ma-Afrika for 18 months, rejecting the insurers request for a shorter time frame on the claim, Santam said on Thursday. Globally, firms like Ma-Afrika have been fighting insurers rejection of claims made under their business interruption policies after they were forced to close as the pandemic took hold. In South Africa, insurers said their policies did not cover national lockdowns. The court had already ruled Santam was liable to pay Ma-Afrikas claim. Santam accepted the ruling but appealed the indemnity period, arguing it should only be liable for three months. Santam noted Thursdays decision, adding that it also affects certain policies structured similarly to the one held by Ma-Afrika but that these made up less than a third of the 3,200 such claims it had received. Santam will now finalize the claims that are directly impacted by the judgment, it continued. It did not expect any changes to an estimate made in June that claims would cost it 1.7 billion rand, based on those it had already settled and what it could recoup via reinsurance, it added. The insurer has already made 2.1 billion rand in payments related to such claims. Insurance Claims Africa (ICA), a loss adjuster representing Ma-Afrika and other firms fighting with their insurers over the matter, said in a statement that Ma-Afrika had won the final stretch of the battle with Santam. The courts decision in this matter is crucial for thousands of Santams business interruption policy holders, ICA CEO Ryan Wooley said. The case has been closely watched by affected firms and insurers across the industry and is seen as providing broad clarity on insurers obligations on the matter in South Africa. WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department is poised to sue government contractors and other companies who receive U.S. government grants if they fail to report breaches of their computer systems or misrepresent their cybersecurity practices, the departments No. 2 official said Wednesday. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the department is prepared to take action under a statute called the False Claims Act that permits the government to file lawsuits over misused federal funds. The Justice Department will also protect whistleblowers who come forward to report those issues, she said. For too long, companies have chosen silence under the mistaken belief that its less risky to hide a breach than to bring it forward and to report it. Well, that changes today, Monaco said. The action, unveiled at the Aspen Cyber Summit, is aimed at contractors who fail to report hacks or who knowingly provide deficient cybersecurity products. Its an outgrowth of an ongoing Justice Department cyber policy review, and is also part of a broader Biden administrative effort to incentivize contractors and private companies to share information with the government about breaches and to bolster their own cybersecurity defenses. Officials have repeatedly spoken of the need for better private sector engagement as the government confronts a surge in ransomware attacks that in the last year have targeted critical infrastructure and major corporations. The measure underscores the extent to which the government views cyberattacks as not just harmful to an individual company but also to the American public in general, especially given recent attacks against a major fuel pipeline and meat processor. Where those who are entrusted with government dollars, who are entrusted to work on sensitive government systems, fail to follow required cybersecurity standards, were going to go after that behavior and extract very hefty fines, Monaco said. Monaco also announced the creation of a new cryptocurrency enforcement team within the department drawing from experts in cybersecurity and money laundering aimed at destabilizing the financial ecosystem that drives ransomware attacks and the criminal hacking gangs behind them. The action follows Treasury Department sanctions last month against a Russia-based virtual currency brokerage that officials say helped at least eight ransomware gangs launder virtual currency. Monacos appearance came hours after the publication of a CNBC opinion piece in which she urged Congress to pass legislation creating a national standard for the reporting of significant cyber incidents so that information about digital attacks can be quickly disseminated across the federal government. Most breaches, she wrote, are not reported to law enforcement. The current gap in reporting hinders the governments ability to combat not just the ransomware threat, but all cybercriminal activity, Monaco wrote. It means we go at it alone, without key insights from our partners in the private sector, and it needs to change, today. Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday that new regulations are coming for railroads and transit entities. Mayorkas said the Transportation Security Administration this year will issue a security directive that will require railroads and transit entities to comply with new regulations similar to ones issued in May for pipeline operators following the Colonial Pipeline hack that disrupted gas supplies in several states. What the secretary called higher risk railroads and transit entities will be required to identify a cyber security point person, report incidents to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and develop a contingency and recovery plan in case of malicious cyber activity. Those deemed low risk will be subjected to guidance that encourages them to take those measures but dont require it, Mayorkas said in remarks to the Billington Cybersecurity Summit. He did not specify which railroads or transit entities were in either category. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Florida property insurance community was abuzz this week after word got out that a closely watched complaint about some public adjusters apparent conflicts of interest had been withdrawn. The head of investigations for Universal Property & Casualty Insurance, one of the largest homeowners carriers in Florida, in July filed the petition for a declaratory statement with the Florida Department of Financial Services. The petition gave examples of public adjusters who, it said, were directing repair and restoration work to companies owned by family members. The petition asked DFS to clarify what may constitute a conflict of interest under Florida statutes. I am seeking clarification from the department in determining the scope of the definition of directly or indirectly as stated in Florida Statute 626.8795 prohibition of conflict of interest, wrote David Dominguez, special investigations unit manager for Universal. In addition, what recourse does the insurance carrier have regarding the demand for payment being made by a vendor who submitted their invoice for service under an AOB (assignment of benefits) or DTP (direction to pay). Finally, insurance industry advocates said at the time, regulators will have little choice but to crack down on the public adjuster problem, which some say has led to exorbitant property claims, extensive litigation, and rising premiums for homeowners. These shenanigans have been going on for a while, and people want to know what DFS is doing to stop it, said Scott Johnson, a Tallahassee lobbyist and former vice president at the Florida Association of Insurance Agents. When all of an adjusters claims to go a company thats owned by her son, thats not the spirit of the law. But many were surprised when the DFS posted a small notice on the Florida Administrative Register recently, saying that Universals petition had been withdrawn. No explanation was given. The withdrawal was made on Sept. 16, but few in the industry appeared to realize it until this week. Dominguez could not be reached for comment about what was behind the cancellation. But Travis Miller, an attorney for Universal, told the Insurance Journal that the carrier felt that the concerns were better addressed in another forum. The DFS petition route historically has been used to address questions that an insurer has about its own actions in the future, not about other companies current practices, Miller said. It came down to what is the right avenue for this, Miller said Wednesday. He said Universal hopes that DFS, headed by Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis, will take the information and continue to investigate what appears to be a pattern of some adjusters having conflicts. Meanwhile, the carrier will scrutinize its claims on a case-by-case basis and may pursue fraud allegations through the DFS investigations and fraud unit. Miller said no one from the state agency had asked that the petition be withdrawn. Universals own audit of claims, which led to the petition, has been very instructive, he noted, and may yet lead to further action. Other carriers have seen what to do and may follow suit, he suggested. A spokesman for DFS said only that the petition had been withdrawn at Millers request. Still, industry observers are scratching their heads over the withdrawal. Johnson, who blogs regularly about Florida insurance issues, said he had not heard back from Universal about the reason for the petition cancellation. But he wondered if the matter had been withdrawn because the carrier wasnt seeing the action or answers it had hoped for. Public adjusting has been a huge issue in Florida for years. While insurance agents have said that some public adjusters provide homeowners with needed relief when a carrier undervalues repairs or makes a mistake, insurers also have said that a few adjusters have produced sky-high replacement claims, assigning work to contractors with whom they have a financial relationship. We see conflicts of interest, yes, said Mary Jordan, owner of Gulf Coast Insurance, an agency in Pensacola, Florida. After hurricanes strike a coastal area, billboards often appear across the landscape, advertising public adjusters who will get full payment on claims or three times what the insurance company adjuster will offer. Insurance agents have told stories about adjusters who present an attractive package to damaged homeowners, saying theyll take care of everything. But the stressed homeowner may not realize that the adjusters claim to the insurer is twice as high as what was quoted or that the adjusters wife or brother is getting the work, agents have said. Insurance companies cant keep up, with the inflated claims and litigation that have resulted from Floridas broken regulatory environment, said Lauren Menuey, managing director for Goosehead Insurance, a regional insurance agency. Citizens Property Insurance, Floridas rapidly growing insurer of last resort, also expressed worries about the reported practices. The concern is that there is collusion, and we certainly cant support that, said Michael Peltier, chief of communications for Citizens. The Florida Legislature earlier this year approved Senate Bill 1598, which was signed into law. It prohibits contractors and others from filing claims for policyholders unless they are licensed as adjusters. It also strengthened the Department of Financial Services authority to pursue administration action and impose fines. The Legislature made some changes but not enough on this specific issue, Johnson said. Other states have gone further. New York now requires public adjusters to disclose their financial interests and bans them from requiring an insured to use a specific contractor. The Florida law that Universal referred to in its petition has been on the books for some time. Statute 626.8795 reads: A public adjuster may not participate, directly or indirectly, in the reconstruction, repair, or restoration of damaged property that is the subject of a claim adjusted by the licensee; may not engage in any other activities that may be reasonably construed as a conflict of interest, including soliciting or accepting any remuneration from, of any kind or nature, directly or indirectly; and may not have a financial interest in any salvage, repair, or any other business entity that obtains business in connection with any claim that the public adjuster has a contract or an agreement to adjust. Universals Dominguez said he audited two years of claims, 2019 through 2021, and found multiple adjusters in Florida who have cozy relationships with water mitigation and remediation providers. He named three of them. On one, Capital Claims Public Adjusters, in Miami, the principal is the mother of the owner of Emergency Remediation Services, Dominguez said in his petition. In 100% of claims in which Emergency Remediation was the contractor, Capital Claims was the adjuster, the petition contends. On another, Superior Insurance Claim Consultants of Miami, the principal is married to the principal at Restoration Heroes. In 96% of claims in which Restoration was the contractor, Claim Consultants was the adjuster, Dominguez said. His petition argues that similar relationships have affected hundreds, perhaps thousands of Florida homeowners. The owners of those firms did not return phone calls from the Insurance Journal by late Wednesday. The Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters president released a statement. Were following the issue very closely, but it would be inappropriate to comment until the matter is resolved, Karen Schifmiller said. What I can tell you is that FAPIAs position has always been that conflicts of interest should not exist because they diminish consumer confidence in the insurance claim process. FAPIA has in fact successfully lobbied for anti-conflict of interest language that is now state law (defined in FS 626.8795). The groups website notes that member public adjusters subscribe to a code of ethics and that much of the inflated costs in Florida are the result of unlicensed adjusters and unscrupulous contractors. FAPIA believes there is a direct relationship between the increased frequency in unlicensed activity and the perpetual need for increases in insurance premiums, the associations site reads. Implementing greater statutory prohibitions pertaining to unlicensed activity, and instituting a clearer process for enforcement, will provide policyholders greater availability to alternative insurance options at affordable rates. A spokesman for DFS said the department is focused on fighting insurance fraud that drives up rates, and encourages stakeholders to report fraud at MyFloridaCFO.com/Division/DIFS. HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) A massive cargo ship made a series of unusual movements while anchored in the closest spot to a Southern California oil pipeline that ruptured and sent crude washing up on beaches, according to data collected by a marine navigation service. The Coast Guard is investigating whether a ship anchor might have snagged and bent the pipeline owned by Amplify Energy, a Houston-based company that operates three offshore oil platforms south of Los Angeles. The Associated Press reviewed more than two weeks of data from MarineTraffic, a navigation service that tracks radio signals from transponders that broadcast the locations of ships and large boats every few minutes. That data shows the Rotterdam Express, a German-flagged ship nearly 1,000 feet (305 meters) long, was assigned to anchorage SF-3, the closest to where the pipeline ruptured off Huntington Beach. The ship made three unusual movements over two days that appear to put it over the pipeline. In a statement to AP, Hapag-Lloyd, the shipping company that operates the Rotterdam Express, denied any role in the spill. A U.S. official told the AP on Wednesday that the Rotterdam Express has become a focus of the spill investigation. The official cautioned the ship is only one lead being pursued in the investigation, which is in the early stages. The investigators are seeking to collect tracking and navigational information from the vessel that could help them identify its exact movements, the official said. They are also seeking preliminary interviews with at least some crew members. The official could not discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier, a Coast Guard spokesperson, declined to comment on the Rotterdam Express but said the agency is analyzing electric charting systems from its vessel traffic service to see what ships were anchored or moving over the spill area. The MarineTraffic data shows the Rotterdam Express arrived outside the Port of Long Beach early on Sept. 22 and dropped anchor about 2,000 feet (610 meters) from the pipeline. The following day, at about 5 p.m., the data for the ships locator beacon indicated that while anchored it suddenly moved thousands of feet to the southeast, a track that would have taken it over the pipeline lying on the seafloor about 100 feet (30 meters) below. The ship appears to have then engaged its engines to return to its anchorage about 10 minutes later. The ship then moved again around midnight and a third time shortly before 8 a.m. on Sept. 23, each time moving back to its assigned anchorage, according to its online location data. The Rotterdam Express remained at spot SF-3 until Sunday, when it moved into the port to unload. The first report of oil in the water near the pipeline were made Friday evening. Amplify said the pipeline was shut down early Saturday morning but has not said how long it believes oil flowed from it. Amplifys CEO Martyn Willsher said Tuesday divers determined a 4,000-feet (1,219-meter) section of the pipeline was dislodged 105 feet (32 meters), bent back like the string on a bow. Oil escaped through a slender crack. The amount is unclear. Amplify has said publicly that no more than 126,000 gallons (476,962 liters) leaked but told federal investigators it may be only 29,400 gallons (111,291 liters). AP first contacted Hapag-Lloyd on Tuesday evening, seeking an explanation for the ships movements on Sept. 22 and 23. Nils Haupt, a spokesman at its headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, denied in an email Wednesday that the ship ever moved off anchor from spot SF-3 during that period. He said the transponder data displayed by MarineTraffic is erroneous. We have proof by the logbook, which is updated hourly, that the vessel did not move, Haupt said. MarineTraffic in this case is wrong and the position is indeed incorrect. Haupt said Hapag-Lloyd would cooperate with any investigation. On Wednesday morning, AP sent an email that included a screenshot of the Rotterdam Express movements as indicated on MarineTraffic to the Unified Command Joint Information?Center for state and federal agencies responding to the oil spill. Senior Chief Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen said the command was unable to discuss matters involving an ongoing investigation. Nikolas?Xiros, a professor of marine engineering at the University of New Orleans, said it would be highly unlikely that the transponder data for a ship, which works through a global network called the Automatic Identification System, would be off by several thousand feet. AIS transporters are very accurate and the whole system is also very accurate, Xiros said after reviewing the location track for Rotterdam Express. I think probably the ship moved, thats what I think. And with the anchor down, which was a big problem. Xiros, who has spent more than two decades teaching marine navigation and electronics to future ship captains and crew, said the only alternative explanation he could think of was that either someone had hacked the AIS system to make the Rotterdam Express appear to move or that the ships transmitter somehow became unfastened from its mast, fell in the water and drifted away before being retrieved by the crew, only to have it come unfastened two more times. Xiros said he could provide no reasonable explanation for why the ship might have moved so far off its assigned station. Records show relatively calm weather and seas during the days in question. There is a series of peculiar things and all that need to be explained, Xiros said. It may very well be some kind of an accident, but not necessarily a human error. We will have to see. But . I think he most probable explanation is the ship with anchor down moved both back and forth and possibly caused damage to the pipeline. If a ships anchor were to become entangled with an underwater obstacle such as a communications cable or petroleum pipeline, the operator is required by federal law to notify the Coast Guard. The locations and movements of ships are also regularly monitored by both the AIS system and radar, according to the Coast Guard. Xiros said if he were investigating the cause of the oil spill, he would seek to review the digital logs for both location and engine operations aboard the Rotterdam Express. According to MarineTraffic data, the ship left Long Beach on Monday for the Port of Oakland, where it was moored at a dock Wednesday night. Associated Press writer Michael Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report. About the photo: The Rotterdam Express is seen at the Port of Oakland, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021 in Oakland, Calif. The Rotterdam Express, a massive cargo ship made a series of unusual movements while anchored in the closest spot to a Southern California oil pipeline that ruptured and sent crude washing up on beaches, according to data collected by a marine navigation service. (AP Photo/Josh Edelson) Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The opening night production of Sweeney Todd has been halted and Ive been sitting in the sixth-row seating of the Hedley Theatre for about an hour now. After the gruesome murder that took place mid-production in front of sickened North Coast Theater board members and five hundred shocked Thriftique Showrooms 85th anniversary sale WHAT: Featuring discounts, raffles (for $85 gift cards) and other surprises throughout the day. WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 3-5 WHERE: 5055 Richmond Road, Bedford Heights Nottingham on the Bluff is one of three apartment complexes that a Wisconsin company purchased in Clinton last month. The new owners plan to put $3 million into this complex, Nottingham on the Hill and Hawthorne Woods. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 7) - International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan, who's leading the probe into the Duterte administration's controversial drug war, vows to work towards a successful investigation, even as the Philippine government maintained its refusal to cooperate. In a statement on Thursday, Khan said their investigation into the alleged crimes committed in the anti-drug campaign will "seek to uncover the truth" and hold perpetrators accountable. "We will focus our efforts on ensuring a successful, independent and impartial investigation," he said. "In doing so, we aim to bring justice to the victims and affected communities, and count on the support and cooperation of States Parties, civil society and other partners," Khan added. The prosecutor said they remain willing to "constructively engage" with Philippine authorities as they undertake the work. The Duterte administration has insisted the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines since it withdrew from the Rome Statute - the treaty that established the court - on March 17, 2019. But the ICC said it retains jurisdiction over the alleged crimes committed while the country was still a member. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has said he believes with the absence of cooperation from the government, there likely won't be enough progress to even bring the case to trial. Roque added that while the Philippines previously consented to being a member of the tribunal, it will only acknowledge the ICC's jurisdiction if the country's justice system is no longer working - something he said isn't the case. Last month, the ICC's pre-trial chamber found reasonable basis to proceed with the investigation into the killings committed during the drug war from July 1, 2016 to March 16, 2019, as well as in Davao City - by what is known as the Davao Death Squad - between Nov. 1, 2011 to June 30, 2016. The chamber said it reviewed 204 victims' representations, adding that 94% of the victims were in favor of the probe. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) Hospitals can procure COVID-19 drug Ronapreve on their own through compassionate special permit pending a recommendation from the Department of Health (DOH) for its use, the agency's spokesperson said on Friday. 'Pag wala pa ho tayong (If there is still no) recommendation from DOH, they can use it through the compassionate special permit, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media forum. Ronapreve is the first COVID-19 drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use in the country. Currently, licensed medicines for other diseases are being used off-label to treat COVID-19 in the Philippines. It is recommended for patients aged 12 and above who have mild to moderate coronavirus symptoms, FDA Director-General Eric Domingo earlier told CNN Philippines. It could reduce the risk of hospitalization and death due to COVID-19 by at least 70%. It is best given within 10 days from the onset of symptoms, the FDA chief said. The drug is administered through intravenous infusion, he added. But despite the conditional regulatory approval, Vergeire noted the DOH experts will still assess whether the government will recommend the use of the new drug and negotiate for its supply. "Ito po ay pinagaaralan ng ating mga experto kung ito ay makakabuti dito sa paggagamot natin ng COVID-19," she said. [Translation: This drug is being studied by our experts to know if it would help us treat COVID-19.] Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) Detained Senator Leila de Lima is seeking reelection under the opposition's senatorial slate. Lawyer Dino de Leon submitted the senators certificate of candidacy on Friday, the last day of filing. "I would have liked it very much to personally file my own Certificate of Candidacy for re-election as Senator of the Republic but, of course, my present situation prevents me from doing so," De Lima said in a statement. "Together with VP Leni and under her leadership, I and the other candidates of the Liberal Party and our allies, continue to represent the opposition in this country," she added. "We present the people an alternative to the criminal government that now governs us in the most perverted sense, an alternative that should have been a continuity administration of peace, stability, and progress in 2016." De Lima is part of the senatorial slate of Vice President Leni Robredo, who is vying for the presidency, and her runningmate Sen. Kiko Pangilinan. Other endorsed senatorial aspirants are Sen. Risa Hontiveros, former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno, and former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat. De Lima, a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, has been detained in a Camp Crame facility since 2017 for what she describes as fabricated drug-related charges. The lawmaker first earned the ire of Duterte when, as then chairman of the Commission of Human Rights, she investigated hundreds of suspected killings by the so-called Davao Death Squad when the President was still the mayor of the city. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) Fundamental differences led to the breakdown in unity talks and prompted Vice President Leni Robredo to proceed with her presidential run. Robredo said the stand of presidential aspirant Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso on the Marcos family was a trigger for her to file her certificate of candidacy for president. "I don't want to go into details, pero sa akin merong mga non-negotiables and yung mga Marcos, non-negotiable yun sa akin," she said in an ambush interview. [Translation: I don't want to go into details, but I have my non-negotiables. The Marcoses are my non-negotiables.] Moreno, in an interview with Rappler in September, said he admired the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos "at some point" as a visionary. But he noted that he is against the abuses during martial law. Contrary to some speculations, Robredo said Bongbong Marcos' presidential bid was not a factor in her decision. She defeated the son of the late dictator in 2016 and in the electoral protest filed by Marcos with the Supreme Court sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal.. The court also junked his appeal. Robredo said running for the highest office is the right thing to do for the country. In response, Moreno asked if this was the only reason the vice president is running for the country's top post. "Paano naman kaming mga Pilipino, wala kaming trabaho? Maraming Pilipino, nagdidildil ng asin, maraming Pilipino, hindi malaman ano ang naghihintay sa kanya sa kinabukasan. Marcos na naman?" he said. [Translation: How about us Filipinos, we are still jobless? Many Filipinos are still poor, many Filipinos don't know what is waiting for them in the future. Marcos again?] "Bakit kailangan umino ang mundo namin ngayon sa away ng Marcos at Aquino? Sa away ng anak ni Marcos, at mga anak at kasama ng yellowtards?" the Manila mayor added. [Translation: Why does our world have to revolve around the fight between Marcos and Aquino? The fight between the son of Marcos, and the children and those with the 'yellowtards'?] Unity talks out The presidential aspirant said communication lines with other non-administration hopefuls will remain open but added she is no longer forcing unity talks. Up until her announcement on Thursday, Robredo's camp has been rallying forces for a common opposition tandem. But it fell as the tandems of Ping Lacson-Tito Sotto, Isko Moreno-Willie Ong, and Manny Pacquiao-Lito Atienza filed their candidacies. "I was really exerting a lot of effort to unify many different personalities pero may hangganan kasi siya [there's a limit]," she said. The vice president admitted she was initially worried about splitting the votes with so many non-administration politicians joining the 2022 race, but added that the public will be able to discern that her tandem with Senator Kiko Pangilinan is the true opposition. "Hindi na ako ganoong ka-concerned ngayon than when I was first starting. Lumalabas ngayon kami talaga ang oposisyon. Wala namang lumalabas na kapareho namin. Kapareho namin in the sense na mula umpisa nakipaglaban talaga," she said. [Translation: I am not too concerned anymore. You can see we are the true opposition. No tandem is similar to us in the sense that we have been fighting from the start.] Moreno who jumped from the National Unity Party to Aksyon Demokratiko months before the filing of COC hit Robredo for running as an independent, despite the latter saying her decision to not run under Liberal Party was her way of showing "inclusivity" that is reflective of her efforts to reach out to everyone, even those outside her political affiliation. "You cannot talk of unity. You yourself, hindi mo nga ma-unify ang sarili mo [You can't even unify yourself]. Youre not even proud of your party," he said in a statement. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro formalized his bid for a last term on Friday. The local chief executive filed his certificate of candidacy to go head to head with Marikina 1st District Rep. Bayani Fernando, who was mayor in 1992 to 2001. Teodoro told reporters he is hoping Fernando will make a u-turn and seek reelection as district representative. The national government praised Teodoro for the local government's pandemic response, with Marikina among the first cities to conduct mass testing. Teodoro also earned praises for personally overseeing his constituents welfare when Typhoon Ulysses ravaged the city in November last year. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) The country received over 2.7 million more vaccines on Friday morning. Around 2.1 million Moderna shots bought by the government and 661,100 AstraZeneca vaccine doses purchased by the private sector arrived, according to state-run PTV. The government expects more vaccine deliveries from Pfizer and Moderna on Saturday, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez told reporters. He was at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to receive the fresh supply. As the vaccine supply is seen to further increase, Health Secretary Francisco, who also welcomed the arrival of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, expressed optimism that the government's 'intermediate goal' of vaccinating 50% of the country's population by the end of the year will be achieved. He added the ultimate target is to inoculate up to 90 million eligible Filipinos. Over 22 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated, the vaccine czar said early this week. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 8) Metro Manila mayors are asking the Department of Education to include at least one school per city in the pilot run of in-person classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Hinihiling nila na kung masasali na ang NCR ay lahat ng mga siyudad sa NCR ay mayroong kahit isang representative school dito sa pilot, Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said on Thursday. [Translation: They are asking us, that if ever the National Capital Region will be included, each city in the NCR should have at least one representative school in the pilot run.] The implementation of the pilot run of in-person classes would begin on Nov. 15, the DepEd announced on Wednesday. The pilot testing will involve 59 public schools that passed the Department of Healths assessment to carry out face-to-face classes. Most of these are in Visayas and Mindanao. Health officials have warned that reopening of schools in urban areas will be trickier as most of them remain at moderate or high risk for COVID-19. The NCR, the countrys epicenter of COVID-19, remains under Alert Level 4. As of Oct. 6, the NCR has 821,005 total cases, of which 24,097 are active. Over 100,000 of the total case count are in Quezon City. The cities of Manila, Caloocan, Taguig, and Pasig have also recorded many cases. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Thursday that face-to-face classes can only be expanded to the capital region if it eases to Alert Level 2. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 7) Former Senator Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV on Friday filed his candidacy for 2022 to make a Senate comeback. The leader of the Magdalo Group is running under the Liberal Party for the upcoming elections, according to Comelec. He is part of the senatorial slate of Vice President Leni Robredo and running mate Senator Kiko Pangilinan. Trillanes said the plan has always been for him to join the Senate race if Robredo runs for the top post. The retired Navy officer served two terms as senator, where he authored the revised AFP modernization law, the anti-bullying law, and the expanded anti-trafficking in persons act. In 2011, former President Benigno Aquino III granted amnesty to Trillanes and others involved in the so-called Oakwood Hotel mutiny in 2003, and the Manila Peninsula Hotel siege in 2007. Robert Wahl, an adjunct lecturer of sociology and criminology at Penn State, pleaded guilty to one count of harassment Sept. 17, according to court documents. On Sept. 1, Penn State University Police and Public Safety arrested Wahl after an employee reported being harassed in the Willard Building, according to the university crime log. Bystanders at the scene of the incident allegedly heard a man repeatedly yell help me from the connecting corridor on the second floor between the Willard Building and the new Bellisario Media Center. According to witnesses, a man was lying on the floor, and Wahl walked away from him. As people rushed toward the man on the floor, others said they saw Wahl walk toward the stairwell. Bystanders confirmed Wahl said he pushed the other man out of the bathroom for not wearing a mask. According to Penn State spokesperson Lisa Powers, the victim a Penn State employee was transported to Mount Nittany Medical Center for evaluation. Wahl was charged with harassment, and his offenses include simple/other assault but not aggravated disorderly conduct, according to the university crime log. He is currently on paid administrative leave, according to Penn State spokesperson Wyatt DuBois. In an email sent to faculty members in the African Studies program, Interim Director of African Studies Sinfree Makoni alleged the victim was "racially attacked" by Wahl for "not wearing his mask properly." On Sept. 9, State College's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People released a "call to action" statement, alleging the physical assault that occurred in the Willard Building was "race-related aggression." "In our view, Penn State University is trying to cover up yet another instance of systemic racism," the State College NAACP said in its statement. "Despite the physical and emotional injuries sustained by the victim, Wahl has only been charged with simple/other assault, according to the university crime log tantamount to a slap on the wrist." The State College NAACP alleged the victim was also "verbally abused" by Wahl and said it is "outraged" at the "callous handling" of the matter by Penn State's administration and University Police. "We hold Penn State and university police accountable for the casual handling of this matter," the State College NAACP said in its statement. "We demand that Wahl receive the appropriate charges for his actions, that he be removed from paid administrative leave immediately and terminated." State College's 3/20 Coalition also released a statement regarding the physical assault, calling it a "racist attack." Despite the universitys claims to its ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, 3/20 Coalition Secretary Melanie Morrison said she believes the commitments are performative and hollow if the university is unwilling to adequately punish anti-Black and racist actions and keep racist abusers off its own payroll. The 3/20 Coalition formed after Osaze Osagie, a 29-year-old Black man, was killed by a State College police officer on March 20, 2019 when three officers arrived at Osagie's apartment to serve a mental health warrant. Osagie, who had autism and a history of schizophrenia, allegedly ran at the officers with a knife. After an unsuccessful attempt to deploy a Taser on him, he was allegedly shot by Officer M. Jordan Pieniazek. The three officers involved in the shooting have not been charged. "No charges related to racial motivation have been filed, and there is no additional information to share on this case," Powers said of the assault in the Willard Building. MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE Penn State's Innoblue entrepreneurial club kicked off its first weeklong blueStart Festival on Monday with Demo Day an event featuring four pitches from different student entrepreneurs in the HUB-Robeson Center's Freeman Auditorium. Shakay Simpson, president of the group, said Innoblue is the first student entrepreneurship organization that was founded at University Park. We all have the same goal, and that is to energize the entrepreneurship community, Simpson (senior-management) said. Simpson said some of the ways the program aims to help its members is by helping build entrepreneurship skills and providing accessible resources around the entrepreneurial community or "ecosystem." There are so many resources here students have no idea about, and oftentimes, these resources [aren't utilized], and I think thats a shame, Simpson said. After Simpson's opening remarks, four Penn State student entrepreneurs pitched their own business ideas to the audience followed by a Q&A session. Student David Moyer pitched his Green Beam idea as a common vision of innovating a sustainable and equitable future for empowering small scale farmers to overcome food insecurities. Green Beam brings its magic through a self-installable device, which provides recommendation on how to manage your green house directly to your smart phone, Moyer (junior-computer science) said. He said he came up with the idea in a humanitarian engineering social entrepreneurship class. This class is absolutely wonderful, Moyer said. You work on social impact ventures focused on going to market to impact people in underdeveloped countries, specifically Kenya. The next project was introduced by student Ethan Liebross called The College Prep Project, which aims to help high school students prepare for college through a mentorship program. He referenced the shoe company TOMS as his source of creativity for a one-on-one concept. For every one student we help, we help one low-income or underserved student, and we do that by partnering with Title 1 schools, which are schools in lower income areas, Liebross said. To be considered a Title 1 school, at least 40% of students must be low-income, according to Student Debt Relief. One of the motivations to this project was the limited number of counselors American schools have, Liebross said. Across all schools, the average student-to-counselor ration is 470 students to one, which is nearly... double [the] recommended ratio, Liebross said. The Koin Keepr project founder Krutik Patel spoke next and began his presentation by asking, How much change is lost every single year? The answer? $62 million. Koin Keepr allows users to claim their change on an app where they can accumulate it and buy products later in the specific store where they collected their change, according to Patel. He said the idea emerged from when he used to work as a cashier in a local convenient store. I have firsthand experience of problems faced by [retail] owners and seeing my costumers struggle with their change, Patel (senior-computer science) said. He said vendors that partner up with the app wont be the ones to pay for the service. Instead, it would be the consumer that gets charged 12% of the change they collect. We wanted to change how retail spaces work for smaller stores, Patel said. Aidan Rauscher is the cofounder of Table Rock Market, which is a farmers market preordering system startup. Rauscher (junior-computer science) said almost 30-40% of food ends up going to waste in the U.S. This is not sustainable, Rauscher said. He compared his platform to "Etsy for farmers [markets]." Farmers can go onto our platform, set up a storefront extremely easy, and they can sell directly to their consumers for preorder immediately, Rauscher said. He said by doing this, the platform will make a positive impact both in the farming industry and the environment. Our mission is to adjust farmers to a digital age, help them to increase profitability and making selling fresh produce more sustainable, Rauscher said. Happy Valley Venture Capital managing partner Leonardo Girlando helped organize the festival along with Simpson and Hayden Long. We decided we wanted to bridge our forces between Innoblue and Happy Valley VC, Girlando (senior-finance) said. Long (senior-information sciences and technology) was the former president and founder of the festival and said his purpose for blueStart was to create a centralized entry point for entrepreneurs at Penn State. We can hopefully have more successful startups and [a] more successful Penn State entrepreneurship community, Long said. Long said something his team is most proud of is being able to collectivize the ecosystem. Take the time to join us because the few people that weve had, and the feedback we have [gotten], has been certainly something that has been impactful. MORE CAMPUS COVERAGE Nominations begin for 2022-23 Penn State Laureate endowed annual position Penn State announced Sept. 29 it is seeking nominees until Dec. 10 for its 2022-23 Penn Stat The state's two senators have already sent the White House a list of names to fill a judicial vacancy that's still another nine months in the future, and the Colorado Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments this week. The Colorado Business Roundtable will host a free webinar next Wednesday titled "Womens Entrepreneurship in Afghanistan: Past Progress and Painful Predictions." The talk on Zoom is from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Those interested can register by clicking here. The discussion will include Anna Rohwer, the director of global operations for the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women (IEEW), and Manizha Wafeq, president and co-founder of the Afghanistan Womens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as IEEW's in-country facilitator of Peace through Business Program. "Afghan women started approximately 57,000 businesses in the last two decades everything from restaurants, exporting companies, technology, media services, and more," the Colorado Business Roundtable, a coalition of the state's top executives, said in its announcement. "The work of both IEEW and AWCCI have been a vital lifeline for training, infrastructure, and encouragement. This webinar will provide a briefing on the work that had been done by IEEW and AWCCI in the past and how the organizations are looking for allies to continue to provide services and training for women in Afghanistan and refugees." Debbie Brown, president of the Greenwood Village-based roundtable, has volunteered with the with IEEW for more than two years as a business mentor to women in Afghanistan and Rwanda. The Colorado Business Roundtable is offering the webinar in partnership with the Denver World Trade Center and the Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce. The story was updated to reflect a change in the program. This week, the tech world -- well, alien overlord Mark Zuckerberg, to be specific -- faced a devastating blow when Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram were down for more than five hours, leaving millions around the world unable to inform their followers what they ate for lunch, or well, contact pretty much anyone in the several nations around the globe that primarily rely on WhatsApp for communication. Yet in the true spirit of the hubris of technology (or, well, Mercury Retrograde for all my fellow astrology girls) it seems the mysterious tech overlords weren't done with their shenanigans for the week when Facebook's family of apps came back online. On Wednesday, Twitch, a streaming platform famed for really hating boobs, was hit with a massive leak, with nearly 135 gigs of data being anonymously posted to the happiest place on the internet, 4Chan, according to Motherboard "Jeff Bezos paid $970 million for this, we're giving it away FOR FREE, read the post, alongside an image depicting the (allegedly) badly-botoxed space cowboy looking perplexed. From what exactly got leaked (spoiler alert: pretty much everything) to how much the platform's top players purportedly make, here are three bizarre details from this week's Twitch leak. Twitch's Alleged Source Code, Creator Payouts, and More Were Purportedly Posted Keeping in theme with this week's string of unprecedented tech malfunctions, the Twitch hack seemingly spanned beyond the scope of a normal run-of-the-mill leak, bypassing credit card information, viewer data, and hell, even those long, green veggies best paired with potatoes in soup form. The hackers in question evidently went above and beyond in staging their extremely poggers leak," posting, among other things, three years of alleged creator payout details, an up-and-coming Steam competitor the site created with Amazon, and even tossing in Twitch's source code for good measure, The Verge reported, noting that they were able to confirm the legitimacy of the leaked information. Joyce Carol Brooks, 78, of Crossville, passed away on Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, at Cumberland Medical Center. Mrs. Brooks was born on July 12, 1943, in Charleston, WV, daughter of Owen Haynes and Margaret (Withrow) Haynes. She was self-employed in the health and body industry and of the Penteco Jesus taught on the love of God in a way that astounded those who heard Him. The Son brought the Father to earth in human form. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. (John 14:7 NIV) He came as the Word made flesh and thwarted manmade traditions without breaking the Law of Moses. His parables and miracles exposed to Israel that their sin was the barrier between Jehovah and man. It wasnt the Almighty who was withholding anything, it was mans rebellion. The love message was received by some and rejected by others. The Jewish leaders were so hard-hearted all they cared about was their power. And the Messiah they refused to recognize was a threat to that power. Concern for the ordinary man was not on the Sanhedrins agenda. People flocked to the new Rabbi who appeared on the scene to hear Him because He taught as one who had authority, but also expressed compassion. He chose His twelve disciples, and they were privileged to hear many of His teachings in private. And despite this knowledge, we read about one apostle who seemed to get it more than the others did. John referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved on more than one occasion. And Mary of Bethany is depicted in the gospels as one who put more importance on Christs presence than on her daily chores. Jesus loved them all, but did these two followers of the Lord have the revelation of His tenderness more than others did? John Is Shown at Different Times in Close Proximity to the Lamb of God Johns humility is evident in referring to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He doesnt name himself, but because he is the author of the gospel of John, we know he is speaking of himself (John 21:24). John was sitting closest to the Master during the Passover meal before the crucifixion. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. (John 13:23) We dont know how their positions were decided, but John seated himself closest to his Lord to be near the one who loved him. As one of the disciples, John spent as much time with the Savior as the others did, yet his affection for the Master is displayed in the gospels more than the other disciples portrayal was. John was part of the three whom Christ often took aside with Him on special occasions such as at the Transfiguration and at the raising of Jairus daughter. John Was the Only Disciple Who Stayed with Jesus after Gethsemane At first, they all fled, but John followed the crowd that arrested Jesus to the high priests house (John 18:15). Peter was there also, but he stayed outside and when the pressure was on, denied Christ (John 18:17). John Was the Only Disciple at the Cross The others all hid, but John was at the cross comforting the mother of the Son of Man. We know from Matthew 13:55-56 that Mary and Joseph had other children. As Joseph was not mentioned any further after Jesus was twelve years old, it is presumed that Joseph had died. Otherwise, Marys Son would not be giving her care to another. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, Woman, here is your son, and to the disciple, Here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19:26-27) Why would he endow this responsibility to John and not the next oldest son? It could be that up until this time, his brothers did not believe in Him. The opinion of some scholars is that Johns mother was Marys sister, making John a relative. This would enforce the tradition of the caretakers position as one of the family in the place of another brother. Christ knew of Johns faithfulness and He knew Mary would be cared for by this disciple. John Was the First to Recognize the Risen Lord on the Shore After the crucifixion and resurrection, they all went fishing because they didnt know what else to do. Their Redeemer was on the shore and called out to them. The Lord had already appeared to them in His resurrected state, but John was the first one to recognize Him from the boat (John 21:7). Maybe it was because he had focused on Jesus so much while the Savior was with them. After breakfast, the risen Christ had the famous conversation with Peter where He restored the fallen follower from the denial. John followed Jesus and Peter as they walked along the beach. John still wanted to be close to the one He knew cherished him so much. Johns revelation of the love of Christ is portrayed in his writings in the book of 1 John. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1) Photo Credit: GettyImages/Kalawin Mary Was Part of a Family Who Cared for Jesus Physical Needs Jesus often stayed in the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. They welcomed their Master and the disciples. This family cared for these mens needs by feeding them and giving the weary group a place to rest. On one occasion, Martha wanted everything to be perfect. She flitted around the kitchen preparing a meal and when she noticed she had no help, she probably started banging pottery to get Marys attention. When subtle hints didnt work, she blatantly asked the Teacher to tell Mary to help. Jesus rebuke, though spoken in affection, showed Martha what was more important. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are neededor indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:41-42) Mary was drawn to her Messiah in a way that superseded anything else she needed to do. His words were so important to her life she didnt want to miss anything. Mary Gave a Costly Gift in Response to Jesus Love for Her Because Mary absorbed the Saviors words, she knew how much He loved her. Her expression for Him was evident in the gift she poured out upon the Saviors feet while He sat at supper on another visit to the trios house. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12:3) When Judas reprimanded the gift as a waste, the Lord rebuked His future betrayer and instead acknowledged what Mary did as anointing Him for burial. When Jesus visited Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, He was in the presence of all three of them. Yet Marys actions reveal she is the one who comprehended His revelation of love more than the others. All the Disciples Knew Jesus Loved Them But they all didnt appear to have the knowledge of the depth of that devotion until after Pentecost. Peter transformed into the leader of the early church (Acts 2:14). His boldness was used to preach the gospel of forgiveness, repentance, and salvation instead of powered in vengeance by cutting off an ear. All except John (and tradition tells us they tried to boil him in oil) were martyred for their faith in Christ. Without knowing Christs heart for them, the apostles could not have given their lives for the sake of the gospel. Mary was commended for her fragrant offering. It was her expression of delight back to her Master for the compassion shown to her and her family. John was given the revelation of Christ on the island of Patmos. The Son loved all His followers. But those who were willing to listen to Him and put His words into practice are the ones who knew that love. Mary and John are both related in the gospels as staying close to the Lord to hear His words. We Learn by Staying Close Too Johns revelation of Christs love displays how he received that passion. He listened, learned, and lived what the Son taught. His soul absorbed the fervor of those words. The twelve-year-old Son of God knew He needed to be taught about His Father (Luke 2:49). Mary and Joseph found Him in the temple learning from scholars about the Torah. If the Son of God shrouded in a body as the Son of Man needed to listen and learn, how much more do we need to do the same thing? He laid down His life for all of us (John 3:16), but for us to gain spiritual knowledge of Him, we need to sit at the Lords feet and learn. We can know we are a disciple whom Jesus loves too. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19) Photo Credit: GettyImages/ipopba Barbara Latta is a true southerner and is transplanted from Arkansas to Georgia. She writes a monthly column in her local newspaper and contributes to devotional websites, online magazines, and has stories in several anthologies. She is the author of Gods Maps, Stories of Inspiration, and Direction for Motorcycle Riders. She enjoys traveling with her Harley-riding prince on his motorcycle taking in the creativity of nature. Drinking coffee on the patio while the sun comes up is her favorite time of day. Barbara shares about walking in grace and thriving in hope on her blog, Navigating Lifes Curves, at www.barbaralatta.blogspot.com. She cherishes her role in life as a wife, a mom to two grown sons, and Mimi to one granddaughter. Yes, I have been a victim. No, but not for lack of trying. I don't think so. Vote View Results Opinion: Ye shall know them by their fruits BLOOMFIELD Insurance giant Cigna has agreed to sell several of its businesses in the Asia-Pacific region and Turkey to Chubb for $5.75 billion, as it solidifies its focus on health care. In an announcement late Thursday, Bloomfield-based Cigna said it would sell its life, accident and supplemental-benefits insurance businesses in South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia, in addition to its interest in a joint venture in Turkey. These operations generated approximately $3 billion in net premiums written in 2020. Our agreement with Chubb is another step forward in advancing our strategic focus on our global health services portfolio, Cigna CEO and President David Cordani said in a statement. We are proud of our success in building these life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses in Asia Pacific and improving the well-being and sense of security of our customers throughout the region. The deal is expected to be completed in 2022. At that point, Asia-Pacifics share of Chubbs global portfolio would increase from approximately $4 billion to $7 billion in premiums and represent approximately 20 percent of the companys total business, excluding China, according to Chubb officials. We have long admired and respected Cignas business in Asia including its talented people, innovative products, technical and analytical capabilities, distribution and management, Chubb CEO and Chairman Evan Greenberg said in a statement. We know these businesses well as we already have a sizable operation of our own in the region and globally. These businesses produce very stable, high-quality earnings. Cigna said it would continue to operate its international health businesses for the globally mobile population, as well as local market services in the Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and its joint ventures in Australia, China and India. The Cigna-Chubb deal will follow several other major deals in the Asia-Pacific market in the past couple of years. In August, HSBC Holdings said it would acquire French insurer Axas Singapore assets for $575 million. Last year, Singapore Life acquired the Singapore business of British insurance firm Aviva for almost $2 billion. Unrelated to the new agreement, Chubb made several unsuccessful attempts earlier this year to acquire The Hartford, the No. 142 firm on this years Fortune 500 list and the second-largest insurance company headquartered in Connecticut after Cigna. Ranking No. 13 on the Fortune list, Cigna is the largest public company headquartered in the state. Worldwide, Cigna has more than 190 million customer relationships across more than 30 countries and jurisdictions. It employs a total of more than 70,000. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott Three of the longest-serving workers for a McDonalds restaurant on Interstate-95 in Darien are suing the company after they were laid off in the coronavirus pandemic, then not rehired despite a new state law that requires the recalling of employees on the basis of seniority. Its believed to be the first lawsuit under a state statute that went into effect July 13, which applies to layoffs in certain industries during the pandemic emergency. The workers, with a combined 53 years of service, say they were laid off last year and have not been offered their jobs back by the Windsor Locks-based Michell Enterprises, LLC, which owns McDonalds restaurants in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey. In a complaint filed in state Superior Court, aided by a union thats trying to organize fast-food workers at service plazas on Connecticut highways, the three are asking for back wages and benefits, as well as punitive damages and legal costs. We didnt get a phone call, we didnt get anything, said Mario Franco of Stamford, a 26-year employee of the I-95 McDonalds, through an interpreter outside Superior Court in Hartford during a morning news conference and rally on Wednesday, led by the SEIU 32BJ union. It could happen to me and I dont want it to happen to anyone else, said Franco, who had been making $15.15 an hour following a settlement between the restaurant owners and the state Department of Labor when he, Pilas Mestanza and Rosa Franco, also of Stamford, were laid-off. Mario and Rosa Franco are not related. In all, eight experienced workers were not recalled, Franco and union officials said. The lawsuit alleges that the workers were laid off in October, 2020, and that Michell hired other people in September of 2021. Michell Enterprises did not return calls for comment, and its legal representatives on Wednesday had not responded to the filing of the lawsuit. The president of the company is George R. Michell of New Canaan, according to state business registration filings. Its chief financial officer, Linda Cukurs of Chicago, also did not return a request for comment. Rochelle Palache, SEIU 32BJ vice-president and head of the Connecticut district, said the three plaintiffs were most likely not rehired because of their support for the union. Mario Franco and Rosa Franco were both in a 2019 Hearst CTInsider column about the union drive. Retaliation for union activity is barred under state and federal laws. The recall law, which took effect on July 13 when it was signed by Gov. Ned Lamont, was the idea of two of the General Assemblys most liberal lawmakers on labor issues: state Rep. Robyn Porter of New Haven and Sen. Julie Kushner of Danbury, the Democratic co-chairwomen of the Labor and Public Employees Committee. The law nearly failed this past spring. After Kushner led its passage through the Senate, business groups including state restaurateurs and business lobbyists complained it would raise costs as the pandemic still battered the state economy. So, for its passage in the House, Porter agreed to set a time limit on the bills effectiveness. Porter won House approval after the addition of a date to terminate sunset the law in May of 2022. The amendment meant the Senate had to again act on the legislation. It passed on June 9, the last day of the legislative session. Porter said it came really close to failing in the waning days of the 2021 General Assembly. It covers workers in the lodging, food services and building service industries. Kushner, in an interview along with Porter after the Hartford rally, recalled that the idea for the law started at a union event for workers laid off during the pandemic at the northbound Darien Service Plaza. We walked them back inside and asked the employers if they would hire them back and they had no response for us, Kushner said. Then, she and Porter found out there was legislation elsewhere in the country that could force companies to recall veteran employees. California and Nevada have similar laws to protect workers. An identical ordinance was passed locally in New Haven last year. Thats what really made it personal for me, Porter said. There was no reason why we shouldnt be able to do this at the state level and take care of all workers. Set a precedent. Nicole Rothgeb, the attorney handling the case for the workers, said under the law, employers with at least 15 employees who let go workers during the pandemic, must give them the opportunity to be rehired based on their number of years of service. Theres no requirement of any ill motive or untoward, draconian undermining motivation that an employee has to prove, Rothgeb said. Its simply, this is what the law requires the employer to do and if they dont, then theres liability. Its not about showing a hidden motivation. Rothgeb believes its the first case involving the new law. Some of the McDonalds workers also have pending cases before the National Labor Relations Board and the state Department of Labor, including disputes over attempts to unionize; and a dispute over whether the workers are entitled to a higher standard wage because the service plazas are on state property. Former state Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby ordered Michell to pay nearly about $870,000 in back wages to 264 McDonalds employees at Michell locations in Fairfield County, in September, 2020. Westby, who retired in June, was previously head of SEIU 32BJ in Connecticut. Kushner, a retired regional labor leader who was elected to the Senate in 2018, and Porter, a seven-year member of the House, said they would like to revisit the law next year and possibly lengthen the period of its activity beyond May, 2022. Porter, during remarks to the crowd, said Michell Enterprises has been engaging in union-busting activities at a time when the states Unemployment Trust Fund helped companies as well as workers stay afloat in the pandemics dire business climate. We gave them relief, Porter said. So where is the relief for the workers who have committed and dedicated their lives like Mario, to a company that is making millions? Wheres the trickle-down? There is no trickle down, and thats why this legislation and the work that we do at the state House on behalf of this labor movement is so critically important. Essential workers matter. Theres no profit without the people. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT The coronavirus exacerbated the states existing economic and racial inequities, and pandemic recovery continues to be a tale of two Connecticuts as Black and Hispanic residents report lower rates of vaccination and higher rates of housing, food and economic insecurity, according to figures provided by DataHaven. The New Haven-based nonprofit research group conducted Community Well-Being Surveys in 2012, 2015, 2018, 2020 and 2021. This year, DataHaven gathered 5,145 responses from state residents between June and August. Connecticut has achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the country so far, with 79.3% of those above 12 reporting full vaccination. Statewide data show that a lower fraction of Connecticut residents say that they are opposed to getting immunized than national numbers suggest for Americans as a whole. Nationally, 12% of U.S. residents say that they will not get a shot, according to Kaiser Healths vaccine monitor dashboard, whereas 7% of state residents say that they will not get vaccinated. From an equity perspective, the data reveal another opportunity for growth for Connecticut: Unvaccinated Black and Hispanic residents are more likely to be open to vaccination, suggesting that there is reason to be hopeful that racial disparities in vaccination may narrow as the state focuses on increased outreach for all residents. Around 44% of unvaccinated adults said that they are opposed to getting vaccinated, but only 38% of unvaccinated Black residents and 28% of unvaccinated Latino residents did. As of the end of September, 64% of all white residents reported full vaccination, compared to 46% of Black residents and 52% of Hispanic residents, according to data from the Department of Public Health. The rates of vaccination by race for the states racial minorities may be undercounts because a number of state residents put down Non-Hispanic Other when asked for their race. Vaccination rates also drop with age; the DataHaven estimates that 35% of those between 18-35 will not get vaccinated. The state, hospitals, universities and nursing homes have implemented vaccination mandates during the period that the survey was conducted. In the hospital industry, preliminary data show that those mandates have pushed the majority of the previously unvaccinated to get a shot, The Connecticut Mirror previously reported. The governor issued a series of executive orders that set in motion vaccine mandates for state employees, for long-term care facilities, in particular nursing homes, and assisted living facilities, as well as for K-12, educators and early childhood daycare providers, and so weve kind of been in the throes of implementation over that, the states chief operating officer Josh Geballe said. National data show that those without health insurance make up a disproportionate number of the unvaccinated, suggesting that the health care systems general inaccessibility may be contributing to vaccine hesitancy. Lack of health insurance usually means an individual has no regular doctor or trusted health care establishment and instead skips medical or dental care when needed, the release states. The survey found that Latino and low-income state residents were less likely to report health insurance coverage and usage of health care services in general. Vaccine uptake has closely tracked socioeconomic indicators such as poverty, income and education level, The Mirror previously reported. Nearly one-in-five low-income residents said they would get a vaccine as soon as they could. About a quarter of Connecticut residents reported job losses within the past year, but the percentage of those who would like to work more than they are has fallen back to the pre-pandemic level of 13 percent, the release states. Under 50% of Black and Hispanic respondents said they believe there are options for suitable employment nearby. While vaccination is widely considered the best defense against COVID-19, the delta variant has exposed the limitations of vaccination in isolation in preventing surges at present. Overall mask usage in the state is lower than in 2020, which mirrors policy changes on the state and federal level. The governor has allowed towns to decide for themselves whether to impose mask mandates. A higher fraction of Black and Hispanic state residents, as well as low-income individuals, reported masking on a regular basis. Those groups are overrepresented in essential jobs and are also more likely to reside in Connecticuts larger cities, many of which have mask mandates in place. In general, Connecticut residents reported more faith in local health officials than other government institutions. The federal government scored the lowest on trust, though the numbers are up from the Trump years, the release states. The federal government has also played an active role in the distribution of aid during the pandemic. The improvement in financial and food insecurity from 2018 to 2020 may be partly explained by federal stimulus payments and the expansion of unemployment benefits due to the coronavirus pandemic, the release states. Nevertheless, 1 of every 4 Connecticut adults report facing financial difficulty, and 1 in 10 report being unable to afford food. Housing insecurity registered an uptick in 2020, and has grown overall since 2015, suggesting that housing costs remain out of step with families abilities to pay, the release states. The survey was conducted in partnership with Siena College Research through live calls in English and Spanish to randomly chosen phone numbers. The overall survey carries a maximum margin of error of +/- 1.6%, DataHavens press release states. Results are weighted by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geography to be representative of Connecticuts population, the press release states. Our plan is to do more in-depth stories or analyses on specific topics as we continue to interview thousands of residents throughout this year , Executive DataHaven Director Mark Abraham wrote. Read more about the data here. 99 cent introductory offer Includes everything we offer online for 24-7 news. This option allows you to read unlimited stories at ctnewsonline.com, and access our e-Edition (digital replicate of the daily newspaper). $7.99 per month after the introductory offer. This service comes with a complimentary CT Select Card allowing for local discounts. Rates are subject to change. BRIDGEPORT Connecticut elections watchdogs have issued another handful of subpoenas in the ongoing probe of the 2019 Democratic mayoral primary, including to a City Council member the state is having a tough time tracking down. At Wednesdays regular meeting of the State Elections Enforcement Commission, Ryan Burns, a staff attorney, updated members on the status of the two-year-old investigation into alleged absentee or mail-in ballot abuses during 2019s contest between incumbent Joe Ganim and state Sen. Marilyn Moore. As reported in June, following some pandemic-related delays, the SEECs work on that case has resumed, with commission staff questioning some of the individuals involved with the Ganim campaign or with the Democratic Town Committee, which had endorsed the mayor for another four-year-term. One of the four subpoenas authorized by the SEEC in the latest round was to Councilman Alfredo Castillo, who in August was arrested and charged with second-degree breach-of-peace and second-degree threatening following an alleged confrontation with Bridgeports head of public facilities. The state marshal charged with serving Mr. Castillo did confirm the address, but has been unable to make effective service, Burns told the SEEC Wednesday. Burns said the date on Castillos subpoena will soon pass and, if the marshal does not find the councilman and hand the document to him by then, one of the commissioners will be needed to sign a new subpoena with a new expiration date. Castillo could not be reached for comment by phone or text message. On Sept. 14 he won his Democratic primary and will be up for re-election on the November ballot for another two-year term. Castillo has represented the 136th District, a center-of-the-city neighborhood dubbed the Hollow, since 2013. His court date in the threatening case is Nov. 5, three days after the upcoming general election. The states primary investigation stems from the bitter September 2019 primary race between Ganim and Moore. The latter received more in-person votes at polling places 4,721 to 4,337 but Ganim won the mail-in ballots 967 to 313 and, subsequently, the Democratic primary. Moore and her allies accused Ganim and his supporters of winning through absentee ballot irregularities and potential fraud, which the mayor and his allies have consistently denied. The SEEC, based in part on an investigation published at the time by Hearst Connecticut Media, voted to open its pending case following a referral from the Secretary of the State. The Hearst Connecticut investigation found alleged issues with the absentee voting process, including absentee voters who were pressured into voting for the incumbent or who received absentee ballots they did not request, and residents saying strangers swarmed elderly housing complexes seeking and sometimes allegedly helping cast votes. The SEEC immediately following the 2019 primary subpoenaed election documents from Bridgeport Town Clerk Charles Clemons as well as surveillance video and visitor logs of two apartment complexes run by Bridgeports public housing authority, Park City Communities the P.T. Barnum Apartments in Black Rock and Harborview Towers on the East Side. Some Moore supporters also filed a lawsuit attempting to have a Superior Court judge order a 2019 primary do-over, but lost. Ganim subsequently easily won that Novembers general election in which Moore participated as a write-in candidate. Castillo is the most prominent of the four targets of subpoenas the SEEC discussed Wednesday. Burns told commissioners two others Alberto Ayala and Sonia Belardo were served by marshals but Nilsa Heredia also could not be located. None of the three could be reached for comment. Heredia appeared in court in 2019 during the failed effort to toss out the primary results. As Hearst Connecticut Media reported at the time, she was paid hundreds of dollars by the Ganim campaign for circulating dozens of absentee ballot applications through P.T. Barnum Apartments. Heredia testified that she knocked on doors throughout the complex, offering ballot applications and postage stamps to those who wanted them, but that she had no part in filling out the actual ballots, or possessing them after they were filled out. The governors of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Thursday joined Gov. Ned Lamont in announcing a regional effort to stem gun violence through better sharing of the federal firearms-registration data base. The initiative comes at a time when shootings in Hartford, Waterbury, Bridgeport and New Haven are on the rise during the last year and a half in the COVID pandemic. Statewide, gun crimes are down slightly in Connecticut. I want to go after Big Guns, so to speak, Lamont said during a 12-minute announcement led by New Jersey Phil Murphy, stressing that by sharing information that is currently available only to individual states will make it easier to track and trace criminal activity. COVID doesnt know state borders and neither do guns, Lamont said. Talking just about gun violence, its a symptom of so much more that is going on in this COVID and post-COVID world, the isolation, the quarantine, what thats done in terms of stress, what thats done in terms of extreme activities going on in our schools, in our streets. And guns exacerbate that. Lamont joined Murphy, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, and Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania all Democrats in an online news conference to announce the multi-state initiative effort. Murphy is in a tight race for reelection in November. The four state leaders signed a memorandum of understanding to share information they receive from the F.B.I. on the flow of firearms, which mostly come to the Northeast from Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. This is a coalition that should grow and will grow, Murphy said during the virtual event in which no questions were taken from reporters. Late Thursday night, Jen Psakis press secretary, issued a statement from the White House praising the four-state effort. This data-sharing agreement recognizes the reality that firearms cross state lines, and we therefore need a multijurisdictional approach to tackling gun violence, Psaki said in a statement. President Biden shares these governors commitment to cross-state collaboration to tackle the gun violence public health epidemic. Under the new, five-year regional agreement, Connecticut State Police would share gun-tracing information with the other states. After the announcement, Lamont said it would also require better information sharing between local police agencies and the four different state police agencies. A lot of these things are better in collaboration and thats what were doing, Lamont said, using the hypothetical of a handgun that has been recovered after a crime. We can find that weapon that been cast aside. We can see who sold it it to whom. We can do an immediate DNA test. So within an hour or two what information we can on who that shooter is, we can share that data as part of a centralized data base. Look, that person goes from Waterbury down to Westchester and now Kathy Hochuls team has a little more intel on who to go after. By sharing that information with the other states, law enforcement could better trace the origin of weaponry. If we see what the origin of that gun, or guns like that may have, we can trace that back, hopefully, to the Big Kahuna thats been selling these things. Jeremy Stein, executive director of CT Against Gun Violence, said that while he is supportive of the new regional effort, the larger issue is to stop firearms-related events. He wondered why Lamont hasnt allocated $12 million the General Assembly has approved for an advisory council focused on fighting gun violence. Tracing firearms from one state to another is great, but that occurs only after the shooting happens, Stein said. We would like money spent on gun violence prevention and intervention rather than concentrating on law and order. The governors actions seem to go back to law enforcement time and time again. Prevention, intervention and aftercare are needed to solve this problem. Out-of-state sources are responsible for about 50 percent of the guns seized in Connecticut, while Wolf said that 85 percent of firearms involved in crimes in his state originate from other states, with about a quarter of them traced back to Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. Unlike New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, which have some of the tightest gun regulations in the nation, Pennsylvania does not regulate private sales of firearms. In 2018, governors in Northeastern states , including then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut, announced plans to look into the causes of gun violence, creating a regional consortium. The goals of the research included ways to discourage the trafficking of firearms across state borders. That effort was supported by New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Delaware and Puerto Rico, and was driven by then-Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York. At the federal level, bills such as an expansion of the so-called red flag laws and an omnibus gun safety act, which would have required universal background checks, have generally failed amid opposition from Republicans, who say existing laws and gun purchasing procedures are not being followed. Stein, at CT Against Gun Violence, wondered whether there is adequate staff for Connecticut to participate in the new four-state compact. We also have to be looking at the demand for the guns, Stein said. As long as there are states like Florida and Georgia with no permit needed to purchase guns, people will be able to access them. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT Gov. Ned Lamont fired a dozen newly hired state employees still within their six-month probationary periods on Friday after they defied his order that 31,000 state agency employees either prove they were vaccinated for COVID-19 or agree to weekly testing. The actions are the latest salvo in the campaign between a governor, who has ordered inoculations and testing, and rank-and-file workers who are either hesitant or opposed to vaccines. The employees, who were not identified by name or department, were technically suspended, not fired. But probationary employees under suspension can lose their jobs immediately without contracted steps of discipline, making the moves terminations in effect. Lamont, speaking after an unrelated event in Windsor Locks, said the 12 workers were among the 671 unionized state workers who did not comply with the order as of late Thursday. The governor said that since then, more employees have reported they would inoculate or test. Lamont did not say Friday when or whether he would order suspensions for regular employees who defied the order. The suspensions come as metrics used to track the virus are trending downward in Connecticut, mirroring a general decline in the rest of the country. The 7-day rolling average of new cases has fallen around 34 percent in the last four weeks to an average of around 420 newly reported infections per day, according to state data. Hospitalizations for the virus, at 234 Friday, are down from a peak of a little under 400 in mid-August but are unchanged from a week ago. On Friday, the state recorded 509 new infections with a daily positivity rate of 1.52 percent. PATRICK T. FALLON /AFP / TNS Statewide among all residents eligible for the COVID inoculation, 76 percent were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, compared with 79 percent of state employees. For each employee who had not been vaccinated or agreed to weekly testing, Lamont said, I do know that we reached out and made sure it wasnt a matter of misunderstanding...If it was, work with us, or work with us now. Similar orders are in effect for state employees in higher education and the Judicial and Legislative branches. Republicans, including House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said Lamont didnt have to carry out the suspensions to keep the state safe and Connecticut doesnt need to mandate vaccinations. What I would hope is the governor would be more respectful of peoples personal health care decisions and try to balance them not getting the vaccine or potentially tested versus sacrificing their livelihood, Candelora said Friday. There needs to be a case-by-case conversation on why these individuals are not complying. Connecticut is in such a good position with its infection rate, hospitalization rate. There is no urgency, Candelora said, considering the declining illness. Why do we need to achieve a greater than 96 percent vaccination rate? Many workers are working remotely. There are workers who have natural immunity..People working on the highway picking up litter, Im not sure what vested interest there is in getting them vaccinated. Lamont said the state is working with each employee who is not compliant. We reached out to them more than once and you get vaccinated or you get tested....If you say no, you cant work here. Its unsafe. On Thursday, Lamont released agency-by-agency details that show Department of Correction employees have the lowest rate of vaccinations at 57 percent of 5,290 employees. By contrast, workers in the Department of Public Health, for example, have a 93 percent inoculation rate among more than 670 employees. SEBAC, the state union coalition, has been negotiating terms of the suspensions, such as where and when free testing will be available. Its unclear whether the unions will oppose the actions of Friday, as state workers in their probationary period do not have the same protections as regular union members. I think within less than a week weve been reaching out to people, you know, making sure there is no confusion, making sure that they know this is what the rules are, Lamont said. One more chance if you want to play by the rules: vaccination or testing, otherwise you cant work for us for now. Workers in state hospitals and congregate housing facilities have less flexibility, with the order to vaccinate or risk suspension, amid union warnings that state-run healthcare facilities are understaffed. I think were going to be in good shape, Lamont said. I think the overwhelming majority got vaccinated and the president doesnt suggest we compromise on that and neither do I, especially when youre dealing with the elderly, especially when youre dealing with those who are sick, youve got to be vaccinated. Otherwise, its not safe. Lamonts staff has been in negotiations with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition over exact terms of the vaccinate-or-test orders and will likely win more than four weeks of free testing. In a late afternoon statement, the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, representing about 30 bargaining units, announced that an agreement on testing and suspensions was reached with the Lamont administration that will allow free testing for employees until at least Feb. 15 2022, when the current emergency declaration expires. In addition, during the first 30 days of a unpaid, 45-day suspension period, employees can resign in good standing, with a year-long option to rescind their resignations and return to work. Those who do not choose resignation will lose their jobs permanently after 45 days. While we are pleased with the progress that has been made, the new agreement does not adequately address our concerns that strict enforcement of the vaccine requirement in state hospitals and long-term care facilities could exacerbate the staffing shortages that existed long before COVID-19, SEBAC sasid in a statement. We continue to urge the State to allow the unions and the state to meet to discuss remedies in the event the mandate exacerbates critical staffing shortages in particular facilities and to temporarily allow a testing option in those facilities to prevent harm to clients/patients or staff. Staff writers Julia Bergman and Peter Yankowski contributed to this report Every fall the bank lobby groups ramp up their PR fight against credit unions. This years attack by the American Bankers Association is called Reform Credit Unions and even includes a cute website to make the case. Ok, I admit it. I am biased and (slightly) jaded about attacks from the banks. That aside, I do believe credit unions need to do more to show members and potential members that such smooth messaging is the result of fancy lobbyists trying to earn their money. Perhaps thats why this years attack makes me particularly angry. The ABA claims the credit union federal tax exemption is a detriment to taxpayers, but I see an emerging trend in which credit unions across the country are steadfastly working to improve the lives of their members and communities. Movement leaders are embracing even tighter the founding virtues of member-owned nonprofit financial cooperatives. Cullman, AL (35055) Today Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Morning high of 56F with temps falling to near 45. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 34F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Elizabeth City, NC (27909) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 76F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight Occasional rain. Low 46F. SSW winds shifting to NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%. File/Daily Citizen-News The Dalton Board of Education voted 5-0 during Monday's meeting to increase the fleet of buses with its transportation service, First Student Inc., from 34 to 38 to reduce crowding, eliminate a pair of daily shuttles between schools and improve route times. Mrs. Reba Faye Bell, age 63, of Dalton, Georgia, departed this life Tuesday, November 16, 2021, at the local hospital. She was born October 6, 1958 in Loudon, Tn a daughter of the late William Bill and Agnes Faye Farner White. She was also preceded in death by her husband, David Bell, brothe The Macks closed out the night of music at the Whiteside Theater. Fromly a Eugene band, The Macks relocated to Portland, Oregon last summer during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six bands from the Eugene and Corvallis area joined together at the Whiteside Theater in downtown Corvallis for Summers End Festival. (Ian Enger/Emerald) - Reviewed by James Stanley, November 16, 2021 FX markets are susceptible to a range of factors which affect their volatility, and many traders look to tailor their strategies to capitalize on the most volatile currency pairs. Currency volatility, often measured by calculating the standard deviation or variance of currency price movements, gives traders an idea of how much a currency might move relative to its average over a given time period. Traders can also gauge volatility by looking at a currency pairs average true range or by looking at range as percent of spot. The higher the level of currency volatility, the higher the degree of risk, and vice versa. Volatility and risk are usually used as interchangeable terms.Different currency pairs have different levels of volatility on average. Some traders enjoy the higher potential rewards that come with trading volatile currency pairs. Although, this increased potential reward does present a greater risk, so traders should consider reducing their position sizes when trading highly volatile currency pairs. What are the most volatile currency pairs? The most volatile major currency pairs are: Other major currency pairs, like EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD and USD/CHF, are generally more liquid and less volatile as a result. That said, emerging market currency pairs, such as USD/ZAR, USD/TRY and USD/MXN, can clock some of the highest volatility readings. MOST VOLATILE CURRENCY PAIRS Majors - AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY, AUD/USD, CAD/JPY, GBP/AUD Emerging Markets - USD/ZAR, USD/TRY, USD/MXN Aside from relatively low liquidity, emerging market currencies tend to be highly volatile in particular due to inherent risk underpinning emerging market economies. The chart below gives an example of how volatile emerging market currencies can be, which shows USD/ZAR (US Dollar/South Africa Rand) exploding nearly 25% higher in just over a months time. There are several other examples of emerging market currency pairs swinging drastically like this throughout history. What about the least volatile currency pairs? The least volatile currency pairs tend to be the major currency pairs which are also the most liquid. Also, these economies tend to be larger and more developed. This attracts more trading volume and facilitates greater price stability in turn. To that end, considering EUR/USD, USD/CHF and EUR/GBP trade with high volumes of liquidity, it comes as little surprise they are among the lease volatile currency pairs. Illustrated below, the average true range (ATR) on USD/CHF ranges between 45-pips and 65-pips, a low average true range compared to other pairs. The average true range of a currency is one of the many ways to measure the volatility of a currency pair. Bollinger Band width is another popular technical indicator used to measure volatility. Correlation between two currencies can also have an impact on their volatility. The more positively two currencies are correlated to one another might lead to less volatility. Continuing with our USD/CHF example, we note that the US Dollar and Swiss Franc are both viewed as safe-haven currencies. The US Dollar and Swiss Franc tend to strengthen against their sentiment-linked peers when the market experiences episodes of risk aversion, but the two currencies may not deviate much from each other. This contributes to relatively low volatility readings for USD/CHF. How to trade currency pair volatility Forex traders should take into account current readings of volatility and potential changes in volatility when trading. Market participants should also consider adjusting their position sizes with respect to how volatile a currency pair is. Trading a volatile currency pair might warrant a reduced position size. Awareness of volatility can also help traders determine appropriate levels for stop loss and take profit limit orders. Furthermore, it is important to understand the key characteristics separating themost volatile currencies from currencies with low volatility readings. Traders should also know how to measure volatility and have an awareness of events that might create big changes in volatility. The difference between trading currency pairs with high volatility versus low volatility Currencies with high volatility will normally move more pips over a certain period than currencies with low volatility. This leads to increased risk when trading currency pairs with high volatility. Currencies with high volatility are more prone to slippage than currency pairs with low volatility. Due to high-volatility currency pairs making bigger moves, you should determine the correct position size to take when trading them. There are several ways to measure volatility To determine the correct position size, traders need to have an expectation of how volatile a currency can be. A variety of indicators can be used to measure volatility like: Average true range (ATR) . Donchian channels . Moving averages (by comparing the moving average to the current price). Traders can also look at implied volatility readings, which reflect the level of expected volatility derived from options. Key things traders should know about volatility: Big news events like Brexit or trade wars can have a major impact on a currencys volatility. Data releases can also influence volatility. Traders can stay ahead of data releases by using an economic calendar. Volatile currency pairs still obey many technical aspects of trading, like support and resistance levels, trendlines and price patterns. Traders can take advantage of the volatility using technical analysis in combination with strict risk management principles . Staying up to date with the latest forex pair news , analysis and rates can help you predict possible changes in volatility. We provide comprehensive trading forecasts to help you navigate the market. DailyFX hosts daily webinars to answer questions and help traders prepare for volatile market conditions. Supplement your forex learning and strategy development with the DailyFX Education Center . If youd like to follow prices in the pairs listed above, the demo account can allow access to a live price feed along with a full suite of tools, charts and indicators. Click here to request a free demo with IG group Shirley Ann Wheeler, 85, passed away peacefully on November 12, 2021 at the Woodlands at Furman Arboretum in Greenville, SC. Ms. Wheeler was the loving wife of 65 years of Harry Marvin Wheeler, also a resident at the Woodlands. Born in Ashland, Kentucky in 1936, Ms. Wheeler was the daughter Lewisburg Area High Schools Class of 2023 will host a shoe-drive fundraiser from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the high school parking lot. Several pairs of shoes have already been collected. In front, from left, are Keeley Baker, Emily Boyles, Mattison Lytle, Madison Materne, and Gracie Murphy; in back, Jack Kilbride, Zachary Kreisher, Matthew Reish, Henry Harrison, Dylan Dershem, Evan Aikey and Alexus Ayala. Sunbury, PA (17801) Today Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High 61F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy early, then clearing overnight. A shower of rain or wet snow possible. Low 32F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. A budget European airline has ditched it's strict uniform policy for female flight attendants which required them to wear high heels and skirts. SkyUp, based in the Ukraine, no longer requires female members of staff to wear pencil skirts and heels and instead employees can opt for comfortable trousers and trainers. The low-cost airline have also replaced tight blouses and bright orange blazers with looser alternatives and staff seem to be delighted by the forthcoming change. The airline, which is one of the youngest low-cost airlines in Europe, will bring in the uniform change late this month after a staff survey revealed that female employees weren't keen on their restrictive uniform. A budget European airline has ditched it's strict uniform policy for female flight attendants which required them to wear high heels and skirts. Pictured, the staff in the new uniform SkyUp, based in the Ukraine, no longer requires female members of staff to wear pencil skirts and heels and instead employees can opt for comfortable trousers and trainers (pictured) The low-cost airline have also replaced tight blouses and bright orange blazers with looser alternatives (pictured) and staff seem to be delighted by the forthcoming change Alexandrina Denysenko, a senior flight attendant with seven years of experience, said she sometimes does not get a spare minute to sit down during a flight and dreams of resting her swollen legs after spending hours wearing heels. 'Shoes on heels look beautiful, I do not argue with that, but feet suffer and swell by the end of the flight. Sneakers are absolutely cool,' Denysenko said. 'God forbid, but if a crew has to do a landing in water and an evacuation, heels can damage the ladder and it won't be very comfortable to swim in a skirt,' she said. The company said they researched the history of cabin crew uniforms and decided to ditch what they called 'conservative' elements of a flight attendant's look. Braids will now replace a tight-bun or pony-tail hairstyle. 'We found out that despite the fact that the image of a female flight attendant is very romanticized, their job demands a lot of physical training,' the head of the SkyUp Airlines marketing department, Marianna Grygorash, said. The airline, which is one of the youngest low-cost airlines in Europe, will bring in the uniform change (pictured) late this month after a staff survey revealed that female employees weren't keen on their restrictive uniform The company said they researched the history of cabin crew uniforms and decided to ditch what they called 'conservative' elements of a flight attendant's look. Braids (pictured) will now replace a tight-bun or pony-tail hairstyle The new orange uniform (pictured) will be officially launched by the company on October 22 The new uniform will be officially launched on October 22. Grygorash said the company also plans to launch a new uniform for male crew. A light suit instead of a vest, and a T-shirt instead of a shirt will be combined with black trainers. 'If the whole world and all fashionistas wear sneakers, why not to bring it to aviation?' flight attendant Zoryana said. The change comes amid changing attitudes to female airline staff, with a slew of airlines ditching restrictive elements of their uniform in recent years. In 2019 Virgin Atlantic announced that its female cabin crew would no longer have to wear makeup in order to allow cabin crew 'more choice on how to express themselves at work'. The company also plans to launch a new uniform for male crew. A light suit instead of a vest, and a T-shirt instead of a shirt will be combined with black trainers. Pictured, the staff in the new uniforms The change of uniform (pictured) comes amid changing attitudes to female airline staff, with a slew of airlines ditching restrictive elements of their uniform in recent years Flight attendants of SkyUp Airlines pose for a picture onboard a plane during the presentation of a new uniform at the Boryspil International Airport outside Kyiv, Ukraine Crew are still permitted to wear makeup if they wish but are told they should do so 'using the airline's suggested colour palette'. As part of new changes, female cabin crew, known for wearing an iconic red uniform, were provided with a pair of trousers in addition to the standard shirt and skirt. Prior to this female crew would have to specially request trousers if they wished to wear them. In the same year, Norwegian Air dropped their high heel and makeup requirement for female flight attendants and allowed male members of staff to wear 'light make-up'. It came after they were criticised when it emerged its female flight attendants were forced to wear high heels, with the only exception being if they have a doctor's note - which they would have to bring in daily. Among James Martins legions of fans are the fun-loving Martinis a group of ladies who pose nude for a calendar for him every year with strategically placed cakes and profiteroles to cover their modesty. They even managed to secretly track down his car at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which meant he opened their most recent calendar to find Miss July sprawled naked over his bonnet save for three pastries of course. The Martinis have been sending me their calendar as a joke for 28 years, and each year the cakes get bigger, laughs James. This will come as no surprise if the Martinis have been faithfully following Jamess recipes, because their rock god chef has never been one to skimp on full-fat ingredients. So who better to dedicate an entire book to the joys of butter than James? In fact, his first suggestion was to call the book simply Fat, but that was boffed off in favour of the more woke title of Butter. Among James Martins (pictured) legions of fans are the fun-loving Martinis a group of ladies who pose nude for a calendar for him every year with strategically placed cakes and profiteroles to cover their modesty Fat thats what I wanted to call it and they said, Mmm, maybe not... But the next one will be called Fat, he smiles. A down-to-earth Yorkshireman who doesnt hesitate to call a spade a spade, James may well get away with this. His twinkling eyes and sexy, slightly unshaven face help too, of course. As such, in a world where were no longer supposed to eat butter, or salt for that matter, James has had more people going bonkers over his new book than any other hes written. He even had to come off social media because he was inundated with messages. The response has been overwhelming, he says. Chefs treat butter like olive oil, and for me its always been about the food delicious food. You cant produce good-quality food with margarine its s***. Do we need to be lectured? Can we just enjoy it for what it is? Butter is a natural ingredient. Ive spent my entire career using butter without compromise and without substitute, mainly because there isnt one. We shouldnt take butter for granted. Its such an essential part of our food lives right across the globe that its a wonder many more havent written books on it before. Butter is unique and natural, and we dont have to kill an animal to produce it. In the book, James not only shares some of his favourite new dishes and old classics everything from savoury delights like roast crab with lime and chilli butter, Barnsley chops with goats cheese butter, chicken with nduja butter and Dover sole meuniere to sweet treats including cinnamon bread with caramel butter dip, shortbread and baklava but he also shows us how to make all kinds of butter, including flavoured ones such as chilli, red wine and Marmite. They even managed to secretly track down his car at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which meant he opened their most recent calendar to find Miss July sprawled naked over his bonnet save for three pastries of course. Pictured, James Butter from supermarkets has a lot of water content, but real butter snaps like Dairy Milk chocolate. Once youve tasted real butter youll never go back, he explains. And yet people think butter grows on trees. They dont realise the taste depends solely on the time of year, where the cream comes from, which in turn depends on the breed of cow as well as the pasture it feeds on the whole process is a simple but complex one. No two cows produce the same milk and cream, and therefore butter will always taste a little bit different. James and his team wrote the book in 21 days during lockdown and photographed the dishes on the floor of his Hampshire home. The whole thing was completed in nine weeks from start to finish. But then Jamess life has always been lived at top speed. When he was eight he predicted hed be a head chef by 30, have his own restaurant by 35 and a Ferrari by 40. He achieved all these goals by 24, but rather than relaxing and enjoying his multi-million-pound fortune he went on to become a household name presenting the BBCs Saturday Kitchen for ten years after cutting his teeth on Ready Steady Cook and The Big Breakfast. He landed the Saturday Kitchen job on the back of his appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2005, when he finished fourth with his partner Camilla Dallerup. She became his girlfriend for a while, as hed just ended a four-and-a-half-year relationship with Bond producer Barbara Broccoli. Back then he was a pin-up chef, posing on kitchen tables and looking seductive with his long dark locks and sultry smile. But a turning point came six months before he left Saturday Kitchen, when a friend had a heart attack and died in front of him at a Dubai food awards show. He realised then that he had to slow down. So I called Carla-Maria Lawson, whos now BBC Head of Daytime, and she said, This is the phone call Ive been dreading. What can I do? And I said, Nothing. Sarah Harding lit up the room Jamess refuge is the privacy of his own home, which he shares with his dogs Ralph and Cooper, and that feeling of relief when he closes the big gates at the bottom of the drive. I love my home. I cant believe how lucky I am. I used to be on the road all the time, but now my home is my haven. James with Sarah and TV presenter Anita Rani Its not always a quiet haven though, as he has his boys chill-out room, a sort of green room where he entertains his TV guests before and after the show. The most fun Ive had was with Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud we had a party to end all parties 18 months ago. Ive never drunk so much Cristal Champagne Ive only just replaced it, he laughs. She was poorly but she still brought light into every room. We spoke often right up to just before she died Id send her videos on how to cook stuff. You do all you can to keep people smiling and comfortable. Advertisement Thats because James doesnt do bargaining. He does what he feels is right. Which is just as well, since he then faced his own health crisis which he has described as turbulent carnage, although hes refused to go into detail about it. Hes in rude health today. Hes 6ft 3in and says hes lost weight recently. Ive lost 2st in five weeks due to the stress of opening and shutting restaurants four times because of Covid. You do have sleepless nights as you worry about your team. Im not great at everything, or anything to be honest. But Alan Sugar says its all about the team around you, like a good jigsaw puzzle, and Ive got good people in that jigsaw. Hes been with his partner Louise Davies, who works in TV as a PA, since 2011 after they met on the set of Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. He doesnt have children but is clearly paternal with his kitchen team and would make a good dad. People have said that. But I was too busy. I love my job, its the best in the world. But I still think, Whats next? Now Im about to start the biggest project Ive ever done. Weve bought a business in lockdown and were going to turn it around, he reveals. He wont say any more on that, but he does talk about how hes also developed his blended wine. Hes sold 200,000 bottles already in Europe before it wings its way to the UK soon. And hes sold more than 60,000 tickets for his James Martin Live cookery tour of 18 UK towns and cities next year. Its a blessing that Saturday Morning With James Martin, the ITV cookery show hes been hosting since 2017, is filmed at his home which allows him to return quickly to the stoves at his restaurants, The Kitchen at Chewton Glen in Hampshire and James Martin Manchester. I dont have to get up early for a rehearsal because we dont do them. Even if its the first time for a dish, we dont rehearse and we buy the ingredients for that demo only. James puts his force of nature down to being dyslexic, which has been a driving influence. A lot about this is making up for the fact Im dyslexic. I see dyslexia as a positive. Ive never read a book Ive never read this book, he says, looking at a copy of Butter on the desk. The last book I read was Chicken Licken Ive got the Ladybird book in my chill-out room at home. I dont feel proud of it but dyslexia focuses your mind on something different. At 12 he was almost thrown out of school cookery classes because he served up flambeed chicken livers instead of fairy cakes like the rest of the class. He could cook better than his teacher, but because he couldnt write the recipes down he failed. Undeterred, he went to study catering at Scarborough Technical College, where he won student of the year three times and was offered a job by Antony Worrall Thompson, a judge for his final exams, at Londons One Ninety Queens Gate. Hes never looked back, except to feel grateful for his down-to-earth childhood on a Yorkshire pig farm, watching his grandparents grow veg and his mother and aunt cook. Hes used some of the proceeds from his 20 best-selling cookbooks to buy 40 classic cars, but the highlight of his career was buying his mum a home. Buying your mums house makes you feel better than anything in your life, he smiles. Now, of course, she needs a new conservatory and a new car... Butter: Comforting, Delicious, Versatile Over 130 Recipes Celebrating Butter by James Martin will be published on Thursday (Quadrille, 22). James Martin 2021. To order a copy for 19.80 (offer valid to 24 October; UK P&P free on orders over 20), visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3308 9193. Prime Minister Robert Sutherland thought he had a lot on his plate in the acclaimed first series of COBRA last year, when a solar flare disabled the National Grid, leaving much of Britain without power and creating violent social unrest and political chaos for the government. But the new series of Skys edge-of-the-seat thriller sees him having to tackle cyberwars, an exploding munitions ship and a tidal wave on the Kent coast. Britain has been plunged into crisis again by a computer virus that disables not only government systems but the mobile phone network too, and when a tidal wave floods the Kent coast after a shipwreck full of explosives on the bed of the Thames explodes, the COBRA committee, convened at times of national emergency and made up of government ministers and advisers, must try to manage the disasters. Prime Minister Robert Sutherland (pictured centre) thought he had a lot on his plate in the acclaimed first series of COBRA last year The situation is desperate and frightening, says Robert Carlyle, the Trainspotting star who plays the PM. When government officials stare at their laptops they simply see the chilling message Ruin Britannia from whoever carried out the cyber attack. Later in the series the hackers strike again, breaking into the computer system that flags up hazardous loads in vehicles entering the port of Dover from Europe. Hundreds of lorries leave the terminal unchecked and could be driving around Britain with deadly payloads. One of them, it turns out, is doing just that... This new series of COBRA shifts its focus more towards politics and espionage instead of some of the personal storylines that were to the fore in series one. Sutherlands daughter Ellie, for example a key character in the original COBRA has been despatched to Chile to avoid further social media flak following her involvement in a drugs scandal. His lawyer wife Rachel (Lucy Cohu) is still around, however, and its her professional life some potentially unethical conduct that threatens to force her husband out of Downing Street. Its one of many challenges Sutherland faces, says Robert. He only has a small majority in parliament and must bring his troublesome former Home Secretary Archie Glover-Morgan, played by David Haig, back into government when the going gets tough. That sets him on a collision course with his Chief of Staff Anna Marshall, who cant bear Archie. In fact Sutherland faces so many challenges in this new series that you begin to wonder if he did something wrong in a previous life to deserve it. But the new series of Skys edge-of-the-seat thriller sees him having to tackle cyberwars, an exploding munitions ship and a tidal wave on the Kent coast. Pictured, Sutherland at the helm in a COBRA meeting But isnt that the nature of politics? says Robert. I think every politician can be unlucky, it goes with the territory. Although thats not the reason Id run a mile if anybody suggested I sought political office in real life. I think its a strange thing to want to do, this desire for power. And its tough. Id give it a wide berth. The tidal wave plotline is based on a real situation, writer Ben Richards says a sunken American ship containing munitions lying at the bottom of the Thames Estuary. The SS Richard Montgomery has been stranded on the Nore sandbank near Sheerness since August 1944 and still has 1,500 tons of munitions on board, although experts reckon the chances of it exploding are rembote. I hope I dont give the people of Kent sleepless nights by featuring a similar type of ship exploding and causing a tidal wave, says Ben. Our story imagines a worst-case scenario that will probably never come to pass. COBRA: CYBERWAR, Friday, 9pm, Sky Max. Three Chinese-born girls who were given up for adoption and raised by different American parents discovered via at-home DNA tests that they were all cousins and, after bonding over their shared ancestry, the trio traveled to China together in search of their birth parents. Their incredible story plays out in the upcoming documentary Found, which premieres on Netflix on October 20. The hour-and-a-half-long film follows Lily Bolka, Chloe Lipitz, and Sadie Mangelsdorf, who met as teens after doing 23andMe and in 2019 returned to their country of birth on a mission to meet the families that gave them up. Reunited! Three Chinese-born girls who were given up for adoption and raised by different American parents discovered via at-home DNA tests that they were all cousins Journey: After bonding over their shared ancestry, the trio traveled to China together in search of their birth parents The stars: Lily, Chloe, and Sadie (left to right) are the subjects of a new documentary coming to Netflix After Lily, Chloe, and Sadie each did 23andMe, they found their shared ancestry and connected online 'It all stated when I did 23andMe,' Chloe says in a new trailer. 'And that's how I found Lily and Sadie. 'It opened up new ideas about our adoption,' adds Lily. Together, they enlisted the help of My China Roots, a history and travel group that helps Chinese people around the world trace their lineage and find relatives. 'Looking for one's lost history is important,' researcher Liu Hao, a researcher with the company, says. 'My job is to track down those people who might have a connection with Lily, Sadie, and Chloe.' The young women seem to have some luck, with Hao telling Lily that she may have found her birth parents. 'I haven't known them for long,' one of the girls says of her cousins. 'You just know they know what you feel' Sadie (second from left), Chloe (second from right), and Lily (far right) all traveled to China together with a film crew Digging: They enlisted the help of My China Roots, a history and travel group that helps Chinese people around the world trace their lineage and find relatives 'Looking for one's lost history is important,' researcher Liu Hao, a researcher with the company, says Lily decides to travel to China to find them, and along with her adoptive mother, Chloe and Sadie come along for the trip. 'I haven't known them for long,' one of the girls says of her cousins. 'You just know they know what you feel.' The film follows them as they travel together to China along with a film crew including Chloe's aunt, Amanda Lipitz, who directed the film. The film is filled with emotions. In addition to some tourist fun like a stop at the Great Wall, the cousins also visit their orphanages and reunite with the nannies who cared for them as babies. As the trailer premiered this week, Lily took to Instagram to reflect, calling the experience 'absolutely life changing.' Exploring: In addition to some tourist fun like a stop at the Great Wall, the cousins also visit their orphanages and reunite with the nannies who cared for them as babies Searching: The young women seem to have some luck, with Hao telling Lily that she may have found her birth parents 'I could not be more grateful for this journey and opportunity,' Lily said 'Asian American women are an extremely underrepresented group in film and television, and Im sure that was a motivating factor to them,' director Amana Lipitz said 'This is a film about the way we are all connected, set against a backdrop of circumstances that changed the course of many lives,' she added 'I could not be more grateful for this journey and opportunity,' she said. 'I am so excited for what is to come in the future! I am eternally grateful for all of the unconditional love and support from my friends and family!' Meanwhile, Lipitz, the director, discussed the importance of the trip to The Hollywood Reporter. 'Asian American women are an extremely underrepresented group in film and television, and Im sure that was a motivating factor to them,' she said. 'It felt like a moment of "Let me tell my story. Let me show people that Im here."' 'This is a film about the way we are all connected, set against a backdrop of circumstances that changed the course of many lives,' she added. 'It is for anyone who has the faith, courage, and strength to find out who they really are.' Dylan Dreyer and her husband Brian Fichera are celebrating their newborn son Russell 'Rusty' Fichera coming home from the hospital, where he had been in the neonatal intensive care unit after arriving six weeks early. The Today meteorologist, 40, took to Instagram on Thursday to share a heartwarming photo of herself in her New York City apartment with Brian, their baby boy, their older sons Calvin and Oliver, and their dog. 'Man it feels real good to be home together!!! #partyoffive #sohappytogether,' Dylan captioned the image, which marked Rusty's first time home. Party of five: Dylan Dreyer and her husband Brian Fichera brought their newborn son Rusty home from the hospital on Thursday, a week after the baby was born Tears of joy: Rusty had to stay in the NICU after arriving six weeks early, and both Dylan and Brian were overcome with emotion on the drive home from the hospital with their baby boy The snapshot shows the family huddled on the couch together, with Brian cradling their newest addition while a smiling Dylan is embracing their dog. The couple's four-year-old son, Calvin, is eating popcorn, and one-year-old Oliver is holding a teal plastic cup. Brian announced they were bringing Rusty home earlier that day, sharing a photo of himself driving home with Dylan, whose eyes were welled up with tears of joy. 'Hes coming home!' the NBC News cameraman wrote. 'Driving home 13 inches an hour on the FDR with fish swimming in my eyes like I just watched the end of Forrest Gump, My Girl and ET combined. #welcomehomerusty.' Rusty was born at 2:38 am on September 29, just hours after Dylan revealed that she had been hospitalized when her water unexpectedly broke six weeks early. Brian shared the first photo of Rusty later that day. In the sweet snap, Dylan is pictured sitting up in her hospital bed with baby Rusty sleeping soundly on her chest. Candid: A few days after Rusty was born, Dylan shared photos of him in the NICU at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where she welcomed all three of her sons Happy parents: Dylan also included heartwarming snapshots of Brian holding their son in the hospital while she looked at the baby in awe Motherly love: One particularly sweet snapshot shows Dylan kissing her baby boy on the forehead The mother of three is wearing a blue medical face mask while her tiny tot is seen in a blue-and-pink striped hat, complete with adorable little ears. 'Guys this is our son Russell James Fichera,' the proud dad wrote in the caption. 'Rusty managed to expedite immense love and joy into the world 6 weeks earlier than expected. 'His mother, @dylandreyernbc already went beyond what I thought possible a human could do to safely bring him into this world. Im in awe and in love. Thank you for all of your well wishes and support. #love #numbathree #mythreesons #godylgo.' A few days later, Dylan posted photos of Rusty in the NICU at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital while thanking the nurses and doctors who cared for their son. In one of the images, the NBC star is seen kissing her baby boy on the forehead while Brian holds him in his arms. Others show the baby in an incubator in the NICU. Grateful: In the caption, Dylan thanked the team of doctors and nurses who cared for her son in the NICU Whoops! Both Dylan and Brian have been so preoccupied with their son coming six weeks early that they both forgot their nine-year wedding anniversary 'I am so full of emotion and gratitude for this past week. God has blessed us with baby Russell earlier than expected but taken care of us the whole way. I couldnt imagine waiting until November to meet him,' she wrote. 'Our stay at @nyphospital of Lower Manhattan, a smaller, more home-like hospital, once again went above and beyond,' she continued. 'All 3 of our boys now have been born here. 'Im in awe of all the doctors and nurses and whats theyve done for us, making us feel safe and comfortable. The NICU nurses and doctors are indescribablethrough all this we never felt scared or worried.' While it was difficult to leave the hospital without Rusty, Dylan said it helped to know that her son was in the care of an amazing team of medical professionals at the hospital. 'My heart aches having to leave here without Rusty but I also feel better knowing hell continue to be monitored and remain in the best hands,' she shared. 'Hes THRIVING! Growing, getting stronger, eating and breathing on his own.' New arrival! The couple welcomed Rusty at 2:38 am on September 29 Overjoyed: NBC News cameraman Brian described himself as being 'in awe and in love' as he shared the first image of Dylan cuddling Rusty in the hospital Dylan concluded the post with a message for her son, writing: 'Buddy, you have no idea whats in store for you at home so keep on rushing and get home as soon as you can! We love you more than words could ever say!' The parents have been so distracted by their baby boy's early arrival that they both admittedly forgot their nine-year wedding anniversary. 'Rusty threw us for a loop so we kind of forgot our anniversary. Sosentiment, sentiment, sentimentI love you, I love you, I love youyoure funny, youre the best, theres no one like you. We good? Ok,' Dylan joked on Instagram. 'Happy anniversary to the only one who would understand that this is exactly the post we need right now!!' Brian shared a similar sentiment when he posted a snapshot of himself and Dylan feeding their youngest child. 'Kid came 6 weeks early I dont even know what year it is let alone what the date is,' he admitted. 'Remember what I said the last 8 anniversary posts? Copy paste. Happy anniversary to the only one who I care that finds this funny.' News of baby Rusty's birth was shared by Dylan's Today co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie on the morning of September 29. Struggle: The day before she gave birth, Dylan revealed on Instagram that she had been hospitalized when her water broke six weeks early and asked fans for their 'prayers' Exciting: News of baby Rusty's arrival was shared on the Today show on the morning of September 29, with Dylan's co-stars revealing he weighed 5 lbs, 5 oz at birth Hoda revealed that both 'mom and babe [are] doing just fine,' despite the baby coming six weeks earlier than expected. They also added that he weighed in at 5 lbs, 5 oz and measured 18 inches long at birth. According to Today, Rusty's name is a tribute to both Dylan and Brian's fathers. Russell is the name of the newborn's paternal grandfather on his dad's side while James is his maternal grandfather's moniker. The day before Rusty's birth, Dylan shared photos of herself in the hospital, explaining that her water had broken six weeks ahead of schedule and her son was likely going to be born early. 'Just a little update as you wont be seeing me on @todayshow or @3rdhourtoday for a while.' she wrote. 'My water broke Sunday evening and Ive been hanging at the hospital. Our little guy is anxious to get out and meet us!' One of the snapshots was a selfie that she took while lying in her hospital bed with her black face mask pulled down. The other was a picture of her smiling and hanging out with her husband Brian. Good news: Despite the premature arrival, Hoda Kotb, 57, (right) said that 'mom and babe [were] doing just fine,' joking that Russell 'could not stay' any longer Behind-the-scenes: Brian also opened up about Dylan being in the hospital ahead of Rusty's birth while sharing a black and white photo of his wife asleep in her bed Tired: Brian, who had been sleeping on a pull-out bed in the hospital, filmed himself flopping onto his bed while picking up some things for Dylan at their New York City apartment 'Doctors are closely monitoring both of us and trying to keep him on the inside for a little while longer to get stronger,' she explained. 'All is well! Im in great hands and I have the best person to keep me calm and comfortable. Looks like well be getting to meet our littlest boy sometime this weeksix weeks early!' Dylan joked that her third child couldn't wait to meet his big brothers. 'Guess he couldnt handle being left out of all the fun his brothers have been having!' she concluded the post. 'Well gladly take any extra prayers you have.' Brian also opened up about Dylan being in the hospital while sharing a black and white photo of his wife asleep in her bed. 'A few extra sleepless nights on the pull-out bed is more than a fair trade to make sure everyone is as safe and healthy as possible when it comes time [to] meet this impatient little guy,' he wrote. 'Son, if you have just half of your mom's courage and general bad a**ery youre going to be something special.' Fun day: Dylan and Brian took their older sons Calvin, four, and Oliver, one, apple picking the weekend before her water broke Can't wait: Dylan joked that her baby was trying to come out early because he 'couldnt handle being left out of all the fun his brothers have been having' While Brian had no problem sleeping at the hospital, he admitted he missed his bed. In a follow-up post, he shared a black and white video of himself flopping into their bed in their apartment. 'When your wife sends you home from the hospital to grab some things and you catch a glimpse of your bed after spending the last couple nights on the hospital cot.. #babywatch #expecting #babynumber3,' he captioned the clip. Dylan revealed she was pregnant with her third baby boy in May, two years after she welcomed her second son Oliver following a heartbreaking miscarriage and infertility struggles. She shared the happy news live on-air during a special edition of her 'Cooking With Cal' segment in which she whips up different dishes with her oldest son. This time, they baked cinnamon buns while joking about having a 'bun in the oven.' Dylan explained on the second hour of the morning show that she and her husband had all but given up on conceiving a third child after once again facing infertility issues. 'We were trying for a third, and it wasn't happening. So we thought let's forget about it, move on,' she said. 'Then boom, surprise!' Surprise! Dylan announced she was pregnant with her third child on the Today show in May, saying she was due in November 'Bun in the oven!' Dylan shared the news of her pregnancy during a tongue-in-cheek cooking video with her son Calvin in which she revealed her baby bump for the first time Magic number! The expectant mom revealed she was having a boy by getting her co-hosts Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones, and Craig Melvin to hold up boxes with cinnamon rolls in them The meteorologist didn't say exactly how far along she was at the time, but she did share that she was due in November. Her Today co-hosts Savannah and Hoda insisted that they 'knew it,' admitting they had actually exchanged text messages in which they speculated that she might be pregnant again. But they were still stunned by how well she managed to keep her growing baby bump concealed. Dylan joked that she used two invaluable tools to hide her growing tummy: her 'tightest Spanx' and a large water bottle, which she carried around in front of her stomach. On the show's third hour, she announced the baby's gender, delightedly sharing that she is having a third boy by having her co-hosts hold up cinnamon roll boxes with the letters 'B-O-Y' inside. Dylan and Brian's second son Oliver was conceived amid their infertility battle, during which she suffered a first-trimester miscarriage in early 2019 when she was five weeks pregnant. They were actually preparing to undergo their first round of IVF treatment when she made the shocking discovery that she had conceived a second child naturally. 'I was just waiting for the phone call from [my doctor], to tell me how much of each drug to use,' she said at the time. 'Instead, when he called, he said, "Well, you cant start IVF because youre already pregnant!" We were in complete shock. We couldnt believe it!' Dylan and Brian welcomed baby Oliver in January 2020. The family of a DJ who has been in hospital with Long Covid for 19 months after the virus left him with brain damage has revealed his mother passed away before he could fully recover. British twin DJs Bobby and Steve Laviniere, 57, both contracted the coronavirus on March 7 2020, and while Bobby was able to recover, his twin brother is still being treated in hospital in Sussex. Their story appeared in Kate Garraway's award-winning documentary, Finding Derek. Appearing on Good Morning Britain this morning with his wife Sylma and Steve's wife Julie Laviniere, Bobby, revealed the twins' mother, who was 84, passed away on the day the family threw a big party to raise funds to pay for Steve's return home. In the emotional interview from Ibiza, Bobby revealed his mother was one of the only people who had provoked any reaction from Steve in the 19 months since he contracted Covid. London DJ Steve Laviniere, 57, pictured, has been unresponsive since he contracted Covid-19 in March 2020, which sparked brain damage. His family are now raising money to get him home. Steve and his brother Bobby appeared in Kate Garraway's award-winning documentary Finding Derek Bobby, pictured right, revealed the twins' mother, 84, died the day the family threw a Ministry of Sound fundraiser to get Steve, left, home 'Mum had been in hospital in and out for the last year,' Bobby explained on the show. 'I saw her in hospital on the Saturday, she was sitting in her chair with our sister feeding her, having a laugh with her,' he recounted. 'The Wednesday before, she was saying "I want to see my children because I'm not going to be here, I'm going soon". 'I got a call Sunday morning, and the doctor said "You guys need to come in, she's taking a turn for the worse". And I was like "Not today, of all days, what is going on?",' Bobby added. The men's mother, pictured, saw her son Steve move during a brief home visit in June, but did not live to see him recover 'She was surrounded by all of us, the family, the siblings, the children, the grandchildren, we were all there.' Bobby revealed his mother died on the Sunday when the family and friends of Steve were throwing a Ministry of Sound fundraiser for her son. 'She's in a better place now. And my mum, god bless her, she's been here for 84 years and she's done everything. She's a devoted catholic and she's done everything to get where she is now and she's in a good place, in a better place. We're dealing with it,' he added. Bobby also revealed that before her death, his mother was able to make Steve move during a home visit in June. 'Steve, he's had two home visits where he comes home for two, three hours,' he explained. Steve's wife Julie, pictured, said the family were amazed when Steve moved his head to look at his mother in June, and that the slightest change is a positive Bobby, right, said his mother is in a better place. He added his focus is on bringing his brother home 'The first one, he came home, and we're Catholics and my mum, she was doing the rosary, she was praying with Steve, and she was beside Steve praying. 'We were on the other side of the lounge at Steve and Julie's house,' he added, 'and my mum goes "Oh my god, oh my god". 'Steve had turned his head, and was staring at my mum. Now, this doesn't happen, Maybe two, three times in the 18 months, and he was so fine we could see the positivity and the glow of Steve coming out. We know Steve knew that he was at home,' Bobby added. 'So that led us to say we need to get Steve home,' he added. Julie, Steve's wife, said the small interaction had meant everything to her. Julie, Bobby and his wife, left, caught up with Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard, top, on Good Morning Britain She said: 'You know this Kate, the smallest thing means so much now. 'If Steve does move, like his eye towards us. The slightest degree to us is positive because we know he's trying. 'And when he did that for his mum, it was incredible, We were just looking at each other in amazement, gasping, "He's done it, he's done it for his mum". 'And coincidence? We don't believe it's a coincidence,' she added. In the same interview, Julie said Steve 'looked' well, even though he was still unresponsive to commands and did not respond to her or Bobby's presence. Bobby explained he visited his mother in hospital with his sister - second right - the day before she died Julie said she knows Steve is trying to get better, but has to pay the eye-watering cost of getting him home and adapting their house The family are crowdfunding money to get Steve home, which will come at an eye-watering cost for Julie, who has to turn their bathroom into a water room, as well as other changes. Speaking of the Ministry of Sound fundraiser the family threw for Steve was as covid safe as possible, and that attendees completed lateral flow tests before coming to make sure they were not spreading Covid-19. Steve Laviniere, 57, and his twin brother Bobby, both popular London house music DJs, first contracted the virus on March 7th last year after playing a gig in Madrid and were put on ventilators. While Bobby was taken off the ventilator after seven days and took two months to recover from the virus, Steve suffered multiple organ failure and inflammation of the brain and remains in hospital. Julie, pictured with Steve before his illness, said her husband looks 'well' and that she wants him to get better Steve remains one of Britain's longest-running Covid patients and the possibility of a full recovery remains uncertain. TV star Garraway, whose husband Derek Draper has had his health shattered by Covid and is now being cared for at the family's home, won a National Television Award for the documentary Finding Derek. Last week, Kate revealed Steve's family had raised 25,000 to pay for the house adaptation that need to be done in order to get him home. A Ministry of Sound evening that included a celebrity DJ line-up that included Norman Jay and Trevor Nelson took place on Sunday evening. In an emotive message on the fundraising page, a message from Steve's twin Bobby reads: 'There is no medicine to repair this condition, however Steve is a fighter and receiving the best care possible so we are confident that Steves condition will improve in time. Bobby said the Ministry of Sound event friends and family of Steve threw on Sunday 3 October was as covid safe as possible and that people attending all took lateral flow tests 'When the time is right, we know Steve will benefit from being at home with Julie and all our family surrounding him with love, the greatest medicine of all. 'We are planning for the future, and to put this in place the family home will need major home adaptations, so we will be extremely grateful for any donations to fund the renovation, and go towards Steves future care and rehabilitation.' In Finding Derek, the Good Morning Britain presenter spoke to Bobby, his wife Sylma, and also to Julie, Steve's wife, about how their family has been torn apart by the virus. The brothers first realised they had symptoms when they were breathless on the phone. Steve was initially treated at East Surrey Hospital but is now in a nursing home in the capital. Kate Garraway and Julia discussed how Covid is a 'lottery' that has presented the two brothers with very different health outcomes. In November, the Laviniere family marked the twins 57th birthday at Steves bedside and faced a similar scenario at Christmas. Steve's wife Julie explained how her husband was put into an induced coma in an intensive care unit after struggling to fight the virus. Bobby told the GMB presenter that it took him seven weeks to fully recover from the virus, after he spent a week on a ventilator last March. A tearful Bobby, who is a DJ act called Groove Odyssey with his brother, said without any medication to 'fix' Covid, 'the only medication for us is love.' The Good Morning Britain presenter, 53, filmed every step of Derek's year long battle with COVID-19 following his hospitalisation with the respiratory illness in March 2020 with the fly-on-the-wall programme. During the emotional hour-long documentary, Kate is seen planing for an uncertain future with Derek as she admits: 'There's been times where I've thought: "Am I actually grieving for the person I'm married to or am I fighting to hold onto that person?"' Later in the award-winning film, in a heartbreaking video call with her husband in November, Derek breaks down in tears and says he wants to 'die' to which Kate insists: 'I promised you I will save you and I'm going to save you.' The documentary, filmed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, focused on Derek's plight after falling gravely ill with the virus and Kate's desperate battle to care for her husband while planning for an uncertain future. A mother has revealed how she diagnosed herself with a potentially-fatal genetic disorder after doctors passed off her terrifying symptoms as signs of grief over the death of her nine-day-old baby. Mom-of-two Lindsey Raudabaugh, 30, from Pennsylvania, found herself bedridden for four months from March 2020 after suffering intense stomach pain along with vomiting and diarrhea nearly every day. Over the next year and a half, she underwent multiple tests and surgeries, but doctors were unable to diagnose her - and one even went as far as to suggest that her illness was the result of PTSD from the death of her son Asher. The newborn baby boy was born with a very rare congenital condition called tracheal agenesis, which means that he did not have a windpipe, and he passed away at just nine days old. But while his death paved the way for new research into the condition, it also sparked a months-long health battle for Lindsey, who spent more than a year trying to get to the bottom of a series of horrific symptoms, from paralysis to hair loss. It was only after Lindsey took matters into her own hands and began conducting research on her symptoms - only to eventually learn that she does in fact suffer from a condition known as hereditary hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that can cause severe liver disease and an array of other health problems, and can be fatal if not treated early. Struggle: A 30-year-old mother from Pennsylvania has revealed how she diagnosed herself with a life-threatening illness after doctors dismissed her symptoms as signs of grief Suffering: Lindsey Raudabaugh began experiencing serious health struggles in March 2020, which began with vomiting and stomach pains and developed into temporary paralysis Questions: Despite Lindsey's symptoms continuing to worsen over time, doctors insisted that her health struggles were the results of grief, anxiety, and PTSD over the death of her baby son Hereditary hemochromatosis is a condition that causes the body to absorb too much iron from the food that you eat, which is then stored in the organs - particularly the liver, heart, and pancreas. Too much iron can lead to the development of life-threatening conditions, including liver disease, heart problems, and diabetes - meaning that early diagnosis is essential, something that Lindsey says she was unable to do as a result of her treatment by her doctors. Now, Lindsey is speaking out about her experiences in the hopes of helping others who feel as though their illnesses are being dismissed by doctors - while calling for a change to the way in which medical experts diagnose their patients. 'I was aggravated and angry because I wasn't feeling anxious or mentally unwell' said Lindsey. 'I had a therapist who told me I was "hypersensitive by nature", and that I needed to talk about anything other than my illnesses. 'I attempted medication for both PTSD and anxiety to humor the doctors. None worked and some made my issues worse so I discontinued use immediately.' Lindsey developed more symptoms, such as convulsions, temporary paralysis from her toes to her shoulders, hair loss across her entire head and weight loss of three-stone in less than three months, as well as her body's cobalt rising to toxic levels - but doctors still had no answers for her. She decided to take matters into her own hands, journaling her symptoms every day and researching them online. Research: Lindsey and her husband Michael's newborn son Asher passed away at just nine days old after being born without a windpipe Options: After doctors failed to diagnose her symptoms, Lindsey began conducting her own research - while taking a myriad of drugs for PTSD and anxiety at the suggestion of experts Tracking: She began to document her different symptoms, including discolored eyes and hair loss, and eventually discovered that she may be suffering from hereditary hemochromatosis Painful: Hereditary hemochromatosis is a genetic disorder that can cause liver disease and an array of other health issues and the symptoms (including a cracked tongue) are very varied 'I knew that my doctors would go home after their shift and not piece my case together,' she said. Observation: Lindsey charted everything in her daily routine to try and get to the bottom of her illness, even sampling her urine to show how it changed when she was feeling particularly sick 'My body crises told me I was dying, so the only way for possible treatment in time was to figure it out myself. 'I started journaling things like a mad scientist, and ended up writing more than 200 pages across a year and a half. I would do home tests since I didn't have access to real lab tests while I suffered throughout the night. 'As I wrote all of this down, I started backtracking. The more I wrote of my past, the more I saw correlation. 'Why did I feel sick and exhausted my whole life? Why did I have a son with a rare disease and two other rather complicated births? What is giving me tremors at 30 years old? The list of questions went on and on.' Through the process of elimination, Lindsey came across hereditary hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that can cause severe liver disease and an array of other health problems, and can be fatal if not treated early. She had her iron tested twice to confirm her suspicions, and received the results on September 29, 2021 - proving that she did have hereditary hemochromatosis. 'I feel over the moon now that I have a name and a hope for treatment to feel better, or a chance to lessen my 'attacks',' she said. Pain: She also began suffering from rashes and red marks all over her body - which she also learned are symptoms of her condition Where it all began: Lindsey first realized that something was wrong when she started experiencing agonizing stomach pains, bloating, vomiting and diarrhea Indicator: One of the symptoms of hereditary hemochromatosis is joint and foot pain - which Lindsey suffered from whenever she was experiencing a flare-up (left) Shocking: Lindsey began throwing up bile every day for months - and would take samples of it to show her doctors 'I absolutely would have died if I hadn't carried out my research. I haven't started treatment yet and I do not know yet what is in store for me, or if any of this has caused permanent damage. 'However, I knew that if I got the right diagnosis and if I had started some kind of treatment that my chances would be higher at successfully combatting and managing the process of the disease itself. 'I feel hopeful for my children's future as well, which was most important to me. 'I've come to terms with the downfalls of my disease and I have both my bad days and good days. 'I feel resilient when it comes down to making an impact on others who suffer the same fate and I also feel very strong and positive that we will make a change over time in raising awareness for undiagnosed diseases. 'Looking back now, why did no one believe me when I began having fainting spells in 2015? Because my tests show up normal and inconclusive? It angers me. Evolution: She also snapped selfies to show how her appearance changed on days when she was feeling unwell (right) versus days when she felt healthy (left) Fears: Lindsey, who has two children with her husband, believes she 'absolutely would have died if she hadn't carried out her research' Upset: She also doesn't know yet whether her undiagnosed condition has caused permanent damage to her body 'Although I'm a put-together, rather young and seemingly 'healthy' 30-year-old, I am insanely aggravated that I was dismissed so often and still am, even with diagnosis. 'No-one ever warned me, 'all of these things together is a sign of trouble, keep an eye on your health'. 'If I had never found my disease, it would have ended up claiming my life regardless and it all would have been for nothing. 'But I am grateful that I have a name. To prove medical professionals wrong, to defy odds, to help those who suffer. It's not mental, although one would go crazy dealing with this. 'It starts with doctors. They need to stop categorizing everything that they can't physically see as mental health. 'They should also screen for iron or other necessary tests when CBC blood panels and vitals are normal; tests are inconclusive, yet the patient is still suffering a myriad of symptoms. 'I also think it's crucial that people - no matter their age - listen to their bodies, take their symptoms into great consideration, and advocate for themselves.' Advertisement A collection of fashion illustrations owned by royal photographer Sir Cecil Beaton have gone on sale for 20,000. The drawings were given to the current seller, who is remaining anonymous, by diarist and costume designer Sir Beaton as a 'thank you' gift in 1978. Totalling more than 500 designs from the 1920s and 30s, the illustrations have now been put up for auction with The Auction Hub in Westbury, Wiltshire. A collection of fashion illustrations owned by royal photographer Sir Cecil Beaton have gone on sale for 20,000. Two of the images are pictuerd The drawings were given to the current seller, who is remaining anonymous, by diarist and costume designer Sir Beaton as a 'thank you' gift in 1978 Cecil Beaton was an influential war photographer, working for Vogue and Vanity Fair, while he also took society portraits of the Royal family and a host of celebrities. After the war he turned to stage and film design and won Best Costume Design Oscars for Gigi and My Fair Lady. Sir Cecil - who was 1972 New Year Honours - died at his home in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, in January 1980, aged 76. Malin Sveholm from The Auction Hub said: 'We know the drawings weren't done by Cecil Beaton as they are not his style. He may have had them for inspiration or just because he was so interested in fashion. 'They are done by several different people, only a few are signed by Esther, a couturier who had a studio in London. 'Women would go to a fashion house and sit down with these sketches, that would be the way they created their wardrobe. 'Some of them have the names of customers who they were made for on them or notes on the fabrics used. Cecil Beaton was an influential war photographer, working for Vogue and Vanity Fair, while he also took society portraits of the Royal family and a host of celebrities Totalling more than 500 designs from the 1920s and 30s, the illustrations have now been put up for auction with The Auction Hub in Westbury, Wiltshire. Sir Cecil - who was 1972 New Year Honours - died at his home in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, in January 1980, aged 76. One of the images is images is pictures 'The illustrations cover a very interesting period. They show what fashion looked like at that time and the changes moving towards the 1930s. So you have the classic flapper dresses of the 20s to the more elegant, feminine style in the 30s. 'For anyone interested in the history of fashion these are a fascinating collection.' The online auction ends on 10th October. A polymath of artistic talent, Sir Cecil has also been described as the most devastating diarist of his age. Beaton's father was a timber merchant who made a good enough living to send his son to Harrow. A snob on the grand scale, Cecil was unaware that his grandfather was a blacksmith. When, later in life, he discovered this, he was anything but pleased. It did not accord with his view of his gilded place in international society. The images from 1920s and 1930s are done by several different people, only a few are signed by Esther, a couturier who had a studio in London Pictured is an image from Autumn 1926. Malin Sveholm from The Auction Hub said: 'We know the drawings weren't done by Cecil Beaton as they are not his style. He may have had them for inspiration or just because he was so interested in fashion. Some of them have the names of customers who they were made for on them or notes on the fabrics used are included on the images The images show what fashion looked like at that time and the changes moving towards the 1930s, from the classic flapper dresses of the 20s to the more elegant, feminine style in the 30s (pictured) Beaton was chosen by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to photograph their wedding in France in 1937. Any association with the exiled Windsors following the Abdication might prove fatal to career prospects, but Beaton turned the scoop to his advantage by trading on its exclusivity although he described Wallis Simpson in his diaries as 'a brawny great cow or bullock' and a 'common, vulgar, strident second-rate American'. He also survived professional disaster in 1938 when he inserted tiny but legible anti-Semitic phrases into American Vogue at the side of an illustration about New York society. The issue was recalled and Beaton was fired. Despite this, the turning point in his career came when the Queen, later the Queen Mother, invited him to Buckingham Palace in 1939 to photograph her. That photoshoot, showing Her Majesty in filmy and sparkling Norman Hartnell-designed Winterhalter crinolines, established her personal style for decades to come, and secured Beaton's reputation worldwide. On the outbreak of war, it was the Queen who recommended Beaton to the Ministry of Information, enabling him to become a leading war photographer, best known for his images of the destruction caused by the German Blitz. Beaton would go on to photograph all the present Queen's children, from Prince Charles to Prince Edward, and to be chosen as the official photographer at Elizabeth II's Coronation in 1953. Princess Charlene's return to Monaco has been further delayed after it emerged that the royal is undergoing surgery in South Africa today. The royal, 43, who is originally from Cape Town, has been in her native South Africa for at least six months since contracting a 'serious sinus infection' making her unable to travel and forcing her to miss key events, including her 10-year wedding anniversary and her children's first day of school. A statement from her foundation read: 'Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco will be placed under general anaesthetics for her final procedure taking place today. The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation wishes her the best with this final operation and her recovery process.' The exact nature of today's procedure has not been revealed, and it's not clear how long she will remain in hospital. Today's news comes despite Prince Albert's assertion earlier this week that she is likely to be back in the principality by the end of the month, telling RMC Radio: 'She will be back very soon, we have to talk to the doctors in a few days.' Princess Charlene will return to Monaco, 'very soon' her husband Prince Albert has claimed. The couple are pictured together in South Africa He added: 'She is better, although it has been very complicated for her because she has suffered different problems.' Charlene has not been seen in Monaco since January. The couple have denied rumours of a rift and said Charlene's absence from the country is due to her health. The former Olympian underwent a 'four-hour operation under general anaesthesia' in August - although it was not made clear whether this was linked to the sinus infection. Charlene and Albert reunited shortly after for the first time in months after the monarch and their children - six year old twins Jacques and Gabriella - flew to South Africa, but photographs of the pair embracing were branded 'awkward' by a body language expert. The royal, 43, who is originally from Cape Town, has been in her native South Africa for several months since after contracting a 'serious sinus infection' making her unable to travel How Charlene and Albert made solo outings in South Africa and Monaco during nine months apart January 27 - Charlene is pictured with Albert for the Sainte Devote Ceremony in Monaco. March 18 - Charlene is pictured at the memorial for the late Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini at the KwaKhethomthandayo Royal Palace in Nongoma, South Africa April 2 - Charlene posts an Instagram picture of herself, Albert and their twins Jacques and Gabriella for Easter. It is unknown where the image was taken. May 8 - Albert, Jacques and Gabriella attend a Grand Prix event in Monaco without Charlene May 10 - Albert attends Monaco Gala Awards in Monaco without Charlene May 18 - Charlene shares her first picture from her conservation trip in South Africa June 1 - Prince Albert II, Jacques and Gabriella attend event at Oceanic Museum in Monaco June 3 - New photos emerge of Charlene on her conservation trip June 5- Charlene puts on a united front as she shares a photo with her family to mark her niece's fifth birthday with her brother's family and Albert and the twins in South Africa June 7 - Albert and the twins attend the World Rugby Sevens without Charlene June 17 - Prince Albert attends Red Cross Summer concert in Monte Carlo with his sister Princess Caroline of Hanover June 18 - Prince Albert appears alone Monte Carlo TV Festival June 24 - Charlene's foundation releases a statement saying the royal is unable to travel and is undergoing procedures for an ear, nose and throat infection July 2 - Charlene and Albert mark their 10th anniversary separately. 'This year will be the first time that I'm not with my husband on our anniversary in July, which is difficult, and it saddens me,' Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene said in a statement. July 3 - Albert appears with glamorous niece Charlotte Casiraghi at the 15th international Monte-Carlo Jumping event, which is part of the Longines Global Champions Tour of Monaco, July 27 - Prince Albert attends Olympics alone in Tokyo August 13 - Charlene undergoes a four-hour operation. The reason is not announced August 25 - Charlene shares photos of Prince Albert, Gabriella and Jacques visiting her in South Africa August 31 - Speculation mounts in the media about couple's relationship September 1 - Charlene is admitted under an alias to the Netcare Alberlito Hospital after suddenly 'collapsing' September 2 - She is discharged, with a statement from the Palais Princier reading: 'Her Highness is closely monitored by Her medical team who said that Her condition was not worrying' September 23 - Prince Albert attends the 2021 Monte Carlo Gala for Planetary Health September 29 - Prince Albert is joined on the red carpet by actress Sharon Stone for a first look at the eagerly anticipated James Bond release September 30 - Charlene releases a stylish video promoting her anti-poaching campaign from her South African bolthole October 3 - Princess Charlene shares a photograph of herself smiling in front of a bible in her first snap since being discharged from hospital following her health scare October 5 - Prince Albert attends Sportel Awards Ceremony in Monte Carlo with nephew Louis Ducruet October 6 - Albert tells RMC radio Charlene is 'ready to come home' October 8 - Princess undergoes surgery in South Africa. The reason is not announced. Advertisement After returning from the trip, Albert told People magazine Charlene was 'ready to come home.' Despite Charlene being admitted to hospital after a 'sudden collapse' rumours are rife that a rift with Prince Albert, rather than health issues, is what's keeping her away from Monaco. Last week, Prince Albert was joined on the red carpet by actress Sharon Stone, 63, for a first look at the eagerly anticipated James Bond release - Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as the cult classic secret agent. It was their second joint appearance in less than a week, with both having previously attended the 2021 Monte Carlo Gala for Planetary Health on 23rd September. Charlene was noticeably absent from the event. It comes just weeks after Prince Albert hit back at rumours marital woes insisting Charlene 'didn't leave in a huff' and remains in South Africa only because of 'medical complications' following a 'severe ear, nose and throat infection'. The royal told People that the speculation over the state of his relationship with the Olympic swimmer has 'affected' them both, but that he didn't address it early because he 'was concentrating on taking care of the kids' This week, she shared a photograph of herself smiling in front of a bible in her first snap since being discharged from hospital following her health scare. In the snap, which was shared to Instagram on Sunday, the former Olympian can be seen putting on a casual display in a black jumper and rosary bead necklace as she sits at a wooden table. The royal, who was born and raised Protestant but converted to Roman-Catholicism 'of her own free will and choice' in April 2011, simply captioned the post, 'God Bless,' followed by a heart emoji. In recent weeks, lifestyle magazines across Europe have speculated feverishly that the royal couple could be headed for divorce. French magazine Madame Figaro stated the images 'failed to convince the Monegasques' amid reports Charlene is looking for a house in Johannesburg. The magazine asked: 'How long can she remain away from her children, her duties?' 'How long will the fight against rhinoceros poaching remain the Princess of Monaco's top priority? 'How long will Albert II of Monaco go on bearing this affront, which is becoming ridiculous?' Historian Philippe Delorme said that 'lots of people got the impression it was an arranged marriage' between Charlene and Albert, adding: 'Albert chose a wife who resembled his mother, and Charlene clearly felt very ill at ease in this Grace Kelly role they wanted her to play' The mounting speculation about the couple's marriage comes after Charlene shared professional photographs of her reunion with Prince Albert online, saying she was 'thrilled' to have her family back. She shared a series of photos cuddled up with her kids in South Africa with the caption: 'I am so thrilled to have my family back with me (Gabriella decided to give herself a haircut!!!) Sorry my Bella I tried my best to fix it,' referring to her daughter's choppy fringe. However a body language expert told FEMAIL Charlene showed 'no emotional bond' towards her husband Prince Albert in the images. Judi James said that rather than being the loved-up reunion photo one would expect of a couple surrounded by split rumours, the royals' poses suggested 'no signs of connection between awkward-looking Albert and Charlene'. Charlene has been in South Africa since at least March, with media reports suggesting she is looking for a house there. The prince, who already supports two illegitimate children, is alleged to have been in a relationship with a Brazilian woman which resulted in a daughter in 2005. The claim, which his lawyers dismissed as a 'hoax', is particularly painful as he was dating Charlene at the time, having met in 2000. However, Charlene has publicly supported her husband, and the palace have reiterated she is only in South Africa because she's unable to fly. Princess Michael of Kent was 'naive and arrogant' to insist she had absolutely no knowledge that her late farther was a Nazi, royal experts claim in a new documentary. Princess Michael: The Controversial Royal, airing at 8:55pm on Channel 5 tomorrow, recalls how the 76-year-old Princess, who married the Queen's cousin in 1978, found herself at the heart of a scandal in 1985 when it emerged her father was a member of the Nazi party. She gave a TV interview denying all knowledge and describing her 'deep shame' over the revelation that Austrian and German aristocrat Gunther von Reibnitz, was in the SS for 11 years, from 1933 until he was kicked out of the Nazi party in 1944. But speaking in tomorrow's documentary, Dr Chandrika Kaul, historian at St Andrew's University, said her remarks showed 'arrogance' and 'cultural insensitivity', while royal editor of the Evening Standard, Robert Jobson, said it was 'naive' to believe she knew nothing of her father's past. The documentary also deals with the royal's fraught relationship with Princess Margaret, who reportedly resented her as a Roman Catholic divorcee, and rumours of mutual infidelity in her marriage to Prince Michael. Princess Michael: The Controversial Royal airing Saturday on Channel 5, looks back at the 1985 scandal surrounding her father's Nazi ties, with experts claiming she must have known about it. Pictured with Prince Michael on the day of their civil wedding in Vienna in 1978 News that Princess Michael's father had a Nazi past emerged in April 1985. Princess Michael, who was born Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, has said she didn't now about her father's SS past and she was absolutely heartbroken about the publicity it received. 'She actually developed an ulcer and lost 2st in weight and really worried about the shame it had brought on the royal family,' royal expert Phil Dampier recalled. The documentary showed an interview where Princess Michael distanced herself from her father's past. 'It came as a really great blow to me, because I always rather hero-worshipped him,' the royal said in the interview. In 1985, it emerged Princess Michael of Kent's father, Gunther von Reibnitz, pictured in1918, had served in the SS for 11 years, from 1933 to 1944 At the time the scandal exploded, Marie-Chrstine said she was shocked to learn about her father's 'unpleasant' past (pictured at the Chelsea Flower Show on September 20) Revealed: Royal links with the Third Reich - from Edward VIII's claim Hitler 'wasn't a bad chap' to Prince Philip's four sisters who ALL married Nazis Prince Michael of Kent is not the only member of the British Royal Family to have links to the Nazi Party. Here, FEMAIL reveals the royals and their connections to the Third Reich... Edward VIII visited a concentration camp and called Hitler 'not a bad chap' Edward VIII admired Adolph Hitler, posing for photographs with him during an unofficial visit to Germany in the 1930s, and once claimed the establishment of the Third Reich was 'the only thing to do'. The monarch, who abdicated in 1936 to become Duke of Windsor, even visited a concentration camp whose guard towers were apparently explained away as meat stores. Hitler himself reportedly claimed 'friendly relations with England could have been achieved' if Edward had not abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor meeting with German leader Adolf Hitler in Munich A film uncovered in 2015 showed Edward teaching the Queen and Queen Mother how to do a Nazi salute in 1933, six years before the outbreak of World War Two. Edward faced numerous accusations of being a Nazi sympathiser and is known to have performed the salute at other times. He was once said to have given a Nazi salute to Hitler - which he later claimed was a 'soldier's salute' - and claimed the Fuhrer was 'not a bad chap'. The former Duke of Windsor's memory has long been tainted by his connection to the Third Reich, which he visited with Wallis Simpson in 1937, a year after he had abdicated as king. Prince Philip and his sisters connections to the Nazi party The Duke of Edinburgh's four sisters all married Germans. The eldest, Margarita, wed Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in 1930. The next, Theodora, married the Margrave of Baden. Cecile married the Grand Duke of Hesse, and Sophie married first Prince Christoph of Hesse, then Prince George of Hanover. They were all Nazis. Margarita's husband was a corps commander during the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938 and had considerable contact with Nazi party leaders in the run-up to the outbreak of war. Andrew and Alice of Battenberg produced four daughters - Margarita (right), Theodora (left, pictured with Lady Louise Mountbatten), Cecile and Sophie before finally, in 1921, an heir, Prince Philip, was born Theodora's husband had provided the buildings for Kurt Hahn's fledgling school, Salem, but allowed the school, which remained after its founder's flight, to become pro-Nazi in its teachings. Cecile's husband joined the Nazi party in 1937, while Sophie's husband Christoph von Hesse was a member of the SS. A photograph exists of a family funeral in Darmstadt in 1937, when Philip was 16, with members of his extended family parading in their military uniforms. Hermann Goering, one of the most leading figures in the Nazi Party, is a guest of honour. His siblings were even barred from attending his 1947 wedding to Princess Elizabeth the fear of anti-German sentiment was too great. Advertisement 'What the public perception of me will be - I don't know, I wasn't alive when all this happened. So I hope they will judge me on my own performance but my shoulders are broad and I shall carry it. But yes, it's a deep shame for me,' she added. Rumours of infidelity have swirled for years around the Kents, including intimate detail that 'probably made the Queen splutter over her breakfast' 'Both Prince and Princess Michael a have been romantically linked with other people,' royal expert Phil Dampier told the documentary. 'Some other people have been married, some others not married. 'She was linked to the Texan oil tycoon John Ward Hunt. It was suggested he wanted to marry her at one point. They met in Dallas at a trade conference, and they were seen together, and she denied there was an affair, but she was once photographed coming out of his house in a red wig with dark glasses obviously trying to disguise herself in the 1980s 'Very significantly in 2006 she was seen in Venice, very much happy in the company of a Russian furniture tycoon Mickhail Kravchenko. They were photographed together joking, laughing, holding hands, even kissing, and floating around Venice on a gondola. 'Prince Michael, similarly, has been linked to quite a few female friends. Bryony Brind, who was a ballet dancer, had quite a long standing relationship with him and eventually gave it up saying she didn't want to put his marriage in jeopardy. 'He was also linked with an American, Lucy Weather, and she gave interviews later on about their eight year relationship. He was very much into their sex life and liked her to dress up in white lingerie and went into great intimate detail that probably had the Queen 'spluterring over her breakfast'. Broadcaster and political commentator Bidisha said that there wasn't anything unusual in an aristocratic couple pursuing their own love affairs. 'Going right back to the medieval period, right through until the Victorian period, it was completely accepted there's the public couple the aristocratic or royal family and they ware each other's royal consorts and they bear the royal children. They're titled, but certainly on the man's side and often on the woman's side aswell, there's other interests and other lovers 'If Prince and Princess Michael have an open relationship, I don't think it's quite the same thing as one half of a couple deceitfully betraying and deceiving the other. Phil Dampier added: 'Princess Michael once said her marriage to Prince Michael was virtually an arranged marriage. I think in that sense, probably there was a bit of a throwback and this is how royals were in the past. It was acceptable for the upper classes and the royals to have affairs and it was alright as long as you didn't frighten the horses.' Advertisement However, Dr Chandrika Kaul said she finds those claims 'hard to believe,' 'She is on record, as saying that "Here I am, discovering this very unpleasant story." 'I find it hard to believe that Princess Michael, with a deep interest in European history, would be totally unware of her fathers role as a Nazi party member,' she added. The interview from 1985 continued with Marie-Christine saying: 'Here I am, 40 years old and I discover something that is really quite unpleasant it's like suddenly discovering you were adopted.' Dr Chandrika Kaul said it was 'an interesting choice of phrase and an understatement, is ever there was one.' 'I think it reveals, not just a certain arrogance, but a cultural insensitivity that is very striking,' she added. Robert Jobson was of the mind Princess Michael of Kent's declaration was 'naive.' 'To be fair, you have to remember she was quite a young child when she went to Australia with her mother and her brother, at the end of the war,' he said. 'She would have been limited in knowledge of what her father would have done during the war,' he added. 'But it'd be rather naive to suggest that she didn't know that he had been a member of the Nazi party.' 'You can imagine the public scorn, the anger. Let's remember there was another member of the royal family who was in pictures with Adolf Hitler, King Edward VIII,' said historian Julie Montagu. Historia Claudia Joseph said: 'Lots of Queen Victoria's children married European aristocrats, and a lot of them were prominent Nazis. 'A lot of aristocrats were lured by Hitler and believed the things he told them,' she added. 'That is an uncomfortable part of their history. And I think they were hoping that if they kept it quite the story would just go away in time. But it was deeply embarrassing for the family nevertheless,' Dr Chandrika said. Princess Michael of Kent's biographer, Anna Sebba, said the scandal only increased the unpopularity of the royal. However, she could count on the support of the Queen, who knew just how to stand up for her cousin's wife. 'Although the Queen doesn't like her family to be involved in scandals, the Queen and other members of the royal family hate the fact that sometimes the media get the upper hand,' Phil Dampier said. He went on to explain the Queen Queen had Princess Michael in the second carriage of Ascot shortly afterwards that year, to send a message she supported her. The documentary went on to reveal Princess Michael was found not to be a person of interest by the Allies when they investigated his case. Robert Jobson explained he might have needed up being a member of the SS because of his aristocratic status and would have been used by the high--ranking Nazi Hermann Goring as a pawn to spy on Heinrich Himmler. Princess Michael, in the same resurfaced interview segment shared her relief to find her father never wore the SS uniform. Jobson said she didn't think the reality was 'as bad as it had been portrayed.' Royal commentator Philip Dampier said the Princess Michael of Kent was deeply worried about how the scandal would affect the Royal family (pictured on her wedding day) Experts said believing Marie-Christine didn't know anything about her father's Nazi past would be 'naive' Prince Michael of Kent was allowed to marry his choice of wife in 1978, in a civil ceremony in Vienna just a month after the annulment of the bride's first marriage. They received Pope John Paul II's permission to marry and had a Roman Catholic ceremony on 29 June 1983 at Archbishop House. To marry Marie Christine, Prince Michael, who was 15th in line for the throne at the time, renounced his succession right, in accordance with The Act of Settlement 1701, which prevents members of the royal family marrying Roman Catholics. He retrieved his rights of succession in 2013 thanks to the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. The documentary also claims that Princess Margaret refused to speak to Princess Michael because she resented the fact that she was a Roman Catholic. Margaret, was also reportedly 'furious' that a foreign-born divorcee had been allowed to marry into the royal family, particularly after she had been prevented from marrying divorced RAF officer Peter Townsend in 1953. The documentary also claims the Queen's daughter Princess Anne, now 71, deemed Princess Michael of Kent difficult and coined her nickname 'Princess Pushy.' Ironically, Margaret herself flirted with Catholicism later in life having struck up a close friendship with a Catholic priest named Derek 'Dazzle' Jennings in 1981 - although she never publicly converted. Dazzle was a civil servant in the government's Department of the Environment, who shocked his friends by quitting his job to take Holy Orders, aged 38, after first converting to Roman Catholicism when he was still a student. Speaking of Prince Michael's marriage to Marie-Christine, royal commentator Viscountess Hitchingbrooke said: 'You can imagine this did not go down well with Princess Margaret, who was told by her own sister, Queen Elizabeth, that she couldn't marry a divorcee. 'In fact she was said to be furious,' she added. Princess Michael: The Controversial Royal airs Saturday at 8:55pm on Channel 5. Married At First Sight UK's Marilyse Corrigan has revealed her and husband Franky Spencer split three weeks ago after their relationship 'went a bit dry' after 'spending too much time together'. Personal trainer and mother-of-two Marilyse, 37, from Beverly, Yorkshire, wed military man and fellow fitness fanatic Franky, 47, on the current series of the E4 show, which finished with a reunion special on Monday. And to the shock of viewers Marilyse had decided to stay with her Dubai-based husband, who had been dubbed 'controlling' by fans, after the programme ended in the couple's vow renewal. But speaking to The Sun, the contestant revealed her relationship with Franky is now over, as it turned into more of a friendship. Married At First Sight UK's Marilyse Corrigan has revealed her and husband Franky Spencer (pictured) split three weeks ago after their relationship 'went a bit dry' after 'spending too much time together' Personal trainer and mother-of-two Marilyse, 37, from Beverly, Yorkshire, wed military man and fellow fitness fanatic Franky (pictured together while on the show), 47, on the current series of the E4 show, which finished with a reunion special on Monday 'Its really sad as we got on really well and Franky has a heart of gold,' said Marilyse, explaining that it was a mutual decision to end their relationship. Adding that the experience was 'full-on', she admitted: 'I saw a lot of Franky and that probably spoiled it because we spent too much time together. 'Eventually things just went a bit dry and we ended up being more like friends than people in a relationship.' Following the show, Franky moved to Beverly, while he looked for a job in Leeds, amid planning his return to the UK from Dubai. And to the shock of viewers Marilyse had decided to stay with her Dubai-based husband (pictured together), who had been dubbed 'controlling' by fans, after the programme ended in the couple's vow renewal Marilyse said her children, aged 13 and 16, really got on with Franky, who she is still friends with. During a heated discussion between all the MAFS contestants at a dinner party, Marilyse talked over her husband, who snapped: Maybe when I speak, dont speak. Franky was quick to apologise and Marilyse has since defended her ex-partner - insisting he wasnt being disrespectful to her. She said: At the time, I thought, Oh gosh! But people tell each other to be quiet all the time. Its not the end of the world, I was not in tears and got over it. Tart brioche with raspberries and matcha almond frangipane Tart brioche with raspberries and matcha almond frangipane Matcha is a Japanese green tea which has become more widely available over recent years. It is fantastic for patisserie and chocolate recipes. Serves 6 1 egg 100ml (3fl oz) full-fat milk 250g (9oz) T45 flour (French white flour, available online, try shipton-mill.com, or use best-quality strong bread flour, from supermarkets) 25g (1oz) caster sugar 5g (1/8oz) salt 25g (1oz) yeast 25g (1oz) butter, plus extra for greasing 150g (5oz) raspberries Icing sugar, sifted, for dusting For the matcha almond frangipane 50g (1oz) butter, softened 50g (1oz) caster sugar 1 egg 15g (oz) plain flour, sifted 10g (oz) matcha green tea powder, plus extra for dusting 50g (1oz) ground almonds To serve Clotted cream Grease and line the base of a 25cm wide and 4.5cm deep tart tin with greaseproof paper. Put the egg and milk into the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, and whisk. Mix in the flour, sugar, salt and yeast, and then add the butter when the dough starts to come together. Knead until it reaches an elastic consistency. To test, take a piece of the dough and stretch it to form a thin film in the middle without breaking. Hold this up to the light: if you can see the light through the dough, it is ready. Cover with a clean tea towel and rest at room temperature for 1 hour. Then roll it into a ball, wrap it in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours, or overnight. To make the matcha almond frangipane, mix together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated. Add the flour, matcha powder and ground almonds. Place the dough into the tin, pressing lightly up the sides to make a crater for the almond paste. Spread the paste evenly in the centre of the dough and press in half of the raspberries. Leave to prove somewhere warm for about 2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Bake the tart for 35-40 minutes, until golden. Transfer to a wire rack, still in the tin, to cool to room temperature. Top with the remaining raspberries, dust with sifted icing sugar and extra matcha tea powder and serve with clotted cream. Roast crab with lime and chilli butter Roast crab with lime and chilli butter This can be served on warm toast or just melted in a dish, which brings out the flavours of the kaffir lime leaves. Serves 2 100g (3oz) butter, softened Zest and juice of 2 limes 2 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced 1 stick of lemongrass, finely chopped 4 spring onions, sliced 2tbsp fresh chopped coriander, plus extra to serve 1 red chilli, finely diced Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 300g (10oz) white crab meat Toasted sourdough, to serve Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Beat the butter, lime zest and juice, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, spring onions, coriander and chilli. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the crab meat into 2 ovenproof dishes and top with the butter mixture. Place on a tray and roast for 10 minutes, or until hot and bubbling. Sprinkle with the extra coriander and serve straight away, with some toasted sourdough. Shortbread with strawberries and cream Shortbread with strawberries and cream There are few ingredients in this recipe; it relies on good-quality butter, flour and sugar. If your mixture is a little bit too dry then add a little cold water, but not too much youre not making pastry! Makes 20 250g (9oz) cold butter, cubed 110g (4oz) caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling 360g (12oz) chilled plain flour, plus extra for dusting 1tbsp water To serve Fresh strawberries and clotted cream Preheat the oven to 170C/fan 150C/gas 3. In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar and flour, rubbing them together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir through the tablespoon of water to bring together into a dough. On a lightly floured surface, roughly roll out the dough and press into a 20cm x 15cm baking tin. Sprinkle with caster sugar, prick with a fork and chill it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Bake for 10-15 minutes, then leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack. Cut into 20 rectangles and serve with strawberries and cream. Pan-seared halloumi-style cheese with chilli jam & buttered croutons Pan-seared halloumi-style cheese with chilli jam & buttered croutons This dish is really popular in my restaurant at Chewton Glen; we use Briddlesford halloumi-style cheese from the Isle of Wight with a simple chilli jam, which are both delicious with the Italian chicory, radicchio. Serves 4 180g (6oz) Briddlesford halloumi-style cheese (or any halloumi cheese), sliced 1 head of radicchio (or endive), leaves separated 1 bunch of watercress French vinaigrette For the chilli jam 2 red onions 2 red peppers 2 red chillies 5 garlic cloves 250g (9oz) tinned plum tomatoes 150g (5oz) soft brown sugar 125ml (4fl oz) red wine vinegar 1 lemongrass stick, husk discarded and finely diced For the braised Roscoff onions 2 Roscoff onions (sweet pink onions) or Spanish white onions (or other sweet white onions, from larger supermarkets), unpeeled A sprig of thyme 500ml (18fl oz) water 1tsp salt 50g (1oz) butter To serve 15g (oz) nigella seeds 100g (3oz) sourdough croutons, fried in 75g (2oz) butter Start by making the chilli jam. Blend all the jam ingredients to a fine pulp. Add to a pan and cook over a low heat for 20 minutes until the mixture has thickened and is like compote in texture. Cool and set aside. For the braised onions, simmer the onions with the thyme, water and salt for 40 minutes until cooked. Let them cool in their liquor, slice in half and remove the skins. Return to the pan along with the butter and fry over a high heat for 5-8 minutes to caramelise the onions. Pan-fry the cheese for 1-2 minutes on each side until golden. Dress the salad leaves with the vinaigrette. To serve, spread some chilli jam generously on each plate and top with the dressed leaves, cheese and caramelised onions. Sprinkle with nigella seeds and croutons. Chocolate hazelnut cake Chocolate hazelnut cake Dont put this cake in the fridge, as that would set the buttercream too much and make the cake go hard. Serves 8 For the cake 200g (7oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing 200g (7oz) caster sugar 4 eggs 150g (5oz) self-raising flour 50g (1oz) cocoa powder For the icing 300g (10oz) dark chocolate, melted 100g (3oz) icing sugar 200g (7oz) butter, softened 75ml (2fl oz) double cream To decorate 50g (1oz) toasted hazelnuts, chopped Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line it with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter and sugar together until white and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Fold the flour and cocoa powder in, then spoon the mixture into the tin. Bake for 35-40 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cool, carefully use a knife to cut the cake in half horizontally. For the icing, whisk the melted chocolate and icing sugar together. Once cool, whisk the mixture into the butter, for 8-10 minutes. Pour in the cream and mix until fully combined. Spread a thick layer of icing onto one cake and sandwich the other cake on top. Spread the remaining icing all over the rest of the cake and sprinkle with the hazelnuts to decorate. Dover sole meuniere with watercress Dover sole meuniere with watercress The butter here needs to be nut brown not burnt and that requires an element of timing and practice to get it just right. But when you do, coupled with one of the nicest-flavoured fish, this is one of the best dishes out there. Serves 2 2tbsp plain flour Sea salt and freshly ground pepper 1 Dover sole, skinned 3tbsp olive oil 200g (7oz) butter Juice of 1 lemon 1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped To serve 1 small bunch of watercress Season the flour with salt and pepper and coat the fish, dusting off any excess flour. Place a large non-stick pan over a medium heat, add the oil and cook the fish for 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden. Pop onto a warm plate. In the same pan, cook the butter until nut brown. Strain through a muslin cloth into a bowl and add the lemon juice and parsley. Spoon over the fish and serve with the watercress. Roast avocado and chicken with nduja butter Roast avocado and chicken with nduja butter I am fortunate to have amazing chefs visit the house, one of whom is Francesco Mazzei, who originally comes from Calabria, the home of nduja. He introduced me to this amazing, soft pork sausage, which is not only great on pizza and with pasta but also delicious on roast avocado. An interesting way to eat avocado, I know, but roasting adds flavour and softens them up. Serves 6 3 avocados, halved and stoned 6 baby aubergines 2 red onions, cut into sixths 600g (1lb 5oz) chicken fillets For the nduja butter 2 bulbs of garlic Olive oil, for roasting 200g (7oz) butter, softened 100g (3oz) nduja (from supermarkets) Zest and juice of 1 lemon To serve A small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped A small bunch of mint, roughly chopped Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Place the garlic bulbs for the nduja butter in a foil parcel, drizzle with some olive oil and roast for 30 minutes. Pop the avocado halves, aubergines, red onions and chicken onto a large roasting tray, mixing them around. Squeeze the roast garlic cloves into a food processor, add the butter, nduja, lemon zest and juice and blitz together. Dot the flavoured butter all over the chicken and vegetables and roast for 20-25 minutes until charred. Spoon onto a platter, sprinkle with the herbs and serve. Barnsley lamb chops with peppercorn & goats cheese butter Barnsley lamb chops with peppercorn & goats cheese butter Whipping really soft goats cheese with goats butter gives an interesting flavour and combined with a grilled Barnsley lamb chop it takes the taste to amazing. You can use standard lamb chops or leg-of-lamb steaks for this recipe either way make sure you cook the lamb until the fat becomes crisp. Serves 2 2 x 200g (7oz) Barnsley lamb chops Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1tbsp olive oil For the goats cheese butter 100g (3oz) goats butter, softened 75g (2oz) soft goats cheese tsp freshly ground black pepper 15g (oz) green peppercorns A sprig of rosemary, chopped Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper. Heat a large non-stick frying pan until hot, drizzle in the oil and cook the chops for 2-3 minutes until deeply coloured, flip over and continue to cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Beat together the goats butter and cheese with the ground black pepper until smooth. Mix through the green peppercorns and rosemary. Dot the goats cheese butter over the top of the lamb and serve. Extracted from Butter: Comforting, Delicious, Versatile Over 130 Recipes Celebrating Butter by James Martin, published by Quadrille on Thursday at 22. James Martin 2021. To order a copy for 19.80 (offer valid to 24/10/21; UK P&P free on orders over 20), visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3308 9193. Photography: John Carey Cases of influenza and other respiratory viruses plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study suggests. Researchers from Akron Children's Hospital, in Ohio, looked at data from children treated during the 2018-19, 2019-20 and the 2020-21 flu seasons. They found that flu infections among kids were reduced by 99 percent and there were no cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) detected in northern Ohio. The team says the findings show that mask-wearing and social distancing were not only protective against COVID-19 but played a major role in combatting the flu. A new study from Akron Children's Hospital, in Ohio, found no cases of Influenza A and RSV were detected during the 2020-21 season and just two cases of Influenza B were found 'Numbers don't lie. Face masking, and proper hygiene and isolation can be effective means to protect the vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and young children during the respiratory virus season,' said abstract author Dr Osama El-Assal, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Akron Children's Hospital. 'It can be a simple non-medicinal way to save lives.' When COVID-19 cases began surging in Ohio as the U.S. braced for the third wave, Gov Mike DeWine encouraged residents to follow mitigation measures. This included wearing masks, socially distancing and washing hands for at least 20 seconds with warm water and soap. Several studies have suggested that Covid mitigation measures played a role in reducing the spread of other viral infections - a new study set out to discover the impact in Ohio. For the abstract, which will be presented over the weekend, the team compared past flu seasons to the October 2020- April 2021. Researchers examined the prevalence of influenza A, influenza B - a less common strain of the flu - and RSV, all of which are common in children. Prior to the pandemic, the average incidence of RSV was 8.8 percent for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. But for the 2020-21 season, no cases of RSV were detected. Additionally, prior to the pandemic the average incidence of Influenza A was 13.6 percent in 2018-19 and 6.1 percent in 2019-20. And influenza B's incidence was 0.3 percent in 2018-19 and 6.8 percent in 2019-20. But during the 2020-21 season, no causes of influenza A were detected and just two cases of influenza B were found at Akron Children's. Another study from July 2021 in Detroit found that cases of influenza A, Influenza B and RSV were near non-existent in the 2020-21 flu season among adults and children compared to the 2019-2020 season The team concluded that social distancing and mask mandates are effective in reducing the rates of flu and RSV in children. The abstract will be presented at the virtual American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition on Saturday, October 9. This is not the first study to determine that COVID-19 pandemic restrictions effectively killed the 2020-21 flu season. A July 2021 study of patients at Detroit Medical Center had zero positive tests for Influenza A or Influenza B last flu season among adults or children. But, comparatively, in 2019-2020, up to 20 percent of tests of kids and 13 percent of tests for adults came back positive for influenza. Children are just as likely to contract COVID-19 as adults are, but cases in minors are significantly more likely to be asymptomatic, a new study finds. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and Columbia University in New York City (NYC) gathered data from participating households in Utah and NYC. They found that age had little effect on a person's odds of contracting the virus, with around five out of every 1,000 adults and children each falling ill over the study period. However, younger people were significantly less likely to suffer severe symptoms from the virus, with only half of children who contracted the virus having a symptomatic case, compared to 88 percent of adults. The study's findings add to the growing body of evidence that kids and teens are generally safer from the virus than their older peers and are at low risk of severe complications or death. A new study finds that half of children who contracted COVID-19 did not experience symptoms of the virus compared to only 12% of adults There was little difference in COVID-19 infection rates across different age groups with five out of every 1,000 people contracting the virus Researchers, who published their findings on Friday in JAMA Pediatrics, recruited 1,236 people from 310 households. Participants would regularly self-collect nasal swabs to be tested for the virus between September 2020 to April 2021. They would also complete surveys, reporting potential Covid symptoms that they were experiencing. Overall, of the participants in NYC, there were 7.7 positive cases per 1,000 people, twice as high as the rate of 3.8 cases per 1,000 in Utah New York City, in general, has proved to be one of the nation's COVID-19 hotspots due to the large and dense population. Researchers combined data from both cities, and split participants into age cohorts. For children aged zero to four, 6.3 out of 1,000 contracted the virus during the study period. Additionally, 4.4 out of every 1,000 kids aged five to 11 and six out of every 1,000 children aged 12 to 17 tested positive for COVID-19. Adults included in the study had similar Covid rates, with 5.1 out of every 1,000 contracting the virus. Only children aged 12 and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., but many parent will not vaccinate their children even if it approved for all ages. Pictured: A young child received a Covid test in Austin, Texas, on August 5 While the rates of infection were similar, the children who contracted the virus were much better off than their older peers. Half of the children in the two youngest age groups, those aged zero to four and aged five to 11, were asymptomatic when they contracted the virus. Even the slightly older children in the study, those aged 12 to 17, had high rates of asymptomatic cases, with 45 percent of those infected not suffering any symptoms. The numbers were drastically different for the adults in the study, though. Only 12 percent of adults in the study had asymptomatic cases because the virus is much harder to deal with for older people. 'A larger fraction of SARS-CoV-2 infections in children were asymptomatic and would likely have gone undetected without study testing, supporting hypotheses that [Covid] infections among children have been substantially under ascertained during the COVID-19 pandemic,' the researchers wrote. Adults who are more at risk for symptomatic Covid cases have a valuable tool for preventing the virus. The COVID-19 vaccines are widely available in the U.S., and all adults are eligible for the shots. Comparatively, only children aged 12 or older are authorized to receive it. The relatively low severity of Covid cases among kids has made many parents question if they need to get their children vaccinated at all, even when it does become available. Polls find that parents of children seem to be evenly split on whether or not their children will be receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. One survey, conducted by CS Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at Michigan Medicine in July, that 39 percent of parents said their children already gotten a coronavirus shot. However, 40 percent of parents also said it was 'unlikely' that their children would be getting vaccinated. Another poll from Axios/Ipsos in September found that 44 percent of parents of children aged five to 11 said their kids were likely to get a vaccine and 42 percent said it was unlikely their children would be immunized. A poll from Axios/Ipsos found that 44% percent said their child was likely to get a vaccine and 42% said it was unlikely their kids would be immunized In fact, many more children die from gun violence, drownings, poisonings and other fatal injuries each year compared to those who have died from COVID-19. Poisoning accidents kill 730 children every year, with two deaths occurring every day, according to the CDC. The CDC also finds that 2,756 of Americans aged 19 and under committed suicide in 2019 and 925 died of drowning. Another 3,302 children died from traffic-related motor vehicle accidents in 2019. What's more, 3,371 children and teens in the U.S. lost their lives due to to gun violence in 2019, according to The State of America's Children 2021 report. Only bicycle accidents see fewer deaths with 79 occurring for those under age 20 in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Advertisement Average daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have fallen below 100,000 for the first time in more than two months as the fourth wave of the pandemic shows further signs of receding. On Thursday, officials recorded 100,083 new cases of the virus with a seven-day rolling average of 99,893, data from Johns Hopkins University show, a decrease of 33.5 percent from the rolling average of 150,356 reported four weeks ago. This also marks the lowest number reported since August 5, when the seven-day rolling average sat at 98,518. Hospitalizations have also fallen with 67,321 seeking care, a 33 percent drop from the 101,000 patients recorded this same time last month, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The overall number of Covid deaths has risen on the other hand, but the pace of new fatalities is continuing to decelerate. A total of 2,392 virus-related fatalities were recorded on Thursday with a seven-day rolling average of 1,803, an increase from one month ago but a decrease from the last two weeks. Fourteen days earlier, the average sat at 2,053, meaning that the average has dropped 12.1 percent over the last two weeks. The growth rate of new deaths has slowed compared to the same time last week, when deaths had risen 45.8 percent over a four-week period and two weeks ago when they had risen 79.3 percent. However, fatalities are known to be a lagging indicator and often don't start to decline until three or four weeks after cases and hospitalizations do. Former virus hotspots, particularly states in the South such as Georgia and Texas, have been seeing their metrics improve over the last few weeks. Experts say they are cautiously optimistic about the latest surge of the pandemic - fueled by the Delta variant - tapering off, but they warn Americans to not declare victory just yet. On Thursday, the U.S. recorded 100,083 new cases of Covid with a seven-day rolling average of 99,893, a drop of 33.5% from the 150,356 average reported one month ago and the first time the average has fallen below 100,000 since August 5 Hospitalizations have also fallen with 67,321 COVID-19 patients currently seeking care, a 33% drop from the record-high of 101,000 patients Deaths rose with 2,392 virus-related fatalities recorded on Thursday and a seven-day rolling average of 1,803, a 19.3% increase from the 1,511 average one month, but the growth rate has dramatically slowed 'Along with virtually all of my colleagues, we are smiling quietly,' Dr William Schaffner, an professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told CNN. 'We haven't put up a "mission accomplished" banner yet, but for sure we think things are improving. New cases and hospitalizations certainly are down, and here and there, we're actually seeing a reduction in deaths.' Public health experts believe the increased total number of vaccinations have helped case and hospitalization numbers decline dramatically. At the beginning of August, when the summer surge began to take off, fewer than half of the population was fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As of Thursday, 56.2 percent of all U.S. residents have completed their vaccine series, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data show. Experts say vaccinations are to thank with 56.1% of people fully vaccinated compared to fewer than half the population complete ling their vaccine series when the Delta surge began in August Schaffner warned that the declines are not happening uniformly across the country and that some regions are seeing sharper drops than others. 'It's obvious that this plateauing and diminution - although you can see it across the country - it is happening more steeply in some parts of the country, the better vaccinated parts, than in other parts of the country, the less vaccinated parts, including my own state of Tennessee,' he told CNN. 'So, although we are clearly making progress, I think we're still in two Americas.' However, former hotspots of the U.S. pandemic, particularly the South. are now seeing some of the best case rates in the country. Texas, for example, which was seeing a steep rise in infections and hospitalizations, has been reporting marked declines. Over the last month, the seven-day rolling average of cases has fallen 44.4 percent from 18,029 per day to 10,007 per day, according to Johns Hopkins data. Hospitalizations are also dropping across the state including in North Texas, where Dallas is located, and in several Houston-area counties. We 'tend to be moving in the correct direction,' Steve Love, president and CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, told The Dallas Morning News. 'We certainly can't declare victory because with this many people still sick, we've got a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction.' Former hotspot Texas has seen COVID-19 cases decline by 44.4% over one month from 18,029 per day to 10,007 per day Georgia, another former hotspot, is reporting a drop of 53.9% in the seven-day rolling average from 9,400 per day in early September to 4,332 per day on Thursday Experts credit the improvements to vaccination rates in Texas, which is behind - but not greatly - the nationwide rates, according to CDC data. As of Friday, 60 percent of the state's total population has received at least one vaccine dose and 51.6 percent are fully vaccinated. In nearby Georgia, another state that was hit hard by the Delta-fueled fourth wave, cases also appear to be trending downward. In early September, the Peach State was recording a seven-day rolling average of more than 9,400 new infections per day. But, as of Thursday, this average has dropped 53.9 percent to 4,332 per day, according to Johns Hopkins. However, officials are encouraging more residents to get vaccinated with only 55.4 percent of total residents with an initial shot and 46.2 completing their vaccination series, CDC figures reveal. 'I want to emphasize the importance of not waiting until the next wave of COVID cases to get vaccinated,' Gov Brian Kemp said at a recent press conference. 'During our summer surge many Georgians saw first-hand how the delta variant spread more quickly and still led to the deaths of our fellow citizens.' Finland has become the latest Nordic nation to pause use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in young people due to fears that the shots are causing rare heart inflammation. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare said on Thursday that authorities won't give the vaccine to males under age 30, and they will be offered the Pfizer-BioNTech immunization instead. The government agency said it found that young men and boys were at a slightly higher risk of developing myocarditis. It comes after health officials in Sweden and Denmark made a similar decision earlier this week. In Sweden, the Moderna jab will no longer be available to any one born after 1990, or those aged 30 and younger. Denmark has restricted access to the vaccine to anyone under the age of 18. Norway, another Nordic country, has not taken as drastic action as its neighbors, with health officials urging people under 30 to opt for the Pfizer vaccine instead. All four countries based their decision on an unpublished study with Sweden's Public Health Agency saying that it signals 'an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle or the pericardium' - the double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the main vessels. It added: 'The risk of being affected is very small.' Use of the Moderna vaccine has been paused in Sweden for people born after 1990 and in Denmark for people younger than 18 (file photo) The Moderna vaccine has been tied to cases of heart inflammation, particularly in young people, leading to officials in the Nordic country putting a pause on its use in some populations. Pictured: A woman in Ishoej, Denmark, receives a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on September 11 Myocarditis and pericarditis, both types of inflammation of the heart, are known side effects of the Covid vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) even warns that the condition may develop in young males after vaccination. Heart inflammation is also a symptom of many viral infections like COVID-19, though, and the likelihood of developing the inflammation after infection is much higher than it is after vaccination. The Swedish health agency said it would pause using the shot for people born in 1991 and later as data pointed to an increase of myocarditis and pericarditis among youths and young adults who had been vaccinated. The pause will last until December 1. Those conditions involve an inflammation of the heart or its lining. 'The connection is especially clear when it comes to Moderna's vaccine Spikevax, especially after the second dose,' the health agency said. A Moderna spokesperson said in an email the company was aware of the decisions by regulators in Denmark and Sweden to pause the use of its vaccine in younger individuals because of the rare risk of myocarditis and or pericarditis. 'These are typically mild cases and individuals tend to recover within a short time following standard treatment and rest,' they wrote. 'The risk of myocarditis is substantially increased for those who contract COVID-19, and vaccination is the best way to protect against this.' According to one U.S. study that has yet to undergo peer review young males under 20 are up to six times more likely to develop myocarditis after contracting COVID-19 than those who have been vaccinated. Denmark said that, while it used the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as its main option for people aged 12 to 17 years, it had decided to pause giving the Moderna vaccine to people below 18 according to a 'precautionary principle'. In June, the CDC issued a warning that young males were at an increased risk of myocarditis after receiving the vaccine. The label for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were changed in the U.S. to reflect the warning, though usage was never paused. Cases of inflammation after vaccination are rare, though they do occur often enough to concern regulators. A recent study from Kaiser Permanente Southern California found that around seven out of every one million people that receive a two-shot COVID-19 vaccine will develop myocarditis. People who receive the Covid vaccine are seven times as likely to develop heart inflamation after the second dose of the jab when compared to the first, finds a recent study by KPSC. Those who are unvaccinated are significantly more likely to develop myocarditis, however The same study found that 47.5 out of every one million Covid patients experience heart inflammation. While myocarditis will often resolve itself, it can be dangerous. Heart inflammation can often lead to fatigue, shortness of breath and chest pain for patients. People with inflamed hearts are at a higher risk for heart failure, heart attacks and strokes. Attempting strenuous physical activity with an inflamed heart could also potentially lead to sudden cardiac arrest, or even death. Tens of thousands of home healthcare workers in New York who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine are facing being fired as the state's new mandate goes into effect on Friday. About 250,000 people who work at assisted living homes, hospice care, treatment centers and AIDS home care programs, have until midnight to prove they have received at least one dose of the vaccine or risk termination. Some industry representatives say as many as one in five still haven't gotten their first shot - meaning 50,000 could lose their jobs. The mandate, put in place by Gov Kathy Hochul, comes on top of another mandate, implemented last month, that covered hospital and nursing home workers. A new Covid vaccine mandate goes into effect in New York on Friday for home health care workers such as employees of hospice care and treatment centers with employees having until midnight to prove they have been vaccinated or risk being fired. Pictured: Monique Iskarous (left) a dentist receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Anaheim January 2021 Some estimates have suggested that as many 50,000 out of the state's 250,000 workers have been immunized. The vaccination rate temporarily increased after the mandate went into effect for hospital workers New York has kept up-to-date data on how many hospital and nursing home workers have been vaccinated since the start of the rollout. As of Friday, 89 percent of hospital employees and 97 percent of those working in long-term care facilities have been immunized But state officials have not been closely tracking the vaccination status of home health aides. This means it is not clear how far New York is from reaching 100 percent. It was unclear early Friday whether home health agencies were having to suspend or lay off large numbers of workers. Some estimates have suggested that as many as 50,000 home health workers remain unvaccinated. Joe Pecora, vice president of the Home Healthcare Workers of America, recently estimated that nearly 70 percent. of the group's 32,000 members had received the COVID-19 shot. 'We need more time,' Pecora told The New York Times. 'It's unrealistic to get all these people vaccinated by the deadline. Meanwhile, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the state's largest home health care agency, says 90 percent of employees have been vaccinated and it is looking like about 400 workers will lose their jobs. 'Even a small percentage of home care workers no longer working will impact thousands of homebound individuals,' Dan Savitt, president and CEO of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, told The Times. 'The rough math here is for every one percent of full-time aides unavailable, there are about 1,500 Medicaid members that will be impacted.' Gov Kathy Hochul has said the mandates for health care workers protect vulnerable New Yorkers from being infected by unvaccinated caregivers. Pictured: Hochul speaks during a ceremony to sign a package of bills to combat the opioid crisis in New York, October 2021 When the hospital mandate went into effect, medical centers across the state did have to lay off staffers who refused the shots, but a last-minute rush of reluctant workers to get vaccinated prevented large-scale staff shortages. Hochul, a Democrat, has said the mandates for health care workers are needed to protect vulnerable New Yorkers from being infected by unvaccinated caregivers. Many of the deaths in the state's nursing homes during the worst months of the pandemic in 2020 have been blamed on infected staff unknowingly spreading the virus to already fragile patients. The state's mandate is set to expand again on November 1 to cover workers who work in state-run facilities offering health care to individuals living with developmental disabilities or mental health needs. Court challenges aimed at overturning the mandates have, so far, failed, but a federal judge has temporarily allowed health care workers to request a religious exemption from vaccination while the legal fights play out. Attending outdoor gatherings such as music festivals is safe for fully vaccinated people. A panel of health experts told The Washington Post that Americans should feel confident attending the returning lineup of music festivals this year. They should still try to limit risks when they can, especially when they are travelling to and from events. The experts recommend frequent masking in areas such as hotels, planes and trains, where many people may be in close quarters indoors. Health experts believe it is safe for fully vaccinated people to return to music festivals since outdoors transmission is rare. Pictured: Machine Gun Kelly performs at Chicago's Lollapalooza on July 31, 2021 Electric Zoo was one of the massive festivals to return this year, and has been tied to only 16 cases despite over 100,000 attendees. Events like Electric Zoo that had vaccine or testing mandates have been able to avoid large virus outbreaks as a result. Pictured: Attendees at Electric Zoo on September 5 'It's very difficult to catch COVID-19 outdoors, period,' Jonathan Baktari, a Nevada-based pulmonary and critical care expert, told the Post. While music festivals are often massive events with thousands of people congregating in one place, being outdoors often provides enough natural ventilation of air that Covid spread is limited. If you add on vaccine or negative test requirements at many of these events, the spread of the virus becomes minimal. The biggest music festival to take place this summer was Chicago's Lollapalooza, where more than 350,000 people attended the festival at Grant Park. Lollapalooza required all attendees to either show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 case in order to attend. The Covid protocols were largely considered a success, and only around 200 cases tied to the event. New York City's Electric Zoo required all attendees to have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and offered refunds to people who tested positive for the virus in the weeks leading up to the event. The festival, which had over 100,000 attendees, was tied to 16 Covid cases, though further investigation by health officials may unveil more. Both events proved to have relatively low COVID-19 rates compared to the population that attended. Even when these cases do occur, they are relatively minor since the attendees at the festival are vaccinated, significantly reducing the likelihood of hospitalization or death. There are still some precautions even vaccinated people can take, however. The experts suggest people still wear masks in transit and when they are not actively at the festival. Attendees should also be weary of large crowds outside of the festival, in hotels for example, since the same vaccination and testing requirements often do not exist outside of the festival. Regular hand-washing and other sanitation measure should be practiced as well. Researchers believe that now is as good time to go to festivals as ever, since the virus will likely be around for a while, but vaccines have proven to be effective. 'Covid is going to be with us in some way, shape or form for years,' Baktari said. 'And I think the time has come for people to start acting in concert - pun intended - with their own tolerance for risk. 'We do have to get back to enjoying the music.' Adults with mental disorders and intellectual disabilities are more likely to die of COVID-19 than the general population during the first wave of the pandemic, a new study finds. Researchers from King's College London in the UK looked at data of more than 160,000 deaths in the UK between March 2020 and June 2020. They found that adults with learning difficulties were nine times more likely to have a virus-related deaths. What's more, people with autism were five times more likely to die of Covid than the general population and those with schizophrenia were three times more likely. A new study found that people with learning disabilities were 9.24 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than the general population (above) Those with autism spectrum disorders (above) were five times more likely to die of the virus and schizophrenia were 3.2 times more likely 'It was a substantial increase,' lead study Dr Jayati Das-Munshi, a senior lecturer in social epidemiology with King's College London, told CNN. 'We weren't expecting this mortality gap to improve, definitely not, but I think the extent to which it did get worse was quite shocking actually.' Previous studies have suggested that disabled people are at an increased risk of death from COVID-19 A report from Public Health England found that people with learning disabilities are up to 30 times more likely to die of coronavirus. Another study from Syracuse University in New York, patients with Down syndrome are three times more likely to contract the virus than those with other disorder. Experts have suggested this may be because people with mental disorders and intellectual disabilities are at higher risk for other underlying conditions that they make them more likely to contract Covid. People with mental disorders and intellectual disabilities are at higher risk for other underlying conditions that they make them more likely to contract Covid Another theory is that disabled people tend to live in care homes and assisted living facilities, which have an increased risk of death. For the study, published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe, the team looked at 167,122 deaths from a mental healthcare provider in London in 2019 and 2020. They looked at mortality rates across nine psychiatric conditions: schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, affective disorders, somatoform/neurotic disorders, personality disorders, learning disabilities, eating disorders, substance use disorders, pervasive developmental disorders and dementia. Researchers found that, during the first wave of the pandemic, people with learning disabilities were 9.24 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than the general population. Those with autism spectrum disorders were five times more likely to succumb to the virus and those with eating disorders were 4.8 times more likely. Additionally, people with dementia were 3.8 times more likely to die of Covid and those with schizophrenia were 3.2 times more likely. Das-Munshi told CNN that two-thirds of deaths among people with mental health disorders and other disabilities are cases by underlying conditions, which puts them at greater risk of COVID-19. 'It comes back to this issue that we really do need to be thinking about enhancing access to preventative health interventions,' she said. 'That could be anything from cancer screening to managing cardiovascular disease, offering smoking cessation, offering vaccination, encouraging people to take up offers of vaccination, that sort of thing.' A schizophrenic man who wasn't taking his medication chopped off his own penis with a kitchen knife. The unidentified 48-year-old, from Kenya, has been left with a stump after the psychological episode. Doctors who treated him said he only went to hospital after it had been detached for 16 hours. He took his amputated penis with him. The medics did not clarify if this was because he regretted his behaviour and hoped it could be reattached. Medics said he 'attributed his action to perennial problems with the spouse, most of which surrounded his reproductive organs'. No other details were provided in a report of the case, published in a medical journal. Doctors hoped to reattach his penis but had to abandon their plans because it wasn't preserved properly and was detached for too long. His testicles were left intact. A schizophrenic man, 48, who chopped off his own penis with a kitchen knife leaving a stump has blamed marriage problems If left too long the wound could have become infected and he may have had to have had a urostomy bag fitted because of the permanent damage to his urethra. Blood loss or sepsis a deadly immune response to infection could even result in death, in a worst-case scenario. Doctors did not reveal how much blood the man lost, nor how he stopped any bleed. The patient was not following his medication, surgeons at Egerton University in Njoro wrote in Urology Case Reports. Medics rushed him for surgery to clean his wound and gave him general anaesthetic to knock him out so they could begin operating on the stump. British man, 40, becomes first patient in the world to break his penis VERTICALLY Doctors in the UK recorded the first known case of a penis breaking vertically during sex, in a case report in June. The 40-year-old man's member 'buckled against his partner's perineum', or the area between the anus and genitals, before a 3cm tear opened at its base. Doctors did not say what position he was in, but penis fractures are most commonly triggered by 'doggy style' and 'man on top' positions, they wrote. There are no bones in the penis, but breaks usually happen when a man's penis slips out of his partner and is suddenly bent, which can cause painful swelling. Medics who treated the patient, believed to be from York, revealed the tale in a case report in the British Medical Journal. They said that all previously recorded penis fractures had been horizontal. But in this case it split up the tunica albuginea - the protective layer around the erectile tissue that pumps blood to this area. Doctor's said no 'popping' sound was heard when the break occurred, which happens when fractures are horizontal. Advertisement His damaged skin and remaining penile tissue were removed. Dr Rono Kipkemoi, from Egerton University in Eldoret, Kenya, and colleagues said the man was 'healing well' after his operation. They wrote: 'Self-inflicted penile amputation is an uncommon form of physical self-harm resulting from psychological anomaly. 'The condition not only presents a surgical emergency but also has the potential to cause subsequent challenges in self-care and sexual function thereby exacerbating the psychological distress of the patient.' Injuries like these are incredibly rare. Patients who carry out such an act normally suffer from psychiatric disorders, hallucinations or drug abuse. In cases where a person attempts to amputate their own penis with the intention of suicide it is known as phallicide. Doctors are able to reattach penises if they have been well kept, are presented early and the wound is not too contaminated or mangled. People who have had successful reattachment surgery are able to urinate normally and can even achieve erections after, in some cases. Dr Fardod O'Kelly, urological surgeon at Beacon Hospital in Dublin, told MailOnline the complete removal of a penis can be extremely dangerous because of the large blood to the organ. He said: 'It's unusual to see more than one of these cases every two to three years. 'They are generally quite sad cases, as patients either have a background of psychiatric disease as with Klingsor syndrome or have taken perception altering drugs such as LSD. 'The adult male penis has a very good blood supply, and the two corporal bodies which sit on top of the spongy part of the penis through which the urethra runs, completely fill with blood during an erection. 'The dangers from self-amputation include significant blood loss, local infection, sepsis, an inability to urinate, inability to have intercourse and obviously the psychiatric sequelae which accompany it. 'In general, the more the penis is amputated, the more irreversible damage can occur. 'Many of these cases are often several hours until the patient sees a urological service, at which point the penis may be in no condition to be reconstructed and instead the area is refashioned, made safe, and a opening for the urethra placed behind the scrotum. 'Psychiatric care here is critical.' Sosandar, the online womens fashion brand favoured by the likes of Amanda Holden, was in vogue after the lifting of lockdown curbs sparked a boom in sales. The AIM-listed firm reported that revenues in the six months to October soared 184 per cent year-on-year to 12.2million, with September being a record month as demand accelerated for its new season ranges. The shares jumped 17.1 per cent, or 4.3p, to 29.5p on the news. Sales boom: Women's fashion brand Sosander, favoured by the likes of Amanda Holden (pictured), reported revenues in the six months to October soared 184 per cent year-on-year The company said demand for going out and workwear had increased as bars and nightclubs reopened and people returned to the office, while less discounting compared with last year had allowed its profit margins to grow. It added that it had decided to bring in autumn stock early amid expectations of pent up demand, with sequin dresses, Christmas jumpers and fur coats already flying off the shelves. Meanwhile, trading from stores that stock its outfits, including M&S, Next and John Lewis, had been very strong during the period. It also shrugged off supply chain disruption, saying it had not experienced any material impact. As a result, the company said it expected its current year to be in line with market expectations. After over a year in loungewear our customers are clearly enjoying a return to fashion, co-chief executives Ali Hall and Julie Lavington. The successful prosecution of Natwest over money laundering failings will act as a stark warning to banks, according to City lawyers. In a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority, Natwest was charged after failing to prevent 365million of money allegedly being laundered by a single customer. The bank pleaded guilty to three breaches of anti-money laundering rules at Westminster Magistrates' Court yesterday. Guilty: In a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority, Natwest was charged after failing to prevent 365m of money allegedly being laundered by a single customer It marked the FCA's first major win on money laundering and a new phase in the watchdog's charge against shoddy practices and weak links in the City. The FCA has previously been branded 'toothless' by MPs, as the number of cases it pursued, and the size of fines it levied, were dwarfed by international peers such as America's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But Natwest, which is still majority-owned by the taxpayer following its bailout during the financial crisis, is facing a multi-million-pound fine. A judge will decide the final penalty during sentencing later this year, but the FCA claims Natwest should have to cough up 340million. This would consist of a 170million fine for damages caused, doubled due to Natwest's culpability. Neil Williams, deputy head of complex crime at Reeds Solicitors, said: 'Today's plea by Natwest marks a milestone for the FCA. This was the first time that it [the FCA] had begun criminal proceedings under the 2007 [money laundering] regulations.' Williams said there had been a perception in the City in the past that the FCA was ineffective. He said: 'If you do the comparison with international peers on the levies imposed or the number of prosecutions pursued, the FCA pales into comparison. There has been a reluctance to use the powers it has.' But Natwest's public shaming will strike fear into other major banks, Williams said, and will force them to clean up their act. He added: 'There will no doubt be other institutions monitoring proceedings with interest, and [the case] should have compliance departments reviewing their own procedures to ensure adherence to the regulations. The message from the FCA is clear: comply or face court.' The win against Natwest will come as a boost to the FCA's new boss Nikhil Rathi, who has promised that the watchdog will become more aggressive in its pursuit of wrongdoing. British lenders have been prosecuted abroad for money laundering before. HSBC agreed to pay a 1.2billion fine to regulators in the US in 2012 after admitting it had served as a middleman for Mexican drug cartels. But until now the FCA had not brought any prosecutions under the anti-money laundering powers it was given 14 years ago. British Airways has reached an agreement with pilots over a potential short-haul subsidiary at Gatwick Airport. Pilots' union Balpa said its members had approved a revised offer on pay and working hours after an initial proposal was rejected last month. The decision does not mean the subsidiary will definitely go ahead as BA is yet to reach agreements with other parties such as cabin crew. Take-off: Pilots' union Balpa said its members had approved a revised offer on pay and working hours for BA's proposed Gatwick subsidiary after an initial proposal was rejected last month A spokesman for the airline said: 'We will now further develop our proposal to provide a full-service short-haul subsidiary operation at Gatwick, offering competitive fares to our customers. 'We would hope to begin operations next summer.' Most of BA's short-haul flights from the West Sussex airport have been suspended since March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. BA said the flights were loss-making even before the virus crisis, and they would only restart if there was 'a competitive and sustainable operating cost base'. Shares in Weir Group have fallen 3 per cent after the engineering group revealed last night it had been the target of a 'sophisticated' cyber-attack last month. The FTSE 250 company, which specialises in servicing the mining sector, said last night that it had been hit by a ransomware attack. This is a type of computer software which infiltrates a business's IT network, and threatens to steal or destroy all its private information unless it is paid. Weir Group - which specialises in mining said last night that it had been hit by a ransomware attack Weir shares fell more than 6 per cent shortly after the open, but cut back some losses to trade down 54.2p or 3.3 per cent to 15.94 by mid-morning. Weir said it 'responded quickly to the threat and took robust action', including bringing in external consultants, and that 'there is no evidence that any personal or other sensitive data has been exfiltrated or encrypted'. The attack occurred towards the end of September. It had to shut down its IT systems, and some of its applications are yet to be brought back online. The overall impact will bring projected profits down from 270million to between 230million and 245million, Weir said. Woke world: Designer Stella McCartney is the green queen of British fashion Stella McCartney is the green queen of British fashion, a designer who sells her corporate brand and her expensive clothes on the alluring concept of glamour with a conscience. Father Sir Paul was on the front row at her label's fashion show in Paris this week, sitting next to French actress Isabelle Huppert. Hollywood star Demi Moore was also among the guests, who cooed with delight over bags made from mushroom skin grown in a lab in eco-friendly conditions. A passion for the environment is exactly what one might expect from the vegetarian daughter of the former Beatle and his late animal rights activist wife Linda. Stella has had some less welcome publicity, however, as the company that bears her name has been embroiled in a dispute with Stanley Gibbons. The world-famous coin and stamps company has been left out of pocket after a rent dispute with McCartney's business, which had been sub-letting a shop from Stanley Gibbons on Manhattan's swanky Madison Avenue. Under an agreement in the summer, McCartney's firm paid part of the bill. Nonetheless, Stanley Gibbons said last month that the shortfall had pushed one of its subsidiaries in the US into administration. Each of the two businesses bear the names of their founders, but they have little else in common. This is a clash between two very distinct commercial cultures. Stella a 50-year-old mother of four whose friends include Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna and Kate Moss is the archetypal celebrity entrepreneur. Her image and her famous name are key selling points for her high-priced wares. At her flagship store on London's Old Bond Street, the atmosphere is literally rarefied. A special ventilation system developed by a team of atmospheric chemists, airflow engineers and sensor developers from London and Copenhagen has been installed, lest customers inhale any noxious fumes. Such eco-pampering does not come cheap and neither do the outfits. This season's offerings include small shoulder bags costing more than 1,200, trainers for just under 500 and the Magnolia Dress, a cobalt blue and black creation in sustainable viscose with a cut-out in the midriff area. Then there are the 950 Over-The-Knee Duck City Glitter Boots, which with their round toes and flared high heels resemble something Slade would have worn in their 1970s pomp. This exquisitely cool, woke world could not be further from the rather fusty aura of stamp-collecting that permeates Stanley Gibbons though what that company lacks in modernity and gloss it makes up for in affection. Its much-loved store on The Strand in central London, opposite the Savoy Hotel, has been a site of pilgrimage for generations of collectors, from schoolboys to serious philatelists. First-class feud: Stamp dealer Edward Stanley Gibbons (above left) and a Penny Red stamp - one of only five in existence Stella, as an individual, is separate from the business and cannot be held personally responsible for paying its bills. But a settlement was reached between Stanley Gibbons and the fashion house in the summer over the unpaid rent on the sublet Manhattan store. The terms are not known. The stamp company executives, however, might well be wondering why the McCartney firm did not simply pay its bill. After all, it is backed by the multi-billion pound luxury conglomerate LVMH, which has a stake of just under 50 per cent. Back in April, before the settlement, Stanley Gibbons said acidly in a statement to the Stock Exchange that 'despite being backed by one of the largest and most profitable businesses in the world,'the Stella McCartney company was attempting to 'walk away from their lease commitments without making any form of restitution.' Stella McCartney declined to comment. Her camp, however, would no doubt take issue with the idea her company simply 'walked away'. They could justifiably point out that they in fact engaged in negotiations that led a deal to settle part of the lease obligations. McCartney's company was certainly not the only one to be entangled in rent wrangles. Many businesses found themselves in a similar situation due to Covid-19. She opened her first New York store in Manhattan's then super-cool Meatpacking District in 2002 and subsequently moved to nearby SoHo. In 2016, she took on the lease of the store at the centre of the row on Madison Avenue from Malletts, an antique dealer owned by Stanley Gibbons, that ran until 2027. This Upper East Side branch was supposed to showcase her clothes to New York's moneyed and conservative 'uptown girls'. The property sits just north of an elegant shopping corridor between 57th and 72nd streets that estate agents call Manhattan's 'Gold Coast'. A Stella McCartney model with a mushroom skin bag Stella's company took over 4,340 sq ft of space, comprising the ground and first floors of a five-storey Victorian terraced building and lost no time in embarking on a lavish refit. Inevitably, the focus was on 'sustainability' with decor in 'handmade and organic materials', including fluted ceramic tiles and reclaimed farmhouse timber. But when Covid-19 struck last year and the store was forced to close, her business stopped paying the rent. The settlement with Stanley Gibbons is understood to have been significantly less than the full liabilities over the lifetime of the lease, which runs to 2027 and not enough to satisfy the stamp company's liability to the ultimate landlord, the wealthy Goldman family. As a result, Stanley Gibbons had to put its American offshoot into a bankruptcy protection arrangement known as Chapter 11. To the relief of its loyal devotees, it is only the US subsidiary Malletts that has been hit. The main UK business of Stanley Gibbons is not going under. That firm is listed on the London stock market and is backed by asset manager Phoenix, which owns a controlling stake. But the rent affair has raised some tricky questions for McCartney. What price her business's ambitions to create an ethical brand if the company does not abide by the most basic of commercial principles, namely to pay its bills? It, like many fashion retailers, has suffered in the pandemic. Her company was making a loss prior to Covid. In 2019, the red ink at Stella McCartney Ltd hit nearly 32million. Despite this, she still paid herself just over 2.4million though in fairness, that was less than the 3.6million she received the previous year and she did not take a dividend of 531,000 that had been awarded in 2018. In a very unusual move, its auditor has raised a red flag over the most recent accounts. Accountants Mazars, who were appointed in June last year, slapped a 'qualification' on the figures. Basically, the bean counters issued a warning that they were unable to verify that the accounts gave a true and fair view of the financial position. Qualifications are rare and only happen when auditors have very serious concerns. These centred around stock, which the company said was worth nearly 4million. Mazars said they could not vouch for the valuation, as they had not been present at the stock-checking, which took place before they were hired. The qualifications appear to relate to the transition to LVMH but it would certainly be very concerning if they were repeated in the next accounts. However, LVMH, which bought a sizeable minority stake in 2019, is a French behemoth valued at more than 270billion. The accounts of parent company Anin Star, which was set up in July 2019 when McCartney embarked on her partnership with LVMH, were also qualified. The auditors said they 'were unable to determine whether adequate accounting records had been kept'. Previously, Stella's business was in a joint venture with rival luxury group Kering, which owns the Gucci and Yves St Laurent brands. Stanley Gibbons, with a heritage dating back to 1856, has survived bigger threats than wayward tenants. Philately has not been immune from the pandemic, and the company made a 4.1million pre tax loss in the year to the end of March. But having traded through innumerable recessions, not to mention a bomb blast in the Second World War, it has survived worse. To some, the decision to stop paying rent will seem a sound, though hard-nosed commercial judgment. For Britain's most famous green fashionista, however, it's not the best look. The end of the Governments furlough scheme did not lead to a significant rise in job losses, figures suggested yesterday. MPs, unions and think tanks had warned of hundreds of thousands of redundancies when the scheme closed at the end of September. But in news welcomed by the Government, the number of firms planning redundancies remained close to record lows. Redundancies in September were 13,836, down from 81,670 a year earlier and close to the 12,687 figure in August, according to the Redundancy Payments Service Notifications for redundancies in September were 13,836, down from 81,670 a year earlier and close to the 12,687 figure in August, according to the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS). Employers must tell the RPS 30 days before making more than 20 redundancies. The Government paid the wages of nearly 12m furloughed workers and was praised for supporting jobs and incomes during the pandemic. There were around 1.3m still furloughed when the scheme ended, the Treasury said. Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Christine Jardine had urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend the scheme by six months for sectors hit particularly hard by the pandemic including air travel. TUC general secretary Frances OGrady had called for ministers to rethink the end of furlough. But Sunak yesterday said millions had moved off the scheme and back into work. Advertisement At least 30 per cent of Britons have caught Covid since the pandemic began yet the true toll will always remain a mystery, experts say. Only 8million people 12 per cent of the UK's population have officially tested positive for coronavirus. Rates are as high as a fifth in the worst-hit towns. But the actual number will be drastically higher and the Government's top scientific advisers are 'actively looking' for an accurate ballpark figure. Millions of people who were infected during Britain's first wave last spring are not included in No10's official count because they were never able to get tested. The figure is also skewed by the swathes of the country who caught the virus but never showed any symptoms to get swabbed. And not everyone who gets ill develops one of the three symptoms that warrant a free PCR test a cough, fever or lack of taste and smell. Scientists also say it's impossible to tell the true toll through surveillance studies that specifically look at antibody rates among the population because the virus-fighting proteins made in response to both natural infection and vaccines can wane to undetectable levels. Despite the challenges in estimating a figure, one of the country's top experts believes around 30 per cent of the country, or 16.8million people, will have caught the virus since it first hit England. Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline estimating how many people have had the virus is 'not an easy question'. He added: 'The big question, however, is what proportion of people who've not been vaccinated have already had the virus and so can be considered to be protected.' Millions of people who were infected during Britain's first wave last spring are not included in No10's official count because they were never able to get tested. Graph shows: The five areas of the UK with the most and least positive tests since the start of the pandemic Professor Paul Hunter (left), an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline he estimates around 30 per cent of people have had Covid. Professor Graham Medley (right), chair of an influential subgroup of SAGE, told MailOnline experts have not yet landed on an exact estimate for all age groups due to difficulties with accounting for asymptomatic spread and waning antibodies but Government scientists are 'actively looking for one' Eight million people 12 per cent of the UK's population have officially tested positive for coronavirus. Rates are as high as a fifth in the worst-hit towns His estimate is based on comparing officially reported cases published by the Department of Health every day against modelled estimates taken from a random surveillance scheme that swab tens of thousands of people weekly. Professor Hunter's analysis suggests England has picked up around 45 per cent of all modelled cases. This means there would have been around 30 infections for every 100 people, according to his calculations. He said: 'But during the first three months of the epidemic we were pretty rubbish at detecting infections that did not lead to severe disease, so that probably makes it closer to 35.' But Professor Hunter argued the 35 per cent isn't entirely accurate in determining the proportion of the population that have ever had Covid. The modelled estimates, which come from the Office for National Statistics, can include the same person testing positive twice over the course of their original bout of the illness whereas the Department of Health figures are based on individuals. This means some of the 35 per cent would be counting the same person twice, with a more accurate figure being around the 30 per cent mark. Professor Graham Medley, chair of an influential subgroup of SAGE, told MailOnline experts have not yet landed on an exact estimate for all age groups due to difficulties with accounting for asymptomatic spread and waning antibodies but Government scientists are 'actively looking for one'. Experts at the UK Health Security Agency, which took over the pandemic responsibilities of the now-defunct PHE, carry out regular blood testing to try to answer the question. UK Health Security Agency experts found around 19 per cent of blood donors over the age of 17 have antibodies produced specifically after being infected with the virus (shown by the red line) Some 28 per cent of people aged 17 to 29 are likely to have had the virus as of September 12, according to the data the highest proportion of any age group. Graph shows: The proportion of people with antibodies specific to natural infection (triangle, dotted line) in different age groups versus the proportion with antibodies that can come from infection or vaccination (circle, straight line) In those aged 70 to 84, just over five per cent (3.7million) tested positive for the antibodies. Graph shows: The proportion of people with antibodies specific to natural infection (triangle, dotted line) in different age groups versus the proportion with antibodies that can come from infection or vaccination (circle, straight line) Data in the body's weekly surveillance report, released yesterday, showed around 19 per cent of blood donors over the age of 17 have antibodies that are only produced by the body following a natural infection, meaning the tally is not skewed by vaccines. Professor Medley said the figure likely underestimates the number of people who have been infected because the antibodies tend to wane within months of infection. Not everyone produces antibodies and some only do to levels that are not detectable by tests used by UKHSA. Some 28 per cent of people aged 17 to 29 are likely to have had the virus as of September 12, according to the data the highest proportion of any age group. In those aged 70 to 84, just over five per cent (3.7million) tested positive for the antibodies. Professor Hunter said: 'The problem with antibody studies is that a substantial minority of people do not develop antibodies after a natural infection and even if they do, such antibodies decline. 'So anybody with a N assay (the test UKHSA uses) antibody positive result has had an infection but you cannot say that if they are N assay antibody negative that they have not. 'About 29 per cent of people do not develop antibodies and that is quite a bit higher in asymptomatic people and of course younger people/children are rather more likely to be asymptomatic.' Nearly a fifth of people in Blackburn have tested positive for Covid since the pandemic began, official figures show. Map shows: The proportion of people who have tested positive in each local authority in the UK He added: 'People start losing antibody loosing within a few weeks. So N assay antibody levels do underestimate past infections probably by about a half or so.' It comes after MailOnline this week revealed nearly a fifth of people in Blackburn have tested positive for Covid since the pandemic began. The Lancashire authority has been the worst hit area in the UK, recording 12 times more cases per population size than the least affected parts of the UK. Department of Health data shows around 19,000 per 100,000 people in Blackburn have had the virus since March 2020, compared to just 1,500 in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. Burnley is the second worst affected region, with the virus infecting just under 18 per cent of people. Covid was least prevalent in remote island and coastal areas of Scotland, Wales and England. After the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands the northernmost part of the UK had the next lowest case rate, with 2.9 per cent of people testing positive. More broadly, the figures highlight how northern parts of England which are typically the most deprived have borne the brunt of the crisis. Overseas criminals are scaring people into believing they face a $125,000 fine or five years in jail in a cruel scam that has cost Australians $63.6 million so far this year. The wicked hoax works through phone calls or text messages and relies on frightening people into making a 'settlement' of thousands of dollars to avoid a huge fine or jail. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said that of the 213,000 reports logged by its Scamwatch site this year, more than half have been phone-related. The scams, known as phishing schemes, trick people into giving out personal information. 'It's very concerning to see these scams evolving and becoming more sophisticated to steal even more money from unsuspecting people,' ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said. Daily Mail Australia got an inside look at how one of those scams work when called by a scammer - he wasn't a whistleblower revealing the crime, he was trying to scam me. Phone scams often use an Australian number which diverts to a call centre in another country. The call centre pictured is a stock image, not the call centre referred to in this story The call came from a number in the NSW city of Newcastle, and was a recorded message telling me I was under criminal investigation by the Australian Taxation Office for tax evasion. After the recording, it said to press 9 to talk to an operator. I hung up, got my digital recorder and called the Newcastle number back. Given what followed, I am almost certain it transferred from NSW to a busy call centre somewhere in India. 'You have reached the tax crime investigation department of Australia. You're speaking with officer Michael,' the man who answered said. He later told me his surname was Jones. But given his strong Indian accent, I had my doubts that Michael Jones was his real name. He gave me a supposed case number, then asked my name. Given he had given me a fake name, I figured it was fair to give him a fake name in return. I gave a fairly generic identity as I didn't want to give him any idea I was on to his criminal scheme. Australians have lost $63.6 million to phone scams already this year His acceptance of my made up name showed he did not know who they'd called, I was just the next Australian number on their list. Next up, he asked me to 'confirm' my tax file number, as if he had it in front of me and was just following protocol. I can't even remember my actual tax file number, never mind make up a fake one on the spot, given I can't remember how many digits it has. I apologised to him and said I didn't have it on me. He accepted this and asked me to 'confirm' my residential address?' I made up a street name and added a real suburb, but I feared the jig might have been up. Maybe he had a something on his computer that would flash a warning at the fake address. He did not, but asked me for my postcode. I gave one I know does not match the suburb. 'I got your file in front of me,' Michael said and moved to tough guy criminal investigator mode, saying I was 'the primary suspect in a case being filed by ATO'. 'I have received a legal affidavit against your name. It says there is an outstanding lodge against your name and you also tried to commit a fraud with the taxation office. So I just need to have a lawyer name and number who will be able to represent you inside the commonwealth courthouse.' If I didn't know this was a scam, I would have been very scared by now. It was hard to resist telling him where he could shove his affidavit. Online and phone scams are on the increase in Australia and around the world He told me to get a pen and paper so he could give me all the details of my case. I made a few noises which I hoped would sound like I was fetching the writing material. My supposed case number was 54156, batch ID ATM 8175. Warrant ID 192-64. He asked me to read back the details I hadn't written down. I assured him I had done so and there was no need to read it all back. MONEY SCAMS People aged 65 years and older have lost the most money so far in 2021, losing $49.1 million, or 23 per cent of total losses for the year. Indigenous Australians have reported $4.3 million in losses to scams, an increase of 172 per cent on the losses reported in the same period in 2020. People who speak English as a second language made over 10,500 reports with losses of $29.9 million, representing almost 14.4 per cent of total losses for the period. People who suspect they may be a victim of identity theft should contact IDCARE on 1800 595 160 or via www.idcare.org Advertisement The tough guy persona was back on. 'The line on which we are talking right now is recorded and monitored by ATO headquarters, the local authorities and the commonwealth courthouse,' he said, before asking me not to interrupt while he read out the charges against me. If I hang up the police would arrest me within '45 minutes to one hour'. '$3,235 has been underpaid by you. When they did an audit they found out that you'd failed to declare your taxable income was higher than what was declared in the return and you have wrongly benefitted from deductions for which you are not eligible, and every year you paid less taxes than you were supposed to,' he told me. He offered me a sliver of hope, saying the ATO was not certain I was at fault, that maybe it was my accountant. Then he yanked that sliver away. Either way, he said, 'the person that will suffer for this' would be me. ATO was pressing four charges against me. 'Count one, violation of commonwealth tax regulation, count two, violation of Australian taxation code, count three, theft by deception, count four, willful misrepresentation of information against a commonwealth organisation.' The ATO would 'forcefully recover' my unpaid taxes and could take my house and car, freeze my bank accounts, downgrade my credit rating, tell my employer and seize my passport and driver's license. In case I wasn't already scared enough he said if I fought the charges I would face a fine of $125,000 or five years in jail. I pretended to be shocked at that and said I couldn't afford that amount of money. This was probably the response he had been trained to expect, and he switched back from the massive fine and jail term to remind me I could make all this go away by just paying the $3,235 I had underpaid in taxes. 'You have two options, sir. What do you want to do right now? Are you going to fight this case or are you going to solve this case? If you want to solve this case, simply just pay the amount (of) $3,235. If you just pay the outstanding amount you will not face legal consequences regarding this case and the ATO will cancel your warrant and all charges against your name.' He heaped on the pressure, saying if I wanted to fight the case I had to hire a criminal lawyer. 'It's totally your choice, sir, what do you want to do right now, fight this case or solve this case?' I asked if he could send details of the case to my address. He pushed back and said if I would just pay the amount, 'everything will be fine'. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Headquarters in Canberra I told him I was shocked and would have to talk to my wife about it. He faked sympathy like I faked a wife. 'I understand your problem and situation sir.' But he immediately went back to the hard sell. 'So are you going to fight this case or solve this case, tell me.' My playacting of a man in distress was convincing enough that Michael said 'Calm down, sir, calm down.' He said I should just pay the money now and that 'if you have not done anything wrong, your money will be refunded back in seven to nine days. In order to resolve this case, which bank are you banking with?' I had finally tired of his nonsense and wasn't sure how long more I could resist telling him to go jump in a lake (I might not have been that polite). I hung up. I had a story to write. While writing it, another scammer called, this time from Melbourne. It seems Border Force has issued an arrest warrant for me over a dodgy package. The Governors of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania have signed an agreement to exchange gun crime data to crackdown on interstate arms trafficking. The four Democrat leaders will share 'eTrace' reports that show who first bought and sold guns recovered during criminal investigations. New York has seen a major rise in gun violence since the pandemic started, which has continued into this year, with 1,215 'shooting incidents' recorded so far - a rise of about 4 percent on 2020. Shootings are also up in New Jersey where about 85 percent of guns recovered by police in the last six months were coming from out of state. 'None of us on the screen here are blind to the fact that our individual states' gun laws are only as good as those in the rest of our neighborhood,' NJ Governor Phil Murphy told a virtual press conference. New York has seen a major rise in gun violence since the pandemic started, which has continued into this year, with 1,215 'shooting incidents' recorded so far - a rise of about 4 percent on 2020 (stock image) Vases full of white flowers, that are part of an installation of One-thousand-fifty vases filled with white flowers, representing 1,050 lives lost by gun violence in New York last year, while they are displayed at Battery Park, Thursday Murphy has regularly pointed to gun control legislation he has signed as he seeks reelection this year in New Jersey. He's also promised, if re-elected, to mandate safety courses for those seeking gun permits, require lockboxes to store firearms and make gun manufacturers liable for the harm caused by their products. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said: 'We know that gun violence and homicide rates have risen over the past year. The pandemic has certainly had an influence, at least in Pennsylvania. 'While it was necessary to stay apart to fight that pandemic, the isolation that many experienced, at least this is our experience in Pennsylvania, also stripped away support networks and safety nets. At the same time it caused increasing stress, anxiety, fear and, clearly, anger.' In Pennsylvania gun homicides increased by 48 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. The states plan to share details they get from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives through 'eTrace' reports that show who first bought and sold guns recovered during criminal investigations. The states can also share gun data that predates the Thursday agreement. They are not required to share traces that are considered 'priority and/or sensitive,' according to the agreement. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said gun violence has spiked during the pandemic and called the four-state memorandum transformative and a potential model across the United States. 'If Congress would simply allow us to share this nationally, what a better place this would be,' Hochul said. The White House applauded the agreement Thursday, saying it encourages 'other state and local officials to follow these Governors' lead and collaborate to reduce our shared challenge of gun violence.' CeaseFire PA, an organization that seeks to reduce gun violence in Pennsylvania, hailed the agreement as a step forward but said state lawmakers also could help by passing other measures, such as mandatory reporting of lost and stolen firearms. A woman looks at vases full of white flowers, that are part of an installation of one-thousand-fifty vases filled with white flowers, representing 1,050 lives lost by gun violence in New York last year, while they are displayed at Battery Park 'Until the General Assembly starts acting to reduce in-state illegal firearm trafficking, well continue to lose lives to this epidemic,' said CeaseFire PA executive director Adam Garber. The memorandum of understanding expires in five years but will automatically be renewed annually after that unless a state wants to get out. States may also withdraw with a 30-day notice. The deal requires each state to designate and screen the law enforcement people who will be allowed access to the data, and it must be kept on computer systems dedicated to criminal justice. The states must notify each other if the information is misused, including unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, modification, storage or deletion. A soldier with the Army's Fifth Special Forces Group is accused of killing his pregnant wife and injuring his unborn baby. Sergeant First-Class Joseph Santiago, 33, has been charged with the murder of wife Meghan, 33, on September 27. It is believed Meghan suffered from a brain stem injury and was put on life support, an anonymous senior Army soldier told Stars and Stripes. Incredibly, her unborn child was injured but survived. The Army has not released how Meghan was injured at Fort Campbell in Kentucky or what injuries her unborn sustained. She was 32-weeks pregnant when she died. Joseph Santiago, 33, was formally charged with the murder of his wife Meghan, 33, and for the injuries their unborn child. He is being held at Grayson County Detention Center in Kentucky Their two children (one pictured with Meghan) are in the temporary custody of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, the Army reported She was taken off life support on Tuesday and had her organs have been donated, her family reported. Her death is under current investigation by the US Army. 'Meghan's death is a tragedy,' Colonel Brent Lindeman, commander of Fifth Special Forces Group (Airborne) said in a statement. 'This tragic event has shaken our entire unit.' 'We take all allegations of domestic violence seriously, and we will provide every resource to ensure a thorough investigation.' Santiago was taken into custody on September 28 and formally charged with her murder on Wednesday. He is being held at Grayson County Detention Center in Kentucky as the US Army Criminal Division investigates. Since her death, the couple's two children have been temporarily placed in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, the Army reported. It is unknown where the newborn is being held at. Santiago joined the US Army Reverse in September 2005, according to his LinkedIn, joining the Army as a recruiter in 2019. He is currently employed as a signal support systems specialist for the Fifth Special Forces Group. The Army did not release a motive for the murder. Domestic violence is an ongoing problem within the armed forces, not only for military wives, but those enlisted. Meghan (pictured with one of her children) is one of the many women who have faced domestic violence in the military. Military wives and women enlisted face increasing violence Around 100,000 incidents of domestic abuse have been reported to the military since 2015, CBS reported. The Pentagon has recently announced it will be implementing a new plan to help combat sexual and domestic violence in the military. 'We have now created the way ahead, called the implementation road map, and Secretary [of Defense] Lloyd Austin has approved it in its entirety,' Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said last month. The plan proposed changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as well as the creation of the Office of the Special Victim Prosecutor, which will investigate sexual and domestic violence claims, according to CNN. The Pentagon will also be employing a full-time sexual assault response coordinator as well as prevention and response victim advocates, according to CNN. Hicks reported that the Department of Defense will have to create and employ an entirely new workforce to handle the job and it is estimated to be completed by 2027. The Department of Defense did not clarify how sexual and domestic violence claims will be handled in the meantime. The fatal shooting of an 18-year-old mother by a Southern California school safety officer last month is being investigated as a possible homicide, police said Thursday. Mona Rodriguez was shot in the back of the head by Millikan High School safety officer Eddie F. Gonzalez as she drove away from the scene of a fight with a 15-year-old girl. Rodriguez, who had been declared brain dead after the September 27 shooting, died Tuesday after she was removed from life support, her family said. Because of her death, 'detectives are now investigating this matter as a homicide,' the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement. Mayor Robert Garcia said there should 'absolutely' be charges when asked about the shooting on Thursday, adding that the school district 'absolutely made the right call in firing the school safety officer.' Mona Rodriguez, who had been declared brain dead after the September 27 shooting, died Tuesday after she was removed from life support, her family said Gonzalez was dismissed by unanimous vote of the district board because he violated district policy, Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Jill Baker said on Wednesday. 'After our internal review, you clearly saw areas where the employee violated district policy and did not meet our standards and expectations,' Baker said in a statement. 'We believe the decision to terminate this officer's employment is warranted, justified, and quite frankly, the right thing to do. Gonzalez has not publicly commented, and it wasn't immediately clear whether he has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. Rodriguez, the mother of a 5-month-old son, was shot in the back of the head in a parking lot near Millikan High School in Long Beach. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a car that was driving away after Rodriguez had gotten into a fight with a 15-year-old girl, police have said. Video posted online appeared to show the safety officer firing at least two shots as the car moved off next to him. At least one bullet pierced a window of the car. Gonzalez's conduct is now being probed by the Long Beach Police Department. A use of force expert has said his multiple brief stints in other police departments should have raised red flags about his employability. A look at his work history raises 'a bunch of red flags,' Timothy Williams, a police-use-of-force expert and retired detective supervisor with the LAPD, told Long Beach Post News. Gonzalez has jumped from police department to police department after only a few short months over the last two years and made the unusual move to become a school safety officer after only a few years in the force. Eddie Gonzalez, the school safety officer who shot and killed Mona Rodriguez, is pictured being sworn in as a cop at Los Alamitos PD in February 2019 - a position he held for just four months In September 2019 Gonzalez (pictured right) took another job as a police officer with the city of Sierra Madre in Los Angeles County, which came to an end July 2020. A spokesman for the department said they 'chose to separate' from him, but wouldn't comment further Prior to being hired as a safety officer at the school on January 10 of this year, Gonzalez worked for the Los Alamitos Police Department for only four months in 2019, Long Beach Post News reported. The city of Los Alamitos confirmed to the Long Beach Post that Gonzalez worked for the department from January 8, 2019, to April 8, 2019. Video footage shows Gonzalez being sworn in on February 2019 as a new police officer by Los Alamitos Police Chief Eric Nunez. In his introduction Nunez says Gonzalez was born in Los Angeles and served as a Marine Corps. In September 2019 he took another job as a police officer with the city of Sierra Madre in Los Angeles County, which came to an end July 2020. A spokesman for the department told the LA Times it 'chose to separate' from Gonzalez, but did not comment further about the circumstances of his departure. Long Beach Unified School District said they were aware of his brief stints as a police officer in two separate police departments, and said that the agencies were contacted during the hiring process. 'Nothing in those checks was disqualifying,' District spokesman Chris Eftychiou told the Long Beach Post. But Williams says he has 'concerns' about Gonzalez jumping from department to department, saying he's seen that behavior from officers with 'checkered backgrounds.' Rodriguez, who has a five-month-old son, was shot as she drove away from the scene where she had earlier gotten into a fight with a 15-year-old girl near Millikan High School in Long Beach on September 27. Mona Rodriguez, a teenage mother, died after being taken off of life support The moment a teenage mother was shot in the back of the head by a school safety officer, leaving her brain dead, has been captured by cell phone video The victim, whose full name was Manuela, was struck by a bullet while leaving the school in a car with the father of her child, Rafeul Chowdhury, 20, and his 16-year-old brother. None of the people in the car at the time were enrolled at Millikan High School. Harrowing video shows the moment Gonzalez fires two shots at the car, which nearly hits him as it speeds out of the parking lot. Rodriguez was taken off life support Wednesday after her body was prepared to donate her organs. She donated a heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys, which will save the lives of five people, the family released in a statement. Luis Carrillo, a family attorney, called on prosecutors to bring charges against Gonzalez. The 18-year-old was left brain dead after being shot in the back of the head by a school safety officer as she tried to flee a fight Mona passed after doctors took the 18-year-old mother off of life support on Wednesday Rafeul Chowdhury (left), the father of Rodriguez's child, told reporters that the officer had not warned before firing his weapon. (Pictured with civil rights activist Najee Ali) 'This officer should be in jail right now,' he said at the vigil. 'The mother is suffering, every family member and friend is suffering.' Carrillo sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta last week insisting that the office open an investigation into the shooting. Carillo claims that the incident meets the legal standing for murder or manslaughter charges against the officer. Speaking outside the school last week, Chowdhury told reporters that Gonzalez had threatened Rodriguez and the 15-year-old girl she had been fighting with pepper spray. He claimed that the girls stopped fighting, and that the officer did not warn them he would use his gun before firing. 'All we did is just got in the car and left,' Chowdhury said. 'He never told us to stop anytime soon, and the way he shot us, it wasn't right.' KTLA reported that Chowdhury added that he and Rodriguez had been trying to have a child for some time. 'Now we do, and she [Mona]'s gone,' he said. 'I just got to step up now and play the mother and the father role, and keep my son strong.' Civil rights activist Najee Ali also spoke outside the school on Wednesday. 'There's no excuse, no justification for this officer shooting in the rear passenger-side window of a car with a woman who's unarmed. Everyone in the car was unarmed,' he said. 'The fact is, he shot at someone in the passenger seat with no regard for anyone's life in the car.' 'The only way we stop these safety officers from shooting unarmed people and killing them is by having them prosecuted and held accountable for what they've done wrong to members of the community.' A Covid-infected teenager slept on a rollout mattress in a hospital ward for a week after she caught the virus because she didn't want to be separated from her family. The 15-year-old and one of her parents were confined to an isolation ward at the Gold Coast University Hospital after a cluster of cases emerged in Queensland's south-east. While the adult was given a hospital bed for their quarantine period, Gold Coast MP Sam O'Connor said the teenager spent a week sleeping on a 'thin, rollout mattress' before authorities cleared her to self-isolate at home. Mr O'Connor questioned why the pair were made to isolate in hospital when the parent was asymptomatic and the child only had a headache for a day. Health sources claimed the pair were offered their own beds in separate rooms but refused, likely so they could stay together. The family were told staff weren't allowed to put two beds in the same hospital room. A Covid-infected 15-year-old was forced to sleep on a rollout mattress for a week at the Gold Coast University Hospital after she caught the virus Another Queenslander who was in the same cluster as the family was allowed to isolate at home, The Gold Coast Bulletin reported. 'The broader issue is they are both struggling with their mental health as a result of not being able to return home,' the state member for Bonney said. Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young agreed on Friday to let both the parent and the child - whose self-isolation period ends on October 13 - complete their quarantine at home. Mr O'Connor said both parents were double vaccinated but the teenager was waiting until she turned 16 to receive her first dose because of medical issues. The parent and child will spend the rest of their quarantine period being supervised as part of the state's 'Hospital in the Home' scheme. A Queensland Health spokesman told Daily Mail Australia Covid-positive cases in the state are, as a general rule, cared for in hospital with only minor exceptions. Pictured: Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young. She agreed on Friday to let both the parent and the child - whose self-isolation period ends on October 13 - finish out their quarantine at home Those exceptions include 'low acuity cases' where only a minimal level of care from a registered nurse is required. The case was revealed as Queensland's chief health officer said she hoped to see widespread home quarantine in the state by December, with a trial starting next week. From Monday, 1,000 people who have applied to enter Queensland from interstate hotspots will be offered the chance to go into 14 days of home, rather than hotel, quarantine. But the trial is only being offered to Queensland residents currently interstate, and will not be made available to those who opt to travel to hotspots. The 15-year-old and one of her parents were confined to an isolation ward at the Gold Coast University Hospital Health chief Jeannette Young says if the trial is successful, widespread home quarantine could be implemented as soon as December. 'I hope to see (it), but let's wait, let's not jump ahead of ourselves,' she told reporters on Thursday. Trial participants must have had at least two weeks since their second vaccination, a negative test 72 hours prior to travel and must reside within two hours of Brisbane airport. The government is still wary about home quarantine for international arrivals, and will closely monitor a trial in South Australia. A jury on Thursday convicted a man of capital murder in the 2015 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her husband, in a fatal mass shooting that also left six children, including his own son, dead inside a Houston-area home. David Conley, 54, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. His trial lasted only two days. Prosecutors didn't pursue the death penalty against Conley, as state and defense experts concluded that he qualified as a person with an intellectual disability. Conley was convicted in the August 8, 2015 deaths of Valerie Jackson, 40, and her husband, Dwayne Jackson, 50, at the couple's home in northwestern Harris County. Prosecutors also charged him in the deaths of the children - Nathaniel, 13, Dewayne, 10, Honesty, 11, Caleb, 9, Trinity, 7, and Jonah, 6. David Conley, pictured in court Thursday, was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Tuesday Pictured: Conley's ex-girlfriend Valerie Jackson, 40, was among the eight family members killed during the fatal 2015 mass shooting Prosecutors charged him in the deaths of the children - Nathaniel, 13, Dewayne, 10, Honesty, 11, Caleb, 9, Trinity, 7, and Jonah, 6 - but he was not tried for their killings Caleb Jackson, 9, pictured left, was among the eight family members shot dead by David Conley, while Jonah Jackson, pictured right, was just 6-years-old at the time of his death Conley admitted to killing the whole family in a video recording of an interview with homicide detectives, that was played for jurors. Nathaniel was Conley's son from his relationship with Valerie Jackson, while the Jacksons were the parents of the other five children, authorities said. All of the victims were shot in the head, one at a time, after Conley held the family hostage, according to authorities. On the first day of Conley's trial, Valerie Jackson's mother, Barbara Yankse, told jurors that her daughter had sent her Facebook messages just before the family was killed. Yankse testified that her daughter had repeatedly messaged her '911' and sent another message that read 'DVD has a gun,' implying that Conley had a gun. Trinity Jackson, pictured, was only 7-years-old at the time of her death Pictured: Nathaniel Conley, Conley's 13-year-old son who he also killed during his fatal 2015 shooting rampage at his ex-girlfriend's home On the second day of the two-day trial, jurors viewed photos of the killings that showed the victims' handcuffed and restrained bodies strewn about their home. Conley, who had a history of domestic violence, had no reaction to the gruesome images being displayed in the courtroom, according to ABC 13. After the shooting, family members of the Jacksons criticized authorities for not entering the home sooner and questioned why it took deputies four visits and repeated 911 calls before they went inside. Investigators said that they didn't have enough information to go into the home until they saw the body of one of the children through a window. Conley was convicted in the August 8, 2015 deaths of his ex Valerie Jackson and her husband, Dwayne Jackson, 50, pictured, at the couple's home in northwestern Harris County Malcolm Turnbull has savagely described Scott Morrison as 'deceitful' in a fiery radio interview and hinted at what he told the French President during their unofficial phone call last month. In a virtual speech to the National Press Club last week, Mr Turnbull slammed Mr Morrison for scrapping a deal to buy 12 French-made diesel-electric submarines in favour of eight nuclear-powered boats in a new pact with the US and UK. The former Prime Minister also revealed he had called President Emmanuel Macron who was left furious by the unexpected change of plan which many in France described as a betrayal. Mr Turnbull did not reveal what he said on the call and was accused by commentators including radio host Ben Fordham of being 'bitter' because he was ousted from office - and acting against Australia's national interest. The former Prime Minister, who led from 2015 to 2018, on Friday morning said he was not harming Australia's national interest but trying to convince the President that Australia was not a deceitful country. Emmanuel Macron (pictured) has refused to speak to Scott Morrison since the Prime Minister tore up Australia's $90billion submarine deal with France but has spoken to Mr Turnbull 'The best I can say to Macron and to others in France is this: We may have a deceitful Prime Minister but believe us we are not a deceitful nation,' he told ABC Radio National in yet another swipe at the Prime Minster. Asked if was undercutting Australia's national interest by describing Mr Morrison as 'deceitful', Mr Turnbull said: 'No I'm not'. 'The best thing we can hope for is that other countries in the world including France do not assume that Australia is of the same character that has been show in this debacle over the submarines. 'The Americans have said the same thing about Trump so it's not uncommon,' he said. Mr Macron has refused to speak to Mr Morrison since he was blindsided by the nuclear submarine deal which the Prime Minister announced by with Joe Biden and Boris Johnson on September 15. To show its fury, France took the rare step of recalling its ambassadors from the US and Australia. French Ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault has now been given the green light to return to Canberra. Malcolm Turnbull (pictured with wife Lucy in Sydney in 2019) has denied acting against Australia's national interest by calling the French President behind Scott Morrison's back Mr Morrison said he could not tell French counterparts about the nuclear deal because highly secure information shared with the US and UK may have leaked to the media or to other nations - but Mr Thebault said this was a 'childish' argument. 'It's childish to say that it was impossible to consult France. If you don't want to take my word, okay, take the words of President (Joe) Biden, take the words of Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken,' he told ABC radio on Friday. 'They have officially stated things should have been done differently. There should have been consultations.' Mr Thebault said France's trust in Australia was badly dented by the deal, which Mr Turnbull described as 'deceitful'. In his speech last week (pictured), Mr Turnbull said his government had looked into nuclear submarines, but was advised it could not operate such a fleet without a civil nuclear industry 'If we were lied to on one very important aspect, which other aspects was there a real trust,' Mr Thebault said. 'Confidence is not something you throw away when it's convenient, you know, trust is something you build, trust is something you create through your own action.' When he revealed last week he had spoken to Mr Macron, Mr turnbull said: 'I have spoken to Emmanuel Macron. He is a friend and I have stayed in touch with him since I left office. He is one of the great leaders of our times. 'I am not going to quote him but what you have heard from the French government is held - those are views held right across the board.' 'There is nobody in France that I am aware of saying this is just another commercial deal, too bad. Not at all. Scott Morrison and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris in June 'The foreign minister, when he said it was a stab in the back, was not speaking just for himself, there is outrage. What it tells you is that Australia can't be trusted.' In his speech, Mr Turnbull said his government had looked into nuclear submarines, but was advised it could not operate such a fleet without a civil nuclear industry. The Morrison government says a domestic nuclear industry is not needed to support the submarines, as they come with whole-of-life nuclear power plants which do not need further refuelling. Last month in New York, Mr Morrison admitted he knew the French would be furious after he tore up the submarine deal. The French - who were only told the night before the announcement- have reacted with fury, claiming Australia's move was a 'stab in the back'. The US and the UK will help Australia build nuclear-powered submarines. Pictured: the UK's Astute class submarine HMS Ambush 'It would be naive to think a decision of this nature was not going to cause disappointment, obviously, to the French,' he said. 'We understand that. We totally acknowledge that. And we knew that would be the case.' Mr Morrison said he told the French many months ago that conventional submarines no longer met Australia's demands - but they were still blindsided. 'The world is a jungle,' ex-ambassador to the US Gerard Araud tweeted after the nuclear deal was announced. 'France has just been reminded this bitter truth by the way the US and the UK have stabbed her in the back in Australia. C'est la vie.' China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory (picutred in red), to the objection of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific The French government later said Australia's decision to ditch the agreement was 'contrary to the spirit of cooperation which prevailed' between the two countries. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said the change in plan 'marks an absence of coherence that France can only observe and regret'. The Prime Minister was joined for the AUKUS announcement by US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a historic joint video-link press conference. None of the leaders mentioned China by name but the West is increasingly concerned about Beijing's growing assertiveness and huge military build-up. Mr Morrison said Australia needed nuclear submarines because they can travel further and evade enemy detection better than conventional submarines. 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. This graphic shows a comparison of the two militaries A teenage boy accidentally shot himself in the leg with a gun he made using a 3D printer on Saturday. The 16-year-old, who was not named due to his age, was shot while assembling the homemade Glock-style pistol in his bedroom, according to police. He was rushed to hospital but has since been released and is expected to make a full recovery. The teen's parents say they were completely unaware that their son was using the machinery to print out a gun, described by authorities as half-gun parts, half-3D printout. WRIC reports that the boy was using the top of a regular gun and printed parts for the bottom half of the firearm using a $400 Anycubic 3D printer, which he purchased himself. Pictured: the exact glock-style handgun that accidentally went off and shot the 16-year-old in the leg as the teen created the firearm with a 3D printer in his bedroom on Saturday The model the teen used (exact hardware used by teen pictured above) has a price of roughly $400, with Anycubic Photon being one of the cheapest 3D printers currently on the market Hopewell Police Lieutenant Cheyenne Casale said that the case is the first-ever he and his department has investigated of its kind. 'Its a fairly new issue that police are dealing with now,' Casale said of Saturday's shooting incident. 'This is the first Ive come across or the agency for that matter.' Casale added that it is illegal for the teen to have made the handgun, but no charges have been filed as of Thursday, WRIC reports. 'There are certain limitations as far as like creating portions for a firearm, like accessories,' he said. 'However, that's all regulated by ATF protocols at the federal level and even the state level.' Guns created with a 3D printer are known as a 'ghost guns,' due to the fact that they are not registered and are untraceable. Authorities are currently investigating how the teen learned to 3D print a handgun, as well as what his intentions were by making the working pistol. 3D printers range in price from $300 to $500 for basic models, and upwards of $3,500 for more advanced and sophisticated machinery. The model the teen used has a price tag of roughly $400, with the Anycubic Photon being one of the cheapest 3D printers currently on the market, according to All 3DP. Hopewell Police Lieutenant Cheyenne Casale, pictured, said that the case is the first-ever he and his department has investigated of its kind Hopewell resident Lorraine Nickerson, who recently moved to the small city of about 23,000, expressed concern over the ease of which the teen was able to create a working firearm Meanwhile, Hopewell resident Lorraine Nickerson, who recently moved to the small city of about 23,000, expressed concern and shock over the ease of which the teen was able to create a working firearm. 'I didnt know that they're doing this' she told WRIC. 'It's terrible.' Nickerson told the outlet that her family has experienced gun violence in the past, with two of her children having been murdered after being fatally shot with a firearm prior to her move to Hopewell. 'I have two children murdered in Connecticut. In two different years,' Nickerson said. 'Both are my sons, so anybody that has guns I don't condone it.' Last year, Virginia and 19 other states filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an effort to prevent 3D gun plans from being distributed online, according to Progress-Index. A Woolworths shopper has shared the horror moment he almost ate pet food after it was wrongly placed in a supermarket fridge with food for humans. The customer named Rob took to Facebook on Wednesday night to voice his concerns over the blunder that occurred at the South Fremantle Woolworths store in Perth. In the post he said he purchased two packets of discounted kangaroo mince along with several other reduced-price items that had all been placed in the cakes fridge on October 1. A shopper has shared the horror moment he almost ate pet food after it was wrongly placed in the fridge with food for humans at the South Fremantle Woolworths store in Perth However, while preparing dinner at home one night, his son noticed a shocking detail on the packet of the mince, which horrified Rob. 'I was preparing some patties and adding extra ingredients when my son noticed a small dog picture on the packaging and to my horror I realised that this was actually PET FOOD,' Rob wrote. The stunned customer contacted the store and explained the situation to a manager on duty, who also agreed that pet food shouldn't be placed in a section for human food as there is a separate fridge for pet meat. Rob purchased two packets of discounted kangaroo mince that had been placed in the cakes fridge but while preparing a meal with the mince, his son noticed a dog on the package 'On the 4/10/2021, I returned to the store and received a refund for the purchase ($6.16). The manager again agreed that this was an error and that pet meat should not have been placed in the food fridge,' Rob said. While Rob thought his discussion with the store's manager had been productive, much to his dismay, he returned to the store two days later and noticed pet food had again been stored in the same fridge. The images captured by the concerned customer show the discounted kangaroo mince beside several bottles of orange juice and three yogurt pouches. 'I found this very upsetting and felt not listened to by the management,' Rob said. The horrified customer took further action and discussed the situation with a health department representative who advised the man to write a formal complaint as the incident violated safe food handling practices. However, Rob decided to voice his concerns with the supermarket chain before taking a formal approach. Rob discussed the incident with the store's manager who agreed that the items shouldn't have been placed there, but returned two days later to find the mince in the same section Following the shopper's complaint, a Woolworths spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the customer and the store were contacted over the incident. 'We take food safety very seriously so we're disappointed to have missed the mark on this occasion,' they said. 'We understand the customer's frustration and have been in contact to apologise for their regrettable experience.' The spokesperson added employees at the South Fremantle supermarket will receive extra training on store practices. 'We've followed up with the store directly who will arrange extra training for all team members on our mark down procedures.' Critics are pouncing on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer after Ford announced it will spend $11.4billion to build electric vehicle plants in states with friendlier regulatory climates. The U.S. automobile maker is breaking away from its historic headquarters to build two 'massive' campuses in Tennessee and Kentucky. The sites are expected to generate 11,000 new jobs. While the news was celebrated by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee who called it a watershed moment for Tennesseans and his Kentucky counterpart, it didnt go fare well for Whitmer, who was chastised for failing to bid on the lucrative project. It was a shock, and Im extremely disappointed, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) told Bloomberg. The key question is: How did this happen on Governor Whitmers watch? And what is it about Governor Whitmers economic policies that has Ford looking out of state? Ford plans to spend $11.4billion building new electric vehicle plants in Tennessee (pictured in an artist's rendition) and Kentucky. The sites are expected to generate 11,000 new jobs Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is being criticized for not landing the lucrative deals Ford chief executive Jim Farley said that although the company remains fond of Michigan, the state didnt meet the criteria for its sprawling new EV campuses. We love Michigan and have invested +$7B in Michigan since 2016, he tweeted. In this case, [Kentucky and Tennessee] had unique sites that were large, shovel-ready with many other advantages. Michigan was reportedly never considered a strong contender to house Fords 3,600-acre EV plant, or its 1,500-acre BlueOvalSK lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility. Michigan Rep. Tim Walberg says he's 'extremely disappointed' to miss out on the opportunity A man works on a Ford F150 truck in Dearborn Michigan, the automobile giant's headquarters The factories will make batteries for the next generation of Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles. The projects represent the single-largest manufacturing investment in Ford's 118-year history. Michigan was not actively involved in a bid to wind the campuses, its economic chief told reporters in late September. We are always in conversations with Ford, but we were not actively involved, Michigan Economic Development Corp. boss Quentin Messer Jr. said during a conference call. A rendering of the lithium-ion battery manufacturing complex Ford plans to build in Kentucky This is how the planned site for BlueOvalSK Battery Park in Glendale, Kentucky, looks today Its not clear why the state did not more aggressively pursue the opportunity, but Whitmer hinted that Michigan couldnt compete with other states. In terms of us having tools that we need to be competitive, Im always looking to make Michigan more competitive, she told reporters, according to The Detroit News. But we needed a real opportunity to do that. And that really wasnt the case here. The states high costs to power a new plant also was a detriment. Michigan's average industrial price of electricity was 8 cents per kilowatt hour in July, according to the EIA. In Tennessee, the cost was 5.85 cents; Kentuckys price was 6.06 cents. For comparison, the national average was 7.53 cents. Michigan's governor says the state didn't have a 'real opportunity' to compete for the sites Exacerbating the issue is that Michigan regulations limit the amount of energy that can be bought by industrial users through competitive bids, Bloomberg reported. 'That would account for a lot of the differences with other states that have more competitive markets,' Greg Keoleian, director for the University of Michigans Center for Sustainable Systems, told the outlet. Republican state Sen. Curt VanderWall told Fox Detroit that the situation highlights flaws in Michigans economic development policies. What the heck did we do wrong to lose this, VanderWall told the outlet. We need to be more competitive when it comes to the cost of delivering raw materials and in terms of electric and gas, etc. Republican state Sen. Ken Horn blamed the governor. 'She doesn't get any marks on this one, he told Fox. There's a zero here. This is a goose egg. The boyfriend of a teen mum charged with murdering a boy as part of a brutal gang attack has been charged over his alleged role in the sickening crime. Harley Bartolo is accused of being an accessory after the fact to murder and resisting a police officer in the execution of duty. The 29-year-old was arrested at Werrington train station in Sydney's west on Thursday, nine weeks after six teenagers - including two boys as young as 13 - were charged with murder. Daily Mail Australia understands Bartolo had no fixed address and had been staying at the housing commission home before the fatal attack. His 19-year-old girlfriend Kayla Dawson was among the teenagers accused of beating the boy to death inside her home in Doonside on August 4. Harley Bartolo was cornered at Blacktown train station in western Sydney near the local courthouse as his girlfriend (pictured together) made her first appearance since she was charged with murder Bartolo, who is 10 years older than Dawson, has since distanced himself from the relationship. On August 9, he was reportedly spotted at Blacktown Shopping Centre getting a new mobile phone after his number was plastered all over Facebook. He was approached by a group of at least three men, who demanded he apologise for his girlfriend's alleged involvement in the boy's tragic death. At this point, he had not been charged with an offence. The humiliating video began when Bartolo was already on his hands and knees, kissing the foot of the man who was filming. Bartolo, who is 10 years Dawson's senior and even older than the children accused of the attack, has since distanced himself from the relationship 'Say you're sorry for what happened to the little kid,' the man says, as Bartolo says 'sorry brother' and repeatedly kisses his shoe. He then tells Bartolo to 'get the f**k up or I'll kick you in the f**king face'. Bartolo claimed at the time he was assisting police with their investigations, and was living on the streets because he has 'nowhere to go' after his name and contact details were plastered all over social media. He wiped his social media channels of any trace of Dawson before eventually deleting his accounts entirely. Kayla Dawson was arrested at an address in Doonside in Sydney's west about 3pm August 8 and later charged with murder Humiliating footage of a man kissing another man's feet has surfaced as he's forced to apologise for his girlfriend's alleged involvement in a brutal gang murder Dawson is accused of luring the 16-year-old victim to her home in Doonside in Sydney's west under the pretense of throwing a party. But when he arrived to the home, he was allegedly set upon by four boys aged between 13 and 15 and a 15-year-old girl. Police will allege Dawson was 'a willing participant' in the violence, filmed the sustained attacks and 'incited and encouraged' the minors. They are accused of torturing and beating him for 48 hours straight before Dawson panicked and called emergency services about 5.40pm on Wednesday, August 4. He was rushed to Westmead Hospital where he remained in a coma with extensive injuries to his head and chest, before he was declared dead three days later. In text messages seen by Daily Mail Australia, Bartolo said he was 'all twisted up' over the alleged attack. Doctors found the boy's injuries were 'non-survivable' and he died in hospital three days after the brutal attack Dawson has been charged with murder, taking or detaining in company with intent, actual bodily harm, and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Her lawyer appeared in court on Thursday and indicated she would apply for bail to be home by Christmas. Police on Thursday released CCTV footage of a man near the home around the time of the incident who they hope can assist with their investigations. He was seen running away from the address in the footage. In the wake of the alleged crime, disturbing video purporting to show the incident was distributed on social media apps. In the shocking footage, the boy was allegedly forced to repeat the phrase 'f**k the '21' - an apparent reference to postcode wars in the community. '21 District' is a group of gangs also known as the 'Innerwest Brotherhood' linked to several postcodes, including Guildford, Merrylands and Blacktown. Paramedics worked on the boy at Ms Dawson's home in Doonside, in Sydney's west, for a very long time, police sources told Daily Mail Australia - even restarting his heart with a shot of adrenalin The boy was also seemingly made to apologise to the '27' postcode, comprising the suburbs of Mt Druitt and Doonside, part of Sydney's westernmost ring of suburbs. The offenders allegedly 'took turns' jumping and stomping on him, with much of the brutal alleged attack recorded on mobile phones and later posted online. A 15-year-old girl who cannot be named for legal reasons appeared to be the 'ringleader' of the assaults in the footage. Police are expected to ask the court for an order to force the 15-year-old girl to provide forensics as they piece together their case against the group. All six young people remain before the courts. Anyone with information that might assist with the investigation is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 Two prominent politicians have gushed over photoshopped images that blessed them with supermodel-style good looks - with Peter Dutton looking like Chris Hemsworth. The Labor deputy leader and federal minister were left lost for words after they were shown the photos on Channel Nine's Today Show on Friday. The photos were taken from Hot Australian Politicians - a satirical Instagram account that transforms politicians into flawless looking supermodels. Dutton was given a complete makeover with the bald federal minister photoshopped with a shock of wavy long hair and a thick, hipster beard. The new look is a striking resemblance to Hollywood A-lister and heartthrob Chris Hemsworth. Richard Marles compared Peter Dutton to a 'Nordic rock god' after the pair were shown heavily photoshopped photos of themselves from a popular Instagram page that gives politicians glamorous makeovers (pictured, photoshopped photo of federal minister Peter Dutton) 'This is you Pete,' host Allison Langdon said. 'Got the Melbourne barista vibe.' Mr Marles was then photoshopped with a square jawline and smouldering eyes. The look had impressed Langdon who compared his new look to fictitious supermodel Zoolander, played by Ben Stiller in the popular comedy film 'Zoolander'. 'Blue steel,' Langdon said approvingly. A visibly embarrassed Mr Marles laughed off the heavily airbrushed photo. 'That is ridiculous,' he said. 'I appreciate the photoshop, I've never had a jawline like that in my life.' He admitted he was more impressed with Mr Dutton's makeover comparing him to a northern European musician. 'I like Peter,' he said. 'That's a new vision of him. He looks like a Eurovision, Nordic metal rock band god.' His comment left the panel in hysterics before Mr Dutton quipped: 'If I turned up to Parliament next week would anyone notice?' 'I think they would,' Langdon replied. The Instagram page has drawn in more than 11,000 followers for its stunning transformation of Australian politicians. The Labor deputy leader and federal minister gave their tick of approval after they were shown the photos on Channel Nine's Today Show on Friday (pictured, photoshopped photo of Richard Marles) A visibly embarrassed Mr Marles laughed off the heavily airbrushed photo Mr Marles's comment left the panel in hysterics before Mr Dutton quipped: 'If I turned up to Parliament next week would anyone notice?' Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and ex-prime minister John Howard are among the photos. The account made headlines after uploading a photo of NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant. In the filtered image, Dr Chant was given a digital application of heavy makeup. The account's caption dubbed the physician, who grew up in Punchbowl in Sydney's west, 'Our Punchbowl queen'. The Danebank and UNSW educated doctor has been the chief health officer of NSW since 2008. A woman hoping to spot a dolphin in a river has been greeted by a baby shark swimming along the bay. TikTok user paolovillar5 filmed as a small fin and tail made its way towards of the shoreline of the Swan River in Perth on Thursday. But as the marine animal edged closer, it became clear that it was not a dolphin, but a baby shark swimming in the shallow waters. A Perth dolphin spotter has captured footage of a fin swimming towards her, only to find the animal was a shark measuring about one metre long (pictured) 'Awwwww, so beautiful, what a pretty animal,' one onlooker says as the shark lazily glides past the group. The marine animal, which measures about a metre long, continued on its way, swimming only a metre from the shore. Shocked onlookers could be seen watching the shark swam away. While this shark encounter was friendly, Western Australia has the highest number of injuries due to shark attacks in any Australian state in 2021. The baby shark glides away, coming only a metre from the shoreline and the amazed onlookers (pictured) There have been six unprovoked cases of shark attacks in WA, five of which saw victims injured by the ocean's apex predator. The only other state with injuries due to unprovoked shark attacks is NSW with three, meaning Western Australia account for half of all shark attacks in Australia. One of the attacks was a surfer at Gum Tree Bay near Leeman, 300km north of Perth. The man suffered a 20cm wound just below his knee and luckily survived the encounter. Another attack occurred when Jackson 'Jacko' Howson, 27, was fishing off Sandy Point near Coral Bay, north of Perth in Western Australia with his girlfriend. Spear fisherman Jackson Howson (pictured) survived a horror shark attack by punching the ocean predator in a life-or-death decision The mauling left the fisherman with a 5-8cm bite wound on his calf after the two-metre shark lunged for the same fish Mr Howson had speared and latched onto his left leg leaving his 'calf hanging everywhere.' Mr Howson punched the shark then swam back to his boat where his girlfriend was forced to get behind the wheel and steer him towards help. He said the adrenaline stopped him from feeling the pain when he was first bitten. 'You don't feel the pain as much when it's happening,' he said. 'But then when you look at your leg and realise there is calf hanging everywhere, then you're probably in a bit of trouble.' Australians could see restrictions eased around the country sooner than expected if stunning vaccination rates amongst children continue. In less than a month 49 per cent of all 12-15 year olds - over 600,000 youths - have received at least one dose of either Moderna or Pfizer across Australia. The age group wasn't counted in the Doherty Institute modelling which was used in drawing up state roadmaps out of lockdown. Australians could see restrictions eased around the country sooner than expected if promising vaccination rates amongst children continue In less than a month 49 per cent of all 12-15 year olds - over 600,000 youths - have received at least one dose of either Moderna or Pfizer The lockdown exit plans for both NSW and Victoria nominate 70 per cent of over-16s being double vaccinated as the trigger to re-open pubs, restaurants, retail, beauty salon, community sport, gyms and swimming pools. More restrictions are set to be eased once 80 per cent of people are double vaccinated. Government figures up to October 7 showed 609,279 Australians aged between 12 and 15 have received at least one dose. On current rates, the adolescents are on track to overtake adult vaccination rates this year. 'Im greatly encouraged by the fast uptake of vaccination amongst 12-15-years-olds,' said Lieutenant General Frewen, Coordinator General National COVID Vaccine Rollout Taskforce. 'We are nearly at 50 per cent nationally and look forward to all youths coming forward to get a jab.' Currently 81 per cent of all Australians have had at least one dose and 59 per cent are fully vaccinated. Influential modelling that informed Victorian and NSW plans to exit lockdown with 70 per cent of the public fully vaccinated did not account for the inoculation of under-16s Families have responded to the request to get under-16s vaccinated and soon children aged 5-11 and even younger could be vaccinated against Covid-19 By far the strongest take-up by families has been in the ACT where 84 per cent of 12-15 year olds have had at least one jab. In NSW 65 per cent of 12-15s have had one dose, while in Victoria the figure is 61 per cent. The unexpectedly fast first-dose take-up by 12-15s means there is greater protection from serious illness and reduced likelihood of virus transmission across the entire community. Experts agree that improves the safety of re-opening plans by reducing the likelihood of a surge in case numbers. It is understood this may encourage decisionmakers to bring forward freedoms that were slated for the 80 per cent vaccination milestones. 'Now that under-16s are getting vaccinated, it's very possible we could see that road map moved forward because it means we may be able to relax things earlier,' ANU infectious diseases physician Peter Collignon told The Australian. 'The more people we vaccinate from any age group the better, because it means we will see a much lower risk of people getting the virus and passing the virus on to others,' he said. Pfizer is seeking approval for young children to receive its Covid vaccine Children are at a lower risk or serious of illness from a Covid-19 infection than adults, with around two per cent of cases in kids hospitalised. While there have been over 14,300 Covid cases among under-10s and a further 17,300 aged between 10 and 19, only one person in these age brackets has died. Osama Suduh, 15, from south west Sydney died in August. It is understood children catch Covid-19 more easily from infected adults than other children because they have more robust immune systems. But the Delta virus was an increased threat to children as well as adults. The Therapeutic Goods Aministration approved 1.2 million Australians aged 12 to 15 for both Moderna and Pfizer with several states starting to immunise them in mid-September. Moderna was recommended for 12-18 year olds and Pfizer was approved for anyone aged at least 12. Parents were given the choice of which to book their children for. 'Vaccinating young people will protect them and provide peace of mind to their family, the Prime Minster Scott Morrison said when plan to vaccinate children was announced. 'Importantly, this decision provides the opportunity for families to come together to visit their GP and get vaccinated.' Before September Covid vaccines was only recommended for 12 to 15 year olds if they were aboriginal or had underlying conditions. Pfizer has also sought regulatory approval for its vaccine to be used to immunise children aged 5 to 11 and is working on smaller doses for younger kids and babies. The Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia will assess the American pharmaceutical giant's application and monitor trial results. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is due to assess Pfizer's application on October 26. If approved it could be rolled out for the younger age groups in November. Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of making 'distasteful' suggestions that the death of older Scots who back the Union could help deliver independence. The First Minister's remarks were branded 'chilling' yesterday after she said she has got 'time on my side' because of the demographics of support for Scotland breaking away from the UK. She also said the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have receded sufficiently by early spring to allow her to make 'concrete decisions' about the timing of an independence referendum. The comments about demographics reflect similar remarks made last year by Angus Robertson, now the SNP's Constitution Secretary, when he said 55,000 predominantly independence-supporting 16-year-olds join the electorate every year, while 55,000 predominantly No-supporting older voters pass away. The First Minister's remarks were branded 'chilling' yesterday after she said she has got 'time on my side' because of the demographics of support for Scotland breaking away from the UK In an interview with The Financial Times about her push for another referendum, Miss Sturgeon said: 'I can't look ahead and tell you exactly how this constitutional impasse is going to resolve itself, but it will resolve itself - and it will resolve itself on the side of democracy, because actually, the alternative is pretty unthinkable. 'I've got democracy on my side... if they think it's about playing a waiting game, I've probably got time on my side as well. 'You look at the demographics of the support for independence - well, I'm not sure that's going to get you out of this conundrum.' Scottish Conservative shadow constitution secretary Donald Cameron said: 'These appalling comments are chilling. 'It seems Nicola Sturgeon is implying that the independence movement will benefit from older people passing away. 'These comments are deeply offensive and she should apologise for them immediately.' Scottish Conservative shadow constitution secretary Donald Cameron said: 'These appalling comments are chilling' Pamela Nash, chief executive of the Scotland in Union campaign group, added: 'Nicola Sturgeon's interview shows how utterly obsessed she is with constitutional division rather than being focused on her government's failings. 'And while she is less blunt, she is also making the same distasteful argument that her colleagues have repeatedly made about waiting for older Scots to die in the hope that this will deliver separation. 'The reality is that our younger generation are more interconnected than ever and want solutions for the future that will tackle challenges like climate change, not tired old constitutional arguments from the past.' The First Minister's official spokesman yesterday failed to give an alternative explanation for what the comments meant. Asked if the comments were a reference to support for independence being higher among younger people than older people, he said: 'Well that is an established fact, in polling terms that is certainly an established fact that that is the case.' Pressed to confirm if the reference to demographics means 'older voters dying off', he said: 'Well it is an established fact, as I say, that support for independence in just about any opinion poll you care to look at that support for independence among younger voters is very, very strong, there is no great mystery or surprise there. 'We can sit here all afternoon if you like - I am not going to add to the First Minister's comments.' In her programme for government last month, Miss Sturgeon claimed that a referendum must be able to go ahead in the first half of this parliamentary term, before the end of 2023. In the FT interview, published yesterday, she signalled she could set a specific proposed date in early spring. She said: 'As we come out of this winter into the spring - with, I hope, a lot more certainty about the Covid situation being a bit more in the rear-view mirror - we start to take more concrete decisions around all of this.' A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: 'The last thing Scotland needs right now is another divisive referendum. All of our focus should be on recovering from Covid.' A proud Australian man has fired up at US residents who have criticised the handling of the pandemic Down Under. TikTok user, Eessa, uploaded a video for his 351,000 followers on Thursday, where he argued that Australia's handling of the virus had been better than the US. His clip, which has already had a staggering 700,000 views, starts by Eessa posing the question to Americans 'do you guys really think we want to live in your country?' Popular social media influencer Eessa (pictured) has called out US residents for criticising the handling of the pandemic in Australia Australia's thorough approach to tackling the pandemic has seen just under 1400 deaths since 2020 - as opposed to at least 709,000 residents dying in America 'This country (Australia) is that good that when you have Covid you can test your heart and breathing for free... and at home.' Eessa said the instructions for the home tests were also available in multiple languages, including Arabic, which his mother is fluent in. The home test is in addition to a nurse checking on people's wellbeing as they isolate at home. To conclude his argument, the TikTok influencer then asked - 'why the f*** would anyone want to live in America'. He signed off by mocking the US for 'flexing their country' before labelling America the 'wish version of the real Gucci'. During the global pandemic, the US has recorded at least 709,000 deaths from Covid and over 44 million positive cases. The damning figures are in stark contrast to Australia, with 1378 deaths and close to 118,000 positive cases. Much of Australia has lived relatively free for the past 18 months, with just NSW and Victoria enduring long lockdowns. NSW is close to 'freedom day', which will see hairdressers, cafes, restaurants and pubs re-open from Monday, October 11 for those who are fully vaccinated. Other changes will see up to 10 residents allowed to gather inside homes across the state, and as many as 100 permitted to attend weddings and funerals. Indoor pools will also be open for swimming lessons, training and rehabilitation activities. And when the 80 per cent vaccination rate is achieved, expected to be in late October, restrictions will ease even further. Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 12 will now return to school on Monday October 18 across NSW, with students in all year groups back on-site by October 25 Pubs, restaurants, cafes, hairdressers and retail stores all set to throw open their doors from next week with some capacity limits (pictured, customers at Sydney Opera House before lockdown) The new NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet also announced on October 7 that nightclubs will be able to operate from the Monday after the state hits the 80 per cent double vaccination milestone (Pictured: Mark Ronson playing at Marquee Nightclub in Sydney) New photographs released by NASA have revealed an ancient river delta on Mars that may once have hosted alien life. Geologists found vital organic compounds in specific zones of the Jezero crater which houses an ancient river delta near where the Perseverance rover is stationed that could hold fossilized evidence of extraterrestrial life. Researchers, on Thursday, published photos in the Journal of Science that were taken by the Perseverance rover and indicate ways that water once flowed on the planet billions of years ago. Perseverance captured photos of a rock formation now known as Kodiak Butte that 'indicates ... a closed lake system, under fluctuating water levels and changing styles of flow during later stages'. Scientists say this new finding provides an 'unprecedented datapoint' that will guide NASA's decisions regarding further investigation of the planet. Newly released photos show the Jezero Crater delta region The Perseverance rover captured photos of a rock formation now known as Kodiak Butte that 'indicates ... a closed lake system, under fluctuating water levels and changing styles of flow during later stages 'The rover landed in this incredibly desolate landscape ... and without driving anywhere, just taking pictures in the distance, we saw rocks that confirm Jezero was the bottom of the lake millions of years ago,' Benjamin Weiss, a professor of planetary sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told United Press International. The newly released Kodiak Butte photographs show layers of fine clay or sand that allegedly build up during periods of normal river flow. 'By understanding the stratigraphy at Kodiak, it enables us to identify the deposits which are the most likely of interest for life preservation,' Nicolas Mangold, a geologist at the University of Nantes in France, told CNET. 'We know that water was running on the surface at one point in the past, but we don't know the duration of this activity.' The area was also interspersed with layers of small boulders that result from flood events. The Kodiak Butte was interspersed with layers of small boulders that result from flood events While it is unknown what caused the floods eons ago, scientists hypothesize they may have resulted from heavy rain or a sudden ice melt While it is unknown what caused the floods eons ago, scientists hypothesize they may have resulted from heavy rain or a sudden ice melt. 'Mars, at the time, probably had more ice, which could have melted suddenly by volcanic activity or meteor impacts, sending a rush of water, rocks and silt into the crater,' Weiss shared. 'The region around the crater also was of high interest for a rover mission because it contains the oldest known rocks on Mars. Now, we can sample those rocks also, without even leaving the crater.' Unfortunately, Perseverance did not catch clear images of the area so researchers will need to continue investigating. 'Despite our disappointment, we tried to look at the delta from a distance using our best cameras, and that gave really wonderful results,' Mangold explained. Scientists argued that the Jezero findings will help researchers learn more about other craters that may have previously held lakes and potentially other forms of life. The region around the crater was of high interest for a rover mission because it contains the oldest known rocks on Mars Scientists expect that NASA will drill samples from the newly discovered craters 'We now have these pictures that we really couldn't get from orbit, showing these boulders and conglomerate deposits that could only come from flood episodes,' said study co-author Amy Williams, an assistant professor of geological sciences and astrobiology at University of Florida. 'Seeing Jezero from spacecraft in orbit is like looking at the cover of a book. What we see now is like reading the pages in the book.' Weiss and Williams expect that NASA will drill samples from the newly discovered craters. 'We have complete confidence that we'll be able to sample clay or a mudstone or shale,' Williams said. 'It seems like there was something rather [unusual] about our first core that we're still trying to understand, but we've tested the drilling on Earth, and it was successful in a variety of environments.' Mangold added that the findings have helped them identify locations on the main delta where experts can access similar environments. 'Those locations are some of our preferred targets for future rover travels,' he said. The findings have helped researchers identify locations on the main delta where experts can access similar environments Daniel Andrews has apologised for failing to wear a mask outside amid mounting community anger and a Victoria Police investigation into his actions. Police confirmed on Friday morning that officers were probing Mr Andrews after he was filmed walking to a press conference without a mask on Thursday. The footage infuriated Melbourne residents - emerging as the state reported a record 1,838 new infections. The Premier said sorry on Friday and said if police don't fine him, he will donate the same $200 sum to charity. 'I am aware that as I approached two press conferences at the back of parliament house this week I removed my mask after leaving the car, before I walked to the back doors,' Mr Andrews said. 'I expect Victoria Police to assess this and if they choose to issue a fine, of course I will pay it. 'If they do not issue a fine I will donate the same value to a charity working to support people in this pandemic because whilst this was an oversight, oversights matter. 'Everyone needs to follow the rules and I am sorry it occurred'. Daniel Andrews has been filmed without a face mask while walking with police now investigating the footage after it sparked community outrage Anyone over 12 years of age is required to wear the extra layer of protection whenever they leave their home 'As the incident is being reviewed by investigators we will not be providing further comment at this stage,' a spokesperson said. Video filmed by Seven News journalist Paul Dowsley showed Mr Andrews walking up to a microphone stand with his briefcase and passing a small group of media. The footage sparked outrage with talkback radio hosts and social media users condemning the Premier for his missing face-covering. 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell took to the airwaves to demand Mr Andrews pay his own government a $200 fine. 'He might have to fine himself!' Mitchell said. 'Premier, if you're going to lock us up for lapses and fine businesses when they're trying to do the right thing, well you've got to pay the price yourself. 'Maybe he could just apologise at the press conference, say he's made a mistake and give $200 to charity. It was an oversight, it's not a huge issue, but it's a symbol.' Social media users vented about the apparent hypocrisy online. 'What lawful reason could he possibly have for walking into that building without a mask,' one person wrote. 'I'm dead serious.' Another person added: 'I've been waiting for somebody to call him out on this; so thank you. and YES, ABSOLUTELY he should receive a penalty notice for breaching his own mandate!' Melbourne residents are required to wear a face mask at all indoor and outdoor public places (pictured, officers speak to a resident in Melbourne) Under the state government's Covid rules, anyone over 12 years is required to mask up whenever they leave their home. They must wear a mask in all public indoor and outdoor settings. Only those who have a medical exemption are not required to wear the face mask. Nearly 39,000 fines have been handed out by police to residents breaching Covid-19 health orders between March 2020 and June 2021. Only $5.7million of the $60million worth of fines have been paid. Individuals face on-the-spot fines of up to $1,817 while businesses can pay as much as $10,904 if they breach public health orders. Residents risk $5,452 in fines if they break indoor and outdoor gathering caps. Daily Mail Australia contacted Mr Andrews for comment. Parents have served a 'cease and desist' legal notice on a school threatening to sue and potentially pursue GBH charges - if children are given Covid jabs without parental consent. The 17 parents of children in years seven, eight and nine at Tretherras School, in Newquay, Cornwall, have signed the letter. This autumn all children aged 12 to 15 years are being offered the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and government guidance says parents are 'asked for consent'. But if it is refused and the child is deemed 'competent' then 'the parent cannot overrule the decision' and the child can 'legally give consent'. But parents at the Cornish school have hit back with a legal letter to the head, year leaders, safeguarding team and governors. The 17 parents of kids in years seven, eight and nine at Tretherras School (pictured), in Newquay, Cornwall, have served a 'cease and desist' legal notice on a school threatening to sue and potentially pursue GBH charges - if kids are given Covid jabs without parental consent The collective believe their kids should not be given the vaccine because clinical trails are ongoing and there is a 'lack of long term data'. The notice says they want the school to promise not to use Gillick Competency on kids under 16 - where a child is considered competent in making an informed personal decision without parental consent. The parents want the school to confirm it won't vaccinate kids without parental consent, and the date of any proposed jabs. It threatens to sue if the school 'fails to satisfy my concerns', in the letter dated September 26. The legal letter also said they will 'bring a case of harassment and emotional harm' against the school should 'further harassment by school staff of our children regarding the wearing of masks'. A parent who signed the letter, and has a 13-year-old boy at the school, said: 'We decided as a group that our children don't need the jab. This autumn all kids aged 12 to 15 years are being offered the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and government guidance says parents are 'asked for consent' (stock image) 'We feel there is no long term data. 'If an adult wants to take the decision to get themselves vaccinated when a vaccine is still on trial, that's their choice. 'But we believe children as young as 12 cannot make that decision with full awareness of the dangers. 'They're not allowed to have sex until 16 or smoke before 18 but they can have a vaccination that's still on trial - the school can't even give a child a spoonful of Calpol. 'We aren't anti-vax - we've all had our other jabs - we just don't believe in giving our children vaccines on trial. 'That's why as a group we have put the school on legal notice - and basically said 'If any of these children listed are jabbed, we'll see you in court'.' Another parent who signed the legal notice, who has a son aged 12 at the school, said: 'An mRNA is a medical procedure and it's difficult to find understandable information about what it does, or how it works, as opposed to the freely available and historical information about what a vaccine does. 'There is incredibly scant informed consent regarding the mRNA for adults, yet alone children. If an adult cannot be fully informed about an invasive medical procedure, a person under 15 certainly can't. If it is refused and the child is deemed 'competent' then 'the parent cannot overrule the decision' and the child can 'legally give consent'. But parents at the Cornish school have hit back with a legal letter to the head, year leaders, safeguarding team and governors (stock image) 'The suppliers of the drug as yet have no evidence as to what the medium- and long-term effects of the drug will be. 'It would seem the risk-v-benefit of children receiving the drug is hugely imbalanced towards risk. 'Should the school or local NHS team decide to coerce those children who have not consented to have the drug to receive it - by comparing it to a flu jab or using peer pressure to persuade the kids that their decision should be changed - we are prepared to instigate legal action.' The government announced the rollout of an in-school vaccination programme of 12-15 year olds last month. Schoolchildren aged between 12 and 15 will be vaccinated this autumn after parents are contacted to give consent - but in cases where the parents refuse, the children may be able to consent for themselves after being judged for 'Gillick competence'. This would allow a child under the age of 16 to consent for themselves if they are deemed as having the capacity and maturity to understand what they are consenting to and are fully aware of what it involves. The parents who signed the legal notice said they were worried about the long-term health impacts of the Pfizer jab. The parents argued their 12-15 year old children were not able to fully appreciate potential dangers and therefore should not be able to consent for themselves where the parents declined to consent. The parents who signed the legal notice said they were worried about the long-term health impacts of the Pfizer jab (stock image) The legal notice was presented after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) stating the benefits of vaccinating 12-15 year olds may not outweigh the potential harms. The legal notice, addressed to the school, read: 'The UK Government, including Public Health England, have published guidance that makes a negligent mistake of law that Gillick Competency can occur for experimental COVID-19 vaccinations on emergency approval that have not completed clinical trials. 'Even if Gillick Competency is in our view unlawfully assumed in light of ongoing clinical trials (...) I nonetheless have parental responsibility and the right to be involved in the informed consent process. 'This is because the informed consent process has the potential of creating civil and criminal liability that a child under the age of 18 is not competent to litigate. 'The purpose of this letter is for you to cease and desist from these torts and the potential criminal offence. 'Medical treatment and testing without valid informed consent, in causing trespass to the person, causes the civil tort and summary criminal offence of battery. 'The indictable offences of actual or grievous bodily harm, civil tort of wrongful death or indictable offence of manslaughter may also occur if vaccine injury occurs. 'You can be held responsible for these torts and offences by inducing them to occur. Financial damages in the form of vaccine injury can be recovered if a tort is confirmed by the courts. 'We will at a minimum sue on behalf of my child for a declaration as to legal rights and or for an injunction that will seek conditional prohibition of any vaccination and for recovery of my legal costs where permitted.' A spokesperson from Tretherras School said: 'No child will be immunised in school without parental consent. 'If there is a disagreement between parent and child, a meeting is called between the family and the school immunisation team to discuss further.' Priti Patel has given Dame Cressida Dick three targets to meet in order to prevent her two-year extension as the chief of Scotland Yard from being ended early. Dick's contract as Met Police commissioner has been extended until April 2024 amid a crisis around trust in the institution. The home secretary has told Dick that there must be a drop in serious violence and knife crime in London, improvements to police response to violence against women and girls, and that police must cooperate with an inquiry into failures leading to the murder of Sarah Everard The Times reported, citing 'Home Office sources'. Everard, 33, was kidnapped, raped and killed by serving Metropolitan Police Officer Wayne Couzens. Concerns had been raised about Couzens' behaviour prior to the murder. The sources reportedly told The Times that Dick's contract was extended due to a lack of suitable candidates to replace her, adding that there were also concerns about too much change at the top, with several other high-ranking security officials set to leave their posts. Cressida Dick(right)'s contract as Met Police commissioner has been extended until April 2024 amid a crisis around trust in the institution Lynne Owens, the head of the National Crime Agency, retired this month and Sir Tom Winsor, Her Majesty's chief inspector of constabulary, will leave his post in March. 'There's concern about too much churn at the very top when policing is in such a state of flux and crisis,' a source told The Times. Along with the handling of the Everard case, the Metropolitan Police are also facing heat over an independent panel's finding of 'institutional corruption' in the investigation into the unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan in 1987. The private investigator was murdered in a south London car park and the panel found that the Met concealed or denied failures in their investigation. Patel and Dick's relationship is said to have soured in the aftermath of the Everard case, with the home secretary reportedly infuriated by the Met's advice to women on how to avoid false arrest. The Times claimed that Patel was annoyed that Dick announced a review of police standards and culture on Monday - after being told by Patel that she would announce an independent inquiry during her speech at the Conservative conference the next day. 'The commissioner serves the Met by retaining the confidence of the home secretary. It was made clear to her during discussions about her future that that is not a guarantee. Things can change,' a source reportedly told the paper. Speaking after Couzens received a whole of life sentence, Dick said the 'precious bond of trust' between the public and the police had been damaged, adding she would do 'everything in my power to ensure we learn any lessons.' The Met has also come under fire recently for the policing of the Euro 2020 final and its response to Insulate Britain protests. A man has been freed on bail despite police saying in court he likely knows where the body of missing Melbourne woman Maryam Hamka is. Police opposed the release of Oscar Newman, who is charged with assisting Ms Hamka's alleged killer Toby Loughnane, in the belief he might move the Melbourne woman's body, the court was told. But Victorian Supreme Court Justice Richard Niall on Friday granted bail to Newman, on conditions including that he live with his mother who has offered a $50,000 surety. Oscar Newman (pictured) was granted bail on Friday and must live with his mum despite police saying in court he likely knows where body of missing Melbourne woman Maryam Hamka is Newman is not alleged to have had any involvement in the suspected murder of Ms Hamka, who was last seen in Brunswick on April 10, but is alleged to have assisted Loughnane afterwards. Prosecutors say Loughnane murdered Ms Hamka in the early hours of April 11 after an argument and that neighbours reported hearing a disturbance around that time. Newman, a pool cleaner, visited Loughnane's property multiple times in the period following, the court heard in his bail application earlier this week. Police opposed Newman's release, who is charged with assisting Maryam Hamka's (pictured) alleged killer Toby Loughnane, in the belief he might move the Melbourne woman's body Pictured: Ms Hamka's alleged killer Toby Loughnane It's also alleged he bought a Karcher cleaner and that when it was picked up by a friend she told the seller 'my friend's in a bad way'. Missing Person's Squad detective Jason Stewart said there were obvious concerns about Newman's release given Ms Hamka's body had not been found. 'We believe there's a high probability that Mr Newman knows where it is and he would have access to it if he chose,' he said in court. Maryam Hamka (pictured) was last seen on April 10 at a Woolworths store in Melbourne Newman's barrister Greg Melick accused police of exaggerating their evidence against Newman and that it was 'fanciful' Newman would move the body if he knew where it was. 'If her body hasn't been found to date ... why would he take the risk of going anywhere near it, even if he knew where it was?' he questioned. Newman must abide by a curfew, abstain from drugs and seek treatment for a gambling habit while on bail. He's due back in court in December. Elon Musk confirmed Thursday that Tesla will be moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, taking advantage of the states lack of personal income tax and following through on a promise he first made over a year ago in response to the Golden States strict coronavirus guidelines. Im excited to announce that were moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas, the tech billionaire announced to cheers and applause during the companys shareholder meeting at its vehicle assembly plant in Austin, which is under construction and borders the Colorado River. Just to be clear though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California, so this is not a matter of Tesla leaving California, he noted, adding that the company plans on increasing output in California and Nevada by 50 percent. Musk said that Tesla, which has been in Silicon Valley since 2003, has outgrown its Fremont factory. Its like were spam in a can here, he said, adding that theres sparse affordable housing and a lot of workers have a long commute. Elon Musk confirmed Thursday that Tesla will be moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas. He made the announcement above at a meeting of the company's shareholders on Thursday The company's vehicle assembly plant in Austin (pictured above) is under construction and borders the Colorado River But in Texas, he said, Our factorys like five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown and were gonna create ecological paradise right here. While he did not give a timeline of when Teslas headquarters in Texas will be operational, he noted that it takes less time to build a factory than it does to reach high-volume production. He said that the plant in Texas will closely resemble Teslas Shanghai plant, which was built in 11 months and reached high-volume production after a year. In December, Musk personally moved to Texas after living in California for two decades. Moving to Texas allowed Musk to get closer to his aerospace company SpaceXs launch site in Boca Chica and reduce his personal tax burden. California has some of the highest personal income taxes in the country on its wealthy residents, but Texas has no personal income tax. Musk said that said California is not as affordable and his workers have a long commute. Above is Tesla's primary vehicle factory in Fremont, California Musk first publicly mentioned his plan to leave California for Texas in a string of furious tweets in May 2020 after a California county health official said that the plant could not reopen amid coronavirus shutdowns. The disgruntled CEO took to a comment thread on Twitter to share that he was also planning to file a lawsuit against Alameda County. Musk's fury was directed towards Alameda County Health Officer Erica Pan, who said the Fremont company would not be able to reopen despite California Governor Gavin Newsom lifting some coronavirus restrictions at the time. 'Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately,' he said in tweet on May 9, 2020. 'If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependent on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.' Musk first teased the move to Texas in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in response to California's strict reopening guidelines. The disgruntled CEO took to a comment thread on Twitter about his opposition to the state's reopening rules In a separate tweet, he threatened to sue Alameda County over the restrictions In a separate tweet, he wrote, 'Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected & ignorant Interim Health Officer of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!' The dispute came a week after Musk lambasted state officials over lockdown orders he called 'fascist' and unconstitutional. Teslas move to Texas from California follows that of other tech giants like Oracle and Hewlett Packard. Texas has been reeling in companies by offering tax breaks for those that put new facilities in the state through the Texas Economic Development Act. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lauded Musks plans to move Tesla to Texas last month and said in an CNBC interview that the two talk frequently and that Musk supports his states social policies. His statement came a day after Texas introduced its strict abortion law that bans pregnancy terminations after a fetal heartbeat is detected within six weeks. A federal judge has since ordered a temporary injunction of the toughest-in-the-nation abortion ban. Musk shied away from disclosing his views on the subject. '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, he said. A new form of the highly-contagious Delta strain has been detected in eight infected residents in NSW, health officials have revealed - as NSW recorded 646 new Covid cases and 11 deaths with the virus. The 11 Covid-related fatalities in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday night included two women and nine men. Seven of them were not vaccinated, three had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and one had received two doses. NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said genome sequencing on eight of the state's cases had detected a new variant of the highly-contagious strain that has plunged Greater Sydney into lockdown for the past 12 weeks. Seven of the eight cases with the new variant are from the same family - all of whom showed the same type of symptoms as the standard Delta strain. 'We've found a new strain of Delta that has different sequencing to the current strain circulating in Sydney,' she said as she announced the latest figures in a live video address on Friday. The state's top doctor said investigations into the new discovery were still ongoing, but that the new strain appeared no more dangerous than the original form of Delta. 'There is no evidence that this new strain presents any differences regarding transmission, vaccine effectiveness or severity,' Dr Chant said. NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant. She said on Friday genome sequencing on eight of the state's cases had detected a new variant of the highly-contagious Delta strain EVERYTHING DR CHANT SAID ABOUT THE NEW DELTA VARIANT 'We have had a program throughout this response to the pandemic around genome sequencing. 'During that process we have found a strain of Delta that has different sequencing to the current strain circulating in Sydney. 'There is no evidence that this new strain presents any differences regarding transmission, vaccine effectiveness or severity. 'There are currently eight cases identified with this strain - seven from one household and one additional case. 'We are conducting investigations into the source and transmission occurred and will give an update when any new information is available.' A nurse performs a Covid-19 rapid antigen test at a drive-through testing facility at the Royal Randwick shopping centre car park in Sydney on Thursday Advertisement 'We're undertaking investigations into the source and how transmission occurred and will give an update when any new information is available.' There are 856 Covid-19 cases in NSW hospitals, with 170 people in intensive care - 75 of whom require ventilation. The number of people in hospital with the virus state-wide is the lowest since August 30, when that figure stood at 840. Two of those who died overnight were aged in their 50s, while one was in their 60s, four were in their 70s, and four were in their 80s. NSW Health said 89.4 per cent of the state's residents had now received one Covid-19 vaccine dose and 70.3 per cent were fully vaccinated. Dr Chant said reaching a 90 per cent double-dose vaccination coverage rate was an 'ambitious' but achievable target. The first stage of restriction easing in NSW will occur on Monday after the state reached the 70 per cent double-dose milestone earlier this week. 'We are looking forward to opening up on Monday but it is important, as we do, we do it safely,' she said. 'Please remember that it's critical that you continue to wear your masks where they're required, continue to maintain that physical distancing and most importantly, do not go out and about if you have COVID symptoms. Instead, get tested and isolate and wait until you've got a negative result. 'It's an exciting time, but I caution us to do everything safely.' The state's deputy premier on Friday meanwhile denied claims Dr Chant refused to endorse Premier Dominic Perrottet's accelerated easing of lockdown restrictions. Members of the public wear face masks as they check into the Sonic Healthcare vaccination hub in the Sydney CBD on September 23 Overnight it was reported she did not support the new premier's changes to Freedom Day - before she was 'snubbed' from his first press conference. Dr Chant was noticeably absent on Thursday as he unveiled a raft of changes to the roadmap out of lockdown. But on Friday morning NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole rejected reports she was not on board with the changes. Dr Chant revealed the new strain as the state recorded 646 new Covid cases and 11 deaths from the virus overnight 'No, that's not the case,' he told Sunrise. 'I had a crisis cabinet the day before and Kerry Chant was in the meeting. We don't make decisions without the support of NSW Health or Dr Kerry Chant.' NSW Health figures exclusively obtained by Daily Mail Australia reveal demand on the health system was actually lower than expected in October - the month cases and hospitalisations were supposed to peak - due to high vaccination levels. It comes as the Australian Medical Association of NSW has warned easing restrictions too quickly could inundate the hospital system with Covid cases and burn out workers. 'We've got a new premier in the driver's seat, but that's not a good enough reason to deviate from the course previously set,' AMA NSW President Danielle McMullen said. 'Keeping people safe must be the premier's top priority. 'Relaxing restrictions too soon will not be a 'popular' decision if it means the number of people contracting the virus and ending up in hospital skyrockets.' Newly-minted Premier Dominic Perrottet announced an overhaul of NSW's roadmap out of lockdown on Thursday (pictured, bar staff make drinks in Sydney) The new state leader on Thursday announced a revised strategy to reopen NSW But in a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, NSW Health said high vaccination rates meant demand on the health system was actually lower than expected in October, despite predictions case numbers would peak. Modelling by NSW Health predicted the demand for hospital beds from Covid patients would peak in October, but instead the number of hospital admissions had fallen by 27 per cent since the peak on September 17. 'Thanks to the faster-than-estimated rates of vaccination, this demand is currently tracking lower than expected,' a NSW Health spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. 'However, our hospitals and ICU remain very busy with patients with Covid-19 and there are currently cases throughout the state.' The Doherty Institute's Katherine Gibney said while Covid case numbers will go up as restrictions loosen, easing out of lockdown is inevitable. 'Hopefully with high vaccination rates we'll be protected against the more severe disease and those requiring hospitalisation and ICU but we are expecting these to increase in the coming weeks and couple of months,' Dr Gibney told ABC TV on Friday. 'It has to be done. We can't live in lockdown indefinitely.' Mr Perrottet on Thursday announced a revised strategy to reopen NSW. After meeting with the crisis cabinet on Wednesday, when the state reached a 70 per cent double-dose vaccination milestone, Mr Perrottet announced the changes, with the state to emerge from months of lockdown on Monday. As part of the new plans, indoor gatherings will be capped at 10 people, not counting children under 12. Outdoor gatherings will be lifted to 30 people. 'We've got a new premier in the driver's seat, but that's not a good enough reason to deviate from the course previously set,' AMA NSW President Danielle McMullen said While the AMA NSW urged the premier to 'pump the brakes' on the easing of restrictions, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and lobby group Business NSW welcomed the state government's road map changes For weddings and funerals, 100 people can attend. NSW indoor swimming pools will also be able to open for lessons, training and rehabilitation activities. Restrictions will ease further when 80 per cent of the adult population is fully jabbed, expected around October 25. That's when 3,000 people will be allowed at ticketed outdoor events and nightclubs can reopen, but without dancing. Masks also won't be required in office buildings in an attempt to encourage workers back into Sydney's CBD. These freedoms will apply only for the fully vaccinated until December 1, when freedoms are restored for the unvaccinated. While AMA NSW urged the premier to 'pump the brakes' on the easing of restrictions, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and lobby group Business NSW welcomed the state government's road map changes. Up to 10 residents excluding children will be allowed to gather inside homes across the state, and as many as 100 permitted to attend weddings and funerals (pictured, Opera Bar in Sydney) 'With NSW passing the 70 per cent double vaccination rate threshold... Australians are beginning to get their lives back,' Mr Morrison said. However the hospitality sector had mixed feelings, with Restaurant and Catering Australia disappointed the caps on patrons were not increased or scrapped. Speculation meanwhile has swirled around why Dr Chant was not present at Thursday's press conference with one political reporter claiming she was in disagreement with Mr Perrottet's revisions. 'I have confirmed with multiple sources who are aware of the discussions last night with Dr Chant, that she did not fully endorse this new roadmap,' 9 News political reporter Chris O'Keefe tweeted. 'The Chief Health Officer warned the new premier all of these changes come with risk, but changing a roadmap that was only nine days old was ultimately a matter for the government.' Rubbish bags are piling up on French streets as binmen demand a 21-hour working week, with at least 3,000 tonnes of rubbish at risk of being blown into the sea. Industrial action by refuse workers in Marseilles began last month in protest at being told to work more than their usual 21-hour week. French police on Thursday ordered the bin men to clear the rubbish from the beaches in a bid to avoid an ecological disaster in the Mediterranean. A picture taken on September 30, 2021 shows accumulated garbage in a street of Marseille, southern France, during a strike of bin men in the city over the working week length Greater Marseilles council was looking to introduce national legislation that would require public sector employees to work the national 35-hour week from January 1. Despite this being one of the shortest working weeks in the world, many council employees - particularly in cities such as Paris and Marseilles - work less than that. Marseilles' binmen also receive nine weeks of holiday each year. This is made up of give weeks of annual leave and four weeks of 'compensatory rest' to prevent the city's 3,658 binmen from becoming exhausted. Since the strike, Marseilles' streets have quickly become full of thousands of tonnes of stinking refuse, much of which has been swept onto beaches by wind and rain. In response, the police have said they will force around 60 of the striking binmen back to work to help clear up the growing mess. Should they refuse, the workers face a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a fine of 10,000. French police on Thursday ordered the bin men to clear the rubbish from the beaches in a bid to avoid an ecological disaster in the Mediterranean. Pictured: A man walks past a pile of trash A week ago, an agreement was signed by Force Ouvriere (Worker's Force) - one of the two major public sector unions in France - to end the strike. The binmen will get a pay increase of 80 a month, no cut to holidays and will work 31-hour weeks, with council officials conceding that bin men should work less due to the tough nature of the job. However, the hard-left Confederation Generale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour) trade union rejected the deal, keeping many of the bin men on strike. The council has said that there are now 3,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish in Marseilles, with more than 500 residents responding to a call to help clean the beaches themselves. An Oregon man 'looking forward to a ... relaxing ride across the country' when he boarded Amtrak's Empire Builder instead found himself clinging for dear life in the train's bathroom as it derailed and said he witnessed 'death and destruction that he will never forget.' Justin Ruddell, 40, suffered two broken vertebrae, five broken ribs, and 'severely strained' arms from clutching the bathroom's grab bar as the train careened off the tracks on September 25. 'I was on the left side (of the train car) and looking down at the ground,' Ruddell, of Klamath Falls, said Thursday. 'The outside door was peeled open and the bathroom door, the lock failed for whatever reason, and it flew open.' Ruddell said he could see gravel and dirt getting scooped up into the car and 'feces and urine' from the toilet poured onto him as he clung onto the bar. Justin Ruddell, 40, suffered two broken vertebrae, five broken ribs, 'severely strained' arms from clutching the bathroom's grab bar as the train tipped over and the weight of witnessing 'death and destruction around [him] that [he] will never forget.' Now, he is suing Amtrak Three were killed and more than 50 were injured in the derailment near Joplin, Montana on the cross-country Amtrak train from Chicago to Seattle. Eight of the train's ten cars went off the tracks, and two disconnected entirely, sliding thirty feet down an embankment Nearly 160 people were aboard the train - thus far, at least a dozen are taking Amtrak to court. The cause of the derailment is presently under investigation 'If I would have let go, I would have fell down and out that door and got crushed by the train or ground up in the dirt,' he said. The high-speed derailment killed three and injured more than 50 were as the train from Chicago to Seattle went off the tracks near Joplin, Montana. Eight of the train's ten cars went off the tracks, and two disconnected entirely, sliding 30 feet down an embankment. Nearly 160 people were aboard the train and at least a dozen are suing Amtrak for physical and psychological injuries from the horrific accident. Amtrak and BSNF, which owns the rails that the train traveled on, have declined to comment The cause of the derailment remains under investigation. 'Trains dont derail by themselves,' said Sean Driscoll, a partner at Clifford Law Offices, the firm representing Ruddell. Ruddell is one of four passengers who filed lawsuits in federal court in Chicago against Amtrak and BNSF Railway on Thursday, claiming the companies were negligent in failing to prevent the derailment. Others filing on Thursday were Matt Johnson, 40, of Seattle and Stuart and Karen Dixon, both of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Clifford Law Offices said. In 2017, the firm obtained a $57 million settlement against Amtrak when one of its trains derailed in Seattle. 'This is another derailment by Amtrak in four years and something must be done to hold the wrongful parties accountable. These people want and deserve answers. Their lawsuits will get them those answers.' At least a dozen passengers have filed lawsuits over physical and psychological injuries suffered in the derailment. Amtrak and BSNF have declined to comment on pending litigation Amtrak and BSNF, the company that owns the rail that the train traveled upon, declined to comment on the pending litigation Ruddell spent five days in the hospital in Kalispell, and said the pain due to his injuries is 'unbelievable,' that hes having a hard time sleeping and was unable to work at a mechanic job he was planning to start when he returned from his trip. 'At the hospital, Amtrak offered no help,' Ruddell said at a press conference Thursday. 'I even had to get myself home from Medford, Oregon, an hour and a half away.' Ruddell said he had traveled from Oregon to Maine a week earlier with the ashes of a friend who had died in 2019. He was between jobs and had been thinking about his friend this summer when he decided to make the trip. 'I'd always promised my friend that me and him was going to go to the East Coast,' Ruddell said. 'That was one of our goals. Something we talked about quite a bit and was never able to make happen.' 'So I took his ashes that were in a glass piece that somebody made for me, to the East Coast, and went and walked out into the ocean, and kept my promise to him and saw the Atlantic Ocean with him.' 'We saw it together and we were on our way home and thats when that train got derailed.' Ruddell was helped out of the train car, but he refused to get off the side of the car, which was facing up when the train skidded to a halt, without his friend's ashes. A woman who was on the train remembered where he was sitting and went back in and grabbed his bag, which contained the ashes, Ruddell said. 'Amtrak and those responsible for this tragedy must be held accountable for the mistakes they make,' Ruddell said. They cannot offer what they hold out to be safe transportation, then walk away when people are killed or injured for the rest of their lives... Amtrak has to do the right thing.' At least a dozen passengers have filed lawsuits over physical and psychological injuries suffered in the derailment. Amtrak and BSNF have declined to comment on pending litigation New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken a trip down memory lane, visiting the childhood home she grew up in on the country's North Island. Posting a series of images to her Instagram page on Thursday, the Prime Minister showed her followers around the humble but 'happy' home in the town of Murupara, south of Auckland. She lived in the home for a short time when she first started school. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured) has visited her childhood home in Murupara She was allowed inside the home (pictured), now being used by police officers on night shifts 'While I was in Murupara today, I stopped by the house we used to live in,' she wrote in the caption. 'These days it's used by police officers on night shift so they opened it up for me. It's amazing how spaces can bring back instant memories. As soon as I stepped into the kitchen I remembered that the top cupboard was where my mum hid the treats,' she continued. 'Once I climbed up onto the bench to try and reach into it, and burnt my knee on the crock pot....I still have the scar! And the green carpet is still there. I have a lot of happy memories from living here in this home, it was such a treat to visit.' The Prime Minister (pictured) posted a series of images of her former home to her Instagram, telling followers of the 'happy memories' she has of the house The visit to her hometown comes as she visits those who are involved in the vaccine efforts for the surrounding communities at the drive through vaccination station where the area has a vaccine rate of around 32 per cent of the eligible population. The area is just one stop on her visits to towns that also have low vaccination rates including Rotorua, Hawkes Bay and the East Cape in a bid to boost these lagging rates. It is the first time the Prime Minister has left Wellington since the Delta outbreak began. During the visit, Ms Ardern spoke to front line staff as well as members of the public lining up to get their vaccinations. Her visit was part of a small tour to towns who are lagging behind in vaccine uptake in a bid to boost these rates 'I'm so pleased, there's a line of people waiting to be vaccinated,' Ms Ardern said to Stuff. Ardern even offered to assist one local who was nervous about their jab. 'If you want me to come and distract you, I'm really good at it,' she said. The Prime Minister received a warm welcome from most locals, with a small number of noisy protesters making themselves heard but not causing concern. New Zealand's overall vaccination rate trails Australia - with 78 per cent of the eligible population at least partially vaccinated, and 42 per cent having received two doses. On Friday, 47 new cases of Covid were recorded. There were 25 New Zealanders were in hospital with the virus, including five in intensive care. The Delta outbreak has now infected 1,492 people, and on the weekend will overtake the 2020 outbreak as New Zealand's largest of the pandemic. On her visit, Ms Ardern spoke to frontline staff as well as the public lining up to get their vaccination (pictured in Hastings, New Zealand) The Queensland government will ease restrictions on social distancing, hospital and aged care visits and mask-wearing in the southeast with the risk of recent COVID-19 outbreaks in Brisbane and the Gold Coast dissipating. The state recorded zero new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 on Friday after 15,704 tests in the 24 hours to 6.30am on Friday. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says restrictions implemented in the southeast last week can be eased from 4pm on Friday, almost 10 days after an outbreak began in Brisbane. Queenslanders can enjoy additional freedoms from Friday afternoon as the state records zero new Covid cases (pictured: family enjoys a picnic in Brisbane) 'Because we've had such good news over the last week, the Chief Health Officer Dr Young has today advised that we can ease restrictions from 4pm today,' she told reporters. 'So what does that mean from 4pm today, that means we go back to those stage three restrictions.' Under the new rules pubs, clubs, restaurants, cafes and other indoor venues can have double the density of patrons with one person per two square meters. Up to 100 guests will be permitted in homes while visits will also again be allowed in hospitals and residential aged and disability care providers. QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) says restrictions can be eased from 4pm Friday from advice from Chief Health Officer Up to 200 people can attend weddings and funerals, and all wedding guests will be able to hit the dance floor again. The face mask mandate will also be eased with masks only required in indoor settings where people can't socially-distance, like supermarkets. She said students and school teachers will also have to wear masks indoors but teachers will be allowed to remove them while addressing classes from the front of the room. 'But if you're feeling compromised that you can't socially distance, that of course the onus is on you if you want to put that mask on,' Ms Palaszczuk said. The face mask mandate will be eased, only required to be worn in indoor venues including in schools unless a teacher is addressing the class (pictured: a family queue for a Covid test in Brisbane) Queensland Health administered another 18,776 vaccine doses in the 24 hours to 6.30am on Friday with 50 per cent of eligible Queenslanders fully vaccinated as of Wednesday. The premier expects Queensland to hit 70 per cent fully vaccinated by the end of October or early November, but she wouldn't say when the state borders will reopen. 'We will open when it's safe to do so,' Ms Palaszczuk said. 'So what we're looking at now we're looking very closely at what's happening in NSW and Victoria, and then some easing of restrictions in NSW, their vaccination rates are going up quite steadily which is great, The state is set to hit 70 per cent double vaccination target at the end of October to early November (pictured: masses line up for their Covid vaccines at South Bank, Brisbane) Meanwhile, Ms Palaszczuk said authorities would examine the success of the home quarantine trial after two weeks of operation. If all goes well she hopes to announce an extension around the time of the next national cabinet meeting. 'We're doing the first 1000 and if that works really well then of course we're going to extend that trial. But like Dr Young said, one step at a time,' the premier said. She said any extension would come down to the full cooperation of participants. 'The big onus is on people complying.' 'If people comply and do the right thing then it will be all systems go in that.' Victoria's most hated and bizarre Covid restriction ends at midnight Friday - the requirement to keep a facemask on even when drinking a beer or wine. Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton described the change, made at Friday's Covid briefing as 'small but important' as the state moves to allow more freedom outdoors. 'At midnight tonight, the directions were changed to allow the removal of mask outdoors for the consumption of alcohol and that is a reflection of a push to more outdoor recreation activities including picnics,' Mr Sutton said. Victoria's most hated and bizarre Covid restriction ends at midnight Friday - the requirement to keep a facemask on even when drinking a beer or wine. Masked Spanish revellers are pictured juggling drinks and Covid rules Once 70 per cent of the state's population above 16 is fully vaccinated, expected around October 26, Melbourne's curfew will ease, the travel limit will be expanded and venues can open outdoors to the fully vaccinated (pictured, masked diners in Melbourne) The change comes after it was revealed Victoria Police are investigating footage of Premier Daniel Andrews not wearing a face mask. Police confirmed they are probing a video which showed the Premier heading to a news conference on Thursday. 'As the incident is being reviewed by investigators we will not be providing further comment at this stage,' a spokesperson said. Victoria recorded 1,838 new Covid-19 cases and five deaths on Friday. The growing outbreak is blamed on unvaccinated residents as the state anxiously waits for restrictions to ease. Impossible task... a woman examines a bottle of wine she cannot drink while wearing a mask Patrons are pictured at a Melbourne beer garden last year - while you could still have a beer without wearing a facemask The new cases marks a pandemic record and raises the total number of active infections in the state to 16,823. Acting chief health officer Professor Ben Cowie said he was disappointed by the number of new infections and claimed the spike could have been avoided if the majority had been vaccinated. 'This is unfortunate because it's despite the fact that 87 per cent of the cases were eligible for vaccination at the time they were diagnosed with Covid-19,' he said. Daniel Andrews has been filmed without a face mask while walking with police now investigating the footage after it sparked community outrage Despite the rise in case numbers, the percentage requiring hospital treatment was falling, standing at 3.35 per cent on Friday compared to 6.25 per cent a month ago. Five more deaths with Covid were reported on Friday, taking the toll from the current outbreak to 70. The rate of infection continues to grow, with 1838 cases from 77,554 tests representing a positive rate of 2.37 per cent compared to 2.12 per cent a day earlier and 1.82 per cent a week ago. By comparison, NSW positive rate at the height of its Delta outbreak was 1.1 per cent. Of the new cases in the week to Tuesday, 79 per cent were unvaccinated. Victoria recorded 1,838 more Covid-19 cases on Friday with the outbreak worsening just weeks before the state is scheduled to begin easing restrictions Premier Daniel Andrews said daily cases were 'higher than we'd like them to be' and urged Melburnians and regional residents in lockdown to follow the rules for a couple more weeks. Once 70 per cent of the state's population above 16 is fully vaccinated, expected around October 26, Melbourne's curfew will ease, the travel limit will be expanded and venues can open outdoors to the fully vaccinated. Victorians will have to wait until the 80 per cent double-dose target for significant changes, forecast for November 5, including Melbourne hospitality reopening for seated service and visitors to be allowed in homes. Conversely, fully vaccinated adults in NSW will receive a swathe of new freedoms from Monday, with up to 10 adults allowed to visit homes, and people allowed to eat at restaurants and go to the gym. Mr Andrews said he had no plans to alter Victoria's roadmap out of lockdown, but the state opposition said the premier's plan 'doesn't cut it'. The opposition is calling for a return of customer density limits at the 70 per cent target, paving the way for hospitality venues to open indoors. Some 55 per cent of Victorians aged above 16 are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 84 per cent have received their first dose. Dr Katherine Gibney from the Doherty Institute said the state should expect more cases in the coming weeks, putting strain on the health system. More Victorians are being hospitalised while battling the virus, with 39 people admitted on Wednesday, bringing the total in hospital to 564 (pictured, residents in Melbourne) Busy St Kilda Beach on the weekend, with lockdown fatigue setting in across the city a possible contributor to skyrocketing infections 'The modelling does show the numbers will go up in the next couple of weeks before they start to plateau and turn around,' she told Nine's Today Show on Friday. 'There is no doubt there is a strain on the hospital system already and that is going to get worse but it is being managed in terms of spreading cases around amongst Victorian hospitals.' Meanwhile, a Victoria Police officer has been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 after working at recent anti-vaccine protests in Melbourne CBD. Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt has confirmed two officers from an inner-north west Melbourne police station have tested positive for COVID-19. Hunter Biden has sold at least five prints of his artwork for $75,000 each as a team of lawyers works to vet people who plan to attend his spring gallery show in New York City. The prints were sold from Georges Berges Gallery in Los Angeles before the Oct. 1 opening of his pop-up presentation. It is unclear which reproductions were sold or if any other works were sold once the LA show opened. The buyers also remain a secret. However, a source familiar with the sale told the New York Post that 'most of those allowed to buy works are long-term, private collectors with the gallery, people that Berges knows personally'. The sales come as Biden remains under scrutiny over the ethics of his art dealings. Hunter Biden (pictured with ex-Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs) sold at least five prints of his artwork for $75,000 each at his Los Angeles pop-up show Video and photos exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com show Biden and his gallery manager Georges Berges entertaining around 200 people at the famous Milk studios in Hollywood on Friday, including his wife Melissa and two of his daughters, 27-year-old Naomi Biden and Maisy Biden, 20. Around 200 invites for the tightly-policed event went to a host of Los Angeles glitterati and potential buyers of Hunter's art, the prices for which range between $75,000 and $500,000. Potential buyers and celebrity guests who attended the event included World Champion boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, Moby, Garcetti and the artist behind Barack Obama's iconic Hope poster Former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter claims Biden's attendance at the show 'illustrates how this veil-of-secrecy idea is not happening'. He claims the White House's attempt at keeping buyers anonymous is not effective. 'It shows the deal's not going to be secret,' Painter said of the show. 'I think the White House needs to go to Plan B.' The president's son and his gallery manager Georges Berges entertained about 200 guests as he made his professional art debut at Milk Studios in Hollywood Hunter Biden was seen rubbing fists with World Champion Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and rubbing elbows with other celebrities and wealthy potential buyers who turned up to see his paintings at his first art exhibition in Los Angeles Friday Former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter (pictured) claims Biden's attendance at the show 'illustrates how this veil-of-secrecy idea is not happening' Painter continued: '[Buyers] tend to be rich people, and rich people come to their houses and it tends to get around. 'Everyone's going to be talking about it and everyone's going to know.' He argues that the best way to prevent people from 'gaining leverage' over the White House by purchasing Biden's artwork is to prevent sales of the work until his father, President Joe Biden, leaves office. Painter also advocated for 'full transparency' of buyers' identities and thinks the president and his appointees should 'all sign recusal pledges to ensure these people can't get access to the White House'. 'We did that in the Bush White House,' he told the news outlet. 'If people tried to contact the government who were business partners of the Bushes, we made sure they contacted people who weren't political appointees.' Meanwhile, sources say lawyers are vetting individuals who want to view Biden's paintings at Berges' Manhattan gallery. 'It is a whole process to get in to see the Biden show. You have to call the gallery in Soho, and they are vetting people carefully,' the source told the Post. 'They laid down rules that thorough vetting of any collector has to be done by a team of lawyers.' Officials have not revealed who hired the lawyers or the purpose behind the legal vetting. The New York City show - which was originally slated to open this month - has been moved to the spring. The LA show is reportedly continuing until November. It remains unclear why the gallery opening was delayed. Meanwhile, sources say lawyers are vetting individuals who want to view Biden's paintings at Berges' Manhattan gallery (pictured in 2018) Hunter's paintings were priced at $75,000 for a piece on paper to half a million dollars for large-scale paintings (Pictured: Two pieces of Biden's work - It is unclear which reproductions were sold or if any other works were sold once the LA show opened) White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was questioned about Biden's show on Wednesday. LA Mayor Eric Garcetti - who is the president's nominee to be the ambassador to India - was reportedly in attendance. 'Should we expect to see more people who seek jobs in this administration attending events like this in the future?' CBS News Radio reporter Steven Portnoy asked. Psaki, who has fielded questions about the president's son's business dealings on other occasions, quickly sought to shift attention to gallery owner George Berges, who is organizing shows of Hunter's artwork this fall. She responded: 'Again, the gallerist has spoken to we've spoken to the specifics of what the gallerist has agreed to and what recommendations were made. I've done that several times. I don't have additional details for it from here. I'd point you to them.' She tried to navigate questions about transparency and potential conflicts when asked about images and video obtained by DailyMail.com of the L.A. opening for Hunter's work. Hunter Biden attended the event along with celebrities including Moby along with Garcetti and other notables. Her tactic was to point repeatedly to the 'gallerist' who organized the show. 'Well, to be clear, we've spoken to the arrangement that is run by the gallerist, and Hunter Biden's representative, that the White House provided suggestions for. I'd refer you to the gallerist for questions about the event as well as the representatives of Mr. Garcetti in terms of his attendance,' she said. She was referencing an arrangement with gallery owner George Berges to vet sales of Hunter's high-priced artwork for potential conflicts of interest. That arrangement is meant to shield the identity of buyers to avoid any potential efforts to influence the administration. Psaki did not directly answer a question about whether the White House had any concerns about the images of Hunter Biden alongside prospective buyer's contact which could provide insight into who was laying down as much as $500,000 for a painting. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki faced multiple questions Wednesday about Hunter Biden's attendance at the LA showing of his artwork 'I would point you to the gallerist on specifics of the restrictions that were put in place,' she said. Pushed on the issue of transparency, she said: 'And we were very transparent about what recommendations were made to the gallerist.' Under an arrangement Psaki announced from the Podium in July, amid public criticism from a former top government ethics official, all interactions are to be handled by 'a professional gallerist 'adhering to the highest industry standards.' She added in July: 'And any offer out of the normal course would be rejected out of hand. And the gallerist will not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including their identities, with Hunter Biden or the administration, which provides quite a level of protection and transparency.' The White House did not respond directly to questions about whether it had information on the guest list for Friday's event once again referring questions to the gallerist. The gallerist did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. Tony Abbott has warned war with China could break out 'quite soon' amid mounting tensions with Taiwan. In a speech in Taipei City on Friday, Mr Abbott criticised Beijing for launching 'intimidatory sorties against Taiwan' and urged democracies to show 'solidarity' with the island of 25million people which lies 161km (100 miles) east of China. Last weekend Beijing flew 148 aircraft into Taiwan's 'air defence zone' in one of the largest displays of force in recent years. The Chinese Government believes Taiwan - which has governed itself since the Second World War - is a breakaway province and wants to 'reunify' it with the mainland. In a stark warning that conflict could escalate, Mr Abbott said: 'Sensing that its relative power might have peaked with its population ageing, economy slowing and finances creaking, it is quite possible that Beijing could lash out disastrously quite soon. 'Our challenge is to try to make sure that the unthinkable remains unlikely and that the possible does not become the probable. 'That's why Taiwan's friends are so important now, to stress that Taiwan's future should be decided by its own people and to let Beijing know that any attempt at coercion would have incalculable consequences.' Mr Abbott said the US and Australia would likely join Taiwan in repelling any Chinese military aggression. 'I don't believe America could stand by and watch [Taiwan] swallowed up. 'I don't believe Australia would be indifferent to the fate of a fellow democracy of almost 25million people,' he said at the annual Yushan forum, a conference organised by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation. Mr Abbott spoke after 148 Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan's 'air defence zone' at the weekend, including 52 which flew in the single-largest mission to date (pictured) The former Prime Minister, who led Australia from 2013 to 2015, said he did not attend the summit in 2019 'lest that provoke China'. 'But since then, Beijing has torn-up the 'one country, two systems' treaty on Hong Kong; put upwards of a million Uighurs into concentration camps; boosted cyber spying on its own citizens; cancelled popular personalities in favour of a cult of the new red emperor; brutalised Indian soldiers in the Himalayas; coerced other claimants in its eastern seas; and flown ever-more intimidatory sorties against Taiwan,' he said. 'It's weaponised trade, especially against Australia, with our barley, wine and coal exports all stopped on spurious safety grounds, and its embassy has published 14 demands - essentially that we become a tributary state - that no self-respecting country could accept. 'The trigger was politely seeking an impartial inquiry into the origins of the Wuhan virus. So this year, I'm here, having concluded that China's belligerence is all self-generated,' he said. Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks next to Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday Tony Abbott signed a free trade deal with President Xi Jinping in 2015 (the pair are pictured in Canberra in 2014) - but he says he would not sign the same agreement today Mr Abbott said China 'could hardly succeed while it mistreats its own people and threatens its neighbours'. 'It could never be admitted to the Trans Pacific Partnership while engaged in a trade war with Australia and in predatory trade all round,' he said after China applied to join the trade group of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. Mr Abbott concluded his 12-minute speech by saying 'nothing is more pressing right now that solidarity with Taiwan'. Earlier Chinese Government-backed newspaper The Global Times warned Australia was becoming a 'chess piece' in what it called America's 'anti-China strategy'. 'Abbott is not visiting Taipei in an official capacity, but should a member of the Australian parliament or even an incumbent cabinet minister visit Taiwan in an official capacity, or should Canberra allow the change of the name of ''Taipei Economic and Cultural Offic'' into something that violates the one-China principle, the bilateral relations between China and Australia would suffer irreparable damages,' the article threatened. Officially, Taiwan is not recognised as a country under international law but considers itself to be an independent state. Western nations have been rushing to reaffirm their support for Taiwan as it faces down threats from an increasingly assertive China. Tensions have been building ever since a 2019 speech by President Xi Jinping in which he vowed to 'reunify' Taiwan with mainland China - using force if necessary. He spoke against the backdrop of a rapid expansion of China's military, including the construction of new bases in the South China Sea - where Taiwan is located and over which Beijing claim supreme authority. That has prompted the US - a long-standing ally of Taiwan - to forge new alliances in the region to counter-balance the growing threat. As well as the AUKUS pact, Biden has entered into a strategic partnership known as The Quad with India, Japan and Australia to share intelligence and carry out joint military drills in the region. In a huge show of force to Beijing, the US is also participating in huge naval exercises in the region led by Britain's newest aircraft carrier - HMS Queen Elizabeth. 'Big Lizzie', as she is affectionately known, is currently leading drills with a joint carrier strike group that includes the USS Carl Vinson and USS Ronald Reagan, along with ships from New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan. The carriers and their escorts have been carrying out drills in the South China Sea, and are expected to arrive in Singapore shortly. China's sorties near Taiwan have included nuclear-capable H-6 bombers (pictured) along with fighters and recon planes Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday vowed to 'do whatever it takes' to guard Taiwan against invasion as she indicated that without help from the country's allies 'authoritarianism has the upper hand over democracy.' Tsai added: '[Democratic nations] should remember that if Taiwan were to fall, the consequences would be catastrophic for regional peace and the democratic system. 'It would signal that in today's global contest of values, authoritarianism has the upper hand over democracy.' Taiwan hopes for peaceful coexistence with China, she said, but 'if its democracy and way of life are threatened, Taiwan will do whatever it takes to defend itself.' Tsai's government on Monday urged Beijing to stop 'irresponsible provocative actions' after the warplanes breached Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ). 'Amid almost daily intrusions by the People's Liberation Army, our position on cross-strait relations remains constant: Taiwan will not bend to pressure,' Tsai added. Kerry Chant appeared to hit a farewell note as she thanked NSW's eight million residents for their sacrifices in the fight against Covid, as the state prepares to emerge from lockdown. The state's highly-regarded chief health officer faced the camera alone on Friday as she announced the state recorded 646 new Covid-19 cases detected statewide in the 24 hours to Thursday night. 'Can I extend my appreciation to the hard work the community has done during these very difficult times,' she said at the end of a Facebook livestream. 'Thank you.' Dr Chant has stood side-by-side with the NSW premier throughout the pandemic to keep the nation up to date about the virus' spread in Australia's largest state. But new NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has mostly sidelined her from his first official announcements and on Thursday delivered his fast-tracked roadmap out of lockdown without her - prompting speculation she refused to endorse the changes. Dr Chant appeared nervous about the accelerated re-opening as she urged 'caution' among the state's residents ahead of the first stage of restriction easing on Monday. A hair stylist cleans mirrors at the Wild Life Hair Sogo salon in Surry Hills on Wednesday. NSW's eight million residents are preparing to emerge from lockdown in a matter of days 'We are looking forward to opening up on Monday but it is important that as we do, we do it safely,' she said. 'Please remember that it's critical that you continue to wear your masks where they're required, continue to maintain that physical distancing and most importantly, do not go out and about if you have Covid symptoms. 'Instead, get tested and isolate and wait until you've got a negative result. 'It's an exciting time, but I caution us to do everything safely.' The state's chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant faced the camera alone on Friday as she announced the 646 new Covid-19 cases detected statewide in the 24 hours to Thursday night Two days after the state reached a 70 per cent double-dose vaccination rate, Dr Chant said hitting the 90 per cent mark was an 'ambitious' but achievable target. As of Friday, 89.4 per cent of the state's residents have now received one Covid-19 vaccine dose and 70.3 per cent are fully vaccinated. The state's deputy premier earlier on Friday hit back at claims Dr Chant refused to endorse Mr Perrottet's revisions to the state's roadmap out of lockdown. Overnight it was reported she did not support the new premier's changes to Freedom Day - before she was 'snubbed' from his first press conference. On Friday morning NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole rejected reports she was not on board with the changes. 'No, that's not the case,' he told Sunrise. 'I had a crisis cabinet the day before and Kerry Chant was in the meeting. We don't make decisions without the support of NSW Health or Dr Kerry Chant.' New NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has mostly sidelined Dr Chant from his first official announcements - including on Thursday as he delivered the state's fast-tracked roadmap out of lockdown NSW Health figures exclusively obtained by Daily Mail Australia reveal demand on the health system was actually lower than expected in October - the month cases and hospitalisations were supposed to peak - due to high vaccination levels. It comes as the Australian Medical Association of NSW has warned easing restrictions too quickly could inundate the hospital system with Covid cases and burn out workers. 'We've got a new premier in the driver's seat, but that's not a good enough reason to deviate from the course previously set,' AMA NSW President Danielle McMullen said. 'Keeping people safe must be the premier's top priority. Dr Chant once stood side-by-side with the NSW premier to inform the nation about the spread of the virus in Australia's largest state 'Relaxing restrictions too soon will not be a 'popular' decision if it means the number of people contracting the virus and ending up in hospital skyrockets.' But in a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, NSW Health said high vaccination rates meant demand on the health system was actually lower than expected in October, despite predictions case numbers would peak. Modelling by the state's health department predicted the demand for hospital beds from Covid patients would peak in October, but instead the number of hospital admissions had fallen by 27 per cent since the peak on September 17. 'Thanks to the faster-than-estimated rates of vaccination, this demand is currently tracking lower than expected,' a NSW Health spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. Newly-minted Premier Dominic Perrottet announced an overhaul of NSW's roadmap out of lockdown on Thursday (pictured, bar staff make drinks in Sydney) 'However, our hospitals and ICU remain very busy with patients with Covid-19 and there are currently cases throughout the state.' The Doherty Institute's Katherine Gibney said while Covid case numbers will go up as restrictions loosen, easing out of lockdown is inevitable. 'Hopefully with high vaccination rates we'll be protected against the more severe disease and those requiring hospitalisation and ICU but we are expecting these to increase in the coming weeks and couple of months,' Dr Gibney told ABC TV on Friday. 'It has to be done. We can't live in lockdown indefinitely.' Australia's capital city has become the first state or territory in the nation to criminalise 'stealthing'. The Australian Capital Territory's Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee introduced the amendment to the existing Crimes Act in April, which was unanimously passed on Thursday. Stealthing is known as the non-consensual removal of a condom during sexual intercourse. Australia's capital city has become the first jurisdiction in the nation to criminalise 'stealthing' after a new law passed through the territory's Legislative Assembly on Thursday According to a study of 2,000 people conducted by Monash University and the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre in 2018, one in three women, and one in five men who had sexual intercourse with men, reported that they had been a victim of stealthing. The changes to the law will clearly state the act of stealthing as sexual assault and also include the act of not using a condom at all when consent has been granted as a negation of consent. 'When I tabled the Crimes Stealthing amendment in April this year, I did so because I know that many people have experienced stealthing but were unsure or aghast that our laws did not reflect community sentiment that this is a heinous act that is a crime,' Ms Lee said. Stealthing is known as the non-consensual removal of a condom during sexual intercourse ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee 'Stealthing is an appalling thing to do to anyone and we know that it has long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of victims.' 'It violates bodily autonomy in the most intimate of moments and victims have spoken about the impact it has on their ability to trust people,' Ms Lee added. While speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Ms Lee said she had received stories from women and men all over the country and the world about their experiences with stealthing and said while they were all shocking, the stories of victims from Canberra were the hardest to hear. She also noted the only case of stealthing before the courts in Australia was in Victoria, but the trial had been delayed for more than two years due to the Covid pandemic. 'We cannot wait for cases to come before courts before stealthing is specifically outlawed - we need to act proactively and send a clear message to the community that this behaviour is unacceptable and a crime,' Ms Lee said. Ms Lee added that she knows the introduction of the legislation won't entirely stop the action from happening, but it was a positive step forward and will hopefully bring public awareness and education on the matter. 'I am under no delusion that legislation alone will stop stealthing from happening, but it is a step in the right direction and, along with public awareness and education, I am confident that we can work together to stamp out this act.' Ms Lee noted the only case of stealthing before the courts in Australia was in Victoria, but the trial had been delayed for more than two years due to the Covid pandemic Ms Lee said it was a proud moment that the ACT became the first Australian jurisdiction to outlaw stealthing and hoped it would encourage other states and territories to reform their laws. The ACT government supported the bill, and ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said: 'Ms Lee's bill helps to put beyond doubt that which we know, non-consensual condom removal during sex is rape.' 'It is not acceptable. It is a violation of trust and of bodily integrity.' After the law was passed, Brittany Higgins, a women's safety advocate, congratulated the ACT government on Twitter and acknowledged the importance of the legislation. 'The bill is an important step in demonstrating that Australia will no longer tolerate sexual assault in any form.' Chelsea Manning has asked a court in Canada to overturn her travel ban so she can visit friends, hoping to visit the country despite border agents eager to expel her. Manning, 33, has been blocked from visiting the country due to her conviction for leaking military secrets to WikiLeaks. Manning served seven years in prison from 2010-17 for breaking the Espionage Act. In one of his last acts as president, Barack Obama commuted Manning's sentence and she was released from her 35-year sentence. In September 2017 she was stopped at the border, trying to enter Quebec, and has been fighting ever since to regain her right to enter the country. On Thursday a hearing was held in Ottawa, which government lawyers invited her to attend in person because they wanted to forcibly remove her if she lost her case. Chelsea Manning, pictured in May 2019, is asking a court in Canada to overturn a ban on her traveling to the country Manning's lawyers published a document ahead of the hearing, noting: 'Despite seeking to ban her from entering the country, Canadian officials have acknowledged that Ms. Manning's leaks caused little to no harm, and that she poses no risk to Canada' 'The minister submits that holding an admissibility hearing without the person concerned being physically present in Canada would preclude them from enforcing a removal order which may be issued at the end of the proceedings,' the lawyers acting for the minister of public safety argued. The Immigration and Refugee Board denied the minister's request to delay the hearing until Manning could appear in person. 'If she were physically in Canada when the order was made, the requirement would be that she leave Canada,' wrote adjudicator Marisa Musto. 'Given that she is already outside Canada, a fact which is not in question, it can be said that the 'objective' of [the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act] in regards to denying access to Canadian territory to persons who are inadmissible would, de facto, be fulfilled.' Manning, who since her release from prison has become an advocate for transgender rights, ran for senate in Massachusetts and worked as a security consultant, told the hearing on Thursday that she hoped the issue could finally be resolved. 'I really like Canada,' she told the hearing, according to CBC. 'I have many friends in Canada and obviously the pandemic has gotten in the way of a lot of this, but certainly in 2018 and 2019 I wanted to visit some friends in Canada, particularly in Montreal and Vancouver.' Manning is seen in November 2017 - two months after being turned back from the Canadian border as she was trying to enter Quebec Ahead of the hearing, her lawyers stated: 'Despite seeking to ban her from entering the country, Canadian officials have acknowledged that Ms. Manning's leaks caused little to no harm, and that she poses no risk to Canada.' Yet Anthony Lashley, a government lawyer, said that the Canadian government did not want her to be allowed to enter the country. Manning's lawyer, Joshua Blum, argued her American offenses were not relevant in Canada, because Canada has different laws, so she should be allowed to enter the country. The documents included diplomatic cables, sensitive information about Guantanamo Bay, and details of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also included harrowing video footage of U.S. troops shooting dead Iraqi civilians and a Reuters photographer from a helicopter in 2007. 'We have a public interest defence for what Manning was convicted of,' he said. 'The U.S. doesn't.' Blum also argued Manning's actions were justified by 'necessity' and that the public interest in disclosing that information outweighed the harm. 'The ongoing and unreported killings of Iraqi and Afghan civilians necessitated this act of whistleblowing,' he said. 'We further add the acts of whistleblowing are acts of honesty, not fraudulence.' Asked by Blum to explain why she leaked the documents, Manning said 'it always feels so self evident.' She added: 'I was just shocked at how little people knew about how bad the war in particular was.' Manning said she didn't share sensitive documents that would have revealed the sources of U.S. government intelligence. She is still bound by a non-disclosure agreement with the U.S. government and did not go into detail about what she leaked. Manning's hearing will continue on Friday. California has become the first state to ban stealthing - where a person removes a condom without verbal consent during sex - in a move that opens the door for victims to sue for criminal battery. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Thursday making the act illegal and a civil sexual battery offense. The bill, put forward by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia several years ago, passed the Senate and the Assembly last month without opposition. People found guilty of removing a condom without consent could now be liable for general, special and punitive damages. Governor Gavin Newsom (pictured Wednesday) signed a bill into law on Thursday making stealthing illegal and a civil sexual battery offense Garcia issued a statement celebrating the passing of the 'trailblazing' law which is the first anti-stealthing law in the country. 'I have been working on the issue of 'stealthing' since 2017 and I am elated that there is now some accountability for those who perpetrate the act,' Garcia said. The assemblywoman said women and gay men had increasingly fallen victim to cases of stealthing - which she described as a 'grave violation of dignity and autonomy'. 'Sexual assaults, especially those on women of color, are perpetually swept under the rug,' she said. Garcia said there is 'so much stigma' attached to the issue but that the law now proved it is 'a crime.' 'It's disgusting that there are online communities that defend and encourage stealthing and give advice on how to get away with removing the condom without the consent of their partner,' she said. Garcia urged other states to follow in the Golden State's footsteps and enact similar laws. 'This law is the first of its kind in the nation, but I urge other states to follow in California's direction and make it clear that stealthing is not just immoral but illegal,' she said. 'More importantly, I encourage us all to not shy away from important conversations about consent in order to ensure we reduce the number of victims.' Garcia cited a study by Yale University that showed cases of stealthing have been on the rise and which called the act 'rape-adjacent.' The study's researchers found that stealthing left victims fearful of unwanted pregnancies, contracting a sexually transmitted disease as well as feeling 'violated.' The bill was put forward by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (pictured) who described it as a 'grave violation of dignity and autonomy' Previous attempts were made in 2017 to introduce a similar bill in Wisconsin but failed. The same year, Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna, from California, and Carolyn Maloney, from New York, asked the House Judiciary Committee for a hearing to learn more about the practice as they argued that it is sexual assault. The stealthing bill was one of two laws signed by the Democrat governor on Thursday - and both sponsored by Garcia - which give victims of sexual assault a misconduct greater rights in the state. The second law finally puts spousal rape on the same par as non-spousal rape in the eyes of the law. While spousal rape is a crime in every US state, up until now California did not acknowledge it as an equal crime. Now, spousal rape is included in the broad definition of rape so it is treated and punished as seriously as the rape of a non-spouse with anyone convicted facing jail time and being placed on the sex offender's registry. Stealthing is where a person removes a condom without verbal consent during sex Garcia said the passing of the law makes it clear that 'rape is rape' and that 'a marriage license is not an excuse for committing one of society's most violent and sadistic crimes'. This comes after 2018 research from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence found that 14 percent of married women will experience marital rape in their lifetime. Eight other states still differentiate spousal from non-spousal rape. Garcia was a leader of the #MeToo movement in the California Legislature but has also faced her own allegations of sexual misconduct. She took a three-month voluntary leave of absence in 2018 as a complaint of inappropriate touching by a former legislative staffer was investigated. The claim was not substantiated but Garcia was found to have been 'overly familiar'. An Australian company has ditched the office for good, with all 500 staff members allowed to work from home on a permanent basis. Yellow Pages publishers Thryv Australia, previously Sensis, once occupied an entire office building of nine levels in the Melbourne CBD. But after large-scale job cuts and and changes made to the business over the past seven to eight years, they shrunk to just two floors. The two levels of the office building at 222 Lonsdale Street are currently being sublet to the company and once the lease expires in just under three years time, Thryv will not occupy any office space in the country and won't pay office rent. Yellow Pages publisher Thryv Australia, formerly Sensis, has decided to ditch the office (pictured) and have all 500 staff work remotely John Allen, chief executive of Thryv Australia, said the decision was escalated by the Covid pandemic. 'What we learned during the pandemic is that we can operate with a high degree of productivity when employees work from home,' Mr Allan told The Australian Financial Review. Chief executive John Allen (pictured) says the decision has been escalated by the pandemic 'People told us they were happy to work from home, and it made us rethink our whole way of working.' 'We surveyed our staff multiple times [about the work from anywhere strategy] and they were overwhelmingly supportive.' He commented the company had previously used both work from home and office model when Melbourne's first lockdown ended but noticed productivity suffered than when all staff worked remotely. Mr Allen also said it would allow the company to expand in terms of recruitment, with the ability to hire staff regardless of where they lived. Despite the benefits to working remotely, Mr Allen also stressed the right technological set-up is integral for success alongside connecting staff, mental health wellbeing and a high degree of trust between staff and management teams. Mr Allen says remote working allows the company to hire staff regardless of their location Under the new remote working model, Thryv is set to host face-to-face meetings in Melbourne as well as a minimum of two all-company events a year alongside virtual events where they plan to fly in 30 per cent of staff based outside Victoria. Danni Hunter, Victorian executive director of the Property Council of Australia, commented that while Thryv was more the exception than the rule, a trend of changes to the work space were being seen by the council. 'Lots of businesses are making or have made decisions about what the return to the workplace looks like. We have seen that in the high amount of activity in the subleasing market. She said while businesses aren't taking up less space, they are changing how they use it, especially with businesses returning to the office when the state hits its 80 per cent fully vaccinated target which is expected to be around November 5. Danni Hunter, Victorian executive director of the Property Council of Australia says the council is seeing trends of changes occurring in workplaces, especially around returning to the workplace after Covid lockdown Ms Hunter also commented government will need to encourage and entire people to come back into and revitalise the city for work, expecting it would take months for occupancy to rise from its 6 per cent levels currently. The decision by the owner of the 140-year-old company to completely ditch office spaces follows accounting giant PwC in America telling all 40,000 of their staff to work from home remotely anywhere in the country, with a catch of a pay cut if they move to locations with lower living costs. Australian company and tech giant Atlassian is allowing staff to work from home or the new office new $1 billion headquarters being built in Sydney, even after Covid restrictions are lifted. Staff at multinational professional services network Deloitte will also be allowed to decide for themselves when they would like to return to the office and the hours they work under a new company policy as they eliminate set start and finish times. Daniel Andrews has been fined $400 for breaching his own coronavirus rules by not wearing a mask two days in a row this week. The Victoria Premier failed to wear a mask outside Parliament on Wednesday and Thursday and was fined $200 for each breach. Police investigated after footage taken by journalists showed him walking though the car park after getting out of his car without a mask on Thursday. A Victoria Police spokeswoman said: 'Victoria Police can confirm it has issued to infringement notices to Premier Daniel Andrews for breaching Chief Health Officer directions.' The footage, which emerged as the state reported a record 1,838 new infections, angered Melbourne residents who have been subjected to the longest lockdown in the world. The Premier said sorry on Friday and promised if police didn't fine him, he would donate $200 to charity. 'I am aware that as I approached two press conferences at the back of parliament house this week I removed my mask after leaving the car, before I walked to the back doors,' Mr Andrews said. 'I expect Victoria Police to assess this and if they choose to issue a fine, of course I will pay it. 'If they do not issue a fine I will donate the same value to a charity working to support people in this pandemic because whilst this was an oversight, oversights matter. 'Everyone needs to follow the rules and I am sorry it occurred'. Daniel Andrews has been filmed without a face mask while walking with police investigating the footage after it sparked community outrage Anyone over 12 years of age is required to wear the extra layer of protection whenever they leave their home 'As the incident is being reviewed by investigators we will not be providing further comment at this stage,' a spokesperson said. Video filmed by Seven News journalist Paul Dowsley showed Mr Andrews walking up to a microphone stand with his briefcase and passing a small group of media. The footage sparked outrage with talkback radio hosts and social media users condemning the Premier for his missing face-covering. 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell took to the airwaves to demand Mr Andrews pay his own government a $200 fine. 'He might have to fine himself!' Mitchell said. 'Premier, if you're going to lock us up for lapses and fine businesses when they're trying to do the right thing, well you've got to pay the price yourself. 'Maybe he could just apologise at the press conference, say he's made a mistake and give $200 to charity. It was an oversight, it's not a huge issue, but it's a symbol.' Social media users vented about the apparent hypocrisy online. 'What lawful reason could he possibly have for walking into that building without a mask,' one person wrote. 'I'm dead serious.' Another person added: 'I've been waiting for somebody to call him out on this; so thank you. and YES, ABSOLUTELY he should receive a penalty notice for breaching his own mandate!' Melbourne residents are required to wear a face mask at all indoor and outdoor public places (pictured, officers speak to a resident in Melbourne) Under the state government's Covid rules, anyone over 12 is required to mask up whenever they leave their home. They must wear a mask in all public indoor and outdoor settings. Only those who have a medical exemption are not required to wear the face mask. Nearly 39,000 fines have been handed out by police to residents breaching Covid-19 health orders between March 2020 and June 2021. Only $5.7million of the $60million worth of fines have been paid. Individuals face on-the-spot fines of up to $1,817 while businesses can pay as much as $10,904 if they breach public health orders. Residents risk $5,452 in fines if they break indoor and outdoor gathering caps. Daily Mail Australia contacted Mr Andrews for comment. A legally blind father-of-two has been accused of being paid to get another man's Covid vaccine. Timothy Murphy, 36, allegedly received $300 as part of an 'jab for cash scheme' in Melbourne's south-east last month. The alleged scheme is believed to have sprung up after vaccines were mandated for essential workers in Victoria. Melbourne father of two Timothy Murphy stands accused of being paid $300 to receive a vaccination under the identity of another man last month (stock image) The alleged incident unfolded on September 28 at the Direct Chemist Outlet (pictured) in Dingley Village, in Melbourne's south-east Mr Murphy attended the vaccination appointment just before 11am on September 28 at the Direct Chemist Outlet in Dingley Village. Police allege Mr Murphy then took on the persona of the other man - who required the jab for his job - and received a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Following his arrest on Wednesday, Mr Murphy declined to comment to police on the serious allegations. The former concreter appeared in Frankston Magistrates' Court on Thursday charged with deception offences, including obtaining property by deception and causing a false document to be created. Detective Senior Constable Craig Ferris told the court he had 'strong concerns' Mr Murphy would continue to get jabs on behalf of other people in exchange for money if released on bail, according to the Herald Sun. 'It certainly seems to be something that he's doing on a semi-regular basis at the moment, so that he (Murphy) can receive cash payments,' Det Ferris said. 'There are considerable issues around that both criminally, as well as from a health standpoint.' Text messages between Mr Murphy and the man whose identity he assumed revealed the location where he would later receive his money. The court also heard Mr Murphy's alleged illegal conduct 'undermined the national public health initiative', which has encouraged mass vaccinations to ensure people remain safe from the virus. In opposing bail, Det Ferris labelled Mr Murphy at 'risk of endangering the community'. Mr Murphy's lawyer Hannah Canham pointed out her client was only facing a solitary charge relating to one false vaccination. 'This is not offending motivated by greed,' she said. She went on to state Mr Murphy was homeless, legally blind and on a disability support pension who also found his recent stint in a remand police cell 'a distressing experience'. Magistrate Julian Ayres granted bail, with the matter to return to court in December. A Minnesota man charged with killing a 31-year-old mother-of-two after driving into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis was deemed fit to stand trial, a judge ruled. Nicholas Kraus, 35, from St Paul, was 'going at 100 miles an hour' when he slammed his Jeep Cherokee into a parked car belonging to Deona Marie Knajdek on June 13, court documents showed. The impact sent the parked car flying into Knajdek and other protesters, cops said. Knadek was reportedly thrown into a stop sign after being hit by Kraus' car and died at a hospital from her injuries. Three others were injured. After his arrest, Kraus told officers his name was Jesus Christ and film director Tim Burton, that he had been a carpenter for 2,000 years, and that he wanted to get his children to the Super Bowl, according to the affidavit. Kraus was charged with second-degree intentional murder and two counts of second-degree intentional assault, according to Fox News. On Wednesday, a judge found Kraus fit to stand trial, to which the prosecution and defense didn't object. His trial is scheduled to start on March 21 in Hennepin County. Nicholas Kraus (pictured), 35, has been deemed fit to stand trial after he allegedly killed a mother-of-two when 'trying to get to the Super Bowl' Deona Marie Knajdek, 31, died at a hospital from injuries she sustained when Kraus crashed into a car, pushing it into Knajdek and causing fatal injuries. The mother-of-two was taking part in a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest in Minneapolis when it happened Fox reported that investigators called Kraus' statements 'bizarre' in the affidavit. While he admitted to the crime he also asked officers to 'tell his dead mother that he doesn't like her'. Police noted that on the day of the fatal crash his pupils were small and didn't react to a flashlight. A field sobriety test could not be performed because of his injuries. The affidavit says a city camera captured the incident and didn't to show any brake lights before the crash. Kraus was pulled from his car and beaten by the crowd of protesters before police took him away from the scene in Uptown Minneapolis in handcuffs. A man caught the brawl on camera and said that the deranged driver was 'going at 100 miles an hour.' Police have said Kraus' motive wasn't clear but that a preliminary investigation indicated that drugs or alcohol might have been involved. Knajdek's brother said his sister would have celebrated her 32nd birthday less than a week after her death, which also would have marked one year of sobriety for her. Garrett Knajdek said his sister is survived by 11- and 13-year-old daughters, and was actively involved in issues surrounding social justice. Her Facebook account is filled with references to the BLM movement, including photos of black men who have been killed by the police such as George Floyd and Daunte Wright. Knajdek is survived by her two daughters, aged 11 (left) and 13 (right). She is pictured on her 30th birthday two years ago Minneapolis Police were pictured descending on the block long stretch of Lake St in Uptown just before sunset to dismantle the barricades erected by protesters days before the fatal crash Online jail records showed Kraus was arrested early on June 13 and has been held without bail. He was also being held on suspicion of driving after a license was canceled and providing false information to police, records showed. The Hennepin County jail does not accept messages for people in custody and a phone message could not be left for Kraus, according to the Associated Press. This isn't the first time Kraus had a run-in with the law. He has five convictions for driving while impaired dating to a 2007 incident, according to online court records. Court records also showed his driver's license was cancelled in 2013 because he was found to be 'inimical to public safety'. The driver, now identified as Kraus (left), was pulled from his car and beaten by the crowd before being taken away in handcuffs by police late on Sunday in the Uptown area of Minneapolis after fatally injuring Knajdek (right) A smashed car at the scene which the cameraman says the driver was in 'going at 100 miles an hour' Other injuries and deaths have been reported involving vehicles at protests across the US as people have increasingly taken to the streets to press their grievances. In Minneapolis, marching onto freeways has become a common tactic. Last year a semi-trailer rolled into a crowd marching on a closed Minneapolis freeway. No one was seriously injured. Republican politicians in several states, including Oklahoma, Florida and Iowa, have sought legal immunity for drivers who hit protesters. The principal of a Christian school has passionately defended his institution after it was mocked over plans for a new 'medieval, cult-like' uniform. Parents of students at Christian College Geelong in Victoria started a Facebook petition calling for the 'monotonous' design for 2024 to be scrapped. Over a thousand people have signed the petition, with parents describing the uniform as 'straight out of an orphanage' and 'drab, lifeless and shapeless'. Others questioned why the school, which charges up to $16,425 a year, felt the need to update the uniform when students hadn't been on campus for two years. Principal Glen McKeeman told Daily Mail Australia the complaints were orchestrated by a small group of parents 'who are not happy about life'. The principal of Christian College Geelong in Victoria has passionately defended his institution after it was trolled online over plans for a new 'cult-like' uniform (above) Mr McKeeman admitted he had received 35 emails about the uniforms but felt that represented a small percentage of the 1580 families with 2200 kids at the school. 'The school is hurting over this,' he said. CCG principal Glen McKeeman said dozens of parents and students were involved in the process to design a new uniform He claimed the uniform controversy was unfair because the criticism was based on two photos of grey items of clothing shared on Facebook. 'This was disappointing, as the screen shots were of poor quality, did not present the full range of the new wardrobe, or contain the accompanying explanation of the process and design,' a statement from the school said. 'The truth of the uniforms is there are several colourful pieces to choose from in the kids' new 'wardrobe', Mr McKeeman added. These included the school's signature cranberry blazers and light blue jumpers. Students and parents who signed the petition didn't hold back with their criticism. 'I would rather drop out than wear this monotonous garbage,' wrote one student. 'Do they want us to look like old librarians?' wrote a second, with a third joking: 'I didnt realise the school was still an orphanage.' 'This is not the uniform to reflect the school. No student input. No parent input. Drab, lifeless, shapeless and not reflective of the school I want my children to have been a part of,' wrote Penny Saunders. 'What a step backwards from the current uniform. Also kids have not used the uniform for the last two years,' added Elise Cahill. Mr McKeeman assured parents the new uniform had plenty of colour in it, including the school's signature cranberry blazers Other questioned the timing of the uniform upgrade, saying it would be hard to come up with the extra money after enduring two years of Covid lockdowns. 'How ridiculous. At a time when many families are struggling to make ends meet, why would you add this expense?!' wrote one parent. 'Absolutely disgusting nothing but a total money grab!!! What does it say in the Bible about greed?' added another. Mr McKeeman said abuse directed at the school had caused a lot of 'angst' considering 'dozens of students and at least 10 parents over three years' had been involved in the uniform design. 'We worked with focus groups and two of the best school uniform designers in Australia.' Mr McKeeman also took aim at a 'false claims' shared online that the school had banned Harry Potter books. 'I love Harry Potter, I read it to my kids. The students here can read it, we've got no problem with them,' he said. 'We've been painted as a fundamentalist school with very narrow views and it's just not true.' Christopher Ramirez, aged three, was last seen running into woods near his home in Texas on Wednesday afternoon, chasing a neighbor's dog. The dog returned but the child is still missing Sheriffs in Texas are appealing for help in locating a three-year-old boy who vanished after running into the woods, chasing the neighbor's dog. Christopher Ramirez was playing outside his home in Plantersville, northeast of Houston, on Wednesday afternoon. He was seen at 1:30pm running after the dog, and his mother, Araceli Nunez, who was unpacking the car after a shopping trip, ran after him but was unable to find her son. The dog returned at 8:30pm on Wednesday, but Christopher is still missing. A massive hunt has been launched for the child, with drones and sniffer dogs, but there has been no trace of him. Nunez said she believes he has been abducted, and tearfully told a press conference: 'Please help me.' She added: 'I feel as though someone took him and is hiding him. 'I don't have any enemies.' Sheriffs have drained one pond and searched other water spots, but have found no sign of Christopher. They said the hunt is still being considered a rescue mission, not a recovery. 'We're now re-going back to square one to think about if we missed anything,' said Donald Sowell, Grimes County sheriff, on Thursday afternoon. 'We canvased the neighborhood yesterday. Three times. Four times. 'Everything is fitting into place but we have not found the boy.' Araceli Nunez begged on Thursday for help to find her missing son, and said she believes he was snatched from the woods Absolutely heartbreaking. Christopher Ramirezs mother is pleading for help finding her son. Hes been missing for more than 24 hours. She says her heart is broken. She says she feels someone took her son. #khou11 pic.twitter.com/XDq7KJBwLO Marcelino Benito (@MarcelinoKHOU) October 7, 2021 A team of FBI agents are working with Grimes County sheriff's office to try and find Christopher The boy was last seen running into woods near the family's home, and his mother fears he has been abducted Two registered sex offenders live nearby but their homes have been checked, according to Sowell. All neighbors have cooperated with the investigation and home cameras have been checked as well. Ramirez was wearing a bright green shirt, unknown color shorts, and red Mickey Mouse shoes. He is described as being about three feet tall, with brown eyes and hair, and weighing about 40-45 pounds. 'We're here until we find him,' said Sowell. Police are searching for a thief who robbed a 10-year-old girl of her cell phone in Queens on Wednesday - and then made a getaway on a pink children's bike with butterflies on it. The girl was walking on 34th Avenue in North Corona on her way to school around 8am when the suspect approached her and forcibly grabbed her phone before hopping on his pink bike and darting away, according to police. The girl reported suffering pain in her hand and was treated by a school nurse. Police are asking for help finding the male suspect, who took off south on 102nd Street, police said. A thief robbed a 10-year-old girl of her cell phone in Queens on Wednesday, and then made a getaway on a pink children's bike with butterflies on it The suspect is seen above riding a pink childrens bike with white tires and butterfly decals Footage posted by the New York Police Department on its Crime Stoppers Twitter page shows the man after the act as he stops at a convenience store Footage posted by the New York Police Department on its Crime Stoppers Twitter page shows the man after the act as he stops at a convenience store and curbs a pink childrens bike with white tires and butterfly decals. After making a purchase, the man rides off in the footage. He is wearing a gray sweatshirt and matching hat, with a red undershirt, black pants and a black backpack. Crime in NYC soared over the summer before leveling off since August, though felony assaults continue to climb. Overall crime the week ending on October 3, the NYPDs most recent data, is down 0.19 percent from the same period last year with 71,413 incidents in 2021 compared to 71,550 incidents in 2020. The highest increase in the same period is felony assaults, which rose by 7 percent with 16,889 incidents in 2021 compared to 15,787 incidents last year. Murders and robberies are both down by 2.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. Though rapes and shootings are both slightly higher by 2.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. Overall crime the week ending on October 3, the NYPDs most recent data, is down 0.19 percent from the same period last year with 71,413 incidents in 2021 and 71,550 incidents in 2020 Historic crime data shows how crime fell from the 1990s and has inched up in recent years The data shows a deep drop in robberies between this month and September when they were up 6 percent from the previous year. Stark data released by the NYPD Wednesday shows crime rose 2.6 percent overall in September 2021 compared to the same month in 2020, with an extra 243 incidents reported. Over the last year, New York has been rocked by a wave of violent crime, fueling fears it is returning to the dark days of the '70s and '80s when murders were rife and the Big Apple earned the nickname Fear City. This prompted former state Governor Andrew Cuomo to take the unprecedented step of launching the nation's first ever state of emergency over gun violence back in July. But now, the situation appears to be getting even worse with a staggering 393 gun arrests made last month alone, bringing the total number of gun arrests to 3,425 between January and the end of September. This is a dramatic increase of 20.9 percent from the same period in 2020 when 2,832 gun arrests were made. Surveillance footage shows the moment three men repeatedly punch and stab a 19-year-old male victim in broad daylight in the East Village - a 14-year-old was charged with assault for the Sunday attack, and his two accomplices remain at large Now, COVID-19 restrictions have almost all lifted, the US's borders are poised to reopen to major tourist destinations and Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to lure back office workers to the city. Yet, violent and horrific subway attacks and gang-related gun battles are still a common occurrence in the streets of the city. On Sunday, three men repeatedly punched and stabbed a 19-year-old male victim after chasing him through the East Village in Manhattan. In shocking video footage, the trio punch and stab their victim until he manages to struggle free. The three attackers then run off and the bludgeoned victim manages to stagger away. The victim was treated for stab wounds in his back and shoulder at Bellevue Hospital, according to the NYPD, and has since been released. Police said they arrested a 14-year-old for his part in the assault on Monday. Horrifying surveillance video shows the moment when a woman pushed a fellow commuter into a train at the Times Square subway station on Monday morning In another shocking crime on Monday, a 42-year-old woman was shoved from the platform and into an approaching train at the Times Square subway station. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition after sustaining facial injuries. The suspect who remains at large instigated her attack just hours before a man shot himself in the leg in that same subway station. Monday's shooting is the third at the tourist hotspot this year. Officers were called to the Times Square station again on Monday, around 12pm, for reports of shots fired. A 39-year-old from Brooklyn was urinating in the corner of West 40th Street and Seventh Avenue, near a McDonald's and sushi restaurant Wasabi, when he was shot in his right leg, according to the New York Post. Eyewitnesses told ABC 7 that the shots went off inside the subway station, with the man seen stumbling up to ground level afterwards, before re-entering the station to ask for help. The bullet sent him stumbling down into a nearby train station. Authorities have not named the man, who is likely to face criminal charges as a result. He is reportedly not cooperating with investigators. Authorities have not named the man, who is likely to face criminal charges as a result. He is reportedly not cooperating with investigators. A Mercedes-driving woman who stole more than $1.4 million from her employer to fund her lavish lifestyle and pokies addiction has been jailed. Anna Acevska on Friday faced the Victorian County Court, where she was sentenced to a total of two years and three months in prison. The 50-year-old had pleaded guilty to stealing $1.4 million from Williamstown Crane Hire through 243 transactions from November 2018 to March last year. Anna Acevska, 50, (pictured) was sentenced to two years and three months in prison after stealing more than $1.4million from her employer Williamstown Crane Hire Acevska, who was as an office manager with full control of the accounts payable and accounts receivable, began helping herself to the company's money within two months of joining. She stole $19,565 in a single transaction in January 2019. But her thievery was discovered in March 2020 when someone else took over her duties while she was on leave. Police discovered a collection of luxury brand clothes and handbags, as well as a black Mercedes, when they raided her home at Truganina, in Melbourne's west. The mother-of-two told police she gambled large amounts of money on the pokies about four times a week and had struggled financially since getting divorced in 2008, with no financial support from ex-husband. "I felt sick ... my kids are everything to me and I feel I have betrayed them," Acevska said after her arrest in September 2020. The mother-of-two (pictured) used the money to funds her lavish lifestyle and pokies addiction "And not only them ... even my work. I've failed everybody. I'm just really remorseful. I was too much of a coward to admit it." Judge Anne Hassan accepted that Acevska faced financial difficulties and had "misguidedly" stolen money to provide for her two sons, one of whom has an intellectual disability. But she said the 50-year-old woman, who was earning $1100 a week at Williamstown Crane Hire, could not be considered "destitute". The judge also described Acevska's offending as "relentless" and a serious breach of trust. "Although you were hitherto a person of good character, that carries less weight because it was your good character you relied on to secure a position of trust within the company from which you stole," Judge Hassan said. Acevska must serve at least one year and three months behind bars before eligible for parole. Asda will extend its one-hour express delivery service to 96 stores following a successful trial launched in the summer. The service gives customers access to Asda's full online range of more than 30,000 grocery products for delivery within the hour if they live within a three-mile radius of an eligible store, and order up to 70 items. But the cost for each delivery will be 8.50 regardless of how many items are ordered. A trial at stores in Halifax, Poole, Rotherham and St Matthews, Walsall in June exceeded bosses' expectations, with the number of initial orders higher than predicted. The supermarket also recently extended its partnership with Uber Eats to more than 300 stores, although the number of products available is far smaller. If the latest stage of the rollout is successful, bosses hope to expand it further across the country. The service gives customers access to Asda's full online range of more than 30,000 grocery products for delivery within the hour if they live within a three-mile radius of a store in the scheme and order up to 70 items Simon Gregg, Asda's vice president of online grocery, said: 'We are rolling out our express delivery service to almost 100 stores after a trial showed there was a clear gap in the market for a speedy delivery service offering our full online product range for delivery within one hour. 'As the only grocer to offer this service, we have seen a significant number of customers access this option, with slots regularly selling out at our pilot stores.' He also pointed out that Asda recently announced a partnership with the tech firm Wayve to test driverless vans. Rivals including Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's already offer one-hour or faster delivery services through Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Amazon and other providers although none offer a full range of products. Most UK supermarkets are looking into ways in which they can get groceries to customers more quickly. Tesco, which had previously not offered a rapid delivery service, launched its own trial, called Whoosh, in Wolverhampton and has plans to expand it. Sainsbury's also operates its own service, called Chop Chop, which it expanded to 50 stores in 20 cities last year. A trial at stores in Halifax, Poole, Rotherham and St Matthews, Walsall in June exceeded bosses' expectations, with the number of initial orders higher than predicted Waitrose announced plans to shut down its own rapid delivery service, which it launched in 2018, saying it would instead focus on expanding its partnership with Deliveroo. Morrisons offers same-day rapid deliveries as part of its tie-up with Amazon, which also offers customers its own Amazon Fresh products. Other delivery firms in the grocery market include Gorillas, Getir and Fink, which have all raised significant sums of money from investors looking to cash in on the growing industry. Astonishing footage has captured the moment an elephant seal gave birth on an Argentine beach. It quickly becomes apparent in the video that the mother is experiencing contractions as she writhes on the pebble beach in the Valdes Peninsula. As her nostrils flare and her eyes open and close, the pup fully emerges in under two minutes. The black pup can be seen tentatively wriggling around while the mother turns and yelps at her newborn, before the two lie side by side on the pebbly beach. This is the incredible moment an elephant seal gives birth on an Argentine beach in the UNESCO Valdes Peninsula The stunning footage was captured by dentist and photographer Federico Lombardi, 52, who posted it on his Instagram page on September 29. It has since been viewed nearly 10,000 times. Mr Lombardi said: 'I live some 1,300 kilometres (808 miles) from the Valdes Peninsula, the UNESCO World Heritage Site where the event took place. 'I go there three or four times a year to take photos and film different animal species that, depending on the time of year, are found in different areas of the peninsula.' The black pup stares into its mother's eyes as they are both covered in sand from the beach Mr Lombardi filmed the clip in a protected area of the peninsula in the province of Chubut on September 20. He said: 'It's not somewhere the general public can access.' Mr Lombardi was some 50 metres (164 feet) from a group of elephant seals when he and his government minder spotted a female about to give birth. 'I quickly assembled my equipment and decided to film and not take photos. I wasn't really aware of what I filmed until I saw it a few hours later. I couldn't believe it!' It quickly becomes apparent that the mother is experiencing contractions as she writhes on the pebble beach As her nostrils flare and her eyes open and close, the pup fully emerges from its mother in under two minutes According to Mr Lombardi, female elephant seals give birth in September after a year-long pregnancy period. The pup is born weighing approximately 40 kilogrammes (88 lbs) and becomes independent from its mother after 25 days. A few days after giving birth, females can fall pregnant again. Mr Lombardi said: 'The males arrive in late August weighing four tonnes, and after two months of intense activity (copulation, fights, etc.), they return to the sea having lost half their body weight. The baby can be seen tentatively wiggling around while the mother turns and yelps at her newborn The stunning footage was captured by dentist and photographer Federico Lombardi, 52 'They can reach depths of 1,500 metres (0.9 miles), although the average is 700 metres (0.4 miles). 'In the Valdes Peninsula there are approximately 30,000 elephant seals during this period, which is mating season.' Elephant seals (Mirounga) were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but their numbers have since recovered. Today, both the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) and the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as species of least concern. Advertisement Police were today investigating whether a university philosophy professor was a victim of harassment after she faced a campaign of 'bullying' over her views on trans rights - as students were warned they could be disciplined. Kathleen Stock, 48, an expert in gender and sexual orientation who works for the University of Sussex, has been branded a 'transphobe' by some outraged students who have put up posters and called for her to be fired. Signs put up this week in the pedestrian tunnel connecting Falmer train station to the university's campus under the A27 said Ms Stock 'makes trans students unsafe' and 'we're not paying 9,250 a year for transphobia'. Banners saying 'Stock Out' have been held alongside burning flares and scores of people have been criticising her under the Twitter hashtag #ShameOnSussexUni although many others have been using it to support her. The university's vice chancellor Professor Adam Tickell said today that if any students can be identified as being involved, then 'we will certainly take investigations and disciplinary action as appropriate under our regulations'. Meanwhile Sussex Police have said they are investigating, with a spokesman telling MailOnline: 'On Wednesday, we received a report of harassment of an employee at the University of Sussex and we are investigating. 'We take all reports of harassment seriously and will seek to investigate and to support victims. This is currently being investigated as a report of harassment, including by use of posters and online. If evidence of hate crime, or any other offence, does emerge during the investigation then that will be followed up and assessed at the time.' Ms Stock has also spoken out, telling her 46,000 Twitter followers: 'If you work where I do, and you know what's happening to me at the moment (which I'll discuss at later date), this is the time to say something about it. Not for me, but for you. What kind of future does a university have where intimidation determines what is said or taught?' The group leading the protests against her is an anonymous collective called 'Anti Terf Sussex', which describes itself as an 'unaffiliated network of queer and trans students'. 'Terf' means a 'trans-exclusionary radical feminist'. It was the term levelled at JK Rowling over her response to an article about 'people who menstruate'. The author had tweeted last year: 'I'm sure there used to be a word for those people', suggesting that word was 'women'. But this week, the University of Sussex and its vice chancellor have stood by Ms Stock, with officials saying they were 'extremely concerned' by the 'harassment' she had suffered and confirmed the posters had been removed. Kathleen Stock, 48, is a philosophy professor and expert in gender and sexual orientation at the University of Sussex Signs have been put up in the pedestrian tunnel connecting Falmer train station to the university's campus under the A27 Banners saying 'Stock Out' have been held alongside burning flares at the campus of the University of Sussex this week Ms Stock has repeatedly insisted in the past that she is not a transphobe, but attention on her views has intensified since her book Material Girls came out in May. She has written and spoken extensively about sex and gender identity - arguing that womanhood and manhood reflect biological sex, not gender or gender identity. In her own words: What does Kathleen Stock believe about gender and trans issues? Kathleen Stock explained her views on trans issues in written evidence to Parliament in November 2020 here: Womanhood and manhood reflect biological sex, not gender or gender identity; The claim 'transwomen are women' is a fiction, not literally true Sexual orientation (being gay, being lesbian) is determined by same-sex attraction, not attraction to gender identity Spaces where women undress and sleep should remain genuinely single-sex, in order to protect them; Children with gender identity disorders should not be given puberty blockers as minors. Advertisement Ms Stock also claims trans women are not women; and sexual orientation is determined by same-sex attraction, not attraction to gender identity. And she wants a ban on transgender women in women's changing rooms, saying in 2018 that 'many trans women are still males with male genitalia'. But she has been blasted on Twitter as a 'Terf' amid a huge amount of criticism. This morning, Professor Tickell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'It's absolutely clear that all of our staff have an untrammelled right to say and believe what they think. So we take it very seriously if people try to prevent that right from being exercised. 'I have to say I am really concerned that we have masked protesters, putting up posters, calling for the sacking of somebody for exercising her rights to articulate her views, and it is a matter of real concern.' Presenter Justin Webb then asked him: 'If they are students, will you get rid of them?' And Professor Tickell replied: 'If they're students, and we can identify them, we will certainly take investigations and disciplinary action, as appropriate under our regulations, yes.' Mr Webb then asked him: 'And there were one or two members of staff who went online on Twitter, apparently in support of them what happens to them?' And Professor Tickell said: 'Well, again, this is an ongoing investigation, and I don't want to prejudice what will happen as part of the due process, but we have legal and moral duties to ensure that people can speak freely.' He continued: 'I think we have to be really careful in universities and in society in general to ensure that we do everything to make sure that where we have very, very complicated and different views that we find the space to allow people to articulate those views. The university's vice chancellor Professor Adam Tickell said today that if any students can be identified as being involved, then 'we will certainly take investigations and disciplinary action as appropriate under our regulations' 'And the trouble with so many areas which are really contentious is that people very strongly believe that they are right and aren't prepared to listen to others. So we really do try to find space to get people to talk and to listen. How could the university disclipine students involved in the protests? Students at the University of Sussex can face disciplinary action for 'threatening behaviour and bullying or harassment of staff or students' - which is the middle of three levels of misconduct, called 'Level Two', according to the university's website. The top level of misconduct, 'Level Three', covers when their behaviour could be 'sufficiently serious to call into question the student's continued registration at the university', which includes failture to comply with sanctions imposed for Level Two misconduct. Level Two sanctions can include a fine of up to 1,000; a requirement 'for the student to make good at their own expense, in whole or in part, any damage caused by them whether alone or with others up to the value of 1,000'; or a ban 'from specific facilities or premises for a period up to the remaining duration of the student's expected registration at the university'. Level Three sanctions can include a fine up to 2,000; repair costs up to the same amount; suspension for up to two years; or expulsion with immediate effect. Vice chancellor Professor Adam Tickell was asked by BBC Radio 4 presenter Justin Webb today of the protesters: 'If they are students, will you get rid of them?' And Professor Tickell replied: 'If they're students, and we can identify them, we will certainly take investigations and disciplinary action, as appropriate under our regulations, yes.' Advertisement 'I think what we have to do is we have to listen to people. We have very strong policies both on freedom of speech and on inclusion. And I think the trouble we've got is that people aren't prepared to stop and think and listen, rather than to just shout. 'So we just need to make sure that in polarised debates, we can find ways of getting back the nuance and we can get back some of the compassion rather than simply thinking, if I shout loud I'm going to be the one who dominates. 'I think that sometimes when you have real moments of crisis, it gets people to step back and think how can we pull back from the brink. University of Sussex has just appointed a new lead on cultural diversity and inclusion, and the whole agenda that he's committed to is making sure that we protect everybody from bullying and harassment, but that we also have an inclusive environment.' He added: 'I think that there is a lot of support for ensuring that people can speak freely.' Among the tweets against Ms Stock this week was one saying: '#ShameOnSussexUni the fact that this is trending right now is unbelievable and disgusting. 'Transphobia has no place on our campus. F**k Kathleen Stock, you insufferable c**t. Shame on Sussex for continuing to employ her and allowing her to spread hate on campus.' Another tweeted: '#ShameOnSussexUni for employing bullies and transphobes like Kathleen Stock.' And a third said: '#ShameOnSussexUni for employing transphobes like Kathleen Stock and shame on anyone who tried to defend this bigotry. 'Either later in your life you will realise you are on the wrong side of history, like so many bigots before you, or you will die alone because everyone will leave.' But there was also plenty of support for Ms Stock yesterday, with radical feminist Julie Bindel tweeting: 'Do you support what is happening at the moment to Kathleen Stock? 'If you do you're a sadistic bully. Shame on you. Those of you that can speak out, speak out. You've covered your a***s for long enough.' Jessica Taylor, also a radical feminist author, said: 'I stand with Kathleen Stock. Academic freedom (and safety) to debate, discuss, disagree, and theorise is vital for human and social development. 'Harassing, intimidating and bullying women who have a view on a topic is abhorrent and has no place anywhere. Freedom of speech for all.' Attention on her views has intensified since her book Material Girls came out in May And Paul Embery, a trade union activist, added: 'I stand with Professor Kathleen Stock OBE - a respected academic and feminist who is currently the target of a vicious campaign demanding her sacking from @SussexUni for the 'crime' of expressing gender critical views. #Solidarity #StandUpToBullying.' A University of Sussex spokesman told MailOnline yesterday: 'We were extremely concerned to see the harassment towards our staff member and took immediate action in response to this, which is continuing. 'We are deeply committed to being a safe and inclusive university, which values and advances equality and diversity, seeks to resolve conflicts, advances good relations and upholds lawful free speech. 'As a university community, we must be able to have complex discussions without bullying or harassment. We will always take swift action when this occurs. 'Our role as a university is to facilitate such conversations to advance shared understanding and common agreement. We insist that these are carried out respectfully and are always protective of our staff and students.' The university's vice chancellor Adam Tickell also said: 'We are investigating activity on our campus which appears to have been designed to attack Professor Kathleen Stock for exercising her academic freedoms. 'Disturbingly, this has included pressuring the university to terminate her employment. Everyone at the university has the right to be free from harassment and intimidation. 'We cannot and will not tolerate threats to cherished academic freedoms and will take any action necessary to protect the rights of our community.' In June 2020, author JK Rowling was accused of being 'transphobic' after insisting only women experience menstruation In June 2020, author JK Rowling was accused of being 'transphobic' after insisting only women experience menstruation. She had challenged an article entitled: 'Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate.' Taking issue with the phrasing, she copied a link to the article and posted above it on Twitter: 'People who menstruate.' I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?' Amid the backlash she later posted: 'I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth.' It also comes after medical journal The Lancet was accused of using the phrase 'bodies with vaginas' in lieu of the word 'female', which later saw editor Richard Horton apologise for conveying the impression that 'we have de-humanised and marginalised women'. This week, Exeter University's Students' Guild resisted calls for an anti-abortion society to be shut down, supporting its members' rights to 'freedom of speech' and to operate without fear of 'intolerance or discrimination'. The Christian group, Exeter Students for Life, is run by a male second-year law student named Ali who says he wants to end 'murders happening every day', and describes anyone involved in the process of abortion as a 'sinner'. On social media, students from around the UK have suggested that the university shouldn't allow the society to operate on campus, but the Exeter University's Students' Guild said in a statement said that it encourages 'freedom of speech'. Read The Mail On Sunday's review of Material Girls by clicking here A new strain of the highly-contagious Delta variant has been found in New South Wales but epidemiologists say there shouldn't be any cause for concern just yet. The state's chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed on Friday that the new form had been found in eight Covid-infected residents. Seven of the eight cases with the new variant are from the same family - all of whom showed the same type of symptoms as the standard Delta strain. 'We've found a new strain of Delta that has different sequencing to the current strain circulating in Sydney,' Dr Chant said as she announced the latest figures in a live video address on Friday. A new strain of the highly-contagious Delta variant has been found in New South Wales but epidemiologists say there shouldn't be any cause for concern just yet The state's top doctor said investigations into the new discovery were still ongoing, but that the new strain appeared no more dangerous than the original form of Delta. 'There is no evidence that this new strain presents any differences regarding transmission, vaccine effectiveness or severity,' Dr Chant said. Professor Catherine Bennett, Chair of Epidemiology at Deakin University said it was possible the new Delta strain evolved within NSW or that it was brought in from a returning international traveller. 'There's nothing to suggest it's any better or worse, it might be that there's variation amongst the Delta variant,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'There may be some differences in the Delta variant to have some not quite as bad strains and some that are more bad. 'This could have possibly evolved in Sydney but it may not compete with the other Delta strain we've seen already.' Professor Catherine Bennett, Chair of Epidemiology at Deakin University said it was possible the new Delta strain evolved within NSW or that it was brought in from a returning international traveller Professor Bennett explained that every time the virus passed through a human there were slight changes and 'chance mutations' in the particles, meaning the new version of the virus could have originated in Australia. These mutations can allow the virus to become more infectious and that variant becomes the new dominant strain. While there is little known about the new form of Delta, Professor Bennett added it was unlikely that the different form of the virus would affect vaccination coverage. 'If health authorities found someone positive and they were really sick and everyone around them was very sick they'd be more anxious but we haven't heard anything like that,' she said. 'It could be more benign, if it really takes over it could be slightly more infectious but if it sits there with the other Delta strain, then it's just another form of the virus.' She said health authorities would now be looking at the genomic sequencing of the new variant to see if it has appeared anywhere else in the world. Clinical data will be utilised to determine whether or not the variant of the virus was brought into Australia or if it originated here. The news came as the state recorded 646 new Covid cases and 11 deaths with the virus. The 11 Covid-related fatalities in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday night included two women and nine men. Seven of them were not vaccinated, three had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and one had received two doses. Paris's noisy European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune lashed out at the UK's Brexit 'failures' and said that France's trawlermen would not 'pay the price' for the UK's decision to leave. A French minister today threatened to cut off supplies of Christmas turkeys unless continental fishermen are allowed to work in British waters. Paris's noisy European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune lashed out at the UK's Brexit 'failures' and said that France's trawlermen would not 'pay the price' for the UK's decision to leave. It is the latest threat from across the channel in a dispute over access to rich fishing grounds from next year. French fishing barons earlier this week gave Britain two weeks to grant them more access to its waters or face being cut off from crucial Christmas supplies. They handed down the ultimatum a day after skippers vowed to block the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel unless their demands were met. Speaking to BFM TV in France today Mr Baume - one of Emmanuel Macron's most outspoken ministers, vented on the subject again. 'They failed on Brexit. It was a bad choice. Threatening us, threatening our fishermen, will not settle their supply of turkey at Christmas,' he said. 'We will hold firm. The Brits need us to sell their products.' French Fishermen previously blockaded Jersey over access to Channel Island waters. US warns Boris Johnson scrapping NI protocol would be a 'serious risk to stability' in Ulster Boris Johnson's row with the EU over Northern Ireland risks creating 'a serious risk to stability', one of Joe Biden's top aides warned today. Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, said the White House has significant concern' about UK threats to unilaterally suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol before Christmas. His comments came after Brexit Minister Lord Frost set a November deadline for a solution to the protocol deadlock, warning the EU the UK 'cannot wait forever' for border checks to be improved. He said there will be a 'decision point' early next month when it will become apparent if it is possible for the two sides to agree a solution to resolve ongoing disruption to intra-UK trade. London has threatened to unilaterally suspend the agreement if Brussels does not agree to scrap the protocol and replace it - something the EU is refusing to contemplate. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Sullivan said: 'Without something like the Northern Ireland protocol and with the possibility of the return of a hard border between NI and the Republic of Ireland, we will have a serious risk to stability and to the sanctity of the Good Friday agreement, and that is of significant concern to the US.' Advertisement French boats were free to fish in the six-to-12 mile zone when the UK was in the EU, but now have to prove that they previously did so. France says they should keep the same level of access, accusing Britain of breaching the Brexit trade deal. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Jean Castex said France was ready to review bilateral cooperation with Britain if London continues to ignore the agreement reached over fishing rights in its post-Brexit trading relationship with the European Union. Paris is infuriated by London's refusal to grant what it considers the full number of licenses due to French fishing boats to operate in Britain's territorial waters, and is threatening retaliatory measures. French fishermen have also said they could block the northern port of Calais and Channel Tunnel rail link, both major transit points for trade between Britain and continental Europe, if London does not grant more fishing licences in the next 17 days. They previously blockaded Jersey over access to Channel Island waters. Beaune said France had asked for 450 fishing licences but had only received 275. 'We're 40 percent short, but we insist on those 450,' he said. 'Britons need us to sell their products, including from fishing, they need us for their energy, for their financial services and for their research centres,' Beaune said. 'All of this gives us pressure points. We have the means to modulate the degree of our cooperation, to reduce it, if Britain does not implement the agreement,' he said. 'If they don't do their share, then we won't do 100 percent of our share either.' In Brussels, Eurocrats refused to be drawn into the row, as Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius held talks with Environment Secretary George Eustice. A European Commission spokesman said: 'Both sides committed to continue as a matter of urgency to examine the evidence, boat by boat, to find a solution for European fishermen and women, guaranteeing that all who qualify under the terms of TCA (trade and co-operation agreement) can receive their licenses swiftly.' Earlier this week a senior EU diplomat claimed France was 'overplaying' the row ahead of next year's presidential election. The source said: 'It looks good for President Macron right now to be tough on the British.' The Brexit trade agreement, signed by both sides last year, reduces the catch for EU trawlers in British waters by 25 per cent over five-years. After that expires, access will be negotiated on an annual basis. The French government wants other EU members to support their push for Britain to be brought before an arbitration panel set up to thrash out post-Brexit disputes. The country's maritime ministry said yesterday that French ministers would unveil retaliatory measures 'in the second half of October'. Annick Giradin, the French maritime minister, has raised the possibility of cutting electricity supplies to Channel Islands Jersey and Guernsey. Prepare for 'significant' rise in energy bills: Ofgem chief confirms price cap WILL go up and refuses to rule out increase to 2,000 for millions of households Ofgem today warned there will be a 'significant rise' to the cap on energy bills - hitting millions of Britain's poorest people - with soaring energy prices set to push average annual bills through the 2,000 barrier for the first time. As the gas crisis escalated, industry analysts suggested the current energy cap of 1,277 would rise by as much as 800. Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley, didn't put a figure on it, but said there will be a 'significant rise' in the price cap set by the industry regulator which helps to control the cost of gas and electricity in the UK. He didn't knock back claims that fixed and other deals could reach 2,000 in 2022. 'We can't predict everything, and the wholesale market, as we've seen, has gone up and down extremely quickly so we can't predict fully what that will be,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'But, looking at the costs that are in the system, we are expecting a significant rise in April.' But Mr Brearley added that the current price cap will remain until April. 'We have no plans to raise the price cap before April,' he said. The energy crisis has been blamed, in part, on a shortage of natural gas caused by Vladimir Putin allegedly 'choking' supplies to Europe to pressurise regulators into approving the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Today Boris Johnson waded into the row, branding the link a threat to energy security and suggesting the decision to bypass Ukraine to bring supplies direct to Germany would damage the Ukrainian economy. A No 10 spokesman said: 'Although Nord Stream 2 will not directly impact the UK's energy security, it could have serious implications for central and eastern European countries. 'Some European countries are nearly wholly dependent on Russian gas, which raises serious concerns about energy security.' In comments reported by The Times, the spokesman also warned about the damage to Ukraine, which currently hosts the largest pipeline network for Russian gas and benefits from large transit fees. He added: 'Nord Stream 2 would divert supplies away from Ukraine, with significant consequences for its economy.' The natural gas price is currently hovering at around 2.40 a therm - down from more than 4 yesterday - after traders were reassured by Putin hinting that Russia would consider increasing exports. Vladimir Putin has been accused of holding Europe to ransom in a bid to win approval for his Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Boris Johnson has waded into the row and branded the proposed link from Russia to Germany a threat to security Experts claimed Putin was using the crisis as leverage over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which is run by Gazprom. Pictured: An output filtration facility of a gas treatment unit at the Slavyanskaya compressor station The surge in wholesale gas prices has already forced many small suppliers in the UK out of business Experts said the Russian president had substantial scope to boost gas supplies to the West but he was using the issue as leverage in a bid to win approval for a new pipeline. The surge in wholesale gas prices has already forced many small suppliers in the UK out of business. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng last night insisted there would be no bailout for failing firms, adding that the Government's plans to decarbonise the UK's power supply would protect customers in the long term. Last night Ofgem appeared to open the door to a rethink on the way the cap works, with chief executive Jonathan Brearley saying: 'Although the gas price rise is unprecedented today, we will need to plan on the basis that shocks like this could happen again.' The current energy bill price cap is set at 1,277 a year based on typical use, but industry analysts suggest it could rise by anything from 500 to 800 next April, based on the current market. Mr Brearley has made clear that a dramatic surge in gas prices, which leapt 60 per cent at one stage this week, will push up bills when the cap is reviewed. Some energy firms have been pushing for the cap to be ditched entirely or raised much sooner. Mr Brearley said: 'For millions of households the price cap has played its part in mitigating the consequences of the current gas price rises. 'But it is designed to reflect fair costs and therefore will need to adjust over time to reflect the changes in fuel costs that we are seeing today. 'It is hard to predict how long gas prices will stay high, but we do expect significant upward pressure on prices.' Industry analyst Dr Craig Lowrey, of Cornwall Insight, said prices were likely to stay at a record high through to next winter and beyond. The National Grid says the gap between energy supply and demand this year is likely to be at its lowest level for six years. The organisation said it was confident blackouts can be avoided, but government energy adviser Tom Edwards said: 'If we have a very cold winter there is a chance of blackouts. 'We are reliant on imports from other countries and if the flows are not forthcoming then as a country we will have to take action to reduce demand. 'Some large industrial companies like car manufacturers may have to turn off.' Exclusive research for the Daily Mail by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) also yesterday revealed how inflation will cost the typical family of four an extra 1,800 by the end of this year. Meanwhile, a retired couple can expect to see living costs rise by more than 1,100, and a lower income couple could be stung by nearly 900 A rapist who preyed on an isolated, drunk woman before attacking her in the gutter of a Sydney laneway has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years. Sayer Hamood Jaber Alenezi came across his 22-year-old victim sitting alone outside a club on Oxford Street in the early hours of a Sunday in October 2019. He led her to Turner Lane in Woolloomooloo, laid her on the ground and twice sexually assaulted her. Sayer Hamood Jaber Alenezi, 40, (pictured) has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years after raping a 22-year-old drunk woman in a Sydney laneway in 2019 'I am satisfied he did not care one way or another whether the victim did consent or not,' Judge James Bennett said in the District Court on Friday. Alenezi, now 40, initially claimed the woman had kissed him first as they walked towards the laneway. 'She was normal when speaking,' he told police in November 2019. But the evidence showed she was heavily intoxicated, her estimated blood alcohol content was 0.20 and any conversation was brief given his minimal English. Alenezi (pictured, courtroom sketch) was granted refugee status in 2013 after arriving in Australia from Iraq 'I was so intoxicated I could not see straight and I could not walk properly,' the woman later told police. While the woman suffered no physical injuries, the event sparked severe mental issues, including increased drug and alcohol use, and multiple suicide attempts. 'I'm still unlearning the feeling of shame,' she told the court. The young woman attacked the legal process, from having to answer the same questions repeatedly in hospital hours after the attack to the two-year delay in finalising the case. The first major hospital she attended couldn't properly examine her, forcing her to attend a second facility where she was 'again stripped down by another complete stranger'. 'It was a traumatic experience and it felt like I was being violated all over again,' she said in a statement to the court. Judge Bennett said he understood the woman's embarrassment at being treated 'as an exhibit' and how what had befallen her was unfortunately common for rape victim-survivors. The 22-year-old victim, who had a blood alcohol level of 0.20, was lured from outside an Oxford Street Club to Turner Lane in Woolloomooloo (pictured) While Alenezi pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the local court, his lawyers submitted his crime was opportunistic and at the lower end of seriousness for rape. It was also suggested his recklessness towards the woman's inability to consent only occurred in the laneway and his own mental troubles reduced his moral culpability. Judge Bennett rejected those arguments, finding the offender selected and exploited his victim, whose vulnerability increased as she was walked to Turner Lane. 'This was a dark alleyway, where she was ultimately left without clothing while he fled ... returning to throw her wallet at her,' he said. After being raped, the distressed woman wandered Kings Cross trying to get home. Calls to a close friend went unanswered and a taxi driver refused to take the crying woman home as she couldn't cover the fare. Eventually, the woman posted a short video to a group chat at 3.50am, showing her ripped jeans and saying 'I literally just got raped ... not even kidding, I just want to go home', prompting a friend to drive her way. Alenezi had previously been convicted for groping a woman on a Sydney train in May 2017. He'd arrived in Australia and been granted refugee status around 2013 after he said he experienced extreme violence in Iraq. That included torture in an Iraqi prison after avoiding conscription to Saddam Hussein's army in the late 1990s, the court was told. If not for the discount for an early guilty plea, Judge Bennett would have jailed him for 10 years. The sentence, backdated to November 2019, includes a five-year non-parole period. Lifeline 13 11 14 beyondblue 1300 22 4636 Poland could be on a path to exiting the European Union after the country's supreme court ruled yesterday that EU treaties were incompatible with the Polish constitution. It casts the Eastern European nation's future in the EU into doubt, six years after the UK voted to leave the bloc in 2016 and kickstarted a continent-wide debate about the role of the 27-nation bloc. Warsaw has long been at odds with Brussels over democratic standards and the independence of its judiciary. But Thursday's ruling that parts of EU law are incompatible with the Polish constitution put Warsaw and Brussels on a full collision course. The court was asked to consider the status of EU law by the country's ruling coalition which is dominated by the conservative EU-sceptic Law and Justice Party, and prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who leads the Law and Justice Party in parliament welcomed the court's ruling and said that the ability of Brussels to overrule the Polish government means that Poland is 'not a sovereign state'. He argues that Brussels has 'no right to interfere' in polish affairs, echoing the arguments made in Britain by pro-Brexit leaders who were angry at European red tape restricting Westminster's ability to rule. However the Polish court's ruling has been met with anger in Brussels, with the European Commission vowing to contest its conclusions and insist on the supremacy of EU law. That sets it on a full collision course with Poland's nationalist rulers after years of legal and political wrangling. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said she was "deeply concerned" by the Thursday's ruling by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal and that the executive she leads would do all in its power to ensure the primacy of EU law. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Poland must 'fully and completely' implement EU law, while France's Europe Minister Clement Beaune called the ruling an 'attack against the EU'. Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who requested the Constitutional Tribunal to rule on the matter, welcomed the move in a Facebook post on Friday The move was welcomed by politicians in the UK including Conservative MP Michael Fabricant Former conservative MEP David Bannerman said that the development means that a 'Polexit' could be viable Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who requested the Constitutional Tribunal to rule on the matter, welcomed the move in a Facebook post on Friday. However he sought to play down expectations that Poland could leave the European Union, saying that the process of Poland and other Central European countries joining the EU in 2004 was 'one of the highlights of the last decades'. 'We want a community of respect and not a grouping of those who are equal and more equal. This is our community, our Union,' he wrote in the post, referring to the European Union. 'This is the kind of Union we want and that's the kind of Union we will create,' Morawiecki said in the post published in the early hours of Friday. Opinion polls show Poles are overwhelmingly EU-enthusiastic, with over 80 percent backing membership of the bloc that has given their country billions of euros in subsidies, turbo-charging its development. But relations have become increasingly strained since the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power. Morawiecki earlier this year had asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the primacy of EU law following a series of rulings from the bloc's top court against Poland's disputed judicial reforms. The Constitutional Court itself underwent controversial reforms in 2016 designed by the PiS government, leading critics both in Poland and abroad to argue it is stacked with PiS allies. Opponents of the government lined up to criticise its approach. Pro-EU freedom icon Lech Walesa, whose trade union activism helped overthrow the Communist regime in 1989, called for new elections in the country to "save the honour of Poland". Experts say that the ruling, which still has to be officially published to have legal force, could be a first step towards Poland one day leaving the bloc. "The ruling is absolutely inconsistent with European Union law and it should simply be ignored in the judgments of ordinary courts," said Piotr Bogdanowicz from the University of Warsaw. "Our membership of the EU is really at stake," Bogdanowicz told TOKFM radio. Adam Bodnar, Poland's former human rights ombudsman, told TOKFM that the ruling constituted Polexit "in all but name". Jeroen Lenaers, a MEP for the centre-Right European People's Party, said: 'By declaring that the EU treaties are not compatible with Polish law, the illegitimate constitutional tribunal in Poland has put the country on the path to Polexit.' EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders warned there were 'instruments' to 'reestablish the primacy of European law and the Court of Justice, as an enforcer of these decisions.' And European Parliament President Davide Sassoli said the ruling would not go unpunished. 'The primacy of EU law must be undisputed,' he said. The European Commission said the decision by the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw (pictured) put Poland on course to leave the bloc EU membership treaties say the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg is the final decision maker, meaning states agree the bloc's law has primacy over national law. 'The primacy of constitutional law over other sources of law results directly from the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Today (once again) this has been clearly confirmed by the constitutional tribunal,' a government spokesman wrote on Twitter. French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said the court decision constituted an attack on the European Union and that economic sanctions were an option. 'It is most serious...There is the de facto risk of an exit from the European Union,' Beaune told BFM TV on Friday, adding he did not wish for Poland to leave the EU. A small group of protesters gathered outside the Constitutional Tribunal on Thursday ahead of the court's ruling Meanwhile MEPs said the ruling was 'illegitimate' because it was made by a tribunal full of the prime minister's allies. Only two of the 14 judges disputed the decision. Germany's Greens' MEP Terry Reintke said: 'Unfortunately, the illegitimate Polish 'Constitutional Tribunal' cannot be considered an independent judicial body.' And Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld tweeted: 'A Polexit from the EU legal order seems to become unavoidable'. The ruling has also sharply escalated a dispute between Brussels and Warsaw over the independence of courts, media freedoms, LGBT rights and other issues. But Poles have rejected suggestions public sentiment is leaning towards leaving the EU, with a poll on Tuesday showing 88 per cent want to remain in the bloc. A small group of protesters gathered outside the Constitutional Tribunal on Thursday ahead of the court's ruling. Parents are being warned about potentially deadly children's Halloween costumes after fire service flammability tests saw several costumes go up in flames in under a minute. Fire safety experts from Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) conducted tests on trick or treating costumes by setting fire to a number of clothes and accessories including witch hats, capes, skeleton tights and pumpkin tops. Video of the tests showed three of the garments catching fire within a few seconds. Children across the country are expected to dress up and go out trick or treating on Halloween on October 31st FANCY DRESS TREATED AS TOYS Children's fancy dress costumes are treated as toys under current safety standards. Under EN71-2, outfits are set alight in controlled conditions. The flame must not spread faster than 3cm per second. Anything with a burning rate between 1cm and 3cm per second must carry a label saying: 'Warning! Keep away from fire.' Those that pass this test can carry a CE safety marking, but there is growing concern that these can be easily faked. Advertisement SFRS and Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards said they wanted to illustrate the 'potential fire risks associated with some Halloween costumes and to demonstrate how dangerous some costumes can be.' Matt Harper, SFRS's Fire Investigation Station Commander said: 'All costumes can burn but some have undergone additional flammability testing, meaning that they are slightly safer.' The call comes weeks ahead of Halloween celebrations when supermarkets and online shops are full of dress up for children to enjoy trick-or-treating and parties over the weekend of October 31. The two t-shirts in the video, both which are designed for kids, took less than a minute to be engulfed in flames. Firefighters set fire to a number of clothes and accessories as part of the test, including witch hats, capes, skeleton tights and pumpkin tops They are now been submitted for further testing and investigation. The video shows two child-sized mannequins wearing pumpkin and monster Halloween-themed t-shirts catch fire at a scary pace, leaving the mannequins blackened and burned. Officials from SFRS and Trading Standards both provided advice on how to protect your children from potentially dangerous Halloween costumes. Ian Smith, Trading Standards Supervisor shares four simple tips to be safe this Halloween: ' Always look at the label, it must have a UKCA or CE. 'Remember to check wigs, masks and if you are going to make a costume, check the material you are using. Get children to wear clothes under their costume for added protection should the worst happen. He also advised: 'use face paints rather than a mask. You can buy from a reputable retailer, however, do an allergy test first to make sure there is no reaction against the skin.' Matt Harper, Fire Investigation Station Commander at SFRS also recommends a safer way of lighting pumpkins this year. He said: 'One of the safest things that you can do this Halloween is to swap out your tealights for torches or glow sticks. This can greatly help to reduce the risk of costumes catching fire. Halloween should be spooky, but not dangerous.' The Surrey Fire and Rescue Service made the video to warn parents of the dangers Halloween costumes can pose due to their materials, as well as giving tips and safe alternative options Some of Surrey Fire and Rescue Service's tips included wearing clothes underneath the costume to add an extra layer of protection for your children The dangers of Halloween costumes hit the headlines in 2014 when Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winklemans daughter suffered second degree burns on her legs. Winkleman's daughter, Matilda, aged eight at the time, suffered the severe burns after her Halloween costume touched an open flame while trick-or-treating and it quickly set alight. Neighbour Jamie Poulton sustained second-degree burns after he tried to help put out the flames from the costume with his bare hands, to what he described as a 'crackling ball of flames'. 'All the children were wearing the same kit,' he told The Daily Mail at the time. 'It was like a potential horror film in front of me, because they were all going to go. 'This material just keeps reigniting and re-burning. And it is sticky, so it melts on the skin. It doesn't cinder. It remains hot. It was horrific to be honest.' Matilda (right, with her father Kris) was eight when she caught fire as her outfit went up in flames due to a nearby candle and Claudia (left) has revealed it still haunts her The TV presenter and mother-of-three, 49, described the devastating incident as life-changing: 'I can't remember life before it.' Matilda has since had several operations and her surgeon called for tougher fire safety laws on fancy dress. In Winkleman's book, Quite, released in October last year, the Strictly star paid tribute to NHS staff who were 'kind and clever' in helping her young daughter. Within a passage in the novel, she said: 'There have been moments in my life, the most terrifying, the most confusing, the most discombobulating that have led me to believe that the greatest people who walk the earth are nurses. 'They are kind, they are clever, they work incredibly hard, they are there to save us, or to help us through it when saving is simply not possible. 'They hold your hand when your child is going in for an operation, they hold your hand when the surgeon says there's bad news, they hold your hand when the doctor says the medication isn't working.' The incident led to her stepping down from hosting Strictly for three weeks so she could be by Matilda's side, and opened up about the ordeal in a BBC Watchdog episode in 2015. Trading Standards supervisor Ian Smith advises parents to check the label of Halloween costumes and look for a UKCA or CE certification mark to ensure it has been tested and safe for children to wear Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy quickly resumed in at least six Texas clinics after a federal judge temporarily blocked the state's controversial near-total ban on the procedure. It was unclear how many abortions Texas clinics rushed to perform on Thursday after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman suspended the abortion law, which prohibits women from getting the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy - the time a fetal heartbeat is detected but before some women even know they're pregnant. The action by Pitman prevents the state from enforcing the law and he did not delay the effective date of his ruling to give Texas time to seek an immediate stay from an appeals court. This means that state abortion providers have a short window of time to resume offering abortions to patients - and on Thursday, some clinics in Texas rushed to perform the procedures. But other physicians remained hesitant, afraid the court order would not stand for long and thrust them back into legal jeopardy. A woman enters Alamo Women's Reproductive Services on Thursday in San Antonio Protesters take part in the Women's March and Rally for Abortion Justice at the State Capitol in Austin, Texas on October 2 U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman suspended the abortion law 'There's actually hope from patients and from staff, and I think there's a little desperation in that hope,' said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman's Health, which operates four clinics in Texas. She said some of those clinics performed abortions Thursday but did not reveal how many. 'Folks know this opportunity could be short-lived,' she said. By all accounts, the ruling did not usher in a fast return to normal in Texas. At least six Texas clinics resumed abortion services Thursday or were gearing up to offer them again, said Kelly Krause, spokeswoman for the Center for Reproductive Rights. There were roughly two dozen abortion clinics in Texas before the law took effect Sept. 1. Planned Parenthood, the state's largest abortion provider, did not say Thursday whether it had resumed abortions, stressing the ongoing uncertainty and the possibility of an appeals court quickly reinstating the law in the coming days. Fund Choice Texas, which covers travel expenses for women seeking abortions, was still receiving a high volume of calls Thursday from patients needing help to make out-of-state appointments. The 20 calls were about the normal volume over the past month, executive director Anna Rupani said. She said her organization - which has helped Texas women travel as far away as Seattle and Los Angeles - was still discussing whether it would help a patient get an abortion in Texas even with a court injunction in place. Thousands of women took part in a series of 660 marches to protest against Texas's restrictive abortion law on Saturday The Texas law leaves enforcement solely up to private citizens, who are entitled to collect $10,000 in damages if they bring successful lawsuits against not just abortion providers who violate the restrictions, but anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion. Republicans crafted the law in a way designed to also allow retroactive lawsuits if the restrictions are set aside by one court, but later put back in place by another. 'What's really frustrating... is this law was drafted to create confusion, and this law was drafted to create problems,' Rupani said. 'It's unfortunate that we have an injunction, and people are still having to understand the legal ramifications of what that means for them.' Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office has served notice of the state's intent to appeal but had yet to do so Thursday. 'We are confident that the appellate courts will agree that every child with a heartbeat should have a chance at life,' said Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed the law in May. Hagstrom Miller said her Texas clinics called in some patients early Thursday who were on a list in case the law was blocked at some point. Other appointments were being scheduled for the days ahead, and phone lines were again busy. But some of the clinics' 17 physicians were still declining to perform abortions, fearful they might be held liable despite the judge's order. Pitman's order amounted to the first legal blow to the law, known as Senate Bill 8, which had withstood a wave of earlier challenges. In the weeks since the restrictions took effect, Texas abortion providers said the impact had been 'exactly what we feared.' In the opinion, Pitman took Texas to task, saying Republican lawmakers had 'contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme' by trying to evade judicial review. 'From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,' wrote Pitman, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama. 'That other courts may find a way to avoid this conclusion is theirs to decide; this Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right.' The lawsuit was brought by the Biden administration, which has said the restrictions were enacted in defiance of the U.S. Constitution. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the order 'a victory for women in Texas and for the rule of law.' Abortion providers say their fears have become reality in the short time the law has been in effect. Planned Parenthood says the number of patients from Texas at its clinics in the state decreased by nearly 80% in the two weeks after the law took effect. The Texas law is just one that has set up the biggest test of abortion rights in the U.S. in decades, and it is part of a broader push by Republicans nationwide to impose new restrictions on abortion. Pictured: Protesters march in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Some providers have said Texas clinics are now in danger of closing while neighboring states struggle to keep up with a surge of patients who must drive hundreds of miles for an abortion. Other women, they say, are being forced to carry pregnancies to term. How many abortions have been performed in Texas since the law took effect is unknown. State health officials say additional reporting requirements under the law will not make September data available on its website until early next year. Other states, mostly in the South, have passed similar laws that ban abortion within the early weeks of pregnancy, all of which judges have blocked. A 1992 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court prevented states from banning abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, around 24 weeks of pregnancy. But Texas' version had so far outmaneuvered the courts because it leaves enforcement to private citizens to file suits, not prosecutors, which critics say amounts to a bounty. The Texas law is just one that has set up the biggest test of abortion rights in the U.S. in decades, and it is part of a broader push by Republicans nationwide to impose new restrictions on abortion. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court began a new term, which in December will include arguments in Mississippi's bid to overturn 1973's landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman's right to an abortion. Last month, the court did not rule on the constitutionality of the Texas law in allowing it to remain in place. But abortion providers took that 5-4 vote as an ominous sign about where the court might be heading on abortion after its conservative majority was fortified with three appointees of former President Donald Trump. Advertisement Transport for London has obtained a High Court injunction to ban eco-protestors from obstructing traffic in 14 locations across London after Insulate Britain mobs today targeted a major London roundabout and the M25 near a hipster enclave for three hours. Around 40 demonstrators from the hated group were seen sitting on the road at junction 25 of the M25 at Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, and on the A501 at Old Street roundabout. The group descended on both locations at around 9am, with the Met tweeting three hours later to say the roads had been cleared after 16 arrests on the M25 and 19 by the roundabout. But TfL has been granted a High Court injunction to ban the controversial protesters from blocking traffic in various locations across the English capital, such as Vauxhall Bridge, Tower Bridge, London Bridge and Chiswick roundabout. The injunction also applies to busy London spots including Hanger Lane, the Hammersmith gyratory system, Blackwall Tunnel, the A501 ring road from Edgware Road to Old Street, Staples Corner, Redbridge roundabout and the Kidbrooke interchange. Protesters will no longer be allowed to block Park Lane, Marble Arch Hyde Park Corner, Elephant and Castle - including all entry and exit roads and the Victoria one-way system. Millionaire eco hypocrite Joshua Smith was seen being arrested today. This is believed to be his seventh arrest after police repeatedly released him without conditions A TfL spokesperson said: 'The safety of people travelling on the capital's roads is our number one priority. 'We have been granted an injunction this afternoon by the High Court which bans protesters from engaging in activities that obstruct traffic at 14 locations. This will help to protect London's road network and everybody using it. 'We will continue to work closely with the police and other highway authorities in London to manage the impact on the road network and would encourage people to check their journeys before they travel.' It came as new evidence emerged of the public's growing anger at Insulate Britain's selfish behaviour, with YouGov finding that 72% oppose their actions, up from 59% when the protests first began in mid-September. And after three weeks of protest, the group has only made more people think they're actually hindering their own cause - 64% felt this in September and 73% think it now. Two of the motorway bandits were lambasted by a furious mother whose daughter was late for classes due to their actions, who told them: 'It's backing up, all because all you care about is insulating houses. 'My daughter is late to school, you are messing with children's education because you are selfish. I hope you got that on camera, I think they are a disgrace.' Smith bragged about being arrested four times for 'mourning for life on Earth' on September 22. He seen right at an earlier protest on September 20 It came as new evidence emerged of the public's growing opposition to Insulate Britain's selfish behaviour, with YouGov finding that 72% oppose their actions, up from 59% when the protests first began in mid-September And after three weeks of protest, the group has only made more people think they're actually hindering their own cause - 64% felt this in September and 73% think it now At the same time scores of the protesters - who have been widely savaged for their actions - sat down in the Old Street by the hipster enclave of Shoreditch. They were flanked by as many 'official observers' dressed in high-vis vests after a series of confrontations from furious motorists in recent days. After heavy criticism, the unpopular campaigners were also seen moving for ambulances getting out. Among the rabble was Joshua Smith, a multi-millionaire eco hypocrite who was seen being taken away by police in what is believed to be his seventh arrest after police repeatedly released him without conditions. The activists are continuing to make a mockery of the law by violating injunctions passed by the High Court - which could see them jailed for contempt of court. The original injunction, granted to National Highways on September 21, banned the demonstrations on the M25 and was followed by a second approved on September 24 which restricted protests around the Port of Dover. A third injunction was granted against 100 activists on Saturday, banning them from obstructing traffic and access to motorways and major A roads in and around London but this has failed to stop fresh chaos this morning. Three police officers carry away an activist from hated campaign group Insulate Britain from the Old Street roundabout today Several protesters glued themselves onto the road - a familiar tactic - forcing officers to use a chemical solution to release them Today's disruption at the Old Street roundabout is the latest of a series of protests that has seen the group draw the ire of the public An elderly Insulate Britain protester - wearing a suit and tie - is arrested and taken into a waiting police car by officers Insulate Britain: How hated group has continued to make a mockery of the law September 13 - 78 Insulate Britain protesters are arrested after blocking junctions 3, 6, 14, 20 and 31 of the M25 September 15 - More than 50 protesters are arrested after targeting junctions 1, 8, 9 and 23 of the M25. September 17 - 48 protesters arrested after targeting junctions 3, 9 and 28 of the M25, as well as the M3 September 20 - 29 protesters are arrested after blocking the M25 at junctions 4 and 18, as well as the A1 September 21 - Protesters risk death by running into moving traffic to block the carriageway near Junction 10. Some 38 arrests are made. National Highways obtains an injunction against further protests on the M25 September 22 - Protesters burn copies of the injunction outside the Home Office, blocking the road outside the ministry. No arrests are made September 24 - 39 protesters are arrested after blocking roads at three locations in Dover. They are all released under investigation. National Highways obtains a second injunction covering Dover. September 27 - 53 protesters are arrested for blocking a slip road at Junction 14 of the M25. They are all released under investigation. September 28 - National Highways says it is taking 'legal advice' over how to enforce its injunction September 29 - 27 protesters are arrested for blocking a roundabout at Junction 3 of the M25 on two occasions September 30 - Protesters return to junction 30 at Thurrock in Essex, and nine are arrested October 1: The group block the M4 at junction 3, the M1 at junction 1 and M25 at junction 25. Some 39 arrests October 2: Third injunction bans them from obstructing traffic and access to motorways and major A roads in and around London October 4: 38 arrests after protesters block three major roads in London - the Blackwall Tunnel, Wandsworth Bridge and A40 and North Circular at Hanger Lane. October 8: Protesters hit Old Street and again the M25 Advertisement Mr Smith was branded a hypocrite after it emerged he owned a multi-million pound property empire - but the homes had poor insulation, an issue at the heart of the group's agenda. The 28-year-old is heir to a 2million property portfolio and also has a seven-figure estate of his own. However, at least six homes owned by his Oldham-based company have efficiency ratings of E or F, according to the Sun. This means the properties boast little or no insulation and also produce large quantities of extra carbon dioxide. Smith was pictured being held by police by the side of the M25 today before being led off in a police van. Today, Insulate Britain was utterly unrepentant about the damage they were doing. Spokesman Liam Norton said: 'This isn't a cause, this is about the deaths of our children before they get to grow old. This isn't protesting, this is about doing whatever it takes to protect the future generations. And we want to be clear, this campaign will continue until the government gives us a meaningful statement we can trust, if that happens we will get off the roads like a shot The Met Police said: 'We are responding to two protests this morning which are blocking roads. Activists are disrupting traffic around Old Street roundabout. 'They're also disrupting motorists at Junction 25 of the M25. We're on scene and working quickly to get traffic moving. 'We know that some activists have used super glue to frustrate our efforts and to delay Londoner's even further. 'We train for these scenarios and have specialist teams on hand to help remove people and make arrests. We will share more information shortly. The group, which is calling on the Government to insulate all homes across the UK by 2030 to help cut carbon emissions, has mostly focused on blockading the M25 but has sat down on other London roads since last Friday. Until now, they had not yet carried out any road protests for a few days day, but their campaign of roadblocks caused fresh misery yesterday, as activists targeted three major sites of the Blackwall Tunnel, Wandsworth Bridge and Hanger Lane. At the Conservative Party conference the Prime Minister said the Insulate Britain protesters had been 'doing considerable damage to the economy'. His comments came ahead of Home Secretary Priti Patel's speech, where she laid out new measures to deal with demonstrators deemed to be disruptive. This man wore large plastic safety glasses to today's protest at Old Street. Officers are seen carrying him away along with a bag of his belongings An elderly woman is kept in handcuffs on the pavement by Old Street - one of London's busiest junctions These two activists appeared to have glued themselves together. An officer is seen trying to release them An officer trying to release an activist from near the Old Street roundabout today. The activists wear glasses to prevent the glue getting in their eyes A woman is led away by a police officer, who is carrying her backpack, after Insulate Britain blocked the Old Street roundabout today Insulate Britain activists at Old Street today. They also blocked part of the M25 motorway today in defiance of an injunction Police officers speaking with protesters who had glued themselves onto the road by Old Street roundabout this morning Boris Johnson told LBC: 'There are some people who call those individuals legitimate protesters. 'They are not. I think they are irresponsible crusties who are basically trying to stop people going about their day's work and doing considerable damage to the economy. 'That is why we have taken the powers and why Priti Patel is doing the right thing to bring in powers so they can get six months or an unlimited fine.' The Home Secretary announced plans for eco-fanatics to be hit with a new type of Asbo in a fresh attempt to bring their chaotic road protests to an end. The Criminal Disruption Prevention Orders dubbed 'Asbos for crusties' are intended to be quicker to enforce than the Government's current approach, which has been based on High Court injunctions. The protesters could be seen cross legged on the ground holding up the now-infamous Insulate Britain logo banners Scores of the protesters - who have been widely savaged for their actions - sat at Old Street, in the heart of hippy London Police appeared to swiftly leap into action at the M25, racing into the road to drag out the protesters by their high-vis vests It came after more than 100 activists were served with an injunction against road-blocking earlier in the week at court Today they were flanked by as many 'official observers' dressed in high-vis vests after confrontations at other locations It will be made a crime to 'interfere with critical national infrastructure', including major roads, railways, seaports, power stations and newspaper printing presses. The new crime will carry up to six months' imprisonment and will be dealt with at magistrates' courts only after sympathetic juries acquitted a series of XR activists in the Crown courts. It will give police new options when arresting offenders who block motorways or other sites, and make it more likely that protesters will face jail. A Conservative source said police would 'now have no excuse' for not arresting and charging Insulate Britain troublemakers. The campaigners were seen in the way of an ambulance but now move out of the way as part of a new policy from him Insulate Britain defended action saying 'This isn't a cause, this is about deaths of our children' EXCLUSIVE: Insulate Britain ringleader's 360,000 London flat has terrible eco-credentials with no roof or cavity wall insulation and poor heating control By Nick Fagge for MailOnline An Insulate Britain ringleader who stormed off national TV after he was criticised by Susannah Reid for failing to practice what he preaches lives in a flat with astonishingly poor eco-credentials, MailOnline can reveal. Liam Norton, 36, who orchestrated the recent protests that have brought the country's motorways to a standstill, ripped off his microphone and fled the Good Morning Britain studio when the presenter challenged him about reported poor energy efficiency at his own property. Norton, an electrician who likens himself to Winston Churchill, claimed he could not afford to insulate the property and stormed out of the GMB studio when further challenged. Today we can reveal the full details of how the environmentalist is generating more carbon emissions than most of his neighbours: his home has 'no roof insulation'; 'no cavity wall insulation'; 'poor heating control' and 'very poor lighting'. The two-bedroom, first-floor flat in Streatham, south London, has an energy rating of E the lowest category permitted for rental properties. The home, which measures just 46 square metres, pumps out four tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, its Energy Performance Certificate [EPC] reveals. Insulate Britain ringleader Liam Norton (pictured above), 36, who stormed off national TV after he was criticised by Susannah Reid for failing to practice what he preaches, lives in a flat with astonishingly poor eco-credentials, the MailOnline can reveal The two-bedroom, first-floor flat in Streatham, south London, pumps out four tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, its Energy Performance Certificate [EPC] reveals The EPC states that while the windows of the property are double glazed, the roof is not insulated, there is no cavity wall insulation and the flat has poor heating controls. The report adds that the gas-heated flat, which is worth 360,000 and owned by Norton's partner Sally Davidson, could easily become more energy efficient. It recommends that by installing low energy lighting and a condensing boiler the flat's energy costs would be slashed by ten per cent and gain a category D rating. Ms Davidson, an Extinction Rebellion protester who was convicted earlier this year of obstruction, declined to discuss the poor energy efficiency of the flat she shares with Insulate Britain leader Norton with MailOnline. She told a reporter: 'I don't appreciate you coming to my flat. Now please leave my property.' However, last month Norton told TV presenter Susannah Reid the lack of insulation at his own home was not relevant when she challenged him during a live interview on Good Morning Britain. He said: 'Whether or not my home is insulated doesn't change the fact that millions of homes are not insulated.' Asked why he had not insulated his home, he replied: 'You know insulation costs thousands, tens of thousands [of pounds].' Norton, who has not taken part in any of the sit-down protests, later clashed with Reid's co-presenter Richard Madeley when he compared the actions of Insulate Britain to Churchill's stance against Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, before storming out of the studio. Mr Norton is pictured being arrested after a slip road from the M25 at Junction 14, close to London's Heathrow Airport, was blocked by Insulate Britain on September 27 The eco protestors seen targeting Old Street roundabout by sitting down and holding up banners in London today during their latest disruptive rush-hour protest The report adds that the flat, which is worth 360,000 and owned by Norton's partner Sally Davidson (pictured far right, with Norton far left), could easily become more energy efficient The modest flat, which has two bedrooms and a garage, has been used as a headquarters to plot some of the eco group's hugely disruptive demonstrations that have paralysed roads around London. A whistle-blower said: 'Liam [Norton] is happy for volunteers, including some really old people, to go to jail or be fined. But he doesn't put himself at risk. 'He invites you to the flat in south London where he organizes and explains what you are going to do but won't do himself. 'He lives there with his partner and just stays out of harm's way. 'The whole thing was never about insulating homes, it's all about him. Liam is the ring leader. He is the problem.' A neighbour added: 'Liam lives there with his partner Sally. They have a small car, a Volkswagen Polo. It's pretty old and certainly not electric. They don't drive it very often.' Last week Norton told TV presenter Susannah Reid the lack of insulation at his own home was not relevant when she challenged him during a live interview on Good Morning Britain He ripped off his microphone and fled the GMB studio when the presenter further challenged him about reported poor energy efficiency at his own property A 2004 blue VW Polo with a 1.2 litre petrol engine is parked in the road outside the Streatham flat. It was revealed last month how Norton's biggest supporter is his mother, 62-year-old Theresa Norton, who has joined him for the mayhem on the M25. Ms Norton, a Labour councillor in Scarborough, north Yorkshire, told neighbours she was going on a two-week holiday before heading south to bring the country's busiest motorway to a standstill where she was arrested four times in a week. But like her son Ms Norton who lives in a flat without the best insulation. Her home in an Edwardian seafront terrace is understood to be protected for conservation reasons so all windows are single glazed. Most of the properties in her street, Esplanade Gardens, have an Energy Performance Certificate rating in Band D, an average rating which 'leaves room for improvement', according to experts. Five migrants who were shot on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande have been rescued by Border Patrol in a brave late night swoop. The wounded were part of a larger group of 11 migrants who were crossing the river near to Hidalgo, Texas, at 12.40am on Monday. Agents immediately started administering first aid to the gunshot victims before they were transported to a nearby hospital. Police have opened an investigation but the circumstances of how or why the migrants were shot remains unclear. It comes after cartel gangsters were this week pictured marauding along the banks of the Rio Grande, taunting Border Patrol with assault rifles in hand. Officials believe the men are involved in human trafficking which is controlled by the cartels who demand payment from the desperate migrants and use them as mules to transport drugs into the United States. Texas Department of Safety vehicles line up on the Texas side of the Rio Grande with Mexico (file photo) Crossing the border is perilous not only for the fast-moving river and risk of dehydration in the desert, but because the very people transporting the migrants are armed and dangerous. Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Brian S. Hastings said: 'This encounter serves as yet another reminder of the dangers migrants face when they place their well-being in the hands of smugglers who are only interested in turning a profit. 'Smugglers routinely place migrants in dangerous situations where they are at risk of drowning, exposure to the elements and assault.' It comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet with Mexican leaders on Friday to discuss an overhaul of their joint fight against drug cartels. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said Mexico no longer wants helicopter gunships and other weapons to combat drug traffickers, urging the United States to invest in regional economic development instead. Ahead of Blinken's visit, his first to Mexico as the top US diplomat, Washington indicated that it was ready to revamp a 13-year-old program called the Merida Initiative that provided US military firepower, technical support and security training. 'We believe we are due for an updated look at our bilateral security cooperation,' State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. He said Washington wanted to see the 'significant gains' made by the Merida Initiative 'preserved, that that cooperation is deepened and that we have an updated approach that accounts for the threats of today.' The Mexican government has gone further, calling for an end to the Merida Initiative. 'We don't want it to be like it was before when they brought us a helicopter gunship and a photo was taken of the US ambassador with the president,' Lopez Obrador said in June. He argues that investing in development projects in the region would help counter not only drug trafficking but also migrant flows - another major challenge facing the two countries. More than 15,000 immigrants, mostly from Haiti, have made their way into Texas and are mainly camped on the outskirts of Del Rio, around 350 miles from Hidalgo. Under the Merida Initiative, the United States has given Mexico about $3 billion since 2008 for law enforcement training and equipment such as Black Hawk helicopters. At the same time, US authorities have focused on helping Mexico to arrest drug kingpins like Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman and send them to the United States to face trial. Suspected cartel members were spotted armed with AK-47s near the US-Mexico border this week The men have been at the site multiple times this week as officials believe they are involved in human smuggling between the US and Mexico Blinken, accompanied by US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, will hold meetings with Lopez Obrador and other top Mexican officials, including Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, during his one-day visit. Mexico will use the talks to push for steps to speed up extraditions between the two countries and reduce the flow of arms from the United States, Ebrard said this week. In August, Mexico filed an unprecedented lawsuit against major US gunmakers in a Boston court over illegal cross-border arms flows that it blames for fueling drug-related violence. Mexico is plagued by cartel-related bloodshed that has seen more than 300,000 people murdered since the government deployed the military in the war on drugs in 2006. Many experts believe the strategy of militarization has failed because it has resulted in the cartels being fragmented into smaller, more violent cells, while drugs continue to flood into the United States. The Texas Military Department has ramped up its patrol efforts at the troubled border Agents are focusing their effort along the Rio Grande, where hundreds are crossing every day The new security framework will focus 'not just on crime, but also on the underlying cause of crime,' a senior US administration official said. 'We're going to be looking at ways we can increase joint efforts to decrease demand for narcotics,' he said. The two countries would continue to pursue the cartels, including their laboratories and supply chain, the official said. But the new strategy would put more emphasis on stopping flows of firearms and drug money from the United States to Mexico, in order to 'deny revenue to these cartels,' he added. Forging a new joint strategy will not be easy, said Michael Shifter, president of the US-based think-tank Inter-American Dialogue. 'The Merida Initiative is indeed dead,' he said. 'Mexico is expected to press for significant US assistance and investment in the southern part of the country, but with budget pressures and other priorities in Washington, US officials are unlikely to be receptive,' he said. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today said 'common sense' would be required after confirming double-jabbed tourists returning to Britain will soon be allowed to take a photograph of a Covid-19 lateral flow test to verify they are negative. The policy change means that pricey PCR tests, which can cost more than 100, will finally be scrapped in time for families returning from half-term holidays. The PCR tests will be replaced with cheaper rapid lateral flow swabs for travellers 'before October 31', although the free NHS tests will not be acceptable. Travellers will now have to take a photograph of the negative lateral flow result on a mobile phone and send it to the private provider from whom they bought it. This will then be verified by the private provider, but it is not yet clear how this will work - and concerns are now being raised about how people could fake a result. Government sources told MailOnline today that there will be 'more details to follow' on how the verification process will work. Mr Shapps said today he would be relying on 'people's common sense' when asked how authorities could be sure the photographed test belonged to the right person. Travellers will have to book the tests through private providers and prove on their passenger locator form, which must be filled out by all travellers before returning, that they have done so. Lateral flow tests typically cost between 20 and 40. There are also understood to be concerns about whether private providers have enough supply to meet demand, delaying the announcement of a specific date. A person holds a negative lateral flow Covid-19 test in front of a UK passport (file picture) Holidaymakers returning from popular destinations such as Cape Verde, Indonesia and Thailand will no longer have to quarantine in hotels for 11 nights at a cost of 2,285 But it means families going on a week-long break at the start of the October half-term holidays should be able to dodge shelling out for a pricey PCR on their return. Among those raising concerns on social media about the new lateral flow photo policy was Pamela Collumb, who tweeted today: 'Doesn't prove they are Covid negative, anyone could do the test. Complete waste of time and money!' How will the new lateral flow photos work? Ministers agreed returning vaccinated holidaymakers will not have to film themselves taking Covid tests. Instead, a photograph of the negative result from a lateral flow test taken on a mobile phone and sent to the private provider of the test to verify will be sufficient. Travellers will not be able to use free ones provided by the NHS. They will have to book them through private providers and prove on their passenger locator form, which must be filled out by all travellers before returning, that they have done so. Lateral flow tests typically cost between 20 and 40. Health Secretary Sajid Javid had wanted travellers to be supervised taking the rapid tests. But following a meeting of the 'Covid O' committee of Cabinet ministers yesterday morning, it was agreed that a photo of the result would be enough. Advertisement And Karen John said: 'What if you can't take it?! Lots of people do not have the phones to take this! Who thinks up these crazy ideas?' A third Twitter user said: 'How long before an app that mocks up a false photo of your home based Covid-19 lateral flow test appears online?! What a total farce.' It comes after ministers agreed that returning vaccinated holidaymakers will not have to film themselves taking Covid tests. Health Secretary Sajid Javid had wanted travellers to be supervised taking the rapid tests. But following a meeting of the 'Covid O' committee of Cabinet ministers yesterday morning, it was agreed that a photograph of the negative result taken on a mobile phone and sent to the provider to verify will be sufficient. Also yesterday, the 'no-go' red list was slashed from 54 countries to just seven by ministers. Forty-seven countries were axed from the red list and moved to the safe 'go' or green list, opening up quarantine-free holidays to these places for the first time in months. The changes will take effect at 4am on Monday. Holidaymakers returning from popular destinations such as Cape Verde, Indonesia and Thailand will no longer have to quarantine in hotels for 11 nights at a cost of 2,285. Other destinations moved off red include Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, the Seychelles, Tunisia and South Africa. Travel chiefs last night hailed the move as 'long overdue' and said it signalled 'light at the end of a very long tunnel' for the beleaguered industry, which has been brought to its knees by the pandemic. The major re-opening, coupled with the scrapping of PCR tests for the vaccinated, is a huge boost to those looking for a foreign getaway during half-term and beyond. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today told BBC Breakfast that he would be relying on 'people's common sense' when asked about companies verifying lateral flow tests Destinations moved off red include Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, the Seychelles, Tunisia and South Africa. A beach is pictured above in Cancun Mr Shapps said: 'With half-term and winter sun around the corner, we're making it easier for families and loved ones to reunite by significantly cutting the number of destinations on the red list, thanks in part to the increased vaccination efforts around the globe.' When will the US fully reopen to UK visitors? Grant Shapps said today that he does not have a specific date in November yet for the US to fully reopen to visitors from the UK. The Transport Secretary said he had spoken with the US ambassador in recent days. He told Sky News: 'They (the US) are still working through the technicalities of that. They've said November to us and obviously we're working very closely with them because we would like to see that done so families can reunite, businesses can get together and people can go travelling again. 'So we think it's certainly well due. We're allowing Americans here, we're recognising their vaccines.' In another interview today, Mr Shapps also said the US had indicated 'early November' for travel there to reopen fully for people coming from the UK. He said it is a 'practical' issue for the US, rather than a reluctance to reopen to British travellers. He told Times Radio: 'It's not that they don't want to do it. It's actually that in many ways they don't have the kind of level of sophistication in place on international travel that has become normal to us. 'For example, they don't actually have domestically there a Covid certification like the NHS app, it's a piece of paper. So you might say well, why does that matter to Brits going over there? Well again, they just don't have a system set up to read the NHS barcode or to be able to recognise other people's tests. 'So all of that is being worked through. They are still saying, November, they're still saying to me, early November. 'Obviously it's not in our hands to dictate this but I'm very keen for it to be reopened. It's the world's busiest route actually, by the way, the transatlantic route, so it's very important to the airlines, as well as families and friends getting together again.' Advertisement But ministers faced growing calls to reach a decision on the exact date when rapid swabs will replace PCR tests. A source insisted it will be 'before October 31'. Mr Shapps told Sky News today: 'We want to get this done for half term for people.' He added: 'We anticipate having it ready for the half term, and what a difference it will make for people.' He said the process with lateral flows rather than PCR tests will be 'much much easier, much less expensive as well'. Asked when an announcement can be expected, he said: 'In the coming days'. People arriving in the UK who take a lateral flow test to check their Covid status will have to take a photograph of it to prove the result. Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast: 'If it's positive, you'll automatically receive a PCR test, you'll be in the NHS system, as with the normal Test and Trace, so you'll get the PCR without having to do anything further, and of course, be asked to isolate. 'If it's negative, that's it, you're free to go, and the good thing is that can either be done, as I say, as soon as coming through the gates, potentially, at some airports where they might offer that, or you may have ordered a test to be at your home. 'You carry out that test, we're going to ask people to take a photograph of it so that it's actually your test. And that's it, the job is done, there's nothing further to do. So it's going to be a much simplified, much cheaper system.' Asked how authorities could be sure the photographed test belonged to the right person, Mr Shapps said: 'Well, look, you could always say this with any system, the PCR system that's been in place up until now hasn't required any monitoring at all. So you could always make that argument. 'We have throughout this crisis, though, I think relied on people's common sense, I think most people wanted to do the right thing.' Mr Shapps also said travellers returning to the UK could be 'done and dusted' with organising testing before they even get home, with lateral flows set to be available at airports. The Transport Secretary said the goal is to have made the switch from PCR testing to quicker and cheaper lateral flows by half-term. Asked if he was referring to English schools' half-terms around October 22, he told Times Radio: 'Yes, that's right, 22nd of October. That's the goal and, as I say, the testing companies are gearing up to do that. 'I've spoken to the airports including Heathrow and they even have tests available as you walk through the airport so you could be done and dusted before you even get home with these things, which will be a massive improvement to having to send off PCR tests to labs and waiting for the results and all the costs involved.' Mr Shapps also said lateral flow tests had been 'getting better and better' on their sensitivity. South Africa, Thailand and Mexico are among 47 countries being cut from the red list A total of 47 countries including South Africa, Mexico and Thailand will be removed from England's red list on Monday, Grant Shapps has announced. Travellers arriving from those destinations will no longer need to spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel at a cost of 2,285 for solo travellers. Just seven countries will remain on the red list following the changes. They are Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own travel rules but have recently mirrored announcements made in Westminster. Mr Shapps said: 'With half-term and winter sun around the corner, we're making it easier for families and loved ones to reunite by significantly cutting the number of destinations on the red list, thanks in part to the increased vaccination efforts around the globe. 'Restoring people's confidence in travel is key to rebuilding our economy and levelling up this country. With less restrictions and more people travelling, we can all continue to move safely forward together along our pathway to recovery.' Mr Shapps also announced that the Government would recognise vaccines for arrivals from a further 37 countries and territories including Brazil, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey. The decision means fully vaccinated people entering England from these locations will be exempt from quarantine, the pre-departure test and the day-eight post-arrival test. Advertisement He told BBC Breakfast: 'You're right to say you can't then sequence the genome from a lateral flow test. The advantage here is if you do get a positive lateral flow, you'll automatically be sent the PCR test, and that then can be sequenced. 'The one other advantage of the lateral flow, of course, is the instantaneousness of the result, you have the result within 15 minutes, and that means that we think that there'll be fewer people wandering around unaware that they have something, that they've got the coronavirus, and therefore in one sense, it's a little bit safer, even though you're right to say that the specification is slightly less than a PCR test.' Asked if he was sure the move to lateral flow tests would not put the public at greater risk, Mr Shapps said: 'Yeah, that's right because of vaccination - and by the way, I should say this all only applies to fully vaccinated folk, here and abroad - and because of vaccination, the risks are massively reduced, because of the quality of the lateral flow test and the speed at which they can be taken, we're comfortable with that and our scientists are comfortable with that, and it's a big step forward.' Asked if he foresees a 'testless, traffic light-less' summer of travel next year, Mr Shapps said: 'I very much hope so'. He told Times Radio: 'Having gone through this two years in a row, two summers in a row and, like many other people, experienced the shortcomings of a system that was able to change so quickly, I really do hope that this is the world going back to normal.' He said the vaccine is 'the answer', adding: 'The vaccine is the thing that's enabled us to make these big changes on international travel as well.' Mr Shapps also told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the changes to coronavirus testing for travellers would be in place 'hopefully in time for people returning from a half-term holidays potentially, and certainly by the end of October'. Thomas Cook chief executive Alan French said the recently announced changes were 'good news for both ourselves and our customers', but stressed that more clarity is needed from the Government. He said that while there will be no catch-up this year with 2019 because 'most of the holiday season is really gone' for 2021, the opportunity to now book a half-term or Christmas break is welcome. Mr French told LBC: 'I think if people are starting to plan for the winter sun break, which is really around Christmas time, again, way more options than they had before, much better deals, so we are upbeat about that. 'But those are, in all honesty, slightly smaller parts of our business than the summer, which is obviously behind us.' He added that he wants 'clarity' from the Transport Secretary, particularly in relation to changes around lateral flow testing. Mr French said: 'If there was one thing that I would like from Grant Shapps, it's clarity as to what's going on, when things are going to change, and give us some notice. 'Even if there has to be a provision in there that says: 'If something goes wrong, it might change' - but at least give us a road map of activities that we can plan for, that's what we really would like.' But Dr Penelope Toff, the British Medical Association's public health medicine committee co-chair, told MailOnline today: 'No test is 100 per cent accurate, but we know lateral flow tests are less reliable than PCR tests, meaning there's a real danger of even more new infections being missed. 'There's no good public health reason for making this switch and it would be much better if travellers were still required to take a PCR test. 'Even more importantly, that they should self-isolate if the test is positive or they have symptoms which may be due to Covid-19. 'Yesterday we saw daily cases rise to above 40,000 in the UK for the first time in a month, while the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 remains high. 'The Government's current strategy, of which this policy forms only a part, has been to abandon simple prevention measures, such as mask-wearing, meaning the spread of the virus is not being controlled as well as it could be, with particular risks for those who are vulnerable. 'This is of great concern as we head into winter, when we know respiratory infections like Covid-19 thrive and it is important to ensure as many people as possible, including younger people, are vaccinated against both Covid-19 and that those who are eligible are also vaccinated against flu. 'As the statistics show, the pandemic is far from over, and this policy change sends the wrong message.' The Department for Transport said it was still ministers' 'ambition to have this in place for people returning from half-term breaks by the end of the month'. It comes after the traffic light system was scrapped on Monday and replaced with one red list and a safe 'rest of the world' list. Double-jabbed travellers will now only have to take one test after returning from safe countries by day two. From later this month, a PCR test free on the NHS will only be required if the rapid test is positive. Children are treated as though fully vaccinated, even if they are not, making family holidays possible. But non-vaccinated people must quarantine at home for ten days, take a pre-return test within 72 hours and two PCR tests on days two and eight after arrival. The seven countries that remain on the red list are Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Haiti, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. The red list will continue to be reviewed every three weeks. The changes only apply to England. It was unclear last night whether the devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will follow suit. The travel industry hailed the news that 47 countries were being removed from the red list. British Airways chief Sean Doyle said: 'It finally feels like we are seeing light at the end of a very long tunnel. Britain will benefit from this significant reduction in red list countries.' A love letter from Edward VIII which reflects his disenchantment with life as a royal, years before he met Wallis Simpson, is to be sold at auction. The then-Prince of Wales wrote the four-page letter in 1919, aged 25, while aboard the ship HMS Renown as it took him on a royal tour of Canada. He sent it to his mistress Freda Dudley Ward, who was at the time married to Liberal MP William Dudley Ward. Their affair continued until 1934, only ending when Edward became involved with American socialite Wallis Simpson, who he met in 1930. Edward reigned as King from January 1936 until December of the same year, when he abdicated to marry divorcee Mrs Simpson. Charles Ashton, a director at auctioneers Cheffins, said Edward's 1919 letter to Mrs Dudley Ward gives a window into his 'disenchantment with his life as a royal'. A love letter from Edward VIII (centre) to Freda Dudley Ward written years before he abdicated the throne for Wallis Simpson is set to go on sale. Pictured: Edward (second left) and Prince George of Hanover (far right) with Freda Dudley Ward (right), and Viscountess Furness (left) Pictured: The love letter from Edward VIII which was sent to Freda Dudley Ward and reflects his disenchantment with life as a royal, years before the constitutional crisis over Wallis Simpson Freda Dudley Ward: Edward VIII's other woman Freda Dudley Ward was a married socialite who became the paramour of the future King of England. The couple first met at a party in March 1918 after Freda took shelter from a Zeppelin raid in the doorway of a London home. Freda was married to Liberal MP William Dudley Ward with whom she had two daughters. But the relationship between the Prince of Wales and the married Ward was common knowledge in aristocratic circles. Winston Churchill famously observed in 1927, after travelling with them on a train, 'It is quite pathetic to see the Prince and Freda. His love is so obvious and undisguisable.' Edward was known to have written hundreds of letters to Mrs Dudley Ward expressing his love. Freda was the grown-up in their partnership, and that was a large part of her appeal. Indeed, Edward had found dominant women attractive long before Wallis Simpson arrived on the scene. Explaining to Freda what he needed in a relationship, he wrote in a separate letter: You know you ought to be really foul to me sometimes sweetie and curse and be cruel; it would do me worlds of good and bring me to my right senses!! But the future King was not the only man with whom Freda had an affair. For most of their relationship, Freda had been involved in an equally intense affair with Michael Herbert, a banker and a cousin of the Earl of Pembroke. After his death in 1932, Freda was devastated and her family believes that he, rather than the Prince of Wales, was the love of her life. In 1926, Edward met, and later started seeing, a twice-married American, Thelma Furness as well as Freda. It was Thelma Furness who would later introduce Edward to Wallis Simpson for whom he would abdicate the throne. Thelma encouraged Edwards friendship with Wallis, then married to Ernest Simpson, an Anglo-American shipping broker and Mrs Simpson soon replaced Thelma in the prince's affections. The end of Edwards 16-year relationship with Freda was equally brutal and abrupt. After she hadnt heard from him for a few weeks, she called St Jamess Palace and was told by the operator: I have orders not to put you through. Freda and the prince never spoke again, and she was deeply hurt by his neglect. He had made up his mind that he wanted to be with Wallis and was determined to make a lasting commitment, no matter how great the cost. Advertisement In the letter, Edward referred to speeches he had made, writing: 'What I think of all this official wonk and these cornie pompous stunts & I've made no less than 7 speeches today.' He described Canadian prime minister Robert Borden, whom he had dined with, as 'such a stick & deadly dull except re politics & I can't tackle him on that subject'. He told his mistress he would be spending a day at Prince Edward Island, one of eastern Canada's maritime provinces, writing: 'I don't think it will be very strenuous as it's such a pip squeak province'. Expressing how much he misses her, he added: 'I do love you, love you, my very own blessed little Fredie darling & I find life very hard & dour without you......it's hell when we are parted sweetheart & when I can't hear you say all your divine things which is what keeps me alive.' Edward, for whom sex had been a major preoccupation for him since 1916, when his equerries introduced him to a French prostitute called Paulette, was known to have written hundreds of letters to Mrs Dudley Ward, many of which were destroyed or lost. In one he asked her to come up to London to give me that hiding. In another he wrote: I do need you so so badly to chase me into bed with a big big stick. Mr Ashton, of Cheffins auctioneers, said: 'Whilst the liaison between the Prince of Wales and Freda Dudley Ward came to an abrupt end when he fell in love with Wallis Simpson, theirs was an affair which lasted over 20 years and was well-known amongst high society circles, having been famously commented on as 'quite pathetic' by Winston Churchill. 'The letters between the prince and his married lover are of importance as they shed light on the very personal feelings and passions of the future King Edward VIII, which strong sentiments then re-emerged in no less a way, in his love for Wallis Simpson.' Freda and Edward first met during a Zeppelin raid in March 1918, after Freda took refuge in the doorway of a grand house in Belgrave Square, London. A party, with the Prince of Wales among the guests, was taking place, and when the hostess invited Freda inside, Edward was captivated, according to Before Wallis: Edward VIII's Other Women, by Rachel Trethewey. Freda had married William Dudley Ward, a Liberal MP, shortly before her 19th birthday in 1913, and together they had two daughters, Penelope ('Pempie') and Angela ('Angie'). By the time Freda met the prince, however, the marriage was under strain. And when, in 1917, her husband William, or 'Duddie', was made vice-chamberlain to the Royal Household a job that took him away from home a bored Freda found new ways of amusing herself; among them, a growing dalliance with the most eligible bachelor in the world. Soon, the besotted couple found ways to be together almost every day. Physically they were well matched. Indeed, Fredas power over Edward was emotional as much as sexual. She was not just the princes lover but also his confidante who seemed almost to wield the authority of a dominatrix. As he repeatedly begged her to marry him, Edward demonstrated an unsettling level of devotion, frequently abasing himself with baby talk in letters to his precious darling little Mummie and even begging for punishment. Freda Dudley Ward married William Dudley Ward, a Liberal MP, shortly before her 19th birthday When not in London, Freda stayed at Kilbees Farm, near Windsor, owned by one of her husband's sisters, and the couple could meet there undetected. Mr Ashton continued: 'It is known that the couple first met during a Zeppelin raid in 1918 and it was from then onwards that their affair became serious, with the prince thought to have written well over 300 letters to her during the period and reported to have telephoned her four or five times per night. 'This letter provides a window into the passions of the future King Edward VIII and also his disenchantment with his life as a royal.' Edward's passion for his married mistress became all-consuming and if they were apart, he would phone her four or five times a night. If she were not at home, he was bereft. He spent much of the 1920s on a series of Royal tours around colonies to thank them for their war effort. While he was away, he bombarded Freda with dozens of letters written to 'My Angel' and signed with 'tons and tons of love from your E'. For Freda, though, the idea of marrying or running away was ridiculous. As she was already married there would have to be a divorce, and his parents and the Church would never have allowed it. The letter, accompanied by the original envelope bearing a black wax seal, is part of the Cheffins Library Sale auction in Cambridge on October 21. It has a pre-sale estimate of 400 to 600. Mr Ashton said that collectors of letters 'tend to seek out love letters in particular as they usually show more personality than other types of correspondence'. He said he expected the letter to be 'of interest to collectors from the UK and further afield'. Boris Johnson's row with the EU over Northern Ireland risks creating 'a serious risk to stability', one of Joe Biden's top aides warned today. Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, said the White House has significant concern' about UK threats to unilaterally suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol before Christmas. His comments came after Brexit Minister Lord Frost set a November deadline for a solution to the protocol deadlock, warning the EU the UK 'cannot wait forever' for border checks to be improved. He said there will be a 'decision point' early next month when it will become apparent if it is possible for the two sides to agree a solution to resolve ongoing disruption to intra-UK trade. London has threatened to unilaterally suspend the agreement if Brussels does not agree to scrap the protocol and replace it - something the EU is refusing to contemplate. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Sullivan said: 'The United States government, as President Biden said in the Oval Office with Prime Minister Johnson, strongly supports the Good Friday agreement, believes it must be protected, believes that peace and stability in Northern Ireland must be protected.' Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, said the White House has significant concern' about UK plans to unilaterally suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol before Christmas. London has threatened to unilaterally suspend the agreement if Brussels does not agree to scrap the protocol and replace it, after it caused problems and social unrest in Northern Ireland 'The Northern Ireland protocol was agreed between the EU and the UK and our view is that the two sides should work together in a constructive way to find a deal and a way forward. 'Without something like the Northern Ireland protocol and with the possibility of the return of a hard border between NI and the Republic of Ireland, we will have a serious risk to stability and to the sanctity of the Good Friday agreement, and that is of significant concern to the US.' However, the Government is likely to pick up on his talk of 'something like' the protocol as a tacit suggestion that a suitable alternative might be acceptable to the Biden administration. The Government has repeatedly threatened to trigger Article 16 of the protocol which would allow Britain to unilaterally walk away from some of the rules. However, such a move would spark a furious response in Brussels and would likely lead to a legal challenge. The protocol, agreed as part of the Brexit deal, requires checks on goods travelling from GB to Northern Ireland to be carried out at ports in order to avoid the return of a land border with the Republic. But it has caused disruption to trade and angered unionists who have demanded the rules be scrapped, arguing they create a barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The UK wants to renegotiate the terms of the protocol but the EU is only willing to make tweaks. Lord Frost has now drawn up plans to permanently replace the protocol, telling Tory activists he will 'soon be sending a new set of legal texts to the EU'. He said he believes the protocol now risks undermining the Good Friday Agreement and the threshold for triggering Article 16 has been met. He warned 'tinkering around the edges' will not fix the fundamental problems with the protocol and urged the EU to be more 'ambitious' in its approach so that an agreed solution to the ongoing issues can be found. Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Louise Haigh said: 'Boris Johnson's approach is doing real damage - it is inflaming tension, while solving nothing and damaging our standing with our closest partners. 'Boris Johnson personally negotiated every dot and comma of the protocol. He should show some responsibility, drop the endless threats and reach the agreement businesses and communities need.' A Washington DC city employee has died after she was shot in a Planet Fitness gym parking lot by a man who later killed himself after going on the run. Nikiesha Thomas, 33, was sitting in her car on Thursday morning at 9.25am when suspect Antoine Oliver, 36, ran up to the parked vehicle and fired at least one shot through the car window in the 3200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington DC. Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement Oliver fled the parking lot before carjacking a maroon SUV in Prince George's County. Officers were called to the armed carjacking near Minnesota Avenue and East Capitol Street, Northeast, at 12.49pm, but police said when cops stopped the stolen vehicle, Oliver took out a firearm and shot himself inside the car. Nikiesha Thomas died after she was shot in the head in a Planet Fitness gym parking lot by a man who later killed himself after going on the run. The suspect was taken to a local hospital where he later died as a result of his injuries and detectives said Oliver's firearm was recovered from inside the carjacked vehicle. Thomas, who worked for the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education's Strong Start DC Early Intervention Program, was found by officers inside her car suffering from a gunshot wound. Medics rushed the victim to the local hospital for treatment but police said she later died from her injuries. 'A single male from a vehicle ran up to that vehicle, fired at least one shot into the vehicle, striking a female,' Police Commander John Haines told News4. Nikiesha Thomas, 33, was sat in her car on Thursday morning at 9.25am when suspect Antoine Oliver, 36, ran up to the parked vehicle and fired at least one shot through the car window in the 3200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington DC Witnesses said they heard a loud bang and the screeching of tires. It unclear whether Thomas had gone to the Planet Fitness gym or was going there when she was shot. A white sedan with a single bullet hole in the driver's side window can be seen in the parking lot outside Planet Fitness. The car had heavy damage at the front - but it is currently unclear how the damage occurred. Detectives said the homicide was domestic in nature, and media reports suggest Oliver, of Fort Washington, Maryland, and Thomas, of Olney, Maryland, had been in a relationship. Advertisement As many as 2million people over the age of 50 in England still haven't had a single Covid vaccine, official figures suggest. MailOnline's analysis of NHS vaccination data means about one in 10 of those who were prioritised in the jab rollout still haven't come forward. Up to 127,288 over-80s remain unvaccinated, despite the programme opening to them as the very first age group last December. Age is the one of the biggest single risk factors for Covid. Yet, the analysis shows there are as many as 249,727 un-jabbed people in their 70s in England. The figures mean that as of today, there is only a two-month window for unvaccinated people in this group to be fully protected against Covid before the end of the year. People must wait at least eight weeks between vaccine doses, and there is now only 12 weeks to go before the end of the year. Even if they do manage to squeeze in two doses of the vaccine in this time, this group will miss out on the Covid booster vaccine that is currently being rolled out to all over-50s. That third dose has been shown in multiple studies to give protection that is above and beyond standard two-dose regimen. People can only get the Covid booster vaccine six months after their second Covid jab. Scientists told the MailOnline that people choosing to go un-jabbed may have become complacent thinking the pandemic was over, while other experts warned of a rise of anti-vax conspiracy theories. While most over 50s have got both their Covid vaccines, about 2million, or roughly one in 10 over 50s in England are completely unvaccinated as the country heads towards winter This graph shows the number of people in England who received their first and second Covid vaccination as a percentage of the population This graph shows the number of first doses of the Covid vaccine administered in England. There was a rise in vaccines in March, when all over 50s were invited to get their first jab This graph shows the number of second doses of the Covid vaccine delivered in England. Numbers of second jabs have remained relatively stable since June but started to drop off in September. The latest figures on Covid vaccinations for England show that as of October 7, 20.3 million over 50s in England had received their first jab. This leaves between nearly 950,000 and about 1.9 million people over the age of 50 in England who have not yet received one Covid jab, with NHS England using two different population estimates to measure vaccination uptake. Which over 50s have not been jabbed? 50-54s: 591,785 unvaccinated 55-59s: 461,875 unvaccinated 60-64s: 328,654 unvaccinated 65-69s: 220,348 unvaccinated 70-74s: 157,070 unvaccinated 75-79s: 92,657 unvaccinated 80+: 127,288 unvaccinated Total: 1.9 million Advertisement This equates to roughly one in 10 or 20, of this demographic depending on either Office of National Statistics (ONS) or National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) population estimates. NHS England uses two population estimates, one is a ONS population estimate from mid-2020 and the other is the NIMS. The ONS data set is based on population census from 2011 so is subject to a degree of uncertainty where as the NIMS is based on people registered with the NHS and is updated weekly. However the NHS states NIMS likely overestimates population and therefore underestimate vaccine uptake. Death registration data is subject to a reporting lag some people registered may no longer live in England. Covid vaccine bookings for all people over 50-years-old have been available since March 17, with older people and those with medical conditions that make them more vulnerable to a Covid infection being offered the vaccine before this. As a general rule, the older the individual the more likely they are to suffer a serious Covid infection if they catch the virus. Some experts were shocked that so many people over the age of 50 had not come forward for their vaccine in the subsequent six months. Professor Anna Whittaker an expert in vaccines and behavioural medicine from the University of Stirling said conspiracy theories, like those spread on social media, could be to blame. 'It is surprising that so many have not had their first Covid vaccine, but this is not helped by the circulation of conspiracy theories and risks making some people feel it would be dangerous to have the vaccine,' she said. After a rise in September the number of hospitalisations due to Covid infection has begun to fall After dropping in September Covid infections per day have begun to rise again but are still far off the peak seen last winter Deaths from Covid appear to have plateaued since rising since the end of June with 127 reported in latest data release 'I think they have concerns about safety and side effects due to sensationalism in the media.' The risk of blood clots from the AstraZeneca vaccine was widely publicised when it came to light earlier this year. But subsequent research from Oxford University later revealed that the chance of getting a blood clot from the Covid virus was much higher than the vaccine meaning it still offered protection. Number of Britons falling ill with Covid every day at 'highest level since JANUARY' The number of Britons falling ill with Covid every day has jumped to the highest level since January, according to the UK's largest symptom-tracking study. King's College London scientists estimated 66,033 people were getting infected daily in the week ending October 2, up 13.6 per cent from 58,126 the week before. Cases in children appear to be turning a corner but are still extremely high, with around one in 30 school pupils contracting the virus nearly three times more than the next highest rate in 35 to 55-year-olds. Professor Tim Spector, the epidemiologist who leads the study, argued allowing Covid to 'run rampant' in schools was 'a real gamble'. He said he hoped that 'herd immunity will kick in and cases will drop' in children soon. It came as new Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi admitted that face masks could make a return in schools this winter if cases show no sign of slowing down. Department of Health data also shows positive tests were still falling last week, with official case numbers only picking up for the first time in six days yesterday. The Government's Covid dashboard showed there were 39,851 new positive tests yesterday, up 8.5 per cent on last Wednesday's count of 36,722. It was the largest daily toll since September 6 (41,192). Advertisement However the discovery did lead to the AstraZeneca jab being restricted for use in the under 40s who are less at risk of Covid than older people. Professor Whittaker said all over 50s should consider getting the Covid vaccine, if they had not done so already. 'I would encourage over 50s to get the vaccine given the increased risk of having a poorer immune response in older people, thus being less able to combat the disease if they contract it,' she said. 'Side-effects following the vaccine might be unpleasant but are a good indicator that your bodys immune system is responding in the way it should.' She added that getting vaccinated could be crucial with the country dealing with both both flu and Covid this season, compared to the last year's winter lockdown. 'I would certainly encourage this group to get vaccinated ASAP given we are heading into Winter with flu circulating also,' she said. 'This isnt too late as the body starts producing antibodies within a few days of receiving a vaccine.' University of Oxford expert on vaccination ethics Dr Maximilian Kiener with many over-50s might be mistakenly thinking the pandemic is over due to the relaxing of lockdown restrictions in July. 'Many people might think the pandemic is basically over and there's no need to get the jab anymore. But that's wrong,' he said. 'We need to keep going and convince as many people as possible to get the vaccine.' Dr Kiener said some people might think that a serious Covid infection could never happen to them, but medics should do their utmost to inform patients of this potential reality. 'It is critical that GPs inform their patients very explicitly about the risks and make salient what having a serious infection involves,' 'People might need to see realistic pictures or even videos of other people who are like them and became seriously ill.' Another suggestion of Dr Kiener's was positive reinforcement and said the UK could learn from our neighbours in this regard. 'We need to tell people how many others have already got the jab and benefitted from it,' he said. 'And we can certainly learn from French campaigns that addressed people very directly, e.g. when one poster showed a kissing couple and stated that the vaccine could have 'desirable side effects'.' But if all this fails Dr Kiener said the nation must respect these people's decision to not get the vaccine. 'Vaccination is still a medical procedure and requires voluntary consent,' he said. 'Otherwise, vaccination would violate a person's right to bodily integrity, a right that we should be very reluctant to compromise.' NHS England was contacted on if any special measures were underway to reach out to older unvaccinated people, but the organisation did not respond by deadline. The latest vaccine data comes as MailOnline revealed that millions on people eligible for Covid booster vaccine have not taken up the offer of a fresh jab. Up to 5 million people in England currently qualify for a booster jab but only around a third have come forward for one. It comes after a top Government scientific advisor said he wanted Britain to be 'more aggressive' with the rollout to limit the damage of a winter wave of cases. A total of 1.7million people in England have received a booster since the programme was signed off last month. Invites are only being sent out to those who received their second dose at least six months ago because that is the 'sweet spot' for immunity. For this reason, the rollout was always expected to be slower than the initial jab blitz, which at its peak saw 800,000 people vaccinated per day. But official figures show 4.9m people finished their two-dose vaccination schedule six months ago, with the majority meeting the criteria making them eligible for a top-up now. About 400,000 of the people jabbed half a year ago were immunocompromised and are receiving their third dose on a slightly different schedule. And many people who were vaccinated first originally were elderly and may have passed away in the past six months. But even when these are discounted, it still leaves millions of eligible and vulnerable people with subpar immunity. Earlier this week, Professor Neil Ferguson, a crucial member of the Government's scientific body SAGE, suggested the booster scheme was going too slowly. The husband of an Insulate Britain eco-zealot who is now going on hunger strike in prison after she and eight other activists were jailed for their roadblocking demonstrations said today that he was 'terrified' for her as they come to terms with spending Christmas apart. Emma Smart, 44, was handed a four-month sentence alongside Ben Buse, 36, Roman Paluch-Machnik, 28, Oliver Rock, 41, Tim Speers, 36, and James Thomas, 47, for taking part in a protest on the M25 on October 8. Ana Heyatawin, 58, and Louis McKechnie, 20, were sent to prison for three months, while Ben Taylor, 27, was jailed for six months after boasting he would immediately block the roads again if not imprisoned. Smart, a biologist, told the High Court yesterday that the proceedings were 'obscene' and glowered at barristers representing National Highways. However, she has faced allegations of hypocrisy after undertaking a gas-guzzling 81,000-mile drive across the globe with her husband Andy Smith in 2012. Mr Smith, 45, who volunteers as a climate activist full time but has not taken part in any demonstrations with Extinction Rebellion offshoot Insulate Britain, said he is 'terrified' for her as she spends Christmas behind bars. Mr Smith said he was aware that Smart would be going on a hunger strike if she was put behind bars, adding: 'It's something we discuss quite frequently'. He added: 'She is incredibly resolute in her actions. I stand by her in all the decisions she makes. All nine of them in court were pretty resolute that you can sentence them, but this isn't going to resolve the problem and people will still continue to protest. Obviously I'm terrified. It's a horrible thing for her to go through but I stand by her decision to do that.' Iranian state TV has claimed its navy chased a US vessel in the Persian Gulf, with video showing Revolutionary Guards cheering as they tail the speedboat. The footage shows at least one US-flagged vessel with around six personnel on board as two speedboats appear to be chasing it. A voice in Farsi says, 'Keep chasing them,' as other men cheer and whistle in the background. The report did not say when the encounter took place. The US Navy said it was not aware of any such incident at sea in the last few days. The American vessel in the clip is a Riverine Command Boat, a 52ft fast military assault craft which is often deployed in the region. The footage shows at least one US-flagged vessel with around six personnel on board as at least two speedboats appear to be chasing it. The American vessel in the clip is a Riverine Command Boat, a 52ft fast military assault craft which is often deployed in the region. The footage shows about half a dozen personnel aboard the US-flagged vessel The video aired by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, state-run TV, on Thursday shows two vessels heading off into the distance as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard tails them Typical armaments of the Riverine include three deck-mounted .50 calibre Browning M2 machine guns and a 40mm Mk19 grenade launcher. In 2016, ten US sailors were captured and humiliated by Iran after mistakenly steering their Riverine into Iranian waters. It was later found that the men had deviated significantly from their course and were unaware that an island they had passed was a well-known base for the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. The region remains on edge over Iran's escalating nuclear program. Talks in Vienna to revive Tehran's now-tattered 2015 accord with world powers have stalled since June, with no date set for their resumption. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said he wasn't aware of any sort of unsafe interaction with Iran in the last two days. The report is the first such report in recent months. In May, the Guard rejected the US Navy's claim that fast-approaching Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz sparked a tense encounter a day after the Washington said the Revolutionary Guard sent 13 armed speedboats too close to U.S. Navy vessels in the Strait. The United States at the time said a Coast Guard cutter fired warning shots when two of the Iranian boats came dangerously close. Typical armaments of the Riverine include three deck-mounted .50 calibre Browning M2 machine guns and a 40mm Mk19 grenade launcher. This frame grab from video aired by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, state-run TV, on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, shows two vessels in the Persian Gulf At the end of the clip there are two vessels seen heading away from the Iranian vessel. It's not clear how many US boats were allegedly involved in the incident A close up of the vessel shows personnel manning machine gun placements on deck The camera pans to reveal larger warships in the distance as a helicopter buzzes overhead The 2015 nuclear deal saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, raising tensions across the wider Middle East and sparking a series of attacks and incidents. With the talks in Vienna now stalled, Iran has breached limits set by the accord and is enriching small amounts of uranium to its closest-ever levels to weapons-grade purity as its stockpile continues to grow. Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the founder of anti-Putin newspaper Novaya Gazeta and a Filipino journalist who took on Duterte in a swipe at dictators. Russian Dmitry Muratov and Filipino Maria Ressa were awarded the prize on Friday, honouring the right to free speech which the prize-giving committee described as under threat around the globe. It comes after a months-long crackdown on press freedom and political opposition by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the run up to the September election. Muratov's independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, has been critical of the Russian strongman and his predecessors in the Kremlin since it was established in 1993. Chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Berit Reiss-Andersen said the pair were given the award 'for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia.' Russian Dmitry Muratov was given the award for founding the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta which has been critical of Putin and his predecessors in the Kremlin since it was established in 1993 Responding to the news Muratov told the Telegram news channel Podyom: 'I am laughing. I didn't expect it at all. It's madness over here right now. I saw a call from Norway, but I thought it was some unwanted call. 'Here's what I will say: we will continue to represent Russian journalism, which is now being suppressed. That's all. 'We will try to help people who are now labelled as 'foreign agents', who are being attacked and expelled from the country.' He later told Russian news agency Tass: 'I can't take credit for this. This is Novaya Gazeta's. It is that of those who died defending the right of people to freedom of speech. 'Now that they are no longer with us, they [the Nobel committee] probably decided that I should tell it to everyone.' The decision to award Muratov the coveted prize has been seen as a swipe at Russian President Vladimir Putin who has cracked down on press freedoms and opposition in recent months Muratov also paid tribute to journalist murdered in Russia for their work. 'It's for Igor Domnikov, it's for Yura Shchekochikhin, it's for Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya, it's for Nastya Baburova, it's for Natasha Estemirova, it's for Stas Markelov. This is for them,' he said. Several Novaya Gazeta journalists have been killed or died under mysterious circumstances, including renowned Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya who was shot in 2006. And in a surprising move, the Kremlin congratulated Muratov on his win. 'We can congratulate Dmitry Muratov,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 'He persistently works in accordance with his own ideals, he is devoted to them, he is talented, he is brave.' Meanwhile Philippines journalist Maria Ressa was awarded the prize for starting investigative news website Rappler which examines corruption and has exposed President Rodrigo Duterte's violent war on drugs. Reiss-Andersen added: 'At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions.' The prize is the first for journalists since the German Carl von Ossietzky won it in 1935 for revealing his country's secret post-war rearmament programme. 'Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda,' Reiss-Andersen said. The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will. Philippines journalist Maria Ressa was also awarded the prize for starting investigative news website Rappler which examines corruption Journalist Maria Ressa's work has exposed President Rodrigo Duterte's (pictured) violent war on drugs Responding to the award, Ressa told Rappler: 'I don't think this is me, I think this is Rappler. I have we have all along said this since 2016, that that we are fighting for facts. 'And when we live in a world where facts are debatable, when the world's largest distributor of news prioritises the spread of lives laced with anger and hate, and spreads it faster and further than facts, then journalism becomes activism. 'And that's the transformation that we've gone through in Rappler ... How do we do what we do? How can journalists continue the mission of journalism? Why is it so difficult to continue telling the community, telling the world, what the facts are, right? 'So in a battle for facts, I guess what this just shows is that that the Nobel peace prize committee realised that a world without facts means a world without truth and trust.' Furious Irish nationalists Sinn Fein have demanded Dublin snubs an event to mark 100 years of Northern Ireland that is due to be attended by the Queen. The republic is planning to send its foreign minister Simon Coveney to the service in Armagh later this month, which will also be attended by unionists and moderate republicans. It will mark the centenary of the creation of the province, which remained part of the United Kingdom when the rest of Ireland was granted home rule and became the Irish Free State. But Sinn Fein reacted with fury at the decision to send Mr Coveney and will not send a representative to the event. Last month the Irish president Michael D Higgins caused controversy when he said he would not attend the service in Armagh because he believed it was not politically neutral. Asked about Mr Coveney's attendance, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill today said: 'I think it's the wrong call. The prayer service, which the Queen is expected to attend, has been organised by the four main churches in Northern Ireland. The republic is planning to send its foreign minister Simon Coveney to the service in Armagh later this month, with will also be attended by unionists and moderate republicans. Last month the Irish president Michael D Higgins caused controversy when he said he would not attend because he believed it was not politically neutral 'It's a matter for the Irish Government to make its own decisions. But I think that it is wrong for the Irish Government to attend the event. 'I think that we all know the sensitivities around the decade of centenaries and that those things need to be handled sensitively. 'But when it comes to the issue of partition, it's a catastrophe. It's failing people. 'It's actually very current, and it impacts people's lives here today and has been detrimental to relationships on this island and across these islands. So I think it's wrong.' Yesterday, Pearse Doherty, who represents Sinn Fein in the Dail, told the Irish Times: 'There are many ways in which we can forward the issues of reconciliation across the island of Ireland. 'Sinn Fein have been party to them including different events including meeting Queen Elizabeth in the past. 'But this isn't about reconciliation. This is about commemorating partition, an act that had a devastating impact on our country.' The prayer service, which the Queen is expected to attend, has been organised by the four main churches in Northern Ireland. A statement from the Irish Government said that it would be sending Mr Coveney, as well as Government chief whip Jack Chambers. However, it also said that it gave 'full support' to the decision by the president not to attend. The statement said: 'The Government has today considered the invitation which it received from the Church Leaders Group to the Service of Reflection and Hope which the group is organising in Armagh later this month. 'In considering the invitation, the Government noted that its role in this matter is clearly distinct from that of the president. Pearse Doherty, who represents Sinn Fein in the Dail, told the Irish Times: 'This is about commemorating partition, an act that had a devastating impact on our country' 'In that regard, the Government reiterates its full support and understanding for the decision made by president Higgins with regard to his attendance at the event. 'That decision was quite properly made by the president and was based on concerns that he had consistently expressed. 'Cognisant of that important distinction, and in recognition also of the spirit and intentions of the church leaders in organising the event, the Government has decided that it will be represented at the event by the minister for foreign affairs and by the Government chief whip.' Colum Eastwood, leader of the nationalist SDLP, has also said his party will attend the church service because he believed it would help to 'break down barriers'. He said: 'Attending a church service in Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, to mark the centenary of partition does not diminish anyone's Irish nationalism. 'It will however, I hope, help to break down the barriers of distrust that have endured between our communities.' The Foyle MP added: 'The decision we have made wasn't motivated by the establishment or the churches. This is about stretching ourselves to heal the wounds of partition. 'It is about reaching beyond ourselves and reaching out to people from a different tradition, many of whom are considering a new future for our island for the first time. Colum Eastwood, leader of the nationalist SDLP, has also said his party will attend the church service because he believed it would help to 'break down barriers' 'My job as a leader of nationalism is to speak to them, to hear their concerns and to convince them that change is possible. 'I understand that this will be a challenging decision for some and others have come to a different determination. But it wasn't difficult for me. 'Given the choice between remaining in the trenches of the last 100 years or reaching out to build a new future, I know which side I want to be on.' Unionists in Northern Ireland were heavily critical of the decision by president Higgins not to attend the cross-community service. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he had 'set back north-south relations' in Ireland. Mr Higgins said that he declined his invitation because he believed it was not politically neutral and because he had concerns about the title of the event. The leaders of the Church of Ireland, Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist churches said the service was to 'explore the opportunity to deepen the work of reconciliation in a context of respectful dialogue'. One regional Victorian town will enter lockdown at the same time as two others come out of their stay-at-home rules, after a number of changes were announced by the state's chief health officer. On Friday afternoon Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton announced residents in the Mildura Rural City Council area will enter a snap seven-day lockdown from 11:59pm, giving locals less than seven hours notice. Mildura's infections have risen in recent days, with 12 active cases in the area. Three cases were confirmed on Friday afternoon, to be reported in Saturday's numbers. Mildura will enter a seven-day snap lockdown from 11:59pm Friday after a rise in Covid-19 cases brings the total of infections in the regional town to 12 (pictured, Mildura town centre) 'The public health teams are concerned about onward transmission in the Mildura and have determined that the seven-day lockdown is needed to limit growth in cases,' the CHO statement said. Mildura will be under the same stay-at-home rules as Melbourne, excluding the curfew, with a 15-kilometre travel limit and visitors banned from entering people's homes. More than 86 per cent of Mildura's eligible population have had one dose of a COVID vaccine, and 51 per cent have had two doses. Shepparton and Moorabool's lockdown restrictions will ease from midnight on Friday (pictured, a resident exercises during lockdown) Professor Sutton urged Mildura residents to get vaccinated, look out for symptoms and get tested if any develop, with a rapid response testing team to be sent to the region for support. 'We've seen regional communities get through an outbreak so we know it can be done - it's vital we protect the local community and the rest of regional Victoria from significant outbreaks,' he said. He has also announced Shepparton and Moorabool's lockdown restrictions will ease from midnight on Friday, after the measures slowed growth of the virus in those areas. Both town's restrictions will match the rest of regional Victoria, with masks required inside and outside, and social gatherings at home banned. Victoria recorded five deaths and 1838 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Friday - the highest daily tally of any Australian jurisdiction since the pandemic began. The deaths include a Shepparton woman in her 70s, a Knox woman in her 70s, a Moreland man in his 70s, a Whittlesea woman in her 80s and a Brimbank man in his 80s, bringing the toll from the latest outbreak to 75. Lockdown will ease after strict measures helped contain transmission of coronavirus (pictured, residents line-up for take-away coffee in Shepparton) Earlier on Friday, Professor Sutton said Victoria was 'heading to the peak' of its third major coronavirus outbreak. 'If today isn't the peak, and I don't think it is, I think we're close,' he told reporters. While infection numbers remain high, he said ICU admissions were less than one per cent of total active infections. 'Our numbers in ICU, the numbers of those hospitalised is not rising at the same rate, and that's a very good sign in terms of what vaccines are doing now,' he said. There are now 620 Victorians in hospital battling the virus, an increase of 56 since Thursday, including 114 in intensive care and 76 on ventilators. About 66 per cent of COVID-19 patients in hospital have not been vaccinated, while 26 per cent are partially vaccinated and just eight per cent are fully vaccinated. About 56 per cent of the Victorian population aged 16 and above are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 84 per cent have received their first dose. A group of mysterious Covid deniers have bombarded journalists, doctors and pharmacists with letters ordering them to 'cease and desist' reporting on the virus and vaccines. In the two-page letters which are signed by a 'concerned citizen', the group claims a series of Covid-19 measures such as vaccine mandates, testing and lockdowns are 'crimes against humanity'. It's unclear who is behind the bizarre letters but each one is addressed from a PO box in Gumdale, Brisbane. The misleading and dangerous letters are signed off by a group called We The People, Men and Women of the Australian Commonwealth. Kate McClymont, an investigative reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald revealed on Friday she'd been targeted by the group and shared a picture of the wacky letter. A group of mysterious Covid deniers have bombarded journalists, doctors and pharmacists with letters ordering them to 'cease and desist' reporting on the virus and offering vaccines Kate McClymont, an investigative reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald revealed on Friday she'd been targeted by the group and shared a picture of the bizarre letter 'I am shaking in my boots having received a missive from 'We The People' ordering me to 'cease & desist' publishing government's #COVID19 health orders because lockdowns constitute a crime against humanity,' she tweeted. The letter began by ordering Ms McClymont to 'cease and desist your indiscriminate broadcasting' of the pandemic. It then listed off several 'crimes against humanity' including 'experimentation of the Covid-19 treatment on unsuspecting innocent civilians'. Another bizarre claim wrongly said Covid-19 testing 'perpetuates the lie of a deadly pandemic, thereby constituting psychological warfare on the people'. 'We have not seen nor we do believe there exists sufficient evidence to support the assertion that a deadly pandemic exists,' the letter said. 'No indemnity can exist. You will have committed a crime which in due course will be investigated and you may expect to be punished to the full extent of the law.' The group has also been sending the letters to various pharmacies, demanding they stop administering vaccinations, as well as doctors and teachers. The group have also been sending the letters to various pharmacies, demanding they stop administering vaccinations, as well as doctors and teachers 'Most pharmacies doing Covid-19 Vaccines have received this letter or version of it. One pharmacy near us had a group of 6 people come in and they all read it aloud in unison,' one man tweeted in response to Ms McClymont's post. The letters aren't limited to Australia with similar notes popping up in Ireland and Canada. The PO box linked to the group is also the same as a mysterious organisation titled The Australia Project who have links to the letters on their website. 'Our vision and end goal is to unite all Australians seeking liberty, truth, well-being and health,' the website reads. 'We envisage that our freedoms must be built from the ground up, for the people, on a firm foundation of sound constitutional laws that give each Australian rights, justice and equity. 'We also envisage giving those that unite with us purpose, because purpose fuels passion, and ... only those that believe they are crazy enough to change the world for the better.' USPS worker Louis Vignone, 58 (pictured), was shot dead on his mail route in Pennsylvania as part of an alleged twisted revenge plot involving a suspected cyanide poisoning A U.S. Postal Service worker was delivering mail in Pennsylvania on Thursday when officials say he was shot dead by his former neighbor, who then surrendered and confessed to the police, claiming he believed the letter carrier previously poisoned him and his family with cyanide. Eric Kortz, 53, was charged with one count of murder of a United States employee and a firearm charge for the shooting death of Louis Vignone while the victim was on his route in Collier Township, acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Stephen Kaufman said in a statement. Vignone, 58, was shot around 10 a.m. on Thursday while he was delivering mail along Columbia Avenue. The mail carrier was pronounced dead at the scene as a result of multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head. Federal authorities said Kortz told investigators that he drove up and stopped in front of Vignone's USPS vehicle to block him, then 'went to put some bullets in him.' Scroll down for video Police investigate the scene of the fatal shooting in Collier Township, Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh, on Thursday Federal officials said Eric Kortz, 53, confronted Vignone in his USPS truck (pictured) and opened fire, shooting him multiple times, including in the head After the shooting, Kortz said he dropped the gun, got back in his van and headed straight to the Carnegie Borough Police Department to report what he did and turn himself in, according to an affidavit. Investigators located a firearm and seven spent shell casings in a yard near the shot-up USPS vehicle. Collier Township resident Debbie Bock told KDKA the shooting took place just steps away from her home. 'I was sitting in my chair watching TV this morning and I heard the shots and [it] kind of puzzled me because I knew it was close,' she said. 'I knew it wasnt from the gun club which is up the road.' A contractor who was working on the Bock family's property at the time of the attack heard the gunshots and rushed to Vignone's postal truck to administer aid, but it was too late. Police found seven shell casings on the scene of the shooting on Columbia Avenue After the shooting, Kortz said he dropped the gun and headed to the police department to turn himself in Bock's husband, Ken, described Vignone as a beloved figure in the community. 'Hes been here for as long as I can remember, and Ive lived here 20 years,' Ken Bock said. Kortz also told investigators that he and Vignone used to be neighbors. Kortz said he believed Vignone and the mail carrier's family poisoned him and his family with cyanide when the families lived close to each other. Sheilla Kirkpatrick, who used to be a neighbor of both Kortz and Vignone in Pittsburgh until the latter moved away in 2018, said she heard rumors that the two men did not get along. 'I did not see them interact with each other. They kept their distance,' Kirkpatrick said. Kortz allegedly said he believed Vignone (left) previously poisoned him and his family with cyanide while the two were neighbors in Pittsburgh Another neighbor in Pittsburgh said that a couple of months ago, Kortz told them that something big was going to happen and the whole city would hear of it. Kortz appeared in court virtually on Thursday and was detained in federal custody until his next hearing Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Kortz was assigned a public defender, who told the judge his client was unemployed. If convicted of killing a federal employee, Kortz could face the death penalty or life in prison. A heartbroken mother of two sisters who were tragically stabbed to death in a park says Sarah Everard's death takes her back to the 'pain' of her girl's final moments that were spent in 'absolute terror'. Wilhelmina Smallman's two daughters Bibaa Henry, 46 and Nicole Smallman, 27, were killed last June in Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north London by Danyal Hussein, 19, who had pledged to make human sacrifices in a twisted deal with the devil. It was revealed the killer had made a pact with Satan to win the lottery, signing a hand-written contract in his own blood. The sisters had been out celebrating Bibaa's birthday that evening and had planned to 'dance in the dark with fairy lights,' their mum said, but tragically their bodies were later discovered. Known as Mina, Mrs Smallman said Sarah Everard's mother's devastating victim impact statement, which was read out before the sentencing of former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens last week, took her and her husband, Chris 'back' to their court case. Wilhelmina Smallman (Pictured) said Sarah Everard's death takes her back to the 'pain' of her girl's final moments 'spent in terror' before being brutally murdered last June Bibaa Henry, 46, (Left) and Nicole Smallman, 27, (Right) were stabbed to death in Fryent Country Park in Wembley, north London by Danyal Hussein, 19, who had pledged to make human sacrifices in a twisted deal with the devil The 64-year-old, who is a former archdeacon of Southend, told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that her daughters and Sarah Everard's killers couldn't have viewed their victims as 'human'. She said: 'Whatever Couzens was thinking, whatever Hussein was thinking - they weren't thinking that our girls were human. 'They lost their humanity, otherwise they never could have done what they did to their victims.' She said the murder of her and Susan Everard's girls was 'horrific,' adding: 'I hope at some point I get an opportunity to meet with Sarah's parents, because we're such a really small and select group of individuals. 'No one expects to outlive their children. There is something different about your children being murdered, and knowing that their last few moments of life they spent in absolute terror.' Policeman killer Wayne Couzens was jailed for life last week for the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, 33 (Pictured) She added one of Bibaa's close friends - who had been out celebrating with the girls - has since been diagnosed with PTSD as she is wracked with guilt for leaving them on their own in the park that night. Mrs Smallman said she knows Wayne Couzen's sentencing - a rare whole life order for the sick crime - is not a 'victory,' but would like Sarah's mother, Susan, to know that she thinks of her. She said: 'I just want to say that I think of her often, of her mum. And don't suffer in silence because there comes the time when everybody else has to get on with their lives. 'I know all the parents who have lost children, as we have, you're in our thoughts and our prayers.' Mrs Smallman, who retired in 2016 as the former archdeacon of Southend, in the diocese of Chelmsford, spoke about her 'amazing,' 'gentle' and 'fiery' daughters on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. She said: 'It's the only opportunity you get to share what you feel. I think it's very valuable, but it also is an opportunity for you to reflect on that journey.' In a sickening blow, two Met Police officers guarding the scene are alleged to have taken sick selfies with them. Pc Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Pc Jamie Lewis, 32, have both been charged with misconduct in a public office and are awaiting trial. Describing her daughters as 'amazing,' Mrs Smallman said she and her family 'can't move on' until Danyal Hussein is sentenced later this month. The date of his sentencing is the same day of Bibaa and Nicole's other sister's birthday and one day before Mrs Smallman's birthday. Reflecting on recent conversations around women's safety following the sickeningly recent murders of Sarah Everard, Nicole, Bibaa and Sabina Nessa - a 28-year-old teacher living in southeast London - Mina insisted that the responsibility should not be placed on victims to keep safe. She explained that UK society needs to do more to hold men to account, adding: 'We are part of the problem. 'We have given permission for things to accelerate to the point where we have someone who is a police officer who feels able to do what he did.' But the mum said she was 'balanced' in her trust of police, in spite of the alleged betrayal of two officers entrusted to watch over her daughters' crime scene. Mina explained how one hero Met officer investigating Nicole and Bibaa's murders had spent a week trawling through rubbish to find blankets and pillows drenched in blood - and Danyal Hussein's DNA - that their killer had mercilessly chucked into a nearby bin. She said: 'That's the right police. They are good people.' Mina added it was the 'cover-up' nature within some forces that was garnering so much public distrust. The mum also told how two of her nieces, who are senior officers within the Met, had actually been reconsidering their careers following the harrowing revelation about cops taking pictures of their dead cousins' bodies. 'I said to them, it's always the good people who take on the guilt and the shame,' Mina said. 'You know it's not people like you who need to leave the police force. 'We need to out those who are a disgrace.' Mrs Smallman was the C of E's first female archdeacon from a minority ethnic background and was described as a 'pioneer' and 'role model.' Following news of the deaths, acting Bishop of Chelmsford, Rt Revd Peter Hill said in a statement: 'We are devastated to hear of the tragic deaths of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry in North London at the weekend. 'Nicole and Bibaa were the daughters of our former Archdeacon and good friend Mina Smallman. This is heart breaking news and the thoughts and prayers of everyone at Chelmsford Diocese are with Mina and her family. 'We ask that their privacy is respected and for everyone's prayers at this most difficult of times.' A man plunged 100ft from the ninth floor of a high-rise building in New Jersey and somehow survived the fall after landing on a BMW. The 31-year-old man, who has not been named, slammed through the roof of the black BMW and was seen in a bloodied state as he crawled from the wreckage in Jersey City on Wednesday morning at around 10.20am. As he stood up, with shards of glass and the broken car roof surrounding him, the man saw that his right arm was broken and asked witnesses: 'What happened?' Video footage and images from the scene showed the man, who had jumped from an open window of the ninth floor of the high-rise building at 26 Journal Square, writhing around in pain as he held his broken arm. The 31-year-old man, who has not been named, slammed through the roof of the black BMW and was seen in a bloodied state as he crawled from the wreckage in Jersey City on Wednesday morning at around 10.20am As he stood up, with shards of glass and the broken car roof surrounding him, the man saw that his right arm was broken and asked witnesses: 'What happened?' The man was seen writhing around in pain on the pavement (left) after stepping out of the damaged car (right) 'I heard a big boom and I didn't think it was a person at first,' Christina Smith, 21, who saw the man fall from the high-rise building at 26 Journal Square, told the New York Post. 'The back window of the car just busted out - exploded.' Smith told DailyMail.com she initially thought the bang was a bird but as soon as she saw the injured man, she called 911. She said: 'Then the man jumped out of the car and threw himself on the ground screaming "What just happened?" and asking for help,' adding that the man's arm 'was all twisted'. Smith added: 'I was trying to calm him down because his arm was broken very badly. I recorded the scene and I was in disbelief because I've never seen anything like that.' 'I was like, "Oh my God!" I was shocked. It was like being in a movie,' Smith, who had been walking to a nearby McDonald's at the time, added. Smith called the police before taking images and videos of the aftermath of the fall. The man was seen struggling to stand up from the car, after falling through the roof and appearing to land by the front seats. He was seen wearing a bloodied facemask, which was still hanging from his left ear, with blood on his forehead. The man had jumped from an open window of the ninth floor of the high-rise building at 26 Journal Square The injured man was seen holding his broken arm (left) after falling 100ft from the nine floor of the high-rise building (right) Graphic video footage then shows the man rolling around in pain on the pavement before he was rushed to hospital in an ambulance in a critical condition, said Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said. 'I was thinking, thank God, it probably helped that he had a fluffy jacket on,' Smith, who works in sales, said while adding that she believed the coat may have saved him from more serious injuries. Witnesses and workers at the building told the Post the man did not work inside the building and it is unclear why he was there. He also refused to give police officers his name, a source said. 'He fell into the car through the sunroof, then climbed out of the car and fell on the ground,' said Mark Bordeaux, 50, who works in the building and saw the aftermath. 'He was trying to get up but people were trying to get him to stay down, "You don't know how hurt you are". 'So he stayed there until the police and ambulances came. He kept saying, "Leave me alone, I want to die." You saw one of his arms was clearly broken, but he was conscious, he was moving,' he said. 'He wanted to die. That was his agenda. But God had something else in mind.' Although police are investigating, the incident doesn't involve suspicious circumstances, Wallace-Scalcione said. For help and support in the US contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit its website. For confidential support in the UK call Samaritans on 116123, go to samaritans.org or visit a Samaritans branch. The director of the Independent Office for Police Conduct said today the murder, kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard by killer cop Wayne Couzens meant it was 'now or never for policing to change'. Director General Michael Lockwood said in the past two years alone 394 referrals where abuse of power for sexual gain by police officers was a factor were in the IOPC's investigations. He pointed out many others had prompted concerns about staff behaviour on social media, racism, as well as use of stop and search. And he said the crisis of confidence in the police sparked by Miss Everard's murder had to be addressed now before it was too late. He said: 'Its now or never for policing to change. We all want confidence in policing. 'Policing by consent can only work where there is trust. That trust is fragile. It is easily lost and hard to build with the tragic murder of Sarah Everard further undermining this. Director General Michael Lockwood said it was a 'watershed moment' for police force Sarah Everard, 33, was kidnapped off the street by a serving Met officer who murdered her Shockwaves from Wayne Couzens' crimes have seen calls for Cressida Dick's resignation 'The vast majority of police officers do incredibly difficult work and with a clear intent to serve the public. It is important we keep perspective on this. 'But now is a watershed moment for policing to act and above all else, change. Policing must re-focus on building trust and take a long hard look at its own culture. 'A police culture that allows racist, misogynistic or homophobic behaviour to exist is not one we can trust. These breaches are compromising the relationship police have with communities they most need to serve.' The IOPC has looked at over 1,500 police officers and staff since it was formed in 2018 over their conduct. Out of those it said nearly two thirds - 58 per cent - of those investigations led to disciplinaries or official notices to improve. From the 394 referrals of abuse of power for sexual gain, the watchdog said 106 were so seriously it launched a full investigation. Marketing executive Sarah Everard, 33, was snatched off the street in Clapham on March 3 CCTV footage of Miss Everard captured earlier on the night she was kidnapped in March, sparking a nationwide hunt On day of IOPC director's comments it dismisses another officer for inappropriate behaviour A Nottinghamshire Police officer has been dismissed after gross misconduct was found proven, following an investigation by the IOPC. The police constable faced an allegation of gross misconduct for attempting to form an inappropriate, emotional and/or sexual relationship with a member of the public. The officer was not named in the hearing, which was chaired by the Nottinghamshire Chief Constable. The officer had been travelling home from a night shift in February 2020 when he stopped his car near to a roundabout in Nottingham after he said he became concerned with a womans driving. He then identified himself to her as an off-duty police officer and spoke with her. He did not take any action in respect of the potential driving offence and in the following days and weeks, up to May 2020, the officer exchanged messages of a personal and sexual nature with the woman in an attempt to form a relationship. IOPC investigators analysed mobile phones including a considerable number of text, WhatsApp and Snapchat messages. The IOPC interviewed both the officer and the woman involved, who was considered to be vulnerable. Advertisement The firm words from the watchdog come in the wake of widespread repulsion at the appalling crimes of PC Couzens. He was a serving Met police officer when he used his uniform and police issue handcuffs to kidnap Miss Everard in a car hired because it looked like a force vehicle. Using the pretence of lockdown restrictions, Couzens, 48, got the 33-year-old marketing executive to get into his car in Clapham at 9.30pm on March 3. He drove her 80 miles away to Kent where he raped and killed her before burning her body in a fridge near land he owned. The horror of an officer - now dismissed and jailed for life - using his position to carry out murder and rape has caused a crisis in confidence in the police. Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has faced calls to resign and women and girls have spoken out about how they feel unsafe. DG Lockwood added: 'Our work highlights that police officers falling below the standards of behaviour expected are not one-off events, nor can they be dismissed as being an isolated "bad apple". 'We remain concerned about a culture where some officers dont see anything wrong with sharing deeply offensive messages on social media and where others feel unable or unwilling to challenge this and other unacceptable behaviours. 'Colleagues calling out poor behaviour when they see it should be the norm, and not the exception. Officers need to feel protected to do this out in an environment where there is zero tolerance. You cannot rely on individuals to do this if the culture does not support them. 'There must be self-awareness of the problem and firm action to tackle it by senior leaders. 'There must also be consistent and appropriate sanctions being applied by all forces to send a clear message about the standards of behaviour expected from officers. 'Sadly this is not always our experience.' Thomas Cahill has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for five burglaries, three robberies, an attempted robbery and aggravated vehicle taking Dramatic dash-cam footage shows a thug driver in a stolen Fiat 500 leading police on a high speed chase following a violent rampage during which he attacked pensioners in their own homes. Thomas Cahill, 42, can be seen driving into oncoming traffic in the residential streets of Quinton, Birmingham, and even along footpaths as he tried to evade officers on August 22 last year. The shocking video shows him dangerously weaving in and out of traffic, across grass verges and eventually scarpering by foot during the pursuit from police. A court heard that Cahill, a roofer, was wanted for a string of violent offences at the time including burglary, robbery and aggravated vehicle taking. During his spree of crimes, a 78-year-old woman suffered a broken hip after being dragged to the ground as he snatched her bag in the street. Another 78-year-old woman fell victim to Cahill when he broke into her home and stole bank cards and cash. He also cut off her phone line so she couldn't call for help. One female victim was stabbed multiple times in her hand as he tried to cut the strap of her handbag while she walked down the street. Cahill stole a Fiat 500 from Wolverhampton but was picked up by the on-board tracker in the Stourbridge area, West Midlands Patrol officers picked up on the pings of the on-board tracker and its movements were tracked from above by a police helicopter Cahill went against oncoming traffic in the hectic getaway before his tyres were stung on Hagley Road, Birmingham, but continued to crash into a wooden barrier and drive on a footpath The chase came to a halt at 6.45pm on Simmons Drive, Birmingham, at around 6.45pm having shed a tyre and Cahill was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving Cahill also tricked his way into the house of a vulnerable man who had previously suffered a stroke by asking for a glass of water before stealing his bank cards. But the homeowner's son spotted Cahill leaving the house, recognised him as having previously done roofing work at the property and was later able to identify him. A day later, he stole a cream coloured Fiat 500 from a property in Wolverhampton and officers were able to trace the car due to the in-car tracker. The stolen vehicle was driven dangerously as he sped through residential areas and at times on the wrong side of dual carriageway, before its tyres were stung. It eventually ground to a halt having shed a tyre, and Cahill was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving following a brief chase on foot. After the high-speed police chase in Quinton, Birmingham, Cahill was detained and last week handed a 12-year prison sentence for his string of violent crimes across the city Cahill, who has no fixed address, pleaded guilty to five burglaries, three robberies, an attempted robbery and aggravated vehicle taking. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court last Tuesday. Detective Mark Timmins, of West Midlands Police, said: 'Thomas Cahill is a really violent offender and we are so pleased to see him behind bars for this time. 'He preyed on the vulnerable and took advantage of them. 'Cahill drove a battered Ford Focus to commit most of these offences, so we were quickly able to identify him as being involved in these malicious crimes. 'Being of a victim of burglary and robbery can be really difficult and the thought of someone being in your home can take a long time to recover from, so I hope this sentence will also provide comfort to Cahill's victims.' A young woman was left stunned after police pulled her over and fined her $500 for not wearing a mask in a car with her boyfriend. Hospitality worker Samantha Malnick was on her way to the beach in Hamilton East, NSW, with her partner Dom when police issued her the penalty. 'For "not wearing a mask in an indoor area" I think the ticket said,' Ms Malnick told A Current Affair. '$500 means a lot to me. I've always worked, I've always had to work for my money my entire life.' Samantha Malnick (pictured) was fined $500 for failing to wear a mask inside her car while driving with her boyfriend Ms Malnick questioned why she needed to wear a mask in her car, but was free to hug, kiss and visit her boyfriend's house without worrying about a face covering. 'Yeah it was pretty shocking and it doesn't really make sense to me either that you can go and visit your partner at their houses and stuff, but when you're in a car with them you suddenly have to be wearing a mask,' she said. Police have clamped down harder on Covid-19 restrictions since the Delta variant outbreak saw infections sky rocket to over 1,500 cases last month. In July, fines for Covid rule breakers doubled with penalty infringements increasing from $200 to $500 for Sydneysiders caught not wearing masks. A person must carry and wear a face mask whenever they leave the house unless they are undertaking vigorous exercising, have a medical exemption, or are eating and drinking. Ms Malnick was left confused by the fine that was issued for 'not wearing a mask in an indoor area' despite being able to visit, hug and kiss her boyfriend Dom Rules on mask mandates will change from October 11 after the state reached its 70 per cent vaccination target. From Monday residents in Greater Sydney will no longer be required to carry a face mask on them, or wear one outside, except in special circumstances. Masks will only be required in public indoor settings, public transport, planes and airports and indoor front-of-house hospitality staff. At 80 per cent vaccination, employees working in an office building will no longer be required to wear masks indoors. Advertisement One in 12 children in England were infected with coronavirus on any given day last week, according to official figures that lay bare the true scale of the back-to-school spread. The Office for National Statistics estimated 786,300 people in England had the virus on October 2, up 19.4 per cent on the previous weekly figure. Separate data from the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) today showed the the R rate might still be above one and has increased slightly to between a range of 0.9 and 1.1. The ONS report found the virus was most prevalent among children aged 11 to 16 last week, with 6.9 per cent of them estimated to have been infected at any point around one in 15 youngsters. But data for the most recent day alone shows 8.1 per cent had Covid equating to one in 12 children in the age group. Cases among youngsters have soared since they returned to classrooms from the beginning of last month. Some local authorities including in parts of the South West, Cumbria and Northamptonshire have since brought back face masks in an attempt to quell the latest surge. But infection rates in pupils is a mixed picture, as other figures suggest infections may have already peaked in youngsters. Department of Health figures show the number of primary and secondary-aged children testing positive fell in the five days leading up to October 2 for the first time since the start of the new term. And data from the country's biggest symptom-tracking app also suggested that cases in children have peaked. But infection rates still remain extremely high with around 1.5 per cent of youngsters aged 10 to 14 testing positive last week alone. London and the North West were both predicted to have an R rate at 0.9 to 1.1. Experts predicted it may be slightly higher between 0.9 and 1.2 in the East of England, Midlands, South East and South West. And the figure was set between 1.0 to 1.1 in the North East and Yorkshire Data from the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) today showed the the R rate might still be above one and has increased slightly to between a range of 0.9 and 1.1 The graph shows the estimated daily percentage testing positive among different age groups in England from August 22 to October 2. Infection rates are a mixed picture across the country, with cases rising among two to 11-year-olds, 35 to 49-year-olds and the over 70s, falling among people aged 12 to 34 and staying flat among those aged 50 to 69 The graph shows ONS estimates for the proportion of people testing positive in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland from August 7 to October 2. In the most recent week, cases in England soared by a fifth, stayed flat in Wales and fell in Northern Ireland and Scotland Infection rates increased among secondary school pupils from 4.6 per cent estimated to be infected in the week up to September 25, to 6.9 per cent in the most recent week, the ONS said. Meanwhile, the outbreak among 35 to 49-year-olds rose from 0.8 to 1.2 per cent. Cases also increased among the over 70s, from 0.5 to 0.6 per cent, and in youngsters aged two to 10, from 2.6 to 2.8 per cent. But infections fell by 0.3 among 12 to 24-year-olds and by 0.1 per cent in the group aged 25 to 34. UKs daily Covid cases rise to another month-high Daily coronavirus cases have risen in the UK again and the number of patients being admitted to hospital with the virus has started to nudge up once more but deaths are down. The Department of Health recorded 40,701 infections across the country over the past 24 hours, up nearly 12 per cent on last week. It's the first time in a month that cases have risen above 40,000 in a single day. There were another 122 Covid deaths registered today in an 11 per cent drop on the figure last Thursday. It's the 11th day in a row that fatalities have fallen week-on-week. Latest hospital data also shows there were 681 Covid admissions on October 3, a small 4 per cent rise compared to the number the previous week. Both death and hospital numbers lag a few weeks behind cases due to the time it takes for infection to turn into serious illness. Yesterday saw a week-long spell of falling cases come to an end, with the trajectory of the epidemic becoming increasingly harder to predict. Separate data from the country's largest symptom-tracking study today suggested that the number of Britons falling ill with Covid every day has jumped to the highest level since January. Advertisement Meanwhile, cases soared by a fifth in England. Around one in 70 people had Covid in the week to October 2, up from one in 85 the previous week. At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 were estimated to have coronavirus. In Wales, around one in 55 people were estimated to have had Covid. The figure is unchanged from the previous week, remaining the highest since the week to December 23. In Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is one in 130, down from one in 65 the previous week. For Scotland, the ONS estimates around one in 60 people had Covid in the week to October 2, down from one in 55 the previous week. Across England, the percentage of people infected is estimated to have increased in all regions except the East, where the trend is uncertain, the ONS said. Yorkshire and the Humber (1.9 per cent) and the East Midlands (1.8 per cent) had the highest proportion of people likely to test positive for coronavirus, at around one in 55. London and eastern England had the lowest at around one in 90 (1.1 per cent). Cases were also higher than the national average (1.4 per cent) in the North East and North West, where 1.7 per cent of people were infected on any given day last week. Meanwhile, the South West (1.6 per cent), West Midlands (1.5 per cent) and South East (1.2 per cent) also all recorded increases last week. It comes as, No10's top scientists estimated the R rate which measures the spread of the virus may now be below one at between 0.9 and 1.1. This suggests that for every ten people who have the virus, they are passing it on to between nine and 11 others. London and the North West were both predicted to have an R rate at this level. Experts predicted it may be slightly higher between 0.9 and 1.2 in the East of England, Midlands, South East and South West. And the figure was set between 1.0 to 1.1 in the North East and Yorkshire. The HSA said the rate at which infections are rising day-by-day is between -1 per cent and 2 per cent. This means that the number of new Covid cases could be broadly flat, shrinking by up to one per cent every day or growing by up to 2 per cent every day. But the HSA warned the R rate and growth rate should be interpreted with huge caution because it is a lagging indicator and only shows the situation on the ground from around three weeks ago. Meanwhile, Department of Health figures yesterday revealed infections are still highest among 10 to 14-year-olds. There were 1,540 positive tests per every 100,000 people in that age group during the week ending September 27 after soaring at the start of the new term. But this has fallen consistently since then, dropping to just 1,461 per 100,000 in the seven-day spell ending October 2 the most recent day figures are available for. A similar trend is visible among 15 to 19-year-olds, which saw cases peak in the same seven-day window (651 per 100,000). It now stands at 635 per 100,000. And cases among five to nine-year-olds have been falling for nine days in a row after peaking at 569 per 100,000 on September 23. Some 487 per 100,000 in the cohort are now infected. School children are largely unvaccinated and not required to wear masks, although they are regularly tested for the virus. Meanwhile, cases are rising among people in their 50s, with up to 286 per 100,000 infected. Professor Paul Hunter, an expert in medicine at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline some of the fall in the 10 to 14-year-old age group could be due to the start of immunisation in the age group. Children aged 12 to 15 began getting Covid jabs from September 20. But he noted this cannot explain changes among those aged five to nine. Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, an expert in child health at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, told MailOnline cases could be falling because immunity levels are rising among young people and parents due to vaccines and natural infection. Young people could also be following social distancing and wearing face coverings in and outside of school, he said. 'These data are good news but do not alter my support for the four CMO's [chief medical officers'] recommendation to offer Covid vaccines to teenagers across the UK', Professor Stephenson added. Dr Stephen Griffin, a viral oncologist at the University of Leeds, told MailOnline he suspects vaccine uptake among 16 to 18-year-olds and children isolating now that schools are back is behind the decline in cases. He said: 'It is, and always has been, a shameful mistake to allow schools to return without mitigations. 'Everyone wants children in school, it simply needs to be as safe for them as we can possibly make it for them to do so. 'To ignore Covid is a mistake. Current policy continues to ignore those without vaccines, including young children, as well as the clinically vulnerable. 'We need sensible mitigations and a wide ranging vaccination programme as the long term solution to controlling the pandemic.' It comes after King's College London scientists estimated 66,033 people were getting infected daily in the week ending October 2, up 13.6 per cent from 58,126 the week before. Cases in children appear to be turning a corner but are still extremely high, with around one in 30 school pupils contracting the virus nearly three times more than the next highest rate in 35 to 55-year-olds. Meanwhile, data from the Department of Health today revealed the UK recorded 40,701 infections over the past 24 hours, up nearly 12 per cent on last week. It's the first time in a month that cases have risen above 40,000 in a single day. There were another 122 Covid deaths registered today in an 11 per cent drop on the figure last Thursday, marking the 11th day in a row that fatalities have fallen week-on-week. Latest hospital data also shows there were 681 Covid admissions on October 3, a small 4 per cent rise compared to the number the previous week. Both death and hospital numbers lag a few weeks behind cases due to the time it takes for infection to turn into serious illness. Bradley Knapp, 27, hit two men in his car outside pub in Dartford, Kent, in 2019 A driver who became one of Britain's most wanted went on the run after ploughing his car into a crowd outside a pub has been jailed for seven years. Bradley Knapp, 27, sparked an international manhunt after hitting two men in his car near The Clipper pub in Dartford, Kent, in October 2019. He fled within hours of being identified as a suspect by Kent Police but was tracked down almost a year later to Tenerife, where he had worked, formed a stable relationship and fathered a child. He was arrested on a European warrant and eventually extradited back to the UK in October last year. Knapp admitted wounding with intent and perverting the course of justice but was cleared of attempted murder during his trial at Maidstone Crown Court in June. The jury, which deliberated for almost eight hours, was not told that he had gone on the run or about his subsequent extradition. Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Justice Cavanagh said that Knapp had been 'reckless in the extreme' and he posed a danger to the public. He was handed an extended sentence, totalling seven years of imprisonment with an extra two years added to any time spent on licence. Bradley Knapp (pictured above), 27, sparked an international manhunt after hitting two men in his car near The Clipper pub in Dartford, Kent, in October 2019 The prosecution had alleged that Knapp, who only held a provisional driving licence and was on police bail for an unrelated dangerous driving matter, used the Ford Fiesta while in a 'murderous state of mind', driving indiscriminately and intending to kill multiple pedestrians. A few minutes earlier he had been ejected from the pub for fighting with another man, Sean O'Flaherty, who was standing at the back of the crowd outside The court heard Knapp manoeuvred the car through bollards with the passenger door open, before accelerating onto a pedestrianised area in the High Street and steering sharply towards the group. Although the majority of people were able to jump out of the way, two were hit. The impact dramatically flipped one man, Callum Walpole, almost vertically into the air to the height of two vehicles and over a parked car. He later told police that when he landed on the ground and opened his eyes he was 'shocked he wasn't dead'. A second man, Gary Sayer, was knocked to the ground when his legs were clipped by the front of the Fiesta. 'People tried to get out of the way of the car. I had nowhere to go,' he told police, adding he feared he would be run over for a second time. The incident occurred just after 11.30pm on October 11, 2019, and was captured on council-owned CCTV cameras. Having hit the two men, Knapp crashed into a parked Mercedes and then fled the scene on foot. He was later identified by those at the scene and fingerprints found on carrier bags in the Fiesta. Mr Walpole suffered serious injuries, including fractures to his shoulder and wrist, a cracked nose, two black eyes, chipped front tooth and bruising to his shin and ankle. Knapp fled within hours of being identified as a suspect by Kent Police but was tracked down almost a year later to Tenerife. He was arrested (above) on a European warrant and eventually extradited back to the UK in October last year Mr Sayer sustained injuries to his hands, hip, ankle, foot and calf. Both men gave statements to police but neither gave evidence at trial. Mr O'Flaherty, who was not hit by the car, declined to assist the police investigation. Prosecutor Simon Taylor QC told the court that Knapp's driving was 'aggressive, deliberate and murderous' and he was plainly using the car as 'a deadly weapon'. However Knapp, who had had no more than five driving lessons and suffers from ADHD, was cleared of attempted murder after he told the court that although he deliberately drove into the crowd at 15 to 20mph, he did not want to kill anyone. He fled the country under a false name and by ferry from the Port of Dover on October 16, less than nine hours after Kent Police had named him as wanted in connection with the incident. Describing Knapp as 'impulsive, aggressive, prone to losing control and lashing out with great violence', Mr Justice Cavanagh told him: 'The jury found you did not intend to kill anyone but it is clear beyond doubt, and you accept, that you intended to cause serious bodily harm. 'It is also clear you didn't care if you injured multiple pedestrians in order to get to Mr O'Flaherty. You might have easily killed someone. Knapp was handed a total of seven years of imprisonment with an extra two years added to any time spent on licence 'Although there was no premeditation, you made use of a car as a highly dangerous weapon and your motive was revenge. 'The offence was reckless in the extreme. You lost control and acted in a way which might have easily killed several people. 'It was committed while on bail, took place in public, at night and in front of members of the public who must have been terrified. 'The victims were not known to you and it's an aggravating feature that you were happy to harm a number of people in order to take revenge on Mr O'Flaherty.' The court heard Knapp, who has seven previous convictions for 14 offences including kidnap, had been involved in violence while on remand in prison. The judge added: 'The way you have behaved since your arrest suggests you have not learnt your lesson or decided to turn over a new leaf.' Trouble had flared inside the pub when Mr O'Flaherty tried to touch the face of one of Knapp's female friends. Fighting broke out and both men were ejected by doormen. Knapp, who claimed Mr O'Flaherty had glassed him 'for no reason', made his way to his friend's Fiesta parked a few metres from the pub. Three minutes later the car was then seen pulling up on Market Street in front of the bollards. Knapp got out from the front passenger seat and his friend Sam Jones from the driver's seat, brandishing a metal pole. Knapp admitted wounding with intent and perverting the course of justice but was cleared of attempted murder during his trial at Maidstone Crown Court (file photo above) in June As Mr Jones began to attack Mr O'Flaherty, Knapp ran back to the Fiesta and got into the driver's seat. Giving evidence at his trial, Knapp told the jury: 'I was in a state of panic. I was trying to start the car and wasn't thinking straight. 'I was concerned that we were outnumbered, there was a lot of people with Sam and I wanted to get me and him out of the situation. 'I had anger and wanted to hurt them but I didn't want to kill them. I wanted to get me and my friend out of the way. 'I had just been attacked for no reason, my friend was being attacked. I wanted to hurt them. I didn't want to take no one's life. It's not me.' Knapp admitted he knew he would injure someone by driving the car at them but said it was 'a scare tactic' and maintained: 'I didn't want to take a person's life. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in jail.' Asked by his barrister Danny Moore what injury he had intended when he allegedly accelerated and steered into the crowd, Knapp replied: 'Not death. Broken bones, bruises.' During cross-examination, Knapp said it was 'all a blur' when the Fiesta struck Mr Walpole and he could not recall if he had hit his brakes. He also told the court he fled the scene because he was scared. Mr Moore told the sentencing hearing that Knapp's child was born while he was in custody awaiting trial. Knapp, who was banned from driving for four years and three months, also admitted a separate offence of dangerous driving committed in August 2019. He had taken cocaine and was driving a stolen car on false plates when he led police on a mile-long pursuit in Swanscombe, Kent. A man who helped Knapp flee the country was later jailed for 15 months for perverting the course of justice. Detective Constable Mike Rake, Kent Police's investigating officer for the case, said: 'Knapp committed a senseless and excessive act of violence that could have easily had fatal consequences. 'Whatever provocation he may have felt he had experienced, there are no mitigating circumstances for using such force - force which led to two innocent people being injured. 'His willingness to use such violence, coupled with his failed attempt to escape justice, shows him to be an exceptionally dangerous offender and I am pleased he has now faced justice.' The number of tenancies started in prime London locations in September was the highest monthly total in the past 10 years, an estate agent has reported. The number of new prospective tenants registering was 56 per cent higher than in September last year, Knight Frank, a residential and commercial property consultant said. Offices reopening, overseas tenants arriving in bigger numbers and people returning to universities are behind the figures, it suggested. The number of tenancies started in prime London locations in September was the highest monthly total in the past 10 years, an estate agent has reported, as workers return to the office. Pictured: data shows lettings have increased around London's financial area at a greater rate In what industry experts branded the 'race for space', many residents from the capital sold up and moved out of the city in a bid to find properties with more space during lockdowns. Renters swapped inner London transport hubs for homes further afield as the need to commute became less important than a desire for space, data from RightMove showed last year. But as workers are now returning to the office, Knight Franks says data suggests office workers are renting a London base having moved out of the capital as part of the race for space trend. The company compared how many properties were rented as a proportion of all listings in Greater London and an area that includes locations around the City and Canary Wharf, according to OnTheMarket. The neighbourhoods in the latter group include E14, the Southbank, Wapping, Shad Thames, south Islington, E1, E2, E3 and the square mile itself. The rate in both groups was 13 per cent at the start of the year but there has been a divergence in recent months. Knight Frank also says companies are enquiring about relocations now that travel restrictions have eased and that enquiries have increased in line with the number of Heathrow passengers Knight Frank says the renting market has heated up in and around the financial district of London as workers who sold up for more space in lockdown are renting hubs near the office While 22.5 per cent of Greater London listings were rented in August, the figure was 28 per cent in areas around the two financial districts. The estate agent added that average rental values rose on a quarterly basis by the largest amount in a decade in prime central (2.8 per cent) and prime outer London (2.6 per cent). The prime property figures broadly cover the top 10 per cent of properties by value within Knight Frank's office patches. David Mumby, head of prime lettings at Knight Frank, said: 'We are seeing competitive bidding across prime central London markets, with new tenants mainly being 'London leavers' who now are returning to the office, and international students who are still agreeing properties purely based on virtual viewings.' Footy superstar Nathan Cleary will be spoken to by the NRL Integrity Unit over reports three men who allegedly snuck into the Grand Final from Sydney were his friends. The men, aged, 23, 24 and 25 allegedly drove from Sydney into Queensland shortly after 2.30pm on Saturday with incorrect border passes to watch the Penrith Panthers' 14-12 win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs on Sunday night. The trio were allegedly busted after photos on social media showed them partying in the Sunshine State and they were eventually fined $4,135 by Queensland Police for breaching Covid health orders. Footy superstar Nathan Cleary (pictured with family) will be spoken to by the NRL Integrity Unit over reports the three men who allegedly snuck into the Grand Final from Sydney were his friends They have since been sent back to Sydney with NSW Police saying they will also investigate the matter. Under current health orders those living in Sydney are not able to leave the city amid a Covid-19 lockdown. The Queensland border is also shut to anyone entering from NSW. An NRL spokesperson confirmed Cleary is being questioned about the trio's alleged illegal holiday. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Cleary knew about the alleged border breach. An NRL spokesperson confirmed Cleary (right) is being questioned about the trio's alleged illegal holiday. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Cleary knew about the alleged border breach Cleary, who took home the Clive Churchill medal after Sunday night's win, was last year fined $1,000 by police and copped a two-game ban after footage surfaced of him dancing with five women in breach of social distancing rules. Images of the 23-year-old partying with the girls and filming TikTok dances at his house went viral and attracted widespread criticism. Advertisement Trump told Fox News accepting Haitian migrants into the US would be a 'death wish' Donald Trump told Fox News on Thursday night that he thought Haitian migrants coming to the US 'will probably have AIDS.' The former president said accepting the asylum-seekers would be a 'death wish' for the US. A record-shattering number of Haitian migrants have come to the US in the last month, and the trend doesn't appear to be stopping as more people continue to pour into the Colombian town of Necocli, a popular spot for smugglers to shepherd people through the perilous Darien Gap. The Darien Gap is a 66-mile stretch of rainforest between North and South America. Its dangerous terrain is part of the reason it's been left undeveloped and why it poses such a great risk to the people crossing it now. More than 70,000 migrants have traveled through the Darien Gap this year, Panamanian authorities have said. Most of the migrants in recent months have been Haitians, many of whom had been living in Chile and Brazil since the 2010 Haitian earthquake. 'So, we have hundreds of thousands of people flowing in from Haiti. Haiti has a tremendous AIDS problem. AIDS is a step beyond. AIDS is a real bad problem,' Trump told host Sean Hannity. 'Many of those people will probably have AIDS and theyre coming into our country. And we dont do anything about it. We let everybody come in.' Migrants, most from Haiti, depart a base camp towards the jungle in the infamous Darien Gap while on their journey towards the United States on October 7. The number of Haitian migrants heading to the US has skyrocketed in recent weeks Mostly Haitian migrants break camp at sunrise on October 7 before trekking through the 66-mile stretch of undeveloped, unpoliced rainforest More than 70,000 migrants have traveled through the Darien Gap this year, Panamanian authorities have said He added, 'Sean, it's like a death wish. It's like a death wish for our country.' Trump infamously once referred to Haiti as a 'sh*thole country' during a meeting with bipartisan senators at the White House in 2018. At another point in the interview Trump claimed without proof that '50 countries' including Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador are 'emptying their prisons' and sending inmates to the US. 'I hear it's 50 countries, they're emptying out their prisons into the United States,' he said. 'Some of the toughest people on Earth are being dumped into the United States because they don't want them.' 'So these people that are the roughest prisoners there are anywhere are being dumped into the United States for us to take care of them.' He said 'hundreds of thousands of people' were pouring in every two weeks. Nearly 28,000 Haitian migrants were encountered by Border Patrol agents along the US-Mexico border in Fiscal Year 2021, which ended September 30. In 2020, the number was 4,395. 'We have hundreds of thousands of people pouring in every two weeks, and coming from countries - we don't even know from where they're coming and you know, they're emptying out many countries,' Trump said. Many of the Haitians now embarking on the dangerous journey to the United States fled their country for South America in 2010, and are now are leaving for the US through towns like Acandi in Colombia and trekking across the Darien Gap. The COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for upending much of South and Central America's economy, forcing people already in a precarious position into desperation A group of migrants trek from a base camp toward the jungle in the Darien Gap on October 7 The passage, which can take up to a week, is considered the most dangerous stretch for migrants traveling from South America to the US Most of the Haitian migrants attempting to travel to the US have been living in Brazil and Chile since the 2010 Haitian earthquake Nearly 28,000 Haitian migrants were encountered by Border Patrol agents along the US-Mexico border in Fiscal Year 2021 Last month around 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants camped near a bridge in Del Rio, Texas. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the time, 'It is unprecedented for us to see that number of people arrive in one discrete point along the border in such a compacted period of time.' Images of the cramped, squalid tent city they were living in prompted a humanitarian outcry against the Biden administration. Earlier this week the Washington Examiner reported that border officials are bracing for an incoming surge of as many as 60,000 Haitian migrants. It comes against the backdrop of a record-setting number of asylum-seekers coming to the southern border since President Biden took office. Republican lawmakers have blamed Biden's rollback of 'inhumane' Trump-era border policies as the driving force behind the spike for sending a message that the US is 'open' amid a deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Migrants from Haiti spend a night at a base camp on October 6 before trekking through the infamous Darien Gap to try and claim asylum in the US Earlier this week the Washington Examiner reported that border officials are bracing for an incoming surge of as many as 60,000 Haitian migrants Nearly 28,000 Haitian migrants were encountered by Border Patrol agents along the US-Mexico border in Fiscal Year 2021, which ended September 30 Trump infamously once referred to Haiti as a 'sh*thole country' in 2018 (pictured: Migrants camped out in Las Tekas, Columbia before continuing on their journey to the US) A record-setting number of asylum-seekers came to the southern border since President Biden took office One of Biden's first acts in office was halting construction on Trump's border wall. DHS has been engaged in an ongoing legal battle to repeal his Remain in Mexico policy. He's also rolled back the scope of Border Agents' law enforcement and patrol duties, leaving parts of the southern border thinly guarded. But Biden's had a tough time pleasing even his own side with his border policies. His White House is fighting in the US court system to keep Trump's Title 42 policy in place, which allowed border agents to immediately expel migrants apprehended at the border due to a possible COVID-19 health risk. Despite Biden significantly rolling back its enforcement, immigration advocates and progressive Democrats have attacked the president for not sticking to his promise to re-write Trump's severe immigration policies. In his Thursday interview Trump appeared to take a jab at Biden and Democrats' border handling, declaring, 'the border was the strongest we had probably ever, and all they had to do was leave it alone.' 'Somebody doesn't love our country, when they allow this to happen to our country,' he said. A council is to ask the Scottish Government to redirect cash from a 1.6million trust fund - established using profits from slavery - so that it can benefit people in Jamaica. For nearly two centuries, the Dick Bequest has helped causes related to education in Moray and Aberdeenshire. Approximately 5,000 goes each year towards new school equipment in Moray, while a further 10,000 is directed towards training opportunities for teachers. However that funding to Scottish schools could now be stopped after councillors backed a motion to urging ministers to redistribute the money to Jamaica. It comes after new research revealed that the trust's founder, James Dick, had links to the slave trade. Exactly how the money might be used to benefit people in Jamaica is not yet clear - though councillors have suggested it could fund trips for Jamaican schoolchildren to visit Moray. While SNP councillors have backed to move, saying it is 'right to give back stolen money', it has been questioned by Tory councillors, who have urged 'you can't change history'. Others ask why Dick, who was born in Moray and made his fortunes in Jamaica, has been singled out from other historical traders believed to have links to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It comes amid call for statues of historical figures with links to slavery to be toppled in the wake of last year's Black Lives Matter protests. A statue of Dick's business partner Robert Milligan - a known slave trader - was taken down in June last year from the wharf he helped construct in London's docklands. For nearly two centuries, the Dick Bequest has helped causes related to education in Moray and Aberdeenshire. However that funding could now be stopped after councillors at Moray Council (pictured) backed an SNP motion to re-distribute the money to Jamaica A statue of Dick's business partner Robert Milligan (pictured) was taken down in June last year from the wharf he helped construct in London's docklands Who is James Dick? Born in Moray in 1743, James Dick would go on to become on to become a prominent Scottish merchant. The son of a shoemaker and town councillor, aged 19, he would leave his home town or Forres for the West Indies. His reason for this was that, while working as a bookkeeper for his father, he expressed his desire to marry one of his family's household servants. Dick left for Jamaica where he settled in the capital Kingston. Alongside his brother John Dick, he set up a business importing colonial produce into London. In 1779, he and his business partner Robert Mulligan were involved in the sale of more than 500 slaves who had been shipped from Africa. A further 238 slaves died of smallpox while being across the Atlantic. After twenty years, James transferred his share of the business to his brother and travelled to London a wealthy man. His brother soon followed, but died shortly after his return to the UK and James inherited his fortune. Following his death in 1828, he bequeathed 113,787 to encourage 'learning and efficient teaching' in Moray. Known as the Dick Bequest, and now worth in the region of 1.6million, it still funds schools in the area today. But politicians have faced calls to re-direct the funding back to Jamaica. Earlier this year historians David Alston and Donald Morrison wrote to Scotland's new Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville urging her to return to the money. Advertisement The Scottish Government will now consider the proposals to re-direct the funding after Moray Council's education committee this week voted 7-5 in favour of the motion. It asks the government to wind up the trust and re-distribute the money. The move goes beyond the approach recently adopted by Aberdeenshire Council to neither promote the trust in any way or request cash from it in the future. Advocating that Moray took a firmer line, SNP councillor Shona Morrison said: 'It's a bold and brave move by the council to take a further step. 'There's a moral obligation for us to do this.' Cllr Paula Coy, SNP, said: 'If you steal something, you give it back. It's as simple as that to me. 'The legacy of slavery is still affecting countries throughout the world.' During the meeting on Wednesday, it was widely agreed that more should be done to acknowledge how Moray had benefited from the slave trade. However, Conservative Cllr Frank Brown questioned why the Dick Bequest was being singled out. He pointed out that both Dr Gray's Hospital and Anderson's Care Home in Elgin had been built using donations from benefactors who had obtained their wealth during the British rule of India. Cllr Brown said: 'This is cherry picking. Are we going to ask the NHS to give Dr Gray's away?' Meanwhile, Conservative Cllr Claire Feaver brought up the issue of modern-day working conditions and the human rights records of countries such as Bangladesh and China. She said: 'You can't change history. I think it's more important that we should lobby the Scottish Government to do more about modern day slavery.' However Sonya Warren, SNP, stated: 'Two wrongs don't make a right. We need to be seen to be distancing ourselves from this money.' A large brass plaque in James Dick's memory is currently on the wall at Anderson's Primary School in Forres. Dick was born in the town in 1743 but, at the age of 19, left for the West Indies where he made his fortune. A large brass plaque in James Dick's memory is currently on the wall at Anderson's Primary School in Forres (pictured) In 1779, he and his business partner Robert Mulligan were involved in the sale of more than 500 slaves who had been shipped from Africa. A further 238 slaves died of smallpox while being across the Atlantic. Following Dick's death in 1828, instructions were left to create a trust to help teachers in and around Moray. His will stated his wish to 'form a fund for the benefit of that neglected though useful class of men (the country schoolmasters), and to add to their present trifling salaries'. A statue of Robert Mulligan was removed from London's Docklands last year, two days after protestors in Bristol tore down a statue of the slave trader Edward Coltson. A Florida mother has called for a 'mass exodus' from the increasingly liberal public school system, saying it is parents' only choice to avoid their kids being indoctrinated with CRT. Quisha King made the remarks on Thursday night at the Pray Vote Stand Summit, an event by the Family Research Council in Leesburg, Virginia. She was one of many speakers and panelists who spoke on stage about their efforts to squash woke agendas being pushed in schools and the military. King lives in Jacksonville, Florida, with her three children. The 40-year-old is an outspoken CRT critic who campaigns against it with her activist group, Moms for Liberty. She previously worked as a regional coordinator for the Republican National Committee (RNC) and describes herself as a communications and marketing expert. She voted Democrat until 2016, when she says she found God and stopped seeing her life purely through the lens of 'being Black'. She started voting Republican afterward. On Thursday, she said the Biden administration had become so forceful in its fight against conservative families that parents now face the prospect of having the FBI knock on their door while they're making sandwiches for their kids if they disagree with woke school boards. She was referring to the recent memo by Attorney General Merrick Garland that the FBI must now investigate reports of parents 'threatening' teachers they disagree with. Garland issued the memo on Monday in a shocking move that had Republicans across the board up in arms. They said it was the worst overreach yet on parents' free speech. He has since been accused of a conflict of interest because his son-in-law founded an education group that promotes CRT. Scroll down for video Quisha King received a standing ovation on Thursday night from the audience the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Leesburg, Virginia, when she said the only thing to do was to carry out a 'mass exodus' from the public school system to stop CRT being pushed on kids It was the final straw for King, who says now the only solution is to 'pull kids out' of schools. 'I really think at this point, the only thing to do is have a mass exodus from the school system. That's it,' she said Thursday night. She was speaking on a panel called The Battle for Americas Classrooms: Fighting Indoctrination on a National Scale, and had been asked how pervasive CRT was in public schools and what the solution was. You do not have the right to indoctrinate our children. They are our children. They were given to us by God and you do not have the right to teach this nonsense. It is infuriating that they think they do have the right to take our tax paying dollars, from our children, and then teach them garbage. 'It is extremely pervasive. I don't think parents realize just how pervasive it is,' King said. 'In Duval County, I found CRT workshops and events as far back as 2011.' 'Understanding that they are not kidding, this is not going away, the enemy has no chill and is advancing forward as fast - we can see it - we're at home trying to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for your kids and the FBI could be knocking at your door because you said the wrong thing at a school board meeting.' 'These people are serious,' she continued. 'They want to silence us and shut us down. I really think at this point, the only thing to do is have a mass exodus from the school system. That's it.' 'I was talking to my Moms for Liberty group this morning and with this FBI thing, it just made me realize, what else are we supposed to do? Standing up to these people doesn't matter,' she said. 'We've been at these school board meetings, we've been voicing our opinions, we're writing articles, emailing teachers, we're doing all that stuff and they don't care.' King received a standing ovation from the crowd at the summit Thursday night in Leesburg, Virginia, during The Battle for Americas Classrooms: Fighting Indoctrination on a National Scale panel. 'The only thing left to do is to just peace out. I think that will really send the message, when they can't take the money for our child being in their school. It has to be us all doing it together, so maybe after we can all get together and figure out how we do it all at one time so it really sends the message.' King is a mother of three and an anti-CRT advocate who lives in Jacksonville, Florida 'You do not have the right to indoctrinate our children,' King said. 'They are our children. They were given to us by God and you do not have the right to teach this nonsense.' 'It is infuriating that they think they do have the right to take our tax paying dollars, from our children, and then teach them garbage.' 'They don't even bother to teach math, reading, science, language arts,' she added. 'They're like, let's just give them CRT and teach them how to be little mini Marxists and activists.' 'No thank you, we don't want that,' King fumed. She went on to ask parents - of which there were hundreds in the audience - to meet with her after the event for them to discuss a logistical plan for pulling their kids out of school. 'That is, that's all I got,' King said. 'That's the only thing left to do, honestly, is just a mass exodus. We've just got to pull them out. It's hard, it's going to be tough but two things I believe we would put our lives on the line for: our faith and our children.' 'This is that moment,' she added. 'This is happening right before our eyes. This is the time. This is the revelation, period. It's happening, this is not a show. I want to go down as standing up for what I believe in and I'm willing to put my life on the line for it.' Her speech was met with a standing ovation. FLORIDA MOM CALLS FOR MASS EXODUS FROM WOKE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM TO SAVE KIDS FROM CRT When my daughter was asked what pronouns she wanted to be identified by in the first week of school, I was like, what is going on this is crazy. She recorded a conversation in class that the teacher - they were supposed to be discussing books - she never got to the literature of the books, she just started sectioning the kids by their physical characteristics. 'As an African American child, Asian child how do you feel about this, etc.' Critical Race Theory, one of the tenets, is that America is intrinsically racist, there's nothing you can do to fix it. Apparently white people are the only ones who can commit the sin of racism. Everything about it is anti-biblical, anti-American and it's just a flat-out lie. It's just not true. You cannot have a country that has been moving towards racial reconciliation really from the beginnings and say that America is intrinsically racist - those two things just don't go together. The other tenet is any righteous act that white folks do is just to uplift white supremacy if you put your life on the line back in the day as a white person, they would say you're just doing that to uplift white supremacy and racism. You are willing to die to uplift white supremacy. It doesn't make any sense Those are a few of the tenets of CRT that explains a lot of it. It is extremely pervasive. I don't think parents realize just how pervasive it is. In Duval County, I found CRT workshops and events as far back as 2011. Understanding that they are not kidding, this is not going away, the enemy has no chill and is advancing forward as fast - we can see it - we're at home trying to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for your kids and the FBI could be knocking at your door because you said the wrong thing at a school board meeting. These people are serious. They want to silence us and shut us down. I really think at this point, the only thing to do is have a mass exodus from the school system. That's it. I was talking to my Moms for Liberty group this morning and with this FBI thing, it just made me realize, what else are we supposed to do? Standing up to these people doesn't matter. We've been at these school board meetings, we've been voicing our opinions, we're writing articles, emailing teachers, we're doing all that stuff and they don't care. The only thing left to do is to just peace out. You know. I think that will really send the message when they can't take the money for our child being in their school. It has to be us all doing it together, so maybe after we can all get together and figure out how we do it all at one time so it really sends the message. You do not have the right to indoctrinate our children. They are our children. They were given to us by God and you do not have the right to teach this nonsense. It is infuriating that they think they do have the right to take our tax paying dollars, from our children, and then teach them garbage. They don't even bother to teach math, reading, science, language arts. They're like let's just give them CRT and teach them how to be little mini Marxists and activists. No thank you, we don't want that. That is, that's all I got. That's the only thing left to do honestly is just a mass exodus. We've just got to pull them out. It's hard, it's going to be tough but two things I believe we would put our lives on the line for; our faith and our children. This is that moment. This is happening right before our eyes. This is the time. This is the revelation, period. It's happening, this is not a show. I want to go down as standing up for what I believe in and I'm willing to put my life on the line for it. Advertisement Attorney General Merrick Garland issued this memo warning parents that they will face prosecution for protesting against schools and teachers in a way the government deems to be threatening. King said parents now run the risk of having the FBI knock on their door while they make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their kids Parents across America have reacted furiously to Attorney General Merrick Garland's order and say it criminalizes them for trying to protect their kids King said she first became worried about CRT when her kids told her years ago about some of what they were being told in school. She said critical race theory is 'untrue' and teaches that America is 'intrinsically racist' beyond repair, when she says it is not. Xan Tanner, Garland's son-in-law, has lucrative contracts with multiple school districts through his company which promotes CRT 'When my daughter was asked what pronouns she wanted to be identified by in the first week of school, I was like, what is going on, this is crazy. She recorded a conversation in class that the teacher - they were supposed to be discussing books - she never got to the literature of the books, she just started sectioning the kids by their physical characteristics.' King continued, saying the teacher went on: ' "As an African American child, Asian child how do you feel about this, etc." Critical Race Theory, one of the tenets, is that America is intrinsically racist, there's nothing you can do to fix it. Apparently white people are the only ones who can commit the sin of racism. 'Everything about it is anti-biblical, anti-American and it's just a flat-out lie. It's just not true,' King said. 'You cannot have a country that has been moving toward racial reconciliation, really from the beginnings, and say that America is intrinsically racist - those two things just don't go together.' 'The other tenet is any righteous act that white folks do is just to uplift white supremacy. If you put your life on the line back in the day as a white person, they would say, "you're just doing that to uplift white supremacy and racism. You are willing to die to uplift white supremacy." It doesn't make any sense,' King said. Her comments come after AG Garland's memo earlier this week infuriated Republicans. The memo, which the Justice Department promoted publicly, told local law enforcement and the FBI to start looking into incidents of parents threatening teachers. It was a response to a request by the National School Board Association to President Biden for his protection from parents who disagree with CRT and mask mandates in schools. Republicans across the board said it was an overreach by the government and an effort by the Biden administration to stamp out parents' free speech. Britons who took part in Covid vaccine trials for jabs that are not internationally recognised will be offered doses of Pfizer or Moderna so they can finally travel. The UK Government announced today that more than 20,000 participants in the Novavax and Valneva studies will start to be invited for the jabs from next week. They will be given two doses of the mRNA vaccines over the standard eight-week period, which should allow them to travel in time for Christmas. Health officials had originally pushed for the trialists to be able to go abroad without needing to be revaccinated 'because of the sacrifice they made'. But the plans were met with resistance by EU countries which refused to recognise Novavax and Valneva, both of which are still waiting on approval from regulators. There is no specific safety data on giving people four doses of Covid vaccines but officials are confident it is safe based on booster trials which looked at three doses. About 15,000 Novavax and 4,000 Valneva trialists have been unable to fly to Europe, the US or elsewhere for holiday or business despite global travel resuming months ago. Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines will be offered to Britons who took part in Covid jab trials for shots that are not internationally recognised so they can finally travel (file) Trialists will be faced with the choice of going through with four vaccine doses or waiting to see if their original jabs get approval from the UK medicines watchdog. Those who wait will be recognised for domestic vaccine passports if that policy is introduced in England as part of the Government's winter Covid contingency plan. Millions of people who are eligible for a Covid booster vaccine have not had their third dose yet Millions of people who are eligible for a Covid booster vaccine have not yet had their third dose, official figures suggest. Up to 5million people in England currently qualify for a booster jab but only around a third have come forward for one. It comes after a top Government scientific advisor said he wanted Britain to be 'more aggressive' with the rollout to limit the damage of a winter wave of cases. A total of 1.7million people in England have received a booster since the programme was signed off last month. Invites are only being sent out to those who received their second dose at least six months ago because that is the 'sweet spot' for immunity. For this reason, the rollout was always expected to be slower than the initial jab blitz, which at its peak saw 800,000 people vaccinated per day. But official figures show 4.9m people finished their two-dose vaccination schedule six months ago, with the majority meeting the criteria making them eligible for a top-up now. About 400,000 of the people jabbed half a year ago were immunocompromised and are receiving their third dose on a slightly different schedule. And many people who were vaccinated first originally were elderly and may have passed away in the past six months. But even when these are discounted, it still leaves millions of eligible and vulnerable people with subpar immunity. Advertisement Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer, said: 'The measures we have taken will allow UK Covid vaccine trial participants to travel freely overseas once they have had the additional vaccinations. 'Those volunteers now have the flexibility to make a decision for themselves so they can, for example, visit loved ones abroad. 'We should be very clear that the results from these trials benefit the whole world, and it has to be said that if more countries around the world had reciprocated by allowing UK volunteers to enjoy fully vaccinated status for overseas travel, these measures would not have been necessary.' The move follows Health Secretary Sajid Javid's appeal to global health leaders last month at the G20 meeting for trialists to have their vaccination status recognised globally. Letters will be sent out to clinical trial participants next week, outlining further details and next steps. Participants will be contacted by the trial team, who can respond to any questions they may have, and should not contact their local NHS or GP. Vaccinations will most likely take place at hospital hubs. Principle Investigator of the Novavax clinical trial Professor Paul Heath said: 'I very much welcome this development on behalf of the more than 15,000 participants in the Novavax trial and my colleagues in the 35 UK trial sites. 'For too long the participants have been disadvantaged in terms of international travel because this vaccine is not yet approved for deployment. 'But trial participants now have the flexibility to receive booster doses, or additional doses for travel purposes, if they wish to.' Phase III clinical trial data from Novavax released earlier this year showed its vaccine had an overall efficacy of 90.4 per cent at preventing severe disease. The firm has delayed its submission of trial data to the UK medical regulator, with reports suggesting issues with collating consistent manufacturing information. Novavax still plans to submit the full data to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) before the year is out. Meanwhile, the UK scrapped its deal with French vaccine maker Valneva for 100million doses last month. The UK Government cited a breach of contact agreement, an allegation the drugmaker denies, but it is still unclear why the deal fell out. Results from its phase three trials are due later this year. There are around 52,000 people currently taking part in trials across the UK for other experimental vaccines. They will not qualify for the standard two-dose Pfizer or Moderna schedule until those studies come to an end - unless the trial vaccines get approved. They include studies of GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi's vaccine and the CureVac mRNA jab. A Colorado woman with stage-5 renal failure says she will not get the Covid-19 vaccine because of her religious beliefs - despite her refusal meaning that she will be denied a life-saving kidney transplant. Both Leilani Lutali, 56, and her friend and potential donor Jaimee Fougner, 45, have refused to get the vaccine, siting their religious beliefs. The University of Colorado Health hospital informed that would be placed on a waiting list for 'non-compliant by not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.' They were given 30 days to begin the vaccination process or be removed from the kidney transplant list. Born-again Christian Lutali has refused to get inoculated because of the use of stem cells in developing some vaccines. 'As a Christian, I can't support anything that has to do with abortion of babies, and the sanctity of life for me is precious,' Lutali said. Fougner, Lutali's friend and potential donor, has also denied the vaccine citing religious reasons. Cells taken from elective abortions have been used to develop effective vaccines since the 1960s including current vaccines for rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis A, and shingles. None of the COVID vaccines contain aborted fetal cells, like some social media users have been falsely claiming. But they did utilize fetal cell lines in their development. Fetal cell lines are derived from fetal cells collected from abortions performed in the 1980s, which have been replicated for decades and are now thousands of times removed from the initial fetus cells. Pfizer and Moderna used lab-replicated fetal cell lines in their testing stages of their vaccine. Johnson & Johnson used lab-replicated fetal cell lines to manufacture and grow the vaccine. Leilani Lutali, 56, who has stage-5 renal failure has been denied a life-saving kidney transplant because she and her prospective donor are unvaccinated due to religious beliefs 'It's your choice on what treatment you have. In Leilani's case, the choice has been taken from her. Her life has now been held hostage because of this mandate,' said Jaimee Fougner, 45, who met Lutali in a bible study and decided to donate her kidney to her friend While many people refusing the vaccine have cited religious and Christian beliefs, the Vatican said that it is 'morally acceptable' for Catholics to get vaccines that utilized research of fetal cells. Pope Francis went so far as to say that not getting the vaccine is 'suicide.' He has been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. But Roman Catholic leaders in New Orleans and St. Louis went so far as to call Johnson & Johnsons COVID-19 shot 'morally compromised.' J&J has stressed that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine. Lutali hit out at UCHealth, claiming that they have altered their position on vaccine requirement in the last few months. According to UCHealth, located in Aurora, the majority of transplant recipients and living donors are now required to be vaccinated to avoid organ rejection. 'At the end of August, they confirmed that there was no COVID shot needed at that time,' Lutali said. 'Fast forward to September 28. That's when I found out. Jamie learned they have this policy around the COVID shot for both for the donor and the recipient.' The University of Colorado Health hospital in Aurora is requiring all organ transplant patients to be vaccinated. Medical centers throughout Colorado, Washington, Vermont, Massachusetts and Alabama have set the same guidelines The UCHealth hospital denied Leilani Lutali the chance to get a new kidney because of her unvaccinated status. She is currently listed as inactive on the organ waitlist Lutali and Fougner were given 30 days to be vaccinated before being taken off the waitlist for the procedure that is essential to Lutali's life as her kidney's near total shutdown Lutali is now turning to hospitals in other states to receive her kidney transplant UCHealth Spokesperson Dan Weaver said the hospital would not comment on any specific case, but said it was common for transplant patients to be asked to meet specific conditions before, during and after surgery. Weaver wrote in a statement: 'For example, patients may be required to receive vaccinations including hepatitis B, MMR and others. 'Patients may also be required to avoid alcohol, stop smoking, or prove they will be able to continue taking their anti-rejection medications long after their transplant surgery. These requirements increase the likelihood that a transplant will be successful and the patient will avoid rejection.' Weaver added that transplant patients who are not vaccinated against COVID face a higher mortality rate of 20 to 30 per cent. 'Should they become infected, they are at particularly high risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death,' Weaver said. 'A living donor could pass COVID-19 infection on to an organ recipient even if they initially test negative for the disease, putting the patient's life at risk.' The American Hospital Association, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems and networks in the United States, said that while it did not have data to share on the issue, many transplant programs insist that patients get vaccinated because of the weakened state of their immune system. Any type of surgery is likely to weaken a patients immune system, but organ transplant surgeries are particularly tough due to the drugs they are required to take to suppress the immune system to keep the body from rejecting the new organ. Transplant centers in Washington, Vermont, Massachusetts and Alabama also have polices requiring that organ recipients be vaccinated. Lutali is now searching for another hospital, possibly in Texas or Florida, to perform the essential procedure as her kidney's near failure. The life expectancy for those with stage-5 kidney failure is about five to 10 years while on dialysis treatment, according to the National Kidney Foundation. An estimated 17 people die every day waiting for an organ. 'It's your choice on what treatment you have. In Leilani's case, the choice has been taken from her. Her life has now been held hostage because of this mandate,' Fougner told CBS. Chinese leaders have blasted the US after a report on Thursday revealed that American special ops troops and Marines have been secretly training Taiwan forces for a year, as tension continue to mount between the two global superpowers. US officials told the Wall Street Journal that around two dozen members of U.S. special-operations and support troops are training small units of Taiwan's ground forces, while Marines are working with local maritime forces against an increasing likelihood of a Chinese attack. The report surfaced as the Biden administration announced they were further upping the ante on Beijing by reorganizing the Central Intelligence Agency to focus on its espionage efforts. The move sparked fury among Chinese officials. The state-run newspaper Global Times, seen as a 'mouthpiece' of the Chinese Communist Party, ran an editorial calling for the country's military to attack the US forces. Editor Hu Xijin wrote: 'Why just two dozen members? Why secretly? The US should send 240 servicemen publicly, in US military uniform, and make public where they are stationed. 'See whether the PLA [People's Liberation Army] will launch a targeted air strike to eliminate those US invaders!' Hu Xijin, editor in chief of the Global Times, shared his outrage on Twitter over the news that the US has been secretly training Taiwan troops for a year This is the second time Chinese officials have allegedly threatened US forces in Taiwan after Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, wrongly claimed in an August tweet that the US had roughly 30,000 troops in Taiwan. State news in Beijing fired back that if that were the case, the Chinese military would 'crush them by force,' US News reports. Cornyn later deleted the erroneous tweet, and was branded a 'dotard' by Chinese media. Increasing tensions in the South Sea China have triggered warnings of war after China sent air sorties and hostile rhetoric towards the self-governing island. US defense officials have warned that China may try to invade Taiwan in the near future. Taiwan's Defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, said a full-scale attack by China may come as soon as 2025. CIA Director William Burns said the new unit was a result of strategic reviews that concentrated on 'China, technology, people, and partnerships.' 'CMC will further strengthen the agency's work on the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century, an increasingly adversarial Chinese government,' he said. The reorganization marks an indication of how the Biden administration is reorienting to face the threat from China. And it comes amid growing concerns in particular about Taiwan and Beijing's threatening moves. Chiu Kuo-cheng, the Taiwanese defense minister, warned that China could invade the self-governing island as soon as 2025 as tensions rise in the South Sea China CIA Director William Burns said the most important geopolitical threat facing the U.S. was 'an increasingly adversarial Chinese government' as he launched the China Mission Center He spoke after 150 Chinese warplanes violated Taiwan's 'air defense zone' at the weekend, including 52 which flew in the single-largest mission to date (pictured) Autonomous country or breakaway province - how Taiwan's status has sparked tension since end of China's civil war Taiwan is officially known as the Republic of China, and its capital of Taipei is the seat of the government that previously controlled the whole of China. They fought against the Communist Party when it first emerged during China's civil war. When the communists won the war in 1949, mainland China became the People's Republic of China. Today, Taiwan views itself as an autonomous country, while China sees it as a breakaway province. Officially, Taiwan is not recognized as an independent country under international law. America had backed the government in Taipei as China's legitimate rulers until 1979, when Jimmy Carter announced that he would recognize the Communist government in Beijing and establish diplomatic relations. The Taiwan Relations Act was passed in response, granting the island near-nation status and mandating that the US continue to sell weapons to its government. Long-standing tensions between Taiwan and the mainland have been growing since 2019, when President Xi gave a speech committing himself to the 'reunification' of the island with China - saying he will use force if he deems it necessary. The US has a long-standing policy of 'strategic ambiguity' towards the island's defense, refusing to say what it would do if a foreign force attacks. Biden recently suggested that he would be willing to go to war if China invaded, though aides insisted that he had misspoken. Advertisement They said the forces had been operating there for at least a year. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on the report directly. 'I would note, the PRC has stepped up efforts to intimidate and pressure Taiwan and other allies and partners, including increasing military activities conducted in the vicinity of Taiwan, East China Sea, and South China Sea which we believe are destabilizing and increase the risk of miscalculation,' said John Supple. 'I don't have any comments on specific operations, engagements, or training, but I would like to highlight that our support for and defense relationship with Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People's Republic of China. 'We urge Beijing to honor its commitment to the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait differences, as delineated in the three communiques.' The US has sold billions of dollars in weapons to Taiwan despite a policy of 'strategic ambiguity' over whether the U.S. would defend the island from a Chinese invasion. But officials believe Taiwan must do more to counter the growing jeopardy it faces. The recent clash of global super powers comes as a US fast-attack, nuclear-powered submarine struck an object while submerged in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region, the US Pacific Fleet said on Thursday, injuring as many as 11 sailors. In a brief statement, the Navy said the USS Connecticut remained in a stable condition and that her nuclear plant was not damaged. It did not offer a specific location but U.S.N.I. News reported that it happened in the South China Sea. A defense official told the site that 11 people were injured and the boat was now headed to Guam, where it was expected to arrive on Saturday. 'The safety of the crew remains the Navys top priority. There are no life threatening injuries,' the US Pacific Fleet said in a statement. 'The submarine remains in a safe and stable condition. 'USS Connecticuts nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational. 'The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed. The U.S. Navy has not requested assistance. The incident will be investigated.' The U.S.S. Connecticut, seen here in a file picture, struck an 'unknown object' on Sunday, according to the U.S. Pacific Fleet In July, U.S.S. Connecticut put in to Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan, for a scheduled port visit The Navy offered no further details or information about the submarine's mission other than to say she was in the Indo-Pacific region. Her crew is seen here in a 2018 control room picture The region has been the scene of intense naval activity in recent years as China flexes its military muscles and the U.S. conducts 'freedom of navigation' missions to limit Beijing's influence On Wednesday, America's top diplomat to the island said China posed a 'real and immediate' danger. James Moriarty, speaking Wednesday night at an event to mark Taiwan's National Day in Washington, said China's recent show-of-strength in the skies near the island are a reminder of the threat it faces. Moriarty, who heads the American Institute in Taiwan which represents the US on the island, said the incursions underlined the need for the ruling Republic of China to establish 'a powerful intimidating [defense] force as soon as possible.' James Moriarty, America's top diplomat in Taiwan, has warned that China poses a 'real and immediate threat' to the island China flew some 150 aircraft into Taiwan's 'air defense zone' over the weekend in one of the largest displays of force in recent years. The missions had caused international alarm, Moriarty added, showing that the world is now paying attention to Taiwan and is ready to lend support. Underlining his point, delegations of Australian and French diplomats visited the island on Thursday - holding high-level meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen. Alain Richard, head of the French mission and a former defense minister, referred to Taiwan as 'a country' as he was awarded the Order of Propitious Clouds for helping to establish diplomatic ties. The remark is sure to infuriate Beijing, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province. Officially, it is not recognized as a country under international law, though the government considers it to be an independent state. The Chinese embassy in Paris warned that Richard's visit will damage the interests of China, Chinese-French relations and 'the image of France'. Meanwhile former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot was also on the island today, also in an effort to improve relations and 'end the isolation from which Taiwan has been suffering for so many decades.' 'Over the past 70 years, Taiwan has transformed from an impoverished dictatorship into a vibrant, dynamic, pluralist democracy,' he said as he arrived. China's sabre-rattling has not gone unanswered, with British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (front) leading a joint strike group in exercises in the South China Sea 'You have demonstrated to all the countries of this region that it is possible to be rich and free.' It is not clear if Mr Abbot will meet with the French mission while he is on the island. Australia's relations with France are currently strained after Canberra ripped up a billion-dollar contract to buy French submarines and signed a new deal with the UK and US to acquire nuclear ones - dubbed AUKUS. The move infuriated Beijing, which warned it risked stability in the region by upsetting the balance of power. Western nations have been rushing to reaffirm their support for Taiwan as it faces down threats from an increasingly-assertive China. Tensions have been building ever since a 2019 speech by President Xi Jinping in which he vowed to 'reunify' Taiwan with mainland China - using force if necessary. He spoke against the backdrop of a rapid expansion of China's military, including the construction of new bases in the South China Sea - where Taiwan is located and over which Beijing claim supreme authority. That has prompted the US - a long-standing ally of Taiwan - to forge new alliances in the region to counter-balance the growing threat. As well as the AUKUS pact, Biden has entered into a strategic partnership known as The Quad with India, Japan and Australia to share intelligence and carry out joint military drills in the region. China's sorties near Taiwan have included nuclear-capable H-6 bombers (pictured) along with fighters and recon planes In a huge show of force to Beijing, the US is also participating in huge naval exercises in the region led by Britain's newest aircraft carrier - HMS Queen Elizabeth. 'Big Lizzie', as she is affectionately known, is currently leading drills with a joint carrier strike group that includes the USS Carl Vinson and USS Ronald Reagan, along with ships from New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan. The carriers and their escorts have been carrying out drills in the South China Sea, and are expected to arrive in Singapore shortly. Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday vowed to 'do whatever it takes' to guard Taiwan against invasion as she indicated that without help from the country's allies 'authoritarianism has the upper hand over democracy.' Tsai added: '[Democratic nations] should remember that if Taiwan were to fall, the consequences would be catastrophic for regional peace and the democratic system. 'It would signal that in today's global contest of values, authoritarianism has the upper hand over democracy.' Taiwan hopes for peaceful coexistence with China, she said, but 'if its democracy and way of life are threatened, Taiwan will do whatever it takes to defend itself.' Tsai's government on Monday urged Beijing to stop 'irresponsible provocative actions' after the warplanes breached Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ). 'Amid almost daily intrusions by the People's Liberation Army, our position on cross-strait relations remains constant: Taiwan will not bend to pressure,' Tsai added. A suicide bomber has killed at least 100 at a Shi'ite mosque in northern Afghanistan after a string of ISIS-K attacks as the country descends further into chaos in the wake of the US withdrawal. Scores more victims from the minority community were wounded in the blast, which has not been claimed but appears designed to further destabilise Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover. The extremist Islamic State group, bitter rivals of the Taliban, has repeatedly targeted Shiites in a bid to stir up sectarian violence in Sunni-majority Afghanistan. The blast, which took place during Friday prayers, the most important of the week for Muslims, is the deadliest attack since the US withdrew and the Islamists took power at the end of August. A medical source at the Kunduz Provincial Hospital said that 35 dead and more than 50 wounded had been taken there, while a worker at a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital reported 15 dead and scores more wounded. An explosion at a mosque in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, on Friday that targeted Shiite Muslim worshippers has left at least 100 people killed or wounded Blood spattered worshippers were seen carrying victims to waiting ambulances after the blast during Friday prayer At least 100 were killed or wounded in the attack though a Taliban official said most had died Bloodstained debris is seen strewn across the floor of the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque in Kunduz following the bomb blast Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had earlier said an unknown number of people had been killed and injured when 'an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shiite compatriots' in Kunduz. Residents of Kunduz, the capital of a province of the same name, said the blast hit a Shiite mosque during Friday prayers, the most important of the week for Muslims. Zalmai Alokzai, a local businessman who rushed to Kunduz Provincial Hospital to check whether doctors needed blood donations, described horrific scenes. 'Ambulances were going back to the incident scene to carry the dead,' he said. An international aid worker at the MSF hospital in the city told AFP there were fears the death toll could rise even further. 'Hundreds of people are gathered at the main gate of the hospital and crying for their relatives but armed Taliban guys are trying to prevent gatherings in case another explosion is planned,' he said. The Taliban have been targeted in a series of deadly IS attacks, including shooting ambushes and an explosion at a mosque in the capital of Kabul. The explosion went off during the weekly Friday prayer service at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque. The Friday noon prayer is the highlight of the Muslim religious week, and mosques are typically crowded. The explosion went off during the weekly Friday prayer service at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan Photos and video from the scene showed rescuers carrying a body wrapped in a blanket from the mosque to an ambulance Photos and video from the scene showed rescuers carrying a body wrapped in a blanket from the mosque to an ambulance. Graphic images shared on social media, which could not immediately be verified, showed several bloodied bodies lying on the floor. Pictures showed plumes of smoke rising into the air over Kunduz and the stairs at the entrance of the mosque was covered in blood. Another video showed men shepherding people, including women and children, away from the scene. Frightened crowds thronged the streets. Aminullah, an eyewitness whose brother was at the mosque, told AFP: 'After I heard the explosion, I called my brother but he did not pick up. 'I walked towards the mosque and found my brother wounded and faint. We immediately took him to the MSF hospital.' Graphic images shared on social media, which could not immediately be verified, showed several bloodied bodies lying on the floor Images showed bodies strewn across the mosque floor as people helped retrieve the dead The stairs at the entrance of the mosque were covered in blood following a bomb blast during Friday prayer The explosion went off during the weekly Friday prayer service at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan A female teacher in Kunduz told AFP the blast happened near her house, and several of her neighbours were killed. 'It was a very terrifying incident,' she said. 'Many of our neighbours have been killed and wounded. A 16-year-old neighbour was killed. They couldn't find half of his body. Another neighbour who was 24 was killed as well.' Earlier Friday, the chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Shiite mosque was the target and that a 'large number' of worshippers were killed and wounded. Often targeted by Sunni extremists who view them as heretics, Shiite Muslims have suffered some of Afghanistan's most violent assaults, with rallies bombed, hospitals targeted and commuters ambushed. He said Taliban special forces had arrived to the scene and were investigating the incident. Kunduz's location makes it a key transit point for economic and trade exchanges with Tajikistan. It was the scene of fierce battles as the Taliban fought their way back into power this year. The floor outside the mosque was covered in blood following the bombing in Kunduz on Friday People carry a victim of a bomb blast in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, out of the mosque A Taliban official said most of the 100 injured in the blast in a mosque in Kunduz mosque had died People gather near the scene of a bomb blast that targeted a Shi'ite Muslims mosque in Kunduz during Friday prayers, the most important of the week The Taliban leadership has been grappling with a growing threat from the local Islamic State affiliate, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan. IS militants have ramped up attacks to target their rivals, including two deadly bombings in Kabul. The local Islamic State affiliate has also claimed responsibility for the horrific August 26 bombing that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 US military personnel outside the Kabul airport in the final days of the chaotic American pullout from Afghanistan. IS has also targeted Afghanistan's religious minorities in attacks. Shiites make up roughly 20 percent of the Afghan population. Many of them are Hazara, an ethnic group that has been heavily persecuted in Afghanistan for decades. In October 2017, an IS suicide attacker struck a Shiite mosque as worshippers gathered for evening prayers in the west of Kabul, killing 56 people and wounding 55 including women and children. And in May this year, a series of bombings outside a school in the capital killed at least 85 people - mostly young girls. More than 300 were wounded in this attack on the Hazara community. Friday's attack, if claimed by IS, will also be worrying for Afghanistan's northern Central Asian neighbors and Russia, which has been courting the Taliban for years as an ally against the creeping IS in the region. A Michigan cop who stopped an elderly man for speeding ended up helping him set up a flat screen tv after the driver told him he was going through a hard time. On September 30 Sterling Heights Officer Kevin Coates pulled over a 79-year-old man, named by officials only as David. Dashcam footage captured the emotional exchange where David told Officer Coates his wife is sick and their son is suffering from mental illness. He tells Officer Coates he was speeding because he was driving around town trying to find someone who could help hook up his newly purchased 50' flat screen TV, which he had bought to cheer up his family. Scroll Down For Video: An emotional 79-year-old tells Officer Coates he was speeding because he was driving around town trying to find the right cables to hook up his newly purchased tv for his family Dashcam footage captured the emotional exchange where David told Officer Coates his wife is sick and their son is suffering from mental illness 'I really try to drive right,' he says. 'I bought a television today because I wanted to make my wife happy and I can't get it hooked up,' he can be heard saying to the officer. After explaining his tough day Officer Coates extended his sympathy and instead of giving David a ticket he let him off with a warning - and also offered a helping hand. Officer Oates promised to stop by David's Sterling Height home after his shift to help. 'Well I'm getting another police run right now so I can't come by now, but if I have time tonight, maybe I'll stop by and take a look at it,' Coates told David. The Sterling Heights Police Department said that within an hour of the traffic stop Officer Coates, accompanied by Officer Remi Verougstraete and his new recruit Officer Jeremy Jakushevich, went to David's home and assisted him with installing his television, as well as hooking up the cable. Police said that once everything was set up David was 'very thankful' for the help from the officers. Officer Kevin Coates (pictured) helped out an elderly man named David last week after he told him things were not going well Officer Coates eventually went to the 79-year-old mans home with two other officers to help him set the tv up The 79-year-old explained to Officer Coates he was speeding trying to find the right cables to set up the tv for his family Sterling Heights Lt. Mario Bastianelli (pictured) applauded Officer Coates' act of kindness Audio of the officers at David's home captured the officers explaining how the remote works and David telling the officer 'I appreciate you.' 'That's not an officer's job, going in and hooking up TVs right?' Sterling Heights Lt. Mario Bastianelli told Fox 2 Detroit. 'But he took it upon himself, an act of kindness saying look were people too and were trying to help our citizens.' 'Somebody's gotta step up and were glad to do it' he added. Department Chief Dale Dwojakowski also complimented the three officer's kind act. 'I'm very proud of Officer Coates, Officer Verougstraete, and new recruit Officer Jakushevich for going above and beyond to help our residents,' Dwojakowski said. 'This is just another example of the amazing service that the Sterling Heights Police Department provides our community'. He arranged to meet one of them and travelled from Cambridge to Portsmouth uy Sims, 53, messaged two people online who he believed were teenage girls A barrister who was caught by police having travelled across the country to sexually abuse who he believed to be a 13-year-old schoolgirl has been jailed. Guy Sims, 53, talked to two people online who he thought were teenage girls using social media platforms Mylol and Kik. He posed as an 18-year-old calling himself 'markbatx' and 'markviva' and made arrangements to meet one of the girls. Sims then travelled 150 miles from Cambridge to Portsmouth with the intention of engaging in sexual activity. When he arrived, he was arrested by officers who found he had cider and a condom on his person, as well as camouflage leaf netting in his car. He had also made arrangements to meet another of the girls either on his way home or on the way to Portsmouth on the same day for sexual activity. Sims, from Bedford, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday at Oxford Crown Court. Guy Sims (pictured above), 53, travelled 150 miles from Cambridge to Portsmouth with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with who he believed to be a 13-year-old schoolgirl While under investigation, he engaged in conversation of a sexual nature with the third person he believed to be a 13-year-old schoolgirl in 2019. Then calling himself 'Yo Sarami' and 'Danny.dan', he made arrangements to meet her in Oxford for sexual activity to take place. Sims, from Bedford, was charged in connection with the offences in 2019. He has now been founded guilty of three counts of arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence by unanimous jury following a trial at Oxford Crown Court. The court heard Sims will be barred from working as a barrister following the investigation by specialist officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU), which spanned four years. Detective Chief Inspector Philip Attwood, of SEROCU, said: 'This is the conclusion of a case in which Sims engaged in conversation of a sexual nature and arranged to meet up with those who he believed to be three teenage girls with the intention of carrying out child sexual abuse. Sims, from Bedford, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday at Oxford Crown Court (file photo above) 'Sims, worked as a civil barrister, and should have recognised the consequences of this offending. 'He demonstrated that he was prepared to go to great lengths and travel across the country to Portsmouth, to Guildford and to Oxford, to engage in depraved sexual activity with children. 'He repeatedly engaged with the profiles of those he believed to be teenage girls online, and the threat he posed would have continued had it not been for the continued and dedicated efforts of those working for SEROCU. 'Law enforcement operates across the internet and we are committed to ensuring those who use this means of communicating with those they believe to be children to arrange sexual abuse are brought before the courts to face justice.' The owners of a care home whose negligence caused the death of a 93-year-old woman after she was placed in a bath of scalding hot water were today fined more than 1 million. Frances Norris died several days after being immersed in the hot water at the now-closed Birdsgrove care home in Bracknell, Berks., in 2015. Investigators found that the water temperature had not been properly checked and that Mrs Norris suffered severe burns to her legs and feet. Thames Valley Police said the 93-year-old was only hospitalised after a lengthy delay where she later died as a result of her injuries. The force also said that the company took efforts to cover up their negligence, providing falsified documents to officers investigating the tragedy. The owners of the home, Aster Healthcare Ltd, were charged with corporate manslaughter following an investigation by police and Health and Safety Executive staff. A care home company has been fined more than 1million after 93-year-old Frances Norris (pictured) was submerged in scalding water which caused fatal burns to her legs and feet 'Trust was shattered when Mum died at the hands of the care staff' Following the sentencing of Aster Healthcare Ltd, Noel Maida and Elizabeth West over the death of Frances Norris, her family paid tribute to her. In a statement they said: 'Mum will always be someone special to us, a woman who lived through the Second World War, who left school at 14 years to support her own mother in caring for her eight brothers and three sisters. 'Mum was warm, generous and kindhearted. 'She was always an independent person, happy with the simple things in life, never wanting much. 'She was stoical and just got on with things. She never complained, even when ill, which was not very often. 'Sadly dementia slowly robbed her of her independence until in the later stages of her life she became fully reliant on people to care for her. 'That trust was shattered when she died at the hands of the care staff at Birdsgrove Nursing Home who were there to look after her and keep her safe. 'After 6.5 years we have got finally got some justice for Mum although it will never compensate for our loss. 'Mum was always a private person, never wanting people to know her business and we would like to keep it that way out of respect for her.' Advertisement They admitted the charge when they appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Wednesday. Today, the sentencing concluded with the huge fine of 1.04m against the company and suspended prison sentences for the manager of the home and one of the staff who supervised Mrs Norris' bathtime. Aster Healthcare Ltd, of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey was fined 1.04 million to be paid over three years. As part of the sentencing, a Publicity Order was made under Section 10 of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 which means the conviction will appear in the Health Service Journal and the Nursing Times' Notification and will also appear on the company website. The company pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of corporate manslaughter contrary to section 1(1) of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. Noel Maida, aged 50 years, of Fairey Avenue, Hayes, west London, who was a senior carer at the nursing home, was sentenced to 16 weeks' custody suspended for 18 months. Elizabeth West, aged 46 years, of Middle Field, Pembury, who was Care Home Manager of the nursing home, was sentenced to nine months' custody suspended for 18 months. Both admitted one count of failure to discharge a duty under health and safety regulations. Thames Valley Police, who led the investigation with the Health and Safety Executive, said that on Thursday February 5 2015, Frances Norris, aged 93 years, had been a resident at Birdsgrove Nursing Home owned by Southern Counties Care Limited, a subsidiary of Aster Healthcare Limited, for more than two years. She was given a bath by two of the carers who worked at the home, one being Noel Maida working with an inexperienced carer. The care home, which is now closed, did not have proper checks or equipment in place to ensure that residents were not at risk of unsafe water temperatures, investigators have said In a statement released after sentencing, the force said: 'The temperature of the bath had not been checked properly and more hot water was added to the bath whilst Frances was sat in it. 'The temperature of the water resulted in Frances sustaining serious burns to both her lower legs and feet, which covered 12 per cent of the surface of her body. 'After a lengthy delay, Frances was hospitalised and subsequently died of bronchopneumonia at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on Sunday February 8 2015, which was the direct result of the burns she had suffered.' Police launched an investigation into this incident in conjunction with the health and safety watchdog and found that there was no proper bathing policy in place and the staff at Birdsgrove Nursing Home were not adequately trained to provide a sufficient level of care for the residents. The force added: 'It was also established that there had been a longstanding problem with regulating the hot water supply and Aster Healthcare Ltd had not followed the available guidance for the safe provision of hot water. 'The bath in question was not fitted with the correct type of thermostatic mixing valve; further, the one that was fitted had not been serviced, and was not working properly.' Elizabeth West (pictured at an earlier hearing) was the Care Home Manager and was handed nine months' custody suspended for 18 months after admitting health and safety breaches Thermostatic mixing valves enable water to be emitted at a safe temperature and when accompanied by manual checks by carers would have significantly reduced the risk of harm to the residents, investigators say. Thames Valley Police continued: 'Through meticulous examination of company records, documents and emails between employees, Elizabeth West as Care Home Manager, the Director of Aster Healthcare Ltd and numerous third party agencies, it was found that the issues within Birdsgrove Nursing Home were well known by the senior management. 'It was established that they provided false documents to the police and partner agencies in an attempt to mislead the investigation. Birdsgrove Nursing Home was closed in 2016.' Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Sally Spencer, of the Major Crime Unit, said: 'Mrs Norris was a vulnerable lady who relied upon others to help her with every aspect of her daily routine. 'She should never have been placed at such risk of receiving these scald injuries leading to her death. 'The level of care she received before and immediately after being injured was not acceptable. Mrs Norris and her family deserved more from the people and company assigned with providing that level of care. 'Aster Healthcare Ltd, Elizabeth West and Noel Maida were all responsible for providing a care service for Mrs Norris and were themselves experienced within the care industry. 'The simplest of tasks caused a fatality that if all of them had taken appropriate steps, could have been avoided. 'I am pleased that the defendants pleaded guilty before the trial. This has at least saved Mrs Norris's family from further stress and anxiety that would inevitably have caused. I hope that today they finally begin to have some closure from this tragedy'. Covid did not originate in an infamous south Chinese bat cave at the centre of the 'lab leak' theory, a French study has claimed. The Mojiang cave has been touted as the possible birthplace of the virus after it emerged six miners were struck down with a mysterious flu-like illness in 2012. Scientists from the now-infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were sent in to investigate at the time and sent bat samples back to the lab 1,000 miles away. One of the viruses they collected is the closest known relative to the one that causes Covid, sharing almost 97 per cent of its genetic make-up. Proponents of the lab leak theory believe that either the miners were infected with an early version of Covid or that the pandemic-causing pathogen was the result of experiments on viruses sent back to Wuhan. But French researchers now say neither could be true after a retrospective study into the medical reports of the miners at the time. They said their symptoms were too different to be Covid and questioned why no hospital staff or close contacts of the miners fell ill. Writing in the study, they added: 'One must also wonder why a virus which killed more than 4 million and infected more than 200 million in 18 months did not cause any illness in 7 years from 2012 to 2019.' They added that RATG13 - the virus which closely resembles Covid and was found in horseshoe bats in Mojiang - was not capable of infecting humans and there was no evidence to suggest tinkering with it in a lab could give it that ability. However, one of the lead scientists behind the latest study had ties to the lab in Wuhan, raising a possible conflict of interest. Horseshoe bats are known carriers of the viruses and scientists believe they may be the culprit for the pandemic Researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were the first to link SARS and bats for the first time during a study in 2004 after raiding a cave in Yunnan province (pictured at the time). This cave is not the one in question The WIV is the high security lab which specialises in manipulating dangerous coronaviruses at the centre of the alleged cover-up. Pictured: Researchers in the lab in February 2017 The six miners struck down with the mystery pneumonia had been sent into the cave in Mojiang to clear bat guano in April 2012. They were aged between 30 and 63, and three died as a result of their infection. The latest study, led by the Roger Frutos, a microbiologist at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, said hospital records highlighted 'major discrepancies' between their illnesses and Covid's typical symptoms. WHO will start NEW investigation after first probe was whitewashed The World Health Organisation will start a new investigation into the origins of the Covid outbreak and probe whether the virus came from a Wuhan lab. A new team of experts will be appointed, including experts on biosecurity, laboratory safety, genetics, and how viruses spread to humans. They will look into whether coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, at the end of 2019 - a claim denied by China, which also wants the WHO to examine if the virus originated in another country. It comes after US President Joe Biden ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the 'lab leak' theory. A WHO spokesman said the new team's 'priority needs to be data and access in the country where the first reports were identified'. The earlier investigation recommended China examine the earliest suspected coronavirus cases, with the team claiming in its final report that the data provided by the country was insufficient. But out of the more than 400 page report, just three were allocated to the lab leak hypothesis. The original investigation was mired in controversy because it was spearheaded by Peter Daszak who had undisclosed ties to the Wuhan lab. Advertisement They pointed out that one of Covid's tell-tale symptoms is a dry cough, whereas the miners suffered from a very different kind of cough. They were found to be coughing up blood or mucus. CT scans showed they also did not have the same lung scarring seen in many hospitalised coronavirus patients. All of the miners suffered from swelling of lymph nodes in their chest or 'water on the lungs', symptoms only reported in fewer than 0.01 per cent of Covid patients. 'We thus dismiss the Mojiang mine as the origin of SARS-CoV-2,' the researchers wrote in the paper published in the journal Environmental Research. 'Dismissing the Mojiang mine theory leaves the laboratory leak narrative without any scientific support thus making it simply an opinion-based narrative.' However, the researchers were accused of failing to refute the central assertions of the lab leak theory. Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline: 'The theory argues that this virus [which infected the miners] maybe was the progenitor of SARS-CoV2... not that it was SARS-CoV2 itself. 'So, some difference in pathology is not unreasonable.' He said that he was still wasn't convinced the lab leak theory was the most likely origin of the virus. But he admitted there were some 'remarkable coincidences' He added: 'The pandemic began in Wuhan, which is far from the bat caves of south China (and) does house the institute of Virology undertaking molecular work, including gain of function, on coronaviruses.' His comments were echoed by Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist from Warwick University, who said it was 'entirely possible' that Covid's origins could be traced back to the caves in Mojiang. He told MailOnline 'While I still think that this is the result of natural spillover from an animal, a lab leak accident still can't be ruled out.' Professor Livermore added that the lab leak theory had turned from conspiracy to mainstream thought because extensive searches had failed to find any natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2. He said it was also 'important' to note that one of the authors of the paper, Christian Devaux, was involved in setting up the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Dr Devaux's involvement is listed in the paper's disclosures. The WIV specialises in manipulating dangerous coronaviruses, in what's known as 'gain of function' research. The risky experiments involve engineering viruses to make them more infectious or lethal, in the hope of developing treatments and vaccines to get ahead of outbreaks. But the French researchers say RATG13, the pathogen first discovered in horseshoe bats in Mojiang, is unlikely to have been used to create Covid. They said that while it is real, the virus particles were not isolated from animals meaning researchers only have samples of its genetic code, and not physical copies of the virus itself. 'Therefore, there is no evidence that this sequence corresponds to any real and viable virus or even that all reads are coming from the same virus,' they wrote in the study. 'RATG13 has never been isolated as a virus and replicated in cell cultures. It has no physical existence and thus cannot leak from a laboratory.' But questions still hang over the Mojiang caves. Attempts by Western journalists to visit the caves have been denied and the caves are closely monitored by Chinese authorities. But Royal Military Police officer, Alan Mews, giving evidence during the trial of a 80-year-old former Life Guards soldier, said he could not confirm the weapon was that of Dennis Hutchings (pictured) A military police officer says three bullets were missing from the gun he took from a soldier charged in relation to the fatal Troubles shooting, a trial today heard. But Royal Military Police officer, Alan Mews, giving evidence during the trial of a 80-year-old former Life Guards soldier, said he could not confirm the weapon was that of Dennis Hutchings. Hutchings is accused of the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham in Co Tyrone in 1974. Mr Cunningham, 27, was shot dead as he ran away from an Army patrol across a field near Benburb. People who knew him said he had the mental age of a child and was known to have a deep fear of soldiers. Hutchings denies the allegation, along with a count of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent. He is the defendant in a ongoing non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court. The court heard how Mr Mews attended the scene off the Carrickaness Road following the shooting on June 15, 1974. Giving evidence to Belfast Crown Court via video link, he said the only soldier he remembers speaking to specifically was Hutchings. Hutchings (pictured) is accused of the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham in Co Tyrone in 1974. He denies the allegations Giving evidence to Belfast Crown Court via video link, he said the only soldier he remembers speaking to specifically was Hutchings. Pictured: Supporters wait for the arrival of Dennis Hutchings outside Laganside Courts in Belfast He said he took an SLR rifle from him - a weapon that had 17 of its capacity 20 bullets still in the magazine. Judge Mr Justice O'Hara asked the witness whether the fact Hutchings handed him the weapon necessarily meant it was his weapon. 'No, your honour,' he replied. He gave me the weapon. I took the serial number from that weapon. 'Thereafter it would have been the SIB (RMP's Special Investigation Branch) inquiry that would have looked at whether that weapon with that serial number would have been signed out by Mr Hutchings or another member of his patrol.' Mr Cunningham (pictured), 27, was shot dead as he ran away from an Army patrol across a field near Benburb. People who knew him said he had the mental age of a child and was known to have a deep fear of soldiers Mr Mews said it was normal practice for individual weapons to be assigned to individual soldiers, but he told the court he was unable to confirm if that had definitely happened ahead of the incident in Benburb. Hutchings, from Cawsand in Cornwall, sat in the dock and listened to proceedings through a headset. The prosecution contend that Hutchings fired three shots at Mr Cunningham as he ran across the field and another soldier, who is now deceased, fired two. As no bullets were recovered from the scene, the Crown has said it is not possible to prove which soldier fired the fatal shot that hit Mr Cunningham in the back - and for that reason Hutchings is facing a charge of attempted murder. The third day of the non-jury trial in Belfast Crown Court also heard evidence from a second former member of the Royal Military Police. John Cooper had been stationed in Northern Ireland from 1973-75 and again in 1979-81. The court heard he had made signed statements about the incident, including to the original inquest in January 1975. However, Mr Cooper said while he was aware of it but had 'no recollection whatsoever' of it. He said it had been a 'long time ago', adding: 'I may add of all the incidents I was involved in in Northern Ireland, I recall virtually none of them.' Hutchings is the defendant in a ongoing non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court. Pictured: Laganside Courts in Belfast Earlier, Mr Justice O'Hara ruled that two sheets of notes and markings which appear to show the location of bullet casings, the position which Mr Cunningham's body lay in and features of the field accompanying maps of the scene, were admissible as evidence. The defence had raised an issue with the sheets, pointing out they were not signed by the police constable who had compiled two maps of the scene and not referred to in his statements, and as the officer has since died, is not available to give evidence on it. However, after considering the arguments, Mr Justice O'Hara said it was 'entirely fanciful' to suggest that 'somehow for no apparent reason another individual intervened in the mapping exercise - that makes no sense, and I reject that possibility entirely'. 'On the evidence and submissions before me, I can see no injustice or unfairness to this defendant in this case in admitting in evidence the two sheets of notes which I am entirely satisfied were the work of Constable Hill,' he said. Hutchings is suffering from kidney disease and the trial is only sitting three days a week to enable him to undergo dialysis treatment between hearings. The trial continues and is scheduled to sit again on Monday. Advertisement Police and Border Force officers were stretched today after a series of migrant landings across the Kent coast. The break in unpleasant weather meant people smugglers saw the opportunity to restart dinghies across the Channel. They managed to evade French authorities without any problem and began arriving in the first light of Friday morning. Kent police said they were called to assist Border Force just after 9am after they were alerted to suspected migrants who had managed to get to residential streets in Kingsdown. Later officers were seen searching children at the side of the road after they and adults were found at a road 500 yards from Walmer Beach. And the afternoon saw around 40 migrants land at St Margaret's Beach. A group of migrants after landing on the beach today in perfect weather conditions at St Margaret's bay near Dover, Kent. A lone woman was left on the beach to fend for herself after scores of male migrants fled once they had landed on shore These three children were searched on Liverpool Road 500 yards from Walmer Beach earlier today after reports of migrants The men ran off as soon as they hit land, leaving the sole female occupant behind to be caught by officials, one of which could be seen comforting her. Home Office workers say 89 people from five different boats were intercepted on Thursday while French authorities stopped another five boats preventing 99 people from reaching Britain. More are expected throughout the day with boats already having arrived this morning, as people smugglers take advantage of warmer weather and calm seas. They are the first to make the treacherous crossing since September 22 due to bad weather in the English Channel. Groups of at least eight in orange lifejackets were seen today climbing ashore the Border Force boat in Dover Harbour. The migrants were caught by officials almost immediately and sat on the ground waiting to be taken to a centre this morning A police officer was on the scene at St Margaret's Bay dealing with the numbers getting onto the shore after crossing the sea The police appeared to have gone to the scene near Walmer Beach after reports from the public of suspected migrants One officer appeared to be checking a young girl's wellington boot as they found them at the side of the road near the beach French police say that they also prevented several migrants crossings overnight, seizing boats and making arrests. Dan O'Mahoney, clandestine channel threat commander for Border Force, said: 'The government is determined to tackle the unacceptable rise in dangerous Channel crossings using every tool at our disposal, at every stage in the journey. 'Working with police and international partners, this year there have been nearly 300 arrests, 65 convictions related to small boat criminality and our targeted efforts have prevented more than 13,500 migrant attempts. 'But this is a complicated issue requiring changes to our laws. The Government's New Plan for Immigration provides a long term solution to fix the broken system and deliver the change required to tackle criminal gangs and prevent further loss of life.' It comes after September was the busiest month on record, with Dover receiving four times the amount of migrants compared to September 2020. A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by Border Force officers after their boat was found An extremely young child is carried onto shore after a boat she was on was rescued by Border Force officials in the waters Two young children and woman believed to be their mother were among migrants brought to the Kent shores The children's father was seen among the group as officials intercepted their boat in the channel earlier today Official Home Office statistics showed more than 3,872 have arrived in 113 incidents last month - breaking the 3,509 who made the dangerous journey in 117 boats in July. And officers have now detained at least 17,228 migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats so far this year, more than double the record number who made the treacherous crossing in all of 2020. In 2020 there were a total of 8,410 were detained in small boat incidents. This comes just days after Home Secretary Priti Patel in the Conservative party conference committed to reducing the number of channel crossings. She said: 'The shocking images of people crammed into flimsy boats, exploited by people smugglers, vile criminals, characterized by ruthlessness and greed who even threatened to drown small children just to line their pockets. 'This can not continue, this is why we are going after the criminals behind this perilous trade of people smuggling.' A Kent Police spokesperson said: 'We assisted Border Force following a report of suspected migrants seen near Undercliffe Road, Kingsdown at 9.15 am on Friday 8 October 2021.' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted her fellow Democratic lawmaker Sen. Joe Manchin on Thursday, condemning him as a 'Conservative Dem' for reportedly saying progressives must pick only one from three of President Biden's spending proposals. She delivered her broadside as Democrats fight over their massive multi-trillion dollar bill. Manchin has said he is only prepared to back $1.5 trillion of spending - far less than his party's $3.5 trillion proposal - and is pushing progressives to choose from expanded child tax credits, paid family medical leave or subsidies for child care, according to Axios. Ocasio-Cortez delivered her verdict in a tweet. 'Ah yes, the Conservative Dem position: "You can either feed your kid, recover from your C-section, or have childcare so you can go to work - but not all three. All 3 makes you entitled and lazy," she wrote. 'But fossil fuel $, keeping Rx prices high,& not taxing Wall St are "non-negotiable."' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted centrist holdout Sen. Joe Manchin, calling him a 'Conservative Dem' for urging progressives to pick one from three of their spending priorities AOC's tweet reflects the deep divide between centrist Democrats who are holding up President Biden's spending plans and progressives urging action President Biden made a rare visit to Congress last week after his huge legislative agenda stalled a night earlier as progressives and centrists in his own party went to war Biden last week proposed cuts to the plan as he tried to keep his agenda on track. He floated a final bill in the range $1.9 to $2.2 when he met Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week. But so far Manchin is sticking to his $1.5 trillion ceiling. As her tweet made clear, progressives like Ocasio-Cortez want to keep all three programs but have suggested they can be funded for shorter durations in order to trim the price tag. The result is a stand-off between Manchin and his centrist ally Kyrsten Sinema and a progressive wing emboldened by Biden's support for a huge spending plan. Their opposition also meant House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week had to abandon plans for a vote on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan, as liberals refused to push it through until there was progress on the bigger bill. This week, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders slammed the pair for being the only two members of their party's 50-person caucus to stand in the way of Biden's proposal. 'Two people do not have the right to sabotage what 48 want what the president of the United States wants. That, to me, is wrong,' the far-left Vermont Senator said during a press conference Wednesday. Sanders pointed out that 96 percent of both the Senate and House's Democratic caucuses support the plan, with 210 out of 220 members voting 'yes' in the House. 'And, by the way, the president of the United States supports this bill,' he said. 'Let me tell you who is vigorously opposed to this legislation and I think that it's important that the American people understand,' he noted before digging into lobbyists in the pharmaceutical, health insurance and fossil fuel industries who he said are pouring resources into blocking the plan. 'And it goes without saying that the billionaire class and large corporations are spending a fortune in opposition to this bill because they love the idea that [they] don't pay a nickel in federal income tax,' he added. Explaining his view to reporters on Capitol Hill, Manchin, a moderate from West Virginia, has warned key welfare provisions could generate an 'entitlement mentality.' At times Manchin has seemed to suggest he might support a package in Biden's range of $1.9 trillion to $2.2 trillion. 'I'm not ruling anything out, but the bottom line is I want to make sure that we're strategic and we do the right job and we don't basically add more to the concerns we have right now,' he said Tuesday. But a day later he returned to his previous limit. 'My number has been 1.5' he said. 'Ive been very clear.' But Sanders lambasted Manchin's position in a play-by-play of the bill's plans and who they would be benefitting, first citing the proposal to extend $300 direct child tax payments, which have helped cut childhood poverty, through 2025. Sanders asked, 'Is protecting working families and cutting childhood poverty an 'entitlement? Does Senator Manchin think we should once again have one of the highest levels of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth?' Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is demanding answers from Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday over his recent Justice Department memo directing FBI and other law enforcement to immediately address a 'disturbing spike' in violent incidents against teachers and other education officials. The Kentucky lawmaker wrote a letter to Garland disputing his 'ominous rhetoric' over the conflicts between teachers and parents. Schoolboard meetings and other educational settings have become a hotbed for protest for angry parents opposing masks in the classroom and the teachings of Critical Race Theory in public schools. In his letter, a copy of which was obtained by DailyMail.com, McConnell asserted parents have the right to exercise control over their child's education. 'Parents absolutely should be telling their local schools what to teach. This is the very basis of representative government,' McConnell wrote. 'They do this both in elections and - as protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution - while petitioning their government for redress of grievance.' 'Telling elected officials they're wrong is democracy, not intimidation.' Mitch McConnell sent Merrick Garland a letter on Friday morning demanding he explain how and why he's planning on cracking down on parents protesting masks and Critical Race Theory On Friday morning a local Pennsylvania outlet reported on a growing number of incidents of 'aggressive behavior' and 'derogatory remarks' at board meetings in the Northampton County School District and other parts of the Lehigh Valley since officials implemented mask mandates. In Texas, a speaking event featuring a popular YA graphic novels author was canceled this week and his books pulled from school library shelves after a group of 400 parents accused writer Jerry Craft of promoting Critical Race Theory through his work, the Houston Chronicle reported. McConnell said the impassioned demonstrations across the country should be praised, not condemned. 'I hope you will agree with me that the kind of grassroots interest parents have shown throughout the country in both the methods and substance of their children's education is to be commended and encouraged,' the senator wrote. He noted that while 'some schoolboard meetings have involved altercations with the police,' those incidents were 'dealt with effectively.' Garland issued a memo earlier this week warning parents that they could be prosecuted for violence or threats of violence against education officials 'Violence, threats of violence, and other criminal behavior are always wrong.' McConnell then pivoted to raising concerns over threats of violence experienced by the anti-CRT parents that Garland's memo targets. Using the example of Loudon County, Virginia - pointing out it's in Garland's own 'backyard' - McConnell described 'shocking efforts' by public officials to intimidate parents who he claimed merely 'want a better education for their children.' One Loudon County schoolboard member, he noted, went so far as to join a Facebook group 'that compiled a list of parents opposed to Critical Race Theory and discussed hacking their websites.' Furthermore the Loudon County Prosecutor was also part of the group, McConnell said, making 'legal accountability difficult.' 'It's exactly this kind of intimidation of private citizens by government officials that our federal civil rights laws were designed to prevent,' he said. He asked that Garland answer a series of questions on his memo, including what he means by 'harassment' and 'intimidation' on part of the parents. 'In your view, is an effort to recall a schoolboard member or to challenge her policies publicly ever an instance of an "effort to intimidate individuals based on their views"?' my Jahr sings the Star Spangled Banner after a Loudoun County School Board meeting was halted by the school board because the crowd refused to quiet down. McConnell called the area Garland's 'backyard' 'Why, in your view, are state and local law enforcement not adequately equipped to deal with any violence or threats that may arise from schoolboard protests?' He also questioned what, if anything, Garland is doing to investigate incidents like the one in Loudon County in which he claims government officials tried to 'abridge the free speech of citizens.' McConnell also asked that Garland provides any communications he had with his deputies in the DOJ as well as national teachers' groups before releasing the memo. Garland's order was spurred by the National School Board Association (NSBA) begging the Biden administration to intervene in the 'immediate threat' posed to education officials by anti-CRT and anti-mask protesters. 'Coupled with attacks against school board members and educators for approving policies for masks to protect the health and safety of students and school employees, many public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula,' the letter reads. The NSBA compared such activism to domestic terrorism and even referenced the controversial PATRIOT Act, which vastly expanded the federal government's surveillance scope in the name of national security. AG Merrick Garland issued this memo warning parents that they will face prosecution for protesting against schools and teachers in a way the government deems to be threatening In addition to McConnell several other Republican lawmakers also condemned Garland's memo. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote a letter to Garland on Thursday demanding the DOJ doesn't 'interfere with the rights of parents to come before schoolboard and speak with educators about their concerns, whether regarding coronavirus-related measures, the teaching of critical race theory in schools, sexually explicit books in schools, or any other topic.' They called the NSBA's PATRIOT Act reference 'entirely inappropriate.' 'It is not appropriate to use the awesome powers of the federal government including the PATRIOT Act, a statute designed to thwart international terrorism to quash those who question local school boards,' they wrote. 'Violence and true threats of violence should have no place in our civic discourse, but parents should absolutely be involved in public debates over what and how our public schools teach their children, even if those discussions get heated.' The letter was signed by ranking member Senator Chuck Grassley, as well as all of the Republicans that make up the Judiciary Committee's minority: Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Michael Lee, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse, Tom Cotton, John Kennedy and Thom Tillis. DailyMail.com has reached out to the DOJ for comment on both letters. The GOP barrage against Garland continued into Friday afternoon, when a group of 10 additional Senate Republicans sent a letter condemning Garland's 'witch hunt' against parents. 'Parents often vehemently protect their children and have the absolute right to dissent when they believe their own childrens wellbeing is threatened,' the group led by Senator Roger Marshall wrote. 'It is not the job of the federal government to institute a witch hunt against parents effectively penalizing them by investigating dissent.' The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department says he will not enforce the city's latest vaccine mandate, fearing that he will lose employees in protest over what he called a 'politicized issue.' Sheriff Alex Villanueva claims large numbers of his 18,000 employees are ready to quit if they are ordered to get be vaccinated. LA County public employees had until October 1 to provide proof that they were fully vaccinated, while city employees have until October 20. LA City Council also passed a law on Wednesday requiring customers at nearly all indoor venues to show proof of vaccination by November 4. 'There are entire groups of employees that are willing to be fired and laid off rather than get vaccinated, so I don't want to be in a position to lose 5 per cent, 10 per cent of my workforce overnight on a vaccine mandate,' Villanueva told the LA Times. LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva, left, said he would not force his employees to get vaccinated as LA Mayor Eric Garcetti is expected to sign sweeping vaccine mandates The LA Sheriff's Department is the largest of its kind with about 18,000 employees The LA Sheriff's Department is the largest sheriff's department in the US with about 18,000 employees, according to the department. Villanueva added that with the city's mandate and 'defunding effort' against officers, it was 'the worst of two worlds' for law enforcement. Earlier this year, the sheriff also stood against the city's indoor masking policy, which he claimed was 'not backed by science.' The Sheriff's Department has not said how many employees were vaccinated and did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com's request for comment. Villanueva received both praise and criticism online for his stance. One Twitter with the name Paige Carita wrote, 'If you hold a position where people have no choice but to interact with you, you have a professional obligation to do everything you can to keep those people safe and healthy. Anything else is negligence.' While another person on Twitter with the handle Cali Momma wrote, 'Good for him!!! A cop that's brave enough to run into an active shooter situation can make his own mind up about his health any day.' People posted tweets to praise or criticize the LA Sheriff Department's Office Others on Twitter called on those officers who refuse to get the vaccine to be fired for failing to uphold the new law. 'Call His Bluff,' a Twitter user with the handle Quatrain Gleam wrote. 'The ones who will leave are those who reject civilian oversight and the duty of public safety. Another Twitter user with the name SandaBlueDeux wrote, 'Those officers who refuse to get vaccinated should immediately be removed as they obviously do not understand the responsibilities of dealing with the public. 'Let them use their freedom to find jobs better suited for them that doesn't require contact with the public.' The LA Police Department had also had officers break rank over the city's mandates as nearly 40 percent of officers have not gotten a shot as the city's October 20th deadline looms, The Rolling Stone reports. We are almost at a standstill,' says William Briggs, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, the city's civilian oversight board. 'Officers are refusing to be vaccinated; they are taking a hard line.' About 78 per cent of eligible residents of received at least one jab of the vaccine, with more than 6 million fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Nearly 78 per cent of eligible to get the vaccine in LA County have gotten at least jab Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti intends to sign the vaccine mandate, his spokesperson said A councilmember said mandates are a necessary incentive for the stubborn vaccine reluctant The city's latest measure, which Mayor Eric Garcetti is expected to sign into law, is the strictest in the nation and requires proof of vaccination to enter gyms, restaurants, bars, hair salons, and more. Unlike other city-ordered mandates, Los Angeles applies a plethora of walled establishments, excluding grocery stores and retailers such as pharmacies. The rule also applies to large venues, meaning proof of inoculation is needed to catch a live L.A. Lakers game at The Staples Center, or a concert at the city's famed Hollywood Bowl. The ordinance, which takes effect November 4, passed with a 11-2 vote, despite pushback from anti-vaxxers and some local businesses. The California Restaurant Association vocally opposed the measure ahead of today's vote. Los Angeles diners will soon have to produce proof of vaccine to gain entry into restaurants Association president Jet Condie said in a statement that the measure fails to address 'the safety risks to our workers who are expected to enforce a measure that, frankly, brings out the worst in some customers.' LA Mayor Garcetti will sign the city's mandate, his spokesperson told DailyMail.com. 'Vaccinating more Angelenos is our only way out of this pandemic, and we must do everything in our power to keep pushing those numbers up,' Garcetti said in a statement. 'These new rules will encourage more people to get the shot, and make businesses safer for workers and customers so that we can save more lives, better protect the vulnerable, and make our communities even safer as we fight this pandemic.' More than 650 Central American migrants headed for the United States were found crammed inside six shipping containers hauled by three trucks in northeastern Mexico. The shocking discovery was made by National Guardsmen operating a checkpoint on the Victoria-Monterrey national expressway inspecting the tractor trailers, the Institute of National Migration said in a statement provided to DailyMail.com The traffic stop took place 200 miles from the nearest United States-Mexico border crossing. Federal Migration Agents onsite heard voices coming from one of the containers and requested the use of an x-ray which confirmed that there were people in one of the freight boxes. A total of 652 migrants from Central America were removed six freight containers hauled by three trucks in Tamaulipas, Mexico, on Thursday night after the National Guard ordered the drivers to stop. Federal Migration Agents inspecting the trucks heard voices coming from one of the containers and requested the use of an x-ray which confirmed that there were people in one of the freight boxes A Mexican law enforcement agent carries a migrant child that was among the 652 individuals who crammed inside six freight containers on a highway in Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, 200 miles south of the border with the United States Mexico's National Guard was operating a checkpoint on a stretch of the Victoria-Monterrey national expressway in Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, on Thursday night when they stopped three trucks hauling six containers and discovered 652 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Brazil The servicemen were able to open each of the freight containers and helped the migrants out. Most of the migrants complained over the lack of food and water, and the rising temperatures inside the containers. The Institute of National Migration confirmed to DailyMail.com on Friday that there were 198 unaccompanied children aboard the six containers. Four individuals suspected of ferrying the migrants were arrested on charges of human trafficking. The Institute of National Migration confirmed to DailyMail.com on Friday that there were 198 unaccompanied children aboard the six containers. Pictured is one of the freight containers where some of the 652 migrants were crammed together A Mexican immigration agents escorts a child out of one of the six freight containers that were filled with 652 migrants from Central America in Hidalgo, Tamaulipas, on Thursday night Of the 652 migrants, 564 were natives of Guatemala. The rest of the group was made up of 39 Hondurans, 28 Nicaraguans, 20 Salvadorans and one Brazilian. All of the migrants were treated by the Red Cross and remained in custody of the Tamaulipas state department of security. The migrant bust came on the eve of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to discuss the immigration crisis, drug flow and the trafficking of U.S.-made guns into Mexico. A surge in the number of Haitian and Latin American migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border plunged President Joe Biden's administration into another crisis in late September and underlined Washington's reliance on Mexico to help stem the flow. Mexico's importance in managing immigration has given the Lopez Obrador administration leverage to pursue more independent policies in other areas, Mexican officials say privately. Robert Durst could soon face charges over the 1982 disappearance of his wife Kathie Durst as the Westchester District Attorney plans to convene a grand jury in the case, according to a report. Two sources close to the investigation told News12 that DA Mimi Rocah has decided to pursue charges against the convicted murderer, now 78, almost four decades on from when Kathie was last seen alive. Kathie - previously Kathie McCormack - vanished without a trace in New York in 1982 and her family has long maintained that she was murdered by her husband - the rich heir of one of the most powerful real estate companies in the Big Apple. She and Durst were said to be having marital problems at the time and their relationship was marred by domestic violence. Durst's version of events repeatedly changed over the years about the last time he spoke to his wife. Kathie's body has never been found and no one has ever been charged. Robert Durst could soon face charges over the 1982 disappearance of his wife Kathie Durst, according to a report. Durst is pictured in LA court last month during his trial for the murder of Susan Berman Sources said the Westchester District Attorney plans to convene a grand jury in the case and pursue charges against the convicted murderer almost four decades on from when Kathie was last seen alive. Kathie and Robert Durst pictured together The decision to move forward with a possible prosecution in the case now comes just weeks after Durst was convicted of murdering his best friend Susan Berman in a gangland-execution style murder in her Los Angeles home in 2000. Durst was accused of shooting Berman point-blank in the back of her head after New York authorities reopened the investigation into Kathie's disappearance and wanted to speak to her as a long-time confidante of his. Prosecutors said Berman knew too much about what happened to Kathie and so she was silenced. Berman is thought to have helped Durst cover his tracks after his wife's disappearance, posing as Kathie to phone her medical school to say she was sick on the morning after she was last seen alive. This led investigators to believe Durst's version of events that he saw her board a train to New York City on the night of January 31 1982 after they spent the weekend at their home in South Salem, Westchester County. He claimed he spoke to his wife when she arrived at their Manhattan penthouse and had cocktails with his neighbor later that night. Investigators later found no evidence of Kathie ever boarding the train or arriving into New York and Durst later confessed to lying about their phone call and his drinks with a neighbor. During the trial, prosecutors also said Durst had killed Kathie despite him never facing charges. The decision to move forward with a possible prosecution in the case now comes just weeks after Durst was convicted of murdering his best friend Susan Berman (pictured together) in a gangland-execution style murder in her Los Angeles home in 2000 Durst was also charged - and acquitted at a 2005 trial - of the 2001 murder of his neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, Texas, despite admitting to chopping his body up into multiple pieces with an ax and a bow saw. Durst had claimed he accidentally shot Black in the head when they were both wrestling over Durst's firearm which Black had gotten hold of. He dismembered his body and dumped it in the sea in plastic bags which were discovered by authorities. The only body part never found was Black's head - making Durst's version of events difficult to disprove. The real estate scion had wound up being neighbors with Black when he was reportedly hiding from New York authorities in the small town in Texas. Prosecutors during his trial for Berman's murder argued Durst murdered Black when he discovered his true identity as the man suspected of killing his wife in New York. Durst was also charged - and acquitted in 2005 - of the 2001 murder of Morris Black (above) who he admitted dismembering DA Rocah reopened the investigation back in May into Kathie's disappearance - a case that has plagued the DA's office for decades. The original investigation was only ever launched as a missing persons case and no search of the Durst's home was carried out. In 2000, then-DA Jeanine Pirro reopened the case into Kathie's disappearance at a time when Berman's death was being investigated in LA and Durst was facing charges over Black's death in Texas. But, once again, no charges were brought. Rocah said authorities today have a different perspective of domestic violence to those who investigated back in 1982. Following Durst's conviction in LA last month, Kathie's family pleaded with Westchester prosecutors to bring charges against him over her disappearance and death. 'Not a single day goes by that we do not think about our beautiful, smart, and kind sister, Kathleen. Today, more than ever before, it is clear that she was murdered by Robert Durst in Westchester County, New York on January 31, 1982. 'The evidence is overwhelming,' the McCormack family said in a statement. 'Although Durst has now been rightly convicted of killing Susan Berman, who helped him conceal the truth about Kathies death, the McCormack family is still waiting for justice. Kathie is still waiting for justice.' The family said they had waited almost four decades to get answers over her disappearance. Kathie and Robert together. Prosecutors at Durst's trial for Berman's murder said he had killed Kathie despite him never facing charges 'The justice system in Los Angeles has finally served the Berman family. It is now time for Westchester to do the same for the McCormack family and charge Durst for the murder of his wife, Kathie, which occurred almost forty years ago,' the statement read. 'Westchester DA Rocah has assembled a team of cold case prosecutors and investigators every bit the equal of those in Los Angeles. It is time for Westchester to finally do the right thing.' Kathie was legally declared dead in 2017. Her husband is the sole suspect in her disappearance. Despite long being suspected of all three murders, Durst evaded prosecution and was only brought to justice for Berman's murder last month. As the Durst Organization heir, his entanglement in the disappearance of his wife, death and dismemberment of his neighbor, and execution of his best friend has hit headlines for years. His downfall came about following his interview in the documentary The Jinx: The Life And Deaths Of Robert Durst. The jury last month were shown a letter sent to the LAPD alerting them to Berman's dead body with Beverly Hills spelled incorrectly. Documentary makers found another letter from Durst to Berman which spelled Beverly Hills the same way Real estate heir (pictured in August at his trial) Durst is the lead suspect in Kathie's 1982 disappearance In the show, a hot mic picks up Durst saying he 'killed them all, of course.' Documentary makers also compared a letter sent by the killer to the LAPD alerting them to Berman's dead body in her Benedict Canyon home on Christmas Eve 2000. The letter told cops there was a 'cadaver' at the address and Beverly Hills was spelled incorrectly. Documentary makers found another letter from Durst to Berman which spelled Beverly Hills the same way. This comparison was presented at Durst's trial, with prosecutors crediting the documentary makers for unearthing it. Durst finally admitted at trial to sending the letter but claimed he did so when he found his friend's body - but that he wasn't the one who killed her. Durst pleaded not guilty to Berman's murder at his trial last month, where he appeared frail and in a wheelchair. He faces life in prison without parole at his sentencing for Berman's murder on October 18. A pregnant woman and her unborn child have been killed after a gunman opened fire 'in a targeted attack' while she was driving down a Georgia highway. Akeila Ware, 29, a nurse, was shot from another vehicle, sending her Honda Accord head-on into a tree off Highway 18 in Troup County on Tuesday. Officers rushed to the crash at 12.50pm where they found Ware unresponsive in the driver's seat and multiple bullet holes peppered across the vehicle. She was rushed to a Columbus-area hospital in critical condition. She and the unborn child were later pronounced dead, according to The Atlanta Constitution Journal. An arrest was made in North Carolina on Thursday in connection with the incident but police have provided no further details. Akeila Ware, 29, a nurse, was shot by gunfire from another vehicle, sending her Honda Accord head-on into a tree off Highway 18 in Troup County on Tuesday. 'It does appear to be a targeted crime at this point, not a random road rage,' said Sgt. Stewart Smith. Earlier police said they were seeking the driver of a silver Nissan with possible front-end damage. Two purple star balloons and a single piece of crime scene tape marked the location of the crash on Tuesday evening. Ware's family spoke to Fox 5 on Wednesday, prior to the arrest, saying that they could not believe what had happened. Police cars at the scene of the crash on Tuesday on Highway 18 in Georgia Her mother, Twila Ware, told the station: 'You know, it's like you're going to wake up out of it and, you know, it's not gonna be true, it's not gonna so ... 'She was a mother, a daughter, cousin, friend, so anybody with information.' Her cousin Santoria Johnson described her relative as 'a very smart, bright young lady.' 'Anybody with information, please come forward,' said Johnson. 'Do it for her family, her kids especially.' A trainee solicitor accused of sexually attacking two law students at the same house party was told by police he would face no further action over a rape allegation, before being charged three years later, a court heard today. Graduate Tom Hagyard, 29, told a court how he was questioned by police on October 17, 2017, days after allegedly carrying out the attacks at a house warming party in London. In December that year he was told by police he would face 'no further action' regarding one allegation - of rape. However he was charged with assault by penetration and sexual assault nearly three years later. A rape count was added at his first Crown Court appearance. Hagyard, who allegedly carried out the attacks shortly after starting at one of the worlds' largest corporate law practice's in the City of London, denies the allegations and is on trial at Isleworth Crown Court. Graduate Tom Hagyard (pictured), 29, told a court how he was questioned by police on October 17, 2017, days after allegedly carrying out the attacks at a house warming party in London Hagyard (pictured), who allegedly carried out the attacks shortly after starting at one of the worlds' largest corporate law practice's in the City of London, denies the allegations and is on trial at Isleworth Crown Court The court heard that, after graduating from university with a First Class philosophy degree, Hagyard was just six weeks into a two-year training course with the practice when he was invited to a Fulham house-warming party. In the early hours she invited him to sleep alongside her and her friend who was already passed-out on the bed and claims she was woken by Hagyard raping her. The woman said she was 'nine or ten out of ten drunk', but said she did not consent to any sexual activity with the defendant. Hagyard, giving evidence, told told the jury. 'She immediately rolled towards me and kissed me. It did surprise me, but I did like her and thought she was attractive. The court heard that, after graduating from university with a First Class philosophy degree, Hagyard (pictured) was just six weeks into a two-year training course with the practice when he was invited to a Fulham house-warming party 'From our conversation earlier during the party I was not surprised she may have formed the same opinion of me and I kissed her back.' Hagyard told a court he then rubbed her back before a consensual sex act occurred. But he said this did not lead to intercourse. 'I was fully-clothed for the whole thing,' he told the court. Hagyard told the trial he decided to sleep on the living-room floor until the trains began running when he engaged with another woman. 'I saw her on the sofa and had got on well with her that evening. She said: 'You can share the sofa with me.' It was a very small sofa and I got on as best I could.' Hagyard told the court he 'started massaging her chest'. He said the woman 'seemed to be enjoying it' before he began 'unbuckling her belt'. He told the court: 'At that point she said: "What are you doing?" and I thought she was worried because we did not know each other very well and there were other people in the room. 'She was having second thoughts and I sought to reassure her that she did not need to worry and I kissed her ear.' Prosecutor Richard Job asked Hagyard: 'It was your good fortune wasn't it that she enjoyed being touched by you as much as the first woman you touched-up and was equally as delighted as that first woman?' Regarding the rape complainant the prosecutor asked: 'It might be more accurate to say she had passed out? She was practically comatose, you must have seen that? 'She was in no position to consent to sex with you and you sought to take advantage of the poor state this woman was in.' Hagyard denied the suggestion, replying: 'I would never do that.' 'You gave up having sex with the sleeping woman and looked for another source of sexual relief,' suggested Mr Job. Hagyard told Isleworth Crown Court (above) he had chatted with both complainants that night and told police the first woman was a 'willing and enthusiastic' partner, denying he raped her 'Did you think these women would wake up to you pawing at their bodies and be delighted by that?' Regarding the first woman Hagyard replied: 'She was actively participating the whole time,' and regarding the second he said: 'She invited me to join her on the sofa.' Hagyard, of Fylde Road, Southport has pleaded not guilty to one count of raping the law student at the two-bedroom address in west London on October, 2017, plus two counts of assault by penetration. He has also pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting the second young woman later that same evening. Speaking about his employment, he told the court: 'They suspended me on full pay and after a few months asked me to resign.' Speaking about telling his parents, he said: 'They were devastated of course. I told them all that had happened. I do believe I was innocent and had done nothing wrong.' The trial continues. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer revealed his nickname of 'Special K' as he paid a visit to a Kellogg's factory. Sir Keir toured the cereal factory in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester, on Friday morning and met business leaders, apprentices and trade union representatives to discuss problems with distribution, shortages and supply chains. He told reporters he shared a name with one of the manufacturer's well-known brands, saying: 'I've been dubbed Special K since I was born, K for Keir.' Before the visit, he criticised the Prime Minister for 'refusing to take responsibility' for shortages and 'offering only jokes and slogans'. Grrreat: Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (pictured) revealed his nickname of 'Special K' as he paid a visit to a Kellogg's cereal factory in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester this morning Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during a visit to the Kellogg's plant, in Stretford, Manchester He said: 'Boris Johnson failed to act when industry warned him of driver shortages months ago, allowing this chaos to develop. 'Without an adequate plan to recruit and train more drivers now, the chaos will continue as demand rises in the run-up to Christmas. 'Britain needs a high-wage high-productivity economy, but this Government has no plan to get there. 'Instead, wages are stagnant, bills are rising, and the Conservatives are raising taxes on working families and small businesses.' During his visit (pictured), the Labour leader discussed the ongoing crises in distribution, shortages, and supply chains facing British businesses and criticised the Prime Minister During his visit, Sir Keir (pictured) said Britain needs a high-wage high-productivity economy While visiting the North West, Sir Keir was asked whether Cabinet minister Michael Gove was the right man to 'level up' the region. He said: 'It's not a question of whether he's the right man, it's how on earth can the Government claim to be levelling up when it's hitting six million families who most need it with a 1,000 cut. 'If you can't level up those that are most in need, you're not interested in levelling up.' President Donald Trump lost more than $73 million on his luxury D.C. hotel even while claiming multi-million profits on his disclosure forms, the House Oversight Panel says after reviewing government documents. The hotel, which the Trump Organization refurbished and leases from the federal government, was a fixture of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and became a hub of activity for supporters during his administration. But far from being a revenue-generator, it was a 'failing business saddled by debt,' according to a letter the Democratic-run Oversight panel wrote to the General Services Administration, known as the nation's landlord. 'Taken together, these documents show that far from being a successful investment, the Trump Hotel was a failing business saddled by debt that required bailouts from President Trumps other businesses,' panel chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) wrote. 'In deciding to conceal the Trump Hotels true financial condition from federal ethics officials and the American public, President Trump hid conflicts of interest stemming not just from his ownership of the hotel but also from his roles as the hotels lender and the guarantor of its third-party loans.' Trump's luxury hotel in Washington, D.C. lost more than $73 million over the four years he was in office, rather than raking in millions as public financial disclosures claim, according to the House Oversight Committee The panel found that Trump 'provided misleading information about the financial situation of the Trump Hotel in his annual financial disclosures; received undisclosed preferential treatment from a foreign bank on a $170 million loan to the hotel that the President personally guaranteed; accepted millions of dollars in emoluments from foreign governments without providing an accounting of the moneys source or purpose; concealed hundreds of millions of dollars in debts from GSA when bidding on the Old Post Office Building lease; and made it impossible for GSA to properly enforce the leases conflict-of-interest restrictions by engaging in opaque transactions with other affiliated entities,' according to the letter. The letter charges that Trump 'hid' the losses from the public by failing to disclose them. But the letter does not charge that Trump necessarily violated the law. 'While the Committee did not draw a conclusion about whether President Trumps federally mandated disclosures were in technical compliance with reporting requirements, it is clear that the disclosures failed to provide the public with an accurate picture of President Trumps businesses, their financial health, and the nature and extent of the conflicts of interest they posed,' Maloney writes. Instead, it says, 'By portraying the hotel as a successful business, President Trump concealed significant ethical issues stemming from his failing business. The hotels massive losses decreased President Trumps personal net worth, compromised the hotels ability to repay loans from other entities owned by the President, and potentially jeopardized his other personal assets due to the personal guarantee he provided for the Trump Hotels $170 million debt.' Trump family members (L to R) Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump break ground at the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C Groundbreaking Ceremony at Old Post Office on July 23, 2014 in Washington, DC. Trump featured the business during his 2016 campaign Internal disclosures show food and drink sales brought in nearly as much as the hotel's rooms, though with higher expenses. Here President Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani has coffee with Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, U.S., September 20, 2019 The committee obtained financial statements from accounting firm Mazarrs which showed annual losses of up to $18 million at the hotel. Trump wrote down gains in annual disclosure reports The Oversight Committee wrote the head of the General Services Administration seeking further information According to data compiled by the committee based on Trump Hotel financial statements from Trump's accountant, the hotel lost between $2.5 million and $22 million each year, losing $73 million over the period. The money-losing state of the hotel follows a report that Trump has tumbled out of the ultra-exclusive Forbes 400 list of America's richest people for the first time since making it on in 1996, worth $400 million shy of this year's cutoff, the outlet revealed Tuesday. According to the committee, Trump renegotiated a construction loan for the hotel with Deutsche Bank, converting it in 2018 to an interest-only loan, with no principal due until 2024. 'The six-year deferral in loan payments amounted to a significant benefit to the Trump Hotel and the President himself, who not only owned the hotel but personally guaranteed its loan,' Maloney wrote. But Trump was not required to report the change under existing ethics laws the panel described as weak. The former president is worth $2.5 billion, according to Forbes, after he lost $600 million of his fortune during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump was ranked 339th last year. His highest ever position was at 71st in 2003, the year before he launched his NBC hit series The Apprentice. But in March 2020, three years after Trump refused to divest from his name-brand real estate holdings, the coronavirus pandemic upended the economy. Divesting when he took office in 2017 would have been an opportunity to diversify his assets, Forbes argues. Even if he divested and paid maximum capital gains tax, investing the rest into wider portfolios like the S&P 500 could have left him 80 percent richer than he is today. Instead, his narrow wealth portfolio was dealt a blow by the pandemic's particularly powerful impact on tourism and hospitality, as well as big city real estate prices. Donald Trump is off the Forbes 400 richest Americans list for the first time since 1996 Trump's ranking had been dropping throughout his years at the White House and peaked in 2003 Reports that Trump was in talks to sell his Washington, DC hotel emerged in early September. The hotel was a popular spot during the Trump administration for fans of the ex-president, as well as diplomats and lobbyists hoping to curry favor. But by the time Trump left office, the hotel took a 60 percent revenue hit and was tangling with a $170 million outstanding loan, the Washington Post reported. During the pandemic its operations were curbed significantly by DC restrictions on bars and restaurants. Hotels were open for people to stay but at one point were barred from holding events and conferences. 'Since the coronavirus, we weren't doing so bad until I'd say probably a month ago. It really, like, slowed down,' a hotel staffer told Insider this past March. Trump's luxury apartment holdings in New York City and other urban centers also lost value as parts of the city saw rent prices slashed. The Trump International Hotel Washington D.C. features a spacious lobby and bar area, where allies of the president are often spotted hanging out FORBES' 400: THE TOP 10 RICHEST PEOPLE IN AMERICA 1) Jeff Bezos (Amazon): $201 BILLION 2) Elon Musk (Tesla): $190.5 BILLION 3) Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook): $134.5 BILLION 4) Bill Gates (Microsoft): $134.5 BILLION 5) Larry Page (Google): $123 BILLION 6) Sergey Brin (Google): $118.5 BILLION 7) Larry Ellison (Oracle): $117.3 BILLION 8) Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway): $102 BILLION 9) Steve Ballmer (Microsoft): $96.5 BILLION 10) Michael Bloomberg: $70 BILLION Advertisement A June Associated Press review of more than 4,000 transactions over the past 15 years in 11 Trump-branded buildings in Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas and New York found prices for some condos and hotel rooms available for purchase have dropped by one-third or more. That's a plunge that outpaces drops in many similar buildings, leaving units for sale in Trump buildings to be had for hundreds of thousands to up to a million dollars less than they would have gone for years ago. 'They're giving them away,' says Lane Blue who paid $160,500 in March for a studio in Trump's Las Vegas tower, $350,000 less than the seller paid in 2008. His Manhattan buildings, like Trump World Tower, have lost more than 20 percent of their value since Trump took office, Insider reported earlier this year. The pandemic has also hit demand for commercial real estate and the value of Trump's stake in a the building at 1290 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan has dropped by $80 million, to $685 million, according to a Bloomberg estimate, which examined financial disclosures, real estate documents, and loan documents. In early 2017 Trump bragged about not having to divest from his real estate fortune, despite criticism from ethics watchdogs and past presidential precedent. While it was expected, the president is officially exempt from criminal conflict-of-interest laws that apply to other federal employees. 'I could actually run my business and run government at the same time,' he said in a Trump Tower press conference. 'I don't like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to. I would be the only one that would be able to do that.' At the time his assets had a net worth of roughly $3.5 billion. Forbes noted on Tuesday that a large capital gains tax could have deterred Trump from separating from his real estate holdings. The maximum possible federal capital gains tax is 23.8 percent. New York State's is 8.8 percent. His five most valuable properties were acquired long enough ago, the report claims, that he was likely sitting on years' worth of gains. Trump World Tower in Manhattan lost more than 20 percent of its value since Trump took office until when he left If the maximum penalties were applied Trump would have lost about $1.1 billion in wealth, leaving $2.4 billion. However, if the rest had been re-invested into a stock portfolio tracking something more stable and diversified like the S&P 500 index, Trump could have been worth a staggering $4.5 billion today. But he could have also avoided a capital gains tax entirely. A section in the federal tax code lets government employees who divest from their wealthy to apply for a certificate skirting the penalty in an effort to entice them away from possible conflicts of interest. Although Trump isn't subject to the conflicts of interest laws and so may not qualify for the certificate, the former Office of Government Ethics chief told Forbes he 'would have been happy' to have the president apply. But nobody from Trump's transition team reportedly even asked. 'They never showed any interest in divestiture,' Walter Shaub said. If he had successfully applied for the certificate of divestiture and reinvested his money in the same aforementioned fund, Trump would be worth $7 billion and ranked 133rd on the Forbes 400 list. Two castaways were miraculously found alive after spending 29 days lost in the Pacific Ocean where they survived on rainwater, coconuts and praying to God. Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni, from the Solomon Islands, set off from Mono in the Shortland Islands on September 3 in a small motorboat, hoping to travel 124 miles south to Noro. But just hours into their trip, they encountered heavy rain, strong winds and thick clouds which made it impossible to see the coastline they were following, and then the battery of their GPS tracker died. When they were eventually rescued by a fisherman off the coast of Papa New Guinea nearly a month later, they had floated 248 miles from where their journey began. When asked by SIBC News asked how they managed to survive for 29 days at sea, Livae said: 'Only on rainwater and coconuts and our faith in God because we prayed day and night.' Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni set off from Mono in the Shortland Islands on September 3 in a small motorboat and were eventually rescued 248 miles away by a fisherman off the coast of Papa New Guinea on October 2 The two men, who are experienced seamen and had done the trip before, had planned to travel south in their 23-foot Yamaha ray boat using west coast of Vella Lavella Island and Gizo Island to their left as a guide. 'When the bad weather came, it was bad, but it was worse and became scary when the GPS died,' Livae said. 'We couldn't see where we were going and so we just decided to stop the engine and wait, to save fuel.' In an epic tale of survival, they two men survived on oranges they had packed for the journey for the first nine days but eventually ran out. They then trapped rainwater to drink by using canvas and ate coconuts they found floating in the ocean. After several days, they had the idea of building a sail, and constructed a mast using paddles and canvas and set sail following the direction of the wind. Unbeknownst to them, they navigated towards Papua New Guinea and were rescued by a fisherman in a wooden canoe at about 9pm on Saturday October 2. Livae said that with the little amount of fuel they had left, they started the engine and went as close as they could until the tank ran out. Two castaways from the Solomon Islands were miraculously found alive after spending 29 days lost at sea where they survived by eating coconuts and oranges (stock image) 'It was then that we shouted and continually waved our hands to the fisherman that he saw us and paddled towards us,' he said. 'When he reached us, we asked, "Where are we now?" And he replied, "Papua New Guinea."' Upon arriving on land, the two men were so weak they had to be carried off the boat to a nearby house where they were cared for by locals. Despite the ordeal of a lifetime, Livae told the Guardian that there were some positives to drifting at sea, saying it was a 'nice break from Covid'. He said: 'I had no idea what was going on while I was out there. I didnt hear about Covid or anything else. I look forward to going back home but I guess it was a nice break from everything.' The men have been given a medical check up at a health centre where they were said to be in 'good health' and are now waiting to be repatriated to Solomon Islands. The man accused of committing two of the longest unsolved murders in British history has sensationally admitted responsibility for the killings after 34 years, a court has heard. The 1987 killings of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, were dubbed the Bedsit murders after the two young women were found dead within the space of a few months in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. The killings remained unsolved for more than 30 years despite multiple cold case reviews, along with appeals on BBC Crimewatch and anniversary appeals, but the case was never closed. Electrician David Fuller, 67, from Heathfield, East Sussex was arrested and charged with both murders in December 2020. Electrician David Fuller, 67, from Heathfield, East Sussex admitted responsibility for the killings of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in 1987 but denies murder. Pictured above in December 2020 Today, Maidstone Crown Court heard that electrician David Fuller, 67, has admitted responsibility for both killings, but will deny murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Fuller, from Heathfield, East Sussex was arrested and charged with both murders in December 2020, and faces a murder trial on November 1. Today at a pre-trial hearing prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told the court: The defendant has admitted responsibility for both killings on the basis of diminished responsibility. His barrister Oliver Saxby QC also told Mrs Justice Cheema Grubb that he is expected to admit the killings on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Mr Atkinson did not say whether the Crown would accept such a plea, but the court heard that psychiatric reports are still ongoing. Wendy, 25, (pictured) was found dead in June in her flat in Tunbridge Wells five months before Caroline, 20, was found dead in a remote field on Romney Marsh Police believe restaurant worker Caroline (above) was killed on November 24, 1987, although it was not until three weeks later that her body was found in the dyke of a remote field on Romney Marsh The two victims only lived about a mile apart in Tunbridge Wells and worked in the same busy town centre street but did not know each other. Shop manager Wendy, 25, was found dead in her ground-floor flat in Guildford Road on June 23, 1987 after she failed to turn up for work. Police believe restaurant worker Caroline was killed on November 24 that year, although it was not until three weeks later that her body was found in the dyke of a remote field on Romney Marsh. Dressed in a grey tracksuit, balding, bespectacled 67-year-old Fuller appeared in person at court and put his hand to the glass of the dock when he stood up. He has pleaded not guilty to murdering Miss Knell on or about June 22, 1987 and not guilty to murdering Miss Pierce on or about November 24, 1987. Fuller was remanded in custody. A New Mexico man on probation who had to wear an ankle bracelet to monitor his movements after a 2019 conviction has been arrested for allegedly beating his wife to death with an ax after police used data from the GPS device to find her body in a national forest. Armando Zamora, 35, was charged with murder on suspicion of killing Erica Zamora, 39, after her body was found in the Gila National Forest last Sunday, New Mexico State Police said in a statement. Erica was reported missing last Friday, October 1, after she had not been heard from since September 26, the day the couple went to the nearby forest to chop firewood, police said. Armando Zamora (left) has been arrested in New Mexico and charged with murder for allegedly killing his wife, Erica Zamora, 39 (right), with an ax during an argument The wife's body was found in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico on October 3, a week after her last sighting when she and Armando went to chop firewood After learning that Armando wore an ankle monitor because of a 2019 conviction for sexual contact with a minor under the age of 13, investigators checked GPS coordinates to see where he had been recently, which included the wood-cutting site. 'A sergeant searched the area and located a deceased female matching the description of Erica Zamora,' the state police stated. Armando had told investigators he last saw his wife on September 28 when he dropped her at her separate residence but on Sunday after her body was found, he 'admitted to beating Erica to death' with an ax, the statement said. According to a police report, Armando told investigators that the couple argued during the drive to the forest and that he killed her after she punched him at the wood-cutting site, KOAT-TV reported. A search of the Zamora's home in Silver City was said to have turned up an ax believed to have been used in the wife's killing. The couple had a pending divorce case that was initiated by the husband in June after a 10-year marriage, according to court records. Erica's brother, Louise Palomarez, wrote in a Facebook post that his sister 'was murdered in cold blood by the very person she loved most...' Armando allegedly confessed to killing his wife with an ax after she punched him during an argument. The husband filed for a divorce from Erica, his wife of 10 years, in June Erica's obituary described her as 'one of the most selfless, kindest, and generous people you could have ever met.' 'Erica was the type of person to give you everything she had, even though she stayed with nothing. She made an impact on so many of peoples lives that came in contact with her.' Armando Zamora's criminal record in New Mexico includes charges of DWI, possession of firearms by a felon, aggravated battery and aggravated battery upon a peace officer. Armando pleaded guilty in 2019 to criminal sexual contact with a child under 13 and was sentenced to six years in prison, five of which were suspended. He was put on supervised probation with an ankle monitor in December 2020. President Joe Biden wants to permanently increase the federal child tax credit from $2,000 maximum to at least $3,000 The child tax credit increase in President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion social spending bill could lead 1.5 million workers - or 2.6 percent of all working parents - to leave the US labor force entirely, a study published on Friday suggests. Biden's American Families Plan, part of his sweeping Build Back Better agenda, would raise the maximum child tax benefit to $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17, and $3,600 for children under 6. The current maximum credit is $2,000, doubled from $1,000 by Donald Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Right now parents need to report an annual earned income of at least $2,500 to qualify. Democrats' proposal takes away the minimum income requirement. A parent with two children younger than 6 and no reported annual income would be eligible to receive $7,200 from the federal government per year under Biden's plan. Federal investments in US families have been a main talking point for Democrats and Biden officials promoting the bill. Democrats are looking to make Joe Biden's temporary increase to the child tax credit under the American Rescue Plan permanent. Under current US tax code the normal maximum child tax credit outside of the pandemic is 2,000 Vice President Kamala Harris visited an early childcare classroom in New Jersey today. She's also participating in a roundtable on the importance of federal dollars being spent on childcare. But according to the University of Chicago's study, the increased tax credit likely won't have as big of an impact as Democrats hope. Without factoring in behavioral responses, researchers say child poverty would be reduced by a third and deep child poverty would go down by 39 percent. Deep poverty refers to households whose income is less than half of the existing poverty threshold, according to the US Census Bureau. For a family of four with two children, living in deep poverty would be an income of barely more than $12,000 per year. When researchers factored 'labor supply responses' into their child tax credit accounting, they found that the mass exodus from the workforce would mean child poverty only falls by 22 percent. Deep child poverty would remain unchanged. Kamala Harris visited an early childcare center in New Jersey on Friday as part of the Biden administration's push to sell the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan to Americans Also today the Vice President is participating in a roundtable on the importance of federal investment in childcare Biden's child tax credit boost is the same as his temporary increases under the American Rescue Plan, which was passed to help the US through the COVID-19 pandemic. It became the largest child tax credit in US history when it was signed into law in March, but is only effective through 2021. Now Democrats are hoping to make it permanent through their $3.5 trillion spending bill, which also includes funding for free community college and historic expansions to Medicare and Medicaid, among other reforms. The bill has no Republican support and is getting pushback from moderate Democrats who think the price tag is too high. The president's party is hoping to pass the measure through the reconciliation process, which would allow it to pass with a simple majority. But with just a slim majority, Democrats - particularly in the Senate- will have to vote in lock-step to get it passed. The study comes on the heels of a dismal September jobs report. Just 194,000 jobs were added to the payroll last month, falling far short of the 500,000 that were expected, and offering one of the most dismal outlooks from a US jobs report all year. Friday's report from the Labor Department showed that unemployment slipped more than expected, from 5.2 percent in August to 4.8 percent in September Monthly job growth this year has averaged 561,000. Supply chain bottlenecks and Covid-19 contributed to the unimpressive numbers. Still, Friday's report from the Labor Department showed that unemployment slipped more than expected, from 5.2 percent in August to 4.8 percent in September. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv had only expected unemployment to slip to 5.1 percent. The government doesn't count people as unemployed unless they're actively seeking jobs, so some may have ceased their search. The number of unemployed people fell to 7.7 million. Republicans are calling the new jobs numbers 'pathetic' and say it's proof the it's proof his multi-trillion spending plans aren't working. The report served as another blow after Biden earned his lowest approval rating yet - 38% - according to a new Quinnipiac Poll. Data from previous months was also revised upwards - 38,000 jobs were added to July's figures, bringing the number up to a robust 1.053 million, and August's disappointment was raised from 235,000 to 366,000. A former homelessness and anti-social behaviour tsar who headed part of the Rotherham grooming inquiry will lead an independent review into the Met in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder. Under-fire commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, who is resisting calls to resign, said today she was 'delighted' to announce Louise Casey, Baroness Blackstock, will be in charge of an 'independent and far-reaching review' lasting an estimated six months. She said: 'She will be looking at our vetting, our recruitment, our leadership, our training and all manner of processes to see how they reinforce the best possible standards. 'She'll make a public report, and public recommendations, so that we can improve and make sure that the public have more confidence in us.' Baroness Casey said: 'Trust is given to the police by our, the public's, consent. So any acts that undermine that trust must be examined and fundamentally changed' Dame Cressida said Baroness Casey - who has been leading an inquiry into how England yobs were able to break into Wembley during the Euros final - was a strong candidate for the job Dame Cressida said Baroness Casey - who has been leading an inquiry into how England yobs were able to break into Wembley during the Euros final - was a strong candidate for the job. 'I think she's got the right character, and the right expertise, and the right background, to do this review,' she said. 'In addition, we are going to review, internally, all our allegations, current, in relation to police officers, where somebody has made an allegation of sexual misconduct or domestic abuse.' The review is expected to take six months, with the findings and recommendations published so that the force can 'improve and make sure the public have more confidence in us'. Baroness Casey said: 'Trust is given to the police by our, the public's, consent. So any acts that undermine that trust must be examined and fundamentally changed. 'This will no doubt be a difficult task but we owe it to the victims and families this has affected and the countless decent police officers this has brought into disrepute.' Dame Cressida Dick, who is resisting calls to resign, said she was 'delighted' to announce Baroness Blackstock will be leading the review Couzens used his police issue handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest on Ms Everard before taking her away in his car The spotlight will also be shone on the force's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command - which killer Wayne Couzens worked for - with a 'root-and-branch review' looking at whether there are any 'specific issues' within the unit. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has welcomed the appointment of Baroness Casey to lead the independent review into the Met's culture and standards. In a series of tweets, Mr Khan said: 'Baroness Casey's review must look into the wider culture of the Met Police, including issues of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia as well as thoroughly examining recruitment, vetting, training, leadership and standards of behaviour among officers and staff. Baroness Casey: over 20 years in service Baroness Casey of Blackstock, who was a public servant and in government, has scathingly criticised the Government in recent years. Baroness Casey is a former Director General of the Department for Communities and Local Government. Her interests have included homelessness and in 2003, she became director of the national Anti-Social Behaviour Unit. Two years later, she was appointed to become the head of the Respect Task Force. She became the UK's first ever Victims' Commisioner in 2010 and in 2015, she was appointed Director General of the government's Troubled Families programme and reviewed community cohesion and extremism in the UK. It was 2017 when she left the civil service but returned last February when she was appointed to lead a review into rough sleeping. She also took part in a Government coronavirus press conference in May last year. But amid the Covid pandemic, Baroness Louise launched blistering attacks on the Government, criticising the coronavirus cash scheme. Earlier this year, she warned the Tories risk being seen as 'the nasty party' if the Chancellor axes a 20 increase in Universal Credit - which has since been withdrawn this month. Baroness Casey said if the increase was withdrawn at the end of March, it would be 'too punitive' for families struggling during the pandemic. 'The Treasury need to step back and not feel this constant responsibility to close the books all the time and fight and fight and fight,' she said, mimicking Theresa May's jibe in 2002. 'They need to step back and think if we really want to rebuild Britain, what type of economic policy do we need to put in place that will ... not take the knees out from under people. 'To remove that 20 a week - it's too punitive, it's not the right thing to do, and I think they just go back to being the nasty party.' And in December 2020, she criticised the Government, saying people could be forced to 'prostitute themselves' to 'put food on the table' as the Covid support is inadequate. In the attack, she warned measures to support employees not working during lockdowns would not 'cut it'. The ex-civil servant, who advised Labour and Tory governments but stepped down when she was awarded a peerage, voiced fears the UK was headed for a period of 'destitution'. Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne said Baroness Louise had gone 'over the top' and 'undermined her argument'. Baroness Louise told BBC News: 'Do we want to go back to the days where people can't put shoes on the children's feet? Are we actually asking people in places like Liverpool to go out and prostitute themselves, so that they could put food on the table?' She said it was wrong for Downing Street to have a sense that 'people will make do' because they 'weren't coping before Covid'. But an HM Treasury spokesman said: 'This is misleading. As the Chancellor made clear in the House of Commons, and leading think tanks have pointed out, the Job Support Scheme is generous by international standards.' Advertisement 'I've been clear with the Met Commissioner about the scale of the challenge we face and the change that's needed, and I will continue to play my full part in holding the Met Police to account on behalf of Londoners.' The Met review is separate to the independent inquiry announced by the Home Secretary Priti Patel on Tuesday to look into the 'systematic failures' that allowed Ms Everard's killer to be employed as a police officer. Educated at Goldsmith's, University of London, after attending a secondary comprehensive, Baroness Blackstock served as deputy director of homelessness charity Shelter in 1992. She advised Tony Blair's government on homelessness and anti-social behaviour before being named as the UK's first Victims' Commissioner in March 2010 In February 2020, Boris Johnson appointed her as an adviser to help tackle rough sleeping and in July 2020 she was nominated for a crossbench peerage. She has been involved in a series of inquiries, including leading the investigation into Rotherham Council's children's services unit following the scandal in the city over sexual exploitation. Baroness Casey is known for her straight talking and in 2018 told The Times she was 'sick of some men's version of Islam' that involved 'telling women what to do.' In January, she said the Tories risk becoming the 'nasty party' again if Rishi Sunak axed the 20 increase to Universal Credit - which he has now done. Dame Cressida announced the independent review last month - while the government is conducting an inquiry of its own. The move echoed the decision to launch an independent inquiry in the wake of the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence. The 2014 inquiry, described at the time of publication as 'devastating' for the Met, concluded that institutional racism had impacted on the force's investigation into Mr Lawrence's murder. Dame Cressida, who has been charge of the Met during a number of high profile force scandals, said she hoped the force could regain public confidence in the wake of Ms Everard's death. But, responding to calls for her to step down following the tragedy, she said today: 'People will be entitled to their opinion, I've got a job to do, I'm getting on with it. My job now is to lead the Met through a difficult time and rebuild that public trust.' The Met's review will look at culture and standards at the Met, which has faced a wave of criticism over missed opportunities to expose killer cop Wayne Couzens as a sexual predator before he went on to rape and murder Sarah Everard. Couzens used his police issue handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest on the marketing executive, 33, before taking her away in his car. It later emerged the 48-year-old was known as 'the rapist' by staff at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary because he made female colleagues feel so uncomfortable. He had been accused of indecent exposure in Kent in 2015 and in London in the days before Ms Everard's murder, but was allowed to continue working. In the wake of his life sentence for murder, it was revealed more than half of Met officers found guilty of sexual misconduct over a four-year period to 2020 kept their jobs, a total of 43 officers out of 83 or 52 per cent. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is also investigating 'offensive and abusive' sexist messages shared by a group that involved Couzens. The Met, which is now dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct among officers, has since faced claims that there is systematic misogyny within the force. Other probes are also being carried out by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC). According to The Times, Ms Patel has set Dame Cressida three key targets to meet in order to keep her job: Statistics must show that serious violence and knife crime in London is falling; the Met must show evidence they are improving their response to violence against women and girls; and the force must co-operate with an independent inquiry into its failures that led to Couzens murdering Everard. Meanwhile, police data for England and Wales forces has shown The Met has the lowest success rate for solving sexual and violent crime, with just one in 20 offences resulting in a charge, according to the Daily Telegraph. IOPC director general Michael Lockwood said in two years the watchdog has seen 394 referrals where abuse of power for sexual gain by police officers was a factor. Of these, 106 were serious enough to warrant an investigation by the police watchdog. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon on Friday said he stood solidly with former President Trump and will not be cooperating with its investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 'I stand with Trump and the Constitution,' he told DailyMail.com. Bannon was one of four former officials that the House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed to provide documents and testimony as they investigate the violence that engulfed the Capitol after a Trump rally nearby. All four were told by the former president's attorney on Wednesday that he planned to defend himself against what he viewed as an infringement of 'executive privilege.' In a letter sent to the committee, seen by DailyMail.com, Bannon's lawyer wrote that he would honor Trump's claim. 'It is therefore clear to us that since the executive privileges belong to President Trump, and he has, through his counsel, announced his intention to assert those executive privileges... we must accept his direction and honor his invocation of executive privilege,' writes Bannon's attorney Robert Costello, who also represents Rudy Giuliani. 'As such, until those issues are resolved, we are unable to respond to your requests for documents and testimony.' Former White House strategist Steve Bannon said, 'I stand with Trump and the Constitution' on Friday as his lawyer wrote to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 violence to tell lawmakers that he would not comply with their subpoena Bannon's lawyer said that his client was unable to respond to the request for testimony because of Trump's claim of executive privilege The letter goes on to say that Bannon will comply with the direction of any court ruling on claims of executive privilege. 'Since these privileges belong to President Trump and not to Mr. Bannon, until these issues are resolved, Mr. Bannon is legally unable to comply with your subpoena requests for documents and testimony,' it concludes. Costello is a former deputy chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York. He also represents Trump aide and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in investigations about his business dealings. The letter sets the stage for a legal challenge to force Bannon to testify. And it sets up a likely clash with House Democrats, who are investigating the role of Trump and his associates in the build up to the riot. The committee responded by warning of criminal proceedings. 'We will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral,' said its Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney. Last month the committee issued subpoenas to Bannon; Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff; Dan Scavino, Trump's social media wizard and former deputy chief of staff for communications; and Kash Patel, a former Defense Department official. In its letter to Bannon, the committee wrote: 'You have been identified as present at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5, 2021 during an effort to persuade members of Congress to block the certification of the Election the next day, and in relation to other activities on Jan. 6.' Bannon spent eight months as White House strategist. He now runs the War Room podcast It also pointed out that he told listeners of his War Room podcast on Jan. 5 that 'all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. For Scavino, the committee referenced tweets sent by Trumps former social media lead and asked him to turn over video recordings of the president's message to supporters telling them to go home as the violence unfolded. The deadline for them to respond was midnight on Thursday. Lawmakers believe they can win a challenge over executive privilege as Trump is no longer in office and some of those subpoenaed were no longer working for him on Jan. 6. Trump himself railed against what he called a partisan investigation this week. 'The Unselect Committee of partisan Democrats, and two very weak and pathetic RINOs, should come to the conclusion after spending many millions of dollars, that the real insurrection happened on November 3rd, the Presidential Election, not on January 6th - which was a day of protesting the Fake Election results,' the ex-president claimed in an interview with Sean Hannity. The EU appeared ready to surrender the Northern Ireland sausage war today as Brussels sought to ease the tense row over post-Brexit trade. British products entering Ulster will be granted an exemption from the bloc's rules on third-country goods under plans expected to be revealed by the European Commission next week. The two sides have been at loggerheads this year over a ban chilled exports crossing the Irish Sea, caused by Northern Ireland's special post-Brexit trade status. Britain is attempting to have the wider Northern Ireland Protocol rewritten to ease goods trade and resulting social tension, something the EU is refusing to do. However, reports from Brussels today suggested that Brexit commissioner, Maros Sefcovic is preparing to unveil the EU's plans next week, which will include a 'national identity' exemption for UK produce. The plan would have to be signed off by the EU27 before it came into effect. Reports from Brussels today suggested that Brexit commissioner, Maros Sefcovic is preparing to unveil the EU's plans next week, which will include a 'national identity' exemption for UK produce. The two sides have been at loggerheads this year over a ban on chilled meat exports - including sausages - crossing the Irish Sea, caused by Northern Ireland's special post-Brexit trade status Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, said the White House has significant concern' about UK plans to unilaterally suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol before Christmas. It came as one of Joe Biden's top aides warned today that Boris Johnson's row with the EU over Northern Ireland risks creating 'a serious risk to stability'. Jake Sullivan, the president's national security adviser, said the White House has significant concern' about UK threats to unilaterally suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol before Christmas. His comments came after Brexit Minister Lord Frost set a November deadline for a solution to the protocol deadlock, warning the EU the UK 'cannot wait forever' for border checks to be improved. He said there will be a 'decision point' early next month when it will become apparent if it is possible for the two sides to agree a solution to resolve ongoing disruption to intra-UK trade. London has threatened to unilaterally suspend the agreement if Brussels does not agree to scrap the protocol and replace it - something the EU is refusing to contemplate. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Sullivan said: 'The United States government, as President Biden said in the Oval Office with Prime Minister Johnson, strongly supports the Good Friday agreement, believes it must be protected, believes that peace and stability in Northern Ireland must be protected.' London has threatened to unilaterally suspend the agreement if Brussels does not agree to scrap the protocol and replace it, after it caused problems and social unrest in Northern Ireland 'The Northern Ireland protocol was agreed between the EU and the UK and our view is that the two sides should work together in a constructive way to find a deal and a way forward. 'Without something like the Northern Ireland protocol and with the possibility of the return of a hard border between NI and the Republic of Ireland, we will have a serious risk to stability and to the sanctity of the Good Friday agreement, and that is of significant concern to the US.' However, the Government is likely to pick up on his talk of 'something like' the protocol as a tacit suggestion that a suitable alternative might be acceptable to the Biden administration. The Government has repeatedly threatened to trigger Article 16 of the protocol which would allow Britain to unilaterally walk away from some of the rules. However, such a move would spark a furious response in Brussels and would likely lead to a legal challenge. Dave Chappelle was met with thunderous applause from his fellow celebrities during a Thursday screening of a biographical film chronicling his life - days after sparking controversy by backing Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in her highly-publicized spat with the transgender community. 'If this is what being canceled is like, I love it,' the 48-year-old funnyman said Thursday night to a star-studded audience at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl. Chappelle had faced furious backlash from the LGBTQ community for making remarks in his latest Netflix special, The Closer, that some have claimed are transphobic. In the stand-up special - his sixth for the streaming service - Chappelle joked about Rowling's 2019 statement that transgender women were not actually women and were a threat to her identity. Dave Chappelle attacked the advent of 'cancel culture' during a speech at a screening of a documentary film about the comic's life, as the star continues to face backlash over the controversial contents of his latest Netflix special, The Closer Rowling, 56, subsequently received a slew of hate messages and death threats for her comments on sex and gender after the incident, with the hashtag #RIPJKRowling trending on social media last year. Rowling was then labeled a 'TERF' by the LGBTQ community - which stands for 'trans-exclusionary radical feminist.' Chappelle joked that he embraced the label. 'I'm Team TERF. I agree. I agree, man,' Chappelle says in the special, aligning himself with the ousted writer. 'Gender is a fact,' he then remarks. Chappelle adds: 'Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. That is a fact.' In the contentious special, Chappelle also jokes that women today view transwomen the same way black people might view white women wearing blackface, and remarked that women are entitled to feel anger toward transwomen, since Caitlyn Jenner won Glamour magazine's 2015 Woman of the Year award. 'I'd be mad as sh*t if I was a woman,' Chappelle says during a problematic bit. The star also jokes about the anatomy of transwomen in the special, joking that they lacked real female reproductive organs and that they did not have blood but 'beet juice.' During a speech at Thursdays event, however, the superstar comic steered clear of any material that might offend members of the LGBTQ community but he did show his contempt towards the recent phenomenon known as 'cancel culture.' 'If this is what being canceled is like, I love it,' the Half Baked star said as took the stage to a standing ovation. The remark by the comic, and many more that followed it, was met with cheers and uproarious applause from the crowd, which boasted a host of A-list celebrities, like Brad Pitt, Tiffany Haddish, Jon Hamm, Snoop Dogg, and more. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling stated in 2019 that transgender women were not actually women and were a threat to her identity, and subsequently received death threats Chappelle says in his special that he stands with the now-ousted writer The comic then went a step further, calling out a slew of news outlets during his address. 'F**k Twitter. F**k NBC News, ABC News, all these stupid a** networks. I'm not talking to them. I'm talking to you. This is real life.' Chappelle, clearly alluding to the fact that he has been under fire since the release of his newest Netflix special earlier this week, ended his set by doubling down on messages of kindness and love that were conveyed in the documentary about the comic's own life - ironically titled, 'Untitled' Dave Chappelle Documentary. 'Do something nice for someone who looks nothing like you,' the comedian urged the audience, in earnest and sudden shift from his his usual self. 'We have to trust one another,' he said, garnering more applause. The LGBTQ community, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the National Black Justice Coalition have all spoken out about the comedian's controversial act in The Closer. The special, currently ranked number-four out of Netflix's most popular streaming titles, also features jabs at white gays, as well as the #MeToo movement and lesbians. 'I don't hate gay people I respect the shit out of you. Not all of you,' Chappelle says in his latest project with the popular streaming service. 'I'm not that fond of these newer gays too sensitive, too brittle. I miss the old-school gaysthe Stonewall gays. They didn't take shit from anybody.' In the special, Chappelle also stuck his into toe the controversial waters surrounding DaBaby, who was criticized for his homophobic remarks at the Rolling Loud festival and subsequently removed from several festival dates. Chappelle joked that he wanted to 'negotiate the release of DaBaby' with the LGBTQ community. He then went on to question why DaBaby was canceled for his homophobic comments rather than for shooting a man in the past. 'Dave Chappelle's brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities,' the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation posted on Twitter Wednesday. 'Negative reviews and viewers loudly condemning his latest special is a message to the industry that audiences don't support platforming anti-LGBTQ diatribes. We agree.' Some advocacy groups calling on the streaming service to axe his show. David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, asked Netflix to apologize to the transgender community and pull The Closer from its streaming service. 'We do not condone violence against any members of our community and our feelings and existence as trans, queer, and non-binary/non-conforming people matter too,' Johns said in a statement. 'What's being missed at this moment is the extreme rate at which Black trans women are murdered, annually. All of this to say, we should think and engage more critically so we can all get free.' Comedian Dave Chappelle is under fire for making transphobic jokes in his new Netflix special His transgender jokes angered LGBQT advocates such as GLAAD, which blasted him on Twitter National Black Justice Coalition executive director David Johns wants the show cancelled His jokes also didn't sit well with America's leading LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, which issued a scathing statement about his standup routine. 'Dave Chappelle's brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities,' GLAAD tweeted. 'Negative reviews and viewers loudly condemning his latest special is a message to the industry that audiences don't support platforming anti-LGBTQ diatribes.' Dear White People showrunner Jaclyn Moore, who is transgender, said she'll boycott Netflix for continuing to 'put out and profit from blatantly and dangerously transphobic content.' 'I love so many of the people I've worked with at Netflix,' Moore tweeted. 'Brilliant people and executives who have been collaborative and fought for important art... But I've been thrown against walls because, I'm not a 'real' woman. I've had beer bottles thrown at me. So, @Netflix, I'm done.' Dear White People showrunner Jaclyn Moore said she'll boycott Netflix for airing the special NPR TV critic Eric Deggan said Chappelle also ventured into antisemitism during his routine by kiddingly pitching a movie called 'Space Jews,' about a diaspora of former Earthlings who return to the planet to take it over. 'I don't really care what point he's trying to make,' Deggan wrote. 'A joke that sounds like antisemitism gets a hard pass from me.' But not everyone's a critic. The sisters of Daphne Dorman a transgender friend of Chappelle's who died by suicide in 2019 said they were appalled at suggestions the comedian was transphobic. The family of transgender woman Daphne Dorman, who died by suicide, defended Chappelle Dorman (pictured at right with an unknown woman) was a comedian and friend of Chappelle 'Daphne was in awe of Dave's graciousness,' her sister Becky told The Daily Beast. 'She did not find his jokes rude, crude, off-coloring, off-putting, anything. 'Daphne understood humor and comedy she was not offended. Why would her family be offended?' Her younger sister Brandy told The Daily Beast that Chappelle is an ally to the LGBTQ community. She said: 'His entire set was begging to end this very situation.' Chappelle's family said she also appreciated that humor was about the ability to offend everyone equally - and to be able to laugh at being mocked. An escort has been jailed for more than five years after conning her 'sugar daddy', an elderly Deloitte's millionaire businessman 35 years her senior, out of 2.5million. Louise Caplan, 34, from Chalfont Saint Giles, Buckinghamshire, was booked by Henry Sless through escort website Adult Works in November 2017 after he agreed to pay her 400 for sex, and they started dating. Caplan asked the retired banker, who was 65 at the time, to be her 'sugar daddy' in exchange for 150,000-a-year but Mr Sless managed to negotiate the fee down to 10,000 a month, the court heard. The millionaire, who lives in expensive riverside Marlow, Buckinghamshire, put 2.5million into her fraudulent business ventures in Dubai and Dublin and showered her with more than 1million worth of gifts. But prosecutors told the court Caplan bought herself a 1million house and artwork worth 300,000 with the money she claimed she was investing in her interior design businesses. Caplan was jailed for more than five years at Aylesbury Crown Court after a two-hour delay, where she claimed to have committed herself to hospital to be assessed under the Mental Health Act. Escort Louise Caplan (pictured) from Buckinghamshire, was booked by Henry Sless through a website and he was so smitten that he was conned out of millions of pounds, the court heard Prosecutor Stefan Weidmann told the court that when Mr Sless gave Caplan enormous loans, he believed the pair were in a long-term relationship and had a future together. Millionaire Mr Sless, who was accountancy firm Deloitte's global tax portfolio holder for more than ten years before retiring, believed the pair would get married and raise Caplan's daughter together. A statement from Mr Sless, read to the court by Mr Weidmann, read: 'It felt like we clicked immediately and within a few days of our first meeting Ms Caplan sent a message saying she would have married me if I would have been 10 years younger and she was 10 years older. 'We met five or so times in the first year and we were in contact on a daily basis. I instantly fell for her.' As the relationship developed, the court heard how Caplan began to demand money from Mr Sless, often in erotically charged messages that were drenched in affection. It was also revealed that the couple had met on at least six occasions for sex, although Judge Francis Sheridan suggested it could have been many more times. Caplan (pictured) asked the retired banker to be her 'sugar daddy' in exchange for 150,000-a-year but Mr Sless managed to negotiate the fee down to 10,000 a month, the court heard Over the course of their relationship, the wealthy tax executive showered Caplan with gifts worth 1million. But the court heard that the escort defrauded him out of at least 2.5million. A tearful Caplan looked heartbroken as she sat weeping the dock as the court heard she had spent more than 1million on a luxury house in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire. She also splashed out nearly 313,000 on artwork and 619,000 on luxury retail goods, despite having previously had an annual income of only 7,000. The astonished judge was told that despite the enormous scale of the loans Mr Sless was handing out, the veteran accountant did not demand any paperwork. Prosecutor Stefan Weidmann said he gave the loans on an informal basis on the understanding that they were in a long-term relationship. But Judge Sheridan, dismissing claims that the victim was 'vulnerable, questioned: 'Of course he would have had paperwork, he was an accountant? What am I missing?' Mr Weidmann admitted that Mr Sless was a man of 'staggering naivety', despite his vast experience. He had believed that the money was going to be spent on property development in Dublin and Dubai, despite having seen only very limited evidence of their existence. Defending John Swaine said she attempted to use the money to pursue her dream of becoming a successful interior designer, and it was only when the bills began to catch up with her that she turned to fraud. Prosecutors told the court Caplan (picutred) bought herself a 1million house and expensive artwork worth 300,000 with the money she claimed she was investing in her businesses He said: 'She intended to use this money in a business but she was hopelessly out of her depth. She hired expensive accountants who advised her that she had no hope of success. 'Her huge error was not to go to Mr Sless and say I have been stupid and I have let you down. She had no hope of paying this all back.' Caplan had earlier admitted one count of fraud and was sentenced to five and a quarter years in prison. Judge Sheridan said: 'I am in no position to tell the truth of how many times he took advantage of your sexual services. 'It was at least six times but I am strongly suspicious about that given the extremely large figures in this fraud. This had all the hallmarks of a business arrangement and if it was business, it was certainly not done properly.' A tearful Caplan remained standing in the dock, before she waved to her mother, who sat in the public gallery, and told her to pass on her love to her daughter. Clifford Owensby, 39, was forcibly removed from his car by his hair by police during a traffic stop in Dayton, Ohio, on September 30 A paraplegic man was pulled out of his car by his hair at a traffic stop by an Ohio cop after refusing to 'step out,' despite telling them he was disabled. Clifford Owensby, 39, who is paraplegic, was pulled over for a traffic violation for his windows being tinted passed state regulations in Dayton, Ohio, near Columbus, by police officers. After refusing to get out of his car due to his disability, a police officer forcibly pull him out by his hair. His daughter Cece reported on her Instagram that her father 'has no control of his legs and can't walk.' Owensby was out running errands without his wheelchair and had to be assisted into the car before leaving. It is unclear where he was headed. 'I just feel like they [were] wrong for doing what they [were] doing and I couldn't believe what was happening to me,' he told WHIO on Monday. 'I feel like they need to train the officers to deal with disabled people in a more efficient manner,' he said. 'Treat them with respect.' 'I feel like they dont even respect me as a citizen,' he told the Dayton Daily News. He told officers he was out running errands and had to be assisted into the car to begin with He informed police he was paraplegic and couldn't get out of the car. The officer offered assistance several times, but Owensby refused and threatened to sue if they touched him. His daughter Cece confirmed on her Instagram that her father 'has no control of his legs and can't walk' Owensby was asked to step out of the car so police dogs could smell for drugs or weapons due to his prior convictions The video footage newly released by the Dayton Police Department shows the unidentified officer asking Owensby to undo his seat and get out of the vehicle on September 30. Owensby replied: 'I can't step out of the car, sir. I'm a paraplegic. I got help getting in.' The officer offered the man, whose legs are paralyzed, assistance getting out of the car several times, but Owensby refused. 'Well, I don't think that's going to happen, sir,' he told the officer calmly. The officer responded: 'Well, I do. I'm [not] asking you, but I'm telling you.' The officer explained that Owensby had to exit the car to let police dogs smell around the car due to his prior drug and weapons convictions. The officer became frustrated and began waving his hand at Owensby while saying: 'You're getting out of this car, that's not an option. You're getting out of this car. So you can cooperate and get of this car or I will drag you out of this car. Do you see your two options here?' The officer and his coworker proceeded to drag Owensby's upper body out of hair by his armpits before grabbing ahold of his hair and yanking him out Owensby still refused to get out of the car, telling the officer: 'No you're not, no you're not, you're not going to touch me.' He also threatened to sue the officer if he put his hands on him. Owensby proceeded to call someone on the phone, asking them to come to the intersection of Ferguson and Grand Avenue in Dayton to help him and to 'bring people with cameras.' He then told the officer to 'call your white shirt, please.' At this moment, the officer's tone turns aggressive as he waves his hand at Owensby, saying: 'I'm going to pull you out and then I'm going to call a white shirt. 'You're getting out of this car, that's not an option. You're getting out of this car. So you can cooperate and get of this car or I will drag you out of this car. Do you see your two options here?' Owensby told them he was in pain and saying: 'I'm paraplegic, bro, this could hurt me. What are y'all doing bro?' He seemed to fight back with the police by pulling his arm closer to him, but police managed to get him out of the vehicle. They then proceeded to handcuff him and drag him to the police car, his limp legs dragging behind him When Owensby asked for the superior again, the officer reached out and grabs the disabled man's arm, pulling him while saying 'get out of the car' repeatedly. Owensby continues to tell officers of his conditions, stating: 'I'm paraplegic, bro, this could hurt me. What are y'all doing bro?' He appears to struggle against police, pulling his arm back toward himself. Another officer jumps in to help, first helping to pull Owensby by the armpit until his upper body was outside the car, then the first officer grabbed his hair. The bodycam footage shows the officer pulling the rest of Owensby's body out of the car by the fistful, Owensby's paralyzed legs dragging behind him. He exclaims in pain before screaming for 'somebody to help.' The video shows the officer wrestling Owensby's body while he screams 'I'm a paraplegic.' The officer yells at me to 'stop' several times. The traffic stop occurred on Grand Avenue. He was pulled over due to his car's window tint being past state regulations Owensby, who is lying on his stomach, is picked up by his wrists, forcing his arms straight back as the two officers pick him up and handcuff him. The officer exclaiming: 'You're making this so much harder than it has to be.' The officers proceed to drag him to the back of the cop car, his knees, shins, and feet dragging across the ground limply without any shoes. The video ends with an officer throwing a lone shoe into Owensby car. An investigation has been launched, but it is unclear if the officers are on leave or not. However, the Dayton Police Interim Chief Matt Carper said there is 'upcoming training' for officers to help with 'diversity, equity and inclusion, de-escalation, bias-free policing, and procedural justice.' He also said: 'We need to do better, and this can be done by further developing the mutual respect and accountability necessary to make our City safe.' According to his daughter Cece's Instagram, she is planning a peaceful protest at 3.30pm today outside the Dayton courthouse. DailyMail.com reached out to the Dayton Police Department and the City of Dayton for a comment. US crude oil prices rose to as high as $80 per barrel for the first time since 2014 amid a global fuel shortage exacerbated by tensions in Europe and Russia over the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The standoff has sent US natural gas prices rocketing to $6.31 per million British thermal units this week and caused energy and heating costs to rise as well. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the US oil benchmark, reached $80 per barrel on Friday and remains high over $79, with demand high as supply remains tight. 'Unless and until [the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] acts to meaningfully increase supplies, prices will grind higher still,' John Kilduff, economic expert and partner at Again Capital, told CNBC. Reflecting the gravity of the situation, the US has not ruled out tapping into its strategic petroleum reserves, which it typically only does after major supply disruptions such as hurricanes, or pursuing a ban on oil exports to bring down the cost of crude oil, though there are doubts it is ready to take such action yet. 'DOE is actively monitoring global energy market supply and will work with our agency partners to determine if and when actions are needed,' a spokesperson for the Department of Energy said. West Texas Intermediate, the US oil benchmark, hit $80 a barrel on Friday before receding back into the $79 territory as oil prices remain high Russian President Vladimir Putin leveraged a natural gas shortage against the European Union, which has caused energy prices to spike across the world Higher crude oil prices translates to higher gas prices at the pump High oil prices also mean higher gas prices as Americans are paying the most for gasoline in seven years. The national average for a gallon of gas $3.26 on Friday, according to AAA, $1 more than it was last year. West Texas Intermediate is on track for its seventh straight positive week, with this most recent week seeing a boost after OPEC opted to stick to a prior agreement to raise production by a modest 400,000 barrels per day in November despite the recent fuel shortage. The shortage was perpetuated by Russian President, who leveraged a natural gas shortage in Europe to secure approval for his controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline. On Wednesday, Putin hinted that he will pump out more gas if Brussels approves the new pipeline bypassing Ukraine and entering the EU through Germany, leading UK officials to accuse Russia of turning energy 'into a weapon' and 'bullying' Europe. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said existing gas transit routes allow for bolstering supplies before the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline that will carry Russian gas to Germany begins operating. 'There is a potential,' Peskov said during a conference call with reporters. 'It all depends on demand, contractual obligations and commercial agreements.' Natural gas (seen in USD/MMBtu) hit a 13-year high this week Pictured, the starting point of the Nord Stream 2 gas subsea pipeline, in Leningrad, Russia Map showing points of origin and destination of the Nord Stream pipe (solid line) and Nord Stream 2 pipeline (dotted line) between Russia and Germany. Putin hoped Nord Stream 2 would be finished two years ago, allowing Russia to bypass Ukraine in the south Russia hopes to boost gas exports to western Europe through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline Why is Putin's $11B Nord Stream 2 pipeline so controversial? The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is set to double Russia's natural gas shipments to Germany, Europe's largest consumer of gas, bypassing Ukraine and depriving the EU member state of essential gas transit fees of $1.5 billion per year. Russia is already the second-largest supplier of gas to the EU behind Norway, and the $11 billion project will increase Europe's energy dependence on Russia and Moscow's geopolitical clout. Donald Trump was opposed to the project and the EU has yet to sign off on it. But over the summer officials in Washington and Berlin reportedly reached an agreement that would allow the Nord Stream 2 pipeline - which was roughly within 62 miles of completion as of June - to finish construction. U.S. officials under Presidents Obama and Trump opposed the pipeline, arguing it would strengthen Moscow's influence across Europe. Nord Stream already includes one pipeline running from Russia to Germany. Both are owned by a company whose majority shareholder is Russian state gas company Gazprom. Advertisement Both European and U.S. lawmakers, including both Democrats and Republicans, have opposed the $11 billion pipeline, which could allow Russia to double lucrative gas exports to Germany and other parts of Europe. But Germany, which carries heavy weight in the EU and would benefit by being the entry point for the new pipeline, has been in favor of the project. The new route would also bypass and cut off a source of income for Russia's political foe Ukraine, and potentially allow Russia to wield the threat of cutting off gas flow to Eastern Europe without threatening the supply to the EU. The 27-country European Union imports about 90 percent of its natural gas needs. Prices are typically lower in the United States, which produces its own gas. Flexing his muscles, Putin sent the price of natural gas tumbling on Wednesday by saying at a press conference: 'Let's think through possibly increasing supply in the market, only we need to do it carefully. Settle with Gazprom and talk it over.' US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm responded by telling FT that the US is watching Russia 'carefully', adding: 'You don't want to see energy made into a weapon'. British MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith told MailOnline Russia is 'bullying' the EU and the UK should be exploiting its domestic shale gas supplies to get 'completely clear of any dependency'. 'Most of our gas is either home produced or from Norway. We are not dependent on Russian gas in the same way as Europe is, especially Germany,' he said. 'It should be a reminder that we are sitting on a huge supply of shale gas. It is an absurdity not to want to tap into that,' he added. 'Either we make ourselves dependent on countries like Russia, or we actually start looking for more gas supplies.' Speaking during a Wednesday government meeting on energy issues, Putin said that Russia could sell more gas to European spot buyers via his countrys domestic exchange, noting that sharp price fluctuations are bad for Moscow, too. But he added that Russias state-controlled gas giant Gazprom also needs to fill its own stores to serve domestic needs in anticipation of winter. The energy crisis, which has led to fuel shortages and blackouts in some countries, has highlighted the difficulty in cutting the global economy's dependency on fossil fuels as world leaders seek to revive efforts to tackle climate change at talks next month in Glasgow A South Dakota woman was convicted of manslaughter Friday in the death of her newborn son 40 years after his body was discovered in a cornfield ditch - and two years after DNA testing revealed the identity of his mother. Theresa Bentaas, 60, of Sioux Falls, entered an Alford plea to first-degree manslaughter in an agreement with prosecutors in which they dropped two murder charges. The Alford plea allows Bentaas to maintain her innocence while also authorizing the court to enter a guilty plea. Bentaas had previously pleaded not guilty to the three charges. The newborn, who has come to be known as 'Baby Andrew,' was found wrapped in a blanket in a cornfield ditch in Sioux Falls on February 27, 1981. Scroll down for video Theresa Bentaas, 60 (left), walks out of a courtroom in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Friday, after being convicted of manslaughter in the 1981 death of her newborn son The death of the child, known as 'Baby Andrew,' had gone unsolved for nearly four decades The placenta was still attached to the infant and blood was found on women's underwear, a shirt and some Kleenex-like material next to him, according to an affidavit. An autopsy at the time determined the baby was born alive and died of exposure to the elements, but an expert for the defense argued that the newborn likely died from complications at birth due to lack of medical care, Argus Leader reported. Bentaas was arrested in March 2019 after advanced DNA testing proved that she was Baby Andrew's mother Police arrested Bentaas in March 2019 after investigators reworked the cold case and determined through advanced DNA testing that she was the baby's biological mother. Mike Webb, a Sioux Falls police detective who worked on the case, discovered that all testable DNA evidence had been destroyed in 1995, according to court documents. The infant's body was exhumed in September 2009 after Webb learned that DNA could be extracted from bones and tissue. North Texas University Science Center conducted lab tests on the DNA that was extracted from the infant's remains, but no matches were found at the time. In 2019, police submitted the DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, which has worked on other cold cases for law enforcement. The Virginia-based genetics genealogy company found two potential matches. Using those genetic links, police were able to use a family tree that led to Bentaas and Baby Andrew's father, Dirk Bentaas, who was unaware of the baby's existence. Police say Baby Andrew was alive when he was left in a cornfield ditch near Sioux Falls in 1981. The baby died of exposure, according to an autopsy Baby Andrew John Doe was found swaddled in the blanket pictured above back in 1981 Investigators found DNA in trash they seized at Theresa Bentaas' house that could not exclude her as the biological mother, according to court documents. Theresa allegedly told police she was 'young and stupid' when she concealed her pregnancy from friends and family back in 1981. An affidavit reported that she admitted to giving birth in her apartment and then driving to the place where she abandoned the baby. Dirk admitted to investigators that he remembers seeing that Theresa 'had a bump and then no bump' around the time of the discovery of Baby Andrew, but he 'did not believe the defendant was capable of doing such an act,' according to the affidavit. Bentaas, pictured in court in March 2019, could face up to life in prison at her sentencing in December Theresa and Dirk Bentaas were married in August 1987 and have two grown children together. Bentaas could face up to a life in prison when she is sentenced on December 2. She is currently out on bail. Prince Charles has officially changed his mind over longstanding plans to build a grand country house in Herefordshire, which was tipped to be the future home of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The Prince has dropped his ambitious vision for a new Highgrove on a country estate in Herefordshire, nearly two decades after he first drew up plans for it. The proposed mansion was meant to breathe new life into Harewood End, which lies between Ross-on-Wye and Hereford. The Duchy has confirmed that their work at the 900 acre estate is done, even though the mansion, which was supposed to be a focal point, has not been rebuilt. Prince Charles (pictured) has dropped his ambitious vision for a new Highgrove on a country estate in Herefordshire, nearly two decades after he first drew up plans for it Prince Charles' Duchy of Cornwall acquired the sprawling yet dilapidated estate in 2000, and three years later, work started on an ambitious 9 million renovation. Although many buildings were restored, work has never started on the final piece of the jigsaw, the recreation of a grand mansion house demolished by the SAS in the 1950s. Herefordshire Council approved plans to replace a bungalow with a Georgian style mansion in November 2004, not long after Prince William graduated from university. Royal reporters claimed that Prince Charles was assembling a future home for Prince William in the borderlands between England and Wales, within an hour's drive of his own country estate in Gloucestershire. When news finally broke that William was involved in a serious relationship with Kate Middleton in 2004, rumours that they were about to marry and settle down in Herefordshire reached fever pitch. But in 2007 the couple split briefly and in the same year Prince Charles successfully submitted plans for a scaled down 'mini-mansion' as the centrepiece for Harewood End. Although it looked traditional on the outside the new design was filled with 21st century features which made it environmentally friendly on the inside. The Duchy wanted to build a smaller, sustainable home that had 'sufficient architectural presence' in the countryside. The application concluded: 'The house is the symbolic heart of the estate and it's construction will give meaning to the whole project. 'The complete restoration of the devastated Harewood Park by the Duchy of Cornwall is possibly the first total restoration of an entire estate in Herefordshire. 'The construction of the house will form the final phase of the project and it will be a triumph if this can be achieved; Hence the 'triumphal arch' with its architectural and symbolic significance. Although it looked traditional on the outside the new design (pictured) was filled with 21st century features which made it environmentally friendly on the inside Prince Charles' Duchy of Cornwall acquired the sprawling yet dilapidated estate in 2000, and three years later, work started on an ambitious 9 million renovation Work was continuing on the rest of the estate when William and Kate announced their engagement on November 16, 2010. After their wedding on April 29, 2011, it was widely reported that they would live in Herefordshire when the house was completed. However, it later emerged that the Queen had offered William and Kate Anmer Hall on the Sandringham estate as a wedding present, which was already undergoing a 1.5 million transformation so they could move in. The couple eventually moved into Anmer Hall in 2015, two years after they welcomed their first child Prince George. More recently, the couple spent lockdown there with their three children - Prince George, rincess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Pictured: Anmer Hall in Norfolk, currently the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children - Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis Pictured: A Christmas card of Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge showing the Duke and Duchess with their three children Prince George (left), Princess Charlotte (right) and Prince Louis at Anmer Hall in Norfolk Any lingering hopes of a future in Herefordshire for the Royal couple have been dashed after Prince Charles earmarked Windsor Castle as their future home. The man charged with delivering the Herefordshire project for the Prince, David Curtis, retired last year and the Duchy has finally confirmed the house will not happen at all. 'Although planning consent for a statement house was granted some time ago, the Duchy never took it forward, said the Duchy spokesman. 'The regeneration project at Harewood Park is now complete and the estate comprises a number of let residential and office units in converted barns, together with farmland.' However, Prince Charles is currently working up plans for a slimmed down monarchy when he sits on the throne and that includes re-evaluating the property on the royal estate. And, although Prince Charles has failed to build his new house, he has restored an abandoned group of farmsteads, a ruined chapel, stables, lake and other buildings across Harwood End. A cop is facing a misconduct hearing for allegedly taking Jaffa Cakes worth 1 from a police canteen charity tuck shop. PC Chris Dwyer is said to have taken two packets of Jaffa Cakes from the charity tuck shop at Halifax police station 'without leaving sufficient funds for them'. West Yorkshire Police said the officer then 'provided dishonest accounts when questioned about the matter'. PC Chris Dwyer is said to have taken two packets of Jaffa Cakes from the charity tuck shop at Halifax police station 'without leaving sufficient funds for them' A force spokesman said a female officer had emptied the charity shop cash tin at around 10pm on January 21 and left a 1 float in change. Half an hour later, PC Dwyer allegedly took two packets of Jaffa Cakes, priced at 50p each and did not leave any money. A spokesman said: 'The cash tin was checked and it was found to contain the same denominations of coins in the cash tin but with an extra 2 x 5p coins. 'It is alleged that PC Dwyer failed to make appropriate payment for the items and provided dishonest accounts when questioned about the matter. The misconduct hearing is due to take place from October 11 to 14. A woman has been jailed for causing the death of a 'beloved' former headteacher after crashing head-on into her car while driving the wrong way down a motorway slip road. Ann Marie Crook, 43, turned into oncoming traffic on the M57 near Kirkby, Merseyside, in her black Renault Clio before hitting 64-year-old Paula Kingdon's Honda Jazz. Ms Kingdon, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, died of her injuries after being rushed to hospital while Crook, of St Helens, was left fighting for her life after the crash. Ann Marie Crook, 42, was jailed for life having admitting causing the death by dangerous driving of Paula Kingdon, 64 on October 31, 2019. She was also banned for driving for five years and three months at Liverpool Crown Court Paula Kingdon, right, who was killed after her car was hit by Ann Marie Cook's Renault Clio in October 2019, was described as a dedicated head teacher at Liverpool Crown Court Crook, a carer, was jailed for life on Thursday four years, eight months after previously admitting causing death by dangerous driving at Liverpool Crown Court. She was also banned from driving for five years, three months. The horror crash happened on October 31, 2019, and saw emergency services rush to the southbound slip road of the M57 at Junction 5. Ms Kingdon, a retired head teacher, was in the way back from a regular visit to her step-father in Liverpool when Crook ploughed into her car. The court heard the elderly widow has 'steeply declined physically and mentally' since Ms Kingdon's death. Prosecutors said Crook drove at up to 94 mph westbound before moving into a right-turn filter lane in the run up to the crash. Instead of turning right, witnesses watched in horror as she entered the exit slip road of the M57 in the wrong direction. Crook was jailed for life at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting causing death by dangerous driving. She was also banned from driving for five years, three months Drivers of vehicles travelling in the right direction flashed their lights at her and beeped their horns and several vehicles narrowly avoided a collision, including a lorry. They spoke of Crook looking forward and driving in a determined manner as she sped from the slip road onto the main carriageway. Crook told police she couldn't remember anything about the collision and denied she had been trying to take her own life. Stephen Sharples, Ms Kingdon's brother, said she was a 'committed headteacher, loving auntie and a caring step-daughter to their stepfather John'. In a statement read to the court, he said: 'After a lifetime of devoting herself to others, Paula deserved the chance to enjoy her retirement. 'She embraced her new life with the same energy and positivity that she had brought to her work. 'She happily divided her time between seeing family and friends, travelling, going to the theatre, looking after John and following Liverpool FC. 'It is heart-breaking for me that Paula had this wonderful new chapter of her life so cruelly taken away by the senseless actions of a total stranger.' Prosecutor Keith Drummond said after the sentencing: 'Ann Marie Crook is a woman of previous good character and had no previous driving convictions. 'But for some reason, on the morning of 31 October 2019, she chose to get behind the wheel of her car and turn that vehicle into a killing machine. 'It might be that she intended to kill herself - we cannot be sure. 'But she didn't. Her reckless and dangerous driving took the life of an innocent motorist and has left behind a tragedy of loss and pain for the family of Paula Kingdon. 'Ann Marie Crook pleaded guilty and has accepted her part in the dreadful events of that day. But that won't bring back Paula Kingdon. A tragic case indeed.' Inspector Stuart McIver of Merseyside Police said: 'This was a tragic incident and our thoughts today are very much with the family of Paula who described her as a caring auntie and devoted former head teacher of Westfield School in Chesterfield. 'Her sudden death impacted on the whole Westfield school community and her neighbours in Meersbrook, Sheffield where Paula lived. 'This is a tragic case where an innocent woman has unnecessarily lost her life. 'Crook has been left in no doubt about the consequences of her actions, and I hope she will reflect on the impact this has had on the victim's family.' A 51-year-old woman in Colombia will become the first person suffering from a non-terminal illness to be allowed to die by euthanasia this Sunday. Martha Sepulveda has been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, since November 2018, and received approval two months ago to die by euthanasia. 'I know that the owner of life is God, meaning that nothing moves without His will,' the devout Catholic told Noticias Caracol in an interview that ran this week. 'Suddenly for many people I am very wrong, but I think He is allowing this. He is rewarding me in a certain way because I am not going to be bedridden.' Sepulveda first sought medical care after she started feeling weakness in her thumb, which caused her problems with doing simple tasks such as holding a pen or a computer mouse, according to the Washington Post. In the months that followed her diagnosis, Sepulveda's nervous system disease weakened her muscles. By 2020, her condition had worsened to the point that she was contemplating dying by euthanasia, a practice legally recognized in the South American nation since 1997 when it was decriminalized. The government regulated it in 2015. On July 22, Colombia's Supreme court amended its law and determined that with patients 'intense physical or mental suffering from bodily injury or serious and incurable disease' could also die under euthanasia. Sepulveda elected on August 6 to undergo the procedure. Martha Sepulveda has been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, since November 2018. On Sunday at 7am local time, the 51-year-old mother will be the first person who is not terminally ill in Colombia to die by euthanasia Martha Sepulveda with her 22-year-old son Federico Redondo Sepulveda. He told Noticias Caracol that 'now I am focused on making her happy, on making her laugh, on picking up a bit and making her stay on Earth, whatever she has left, be a little more enjoyable.' 'I am calmer since the procedure was authorized: I laugh more, I sleep more calmly, she said. Sepulveda, mother to a 22-year-old son, is scheduled to die Sunday at 7am local time. She chose to end her life on a Sunday because it was the same day 'we go to church' and also stressed that she does not want a viewing service at a funeral parlor because 'it seems to me that this lengthens the suffering of the people.' Federico Redondo Sepulveda, who is studying to become a lawyer, learned to come to terms with his mother's decision, making the best of their final days together. 'I saw it as the greatest act of love that I have ever done in my life because (I really) need my mother, I want her with me, almost in any condition, but I know that in her words she no longer lives, she survives,' Redondo Sepulveda said. 'Now I am focused on making her happy, on making her laugh, on picking up a bit and making her stay on Earth, whatever she has left, be a little more enjoyable.' Martha Sepulveda said she chose to end her life Sunday because it was the same day 'we go to church' and also stressed that she does not want a viewing service at a funeral parlor because 'it seems to me that this lengthens the suffering of the people' Ministry of Health data shows that 157 euthanasia procedures have been done, including 26 this year. An August survey conducted by the Medellin-based INMAVER, 72 percent of people in Colombia support euthanasia. On Wednesday, the Colombian Episcopal Conference pleaded that Sepulveda reconsider her decision, asked the country's faithful to pray for her, and slammed the media for supporting euthanasia. 'Death cannot be the therapeutic answer to pain and suffering in any case (...) Martha, I invite you to calmly reflect on your decision,' Riohacha bishop Francisco Antonio Ceballos said. 'Hopefully, if circumstances allow it, away from the harassment of the media, who have not hesitated to take his pain and that of her family to make a kind of propaganda of euthanasia in a country deeply marked by violence.' A Colorado father has been sentenced to 48 years in prison for killing his son after the boy found fetish pictures of him wearing a red bra and eating feces from a diaper. Mark Redwine, 60, was sentenced Friday by La Plata County District Court Chief Judge Jeffrey Wilson for the killing of 13-year-old son Dylan Redwine in 2012. Redwine was convicted of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. While Redwine didn't speak during the sentencing, Judge Wilson said that the 60-year-old has taken no responsibility for his actions and that he could not remember a defendant that has shown less remorse than him. 'The community needs to be protected from you. You need to be removed from society for a very long period of time,' Wilson in court on Friday. 'I'm going to sentence you to 48 years on both counts, with five years of parole, will be served concurrently. You'll receive 1,540 days of credit for time served.' Redwine was indicted in 2017 in the disappearance of his son Dylan Redwine, who was reported missing in November 2012 while on a court-ordered Thanksgiving visit to his father's home outside Durango in southwest Colorado, AP reported. Mark Redwine, 60, (pictured) was sentenced to 48 years on Friday for the murder of his 13-year-old son Mark Redwine, 59, (left) has been convicted for the murder of his 13-year-old son Dylan (right), who disappeared near their home in Colorado's La Plata County in November 2012 Judge Wilson (pictured) said that the 60-year-old has taken no responsibility for his actions and that he could not remember a defendant that has shown less remorse than him A missing poster of 13-year-old Dylan Redwine hangs on a trail head sign next to Vallecito Reservoir in Vallecito, Colo in 2012 The 13-year-old's partial remains were found a few miles from his father's home in 2013. His skull was not found until 2015 when it was discovered by hikers. A jury convicted Redwine in July after less than a day of deliberations. Prosecutors argued at trial that Redwine killed Dylan in a fit of rage after they argued over embarrassing photos of him wearing women's lingerie and eating feces from a diaper. Dylan and his older brother had accidentally discovered the pictures on their father's computer during a road trip in 2011 and looked at them in a locked bathroom while their father slept, his older brother Cory Redwine testified. Dylan's older brother took his own photos to save on his phone and said during cross-examination that he sent copies of the compromising photos to his father in August 2012, while Dylan and Mark Redwine were alone on a trip together. Dylan knew about the photos and was not harmed on that trip, despite the texting confrontation between Cory and Mark Redwine. But his older brother told the court his younger brother was 'pretty disgusted' and said he wanted to use the photos as leverage in an argument with his dad a year later. 'Hey send me those poop pics of Papa because he gave me a speech about you guys being a bad example and I want to show him who he really is,' said Dylan Redwine in a text to his older brother in August 2012, according to court documents. Redwine didn't testify at trial. But he told investigators he left Dylan alone at home to run errands and that Dylan was missing when he returned. Defense attorneys suggested Dylan ran away and may have been killed by a bear or a mountain lion. The case drew national attention when Redwine and the boys mother, Elaine Hall, leveled accusations at each other over their son's disappearance on the syndicated 'Dr. Phil' television show in 2013. Prosecutors argued at trial that Redwine (pictured left at a court hearing in 2017) killed Dylan in a fit of rage after they argued over embarrassing photos of him The 13-year-old's partial remains were found a few miles from his father's home in 2013. His skull was not found until 2015 when it was discovered by hikers Hall testified that she sent Dylan to his father's house on Nov. 18, 2012, learned he was missing the next day and suspected her ex-husband wasnt telling the truth about their sons disappearance. A forensic anthropologist testified at trial that Dylan suffered a fracture above his left eye and that two marks on his skull were likely caused by a knife or sharp tool at or near the time of death. Fred Johnson, special deputy district attorney, testified that investigators found traces of Dylans blood in Redwine's living room. Public defender Justin Bogan also suggested that Halls appearance on national TV turned public opinion against her ex-husband and influenced the direction of the police investigation. Redwine, a truck driver, was arrested in Bellingham, Washington, following the 2017 grand jury indictment. A councillor who represents one of the most deprived areas of the UK has been living nearly 600 miles away to France where he is renovating an 18th century chateau - leading to furious complaints. Ashley Waters, 37, who ran for election as an independent and took his seat from Labour, has spent much of the last year in rural Normandy rather than his more gritty home town of Middlesbrough where he is paid by the taxpayer as an elected official. He has justified continuing to represent those who voted for him in the impoverished north eastern city by attending most council meetings online from his magnificent historic home - since the pandemic most council meetings have been held online - while occasionally commuting back to Teesside from the country house near Le Mans to attend in person. Cllr Waters and his partner Terry Short are renovating the property called Chateau De Lalacelle together with Terry's parents Tony and Tracy Briggs. They plan to turn it into a high end bed and breakfast for paying guests. A councillor who represents one of the most deprived areas of the UK has been living nearly 600 miles away to France where he is renovating an 18th century chateau - leading to furious complaints. Above: Middlesbrough councillor Ashley Waters (left) with his partner Terry Short Mr Waters,37, who ran for election as an independent and took his seat from Labour, has spent much of the last year in rural Normandy rather than his more gritty home town of Middlesbrough where he is paid by the taxpayer as an elected official They are documenting their progress with a series of self-made videos posted on YouTube with their style and content based on the long running Channel 4 series 'Escape to the Chateau.' Entitled 'Escape to the Dream, Restoring the Chateau ' so far 22 episodes have been uploaded to the video-sharing site. Cllr Waters, who was elected as an independent for the North Ormesby ward in 2019, is paid 20,000 a year in allowances for attending council meetings and related meetings of Cleveland Fire Authority. He sits on four council committees and was formerly on the executive committee for the regeneration of Middlesbrough, recognised as one of the most deprived areas in the UK. Cllr Waters, who was elected as an independent for the North Ormesby ward in 2019. is paid 20,000 a year in allowances for attending council meetings and related meetings of Cleveland Fire Authority. Above: The Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge across the river Tees But Cllr Walters has been accused of neglecting his council duties by another independent councillor, Joan McTigue, who has made repeated complaints about her colleague's domestic arrangements, insisting he is neglecting the people he was elected to represent by being so far away. Cllr McTigue told Mail Online:' He is the only councillor for North Ormesby, one of the most deprived in the country, and there is nobody looking after that area. 'If you watch the videos it is perfectly clear that he is there for good. They refer to the chateau as 'our new home, new way of life'.' The most recent - the 22nd episode features Waters explaining how he will be repairing one of the outbuildings in the grounds of the chateau. The 30-minute video was uploaded a week ago. Other videos feature aerial views of the chateau chart the progress from September 2020 when the property was acquired. Another video uploaded features the renovation of an antique fireplace while the first episode gave viewers a tour of the property which due to 50 years of neglect was uninhabitable. The quartet taking part in the project, who are all from Middlesbrough, have been living in caravans on the site while the renovation work progresses. The area also has the highest child poverty rates out of the 12 local authorities in the North East of England, according to the NE Child Poverty Commission. Figures supplied by Middlesbrough Council show that Cllr Walters has a 60 per cent attendance record for meetings and has the full approval of the council to commute from the chateau. Cllr Waters was contacted by Mail Online for comment but didn't respond but has previously defended his decision to spend much of his time at the chateau. Cllr Walter said in an interview in January this year he was able to attend online meetings and help with any problems from his constituents. He also insisted he still had a home in Middlesbrough and paid his council tax there. He also revealed he suffered from Crohn's disease which affects the immune system making him more susceptible to contracting Covid-19 so felt safer in the less populated area around the chateau. He said then: 'I have not had a face-to-face meeting since March 23 last year so why is it relevant where I attend meetings from? 'Whether it be Timbuktu, France, North Ormesby or Tokyo - it's completely irrelevant. Cllr Waters and his partner Terry Short are renovating the property called Chateau De Lalacelle together with Terry's parents Tony and Tracy Briggs. They plan to turn it into a high end bed and breakfast for paying guests 'We've been working remotely - why does it matter right now when I can still do my job? 'My residents still contact me, and when there are issues they get dealt with immediately like they always have done. 'I strive to help my ward and make sure my ward is as good as it can be - I don't know what else I'm meant to do.' He added: 'If the residents asked me to step down, I'd step down - she's not a resident of mine. 'There is no complaint from my residents - the only complaint which has been made is from Cllr McTigue. 'I'm doing my job.' The You Tube videos have been viewed by more than 17,000 times with many positive comments and suggestions about the renovation work. The TV series 'Escape to the Chateau' is credited with persuading many people to relocate to France and undertake renovation projects of disused homes. The reality show features former army officer Dick Sawbridge and his partner Angel Adoree as they renovate a 45 room dilapidated 19th century chateau in Martigne sur Mayenne. The Department of Homeland Security warned this week that climate change is likely to contribute to a further surge of migrants at the southern border. 'We are already experiencing the adverse impacts, from sea-level rise, extreme heat, flooding, and drought, to changes in migration patterns and harmful effects on workforce health,' DHS wrote in its Climate Action Plan released Thursday. 'Climate change is likely to increase population movements from Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean and impact neighboring countries.' 'Increases in human migration may require more resources and operational capacity at the U.S. border to facilitate the application of immigration law, including the law governing claims for humanitarian protection,' it said. The report found that melting ice in the Arctic is leading to greater competition with China as the polar regions transform into a 'competitive space. The department also said that melting ice could lead to new routes for smuggling and human trafficking. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the department would establish a 'climate change action group' comprised of senior officials from across DHS that would focus on promoting resilience and preventing risks, such as flooding, extreme heat, drought, and wildfires. DHS predicted that extreme weather events would intensify in the next 10 years, costing the US approximately 100,000 jobs and $15 billion in GDP by 2025. On Thursday, more than 20 federal agencies released their own climate adaptation plans to detail how they would take steps to mitigate climate change. The Department of Defense said that climate change was a threat to national security and had already affected military readiness. The Education Department pointed to the impact of wildfires on students. A record-shattering number of Haitian migrants have come to the US in the last month, and the trend doesn't appear to be stopping as more people continue to pour into the Colombian town of Necocli, a popular spot for smugglers to shepherd people through the perilous Darien Gap. The Darien Gap is a 66-mile stretch of rainforest between North and South America. Its dangerous terrain is part of the reason it's been left undeveloped and why it poses such a great risk to the people crossing it now. More than 70,000 migrants have traveled through the Darien Gap this year, Panamanian authorities have said. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the department would establish a 'climate change action group' comprised of senior officials from across DHS More than 70,000 migrants have traveled through the Darien Gap this year, Panamanian authorities have said Mayorkas reportedly asked his officials last month whether the department was ready to handle the possibility of up to 400,000 migrants Mayorkas reportedly asked his officials last month whether the department was ready to handle the possibility of up to 400,000 migrants, nearly double the 21-year high seen in July, crossing the border in October. Despite public attempts to appear in control of the situation at the southwest border, a phone call between Mayorkas and senior officials earlier this week shows a Biden administration scrambling to contain a growing crisis. Mayorkas asked on the call if the border was ready for a worst-case scenario of 350,000 to 400,000 migrants crossing the border next month, two DHS officials told NBC. Advertisement Brian Laundrie's dad has now said he went searching for his son in the Florida nature reserve one day earlier than they first claimed he had gone on the run, in what marks the latest change in story from the fugitive's family. The Laundrie family's attorney Steve Bertolino told CNN Christopher Laundrie went to the Carlton Reserve near the family home in North Port to look for the 23-year-old on the night of September 13 when he failed to return from a hike at the park. Christopher's search was allegedly unsuccessful and so he returned with Laundrie's mom Roberta the following day, he said. Then, Laundrie's parents allegedly noticed their son's Ford Mustang with an abandoned vehicle notice on it, he said, but left it there. They then returned again the next day - September 15 - and took the vehicle back to their home. North Port police confirmed Wednesday the notice was placed on the car on September 14 when it was found at 6968 Reisterstown Road, North Port, in the Myakkahatchee Environmental Park in Florida. The park is an entrance to the Carlton Reserve. Despite being concerned enough to make multiple trips to look for their son, Laundrie's parents appeared to forget how long it had been since they last saw him when they finally admitted to police several days later that he had gone on the lam. Laundrie's parents told authorities on September 17 that they hadn't seen him for the last three days, claiming they last saw him carrying a backpack and heading to the Carlton Nature Reserve near their home in North Port for a hike on September 14. On Friday, Christopher refused to make any statement when he briefly broke cover from his home to collect his mail and retrieve a trash can before ducking back inside where they have been holing up over the last few weeks. The day earlier, he was seen in photos obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com smiling and chatting away to FBI agents as he joined the three-week-long manhunt for his fugitive son for the first time. Christopher Laundrie emerges from his home in North Port Friday morning to take the trash out and collect his mail The fugitive's dad pulls a trash can out for garbage collection Friday as new holes in his story emerged this week Christopher Laundrie (pictured) has now claimed he went searching for his son in the Florida nature reserve one day earlier than the parents first claimed he went on the run Christopher has now said he went searching for his son in the Florida nature reserve one day earlier than they first claimed he had gone on the run The Laundrie family's attorney said Christopher went to the Carlton Reserve near the family home in North Port to look for the 23-year-old on the night of September 13 Christopher Laundrie is seen laughing and joking as he chats with an officer when he joined the search for his son Thursday Christopher didn't seem too concerned about his son being missing - or his son's fiancee's homicide - as he appeared to be having a jolly time while joining the manhunt in the Carlton Reserve, Florida, Thursday The father of Brian Laundrie was paired with an officer who looked somewhat like his fugitive son for Thursday's search The latest developments in the case are: The Laundrie family's attorney said there are 'no' plans for Christopher or Roberta to join Friday's search North Port Police poured cold water on report a 'fresh campsite' was found in the Carlton Reserve Wednesday The conditions in the swampland are said to be improving making the hunt easier to navigate FBI is also investigating 11 alleged sightings of Laundrie along the Appalachian Trail near the North Carolina-Tennessee border Police said they had Laundrie under surveillance in the days before he was reported missing Investigators confirmed neither Petito or Laundrie's phones were found in the couple's campervan It emerged that Laundrie's Ford Mustang was found just 16 miles from the Carlton Reserve last month Petito's family said the 22-year-old's body is still in Wyoming and their 'top priority' is to bring her home They revealed her body was found 'a five minute walk' from where the van had been seen parked The family issued another plea to Laundrie to 'turn himself in' in an interview with Dr. Phil In three-day period between September 14 and 17 when the Laundries claimed their son had vanished, Christopher and Roberta kept mum about his disappearance. The family had lawyered up and refused to allow investigators to speak to him ever since the cops came knocking on September 11 - the day his fiancee Gabby Petito was reported missing. Now, the fugitive's parents have claimed they actually 'believe' Laundrie set off from their home on September 13, meaning their fugitive son had a four-day headstart before they finally reported him missing to authorities. The discrepancy in the timeline first surfaced Tuesday when Bertolino admitted the parents may have gotten muddled over the date when they last saw their son. Bertolino said they now 'believe' he went on the run one day earlier than they first claimed. The new details about the extent to which the parents searched for him indicates they were fully aware - and even concerned - that he had vanished on September 13. Bertolino brushed off the inconsistency putting it down to 'recollection of certain events' - at a time when police were making repeated efforts to speak with him and his fiancee was missing. 'The Laundries were basing the date Brian left on their recollection of certain events,' he said. 'Upon further communication with the FBI and confirmation of the Mustang being at the Laundrie residence on Wednesday September 15, we now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday September 13.' Bertolino also insisted Laundrie's parents believe he is still in the Carlton Reserve, where Christopher joined FBI agents in the search for his son Thursday. 'No, they don't believe he's in another area. They believe he is in the preserve,' he said. It is not clear why the Laundries did not alert authorities to their son's disappearance for four days. Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito (pictured together) set off on their doomed cross-country campervan trip on July 2 The parents of Laundrie have been holing up in their home while the manhunt for their son has rumbled on for three weeks Christopher drops his mail on the ground outside his home at one point after briefly breaking cover from his home Laundrie's dad refused to make any comment as he emerged from his home briefly Friday to bring his trash can in and get their mail Laundrie's parents appeared to forget how long it had been since they last saw their son when they finally admitted to police several days later that he had gone on the lam On Friday, Christopher refused to make any statement when he briefly broke cover from his home to collect his mail and retrieve a trash can before ducking back inside where they have been holing up over the last few weeks Timeline of Gabby Petito case July 1: Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie left Blue Point, New York for a cross-country road trip Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie left Blue Point, New York for a cross-country road trip August 12: Police in Moab, Utah respond to a domestic incident involving the couple Police in Moab, Utah respond to a domestic incident involving the couple Aug. 17: Laundrie allegedly flies back to Florida to 'clear out a storage unit' Laundrie allegedly flies back to Florida to 'clear out a storage unit' Aug. 21: Petito's father, Joseph Petito, has his last FaceTime video call with his daughter who was in Salt Lake City, Utah Petito's father, Joseph Petito, has his last FaceTime video call with his daughter who was in Salt Lake City, Utah Aug. 23: Laundrie flies back to Utah to 'rejoin Gabby' on their trip Laundrie flies back to Utah to 'rejoin Gabby' on their trip Aug. 24: Petito is last seen at a hotel in Salt Lake City with Laundrie Petito is last seen at a hotel in Salt Lake City with Laundrie Aug. 25: Petito makes final call to her mother, Nichole Schmidt, saying she was in Grand Teton National Park Petito makes final call to her mother, Nichole Schmidt, saying she was in Grand Teton National Park Aug. 25 or 26: The couple chats with the owner of a shop called 'Rustic Row' in Victor, Utah for about 20 minutes The couple chats with the owner of a shop called 'Rustic Row' in Victor, Utah for about 20 minutes Aug. 27: Video of Petito's van was taken by blogger Jenn Bethune around 6.30 pm at the Spread Creek Campground; Witnesses say they saw a 'commotion' with the couple at Merry Piglets Tex-mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming Video of Petito's van was taken by blogger Jenn Bethune around 6.30 pm at the Spread Creek Campground; Witnesses say they saw a 'commotion' with the couple at Merry Piglets Tex-mex restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming Aug. 29: The day that Wisconsin TikToker Miranda Baker claimed that she and her boyfriend were approached by Laundrie at Grand Teton National Park and asked them for a ride at 5.30pm The day that Wisconsin TikToker Miranda Baker claimed that she and her boyfriend were approached by Laundrie at Grand Teton National Park and asked them for a ride at 5.30pm Aug. 30: Schmidt receives the last text from Petito's phone: 'No service in Yosemite' Schmidt receives the last text from Petito's phone: 'No service in Yosemite' Sept. 1: Laundrie returns to his parents' home in North Port, Florida in a van without Petito Laundrie returns to his parents' home in North Port, Florida in a van without Petito Sept. 6-7: Laundrie and his parents visit Fort De Soto campsite in Florida Laundrie and his parents visit Fort De Soto campsite in Florida Sept. 11: Schmidt reports Petito missing to authorities in New York; Petito and Laundrie's van was impounded by police in Florida that same day Schmidt reports Petito missing to authorities in New York; Petito and Laundrie's van was impounded by police in Florida that same day Sept. 12: Grand Teton National Park rangers search for Petito Grand Teton National Park rangers search for Petito Sept. 13: Laundrie's lawyer says on October 5 that his parents now 'believe' this was the day they last saw him heading for a hike Laundrie's lawyer says on October 5 that his parents now 'believe' this was the day they last saw him heading for a hike Sept. 14: Laundrie issues a statement about Petito's disappearance through his lawyer; Laundrie's parents claim on September 17 that Laundrie left his parents' home for a hike this day and they hadn't seen from him since Laundrie issues a statement about Petito's disappearance through his lawyer; Laundrie's parents claim on September 17 that Laundrie left his parents' home for a hike this day and they hadn't seen from him since Sept. 15: Laundrie is officially named a person of interest in Petito's case Laundrie is officially named a person of interest in Petito's case Sept. 17: Laundrie family attorney confirms his whereabouts are unknown Laundrie family attorney confirms his whereabouts are unknown Sept. 18: North Port police and the FBI start searching the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County for missing Brian Laundrie North Port police and the FBI start searching the Carlton Reserve in Sarasota County for missing Brian Laundrie Sept. 19: Bethune realizes she has video of Petito's van around 12am and submits the FBI with the footage 10 minutes later; Officials announce a body was found near Grand Teton National Park that matched Petitos description in the afternoon Bethune realizes she has video of Petito's van around 12am and submits the FBI with the footage 10 minutes later; Officials announce a body was found near Grand Teton National Park that matched Petitos description in the afternoon Sept. 21: Coroner confirms remains found in Grand Tetons belong to Petito. Her death is ruled a homicide but her cause of death is still under invesetigation Coroner confirms remains found in Grand Tetons belong to Petito. Her death is ruled a homicide but her cause of death is still under invesetigation Sept. 20 - 22: FBI and North Port police continue search for Laundrie in Carton Reserve FBI and North Port police continue search for Laundrie in Carton Reserve Sept. 22 : Neighbors say they saw the Laudrie family pack up their detached camper on the day Gabby was reported missing. DailyMail.com photos show the camper was back in the driveway two days later, on September 13 : Neighbors say they saw the Laudrie family pack up their detached camper on the day Gabby was reported missing. DailyMail.com photos show the camper was back in the driveway two days later, on September 13 Sept. 23 : FBI issues an arrest warrant for Laundrie for 'use of unauthorized access device' for fraudulently using a Capitol One Bank debit card that was not his between August 30 and September 1 to spend $1,000; A probe is launched into the police handling of the Utah police incident on Aug. 12; Laundrie's parents visit their attorney in Orlando : FBI issues an arrest warrant for Laundrie for 'use of unauthorized access device' for fraudulently using a Capitol One Bank debit card that was not his between August 30 and September 1 to spend $1,000; A probe is launched into the police handling of the Utah police incident on Aug. 12; Laundrie's parents visit their attorney in Orlando Sept. 25: Dog the Bounty Hunter joins the search for Laundrie Dog the Bounty Hunter joins the search for Laundrie Sept. 26: A funeral is held for Petito in Holbrook, New York, and her family launch a charity to help parents find missing children A funeral is held for Petito in Holbrook, New York, and her family launch a charity to help parents find missing children Sept. 27: Manhunt for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve is scaled back after 10 day search doesn't find him. Dog the Bounty Hunter says Laundrie and his parents stayed at Fort De Soto Park from September 1-3 and September 6-8 - and that on the latter visit only the parents left Manhunt for Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve is scaled back after 10 day search doesn't find him. Dog the Bounty Hunter says Laundrie and his parents stayed at Fort De Soto Park from September 1-3 and September 6-8 - and that on the latter visit only the parents left Sept. 28: Laundrie's mom is accused of using a burner phone to contact her son Sept. 29: Documents reveal Laundrie's mom canceled a reservation for the Fort De Soto Park campsite for two from September 1 to 3 and booked for three from September 6 to 8; FBI seizes surveillance footage from site; FBI investigates lead Laundrie bought a burner phone on September 14; Laundrie's mom is accused of using a burner phone to contact her son Sept. 29: Documents reveal Laundrie's mom canceled a reservation for the Fort De Soto Park campsite for two from September 1 to 3 and booked for three from September 6 to 8; FBI seizes surveillance footage from site; FBI investigates lead Laundrie bought a burner phone on September 14; Sept. 30: Bodycam footage from a second officer at the August 12 incident is released showing a distressed Petito admitting Laundrie hit her; FBI agents collect more evidence from the Laundrie home Bodycam footage from a second officer at the August 12 incident is released showing a distressed Petito admitting Laundrie hit her; FBI agents collect more evidence from the Laundrie home Oct. 1: It emerges Laundrie's sister had contact with him after she said she did It emerges Laundrie's sister had contact with him after she said she did Oct. 2 : A hiker along the Appalachian Trail claims to have seen Laundrie near the border of Tennessee and North Carolina : A hiker along the Appalachian Trail claims to have seen Laundrie near the border of Tennessee and North Carolina Oct. 3 : Investigators searched the area on the Appalachian trail for any signs that Laundrie had been there : Investigators searched the area on the Appalachian trail for any signs that Laundrie had been there Oct. 4 : Laundrie's sister told protestors outside her home that her family has been ignoring her after they rebuked her story and that she does not know where her brother is : Laundrie's sister told protestors outside her home that her family has been ignoring her after they rebuked her story and that she does not know where her brother is Oct 5 : Laundrie's sister appeared on Good Morning America to say she would turn her brother in if she knew where he is; : Laundrie's sister appeared on Good Morning America to say she would turn her brother in if she knew where he is; Oct. 7: Laundrie's father Christopher joins FBI agents on the search for his son at the Carlton Reserve but the search brings up no clues Laundrie's father Christopher joins FBI agents on the search for his son at the Carlton Reserve but the search brings up no clues Oct. 12: Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue announces autopsy findings which show Petito died by strangulation; No specific date of death was given - only that she was dead 3-4 weeks before her body was found Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue announces autopsy findings which show Petito died by strangulation; No specific date of death was given - only that she was dead 3-4 weeks before her body was found Oct. 16 : Petito's parents are seen collecting her ashes from the Valley Mortuary in Jackson, Wyoming : Petito's parents are seen collecting her ashes from the Valley Mortuary in Jackson, Wyoming October 20 : Human remains found in Carlton Reserve Advertisement Nor is not clear if investigators have proof of his presence at the Laundrie family home at all from when Petito was reported missing on September 11 to when his family revealed he was on the run. Investigators have confirmed they never spoke to or saw Laundrie on September 11 as his family lawyered up and denied police entry to their home to speak with him. Instead, the timeline of his disappearance appears to largely rest on accounts given by Christopher and Roberta - accounts that have changed over time. Questions continue to mount about what Laundrie's parents know about the doomed cross-country trip and their son's current whereabouts. Petito's parents said they had tried calling and texting the Laundries multiple times when they grew concerned about not hearing from their daughter in early September - but they never replied. Laundrie's sister Cassie has also questioned her parents' involvement in her brother's disappearance, urging them to 'come clean' about what they know in an interview with ABC's GMA, which aired Tuesday. While she insisted she had nothing to do with Laundrie's disappearance, she admitted she wasn't so sure about her parents Christopher and Roberta Laundrie who she urged to cooperate with investigators. 'I don't know if my parents are involved,' said Cassie. 'I think if they are, then they should come clean.' Laundrie's headstart on authorities has so far proved to be problematic for investigators who are yet to locate the 23-year-old after a three-week-long manhunt. Christopher was asked to join the search of the snake-and-alligator infested Carlton Reserve Thursday after the inconsistencies came to light in his and his wife Roberta's version of events. The 62-year-old appeared to not have a care in the world as he was spotted laughing and chatting away to an FBI agent who bizarrely bore some likeness to his fugitive son in exclusive DailyMail.com photos. He was asked to point out any favorite trails or spots his son frequented in the reserve, spending several hours in the park with around five officers while a police helicopter circled overhead. Thursday's search served up 'no discoveries' while a report that a 'fresh campsite' had been found Wednesday was also denied by investigators. The Laundrie family attorney said there were no plans for Christopher or his wife Roberta to join the FBI Friday but said conditions in the swampland were improving, raising hopes the search could be smoother. 'It seems the water in the preserve is receding and certain areas are more accessible to search,' said Bertolino. 'The entire Laundrie family is grateful for the hard work of the dedicated members of law enforcement that have been searching the preserve for Brian over the last few weeks. 'Hopefully, Brian will be located soon.' He insisted Laundrie's parents believe 'that is exactly where he is located.' A source close to the Laundrie family told CNN's Chris Cuomo Wednesday 'traces' of a 'fresh campsite' had been found in the reserve. But North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor poured cold water on this claim Friday confirming 'no campsite' was found. 'Is it possible that they thought that there might be a campsite out there or something they may have seen from the air but when they go on the ground that's not what it turned out to be?' said Taylor. 'Sure, I think that's a possibility. Bottom line, is that investigators are telling me that no campsite was found out there.' North Port Police in Florida revealed Thursday that the sole person of interest in Petito's homicide had been placed under surveillance in the days before he went on the run. Police spokesperson Josh Taylor told CNN Laundrie was being closely watched by authorities to the best of their abilities at a time when Petito was still classed as missing and not dead and when a warrant had not yet been issued for Laundrie's arrest. Taylor provided no further details about the extent of this surveillance or how Laundrie was then able to slip through the net. Police also confirmed they have not recovered the phones Petito or Laundrie had with them on the doomed cross-country trip. Neither phone was found in the couple's white campervan when it was seized by authorities. Last week, it emerged the FBI was investigating a line of inquiry that Laundrie had bought a burner from an AT&T store in North Port around September 14. Brian is said to have visited the store to purchase the phone accompanied by an older woman and federal agents seized surveillance footage from the store. There has also been speculation that both Laundrie and his mom were in possession of burner phones. The Laundrie family attorney Steve Bertolino said Laundrie bought a new phone in the days after he returned home to Florida without his fiancee. He then left that phone when he went on lam and the FBI has taken it into their possession, he said. The development comes as Petito's family revealed her body is still in Wyoming - more than two weeks after she was found back on September 19. Richard Stafford, the attorney representing the Petito family, told Fox News: 'Gabby's body is still in Wyoming and bringing her home is the family's top priority. 'The family is also working hard to help other families in their situation. That is why they are creating the Gabby Petito Foundation.' Petito's family revealed this week that the 22-year-old's body was found in a fairly isolated area, just 'a five minute walk' from where the couple's van had been seen parked. In an emotional interview with Dr Phil, on Wednesday, Petito's stepfather Jim said: 'Her body was found I guess it would be in front of a tent, if that's what was there or just in front of the fire ring... there was definitely a fire ring there.' 'It wasn't far from the van. It was a five minute walk,' Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt echoed. Christopher and about five FBI officers spent hours searching the vast 24,565 acres located in Venice. He was pictured sweating and taking breaks to hydrate throughout the day The Laundrie family's attorney said that Christopher will continue to cooperate with law enforcement in the hunt for his son Laundrie is seen returning to his vehicle after the unsuccessful search - the same vehicle witnesses spotted the Laundries using during a camping trip days before Petito was reported missing The 62-year-old was out in the Carlton Reserve nature park for several hours with FBI agents in the sweltering Florida heat The Laundries changed their story this week about when they last saw their son, revealing he actually had another day's head-start on authorities An attorney for Christopher and Roberta said they 'believe' he actually went missing on September 13 not 14. Days after the disclosure, Christopher joined Thursday's search Jim, who visited the location on the outskirts of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming where Petito's body was found, painted a vivid picture of the isolated area. 'You would have to want to go out over into that area,' he said. Jim said his stepdaughter's remains were found in an area of dispersed campgrounds on the borderline of Bridger-Teton National Forest, about 40 feet away from where Grand Teton National Park begins. He explained in order to get to that area, campers would have to cross over the creek bed that separated the campgrounds from the area where the van had been parked. 'So you have to cross over this creek bed, this rock area, and go through these tributaries and once you get on the other side it's just some trees sparsely placed throughout and a lot sage brush, a lot of low brush,' he shared. 'It was in an area where there was a few trees and there was the remnants of a fire ring there... There was a clearing where I would assume - knowing I have a similar tent, where I would place my tent - and that opening would face out overlooking the mountain range.' Christopher Laundrie, father of the missing Brian Laundrie, was spotted leaving his house on Thursday for the first time this week as he joined the hunt for this son Christopher has agreed to finally aid in the search for his son after police spotted a fresh campsite in the Carlton Reserves, where Brian is suspected to be hiding at Christopher's move to help law enforcement comes after the Laundries had previously distanced themselves from the search He arrived later in the morning at the Mykkahatchee Creek Environmental Park as he guided law enforcement deeper into the Carlton Reserve where he and police believe his son is located Christopher Laundrie is seen at the nature reserve Thursday after leaving his home around 10am and joining the search Christopher was pictured wearing a sweat-soaked grey shirt, cargo pants and a green baseball cap while holding a water bottle It was also revealed that Laundrie's abandoned Ford Mustang was found just 16 miles from the Carlton Reserve last month The search team on Thursday spent hours combing through the swampy area but made 'no discoveries' Jim left a stone cross and flowers in the exact location where she was found. Petito, 22, and Laundrie, 23, set off on July 2 on the adventure of a lifetime traveling across America in their white campervan and chronicling their adventures on YouTube. On September 1, Laundrie arrived back at his family's home in North Port without his fiancee but driving their van. Petito was reported missing on September 11 by her mom after not hearing from her daughter for multiple days and coming up against a wall of silence from Laundrie and his parents. The Laundrie family lawyered up and refused to let cops speak to him about his fiancee's whereabouts. His parents then reported him as missing on September 17. Petito's body was discovered at a campsite near the Grand Teton National Park on September 19 and her death has been ruled a homicide. It is not clear how she died. The FBI said it believes she was killed between August 27 and August 30. The last reports of Petito being seen alive were on August 27 when witnesses said they saw the couple involved in a 'commotion' in a restaurant. Local police and the FBI have now been searching for Laundrie for three weeks. Christopher spent hours joining the hunt for his son about five or six officers before emerging out onto the road (above) at the end of the day's search He will continue to guide law enforcement through the area as they investigate a newly found campsite in the reserve People living in the American heartland - populations outside of urban centers that rely heaving on manufacturing - have been abandoning Democrats in favor of Republicans in droves, according to a new report exposing a weakness in President Biden's party as the 2022 midterms loom. Democrats have been hemorrhaging millions of votes in small and midsized working class counties, the 82-page report claims. And those voters went straight to Trump in 2016 and 2020. Nearly 40 percent of GOP gains from 2012 to 2020 were in these areas alone. Working-class towns where manufacturing jobs dominate the local economy are difficult to place in the usual electorate classifications that rely on geography. They are too far outside of urban centers to be considered suburbs, and are not rural farming communities. After helping elect former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 this voting block swung heavily toward Trump in 2016. The hit we took in small and midsized manufacturing counties was the biggest reason Trump won the presidency in 2016 and almost did it again in 2020, the reports summary reads. Biden in 2020 did do slightly better than Hillary Clinton, but not well enough - Democrats hard-won urban and suburban increases were outpaced by losses at a 2:1 margin in those areas. Despite Biden's overall victory in 2020, he still lost small and mid-sized factory towns to Trump Its the latest sign of Democrats declining appeal amid sinking poll numbers for the top three Democrats in Washington with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi all grappling with their diminished likeability. But the report, commissioned by political group 21st Century Democrats, shows signs of a larger disconnect thats been years in the making. 'We just quit showing up,' John Pouland of 21st Century Democrats told DailyMail.com. 'You've got to show up to win, and - you don't even have to win. You just got to do better.' 'You've got to start showing up and start doing better, and that's the only way it's going to turn around.' Ten states with factory town communities are studied including the critical battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. They are the part of the United States most impacted by deindustrialization, the report notes. Voters in factory town counties make up more than 40 percent of the electorate in eight of the states studied. In four of ten, they make 57 percent of more. Its clear Republicans are interested in maintaining their significant gains. Trump is set to host a rally in Iowa this weekend, further fueling rumors hell run in 2024. Pouland said the GOP's significant gains didn't happen overnight - it was because they 'kept showing up' and 'stayed on message.' Barack Obama won large swaths of those areas in 2008, but in 2012 they were some of the most hotly-contested parts of the country. And comparing Obamas second election to Bidens 2020 race, Democrats saw a net loss of more than 2 million votes. Barack Obama handily won in factory town counties in 2008, and by a much narrower margin in 2012 Across the eight-year span, small manufacturing communities swung most heavily toward Republicans. In those areas the GOP netted 1.8 million more votes with Trump in 2020 than they did with Mitt Romney in 2012, despite both losing. Biden, despite his working class roots, only won 11 of those 480 counties. Republicans running in mid-sized manufacturing communities won by roughly 766,000 votes. Democrats falling support coincides with the nationwide loss of the same manufacturing jobs that are core to these communities economies. From 2001 to 2020 more than 5 million manufacturing jobs were lost - more than any other period in modern US history. Factory closures and reductions mean less high-paying manufacturing jobs and less union memberships guaranteeing health care and pension benefits, leading to long-term wealth loss. Unions decline in these areas represents 93 percent of the total union losses across the country. 'The good paying jobs in these communities will produce the economic benefit that the community will enjoy. Unions will do their job and organizing workers, but that's you've got to have the workers to have the union in,' Pouland said. Counties that saw large declines in both manufacturing jobs and health care saw the largest shifts toward Republicans from 2012 to 2020. Those votes represent nearly half of Republicans total gain. Unlike Romney in 2012, Trump presented himself as a populist that would bring the blue-collar economy back. In eight of ten states studied, factory towns make up more than 40 percent of the total electorate By aligning himself with the frustration and financial burdens working class, predominantly white Americans felt, he capitalized on their losses to get to the White House. However, even in areas where Democrats are falling in popularity, diversity is still their strength. Biden did significantly better in racially diverse factory-dominated counties than ones that are more than 85 percent white. But with 2022 looming, Pouland warns that Dems won't be able to get away with a short-term campaign in the months before voters cast their ballots. 'It'll be a process. It'll be an investment in time and effort,' he said. 'People locally will become more inclined to be public and open about being a Democrat because Democrats will be talking about issues that they care about.' The Democratic strategist said Biden's $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan is a good place for Democrats to start - but they can't run on just its promise. 'Until they see those jobs, it won't really resonate,' Pouland said. 'It will take people talking about what happened in Washington and how it affected them locally, so that there was money not just appropriated - nobody needs to hang up a mission accomplished sign when the bill passes. 'Accomplishment is when those jobs are created out of these communities that both kickstart the economy with infrastructure improvement, but then provide economic development opportunities for these communities as more and more companies locate there.' California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been criticized for driving away jobs after Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla would be moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas. Tesla's move follows through on a promise he first made over a year ago in response to the Golden State's strict COVID guidelines. Newsom's office took a parting shot at Tesla following Musk's announcement, with a spokeswoman saying that California would 'stand up for workers, public health and a woman's right to choose'. referencing Texas's ban on abortion after the first six weeks. She added that the the Golden State was still 'home to the biggest ideas and companies on the planet.' But former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer tweeted: 'Until we change the policies that are driving companies away were going to continue to lose jobs and disrupt California families. Weve got to do better.' Faulconer came third to Newsom in last month's California gubernatorial recall election. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott welcomed Tesla, tweeting, 'The Lone Star State is the land of opportunity and innovation. Welcome.' Musk said that Tesla, which has been in Silicon Valley since 2003, has outgrown its Fremont factory after more than a year of infighting with local and state officials over COVID mandates and high taxes. 'It's like we're spam in a can here,' he said, adding that there's sparse affordable housing and a lot of workers have a long commute. Elon Musk, right, confirmed Thursday that Tesla will be moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas. Newsom criticized the move amid controversy over the Lone Star State's law banning abortions after six weeks The company's vehicle assembly plant in Austin (pictured above) is under construction and borders the Colorado River Many also took to Twitter to criticize Tesla's move amid the Texas abortion law. The Texas law leaves enforcement solely up to private citizens, who are entitled to collect $10,000 in damages if they bring successful lawsuits against not just abortion providers who violate the restrictions, but anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion. Hundreds of marches took place last week in opposition to the law, which was recently blocked by a federal judge. Twitter user Jo Ann Aaronson wrote, 'Moving right into a state that is trying to ban abortions. Just lost all respect for Tesla and Elon Musk.' Another Twitter user with the handle lupin wrote, 'If anything would make me move out of Texas, its news that Musk is setting up shop there. 'Texas does not need one more person with Im the center of the universe syndrome.' Twitter user RWS added, 'Billionaire Moves headquarters to Avoid Taxes!! is a little more accurate.' People took to Twitter to criticize Tesla's move to Texas Hundreds of marches took place last week across the country opposing the Texan abortion law Others also came out to defend Musk, criticizing California's strict COVID mandates and high taxes for sending Tesla away. One twitter user with the handle mkypwr23 wrote, 'Musk ain't no fool he knows he can't trust the state of California anymore.' Twitter user Imyerdada simply wrote, 'California has gone downhill.' Others defended the move and claimed California's policies were at fault for the move Musk noted that while headquarters were moving to Texas, Telsa's manufacturing plants would stay and grow in California. 'Just to be clear though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California, so this is not a matter of Tesla leaving California,' he noted, adding that the company plans on increasing output in California and Nevada by 50 percent. Tesla also recently began working on a 'megafactory' in Lathrop, California, where it will produce Megapacks, an energy-storage product, Bloomberg reports. Tesla is building up its facility in Lathrop to create a new 'megafactory' In Texas, Musk said, 'Our factory's like five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown and we're gonna create ecological paradise right here.' While he did not give a timeline of when Tesla's headquarters in Texas will be operational, he noted that it takes less time to build a factory than it does to reach high-volume production. He said that the plant in Texas will closely resemble Tesla's Shanghai plant, which was built in 11 months and reached high-volume production after a year. In December, Musk personally moved to Texas after living in California for two decades. Moving to Texas allowed Musk to get closer to his aerospace company SpaceX's launch site in Boca Chica and reduce his personal tax burden. California has some of the highest personal income taxes in the country on its wealthy residents, but Texas has no personal income tax. Musk said that said California is not as affordable and his workers have a long commute. Above is Tesla's primary vehicle factory in Fremont, California Musk first publicly mentioned his plan to leave California for Texas in a string of furious tweets in May 2020 after a California county health official said that the plant could not reopen amid coronavirus shutdowns. The disgruntled CEO took to a comment thread on Twitter to share that he was also planning to file a lawsuit against Alameda County. Musk's fury was directed towards Alameda County Health Officer Erica Pan, who said the Fremont company would not be able to reopen despite California Governor Gavin Newsom lifting some coronavirus restrictions at the time. 'Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately,' he said in tweet on May 9, 2020. 'If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependent on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.' Musk first teased the move to Texas in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in response to California's strict reopening guidelines. The disgruntled CEO took to a comment thread on Twitter about his opposition to the state's reopening rules In a separate tweet, he threatened to sue Alameda County over the restrictions In a separate tweet, he wrote, 'Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected & ignorant 'Interim Health Officer' of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!' The dispute came a week after Musk lambasted state officials over lockdown orders he called 'fascist' and unconstitutional. Tesla's move to Texas from California follows that of other tech giants like Oracle and Hewlett Packard. Texas has been reeling in companies by offering tax breaks for those that put new facilities in the state through the Texas Economic Development Act. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lauded Musk's plans to move Tesla to Texas last month and said in an CNBC interview that the two talk frequently and that Musk supports his state's 'social policies.' His statement came a day after Texas introduced its strict abortion law that bans pregnancy terminations after a fetal heartbeat is detected within six weeks. A federal judge has since ordered a temporary injunction of the toughest-in-the-nation abortion ban. Musk shied away from disclosing his views on the subject. '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,' he said. Dog the Bounty Hunter has claimed Brian Laundrie could be a 'serial killer' because of his 'dark' choice of literature which is '10 times worse than 'Dungeon and Dragons.' Dog, who was convicted of murder back in 1976, speculated that the sole person of interest in the homicide of Gabby Petito could have killed in the past, saying he is 'not just a killer of Gabby'. The 68-year-old reality TV star, real name Duane Chapman, told The Sun people don't just become killers 'overnight' as he continues to embark on his own search for the 23-year-old fugitive. 'I'm thinking more and more about him being maybe a serial killer not just a killer of Gabby. The books he reads are unbelievable,' he said. Dog the Bounty Hunter (pictured) claimed Brian Laundrie could be a 'serial killer' because of his 'dark' choice of literature which is '10 times worse than 'Dungeon and Dragons' Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie pictured together. Dog speculated that Laundrie could have killed in the past, saying he is 'not just a killer of Gabby' Dog pointed to the 'serial killer books' Laundrie was reading as a sign of his 'demonic past.' 'A couple of the books that he's been reading are 10 times worse than 'Dungeon and Dragons',' he said. 'This kid, Brian, has taken those books obviously to heart. And this is what happens when your kid is looking at those kinds of things. Dog, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 1976 for the botched drug deal where his accomplice shot a man dead, said killers are 'made'. 'He just overnight just didn't become a killer. A killer is made, and he is built to be or she, a killer,' he said. 'He built himself to be that by looking at that kind of, let's say the dark side stuff. There are pictures of demons all over it.' He added: 'I hope the jury that sentences him doesn't get to see what he's like.' Last August, Laundrie boasted on Instagram about reading the novel Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk together with Petito. The 23-year-old described the dark satire novel as the 'f**king craziest'. In it, a journalist uncovers a pattern where a child dies after being read a certain poem. The character then goes on to become a serial killer. Last August, Laundrie boasted on Instagram about reading the novel Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk together with Petito 'The f**king craziest out of all of Chuck's books on my shelf, I can't fathom how he must have written this one!' wrote Laundrie. 'I'd love to preach all of the insane twists and turns but all I can say is that I'll never forget the name Rant Casey. Or Green Taylor Simms. 'Me and my fiance read this one out loud together and boy oh boy I can't believe some of the stuff coming out of our mouths.' Dog's wild claims come after the reality star has injected himself into the hunt for the sole person of interest in Gabby Petito's homicide. In Lullaby, a journalist uncovers a pattern where a child dies after being read a certain poem. The character then goes on to become a serial killer The 68-year-old announced he was launching his own manhunt for the fugitive days after Petito's body was discovered in a campsite near Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, on September 19. On September 25, Dog first showed up on the doorstep of the Laundrie's family home in North Port, Florida, and his parents called the police. The reality star has focused much of his search since then at the campsite at Fort De Soto in Florida. Laundrie's family's attorney has admitted Brian visited the park with his parents on September 6, claiming they left altogether the following day. Dog has claimed the 23-year-old never left the park. Meanwhile, the FBI has focused its search mainly at the Carlton Reserve close to the family home, where Laundrie's parents claimed he was heading the last time they saw him. However, DailyMail.com revealed Friday that Dog wouldn't be able to arrest or detain Laundrie even if he did find him first. Despite his reality TV persona, Dog is not actually licensed as a bounty hunter or private investigator in Florida - or anywhere else that DailyMail.com has found. This means, according to professional Florida bounty hunters, there is no legal difference between Dog or any citizen who decides to join the search for Laundrie. Dog announced he was launching his own manhunt for Laundrie days after Petito's body was discovered. He posted footage of himself wading through the Fort De Soto Park looking for him Dog waded through water in the area around the campsite where the Laundries visited in the days before Petito was reported missing Mike Harrison, vice president of the Florida Bail Bondsmen Association, said Dog could be charged with kidnapping if he were to make the mistake of grabbing Laundrie. Harrison says Dog's lack of licensing is well known in the business and stems from an old murder conviction. In 1976, he was arrested for participating in a drug deal that went bad in Texas when his accomplice shot and killed 69-year-old Jerry Oliver. While he was in the getaway car and didn't participate in the shooting, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to five years in a state prison. This conviction has left him unable to obtain the proper permissions to bear arms, write bail bonds, investigate cases or even travel to some countries like the United Kingdom. Dog was convicted of murder back in 1976 over a drug deal gone wrong (pictured in mug) Meanwhile, Dog's own daughter this week mocked his attempts to track down Laundrie as a 'publicity stunt'. Cecily Chapman, 28, told the Sun she thinks her estranged father needs to 'back off' and let law enforcement do their job. 'It's just a publicity stunt. That's really what it is. He needs to back off and let the FBI handle it,' said Chapman. 'A real (TV) network would be aware of the situation and I'm pretty sure everyone knows that this is a f**kng publicity stunt.' Chapman voiced her suspicions about her father's true intentions as it emerged that Dog has already pitched a show about his hunt for Laundrie to at least one network. A source told The Wrap he put the idea to A&E - the cable channel which aired his Dog The Bounty Hunter show for nine series before it ended in 2015 - which 'immediately passed'. She also mocked him for parading a Monster Energy can as a sign he could be closing in on the fugitive. 'What, you found a Monster Energy can? What does that do for anyone?' she asked. Dog's estranged daughter Cecily Chapman (pictured together) has dismissed his manhunt for Brian Laundrie as a 'publicity stunt' Last Wednesday, Dog brandished a Monster Energy drink can he had recovered from his search of the Fort De Soto Park. The can, which appeared to have been freshly drunk, was found at a makeshift campsite deep in the woods at Shell Island along the coastline by the park. A spokesperson for Dog said the same day that he was 'working on very strong leads' and that it 'could very well be the last day of the hunt to apprehend Brian Laundrie'. The 68-year-old has documented his search for Laundrie on social media and has set up his own tip line. Petito, 22, and Laundrie, 23, set off on July 2 on the adventure of a lifetime traveling across America in their white campervan and chronicling their adventures on YouTube. On September 1, Laundrie arrived back at his family's home in North Port without his fiancee but driving their van. Chapman mocked him for parading a Monster Energy can (above) that he found at a makeshift campsite near the Fort De Soto campsite as a sign he could be closing in on the fugitive Petito was reported missing on September 11 by her mom after not hearing from her daughter for multiple days and coming up against a wall of silence from Laundrie and his parents. The Laundrie family lawyered up and refused to let cops speak to him about his fiancee's whereabouts. His parents then reported him as missing on September 17, claiming they hadn't seen him in three days after he headed to the Carlton Reserve on September 14. Now, they say he went missing one day earlier on September 13. Petito's body was discovered at a campsite near the Grand Teton National Park on September 19 and her death has been ruled a homicide. It is not clear how she died. The FBI said it believes she was killed between August 27 and August 30. The last reports of Petito being seen alive were on August 27 when witnesses said they saw the couple involved in a 'commotion' in a restaurant. Local police and the FBI have now been searching for Laundrie for three weeks. President Biden celebrated Friday as 136 countries agreed to set up a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15%, to be imposed by 2023. The Organization of Economic Coordination and Development (OECD), which has been leading the negotiations, said that that 136 of 140 nations had agreed to crack down on tax havens and in addition to the new global minimum. 'Today's agreement shows how American leadership and diplomacy is advancing the economic interests of American working families,' Biden said. 'For decades, American workers and taxpayers have paid the price for a tax system that has rewarded multinational corporations for shipping jobs and profits overseas. This race to the bottom hasn't just harmed American workers, it's put many of our allies at a competitive disadvantage as well.' Four member countries Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, did not agree to the plan. 'Today's agreement shows how American leadership and diplomacy is advancing the economic interests of American working families,' President Biden said Rich nations have struggled for years to agree how best to raise more cash from tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Facebook. Biden had been pushing for the international agreement as he moves to hike the US rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. The US had hoped to secure a higher 21 percent global minimum rate. Under the agreement, tech giants like Amazon and Facebook would also be required to pay taxes in countries where their goods or services were sold, even if they have no physical presence there. Rich nations have struggled for years to agree how best to raise more cash from tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Facebook. The Biden administration feared that raising corporate taxes to fund its huge program of public spending would drive them overseas. In remarks before the agreement was announced, Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen said: 'the international tax agreement will stop the four-decade long race to the bottom on corporate taxation where tax authorities offer lower tax rates to attract business, leading others to respond with lower rates.' The agreement is slated to be finalized next week at a meeting of finance ministers of the G-20, the 20 largest global economies, in Washington. National leaders are expected to sign it in Rome at the end of October. Still, Congress would have to agree to the deal - it would have to pass legislation that raising the tax that American companies pay on foreign profits to at least 15%, from 10.5%. Democrats have planned to pass the increase through budget reconciliation, a process to bypass the filibuster and pass bills by simple majority. Republicans have pushed back on that, as senators warned Friday that the administration's negotiations undermine the Senates constitutional authority, as well as the United States role as a reliable trading partner,' according to the New York Times. All sexual and domestic abuse allegations against Metropolitan Police officers over the last ten years will be reviewed in the light of Sarah Everard's murder. Dame Cressida Dick, commissioner for the force, announced on Friday that an investigation is being launched into all current cases of sexual misconduct or domestic abuse allegations against London's police officers. Dame Cressida, 60, also revealed similar allegations that have been made against both officers and workers at the force over the last ten years will be reviewed. Officers from the force's Directorate of Professional Standards will analyse each of the cases internally and will undertake a check of the vetting history of the staff involved in the claims. The under-fire commissioner, who is resisting calls to resign, said: 'We'll be reviewing them [the allegations] to make sure that the victim has been properly supported, and that the investigation is suitably thorough. Dame Cressida Dick, commissioner for the force, announced on Friday that an investigation is being launched into all current cases of sexual misconduct or domestic abuse allegations Dame Cressida, 60, also revealed similar allegations that have been made against both officers and workers at the force over the last ten years will be reviewed 'We'll also be going back to look at some of those [historic] investigations just to make sure that the processes that should have taken place have taken place and that we are taking the right management action after the case is closed.' The force said in a statement the examination, which has been launched in addition to an independent review into the Met's culture by Baroness Casey of Blackstock, was being held in the aftermath Ms Everard's murder. The Met has faced a wave of criticism over missed opportunities to expose killer cop Wayne Couzens as a sexual predator before he went on to rape and murder Sarah Everard. Couzens used his police issue handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest on the marketing executive, 33, before taking her away in his car. In the wake of his life sentence for murder, it was revealed more than half of Met officers found guilty of sexual misconduct over a four-year period to 2020 kept their jobs, a total of 43 officers out of 83 or 52 per cent. Meanwhile, Louise Casey, Baroness Blackstock, will be in charge of a separate independent review into the Met in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder. Dame Cressida said she was 'delighted' to announce Baroness Blackstock will be in charge of an 'independent and far-reaching review' lasting an estimated six months. She said: 'She will be looking at our vetting, our recruitment, our leadership, our training and all manner of processes to see how they reinforce the best possible standards. The Met has faced a wave of criticism over missed opportunities to expose killer cop Wayne Couzens as a sexual predator before he went on to rape and murder Sarah Everard (pictured) The under-fire commissioner, who is resisting calls to resign, said historic allegations will be looked into to make sure 'the processes that should have taken place have taken place' 'She'll make a public report, and public recommendations, so that we can improve and make sure that the public have more confidence in us.' Dame Cressida said Baroness Casey - who has been leading an inquiry into how England yobs were able to break into Wembley during the Euros final - was a strong candidate for the job. 'I think she's got the right character, and the right expertise, and the right background, to do this review,' she said. Baroness Casey said: 'Trust is given to the police by our, the public's, consent. So any acts that undermine that trust must be examined and fundamentally changed. 'This will no doubt be a difficult task but we owe it to the victims and families this has affected and the countless decent police officers this has brought into disrepute.' The spotlight will also be shone on the force's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command - which killer Wayne Couzens worked for - with a 'root-and-branch review' looking at whether there are any 'specific issues' within the unit. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has welcomed the appointment of Baroness Casey to lead the independent review into the Met's culture and standards. In a series of tweets, Mr Khan said: 'Baroness Casey's review must look into the wider culture of the Met Police, including issues of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia as well as thoroughly examining recruitment, vetting, training, leadership and standards of behaviour among officers and staff. 'I've been clear with the Met Commissioner about the scale of the challenge we face and the change that's needed, and I will continue to play my full part in holding the Met Police to account on behalf of Londoners.' The Met review is separate to the independent inquiry announced by the Home Secretary Priti Patel on Tuesday to look into the 'systematic failures' that allowed Ms Everard's killer to be employed as a police officer. Couzens (pictured) used his police issue handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest on the marketing executive, 33, before taking her away in his car It emerged the 48-year-old was known as 'the rapist' by staff at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary because he made female colleagues feel so uncomfortable. He had been accused of indecent exposure in Kent in 2015 and in London in the days before Ms Everard's murder, but was allowed to continue working. The Met, which is now dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct among officers, has since faced claims that there is systematic misogyny within the force. Other probes are also being carried out by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC). Elsewhere, Dame Cressida, who has been charge of the Met during a number of high profile force scandals, has addressed a report in The Times newspaper, which said Home Secretary Priti Patel has set her three key targets to meet in order to keep her job. Dick's contract as Met Police commissioner has been extended until April 2024 amid a crisis around trust in the institution. It was reported that the Home Secretary told Dick that there must be a drop in serious violence and knife crime in London, improvements to police response to violence against women and girls, and police must cooperate with an inquiry into failures leading to the murder of Sarah Everard, The Times reported, citing 'Home Office sources'. The sources reportedly told The Times that Dick's contract was extended due to a lack of suitable candidates to replace her, adding that there were also concerns about too much change at the top, with several other high-ranking security officials set to leave their posts. Meanwhile, Louise Casey (pictured), Baroness Blackstock, will be in charge of a separate independent review into the Met in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder Addressing the reports, Dame Cressida said: 'There were a number of things that the Home Secretary has discussed with me and I've discussed with her about how we can work most effectively together in the future, but we share the same priorities.' She said conversations were also had in the run-up to her contract being extended with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, adding the trio are all focused on 'the same things', including reducing violence in the capital and protecting violence against women and girls. Asked again about the reports, Dame Cressida said the conversations she had with Ms Patel were 'private' and she would not comment on them further. A separate report published in the Evening Standard said that Home Office figures showed 29.9 per cent of Met officers at the end of June were women, the lowest of any force in England and Wales other than the City of London Police. In response, Dame Cressida said she was 'not content' with the figures and was 'determined' to improve them, adding that research the force has found showed some women in some communities might be loathe to join the force due to major incidents with firearms and public order offences. 'This is something we've been working really hard at for many years,' she said. 'We have many, many thousands (of female police officers) and they are thriving ... we've got women in every single role at every rank. 'But I've set out that we should be 50/50 and I am not content. We have increased the percentages, quite considerably latterly, but we need to move further and faster.' Along with the handling of the Everard case, the Metropolitan Police are also facing heat over an independent panel's finding of 'institutional corruption' in the investigation into the unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan in 1987. The private investigator was murdered in a south London car park and the panel found that the Met concealed or denied failures in their investigation. Millions of families face a new 100 levy on their gas bills under plans to phase out conventional boilers by 2035. Ministers want to 'incentivise' households to buy cleaner energy by switching existing 'green' levies from electricity to gas. The idea is expected to feature in a long-awaited 'heat and buildings strategy' to be published this month. The strategy is part of wider efforts to meet a commitment to slash carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. Whitehall sources last night insisted that overall energy costs would not increase because levies on electricity bills will be reduced at the same time as those on gas are increased. Millions of families face a new 100 levy on their gas bills under plans to phase out conventional boilers by 2035 'This is about shifting the incentive toward cleaner energy,' said the insider. 'It will take place over a period of years and overall bills will remain static. 'By the time the process is complete there will be many fewer people using gas and paying the levies.' But some Tory MPs fear the plan could spark a public backlash with gas prices at record levels. Sir Robert Syms said it was 'politically impossible to load green taxes' on sky-high gas bills. Calling for a rethink, he added: 'Higher prices will do what the green taxes would have done and adjust behaviour.' Fellow Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay called for fracking to be allowed to reduce the need for imported energy. The centrepiece of the new strategy is a ban on the installation of gas boilers from 2035. Oil-fired systems will also be phased out in the clampdown on fossil fuels. The Government has ruled out the idea of fining householders who do not get rid of their gas boiler after 2035. Boris Johnson considered pushing back the date after it provoked an angry reaction from Tory MPs but sources last night said it had been retained. Over the next decade, green levies will gradually be shifted from electricity to gas. The levies currently amount to around 13 per cent of typical electricity bills. The Committee on Climate Change has suggested typical gas bills could end up rising by around 100 a year. Ministers believe tackling traditional gas heating is essential if the Government is to hit its carbon reduction targets. Traditional gas boilers account for about one seventh of UK carbon emissions. Boris Johnson considered pushing back the date after it provoked an angry reaction from Tory MPs but sources last night said it had been retained They are already set to be banned from newbuilds by 2025. But ministers believe the process of removing them from 25million homes will take another decade. Earlier this year they committed to cutting emissions by 78 per cent by 2035 compared with 1990 levels. Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay (pictured) called for fracking to be allowed to reduce the need for imported energy The Committee on Climate Change, which advises the Government, last year said gas boilers should be banned from 2033. The independent body said replacement gas boilers should be permitted from 2025 only if they are also capable of running on hydrogen. Earlier this year the International Energy Agency called for a global ban on new boilers using fossil fuels from 2025. The agency said outlawing them was an essential part of a 'narrow but achievable' path to cutting net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. But ministers believe the UK is not ready for an overnight transformation. Around 85 per cent of homes rely on gas for heating. Some boilers could be converted to run on hydrogen. But even optimistic assessments believe hydrogen is unlikely to account for more than 10 per cent of the total because of constraints on supply. Most homes would have to rely on heat pumps, which extract warmth from the ground or air. But these typically cost more than 10,000 to install. And they can struggle to warm all but the best-insulated homes on cold winter days. The new strategy is expected to include subsidies for people installing heat pumps. A national teachers union training session that asks educators to log conversations with parents about the COVID-19 vaccine - into a campaign app built for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's campaign - was blasted as a 'blatant effort to coerce, manipulate, and even track information on students and their parents.' The recurring virtual training is hosted by vaccine equity group Made to Save and is sponsored by the National Educators Association (NEA), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). 'Having the audacity to back this type of presentation shows that the NJEA, NEA, AFT, and any other organization involved clearly does not regard educators as professionals or critical thinkers,' Jennifer Mess, a drama teacher for the Middletown Township Public Schools in New Jersey, told Fox News. 'This was a blatant effort to coerce, manipulate, and even track information on students and their parents,' Mess continued. 'Anyone involved in this type of deception has lost their morals and purpose of education along the way.' The training session instructed teachers on how to use the Reach app - created for progressive lightning rod Ocasio-Cortez - to 'follow up and track' their conversations with parents and even offered 'gift cards' for the most active users, according to FOX News. The workshop - advertised as a guide for teachers on how to talk to parents and caregivers about the COVID-19 vaccine as children 5-11 may soon be eligible for the shot - claims to provide educators with 'basic skills and talking points' about the vaccine 'through active listening practices, and tactics on how to reach out to them digitally.' A National teachers training guides educators to log conversations with parents about the COVID-19 vaccine into a progressive campaign app called Reach The app was created by volunteers during AOC's campaign and received a lot of credit for her underdog win 'Look up the people you've talked to and mark down how your conversations went! Then add them to your Reach network and add their contact info so that you or Made To Save can follow up with them later and help them get vaccinated,' the training said. The workshops are hosted the vaccine equity group, Made to Save. The next session is scheduled for November 4 Teachers were described as trusted messengers and encouraged to guide parents to vaccinate themselves and their children. 'As someone the person already knows and trusts, you can find out what is concerning them about the vaccine, relate on a personal level, and share information to help them on their journey to get vaccinated,' one slide read. 'As an educator or school staff member, you are a trusted messenger for many students. Use these tips to guide your conversations with them and help them stay safe and healthy!' The training also included talking points such as, 'Do you want me to help you get an appointment?' and 'I'm excited to safely see my students and their families!' The 'Our Approach' slide reads, 'We are NOT telling people what to do or what they should think. We ARE listening to people and responding authentically to their concerns.' 'You do NOT need to be a healthcare expert to have good conversations,' the slide continued. 'To wrap up, help the person make a plan to get vaccinated, or plan to check in later about their concerns.' Teachers are instructed on how to use the Reach app and encouraged to guide parents to vaccinate their families The slide titled 'Help Them Find Their Own Reason' warns educators not 'tell them what to do or think' but to help their 'friends and family find their own reason to get vaccinated.' The next training is scheduled for November 4, at 4 pm EDT. The Reach campaign app was created by Jake DeGroot and Leo Sussan as they volunteered for AOC's 2018 campaign, and has since become an important tool for grassroots organizing in many Democratic campaigns. 'We built Reach for the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign as a tool for ourselves after we realized traditional door-to-door canvassing methods were limiting who we were talking to and when we were able to effectively collect data in the field,' the About page reads. The company is registered as a Public Benefit Corporation meaning that it 'is a for-profit corporation intended to produce a public benefit and operate in a responsible and sustainable manner.' Republican New Jersey state Senator Holly Schepisi said the training 'is an unconscionable breach of privacy and ethics' The use of the Reach app by teachers to conduct and record conversations about COVID-19 has been blasted by critics of the progressive Democrats. Republican New Jersey state Senator Holly Schepisi told Fox News in an email statement, 'I strongly support vaccinations and indeed have caught heat for encouraging others to get vaccinated.' 'However, to put our teachers in the untenable position of using their 'trust and influence' over children and their parents to persuade them to make personal medical decisions, and then encourage teachers through gift cards to input the names, addresses and vaccination status of these children and parents into a searchable political progressive database created for and by Congresswoman AOC's campaign team, is an unconscionable breach of privacy and ethics, it is political canvassing using children's data and it borders on criminal.' White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki went head-to-head with Fox News' Peter Doocy once again on Friday as she insisted President Joe Biden wasn't trying to use his stature to help his sick friend secure a spot at a crowded hospital, as the president claimed he did yesterday. The Fox News reporter asked Psaki how often Biden makes cold calls to 'help his friends cut the line.' Psaki countered him and said the president was simply 'checking in on a friend.' At her daily White House news briefing, Doocy recounted an anecdote Biden told during his trip to Illinois in which he described calling a 'backed up' hospital to ask why his friend's wife couldn't get a hospital bed despite a high fever and having trouble breathing. 'What happened next?' Doocy asked. Before Psaki answered she insisted on providing 'context' to the 78-year-old leader's speech. 'The context of why the president told this story, which I think is important, and I promise I'll answer your question, is that he was expressing that hospitals, frontline workers - nurses, doctors in emergency rooms - are still seeing and feeling the impact of the number of people who are unvaccinated,' she said. Fox News' Peter Doocy sparred with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki at yet another press briefing on Friday She pointed out that the number of unvaccinated COVID sufferers still filling hospitals is straining the health care system and taking up resources that people suffering from other illnesses also need. But Psaki declined to provide specific updates on the woman's condition over privacy concerns. 'How often does President Biden call around trying to help his friends cut the line?' Doocy asked. The White House official denied her sparring partner's characterization of events. 'That certainly was not his intention, he was not trying to do that, he was checking in on a friend,' Psaki insisted. She was asked whether the hospital in question was experiencing staffing shortages, like others around the country who had to part ways with staff unwilling to get a COVID-19 vaccine. 'I would love for you to count for me where that is the issue over more so than the number of unvaccinated who are filling emergency rooms, filling ICU beds, that is the problem in hospitals across the country,' Psaki snapped. Biden spoke at a suburban Illinois construction site to promote vaccine mandates for private businesses. During the speech he admitted to personally calling a hospital desk to check in on why a friend's wife was having trouble being seen at a hospital emergency room in PA Yesterday Biden delivered remarks from a suburban Illinois construction site to promote vaccine mandates for private businesses. During his speech the president admitted that he personally called a hospital desk on Wednesday night to see what was going on when a friend's wife could not be seen at a Pennsylvania hospital overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Biden said his friend's 'significant other' had fallen ill, with difficulty breathing and a high fever. Biden said his friend called him after he'd rushed her to the hospital, where the emergency room told her she couldn't be seen because 'things were so crowded, so backed up.' 'I called the desk, received the nurse and asked what the situation was,' the president said in remarks on coronavirus vaccine requirements. While the rate of new COVID-19 cases has slowed down in the US, hospital systems in largely unvaccinated areas are still being strained by infections COVID-19 vaccinations have gone up somewhat as Biden declared a sweeping vaccine order affecting more than 100 million American workers He told the story to illustrate the strain healthcare systems around the country are under, largely because of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. But he was careful not to fault hospital staff. 'I wasn't complaining,' Biden said at the Elk Grove Village, Illinois site. 'Doctors and nurses, some of them are just, they're running dry. I really mean it. They're getting the living hell kicked out of themsometimes physically.' Biden did not reveal whether his call had helped get his friend's significant other to be seen by a doctor, or any other details about the story. He then got back to touting his vaccine mandates, where all military and government workers are required to get the jab and businesses with over 100 employees must require vaccination or a weekly COVID-19 test. 'My message is: Require your employees to get vaccinated,' he said. US COVID-19 infections have slowed after a summer surge that was fueled by the highly-contagious Delta variant. Still, healthcare systems in largely unvaccinated areas are still being strained by new COVID patients. Michael Gove is set to make his first major intervention in the cladding crisis as he explores ways to cut soaring insurance costs for struggling leaseholders. Premiums have increased by up to 2,000 per cent on apartment blocks wrapped in flammable cladding, while some have had their cover pulled. The new Housing Secretary is said to be examining whether the state could underwrite home insurance for residents as part of a renewed push to fix the crisis. New housing secretary Michael Gove, pictured, is examining whether the state could underwrite the insurance premiums for people affected by the cladding crisis Mr Gove's predecessor, Robert Jenrick, announced a slew of measures after the Daily Mail launched its End The Cladding Scandal campaign in January, including an extra 3.5billion to fix unsafe homes. But the funding excludes potentially hundreds of thousands of leaseholders in low-rise blocks, while families face exorbitant bills for temporary measures such as fire patrols and insurance. The Government is under pressure to fix the insurance market after the Mail revealed that insurance premiums increased by 1.6billion a year for those in unsafe homes. Insurance premiums for those in affected homes have so far increased by 1.6billion a year In February, we reported that ministers were considering whether the state could underwrite policies for those in fire-trap flats. Now, it appears Mr Gove is taking up the idea. The mechanism could resemble the Flood Re scheme, which indemnifies insurers who cover homes at risk of flooding. It is understood Mr Gove has also asked civil servants to explain why it has proved difficult to make firms responsible for unsafe buildings pay their fair share. Options include naming and shaming firms responsible or hauling them into the department, as Mr Gove did with water company bosses over leaks when he was environment secretary. But Labour's housing spokesman Lucy Powell said: 'We've been talking about naming and shaming for four years. Unless you've got a big stick with that, it just doesn't work.' Giles Grover, of the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign, said: 'It's the cost of the insurance and the interim fire safety measures that will make many bankrupt before remediation bills even land. It is good [Mr Gove] is looking at solutions, but it is frustrating it has taken so long. We just want him to listen to us.' Mr Gove must win over around 30 Tory MPs, including Sir Peter Bottomley and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who have attacked the Government's plans to end the crisis. The Housing Secretary has held talks with the rebels, who described discussions as 'positive'. A Government spokesman said: 'The Secretary of State is looking afresh at our work to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect and support leaseholders.' A US Olympic medal-winning fencer has accused a New Jersey teacher of pulling off a second-grader's hijab in the middle of class despite the student's resistance. Ibtihaj Muhammad, who won bronze in women's team sabre in Rio, claimed Seth Boyden Elementary School teacher Tamar Herman 'forcibly removed the hijab' from a second-grader's head on Tuesday. 'Herman told the student that her hair was beautiful and she did not have to wear hijab to school anymore,' Muhammad wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. 'Imagine being a child and stripped of your clothing in front of your classmates. Imagine the humiliation and trauma this experience has caused her.' US Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad accused Seth Boyden Elementary School teacher Tamar Herman of forcibly removing the hijab off a second-grade girl's head Muhammad shared the story on her Instagram, calling the incident 'abuse' The Olympian, who became the first American Muslim woman to wear a hijab while competing at the Olympic games, won bronze in women's team sabre in Rio 2016 Herman has been placed on leave and is currently under investigation for the alleged action, said her attorney, Ronald Ricci, who claimed the teacher did nothing wrong. 'The versions depicted on social media are 100-percent untrue,' Ricci told NBC News on Friday. 'We're confident that after a full, fair investigation that it'll be found that Ms. Herman committed no wrong doing.' Herman's ex-husband, Leonard Herman, also vouched for the teacher's character and noted that she knows Muhammad. 'My wife is a friend of hers, they work out in the gym together,' he said. 'I don't know why she's doing this. I know she would never do something like that.' Muhammad did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on her relationship with the child or Herman. Muhammad is widely known for being the first American Muslim woman to wear a hijab while competing at the Olympic games and is a New Times bestselling author who wrote about her experiences growing up as a Muslim-American. Along with her fencing, Muhammad found fame as a writer, celebrated for her books that recount the experience of Muslim-Americans the South Orange Maplewood School District said it was investigating the incident, which occurred at the Seth Boyden Elementary School, in New Jesery In a statement, the South Orange Maplewood School District said that it was made aware of allegations and began the investigation on Thursday. 'We will utilize the existing District due process mechanisms to ensure fair and just outcomes based upon the results of our investigation. Any decision or outcome related to this will be reserved for after the completion of the investigation,' the statement read. The Council on American-Islamic Relations of New Jersey said it was troubled by the accusation, with Executive Director Selaedin Maksut describing it as 'absolutely unacceptable' as he joined others calling for the Herman's termination. 'Racist teachers like this cannot be trusted around our children, Maksut tweeted on Friday. In a statement, CAIRNJ said, 'Forcefully stripping off the religious headscarf of a Muslim girl is not only exceptionally disrespectful behavior, but also a humiliating and traumatic experience. 'Muslim students already deal with bullying from peers, it's unthinkable that a teacher would add to their distress.' Authorities in southern Brazil found the body of a missing mother-of-two buried beneath a stairwell of a home that is under construction. Civil Police agents in the Sao Paulo municipality of Sao Vicente located Joice Maria da Gloria Rodrigues, 25, on Tuesday, Brazilian outlets reported. Da Gloria Rodrigues had been missing since September 27 after she failed to return home from visiting her grandfather. Investigators arrested Edmilson Verissimo da Silva, a 56-year-old mason, and his coworker, Jonathan Soares de Santana, 35, after the gruesome discovery. After leaving her grandfather's home, da Gloria Rodrigues ran into da Silva and had sex with him, the suspect old police. Joice Maria da Gloria Rodrigues, a married mother-of-two, was found dead Tuesday at a home that is under construction in the southern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. The 25-year-old was missing since September 27. The Sao Vicente Civil Police discovered her naked body after the property owner discovered there was a hole under the stairwell that had been recently covered by two construction workers, including a 56-year-old who confessed to the police that he had sex with her and choked her after she had argued with his 35-year-old coworker Authorities discovered the body Joice Maria da Gloria Rodrigues under a stairwell at a home that is currently under construction in Sao Vicente, a city in the southern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo Jonathan Soares de Santana is escorted by a police officer following his arrest on Tuesday in Sao Vicente, Brazil, moments after authorities had discovered the dead body of Joice Maria da Gloria Rodrigues Police chief Thiago Nemi Bonametti said that da Gloria Rodrigues and de Santana got into an argument and started to choke her before he asked da Silva for help. Da Silva confessed to investigators from the 3rd Homicide Precinct that he had sex with da Gloria Rodrigues before he choked her. Authorities are awaiting results of an autopsy report to determine if she was raped. Both men then hid her body underneath the stairwell and covered the wall to conceal her body. Authorities are awaiting results of an autopsy report to determine if she was raped. Both men then hid her body underneath the stairwell and covered the wall to conceal her body Jonathan Soares de Santana is one of the two suspects that were arrested Tuesday in connection with the murder of Joice Maria da Gloria Rodrigues Investigators caught a break in the case when security cameras spotted da Gloria Rodrigues near the building. Police asked the property owner if there were any recently completed jobs at the site and he initially said no. But on Tuesday, he discovered the bathroom in the basement near the stairs had an open space that had been covered and called the police smelling a bad odor. Authorities broke the wall open and found da Gloria Rodrigues' naked body with a t-shirt wrapped around her neck. 'When (da Silva) was interrogated, the mason confessed to the crime, said that he had actually strangled Joice along with another construction worker, the person in charge of the pool,' Nemi Bonametti said. 'The second (suspect) seemed cold with the situation and showed no concern.' Britain must exploit its own energy resources to end the nation's reliance on foreign imports and protect families from blackouts, MPs and industry leaders demanded last night. Households face paying more than 2,000 per year for their energy due to a massive spike in the price of wholesale gas. Russia's president Vladimir Putin has been accused of holding Europe to ransom over the crisis, demanding approval for a new pipeline in return for an increase in supplies. As a result, there are fresh calls for the Government to exploit hundreds of oil and gas wells in the North Sea - as well as to revisit the issue of fracking. Britain must exploit its own energy resources to end the nation's reliance on foreign imports and protect families from blackouts, MPs and industry leaders demanded last night. Pictured: A drilling platform in the North Sea There is the equivalent of between ten and 20 billion barrels of oil under the sea, according to Government figures, enough to cover a significant proportion of the UK's energy needs for two to three decades. Without a fresh drive to exploit the resources, industry groups warn that UK gas production will fall by three-quarters by 2030, putting the nation's energy security at risk. MPs have also called for the moratorium on fracking of shale oil and gas in the north of England and Scotland to be lifted. The Government halted fracking in England at the end of November 2019 after a series of confrontations between shale gas companies and communities, though it has said it could agree to new sites if there was 'compelling new evidence' that fracking was safe. A Tory former energy minister last night led calls for the Government to look again at the issue. The Government halted fracking in England at the end of November 2019 after a series of confrontations between shale gas companies and communities, though it has said it could agree to new sites if there was 'compelling new evidence' that fracking was safe Sir John Hayes said fracking had 'insulated' America and suggested it could do the same for Britain if carried out safely. He told the Mail that while the Government's 'enthusiasm' about renewable energy was 'laudable', it was 'not of itself enough'. Tory MP Nigel Mills added: 'We appear to have bet the whole farm on green energy, and overlooked whether it is affordable or offers a secure supply. If Mr Putin turns the volume down, the price goes shooting up and we can't afford it. 'Given that we're clearly going to need gas for heating houses until pretty close to 2050... it would make sense to try and develop the gas resources we have. We may as well be burning our own gas - and have the money and the jobs here.' Tory ex-Cabinet minister David Davis encouraged ministers to take a 'rational view' of the risks of fracking, saying he was in favour of 'common sense'. 'The Government is guilty of rushing into things for perfectly decent, green reasons but being over-hasty about it - trying to get press releases and headlines out before COP26 without being imaginative enough,' he said. 'There are many possibilities - fracking is one but of course it has its downsides, both real and political - right through to creating a power-generating station in Morocco.' John Spellar, Labour MP and a former minister, said: 'I think the Government should look at all ways of ensuring security of fuel and power. As with the coal mining in Cumbria and the oil field off Scotland, we should take an objective view.' Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake said: 'To me it has never made sense to import stuff that we can produce ourselves, and there's no doubt that we'll need gas for at least a decade if not more. Russia's president Vladimir Putin has been accused of holding Europe to ransom over the crisis, demanding approval for a new pipeline in return for an increase in supplies 'Russia and China have demonstrated that they are quite happy to manipulate the supply of gas to their own ends. If there are new fields that we can open up to decrease our reliance on foreign nations, then we should take advantage of them.' Mike Tholen, deputy director of Oil and Gas UK, which represents the offshore industry, said: 'We shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Why should we use other people's oil and gas when we have our own. It pays taxes and delivers jobs, and helps deliver the skills we're going to need in our new green economy.' Industry sources yesterday claimed there are over 300 gas and oil fields in the North Sea that remain untapped. Major projects yet to be developed include Siccar Point Energy's Cambo oil field, off the Shetland Islands, Equinor's Rosebank and BP's Clair South oil field, which was first discovered in 1977. It came amidst a wave of anger after regulators blocked plans to develop the Jackdaw gas field, a 'significant' well 155 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, over environmental concerns this week. Tory ex-Cabinet minister David Davis encouraged ministers to take a 'rational view' of the risks of fracking, saying he was in favour of 'common sense' The field was expected to produce the equivalent of 120 million to 150 million barrels of oil over its lifetime. Oil and Gas UK said the regulator had raised a red flag over the techniques Shell planned to use, saying they were too carbon intensive. Experts said many fields had been left untapped because oil and gas prices have been low since 2014, making it difficult to make a profit, especially if new fields are remote. Last night UK Onshore Oil and Gas said fracking could meet the UK's gas demand for 50 years by extracting just 10 per cent of gas reserves. Spokeswoman Katherine Gray said: 'It is a bizarre state of affairs when just a mile under Northern and central England lies a gas resource so immense that if we extracted just 10per cent of it, we could meet the UK's gas demand for 50 years.' The Rifles Regiment is set to lose more than 900 troops, falling to 1,600 by 2025 It will be overseen by new Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin Critics fear the move will leave the UK unable to fight long military campaigns Army will make cuts to infantry, with smaller forces going on shorter missions The Army is to make huge cuts to its infantry its main body of fighting troops in a move that critics fear will leave the UK unable to fight lengthy military campaigns. Reductions in personnel will see the military send smaller-sized forces on shorter missions, rather than bigger and longer deployments such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The controversial move will be overseen by the new Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin. In one case the Rifles Regiment is expected to lose more than 900 troops, falling in strength from around 2,500 regular soldiers to 1,600 by 2025. The plans are set out in a memo circulated among Rifles officers that has been obtained by the Daily Mail. Reductions in personnel will see the military send smaller-sized forces on shorter missions, rather than bigger and longer deployments such as Iraq and Afghanistan (file photo) The proposals are yet to be confirmed but, if approved, could see the infantry shrink by as much as one regular soldier in three, from around 16,500 to 11,000. These full-time troops would either be reassigned to more specialised units or not replaced after retiring or accepting voluntary redundancy packages. No sackings are anticipated. Last night the Ministry of Defence said details of plans for the infantry's reorganisation would be submitted to ministers later this autumn and final decisions would then be made public. The Rifles officer who wrote the memo urged colleagues to be cautious sharing its contents. He said: 'The Commanding Officer has passed on information of interest to you all. Not all is universally positive and I implore you to communicate it with compassion and a bit of common sense. 'There is a leadership responsibility on us to ensure we lead our people through this process. 'We, the Army, will evolve from a capability-based force to a threat-based force optimised to counter VEOs (Violent Extremist Organisations) and HSAs (Hostile State Actors). 'Speed of response is key so we are substituting mass for speed and technology. The plan envisages a big reduction in size and a modernisation. The controversial move will be overseen by the new Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin (pictured) 'The infantry will shrink by 32 per cent. The Rifles will lose 921 [troops] by 2025, which is a very short timeline. Regimentally this is a huge challenge.' The organisation of the Army's 30 full-time infantry battalions will also be overhauled, with seven 'divisions' of infantry shrinking to four. Each of these divisions will be aligned to a battalion from the Army's new 120million overseas training force known as the Rangers. The 1,000-strong unit will train, advise and accompany indigenous troops in high-risk states, with Somalia mooted as its first deployment later this year. While he backs the creation of the Rangers, Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons defence committee, last night urged the MoD to 'retain resilience in our conventional capability' and to protect the infantry. He added: 'This is based on wider complex threats that loom over the horizon, such as Russia and China, and our recent experience in tackling Covid and the Afghan evacuation. Troop numbers need to be maintained.' Defence sources insisted last night that the Army is still committed to retaining 72,500 troops overall a reduction from 82,000 confirmed in this year's Integrated Review. Last night an Army spokesman said: 'Plans for structural reform are not yet finalised so speculation is unhelpful. Detailed plans will be submitted to ministers later this autumn.' GoFundMe has removed an account set up by friends and family of Arlington school shooter Timothy Simpkins where they asked for $25,000 from the public to help him, claiming he is traumatized from his father's death. A spokesman told DailyMail.com on Friday: 'The fundraiser was removed from the platform because it violated GoFundMe Terms of Service.' 'Less than $150 was raised and all donors have been refunded.' Simpkins, 18, critically injured 15-year-old Zacchaeus Selby and also wounded 25-year-old teacher Calvin Pettitt - whom he shot in the back - when he opened fire at Timberview High School in Arlington, Texas, on Wednesday. Selby remains in the hospital, clinging to life after being shot four times, his family said. Seconds before the fight, the pair brawled in their classroom. The fight was caught on video. It was eventually broken up by teachers. Simpkins fled the scene then handed himself in to police. He was released Thursday after a bail bondsman put up at least some of his $75,000 bail. His family have claimed that he is an innocent victim of bullying who acted in self-defense after being relentlessly picked on, in part because he has 'nice things' like a Dodge Charger and expensive sneakers. A GoFundMe page was launched Thursday night by Dallas attorney Kim T. Cole, asking the public to give money to help Simpkins. This GoFundMe page was set up Thursday night by Kim T. Cole, a lawyer who routinely launches such fundraisers. It had a goal of $25,000 and included a statement from Timothy Simpkins' mother The fundraiser has a goal of $25,000. It had raised $150 before it was shut down by GoFundMe The GoFundMe page included a lengthy statement from the shooter's mother saying how Timothy needed therapy The page included a lengthy statement from his mother, Katrina, which reads: 'Many of you have seen the video of the brutal beating Timothy Simpkins received. He never even returned a blow. He simply balled up and covered his head trying to protect himself.' 'What you don't know is that Timothy was robbed at gunpoint and stripped of his possessions a couple of weeks ago,' she wrote. 'And the unfortunate backstory is that Timothy's father was brutally beaten to death. This fact definitely heightened Timothy's fear for his life.' 'Not to mention that the young man responsible for beating and harassing him made had recently made threats to kill him so you see, my son was terrified and believed he would be murdered just like his father.' She said that while she is 'not suggesting taking a gun to school was the right choice', there is 'so much more to the story'. 'My son has gone through a very traumatic experience. He needs counseling and therapy.' Zacchaeus Selby, 15 (left), was still in the hospital fighting for his life as of Friday after being shot four times. Teacher Calvin Pettitt, 25 (right), was shot in the back A large group of people was seen chatting outside a home owned by Simpkins' grandmother The house, in the Edgefield district of Arlington, was a hive of activity on Thursday Timothy Simpkins walked out of the Tarrant County Correctional Center on Thursday afternoon after a bondsman paid some of his $75,000 bail. The 18-year-old opened fire in his classroom on Wednesday after a fight with another classmate, Zacchaeus Selby. He also shot a 25-year-old English teacher who had tried to break up the fight and grazed a teenage girl 'Please donate what you can to help,' she added. The page attracted $150 in donations before GoFundMe shut it down for a violation of its polices. Selby's family launched their own GoFundMe to help pay for his medical bills, which had raised more than $3,000 of its $10,000 goal as of Friday evening. He had been preparing to undergo more surgery on Friday. Prosecutors have yet to file a case against Simpkins, who partied with his relatives after being released from jail on Thursday night. Calvin Pettitt's sister tweeted after he was released, saying: 'How can this manage to keep getting worse?' Simpkins' next court date has not yet been scheduled and it remains unclear where he obtained his gun. North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson is facing calls to resign after he was caught on video calling gay and transgender people 'filth'. Footage, first posted online by advocacy group Right Wing Watch on Wednesday, shows Robinson addressing the congregation at the Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove back in June. The Republican, who would take over if the state's Democratic Governor Roy Cooper stood down or was impeached, is seen raging that children should not learn about such 'filth' in public schools and using a derogatory phrase for transgender people. 'I'm saying this now, and I've been saying it, and I don't care who likes it: Those issues have no place in a school,' he says. Scroll down for video North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson is facing calls to resign after he was caught on video (above) calling gay and transgender people 'filth' Footage shows Robinson addressing the congregation at the Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove back in June, raging that children should not learn about such 'filth' in public schools and using a derogatory phrase for transgender people 'There's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality - any of that filth.' Transgenderism is regarded as a derogatory term in the LGBTQ+ community as it was coined by anti-transgender activists to suggest transgender people suffer from a condition. In the video, Robinson continues to double down on his comments saying 'yes, I called it filth' and claiming children are being 'abused in schools' that support LGBTQ+ rights. 'And yes, I called it filth. And if you don't like it that I called it filth, come see me and I'll explain it to you,' he says. 'It's time for us to stop letting these children be abused in schools, and it's not going to happen till the people of God stand up and demand different, same ones that established those schools to begin with.' Since the footage surfaced, Robinson has been slammed by several lawmakers in the state including Cooper, who described his comments as 'abhorrent.' 'North Carolina is a welcoming state where we value public education and the diversity of our people,' Cooper's office said in a statement to NBC News. 'It's abhorrent to hear anyone, and especially an elected official, use hateful rhetoric that hurts people and our state's reputation.' Senator Jeff Jackson, who represents North Carolina's 37th District, posted a series of tweets demanding Robinson's resignation. Governor Roy Cooper (left) described Robinson's (right) comments as 'abhorrent' while other lawmakers have called for his resignation 'North Carolina's Lt. Governor, Mark Robinson, just angrily referred to the LGBTQ community as 'filth',' he wrote. 'Then he says, 'Yes, I called it filth.' There's no debate here. 'This is open discrimination. It is completely unacceptable. Mark Robinson should resign.' Jackson described Robinson's comments as 'old school hate' and vowed that the LGBTQ+ community should not have to deal with this hate any longer. 'To our LGBTQ friends who were the targets of this discrimination, you've had to put up with this hate for far too long,' he wrote. Senator Jeff Jackson, who represents North Carolina's 37th District, posted a series of tweets demanding Robinson's resignation Jackson was joined by other Democrats in calling for Robinson's resignation including State Senator Wiley Nickel 'This kind of behavior should be part of our past, not our present. We're going to prevail over it, again, and move closer to full equality and dignity.' Jackson also pointed to other 'hateful and discriminatory' anti-LGBTQ+ comments made by Robinson in the past. Back in 2016, the Republican called homosexuality an 'abominable sin' and said he would not 'fly their sacrilegious flag on my page' in the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting. 'First, let me say that I pray for the souls of all those killed, healing for all those wounded, and comfort for the family members of the terrorist shooting in Orlando,' Robinson wrote on his Facebook page at the time. 'However, homosexuality is STILL an abominable sin and I WILL NOT join in 'celebrating gay pride' nor will I fly their sacrilegious flag on my page. 'Sorry if this offends anyone, but I'm not falling for the media/pop culture 'okey-doke.'' On June 12 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ+ community in American history. Mateem was shot dead by cops following a three-hour standoff. In 2016, Robinson called homosexuality an 'abominable sin' and said he would not 'fly their sacrilegious flag' after the Pulse nightclub shooting (pictured) killed 49 Jackson was joined by other Democrats in calling for Robinson's resignation. State Senator Wiley Nickel tweeted: 'I stand with the LGBTQ Community and hope you will join me in condemning this hate speech from the most senior Republican elected official in our state.' Meanwhile, Robinson's spokesperson has defended his comments telling NBC News his comments 'refer to education' and his belief 'transgenderism and homosexuality' should not be discussed in schools. 'Topics surrounding transgenderism and homosexuality should be discussed at home and not in public education,' Waugh said. 'We must focus on reading, writing, and mathematics in North Carolina,' he said. He added that Robinson was exercising his constitutional right to freedom of expression and was 'referring to teaching about these topics in the classroom, not about individuals of the LGBTQ community.' Father, 54, said he was struggling to cope with UK withdrawal from Afghanistan Relatives are angered by officials who 'passed the buck' over his mental health Major General Matt Holmes was found dead at his home in Winchester last week A war of words raged yesterday over Navy top brass mudslinging surrounding the death of the ex-head of the Royal Marines. Relatives of Major General Matt Holmes, 54, have been angered by naval officials who raced to 'settle scores and pass the buck' over his mental health, a friend said. Major General Holmes was found dead at his family home in Winchester, Hampshire, last Saturday. The father of two had told colleagues he was struggling to cope with Britain's withdrawal from Afghanistan, and said he felt 'beaten down' and 'constrained' in his role. Relatives of Major General Matt Holmes, who was found dead in his home last week, 54, are angered by naval officials who raced to 'settle scores and pass the buck' over his mental health His family feels the head of the Armed Forces, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, played 'a significant part in the turmoil' the veteran faced. But friends of Sir Tony named Chief of the Defence Staff on Thursday denied he undermined the senior officer. A source close to Sir Tony said he and his wife Louise had been friends with the Holmeses for more than 20 years and were devastated by his death and claims that conflict with Sir Tony contributed to the decline in his mental health. They said critics would be left with 'red faces' when the truth emerged, and blamed 'people with agendas' for the mudslinging. Major General Holmes had split from his wife Lea and lost his job as Commandant General Royal Marines. He wrote to a friend: 'I don't trust Radakin. It's been awful. Awful. You should see the tone of some of the emails I've had from Radakin. Basically imposing his authority and keeping me constrained.' He said he was struggling to cope with UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan. His family feels head of the Armed Forces Admiral Sir Tony Radakin (pictured) played a 'part in the turmoil' he faced He and Sir Tony, 55, had been close friends, but fell out over changes to the Marines. It led to Major General Holmes leaving his post in April, halfway through his three-year role. A friend of the Holmes family said Sir Tony and his deputy, Vice Admiral Nicholas Hine, had played a role in Major General Holmes's decision to leave his job. The friend said: 'The poor family haven't even had time to bury him and certain naval factions are already trying to settle scores and pass the buck. It is so undignified, unfair. Ultimately... the truth will out. 'An inquest is the proper forum in which to consider all the pressures bearing down on Matt. Not the court of public opinion.' Relations between the two were said to have come to a head following arguments over Major General Holmes's post. A document distributed to senior officers said the Afghanistan veteran, who was awarded a Distinguished Service Order, was 'preparing for a more limited role'. In it, Sir Tony said: 'This is about my authority. International engagement by CGRM [Holmes] is to stop.' But a source said the rift in their friendship had begun to heal. For confidential support, call the Samaritans free on 116 123 or go to www.samaritans.org NSW is set to surpass another COVID-19 vaccination milestone, all but guaranteeing the state becomes one of the most vaccinated jurisdictions on the planet. The state on Wednesday achieved 70 per cent double-dose vaccination coverage of those aged over 16, clearing the way for restrictions to ease as planned on Monday. But soon - as early as Saturday - 90 per cent of the state's eligible residents will have been jabbed with at least one dose. From Monday, a swathe of restrictions will lift for fully vaccinated people across the state As of Thursday, 89.8 per cent of people 16 and over had received their first vaccine dose. That all but assures NSW will reach the same level of double-dose vaccination within weeks. Premier Dominic Perrottet on Friday said NSW was proudly leading the country when it comes to vaccination, and a return to COVID-normal. 'We can really be, in our state, in a situation where we have the highest vaccination rate in the world,' he told 2GB. From Monday, a swathe of restrictions will lift for fully vaccinated people across the state. Ten adult visitors will be allowed in homes, 30 people will be permitted to gather outdoors, and 100 guests can congregate at weddings and funerals. Shops and hospitality venues can reopen and the five-kilometre from home travel limit will be scrapped. Soon - as early as Saturday - 90 per cent of the state's eligible residents will have been jabbed with at least one dose But with NSW the first Australian state to reach 70 per cent vaccination, NSW is also going to be the first to meet some challenges, the premier said. The United Workers' Union, which represents many frontline and public-facing workers, is concerned members checking vaccination status could be put in unsafe situations. Adding to their worry is that the integrated Service NSW vaccine certificate or passport app is not yet ready. Meanwhile, the Australian Medical Association of NSW said changes to the state's plan to emerge from lockdown could overwhelm the hospital system and burn out healthcare workers. The new premier said he knew easing restrictions was 'going to be difficult', but asked for patience as 'we learn as we go ahead'. 'This is not going to be complete smooth sailing because no one else has gone down this path,' he told 2GB. 'We can't let perfection be the enemy of the good here. 'Everyone just needs to treat everyone with kindness and respect.' There were 646 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and 11 more deaths, reported in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday. The murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa filled me like so many others with outrage and disgust. As the father of four daughters and a son, all young adults making their way in the world just as Sarah and Sabina were, these abhorrent crimes appalled and touched me deeply. It is devastating to think two young women, so vibrant, so loved and with so much to give, had their lives snatched so brutally from them. My heart goes out to their families. Terrible as they were, such murders are, thankfully, extremely rare, but the fear they create is commonplace. Every day, up and down the country, the simple act of walking alone is making people feel anxious and at risk. BT CEO Philip Jansen believes he has a plan which could help keep women safe while walking home late at night using an app or a phone number which tracks their progress Male violence is causing so many people, especially women, to live in fear. And their parents, partners and friends worry too, more now than ever. We shouldn't have to, but we do: this pervasive threat is all too real. There is a growing anger and desperation to take action. As CEO of BT, I am in a position to do something practical. I have been thinking about how we can use technology to tackle the problem. So, together with my BT colleagues, I have come up with something that I believe can help. This week I wrote to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, outlining an idea that we are developing. BT already handles 999 emergency calls, and we are currently building the next-generation 999 network. We are proposing to build into it a new emergency service that would complement 999. This new service is provisionally called 888 or 'walk me home', but it could also be used on taxi rides, public transport or any journey. A simple device or app on your phone, using similar GPS technology to Uber and Google Maps, would allow the user to opt in to a remote tracking mechanism. When activated it would automatically trigger an alert if they didn't reach their destination within the expected time. The user's named emergency contacts usually family and friends could then raise the alarm with the police if they could not establish the user's whereabouts and safety. No one would be missing for hours, their whereabouts unknown. It would also allow a user to send an instant alert to the police, with just one touch. My colleagues at BT are now working on the technology and practicalities. The 888 service would be developed in collaboration with the police and the whole telecoms industry, and could even link in with CCTV networks. It needs to be funded it will only work effectively if it is free of charge on every mobile phone network. But the costs will be low as the technology already exists. Like the 999 service, it will cover every part of the country. It will, of course, require thorough user-testing and feedback. We need to ensure that it will not trigger unnecessary police call-outs with false alerts. One possible objection is that it's 'Big Brother' surveillance. But that simply doesn't stand up people opt in. The very existence of the 888 service should also act as a deterrent to criminals, knowing that the alarm will automatically be raised if their victim doesn't reach their destination on time, that friends and family will start ringing around and alert the police. Anxious parents often use 'find my phone' to keep track of their children's movements if they are out at night. But youngsters don't want their parents tracking them, and many turn it off. The 888 service would mean that parents can relax a bit, knowing that if there is a problem, they will be alerted. There needs to be proper discussion and debate about the technicalities, but I am confident that we can make it work. I am not a politician, I can't change society, but if I can use innovative technology to improve personal safety, then I am determined to do so. I hope that the Government supports this idea and that 888 goes on to make a real difference. New phone lifeline for lone women: Priti Patel backs plan for 888 'walk me home service' as emergency number could be online by Christmas amid outrage over murder of Sarah Everard BY MARIO LEDWITH and DAVID BARRETT A new emergency number to help protect lone women could be in operation by Christmas. The 'walk me home service' is being developed in response to public outrage over the murder of Sarah Everard. It would allow the vulnerable to have their journeys tracked, triggering an alert if they failed to reach home in time. Women could also use the mobile app potentially with the number 888 to summon police if they felt threatened. Priti Patel, pictured, has authorised a plan to start a phone number and app which could be used to summon help to women walking home who are feeling threatened The phone number may be 888 and can be used to provide emergency assistance for women who feel threatened The new phone number is a response to the brutal murder of Sarah Everard who was raped and killed by a serving member of the Metropolitan Police Priti Patel has approved the proposal submitted earlier this week by BT, which has run the 999 service for 84 years. In a letter to the Home Secretary, chief executive Philip Jansen said technology should be used to tackle male violence. He said it might cost as little as 50million and could be up and running by Christmas. Miss Patel said last night: 'This new phone line is exactly the kind of innovative scheme which would be good to get going as soon as we can. I'm now looking at it with my team and liaising with BT.' Mr Jansen came up with the idea while 'despairing' at Miss Everard's abduction, rape and killing by Wayne Couzens, a Metropolitan Police officer jailed for life last week. He is now calling for ministers, police leaders and telecoms bosses to discuss the plan urgently. Users would download a mobile phone app and enter their home address and other favourite destinations. Before a journey they would call or text 888 or initiate the app giving an estimate of how many minutes they expected to take. Wayne Couzens, pictured, was handed a whole life sentence for the murder of Ms Everard The journey would be tracked by the phone's GPS system with the app sending a message to check the user had got home. A failure to respond would trigger calls to emergency contacts and, finally, to the police. Mr Jansen said the non-profit service could be used by anybody who feels vulnerable when walking home and not just women. He added: 'I was watching the non-stop TV coverage of the despicable situation surrounding Sarah Everard and just despairing at it. 'It's very rare that people get kidnapped, raped and murdered, and the whole story is just awful. But what is not rare is the number of people who feel worried or fearful on a walk home. 'It happens every day in massive numbers, with people walking by themselves, looking over their shoulder, constantly worried.' Mr Jansen acknowledged there would be complications with privacy and misuse: 'What we don't want is a load of calls to the police that would be a waste of time. That is the biggest challenge. The 999 service is abused and it's a disgrace, but it is hard to stop it.' Phill Matthews of the Police Federation, which represents the rank and file, said it would be problematic if the system 'generated a load more work for the police'. He added: 'If the technology is there, and that's what people want, it could be a good thing. Police do advocate letting people know where you are going and when you are back. 'This would generate quite a few concerns for safety. It's a volume issue and could create extra work that diverts police resources from elsewhere. As tragic as these events are, they are very rare. But anything that improves people's safety we wouldn't be opposed per se.' A Home Office spokesman said: 'We have received the letter and will respond in due course. 'As set out in our strategy earlier this year, we need a whole of society approach to tackling violence against women and girls and welcome joint working between the private sector and Government.' Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, pictured, has faced major criticism for the force's failure to prevent Ms Everard's murder and pick up on Couzens's prior behaviour It was announced yesterday that Louise Casey will lead a review into sexual misconduct allegations involving serving Met officers. The crossbench peer will investigate the culture of Britain's largest police force and assess leadership and vetting processes in the wake of Miss Everard's murder. Couzens' unit, the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, will face extra scrutiny, a force spokesman said last night. Part of the review will involve re-examining cases of sexual misconduct from the past ten years. Met chief Dame Cressida Dick welcomed Baroness Casey's appointment and said: 'Louise is extremely experienced and highly respected and I know will ask the difficult questions.' The review, which is expected to take six months, will help improve the public's confidence in the force, she added. Baroness Casey was the UK's first victims' commissioner and ran the troubled families programme. California Governor Gavin Newsom has lavished praise on Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk calling him 'one of the world's great innovators and entrepreneurs' just hours after taking a parting shot at the entrepreneur and business magnate who plans to move the headquarters to Texas. 'I mean what an extraordinary, extraordinary talent,' Governor Newsom said at a bill-signing ceremony in Oakland on Friday afternoon where he thanked Musk and Tesla for investing in California. California is the state where the company was created and opened its first factory. Newsom's lavish praise was a far cry from his snippiness at the tech titan a few months ago when the governor had said he was 'not worried about Elon leaving any time soon' and that California was committed to the car maker's success. 'We may not be the cheapest place to do business but we are the best place to do business,' he commented last December. At the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic, Musk launched several Twitter tantrums threatening to move his electric car company out of California as a protest against the state's coronavirus stay-at-home order. 'Frankly, this is the final straw,' wrote Musk in May after officials in Alameda County declined to let Tesla's factory re-open. 'Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately.' On Thursday, the relationship seemed more or less healed with Newsom appearing to welcome comments made by Musk on Thursday during Tesla's annual shareholders meeting. California Governor Gavin Newsom, pictured on Friday in Oakland, has praised Elon Musk describing him as an 'extraordinary, extraordinary talent' The sudden change in mood came hours after Newsom's office criticized Tesla's move to Texas, with a spokeswoman referencing Texas's six-week abortion ban Gov. Newsom responded to Elon Musk's decision to move Tesla's HQ from California to Austin, Texas. Our regulatory environment helped create that company and grow that company, he said https://t.co/jVWYqXt05B pic.twitter.com/yNPpBGvEuj Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) October 8, 2021 Musk promised the company would expand its operations in California, despite announcing it was moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin. He said California deserved some of the credit for Tesla's success, having given the company 'hundreds of millions of dollars' in tax breaks and developing policies to encourage electric cars. But just hours earlier, on Thursday, Newsom's office made a cutting remark at the electric vehicle company Musk's announcement of plans to relocate Tesla's HQ with a spokeswoman for the governor stressing that California would 'stand up for workers, public health and a woman's right to choose', referencing Texas's ban on abortion after the first six weeks. She added the Golden State was still 'home to the biggest ideas and companies on the planet.' Governor Newsom came in for criticism following the decision to shift Tesla's HQ to Texas But former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer tweeted: 'Until we change the policies that are driving companies away we're going to continue to lose jobs and disrupt California families. We've got to do better.' Faulconer finished third to Newsom in last month's California gubernatorial recall election. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott welcomed Tesla, tweeting, 'The Lone Star State is the land of opportunity and innovation. Welcome.' Musk said that Tesla, which has been in Silicon Valley since 2003, has outgrown its Fremont factory after more than a year of infighting with local and state officials over COVID mandates and high taxes. 'It's like we're spam in a can here,' he said, adding that there's sparse affordable housing and a lot of workers have a long commute. Elon Musk, right, confirmed Thursday that Tesla will be moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas. Newsom had initially criticized the move amid controversy over the Lone Star State's law banning abortions after six weeks The company's vehicle assembly plant in Austin (pictured above) is under construction and borders the Colorado River Tesla's move to Texas follows through on a promise he first made over a year ago in response to the Golden State's strict COVID guidelines. Many also took to Twitter to criticize Tesla's move amid the Texas abortion law. The Texas law leaves enforcement solely up to private citizens, who are entitled to collect $10,000 in damages if they bring successful lawsuits against not just abortion providers who violate the restrictions, but anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion. Hundreds of marches took place last week in opposition to the law, which was recently blocked by a federal judge. Twitter user Jo Ann Aaronson wrote, 'Moving right into a state that is trying to ban abortions. Just lost all respect for Tesla and Elon Musk.' Another Twitter user with the handle lupin wrote, 'If anything would make me move out of Texas, it's news that Musk is setting up shop there. 'Texas does not need one more person with 'I'm the center of the universe' syndrome.' Twitter user RWS added, 'Billionaire Moves headquarters to Avoid Taxes!! is a little more accurate.' People took to Twitter to criticize Tesla's move to Texas Hundreds of marches took place last week across the country opposing the Texan abortion law Others also came out to defend Musk, criticizing California's strict COVID mandates and high taxes for sending Tesla away. One twitter user with the handle mkypwr23 wrote, 'Musk ain't no fool he knows he can't trust the state of California anymore.' Twitter user Imyerdada simply wrote, 'California has gone downhill.' Others defended the move and claimed California's policies were at fault for the move Musk noted that while headquarters were moving to Texas, Telsa's manufacturing plants would stay and grow in California. 'Just to be clear though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California, so this is not a matter of Tesla leaving California,' he noted, adding that the company plans on increasing output in California and Nevada by 50 percent. Tesla also recently began working on a 'megafactory' in Lathrop, California, where it will produce Megapacks, an energy-storage product, Bloomberg reports. Tesla is building up its facility in Lathrop to create a new 'megafactory' In Texas, Musk said, 'Our factory's like five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown and we're gonna create ecological paradise right here.' While he did not give a timeline of when Tesla's headquarters in Texas will be operational, he noted that it takes less time to build a factory than it does to reach high-volume production. He said that the plant in Texas will closely resemble Tesla's Shanghai plant, which was built in 11 months and reached high-volume production after a year. In December, Musk personally moved to Texas after living in California for two decades. Moving to Texas allowed Musk to get closer to his aerospace company SpaceX's launch site in Boca Chica and reduce his personal tax burden. California has some of the highest personal income taxes in the country on its wealthy residents, but Texas has no personal income tax. Musk said that said California is not as affordable and his workers have a long commute. Above is Tesla's primary vehicle factory in Fremont, California Musk first publicly mentioned his plan to leave California for Texas in a string of furious tweets in May 2020 after a California county health official said that the plant could not reopen amid coronavirus shutdowns. The disgruntled CEO took to a comment thread on Twitter to share that he was also planning to file a lawsuit against Alameda County. Musk's fury was directed towards Alameda County Health Officer Erica Pan, who said the Fremont company would not be able to reopen despite California Governor Gavin Newsom lifting some coronavirus restrictions at the time. 'Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately,' he said in tweet on May 9, 2020. 'If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependent on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.' Musk first teased the move to Texas in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in response to California's strict reopening guidelines. The disgruntled CEO took to a comment thread on Twitter about his opposition to the state's reopening rules In a separate tweet, he threatened to sue Alameda County over the restrictions In a separate tweet, he wrote, 'Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected & ignorant 'Interim Health Officer' of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!' The dispute came a week after Musk lambasted state officials over lockdown orders he called 'fascist' and unconstitutional. Tesla's move to Texas from California follows that of other tech giants like Oracle and Hewlett Packard. Texas has been reeling in companies by offering tax breaks for those that put new facilities in the state through the Texas Economic Development Act. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lauded Musk's plans to move Tesla to Texas last month and said in an CNBC interview that the two talk frequently and that Musk supports his state's 'social policies.' His statement came a day after Texas introduced its strict abortion law that bans pregnancy terminations after a fetal heartbeat is detected within six weeks. A federal judge has since ordered a temporary injunction of the toughest-in-the-nation abortion ban. Musk shied away from disclosing his views on the subject. '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,' he said. The South Carolina Supreme Court on Friday suspended the law license of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh's old college buddy - who handled the wrongful death lawsuit of Murdaugh's longtime housekeeper. Lawyer Cory Fleming represented Gloria Satterfield's family but allegedly never handed over more than $4 million in settlement funds to the woman's children, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriot, after reaching a deal with Murdaugh. Fleming was sued in September - along with Murdaugh and Chad Westendorf, the vice president of Palmetto State Bank - for breaching fiduciary duty and civil conspiracy. Murdaugh, who came into the national spotlight this year when he found his wife and youngest son shot to death in the yet-to-be-resolved case, is currently in jail after allegedly hiring a hit man to shoot him in the head to collect insurance money. Satterfield's children are now being represented by attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who said that Murdaugh referred his 'best friend and college roommate' to Tony and Brian, according to Live 5 News. Last week, the attorneys announced they had reached a settlement between the Satterfield's estate, Fleming and the insurance carrier connected to the suit. The details of the court documents were not immediately known. 'The settlement was reached less than one month after Mr Fleming first learned that the settlement funds recovered for Ms Satterfield's sons and her estate had been stolen by Alex Murdaugh,' Bland and Richter, noting that Fleming even 'negotiated substantial settlements with Mr Murdaughs insurance carriers and reduced his fee by 50 percent to increase the net recovery for Ms Satterfields sons and her estate'. Cory Fleming (pictured), an old college buddy of disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh, had his law license suspended on Friday until further notice Fleming was named in the lawsuit, which was filed on September 15 by Satterfield's estate, along with Murdaugh and Chad Westendorf, the vice president of Palmetto State Bank, who became the personal representative of the Satterfield estate 'Mr Fleming stepped forward and did the right thing by the Estate. Mr Fleming and his law firm maintain, they - like others - were victims of Alex Murdaughs fraudulent scheme,' Bland and Richter said in a statement. 'Fleming and his law firm are personally repaying all legal fees and expenses they received, and the firm's malpractice insurance carrier is paying the full limits of its policy. 'Fleming acknowledges that material mistakes were made by him at crucial times throughout this matter and sincerely apologizes to Ms Satterfield's sons for everything they have been through and that they did not receive their rightful monies from the death of their mother'. 'Mr Fleming states he would never knowingly jeopardize client funds or put a personal or professional relationship above his professional responsibilities. Until early September 2021, he sincerely believed that the settlement funds had been properly disbursed,' it added. Earlier this week, Murdaugh was accused of swiping millions of dollars from his law firm - Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED) - according to a separate lawsuit filed against Murdaugh by his ex-partners. Murdaugh allegedly used fake bank accounts to siphon funds for years from PMPED and its clients. He resigned last month at the request of the firm, which his great-grandfather founded in 1910, after a statement released by PMPED said Murdaugh 'lied and he stole from us'. His resignation came one day before he was arrested last month after he allegedly faked a drive-by shooting. Murdaugh was shot in the head along a remote road in Hampton County on September 4 and was airlifted to hospital where he survived after suffering only superficial injuries. He checked himself into rehab days later for opioid addiction and resigned from PMPED in shame over allegations of embezzling millions to pay for his addiction. The suit alleged that Gloria Satterfield's (pictured) sons Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriot never received more than $4million in settlement funds, which they were promised in an agreement made between their attorney Fleming and Murdaugh. Satterfield died aged 57 after a 'trip and fall' accident in the Murdaugh home, where she worked as a housekeeper for around 25 years Satterfield's children are now being represented by attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter, who released a statement saying that 'Fleming and his law firm maintain, theylike otherswere victims of Alex Murdaughs (pictured in court last month) fraudulent scheme' Satterfield's children are now being represented by attorneys Eric Bland (left) and Ronnie Richter (right), who said in a statement that 'Fleming and his law firm maintain, theylike otherswere victims of Alex Murdaughs fraudulent scheme' Just yesterday it was revealed that Murdaugh set up a fake firm called Forge to syphon off $3.5million of the $4.3million settlement money meant for his housekeeper, 57, who was mysteriously killed at his home after a 'trip and fall' accident, according to new legal documents. A motion filed Tuesday by attorneys for Satterfield's family provides new details of how two large payouts from two separate insurers were allegedly redirected to what was essentially a PO Box in Hampton, South Carolina, instead of making their way to Tony and Brian. Also accused was Chad Westendorf, the vice president of Palmetto State Bank, who Murdaugh encouraged Satterfield's sons to hire to deal with 'business matters' he said would arise. On January 7, 2019, Fleming allegedly received a $505,000 check from Lloyd's Underwriters - one of the insurance firms Murdaugh had a policy with. The check is pictured above Fleming allegedly wrote a check for $403,500 to Murdaugh's shell account Forge (seen above) that same day In March 2019, Fleming then secured an additional settlement from Nautilus Insurance Company to the tune of $3.8million. The check was made payable to Westendorf as the estate representative and Fleming's law firm on April 18 (check seen above) Murdaugh, Fleming and Westendorf have been accused of negotiating $4.3million in payouts from Lloyd's Underwriters and Nautilus Insurance Company - two insurance companies with which Murdaugh held policies. They then allegedly sent more than $3.5million of the funds to Murdaugh's shell company Forge and Satterfield's sons were supposedly kept in the dark. They were not included in discussions about the settlements nor were they invited to court meetings or any mediations. They also didn't receive a dime of the settlement, court documents said. The settlements were approved in court by Judge Carmen Mullen (above) who the documents also say was 'misled' by the alleged fraudsters According to the 69-page motion, Westendorf was appointed as the new personal representative of Satterfield's estate on December 18, 2018 - replacing her son Tony. The very next day Fleming filed a petition to get court permission to access a partial settlement in the wrongful death suit for $505,000 while reserving the right to pursue 'additional insurance coverage that is applicable to this matter'. Satterfield's sons believed this settlement was agreed on prior to the change in hands between Tony and Westendorf. A check for this settlement was dated for December 4, 2018 - two weeks prior to Westendorf's appointment. The partial settlement was then approved by Judge Carmen Mullen but the sons claim they were never told anything about it. On January 7, 2019 Fleming then allegedly received a $505,000 check from Lloyd's Underwriters - the same day Fleming allegedly wrote a check for $403,500 to Murdaugh's shell account Forge. According to the suit, a company in Atlanta, Georgia, shares this name however this check was sent to a PO Box address in Hampton, South Carolina, at Murdaugh's request. Minus legal fees and expenses, Satterfield's family were entitled to $2.765million in a settlement which was approved by Judge Mullen on May 13. The check above reveals Fleming sent a check for $2.96million to Forge that day On October 5, 2020, Fleming and Murdaugh filed for a dismissal of the settlement which Mullen approved - on the basis that an agreement had been reached by all parties. The next day - October 6 - Fleming wrote a check to Forge for $168,000 (above) Two months later, in March 2019, Fleming secured an additional settlement from Nautilus Insurance Company to the tune of $3.8million - which Satterfield's sons again claimed they had no knowledge of. Westendorf signed a conditional release which stipulated that the funds would be paid directly to him in April 2019. Documents included in the motion revealed that the check was made payable to Westendorf as the estate representative and Fleming's law firm on April 18. In total, the two insurance companies had paid out $4.305million. Minus legal fees and expenses, Satterfield's family was entitled to $2.765million in a settlement which was approved by Judge Mullen on May 13. A check submitted with the motion revealed Fleming sent yet another check for $2.96million to Forge that very same day. Then, on October 5, 2020, Fleming and Murdaugh filed for a dismissal of the settlement, which Mullen approved on the basis that an agreement had been reached by all parties. The next day - October 6 - Fleming wrote a check to Forge for $168,000 and paid himself $666,000 in legal fees. He was awarded $1.435million in fees - $168,333 in the Lloyd's payout and $1.27million in the Nautilus deal - but allegedly paid the remainder to Murdaugh. Westendorf did not appear to pay himself for his involvement. Rather he 'allowed all of the settlement proceeds to be misapplied by Fleming and Murdaugh'. The settlement statement signed by Westendorf also listed prosecution expenses of $105,000 deducted from the $4.3million total package but it is not clear where this money went. The motion did not suggest Mullen was involved in the scheme. The judge took part in two meetings with the alleged fraudsters where she approved the settlements. Murdaugh (pictured at his bond hearing in September), Fleming and Westendorf 'lied to the court' and Satterfield's sons were unaware of any settlement being reached. The motion also suggested that Mullen was not involved in the scheme The Murdaugh saga all began back on June 7 when Maggie (right) and Paul (left) were found shot dead The court documents claimed Mullen was 'misled' to believe Satterfield's sons were aware of the settlements and that the money would be distributed in accordance with the information presented to her. She 'had no reason not to trust' Fleming and Murdaugh, who she had worked with in the past, while Satterfield told her 'he agreed with the settlement after carefully considering all of the facts of circumstances of the claims', the documents stated. Yet Murdaugh, Fleming and Westendorf 'lied to the court' and the sons were unaware of any settlement being reached. Further, none of the settlement approvals were properly filed through the Hampton County Clerk of Court, the documents claimed. The new motion calls on Murdaugh, Fleming and Westendorf to testify under oath about their handling of the wrongful death settlement. Meanwhile, Westendorf returned his Personal Representation fee of $30,000 to the Satterfield estate Tuesday. The damming accusations - and the checks included in the motion - provided the most detailed account to date of the alleged scheme to defraud the Satterfield family out of the wrongful death suit. Satterfield had been the Murdaugh housekeeper and nanny for around 25 years when she died following a mystery 'trip and fall' inside the Murdaugh family home back in February 2018. The complaint alleged that Murdaugh, Fleming and Westendorf then defrauded the family out of a $4.3million wrongful death settlement - which they said they had not received a dime of. Last month the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) also launched a criminal investigation into Satterfield's mystery death, which was not reported to the coroner at the time and no autopsy was carried out. The death certificate cited the manner of death as 'natural' - something that was inconsistent the information documented in the wrongful death suit, which said she died as a 'result of injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident, in Hampton County'. Murdered Caroline Crouch's parents have won full custody of their granddaughter Lydia, it can be revealed. The toddler, who witnessed her British mother being suffocated by her Greek helicopter pilot father, will now grow up in her mother's childhood home, a court in Greece ruled yesterday. Miss Crouch was killed by her husband Babis Anagnostopoulos in front of baby Lydia in Athens on May 11. He then cynically staged a burglary and spun a cruel web of lies to her family that robbers had killed the 19-year-old Briton in their home. Anagnostopoulos, 33, finally confessed weeks later after police confronted him with evidence proving he was the killer. The toddler, who witnessed her British mother being suffocated by her Greek helicopter pilot father, will now grow up in her mother's childhood home, a court in Greece ruled yesterday Now their one-year-old daughter whose father will likely receive a life sentence in prison has been formally put into the care of Miss Crouch's parents, Susan and David, on the Aegean island of Alonnisos where they live. The hearing made the temporary sole custody ruling put in place in June a permanent arrangement. The killer's parents, Constantinos and Georgia, will have rights of access. Mr and Mrs Anagnostopoulos looked after Lydia after her mother's murder and they had wanted to keep her, but Mr and Mrs Crouch launched a legal bid for sole custody. Mr Crouch, 78, from Liverpool, told the Mail: 'Susan and I have been granted full custody with the other grandparents allowed visitation rights five times a month. 'It is now our intention to baptise Lydia into the Greek Orthodox Church, as was Caroline, in the little chapel close to the cemetery where Caroline was laid to rest.' The retired engineer added: 'Lydia is fine, and like her mother, grows more beautiful by the day. 'She is now walking confidently, eats heartily and charms everyone she comes into contact with. 'Unfortunately, although she has a fine new cot with the latest hi-tech mattress, she resolutely refuses to sleep alone.' Anagnostopoulos, 33, finally confessed weeks later after police confronted him with evidence proving he was the killer Instead she sleeps with Mrs Crouch in her daughter's childhood bed, with posters of her favourite band, One Direction, looking over them. The Crouches have already chosen Lydia's godparents two of Miss Crouch's closest friends from her time on the island. 'The duty of the godparents is taken very seriously here in Greece,' said Mr Crouch. 'They will be expected to attend to Lydia's spiritual welfare and so we chose two people who are likely to remain here on Alonnisos throughout her formative years.' Her paternal grandparents are currently living on the island in their holiday home. 'They are frequent visitors and of course are besotted with their granddaughter,' he said. The murder shocked the island and indeed the whole of Greece. It was not until 38 days after her death that it emerged that Miss Crouch had been murdered by her husband suffocated as she slept with Lydia in their house in an upmarket enclave of the Greek capital. Police found the infant clinging to her mother's lifeless body. A motive for the killing has yet to be established. In July, the Daily Mail set up the Lydia Fund to help secure her financial future. As guests sat down to a state banquet in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace in June 2019, President Trump, in white tie and sitting next to the Queen, praised the 'eternal friendship' between the U.S. and the UK. It seemed, for once, that decorum reigned over the most chaotic presidency in American history. And yet behind the scenes in the run-up to the dinner, things were far from regal, according to the president's then press secretary, Stephanie Grisham. In a new book that has managed to humiliate an administration that seemed beyond embarrassment, she says all four of Trump's adult children expected to be invited to the state banquet, along with their spouses and partners. Stephanie Grisham has a lot to tell, having survived the full four-year term in the Trump White House, an administration she describes as 'a clown car on fire running at full speed into a warehouse full of fireworks' They believed they should also attend a dinner at the U.S. ambassador's residence attended by Prince Charles. 'Everyone began manoeuvring almost immediately,' she recalls. Trump aides feared that some of this bunch were really not fit to be presented to the Queen. 'We are going to look like the Beverly Hillbillies,' wailed senior White House official Lindsay Reynolds. 'We'll be an embarrassment to the whole country.' Even before the family left America, there was trouble. When Trump's sons Donald Jr and Eric complained after Miss Reynolds prevented them from flying to the UK on Air Force One, the president exploded and told her never to '**** with his kids again'. As guests sat down to a state banquet in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace in June 2019, President Trump, in white tie and sitting next to the Queen, praised the 'eternal friendship' between the U.S. and the UK Meanwhile, Trump's ambitious daughter Ivanka and her Machiavellian husband Jared Kushner were battling to join the President and First Lady when the Queen greeted them at the palace. Mrs Trump, a stickler for protocol and no fan of Ivanka, was having none of it. 'It didn't dawn on me at first but, over the course of the next few days, I finally figured out what was going on,' says Grisham. 'Jared and Ivanka thought they were the royal family of the United States, on the same level as William and Kate in the United Kingdom. We didn't call her 'the Princess' for nothing, after all.' In the event, there was no room for the pushy pair in the helicopter to the palace. It's just one of many colourful episodes from his presidency that Grisham details in her tell-all book, I'll Take Your Questions Now. In a new book that has managed to humiliate an administration that seemed beyond embarrassment, she says all four of Trump's adult children expected to be invited to the state banquet, along with their spouses and partners She certainly has a lot to tell, having survived the full four-year term in the Trump White House, an administration she describes as 'a clown car on fire running at full speed into a warehouse full of fireworks'. Mr Trump has dismissed the book as 'another pitiful attempt to cash in on the president's strength and sell lies about the Trump family' and described its author as a 'disgruntled former employee' who has written a 'book full of falsehoods'. Mrs Trump accused Grisham of seeking 'relevance and money' through 'mistruth and betrayal', and described her as 'a deceitful and troubled individual who doesn't deserve anyone's trust.' But Grisham was, at various times, Trump's press secretary and Mrs Trump's spokesman, confidante and chief of staff. PUTIN: He hired this translator just to distract the President Observers say she had a ringside seat and won't have had to rely on hearsay. This isn't the first expose from a Trump insider but it may be the most damning. Grisham says she witnessed everything from Trump's lascivious interest in a press office aide to his 'bonkers' behaviour with world leaders, crawling to Vladimir Putin and once devoting much of a working breakfast with Boris Johnson to discussing the strength of kangaroos. Terrified that Trump may run again for the presidency in 2024, Grisham says she has decided to 'break her silence'. The 45-year-old mother of two, described this week by a rival as 'a female Machiavelli with a penchant for Justin Bieber', says she first met Trump at the 2016 Iowa State Fair. Working as one of his campaign press officers, she emerged from a lavatory to find the future president waiting to go in. He asked her to keep mum about his using the ladies' lavatory. 'It can be our secret,' he said. She would soon be privy to many more. Grisham feels that working for him was a 'classic abuse relationship' as he 'was the distant, erratic father we all wanted to please'. He could be incredibly charming and generous but his 'temper was terrifying' and could be directed at anyone. She reveals that when the president was in a furious mood, his aides would quickly send for a colleague who Trump dubbed 'the Music Man'. His job was to calm him down by putting on the president's favourite songs such as Memory from Cats and the Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want. 'It was sort of like soothing the savage beast,' says Grisham. Trump was 'obsessed' with James Brown's It's A Man's Man's Man's World, but she adds: 'I talked him out of including the song in his rallies because it wouldn't have been a good look for him.' Given the numerous accusations of sexual misconduct and philandering he faced, which he has denied, it certainly wouldn't. Grisham adds one more entry to the charge sheet, claiming Trump took an 'unusual interest in a young, highly attractive' female member of her press team who he tried to flatter by saying she should be on TV. On Air Force One flights, Trump would often ask for her to be brought to his office cabin, once allegedly saying: 'Let's bring her up and look at her ass.' Grisham says she made sure she came along so they were never alone together. She believes Putin exploited the president's weakness for a pretty face, recounting a meeting between the two at the 2019 Osaka G20 summit, at which Fiona Hill, Trump's British-born Russia expert, 'leaned over and asked me if I had noticed Putin's translator, who was a very attractive brunette woman with long hair, a pretty face, and a wonderful figure'. Miss Hill, she says, 'proceeded to tell me that she suspected the woman had been selected by Putin specifically to distract our president'. According to Grisham, Putin needn't have worried as Trump was desperate to impress the Kremlin hardman. MACRON: Donald said he was just a 120lb 'wuss guy' Despite the fact Russia was under pressure for human rights abuses and interfering in the 2016 presidential election, she says Trump assured the autocrat: 'OK, I'm going to act a little tougher with you for a few minutes. But it's for the cameras and after they leave we'll talk. You understand.' Putin responded 'calmly' to this extraordinary gesture, she adds. Trump 'always seemed to want dictators to respect him'. He seemed less bothered about democratically-elected allies especially when they weren't built like a KGB thug. Grisham recalls Trump saying of Emmanuel Macron: 'He's a wuss guy. He's all of 120 pounds of fury.' The only Western European leader he had any time for, she says, was Boris Johnson. 'Conversations between those two, both pudgy white guys with crazy hair, redefined the word 'random',' she writes. 'Johnson once told us over breakfast [at the G20] that Australia was 'the most deadly country spiders, snakes, crocodiles and kangaroos'. Then they discussed how powerful kangaroos were at considerable length.' The conversation turned to a politician who'd just had surgery to remove a gallbladder. 'Can you put a new gallbladder in?' Johnson asked, chomping away on scrambled eggs and sausage. 'I don't know what a gallbladder does.' 'It has something to do with alcohol,' Trump replied.' STORMY DANIELS: One thing he hated was her description of his 'toadstool' But the latter had an almost childlike propensity to say the first thing that came into his head to foreign leaders, drastically changing the subject whenever he got bored, Grisham recalls. In a meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his aides, Trump broke off from discussing aircraft sales and asked, out of the blue: 'Have any of you seen Midnight Express? That's a dark movie for you guys.' Mention of the thriller about a U.S. drug smuggler's brutal spell in a Turkish prison was met with silence and a few embarrassed laughs. She could never stop him going wildly off on a tangent but Grisham could at least provide help on other fronts. She once had to lend him some face powder as the president's personal aide hadn't brought the 'usual arsenal of products' on a trip to Saudi Arabia. Answering one of the abiding mysteries about Trump, his orange complexion, Grisham confirms he applies make-up to his face every morning. He also spends ages every day with a 'comb, a hair dryer and a ****-ton of hair spray' to achieve his coiffure. He cuts his hair himself with a pair of scissors that 'could probably cut a ribbon at an opening of one of his properties', says Grisham. She sheds new light, too, on that other great enigma the First Lady. BORIS: They discussed kangaroos at length She insists Melania's air of mystery was entirely intentional: 'She didn't want anyone to know her. She didn't care most of the time what people thought.' Neither talkative nor reflective, the sphinx-like ex-model was obsessed with aesthetics, she says so obsessed that she once insisted a man dressed in a giant bunny suit for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll strip off his 'tacky' costume minutes before he was due to hop about on the White House lawn and entertain hundreds of children. Mrs Trump, a homebird, spent so much time tucked away upstairs in the Trumps' White House quarters that the Secret Service nicknamed her 'Rapunzel', says Grisham. She says Melania effectively had two children her son Barron and her photo albums she spent hours organising. Princess Michael: royals never welcomed Diana Trump 'liked the Queen a lot, but he was apparently not as big a fan of Charles,' reveals Grisham. The president said their conversation at a private tea at Clarence House was 'terrible', adding with a roll of his eyes: 'Nothing but climate change.' According to Grisham, Mrs Trump laughed and said of her husband: 'Oh, yes, he was very bored.' She, on the other hand, said she had a lovely time. At a Buckingham Palace banquet, Grisham sat next to Princess Michael of Kent, who confided that she'd never changed any of her children's nappies and that the Royal Family had never been welcoming to Princess Diana, who'd been 'miserable in the marriage right from the start'. Grisham said she kept wondering 'Should she be telling me this?'. Later, Prince Harry 'joked with me about the 'stuffiness' of the evening', while the then British Ambassador to Washington Kim Darroch asked her: 'How do you do it? Work for a man like your president?' At least Mr Trump, whose Scottish-born mother revered the Royal Family, was on best behaviour that night. Advertisement One reason for her reclusiveness, Grisham suggests, was that the Slovenian emigre was 'acutely self-conscious' about her accent, still thick after decades in the U.S. She struggled with written English and grammar, getting Grisham to write everything from her tweets to condolence letters. 'Perhaps because she was uncertain of her English, she stuck to five or six standard phrases and sentences that she repeated.' It was Grisham who had the unenviable job of informing Melania of Press claims that porn star Stormy Daniels had been paid hush-money to not discuss an affair she claimed to have had with Trump. Grisham was 'amazed at how calm she was' but says Melania 'was basically unleashed' after the scandal, finding ways to omit Trump from photos and searching for ways to get under his skin. 'She also tweeted out a photo of herself on the arm of a handsome military aide and I remember thinking, 'OK, it is on',' says Grisham. 'Finally I thought I was seeing her anger, albeit in a passive-aggressive and still private way.' Mrs Trump later insisted on travelling to their Florida Mar-a-Lago home separately from Trump, allegedly telling Grisham she didn't want to 'look like Hillary Clinton', who was seen holding hands with Bill after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. Grisham suggests that one of the things that most upset Mr Trump about the scandal was Stormy's claims about his penis that it was small and 'like a toadstool'. Grisham claims he rang her specifically to refute that description. 'Everything down there is fine,' he told her. 'Uh, yes, Sir,' she replied, lost for how to respond. As for Melania, she became more absorbed by her albums, having a photographer take endless photos of her 'posing and walking around, inspecting the decor or straightening dishes' at functions. On 2020 election night, Grisham found her in bed fast asleep. When in January protesters stormed the Capitol, Grisham pleaded with her to call for calm but, overseeing a photoshoot of a rug, she refused. After years fighting comparisons of her to Marie Antoinette, Grisham says she 'finally saw the doomed French queen. Dismissive. Defeated. Detached.' It was the last straw and she resigned. Three men have been rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds following an incident in an east London barber shop, with police hunting the gunman. The Metropolitan Police force said officers were called to reports of a shooting on Upton Lane in Newham just before 7pm on Friday. Police attended with London Ambulance Service paramedics and found three men with gunshot wounds. One also had stab injuries. They were taken to an east London hospital and their condition is not known. The Metropolitan Police force said officers were called to reports of a shooting on Upton Lane in Newham just before 7pm on Friday. Pictured: Emergency service cars at the scene on Friday The Met said police are investigating the incident, which is not being treated as terrorism, and a crime scene remains in place. A Section 60 order, which gives officers greater stop and search powers, has been issued for the borough of Newham until 3pm on Saturday. No arrests have yet been made. Police attended with London Ambulance Service (pictured left and right) paramedics and found three men with gunshot wounds. One also had stab injuries 'We were called at 6:58pm tonight to Upton Lane, E7, to reports that a number of people were injured,' a spokesperson from the London Ambulance Service said. 'We sent a number of resources to the scene: three ambulance crews, three medics from our joint response unit, a clinical team manager, an incident response officer and an advanced paramedic. 'We also dispatched teams from London's Air Ambulance. 'We treated three people at the scene and took all three to a major trauma centre.' Anyone with information has been asked to call 101 quoting CAD 6941/08Sep. As anyone who has read the recently published, unexpurgated Henry 'Chips' Channon diaries knows, there was a time when Neville Chamberlain's reputation stood sky high. 'I will always remember little Neville today', recorded Channon after the prime minister announced he would be accepting Hitler's invitation to a four-power conference, in Munich in September 1938. 'He stood there [in the House of Commons], alone, fighting the dogs of war single-handed . . . he seemed the re-incarnation of St George . . . I don't know what this country has done to deserve him.' What indeed. Although Chamberlain returned from Munich a hero, Hitler wasted little time showing the prime minister's claim to have secured 'peace for our time', to be among the most notorious false boasts in history. On March 15, 1939 six months after Chamberlain fluttered his piece of paper on the Tarmac at Heston Aerodrome in West London German troops invaded Czechoslovakia. And, six months after that, Nazi tanks rolled into Poland, initiating World War II. Although Chamberlain returned from Munich a hero, Hitler wasted little time showing the prime minister's claim to have secured 'peace for our time', to be among the most notorious false boasts in history These events were followed by the 'Phoney War' of September 1939 to May 1940 (during which the RAF dropped leaflets rather than bombs on German cities) and the Norway debacle of April to June 1940 (in which the Royal Navy and then an Anglo-French expeditionary force failed to prevent the German conquest of that country). Finally, the publication from 1948 onwards of Winston Churchill's partisan memoirs, dealt Chamberlain's reputation a blow from which it has never recovered. Although some academics from the 1960s and 1970s helped to improve his reputation, in the popular mindset Chamberlain continues to be remembered as one of our most disastrous prime ministers the ultimate contrast to the leadership of his successor and former rival, Churchill. Now, a film by Netflix, based on Munich the best-selling novel by Robert Harris aims to revive Chamberlain's reputation and move beyond what it describes as the 'cult' of Churchill, which promises to be compelling viewing. Britain's leading historical novelist; Jeremy Irons playing Chamberlain; Netflix's millions what's not to like? But will it change minds? Have we, as Harris and others insist, misjudged Chamberlain? Was appeasement a sensible policy pursued by a pragmatic statesman? And do we, as the film's publicity suggests, need to reassess our view of Churchill? Harris points out that the popular perception of Chamberlain as a man and politician is a travesty of the truth. Far from being the weak, effeminate caricature portrayed in films such as Darkest Hour, Neville Chamberlain was one of the most determined, competent and ruthless prime ministers to occupy 10 Downing Street. Born in Birmingham in 1869, he was the third member of what would become the most successful political dynasty of the 20th century. His father, Joseph, was Colonial Secretary under the Marquis of Salisbury the man who made the 'political weather', in Churchill's phrase while his half-brother, Austen, served variously as Chancellor of the Exchequer, leader of the Conservative Party and, finally, Foreign Secretary. Unlike Austen, Neville Chamberlain entered national politics comparatively late in life. After a disastrous experience trying to make his fortune as a farmer in the Bahamas, he became a businessman before being elected Lord Mayor of Birmingham in 1915. Was appeasement a sensible policy pursued by a pragmatic statesman? And do we, as the film's publicity suggests, need to reassess our view of Churchill? He was almost 50 when he entered Parliament in 1918 but made up for lost time, being appointed Minister of Health in 1923 (a role in which he excelled) and Chancellor of the Exchequer eight years later. Had he been free to focus on domestic affairs, he would probably be remembered as one of our great reforming prime ministers. But by the time he succeeded to the top job, in May 1937, dark clouds were forming on the Continent. Chamberlain's overwhelming priority upon entering Downing Street was to reduce the number of Britain's potential enemies. As the Chiefs of Staff liked to remind the Cabinet, Britain could not defend herself and her Empire against the combined might of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan, nor afford to try. More controversially, Chamberlain also believed the dictators Hitler and Mussolini could be appeased by reasonable concessions and that the best method for achieving this was through personal diplomacy. 'These dictators are too often regarded as though they were entirely inhuman', he wrote in January 1938. Jeremy Irons is pictured playing Chamberlain; Netflix's millions what's not to like? 'I believe this idea to be quite erroneous. It is indeed the human side of the dictators which makes them dangerous, but on the other hand, it is the side on which they can be approached with the greatest hope of successful issue.' His fundamental difference with Churchill who had been warning of the dangers of the Nazis for the previous five years, while carrying on a noisy campaign for rearmament hinged on the nature and severity of the threat. 'If the menace of attack from Germany is as imminent as Winston would have us believe,' Chamberlain wrote to his sister in November 1936, 'there is nothing we can do which would make us ready. But I do not believe it is imminent. By careful diplomacy I believe we can stave it off.' This 'careful diplomacy' consisted of recognising the Italian annexation of Abyssinia modern Ethiopia, which Mussolini had brutally conquered, with the help of mustard gas, in 1935 and letting Hitler know Britain would not oppose territorial changes in central and eastern Europe, provided they were achieved peacefully. Within four months of this message, German troops goose-stepped into Vienna and, within another four, Hitler was threatening to plunge Europe into war over his demands for the German-speaking portion of Czechoslovakia the 'Sudetenland'. The traditional defence of Chamberlain and his signature policy of appeasement was that it bought Britain time in which to re-arm. 'Thank God for Munich,' wrote Harold Balfour, the Under-Secretary for Air, who recalled that at the time of the Czech crisis, in September 1938, that Britain possessed just two flying Spitfires and scarcely more Hurricanes. Hitler and Chamberlain are pictured walking together Of course, Balfour was right. The Spitfires, Hurricanes and radar all of which made the difference between victory and defeat in the Battle of Britain in 1940 were not ready in 1938 but were by 1939. Britain, however, did not possess the monopoly of time and the Germans made better use of the so-called 'extra year': outarming the British and French not least thanks to the 1.5 million rifles, 750 aircraft and 600 tanks they acquired from the Czechs and completing the 'Siegfried line' fortifications along the border with France. What's more, as his closest associates testified, Chamberlain did not believe he was merely delaying war at Munich when he agreed to the annexation of the Sudetenland but preventing the war altogether. He really did believe that he had secured 'peace for our time'. This was based on two disastrous beliefs: that Hitler was, as he told the Cabinet, 'telling the truth' when he claimed the Sudetenland was his 'last territorial demand' and that the Fuhrer would 'not go back on his word once he had given it'. This was the rub. Appeasement failed because Adolf Hitler could not be appeased. Chamberlain critically misjudged this man. A man of peace who like all men of his generation had lived through the carnage of the Great War, he simply could not comprehend there might be someone who actually wanted war. He and his most trusted lieutenant, the civil servant Sir Horace Wilson, entered into negotiations with the Nazi leader 'with the bright faithfulness of two curates entering a pub for the first time', declared the government MP and diarist, Harold Nicolson. His colleague, the former First Lord of the Admiralty, Duff Cooper, who resigned in protest over the Munich Agreement, concurred. 'Chamberlain,' he noted wryly, 'had never met anybody in Birmingham who in the least resembled Adolf Hitler.' Yet it was not just naivety. It was also vanity. Most successful politicians are vain. To get to the top, they have to persuade millions of people to support them. They reach the political summit by dint of their powers of persuasion.The pitfall is to believe that these powers can translate to foreign leaders who do not share the same political or ideological goals and who themselves have bottomless self-belief. Chamberlain came to the premiership convinced he could shape international events. 'As Chancellor of the Exchequer I could hardly have moved a pebble; now I have only to raise a finger and the whole face of Europe is changed!' he exulted in November 1937. Wrongly convinced that he had influenced Mussolini, he began to talk about the 'Chamberlain touch' and looked forward to its effect on Hitler. When Chamberlain met the Fuhrer for the first time on September 15, 1938, he was subjected to a well-worn routine. Hitler flew into a rage about the Czechoslovak situation and insisted he would have his way even if it meant a general European war. Chamberlain was shocked, but relief replaced indignation when the dictator suggested there was still some hope of negotiation. Chamberlain jumped into the trap. He had no objection, he assured Hitler, to the Sudeten Germans joining the Reich. All he cared about was that it should be achieved peacefully. 'The impression made by the PM's story was a little painful,' noted a Cabinet minister after Chamberlain returned. 'Hitler had made him listen to a boast that the German military machine was a terrible instrument . . . [and] the PM said more than once to us he was just in time. It was plain that Hitler had made all the running: he had in fact blackmailed the PM.' The fact is Chamberlain should have recognised Hitler's mendacity as well as his desire to achieve German hegemony in Europe long before he boarded his aeroplane. This was the drum Churchill had been banging for six years and is the prime reason attempts to elevate Chamberlain by knocking Churchill are destined to fail. All serious historians recognise Churchill's flaws, as well as his many errors of judgment and some outright catastrophes. Gallipoli, the attempted intervention in the Russian civil war, the return to the gold standard, his support for Edward VIII during the abdication, his die-hard opposition to self-government for India: these were calamities that would have destroyed most political careers several times. On the supreme issue of his day, however, he was extraordinarily prescient. His first warning of the dangers of Nazism came in November 1932, two months before Hitler came to power. 'All these bands of sturdy Teutonic youths, marching along the streets and roads of Germany, with the light in their eyes of desire to suffer for their Fatherland, are not looking for status,' Churchill said. 'They are looking for weapons and, when they have the weapons, they will then ask for the . . . restoration of lost territories and colonies.' It is possible to dispute the statistics Churchill provided about the size of the Luftwaffe and argue over the technicalities of his plans for re-armament. But on the broad issue, he was overwhelmingly right: Hitler spelt danger and Britain had to re-arm and forge alliances to meet that danger. For telling the British people these truths in the 1930s, Churchill was branded a warmonger and traitor to his party. Conservative Central Office tried to de-select him from his seat of Epping, and Chamberlain had his telephone tapped by the security services. He was also frequently slandered in a weekly rag called Truth. Ostensibly a political scandal sheet specialising in often anti-Semitic attacks on the prime minister's opponents, the paper was, in fact, owned by the Conservative Party and overseen by Chamberlain's close friend and director of political research, Sir Joseph Ball. That Chamberlain knew and sanctioned this activity is beyond doubt. Not only would Churchill lend vigour to the government's belated efforts to prepare for war, campaigners argued, but his return to Cabinet would be a signal to Hitler that Britain meant business. 'Churchill is the only Englishman Hitler is afraid of,' explained Lieutenant-Colonel Count Gerhard von Schwerin, an officer on the German General Staff and secret opponent of war, to the Conservative Chief Whip. 'Giving him a leading ministerial post would convince Hitler that we [the British] meant to stand up to him.' But Chamberlain was unmovable. He had no desire to promote a political rival. But, more importantly, he had not given up hope on coming to an agreement with Hitler. Even on August 30, 1939, with German tanks massed along the Polish border, he wrote to the Duke of Buccleuch: 'We may yet be successful in avoiding the worst. If so I shall still hope for a chance to go after your grouse.' As the anti-appeasement Conservative MP Vyvyan Adams later wrote: Chamberlain's 'inability to appreciate Hitlerism for so long' constituted 'an infernal miracle'.' When Chamberlain died of bowel cancer on November 9, 1940, Churchill who had served him loyally as First Lord of the Admiralty at the start of the war paid him a typically generous tribute. Yet while it is true, as Churchill said, that Chamberlain was a man who acted with 'perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority' to save the world from a devastating war, there is no doubt that in the 'supreme crisis of the world', it was Churchill's judgment that was proved right and history with its 'flickering lamp' will continue to give this verdict. n Tim Bouverie is the author of Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill And The Road To War. His new book, Perfect Pitch: 100 Pieces Of Classical Music To Bring Joy, Tears, Solace, Empathy, Inspiration, is out now. Two men are fighting for life and three others are recovering in hospital after the vehicle they were in struck a wild pig before slamming into a tree in northern NSW. Police say the Toyota Landcruiser left Maules Creek Road, east of Narrabri, shortly before 1.30am on Saturday. According to reports, the 4WD hit the animal before leaving the road at Tarriaro, and crashing into the tree. Police say the Toyota Landcruiser left Maules Creek Road, east of Narrabri, shortly before 1.30am on Saturday The occupants, four men and a woman, were trapped inside for several hours before being released by fire and rescue officers. The driver, a 28-year-old man was airlifted to Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital with critical injuries. His front seat passenger, a man aged 21, was taken by road ambulance to Narrabri Hospital before also being airlifted to John Hunter in a critical condition. The three rear passengers, a 21-year-old woman and two men, 20 and 22, all sustained serious injuries. The woman was flown to St George Hospital in Sydney, the older man to John Hunter and the younger went by road to Narrabri Hospital. A police investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash has been established. No human or machine has ever been 3,200 miles beneath Earth's surface because the depth, pressure and temperature make it inaccessible. But scientists have long believed that our planet's inner core was solid, in contrast to the liquid metal region surrounding it. Now that's been brought into question by a new study that claims the ball-shaped mass, which is responsible for Earth's magnetic field, contains both mushy and hard iron. Scientists have long believed that our planet's inner core was solid. Now that's been brought into question by a new study that claims the ball-shaped mass contains both mushy and hard iron. Earthquake waves (pictured) were used as the basis for the research FOUR LAYERS OF THE PLANET EARTH Crust: To a depth of up to 70km, this is the outermost layer of the Earth, covering both ocean and land areas. Mantle: Going down to 2,890km with the lower mantle, this is the planet's thickest layer and made of silicate rocks richer in iron and magnesium than the crust overhead. Outer core: Running from a depth of 2,890- 5,150km, this region is made of liquid iron and nickel with trace lighter elements. Inner core: Going down to a depth of 6,370km at the very centre of planet Earth, this region has been thought to be made of solid iron and nickel. But this new study suggests that it contains both mushy and hard iron. Advertisement The research has been led by Rhett Butler, a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii, who suggests that Earth's 'solid' inner core is, in fact, made up of a range of liquid, soft, and hard structures which vary across the top 150 miles of the mass. Earth's interior is layered like an onion. The iron-nickel inner core is 745 miles in radius, or about three-quarters the size of the moon and is surrounded by a fluid outer core of molten iron and nickel about 1,500 miles thick. The outer core is surrounded by a mantle of hot rock 1,800 miles thick and overlain by a thin, cool, rocky crust at the surface. Because the inner core is so inaccessible, researchers had to rely on the only means available to probe the innermost Earth earthquake waves. 'Illuminated by earthquakes in the crust and upper mantle, and observed by seismic observatories at Earth's surface, seismology offers the only direct way to investigate the inner core and its processes,' said Butler. As seismic waves move through various layers of Earth, their speed changes and they may reflect or refract depending on the minerals, temperature and density of that layer. To better understand the features of the Earth's inner core, Butler and his co-author Seiji Tsuboi, a research scientist at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, used data from seismometers directly opposite the location where an earthquake was generated. They used Japan's Earth Simulator supercomputer to assess five pairings to broadly cover the inner core region: Tonga and Algeria, Indonesia and Brazil, and three between Chile and China. A cut-away of Earth's interior shows the inner core (red) and liquid iron outer core (orange). Seismic waves travel through the Earth's inner core faster between the north and south poles (blue arrows) than across the equator (green arrow) Because the Earth's inner core is so inaccessible, researchers had to rely on the only means available to probe the innermost Earth earthquake waves (stock image) 'In stark contrast to the homogeneous, soft iron alloys considered in all Earth models of the inner core since the 1970's, our models suggest there are adjacent regions of hard, soft, and liquid or mushy iron alloys in the top 150 miles of the inner core,' said Butler. 'This puts new constraints upon the composition, thermal history, and evolution of Earth.' The researchers said this discovery of the inner core's diverse structure could offer important new information about the dynamics at the boundary between the inner and outer core, which impact the Earth's magnetic field. 'Knowledge of this boundary condition from seismology may enable better, predictive models of the geomagnetic field which shields and protects life on our planet,' said Butler. The researchers now plan to model the inner core structure in more detail using the Earth Simulator supercomputer so they can see how it compares with various characteristics of Earth's geomagnetic field. The research has been published in the journal Science Direct. Advertisement From ancient settlements to secret Cold War military installations, a new aerial archaeology mapping tool allows history buffs to 'fly' across England and explore the country's rich history. The interactive laser map, which was created by Historic England, brings hidden Roman fortifications, Iron Age huts and First World War encampments back to the surface using airborne scanning technology. Like a huge jigsaw puzzle, the Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer takes all the discoveries of the past 30 years and superimposes them on 500,000 high-resolution photographs covering over half of England. The technology, known as lidar, uses laser light to create a 3D representation of the Earth's surface and detects anomalies to reveal Iron Age hillforts, neolithic burial sites and anti-invasion defences from the Second World War. Scroll down for video Time travelling: From ancient settlements to secret Cold War military installations, a new aerial archaeology mapping tool allows history buffs to 'fly' across England and explore the country's rich history. More than 500,000 images, such as this one of Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall, were used for the map The interactive laser map (pictured showing the Housesteads Roman Fort) has been created by experts at Historic England Among the most famous sites is the Roman fortification White Moss (pictured), which was part of Hadrian's Wall but disappeared beneath the topsoil Across parts of Gloucestershire, the remains of medieval ploughing can still be seen in the form of ridge and furrow and these earthworks give fields a corrugated appearance Historic and modern aerial photographs show remains of medieval farming either as earthworks or cropmarks Other discoveries include First World War training camps at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. Buildings at the camps, which were designed to house up to 20,000 people, were removed after the war but their foundations have survived. These were identified between 2015 and 2017 using laser scanning, allowing experts to spot markings hidden by vegetation (left) once it was digitally removed (right) The archaeological remains at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire (pictured) are masked by a lot of vegetation in the area HOW DOES THE NEW LASER MAP WORK? When you first open the map you will see the project areas (in red) which highlight where mapping data exists. You can click on a polygon to download a free publication highlighting the archaeological discoveries of the area. Zoom in and you will see monument polygons (grey) appear these reveal the extents of the archaeological features recorded. Click on any one and the pop-up will take you to the Heritage Gateway where you can review the complete archaeological monument record. Zoom in once more and the detailed mapping will appear. Click on any feature and the pop-up will reveal what it represents. The Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer can be accessed here. Advertisement The earliest mapped sites date back to around 6,000 years ago and include long barrows and flint mines. There are also Bronze Age round barrows, Iron Age hillforts, Roman camps, settlements, trackways and field systems which represent several millennia of activity. Among the most famous sites is the Roman fortification White Moss, which was part of Hadrian's Wall but disappeared beneath the topsoil. It was first detected in 1949 when aerial photography showed markings in crops caused by buried archaeological remains. During dry summers, the ditches of the camp can be viewed as cropmarks. After the Roman military forces withdrew from Britain around AD 410, Hadrian's Wall continued to shape the landscape. From aerial mapping, it is possible to see how medieval and post medieval fields were laid out to either side of the wall. Around 1,800 years after the construction of Hadrian's Wall, the area was once again host to military forces, only this time defending against invasion. During the Second World War, sites ranging from airfields to military camps, gun batteries and anti-invasion defences were constructed. Other discoveries include First World War training camps at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. Buildings at the camps, which were designed to house up to 20,000 people, were removed after the war but their foundations have survived. These were identified between 2015 and 2017 using laser scanning, allowing experts to spot markings hidden by vegetation. In the Yorkshire Dales National Park, aerial photos of fields reveal lumps and bumps representing the remains of prehistoric settlements, while Iron Age and Roman round-houses were also found in Comberton in south west Cambridgeshire. Roman field systems were also identified near Rotherham and Doncaster between 2005 and 2006. An aerial survey near Doncaster and Rotherham, Yorkshire in 2006 revealed Iron Age and Roman fields and ditches arranged in a 'brickwork' system, named for its resemblance to the pattern of a brick wall The maps also showed small ditched enclosures, which would have been used for livestock, and traces of Iron Age houses In the Yorkshire Dales National Park, aerial photos of fields in Grassington reveal lumps and bumps representing the remains of prehistoric settlements (pictured) 'Spectacular' evidence of prehistoric remains can be seen in Grassington (pictured) when the sun is low, according to experts The remains of post-medieval lead mines can also be found, including this spoil heap in the Yorkshire Dales (pictured) The mapping allows the archaeological features to be seen not just as individual sites, but as part of complex, multi-period landscapes. Experts say that visualising the evidence in this way can help transform the understanding of these past landscapes, especially when studied alongside other forms of evidence from local Historic Environment Records or the Heritage Gateway. Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England said: 'This new aerial archaeology mapping tool lets people fly virtually over England and drink in its many layers of history. 'It will allow everyone to explore the hidden heritage of their local places and what makes them special. Iron Age and Roman round-houses have been identified in Comberton in Cambridgeshire because of cropmarks (pictured) Historic England said the findings in Comberton (pictured) showed the value of 'revisiting previously recorded sites where significant new information may be revealed' A 1940 aerial photograph of Newhaven, East Sussex, shows a variety of wartime features including lines of barbed wire extending eastwards along the beach into the distance Several projects have mapped distinct parts of the coastal defence (pictured) and they can be followed on the interactive map Whitley Castle (pictured) is a Roman fort and is protected as a scheduled monument. It survives as a series of impressive earthworks and is unusual because instead of the typical playing card shape of Roman forts, this is lozenge shaped, adjusted to fit into an area of high ground Archaeological mapping using aerial photographs and lidar has revealed traces of a Roman road to the east of the fort 'We hope it will give people a springboard to further investigation, whether for research purposes or simply to satisfy curiosity about what archaeological features they may have noticed around their local area.' Every site mapped has a basic description with links to the full Historic Environment records held online. Most also have a free report revealing the highlights and new discoveries encountered in each project. Work is still ongoing to increase the size of the map in areas that Historic England has not yet analysed in detail, while new discoveries are also being made in places previously studied. The Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer can be accessed here. Unfortunately for stargazers, adverse weather conditions could threaten views of the Draconid Meteor Shower tonight. The annual meteor shower, named after the northern constellation of Draco from where it originates, could send up to 10 shooting stars through UK skies every hour. But according to experts at the Met Office, cloud, rain and fog could threaten views of the shower from the ground. The best chance Brits have of seeing the Draconids is under clear skies away from sources of light pollution after nightfall tonight (18:56 BST). Meteor showers are caused when the Earth travels through a cloud of cometary debris. In this case, the Draconid Meteor Shower comes from the debris of comet 21 P/ Giacobini-Zinner. Pictured, the night sky over Russky Island during the Draconids in 2018 TIPS TO SEE A METEOR SHOWER Meteor showers are best seen with a good, clear view of the stars on a night with no clouds. Try to find somewhere with dark skies, an unobstructed horizon and very little light pollution Make sure there are no direct sources of light in your eyes, so that you can fully adapt to the local conditions and ensure that fainter meteors become visible. Theres no advantage to using binoculars or a telescope; just look up with your own eyes to take in the widest possible view of the sky. Source: Royal Observatory Greenwich Advertisement 'Unfortunately much of the UK will be under cloud this evening and overnight,' Simon Partridge, senior operational meteorologist at the Met Office, told MailOnline on Friday. 'The best of any initial breaks in the cloud will be to the east of the Pennines and northeast Wales, but even here there is no guarantee of long clear spells. 'Skies will tend to clear across Kent this evening (from the southeast) so there is a reasonable chance of seeing the event from here from mid-evening onwards. Elsewhere, chances are low.' Generally, those in Northern America, Europe and Asia are the best situated to see the Draconids, which shower the skies every year with varying brightness. The Draconid meteors are caused when Earth collides with bits of debris shed by periodic comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. In the UK, the optimal locations include the renowned stargazing locations, also known as the three 'Dark Sky Reserves Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons and Exmoor national parks. 'The Dracanoid shower will be visible to anyone with clearer skies,' Annie Shuttleworth at the Met Office told MailOnline earlier this week. 'Those in southern parts of England and Wales away from any light pollution are most likely to see the shower.' According to Shuttleworth, it will be be cloudy and wet across Scotland and northern Ireland with mostly cloudy skies across north Wales and northern England, meaning vision may be impaired in these places. 'Anywhere south of a horizontal line through Aberystwyth to Norwich could see an hour or two of clear spells but many in that area will have mostly cloudy skies,' she said. Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge also said yesterday that skywatchers in northern and western parts of the UK will be hampered by cloud and rain. 'Fog may also create local difficulties in other areas,' he said. The Draconid Meteor Shower takes its name from the constellation of Draco. It is best viewed in the evening just after sunset. The meteors fly in all directions through the sky when they arrive The International Space Station (ISS) streaks across the night skies of the milky way during the Draconid Meteor shower, Frazier Park, California on October 7, 2020 REMAINING METEOR SHOWERS IN 2021 Draconids - October 8-9 peak Orionids - October 21 peak Taurids - November 12 peak Leonids - November 17-18 peak Geminids - December 14 peak Ursids - December 22-23 peak Advertisement The Draconid Meteor Shower takes its name from the constellation of Draco, which is its radiant point the point in the sky the meteors appear to come from. Draco is a long and winding constellation, easily visible to people in the Northern Hemisphere, in the northern sky. It can be found lying above the Big Dipper and Polaris, the North Star. The Draconids are best seen in the Northern Hemisphere, though it is still possible to see them in the Southern Hemisphere, especially if close to the equator. That's because the radiant point for the shower almost coincides with the head of the constellation Draco in the northern sky. The rate of meteors during the Draconid shower's peak depends upon which part of the comet's trail the Earth orbit intersects on any given year, according to Royal Observatory Greenwich. The observatory describes the Draconids as 'variable', meaning you can never be sure what kind of light display you're going to get. 'In recent years, the Draconids have not produced any particular outbursts in activity,' Royal Observatory Greenwich says on its website. 'However, in 1933 and 1946 the Draconids produced some of the most active displays in the 20th century.' It's worth noting that 2011 and 2018 saw more Draconid activity than expected, so 2021 could be the year where they put on a spectacular show. The shower takes its name from the constellation of Draco, from where in the night sky they seem to originate, which can be spotted lying above the Big Dipper and Polaris, the North Star National Space Centre says the Draconids typically produce somewhere between five and 10 meteors an hour, but in past displays there have been thousands per hour. Fortunately, there was a new moon on Wednesday, October 6, so the moon's illumination is going to be at only 6 per cent tonight, meaning moonlight shouldn't dim our view of the Draconids. 'The moon is new on the night of greatest activity, so its light won't interfere with the view,' Dr Robert Massey, deputy executive director at Royal Astronomical Society, told MailOnline. 'As with any meteor shower, it's best to escape the lights of the city and head to a dark site.' The Draconid Meteor Shower, sometimes referred to as the Giacobinids, is one of two meteor showers that grace the skies in October every year. The other is the Orionids, which are set to peak in the sky on the night of October 21, between midnight and dawn. More than a dozen cast-iron cannonballs have been hiding in the walls of Israel's Underground Prisoners Museum in Acre for 181 years. The facility was recently undergoing construction when workers found the ancient weaponry, which archaeologists say were fired during the Acre Bombarded war in 1840. The war included European soldiers working with the Ottoman Empire to overthrow a strong Egyptian rule in Israel. A total of 40 hits from cannonballs were counted in the walls of the museum, along with the 18 cannonballs that fit in the palm of your hand. More than a dozen cast-iron cannonballs have been hiding in the walls of Israel's Underground Prisoners Museum in Acre for 181 years The coalition included Austrian and British soldiers who came to the aid of the Ottomans to bombard the port city of Acre and drive out the Egyptian garrison, according the Center for Israel Education. The epic battle occurred on November 3, 1840, ending with the death of 1,100 Egyptians and the Ottomans regaining control of their land. Roy Liran, conservator for the Israel Antiquates Authority, said in a statement: 'The British and Austrian navies joined forces to bombard Acre at noon, November 3, 1840. 'The Ottoman Empire and European powers led the military campaign directed by Britain against Egyptian governor Muhammad Ali, who took control of the area in 1831. The war included European soldiers working with the Ottoman Empire to overthrow a strong Egyptian rule in Israel The facility was recently undergoing construction when workers found the ancient weaponry, which archaeologists say were fired during the Acre Bombarded war in 1840 'The European powers aided the Ottoman rule, preferring a weak Turkish rule of the region over a strong Egyptian rule. 'This dramatic battle ended in a British-Austrian victor which ensured Ottoman rule for the next 50 years.' From 1516 to 1918, Acre was, except for brief intervals, under the rule of the Ottoman Turks. The Underground Prisoners Museum was originally a fortress built in the Ottoman era over the ruins of a crusader fortress. In 1918, Acre was taken by British forces and the fortress was turned into a prison facility. Hundreds of members of the underground organizations Haganah, Etzel and Lehi, were imprisoned here due to their struggle to defend the Jewish settlement, war against the British Mandate and their right to establish a national home in the Land of Israel. A total of 40 hits were counted in the walls of the museum, along with the 18 cannonballs that fit in the palm of your hand The museum plans to leave the cannonballs in the walls as a reminder of the great 1840 battle The museum stands as a reminder of prisoners who were sentenced to death, along with underground fighters who used the facility to combat their British rulers. However, the structure bears the reminder of when the British and Ottoman Empire worked together to take back the land. The museum plans to leave the cannonballs in the walls as a reminder of the great 1840 battle. Hani Shachar Fishman, director of the Underground Prisoners Museum, said in a statement: 'Exposing the cannonballs adds another layer to the story of the Haganah, Ezel, and Lehi underground prisoners, to whom the museum is dedicated. 'The ammunition, intensity of the hits, and the shooting angles provide a fascinating opportunity to identify the position of the warships docked in the Gulf of Acre and in front of the city walls illustrating the moments of terror experienced by the Egyptian troops defending the city.' OceanX, a team of marine biologists, media and filmmakers, embarked on a quest in 2020 to explore the depths of the Red Sea where they not only found a giant shipwreck, but a massive creature that appeared to be larger than a human. While investigating the 'Pella,' which sank in November 2011, at a depth of 2,800 feet, the group spotted what they thought could be 'The Giant Squid.' 'I will never forget what happened next for as long as I live,' said OceanX science program lead Mattie Rodrigue in a video taken of the discovery. 'All of a sudden, as we're looking at the bow of the shipwreck, this massive creature comes into view, takes a look at the ROV [remotely operated vehicle] and curls its entire body around the bow of the wreck.' It was not until September 2021 did the team learn that the mysterious creature was 'the giant form' of the purpleback flying squid, which typically grow up to two feet long. Scroll down for video OceanX, a team of marine biologists, media and filmmakers, embarked on a quest in 2020 to explore the depths of the Red Sea where they not only found a giant shipwreck, but also a massive creature that appeared to be larger than a human The OceanX team traveled to the Red Sea aboard the OceanXplorer, a research vessel with a 40-ton crane to launch submersibles, towed sonar arrays and other heavy equipment down into the depths. The ship also features two manned Triton submersibles, each of which can dive to depths greater than 3,280 feet for up to eight hours. It includes a Remotely Operated Vehicle and an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle that can explore depths up to 19,685 feet. OceanXplorer embarked on its maiden voyage in September 2020, which is when the crew spotted the giant sea creature lurking around the shipwreck. OceanXplorer embarked on its maiden voyage in September 2020, which is when the crew spotted the giant sea creature lurking around the shipwreck. The Pella sank in November 2011 while traveling to the Egyptian port of Nuweiba The OceanX team traveled to the Red Sea aboard the OceanXplorer, which is research vessel with a 40-ton crane to launch submersibles, towed sonar arrays and other heavy equipment down into the depths The Pella sank in November 2011 while traveling to the Egyptian port of Nuweiba. The 485-foot-long ship caught fire off the coast of Aqaba, Jordan while carrying 1,229 passengers one death was reported following the incident. As the researchers used an underwater robot to cruise around the shipwreck, the giant creature swam into frame. Rodrigue sought out help from Dr Michael Vecchione, a NOAA zoologist, who concluded the mysterious creature was a giant form of the purpleback flying squid. While using an underwater robot to cruise around the shipwreck, the giant squid swam into frame The team wondered if the creature was a giant squid, but other experts highlighted the shape and size of its fins that form an arrow head Pictured is a close up of a purpleback flying squid 'In the area that you're operating, in the Red Sea, there's a well-known population of those,' Vecchione told Rodrigue during a video call. 'They get really big. I think what you're seeing is what's the giant form of Sthenoteuthis. 'They will approach bait the way that one approached bait and they often swim the away that the other videos showed the animal swimming.' Vecchione also continued to explain that the size of the animal's fin relative to its body shows that it is not a giant squid. Its fins are short and broad and form what looks like an arrowhead shape, while those on a giant squid are usually massive and muscular. Giant squids, which are rarely observeed, can grow up to 66 feet long. The last one to be discovered was in October 2016 and measured 30 feet long. Polish archaeologists in Austria have uncovered a Bronze Age bowl made of near-solid gold and carved with images representing the sun's rays. The vessel, unearthed in Ebreichsdorf, about 20 miles from Vienna, has been dated to approximately 3,000 years ago. Inside the bowl was coiled golden wire bracelets and the remains of fabric that researchers believe was once decorated scarves used during a sun-worshipping ceremony. The discovery was made in an ancient settlement dating from between 1300-1000 B.C. and belonging to people of the 'Urnfield culture,' known mostly for their cremation rites. Scroll down for video A golden bowl unearthed in Austria has been dated to approximately 3,000 years ago, when the enigmatic Urnfield culture dominated Central Europe. It is decorated with a detailed motif representing the rays of the sun Hammered very thin, the bowl is about two inches high and eight inches in diameter. It consists of approximately 90 percent gold, 5 percent silver, and 5 percent copper, according to a translated statement from Poland's Ministry of Education and Science. Found near the site of a wall of a prehistoric house, it is carved with a motif depicting the celestial orb's life-giving rays. The organic material clumps found inside were actually long-decayed material, 'possibly fabric or leather,' archaeologist Micha Sip with the Polish Academy of Science, part of the team that made the discovery, said in the release. Archaeologists say the bowl is approximately 90 percent gold, 5 percent silver, and 5 percent copper The bowll was found on the site of a Bronze Age settlement near Ebreichsdorf, Austria, about 20 miles from Vienna The material was then sewn with gold thread and wrapped with gold wire, he added. The bowl was found in 2020 but researchers waited to announce its discovery until after detailed analysis was complete. The Urnfield culture is a collection of smaller societies who emerged in Central Europe in about 1300 B.C. Little is known of them beyond their custom of cremating their dead and placing the ashes in urns buried in fields. Inside the vessel archaeologists found golden wire bracelets In the Ebreichsdorf settlement, archaeologists also found evidence of so-called 'pole buildings, made of numerous posts and clay used to fill in the spaces. One larger square-ish building, about 33 feet by 36 feet, was likely a temple, meetinghouse, or the home of a leader, Sip said. Archaeologists also found organic material clumps they believe are long-decayed material, 'possibly fabric or leather,' wrapped in thin gold wire Archaeologist Micha Sip with the Polish Academy of Science examines the bowl. The discovery was made in 2020 but researchers waited to announce it until their analysis was complete Archaeological evidence suggests the community was non-nomadic and engaged in agriculture, he added, especially breeding sheep. The dig was sponsored in part by Novetus, a Vienna-based engineering firm and was conducted in advance of a new railway line being added. 'This is the discovery of a lifetime for me,' Sip said in the statement. 'I couldn't find anything similar.' He called it one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Austria in decades. Just a few dozen bowls of this kind have ever been foundonly one east of the Alps and none in Austria. Sip's team previously discovered ceramic clay vessels (pictured) and hundreds of bronze objects, including daggers and knives, at the site of the settlement near Ebreichsdorf But Sip's team, which began excavation in the settlement two years ago, has uncovered nearly 500 bronze objects, from daggers and knives to pins, as well as ceramic clay vessels, shells, and animal bones. Analysis of the ground suggests it was once a swamp: Sip theorizes that rather than being lost or discarded as trash, the items were intentionally thrown in the water during religious rituals. The sun bowl will be placed on display in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, with the excavation of the settlement to continue into 2022. It's believed the people of the Urnfield culture were intensely warliketheir settlements were usually fortified, and many weathered bronze weapons have been found. While evidence of Urnfield culture stops after around 750 B.C., its pottery and metallurgy 'seemingly had great influence on the later culture of the Early Iron Age,' according to Encyclopedia Brittanica. A man foraging for mushrooms in a rural part of the Czech Republic uncovered a bronze sword dating to 1300 BC, when the Urnfield culture was just developing in Central Europe Last fall, a mushroom hunter outside Prague literally tripped over the hilt of sword dating back 3,300 years, when the Urnfield culture was just emerging. Digging some more in the same spot, he also uncovered a bronze axe from the same era nearby. 'It had just rained and I went mushroom-picking,' Roman Novak of Northern Moravia told Radio Prague International. 'As I went, I saw a piece of metal sticking out of some stones. I kicked it and found that it was a blade, part of a sword.' We've all had to get used to the term 'social distancing' over the past 18 months. But it turns out it's not just humans who need to keep their space to ward off the risk of disease. Coughs and colds also spread rapidly between mountain gorillas when they stand in close proximity to one another, a new study has found. Researchers discovered that respiratory infections are much more likely to spread within wild groups of apes than they are between neighbouring ones. Scroll down for video Keep your distance! Coughs and colds also spread rapidly between mountain gorillas when they stand in close proximity to one another, a new study has found WHY IS THE COMMON COLD SO DEADLY FOR APES? Past research has shown that apes including chimpanzees and gorillas can contract the common cold virus. Not only that, but infectious disease is now listed among the top three threats to some great ape groups. While many viruses, bacteria and parasites circulate in apes without causing harm, some respiratory infections that are mild for humans are known to cause severe disease or death in our closest living relatives. The Ebola virus is also thought to have killed thousands of chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa. Fears have even been raised about the threat coronavirus could pose to ape populations, with conservationists calling for urgent action to protect them. Advertisement Because humans and gorillas are so closely related, our ape cousins can catch many of the same diseases us as. However, infections that are relatively mild in humans can have major consequences for gorillas and chimpanzees, where a case of the common cold or flu can be lethal. That's why this study is important because it sought to understand how the diseases are transmitted through groups in an attempt to help shape future conservation strategies. It was carried out by scientists from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. They studied 15 respiratory outbreaks across the past 17 years to understand how the infections spread through a population of mountain gorillas. 'If we can better understand how diseases have spread in the past, we can better prepare for and respond to outbreaks in the future,' said Dr Robin Morrison, the study's lead author. Researchers found that the close contact and strong social relationships within gorilla groups allowed respiratory diseases to spread rapidly between the apes. What they couldn't predict, however, was the patterns of transmission by a group's social network. In one of the outbreaks, it took just three days for 45 of the 46 groups members to begin coughing. This differed from the findings in an earlier study, in which the more spread out social organisation of chimpanzees led to slower transmission overall. Researchers were also able to predict disease spread based on the chimpanzees' social network for example those central to the network were more likely to display clinical signs than those with fewer connections. The good news for the endangered gorilla population in this latest study is that researchers discovered there were limited opportunities for infections to spread between neighbouring groups. 'The outbreaks we investigated all appeared to stay within a single group rather than spreading through the wider population,' said Yvonne Mushimiyimana, a co-author on the project. Because humans and gorillas are so closely related, our ape cousins can catch many of the same diseases us as 'Gorilla groups interact fairly infrequently, and when they do, they tend to keep their distance, rarely approaching to within that crucial 1-2 metre distance.' This aloofness toward neighbouring groups may actually help protect the wider population by limiting broader transmission of these infections, the experts said. However, that begged the question of where the outbreaks were coming from if neighbouring gorilla groups weren't infecting each other. Previous studies in wild apes have placed the blame on pathogens of human origin. One example is in Uganda, where two nearby chimpanzee communities began showing signs of respiratory infection at the same time, only for genetic analysis to reveal that the infections were caused by two entirely separate human pathogens. It was a surprise to scientists but showed that both infections had been independently transmitted from humans rather than spreading between two chimpanzee communities. 'Our best guess is that these infections in mountain gorillas are coming from humans,' said Morrison. 'It really highlights the importance of ongoing efforts to minimise wild great ape exposure to human diseases during activities like research, tourism and protection. 'Vaccination, mask wearing and maintaining adequate distance are all more important than ever in the midst of a global pandemic.' The aim of the research is to identify strategies to limit the spread of disease. Researchers hope their study will help understand how transmission might work in different gorilla populations. 'The findings from this study suggest that since respiratory diseases transmit quickly within gorilla groups and transmission between groups is much less common, strategies that prevent initial transmission into a group may be most effective,' said Dr Tara Stoinski, president and chief scientific officer of the Fossey Fund. 'For Covid-19 and other human respiratory pathogens, that means preventing that first introduction of a disease from a human to a gorilla.' She added: 'Although the research was completed well before the appearance of Covid-19, the current pandemic highlights the fact that it is more vital than ever to minimise pathways of human-ape disease transmission, which pose a risk to wild great apes and humans alike.' The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Elon Musk's SpaceX is now worth more than $100 billion, surpassing the likes of competitors such as Lockheed Martin after a stock transaction vaulted the company into proverbial orbit. The extraordinary valuation occurred after a secondary share sale by existing investors earlier this week, according to CNBC, which first reported the news. SpaceX investors - both new and existing - sold up to $755 million worth of stock at $560 a share in the Musk-led space exploration company, giving it a $100.3 billion valuation, surpassing the value of other space contractors, including Lockheed Martin, which has a market cap of $97 billion. Lockheed is the primary contractor on the Orion spacecraft and is the only company that has built a spacecraft that has landed on Mars, something SpaceX hopes to eventually achieve. For comparison purposes, publicly-traded Boeing, which competes with SpaceX for space contracts, has a market cap of just over $130 billion. Elon Musk's SpaceX is now worth more than $100 billion, competitors like Lockheed Martin. The valuation occurred after a secondary share sale from existing investors Investors sold up to $755 million worth of SpaceX stock at $560 a share. The $100 billion valuation for the Musk-led company is an increase of 33% from February Virgin Galactic, which also competes with SpaceX, is significantly smaller than the aforementioned companies, with the Sir Richard Branson-founded company having a market cap of just over $6 billion. Blue Origin is largely self-funded by Jeff Bezos, who has sold $1 billion worth of Amazon stock annually to build the company. SpaceX's surging valuation adds another layer to the space race between the three companies and their founders. Ultimately, Branson flew to the edge of space first, on July 11 - nine days ahead of Bezos. Musk has not flown into space himself, but his company sent four civilians into space on September 15, flying 360 miles above the Earth. The new valuation for SpaceX is an increase of 33 percent from the $74 billion valuation it had in February, when it raised nearly $1 billion in new funding at $419.99 a share, CNBC reported at the time. The company also conducted a secondary transaction in February, with insiders selling $750 million. SpaceX - and its competitors - are aiming to get their portion of a space market - including moon landings, asteroid mining and space tourism - that could be worth as much as $1 trillion by 2040, according to analysis from Morgan Stanley. At the $100 billion valuation, the only private company in the world with a higher valuation is China's ByteDance, which owns TikTok, according to CB Insights. DailyMail.com has reached out to SpaceX with a request for comment for this story. It is worth than financial technology firm Stripe and other 'unicorns' (a term for private companies worth more than $1 billion) such as Instacart, Epic Games and Rivian, which recently filed to go public. SpaceX has seen a meteoric rise in valuation since the company was founded in 2002. According to Charlie Bilello, CEO of Compound Capital Advisors, SpaceX's valuation has jumped significantly since 2019, when the company was worth $13 billion. The vast majority of the company's valuation likely stems from its Starlink internet business, its ambitious Starship rocket, as well as contracts it receives from the government for space exploration. In June, Musk said that Starlink could have more than 500,000 users - up from approximately 100,000 currently - in 12 months and could invest a total of $30 billion over the lifetime of the project. As of August, SpaceX had launched more than 1,700 Starlink satellites into space. As of August, SpaceX had launched more than 1,700 Starlink satellites into space, but the company has far grander plans than its current 90,000 users Musk has previously said that it might make sense for the company's Starlink unit to go public when it has predictable cash flows. Once we can predict cash flow reasonably well, Starlink will IPO Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2021 The company's Starship rocket, which the company hopes will bring cargo and people to the moon and Mars is ambitious and capital intensive. In May, the company revealed plans for Starship's first orbital flight that would see the 160ft tall rocket launch from Texas, before landing 90 minutes later off the coast of Hawaii. In August, the company stacked Starship on top of the Super Heavy booster in preparation of the launch, with the combined craft measuring 400 feet. Elon Musks SpaceX is another step closer to sending humans to Mars the firm stacked its Starship onto of the Super Heavy booster in August, with combined craft measuring a towering 400 feet tall According to The Wall Street Journal, SpaceX has received $2.8 billion in 52 contracts from NASA and the Pentagon over the past 14 federal fiscal years. However, SpaceX's $2.9 billion contract from NASA to build the moon lander has become controversial in recent months. In August, NASA temporarily halted work on the contract after Blue Origin filed a lawsuit, claiming the agency broke its own policies. In September, SpaceX sent the first all-civilian crew into orbit as part of the Inspiration4 mission, a three-day tour in space onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. If you've ever felt drained and lethargic during work video calls, a new study suggests switching the camera off may help. Researchers have found that company employees who kept their cameras on during video calls on platforms such as Zoom suffered more fatigue by the end of the day. Interestingly, women and newer employees were the most fatigued by the use of cameras, the academics found. It's possible that women and new employees are more affected by 'self-presentation' being conscious of presenting yourself in a certain way to shape how others view you which goes on to cause fatigue after several hours. Feeling fatigue from Zoom meetings seems to affect women more than men when the camera is turned on and participants can see each other, the research suggests WHAT CAUSES ZOOM FATIGUE? 1. Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense 2. Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is distracting and can cause anxiety 3. Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility 4. The cognitive load is much higher in video chats Advertisement The study's findings apply to Zoom, which has soared in popularity since the coronavirus lockdown started more than 18 months ago as well as other platforms such as WebEx, Microsoft Teams and Skype. Zoom went from 659,000 UK users in January to 13 million in April last year, according to Ofcom. But when it comes to remote working, video calls have been criticised as pointless and for wasting time during the working day leading to 'Zoom fatigue' The new study has been conducted by researchers at multiple institutions in the US, including the University of Arizona and the University of Arkansas. 'The Covid-19 pandemic propelled many employees into remote work arrangements, and face-to-face meetings were quickly replaced with virtual meetings,' they say in their paper, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. 'This rapid uptick in the use of virtual meetings led to much popular press discussion of virtual meeting fatigue (Zoom fatigue), described as a feeling of being drained and lacking energy following a day of virtual meetings. 'In this study, we aimed to better understand how one salient feature of virtual meetings the camera impacts fatigue, which may affect outcomes during meetings.' The study was based on 1,408 daily observations from 103 employees, with cameras turned either on or off during video calls. Participants were recruited from BroadPath, a Tucson, Arizona-based healthcare company that employs several thousand remote workers in the US. Is it possible that men don't experience self-presentation as severely as women during online calls? SELF-PRESENTATION Self-presentation refers to the idea that most people have an innate desire to be viewed in a favourable light and aim to convey positive information about themselves. It is prevalent in social exchanges, and although there is evidence that it affords some benefits to employees, it is also a cognitively demanding activity. This is because it requires people to carefully monitor and actively manage their observable behaviour during social interactions. Source: Shockley et al (2021) Advertisement The firm's workforce was largely remote before the pandemic, the researchers note. The study period took place over the course of just four weeks or 19 working days to be precise in August and September 2020. Half kept their camera on for the first two weeks of the study, and then switched to keeping their cameras off for the last two weeks and vice versa. At the end of each working day, participants were sent a link to a daily survey assessing fatigue for that workday, as well as two other performance-related factors 'voice' and 'engagement'. Voice refers to voicing ideas within a meeting, while engagement is the extent to which they felt engaged with the meeting's content. After compiling and analysing the results, the researchers found a link between higher levels of fatigue and having the camera on but this link was stronger for women than men. Having the camera on also led to lower levels of the two performance-related factors voice and engagement. What was also interesting was that length of time at the organisation 'organisational tenure' was also linked to fatigue. Zoom went from 659,000 UK users in January to 13 million in April last year, according to Ofcom 'Employees with longer tenure have had more time to create and refine their organisational image compared to newer employees,' the researchers say. 'As such, employees who have been with the company longer will likely experience less fatigue in processing and managing how they are being perceived on camera, feeling that it is less critical to their impression.' This is not the first study that has found Zoom fatigue hits women harder than men. Back in April this year, researchers at Stanford University reported that women were more than twice as likely than men to report feeling 'very' to 'extremely' fatigued after a Zoom call. They said it may be because women tend to have longer meetings and are more prone to anxiety caused by the 'self-focused attention' of video conferencing platforms' self-view feature. 'Self-focused attention refers to a heightened awareness of how one comes across or how one appears in a conversation,' said study author Jeffrey Hancock, a communications professor at Stanford. Scientists have found evidence suggesting the first visitors to the Azores were Norse sailors arriving 700 years before the Portuguese, who supposedly discovered the string of North Atlantic volcanic islands in the 15th century. Analyzing sediment layers in various lakes in the archipelago, an international team found traces of fecal compounds from non-native ruminants like cows or sheep that dated back to between 700 and 850 A.D. They also found an increase in charcoal particles, likely indicating explorers or colonists were setting large fires, and a drop in native tree pollen, suggesting someone had burned down parts of the forest to provide grazing land for cattle. The new research counters the long-held belief that 15th century Portuguese sailors were the first humans to arrive in the Azores, 900 miles from the coast of Portugal. 'Even with abundant available historical information allowing us to have a very accurate picture of the past, it is necessary to foster interdisciplinary research among the humanities and natural sciences to fully understand our history,' co-author Santiago Giralt, a paleoclimatologist at Geosciences Barcelona, said in a statement. Scroll down for video Analysis of sediment cores taken from Pico Island's Lake Peixinho (pictured) showed an increase in 5-beta-stigmasterol, a compound usually found in livestock waste, dating to between 700 and 850 AD, well before the Portuguese arrived in 1427 Now an exotic vacation destination, the Azores first started appearing in European maps in the 1350s. The first archaeological evidence of humans on the islands, though, dates to 1427 when Portuguese sailor Diogo de Silves landed on Santa Maria Island while searching for new routes to Asia under orders from Prince Henry the Navigator. The Flores Corvo islands were reached 25 years later and eventually, more Portuguese came and colonized the archipelago. The natural record tells a different story, however: sediment samples are valuable tools in peeling back layers of history because material that sinks to the bottom of a lake is often preserved as new strata of sediment is layered on top. A timeline indicating various evidence for human presence in the Azores in the Early Middle Ages Because the Azores are isolated in the Atlantic, large mammals didn't live on the Azores prior to the arrival of humans. So the stigmastanol found in the 8th-century sediment layer on Pico Island can be attributed to cows, sheep, or other ruminants brought ashore by seafarers The research has been published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Analysis of sediment cores taken from Peixinho Lake in the Azore's Pico Island showed an increase in 5-beta-stigmasterol, a compound usually found in the waste of livestock, dating to between 700 and 850 A.D. 'Fecal sterols and stanols are produced in great abundance in the intestinal tracks of mammals and are well-preserved in lake sediments, co-author Timothy Shanahang of the University of Texas said in the release, 'providing a unique and unambiguous tracer of the presence of large mammals during past time intervals.' But large mammals didn't live on the Azores prior to the arrival of humans, 'due to its geographical location, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,' said Giralt. Diogo de Silves landed on Santa Maria Island in 1427 while searching for new routes to Asia 'Hence, finding coprostanol in the sediments can be attributed to human presence, and finding stigmastanol can be attributed to ruminants, such as cows, sheep, or goats,' he said. Samples taken from Caldeirao Lake on Corvo Island bore similar results, though those sterols dated to about a century later than the ones on Pico Island. The study also determined sediment from a lake on another island showed evidence of non-native ryegrass. 'As we demonstrate in this work, early human settlement on the islands led to a profound environmental and ecological disturbance,' lead author Pedro Raposeiro of the University of the Azores said in the release. Raposeiro said their study, supported by the Spanish National Research Council, 'highlights the challenge in relying on the historical record to identify relative states of ecosystems or landscape disturbances.' The Azores are a string of nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic some 900 miles off the coast of Portugal and 930 miles northwest of Morocco Based on simulations of climate conditions during that time frame, Giralt's team believes these early visitors were Norse seamen taking advantage of abnormally robust northerly winds and weaker westerly winds to sail from northern Europe. 'Because of the Earth's rotation, westerly winds are dominant in the Atlantic, Giralt said in a statement. Climate conditions during that time frame suggest Norse seamen could have taken advantage of abnormally robust northerly winds and weaker westerly winds to sail from northern Europe to the Azores in the 8th century. The latest research follows a 2015 study out of Cornell University that found genetic similarities between Azorean mice and rodents from northern Europe. 'To actually have firm data supporting that is obviously pretty gratifying,' evolutionary biologist Jeremy Searle, lead author of the Cornell report. Previously, Portuguese archaeologist Nuno Ribeiro has claimed that alleged rock art and a small number of underground structures on the islands put human arrival at more than 2,000 years ago. But other researchers have been unable to confirm these structures are manmade or that they predate De Silves' arrival in the 15th century. Lake Windermere in Cumbria could become 'ecologically dead' within the next few years due to the amount of sewage pumped into the water, a campaigner has warned. Matt Staniek, a conservationist, wildlife advocate, and regular visitor to the lake, launched an online petition calling for an end to sewage dumping in the water. He has called on the government to designate Windermere, the River Rothay and the Brathay as sites of bathing, which would force the environment agency to regularly monitor water quality and ensure it is clean, and safe for swimming. Water UK, water industry trade body, has also called for the creation of clean bathing status areas, as the River Wharfe in Ilkley is currently the only one with that status. 'I was disgusted to find out raw sewage was allowed to flow into Lake Windermere for 1,719 hours in 2020, as part of the overflow system at Ambleside Waste Management Plant,' Mr Staniek said in his petition. Algal blooms have been spotted on the surface, a sign of declining water quality, and campaigners have found evidence of dead fish and invertebrates in the water. Lake Windermere in Cumbria could become 'ecologically dead' within the next few years due to the amount of sewage pumped into the water, campaigners warned. Stock image Matt Staniek, a conservationist, wildlife advocate, and regular visitor to the lake, launched an online petition calling for an end to sewage dumping in the water. Stock image TEN PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE WATER QUALITY Water UK, the industry body for water firms, put forward 10 proposals to improve British water quality in rivers, lakes and other waterways. A national plan for rivers a long-term strategy for rivers involving all partners and the creation of a senior National Plan Steering Group to lead progress Protection in law A new Rivers Act to ensure legal protection and close loopholes Local empowerment Ensure leadership and action at a local level by building on the success of the Catchment Based Approach Accountability Use data to look at all sources of harm in rivers, challenging each sector to put in place concrete steps to tackle all barriers to river health Next-generation monitoring Work towards a national monitoring platform to collate and make available data on ecology, chemistry, and public-health from all rivers Support people Government, manufacturers, and retailers to work together to transform the publics understanding of the water environment, campaigning to help consumers play their part too, especially on wet wipes and unflushables Prioritise nature Embed habitat restoration and species renewal across legislation and spending priorities Abstraction Government to introduce a target under the Environment Bill to reduce the amount of water abstracted for the public water supply Storm Overflows Agree a plan to eliminate the 4% of harm caused by storm overflows to English rivers Bathing Rivers Develop a new approach to Bathing Rivers for the delivery of safe recreational use of inland waters in every region of England Advertisement Mr Staniek says he has seen a 'dire reduction of fresh water vegetation, a significant impact on variety of fish species, and an absence of White Clawed Crayfish.' 'This sort of pollution has a disastrous impact on wildlife. Wildlife that utilise waterways. Wildlife that if absent, can lead to the eventual death of a river,' he said. He says the campaign to designate Windermere a 'clean bathing spot,' is achievable goal and 'will be the first step in the right direction to completely stopping water pollution in a UNESCO World Heritage Site.' I also believe, that it raises awareness to the national scandal that is our rivers. Suffice to say, we have some of the worst rivers in Europe, if not the world.' The Lake District National Park Authority said it is working with partners to develop local actions to address the water quality problem, including septic tanks. Increased tourism, a lack of infrastructure and a high number of private septic tanks are among the problems facing the lake in terms of pollution. In particularly wet weather, waste is spilled into the water from holiday homes and caravan sites in the surrounding area, as well as from sewage and water pipes. United Utilities, which runs wastewater treatment in the area, says it invested 40 million to improve facilities, allowing them to treat 'much greater volumes of sewage to a much higher standard' which reduced the frequency of spills into the lake. The Environment Agency told the Guardian that regulations are enforced robustly and water companies know they have a duty to avoid pollution and must act quickly to address failures and reduce damage if it occurs. It isn't just Mr Staniek calling for tougher regulations. Other groups have said there needs to be tighter controls over water companies pumping sewage into lakes. In July Southern Water was fined 90 million after pleading guilty to 6,971 sewage discharges, pumping it into river and coastal waters in Kent, Hampshire and Sussex. Christine McGourty, chief executive of Water UK, said rivers have been in a state of crisis for most of the last 100 years.' 'And despite progress in recent years, there is still a lot more to do to address the challenges,' she added. 'Water companies are passionate about their own role as stewards of the natural environment and are committed to playing their part,' she said. 'But what's needed is a clear, single, national plan, involving everyone river users, customer groups, environmental charities, government, regulators as well as agriculture, highways, and all the sectors impacting river quality.' It is legal for water companies to 'overflow' sewage into public waters, on rare occasions, in a bid to avoid it flowing out into homes and on to streets. He has called on the government to designate Windermere, the River Rothay and the Brathay as sites of bathing, which would force the environment agency to regularly monitor water quality and ensure it is clean, and safe for swimming. Stock image This is a measure in law only allowed for in exceptional circumstances, which is why Southern Water were fined earlier this year - for repeated overflows since 2015. There is a new amendment to the Environment Bill, recently passed by the House of Lords, that puts a new duty on water companies to 'take all reasonable steps' to ensure untreated swage isn't discharged from overflows into rivers and waterways. The Rivers Trust welcomed the amendment, saying that changes won't happen overnight, but presents a clear and explicit ambition to improve. DNA from remains of Siberian dogs reveals they were interbreeding with other dogs from Europe and the Near East around 5,000 B.C., which means the Arctic communities were trading with those communities 7,000 years ago, far earlier than previously believed. Prior to the study, evidence of glass beads and metal items found in the area suggested trading between the isolated humans and the outside world began just 2,000 years ago. The new research, led by the University of Copenhagen, analyzed DNA from the remains of 49 Siberian dogs and found some were mixed with other dog populations from the Eurasian steppes, the Near East and Europe. The Siberian dogs were deliberately bred with those from other regions, allowing people to sell the mixed offspring off at a high price. DNA from remains of Siberian dogs reveals they were interbreeding with other dogs from Europe and the Near East at least 7,000 years ago, which means the Arctic communities were trading with those nations at that time Altogether, this suggests that these profound transformations in Northwest Siberia were linked with the importation of material culture (including dogs) from neighboring regions through the establishment of large-scale trade networks, according to the study. Dogs appeared in the Arctic about 9,500 years ago, allowing those who inhabited the frozen wasteland to venture outside of the isolated world. In their research, the experts looked at the DNA from dog remains ranging from 9,500 to 2,000 years ago. The earliest remains analyzed in the study were uncovered near a range of nonlocal materials found in Northwest Siberia, which previously set the timeline of the ancient trademark. The remains, discovered in 2016, were unearthed in a dog graveyard at an archaeological site known as Ust-Polui, located in Salekhard, in Russia's Arctic circle. In total, the remains of 115 dogs were were found. The new research, led by the University of Copenhagen, analyzed DNA from the remains of 49 Siberian dogs and found some were mixed with other dog populations from the Eurasian steppes, the Near East and Europe. The map shows spots where the remains were found The discovery suggests humans and dogs were living side-by-side for thousands of years, but along with the remains were artifacts not native to the region. A team of scientists led by the University of Alberta in Canada used the goods to determine when the Siberian community began trading with the outside world. However, Tatiana Feuerborn, an archeologist at the University of Copenhagen, told Science News that she and her team wondered if these dog remains and others in Siberia could reveal a different timeline of an ancient trade network. According to the research, the ancient Arctic dogs likely inhabited a large region of Siberia from the New Siberian Islands to Lake Baikal. However, their purebred lineage was altered over the last 7,000 years by several introductions of dogs from the Eurasian Steppe and Western Eurasia. For the study, the team analyzed DNA from 2,000-year-old dog remains that were uncovered near a range of nonlocal materials found in Northwest Siberia. The remains, discovered in 2016, were unearthed in a dog graveyard at an archaeological site called Ust-Polui, which is in a town called Salekhard in Russia's Arctic circle a total of 115 dogs were found Some of these introductions coincide with periods of major transformations within Northwest Siberian societies, including the introduction of metallurgy to the Arctic, the advent of the use of reindeer for transportation (2,000 years ago), and the rise of reindeer pastoralism, 800 years ago, reads the study. Altogether, this suggests that these profound transformations in Northwest Siberia were linked with the importation of material culture (including dogs) from neighboring regions through the establishment of large-scale trade networks. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Instagram, Facebook and Messenger went again on Friday night for some users for the second time in a week. The Friday outage occurred just days after the social networking giant bundled a server update that led to a global outage for more than seven hours, leading to calls from politicians for the company's monopoly to be broken up. Web monitoring group Downdetector showed there were more than 32,000 incidents of people reporting issues with Instagram on Friday from around 7pm GMT. A smaller number of people, around 2,000 in both the UK and the US, reported they were unable to access Facebook, with the reports also coming in at around 7pm. Some users reported that the social media platforms were back up and running by around 8pm GMT, with Facebook saying the issue was fixed at 10pm GMT. Hundreds of millions of people were unable to access Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp for more than zeven hours on Monday, underscoring the world's reliance on platforms owned by the Silicon Valley giant. Pictured: A map of the UK showing where people reported they had lost access to Facebook owned social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram Pictured: A map of the US showing where the outages were reported on Downdetector Facebook acknowledged the outage at around 8:20pm, writing on Twitter: 'We're aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and we apologize for any inconvenience.' Instagram's communications Twitter account write: 'We know some of you may be having some issues using Instagram right now. We're so sorry and are working as quickly as possible to fix.' On Twitter, the hashtag #Instagramisdown was becoming increasingly popular on Friday after it was used on Monday as people's go-to during the previous outage. Facebook acknowledged the issue at around 8:20pm, writing on Twitter: 'We're aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. 'We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and we apologize for any inconvenience.' Instagram's communications Twitter account added: 'We know some of you may be having some issues using Instagram right now. We're so sorry and are working as quickly as possible to fix.' Downdetector only tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform. The outage might have affected a larger number of users. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. Web monitoring group Downdetector showed there were more than 32,000 incidents of people reporting issues with Instagram on Friday at around 7pm GMT On Downdetector, fewer users reported an outage on Facebook, with around 1,700 people saying they were having trouble accessing the platform As was the case on Monday, people were quick to post memes on Twitter about the Facebook platforms going down on Friday night. Many called for the company to fix their apps, while others posted variations on the themes of waiting for them to come back online for them. Others on Twitter noted how their preferred app was still functioning, poking fun at those who tend to use Facebook or Instagram. 'Get it together Zuckerberg' one person wrote, along with a meme captioned 'Fix It'. Another wrote: 'Waiting for Instagram to get restored' along with pictures of Mr Bean standing in a field checking his watch. The latest outage occurs four days after Facebook suffered an error during a routine maintenance on its network of data centres that caused a global collapse. Facebook saw an estimated $100million in lost revenue, and the outage was caused when a faulty update that disconnected its servers from the internet, meaning engineers had to travel to its Santa Clara data center to fix the glitch in-person. It blocked access to apps for billions of users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, further intensifying weeks of scrutiny for the nearly $1 trillion company. In a blog post apologising for the outage, Santosh Janardhan, Facebook's Vice President of Engineering and Infrastructure, said the collapse also impacted many of Facebook's internal tools and systems that it uses in its day-to-day operations, making it harder to solve the issue. As was the case on Monday, people were quick to post memes on Twitter (pictured) about the Facebook platforms going down on Friday night 'Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centres caused issues that interrupted this communication,' Janardhan wrote in the blog post. 'This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centres communicate, bringing our services to a halt.' The outage on Monday was the largest Downdetector had ever seen and blocked access to apps for billions of users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It also came just hours after former employee whistleblower Frances Haugen went public with how the company puts profits above morals, and a day before her testimony in front of Congress. Haugen testified on the US' Capitol Hill after she leaked reams of internal research to authorities and The Wall Street Journal, which has fueled one of Facebook's most serious crises yet. 'I believe that Facebook's products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy,' Haugen told a Senate panel. 'Congressional action is needed. They won't solve this crisis without your help,' she added. Frances Haugen on Tuesday appeared before Congress to discuss the workings of Facebook. She suggested a government entity be created to regulate Facebook during the scathing Senate hearing Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday evening defended his company, saying it was 'frustrating' to see a 'false picture' of Facebook being painted by Haugen In her testimony, she emphasized the power held by a service that is tightly woven into the daily lives of billions of users. She also noted the risks that the social media giant's platforms are fueling a contagion of eating disorders, body-shaming and self-dissatisfaction that is particularly dangerous for young people. 'There are going to be women walking around this planet in 60 years with brittle bones because of the choices that Facebook made around emphasizing profit today,' she said, referring to the impact of eating disorders. Facebook pushed back hard against the Journal stories underpinned by the voluminous internal studies that Haugen leaked, and the company fiercely objected to her testimony on Tuesday. A Facebook statement called her 'a former product manager who worked at the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives.' 'We don't agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about,' said the statement from Lena Pietsch, director of policy communications. 'It's been 25 years since the rules for the internet have been updated... it is time for Congress to act,' she said, echoing Facebook's previous position that regulation is the responsibility of lawmakers, not private companies. Haugen, a 37-year-old data scientist from Iowa who has worked for companies including Google and Pinterest, delivered hours of testimony that showed a developed understanding of Facebook's mentality. 'A lot of the changes I'm talking about are not going to make Facebook an unprofitable company,' she said. 'It just won't be a ludicrously profitable company like it is today.' She returned repeatedly to the idea that Facebook is a platform where human behavior was being manipulated to keep people on the app and engaged. Haugen noted that she believed Facebook was not intrinsically bad, but rather needed external intervention to guide it away from a place that breeds toxicity. Experts were uncertain that the revelations from Haugen's testimony would serve to end years of partisan squabbles on the matter. 'It's possible, but far from assured, that today's hearing will mark a real inflection point,' said Paul Barrett, deputy director of New York University's Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Why DID Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger go down on Monday? Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were all brought down for almost seven hours on Monday in a massive global outage. Problems began at around 16:45 BST (11:45 ET), leaving users unable to access the three platforms, as well as Facebook Messenger and Oculus, for the rest of the evening. Facebook, which owns all the services, has blamed the outage on a bungled server update and insists it was not an attack from outside the company. The US tech giant said the problem was caused by a faulty update that was sent to its core servers, which effectively disconnected them from the internet. But what exactly went wrong and why did it take more almost seven hours to fix? Here is MailOnline's breakdown of the issue... Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were all brought down for almost seven hours yesterday in a massive global outage. The US tech giant said the problem was caused by a faulty update that was sent to its core servers, which effectively disconnected them from the internet A Facebook staff member reportedly accidentally deleted large sections of the code (pictured) which keeps the website online WHAT IS THE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM AND HOW DOES IT WORK? The Domain Name System, or DNS, is the directory of the internet. Whenever you click on a link, send an email, open a mobile app, often one of the first things that has to happen is your device needs to look up the address of a domain. There are two sides of the DNS network: the authoritative side, ie webpages and other content, and the resolver side, devices that are trying to access this content. Every domain needs to have an authoritative DNS provider, servers which store DNS records. Amazon, Cloudflare and Google are among the bigger names in authoritative DNS server provision. On the other side of the DNS system are resolvers. Every device that connects to the Internet needs a DNS resolver. By default, these resolvers are automatically set by whatever network you're connecting to. So, for most Internet users, when they connect to an ISP, or a WiFi hot spot, or a mobile network, the network operator will dictate what DNS resolver to use. The problem is that these DNS services are often slow and don't respect your privacy. What many Internet users don't realise is that even if you're visiting a website that is encrypted, indicated by the green padlock in your browser's address bar, that doesn't keep your DNS resolver from knowing the identity of all the sites you visit. That means, by default, your ISP, every WiFi network you've connected to, and your mobile network provider have a list of every site you've visited while using them. Advertisement Why did Facebook go offline? Facebook issued a statement saying the cause of the problem was a configuration change to the company's 'backbone routers', which coordinate network traffic between the tech giant's data centres. 'This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt,' the statement said. Web security firm CloudFlare offered more details about what happened, revealing that Facebook had effectively vanished from the internet. The social media company made a series of updates to its border gateway protocol (BGP), CloudFlare's chief technology officer John Graham-Cunningham said, causing it to 'disappear'. The BGP allows for the exchange of routing information on the internet and takes people to the websites they want to access. It is essentially the roadmap that transports you to the location of each website known as the Domain Name System (DNS) or its IP address. As a consequence of the BGP problems, it meant DNS resolvers all over the world stopped resolving their domain names. Why were Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger also down? It wasn't just Facebook that went offline - its associated services Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger were affected, too. Some people also reported issues with Facebook's virtual reality headset platform, Oculus. This is because the tech giant has a centralised, single back end for all of its products. Facebook runs its own systems through the same servers, meaning everything needed to fix the problem from digital engineering tools to messaging services, even key-fob door locks was also taken offline. Matthew Hodgson, co-founder and CEO of Element and Technical Co-founder of Matrix, said the outage illustrated the advantage of having a 'more reliable' decentralised system that doesn't put 'all the eggs in one basket'. 'There's no single point of failure so they can withstand significant disruption and still keep people and businesses communicating,' he added. It wasn't just Facebook that went offline - its associated services Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger were affected, too. Some people also reported issues with Facebook's virtual reality headset platform, Oculus How many people were affected? Downdetector, which tracks outages, said it was the biggest failure it has ever seen, with 10.6 million problem reports around the world. In total, Facebook has 2.9 billion monthly active users. The issues started at 16:44 BST (11:44 ET), with nearly 80,000 reports for WhatsApp and more than 50,000 for Facebook, according to DownDetector. From around 22:30 BST (17:30 ET), some users were reporting that they were able to access the four platforms once again. However, Facebook did not work again for many people until at least an hour after that. WhatsApp said it was back up at running 'at 100 per cent' as of 3:30 BST (22:30 ET) this morning. Could it have been a cyber attack? Interestingly, Facebook's statement is carefully written and doesn't rule out foul play. That being said, the chances of it being an external cyber attack seem unlikely. A massive denial-of-service hack that could overwhelm one of the world's most popular sites would require either coordination among powerful criminal groups or a very innovative technique. Sabotage by an insider, however, would be theoretically possible, according to tech experts. What's also eye-opening is that the outage hampered Facebook's ability to address the problem, because it took down internal tools needed to fix it. This meant the issue lasted for nearly seven hours, which is highly unusual. Users around the world reported problems with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp on Downdetector RECENT FACEBOOK OUTAGES Last month, a technical issue with Facebook-owned Instagram caused an outage that plagued users around the world for 16 hours. Problems started just after 8am on Thursday. About 18 hours later, at 2am on Friday, Instagram announced the problem had been fixed. However, the last time Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down at the same time was in June. More than a thousand people in countries including the United States, Morocco, Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil reported outages. There were also two Facebook platform outages in March, with Instagram down on March 30, and all three down on March 19. Advertisement It compounded a difficult week for Facebook, which has faced accusations of easing up on efforts to stop misinformation, allowing hate to be magnified on its platforms and beidang aware that Instagram can harm teenage girls' mental health. The disruption also occurred just 24 hours after a former Facebook employee gave an interview to CBS News after leaking documents about the social network. Whistleblower Frances Haugen, who is scheduled to testify before a Senate subcommittee this week, said the company had prioritised 'growth over safety'. Facebook insisted it was 'just not true' to suggest the company encouraged bad content or did nothing in response. Cybersecurity specialist Jake Moore said: 'It is quite interesting that Facebook's statement has not ruled out foul play. 'Like the locks on a bank safe, the money inside is only as secure as the person with the keys cybersecurity is as much about a company's own internal security procedures as it is about fending off outsider attacks.' He reiterated that it was 'not due to an external cyber attack' because web blackouts more often originate from an undiscovered software bug or human error. So was it a mistake by someone within Facebook? There's every chance it could have been an accident rather than an intentional act of sabotage. It has been claimed that a Facebook staff member may have accidentally deleted large sections of the code which keeps the website online. Facebook said its engineering teams had identified 'configuration changes' to its backbone routers that brought its services to a halt. The company said these changes caused a disruption to network traffic and blocked communication between its data centres. Employees' work passes and email were also reportedly affected by the internal issue. Why did it take so long to resolve the problem? When Facebook's platforms went offline, engineers rushed to the company's data centres to reset the servers manually, only to find they couldn't get inside. New York Times' technology reporter Sheera Frenkel told BBC's Today programme this was part of the reason it took so long to fix the issue. 'The people trying to figure out what this problem was couldn't even physically get into the building' to work out what had gone wrong, she said. To make matters worse, one insider claimed the outage was further exacerbated because large numbers of staff are still working from home in the wake of Covid, meaning it took longer for them to get to the data centres. Downdetector, which tracks outages, said it was the biggest failure it has ever seen, with 10.6 million problem reports around the world. Pictured, the issues starting at 16:44 BST (11:44 ET) Engineers were rushed to the company's data centres in Santa Clara, California (pictured), to reset the servers manually Facebook has not yet gone into much detail about how the issue was finally fixed but it is understood that engineers had to manually reset the servers where the problem originated. Software testing expert, Adam Leon Smith of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, said: 'It is unlikely the issues were directly caused by people working from home, however it is quite possible that it took so long to restore the service because of reduced staffing within the data centre. 'This would compound the problem because the nature of the failure meant that remote access to the data centre was also unavailable.' How much did the outage cost? During the blackout, Facebook shares plunged by five per cent, wiping an estimated $7 billion (5 million) off founder Mark Zuckerberg's personal fortune. The website Fortune also estimated that seven hours of downtime could have cost the company up to $100 million (73 million) in lost ad revenue. But it's not just Facebook which will have lost out. Businesses who rely on its services are also likely to have lost huge sums of money, although so far there have not been any cost estimates for exactly how much. NetBlocks, which tracks internet outages and their impact, estimates that the outage cost the global economy $160 million (117 million). What are the chances of it happening again? The huge global outage Facebook experienced is a fairly uncommon one, although there's not a lot the company can do to avoid a similar situation because of its centralised back end system. Along with the Fastly outage in June caused by a single customer changing their settings and Cloudflare going offline in 2020, it shows the problem of having a single point of failure for a huge number of services that people use. There are currently no obvious solutions to this, but this latest outage is likely to reignite the debate around internet infrastructure. For many individuals and businesses too, the incident showed just how much they depend on Facebook and its services not just to communicate, but also to log in to other platforms. In response, people have been encouraged to consider using other credentials beyond their Facebook log-in details to access other online services. Advertisement Dark satanic mills, racing pigeons and curlers at the checkout if this is your idea of Lancashire, you really need to watch less telly and get out more. Theres no better place to do that than in the Forest of Bowland. Think rippling green fells flecked with sheep and babbling streams. Its a hikers and cyclists paradise with great pubs along the way. Mind you, its hard to know what to believe in the Forest of Bowland. For a start, theres no forest at least not since the Middle Ages, when the term was used to denote a royal hunting ground. Bewitching: A farm in the Forest of Bowland. Will says the area is filled with 'rippling green fells flecked with sheep and babbling streams' Lofty: Pendle Hill, pictured, is 1,827ft high at its summit and one of the Forest of Bowland's most famous landmarks On the other hand, if locals talk to you about witches, well, those tales are definitely true. In the early 17th century, Pendle Hill the areas most famous landmark and, at 1,827 ft, a good climb to blow away the cobwebs was home to two families headed by elderly widows, Old Demdike and Old Chattox, who accused each other of sorcery. The feud ended in the gallows for ten most members of the two clans, but other neighbours, too. Back then, the area was described as being fabled for its theft, violence and sexual laxity but these days it draws walkers who come for the fabulous views. If you want to tour the area in your car, theres a Pendle Witch Trail leaflet to download from Visit Lancashires website, steering you from Barrowford, past Pendle Hill itself and across the Trough of Bowland, ending up at Lancaster, where most of the accused witches were tried. J. R. R Tolkien spent time here at Stonyhurst College in the 1940s. The landscape so inspired him that its easy to link some spots to his descriptions in The Lord Of The Rings. Pictured is Cromwell's Bridge in the Trough of Bowland, which features on the Pendle Witch Trail The Lord Of The Rings author J. R. R Tolkien spent time at Stonyhurst College, pictured above, in the 1940s J.R.R. Tolkien, pictured, loved the area. According to Will, 'the landscape so inspired him that its easy to link some spots to his descriptions in The Lord Of The Rings' You can see for yourself on the five-and-a-half-mile circular Tolkien Trail, which starts in tiny Hurst Green. Details are on the website of the Shireburn Arms hotel there, which serves up dishes such as Lancashire cheese and onion pie and slow-roasted lamb shank. On a brooding midweek afternoon, with low mist tickling the hilltops, I tucked into fish pie and sticky toffee pudding at The Inn at Whitewell, a lovely country hotel and pub which was buzzing with locals and visitors. I then spent a pleasurable few hours walking, with hardly anyone else about, exploring the fells and wildflower meadows lower down. Almost 6,400 acres of land round here is owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, i.e. the Queen. You can stay in the dog-friendly, two-bedroom holiday cottage on Root Farm, owned by the Duchy. Nearby is Clitheroe, a handsome place with a ruined medieval castle. The town is a good base if you want to explore with more amenities available. Its mentioned in about 1050, when the area was under the control of Earl Leofric, husband to the more-famous Lady Godiva. Pausing at Holmes Mill, an 1820s former textile factory, which is now an upmarket venue with a hotel, cinema, bar, restaurant and food hall, I pick up snacks for a posh picnic on my hike. I visit D Byrne & Co, a wine merchant with an impressive choice, and pick out a Californian Zinfandel for my next walk. I decide to save it for the top of Pendle Hill, a suitable reward for a steep climb and Dutch courage in case I come across any witches. Susan George checks in to our travel Q&A This week actress Susan George checks in to our travel Q&A. She talks about her earliest holiday memory, her favourite foreign city, her future travel plans - and more. EARLIEST HOLIDAY MEMORY? Going with my nanny, Dorothy, to stay in her familys caravan in Fontygary Bay, South Wales, when I was nine. I loved swimming in the rain just as well, as it rained a heck of a lot. FIRST TRIP ABROAD? I went to Le Treport, a little fishing village in Normandy, with my parents in the mid-1960s. I met a sweet French boy and we had a holiday romance, holding hands while walking along the beach. FAVOURITE FOREIGN CITY? Vienna, which I often visited with my late husband, the actor Simon MacCorkindale. It is particularly beautiful at Christmas time. TOP VIENNA TIP? Simon was a great opera fan and Ill never forget him taking me to the citys opera house. Seeing the Vienna Boys Choir is another must. MOST EXOTIC TRIP? Getting married to Simon on Fiji, in the South Pacific, in 1984. It doesnt get any more exotic than that. TOP BEAUTY TIP IF FLYING? Moisturise your skin; drink lots of water. CANT TRAVEL WITHOUT? Good strong teabags, sunglasses and my little teddy bear, Merrick. Susan says she fell in love with India when she appeared on the The Real Marigold Hotel. Pictured is the Taj Mahal, one of India's most treasured monuments WHERE NEXT? Most likely the South of France, then California to visit my best friend Olivia Newton-John, whom I havent been able to see for two years. DREAM DESTINATION? I fell in love with India when I appeared on The Real Marigold Hotel, so Id love to go back there. Id like to revisit Niagara Falls and feel the spray on my face, too. Advertisement By night, it looks like a Space Invader. You see it from a great distance, lit white and hanging eerily above the flat, ink-black land. The Ely Octagon: the most remarkable feature of Englands most remarkable cathedral. As though it were built by aliens: which, of course, it was. William the Bastard and his Norman conquerors had it easy as they marched north from Hastings. London fell easily, then Colchester, Stansted, Cambridge. The loot they seized paid for the castles they flung up to consolidate the regime change. The model worked with ruthless efficiency, until Ely. There, things began to unravel. Ethereal: Cambridgeshire's Ely Cathedral, built by William the Conqueror, surrounded by mist Englands eastern seaboard was different from the shingle and solid cliffs of Pevensey Bay. This was semi-tidal marshland: shifting, mysterious, unreadable. The backwaters of the Wash formed soggy meres, reedbed cover, mists, will-o-the-wisps and quagmire. In heavy armour, riding heavy horses, and duped by Hereward the Wakes guerilla resistance, the French were literally sunk. Founded in the 6th century, Ely was queen of all the East Anglian monasteries and she held out longest, until her treacherous abbot betrayed Hereward, and The Last Englishman finally capitulated. The abbey burned, and the conquerors replaced it with todays cathedral, whose soaring buttresses and miraculous octagonal central lantern appear defiantly French. The monks subsisted largely on eels. Hence the name, Ely. For centuries, this vast flat landscape was the province of their osier trappers, wildfowl hunters on their punts and thatchers gathering the reeds. Today, under huge skies, birdwatchers, photographers and cyclists can relish a landscape unique to England. Another invasion, that of William of Oranges six centuries later, would drain the swamps. Pioneering Dutch engineers dug channels and built windmills to pump the water into the Wash. Ely's cathedral has soaring buttresses and a miraculous octagonal central lantern that appear defiantly French TRAVEL FACTS Doubles at Poets House, a boutique hotel 100 yards from Ely Cathedral, from 190 (poetshouse.co.uk). See visitely.org.uk. Advertisement Todays oarsmen prize these long clear stretches of water: the lockdown Boat Race was staged here. These waterways and their riverbank pubs are perfect for narrowboat holidays. At Elys marina, cabin boats can be hired out. Not far away is Elys respected Waterside Antiques Centre in a maze of former granary maltings. Thanks to a new chain of wetland sanctuaries, the wildfowl are returning. At Welney, in winter you can see the migratory swans being fed. Wicken Fen is adorned with a beautiful bird hide, The Mother, and at Lakenheath, next to the American airbase out of which roar supersonic fighter jets, is the RSPB mereland which resounds instead to the boom of bittern. Elys railway station, with its direct links to London, Norwich, Kings Lynn, Manchester and Liverpool, is the gateway to all this. If eco-tourism, which requires neither jet travel nor kennelling, is with us to stay, then Ely is in for a boom. But a third invasion is taking place. Nearby North Cambridge Eldorado for the techno-industries is mushrooming, endangering the fragile magic of this landscape. And swathes of new housing is rampaging to the north of Ely. The southerly views have for now been protected by the water-meadows purchase by, of all people, Jeffrey Archer: they are seen to their staggering best from the newly-refurbished Ely Old Hall hotel. Nonetheless, Network Rail now proposes a road bridge whose pilings, campaigners say, will destroy Elys lakeside SSSI reserves, which are the last nesting grounds for bittern, marsh harrier and Cettis Warbler. Legend says Hereward was not killed, but transformed into a white wolf, to return at greatest time of threat. To Hereward, this landscape would still be familiar. To those for whom it is unfamiliar, it offers riches. Lets hope a white wolf stalks the corridors of the city planners because you dont know what youve got till its gone. The Holiday Guru is always on hand to answer your questions. This week he helps one reader with a query about the entry requirements for Portugal - and advises another on whether they need to take a PCR test to visit France. Q. We are travelling to Portugal on September 22. When we checked the FCDO advice, it wasnt entirely clear whether a negative test certificate is required before travel, as the wording was vague. Can you help? Mrs Janet Dunbar, via email. Get on track: Tourists need proof of a negative test to enjoy Portugals sights, such as Lisbon A. This week Portugal changed its rules. Now you must show a negative PCR (taken up to 72 hours before travel) or antigen/lateral flow test (up to 48 hours before) but you do not need to be fully vaccinated. Those aged 11 and under do not need tests or vaccines. Q. My wife and I fly to France with Ryanair next week. I understand we do not need a PCR test to enter France, as we are fully vaccinated. However, I have been told that Ryanair requires a test. Is this true? J Peers, via email. A. Follow the advice found at Frances Entry requirements page at gov.uk, which says fully vaccinated people do not need a test. Ryanair does not have its own rules. See ryanair.com/ie/en/useful-info/map-page. The Holiday Guru answers questions from two travellers who are visiting France this month Q. We are due to travel to France at the end of September. The rules state we will need to take a PCR test on or before day two of our return. But I had Covid in August and understand that I should not have another PCR for 90 days, as it may give a false positive result. Can you advise? J. Nicholls, via email. A. Even though you are technically exempt, you will still need to book the test. This is because you will need to be given a code from the test supplier for your return Passenger Locator Form. You will then need to take the test. If its positive, call the NHS Test and Trace line on 119. Q. We are taking a cruise from Dover to six ports in Spain. We shall only stay in each for a few hours. Will we need to take a PCR test on return to the UK? Jean Farrell, via email. A. Yes, you will need to follow the rules for returning from an amber-list country. See the travel traffic light rules at gov.uk, gov.scot, gov.wales and nidirect.gov.uk. Q. We plan to drive to Italy. If we have to take a PCR test 48 hours before returning to England, we would take it in Italy, but we would be returning by ferry from France. Is this OK? Derek Passmore, via email. The Guru provides advice about PCR testing for a reader who is planning to drive to Italy A. Such a test can be taken up to 72 hours before coming back. Tests done at authorised clinics in Italy should be accepted in France and Britain. Q. I have been told I could enter the U.S. from Bermuda after isolating for two weeks. Is this so? My family lives in America and I havent seen them since before the first lockdown, when my husband died of Covid. I turn 90 in October and I have yet to see my nine-month-old great-grandson. Jean Ham, via email. A. Condolences on your loss. It is possible to visit the U.S. from any country other than the UK, those in the Schengen zone, Ireland, Iran, India, Brazil, China or South Africa as long as you have not been in any of these places within the past 14 days. You will need to take a Covid test in Bermuda 72 hours before departure, plus another test between days three and five of your arrival in America. WERE HERE TO HELP If you need advice, the Holiday Guru is here to answer your questions. Email us at holidayplanner@dailymail.co.uk. Married At First Sight alum Jessica Power is known for her impressive bikini body. But on Thursday, the 28-year-old stunner offered fans a candid glimpse of her figure without the flattering lens of Instagram. The influencer exposed the often unrealistic world of social media by drawing attention to her stomach rolls in a poolside snap. Picture perfect? Jessica Power is known for her impressive bikini body, but she offered fans a candid glimpse of her figure without the flattering lens of Instagram on Thursday She compared a posed photo with a candid one that was less flattering, and shared a powerful message about body confidence. 'Instagram vs reality: another body positive post because I love you all and I love hearing how you queens find confidence from me posting these types of photos,' she wrote. 'I find it really important to use my platform to show that - despite what you see on my feed, I am a normal girl a normal girl who just loves her curves, stretch marks and imperfections.' The blonde bombshell told her followers not to compare themselves to people they see on social media because a lot goes in to getting the 'perfect shot'. Instagram vs reality: The influencer exposed the often unrealistic world of social media by drawing attention to her stomach rolls in this poolside snap 'Ladies, please remember that sometimes it can take lighting, angles, 50 different photos and two editing apps for me to achieve a photo I decide to upload on here,' she wrote. 'As long as I'm waking up feeling secure and confident in myself then I'm having a good day so bugger what other people say about my appearance! 'I think all of you are beautiful on so take this advice from me and wear what you want, eat what you what so long as above all you love yourself [and] remember that true beauty shines from the inside out!' This is not the first time Jessika has spoken out about such issues. Last month, the star shared a relatable post exposing the reality of glamorous social media photo shoots. Another one: Last month, the star shared a relatable post exposing the reality of glamorous social media photo shoots 'Don't beat yourself up': She shared a glossy photo to Instagram while posing in black lingerie. The seemingly effortless image was juxtaposed by another picture of Jessika that showed her 'tummy, stretch marks and cellulite' She shared a glossy photo to Instagram while posing in black lingerie. The seemingly effortless image was juxtaposed by another picture of Jessika that showed her 'tummy, stretch marks and cellulite'. Jessika first found fame on Married At First Sight in 2019. She will soon make her debut on Channel Seven's Big Brother VIP. The inner workings of Facebook are being turned into a new TV series entitled Doomsday Machine, with Claire Foy coming aboard. The 37-year-old actress, who won an Emmy in 2018 for playing Queen Elizabeth II on Netflix's The Crown, has signed on to play Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project is based on the book The Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination, written by New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang. Claire: The inner workings of Facebook are being turned into a new TV series entitled Doomsday Machine, with Claire Foy coming aboard COO: The 37-year-old actress, who won an Emmy in 2018 for playing Queen Elizabeth II on Netflix's The Crown, has signed on to play Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (above), according to The Hollywood Reporter The series will be based on both the book, published by HarperCollins in July, and on the authors' reporting for The New York Times, and reporting from The New Yorker's Andrew Marantz. The project hails from Anonymous Content and Wiip, though it does not have a network or streaming home quite yet. The show is described as, 'the riveting human drama chronicling the political and social minefields Facebook has navigated on its relentless quest for growth.' Relentless: The show is described as, 'the riveting human drama chronicling the political and social minefields Facebook has navigated on its relentless quest for growth. Doomsday Machine will chronicle the past five years at Facebook, starting with the misinformation spread on the platform during the 2016 Presidential election. It will lead up to the most recent revelations unearthed by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal about some users finding ways to get around the platform's rules, and how they knew about the negative mental health impacts that Facebook-owned Instagram has on young users. The show will follow both Foy's Sandberg and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 'as they shape the way billions of people communicate and consume information.' Facebook: Doomsday Machine will chronicle the past five years at Facebook, starting with the misinformation spread on the platform during the 2016 Presidential election Real Sheryl: The show will follow both Foy's Sandberg and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 'as they shape the way billions of people communicate and consume information.' The series will be written by Pultizer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar (Disgraced, Homeland Elegies), who will executive produce with Frenkel and Kang. Marantz will serve as a consultant, with Anonymous Contents AC Studios and Wiip producing the series. Foy won her second Emmy for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown earlier this year, though this time it was for Outstanding Guest Actress In a Drama Series. Emmy winner: Foy won her second Emmy for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown earlier this year, though this time it was for Outstanding Guest Actress In a Drama Series She recently starred in My Son with James McAvoy and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain with Taika Waititi and Benedict Cumberbatch, in theaters October 22. She'll next be seen in Women Talking with Rooney Mara, Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand, arriving next year. Foy also stars in A Very British Scandal, based on the notorious divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll during the 1960s. New roles: She recently starred in My Son with James McAvoy and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain with Taika Waititi and Benedict Cumberbatch, in theaters October 22 Georgia Steel attended the boohooMAN x Toby Launch event in London on Thursday night, where she was joined by her reality star pals Joanna Chimonides and Kady McDermott. The former Love Island contestant, 23, sent temperatures soaring as she flashed her toned pins in an asymmetrical minidress featuring multi-coloured swirled prints. She added inches to her frame with a pair of charcoal lace-up heels and clutched a coordinating small handbag at the event - in celebration of 2021 villa alum Toby Aromolaran's collection. Wow! Georgia Steel attended the boohooMAN x Toby Launch event in London on Thursday night, where she was joined by her reality star pals Joanna Chimonides and Kady McDermott Sensational: Meanwhile, Joanna, 22, (left) set pulses racing while putting her toned midriff on display in a long-sleeved brown crop top featuring lighter stripes. Kady, 26, (right) showcased her svelte waist in a cropped white blazer, which she teamed up with a pair of light blue distressed jeans The brunette beauty wore her luscious locks in a chic fringe and accessorised her ensemble with a dazzling gold chain bracelet. Meanwhile, Joanna, 22, set pulses racing while putting her toned midriff on display in a long-sleeved brown crop top featuring lighter stripes. The reality star slipped into a pair of military-style black tracksuit bottoms and elevated her height with a pair of brown leather strapped heels. She clutched a miniature neon pink handbag and wore her sandy tresses in beachy waves. The former Love Island contestant, 23, sent temperatures soaring as she flashed her toned pins in an asymmetrical minidress featuring multi-coloured swirled prints Woah! The reality star slipped into a pair of military-style black tracksuit bottoms and elevated her height with a pair of brown leather strapped heels Hot stuff: She clutched a miniature neon pink handbag and wore her sandy tresses in beachy waves Incredible: She wore her gorgeous chocolate hair in a middle parting and clutched a snowy leather handbag while donning a coordinating pair of heels Kady, 26, showcased her svelte waist in a cropped white blazer, which she teamed up with a pair of light blue distressed jeans. She wore her gorgeous chocolate hair in a middle parting and clutched a snowy leather handbag while donning a coordinating pair of heels. Toby Aromolaran appeared to be in high spirits as he flashed a pair of thumbs-up while donning a trendy white bomber jacket. He teamed up the number with a beige pair of military-style trousers which matched his T-shirt and trainers. Man of the moment: Toby Aromolaran appeared to be in high spirits as he flashed a pair of thumbs-up while donning a trendy white bomber jacket in celebration of his collection Laid back: He teamed up the number with a beige pair of military-style trousers which matched his T-shirt and trainers Pals: Georgia and Joanna showed onlookers they were quite the team, while clutching each other's hand while making their way to the star-studded party Happy: Demi Jones (left) appeared to be in high spirits as she flashed a beaming smile while sporting a black mini dress featuring multiple cutouts. Arabella Chi (right) oozed confidence as she strutted her way into the venue in a light denim ensemble consisting of a chic jacket, distressed hot pants and thigh-high boots Demi Jones appeared to be in high spirits as she flashed a beaming smile while sporting a black mini dress featuring multiple cutouts. Sharon Gaffka flashed her black lace bra beneath an unmissable hot pink blazer, which she combined with a matching pair of trousers. The brunette beauty wore her beautiful brown tresses in beachy waves and completed her ensemble with a pair of dazzling gold earrings. Belle Hassan sent temperatures soaring as she showed off some serious underboob in a busty brown checkered halter neck top. Team: Sharon Gaffka (right) flashed her black lace bra beneath an unmissable hot pink blazer while Belle Hassan (left) showed off some serious underboob in a busty brown checkered halter neck top Heading home: The brunette beauty wore her beautiful brown tresses in beachy waves and completed her ensemble with a pair of dazzling gold earrings Cute: Liam Gatsby looked dapper in an onyx blazer featuring a pink pocket handkerchief as he cuddled up to Dani Imbert, who flashed her ample assets in a multi-coloured bra top Adorable: Eve and Jess Gale exhibited their hourglass figures in tight bodycon dresses as they sweetly held each other's hand Striking: They both left little to the imagination while posing up a storm in their skimpy ensembles Arabella Chi oozed confidence as she strutted her way into the venue in a light denim ensemble consisting of a chic jacket, distressed hot pants and thigh-high boots. Eve and Jess Gale exhibited their hourglass figures in tight bodycon dresses as they sweetly held each other's hand. Liam Gatsby looked dapper in an onyx blazer featuring a pink pocket handkerchief as he cuddled up to Dani Imbert, who flashed her ample assets in a multi-coloured bra top. Georgia Harrison sported a glossy leather black jacket and coordinating trousers, which she layered above a dazzling silver crop top. Demi Sims appeared to be having a whale of a time as she flashed her pearly whites in a black leather Lakers jacket and distressed light blue jeans. Flawless: Georgia Harrison (left) sported a glossy leather black jacket and coordinating trousers, which she layered above a dazzling silver crop top. Kaz Crossley (right) donned a charcoal jacket against coordinating biker shorts and baby pink trainers, wearing her lustrous caramel locks in silky waves Gorgeous: Frankie Sims (left) looked chic in a cream-and-brown trouser suit, while flashing her toned midriff in a coordinating bra top. Tallia Storm (right) ensured she was unmissable while cutting a neon yellow trouser and bra-top ensemble, which showcased her svelte waist Trendy: Dan Osbourne opted for an all-black T-shirt and trouser ensemble, which he layered below a grey checkered shirt Kaz Crossley donned a charcoal jacket against coordinating biker shorts and baby pink trainers, wearing her lustrous caramel locks in silky waves. Dan Osbourne opted for a trendy all-black T-shirt and trouser ensemble, which he layered below a grey checkered shirt. Frankie Sims looked chic in a cream-and-brown trouser suit, while flashing her toned midriff in a coordinating bra top. Tallia Storm ensured she was unmissable while cutting a neon yellow trouser and bra-top ensemble, which showcased her svelte waist. She gave birth to her baby daughter Dylan last month. And former Victoria's Secret model Georgia Fowler showed off her post-baby body while posing with her newborn for a series of stunning Instagram photos on Friday. The 29-year-old went topless in the images and wore Calvin Klein underwear. Victoria's Secret model Georgia Fowler showed off her post-baby body in stunning Instagram photos on Friday She looked in a state of bliss as she enjoyed skin-on-skin bonding with her baby. 'Someone told me having a child is like finding the key that unlocks a secret door to your heart in which love flows out of endlessly and forever,' she wrote in the caption. 'This couldnt be more true. We love you so much Dylan Aman.' Georgia and her boyfriend Nathan Dalah welcomed Dylan just three weeks ago in September. Sweet: The 29-year-old went topless in the images and wore Calvin Klein underwear as she enjoyed skin-on-skin bonding with her baby 'Someone told me having a child is like finding the key that unlocks a secret door to your heart in which love flows out of endlessly and forever,' she wrote in the caption. 'This couldnt be more true. We love you so much Dylan Aman' 'Dylan Aman Dalah. 17.9.21. Welcome to the world. We love you so much,' she wrote as she shared a series of photos of the adorable newborn. Georgia announced she was expecting her first child with the FISHBOWL co-founder back in April. At the time, she shared the news by writing: 'We can't wait to meet you, little one.' New addition: Georgia and her boyfriend Nathan Dalah welcomed Dylan just three weeks ago in September 'It's been hard to keep this one quiet, but now it's pretty hard to hide,' she added. 'Nathan and I couldn't be happier to share our exciting news with you. We cannot wait to meet you little one and begin our next adventure together. The best is yet to come.' The couple confirmed their romance in February last year. EastEnders reportedly hit a new low in the ratings after it was beaten by a quiz show and a documentary about traffic police. According to The Sun, a peak of 2.9 million people tuned in to Monday's episode of the BBC soap while Only Connect on BBC2 drew 3.1 million. Meanwhile, ITV's Beyond the Line: North Wales Traffic Cops drew an audience of 3 million at the same time. Dip: EastEnders reportedly hit a new low in the ratings after it was beaten by a quiz show and a documentary about traffic police An insider said: 'This is further proof that EastEnders doesn't have the same pulling power it once had. 'The same night, Emmerdale and Coronation Street enjoyed viewing figures that were more than 50 per cent higher. It's an embarrassing situation.' Only Connect sees contestants compete in teams to find connections between seemingly unrelated clues. The BBC's Media and Arts Correspondent David Sillito took to Twitter to point out the quiz show beat the soap. Ratings: According to The Sun, a peak of 2.9 million people tuned in to Monday's episode of the BBC soap while Only Connect on BBC2 drew 3.1 million He wrote: 'I'm sure I'm not the first to spot it but on Monday evening 'Only Connect' was Britain's most watched TV programme in its timeslot. '@VictoriaCoren and chums even beat Eastenders. This is almost more exciting than the third place play-off.' MailOnline has contacted representatives of EastEnders for comment. Ratings winner: Only Connect sees contestants compete in teams to find connections between seemingly unrelated clues (presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell pictured) Viewers: The BBC's Media and Arts Correspondent David Sillito took to Twitter to point out the quiz show beat the soap It comes after EastEnders star Louisa Lytton spoke out on battling coronavirus soon after giving birth to her first child last month. The actress, 32, who plays Ruby Allen on the BBC soap, welcomed daughter Aura with her fiance Ben Bhanvra in September- but the couple both contracted coronavirus soon after the arrival of their newborn. Louisa explained during an appearance on Loose Women on Thursday: 'It was difficult because I had a long labour which resulted in an emergency C-section and just as we were finding our feet, we then both got Covid. 'So it's not been the best start, but she's been fine throughout, so that's all we can ask for really.' Interview: It comes after EastEnders star Louisa Lytton spoke out on battling coronavirus soon after giving birth to her first child last month The star went on to explain she tried her best to prepare herself for parenthood but admitted she felt there was nothing that could ready her for becoming a mother. She said: 'I just don't think anything prepares you. I read every book, I spoke to every friend and she's the best thing that's ever happened to us, but it is tough.' Louisa is currently taking time out from EastEnders after giving birth, but says she'd happily return to the show in the future, and may even let Aura star as her on-screen child. 'Yeah I could,' she said. 'Definitely, if I go back, it'll be with a child, whether she wants to be part of it, who knows.' NeNe Leakes took to Instagram Wednesday night to talk to her nearly four million followers, and to send a message to a particular group. The 53-year-old mother-of-two appeared on the social media site to thank her fans for their support in the weeks after husband Gregg Leakes' death. 'Thank you to everybody,' she said in the now-expired video clip. 'All the gentleman that have been in my DMs, thank y'all too.' Social media message: NeNe Leakes took to Instagram Wednesday night to talk to her nearly four million followers and to send a message to a particular group The New York-born personality continued, 'I'm just over here doing me right now, but hey! I love reading the messages. They are inspiring to say the least. Thank you.' NeNe lost her husband to colon cancer September 1. He was 66-years-old. In an exclusive conversation with People after he passed, the Real Housewives of Atlanta alum said while her husband was still alive they 'talked a lot, and we made peace with what was happening.' Grateful: The 53-year-old mother-of-two appeared on the social media site to thank her fans for their support in the weeks after husband Gregg Leakes' death The entrepreneur told the publication, 'The last five days before his passing was really beautiful. All of his children were there. His best friends were there. Our closest friends were there. We all sat with him around the clock.' The Linnethia Lounge owner also said Gregg told her, 'I'm not going to leave you. God is going to bless you,' while encouraging her to move on with her life. The couple was together for 25 years before he passed. Giving thanks: 'Thank you to everybody,' she said in the now-expired video clip. 'All the gentleman that have been in my DMs, thank y'all too' On Thursday the media personality used the photo sharing app again to share footage from Wednesday night karaoke at her Duluth, Georgia establishment. In the clips NeNe sat on a booth in the dimly lit lounge as she held a microphone and sang a cover of the song Midnight Train to Georgia. The former Bravo TV star had her long blonde hair down, and wore a black one-piece bodysuit with cream panels, and a pair of Nike sneakers. Later Mrs. Leakes invited fans to join her on Facebook for a Live Audio Room event. Singing her heart out: On Thursday the media personality used the photo sharing app again to share footage from Wednesday night karaoke at her Duluth, Georgia establishment Madonna has finally announced the release of her Madame X documentary as she marked the event with a series of jaw-dropping Instagram snaps. The hitmaker, 63, told her fans that the special was finally available to view on Paramount Plus in the US by joking that her racy alter-ego was 'giving birth today', to the show. Decked out in an all-black ensemble of leather, lace and fishnets, the Queen Of Pop penned the caption: 'Madame X is giving birth today. . Help her push.. #madamex streaming on @paramountplus.' Debut: Madonna has finally announced the release of her Madame X documentary as she marked the event with a series of jaw-dropping Instagram snaps In the first photo, Madonna can be seen reclining on a bed lying forward, with her sexy look offering a glimpse of her ample cleavage. About the only part of the ensemble that's visible is her long black gloves, a crucifix necklace, and her long dyed blonde tresses flowing down onto the bed's white sheets. She shared a nearly identical photo of her in the bed, only her hair was slightly less disheveled. The post also included a couple of black-and-white snaps of her dressed in a black leather skirt and bustier: one shows her laying on her back in a bed with her blonde locks covering much of her face, while the other reveals more of her body and leather outfit. Lady in black: The hitmaker told her fans that the special was finally available to view on Paramount Plus in the US by revealing that her racy alter-ego was 'giving birth today' Edgy: Decked out in an all-black ensemble of leather, lace and fishnets, the Queen Of Pop penned the caption: 'Madame X is giving birth today. . Help her push' Making a statement: The Material Girl also scribbled 'giving birth' across a photo of herself sitting on top of a bathroom sink decked out in a skirt and bustier combo She would also scribble 'giving birth' across a photo of herself sitting on top of a bathroom sink decked out in a skirt and bustier combo. The fashionista switched gloves and opted for a black lace glove on her right hand and a red one on the left. The black and red combination has been a common theme in her fashion choices and promotional writings and posts since she dropped the Madame X studio album in June 2019. In fact, she also posted a photo of two feet coming together that were dressed in red tights with black heels and fishnet stockings. There's also an image of a pair of red and black heels that are reflecting in front of a mirror and an X written across the entire photo. Well-heeled: The black and red combination has been a common theme in her fashion choices and promotional writings since she dropped her Madame X studio album in June 2019 Artist at work: In keeping with the running theme of Madame X, the thought-proving artist also shared red and black heels in front of a mirror Late night spot: The Michigan native also took to Instagram to promote her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday Premiere: The Madame X doc made its UK television debut on MTV UK Thursday night The Michigan native also took to Instagram to promote her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, as well as Friday's 'living room session special performance.' The Madame X documentary made its UK television debut on MTV in the UK Thursday night, October 7, and then dropped on Paramount+ the following day. Using her personal videographer Ricardo Gomes to shoot during her Madame X Tour in 2019-2020, the film chronicles Madonna's 75-date trek both on stage and in behind-the-scenes moments. It also includes the times when she battled through hip and knee injuries that ultimately forced her to cancel several shows in the US, UK and Portugal, according to MTV. The tour would also ultimately be cut short by the then growing COVID-19 crisis that would be deemed a pandemic in mid-March 2020. Premiere: The Madame X documentary drops on Paramount+ on Friday, October 8 On her heels: Madonna used her personal videographer Ricardo Gomes to shoot during her Madame X Tour in 2019 and 2020 for the documentary The Studio 10 family has just got a little bit bigger. On Friday, news reporter Daniel Doody and his wife Joanne welcomed their second child - a baby boy named Arlo Isaac Doddy. The couple, who are already parents son Reggie, shared a special message on Friday's episode of the morning show. Newest addition! On Friday, Studio 10 news reporter Daniel Doody and his wife Jo welcomed their second child - a baby boy named Arlo Isaac Doddy Studio 10 family: Daniel Doddy (right), alongside his Studio 10 family, Angela Bishop (far right), Narelda Jacobs (far left), and Tristan MacManus ((left) Daniel's colleague and host of the show, Sarah Harris, 40, read out the sweet message, which began: 'Mum and dad are doing well, just overwhelmed. Mum is great and resting' 'We would like to extend our thanks to the amazing staff who have welcomed the safe arrival of our baby boy. The doting parents also added: 'Reggie is going to love his big brother as much as we do.' Posting to his Instagram shortly after the birth, proud dad Daniel shared more details about their little tot. Adorable announcement: Daniel's colleague and host of the show, Sarah Harris ( far left), 40, read out the sweet message which began: 'Mum and dad are doing well, just overwhelmed. Mum is great and resting' All the details: Posting to his Instagram shortly after the birth, proud dad Daniel shared more details about their little tot. 'It's a boy, welcome Arlo Isaac Doddy. Born: October 8, 2021 at 9.52am Weight: 4.1kg' 'It's a boy, welcome Arlo Isaac Doddy. Born: October 8, 2021 at 9.52am Weight: 4.1kg.' He also paid tribute to the staff at The Royal Womens Hospital in Randwick, Sydney, who he noted 'were amazing'. Daniel shared a sweet tribute to his wife in the post too, writing: 'Mum is doing very well my darling Joanne Doody is such a strong and courageous woman.' Big brother duties: The doting parents also added: 'Reggie is going to love his big brother as much as we do'. Pictured, Daniel, his son Reggie and wife Joanne Daniel met his wife Joanne on a cruise ship in Turkey in 2010. The two married in 2016 and welcomed their firstborn son Reggie in February 2020. He has worked as in radio journalism at ABC for years before joining the Studio 10 team in November last year. The Mandalorian scene stealer Rosario Dawson bared her shoulders in a frilly floral frock at the Washington, DC premiere of Dopesick on Thursday. The 42-year-old Sundance Jury Prize winner's strapless belted dress featured what appeared to be falling Magnolia flowers. Rosario's complexion was fully contoured and she wore her raven curls in an elegant updo as she posed at The Aspen Institute. In bloom! The Mandalorian scene stealer Rosario Dawson bared her shoulders in a frilly floral frock at the Washington, DC premiere of Dopesick on Thursday Dawson portrays DEA agent Bridget Meyer in Hulu's eight-episode miniseries Dopesick, which premieres next Wednesday. The Manhattan-born Latina seemed especially chummy with executive producer Beth Macy, who wrote the 2018 non-fiction book the opioid addiction drama was based on. Rosario was also joined by co-star Peter Sarsgaard, producer Warren Littlefield, co-stars Michael Keaton and John Hoogenakker, creator Danny Strong, and co-star Will Poulter. 'I have family and friends who have succumbed to this drug. It kickstarted them into more opioid use and heroin use and it's been absolutely devastating,' Dawson confessed to Page Six on Monday. Seventies retro: The 42-year-old Sundance Jury Prize winner's strapless belted dress featured what appeared to be falling Magnolia flowers Werrrk! Rosario's complexion was fully contoured and she wore her raven curls in an elegant updo as she posed at The Aspen Institute 'Purdue will not move unless we push hard!' Dawson portrays DEA agent Bridget Meyer in Hulu's eight-episode miniseries Dopesick, which premieres next Wednesday Author: The Manhattan-born Latina seemed especially chummy with executive producer Beth Macy (R), who wrote the 2018 non-fiction book the opioid addiction drama was based on Cast and crew: Rosario was also joined by (from L-R) co-star Peter Sarsgaard, producer Warren Littlefield, co-stars Michael Keaton and John Hoogenakker, creator Danny Strong, and co-star Will Poulter 'I think this is a critical moment right now where people's attentions are on how our systems are working and really feeling like we can't go back to "normal" and I really hope this becomes part of that momentum moving forward that changes how things are done.' Earlier that day, the Studio 189 co-founder wore white while promoting Dopesick at a bustling press junket. Rosario - who boasts 3.1M social media followers - Instastoried a video of all the autographs she did on promotional material for her Disney+ spin-off Ahsoka. Fans are eager to see Dawson reprise her role as the Force-sensitive Togruta female, who used to be the apprentice of Jedi Anakin Skywalker. Another day, another hotel! Earlier that day, Dawson wore white while promoting Dopesick at a bustling press junket Exciting! The Studio 189 co-founder - who boasts 3.1M social media followers - Instastoried a video of all the autographs she did on promotional material for her Disney+ spin-off Ahsoka The hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn! Fans are eager to see Rosario reprise her role as the Force-sensitive Togruta female, who used to be the apprentice of Jedi Anakin Skywalker In the live-action series, Ahsoka Tano will reportedly continue her hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) alongside her friend Ezra Bridger (Mena Massoud). Missing from the Go Big Show judge's side in the nation's capital was her live-in love, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. Next Wednesday marks Rosario and the 52-year-old politician's second anniversary of dating after meeting at a 2018 fundraiser for former NAACP president Ben Jealous. Dawson previously romanced comedian Eric Andre, director Danny Boyle, rapper Jay Z, actor Joshua Jackson, DJ Mathieu Schreyer, and Sex and the City alum Jason Lewis. Speaking of the Beltway! Missing from Dawson's side in the nation's capital was her live-in love, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker (pictured Thursday in DC) Still going strong! Next Wednesday marks the Go Big Show judge (R, pictured January 20) and the 52-year-old politician's (L) second anniversary of dating after meeting at a 2018 fundraiser for former NAACP president Ben Jealous Likely enrolled in college: Rosario is mother to 19-year-old daughter Lola, whom she adopted from a family friend in 2014 (pictured in 2020) The Lee Strasberg alum is mother to 19-year-old daughter Lola, likely enrolled in college, whom she adopted from a family friend in 2014. Also representing Dopesick was Oscar nominee Michael Keaton, who plays Virginia doctor Samuel Finnix who overprescribes Oxycontin. Independent Spirit Award nominee Peter Sarsgaard posed with the man he portrayed - assistant US Attorney Rick Mountcastle who prosecuted the 2007 Purdue Pharma case. Former Batman: Also representing Dopesick was Oscar nominee Michael Keaton, who plays Virginia doctor Samuel Finnix who overprescribes Oxycontin Double take! Independent Spirit Award nominee Peter Sarsgaard (R) posed with the man he portrayed - assistant US Attorney Rick Mountcastle (L) who prosecuted the 2007 Purdue Pharma case. Seeing double: John Hoogenakker (R) posed with the man he portrayed - former assistant US Attorney Randy Ramseyer (L) who also prosecuted the Purdue Pharma case Man in black: And Will Poulter (Midsommar) plays a sales rep for Purdue Pharma called Billy It's all who you know! Two-time Emmy winner Danny Strong - who created Dopesick - brought along his fiancee of four years, Caitlin Mehner, who plays Paula Greene in two episodes John Hoogenakker (Castle Rock) posed with the man he portrayed - former assistant US Attorney Randy Ramseyer who also prosecuted the Purdue Pharma case. And black-clad Will Poulter (Midsommar) plays a sales rep for Purdue Pharma called Billy. Two-time Emmy winner Danny Strong - who created Dopesick - brought along his fiancee of four years, Caitlin Mehner, who plays Paula Greene in two episodes. She has stepped into the role of silent film queen Clara Bow in Babylon. And Margot Robbie traded the 1920s ensembles she's been sporting on set for her typically chic attire on Thursday, as she stepped out to run some errands in Los Angeles. The Australian actress, 31, appeared to be making the most of some downtime, wearing an oversized black shirt that she paired with denim shorts. Film star: Margot Robbie cut a chic figure in Los Angeles on Thursday as she enjoyed some downtime amid shooting scenes for upcoming period drama film Babylon The accoladed film star remained with the black theme by wearing fluffy sandals and accessorising with a Chanel bag. Later, she was spotted grabbing her caffeine fix and remained safe in a face mask. Margot - listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world - has been in the sprawling Southern California city to shoot scenes for upcoming period drama film Babylon. Caffeine fix: The Australian actress, 31, wore an oversized black shirt that she paired with denim shorts Set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Margot and Academy Award winner Brad Pitt will take the leading roles and it's set for a December 2022 release date. The film, directed by Damien Chazelle, chronicles the transition from silent films to 'talkies' - movies that used synchronised dialogue for the first time. It is said to follow the rise and fall of multiple characters and The Hollywood Reporter dubbed the film as 'Great Gatsby on steroids.' Inspiration: Margot's character has been described as a fictional character based on Clara Bow an early sex symbol in the 1920s Previous roles: Brad Pitt - who is reportedly portraying a character based on John Gilbert - and Margot previously acted together in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood [the pair pictured middle and right, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in 2019] Brad - who is reportedly portraying a character based on John Gilbert - and Margot previously acted together in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood where she played Manson Family victim Sharon Tate. Before Margot was attached to play Clara Bow it was reported that Emma Stone - who won an Oscar for La La Land - was in talks for the role. Clara became one of the reigning female Hollywood stars of the 1920s, the original 'It Girl' who achieved sex symbol status playing the archetypal flapper. She remarked to Photoplay that during her heyday she 'was "running wild," I guess, in the sense of trying to have a good time' and theorised that 'a lot of that excitement, that joy of life, got onto the screen.' However she was scarred by childhood traumas - her mother had been committed and her father had raped her - and the pressures of fame became oppressive. Babylon is set for a limited release on December 25 2022 and a full release on January 6 2023. Vogue Williams looked effortlessly chic as she arrived at Steph's Packed Lunch in Leeds with her dog Winston on Friday. The TV personality 35, wowed in a black long sleeved maxi dress which was embellished with a quirky pattern and came complete with a thigh-high slit. Vogue appeared in high spirits as she flashed a smile to the cameras as she headed into the studios. Wow: Vogue Williams looked effortlessly chic once again as she arrived at Steph's Packed Lunch in Leeds with her dog Winston on Friday The Irish beauty completed her autumnal ensemble with a chunky belt which had a large gold buckle and black leather knee high heeled boots. The model wore her blonde locks in a sleek low ponytail and accessorised with sunglasses. Vogue complemented her look with a soft pink blush and a slick of lipstick. Gorgeous: The TV personality 35, wowed in a black long sleeved maxi dress which was embellished with a quirky pattern and came complete with a thigh-high slit Good mood: Vogue appeared in high spirits as she flashed a smile to the cameras as she headed into the studios Looking good: The Irish beauty completed her autumnal ensemble with a chunky belt which had a large gold buckle and black leather knee high heeled boots The Irish beauty oozed confidence as she strutted into the studio where she appeared as a guest on the show. Vogue's podcast- which she hosts alongside comedian Joanne McNally-has recently been nominated for The Best Comedy Podcast at The National Comedy Awards 2021. The podcast- which is called My Therapist Ghosted Me- is the result of Joanne's therapist ignoring her calls. In the hilarious podcast the real life friends give funny yet unqualified advice on a range of issues that they and many others grapple with. Exciting: Vogue's podcast- which she hosts alongside comedian Joanne McNally-has recently been nominated for The Best Comedy Podcast at The National Comedy Awards 2021 Vogue previously worked on a podcast called Spencer & Vogue with her husband Spencer Matthews, 33. The couple have been married since 2018 after meeting while competing on the 2017 series of Channel 4 reality show The Jump. Vogue is mum to Theodore, two, and Gigi, twelve months, whom she shares with the reality star. Steve Coogan has been pictured in character as Jimmy Savile on the set of the controversial new series, The Reckoning. The new drama, which will be broadcasted by the BBC, will trace the disgraced former star's upbringing, his early career and prolific child sex offences. Filming for the show got underway in Bolton on Friday, with 55-year-old actor Steve seen arriving on the set in the back of a chauffeured Range Rover. Controversial: Steve Coogan has been pictured in character as Jimmy Savile on the set of the controversial new series, The Reckoning The actor was then seen being escorted into his trailer under the cover of several umbrellas as series producers went to great lengths to keep the actor undercover. Also seen on set were extras dressed in nursing gear from the Sixties - when child abuse allegations against Savile began. The decision to chronicle Savile's life has come under fire from many, however BBC has stated that they worked with his victims and will portray a story 'with sensitivity and respect'. Steve, who famously portrays fictional comedic character Alan Partridge, previously explained in a statement the decision to play Savile was not one 'I took lightly'. Disgraced: The new drama, which will be broadcasted by the BBC, will trace Savile's upbringing, his early career and prolific child sex offences (pictured left in 1983) Tricky: Steve (pictured in 2020) previously explained in a statement the decision to play Savile was not one 'I took lightly' He added: 'Neil McKay has written an intelligent script tackling sensitively a horrific story which, however harrowing, needs to be told.' Savile, who rose from a humble working-class upbringing to become one of British television's biggest stars, passed away aged 84 in 2011. In his final years, he fought to quell growing speculation about his illegal exploits throughout his illustrious career with the BBC - with victim testimony expected to be brought to life in the new drama. Under wraps: The actor was then seen being escorted into his trailer under the cover of several umbrellas as series producers went to great lengths to keep the actor undercover Extras: Also seen on set were extras dressed in nursing gear from the Sixties - when child abuse allegations against Savile began Controversial: The decision to chronicle Savile's life has come under fire from many, however BBC has stated that they worked with his victims (pictured: an extra on set) One to watch: BBC bosses have defended the decision to broadcast the series stating that it is a story that 'must be told' (pictured: an extra playing a nurse) A BBC-led inquiry into his actions found he had molested at least 72 children, some as young as eight, over a four decade campaign of sexual abuse with his first victim in 1959 and his last in 2006. His horrific reign of abuse could be charted 'in the corridors, canteens, staircases and dressing rooms of every BBC premises', their 2016 report found. Executive producer, Jeff Pope, said: 'I think this is a story that has to be told. We must understand why a man like Jimmy Savile seemed to remain immune for so long to proper scrutiny and criminal investigation. Milling around: As well as extras in nurse uniforms one actress was seen dressed in a smart tartan skirt suit while an actor walked around the set in pyjamas What's going on? One actor was seen in a pair of pyjamas and a face mask 'Steve has a unique ability to inhabit complex characters and will approach this role with the greatest care and integrity.' The BBC also says it will draw on 'extensive and wide-ranging research sources' or the project, examining the lasting impact of Savile's crimes and the 'powerlessness' his victims felt. Piers Wenger Controller, of BBC Drama, added: 'The story of Jimmy Savile is one of the most emotive and troubling of our times. We do not intend to sensationalise these crimes but to give voice to his victims. Coming soon: A release date has yet to be announced with filming for the series expected to continue taking place in Manchester over the coming months 'We will work with survivors to ensure their stories are told with sensitivity and respect and to examine the institutions which Jimmy Savile was associated with and the circumstances in which these crimes took place. 'Drama has the ability to tackle sensitive real life subjects and consider the impact of a crime on its survivors and what lessons can be learnt to stop this ever happening again.' A release date has yet to be announced with filming for the series expected to continue taking place in Manchester over the coming months. Colin Fassnidge is celebrating the reopening of his NSW restaurant. The former My Kitchen Rules star, 47, got things ready at the Banksia Hotel on Friday, ahead of next week's opening In a series of photos, the chef tended to kegs in his basement, as well as posing in front of the bistro while wearing a mask. Ready: Colin Fassnidge (pictured) is celebrating the reopening of his NSW restaurant COVID-19 restrictions will ease across NSW from Monday, 11 October after the state passed its 70 per cent double vaccination target. Hospitality venues able to reopen to fully vaccinated patrons. Last month, Colin had another mishap when he proved working from home can be tough for parents with young children. Ready! The former My Kitchen Rules star, 47, got things ready the Banksia Hotel ahead of next week's reopening Time to go: In a series of photos, the chef tended to kegs in his basement, as well as posing in front of the bistro while wearing a mask Soon! COVID-19 restrictions will ease across NSW from Monday, 11 October after the state passed its 70 per cent double vaccination target He experienced the challenges first-hand when his two daughters, Lilly, 10, and Maeve, 9, unexpectedly popped up in the background of a live interview. During a stint on The Morning Show, the cooking show stalwart found himself photobombed during a chat with hosts Larry and Kylie. The little girls are seen looking straight into the camera as they pass through the family kitchen. Open: Hospitality venues able to reopen to fully vaccinated patrons After the segment, Colin shared a video on his Instagram, writing: 'When your kids bomb live TV! And smile at the camera.' Colin is a proud dad of his two daughters, who he shares with wife Jane Hyland. During Australia's first Coronavirus lockdown period in 2020, Colin launched an online cooking show, alongside his wife Jane and their daughters. Laughs: Last month, Colin had another mishap when he proved working from home can be tough for parents with young children. He experienced the challenges first-hand when his two daughters, Lilly, 10, and Maeve, 9, popped up in the background of a live interview She knows how to put together a stylish look for her numerous presenting stints. But Kate Garraway traded the flowy frocks for flamboyant attire on Friday as she transformed into Elton John for Global's Make Some Noise charity day in Leicester Square. The 54-year-old broadcaster slipped effortlessly into the white 70s trouser suit, which had feathers embellished on the jacket's shoulder pads. Dead ringer! Kate Garraway transformed into Elton John as she slipped into flamboyant attire synonymous of the icon for Global's Make Some Noise charity day on Friday Kate truly pulled out all the stops to recreate the 74-year-old's iconic get-up, even sporting gold rhinestone encrusted glasses. Smiling from ear-to-ear, the Good Morning Britain host concealed her usual chic hairdo by a cropped wig to further emphasise her efforts. Impressively, Kate exhibited the head-turning ensemble in towering nude heels which were on display as a result of the slit trouser leg. Wow: The 54-year-old broadcaster slipped effortlessly into the white 70s trouser suit Iconic: The outfit consisted of feathers embellished on the jacket's shoulder pads Dressing up: Kate truly pulled out all the stops to recreate the 74-year-old's iconic get-up Effort: The Good Morning Britain host even sported gold rhinestone encrusted glasses Kate took to her Instagram to tease her 1million followers and said: 'I am dressed as somebody very special, someone very dear to me.' Parading the outfit in a video, she penned the caption: 'Who do I think I am?!! @globals_make_some_noise day! I am (supposed to be !) a @smoothradio icon - go on give it a guess?! ' The Candle In The Wind hitmaker is renowned for his bold fashion statements and Kate embraced the dress-up opportunity in aide of charity. Support: The Candle In The Wind hitmaker is renowned for his bold fashion statements and Kate embraced the dress-up opportunity in aide of charity Bold: Kate later took to her Instagram to tease her 1million followers and said: 'I am dressed as somebody very special, someone very dear to me' Global's Make Some Noise aims to support small charities helping disadvantaged people across the UK. This includes food banks, mental health and domestic abuse helplines, carer support, community projects and employment programmes. Thus far, donations have reached an incredible 832,791. Transformation: Global's Make Some Noise aims to support small charities helping disadvantaged people across the UK Wow: This includes food banks, mental health and domestic abuse helplines, carer support, community projects and employment programmes Looking good: Years & Years star Olly Alexander rocked a quirky jacket for the event All smiles: He looked like he was having a great time at the event Stylish: Myleene Klass looked great in a smart blazer and light denim jeans Pink: Joel Corry wore a bright T-shirt and black jeans Amazing: Thus far, donations have reached an incredible 832,791 Edgy: Mimi Webb rocked purple and black flared trousers Stepping out: Olly added a brown coat to his look as he left the studios Having fun: Olly larked about for the cameras Ashley Roberts commanded attention in a vibrant ensemble as she stepped out after hosting Heart FM with Amanda Holden on Friday. ThePussycat Dolls star, 40, donned a full Fiorucci outfit consisting of mermaid print high waisted jeans and a cropped cardigan with a yellow and blue swirl patten on. Amanda, 50, meanwhile, opted for a much more muted ensemble comprising of a brown patterned crop top and high waisted trousers and a matching long coat. Wow! Ashley Roberts, 40, commanded attention in a vibrant ensemble as she stepped out after hosting Heart FM with Amanda Holden on Friday. Ashley donned hot pink Kurt Geiger slip-on stilettos while holding a white snakeskin print bag in her hand. She framed her face with white sunglasses while her blonde locks were glamorously blown out. Amanda paired her Karen Millen ensemble with black heels and a snakeskin print box bag. Gorgeous: Amanda, 50, opted for a much more muted outfit of a crop top and high waisted trousers with a long coat all in the same brown and white pattern Trendy: The Pussycat Dolls star donned a full Fiorucci outfit consisting of mermaid print high waisted jeans and a cropped cardigan with a yellow and blue swirl patten on The television personality opted for black oversized sunglasses and huge silver hooped earrings. The pair had been hosting the radio station which is currently holding its Make Some Noise event. Ashley and Amanda have never been ones to shy away from showing off their outfits, and both took to their Instagram pages to show off their ensembles. The blonde American beauty put on a very animated display as she wrapped her leg around a tree and flipped her hair. She made sure her followers knew where her clothing was from and tagged the Italian brand and she shoemaker. Strutting her stuff: Ashley donned hot pink Kurt Geiger slip-on stilettos while holding a white snakeskin print bag in her hand Stunner: The blonde beauty framed her face with white sunglasses while her blonde locks were glamorously blown out and blew in the breeze Amanda looked stunning in the photo she posted as she displayed her best pout while ensuring to show off her outfit. Her caramel coloured hair was neatly in place and fell over her shoulders, while her make-up looked stunning. The outing comes after Ashley revealed she and Keith Lemon have signed up to host a new celebrity dance reality show called The Real Dirty Dancing. Working: The pair had been hosting the radio station, which is currently holding its Make Some Noise event Ashley and Keith, 47, who have appeared together on Celebrity Juice in the past - are excited to front the upcoming E4 show, which will see 10 celebrities tasked with recreating scenes from the beloved 1987 classic film. Only two of the couples make it to the final where they'll be taught the famous lift. Keith said: 'Dirty Dancing is such a good film and of course I've been Baby myself! Twice now! Once for Let's Dance for Comic Relief and once when we did it on The Keith & Paddy Picture Show. Gorgeous: Amanda paired her Karen Millen ensemble with black heels and a snakeskin print box bag which she held in her hand by the chain handle Details: The television personality opted for black oversized sunglasses and huge silver hooped earrings 'So yeah I was chuffed to be asked to host this show! And to be hosting with me mate Ashley! It's gonna be so fun! Ya can tell how excited I am, look how many exclamation marks I've used! Can't wait!' Ashley added: 'I love Dirty Dancing, the film literally had a huge impact on my life, and I couldn't be more excited to be involved in this series. 'I'm going to be on hand to help out the celebs with their Johnny and Baby moves and look forward to being reunited with Keith. Wish me luck! It's going to be a lot of fun.' The eight-part series - which is inspired by the Australian show of the same name - is set to air in early 2022. Happy: The pair have never been ones to shy away from showing off their outfits, and both took to their Instagram pages to show off their latest outfits She's one of four new faces joining The Real Housewives of Melbourne's fifth season. And Simone Elliott, 42, has revealed she's spared no expense looking her best for the reality TV series, in an interview with The Herald Sun. As part of her extensive glam squad, the blonde bombshell has a spray tanner 'always on call for my tanning'. No holding back: Simone Elliott, 42, (pictured) has revealed she's spared no expense looking her best for the reality TV series, in an interview with The Herald Sun The socialite is dubbed 'Melbourne's Erika Jayne', in reference to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star who famously spends $40,000 every month to look her best. Elliott spends almost the same amount keeping herself looking good, according to the newspaper, and says she changed her hairdo 'so many times' through the series. 'I like to be well groomed and well put together,' said the businesswoman, adding, 'let's be honest we always look thinner with a bit of a tan.' In case of emergency: As part of her extensive glam squad, the blonde bombshell has a spray tanner 'always on call for my tanning' Well-heeled: 'I like to be well groomed and well put together,' said the businesswoman, adding, 'let's be honest we always look thinner with a bit of a tan' RHOM's latest season premieres on Sunday, and it looks like original cast member Janet Roach will be at the center of all the drama. Jackie Gillies confirmed that the 62-year-old 'is in the thick of it' this season and will clash with a former friend who joined the cast. Speaking to The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Thursday, Jackie said: 'Bestie Janet gets in the thick of it because she's known one of the other Housewives of 10 years. Wow: The socialite is dubbed 'Melbourne's Erika Jayne' (pictured) in reference to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star who famously spends $40,000 every month to look her best Costly: And Elliott spends almost the same amount keeping herself looking good, according to the newspaper 'So when she's come into the group... it kicks off. It kicks off because Janet feels like she's coming in and not being authentic and she goes, 'I know you, so act the way that I know you rather than being a certain way.' 'So it kind of kicks off straight away,' Jackie added. Janet's old friend is believed to be 'champagne dame' Kyla Kirkpatrick, although the blonde bombshell is also rumoured to clash with newsreader Anjali Rao. Sami Lukis has revealed that she can't wait to get back on the dating scene when Sydney re-opens and lifts lockdown next week. But the radio personality says she's not interested in dating men who are not unvaccinated against Covid-19. The 50-year-old wondered on Friday if asking 'Are you vaccinated?' was a rude question for potential suitors. Limits: Sami Lukis (pictured) has revealed that she can't wait to get back on the dating scene when Sydney re-opens and lifts lockdown next week. But the radio personality says she's not interested in dating men who are not unvaccinated against Covid-19 'I do have concerns about how I'm going to handle the delicate 'vaccination' conversation with someone new. His vaccination status is something I definitely need to know from the outset,' she wrote in her column for Nine Honey. 'If he's an anti-vaxxer, he's not someone I'd ever want to date, so I just wouldn't want to waste any of my time or energy on him. Does that mean I need to ask the question in our very first interaction?' She added: 'Is it reasonable or rude to ask to see someone's vaccination certificate before agreeing to a first date?' 'I do have concerns about how I'm going to handle the delicate 'vaccination' conversation with someone new. His vaccination status is something I definitely need to know from the outset,' she wrote in her column for Nine Honey Sami revealed that she was advised that asking, 'what's your take on vaccinations?' is a more polite way to approach the question. It comes after the star revealed she was coping well while living alone during Sydney's lockdown. She told The Daily Telegraph: 'I've always been pretty comfortable with my own company so I seem to cope quite well in lockdown.' 'If he's an anti-vaxxer, he's not someone I'd ever want to date, so I just wouldn't want to waste any of my time or energy on him. Does that mean I need to ask the question in our very first interaction?' she added Sami also revealed that she will be soon be joined in a singles bubble with her best friend. 'We're going to drink champagne and watch Love Is Blind After The Altar. And I CANNOT WAIT,' she said. The radio personality said she's also noticed friends and neighbours reaching out to her with calls, texts and have sent care packages to brighten her day. Martha Kalifatidis is missing her old bedroom after moving out of her Bondi apartment. The Married At First Sight star and her boyfriend Michael Brunelli recently moved into their new home in Sydney. Posting photos of her old room at her former North Bondi apartment, Martha, 33, admitted, 'I think I miss my old room'. New bedroom who dis? Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis (pictured) and her boyfriend Michael Brunelli recently moved into their new home in Sydney - but Martha said she misses her old bedroom (pictured) on Friday In a second image, she is seen reclining comfortably on the bed she shares with her MAFS alum beau. Meanwhile on Thursday, the popular social media influencer showed off the freebies the couple had received as they move into their new place. The property features an open-plan living space and kitchen with modern appliances and large glass windows. Memories: In a second image, she is seen reclining comfortably on the bed she shares with her MAFS alum beau Fancy: Martha and Michael Brunelli (right) recently moved into a lavish new home in Sydney Modern: Martha gave fans a glimpse into their lavish new home, which features an open-plan living space and kitchen with modern appliances and large glass windows It also has a bifold door which opens to a courtyard space and offers incredible water views. The couple's spacious master bedroom features a large walk-in wardrobe. Martha also showed off the pair's new bowls and mugs sent as a housewarming gift from Ecology Homewares. Views: It also has a bifold door which opens to a courtyard space and offers incredible water views Spacious: The couple's spacious master bedroom features a large wardrobe space Gifts: Martha also showed off the pair's new bowls and mugs sent as a housewarming gift from Ecology Homewares They also received a Nespresso coffee machine for their new kitchen. Meanwhile, Estee Lauder sent Martha a makeup gift set including three foundations, lipstick and mascara. Martha and Michael's relationship has continued to go from strength to strength after the pair found love on Married At First Sight in 2019. Bob Geldof celebrated his 70th birthday with a star-studded dinner as the family were seen heading to the occasion in west London on Thursday. The Boomtown Rats frontman was joined by his daughter Pixie, who brought along her three-month-old baby daughter to meet her granddad. Bob was also accompanied by his wife of six years Jeanne Marine, 55, who opted for a chic all-black ensemble for the evening. Celebration: Bob Geldof celebrated his 70th birthday with a star-studded dinner as he and his loved ones were seen heading to the the Glasshouses at Petersham Nurseries on Thursday Bob and Jeanne were seen making their way into the Glasshouses at Petersham Nurseries for his swanky party to mark his birthday. The philathropist was followed close behind by his wife Jeanne, who wrapped up in a sophisticated black coat and a protective face mask. Meanwhile Pixie opted for the same chic black coat she'd worn to Paris Fashion Week days earlier as she headed into the party with husband George Barnett and their new baby nestled in a carrier. Gorgeous: The Boomtown Rats frontman was joined by his daughter Pixie, who brought along her three-month-old baby daughter to meet her granddad Chic: Meanwhile Pixie opted for the same chic black coat she'd worn to Paris Fashion Week days earlier Beaming: She was spotted heading into the party with husband George Barnett and their daughter nestled in a carrier Smart: Bob cut a dapper figure in a smart pale grey suit with a black overcoat and one of his signature hats as he arrived for the dinner Dressed up: He was seen making his way into the party to mark his milestone birthday Warm: He wrapped up in several different scarves as Bob and his family were seen arriving and leaving the celebration The party proved to be quite a star-studded occasion, with celebrities in attendance including veteran musician Bill Wyman and his wife Suzanne Accosta. A slew of guests were seen heading into the restaurant for Bob's birthday, where they enjoyed a sit down dinner in a rustic setting. Bob has plenty to celebrate, after his daughter Pixie recently gave birth. She was spotted out and about with husband George and a pram earlier this month, in confirmation that their bundle of joy has arrived. The fashion star has been married to These New Puritans drummer George since 2017, when the couple tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Majorca. Glam: Bob was also accompanied by his wife of six years Jeanne Marine, 55, who opted for a chic all-black ensemble for the evening Stepping out: The party proved to be quite a star-studded occasion, with celebrities in attendance including veteran musician Bill Wyman and his wife Suzanne Accosta Cosy: Garry Roberts, who plays as a guitarist in The Boomtown Rats was also in attendance for the birthday party Arriving: Bob has plenty to celebrate, after his daughter Pixie recently gave birth. She was spotted out and about with husband George and a pram earlier this month (guests pictured) Entrance: A slew of guests were seen heading into the restaurant for Bob's birthday, where they enjoyed a sit down dinner in a rustic setting Smart: The Boomtown Rats' drummer Simon Crowe was seen making his arrival Close friends Alexa Chung and Daisy Lowe were bridesmaids, with guests including Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Nick Grimshaw. The couple are also pals with Princess Eugenie and attended her wedding to industry executive Jack Brooksbank in 2018. Pixie is the third daughter of Bob and Paula Yates, who tragically died aged 41 in 2000 after a heroin overdose. The couple married in 1986, and had Pixie, Fifi, 38, and Peaches, but the story of tragedy repeated in April 2014 when their middle child died of an overdose aged 25. Family: Pixie is the third daughter of Bob and Paula Yates, who tragically died aged 41 in 2000 after a heroin overdose (Simon pictured arriving for the party) Kristen Stewart attempted to make a low-key exit as she left Groucho nightclub in Soho, London in the early hours of Friday morning, following her earlier appearance at the premiere of Princess Diana biopic Spencer amid BFI London Film Festival. The actress, 31, flashed a glimpse of her toned abs in a white crop top by Sunspel as she exited the swanky venue at 1.05am following a fun night out with her pals, hours after turning up the glam on the red carpet. Kristen kept things casual for the evening, teaming her top with a long, black coat and light blue jeans as she made a hasty exit towards her waiting car. Quick exit: Kristen Stewart attempted to make a low-key exit as she left Groucho nightclub in Soho, London in the early hours of Friday morning The Twilight star completed her relaxed her look with white socks and monochrome trainers. She swept her strawberry blonde locks into a loose up 'do, while highlighting her features with a subtle make-up palette. Kristen clearly wasn't in the mood to pose for photos as she tried to shield her face before heading off with her companions. Her late night outing comes after royal experts slammed her new Diana film Spencer saying it strips the late princess of her 'respect and dignity' and is 'unnecessarily gratuitous'. Keeping it casual: The actress, 31, flashed a glimpse of her toned abs in a white crop top by Sunspel as she exited the swanky venue at 1.05am following a fun night out with her pals Scenes in the film show Diana - who died in a car crash at the age of 36 - breaking down in tears in front of her son Prince William as she battles her eating disorder and self harms. In particularly distressing scenes from the new movie an emotional Diana fantasises about throwing herself down the stairs and choking on a pearl necklace gifted to her by husband Prince Charles. Other parts of the film detail her bulimia as she vomits and even experiences hallucinations about her own death. Wow! Hours earlier, Kristen had dazzled on the red carpet of the premiere of Princess Diana Biopic Spencer, in which she plays the titular role Stunning: Kristen exhibited her svelte waist in a translucent sparkling grey gown dress embellished with a flurry of multi-coloured gems and buttons Luminous: The Twilight star put her impressive collection of tattoos on display while wearing her strawberry blonde tresses in gorgeous beachy waves Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty Magazine, told The Sun of the film: 'It is really cruel to portray her like this. It is totally unnecessary. 'William and Harry will be very angry and hurt about this. They will find it horrible that their mother is being portrayed in such a huge movie this way.' Royal biographer and expert Penny Junor agreed, and said: 'It is unnecessarily gratuitous. Reaction: Royal experts recently slammed Kristen's new Diana film Spencer saying it strips the late princess of her 'respect and dignity' and is 'unnecessarily gratuitous' 'Poor William is all I can say, and let's leave Diana with a shred of respect and dignity. 'I know William was there when she was unhappy but it sounds to me the movie is factually incorrect.' In another scene William is seen begging his mother to come down for dinner after she locks herself in her room after self harming with wire cutters. Tough: Scenes in the film show the late Princess - who died in a car crash at the age of 36 - breaking down in tears in front of her son Prince William as she battles her eating disorder and self harms William screams: 'Mummy, mummy... mummy, you said to tell you if you are being really silly. You are being really silly.' 'Please mummy, we have to sit down before Granny. Mummy just switch off your mind. Don't think about it until after dinner for everyone's sake.' Diana then exits the room with makeup streaming down her cheeks and asks her son if he saw Camilla Parker Bowles at the church on Christmas Day morning. She has been put through her paces by pro dancer Simone Di Pasquale for Italy's Dancing With The Stars. But Bianca Gascoigne didn't look as though rehearsals were tearing her down on Friday as she beamed in a preppy, back-to-school inspired outfit as she arrived for her latest practise. The model, 34, looked radiant in a white t-shirt and plaid skirt which she completed with a gold-buttoned blazer. School girl look: Bianca Gascoigne embraced a back-to-school inspired style as she donned a preppy outfit for Dancing With The Stars rehearsals in Italy on Friday The mini skirt, which the tee tucked into, had embellishments such as 'can be bad', 'just sayin'' and the letter A. Bianca's school girl attire was complemented by shiny black and white Nike trainers, as well as a check backpack. Her long blonde tresses showed evidence of a bouncy blow dry, which accentuated her gorgeous look. Preppy: The model, 34, looked radiant in a white t-shirt and plaid skirt which she completed with a gold-buttoned blazer Dance rehearsals: Bianca's school girl attire was complemented by shiny black and white Nike trainers, as well as a check backpack The television personality told her Instagram followers back in September how she wanted to make her dance partner Simone proud. Sharing a slew of dazzling snaps, she gushed: 'Everyone meet my dance partner the legendary @simone_di_pasquale. He has been on @ballandoconlestelle Dancing with the Stars for 16 years so Im in very good hands! 'He is so lovely I hope I dont let him down and make him proud, he is very patient as my Italian is not so good but I am learning.' Stunner: Bianca's long blonde tresses showed evidence of a bouncy blow dry, which accentuated her gorgeous look She also penned her caption in Italian to prove her efforts. The gorgeous rehearsal look comes after Bianca reportedly pulled out of the upcoming series of Celebrity Ex On The Beach due to a clash in her schedule. Show bosses were said to be 'gutted' as the model was a 'key player' in the line up alongside her ex Kris Boyson, 32 - who is Katie Price's ex too. A source told The Sun: 'Bianca was a key part of the show and producers are gutted for her to leave. She fits the bill perfectly. They were so excited to have her on but understand that it is her decision.' Cindy Crawford shared a rare picture with her father Dan to her Instagram page on Thursday. 'Reunited with my Dad in Madison to support The American Family Childrens Hospital,' wrote the 55-year-old in her caption. The duo were pictured smiling as they sat together at a comfortable-looking both with a dazzling view of the cityscape in Wisconsin. 'Reunited': Cindy Crawford shared a rare picture with her father Dan to her Instagram page from Wisconsin on Thursday Children's hospitals in Madison are a cause close to Cindy, who lost her three-year-old brother Jeff to leukemia when she herself was only 10. He was treated at the University Of Wisconsin-Madison, so as an adult Cindy has given her charitable backing to the institution's pediatric oncology program. Last year she spoke to InStyle about the surreal experience of 'going to my brothers funeral, and then having to go back to school.' Through the years: Cindy, who was in high school when her parents split up, is pictured with her mother Jennifer Sue Crawford-Moluf in Malibu over Mother's Day weekend 2017 She shared: 'Thats such a weird feeling to walk back into your classroom. 'No one knows what to say to you, even the teachers because as a society we are so uncomfortable talking about death and grief.' Cindy has credited her father for her 'ambition' as 'he did value the: "You got a A+," "You got straight As," "You got this." He was the one who rewarded that.' Having fun on a Friday: She also shared this image while she was in a white robe And she enjoyed checking out Wisconsin: Crawford posed by a telescope She told TheLeapTV that 'it actually was a really great balance because it was like my mom was like open arms no matter what, but that - you can get complacent with that too, so the fact that my dad was pushing you to be the best was also a gift.' However she took a dim view of her father's behavior after he and her mother Jennifer split up during Cindy's high school years. 'When they finally did really get divorced my father would give my mother every week - her child support - but if he was mad at her because she had gone out on a date or done something else he wouldn't give her the money that week,' she said. Cindy told OWN that her father's actions 'sometimes meant we didn't get grocery money or gas money,' leaving her determined to be 'financially independent.' Spot the resemblance: Cindy is now a parent herself to two children including Kaia Gerber, 20, who has followed her footsteps into the modeling business She revealed that 'I saw that and I was like: "This will never happen to me. I will never be in that situation where I can't take care of myself."' After achieving international fame as a 1990s Supermodel she had a brief marriage to Richard Gere and then settled down with Rande Gerber. Cindy and her businessman husband have been married since 1998 and share two children - Kaia, 20, and Presley, 22, who are also both models. Charlie Sheen ran errands around Malibu on Friday morning, just days after a judge reduced his child support payments to ex-wife Denise Richards to zero dollars. The Two And A Half Men star, 56, kept casual during a trip to the grocery store, rocking a plaid shirt and jeans while fetching food to bring home to his daughters Lola, 16, and Sami, 17. Last week it was determined Sheen no longer owes Richards, 50, child support after she failed to appear and make her case in front of an LA judge following his claims he's been taking care of their two daughters since April. Out: Charlie Sheen fetched groceries to bring home to daughter Sami, 17. A judge recently adjusted Sheen's child support payments to ex Denise Richards to 'zero dollars' in light of the fact Sami is now living with him Charlie stocked up during the trip, seen with two full reusable grocery bags. He had a mask on for inside the store, but pulled it down to his chin upon his exit. Sheen's outing comes after ex Richards was reportedly left 'blindsided and disappointed' by the court ruling that Sheen can stop paying her child support. The Drop Dead Gorgeous actress was not present for the hearing, in which an LA judge adjusted Sheen's child support payments to 'zero dollars a month' in light of the fact daughter Sami, 17 is now living with her father. Easy going: The Two And A Half Men star, 56, kept casual during a trip to the grocery store, rocking a plaid shirt and jeans while fetching food Covered: He had a mask on for inside the store, but pulled it down to his chin upon his exit Sources close to the star claim that she was 'blindsided' by the decision, and also accused Charlie - with whom she also shares daughter Lola, 16 - of 'manipulating the situation' while also insisting he still must pay as she lives with Lola. An insider told People: 'Charlie filed two years ago and kept pushing the court date, so Denise was very surprised that it happened yesterday while she is out of town filming. She was blindsided. Now he's manipulating the situation... 'Lola does not live with Charlie. She lives with both of her parents and stays with Charlie when Denise is out of town. When Denise is back, Lola will be with her. Despite the sources' claims, Charlie has reportedly had 100% custody of both Lola and Sam since April. Insiders continued: 'This is very disappointing for Denise, but also not surprising. Charlie is pitting the girls against their mother, which is horrible.' Shocked: Richards was 'blindsided' by court decisions to adjust ex Sheen's child support payments to zero Another source contradicted those claims, however, saying Richards 'has known about the court date for six months.' After the judge's decision on Monday, Two And A Half Men star Charlie told Us Weekly: 'I think what transpired today is extremely fair. It speaks to not just today, but it speaks historically to that same fairness.' Richards' husband Aaron Phypers is also reportedly upset by the ruling. A source told People on Wednesday: 'Everything is a big party [at Charlie's house]. There's no homework. It's ice cream and movies and staying up late. There isn't the same structure going on over there. It's a lot more fun than staying at home and finishing school and doing normal activities with your friends.' 'Aaron is heartbroken because Denise is heartbroken that Charlie is pulling this after all she has done for him,' a source close to the couple told People. 'He's upset because his wife is upset that Charlie is playing this game with the kids...Aaron is devastated because she is devastated, and Aaron has been incredibly patient with the kids.' Youngest: Richards insiders said that daughter Lola, 16, (above) splits her time with mom and dad, making the new child support arrangement inaccurate. Charlie has claimed he's had 100% custody of the kids since April 2021 Offspring: Denise and Charlie's daughter Sami, 17, moved in with her father in April. She recently accused her mother of having oppressive rules in a social media video Sheen originally filed the petition to change the child support arrangement in December 2019, with Richards, 50, not filing any paperwork in opposition. Richards sources claim she was purposefully left in the dark about the hearing. 'Denise kept asking when the date was and he blew her off,' they said. 'He pushed it off because he didnt want records of the child support he was paying Brooke (Mueller) to impact the case after he agreed to pay them both the same amount of child support,' the source claimed. The insider also alleged that Sheen hasn't paid any child support to Richards, 'in at least four years,' adding Lola lives with Richards but she stays with her dad and sister when she's filming. Parenthood: Sheen originally filed the petition to change the child support arrangement in December 2019 (pictured with daughter Sami in 2019) Sheen's attorney Pedrick claims Richards actually owes Sheen money, because he 'overpaid' on his child support for so long, but he is not attempting to recoup those funds. The ruling comes less than a month after Sami claimed in a now-deleted Instagram post where she claimed living with Richards and her husband Aaron Phypers was, 'hell.' She claimed in the removed Instagram post she was living in an, 'abusive household' adding she was 'insanely depressed' while sharing a photo of herself from a year ago. Sami also shared a photo of her from present day, stating she moved out of 'hell house' and had a 'spiritual awakening' while confirming she dropped out of high school. Sad: A rep for Richards, who was married to Sheen from 2002 to 2006, said she is 'saddened' by the situation Sheen later confirmed both Sami and Lola had been living with him in a brief statement, which read, 'Sams amazing. I love her and all my children unconditionally. Were having a ball. GED here we come!' A rep for Richards, who was married to Sheen from 2002 to 2006, said she is 'saddened' by the situation. 'Denise is just like any other divorce parent dealing with a rebellious teenage daughter,' the insider said. 'Its better for Sami if Denise and Charlie were coparenting her during this time. They are not,' the source added. Another source claimed Richards wants her daughters to have, 'boundaries' which their father doesn't provide, adding Sami went to live with her dad because 'rules and curfew aren't really set in stone.' She is in the middle of a drawn-out legal battle with her ex-husband Johnny Depp. But that has not stopped Amber Heard from enjoying motherhood while also carving out time to rejuvenate. In two new images shared to Instagram, the 35-year-old actress balances being a mom and taking time for self. Nurturing: Friday morning Amber Heard headed to social media to share a precious snapshot with her six-month-old daughter Oonagh Paige Heard Friday morning the Texas-born star headed to social media to share a precious snapshot with her six-month-old daughter Oonagh Paige Heard. In the image the Aquaman sensation sits in a brown leather chair as she holds her tot in a standing position on her lap. The baby wears blue and white striped overalls as she faces her smiling mother. Heard is also in stripes, wearing a white sweater with thin navy blue lines throughout. Amber pairs it with cropped blue jeans and worn-in white trainers. Set life: On Thursday the entertainer was seen in a different post as she sat in a makeup chair, appearing to be on the set of a project The actress' blonde hair is pulled into a high bun. A black suitcase and tote bag can be seen on the floor nearby. 'The six best months of my life, the first six months of hers,' she wrote in a sentimental caption, adding a double pink heart emoji. On Thursday the entertainer was seen in a different post as she sat in a makeup chair, appearing to be on the set of a project. Dressed in a black hoodie, the blonde beauty's hair is clipped back as someone out of frame tends to her. New role: The Austin native secretly welcomed her child via surrogate in April She wears a blue face mask that's divided in two parts, one covering the upper half of her face and another stretching across the lower end. It has cutouts for her eyes, nose, and mouth. Heard holds her index finger to her chin and puckers her lips as she looks pensively out of the direction of the camera. 'Morning glow,' she wrote in the caption to her four million followers. Life outtake: Since announcing the news of becoming a mom, Heard occasionally shares content featuring the infant The Austin native secretly welcomed her child via surrogate in April. Since then she's occasionally shared content featuring the infant. On July 1 she shared the news in a lengthy Instagram post: 'A part of me wants to uphold that my private life is none of anyones business. I also get that the nature of my job compels me to take control of this.' Amber stressed the importance of women being able to become parents regardless of marital status, writing, 'I hope we arrive at a point in which its normalized to not want a ring in order to have a crib.' Legal affairs: Meanwhile, Amber is in the midst of contentious litigation involving her former partner Johnny Depp; seen in during Paris Fashion Week in October 2021 Meanwhile, Amber is in the midst of contentious litigation involving her former partner Johnny Depp, 58. In August he was granted permission to continue with his $50 million defamation lawsuit against her. In September Heard issued a subpoena to the Los Angeles Police Department regarding a 2016 domestic disturbance incident in downtown LA. The two were married from 2015-2017 after meeting in 2011 on the set of The Rum Diary. Courteney Cox made a valiant effort to conquer her fears after admitting she was afraid of heights. On Friday, the 57-year-old actress shared an Instagram video in which she was seen with her body double as they prepared for a major stunt on the set of her upcoming Starz series Shining Vale. 'So I'm afraid of heights and I just walked into the set and I was told I was going 15 feet in the air,' Courteney said at the beginning of the video as she faced the camera and nervously ran her fingers through her hair. Brave: Courteney Cox made a valiant effort to conquer her fears after admitting she was afraid of heights. On Friday, the 57-year-old actress shared an Instagram video in which she was seen with her body double as they prepared for a major stunt on the set of her upcoming Starz series Shining Vale 'It was 50 feet!' Cox continued as the camera zoomed on her worried face. The lettering 'Big Stunt At Work' was written at the top of her video. In the next scene, the Scream star was seen wearing a clingy sleeveless floral dress as she was fitted into her harness. 'I've got a harness on. I'm harnessed into this outfit,' Courteney remarked as a staffer stood behind her and made adjustments to the harness. Scary: 'And this is what's holding me up,' Courteney continued as she stretched a thin wire in front of her. Funny: 'I'm not sure if it came from Converse or Adidas,' Cox joked drily, as her stunt double laughed in the background So similar! The stunt double, seen at the right with a face shield on, looks like Courteney Courteney's identically dressed stunt double stood next to her and was seen smiling through her face shield as she also made adjustments to Cox's harness. 'And this is what's holding me up,' Courteney continued as she stretched a thin wire in front of her. 'I'm not sure if it came from Converse or Adidas,' Cox joked drily, as her stunt double laughed in the background. Preparing: Courteney was then seen in conversation with a stunt coordinator who explained how the stunt would work Nervous: Cox gave her viewers a knowing look as she turned her head to the side and grimaced at the camera The Friends star pulled the string around her and cracked a smile. 'I feel great,' she said unconvincingly. Courteney was then seen in conversation with a stunt coordinator who explained how the stunt would work. Cox gave her viewers a knowing look as she turned her head to the side and grimaced at the camera. Up in the air: In the next part of the clip, the Alabama native grasped the sides of a lift with both hands as she was raised off the ground by the wire In the next part of the clip, the Alabama native grasped the sides of a lift with both hands as she was raised off the ground by the wire. 'Just a little,' she said anxiously before exclaiming, 'Ow!' The stunt coordinator, who was standing behind her with her stunt double, replied, 'Ok.' Courteney was then seen standing on the lift next to her stunt double as the two were raised into the air. Leap of faith: Courteney was then seen standing on the lift next to her stunt double as the two were raised into the air 'There's only room for one of us on that landing,' she told her double. 'I think it should be you.' Cox's double laughed and held onto Courteney's wire as the pair were raised higher and higher on the platform. Courteney peered over the side of the lift and looked down. She said, 'I don't know how to do that.' Fearful: Courteney peered over the side of the lift and looked down. She said, 'I don't know how to do that' Too much: 'Oh my God,' she continued, clapping her hand to her forehead 'Oh my God,' she continued, clapping her hand to her forehead. In the next scene, the stunt coordinator was heard saying, 'Hey Court.' 'Yeah,' she replied. 'If you can't do it, we can figure out another way to do it,' he said. 'I don't know what to do, I'm sweating,' Cox said worriedly while holding her head with her hand. 'Oh sh*t!' she gasped as she was seen spreading her arms out while standing on a wooden platform on the ground in the next scene. The wording, 'I just couldn't do it' was written at the top of the clip as the camera zoomed out, concluding the clip. They are gearing up to perform during Strictly Come Dancing's iconic movie week. And Katya Jones and Adam Peaty enjoyed a giggle as they stepped out to head to their It Takes Two TV appearance on Friday. The professional dancer, 32, and the Olympic swimmer, 26, looked in great spirits heading to the show studios in London. Happy: Katya Jones and Adam Peaty enjoyed a giggle as they stepped out to head to their It Takes Two TV appearance on Friday Katya looked stylish in a black dress, knee high boots and a padded jacket for her TV appearance. She added a pop of colour with a slick of red lipstick and wore her hair swept back in an up do. Meanwhile Adam looked casual in a white T-shirt which showed off his arm tattoos and baggy black joggers. Out and about: The professional dancer, 32, and the Olympic swimmer, 26, looked in great spirits heading to the show studios in London Adam, who will perform the Rhumba to Leona Lewis' track I See You from Avatar with dance partner Katya on Saturday night, recently revealed his top choice to play him in a biopic, should the opportunity ever arise. As reported by The Mirror on Thursday, the sportsman has his hopes set on former stripper and Magic Mike star Channing Tatum, 41. Adam who won three medals at the Tokyo Olympics this year - two golds and a silver - remarked, 'Who wouldn't want to be played by Channing Tatum?' Top choice: Adam, who will perform the Rhumba to Leona Lewis' track I See You from Avatar with dance partner Katya on Saturday night, recently revealed his top choice to play him in a biopic, should the opportunity ever arise The comments came ahead of Saturday's Strictly Come Dancing show which will see Greg Wise channel 007 with a Paso Doble to the James Bond theme tune. Katie McGlynn will be hoping to bounce back from the dance-off with an American Smooth as Cruella De Vil alongside Gorka Marquez. Tom Fletcher and Amy Dowden will make their grand return to the show after being forced to miss a week due a positive Covid test, with the duo taking on a Jibe to Johnny B Goode from Back To The Future. Jessica Chastain leads a star-packed cast of women in the latest trailer for the all-female spy movie the 355. In a new preview for the film posted on Friday, Chastain's character CIA agent Mason 'Mace' Brown recruits an international team of agents to recover a top-secret weapon. The group includes German spy Marie (Diane Kruger), former MI6 and computer specialist Khadijah (Lupita Nyong'o), Colombian psychologist Graciela (Penelope Cruz) and Lin Mi Sheng (Fan Bingbing). Secret agent: Jessica Chastain leads a star-packed cast of women in the latest trailer for the all-female spy movie the 355 Explaining the origin of the group's name, Mace starts the trailer saying: 'Remember that story that they told us about in training? About George Washington's first female spy during the revolution?' 'They called her agent 355 because they didn't want the world to know her real name, but her legacy lives on,' she continues. 'We're the top agents from around the world American, British, German, Columbian, Chinese,' Mace goes on, while showing off her martial arts skills. Nyong'o's Khadijah adds: 'But now we have a common enemy.' 'They can start World War Three,' Mace warns. 'From a simple reach of their keyboard.' Shrink: Penelope Cruz plays Colombian psychologist Graciela Leader of the pack: Chastain's character CIA agent Mason 'Mace' Brown recruits an international team of agents to recover a top-secret weapon Techie: Lupita Nyong'o is former MI6 and computer specialist Khadijah Hot spot: The ladies are seen infiltrating a gala when Chastain's character jokes 'half the CIA's most wanted' are attending Joining forces, the ladies are seen infiltrating a gala when Chastain's character jokes 'half the CIA's most wanted' are attending. Penelope's psychologist character is unexpectedly caught up in the conflict, telling someone: 'I'm not an agent, I'm a therapist!' Fan Bing Bing gets surrounded by armed men while reminding Mace: 'We put ourselves in danger so that others do not.' Then, Akerman's Marie pulls out the heavy ammunition, telling the CIA agent: 'I'll handle the guns.' 'Are you in therapy?' Graciela asks Marie over drinks. Not my job: Penelope's psychologist character is unexpectedly caught up in the conflict, telling someone: 'I'm not an agent, I'm a therapist!' First line of defense: Fan Bing Bing gets surrounded by armed men while reminding Mace: 'We put ourselves in danger so that others do not' Sharp shooter: Akerman's Marie pulls out the heavy ammunition, telling the CIA agent: 'I'll handle the guns' 'I should be,' she admits before clinking glasses with Khadijah, who is next seen installing gadgets into dazzling jewels for a mission at a high-class event. The women continue to work as a team as they attempt to thwart their enemy, as Chastain reminds everyone: 'The bad guys are out there right now.' Things climax with a tense standoff, showing Mace and Khadijah with guns drawn before a scene of shoot-outs and explosions flash by. 'I like the new team,' a suave Sebastian Stan tells Mace at the end. 'We're the 355,' she declares. 'Are you in therapy?' Graciela asks Marie over drinks. Cheers to that: 'I should be,' she admits before clinking glasses with Khadijah Going out with a bang! Things climax with a tense standoff, showing Mace and Khadijah with guns drawn before a scene of shoot-outs and explosions flash by Team: 'I like the new team,' a suave Sebastian Stan tells Mace at the end, to which she replies 'We're the 355' Talking about the project in 2018 with Deadline, Chastain said: 'I love the Bourne movies, the Mission: Impossible films, and wondered why, except for Charlie's Angels, there hadn't been a true female ensemble action-thriller spy film.' 'That got my wheels going, along with the idea of casting actresses from all over the world to truly make it an international project. 'I called all the women, told them what I was envisioning and that I wanted it to be a collaborative process, and how we would all create this together.' The 355 arrives in theaters on January 7th, 2022. Lori Harvey didn't look like she had broken a sweat as she emerged from a Pilates class in West Hollywood on Friday. The 24-year-old model looked picture perfect as she made her way to a white vehicle wearing a black t-shirt and black leggings. The fashionista extended the comfortable look with black socks that had two white stripes, and a pair of Yeezy Foam RNNR sneakers. Out and about: Lori Harvey didn't look like she had broken a sweat as she emerged from a Pilates class in West Hollywood on Friday Harvey carried a black quilted leather Chanel bag crossbody style. The daughter of comedian Steve Harvey obscured her eyes in a pair of black cat eye sunglasses by Prada. The young social media star sported a large pair of hoop earrings that were fully displayed as her dark, glossy hair was pulled back into a tight bun. Her signature baby hair framed her famous face. Heading off: The 24-year-old socialite looked picture perfect as she made her way to a black vehicle wearing a black t-shirt and black leggings Athleisure look: The fashionista extended the comfortable look with black socks that had two white stripes, and a pair of Yeezy Foam RNNR sneakers Fashion-forward: On Thursday the Wonderland cover star wowed in a new set of photos shared to Instagram Head to toe: Lori delighted her almost 4 million followers with an all brown look that consisted of an oversized button down shirt that she wore as a dress, Bottega Veneta knee high boots, and a plush chocolate coat On Thursday the Wonderland cover star wowed in a new set of photos shared to Instagram. Lori delighted her almost 4 million followers with an all brown look that consisted of an oversized button down shirt that she wore as a dress, Bottega Veneta knee high boots, and a plush chocolate coat. The ensemble was coordinated with the help of stylist Monica Rose. Stripped down: In one snapshot she posed indoors against a bronze wall, shedding the coat and giving her fans a closer view of her look For accessories, the Hollywood sweetheart sported big, gold, hoop earrings and carried a black handbag with a long strap. Over her eyes the skincare founder wore black Prada sunnies, a recent got-to of hers. Her hair was braided straight back in several plaits that gathered into a low bun. The entrepreneur walked the streets of Paris, France in some of the pictures. Team work: The ensemble was coordinated with the help of stylist Monica Rose In one snapshot she posed indoors against a bronze wall, shedding the coat and giving her fans a closer view of her look. In another, she took a mirror selfie in a luxurious powder room with marble accents. The beauty used no words in her caption but added brown heart and stars emojis. Julianna Margulies cut a chic figure when she was spotted on a busy New York City street on Thursday afternoon. The 55-year-old star was clad in an elegant tie-neck blouse under a leather jacket as she strolled down the sidewalk in Manhattan. The Good Wife actress's button-down blouse featured a dark brown and white lattice pattern. Out and about: Julianna Margulies cut a chic figure when she was spotted out in New York City on Thursday afternoon Margulies tucked her blouse into a pair of cropped dark wash low-rise blue jeans that showcased her svelte figure. Julianna's mahogany brown bomber jacket had a leather front and back with cashmere sleeves. The trendy jacket boasted a leather and cashmere double collar and gold hardware. Chic: The 55-year-old star was clad in an elegant tie-neck blouse under a leather jacket as she strolled down the sidewalk in Manhattan The Emmy Award winner sported white sneakers and rocked stylish gold and black framed sunglasses that had light brown fade lenses. Margulies accessorized with dangly gold and brown earrings and wore a pair of Apple Airpods. The brunette beauty swept her long locks into a high ponytail. She toted a black crossbody satchel and carried a white shopping bag from Paris-based brand Sezane. Fit: Margulies tucked her blouse into a pair of cropped dark wash low-rise blue jeans that showcased her svelte figure She highlighted her youthful features with a light palette of makeup including a soft pink lipstick. The New York native glanced to both sides before walking across the sidewalk. In December 2020, Julianna revealed that she had joined the cast of Apple TV's hit series The Morning Show. Last week, Margulies made her debut on the third episode of the show's second season. New role: In December 2020, Julianna revealed that she had joined the cast of Apple TV's hit series The Morning Show. Last week, Margulies made her debut on the third episode of the show's second season The Morning Show was scheduled to return for season two in November 2020 but production was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Julianna plays openly gay veteran journalist Laura Peterson, who interviews her sometimes rival Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) when Alex unexpectedly returns as co-anchor of the morning show. Peterson was previously fired from her position at the show's fictitious network UBA when she was outed back in the 1990s. Fans of the series were stunned when Laura and co-anchor Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) engaged in a steamy makeout session in the back of a car near the end of the episode. Surprise twist: Fans of the series were stunned when Laura and co-anchor Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) engaged in a steamy makeout session in the back of a car at the end of the episode In an interview with Vulture, Margulies described creating the scene with Witherspoon, who is also a producer on the show. In the scene, Bradley surprised Laura by unexpectedly kissing her as Laura was questioning Bradley about how she was hired on The Morning Show. Julianna told Vulture, 'That kiss was an interesting moment, because Reese said wait, as a producer, and pointed out that if she leans forward and kisses me without permission, thats harassment, and our whole show is based on the Me Too movement. 'So she said, How do we make this scene work so it doesnt feel hypocritical? And I said, youre right, you know, if you lean back like, oh my God, I'm so sorry, and I lean in and say, no, I liked it, then its a consensual kiss. Then the scene became something different. She went on to say, 'I know people are probably going to be shocked. I know Bradley kissed her because she didnt want to answer the question. But the way they handle the repercussions of that is really fascinating.' Working together: In an interview with Vulture , Margulies described creating the scene with Witherspoon, who is also a producer on the show. Seen in September 2021 The two actresses had never worked together before but Julianna explained that she had congratulated Reese on the success of Big Little Lies when they ran into each other at an event. 'I said, I just want to congratulate you and welcome you to my world of TV. And she was like, I never knew how f**king great television is for women! And I was like, Ive been waiting for yall to come over!' Julianna, who rose to stardom in the 1990s when she played Carol Hathaway on NBC's long-running medical drama ER, said that she also had a past connection to Aniston. The stars filmed ER and Friends in sound stages that were across from each other. She said, 'We were laughing about it, 25 years later though someone corrected me and was like, 27 years later, and I was like, f**k! that sounds so long ago, but it doesnt feel like it. 'We were shot out of the cannon at the exact same time, on that Thursday-night lineup,' Julianna continued. 'We started out together as no-name actresses and within one night of us airing, our worlds changed. 'Then to be back on a lot, not just on the same stage, but with our trailers next to each other, it felt really good. It felt like a celebration of women getting older and still being appreciated for the work that we do.' Shared history: Julianna, who rose to stardom in the 1990s when she played Carol Hathaway on NBC's long-running medical drama ER, said that she also had a past connection to Aniston. Seen in 1996 Jack Whitehall has reportedly overtaken Bradley Walsh to become Britain's best paid TV presenter. The 33-year-old's total assets came to 14.6million last year, beating The Chase host's 12.5million, Companies House records seen by The Sun show. Jack then earned another 1.6million, compared to Bradley's 840,000, according to the newspaper. Successful: Jack Whitehall has reportedly overtaken Bradley Walsh to become Britain's best paid TV presenter Jack and his father Michael appear on various shows including Travels with My Father while Bradley and his son Barney have starred in Breaking Dad together. A source told the publication: 'Jack is at the top of his game. 'With a top agent for a dad, and an amazing contacts' book of his own, he's incredibly shrewd. Rich: The 33-year-old's total assets came to 14.6million last year, beating The Chase host's 12.5million, Companies House records seen by The Sun show (Bradley is pictured) 'Jack's very hands-on with all his deals, as well as his shows and performances. 'More importantly, he's also a top lad away from the big screen, and absolutely no-one can resent him this success.' Representatives for Jack have been contacted for a comment by MailOnline. Fresh Meat star Jack is now worth more than most of the country's top daytime stars including Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield and Lorraine Kelly. He has amassed his fortune thanks to sell-out stand-up shows, a Disney blockbuster, films and hosting panel shows. Funny: Jack and his father Michael (pictured together) appear on various shows including Travels with My Father which was a huge Netflix success The star is also winning in the romance department and has been dating model Roxy Horner for nearly two years. They got together during the first lockdown after meeting during a trip to Australia, with the beauty moving into his London home after just a few weeks of dating. Jack previously admitted although the decision 'accelerated' their relationship, they did miss out on doing ordinary things like restaurant and cinema dates. Similar: Meanwhile Bradley and his son Barney have starred in Breaking Dad together Speaking on the Couples Quarantine podcast, he said: 'Weirdly that was quite nice because we spent a lot of time together and it accelerates the relationship in a way. 'Then when lockdown ended, there's a lot of things we realised. We'd never gone to see a film together. We'd never been to a restaurant in England because we met in Australia.' It comes after it was reported that a freak flood wreaked havoc in Jack's new home. New project: Next on the agenda for Bradley is his upcoming starring role in the Darling Buds of May remake called The Larkins (pictured as Pop Larkin) The house, which Roxy shares with the comedian, was reportedly swamped with floodwater and the pair have been forced to stay in a hotel due to the damage. According to The Sun, water flooded the kitchen and dining area, damaging the parquet flooring. A source told the publication: 'He's gutted. Talk about putting a dampener on moving in. The house is incredible and he loves it. There's even a lift and swimming pool in it. He wasn't expecting the kitchen to become a pool as well. 'Roxy doesn't live there full time but she is there most of the week now and it would definitely make the perfect home to start a family 'They had to move out while the repairs are being done. The flooring was ruined and it was really expensive stuff.' The source added that all the damaged property will have to be replaced, likely leaving the couple with a hefty bill. Idris Elba cut a dapper figure as he cosied up to his glamorous wife Sabrina at his swanky star-studded bar launch on Friday night. The actor, 48, looked suave in a dark grey suit and black jumper as he attended the opening of Porte Noire Bar and Shop in Coal Drops Yard, London, which is a joint business venture with David Farber. Sabrina, 32, put on a stylish display in a silk khaki co-ord as she posed for pictures with her handsome beau. Looking good: Idris Elba cut a dapper figure as he cosied up to his glamorous wife Sabrina at his swanky star-studded bar launch on Friday night She looked great in the matching long-sleeved shirt and wide-leg trousers which she teamed with black strappy heels. Sabrina wore her dark tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look. Also attending the event were Emma Weymouth, British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, Alec Amxwell and Hibaq Egal. Busy: The actor, 48, looked suave in a dark grey suit and black jumper as he attended the opening of Porte Noire Bar and Shop in Coal Drops Yard, London, which is a joint business venture with David Farber All smiles: The star looked great in his smart suit as he beamed for the cameras It comes after earlier this summer Idris revealed that he would tell his wife Sabrina to 'leave' if she didn't like his outbursts of temper. The actor recalled feeling 'stressed' in the early days of his romance with spouse Sabrina who he married in April 2019 after two years together. Speaking on their new podcast Coupledom, Idris admitted that when she would question his 'massive anger tantrums' he'd suggest they end their relationship. Stunning: Sabrina, 32, put on a stylish display in a silk khaki co-ord as she posed for pictures Pals: Also attending the event was Emma Weymouth who chatted away to Sabrina Leggy: Emma showed off her toned and tanned pins in a blue and black mini dress Handsome: British Vogue editor Edward Enninful wore a long black coat and jumper for the drinks event The star explained: 'Sabrina and I, very early in our relationship I was very stressed so I had these massive anger tantrums that were like explosions. 'She was like, "Who are you?" 'I was always the first to say, "Hey, if you're not happy, leave. Move." It was kind of like a male instinct.' Business partners: Co-founders of Porte Noir KX Idris and David Farber posed together The couple clash because they both have 'strong personalities' but the Mountain Between Us star continued that he's trying to do better at avoiding conflict. Idris said: 'Sabrina and I both have strong personalities and typically it's Sabrina who says, "Look, I don't want to fight". 'I've been getting better at it recently but when I do it, I get nothing back. When she does it, I go, "Thank you".' The couple recently insisted they are in a 'good place' together and love working on their podcast and new lifestyle brand S'able Labs. Happy to be reunited: Emma and Sabrina looked great in their glamorous ensembles Sabrina said: 'We're newly business partners, but we're also newlyweds. Idris is my best friend. I want to be around this guy every day of my life, so it's really great to be able to see what that morphs into.' And Idris added: 'I'd say we're in a good place. It was a challenging year, but ultimately, when you look to the side and you've got someone that's been there, ride or die, that's really comforting.' The duo also reflected on their relationship in an interview with People, saying their marriage is 'forever growing and changing and evolving'. Stylish appearances: Hibaq Egal and Tara Mafi also attended the swanky bar opening Idris explained that, how after two previous marriages: 'I had famously said I'd never get married again and here I was about to marry Sabrina, and we really got into questioning why.' After meeting Sabrina in 2017 at a Vancouver jazz bar, the actor gushed: 'We started dating and I fell head over heels. Everyone was like, "Hey man, you seem so much happier." 'I didn't realize I was, but the truth is that it really sparked a lot of conversations around how a partnership can bring out the best in you.' Smart: Editor-In-Chief of British Vogue Edward Enninful and Alec Maxwell were all smiles Radiant: Sabrina wore her dark tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look Sabrina described their marriage as 'forever growing and changing and evolving,' explaining that they're not just newly weds but also new business partners. The couple exchanged vows at the Ksar Char Bagh hotel in Marrakesh surrounded by 150 of their nearest and dearest in April 2019. Speaking of his decision to wed Sabrina, the British actor admitted: 'We've been literally inseparable since we met. Inseparable.' Group: Edward Enninful, Idris Elba, Emma Weymouth, Marchioness of Bath, and Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth all posed together Night out: Becky Fatemi, Hibaq Egal, Deborah Ababio and a guest tasted some of the wine on offer Friends: Idris put his arm around Edward as they enjoyed a glass of wine together Toned pins: Emma put on a leggy display in her dress which she teamed with black heels Hugs: Edward and Sabrina were getting on well as they embraced during the party Together: Ceawlin and Emma looked in great spirits as they attended the star-studded partyy Famous faces: The gathering attracted a number of celebrities Stylish ladies: Becky Fatemi, Hibaq Egal, Deborah Ababio and a guest all posed with their drinks He then detailed how the former beauty queen had changed his outlook on marriage, Sabrina has deepened friendships with people Ive known longer than [her], nurturing the best side of me to make me connect to my friends more.' It comes after William Hill placed Idris at 8/1 to become the next James Bond. He previously won a Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries or television film for his role as DCI John Luther in the BBC psychological crime drama of the same name. Idris has also starred in the crime drama series The Wire, sci-fi movie Pacific Rim and 2021 supervillain film The Suicide Squad. Venom star Tom Hardy, 44, Bridgerton actor Rege-Jean Page, 31, and Grantchester's James Norton, 36, are also considered to be among the contenders to be the next James Bond. High spirits: The actor seemed in good spirits as he left the bash, smiling as wife Sabrina walked close behind him Happy couple: The pair could be seen walking side-by-side as they left the venue at the end of the night Emma Weymouth looked sensational as she attended the Porte Noire Bar launch party in London's Coal Drops Yard on Friday night. Supporting its owners, actor Idris Elba and vintner David Farber, the socialite, 35, rocked up at the King's Cross hotspot in a very avant-garde number. Sending temperatures soaring, she flashed her toned pins in a black minidress featuring a baby blue silk addition, which swept from its dazzling silver neckline and around her waist. Fashion forward: Emma Weymouth looked sensational as she attended the Porte Noire Bar launch party in London's Coal Drops Yard on Friday night The plunging number was teamed up with a sparkling clutch and the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant added inches to her enviable frame with onyx heels. She wore her walnut locks in a chic bun, while allowing for a selection of strands to loosely frame her face. It wasn't long before she was joined by her husband Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth who looked dapper in a navy suit. Emma posed for photographers with Idris' stunning wife Sabrina who looked incredible in a silk green shirt with shoulder pads. The model sported a coordinating pair of trousers and kept things comfy in charcoal flip-flops. Looking good: Supporting its owners, actor Idris Elba and vintner David Farber, the socialite, 35, rocked up at the King's Cross hotspot in a very avant-garde number What a pair! It wasn't long before she was joined by her husband Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth who looked dapper in a navy suit Stunning: The plunging number was teamed up with a sparkling clutch and the former Strictly Come Dancing contestant added inches to her enviable frame with onyx heels British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, who looked suave in a black wool coat and navy trousers, joined the pair for a group shot soon afterwards. Man of the moment Idris put on a debonair display in a navy T-shirt layered beneath a matching suit jacket and trousers. Emma's father-in-law Alexander Thynn died from Covid-19 in April, making her husband the Marquess of Bath in April, and inheriting the estate Longleat. The estate is famous for being the first drive-through safari park outside of Africa. Emma has been married to Viscount Weymouth since June 2013, with the couple sharing sons John, five, and Henry, three. Out of this world: Emma (right) posed for photographers with Idris' stunning wife Sabrina (left) who looked incredible in a silk green shirt with shoulder pads Sensational: Sabrina sported a coordinating pair of trousers and kept things comfy in charcoal flip-flops On her wedding day Emma became the first black marchioness in British history. Speaking in November 2020, she said she doesn't want her skin colour to be a 'defining characteristic' The socialite said she is a 'reluctant role model' after becoming Britain's first black marchioness'. Emma starred on the cover of Tatler's January 2021 issue and opened up about her family's wildly ambitious plans for Longleat, their Wiltshire estate and her Surrogacy journey. While Emma, the daughter of a Nigerian oil tycoon, is deeply respectful of her new title, she is a reluctant role model, according to the society magazine. 'Where I have been discussed in a positive light, as positive change, I'm grateful for being included in the conversation,' she said. Pals: British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful (left), who looked suave in a black wool coat and navy trousers, joined the pair for a group shot soon afterwards Group pic: They certainly gave their fellow attendees squad-goal envy 'I see my role as a practical thing: as a wife, mother and someone with a responsibility to maintain this incredible estate. She continued, 'I aspire to a future where [my skin colour] is not a defining characteristic.' The Marchioness's first child, John (now Viscount Weymouth), was born in October 2014. The pregnancy, however, was a difficult one, during which Emma was diagnosed with hypophysitis A rare and potentially life-threatening condition which causes inflammation of the pituitary gland, it meant that she suffered a bleed on her brain and had to undergo an emergency caesarian section. While both mother and son thankfully pulled through, the Marchioness was subsequently told that she couldn't have any more children naturally. Beaming: Man of the moment Idris (second from left) put on a debonair display in a navy T-shirt layered beneath a matching suit jacket and trousers Delighted: They each appeared to be in high spirits The star and her husband, the Marquess of Bath, opted to use an American surrogate. Their second son, Lord Henry, was born in December 2016 in Los Angeles. Despite knowing she couldn't safely carry another child herself, Emma has candidly admitted that she struggled emotionally to come to terms with the choice. Speaking as part of 5 Days of Vogue Wellness virtual event, in a discussion entitled 'Motherhood and me: How having a baby made me love my body and soul', The brunette beauty revealed that 'Having a surrogate carry Henry was a massive decision'. She went on: 'I felt guilty and I felt confused, and it was the sharing with other women who have done the same thing for such diverse reasons that helped me arrive at that decision.' Kylie Jenner seemed to have a fun night in Malibu on Thursday with her family. The Life Of Kylie star, 24, was seen in a long red coat with oversized shoulders. The billionaire added matching boots as she exited the Japanese restaurant Nobu in Malibu. The girlfriend of Travis Scott was holding the hand of her daughter Stormi Webster, age three, who was in a red hoodie to match mom. Big night out: Kylie Jenner seemed to have a fun night in Malibu on Thursday with her family The pregnant beauty wore her long black hair down her back as she carried a small purse. The Hidden Hills, California resident showed off the front of the eye-popping outfit on Instagram on Thursday for her 264M followers. She had joined sister Kendall Jenner and parent Caitlyn Jenner for dinner, who left the seaside restaurant separately. Bye bye! The Life Of Kylie star, 24, was seen in a long red coat with oversized shoulders. The billionaire added matching boots as she exited the Japanese restaurant Nobu in Malibu. The finished look: Here the siren is showing off her baby bump in an all red outfit Earlier in the day she shared a makeup tutorial for her Instagram followers as she got ready for her night at Nobu. The pregnant Life Of Kylie star had her makeup only partially done with her black hair clipped back when she shared that she was applying fake eyelashes from her new Freddy Kreuger makeup collection. Toward the end of the video, the reality TV siren's mini-me daughter Stormi interrupts as she says, 'Mommy I want to see!' The gang: The girlfriend of Travis Scott was holding the hand of her daughter Stormi Webster, age three, who was in a red hoodie to match mom From Kenny: Kendall shared this image in her Maybach after dining with Kylie at Nobu The girl, aged three, also says, 'I want to do it.' Stormi often plays with her mother's makeup line, Kylie Cosmetics. The clip begins with Kylie saying, 'I am getting ready to go to dinner and am I'm doing really quick and easy makeup, and I want to show you how I used my little Freddie pre-cut lashes that I am obsessed with.' She then adds that she already has some brown mascara on. 'I am just going to use two of them with some white glue,' shared the sister of Kendall Jenner. Busy mom: Also on Thursday, Jenner was filming a makeup tutorial for her Instagram followers when someone crashed her clip Then come in separate sections: The lashes can be put on in little chunks 'Lash on,' she says in a clip after the fake lashes have been applied. That is when Stormi is seen next to Kylie, with only her forehead exposed. 'Mommy I want to see, mommy I want to do it!' says Stormi as she pops into the frame. Kyle laughs a little as she is clearly amused that everything Kylie does, Stormi wants to do too. There she is! Toward the end of the video, the reality TV siren's mini-me daughter Stormi Webster interrupts as she says, 'Mommy I want to see!' They make a great team: Kylie posed with Stormi for her Kylie Baby brand Jenner was also seen all done up for her night out in a red outfit that made the most of her baby bump. She is expecting her second child with beau Travis Scott. Earlier on Thursday she was seen in a red blood top made out of plastic while flashing her long, red, dagger-like nails. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star, 24, has been promoting her new makeup line which has a Nightmare On Elm Street theme. There has been fierce backlash against Jenner's choice to use the 1984 Wes Craven slasher film as her inspiration for her autumn collection because in the movie, villain Freddy Krueger preys on innocent teenagers, many of whom are women. One user on the app commented, 'You should collab with Jesus. THAT would be something to be proud of.' Another asked, 'Why do you always have to have your body displayed with everything you are promoting?' while another simply wrote, 'This is a no.' Looks like dripping blood: Jenner posed in a top seemed to be made of hot glue in a sparkly red color for her autumn makeup collection Critical: Some viewers weren't impressed with the sexy and spooky display The criticizing continued with a follower stating, 'This is sick and that's NOT a compliment!' Itsjohnnycyrus said the shoot reminded him of a 'period.' Another said the look was 'disturbing.' On Wednesday the youngest of the Kardashian/Jenner clan was clad in a sleeveless beige bodysuit. The ex of Tyga added glossy, red knee high boots that matched her red pout and earrings. 'IN YOUR DREAMS, wearing ELM STREET lip lacquer from my Nightmare on Elm Street collection launching 10.12,' the beauty maven wrote underneath the pair of photos peddling her brand's new goods. Woody Harrelson looked calm and collected while seen for the first time since reportedly punching an over eager fan in self-defense on Wednesday. The Emmy-winning actor, 60, cut a casual figure during a bike ride around Washington D.C., where he is currently filming the movie The White House Plumbers about the Watergate scandal. Woody allegedly got into a scuffle with a struck the man - who has yet to be identified - while out to dinner with his daughter at the Watergate hotel's rooftop bar, Top of the Gate, Wednesday night. Out: Woody Harrelson enjoyed a bike ride around Washington D.C. on Friday, his first sighting since he reportedly punched a man at the rooftop bar of the Watergate hotel During his bike ride, Harrelson sported blue shorts, a white tee shirt and flip-flops with sunglasses and a trucker hat. He was joined by a friend with shaggy blonde hair who he chatted with through the outing. The True Detective star looked like he was having a good day following a reported physical altercation with a fan on Wednesday. Harrelson reportedly punched the persistent fan after the man took unsolicited photos of the Cheers star and refused to delete them, eyewitnesses say. In town: The Emmy-winning actor, 60, is currently filming the movie The White House Plumbers about the Watergate scandal Casual: During his bike ride, Harrelson sported blue shorts, a white tee shirt and flip-flops with sunglasses and a trucker hat The actor struck the man - who has yet to be identified - while out with his daughter at the hotel's posh rooftop bar, Top of the Gate, at around 11 pm. Police say charges are pending for the man, after he was questioned in his hotel room that night by investigators after fleeing the scene of the altercation - and he will faces charges. However, Harrelson was not charged in the incident - as investigators say he acted 'in self-defense.' According to police, the man - who police say had been drinking and has yet to be identified - lunged at Harrelson after the actor approached him and asked him to delete a slew of photographs he had taken of him and his daughter. Harrelson, pictured here filming outside the Watergate earlier this week, punched the man after he lunged at the star while he was out with one of his daughters Wednesday night Harrelson 'approached the man and requested him to delete the photos,' Dustin Sternbeck, director of communications at the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, said in a statement after the incident, which occurred minutes after 11 pm Wednesday night. Harrelson then 'got into a verbal dispute with' the man, who allegedly 'lunged toward' the actor to try to grab his neck, a public incident report filed after the late-night altercation reads. Harrelson then preemptively punched the man before he could land his own blow, according to eyewitness accounts and the police report. The man then fled from the star to his hotel room. Harrelson, however, was not charged in the incident, as investigators say the star was acting in 'self defense' Upon police's arrival on the scene shortly thereafter, Harrelson told them that he punched the man in self-defense - and several witnesses reportedly corroborated the star's story, the report reveals. Harrelson was questioned by police, but was not charged with any crime. According to the incident report, officers made the determination that the actor was, indeed, engaging in 'self defense.' The actor has been in Washington shooting an HBO series on the Nixon administration's notorious Watergate scandal, and the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the famed hotel. Harrelson and his wife of 13 years, Laura Louie, had been spotted just hours before the incident, a little over a mile from where the altercation took place, as the pair headed to the National Museum of African American History and Culture during downtime from filming. Harrelson, 60, announced in 2017 that he had given up marijuana after decades of 'partying too hard,' and says he only drinks in moderation Harrelson, 60, is a father of three daughters, aged 28, 25, and 15. It is not immediately clear which daughter Harrelson was having dinner with when the altercation in question occurred. Police say charges are pending for the man, who was questioned in his hotel room after the altercation - but, according to the report, investigators believe Harrelson acted 'in self-defense.' Harrelson, 60, was not charged in the incident - which occurred around 11 pm. The name of the other man involved in the altercation will be released once he is charged, DC police say. Harrelson, however, boasts a somewhat checkered history when it comes to run-ins with the law. The incident between Harrelson and the unidentified man took place at the Top of the Gate rooftop bar at the famed Watergate Hotel In 2017, he admitted had given up smoking marijuana after decades of what he called 'partying too hard,' but said that he still drinks occasionally, 'in moderation.' In 2008, TMZ photographer Josh Levine filed a suit against the actor for an alleged attack outside a Hollywood nightclub in 2006, where a video of the incident appeared to show Harrelson grabbing Levine's camera and subsequently scuffling with the photographer. Los Angeles prosecutors declined to press charges against the star, and the case was dismissed two years later. In 2002, the star was arrested in London for allegedly causing 'criminal damage to a black taxi in the Waterloo Place area and then fleeing the vehicle,' a Scotland Yard spokesman said. He was then tracked down by police and arrested, before being bailed out that day. In 1982, Harrelson was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in Columbus, Ohio, after being picked up by police for dancing in traffic, and escaping a police van. He then got into a physical altercation with the officer who chased him down. Harrelson paid a $390 fine in regards to the incident - and did no jail time. Harrelsons father, however, Charles Harrelson, had a much more violent streak - he was a career criminal and hitman-for-hire who was convicted of first-degree murder not once, but twice, for a pair of full-fledged assassinations committed in the span of a little over ten years - and was charged and acquitted of another murder during that stretch as well. He died in 2007 at age 69, serving two consecutive sentences in a maximum security federal prison in Colorado. Concerning the Wednesday altercation with Woody, however, it was not immediately clear who called police to the scene - and the Metropolitan Police Department say that an investigation is still ongoing. Air India is all set to return to its original owners, the Tata Group. Tata Sons has won the final bid for acquiring the national carrier. With the addition of Air India under its wing, the Tata Group now holds control over all of India's full service carriers (the other being Vistara, a Tata joint venture with Singapore Airlines). A MESSAGE FROM RATAN TATA: On an emotional note, Air India, under the leadership of Mr JRD Tata had, at one time, gained the reputation of being one of the most prestigious airlines in the world. Tatas will have the opportunity of regaining the image and reputation it enjoyed in earlier years. Mr JRD Tata would have been overjoyed if he was in our midst today..." Welcome back, Air India ?? pic.twitter.com/euIREDIzkV Ratan N. Tata (@RNTata2000) October 8, 2021 JRD Tata, when asked in a TV interview in 1989 whether it was a wrenching and anguishing experience for him to relinquish control of Air India, the philanthropist and aviation pioneer responded with, "Yes, of course." And so @airindiain is set to return to the @TataCompanies. One of @RNTata2000s biggest achievements. What his predecessor and AI founder - JRD Tata had to say (in his only tv intvw, 1993) - hint of paternal pride in his voice (full vid - https://t.co/9vMHkRIyBp) pic.twitter.com/erA4WglMGk Sandeep (@SandeepUnnithan) October 1, 2021 THE FINANCIALS: 1. Tatas' winning bid amount: Rs 18,000 crore 2. The government will receive Rs 2,700 crore in cash from Tatas for the sale of 100 per cent of Air India's stake. 3. The amount of debt being taken over by the Tatas: Rs 15,300 crore The Tatas' winning bid of Rs 18,000 crore for Air India was higher than the reserve price of Rs 12,906 crore set by the government. Originally known as Tata Airlines, Air India was established by legendary philanthropist and industrialist JRD Tata in 1932. The airline was nationalised in 1953. With its new acquisition, the Tata Group has now added a third airline under its wing. They own a majority interest in Vistara and AirAsia India, joint ventures with Singapore Airline Ltd and AirAsia Investment Ltd respectively. THE O: With the Maharaja returning home to the Tatas, there is hope for the debt-ridden national carrier. The Tatas have a huge task ahead: of living up to the legacy; both its own and that of Air India. Daytona Beach, FL (32114) Today Generally cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 78F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Thunder possible. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription and are still unable to access our content, please link your digital account to your print subscription If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. The Indians, who are fully vaccinated with locally produced Covishield Covid-19 vaccine, will not be required to get 10-day quarantine. (PTI File Photo) New Delhi: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar spoke to his British counterpart Liz Truss just hours after Britain decided to allow Indians vaccinated with Covishield to visit the UK without quarantine from October 11. The two foreign ministers agreed to facilitate travel between the two countries, in a sign that bilateral ties are once again on the upswing following the removal of the irritant. Just days after imposition of reciprocal measures by India from October 4, Britain had on Thursday night decided to recognise Indias vaccination certification system after prolonged consultations between the two nations. Good to talk to UK Foreign Secretary @trussliz. Agreed to facilitate travel between our two countries. This will help to implement the Roadmap 2030, the external affairs minister tweeted. (sic) From October 11, Indian travellers who have received both doses of Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine at least 14 days before arrival in the UK can travel without having to quarantine; will not be required to take a pre-departure test nor take a day 8 test following their arrival. Earlier on Thursday evening, in an indication of things to come, India had said it was hopeful of a resolution of the vaccination-related travel restriction issue with the UK just days after New Delhi retaliated and imposed reciprocal regulations on British nationals arriving from the UK to India from October 4. Britain had last month recognised Covishield as an approved vaccine in an official travel update but had given no relief for Indian travellers arriving in the United Kingdom from October 4 who have received their two doses of the Covishield vaccine in India, with the British authorities indicating Britain has certain concerns about Indias vaccine certification process. Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his urgent intervention to tide over the energy crisis in Andhra Pradesh. The Chief Minister requested the Prime Minister to direct the union ministries of coal and railways to allot 20 coal rakes to the state. He asked for revival of stranded/non-working pit-head coal plants in India without PPAs or coal linkage on an emergency basis as some of these are under CIRP process by NCLT. He said such plants must also commence operations immediately regardless of stage of proceedings at NCLT and opined that it would save the coal transport time and quantity limitations in coal transportation to non-pit head coal plants. He asked for supply of deep water well gas available with ONGC and Reliance on emergency basis to 2,300 mw capacity stranded/non-working gas plants. He said the deficit of nearly 500 mw power from central generating stations due to plant maintenance could be bridged by reviving the plants at the earliest or by postponing the maintenance. He asked the Prime Minister to instruct banks/lending institutions to provide working capital loans liberally to Discoms till the crisis was tided over in order to make coal payments and to undertake market purchases. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the unfolding international energy crisis resulted in three-fold increase in electricity prices across Europe and China and also hit India and added that the post-Covid power demand in the state increased by 15 percent in the last six months and by 20 percent in the last one month. The Chief Minister said, Andhra Pradesh has been meeting a grid demand of about 185-195 MU daily. Power generation stations operated by APGenco which supply about 45 percent of the state's energy needs, hardly have coal stocks for one or two days and it may impact power generation. APGenco coal plants are operating at less than 50 percent of their 90 MU/day capacity due to shortage of coal. The central generation stations have also not been able to supply more than 75 percent of their 40 MU/day capacity. To absorb 8,000 MW of renewable energy capacity, AP has not been executing contracts with coal-based plants and consequently, it depends heavily on market purchases for sourcing its shortfall energy. He said, The daily average market price of about 40 MU/day energy that we purchase has increased three times from Rs 4.6 per kWh on September 15 to daily average of Rs 15 per kWh on Friday. The rates in Day-Ahead and Real Time power markets are soaring day by day and have reached the peak of Rs 20 per power unit at most times of the day. The power is also not available at certain hours in the market due to less availability of generation in the country. It is quite an alarming situation and the finances of distribution companies will deteriorate further if the situation persists. More water is required in the last stage of harvesting and if it is denied, fields would dry up and farmers stand to lose. Unplanned power cuts once resorted to, will lead to chaotic conditions as we witnessed in 2012. It has become increasingly difficult for us to meet the grid demand and the circumstances are pushing us towards load shedding. Kochi: Rats, mice, fruit bats and crows have been termed as 'vermin' for destroying crops and now the Grey-headed swamphen or 'Neela Kozhi', as it is called in Kerala, may also be added to that list if the farmers of pokkali rice have anything to say on it. The grey-headed swamphens are usually found in uncultivated paddy fields or swampy areas of wetlands where they roost and breed. However, experts say that the bird is a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act and that it can be declared as a vermin only by the Forest department of the state. Bugged by the persistent invasion by these birds of their paddy fields, where a special salt resistant variety of rice called 'pokkali' is being cultivated, an Ernakulam-based association of farmers has moved the Kerala High Court urging it to declare this particular species of swamphen as vermin. Pokkali cultivation is a form of mixed farming, where five months are devoted to growing rice, another five months for prawn or fish breeding and remaining 60 days are a transient period between the two, the petition has said. The state government, on the other hand, opposed the plea saying the bird was migratory and this was the first time such a complaint had come. It said the farmers ought to have first approached the forest department before approaching the court. The court, however, asked the state government not to take such a technical objection, saying if the farmers did not have a problem, they would not have filed a writ petition. The court asked the state government to inform it whether the grievance of the farmers, represented by advocates T R S Kumar, Mithun C Thomas and Akshay Joseph, was genuine and if not, then what was the motive behind filing the instant plea. In July this year, the high court had permitted farmers to hunt down wild boars attacking farmlands in certain parts of the state and had asked the state government to declare the animal as vermin in those specific areas. A similar relief is being sought by the pokkali rice farmers for their fields in Ernakulam. Besides urging the court to declare the bird in question as a vermin as far as their fields are concerned, the farmers have also sought that they be protected from any action under the Wildlife Act if they kill, injure or trap the grey-headed swamphen while trying to protect their crop, which is primarily grown in Thrissur, Ernakulam and Alappuzha districts of the state. The grey-headed swamphen is a water bird which commonly inhabits dense marshy areas, rice fields and wetlands in Kerala and it lives as a large community in these areas. Experts, like Dr P O Nameer, say that while the swamphens are not an endangered or migratory species, they are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act. Dr Nameer, the Dean of College of Climate Change and Environmental Science at Vellanikkara, which comes under the Kerala Agricultural University, said that while these birds have been found to cause damage to crops in various parts of the state, the loss to farmers was not as huge as was being claimed. He said that generally the farming community would prefer to put all animals and birds in the vermin category. Dr Nameer said if farmers have suffered losses, they can seek compensation from the government. With regard to the instant case, he said the grey-headed swamphens were usually found in uncultivated paddy fields or swampy areas of wetlands where they roost and breed and therefore, if such areas are cultivated the birds might move out of the area. The farmers, however, claim that a major reason for the intrusion of the bird into their paddy fields is "scarcity of food and unsuitable habitat" and they use it for shelter and reproduction "due to the high coverage generated by the pokkali rice plant". In their plea, the farmers have said that these birds arrive after sowing of the seeds in June and remain there till harvest time -- which is in November -- and during the intervening period they wreak havoc on the growing crops by feeding on the buds and cutting the paddy stems to build nests. It also results in bald patches in the fields, the farmers have claimed. The activities of the bird have caused huge damage to the pokkali rice crops, whose cultivation area has dropped to less than 1,000 hectares in Kerala where in the past it was being grown on more than 25,000 hectares of land, the plea has said. Thiruvananthapuram: N Vasu, the president of Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), on Friday said the apex temple body would examine whether any document submitted to the Supreme Court related to the Sabarimala case had the reference of a fabricated manuscript, possessed by the self-styled antique dealer Monson Mavunkal. He said he has no knowledge whether the controversial 'chembola' (a copper plate manuscript) regarding Sabarimala rituals was submitted as evidence to the apex court in connection with the women entry issue and there was no official record indicating that. "The Travancore Devaswom Board has no such document. I have given directions to examine whether any document, submitted to the court, has the reference regarding the Chembola," he told television channels. His response came days after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had rejected the opposition charge that his government had used the fabricated manuscript to dupe people during the time of Sabarimala women entry issue. The Congress-led opposition on Tuesday alleged that the self-styled antique dealer Monson Mavunkal, who was arrested recently, had tried to dupe people regarding the rituals at the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa Temple using the fabricated manuscript and the Marxist party government also had a role in it. "The allegation that the government had tried to deceive people by fabricating the chembola regarding the rituals at Sabarimala is baseless. Since all such matters are coming under the purview of the Crime Branch inquiry, no further details can be divulged right now," Vijayan had said. He had also said a letter has been given to the the Archaeological Survey of India and the Archaeological Department to probe the antiquity of the articles found in the collection of the accused. The 'Chembola' became a topic of political controversy after Mavunkal's arrest last week by the Crime Branch in connection with a cheating case. A section of the media had reported earlier that the 'chembola', possessed by Mavunkal, had references about the ownership and rituals of the Lord Ayyappa Temple. The Pandalam royal family, the erstwhile custodians of the hill shrine, demanded an inquiry into the allegations whether the fake document was used by the Vijayan government as evidence in the apex court to support its arguments favouring the entry of young women into the Sabarimala Temple. Creators argued that the company was shifting focus from the "real community" including controversial creators like Logan Paul and PewDiePie, in favour of more advertiser-friendly choices. (AFP Photo) Washington: Video sharing platform YouTube has confirmed that YouTube Rewind, the company's annual year-end round-up of trends, creators, memes, and the most popular videos on the site, has been cancelled for good. According to The Verge, instead, YouTube has stated it will "refocus our energies on celebrating you and the trends that make YouTube with a different and updated kind of experience," although the company didn't elaborate further on what it'll be replacing Rewind with. YouTube will also be relying on creators on its platform to fill the gap, with a spokesperson telling that it'll "continue to be inspiring to see the myriad of ways the most creative content producers in the world, our YouTube creators, encapsulate the end of the year in their video recaps, as YouTube retires its own Rewind video." As per The Verge, this news of YouTube cancelling Rewind permanently isn't a big surprise, as the company already took off 2020, citing the difficulties of the year: "2020 has been different. And it doesn't feel right to carry on as if it weren't." Also, Rewind had already been struggling long before the pandemic. 2018's video was viciously panned by the YouTube community (to this day, it remains the most disliked video ever posted to the platform). Creators argued that the company was shifting focus from the "real community" including controversial creators like Logan Paul and PewDiePie, in favour of more advertiser-friendly choices. Later 2019's video attempted to skirt controversy entirely by shifting its format from the big-budget mashup of YouTubers from years past to a more ordinary (and boring) list of clips of most-watched creators, videos, and trends. Still, whether well-received or endlessly dunked on, Rewind videos have been a big part of YouTube's culture for the past decade. Hopefully whatever YouTube does to replace its big year-end celebration ends up a little less controversial going forward. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. It has been a month since automobile major Ford announced the ceasing of operations in India, but there is no clarity yet on the future of the two plants owned by the US company in Maraimalai Nagar and Sanand and their around 4,000 employees. However, there is intense speculation about home-grown Tata Motors touching base with Ford India for buying the Maraimalai Nagar and Sanand plants. The speculation gained further credence after Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran and Tata Motors Executive Director Girish Wagh met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin separately in two weeks. Though Tata Sons and the state government maintain that the meetings were courtesy calls, a source in the know told DH that a state government delegation met the top management of Tata Motors in Mumbai for discussions on the group possibly taking over the facilities owned by Ford. Also Read | Ford announces $11.4 bn investment for electric vehicle production The discussions with the Tata management took place before its chairman met the Chief Minister. The delegation returned with an impression that Tata Motors was not very keen on taking over Fords plants in Chennai and Sanand. However, the talks are still on, and the final word has not yet been pronounced, the source said. The source added that the government has very limited say since it was only playing the role of an interlocutor in the interests of the employees and the state. The deal will have to be negotiated and settled by the two companies. We will facilitate the company that agrees to talk over the plant. We will then discuss with the buyer on what we can offer them, a senior government official told DHon the condition of anonymity. In response to a query sent by DH, a spokesperson for Ford India said: We continue to explore possible alternatives for our manufacturing facilities but have nothing further to comment related to the ongoing speculations. Industry trackers said Tata Motors may expect the Tamil Nadu government to give them a special package for not just taking over the Ford plant but for its future expansion plans. Meanwhile, the talks between Ford India management and the employees' union have also not progressed beyond a point. The talks are continuing but we have not reached any agreement on the settlement for employees. We are still pushing the management to give us an agreement that our jobs will be saved if any company takes over the plant, an office-bearer of the Chennai Ford Employees Union told DH. Ford said it continues to work with the unions and other stakeholders on measures to help balance the impact and to care for those directly affected by the restructuring. Check out the latest DH videos here: After more than two decades and three attempts, the government has finally sold its flagship national carrier Air India, and it is deja vu for Maharaja as it returned home to its founding father the Tata group Its a homecoming of sorts for the carrier which was first launched by the Tata group back in 1932 and subsequently taken over by the government 14 years later. Tata Group now owns Air Indias 4,400 domestic and 1,800 international landing and parking slots at domestic airports, and around 900 slots at international airports. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata founded the airline almost 90 years ago. It was called Tata Airlines then. In its initial days, the airline transported mail between Mumbai (then Bombay) and Karachi (now in Pakistan) in British India. In 1946, the aviation division of Tata Sons was listed as Air India and in 1948, Air India International was launched with flights to Europe. The international service was among the first public-private partnerships in India, with the government holding 49 per cent, the Tatas keeping 25 per cent and the public owning the rest. In 1953, Air India was nationalised. For the next over four decades it remained the prized possession for India controlling the majority of the domestic airspace. With the opening up of the aviation sector to private players in 1994-95 and private entities offering cheaper tickets, Air India gradually started losing market share. When private players entered the market, the airline faltered and lost its edge in the international and domestic markets. Also read: Coming full circle: Tatas back in Air India cockpit As part of its broader privatisation and disinvestment push, in 2000-01 the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee tried to sell a minority stake or 40 per cent stake in Air India. Singapore Airlines along with the Tata group showed interest in buying the stake, but eventually Singapore Airlines pulled out mainly due to opposition to privatisation by trade unions. Hence, derailing the disinvestment plan. The subsequent 10 years of Congress-led UPA governments from 2004-14 did not pursue any privatisation agenda including that of Air India. A Turnaround Plan (TAP) as well as a Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP) were approved for Air India by the previous UPA regime in 2012. After its merger with Indian Airlines in 2007, its losses only kept piling, prompting the government to privatise the carrier. Here is a chronology of Air India privatisation plan: June 2017: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave in-principle approval to the consideration for strategic disinvestment of Air India and its five subsidiaries. A Panel of Ministers or Air India Specific Alternate Mechanism (AISAM) was constituted for this purpose. March 2018: Government invites EoI from investors for buying 76 per cent stake in Air India, remaining 26 per cent to be with the government. The deal would also include 100 per cent in Air India Express and 50 per cent in ground handling arm AISATS. Last date to bid was May 14. Also read: Welcome back, says Ratan Tata after group wins Air India bid The buyer was required to take Rs 33,392 crore or close to 70 per cent of the beleaguered carrier's debt on its books. May 2018: No bids received for Air India. June 2018: Government decides to go slow on Air India sale till oil prices soften. January 2020: Government floats EoI for Air India privatisation. Government to fully exit Air India by selling 100 per cent. The deal would also include 100 per cent in Air India Express and 50 per cent in ground handling arm AISATS. Last date to bid extended 5 times until December 14. As per the EoI, of the airlines total debt of Rs 60,074 crore as of March 31, 2019, the buyer would be required to absorb Rs 23,286.5 crore. October 2020: Government sweetens deal; gives flexibility to investors to decide on the amount of Air India debt they want to absorb. December 2020: DIPAM Secretary said Air India EOI received "multiple bids". March 2021: Hardeep Singh Puri, the then Civil Aviation Minister said: There is no choice, we either privatise or we close the airline. We run a loss of Rs 20 crore every day despite Air India making money now." April 2021: Government starts inviting financial bids for Air India. September 15 last date to put in bids. September 2021: Income Tax department allows new owners of Air India to carry forward losses and set it off against future profits. September 2021: Tata Group, Spicejet Promoter Ajay Singh put in financial bids. October 2021: Government announces Tata group makes winning bid of Rs 18,000 crore for Air India. The Tata Group now has a monumental task ahead of it making Air India profitable. The group has a strong presence in the aviation sector as it operates AirAsia India and Vistara. (With inputs from agencies) Check out DH's latest videos By Baiju Kalesh, Saritha Rai and Dinesh Nair Paytm is in talks with sovereign wealth funds and financial firms to become anchor investors in its upcoming initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. State-backed wealth investors Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Singapores GIC Pte are among those weighing bidding to participate in the IPO, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Global financial firms such as BlackRock Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. are also in discussions to bid, the people said. One97 Communications Ltd., as Paytm is formally known, is considering seeking a valuation of around $20 billion to $22 billion based on initial investor feedback, they said. Read more: Paytm valuation at $20 billion, excluding new business potential: Damodaran There are already more than enough bids to cover the shares allocated for anchor investment in the IPO, the people said. While the draft preliminary prospectus was filed in July, it is still awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, one of the people said. Negotiations are ongoing and other bidders could emerge for the stakes, the people said. A representative for Paytm declined to comment, while ADIA, BlackRock, GIC and Nomura didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. Indias market for first-time share sales is surging on debuts of tech firms like Zomato Ltd.s $1.3 billion offering. The amount of money raised in IPOs this year has reached $10.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the current pace, 2021 would exceed the all-time record of $11.8 billion. Paytm, backed by SoftBank Group Corp., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Jack Mas Ant Group Co., plans to raise as much as Rs 16600 crore ($2.2 billion) from its share sale, according to its draft prospectus. Led by founder and Chief Executive Officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm has expanded beyond digital payments into banking, credit cards, financial services and wealth management. It also supports Indias financial payments backbone, the Unified Payments Interface or UPI. In fintech, Paytm has fended off stiff competition from a swath of global players and has the biggest market share of Indias merchant payments, with over 20 million partners in its network. Its users make 1.4 billion monthly transactions, according to numbers in a recent company blog post. Check out the latest DH videos: Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Thursday the electric carmaker plans to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, where it is building a massive car and battery complex. "I'm excited to announce that we're moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas," Musk told the company's annual meeting, held in the Texas car factory. "This is not a matter of, sort of, Tesla leaving California," he said, saying it plans to increase output from its main California factory and Nevada factory by 50%. The Fremont, California factory nonetheless is "jammed" and it is tough for people to afford houses in California, he said. Also Read | US jury orders Tesla to pay ex-employee $137 million over racism Billionaire Musk himself moved to the Lone Star State from California in December to focus on the electric-car makers new plant in the state and his SpaceX rocket company, which has a launch site in the southern tip of Texas. Musk had a rocky relationship at times with California, threatening to move Tesla headquarters and future programs to Texas during a row over the closure of Teslas factory in Fremont, California due to Covid-19, for instance. At the meeting he showed off a design of what looked like a cowboy-style belt buckle emblazoned with "Don't Mess With T" the T in the style of the Tesla logo. The phrase is based on a venerable and popular Texas anti-littering campaign Don't Mess with Texas. Despite some criticism from activist shareholders and a proxy advisory service, shareholders followed board guidance on several key proposals. Shareholders re-elected Kimbal Musk, Elon's brother, and James Murdoch as board directors. Advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) had recommended that Tesla investors not re-elect the two directors because of concerns about excessive compensation packages to non-executive board members. Shareholders also voted against a stockholder proposal asking for a study into the impact of Tesla's use of arbitration on workplace harassment and discrimination. The proposal, opposed by the board, was thrown into the spotlight after a Black former contract worker on Monday won a $137 million jury award against Tesla over workplace racism. Check out latest DH videos here TVS Motor Company launched an advanced range of TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles on Friday that are equipped with a new headlamp assembly and signature daytime running lamp (DRL) and three ride modes. The Company also introduced TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition, equipped with first-in-segment features including adjustable clutch and brake levers, an exclusive Matte Black colour with red alloy wheels, and a new seat pattern besides the new headlamp. The TVS Apache RTR 160 4V and TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition will now be available in three ride modes Urban, Sport, and Rain, gear shift indicator and radial rear tyre. The top-end variant of the Apache RTR 160 4V will be equipped with TVS SmartXonnect. TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles are fitted with a new headlamp assembly where the signature DRL continues to glow, changing its stance to a front position lamp (FPL) which functions with low and high beam simultaneously. Meghashyam Dighole, Head (Marketing) Premium Motorcycles, TVS Motor Company, said: TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles have always lived up to the growing expectations of our aspirational customers, by delivering cutting edge technology to racing enthusiasts. Backed by four decades of racing pedigree, we are delighted to introduce the advanced range of TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles, offering an array of first-in-segment features in its class. We are also excited to present TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition, which compliments the TVS Apache series product portfolio, further strengthening TVS Motor Companys premium two-wheeler offering. TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition comes exclusively in Matte Black colour with red alloy wheels and a new seat pattern. The TVS Apache RTR 160 4V will be available in three colours: Racing Red, Metallic Blue and Knight Black. TVS Apache RTR 160 4V will be available across three variants: drum, single disc, and rear disc. The TVS Apache RTR 160 4V series of motorcycles are priced at: TVS Apache RTR 160 4V Special Edition: Rs 1,21,372/- (ex-showroom, Delhi) TVS Apache RTR 160 4V (Drum): Rs 1,15,265/- (ex-showroom, Delhi) TVS Apache RTR 160 4V (Single Disc): Rs 1,17,350/- (ex-showroom, Delhi) TVS Apache RTR 160 4V (Rear Disc): Rs 1,20,050/- (ex-showroom, Delhi) In a bid to promote digital transactions, the Reserve Bank on Friday proposed to increase the per transaction limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh through Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). IMPS managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an important payment system providing 24x7 instant domestic funds transfer facility and is accessible through various channels like internet banking, mobile banking apps, bank branches, ATMs, SMS and IVRS. With RTGS now operational round the clock, there has been a corresponding increase in settlement cycles of IMPS, thereby reducing the credit and settlement risks. "In view of the importance of the IMPS system and for enhanced consumer convenience, it is proposed to increase the per transaction limit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing measures after the bi-monetary monetary policy review. Also Read | RBI maintains status quo, keeps repo rate unchanged This will lead to further increase in digital payments and will provide an additional facility to customers for making digital payments beyond Rs 2 lakh, he said, adding, necessary instructions in this regard would be issued separately. In addition, the Reserve Bank also proposed to introduce a framework for retail digital payments in offline mode across the country. The Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated August 6, 2020 had announced a scheme to conduct pilot tests of innovative technology that enables retail digital payments even in situations where internet connectivity is low or not available (offline mode). Three pilots were successfully conducted under the Scheme in different parts of the country during the period from September 2020 to June 2021 involving small-value transactions covering a volume of 2.41 lakh for value Rs 1.16 crore. "Given the encouraging experience gained from the pilot tests, it is proposed to introduce a framework for retail digital payments in offline mode across the country. This will further expand the reach of digital payments and open up new opportunities for individuals and businesses," Das said. He further said, ensuring wider availability of payments acceptance (PA) infrastructure throughout the country has been one of the priority areas for financial inclusion. To target areas with deficient PA infrastructure, he said, it is proposed to introduce a framework for leveraging geo-tagging technology for capturing exact location information on all existing and new PA infrastructure viz., Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, Quick Response (QR) Codes, etc. This would complement the Payment Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) framework of the Reserve Bank in ensuring wider geographical deployment of PA infrastructure, he added. Also Read | Sensex rallies over 500 pts to reclaim 60,200 level after RBI policy outcome Das said the Reserve Banks Regulatory Sandbox (RS) has so far introduced three cohorts on Retail Payments; Cross Border Payments; and MSME Lending. With a view to provide further impetus to the fintech ecosystem, he said, a fourth cohort on Prevention and Mitigation of financial frauds is being announced. In addition, he said, based on the experience gained and the feedback received from stakeholders, it is proposed to facilitate On Tap application for earlier themes for participating in the Regulatory Sandbox. This measure is expected to ensure continuous innovation in the fintech ecosystem of our country. Check out DH's latest videos After months of speculations, OnePlus is all set to pull wraps off the premium mid-range phone OnePlus 9 RT. CEO, Pete Lau in a cryptic message on Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, has shown off a photo, understood to be taken with OnePlus 9RT, and said it will be revealed soon. It is widely reported that OnePlus will be unveiling OnePlus 9RT in October exclusively in India and China. Also, the company has already confirmed that there won't be any flagship T series launch later in 2021. For the past few years, it had become a practice of OnePlus to launch the 'T' flagship phone in the second half of the year. This time, the company has decided to skip the OnePlus 9 Pro successor's launch and instead bring the OnePlus 10 series early, most probably within the first quarter of 2022. Also, it will come with Android 12-based ColorOS. Last month, the company announced OnePlus engineers will join sister brand Oppo's team to co-develop future ColorOS software. Coming back to the OnePlus 9RT, it will have significant updates over the OnePlus 9R. The new phone is expected to come with a 6.55-inch full HD+ AMOLED screen with 120Hz display rate, Android-based ColorOS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 octa-core chipset, up to 12GB RAM, up to 256GB storage, a 50MP main camera backed by an ultra-wide-angle lens, telephoto lens, and macro sensor, a 5,000mAh battery with a fast charger. Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday spoke with Japan's newly elected Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and discussed the robust cooperation between India and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region. Japan's parliament had elected Kishida prime minister on Monday. In a tweet Modi said, "Spoke with H.E. Fumio Kishida to congratulate him for assuming charge as the Prime Minister of Japan. I look forward to working with him to further strengthen India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership and to enhance cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region." The prime minister conveyed his congratulations and best wishes to Kishida for assuming charge as the premier of Japan, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement. Both leaders expressed satisfaction at the rapid progress in the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan, and agreed on the potential to further enhance cooperation in a variety of areas, including in high-technology and futuristic sectors, it said. Prime Minister Modi invited Japanese companies to benefit from India's economic reforms through greater investment, the PMO said. The leaders also discussed the increasing alignment of perspectives, and robust cooperation, between India and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region, it said. They reviewed the progress of cooperation under the Quad framework in this regard, the statement said. Prime Minister Modi also invited Kishida to visit India at his earliest convenience for a bilateral summit meeting. Watch latest videos by DH here: Journalists, human rights activists and many others enthusiastically welcomed the awarding of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists at a time when media groups around the world face new pressures and crackdowns from the authorities. Friday's announcement awarding the peace prize to Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia. marked a rare bright spot amid growing harassment of reporters in many parts of the world. Another new threat is the rise of misinformation, even in established democracies. Here are some of the comments about the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to honour Ressa and Muratov: Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa personify the values of press freedom and the reason it matters. These are journalists under personal threat, who continuously defy censorship and repression to report the news, and have led the way for others to do the same. This Nobel Peace Prize is a powerful recognition of their tireless work, and that of journalists all around the world. Their struggle is our struggle. Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines congratulates journalist Maria Ressa on being the first Filipino to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Her win is a victory for press freedom advocates across the Philippines, which remains one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Also read: Philippine press freedom advocates hail Maria Ressa's Nobel Prize Reporters routinely face online harassment, local newsrooms face pressure to self-censor, and regional journalists remain the most vulnerable to violence, including detention and killings. ... We hope that Ressa's win drives international attention to the plight of the Philippines' local media workers, and sends a signal that a free, unstifled and critical press is necessary for a healthy democracy. The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. To be a journalist in Russia, the Philippines, and a growing number of other countries is to place one's life in unmitigated peril. The long arm of authoritarianism reaching across borders and even into free societies means that no matter where they go, those who seek to do them harm may be hiding in the shadows. Safe harbor is difficult to come by, and yet Maria and Dmitry know that without the work they and countless others do, darkness would settle with corruption and brutality shrouded in impenetrable secrecy. Suzanne Nossel. the CEO of PEN America, a free expression group. This is an extraordinary tribute to journalism, an excellent tribute to all journalists who take risks everywhere around the world to defend the right to information. ... It will be a decisive decade for journalism. Journalism is in danger, journalism is weakened, journalism is threatened. Democracies are weakened by disinformation, by rumors, by hate speech. This prize is a great signal a very powerful message to defend journalism everywhere. -- Christophe Deloire of the media rights group Reporters Without Borders, or RSF. She has sacrificed her own freedom for the rights of journalists all over the world and I am grateful to the Nobel Committee for shining a light on her incredible courage. I hope the Philippine authorities will now stop persecuting her and other journalists and that this prize helps to protect the press around the world. Amal Clooney, Ressa's London-based lawyer. A painful strike to the Russian authorities was made, because the freedom of speech and the principles of independent journalism are an evil in the eyes of Russian authorities. They fight with it, especially now, when dozens of journalists and media got a status of foreign agents. ... The world community can see and appreciates all this. Moscow-based political analyst Abbas Gallyamov. Also read: Kremlin welcomes fact that editor who criticises it won Nobel peace prize Freedom of expression is a part of democracy, and democratic systems are proven to be more stable, less likely to go to war with each other, less likely to experience civil war. I think the important thing about a media that's truly free is that it not only acts independently, but it respects the truth. And that seems to me to be also an important part not just of democracy, but also of the work towards peace. -- Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. I am very happy the award went to Novaya Gazeta. They are our friends. I know many of the journalists and editors at this brave media outlet and I know the tragic history of some journalists who were working for Novaya Gazeta and were killed in Russia. This is very important for our Russian colleagues. In Poland the situation is very different, of course. But we have also been under attack from the government for five years and we see disinformation and propaganda by the public broadcaster. In my opinion this a very important signal to the world that democracy does not exist without free media. -- Roman Imielski, deputy editor of the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. The award raises the media's role in modern world. I congratulate Dmitry Muratov, a wonderful, brave and honest journalist and my friend. Former Soviet leader and 1990 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mikhail Gorbachev, a co-founder and co-owner of Novaya Gazeta, in an interview with Interfax. Gorbachev gave part of his Nobel prize money to the newspaper to help it buy office equipment. A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunduz province on Friday, killing 46 people and wounding more than 140, the state-run Bakhtar news agency said. Video footage showed bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque that is used by people from the minority Shi'ite Muslim community. No group immediately claimed responsibility. The blast follows several attacks, including one at a mosque in Kabul, in recent weeks, some of which have been claimed by the Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State. The attacks have underscored security challenges for the Taliban, which took over the country in August and have since carried out operations against Islamic State cells in Kabul. "This afternoon, an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shiite compatriots ... as a result of which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter. Bakhtar news agency, run by the ministry of information, said 46 people were killed and 143 wounded in the blast. Check out DH's latest videos: The United States is looking for a competition with China in a responsible way, the White House has said, a day after the two countries agreed to have a virtual leadership summit before year-end. "We're not looking for a conflict with China; we're looking for a competition, and we want to do that in a responsible way," White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday aboard Air Force One travelling to President Joe Biden to Chicago. A day earlier, White House officials said that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan during a meeting with Chinese Communist Party Politburo Member and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Yang Jiechi in Zurich agreed in-principle for a virtual summit meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Biden Administration believes that a leader-to-leader engagement is essential and is an important part of its effort to responsibly manage the competition, Jean-Pierre said. Also Read | Biden, Xi expected to meet virtually by year-end "As far as the meeting that Jake Sullivan had with his counterpart, with the in Zurich, they were candid, they were direct, they were wide-ranging," she said. Biden had a long call with the Chinese president on September 9. "The September 9th POTUS-Xi call was about ensuring we have open lines of communications, as I was just mentioning. The two leaders discussed the importance of having more substantive conversation than we had been to date, including the need to do so in private," she said. "But we stand at a time, we are interested in seeing where it could go. That's what this meeting was about: continuing the conversation from leaders. National Security Advisor Sullivan raised areas where the United States and PRC have an interest in working together to address vital transactional challenges and ways to manage risk in our relationship," Jean-Pierre said. Check out latest DH videos here With India closing in on vaccinating all adults with at least first dose of the vaccine in the next couple of days, the vaccine hesitancy is at the lowest level in the country so far. Only 7 per cent Indian adults are currently hesitant to getting inoculated against Covid-19, according to a new survey. While the findings are likely to further boost the country's vaccination drive, a surge in breakthrough cases with the Delta variant of the virus is a cause of concern. A cross-sectional study among Covid-19 cases found an increase in incidences of post-vaccination infections with Delta variant as compared to a non-Variant of Concern lineage. The study also noted an increased number of infections among the younger age group of 0-19 years and women. Seventy-one per cent of the country's adult population have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 27 per cent have got both doses, the government said on Thursday as the cumulative vaccine shots administered in the country crossed 93 crore. With the onset of festive season across the country, a senior Health Ministry official has warned people about the threat of Covid-19 resurgence. "Please watch your October, November, December," the official said, adding that "we cannot take the current stable situation for granted". The daily rise in coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 14 straight days. India's total tally of cases rose to 3,39,15,569 on Friday with 21,257 people testing positive for the coronavirus infection in a day, while the number of active cases declined to 2,40,221, the lowest in 205 days, according to data updated by the Union Health Ministry on Friday. Amid fears of a surge in Covid-19 cases from the third week of October, a top government official on Thursday assured that the Central government is prepared to handle a daily caseload of 4.5-5 lakh Covid-19 patients in the third wave if it ever comes. The official added that more than two million beds are available to deal with any such emergency. After over a week of tussle between the Indian and the British government over recognition of vaccination certificate, the Boris Johnson-led government on Thursday finally relented and agreed to exempt travellers inoculated with two doses of the Covishield Covid-19 vaccine in India from mandatory quarantine on arrival to the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the government has permitted Serum Institute of India (SII) to export 10 lakh Covishield doses each to Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh, while Bharat Biotech will provide Iran with 10 lakh doses of Covaxin under the 'Vaccine Maitri' programme in October. As many parents and pediatricians are clamoring for protection for children younger than 12, Pfizer has asked the US government to allow use of its Covid-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 -- and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks. On the economy front, former Reserve Bank Governor C Rangarajan has said that India becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2025 is impossible under the current circumstance and the country needs to grow at 9 per cent per annum for the next five years in order to achieve the target. The World Bank on Thursday projected that India's economy would grow by 8.3 per cent this fiscal year, making it the second-fastest-growing major economy. Check out the latest DH videos here: Tainted chief of Dera Sacha Sauda sect, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was on Friday convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula for the murder of a Dera follower, Ranjit Singh, in the year 2002. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on October 12 by the special CBI judge Sushil Kumar Garg. The sect chief is currently behind bars since 2017 in a jail in Haryanas Rohtak. He is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples. Gurmeet Ram Rahim has also been sentenced to life imprisonment by the CBI court for the murder of a journalist, Ram Chander Chattarpati. His life imprisonment will start after he completes his 20 years in jail for rape. The special CBI court has convicted Gurmeet Ram Rahim under Section 302 of the IPC for murder, CBI special prosecutor HPS Verma said on Friday. Krishan Lal, Jasbir Singh, Avtar Singh and Sabdil are the other accused who have been convicted. A follower of Ram Rahim, Ranjit Singh was shot dead by four assailants on July 10, 2002 at his native in Haryanas Kurukshetra. The Dera chief and his accomplices suspected that Ranjit Singh was behind the circulation of an anonymous letter that brought to fore the sexual exploitation of women disciples inside the Dera complex in Sirsa. The anonymous letters opened a Pandora box leading to a case being registered. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had recently dismissed a petition seeking the transfer of the Ranjit Singh murder case from the special CBI court in Panchkula to any other special CBI court in Punjab, Haryana, or Chandigarh. Dera Sacha Sauda remained a popular sect in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and other states, inviting millions of followers. It wielded sizable political clout across party lines. Watch the latest DH Videos here: The Mizoram government has issued a show-cause notice to the director of Zoram Medical College (ZMC) over alleged discrepancies in the recent recruitment of nurses. The state administration on Thursday sought an explanation at the earliest from Dr John Zohmingthanga, the director of the lone medical college in the state, over allegations that some 'nurses', who did not possess any nursing certificate, were recruited without conducting any personal interviews. Voluntary nurses, who were hired in April for a limited period, have been staging an agitation at the hospital since October 5 over the alleged recruitment discrepancies. They also claimed that they have been irregularly paid. Main opposition party Zoram People's Movement and influential outfit Mizo Students' Union have also requested the state government to nullify the results. The Health Department had last month issued an advertisement inviting applications for the recruitment of 50 nurses at ZMC on a contractual basis. The results of the personal interviews conducted between September 27 and September 30 were declared on October 4. However, the results were strongly opposed from different quarters. The voluntary nurses demanded that the results be rectified on or before October 14. Hundreds of voluntary nurses were hired in ZMC and other Covid care facilities in the state to cope up with a manpower crunch amid a spike in coronavirus cases. A voluntary nurse at ZMC, on condition of anonymity, told PTI that at least 103 of them are working in the hospital. They have been hired for at least compulsorily 100 days at a monthly remuneration of Rs 22,000. She claimed that in the government advertisement, it was clearly mentioned that voluntary nurses would be given priority in recruitment to the 50 posts, but only 14 were selected whereas over 80 per cent of them had applied. She alleged that at least three candidates were short-listed without having to face personal interviews. The nurse also claimed they haven't been paid for the last two months. The ZMC director could not be contacted for a comment on the allegations. Check out DH's latest videos The British Government has finally relented and agreed to exempt travellers inoculated with two doses of the Covishield Covid-19 vaccine in India from mandatory quarantine on arrival to the United Kingdom. Almost a week after New Delhi announced retaliatory measures in response to the British Governments new discriminatory travel rules, Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government in London agreed to recognise the vaccination certificate issued to people fully inoculated with Covishield in India. The latest changes in the British Governments travel rules will come into effect from 9:30 am IST on October 11. No quarantine for Indian travellers to UK fully vaccinated with Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine from 11 October, Alex Ellis, the UKs envoy to India, tweeted after the British Governments Secretary of State Grant Shapps announced the changes in the new travel rules that came into effect last Monday. No quarantine for Indian travellers to UK fully vaccinated with Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine from 11 October. Thanks to Indian government for close cooperation over last month. pic.twitter.com/cbI8Gqp0Qt Alex Ellis (@AlexWEllis) October 7, 2021 Shapps announced in London that eligible travellers vaccinated in 37 more countries and territories, including India, Brazil, Ghana, Hong Kong, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey, would also be treated on par with returning fully vaccinated UK residents, if they had not visited a red list country or territory in the 10 days before arrival. The British Governments new travel rules had initially stipulated that only those people who had been inoculated with the vaccines, such as the double dose ones developed by the AstraZeneca PLC, Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc or the single-dose one developed by the Johnson and Johnsons would be considered fully vaccinated and hence would be exempted from mandatory quarantine requirement on arrival in the UK. The Serum Institute of India (SII) is authorised to manufacture AstraZeneca PLCs vaccine in India and markets it as Covishield. But the British Governments new travel rules had initially not included it in the list of the approved vaccines for treating travellers as inoculated and hence entitled for exemption from quarantine requirement upon arrival in the UK. After New Delhi had warned of reciprocal measures, the British Government had on September 22 revised its travel rules to recognise Covishield as one of the approved Covid-19 vaccines, but still refused to recognise the certificates issued to people who had been inoculated with the jab in India. This meant that people administered with Covishield in India would still have to undergo mandatory quarantine on arrival in the UK from Monday, unlike the ones administered with the same jab or any other approved Covid-19 jab in the US or anywhere in Europe or 17 other countries. The diplomats and health officials of the two governments have been in touch over the past couple of weeks to address the British Governments concerns over some aspects of the certificates issued through the CoWIN app to people vaccinated with the Covishield Covid-19 vaccines. The Government of India made arrangements for the certificates to show full dates of birth of the vaccinated beneficiaries and thus addressed one of London's concerns. The Supreme Court on Friday said that hospitals are not police stations and it cannot direct for installing CCTV cameras in every ward of all the hospitals in the country as issues of privacy are also involved. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna dismissed a plea filed by an NGO All India Consumer Protection and Action Committee and asked it to come up again with better and specific prayers. Hospitals are not police stations. We cannot direct the installation of CCTV cameras all over the hospitals in the whole of the country. There may be privacy issues. Suppose a woman is being operated on or for that matter any other patient is being operated on. This cannot be done. There is a patient privacy issue also involved, the bench said. The top court after perusing the PIL said, problem with you people is that when you approach this court under Article 32, you try to make all sorts of prayers. See, you have asked that directions be issued to doctors all over the country to write prescriptions in the local language apart from English. Is this possible? Suppose the doctor does not know the local language or English then what would happen. The top court said that the petitioner wants reservations in hospital beds for economically weaker sections and other reliefs. The bench, however, said that the petitioner has one prayer which may be considered like the Ayushman Bharat card shall be accepted in a private hospital. You should come with this only prayer and we may look into it. "This is an important issue and we may consider it. You withdraw this petition and file a plea with specific relief, it said. The petitioner has contended that many people have lost their lives due to the lack of adequate services provided by the hospitals and doctors during the second wave of the pandemic. Watch the latest DH Videos here: Nearly 200 soldiers of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of late made an attempt to transgress into the territory of India in Arunachal Pradesh just weeks after making a similar bid at Barahoti in Uttarakhand. The incursion attempts by the PLA soldiers in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh in the recent weeks triggered concerns in New Delhi about the possibility of the 17-month-long military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western sector of the disputed boundary spreading to the middle and eastern sectors too. The Indian Army soldiers intercepted the Chinese PLA personnel after they transgressed into the territory of India between Bum La and Yangtse near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh last week. The situation was resolved after the local commanders intervened, sources in New Delhi said on Friday. A similar transgression attempt by about 100 PLA soldiers at Barahoti in Uttarakhand had been reported a few weeks back, although they too had returned after a few hours. Read | India matching Chinese troop build-up on LAC: Naravane The PLAs incursion bids in the eastern and middle sector of the disputed China-India boundary took place even as New Delhi and Beijing of late agreed that the senior military commanders of the two nations would hold another round of talks between the senior military commanders of the two nations soon to resolve the stand-off in the western sector. The stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh had started in April-May 2020 after China had deployed a large number of troops along its disputed boundary with India in eastern Ladakh, apparently to push the line westward thus flouting the border peace pacts signed by the two neighbouring nations in 1993 and 1996. The LAC marks the de facto boundary between the two nations in the western sector, although the two sides have differences over the alignment of the line. They also have similar disagreements about the alignment of the de facto boundary in the middle and eastern sectors too. The officials in New Delhi on Friday sought to play down the recent incursion bid by the Chinese PLA personnel in Arunachal Pradesh, stating that such incidents kept on happening due to differences in perceptions about the alignment of the lines, which serve as the de facto boundary in the absence of a demarcated boundary. The military stand-off in eastern Ladakh had reached a flashpoint with the Galwan Valley clash on June 15, 2020, when the Indian Army had lost 20 of its soldiers and the Chinese PLA four of its personnel. After long negotiations over months, the two sides mutually withdrew frontline troops from the northern and the southern banks of Pangong Tso as well as from the face-off point at Gogra Post earlier this year. But the stand-off remained unresolved in other locations along the LAC, even as one-and-a-half years passed since it had started. Check out DH's latest videos: The recent attacks on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir were aimed at creating a wedge between communities and it is the responsibility of the majority community to give a sense of security to our brothers, National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah said on Friday. He made an earnest appeal to members of the minority communities in Kashmir to not allow a repeat of what happened in the 1990s by leaving their homes. Speaking to reporters after visiting the residence of slain school principal Supinder Kour at Aloochi Bagh here, Abdullah also criticised the administration for failing to apprehend the attacks. The attacks are taking place back-to-back and no one feels secure here today. The Muslims here have also been targeted, Kashmiri Pandits and Sikh brethren also. They do not feel safe," he said. "This is no time for politics, and I have not come here for politics, but it is the responsibility of the rulers to make people understand where the failure lies," Abdullah added. Read | Omar Abdullah appeals to minorities to not leave J&K The former chief minister of the erstwhile state of J&K said even as he was not part of the government, he had been hearing since the last month or so that minority communities will be targeted here. I heard it from very responsible people. When this information could reach me, did it not reach the responsible persons in the administration? Why did they not do anything about it?" "There is an atmosphere of fear, everyone is thinking of leaving from here. It is our responsibility, especially of the majority community, to try to give a sense of security to our brothers and neighbours so that we will not see a repeat of the 1990s-like situation, he said. When asked if the attacks were done to disrupt the communal harmony in J&K, Abdullah said the militants always had such an agenda. They have had this agenda from the start. Yesterday also, they separated these two teachers and then killed them. The aim is to disrupt the traditional communal harmony here and worsen the situation. That is why I said it is the responsibility of the majority community. When we look for safety of Muslims and Sikhs in other parts from our Hindu brethren, so, in Kashmir also where Muslims are in majority, it is our responsibility to provide them a sense of security, he said. Appealing the minority communities not to leave Kashmir Valley, Abdullah said it is easy to pass a judgment in his position but it will be extremely unfair because I can well imagine the sense of fear that they must be living under. All I can do is make an earnest appeal to all of them. The aim of these attacks is to drive a wedge between the communities and is to try and drive these communities out of Kashmir. We cannot let these attacks succeed, and therefore, I am making an earnest appeal to all of them to not consider leaving from here, he said. The NC leader said his party will continue to press the administration to make sure that all these people feel secure and they are given security. But there should not be a pick and choose approach like the government's decision after these attacks to give a 10-day holiday to Kashmiri Pandit employees, but not to Kashmiri Sikhs. In this attack, if a Pandit as well as a Sikh were attacked, why only holiday for Pandits? Why not for them, he said. Watch latest videos by DH here: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who arrived here on Thursday to meet the families of two farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, said by allowing Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra to continue on the post, the Centre is giving the message that those in power can do anything. The Union minister's son, Ashish Kumar Mishra, and others have been booked in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that erupted during a farmers' protest on Sunday. "If the minister of state for home does not resign nor is he sacked, then it means that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving a message to the public that if someone is in power, if he is a minister, he can do anything," Gandhi told reporters in Moharnia, where she met the family members of Gurvinder Singh, one of the four farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. "The message that is coming out of it is that if someone is in power, is a minister or a BJP leader, he can do anything. There is no justice for the common people, the poor, farmers, Dalits and women. I want to tell Narendra Modiji that this is the message that he is giving to people," she said. Read | Lakhimpur violence: Two arrested; cops summon minister's 'untraceable' son "Why is a minister who has a criminal record and whose son has been charged for a serious crime not dismissed so far?" Gandhi asked after meeting the family members of Daljit Singh in Banjaran Tada village. Referring to the ban on opposition leaders from visiting the bereaved families earlier, she said "the farmers' families are the victims and your entire force is busy stopping opposition leaders and keeping the victims' families under vigil so that they cannot talk to anyone". "We came here like thieves and the one who has committed the crime is giving interviews on television, his father has not resigned and is still our home minister. Yet you say that Uttar Pradesh is the number one state in the country when it come to law and order. Where is law and order?" she asked. The Congress leader said on Wednesday, when she visited the family members of journalist Raman Kashyap, who was among the eight people killed in Sunday's violence, they told her that the post-mortem report is unreadable. Also Read | Lakhimpur: A threat to both BJP and farmers' leaders On her meetings with the bereaved families since Wednesday, when the Uttar Pradesh government released her from detention and allowed her to go to Lakhimpur and Bahraich, Gandhi said, "We have met the families of all the deceased farmers. Everyone says they are not bothered about the compensation, they are only concerned about the dismissal of the minister of state for home and the arrest of the criminals." She also said the families of the victims have some video clips that show what transpired in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday. "The family members have said they want justice," she stressed. Gandhi's convoy of vehicles was stopped by the district administration near the Ghaghra Ghat bridge as soon as it entered Bahraich from Barabanki as section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was in force and the Congress workers accompanying her raised slogans against the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh in protest. The magistrate and the police officers present on the spot subsequently allowed only Congress leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Tanuj Punia, who had come with Gandhi, to proceed along with her to meet the families of the deceased farmers. The Congress general secretary, who has met the family members of five of the eight people killed in Sunday's violence, said she also wanted to meet the kin of the BJP workers who lost their lives. "I had asked the IG to enquire if they (the BJP workers' families) were ready for the same but was outrightly told that they do not want to meet me. I asked for conveying my sympathy to them," she added. On her way to Bahraich, Gandhi also performed a "puja" at a temple in the Arjunganj area of Lucknow. Check out the latest DH videos here: The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a one-member Commission to probe the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in which eight people were killed, a senior Home Department official said on Thursday. "A notification for the constitution of the Commission has been issued. The commission has been given two months time to probe the matter," the official said. "In exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Commissions of Enquiry Act, 1952 (Act no. 60 of 1952), the Governor is pleased to appoint Justice High Court, Allahabad (retd) Pradeep Kumar Srivastava as a single-member Commission of enquiry with Headquarters at Lakhimpur Kheri," the notification dated October 6 said. Read More A sum of Rs 45 lakh each was given to the families of two BJP men and a driver of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, killed in the violence here after a car in the BJP convoy allegedly ran over protesting farmers, killing two of them on the spot. A total of eight people, including four farmers and a local journalist besides two BJP men and their driver were killed in the ensuing violence on Sunday. The families of the killed farmers and the journalists too had been given the compensation of Rs 45 lakh earlier by the Uttar Pradesh government. The compensation cheque to families of slain BJP man Shubham Mishra and minister's driver Hariom Mishra was given BJPs Lakhimpur (Sadar) MLA Yogesh Verma, away from the media glare on Thursday, said sources. The compensation cheque to the kin of the second slain BJP man Shyam Sundar was given by local tehsildar (revenue official), they added. Read | My son innocent, will appear before police: Ajay Mishra The state government had initially announced an ex gratia each of Rs 45 lakh for the families of four farmers but the kin of local journalist Raman Kashyap too was given the cheque later. Nighasan tehsil SDM O P Gupta accompanied by other civil and police officials had handed over the money to the family of the journalist two days ago. Relatives of the two killed BJP workers and Mishras driver confirmed receiving the money with the photographs of the MLA handing over the cheques to two families also doing the rounds on social media. The MLA could not be reached for the confirmation but a government official said on Friday that the compensation money has been given to families of all eight persons by the government. Following the preliminary probe into the Sunday violence, the two killed BJP men and Mishras driver too have been included among the originally unnamed six accused in the FIR as responsible for triggering the violence. The sole accused named in a complaint filed by a Bahraich farmer is the Union MoS (Home) Mishra's son Ashish Mishra. Among the four deceased farmers, while Lovepreet Singh and Nachatar Singh were from Lakhimpur, Daljeet Singh and Gurvinder Singh hailed from Bahraich. Watch latest videos by DH here: Relatives, neighbours and friends of Supinder Kour, a school principal who was shot dead by militants along with her colleague in Srinagar on Thursday, staged a sit-in outside civil secretariat here on Friday, demanding justice and punishment for the killers. The mourners were also joined by some members of the majority community. Reports said a few hundred people, mostly from the Sikh community, silently walked by foot from Aloochibagh to the civil secretariat along with the body of the deceased. The family of Kour carried her body on a stretcher and when they reached the civil secretariat, they staged a silent-sit-in, witnesses said. Read | Shah reviews J&K situation after civilians' murders Senior police officers reached the spot and persuaded them to take the body to Batamaloo cremation ground for her last rites. Before proceeding to the cremation ground, the protestors demanded stern punishment for her killers. In the wake of four targeted killings of minorities in Srinagar in the last three days, some Kashmiri Pandit organisations have alleged that the administration did not take adequate measures to ensure their safety despite intelligence inputs. 50-year-old Kour, principal of Government Boys Higher Secondary school in Eidgah area of Srinagar, and Deepak Chand, a teacher at the same school, were shot dead inside the school premises by terrorists on Thursday. Read | Unabated civilian killings belie govts normalcy narrative in Kashmir The Resistance Front (TRF), which police say is the frontal organisation of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack saying the teachers were killed for their role in getting students to participate in a function at school on Independence Day. On Tuesday evening, 68-year-old Makhan Lal Bindroo, a prominent Kashmiri Pandit businessman and the owner of a pharmacy in Srinagar's Iqbal Park, was shot at from point-blank. Just an hour later, a street vendor from Bihar was shot dead in similar circumstances in Lal Bazar area on the outskirts of Srinagar. J&K police chief Dilbagh Singh termed these attacks as an attempt to defame Muslims of Kashmir. Killing innocent civilians including teachers is a move to attack and damage the age-old tradition of communal harmony and brotherhood in Kashmir, he said. Watch latest videos by DH here: Aerospace major Dassault Aviation is expected to deliver all 36 Rafale jets well before the schedule despite lockdown for a few days to contain the spread of Covid-19 in France, French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain said on Friday. Speaking on the sidelines of the fourth edition of Indo-French Investment Conclave here, organised by the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IFCCI), Lenain said firms belonging to the European country have invested over 10 billion in India providing employment to 2.50 lakh Indians. Read | Rafale to make debut in Air Force Day parade at Hindon "It (delivery of aircraft) will be ahead of the schedule. We are very proud of that. In spite of Covid it has not been disturbed at all on the contrary," the envoy told PTI. India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The first batch of five Rafale jets arrived in India on July 29 last year "The factory producing Rafale was closed (during lockdown). We had a commitment to India. After the lockdown teams worked extra shifts working nights and weekends to make sure that these planes were delivered on time. And so right now Dassault has delivered to India 29 and 26 have already been ferried to India," he said. Describing the recent developments in Afghanistan as "worrying" , the Ambassador said some of the countries including France have asked the Taliban regime to allow free flow of humanitarian assistance to the beleaguered country besides not to provide shelter for terrorists. "Today they have not fulfilled any and that is deeply worrying. They can't ask us any form of recognition until they fulfilled some of these commitments," he further said. On the Indo-French trade, the Ambassador said the trade volumes are not big as most of the companies from his country prefer investing in India rather than exporting. "We are doing local investment a lot. So far French companies have invested more than 10 billion in India and it is going very fast and they are employing 250,000 Indians," he explained. In 2020, the India-France bilateral trade stood at 9.04 billion (-21.99 per cent) as compared to the previous year. India's exports to France were valued at 4.80 billion, down by 22.9 per cent during this period. Indian imports from France also decreased by 20.95 per cent to 4.23 billion, according to Indian official figures. Check out DH's latest videos: Fifty years after the historic Tangail Airdrop that decidedly changed the course of the 1971 war in India's favour and leading to the creation of Bangladesh, the Indian Air Force will remember one of the defining moments of the Bangladesh war in a unique manoeuvre on Friday. At the 89th Air Force Day parade at Hindon, a Dakota aircraft will fly in a Tangail formation allowing two paratroopers from the IAF and one from the Indian Army to jump from the aircraft in memory of one of the most unforgettable moments of the 1971 campaign. In December 1971, the 2 Para regiment of the Indian Army was inserted behind enemy lines to capture Poongli bridge on Jamuna river to cut off Pakistans 93 Infantry Brigade that was retreating from the north to defend Dhaka. Subsequently, the para commandos advanced towards Dhaka with troops from the Maratha Light Infantry through the unguarded Manikganj-Dhaka link. The flypast at Hindon will also witness a drill named Meghna involving a Mi17 and two Chinook helicopters to remember a crucial helibridge established across the mightly Meghna river in 1971 by Mi4 choppers to ferry tanks, artillery and men. Also Read | Fifty years ago, remote Dimapur airstrip gave wings to fledgling Bangladesh Air Force A formation called Pratap involving a Dakota and two Dornier aircraft will fly in the memory of then IAF Air Chief Marshal Pratap Chandra Lal, who planned and oversaw the east Pakistan campaign, sources in the IAF told DH. Flying half-a-dozen formations named after milestone events of the 1971 war is a part of the golden jubilee celebration by India and Bangladesh to mark the surrender of the Pakistan Army and liberation of Bangladesh. Five top IAF fighter pilots would fly LCA Tejas, Rafale, Mirage-2000, Jaguar and MiG-29 combat jets in a missing man formation named Sekhon in the memory of Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Sekhon, the only IAF recipient of the Param Vir Chakra for his lone defence of Srinagar Air Base against a Pakistan Air Force air raid during the 1971 war. Another 1971 war linked drill in the flypast would be Vinash with five Hawks, which would fly in L formation to signify the role the IAF played in the Battle of Longewala, depicted on celluloid in the film Border. There would also be a formation named Tiranga involving a C-17 and nine Hawks from the Surya Kiran team in which the C-17 will make a Gnat formation after the Hawks peel off to remember the role played by the sub-sonic Folland Gnat aircraft flown by the IAF and the heroic dogfight at the Battle of Boyra. The IAF flypast comes towards the fag end of the year-long celebrations by the two nations. During this years Republic Day parade, a 122-member proud contingent of the Bangladesh Armed Forces marched on the Rajpath carrying the legacy of legendary Muktijoddhas of Bangladesh, who fought against oppression and mass atrocities and liberated Bangladesh in 1971. Check out latest DH videos here Even as the DGCA raised objections over the Sabarimala airport project proposal by Kerala government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the state assembly on Friday that the airport would be set up in a time-bound manner by including in the projects of priority of the state government. Vijayan said that a reply would be given to the DGCA with the additional information sought by the regulatory body. The site for the proposed airport at Cheruvally, about 50 kilometres from Sabarimala, was identified after considering various locations based on the parameters for the airport. The Chief Minister was replying to a calling attention motion on the airport project. The DGCA recently raised a series of queries over the Sabarimala airport project proposal submitted by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, which is the nodal agency for the project. The main objection was that the Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi international airports were only 110 kilometres and 88 kilometres respectively from the proposed site for the Sabarimala airport. As per Green Field airport policy, new airports should be 150 kilometres away from existing international airports. Special officer for the airport project V Thulasidas had said that the queries by central agencies were only part of the normal process for approval for airports. Watch latest videos by DH here: The Telangana assembly on Friday adopted a resolution unanimously, pleading the Narendra Modi government to include enumeration of the other backward communities as part of the decennial census of India. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao sponsored the resolution at a time when there is a growing chorus across the country to count the people belonging to Other Backward Castes i.e., apart from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. "For the upliftment of the unprivileged sections of the society, it is essential to maintain their accurate demographic data. These statistics help in proper planning of various welfare measures to aid their development, Rao said while introducing the resolution in the house. 1931 was the last time a caste wise census data was collected in the country. Read | Playing cards: Dalit, OBC, Hindutva, good governance The Modi government had in its previous term favored a OBC headcount. In 2018, the then home minister Rajnath Singh had stated that the 2021 census would collect data on other backward castes. However, the Centre last month told the Supreme Court that holding a caste census of the backward classes would be "administratively difficult and cumbersome." The government also stated that exclusion of such information from the census purview is a 'conscious policy decision." In an affidavit submitted in the SC, the Centre also maintained that the Socio Economic and Caste Census of 2011 was "unusable" for official purposes as the data enumeration was fraught with mistakes and inaccuracies. The decennial census exercise this time was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. "The Telangana assembly urges the central government for a caste-wise census of the backward class of citizens to be conducted while holding the general census," CM Rao stated in the resolution. Watch latest videos by DH here: The high-profile Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) bust in the financial capital of the country has left a series of difficult conundrums for the public to understand, further deepening the mystery. The NCB has so far arrested around 18 people in the drugs case, including, Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan's son -- Aryan Khan who has been sent to 14 days of judicial custody. But even as the case is progressing further, there are some layers, when unearthed, raise eyebrows. The first thing which comes into our mind is how was the contraband taken to the luxury ship? Also read: Aryan Khan was invited to cruise ship as 'VVIP guest' to 'add glamour', says his lawyer The NCB had said that during the raid, it recovered various popular party drugs like cocaine, MDMA, ecstasy, mephedrone and charas. Of all the contraband, the cocaine was 13 grams, charas 21 grams, 22 pills of MDMA and five grams MD. It is yet 'unanswered' as to how the starkids were able to procure these drugs. The NCB's swoop, which shook the Bollywood's core as the future potential superstar-kid of the one of the reigning actors was involved, almost sounded unbelievable till a picture of a dazed Aryan sitting on a bench inside the agency's office in south Mumbai emerged from nowhere. A bald man, who was later identified as an alleged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kiran Gosavi, clicked a picture with the starkid on the ship deck triggering a row that BJP activists were involved in the October 2 raid conducted by the NCB on the luxury ship Cordelia Cruise. Another BJP leader Manish Bhanushali was seen hauling out some of the accused, including Aryan and Arbaaz Merchant. How did a private person who is a BJP activist hand over the accused? -- another unanswered question. Of the eight people that were the first detained by the NCB, three -- Mohak Jaswal, Nupur Sarika and Gomit Chopra are from Delhi. Mohak and Nupur are both fashion designers, while Gomit is a hair stylist. Sources earlier confirmed to IANS that both Mohak and Nupur had come to Delhi with Gomit but still there is no further details about them. Did they go to Mumbai to attend the party or were they already residing there? It is yet to be answered. It is being said that the luxury ship, the Cordelia Cruises, which was raided by the sleuths of NCB when it was preparing to lift anchor for a fun-filled two-night gala voyage to Goa, had around 1,300 affluent passengers on board. Were only eight of these 1,300 people, consuming or carrying drugs with them? Is NCB going to question the remaining voyagers....? Coming back to the centre of attraction of this drug-bust, Aryan Khan, due to which this case became a high-profile case. The NCB had clearly stated that drugs was not recovered from the possession of the megastar's lad, while only six grams of charas was found in the possession of Arbaaz Merchant. If the quantity was so low, why was the NCB wdemanding another four days of his custody? Aryan's lawyer Satish Maneshinde, too, fired several questions at the drug probe agency, as the NCB said it needed custody extension so they could confront him with other accused. On Wednesday, the NCB arrested Achit Kumar whose name popped up from WhatsApp chats. "Why did the NCB not confront Aryan and Arbaaz with Achit yesterday only? NCB is well equipped, they have more than 100 officers," the lawyer asked posing another question that was not answered. Also read: Mumbai court sends Aryan Khan, seven others to 14-day judicial custody "Confrontation cannot be grounds for custody," he quipped. Last but not the least, two days ago, the NCB made four more arrests in connection with the case. All the four arrested were employees of Namas'cray, a Delhi-based event management company that organised the 'rave party' onboard Cordelia Cruises' Empress ship. But wait, why are we forgetting that the Covid-19 pandemic is still ravaging the country. The country is still witnessing nearly 300 fatalities every day. Then how come under pandemic-induced restrictions, such a party was allowed. Another unanswered question! Check out latest DH videos here: A week, as the Trinamool Congress proved recently, is a long time in politics. We can safely assume that Mamata Banerjee was relieved when the Election Commission, upon the Bengal chief secretary's request (for which the Calcutta High Court has reprimanded him), opened the door for her to go to the assembly by announcing the bypoll in Bhabanipur. There was little doubt that Banerjee would win from her old fortress, but the Congress party decided not to field a candidate against her as a courtesy. The TMC's actions within days of this told us why a week is a long time in politics. The party started gunning for the Congress, and it is now turning bitter. So much so that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, when prevented from visiting Lakhimpur Kheri with his sister and other Congress leaders, questioned the Uttar Pradesh administration for allowing MPs from Mamata Banerjee's party and leaders from the Bhim Army. Also Read | Is Prashant Kishor out to damage Congress outside Bengal? The TMC's reaction to Rahul Gandhi's comment was acerbic. Its spokesperson Kunal Ghosh tweeted, "Rahul Gandhi should not try to confuse people by distorting facts. The TMC will not accept any loose non-political comment from any part-time politician who has failed to combat the BJP." Ghosh added for good measure, "The INC is a loser in their traditional UP, including Amethi." It was a reminder that Rahul Gandhi lost to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. However, Rahul Gandhi merely repeated, albeit indirectly, his party leader Adhir Chowdhury's allegation. Chowdhury, the Congress's leader in the Lok Sabha, had said that the TMC has a "secret understanding" with the BJP. He said the two reached this understanding after the central agencies tightened the noose around "the nephew", a reference to Abhishek Bannerjee, who was the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had summoned repeatedly. Chowdhury had retaliated against the recent onslaught of the TMC against the Congress. The Congress could ignore it when Abhishek Banerjee, the undisputed number two in the TMC, started snatching away their leaders in Tripura. But Rahul Gandhi and the rest could not be similarly indifferent when Sushmita Dev and Luiziho Faleiro joined the TMC. Sushmita Dev, a popular leader of the Bengalis in Assam, was a president of Congress's women's wing and daughter of old Congressman Santosh Mohan Dev. Faleiro is a seven-term Congress MLA and formerly two-time chief minister of Goa. The TMC also started saying that at the national level, Mamata Banerjee should lead the opposition. And now Mamata Banerjee herself has echoed the view. In the festival issue of her party's mouthpiece, she has written that the party is getting invited from different states to come and take up leadership. "The Trinamool Congress has become the face of the real fight against the BJP. The people of the country are now dreaming about a new India centered on the Trinamool Congress," she stated. Also Read | Congress failed to fight BJP, onus now on TMC: Mamata Of course, every party should dream big, expand itself at the cost of other parties. If the Congress cannot keep its flock united against the onslaught of the TMC, that is entirely its problem. But the fallout of these skirmishes within the opposition camp, and the TMC's new adventurism in states where it has no existence, like in Goa, can be manifold. First, a message gets relayed that the opposition is busy in an internecine fight to clip Rahul Gandhi's wings. Given the context that Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar's preference in UP is for Akhilesh Yadav over Priyanka Gandhi, it would seem a coordinated move is on against the Gandhi siblings. But if Mamata Banerjee or Sharad Pawar believe they can pressurise the Congress to give up its claim on the prime ministerial chair, it is equivalent to daydreaming. Second, since it is still a long two-and-a-half-year to go before the Lok Sabha elections, a divided opposition in Parliament will signal that Narendra Modi is still the beneficiary of the TINA (there is no alternative) factor. Lastly, it is too early to judge if Sushmita Dev or Luiziho Faleiro are using the TMC to raise their bargaining chips with the Congress in the future. If it so happens, it will be a significant loss of face for the TMC. In short, it is all to the BJP's advantage at the moment. And that is the tragedy of the opposition of India, and the country too. Even if for nothing else but the sake of a strong democracy, India badly needs a stronger opposition presence in the Lok Sabha. (The writer is a journalist based in Kolkata) Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH. Check out the latest DH videos here: September was turbulent: More than 200 Australians arrested during citywide protests and a temporary no-fly zone declared over Melbourne. Rubber bullets and tear gas unleashed by the Thai riot police into an angry crowd. Healthcare workers assaulted in Canada. Rallies of up to 150,000 people across the Netherlands. The pandemic has coincided with an upsurge in protests across the globe. Over the past 18 months, people have taken to the streets in India, Yemen, Tunisia, Eswatini, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil and the US. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project reports that the number of demonstrations globally increased by 7% from 2019 to 2020 despite lockdowns and measures to limit public gatherings. What is driving this international discontent? Some experts argue it is the pandemic itself. People of poorer nations are protesting the lack of available vaccines or personal protective equipment, while those of wealthier countries are objecting to perceived civil liberties violations. But the continuing protests in both poor and wealthy countries cannot simply be explained away as reactions to the pandemic. The presence of simultaneous uprisings in countries with a range of income levels, government types and geopolitical significance indicates a deeper disillusionment: the loss of faith in the social contract that shapes relations between governments and their people. Put simply, the governments of today seem incapable of offering both representative and effective governance. And ordinary citizens have had enough. The rise in protests globally actually began long before the pandemic. Following the 2008 economic crash, mass demonstrations including Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring called for a fundamental rethinking of the existing post-Cold War social contract between governments and their people. Since President George Bush Srs announcement of a new world order in 1990, this contract was largely founded upon the notion that market-centric policies would lead to global prosperity and peace. But the financial crisis in 2008 shed light on this social contracts shortcomings. Both political and economic in nature, the ensuing protests demanded that governments respect the basic rights of citizens and address the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. Around the world, authoritarian and democratic leaders alike responded to the financial crisis with more neoliberal policies such as fiscal austerity and the privatisation of public-sector services policies that only further galvanised popular anger. This frustration has carried over in the so-called Covid protests of today. While many demonstrations explicitly invoke the pandemic, the bigger, latent concern is the inability of modern governments to serve the majority of their populations, especially the middle and poorer classes. This failure is made visible by the growing number of monopolies, the increasing political power of corporations, the unremitting spike in economic inequality and the policies that are exacerbating climate change. Add the botched responses to Covid and it is no surprise that citizens have little confidence in their leaders, elected or otherwise, to confront these challenges. Early in the pandemic, experts debated whether it would be democracies or autocracies that would be better equipped to handle the crisis. It is clear both have struggled. Democracy, at least in its dominant neoliberal form, prioritises the rights of individuals and corporations while ignoring the basic needs of the social body. Authoritarian governments even in countries with robust welfare systems cannot respond effectively without stoking popular resentment because of their reliance on force to ensure compliance. This is why both South Africa, once a model of neoliberal democracy now mired in corruption, and Cuba, a paragon of welfare authoritarianism that initially overperformed in its Covid response, have recently faced challenges to their leadership. Fissures in the social contract are nothing new. But unlike in times past, when activists pushed colonial and then Communist powers to reimagine a different social structure, there are no good, obvious alternatives capable of challenging the current neoliberal consensus. Going back to the pre-Covid status quo globally is not an option. The pandemic is fundamentally a social challenge. It requires a collective response, and every collective undertaking requires trust. In many countries, trust in government has been shaken by leaders who put their faith in market-based solutions to the detriment of most citizens. A Pew Research study shows that Americans trust in their government has declined to 24% from an average of 54% in 2001. Social trust is a precious thing. It can take generations to build but can be lost in a flash. And so, protests are likely to continue wherever that trust remains low, either because of a botched Covid response or other crises like climate change, dysfunctional political institutions and corporate greed. The pandemic has revealed the disconnect between governments and their citizens. The latter now demand a different, more just world. (The writer is a professor of international affairs at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, City University of New York) There is a Hindi song from the fifties, Dekh teri sansar ki halath kya ho gayi bhagwan! Meaning, O Lord, look at the condition of your world! How much have humans changed, nothing in the galaxy has changed. My friend and I were in a tea shop listening to this song from a radio during our college days. He looked at me and said, "Humans have not changed." I didn't give much thought to it, but now, I realise, what he said was true. Handwritten notes to voice-converted text documents, snail mails to emails, gramophones to mobile phones, camera films to digital photography and drones, instant communication and global reach, war modes from primitive arms to sophisticated nuclear to biological weapons, manual to automation to artificial intelligence - every change has taken the civilisation to a whole new level. Human emotions have not changed. Crimes in society have not changed. They existed from time immemorial and will continue until the end of humanity. The crimes and reasons have not changed. There are constant efforts in social science researches with policies, programs, preaches and lectures trying to make society crime-free, but the criminals don't care. We are living with crime and punishment. Criminal laws are clearly spelt out, punishments ranging from imprisonment to death are given. But influences and money help the guilty to go scot-free. An acquaintance, a lady, CEO of a company, told me on the subject of the safety of women in our country: "Safety is a chance. I've been assaulted, once in a foreign country and another time here in India. On both occasions, I have fought and sent them to jail myself. To be victimised has been a traumatic experience. Mind you, those guys were educated, you cannot blame lack of education. There are a lot of risks in life, women should be taught to fight. If you can prevent, well and good. If a crime happens, don't get bogged down, dont feel ashamed, don't worry about society. Fight them, report, act." Today the lawlessness looks more prominent. There are two reasons. One, the population has multiplied. Second, the information reaches across the globe within seconds, unlike the past where it may not even go beyond the scene of action. The tussle between Dharma and Adharma, the good and the evil, will continue. Derry disablity centre Destined hosted a celebration event yesterday to wish one of its founding members well on his retirement. Colm Cusack, a founding member of Destined and until recently the service's Secretary and a member on its Board of Directors. He was also the Centre Manager when the group was based in Great James Street and was responsible for everything from a tea bag to toilet roll. He has been described as the face of Destined for visitors calling to the centre who would often receive a complimentary cup of tea. Colm headed up the older peoples group and organised many activities such as visits to the Bowling Alley, the Millennium Forum and Playhouse, restaurants and bars throughout the city. He was involved every year in the preparations for the St Patrick's Day and Halloween parades. Colm was also instrumental in setting up the Friendship Club and supported the older members to undertake training to learn how to use mobile phones, how to text and email, and how to access the internet to reduce their levels of isolation. Colm Cusack celebrates his retirement clients and staff at Destined. PHOTOS: Tom Heaney, nwpresspics The new North West Learning Disability Centre was named the Cusack Centre in recognition of all the work that Colm has contributed to the learning disability community in the city. Speaking at the presentation, Destined's Dermot OHara said: Colm has been a mainstay of the group since it started. He was the first person you met in the morning and always had a joke or laugh to share with everyone. He will be missed in the coming future but we want him to know that he will always be welcome to call into Destined. I want to wish him well for the future and hope that he has a healthy and good retirement. More than a third of Bank of Ireland branches across the country will close their doors for the last time today. The bank is ceasing services at 15 branches in the north of the the country, and a further 88 locations in the Republic as part of significant changes to its branch network and local banking services first announced in March. As part of the major restructuring of the bank, the Strand Road branch will close with customers still able to avail of services at the Culmore Road branch. Additionally, the branch in Limavady will also close, as well as branches in Strabane and Moville in County Donegal. It said that over the last three years, there has been a 60% drop in the number of customers visiting the branches in question, with a rise in those using online services. Bank of Ireland said an arrangement with the Post Offce, to allow for lodgements and withdrawals, will "protect local access to over-the-counter banking", allowing account holders to conduct transactions at post offices around the country. "Our personal customers may use any Post Office branches to pay in cash or cheques, withdraw money using their debit card and check balances. "Business Customers can use Post Office branches to pay in cash or cheques withdraw money and check their balance with their Bank of Ireland UK Business Debit Card. "Varying limits will apply to cash transactions, we will support customers to set up new arrangements including coin and larger cash transactions and are also planning to enhance services later this year." Customers affected by the closures have been written to in recent months, informing them of the changes and outlining where their accounts will be transferred to. Account numbers, sort codes, along with direct debits and standing order arrangements, will remain in place. While most of the branches being closed have post offices nearby, customers wanting to access other Bank of Ireland services may now have to travel significant distances to their closest branch. Revealed: Full list of 103 Bank of Ireland branch closures https://t.co/DztGNaBSb6 Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) October 8, 2021 The Financial Services Union (FSU) has described the closures as "a sad day" for staff and customers and a real sign of the weakness of regulation in Ireland. John O'Connell, General Secretary of the FSU, said; "Despite cross party opposition in the Dail and in Stormont and across wide sections of the community, Bank of Ireland have continued along the pathway of eroding their footprint and removing vital services from communities across our country," "The Regulator has clearly failed in its role of protecting customers and communities in this instance," he added. Mr. O'Connell said the withdrawal of ATMs will mean there will be communities next week which will no longer have 24/7 access to cash adding that despite the increase in card payments, cash remains a vital payment method for customers. The FSU has called on the Central Bank to open a consultation paper on the future access to cash to ensure that the use of this access is safeguarded. It also called for the urgent consideration whether legislation and new enforcement powers are required in this area. "Our banking sector is at a crossroads and needs a commitment from the Central Bank that the banking network will not disappear, and that they will be proactive in ensuring that communities and vulnerable people will not once again be hit the hardest," Mr O'Connell added. Foyle MLA, Sinead McLaughlin has called for more investment in energy efficiency to help Housing Executive tenants in Derry cope with rising gas prices. The SDLP Spokesperson for Energy & Economy was speaking after figures showed that more Housing Executive properties have converted their fuel supply from oil to gas. Figures obtained by Mrs McLaughlin from a written question to Communities Minister, Deirdre Hargey, showed that 1125 Housing Executive properties within the Derry City & Strabane District Council's jurisdiction had converted from oil to gas over the last three years. That figure topped the list for all the Councils in the north of Ireland with Belfast on 989 and Mid-Ulster the lowest with three. However, with gas prices nationwide set to increase by a third, Mrs McLaughlin warned that unless investment for better insulation for Housing Executive properties is delivered, the switch from oil could be made redundant. She said: Housing Executive tenants in Derry have been hit especially badly by the increase in gas prices. My Assembly written question to the communities minister has revealed that more Housing Executive properties have been converted from oil to gas in Derry than anywhere else in the North. Gas emits about thirty per cent less carbon emissions than oil, so this is positive. But on current prices, and with an efficient boiler, it is likely to be cheaper to heat a home with oil than with gas. That may, of course, change as prices change. But what is clear is that more investment is needed in energy efficiency in the home, especially through better insulation, as a way of reducing energy consumption. It is important that the communities minister focuses the Affordable Warmth Scheme on cutting energy use, rather than switching between fossil fuels. The big increase in energy costs at the same that Universal Credit is being cut will bring real hardship to many families. Aryan Khan will not be celebrating mom Gauri Khan's birthday with her, court rejects interim bail plea calling it non maintainable Aryan Khan will not be celebrating his mother Gauri Khans birthday with her today but will be spending the night in judicial custody in the Authur Road jail. While star kid has been getting widespread support from Bollywood, the bail application of Shah Rukh Khans son was rejected by a Mumbai court today as filed and argued by his lawyer Satish Manshinde. A Metropolitan Magistrate Court rejected the bail pleas of Aryan, actor Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha in the Mumbai cruise drug bust stating that the appeals were not maintainable. Metropolitan Magistrate, R M Nerlikar heard the case and upheld the decision passed yesterday to maintain the judicial custody of the three accused for 14 days. "I am a 23-year-old with no prior antecedents. I happen to be from Bollywood. I went on an invitation, refused when asked if I have drugs. They were honest not to accuse me of anything else. Data from my mobile has been retrieved and sent for forensics," Aryans lawyer stated in court on his behalf. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bollywood Pap (@bollywoodpap) I have parents and a family here. I have an Indian passport and I am not going to abscond. There is no question of tampering," lawyer Satish Maneshinde further said. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh argued that chats of Aryan as accessed by the Narcotics Control Bureau suggest that he had a discussion about bulk quantity with another accused Aachit Kumar. It was further argued by him that Aryan and Arbaaz reached the international terminal in the same car and it cant be called a coincidence. Rhea Chakraborty and Aryan Khan - two high profile NCB drug cases in a year's gap; Here's how similar and different they are The news and headlines about drug use in Bollywood are not new. Yet in the gap of one year, two have profile drug cases have shaken the film industry to its core. Last year, around the same time it was Rhea Chakraborty and others linked to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput who were the subjects of every prime time news discussion as the Narcotics Control Bureau levied some serious allegations against the actress and her brother along with Sushants manager and domestic help. WhatsApp messages flashing on news channels, Rhea being mobbed outside the NCB office by a sea of cameras are images still fresh in our memory as Shah Rukh Khans 23-year-old son Aryan Khan meets a similar fate this year after being arrested on October 3 by the anti-drug agency at a cruise party that was bound for Goa from Mumbai. NCBs discovery Rhea was accused of procuring and financing drugs for Sushant Singh Rajput after the Enforcement Directorate allegedly found some incriminating evidence against her on seizing her phone to investigate financial fraud which was an accusation levied by Sushants family. The NCB launched an investigation based on WhatsApp chats found on Rheas phone which allegedly related to drug consumption, procurement, usage and transportation. While Aryan might have hit NCBs radar under very different circumstances but the agency after detaining the star kid arrested him based on similar grounds as Rhea. The agency is said to have found chats between Aryan and another accused Aachit Kumar about bulk quantities of drugs which could lead them to discover a larger syndicate. He was detained because he arrived at Mumbais international port to board the Cordelia Cruise for a party with actor Arbaaz Merchant, who the NCB found carrying 6 grams of charas. In both cases, the NCB has not found any drugs on the two high profile accused individually or have been able to prove consumption. Both Rhea and Aryan have been represented in their respective cases by senior lawyer Satish Manshinde. Charges Rhea was booked by the NCB under sections Sections 8 (c) read with section 20 (b) (ii), 22, 27A, 28, 29 and 30 of the NDPS Act 1985. Sections 8 (c) prohibits produce, manufacture, possession, sell, purchase, transport, warehouse, use, consume, import, and export of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances. It read with the other sections like 20 (b) (ii) and 22 which define punishment based on recovery with 20 being related particularly with cannabis. Section 27A makes financing of banned drugs and harbouring of offenders punishable and defines punishment, section 28 defines attempt to commit the offense, 29 about abetment and conspiracy to commit offense, and 30 talks about preparation to commit the offense. Aryan on the other hand, has been charged under sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, and 35 of the NDPS Act. Here 20 (b) makes possession of cannabis punishable based on quantity. Section 27 makes consumption of narcotic substances punishable while 35 talks about culpable mental state which means that the accused knew what they were doing and it falls on the accused to prove otherwise. In Rheas case the NCB in their remand claimed that the actress could be linked to a higher syndicate and painted her as a supplier of drugs to Sushant Singh Rajput. As for Aryan, the star kid is similarly claimed to be regularly linked to suppliers and the other accused on whom drugs were found. Defense Both Rhea and Aryan denied consumption in their respective cases while the NCB never mentioned any drugs procured from these individuals. The actress had claimed in her bail application that the late actor relied on those close to him to sustain his drug habit. The Bombay High Court while granting bail said that she had no criminal ascendants and is not likely to commit an offence while on bail. The court also said that the actress is not a supplier since procuring drugs for someone else did not mean she gained financially from it. Aryans bail plea was rejected by a Magistrate Court despite no drugs having being found on him and the absence of a criminal record. Satish Manshinde on his behalf argued that he is not likely to abscond or tamper evidence while on bail. Aryan also said through his lawyer that he was invited to the party alone and did not know any other accused. Him being caught with Arbaaz was purely circumstantial as they knew each other and happened to be in the same place without prior knowledge of each others arrival. The star kid remain in 14 day judicial custody. The 'Almost Back to the Beach' fundraiser will help support The Seaside Rotary Club's holiday programs. Subscriber content preview Many people who lost or quit their jobs during the pandemic recession have yet to look for work again despite a robust economic rebound. By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON When the U.S. government issues the September jobs report today, the spotlight will fall not only on how many people were hired last month. A second question will command attention, too: Are more people finally starting to look for work? To an extent that has surprised economists, many people who lost or quit their jobs during the pandemic recession have yet to look for work again despite a robust economic rebound that has left many employers desperate to hire. . . . Subscriber content preview Calif. oil spill renews calls to ban offshore drilling California's congressional delegation has introduced legislation to permanently ban new drilling in federal waters off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington. By KATHLEEN RONAYNE and MATTHEW DALY Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. California has been a leader in restricting offshore oil drilling since the infamous 1969 Santa Barbara spill that sparked the modern environmental movement, and the latest spill off Huntington Beach is prompting fresh calls for an end to such drilling. That's easier said than done, even in California. While the state hasn't issued a new lease in state waters in five decades, drilling from existing platforms continues. Similarly, an effort in Congress that aims to halt new drilling in federal waters more than 3 miles off the coast wouldn't stop drilling that's already happening. . . . login or purchase a To read this story in fullor purchase a subscription. Subscriber content preview SEATTLE After what could be described as a tumultuous nine-month tenure, PCC Community Markets' President and CEO Suzy Monford has stepped down. Monford attracted criticism when she came out against Seattle's hazard pay ordinance in January. Brad Brown, a retired REI executive and former PCC board member, will serve as interim CEO while a search is underway. . . . Subscriber content preview ELKHART, Ind. (AP) Amazon is preparing to build two new facilities in northern Indiana that the company says will employ more than 1,000 people. The online retail giant announced Thursday its plans to build an 800,000-square-foot warehouse near the Indiana Toll Road just outside Elkhart along with a smaller order processing center. . . . Subscriber content preview The new hotel is a short walk south to Angle Lake Station. Almost beneath the elevated light rail tracks, south of the Comfort Inn & Suites' west annex building, there's a parking lot at 19340 28th Ave. S. in SeaTac. The land and current hotel sold in early 2016 for $12.8 million to BHG Hotels, of Lake Oswego, Oregon. BHG later sold the Comfort Inn; it still owns the south lot. . . . GUTHRIE [ndash] Darris Dean Flowers passed away on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. He was born Jan. 26, 1942, to Denman Marion Flowers and Margie Gray Flowers. A Celebration of his life occurred on Oct. 9 with family and friends at his home in Guthrie, OK. Darris was especially proud to donate his bod Bank of Ireland is set to close down its Dunleer branch at the end of the day, as 88 branches close across the county today. The closure of Bank of Ireland branches was confirmed earlier this year. Bank of Ireland has said that they have confirmed a deal with An Post to allow for lodgements and withdrawals in post offices, saying that this will help "protect access to over-the-counter banking". The Financial Services Union (FSU) have said that the closures are a "sad day" for staff and customers of Bank of Ireland and that it shows a weakness in financial regulation in Ireland. "Despite cross-party opposition in the Dail and in Stormont and across wide sections of the community, Bank of Ireland have continued along the pathway of eroding their footprint and removing vital services from communities across our country," said John O'Connell, General Secretary of the FSU. "The Regulator has clearly failed in its role of protecting customers and communities in this instance." Mr O'Connell called for the Central Bank to commit to ensuring that the banking network across the country will not be removed. "Our banking sector is at a crossroads and needs a commitment from the Central Bank that the banking network will not disappear, and that they will be proactive in ensuring that communities and vulnerable people will not once again be hit the hardest." An inquest into the deaths of three Donegal woman who were killed in a collision on the N2 north of Ardee, as they drove home from Dublin Airport after returning from a family holiday, has heard how a seven year-old girl was the only person in the car, to survive the impact. The hearing in Drogheda on Friday was told Margaret McGonigle, 69, her 37-year-old daughter Mairead Mundy and their friend, Rachel Cassidy Battles, 39, were travelling home to Bruckless from a family holiday in Turkey on July 21st 2017. They were in convoy with a car driven by Mairead Mundys husband, when they were involved in the collision with a Volkwagen Passat at Aclint, Ardee. A Garda forensic collision investigation found the Passat had crossed double continuous white lines into the path of the other car which hit an embankment and ended up on its roof after the head-on impact. Only one of its occupants, Rachel Cassidy Battles' daughter Danni survived and was trapped in the car. A garda who attended the scene told the inquest how he had squeezed the young girls hand and asked her questions to distract her while fire and rescue personnel worked to access the casualties. The jury heard the driver of the Passat pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death at Dundalk Circuit Court in March 2019, and was sentenced to six years and disqualified from driving for 15 years. Pathologist Dr. Ruth Law , who performed the post mortems, told the jury the cause of death in each case was multiple traumatic injuries consistent with involvement in a road traffic collision. The jury found the cause of death was dangerous driving of a third party. In extending his sympathy, Louth County Coroner Ronan Maguire described what happened as an obscene tragedy, adding Any words I can say are grossly inadequate to deal with the heartache and pain of the three families. How to Clip Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. When you're happy with your selection, click the checkmark icon next to the clipping area to continue. For more than 90 years, The Eagle-Tribune Santa Fund has assisted those in need in the Merrimack Valley through generous contributions from businesses, organizations and individuals. This year the need is as great as ever. Contribute A teenager is in custody following an attempted aggravated robbery of a shop in the seaside village of Myrtleville. Gardai arrested the young man a short time after he fled OConnells shop and it is understood that builders working in the area held him until officers arrived. "A man entered the shop and demanded cash from the staff before fleeing the scene empty handed," a Garda spokesperson said. "He was arrested a short time later. "The man aged in his late teens was taken to Gurranbraher Garda Station where he is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984." Local builders ran to help Local Councillor Audrey Buckley praised the actions of individuals who assisted Gardai and said they were indicative of the strong local community in the area. She believes the one-way system in place in the village also hampered his escape. The Irish Examiner reports that builders who were working on a nearby site saw the man flee the shop and realised something was amiss. They gave chase and restrained him until Gardai reached the scene. Community spirit We all know each other and look out for each other," Ms Buckley said. "There is a great community down here. "Im not surprised the individual was picked up by builders. Mrs Buckley said that OConnells is a very family orientated shop known for the sale of penny sweets and jellies to children. Earlier this year, the local shop also sold a 2.4m winning Lotto jackpot ticket. I dont know what the person was thinking," Ms Buckley said, adding that it was a very sad sign of the times. It is understood suspected imitation firearm was also recovered a short time later following a search of a ditch. Gardai said the investigation is ongoing. GARDAI are seeking the publics assistance in tracing the whereabouts of 17-year-old Cian O'Leary who went missing in the Cork city area on Tuesday, 5th October 2021 at approximately 5.45pm. Cian is described as being 5 feet 6 inches in height with a slim build. He has brown short hair and blue eyes. When last seen he was wearing a grey tracksuit and Nike Air runners. Anyone with any information that can assist Gardai in locating Cian is asked to contact Mayfield Garda station on 021 455 8510, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station. Reuters and Press Association The State dropped its opposition to an overhaul of global corporate tax rules, agreeing to give up the 12.5 per cent tax for large multinationals in a major boost to efforts to impose a minimum rate worldwide. The Government declined to sign up to the initial deal in July, objecting to a proposed rate of at least 15 per cent. An updated text this week dropped the at least, clearing the way for ministers to do what successive governments said they would never contemplate giving up the low rate that has helped win the Republic investments and jobs for decades. Joining this agreement is an important decision for the next stage of Ireland's industrial policy - a decision that will ensure that Ireland is part of the solution, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe told a news conference. This is a difficult and complex decision but I believe it is the right one. The Government has accepted my recommendation for Ireland to join the agreement at the @OECD on a new framework for taxing multinational companies. The deal now provides certainty and strikes the right balance between our tax competitiveness and our broader place in the world https://t.co/gnsHcXg6XO Paschal Donohoe (@Paschald) October 7, 2021 All bar a handful of the 140 countries involved signed up to the July deal, brokered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), that marked the first rewriting of international tax rules in a generation. The holdouts, which include fellow EU members Estonia and Hungary, cannot block the proposed changes. The 140 negotiating countries are due to meet on Friday to finalise the deal. If Ireland had maintained its lower rate, multinationals that book profits there could be forced to pay the additional tax elsewhere under the proposals. The Government said it had received assurances from the European Commission that Ireland can maintain the 12.5 per cent rate for firms with annual turnover below 750 million and keep tax incentives for research and development. The Commission also promised it will stick faithfully to the OECD agreement and not seek a higher rate among member states, Mr Donohoe said. 'No substantial impact' While the Government has wrestled with the prospective changes for months, it will not be the first change to the Irish tax regime. A 10 per cent tax rate convinced Apple to set up a manufacturing facility in the in 1980s, with Microsoft and Intel following suit. The government increased this to 12.5 pert cent in 1997 to comply with EU state aid rules and multinational jobs mushroomed. The 12.5 per cent rate was fiercely defended in the intervening years, most notably when Ireland came under pressure to raise it as part of a 2010 international bailout. Many analysts expect Ireland to remain competitive in the battle to attract foreign direct investment. Some 1,500 multinationals that will be hit by the higher rate currently employ around 400,000 people or one in six workers in Ireland, Mr Donohoe said. We would be reasonably confident that this won't have a substantial impact, said Kieran McQuinn, research professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) think tank. As a country matures, others factors such as the flexibility of our workforce, membership of the EU tend to become very important as well, he added. Two tax rates Earlier on Thursday, the Tanaiste, Leo Varadkar, said Ireland will be able to operate two tax rates if it agreed to sign up to the OECD deal. Mr Varadkar told the Dail: I spoke to the Minister for Finance this morning and he will be in a position to present to Cabinet this afternoon one of the things we have sought, which is the ability to continue to charge the 12.5 per cent rate to small and medium size companies. He said this will apply to companies with a turnover of less than 750 million. The Minister informed me today that we have received that assurance, that we can do that, the Tanaiste added. Labours Ged Nash called on the Government to publish updated figures on the financial impact of implementing a 15 per cent tax rate in Ireland. There is a huge information vacuum for those of us trying to responsibly interpret the Governments position, Mr Nash added. Could we gain revenue? Could we be quids in here? Mr Varadkar said existing estimates show Ireland could lose 2 billion a year in revenue from the change in corporate tax. That is only an estimate, he said. Its based on certain assumptions which may or may not be correct. Our 12.5 per cent has been a huge success and is a really important part of our industrial policy. Today @geraldnash asks the Tanaiste will the implications of the changes corporation tax be presented to Cabinet later today and will the govt publish them? We need full transparency of this monumental decision that's about to be made pic.twitter.com/Gpwkes1oyH The Labour Party (@labour) October 7, 2021 Over a quarter of a million people work in multinational companies in Ireland, we want to keep those jobs and the 100,000 or so indirect jobs that arise from those jobs. We take in about 12 billion a year in corporate profit tax, that is roughly double what the average European country does on a per head basis. Our concerns relate to the issue of being at least, and we want to make sure that whatever rate is agreed is certain and wont ratch it up over time. We want to make sure that countries that sign up to this actually implement it, and we dont want to find ourselves implementing it and our competitors do not because that would be a disadvantage to us. People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said: Corporations we know are involved in an aggressive tax avoidance and dont even pay anything close to the 12.5 per cent rate but pay about 5.5 per cent in reality, and some pay a lot less. Why do you think its okay to prevent a little bit extra tax being imposed on these staggeringly profitable corporations but you do nothing and oppose efforts to reduce the tax burden on ordinary working people when we pleaded not to impose a further tax hike through carbon taxes? Mr Varadkar said taxes should be low, simple and fair. By Jonathan McCambridge, PA Taoiseach Micheal Martin will meet with Northern Irelands political leaders during a visit to Belfast on Friday. Mr Martin will visit the city for a programme of events as well as discussing the latest political developments. The Taoiseach will speak at an all-island business event jointly hosted by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Chambers Ireland. The event will explore the all-island and global challenge of climate change in advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November. First Minister Paul Givan and deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill will also attend. Mr Martin will then visit and meet participants in Womens Tec, an initiative in north Belfast which helps women to train in non-traditional sectors and trades. He will travel to Queens University where he will visit the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research and meet the president and researchers involved in all-island research co-operation. He will also meet with a group of students from the university. Mr Martin also meet the leaders of the main political parties for discussions on current political developments. He is expected to brief them on the 3.5 billion budget for cross-Border investment announced this week with the publication of the Governments National Development Plan. B2B Lead Generation Service Reach key decision makers with sales-ready leads that shorten your sales process. Move the needle by delivering funnel qualified leads to your sales team. Learn more. With more amounts of data to manage, organize, and make sense of, robotic processes are becoming increasingly valuable to businesses seeking to save time and be more efficient. Not everything needs to be done by a human, especially when the tasks are repeated and predictable. It's here that robotic process automation (RPA) comes into play and has become an important component to businesses operations and serving customers. TechNewsWorld spoke with several experts in robotic process automation to get their take on why it's important, how it's being used, and where it's headed. Multitude of Applications "RPA is software that automates rules-based actions performed on a computer, such as copy and paste, moving files from one location to another, etc.," Omid Aslani, director of product management for Kofax, explained to TechNewsWorld. "Using low-code drag-and-drop software, RPA software 'robots' are designed to automate dull, boring, and repetitive tasks so that people can shift from being data-gatherers to data-users," he added. There are a many different applications for RPA, and it's finding its way into a multitude of fields and kinds of businesses. "The type of work that RPA can automate is almost endless, but examples include processing loan application data, automatic background checks, or extracting shipment details from incoming emails," said Aslani. "The ability to automate allows workers to switch their focus to more thoughtful and meaningful work, while also eliminating data entry errors that can adversely impact processing times, compliance, and the overall customer experience," he continued. "In banking, tasks such as opening accounts or processing mortgage applications can be automated, while insurance companies can automate health and injury claims and onboarding for new applicants or agents. In the transport sector, supply chain and logistics operations can be streamlined with RPA. "The list of possibilities is nearly endless and beneficial to any business that deals with laborious or tedious manual processes." A D V E R T I S E M E N T Human-ish Robots RPA requires, ultimately, that machines be trained in much the same way people would be to do a variety of repetitive and predictable tasks. "Just like people, software robots can be trained to understand what's on a screen, complete the right keystrokes, navigate different systems, identify and extract data, and perform a wide range of defined actions, such as pulling data from a database, entering it into a spreadsheet, and then generating an invoice based on the information," Param Kahlon, chief product officer for UiPath, told TechNewsWorld. With AI and natural language processing, RPA is able to progressively emulate human thought and processing capabilities; thereby making it useful to businesses that require a certain degree of intelligence in using and making sense of data. "At its core, RPA is software automating business processes by interacting with multiple systems in the same way that a human would, often using the same desktop interfaces a human uses," Don Schuerman, chief technology officer for Pegasystems, explained to TechNewsWorld. "RPA increasingly leverages AI technologies like natural language processing (NLP) to interpret text or optical character recognition (OCR) to understand documents and images," he continued. "An example of RPA includes what I often call an 'email bot,' which uses NLP to understand and extract data from emails, and then automatically process and generate a response." RPA for Business Workflows As systems become more complex, the way they can "think" about and process data is evolving. With this evolution is coming new and improved ways of making use of RPA's unique capabilities. "RPA has caught on like wildfire, because it made automating routine, mundane tasks fast, easy and dare I say, fun," explained Aslani. "It made motivation-killing work, like monotonous, cut-and-paste data entry, a drudgery of the past." "Where does RPA go from here?" he questioned. "It's all about workflow. The new normal is accelerating the call for digital transformation, creating streamlined, frictionless experiences that delight customers and employees." Part of this evolution involves harnessing RPA for a variety of systems within organizations. "Organizations increasingly are bridging their RPA expertise to higher-value initiatives -- business workflow transformation," said Aslani. "Workflows are organizations' secret sauce -- the end-to-end processes encoding how they do things smarter, faster, better, cheaper. "For savvy companies, the future is about harnessing their RPA automation expertise, and leveraging it with complementary technologies like process orchestration and document intelligence to automate their mission-critical business workflows," he reasoned. "Additionally, there is a shift in utilizing more low-code capabilities, enabling citizen developers to develop automation and collaborate with professional developers to drive agility and speed in their digital workflow transformation journey," Aslani noted. Intelligent Automation RPA is steadily becoming part of an entire business ecosystem, which includes work done by both humans and non-humans. "For the last five or so years, RPA has enabled organizations in all sectors to increase efficiencies, streamline their internal and customer-facing processes and, perhaps most importantly, free up their highly-skilled employees from repetitive, low-value work," Eric Tyree, head of research and AI for Blue Prism, explained to TechNewsWorld. "Now, as the technology matures and the early-adopter phase is truly over, organizations are looking for more. We will see a seamless mix of digital workers, human workers, and ever-evolving systems," he said. Intelligent automation, in other words, is becoming perpetually intelligent. "Business leaders are recognizing the potential for intelligent automation, where RPA technology is integrated with AI capabilities, to become a strategic lever for widescale transformation, innovation, and competitive difference. "Organizations are starting with their big ambition and working backwards from there. We'll start to see significant numbers of organizations moving towards this automation-first approach," said Tyree. Ultimately, RPA can help businesses as a whole, as it frees up human employees to do things that humans do best -- like thinking creatively and solving problems. "RPA is evolving to become even more democratized, thereby unlocking automation's potential at scale to transform the way people work," said Kahlon. "With the rollout of more low-code and no-code solutions, those with less tech experience can increasingly harness the technology's capabilities to optimize their workloads. "Instead of relying on IT support, they can design their automation applications that make sense to their unique roles," he reasoned. "The more employees who can take advantage of automation, the closer their organization comes to becoming a fully automated enterprise." Vivian Wagner has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. Her main areas of focus are technology, business, CRM, e-commerce, privacy, security, arts, culture and diversity. She has extensive experience reporting on business and technology for a variety of outlets, including The Atlantic, The Establishment and O, The Oprah Magazine. She holds a PhD in English with a specialty in modern American literature and culture. She received a first-place feature reporting award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and is the author of Women in Tech: 20 Trailblazers Share Their Journeys, published by ECT News Network in May 2020. Email Vivian. Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. Sponsored By: St Anthony's Hospital Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. Google hasn't completely given up on RSS. Earlier this year, it started testing a Follow button in Chrome on Android, which allows users to get updates from websites on the new tab page. As of today, the feature is available in the browser's stable build, so all Android users can try it. Starting today, we're experimenting on Chrome stable with a Following feature. You can choose websites to follow, and their RSS updates will appear on Chrome's new tab page. We've been working on this for a while & I'm super excited to hear what people think pic.twitter.com/GUcdSQTv3E Adrienne Prter Felt (@__apf__) October 8, 2021 If you're running Chrome 94 or a pre-stable version, you might already see the Follow button in the menu. Otherwise, as Chrome director of engineering Adrienne Porter Felt wrote on Twitter, you can switch on the feature manually. Go to chrome://flags, search for "web feed" and enable the setting. Although the Follow button is only available on Android for now, Felt suggested it's coming to iOS next year. The feature won't quite have the same level of utility as dedicated RSS readers, of course. It might not make up for the terrible decision to kill Google Reader all those years ago either, but it could be a handy way to stay on top of updates from your favorite websites. At one point in No Time to Die, Daniel Craig's final entry as James Bond, you can see a sleek supercar in the background. It's the Aston Martin Valhalla, a 937hp beast of a plug-in hybrid, and it's just sitting there, with nowhere to go. If you've seen a Bond film before, you can imagine it's holding a slew of killer gadgets (though hopefully not invisibility). Surely it would appear later in the film, perhaps just in time to save our hero before he sips a martini from a built-in fridge. But nonobody drives the car throughout the film's 163-minute runtime. We never even see it in motion. (Though that's not stopping Rocket League from pitching it as a Bond vehicle.) Nicola Dove/DANJAQ, MGM That undriven Chekhov's car makes one thing clear: No Time to Die, directed by Cary Joji-Fukunaga (True Detective, Beasts of No Nation), isn't your usual Bond movie. And as I watched the film, a momentous occasion after years of delays, I was struck by how few gadgets there were. Sure, Bond gets a cool watch, a classic bulletproof (and gun-equipped) Aston Martin and he rides in something called a gravity plane, but they come few and far in between. Instead, the film focuses on Bond's human drama: His inability to trust; his persistent death-wish; the danger he brings to others. Craig's Bond was different from the beginning. In 2006's Casino Royale, he was a fledgling agent he hadn't yet earned his 00 status. He was gruff and dirty, more used to getting into Bourne-esque fights instead of wearing a tux. But the Bond writer's and producers could never quite settle on how they wanted to transform the character. 2008's Quantum of Solace was a disaster mired by the Hollywood writer's strike (not to mentioned completely incomprehensible action). Skyfall was a return to form, elevating the franchise with Roger Deakin's Oscar-nominated cinematography. But the series hit a new low with 2015's Spectre, a boring and regressive film I haven't had the heart to revisit. Strangely, even though No Time to Die is Craig's final entry, it never tries to one-up the set pieces of its predecessors. There's a thrilling motorcycle chase early on, which features an astounding practical jump up a flight of stairs, a balletic shoot-out in Cuba, and a few smaller sequences later on. But the film cares less about spectacle than it does setting a mood. That may make it a divisive entry for some, but as someone fascinated by emotional action movies, like Michael Mann's much-maligned Miami Vice reboot, I found it endlessly compelling. (It helps that No Time to Die, like Casino Royale before it, actually makes you care about Bond and everyone in his orbit.) ENID, Okla. Evie Muilenburg-Trevino said during Enids Hope Summit on Thursday that Enid is a hopeful community. The senior researcher with Hope Research Center said that of the 930 Enid residents who responded to the Hope Assessment Survey, about 88% had moderate or high hope. The average hope score is 51.65%, which equates to moderate hope. +3 Hundreds attend, participate in Hope Summit in Enid More than 300 people filled the Stride Bank Centers main ballroom throughout the day for the states first Hope Summit, part of the Hope Rising Oklahoma initiative, co-founded by first lady Sarah Stitt and Chan Hellman, a professor at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa and founding director of the Hope Research Center. What this tells me is that ... you all can set aspirational goals, Muilenburg-Trevino. You can set achievement-oriented goals, and we can see hope rise. The average hope score for individuals with a less than 12th-grade education was 43.77, which increased to an average of 55.08 for those with a postgraduate degree, Muilenburg-Trevino said. Muilenburg-Trevino also said the results showed homeowners had an average hope score of 52.86; renters had an average hope score of 48.72; and individuals who were living with family or friends had an average hope score of 45.38. Another significant factor in the findings, she said, was income. Individuals with an annual income of less than $20,000 per year had an average hope score of 44.61, and those with a yearly income of more than $100,000 had an average hope score of 55.31. Muilenburg-Trevino noted there was a higher level of responses from people with higher incomes, which is why she wanted to focus on scores broken down by education, housing status and income, but rich data still was found in the results. We definitely collected some rich data, and I think it showed us some significant findings, Muilenburg-Trevino said. We could take a lot from that and move forward. Chan Hellman, a professor at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, founding director of the Hope Research Center and co-founder of Hope Rising Oklahoma, said one of the ways people can increase their hope scores is by discussing goal-setting and what things they want to accomplish and setting small steps to achieve success, sometimes setting the goal and working backward from there to create a roadmap. When people stumble into barriers, Hellman said they need to lean into helping and assisting with problem-solving and model hope for those around them. Hope begets hope, he said. We can do this with intention. The way that you respond to adversity and trauma ... how you set goals, how you create a vision and articulate the pathway to get there, can also help nurture hope in others. First lady Sarah Stitt, co-founder of Hope Rising Oklahoma, said the initiatives launch in Enid was a successful one, and she envisioned that those in attendance walked away with a higher hope score and a better pathway to achieve their goals. Whether its for them personally, or its for their job, or their community projects that theyre involved in, or just their sphere of influence that they can now look at that through the hope lens, which makes a big impact on everything, Stitt said. The next step for Enid, Stitt said, is to continue implementing the science of hope in every area of the community. Trained hope navigators who are embedded in the community, including Dan Schiedel, executive director of United Way of Enid and Northwest Oklahoma, and Sheri Ingham, a counselor with Enid Public Schools, can help members of the community walk out the science of hope. What Im most excited about is the fact that people have the opportunity, with support from Dr. Hellman and his team at the Hope Research Center, to actually walk it out, collect the data and make informed, hopeful decisions over the next 18 months in their community and see the changes, Stitt said. Click for the latest, full-access Enid News & Eagle headlines | Text Alerts | app downloads Gaylord News is a Washington-based reporting project of the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Have a question about this story? Do you see something we missed? Do you have a story idea for the News & Eagle? Send an email to enidnews@enidnews.com. Funeral service for Lois Brandt, of Moore, formerly of Enid, is 1 p.m. Saturday, November 20, 2021, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Enid. Burial will follow in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation with family is noon at the church. WASHINGTON, D.C. On Saturday, October 9th, Sirius XM Radio's Wealthy Ways Show airs Dr. Willie Jolley's interview with top branding expert, Bruce Turkel. Turkel is a member of the National Speakers Association and is a regular guest subject matter expert on CNN, NPR and Fox Business Channel. And he's been inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame. Turkel Brands is a global brand consultancy that works with Fortune 500 clients including Discovery Networks, Nike, Charles Schwab, Citicorp, The City of Miami, American Express and many more. Turkel Brands was the company the city of South Beach, Miami hired to help them go from a sleepy area to a top tourist attraction. Turkel helps companies and individuals build their brand value with simple, clear explanations, anecdotes, and illustrations. As the author of a number of best-selling books on branding and marketing, Turkel's latest book is entitled, Is That All There Is?: What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life? In his thought-provoking interview with Dr. Willie Jolley, Bruce Turkel provides insights that educate entrepreneurs on how to brand themselves so that they become "magnets" in the marketplace. The Willie Jolley Wealthy Ways Show airs every Saturday at 4pm ET, and Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm ET on Sirius XM 141 HUR Voices. Dr. Willie Jolley's Wealthy Ways podcast is available on C Suite Radio, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Tunein, iHeartRadio and Spotify. Dr. Jolley also has a featured segment, "Wake Up and Win with Dr. Willie Jolley," on the Erica Campbell Show. His proven principles and strategies in his best-selling book, An Attitude of Excellence, are the result of work with Ford Motors, helping them come back from the brink of bankruptcy. Dr. Jolley has gone on to be named "One of the Outstanding Five Speakers in the World" by the 175,000 members of Toastmasters International. He currently speaks virtually and internationally to organizations that want and need a comeback mindset. To learn more about Dr. Willie Jolley and his speaking and professional development company, please visit www.winwithwillie.com. Social Media: Facebook: Dr. Willie Jolley Instagram: @therealwilliejolley Twitter: @williejolley Friday, October 8, 2021 A group called Case Breakers claimed to have new evidence identifying Gary Poste as the Zodiac Killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s. In this interview with CNN, https://youtu.be/EKncdXxw2OU, Mike Wakshull describes the quality of the forensic evidence offered in the press release distributed by the group. Forensic evidence presented The evidence presented by the group linking the suspect to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside, CA in 1966 is weak. An example given is a Timex watch with paint splatters was found near the crime scene. The suspect was a house painter. This is circumstantial evidence. The link between the suspect and the Zodiac is one misspelled word (twich) that appears in a Zodiac card and in a writing by the suspect. A better comparison would be to obtain examples of the suspects handwriting to compare with the many letters sent to newspapers and police by the Zodiac. A scar on the forehead of the suspect is an alleged link between the suspect and the Zodiac. The press release alleges there is a scar on the forehead of the Zodiac in the police sketch and described by witness of the Zodiac killings. As I was unaware of any other mention of a scar on the Zodiacs forehead, I typed scar on the Zodiac Killers forehead and other variants into Google. The only references discovered were to the Case Breakers. The alleged scar is wrinkles on the forehead. See the attached images. The press release posts photos of Mr. Poste from 1963 through 2018. Using Photoshop, I overlayed the police sketch of the Zodiac onto the 1963 and 2007 photos to learn how well they comport. When the nose is aligned, the remainder of the face does not align. Also, the police sketch of the Zodiac includes eyeglasses. Mr. Poste is not wearing eyeglasses in any photos. Missing evidence The Case Breakers did not compare handwriting of their suspect with the many known handwritten letters sent by the Zodiac to the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle. This would be valuable information. The evidence presented by the Case Breakers is weak and circumstantial. The evidence in their press release fails. iCore Global describes itself on its website as a commercial real estate provider with 156 offices in 64 countries handling some $47.5 billion in annual transactions. It lists offices stretching from San Antonio to Luxembourg to Casablanca. In reality, according to a San Antonio federal grand jury indictment returned Wednesday, iCore Global had only two addresses in the United States. Both were mailboxes at UPS stores, including one in Helotes. Firm founder and CEO Samantha L. Mueting, 56, of San Antonio, and two other officials stand accused of devising a scheme to to defraud iCore investors of more than $2 million. At least one couple lost the majority of their life savings, the indictment said. Mueting has been charged with seven counts of wire fraud. In addition, Mueting, Chief Financial Officer Josephus De Laat, 60, of Spicewood, and operations manager Vodrick L. Perry, 52, of San Antonio, are charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Mueting and Perry also were indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Each charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years if convicted. The three allegedly misused investors funds to enrich themselves and others, the indictment said. Email addresses for Mueting and De Laat posted on iCores website are no longer active. Mueting didnt immediately respond to a text message and De Laat didnt immediately return a call Friday. Perry couldnt be located for comment. On ExpressNews.com: SEC: San Antonio lawyer used investment funds as piggy bank to pay personal expenses, businesses iCore states on its website that it provides a variety of real estate services including investment sales, leasing, property management and construction management. It says its been in business for more than 30 years. It claimed to employ 5,500 employees and agents, according to the indictment. The firms website touts that it works with clients to maximize the value of real estate assets by applying the knowledge that we gain in buying, selling, financing and valuing properties for their benefit. Its marketing materials caught the attention of a Michigan financial adviser. The adviser, only identified in the indictment as J.D, primarily advises clients nearing retirement on low-risk investment options such as life insurance and annuities, the charging papers stated. Mueting prepared a financial statement for the adviser that showed iCores worldwide revenue had surged from almost $4.9 billion in 2012 to nearly $11.8 billion in 2018, according to the indictment. The statement purported to contain publicly reported and audited financials, the indictment added. The Michigan financial adviser passed on the marketing materials for iCore and its iCG Fund to two clients, a married couple identified in the indictment as CWs 1& 2. The pair invested about $1.4 million, the majority of their life savings, into the iCG Fund. CWs 1 & 2 lost the entirety of their investment, the indictment added. It also said iCores website represented that investments in the iCG Fund offered investors a secured deposit. Investor funds earn interest during the term of the deposit and act as collateral for iCores funding of commercial real estate projects, the marketing materials state, according to the indictment. SA Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox Another couple, identified as CWs 3 & 4, also J.D.s clients, lost the roughly $600,000 they invested, the charging papers say. A third married couple also advised by J.D., CWs 5 & 6, attempted to invest the majority of their roughly $471,800 nest egg, the indictment said. All told, prosecutors allege Mueting, de Laat and Perry defrauded investors of more than $2.1 million. Each defendant is scheduled to make their initial court appearance later this month. State corporate records show iCore and related firms, including iCore Global-San Antonio, are no longer active. The San Antonio firms corporate registration was terminated in 2014. iCore Global, which listed a Frisco address in state corporate records, forfeited its corporate registration in August. The U.S. Secret Service is investigating the case. pdanner@express-news.net Elon Musks tunnel-drilling firm, The Boring Co., wants to get its hands on the reports and surveys the Lone Star Rail District generated as it worked to develop an Austin-to-San Antonio commuter rail line. The rail district, created by the Texas Legislature in 1997, failed spectacularly in that effort. It spent more than $25 million over 13 years before shutting down five years ago, the rail service it was supposed to conjure into existence still nothing but a dream. What remained was a lot of data on potential routes linking the two metro areas the increasingly crowded poles of a burgeoning mega-region. The Boring Co. is super secretive, so we dont know why its after that information. But because its aggressively pitching cities across the country on the idea of building narrow tunnels to move people from one destination to another, its not crazy to think its intelligence gathering is directed to that end. Maybe its looking into the feasibility of connecting Austin and San Antonio by one long, underground loop for emissions-free electric vehicles. Maybe its interested only in linking Austin to San Marcos, or San Antonio to New Braunfels. Or maybe the company is thinking about a different kind of project altogether. Who knows its Musk, the second-richest person on the new Forbes 400 list. The founder of SpaceX, head of electric-car maker Tesla and the force behind The Boring Co. has a net worth of $190.5 billion. He wants to establish a colony on Mars and bury the Earth-befouling fossil fuel economy. And hes mercurial. Theres no telling what hell attempt. San Antonio tunnel Earlier this week, I reported on The Boring Co.s proposal to the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority to connect San Antonio International Airport to downtown by tunnels. I first heard about the companys interest in the Lone Star Rail Districts work while reporting on that story. On ExpressNews.com: Elon Musk's San Antonio tunnel idea gains traction; transportation agency seeks proposals The Boring Co. sought the rail districts lode of documents from Ross Milloy, president of the Greater Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council. Thats a public-private nonprofit that advocates for transportation and economic development projects in the region. Milloy was a good one to ask. Hed been the longtime head of the rail district. On Sept. 15, Milloy told the Corridor Councils executive committee a mix of elected officials, transit officials, corporate executives, engineers and lawyers about The Boring Co.s request. But Musks outfit wanted to keep its information-gathering secret. Milloy told the 30-plus participants in the Zoom meeting that the firm asked him to sign a nondisclosure agreement. The board said, Why would we do that? said Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert Jr., an executive committee member. He added, Ross is cooperating. Hes providing publicly available documents to The Boring Co. Calvert didnt attend the September meeting; Milloy later briefed him on its substance. A committee member who was on hand confirmed what Calvert told me, noting, The Boring Co. had requested all the data from the Lone Star Rail District. Friday morning, Milloy returned my call from the day before. He said the company initially approached him a couple of months ago. Theyre talking to a lot of people right now, like any smart company, he said. But I dont know if anything will come of it. I sought an interview with The Boring Co. but didnt didnt get a response. Dusting for prints The Boring Co. is leaving a lot of fingerprints in San Antonio and Austin. The firm has apparently moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to the Austin area and has talked with Austin officials about potential tunnel projects. (And, oh, yes we learned Thursday that Musk is moving Teslas headquarters to Austin from Palo Alto, Calif.) On ExpressNews.com: Elon Musk announces Tesla moving its headquarters from California to Texas But despite the tunnel makers frenzy of behind-the-scenes activity in Central Texas to embrace a full-on mixed metaphor it has yet to show its hand. What is its overarching objective? To create an underground labyrinth of tunnels across the U.S. to transport people in company-operated Teslas? Or perhaps its to build the basic infrastructure for another of Musks fantasies the Hyperloop, which would shoot passengers from one destination to another in sleek, high-speed pods. Consider the companys proposal to shuttle visitors back and forth between San Antonio International and downtown. RMA officials thought enough of the idea to officially invite contractors to submit competing ideas for an airport-to-downtown transportation project. The proposals are due by Dec. 1. At the end of the process, the RMA will either select a finalist and try to work out a development agreement or drop the idea. The Boring Co. is the pacesetter in this competition, having established its parameters that is, a project to shuttle people more efficiently from the airport to the center city. And it could have the competitive edge. Yet the Alamo RMAs chairman, residential developer Michael Lynd Jr., didnt confirm the original proposal came from The Boring Co. Other sources I contacted did that. And we likely wont know until after Dec. 1 how such a project would be financed its cost would be in the hundreds of millions or which path the tunnel would take. At least this much is clear: The Boring Co.s proposal isnt about fixing a transit problem. Theres no problem to solve. The drive between the airport and the Convention Center, a major destination for out-of-towners, is a little short of 10 miles. How many visitors get worked up over a 14-minute car trip from the airport to downtown? The companys immediate objective in San Antonio is small-scale. It estimates that roughly 10 percent of travelers landing at San Antonio International Airport are headed straight downtown, according to Bexar County Engineer Renee Green, who serves as the Alamo RMAs director of engineering and operations. (She also declined to name the company that submitted the original proposal.) The visitors who dont rent cars usually take an Uber, Lyft or taxi from the airport. The Boring Co. wants to offer them a nifty alternative a ride in a company-driven Tesla zipping through a tunnel. Tommy Calvert is intrigued by The Boring Co.s transportation loops. And he, too, wonders if theyre maybe the forerunner to a network of Hyperloops, which he said is something is Ive always to wanted to see. Perhaps the future is more underground, he added. But The Boring Co.s track record so far is mixed. Its already operating a 1.7-mile loop about 40 feet beneath the grounds of the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center, at a cost to taxpayers of $52.5 million. And the company is trying to nail down an agreement to build a tunnel for Teslas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But its grand plan for connecting Washington, D.C., and Baltimore by tunnels may have fallen by the wayside, the Washington Post reported in April. Same for its vaunted tunneling project in Los Angeles. Well have to wait and see whether The Boring Co. will enjoy the same success as its corporate siblings SpaceX and Tesla. Or whether its just another Lone Star Rail District. greg.jefferson@express-news.net For the first time since July 25, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in San Antonio has dipped below 500 as the outbreak in the city slowly recedes from its third major wave of coronavirus infections. But Mayor Ron Nirenberg warns against getting too comfortable with the threat of a winter surge looming. Were thankful to be below 500 for the first time in a while, Nirenberg said during a televised briefing Thursday, when 496 were hospitalized with COVID-19. But again, get your vaccine so you can stay out of the hospital. Currently, 467 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus, including 19 children. Eighty-one percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are not vaccinated; 173 are in intensive care units; and 82 are on ventilators. The Metropolitan Health District reported Friday that another four people in Bexar County have died in the past two weeks because of the coronavirus, which brings the local COVID-19 death toll to 4,563. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio's COVID-19 risk level downgraded San Antonios first major surge came in summer 2020, which was months before vaccines were available. The second wave of infections came in January, when COVID-19 hospitalizations reached 1,520. From Feb. 24 to late July, fewer than 500 patients with COVID-19 were in area hospitals each day, with a low of 112 patients hospitalized June 17. But while the nation focused on administering vaccines to the public and politicians fought mask mandates and restrictions on businesses, the virus mutated into the delta variant. This far more infectious version became the dominant strain in the summer, and infections flared up again. The third surge peaked Aug. 23, when nearly 1,500 COVID-19 patients were in area hospitals, and the virus status appears to be returning to a more manageable level. This week, the city and countys risk level was downgraded from moderate to mild. One of the citys largest school districts Northside Independent School District eased its mask requirement from mandatory to strongly encouraged. Despite the lower numbers now, San Antonio hospitals remain stressed and hectic. Hospitals are short-staffed because workers left for more lucrative out-of-state employment contracts or exited the industry entirely, said Eric Epley, executive director of the South Texas Regional Advisory Council, which coordinates emergency services for Bexar and 21 surrounding counties. Epley said many hospitals are still trying to catch up treating patients whose medical procedures were delayed. Nirenberg said that with lower levels of transmission in the community, people should continue to concentrate on ways to beat the virus by wearing a face mask to reduce transmission, getting fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and getting a booster shot when its available. Were in a position to deliver a knockout punch, he said. Lets get rid of COVID-19 once and for all. County Judge Nelson Wolff said the only way to achieve that is to convince people who can get the vaccine but have chosen against it to change their minds. Children under 12 are not eligible to be vaccinated, which leaves them susceptible to the virus. Its not clear whether the delta variant makes children sicker than the previous version, but its high level of infectiousness has caused a surge of pediatric cases in hot spots across the U.S. I hope people out there who refuse to get it think about what a danger they are to children, Wolff said. Please have some regard for the rest of us in the city. On ExpressNews.com: 'Remember ... last year': Bexar County judge says more need COVID vaccine to prevent winter surge So far, 75.4 percent of the countys residents who are eligible or 1.2 million are fully vaccinated, while about 90.5 percent of eligible people in Bexar County are at least partially vaccinated, according to the citys online COVID-19 dashboard. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires one shot. More than 60,000 people in Bexar County have received the Pfizer booster shot since it was authorized two weeks ago. The booster shot has been approved only for those who got Pfizer vaccines, and it is meant to add extra protection for older Americans as well as those at higher risk of getting infected at work, such as teachers and nurses. Metro Healths medical director, Junda Woo, doesnt think shaming people to get vaccinated will get us out of this. Woo said people have valid questions and that some may need extra assistance, such as a ride to get the shot. Others have not gotten their second vaccine dose, she said, because they fear side effects will keep them out of work. Common side effects from the vaccines include pain, redness and swelling at the injection site. People might also experience tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever and nausea in the days afterward, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not everyone has side effects, Woo said, adding that Metro Healths $100 H-E-B gift card incentive for those who are getting their first or final shot could help soften the financial blow if they need to stay home from work. laura.garcia@express-news.net SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla will move its headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif., to Austin, CEO Elon Musk announced at the company's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. Musk had hinted for months that a move to Texas could be imminent. He also started residing in the state - the country's second largest and most populous - where Tesla has ramped up a factory in Austin and where many of the operations for his aerospace firm, SpaceX, are based. Musk lashed out last year at California's restrictive shelter-in-place measures during the coronavirus pandemic and their effect on the company's ability to operate its largest production facility in Fremont, Calif. But a move of the company's corporate headquarters signals a major shift for Tesla, which traces its roots to Silicon Valley and has drawn from a lush environment of incentives for electric-vehicle buyers and green-energy initiatives to propel its growth. The company's proximity to Stanford University has provided a rich landscape of engineers to choose from - and its Silicon Valley location placed it within the radius of numerous technology companies, including Google, Apple and Facebook. "I'm excited to announce we are moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas," Musk said. "Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. This is not a matter of Tesla leaving California." Messages for the offices of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, were not immediately returned. Musk said Tesla has approached the limits of its capacity in California, though it will continue to grow in the state, aiming to increase its output at the Fremont plant by 50%. The Austin move, he said, gives the company the chance to build out in a location where there is ample space to support its growth. Capacity at the Fremont factory, where Tesla has more than 10,000 workers, has reached its limits. Tesla's corporate headquarters occupies a lot in Palo Alto's Stanford Research Park that had been the site of other companies, such as Hewlett-Packard. The area quickly became constrained as the company grew, with workers unable to park at the office and some shifting to other locations around the Bay Area. The location, at 350,000 square feet on 23 acres, was built to house hundreds of employees. "Roughly 350 employees will work in Palo Alto initially, with space for up to 650 people at the facility," read a Tesla news release at the time. Tesla noted in its release that the move to Palo Alto and the build-out of the facility was funded in large part by U.S. Department of Energy loans. The company noted how it had received nearly $465 million in low-interest loans "to accelerate the production of affordable, fuel-efficient electric vehicles," precipitating its move. In Fremont, meanwhile, Musk said Tesla arrived to a sprawling facility that it could hardly fill out, where it was like "kids in parents' shoes." "Now we're like spam in a can here," Musk said. He added that Austin proved more accommodating for the pool of workers Tesla is aiming to attract to the company. The costs and constraints of the Bay Area began to be prohibitive, he said. "It's tough for people to afford houses and a lot of people have to come in from far away," he said. "There's a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area." Mike Ramsey, automotive analyst with Gartner Inc., said the decision reflected numerous business concerns - from the growth of the company to Musk's place of residence and the escalating presence of his other company, SpaceX, in Texas. For many workers in California however, he said, little would change. "Texas - in my view - the main thing that it has going for it is that's where the center of gravity has moved for SpaceX," Ramsey said. "If you're planning to put manufacturing there, it is a lower-cost business state than California there's no doubt." Still, "it's more than symbolic but you know for a lot of people in California and people who work there, [that] probably won't change," he said. But the move would likely have an impact on how Tesla would approach California going forward, said Jason Schloetzer, Professor of Business Administration at the Georgetown McDonough School of Business. "In Austin, they're going to have a pretty large workforce there when that facility opens; I would anticipate they may consider drawing down production in California over the medium-term," he said. "It seems like a natural evolution of decisions they've made recently to relocate their business out of California." He cited Austin's rapid growth, relatively young population and the presence of a major university with the University of Texas at Austin as factors that fell in the city's favor. And Texas has landed entities such as Oracle and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise recently in part by playing up its attractiveness to business. "Texas is viewed rightly or wrongly as a business friendly environment and they've been actively trying to develop the Austin area as a technology hub," said Schloetzer. Musk threatened last May that a Texas move could be imminent amid California's shelter-in-place orders, which had prevented him from reopening Tesla's main production facility in Fremont. "Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately," he wrote on Twitter in May 2020, though a move did not follow then. "If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen[t] on how Tesla is treated in the future." At the meeting, Musk laid out his vision for the Austin factory, as Musk touted its proximity to the airport and downtown. "We're going to create an ecological paradise here because we're right on the Colorado River," he said. Police are asking for help identifying a person of interest in the slaying of a former News 4 San Antonio employee. Investigators found surveillance footage of an unknown man leaving the home of 40-year-old Christopher Olivarez prior to his death, San Antonio police said. Police did not say when the video was captured. Ken Branca A search is underway for a man who allegedly pointed a gun at San Antonio police, prompting officers to shoot at him before he fled, officials said. Officers were patrolling around the area of Babcock and Wurzbach on the Northwest Side just before 2:30 a.m. for an unrelated shots-fired call, when they came across a parking lot disturbance between a male and female involving a gun. Computers line the walls of Room 212 inside San Antonio Colleges Gonzales Hall, where Sergio Medina runs the Ranger, the student news organization that is set to cease operations in December after 95 years. A day after breaking the story of the upcoming closure, Medina sat in the middle of the mostly empty classroom, sporting the Rangers Class of 2020 T-shirt and making calls to administrators to figure out what was next for the publication and program. His sources couldnt tell him much. Medina, as editor-in-chief, and a shrinking number of student journalists are upholding a campus tradition admired for decades for its real-world credibility. But in a college district that has grown rapidly in recent years, the journalism program at SAC has been reduced. Budget cuts already had forced the weekly newspaper to go fully online in 2019. The Ranger is not a student club. It is a lab publication, a product of SACs journalism and photography courses. Administrators havent said that it will end, exactly, but the clock is ticking. Sam Owens /San Antonio Express-News Program Coordinator Marianne Odom and the only two full-time journalism faculty, Irene Abrego and Edmund Lo, will retire at the end of the fall semester. No replacements have been named. The Ranger has launched the careers of journalists who work across the nation. Some of them said this week that they can only hope administrators understand the programs value in giving students access to a crucial profession and teaching them how to be good at it. You get experience here that you would expect at a (four-year) university, Medina said. And you are not just working for a grade, because when you come in here, you are doing a benefit, a service, to the community in the college and around it. So you feel like you are part of something greater. SAC President Robert Vela was not available for an interview this week. In a prepared statement Tuesday, he said the college has begun exploring ways that it can keep student journalism thriving on our campus. The intention is to have it remain a vital component of the total learning experience at SAC, Vela said. On Thursday, Alamo Colleges Chancellor Mike Flores offered more details in an email to Laura Garcia, president of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists, after the group issued a statement saying its members were heartbroken because the program at SAC has long provided a pathway for students of color and those with little financial means to enter the industry. Sam Owens /San Antonio Express-News The future might involve merging all five of the districts colleges in one Alamo Colleges District student media lab, Flores said, where students can explore careers in the fields of print, broadcast, radio and digital journalism. While the Ranger is in transition at San Antonio College, the leadership of the Alamo Colleges District is reimagining a student journalism experience powered by the strengths of each of our five colleges, supported by faculty, staff and professionals in the industry, and open to students at any of the Alamo Colleges, Flores said. Garcia, a health care reporter at the San Antonio Express-News, started her career at the Ranger in 2005, where she worked as an editor spending hours in the student newsroom with classmates and staff who were like a family before transferring to Texas State University. Im still trying to process the loss, she said. Because I know what it means to me, I know what it means to so many people that are still working in this industry, that its just so hard to believe that it may not exist anymore. Odom, who has taught full time at the college since 1990, said she was pleased to hear there might be a plan to keep the journalism program alive. Significant headwinds were already making it difficult, starting with a push in Texas community colleges to graduate students faster. Tasked with getting most students ready to transfer to a four-year university, they dont really want them hanging around getting a lot of contact hours, Odom said. Which is not a bad thing, its just that they dont spend as much time getting journalism classes. Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox A couple of years ago, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board did away with a list of journalism courses that transferring students could get credit for at a four-year institution, increasing the incentive for students to limit their exposure to such courses at community colleges, Odom said. Sam Owens /San Antonio Express-News As a result, enrollment for advanced journalism courses at SAC has been declining since 2019, and the Ranger has had smaller pools of such students to run things and help guide less-experienced students taking introductory newswriting classes. But the Ranger has always attracted nontraditional students, and it landed on this years Associated Collegiate Press listing of the 100 best student news outlets in the nation. Medina, 28, said he graduated with an associate degree in 2018 and stuck around because I knew that the resources that they offered here are going to benefit me in the long run. He kept registering for classes, working as an editor for a small stipend. In 2018, Medina had been one of about a dozen editors from classes that drew as many as 30 students. Now, his staff consists of two editors, two full-time photographers and fewer than 10 students in an introductory photography course. Theres no media writing class this semester. Lo, who teaches photography, said he can offer his advanced courses only every other semester and not at all if there arent enough students enrolling. In the past three years, his courses went from holding 12 to 16 students per semester to just six to nine. Community colleges once helped students explore different careers they were curious about, Lo said. Some would wander into journalism or photography, find they had talent and learn those skills. But today, we expect the students just to come in and leave quick on a predetermined track, he said. Garcia always knew she wanted to be a journalist, but I also knew that I wouldnt be able to afford to go to college, not in the traditional route that some students have. SAC remains one of the very few community colleges that has such a well-known journalism program and the very first to have a student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Garcia noted, adding, I think that speaks to the fact that it is a serious program. Sam Owens /San Antonio Express-News Medina is experiencing the feeling journalists get when seeing reverberations from news they broke. He hopes it will awaken a sense of urgency among administrators and the community at large about what the program provides. Its too important to just let go of, Medina said. When you are teaching media literacy to people because it is journalism, but at the heart of it is, really, just media literacy you are teaching them to be responsible members of society. Because we live in an information age and everything we consume depends on how good we are at filtering that information. Joe Vazquez, a retired TV reporter who worked at the Ranger in the mid-1980s before joining the staff of KMOL-TV, now WOAI, and eventually news stations in Houston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, said he used the lessons he learned at SAC every day for 35 years as a journalist. I learned how to hold powerful people accountable, he said. How to deal with hostile interview subjects. I learned how to balance stories, including as many sides as possible. I learned how to find and highlight the good in humanity. And I learned the value of a strong work ethic, often working harder on my story deadlines than my homework, Vazquez said. The demise of the Ranger means another kid whose parents couldnt afford to send him to the big colleges misses out. It means yet another missed opportunity to tell the full story from students who are from the working class of the community. Its a real shame. danya.perez@express-news.net | @DanyaPH Negotiators for the city of San Antonio and the police union on Friday agreed to another contract extension during a brief session of collective bargaining. The extension, which gives both sides another 15 days to continue talks, is the 12th since negotiations began in February. The current extension was set to end Saturday, and an evergreen clause in the current contract keeps certain rules in place for up to eight years if a new agreement is not reached. Both sides agreed to meet at 10 a.m. on Oct. 18 to discuss health care and wages. During Fridays brief meeting, Craig Deats, a lawyer for the San Antonio Police Officer Association, said both sides are still not in agreement on two portions of the language governing officer suspensions. Liz Provencio, first assistant city attorney, meanwhile, said the language in the current proposal still does not offer the degree of deference to the police chiefs disciplinary decisions that the city wants. On ExpressNews.com: City, police union approach agreement on key contract issue The union also addressed a proposal from the city to not include witness statements in the initial files that are shown to officers accused of wrongdoing during internal affairs investigations. Ron DeLord, chief negotiator for the SAPOA, said the union does not have a problem with officers choosing to have their names redacted, but it asked the city to propose such language first. The city has posted a status report of 10 unresolved issues on the citys website, which includes a proposal from the union regarding leave pay upon separation. On another matter regarding police vehicle maintenance, the union offered a counterproposal in case new police vehicles are unavailable to buy amid an ongoing computer chip shortage affecting automakers worldwide. In their proposal, union negotiators said a majority vote from the labor relations committee would allow vehicles to be driven beyond their recommended maximum mileage, but only those vehicles that were budgeted to be replaced. It would also be up to the committee to evaluate alternative vehicles for the police fleet. jbeltran@express-news.net The last time Chris Salas saw Sen. Ted Cruz, it was on a first-name basis. Salas was lobbying for disability rights particularly housing accessibility on Capitol Hill with the United Spinal Association, as he does every year, when the Texas Republican entered the room. Cruz made his way down the line, shaking hands with the several dozen people waiting to greet him. When it was his turn, Salas thought hed break the ice with a joke: This is like, the fifth time weve met can I call you Ted? Asked what Cruzs response was, Salas laughed. He said, Sure, of course. One of my sayings is, Dont be afraid of the alphabet people. Salas paused, then explained his meaning. You know, the people with all the letters after their names J.D., M.D., PhD. Anyone who knows me knows that Ill talk to the CEO of a company the same way I talk to the janitor which is as it should be. Salas, paralyzed from the chest down due to a spinal cord injury, is the founder of Rolling Inspiration. The stated mission of the local nonprofit, started in 2010, is helping all people with mobility impairments by improving their quality of life through fellowship and community, reintegration and activity programs. It runs a support group that typically meets twice a month. More Information For more information on Rolling Inspiration and its mission, go to rolling-inspiration.org, visit the organization on Facebook at "Rolling Inspiration" or contact Salas directly at chris@rolling-inspiration.org or 210-748-8586. Those who wish to make donations can do so at http://rolling-inspiration.org/index.php/donate. See More Collapse We share knowledge and build confidence to show those with disabilities that a meaningful, productive life is still possible, Salas said. One of the nonprofits catchphrases - Stop existing, start living - aptly sums up its approach. Like so many other nonprofits, Rolling Inspiration was hit hard by the pandemic, and Salas himself hasnt taken a salary since February. My passion is stronger than my pursuit of profit, he said. People always work until their cup is full, and unfortunately I use a colander. The group also doubles as the San Antonio chapter of the United Spinal Association, which organizes a Roll on Capitol Hill each year, a policy event where participants lobby their members of Congress on disability-rights issues. Thats where Salas had his encounter with Sen. Cruz. Chris uses all his energy advocating for a more sustainable future for people living with any type of disability and encouraging those who have spinal cord injuries as they adapt to the changes in lifestyle caused by traumatic experiences, said Rachel Cywinski, who became disabled after a motor vehicle crash ruptured six of her discs. She served with Salas on the citys Disability Access Advisory Committee. Hes relentless in a very quiet way that people listen to, she said. Salas has been paralyzed since 1997 when he was 21 years old. He was working as a sales representative for a lawn care company when he fell asleep at the wheel and plowed into the back of an 18-wheeler. He fractured his fifth cervical vertebra (known as C5) but was otherwise uninjured. Salas received rehab services at what is now the South Presa Community Center. He had no idea he would be paralyzed for life. I thought you went to rehab and you came out walking, Salas said. I was ignorant to the fact that you dont necessarily get better and walk out. Somebody once asked me, How can you accept not being able to walk again? Salas said. Ive never accepted that, but Im not going to wait to live my life. While he still hopes some future medical advance could cure his condition, if this is the best or worst that my life gets, I am content with my life, he said. That wasnt always the case. I went through the phases of wanting to die. How can I die?Who can help me? he said. Its like Groundhog Day. Youre tired of not doing the same thing over and over. But he finally got to the point where he didnt want to die. And then I got to the point where I wanted to live, he said. Because not wanting to die and wanting to live are two different things. Eventually, Salas began to volunteer for the transportation system at South Presa Community Center. He was asked one day to speak to a new patient who also had suffered a severe spinal cord injury. It was in that moment that Salas realized that helping other people with disabilities to live happy and meaningful lives was his personal mission. In 2013, he graduated summa cum laude with an associates degree in fine arts with an emphasis on psychology from St. Philips College. Shortly afterward, his health took a turn for the worse, and Salas entered a nursing home from 2014 to 2019. One of the big issues I had when it came time to leave the nursing home was finding a place to live, Salas said. Thats when his passion for advocacy surrounding housing accessibility for the disabled was ignited. Salas said finding his own apartment was challenging since only 5 percent of new complexes in San Antonio are required to offer accessible units. This is something that had already been on my radar; but when you experience it firsthand, it become even more real, he said. San Antonio has a serious shortage in housing with safe and comprehensive wheelchair access, and thats why Salas work is so important, Cywinski said. Salas said his personal goal would be to see the required number of accessible apartments increase to at least 10 percent. It would be nice to have more, but Im also a realist as well as an optimist, he said. I think 10 percent is a feasible number that can be implemented by the government. Salas said that number should be applied only to new-construction units retrofitting every building would be cost-prohibitive. Salas also hopes that someday such units are touted as universal-design units instead of accessible units, for the purposes of gaining broader support. But Salas isnt focused on just housing. While most buildings in San Antonio comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Salas said his mission is to make them a little more ADA-convenient. Theres a big difference between being compliant and being convenient, he added. Being in a wheelchair is not a role that most people are in, so they just dont know until they have to, he said. Lowering a step by half an inch can make the difference between accessible and inaccessible. A little thing like having door handles instead of knobs can make a huge difference, he added. Two of the most important features for a building to be fully accessible are easy access to the building itself, including a front ramp entrance, and fully accessible bathrooms, making them the most critical items to retrofit, Salas said. For new construction, multiple elevators should be a definite must, he said, as well as doors wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs. Ideally, there should be push-button access on at least one set of exterior doors. Today, Salas lives by himself in a pretty smart apartment, with numerous Amazon Echo devices, a smart thermostat, smart light switches, a Ring camera and a smart lock that can be accessed remotely. But one room in his home is not equipped with any modified devices: his kitchen, where Salas is an avid cook. I call it culinary therapy, he said. I really want to start a cooking YouTube channel. Salas said an important part of his advocacy work is going to the source of the problem and educating people about accessibility needs. For example, when he was a student at St. Philips, modifications were being done on a building that had only one elevator, which was breaking down all the time, he said. I went straight to the board of Alamo Colleges, and not only did they agree to replace that elevator, but they put in two new elevators, he added. One summer while he was a student, he worked with Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Bruce Leslie, visiting all the campuses and making recommendations on how to improve the accessibility of their buildings. He received a special award of appreciation from Alamo Colleges for his assistance in December 2013. Alamo Colleges now hires a disabled student each year to do the same assessment of campus accessibility. Cywinski said that whats unique about Salas is that hes so patient with people who dont understand and tells his story in a way that makes people listen. In addition, hes willing to do whatever hes asked sharing his story, speaking to corporate leaders and traveling to events such as Roll on Capitol Hill. He does know how to speak up, and it takes a lot of effort, she pointed out. When people have spinal injuries, it is so much effort to use your physical strength when you have such limited physical strength to do anything. In addition to his advocacy work, Salas volunteers at Warm Springs Rehab Center and Fort Sam Houston and gives guest lectures to students in physical therapy programs at University of the Incarnate Word and other schools. I help bridge the gap between what they learn in books and what theyll see in real life, he said. He also serves as an ambassador for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, having started out as a peer mentor. Salas message to other disabled people: I want to live now, and you will, too. I have every excuse in the book to not be a productive person and people wouldnt blink an eye, but thats just not my personality, Salas said. Life is too short to not live. Disabled is a label I intend to redefine. Josie Norris /San Antonio Express-News SAN ANTONIO Artists will make their mark on the streets across town this weekend during the annual Chalk It Up event. At 10 libraries from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, chalk-wielding maestros will cover roads and sidewalks with murals. The works will center on this years theme: the Spirit of San Antonio. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, on a visit to Gus Garcia University School to promote the Biden administrations Build Back Better plan, spoke with students and parents Thursday about the challenges the coronavirus pandemic brought to learning. Cardona was accompanied by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, Eduardo Hernandez, the superintendent of Edgewood Independent School District, and Carl Sheperis, dean of the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Gus Garcia is a recently-renamed middle school that partners with A&M-San Antonio, which Cardona considers a model that could be replicated across the country with funding from the Build Back Better plan. The partnership works to help students think of themselves as college ready from an early age, and provides teacher development programs, more services for special needs students and other benefits. The Build Back Better agenda provides resources to expand some of the great things they are already doing here at Gus Garcia, Cardona said. That partnership with colleges, the pipeline for teachers, giving students the opportunity to have voice in the development of what they are learning, that is powerful. Build Back Better covers far more than education programs and has been caught in a legislative standoff in Congress over its size, cost and scope. Cardona, a former teacher and school principal in Connecticut, is spotlighting what it could accomplish in specific communities. The bill, he said, would help schools across the country address the fact that some of their students are hungry, have insecure housing or have lost family members to the pandemic. The administrations plan also would help parents pay for child care and increase the availability of Pell Grants to afford college, Cardona said. Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, said the plan would help students who are holding down jobs keep their focus on school. Free community college will mean that students will no longer be in that work-school tug of war, Castro said. A lot of people end up dropping out because work takes up a bigger and bigger chunk of their time. Neither mentioned an existing program by Alamo Colleges, called Alamo Promise, that provides free tuition for up to two years for graduating seniors at an expanding list of high schools that serve lower-income enrollments. Later Thursday, the community college district announced it had received $19 million of the education departments recently-awarded nationwide multi-year grants. The money will go to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs, recruitment and retention efforts targeting specific high schools on the South Side, student support services that include campus-based child care and domestic violence prevention and response, and teacher training. A good portion of Cardonas visit was dedicated to listening to students. Sitting at long cafeteria tables pushed together into a giant C shape, they were asked why it was important for them to be back in school after learning remotely during the pandemic, what made them most happy about being in school, and what else they need to recover from the pandemic. We are going to ask you to use your recess voices, Cardona said, and students giggled. You know what Im talking about, right? The cafeteria voices you use when the principal isnt looking. Students, muffled by their masks, said they could focus better when in school, they were happy to see their friends in-person, and that they and their peers could get more academic support in person. Castro asked students if they had any difficulty connecting to the internet when they were learning remotely last year. Students unanimously said they had not. The reason why they didnt have that problem was because of our partnership with A&M. It provided devices for students, Principal Christopher Bland interjected. If you could wave a wand, just imagine for a minute, students, you have a magic wand what would you want schools to have across the country after the pandemic? Cardona asked. Probably more after-school programs about science, like robotics, one student said. More teachers around after school to help, another said. People are having trouble with math so they should make another math after-school program, a third student said. Multiple students also said that they want more work and harder courses to challenge them. We are still healing from a pandemic, Cardona said when asked what he learned on his visits. We are going to heal and grow but they need time to heal together. We talk a lot about the digital divide but there is a relational divide that our students are keen on closing. We need to take their lead and make sure we are engaging them in ways that they want to be there. They have gone through a lot. Claire.Bryan@express-news.net Sometimes, Farida Brown still wakes up in a cold sweat, yelling out, No! No! No! Dont! Dont! because she hears the sound of heavy footsteps that tormented her congregation that fateful day Nov. 5, 2017. Loud noises give her flashbacks to First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, where she had taken a seat after serving coffee and tea and helping prepare breakfast for those in attendance. Friday, the native of Trinidad and Tobago fought through tears while recounting the events of that day one more time in a federal trial over lawsuits that survivors and families of the victims filed against the Air Force, which failed to flag an abusive airman years earlier who went on to commit the massacre at the church where his wife was a parishioner. Brown sat near David Colbath, a church elder, and behind Haley Krueger, 16, when she heard what she thought were fireworks as services began. I told Dave, What was that? said Brown, 77. David got up and yelled, Get down! Get down! She crawled under the bench in front of her, and Krueger was under it, too. I crouched as much as I could, and I put my head down and my hands over my head, Brown said. I started praying. I heard, bang, bang bang, and his heavy footsteps. I would look up and saw his black boots. It sounded like machine guns brrrttt nonstop. Another woman who had been sitting next to Brown had been shot and cried for a nurse. I said, I cant move, Brown recalled. Im afraid to move; hes gonna shoot me. Brown said the shooter might have gone outside, and the wounded woman kept yelling. I said, Stop, just stop because hes going to hear you and hes going to come finish us off, Brown said. He came back and he started shooting again. The second time is when I saw a big hole in my right leg. I moved the leg in a different position and I felt very weak like I was passing out. I didnt realize there was a bullet in my leg. She said she prayed, feeling that she was going to die. She said she felt the presence of God and her late husband, who died in 2011. I promised my husband that when Id die, Ill be right there with you, Brown testified. I didnt realize it was going to be this quick. She held Kruegers hand. She looked at me in those sad eyes, Brown said. She wasnt moving. I said, Dont say anything. We heard what (the shooter) said, were all going to die. None of us is leaving alive. Give your heart to Jesus. ... Dont be afraid to die. Just give it to him. Hes in control right now of us. Brown felt like she momentarily lost consciousness but came to and heard the shooter fire again. She felt more wounds; shrapnel hit her left leg. He went to the back and when he went back to (the) front, I saw his boots standing there again, Brown said. I saw his boots and I saw his gun and it looked like he was aiming right at me. I said, Oh God! Im ready. Im ready. ... Then he dropped the gun right next to me, and he left and didnt come back. The shooter left the church. Two locals then chased him out of town, and he took his own life. He had killed 26 people at the church, including Krueger. He had wounded more than 20 others, including Brown and Colbath. Brown testified about surgeries to remove the bullet and shrapnel some of which remains in her leg. She told U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez that she no longer can enjoy many of the activities she liked before the shooting, such as dancing. She moved from the area to Baytown, near Houston. Pain afflicts her during daily routines. But the psychological scars are taking longer to heal. In the four years since, Brown said, I go to bed thinking about it. I wake up thinking about it. The trial began Monday and is expected to continue through next week. It is meant to decide how much victims should be paid by the Air Force, which Rodriguez found mostly liable for failing to report to an FBI database the domestic violence conviction the shooter had while in the service. Had it been reported, it might have prevented him from buying guns legally, including the assault-style rifle he used. guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland Each of us is ignorant. Every single one. However much we may know about this or that, each of us is ignorant about countless subjects and issues. To be ignorant is nothing to be ashamed of because we have the capacity and opportunity to overcome our ignorance with information and education. But to be arrogant in ones ignorance, unwilling to acknowledge or understand the ignorance, and then want to spread ones ignorance like a virus isnt simply ignorant, its ignant. In the United States today, there may be no group of people more comfortable and secure in their ignorance than opponents of critical race theory. They have no idea what it means, had never heard of it until 2021, and before this year had never used the words critical, race and theory in the same month, much less strung those words together in a sentence. Yet now they see critical race theory everywhere: in classrooms, under beds, lurking on street corners, ready to infect white children with guilt. Having no idea or inclination to learn what critical race theory is, opponents such as Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Republicans in the Texas Legislature have banned the teaching of something that has never been taught in Texas classrooms. They invoke it as an all-purpose defense against any honest and fruitful discussion of the legacy of slavery and racism in the United States. They use it to reject any exploration of American history that makes people uncomfortable because it detours from primrose lanes into a landscape with weeds, shrubs and a scorched earth. Falsely calling something critical race theory is a deflection to avoid learning history long ignored and filling in the gaps of ignorance some Americans have about the lives and experiences of other Americans. No one invokes critical race theory more than those who are clueless of what theyre talking about but weaponize it against people whose work would make them less ignorant. The latest target of these absurd attacks is the brilliant cartoonist and graphic novelist Jerry Craft, whose upcoming speaking event in Katy was canceled after 400 parents in a school district of 88,000 students signed a petition saying Crafts books promoted critical race theory. His books were also pulled from all Katy school libraries pending further review. Those books included his graphic novels for children, New Kid and Class Act, which are about the experiences of Jordan Banks, a preteen, African American boy, and his friends at a prestigious school in New York City. Last year, New Kid became the first graphic novel to win the coveted Newbery Medal. The judges said of it: Respectful of its child audience, it explores friendship, race, class and bullying in a fresh and often humorous manner. In response to his cancellation in Katy, Craft wrote this on the website of the American Library Associations Office of Intellectual Freedom: As an African-American boy growing up in Washington Heights in New York City, I hardly ever saw children like me in the books assigned to me in school. Books aimed at children like me seemed to be only about history or misery. Thats why its always been important to me to portray children of color as ordinary children, and to create iconic African-American characters. The books are wise, enlightening, funny and enjoyable. Like the best childrens literature, they also appeal to adults. In Class Act, Black adults will understand and white adults will learn why Jordans friend, Drew, is sensitive to his classmates touching his hair or why his grandmother always tells him, You have to work twice as hard to go half as far. Whatever critics of critical race theory imagine, its not in the work of Craft, who is simply writing about what its like to be a Black child. If that upsets parents, they should ask themselves what is it about the experiences and culture of Black children that frightens them. In Class Act, Jordan and Drew are invited to dinner at the home of Liam, their wealthy white friend. Jordan reciprocates by inviting Liam to his home for dinner. The experiences deepen the bonds between the friends as they fill the gaps of their ignorance. cary.clack@express-news.net The internet is one reason the Forever War veteran generation is lucky. Or maybe cursed. The web lets us fly through time and place to hear songs, see pictures, watch videos or read notes anchored to a specific time and feeling. A pocket-size but endless multimedia scrapbook and archive. Those who served before the web didnt have this endless resource while the internet-generations wars are thoroughly archived across cyberspace. Many depended on Defense.gov, the Department of Defenses official website. It is the holy grail of authoritative sources and the mother of all DOD websites. This most official of official repositories once held countless images, transcripts and news releases dating back to 1994. On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: How DOD shaped Americans' view of war in Afghanistan But all thats changed because DOD recently purged everything posted on the website before 2014. Nobody announced the change, and I only discovered it while researching during the final days of the Afghanistan war. While trying to find some older content, a message announced that pages from before August 2014 had moved to an archive site. No problem, that makes sense, was my initial reaction. Then I tried the archive site, got a broken link, and thats when frustration crept in. What the hell? Tech glitch? Upgrade? Something else? On Aug. 20, I fired a query to the DOD public affairs office. A Navy Reservist referred me to a woman who never responded to my notes or calls and then to Russ Goemaere, an ex-Army officer-turned-civilian DOD spokesman, whos been responsive and helpful. On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: Public was indifferent to a war made abstract You see, for many families, veterans (myself included) and those still serving, access to that archive material is more than professional, its also personal. Beside reports on worldwide operations, the site is an official public release venue for DOD casualties. Its also a stark electric memorial to the fallen. We could visit Defense.gov to see that formal statement about lost friends or loved ones. Our memories of the fallen as the people they were stood in contrast to the cold concrete language of those statements. We could stare at the words silently or curse and try to deny the bleak truths on the glowing screen. Defense.gov let us understand what was happening when our friends and loved ones were still with us. And we could see how the world continued after their loss. During the height of the wars, it didnt take long before another death appeared on the website. On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: As Afghanistan falls, memories haunt The Defense Media Activity, or DMA, at Fort Meade in Maryland oversees Defense.gov. DMA officials declined an interview, but Goemaere provided emailed statements that said the site is a news service that upgraded its technology and now focuses on current news information. DMA said the archive was deactivated, due to cybersecurity concerns without elaborating further. No archive records are maintained on Defense.gov, it said. The website material does not contain official government records and is therefore not archived. Head-scratcher here. On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: If only Milley's calls to China were fiction The change means that all DOD releases and content posted on Defense.gov before 2014 nearly everything from the fighting days of Iraq and Afghanistan is gone. Well, its not really gone. Its just not accessible to the public via the DOD website. To put it in Catch-22 terms: Publicly released public releases arent accessible to the public. Of course, they reside on disparate sites across the web and are buried on some DOD servers, but its not the same. If you dont know what youre looking for, youd never find it. Other DOD websites, including the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, still have ample content going back decades. Officials had no answer for how to access the archived material but said they are exploring options to make the data from before 2014 accessible. Theres no timeline for that. DOD said the archives slaying had nothing to do with Afghanistan, but the timing is too coincidental. On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: Two Afghans, but only one journey to safety Could there be a murky Operational Security aspect to the archive purge? Might it have something to do with protecting our Afghan allies who we bragged about for years in DOD stories, photos and videos? Maybe its also a way to save face after our protege Afghan military crumbled in days? We wouldnt want the Taliban, ISIS-K or other groups creating propaganda from our propaganda. Regardless, its a sledgehammer approach to a scalpel problem. The episode is another sleight of hand and step back from transparency by DOD. Veiling the past is hard to do, especially in the internet age. Brandon Lingle is a retired lieutenant colonel who served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force with assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea and across the U.S. brandon.lingle@express-news.net The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Child Protective Services agency has been burdened with the colossal task of fixing its perennially broken system but year after year, it continues to implode. In her scathing 2015 ruling in a 2011 class action lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack concluded, in part: The reality is that DFPS has ignored 20 years of reports, outlining problems and recommending solutions. DFPS has also ignored professional standards. Since then, caseloads, turnover and the foster care capacity crisis have worsened in the Texas child welfare system, which included nearly 29,000 children and youth as of Sept. 7. The pandemic has exacerbated the problems, and the beleaguered state agency is repeatedly judged, sanctioned and monitored. Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders should be held accountable for the crisis in our child welfare system and be expected to do more than make reactive policy changes. The lives and futures of vulnerable, voiceless children are on the line. If Abbott used some of the daily energy he pours into his law-and-order response to immigration at the southern border, perhaps he could get something meaningful done and change lives for the better. Child policy experts have said Abbott and state leaders could start by allocating federal COVID relief funds through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA and also expanding Medicaid and implementing policy changes for CPS. It seems every municipality, nonprofit and business wants a piece of the $16 billion in federal pandemic relief funds for Texas, and while these needs are real, the welfare of children should come first. We strongly encourage Abbott and state lawmakers to enact four recommendations from state Sen. Jose Menendez and some other members of the Child Protection Roundtable group, and use ARPA funds to address these key issues: Procure and implement a new DFPS data system. Provide supplemental payments for kinship caregivers. Distribute bonus checks for front-line workers. Restore funding for purchased client services for substance-use prevention and treatment, adoption services, home studies for relative placement and other such services. In a Sept. 14 hearing, Jack again rebuked the department, saying the system is still failing children. A court monitors report filed before the hearing explores the standard of care for children in temporary housing, finding incidents of child-on-child sexual abuse, and children being overmedicated, not getting their prescribed medication, being unnecessarily physically restrained, and meeting sex traffickers at state office buildings and leaving with them. DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters acknowledged during the hearing that caseworkers are not adequate for the tasks theyre assigned and she feels shes failing children but she isnt to blame. Texas is failing them. In July, the monthly high of foster children without placements reached 416 ; children were sleeping in motels, churches and office buildings, though they legally could no longer stay in offices as of last month. The state has closed several foster facilities, with a loss of about 1,600 foster care beds since January 2020, under pressure from Jack. The number of children without a placement has increased each month this year, but Masters defended the decision to close these facilities including Family Tapestry in San Antonio, which faced allegations of mismanagement and abuse admitting theyd been unsafe for decades. The blame was misplaced here, too, as providers have been underfunded for decades. The sobering truth is by the time children end up in foster care, the safety net has already failed them. Consider that Texas is increasing its foster care capacity by sending hundreds of its foster care children to other states that have chosen to accept federal Medicaid dollars and use them to bolster their foster care programs. The Texas GOP refuses to expand Medicaid, despite our states distinction of the most uninsured people in the nation. Jacks decision to move past blame and sanctions, placing pressure on Abbott for immediate solutions, is past due. Abbott must prioritize the lives of Texas children, and that should begin with these ARPA funds. San Antonio International Airport doesnt make much of an impression on visitors. Terminal A the largest of two arrival and departure facilities in the airport complex is cramped and outdated. And little about it tells travelers theyve arrived in the seventh-largest city in the country. San Antonio airport officials are striving to make a better first impression with a plan that includes building a Terminal C and new parking garage, creating a single security checkpoint and replacing Terminal A. They also plan to imbue the airport with a San Antonio feel. The remaking of San Antonio International could happen fast. Our goal is to have construction begin in the next 3-5 years and for the completion of Phase I to be finished in the next 6-8 years, city Aviation Director Jesus Saenz Jr. said in an email to the Express-News. We are planning for the future of the community and the future of the airport. Still, he said airport officials have to undertake advanced programming and planning before we can confidently share a timeline. City Council members and city staff so far appear to be on board with the plan, which could cost more than $2 billion. The cost would be covered by passenger fees on tickets, airline and concession rents, and federal grants. The proposal is set to be presented to the City Council on Nov. 10, with the council expected to vote on it by years end. Before that, plans for a new terminal will be released to the public Oct. 19 at an in-person meeting at the Jewish Community Center, followed by a virtual meeting Oct. 21. On the fast track The Airport System Development Committee, its 21 members appointed by Mayor Ron Nirenberg, started work on the airport remake in 2018. Courtesy San Antonio Avaition Department The construction timeline Saenz sketched in his emailed statement is much more aggressive than originally envisioned. In the first phase of the planning effort, passenger growth projections put Terminal C in line for opening in 2038. Its unclear why airport officials are looking to speed up the timeline. Whats more clear is the fact the pandemic threw a wrench into the airports projections. In 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19, more than 10 million travelers passed through San Antonio International. Last year, the passenger count collapsed as people largely stayed home and avoided air travel. From January through August, even as more passengers started flying again out of San Antonio, the number of departing travelers at the airport was down more than 34 percent from 2019. Before COVID-19, airport officials had estimated the departing passenger count would increase by 2 percent a year, making new gates necessary by 2038. They havent issued updated passenger estimates, and its unclear when they will. One explanation for the terminal fast-track is that city officials desire for a new airport goes beyond passenger numbers. Nirenberg has made it clear he wants a new terminal complex as soon as possible to make San Antonio International more inviting to travelers to improve their customer experience. The ultimate goal is to add more nonstop flights from San Antonio, which could help spur economic development and bolster tourism. At least thats the hope. Outdated Officials acknowledge Terminal A, which opened in 1984, needs an overhaul. Its corridors are narrow, its seating areas are inadequate, and it has too few restrooms and a shortage of space for more restaurants and shops. The city has spent more than $35 million in recent years to update plumbing and heating systems and other renovations just to keep the terminal functioning. Julysa Sosa / For the Express-News The airport is the first thing people see when they arrive by air to San Antonio, said Councilman John Courage, whose District 9 includes part of the airport. We want to build the feeling when people come here, Thats a nice airport, that was a great city. We really had a good time here. Saenz also wants to make his mark on San Antonio. He started his job running the airport in early February 2020, leaving the chief operating officer spot at the Houston Airport System. On Sept. 14, he offered City Council a glimpse of the airport plan. He showed council members a sketch of a new Terminal C as well as a new Terminal A. Terminal B, which opened in 2010 and operates 10 of the airports 23 gates, would be kept open under the plan. The city has long envisioned a Terminal C. Officials seriously considered it in 2008 but abandoned the project in the wake of global financial crisis. Saenz said the new master plan calls for an expansion to 32 gates from the current 23. But its unclear if the new gates would all be in Terminal C. When we launch the new Terminal C concourse, is that at five, 10, 12, 15, 17 gates? To be determined, Saenz said during the council meeting. Cost questions The overall cost of the planned remake is also unknown, but it would be hefty. A 2017 consultants report commissioned by the airport put the price of Terminal C at about $1.5 billion. The plan presented by Saenz also calls for renovations to the main ticketing area, including the addition of a central Transportation Security Administration clearance area. Currently, Terminals A and B both have TSA checkpoints. William Luther Also in the works: a new parking garage with about 1,500 vehicle spaces in addition to the two current garages. Councilman Clayton Perry, whose District 10 also covers part of the airport, said he likes the idea of one central security-clearance area. Right now, the airport is disjointed, he said. Passengers are restricted to either Terminal A or B; with a central checkpoint, theyd have options for eating or shopping before boarding their planes. City Manager Erik Walsh said in a statement that no taxpayer funds will be used for the project. The debt would be repaid out of airport operations that is, charges on passengers tickets and fees paid by airlines and concessionaires. But if passengers dont show up in numbers the airport anticipates, that could mean less fee revenue than expected. The problem with forecasts of future passenger growth is they are hard to get right, said Austin Horowitz, principal aviation consultant at consulting firm ICF. Forecasts are always wrong, he said. A lack of anticipated revenue could cause problems for San Antonio, he said. On the other hand, if the city underestimates demand, there wont be enough gates to handle those who want to fly. Safety measures The master plan for San Antonio International isnt just about more modern terminals. It also includes runway safety measures and runway expansions to allow for larger planes to foreign destinations. A Jan. 24, 2018, memo from the Federal Aviation Administration to pilots, which was reviewed by the Express-News, revealed San Antonio International has a potentially serious safety problem. File photo/San Antonio Express-News The airports main runway intersects with a secondary runway, resulting in more than 200 so-called runway incursions from the early 2000s to early 2021. An incursion is when an aircraft is on the wrong runaway the same runway that is scheduled for another aircraft to land or depart. In almost all cases, there was time for air traffic controllers to order the mistaken pilot off the wrong runway. But the FAA was concerned enough to issue the memo to warn pilots of the intersecting runways. FAA logs show one incident on Feb. 15, 2018 in which two planes could have collided. A Frontier A-319 passenger plane taxiing on the airports main runway had to take evasive action to avoid a cargo jet that had mistakenly moved on to the same runway. The FAAs report said the A-319 pilot veered to the left and accelerated its ascent early to avoid crashing into the cargo plane, which sat on the same runway. The two planes came within 150 feet of each other, the report noted. The FAA declared the incident a category B incursion, an incident in which separation decreases and there is a significant potential for collision. Saenz hasnt publicly discussed the incident, which took place before he became the citys aviation director. But he told City Council last month that the final master plan calls for the elimination of the traffic hot spot. We want to ensure that we satisfy the issues that weve had with the hot spot in the corner of the perpendicular runways, Saenz said. He did not say when that would be done. The master plan also calls for expanding the main runway from 8,500 feet to about 10,000 feet to accommodate larger planes, which could eventually clear the way for flights from San Antonio to Central Europe and South America. City officials are hoping to secure an FAA grant to defray part of the cost of lengthening runway. San Antonio doesnt have international flights now outside of Mexico, but obtaining more international flights remains a priority for airport officials and city business leaders. Sterling, VA (20165) Today Rain likely. High 73F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Rain early. Decreasing clouds with clear skies by morning. Low 37F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Sterling, VA (20165) Today Sunny skies this morning will give way to cloudy skies and rain during the afternoon. High 73F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Cloudy and damp with rain early...then becoming clear overnight. Low 36F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. The very essence of being a police officer is to keep the public safe. To ensure rules are followed. To help people make good choices. The pandemic puts each of these to the test. Before COVID-19 became part of our everyday lives, we were already in the midst of a national crisis to reverse an erosion of trust in police. Connecticuts police accountability law created in the aftermath of protests against racial injustice and police brutality created new fissures as some departments and state officials claimed overreach. These wounds are not healing. A step forward would have been if all officers took advantage of being offered spots at the front of the line to get vaccinated last winter. Instead, too many officers are apparently using magical thinking to avoid the shots. A leader in the Stamford police union wrote an essay expressing the troubled reasoning that many officers possess natural immunity after already being infected with COVID. Stamford has a pretty admirable rate of eligible residents who are fully vaccinated: 82 percent. But among the 268 police officers in the city, only 59 percent reported getting shots, according to a Hearst Connecticut Media Group review. Some Connecticut departments reported much better figures. Redding hit the high point of 95 percent. New Haven recorded the lowest reported rate (56 percent). Other police departments, including some of the largest in the state, declined to disclose the data or didnt even bother keeping count. Though municipalities have different policies, the thousand State Police troopers face a mandate to either to take the vaccine or submit weekly tests. This is not keeping the public safe. This is not following the rules. This is not helping people make good decisions. But worst of all, it puts our officers at unnecessary risk. They deal with some of the most vulnerable members of the population, many of whom are sick or not vaccinated. Data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund cites COVID-19 as the leading cause of death among police officers for the second year in a row. Of the 255 line of duty deaths in 2021, 144 have been attributed to COVID-19. In 2020, the memorial page documented 371 line of duty deaths, attributing 242 to COVID. Getting vaccinated is just as important as wearing your vest and your seatbelt, the fund advises. Wearing masks seemed reasonable, too, particularly during the early days of this crisis. Still, we saw too many officers maskless in public, setting the wrong example for children who have no other choice, and who still dont have the option of getting vaccinated. While some departments cloak their numbers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps revealing ones that should make these easy decisions. The latest reports that people who are not fully vaccinated are 11 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those who have gotten their shots. By getting vaccinated, officers do more than keep us safe, follow the rules and help others make good decisions. They help mend shattered trust. The quality of American public schools can vary widely between states, cities, and even districts. Not all schools are able to provide students with the same level of education, access to extracurriculars, counseling, or college preparation. While each public school faces its own unique challenges, each state has one public school that stands out as the very best. The best public high schools tend to be in relatively affluent areas, where incomes are well above the U.S. median household income of $62,843. A wealthier tax base for a school district means that schools have more funding to hire teachers and other faculty and provide more extracurriculars. In many of the best public high schools in a given state, the vast majority of students graduate and perform well in educational assessments. Nationwide, only 24% of students are proficient in math and 37% are proficient in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Students at top high schools also tend to perform well in college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT, with reported scores well above the 1058 out of 1600 nationwide average for the SAT and the 20.6 out of 36 average for the ACT. Bozeman High School stands out as the best public high school in Montana, ranking ahead of more than 100 other public schools in the state, according to school data platform Niche. The school has just over 2,200 students in grades nine through 12. Bozeman High students tend to perform better on academic assessments than the typical American student -- 66% of students are proficient in reading, and 53% are proficient in math. School students also have an average SAT score of 1300. To determine the best public high schools in every state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 2022 K-12 School & District Rankings from Niche, a platform for education data. The Niche ranking is based on academic and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as student reviews submitted to Niche. Data on student count and student-teacher ratio came from Niche. The public are being urged not to panic buy dairy products following reports of farmers having to discard their milk due to the lack of HGV lorry drivers. The exact number of farmers having to dispose of their milk is unknown, but it is believed to be only a small number of farmers affected, the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) said. The industry group urged consumers to continue buying dairy products as normal despite the continued shortage of lorry drivers. RABDF chairman Peter Alvis said the industry was monitoring the situation, and should farmers be experiencing issues, they should get in touch with the group. The HGV driver shortage is having an impact on the dairy sector, which has resulted in a small number of farmers having to dispose of their milk. "It is hard to put a number on the exact number of farmers affected, but at the moment, we believe it is only affecting a few producers." It is thought Britain has an estimated shortage of 100,000 HGV drivers due to a combination of the pandemic, Brexit and poor pay. The government recently announced support to help recruit and train more people as HGV drivers. As dairy processors do not pay for uncollected milk, Mr Alvis said any loss of sales was 'devastating' for farmers. As many dairy farmers do not make a profit on their milk or only a minimal margin, any minor knocks are felt very quickly," he added. The global supply chain hasnt fully returned to normal following the pandemic, and the shortage of drivers is now adding to this problem, which is why we are seeing such an impact." Despite this, Mr Alvis called on the public to continue buying dairy products as normal as they were still 'making it through to the supermarket shelves'. "It is important consumers continue to shop normally to avoid any shortage situations seen at the start of the pandemic when panic buying occurred." The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. For the past 17 months, its been my great honor to serve on the local Covid Task Force. Local leaders from all walks of life health care, business, government, non-profits, churches, first responders, and more work together so that we can better respond to the real world effects of the Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category There has always been an intense fascination in this country with Bollywood or the 'glamour industry' as it is often called. Who makes the decisions? Is the PR Machinery a social media conspiracy theory? Do stars have nakhras? These are questions that seem to plague the nation more than any other burning issue. Now, thanks to Call My Agent: Bollywood, the citizens of India will be able to quench their thirst for gossip and scandal. Call My Agent is a popular French series on a leading OTT platform that is now getting a desi touch. The show is set to release on October 29 on the OTT giant and features Aahana Kumra, Ayush Mehra, Soni Razdan and Rajat Kapoor in the lead roles. Like Masaba Masaba, Call My Agent: Bollywood will also feature cameos from stars like Farah Khan, Ali Fazal, Richa Chadha, Lara Dutta, Jackie Shroff, Dia Mirza and many more. In the trailer, there are discussions on ageism, on personality manipulation, on Jackie Shroff refusing to act with puppies and Ali Fazal and Richa Chadha facing off on who's more Hollywood than the other. Here's the show's official synopsis: Call My Agent: Bollywood takes us on an exciting wild ride into the world of Bollywood, glamour and celebrity. Four savvy, street smart talent agents manage fragile star egos and real human emotions, even as they try to save their talent agency from imminent closure. A funny, quirky, heartwarming and emotional take on the dazzling rollercoaster world of showbiz! You can watch the trailer below: Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 7, 2021) - Scott Taylor, who, together with joint actors Jason Barnard and Christina Barnard (collectively, with Mr. Taylor, the "Concerned Shareholders"), hold directly and indirectly an aggregate of 12,187,411 common shares of FAR Resources Ltd. (CSE: FAT) ("FAR" or the "Company"), representing approximately 7.70% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares, has filed a notice (the "Notice") with FAR for the nomination of three highly-experienced directors to be elected to the board of the Company at the annual meeting of the Company to be held on November 12, 2021 (the "Meeting"). Assuming exercise of all common share purchase warrants and stock options held by the joint actors, the Concerned Shareholders would have ownership and control over an aggregate of 23,162,822 common shares of FAR representing approximately 13.69% of the then issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. Mr. Taylor's proposed slate of director nominees includes Mr. Taylor, Andrew Lyons and Pierre Yves Tenn (collectively, the "Nominees"), each of whom is highly qualified and well-known in the business community. Please refer to each nominee's brief biography below. Mr. Taylor has filed the Notice in accordance with the terms of an Advance Notice Policy, without conceding the validity of the Policy, the form of which was attached as Schedule "A" to the Company's management information circular, for the annual meeting of shareholders of FAR held on November 28, 2013 (the "Policy"). As will be discussed more fully in a dissident circular to be issued, it is the intention of the Nominees, if elected, to appoint Mr. Scott Taylor as Chief Executive Officer of the Company. The following table contains information regarding the proposed Nominees' place of residence, principal occupations for the past 5 years, and security holdings in FAR: Name and Age Business Address and Residential Address Current Principal Occupation or Employment and Principal Occupation or Employment within the Five Preceding Years Number of FAR Common Shares Owned or Controlled(1) Position with the Company, Proposed Office and Term Andrew Lyons Age: 55 Business Address: 716 - 518 Moberly Road Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z4G3, Canada Residential Address: 716 - 518 Moberly Road Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z4G3, Canada Mr. Lyons' primary occupation is currently a self-employed independent consultant in the information technology sector where he provides program and project management services. Until January of 2021, he acted as a consultant in the information technology sector as a member of the Annex Consulting Group. 25,000 Proposed director Upon appointment at the Meeting he will serve as a director for a term expiring at the next annual general meeting. Scott Taylor Age: 41 Business Address: 10807 Timberdash Avenue Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80126, USA Residential Address: 10807 Timberdash Avenue Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80126, USA Mr. Taylor is a businessperson specializing in various technological and oilfield services. Since 2019, he has been the owner and manager of Reservoir Imaging Solutions LLC an energy technology and engineering services company. Prior to that, Mr. Taylor managed global operations for Sigma Cubed Inc., another energy technology and engineering services company with offices in the Southern United States, South America, China, and the Middle East. Mr. Taylor is also the co-owner of Universal Seismic PTE Ltd., a real-time analytics technology development company based in Singapore. 515,000(2) Proposed director and proposed Chief Executive Office. Upon appointment as director at the Meeting he will serve as a director for a term expiring at the next annual general meeting. Pierre Yves Tenn Age: 51 Business Address: 43 Glenmore Drive West Vancouver, British Columbia V7S 1A5 Residential Address: 43 Glenmore Drive West Vancouver, British Columbia V7S 1A5 Mr. Tenn's primary occupation is currently a self-employed business consultant focussing on cross-border investments and Asian/Canadian business development opportunities. From 2018 to 2020, Mr. Tenn was the Vice President of Business Development for Element Retirement Lifestyle Inc., a company specializing in senior living, and prior to that he was the Vice President of Corporate and Governmental Relations at Deep Sea Capital / Circle Harmony, which had offices in Canada and Asia. Nil Proposed director Upon appointment at the Meeting he will serve as a director for a term expiring at the next annual general meeting. (1) Information as to the securities of FAR beneficially owned or controlled, or directed, directly or indirectly by the Shareholder Nominees, other than those of Mr. Taylor, are not within the knowledge of the Nominating Shareholder and have been furnished by such persons as of the date of this notice and reflects securities owned or controlled as at the date of this notice. (2) As disclosed in Mr. Taylor's early warning report of today's date, Mr. Taylor is acting jointly and in concert with Jason Barnard and Christina Barnard. As at the date of this notice, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Barnard, and Ms. Barnard as joint actors, own or control an aggregate of 12,187,411 common shares. The Concerned Shareholders are not soliciting proxies in connection with the Meeting at this time. The Concerned Shareholders have retained Gryphon Advisors Inc. ("Gryphon") as its strategic shareholder engagement advisor and proxy solicitor. Gryphon's responsibility will include providing strategic advice and advising the Concerned Shareholders with respect to the Meeting and proxy protocol. Gryphon's responsibilities will also include soliciting shareholders should the Concerned Shareholders commence a formal solicitation of proxies. A Concerned Shareholder has engaged Farris LLP as legal counsel. For more information regarding the Concerned Shareholders' position, or a copy of their Early Warning Report (described below), please contact: Gryphon Advisors Inc. Tel: 1-833-292-5847 Email: inquiries@gryphonadvisors.ca Additional Information Regarding Early Warning In connection with the dissemination of this news release and the filing of the Notice, the Concerned Shareholders determined that they were working "jointly and in concert" with respect to their efforts to have the Nominees nominated pursuant to the Notice of Nominations of Directors for election at the Meeting. Mr. Scott Taylor holds direct ownership and control over an aggregate of 515,000 common shares of the Company, Mr. Jason Barnard holds direct and indirect ownership and control over an aggregate of 10,827,000 common shares of the Company, options to acquire up to 950,000 common shares of the Issuer (each, an "Option"), and warrants to acquire up to 9,896,000 common shares of the Company (each, a "Warrant"). Ms. Christina Barnard holds direct ownership and control over an aggregate of 845,411 common shares of the Company and 129,411 Warrants. Combined, the Concerned Shareholders hold, directly and indirectly, an aggregate of 12,187,411 common shares of the Company representing approximately 7.70% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. Assuming exercise of all Options and Warrants held by the Concerned Shareholders, the Concerned Shareholders would hold, directly and indirectly, an aggregate of 23,162,822 common shares of the Company, representing an aggregate of 13.69% of the then issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. None of the Concerned Shareholders have acquired or disposed of ownership or control of any securities of the Company in connection with the events triggering filing of this report. In connection with the Meeting, the Concerned Shareholders will file a dissident information circular and solicit proxies for the election of the Nominees to the Company's board of directors in advance of the November 12, 2021 scheduled annual meeting, in compliance with applicable securities laws. Each of the Concerned Shareholders, acquired the securities of the Company for investment purposes, and has no present intention to acquire further securities of Company, although each may in the future participate in financings and/or acquire or dispose of securities of the Company in the market, privately or otherwise, as circumstances or market conditions warrant. A copy of the Early Warning Report filed by the Concerned Shareholders with the applicable securities regulators in respect of the above acquisition is available under FAR's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Information in Support of Public Broadcast Solicitation The information contained in this press release does not and is not meant to constitute a solicitation of a proxy within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Although the Concerned Shareholders have approached the Nominees for election to the Company's board of directors at the Meeting of shareholders, the record date for the Meeting has not yet occurred and shareholders are not being asked at this time to execute a proxy in favour of any matter. In connection with the Meeting, the Concerned Shareholders will file a dissident information circular in due course in compliance with applicable securities laws. Any right for revocation of a proxy submitted in connection with the election of the Nominees will be set out in the dissident information circular or a document referred to therein. The information contained herein, and any solicitation made by the Concerned Shareholders in advance of the Meeting, is or will be, as applicable, made by the Concerned Shareholders and not by or on behalf of the management of FAR. All costs incurred for any solicitation will be borne by the Concerned Shareholders, provided that, subject to applicable law, the Concerned Shareholders may seek reimbursement from FAR of the Concerned Shareholders' out-of-pocket expenses, including proxy solicitation expenses and legal fees, incurred in connection with a successful reconstitution of the Company's board of directors. The Concerned Shareholders are not soliciting proxies in connection with a general meeting of shareholders of the Company at this time. The Concerned Shareholders may engage the services of one or more agents and authorize other persons to assist in soliciting proxies on behalf of the Concerned Shareholders. Any proxies solicited by or on behalf of the Concerned Shareholders, including by any other agent retained by the Concerned Shareholders, may be solicited pursuant to a dissident information circular or by way of public broadcast, including through press releases, speeches or publications and by any other manner permitted under Canadian corporate and securities laws. Any such proxies may be revoked by instrument in writing executed by a shareholder or by his or her attorney authorized in writing or, if the shareholder is a body corporate, by an officer or attorney thereof duly authorized or by any other manner permitted by law. The registered address of FAR is located at Suite 400 - 725 Granville St., Vancouver, BC, V7Y 1G5, Canada and its head office is located at #510 - 580 Hornby St., Vancouver, BC, V6C 3B6, Canada. A copy of this press release may be obtained on FAR's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Mr. Taylor is a resident of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, USA, and the other Concerned Shareholders are each of resident of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/98999 Wellington, New Zealand--(Newsfile Corp. - October 7, 2021) - New Zealand Energy Corp. (TSXV: NZ) ("NZEC" or the "Company") announced today the results of its Annual General Meeting of shareholders held in Wellington, New Zealand on Friday 8 October 2021 (NZT). A total of 6,655,627 common shares representing just over 28.67% of the total issued and outstanding common shares were voted at the meeting. Each of the current directors, James Willis, Mark Dunphy and Dr. David Llewellyn were re-elected as Directors of the Company to hold office until the next annual general meeting, or until successors are elected or appointed: Shareholders passed all other items of business put forward at the meeting. On behalf of the Board of Directors "James Willis" Chairman New Zealand Energy Contacts Email: info@newzealandenergy.com Website: www.newzealandenergy.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such 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/98998 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Cigna Corp. (CI) agreed to sell its life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses in seven countries to Chubb (CB) for $5.75 billion in cash. The transaction is expected to be completed in 2022. Cigna said its agreement with Chubb is another step forward in advancing strategic focus on global health services portfolio. Chubb will acquire Cigna's life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Thailand as well as Cigna's interest in a joint venture in Turkey. In Korea, Chubb will acquire and plans to continue to operate the business under the LINA Korea (Life Insurance Company of North America Korea) brand. Cigna said it will continue to operate its robust international health businesses for the globally mobile population, as well as local market services in the Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and its joint ventures in Australia, China and India. Cigna expects to realize about $5.4 billion of net after-tax proceeds from this transaction. Cigna expects to utilize the proceeds from the transaction primarily for share repurchase, broadly consistent with Cigna's capital deployment framework. The impact of the transaction is expected to be neutral to slightly dilutive to Cigna's earnings per share in 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. TOKYO, Oct 8, 2021 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu has announced that from October 7 it will begin to provide free assessments to its customers considering the use of its FUJITSU Hybrid IT Service FJcloud, etc. in their digital transformation projects, demonstrating changes to CO2 emissions resulting from the migration of IT systems to the cloud.Fujitsu will offer a visualization of the CO2 emissions and power consumption of current IT systems against the use of FJcloud, for example, for its customers with on-premises IT systems, which have issues of balancing business growth and the ability to contribute to sustainability. This will empower customers to make the choice of their next IT platform with greater insight into both the overall cost as well as ability to contribute to decarbonization.Through this initiative, Fujitsu ultimately aims to contribute to the optimization of its customers' IT systems by guiding them to utilize the cloud, as well as to the realization of a sustainable society through reducing the carbon footprint of business.IT-related power consumption in Japan projected to increase exponentially by 2030In recent years, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the use of renewable energy sources have intensified as stakeholders throughout society work to achieve the ambitious global targets set out in the Paris Agreement and the SDGs--companies around the world must also play a more aggressive role in tackling the existential threat posed by climate change. According to the Green Growth Strategy (1) outlined by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a part of its efforts to realize carbon neutrality, IT-related power consumption, including from servers and network equipment, accounted for approximately 4% of Japan's total power consumption in 2016. Estimates indicate that this figure will balloon to more than 36 times by 2030, presenting an urgent challenge to companies to reduce the power consumption of their IT systems to contribute to the realization of a carbon-free society.Fujitsu has been actively working to reduce its power consumption and continuously improving the energy efficiency of its operations, including through the use of novel techniques for cooling systems using outside air cooling and optimizing cooling efficiency by controlling air conditioning equipment using AI in its FJcloud data centers in Japan. Fujitsu has pledged that by FY 2022 it will achieve decarbonization of its FJcloud, sourcing 100% of the electricity required for of its operations from renewable energy.In addition to these efforts, Fujitsu will also strive to accelerate the decarbonization of its customers' IT systems, developing assessment tools to visualize the CO2 emissions and power consumption of our customers' IT systems, and will start providing assessments to customers free of charge on October 7, 2021.The assessment identifies the amount of power that the customer is using through interviews with stakeholders or direct measurements of IT systems in actual use and calculates the current amount of CO2 emissions and power consumption by inputting data into a dedicated assessment tool that sets PUE (2) values, etc. Then Fujitsu visualizes and presents comparison results to the customer demonstrating potential improvements to PUE through the use of FJcloud, etc. and proposes a cloud migration strategy best suited to the customer. This allows customers to take both total cost of IT systems as well as offers a clear path to decarbonization.The highly energy efficient FUJITSU Hybrid IT Service offers customers the ability to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 30% compared to their existing systems.Going forward, Fujitsu will continue to strengthen its capabilities and capacity to support the optimization and decarbonization of IT systems for more customers, as well as its contributions to the achievement of the SDGs, playing an active role in addressing climate change and realizing a sustainable society.(1) Green Growth Strategy through Achieving Carbon Neutrality in 2050:Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) strategy for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, initially announced in December 2020 and subsequently updated.https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2021/0618_002.html(2) PUE:Power Usage Effectiveness. A measure of the power efficiency of a data center. The power consumption of the entire data center divided by the power consumption of ICT equipment such as servers. The closer to 1.0, the more efficient it is.Fujitsu's Commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 represent a set of common goals to be achieved worldwide by 2030. Fujitsu's purpose -- "to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation"--is a promise to contribute to the vision of a better future empowered by the SDGs.About FujitsuFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 126,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$34 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. For more information, please see www.fujitsu.com.Source: Fujitsu LtdCopyright 2021 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Oct 8, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - The World Blockchain Hackathon returns this month with Babylon Project 2.0, its second annual virtual hackathon, focusing on the decentralized web. , will be held in an interactive web-based virtual world, a metaverse experience with panels and development on CBDC, NFT, DeFI, DAO, Payments, DAPPs and Bitcoin scripts - and crowdfunding set up for the top 20 teams.The Babylon Project is a hackathon initiative committed to democratizing access to global innovation and the adoption of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. The broadest vision of the World Blockchain Hackathon is a future ecosystem in which blockchain innovation becomes the standard backbone for impenetrably secure, fast-moving, intelligent global technologies of all kinds.Last year, the hackathon attracted 1000 participants from 69 countries. The winning team, Kenyan-based fintech Kotani Pay, a technology stack enabling blockchain protocols, decentralized applications (dApps) and finTech companies integrate seamlessly, went ahead to launch their product and experienced extraordinary growth, providing on-ramp and off-ramp services on USSD in Africa.This year's virtual hackathon will be held in the metaverse for a month, with each weekend packed with workshops, panels, talks and mentorship. The goal is to increase engagement, allowing developers to have more time to learn, build and connect with sponsors and partners. Participants are encouraged to form teams. However, a single engineer can compete for prizes during the hackathon.The title's sponsors, open-source protocol both IPFS and Filecoin, continue to show their deep commitment to nurturing hacker communities by rewarding participants' interest and contributions with attractive prizes. Filecoin's advanced technology provides a robust foundation to store the world's most valuable data sets. An alternative to costly cloud storage.Babylon Project 2.0 is a community-based initiative and made possible by sponsors and partners such as Protocol Labs (Filecoin & IPFS), DIBA, NEAR, Metis, Ozone Universe, Ascended, BitMart and BitMask. Other partners include Alchemy, Investinu Group, Blockchain Council, PIABO PR, Waterdrip Capital, Crypto Chicks, Women in Blockchain Talks, Women Who Code Blockchain, Blockchain Acceleration Foundation, Blockchain Founders Fund, WEVE Acceleration, Qubic Labs, Flat 6 Labs, B4H, Blockchain by Women, and Kerala Blockchain Academy.Dates: 29 October - 20 November, 2021Apply: https://worldblockchainhackathon.comSource: World Blockchain HackathonCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. 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: AudioValley (Paris:ALAVY) (Brussels:ALAVY), a world player in the high-growth area of digital audio, announces the signing of an exclusive agreement between its subsidiary Targetspot and Dailymotion Advertising for the commercialisation of its new audio roll advertising format, on four major markets. Targetspot commercialises Dailymotion's Audio Rolls, a new digital audio advertising format. A clear accolade for the technology developed by Targetspot in the field of digital audio on a new, innovative format, the insertion of audio into on-line video. The international exclusive agreement signed with Dailymotion covers four key territories: France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom. Following our first discussions with the Dailymotion Advertising team, we have discovered the huge potential of the digital audio ad inventory. The new audiences that we will be able to target through our proprietary technology, will positively impact our performance in several countries, while offering a wide a range of new possibilities to our advertisers , Alexandre Saboundjian, CEO and Founder of AudioValley. Audio advertising, the ideal match for the Dailymotion videos Dailymotion is the world's 2nd largest player to bank on the power of audio advertising, after YouTube. The subsidiary of the Vivendi group currently brings together a powerful international ecosystem of 2,500 publisher partners and boasts over 350 million unique users on a monthly basis. Capitalising on very strong growth in the consumption of audio streaming among its users, Dailymotion Advertising launches a new audio advertising format. Known as Audio Roll, it is accessible exclusively via Targetspot, both direct and programmatic. In a context where internet users consume an increasing amount of video content, giving advertisers the ability to target the on-line video viewer with an audio format in addition to traditional audio channels, allows them to cover the entire user-journey and thereby multiply the impact of their campaigns , underlinesBichoi Bashta, Chief revenue and business officer Dailymotion Advertising. Interview request If you would like to find out more about the agreement signed with Dailymotion or on audio advertising, contact our press office at the following email address: press@audiovalley.com. About Targetspot Targetspot, a division of AudioValley, is an Ad-Tech company providing advertisers and publishers with digital audio solutions across the globe. Targetspot connects brands with the target audience thanks to a premium publisher inventory in all digital audio fields. Thanks to a package of exclusive technologies, we provide full integration between brands and publishers, through direct and programmatic advertising solutions, precision targeting and advanced attribution. www.targetspot.com About Dailymotion Advertising Dailymotion Advertising, subsidiary of the Vivendi Group, is a video marketing suite that supports brands in analysing their audiences and activating them via instream video advertising campaigns, supported by an exclusive data set, a premium and brand safe broadcasting environment, and a creative studio. The company also benefits from the power of Dailymotion.com, global video content platform, and the publisher partners who use the Dailymotion player technology. https://advertisers.dailymotion.com/en FUTURE UPDATES 2021 half-year revenue 18 octobre 2021, before market close View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211007006096/en/ Contacts: Investor Relations Francis Muyshondt investorrelations@audiovalley.com Press Relations Laure-Eve Monfort press@audiovalley.com Issy-les-Moulineaux, October 8, 2021 In accordance with the recommendations of the AFEP-MEDEF Corporate Governance Code ("AFEP-MEDEF Code"), Sodexo is providing the following information on the compensation of its executive officers as determined by the Board of Directors on October 7, 2021, upon the Compensation Committee's proposal. The Board of Directors has decided to reinforce Denis Machuel's non-compete undertaking, in order to better protect the Group. The impact of the Covid-19 crisis on Sodexo's market environment, on the one hand, and Denis Machuel's experience, and the strategic discussions held over the past few months in which he participated, on the other hand, have led us to amend his non-compete agreement. New competitors, in particular digital disruptors, have been added, and the duration of the agreement has been increased from two to three years. In return, the amount of the related non-compete indemnity has been increased. Sodexo's Board of Directors considers that the financial terms of Denis Machuel's departure comply with the spirit of and the recommendations set forth in the AFEP-MEDEF Code and the compensation policy of the Group. These terms result from a reflection intended to reinforce the protection of the interests of Sodexo and its shareholders in an exceptional and pivotal context for the Group, given that: Since his appointment in 2018, Denis Machuel was already subject to a non-compete agreement intended to protect the interests of the Group; The Covid-19 pandemic had an unpredictable and significant impact on the Group's competitive environment and led to the acceleration of the arrival of new market "disrupters"; The non-compete indemnity, which takes into account the additional restrictions added by the Board of Directors, complies with the cap recommended by the AFEP-MEDEF Code for such an indemnity, of two years of compensation (fixed plus variable). Denis Machuel Compensation for Fiscal 2021 Fixed Compensation Denis Machuel's fixed compensation amounts to 900 000 euros. Variable Compensation Pursuant to the compensation policy approved at 97% by the Annual General Meeting held on January 12, 2021, exceptionally and given the unprecedented sanitary crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Board of Directors decided to establish the budget for Fiscal 2021 by half-year. Thus, the financial performance targets were determined in October 2020 for the first half and in March 2021 for the second half. The rate of achievement of each of the financial objectives for the second half of Fiscal 2021 and the non-financial objectives for Fiscal 2021 will be determined by the Board of Directors on October 26, 2021 when it will close the financial statements for the year. The achievement levels for each of these criteria will be communicated in the Fiscal 2021 Universal Registration Document. The payment of his variable compensation will be submitted to the vote of the General Meeting of December 14, 2021 called to approve the financial statements for the year ended August 31, 2021. Supplemental pension plan During Fiscal 2021, the Company replaced the supplemental pension plan provided for in Articles 39 of the French General Tax Code and L. 137-11-1 of the French Social Security Code by a plan provided for in Article L. 137-11-2 of the French Social Security Code, which has similar characteristics. Under this plan, Denis Machuel will benefit from an annual entitlement of 0.5% of his fixed and variable compensation for the period from January 1 to September 30, 2021, provided that he has reached a minimum rate of 80% of achievement of the objectives of his annual variable compensation for Fiscal 2021. Compensation for Fiscal 2022 and financial terms of departure1 Having terminated his term of office as Chief Executive Officer effective on September 30, 2021, the Board of Directors proposes, as recommended by the Compensation Committee, to compensate him as follows. Fixed Compensation The amount of Denis Machuel's fixed annual compensation of 900,000 remains unchanged for Fiscal 2022. His fixed compensation paid will be calculated pro rata temporis from 1 to 30 September 2021, the end date of his term of office as Chief Executive Officer. He therefore received 75,000 of fixed compensation for the month of September 2021. Annual Variable Compensation Given that Denis Machuel's term of office ended on September 30, 2021, and the difficulty of measuring his performance over such period, the Board of Directors decided to set the amount of his variable compensation for Fiscal 2022 at its target level: 100% of his fixed compensation. The variable component of compensation due to Denis Machuel for Fiscal 2022 would therefore be 75 000 euros, calculated pro rata temporis from September 1 to 30, 2021, the end date of his term of office as Chief Executive Officer. Fiscal 2022 Performance Share Grant No performance shares will be granted to Denis Machuel for Fiscal 2022. Unvested Performance Share Plans In recognition of his contribution to the development of the Group, which he joined in 2007 and of which he was Chief Executive Officer since January 2018, and his management of the Covid-19 crisis, and in accordance with the compensation policy approved by the Annual General Meeting on January 12, 2021, the Board of Directors has decided to waive the condition of presence applicable to the unvested performance share plans and to maintain the performance shares pro rata to Denis Machuel's actual presence within the Group. There will be no acceleration of the vesting period of the plans and the performance conditions of these plans will continue to apply. Denis Machuel may thus retain a portion of his rights to the performance shares granted in 2018, 2019 and 2020: 41,514 performance shares out of the 75,000 initially granted. These shares were valued at 2 872 221 euros according to IFRS on the grant date. However, this valuation does not take into account the satisfaction of the performance conditions which will be measured at the end of the related vesting period. These performance conditions are particularly stringent, as evidenced by the failure to meet the performance conditions related to the 2016 and 2017 plans. In addition, the performance criteria of the non-vested plans, including those granted to Denis Machuel, will be severely affected by the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the Group's performance. As this stage, it is not possible to determine the number of shares that will be obtained upon vesting of each of these plans nor their value. Termination indemnity It should be noted that Denis Machuel expressly refused to receive any compensation in the event of termination of his duties. He will therefore not receive any termination indemnity. Non Compete Agreement As soon as Denis Machuel was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2018, the Board of Directors decided to subject him to a non-competition undertaking in the event of his departure, with the objective of protecting the interests of Sodexo. However, the scope of the non-compete agreement initially entered into no longer reflects recent and unpredictable developments within Sodexo's sector of activity, massively impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. In this context, as the 2018 non-compete agreement was not sufficiently protective of the Company's interests, the Board of Directors decided to modify the scope of this non-compete agreement. The modifications made by the Board are as follows: the duration of the non-compete agreement was extended from two years to three years; the list of competitors was expanded to take account of changes in the competitive environment; clauses such as non-solicitation of Group Senior Leaders and significant clients were added; and the financial consideration under the agreement was increased to 24 months of the fixed and variable annual compensation due to Denis Machuel for Fiscal 2021. Health insurance and life insurance In accordance with the compensation policy, Denis Machuel, like all Sodexo SA employees, will be entitled to health insurance and life insurance for a period of twelve months following the end of his term of office. Sophie Bellon The Board of Directors has implemented interim governance until the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer by unanimously deciding that effective October 1, 2021, the Chairwoman will also assume the role of Chief Executive Officer on an interim basis. Sophie Bellon will therefore receive additional fixed compensation of 18 750 euros per month during the interim period, representing a theoretical total fixed annual compensation of 900 000 euros. The structure of the Chairwoman's compensation will remain unchanged throughout the interim period, with no variable compensation and no performance share grants. About Sodexo Founded in Marseille in 1966 by Pierre Bellon, Sodexo is the global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, an essential factor in individual and organizational performance. Operating in 64 countries, Sodexo serves 100 million consumers each day through its unique combination of On-site Services, Benefits & Rewards Services and Personal & Home Services. Sodexo provides clients an integrated offering developed over more than 50 years of experience: from foodservices, reception, maintenance and cleaning, to facilities and equipment management; from services and programs fostering employees' engagement to solutions that simplify and optimize their mobility and expenses management, to in-home assistance, child care centers and concierge services. Sodexo's success and performance are founded on its independence, its sustainable business model and its ability to continuously develop and engage its 420,000 employees throughout the world. Sodexo is included in the CAC Next 20, CAC 40 ESG, FTSE 4 Good and DJSI indices. Key figures 19.3 billion euro in Fiscal 2020 consolidated revenues 420,000 employees as at August 31, 2020 #1 France-based private employer worldwide 64 countries 100 million consumers served daily 11.4 billion euro in market capitalization (as of October 7, 2021) Contact Analysts and Investors Media Virginia JEANSON Tel: +33 1 57 75 80 56 virginia.jeanson@sodexo.com (mailto:virginia.jeanson@sodexo.com) Mathieu SCARAVETTI Tel: +33 6 28 62 21 91 mathieu.scaravetti@sodexo.com (mailto:mathieu.scaravetti@sodexo.com) 1 These compensation elements are subject to approval at the Annual Shareholders' meeting on December 14, 2021. Attachment HAMBURG, Germany, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AUTOCRYPT Co., Ltd., a leading mobility security solutions provider, announced its participation at the ITS World Congress 2021 event to be held between October 11th to 15th, 2021. ITS World Congress is one of the largest events focusing on future mobility and digitalization of transportation, and the event offers exceptional access to the global community by inviting all sectors in the mobility field to play a role in the ongoing development of intelligent transport systems (ITS) and services. At this year's offline event, AUTOCRYPT will be presenting a range of mobility security solutions dedicated to creating a holistic mobility security services platform with a focus on V2X security, supporting regional standards of the EU, North America, as well as China, and APAC. AUTOCRYPT's V2X security product AutoCrypt V2X not only provides an endpoint security library and backend PKI authentication system but also customizable UI based on centralized management service. As one of the top five V2X security providers in the world, according to Markets and Markets, AUTOCRYPT plans to showcase its oversight of South Korea's smart road V2X capabilities at booth B5.014 at the ITS event. Additionally, with its newest vSOC (Vehicle Security Operations Center) for its in-vehicle security solution, AutoCrypt IVS, OEMs can enjoy convenient management and access to oversee monitoring and detection of any vehicular cybersecurity threats. "As Europe sets itself apart as an essential market for the development of mobility and security solutions, our expansion into Europe with our newest Munich office and ITS World Congress 2021 gives us confidence for a post-pandemic era," said Daniel ES Kim, AUTOCRYPT's CEO and co-Founder. "We are thrilled to provide more of our solutions worldwide by offering a greater commitment to providing integrated mobility security technologies for OEMs and suppliers in the industry." Find out more about AUTOCRYPT and its comprehensive mobility security solutions by visiting booth B5.014 or contact global@autocrypt.io. AUTOCRYPT is the leading player in transportation security technologies. Recognized by TU-Automotive as the Best Auto Cybersecurity Product/Solution of 2019, AUTOCRYPT continues to pave the way in transportation and mobility security through a multi-layered, holistic approach. Through security solutions for V2X/C-V2X, V2G (including PnC security), in-vehicle security, and Fleet Management, AUTOCRYPT ensures that security is prioritized before vehicles hit the road. LONDON, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis is welcoming back British Airways (BA) flights after the UK removed its traffic light travel system and opened its borders. This comes in conjunction with the island of Nevis being recognised as one of the top islands in the region by Conde Nast Travellers 2021 Readers Choice Awards. A hopeful return to pre-pandemic travel seems to be on the cards as St Kitts and Nevis also recently announced that it has vaccinated 75% of its target population with the first dose of the vaccine. The Federation is a highly sought-after holiday destination, famed for its picturesque landscapes and rich culture. Its seclusion and natural abundance has attracted travellers near and far, and has especially become a hot spot for celebrity clientele. Prior to the pandemic, St Kitts and Nevis also enjoyed a thriving cruise sector that saw the islands welcome one million passengers in two consecutive years and recognised as a marquee destination by the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association. Aside from the BA flight, St Kitts and Nevis recently saw the second call of the Celebrity Equinox cruise ship at Port Zante and is also anticipating the return of Air Canada flights later this year. "Tourism is a major driver of our economic growth since it has a unique potential to create jobs and livelihoods. It also plays a role in preserving our natural and cultural heritage and promoting the responsible and sustainable use of the natural environment," Tourism Minister Lindsay Grant said. In recent years, St Kitts and Nevis has invested heavily in its tourism sector. Most notably, this included Port Zante, which can host three world-class cruise vessels simultaneously. The project was made possible by the islands' popular Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme, a tool that significantly supported the nation during the COVID-19 crisis. The programme offers well-vetted foreign investors and their families a trusted route to second citizenship once they invest in its Sustainable Growth Fund. The fund, introduced in 2018, is recognised as the most straightforward path to a second citizenship. Those who can successfully pass the due diligence process gain access to increased global mobility, alternative business prospects and the ability to pass citizenship down, thus securing their future legacy. +447867942505 pr@csglobalpartners.com www.csglobalpartners.com London Finance & Investment Group Plc - Posting of Annual Financial Report and Notice of AGM 8thOctober 2021 London Finance & Investment Group PLC. (Incorporated in England with registered number 201151) LSE code: LFI JSE code: LNF ISIN: GB0002994001 ("Lonfin" or "the Company") London Finance & Investment Group PLC Notification regarding the posting of the Company's Annual Report and Financial Statements and Notice of Annual General Meeting Lonfin shareholders ("Shareholders") are advised that, further to the announcement of final results and the dividend declaration for the year ended 30thJune 2021, published on 27thSeptember 2021, the Company's 2021 Annual Report and Financial Statements has been published and posted to Shareholders. The Company will hold its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") on Wednesday, 1stDecember 2021 at 12:30pm (UK Time) 14:30pm (SA Time) at 1 Ely Place, London EC1N 6RY and the Notice of the AGM is included in the 2021 Annual Report. Pursuant to Listing Rule 9.6.1, a copy of the 2021 Annual Report and Financial Statements will be submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for viewing at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsm The 2021 Annual Report and Notice of Annual General Meeting will also be made available as follows - on the website of City Group PLC, the Company Secretary, at www.city-group.com; and - by writing to City Group PLC at 1 Ely Place, London EC1N 6RY United Kingdom 8thOctober 2021 For further information, please contact: London Finance & Investment Group PLC: 020 7796 9060 David Marshall/Edward Beale) Johannesburg Sponsor: Sasfin Capital (a member of the Sasfin Group) The 210 mm module can reach a power output of up to 703.6 W and a power conversion efficiency of 23.08%. The result was confirmed by Germany's TUV SUD.Chinese solar module maker Risen Energy has launched its most powerful solar module at Intersolar in Munich, Germany. The 132-cell NewT@N panel is based on 210 mm n-type monocrystalline multi busbars cells with a half-cut design. The module can reach a power output of up to 703.6 W and a power conversion efficiency of 23.08%, the company's head of distribution, Juan Molinero Garcia, told pv magazine. "Both results were confirmed by TUV SUD in ... 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. - October 8, 2021) - Cruz Battery Metals Corp. (CSE: CRUZ) (OTC Pink: BKTPF) (FSE: A3CWU7) ("Cruz" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has encountered multiple (5) separate sample results returning values higher than 1,059 parts per million ("ppm") lithium ("Li"), including values as high as 1,610 ppm Li. All of the samples were taken from the Company's newly acquired "Solar Lithium Project" in Nevada, comprised of approximately 5,500 acres. Cruz plans to be drilling this project shortly using the information provided by the recent sample program, designed to test the high-grade target areas. Nevada is the go-to address for North American lithium production and Cruz is extremely pleased to have a sizeable footprint in this world-class district, directly bordering American Lithium Corp.'s TLC project (see map below). According to the Stantec report dated April 15, 2020, the Tonopah Lithium Claims (TLC Project) currently contains 5.37 Mt (million tonnes) Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) measured and indicated with another 1.76 Mt LCE inferred. Lithium prices have recently broken out to 3-year highs and investor interest in lithium stocks continues to be robust. Cruz Management cautions that past results or discoveries on properties in proximity to Cruz may not necessarily be indicative of the presence of mineralization on the Company's properties. Figure 1 To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4754/99008_fa8df010b4d978db_002full.jpg Jim Nelson, President of Cruz states, "We are very pleased to announce we've encountered five separate sample results over 1,059 ppm Li, including grades as high as 1,610 ppm Li on the newly acquired Solar Lithium Project in Nevada, directly bordering American Lithium Corp.'s TLC project. On Oct. 5, 2021, American Lithium Corp announced it has received approval from the BLM for a 15-hole drill program on their recently increased land position (announced on Sept. 8, 2021) in the direction of Cruz's Solar Lithium Project, within this exciting lithium district. We are about to come into a major news flow cycle and management remains confident that 2021 will be a transformative year for the Company as Cruz has multiple strategically located, and ethically sourced, lithium and cobalt projects in North America. We are working diligently to increase shareholder value and we are optimistic about the company's growth potential for the remainder of 2021 and beyond." Qualified Person The technical contents of this release were approved by Frank Bain, PGeo, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About Cruz Battery Metals Corp. Cruz currently has several projects located throughout North America, comprising five in Ontario, four in British Columbia, two in Idaho, and two in Nevada. Cruz's Nevada lithium projects consists of the ~5,500-acre 'Solar Lithium Project' and the 240-acre 'Clayton Valley Lithium Project'. Cruz's five separate Ontario projects are all located in the vicinity of the town of Cobalt, making Cruz one of the largest landholders in this historic silver-cobalt producing district. Cruz's Ontario projects, which are prospective for cobalt, silver and diamonds include the 1,525-acre Coleman cobalt project, the 988-acre Johnson cobalt project, the 6,146-acre Hector cobalt project, the 1,458-acre Bucke cobalt project and the 1,453-acre Lorraine cobalt project. Cruz's BC projects include the 1,542-acre War Eagle cobalt project, the 687-acre Larry diamond project, the 2,120-acre Jax diamond project, and the 691-acre Mark diamond project. Cruz's Idaho projects include the 2,211-acre 'Idaho Cobalt Belt Project' and the 80-acre 'Idaho Star Cobalt Project'. Management cautions that past results or discoveries on properties in proximity to Cruz may not necessarily be indicative of the presence of mineralization on the Company's properties. If you would like to be added to Cruz's news distribution list, please send your email address to info@cruzbatterymetals.com Cruz Battery Metals Corp. "James Nelson" James Nelson President, Chief Executive Officer, Secretary and Director For more information regarding this news release, please contact: James Nelson, CEO and Director T: 604-899-9150 Toll free: 1-855-599-9150 E: info@cruzbatterymetals.com W: www.cruzbatterymetals.com Twitter: @CruzBattMetals Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99008 HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - Evotec SE (EVT), a drug discovery and development company, on Friday said it will receive a payment of $9 million, following an expansion of its collaboration with pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), comprising a new cell type innovation. The latest expansion of the collaboration is expected to enable the companies to investigate the root causes of many neurodegenerative diseases in a cell type specific fashion using cells directly derived from patients, the Hamburg-based Evotec said. In addition, molecular disease signatures are expected to be used to define detailed molecular disease phenotypes using Evotec's panomics platform, EVOpanOmics & EVOpanHunter. The collaboration was initiated in 2016 with the goal of identifying disease-modifying treatments for a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases. Currently approved drugs only offer short-term management of the patients' symptoms and there is tremendous unmet medical need for therapeutic options that slow down or reverse disease progression, the German firm added. At XETRA, Evotec was seen trading up by 0.03 percent at 39.55 euros per share on Friday at 09.55 AM CEST, compared to the previous close of 39.54 euros per 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. STOCKHOLM, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Latvia's smart materials and photonics industry has been punching above its weight on the global stage and shows no signs of slowing, seeing over 40% growth in exports over the last 5 years, reaching 90M EUR in 2020. The steady growth has not gone unnoticed, with yearly external investments more than doubling from 16M EUR in 2016 to 40M EUR in 2020 over the same period, investigated investinlatvia.org. This is not the merit of a single breakout success story or an individual unicorn, but rather the result of sustained long-term development of the industry ecosystem on a national scale. Latvia boasts a historically strong collaborative infrastructure that accelerates idea development and commercialization by connecting business, academia, and government through various support programs, networks, and grants. This united approach, paired with the populace's natural inclination and talents for the STEM field, has helped Latvia establish itself as a global player in the development and manufacturing of functional materials, photonics equipment and devices, and thin layers and coatings. You'll come across Latvian innovations in every corner of the world and beyond with Groglass' anti-reflective glass that displays the most precious exhibits and showcases around the world, and Sidrabe's thin-film technologies used by NASA to coat astronaut helmets. Lightguide boasts the world's leading optical fiber production lab and provides ~70% of all fiber optic instruments used in urology and Baltic Scientific Instruments is one of only 3 companies worldwide specializing in the development and fabrication of devices for spectrometric analysis based on semiconductor and scintillation radiation detectors. Unveiled labs, awards won, funding received - highlights from 2021 Well-established supply chains, an excellent ecosystem, and supportive legislation serve to accelerate local scientific advancement and the commercialization thereof, while also being a major point of attraction to both new home-grown projects, as well as international players and projects. 2021 saw Pulsar Optics, a subsidiary of Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide, launch their operations in Daugavpils, looking to manufacture over 40,000 units of optical devices per year for export to more than 70 countries worldwide. The company is also actively investing in and developing image processing software and artificial intelligence. The production of their Pulsar devices employs cutting-edge technologies and modern engineering techniques, which is why access to qualified specialists was a key factor in choosing Latvia. Other reasons included Latvia's geographical location, a favorable climate for investments, and supportive governmental institutions. Indeed, a major point of attraction for Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide and other regional and international companies is Latvia's deep talent pool. With over a century of experience in smart materials and photonics engineering and manufacturing, a legion of tenured experts, and a steady influx of young specialists (Latvia is 7th in the world in the number of students entering STEM), Latvia's scientists and researchers are a cornerstone of the country's ability to compete internationally. Beyond contributing to the growth of international companies, Latvia also boasts a thriving scene of local up-and-coming projects and scientific innovations with potential for global impact. A consortium led by Latvian company Exonicus recently won a European Defense Industry Development Program project competition, receiving over 2M EUR in funding for the development of an innovative virtual trauma simulator called VireTS, which will be used for education and training of students and military medical personnel. VireTS allows participants to experience and engage virtually with a limitless number of life-like trauma scenarios enabling relevant personnel to prepare for field scenarios. Exonicus is behind both the AI-powered software and the deployable hardware. Meanwhile, Latvian smart materials start-up Catalyco claimed first place at the sTARTUp Day 2021 "Nordic Pitch Match" competition for their production of high surface area zinc oxides with reduced impurities, which allow reducing the use of ZnO up to 5 times, making tire and rubber production both more sustainable and cost-effective. Beyond the tire and rubber industry, this innovation that's based on more than 30 years of research and development has far-reaching implications for the ceramics, glass, and chemical industries, as well. Catalyco is a company borne out of the Commercialization Reactor accelerator-one of three accelerators in Latvia (Buildit, Overkill Ventures)-that places particular focus on scientifically intensive deep-tech projects. Through various regionally significant initiatives such as the Deep-Tech Atelier conference, Roadmap to Your Smart Business masterclasses, and the Ignition matchmaking event, Commercialization Reactor helps early-stage startups unlock the commercial potential of their innovations. An ecosystem designed for excellence Latvia's smart materials and photonics industry has been continuously evolving over more than 50 years, adapting to global trends, perfecting collaborative systems, and growing its value-chains. The result is a modern, healthy, and comprehensive ecosystem that supports product development and manufacturing from idea inception to industrial production. Made possible by a strong academic foundation, abundant state-of-the-art research facilities, modern production capabilities, and numerous support systems, the industry's companies and exceptional research institutions offer and make use of everything from R&D services, testing, and characterization, to prototyping and small-scale production, as well as industrialization and up-scaling services. A central hub connecting science and business is the University of Latvia's (UL) Institute of Solid State Physics (ISSP)-the top materials research and innovation center in the Baltics-and its platform Materize. With 40 years of experience and a team of 300 employees, Materize serves to bridge the gap between laboratory and market for SMEs and large companies alike, making scientific expertise beneficial to business through a single point of contact. The ISSP itself is home to a unique micro- and nano-technology center, with more than 650 sq. meters of ISO-certified cleanrooms. It actively works with companies and researchers on the development of new sensors, light sources, photonics and electronic devices, as well as microfluidic devices for biology and medical applications. The link between businesses and researchers is strengthened further by technology scouts. Experts in their field and up-to-date with all the latest local developments and innovations, technology scouts connect businesses with the relevant organizations and researchers best positioned to answer a company's scientific needs. Simultaneously, tight collaboration with research institutions allows technology scouts to identify smart materials and photonics projects with potential for commercialization and assist in bringing them to market. So, what ongoing research projects are technology scouts excited about today? There are 3 that stand out. The Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LIOS) has developed a conceptually new approach for ensuring high emission intensities in solids. The new concept is based on the use of intermolecular electrostatic interactions in the design of luminescent molecules, well-known in organic chemistry, but not yet used in the field of optical materials. Meanwhile, the University of Latvia's Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy is making strides in biophotonics, working on non-invasive methods and devices for early detection of skin cancer and the classification of skin lesions, employing multispectral diffuse reflection and autofluorescence imaging combined with neural network analysis. The team is also working on the early detection of sepsis using multispectral imaging methods. Opportunities for reducing vision discomfort using 3D images have been explored through the collaboration of the private and academic industries. Using a volumetric 3D display developed by local deep-tech startup LightSpace Technologies, the UL's Faculty of Physics, Mathematics, and Optometry in collaboration with Riga Stradins University's Faculty of Medicine were able to explore the visual system's behavior when interacting with the technology. Latvia - a window into the future Latvia's world-leading high-impact research paired with well-developed commercialization and extensive industry expertise make Latvia a particularly attractive region for developing and launching projects in the smart materials and photonics sector, as shown by the sustained growth in related export and investments. Smart materials and photonics is one of five smart industries identified as a priority sector by the Latvian government. As part of the recently-launched Green Channel initiative, businesses looking to develop in this sector are eligible for priority support from national institutions in regard to construction, spatial planning, and migration matters. Meanwhile, larger projects can receive direct and comprehensive financial and coordination support from the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia. Investors looking to benefit from the research, development, or manufacturing phases of smart materials and photonics solutions, can enquire about the respective opportunities by contacting Zane Cerpakovska, the LIAA smart materials and photonics technology scout, at Zane.Cerpakovska@liaa.gov.lv. For more information about the press release, please contact: Gundega Tupina Senior Investment Advisor Investment and Development Agency of Latvia E-mail: gundega.tupina@liaa.gov.lv Phone: +371 67039473 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/investment-and-development-agency-of-latvia--liaa-/r/investments-double-in-latvia-based-smart-materials-and-photonics-companies,c3428946 The following files are available for download: STOCKHOLM, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The G7 Impact Taskforce, supported by the UK government as part of their 2021 G7 presidency, will provide recommendations to G7 governments on how to mobilize private capital for public good at scale. Cilia Holmes Indahl, Head of EQT Foundation, has been appointed as an Expert Advisor on the Steering Committee of the Taskforce. The G7 Impact Taskforce was presented on the opening day of the virtual Global Impact Summit on 6 October 2021. The Taskforce is chaired by Rt Hon Nick Hurd and is composed of global leaders from the world of business, public policy and the social sector, including senior figures from Blackrock, Temasek, Schroders, Mahindra Group, Morgan Stanley, S&P Global, BASF, The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission. The industry-led initiative has two working groups, one focusing on greater impact transparency, harmonization and integrity, and the other one investigating the development of financing vehicles for a just transition and includes a specific lens in emerging markets. The work is coordinated by the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) alongside the Impact Investing Institute and the group's final report is expected to be delivered to G7 governments in December 2021. The GSG is the first strategic partner of EQT Foundation, and will be key in informing the work of the foundation. EQT Foundation looks forward to supporting the work of the GSG and the G7 Impact Taskforce. Cilia Holmes Indahl, Head of EQT Foundation, said, "In our quest to push the frontiers of impact, EQT Foundation is looking to support entrepreneurs and researchers that are challenging our perception of what is possible. Our participation in the G7 Impact Taskforce will ensure alignment of our efforts with global needs and strengthen our ability to contribute in accelerating the shift towards impact economies. EQT Foundation will support the efforts of the Taskforce by making grants to related research projects and by providing a test bed for new financing vehicles." Cliff Prior, Chief Executive of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, said, "The establishment of an impact economy incubator like EQT Foundation comes at a crucial time, when we have to build back the global economy following the COVID-19 crisis, whilst also solving for social issues and climate change. The combination of EQT Foundation and the EQT ecosystem, with its pioneering work on ESG-linked financing and impact investment expertise, will open up new opportunities for piloting and driving the shift towards impact economies. We are excited to partner with EQT Foundation." Contact Cilia Holmes Indahl, Head of EQT Foundation, foundation@eqtpartners.com EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com, +46 8 506 55 334 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/eqt/r/eqt-foundation-appointed-expert-advisor-to-g7-s-impact-taskforce,c3429317 The following files are available for download: THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TerraPay, a leading global payments infrastructure company today announced the appointment of Koert Grasveld as Vice President-Payments. Koert will be responsible for managing and expansion of TerraPay's Payments business across current and new partners. A seasoned professional, Koert comes with a working experience of more than 15 years in diverse industries and sectors. He started his career in the Hospitality industry where he was responsible for the e-commerce business (the online distribution of the hotel properties via direct and indirect channels). He then moved to Booking.com where he became responsible for the strategy, contracting and business relationships with Key Global Hotel Chains. After a successful stint at the hospitality sector, Koert moved to payments industry and joined AirPlus followed by American Express and GlobalCollect (currently Wordline) where he was in charge of managing business for large accounts in the EMEA travel portfolio. Speaking about Koert's appointment, Ani Sane, TerraPay commented, "We are pleased to welcome Koert in our team. His invaluable global experience of building long term client relations and managing key accounts in the travel and hospitality industry enables us to scale our global footprint. I am confident that he will bring in pioneering strategies and fresh perspectives that will help TerraPay achieve new heights of success. I look forward to him playing an instrumental role in strengthening our well entrenched business, and wish him all the very best in his new journey with us at TerraPay." "I am honored and excited to join such a strong team of experienced leaders with a vision to continually raise the bar in the digital payment ecosystem. As the VP of payments for TerraPay, I aim to strengthen TerraPay's global footprint as a formidable business that owns the full chain of a transaction process that offers an end-to-end solution for both B2B and B2C by forging strong partnerships that will enrich company's position as it scales to the next level. I am super thrilled and excited about TerraPay's vision being aligned. I look forward to this wonderful journey," said Koert Grasveld joining TerraPay as Vice President - Payments About TerraPay Headquartered in Amsterdam, TerraPay is a licensed digital payments infrastructure and solutions provider. Since 2014, the company has been building an ever-expanding payments highway that empowers businesses with an uninterrupted, secure, and real-time global passage for every payment, however small or large. Registered and regulated across 15 global markets, TerraPay is a leading global partner to banks, mobile wallets, money transfer operators, merchants, and financial institutions, creating a rich payment ecosystem that supports a range of diverse payment types and instruments. With a single integration, the company connects their partners to this deep-rooted global network, backed by strong compliance and security standards. For more information, please visit terrapay.com Contact: Anwesha Mukherjee +919717241606 anwesha@terrapay.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1222771/TerraPay_Logo.jpg Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1655471/TPS0169_Koert_Grasveld.jpg BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks were moving lower on Friday after data showed German exports declined unexpectedly in August. Exports decreased 1.2 percent month-on-month in August, in contrast to the 0.6 percent rise in July, Destatis reported. Economists had forecast a monthly growth of 0.5 percent. At the same time, imports rebounded 3.5 percent, following a 3.6 percent fall in the previous month. As a result, the trade surplus declined to a seasonally adjusted EUR 13.0 billion from EUR 17.7 billion a month ago. The benchmark DAX dropped 37 points, or 0.2 percent, to 15,214 after rallying 1.9 percent in the previous session. Travel company TUI Group slumped almost 14 percent. The company unveiled plans to raise more than 1 billion euros in capital in order to help pay off more than substantial state-backed loans taken during the pandemic. Automakers were gaining ground, with Daimler rising as much as 2.7 percent. Evotec SE, a drug discovery and development company, rose half a percent. The company said it will receive a payment of $9 million, following an expansion of its collaboration with pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), comprising a new cell type innovation. 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. BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks slipped on Friday as German exports data disappointed and caution set in ahead of the release of key U.S. payrolls data due later in the day. German exports decreased 1.2 percent month-on-month in August, in contrast to the 0.6 percent rise in July, Destatis reported. Economists had forecast a monthly growth of 0.5 percent. At the same time, imports rebounded 3.5 percent, following a 3.6 percent fall in the previous month. As a result, the trade surplus declined to a seasonally adjusted EUR 13.0 billion from EUR 17.7 billion a month ago. The pan European Stoxx 600 dropped 0.4 percent to 456.78 after climbing 1.6 percent on Thursday. The German DAX slipped 0.4 percent, France's CAC 40 index declined half a percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was marginally lower. Telecom Italia rose about 1 percent. The Italian telecommunications company and its unit Noovle have signed a partnership with business software maker Oracle to offer cloud services in Italy. Travel stocks traded mostly higher in London, with British-Airways owner IAG climbing nearly 2 percent after the government announced it will scrap tough COVID-19 quarantine requirements for 47 destinations. However, TUI Group shares plunged more than 13 percent. The travel company unveiled plans to raise more than 1 billion euros in capital in order to help pay off more than substantial state-backed loans taken during the pandemic. Harbour Energy surged 6.3 percent after announcing it has priced its senior notes offering of $500 million aggregate principal amount of 5.50 percent senior notes due October 2026. N Brown Group jumped 4 percent. The online fashion and homeware retailer doubled half year profits during a strong six month period for its strategic brands. Electronic parts distributor Electrocomponents gained 1 percent after raising its FY guidance. EssilorLuxottica S.A. shares were down more than 1 percent in Paris after the company launched a recommended mandatory public offer for GrandVision shares. 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. 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. MADRID, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bambuser CEO Maryam Ghahremani has been invited by Zenith, one of LVMH's Maisons to join the exclusive DREAMHERS campaign in Madrid. Established in 2020, Zenith DREAMHERS is a platform where visionary, independent and inspirational women from all walks of life have their voices and passions heard. After winning the LVMH Innovation Award and signing a master agreement with the LVMH Group, Bambuser's CEO was invited by Zenith to join the 'Meet the DREAMHERS' event with some of the world's most accomplished women. Maryam joined a panel alongside artist Teresa Juevas, chef Amandine Chaignot, ballerina Precious Adams, fashion retail pioneer Ghizlan Guenez, influencer and beauty entrepreneur Laura Noltemeyer, as well as medical professional and former Miss Switzerland Laetitia Guarino. Taking place in a private location in Madrid, Maryam's participation focused on women in the 21st century and the need for more inclusiveness and equal rights. "As the CEO of a fast-growing and world-leading tech company with 70% women in management and 55% of women in leadership roles representing over 25 nationalities, I am very honoured to be invited by Zenith and LVMH to share my personal experiences to inspire and encourage increased diversity in our industry," said Maryam Ghahremani, CEO of Bambuser. DREAMHERS marks the beginning of a new chapter for Zenith and its unique approach to women's watches, as it celebrates those who share its "Time to Reach Your Star" philosophy. It's a call to action to women all over the world to chase their dreams, no matter what obstacles lie ahead. Zenith looks forward to sharing their unique stories with its audience and introducing more DREAMHERS in the coming months. Contact information Corporate Communications, Bambuser AB | +46 8 400 160 00 | press@bambuser.com Certified Adviser Erik Penser Bank AB | +46 8 463 83 00 | certifiedadviser@penser.se About Bambuser Bambuser is a software company specializing in interactive live video streaming. The Company's primary product, Live Video Shopping, is a cloud-based software solution that is used by customers such as global e-commerce and retail businesses to host live shopping experiences on websites, mobile apps and social media. Bambuser was founded in 2007 and has its headquarters in Stockholm. About ZENITH: TIME TO REACH YOUR STAR Zenith exists to inspire individuals to pursue their dreams and make them come true - against all odds. Since its establishment in 1865, Zenith became the first watch manufacture in the modern sense of the term, and its watches have accompanied extraordinary figures that dreamt big and strived to achieve the impossible - from Louis Bleriot's history-making flight across the English Channel to Felix Baumgartner's record-setting stratospheric free-fall jump. Zenith is also highlighting visionary and trailblazing women - past and present - by celebrating their accomplishments and creating the DREAMHERS platform where women share their experiences and inspire others to fulfill their dreams. Zenith exclusively uses its own in-house developed and manufactured movements across all of its watches. Since the creation of the El Primero in 1969, the world's first automatic chronograph calibre, Zenith has gone on to master the complication with even more precision, capable of measurements to the closest 1/10th of a second in the most recent Chronomaster lines, and 1/100th of a second in the DEFY collection. Zenith has been shaping the future of Swiss watchmaking since 1865, accompanying those who dare to challenge themselves and break barriers. The time to reach your star is now. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/bambuser/r/bambuser-ceo-joins-zenith-dreamhers-to-shed-light-on-women-and-diversity,c3429443 The following files are available for download: SHANGHAI, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / October 8, 2021 / Global financial service providers are positive about development in Shanghai with the city government setting higher goals in building itself into an international financial center during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). Shanghai is set to be a strategic link between the domestic and international markets during the 14th Five-Year Plan(2021-25) Shanghai released its financial development plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan period, which envisions the city evolving into a strategic link between the domestic and international markets, in August. The plan details specific tasks like the development of a global asset management center, financial technology center, financial talents and finance environment, among others. The city will highlight the internationalization of its financial market and further widen scope for the issuance of the panda bond, the yuan-denominated bond from a non-Chinese issuer. In the next five years, domestic issuers will be supported to issue more yuan bonds, the Chinese corporate bonds denominated in foreign currencies. Financial institutions will be encouraged to provide services related to offshore economic and trade activities. Qualified foreign institutions will be encouraged to set up wholly owned or jointly held securities firms, mutual funds, futures companies, life insurance companies, asset management subsidiaries of commercial banks, pension fund management companies, and credit rating agencies in Shanghai. A growing number of foreign financial institutions, such as securities firms and insurance companies are setting up wholly owned subsidiaries or joint-ventures in Shanghai, thanks to the city's determination and planning objectives that have become stabilizers for financial institutions. So far, the number of licensed financial institutions in Shanghai has surpassed 1,600, with one third foreign-funded. While the uncertainty surrounding international trade amid the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Shanghai has kept its third position in the Global Financial Centers Index for two years in a row. The index was jointly released by the Shenzhen-based China Development Institute and United Kingdom-based think tank Z/Yen Partners in March. According to the plan, the total trading volume in the city's financial markets is expected to be worth about 2.8 quadrillion yuan ($432.9 trillion) by 2025, while the scale of direct financing is targeted to be about 26 trillion yuan. The city will also be home to around 50 leading fintech enterprises. AXA, the Paris-headquartered multinational insurance company, said it will become more involved in the development of Shanghai as an international financial center. "As the financial center of China, Shanghai's reform and development in the finance sector plays a key role," said Zhu Yamin, CEO of AXA Tianping Property & Casualty Insurance Company, invested in by AXA. AXA Tianping's headquarters building in Shanghai. Shanghai's goal of building itself as an international finance center will further promote the openness of the industry with supporting facilities and policies improved accordingly, Zhu said. AXA entered China in 1999 with a joint venture with Chinese mining firm China Minmetals Corp called AXA-Minmetals Assurance. Since then, AXA has expanded its businesses in the country with a slew of investments. Choosing Shanghai to be its China headquarters from the outset, AXA 's business in the country covers property and casualty, life and savings, innovation, reinsurance and investment management. Zhu said the standardized development of the finance industry will help to create a level playing field for all companies, who will be able to better utilize their advantages. And thus it will provide consumers in Shanghai and even across the country with better options in financial consumption, she noted. The company said it will continue to invest in the sector, and hopes to "grow together with Shanghai and China's financial industry" as one of the most diversified foreign insurance players in the China market. AXA Tianping hosts AXA China Family Health Protection Forum in 2021 AXA is among the foreign financial institutions greatly benefiting from the opening-up in the finance sector. In 2019, the company got the nod from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to buy the remaining 50 percent stake of its joint venture in AXA Tianping. The first of its kind transaction in the Chinese insurance market by the company, made it become one of the largest foreign invested property and casualty insurance companies in China. China has become the world's second-largest insurance market, second only to the United States. The fast pace of growth in the market is expected to create more business potential. AXA said it will target the growth potential of health markets in China as consumers become more aware of health issues and improved quality of life. Meanwhile, AXA is also pushing digitalization, which is aligned with Shanghai's goal of developing finance digitalization. By integrating digitalization into products, customers are expected to enjoy more intimate and convenient services, it said. With the rich experience in the sector and solid foundation to grow, AXA Tianping will continue to deliver its expertise and support the finance industry's further development across China, Zhu said. AXA Tianping now operates more than 200 branches over 20 provinces and cities across China. The iconic bull statue, created by artist Arturo Di Modica (1941-2021), is settled on the Bund in Shanghai in 2010 to bring confidence and fortune to the Chinese people. Contact: Daniel Li Email: daniel.li@axa.com SOURCE: AXA View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/667348/Shanghai-Maintains-Global-Finance-Hub-Multinational-Players-Encouraged-to-Innovate-in-Expanding-Sector CHICAGO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Missile Defense System Market by Technology (Fire Control System, Weapon System, Countermeasure System, and Command and Control System), Range (Short, Medium, and Long), Threat type, Domain (Ground, Air, Marine, and Space), and Region - Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Missile Defense System Market size is projected to grow from USD 23.9 billion in 2021 to USD 29.7 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2026. The market is driven by various factors, such as increasing defense programs of nations to protect against various threats, significant investments in indigenous missile defense systems, increasing need for missile detection systems, and increasing use of early warning systems for potential air and missile attacks. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=16924979 The missile defense system market includes major players Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Boeing Company (US), Raytheon Technologies Corporation (US), Northrop Grumman Corporation (US), and General Dynamics Corporation (US). These players have spread their business across various countries includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. COVID-19 has impacted their businesses as well. Industry experts believe that COVID-19 has affected missile defense system production and services globally in 2020. Increasing defense programs of nations to protect against various threats will drive the market The performance of the US's weapon systems is unmatched, ensuring a tactical combat advantage for the US military over any adversary. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 acquisition (Procurement and Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E)) funding requested by the US Department of Defense (DoD) totals USD 247.3 billion, which includes funding in the Base budget and the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, totaling USD 143.1 billion for Procurement and USD 104.3 billion for RDT&E. The funding in the budget request represents a balanced portfolio approach to implement the military force objective established by the National Defense Strategy. Of the USD 247.3 billion in the request, USD 83.9 billion finances Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs), which are acquisition programs that exceed a cost threshold established by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. According to the Missile Defense Agency, there has been an increase of over 1,200 additional ballistic missiles over the last 5 years. The number of ballistic missiles outside the US, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia, and China has risen to over 5,900. Hundreds of launchers and missiles are currently within the range of US defense. The weapon system technology segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the missile defense system market during the forecast period. A weapon system plays an important role in missile defense systems majorly for land, air, and marine platforms. The weapon system segment has been further sub-segmented into interceptors, gun/turret systems, and missile launchers. The weapon system technology segment consists of interceptors, gun/turrets and missile launchers. The long range segment is projected witness the highest CAGR growth during the forecast period Based on range, the missile defense system market has been segmented into short (up to 1,000 km), medium (1,000-3,000 km), intermediate (3,000-5,000 km), and intercontinental (more than 5,500 km). Increasing threats of intermediate-range missile launches and asymmetric warfare are some of the factors fueling the growth of the missile defense system market. An increasing threat from intercontinental ballistic attacks across the world is fueling the growth of the intermediate long range missile defense system segment. Browse in-depth TOC on "Missile Defense System Market" 228 - Tables 48 - Figures 257 - Pages Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=16924979 The hypersonic missiles threat type segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the missile defense system market during the forecast period. Based on threat type, the missile defense system market has been segmented into subsonic missile, supersonic missile, and hypersonic missile. Technological advancements, continuous R&Ds, as well as the need for advanced missile defense systems across the globe are some of the major factors driving the growth of the threat type segment of the missile defense system market. The space domain segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period Based on domain, the missile defense system market has been segmented into ground, air, marine, and space. The need for advanced, multi-domain integration capable missile defense systems across the globe is one of the major factors driving the growth of the domain segment of the missile defense system market. The ground domain segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The North American market is projected to contribute the largest share from 2021 to 2026 North America is projected to be the largest regional share of missile defense system market during the forecast period. Major companies such Northrop Grumman Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, and General Dynamics Corporation are based in the US. These players continuously invest in the R&D of new and advanced technology used in missile defense system. Related Reports: Airborne Countermeasure System Market by Application (Jammers, Missile Defence, and Counter Countermeasure), Platform (Military Aircraft, Military Helicopters, and Unmanned systems), Product and Region - Global Forecast to 2026 Electromagnetic Weapons Market by Product (Lethal Weapons, Non-lethal Weapons), Application (Homeland Security, Military), Platform (Land, Naval, Airborne), Technology (Particle Beam Weapons, Laser-induced Plasma Channel), and Region - Forecast to 2026 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/missile-defense-system-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/missile-defense-system.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg Fredericton, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - TRU Precious Metals Corp. (TSXV: TRU) (OTCQB: TRUIF) (FSE: 706) ("TRU" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the remaining 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'). Highlights include the intersection of 1.00 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 2 metres (m) in borehole TL21-27. Overall, the drill program successfully extended the known Fort Knox gold zone along strike and down dip and provided valuable geological information to help vector future drill programs in extending the zone. Barry Greene, VP of Property Development and Director of TRU, commented: "The shear zone, which hosts the Fort Knox gold zone, displays widespread hydrothermal brecciation with silica, sericite and carbonate alteration throughout the latest drill holes. Mineralization comprising pyrite, stibnite and arsenopyrite is also continuing. Although diminishing to the southeast, the gold zone remains open to the northwest beyond hole TL21-17, where the zone is widening, and the gold grades are improving both at depth and along trend in the northwest direction. We now have gold intercepts equal to or greater than 1 g/t gold in 5 of the 10 holes completed in this drill program." Table 1. Uncut Assay Highlights Hole No. From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Zone TL21-23 236.00 237.50 1.50 0.21 Fort Knox And 243.50 245.00 1.50 0.32 TL21-27 56.00 58.00 2.00 0.24 And 100.00 102.00 2.00 1.00 And 178.00 180.00 2.00 0.57 Figure 1. Plan Map of Twilite Gold Drilling To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5993/98929_05387db084485a44_001full.jpg Figure 2. Longitudinal Cross Section of Fort Knox Gold Zone To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5993/98929_05387db084485a44_002full.jpg Table 2. Collar Details for TL-21-22 to TL-21-27 Hole No. Azimuth () Dip () Length (m) UTM E UTM N TL21-22 238.7 -63.8 224 589956 5408661 TL21-23 234.6 -65.0 269 589966 5408643 TL21-24 235.0 -46.7 224 589966 5408643 TL21-25 235.0 -45.0 245 589960 5408607 TL21-26 235.0 -70.0 239 589960 5408607 TL21-27 61.1 -49.7 248 589715 5408517 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 gold 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 earlier-stage properties in the region. 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 future exploration at Twilite Gold. These statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding Twilite Gold and the Company's exploration and drilling plans that are believed by management to be reasonable in the circumstances, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation: mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on Twilite Gold; the exploration potential of Twilite Gold and the nature and style of mineralization at Twilite Gold; risks inherent in mineral exploration activities and operational problems relating to drilling; volatility in precious metals prices, financial markets, and economic conditions; 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/98929 - 200k medical professional members joined Wondr Medical in the last year - The pandemic and resulting surge of doctors working remotely saw a worrying increase in confidential patient discussions happening in public on social media - Wondr Medical is a fit-for-purpose compliant platform, where medical professionals can learn, share and connect with colleagues across the world in a secure way LONDON, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Wondr Medical today announced that they have reached 200,000 medical professional members in 2021 on their healthcare network designed specifically for the medical community. A platform where you can share, connect and discover medical ideas, information and insights with colleagues and experts from across the globe. Wondr Medical launched in 2020 with the aim of being the world's first regulatory compliant medical network platform for the medical community across the globe: from leading surgeons to doctors and nurses. A place where the medical community can search for information on new cases, medicines and new studies, as well as experience weekly events, lectures and global conferences from leading experts and key opinion leaders across the globe. A modern digital melting pot of medical communication and education - tailored according to their needs and preferences. . Importantly, it is the world's first regulatory compliant platform allowing medical professionals a safe and innovative way to discuss case information, and exchange ideas and sensitive information. Founder, Consultant Cardiologist, Dr. Justin Davies believes 2021 is a landmark moment for medical communication - how the medical community communicate across the globe is changing, fast: "We're on the cusp of something serious happening; it's a ticking time-bomb. More steps need to be made." Dr. Davies explains. "It's easy if we don't talk about it, but use of What's App, Facebook and Twitter between medical professionals is widespread. Quite simply, it's not regulated, secure or compliant and each discussion is siloed," Davies explains. " We provide a safe and regulatory environment for the exchange of ideas and information, that enables you to access all the insights, information, experts, and cases you require in real-time. I'm convinced in helping the medical community communicate better - our platform will help each of us to become better doctors. Wondr Medical delivers on-demand medical knowledge within a secure regulatory environment. The benefits are speed, poise and security for a medical professional who has never been under so much pressure. Reaching 200k active new members in 2021 is a landmark moment for the business, with use of the platform accelerated by the need amongst the medical community for one regulatory compliant home to search, connect and discover. The pandemic shifted the whole medical community online overnight, and platforms like Wondr Medical have provided the tools for it to do so. "During the pandemic the big physical medical conferences and events needed a new digital home. The traditional stages for the sharing of new ideas now went online and they used Wondr. The shift in how medical education is consumed, how knowledge is shared, coupled with the widespread misuse in clinical environments of traditional social media platforms, has enabled us to help significantly, but it really is just the beginning, with new tools being used within our platform. Simply sign up, download the app, and at your fingertips is everything you need to be the best medical professional you can be. Don't be the one who gets the book thrown at them; instead embrace the chance to build your networks, discover new thinking, and tap into the brightest minds. The best Doctors are always learning." About Wondr Medical Wondr is the platform for medical discovery, built around health care professionals. We believe medical knowledge starts with curiosity. From breakthrough research to advances in best practice, from meeting collaborators to learning from mentors and peers - it all starts with the drive to discover more. Wondr exists to drive and feed that curiosity, pushing medicine forward, for medics and patients everywhere. Our mission: To accelerate medical learning and discovery by creating the world's most connected medical network. Find out more . Biography Dr Justin Davies, MD, PhD, is a cardiologist, inventor and serial entrepreneur. After inventing iFR, a computational technique for detection of coronary artery disease commercialised by Philips in over 10,000 hospitals around the world, he realised the urgent need for an online platform to improve communications between the medical community around the world. Wondr Medical was founded to address this need, and to provide an integrated tool to facilitate safe and secure communications of medical or educational information. Now, 3 years on, Wondr Medical is revolutionising the way in which the medical community access data. Through building network infrastructure between different data streams and providers, removing barriers to access, and developing tools for better networking, Wondr Medical continues to pioneer and innovate to help improve global healthcare for all through better communications. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1655837/Wondr_Medical_Platform.jpg WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Tesla is moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas, from Palo Alto, California, according to its founder and CEO Elon Musk. The decision, revealed at the company's shareholder meeting, reflects size constraints and the cost of living in the Bay Area. At the meeting, which took place at Tesla's vehicle assembly plant under construction in Austin, he further revealed plans to increase production in its California plant. Musk said, 'To be clear we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory it's jammed....It's tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away....There's a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area.' Talking about the Austin plant, Musk noted that it would take some time to reach full production even after the completion. According to him, Tesla takes less time to build a factory than to reach high-volume production. The Palo Alto area has been Tesla's base since its founding in 2003. Last year, amid the severe spread of Coronavirus, Musk had lashed out at California government officials for forcing to temporarily close down Tesla's main factory. He called the state's Covid-19 lockdown measures 'fascist', and also filed a law suit against Alameda County over the temporary shutdown. Musk also threatened later to move the company's headquarters and future programs out of California and to Texas/Nevada. In December last year, Musk, who is also CEO of aerospace company SpaceX, personally moved to Texas from California. His most prioritized projects are in Texas, including SpaceX's new Starship vehicle development facility and Tesla's new Gigafactory under construction in Austin. Migration to Texas has some tax implications for him too, as the state levies no income or capital-gains tax while California's tax rates are among the highest in the nation. 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. On 29thSeptember 2021, TCN UK celebrated its 15th year in business. BRISTOL, England, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ask anyone what the office was like in the 00's - quite different to what it is now. The changing market needs' over the years have shifted. We saw Google Office slides being a huge hit back in 2012; and it's safe to say that 2020 had another big shift in the purpose of the office again. 2021 is no different. But how has the way we work changed over time? What does the office look like in the future? Richard Pearce, Founder of TCN UK, the creative office space providers, has found that offering cooler work spaces doesn't keep up with market demand. It's about creating space for companies to flourish alongside each other. It's about building communities and designing the spaces to be used for productivity, collaboration and creativity. Richard adds, "We've been around 15 years, transforming abandoned buildings across 9 different cities in the UK and creating surprising places. We're thankful to be able to celebrate our anniversary together with members, partners and friends; having a BBQ and discussing new business ventures. We're part of the community that is built upon relationships and being amongst likeminded, growing entrepreneurs." Richard added, "Many of our members are innovators and disrupters, and those that are often people who help the world to move forward and create new ideas. When we established TCN back in 2006, we wanted to redefine the office space perception. We've been pioneers in offering creative spaces, providing opportunity for creative, digital and tech industries to positively thrive amongst similar businesses. So, while 2020 had many challenges, we are adapting and further developing our flexible membership offering to ensure our members grow to reflect positive change. The fundamental philosophy of how we do business hasn't changed and we look forward to the next 15 years of creating surprising places for curious minds." Since the company's founding, TCN portfolio has grown considerably, with its membership numbers growing from 150 companies to 300 in the last 5 years. TCN have opened new offices in Somerset, and have joined forces with Yardi Kube to implement a new member portal. ABOUT TCN UK Founded in 2006 by Richard Pearce and Toby Bidwell, TCN is recognised for the regeneration of unloved buildings, transforming creative office spaces for small and well-established businesses to thrive. Today, TCN has refurbished over 600,000 sq ft of unloved buildings, attracting over 350 companies, with a property portfolio value of 110m. TCN has won various awards for its work, most notably Enterprise Zone Business of the year in Bristol. TCN source opportunities in the UK where creativity and management expertise produce vibrant places to work. Website: TCNUK.co.uk Property portfolio: Piano House Brixton | NEST@Mallard Somerset | Temple Studios Bristol | Temple 1852 Bristol | Newark Works Bath | Fuel Studios Norwich | Assay Studios Birmingham Instagram: @TCNUK FollowTrammell LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/28669686 Facebook: @TCNcreativeplaces Twitter: @TCNUK Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1655838/TCN_UK_Turns_15.jpg Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - Canbud Distribution Corp. (CSE: CBDX) (FSE: CD0) (the "Corporation" or "Canbud") is pleased to provide the following update: Addition of Dr. Jane Wright-Mitchell, PharmD, JD to the Board of Directors. Based in California, Dr. Jane Wright-Mitchell is an experienced healthcare and life sciences attorney with more than 20 years working with pharmaceutical and medical device companies. She is currently General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary with Vaxcyte, Inc., a vaccine development company. Prior to joining Vaxcyte, she was Chief Legal Officer with Steep Hill, Inc., a state-licensed cannabis testing laboratory. She previously served as Chief Legal Officer at AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where she also served as Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary. Earlier in her career, she served in legal roles of increasing responsibility at Mesoblast, Actelion, Purdue Pharma, and Neurogesx. Dr. Wright-Mitchell's practice area focuses on matters involving legal and regulatory compliance, intellectual property, healthcare, corporate, employment, litigation and licensing. She earned a BS in Biological Sciences from Clemson University, a doctorate in pharmacy (PharmD) from University of Illinois, Chicago and a JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law. She is registered before the US Patent and Trademark Office as well as a licensed pharmacist. Dr. Wright-Mitchell notes: "I am pleased to join the Board of Canbud to support the company's efforts in analytical testing. This cross-border expansion is an exciting time for the company as well as all cannabis consumers who rely on product safety. With shifting sentiment and growing support to end the federal prohibition on marijuana, opportunities abound for growth in the analytical testing arena. I look forward to helping the company navigate in a business segment with substantial opportunity and the ability to make a positive impact in an emerging market." Steve Singh, CEO, Canbud, notes: "Dr. Wright-Mitchell provides significant depth to the Board given her expertise in pharma, law and the US cannabis sector. As former Chief Legal Officer for Steep Hill Inc, she was involved in all facets of the set-up and establishment and we are lucky to get her support as Canbud looks to expand into the US." Update on Steep Hill Acquisition On August 7, 2021, Canbud entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (the "Letter of Intent") with Steep Hill Inc.("SH") in respect of a proposed transaction (the "Proposed Transaction"), whereby the Corporation would acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of SH. The process for the acquisition is well underway, and delays encountered were on account of corporate and tax structuring aspects which are expected to be resolved shortly. It remains the intention of both parties to conclude the transaction as soon as possible. About Canbud Distribution Corp. Canbud is a science and technology health and wellness company carrying on business in the plant based, psychedelic pharmaceutical and non-psychedelic nutraceutical, and hemp cannabinoid (CBD) vertical markets. www.mscience.ca www.canbudcorp.com https://www.instagram.com/canbudcorp/?hl=en https://twitter.com/canbudcorp Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Information The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to the Corporation's business and the industry and markets in which it operates. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including assumptions about the operations, financial condition, and future performance of the Corporation. Although the Corporation considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to them, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Although the Corporation's management believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Corporation can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Corporation disclaims any intention and assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements or otherwise For further information please contact: Robert Tjandra, COO, (416) 847-7312 Email: ir@canbudcorp.com NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99023. The Most Anticipated Events of the Cannabis Business Year AMA - Reddit - October 21 Introducing Media Awareness and New Investor Social Media OTCQX: SHWZ DENVER, CO, Oct 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Schwazze, (OTCQX:SHWZ) ("Schwazze" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it will attend the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference at the Marriott Marquis in New York City on October 14th - 15th and MJBizCon 2021 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on October 20th - 22nd. Benzinga - New York Justin Dye, CEO & Chairman, and Nancy Huber, CFO, will be hosting 1x1 investor meetings at the Benzinga Conference on October 14th and 15th. Justin will present on October 14th, 2021 at the conference. A copy of the presentation will be available on the Company's website after the event. Accredited investors interested in scheduling a 1x1 meeting with the Schwazze executive team please contact investor relations at ir@schwazze.com. MJBizCon - Las Vegas Justin and Nancy will also host private investor meeting at the MJBizCon Conference from October 20th - 21st. Accredited investors interested in scheduling a 1x1 meeting with the Schwazze executive team please contact investor relations at ir@schwazze.com. Success Nutrients and the Three-a-Light team, subsidiaries of Medicine Man Technologies dba Schwazze, will host a booth at MJBizCon Oct 20th - Oct 22nd. Come visit the team at booth C1357 to chat about building a successful cultivation with the Three-a-light program and Success Nutrients. Ask Me Anything - Reddit Live from the MJBizCon tradeshow floor, on October 21st at 10:00 AM PT, Justin Dye will host an AMA - "Ask Me Anything" event on the subreddit thread r/weedstocks to engage with investors and answer topical questions, please submit your questions in advance to ensure verification from Reddit. Investor Social Media Schwazze is pleased to announce that it will be showcasing investor materials on new Schwazze social handles. Please ensure that you follow us for all investor updates at the following handles: Twitter https://twitter.com/Schwazze_2021?t=QjTeeh5kE17EJR9U2xvwrg&s=09 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SchwazzeInvestors/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/Schwazze_Investors/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwazze-investors Schwazze Featured on BTV - CEO Clips CEO Clips is the largest library of publicly traded company CEO videos in North America. These 90 second video profiles broadcast on national TV and online via 15 top financial sites including: Thomson Reuters, BNN Bloomberg, Yahoo! Finance and Stockhouse.com. Watch CEO, Justin Dye, on CEO Clips, speak about Schwazze building the premier vertically integrated cannabis company in Colorado. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e89rI8qna4k If you cannot view the video above, please visit: https://b-tv.com/schwazze-from-seed-to-sale-btv-investing-news/ About Schwazze Schwazze (OTCQX: SHWZ) is building the premier vertically integrated cannabis company in Colorado and plans to take its operating system to other states where it can develop a differentiated leadership position. Schwazze is the parent company of a portfolio of leading cannabis businesses and brands spanning seed to sale. The Company is committed to unlocking the full potential of the cannabis plant to improve the human condition. Schwazze is anchored by a high-performance culture that combines customer-centric thinking and data science to test, measure, and drive decisions and outcomes. The Company's leadership team has deep expertise in retailing, wholesaling, and building consumer brands at Fortune 500 companies as well as in the cannabis sector. Schwazze is passionate about making a difference in our communities, promoting diversity and inclusion, and doing our part to incorporate climate-conscious best practices. Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. was Schwazze's former operating trade name. The corporate entity continues to be named Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. Schwazze derives its name from the pruning technique of a cannabis plant to enhance plant structure and promote healthy growth. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "plan," "will," "may,", "predicts," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events or performance, are based on certain assumptions, and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and cannot be predicted or quantified. Consequently, actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own or in collaboration with third parties; (ii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iii) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (iv) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; (v) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates; (vi) our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy in Colorado and outside the state, (vii) our ability to consummate the acquisition described in this press release or to identify and consummate future acquisitions that meet our criteria, (viii) our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and realize synergies therefrom, (ix) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, (x) the timing and extent of governmental stimulus programs, and (xi) the uncertainty in the application of federal, state and local laws to our business, and any changes in such laws. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law. Follow us Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Twitter Investors, Joanne Jobin, Investor Relations, Joanne.jobin@schwazze.com, 647 964 0292; Media, Julie Suntrup, Schwazze, Vice President | Marketing & Merchandising, julie.suntrup@schwazze.com, 303 371 0387 NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global law firm White & Case LLP announced the promotion of 59 lawyers around the world to its partnership today. The promotions are effective on January 1, 2022, and represent 12 of the Firm's global practices across 24 locations throughout the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. "Our new partners represent a rich and diverse set of skills, experience and backgrounds," said White & Case Chair Hugh Verrier. "This is our largest class of White & Case partners ever. It reflects our commitment to deliberate, strategic growth that supports exceptional service for our clients globally. We are investing in our people for the long term." Listed by the regions in which they are based, our new partners are: Americas (22 new partners) Adam M. Acosta has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in Washington, DC , Adam focuses on antitrust litigation, government investigations and related counseling. has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in , Adam focuses on antitrust litigation, government investigations and related counseling. Kevin C. Adam has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in Boston , Kevin focuses on complex litigation and counseling in matters concerning both antitrust and intellectual property law issues. He has experience advising clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in , Kevin focuses on complex litigation and counseling in matters concerning both antitrust and intellectual property law issues. He has experience advising clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Christoffer Adler has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Christoffer advises sponsors, banks and direct lenders on leveraged and investment-grade financing transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Christoffer advises sponsors, banks and direct lenders on leveraged and investment-grade financing transactions. Aaron Colodny has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Aaron focuses on chapter 11 proceedings, out-of-court restructurings and complex litigation, representing both debtors and creditors. has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Aaron focuses on chapter 11 proceedings, out-of-court restructurings and complex litigation, representing both debtors and creditors. Elodie Gal has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in New York . Elodie focuses on securities offerings, advising on complex securities law issues for capital markets transactions and for SEC reporting companies. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in . Elodie focuses on securities offerings, advising on complex securities law issues for capital markets transactions and for SEC reporting companies. Emilio Grandio has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Houston, Emilio focuses on domestic and cross-border M&A transactions with an emphasis on cross-border transactions in Latin America . has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Houston, Emilio focuses on domestic and cross-border M&A transactions with an emphasis on cross-border transactions in . Fern Han has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Houston, Fern acts for both lenders and borrowers on a wide variety of finance, project finance and project development matters. has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Houston, Fern acts for both lenders and borrowers on a wide variety of finance, project finance and project development matters. Matthew Hendy has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Matthew advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Matthew advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. Sam Hershey has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in New York , Sam represents clients in federal and state court litigation, with a focus on bankruptcy matters. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in , Sam represents clients in federal and state court litigation, with a focus on bankruptcy matters. Daniel Kozin has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Daniel advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Daniel advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. Julian Lamm has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in Los Angeles , Julian represents multinational corporations in complex civil litigation, with a focus on the technology sector. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in , Julian represents multinational corporations in complex civil litigation, with a focus on the technology sector. Scott Levi has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in New York . Scott advises public companies and companies going public on corporate governance matters, including compliance with US securities laws. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in . Scott advises public companies and companies going public on corporate governance matters, including compliance with US securities laws. Katherine McCullough has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Washington, DC , Katherine advises investment funds, both on the sponsor and investor side. Her investor-side work includes representing sovereign wealth funds and university endowments. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in , Katherine advises investment funds, both on the sponsor and investor side. Her investor-side work includes representing sovereign wealth funds and university endowments. Amara Mullins has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in Los Angeles . Amara represents technology companies in litigation and regulatory disputes. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in . Amara represents technology companies in litigation and regulatory disputes. Daniel Nussen has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Los Angeles , Daniel represents SPAC sponsors, investors and underwriters in SPAC IPOs and deSPAC business combinations. He also advises issuers on SEC filings and capital raises. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in , Daniel represents SPAC sponsors, investors and underwriters in SPAC IPOs and deSPAC business combinations. He also advises issuers on SEC filings and capital raises. Abraham Paul has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Sao Paulo, Abraham represents Latin American issuer and underwriter clients on unregistered equity and debt capital markets offerings, as well as US-registered offerings. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Sao Paulo, Abraham represents Latin American issuer and underwriter clients on unregistered equity and debt capital markets offerings, as well as US-registered offerings. F. Paul Pittman has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in Washington, DC , Paul advises on data privacy and cybersecurity issues. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in , Paul advises on data privacy and cybersecurity issues. Nicole Rodger has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice in Los Angeles. Nicole advises private equity funds and corporate borrowers, financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice in Los Angeles. Nicole advises private equity funds and corporate borrowers, financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. Neeta Sahadev has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Silicon Valley, Neeta focuses on tech-related M&A transactions as well as SPAC transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Silicon Valley, Neeta focuses on tech-related M&A transactions as well as SPAC transactions. Kerrick Seay has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in New York, Kerrick advises financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in New York, Kerrick advises financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. Tami Stark has been named a partner in our Global White Collar Practice. Based in New York , Tami focuses on white collar criminal and regulatory defense. She is a former Assistant Regional Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. has been named a partner in our Global White Collar Practice. Based in , Tami focuses on white collar criminal and regulatory defense. She is a former Assistant Regional Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. Joshua Weedman has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in New York . Joshua focuses on commercial and bankruptcy litigation, and also has experience with M&A-related disputes. EMEA (32 new partners) Derin Altan has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Istanbul , Derin focuses on equity and debt capital markets, and also advises on public mergers and acquisitions. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in , Derin focuses on equity and debt capital markets, and also advises on public mergers and acquisitions. Julien Bensaid has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Paris , Julien acts for private equity firms, other financial sponsors and corporate clients in a diverse range of transactions that includes public and distressed mergers and acquisitions as well as general corporate matters. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Julien acts for private equity firms, other financial sponsors and corporate clients in a diverse range of transactions that includes public and distressed mergers and acquisitions as well as general corporate matters. Orion Berg has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in Paris , Orion advises on foreign direct investment and regulatory matters, notably in the electronic communications and energy sectors. has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in , Orion advises on foreign direct investment and regulatory matters, notably in the electronic communications and energy sectors. Tim Bracksiek has been named a partner in our Global Tax Practice, based in Frankfurt . Tim's tax practice covers transactional, structuring, advisory and controversy work. has been named a partner in our Global Tax Practice, based in . Tim's tax practice covers transactional, structuring, advisory and controversy work. Victoria Burton has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in London , Victoria advises private equity and corporate M&A clients on a range of issues including founder and shareholder disputes, investor concerns, directors' duties, corporate governance and conflicts of interest. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in , Victoria advises private equity and corporate M&A clients on a range of issues including founder and shareholder disputes, investor concerns, directors' duties, corporate governance and conflicts of interest. Alexandra Diehl has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Frankfurt , Alexandra has national and international dispute resolution experience, with a focus on investment arbitration. has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in , Alexandra has national and international dispute resolution experience, with a focus on investment arbitration. Olga Fedosova has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Paris , Olga advises corporations, financial institutions and sovereigns on debt capital markets products in France , the CIS and Africa . has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in , Olga advises corporations, financial institutions and sovereigns on debt capital markets products in , the CIS and . Cristina Freudenberger has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Cristina advises issuers and investment banks on a range of debt, equity and hybrid corporate finance products. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Cristina advises issuers and investment banks on a range of debt, equity and hybrid corporate finance products. Thomas Glauden has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Brussels , Thomas advises on general corporate law, domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures and venture capital transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Thomas advises on general corporate law, domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures and venture capital transactions. Felix Hopker has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Felix focuses on insolvency administration, serving as a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts. has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Felix focuses on insolvency administration, serving as a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts. Samy Markbaoui has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Paris, Samy acts for sovereign and commercial clients in international arbitration matters and related disputes. has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Paris, Samy acts for sovereign and commercial clients in international arbitration matters and related disputes. Sara Nordin has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in Brussels , Sara focuses on economic sanctions, export control, customs- and import-related regulations and trade policy. has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in , Sara focuses on economic sanctions, export control, customs- and import-related regulations and trade policy. Jean Paszkudzki has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Paris , Jean has experience handling complex cross-border carve-out transactions for large corporate clients, and managing M&A and corporate aspects of SPAC and traditional IPOs. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Jean has experience handling complex cross-border carve-out transactions for large corporate clients, and managing M&A and corporate aspects of SPAC and traditional IPOs. Lars Petersen has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice in Hamburg . Lars focuses on EU and German public law and regulatory work, including litigation, and public procurement. has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice in . Lars focuses on EU and German public law and regulatory work, including litigation, and public procurement. Sebastian Pitz has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Sebastian advises on complex mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on financial institution and fintech transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Sebastian advises on complex mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on financial institution and fintech transactions. Sherief Rashed has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Cairo , Sherief advises clients on project development and commercial contracts, project finance and the banking aspects of complex and cross-border transactions, including conventional and Islamic financing structures. has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in , Sherief advises clients on project development and commercial contracts, project finance and the banking aspects of complex and cross-border transactions, including conventional and Islamic financing structures. Mark Richardson has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in London , Mark advises multinational corporations on a range of corporate matters, including private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and large-scale reorganizations. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Mark advises multinational corporations on a range of corporate matters, including private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and large-scale reorganizations. Neha Saran has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in London . Neha advises financial institutions on a range of cross-border capital markets transactions, with a focus on regulatory capital issuances and liability management exercises. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in . Neha advises financial institutions on a range of cross-border capital markets transactions, with a focus on regulatory capital issuances and liability management exercises. Marek Sawicki has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Warsaw, Marek advises on mergers and acquisitions for private equity and corporate clients, with a focus on international transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Warsaw, Marek advises on mergers and acquisitions for private equity and corporate clients, with a focus on international transactions. Adrianus Schoorl has been a named partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Riyadh, Adrianus focuses on financial services regulatory matters. has been a named partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Riyadh, Adrianus focuses on financial services regulatory matters. Hans-Georg Schulze has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in Berlin . Hans-Georg advises on mergers and acquisitions with a focus on transactions in the energy and technology sectors. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in . Hans-Georg advises on mergers and acquisitions with a focus on transactions in the energy and technology sectors. Daniel Schwartz has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Daniel is a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts, and he also focuses on international restructuring cases. has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Daniel is a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts, and he also focuses on international restructuring cases. Alessandro Seganfreddo has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Milan , Alessandro advises on both public and private mergers and acquisitions, as well as private equity matters. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Alessandro advises on both public and private mergers and acquisitions, as well as private equity matters. Laetitia Souesme has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in London , Laetitia advises on international arbitration matters, with a focus on the energy, infrastructure and mining sectors. has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in , Laetitia advises on international arbitration matters, with a focus on the energy, infrastructure and mining sectors. Jan Stejskal has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Prague, Jan advises private equity funds, financial groups and international corporations across industries on domestic and cross-border transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Prague, Jan advises private equity funds, financial groups and international corporations across industries on domestic and cross-border transactions. Stephanie Stocker has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in London. Stephanie focuses on complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes, primarily on behalf of energy sector clients. Her experience includes international arbitration and the enforcement of arbitral awards. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in London. Stephanie focuses on complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes, primarily on behalf of energy sector clients. Her experience includes international arbitration and the enforcement of arbitral awards. Will Stoner has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in London , Will advises companies, insolvency practitioners, banks, investment funds and other financial institutions on cross-border restructurings, special situations and distressed debt investments. has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in , Will advises companies, insolvency practitioners, banks, investment funds and other financial institutions on cross-border restructurings, special situations and distressed debt investments. John Timmons has been named a partner in our Global Intellectual Property Practice. Based in London, John advises on data protection and cybersecurity issues. has been named a partner in our Global Intellectual Property Practice. Based in London, John advises on data protection and cybersecurity issues. Ates Turnaoglu has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Istanbul, Ates advises on leveraged, structured and acquisition financings as well as financial restructurings. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Istanbul, Ates advises on leveraged, structured and acquisition financings as well as financial restructurings. Ben von Maur has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in London. Ben focuses on private equity transactions and equity investments, and also advises on corporate transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in London. Ben focuses on private equity transactions and equity investments, and also advises on corporate transactions. Louise Vun has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Dubai, Louise advises real estate developers on master community planning and real estate title structuring. She also advises on hotel and hospitality management agreements regarding third-party operators and on a range of real estate development projects. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Dubai, Louise advises real estate developers on master community planning and real estate title structuring. She also advises on hotel and hospitality management agreements regarding third-party operators and on a range of real estate development projects. Martin Weber has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Berlin , Martin focuses on advisory work and regulatory disputes in Germany and the EU. Asia-Pacific (5 new partners) Mai Kuroda has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Melbourne , Mai focuses on major development projects, primarily for energy, mining, power generation and transmission companies. has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in , Mai focuses on major development projects, primarily for energy, mining, power generation and transmission companies. Charles McConnell has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Singapore , Charles focuses on leveraged finance and complex cross-border transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in , Charles focuses on leveraged finance and complex cross-border transactions. William Moran has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice in Tokyo. William advises on international trade and regulatory matters, with broad coverage of economic sanctions and export controls. has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice in Tokyo. William advises on international trade and regulatory matters, with broad coverage of economic sanctions and export controls. Andrea Reeves has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Melbourne , Andrea focuses on property development projects, with experience in property related agreements, commercial joint venture and joint development agreements, renewable energy projects and compulsory acquisition processes conducted by government clients. has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in , Andrea focuses on property development projects, with experience in property related agreements, commercial joint venture and joint development agreements, renewable energy projects and compulsory acquisition processes conducted by government clients. Aditya Singh has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Singapore , Aditya has a broad international arbitration practice with experience in large commercial, investor-state and construction matters. Press contact For more information, please speak to your local media contact. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/641229/White_and_Case_Logo.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - Playfair's (TSXV: PLY) (FSE: P1J1) (OTC Pink: PLYFF) extensive drill program on its large (201 square kilometers) 100% RKV Copper Project in South Central Norway has successfully completed four short holes totaling 154.6 metres to test the Rdalen target identified by using a combination of Artificial Intelligence (CARDS) and Mobile Metal Ion (MMI) geochemistry. The drill is now being moved to Storboren, the second of seven targets to be tested. Local geological supervision is provided by Promin (a Trondheim-based consultancy). All four holes intersected a previously unknown amphibolite unit containing sulphides, including narrow widths of massive sulphides at the contact with the quartz-mica-schist country rock at Rdalen. Copper mineralization at the nearby historic mines of Rstvangen and Kvikne is closely associated with amphibolite. Figure 1: NQ drillcore with sulphides in first hole at Rdalen To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7302/98944_playfair1.jpg Figure 2: NQ drillcore with sulphides in first hole at Rdalen To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7302/98944_playfair2.jpg Samples are being cut and prepared for analysis. Playfair will consider future exploration at Rdalen once analytical results have been received. The man portable drill team is being supervised by Canadian drillers (No Limit Diamond Drilling) for Arctic Drilling (based in Finnmark). Local "Muskelgutta" (Muscle Guys) have risen to the challenge of moving the man portable drill. Local community support is greatly appreciated. Figure 3: "Muskelgutta": Olav Pedersen, Thomas Lkken, Glenn Tonning Ryn, Marius Wagenius and Magnus Kveberg To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7302/98944_playfair3.jpg Figure 4: "Muskelgutta": Olav Pedersen, Thomas Lkken, Glenn Tonning Ryn, Marius Wagenius and Magnus Kveberg To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7302/98944_playfair4.jpg In keeping with Playfair's intent to minimise the impact of its exploration on the natural environment Playfair is using a lightweight drilling machine which can be disassembled and hand-carried to the drill sites. Although lightweight the drill is capable of drilling to 150m depth using BQ sized rods (36.5 mm or 1.437 inches core diameter) and to 100m depth using NQ sized rods (47.8mm or 1.872 inches core diameter). All seven drill targets show compelling coherent MMI Cu anomalies with multiple MMI Cu values greater than 6,000 ppb. The highest value recorded was 53,300 ppb MMI Cu. A short MMI Report by SGS states that values greater than 6,000 ppb MMI Cu, "Are likely to be associated with weathering copper sulphides." RKV Project, Norway - 2021 Planned Drill Areas To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7302/98944_ec4d4cb424626bea_006full.jpg RKV Copper Project, Norway - Drill Targets To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7302/98944_ec4d4cb424626bea_007full.jpg Overall management and execution of Playfair's RKV drilling program is provided by Ronacher McKenzie Geoscience Inc., an independent consulting group, who, as part of their supervision, will ensure that appropriate quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) protocols are in place. RMG follows the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum's (CIM) Best Practices. In Norway, Reidar Gaupas, Playfair's representative, continues to assist Playfair within the local community and enhance Playfair's profile in Norway. Promin AS, a Trondheim-based consultancy with extensive experience in the Norwegian Mining industry, provides logistical support and experienced geologists. Helge Rushfeldt has assisted greatly in the start-up of the drill program. Kjell Nilsen, one of Norway's most experienced field geologists who discovered Nussir, Norway's largest known copper deposit, and Jonas Dombrowski are directly supervising the drilling, core logging and analysis. Arctic Drilling AS, a Norwegian drilling company based in Kautokeino, will carry out the drilling assisted by Canadian drillers (No Limit Diamond Drilling) who are familiar with the man portable drill and will train Arctic Drilling personnel in the operation of this drill. The drill targets are MMI (Mobile Metal Ion) copper anomalies discovered by sampling target areas generated by Windfall Geotek using their proprietary Computer Aided Resources Detection System (CARDS). The seven drill targets were previously described: Storboren (November 07, 2019, and December 05, 2019, News Releases), Sterfjellet, (January 06, 2021, News Release), Kletten North and Kletten South (January 28, 2021, News Release), Rstvangen Northeast and Rstvangen Southwest (February 17, 2021, News Release) and Rdalen (March 11, 2021, News Release). A presentation on the drilling plans can be found at this direct link or on Playfair's website. The technical contents of this release were approved by Greg Davison, PGeo, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The road to a cleaner environment includes electric vehicles. Electric vehicles need copper, nickel, and cobalt. There is no green future without minerals. For further information visit our website at www.playfairmining.com or contact: Donald G. Moore CEO and Director Phone: 604-377-9220 Email: dmoore@wascomgt.com D. Neil Briggs Director Phone: 604-562-2578 Email: nbriggs@wascomgt.com Forward-Looking Statements: This Playfair Mining Ltd News Release may contain certain "forward-looking" statements and information relating to Playfair which are based on the beliefs of Playfair management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Playfair management. Such statements reflect the current risks, uncertainties and assumptions related to certain factors including, without limitations, exploration and development risks, expenditure and financing requirements, title matters, operating hazards, metal prices, political and economic factors, competitive factors, general economic conditions, relationships with vendors and strategic partners, governmental regulation and supervision, seasonality, technological change, industry practices, and one-time events. Should any one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or change, or should any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and forward-looking statements may vary materially from those described herein. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/98944 Update: by the decision of the Board of AB Linas Agro Group, adopted on 8 October, 2021, the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders agenda clause No. 7 is revised, documents supplementing the agenda of the Meeting added Hereby we announce the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (hereinafter - the Meeting) of AB Linas Agro Group, registered address Smelynes St. 2C, Panevezys, Lithuania, code 148030011, (hereinafter - the Company) is convened. With continued uncertainty around the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and being unable to accurately predict further decisions and restrictions, we strongly recommend all shareholders to participate in the Meeting by taking the opportunity to vote in advance. If on the day of the Meeting restrictions related to pandemic including the quarantinewill be valid in the territory of the Republic of Lithuania or Vilnius city municipality and events or gatherings organized in closed areas will be banned or restricted, or any other restrictions are imposed, the participation in the Meeting would be possible only by voting in writing in advance by filling in the General Voting Ballot. The date, time and venue of the Meeting - 29 October, 2021 at 10.00 a.m., Radisson Blu Royal Astorija Hotel, Symphony Hall (Didzioji St. 35/2, Vilnius, Lithuania). Accounting day of the Meeting is 22 October, 2021. Only the persons who are the shareholders of the Company at the end of the Accounting day of the Meeting shall have the right to attend and vote at the Meeting. The Rights Accounting day is 16 November, 2021. Only the persons who are the shareholders of the Company at the end of the Rights Accounting day shall have proprietary rights. On the day the Meeting is convened the total number of the Company's shares is 158,940,398, and the number of shares granting voting rights is 158,172,426. The own shares in amount of 767,972 acquired by the Company do not grant voting rights. The ISIN code of the Company's shares is LT0000128092. Agenda of the Meeting: Presentation of the Company's Audit Committee Activity Report. Presentation of the independent auditors' report. Presentation of the Consolidated Annual Report of the Company for the financial year 2020/2021. Approval of Company's Remuneration Report. Approval of the consolidated and the Company's set of financial statements for the financial year ended 30 June, 2021. Approval of the Distribution of the Company's Profit (Loss). Election of the audit company to audit Company's financial statements and establishment of the payment for the services. Increase of the Company's share capital; Revocation of the pre-emption right of all shareholders of the Company to acquire the newly issued shares in order to grant shares of the Company free of charge to the employees and/or members of the Company's corporate bodies; Approval of a new wording of the Articles of Association of the Company; Approval of terms and conditions regarding the payment of the subscribed shares; Change of the registered office of the Company. Initiator of convening of the Meeting is the Board of the Company. The Meeting is convened by the decisions of the Board of the Company, adopted on 7 October, 2021 and 8 October, 2021. Registration of the Shareholders of the Company starts: 29 October, 2021 at 9.15 a.m. Registration of the Shareholders of the Company ends: 29 October, 2021 at 9.55 a.m. The Company does not provide possibility to attend and vote at the Meeting through electronic means of communication. Persons who at the end of the Accounting day of the Meeting will be shareholders of the Company, or their authorized persons, or persons with whom an agreement on the disposal of the voting right has been concluded, will have the right to personally participate and vote at the meeting. A person attending the Meeting must submit a person's identification document. A person who is not a shareholder must additionally produce a document confirming his/her right to vote at the Meeting. Each shareholder shall have a right in the manner established by the Laws to authorize natural or legal person on his/her behalf to attend and vote at the Meeting. At the Meeting, an authorized person shall have the same rights as the shareholder represented by him/her, unless otherwise specified in the issued power of attorney. A power of attorney issued abroad must be translated into Lithuanian and legalized in the manner established by the Laws. The Company does not require a special form of power of attorney. The agenda of the Meeting may be supplemented by initiative of the shareholders holding shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes. The drafts of proposed decisions on proposed issues or, if the decision shall not be adopted, explanation on each proposed issue of the agenda of the Meeting shall be presented alongside with the proposal to supplement the agenda of the Meeting. The proposal to supplement the agenda shall be submitted in writing by sending it by registered mail to AB Linas Agro Group at the address Subaciaus St. 5, Vilnius, Lithuania or by e-mail group@linasagro.lt. The agenda of the Meeting shall be supplemented if the proposal is received not later than 14 days before the Meeting. The shareholders who own shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes shall have the right at any time before the Meeting or during the Meeting to propose new draft decisions on the issue already included or to be included in to the agenda of the Meeting. The proposed draft decisions must be presented in writing by sending them by registered mail to AB Linas Agro Group at the address Subaciaus St. 5, Vilnius, Lithuania or by e-mail group@linasagro.lt. The shareholders shall also be entitled to propose draft decisions on the agenda issues of the Meeting in writing during the Meeting. The shareholders shall have the right to present questions related to the agenda issues of the Meeting to the Company. The questions in writing can be presented not later than 3 working days before the Meeting, by providing the shareholder's personal identification number and consent to process personal data by registered mail to AB Linas Agro Group at the address Subaciaus St. 5, Vilnius, Lithuania. Responses of general character shall be posted on the Company's website www.linasagrogroup.lt. The Company will not respond to the shareholder personally if the respective information is posted on the Company's website. A shareholder or a person authorized by him/her shall have right to vote in writing in advance by filling in the General Voting Ballot. Upon a written request of the shareholder holding the voting right, the Company shall send the General Voting Ballot by registered mail not later than 10 days before the Meeting. The General Voting Ballot also will be provided on the Company's website www.linasagrogroup.lt. The filled in General Voting Ballot must be signed by the shareholder or by the person authorized by him/her. If the person who is authorized by the shareholder is voting, the document confirming the right to vote must be attached to the filled in General Voting Ballot. The document confirming the voting right must be in Lithuanian or translated into Lithuanian by authorized translator and his/her signature must be confirmed by notarius. The filled in General Voting Ballot and the document confirming the voting right must be submitted to the Company in written form not later than the last working day before the Meeting, by sending it by registered mail to AB Linas Agro Group at the address Subaciaus St. 5, Vilnius, Lithuania or personally to the Company. The shareholders can familiarize themselves with the documents, related to the agenda of the Meeting, draft decisions on each issue of the agenda, documents to be submitted to the Meeting, and other information regarding execution of the shareholders rights, in the website of the Company www.linasagrogroup.lt, also on arrival at Subaciaus St. 5, Vilnius, Lithuania during business days at time agreed in advance by phone No +370 45 507 303 only. ENCLOSED: AB Linas Agro Group Activity Report of the Company's Audit Committee for the financial year 2020/2021 A set of annual statements of AB Linas Agro Group for the financial year 2020/2021 with the independent auditor's report AB Linas Agro Group Remuneration Report for the financial year 2020/2021 The new wording of the Articles of Association of AB Linas Agro Group Draft resolutions of the General Meeting of Shareholders General voting ballot Sincerely Chairman of the Board Darius Zubas Please contact for further information: Mazvydas Sileika, Finance Director of AB Linas Agro Group Mob. +370 619 19 403 E-mail m.sileika@linasagro.lt Attachments Columbus Venture Partners creates a new company in Bizkaia for synthetic DNA production: Syngoi Technologies MADRID and VALENCIA, SPAIN / ACCESSWIRE / October 8, 2021 / Today Columbus Venture Partners announces the creation of Syngoi Technologies, a biotechnology company engaged in the production of synthetic DNA through a new enzymatic process, owned by the company, that addresses the needs of advanced therapies where DNA is the fundamental starting material. This is the case of gene therapy and mRNA-based vaccines, emerging therapeutic strategies where manufacturing is an important bottleneck. Syngoi has its own technology for the manufacture of its optimized synthetic DNA (orDNATM) which confers multiple advantages over traditional plasmid DNA. On the one hand, it does not require cell culture infrastructure, and production times are reduced. On the other hand, it does not contain bacteria or antibiotic-resistant genes (relevant aspects for regulatory authorities). In addition, it offers advantages over other synthetic DNA, since it allows optimizing the therapeutic response of the gene of interest, in accordance with the client's use requirements, without any technological limitations. Syngoi was created in 2021 and the works for the new facilities, located in the Bizkaia Science and Technology Park, begin in the last quarter of 2021 with the aim of being operational in the second quarter of 2022. It is expected that by the first quarter of 2023 the plant will be ready to produce in accordance with GMP quality (Good Manufacturing Standards) and will be a supplier to the leading companies in the growing market of advanced therapies: gene therapy and mRNA vaccines. This infrastructure will involve an initial private investment of more than 10M, creating dozens of high-level direct jobs. This reinforces Columbus's commitment to the Basque Country and its positioning as one of the world's leading production areas in advanced therapies. Javier Garcia, general partner from Columbus, adds: "We are delighted to announce the creation of Syngoi. It will be Columbus's first investment in Bizkaia, and we think it will play a key role in the synthetic DNA production market." About Columbus Venture Partners A Spanish venture capital investment management company with a singular focus on business opportunities emerging in the biotechnology and life sciences sector. Columbus VP supports the most innovative science that emerges in research centers and start-ups and stands by throughout its development until eventual marketing of new products and treatments that offer effective solutions to unmet medical needs. Columbus VP has almost 235M under management in its funds Columbus INNVIERTE Life Science, Columbus Life Science Fund II, and Columbus Life Science Fund III; and Viralgen (CDMO gene therapy) is among its investees. Its team of professionals combines solid scientific, medical, and business knowledge with extensive experience in establishing and investing in biotechnology companies. www.columbusvp.com For further details and interviews: Cristina Andres candres@columbusvp.com SG Branding | Estudio de Marketing Maria Moreno comunicacion@sg-branding.com This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com. SOURCE: Syngoi View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/667371/Syngoi-a-New-Company-for-Synthetic-DNA-Production NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 3.5 billion people around the world suffer from oral health diseases, most of which can be prevented. According to data released by the World Health Organization, the combined global prevalence of tooth decay, gum disease, and tooth loss has plateaued at 45%.[1] Increasingly, experts agree that moving the needle requires better training for oral health professionals and a more diverse workforce that can meet the needs of children and their families where they live, grow, work, play and learn. Enter My Dental Key (MDK), a women-owned start-up founded at Harvard University that is transforming oral health education by producing top-tier, medical-grade digital training for oral health professionals worldwide and emphasizing oral health promotion and prevention as key to a healthier future for all. My Dental Key was created by dental students for dental students and other oral health professionals. Recognizing that there was little in the way of validated resources to supplement their education and clinical training, in 2020, the students launched MDK, a digital learning platform that provides expert-verified information, videos, illustrations, and step-by-step procedure modules that enable students and other health professionals across the globe to perform oral health care procedures with a high level of confidence and proficiency. Partnering with Bright Smiles, Bright Futures (BSBF) - Colgate-Palmolive's global oral health initiative - MDK is also providing accessible and affordable resources and looking at the broader issues that lead to poor oral health outcomes. "My Dental Key is on the path to revolutionizing oral health education," said Dr. Gillian Barclay, Vice President, Global Public Health and Scientific Affairs, Colgate-Palmolive Company. "Its platform is democratizing oral health care, making first-class resources available to every dental student and oral health professional, and it is helping to put the focus on oral health promotion and prevention as opposed to a solely curative approach." MDK has unique visitors across more than 130 countries, including students, dental school faculty, and established health professionals that leverage the platform's resources to improve their understanding of dental procedures and educate children and their families about oral health. The company has won several awards, including grants from the American Dental Education Association, the Harvard University President's Innovation Challenge, and The Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship, which encourages innovation that benefits society. "As a company, MDK is dedicated to reimagining the way dental students and other health professionals learn," said Leela Breitman, DMD, the company's CEO and cofounder. "By harnessing today's technology to help students and other oral health professionals visualize complicated clinical concepts, we are helping to train better oral health professionals and enabling them to communicate and empower communities in ways that truly promote good oral health." To subscribe to MDK or learn more about its resources, visit https://www.mydentalkey.com . [1] https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/who-discussion-paper-draft-global-strategy-on-oral-health Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1655881/IMG_0860_3_5529.jpg WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. Labor Department will shortly issue an emergency rule to require all employers with more than 100 employees under them, whether they work for the federal government or not, to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated or face testing at least once a week. This Labor Department vaccination requirement will cover 100 million Americans, about two thirds of the U.S. working class. This was announced by President Joe Biden while delivering remarks on the importance of COVID-19 vaccine requirements in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, Thursday. He also met with public and private sector leaders who have implemented vaccination requirements. Biden said vaccination requirements are already proving their worth. More than 95 percent of students at colleges and universities across the country are vaccinated. Biden said America's largest aerospace companies - Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman - all just announced plans to implement vaccination requirements. Increased vaccination coverage results in as many as 5 million American workers going back to work, according to Biden. 'We're also starting to see less than 19 - less COVID-19 cases in a vast majority of communities around the country. Cases are down, this past month, by 40 percent. Hospitalizations are down by 25 percent. We're headed in the right direction if we don't - if we keep our eye on the ball here. We still have a long way to go,' Biden said. Biden said he tried everything in his power to get people vaccinated, but even after all those efforts, the country still had more than a quarter of people who were eligible for vaccinations but didn't get the shot. With 100083 new infections reporting on Thursday, the national total increased to 44,160,455, as per the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. An additional 2392 Covid deaths took the total number of people who died due to the pandemic to 710,185. 34,479,131 people have so far recovered from the disease in the country. As per the latest data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 186,618,184 people in the United States, or 56.2 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. This includes 83.8 percent of people above 65. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de BARCELONA, Spain, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Moco Museum will open its doors on 16 October 2021 in a 16th century Palace in the city centre. The Modern Contemporary (Moco) Museum repeats its inclusive museum model in Barcelona, Spain. On 16 October 2021, Moco Museum Barcelona opens its doors to the public, marking a new chapter for the independent museum. Modern & Contemporary Art Following its success in Amsterdam, Moco echoes its commitment to exhibiting iconic works by internationally renowned artists and rising stars. Moco Amsterdam first opened its doors in April 2016. Today, Moco Museum Amsterdam has welcomed nearly 2 million visitors from over 120 different nations. For many visitors, Moco is an entry point into the world of art. We are proud to welcome a broadly young audience who visit us and fall in love with art for the very first time. On view Moco Barcelona has artworks from Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Banksy, Salvador Dali, Damien Hirst, Keith Haring, KAWS, Hayden Kays, Yayoi Kusama, David LaChapelle, Takashi Murakami, & More! Digital experiential immersive art from teamLab, Les Fantomes, and Studio Irma. *Special Exhibitions: Esplendor de la Noche by Guillermo Lorca: Moco presents the first European solo show from the contemporary Chilean artist in a show that mixes magic and realism. Curated by Simon de Pury , legendary auctioneer, art dealer and one of the leading figures in the art world. Moco presents the first European solo show from the contemporary Chilean artist in a show that mixes magic and realism. , legendary auctioneer, art dealer and one of the leading figures in the art world. TeamLab: Digital Immersive Art Digital Immersive Art Europe's first dedicated exhibition space to the NFT phenomenon. Moco Museum Barcelona Located at c / Montcada 25 in Barcelona. Moco Museum takes over the space of Palacio Cervello, formerly the private residence of the noble Cervello family until the 18th Century. From the Middle Ages to the 20th Century, aristocrats, merchants, and royals have held onto this historical site. With the utmost respect for the existing building, Studio Pulsen (www.pulsen.es) recovered the original essence of Palacio Cervello - adapting to the needs of Moco Museum to create a great modern and contemporary space. This space takeover reflects Moco's first initiative, when it took over the space of Villa Alsberg (b. 1904) in Amsterdam - a building historically reserved for the privileged elite. Once again, Moco Museum changes the energy of an exclusive space to welcome all. However, Amsterdam has become too small to manifest all of our wildest dreams, and our exhibition space is limited. There is so much more art we want to share and so many more stories to tell. "We represent the voice of the street and we trust in art as the amazing vehicle to help get us there." - Kim & Lionel Logchies, founders of Moco Museum Click for 'museum impression' www.mocomuseum.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1655845/Moco_Museum.jpg Cash and cash equivalents of 9.5 million1 as of 30 September 2021 Regulatory News: Lysogene (FR0013233475 LYS), a phase 3 gene therapy platform Company targeting central nervous system (CNS) diseases, today reports its cash position of 9.5 million1 as of 30 September 2021 (compared to 15.0 million as of 30 June 2021). This amount excludes the $1.5m reimbursement of certain development costs of LYS-SAF302 from Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (Sarepta). On October 15, 2018, Lysogene and Sarepta signed a license agreement granting Sarepta exclusive commercial rights to LYS-SAF302 in the United States and all territories outside of Europe, while Lysogene retained exclusive commercial rights to the product in Europe. As part of the agreement, Sarepta is responsible for LYS-SAF302 global commercial manufacturing. Both parties have agreed to suspend such payments while discussions to modify the agreement are ongoing. About Lysogene Lysogene is a gene therapy Company focused on the treatment of orphan diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). The Company has built a unique capability to enable a delivery of gene therapies to the CNS to treat lysosomal diseases and other genetic disorders of the CNS. A phase 2/3 clinical trial in MPS IIIA in partnership with Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. is ongoing. An adaptive clinical trial in GM1 gangliosidosis is ongoing. In accordance with the agreements signed between Lysogene and Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc., Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. will hold exclusive commercial rights to LYS-SAF302 in the United States and markets outside Europe; and Lysogene will maintain commercial exclusivity of LYS-SAF302 in Europe. Lysogene has also entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with SATT Conectus for a gene therapy candidate for the treatment of the Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disease related to autism. www.lysogene.com. Forward Looking Statement This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements, especially on the Company's progress of its clinical trials and cash runway. Although the Company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, all statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release about future events are subject to (i) change without notice, (ii) factors beyond the Company's control, (iii) clinical trial results, (iv) increased manufacturing costs, (v) potential claims on its products, and (vi) a modification of the terms of its agreements with Sarepta Therapeutics. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as "target," "believe," "expect," "aim," "intend," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "objective", "project," "will," "can have," "likely," "should," "would," "could" and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the expected results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other risks can be found in the Company's regulatory filings with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers, including in the 2020 universal registration document, registered with the French Markets Authorities on April 12, 2021, under number D.21-0296, and future filings and reports by the Company. Furthermore, these forward-looking statements are only as of the date of this press release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. If the Company updates one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will or will not make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. This press release has been prepared in both French and English. In the event of any differences between the two texts, the French language version shall supersede. 1 Unaudited figure View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005392/en/ Contacts: Stephane Durant des Aulnois Chief Financial Officer stephane.durant-des-aulnois@lysogene.com + 33 1 41 43 03 99 BIRMINGHAM, England, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As the 16th?official Queen's Baton Relay - an epic journey visiting 72 Commonwealth countries in 294 days - departed Birmingham Airport, UK, earlier today, citizens of the Commonwealth were invited to contribute to a unique cultural collaboration. 'The Relaytionship', an unfinished poem by spoken word artist Amerah Saleh, invites individuals from every corner of the Commonwealth to contribute their voices, words and images to a piece of 'hyper hybrid art' inspired by the home of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the West Midlands. As the birthplace of Shakespeare, the Industrial Revolution and the Peaky Blinders, the West Midlands has been a home for arts and culture to flourish for centuries. 'The Relaytionship' aims to celebrate the incredible wealth of cultural innovation the region has brought to the world and embody how diverse cultures and communities can come together to create something entirely new and unique. "The Commonwealth Games is a time for people to connect and to share stories across countries and communities." said artist Amerah Saleh. "There is no better region to embody that global connection than the West Midlands. "As one of the youngest and most diverse regions in the world, we're a place where many cultures come together to collaborate, to innovate and to create. It is this distinctive spirit of the West Midlands that we wanted to celebrate through The Relaytionship." Councillor Patrick Harley, Portfolio Lead for Culture & Digital for the West Midlands Combined Authority, commented: "Making connections with audiences across the globe is incredibly important as the West Midlands gears up for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Working with the region's thriving arts scene can help us to reach people across any border. The West Midlands is an incredibly popular destination for overseas visitors, particularly Australia, India and Canada. Pre-pandemic, the region attracted more than 2 million international visits every year. We want to remind them, that we are thinking of them, and are ready to welcome them back to the West Midlands as soon as we can." What does 'home' mean to you? What does 'incredible' mean to you? Communities around the Commonwealth are being asked to contribute words and images which reflect their answers to these questions. 'The Relaytionship' launched today and continues around the Commonwealth for 294 days. For more information or to contribute your words visit www.makeitwm.com/relaytionship. Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1656036/Amerah_Saleh_at_Birmingham_Airport_to_launch_The_Relaytionship.mp4 Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1656027/Amerah_Saleh_at_Birmingham_Airport_to_launch_The_Relaytionship.jpg Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - Royal Road Minerals Limited (TSXV: RYR) ("Royal Road" or the "Company") announces that Liz Wall has resigned as Non-executive Chairman and Director of the Company effective immediately due to personal reasons. The Company will commence a search for an independent director to replace Ms. Wall on its board of directors. Dr. Tim Coughlin, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, stated, "We are sad that Liz is leaving us, but we wish her the very best for her PhD studies in Western Australia and in her continuing role as a reputable and world-class ESG consultant." 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 certain statements that constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements") describing the Company's future plans and the expectations of its management that a stated result or condition will occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or developments in the Company's business or in the mineral resources industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include all disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations that is based on assumptions about, among other things, future economic conditions and courses of action, and assumptions related to government approvals, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The words "plans", "prospective", "expect", "intend", "intends to" and similar expressions identify forward looking statements, which may also include, without limitation, any statement relating to future events, conditions or circumstances. Forward-looking statements of the Company contained in this news release, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to the Company's exploration plans. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. There is no guarantee that the anticipated benefits of the Company's business plans or operations will be achieved. The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others: economic market conditions, anticipated costs and expenditures, government approvals, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with Canadian provincial securities regulators or other applicable regulatory authorities. Forward-looking statements included herein are based on the current plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions of the Company management and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. For further information please contact: Dr. Timothy Coughlin President and Chief Executive Officer USA-Canada toll free 1800 6389205 +44 (0)1534 887166 +44 (0)7797 742800 info@royalroadminerals.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99040 Val-d'Or, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - Abitibi Royalties Inc. (TSXV: RZZ) (OTCQX: ATBYF) ("Abitibi Royalties") and Golden Valley Mines and Royalties Ltd. (TSXV: GZZ) (OTCQX: GLVMF) ("Golden Valley" and together with Abitibi Royalties, the "Companies") are pleased to announce that they have each publicly filed and commenced the sending of their respective management information circulars (the "Circulars") and related materials for their special meetings (the "Meetings") to be held on October 29, 2021 to approve the previously announced plans of arrangement (the "Arrangements"). Pursuant to the Arrangements, among other things, Gold Royalty Corp. (NYSE American: GROY) ("Gold Royalty") will acquire: all of the outstanding common shares of Abitibi Royalties (the "Abitibi Shares") in exchange for 4.6119 common shares of Gold Royalty (the "Gold Royalty Shares") for each Abitibi Share; and all of the outstanding common shares of Golden Valley (the "Golden Valley Shares") in exchange for 2.1417 Gold Royalty Shares for each Golden Valley Share. The Companies are also pleased to announce that they have each obtained interim orders of the British Columbia Supreme Court, which provide for, among other things, the holding of the Meetings under applicable corporate legislation. The Arrangements are subject to customary conditions applicable to such transactions, including receipt of requisite court, shareholder and stock exchange approvals. Each Arrangement is also conditional on completion of the other Arrangement. If all necessary approvals are obtained and the conditions to each Arrangement are met or waived, it is currently anticipated that the Arrangements will be completed in November 2021. Benefits of the Arrangements The anticipated benefits of the Arrangements to the Companies' respective shareholders, include, among other things: Significant Premium. The share exchange ratio represents significant premiums of 22% and 86% to Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley shareholders, respectively, based on the 20-day volume-weighted average price of each party's shares as of September 3, 2021, being the last trading date prior to the announcement of the Arrangements. The share exchange ratio represents significant premiums of 22% and 86% to Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley shareholders, respectively, based on the 20-day volume-weighted average price of each party's shares as of September 3, 2021, being the last trading date prior to the announcement of the Arrangements. Creation of a Leading Growth and Americas-Focused Precious Metals Royalty Company. The transaction creates a new, sizable Americas-focused royalty company. The combined company is expected to have over 190 royalties across the production, development and exploration stages in various jurisdictions in the Americas. The transaction creates a new, sizable Americas-focused royalty company. The combined company is expected to have over 190 royalties across the production, development and exploration stages in various jurisdictions in the Americas. Ability to Participate in Future Potential Growth of the Combined Entity. By receiving Gold Royalty Shares under the Arrangements, Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley shareholders will have meaningful ownership in a leading growth and Americas-focused precious metals royalty company with continued exposure to the royalty portfolio of the combined company through ownership of Gold Royalty Shares. Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley shareholders will each also have increased exposure to royalties that are in production, currently under development, in the feasibility or preliminary economic assessment stage and on numerous key exploration projects. Additionally, given the increased scale and diversification, it is expected that Gold Royalty will be positioned for a re-rate by attracting enhanced multiples that are generally applicable to larger companies. By receiving Gold Royalty Shares under the Arrangements, Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley shareholders will have meaningful ownership in a leading growth and Americas-focused precious metals royalty company with continued exposure to the royalty portfolio of the combined company through ownership of Gold Royalty Shares. Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley shareholders will each also have increased exposure to royalties that are in production, currently under development, in the feasibility or preliminary economic assessment stage and on numerous key exploration projects. Additionally, given the increased scale and diversification, it is expected that Gold Royalty will be positioned for a re-rate by attracting enhanced multiples that are generally applicable to larger companies. Enhanced Balance Sheet and Access to Capital. The combined company will have approximately US$52.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities and no debt (pro forma as of June 30, 2021), greater access to equity and debt capital markets and the critical mass to drive significant growth through acquisitions. The combined company will have approximately US$52.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities and no debt (pro forma as of June 30, 2021), greater access to equity and debt capital markets and the critical mass to drive significant growth through acquisitions. Expanded Quebec Presence and Increased Diversification. The combined company will have an expanded presence in Quebec through Gold Royalty's royalties on properties managed by Monarch Mining Corporation and Wallbridge Mining Company Limited. In addition, the transaction presents the opportunity for Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley shareholders to participate in a royalty portfolio that includes royalties in Nevada and other jurisdictions of the Americas. The combined company will have an expanded presence in Quebec through Gold Royalty's royalties on properties managed by Monarch Mining Corporation and Wallbridge Mining Company Limited. In addition, the transaction presents the opportunity for Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley shareholders to participate in a royalty portfolio that includes royalties in Nevada and other jurisdictions of the Americas. Increased Liquidity and Simplification of Ownership. The Gold Royalty Shares are listed on the NYSE American which is expected to enhance the market visibility and exposure of the combined companies. The transactions will also simplify the ownership structure of Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley by eliminating the overhang from the existing ownership structure. The directors, senior officers and certain shareholders of the Companies, holding in the aggregate approximately 65.4% and 38.0%, respectively, of the issued and outstanding common shares of each of Abitibi Royalties (including Golden Valley) and Golden Valley, have entered into voting support agreements with Gold Royalty dated September 6, 2021, pursuant to which they have agreed to vote their shares in favour of the respective Arrangements at the applicable Meetings and against any resolution or transaction that would prevent or delay the completion of such Arrangement. Of such shares, approximately 31.4% and 11.2% of the outstanding shares of Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley, respectively, are subject to "hard" lock-up support and voting agreements, pursuant to which the obligations of the shareholder continue for a period of 6 months from the date thereof and do not terminate in the event the underlying arrangement agreement is terminated in accordance with its terms. Recommendation of the Boards of Directors The boards of directors of each of Abitibi Royalties and Golden Valley, each on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee comprised of its independent directors, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote FOR the applicable Arrangement. Meeting Materials Shareholders of each of the Companies should refer to the applicable Circular and related materials for detailed instructions on how to vote and participate at the Meeting. The Circulars also contain important information regarding the Arrangements and underlying agreements. The Circulars and related materials are available on each respective Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Each of the Companies urges shareholders to review such materials prior to voting at the Meetings. The Meetings The Golden Valley Meeting is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on October 29, 2021 and the Abitibi Royalties Meeting is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on October 29, 2021. The Meetings will each be held at 2864, chemin Sullivan, Val-d'Or, Quebec, and will also be held by telephone conference call. Given the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, considerations regarding the health and safety of employees and stakeholders as well as public health guidelines to limit gatherings of people, shareholders are encouraged to attend the Meetings by telephone conference. Shareholders who wish to attend the meetings must follow the instructions set out in the respective Circulars. Your Vote is Important Whether or not you plan to attend the applicable Meeting, the Companies each encourage their respective shareholders to vote promptly. Please complete the form of proxy or voting instruction form enclosed with the Circulars and return it to the Companies' transfer agent, Odyssey Trust Company, as soon as possible, and in any event no later than: (i) 12:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on October 27, 2021, in the case of the Golden Valley Meeting; and (ii) 1:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on October 27, 2021, in the case of the Abitibi Royalties Meeting. Registered shareholders can vote at the respective Meetings prior to such deadlines by returning their completed form of proxy by mail to Suite 350, 409 Granville Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 1T2, Attention: Proxy Department; or by facsimile: 1-800-517-4553; or by voting through the Internet following the instructions on the form of proxy. Non-registered shareholders, being shareholders whose shares are not registered in their own name should follow the instructions set forth in the voting instruction form sent to them by their broker or other financial institution in order to vote their shares at the applicable Meeting. If you have any questions regarding the submission of your proxy, please contact Odyssey Trust Company, at its North American toll-free number: 1-888-290-1175. About Abitibi Royalties Inc. Abitibi Royalties Inc. owns various royalties at the Canadian Malartic Mine near Val-d'Or, Quebec. In addition, Abitibi Royalties is building a portfolio of royalties on early-stage properties near producing mines and generating mineral projects for option or sale. About Golden Valley Mines and Royalties Ltd. Golden Valley Mines and Royalties Ltd. is focused on project and royalty generation and continues to evaluate opportunities to enhance its mining exploration property portfolio. Golden Valley is able to grow its current assets by way of partner-funded option/joint ventures and through its shareholdings in related-entities. For additional information, please contact: Abitibi Royalties Inc. Ian Ball, President & CEO Tel.: 1-888-392-3857 Email: info@abitibiroyalties.com Golden Valley Mines and Royalties Ltd. Glenn Mullan, President & CEO Tel.: 1-819-824-2808 ext.204 Email: glenn.mullan@goldenvalleymines.com Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information: Certain of the information contained in this news release constitutes 'forward-looking information' and 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws ("forward-looking statements") and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause each of the Companies' and/or Gold Royalty's actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein. Such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements relating to the proposed Arrangements; the conditions to closing of each of the Arrangements; and the anticipated timing thereof; and the anticipated timing, benefits and effects of the completion of the Arrangements, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, obtaining required shareholder, stock exchange and regulatory approvals, exercise of any termination rights under the underlying arrangement agreements, any inability to satisfy the other conditions therein, material adverse effects on the business, properties and assets of the Companies; and any inability of the parties to realize the benefits of the proposed transactions. Although the Companies have each 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. Neither of the Companies undertakes to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99030 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 8, 2021 / Light Reading (www.lightreading.com), the market-leading online community for the global communications sector, has announced the winners of its Leading Lights Awards 2021. Winners included industry giants such as Juniper, Amdocs, NEC and Deutsche Telekom, and smaller but equally important specialist companies, such as Keysight Technologies, American Tower, Federated Wireless and Open Systems. The winners of the Leading Lights Awards, the telecom industry's most prestigious awards program, were announced today in a special online ceremony hosted by Light Reading's Editor-in-Chief, Phil Harvey, as well as Light Reading's editorial team. The Leading Lights program comprised 23 categories, recognizing the industry's top companies and their executives for outstanding achievements in next-generation communications technology, applications, services, strategies and innovation. This year's program also included outstanding use case categories, giving service providers and vendors a chance to tout their technologies, strategies and services in action. "Now in its 17th year, the Leading Lights Awards remains a testimony to the incredible innovation that's possible in the global communications industry, even during a pandemic," said Light Reading Editor-in-Chief Phil Harvey. "Our editors and guest judges were extremely impressed with this year's entries. The winners, and all of the finalists, should be proud of their achievements. Congratulations to all!" To find out the Leading Lights winners, view the awards ceremony on-demand here. Leading Lights judging was conducted by Light Reading's editors with input from the analyst team at Heavy Reading. (http://www.heavyreading.com). The Leading Lights Awards are sponsored by Cellwize and NEC. About Light Reading Light Reading is an independent B2B digital media platform providing daily news analysis and insight for the global communications networking and services industry. Our broad readership and solid reputation make us the leading resource for telecom, mobile and cable network operators; cloud services players; and all the companies that develop and supply them with technology, applications and professional services. Light Reading has over 500,000 qualified registered users, our websites attract over 1.3 million monthly page views and our newsletters are sent out to 220,000 opt-in subscribers. Our brand is also active across all social media channels, with over 100,000 members and followers. The Light Reading Group incorporates a dedicated research division, Heavy Reading; more than 20 successful annual industry events and digital events; several targeted online communities, including The 5G Exchange, Connecting Africa and Broadband World News, that dig even deeper into key areas of the global communications industry; and its sister industry news site Telecoms.com. CONTACT: Amy Averbook Light Reading averbook@lightreading.com SOURCE: Light Reading Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/667414/Light-Reading-Announces-2021-Leading-Lights-Awards-Winners DGAP Voting Rights Announcement: QIAGEN N.V. QIAGEN N.V.: Release according to Article 40, Section 1 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act] with the objective of Europe-wide distribution 08.10.2021 / 22:04 Dissemination of a Voting Rights Announcement transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The AFM (the Netherlands Authority For the Financial Markets) has informed us on October 5, 2021 that a notification related to our institution has been released by the AFM. The following notification has been disclosed in the relevant register on the AFM website: Date of transaction: 01 oct 2021 Person obliged to notify: BlackRock, Inc. Issuing institution: Qiagen N.V. Registration Chamber of Commerce: 12036979 Place of residence: VENLO Distribution in numbers Type of share Number of shares Number of voting rights Capital interest Voting rights Manner of disposal Settlement Ordinary share 32.266.732,00 34.614.604,00 Real Real Indirectly - BlackRock, Inc. Contract for difference 117.211,00 117.211,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - BlackRock, Inc. In Cash Ordinary share 814.466,00 814.466,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - BlackRock, Inc. Physical Delivery Distribution in percentages Type Total holding Directly real Directly potential Indirectly real Indirectly potential Capital interest 14,38 % 0,00 % 0,00 % 13,98 % 0,40 % Voting rights 15,40 % 0,00 % 0,00 % 15,00 % 0,40 % QIAGEN N.V. is not responsible for the accuracy and correctness of the notification above. The content has been taken from the relevant register of the AFM: https://www.afm.nl/en/professionals/registers/meldingenregisters/substantiele-deelnemingen/details?id=116131 08.10.2021 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc. (CSE: VEGI) (OTCQB: VGGIF) (FSE: 77I) ("Boosh" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has executed a Share Purchase Agreement dated October 1st, 2021 to purchase all the shares of Pulse Kitchen Specialty Foods Ltd. ("Pulse Kitchen"). Pulse Kitchen products 100% plant-based gluten free cheese, made from nuts, seeds, pulses and other fine ingredients. Cheese flavors include Sharp Cashew Cheddar, Almond Chevre, Dill Havarti, Almond Swiss, Vegan Pepper Jack, Cashew Kind of Blue and Smoky Cashew Cheddar. Products are sold in approximately 250 grocery stores in Canada including Whole Foods, Healthy Planet, Nature's Fare, IGA, Fresh St Market, Choices, Urban Fare, and Nesters. The production facility is located in Penticton BC and was established in 2016. Cannot view this video? Visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrtiVgKZUXo. "I think joining the Boosh family is a perfect fit for us. They strive to differentiate themselves in the plant-based sector, as do we. Our emphasis at Pulse Kitchen is to create deliciously flavoured plant-based cheeses with a focus on high quality and texture allowing us to enhance our consistency relating to balancing the levels of acidity and quality, resulting in a unique set of characteristics in terms of flavour, taste and texture," states Chef Stephanos Liapis, owner and founder of Pulse Kitchen. "Our products certainly take center stage on any charcuterie board and are equally enjoyed while snacking or adding to other dishes." "We are thrilled to welcome Stephanos, Brigitte and their team to Boosh. Not only are they amazing people, and produce amazing cheese, but their products pair beautifully with our line of Vege pate and dips from our recently acquired business, Salt Spring Harvest. Going forward Boosh will have an entire line of foods that pair naturally with wine, which happens to be a passion of mine. Having an earlier career in the food and beverage industry and owning a wine store and two wine bars, this is of special interest to me," stated founder and president, Connie Marples. She continues, "To top it off, Penticton is my hometown where I spent most of my childhood. Having a production facility where a piece of my heart is and the heart of the wine country adds to the cache of the Pulse Kitchen brand." CEO Jim Pakulis states, "This is our third acquisition in less than nine months. As we continue to execute on our business plan including our four-prong revenue stream model; organic growth, acquisition, US expansion and E-commerce, we continue to be in discussions with other plant-based acquisition candidates who are looking for access to capital and a corporate infrastructure designed for growth." The aggregate purchase price for Pulse Kitchen is $300,000 in cash and the issuance of 50,000 common shares, payable as follows. $100,000 payable on the closing date, minus $10,000 deposit, 50,000 common shares of Boosh issued on the Closing Date, $100,000 payable six months from the date of closing and $100,000 twelve months from closing date. On behalf of the Board of Directors James Pakulis Chief Executive Officer Telephone: (833) 882-6674 www.Booshfood.com About Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc.: Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary, Boosh Food (www.booshfood.com), produces high quality, 100% plant-based gluten free, non-GMO nutritious comfort foods for the whole family. We offer six frozen meals, 3 refrigerated meals and a line of veggie pates and dips. All are sold throughout Canada with plans to start sales in the US late 2021. Boosh, good for you and good for planet earth. The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, expectations, achievements or performance may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, the Company's proposed use of the proceeds of its initial public offering. Any number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as well as future results. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward looking statements or otherwise. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99034 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - Relay Medical Corp. (CSE: RELA) (OTCQB: RYMDF) (FSE: EIY2) ("Relay" or the "Company") addresses the critical infrastructure sectors of electricity, natural gas, and water, whereby the mitigation of cyber vulnerabilities is of growing national security concern, as well as a cost, IP and compliance issue. Cybeats solutions address the needs of North American utility companies and satisfies new mandated software requirements centered around Software Bill of Materials ("SBOM"). In critical utility sectors, software can cost roughly $10,000 USD per line of code and have upwards of 200,000 lines of verification code. This means some organizations have invested billions into their unique software assets, and will need to secure them at all cost. Additionally, governments need to secure utility infrastructure and reduce cyber attack risk for national security and defense. Cybeats helps large utility service providers satisfy regulatory requirements and leverages its technology to detect and eliminate cyber threats in real-time. "Utility companies face immense cyber risks in the coming years. From national security concerns to increasing costs, North American Utility companies especially will need to implement supply chain security and other cyber defense solutions as soon as possible. Cybeats is actively pursuing commercial partnerships to secure utility infrastructure and software supply chains in the sector. Cybeats is poised to service and secure software supply chains for the various utilities infrastructure sectors," said Dmitry Raidman, co-founder & CTO, Cybeats. SBOM Importance, National Security The SBOM inclusion in the executive order was intentionally mandated for the government and private industry, though the two sectors see SBOMs in different ways. Government agencies see SBOMs as a means to reduce national security risks, whereas the private industry might see SBOMs as a cost or economic issue. Private companies will start experiencing pressures to reduce brand reputation risks and protecting IP and trade secrets via SBOM1 Software vendors can expect to see customers start demanding SBOMs in their contracts. The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Technology and Information Administration (NTIA) is in the process of launching a pilot program for the energy sector to develop and bring into use a SBOM that could help utilities secure equipment and software, track vulnerabilities and ensure they are patched. Project officials say the effort will build an international, cross-sector effort to establish consensus for the software supply chain technical and operational considerations. Software supply chain attacks are continually becoming more sophisticated as cyber terrorists exploit weaknesses at every step of the software development process. "SBOM will be an invaluable tool for managing cybersecurity and software supply chain risks," said Allan Friedman, former Director of Cybersecurity Initiatives at NTIA. "We find new vulnerabilities every few months that widely affect a lot of software and embedded components that are really deployed everywhere in our ecosystem- especially in the energy world." Software supply chain issues are the subject of a new collaboration between the electric power sector and federal government, as past initiatives frequently overlooked electric utility vulnerabilities.2 The Edison Electric Institute and the North American Transmission Forum have been working with the federal government to pilot the use of SBOMs in the energy sector.3 If SBOM principles extend to all software, beyond what NIST says is critical, companies could be better equipped to spot bugs that impact a supply chain. SBOMs can also give security executives some peace of mind by answering these questions in light of new vulnerabilities, whether for software built in-house or acquired externally. Once utility companies are alerted to a vulnerability, with a SBOM they can better locate the code containing the issue and determine how to reduce downtime and how quickly they can patch it to restore services. NERC-CIP & IEC 62443 The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)4, a non-for-profit international regulatory authority whose mission is to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the electric grid. The newest version of NERC standards is called CIP (Critical Infrastructure Protection). These standards are used to secure bulk electric systems and apply directly to the utilities sector. IEC 62443 is an international series of standards for Industrial communication networks, IT security for networks and systems. The IEC standard is divided into different sections and describes both technical and process-related aspects of industrial cybersecurity, which also applies to utilities infrastructure.5 Cybeats can support various aspects of enterprise cybersecurity, and for both of these applicable compliance requirements. Utility Industry Market Size The U.S. Utilities market size was USD $640 Billion in 2021 and CAD $60 Billion in Canada during the same time period. The global utilities market is on pace to be USD $4.5 trillion in 2021, with varying degrees of software mandates and requirements across different country's borders.6 As the energy and utilities sectors face technological change across these sub-sectors, so are the mandated requirements that will include software supply chain and SBOM, which Cybeats products directly address the mandated technological changes and software supply chain security faced by the energy and utility sectors.7 The U.S. power system has evolved into a highly complex system with 3,300 utilities that work together to deliver power through 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines. There are 55,000 substations and 5.5 million miles of distribution lines that bring power to millions of homes and businesses. Any of the system's principal elements including power generation, transmission, or distribution could be targeted and potentially shut down due to a cyberattack.8 Cyber Attacks on Utility Sector Canadian Center for Cybersecurity wrote that cybercriminals would likely be capable of targeting the Canadian electricity sector for extortion within the next three years.9 Studies have found that 56% of Utilities have faced a cyber-attack in the past year.10 Whether a cyber attack on a power grid leading to a black-out on Christmas Eve11, or attacks on water supply in L.A. and Portland, there have been severe disturbances to utility companies recently. "Water and Power sectors are shockingly vulnerable to cyberattacks," wrote Bloomberg.12 Cybersecurity experts agree that at some point in the near future cyber criminals based in other countries could shutdown at least some portions of the U.S. power grid, if not the entire grid.13 Recent Cybersecurity News, M&A Akamai acquired cybersecurity firm Guardicore for $600 million USD.14 Cybersecurity Ventures predicts global cybercrime damages will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. Global cybersecurity spending is expected to reach $1 trillion cumulatively for the 5-year period from 2017 to 2021.15 RECENT NEWS: Announced Cybeats products that address the Electric Vehicles and Charging stations security markets: https://bit.ly/3BfEpu5 SUBSCRIBE: For more information on Relay or to subscribe to the Company's mail list visit: https://www.relaymedical.com/news About Relay Medical Corp. Relay Medical is a technology innovator headquartered in Toronto, Canada focused on the development of novel solutions in the diagnostics, AI data science and IoT security sectors. Relay recently acquired Cybeats Technologies, a platform which offers a holistic approach to cybersecurity and addresses the $73 billion IoT security market through their Software Bill of Materials and microagent solution. Cybeats provides real-time cybersecurity for connected devices, critical infrastructure, automotive, medical and IoT (Internet of Things) sectors. The Company held a Special Meeting to approve a Name Change on September 20, 2021 as the Company's core competencies and product offerings have organically grown beyond the medical device industry, and this expansion into new industries and businesses will be reflected in the Name Change. The Company's new name will more aptly and effectively communicate the business and its commercial verticals. Website: www.relaymedical.com Contact: Destine Lee Media & Communications Relay Medical Corp. Office. 647-872-9982 TF. 1-844-247-6633 Media Inquiries: media@relaymedical.com Investor Relations: investor.relations@relaymedical.com Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Company's control. There are no assurances that the commercialization plans for the technology described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com. 1https://www.utilitydive.com/news/software-bill-of-materials-sbom-biden-executive-order-supply-chain/606947/ 2https://www.utilitydive.com/news/whats-in-your-software-federal-initiative-targets-frequently-overlooked-e/595820/ 3https://www.utilitydive.com/news/whats-in-your-software-federal-initiative-targets-frequently-overlooked-e/595820/ 4 https://www.nerc.com/AboutNERC/Pages/default.aspx 5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_62443 6https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/03/15/2192582/28124/en/Global-Utilities-Market-Report-2021-to-2030-COVID-19-Impact-and-Recovery.html 7 https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-statistics/market-size/utilities-united-states/ 8 https://www.cfr.org/report/cyberattack-us-power-grid 9 https://cyber.gc.ca/en/guidance/cyber-threat-bulletin-cyber-threat-canadas-electricity-sector 10https://dailyenergyinsider.com/infrastructure/22281-survey-56-percent-of-utilities-have-faced-a-cyberattack-in-the-last-year/ 11https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimmagill/2021/07/24/experts-say-cyberattacks-likely-to-result-in-blackouts-in-us/'sh=7a8a9622372d 12https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-12/u-s-water-and-power-are-shockingly-vulnerable-to-cyberhacks 13https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimmagill/2021/07/24/experts-say-cyberattacks-likely-to-result-in-blackouts-in-us/'sh=72158622372d 14 https://cybersecurityventures.com/mergers-and-acquisitions-report/ 15 https://cybersecurityventures.com/ To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99070 Toronto, Ontario and New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - Micromem Technologies Inc. (CSE: MRM) (OTCQB: MMTIF) ("Micromem" or ("the Company") announces the issuance of 3,000,000 options to purchase common shares of the Company (the "Options") at a strike price of $0.09 CDN/$0.07 USD, in accordance with the 2020 Micromem Technologies Inc. Stock Option Plan. A total of 1,000,000 Options expiring October 8, 2026 have been issued to directors and officers and 2,000,000 Options expiring October 8, 2022 have been granted to a consultant as compensation for work relating to the Company's project with Romgaz. About Micromem Micromem Technologies Inc. and its subsidiaries, a publicly traded (OTCQB: MMTIF) (CSE: MRM), company analyzes specific industry sectors to create intelligent game-changing applications that address unmet market needs. By leveraging its expertise and experience with sophisticated sensor applications, the Company successfully powers the development and implementation of innovative solutions for oil & gas, utilities, automotive, healthcare, government, information technology, manufacturing and other industries. Visit www.micromeminc.com. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. In particular, factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include: our inability to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms; risk that our products and services will not gain widespread market acceptance; continued consumer adoption of digital technology; inability to compete with others who provide comparable products; the failure of our technology; the infringement of our technology with proprietary rights of third parties; inability to respond to consumer and technological demands; inability to replace significant customers; seasonal nature of our business; and other risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made and are not guarantees of future performance. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "project," "plan," "should," "intend," "may," "will," "would," "potential," and similar expressions may be used to identify forward-looking statements. The CSE or any other securities regulatory authority has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release that has been prepared by management. ### Listing: NASD OTC-QB - Symbol: MMTIF CSE - Symbol: MRM Shares issued: 431,978,393 SEC File No: 0-26005 Investor Contact: info@micromeminc.com; Tel. 416-364-2023 Subscribe to receive News Releases by Email on our website's home page. www.micromeminc.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99057 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 8, 2021) - Veta Resources Inc. (the "Company") announces that it has agreed to settle an aggregate of $285,442.96 of indebtedness owed to a non-arm's length creditor through the issuance of 14,272,148 common shares ("Common Shares") of the Company at a price of $0.02 per Common Share (the "Debt Settlement"). In addition, the Company announces that it has closed a private placement through the issuance of 6,000,000 Common Shares at a price of $0.02 for aggregate gross proceeds of $120,000 (the "Offering"). All Common Shares issued in connection with the Debt Settlement and the Offering are subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable securities legislation. Pursuant to the Debt Settlement and Offering, 2673954 Ontario Inc., a company beneficially owned and controlled by Chris Irwin, acquired 20,272,148 Common Shares of the Company. Prior to the completion of the Debt Settlement and Offering, Mr. Irwin beneficially owned or controlled 144,319 Common Shares of the Company, 22,500 options to purchase Common Shares and 966 Common Share purchase warrants, representing approximately 6.22% of the Company's issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis and 7.16% on a partially diluted basis. Upon completion of the Debt Settlement and Offering, Mr. Irwin will beneficially own or control 20,416,467 Common Shares of the Company, representing approximately 90.38% of the Company's issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis and 90.39% on a partially diluted basis. Depending on market and other conditions, or as future circumstances may dictate, Mr. Irwin may from time to time increase or decrease his holdings of Common Shares or other securities of the Company. A copy of the early warning report will be available on the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Debt Settlement and Offering constituted a "related party transaction" as defined in Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"), as an insider of the Company acquired 20,272,148 Common Shares. The Company is relying on exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(e) of MI 61-101, as the Company is not listed on a specified market and the Company is in financial hardship. A material change report will be filed less than 21 days before the closing date of the Debt Settlement and Offering. This shorter period is reasonable and necessary in the circumstances to allow the Company to improve its financial position by reducing its accrued liabilities. Management is currently investigating transactions to enhance shareholder value to our shareholders. For further information, please contact: Albert Contardi President and Chief Executive Officer Tel: (416) 361-2832 This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "would", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is provided, and is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change, unless required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/99038 NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR THROUGH U.S. NEWSWIRES VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 8, 2021 / CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp. (CSE:CNFA) (the "Company" or "CanaFarma") announces the resignation of Steven Katz from the position of interim Chief Operating Officer of the Company. Vitaly Fargesen and Igor Palatnik continue to serve in their roles as Senior Vice Presidents of the Company. For media inquiries, please contact: Vitaly Fargesen, Senior Vice President vitaly@canafarmacorp.com (718) 757-4145 Forward Looking Statement This news release contains statements and information that, to the extent that they are not historical fact, may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information may include financial and other projections, as well as statements regarding future plans, objectives or economic performance, or the assumption underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "except", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "plan", "forecast", "project", "estimate", "outlook", or the negative thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Forward-looking information is based on the assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information are the following: financing risks; regulatory and licensing risks; changes in consumer demand and preferences; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; risks relating to regulatory change; compliance with extensive government regulation; public opinion; the impact of COVID-19; and the risk factors set out in the Company's public documents filed with Canadian securities regulators and available on the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking information. Further, any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company's management to predict all of such factors and to assess in advance the impact of each such factor on the Company's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect information or events after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law, including securities laws. SOURCE: CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/667480/CanaFarma-Announces-Interim-COO-Resignation Alembic, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform that provides a source of information to marketing teams, closed a $5.2m round, bringing total funding to date to $9m. The round was led by KB Partners and OCA Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate sales growth and innovate its platform. Led by Tomas Puig, co-founder and CEO, Alembic provides a platform which acts as a source of information to marketers and marketing executives. This information includes the vast insights needed to invest their marketing budgets intelligently and remain competitive in business environments. Its marketing conversion and event correlation system (MCEC) represents a method for collecting, analyzing, reconstructing, and correlating data. AI-driven technology gives marketers the ability to forecast conversions and transactions for the next quarter instead of constantly looking back. Alembic begins by auto-ingesting data directly from numerous channels, including web and mobile-app traffic, the top social networks, user-generated sites, news outlets, and sources of transaction and conversion data. The platform stores the extracted information and then proprietary algorithms analyze, normalize, and classify the data before adding context. The system finally transforms and displays it into instantly understood intelligence that enables informed, rapid decision-making. FinSMEs 08/10/2021 Playbook, a San Francisco, CA-based financial app for millennials to simplify and automate and building long-term wealth, raised $6m in seed funding. Backers included founding investor Atomic, a venture studio and fund created in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Jack Abraham. Led by David Hegarty, Founder and CEO, Playbook is a financial guidance app for higher-earning millennials with a focus on tax optimization. Launched in beta in July 2021, Playbook helps members pay less in taxes by maxing out tax-optimized accounts and growing their long-term savings. The platform has over 10,000 users and roughly 50,000 on the waiting list. The company has 15 employees and is continuing to grow the team. Hegarty is a serial entrepreneur who founded parking ticket fixer Fixed (acq. Lawgix 2016) and CRM startup Signature Labs and led products and expansion at companies including Credit Karma, Opendoor, Sidecar Technologies, and Microsoft. He has an MBA from Northwesterns Kellogg School of Management and a degree in Engineering from University College Dublin in Ireland. FinSMEs 08/10/2021 Unlimited website access 24/7 Unlimited e-Edition access 24/7 The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more! With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. Update: October 11, 2021 OnePlus has confirmed most of the specifications of the 9RT and also posted the official image of the phone ahead of the announcement on Wednesday. It will come with a Samsung E4 AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate and 600Hz touch sampling rate. The phone will be powered by Snapdragon 888 with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 7GB of virtual memory. There will be 19067.44 mm space cooling system. It will come in Silver and Black colours, with the Black version featuring a matte finish. It will pack a 4500mAh battery with support for 65W Warp Charge 65T fast charging. Earlier: After rumours, OnePlus has officially confirmed the launch of OnePlus 9RT, the companys next mid-range smartphone and the successor to the OnePlus 9R in China on October 13th. The teaser shows the triple rear cameras for the phone that includes a 50MP main camera. The invite says speed has a new name @evleaks has also posted press renders of the phone that shows the back side of the phone which should feature a glass finish, and it also shows the phones metal frame. The box in the image looks smaller than the one that comes with the OnePlus 9 and 9R, but it should come with a charger in the box. The smartphone is said to feature a similar FHD+ 120Hz Fluid AMOLED display, and 4500mAh battery with 65W charging as the 9R. Even though earlier rumours said that it feature an upgraded version of the Snapdragon 870, recent rumours point to Snapdragon 888 SoC for the phone with up to 12GB of RAM. Compared to 48MP rear camera with Sony IMX586 sensor in the 9R, the 9RT is said to use the 50MP Sony IMX766 sensor that was recently used in the OnePlus Nord 2. It is not clear if this will run Android 12 with OxygenOS 12 out of the box, since the company just launched the beta version of the OS for the OnePlus 9 series. @evleaks also posted the box contents of the OnePlus Buds Z2, the companys new mid-range ANC earbuds that will launch alongside. We have already seen the renders and the complete specifications of the earbuds. We can expect both these to launch in India as well soon after the China launch, and the launch invite should be out soon. Source 1, 2, 3, 4 Students at Entrepreneur High School in Fontana look at a pamphlet providing information about the new school, which opened in August. (CNN) -- North Port Police say investigators did not find a campsite in the sprawling nature reserve that has been the focus of the search for Brian Laundrie, the missing fiance of Gabby Petito. Police spokesperson Josh Taylor's confirmation that there was no campsite comes after a source close to the Laundrie family told CNN's Chris Cuomo that they had been informed by investigators that police had made a discovery in Florida's Carlton Reserve. The source on Thursday insisted that the Laundrie family had been told a campsite had been found. "Is it possible that they thought that there might be a campsite out there or something they may have seen from the air but when they got on the ground that's not what it turned out to be? Sure, I think that's a possibility," Taylor said. "Bottom line, is that investigators are telling me that no campsite was found out there." Also on Thursday, Laundrie's father, Chris Laundrie, visited the reserve, a 24,565-acre wilderness near Laundrie's family home, for several hours to help in the search, family attorney Steven Bertolino told CNN. The father showed police the trails and locations where he and Laundrie have hiked and frequented, Bertolino said. "There were no discoveries but the effort was helpful to all," Bertolino said. "It seems the water in the Preserve is receding and certain areas are more accessible to search. The entire Laundrie family is grateful for the hard work of the dedicated members of law enforcement that have been searching the Preserve for Brian over the last few weeks. Hopefully Brian will be located soon." The ongoing search comes as investigators try to piece together what happened to Petito, 22, and Laundrie, 23, on their trip in a white Ford Transit van through the American West this summer. Laundrie and the van -- but not Petito -- returned to his family home in North Port on September 1. Petito's parents, unable to make contact with either her or Laundrie, reported her missing 10 days later. As police searched for Petito, Laundrie declined to speak with investigators and then himself went missing. The national focus on her whereabouts also revealed conflicts in their relationship, particularly during an August domestic dispute and police interaction, that were at odds with their aspirational, sun-drenched posts on social media. Her remains were recovered September 19 in Wyoming, near where the couple had last been seen together, and a coroner determined she died by homicide, the FBI said. Laundrie has not been charged in her death, though he is the subject of a federal arrest warrant for unauthorized use of another person's debit card in the days after Petito last spoke with her family. Abandoned vehicle was retrieved near reserve In recent days, investigators have uncovered new details about Laundrie's earlier movements at the reserve. North Port police confirmed that a notice was placed on an abandoned Ford Mustang belonging to the Laundrie family outside the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on September 14. The park acts as an entrance to Carlton Reserve. Bertolino, the family attorney, told CNN that upon further communication with the FBI, "we now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday September 13." His parents had previously told authorities he had left on September 14. Chris Laundrie went to look for his son on the night of September 13 when he didn't return from the park, Bertolino told CNN on Wednesday. The next day, Brian's parents returned to the area to look for Brian and saw the citation on the car, Bertolino said. The parents returned again the next day, September 15, to retrieve the vehicle. "The Laundries were basing the date Brian left on their recollection of certain events. Upon further communication with the FBI and confirmation of the Mustang being at the Laundrie residence on Wednesday September 15, we now believe the day Brian left to hike in the preserve was Monday September 13," Bertolino said. CNN asked Bertolino whether Brian's parents believe he's in the reserve or another area. "No, they don't believe he's in another area. They believe he is in the preserve," he said. 'I want to see him in a jail cell for the rest of his life' Petito's body was found about a five-to-10-minute walk from where her van was last seen near the entrance to the Grand Tetons, on the border of Bridger-Teton National Forest, according to her mother Nichole Schmidt and stepfather Jim Schmidt during the second installment of an exclusive interview with the "Dr. Phil" show that aired Wednesday. Gabby's body was in a clearing and was just in front of the remnants of a fire ring, Jim Schmidt said. "You could see where the rocks had been moved to make the fire ring," he said. "It's definitely not an area that was heavily trafficked," he added. Jim Schmidt left a memorial and sunflowers at the site, CNN has previously reported. The Schmidts were joined by Gabby's father, Joe Petito, and his wife Tara Petito, along with their attorney Richard Stafford, for the interview with host Phil McGraw. Joe Petito said he wants Laundrie found alive so he can spend his life behind bars. "I want to see him in a jail cell for the rest of his life where -- he's an outdoorsman -- being in that concrete cell and he can't go see those trees and hug -- and smell the fresh air like that," Petito said. "I want to look him in the eyes," Nichole Schmidt said. Bertolino declined to comment Wednesday on the "Dr. Phil" interview. In late September, Laundrie's parents released a statement through their attorney, saying, "Chris and Roberta Laundrie do not know where Brian is. They are concerned about Brian and hope the FBI can locate him. The speculation by the public and some in the press that the parents assisted Brian in leaving the family home or in avoiding arrest on a warrant that was issued after Brian had already been missing for several days is just wrong." The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Please either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. SPARTANBURG, SC (FOX CAROLINA) - One person is dead and two others are injured after a crash on I-26 in Spartanburg County, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo has authorized United States Special Forces to enter the country and ostensibly help the Congolese army battle ADF rebels reportedly linked to ISIS or Daesh terrorist group. Kambale Musavuli a DRC human rights activist the ADF are being used as a pretext for US forces to enter his country. In this episode, we are focusing on the move by the United States to send its special forces to the Democratic of Congo under the pretext of fighting the ADF rebel group. We are examining the real reasons behind US military deployment to this mineral rich country. In the second segment of our program, we are analyzing the digital divide in Africa and how it is impacting negatively on literacy in the continent. The Weinberg Center for the Arts is an organization and venue in Frederick, Maryland, USA that holds various showings of music, theatre, films and visual art. More About Weinberg Center for the Arts Our Mission By providing quality professional arts programs to the community, the Weinberg Center for the Arts strives to entice, educate, and enchant patrons of all ages, abilities, and interests. Theater Opening Night, 1926 On December 23, 1926, the Tivoli, opened its doors for the first time. Built at a cost of more than $350,000, the theater was, at the time, the second largest structure ever built in Frederick. Designed to comfortably seat 1,500 people, the Tivoli not only had a sixteen-foot movie screen, but it could also accommodate live performances with an orchestra pit, a large stage, 50 sets of pulleys for scenery, and a full complement of dressing rooms. Unlike the area theaters of the day, which catered to lovers of low-budget films, the Tivoli maintained an atmosphere of refinement. Ushers wore uniforms with gold-buttoned jackets, and the managers dressed in tuxedos. Surrounded by crystal chandeliers, marble and silk wall coverings and leather seats, an opening-night sell-out crowd watched a selection of short features and silent films. The Frederick Daily News published an editorial proclaiming that Frederick may indeed feel proud of her handsome new theatre . . . The erection of such a beautiful amusement house is in itself a tribute to the community. It demonstrates in a most outstanding way the faith that a great theatrical organization has in the future of our city. The 1930s In 1938, the Tivoli became the first building in Frederick to be air conditioned all because of a horse race. The building was designed with large built-in fans to circulate air, but sticky Frederick summers provided a challenge. Installing air conditioning in the Tivoli would have cost more than $100,000, and the owners simply couldnt afford it. Enter Challadon, a race horse raised in Walkersville, Maryland, just outside of Frederick. When Challadon traveled to race in the Santa Anita handicap, he was accompanied by his owner, W.L. Brann and Branns friend, Edward Thomas. Thomas was not only a race fan, he was also a patron of the Tivoli. At a pre-race party, Warner Studio head Jack Warner was overheard saying he was going to bet $50,000 on the favorite. Thomas persuaded him to bet on Challadon instead. When Challadon won the race, Warner asked how he could return the favor. Thomass request install air conditioning at the Weinberg. Warner made good on his offer, and for many years afterward, the Tivolis air conditioning probably attracted more people to the theater than the shows did. The 1950s The Tivolis original owners kept the theater through 1930s, but eventually sold it to a subsidiary of the Warner Brothers Corporation. By the 1950s, television was chipping away at movie theaters business. And new, suburban cinemas were attracting an increasing number of patrons. The Tivoli gradually fell into a state of disrepair. Staff painted the marble walls black to reduce glare and thick padding was used to cover the carved wood wall coverings so that they wouldnt reflect sound. The seat coverings deteriorated and paint was peeling off the walls. In the late 1950s, local businessman Dan Weinberg and his wife Alyce took an interest in restoring the Tivoli to its past grandeur. In 1959, the Weinbergs bought the theatre for $150,000 and eventually renovated and reopened the theater. But by the 1970s downtown Frederick was deteriorating, businesses were leaving and large, ornate movie houses just could not compete with suburban movie theaters. The 1970s In 1975, Dan and Alyce Weinberg and others began advocating the idea of turning the Tivoli into a cultural arts center that could be a driving force in the revitalization of downtown Frederick. In August, 1976, the theater held a 50th anniversary celebration during which initial conversations were held about the Tivolis future. But only two months later, the storm-driven waters of Carroll Creek flooded the theatre and much of downtown Frederick. The Tivoli was nearly destroyed as water peaked three feet above stage level, submerging the seats and floating the Wurlitzer organ onto the stage. Water filled the theater, along with mud, slime and muck. Although tearing down the building was an option, individuals and companies in the community decided to donate their services to restore much of the Tivolis 1920s elegance. Sixteen months and $175,000 later, on February 9, 1978, the theater reopened as the Weinberg Center for the Arts, named in honor of the Weinberg family, who donated the building to the City of Frederick. The Weinberg Today The theater is now thriving. Owned and operated by the city with the support of the Weinberg Center for the Arts, Inc., a non-profit corporation dedicated to helping the Weinberg, the theatre has become a source of entertainment and pride for the community. With ongoing renovations and an impressive variety of quality arts entertainment, The Jewel of Frederick continues to shine as the countys home for the performing arts. Keep the conversation about local news & events going by joining us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Recent updates from The News-Post and also from News-Post staff members are compiled below. Fort Wayne, IN (46808) Today A mix of clouds and sun with gusty winds. High 41F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Some clouds. Low 27F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. First State Banks Tim Turbeville, Lloyd Reiter and Rick Jamieson accept a 2021 Best of Community Banking Community Spirit/Gold Eagle Award from Christopher Williston (third from left), president and CEO of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas, the state banking organization that produces the event each year. The Corvallis City Council heard recommendations Thursday from consultants hired to advise the city on updating its facilities. The information-packed two-hour work session noted possible changes to 17 city facilities in an assessment that city officials say hasnt been tackled in 30 years. The price tag, assuming all of the recommended projects come to fruition, is an estimated $255 million, although the consultants and city officials noted that the process is likely to take decades and that council decisions will determine the eventual costs. No discussion of funding sources took place at Thursday's virtual session. Councilors are scheduled to hear more about the project and look at phasing and priorities as well as adopt a conceptual facility plan at their Nov. 15 session. And although councilors in large part praised the work of the project team, many of them expressed concerns about public involvement. Im fundamentally concerned, given the amount of money, that were talking about adopting a master plan in November, said Charlyn Ellis of Ward 5. Where is the public input? Its never too early to get public opinion, said Ward 2s Charles Maughan. This is important to share with the community and get feedback. I dont want to ignore the people who vote to keep us here. City Manager Mark Shepard, who has been urging the facilities work since last springs budget cycle, said that the goal of the session was to determine conceptually does this make sense or not? Is this the direction you want to go? Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Mary Steckel, the retired Public Works director who was hired to work on the project, said that Thursdays program was meant to cover the sky high level. Were not expecting people to say go spend $255 million tomorrow. Were not at the master plan phase yet, Ward 9s Andrew Struthers said. The open house will come later. Were three years away from a master plan. Heres a quick look at the recommendations of the project team: Parks & Rec operations: Build a new facility on the top side of Avery toward the south end of the park and farther away from the Marys River flood zone. Cost: $30 million. Public Works: Create a new administration/crew building, shops and covered parking on the existing Northeast Third Street site and remodel some existing buildings. Cost: $79 million. City Hall: Build a new administration building the City Hall Annex site, which currently houses information technology. Renovate the current City Hall for use as council chambers, municipal court and community space. This option would open up the Madison Avenue Building across Madison for other purposes. Cost: $49 million. Police: Renovate the entire Law Enforcement Building, adding storage and staff support areas to meet long-term needs. Note: This scenario is predicated on Benton County voters approving the justice improvement plan set to be decided on the November 2022 ballot. Cost: $43 million (with a $52 million alternative should the Benton County Sheriffs Office stay put). Fire: Remodel Fire Station No. 1 on Harrison Boulevard as council meeting room moves to City Hall. Add equipment storage and dorm space at Fire Station No. 2 (35th Street) and Fire Station No. 3 (Circle Boulevard). Build a new Fire Station No. 4 on donated land on Highway 99W and repurpose the existing station on Tunison Avenue. A satellite police operation also could be part of the FS4 plan. The closed Fire Station No. 5 on Fair Oaks Drive would be used as temporary fire house during renovations/construction. Cost: $28.5 million. Library: Expand staff work spaces and community space on existing site, including the removal of the Fenner building on Seventh Street. There would be 20,000 square feet of new space, 10,000 square feet of remodeled space and a new 6,000-square-foot courtyard. Cost: $19 million. Majestic Theatre: Renovate interior spaces and add Americans With Disabilities Act restrooms. Cost $1.6 million. Osborn Aquatic Center: Remodel 5,000 square feet of space for new staff spaces and a break room. This would require Corvallis School District approval because the district owns the facility. Cost: $4.3 million. "There are big numbers before you," said Julie Bassuk, one of the consultants with Makers Architecture and Design of Seattle, which is being paid $175,000 to assist the city with the project. "Facilities investments are expensive, but these investments will address decades of a lack of attention. If done well and with the right flexibility this project can serve your city for 50 years." Contact reporter James Day at jim.day@lee.net or 541-812-6116. Follow at Twitter.com/jameshday or gazettetimes.com/blogs/jim-day. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Oregon Department of Education released its annual At-A-Glance School and District Profiles Thursday morning, which showed a 12% decline in ninth-graders who are on-track to graduate. School districts in the mid-Willamette Valley mostly reflected this statewide trend, but figures for on-time graduations students who received diplomas in four years did not seem to be affected. Central Linn and Alsea school districts were the only two districts in Linn and Benton counties to have a higher ninth grade on-track to graduation rate this year than in 2018-19. Students are on-track to graduate when they have completed a quarter of their graduation credits by the end of ninth grade. The Oregon average for on-track to graduation was 74%. The Oregon average for on-time graduation was 83%. A decline in on-track graduation rates was expected as students are returning to full-time, in-person learning. Another key takeaway from the statewide release are a 9.5% increase in the numbers of employed counselors and psychologists. Some data is presented separately this year compared to how it was in years prior, such as participation and attendance rates. Attendance, and thus participation, were at a much lower rate than usual while students were learning virtually during the pandemic. Statewide assessments were suspended in 2019-20 due to the pandemic, so comparisons to last year are unavailable. Some pre-COVID comparisons will be provided instead, to the 2018-19 school year. Here is a summary of the data for twelve school districts in the mid-Willamette Valley. Greater Albany Public Schools 67% of ninth grade students were track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 79%. 87% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 8,943 students enrolled and 466 teachers, 68% of students and 92% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic in the district was Hispanic/Latino, with 22% of students and 6% of teachers identifying as such. At South Albany High School, 64% of ninth graders were on track to graduate, and 89% of students will graduated on time. Fifty-nine percent of students went to college. At West Albany High School, 74% of ninth graders were on track to graduate, and 96% of students graduated on time. Sixty-nine percent of students went to college. Corvallis School District 79% of ninth grade students were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 93%. 90% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 6,378 students enrolled and 347 teachers, 66% of students and 85% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic in the district was Hispanic/Latino, with 18% of students and 11% of teachers identifying as such. At Corvallis High School, 83% of ninth graders were on track to graduate, and 93% of students graduated on time. Seventy-six percent of students went to college. At Crescent Valley High School, 75% of ninth graders were on track to graduate, and 88% of students graduated on time. Eighty-one percent of students went to college. Lebanon School District 53% of ninth grade students were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 76%. 76% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 3,792 students enrolled and 219 teachers, 80% of students and 95% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic in the district was Hispanic/Latino, with 11% of students and 2% of teachers identifying as such. Sweet Home School District 68% of ninth grade students were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 88%. 88% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 2,170 students enrolled and 123 teachers, 84% of students and 94% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic in the district was Hispanic/Latino, with 7% of students and 5% of teachers identifying as such. Seven percent of students identify as multiracial. Philomath School District 74% of ninth grade students were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 92%. 90% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 1,508 students enrolled and 96 teachers, 83% of students and 98% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic in the district was Hispanic/Latino, with 10% of students and 1% of teachers identifying as such. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald. Alsea School District 49% of ninth graders were on track to graduate. This is an improvement from 2018-19, when that number was 33%. 39% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 858 students enrolled and 26 teachers, 73% of students and 91% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic in the district was Hispanic/Latino, with 14% of students identifying as such. Ten percent of students and 6% of teachers identify as multiracial. Monroe School District 77% of ninth graders were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 93%. 90% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 357 students enrolled and 24 teachers, 69% of students and 90% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic in the district was Hispanic/Latino, with 27% of students and 7% of teachers identifying as such. Harrisburg School District 70% of ninth graders were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 95%. 90% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 715 students enrolled and 49 teachers, 81% of students and 86% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic was Hispanic/Latino, with 13% of students and 6% of teachers identifying as such. Central Linn School District 79% of ninth graders were on track to graduate. This is an improvement from 2018-19, when that number was 60%. 63% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 570 students enrolled and 37 teachers, 80% of students and 93% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic was Hispanic/Latino, with 14% of students and 5% of teachers identifying as such. Scio School District 81% of ninth graders were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 89%. 79% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 2,547 students enrolled and 96 teachers, 78% of students and 87% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic was Hispanic/Latino, with 11% of students and 3% of teachers identifying as such. Santiam Canyon School District 59% of ninth graders were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 61%. 63% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 4,754 students enrolled and 213 teachers, 74% of students and 91% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic was Hispanic/Latino, with 14% of students and 4% of teachers identifying as such. Jefferson School District 74% of ninth graders were on track to graduate. In 2018-19, that number was 91%. 93% of students earned a high school diploma in four years. Of 794 students enrolled and 45 teachers, 67% of students and 93% of teachers were white. The next largest demographic in the district was Hispanic/Latino, with 27% of students identifying as such. Visit the ODE website for a more detailed breakdown of the data at https://district.ode.state.or.us/home/ Joanna Mann covers education for Mid-Valley Media. She can be contacted at 541-812-6076 or Joanna.Mann@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter via @joanna_mann_. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Many of us were shocked by the sudden capitulation of the Afghan army at the time of the U.S. preannounced withdrawal, and the chaos that ensued. We now hear that many Afghans are relieved that 30 years of war are over, no matter who won. At the same time, half or more of the population is facing dire food shortages. We have responsibility for this, as the war has disrupted their agriculture, and the economy in general. Ironically, our strategic interest may coincide with the Talibans. We have an opportunity to relieve massive suffering and to do more for peace and progress in Afghanistan than we did with 20 years of war. Lets see if the Taliban will allow us to distribute needed aid, and by so doing, develop a relationship of respect with them. While they are zealots and do things we abhor, they apparently do care about honestly looking after their people, something that the corruption of the Kabul government seemed to make impossible. One way we can help starving Afghans right now is by giving to the World Food Program. Robert M. Burton, M.D. Corvallis Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Gillette, WY (82718) Today Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High 48F. Winds S at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly to mostly cloudy. Low 31F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Press Release Lightstorm opts for Nokias Digital Operations software for faster service rollout Nokias solution enables Lightstorm to deliver NaaS-based offerings easily and quickly to their customers Nokias cloud-native Digital Operations software, deployed on AWS connects the network to the business by automating digital service life-cycle management at scale to evolve OSS from being a mere support system to a business enabler Deployed by Singapore-based AWS Premier Consulting Partner, Cloud Kinetics, it is the first publicly announced deployment of Nokias Digital Operations software on AWS globally 7 October 2021 Espoo, Finland Nokia today announced that it has been selected by Lightstorm, Indias first carrier-neutral network infrastructure platform, to deploy its Digital Operations software. Nokia will automate Lightstorms service fulfilment and service assurance processes, enabling the company to create new revenue streams by offering Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) solutions to their enterprise customers. The deployment is underway across India and will be implemented on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Once deployed, Lightstorms customers will benefit from quick and efficient execution of service requests. Lightstorm has built a first of its kind utility-grade fiber network across India to support enterprises digital infrastructure at speed and scale, serving as a backbone to power the countrys growing digital economy. Built for a cloud-first environment, Lightstorms foundations lie in digitalization and end-to-end automation of network systems to deliver a seamless user experience. The company is now pioneering the deployment of Nokias cloud-native Digital Operations software. This deployment will enable Lightstorm to enter and establish itself quickly in Indias NaaS market as a greenfield operator. The Digital Operations software facilitates business process and operations automation in multi-vendor, multi-technology, and multi-domain networks. This will enable Lightstorm to quickly quote, design, deploy and assure connectivity services with guaranteed service level agreements. The solution leverages industry standards including TM Forum Open APIs to minimize the time required to onboard new customers. Nokias solution will allow Lightstorm to process connectivity orders in seconds and enable the delivery of complex new enterprise services in minutes up to 500 times faster than traditional OSS approaches. The solution will also offer closed-loop automation, identifying problems up to eight times faster compared to legacy systems. Nokias Digital Operations software is being deployed on AWS by Cloud Kinetics, a Singapore-based AWS Premier Consulting Partner and AWS Managed Service provider for AWS globally. This is the first publicly announced deployment of Nokias Digital Operations software on AWS globally where, in India, this allows Lightstorm to combine operational efficiency and flexibility with modern service design and delivery. Cloud Kinetics has designed the security architecture and integration. Amajit Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, at Lightstorm, said: "Lightstorm is building a resilient and future-ready telecom network designed to support the ever-growing demand for data and low-latency applications in India. We are confident that Nokia's Digital Operations software on AWS will help us realize our vision of building a software-defined programmable and automated network. We look forward to working with Nokia in our journey to provide a world-class digital experience through our platform." Vinish Bawa, Head of Emerging Markets, India at Nokia, said: This deployment builds on Nokias relationship with AWS, which supports the development and deployment of telecom-specific cloud-native solutions for communication service providers. With Nokias Digital Operations software and the reliability and scalability of AWS, Lightstorm is positioning itself as a next-generation service provider capable of delivering NaaS services rapidly and efficiently. Puneet Chandok, President Commercial Sales, AWS India and South Asia, AISPL said: We are pleased to work with Nokia and Lightstorm to bring the complete breadth and depth of AWS to play. Deploying Nokias Digital Operations software on AWS will allow Lightstorm to drive maximum efficiency, flexibility, and customer satisfaction with modern service design, delivery, and billing. We believe this combination will enable Lightstorm to efficiently manage complexity and costs, enabling them to scale and meet customer demands as they build out their network infrastructure across India. Resources About Nokia We create technology that helps the world act together. As a trusted partner for critical networks, we are committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. We create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs. Adhering to the highest standards of integrity and security, we help build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable and inclusive world. About Lightstorm: Lightstorm is Indias only carrier-neutral network infrastructure platform built to accelerate business growth and innovation in the digital world. We are the pioneer to build a first-of-its-kind utility-grade resilient fibre network, SmartNet, connecting the major economic hubs in India. Our Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform opens new opportunities for enterprises by providing a simple, secure, and smart way to enhance their application performance and user experience. A trusted partner of several Fortune 500 companies, Lightstorm is building a robust foundation of digital infrastructure to create new sources of value and differentiation to businesses. About Cloud Kinetics: Cloud Kinetics (CK) is a leading cloud MSP (Managed Services Provider) with operations in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Malaysia, Thailand, USA and Germany. CK specializes in cloud migration, complex cloud assessments & integrations, hybrid cloud optimization, data modernization, application modernization and running mission-critical operations on the cloud. CK is the top-tier MSP on the major global cloud platforms AWS, GCP, Azure as well as an enterprise integration partner on VMware, Netapp, Druva, Cohesity, ServiceNow, among others. For details, visit https://www.cloud-kinetics.com. Media Inquiries: Nokia Communications Phone: +358 10 448 4900 Email: press.services@nokia.com Lightstorm Prasanna C Marketing & Communications Email: c.prasanna@lightstormtelecom.com AWS Rony Thomas PR & Communications Email: ronythom@amazon.com Cloud Kinetics Anju Williams Phone: +91-9167205355 Email: anju.williams@cloud-kinetics.com AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Oct. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biotech health company SRW Laboratories' launch in China was welcomed with an impressive sales result, achieving online sales of over $4million+ NZD (20million RMB) within 10 minutes of launch. With support from local distribution partners, their entire first shipment sold out before the weekend was through, achieving sales worth $9.4million NZD (42.8million RMB). The launch of SRW had been well publicised in the week prior to launch, with a large pre-launch event in Hangzhou. Attended by over 1,000 guests including media, doctors and health professionals, the events live stream peaked at over 220,000 viewers. We are incredibly happy with the results, said Greg Macpherson, Biotechnologist and Founder of SRW Laboratories. Our team has done an amazing job in communicating what is essentially a new approach to healthcare, focussed on the Nine Hallmarks of Aging. A reflection on our approach, understanding the global demand, and the hard work from our wider team and partners preparing for this launch. SRW introduced their Cellular System range with a soft launch to New Zealand and the USA in June. Early sales in these markets were encouraging and they hope to achieve success that matches their success in Asia, which has now demonstrated a strong appetite, exceeding expectations. There is no direct translation for the word wellness in Chinese. Instead, the population separates the concept into physical, mental and spiritual well-being. All three are high priorities for Chinese consumers. SRW aimed to embody this with a holistic approach to aging which includes a focus on helping customers achieve wellness through movement, nutrition, mental stimulation, social enrichment, and improvements to lifestyle. The sophisticated Chinese consumer is seeking ways to stay healthy for longer and invest in their health, says Founder, Greg Macpherson. This is part of a worldwide trend, which is driving interest in the SRW brand globally. We are in discussions with potential distribution partners in the EU and US, as we evaluate the best route to growth in these key regions. Products launched include Cel Stability, Cel Nourishment and Cel Renewal, formulated to support cellular health. The range features extensively researched ingredients, backed by world leading scientists, which has proven to resonate well within the Asia market. For more information www.srw.co. SRW products are available on Amazon www.amazon.com/stores/SRW/page/EA2963FF-3F02-4E0C-8092-29BB43478EF0 Contact: Daniel Kim +64272340130 danielkim@srw.co A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9d7891e4-6a39-4174-a586-a3880313c47d SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AgJunction Inc. (TSX: AJX) ("AgJunction"), a global provider of advanced guidance, autosteering, and autonomy solutions for precision agriculture applications, today announced that it has entered into a definitive arrangement agreement (the "Arrangement Agreement") to be acquired by KUBOTA Corporation ("Kubota" or the "Purchaser"), a corporation headquartered in Osaka, Japan, in an all-cash transaction with a total equity value, on a fully diluted basis, of approximately CAD $91 million. Under the terms of the Arrangement Agreement, Kubota will acquire AgJunction for CAD $0.75 per common share (the "Purchase Price"), representing a premium of approximately 60% to the closing price of the common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") on October 7, 2021, the last trading day prior to this announcement, and a 59% premium to AgJunctions 30 day volume-weighted average share price on the TSX. The proposed transaction (the "Transaction") is to be completed by way of a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta). The board of directors of AgJunction (the "Board"), based on the unanimous recommendation of its special committee of independent directors (the "Special Committee"), receipt of the Fairness Opinion (as defined below) and after consultation in its evaluation of the Transaction with legal and financial advisors, has: (i) unanimously approved the Arrangement Agreement, (ii) unanimously determined that the Transaction is fair to AgJunction shareholders and is in the best interests of AgJunction, and (iii) unanimously recommends that AgJunction shareholders vote in favor of the Transaction. Ms. Lori Ell, Chair of the Board, commented, "We are pleased to announce this Transaction, which offers our shareholders a compelling opportunity to monetize their investment at an attractive valuation and significant premium to the current and historical trading price of the AgJunction shares. The Transaction is also expected to accelerate the execution of AgJunction's business plan, enhance access to additional customers and markets, provide efficiencies from greater scale and allows the opportunity for the retention of many AgJunction employees in the go-forward entity." Strategic Rationale Agricultural machine automation is rapidly advancing with increasing investment and consolidation. Adoption of new automation demands tighter vehicle integration and large scale distribution. Given the competitive landscape, delayed adoption rates due to COVID-19, capital requirements and available sources of capital, AgJunctions Board initiated a confidential process, supervised by the Special Committee in order to review strategic alternatives available to AgJunction and, if they emerged, to consider expressions of interest from third parties and any other transactions that AgJunction may consider in connection with strategic matters that are determined to be in the best interests of AgJunction. With the assistance of AgJunction's financial advisor, Piper Sandler & Co. ("PSC"), potentially interested parties were contacted to determine their interest level in pursuing a strategic transaction with AgJunction. Following a thorough review of available alternatives, AgJunctions Board has determined that the Transaction with Kubota represents the best alternative available for AgJunction to create substantial value for our respective stakeholders including the shareholders given the current industry, economic and capital markets conditions as well as existing strategic relationship between AgJunction and Kubota. The Purchase Price is all cash and the Transaction is not subject to any financing conditions, which provides AgJunction shareholders with an immediate opportunity to realize full liquidity and certainty of value in cash for their investment in AgJunction. AgJunction's directors, executive officers and a significant shareholder of AgJunction holding a combined total of approximately 20% of the issued and outstanding AgJunction common shares, have entered into voting and support agreements, pursuant to which they have agreed to vote in favor of the resolution authorizing the Transaction at the Meeting (as defined below), subject to the provisions of such voting and support agreements. The Arrangement Agreement and Requisite Approvals Under the Transaction, the Purchaser will acquire all issued and outstanding AgJunction common shares in exchange for the payment to shareholders of the Purchase Price for each AgJunction common share held. AgJunction will seek approval of the Transaction by its shareholders at a special meeting expected to be held in November 2021 (the "Meeting"). The Transaction is subject to approval by shareholders at the Meeting, including the approval of: (a) at least two-thirds of the votes cast by the shareholders in person or represented by proxy at the Meeting; and (b) a "majority of the minority", being a majority of the votes cast by shareholders in person or represented by proxy at the Meeting, after excluding the votes cast by those shareholders whose votes are required to be excluded in accordance with Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. Under the terms of the Arrangement Agreement, the Transaction is also subject to the final approval of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta following the Meeting, the completion of applicable regulatory filings and the satisfaction of certain closing conditions customary in transactions of this nature, including the absence of material adverse changes in the business and affairs of AgJunction. Upon closing of the Transaction, the AgJunction common shares will be de-listed from the TSX. The Arrangement Agreement contains customary representations and warranties of each party and interim operational covenants by AgJunction. The Arrangement Agreement also provides for, among other things, customary board support and non-solicitation covenants, a "fiduciary out" for unsolicited "superior proposals" in favor of AgJunction and a provision for the right to match any superior proposals in favor of Kubota. The Arrangement Agreement provides for a non-completion fee of approximately CAD $4.5 million. The non-completion fee is payable in the event that the Transaction is not completed or is terminated by AgJunction or the Purchaser in certain circumstances, including if AgJunction enters into an agreement with respect to a superior proposal or if the AgJunction Board, in certain circumstances, withdraws or modifies its recommendation with respect to the Transaction. The Arrangement Agreement also provides a reverse termination fee of approximately CAD $4.5 million. Further details with respect to the Transaction will be included in the management information circular to be mailed to AgJunction shareholders in connection with the Meeting. The Meeting is expected to be held in November 2021 with closing of the Transaction to occur soon thereafter upon satisfaction or waiver of all conditions precedent. A copy of the Arrangement Agreement and the information circular will be filed on AgJunction's SEDAR profile and will be available for viewing at www.sedar.com. Advisors PSC acted as financial advisor to AgJunction in connection with the Transaction. Research Capital Corporation ("Research Capital") acted as advisor to the Special Committee and has provided its verbal fairness opinion (the "Fairness Opinion") to the Special Committee and the Board that, as of the date of the Fairness Opinion, and subject to the limitations, qualifications and assumptions disclosed to the Special Committee and the Board in connection therewith, the consideration to be received by AgJunction shareholders pursuant to the Transaction is fair, from a financial point of view to AgJunction shareholders. The full text of the written Fairness Opinion, which describes the assumptions made, procedures followed, matters considered and limitations and qualifications on the review undertaken, will be included in AgJunction's management information circular. DLA Piper (Canada) LLP is acting as independent legal counsel to the Special Committee. Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP is acting as legal counsel to AgJunction. Lazard Freres & Co. LLC is acting as financial advisor to Kubota. Mori Hamada & Matsumoto and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP are acting as legal advisors to Kubota. About AgJunction AgJunction Inc. is a global leader of advanced guidance and autosteering solutions for precision agriculture applications. Its technologies are critical components in over 30 of the worlds leading precision Ag manufacturers and solution providers and it owns or licenses over 200 patents and patents pending. AgJunction markets its solutions under leading brand names including Novariant, Wheelman, Whirl and Handsfreefarm and is committed to advancing its vision by bringing affordable hands-free farming to every farm, regardless of terrain or size. AgJunction is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is listed on the TSX under the symbol "AJX." For more information, please go to AgJunction.com. About Kubota Founded in 1890, Kubota Corporation is a global leading manufacturer of agricultural, turf, construction equipment and industrial engine. With its global headquarters in Japan, and footprint in more than 120 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia, Kubota has worked closely with farmers to develop agricultural machinery with the aim to accelerate innovation to solve issues related to food, water, and the environment. Although agricultural equipment is Kubotas primary line of products, Kubota also produces a diverse portfolio of other products including pipe-related products, environment-related products, and social infrastructure-related products to contribute to improve human lives and society. Kubota is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the symbol "6326". For more information, please go to www.kubota.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws and is based on the expectations, estimates and projections of management of AgJunction as of the date of this press release, unless otherwise stated. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information. In particular, this press release contains, without limitation, forward-looking information and statements pertaining to: the Transaction and the anticipated timing of required regulatory, court and shareholder approvals; mailing of the information circular related to the Meeting and the timing of the Meeting; the anticipated benefits of the Transaction for AgJunction shareholders; the ability of the parties to satisfy the other conditions to, and to complete, the Transaction; and the anticipated timing for the closing of the Transaction. With respect to the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, AgJunction has made assumptions regarding, among other things, that the Transaction will be completed on the terms contemplated by the Arrangement Agreement; the ability of the parties to receive, in a timely manner and on satisfactory terms, the necessary regulatory, court, shareholder, stock exchange and other third party approvals; the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner, the other conditions to the closing of the Transaction; and other expectations and assumptions concerning the Transaction. Although AgJunction believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, and the assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are made, are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements included in this press release, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause AgJunction's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions which are typical for transactions of this nature, certain of which are outside the control of AgJunction, failure to satisfy any of these conditions, the emergence of a superior proposal or the failure to obtain approval of AgJunction's shareholders may result in the termination of the Arrangement Agreement. As a consequence, actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that the forgoing lists of factors are not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect AgJunction's operations and financial results are included in reports on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and may be accessed through the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com) and at AgJunction's website (AgJunction.com). Furthermore, the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as at the date of this press release and AgJunction does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. This release does not constitute an offer to purchase or a solicitation of an offer to sell securities. Shareholders are advised to review any documents that may be filed with securities regulatory authorities and any subsequent announcements because they will contain important information regarding the Transaction and the terms and conditions thereof. Contact: Company announcement No. 17/2021 8 October 2021 Netcompany to acquire Intrasoft International S.A. Netcompany Group A/S ("Netcompany") has today entered into an agreement with Intracom Technologies S.a. r.l. (("Intracom Technologies") - ultimately owned by Intracom S.A. Holdings, listed on Athens Stock Exchange) and certain management shareholders to acquire Intrasoft International S.A. ("Intrasoft"), a leading European IT solutions and services group with strong international presence and expertise. Netcompany and Intracom Technologies as well as the management shareholders of Intrasoft have reached an agreement pursuant to which Netcompany will acquire the entire outstanding share capital in Intrasoft. The transaction value is EUR 235 million on a debt-free basis (enterprise value). Closing of the transaction is expected to take place during Q4 2021 and is conditional upon certain separation activities. The financial impact of the acquisition for Netcompany in 2021 is subject to exact timing of closing of the transaction and will be communicated at completion. Netcompany is excited to welcome Intrasoft as an integral part of the Netcompany group, and as an important contributor to the continued future development of the Netcompany group into becoming the leader in Europe. Andre Rogaczewski, CEO of Netcompany, states: "We are facing an unprecedented and exciting time in Europe where all societies are now accelerating and understanding the value of digitalisation. By digitising Europe responsibly, we fundamentally change societies, businesses, and the way we live our lives for the better. By acquiring Intrasoft, we become better positioned and strengthened to play a vital role in helping European governments, businesses, and institutions in their efforts to take the full advantage of digitalisation. Intrasoft now becoming a part of Netcompany means that we together have more innovative platforms, more competences, and a wider presence throughout Europe. I am confident that we will play a prominent role in creating and shaping the necessary digital transition that Europe will have to go through in the coming decade" Alexandros Manos, CEO of Intrasoft, states: Today marks an exciting new era for Intrasoft. We share Netcompanys vision, values and focus on delivering digital transformation that creates strong, sustainable societies, successful companies, and improved quality of life for all. I am certain that together we will become a leading supplier of future-proof digital transformation to the European market. I am looking forward to bringing value to all of our current, joint and new customers Strategic rationale The acquisition of Intrasoft provides a strong foothold for the digitalisation to take place in Europe in the next 5-10 years. It enhances and strengthens Netcompanys position in the public sector in Europe by adding strong presence across a number of European countries and within the European Commission and the Institutions herein in particular. It will also expand the reach and offerings in Netcompanys private sector verticals, based on additional references and competencies added from Intrasoft in Telco, Banking and Finance, and Energy & Utilities, and will position the Netcompany group in an advantageous position for continued strong growth in the private sector. Further, it will support the platform approach Netcompany has embarked on by adding supplementary products in especially Customs, Tax and Social Security, as well as for Banking. Netcompany sees multiple strategic rationales from the combination, such as the appliance of Netcompanys Govtech framework in Intrasoft markets and expanding the Intrasoft product suite across Netcompany markets. In addition, the joint platform will be well-positioned for further expansion. With Intrasoft being headquartered in Luxembourg and with its operational branches, subsidiaries, and offices in 13 countries, including strong presence in Greece, Spain and Belgium, the combined company will have presence in 17 countries. The combined (pro forma 2020) revenue is DKK 4.3 billion, EBITDA is DKK 944 million and EBITA is DKK 844 million. The combined number of people will be more than 6,000 including freelancers. Facts About Intrasoft International S.A. Intrasoft was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Luxembourg Leading European IT solutions and services group with strong international presence and expertise 2,800+ employees (including freelancers) in 13 countries Revenue of EUR 197 million (DKK 1,470 million), EBITDA of EUR 18.0 million (DKK 134 million) and EBITA of EUR 13.3 million (DKK 99 million) in 2020 More than 500 organisations throughout the world have chosen Intrasoft's services and solutions to fulfil their business needs For additional information: https://www.intrasoft-intl.com/ About Netcompany Netcompany was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Denmark Netcompany delivers business-critical IT solutions, which supports our customers in achieving significant digital advantages 3,200+ employees in 6 countries Revenue of DKK 2,839 million and EBITA of DKK 744 million in 2020 Netcompany takes responsibility and delivers high quality, at the agreed time and within the agreed budget For additional information: https://www.netcompany.com/cases The transaction The transaction value of EUR 235 million (DKK 1.75 billion) is to be settled with the sellers as a combination of cash (before adjustment for net debt) of EUR 217 million (DKK 1.62 billion) and shares of EUR 18 million (DKK 134 million) The cash consideration is funded by way of utilising current credit facilities which are increased by DKK 1.2 billion in the form of a bridge financing facility A re-financing is contemplated in 2022 The share payment of the transaction will be settled using treasury shares already held The transaction is conditional upon certain separation activities to be completed to facilitate an efficient transition for each of Intrasoft and Intracom Technologies and its affiliates after closing Intrasoft is to continue to operate its current business on a stand-alone basis Conference call In connection with the publication of the acquisition, Netcompany will host a conference call on Friday, 8 October 2021 at 11.00 am CEST. The conference call will be held in English and can be followed live via the companys website; www.netcompany.com Dial-in details for investors and analysts: DK: : +45 78150107 UK: +44 (0) 3333009271 Webcast Player URL: https://streams.eventcdn.net/netcompany/20211008/ Additional information For additional information, please contact Netcompany Group A/S Thomas Johansen, CFO +45 51 19 32 24 Tine Kosmider Boye, General Counsel +45 24 91 75 33 Forward-looking statements This announcement contains forward-looking statements that reflect Netcompany's current expectations and views of future events. Some of these forward-looking statements can be identified by terms and phrases such as "estimate", "expect", "target", "plan", "project", "will" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include statements relating to: the expected characteristics of the combined company; expected financial results and characteristics of the combined company; expected timing of the launch and closing of the proposed transaction and satisfaction of conditions precedent, including regulatory conditions; and the expected benefits of the proposed transaction, including related synergies. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions, and expectations of future performance, taking into account the information currently available to us. These statements are only predictions based upon our current expectations and projections about future events. Risks and uncertainties include: the ability of Netcompany to integrate Intrasoft into Netcompany's operations; the performance of the global economy; the capacity for growth in internet and technology usage; the consolidation and convergence of the industry, its suppliers and its customers; the effect of changes in governmental regulations; disruption from the proposed transaction making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers; and the impact on the combined company (after giving effect to the proposed transaction with Intracom Technologies and the minority shareholders of Intrasoft) of any of the foregoing risks or forward-looking statements, as well as other risk factors listed from time to time in Netcompanys public disclosures. The forward-looking statements should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included elsewhere, including the risk factors included in any public disclosures of Netcompany. Any forward-looking statements made in this announcement are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments anticipated by us will be realised or, even if substantially realised, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, us or our business or operations. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Attachment CHICAGO, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, a new book by Robert P. Hillmann details the findings of a painstakingly researched historic investigation into the origin of the atrocity. The book also lays out strong evidence that it was arsonists who torched America's 5th largest city at the time, and investigates their motives. On the 8th of October 1871 at approximately 8:45 p.m., Chicago was visited by what newspapers of the day often referred to as, "The Fire Fiend". Over the next 30 hours, 2,100 acres burned along with the 17,450 buildings that sat on them. It is estimated that approximately 100,000 citizens were made homeless. Few professional investigators who had personally witnessed this atrocity had any doubt as to its cause. According to Hillmann's findings, almost all believed that it was an overt act of arson. They also believed that it was not the work of a single incendiary but rather, multiple incendiaries. The Great Chicago Fire: The Southern Rationale provides readers an opportunity to pick up the trail and have access to the original fact-pattern those investigators of the day collected. For the first time, readers will be presented a fulsome collection of facts and personal accounts collected from the period that will leave little doubt as to who set the fire and what their sinister motivations were. And perhaps most importantly, readers will start to understand why it was so important that those motivations remained secret at the time resulting in countless generations being taught a fable about an old lady and a cow in American classrooms. This 20-year exhaustive investigation also casts light on other shadowy organizations of the day, including the Order of American Knights and the Sons of Liberty, both of which were intimately involved with the Confederate Secret Service and its early attempts to torch the city in 1864. With recent polls showing an increasing number of Americans' now wavering in their commitment to democracy and supporting some form of secession, it's more important than ever that Americans revisit this incident that marked one of the darkest moments in the nation's history. About the Author Robert P. Hillmann is a noted historian and expert in the field of geopolitical theory and political history. Hillmann's works can be found in libraries around the world, including the Norwegian Nobel Library and the United Nations' Archives. He currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. www.thesouthernrationale.com. PRESS CONTACT: James Barron Press@TheSouthernRationale.com # # # Related Images Image 1 This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment London, October 8, 2021 Avenir LNG Limited (NOTC:AVENIR) announces the delivery of The Avenir Aspiration, the third 7,500 cbm dual-purpose, liquefied natural gas supply and bunkering vessel (LBV) delivered to Avenir and the first of four vessels to be delivered from Nantong CIMC Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering Co. The Avenir Aspiration will embark on her maiden voyage to Europe where she will be stationed in the Mediterranean and begin supplying LNG to Avenir's HIGAS LNG Terminal in Sardinia, which entered into commercial operations in August 2021. In addition to servicing Avenir's own demand, the Aspiration will provide LNG bunkering services via ship-to-ship transfer to multiple customers throughout the Mediterranean. The vessel will provide critical infrastructure in key ports across the Mediterranean to support the growth of LNG as a marine fuel and help substantially reduce CO2, NOx and SOx emissions in the region. Peter Mackey, CEO Avenir LNG Limited, commented: We are delighted to welcome the Avenir Aspiration to our fleet, she will be positioned in the Mediterranean to serve our HIGAS terminal in Sardinia. The Aspiration is the final step in delivering a fully owned and operated small-scale LNG supply chain dedicated to serving our customers across the island of Sardinia. We have made significant investments in LNG shipping, terminaling, trucking & satellite plants at our customers sites to ensure we can deliver a clean, affordable & reliable supply of LNG to the island. We look forward to taking delivery of three further newbuild vessels from SOE over the remainder of 2021 and early 2022. Avenir remains firmly on track to becoming one of the leading small-scale LNG suppliers globally. About Avenir LNG Limited: Avenir LNG supplies small-scale LNG to off-grid industry, power generation and marine transport. Avenir LNG has quickly become one of the leading providers of small-scale LNG solutions; working with local partners to unlock new markets for natural gas. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act Attachment ARLINGTON, Texas, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATP Flight School unveils a new 25,875 square-foot airline pilot training center at the Arlington Municipal Airport (GKY) with a grand opening event on Oct. 8, 2021. Joining ATP's nationwide network of 70 locations, the flagship Arlington facility is the largest in Texas and poised to meet the demand for pilots from Dallas-based airlines. Each aspect of the new building is designed to efficiently deliver total-immersion airline pilot training. Students in ATP's Airline Career Pilot Program start with zero experience and graduate as commercial multi-engine pilots and flight instructors in just seven months. Pilots graduating on this accelerated timeline are in a competitive position to capitalize on a post-pandemic pilot shortage and quickly establish their careers. Students at the Arlington training center fly with the latest technology, including Garmin G1000 NXi equipped Cessna 172 Skyhawks and Piper Archers. To support growing demand, ATP is adding to this fleet with deliveries of factory-new Pipers. A co-located ATP maintenance facility services the fleet and ensures dispatch reliability to keep students training on time. ATP is the only school in Dallas able to offer airlines a complete pilot training solution, with nearby ATP JETS in Irving. The part 142 airline training center complements initial pilot certification at Arlington and is one of the largest ATP CTP (Airline Transport Pilot Certification Training Program) providers, having graduated nearly 10,000 airline pilots. "ATP Flight School's airline pilot training center is an exciting addition to Arlington. This flagship facility at the Arlington Municipal Airport will help so many achieve their American Dream, whether that is going on to become a commercial pilot or teaching others to fly," Arlington Deputy City Manager Jim Parajon said. "We look forward to the school's continued success as it builds on decades of work preparing the pilots of tomorrow." ATP's 35-year presence in Texas has played a prominent role in sourcing airline pilots for Dallas-based airlines. More alumni have been hired by American Airlines than any other major airline, and over 650 graduates have gone on to fly for Dallas-based American Eagle carrier Envoy Air. The Arlington training center's advanced capabilities and resources will actively support all Dallas-based airlines in the coming years as they increase pilot hiring. Media Contact Michael Arnold Director of Marketing ATP Flight School pr@atpflightschool.com (904) 595-7950 14 CFR part 142 programs provided by ATP Jet Simulation, Inc. All trademarks, trade names, service marks, product names, company names, logos, and brands used or mentioned herein are property of their respective owners in the United States and other countries. Mention of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them. Related Images Image 1: ATP Flight School Unveils New Airline Pilot Training Center in Arlington, TX Joining ATP's nationwide network of 70 locations, the flagship Arlington facility is the largest in Texas and poised to meet the demand for pilots from Dallas-based airlines. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Denver, CO, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Guild Education, the leading education and upskilling platform for Americas workforce, today welcomes Chris Garber as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) from LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP). Reporting to Guilds CEO and Co-Founder Rachel Carlson, Garber will join the leadership team and build out the companys financial operations in support of its continued growth, including strategic finance, FP&A, investor relations, accounting and business systems. Garber will also spend time partnering with CFOs to bring finance deeper into the conversation on human capital investments and skilling. Innovative CFOs are increasingly focused on human capital amidst the war for talent and impending automation agendas. With education and upskilling programs now driving recruitment and retention outcomes as well as DE&I and mobility efforts, the shift from cost-center to true investment is underway. In a knowledge economy, people are your core asset and the nations top CFOs are starting to focus on human capital and learning programs with that in mind, said Rachel Carlson, Guild Education CEO and Co-Founder. Companies that win in this economy will be those who treat their people as an investment, not a cost-center, and that includes investing IN your people. Chris embodies the new model of innovative CFOs who think more holistically about employees -- both in his belief about learning as a strategic enabler and in his track record as a leader and mentor. We couldnt be more thrilled to welcome him to team Guild. Garber has a proven track record bringing a strategic lens to financial leadership in both pre-IPO and public companies. His broad range of financial and operational experience spans financial planning, investor relations, business analytics, commercial operations and IT. Garber joins Guild from LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP), an industry-leading SaaS data platform, where he served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations. Prior to LiveRamp, Garber led financial planning & analysis and investor relations at Acxiom, a publicly-traded marketing services company. Earlier in his career, Garber held a variety of finance roles at Silver Spring Networks, Electronic Arts and Applied Materials. He has a B.S. in Finance from Santa Clara University and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program. Guilds work to help CHROs and CFOs leverage education & skilling to attract, retain and develop the workforce of the future resonates deeply with me as a finance leader, and aligns with my beliefs in how innovative companies should be investing in the human potential of their workforce, said Chris Garber, Guild Educations Chief Financial Officer. I am proud to join Guild at this incredible moment in the companys journey and grow the companys practice of helping F1000 executive teams unlock the positive business outcomes from investing in their people and their futures. Garbers hire comes at a time of significant market momentum for Guild with more and more of the nations largest employers committing to major education and upskilling investments. In the last six months, Guild announced new large-scale skilling partnerships with Waste Management, Target, and Sunrun, to offer comprehensive education and upskilling programs to their employees. Guild also worked with Walmarts leadership to expand its education and skilling programs to cover 100% of the costs for associates with a $1 billion, multi-year commitment. Guild announced a $150M Series E funding round in June that will help it continue to scale to meet market demand, and fund significant investments in its support services for Americas workforce, as well as growth of the companys product and engineering teams. Garbers hire will be instrumental in accelerating Guilds business growth as it continues scaling in order to serve millions of Americas workers. About Guild Education Guild Education is on a mission to unlock opportunity for Americas workforce through education and upskilling. A certified B-Corp, founded to bridge the gap between education and employment for working adults in the U.S. in need of upskilling for the future of work, Guilds industry-leading technology platform allows the nations largest employers including Walmart, The Walt Disney Company and Chipotle to offer strategic education and upskilling to their employees. Guild connects workers to a learning marketplace of the nations best learning partners for working adults with tuition paid by the company. Guilds payments and technology platform, curated learning marketplace, and advanced education and career services come together to help working adult learners advance in their education and career, debt-free. For more information, visit https://www.guildeducation.com/. Attachment English French QUEBEC CITY, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stelmine Canada (TSXV: STH) (Stelmine or the Company) is pleased to provide the following exploration update: Highlights: A Phase 1 diamond drilling program (3,000 metres) has just been launched at the Companys 100%-owned Courcy Property along the eastern extension of the gold-rich Opinaca basin west of Fermont in northern Quebec. The first holes will follow up on the historical discovery in Zone 1 of a 42-metre core interval grading 4.2 g/t Au, including 105 g/t Au over 1.5 m (with visible gold in the core), starting only 12 metres downhole, in the last drill hole completed at the property; (with visible gold in the core), starting only 12 metres downhole, in the last drill hole completed at the property; Gold mineralization at Courcy is associated with a 21-km-long fault zone discovered by Stelmine geologists, demonstrating impressive scale potential of this under-explored 178 km 2 property; property; At Mercator, approximately 100 km northwest of Courcy, initial assay results are beginning to flow in from an extensive summer surface sampling program. Significantly, channel sampling in the southwest part of the 2.5-km-long Main Zone, 80 metres below the top of a well-mineralized hill, has returned a 27.5-metre interval grading 2.15 g/t Au. Many more assay results are pending. Ms. Isabelle Proulx, Stelmine President and CEO, commented: After careful preparation, our team is excited at the prospect of quickly expanding the Courcy discovery. It has high impact potential given the shallowness of the mineralization, the grades and widths encountered in limited historical drilling, and the 21-km-long fault zone that we know is associated with gold. The initial Mercator results are extremely encouraging, Ms. Proulx continued. This system appears to continue for many kilometers beyond the Main Zone based on geophysics and our recent sampling. Combined with Courcy, this supports our thesis that the eastern part of the Opinaca basin holds multi-deposit potential just like the western part at James Bay Territory (Eleonore mine, La Grande Sud, La Pointe). Mercator 27.5-Metre Channel Sample Grades 2.15 g/t Au Arsenopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite and garnet accompanied the very consistent gold mineralization in this 27.5-meter channel sample (R21025 and R21026) which has an estimated true width of 15 to 20 meters. Notably, this sample was taken at the foothill of the Main Zone crest (see attached map) and raises the possibility of having successive thick gold-bearing iron formation layers dipping 30 to 40 to the northwest. Gold in the Main Zone is associated with faulted and folded iron formations showing strong positive magnetic anomalies within a thrusted metasediment and amphibolite assemblage. A total of 366 rock samples were collected this summer from the 389 km2 Mercator Property. These include 249 samples from the Main Zone distributed among 36 channels totaling 315 linear metres, while 117 grab rock samples showing mineralization and covering the rest of the property completed the program. The Company eagerly anticipates reporting more results from Mercator in the near future. Corporate Presentation Visit www.Stelmine.com for an updated Corporate Presentation, or click on the following link: https://temp.stelmine.com/Stelmine_CorporatePresentation.pdf Courcy Video Visit www.Stelmine.com for a video on Courcy featuring Dr. Normand Goulet, also a Stelmine director, or click on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQWMrEhled8 Qualified Person The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michel Boily, P. Geo, PhD. Mr. Boily is the qualified person responsible for the scientific and technical information contained herein under National Instrument 43-101 standards. About Stelmine Canada Stelmine is a junior mining exploration company pioneering a new gold district (Caniapiscau) east of James Bay in the under-explored eastern part of the Opinaca metasedimentary basin where the geological context has similarities to the Eleonore mine. Stelmine has 100% ownership of 1,574 claims or 815 km2 in this part of northern Quebec, highlighted by the Courcy and Mercator Projects. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION Certain information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements, such as statements regarding the expected closing of and the anticipated use of the proceeds from the Offering, acquisition and expansion plans, availability of quality acquisition opportunities, and growth of the Company. This information is based on current expectations and assumptions (including assumptions in connection with obtaining all necessary approvals for the Offering and general economic and market conditions) that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. Risks that could cause results to differ from those stated in the forward-looking statements in this release include those relating to the ability to complete the Offering on the terms described above. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to the Company. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in the Companys filings with the Canadian securities regulators. The filings are available at www.sedar.com. 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. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN For further information, contact: Isabelle Proulx, President and CEO Email: iproulx@stelmine.com Tel: 581-998-1222 Investor Relations: MarketSmart Communications Inc. Adrian Sydenham Toll-free: 1-877-261-4466 Email: info@marketsmart.ca Follow us on: Website : https://stelmine.com/en/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/Stelmine1 LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/company/stelmine-canada-ltd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StelmineCanada/ A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cab129af-512f-4835-8b91-55f99db29d2b Admiral Group plc (Admiral) 8 October 2021 Notification is given that Jean Park, Non-Executive Director of Admiral, has been appointed as Senior Independent Director (SID) with effect from 1 January 2022 when Owen Clarke, Non-Executive Director of Admiral, steps down as SID and as a Non-Executive Director of Admiral on 31 December 2021. Annette Court, Admiral Group Chair, said: We are fortunate in Jean to have someone with the relevant experience and capability to succeed Owen as SID and I am confident that she will be very effective in this important role. I would like to thank Owen for his contribution during his time on the Board over many years and his dedication and commitment to his role as a Chair of the Remuneration Committee, member of the Nomination and Governance Committee and as SID. We will miss his insight, experience and challenge of matters that come before the Board. For further information please contact: Marisja Kocznur, Investor Relations (investorrelationsteam@admiralgroup.co.uk) FTI Consulting Edward Berry Media +44 (0) 20 3727 1046 Tom Blackwell Media +44 (0) 20 3727 1051 Admiral Group plc LEI: 213800FGVM7Z9EJB2685 Dallas, Texas, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Puration, Inc. (OTC Pink: PURA) (PURA) is building hemp processing and cultivation partnerships with the intention of establishing an industrial hemp brand cooperative under the Farmersville Hemp Brand name. In the fashion that Sun-Maid Raisins collectively markets for growers all selling under one brand name, PURA plans to collectively market for multiple hemp growers and processors under the Farmersville Hemp Brand name. Today, PURA announced the Farmersville Hemp Brand initiative includes a research effort into non-consumable hemp application market opportunities. PURA has entered discussions toward establishing a university partnership intended to expand these research efforts. The overall global industrial hemp market was estimated at $5 billion in 2019 and expected to grow to $36 billion by 2026. The global industrial hemp market includes hemp seed, hemp seed oil, hemp fiber, CBD hemp oil, with applications in industries to include food, beverages, personal care products, textiles, construction and pharmaceutical. A key strategy to the Farmersville Hemp Brand collective marketing initiative will be to conduct focused, hands-on seminars for established companies with existing products that do not incorporate hemp and demonstrate to those established companies how hemp can be used to innovate their existing product lines. The company recently broke ground on its 70-acre property in Farmersville Texas. A construction pad has been cleared for the building of multiple buildings where PURA will facilitate hands-on marketing for a wide variety of products that can be derived from hemp. The Farmersville Hemp Brand Facility will be able to host client companies for seminars to demonstrate hemp processing and how hemp can be used as a natural, cost-effective and even superior alternative to currently available construction materials, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals, clothing, fuel, and plastics - to name just a few. According to one source, more than 25,000 products can be made from hemp. PURA does not plan to wait on the completion of construction in Farmersville to begin its seminars. PURA intends to imminently complete its hemp innovation curriculum and launch its first seminars in Q4 2021. For more information on Puration, visit http://www.purationinc.com Contact: Puration, Inc. Brian Shibley, info@aciconglomerated.com +1 (800) 861-1350 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 Alkame will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the Company's contracts, the Company's liquidity position, the Company's 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. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. SINGAPORE, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GooseFX , a full-suite decentralized finance (DeFi) platform for the Solana ecosystem, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. The investment was led by SkyVision Capital , along with backers such as Animoca Brands , Kucoin Labs , GSR Trading , Solana Capital , CoinShares , Gate.io , Bixin Ventures , Darkpool Ventures , Double Peak , Genblock Capital , MEXC , and others. The funds will further GooseFX's ambitions to deliver a complete DeFi experience built on the Solana blockchain and the Serum DEX, where users will be able to trade cryptocurrency, tokenized stocks, DeFi derivatives, as well as enjoy cross-platform collateralization of assets, including the Goose Nest NFT store. "SkyVision is proud to support the GooseFX protocol as it aims to accelerate the crypto ecosystem being a full-suite DeFi solution for the community with a strong focus on great UI/UX. We are excited for the unique offerings that the protocol aims to bring such as single-sided asset staking and NFT loans/perpetuals to the Solana ecosystem and their future NFT marketplace. The team is highly experienced with a wealth of both traditional and decentralized finance backgrounds and have the long-term support of strong investors," said SkyVision Capital. Consisting of a team of six experienced engineers with financial backgrounds, GooseFX believes in providing financial freedom and equal market access to users around the world. The project is actively developing a platform for the decentralized trading of tokenized stocks and futures, as well as the first single-sided liquidity pools on Solana. GooseFX's extensive roadmap covers decentralized trading of crypto derivatives and NFT's. GooseFX is built on Solana and Serum, which the team is confident will support the speed and scalability for a superior DeFi user experience. The Solana network features high transaction throughput, a secured network consensus mechanism, and progressively cheaper transaction costs, while the Serum central limit order book offers an unmatched source of liquidity. GooseFX is nearing the alpha release of its platform and the team will share more developments in the near future. About GooseFX GooseFX is a full-suite DeFi platform built on the Solana blockchain and Serum DEX, offering a variety of unique decentralized peer-to-peer financial products. We aim to be a complete DeFi experience where you can trade cryptocurrencies, tokenized stocks, forex, NFTs, and their derivative counterparts. Social Media Website: https://goosefx.io Twitter: https://twitter.com/GooseFX1 Discord: http://discord.gg/cDEPXpY26q Medium: https://medium.com/goosefx Media contact: contact@goosefx.io Related Images Image 1: GooseFX Secures $4.5M to Build Solana's First Full-Suite DeFi Solution This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Dallas, Texas, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recently, Parker University in Dallas, Texas, was recognized as one of the 25 Fastest-Growing Colleges in the U.S. by Business Journal. This study featured an analysis of more than 1,500 primarily campus-based, four-year colleges and universities with at least 1,000 students. The study found that while the average total enrollment fell 5% between fall 2016 and 2020, roughly one-third of the schools reported enrollment growth during that time. Business Journal shares, Many of these fast-growing colleges (including Parker University) added new programs and ramped up recruiting efforts to attract students in recent years. New online programs, particularly in healthcare areas, also contributed to much of the enrollment growth at several of the fastest-growing colleges. Others shifted strategies to widen the net of prospective students. Parker University, ranked as the twentieth fastest-growing college in the analysis, with a total enrollment in fall 2016 of 1,128, which grew to 1,697 by fall 2020. This was a 50% change over five years. This is just one of the latest accomplishments for Parker University, as the university has received many other recognitions, including being named a 2021 Honor Role institution on the official Great Colleges to Work For list. Parker University provides quality education to our students across many healthcare disciplines. Our Faculty and Staff are the embodiment of nurturing service. As a result, our students are the benefactors of that loving tutelage and guidance. An F3 tornado in 2019, and the continuing COVID-19 epidemic, might have been devastating for many, but our Parker family rallied, organized, and shifted everything online when it was necessary and brought back live in-person classes as soon as it was feasible. None of the past year and a half, hard work, and loving service could have been remotely possible without Parker's faculty and staff! says Dr. William E. Morgan, President of Parker University. To learn more about all the unique programs offered at Parker University, visit parker.edu. About Parker University Parker University, the fourth-fastest growing college in Texas and the fastest-growing college in Dallas, was founded in 1982 by Dr. James William Parker (formerly Parker College of Chiropractic). Today, Parker University has more than 1,800 students and 34 academic programs, including its famed chiropractic program, as well as masters degrees in neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, strength and human performance, and functional nutrition. Currently, Parker Universitys chiropractic cohort is the second largest of any campus in the world. Parker University has been recognized as a Great College to Work For and as a recipient of the 2021 FutureEdge 50 Awards. Attachment VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Southstone Minerals Limited (Southstone or the Company) (TSX.V SML) is pleased to provide a production and operational update for the period 1 June 2021 to 31 August 2021 (Q3 2021) on Oena Diamond Mine located in the Republic of South Africa. Oena Diamond Mine, Republic of South Africa Production at the Oena Diamond Mine during Q4 2021 operated with one mining contractor on site with four pan plants to process run of mine (ROM) material and one Bourevestnik (BVX) unit used for diamond recovery. Mining and processing of ROM material only occurred during the period and diamond production results for Q4 2021: Carats Produced Number of Diamonds US $ / carat average Q4 2021 ROM 177.4 194 1,899 The Oena Diamond Mine continues to produce large and high-quality diamonds as summarized below. Top 9 Diamonds by Value per Carat for Q4 2021 Diamond Diamond Size (carats) Sold Price US $ US $ / carat 1 22.02 170'000 7'720 2 10.65 56'780 5'331 3 10.20 51'908 5'091 4 9.26 40'503 4'373 5 7.21 5'247 728 6 5.77 8'899 1'543 7 5.65 8'888 1'573 8 5.15 20'600 3'997 9 3.60 6'844 1'903 The Company continues to evaluate and assess further opportunities in the Republic of South Africa and elsewhere. The technical disclosure in this news release has been approved by Terry L. Tucker, P.Geo., Executive Chairman of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators. THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF SOUTHSTONE MINERALS LIMITED info@southstoneminerals.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 Statement Certain information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. Except for statements of historical fact, certain information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements, which include managements assessment of future plans and operations and are based on current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs, which may prove to be incorrect. Some of the forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as forecasts, estimates, expects, anticipates, believes, projects, plans, outlook, capacity and similar expressions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Companys actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources; the realization of mineral resource estimates; anticipated future production, capital and operating costs; cash flows and mine life; potential size of a mineralized zone; potential expansion of mineralization; potential types of mining operations; permitting timelines; government regulation of exploration and mining operations; risks that the presence of diamond deposits mentioned nearby the Companys property are not indicative of the diamond mineralization on the Companys property, the supply and demand for, deliveries of and the level and volatility of prices of rough diamonds, risks that the actual revenues will be less than projected; risks that the target production for the existing mining contracts will be less than projected or expected; risks that production will not commence as projected due to delay or inability to receive governmental approval of the Companys acquisition or the timely completion of an NI43-101 report; technical problems; inability of management to secure sales or third party purchase contracts; currency and interest rate fluctuations; COVID-19; foreign exchange fluctuations and foreign operations; various events which could disrupt operations, including labor stoppages and severe weather conditions; and managements ability to anticipate and manage the foregoing factors and risks. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are based on certain assumptions regarding, among other things, future prices for coal and diamonds; future currency and exchange rates; the Companys ability to generate sufficient cash flow from operations and access capital markets to meet its future obligations; coal consumption levels; and the Companys ability to retain qualified staff and equipment in a cost-efficient manner to meet its demand. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release unless required by law. The statements as to the Companys capacity to achieve revenue are no assurance that it will achieve these levels of revenue. Westminster, MD, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MidAtlantic Farm Credit, a members-owned cooperative and an institution of the national Farm Credit system, donated a total of $25,000 in September during National Poultry Month and Hunger Action Month to three local food banks: $10,000 to the Food Bank of Delaware $10,000 to the Maryland Food Bank $5,000 to the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore We are proud to be able to supply our communities with locally-grown poultry during the significant month of September, says Tom Truitt, CEO of MidAtlantic Farm Credit. Celebrating National Poultry Month and in honor of Hunger Action Month, we chose to support the food banks in fighting hunger through monetary donations to purchase poultry. Our poultry growers and integrators contribute so much to both the agriculture industry and local economy this donation is also in an effort to recognize their positive community impact. Jennifer Small, Senior Regional Program Director for the Maryland Food Bank, says, The Maryland Food Bank Eastern Shore appreciates the generous support of Farm Credit. This donation will enable us to acquire thousands of pounds of poultry, a staple protein that will go to serve the more than one in three individuals currently facing food insecurity within our state. Food Bank of Delaware President and CEO Cathy Kanefsky says, Ensuring that our neighbors in need have access to nutritious food is critical for us at the Food Bank of Delaware. We are so deeply grateful for Farm Credits generous donation. This will enable us to acquire more poultry a food item that our neighbors in need frequently request, but have difficulties accessing. Leslie Hart, Office Coordinator for the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, says, This generous donation will allow us to purchase turkey for the community at the 17 pantries in our region during the Thanksgiving holiday." For more information about Hunger Action Month and how Farm Credit supports local food banks battling hunger, visit mafc.com/blog/farmers-fight-hunger. About MidAtlantic Farm Credit MidAtlantic Farm Credit is an agricultural lending cooperative owned by its memberborrowers. It provides farm loans for land, equipment, livestock and production; crop insurance; and rural home mortgages. The co-op has over 12,400 members and over $2.9 billion in loans outstanding. MidAtlantic has branches serving Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is part of the national Farm Credit System, a network of financial cooperatives established in 1916 to provide a dependable source of credit to farmers and rural America. Attachments Investors with losses are encouraged to contact the firm before October 18, 2021; click here to submit trade information LOS ANGELES, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Portnoy Law Firm advises investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Annovis Bio, Inc. (NYSE : ANVS) investors that acquired shares between May 21, 2021 and July 28, 2021. Investors have until October 18, 2021 to seek an active role in this litigation. Investors are encouraged to contact attorney Lesley F. Portnoy , to determine eligibility to participate in this action, by phone 310-692-8883 or email , or click here to join the case. After the market closed on July 28, 2021, Annovis reported clinical trial data for Posiphen that failed to show statistical significance in treating Alzheimers and Parkinsons Disease patients relative to a placebo. On July 29, 2021 Annovis stock price declined by $65.94 per share, or approximately 60.25%, on this news from $109.44 per share to close at $43.50 per share. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 18, 2021. Please visit our website to review more information and submit your transaction information. The Portnoy Law Firm represents investors in pursuing claims arising from corporate wrongdoing. The Firms founding partner has recovered over $5.5 billion for aggrieved investors. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Lesley F. Portnoy, Esq. Admitted CA and NY Bar lesley@portnoylaw.com 310-692-8883 www.portnoylaw.com Attorney Advertising Date: October 28, 2021 Time: 1:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acadian Timber Corp. will release its 2021 third quarter results after market close on October 27, 2021, which will be available on our website at www.acadiantimber.com under Press Releases. The release will be followed by a conference call and webcast on Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) to discuss with members of senior management our financial and operating results. To participate in the third quarter conference call, please dial +1-866-795-3013 toll free in North America (Canada and the USA) or, for overseas calls, +1-409-937-8907 (Conference ID 1675396) at approximately 12:50 p.m. (Eastern Time). The media and investing public may access this conference call via a listen in mode only. For those unable to participate, a recorded rebroadcast will be available until 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) November 27, 2021. To access this rebroadcast, please dial +1-855-859-2056 or +1-404-537-3406 (Conference ID 1675396). The third quarter conference call will also be webcast live on our website, where it will be archived for future reference. If you have any questions about the third quarter conference call, please contact Susan Wood, Chief Financial Officer at +1-506-737-2345 or ir@acadiantimber.com. Acadian Timber Corp. (TSX: ADN) (Acadian) is one of the largest timberland owners in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern U.S. and has a total of approximately 2.4 million acres of land under management. Acadian owns and manages approximately 761,000 acres of freehold timberlands in New Brunswick, approximately 300,000 acres of freehold timberlands in Maine and provides timber services relating to approximately 1.3 million acres of Crown licensed timberlands in New Brunswick. Acadians products include softwood and hardwood sawlogs, pulpwood, and biomass by-products, sold to approximately 90 regional customers. Acadians business strategy is to maximize cash flows from its existing timberland assets through sustainable forest management and other land use activities while growing its business by acquiring assets on a value basis and actively managing these assets to drive improved performance. Palm City - Margaret Jan Crandall passed away at home on November 14. Her daughter Martha and her husband Robert were at her side. Jan Crandall, nee Schmults, was born on June 2, 1935, in Barrington, Rhode Island. During WWII, the family lived in Newport where her father, Ernest, worked at t Waukesha, WI (53187) Today Variable clouds with snow showers. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 20F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. MIDDLEBURY [mdash] Marvin D. Miller, 89, Middlebury, formerly of Nappanee, died at 7:05 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, at his residence. He had been in ill health for 1 years. He was born May 11, 1932, in Nappanee, to Roman E. and Mattie (Yoder) Miller. Mr. Miller was first married to Frieda Masashi Yamamoto announced in Turkey that as director of Honda's F1 project he hopes for a return to the premier class of motor racing, but Koji Watanabe announced Friday that this is not likely to happen. Honda will not be involved in Formula 1 in 2026, when the new engine regulations will be introduced. The new engine regulations have been created to make sure that new engine manufacturers want to enter Formula 1. The Volkswagen Group seems to have a very far-reaching interest, but Honda does not. The Japanese brand announced this at a media event in Tokyo, Motorsport-Total.com have reported. Honda says 'no' "There is no specific collaboration opportunity for the next generation of power units. All our engineers involved in building Red Bull Powertrains will do so in 2022 on a temporary basis, so they can build their engine department properly," said Watanabe, communications manager at Honda. A return is out of the question for 2026, purely because it is also impossible to arrange organisationally. "I have no intention of doing that now and there has been no request," the Japanese is adamant. A return to Formula 1 as an engine manufacturer doesn't seem to be on the cards for the next 10 years, assuming that the new regulations will be fixed for at least five years. Still some help from Japan Honda will still help Red Bull Racing next year with for example the production of their engines. The construction of the Red Bull Powertrains factory near Milton Keynes has not yet been completed and it will take some time before everything is up and running in Britain. Honda will also make the necessary help available to Max Verstappen's team on the track during the GP's. Grand Haven, MI (49417) Today Occasional snow showers. Quite windy. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Mainly cloudy with snow showers around this evening. Low 32F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Submit An Obituary Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Go to form Green River Police Department reports for Sept. 28 At 10:05 a.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on East Flaming Gorge Way and issued the driver Riese Allison,19, of Green River, a citation for alleged speeding. At 10:49 a.m., officers responded to a report of a scam on Edgar Street. Officers met with an individual who reported they purchased an item from an individual and had not received the item. Officers contacted the individual, who made arrangements to deliver the item. At 11:32 a.m., officers responded to a report of trespassing on Knotty Pine Street. Officers met with an individual who requested to have another individual trespassed for their property. Officers made contact with the individual, issued the trespass warning, and completed a report of the incident. At 2:48 p.m., officers responded to a report of an individual with an active warrant from the Probation and Parole office. Officers confirmed the warrant and placed Derik Dahl, 39, of Green River, under arrest per the active warrant. Officers transported Dahl to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. At 4:10 p.m., officers responded to a report of an individual with an active warrant. Officers confirmed the warrant and placed Chance Wood, 24, of Green River, under arrest per the active warrant. Officers transported Wood to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 7:32 p.m., officers responded to a report of fraud on North 2nd West Street. Officers met with an individual who reported they were the victim of a fraud or scam attempt via PayPal. It was reported they received an email earlier in the day regarding a possible questionable transaction on their PayPal account and a contact number to dispute the transactions. The individual contacted the company with the provided number and spoke with a female claiming to be a representative of PayPal. The individual asked for banking information and access to their computer to cancel the transactions and issue a refund. More than the transaction amounts were refunded and the company representative then told the individual they could purchase gift cards to settle the amount over refunded. Monetary losses were reported and officers completed a report of the incident. Sept. 29 At 7:43 a.m, officers responded to a report of a prior incident where a vehicle had struck a pedestrian. It was reported a vehicle was traveling west on Astle Drive and initiated a right-hand turn onto Uinta Drive when the vehicle struck a pedestrian that was walking east on the crosswalk. Officers made contact with the individuals involved and gathered their statements. Minor injuries were reported. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 9:20 a.m., officers responded to a report of a fraud on North Carolina Way. Officers met with the reporting person who advised they had suffered a significant monetary loss in an online scam. Officers completed a report of the incident. Sept. 30 At 12:16 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle and issued the driver, Jana Hurdsman, 49, of Reliance, a citation for alleged use of cellular telephone while driving. At 5:04 p.m., officers responded to a report of property damage on Wilkes Drive. Officers met with the reporting party who advised an individual had come to their residence and began causing a disturbance and damaging property. The reporting party advised they would like the individual trespassed from their residence. Officers made contact with the individual and advised them of the trespass warning. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 9:32 p.m., officers responded to a report of a physical altercation. Officers made contact with both parties and they were separated for the night. Parties refused medical transport and no arrests were made. Officers completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. Oct. 1 At 11:14 a.m., officers responded to a report of a two vehicle collision. One vehicle was traveling north on Uinta Drive and was stopped at a red light at the intersection of Uinta Drive and Astle Avenue when a second vehicle approached from behind and was not slowing down. The second vehicle collided with the first vehicle, causing damage to both. Officers gathered statements from both drivers and issued the driver of the second vehicle, a juvenile, 17, of Green River, a citation for alleged inattentive driving with crash. Officers completed a report of the incident. From 6 At 12:14 p.m., officers responded to a report of found property at Loaf N Jug on Uinta Drive. Officers were advised by store clerks that two sets of keys had been left in the store over the last month. Officers collected the property for safekeeping and completed a report of the incident. At 10:46 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle on Uinta Drive and issued the driver, Jordan Tucker, 22, of Green River, a citation for alleged expired or improper registration. Oct. 2 At 9:56 a.m., officers responded to a report of a dog attacking another dog on Schultz Street. Officers issued the owner, Barden Duck, 41, of Green River, a citation for alleged nuisance animal. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 11:43 a.m., officers responded to a report of a prior disturbance at the Town Bar and Grill. Officers met with the owner of the bar who advised a couple of patrons had come in the night before, caused issues with other patrons and then left without paying their tab. Officers met with all involved parties and gathered their statements. The individuals were contacted, paid their tab, and were trespassed from the location. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 5:28 p.m., officers responded to a report of domestic violence. Officers met with all parties and determined one of the individuals involved had an active warrant. Officers confirmed the warrant and placed Dallas Morgan, 26, under arrest per the active warrant. Officers transported Morgan to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 6:59 p.m., officers responded to a report of property stolen from a vehicle on Upland Way. Officers met with the reporting person who advised their wallet had been taken from their car. Officers completed a report of the incident. No suspects were identified at the time of the report. At 9:09 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle on Uinta Drive and issued the driver, Zachary Marse, 19, of Green River, a citation for alleged headlights required violation. Oct. 3 At 10:18 a.m., officers responded to a report of suspicious circumstances on Windriver Drive. The reporting person advised that when they returned home they found some of their belongings scattered around the yard. Officers completed a report of the incident. No items were reported to be missing and no suspects were identified at the time of the report. Oct. 4 At 10 a.m., officers responded to a report of a license plate that had been stolen off a parked horse trailer at the horse corrals on Teton Boulevard. Officers met with the owner of the trailer and completed a report of the incident. At 1:21 p.m., officers responded to a report of lost or stolen property at Travelodge by Wyndham. Officers met with an individual who reported money missing. Officers completed a report of the incident. The purple lights currently illuminating the trees by the clock tower have a specific purpose shining a light on the issue of domestic violence and spreading the message of awareness and prevention during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. While domestic violence is a serious problem year-round, October is set aside as a month to focus on and address the issue more specifically. Every year, YWCA of Sweetwater County uses the month to share information and host activities to bring more awareness to the community. YWCA prepared for the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month with a ribbon cutting and tree lighting event in Green River on Sept. 28. The purple lights purple being the color of domestic violence awareness were put up, YWCA representatives spoke about the importance of awareness, a ribbon was cut to mark the beginning of the month, and free goodies including cupcakes and hot chocolate were shared. Lighting the trees around the clock tower and hosting the ribbon cutting was the YWCAs way to begin reaching out and establishing more of a presence in Green River. Kayla Mannikko, the YWCAs development director, explained that the organization has done proclamations recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Green River in the past, but not held other activities. However, since the YWCA helps clients throughout Sweetwater County, Mannikko wants the organization to be more involved in Green River, and then to continue to expand, eventually reaching other towns like Granger as well. We just want people to know that we exist, were here for services, were here to help survivors and victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, stalking and elder abuse, Taneesa Congdon, the program director of the Center for Families and Children, said during the ribbon cutting. Congdon and Mannikko both expressed their gratitude to everyone in Green River who helped with the event. The Green River Fire Department used its equipment to decorate the big pine tree with purple lights, and volunteers from the Green River Police Department, the Green River Chamber of Commerce and other groups helped decorate with more lights and put the event together. The community of Green River was so helpful, Mannikko said. The event at the clock tower was the first of several events the YWCA has planned for October. A similar event took place in Rock Springs Sept. 29, and this week proclamations during the County Commission meeting and both Green River and Rock Springs City Council meetings recognized October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The proclamations call upon our citizens to stand together against domestic violence, offer support and understanding to survivors, and participate in domestic violence awareness activities. The main awareness activity the YWCA hosts annually in October is the Silent Witness Initiative ceremony and vigil, which will be held at 10 a.m. at Western Wyoming Community College on Saturday. This year its a little bit different, and its exciting, because we were asked to host the state-wide Silent Witness Initiative, Mannikko explained. This ceremony is centered around an exhibit made up of life-size red silhouettes, each representing a person who died as a victim of domestic violence. In the past, the YWCA event has only featured silhouettes of victims from Sweetwater County. This year, Sweetwater Countys victims will still be represented, with two new silhouettes being added. The new additions will make a total of 12 silhouettes from Sweetwater County. However, on the night, if you come, youll see over 70 silhouettes, Mannikko explained. Since Sweetwater County is hosting the state-wide initiative this year, the silhouettes will represent victims of domestic violence from across Wyoming. Some silhouettes also represent untold numbers of people, such as the silhouette for missing and murdered indigenous women. This topic will be addressed by the keynote speaker at the event, Lynette Grey Bull. The ceremony will also include other speakers, a silent witness pledge, introductions and retirements of silhouettes, and a procession where they silhouettes are carried by either volunteers or the family and friends of the victim. Some of the families bring personal items hats, jewelry, things like that to put on the silhouettes so it personalizes them, Mannikko explained. The YWCA also focuses on helping the families of victims during October. The night before the Silent Witness ceremony, a private dinner and vigil will be held for family and friends. Two other projects the YWCA is using to raise awareness this month are yard signs and the Clothesline Project. Purple yard signs that say stand against domestic violence can be purchased for $10 to show solidarity, raise awareness and support the YWCA. Signs are available to buy in Green River at Red White Buffalo, or can be purchased from the YWCA office in Rock Springs. The Clothesline Project will be on display in the White Mountain Mall in Rock Springs this month. It features t-shirts that were made by victims of domestic violence, with different colored shirts representing different types of violence. Some were made by survivors, while others were made by the friends and family of victims. Mannikko explained that all the t-shirts on display were made by local clients working with the YWCA, so they all represent domestic violence that occurred in Sweetwater County. Projects like the Silent Witness Initiative and the Clothesline Project are designed to shed light on domestic violence by representing the people who have experienced it in a tangible way that puts their numbers into perspective. This is important because many people who havent experienced domestic violence dont understand how prevalent the problem is. Its huge, Mannikko said. I dont think a lot of people in the community really know that its an issue where they live. Sweetwater County and Green River are no exception, according to Mannikko. Domestic violence was an issue back in the 80s when the YWCA started offering its services in the community, and it remains an issue today. This makes Mannikko sometimes question whether theyve made progress, but she believes they have. However, its an ongoing fight, which is why the YWCA continues to bring attention to the issue. You start with awareness, and then you do prevention, Mannikko explained. The YWCA offers resources to help with both of these goals. While October serves as a month to focus on awareness and prevention, it also provides a time for victims and their family members to heal, according to Mannikko. She explained that many people whose lives have been changed by domestic violence will use October as their one month to grieve and process their experiences. It doesnt just end, if youve lost somebody or if youre a survivor yourself, Mannikko said. She also noted that domestic violence is a problem year-round, and the YWCA does work to address it all the time, but Domestic Violence Awareness Month gives an opportunity to highlight it more specifically. This is where we really focus on it and give people the opportunity where we host things where they can come and cope and grieve or learn about it, Mannikko said. Support local journalism We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story. Bjoern Wylezich / TNS GREENWICH A local resident accused of marrying a U.S. citizen as part of a green card marriage pleaded guilty on Friday to making a false statement to investigators examining the case, the U.S. attorneys office announced. Patricio Milinik faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing Jan. 3, the office said. A citizen of Argentina residing in Greenwich, he waived his right to be indicted before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven. The 43-year-old has been released from custody pending his sentencing. GREENWICH The St. Lawrence Society will celebrate Monday as they continue a town tradition by hosting its annual flag-raising and breakfast for Columbus Day. But this year, there will be a twist at the event, which has been held in town for more than 30 years. In the past, the St. Lawrence Society has usually honored an Italian-American resident of Greenwich who has made great contributions to the community. But this year, instead of honoring just one person, the society will pay tribute to all of its members, both past and present. Trish Kerr, a board member at the SLS, said this years event comes as the society is only two years shy of its 100th anniversary. There are not many places that can claim this incredible milestone, Kerr said. In our recent board meetings, we had been reflecting upon how, during these extremely challenging times, it has been our members who continue to rise up to support their club. They are the true cornerstone we are built upon. Year after year, they rise to celebrate and honor the traditions we value, to represent, to come together, even virtually, as the community group we are. The flag-raising will be held at 9 a.m. Monday at Town Hall. Afterward, attendees will head to the St. Lawrence Society at 86 Valley Road in Cos Cob to enjoy a light breakfast. In previous years, the St. Lawrence Society honored well-known town residents, including former First Selectman Peter Tesei, Sam Romeo, Sam Telerico, Linda Mosier and Town Clerk Carmella Budkins. Last year, the honor went to former Selectman Peter Crumbine and town ambassador-at-large Bea Crumbine, who was an instrumental force in establishing a sister-city relationship between Greenwich and the Italian cities of Rose and Morra De Sanctis. That is where many of Greenwichs Italian families came from before establishing deep, generational roots in town. The public is invited to the flag-raising event outside Town Hall. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held last year on a rainy morning. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com GREENWICH For the second straight week, the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the Greenwich schools remains in the single digits, according to the latest update on the school districts online tracker. On Friday, six new cases were reported, making for a total of eight cases reported this week, the same number as last week, according to the district. A total of 69 cases of COVID-19 have been reported among students, teachers and staff since the start of classes Sept. 1. Eight of those cases were considered active as of Friday, with three cases linked to outside activities or family contact and five cases of undetermined origin, the district reported. Of the eight active cases, four involve students, two impact teachers and two affect service providers, according to the tracker. Five school buildings are currently impacted by COVID-19, according to the district, with three active cases at Glenville, two at Hamilton Avenue and one case each at Eastern Middle, Greenwich High and Old Greenwich. Among the 69 total cases of COVID-19 reported since classes began, 40 were linked to family or outside activity, 26 were of undetermined origin and three were because of in-school contact, according to the district. The latest report continues the downward trend of new cases reported. Only two cases were reported on Tuesday. Three new cases were reported last Friday on the tracker, compared with five new cases reported on Sept. 28, for a total of eight cases last week, according to the district. The slow rate of COVID-19 cases in the schools was reported as a policy took effect last month at Greenwich Public Schools that requires all district employees to either be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing for COVID-19. Our staff is now 100 percent in compliance, Jonathan Supranowitz, district spokesperson, said Friday. For those that have chosen to provide a negative test, they will need to do it all again on Monday. As of Wednesday, Supranowitz said, only nine of the districts 2,000 employees had not complied with Gov. Ned Lamonts executive order calling for all school staff across the state to be vaccinated by Sept. 27 or undergo weekly testing. Of the nine employees who had not been vaccinated or turned in COVID-19 tests, none was defined as an unwillingness to comply. For some, it could be that they were tested and did not get their result returned in time, Supranowitz said earlier this week. Those employees were placed on unpaid leave until they were compliant, he said. In Greenwich, any staff members who dont continue to comply with the executive order will be placed on unpaid leave for a maximum of five days. If they have not been vaccinated or undergo weekly tests, the district will begin the process of terminating their employment. The school district updates its online tracker every Tuesday and Friday morning to alert the GPS community about updates on COVID-19. Positive cases have been recorded and updated on the tracker since school began. As of Oct. 7, Connecticuts school submission summary of COVID-19 reported 601 cases of COVID-19 in public and private schools statewide during the week of Sept. 30 through Oct. 6. That is down slightly from 686 from Sept. 23 through Sept. 29, which was a big drop from the 855 cases the week before that. The state updates its schools COVID-19 data every Thursday. A year ago, the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Greenwich Public Schools came in mid-September and, until late October, cases remained in the single digits districtwide. For the 2020-21 school year, a total of 697 cases of COVID-19 were reported districtwide. Under an executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont, masks are required for everyone, regardless of immunization status, in schools statewide until at least Feb. 15. The legislature last month granted an extension of the governors emergency powers covering COVID-19 and the mandates now in place. During the annual Samsung Foundry Forum, Choi Si-young spoke about the future of Samsung's production of chips and what the global shortage will mean for future of its Foundry Business. Si-young is the president and head of Samsung's Foundry Business and he spoke about Samsung's roadmap for building 3nm and 2nm chips. Samsung aims to remain competitive despite the global component shortage. Si-young iterated that Samsung will "lead the most advanced technologies while taking silicon scaling a step further." Even through the shortage, the company expectes "few companies to be equipped to compete in this new frontier for process scaling." To start, Samsung plans to start mass producing chips on the 2nm process in 2025. The current generation of smartphones from Samsung and Apple (Manufactured by Samsung, Qualcomm, and TSMC) are powered by SoC's built on the 5nm process. The chipmaker expects to begin producing customers' first 3nm based chips in the first half of 2022. These new chips should boost performance by 30% and use half as much power thanks to the 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) node. All of this expected while the chip takes up to 35 percent less space than its 5nm counterpart. 3nm chips will be produced at Samsung's plant in Pyeongtaek, Korea - which is currently being expanded to support higher capacity. There's also a foundry planned for the US, though details about its location are slim. Meanwhile, the second generation of 3nm chips is expected to begin production in 2023. The company even revealed that chips on the 2nm process are in the early staged of development. These will use GAA and multi-bridge-channel FET technology, which is also under development. Source Via Microsoft released Windows 11 this week as a free update from Windows 10 for compatible PCs. However, if you are running an AMD processor and havent updated yet, you may want to hold off as two performance bugs have identified. The first one affects the L3 cache and increases latency by around 3x. Typical applications will see a 3-5% hit in performance, but esports games can experience as much as 10-15% slowdown. The other bug prevents Windows from using AMDs preferred core feature properly. This feature is how the processor tells the OS which core can achieve the highest clockspeed (and would thus be best-suited for high priority tasks). Application that run only a few threads will be affected, but isnt clear how much. AMD does say that the effect will be the most pronounced on processors with 8 cores or more and TDP above 65W. Known Performance Changes Impact Resolution Measured and functional L3 cache latency may increase by ~3X. Applications sensitive to memory subsystem access time may be impacted. Expected performance impact of 3-5% in affected applications, 10-15% outliers possible in games commonly used for eSports. A Windows update is in development to address this issue with expected availability in October of 2021. UEFI CPPC2 (preferred core) may not preferentially schedule threads on a processors fastest core. Applications sensitive to the performance of one or a few CPU threads may exhibit reduced performance. Performance impact may be more detectable in >8-core processors above 65W TDP. A software update is in development to address this issue with expected availability in October of 2021. AMD is working with Microsoft to resolve both issues. The fix is expected to arrive by the end of the month, unless there are bumps along the way. So, depending on what kind of CPU you have and what software you run, you may want to hold off on updating to Windows 11 until the fix rolls out. Source | Via The Leon Guerrero administration continues to call on the United Nations to send a visiting mission to Guam to address allegations of several human rights violations by the U.S. related to the military buildup on island. The allegations were made in a letter sent to President Joe Biden by three U.N. Special Rapporteurs on Jan. 29. Lt. Governor Josh Tenorio and Commission on Decolonization Executive Director Melvin Won Pat-Borja testified before the U.N. committee on decolonization on Thursday, on behalf of Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero. According to Tenorios testimony, the governors request to discuss the allegations with the U.S. have gone unanswered. They include, the failure to protect the indigenous CHamoru people from the loss of their traditional lands, territories, and resources; serious adverse environmental impacts; the loss of cultural artifacts and human remains; as well as the denial of the right to free, prior and informed consent and self-determination. Among other policy inequities related to build-up policy, he highlighted the fact that the local skilled labor force on Guam cannot meet the demands of the economic expansion resulting from domestic, commercial, and military activities. Yet the administering power will only authorize foreign labor to support military projects, resulting in a nearly two-fold increase in the cost of construction and the people of Guam being priced out of homeownership and shut out from a residential rental market dominated by military housing rentals and rental subsidies for only a certain segment of the population. Additionally, a visiting mission could, assess the progress of our sustainable development efforts consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the impact that our decolonization has on our ability to fully implement these policies. Inaction on the long-delayed political status vote for the island was also a topic raised during Tenorios testimony. Leon Guerrero in May announced that a piece of legislation was in the works to allow native inhabitants to vote on a preferred political status for the island: independence; free association; or statehood. She said that it was intended to comply with a July 2019 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which upheld that a previous law authorizing the vote was illegally race-based. Won-Pat Borja, on the matter of political status said, The United States has not fulfilled its international and moral obligation ... I request that the Fourth Committee continue to engage our administering Power until a visiting mission is granted. He also called for a distinction between people who were colonized by the United States and other residents on the island in a draft U.N. resolution for Guam. The right to self-determination and decolonization should be extended solely to those groups who share this unfortunate, inherited reality, yet the United States continues to assert that all the people on Guam, should be given the right to determine Guams political status. The nuclear submarine USS Connecticut, damaged at sea last weekend, is expected to arrive in Guam soon, according to national media reports. According to a statement from the Navy, the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine struck an object while submerged on the afternoon of Oct. 2, operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region. The submarine remains in safe and stable condition, and there are no life-threatening injuries, according to the Navy. USS Connecticuts nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational. The extent of the damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed. The Washington Post, citing an anonymous source, reported that sailors suffered minor and moderate injuries while the submarine was operating in the South China Sea, and the submarine soon is expected to arrive in Guam. The 353-foot-long submarine is based out of Washington state. Guams ability to repair ships is limited, as the former Naval Ship Repair Facility is currently mothballed and private ship repair contractors are able to perform repairs only above the water line. The need for foster parents on the island was discussed during a virtual public hearing in the legislature by the Department of Public Health and Social Services on Friday. There are currently 474 children in foster care on Guam and about 41 foster homes, but more are needed, said Mae Fe Muyco, the social service supervisor for the home evaluation placement section of Public Health. What will happen to all these foster children if no one wants to be a foster parent? said long time foster parent Rufina Tainatongo. Its very rewarding if its from your heart. The application to become a foster parent involves a social questionnaire as well as a police and court clearance for all adults residing in the home. In the event they have not lived on island for five years, Public Health conducts a National Crime Information Center background check. A medical and financial clearance is reviewed, and three reference letters are required in addition to an interview and home assessment. Some potential foster parents are concerned or hesitant because of their financial situation, said deputy director of Public Health Terry Aguon. He said that Public Health can assist through stipends to pay for childrens needs, such as groceries. If someone is fostering a newborn to 11 years old child, the monthly stipend from Public Health is $576. A family with a foster child 12 to 17 years old can receive a stipend of $779 a month. There is also health and dental insurance for the children available, which Public Health can help with. The last thing I really want a foster parent to say is I dont want to be a foster parent, because I really dont have the means to feed this child even though my heart is saying otherwise, Aguon said. He encourages foster parents who may be in this situation to reach out to their case worker and prospective parents to work with public health to do a pre-assessment for eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. During the hearing, Speaker Therese Terlaje said she heard from the Mayors Council of Guam president Jesse Alig that the council has launched their Gift a Family campaign, with the goal of finding at least 19 foster families by Christmas. Interested potential foster parents can call the Bureau of Social Services at 475-2672/ 2653 and can ask for Muyco for more information on the process and qualifications. Harvest House hosts informational Zoom sessions on becoming a foster parent in partnership with Child Protective Services on the last Thursday of each month. The next session will be 6 p.m. Oct. 28. To join the meeting, contact Harvest House through their website or Facebook page or call or text 671-300-5433. An interest form can also be filled out to join the meeting at https://harvesthouse.churchcenter.com/people/forms/248746. Police have arrested three men in connection with the death of a 23-year-old man in front of King's Restaurant in Tamuning Saturday, according to Guam Police Department spokesman Sgt. Paul Tapao. Police were called to the restaurant at 2:50 a.m. Saturday because of a reported disturbance involving several men, Tapao said. When officers arrived, they found a 23-year-old man who was unconscious and unresponsive, Tapao said. The man was taken to Guam Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:50 a.m., Tapao said. Police interviewed witnesses and learned about a vehicle the people involved in the disturbance left in. With help from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Department of Defense police assigned to Andersen Air Force Base, the three men identified in the disturbance were located, Tapao said. Police arrested Fiataugaluia Ahkee, 31, on suspicion of aggravated assault, assault, reckless conduct, guilt established by complicity and criminal facilitation. John Mike Muliaga, 22, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault, reckless conduct, guilt established by complicity and criminal facilitation Ahkee and Muliaga were booked and confined at the Department of Corrections. Joseph Kendy Decady, 36, was arrested in connection with criminal facilitation. He was booked and released. Although police reports have been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney General for prosecution, the case remains open, Tapao said. Officials from the Department of Public Health and Social Services on Friday spoke in opposition to a bill that would require them to implement licensing rules for local adoption agencies by next year. Bill 179 would require any adoption agency to be licensed by Public Health by March 1, 2022. In the meantime, Public Health would have to create interim licensing rules, exempt from the usual government rulemaking process under the Administrative Adjudication Act. Public Health Deputy Director Terry Aguon stated that the agency would like to have the community more involved in the rule-making process. He had received concerns from people over the fact that, were opening ourselves up to having not just one party, but perhaps several parties that may come to Guam, wanting to set up an adoption agency. In addition, they were engaged with a team of federal officials who were helping them compare regulations from different states. Sen. Joanne Brown questioned the decision, given the urgency of the situation. The legislature through majority vote has already put in place the authorization that allows the adoption agencies to literally be at the table while you guys are deciding the fate of where these children are going to go. Thats already there, without regulation, she said. Speaker Therese Terlaje said that public hearings on proposed rules would have to take place under the Administrative Adjudication Act anyway. In the meantime, theres nothing to prevent the Department of Public Health from seeking public input. The bills author, Sen. Telo Taitague, asked Aguon when the agency would be able to provide a timeline for any interim rules. Aguon said he would have to contact the federal advisers about a deadline, but it would be as soon as possible. Whether thats next week or next month, seriously, at this point, I dont know. Creating the rules was a priority for Public Health, he said. Lori Boss, executive director at Ohala Adoption Agency, testified in support of providing rules and regulations for local agencies. Ohala had proceeded without any, which had lengthened their establishment process. Among other things, she asked for additional oversight from agencies besides Public Health. Public Health has stated clearly that adoption is not a priority for them. They have not completed an adoption since 2017, she said. Aguon testified in April against two bills, which are now law, that integrated adoption agencies into Child Protective Services processes. At the time, he cited concerns over rules and regulations for such agencies. Manuel Junior Cabrera Tedtaotao has been charged with attempted murder as a first degree felony in connection with a case of man found burned and stabbed in August, according to a magistrates complaint in Superior Court of Guam. On Aug. 21, neighbors reported hearing screams for help on Fusions Street in Dededo, and found a man lying on the ground with several cuts and burns, according to PDN files. According to the magistrates complaint, Tedtaotao allegedly bound and kidnapped the man. A responding fire department medic asked the man who did this to him, and the man responded, Manny Tedtaotao. The man told the medic that they thought he was stealing. The man was taken to the Guam Regional Medical City, where the investigating officer learned that he had a 6-inch cut on his head, in which left his skull was visible, a 10-inch gash on his right calf, and life-threatening third-degree burns over most of his body. An attending physician told the officer that the mans chance of survival was about 5%, the complaint said. On Sep. 9, a detective was able to interview the man, who reported that on Aug. 20 he had called Tedtaotao about trading a set of darts for a car battery. They met at a residence in Dededo and played darts before Tedtaotao asked the man for a ride to Swamp Road. When they arrived, Tedtaotao told the man they were waiting for another man, who arrived shortly after. Tedtaotao went through the mans possessions and accused him of stealing before repeatedly punching him, causing him to fall to the ground. The man recalled multiple people there, but could not identify them because of the assault, the complaint stated. He recalled someone cutting his right calf and saying, Now you cant run away, before being struck in the head and blacking out. His feet and hands were bound with an extension cord or rope, he was wrapped in a tarp, and forced into the back of his own vehicle. It was driven from Swamp Road with him inside the trunk, and he was able to free himself. He recalled that he felt wet and smelled fumes, the complaint states. The vehicle stopped and he was pulled out and set on fire. He ran into the jungle, stopped, dropped, and rolled. He waited there until his attackers left, and walked to a residence to ask for help. Tedtaotao invoked his right to silence, the complaint said. He was also charged with attempted aggravated and kidnapping as first degree felonies, aggravated assault as a second degree felony, and felonious restraint as a third degree felony. Haiti - FLASH : Martine Moise files a complaint against PM Henry and consorts On Thursday, the family of Martine Moise, who became a civil party, announced that they had lodged a complaint against the suspects indexed in the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, the main concerned of whom are : Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Joseph Felix Badio, Dimitri Herard, former senator John Joel Joseph and consorts... Regarding the Prime Minister, let's recall that he is accused of having had 2 telephone communications on the night of the assassination with Felix Badio who was at the scene of the crime and on the run since (1 call of 3 minutes and a second of 4 minutes ) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34714-haiti-flash-the-prosecution-wants-to-hear-pm-henry-in-connection-with-the-assassination-of-the-president.html . Remember that Badio is the subject of a wanted notice and is accused of "murder, attempted murder, armed robbery" and considered by the PNH as "dangerous and armed" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34225-haiti-notice-the-pnh-is-looking-for-3-dangerous-and-armed-individuals-including-a-former-senator.html The Prime Minister refused to respond to the invitation of justice to explain the object of his appeals which he said in the media to no longer remember https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34762-haiti-justice-phone-call-with-badio-the-pm-does-not-remember.html In addition, a complaint originating from the radical opposition was lodged against the former First Lady summoning her this Friday, October 8 to the investigating cabinet before Judge Ikenson Edume to be heard "on the grounds of fraud, forgery and use of forgery in public writing, over-invoicing, money laundering and criminal association to the detriment of the Haitian State." Martine Moise's lawyers requested a postponement of autidtion due to the unavailability of their client for this date. However, it is not so much justice that the radical opposition seeks in this complaint as it tries to block the possible candidacy of Martine Moise for the Presidency. An inconvenient candidacy. Me Andre Michel, leader of the radical movement known as the "Democratic and Popular Sector" (SDP) declared "Martine Moise is cynical. She is capable of anything. She is using the corpse of her husband, Jovenel Moise for unhealthy political ends. She is the first beneficiary of the Crime. No tracks should be ruled out in the context of the Processing of this File." This mention of "political end" is an unequivocal implication. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34932-haiti-flash-the-supplementary-indictment-accusing-the-pm-has-mysteriously-disappeared.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34762-haiti-justice-phone-call-with-badio-the-pm-does-not-remember.html https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-34747-icihaiti-assassination-of-the-president-digicel-has-no-way-to-listen-to-what-people-are-saying.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34724-haiti-assassination-of-the-president-the-office-of-citizen-protection-requests-the-resignation-of-pm.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34714-haiti-flash-the-prosecution-wants-to-hear-pm-henry-in-connection-with-the-assassination-of-the-president.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34592-haiti-flash-3-fugitives-for-6-million-gourdes-in-the-file-of-the-assassination-of-president.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34225-haiti-notice-the-pnh-is-looking-for-3-dangerous-and-armed-individuals-including-a-former-senator.html SL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Migration : Mexico repatriates 129 Haitians On Wednesday October 6, 2021, as part of the Voluntary Return Program, Mexico repatriated 129 Haitians to Haiti. The migrants took off from Tapachula (Chiapas Province, Mexico), bound for Port-au-Prince international airport. According to the National Institute of Migration (INM) this repatriation (the 2nd in just over a week https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34874-haiti-mexico-voluntary-return-to-haiti-of-70-haitians.html) is part of the decisions taken at the permanent dialogue table, set up on September 21 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34780-haiti-mexico-establishment-of-a-permanent-dialogue-table-on-haitian-migration.html at the central offices of the INM, between the representatives of the Government of Mexico and Haiti, in order to meet the needs of the migrant population of Haitian origin present on Mexican national territory. The INM assured that these actions are carried out with respect for human rights and aim to strengthen the cooperation links between the Government of Mexico and the nations with migrant populations. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34920-haiti-migration-crisis-mexico-asks-for-un-help-to-stop-haitian-migration.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34874-haiti-mexico-voluntary-return-to-haiti-of-70-haitians.html S/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... Daniel Foote warns of the gravity of the situation in Haiti Thursday, October 7, During his hearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee of Congress, the resigning American envoy Daniel Foote https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34820-haiti-flash-us-special-envoy-to-haiti-daniel-foote-resigns.html warned of the gravity of the situation in Haiti where the capital is controlled by armed gangs better equipped than the police, according to him, the mass expulsion in the short term Haitian refugees by the Biden administration will worsen the already very dangerous situation in Haiti. He also revealed that Prime Minister Ariel Henry had said he was ready to resign if the population asked him. USA : Ambassador Edmond speaks with US Assistant Under Secretary of Defense On Thursday, October 6, Ambassador Bocchit Edmond met at the Embassy of Haiti in Washington with Daniel Erikson, US Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense "Our discussion covered a wide range of issues related to the security situation and how the United States can best help resolve them. Security is paramount to the electoral process." Words of Martine Moise "Even when the carpet of sorrow and pain unrolls under my feet and those of my family, I will never stop asking for justice for my husband Jovenel Moise. 3 months after assassins of all colors killed our President, I remind the judicial authorities that impunity is the source of insecurity" Martine Moise. Consulate closures Consulate General of Haiti in Montreal The Consulate is advising the general public and the Haitian community in particular that its offices will be closed on Monday, October 11, 2021, on the occasion of Thanksgiving. Consular services will resume, by appointment, on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Consulate General of Haiti in Miami The Consulate is informing the general public that the mission will be closed on Monday, October 11, 2021 on the occasion of Columbus Day. The Consulate will reopen a usual opening to the public on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 from 9 a.m. Words of sympathy President of the Senate Joseph Lambert Dr Rony Gilot left too early. The Senate of the Republic has lost its Secretary General and I, a friend, a big brother. The emotion that comes over me is so strong and words can do nothing. Salutation Rony !" Ex-Senator Dieudonne Luma Etienne "The unexpected departure for the beyond of Sec. General of the Senate of the Republic, Dr Rony Gilot, an adviser and a fervent collaborator, affects me deeply. The country has lost a scarce human resource, a monument in terms of knowledge and political experience. Condolences to all his family, his relatives and his various collaborators at the level of the Senate of the Republic of Haiti. That his soul rests in peace !" HL/ HaitiLibre By William Schwartz | Published on 2021/10/07 Eui-sik (played by Oh Dal-soo), an obvious parallel for real-life president Kim Dae Jung, arrives at the airport during eighties South Korea. The activist is then immediately put under house arrest, despite not being accused of any actual crimes. Focus then promptly shifts to Dae-kwon (played by Jung Woo), the National Intelligence Service agent charged with wiretapping Eui-sik's home. Dae-kwon's situation quickly turns to farce, as it is obvious Eui-sik knows he is being surveiled, but the dimwitted agents desperately try pretend otherwise. Advertisement The first half of "Best Friend" is definitely the strongest as director Lee Hwan-yeong treats us to the absurdity of the situation. At one point a character is forced to retreat into the nether regions of an outhouse to recover a lost tracking device. Desperate attempts are made to decipher possibly nonexistent codes that might be communicated to Eui-sik via song. And in two wonderful setpieces, home invasions necessitate the use of convoluted and implausible explanations to maintain the illusion that Dae-kwon and his fellows aren't spooks. But outside of these broad strokes "Best Friend" is less effective. The movie's a bit of a dinosaur, in multiple ways. The abrupt tonal shift in the second half calls to mind early Korean wave films from the turn of the century. In more political terms, "Best Friend" is borne of the same general optimism of South Korean culture circa 2017. Much like "1987: When the Day Comes" there's a feeling that yes, the dictatorship may be brutal, yet an earnest desire for freedom will prevail above all else. It's not a sentiment that has aged well. In a darkly twisted turn, the movie's own delayed release is evidence of that. The movie's original ddistribution window was wrecked when Oh Dal-soo was outed as a serial groper. Evidently his turn as a noble figure in "Best Friend" did not allow Oh Dal-soo to see the error of his ways. And yet we're expected to believe that Dae-kwon, an agent for the South Korean dictatorship, is inevitably inspired to take a buffoonish stand against tyranny by his interactions with Eui-sik. The balance between whimsy and serious drama is not effectively done, despite having its moments. I liked how, for the sake of further plausible deniability, Dae-kwon does not communicate especially well with his superiors. There's obvious irony in how, despite claiming to be the good guys, the National Intelligence Service insists on being secretive about everything. The only time their intentions are clearly parsable is when they're making threats. Yet none of this should be surprising to Dae-kwon, who both needed a better reason to turn against his spy masters, as well as more plausible justifications to explain why his superiors didn't lock him up in a torture prison too. Or at least fire him from his job. With three credited screenwriters it's not surprising the message is so muddled, and the story itself much more long-winded than it needed to be. Still, "Best Friend" is funny when it counts- which is worth something at least. Review by William Schwartz ___________ "Best Friend" is directed by Lee Hwan-gyeong, and features Jung Woo, Oh Dal-soo, Kim Hee-won, Kim Byung-chul, Lee Yoo-bi, Cho Hyun-chul. Release date in Korea: 2020/11/25. How to Watch Published on 2021/10/07 | Source Namu Actors told OSEN that Kim Hyo-jin is considering the new JTBC drama "The Good Detective - Season 2". Advertisement "The Good Detective" is coming out with a second season. It is a detective story about those who seek the truth and those who want to cover it up. The first season recorded a viewer rating of 7.5%. Therefore, the second season was confirmed earlier this year. Son Hyun-joo and Jang Seung-jo from the first season have confirmed appearances earlier on. Kim Hyo-jin plays Cheon Na-na, the daughter of TJ Group and planning team director. She's currently appearing in the JTBC Saturday-Sunday drama "Lost". Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help Published on 2021/10/07 | Source New posters added for the upcoming Korean documentary "Shadow Flowers" (2019) Advertisement Directed by Yi Seung-Jun Synopsis Kim Ryun-hee, a North Korean housewife, was forced to come to South Korea and became its citizen against her will. She tried to smuggle herself out and even sought political asylum at the Vietnamese Embassy but all in vain. As her seven years of struggle to go back to her family in North Korea continues, the political absurdity hinders her journey back to her loved ones. The life of her family in the North goes on in emptiness, and she fears that she might become someone, like a shadow, who exists only in the fading memory of her family. Release date in Korea : 2021/10/27 Thank you for reading! You have reached our free-content limit. If you are a current subscriber, please log in to continue viewing content or purchase a subscription by clicking the Subscribe button below. Thank you for supporting independent Journalism. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit Hazard native and local author Joey Webb is celebrating October and the spooky season by encouraging the communitys support of his recently released horror stories that came out in March of this year. Webb said he began writing at an early age, with science fiction and horror being his favorite genres, and has an interest in writing poetry as well. Over the years, Webb has published several books in the horror and science fiction genres, and said he has also directed and acted in several independent films. Webbs two books of horror, sci-fi short stories are entitled Pleasant Screams and Gory Stories, respectively. His Blood Brothers Saga tells the story of feuding brothers one a vampire and the other a werewolf battling in different time periods. His short story Night Owl, which is about a trucker battling vampires, was also published in the anthology Deadhead Miles from Breaking Fate Publishing. Pleasant Screams, said Webb, is a creepy collection of weird science fiction stories and spine tingling horror. This collection, he said, mixes gore, humor and even a little romance for a weirdly wonderful ride thats not for the faint of heart. Webb said in Gory Stories, readers are taken into a dark world of nightmares with twenty sickeningly sadistic short stories featuring well known fiends such as vampires, zombies, werewolves and serial killers along with lesser known but equally terrifying monstrosities such as the lechuza, chupacabra, wendigo and golem. Wanted Undead or Alive, the first book of the Blood Brothers Saga, takes place in Texas in 1885. In this book, Chance Murdoch is a respected lawman with a sterling reputation. After an encounter with an escaped prisoner almost turns deadly, Chance is rescued by a group of Apaches who turn him into one of their kind, a moon wolf. Luke Murdoch is an outlaw with a price on his head that continues to grow with his reputation. A late night tryst with a saloon girl transforms Luke from petty criminal into a vicious blood drinker. The long feuding Murdoch brothers join the centuries old werewolves vs. vampires war, with mankind stuck in the middle. The two brothers on opposite sides of the law continue their feud in one of the most violent cities during a crime riddled era during Mob Rules, the second nook of the Blood Brothers Saga which takes place in the Prohibition era in Chicago. In this book, Chance Murdoch is a member of a special task force designed to deal with the out of control crime rates in the city. As a werewolf, he has a secret weapon that makes him a valuable government asset. Luke Murdoch is quickly rising through the ranks of the criminal underworld in Chicago, and as a vampire, he is considered the most powerful mob boss in the city. A New Wave is the third Blood Brothers Saga book, and takes place in the 1980s in Los Angeles, which was known for both the glitz and the grime. In this book, Luke Murdoch, the vampire career criminal, has expanded his interests into the booming drug dealing industry. Chance Murdoch, his werewolf brother, is on the side of the law working for the government to eradicate the drug cartels. The century long battle between the Murdoch brothers reaches a fever pitch in the most decadent city in a decadent decade. All of Webbs books are available on Amazon. To view information about Webb and his work, or to purchase one of his books, visit his Amazaon page https://www.amazon.com/Joey-Webb/e/B00J8U4Y2I/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1. As COVID-19 cases begin to decline slowly throughout Perry County and across the state, local and state officials, along with healthcare officials, are continuing to encourage individuals to get vaccinated and practice safety precautions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. During the Sept. 28 Hazard-Perry County Chamber of Commerce meeting, Hazard Mayor Donald Happy Mobelini spoke about the city's and county's vaccination efforts. Perry County is one of the top 10 counties with over 60 percent vaccination rate. That's great, said Mobelini. He continued, stating that although Hazard and Perry County are increasing vaccination efforts, more needs to be done on that front to make a difference. The fact of the matter is we really appreciate people getting the vaccine and we wish more people would get it. That's really the only way to curve this thing, said Mobelini. On Oct. 4, Gov. Andy Beshear said weekly COVID-19 cases and test positivity rates, as well as COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU admittances, ventilator uses and orders for monoclonal antibody treatments in the commonwealth, are declining due to more Kentuckians getting vaccinated and masking up indoors. From March 1 to Sept. 29, state officials said, 86.2 percent of COVID-19 cases, 92.4 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 84.5 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Kentucky have been among those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. Beshear also reported that 61 percent of all Kentuckians, including those that are too young to be eligible, have gotten at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose; 71 percent of Kentuckians 12 or older, or 71 percent, of all eligible Kentuckians, have gotten at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose; and 74 percent of Kentucky adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Thegovernor said that, on Oct. 14-15, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee will discuss booster doses of Moderna and J&J COVID-19 vaccines. On Oct. 26, the FDA anticipates the advisory committee will discuss authorizing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11. This week, the CDC reported that in Perry County 62.3 percent of the total population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 53.5 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. According to the Kentucky River District Health Department (KRDHD), Perry County has had 5,709 total cases, 84 COVID-19 related deaths and has an incidence rate of 105.9. As of Oct. 1, the KRDHD said Perry County has 277 active cases. Officials with the Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center announced that as of 9 a.m. Sept. 21, there were 114 patients positive for COVID-19 in ARH's 13 hospitals in WV and KY. Seven of those have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and 107 are unvaccinated, said ARH officials. Twenty-nine of those 114 are in the ICU and 33 positive patients are on a vent. One positive patient in ICU has been fully vaccinated. Local officials encourage community members to reach out to their care provider and schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment. (The Center Square) While Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, agreed to a short-term deal to extend the countrys debt ceiling, another Kentucky lawmaker is sponsoring a measure that would take the issue entirely out of the hands of Congress. Last week, House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Kentucky, joined with Committee Vice-Chair Brendan Doyle, D-Pennsylvania, to file HR 5415, which would give the secretary of the treasury power to manage the governments borrowing capacity. Yarmuth, a Louisville Democrat, said the Debt Ceiling Reform Act is based on negotiations McConnell had with the Obama Administration a decade ago, which he said gave the administration the power to raise the limit by $1.2 trillion. Its time for Republicans to pull the ripcord and support our legislation to implement the McConnell Rule, giving the Treasury Secretary the authority to raise the debt ceiling, Yarmuth said in a statement last week. We need to get past this politically manufactured crisis and get on with the business of addressing the needs and priorities of the American people. However, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, while the McConnell Rule would give the administration control over raising the ceiling, it also would allow Congress to reject the increase if both parties agreed. Congress would not need to act if it concurred with raising the limit. In 2011, Republicans held both the House and the Senate. This year, Democrats control the White House and Capitol Hill. The Senate voted on a $480 billion increase on Thursday evening. We have reached agreement to extend the debt ceiling through early December, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said on the Senate floor Thursday. It marks the third consecutive term Boyle has offered the debt ceiling legislation. The Philadelphia Democrat said the policy of letting Congress control the debt ceiling dates back more than 100 years and that its no longer an effective policy. Simply put, the debt ceiling is incapable of accomplishing what it sets out to doto control how much the government borrowsas the bills Congress passes are legally binding and cannot be inhibited by such a limit, Boyle said in a statement. The statement issued by Boyle cited a Moodys Analytics report that defaulting on the debt ceiling, which means the government would not be able to spend additional money, would lead to the loss of about 6 million jobs and $15 trillion in personal wealth. The quality of American public schools can vary widely between states, cities, and even districts. Not all schools are able to provide students with the same level of education, access to extracurriculars, counseling, or college preparation. While each public school faces its own unique challenges, each state has one public school that stands out as the very best. The best public high schools tend to be in relatively affluent areas, where incomes are well above the U.S. median household income of $62,843. A wealthier tax base for a school district means that schools have more funding to hire teachers and other faculty and provide more extracurriculars. In many of the best public high schools in a given state, the vast majority of students graduate and perform well in educational assessments. Nationwide, only 24% of students are proficient in math and 37% are proficient in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Students at top high schools also tend to perform well in college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT, with reported scores well above the 1058 out of 1600 nationwide average for the SAT and the 20.6 out of 36 average for the ACT. Out of nearly 250 public high schools in Kentucky, Louisville's DuPont Manual High School ranks as the best. The magnet school earned an A+ overall grade from school data platform Niche as well as top marks for its academics, clubs and activities, and college prep. DuPont Manual High School ranks as the top high school in large part because of the academic performance of its students -- 85% are proficient in math and 88% are proficient in reading. Of the nearly 1,900 students, 80% are enrolled in Advanced Placement classes. To determine the best public high schools in every state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 2022 K-12 School & District Rankings from Niche, a platform for education data. The Niche ranking is based on academic and student life data from the U.S. Department of Education as well as student reviews submitted to Niche. Data on student count and student-teacher ratio came from Niche. We'll keep you connected to all the updated local news and information about what's happening in Hendersonville and Sumner County! Click Here to Subscribe! Free access for current print subscribers As a home delivery subscriber, you get free unlimited digital access to premium content on HenryHerald.com, including local news, local sports, obituaries, legal notices, local features, and the e-edition. All you need is your print subscription account number and your last name. Don't know your subscription number? Email access@henryherald.com with your delivery address. Activate your account now. Anderson, IN (46016) Today Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High 41F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 24F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. BENTON HARBOR Plans are underway to replace at least some of the lead water service lines in Benton Harbor. Jason Marquardt, senior project engineer with Abonmarche, said the city received bids on Sept. 8 to replace almost 100 lead service lines by the end of May 2022. Abonmarche operates as the citys engineering company. Were in the process of awarding the contract to the contractor and were getting ready to start that program late October into November, he said. The houses slated to have their lead service lines at least partially replaced can be found on the citys website at www.bhcity.us/water. This is the first round of homes to have their lead service lines replaced, using a $5.5 million grant the city received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October 2020. He said the estimated cost of this first batch of homes, which are scattered all over the city, is $563,000. The EPA grant is expected to help the city replace about 888 lead service lines over the next four years. The problem, Marquardt said, is that the citys water distribution system is more than 100 years old, with many homes built before the 1960s. The water leaving the citys water plant doesnt have lead in it, he said. Neither do the pipes delivering the water to the property lines of the homes. However, many of the water service lines from the property line to the home are made of lead or have lead components in them, he said. Traditionally, homeowners were responsible for the water lines starting at their property line. But changes in state law now require municipalities to replace lead service lines at no cost to the homeowner to the first shut-off valve inside the home or 18 inches inside the home, whichever is shortest. Meanwhile, Marquardt said the city is using $140,000 from a state grant to pothole the connection the city has with 350 homes to find out if they need to be replaced. That has the contractor physically digging up the shut off and verifying the materials on both the public side and the private side, he said. He said the work started in 2019 and will continue until all of the 3,030 active water accounts in the city have been checked and replaced if needed. More help Until recently, Marquardt said the city has been hampered by a lack of funding to replace the lead service lines. But more help is on its way. In September, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the states 2022 fiscal budget, which includes $10 million to replace lead service lines in the city. And the city is expected to receive another $10 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. Theres likely another bid package thats going to have between 250 to 300 service replacement, probably out by the end of the year for a contractor to start replacing more in 2022, Marquardt said. State law allows municipalities to replace the lead service lines over 20 years, but calls to replace them faster have been becoming stronger, especially since a group of 20 organizations filed a petition with the EPA in September, saying that residents need clean drinking water now. On Wednesday, state health officials urged Benton Harbor residents to use bottled water for cooking and drinking in a joint news release with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. Benton Harbor has been under a state advisory for lead since October 2018, when routine summer sampling found higher-than-acceptable levels of lead in some of the citys tap water. Since then, the city has been required to test a sampling of homes every six months. St. Joseph, MI (49085) Today Windy with occasional snow showers. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Overcast. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 32F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Yes, he's become ineffective and our team keeps losing. No, he's a good coach -- I don't like to blame a coach for a team's failure. Vote View Results Multimedia Video Journalist Buffalo native trying to get her news on! Im a Multimedia Journalist here at Your Hometown Stations and I love what I do. Have a cool story idea? Im in! Just email me at ashelton@wlio.com or message my Facebook page. The Spurs signed free agent guard Jaylen Morris to a contract on Thursday, according to the official transactions log at RealGM. Its a non-guaranteed training camp contract, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. Morris, 26, has played in the NBA, the G League, and multiple international leagues since going undrafted out of Molloy in 2017. He appeared in a total of 10 games for Atlanta and Milwaukee in 2018 and has played 78 games at the G League level, averaging 13.6 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 2.5 APG on .527/.325/.732 shooting in 32.3 minutes per contest for four NBAGL clubs. Morris also played in Greece in 2019/20 and in Israel in 2020, and suited up for San Antonios Summer League team this August. The Spurs are carrying 17 players on fully guaranteed contracts, so theres no path to a 15-man roster spot for Morris. Since he last played for the Austin Spurs, the 65 shooting guard will likely return to San Antonios G League affiliate this season. Assuming his deal contains Exhibit 10 language, hell earn a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with Austin. Appointment 8 October 2021 We're announcing today the hire of Juniper Downs as Airbnb's new Global Head of Community Policy and Partnerships, where she will oversee the team responsible for the rules that govern behavior on the Airbnb platform. Juniper joins us following nine years at Google, where she held roles across Trust and Safety and Public Policy, including serving as Global Director of Policy for YouTube and most recently as the Global Director of Public Affairs, Government Affairs and Public Policy. Airbnb is built on trust, and central to that trust are the thoughtful community policies that have been developed and enhanced since the founding of the platform over 12 years ago. Juniper will be entrusted with building and strengthening both these community policies and the global Community Policy team as Airbnb prepares to catalyze the travel revolution. Global partnerships will also fall under Juniper's purview. Airbnb maintains partnerships with respected advocacy groups and recognized issue experts for some of our safety-specific policies. For example, we partner with the National Network to End Domestic Violence for advice on our domestic violence policy, and we partner with Polaris for advice on our human trafficking policy. Airbnb is continuing to invest in recruiting talent to the Trust organization. Juniper is the latest senior addition to Airbnb's Trust team, reporting to VP Donald Hicks, who joined the company in February. She joins alongside Brendon Lynch, Airbnb's Chief Privacy Officer, who came to Airbnb last year after serving in a similar capacity at Microsoft. While at Google, Juniper led a global team responsible for trust and reputation programs for policymakers. She represented the company in front of policymakers around the world, including providing testimony before the U.S. Congress multiple times. Prior to Google, Juniper worked as an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, led the Santa Clara County Counsel Social Justice and Impact Litigation Project, and worked as a teacher in Oakland, CA. Appointment 8 October 2021 Marriott Owings Mills Metro Centre and Crescent Hotels and Resorts, a premier hotel management company, is proud to announce the appointment of Bernard Smith as Executive Chef. Opening this October in Owings Mills, MD, the Marriott Owings Mills Metro Centre will feature The Tillery, the property's upscale full-service restaurant. Smith will be responsible for conceptualizing and creating the menu, crafting the culinary experience, and overseeing staff and all food and beverage operations at the brand-new hotel and restaurant. The property will boast 15,000 square feet of meeting and event space including a 6,240-square-foot ballroom with comfortable seating for up to 550 guests. In addition, the hotel offers 3,650 square feet of pre-function space, seven meeting & event rooms, and an outdoor terrace that can accommodate 300 guests. Chef Smith's team will provide cuisine for Weddings, Mitzvahs, Anniversaries, Meetings, Conferences and Special Events. The Tillery cuisine will combine elements of the area's rich farming and milling history with a modern metropolitan flare. Under Chef Smith's direction, the restaurant and lounge will offer a variety of contemporary cocktails and menu items with local touches. Guests and customers will enjoy outdoor seating, a fire pit, and a private dining area with natural light. With over 25 years of experience working in the role of Executive Chef, Smith is widely praised for his exceptional recipes and style of presentation. Smith attended Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina where he studied Culinary Arts. During his studies, he obtained a strong foundation for working in the culinary industry and went on to work as the Executive Sous Chef at Wyndham International Hotels and Resorts for over a decade. Smith then served as Executive Chef at a variety of local Maryland hotels and restaurants including Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley and Embassy Suites Baltimore Inner Harbor & The Grand. Press Release 8 October 2021 New Delhi - Following the successful launch of Meetha, a premium offering of curated Indian sweets by Radisson Hotels in Delhi-NCR last year, the Group today announced its expansion in Mumbai where it welcomed its first premium retail outlet at Radisson Mumbai Goregaon. Further launch plans for Meetha include cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Amritsar, Guwahati and Pune. A medley of special, premium-quality treats curated to add sweetness to festivities, celebrations and auspicious new beginnings, Meetha is the perfect giveaway for the upcoming festive and wedding seasons. Advertisements With the expansion of Meetha, the Group aims to strategically strengthen its Food and Beverages (F&B) portfolio and pioneer innovation in the lucrative branded mithai (sweets) industry in India. The high-quality mithais are freshly made using the finest, handpicked ingredients and are currently available for take away or home delivery in Mumbai and Delhi NCR. We are pleased to strengthen our F&B portfolio by introducing Meetha. Indias ever-growing branded mithai industry offers a significant opportunity in the premium space and we are ready to unlock this potential with Meetha. We are encouraged by the response to our first retail outlet and will continue to expand the offering across India while evolving it into a strong revenue stream for enhancing the Groups market positioning in the country. Meetha is a significant enabler thats steering us ahead in this direction, said Zubin Saxena, Managing Director and Vice President Operations, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group. The first Meetha retail outlet at Radisson Mumbai Goregaon embodies the festive spirit of India with state-of-the-art design and premium look and feel. The outlet is managed by a passionate team of all-women professionals, who are called Meetha Ambassadors and this practice would be carried on to future Meetha outlets. Guests have the option to select from a wide variety of 60 mithais, including vegan and sugar-free options, made a la minute using the finest ingredients. The orders can be personalized depending on the requirements and occasion. The outlet offers over 15 packaging options of Meetha suitable for various occasions like weddings, festivities, social and corporate gifting with an exclusive Classic Rose Gold packaging for liquid Bengali mithais. The orders are available for take away or door-step delivery which is facilitated keeping all safety protocols in mind. We are delighted to partner with Radisson Hotel Group for launching Indias first Meetha outlet. We are pleased with how the concept has taken shape and the overwhelming response from the guests during the first 10 days of its opening. We are positive that the Groups operational expertise and brand reputation would establish Meetha as the go-to choice for the upcoming festive and wedding seasons, said Mr. Rafiq Balwa, Director, Balwa Group. The Meetha menu and its signature recipes are curated by Rakesh Sethi, Corporate Executive Chef, Radisson Hotel Group, South Asia. Guests can choose from an assortment of collections, including Premium, Classic, Festive, Baby Shower, Corporate and Weddings which are priced between INR 700 2,500 per box. Meetha is really close to our hearts. While traditional mithais will always be the core of Meetha, through consumer insights, we recognized that our guests also want to experiment with the classics. Keeping the upcoming festivities and wedding season in mind, we have given an innovative twist to classic mithais and introduced Mocha Milkcake and Red Velvet Cheese Laddoo to the menu along with an artisanal range which includes options like Rose Petal Gulkand Laddoo and Mewa Gur Laddoo, said, Rakesh Sethi, Corporate Executive Chef, Radisson Hotel Group, South Asia. The elaborate menu includes popular Indian mithais from across the country such as Kaju Katli, Kalakand, Motichoor Laddoo, Besan Laddoo, Kheer Kadam, Kesar Peda and many more. The artisanal range has unique and innovative options such as Mocha Milkcake, Brown Sugar Besan Laddoo, Pista Sphere, Rocher Peda, Almond Chocolate Burfi and the exotic options include Red Velvet Cheese Laddoo/Roll, Rose Petal Gulkand Laddoo, Mewa Gur Laddoo and Stuffed Dates. All the mithais are freshly made using only the highest quality ingredients which are curated by experts. Meetha is available for take away or home delivery in various packaging options with 12, 16 or 25, 36 pieces of mithais. In Mumbai, guests can call on 95949 71605 to place their orders or visit www.meethamumbai.com. In Delhi NCR, guests can place orders by contacting Radisson Blu Hotel New Delhi Paschim Vihar, Radisson Gurugram Udyog Vihar or Radisson Blu Faridabad or schedule home delivery through the EazyDiner app. Meetha is prepared and packaged in accordance with the highest standards of health and hygiene to ensure its freshness and most importantly, the safety of guests. All packs are made to order. Press Release 8 October 2021 Now in its 15th year, the Training Programme once again served as the leading platform for the regions tourism leaders to network and develop strategies for guiding the sector forward. The event brought together representatives of 25 countries, with six (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Nepal) joining hosts the Maldives to attend the training sessions in person. Advertisements High-level political welcome The Minister of Tourism of the Maldives, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom, officially opened the Training Session, welcoming delegates taking part in person and online. Further highlighting the host countrys high-level political support for tourism, the UNWTO leadership also met with the Minister and his colleagues to learn more of plans to diversify its sector and make it more gender equal. Dr Mausoom thanked UNWTO for the opportunity to host the training sessions, highlighting the Maldives commitment to growing tourism back sustainably, with a focus on promoting the islands rich culture, heritage and biodiversity. Opening the event, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili stressed that, as tourism restarts in many parts of the world, the sector needs leaders who can recognize ideas that will make a difference, who will innovate and back entrepreneurs and start-ups. Innovation and private sector partnerships Reflecting the restart of domestic tourism ahead of international tourism, both across Asia and the Pacific and globally, the Executive Training Programme focused on enabling destinations of all sizes to capitalize on this trend. The opening sessions focused on destination management and was led by UNWTO experts alongside key partners including Google, and featured case studies from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This was followed by sessions focusing on the role of innovation and private sector partnerships in growing domestic tourism, with case studies presented by representatives of Bhutan, Macao, China, Maldives, Myanmar, Philippines, Samoa, India and China. Building on UNWTO Support for the Maldives Since the Maldives re-opened its borders to international tourism in July 2020, arrivals have been steadily increasing. In February 2021, UNWTO signed an agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the implementation of a project on tourism recovery for the Maldives, working closely with the government and private sector stakeholders to accelerate the safe and sustainable restart of the sector. The 34th Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and the UNWTO Commission for South Asia (34th CAP-CSA) will also be hosted by the Maldives next year. It will be held within the framework of Maldives celebration of its Golden Jubilee to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its tourism development and its globally recognized status as a world-class tourism destination. RELATED LINKS External Article 8 October 2021 A hotel can feel like a luxurious home away from home, but that doesnt mean you should always act the way you do in the confines of your actual abode. Recently, HBOs The White Lotus illustrated the kind of rude behavior many hotel guests display on a regular basis. And while the show was entertaining to watch, it should not be a model for acceptable traveler etiquette especially as the hospitality industry struggles amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel is picking up and hotels are finally getting back to business, said Diane Gottsman, an etiquette expert, author of Modern Etiquette for a Better Life, and founder of The Protocol School of Texas. Do your part to keep the experience pleasant for fellow guests and hotel staff. To that end, HuffPost asked Gottsman and other etiquette experts to identify some rude behaviors they often observe at hotels and advice for avoiding these faux pas. Read on for 13 examples. Opinion Article 8 October 2021 On a quarterly basis, Jim Schultenover of Strategic Solution Partners and JDS Hospitality surveys travel agencies to get a sense of trends and topics that the hospitality industry should be paying attention to. Our most recent survey, completed in May 2021, had 279 responses, comprised mostly of travel advisors from small- and medium-sized agencies. Advertisements The results and verbatim comments provide insights into how travelers are making plans and what is most important to them as we transition from pandemic lock-down to cautious re-entry. As always, there is value here for business planning, hotel property owner reviews, and idea stimulation. While perhaps not academic or scientific, this survey reaches a segment of travel agencies that is often challenging to target, small to medium sized agencies. In addition to questions specific to hotels and resorts, we asked about Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), vacation rentals, cruises, and drive-marketing travel. Travel Agency Results Highlights 1. Short, mid-range and long-term bookings are for real While many travel advisors noted that they were handling trips with short lead-times, travel timing is both short- and long-term. 53.6% of TAs are booking for Q3 2021 65.6% are booking for Q4 2021 82.2% are booking for all quarters of 2022 2. Domestic travel is still most popular But international is starting to reemerge! The Caribbean, Mexico and Europe are the top markets after the United States. 74.3% of TAs are booking US 69.9% of TAs are booking Caribbean 60.1% of TAs are booking Mexico 54.7% of TAs are booking Europe Also, 19.8% of travel advisors are regularly assisting with drive market trips. 3. Substitutes for Cruising With travelers split on whether cruises feel safe, 29% of TAs report that they are looking for substitutes to cruising. This creates more opportunity for resorts and top destinations. 4. Vacation Rentals While travelers have expressed growing interest in vacation rentals over the pandemic period, travel advisors are not sold. Travel advisors say that they will book vacation rentals only if they offer: Commissions to TAs Proven reputation Vetting of properties Personal relationships with managers (of properties) Some of the negatives TAs mentioned regarding vacation rentals are: Complicated or incompatible booking systems Not standardized enough Lacking customer service and contacts if something goes wrong Unattractive cancellation policies 5. Value of DMOs Destination Marketing Organizations are used with a frequency which may create joint promotion opportunities. While TAs dont always use DMOs or CVBs, these destination-specific organizations are engaged 31.3% of the time, which may indicate an area of opportunity and expanded marketing for destinations. 6. Overall Sentiment Most TA observations are positive and encouraging about the rebound of travel. One said it succinctly, People are ready to travel. They are planning longer stays, upgrading and spending more money. Some other observations in the verbatim comments for travel advisors: Clients are booking with shorter lead times Clients are continuing to request more detailed questions about cleaning and sanitation practices at hotels Clients are expressing frustration and a backlash against call centers and OTAs (based on experiences during the pandemic) Clients are booking longer lengths of stay Clients are tired of waiting, and more exotic, bucket list-type trips are moving to the forefront All in all, our most recent travel advisor survey gives us hope that our industry is ready to go from survival to revival! To see the full survey and all results, click here. Opinion Article 7 October 2021 When COVID-19 hit Switzerland in March 2020, it brought with it numerous, unprecedented challenges forcing Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland to shut our doors and quickly move all learning online. Advertisements For modules like Events Management, the need for social distancing and online learning seemed directly at odds with the task at hand. How could students learn to build an event from behind a screen in a field as tactile and interpersonal as event planning? As a lecturer, I had to quickly find a solution that would allow students to continue their learning as effectively and meaningfully as their in-class activities. Enter, 3D Event Designer. This innovative online simulation program allowed my hospitality and culinary arts students to continue creating and planning events throughout the pandemic. When live events werent possible, this program allowed students to exercise their creativity while holding the same standards and learning outcomes as our in-class activities. Through the program, Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland students simulated all the aspects of planning an event of their choice from maximizing the event space, to catering considerations, even down to creating table layouts. The table wizard component allowed students to be very clear and detailed in planning the table set up. Students had to determine every aspect from size, shape, linen choice, even down to the placement of flatware. I was amazed to see my students embrace this new way of learning with great interest and passion, producing some amazing ideas in the process. Many of them went above and beyond, producing very detailed and creative designs and extras. The second simulation students had to complete was to design and present a 3D tour of a presidential hotel suite of their own creation. Not only did students have to consider all the guidelines and specifications required, but the project culminated in a simulated sales presentation in which they had to practice pitching their design to a hotel owner. These innovative programs help to teach students how to sell events to customers as well as develop their digital and video skills, which are much-needed in the industry. While life and learning are slowly returning to normal at Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland, Im not planning to go back to how things were before the pandemic. Instead, I intend to continue using these simulation programs as part of my curriculum. They are of great value to students for the future. Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland, part of the Swiss Education Group, is a leading business school focusing on hospitality and entrepreneurship, consistently ranking one of the top 10 hospitality schools in the world. Discover the different programs and degrees offered at Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland and how they can prepare you for a career in hospitality. To learn more or apply to Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland contact Regina da Silva at [email protected]. Cruising along the panoramic Pacific Coast Highway that hugs the curves of Californias shoreline, its the salty sea breeze that typically overtakes you. This week, its the stench of crude oil. The states worst oil spill in almost 30 years means crude is washing ashore as tar balls or patties, a sticky mess that gets caught in the sand. Its marring some of the worlds most renowned beaches, famed almost as much for the surf as for the multi-million dollar homes that dot the hills overlooking the ocean. The mucky scene playing out across Southern Californias coastline is reigniting the debate over an offshore drilling industry that once helped make the Golden State one of the most prolific oil-producing regions in the world, churning out more than 1 million barrels a day at its height. Today, the output from old platforms that dot the regions shores has dwindled to just tens of thousands of barrels a day, and the risk of leaks and oil spills has risen. The disaster has also drawn fresh scrutiny of aging offshore oil and gas infrastructure around the world, built decades ago back before fracking, horizontal drilling and shale made ocean drilling less economic. The roughly 3,000 barrels of crude that have poured into the ocean near Huntington Beach isnt just an environmental and economic blow. It has triggered visceral anger and revived questions about why California still has an offshore oil industry at all, five decades after it stopped issuing new drilling permits. This spill should be the end of offshore drilling in California, Julie Teel Simmonds, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said by phone from San Diego. This should be the last catastrophic spill we endure. Its not just the environmentalists. Both of Californias senators -- Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla -- said the episode underscores the need to block offshore drilling, including through a legislative ban on new leasing off California, Oregon and Washington. The House has already tucked the measure into its version of a multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation bill designed to advance major Biden administration policy priorities. This is yet another preventable environmental catastrophe, but we have the power to prevent future spills, Padilla said in an emailed statement. Many of the famous sandy stretches near Huntington Beach, which has been fighting with Santa Cruz for the nickname Surf City, are closed and vacationers are canceling plans. Shaun Hammon, manager of Ocean Surf Inn and Suites in Sunset Beach, just north of Huntington Beach, said while the actual physical stuff hadnt yet reached the beach closest to the inn as of Monday afternoon, customers are nervous. Its not only an ecological crisis, said Chad Nelsen, who could smell the oil at his favorites surf spots this week. He serves as the chief executive officer of the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group headquartered in San Clemente. Its a community, recreation and ultimately, an economic crisis. Once a spill occurs, the toothpaste is out of the tube, the damage is done, he said. The spill, from a pipeline owned by a unit of Amplify Energy Corp., comes at a time when California has been aggressively moving to shift away from fossil fuels. Although the first offshore oil wells in the U.S. were drilled just east of Santa Barbara in 1896, its been reining in the industry in more recent decades. The state stopped issuing new offshore oil and gas leases after a high-profile spill in 1969 and has taken an increasingly hard line on the sector. The days of oil production were numbered in California even before the latest leak. Governor Gavin Newsom, who declared a state of emergency late Monday to assist with the response to the spill, has banned the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 and targeted phasing out fossil fuel extraction by 2045. As California continues to lead the nation in phasing out fossil fuels and combating the climate crisis, this incident serves as a reminder of the enormous cost fossil fuels have on our communities, Newsom said in the statement. Many of Californias offshore oil rigs have been shut and some dismantled after years of decline. Oil production in federal waters off the U.S. West Coast totaled 13,000 barrels a day in July, down from more than 200,000 barrels a day in the mid 1990s. Closer to shore, in state waters, that total was about 19,000 barrels a day in 2019. Much of that decline happened after a break in a Plains All American Pipeline LP line near Santa Barbara in 2015 spilled thousands of gallons of crude onto a local beach, prompting the shutdown of multiple production platforms. One, Platform Holly, is currently being decommissioned and its wells plugged, but three others, Exxon Mobil Corp.s only oil platforms off the California coast, are still maintained, but not operating. The company is trying to get the go-ahead to start them up again. But even then, California was ranked as No. 7 last year among U.S. oil-producing states (topping for example, Wyoming, which is perhaps more well-known for its crude production). The offshore production that continues in California may be partly because companies are reluctant to absorb the costs of shutting and decommissioning existing platforms, said Simmonds of the Center for Biological Diversity. The oil that spilled into the sea this week emerged from a pipeline linked to a network of decades-old production facilities. Oil and gas companies theoretically put up a sufficient bond to cover decommissioning costs, but they usually are woefully inadequate and many companies just end up declaring bankruptcy, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab, she said. There are other obstacles to cutting back. The state is already facing an enormous squeeze on its electricity grid, with intermittent power from wind, solar and hydro sources proving difficult to manage amid recent bouts of extreme weather. Natural gas prices have soared as California utilities have had to burn more of that fuel. Disrupting offshore drilling could make the state more dependent on crude imports, said Zachary Rogers, director of global oil service at Rapidan Energy. While there will certainly be a passionate reaction to the spill, its tough to say whether or not this will materially affect future production in California, he said. Even dwindling offshore production for some smaller oil companies makes it worthwhile, and dismantling an aging platform has costs and generates zero profit, said Deborah Gordon, senior principal in the Climate Intelligence Program at the Rocky Mountain Institute. She also pointed to the likelihood of more oil imports into the state if offshore output is curbed. Its a much bigger systemic problem, she said. The U.S. may be heading into winter with the lowest stockpiles of heating oil to meet surging demand in more than two decades. Inventories of distillates -- used as diesel for both transportation and heating oil -- are enough to meet 31.2 days of demand, according to the Energy Information Administration. Thats the tightest it has been for this time of the year since 2000. The dwindling supplies raise the specter of energy shortages and price spikes in the U.S. this winter -- at a time when the rest of the world has already been upended by fuel shortages and blackouts. They also underscore how the economic rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic, a surge in demand for virtually all goods and an ensuing trucking boom are now colliding with volatile energy markets, threatening to raise the cost of fuel for homeowners, farmers and truckers. The diesel balance wont be as bad as the gas crisis in Europe, Suzanne Danforth, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd., said in a phone interview. But its going to be tight, very tight. Nymex diesel futures are trading near $2.45 per gallon after jumping to a seven-year high earlier this week. The tightness is largely the result of the freeze in Texas in February that took down 18 refineries. As much as 5.5 million barrels a day of processing capacity were taken offline by the arctic temperatures, causing a drawdown of gasoline and diesel inventories. The squeeze may get worse before it gets better as truck drivers respond to a surge in online shopping and historic delays in the global supply chain. Midwest farmers are out with their tractors harvesting the second largest corn crop ever produced. The timing couldnt be worse, with many U.S. refineries typically shutting down production this time of year to conduct maintenance. In the Midwest, dry weather including severe drought in some parts of the Midwestern crop belt sped along harvests this year. For corn, the biggest American crop, harvesting was already 29% complete as of Sunday, the fastest pace in three years. Some supply relief should come in November and December when refineries return from maintenance. Distillate margins are very attractive and refineries will return in full diesel mode when maintenance is over, Wood Mackenzies Danforth said. And things will get better into 2022, with Gulf Coast refiners operating at an average of 88.2% of capacity, very similar to rates seen in 2019, before the pandemic hit, providing a bigger cushion, Danforth added. Even with heating oil prices trading as high as they are it may still make sense for some utilities in the Northeast to use it this winter instead of natural gas. January swaps for Algonquin Citygate gas, a proxy for New England, were trading near $22 per million British thermal units Thursday afternoon, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares to about $13.90 for January diesel futures when converted to mmbtu. Tesla plans to move its headquarters to Austin, becoming the latest California technology giant to relocate to Texas. Billionaire CEO Elon Musk announced the major move from Palo Alto, Calif., during the companys annual shareholder meeting on Thursday evening in Austin. Im excited to announce that were moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas, Musk said, showing a slide of a cowboy belt buckle emblazoned with the Tesla T logo and a reference to the famous Texas slogan Dont mess with Texas. TESLA TAKEOVER: What Tesla's Texas takeover means for oil-dependent Houston Musk pointed to Californias high housing prices and tight real estate market as two major reasons for the move. Other Silicon Valley stalwarts, including Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, have also moved to Austin and Spring, respectively, over the past year. If you go to our Fremont (California) factory, it is jammed. Its like whoa, Musk said. When we were first in there, we were like a kid in his parents shoes. Now its like how do we fit more stuff? And its tough for people to afford houses and a lot of people have to come in from far away. Weve taken it as far as possible, but theres a limit to how big we could scale in the Bay area. Analysts have long speculated Tesla might move to Texas. Last May, Musk threatened to relocate the company out of California over disagreements about local pandemic measures that restricted Tesla and other businesses from reopening. "Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately," Musk said in a series of tweets in May 2020 announcing Tesla's lawsuit against Alameda County, which includes the company's Fremont factory, over public health restrictions. The lawsuit was later dropped, and despite overtures from local officials in Dallas County and elsewhere, the company stayed put. Speculation mounted after Musk, himself, became a Texas resident this year. He is the state's richest resident and the world's second wealthiest person with an estimated net worth of $190.5 billion, according to Forbes. Musk on Thursday said Tesla still plans to continue its West Coast operations, increasing production of its electric vehicles and batteries at its Fremont, Calif. and Reno, Nev. factories to meet its 50 percent annual sales growth target. The automaker delivered nearly 250,000 electric vehicles during the third quarter. Musk has steadily expanded his empire into Texas in recent years. SpaceX, another Musk venture, operates a commercial rocket launchpad called Starbase in Boca Chica of South Texas. Tesla is under construction on its fifth and largest factory called Giga Texas in Austin, which will manufacture Cybertrucks and other EVs. The factory is expected to hire 5,000 workers paying an average salary of $47,000, and will feature a public park that Musk has called an ecological paradise along the Colorado River. Its not a matter of Tesla leaving California, Musk added. Well continue to expand in California significantly, but even more so here in Texas. When Brenda Huskinson described how she wanted her home to look, she knew how to do it succinctly: Im a Miles Redd fan. The west side home she and husband Todd Huskinson raised their four children in has been traditional, French country style with darker, earthier colors. It was time to lighten and brighten it up, and Brenda was ready to go big on color, pattern and style. The couple contemplated moving from their 1960s ranch closer into the city but ultimately couldnt find what they wanted. They made the decision to stay put, renovate and redecorate inside and out, all during the pandemic. Interior designer Cindy Witmer had recently decorated a friends home, so Brenda asked Witmer to work with her to reinvent theirs. Trust her and dont get in the way. Let her do her magic, the friend advised as she handed over Witmers contact information. My grandmother always had beautiful homes, so I was in that kind of environment a lot. Ive always loved looking at beautiful spaces, said Brenda, 55, a stay-home mom. Just looking through magazines and books, Miles Redds work struck me he used heavier colors and created pretty dramatic rooms. I didnt want to go that dramatic, but they were warm, not stuffy. Witmer isnt one to shy away from color or pattern, but this project forced her out of her comfort zone. Im, a Miles Redd fan, too, but Im not a wild pattern decorator. Thats whats in style right now, so it pushed me to use more patterns than I usually do, and Ive been doing more of it since, Witmer said. They had some nice antiques and collected pieces, and those were fun to work with. The layers of decor and mix of colors and patterns not to mention interesting paint colors and wallpaper choices prompt the Huskinsons to refer to their home as an experience: You enter a room and take it all in. The homes entry is a long hallway space decorated with an exotic Schumacher mural, a sky blue ceiling and long carpet runner in a zebra-skin pattern. An antique chest, rattan hall stand and cane-back settee with a cushion covered in Miles Redd fabric finish the space. Wallpaper was added to several other rooms, a trend thats been strong for the last few years and isnt slowing down. People have hired me off Instagram because of the wallpaper choices in photos Im posting. They used to think of wallpaper as a dirty word, but in the last 10 years, there have been so many choices, Witmer said. And if youre not an art collector, its a great way to decorate walls without having a lot of art. From that grand hall, you can walk straight into the dining room and on to the family room. Because its not an open concept home, you dont see everything in a big panoramic sweep, but you can always see from one beautiful room into a couple of others. The dining room didnt require a lot of changes. They kept their existing table and reupholstered the chairs in Kelly Wearstler fabric, then had a local artist create paintings based on some of his work they found in a story about a home that Redd decorated. A seagrass rug with a simple geometric pattern lies underneath it all. In the living room, a pair of olive green crushed velvet sofas sit across from one another, with a pair of high-back chairs in a blue chinoiserie print. Decorative pillows bring in more color and patterns, with a pale blue dotted/cheetah print, fuchsia floral pattern and a tiger print in black and gold. In every room, you might throw things down together and say, I dont know, said Todd, 57, a private asset manager, of embracing the mix. But when Cindy put it together, I said it looks great. You have to trust that its going to look great. Theres a parlor, too, which sounds like a room many families wouldnt use too much, but its where the Huskinsons all are drawn. Theres a sectional sofa and upholstered ottoman to sit and watch TV, plus a card table that Brenda inherited from her grandmother. Though the sofa is white, color splashes everything else: a pink print on chair cushions and a splattered paint design print on the ottoman. Pillows are turquoise, fuchsia and gold, and the walls are painted Farrow and Balls Peignoir, a pale pinkish-purple. This room was the first to be done, and it reminds me of a Limoges jewel box, Brenda said of the parlor. One wall is all windows, so its cheery and bright. Its a great room, and it makes us happy. A new table from Joyce Horn Antiques holds court in the breakfast room, with two new end chairs in faux bamboo and cushions with pillows in the Hunt Slonem bunny pattern. A large, airy lantern-style chandelier was chosen to hang above it all. Behind a small wall in the breakfast area is a bar and butlers pantry that got a big makeover, with blue lacquered cabinets and wallpaper in Schumachers bold green Zebra Palm pattern. A small table with a couple of bistro chairs provides a sweet spot to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee or something stronger. New contemporary art hangs on the walls here. Brenda found it at a local home decor shop, AREA, and texted Witmer for approval. The bar also serves as a pass-through to the laundry room, which got its own makeover. Years ago, this space was a breezeway to the garage. They enclosed it and it became a small entry to the bedrooms of their kids, who now are 18 to 28 years old. Shiplap, new cabinets and a small table with four ottomans make the room look like someplace other than where you do laundry. What used to be a game room for their kids is now a man cave/study, where anyone working from home would love to spend their workday. While other rooms are bright and filled with bold colors, this room is darker and more masculine, with Scalamandre grasscloth wallpaper and shelves and trim painted Sherwin-Williams Best Bronze. Theres a desk and a wall of bookshelves to carve out office space, but it also has room for a sofa and an eclectic mix of chairs covered in velvet, leather and upholstery. Pops of color are smaller, in pink decorative pillows and a bit of turquoise in a newly commissioned painting. The room is very European style no matching chairs, Witmer said. It looks more collected, and we worried less about being perfectly matched. Thats what you see in homes when you go over there, which I love. Finally, Witmer and the Huskinsons went outdoors, having Thompson and Hanson landscape the yard, totally redoing their swimming pool and turning a small bedroom into a pool lounge. Wallpaper in a pretty floral of blues and pinks covers the walls and similarly colored cement tile lines the floor. A pair of rattan chairs sit alongside a sleeper sofa, and a pair of stools offer more seating or a place to prop up your feet. Witmer found an unframed oversized bird painting at Round Top antiques shows and knew immediately that it would be perfect for the room. This just goes to show how limitless your ideas can be. This is an older ranch-style house, very unassuming, Witmer said. Its almost more fun to do a remodel to see the difference you can make. New construction projects are nice, but you dont have to be as clever or think out of the box about what you can do with what you have. diane.cowen@chron.com Parker McCollum is on a roll. The Conroe native sold out the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands on Saturday, setting a record for the most tickets sold for a country artist in the venue's 31-year history. However, it's only the second biggest venue he's sold out in Texas this year -- McCollum performed in front of 20,000 fans at Dos Equis Pavilion in Dallas on July 31. McCollum enjoyed the experience of setting a record in front of his friends and family, and he hopes the 17,000 attendees enjoyed the show as well. "It is a little different you know. Walking out on stage I never, ever get nervous, but I was a little nervous (this time)," McCollum said. "I just knew... these people have been hearing about me out here doing all this stuff, but (they're thinking) how legit is it? I don't think there was any doubt in their mind when I left the show on Saturday." LIFESTYLE: Houston anchor Dominique Sachse leaving KPRC after 28 years on TV After the concert concluded, McCollum was presented with a few gifts when he was joined on stage by Conroe Mayor Jody Czajkoski and his family. The Conroe mayor presented McCollum with the key to the city and also proclaimed that Oct. 2 is Parker Yancey McCollum Day." We are blessed to have a strong advocate like Parker McCollum in our community who is representing our city with class, Czajkoski said in a statement. McCollum said it was a special moment. "I love Conroe. I love Montgomery County -- that's my home, and I put on for that place everywhere I go," the College Park High School graduate said. "So to get to come home and play that venue and sell that show out and have the mayor come out and you know Oct. 2 is Parker McCollum day and a key to the city is just, man it's like Hollywood movie stuff." McCollum has released three albums since he left Montgomery County for Austin about a decade ago, but his career has really picked up in 2021. GOOD DRINKS: Sugar is essential to a balanced wine, even 'dry' ones. Here's what you need to know. He acquired his first platinum plaque for his single Pretty Heart, was named Music Row Breakout Artist of 2021 and was nominated for an Academy of Country Music Award, New Male Artist of the Year. McCollum said he is not surprised by his success this year. "I've known since the start that I was not born to be an opener," he said. "I was a headliner for sure. It just took me a little while to get there." chris.shelton@chron.com Students at Oak Ridge High School held a sit-in protest on Monday in response to comments made by the schools principal the week before that negatively compared students to Dr. Dre. On Sept. 30, students at Oak Ridge participated in a student-led 90s themed throwback day for spirit week, dressing up in 90s era clothing. Before school officially started, students gathered at an area of the school called The Pit, where they were taking photos of their 90s clothing and socializing. At one point, according to Psalm Lawrence, who is a Black female and a junior at the school, teachers and members of the administration told students they were being too loud. On yourcouriernews.com: Conroe ISD considers ending its extended sick leave policy Throughout that day, Lawrence said, students of color dressed in 90s attire were scolded and confronted by teachers and administrators who told them they were out of dress code or their behavior was inappropriate. Oak Ridge High School Principal AJ LiVecchi made a general announcement over the PA system addressing behavior he called disruptive and disrespectful, telling students to listen to school staffs directions, and referencing Tik Tok challenges that have interrupted school in recent weeks. Were not going to congregate in The Pit like we did this morning, were not going to make a scene like we did this morning, thats done, LiVecchi said. Were here to learn, were here to enjoy each others company, were here to socialize, were here to make friends, join clubs, be in the theater, be in the band, learn English, learn math. Thats what were here to do. The next day, a video began circulating of LiVecchi, speaking with a group of students about 90s day. If this stuff happens again were going to operate like were in Aldine ISD or HISD, be on lock-down and get metal detectors, all that crap, because this is not how we roll, LiVecchi is heard saying in the video. Its embarrassing, its frustrating, we got people posing for pictures looking like theyre from Dr. Dre in the 90s. In response, students of color organized a sit-in protest for Monday at The Pit, while wearing red. Concerned parents and local activists met with LiVecchi at his office Monday while the sit-in was going on, to share their concerns with his comments and the schools reaction to 90s day. Lawrence has been a student in the Conroe Independent School District since the fifth grade and said she does not feel safe or respected at school as a student of color. When word started going around about the planned protest, the reaction from some students was frustrating but not surprising. People, of course, who didnt understand our anger and didnt understand our pain had things to say as well. Yall are overreacting. It was never like that. What he said wasnt racist or prejudice, you guys are overreacting, Lawrence said. On yourcouriernews.com: Conroe ISD Police set annual Coats for Kids drive During the sit-in, Lawrence said, students participating in the protest were harassed, called slurs including the N-word, and threatened by other students. On the social media app Snapchat, one student took a photo of the sit-in and added the caption Grenades would be clutch. This type of behavior didnt surprise her, Lawrence said, she has heard her fellow students use the N-word before without consequence. It was just a slap in the face for us and the fact that those other students didnt even hesitate or didnt even have any second thoughts about their actions, spitting on us, yelling at us, making Tik Toks about us, the fact that they thought that they had the right to do any of that stuff, to come stand in the middle of a peaceful protest and yell out racial slurs, Lawrence said. The fact that they just did it without any second thoughts and know that they werent going to face any consequences, that in itself says everything about how things work amongst the school. After meeting with parents and community activists, then meeting with the students who held the sit-in, LiVecchi sent an email to the campus community addressing his words. I made an announcement that I am not proud of I addressed the attire of the students instead of addressing their behavior, and for that I apologize. I recognize and cherish that our students come from a variety of backgrounds, and I seek to do better in building up each of our student groups. At Oak Ridge High School, we pride ourselves on having a school culture that is respectful, responsive, and collaborative with students and the community, according to LiVecchis email. Lawrences mother, Christian Adeyemi, said that parents will continue to meet with school and district administration to address what happened, and other issues they see in the school regarding diversity and racial issues. Conroe ISD values all students and cultures, spokeswoman Sarah Blakelock told the Courier in a statement from the district. We support Oak Ridge High Schools commitment to working with their school community to create a healthy and safe learning environment for all students while growing a deeper understanding and appreciation for one another. Parents want to see an action plan created that will help all students feel safe at school. We want these things to change for these kids. All these kids matter. Im not doing this just because my kid is involved, Adeyemi said. Im here for all the kids, but the kids that think its okay to be discriminatory openly at school I dont care what you do at your house - but when you get to school you need to tuck your racism in. jamie.swinnerton@chron.com Grimes County Sheriff's Office Authorities are continuing to look for a 3-year-old boy who went missing Wednesday afternoon in Grimes County, according to the Grimes County Sheriff's Office. In a Thursday press conference outside the search area, Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said that despite overnight attempts to locate the missing boy with a team of over 150 people from various agencies there is no new information on the child's whereabouts. Jay R. Jordan / Jay Jordan, Staff A 26-year-old man was fatally shot in the Second Ward early Friday, according to Houston Police. Police say the man, identified as Jason Smith, was shot around 3 a.m. in the 6000 block of Schroeder Street. Paramedics and police found a man with a gunshot wound when they went to an apartment complex in that area, according to an HPD release. A Domino's pizza delivery man in his 50s was shot in south Houston Thursday night in what officials believe was a set-up, according to Houston Police. Officers were called around 9:56 p.m. Thursday to the 4700 block of Clover, where a man had been shot, Lt. Pavel said. The man, who Pavel said is expected to survive, was taken to a hospital in stable yet critical condition. During his first week as Houston ISDs superintendent in July, Millard House II said he welcomed feedback from everyone, especially those who long have been left out of important discussions. He has been receiving a steady stream of feedback on small comment cards and at microphones at a series of town hall meetings. Residents, employees and parents have complained to the leader of the states largest school district about campuses that have been neglected, asked him about how he plans to address issues, both new and old, and have urged him to prioritize children. Specifically, House has heard about transportation woes exacerbated by a driver shortage, the districts struggles to appropriately educate students with special needs, the neglect of school libraries and unequal access to resources and funding across the district. The issues have been brought to Houses attention at a series of town halls he hosted in recent weeks. The discussions are expected to inform conversations about his first strategic plan for HISD as its superintendent. In a brief interview, House said the gatherings were just the first step in collecting information for the plan, the first draft of which he hopes to have ready in the next couple months. As speakers lined up at microphones, House cautioned audiences he still was new to the role and did not know everything. I am just over the 60-day mark, so I am not going to have answers for you this evening, he said Wednesday at Booker T. Washington High School. My purpose in being here is to hear you and then to infuse what you are providing to me as a superintendent and let you hold me accountable when it is all said and done. At each meeting, House emphasized the strategic plan will not be his or the Board of Educations but our plan. One issue that has not been a big topic of conversation is the mask requirement House imposed on HISD students and staff at the beginning of the acadmic year. While decisions to require or not require face masks have led to sometimes nasty public confrontations that have hijacked school gatherings elsewhere, only a handful of speakers have attempted to ramp up the issue at the town halls. Not half an hour into a stop at Bellaire High School on Sept. 30, a would-be speaker stepped to the microphone without a mask, prompting House to ask her to put one on. Sir, the woman said, I am following the law. We are not going to do this, House responded, turning his attention to the next speaker at another microphone across the auditorium. Staffers gave the woman a mask. She put it around the microphone. He had her removed after listening to a student who, in part, commended the districts mask mandate. The woman yelled about the law and the Texas Education Agency as security escorted her out. A few days later at Lamar High School, the superintendent praised a man who laid out a case for the district to ease up on the mandate. He told the man he appreciated his articulation of his opinion. Please know that I heard what you said, he told him. He too wants to get rid of masks, he added, when the time is right. The incident at Bellaire was more of an exception. By and large, the meetings remained civil. Michael Wyke / Contributor Introductions The hour-long meetings began the same way, with House introducing himself and offering tidbits about his life, growing up as the son of teachers. He said he also had learning disabilities but was given the support to overcome them. Understanding that support, he told crowds, eventually kept him in the family business. He cited a handful of challenges that have commanded his attention less than three months into the job: 48 of the districts 276 campuses are categorized by state accountability ratings as D or F schools. He added that 96 percent of students at those schools are kids of color, and 95 percent are students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. In certain feeder patterns, he said, kids have no choice but to attend those schools. Is that what we want for students? he asked at Westbury High School. It is not as superintendent what I want. About 20 minutes into each meeting, he began the listening while showing slices of his character. He tried to help individuals with pressing matters, occasionally directing an administration official to follow-up with someone while the meeting continued. At Bellaire, he briefly spoke as a parent when a female student brought up a lack of menstruation supplies in schools and menstrual equity. The issue was a passion of his 16-year-old daughter, he told the student, and he was curious about getting her involved with any organization working to to address it. I would love to get her connected, he said. I am dad now. Common concerns Within a few meetings, common concerns began to emerge. Some parents shared frustrations with the districts decentralized management, lamenting the disproportionate access to resources and distribution of funds. Others celebrated decentralization. Current and former librarians expressed worries about the lack of librarians. Some students and instructors spoke about old musical instruments that they made do with while wearing old uniforms. Sometimes in responding, House noted the district is eyeing a bond referendum for as early as next fall, its first since 2012. The bond issue will be focused on really leveling the playing field in the instances of the schools that have not had the care or maintenance and construction that they need, he said at Lamar. Other parents shared difficulties they had experienced in reaching a human over the telephone for help, this year particularly as transportation problems that have vexed districts across the nation due to a shortage of drivers. The districts struggles to retain quality teachers, standardized testing skepticism and long-standing inadequate special education services were all brought to Houses attention. Michael Wyke / Contributor Some of Houses most enthusiastic exchanges occurred with students. A teen at Bellaire asked the superintendent to change the process for the districts police department to release information about incidents that may spark panic. The student said he had met with the departments chief, who explained how the process differed from his time with the citys police force, which tweets updates in real-time about major occurrences. First of all, I love your swag, House told the student. Secondly, he said, the chief had mentioned the conversation, too and the district was already working on it. That is an area that we are going to improve. He revealed to some audiences that people asked him why he chose to apply for the job, considering the district could still be taken over by the state. He loves a challenge and an opportunity, he said. During his final interview with trustees for the gig, he said, he told them he would love for the job to be his last. I know that will be very difficult, he said at Yates High School in Third Ward, but I am committed to being in this community. alejandro.serrano@chron.com As more children were diagnosed with COVID-19 this summer, James Oakes, a pediatric nurse, noticed his workload ramp up. The workload is pretty heavy, he thought. Why can't I be compensated more for doing the same amount of work? That's when he began to look into being a travel nurse, a job in which industry experts say nurses can make three to four times more than staff nurses. The average salary for a registered nurse in Texas is $76,800, according to Department of Labor data. Crisis contracts, which are positions funded by the state using FEMA dollars, tend to be some of the highest paying, nurses say. However nurses like Oakes, who already lived and worked in Texas, couldnt take these specific contracts. Oakes and his peers noticed many job postings specified that Texas residents couldnt apply. COVID HELP DESK: What do I need to know about Merck's new COVID pill? We all have the same sentiment, said Oakes, 27, of North Houston. We were all kind of angry about it because we felt like we should be able to take those contracts, as well. When browsing postings, he noticed crisis contracts paid around $6,000 to $7,000 a week compared to local contracts, which paid about $3,000 to $4,000 a week. Eventually, he found a local contract, not funded by federal dollars, which was still a significant pay bump. Hes only been doing contract work for four months, but his income for this year will be double what he made last year as a staff nurse. Texas nurses have been excluded from contracts funded by federal dollars so the local hospitals wont lose staff. During the first COVID wave, no such standard was put in place and many nurses in the state left their current job to work down the street for higher pay, said Cindy Zolnierek, the CEO of the Texas Nurses Association. It kind of just shuffled nurses around, versus bringing additional nurses in, Zolnierek said. But targeting only out-of-state nurses isnt a catch all solution, Zolnierek said. Nothing is stopping Texas staff nurses from taking local contracts or going to other states like Alaska and Montana, which are in need of nurses. Thats kind of the problem with relying on travel nurses, Zolnierek said. If we had better foresight early on in the pandemic, we might have offered retention bonuses to nurses. Maureen Padilla, senior vice president of Nursing Affairs and Clinical Support Services for Harris Health System said she started to see emergency center and ICU nurses leave for other organizations and travel contracts in July and August. The conundrum for us was that on the backside to replace those nurses we had to contract travel companies, Padilla said. To keep their current staff in place, Harris Health temporarily increased the base pay rate for ICU and EC nurses to $140 per hour, equal to its rate for travel nurses. The pay bump was put in place for eight weeks, ending this week. This was a temporary solution to stop the loss while we continue to work on other incentives that we will be able to sustain, Padilla said. This (pay increase) of course would not be sustainable for the financial future of our organization. Other incentives include a 5 percent raise for most of the organizations registered nurses, retention bonuses and an expansion of the current student loan program to include nurses children. But instead of offering incentives, many organizations cut back back on staffing after the first COVID wave, Zolnierek said. That doesnt send the right message to frontline staff, Zolnierek said. If you keep asking nurses to give and give, you cant start making cuts. Organizations need to show constant support of their nurses, it cant be come and go depending on how bad the pandemic is. SHARE YOUR STORY: Are you a Houston-area health care worker battling the frontlines of the pandemic? The Texas Department of State Health Services, which works with staffing agencies to provide out-of-state medical personnel for crisis contracts, said there is no definitive end date for how long these contracts will be available. Ultimately, it depends on the number of COVID hospitalizations. As of Thursday, about 1,550 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Houston area less than half the peak of 3,500 people in late August. We have seen the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients start trending down over the last few weeks, Lara Anton, DSHS spokesperson said in an email. While the current number of patients remains high, we are watching that trend to determine when we should start decreasing the number of medical surge staff. This model isnt sustainable, Zolnierek said. It was designed for natural disasters and other short-lived crises. As the demand for nurses continues, they are burning out. Although contract work may pay well, it can be a grueling schedule often five or six 12-15 hour shifts a week. Though it was meant to mitigate the shortage, it could be fueling it too, Zolnierek said. Now nurses that have taken these contracts and they can make a bunch of money in a short period of time, theyre stepping away from the workforce for a while, Zolnierek said. Ivette Palomeque, 45, might soon be one of those nurses. She works in the ICU at a hospital in McAllen near the border, where she often finds herself working 15 hour days. The halls are lined with patients and many days she has to take care of three or four patients double the industry standard of two patients per ICU nurse. I find myself saying at least once a week, This isnt worth it. I cant take it, Palomeque said. It's not just the physical toll that it's taken on us, but the emotional and the mental toll. There are just not enough resources. She began doing contract work in January 2020 right before the pandemic took hold. She took a contract in Florida while her divorce was being litigated in that state. She then took other contracts in New York and throughout Texas. Once the demand sent salaries skyrocketing, she began making triple what she did as a staff nurse at Memorial Hermann. Palomeque said she is still able to do crisis contracts in Texas since she was activated before the new mandate was put in place. For Palomeque, her time as a travel nurse has completely changed her perspective. She said she doesnt ever intend on returning to being a staff nurse, since its essentially the same job for less pay and as a travel nurse she has the ability to work when she wants and take breaks between contracts. Part of it is the pay, Palomeque said, but its also the freedom that comes with it. becca.carballo@chron.com A new initiative encouraging the public to report hate crimes was announced Thursday by the FBI Houston and the Anti-Defamation League Southwest regional office. As part of the effort, the FBI will be posting ads about reporting hate crimes in social media feeds, monthly news publications, local newspapers, at the Houston Greyhound bus terminal and Hobby airport. Because the FBI is the primary investigative agency for criminal violations of civil rights statutes, agents urged victims and witnesses to submit tips to the FBI via internet at tips.fbi.gov or by calling their office at 1-800-225-5324. As defenders of the United States Constitution, in one of the most diverse cities in this nation, FBI Houston is creating awareness about the strength that comes from our differences while ensuring that those who violate federal hate crime laws face federal charges, FBI Houston Acting Special Agent in Charge Mark Webster stated in Thursdays press release. The announcement comes on the 12-year anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which increased the FBIs jurisdiction to investigate crimes of bias. In 1998, James Byrd Jr., 49, was murdered in in the East Texas town of Jasper after three white supremacists tied him to a truck and dragged him for three miles before throwing his dead body in front of an African-American church. In October of that same year, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard a gay student at the University of Wyoming was murdered when two men tied him to a barbed wire fence and brutally tortured him. He died six days later. The FBI added in the press release that agents often believe hate crimes go unreported, citing data released in August from 2020 hate crime statistics. According to these numbers, over 15,000 law enforcement agencies submitted 7,759 hate crime incidents nationwide last year. In Texas, these statistics were based on data received from 1,073 of 1,158 law enforcement agencies with only 406 incidents reported statewide. Even though hate crimes are underreported, tracking them helps us understand how they may be trending and affirms the need for strong hate crime laws, Mark B. Toubin, ADL Southwest regional director, stated. We join the FBI in encouraging individuals and law enforcement agencies to report hate crimes. The latest FBI hate crime statistics can be looked up at FBIs Uniform Crime Report at fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr. joel.umanzor@chron.com City housing officials on Thursday painted a grim financial picture for Houstons Hurricane Harvey home repair program, a situation Mayor Sylvester Turner has suggested helps explain his former housing directors recent accusation that Turner steered affordable housing funds to a developer. Over the course of almost three hours, Interim Housing Director Keith Bynam and Chief Financial Officer Temika Jones told a joint meeting of City Councils housing and budget committees that the department faces tens of millions of dollars in potential financial liabilities for money it already has spent, outlining a presentation they said they gave the mayor last week. They said the mayor told them former Housing and Community Development Director Tom McCasland had never broached the issues with him. The pair pointed to cost overruns on the Hurricane Harvey recovery program, some of which arose after the Texas General Land Office, which distributes federal relief funds, took over Houstons home repair program earlier this year. The GLO had said the city was moving too slowly to repair homes damaged in the 2017 storm. Those overruns, Bynam and Jones said, have opened a potential $23.5 million deficit for the city if the state chooses not to reimburse it for money already spent. The information presented Thursday did little to address the merits of the deal at the center of McCaslands accusations two weeks ago, an omission several council members said they found glaring. McCasland had alleged the mayor overrode staff recommendations in a plan to award $15 million in Harvey affordable housing funds to finance a senior living complex in Clear Lake with 88 affordable units. Housing staff had recommended four higher-scoring projects that would have used $16.2 million to fund 274 more affordable units. The mayors former longtime law partner, Barry Barnes, is involved in the Clear Lake deal, and McCasland who did not name Barnes argued Turner was bankrolling the developers at the expense of Houston residents who need housing. Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin, the mayors second-in-command on council and budget chair, initially emphasized that Thursdays hearing was not meant to impugn McCasland, but he later echoed Turners suggestion that the former housing director may have lodged the favoritism allegations against the mayor to cover for wrongdoing of his own. McCasland declined to comment directly on Thursdays committee meeting, but he tweeted afterward: During my more than 5 years at the City, I led the Housing Department with transparency and integrity. The Department has a balanced budget combining more than twenty different grant sources. Each of these grants is approved by City Council, he said. There are no secrets about how the Department is funded. The high-stakes meeting grew hostile shortly after its 2 p.m. start, with several council members calling it an administration-led diversion from McCaslands allegations about the mayor. At-Large Councilman Mike Knox moved to adjourn the meeting before the staff presentations began, arguing council members did not have enough time to review the materials in front of them. They were provided less than an hour before the meeting. This meeting was advertised by the mayor that we were going to hear information about the allegations made by Director McCasland. Ive got none of that, Knox said. Ive got 75 pages of McCaslands stuff, Ive got 20 pages of something that I think is a diversion. I dont think were prepared for this meeting, I think we should adjourn it and return next week when we are prepared. The motion failed with the support of only District G Councilman Greg Travis and At-Large Councilman Michael Kubosh, the latter calling the meeting a charade. Response to allegations Though the presentation included little information about the Clear Lake deal, City Attorney Arturo Michel announced at the end of the hearing that he would outsource his probe into McCaslands allegations. Michel, whom Turner directed to review the deal for any illegality or conflicts of interest, said he plans to engage an outside law firm to look into the matter. Arturo reports directly to the mayor. City Council is expected to vote next week to hire Eric Nichols and one other attorney from the firm Butler Snow to lead the investigation. Michel said he hopes they will produce a report within 30 days. Council members occasionally asked Bynam about the Clear Lake deal. Bynam stressed that the project was not completed yet and still needs to be vetted by staff and approved by council. He also suggested the city still could fund the other projects that applied for the funding ostensibly awarded to the Clear Lake development. He said the city could shift funds from its other recovery programs to do that. The staff revelations Martin called most disastrous concerned overruns on the citys Harvey housing recovery program. The officials pointed to a $1 million overrun on the citys administration budget for that overall project and $22 million in overages on the project delivery budget for the citys Homeowner Assistance Program, an effort to repair or reconstruct single-family homes damaged in the storm. Those budgets were slashed in July, when the city and GLO finalized a new contract after the state agency took over much of the citys recovery program, including homeowner assistance. Houstons budget for administration for the entire $1.2 billion program had been $31 million before the state intervened, which cut the amount the city was allowed to spend operating its programs to $15 million. Bynam and Jones reported Thursday that $16.1 million already has been spent, resulting in the $1.1 million hole. The same was true of the $440 million single-family home repair program the state took over, leaving the city having already spent $30.6 million of its original $42 million administrative budget. The newly reduced budget from the state is now $8.2 million. The reductions mean the city already has spent roughly $23.4 million more than it now is budgeted, with three years remaining in the program. The city could be on the hook, Jones said, if the state chooses not to reimburse the difference. The GLO initially asked for the incurred expenditures in July, according to Jones. The city produced them on Sept. 17, four days before McCasland went to council about the Clear Lake deal. GLO spokeswoman Brittany Eck said Houston has not yet submitted paperwork seeking reimbursement for all of the expenses Bynam and Jones cited Thursday, but she said the city could be on the hook for any spending that exceeds its reduced budgets. Well work with them and look at those expenses, Eck said. Potentially they have costs that are reimbursable. Harvey Home Connect Bynam and Jones also said the city set up an effort to help applicants bridge financing gaps that was not approved by the state. Applicants seeking reconstruction or repairs often face a Duplication of Benefits gap, meaning they have received funds from multiple sources for the same repairs. The applicant then has to pay that gap for repairs to proceed. APTIM, the company operating the single-family program at the time, launched a program with Harvey Home Connect which staff said was led by McCaslands wife, Elena White to pair applicants with groups that could bridge the gap for them. The money was then given to the city on the applicants behalf. The GLO subsequently ruled those funds were coming from a separate source, meaning they actually doubled applicants Duplication of Benefits gap instead of closing them. Staff so have far discovered the issue with 20 applicants, Jones said, worth $1.3 million in expenditures that may not be reimbursed. The city has negotiated with the state to get that down to around $200,000, Jones said. Jones said the mayor also was not aware that the department had engaged Harvey Home Connect. Council members said they were not told either. White did not get any city funds for her work that I am aware of, Jones acknowledged. Whites company, Connective, later had a role in the citys COVID-19 rent relief program, as well. In a tweet, McCasland said he briefed the mayor and council on that connection and listed her role on annual financial disclosure forms. As briefed, no city funding has ever gone to Connective, McCasland said in the tweet. Mike Morris contributed to this report. dylan.mcguinness@chron.com twitter.com/dylmcguinness The Texas Department of Safety remixed its version of the popular 2020 relationship goals meme "How it started vs how it's going" on Twitter, but many did not find it cute or funny. For "how it started," the public safety agency posted a video Thursday morning showing a trooper on a four-wheeler chasing a man who was running across train tracks in Austin. "Corey's got him," one officer said in the video. The agency posted another tweet of suspected gang members of the Latin Kings, an DPS spokesperson confirmed, who were apprehended for trying to enter the U.S. illegally, sitting in the bed of a pickup truck sipping water. Instead of "how it's going," the caption read: "How it ended." But many on Twitter weren't laughing. They were disgusted and found it dehumanizing. One user, identified as Bethan Cantrell, replied slamming the agency for the post. "Sharing that video to twitter is incredibly inappropriate," Cantrell wrote. "Thats a human. Did you forget?" Texas DPS later elaborated on the content of the video saying that the pursuit was an effort to prevent illegal immigration in support of Governor Greg Abbott's "Operation Lone Star" initiative, a mission his office announced in March to combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas at the southern border. FACT CHECK: Verifying a claim that Texas is finishing the border wall with 'Operation Lone Star' Some were quick to call it propaganda, and others, like one Twitter user identified as John M Bennett, couldn't believe the agency proudly posted the video and called for the termination of the staff member responsible for sharing it. "The person/people that thought it was a good idea to put this on Twitter should be removed from any position of power due to a demonstrated lack of judgement," Bennett wrote. "It's also good to know our border is so secure Texas DPS has multiple officers to spare for a lone migrant." Some local politicians, including State Representatives Gina Hinojosa and Jarvis Johnson, also condemned the post, criticizing how the men were treated and the allocation of tax money for such behavior. "Apparent that we have so flooded (Texas DPS) with (money) that now they got people sitting around making memes," Hinojosa tweeted. "Hey @TxDPS these are people, should be treated with dignity and not made into memes for your Twitter feed," Johnson tweeted. "How is this a valuable use of taxpayer dollars?" Another user identified as @speakermembers, was ashamed. "I'm glad the plight of undocumented people is giving yall dank meme content. This is embarrassing." But not everyone disapproved. A slim few celebrated their efforts such as Jamie Meyers identified on Twitter as @Jamiemeyers58, who replied "Go get em!" and @andychevy82 who replied "great job, keep up the great work." The Texas Department of Public Safety sent the following statement on Friday: The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is committed to securing our southern border under the direction of Texas Governor Greg Abbott and has deployed around one-thousand Troopers, Special Agents and Texas Rangers as part of Operation Lone Star (OLS). Since OLS began in early March, DPS has made more than 6,500 criminal arrests for state violations of law including, but not limited to, criminal trespassing, criminal mischief, smuggling and human trafficking. Additionally, just over 5,100 felony charges have been filed since the operation began and DPS has made more than 70,300 migrant apprehensions and referrals. These numbers are through Sept. 30. The agency did not address the criticism of the Twitter post directly, but a DPS spokesperson said in an email to the Chronicle that the incident began with individuals fleeing from a train and ended with arrests and apprehensions, and clarified that the individuals were suspected gang members and not people seeking asylum. SAN ANTONIO Texas legislatures voted this year to expand access to medicinal marijuana to those living with cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder. The new law that went into effect last month also doubles the percent of THC allowed in products to 1 percent. Even with the expansion to access, Texas' medical marijuana laws can be confusing. Heather Fazio, the director of the advocacy group Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, spoke to the Express-News about how to navigate one of the most restrictive medical marijuana laws in the United States. Jessica Phelps/San Antonio Express-News Eligibility Lawmakers first passed the states Compassionate Use Act in 2015 for people suffering from intractable epilepsy and expanded the program to cover terminal cancer and disorders such as Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease in 2019. As of Sept. 1, youre eligible for medical marijuana if you have the following conditions: epilepsy, autism, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, Huntingtons disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, cancer or PTSD. You also have to be a permanent resident of Texas. There are no age limitations but patients under 18 may require a legal guardian. Patients who suffer from chronic pain do not qualify for medical marijuana in Texas. During this years legislative session, advocates sought to further amend the law to include eligibility for chronic pain patients and to raise the THC cap to 5 percent. House lawmakers agreed to the additional changes but members in the Senate removed those provisions. On HoustonChronicle.com: Take a tour inside a Texas medical marijuana facility Prescription policy If youre eligible, you have access to medical marijuana through the states compassionate use program. That program is run by the Texas Department of Public Safety and has strict guidelines for how to get a prescription and its use. In Texas, you cannot go to your general practitioner to get medical marijauna. You must first go to a certified physician specializing in your medical condition. That doctor must determine that the risk of the medical use of low-THC cannabis by the patient is reasonable in light of the potential benefit. A second physician then must agree with the first doctors assessment before you can be added to the compassionate use registry database. Its important to remember that only physicians specializing in your medical condition who belong to the Compassionate Use Registry of Texas can assess whether youre qualified to use medical marijuana. There are only 181 such doctors in the registry statewide. On HoustonChronicle.com: Cold case team IDs the Zodiac Killer. And it's not Ted Cruz. Texas Original Compassion Cultivation Access to dispensaries are limited When lawmakers passed the Compassionate Use Act in 2015, they required DPS to provide licenses to three dispensaries. However, as of October, there are only two in operation and theyre both in central Texas, posing a problem for those living in places such as El Paso, Fazio said. These dispensaries are required to either deliver prescriptions to you or for you to pick them up, creating a barrier for medical marijuana users, Fazio said. Sometimes dispensaries are able to set up pop-up-style pickups in doctors offices, but dispensaries arent allowed to open up brick and mortar dispensaries with inventory elsewhere in the state. If you ran out of your medicine and you need it now, you cant just run up the street and have your prescription filled right away, Fazio said. Jessica Phelps/San Antonio Express-News The products In Texas, youre only allowed to use low-THC cannabis," which is the component of marijuana plants that causes psychological effects, including the sensation of being high. It can be consumed in a variety of ways, including smoking, swallowing capsules and eating edibles and consuming oils. All but smoking is permitted in Texas. Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net Near the end of the graphic novel at the center of this weeks firestorm in Katy ISD, a white seventh-grader named Liam is invited by two of his Black friends to spend the day with their families. The friends, Jordan and Drew, had spent most of the story in predominantly white spaces and now they were giving Liam a chance to see life from their vantage points for a change. Wow! This was great! Liam says to his classmates. Thanks for letting me experience it, Jordan. As smiles light up faces all around, Jordan replies, And thank you for trying. This happy little scene was a long time coming in noted Black author Jerry Crafts Class Act, a story filled with conflict between and among the races, but one that also takes his young readers on a journey full of humor and unexpected twists. Craft says when he was growing up in New York City, he never got a chance to read books for school whose characters looked like him. In his own books, he strives to show kids of color as regular kids and gives readers of color a chance to see themselves. Their white classmates get a chance to see life from a different perspective, too. He might have told students that himself on Monday, had his invitation to speak virtually to the Katy school district not been pulled at nearly the last minute. About 450 Katy ISD parents signed a now-deleted online petition to have Crafts books removed and his speaking appearance canceled. His offense? The petition argued Crafts books promote reverse racism against white students and would have left them feeling shame over the way some of the white characters treat Jordan, the books 12-year-old protagonist. Thats incredibly short-sighted. As it happens, characters in the book should be recognizable to all its readers as they navigate the perils of social media and figure out where they fit in the school cafeteria. They stumble through preteen mini-relationships, get called the wrong names and experience visiting classmates homes. Katy ISD has deprived its students of an opportunity to engage with a vibrant writer who could have helped some students feel seen and affirmed, and others challenged to think about life in some of their classmates shoes. Yes, Class Act does have scenes in which white youth and adults make clumsy or offensive, if usually well-intentioned, comments that have the effect of othering the Black preteens in the story. But the book is also full of generous characters and moments to which readers of all backgrounds can relate. Its seventh graders working through misunderstandings and coming together an example we could all use. The impulse to ban books is nothing new. But the latest impetus to challenge everything that offers a new perspective on race in America stems from the ongoing fight over whats known as critical race theory, an academic lens to American history thats been part of graduate studies for decades though not the Texas public school curriculum. In the current polarized environment, its often wildly mischaracterized as a way of reading American history with the goal of making white people feel terrible. RELATED: Spring Branch ISD bans graphic novel after parent's complaint over transgender character The theory is now a catch-all bogeyman keeping Americans fearful of our nations changing demographics. And the paranoia is spreading beyond race to seemingly attack anything that might challenge the cultural status quo. Just this week, Spring Branch ISD removed a book with a character who comes out as transgender, due to a parents complaint. This is classic zero-sum game thinking: the idea that intentionally centering the experiences of Blacks or Latinos means white people are somehow losing something or being sidelined. Critical race theory doesnt teach white students that theyre irredeemably racist. Its designed to give scholars a frame to understand the impact racism has had on our laws, our history, our culture. Neither books like Crafts, nor unflinching history lessons, are about instilling shame. Differences and inequalities already exist, as do the impacts from institutionalized racism, whether we teach them or not. Why not introduce our students to engaging literature that encourages them to look at issues from a variety of perspectives? We cant be afraid to have students encounter material that represents reality, even if that reality can be uncomfortable. Middle and high school can indeed be tough for Black children in predominantly white schools. Transgender kids exist. People of color do often get nervous when stopped by police. Those are truths about society, so we might as well have books and poems and curriculum that reflect them. Craft said recently that when he speaks to groups of students, one or two kids will often approach him afterward, and say, Hey, Mr. Craft, I hate to read, but I read your book in two days and its the first time I ever did that. That should be celebrated. Instead, Katy ISD officials listened only to a few hundred of the loudest voices in this debate. Leading a district of nearly 90,000 students, they should have stood up for all those who were counting on them to not be intimidated. Somewhere in Katy theres a struggling 12-year-old whos been given a hard time, feeling isolated because of her dark skin or odd interests or both. Lets give that student, and all her classmates, materials that explore and embrace difference rather than fear it. And then those young people can show us adults how its done. Regarding Editorial: The phony 'critical race theory' crusade strikes again - and Katy ISD fell for it, (Oct. 8): The news of Katy ISD canceling the book talk sparked a memory of my senior high school year at College High School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The Assembly Committee of students supported bringing portions of the National Humanities Series, one of which was a presentation of Poetry in Black by Nat Simmons. Mrs. Betty Turk, a beloved English faculty member, asked me to represent the Assembly Committee and students at a Bartlesville ISD meeting wherein cancelation of the presentation was being considered. I attended. I listened. I heard fear: fear of change, fear of honest reflections of race issues in our country circa 1971, fear of public reaction. I spoke. If support for humanities was an intended outcome of the school boards agenda, how could it deny the presentation of a Black authors views of Black culture and life in poetry? In the end, the board voted to support the invitation to Nat Simmons and he presented Poetry in Black to the students of College High School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1971 to great applause and admiration. And now, history repeats itself. That is the point. Without the study of history and stories addressing cultural issues, we are bound to repeat acts of inhumanity. Hiding from history is not education. Might I suggest a couple of readings: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli and Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom by Walter Dean Myers. Mary Cook, Houston I suggest that Ms. Anderson and the others who signed the petition check out the October 16 presentation A Way Forward Conference: Critical Race Theory with Tim Wise on Zoom presented by the Center for the Healing of Racism. Once we learn and understand critical race theory, we can make positive steps to understand what Jerry Craft wants all children to learn. Ceil Roeger, Houston Irony Regarding How did 400 Katy ISD parents get a book removed? Accusations of Marxism and 'critical race theory, (Oct. 5): Thank you to all the racists in Katy for recommending New Kid by Jerry Craft. I am ordering it immediately for the grandchildren I dont even have yet. If you hate it, it must be good. Karen Taylor, Houston Reflexively banning a book and disinviting a speaker because of spurious claims of Marxism and critical race theory is ironically the perfect example of the sort of oppressive culture that critical race theory tries to expose. Alan Jackson, Houston I was deeply saddened to read about Katy ISD's caving to the 400 parents who demanded the pulling of Jerry Craft's books. This award-winning author writes about the lived experience of his African American sons, offering us all a real-life window through which we may view some of the painful realities of what it feels like to not fit in. It is both ironic and tragic that these parents misguided and ignorant behavior underscore the pressing need for books exactly like this to be widely read and appreciated by students of all races. Parental actions that extend the toxic level of polarization in our society so that it impacts the hearts and minds of our middle schoolers perpetuates the very intolerance and heartbreak this author so skillfully articulates. And all of our kids are the big losers here. Sylvia S. Villarreal, Houston Parental power Regarding Katy ISD postpones event with acclaimed children's author after parents allege 'critical race theory', (Oct. 4): So 400 parents in Katy have succeeded in canceling a talk by the renowned author, Jerry Craft, who is the recipient of the Newbery Medal among other awards. Has the person who initiated the petition read the book? Have any of the 400 people who signed the petition read the book? This is a deplorable tyranny of a small group. What are they afraid of? I am issuing a challenge to every school district or educational institution in the Houston area. Invite Jerry Craft to speak and remove some of the shame of once again having to be embarrassed for Texas. Gerry Aitken, Stafford Regarding Spring Branch ISD bans graphic novel after parent's complaint over transgender character, (Oct. 7): A small, in some cases miniscule, percentage of parents in a district disagree with the content of two books, and the books are then removed from library shelves, so no children can check them out. But when parents speak out for mask mandates, to help protect all schoolchildren from a virus which has already killed over 700,000 Americans, they are shouted down by parents who say it is a parents right to make decisions for their own children. So parents arent allowed to protect all children from a pandemic, but they are allowed to protect all children from knowing there are people in this world who arent white and cisgender? How does this ban help students gain an awareness of our pluralistic society, as SBISD's policy states? Why do some parents get to make decisions for everyone elses children, but not others? Jean Tanner, Houston This article states that the book The Breakaways was banned due to its transgender character, which is not entirely the case. It is important to mention the concern surrounding the appropriateness of a book that appeared in an elementary school library illustrating two characters in a bed together. If a student in Spring Branch ISD tried to search anything involving sexual relationships on the internet at school, this search would be blocked by the districts safety controls to protect children from pornography. The school district does not openly discuss sex nor teach sexuality at the elementary level. Therefore, the elementary school libraries should be held to the same standards. Katie Arndt, Houston The Biden administration is again expecting a large group of Haitian asylum-seekers to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, and if officials dont change their current anti-asylum stance, we may soon see history repeating itself. Last month, the public was rightly outraged when images appeared to show mounted U.S. border officers chasing and threatening Haitian asylum-seekers with their reins. It was one thing for President Joe Bidens Department of Homeland Security to announce its intention to block and expel the Haitian asylum-seekers who had gathered at a border bridge in Del Rio. It was something totally different for members of the public to see with their own eyes what that horrific policy looks like in practice. Ive devoted my career to advancing human rights, and part of me is glad that more people are finally paying attention to an abuse that has been going on for far too long. Yet it sickens and saddens me that it took images of Haitian asylum-seekers being manhandled in such a brutal way one that evokes images of slavery for people to finally care. After all, the U.S. government betraying its own promises and laws in order to expel Haitian asylum-seekers to danger is not new. And absent immediate and far-reaching changes, those abuses will continue long into the future regardless of which president occupies the Oval Office. The asylum-seekers at Del Rio are far from the first innocent people the U.S. government has banished to Haiti with zero due process. As Black immigrant leaders have been documenting for more than a year, thousands of Haitian asylum-seekers have been expelled without an adequate chance to seek humanitarian protection since the start of the pandemic. In one particularly glaring example, U.S. authorities in the early days of the Biden administration deported Paul Pierrilus, who is not even a Haitian national and had never stepped foot in that country, to Haiti. Of course, such practices seem to fly in the face of U.S. and international law, both of which state clearly that all people, regardless of nationality or method of entry, have the right to request asylum across borders if they fear persecution at home. But in spite of these laws, both the Trump and Biden administrations have invoked an unprecedented authority one that does not exist anywhere in U.S. immigration law to expel people, denying them virtually all access to these asylum procedures. President Donald Trump started carrying out these Title 42 expulsions in March 2020 under the pretext of responding to the pandemic. Named after a clause in a public health law that has been on the books for years, Title 42 was never before used to claim such sweeping powers to expel asylum-seekers without due process. Both the Trump and Biden administrations interpretation of the clause has no basis in legitimate public health science. Instead, the policy operates as a border management tool that contradicts the advice of medical experts many of whom have spoken out against it from its inception for needlessly interfering with migrant protections and generating other risks of exposure to the virus by expelling people across borders in close quarters. Title 42 has a particularly harsh impact on Haitian asylum-seekers. The U.S. government pushes back many asylum-seekers from the border into Mexico, a practice that often strands people in unspeakably dangerous conditions in Mexican border towns, where cartels routinely kidnap and prey on migrants. In addition to these threats, which affect asylum-seekers from all over the world, Haitians and other Black immigrants are often singled out for racist abuse and discrimination in Mexico. U.S. authorities have also placed Haitians on deportation flights to their country of origin, typically with no asylum screening whatsoever. Some newly-arriving Haitians have been exempted from this policy, but thousands of others have not, and the administrations procedure for determining who gets to stay and who goes remains opaque and seemingly arbitrary. Haitian families and children many of whom had been living in Chile, Brazil and other South American countries since 2010 have been deported to an island nation recently rocked by profound crises, including an earthquake and the assassination of the countrys president. Moreover, the Biden administrations recent decision to continue the designation of Temporary Protected Status, a form of humanitarian protection, for Haiti while welcome has done nothing to prevent these Title 42 expulsions. The TPS program shields people from being deported to countries that are currently in the grip of a humanitarian crisis (including those caused by earthquakes and other natural disasters). But it only applies to people who can show theyve been in the United States from the date the country was officially designated for TPS. More recently-arriving asylum-seekers, therefore, are left with no recourse. These abuses date back further than the start of the pandemic. For almost as long as there have been asylum laws in the United States, U.S. politicians have been looking for ways to exclude Haitians from accessing their rights under these laws. In the 1980s and 90s, U.S. Coast Guard vessels intercepted boats filled with Haitians fleeing political violence, and towed them back to shore. Haitian asylum-seekers were also taken to offshore detention sites for processing. Before the Guantanamo Bay detention center was used to torture and indefinitely jail people in connection with the U.S. War on Terror, it served as a site for confining Haitians so that they would not be able to set foot on U.S. soil. The U.S. government has a moral obligation to stop repeating these same abusive patterns, not only because our immigration laws require access to request asylum, but also because our government has played such a large role in the problems plaguing Haiti. Haitians in the 1980s and 90s fled a right-wing dictatorship and coup attempts that received U.S. support. As for people displaced from the island today, the U.S. government contributed to the political crisis they face as well, propping up a president who had lost public legitimacy and was rapidly descending into authoritarianism. That is to say nothing about our countrys contributions to the climate crisis that is impacting weather patterns and causing ecological damage. To pivot from this course and adopt a new policy would not be as challenging as officials claim. Pending court cases have already put the Title 42 program in question. Biden could end the whole thing with a stroke of his pen today, and resume using the existing infrastructure of the U.S. asylum system to interview and process peoples claims for humanitarian protection. There are also faith networks and nonprofits able to support these families. Longer term, broader changes to U.S. immigration and foreign policy are ultimately needed, but simply restoring access to the asylum process should be a no-brainer especially given that its what Biden has repeatedly promised to do. As we watch the Biden administration shamefully repeat these same patterns yet again, its hard to escape a feeling of deja vu. But deja vu doesnt have to be destiny. Biden has a rare opportunity to correct a mistaken policy that has endured for decades, under presidents of both parties. He needs to seize the moment before it is too late and before Haitians again suffer at the hands of those capable, but unwilling, to help them. Rachel Gore Freed is vice president and chief program officer at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC). Joshua Leach is the public policy and communications strategist at UUSC. Some clinics in Texas resumed performing abortions Thursday after a federal judge halted the states near-ban on the procedure, but others are waiting for a looming appeal to be resolved. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday night that prevents enforcement of the new law known as Senate Bill 8. The law prohibits abortions after cardiac activity is detected in the fetus, usually around six weeks, and enlists private citizens to sue providers who violate the guidelines for damages of at least $10,000. The state said it will appeal. We have reopened our schedule to expand beyond that six-week limit in our Texas clinics already, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Womans Health, which has four clinics in Texas. In fact, last night, we reached out to some of the patients that we had on a waiting list to come in to have abortions today, folks whose pregnancies did have cardiac activity earlier in September, and we were able to see a few people as early as eight, nine this morning, right away. Over the last month, the clinic had allowed patients to have consultation appointments early and get Texas 24-hour waiting period out of the way, so that if the law were ever blocked, they could come get the procedure right away. However, not all Whole Womans physicians are comfortable resuming services given the uncertainty of whether the injunction will be upheld by higher courts, Hagstrom Miller said. BLISTERING ORDER: The most striking quotes from the federal judges decision blocking the Texas abortion ban Planned Parenthood has not committed to returning to offering the service. We are regularly assessing whats possible during this period of uncertainty but, given the states appeal, our health centers may not have the days or even weeks it could take to navigate new patients through Texass onerous abortion restrictions, the group wrote in a statement Thursday. Texas Right to Life, the states largest anti-abortion group, said the order was not unexpected. This is ultimately the legacy of Roe v. Wade, that you have activist judges bending over backwards, bending precedent, bending the law, in order to cater to the abortion industry, said Kimberlyn Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the group. These activist judges will create their conclusion first: that abortion is a so-called constitutional right, and then work backwards from there. Abortion providers say their fears have become reality in the short time the law has been in effect. Planned Parenthood says the number of patients from Texas at its clinics in the state decreased by nearly 80 percent in the two weeks after the law took effect. Some providers have said Texas clinics are now in danger of closing while neighboring states struggle to keep up with a surge of patients who must drive hundreds of miles for an abortion. Other women, they say, are being forced to carry pregnancies to term. The Texas law has sent abortion patients to clinics in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Colorado and New Mexico, which say theyre being inundated. In Louisiana, officials at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport said they went from seeing no more than 20 percent of their patients from Texas to now over 50 percent. Some patients are driving from as far as McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley. One in 10 women of reproductive age in the U.S. live in Texas, or about 7 million people. Texas providers performed about 54,000 abortions last year. The new law, which does not include exceptions for rape or incest, was expected to cut off abortion access for about 85 to 90 percent of those seeking it, according to providers. Whats most worrying for physicians is a novel provision in the law that allows for retroactive enforcement if Pitmans injunction is overturned, meaning abortions performed now could still one day be subject to litigation. Its really the retroactive clause that gives people pause, Hagstrom Miller said. Its a hard thing to think about. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Under that provision, any abortion a clinic provides, even while protected by an injunction, could leave someone susceptible to a civil lawsuit six months from now, a year from now. Its pretty daunting to think about that, she said. The Constitution prohibits federal and state governments from enacting retroactive, or ex post facto, laws, but the clause applies only to criminal cases in which the stakes are often much higher. Most laws do not include retroactive penalties for activities that are permitted by a judges order. Its rare, and I dont know if its even effective, said Joshua Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. Even if it says that, its not clear itll actually work. Some civil laws are retroactive to serve a public purpose; for example, tax laws might apply retroactively to prevent people from manipulating rules to limit their liability, said Harold Krent, professor of law at Chicago-Kent College, who has studied the issue. Its basically to avoid someone from getting away with an advantage they shouldnt have, Krent said. Its contestable, its still controversial, but that would be the general idea. Regardless, experts agreed that SB 8 will likely still keep many providers from offering the procedure based on fear alone. Even if the answer is unclear, that could result in crippling liability, Blackman said. This report contains material from the Associated Press. jeremy.blackman@chron.com taylor.goldenstein@chron.com Chicago, IL (60637) Today Overcast skies and windy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 25F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. 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If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. Huntingdon, PA (16652) Today Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. High 67F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Some clouds. A shower of rain or wet snow possible. Low 33F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Is a strike by artists to protest streaming payouts inevitable? As discontent brews among musicians against the pitiful payouts provided by streaming services, we explore what an artist strike against streaming services might look like. Guest post from The Trichordist Were hearing more and more commentary like this post from John: So how would that work? It probably couldnt be a strike of the same kind as the UK Musicians Union strike against the BBC in 1980, the Writers Guild strike in 2007 or some of the handful of other famous ones. Those strikes were all related to creators who were employed by employers and that employment formed the basis of a collective bargaining agreement. Strikes are authorized by a vote of the membership and are a sign that collective bargaining has not produced a fair result. Strikes or work actions usually produce images like this: Another difference between collective bargaining strikes and artists against streaming is the striking workers well being. Strikes impose a cost on both sides and the costs are often a heavier burden for the worker. Streaming is not that way. For most artists, streaming cannibalizes more sales that it offsets with income. David has written about this extensively. The choice for most artists is not getting streamed morethat is the false promise that Spotify tries to get you to buy into with their various payola schemes that are blatant exploitation. Songwriters have led the way on this with the Ferrick and Lowery class action against Spotify and Davids class action against Rhapsody. The uprising against the ruling class in the frozen mechanicals protest is another example of songwriters standing together against exploitation. Streaming presents different choices. The choice is whether to be on a streaming platform at all. YouTube can force you to participate due to their scummy manipulation of the loophole ridden DMCA, the worst nightmare that an incompetent and lard layered Congress ever imposed on creators at the behest of lobbyists, and thats saying something. If youre not careful, youll end up with another MLC to make sure you know your place. So you have to think about what a streaming strike would actually look like. It certainly would not have great economic impact for most artists because the income they would give up starts so many decimal places to the right. One way to get started is to maintain an Unfair list for services that engage in anti-artist behavior. Like this guy: What should the criteria be to get on the Unfair list? What would we all do with the unfair list? Well be taking suggestions and thinking about exactly how this would work. Share on: In May, an ad appeared in which blogger Roman Protasevich made an apparently forced confession to inciting mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko. It was removed for violating the platforms policies. Similar videos are still showing up In a recent YouTube video ad, a man named Sergei Dalivelia sits on a wooden chair, his hands tied behind his back. He looks straight to camera and, in a shaky voice, apologizes for criticizing the government of Belarus and President Alexander Lukashenko. I posted offensive comments online, he said. I very much regret this. I regret that I wrote this without thinking. Clicking on the ad took the viewer to a pro-government Telegram channel titled Zheltye Slivy. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, has referred to himself as Europes last dictator. However, over the past 18 months, historic demonstrations have rocked the country. Beginning in the lead-up to the August 2020 presidential election, the protest movement reached a peak when Lukashenko won a sixth term in office with a landslide 80% of the vote. Numerous countries and international bodies, including the United States and the European Union, refused to accept the result, alleging widespread fraud and repression. The Belarusian regime launched a swift crackdown on opposition voices. Over the past year, more than 35,000 people have been arbitrarily detained. Similar filmed confessions have provided a chilling illustration of the states zero-tolerance policy on dissent. This is not the first time such footage has appeared as a YouTube ad. On May 23, a plane carrying the Belarusian blogger Roman Protasevich from Athens to Vilnius was diverted to Minsk after a report of explosives on board. Protasevich was promptly arrested and, the next day, filmed stating that he instigated anti-government protests. The video, in which the 26-year-old appeared dazed and distressed, was broadcast on Belarusian state TV. Immediately, the footage appeared on YouTube as an ad. A similar video of his girlfriend Sofia Sapega was also promoted on the platform. According to screenshots, both appear to direct viewers to the Zheltye Slivy Telegram channel. The online news organization Rest of World reported that the ads appeared to have been paid for by a pro-government YouTube channel. YouTube promptly removed the ads of Protasevich and Sapega, but in the months since, similar footage of other young Belarusians has appeared on the platform, repurposed as advertisements, a number of times. So, why does this keep happening and what does the YouTube plan to do about it? From to rare free space to tool for oppression According the Belarusian journalist and Atlantic Council fellow Hanna Liubakova, YouTube ads provide Lukashenkos government with a powerful tool to control the narrative surrounding the protests. All media in Belarus is either banned or pushed out. YouTube is one of those services where media is actually able to publish, and thats how many people in the regions may get access to independent information, she said. The ads can also be viewed as an attempt to intimidate opposition voices and a show of strength by the regime. By allowing them to be shown on the platform, YouTube is legitimizing the regimes actions, Liubakova added. How does this keep happening? It is not clear how content of this nature continues to make it through YouTubes approval process. The review system, which is run by Google, the platforms parent company, should flag material that violates its terms of service, including bullying or intimidation of an individual or group. I think that there was just a lack of moderation,Liubakova said. Or they just closed their eyes and ignored the fact that these ads are related to the regime and security forces. According to Anastasiya Zhyrmont of the global digital rights organization Access Now, YouTube needs to be much more transparent and consistent as to what does and does not violate its policies. If Protasevichs purported confession video was determined to violate the platforms guidelines, she said, others should be considered the same. Source: https://www.codastory.com/disinformation/youtube-ads-belarus-detained/ What does YouTube have to say? YouTube has always had strict policies around the type of content that is allowed to serve as ads on our platform. We quickly remove any ads that violate these policies, said a company spokesperson in response to questions for this story. According to Google, YouTube has taken action against the ad featuring Dalivelia, according to its inappropriate content policies. Salisbury Bank Contributes to Community Health Programs From Left, CHP Senior VP of Family Services Michelle Derr, Salisbury Bank President Rick Cantele, CHP CEO Lia Spiliotes, and Amanda Goewey, Salisbury VP, Berkshire Regional Branch Manager GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. Salisbury Bank has donated $10,000 to support Community Health Programs' food distribution programs and to bolster CHP's funds for families and individuals facing financial emergencies. "This gift from Salisbury Bank reflects a community alliance that provides stop-gap support for our neighbors in need," CHP Senior Vice President for Family Services Michelle Derr said. "These funds are used to help our clients avoid eviction or utility shutoffs, loss of transportation, and problems getting health care." Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020, CHP has seen a spike in the need for free, nutritious food. There's also a sharp increase in emergency assistance to individuals and families in need of help with utility bills, car repairs and rent, among other challenges. "The need in Berkshire County and surrounding communities is great, particularly during these unprecedented times, and we are pleased to be able to offer our support," said Rick Cantele, Salisbury Bank's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Salisbury Bank has an unwavering commitment to support, sponsor and volunteer in the communities we serve, and one of the ways we uphold this commitment is through support for qualified non-profit organizations and programs in our area," he said. "We take great pride in our support of Community Health Programs (CHP) as they share a similar philosophy." For information about CHP Family Services programs, contact (413) 528-0457. The fashion industry is following recent trends in IT. Fortunately, not in a sartorial sense, but in the adoption of nearshoring in Eastern Europe. As fashion houses bring garment manufacturing back to European shores, the technology sector in Eastern Europe will benefit, as a closer fit between manufacturing and supply chain improves connections and collaboration between technologists, makers, suppliers and the retailer. Both Benetton and Hugo Boss, admittedly high-end fashion houses, have announced plans to bring manufacturing back to Europe, as well as increasing their presence in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey. Benetton says it will halve Asian based manufacturing by the end of 2022. The move is, in part, a reaction to the rising cost of shipping from the Far East, but Benetton CEO Massimo Renon told Reuters that it was also to gain greater control. The rag trade is not a first-mover either; engineering organisations have already begun to move into the region. Fashion has spent the last 30 years moving production to Asia but now finds that the cost savings are not delivering the same protective benefits. Lead times, even before the pandemic, closed factories, and now the ongoing shipping challenges have stretched the fabric of offshoring too far, and now the model is too baggy and uncomfortable. Technology went through the same experience; major offshoring during the first part of this century has gradually returned back down the ancient silk routes from the Far East to Eastern Europe. And for much the same reason - greater control of the outcome. Renon at Benetton says the 20% lower production costs of countries like Vietnam no longer fits. CIOs that have adopted nearshore partnerships report greater control of technological outcomes, helped in part by the closeness of the time zones, but also the skills, both technically and in language, they gain access to. Digital business advisor Mike Altendorf recently revealed to me and this title how Eastern European skills are significantly better than in economies such as Vietnam and that the skills base in Eastern Europe is now at the point that full digital product development and delivery is assured. As manufacturing, supply chains and associated trades move into Eastern Europe, it will surely empower the regions tech sector. Putting digital and manufacturing together in the same region, tied by common trading rules, access to skills and the continued investment in education will surely ensure the region continues to flourish. The close collaboration between the public sector and technology in nations like Estonia has seen this Baltic nation become a beacon for what technology can do for civic services and technology firms. For CIOs and CTOs, the growth of Eastern Europe as a manufacturing and supply chain hub is an exciting opportunity. A deeper and more diverse business community in Eastern Europe will only improve the understanding of vertical markets, business processes and customer behaviours. All of which will increase the quality of the technology services and outcomes from the region. It is easy to consider the continent of Europe from a western European perspective. Germany and France are the economic titans, the Netherlands continues to be a global powerhouse of international shipping and the energy sector, and of course, the European Union houses most of its political institutions in western cities like Brussels, but the eastern quadrant of the continent has been on the rise for many years - hence its invitation to be part of the EU club. With a combination of skills in technology and manufacturing its value is set to rise further. This puts the entire continent of Europe in a healthy position (although it faces some major challenges economically and socially), and the USA has noted this and therefore triggered the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC). A talking shop admittedly, but one that aims to help the two largest economic areas in the northern hemisphere coordinate policy on semiconductor supply - which like fashion is a sector hit by supply problems from the Far East. TTC will also discuss how to regulate big tech firms and control investment in technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). Eastern Europe shrugged off its low cost and cheap labour image some time ago. CIOs and CTOs would be wise to keep a sharp eye on Eastern Europe. FILE - In this Oct. 2, 2021, file photo, people attend the Women's March ATX rally, at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas. A federal judge has ordered Texas to suspend a new law that has banned most abortions in the state since September. The order Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman freezes for now the strict abortion law known as Senate Bill 8. (AP Photo/Stephen Spillman, File) Filipino and Russian journalists, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, were today announced as the winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize for "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace". The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the news and warmly congratulates the winners, saying that this award is a recognition of the crucial role of journalists around the globe, many of whom are faced with tremendous challenges to serve the public in their countries and the world. Maria Ressa, a former CNN correspondent, founded an investigative website, Rappler, almost ten years ago, where she often denounced President Dutertes security policies and extrajudicial killings in his anti-drug campaign. She suffered repeated police harassment and In June 2021, she received a jail term for a cyber libel case and is currently on bail pending her appeal against the decision. The IFJ supported her and had called on the authorities in the Philippines to drop all cases against her. Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov founded an independent newspaper, the Novaja Gazeta, almost thirty years ago. Since then, six of its media workers have been murdered, including Anna Anna Politkovskaya, who was known as a critic of the Kremlin's war in Chechnya. The paper is known for its critical view of those in power, and publishes articles about censorship, police brutality, elections fraud and more. The committees statement said "Maria Ressa uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines" and "Dmitry Muratov has for decades defended freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions." The award comes with a gold medal and a cash prize of about $1.14 million. Anthony Bellanger said: The IFJ family sends its most sincere congratulations to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov on receiving this award and being its recipients in their profession. We welcome the Nobel Committee's recognition of the importance of freedom of the press and the role of journalism in the service of democracy and peace, especially at the moment when journalists' rights are under unprecedented threats globally". Journalists and press freedom groups in South East Asia have roundly condemned the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Bill (FICA) recently introduced in the Singapore Parliament. Like so many laws adopted by authoritarian governments in the post-Trump era, FICA is yet another ruling superficially aimed at one purpose while, in reality, potentially wreaking havoc in other areas. Without overstatement, it has been described as a legal monstrosity with totalitarian leanings. At face value, FICA is directed to challenge and disrupt endeavours designed to interfere with Singapores internal politics and civil society. The unstated but obvious target of the Act is the Chinese Communist Party, increasingly notorious for its recent overseas influence activities which are often coercive or underhand and which have been described as becoming more brazen and aggressive. No reasonable person could object to a responsible government arming itself to protect the public interest by enacting laws to push back against acts of foreign interference - especially covert interference. So far so uncontentious. Of course, the task for liberal democracies when confronted by the real threat of foreign interference is to develop balanced legislation that addresses the undesirable foreign influence but which, at the same time, does not curtail legitimate political activity. Criminalising legitimate political activity The FICA bill as presented, however, goes much further than that. Conveniently for the authoritarian inclined Singapore government, it does double duty. On the one hand, it is directed at the discouragement of political inference from an overseas country (eg: China). On the other, it has the potential to criminalise what ordinarily would be regarded as legitimate political activity. So broad are the impugned activities caught by the bill that they arguably extend to catch all manner of human rights defenders, international NGOs, media, journalists organisations and press freedom groups and LGBTIQ groups. So long as the objectionable political activity is undertaken in collaboration with the foreign principal - itself a wide and ill-defined category - it may be caught by FICA. Accordingly, a regional press freedom campaign critical of repressive legislation and calling for the repeal of laws such as FICA and its notorious stablemate, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Ac (POFMA), may expose its proponents to prosecution. Such activities could readily be characterised as foreign interference in Singapores domestic affairs. Singapore Law Watch has warned of the dangers inherent in the law as drafted, noting that even open, non-clandestine "collaboration" between a Singaporean and any ordinary, private foreign citizen to improve any aspect of our laws and public policies constitutes "foreign interference", notwithstanding the absence of any foreign state manipulation or foreign funding. Critics point to a wide range of public policy issues that are currently, or which may in future become, the subject of political debate in Singapore which for entirely legitimate reasons involve collaboration with international expert bodies and, especially, NGOs. These issues could include climate change, trade policy and immigration, rights of guest workers, social issues such as womens and LGBTIQ rights, international taxation and economic policy. Wide discretion to act upon suspicion A weighty and dense document of 127 Clauses [249 pages], the FICA bill has all the appearances of a complex, yet painstakingly crafted law. However, appearances are deceptive. The key sections of this bill do not sketch precise and carefully framed protections designed to minimise the states intrusion. On the contrary, the operative sections invest an extremely wide discretion in the Minister authorising himself, in some cases, to act upon nothing more than his suspicion. His mere suspicion is conclusive - a state of mind which cannot be called into question by any appeal mechanism. While it claims to be inspired by the Australian Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act 2018, it is almost twice the length with a far wider reach and, arguably, raises real threats to ordinary political activities in a way that the Australian law does not. Human rights defenders in Singapore have done a great service in the short time since the Bill was tabled in dissecting and analysing this legal minefield. One of the many key practical concerns is the fate of any Singaporean independent media or NGOs under FICA. Will overseas assistance from NGOs render them subject to the FICA? Would Singaporeans who provide financial support to these organisations also be caught by FICA? Proposals such as this are, unfortunately, all too familiar. The common justification parroted by proponents of such legislation is that they do no more than pick up laws that have been enacted in democratic nations. This law is a case in point since the adoption of the Australian foreign interference legislation has been prominently called in aid to support FICA. A detailed, section by section, comparison of the FICA and the Australian legislation serves only to underscore the serious misgivings of FICAs critics. Masking authoritarianism with fake news statutes The Trumpian remonstrance against fake news was just the opening that authoritarians of all stripes welcomed as cover for their dishonourable politics. With shameless haste, fake news statutes were adopted by the Najib government in Malaysia and of course, in Singapores still contentious POFMA - Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act. Convenient rationalisations to the effect that the law does no more than mimic respectable international counterparts have a long and disreputable history. When the now-notorious Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law was introduced in Indonesia in 2008, by the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, it was represented as a simple but necessary technical tweak to permit the regulation of the (then) new phenomenon e-commerce. It was claimed that in an age of digital communications and free trade, all modern countries needed such a law. In a pre-echo of the current criticism of FICA, Indonesian and regional NGOs and press freedom groups warned that the proposed law, far from merely regulating e-commerce, introduced an extended range of vague and imprecise offences with draconian penalties. All manner of insults including blasphemy were caught by the law. And as proved to be the case, any electronic communication can be caught by the law including personal emails and blogs. These groups were proved right and the governments blandishments, hollow. Critics of FICA also queried the speed with which the bill was being pushed through Singapores Parliament. Notwithstanding these concerns, the bill was enacted into law by the Singapore Parliament on October 5. The Minister for Home Affairs and Law, K. Shanmugam asserted that the legislation was necessary to address a serious threat to national security. In his speech supporting the bill, far from allaying his critics' fears, the Minister seemed to confirm them. His remarks were not directed to FICA offering protection against the propaganda efforts of the CCP, but on that well known international bogeyman of modern authoritarians and the ultra-right - the philanthropist, George Soros. Soros, of course, is the enemy of the modern populist champions of illiberal democracy, most notably Viktor Orban. Prominent critic of the FICA legislation, Kirsten Han, has correctly stated that the approach of authoritarian leaders has been to weaponise terms like foreign interference to discredit both domestic and international critics and curb civil liberties. Minister Shanmugams remarks give us no reason to think otherwise. The FICA legislation is so potentially broad in its impact that - even if not triggered immediately - despite the serious threat claimed by the Minister, it will sit in the background - an ever-present threat to chill criticism of Singapores further authoritarian turn. Jim Nolan is the International Federation of Journalists pro-bono legal counsel for the Asia-Pacific and a regular legal observer on key cases in the region. In the past month, the Philippines government has blocked access for journalists to pandemic coordination channels, while its military is alleged to have coordinated cyber-attacks on two key media outlets. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemn the authorities attacks on independent journalism critical of the countrys handling of the pandemic. On September 27, Michael Aglipay, the chairperson of the house committee on good government and public accountability, abruptly removed Rappler journalist Rambo Talabong from a media coordination channel. Talabong had recently published a story about Aglipay, questioning whether expired Pharmally face shields were responsible for casualties given a surge in Covid-19 infections. Aglipay justified his actions, stating that the Viber channel was a personal group and not an official media channel. However, a NUJP representative told the IFJ that the group chat was intended for journalists covering the committee and the probe on the Philippine governments pandemic response spending. Aglipay also claimed Talabongs reportage was one-sided and did not reference authorities remarks that the shelf life of the face shields was 36 months. Rappler stated that this information was immaterial in the context of the story. NUJP expressed concern that access to information in the publics interest appeared to rest on the governments notion of good journalism. It also follows widespread criticism that the Philippines government has used pandemic controls as a means of curbing dissent. In a separate incident, on September 23, independent news organisations Altermidya and Bulatlat issued a joint statement stating both organisations experienced cyber-attacks, allegedly coordinated by the Philippine army. The statement reported that the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-PH), under the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DOCT), found the attacks originated from an IP address belonging to the Philippine military. Both said the government is yet to reveal the military agency behind the attack despite repeated requests. We condemn the Philippine Army for carrying out cyber-crimes against independent media outfits. We take offence at the duplicity they have shown regarding this incident publicly professing respect for press freedom but launching vicious digital attacks, and never cooperating with other government agencies, said the joint statement. The NUJP said: The NUJP stands firm that no journalist should be singled out and be barred from covering government offices and personalities. We reiterate our call to defend press freedom and stop the attacks against journalists covering the hearings that uncover the anomalies in the government's pandemic spending. The IFJ said: Arbitrarily restricting access to sources restricts vital reporting during a period of uncertainty for the citizens of the Philippines. The IFJ also strongly condemns cyber-attacks against independent news outlets and calls for a full investigation. On September 29, citizen journalist Tran Thi Tuyet Dieus eight-year sentence under Vietnams Penal Code was upheld in the court of appeal in Danang. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the use of the Penal Code to silence critical voices and calls for the immediate release of Tuyet Dieu. Tuyet Dieus appeal was refused in Danangs court, more than a year after her arrest and detainment on August 21, 2020. She was sentenced on April 23, 2021 for breaching article 117 of the Vietnamese penal code, which criminalises creating, storing and disseminating information and materials against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Reports indicate that Tuyet Dieu endured ongoing harassment by police in the years before her arrest. Previously an employee of a state-run newspaper, Tuyet Dieu had managed a Facebook and YouTube account where she published 25 articles and nine videos considered anti-state by authorities. During a search of Tuyet Dieus home, authorities found materials sympathetic to the imprisoned pro-democracy activist Nguyen Viet Dung on her laptop. According to Tuyet Dieus lawyer, Nguyen Kha Thanh, she pleaded innocent at her trial earlier this year. Thanh said that his clients sentence was harsh given she had an otherwise clean record. She did not accept the accusations as the trial failed to find a person harmed by her actions, Thanh said.But the court said her actions caused harm to the nation, a common tactic that allows them to not have to show any specific harmed individuals, he added. Tuyet Dieus communication with her lawyer and relatives was barred for the first three months of her imprisonment. Her original trial was postponed without justification, a change only announced upon her lawyers arrival in court. Article 117 of Vietnams Penal Code is a vaguely defined piece of legislation commonly used to silence criticism of the Vietnamese government. Journalists Pham Chi Thanh and Le Van Dung, both vocal critics of Vietnams single-party system, were sentenced under the article earlier this year. The IFJ said: Vietnams draconian Penal Code is evidently being employed to arbitrarily persecute journalists and media workers, quashing freedom of expression and silencing legitimate reportage. The IFJ urges the Vietnamese government to immediately release Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu and drop all charges against her. NVIDIA today announced that it will host a global, virtual GTC from Nov. 8-11, featuring a news-filled keynote by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and talks from some of the worlds preeminent AI research and industry leaders. Top Speakers for Nov. 8-11 Conference Include Stanfords Fei-Fei Li, Epic Games Tim Sweeney, Apples Samy Bengio, OpenAIs Ilya Sutskever Huangs keynote will be livestreamed on Nov. 9 at 9 a.m. Central European Time/4 p.m. China Standard Time/12 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, with a rebroadcast at 8 a.m. PST for viewers in the Americas. Registration is free and is not required to view the keynote. More than 200,000 developers, innovators, researchers and creators are expected to register for the event, which will focus on deep learning, data science, high performance computing, robotics, data center/networking and graphics. Speakers share the latest breakthroughs that are transforming some of the worlds largest industries, such as healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, retail and finance. Among major speakers at the event are: Anima Anandkumar, director of ML research at NVIDIA and Bren Professor at Caltech Alan Aspuru-Guzik, professor of chemistry and computer science, University of Toronto Alan Bekker, head of conversational AI, Snap Samy Bengio, senior director of AI and ML research, Apple Kay Firth-Butterfield, head of AI and ML, World Economic Forum Axel Gern, CTO, Daimler Trucks Fei-Fei Li, professor of computer science, Stanford University Keith Perry, CIO, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Venkatesh Ramanathan, director of data science, PayPal Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and chief scientist, OpenAI Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO, Epic Games Nir Zuk, founder and CTO, Palo Alto Networks Leaders from hundreds of other organizations will also present, including Amazon, Arm, AstraZeneca, Baidu, BMW, Dominos, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Ford, Google, Kroger, Microsoft, MIT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Red Hat, Rolls-Royce, Salesforce, Samsung, ServiceNow, Snap, Volvo, Walmart and WPP. GTC is a great opportunity for developers and business leaders to learn the latest advances in AI, accelerated computing and computer graphics from the worlds top innovators, scientists and researchers, said Greg Estes, vice president of Developer Programs at NVIDIA. Startups, academia and the largest enterprises all come together at GTC, giving attendees a unique opportunity to share ideas and collaborate across boundaries to create the future. In recent years, GTC has expanded from high performance computing and graphics to include areas such as cloud and enterprise computing, where AI breakthroughs are often deployed. The keynote and other talks provide corporate and IT leaders the latest on how to configure secure, accelerated data centers that support modern workloads including AI, machine learning and natural language processing. Special Content for Startups, New Training Offerings NVIDIA Inception, a startup program with more than 8,500 members, will host a full track at GTC designed to educate, inform and cultivate young companies that are revolutionizing industries. Over 70 startups will be presenting, including prominent company founders and well-known industry partners. Themes and topics include conversational AI, drug discovery, autonomous systems, emerging markets, among other areas. GTC attendees will also be able to build and master their skills with the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute, which offers educational resources for anyone who wants to learn about all things AI. DLI will feature 14 full-day training workshops, ranging from beginner to advanced, in four languages across several time zones. Topics include classic DLI courses like The Fundamentals of Deep Learning, along with new training courses such as Scaling CUDA C++ Applications to Multiple Nodes and Accelerating Data Engineering Pipelines. Workshops are taught by NVIDIA DLI-certified instructors who are experts in their field, delivering industry-leading technical knowledge that drives breakthrough results. Attendees can also earn a certificate of competency to support professional development. Democratizing AI NVIDIA has structured GTC as an open, all-access event available to virtually any community around the world. Sessions and speakers have been curated to inform and inspire developers, researchers, scientists, educators, professionals and students from historically underrepresented groups. Topics such as building better datasets and making AI more inclusive are among areas that will be covered. NVIDIA partners with organizations including LatinX in AI, Tech Career and W.AI in Israel, and Ewha Womans University of Korea to offer complimentary access to DLI workshops for diverse communities. GTC will feature a series of emerging markets sessions focused on addressing business and technical topics in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Speakers from prominent organizations, startups and universities, such as the Kenya AI Center of Excellence, Ethiopian Motion Design and Visual Effects Community, Python Ghana, Nairobi Women in Machine Learning & Data Science, and Chile Inria Research Center, will describe how developers in emerging markets are using AI to address challenges. Learn more about GTC at www.nvidia.com/gtc and register here The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G received positive feedback from tech reviewers worldwide, calling the device near perfect, refined, and the most polished according to CNN US, CNET, and Forbes, among others. With its immersive screen, S Pen capability, reassuring durability, and productivity-enhancing features, who wouldnt be eager to give the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G a try? For those unsure of how to get the best out of foldable devices, take a closer look at the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G, which ticks all the boxes when it comes to productivity and reliability. The Power of S Pen The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G is the first foldable phone in Galaxy to support the S Pen. The intuitive tool allows users to draw or take notes by hand, thus further enhancing productivity. When users press the text conversion button before writing, their handwritten notes automatically convert into typed text. Two types of S Pen are set to be released: the S Pen Fold Edition, which comes with the Flip Cover and can be used exclusively on the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G, and the S Pen Pro, which has built-in Bluetooth and can be used with certain tablets. The cutting-edge features and usability dont stop there. In order to provide the best possible folding smartphone experience, Samsung is constantly working with a range of partners to develop apps that are optimized for the large screen of the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G, such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Office and Google Duo. Do it all with a durable device Not impressed yet? The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G has a water resistance rating of IPx8, which means it can withstand accidental splashes and rain. The unwavering durability gives further peace of mind. The new protective film on the phones main displays, for instance, increase screen durability by 80 percent compared to its predecessor. The device is also built with Armor Aluminum and enhanced Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, which are some of the strongest materials ever used in smartphones. No need to worry much about the phone getting scratched when placed into a small bag with other items. Likewise, feel confident keeping the phone in the pocket with other items to easily have it on hand right away when in need to make calls or take photos. Designed to give a comfortable grip The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G is lighter, thinner, and narrower than its predecessor, giving it a more comfortable grip and better portability, even for those with smaller hands. When folded, the phones horizontal width is 67.1mm, which is a 0.9mm reduction from its predecessor. The fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G is also mounted at the point where the thumb touches the device, which allows for more convenient use of the devices large cover screen. This means users no longer have to place their fingers on the screen to unlock the phone. The top, bottom, and sides of the phone were also designed with bold, clean lines to provide smoother usability. Putting pro in productivity With Multi-Active Window, The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G helps users enhance their multi-tasking skills. This feature allows them to do things like checking their schedules while browsing the internet, and taking down notes, among other things. The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G has added the Task Bar feature to help move quickly and conveniently between apps. Not only does this allow users to launch the app that they use most often without navigating to the home screen, but it also enables them to open their most-used combination of apps all at once. In addition, the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G has a 120Hz refresh rate for both its Main and Cover screens, leading to a smooth experience when scrolling or playing media. When in places where it is more convenient to use the phones Cover Screen, this allows users to comfortably view news articles and other media while enjoying smooth, uninterrupted transitions. Samsung has been breaking barriers to help customers do more. With the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G, unfold more ways to improve efficiency while adding unique and enjoyable experiences to day-to-day life. The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G retails at Php87,990 SRP for 256GB (Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, and online-exclusive Phantom Green) and Php95,990 for the 512GB variant (Phantom Black, Phantom Green, and online-exclusive Phantom Silver). Each purchase of the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G comes with deals worth up to Php 14,400. Customers can enjoy a FREE Flip Cover with S Pen worth Php3,999, 1 year FREE Samsung Care+ valued at Php9,499, and a 25W Travel Adapter priced at Php949. To get bigger discounts, trade-in an old device to get additional Php10,000 worth of tokens for the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G on top of the traded-in device. Starting November 1, customers will also have the option to trade in their device to get discounts worth up to Php15,900, which includes a 1 year FREE Samsung Care+ worth Php9,499, plus tokens worth up to Php6,500 on top of the traded-in device. Due to the overwhelming global demand for the devices, Samsung has enabled a stock alert system on its website in case stocks are not available. Simply visit samsung.com/ph, search for Z Flip3 5G, click on Get Stock Alert and register. Another option is for customers to find the nearest Samsung store through samsung.com/ph/storelocator/, and call using the contact numbers provided to check stock availability. Walk-ins at Samsung Experience Stores are also allowed, provided customers strictly follow health and safety protocols. In-store waitlisting has been activated to notify customers about stock availability in their preferred retail stores. Safe Samsung Shopping Health and safety protocols are strictly followed in Samsung Experience Stores to keep consumers and employees safe. Adhering to the guidelines set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Samsung has limited the number of its customers to 50% capacity, implemented the mandatory use of face masks and face shields, and performs frequent sanitation in all stores. Samsung Experience Stores also has unique QR health declaration codes to promote a safe and contactless contact tracing process. Product demonstrations are done side-by-side instead of face-to-face while keeping the required safe distance of one (1) meter to make sure everyone is socially distanced. To find the nearest Samsung Experience Store, visit samsung.com/ph/samsung-experience-store/locations. Whether someone interrupted seems like it should be simple to figure out. If one person cuts another off mid-sentence, that's an interruption. If they waited their turn to speak, no interruption. But science shows real-life conversations are a lot more complicated than that. Stanford linguist Katherine Hilton, for instance, recorded male and female actors reading the exact same script and then asked others to assess whether the people they heard in the recordings were interrupting. Women were judged far more harshly for their interjections, Hilton found, while men were more often perceived to be simply enthusiastic about the discussion. Clearly, what counts as a rude interruption isn't cut-and-dried. And now a recent online discussion has added another complication to the question. As Georgetown University linguist Deborah Tannen explained in The New York Times, people with different cultural backgrounds also have different styles when it comes to interruptions. Are you a cooperative overlapper or a turn-taker? The discussion of the whole topic was kicked off by a TikTok video from a user, Sari Rachel. In it, she calls herself "an interrupty person" and expresses her joy in discovering that there's a term for her tendency to cut others off near the end of what they're saying to interject excitedly with her own take on what they're saying. As Tannen explains in her book Conversational Style and her article responding to the video, that conversation style is called "cooperative overlapping" and it's common in particular groups, such as some Mediterranean and South Asian cultures and among New Yorkers. The intent of "cooperative overlap" isn't to silence or disrespect your conversation partner. It's to signal your enthusiasm and interest in what they're saying. Which works great when you're talking to someone who shares this conversational style. But when an overlapper meets a person more accustomed to viewing any interruption as rude, misunderstandings often arise. A fact Glitch CEO Anil Dash has experienced personally. He chimed in with a tweet explaining he, too, has struggled with having his well-intentioned enthusiasm misinterpreted as pushiness. "It feels so validating to hear this has a name! I really struggle with talking over people (I understand many experience this very negatively), but it's an incredibly difficult pattern to change because it's literally how I grew up communicating enthusiasm and support," he wrote. Leaders, talk to your teams about conversational styles Just knowing that these two conversation styles exist can help you tune your way of speaking to your audience. Tannen suggests that "if you notice someone has been silent, you might count to seven before beginning to speak again, or invite them to speak. If you've been waiting in vain for a pause, you might push yourself to jump in." But as a CEO, Dash also notes in a blog post following up on his tweet that business leaders can take things a step further and actively discuss this issue with their teams to help avoid unnecessary conflict. "There's not as easy a way to accommodate both overlappers and turn-takers," he concedes, which means the best way for leaders to address this tension is probably "by making explicit that both forms of communication are valuable and that each is the default for different people." That should not only make for smoother, more productive conversations, but should also make your team more welcoming to the broadest possible range of talent. "I think as inclusion efforts move past platitudes and obvious stumbling blocks, much of the harder, trickier, less straightforward work of team-building is going to move to finding ways to talk about, and support, these causes of stress or tension," Dash observes. Since 1963, The Independent has helped create a great community! Since our founding in September of 1963, The Independent has been dedicated to giving Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, and Sunol readers the news they need to be in-the-know about what's going on in the Tri-Valley region. Indiana, PA (15701) Today Cloudy. Some light rain will fall throughout the day. High 46F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight A few clouds. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 28F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. A photo shows a string of terrified text messages a mother received from her son on Wednesday morning during a shooting at his high school in Arlington, Texas. Four people were injured in the shooting, including three who were hospitalized, and the suspect was taken into custody. A screenshot of the texts, obtained by CBS Dallas-Fort Worth, quickly went viral within hours of being posted. "Mom there's a shooting. Mom help," the student texted their mom when the shooting broke out. Texts a mother shared with me from her son, during the shooting at a high school today in Mansfield. Captures the moment well pic.twitter.com/sS6HxpMW9J Jason Allen (@CBS11JasonAllen) October 6, 2021 What had happened? The texts were sent at 9:15 am on Wednesday, around the same time that police responded to a call about a reported shooting on the second floor of Timberview High School. Officials believe the shooting may have happened after two students started fighting in class, and the suspect, 18-year-old Timothy George Simpkins, pulled out a gun. Two victims had been shot and two others were injured. Three of the victims were hospitalized, with at least one requiring surgery. "Mom I'm scared," the woman's son wrote. After she asked if he was safe, he responded, "IDK [I don't know] mom." CBS Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America posted a screenshot of the texts, saying, "No parent should ever receive a text like this; no child should feel the terror of an active shoot in their school." Other heartbreaking texts Several parents told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth they had received similar messages from their children who were at Timberview at the time of the shooting. "She texted me when I was at work and she said, 'Mom, this is not a drill and I love you,'" Kimberly Middleton told the CBS station. "That was a little hard for me this morning." Credit: Joe Raedle Another parent told the affiliate that the situation could have ended "so much differently than what it did." "When you wake up in the morning, you think it's going to be one way and it ends up being a completely different way," Stephanie Wade said. "You never know when it's going to be your last day. So I am very thankful to have my daughter with me." Debate over gun laws The messages from the boy who was stuck inside the school building amid the shooting went viral on social media, triggering a debate over gun laws in the US state. It led to a plethora of reactions online with many criticising the sale of guns in the US state. this will keep happening unless people start using their brain and implement gun control laws. citizens shouldn't be able to just get a gun, owning a gun should be illegal, unless you're properly trained for using one or your job requires you to carry one. Angelos Vlahos (@angelosvlahos) October 7, 2021 Even shooter drills are traumatizing for kids (and adults). This is NOT NORMAL. We are the only country in the world that prefers to prepare for active shooters over just preventing them to begin with. Im so sad for our kids. Jess P. (@Jessnj4554) October 6, 2021 Gun violence is here to stay. It's a tragedy but if you're asking "Should gun hobbyists be inconvenienced so that children can live" the voters have already spoken loudly on this. Helvering Davis (@low_tex) October 6, 2021 Tears in my eyes as I read it. Could imagine my own daughter texting me. I am so sorry for this child and mother. Francine (@francineromary) October 6, 2021 Wednesday's incident marks the latest in a string of U.S. school shootings in 2021. According to EducationWeek, there have been 22 school shootings resulting in injuries or deaths since January 1. Those incidents have resulted in the deaths of six people, including four students, and 31 injured. More than half of the shootings have taken place since the fall term began. For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News. A company in Alberta, Canada was recently busted after they were found to be generating electricity illegally from their own power plant to run their mining PCs. Representational Image: Reuters Also Read: Twitter Allows Bitcoin Tipping, Becomes 1st Social Platform To Embrace Crypto It is already established that cryptocurrency mining is a power-consuming affair that also contributes to massive carbon emissions. However, this is surely taking things to a whole new level. Reported first by Motherboard, the power plant was set up by Vancouver-based data centre and power firm Link Global with an intention to mint Bitcoins. However, they built the power plant without receiving planning permission. And now, Albertas Utilities Commission (AUC) that regulates the electricity and natural gas wants to hit Link Global with a fine of $7.1 Canadian dollars or over Rs 42 crores. AUC said in a statement to Motherboard, The AUC is in the midst of a proceeding to examine complaints it received from landowners related to Link Globals operations. The complaints centred on noise and were related to generating facilities the company installed and operated without meeting Albertas legislative requirements (laws), including obtaining a licence through applying to the AUC. Also Read: Cryptocurrency Claims Market Cap of $2 Trillion After Bitcoin Gains A CBC report further highlighted that Link Global established the operation of four 1.25 MW generators in Sturgeon County last year. They made use of a dormant natural gas well to power the operation. Two such plants were set up without any approvals and one of them even ran for over 426 days. AUC revealed that Link Global set up its operations without intimating the residents of the area. Most of them complained that the noise from the plant would give people sleepless nights. Reuters Also Read: Ether vs Bitcoin: Analysing The Crypto Market For An Indian Investor Stephen Jenkins, CEO of Link Global acknowledged in a statement last week that the company had made some mistakes and his team would provide facts and evidence to show that the disgorgement order by AUC is unwarranted. In a statement to Motherboard, Jenkins stated that the team set up the facility with their understanding of AUC regulations that under 10 MW and self-generation sections. Where they erred were the need to have better consultation, ensuring neighbourhood participation on potential noise impacts. The hearing is scheduled for later this month thatll offer Link Global to clarify its stance and provide an argument against the disgorgement order. Are you excited about cryptocurrency mining or is it all just a smoke show? Let us know in the comments below, and keep reading Indiatimes.com for all your latest science and technology news. Top 5 tech blows of the week: In this weekly newsletter, we present the biggest fails in the world of technology. This week, Facebook made the headlines for multiple reasons. For starters, a whistleblower testimony from a former Facebook employee revealed the inner workings of the company, which has long maintained that protecting user safety is its priority. Not much later, all Facebook-owned services went offline in a historic outage which left users grasping at straws. In non-Facebook news, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained how he worries for people who are heavily dependent on smartphones, suggesting that mindless scrolling is not the goal of smartphone technology. In other Apple news, it was revealed recently that the tech giant made more money in gaming than biggies who manufacture consoles like PS, Xbox and Nintendo. Read the top 5 biggest tech blows of the week below WhatsApp, Instagram And Facebook Suffer Outage Reuters All Facebook-owned services including WhatsApp and Instagram were forced offline briefly on Monday after the company's server update failed itself. The company boasts a centralised system for all its applications, which may have paralysed all the platforms at once. Read the full coverage here Facebook bombshell testimony Facebook A bombshell testimony by former Facebook employee revealed how Facebook paid little to no attention to countries outside the United States in terms of hate speech. Even in the US, the company was unable to effectively filter out misinformation and hate speech. The whistleblower, Frances Haugen urged US government to help out Facebook for she feels that the company is unable to deal with it all on its own. Here are the links to multiple reports: Report 1 here. Report 2 here. Report 3 here. Tim Cook hates mindless scrolling Reuters Apple chief Tim Cook shared his thoughts on how people use smartphones and said that users need to stop mindlessly scrolling through their feeds, which he feels invites negativity into people's lives. We definitely agree. Doomscrolling emboldens companies to keep feeding content to users that keeps them hooked. Read Tim Cook's full take here Apple trumps gaming biggies like Xbox and Playstation Reuters A new report revealed how the California-based Apple raked in more money in gaming than console biggies like Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox. A big shock to console makers, the report shows far Apple's app store ecosystem has penetrated the gaming industry. Read the full report here Facebook's loss was PornHub's win Facebook PornHub recorded a massive surge in its user traffic after Facebook-owned services including WhatsApp and Instagram went offline for a while. The company announced a surge of 10 per cent during FB's outage hours. This means at for each hour Facebook services were offline, the pornography portal earned half a million followers. Read the full report here Biggest loser this week: Facebook, duh! Did you enjoy reading this listicle? Let us know what you feel about technology companies and their regular fails in the comment section below. For more in the world of technology and science, make Indiatimes.com your single stop. We publish Top 5 Big Tech Blows Of The Week every Friday. Al Naslaa may look like nothing more than a massive rock to some, yet it has been a hot debate for days now. What has left people mystified is the way the rock is cut in half. The captivating formation is located far inside the Tayma Oasis in Saudi Arabia, where it has puzzled people, paving way for many conspiracies. The formation features a huge piece of sandstone. What makes the formation so unique? It's split! Twitter/@ArtifactsHub One geologist suggests the split could have been caused by freeze thaw weathering, but not everyone agrees. They say its so precise and so smooth it must be the result of aliens coming to Earth in the distant past and using a giant laser to cut it in two. It's, of course, another theory. The baffling sandstone boulder has not surprisingly, become a popular photo opportunity, along with being a hot topic of debate on the internet. The rock measures 30ft tall and 25ft wide and bears a carving showing whats believed to be a man on a horse. The Al Naslaa Rock Formation, located in Tayma oasis, Saudi Arabia, has a perfect laser-like cut through its center. It's over 4,000 years old and no one knows how it happened pic.twitter.com/zrAkCtLAS6 Museum Archive (@ArtifactsHub) June 13, 2021 But the split down the middle is what everyones really interested in. On Reddit, one user, El_Hombre_Siniestro, said: "Im not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens." "Definitely aliens", agreed another, named Mrkim420. One user speculated that the divide was created when an alien messed with a super laser pointer on some random planet their species found and accidentally cut a rock in half. Shutterstock Unfortunately, theres a more scientific reason for the impressively straight gap. Geologist Cherry Lewis told Daily Mail its a natural phenomenon. Lewis is an honorary research fellow at the University of Bristol and explained: "It [the split] could have formed due to a process called freeze-thaw weathering, which occurs when water gets into a small crack in the rock. As temperatures drop, the water freezes and expands which causes the crack to widen and lengthen." "As the ice melts, water makes its way deeper and deeper into the crack. The process repeats itself over thousands, or even millions, of years until the rock eventually splits. This process, coupled with wind erosion which, in a desert environment, is like sandblasting could also explain why the boulder is standing on its own like that," he added. So, don't get too excited. Definitely not aliens. Woodbridge, VA (22192) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High 73F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Clearing skies after some evening rain. Low 36F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. The real estate market in Tucson remains more than hot, and that goes for homes currently on the market and ones that arent even finished yet. Meritage Homes, a national real estate development company headquartered in Scottsdale, recently announced three new developments in the Tucson area The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by two state police officers accused of failing to protect a woman from a man who went on a deadly rampage, allowing a civil lawsuit to proceed. Troopers were accused of failing to do enough when Brittany Irish reported that her boyfriend kidnapped and sexually assaulted her and later set fire to a barn owned by her parents in July 2015. Her request for police protection was denied. Hours later, the boyfriend killed Irishs boyfriend, 22-year-old Kyle Hewitt, and wounded her mother before proceeding to kill another man and wound two others across several towns in northern Maine. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case on Monday but didnt say why, the Portland Press Herald reported. The courts decision means the troopers will not be protected by the legal concept of qualified immunity. The attorney generals office, which is defending the troopers, declined comment Tuesday on the lawsuit. Irishs attorney didnt immediately return a call seeking comment. The man charged in the crime spree, Anthony Lord, pleaded guilty in 2017 to two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and other charges. Hes serving two life sentences. The lawsuit contends state police triggered the rampage when they called Lords cellphone, tipping him off that Brittany Irish had gone to police, instead of attempting to find or detain him. She said shed warned police that Lord had threatened her if she spoke to authorities. Later, police declined to post an officer outside her parents farmhouse in Benedicta, citing a lack of manpower. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said jurors could conclude that police created the danger, removing the qualified immunity concept that normally protects officers from actions in the line of duty. The defendants apparent utter disregard for police procedure could contribute to a jurys conclusion that the defendants conducted themselves in a manner that was deliberately indifferent to the danger they knowingly created, the court said. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits USA Residents of Brookline, Massachusetts, have approved $11 million to end a years-long legal battle with a firefighter who said he was subjected to racial discrimination while working for the fire department. The settlement with Gerald Alston, who is Black, was approved 186-28 at a Brookline town meeting Tuesday night after three hours of discussion, The Boston Globe reported. The settlement between Alstons attorneys and the Brookline Select Board was reached last month, but needed town meeting approval to be finalized. As Ive noted, this 11-year saga has brought discredit to the town of Brookline, Select Board vice chair Raul Fernandez said. Win or lose, further litigating this matter will reinforce the narrative that Brookline is a racially hostile community. Some town meeting members proposed a lower amount, but board members said $11 million was the lowest Alstons attorneys were willing to accept, and without the settlement the case would have gone to trial. 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. 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. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Claims The former head of a Massachusetts homeless shelter stole about $1.5 million in part by secretly renting properties he owned to the shelter at above-market rates, prosecutors said. Manuel Duran, 69, then falsely certified compliance with state regulations designed to detect such actions, according to a statement from the office of state Attorney General Maura Healey. He faces arraignment Oct. 20 on multiple charges of perjury, larceny and making false statements in corporate books. Duran is the former executive director of Casa Nueva Vida, a publicly funded nonprofit with locations in Boston and Lawrence. It shelters about 150 families at more than a dozen locations. Authorities allege Duran leased four of his privately-owned properties and one owned by a relative to the shelter. He then signed annual disclosure forms under oath that falsely said the organization was not a party to any transaction in which any of its officers, directors, or trustees had a material financial interest, authorities said. The investigation started with an anonymous tip. Durans lawyer, Thomas Dwyer Jr., told The Boston Globe the indictment was a sad day for my client and his family, and pointed out that his client has dedicated his life to rehousing homeless families. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Fraud Abuse Molestation Massachusetts Getsafe, a digital MGA based in Germany, raised another $63 million in funds, with plans to use the added cash to fund its own insurance license by the end of 2021 and accelerate its European expansion. A number of new investors took part, including Abacon Capital, along with existing investors Earlybird and CommerzVentures, and Swiss Re. Germanys Getsafe Raises $30M from Swiss Re, Others; Eyes Becoming Full Carrier The investment world classifies this as an expanded Series B round, bringing the overall total to $93 million. Getsafes initial $30 million Series B became public knowledge back in December 2020. (Editors note: An old version of a Getsafe funding round was accidentally published on Oct. 8. The news on the latest funding round is now published here). Becoming a full-stack carrier will give us the necessary freedom to take unconventional paths and to realize innovations quicker than before, Christian Wiens, the Getsafe CEO & co-founder, said in prepared remarks. Getsafe began offering renters insurance in Germany in late 2017, expanding the product to the UK in 2020. The company launched a car insurance product at the end of last year, and claims to serve 250,000 customers in the Germany and the UK. Getsafes focus is on digitizing the entire insurance process and making it accessible through its smartphone app, through which customers can buy, manage and adapt their policies in just a few seconds. Clients can also file claims on the go. Getsafe said its proprietary infrastructure is geared toward multiple product lines, languages and markets, allowing for a relatively quick market expansion. In 2020, Getsafe applied for its insurance license with German regulators, which will allow it to become a full-stack carrier. Eventually, Getsafe said, it wants to expand across Europe, offering coverage in areas including life insurance. Source: Getsafe This article first was published in Insurance Journals sister publication, Carrier Management. Topics InsurTech Tech Funding Germany India is considering a proposal for foreign investors to own as much as 20% in Life Insurance Corp., according to a person with knowledge of the matter, which would enable them to participate in the nations biggest initial public offering. Under discussion is a plan to amend FDI rules so that investors can pick up the stake without the governments approval under the so-called automatic route, the person said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are private. Government officials are due to meet and discuss the proposal as early as Wednesday afternoon in New Delhi, the person said. Mega IPO Planned for Indias Biggest Insurer India Likely to Block Chinese Investment in IPO of Insurance Giant LIC: Reuters A finance ministry spokesman didnt immediately respond to calls seeking comment. Prime Minister Narendra Modis government is relying on money from the state-run insurers IPO to meet its budget deficit target for the financial year through March 2022 as the pandemic hit tax collections. While FDI of as much as 74% is permitted in most Indian insurers, the rules dont apply to LIC because it is a special entity created by an act of parliament. The Reserve Bank of India defines FDI as purchase of a stake in a listed company thats 10% or larger by an individual or entity based abroad, or any foreign investment in an unlisted firm. So the clearance for FDI in LIC not just allows global funds to participate in the IPO but also opens doors for a significant stake purchase after the listing. The government is seeking a valuation of between 8 trillion rupees and 10 trillion rupees ($134 billion) for LIC, and is considering a stake sale of 5%-10%, which could raise between 400 billion rupees and 1 trillion rupees, Bloomberg had reported earlier. Banks started engaging with investors last month, with a potential listing expected between January and March in 2022. Photograph: A pedestrian walks past the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, May 26, 2021. Photo credit: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics India This edition of International People Moves details appointments at reinsurance broker Lockton Re and two insurers: Atrium Underwriters and MS Amlin Underwriting. A summary of these new hires follows here. Lockton Re Bermuda Appoints Gallagher Res Bousfield as Senior Broker Lockton Re, the global reinsurance business of the worlds largest privately held independent insurance broker, announced that Patrick (Paddy) Bousfield has joined the Bermuda office as a senior broker. Bousfield joins from Gallagher Re (previously Capsicum Re) in New York, where he led the cyber offering as part of Gallagher Res specialty team. He has over 12 years of treaty and facultative experience working in various global re/insurance hubs including Toronto, Sydney, London and New York. Through interactions with clients and markets, weve highlighted the specialty/casualty market as an expanding area for Bermuda. Paddys background and success in cyber and specialty lines is a sign of our commitment to developing these capabilities locally. Paddys strong relationships, entrepreneurial flair and respected expertise is a great fit for our culture, commented Jonathan Davies, CEO of Lockton Re Bermuda. Keith Harrison, international CEO, Lockton Re, said: While Paddy will be based in Bermuda, we operate as global teams in so much of what we do. Paddy will be yet another lynch pin connecting our expertise in London, North America and Bermuda, for our specialty and casualty classes, and no more so than in cyber reinsurance and retrocession. *** Atrium Names Munich Res Cusition as Marine Underwriter Atrium Underwriters, the London-based managing agent for Lloyds Syndicate 609, announced the appointment of Michael Cusition as marine underwriter, reporting to David Sankey, head of Marine. Cusition joins Atrium from Munich Re, where he held the position of underwriter of Marine & Energy Liabilities. Prior to this, he spent four years as assistant underwriter at XL Catlin where he started his underwriting career. Michael has spent the last nine years building a reputation as a quality underwriter, making him a valuable asset to Atriums team and I look forward to working with him closely as we continue to drive profitable expansion across our marine business, said Sankey. Atriums Syndicate 609 is managed by Atrium Underwriters Ltd., a regulated Lloyds managing agency, and part of the Atrium Group. Syndicate 609s capacity for 2021 is 625 million, up from 525 million in 2020. *** MS Amlin Appoints RSAs Forsyth as Lead Class Underwriter for Hull MS Amlin Underwriting Ltd. (MS AUL), the Lloyds global specialty re/insurer, announced the appointment of Stuart Forsyth as lead class underwriter for Hull. He will report directly to Laurence Humberstone, head of Marine. Bringing more than 30 years of experience across underwriting and broking within the marine re/insurance market, Forsyth will take up his new role in mid-October. Forsyth joins from RSA where he served as London Market Hull & Liability leader. He began his career at Willis Faber & Dumas, becoming divisional director in 1996. In 1998, he moved to Sedgwick working within their Hull department specializing in Greek and North American Hull business. During his 12 years as a broker, he gained a significant experience in both direct insurance and reinsurance, before serving as CEO of the Scottish Boatowners Mutual for 16 years. A global re/insurer, MS Amlin is part of the global top-10 insurance group MS&AD, with operations in the Lloyds, UK, Continental European and Bermudian markets. Approximately 1,800 people work for the company in more than 20 locations worldwide. Topics Mississippi A.J. Gallagher Lockton Bermuda The Ohio school boards order requiring a giant, now-defunct online charter school to repay the state $60 million over inflated enrollment figures is final and cannot be appealed, the state Supreme Court ruled. In a 4-3 decision, the court delivered what may be merely a symbolic blow to the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, once one of the countrys largest virtual charter schools, in its years long legal fight against the monetary sanction. The cash-strapped school shut down in January 2018 after the state started recouping money, leaving roughly 12,000 students scrambling for other options mid-school year. Marion Little, the schools attorney, noted that a court-appointed special master is still working to wind down the schools assets, but otherwise declined to comment. Myron Terlecky, the special master, said, It would be very optimistic to recover enough funds to make a substantial distribution on the amount thats owed. Still, the high court ruling settled a long-running legal question, finding that a plain reading of state law making state board decisions final was all that was required. When read in context of the entire statute, it is clear that final is used in its ordinary sense, marking the end of the enrollment-review statutes twostep review process was the way to go, Justice Pat DeWine wrote for the majority. Lawyers for the school contended during oral arguments in March that Ohio law allowed the school to appeal to county court the State Board of Education determination that about $60 million of the state funding it received for the 2015-16 school year was unsubstantiated upon close review of student participation data. Another $19 million was ordered repaid for the following school year. The states attorney disagreed, arguing that the online schools only route for appeal was filing a lawsuit directly with the Ohio Supreme Court. The school had actually already done that, but the high court dismissed that case in 2017 without explaining why. In siding with the state, the court said that final is a word that is easily understood. A parent ends the discussion with his child upon saying, Ive made my decision and my decision is final. A contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire locks in her answer choice only upon affirming that its her final answer,' DeWine wrote. Likely, youre out of luck if you intend to return an item to a store that posted a sign saying: All sales are final. In a dissent joined by Justices Michael P. Donnelly and Melody Stewart, Justice Sharon Kennedy called the majoritys grammatical argument unpersuasive. At issue in this case is whether the word final is synonymous with not appealable, she wrote, arguing that the words legal definition can often mean a proceeding is final in one forum but appealable in another. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Ohio Education K 12 AXA XL Insurance Appoints Takigawa as Head of Commercial E&O, Americas AXA XL Insurance has named Michael Takigawa as the head of Commercial Errors & Omissions for the Americas region. Based in San Francisco and Monterey, Calif, Takigawa will oversee the underwriting strategy and product innovation for AXA XLs Commercial E&O business in the region, which includes Lawyers, Accountants and Miscellaneous Professional Liability. Takigawa joined AXA XL in 2003 and most recently served as the head of Strategic Planning and West regional leader for Design Professional. He began his insurance career in 1996 at Royal Sun & Alliance as a vice president, Operations Executive. Prior to the insurance industry, Takigawa spent a number of years as an equities analyst for an investment and research firm. CoreLogic Appoints Garret Gray to Lead Insurance Claims Operations CoreLogic Names Gray to Lead Insurance Claims Operations Property data and analytics firm CoreLogic announced the appointment of Garret Gray, founder and CEO of recently-acquired Next Gear Solutions, to lead the companys combined claims operations. Collectively, CoreLogic last month closed on its acquisition of Next Gear Solutions, a digital workflow platform for the property restoration industry. Next Gear Solutions, headquartered in Oxford, Miss., offers a cloud-based suite of products, including DASH, SettleAssist and MICA, that facilitate collaboration among property insurers and contractors. The combination of an integrated and unified Next Gear and CoreLogic under one roof is step one in the leap forward in claims handling technology that we announced with the acquisition news last month. I couldnt be more excited about this new role, said Gray. Bredahl Now CEO at TigerRisk, Fox Is Executive Chairman, Ronda Is President TigerRisk Partners LLC reported that Rob Bredahl has become chief executive officer, while current CEO Rod Fox has taken on the role of executive chairman. Aons Tim Ronda will join TigerRisk starting October 14, when he will be named president. Bredahl, who was formerly president, joined TigerRisk in 2019, with plan for him to succeeding Fox as CEO. Bredahl and Fox have known each other for more than 40 years, and worked together at E.W. Blanch, Benfield and then TigerRisk. Prior to joining TigerRisk in 2019, Bredahl was the president and CEO of Third Point Reinsurance Ltd. During his tenure at Third Point Re between 2012 and 2019, he served in various senior roles including chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Prior to joining Third Point Re, Bredahl was the CEO of Aon Benfield Securities, Aons Investment Banking Group, and the president of the Americas division of Aon Benfield from November 2008 to January 2012. Prior to Aons acquisition of Benfield in November 2008, he held various senior level positions at Benfield. Prior to founding TigerRisk, Fox served as the CEO of Praetorian Financial Group where he led the re-structuring, re-branding, and sale of the $2 billion specialty property/casualty insurer to QBE the Americas. Fox was the founder and CEO of Benfield Groups U.S. reinsurance platform where he oversaw the profitable growth of the business while delivering industry leading trading margins. He has been involved in numerous industry transactions, including first Florida JUA depopulation, a restructuring of Allstate Groups catastrophe exposure, and the formation of Montpelier Re. Fox started his career at E.W. Blanch Co., a privately held reinsurance intermediary, and was involved in its initial public offering and held various positions including president and chief operating officer. Headquartered in Stamford, Conn., TigerRisk has offices in Stamford, New York, Bermuda, London, Hong Kong, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Raleigh. Hill Named President of Digital Partners, North America Digital Partners, a Munich Re company, announced the appointment of Courtney Hill as president, North America. Hill will report to Mike Kerner, chief executive officer, Munich Re Specialty Insurance. Hill joined Digital Partners in November 2018 as director of Commercial Lines Product. Prior to joining Digital Partners, Hill worked for three other large insurance carriers in various capacities, including field underwriter, product analyst, and product manager, for both personal and commercial lines of business. Digital Partners provides digital brands with the tools they need to develop innovative insurance experiences. Digital Partners offers entirely digital, comprehensive go-to market solutions that include insurance capacity, product expertise, and data analytics. Digital Partners provides insurtechs and digital distributors with customer engagement, technology, and brand support including insurance capacity, product expertise and data analytics, technology. Topics Claims AXA XL Seven insurers that shared the risk for directors and officers policies sold to Towers Watson may have to pay up to $80 million for settlements with shareholders who cried foul after learning that the brokerages 2016 merger with Willis included a $165 million payout to its chief executive. A federal judge in Alexandria, Va. ruled Tuesday that a so-called bump-up exclusion in the policies does not bar coverage. He ordered partial summary judgment in favor of Towers Watson on that point. The Cohen Ziffer law firm, which represented Towers Watson, called the decision a major victory for policyholders in a press release but declined further comment. Bump-up provisions, which are routinely included in D&O policies, exclude coverage for any payment that can be characterized as an increase in the purchase price of a company. U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga ruled that the exclusion did not apply to settlement of the shareholder lawsuits because Towers Watson merged with Willis; it did not acquire the company. Trenga, with the Eastern District of Virginia, noted in his order that Towers Watson cancelled its common stock and issued new shares to Willis when it merged into a Willis subsidiary and disappeared. Under these circumstances, the merger was hardly comparable to the straightforward takeover of one company by another suggested by the bump-up exclusion and therefore is reasonably viewed as something other than the acquisition referenced in the bump-up exclusion, the order says. Trenga ordered the parties to advise the court of whatever issues remain in the dispute within 14 days. Towers Watson filed a D&O claim after two sets of shareholders filed separate lawsuits in Delaware and Virginia claiming that they were shortchanged by the merger of the company with Willis. Shareholders approved the deal in December, 2015 and Willis and Towers Watson completed their merger on January 4, 2016, A class of plaintiffs led by regents for the University of California alleged in 2018 lawsuit that the Towers Watson violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules by, among other things, failing to disclose to shareholders or the board of directors that Willis had privately negotiated a compensation package with Towers Watson CEO John Haley that would pay him $165 million over three years. The complaint says Haley sold 55% of his stockholdings in Towers Watson for about $14 million on March 2, 2015, before announcing the proposed merger. When the deal was announced on June 30, 2015, Towers Watson shares dropped 8.8%. Following the issuance of the proxy, investor and analyst backlash continued, as the market reiterated the view that Towers shareholders were not getting fair value for their shares, the suit says. The lawsuit filed in Delaware alleges similar facts and accuses Haley and others involved in the deal of fleecing stockholders. Attorneys for Towers Watson, which now exists as a subsidiary of Willis, agreed to settle with the Virginia plaintiffs for $75 million and with the Delaware plaintiffs for $15 million. It filed a D&O claim with the primary carrier, National Union Fire Insurance Co., seeking the $80 million coverage limit of its insurance tower. The insurers argued that the settlement agreement effectively increased the purchase price, so coverage was excluded by the bump-up provision. Judge Trenga disagreed. The judges order says the merger of the two companies does not meet the dictionary definition of an acquisition. He also found no merit in the defendants argument that the transaction was structured as an acquisition even though the two companies called it a merger. He said Towers Watson shareholders received shares that equal to 49.9% of the newly constituted Willis. Trenga also pointed out that Delaware law recognizes a merger as a distinct type of business combination. About the photo: The Lloyds Building and Willis Towers Watson Building in the financial district of London are shown. Photo by Bigstock Topics Lawsuits Mergers Carriers The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on a proposal for a waiver system for hog plants forced by a federal court to slow processing lines, Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday. Waivers to allow plants to speed up processing lines again could renew concerns about worker safety but boost profits for pork companies and farmers. Vilsack did not specify exactly what the waivers would do. A federal judge in March ruled against a Trump administration rule that allowed pork plants to run slaughter lines without speed limits, as long as they prevented fecal contamination and minimize bacteria. A lawsuit brought against USDA by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union had challenged the 2019 rule over worker safety concerns. The USDA did not appeal the ruling under the Biden Administration. However, the agency is now focused on finding ways to allow adequate processing but to do so without sacrificing workers safety and health, Vilsack said at a Congressional hearing. He said USDA is working with the pork industry and workers representatives. Seaboard Foods, the second-biggest U.S. pig producer, sped up its Guymon, Oklahoma, pork plant last year, becoming the first company to operate under the 2019 rule. Workers told Reuters the faster line speeds increased injuries at the plant. Prior to the rule change, six other U.S. pork plants had surpassed previous speed limits with special USDA permission, according to agency documents. One plant, Quality Pork Processors in Minnesota, generated a proposal that USDA could use to create the structure for new waivers for facilities that slowed down, Vilsack said. The USDA has said it wants to review waiver criteria to get the line speeds back up and running in talks with the pork industry, U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota, whose district includes Quality Pork Processors, said at the hearing. The USDA did not respond to a request for details, and Quality Pork Processors did not respond to requests for comment. (Reporting by Tom Polansek; editing by Diane Craft) Topics Agribusiness An 18-year-old student opened fire during a fight at his Dallas-area high school on Oct. 6, injuring four people and then fleeing before being taken into custody hours later, authorities said. Timothy George Simpkins was taken into custody without incident and charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault with a gun, the Arlington Police Department tweeted. One person was in critical condition, another was in good condition and a third person was treated for minor abrasions and was scheduled to be released from the hospital the same day, police said. A fourth person was hurt but did not require treatment at a hospital. Police said earlier that three of the four injured were students. The shooting at Timberview High School, which is in Arlington but belongs to the school district in neighboring Mansfield, stemmed from a fight that broke out in a classroom, Arlington Assistant Police Chief Kevin Kolbye said at news conference before Simpkins arrest. This is not a random act of violence, he said. This is not somebody attacking our school. Timberview serves about 1,900 students in the ninth through 12th grades. The sprawling complex opened in 2004. After news of the shooting spread, parents gathered at the Mansfield Independent School District Center for the Performing Arts about 5 miles from the high school to be reunified with their kids, who were bused over. Among them was Justin Rockhold, whose ninth-grade son had texted him to let him know he was OK. Rockhold said he has served in the military and he drew on that experience to instruct his son, telling him to keep his head down and be still to stay safe. When asked whether he had thought a could happen at the school, he said his military training is also a reminder of lifes dangerous realities. Obviously in America in the world we live in today its always something. Its in the back of your mind, Rockhold said, adding that he was praying for the injured. Im just blessed today that my kids safe. The shooting happened just days after a shooting at a Houston charter school that injured an administrator. Texas deadliest school shooting occurred in May of 2018 when a then-17-year-old armed with a shotgun and a pistol opened fire at Santa Fe High School near Houston, killing 10 people, most of whom were students. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Texas K 12 A small number of employees of Louisianas largest health system are suing to block a requirement that they get the COVID-19 vaccine in order to keep their jobs. The lawsuits filed in Louisiana state district courts challenge Ochsner Healths mandate that all employees get vaccinated by Oct. 29. We are aware of yesterdays filing and are unable to provide further comment about ongoing litigation, said Chuck Daigle, chief executive officer of Ochsner LSU Health. We stand firmly behind the science and data that demonstrates the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination. We know that COVID-19 vaccination dramatically reduces transmission, severity of symptoms, hospitalizations, and death. On Friday, the system added another reason to get the shots: Because COVID hospitalizations are so expensive and most hospitalized patients havent been vaccinated, unvaccinated spouses and domestic partners on Ochsners health insurance plan will be charged an extra $200 a month. This threat has produced the opposite of its intended result; people are becoming angry at the bullying, Jimmy Faircloth, the lawyer representing the employees who are suing, said in a news release. Every day we receive more calls and emails from employees around the state who are being forced to decide between taking medicine they do not want and feeding their families, Faircloth said. Its an unlawful forced choice; not a free choice. Companies around the country have had high compliance with vaccine mandates. The vast majority of Ochsners 32,000 employees across Louisiana and in a small part of Mississippi, including more than 1,600 physicians, are already vaccinated. By Sept. 6, Ochsner Health President and CEO Warner Thomas said, more than 86% of all employees were fully vaccinated and 90% had received their first shot. We have taken care of approximately 30% of Louisianas hospitalized COVID-19 patients representing nearly 20,000 lives. he said. This policy will reduce severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. The Caddo Parish suit named 39 employees as plaintiffs; nine employees were listed as plaintiffs in Ouachita Parish. Louisianas constitution and laws guarantee citizens a right to decide their medical treatments, and courts have upheld that right, the lawsuits said. They also claim COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent disease transmission. Studies from around the world have shown that fully vaccinated people are less likely to catch and therefore transmit the virus than the unvaccinated. And the shots are very effective at keeping fully vaccinated people who do catch the virus from being hospitalized or dying. People who are not fully vaccinated make up 80% of Louisianas current COVID-19 hospitalizations and 85% of cases from Sept. 23-29, according to the state Department of Health. In Baton Rouge, Gov. John Bel Edwards received his Pfizer vaccine booster shot and a flu shot during a public event at a hospital. Though Edwards is 55, his office said he was receiving a booster shot because he holds a high risk job. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend a booster shot for people 65 and older and people 18 and older who have certain medical conditions or who work in settings that put them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Louisiana Medical Professional Liability Hub International Ltd. acquired the assets of Verity Insurance Services Inc. and Bellehaven Management Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Located in Covina, Calif., Verity Insurance is an independent insurance broker providing commercial insurance and health benefits. Verity Insurance also specializes in the consumer electronics and manufacturing industries. Herman Auyang and Helen Chang, co-owners, and the Verity Insurance team will join Hub California. Chicago, Ill.-based Hub is an insurance broker and financial services firm providing risk management, insurance, employee benefits, retirement and wealth management products and services. Topics Mergers California U.S. Coast Guard investigators have boarded a massive cargo ship as they probe what caused the rupture of an offshore oil pipeline that sent crude washing up on Southern California beaches. The Coast Guard is investigating whether a ship anchor might have snagged and bent the pipeline owned by Amplify Energy, a Houston-based company that operates three offshore oil platforms south of Los Angeles. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Rotterdam Express appeared to make a series of unusual movements while anchored in the closest spot to where the break in the pipeline happened, according to data collected by a marine navigation service. AP reviewed more than two weeks of data from MarineTraffic, a navigation service that tracks radio signals from transponders that broadcast the locations of ships and large boats every few minutes. MarineTraffic spokesman Fotini Tseroni said in an email early Thursday that the questionable movements indicated for the Rotterdam Express on its website may have resulted from errors involving the ships GPS system, rather than showing the ships actual position. The company said it was removing the jumps in position to show that the ship stayed within its anchorage. The Rotterdam Express, a German-flagged ship nearly 1,000 feet long, was assigned to anchorage SF-3, the closest to where the pipeline ruptured off Huntington Beach. Hapag-Lloyd, the shipping company that operates the Rotterdam Express, confirmed Thursday that investigators boarded the ship Wednesday while it was docked at the Port of Oakland. The company has said it played no role in the oil spill. We are fully cooperating with the authorities at this moment, said Nils Haupt, a spokesman at Hapag-Lloyds headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. A U.S. official told the AP on Wednesday that the Rotterdam Express has become a focus of the spill investigation. The official cautioned the ship is only one lead being pursued in the investigation, which is in the early stages. The investigators are seeking to collect tracking and navigational information from the vessel that could help them identify its exact movements, the official said. They are also seeking preliminary interviews with at least some crew members. The official could not discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier, a Coast Guard spokesperson, declined to comment on the Rotterdam Express Wednesday but said the agency is analyzing electric charting systems from its vessel traffic service to see what ships were anchored or moving over the spill area. The MarineTraffic data reviewed by AP showed the Rotterdam Express arrived outside the Port of Long Beach early on Sept. 22 and dropped anchor about 2,000 feet from the pipeline. It then showed the ships position changing dramatically on three occasions in the following days, making it appear the ship had drifted over the pipeline. The ships location data, which works through a global network called the Automatic Identification System, is supposed to be accurate and reliable within a few feet. The first report of oil in the water near the pipeline were made the evening of Friday, Oct. 1. Amplify said the pipeline was shut down early Saturday morning but has not said how long it believes oil flowed from it. Amplifys CEO Martyn Willsher said Tuesday divers determined a 4,000-feet section of the pipeline was dislodged 105 feet, bent back like the string on a bow. Oil escaped through a slender crack. The amount is unclear. Amplify has said publicly that no more than 126,000 gallons leaked but told federal investigators it may be only 29,400 gallons. AP first contacted Hapag-Lloyd on Tuesday evening, seeking an explanation for the ships movements on Sept. 22 and 23. On Wednesday, Nils denied that the ship ever moved off anchor from spot SF-3 during that period. He said the transponder data displayed by MarineTraffic is erroneous. We have proof by the logbook, which is updated hourly, that the vessel did not move, Haupt said. MarineTraffic in this case is wrong and the position is indeed incorrect. AP sent an email Wednesday morning to the Unified Command Joint Information?Center for state and federal agencies responding to the oil spill, seeking comment about the movements made by the Rotterdam Express prior to the spill. Senior Chief Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen said the command was unable to discuss matters involving an ongoing investigation. If a ships anchor were to become entangled with an underwater obstacle such as a communications cable or petroleum pipeline, the operator is required by federal law to notify the Coast Guard. The locations and movements of ships are also regularly monitored by both the AIS system and radar, according to the Coast Guard. According to MarineTraffic data, the ship left Long Beach on Monday for Oakland. It was still moored there Thursday morning, despite being scheduled to depart Wednesday night. Associated Press writer Michael Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Related: Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California Energy Oil Gas Taoiseach Micheal Martin will meet with Northern Irelands political leaders during a visit to Belfast on Friday. Mr Martin will visit the city for a programme of events as well as discussing the latest political developments. The Taoiseach will speak at an all-island business event jointly hosted by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Chambers Ireland. The event will explore the all-island and global challenge of climate change in advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November. First Minister Paul Givan and Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill will meet the Taoiseach during his visit to Belfast (David Young/PA) First Minister Paul Givan and deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill will also attend. Mr Martin will then visit and meet participants in Womens Tec, an initiative in north Belfast which helps women to train in non-traditional sectors and trades. He will travel to Queens University where he will visit the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research and meet the president and researchers involved in all-island research co-operation. He will also meet with a group of students from the university. Mr Martin also meet the leaders of the main political parties for discussions on current political developments. He is expected to brief them on the 3.5 billion euro budget for cross-border investment announced this week with the publication of the Irish governments National Development Plan. Burma Indian Arms Exporter Ships Air-Defense Weapons to Myanmars Junta Indian diplomats attended Myanmars Armed Forces Day on March 27, after the February coup. / India Today Indian arms manufacturer Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) exported a remote-controlled, air-defense station to Myanmar in July, said Justice for Myanmar (JFM), an activist group that monitors the militarys businesses. The shipment was made through Mega Hill General Trading Co based in Myanmar, said JFM, citing Panjiva, a global trade data company based in New York. According to Panjiva, the shipment included a gun mount and an optical device. The BEL has made multiple shipments to Myanmars military for a coastal surveillance system since the Feb. 1 coup. The listed value for the air-defense shipment is over US$600,000 (1.2 billion kyats) and was probably purchased as a test run, potentially leading to a larger future purchase. The shipment was made with full knowledge that the item can aid and abet the militarys ongoing atrocities, JFM reported. In June, India abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a ban on arms sales to Myanmar. BELs majority shareholder is the Indian government, which holds a stake of over 51 percent. Its biggest international shareholders include the Indian subsidiary of the Nippon Life Insurance Company with holdings worth $250 million and Goldman Sachs Asset Management with $235 million, according to company listings. The JFM said BEL has not responded to questions on its ongoing arms supplies to Myanmars military. BELs July shipment was sent to Mega Hill which has a history of procuring technology and providing services to the militarys Directorate of Procurement, according to JFM. According to leaked documents and the companys website, Mega Hill has procured or attempted to procure items for Myanmars navy. You may also like these stories: European Parliament Throws Support Behind Myanmars Shadow Government Myanmar Junta Court Sentences Ousted Rakhine State Chief Minister to Prison Tanintharyi Villagers Flee Fighting Between Resistance and Myanmar Junta Burma Junta Deploys Thousands of Reinforcements to Upper Myanmar For Clearance Operations Junta troops deploying in Yangon after the February 1 coup. / The Irrawaddy The Myanmar military has deployed at least four battalions of reinforcements around 3,000 soldiers to the countrys most restive regions to conduct clearance operations against civilian resistance forces, according to local civilian armed groups and a source close to the military. In addition, one of the juntas most notorious commanders Lieutenant General Than Hlaing, the chief of the Myanmar Police and the regimes Deputy Home Affairs Minister has also been assigned to the militarys North West Command based in Monywa, Sagaing Region. Sagaing, along with neighboring Magwe Region and Chin State, is where junta forces are facing the fiercest opposition from civilian resistance forces. Lt-Gen Than Hlaing, along with another Lieutenant General, will lead the militarys operations against local Peoples Defense Forces (PDF), a former army captain, who defected from the military after the February 1 coup, told The Irrawaddy. Brigadier General Phyo Thant, the former commander of North West Command, was reportedly detained by the military regime earlier this week, after his plan to defect and take refuge in an area controlled by an ethnic armed group was exposed, according to a source close to the military. Rumors are already circulating that the Brig-Gen was tortured to death during his interrogation. The new mission comes after the equivalent of two infantry battalions of junta soldiers have been killed in Sagaing, Magwe and Chin State in the last four months alone. Between June and September, 1,512 regime troops died in fighting with civilian resistance forces in those areas, according to Myanmars parallel National Unity Government. Lt-Gen Than Hlaing has earned notoriety for commanding lethal crackdowns against peaceful anti-coup protesters and striking civil servants. One of his victims was his own brother. Lt-Gen Than Hlaings younger brother Ko Soe Moe Hlaing, a veteran pro-democracy activist, was tortured to death in May while in military custody in Bago Region. An estimated 1,000 junta reinforcements were deployed last week to Shwe Taung Oo, a residential area for former military personnel located near Monywa, a leader of the Kani-PDF told The Irrawaddy. Another 100 junta troops deployed four days ago at a monastery near the border with Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region. Residents from nearby villages have fled their homes out of fear at the presence of regime troops. The soldiers are believed to be preparing to raid Kani Township, added the Kani-PDF leader. We have already planned for potential fierce fighting with the regime. We youths are prepared to die in battle as we cant live under military dictatorship anymore, the Kani-PDF fighter told The Irrawaddy on Friday. Although there have been no clashes in recent days, junta forces are still raiding throughout Sagaing and Magwe. On Friday morning, 100 regime troops searching the forest in Magwes Gangaw Township for resistance fighters opened fire randomly, a leader of the Yaw Defense Force (YDF) told The Irrawaddy. Some 500 junta reinforcements have deployed to Gangaw and hundreds of them are searching villages in the north of the township for PDFs. Helicopters are reportedly supplying them with heavy weapons and ammunition. On Thursday, junta troops used 15 detained villagers as human shields while marching through the north of Gangaw Township, a result of regime soldiers being ambushed with landmines so often. Over 40 soldiers were killed on Tuesday, and 30 injured and five vehicles and an armored car damaged, when the YDF ambushed a military convoy of 50 vehicles travelling from Monywa via the Pale-Gangaw Highway. A video shows the convoy being attacked with landmines detonated by YDF fighters. We will respond as best we can if they [junta forces] raid us, said the leader of the YDF. Kale-PDF claimed to have killed 12 junta soldiers with landmines on Thursday in two ambushes targeting a regime convoy travelling on the Kale-Gangaw Highway in Sagaing Region. On Monday, the Pale-PDF ambushed a military convoy of more than 80 vehicles, including armored cars, carrying junta reinforcements from Monywa to Pale Township in Sagaing Region. Some 500 regime reinforcements have also arrived in Pinlebu Township, Sagaing Region since late September, after junta forces suffered almost 40 casualties in two intense firefights with the local PDF. Around 300 troops have been deployed in rural areas of the township and over 9,000 residents of 10 villages have fled their homes due to junta raids, the spokesperson of the Pinlebu-PDF told The Irrawaddy on Friday. The Pinlebu-PDF said it is concerned about the prospect of villagers being caught in the crossfire in clashes between civilian resistance fighters and junta forces. Internet and mobile phone services have been blocked by the regime since the second week of September in most townships in the areas where PDFs are most active. Junta forces have used heavy explosives, jet fighters and helicopters in the clashes with civilian resistance fighters, as well as burning down villages and bombarding the residential areas of towns. You may also like these stories: Indian Arms Exporter Ships Air-Defense Weapons to Myanmars Junta European Parliament Throws Support Behind Myanmars Shadow Government Myanmar Junta Court Sentences Ousted Rakhine State Chief Minister to Prison Burma Local Myanmar Officials Quit in Droves Following Threats From Anti-Junta Groups Thousands of people take to the streets in Sagaing Region's Ye-U Township on March 20 to protest against the military coup. / CJ Over 100 local administrators in Sagaing, Magwe and Yangon regions have quit working for the military regime in recent weeks, fearing for their lives and the safety of their families amid clashes between Myanmars military and civilian resistance fighters. The resignations follow a spike in attacks, many causing casualties, on junta forces by Peoples Defense Force (PDF) groups across the country since the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) declared the start of a peoples defensive war on the regime on Sept. 7. Since late March, administration offices in villages, wards and townships have been torched and bombed by civilian resistance groups to prevent the regime from governing the country. These local offices are the primary elements of the government administrative system in Myanmar. Junta-appointed ward and village administrators and informants have also been stabbed to death or shot dead at point-blank range for collaborating with the regime. Twenty ward and village administrators in Yangons Kayan Township filed their resignations after the local PDF formed by civilian resistance fighters warned them on Sunday to quit their posts within 15 days. If they failed to do so, they would be regarded as dalan (military informants), the Kayan PDF warned. All 13 ward administrators and seven of 56 village administrators resigned. Another village administrator in Kayan Township resigned from his post on Thursday. In Yesagyo Township of Magwe Region, meanwhile, all eight ward administrators resigned and around 40 village administrators also quit after the local PDF warned them to leave their jobs by Sept. 30 or risk being killed. On Oct. 1, the Yesagyo PDF shot dead a regime-appointed village administrator after he announced to the village over a loudspeaker that he didnt care what anyone said and would continue in his post. In Yenangyaung Township of Magwe Region, all members of the local administration in Ywar Thit Ward reportedly resigned after their head administrator was gunned down by a guerrilla group. U Maung Ko was shot on the morning of Oct. 4 while entering a tea shop. He was admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds. In the resistance stronghold of Sagaing, over 40 ward and village administrators in Katha and Htigyaing townships quit working for the regime in a single day on Monday. On Tuesday, a ward administrator in Katha Township and a 100-household administrator in a village in Htigyaing Township also sought to resign from their posts, saying they could no longer perform their duties as they were in poor health. The PDFs in Katha and Htigyaing townships have both also warned administrators to stop working for the regime. The Htigyaing PDF announced it had killed 20 military informants. The commander of the Pale Township PDF in Sagaing Region told The Irrawaddy that the mass resignations from the backbone of the regimes administrative mechanism were a sign that the peoples movement against the regime was making progress. However they attempt to assert control, the resignations of the administrators at the local level have surely weakened the administrative mechanism, he added. Almost all ward and village administrators in Pale Township have resigned since July. Khant Wai Phyo, a protest leader in Monywa, Sagaing Region, shared the view that the collective resignations show the regimes mechanism is gradually collapsing. He added that he hoped the resistance groups would continue to push the remaining administrators at the township level to follow in the footsteps of their ward and village-level counterparts and quit their posts. Following the coup, the ward and village administrators who had been directly elected by residents under the ousted civilian government were replaced with regime-appointed officials as the junta sought to shore up control of the local administrative mechanism and revive neighborhood surveillance networks. The regime-appointed administrators worked as military informants, providing the regime with information on its opponents to help with arrests and raids, and in several cases, leaving accused civilians dead. They also forced residents to register any overnight guests staying in their homes in a move designed to make it harder for opponents of the regime to evade arrest. You may also like these stories: Myanmar to Receive Over 6 Million COVID Vaccine Doses Through GAVI Alliance Myanmar Rice Farmers Face Losses as Junta Sets Minimum Price Too Low Myanmar Junta Launches New Coastguard Burma Myanmar Junta Court Sentences Ousted Rakhine State Chief Minister to Prison U Nyi Pu speaking at the Rakhine State Parliament. Ousted Rakhine State Chief Minister U Nyi Pu was sentenced to two years in prison with labor for sedition on Friday. The Sittwe Township Court in the Rakhine capital Sittwe delivered its verdict via videoconferencing, said U Nyi Pus lawyer U Myo Myat Hein of the Thazin Legal Institute. I have yet to meet my client to ask him if wants to appeal against the ruling. If he wants to appeal, I will do so, U Myo Myat Hein told The Irrawaddy. U Nyi Pu was charged with sedition under the Penal Code soon after the juntas February 1 coup, along with other senior NLD leaders, following the release of a February 13 NLD statement condemning the military takeover. In September, two NLD leaders in Rakhines Taungup Township ousted Rakhine State Municipal Affairs Minister U Min Aung and U Thant Zin Phyo were sentenced to two years and two months in prison under the Natural Disaster Management Law and Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law for organizing anti-coup protests. The military regime has also fielded corruption charges against five former ministers of the Rakhine State government, including U Nyi Pu and U Min Aung. Both men will face those charges while already in jail. U Nyi Pu was detained in Gwa Township on February 1. He was released the following day and placed under house arrest. He was detained again nine days later and subsequently charged with sedition. His daughter, Daw Moe San Suu Kyi, who is the head of the NLDs central youth committee, was detained by junta troops in Yangon in May. Three other NLD members, including the vice-chairman of the Rakhine NLD U Soe Lay, were also arrested in Yangon in May. You may also like these stories: Tanintharyi Villagers Flee Fighting Between Resistance and Myanmar Junta Local Myanmar Officials Quit in Droves Following Threats From Anti-Junta Groups Myanmar to Receive Over 6 Million COVID Vaccine Doses Through GAVI Alliance Burma Myanmar Junta Suffers Bloodiest Month with 1,562 Soldiers Killed: NUG Junta forces during a crackdown on protesters on March 18 in Hlaing Township, Yangon. / The Irrawaddy Myanmars military regime has suffered its heaviest losses in a month since the Feb. 1 coup with over 1,500 soldiers killed as fighting mounts after the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) declared war on Sept 7. NUGs Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration reported that 1,562 soldiers were killed and 552 wounded more than double Augusts death toll in attacks by ethnic armed groups and civilian resistance fighters between Sept 7 and Oct 6. The civilian ministry stated that 953 attacks were made on military and administrative targets and military-owned businesses. Yangon reported the highest number of explosions with 178, followed by Mandalay with 81. Sagaing Region topped the list for violent clashes with 81, followed by Magwe Region, Kachin State and Kayah State with 32, 30 and 22 clashes respectively, according to the report. Since late March, people have taken up weapons, including slingshots, homemade air-guns and firearms, to resist the junta in response to the killing of peaceful, anti-regime protesters across the country. Resistance forces step up operations against the regime after the NUG declared war against the regime on Sept 7. The military regimes spokesman, Major General Zaw Min Tun, admitted that attacks on junta personnel increased in Yangon and Mandalay after the NUGs announcement. On Oct 3, around 100 junta soldiers were killed in 37 attacks, including firefights with junta troops, ambushes on military convoys and raids on security outposts and military-owned businesses. In June and July, around 1,130 soldiers were killed and in August, around 580 soldiers were killed, according to the NUG. The junta forces have also escalated inspections, arrests, raids and violence, including burning down and bombarding residential areas, especially in the resistance strongholds of Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin and Kayah states. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors arrests and killings by junta forces, at least 1,160 people have been killed and more than 8,800 arrested since the coup. You may also like these stories: Junta Deploys Thousands of Reinforcements to Upper Myanmar For Clearance Operations Indian Arms Exporter Ships Air-Defense Weapons to Myanmars Junta European Parliament Throws Support Behind Myanmars Shadow Government Burma Tanintharyi Villagers Flee Fighting Between Resistance and Myanmar Junta A house torched by junta troops in Wankaphaw village in Taung Pyauk. / CJ Nearly 1,000 villagers in Thayetchaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, have been displaced by fighting between civilian resistance fighters and junta troops, said Dawna Tanintharyi, a humanitarian group helping those left homeless. Clashes broke out after junta troops raided villages in Taung Pyauk to the east of the Dawei-Myeik road in Dawei District on Sept. 28, detaining civilians and torching houses. Nearly 1,000 villagers have fled their homes since the raids. The numbers will increase if the clashes continue. As there are still no camps they have to cope with what they have. We are consulting to set up camps, said a Dawna member. Daung Min, a resistance group, confronted regime troops following the raids. It said it clashed with junta troops four times since late September. People lack food and medicine and junta troops are tightly controlling the roads, making it difficult to supply those displaced. They said their food will barely last a week. We have difficulties transporting food to them. They also need medicine, said the Dawna member. More people will be displaced and the problems will increase if clashes continue. [The PDFs and junta troops] should stop fighting until the civilians have escaped. Those displaced need aid and they cannot receive any supplies, said a resident. You may also like these stories: Local Myanmar Officials Quit in Droves Following Threats From Anti-Junta Groups Myanmar to Receive Over 6 Million COVID Vaccine Doses Through GAVI Alliance Myanmar Rice Farmers Face Losses as Junta Sets Minimum Price Too Low News European Parliament Throws Support Behind Myanmars Shadow Government The European Parliament in Strasbourg / EU Parliament The European Parliament has voted to support Myanmars shadow government and its parliamentary committee as the legitimate representatives of Myanmar, becoming the first international legislative body to officially endorse the organizations behind the fight against military rule in the Southeast Asian country. The country has been mired in crisis since the military ousted the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government in February, sparking mass protests and a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. After more than eight months, sporadic armed attacks on regime targets and reprisals by junta forces continue. In a resolution adopted on Thursday, the European Parliament said it supports the CRPH and the NUG as the only legitimate representatives of the democratic wishes of the people of Myanmar, referring to the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) and its parliamentary Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CPRH), both of which were formed by ousted elected NLD lawmakers and their ethnic allies in the wake of the Feb. 1 takeover. The motion was passed with 647 votes in favor, two against and 31 abstentions. The EU Parliaments show of support on Thursday comes as a major embarrassment to the Myanmar military regime, which seeks international recognition as the countrys rightful caretaker government and is struggling against a competing claim by the NUG. Neither the NUG nor the CRPH were immediately available for comment on Friday. Since its formation in April, the NUG has enjoyed popular support at home and abroad. It is supporting striking civil servants and resistance forces against the regime inside the country while lobbying for international acceptance as Myanmars legitimate government. Despite some unofficial engagements, however, it has yet to receive diplomatic recognition from foreign countries. Early last month, the shadow government called a nationwide revolt against the regime after deciding that diplomatic pressure was no longer strong enough to topple the junta. The regime has branded the NUG and CRPH as terrorist organizations. Early this week, the French Senate voted unanimously to recognize the NUG. If the French Parliaments lower house approves the vote, France will become the first country to officially recognize Myanmars shadow government. The support from the EU parliament could be In its resolution, the European Parliament also condemned the Myanmar militarys violent response to protesters, as well as its human rights violations against the people following the coup, saying these ongoing abuses and actions amount to crimes against humanity. As of Thursday, 1,159 people had been killed by the regime while ethnic and religious minorities have also suffered abuses, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and displacements due to the juntas clearance operations in anti-regime strongholds. The resolution calls for the immediate and unconditional release of President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all others arrested by the military on unfounded accusations during and after the coup. As ASEAN is playing a mediator role in an effort to resolve the Myanmar crisis, the European Parliament called on the regional bloc and its special envoy to Myanmar to engage with all parties involved, notably with the NUG and representatives of civil society. So far, the regime still hasnt allowed the envoy to visit the country and the regional bloc has voiced disappointment with the juntas lack of cooperation. Internationally, the Parliament called on the regimes allies China and Russia to live up to their responsibility as permanent members of the UN Security Council and said it expects them to play a constructive role when scrutinizing the situation in Myanmar. Both countries have long supported the regime at the council by vetoing critical resolutions by the US, the UK and France. Finally, it urged EU countries to continue imposing targeted and robust sanctions to cut off the economic lifelines of the junta, as well as demanding member states push ahead with targeted restrictive measures against those responsible for the coup. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Junta Court Sentences Ousted Rakhine State Chief Minister to Prison Tanintharyi Villagers Flee Fighting Between Resistance and Myanmar Junta Local Myanmar Officials Quit in Droves Following Threats From Anti-Junta Groups Guest Column Myanmar Crisis Shows ASEANs Limits ASEAN leaders hold a summit in Jakarta in April 2021. / ASEAN It is often said that ASEANs brand of regionalism is uniquely its own. In any discussion about the ASEAN way, the principles of noninterference and consensus are constantly invoked, though unfortunately, not always for the right reasons. Rather, the ASEAN way should be viewed for what it has achieved. And the notion of ASEAN centrality is certainly not a mere slogan but neither is it a given. It has always rested on ASEANs capacity to resolve problems and manage the affairs of the region. The fact that ASEAN has been able to demonstrate that it remains central and relevant on matters of regional peace and prosperity is the principal reason why the major powers have valued their engagement with ASEAN. It is also why it has been able to play a pivotal role in shaping the regional order. Inherent in both the concepts of the ASEAN way and ASEAN centrality has been the organizations ability to reconcile the regions diverse political, security and economic interests, in a way that allows for the largely harmonious pursuit of national and regional interests by its members. Yet in the face of the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, the limitations of the ASEAN way and ASEAN centrality are coming to light. From the very beginning, ASEAN has been seen as lacking in the unity, political will and leadership required to respond to the tragedy unfolding in Myanmar. Statements were issued, an emergency meeting of foreign ministers and an unprecedented leaders meeting were convenedbut there has been little actual progress. The principle of noninterference in its members internal affairs has been blamed for much of ASEANs dilemma. Indeed, the question of whether, when and how to intervene in the Myanmar crisis has yielded diverse views from its own members. When the Myanmar military seized power on Feb. 1, other ASEAN states were aware that it would have repercussions on the blocs credibility, and for the region. Some observers said the lack of assertive action from ASEAN reflected the ideological divide between its own members, with some members being more democratic than others in the bloc. Perhaps, there is some element of truth in that assertion. But for sure, the issues of geographical proximity, national security and economic interests and domestic politics weighed heavily in the minds of ASEAN policymakers. Nonetheless, the crisis in Myanmar is a much-needed reality check, in so far as the principle of noninterference in internal affairs is concerned. ASEANs claim to be a rule-based and people-centered regional organization would be inconsequential if it fails to act in the face of the massive violations of human rights and the atrocities that many have witnessed in Myanmar. Under the ASEAN Charter, respect for sovereignty and the principle of noninterference are by no means absolute, and must be considered against the commitments that all of its member states have made to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and good governance, respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedom. It was with these principles in mind that the charter was written beginning with the phrase We, the people. These are not just meant to be aspirational goals. Putting the people at the center of ASEANs community-building efforts means that the ASEAN way must be expanded beyond espousing the rights of states. It means incorporating the rights of the peoples of ASEAN as enshrined in the ASEAN Charter into the organizations actions. And ASEAN must not turn its back on the people, at a time when the rights of the Myanmar people and their democratic aspirations are being transgressed by the flagrant actions of the Tatmadaw, the countrys military. So far, ASEANs diplomacy has failed to keep up with the rapidly unfolding events in Myanmar. The country is on the verge of civil war. Clearly, the notion of ASEAN centrality is being called to question. The crisis in Myanmar could not have come at a worse moment for ASEAN. The shift in the regions geopolitics, the challenge posed by Chinas rise and the ensuing major power rivalries between the US and China, have all had the effect of pulling the ASEAN member states in different directions. The mounting tensions over the South China Sea and the Mekong River have further undermined the relevance of ASEAN centrality. Containing the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgency of promoting economic recovery have preoccupied the attention of ASEAN governments and leaders. Under such circumstances, domestic priorities take precedence over foreign policy agendas, and national interests trump regional interests. Against this backdrop, ASEAN certainly finds itself hard-pressed to muster the cohesion, the political will and leadership needed to collectively deal with the protracted conflict in Myanmar. The ASEAN Five-Point consensus agreed at the leaders meeting almost six months ago remains pretty much in abeyance. The only progress so far has been the appointment of Bruneis second foreign minister, Erywan Yusof, as the ASEAN special envoy on Myanmar. Even that appointment took almost three months to finalize, after much going back and forth among the ASEAN foreign ministers. Sensing that ASEAN is not united, Myanmar junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and the Tatmadaw have been backtracking on their commitments to the ASEAN-led peace process. But the junta would be just deluding themselves by thinking that they can turn back the clock of democracy in Myanmar. The people of Myanmar have made it loud and clear that they have had enough of military rule. The announcement by the National Unity Government (NUG) declaring a peoples war against the military regime is bound to intensify the hostilities even further. ASEAN centrality is under pressure both from within and outside. As such, the international community and the major powers have all urged ASEAN to double its efforts. For the moment, there seems to be not much hope for a breakthrough. ASEAN itself is both constrained by the complex dynamics of the situation in Myanmar as well its own inherent limitations. Even major powers like the US and China know that they too have limited leverage to influence the course of events in Myanmar given the current stalemate. If ASEAN is to maintain any semblance of its centrality, it must press on even if it is tantamount to pursuing alibi diplomacy, as well-known ASEAN affairs expert Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan has noted. It is certain that at the upcoming ASEAN Summit this month, the nine other ASEAN leaders will need to think long and hard about what to do next should the Myanmar military remain intransigent and continue to renege on its commitments to peacebuilding. Indeed, as many have pointed out, the crisis in Myanmar has become ASEANs own crisis. Both the ASEAN way and ASEAN centrality are subject to stress and strain. Drawing upon the events in Myanmar, ASEAN will need to rethink its way and find ways to reinvigorate its centrality in the region. As a community, ASEAN is at a crossroads. The organization must seek to advance its regionalism to a higher level if it is to remain relevant in the face of new challenges, from both within and outside. Most important of all, in this endeavor, ASEAN must not fail the people of Myanmar. Sihasak Phuangketkeow is a former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and secretary-general of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council. This article first appeared in the September 2021 issue of ASEANFocus (issue 37) published by the ASEAN Studies Centre, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. You may also like these stories: Thailand Offers a Vision for a Next Normal at the UN Diplomacy Is Wasted on Myanmars Junta Myanmar Shadow Govt Claims 580 Junta Troops Killed Last Month Dana Lynn Burson, 72 transitioned from this realm to the next adventure, October 7th, 2021. He will be missed by his wife, Jacque Burson, his mother Francis martin, daughter Miranda Burson and son Gabriel Burson, Grandchildren and other family and friends. He passed easily and peacefully awa New Event to be a part of the 2022 #TECHSUPERSHOW in Florida Shelton, CT October 7, 2021 TMC and Space IT Bridge, today announced the launch of Earth Intelligence World Expo being held February 8-11, 2022 at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Earth Intelligence World is the first event dedicated to embracing the role of New Space companies as valuable complements to existing business operations, rather than as an add-on to national security and space industry events. Building and launching satellites is cool, but its not a core function of the IT shop or the data center. We are ecstatic to have Earth Intelligence World Expo be a part of the #TECHSUPERSHOW, noted Rich Tehrani CEO and Conference Chairman for TMC. Its a new era as massive data collection and free market competition is driving down the cost of satellite-collected information, making existing applications cheaper and opening new opportunities for businesses. This new event will help you capitalize on the immediate business opportunity. In its 2021 Earth Observation: Data & Services Market report released this week, Euroconsult placed the commercial market for earth observation (EO) data in 2020 at $1.6 billion and growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5%, with 55% of the total market going to non-defense needs. With record numbers of EO satellites launched this year, billions of investment dollars raised in SPACs, and EO constellations going into production service, Euroconsult expects the earth observation and services market to grow to $7.5 billion by 2030. On a macro scale, New Space companies are shifting the satellite industry from a mainframe model and mentality to a cell phone-style world in terms of relative cost and availability of services, said Doug Mohney, Editor-in-Chief of Space IT Bridge. Getting a single picture of somewhere on the planet used to take days and cost thousands of dollars. Now, its a website visit, a credit card to pay, and delivery in hours with opportunities to get views of the same place up to four times a day with hourly availability and faster coming soon. Data is driving applications, with individual service providers generating multiple terabytes per day of high-quality information for agriculture, energy, shipping, mining, finance, insurance, urban planning, land management, and disaster recovery, just to name a few areas. Earth Intelligence World Expo is a business-focused forum bringing together enterprises and other organizations to learn from New Space service providers about the imaging and data revolution taking place in the skies above and delivered through major cloud providers. Youll discover petabyte-sized data lakes being filled by hundreds of commercial satellites collecting information in optical, infrared, hyperspectral, radar, and RF bands and how analyst firms and their customers are ingesting multiple sources of data and using the latest AI/ML techniques to provide economic insights and drive business value. You dont have to be a U.S. government agency or have a U.S. government budget to get access to quality business information in a timely fashion, Mohney said. Companies such as BlackSky are offering free trials today, enabling businesses to kick the tires on web-accessible, AI-powered imaging services that provide change detection in areas of interest you can look at what your suppliers are doing in Europe or what your competitors are up to in Asia. The call for papers is now open. The Earth Intelligence World Expo conference program will focus on topics that are important to businesses looking to bypass the hype of space tourism and reusable rockets and embrace the bounty of data being generated by commercial satellites, finding new ways to monitor market conditions, suppliers, competitors, and customers and discovering new opportunities. TMC and Space IT Bridge are thrilled to be partnering together on this new event. TMCnets ability to bring communities together having hosted conferences and online communities for more than 25 years combined with Space IT Bridges subject-matter expertise creates the cant-miss enterprise event for earth observation. Fort Lauderdale, Florida is the perfect place to meet with other industry experts and business owners to work on your 2022 initiatives. This location drives people from across the U.S., Europe and Latin America. For more information for Earth Intelligence World Expo, contact [email protected]. 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Macquarie Health Corporation has announced that it has suffered what it describes as a "cyber incident", that has led to it taking its IT systems offline "as a precaution". iTWire understands the "cyber incident" is a ransomware attack, in this case by a group known as Hive or HiveLeaks that attacks systems running Microsoft's Windows operating system. Researchers from infosec firm SentinelLabs describe Hive as a double-extortion ransomware group "making their money off of a two-pronged attack: exfiltrating sensitive data before locking up the victims systems" that first made its presence known in June this year. Jim Walter and Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade said in a blog post about Hive in August: "The group is notable in its undiscerning choice of targets, having no limits when it comes to healthcare providers and hospitals, as evidenced in a recent attack on Memorial Health System hospitals in Ohio. PSA: If you are dealing with a Hive ransomware incident and some of the affected servers are ESXi servers, ensure that these servers are not rebooted. These dumbos create some of the key files required to decrypt the data in non-persistent locations. Reboot = all data gone. Fabian Wosar (@fwosar) October 7, 2021 "Hive ransomware is written in Go to take advantage of the languages concurrency features to encrypt files faster. Hive remains active with as many as 30 victim companies listed on its Hive Leaks onion site at the time of writing." And they added: "While many active ransomware groups have committed to forgoing attacks on medical targets in deference to the current global situation, Hive is not one of them. "On 15 August, news broke of a Hive campaign against Memorial Health System, an Ohio healthcare provider. As a result, the hospital was forced to advise some patients to seek treatment at separate facilities." On its website on the dark web, the attackers claimed to have pilfered 225GB of data from Macquarie Health Corporation during the attack. The ransomware used in this attack, Hive, is a PITA. For example, the decryptor spends >30 minutes initializing on EVERY system. So, if a company has 100 encrypted systems, >50 hrs will be wasted just on initializations. https://t.co/bBtkC2vfiW Brett Callow (@BrettCallow) August 16, 2021 The attackers claimed the exfiltrated data included medical records, research and personal data of 6717 people, financial documents, bank balances and tax deductions among others. In a statement, dated Thursday, Macquarie Health Corporation said: "The incident has not impacted our ability to deliver patient care. As always, we remain committed to the ongoing delivery of clinical services to our patients. "We apologise for any inconvenience this disruption may cause and thank our staff, patients, and clinicians for their patience during this situation. We will keep you informed through further updates." Macquarie Health was set up in 1973 by Dr Thomas Wenkart in Sydney, according to information at the company's website. It has 12 hospitals which provide surgical procedures, rehabilitation and mental health clinics, skin imaging and dermascopy, medical systems; cosmetic procedures, e-health informatics and data solutions. The companies under its banner are Macquarie Hospital Services, MacRehab, Macquarie Medical Systems, Derma Medical and Machealth eSolutions. Contacted for comment, Brett Callow, a seasoned ransomware threat researcher from the New Zealand-headquartered security shop Emsisoft, said: "Hive's victims include multiple public sector organisations, including organisations in the healthcare and education sectors. "It's also a particularly problematic ransomware from a recovery perspective. Hive has an absurd crypto scheme that makes restoration even more time-consuming that usual, with sloppy coding making data loss a real possibility." A Microsoft announcement that the company would be disabling macros as a default feature in Excel 4.0 has been greeted as a step that "would really help defenders". British security expert Kevin Beaumont retweeted a screenshot from the Microsoft website, originally posted by Omri Segev Moyal, adding, "Oh my god. Will take a while to reach enterprises and needs Office 365 client but eventually this will reach lots of people and really help defenders." Moyal, co-founder of the boutique security firm Profero, had his own take on the announcement, saying, "I thought the Messiah would come faster than this. Microsoft to disable macro by default in Excel 4.0." I thought the Messiah would come faster than this. Microsoft to disable macro by default in Excel 4.0 pic.twitter.com/BOvBrxtCI6 Omri Segev Moyal (@GelosSnake) October 7, 2021 Beaumont, who used to work as a threat intelligence analyst at Microsoft until a few months ago, said in another tweet that he had asked for this to be done while he was employed there. "For the record I pleaded with people for this while at MS, and the two main counter arguments were we just added AMSI support and E5 revenue via Safe Docs," he said. "[The] reality is Excel 4 came out in 1992 and legit Excel 4.0 macros are almost non-existent in business." For the record I pleaded with people for this while at MS, and the two main counter arguments were we just added AMSI support and E5 revenue via Safe Docs. Reality is Excel 4 came out in 1992 and legit Excel 4.0 macros are almost non-existent in business. Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) October 7, 2021 Threat intelligence firm Zvelo says in one of its blog posts: "Weaponising Excel 4.0 Macros is an effortless and reliable method attackers use to get a foothold into a target network as this technique simply represents an abuse of a legitimate Excel feature, and does not rely on any vulnerability or exploit. "XLM macros are very straightforward and easy to create, thus easily modified to bypass signature-based detection. I dont think that this includes VBA macros but only the old XLM macros, or does it? Ill have to check that tomorrow. Florian Roth (@cyb3rops) October 7, 2021 "Macros are also robust and provide various functions that can be leveraged to evade analysis, such as obfuscating the final payload, modifying the control flow, or detecting automated sandbox analysis through specific host environmental checks." Beaumont added: "I hope Microsoft continues to serve the majority and not the top tier E5 customers. End security poverty via Microsofts own products." Wait wait, did the world just end? did hell freeze over? lol But seriously kudos to MS for doing the right thing and lets give malware a 1, 2 punch by disabling VBA macros by default too! Joseph Roosen (@JRoosen) October 7, 2021 Contacted for comment, Satnam Narang, staff research engineer at security firm Tenable, said: "It's a step in the right direction for Microsoft to announce that they will be disabling Excel 4.0 Macros (XLM) by default, considering it was introduced nearly 30 years ago. "It's a welcome change, as XLM Macros are still being leveraged by threat actors today. "Malicious documents are valuable tools for threat actors in their campaigns and while this won't thwart the activity in its entirety as VBA Macros still pose a threat, this change will make life just a little bit harder for those threat actors." Researchers at Western Australias Curtin University have helped to determine the age of the youngest rocks ever found on the Moon, as part of a global space mission that is working to refine the chronology of the entire Solar System. The new research, published in Science, determined the basaltic volcanic rocks, collected as part of Chinas Change-5 Moon landing in December 2020, were about two billion years old or one billion years younger than those previously found on the Moon. Curtin says the rock samples were collected by the Chinese National Space Agency during the Change-5 mission, which marked the first time any nation had collected rocks from the Moon since 1976. Lead Australian author Professor Alexander Nemchin, from Curtin Universitys Space Science and Technology Centre in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said researchers determined the age of the lunar rock samples during remote sessions with the Beijing laboratory using large mass spectrometers that have helped revolutionise geology, similar to Curtins Sensitive High Resolution Ion Micro Probe Facility (SHRIMP). Previously, the youngest lunar basalt rocks collected as part of the Apollo and Luna missions, as well as lunar meteorites, were found to be older than about three billion years, Professor Nemchin said. After analysing the chemistry of the new Moon rocks collected as part of Chinas recent mission, we determined the new samples were about two billion years old, making them the youngest volcanic rocks identified on the Moon so far. This discovery puts Australia at the heart of efforts to internationalise scientific collaboration around Chinas lunar exploration program, including samples returned from Chinas Change-5 mission and the upcoming Change-6 Moon landing in 2024. Co-author Professor Gretchen Benedix, also from Curtins Space Science and Technology Centre, said the new results would provide researchers with more calibration points for cratering chronology, enabling them to derive more accurate and higher resolution ages across many planetary surfaces. These results confirm what experts had long predicted based on remotely obtained images of the Moon and raise further questions as to why these young basalts exist, Professor Benedix said. The task will now turn to finding a mechanism that will explain how this relatively recent heating of the Moon may have supported the formation of basaltic magmas with temperatures exceeding 1000 degrees Celsius and ultimately help researchers improve age dating of the entire Solar System. The research was carried out in collaboration with experts from the International Lunar and Planetary Research Center of China, The Beijing SHRIMP Center, The Australian National University, Washington University in St Louis, Notre Dame University and Brown University in the United States of America, the University of Colorado, Manchester University in the United Kingdom and the Natural History Museum in Sweden. Apple and Google have come under scrutiny in Japan, with the country's Fair Trade Commission set to investigate whether the two companies are using their dominance of mobile operating systems to cut out competition. A report published by the Nikkei Asia website quoted JFTC secretary-general Shuichi Sugahisa as informing the media on Wednesday that views would be sought from operators, app developers and smartphone users. Apple's iPhones have about 20% of the global market share for smartphones while practically all the remaining 80% belongs to Android implementations by various vendors. The JFTC last month completed an investigation into Apple over suspicions that the company was "restricting business activities, such as selling digital contents, etc., of enterprises that distribute applications based on App Store Review Guidelines as Apple operates App Store, where the developers distribute apps for iPhone". In a statement, the JFTC said: "During the JFTCs investigation, Apple proposed to take measures such as revising the Guideline related to the alleged conduct above. "As a result of the JFTCs review on this proposal, the JFTC recognised it would eliminate the above mentioned suspicion and decided to close the investigation on this case after the JFTC confirms the measure has been taken." Nikkei Asia said the JFTC would draft a report on the structure of the mobile operating system market and examine why competition had remained static. Apple dominates the Japanese market, with nearly 70% market share, while Android has the balance. Apple is reportedly facing an anti-trust suit in the European Union over the NFC chip technology it uses for tap-and-go payments. The company was fined by the EU in 2016, with the political bloc ordering it to pay 13 billion (A$20.54 billion) in back taxes. Apple won this battle in 2020, with the Luxembourg General Court ruling that the Cupertino-based firm did not have to pay. However, the EU has appealed against this ruling, claiming legal errors were made by the court. The EU also filed an anti-trust suit against Apple in April this year, for allegedly blocking rivals on its App Store, based on a complaint from music service Spotify. Additionally, a non-profit in the north Indian state of Rajasthan has filed an anti-trust case against Apple similar to that which the iPhone maker faces in the EU. Google, meanwhile, is fighting a 4.34 billion (US$5.01 billion, A$6.85 billion) fine imposed on it in 2018 by the EU for allegedly breaching anti-trust rules relevant to Android. The search giant is also facing an anti-trust suit in the US, filed by the Federal Government and 11 states. Donate Now As a public service during this pandemic, the Jewish News is providing free, unlimited access to all articles. Jewish News is a nonprofit publication that is owned by the community and relies on community support. Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a public charity. It can be found at missouriindependent.com. Veteran Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, has become a symbol of the fight for press freedom in an era of strongmen leaders. The former CNN bureau chief co-founded news website Rappler in 2012, bringing together multimedia reporting and social media to offer an edgy take on Philippine current events. Ressa, 58, has been a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte and his deadly drug war, triggering what media advocates say is a grinding series of criminal charges, investigations and online attacks against her and Rappler. She was named a Time Person of the Year in 2018 for her work on press freedom, but multiple arrests and one conviction for cyber libel further grew her international profile and drew more attention to her battle. Rappler has had to fight for survival as Dutertes government accused it of violating a constitutional ban on foreign ownership in securing funding, as well as libel and tax evasion. Duterte has attacked the website by name, calling it a fake news outlet, over a story about one of his closest aides. In order to keep doing what were doing, Rappler lives with the possibility of a shutdown on a daily basis were on quicksand, Ressa said Friday in a livestreamed interview after the Nobel Prize was announced. What we have to do as journalists is just hold the line. Though the government has said that it has nothing to do with any of the cases against her, press freedom advocates disagree. Yet through the campaign against her, Ressa, who is also a US citizen, has remained based in the Philippines and continued to speak out against Dutertes government despite the risks. Im not a sole reporter, Ressa told AFP in an interview last year. My job is to hold up the ceiling, it has been for a while so that our folks can continue working. Shot at and threatened Ressa, author of How to stand up to a dictator, is on bail pending an appeal against a conviction last year in a cyber libel case, for which she faces up to six years in prison. Two other cyber libel cases were dismissed earlier this year. In less than two years the Philippine government filed 10 arrest warrants against me it was pretty bleak at different times, Ressa admitted Friday. Ressas position at the head of the Rappler news site meant getting, by her own estimate, up to 90 abusive messages per hour online at one point towards the end of 2016. The threats came in the months after Duterte took power and launched his narcotics crackdown that rights groups estimate has killed tens of thousands of people. Rappler was among the domestic and foreign media outlets that published shocking images of the killings and questioned its legal basis. International Criminal Court judges have authorised a full-blown investigation into a possible crime against humanity during the bloody campaign. It was an entirely new set of threats for Ressa, who was a veteran of conflict zones before co-founding Rappler. I began as a reporter in 1986 and I have worked in so many countries around the world, I have been shot at and threatened but never this kind of death by a thousand cuts, Ressa said last year. As CNNs former bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta, Ressa specialised in terrorism, where she tracked the links between global networks like Al-Qaeda and militants in Southeast Asia. The Princeton graduate later returned to the Philippines to serve as news chief at the nations top broadcaster ABS-CBN, which has also fallen foul of the Duterte administration. Ressa was defiant Friday in her defence of her battle for freedom of expression and independent journalism. We need to continue shining the light, Ressa said. We need to continue doing accountability journalism. A congress to launch Ivorian ex-president Laurent Gbagbos new party will take place in Abidjan on October 16 and 17, its organising committee said Friday. Committee official Sebastien Danon Djedje said 1,600 delegates are expected for the gathering, which will formally establish the party. Gbagbo unveiled his plans for a new political vehicle in August a move that commentators see as a precursor for another run at the presidency in 2025. Gbagbos time in office, from 2000-2011, was a time of turbulence and division in Ivory Coast, the worlds biggest cocoa producer. He was removed from office in April 2011 after a short civil war that claimed around 3,000 lives, sparked by his refusal to accept electoral defeat by the current president, Alassane Ouattara. He was then flown to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity resulting from the conflict. But he was eventually acquitted and returned to Ivory Coast this June. Since then, he has been cast in the role of statesman in a country buffetted by political turmoil during elections last year, although many have suspected he harbours political ambitions. Gbagbo had founded the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) in 1982, but during his time abroad the party split in two. One faction is headed by its officially acknowledged president, Pascal Affi NGuessan, 68, who served as prime minister under Gbagbo. The other comprises grassroots loyalists known as GOR, the French acronym for Gbagbo Or Nothing. In August, Gbagbo accused Affi NGuessan of having confiscated the FPI. He said he would leave Affi with the envelope of the party while he and his supporters would take the contents. A military commission made up of rival camps in Libyas conflict has agreed on a roadmap for the departure of foreign fighters, the United Nations said Friday after talks in Geneva. The so-called 5+5 committee agreed on, and signed a comprehensive Action Plan, which will be the cornerstone for the gradual, balanced, and sequenced process of the withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces from Libyan territory, the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement. The plan is key to helping Libyans regaining their sovereignty and integrity, maintain the peace, stability and security of their country, it added, urging UN member states to implement the plan. A decade-long conflict in Libya has drawn in multiple foreign powers, complicating efforts to draw a line under a decade of bloodletting since 2011. The UN estimates that 20,000 mercenaries and foreign fighters are deployed in Libya, including Russians from the private security company Wagner as well as Chadians, Sudanese and Syrians. A UN report released on Monday revealed that all sides, including third states, foreign fighters and mercenaries, have violated international humanitarian law and some have also committed war crimes. The world body last October oversaw a landmark ceasefire deal between eastern and western factions and along with Libya and several other countries, has repeatedly called for the departure of foreign forces. The October agreement included a 90-day deadline for the withdrawal of foreign forces, but that has long passed with little sign of their departure. Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush earlier this month announced a very modest start to the withdrawal of foreign fighters from the North African country. The UNs envoy Jan Kubis on Friday welcomed the latest deal as another breakthrough achievement by the 5+5 committee. The October 2020 ceasefire brought to an end a fierce year-long battle sparked by eastern military chief Khalifa Haftars bid to seize the western capital, Tripoli. Both sides resorted to foreign help, with Haftar receiving support from the United Arab Emirates, Russia and neighbouring Egypt, while Turkish support was critical in helping Tripoli-based forces repel him. The UN Human Rights Council on Friday decided to appoint a special rapporteur for Burundi, where an investigation by the world body has spoken of a deteriorating rights situation. A resolution on Burundi brought by the European Union was adopted by 21 votes for, 15 against with 11 abstentions. The special rapporteur will be tasked with following the situation in the central African country and making recommendations to the government. Burundian ambassador Renovat Tabu opposed the resolution, saying African solutions must be found for African questions. Burundi does not need an external mechanism to promote human rights, Tabu added. The election of Evariste Ndayishimiye in May last year as Burundis president had fuelled hopes of change in a country wracked by civil war, political turmoil, summary executions and arbitrary detentions. But in its fifth report published on September 16, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi said despite a few improvements, abuses were rife. Since President Ndayishimiyes inauguration 15 months ago, not only have grave human rights violations continued to occur, but in some respects the situation has deteriorated, commission chairman Doudou Diene said in a statement. Members of opposition parties are still regularly targeted by abusive restrictions and are subject to grave human rights violations such as disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions and torture, the UN statement said. Burundi had refused to cooperate with the UN investigative team, which accused security forces of actions that could constitute crimes against humanity. The resolution adopted on Friday asked Burundi to cooperate with the rapporteur and allow unfettered access across the country. Burundi has been in crisis since 2015, when then president Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a controversial third term and was re-elected in polls boycotted by most of the opposition. The announcement of the third term bid triggered a crisis in which at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 400,000 forced into exile. The UN says the violence was mostly carried out by state security forces. Nkurunziza remained in power until elections in May 2020 handed the presidency to his handpicked successor Ndayishimiye. Nkurunziza died soon after the vote. The commission was created by the UN Human Rights Council five years ago to investigate abuses. The death penalty is a failed experiment, and we should get rid of it immediately Shin Min Ah and Kim Seon Ho's buzzworthy romantic comedy Kdrama Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha achieves an impressive record worldwide on Netflix. The highly loved series follows the story of the pragmatic dentist Yoon Hye Jin (Shin Min Ah) and all-rounder handyman Hong Doo Sik (Shin Min Ah) who falls deeply in love with each other despite their societal and lifestyle differences. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha No. 8 on Global Netflix Following the international success of the Netflix original series "Squid Game," which set a new record of ranking number one on the Netflix global charts, Shin Min Ah and Kim Seon Ho's "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" is also receiving worldwide popularity. According to FlixPatrol, a website that provides Netflix global rankings, the romantic comedy drama series bagged the eighth spot on its global chart. With the thriller action series "Squid Game," the two South Korean series have both dominated the chart. The feel-good romantic comedy drama began airing in August. "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" has been continuously stealing the public's hearts and attention with its amazing storyline and impressive cast. Fans even visited the seaside village of Pohang, the drama's filming location. Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha Tops Charts in More Than 20 Countries On October 4, the hit-drama "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" ranked first in South Korea, and eighth worldwide on Netflix. It also made it to the ten dramas on Netflix that charted in more than 20 countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. Before "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha," Vincenzo ranked fourth in most popular television shows on Netflix worldwide. Jo Moon Ju, the executive producer of the tvN romantic comedy drama expressed their thanks, "I'm thrilled by the great responses that viewers in all parts of the world have given this drama and its team. I hope that the viewers continue to enjoy the beautiful story in the seaside village that is about to unfold." YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN: Lee Sang Yi Net Worth 2021: How Wealthy the 'Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha' Second Male Lead Is "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" is directed by Yoo Je Won and written by Shin Ha Eun, and developed and produced by Studio Dragon. It airs every Saturday and Sunday on tvN at 9:00 p.m. KST. It is also available on Netflix. Follow KDramastars for more Kdrama, KMovie, and celebrity news updates! KDramastars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. The 22-year-old idol and actor Kang Chan Hee, popularly known mononymously Chani, is a member of one of the hottest boy groups in South Korea, SF9. He is also experienced in terms of acting, as he started to conquer television history at such a young age. Because of this, Chani is not new to vicious criticisms as well as shocking dating rumors. If you're curious who the handsome idol actor is dating, then keep on reading. SF9 Chani and Kim Bo Ra, Did the 'SKY Castle' Co-Stars Really Date? Chani appeared in many popular dramas since he was only 10-years-old such as "Queen Seondeok," "Three Brothers," and "To the Beautiful You," to name a few. In the year 2018, he made his breakthrough acting performance in the JTBC black comedy "SKY Castle" as Hwang Woo Joo, a student who finds himself in a love triangle with Kim Hye Na and Kang Ye Seo, played by Kim Bo Ra and Kim Hye Yoon, respectively. Because of the uniquely refreshing combination of Chani and the girls, fans established love teams for the three, which ignored rumors. In an interview held after the drama's conclusion, their dating statuses were revealed. According to Chani, he loved living as Woo Joo, whom he resonates with. They are both cheerful and mature at the same time, with responsibility at the back of his pocket. Fans and loyal Fantasys (SF9 Official Fandom) cheered on Kim Bo Ra after Chani confessed that he had been incredibly nervous when they shared their first on-screen kiss. Chani said, "I couldn't hide my shyness during filming, so when the director cuts the scene, we part away and become awkward." However, it was then revealed that the two became closer over the course of the filming and became good friends. After the drama, Chani and Bo Ra kept in contact with each other and remained great friends. SF9 Chani's Ideal Type in Women Chani also went on to reveal his ideal type of woman. Although Chani is seen as the charmingly quiet type, he is also funny and warm as a person. But his ideal type is in contrast to his nature. According to Chani, he is into women who are well-driven, funny, and sophisticated, which would make a great balance to their personalities and characteristics. Chani also added with a smile, "I like it when someone's a bit aggressive." On the other hand, Chani returns to the small screen with the new romance drama "Jinx" alongside fellow idol actor Cosmic Girls Eunseo. It is available on Kakao TV and airs every Wednesday and Thursday at 9:00 a.m. KST. Follow KDramaStars for more KMovie, KDrama, and celebrity updates! KDramaStars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. Han Hyo Joo, Park Hyung Sik, Jo Woo Jin begin their fierce survival to bring their happiness back. On October 8, tvN released the main trailer for its upcoming apocalyptic drama series "Happiness" which featured the struggle of the nation against the unknown threat of virus, raising expectations. Han Hyo Joo, Park Hyung Sik, and Jo Woo Jin Begin Fierce Survival for 'Happiness' The main trailer for the forthcoming apocalyptic drama "Happiness" was unveiled on October 8, which highlighted the changed lives of Yoon Sae Bom (Han Hyo Joo), Jung Yi Hyun (Park Hyung Sik), and Han Tae Seok (Jo Woo Jin) as they face an unknown deadly virus. In the newly released video, the peaceful daily lives of the Seoul residents were awakened by a highly questionable sound. Horror and fear are the only things that can be seen on everybody's face. The pristine and neat curtains were splashed with blood, amplifying freight. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Han Hyo Joo and Park Hyung Sik's 'Happiness' Is Threatened By An Apocalyptic Crisis Han Tae Seok firmly says, "If things were okay for us yesterday, there's no guarantee that we will be safe today." On the other hand, Yoon Sae Bom is filled with worry. Jung Yi Hyun consoles her, as he vowed to protect her in any way he can, saying everything will be alright in no time. However, contrary to their thoughts, the phrase "the world has collapsed" further amplifies the urgency and fear. In the next scene, Yoon Sae Bom, who is in shock to see Jung Yi Hyun aim a gun at somebody. Meanwhile, Han Tae Seok tries to cover up his worry and endure everything as long as he can to protect his family. The three crestfallen people's struggle to protect the people dear to them adds tension and anticipation. Attention is focused as to what kind of danger will completely change their lives, and whether all of them survive. Kdrama Happiness Summary and Further Details The presence of seasoned actors Han Hyo Joo, Park Hyung Sik, and Jo Woo Jin together raises the bar for perfection. In the drama Han Hyo Joo takes on the role of Yoon Sae Bom, a police officer who has wits, guts, and determination. Opposite Park Hyung Sik who plays the clever and honest detective Jung Yi Hyun. Meanwhile, Jo Woo Jin takes the notch to the top as lieutenant colonel Han Tae Seok, who leads the Medical Command and holds the answer to the epidemic. The upcoming drama is directed by "Memories of the Alhambra" director Ahn Gil Ho and written by "The Good Wife" screenwriterHan Sang Woon, which follows the story of a new normal city that is plagued with an unknown virus, which threatens the survival and psychological warfare of the citizens. On the other hand, the apocalyptic thriller drama "Happiness" is set to air for the first time on Friday, November 5 at 10:40 p.m. on tvN. Follow KDramaStars for more KMovie, KDrama, and celebrity updates! KDramaStars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. "Squid Game" cast Lee Jung Jae, Park Hae Soo, Wi Ha Joon, and Jung Ho Yeon appeared in "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," where they spill more secrets about the mega-hit Netflix series. The actors played as participants in the Hwang Dong-Hyuk-directed Kdrama, where 456 cash-trapped players joined a survival game featuring a deadly children's game. Jimmy Fallon Congratulates the 'Squid Game' Cast on the Shows Massive Fame In the virtual interview, the American talk show host acknowledges the popularity of the nine-episode series, naming it the "biggest television show in the world." Moreover, Jimmy Fallon also cited that "Squid Game" is currently number one in 90 countries. He began the interview by praising Lee Jung Jae for his versatility as an actor, saying that he is known in South Korea for playing villain roles but managed to capture the viewers' hearts with his impressive portrayal of Seong Gi Hun. "How can that face be a villain? You're so friendly and likable," the host said, which made the award-winning actor smile. He then spoke about the Netflix series "Squid Game," explaining that it is a story of people coming together with their own struggle and pain in hopes of winning the cash prize no matter what. Park Hae Soo Reveals the Funny Story Behind His Son's Nickname As the virtual interview continued, Park Hae Soo had a funny reaction when Jimmy Fallon asked him about the show's fame. It came after the host asked when did he realize that "Squid Game" become so big, to which he answered "Right now," hinting about their appearance in the longtime running US show, During their conversation, Fallon also noted that the exact date of the premiere was also the birth of his firstborn. The "Prison Playbook" then shared a funny story about calling his son "Baby Squid" since he was born minutes away from the "Squid Game" premiere. "So he is my lucky charm and a bundle of blessings for me. My friends and many people around me call him 'Baby Squid,'" the actor recalled. The Origin of the Giant Robot Doll Mugunghwa One of the iconic scenes in "Squid Game" is the "Red Light, Green Light" game featuring a ten-foot robot doll named Mugunghwa. In the drama, the doll spins and detects the players' movement. If the giant robot doll says "red light" and senses a player's motion, they are immediately shot and killed. Jung Ho Yeon, who plays the North Korean Kang Sae Byeok, explained the history of the creepy doll. She mentioned that it was based on a character from a Korean children's textbook. "When we were at the school, there were characters-one is a boy, and one is the girl. The boy's name was Chulsoo, and the girl's name was Younghee, and she's the one," the runway model mentioned. Premiered on September 17, "Squid Game" is a nine-episode Korean series that can be streamed exclusively on Netflix. IN CASE YOU MISSED: Lee Jung Jae and Park Hae Soo Hilariously React to Their 'Squid Game' Characters KDramastars owns this article Written by Geca Wills CANYONVILLE, Ore. Law enforcement officers in Douglas County raided a large unlicensed marijuana grow on Tuesday, operated under the guise of a legal hemp operation, located just a few miles east of Canyonville. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office said that members of the Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team (DINT) served a search warrant at the grow in the 9000-block of Days Creek Cutoff Road, finding it spread across two parcels of farmland along the South Umpqua River. The agency said that there were two homes attached to the grow, along with a number of outbuildings, RVs, and barns. The marijuana grow itself consisted of more than 100 "hoop houses" most of them full of marijuana plants. Officers found and interviewed a number of people at the scene, most of them immigrant workers who were soon released. DCSO said that only 31-year-old Carlos Flores Santacruz, who had been living at the site, was arrested and taken to jail on charges for the illegal possession and manufacture of marijuana. All told, DINT seized more than 66,000 live marijuana plants and 11,000 pounds of processed marijuana. The Sheriff's Office said that this grow was connected to another that investigators raided two weeks prior. In the earlier raid within the 4000-block of Tiller-Trail Highway, officers seized more than 56,000 plants. "The two locations are similar in nature and operated by the same individuals. The investigation is ongoing and further arrests are anticipated," DCSO said. The Sheriff's Office said that this grow, like many popping up across southern Oregon, was supposed to look like a legal operation growing industrial hemp, since the two plants are not easy to distinguish from one another. "Black market marijuana producers regularly hide behind the legal hemp market as camouflage for their illicit activity," DCSO continued. "Hemp producers are required to be permitted, and are regulated by the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA). None of the locations mentioned today had legitimate hemp permits through the ODA." The grows were not licensed to grow for medical or recreational means, either. Like the Sheriff's Office in neighboring Josephine County, DCSO attributed the grows to "notorious foreign drug cartels," saying that they bring with them environmental impacts including illegal use of water during a drought, garbage accumulation, and a "high volume of human feces." SALEM, Ore. (AP) The Oregon Supreme Court struck down the death sentence of an inmate in a ruling Thursday that found lawmakers had fundamentally altered prevailing societal standards for executions with a 2019 law change. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that experts believe the decision could eliminate the death sentence for all inmates facing the penalty State lawmakers passed SB 1013 in 2019. The bill narrowed what crimes qualify as aggravated murder the only charge that carries capital punishment in Oregon. While the law change included a provision that did not make it retroactive, the courts ruling appears to do that, relying on a section of the states Constitution that prohibits disproportionate punishments. Background The death penalty has a turbulent history in Oregon, and it has been abolished and reinstated several times over since 1900. After the Oregon Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1981, voters reinstated capital punishment in 1984. Despite the fact that capital punishment remains law in Oregon, the last execution to take place was in 1997. In 2011, Governor John Kitzhaber declared a moratorium on executions, which Governor Kate Brown has upheld through her terms. In 2019, the Oregon legislature passed Senate Bill 1013, which redefined the state's concept of aggravated murder so that only a handful of the most reprehensible crimes would qualify for the death penalty: killings motivated by terrorism, the murder of children 14 or younger, killings by an incarcerated person with a previous "aggravated murder" sentence, and pre-meditated killings of police or corrections officers. Sponsors of the bill said that they did not intend it to be retroactive, but it almost immediately proved to be the basis for legal challenges from death row inmates who argued that they were no longer eligible for the death penalty. Despite misgivings about the new law on both sides of the aisle, Governor Brown did not follow through on calling a special legislative session to pass a "fix." At least some legal experts expect that Thursday's ruling from the Oregon Supreme Court will cement earlier opinions that many death row inmates' sentences can be overturned and re-sentenced. CENTRAL POINT, Ore. Friday marks the last day for a mobile Covid-19 vaccination and testing unit that arrived at the Jackson County Expo at the end of September. While there are still plenty of places to get testing or vaccination in Jackson County once the clinic is done, the quick drive-through option ends at 6 p.m. Both vaccination and testing through the MVU are open from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., and all three Covid-19 vaccines are available. Identification or insurance information are not required at the site, which is accessible through Gate 3 of the Expo. The MVU, operated by a partnership between the Oregon Health Authority and FEMA, opened just as Pfizer's vaccine received federal and state approval for booster shots among higher-risk groups, and several people NewsWatch 12 spoke with last week were there to take advantage of the opportunity. Vaccine Watch: What's the difference between a Covid-19 vaccine 'third dose' and a booster? For anyone interested in getting tested at the Expo MVU before it closes, pre-registration is encouraged. Those who get a vaccine shot at the MVU and will need to complete a series or get a Pfizer booster shot can call 211 information for vaccination sites, visit the Oregon Health Authority's vaccine finder site, or visit the Jackson County Public Health site. The Delta variant surge of Covid-19 in Jackson County shows every sign of abating, with daily cases and hospitalizations continuing to drop gradually into October. Jackson County Public Health reported 68 new cases of the virus on Friday a far cry from the hundreds of cases reported daily at the end of August and early September. Covid-19 patients between Jackson and Josephine county hospitals were at 58 on Wednesday, with 17 of those patients in the intensive care unit. Regardless, Jackson County is quickly nearing 300 deaths related to Covid-19. JCPH reported three more deaths on Friday, bringing the county's death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 293. Neighboring Josephine County surpassed 200 deaths related to Covid-19 on Thursday. The most recent surge easily cost the most lives of any since the pandemic began. At the end of January this year, at the tail end of the last surge, Jackson County had just reached 100 deaths caused by Covid-19. About 63.8% of Jackson County adults are considered fully vaccinated against Covid-19. While Jackson County's vaccination rate is far from the lowest in Oregon, surpassing most other counties in the southern and eastern parts of the state, Jackson continues to hold the dubious distinction of needing to vaccinate the largest number of people to reach a vaccination rate of 80%. More than 29,000 Jackson County adults would need to get vaccinated to meet the state's 80% vaccination goal one which Multnomah, Washington, and Hood River counties have already achieved. Along a city boulevard, in the heart of Kenosha, a wild turkey has captured the imagination of neighbors and residents far and wide. In fact, hes become so popular that he has his own Facebook page, a ballad in his honor and has been stirring up traffic and discussions about whether he should stay or go for his own safety. Meet Carl the Kenosha Turkey, the Forest Park neighborhoods most famous feathered friend who, depending on whos talking, has lived in the 15th District anywhere from two months to two years. And, he may not even be the only bird of his flock flirting with motorists or becoming enamored with his reflection in their vehicles' hubcaps and front ends. Hes a Forest Park celebrity. Earlier in the year, people would gather and watch Carl fly up into an oak tree to roost for the evening, said Ald. Jack Rose, who represents the area on the City Council. Hes been here for a long time. Rose, who has listened to the debate over what to do about the big bird said theres at least two sides of what should be done with Carl. You have one thats `Lets protect Carl, hes our neighborhood turkey. But then, you also have the other side that says are we wasting our police resources to come out and try to corner Carl. Carl has a tendency to be out in the middle of the road and a tendency to become engrossed with vehicles and hell peck the shiny wheels and hell look for his reflection, Rose said. In recent weeks the Kenosha Police Department and city officials have been consulting with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources about whether the plucky Phasianidae of Pershing Boulevard ought to be relocated to a more suitable habitat. Last month, a community service officer took to the boulevard to keep Carl from wandering into the street. Neighbors have said a vehicle tried to run over the wild turkey intentionally. WATCH NOW: Wild turkeys in Wisconsin often come into urban areas, not likely a danger to residents While Carl the Kenosha turkey has become a local celebrity, an avian expert said that wild turkeys taking up roost in urban areas is far from Working to protect Carl One thing for sure, however, is that the neighborhood is very protective of him. Lisa Hawkins, who started the Facebook page Carl the Kenosha Turkey after seeing too many complaints about turkey pictures in another group, has witnessed firsthand and virtually how the community has come together over the adorable gobbler. I love the way members have reached out to share how sightings of Carl brightens their days, she said. Many homebound members have expressed how its a bright spot with so much negativity everywhere. Especially, for Kenosha and the year we have had here. Carl is the No. 1 thing that unites us all. But shes worried as there has been much ado about relocating him to Bong State Recreation Area in Brighton, where she and others fear he would be hunted. I think the big problem we are having is people stopping and drawing Carl into the street as he sees his reflection and gets aggressive, she said. The cars stop to look at him and then he gets close and jams things up a bit. The best thing we can do for him is for people to keep moving. Hawkins said while members are able to share photos of Carl, posting specific locations is a no-no in her group. Paulette Garin, who also lives in the neighborhood, agrees. She wishes that people would just let him be and that people need to learn to coexist with the wildlife around them. If you really care for Carl, youll leave him alone and youll ask the same of others, she said, adding that letting people know his whereabouts only jeopardizes his life. She also objects to the gawkers, who stop the flow of traffic. Garin said that the neighborhood already had its share of traffic problems, but thats not Carls fault. She said shed like to see more tickets handed out to motorists who are obstructing traffic to stop and call Carl over. A day ago, she said she had gotten an alert to pick up a package outside her home when she saw one motorist, a woman calling to Carl to come over. This is a problem. I think whats happened is he is becoming very domesticated. I believe people are feeding him, she said. Cars come out and people come look at him and hes become used to it. So, now, this woman has the bird in front of her car and she cant proceed northbound on Pershing. So then, she tried to turn to go into the oncoming traffic and shes got her windows rolled down and shes calling out for help. And I see more cars backing up behind her and then I see the cars going the opposite direction are stopping and her car going sideways. Eventually, Garin shooed Carl onto the parkway and off the street. Its not the turkey. Its the traffic, said Garin, who has been able to get the attention of the city to trim the trees that have been obstructing stop signs at 67th Street and Pershing. A request for speed monitoring has also been made, as well, she said. Songbird Keith Pauley, a Kenosha musician who lives in the Allendale neighborhood near the lakefront, recently penned a ballad for the bird. In it he characterizes Carl as a desperado, all tongue in beak of course, running from the law. The song includes such lyrics as hes a traffic blocking menace, a vandal some may say, but to the folks in Forest Park, hes the hero of the day. I never actually saw the turkey. My wife has. But I just saw this as people in town rallying around it and I thought that it was so cool and it inspired me to write the song, he said. Wild turkeys really werent so much around until more recently and their populations kind of come back. I think its just an unusual thing and people kind of get a kick out of them. Theyre silly looking birds. Pauley said he hasnt written a song in a long time. But theres something about that turkey that inspired me, he said, admitting the melody and guitar stylings are akin to the old cowboy songs, like Big Iron by Marty Robbins. I totally would want to meet the turkey, said Pauley, a welder during the week, who plays in a rockabilly band on weekends. Pauleys song also reflects the talk that Carl might not be long for the Forest Park. Rose said while it has been considered, experts have told him that its not a good idea to move him. He would have a very difficult time adapting to a new environment. So, thats the animal side of it, he said. So, for now, Carl isnt going anywhere. In fact, police said hes actually been a good citizen, despite rumors to the contrary. Carl has chosen the City of Kenosha and the Forest Park neighborhood to take up residence, said Sgt. Joseph Nosalik, the Police Departments spokesman. Although we have had some nuisance complaints about him, he has always cooperated with police and will be left to continue his stay in Kenosha. Love 9 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. While Carl the Kenosha turkey has become a local celebrity, an avian expert said that wild turkeys taking up roost in urban areas is far from uncommon. And, while it may differ depending on the bird, they are unlikely to be a danger to residents. Anna Pidgeon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural & Life Sciences, said that wild turkeys, once native to Wisconsin, had to be reintroduced to the state in the 1970s after overhunting drove the bird out. Soon, the population took off. Thirty years ago I would have told you their habitat would have been Southern Wisconsin, Pidgeon said. Today, the wild turkeys can be found in every county, and have even expanded into towns and neighborhoods. Theyve moved into urban areas because theyve learned over time they dont get persecuted, Pidgeon said. Personalities differ Pidgeon said that wild turkeys, even the male Tom turkeys, arent usually a danger to humans, but some can have a bad attitude. Just like people, different turkeys have different personalities, Pidgeon said. Theres really almost no potential harm from Tom, or male, turkeys. Pidgeon said the reports of Carl attacking his reflection meant he felt he had to keep away potential competitors, something that will become more of a concern during the spring mating season. Apparently your turkey has learned wherever it roosts at night is a safe place, Pidgeon said. According to Pidgeon, wild turkeys are attracted to oak trees, which drop nutritious acorns, and bird feeders. If people want to encourage wild turkeys to come into their yards, Pidgeon said any bird seeds or dried corn would work. Many people want to attract them, Pidgeon said, It feels special. Pidgeon warned, however, that families with small children should consider the risks. If you start encouraging, youll start to have more and more of them, Pidgeon said. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Afghanistan aftermath drama is underway, featured center stage in the always-intense theater known as the United States Congress. Generals Mark Milley and Kenneth McKenzie, respectively Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Commander of the U.S. Central Command, testified before Congress on Sept. 28. Each had recommended leaving a residual security contingent in Afghanistan after withdrawal of U.S. and other forces. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, another military professional, reinforced the testimony. This is important given the rapid, sweeping Taliban victory. Additionally, Milley is quoted by name in several new books about the Trump administration, including one coauthored by the ubiquitous Bob Woodward of Watergate revelation fame. Columnist Peggy Noonan provides details in a recent column in The Wall Street Journal. All of this raises important questions about behavior of senior military officers. This in turn reintroduces General George C. Marshall. People regularly referred to Marshall as a dedicated public servant, a term no longer in vogue. As chief of staff of the U.S. Army, Marshall did essential work to get a dangerously unprepared America at least partially ready for World War II, and then led the mammoth organizational effort required for victory. He later served as secretary of state and secretary of defense during the trying post-war years, when the Cold War and Korean War both began. Marshall longed to lead the Normandy invasion but that mission went to his protege Dwight Eisenhower. FDR considered Marshall indispensable in his existing role and stated publicly he could not go to sleep at night if the general were out of the country. Ever the good soldier, Marshall apparently never directly pressed his desire with the president. Roosevelt shrewdly, skillfully finessed the matter. Marshall did his duty, consistently focused on the nations interests, not his own. Along with extraordinary executive ability, Marshall demonstrated great diplomatic and political skill. Following Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Army surrounded American forces in the Philippines under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, intensely disliked and mistrusted by fellow officers and more widely in Washington. President Roosevelt nevertheless did not want this prominent individual to become a Japanese prisoner and ordered his evacuation to Australia. Marshall followed up carefully to ensure that media and public, at home and abroad, knew that this was not MacArthurs decision, and that the government of Australia provided a supportive and warm welcome. The ultimate professional, he never let personal opinion of MacArthur interfere. The ultimate executive, he devoted the time necessary for operational success. We rarely discuss Marshall today, reflecting in part his notable modesty, which stands out in Washington anytime. Marshall himself put very little personal information in the public record, and never wrote memoirs. Doubtless, he feared in part inadvertently revealing classified and personality matters about those years best kept private. In addition incredibly from a contemporary perspective the record is clear he felt that patriotic citizens should not benefit financially from government office. For Marshall, public service was literally just that. Fortunately, Forrest Pogue authored a masterful comprehensive biography of this monumental leader. Paul Volcker, who as head of the Federal Reserve broke the back of devastating stagflation later in the twentieth century, is a more recent example of great competence, dedication and modesty. There are others. General Milley qualifies as dedicated public servant. However, his public revelations while still in uniform constitute a grave error. Learn More: Read Forrest C. Pogues George C. Marshall Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of After the Cold War (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). Contact acyr@carthage.edu Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Ketchikan, AK (99901) Today Cloudy with rain and snow showers this morning changing to all rain this afternoon. High near 40F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Rain and snow showers this evening transitioning to snow showers overnight. Low near 35F. Winds light and variable. Chance of precip 60%. 195 Shares Share Guess what, everyone, I am a health care hero. I have been applauded by strangers. The Blue Angels flew over the hospital once in the pitch of COVID to salute us. I once sifted through a giant box of free chapsticks delivered to the hospital basement and grabbed one for my colleagues. First of all, let me clarify: There is no such thing as a hero. Its a social construct laypeople create to make themselves feel safer and more secure. The health care heroes of COVID are just people that went above their job description in a time of distress without being mandated to. When people strive to push past their limits despite fear and personal limitations (and, lets be honest, the risk of death), its reasonable enough for them to expect recognition from their employer. Unfortunately, nothing came from COVID for us despite giant colored posters in the hospital lobby of people holding their hands in the shape of hearts. There was a red carpet day when someone shook a tambourine at me when I walked into work. And we got a giant box of chapstick. To say the least, its disappointing. But why? The entire post-COVID experience (or lack thereof) has required us health care workers to ask ourselves: well, what did we expect? We went into a profession to help people, and we absolutely had that chance during COVID. So why are we complaining? In the heyday of COVID, there was no one in the hospital except for bare-bones essential staff. My colleagues and I would eat the pizza that was delivered in bulk to the hospital, sit in the basement of the hospital, talk between shifts, then head home before coming back the next day. Our families went to different locations to reduce exposure. We didnt have time to wait in line for toilet paper after work and had to steal some from the hospital. We were then berated for sitting too close to people without masks on at all times. But there was nowhere to sit; the administration took away the chairs in the cafeteria. We had to steal toilet paper; we didnt have time to stand in line during our one day off every two weeks. I reused the same N95 mask for 30 days. I did this while the hospital administrators were at home. Granted, this was during the peak of COVID, so its understandable things were disheveled. But now its over one year later. Weve already had our round two of COVID. We all think round three is coming. Instead of creating a panel of frontline physicians to address the realities of COVID, our hospital administration is hyper-focused enforcement of nonsensical rules, but no one asks about those either. What was the last straw? It was coming to work in early September to discover there were no parking spaces available. The school year resumed with in-person classes and administrators were also physically back to work. The solution to this influx of people was to triple park hospital employee vehicles with a valet service. This added an extra hour to our day while we waited for them to unlock our car from a gridlock parking lot. Finally, I could articulate something exact I wanted from the administration in reparations for my COVID time: a parking spot. Do we want parking spots? Dont we want more money or paid vacation days? Of course, those things would be nice, but its almost insulting to the profession of a physician to equate difficult patient care circumstances to extra money. COVID patient care was brutal due to the high death rates, the general panic within the health care system, and the lack of physical supplies. However, it was still patient care, and thats why we are all here in the first place. We dont want more money; we dont want an extra vacation. We want to be able to do our jobs. Instead, the administration consistently cripples that ability. When sitting in the hospital basement in our workroom, we go on a diatribe amongst ourselves: Until they wear the same masks for a month until they tell families they cannot come to say goodbye to their dying parent, until they have dreams about the faces of the dozens we declared dead, they cannot tell us how its going to be. But then we look at each other helplessly because its all an empty threat. After we work eighty hours per week for the equivalent of minimum wage, and thank our lucky stars that our quarter-million-dollar loans arent accruing interest this year, we dont have the energy or resources to put up a fight. Instead, we grimace together in the hospital basement during the weekly Wednesday debrief meetings when our administrative leader appears on Zoom, in his living room, drinking espresso with his pinky up. We need to ask ourselves: Who is making decisions in this system? Yes, money, logistics, and business are all undeniable facets of health care. But we have strayed away from the center of what health care is all about: patients. We have spent more time going over parking rules and cafeteria seating plans than discussing where to find extra central lines next time we run out, or how our physicians will be deployed for the next COVID round. Its a long shot, and its ideal, and we can strive for it in the future, but physicians need to lead health care. COVID has taught us many things, but one thing is the alarming confidence of the administrators that never touch patients, but continue to make the final call about their logistical and financial care, and regulate frontline workers to the point we all wonder why we bother to show up anymore. Health care heroes do indeed need something in reparations for COVID. We want recognition beyond accolades in the form of buckets of chapstick and posters. We want to be enabled by the system to provide good patient care. And perhaps a place to park, so we can still show up at work. The author is an anonymous surgery resident. Image credit: Shutterstock.com EUGENE, Ore. -- A University of Oregon student is raising money to help her extended family in Afghanistan get to safety. Mashal Rahmati's parents moved to the United States in the 1980s; however, much of her family did not have the means to leave Afghanistan. Fast forward to 2021, their ability to get out of the country has now been made even more difficult. DONATE If you would like to make a donation, find Mashal Rahmati on Twitter or on Paypal. Her family is one of the thousands trapped in Afghanistan, threatened by the harsh rule of the Taliban regime now that US troops are gone. "We all thought we had more time," said Rahmati about the Aug. 30 deadline. "We had no idea things would change completely in a span of 24 hours." Getting to the Kabul airport was also nearly impossible. Rahmati and her family are members of the Hazara ethnic group. Since the Taliban takeover, there has been concern that long-persecuted ethnic and religious minorities -- like the Shia Hazara -- will be targeted as they were under previous Taliban rule. Hazaras couldnt even get through the first Taliban checkpoints," said Rahmati. "Whenever they would see that theyre Hazara they would turn them away. It just wasn't possible to get through, so they were sheltering in place." To make matters worse, Rahmati's family has ties to the previous government in Kabul. This puts them in even more danger, forcing them to lay low while hearing horror stories of what's happened to others so far. "He said that a former colleague who worked at the presidential palace was captured by the Taliban, so they don't know whether he's dead or alive. He's just been black bagged and gone. Thats the reality that could happen to my family," said Rahmati. Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, including nine surrendering former government soldiers and a 17-year-old girl in Afghanistan's Daykundi province on Aug. 30, according to a new investigation by Amnesty International. "The Taliban extrajudicially executed nine of the Afghan National Defence Security Forces after they had surrendered, killings that appear to be war crimes. Two civilians were killed as they attempted to flee the area, including a 17-year-old girl shot when the Taliban opened fire on a crowd of people," Amnesty said in a news release on Monday, citing eyewitness testimony gathered as part of its investigation. Eleven of the victims of the Aug. 30 killings were former members of the Afghan National Defence Security Forces, and two were civilians, Amnesty reports. The killings are said to have taken place in Kahor village in the Khidir district of Daykundi province. Amnesty said it has verified images and video evidence recorded following the incident and laid out events in a timeline, beginning with the Taliban taking control of Daykundi province on Aug. 14. University of Oregon professor Dr. Anita Weiss said the history between the Taliban and Hazara is a violent one. "There have been many cases of Hazara in Baluchistan getting onto buses and either as they're leaving [Pakistan] and they go through Afghanistan a little bit before they get to Iran, there are cases of people being, you know mass slaughters of people on buses going there and especially coming back," said Weiss. Weiss is currently in Pakistan and said if an Afghan refugee can cross the border into Pakistan, theyre given a 30-day visa. But the situation is fluid with the Taliban closing their side of the border, and there's the risk of being turned away. This is the Afghan Taliban that are doing all the checking; they want to see whos crossing the border," said Weiss. Theyre less enthusiastic to help minority communities like the Hazara. There's also a high price to pay in order to get to safety. Where the big money comes in is to pay somebody to transport you, and the prices are exorbitant right now," said Weiss. "To pay someone at the border crossing, the Afghans to let you cross, and then of course resettlement within Pakistan. It's why back in Eugene, Rahmati is fighting to get money for her loved ones. She started a fundraiser because her family has no access to their money after the banks were shut down. Her goal is $50,000 but that is only the start. You need funds for attorney fees, for humanitarian parole visa application, filing fees," said Rahmati. Rahmati said she will not stop fighting until they are safely in the United States one day. From here in America, it feels far away; it feels very distant. But for me, its very very close to my heart," said Rahmati. If you would like to make a donation, you can follow the link to Rahmati's Twitter page here or the Paypal link here. If you would like to learn more about Hazara genocide you can visit: @stopthehazaragenocide Like so many of Maria Ressa's former CNN colleagues, I have followed her career with admiration and with more than a little concern for her safety. The indomitable journalist has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov. When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was asked, shortly before being sworn in, what he would do about the high murder rate of journalists, and declared, "Just because you're a journalist you're not exempted from assassination, if you're a son of a b*tch," I shuddered for one of the most courageous journalists I've ever known. But she kept on. Ressa, a Filipino American who spent nearly two decades at CNN, founded the online news organization Rappler in the Philippines in 2012. Since then, Duterte's government has done almost everything in its power to silence her and put Rappler out of business. But the most important thing everyone should know about her work is that it's about much more than the Philippines. As she has taken on the brutality of Duterte's rule, and faced down a relentless legal campaign, which has included her repeated arrest (the government had filed 10 arrest warrants against her, she said with seven legal cases still pending), Ressa has become a fighter for the right of fact-based journalists everywhere to do their job, which means she is struggling for everyone's right to know the truth. She is now an icon in the drive to defend democracy against autocrats who manipulate public opinion, misuse the legal system against perceived enemies, unleash hordes of social media followers against their critics, who distort the truth and flood society with fake news, accusing those telling the truth of lying. It's Big Lies and small lies -- the kind familiar to many Americans by now -- designed at creating a morass of confusion to serve the demagogue's purpose. In other words, Ressa is fighting everyone's fight. I've been following her career and writing about her plight for years, through her arrests, the threats against her and her rising profile on the global stage. I never saw her seek the limelight, but she has deservedly achieved fame. That's not only because she's good at her job, but because her struggle resonates within the great conflict of our time, the world's drift toward autocracy, and the efforts of millions of people across the planet to save democracy. A free press is a bigger part of that struggle than it has ever been. According to Reporters Without Borders, journalism is "totally blocked or seriously impeded in 73 percent" of the 180 countries it ranks. This is a global battle, and Ressa, Muratov, and many other journalistic heroes, are literally risking their lives to win it. For those of us who saw Ressa's dogged earlier years as an international reporter for CNN, this is hardly surprising. She was CNN's Manila bureau chief, later Jakarta bureau chief. She covered Asia with an intensity, integrity and courage that foreshadowed her stature today. It is not an overstatement to say there was no dictator, no terrorist, no coup plotter she was afraid to upset. She got the story, even if it made powerful, dangerous men angry. Perhaps her diminutive size (she is 5' 2") caused them to underestimate her -- a phenomenon I've experienced. Perhaps that's why Duterte thought he could easily brush her off. When he first came to power, he thought Rappler could be helpful. A pioneer in social media manipulation, Duterte spoke to Rappler to reach the Facebook crowds. But then Rappler started reporting on Duterte's vicious "war on drugs," a campaign that human rights groups confirm has killed thousands of people without any semblance of due process. (For a horrifying look at how Duterte weaponized the social media mobs to hound her, click on this investigation.) The efforts of Muratov, editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, are no less heroic. Muratov founded the paper with a group of journalists back in 1993, and they have managed to continue their vital investigative work even as Vladimir Putin's regime crushes other truth-tellers. Muratov told the TASS news agency that the award belongs to "those who died defending the people's right to freedom of speech." Some may question whether the battle for free speech and for a free press belongs in the same category as the quest for peace, the formal objective of the Nobel Peace Prize. The answer is an unequivocal yes. Misinformation kills. Disinformation has started wars. Without journalism, without a clear distinction between fact and fabrication, we cannot hold people to account, we cannot obtain the knowledge to protect against those who would sacrifice their countries and their people to gain, increase or keep power. When truth is inaccessible, freedom begins to fade and peace becomes elusive. I'm glad and grateful that my friend Maria Ressa has made it this far. Bravo, Maria and Dmitry! Bravo, and thank you. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. COQUILLE, Ore. A teacher at Coquille High School is facing child pornography charges. A search warrant was served Wednesday night at the home of Kory Sturgess, 31, following an investigation, police said. While Sturgess is a math teacher at the high school, police said there are no reports of inappropriate physical contact with students or youths in the area. They also said they dont have any indication that the people in the photographs are from the Coquille area or Coos County, but the investigation is ongoing. Sturgess has been cooperating with the investigation. He was taken to the Coos County Jail on charges of first and second-degree encouraging child sex abuse. If you have any information, contact police at 541-396-2114. ASTORIA, Ore. - The Tillamook County Sheriff's Office said a husband and wife are dead after their sailboat capsized off the Oregon coast on Sunday. 76-year-old Shirley Payne and 79-year-old Allen Payne set sail early on October 3rd and were headed to San Francisco, according to their son. The 42' sailboat capsized and ran aground on Nedonna Beach south of Manzanita. Authorities said that around 8:20 p.m. Sunday, they received reports of a capsized sailboat north of Rockaway, just south of the south Nehalem Jetty. Rockaway Fire-Rescue, Garibaldi Fire-Rescue, Nehalem Bay Fire-Rescue, Tillamook Ambulance, and the US Coast Guard responded as well. Fire crews found Shirley on the beach where she was unable to be resuscitated. US Coast Guard crews continued searching the area for survivors with two 47' foot motor lifeboats. The capsized 42' sailboat, registered out of Astoria, became partially beached and USCG personnel were able to gain access to the vessel and found Allen's body. The husband and wife were believed to be the only people on board the vessel at the time of the incident. This investigation continues. EUGENE, Ore. -- Most hospitals across the state are in crisis mode thanks to the pandemic. Now, new vaccine mandates aren't helping when it comes to staffing. The state said there are currently 15,000 health care job openings. Cory Miner, dean of LCC's health professions school, said their students could fill these job openings once they graduate. "The organizations themselves, the agencies, the hospitals, the various places are having to do whatever they have to do to maintain a workforce," Miner said. "The bigger issue is just needing to have a healthy pipeline of students who can enter that workforce." LCC's registered nurse program takes three years to complete. "We have a lot of spots that are available, and we are training a lot of students, but the need is still there," Miner said. Miner told KEZI some students opted out of their programs once the vaccine mandate was put in place for health care workers. However, Miner said the majority of students are very excited to move forward and are eager to start filling up those job openings. School officials said this year's LCC nursing class is the largest to ever go through the program. "I think they are excited to get started," said Maggie Kurit, the nursing director at Lane Community College. She said there's been no change in attitude in this year's students compared to years prior. "They just want to get through school, pass their classes and become a nurse," Kurit said. That's exactly what nursing student Chelsea Santos told KEZI as she's preparing to head into the hospitals after she graduates in 2023. "You just have to roll with it, and you have to do your best to protect yourself and everybody else," Santos said. She encouraged her fellow peers to "keep on truckin." Nursing program officials said they're predicting 90 students will graduate in June 2023. According to the labor department, the median pay for RNs in the US is about $75,000 a year. However, the pandemic has upped those incomes in some areas. NORTH BEND, Ore. A man accused of murdering four people in North Bend this summer is now officially facing kidnapping charges. Oen Nicholson, who was extradited to Oregon from Wisconsin in August, allegedly forced a Springfield woman to drive him across the country after he killed three people and critically injured a fourth, who later died. MORE: AUTHORITIES ESTABLISH TIMELINE OF NORTH BEND MURDERS, SPRINGFIELD KIDNAPPING The kidnapping charges were filed as a separate case in Coos County, and the state is filing a motion to consolidate the murder and kidnapping cases. On July 18, Nicholson allegedly killed his father, Charles Nicholson, 83, at the RV campground near the Mill Casino in North Bend. He then allegedly took his father's pickup truck, hit and killed Anthony Oyster, 74, and hit wife Linda Oyster, 73, who later died of her injuries. He then reportedly drove to a nearby marijuana dispensary where police say he shot and killed Jennifer Davidson, 47. RELATED: OEN NICHOLSON PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN COOS COUNTY COURT Thats when police say he made his way along Highway 126, but its not known how he made his way to Springfield after he crashed the truck near Noti. Laura Johnson, 34, went missing from the Cabelas parking lot on Gateway Street in Springfield while on her lunch break, and police say over the many, many miles she drove Nicholson, she convinced him to turn himself in to Wisconsin authorities. Weather Alert ...FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON EXPECTED FOR MANY TOWNS LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO FRIDAY MORNING... ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 10 AM PST FRIDAY... * WHAT...Wet snow expected. Total snow accumulations 1 to 3 inches with highest amounts above 2000 feet. Local accumulation up to 4 inches possible on the West Plains between Airway Heights and Davenport. Snow may mix with rain at times below 2000 feet. * WHERE...Rockford, Spokane Valley, Worley, Coeur d'Alene, Cheney, Fairfield, Hayden, Post Falls, Airway Heights, Downtown Spokane, and Davenport. * WHEN...From 4 PM this afternoon to 10 AM PST Friday. * IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions. The hazardous conditions could impact the Friday morning commute. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions for the state you are calling from can be obtained by calling 5 1 1. && Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. To subscribe, click here. Already a subscriber? Click here. Every day, Irish Water and Kilkenny County Council work collaboratively to ensure communities and businesses around the county receive the best quality water supplied to their taps. This work is often challenging as the network and assets are ageing and can be problematic. Todays announcement that Glan Agua has been awarded the contract for the Kilkenny Regional Water Supply Scheme is a significant step forward for the city and countys future water supply and will improve the security of water across Kilkenny City and environs for over 28,000 people. Sean Twohig is Irish Waters Capital Programme Regional Lead: Todays announcement is great news for Kilkenny. Currently, Kilkenny City and its environs are serviced by two separate water treatment plants at Troyswood and Radestown. The existing Radestown Water Treatment Plant provides for slow sand filtration followed by disinfection but is unable to remove Trihalomethanes (THM) precursors and is currently on the EPAs Remedial Action (RAL) list. The existing Troyswood Water Treatment Plant also requires a significant upgrade to provide robust water treatment facilities. In addition, the raw water intake at Troyswood is also inaccessible in periods of flooding which causes a lot of issues. The existing treatment plants also have inadequate capacity to cater for future growth in Kilkenny City and its environs so Irish Water is extremely happy to finally bring this project to the fore. This project will benefit communities and businesses for generations to come, so it is something to celebrate. The 30m investment will take 2 years to complete. The upgrading and increase in capacity at the treatment plant at Troyswood will equip the plant to then become the primary water treatment plant facility for Kilkenny City. A new 2.9 km watermain from Troyswood to the Radestown site will connect to the existing service reservoirs and enable the Radestown plant to be decommissioned. Homes and businesses need not worry however, as the works are being carried out, water supply will continue to flow. Councillor Fidelis Doherty, Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council was also delighted with the announcement: The appointment of Glan Aqua to upgrade Kilkenny Citys water supply is fantastic news for the City. It will increase water capacity and ensure high quality water supply for future growth of housing and businesses over the next 40 years. This will include current planned housing developments in the Breagagh Valley (West) and Loughmacask (North) of the City, the re-development of the former Brewery site the Abbey Quarter in the City Centre and business parks adjacent to the Kilkenny Ring Road. Eamon Gallen, Irish Water's General Manager echoed the thoughts of Cathaoirleach Doherty; "The Kilkenny Regional Water Supply Scheme illustrates Irish Water's committment to providing the key infrastructure in Ireland to promote social and economic development. This project will also ensure that the water supply is removed from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Remedial Action List (RAL) and that the commuities and businesses who will benefit from the works will enjoy a more robust and secure water supply into the future." John Hurley, Kilkenny Chamber, CEO, is acutely aware of the importance of a robust water supply for businesses: We are extremely pleased to hear of todays announcement by Irish Water. This is an initiative of huge importance for Kilkenny. Infrastructure projects of this type provide an essential platform and service for businesses to thrive and to prosper and will place Kilkenny head and shoulders above competitors in relation to attracting business. Furthermore, the additional capacity will allow essential housing to be built which will cater for social and economic development for generations to come. Works will begin in the coming weeks. Irish Water continues to work currently, with our local authority partners, contractors and others to safeguard the health and well-being of staff and the public and to ensure the continuity of drinking water and wastewater services. Irish Waters customer care helpline is open 24/7 and customers can call us on 1800 278 278. Customers can also contact us on Twitter @IWCare with any queries. Here's what made the front page of the Kilkenny People on October 8, 1971 - 50 years ago this week Over 250 houses and cottages are either being built or planned by Kilkenny Co Council at present. Approximately 50 have been completed in recent months. And sites have been acquired or are being negotiated for in nine county areas for further schemes. This was the happy news given to a special housing meeting of Kilkenny County Council on Monday. The biggest scheme is the proposed erection of 100 houses at Newpark, Kilkenny. Mondays meeting was told that on the advice of the Councils consulting architect and the Co Engineer a low type cost house (approx 10 per cent cheaper than normal) had been accepted and agreed to by the Department of Local Government for the Newpark scheme. Thirty similar type of houses are to be built in Graignamanagh. Houses under construction at present are - 24 in Bennettsbridge which are almost complete; 20 in Castlecomer, scheduled to be completed at the end of March next year; 12 at Thomastown which have just been started as part of an 18 house extension; three at Callan which are nearing completion; and six at Kilcreene which are prototype houses and are now well advanced. Rural cottages are being built in Uskerty, Coon, Kyle, Shankill, Rathcash, Busherstown, Jamestown, Robinstown and Hoodsgrove. Up to the end of March this year, the Council had provided 27 chalets and three mobile homes for elderly people. And since then, a further seven chalets and three mobile homes have been provided. Since March also, 10 houses have been provided in Mullinavat; 14 in Thomastown and three in Callan. Four rural cottages have also been built. The following plans for the future have already been made: Gowran: A layout for 14 houses has been prepared and accepted by the Department of Local Government. Freshford: A scheme of 24 houses has been advertised for tender. Two house types are involved. Johnstown: A site for four houses at Johnstown has been surveyed. The Council is awaiting a submission from a contractor for the erection of the houses. The following is the situation for the acquisition of land for future housing schemes: Goresbridge - A fully serviced three acre site has been acquired. Bennettsbridge - The existing site will accommodate eight more houses. Mooncoin - Negotiations are in progress for the acquisition of a site. Castlecomer - The existing site will accommodate 40 more houses. Ballyragget - The site on which the original houses were erected will accommodate further houses. Mullinavat - The acquisition of a site for further houses is being negotiated. Stoneyford - Land is now available for a housing scheme. Callan - The acquisition of a site for further houses is being negotiated. OVERJOYED KILKENNYMAN An overjoyed Kilkennyman, Mr Eamonn O Faolain, Wyattville, Killiney, Co Dublin, was celebrating this week after winning 26,000 in the Irish Sweeps, Cambridgeshire, when the 10/1 chance King Midas coasted to victory in an exciting finish on Saturday. Mr O Faolain, who is editor of Dail Debates, was formerly a journalist with the Kilkenny People. He sold a half share of his ticket to Dublin bookmaker Terry Rogers for 1,600 before the race. He is author of An Lann Toledo, an historical romance in Irish. His first purchase will be a new house for his daughter, Maeve, who plans to get married shortly. Mr O Faolain watched the race on television. Other Kilkenny people to share in the luck of the Cambridgeshire draw were Mr George Frisby, Acres, Mullinavat, his wife Josie, a daughter and Mrs James Frisby, Lismatigue, a daughter-in-law. They won 375 when their horse, Richboy, finished fourth. BORRIS MAN SHOT IN BELFAST A Borris man has been shot dead in a gun battle in Belfast. He is Patrick Daly, formerly of Cournellan. Mr Daly, who was 57, was visiting friends in the Linden Street area of Belfast on Sunday when he was caught in crossfire while a military patrol was searching houses. Mr Daly, who lived at Green Acres, Lurgan Road, Moire, Co Armagh, had been on temporary duty in Belfast as an inspector for the Ministry for Agriculture. He is survived by his wife and family in Moire, and his mother and brother in Cournellan, Borris. It all started with a LinkedIn message. Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz first connected with Frances Haugen, now known as the Facebook whistleblower, late last year. He was trying to meet more sources at Facebook to learn about how the company managed content on its platforms around the 2020 election. He tried "the old LinkedIn spamming approach to source building," he called it in an interview on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast. That's when reporters use the professional social network to message dozens of employees in the hopes of hearing back from one or two. I "did not hear back from anyone for a month," Horwitz said. But then, in December 2020, Facebook dissolved its civic integrity team, which had been charged with thorny issues about election interference and overall safety around the election. "The day that I first heard from Frances was the day that the civic team got disbanded," Horwitz said. Listen to the whole podcast here: He eventually earned Haugen's trust - and access to a trove of internal research from the company. But "the first thing that happened was, she vetted the hell out of me," he said. It was clear that she was thinking about speaking out, but "I had no idea at the time that she was going to do something this substantial and this methodical." Horwitz said he learned that Haugen was deeply troubled by Facebook's impacts around the world. She raised this point in her Congressional testimony on October 5: "My fear is that without action, divisive and extremist behaviors we see today are only the beginning," she said. "What we saw in Myanmar and now in Ethiopia are the opening chapters of a story so terrifying no one wants to read the end of it." But in her initial conversations with the Journal reporter, she wasn't expecting to speak on Capitol Hill and become a familiar face to millions of people. Following the dialogue on LinkedIn, the reporter and the source met in person and went for a "walk in the woods" in the hills near Oakland, California. Haugen tried to figure out his motivations and vice versa. And she suggested a pseudonym, "Sean," as a tribute to a recently deceased friend. Horwitz began to tell his editors about what "Sean" was sharing with him. And the Facebook Files series was born. Looking back now, Horwitz says, Facebook Files was "the most important thing I've ever worked on." And it's not over yet -- he says he could easily write many thousands more words right now. He confirmed that there are more stories in the works. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Click here for updates on this story BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Theres a disturbing new trend on TikTok that has kids assaulting teachers. I think its ridiculous it doesnt really make any sense, said college student, Lana Cotton. For the month of October, students are encouraged to slap a teacher and run away without getting caught. I know I wouldnt do it, said Baltimore City student, Yvonne Jackson. The trend is putting schools here in Maryland and nationwide on high alert. Not only is this a personal danger to that teacher, its also a terrible danger to the educational process, said Maryland delegate, Eric Ebersole. State delegate Eric Ebersole said multiple school districts have already fallen victim to the trend including East Middle school in Caroll County. Thursday, the principal sent out a warning letter to parents saying negative ramifications can include personal safety, law enforcement involvement, and school discipline. I believe it is not only an obstructive issue, but it has begun to escalate into a safety issue with the school, said Ebersole. Every month, TikTok users post a new challenge online. Last months was called Devious Licks, where students vandalized school property. They basically take the napkins and put it all over the floor in the bathroom and take the soap dispensers and take the soap out of it they pee on the floor, said Jackson. Future challenges include kissing someone elses girlfriend, destroying school signs and hurting a female. Students like Lana Cotton believe these challenges go too far. I think its dumb. I wouldnt do it just because I dont want to get in trouble, said Cotton. In a tweet, TikTok called the trend an insult to educators. They denied it being a trend on TikTok and said if at any point it shows up, the content will be removed. In the meantime, school officials are asking students to report any behavior. Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform. MASON CITY, Iowa - A Mason City business rocked by a fatal car accident is enjoying an overwhelming amount of support. The longtime owners of Andersen's Market, Chris and Anita Andersen, were killed in a head-on collision near Colwell last month. Their son Mike and daughter Susan continue to own and run the business, which they've done since purchasing it from their parents in 2016. Though manager Tina Christensen has worked at the market since April of this year, she's known the Andersen family for about 40 years. Since the accident, she says the support from those both locally and elsewhere of their memories of the Andersens and the impact the couple had has been heartwarming. "Every person that comes in has a beautiful story to tell. Everybody wants hugs. There have been people on vacation that have come back. We're still getting cards...it's been absolutely wonderful. All of the different people we see and that have known them for many, many years or have known them for a few years through the store, or going to auctions, antiquing, and all kinds of beautiful and fun things that they have done." She feels the couple is still watching over the beloved business. "Today, it's a little rainy out. Anita's helping me water. and I love it. I go outside, you can see Chris and Anita everywhere you look, and I know customers can see it too. That, to me, means the world." One thing that employees are still holding true is making every customer feel like they're a part of the family. "Every time that someone comes out, we try to make sure you have the best experience, you know the most experience by the time you leave. Every single person is part of our family, in one way or another." Despite the loss, Christensen says business has been booming during this fall. "It's like a big party. It's like, 'how can I help you?' 'Look at the pretty things you found.' The people are here to buy the beautiful things we have and the produce that we have." As a thank you to customers, Andersen's is hosting their annual Halloween party October 16 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.. It will include pumpkin decorating and grab bags. NEW YORK A panel of vaccine experts will meet in early November to consider whether to recommend the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children younger than 12. The Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices scheduled a two-day meeting for Nov. 2-3, health officials said Friday. The Pfizer topic is expected to take up part of the agenda. The experts are anticipating the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will have decided by then whether to authorize use of the Pfizer vaccine for children between ages 5 to 11. The committees job is to help the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention develop recommendations for doctors and the public about which vaccines should be used and how they should given. Currently, Pfizer vaccines are authorized only for people 12 and older. MASON CITY, Iowa - The dreary fall weather Thursday didn't dampen the celebration of a significant milestone in the efforts to revitalize downtown. The ribbon was officially cut on the Principal Pavilion during a public ceremony Thursday afternoon. The pavilion, located at the northern entrance to Southbridge Mall, consists of both outdoor and indoor spaces, and will be the new home of Tuba Christmas, the Mason City Municipal Band, Friday Night Live and other live performances. The planning for the pavilion began in 1999. In that time, the pavilion committee looked at several locations for a new venue to replace the bandshell at East Park, and four members have passed away. Despite these challenges, Mayor Bill Schickel spoke highly of the committee's work and dedication to making the new venue a reality. "They've overcome a lot of obstacles, but they've shown us perserverance, and this is the end result. A great performance area, a great gathering area for Mason City." In addition, he's upbeat about the opportunities the pavilion will offer to the larger rebirth of the River City. "When you look around, we're already seeing new storefronts, new housing and new jobs being created in the area. That's the additional benefit." If you are interested in reserving the pavilion for your event, contact Mason City Parks and Recreation at 641-421-3673. The Med-City welcomed four new businesses this week, with three located along North Broadway Avenue. Janky Gear, The Fit Loon, Wear Local and Knotty Woodpecker opened their doors to the public this week. Paige Jehnke is the owner of Janky Gear and said the COVID-19 pandemic was her inspiration to open a business. "I actually have a background in marine engineering, so I was on a ship when COVID broke out and we were locked down. I decided that I am going to start writing a business plan," Jehnke said. Janky Gear is a consignment store that sells affordable outdoor gear to a market that needs it, according to Jehnke. Owner of Wear Local, Ryan Froh, said after six years of being in the custom apparel business, he decided it was time to open a retail store. "We have been reinspired by COVID, so I have been doing custom apparel, custom wall murals things like that for businesses for the past few years and then I started a business this last year, Wear Local Clothing, where it is a retail side of it," Froh said. Froh said half of the proceeds made from Wear Local are given back to the small business community. ROCHESTER, Minn. - It's time to dust off those old coats you don't wear anymore and donate them to a good cause. We've been extremely lucky with the warmer weather we've had here recently. But, unfortunately, it won't be sticking around all winter long. Every year, the Rochester Salvation Army hosts a one-day coat drive where anyone can donate winter coats they no longer wear. The catch is, donations need to be heavy, winter outerwear. Rebecca Snapp with the Salvation Army said while it is fall right now, they don't need any fall clothing. She does say however if there's something specific you're in need of for this winter, calling beforehand is always a good idea. "If we get through this coat collection and there's a specific need for a certain size of coat or for a certain gender or for kids coats, something like that. If we don't have people calling in advance, we don't know that we're going to need those ahead of the distribution," explained Snapp. "So, that's really helpful to us. But no, we want it to be as low barrier as possible. We don't want anyone to struggle to get a coat when it's just such a basic need." It has to be in pretty fair condition, of course. Snapp said if they can get a thousand coats, then the shelter will be in good shape for this winter. "It goes by really quickly and there's a significant number of people that come. And it's people that get coats not just for themselves, but for their families. Kids that need coats or people that have elderly relatives living with them, things like that," she explained. "So, we don't think about those situations. We don't think about people coming and getting 10 coats for their family, but that happens." The coat drive is happening at Hy-Vee Barlow Plaza on Saturday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. The coat distribution is taking place Thursday, October 14th at the Salvation Army. Volunteers are still needed for that event. BEHALTO, Ill. (AP) Two more people have been charged in connection with an August crash that killed three members of a southwestern Illinois A handful of business owners in Springfield, Missouri banded together to pay for the billboard. One of the business owners said the billboard is a sarcastic attempt to motivate people to get back to work. Two Easy Ways To Subscribe! The Kodiak Daily Mirror offers full-service, five-day a week subscriptions with home delivery in addition to unlimited access to our online services (including our e-Edition). Online-access-only subscriptions include unlimited access to the Mirror's online services without delivery of the printed newspaper. (Note: New users: You must register and login before purchasing a subscription. Kokomo, IN (46901) Today A mix of clouds and sun with gusty winds. High near 40F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 24F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. According to the most recent data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people are receiving a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine each day than are getting their first shot or are becoming fully vaccinated each day. US President Joe Biden gestures as he delivers remarks on the debt ceiling from the State Dining Room of the White House on October 4, 2021 in Washington, DC. Hyundai Heavy Industries developed the world's first LNG-powered container ship. Courtesy of Hyundai Heavy Industries By Kim Hyun-bin The European Union (EU) has been holding back on giving its approval for Hyundai Heavy Industries' (HHI) merger with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME). The merger process has taken close to three years. The EU has made a broad consensus not to approve the merger, citing monopoly concerns in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipbuilding industry, sources and officials familiar with the issue said. HHI and DSME are the top two leading companies in the LNG shipbuilding sector. "The EU has reached a broad consensus not to approve the merger. As expected, the possible monopolization of the LNG sector has become a big cause for concern, with the official decision to be made around the year end," a senior industry official said. Industry sources say that although the EU disapproves of the merger, it does not prevent the two companies from going through with it, though it could hinder future business with EU member states. In 2019, HHI requested approval for its planned acquisition of DSME from China, Kazakhstan, Singapore, the EU, Japan and South Korea. So far, only China, Singapore and Kazakhstan have given the green light. Because the EU holds the key to the entire process, in terms of the region's market influence and size, HHI is said to have offered the EU a remedy plan so as to ensure them that the merged entity won't hurt fair market competition. While HHI vowed to freeze the cost of LNG ships over a certain period and clarified its intention to transfer some of its LNG vessel-related technology in exchange for receiving EU approval, its offer reportedly failed to impress the EU. "So will Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) sell off other affiliates to seal the deal? In the current state, it will be difficult to do so, but the EU is a huge market for them to ignore, so they will have to consider selling part of their assets," another industry source said. The continued delay in the EU's decision has worsened the situation for KDB and HHI, as DSME's profitability continues to slump. DSME's sales for the first half of the year dropped 44.7 percent year-on-year. "We cannot reveal the specifics of the screening process, but we are doing all we can to secure approval for the merger," an HHI official said. Auburn, IN (46706) Today Cloudy. A few flurries or snow showers possible. High near 40F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight Considerable cloudiness. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 28F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. (PLATTE CITY, Mo.) A three-year process for Platte City and county officials came to an end Thursday afternoon, as five gambling machines were publicly destroyed in accordance with Missouri law. The so-called "No Chance Gambling" machines are illegal in the state. Kevin Chrisman, police chief for Platte city said he saw the machines in operation at some area convenience stores in 2018. "Right after we saw the machines, we coordinated right away conversations with the Platte County Prosecutor's Office to discuss next moves," Chrisman said. Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd charged the machines' owner, Integrity Vending LLC, with promoting gambling. The company was found guilty last year and was ordered to pay a fine of $7,500 dollars. Missouri law prevents gambling outside of regulations set by the state's gaming commission, Zahnd said the money collected by the machines is not regulated and doesn't go towards Missouri schools. "That's a problem in the state of Missouri," Zahnd said. "That's why we took on this case. We want the public to see that these machines will never go back into circulation." County officials and state representatives hope the public destruction of the machines sends a clear message about No Chance Gambling machines. Zahnd recommends Missourians only gamble at state-sanctioned riverboat casinos in the state, and not convenience stores and/or other places where No Chance Gambling machines could be found. According to Zahnd, an estimated 14,000 gambling machines were in operation in Missouri at their peak, including 11 seized by the state in 2020 by the Missouri State Highway Patrol in Country Club Village. CODY, Wyo. - An investigation is ongoing at Red Pole Pit, west of Cody, after some large rocks used for rip-rap were recently taken from the pit. The Wyoming Department of Transportation reminds residents that removing gravel, rocks and other items from state-owned or state-leased gravel pits is illegal. State-owned and state-leased gravel pits are clearly labeled at their entrances with signs, according to Wyoming Department of Transportation maintenance foreman Jim Berry. "Please respect state property," Berry said. "Thanks to everyone for their understanding." LEWISTOWN, Mont. - When the South Moccasin Fire continued to grow to over 10,000 acres, so did the small-town generosity with donations for firefighters and livestock rescues at area ranches. The Montana DNRC Incident Commander David Hamilton said they were dealing with a shortage of firefighters and resources from the start of the South Moccasin Fire as four other fires around the state spread quickly or reignited due to dry and hot weather conditions. Hamilton said that October is technically not in fire season and many DNRC summer staff were college kids and other workers who had gone back to their regular jobs. The local fire departments such as the Moore, Lewistown and Hilger were first on scene doing what they could to slow the quick spreading fire in their jurisdictions. Montana DNRC firefighters set up a makeshift campsite at the Fergus County Fairgrounds as more resources from around the state began to arrive and were greeted by dozens of community volunteers and food donations at the 4-H Food Booth. Were just telling everybody that comes through the line, were saying, 'Fill your pockets, fill a box take stuff,'" Lewistown resident and volunteer Jennifer Saunders said. The South Moccasin Fire has drawn over 200 total fire personnel to Lewistown to fight the 12,800 acre wildfire. In the space of about six hours we received enough donations to feed 250 people lunch, dinner, breakfast and lunch the next day, donation organizer Chris Cooler said. Some of those helping hands stayed to help out and make sandwiches and organize donations into large piles around the 4-H Food Booth. Its just so heartwarming to see everybody that will jump in and get involved, so tons of volunteers and assembly lines making sandwiches and filling lunch sacks and its been wonderful, Saunder said. Lewistown resident Donna Martin watched area ranchers and farmers drive up dirt and gravel roads with trailers to help save livestock who were in the path of the fast-moving wildfire. "I had stopped and was talking to a gentleman and they were trying to find help getting their cows in and so more people showed up and we all just ended up pulling together and getting their cows off that pasture and we were like maybe a mile and a half, two miles away from the fire," Martin said. If you are interested in helping out with donations, organizers ask that you only donate money to the South Moccasin Fire Relief Fund on the Montana Winter Fair website here. More than 200 charged by USAO for illegal re-entry after deportation in September Have you seen the proposed redistricting maps for New Hampshire? What do you think of the plans? There are certain places you never want to find yourself. Among them: seeking shelter as a victim of domestic violence. So at the Citizens Against Domestic Violence (CADV) shelter in Camdenton, staff members have poured their hearts into making this safe-haven feel like home: the way home should be. Talk to Sheree Keely, Director of CADV-VOCs Lake of the Ozarks site, and shell tell you everything you never knew about domestic abuse at Lake of the Ozarks. With a background as a therapist, Sherees manner is both warm and professional. She can explain the cycle of abuse that victims experience and abusers utilize. And then she can elaborate on all the ways CADV helps victims from first providing them shelter and a safe-harbor, to then helping connect them to other resources such as legal help, job training, and long-term housing. Most of the people seeking safe-harbor at CADV stay often referred to as clients for a month or two; there are no rigid timelines imposed on victims of abuse, as CADV staff and volunteers respond to each persons needs in a more individual way. Sometimes a CADV client will stay for as long as six months, if thats what they need. Counselors and staff help them along the way. And after they leave, CADVs Outreach Program continues supporting clients: they currently have about 200 people theyre helping. CADVs shelter is remarkably well-designed for its very specific purpose. Security aboundsnot only security cameras, but exterior doors that remain locked, with individual entry approval by staff for visitors. Past the entry and business offices is the residence portion. Entering it feels like stepping out of an office into a home. The open-floor-plan living, dining, and kitchen areas are decorated with a warm, home-y feel. Clients share the refrigerator space (groceries are provided by CADV), and they organically take-on or delegate cooking and cleaning responsibilities. A large painting hangs on the living room wall: painted by a gifted young artist from the community. CADV Shelter Manager Amber Smith has played a major role in designing this place so that it feels like a home, not a barracks. Down the main hallway are bedrooms, comfortable, secure, and with simple but cozy decorative touches. Smith talks proudly of the new wood blinds on the windows and brand-new linens on all the beds. Most rooms have bunk beds; some spaces are set up for children, like the interactive play-room. Outside on the main patio, clients relax, enjoy fresh air and relax on recently-purchased outdoor furniture; children can play on the playground in the grass near the deck. Smith says clients love the outdoor area, and spend a large amount of time there. The shelter can support as many as 14-16 women and children at one time. However, the need is great, and Keely says they have plans to expand once the funds are available. For obvious reasons, men and women wouldnt be allowed to stay in the same building, but CADV does encounter men who have been subjected to domestic abuse and who need a shelter. So there are plans to grow the shelter to include separate male housing, whenever CADV can afford it. How To Help At the CADVs annual Brunch, coming to the Lodge of Four Seasons on Oct. 13, community members and businesses join in the mission, by attending the popular event that brings glamorous themes, superb food and drink, and stories from survivors that help connect every person in the room to the important work CADV is doing. The brunch is the organizations biggest fundraiser, and 100% of funds raised go directly toward supporting victims and their families. View Brunch Sponsorships: http://www.cadv-voc.org/brunch.html Another unique opportunity CADV affords businesses is the chance to earn huge tax credits upon donating to the organization. The Missouri Department of Economic Development grant can provide 70% tax credits for donors, a win/win for those needing to offset tax liability and wanting to help the vulnerable in our community. For more information call Sheree Keely at (573) 745-1344. Businesses can also help by sponsoring rooms. Walk the hallway at CADV and youll see placards outside some of the residents rooms displaying the name of a Lake area business or individual who chipped in to help make that room a comfortable place for a person fleeing domestic violence. Other businesses can help by donating services to help support CADV clients: from free haircuts to dental work to job training to automotive repair. And, members of the community can volunteer to help, too. Sheree and the CADV staff emphasize it takes a community to help support victims of domestic violence, and to help them know they are not alone. Learn how to help or how to get help at cadv-voc.org. WATCH: LakeTV Feature On CADV A few minutes after opening on a Saturday morning, staff at Aram Public Library are pushing carts of books while patrons peruse the shelves and gaze at computer screens. As a steady stream of people flow in and out the door to the parking lot, Library Director Michelle Carter stops and shares a few words with everyone she meets, even striking a leisurely conversation with a man sitting at the bottom step of the main staircase facing Walworth Avenue. For over 110 years, the library has served the Delavan community as more than a stately, brick-and-stone monument to knowledge and fellowship. Now, a big change is on the horizon. In a few years, work could begin on an estimated $9 million addition/renovation to expand and preserve Aram. Thrilled is not an adequate enough word to describe how Carter feels about it. It is so desperately needed in the community, she said. Weve outgrown this space, and libraries have changed. Were way more community hubs now. Carter said Aram has the feel of a Carnegie library named after philanthropist businessman Andrew Carnegie, who donated funds from the 1880s through 1920s to have libraries built around the world. Some of the Carnegie libraries in the U.S. bear similarities to Aram, which has pronounced pillars flanking its main doors at the top of its Walworth Avenue staircase. Carter said her favorite feature is Arams tall windows, which looks to be carried over in the design for the proposed new main entrance off Fourth Street. This will have, I hope, more windows that you can see the green space outside, she said. Theres nothing like reading in a library when its raining, snowing all those nice cuddle weathers. Legacy of books One could say Aram Public Library was built because the community demanded it. Prior to a public library, the closest thing to it in Delavan was a plan provided by the Caxton Library Company of Chicago. In 1885, 100 people could pay $1 a year for two years under the Caxton plan, to have access to 200 books. The community believed a library was important and learned about the Caxton plan, said Ginny Hall, author of History of the Aram Library. While $1 was a lot of money in those days, books were considered to be essential, she said. Education was very important to the early settlers. Mrs. P.R. King, who owned the Villa Clare home on Delavan Lake, formed the Delavan Lake Library Association in 1889. King had several hundred books, and she lent them to people she knew around the lake, free of charge. Around 1906, Delavan residents began to talk about building a public library. The idea would receive a major push by James and Susan Aram. Born in 1813 in New York, James married Susan Rood in 1836 and moved to Ohio. In 1840, the Arams bought 200 acres of land in Delavan. A few years later, they sold the property and bought 300 acres near the south shore of Delavan Lake. Hall said they built a house in Delavan in 1863. James died in 1897. In his will were several gifts to the community, including one of $20,000 to establish a public library and reading room. The will would be activated once Susan died. She passed away in 1905. The library was to be named the Aram Public Library, as a memorial to Mary Elizabeth, Evaline and Marion Adell daughters of the Arams, all of whom died in early childhood. They wanted a lasting memorial to their daughters, said Hall, and books were a legacy to current and future generations. Books were essential at this time to the community and people, she said. People were so brave! Many came by boat through the Great Lakes to settle in Wisconsin, landing in Milwaukee. People actually walked from New England to Wisconsin. The Aram Library Committee selected the site at the corner of Walworth Avenue and Fourth Street in March 1906. Alexander H. Allyn agreed to give $5,000 toward the library if local residents could contribute a similar donation. They raised $5,280. Stewart & Hagen, of Janesville, was hired to build the library. The final cost of the library was $22,833.29. It was dedicated July 8, 1908, and it opened with 2,332 volumes. Expansions The current addition/renovation project is not the first time Aram underwent significant change. In the mid-1980s, plans were developed for a major expansion to the library. Back then, the library became handicapped-accessible and more than doubled in size from 5,024 to 12,116 square feet. Much of that space was gained in the construction of a lower level, which included an elevator and a new entrance off the public parking lot from Fourth Street. There was a groundbreaking ceremony July 11, 1990, on the project, which was finished about a year later. Today, Arams childrens library is housed on the lower level, as are rooms for meetings, circulation and technical services. Reading areas, computers, DVDs, CDs and more books can be found on the main floor. Once again, the library is at a crossroads. Additional space is needed to house meetings, community programs and materials. It lacks enough power outlets for patrons to plug in their devices. Some spaces are not suitable enough for strollers and wheelchairs. The new proposal calls for renovating the existing space, plus adding on an extra 21,028 square feet. Added by the project would be multiple rooms for events, designated areas for programs, workspaces, a centralized tech area, access to meeting rooms outside library hours and additional parking. While the Delavan Common Council recently adopted a resolution to move forward with the project, it is not yet a done deal, said Carter. Still, she is ready to start digging, and she believes those who made Aram possible over 100 years ago would feel the same. I think they would be pleased as punch to see the growth of the library and how we are still focused on supporting our users, our people, Carter said. I mean, thats what its really all about. For more about the history of Aram Public Library or its proposed addition/renovation, visit aramlibrary.org. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A southeastern Wisconsin bank is warning customers about a federal proposal that would require financial institutions to report additional bank activities to the IRS for any account holders with more than $600 in annual transactions. The proposal would require financial institutions to report to the IRS aggregate inflows and outflows on an annual basis from accounts with more than $600 in annual transactions. There is talk that the threshold could change to $10,000, but that would still affect anyone receiving or spending $10,000 or more in a year using a bank account. In an email sent out to customers on Tuesday, Community State bank President and CEO Scott Huedepohl said, This indiscriminate, comprehensive bank account reporting to the IRS could soon be enacted in Congress and would create an unacceptable invasion of privacy for our customers, and could harm small businesses. The email is part of a nationwide effort to fight the federal plan. Its a proposal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen defends as a way to catch tax evaders, but that Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janeville, calls an invasion of Americas privacy and also raises very serious cybersecurity questions. The proposal was included in the $3.5 trillion spending bill that is being debated in Congress. The IRS proposal was removed from the bill amidst criticism, but Yellen is still pushing for it and Republicans, including Steil, are concerned its going to be put back in. People sneak stuff in until the final hour, Steil said Thursday in a phone interview with the Lake Geneva Regional News. I remain concerned. Huedepohl said, if the legislation is approved, the federal government would have more information about how people spend their money. It just doesnt need to be done, and its something Im very adamant about, Huedepohl said when reached by phone. Most community bankers in America are adamant about it also. Your financial business is your own business. Its private, and nobody needs to know about it. Huedepohl said there are ways the federal government can obtain someones financial information if they need it. They can always get it if they need to subpoena something if theres a concern of illegal transactions, Huedepohl said. They already have the ability to get that done. We just dont need to turn it over across the board. It just doesnt make sense to me. As part of the letter to customers, Huedepohl encouraged residents to contact their representatives in Congress to oppose the change. Community State Bank has its headquarters in Union Grove and has branches throughout Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties. In a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee last month advocating for the proposal, Yellen said that compliance rates are under 50 percent for opaque sources of income-resulting in a disproportionate tax burden for complying taxpayers and a shortage of necessary funds for key national priorities. Existing empirical evidence confirms that the introduction of third-party reporting regimes is highly effective, Yellen said. Financial institutions already must report interest, dividend and investment income to the IRS. During a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington on Sept. 30, Yellen said this is a simple matter for banks that already file 1099-INT forms, and said, its two additional pieces of information, not transaction level data. I dont believe its an invasion of privacy, Yellen said. Steil said he is also concerned about mission creep. Once the federal government gets to one level they are going to try to go up and snag the next level, Steil said. The goal of the proposal to find more people cheating on taxes is correct, Steil said. But he said, There are better ways to do that than gross invasions of Americans privacy. Dennis Hines of the Lake Geneva Regional News contributed to this report. Lake Geneva officials are considering using tourism funding to help pay off borrowed money that the city used to help pay for the Riviera renovation project. The city council approved last December to sell about $9.42 million worth of bonds to borrow that same amount of money during the next three years to help pay for the Riviera renovation project and other upcoming city projects. About $4.36 million of the borrowed money is set to be used to pay for the Riviera renovations. Another $3.9 million is to be spent on capital improvement projects, and another $1.2 million will be used to purchase equipment and vehicles. Comptroller Karen Hall said because of the borrowed the money, the city's debt service is going to increase in 2022, which means the city's taxes also will increase. Hall proposed during the city council's finance, licensing & regulation committee budget workshop, Sept. 23, to transfer about $200,000 from the tourism fund to the debt service fund to help pay down the debt and to reduce the amount that taxes will be increased. "We can do this," Hall said. "I ran it by (City Attorney) Dan Draper, and he checked it out and since the Riviera is considered a tourism building/convention center, we can repay the debt from the tourism fund." The tourism fund initially was projected to have about $700,780 in revenues by the end of the year, but Hall said the fund had about $626,000 in revenues as of the end of August. The fund is projected to have about $900,500 in revenues by the end of 2022, but that amount also could be higher. Part of the reason for additional revenues in the fund is because the city council approved to increase the city's room tax rate from 5% to 8% in March. "We may be low in our projections, but we're kind of conservative," Hall said. "So that may change as we go through the month of October. We might have a better estimate, but the tourism fund is going to collect a lot more room tax next year." Hall said transferring money from the tourism fund to the debt service fund would have to be approved by members of the tourism commission. "I didn't put it in this budget, because I have to discuss it with the tourism commission," Hall said. "But I think it's kind of a smart move, because we know taxes are going to increase. But if we do this, it will not increase as much as we originally thought." Brian Waspi, president of the tourism commission, said the tourism commission would have to approve any money that is transferred from the tourism fund. "The tourism commission will need to vote on any grants or transfer of funds to municipal development-related projects including the Riviera, as we have done in previous years," Waspi said. "No decisions have been made." Waspi said the tourism commission could have more information regarding the proposed fund transfer by its Oct. 11 meeting. "Once the budgeting process is completed by the city, which should be prior to our next meeting, the tourism commission will be in a position to discuss our options," Waspi said. "I suspect this will be a topic discussed in our next few meetings, and I'll be better able to comment." Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Grand Craft Boats LLC, a manufacturer of mahogany watercrafts, is moving its headquarters and production operations from Holland, Michigan to Genoa City. Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes announced the move Thursday, Oct. 7. Wisconsins thriving manufacturing industry and world-class workforce continue to attract businesses from around the world, Evers said in a news release. Were excited that Grand Craft has decided to relocate to Wisconsin. The company joins a long list of exceptional craftsmanship and manufacturing in our state and they will assuredly be a strong addition to our state economy and the southeastern Wisconsin community. Patrick Gallagher, Grand Crafts president and chief executive officer, and Rose Gallagher, Grand Craft executive vice president, acquired the business in February 2021. Grand Craft will lease a 20,300-square-foot facility at 1021 Williams Road in Genoa City, which will serve as the companys headquarters and house its production operations. Grand Craft expects to employ 20 workers in Genoa City within three years. Wisconsin is a great fit for Grand Craft. We were particularly attracted by the strong workforce, as well as a business climate that values and encourages manufacturers like us, Patrick Gallagher said in a news release. Our products are a perfect match for Wisconsins deep tradition of lake recreation and enjoyment of the outdoors. Were thrilled to continue building our business here. WEDC is supporting the project by authorizing up to $125,000 in state income tax credits over the next three years. The actual amount of tax credits Grand Craft will receive is contingent on the number of jobs created and the capital invested in the project. We are pleased that Grand Craft will soon be making its beautiful boats in Wisconsin, Hughes said in the news release. The companys decision to relocate here is another example of how Wisconsin is able to attract manufacturers of innovative, best-in-class products because of its skilled workers, strong communities, and outstanding manufacturing infrastructure. Local government and economic development officials are excited about Grant Craft moving its headquarters to Genoa City. Recreation on Lake Geneva is a world-class draw, and the area is filled with other beautiful lakes, Walworth County Economic Development Alliance Executive Director Derek DAuria said in a news release. The area also has a deep base of manufacturing and a top-notch technical college. We are excited that the company chose Walworth County to locate its operations and headquarters. The Milwaukee 7 regional economic development organization also worked to attract Grand Craft to Wisconsin. Grand Craft is exactly the type of company that thrives in southeastern Wisconsin, M-7 Executive Director Jim Paetsch said in a news release. We have a strong and diverse regional economy that continues to add new companies and investment. We welcome Grand Craft and look forward to supporting its growth plans for years to come. A Maryland man accused of killing his pharmacist brother, his sister-in-law and an 83-year-old woman told his mother he wanted to "confront" his brother over "him administering COVID vaccines," according to charging documents obtained from Howard County District Court. Jeffrey Allen Burnham, 46, also allegedly told a tipster "that his brother was 'killing people with the COVID shot,'" according to the statement of charges obtained by CNN affiliate WBAL. Burnham's mother called the Cumberland Police Department over her son's "mental stability" on Sept. 29, according to the charging documents filed in Allegany County obtained by WBAL. That was the same day Cumberland Police found the body of 83-year-old Rebecca Reynolds. They said her car was missing. On Sept. 30, the Howard County Police Department said they were searching for Burnham in connection with the shooting deaths of his brother, 58-year-old Brian Robinette, and his sister-in-law Kelly Sue Robinette, 57, whose bodies were found that day in their Ellicott City home. Burnham was arrested Oct. 1 in Davis, West Virginia. Burnham was booked into the Allegany County Detention Center on October 5 where he is being held on charges of first degree murder and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle in connection with the Reynolds case, jail records show. Rebecca Reynolds' car was found near the Robinettes' home, the charging documents say, and the couple's Corvette was missing. Burnham is charged with two counts each of murder in the first and second degree, as well as the use of a handgun in the commission of a crime in the Robinettes' deaths, according to the statement of charges. CNN contacted the Allegany County Public Defender's Office and the Allegany County State's Attorney's Office for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. CNN's Christine Sever contributed to this report. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. After months of grim financial forecasts, University of Wisconsin System leaders presented a much rosier financial outlook this week as campuses settle into another school year shadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Im very comfortable being in this position today, Sean Nelson, System vice president for finance, told the UW Board of Regents during a Thursday meeting at UW-Oshkosh. I feel very hopeful that were going to come out of this pandemic perhaps even stronger than ever. Its quite the turnaround from last year, when campus officials peppered speeches with words like disaster and unprecedented and crisis. An annual report showing the unrestricted funds left on the books as of June 30 grew by $189 million from the previous year. Nelson attributed most of the increase to federal COVID-19 relief funding, a $300 million spending reduction and the state returning $45 million it initially asked the System to give back when budget projections looked particularly dire in the spring of 2020. The better-than-expected financial position prompted Regent Bob Atwell to ask what, if anything, should be done to make up for the financial harm caused by furloughing employees and laying off some staff. Those are campus-level decisions, Nelson said. UW-Madison has set aside $5 million for a bonus fund that will reward employees who made extra efforts during the pandemic. Chancellor Rebecca Blank said she expects the university this year will be in reasonably good shape. UW-Madison last fall projected $320 million in revenue losses and increased costs from March 2020 through June 2021. The actual budget hole turned out to be $226 million, Blank told faculty during her annual State of the University address earlier this week. Federal COVID-19 relief money covered about 20% of the universitys losses. A larger-than-expected incoming freshman class this fall also helped. Research grant awards grew by more than 15%, despite initial worries of a drop due to limited lab access in the early months of the pandemic. An unusually large number of faculty churned out new proposals, many of which were related to COVID-19. Even though a hiring freeze was in place for some time in 2020, UW-Madison has hired 80 new faculty over the past year. We have entirely absorbed the losses of the past year and a half of the pandemic, Blank said. That means were going into the current year with no overhanging budget problems from the pandemic. Emergency reserves The pandemic also put a spotlight on campuses so-called rainy day funds. Universities can normally tap such reserves during times of emergency. Republican lawmakers in 2013, however, forced campuses to start spending down the amount of money they keep on hand after noticing the System had about $1.05 billion set aside and carried from one year to the next without being clearly explained in financial reports. The System began producing detailed, campus-by-campus reports breaking down the accounts. Most of the money is already designated or planned for a specific program or building project. Several campuses by early 2020 had nearly depleted their emergency reserves, leaving them particularly vulnerable when the pandemic hit. The System as a whole by the end of the 2020 fiscal year had enough in reserves to cover about 32 days of expenses. The latest report covering the year that ended June 30 showed UW institutions with $977 million in balances that could support about 47 days of operating expenses. About 85% of the money is accounted for, leaving institutions with about $158 million in unrestricted reserves for an unexpected emergency roughly 2% of its roughly $6.5 billion operating budget. The System reported about $112 million in reserves a year ago. UW-Madison designated $33.6 million as true cash reserves to cover unexpected expenses. Thats up from the $24 million it had last year, according to System reports. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The head of a Republican investigation into Wisconsins 2020 election has backed off an initial request for subpoenas and interviews with mayors and city clerks in five cities, Madisons city attorney said Thursday. During the past week, retired state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who was hired by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to lead the investigation, requested a swath of election-related documents from city officials in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha representing hundreds of thousands of documents. Investigators also demanded interviews with the mayors and city clerks in those cities later this month. However, Madison City Attorney Michael Haas said he was notified Thursday by officials with the investigation that the subpoenas and interview requests have been canceled and the request now only pertains to records the city already has produced in response to public records requests. Haas said the same information was conveyed to officials in all five cities. Of course all of this could have been provided without a subpoena in the first place, Haas said. We do appreciate that they have recognized that the initial request would have been impossible to fulfill by (Oct.) 15. Haas said he was not sure if Gablemans change of course also applies to a subpoena issued last week to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Haas said investigation officials plan to follow up Friday with an email regarding the new request and they have reserved the right to request interviews or additional documents in the future. Mayors in Wisconsin dont play any role in administering elections, so its unclear what Gableman was hoping to learn from the latest round of subpoenas. In an interview Tuesday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gableman said, Most people, myself included, do not have a comprehensive understanding, or even any understanding, of how elections work. Democrats have decried the Gableman investigation as a farce and an attempt to undermine public confidence in elections. A recount and court decisions have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. Only four voters out of roughly 3 million who cast ballots have been charged with fraud. Regardless, Trump still refuses to concede defeat and has pressured GOP legislators to investigate election fraud. Vos hired Gableman in June at a cost of nearly $680,000 in taxpayer money for the one-party investigation. Gableman has said he planned to look into advice the bipartisan state Elections Commission gave to clerks, and donations the Facebook-funded nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life gave to Wisconsin communities, to help run the 2020 election. In a video last month, Gableman said hes not trying to overturn the election results, even though he told Trump supporters in November, without evidence, that he thought the election had been stolen. Gableman has not disclosed who is working for him. An email sent to clerks asking for records as part of Gablemans investigation came from a Gmail account under the name John Delta and included a document created by a former Trump administration official. Gableman, Vos and other city officials could not immediately be reached Thursday night. Massive request The subpoenas to the cities clerks and the state Elections Commission call for them to turn over all documents contained in your files and/or in your custody, possession, or control pertaining to the Election. Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl on Thursday provided one example of the strain Gablemans subpoena would put on her office. She said that whenever someone registers to vote online, the Elections Commission will send her an email, with a duplicate to her office, notifying her of the registration and including the voters date of birth, drivers license number, and last four digits of the voters Social Security number. Similar emails come in when someone requests an absentee ballot online, she said. All the emails combined are enough to overwhelm her offices email system, she said. Just prior to last years presidential election, her office had as many as 2,000 emails coming in per day from people registering to vote online, she said, and while she didnt have a grand total for how many registration and ballot-request emails her office received in 2020, her conservative estimate was about 100,000. If that is the case, our information technology professionals say it would take more than 10 days just to save these e-mail messages as pdf files, she said. And then we would need to redact the personally identifiable information. Mayor responds Reached Thursday evening after the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel first reported Gablemans rescission, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said she had not personally received notification that the subpoena had been rescinded, but if that were the case she called it good news. I hope this means he understands our Wisconsin clerks and poll workers did a great job running not only the November 2020 election but all elections in Wisconsin, she said. Rhodes-Conway on Thursday emailed a campaign fundraising appeal referencing Gablemans investigation. In the email, Rhodes-Conway said she is proud of how the citys elections are run while criticizing Gablemans request to appear behind closed doors at a strip mall in Brookfield, in reference to the location where clerks and mayors had been summoned for an interview. But we all know they arent really interested in the process of our elections they just didnt like the outcome, Rhodes-Conway said. And they especially dont like that Madison has consistently terrific turn out, providing the margin of victory in statewide elections. State Journal reporters Chris Rickert and Dean Mosiman contributed to this report. Abortions based on fetal attributes such as race, gender or health condition would be banned, and doctors who fail to assist a baby that is born alive after an attempted abortion could face prison time under Republican bills that received a hearing Thursday. Abortion rights activists said the controversial bills would limit access to abortion and womens health care, while anti-abortion activists said the measures would help preserve life and, in the case of the bill banning abortions based upon fetal attributes, stop what they view as a modern form of eugenics. Many of the bills in committee Thursday have been revived from the previous legislative session, when they were vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers. The provisions, supported by GOP lawmakers and some anti-abortion activists, are again expected to be vetoed by the governor, and Republicans dont have enough votes in the Legislature to override a veto. One of the GOP-authored abortion bills that received a hearing Thursday would require a health care provider who is present in the event a fetus survives an abortion or abortion attempt to exercise the same degree of professional skill, care and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child once born. The bills Assembly author, Rep. Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, said the legislation would ensure that should any baby being delivered in our state survive a botched abortion, that child cannot be gruesomely murdered after its delivery. Democrats say the bill is unnecessary because cases where a fetus survives an abortion attempt are rare. Wisconsin already bans abortions after 20 weeks, before the point of fetal viability outside the womb, and federal law provides legal protections to all babies once they are born, including those who survive an abortion attempt. Bill opponent Kristin Lyerly, a Green Bay doctor who serves as District 6 legislative chair for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said she believes the bill is aimed at cases where doctors induce labor because the mother or fetus has a profoundly serious medical issue. In such cases where the fetus survives, Lyerly said the legislation would force doctors to intervene with IVs and breathing tubes even in cases where the baby wont live long. These born alive bills are shameful, Lyerly said. These politicians who write these bills are playing with our heartstrings, making us think that we are just haphazardly performing abortions late in pregnancy. In reality, these babies that are born at this time are typically hospice babies, these are complicated decisions, these are families who are suffering, and this bill hurts them so much more than it could ever possibly help them. Under the proposed bill, doctors or health care professionals who violate the requirement to exercise professional skill, care and diligence when a baby is born alive in such circumstances would be guilty of a felony punishable by up to six years in prison, extended supervision and a fine up to $10,000. Doctors could face life imprisonment under the bill for intentionally causing the death of any baby born alive after an abortion. The mother in such a case could not be prosecuted. Democrats and abortion rights activists called the bills dangerous and extreme. They said the bills would limit access to abortion and womens health care services. These bills mirror efforts that we have seen in other states, and are part of an ongoing national and local push to chip away at access to abortion and other reproductive health care, said Rep. Lisa Subeck, D-Madison. Other abortion bills Another GOP-authored abortion bill would prohibit abortions based on factors such as a fetus sex, race or disability, particularly Down syndrome or other congenital disabilities. Another would require doctors to inform women planning to have an abortion induced by a drug regimen that the ingestion of the first drug in the regimen may not result in an immediate abortion and that, if the woman changes her mind after ingestion of the first drug, she may be able to continue the pregnancy with immediate medical and pharmaceutical intervention. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not support prescribing medication to reverse a medically induced abortion, citing a lack of scientific evidence. According to the group, so-called abortion reversal procedures are unproven and unethical. This is not evidence-based medicine, Lyerly said. This is quackery. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, the Assembly author of the bill, described it as one that would empower women with information. Another bill would require hospitals and clinics to provide the state with more information about the abortions they perform. Yet another bill lawmakers considered on Thursday would reduce public funding to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood by stripping away Medicaid funding. It would do so by preventing BadgerCare, the states Medicaid program for low-income people, from being used at such facilities, even for non-abortion related services. Challenges to Roe The bills come at a time when abortion rights activists and others are increasingly worried access to abortion could be severely restricted if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns or significantly revises Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that decided states cannot ban abortion before a fetus can survive outside of the womb, generally considered between 24 and 28 weeks. That precedent could be challenged in an abortion case the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear from Mississippi. Another law in Texas effectively banning abortions in that state put on hold this week by a federal judge could also make its way to the high court. If Roe v. Wade were completely overturned, abortion rights activists fear abortion would be banned in Wisconsin because the state has an existing 1849 abortion ban on the books that is unenforceable due to federal court decisions. The 1849 law criminalizes doctors who perform abortions. Under the law, performing an abortion is a felony punishable by up to six years of combined prison time and extended supervision. Wisconsins Natural Resources Board made no decisions Friday during a special meeting on lawsuits over wolf hunting as its leader asserted the boards independence amid tensions with the agency it oversees. Chair Fred Prehn said the board met with Department of Natural Resources legal counsel but took no action during the hour-long closed session to discuss lawsuits brought by conservation groups and Native American tribes. Six Ojibwe tribes have sued the board in efforts to stop the fall hunt, accusing the DNR of ignoring sound biological principles and mismanaging natural resources in violation of 19th century treaties with the U.S. government that guarantee the tribes a share of resources within the Ceded Territory of northern Wisconsin. A coalition of conservation groups has also sued in state court to stop the hunt and void the 2011 law mandating a hunt from November through February whenever wolves are not on the endangered species list. After the federal government removed wolves from the list in January, the DNR planned to hold a hunt in November 2021, but a Kansas-based hunter advocacy group sued, and a Jefferson County judge ordered a hunt in the final days of February, later than any previously sanctioned hunt. Hunters killed at least 218 wolves in less than three days, more than state and tribal quotas combined. Fridays online meeting was the boards first since August, when members approved a 300-wolf quota for the fall wolf hunt, more than double the number recommended by DNR wildlife officials. The DNR last week announced it had modified the quota to the original recommendation of 130 wolves, of which 56 will be allocated to the tribes, which have traditionally chosen to protect their share. Prehn has refused to give up his seat since his term expired May 1 and the Republican-controlled Senate has taken no steps to confirm Gov. Tony Evers pick to replace him, securing a majority for Republican appointees. Attorney General Josh Kaul has sought to remove him in a case likely to end up before the state Supreme Court. Prehn canceled the boards September meeting after DNR officials said they wouldnt participate because there were no items for board consideration. The board has not posted an agenda for a regular October meeting. This board will continue to meet whenever or wherever they choose without being inhibited, Prehn said. The newly appointed Foreign Minister Prof. G.L Peiris assumed duties at the Ministry today (18 August, 2021) at a simple ceremony graced by outgoing Foreign Minister and the new Minister of Education Dinesh Gunawardena; State Minister of Regional Cooperation Tharaka Balasuriya; State Minister of Women and Child Development, Preschools & Primary Education, School Infrastructure & Education Services Piyal Nishantha De Silva; Member of Parliament and General Secretary of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Sagara Kariyawasam; Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage and other officials. The Buddhist clergy led by the chief incumbent of the Bellanwila Rajamaha Viharaya Ven. Dr. Bellanwila Dhammaratana Nayaka Thero invoked blessings on the occasion. Thereafter, both incoming Minister Prof. G.L Peiris and outgoing Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena met the senior staff of the Ministry. Addressing the occasion, Minister Prof. G.L Peiris stated that he was pleased to be back at the Ministry after six years. He commended the outgoing Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena for the leadership provided to the Foreign Ministry during the last two years and stated that in all activities of the Foreign Ministry, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena ensured that Sri Lankas inherent self-respect and dignity was not compromised. State Minister of Regional Cooperation Tharaka Balasuriya and Foreign Secretary Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage welcomed the new Minister and stated that they looked forward to continue delivering on the mandate of the Foreign Ministry under his guidance. Both State Minister Balasuriya and Secretary Colombage thanked the outgoing Minister for his visionary leadership and guidance over the last two years. Foreign Ministry Colombo 18 August, 2021 Read more www.mfa.gov.lk Copenhagen, Oct 6 (AP) Swedish health authorities on Wednesday suspended the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for those ages 30 and under, saying the move was done out of precaution. The reason for the pausing is signals of an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle or the pericardium the double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the main vessels, Sweden's Public Health Agency said in a statement. The risk of being affected is very small. Also Read | Taliban Leader Anas Haqqani Glorifies Mahmud Ghaznavi and His Act of Breaking Somnath Temple Idol During 10th Century. Anders Tegnell, Sweden's chief epidemiologist, said they follow the situation closely and act quickly to ensure that vaccinations against COVID-19 are always as safe as possible and at the same time provide effective protection" against the disease. In July, the European Medicines Agency recommended authorizing Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 17, the first time the shot has been authorized for people under 18. Also Read | Shiba Inu Memecoins Prices Surge by 91 Percent in Past 24 Hours After Elon Musks Tweet. Moderna's vaccine was given the green light for use in anyone 18 and over across the 27-nation European Union in January. It has also been licensed in countries including Britain, Canada and the US, but so far its use hasn't been extended to children. To date, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the only one approved for children under 18 in Europe and North America. Hundreds of millions of Moderna doses already have been administered to adults. In a study of more than 3,700 children ages 12 to 17, the vaccine triggered the same signs of immune protection, and no COVID-19 diagnoses arose in the vaccinated group compared with four cases among those given dummy shots. Sore arms, headache and fatigue were the most common side effects in the young vaccine recipients, the same ones as for adults. US and European regulators caution, however, that both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines appear linked to a rare reaction in teenagers and young adults chest pain and heart inflammation. The Swedish health authorities said that the heart symptoms usually go away on their own, but they must be assessed by a doctor. The conditions are most common among young men, in connection with, for example, viral infections such as COVID-19. In 2019, approximately 300 people under the age of 30 were treated in hospital with myocarditis. Data point to an increased incidence also in connection with vaccination against COVID-19, mainly in adolescents and young adults and mainly in boys and men. New preliminary Nordic analyses indicate that the connection is especially clear when it comes to Moderna's vaccine, especially after the second dose, the agency said. The increase in risk is seen within four weeks after the vaccination, mainly within the first two weeks," it said. The Swedish agency said the vaccine from Pfizer is recommended for these age groups instead. Its decision to suspend the Moderna vaccine is valid until Dec. 1. (AP) VM (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New York, Oct 7 (AP) The US is gearing up for the flu season on top of the continuing COVID-19 crisis. Health officials urged Americans to get vaccinated against both the flu and coronavirus. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a yearly flu vaccination for just about everyone, starting with 6-month-old babies. Also Read | Afghanistan Gun Dealers Selling US Weapons Seized by Taliban: Report. Flu cases dropped to historically low levels globally over the pandemic, as restrictions designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus helped block other respiratory viruses. But with schools and businesses reopened, there's no way to predict how bad a flu season the country might expect this winter. We certainly don't want a twindemic,' both COVID and influenza, said Dr William Schaffner of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Also Read | Russia to Host Taliban, Other Afghan Parties for Talks in Moscow. Options for flu shots include regular vaccines, shots that aim to give older adults a little extra protection, and a nasal spray. All offer protection against four different flu strains that global experts predict are most likely to spread this year. If people still need a COVID-19 vaccination - either first shots or a booster dose - they can get it at the same visit as a flu shot. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) A 95-year-old village chief in southwest Niger was killed in November 2019. His death was part of rapidly growing violence by groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State who are targeting and killing community leaders https://t.co/5O0VYxVxHn via @SpecialReports Reuters (@Reuters) October 8, 2021 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.) Stockholm, Oct 7: Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday for works that explore the legacies of imperialism on uprooted individuals. The Swedish Academy said the award was in recognition of his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents Born in Zanzibar in 1948 and based in England, Gurnah is a professor at the University of Kent. He is the author of 10 novels, including Paradise, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994. Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 Winner: Abdulrazak Gurnah Awarded for His Uncompromising and Compassionate Penetration of the Effects of Colonialism. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel Committee for literature, called him one of the world's most prominent post-colonial writers. The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895. Last year's prize went to American poet Louise Gluck for what the judges described as her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal. Gluck was a popular choice after several years of controversy. In 2018 the award was postponed after sex abuse allegations rocked the Swedish Academy, the secretive body that chooses the winners. The awarding of the 2019 prize to Austrian writer Peter Handke caused protests because of his strong support for the Serbs during the 1990s Balkan wars. On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize in physiology or medicine to Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch. The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded Tuesday to three scientists whose work found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change. Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan were named as laureates of the Nobel Prize for chemistry Wednesday for finding an easier and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules that can be used to make compounds, including medicines and pesticides. Still to come are prizes for outstanding work in the fields of peace and economics. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced during the company's shareholder meeting on Thursday that they would be moving their California headquarters to Texas. Tesla HQ in California Transfers to Austin, Texas The shareholder meeting happened at Tesla's vehicle assembly plant which is currently under construction outside of Austin on a property that borders the Colorado River and is situated near the city's airport. Despite the company's decision to move its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, Tesla was planning to increase production in its California plant. During the announcement, Musk clarified that they would be continuing their expansion in their California plant and their intention was to increase output from Fremont factory and Giga Nevada by 50% because the places were already jammed. The Tesla CEO added that aside from the fact it was tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away, he cited that there was a limit on how big the company could scale in the Bay Area. According to CNBC, Elon Musk stated that despite its coming completion, the plant underway in Austin would be needing some time to reach its full production. The Tesla CEO shared that it would take less time to build a factory for the company than to reach their target high-volume production. Musk made Tesla's Shanghai plant as an example. The plant abroad was built within 11 months of construction but took a year to reach high-volume production. Musk said that he expected that Tesla's new plant near Austin would follow Shanghai's example. Meanwhile, the growing dissatisfaction of Musk with the state of California has been apparent for some time. In April 2020, Musk lashed out at California government officials. He called the state government's temporary Covid-related health orders "fascist" in an expletive-laced rant. Later, after living in the City of Angels for two decades, Musk personally relocated to the Austin area from Los Angeles. READ MORE: Former Tesla Employee to Receive $137 Million in Damages for Hostile Work Environment, Racism Tesla, Elon Musk Decisions The relocation enabled the CEO of aerospace company SpaceX, Musk, not only in reducing his personal tax burden but also being closer to his SpaceX launch site situated in Boca Chica, Texas. The state of California imposed some of the highest personal income taxes in the country on its wealthy residents, but the state of Texas has no personal income tax. Furthermore, Tesla was not the first company to move its headquarters out of California to the state of Texas. Companies like Oracle and Hewlett Packard were among the tech giants that decided to transfer their head of operations last year. On the other hand, Texas has been actively recruiting companies via its Texas Economic Development Act, which offers tax breaks, to put new facilities in the state. The city of Austin, with a top tech university and cultural events like South by Southwest, attracted a lot of tech employers. Business attorney Domenic Romano, who is the managing partner of Romano Law in New York City, stated that from a legal perspective, there's less of a regulatory burden in Texas. READ NEXT: SpaceX Launches 4 Amateurs on Private Space Flight; Elon Musk's Company Joins Commercial Space Tourism This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Jess Smith WATCH: Musk moving Tesla headquarters to Austin, Texas -CNBC Television The state of Florida school board has announced that 10 districts will be facing possible sanctions and funding cuts if they do not follow the mask mandate ban in schools. The Florida State Board of Education said that the school district would see their funding cut in amounts that are equal to their respective board members' salaries, according to a Newsweek report. The BOE stated that the school districts have 48 hours to comply with the demands before the sanctions and funding cuts start. It was decided in an emergency meeting, where it was told the school districts must follow state guidelines. Richard Cocoran, the Florida Education Commissioner, initially proposed sanctions against the districts as a way to get them to follow the state guidelines. The offending school boards were Alachua, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, and Indian River. The school board of Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, and Sarasota were also included, according to a Washington Examiner report. READ NEXT: Treasury Department Reprimands Arizona, Says Can't Use Federal COVID Funds for Schools Without Mask Mandates Mask Mandate Ban State guidelines noted that the wearing of masks of students in Florida schools should depend on the decision of each students' parents. The guidelines were released after the Florida surgeon general's announcement that parents should be fully be allowed to decide whether or not children should quarantine once exposed to the virus. Both of the guidelines contradict the health recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Leon County Superintendent Rocky Hanna said during the BOE meeting that they are in complete support of parents having individual rights and freedoms. The school officials noted that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' decision to mask mandate and support on the sanctions will hinder the state's efforts to fight the rising COVID cases. The U.S. Department of Educations announced in September that it would grant Project SAFE programs to school districts being financially penalized by the state. Alachua already received $147,000 while Broward had been granted more than $420,000 in federal compensation for the state's actions. Lawsuit Challenging Florida Mask Mandate Ban Meanwhile, the Duval County School Board is suing the state of Florida on COVID safety restrictions. Duval was joined by other five school districts, such as Miami-Dade, Leon, Orange, Broward, and Alachua, according to a Jacksonville News report. The lawsuit came before the state school board meeting. The Duval School Board had voted to give its general counsel the ability to explore or move forward with the legal action against the state guidance. Board members Charlotte Joyce, Lori Hershey, and Cindy Pearson voted against the motion. Jamie Cole, the attorney representing the six districts, said that the districts are challenging the Department of Health's ability to issue rules over parental rights. Cole said that the Department of Health is supposed to only deal with health issues. Corcoran said that should the federal government's efforts stray from justice to deter parental rights or lawful speech, they should be ready for a swift response. Corcoran was referring to the U.S. Education department's Project SAFE grant. READ MORE: More Than 5,000 Students in a Single Florida School District Quarantined or Isolated Due to COVID This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: The showdown over Covid mandates in Florida - from BBC News Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an official appeal on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) emergency declaration that he submitted amid the migrant surge in the border. Abbott submitted his appeal by writing a letter addressed to President Joe Biden. It can be recalled that the Texas governor submitted his request for emergency declaration on September 20, but it was denied on September 29, as he promised on the same day that he would issue an appeal on the said decision, The Hill reported. READ NEXT: Texas Border County Officials to Sue Biden Administration Over Haitian Migrants Surge Gov. Greg Abbott Issues Appeal After FEMA Denied Emergency Declaration In the letter, Abbott also contended that the border crisis is still ongoing and "continues to escalate," mentioning the "dire situation" in Val Verde County. The governor also pointed out that this was one of the reasons why he requested the president to reconsider the denial of the emergency declaration. The Texas governor also argued that the failure of the federal government to enforce its immigration laws and stop the illegal crossings on the federal property led to "substantial burdens" on the local and state resources. "Local officials and Texas citizens are fatigued and running out of resources to respond to the ongoing border crisis," Abbot said. The governor furthered that supplementary federal assistance is important to address the threat of border crisis and protect property, public health, and safety. The Texas governor then pointed out that they will continue to respond to the border crisis alongside the federal government but emphasized that their state should not "withstand" the financial burden of the issue alone. The appeal for emergency declaration came as the southwestern border saw an uptick of Haitian migrants that sought shelter under the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas. It can be recalled that an estimated 15,000 migrants gathered in the encampment last month. The deportation of the illegal immigrants continue. Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, State Governors, Unveil 10-Point Plan for Border Crisis The Texas governor issuing an appeal over the emergency declaration FEMA declined also came a day after he and other state governors unveiled the 10-point plan that the Biden administration can utilize to battle the ongoing border crisis. During a press conference on Wednesday, the state governors said that continuing Title 42, resuming the deportation of all criminals, fully reinstating the "Migrant Protection Protocols," and deploying more federal law enforcement officers on the border are among the actions the government can do to combat the surge of migration. Other plans include the completion of the border security; the end of catch and release; clearing the judicial backlog; dedicating federal resources to human and drug trafficking; and re-entering on the agreement on Northern Triangle partners and Mexico. According to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, they tried to reach out to President Biden, but the top official allegedly ignored them. "If the president won't meet us then we'll share our policy ideas today. Hopefully, he will hear our solutions and begin to act," Ducey stressed. Aside from Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, governors from other states such as Idaho, Ohio, Oklahoma, Georgia, Montana, and Nebraska were also present in the press conference. READ NEXT: Texas Abortion Law Hit With First Legal Blow as Judge Temporarily Blocks Its Enforcement This article is owned by Latin Post. Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: Thousands of Haitians Are Trapped at the U.S.-Mexico Border - From VICE News Police in Brazil had found a huge trove of Nazi memorabilia, including weapons, worth around $3.5 million inside the home of a suspected pedophile. The Brazilian man was identified as Aylson Proenca Doyle Linhares, 58. He was arrested on Tuesday. Fox News reported that the suspect was arrested after a couple in his Vargem Grande neighbourhood at Rio de Janeiro had accused him of abusing their 12-year-old son. Police said they found more than 1,000 Nazi memorabilia items at the suspect's home, including the images and busts of Adolf Hitler, publications, uniforms, paintings, flags, insignia, and medals of the Third Reich. Police had also found a Nazi membership card that showed the suspect's photo and personal details and multiple firearms and ammunition from WWII-era. READ NEXT: Mexico Creates National Guard Special Team to Recover Stolen Archaeological Pieces Suspected Pedophile in Brazil With Huge Stash of Nazi Memorabilia Police had discovered the haul after they serve an arrest warrant to the Brazilian man at his home. Linhares was suspected of raping a minor and abusing other children in Vargem Grande. Linhares was charged was charged with illegal possession of weapons, racism and pedophilia after police also found photos of minors at his home, Daily Mail reported. Police Commissioner Luis Armond, the lead detective on the case, said the Brazilian man's massive collection of Nazi memorabilia contained "monstrous material." Armond said that Linhares was a "smart guy and articulate." But he noted that the suspected child abuser was also a "Holocaust denier," homophobic, and "a pedophile." Armond claimed that Linhares told him that he "hunts homosexuals." Police said the Brazilian man was being monitored after a number of neighbors reported him approaching children and trying to lure them back to his home, New York Daily News reported. Armond said the suspect came from a family of wealthy investors. He noted that Linhares has likely used his inheritance to build the collection of Nazi memorabilia. Armond said a high-ranking Nazi uniform would cost around 250,000 euros, Reuters reported. Police are looking at the suspect's connection to Nazi and other far-right groups and trying to see if he was active in the marketplace for such objects. Armond said that to obtain such items, one would need a museum. He added that this is something unusual and shocking. Sexual Violence Against Children in Brazil Brazil has recorded 17,000 cases of sexual violence against children and adolescents in 2019, according to the National Human Rights Ombudsman. Out of the reported cases, 82 percent of the victims were girls and 87 percent of the perpetrators were men, the Brazil Talk reported. The National Human Rights Ombudsman said 73 percent of the sexual violence cases reported with them took place at the victim's or offender's home, and father or stepfather committed 40 percent of which. Data from Safernet Brazil also showed there were over 46,000 complaints of child and adolescent pornography on the internet in 2019. READ MORE: Parts of Amazon Rainforest in Brazil Are Being Illegally Offered for Sale on Facebook Marketplace This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Rio De Janeiro Police Discover $3.2 Million Nazi Memorabilia Collection - From Business News Brian Laundrie's father, Christopher Laundrie, was seen smiling as he joined the FBI-led search for his missing son at Carlton Reserve in Florida on Thursday. Brian is the prime suspect in Gabby Petito's death. According to Daily Mail report, Christopher arrived before 10 a.m. at the 24,565-acre Carlton Reserve in Venice, where authorities believed Gabby Petito's fiance could be hiding. Authorities have been on the hunt for Brian since September 14. The 62-year-old father of Brian Laundrie joined police officers and park rangers, along with the FBI, in searching the wooded area. Christopher Laundrie was pictured with a young officer who reportedly resembled Brian. The two appeared to be sharing a laugh as they walked along a trail. Christopher Laundrie reportedly spent hours at the park with about five FBI officers. Investigators invited him to point out his son's favorite trails or spots in the preserve. However, after spending hours at the reserve with "no discoveries," Brian Laundrie's father returned home in the afternoon. Steve Bertolino, the Laundrie family attorney, said there were no discoveries, "but the effort was helpful to all." "The entire Laundrie family is grateful for the hard work of the dedicated members of law enforcement that have been searching the Preserve for Brian over the last few weeks. Hopefully, Brian will be located soon," the lawyer noted. Bertolino said the Laundrie family would continue to cooperate with law enforcement. On Wednesday, a source close to the Laundrie family told CNN's Chris Cuomo that police had found "remnants" of a makeshift camp at the Carlton Reserve that appeared to have been recently used. But on Thursday, North Port Police spokesperson Josh Taylor said that no campsite was found, Crime Online reported. The FBI, the lead investigating agency in Brian Laundrie's manhunt, has never confirmed the finding. READ NEXT: Brian Laundrie Search: Florida Fugitive's Dad Will Join the Search in Carlton Reserve Search for Brian Laundrie Experts in missing persons' cases claimed that Gabby Petito's fiance is likely to have fled the state and may have had help. Former FBI agent Bryanna Fox, an associate professor of criminology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, said it seems unlikely that he was still in that reserve, NBC News reported. She added that she believed that Brian Laundrie could no longer be at Carlton Reserve since authorities did not find any trace of him despite weeks of looking for him. The former FBI agent said that Gabby Petito's fiance may have had financial or transportation assistance to elude authorities. She noted that if someone picked him up hitchhiking or if he boarded a bus, witnesses would likely have gone to the police or the media. Fox said that the person helping Brian Laundrie would have to be very loyal and close to the fugitive. According to Fox, the weather of the reserve could easily erase any evidence of Laundrie's presence. "These factors that are here in Florida, a subtropical environment, are known to degrade evidence," she noted. Aside from the weather, Fox also cited the massive and extremely dangerous landscape, plus the "snakes, gators, and animals" at the reserve that could make it difficult for authorities to find Brian. Gabby Petito's Mother Believes Brian Laundrie is No longer at Florida's Park Gabby Petito's mother on Thursday said that she does not believe Brian Laundrie is at the Florida nature reserve. Nichole Schmidt told Fox News that she thinks Brian is in an area like the Appalachian Trail or a campground where he can live off the land since he had those skills. Gabby Petito disappeared on a cross-country road trip with Brian. The couple was traveling to Oregon when the YouTuber stopped communicating with her family in Wyoming in late August. Brian was named a person of interest by North Port police after returning home on September 1 or 10 days before Gabby Petito was reported missing by her family. On September 19, Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The FBI has issued a federal arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie but over debit card fraud. READ MORE: Brian Laundrie Manhunt: Parents of Gabby Petito's Fiance Change the Date of Florida Fugitive's Disappearance This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Chris Laundrie Joins Search for Son Brian Laundrie at Carlton Reserve - From WFLA News Channel 8 President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, has already sold at least five prints of his artwork for $75,000 each at his show in a California gallery. The said art prints were sold at the Georges Berges Gallery in Los Angeles before the October 1 opening of his "pop-up" presentation. It was not clear which art prints were sold or if any other artwork was sold after the Los Angeles show opened. The buyers' identities also remained a secret. But on Thursday, a source familiar with the sale told the New York Post that most of those allowed to buy Hunter's works are "long-term, private collectors with the gallery, people that Berges knows personally." Hunter Biden made his professional debut on Friday at his first art exhibition in California. Reports said Joe Biden's son and his gallery manager Georges Berges entertained around 200 people at the famous Milk studios. Among his notable guests include Sugar Ray Leonard, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Moby. Hunter's wife, Melissa, and his two daughters, Naomi Biden and Maisy Biden, also attended the event. READ NEXT: Hunter Biden Sends a Strong Message to Critics of His Art Dealings: 'F--- Em' White House on Hunter Biden's Debut Art Show The White House earlier said that Hunter Biden's artwork sales would be anonymous to supposedly make influence-peddling impossible. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki sidestepped questions about Joe Biden's son's attendance at the art show. As she tried to evade the questions about the younger Biden's attendance on the art show, Psaki said they have spoken to the arrangement "run by the gallerist and Hunter Biden's representatives that the White House provided suggestions for." She then added: I'd refer to the gallerist for questions about the event as well as the representatives of Mr. Garrcetti in terms of his attendance." Another Hunter's gallery show is scheduled to open later this month at the Georges Berges Gallery in New York City. But a source told New York Post that the art show at Manhattan's Soho neighborhood has been delayed until the spring. The source added that stringent screening measures would be implemented for those who want to see Hunter's paintings at the Manhattan gallery. "It is a whole process to get in to see the Biden show. You have to call the gallery in Soho, and they are vetting people carefully," the source noted. The source said that rules had been laid down that a team of lawyers must do a thorough vetting on any collector. Joe Biden's Son as a Painter Joe Biden's son has gained criticism after his paintings were reportedly priced between $75,000 and $500,000. Ethics experts expressed concerns over the matter as these prices are more typically seen for established and successful artists. They said Hunter lacks artistic experience and never received formal training in fine arts. But Hunter earlier said that he was not involved in setting the prices of his art or how much it would be priced at. During his appearance on the art podcast "Nota Bene" last July, the president's son also said that the price does not necessarily determine the value of an artist's work. He noted that the price is completely subjective, adding that sometimes it has nothing to do with anything other than "the moment." Hunter Biden admitted that he would never know who would buy his paintings as he had that kind of arrangement. At the time, Joe Biden's son also quipped that he may be "the most famous artist in MAGA world." READ MORE: Soldiers File Lawsuit Over Vaccine Mandate; Seeking Exemption for Military Members Who Contracted COVID This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Joshua Summers WATCH: White House Faces Criticism Over Hunter Biden's Art Sale - From NBC News A former Minister of State will be in another former Minister of State's Laois pub this week to launch a book about a former Fianna Fail Taoiseach. The Laois launch of Albert Reynolds: Risktaker for Peace is Conor Lenihan's takes place on Friday, 8 October, in Moloneys Gaelic Bar, Mountmellick from 7.30pm. Former Laois Offaly TD John Moloney is hosting the local launch by Mr Lenihan who is steeped in Fianna Fail. A former journalist, he served as Minister of State in different Government Departments from 2004 to 20011. He was a TD for the Dublin South-West constituency from 1997 to 2011. Mr Moloney served alongside Mr Lenihan in the FF Green coalition Government led by former Taoiseach Brian Cowen. Lenihan is the son of former Tanaiste, TD and Minister Brian Lenihan. His grandfather, Patrick Lenihan, also served in the Oireachtas. His aunt, Mary O'Rourke, is a former TD, Senator and Minister, while his brother, Brian Lenihan Jnr was a TD and most notably Minister for Finance during the Irish economic downturn from 2008 to 2011. The publishers of his new book say it is the first complete biography of Albert Reynolds. Irish Academic Press say it delivers an insiders account that reveals the 'courageous personal risks' Reynolds took to create the template for peace in Ireland, and the highs and lows of a 'tempestuous, risk-taking life'. A Laois Offaly Green Party politician who sits at the Government table wants a review of the banking service in the wake of the closures of six Bank of Ireland branches in the two counties. Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has a seat at Cabinet, has called for proposals on public banking in the Midlands to be reconsidered. Three banks are closing in Offaly and two are shutting down in Laois. Bank of Ireland is pulling out of Rathdowney, Mountrath and Durrow while the bailed out bank is also pulling the plug on Edenderry, Banagher and Clara in Minister Hackett's county on Friday, October 8. Today is a sad day for the staff of Bank of Ireland in Edenderry, Banagher and Clara, said Minister Hackett. 85 branches are closing nationwide and we have also seen KBC and Ulster bank pulling out of the market. It is clear that private banking is not serving us well, so its time to reconsider our options. A statement said she has Minister raised the matter in the Seanad and pointed to the 2018 Local Public Banking in Ireland report which proposed a public banking pilot scheme in the Midlands, headquartered in Mullingar with branches in Tullamore, Portlaoise, Athlone and Longford. Public banks keep money in a community. Whats generated there, stays there and is reinvested in new ventures or expansions, she said. It works well for the small businesses we know as a community cafes, hairdressers, bookshops, boutiques, food producers and tourism ventures. A review of the Irish banking system has been promised by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, and I will be recommending that public banking is part of that review, says Minister Hackett. It has long been a policy of the Green Party. The banks announced the closure in March 2020 and said people could do the banking in local post offices. An Independent TD has publicly spoken about what he believes to be a lack of affordable housing in County Kildare. Deputy Cathal Berry, a TD for Kildare South, highlighted the issues with the Minister for Housing, Darragh OBrien. He described a drive he took from Portarlington to Monasterevin and Rathangan, before moving on to Newbridge. Deputy Berry told the Dail: "Its great to see building sites back open again, machinery moving very early in the morning, people moving with purpose, laying blocks and building high-quality housing to a high environmental standard." "(It was) fantastic to see the construction industry back up and running building houses that are desperately, desperately needed," he added. He then went on to discuss his worries for houses in Kildare: "My concern is that the houses I passed this morning are unaffordable for many people, including soldiers, gardai, nurses, teachers and people working in the private sector." "Greater housing supply and financial supports are needed to ensure that housing is affordable and accessible to everyone." Deputy Berry continued: "I believe housing mix is a good thing, however, I am completely against any bulk purchasing of housing estates or large accommodation, particularly by vulture funds. I am also not in favour of local authorities or approved housing bodies buying up 100 per cent of estates either; its not a good way to do business and is storing up problems for the future." He said that he has since been contacted by many constituents who have expressed wishes to buy a private house but cannot do so because there are so few available: "When an estate is coming on stream within, say, three months, people are finding that the local authority has purchased the entire estate and they cannot buy a house." Deputy Berry also called on the Minister to consider prioritising military families who are on social housing lists for sites that were once military installations and barracks: "The Land Development Agency (LDA) has a number of land banks under its control, some of which are former military installations and barracks." He continued: "Some 25 years ago, mostly in 1998, soldiers and their families were evicted at short notice and the land banks handed over to the State. The land is now in the custody of the LDA, and if the agency develops these sites, which include Devoy Barracks in Naas. "I would like to see military families prioritised who are on the social housing lists considering the historical connection to these land banks and sites," he concluded. Deputy Cathal Berry is not the only politician who has expressed concerns over housing in Kildare: Labour Senator Mark Wall raised the growing issue of vacant homes in South Kildare while in the Seanad on Tuesday. He also aimed his statement towards Minister O' Brien. A garda officer recounted to Naas District Court of an incident where a man allegedly tried to set another garda officer on fire, as he believed them to be a vampire. The officer detailed that 29-year-old Romanian national Mircea Nitu, with an address at Kilbelin House in Kilbelin, Newbridge, allegedly attempted to use a lighter after spraying petrol in Newbridge garda station on May 10. Mr Nitu's case was previously heard at Naas District Court on July 28. He appeared once more in court via video link and proceedings were translated for him by an interpreter. The defendant's legal team asked Judge Desmond Zaidan to strike the case out if there is no book of evidence prepared in four weeks time. Judge Zaidan admitted his frustration as he had given plenty of time for a book of evidence to be presented. He also admitted that he was reluctant to strike the case out given the seriousness of the alleged crime. Judge Zaidan warned gardai present that he did not want a repeat of a 2019 case in which he claims he had no choice but to strike out an alleged murder which took place in Athy. This was because the book of evidence was not served in time. At the time, Judge Zaidan said the ruling came about as a result of state failure but claimed that he had received a wave of criticism levelled towards him due to his decision. The case was pushed back to November 4 to allow a psychiatric report for Mr Nitu to be prepared. Eleven schools from Kildare were awarded the Green Flag this week for their dedication to sustainability and protecting their environment. Despite two school years with closures and challenges posed by COVID-19, 526 schools across Ireland were awarded Green Flags this week, including 33 schools that have been awarded the Green Flag for the first time. Schools in Kildare Cill Choca, Chill Dara Two Mile House N.S, Naas Scoil Bhride, Leixlip Brannoxtown N.S, Ballymore Eustace Clongowes Wood College, Clane awarded Green Flag for first time Scoil Naomh Treasa, Athy awarded Green Flag for first time Maynooth Educate Together, Maynooth Brigid's N.S, Carbury Tiny Tots Pre-School, Athy Ardscoil Rath Iomghain, Rathangan Busy Fingers Creche Ltd, Newbridge Green-Schools is an environmental management programme for schools which focuses on themes including Litter and Waste; Energy; Water; Travel; Biodiversity; Global Citizenship and Marine Environment. This year schools in Ireland achieved amazing results in the themes: Speaking at each ceremony this week, Green-Schools Manager Cathy Baxter congratulated the 526 schools receiving their Green Flag: We know that you have all been working incredibly hard in your schools over the last year and you continued to find innovative ways to keep the programme going during school closures and social distancing. You managed to have outdoor Committee meetings, online workshops and attending online webinars to keep up to date, so thank you. Schools were invited to six online award ceremonies which took place from Monday, October 4 to 8 with the final ceremony for the Water theme due to take place on October 14. At the ceremonies schools enjoyed activities like Sea Shanties and online quizzes, with messages of support played from Captain Climate, actor Nicola Coughlan, champion cyclist Lara Gillespie and local authority Environmental Awareness Officers, who support schools during their participation in Green-Schools. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. AN ELDERLY man is recovering following an apartment fire in Limerick city this Thursday evening. The alarm was raised shortly after 6.30pm when smoke was observed coming from a property in the Dooradoyle area. Having been alerted by a concerned neighbour who smelt the smoke, emergency services including three units of Limerick Fire and Rescue from Mulgrave Street attended. Upon arrival, personnel from Limerick Fire and Rescue entered the apartment and quickly removed a man who was inside to safety. While paramedics from the National Ambulance Service treated the man, aged in his 60s, for smoke inhalation his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. A local resident, who was alerted to the incident, said: It was especially quiet around because of the rain and then there were all these sirens. We didnt know what was going on. Next thing we see these firefighters taking this poor man out. He seemed to be ok thankfully. The fire was quickly brought under control and the incident was declared closed shortly after 7.30pm. Gardai from Roxboro Road also attended. THE COMMUNITY of Granagh has joined together as one to support a family in their parish at their time of need. A GoFundMe page has been set up called Granagh Backs Amanda. And a number of fundraising events will take place on Sunday, October 24. Organisers say Amanda, from Newtownshandrum, has been living in Granagh for the past eight years. "Amanda is married to local man Daniel and is a doting mum to four wonderful children, Sean (11), Oliver (7), Killian (6) and Amelia (4). As well as being a busy full time Mum Amanda is also a full time support giver to her son Oliver who has special needs. "In February 2021 Amanda was diagnosed with breast cancer and is currently undergoing treatment in the amazing care of University Hospital Limerick," say organisers. As a small rural community in West Limerick, they wanted to show their support to Amanda and her family and let them know they are not alone on this journey. A number of fundraising initiatives are taking place on Sunday, October 24. Among these are a tractor/vintage car run, a cake sale, a draw, a sponsored walk/cycle, followed by a fun auction in The Rock Bar. For more information please see the Facebook page that has been set up. Local schools and wider community have been very supportive of this great cause and are running various fundraisers in the schools. To donate click here A LIMERICK priest has compared the Catholic Church to the Taliban on how they both treat women. Fr Roy Donovan, parish priest of Caherconlish and Inch St. Laurence, has spoken out following a recent statement from Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy. It was titled, Change taking shape as greater lay involvement in the Church emerges. The bishop also asked for expressions of interest from men over 35 years of age, married or single, interested in taking up roles as permanent deacons. Fr Donovan said Bishop Leahys intention of introducing the male Diaconate into the diocese is a return to the dark ages. In recent weeks we have learned of the Talibans negative attitudes to women in Afghanistan, that of exclusion from education and the public domain. In the Catholic Church, women are excluded from the hierarchial (patriarchial) structures no woman can be ordained a deacon, priest, bishop, cardinal or pope. Women are excluded from leadership, governance and decision making in the Church. Women have no vote in the upcoming Bishops Synod 2023 on Synodality. The Catholic Church at many levels, like the Taliban, treats women as second-class citizens, said Fr Donovan, who is originally from Knockarron, Emly and served for many years in Dublin. In his statement, Bishop Leahy said deacons had a ministry in the early Church which focused on service, both within the church community helping in the administration of the diocese and in reaching out to the marginalised in society. Fr Donovan said up until the 12th century, the Catholic Church ordained women deacons, although by then their service was mostly restricted to womens monasteries. Some Orthodox churches that split from the Catholic Church in the 11th century still do. In the New Testament Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul introduces Phoebe as a deacon of the church at Cenchreae. He also names Priscilla and Junia and several other women leaders, said Fr Donovan, who is one of the leaders of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) but is speaking in a personal capacity. The priest said this move towards male deacons raises questions about how women in the Limerick Synod have allowed this to go forward or have they? It also raises questions about having a meaningful Synod in the Irish Church. Men in every diocese in Ireland and throughout the world should join in solidarity with women and refuse the male Diaconate, concluded Fr Donovan. TWO TDS have raised in the Dail the ongoing investigations into gardai in the Limerick division with one calling it a form of witch trial. Deputies Cathal Crowe and Richard ODonoghue spoke about gardais use of discretion during the debate on the Garda Siochana (Functions and Operational Areas) Bill 2021. Deputy Crowe said one could almost call the Limerick Garda Division Salem because a form of witch trial has been ongoing there for the past two years. Eight members have been suspended, 60 garda phones have been confiscated and morale has never been lower. Of the eight members on suspension, some have been waiting up to two years to be interviewed by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. All of this centres around discretion, said Cllr Crowe. In the moment a garda pulls you over, he or she has the power of discretion. It is taught as part of the curriculum in Templemore. Discretion is just discretion, it is not defined and therein lies the problem. What has happened in Limerick in the past two years is that gardai are being told they were wrong to use discretion. They were suspended because they flouted the Road Traffic Act and did not implement it properly, said Deputy Crowe. The Fianna Fail TD said we must move way beyond the model of squaring off a ticket for a monsignor, a politician or a county hurler. Everyone agrees that we must get beyond that, but we do not want a witch trial, which has been happening in Limerick in the past two years. They are sitting at home and morale is low. This has placed stress on and caused anguish for wives, husbands and children because of the shame that it carries. People have not been afforded the opportunity to clear their names, said Deputy Crowe. Deputy ODonoghue (pictured below) said Limerick is down the eight gardai who are under investigation. Over 60 phones have been confiscated and 160 investigations are pending in Limerick. Every garda whom I have spoken to in and outside the Limerick division has been trained and taught to use discretion. The terms used for this discretion when they were being trained were an L7 and a square. Is that no longer the case? Do gardai have discretion in hardship cases any more? he asked. The Limerick TD said three years have been wasted on investigations of misdemeanours that gardai were actually trained to do at Templemore. We are now prosecuting gardai for doing the job they were trained to do. I am not condoning any gardxa breaking the law outside of that context. Any garda who does so must be prosecuted, but I am not in favour of wasting taxpayers' money and spending years upon years without gardai on our streets in our towns and villages just because a garda did the job the way he or she was trained to. Surely the crimes that are being committed on our streets are more important. Antisocial behaviour, racist abuse and drug-related crimes are at an absolute high. Suspensions in the garda should be dealt with effectively and promptly, not after two or two and a half years, said Deputy ODonoghue, who highlighted a recent Little Blue Heroes charity event organised and supported by Newcastle West gardai. Gardai work with people in the community and they should have discretion. They should not be penalised. It needs to come to an end this year, he concluded. FOLLOWING a torrid summer of problems with water, councillors took the opportunity of a full meeting of the council to vent their ongoing frustration with Irish Water. Leading the torrent of complaints was Fine Gaels Cllr John Sheahan who blasted the company for its outages, breakages, lack of water and a total lack of communication between Irish Water and its customers. Yet, he said, the blame for all of these was being laid at the feet of councillors. He also criticised the managing director of Irish Water, Niall Gleeson for his comments to an Oireachtas Committee. According to Cllr Sheahan, Mr Gleeson tried to blame councils for recent problems, including the issue of the 51 people who fell ill in Gorey, Co Wexford. He also said in that meeting that Irish Water has legal responsibility but no direct control over water treatment plants, Cllr Sheahan said. He has done a complete Pontius Pilate. In Glin, the councillor continued, a water mains had burst ten or twelve times over the last two years but Irish Water had told him there were higher priorities We are creating a quasi water apartheid, Cllr Sheahan declared. His initial motion, supported by all the Newcastle West councillors, was for a review of the service agreement made in 2014 between the council and Irish Water, where council staff carried out work on behalf of Irish Water. He was now withdrawing that, he said. I dont think that goes far enough now. And he proposed instead that Irish Water as a utility company be wound down and disbanded forthwith and the provision of water and waste water services be devolved to local authorities, block-granted by the national exchequer. We are sick to death of Irish Water. We want it (water) brought back here and have full autonomy ourselves. Seconding the motion, Cllr Liam Galvin said Irish Water was not fit for purpose. And he cited an example of eight water outages in nine weeks in one part of Abbeyfeale. Our reservoirs are being drained through leakages, he declared. Limerick TDs needed to get the message to government, he argued, and get the funding for local authorities to do the job instead of Irish Water. They cant be fit for purpose. They have no money, declared Cllr Stephen Keary, adding that Irish Water would not function until such time as water charges are levied. To ask 100 per household was not a big ask he said and it would make a huge difference to carrying out capital works. Other councillors highlighted particular problems:the destruction at Rhebogue Meadows as a result of a burst main; the high cost of a water connection at 6,200;the lead pipes in Patrickswell; the byzantine bureaucracy of Irish Water and the sewerage pollution in Janesboro. Cllr John Egan said he wanted Irish Water to come to meet the councillors while Cllr Michael Collins asked management to try and engage with Irish Water to see if we can get some answers and get progress going It would take a lot of frustration out of it if we had more information, he said. However, Cllr Conor Sheehan said he couldnt see any point in the motion being put. Does anyone really believe that by writing a letter to the government that they are going to take us any way seriously? he said. The motion to disband Irish Water and allow local authorities to take over water services was passed. THE MORRISSEY brothers have been thanked for driving on a fundraiser to buy three minibuses for the Daughters of Charity. The wheelchair accessible vehicles are needed due to the social distancing rules around Covid and to transport service users to and from their homes in the community. Michael Hearne, of the Lisnagry Association, said they were asked to help raise the money. Due to Covid they couldnt do church gate collections and their other regular ways of raising money so they started a GoFundMe page. They needed the minivans badly because the vehicles they had demanded a lot of sanitising and they just didnt have the staff or the facilities to do the sanitising necessary so they wanted more vehicles. These three are all brand new modern vehicles. We have a lot of people out in houses. Either there is no public transport or if the transport is there they can't access it. Without these kind of vehicles they wouldnt be able to get out. They are essential, said Mr Hearne, from Lisnagry. He said the first fundraiser was hard going so they asked influencer Louise Cooney, Dan and Tom Morrissey and Ahane GAA Club to share the GoFundMe page. It really helped get the word out there. There is a certain Limerick man who was listening to the All-Ireland final out in California. He had done well in real estate and he topped up the money we needed for the third bus. He gave 23,000 or 24,000 so we were able to get our third bus. The Morrisseys dont know how influential they are if that man in California could donate that money He was watching the All-Ireland with his son and was moved to do it because of the Morrissey link, said Mr Hearne Each of the three Peugeots cost close to 50,000. Michael said the vehicles will be used to bring service users to clinics, the cinema, scenic spots, playgrounds and lots more. On behalf of the Lisnagry Association a voluntary group made up of family, friends and supporters of the Daughters of Charity Mr Hearne thanked Louise Cooney, Dan and Tom Morrissey, Ahane GAA Club and everybody who donated to help give service users a new lease of life. OVER thirty publicly owned artworks will go on display in the Red Door Gallery in Newcastle West this Friday and the exhibition, All Creatures Great and Small, will run until the end of the month. It is the second time the Newcastle West gallery has hosted a touring exhibition of publicly-owned artworks and its arrival in his home town has been warmly welcomed by Minister for the Office of Public Works, Patrick ODonovan. For over 20 years, Minister ODonovan explained, the OPW has worked in partnership with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland to organise a yearly touring art exhibition, showcasing work from the two public-owned collections. Describing the venture as a great cross-border initiative, the minister said it had opened up opportunities for both Departments to collaborate with arts organisations, cultural venues, schools, colleges, and local government arts offices across the island. I am delighted that works from these two State collections are brought to new and wider audiences in different locations around Ireland year after year so that the public can enjoy and access them in their locality, he said when he viewed the exhibition which was launched last evening. I invite you to let yourself be charmed by all creatures great and small in the artworks on show here at the Red Door Gallery. With Desmond Castle right beside the gallery attracting record numbers of 16,000 visitors this year to date, I am sure that this added cultural attraction here in the heart of Newcastle West will be enjoyed by many visitors, young and old. Joining the Minister at the gallery, Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Daniel Butler described the exhibition as a fantastic example of all island co-operation. He said: I very much welcome the decision to bring the exhibition to Newcastle West to allow the people of Limerick the opportunity to wander around and explore the beautiful and intricate pieces on show. Perhaps it will spark a conversation or a debate about our association and links with animals." It is great to be able to open our doors again, said Claire Geary of the Red Door Gallery said. We are really looking forward to welcoming people back and we are delighted and honoured that the touring exhibition has returned to Newcastle West. All Creatures Great and Small is focused on artworks from both collections that depict birds, animals, fish and insects and their interaction with humanity and a free catalogue is available at the gallery. Opening to the public this Friday and Saturday, the exhibition will run from 11am to 5pm from Wednesday to Saturday each week until October 31. The Red Door Gallery is located in the Square, Newcastle West and admission is free. The 31 artists included in the exhibition are: Corrina Askin, Bono et al., Thomas Carr OBE, Gabhann Dunne, Ivan Frew, Rebecca Homfray, Pen Jones, Rachel Joynt, Atsushi Kaga, John Kindness, Gavin Lavelle, Aoife Layton, Sarah Longley, Maura Lynch, James MacIntyre, Cecil Maguire, Kelvin Mann, Bruce C. Marshall, Colin Martin, Joanna Martin, Eamonn McCrory, Linda McWha, Frieda Meaney, Yvette Monahan, Jeffrey Morgan, Janet Mullarney, Tighe ODonoghue/Ross, Barbara Rae, Sven Sandberg, Felicity Shun, Dara Vallely. At least 100 people have been killed and wounded after a suicide bomb attack tore through in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunduz province on Friday, as per reports. "Our initial findings show that it is a suicide attack," Matiullah Rohani, director of culture and information in Kunduz, told news agency AFP. Further, Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said that the majority of people there have been killed." If confirmed, the death toll of dozens would be the highest since US and NATO forces left Afghanistan at the end of August and the Taliban took control of the country. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had earlier said an unknown number of people had been killed and injured when "an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shiite compatriots" in Kunduz. Video footage showed bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque that is used by people from the minority Shi'ite Muslim community. Zalmai Alokzai, a local businessman who rushed to Kunduz Provincial Hospital to check whether doctors needed blood donations, described horrific scenes. "I saw more than 40 dead bodies," he told AFP. "Ambulances were going back to the incident scene to carry the dead." An international aid worker at the MSF hospital in the city told AFP there were fears the death toll could rise. "Hundreds of people are gathered at the main gate of the hospital and crying for their relatives but armed Taliban guys are trying to prevent gatherings in case another explosion is planned," he said. Kunduz's location makes it a key transit point for economic and trade exchanges with Tajikistan. It was the scene of fierce battles as the Taliban fought their way back into power this year. Often targeted by Sunni extremists, Shiite Muslims have suffered some of Afghanistan's most violent assaults, with rallies bombed, hospitals targeted and commuters ambushed. Shiites make up roughly 20% of the Afghan population. Many of them are Hazara, an ethnic group that has been heavily persecuted in Afghanistan for decades. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Denham Springs, LA (70726) Today More clouds than sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 77F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy. Low near 45F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Facebook is facing legal assaults from the Federal Trade Commission over antitrust concerns and broad criticism from lawmakers who say they are newly interested in long-stalled legislation that would curb the social media giant's power. But Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's strategy of turning to the Securities and Exchange Commission may represent the most potent threat to the company, experts in securities law said. Haugen, whose appearances this week on "60 Minutes" and before a Senate subcommittee generated a firestorm of publicity, said she used thousands of pages of internal company documents to argue to the SEC that the company misled investors about what it knew about the ills attributed to its social network. "A lot of what Facebook is doing isn't illegal because they hid the information that politicians would have needed to create regulations that addressed it," she told The Post. "But you can't lie to your investors." The SEC is likely to give those allegations serious weight, experts in securities law said. They point to a confluence of factors lining up against Facebook: Haugen's revelations, which formed the basis of a series in the Wall Street Journal, have generated some urgency for regulators to respond; the SEC under Chairman Gary Gensler is converting whistleblower complaints into agency action at a record clip; and Gensler has made a priority of improving corporate disclosures, a matter that lies at the heart of Haugen's complaints. "The SEC under Chair Gensler has signaled a very strong enforcement stance, and the chairman has also been a big supporter of the whistleblower program since he took the helm," said Jane Norberg, who headed the SEC's whistleblower program until April and is now a partner at Arnold & Porter, a law firm that specializes in business regulation. "So whistleblower allegations are something the SEC is taking very seriously." Haugen, a former Facebook data scientist, argues in her complaints that the company misrepresented to investors the role its products play in stoking hate speech, stirring political violence at home and abroad, and exacerbating mental health problems among teenagers, among others, according to CBS News, which said it had obtained copies. Stephen Kohn, founding director of the National Whistleblower Center, said the question for the agency is whether a "reasonable investor," reading the company's disclosures, would be "fully aware of its potential liabilities." Facebook, in a filing with the agency earlier this year, noted for investors that "the nature of our business exposes us to claims related to defamation, dissemination of misinformation or news hoaxes, discrimination, harassment, intellectual property rights, rights of publicity and privacy, personal injury torts, laws regulating hate speech or other types of content." It has included that language in annual reports to the SEC since 2017. Kohn - who has helped organize an earlier series of whistleblower complaints to the SEC alleging Facebook knowingly hosts communications facilitating illegal activity including human and drug trafficking - doesn't believe the disclosures will protect the company against Haugen's complaints. "This is still gravely deficient," he said. "The whistleblower's allegations have sufficient specificity also tied to Facebook's algorithms and the conscious decision-making of its executives that has not been disclosed here." The SEC declined to comment. An agency spokesperson noted the agency doesn't remark "on the existence or nonexistence of a possible whistleblower submission." But payouts under the agency's whistleblower program are evidence of a heightened interest in such submissions. Formed a decade ago in the wake of the financial crisis, the program's total awards surpassed $1 billion last month, more than half of which was distributed over the last 12 months. The agency doled out $146 million in a pair of whistleblower rewards last month alone. Facebook remains defiant following Haugen's revelations and testimony. In a note to company employees posted online Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he doesn't "recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted." He added that while the company is "committed to doing the best work we can," at some point Congress is "the right body to asses trade-offs between social equities." But some lawmakers identified a role for regulators, too. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D -Conn., who chairs the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection that convened the Tuesday hearing, said the SEC and the Federal Trade Commission should be probing "a number of the deceptive and misleading claims that have been made to the public, to consumers, to investors." The social network ran afoul of those regulators two years ago over allegations of privacy violations and misleading disclosures to investors. The FTC, following a 16-month investigation touched off by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, slapped Facebook with a $5 billion fine, the largest in U.S. history for a privacy violation. It argued the company deceived users about the access it granted app developers, advertisers and others to their personal data. And the SEC separately imposed a $100 million fine on the company for failing to inform investors about its privacy infractions. In its complaint against Facebook at the time, the agency also noted the company's misleading statements to the news media about its knowledge of the privacy breach reinforced its deceptive filings with the agency. That underlined that the SEC looks at all of the company's communications, including what executives say publicly and what its spokespeople tell the media, in assessing whether it has been candid on sensitive matters. The agency's focus on disclosure has only intensified under Gensler's leadership this year, Norberg said. If the SEC pursues a case against Facebook stemming from Haugen's allegations, it is likely to focus on securing another major fine, said Donald Langevoort, who teaches securities regulation at Georgetown Law. "It reads well in the newspaper," he said. Whether it will be large enough to compel reforms inside a company that reported $29.1 billion in profit last year is another matter. "It's difficult when you're dealing with a company as big as Facebook," Langevoort said. "The fine that would cause it to suffer real pain is awfully big, and it may be beyond the reach of even an impassioned SEC." Haugen, meanwhile, is seeking whistleblower protection from the SEC, according to her lawyers, but it remains unclear whether she is shielded from potential retaliation by her former employer. Facebook executives have pledged not to come after Haugen for testifying before the Senate while leaving open the possibility of taking legal action against her for leaking to the press. Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters By Steven Pinker Viking. 412 pp. $32 - - - Late in his life, the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes plunged into a controversy with an Oxford professor of geometry. Hobbes believed he had discovered how to square the circle. The professor begged to differ, and Hobbes wound up looking foolish. In 1651, Hobbes had written a passage in his famous "Leviathan" that almost anticipated the episode. When power is at stake, he argued, people will dispute even something as clear as the fact that the internal angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees. If you've ever seen someone - not yourself, of course - clinging doggedly to a flawed position to try to win an argument, you've witnessed a small instance of how what Hobbes termed a desire for "dominion" can distort reasoning. More consequential examples are in abundant supply. On issues such as vaccines, climate change and corporate taxation, a host of individual and institutional actors now seem dogmatically chained to unreason as they pursue real or illusory power. In fact, for champions of reason, the situation is far more dire than Hobbes suspected. Even with no ulterior drive to dominion, human cognition is susceptible to a range of errors and biases that have been extensively documented over the past several decades (though in many cases these are rediscoveries of older insights). For anyone tempted to despair, however, Steven Pinker's new book, "Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters," offers a pragmatic dose of measured optimism, presenting rationality as a fragile but achievable ideal in personal and civic life. Given our current moment of apparent national derangement, when large areas of culture and politics seem to have slipped all tethers to reality, Pinker's ambition to illuminate such a crucial topic offers the welcome prospect of a return to sanity. And in many ways he succeeds - as with all of his books, this one is erudite, lucid, funny and dense with fascinating material. His characteristic brew of Yiddish jokes, brainy comics and incisive argumentation is a pleasure to read, even when the subjects are technical and mathematical. It's no small achievement to make formal logic, game theory, statistics and Bayesian reasoning delightful topics full of charm and relevance. It's also plausible to believe that a wider application of the rational tools he analyzes would improve the world in important ways. His primer on statistics and scientific uncertainty is particularly timely and should be required reading before consuming any news about the pandemic. More broadly, he argues that less media coverage of shocking but vanishingly rare events, from shark attacks to adverse vaccine reactions, would help prevent dangerous overreactions, fatalism and the diversion of finite resources away from solvable but less-dramatic issues, like malnutrition in the developing world. It's a reasonable critique, and Pinker is not the first to make it. But analyzing the political economy of journalism - its funding structures, ownership concentration and increasing reliance on social media shares - would have given a fuller picture of why so much coverage is so misguided and what we might do about it. Pinker's main focus is the sort of conscious, sequential reasoning that can track the steps in a geometric proof or an argument in formal logic. Skill in this domain maps directly onto the navigation of many real-world problems, and Pinker shows how greater mastery of the tools of rationality can improve decision-making in medical, legal, financial and many other contexts in which we must act on uncertain and shifting information. One recurring theme is the way that framing an identical choice in different ways - focusing on loss vs. gain, presenting a problem visually rather than verbally or substituting more concrete details for abstract variables - can make salient the logical core of otherwise tricky dilemmas. Despite the undeniable power of the sort of rationality he describes, many of the deepest insights in the history of science, math, music and art strike their originators in moments of sudden epiphany. From the 19th-century chemist Friedrich August Kekule's discovery of the structure of benzene to any of Mozart's symphonies, much extraordinary human achievement is not a product of conscious, sequential reasoning. Even Plato's Socrates - who anticipated many of Pinker's points by nearly 2,500 years, showing the virtue of knowing what you do not know and examining all premises in arguments, not simply trusting speakers' authority or charisma - attributed many of his most profound insights to dreams and visions. Conscious reasoning is helpful in sorting the wheat from the chaff, but it would be interesting to consider the hidden aquifers that make much of the grain grow in the first place. The role of moral and ethical education in promoting rational behavior is also underexplored. Pinker recognizes that rationality "is not just a cognitive virtue but a moral one." But this profoundly important point, one subtly explored by ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, doesn't really get developed. This is a shame, since possessing the right sort of moral character is arguably a precondition for using rationality in beneficial ways. The capacity to be gracefully refuted in an argument is largely a moral one, and decreasing one's desire for Hobbesian "dominion" is not something that another tutorial on statistics or game theory can achieve. For people who have mastered these formal tools and are now abusing them to gain dubious ends, something very different is needed - cultivation of the sort of moral character that allows one both to perceive and to desire the right things in life. - - - Nick Romeo is a critic and journalist based in Athens. He is writing a book on the future of economics. Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy From Donald Trump By Jennifer Rubin William Morrow. 400 pp. $27.99 - - - Remember when Elizabeth Warren absolutely demolished Mike Bloomberg on the debate stage? When Nancy Pelosi tore up a copy of Donald Trump's State of the Union address in front of the whole Congress? When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave a speech slamming Rep. Ted Yoho for calling her an unprintable slur on the steps of the Capitol? Jennifer Rubin's "Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy From Donald Trump" lines up those events one after another, reminding readers of all the women-centered moments they might have forgotten from the Trump years. The book aims to be a sort of women's history of the Trump presidency. It moves chronologically through the major national political developments of the era - from Hillary Clinton's loss through Pelosi and congressional Democrats' fight to save Obamacare, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, the midterms, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, the 2020 election, and a raft of other moments in between, telling the stories of the women at the heart of so many major events. And to tell those stories, Rubin interviewed an array of powerful women - Democratic Rep.Abigail Spanberger of Virginia (newly elected in 2018), former Center for American Progress president (and current Biden adviser) Neera Tanden and Kamala Harris, to name a few - about their roles in opposing Trump and his policies. It's a very Washington-centric book in that way, and also, er, centrist-centric - there's a lot more about center-left Dems like Spanberger and Tanden than there is about the Squad. The overarching thesis is simple: As Rubin writes in her author's note, she wanted to convey how women were "the foot soldiers, the organizers, the candidates, and the volunteers pulling their country back from the clutches of a racist, antidemocratic president and his enablers." She adds that she feels this book is deeply necessary: "We were undergoing a radical transformation of American politics driven by, for, and about women - but one would not know it from the day-to-day reporting in the media." That's a wild statement, given the many, many reporters covering the #MeToo movement and female candidates in the 2018 midterms and Christine Blasey Ford's testimony and the Democratic women who ran for president and the Women's March(es) and Trump's regular sexist remarks . . . and so on. And I get that that may sound biased, coming from a member of the mainstream media who spent the Trump years covering gender in politics. But it also gets at a basic point about this book: Readers will see much that is familiar in here. Some of the quotes are new, from Rubin's copious interviews, but the stories are not. They were all well-reported at the time. A reader who paid reasonably close attention to the news during the Trump presidency might find little to recommend "Resistance." Rubin, being a columnist, does intersperse some opinion and analysis into her storytelling. She does not hide that she's a fan of Amy Klobuchar and a major Harris stan. And to put it mildly, some readers will chafe at Rubin's weaker takes. One that comes to mind is her dismay that reporters and pundits, as she puts it, "jumped to the conclusion, one never seriously questioned, that Clinton's gender was at the very least part of the reason for the 2016 upset."Another is when she downplays the allegations of Klobuchar's abusive workplace behavior by setting up the dubious choice that there was either sexism at work or that the men in the race were "angelic bosses." "Resistance" is, however, chiefly a chronicle, which means its chief virtue is how it ticks through, one after another, the many times women flexed their political power during the Trump presidency. It's easy to imagine a reader being reminded of all the stories she might have forgotten and punching the air (nearly knocking over her "Nasty Woman" coffee mug in the process). Seeing all these instances strung together could, for a reader in the #resistance, be a downright joyful experience. And yet, in reading about women saving democracy from Trump (as Rubin puts it in her subtitle), that "nasty woman" might start to wonder: Wait. Why did women have to save democracy? What created the conditions that allowed President Trump to happen? And why was it women who did the saving? By virtue of being a chronicle, "Resistance" continually raises the question of why resistance was necessary, a question that Rubin never probes deeply. "Resistance" also, incongruously, includes women who quite pointedly did not resist. Rubin writes - with apparent approval - about how Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) successfully recruited Republican women to run for Congress, helping GOP women have a record year in 2020. But Stefanik is a Trump loyalist, which makes it baffling that just a few pages later, Rubin slams the 126 members of Congress (a group that included Stefanik) who signed on to a Supreme Court brief seeking to overturn election results in some states that Joe Biden won. This leaves an array of questions dangling: What does Rubin make of the women who aligned themselves with Trump? After all, Stefanik and many, many other women are part of that "enablers" group that Rubin mentions in her author's note. So, is women's representation always good, in and of itself? What does it mean to her that the record-breaking GOP freshman class of 2021 included Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.), both far-right lawmakers who thrive on controversy and who objected to certifying the 2020 election results? Our "nasty woman" reader might find "Resistance" enjoyable despite these flaws. But then, she might have other things on her mind: working a low-wage job, finding child care, keeping Junior from catching the coronavirus at school, persuading conspiracy-addled friends and relatives to get vaccinated, calling her representatives about reproductive rights - and maybe climate change while she's at it, given that her home is leaking again after another freak storm. This may illuminate one thing it means for all of these nasty, persistent women to have gotten involved in politics. Perhaps they did save democracy from Trump. But now, many have dusted themselves off and gotten right back to organizing. For these women, there might be more to save than democracy, and more villains than Trump. - - - Danielle Kurtzleben is a political reporter for NPR. Click here to read the full article. The studios have made some concessions on IATSEs demands regarding long production hours, but an agreement still remains a ways off, according to an update from one IATSE local on Thursday. David OFerrall, the business agent of IATSE Local 487, told members that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers had agreed to 10-hour turnaround times on all productions. He also said there had been movement on weekend turnarounds one of the unions top priorities. Negotiators are hoping to avert a strike, which would shut down TV and film production across the country. More than 52,000 IATSE members voted over the weekend to authorize IATSEs chief Matthew D. Loeb to call a strike if the unions demands are not met. There has been some progress in the negotiations but not enough, OFerrall reported. While they may be at the table we are still a ways off from a deal. The AMPTP is pushing back to see where they can create cracks but the IA sentiment is to bargain hard and get what we are due. Another local reported on Wednesday that the situation was still fluid. Sources close to the management side report that negotiations have been moving slowly but also cordially. This is not the WGA, one management-side labor veteran said Thursday, noting that the tension level was lower than in previous tough AMPTP contract situations. Sources note that the IATSE negotiation involves 13 disparate locals with specific disciplines that need to be addressed, which also slows down the process. In addition to committing to 10-hour turnaround as a quality of life issue, sources said the AMPTP companies are in agreement on terms that may wind up adding an extra day to production schedules for drama series. While seven- and eight-day shoots for hourlong episodes have been the norm for some time, a minimum nine-day shooting schedule is likely to become the standard going forward. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents the vast bulk of Hollywoods production workforce, is looking to curb the practice of having workdays run 14 hours or longer. Union negotiators are also looking to put an end to Fraturdays, which are late-Friday shifts that run into Saturday morning, effectively eating into workers weekends. Turnaround is a term for the minimum time between shifts. Some workers have 10-hour turnarounds already, but some have only eight or nine-hour turnarounds. A 10-hour turnaround for all workers has been one of the unions objectives in the negotiation. The union is also seeking a 54-hour turnaround on weekends. OFerrall also reported that the AMPTP had made small movement on two other union priorities meal penalties and new media. The union wants to increase meal penalties as a way to force productions to break for lunch, and is also seeking to bring streaming productions into line with wages paid on traditional projects. The union also wants higher wages for the lowest-paid workers in the bargaining unit, which include writers assistants and script coordinators. OFerrall reported that wages and benefits are still at issue. The union and AMPTP returned to the bargaining table on Thursday for a third day of talks since the results of the strike authorization vote were announced Monday. The two sides are seeking to hammer out a new three-year agreement, which would also address the financing of the unions pension and health plans. The negotiators represent 13 locals on the West Coast, which are covered under the Basic Agreement, as well as 23 locals around the country, which are covered under the Area Standards Agreement. The two deals share the same basic template, and are being negotiated simultaneously. Local 487 is headquartered in Baltimore, and is covered under the Area Standards Agreement. OFerrall sought to reassure his members that the two bargaining units will not be pitted against each other. There will be equitable deals for both agreements or no agreements at all, OFerrall said. The AMPTP declined to comment. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Since they were given their heads, the big auteurs of modern TV have been its screenwriters. So No Return can be taken various ways. Its an ITV series from Red Production Company, which has attracted huge heat producing Russell T. Davies Its a Sin and Years and Years. Its sold by Studiocanal, Europes biggest film-TV production-distribution powerhouse which owns Red Production Company and is behind the Paddington franchise, multiple Liam Neeson hit thrillers and upcoming Western, Django. In production since July, its billed as compelling event drama, starring BAFTA award winning actress Sheridan Smith (Mrs Biggs). But its also the latest from Danny Brocklehurst, now one of the U.K.s preeminent screenwriters. Few have his range or pedigree. After learning his craft from two of the greatest TV voices of working class Britain, Paul Abbott (Shameless) and Jimmy McGovern (The Street, Accused), he wrote half of Harlan Cobens The Five and Safe, which closed 2018s Canneseries. Brocklehurst has now come into his own, most notably with BBC One mini-series Come Home and Brassic, Skys biggest comedy in recent years, launching Season Three on Oct. 6. No Return would seem a part return to Harlan Coben mode, a facade of a perfect life suddenly shattered revealing that people werent what they seemed. In this case, Kathy (Smith) leads her family on a seemingly idyllic all-inclusive break to Turkey, only for her world to crumble when son Noah is arrested after attending a local beach party. Kathy and husband Martin (Michael Jibson) are left to navigate an expensive and alien legal system as their vacation turns into a living hell. Directed by John Alexander (Grace, Belgravia) and produced by Farah Abushwesha (The Singapore Grip, The ABC Murders), No Return also takes Brocklehurst back to one of his favorite themes, family, whose modern pressures he unpicked expertly in Come Home. Variety talked to him in the run-up to Mipcom where Studiocanal will be introducing the series to buyers: I suspect that youre now in a position where you could write about quite a lot of things in the world. What was your central interest in creating No Return? I wanted to work on a big family drama with a real motor at its heart. Noahs arrest has enormous ripple effects on the two families, exposing their secrets, things festering for years, questions about their son and about themselves. Theres also the subtle but important theme of consent that feels quite topical now. No Return has certain Harlan Coben vibes: Happiness, or at least its facade, suddenly shattered, revealing secrets. But maybe thats a superficial comparison? Harlan Coben thrillers are a different beast, the TV equivalent of a page turner. No Return has a slightly different tone, theres still a sort of crime element, hopefully its very pacy and people want to know what happens, and we end each episode on a big hook. But it leans more into the idea of family. This is a very universal story and I dont say that about everything I write. Its about family. Its about love. Its about protection of your own. And tensions created in extreme situations. On all-inclusive holidays people hardly interact with local culture, let alone authorities. In No Return, its the opposite. One of the things that interested me was that most of us go on package holidays or sun and beach holidays where essentially youre flying into a country, living in a tourist bubble for a week or two, then flying out. You might go to really interesting places the Dominican Republic, Croatia, or in this case Turkey, but youd certainly never think about what would happen if you fell foul of that countrys legal system which can be very different to your own. In No Return that happens. Did you do a lot of research for the series, and do you research a lot in general? On my more serious dramas, yes. When I wrote Come Home, about a mother leaving her family and what that meant for the father, I examined what that meant in terms of child support and other considerations. On No Return, I had to do lots of research on the [Turkish] legal system, speak to a lot of people. We want to get that right. The last thing we wanted was people going: Its not like that really. That was a little bit daunting at first. But once I threw myself into it, I really enjoyed it. Do you think of yourself as an auteur? In other words, what do you think you bring to No Return as a writer? If you think of someone like, say, Jimmy McGovern, hes a great guy and a good man, and a Jimmy McGovern drama has a certain stamp on it. I like to do quite different genres, flex different muscles. When Im writing a comedy drama Im trying to be funny, poignant at times, but basically, Im having fun. I sometimes do all out thrillers. And then things like No Return, Exile and Come Home, which are kind of more characterful. But if you looked at the work Ive done, there are probably themes that I return to, certain things I wanted to say about the world, which put my stamp on them. Could you name one? I did a whole series, Ordinary Lies, about ordinary people put in exceptional circumstances where their life suddenly takes quite an extreme turn that they have to deal with. Obviously that is drama to some degree. But Ive written a lot over the years about the ordinary person pushed to extremes by circumstance perhaps of their own making, perhaps external. Its a theme that does fascinate me. The more you write about ordinary, recognizable people, the more the audience can ask questions about their own lives. Paul [Abbott], Russell [T Davies] and Jimmy [McGovern] all do that really well, with a sort of realist sense that draws an audience in. And do you think you bring a particular focus to this theme? I was kind of drawn into the industry by Paul Abbott and worked with him for many years on Clocking Off and Shameless. One of the things he used to say was, something like, that Frieda, a machinist in the factory, theres no reason why that person wouldnt have a brain thats interested in other things. You dont have to write such characters as cliche. Real people are very surprising. Youve only got to go out into the real world and have a chat with somebody. And, you know, I didnt expect that. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A routine traffic stop in central Laredo resulted in the discovery of flash bang grenades and several firearms, according to an arrest affidavit. An investigation determined that the suspect, Alejandro Chavez, purchased the firearms in Laredo while using a Dallas address. Chavez was charged with making false statements in connection with the purchase of a firearm. The case unfolded on Oct. 5., when a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper pulled over a Ford F-150 for speeding and a seatbelt violation near the intersection of Boston Street and San Bernardo Avenue. The driver was identified as Chavez. He told the trooper he had firearms he was taking to a pawn show. Additional troopers and special agents arrived and questioned Chavez about the firearms. Chavez allegedly granted Troopers consent to run the serial numbers on the firearms: A .38 caliber Kimber Eclipse Target, a 9mm Glock 26 Gen 4 and a .45 caliber Citadel M1911-A1. Troopers and special agents concluded the traffic stop and started having a consensual conversation with Chavez regarding the firearms. Asked if he had other firearms, Chavez allegedly stated he had more firearms in a storage unit nearby. Chavez allowed authorities to search his storage unit, where troopers and agents later discovered suspected flash bang grenades, assorted ammo and multiple firearms: A Colt 1911 Government 38, an FN Scar 16S 5.56x45mm and a Sig Sauer MPX 9mm. DPS then contacted Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for investigative assistance. ATF special agents arrived, examined the suspected flash bang grenades and determined they were not restricted items, states the affidavit. ATF special agents also discovered that Chavez had multiple arrests but no felony convictions. DPS special agents asked Chavez if he had additional firearms or ammunition anywhere else. Chavez told DPS Special Agents that he had more ammunition and flash bang grenades at his residence in the 3900 Block of San Augustine Ave., states the affidavit. Chavez allegedly stated that he had purchased all the firearms from the Arena Gun Club in Laredo. ATF special confirmed that Chavez had purchased the firearms at the Arena Gun Club and used an address in Dallas when filling out documents at the time of the purchase. The dates of purchase ranged between Aug. 21, 2018, and Sept. 26, 2020, according to court documents. Chavez voluntarily took DPS, ATF and HSI to his residence and showed investigators the suspected flash bang grenades and ammo. It was determined that the flash bang grenades were not controlled items. During a non-custodial interview, authorities discovered that he had been living in Laredo for a few years but used his Dallas address for his identification card. Chavez also stated that he has purchased multiple firearms using the Dallas address while living in Laredo ... states the affidavit. The Webb County administrative offices, Tax Assessor Collectors office and the county sheriffs administrative office will close on Monday in observance of Columbus Day. As a result, the county will instead host its commissioners court meeting on Friday, thus avoiding postponing the meeting an extra week. One of the discussions or possible action that it will possibly approve, or discuss at length, will be a 3% wage increase for the Webb County Community Action Agency. According to the county, the agency staff have not participated in a wage increase adjustment since 2015, thus the 3% increase in 2021. The agency is involved with the Community Social Services Program, Self-Help Center Program, Rural Transit Program and The Meals-On-Wheels/Elderly Nutrition Program. The increase is subject for approval at the local level, and the county emphasized that all staff salary increases are fully paid from grant funds and other sources with the only exception being the elderly nutrition program. Additionally, the commissioners will possibly approve of submitting the 2022-23 Fund for Veterans Assistance Veterans County Service Officer Funding Grant application to the Texas Veterans Commission. The grant application totals up to $150,000 in order to extend current transportation services between July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. The transportation services are offered to county veterans and their families. The grant doesnt require any matching from the county and the overall grant application will have no impact on the general fund. The meeting will begin with the approval of bills, payroll and monthly reports by different county departments including human resources, risk management, emergency management and more. After which, consent items will be discussed. The public is invited to attend and discuss any item of the agenda but must complete a witness card prior to the meeting to specify what item they would like to talk about. As the meeting will revolve mostly around consent items, there is a chance that the meeting will last a short while, but some items of note may be discussed. This includes the discussion and possible approval of new job postings including a food transporter, two nursing positions and a water utilities operator. Additionally, the commissioners may accept a grant award by the Apache Corporation for a donation of tress in the Santa Teresita Community Center and the Fred and Anita Community Center. This will also authorize Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina to act as the countys executive officer and representative regarding the tree grant program. cocampo@lmtonline.com USAA is looking to give the "community zone" at its headquarters a "refresh." The San Antonio-based financial and insurance services company will make alterations to the community zone, including interior partitions, finishes, and mechanical, electrical and demolition work, according to a recent filing with Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. USAA spokesperson Christian Bove says the company is just updating some carpet and lighting in one of the common areas that has tables and chairs. William Luther, Staff / San Antonio Express-News The filing says the work will be done in a 5,146-square-foot space inside USAA's headquarters at 9800 Fredericksburg Road for an estimated cost of $250,000. Considering the headquarters is over 5 million square feet, this is a pretty small-scale project. William Luther The listing is not clear on what is in the community zone, but Texas-based construction company Byrne has a project called "USAA SATHO" listed on its website, which includes past work to the "AB Cafe and Community Zone." The website doesn't say when that project took place. The Fortune 500 company's headquarters also features fitness facilities, a medical clinic, and relaxation areas for employees. This current "refresh" has Alamo Architects listed as the design firm, which is different from the Byrne USAA project. USAA has more than 36,000 employees, and some of those employees started to return to the office back in March. Bove says the project is not related to any plans to have more employees return to the office. Stanley "Jim" G. Kenyon passed away November 16, 2021 in Niagara Hospice House. Born August 3, 1925 in Somerset, NY, he was the son of Howard E. and Inez G. (Harrod) Kenyon. Stanley served in the US Navy from 1944-1946 during WW II. He worked for Harrison Radiator Div of GM where he was a ra The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks! Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics. The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc. The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics. The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates. Access to college recruiters and advisors its harder to line up higher education. Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family. Vote View Results A north Longford man who was found roaring and shouting through a letterbox after his partner had kicked him out of their home has been convicted and fined by Judge Bernadette Owens. Eugene Flynn, 8 Cnoc Na Greine, Granard was issued with a 100 fine at a sitting of Longford District Court last Thursday. Mr Flynn, the court heard, was charged with breaching Section 5 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act following an incident at Cnoc Na Greine on January 5, 2021. Inspector Dave Jordan said gardai were called to the estate shortly after 2.30am where Mr Flynn was observed causing a disturbance and arrested for disorderly conduct. He said Mr Flynn was issued with a Fixed Charge Penalty Notice by gardai which was not paid. A summons was consequently issued for Mr Flynn's court attendance last week, the inspector added. The court was further told Mr Flynn had 19 previous convictions to his name, the most relevant of which came at a sitting of Longford District Court in September 2020. That resulted in Mr Flynn signing a peace bond for a period of two years after he was convicted of engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour. A further Section 6 conviction was recorded against the accused in November 2015 with Mr Flynn this time being ordered to complete 150 hours of community service. In pleading guilty to the said incident, Brid Mimnagh acting for Mr Flynn, said her client was acceptive of his actions on the night of the incident. His partner decided she wasn't letting him into the house and he shouted in the letterbox, she said. Ms Mimnagh qualified those remarks by insisting Mr Flynn was not under the influence of alcohol and was simply aggrieved at the situation he found himself in. He was roaring and shouting and he accepts that, she added. Ms Mimnagh continued by saying Mr Flynn was someone of limited means who was on disability allowance of 203 a week. Judge Owens said, given the circumstances of Mr Flynn's background, a fine of 100 was appropriate in the circumstances. Mr Flynn was given four months to pay the fine. Newly appointed principal of Lanesboro Community College Hazel Hannon has welcomed the recent announcement of funding for seven new classrooms at the south Longford school. Ms Hannon told the Leader that the staff and students at the school heartily welcome the new building extension and approval of same through Longford Westmeath Education and Training Board. Seven new classrooms have been approved including one general classroom, one music room, one graphics room, one multimedia room, one textiles room and two extra classrooms for the special education base. I would like to record my appreciation to all who have progressed this project to date, she told the Longford Leader. The new building extension will provide state of the art facilities and opportunities for young people of Lanesboro and environs. These modern facilities will support students in this growing school and provide a wealth of opportunities to engage with learning. I wish to commend our students who are our biggest ambassadors and also our hard working and committed staff and also the support of the parents and local community which has been second to none. I would also like to thank the Board of Management and Parents Council for all their hard work and commitment to the school and this new building project, she concluded. Long Island School Closings & Delayed Openings Home Education Schools LI School Closure Archives School Closings Kids celebrate it as a snow day, and parents groan at the hassle - School Closures on Long Island. Often taking place during the winter months due to snow or bad road conditions, School Closures are something that Long Islanders have to deal with almost every year, and it is important to have the most up to date information about your School District in order to plan for the days ahead - especially if the children are going to be at home. To keep you in the loop, LongIsland.com's School Closure Page provides you with up to date information on what Long Island schools are closed, and who has class in session - including K-12, Preschools, Colleges and Universities on Long Island. Have a tip about a school closing in your area? Email us at news@longisland.com. You can also view Archived Data on Closings. Coronavirus Update: ALL Suffolk & Nassau School Districts through grade 12 are closed Suffolk County Community College Nassau Community College Farmingdale State College FIT - Fashion Institute of Technology LIU - Long Island University SUNY - remote classes for remainder of semster begins 3/19 CUNY - remote classes for remainder of semster begins 3/19 Stony Brook University Hofstra University Nassau Community College Cornell University New York Institute of Technology Yeshiva University St. John's University NYU Pace University Manhattan College Saint Joseph's College - Brooklyn & Patchogue Adelphi University Molloy College Fordham University Columbia University John Jay College of Criminal Justice Barnard College Princeton University (NJ) Parent-Teacher Conferences Cancelled: Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness By Chris Boyle Published: October 08 2021 Echo Pharmacy and Heritage Chemists Pharmacy have been an important local resource for our residents to get vaccinated, said Legislator Anker. Suffolk County Legislator Anker recently presented proclamations to two local pharmacies, Echo Pharmacy in Miller Place and Heritage Chemists Pharmacy in Mount Sinai, to thank the owners and their employees for assisting in New York State and Suffolk Countys COVID-19 vaccination distribution efforts to reach local residents. Echo Pharmacy and Heritage Chemists Pharmacy have been an important local resource for our residents to get vaccinated, said Legislator Anker. My office coordinated directly with the pharmacists to help vaccinate our residents, particularly our seniors, who are among the most vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus. The efforts of healthcare providers like Echo Pharmacy and Heritage Chemists Pharmacy have greatly assisted Suffolk County and New York State in their COVID-19 vaccination efforts. I am grateful for their partnership. As an essential service to our community, we at Heritage Chemists Pharmacy have remained open throughout the pandemic to continue providing personalized care to our friends and neighbors, said Heritage Chemists Pharmacy Owner MaryJo Bosio. We are proud to have been able to offer the COVID-19 vaccine, masks, sanitizers, and other cleaning products to our community during this challenging time. Give us a call if youd like to schedule a vaccination appointment, booster shot, COVID PCR test or for all of your pharmacy needs, including free delivery. Echo Pharmacy is honored to serve our community, said Echo Pharmacy Owner Bryan Mccutcheon. We strive to keep everyone healthy and safe. Call us to make an appointment if youd like to get the vaccine or are in need of a booster shot. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Echo Pharmacy and Heritage Chemists Pharmacy distributed COVID-19 vaccines through their locations, prioritizing inoculating seniors in the community. Echo Pharmacy was able to expand their distribution efforts and offer remote vaccinations at residents homes who were homebound due to age and/or ability. Due to the efforts and contributions of Echo Pharmacy and Heritage Chemists Pharmacy, Suffolk County has now reached a fully vaccinated rate of over 63%. Currently, Echo Pharmacy is offering Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and Heritage Chemists Pharmacy is offering Moderna and John & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, booster shots and COVID-19 PCR testing. Support Local Journalism The Malibu community needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please help keep us in print by making a contribution. Mankato, MN (56001) Today Windy with snow showers this morning. Partly cloudy later. High 33F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 50%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Mostly clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 22F. W winds shifting to SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Mankato, MN (56001) Today Windy. Light snow this morning will give way to partly cloudy skies this afternoon. High 33F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 60%. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Mostly clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 22F. W winds shifting to SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Julia A. Johnston, 68, of Wilburton, OK passed away at her home in Wilburton on Sunday, November 14, 2021. Services will be on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 2 p.m. at the Waldrop Funeral Home Chapel in Wilburton, OK with the burial to follow in the Peachland Cemetery in Bengal, Oklahoma. O JAMES BEATY | Staff photoNew Ward 4 City Councilor Randy Roden, left, accompanied by his wife, Debbie Roden, is sworn into office by Associate District Judge Tim Mills on Sept. 28. Roden, who won an unexpired term, will have to run for a full-term in 2022, along with candidates for the Ward 2 and Ward 6 posts, at a date to be determined due to conflicts between the City Charter and state election law. Richard "Rick" Charles Bean, 70, passed away unexpectedly on November 13, 2021. He was born March 5, 1951 in Meadville, PA to the late Charles and Bernice (Haven) Bean. Rick worked hard his entire life. He enjoyed watching his children grow up and is very proud of them both for what they hav Meridian, MS (39302) Today Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 71F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 37F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Click here to log in and see all of our other subscription options for the Mesabi Tribune, including online only & auto-renewal subscriptions. South American mining giants Chile, Peru and Brazil seek to increase mining royalties , eyeing this price uptrend. While members of the Chilean and Brazilian lower houses of Congress have already greenlit this change, Peruvian authorities began discussing the move after the election of a left-leaning government in July.The necessity for higher state revenues arose amid public deficits, demands for improved national services and social inequality on the continent. The Covid-19 crisis aggravated this environment, adding health problems and a need for economic relief to the mix.Global metal prices rocketed from 2020 lows, due mostly to insufficient supply and logistic woes. After producers had to halt operations to prevent the virus from spreading, demand recovered at a much faster pace than expected, leaving a shortage in international markets.Prices, however, have since corrected from multi-year highs. Chile is the worlds largest copper-producing country, followed by Peru. And Peru is... LARA Summarily Suspends License for Adult Foster Care Large Group Home in Oakland County LARA Summarily Suspends License for Adult Foster Care Large Group Home in Oakland County Media Contact: LARA Communications (517-335-LARA (5272)) Email: mediainfo@michigan.gov October 7, 2021 - The Dept. of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Community and Health Systems (BCHS), has summarily suspended and issued a notice of intent to revoke the adult foster care large group home license of Adultcare of Independence Twp Inc, located at 8541 Eston Road, in Clarkston. The complaint investigation that concluded on October 6, 2021, found violations of the Adult Foster Care Facility Licensing Act and administrative rules. LARA took emergency action to protect the health, welfare, and safety of vulnerable adults. Effective October 6, 2021, the summary suspension order prohibits Adultcare of Independence Twp Inc from operating an adult foster care large group home at 8541 Eston Road, in Clarkston, or at any other address or location. Accordingly, Adultcare of Independence Twp Inc may not accept adults for care after that date and time. The order also requires the licensee to inform all the guardians of adults in their care that their license has been suspended and that they can no longer provide adult foster care services. Since LARA has summarily suspended the license, an administrative hearing will promptly be scheduled before an administrative law judge with the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules. To learn more about adult foster care licensing, or how to file a complaint, please visit www.michigan.gov/bchs. Related Documents State Launches Resource to Organize Volunteer Support for Afghan Arrivals State Launches Resource to Organize Volunteer Support for Afghan Arrivals FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021 MEDIA CONTACT: Ebony Stith 517-285-5549 LANSING, Mich.-With approximately 1,300 Afghan allies and nationals expected to be resettled in Michigan in the coming months, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the Office of Global Michigan and the Michigan Community Service Commission are calling on Michiganders to volunteer to ease the transition and welcome individuals and families to Michigan. A new online resource - Michigan.gov/AfghanArrivals - has been launched where Michiganders can find volunteer opportunities to support Afghans arriving in the state. "We urge everyone to join us in welcoming these Afghan families to Michigan and ensuring they have the resources they need to succeed," Gov. Whitmer said. "We will continue to embrace our duty to honor and protect these families as they flee from violence and political persecution. Especially given the recent treatment of Haitians at our border, we also urge humane treatment of all immigrants arriving to the U.S., regardless of their origin." Global Michigan has worked with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) to secure $500,000 of MSHDA funds to temporarily house the arrivals until resettlement agencies can secure their permanent housing. Arriving Afghans are being assigned to one of the state's five resettlement agencies that have the expertise to offer support. The Michigan Community Service Commission is supporting organizations serving Afghan evacuees across the state by identifying volunteer roles and donations to support the transition to Michigan for these individuals and families. The website will play a crucial role in helping coordinate and channel the flow of resources to these important organizations. "The Office of Global Michigan is working closely with our federal, state, private and philanthropic partners to ensure Afghan individuals and families feel welcome and connected with the resources they need," said Poppy Hernandez, Office of Global Michigan director. "We look forward to working with the Michigan Community Service Commission and supporting organizations serving Afghan evacuees in this effort to identify volunteer roles and donations to ease their transition." There are opportunities for individuals, families, community teams, nonprofits, and corporate teams to volunteer. Anyone interested in helping should register to become part of the Volunteer Michigan Afghan Resettlement Team. Those who register will complete a simple survey to indicate what skills and donations they'd like to offer, and will receive updates about opportunities to serve within those selected topics. "We are so appreciative of the many Michiganders who want to volunteer or offer resources for the Michigan Afghan Resettlement initiative," said Michigan Community Service Commission Executive Director Ginna Holmes. "We encourage residents to sign up to serve and support our new neighbors." The Afghan Arrivals site allows volunteers to share specific resources they can offer for the variety of tasks needed to help support and welcome individuals and families to the state. Michiganders can volunteer in person or remotely and can donate a variety of goods and services, including financial resources. "Volunteers and donations from our communities will play a critical role in supporting Afghan Nationals arriving in the coming weeks and months. Together, with our state and local partners, we will work hard to ensure those community contributions are put to good use as we provide arriving men, women and children with the essential services and support they need to begin to rebuild their lives here in Michigan," said the five Michigan resettlement agencies, Bethany Christian Services, Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, Samaritas, St. Vincent Catholic Charities, and United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) - Dearborn, in a joint statement. Governor Whitmer is focused on making Michigan a more welcoming state. The Office of Global Michigan was established to help grow Michigan's economy by retaining and attracting global talent; and to promote the skills, energy, and entrepreneurial spirit of our immigrant and refugee communities. Consistent with that vision, the office supports immigrant and refugee integration initiatives for the state. It works with state agencies that provide services to immigrants and refugees and strives to minimize or eliminate barriers to accessing those state services. For more information about the Office of Global Michigan, visit: Michigan.gov/OGM. Oct. 8, 2021 The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has scheduled a virtual public meeting for Oct. 28 on requested mineral rights leases for properties in Menominee County. Great Lakes Exploration, Inc., of Menominee, Michigan, has requested direct, metallic mineral leases for Michigan Department of Natural Resources metallic mineral rights located within Faithorn and Holmes townships in Menominee County. This request, containing roughly 1609 acres, was submitted to the state of Michigan and is described as: Leasable development: W1/2 NE1/4, SW1/4 NW1/4, Section 7, T37N, R27W (115 acres m/l) Leasable development with restrictions: E1/4 NE1/4, N1/2 NW1/4, SE1/4 NW1/4, SE1/4, N1/2 SW1/4, SW1/4 SW1/4, Section 7, T37N, R27W (466 acres m/l) NE1/4, NW1/4, N1/2 SE1/4, SE1/4 SE1/4, N1/2 SW1/4, Section 18, T37N, R27W (508 acres m/l) NE1/4, NW1/4, N1/2 SE1/4, N1/2 SW1/4, SE1/4 SW1/4, Section 22, T37N, R28W (520 acres m/l) If approved, a lease to Great Lakes Exploration, Inc. would grant the exclusive right to explore for the presence of metallic minerals in the described areas. A lease alone does not grant a lessee a right to mine. Informational meeting An informational (virtual) public meeting regarding the lease application will be held, and will include an opportunity for public comment: Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021 from 1-4 p.m. (Eastern) Join the GoToWebinar meeting or call (for audio only) 562-247-8422 Conference ID: 643-125-236 Public comment Registration is required for those who want to provide public comment during the meeting. Anyone wishing to participate in the public comment portion of the meeting will be allowed two minutes to speak. If you not wish to provide public comment, or if you do not have internet access, you can use the call-in option. Written questions A multi-agency panel will respond to written questions from the public regarding this lease application during the meeting. Submit questions to the DNR-Minerals Management Section, P.O. Box 30452, Lansing, MI 48909, or via email at DNR-Minerals@michigan.gov. Questions received by Oct. 15 will be addressed during the meeting; questions received after Oct. 15 will be answered via email. This meeting will be recorded, and the recording will be made available on our website. Attorney General Media contact: Lynsey Mukomel 517-599-2746 Public inquiries: 517-335-7622 October 8, 2021 LANSING - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a notice of intended action under Michigan's Consumer Protection Act to an Arizona business by directing the company to cease and desist from engaging in allegedly unlawful business practices related to its sale of advertised "hearing aids." The Department sent King Crawford Enterprises, LLC, which is doing business as Nano Hearing Aids, a notice of intended action in response to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) recently sharing dozens of complaints it received over the past two years. The complaints include the following: Failing to ship purchased items timely and, at times, refusing to provide a refund after consumers complained about the delay in receiving the item - stating that the consumer had to at least try the hearing aids out for a certain number of days before requesting a refund. In responding to complaints about the product not working, consumers were told they needed to try the product for a certain amount of time to "retrain the brain" in order for the product to work. Despite advertising a money back guarantee, consumers reported multiple hoops to jump through in order to obtain a refund. Additionally, the product is advertised as hearing aids when in fact it is a personal sound amplification product (PSAP). In May, Nessel issued a consumer alert urging consumers to beware of misleading sales of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing devices because the FDA has not approved any over-the-counter hearing aids. The Department alleges the business has engaged in the following unfair trade practices: USED Approves Michigan's Education Plan for American Recovery Plan Funding USED Approves Michigan's Education Plan for American Recovery Plan Funding Martin Ackley, Director of Public and Governmental Affairs 517-241-4395 Education October 8, 2021 LANSING - The United States Department of Education (USED) approved Michigan's education plan for the federal American Recovery Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP-ESSER) funding, freeing up $1.24 billion for Michigan schools, according to the Michigan Department of Education. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona approved the plan that will complete the allocation of $3.72 billion in federal ARP funds to Michigan. Nearly $2.5 billion was released to Michigan in March and the remainder released today with the approval of Michigan's ARP ESSER plan. "This investment in Michigan's schools will help our kids thrive and ensure teachers and staff have the resources and support they need," said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. "I am grateful to Senators Stabenow and Peters, along with all of the Democratic members of Michigan's congressional delegation, for working to pass this funding in the American Rescue Plan, which we included in the education funding bill I signed earlier this summer making the largest K-12 investment in state history without raising taxes. That bill closed the funding gap between schools in Michigan and delivered critical mental health resources. Together, we can continue putting Michiganders first and get things done that make a real difference in their lives." State Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice said, "Our state ARP plan will help Michigan students better rebound from the disrupted learning that they experienced during the past year. I am very pleased that Secretary Cardona and the U.S. Department of Education approved our state plan and released the remaining $1.24 billion in federal funds for Michigan schools to improve our schools in myriad ways for children." These funds reimburse school districts to support safe, in-person instruction and meet the social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs of students-with a focus on the students most impacted by the pandemic. The approval of Michigan's ARP plan will allow for the use of $363 million in state equalization payments appropriated to districts that did not receive $1,093 per pupil in their ARP ESSER formula allocation. That formula allocates 90 percent of the ARP ESSER funds based upon federal Title I, Part A distributions defined in federal law. Michigan's plan includes: Returning to In-Person Learning in 2021: All traditional public school districts are operating predominantly in-person this year, and all students have access to in-person learning. All traditional public school districts are operating predominantly in-person this year, and all students have access to in-person learning. Safely Reopening Schools and Sustaining Safe Operations: MDE has promoted collaborative partnerships between districts and local health departments to conduct vaccination clinics. In partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), the MI Safe Schools Testing Program supports schools in providing COVID-19 testing to allow for safe, in-person learning. MDHHS is providing over $24 million in additional federal funding to school districts and local public health departments to hire 220 Health Resource Advocates to effectively support school-based COVID-19 testing and reporting. MDE has promoted collaborative partnerships between districts and local health departments to conduct vaccination clinics. In partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), the MI Safe Schools Testing Program supports schools in providing COVID-19 testing to allow for safe, in-person learning. MDHHS is providing over $24 million in additional federal funding to school districts and local public health departments to hire 220 Health Resource Advocates to effectively support school-based COVID-19 testing and reporting. Addressing the Academic Impact of Lost Instructional Time and Expanding Summer and Afterschool Programs: School districts that receive state reserve funds will select evidence-based interventions that address the academic and social-emotional needs of their student populations that are most impacted by the pandemic. Districts will complete additional budget information and documentation on how they will use ARP ESSER funds for students disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Local school districts will have until 2024 to use their allocated funds and will submit their plans for the use of the funds to MDE by December 14, 2021. MANISTEE COUNTY The following includes reports made to the Manistee County Sheriffs Office from Sept. 12-16. All calls may not be reported. This is part of a lengthy report and is compiled by assistant editor Arielle Breen. Sept. 12 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 6:40 a.m. in Bear Lake Township. A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 9:50 a.m. in Bear Lake Township. Deputies conducted a trailer vehicle identification number inspection at 11:13 a.m. in Bear Lake Township. A personal injury crash was reported at 8:30 p.m. in Marilla Township. A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 10:30 p.m. in Manistee Township. A person was reported to have been resisting and obstructing police in Manistee Township. Sept. 13 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 6:37 a.m. in Pleasanton Township. A breaking and entering incident was reported at 11:30 a.m. in Wellston. An abandoned camper was reported at 9:30 a.m. in Norman Township. Deputies assisted the Manistee City Police Department with an investigation at 4 p.m. in the city of Manistee. A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 2:32 p.m. in Dickson Township. A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 10:46 p.m. in Norman Township. Sept. 14 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 12:31 a.m. in Bear Lake Township. A dog was reported as running at large at 11:59 a.m. in Cleon Township. Sept. 15 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 1:18 a.m. in Manistee Township. A 911 call was reported as abandoned at 3:37 a.m. in Manistee Township. A report of an intruder was learned to have been unfounded at 6:11 a.m. in Kaleva. A reckless driver was reported at 10:16 a.m. in Bear Lake Township. Deputies conducted a well-being check at 2:25 p.m. in Springdale Township. A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 8:47 p.m. in Manistee Township. A domestic incident was reported at 11:22 p.m. in Manistee Township. Sept. 16 A personal injury crash was reported at 7:40 a.m. in Bear Lake Township. A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 6:35 a.m. in Manistee Township. Deputies assisted EMS at 8:37 a.m. in Manistee Township. A dog was reported to have been left in a vehicle at 1:07 p.m. in Dickson Township. Deputies assisted a citizen at 1:44 p.m. in Springdale Township. A suspicious situation and civil issue was reported at midnight in Manistee Township. A phone scam was reported at 4:58 p.m. in Cleon Township. A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 8:04 p.m. in Bear Lake Township. A 911 call was abandoned at 6:15 p.m. in Pleasanton Township. A vehicle was reported as being abandoned at 5:40 p.m. in Filer Township. Threats were reported at 11:51 p.m. in Marilla Township. Off-road vehicle and snowmobile riders who are claustrophobic would not have to wear a helmet if a series of bills are passed by the Legislature. A doctors note would give a get-out-of-jail-free card to Michigan outdoor enthusiasts who have certain medical conditions and use off-road vehicles (commonly known as ORVs) and snowmobiles for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation. An Upper Peninsula senator sponsored the bills after a constituent asked why he couldnt get a doctors excuse to not wear a helmet when people could get them for not wearing seatbelts. He himself has a number of special needs, including body shape development of his head, that are not typical, and it makes it impossible or very painful for him to wear a helmet, Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, said at a hearing that resulted in the bills being passed in the Senate this spring. Doctors notes could also include nonphysical conditions. Theres also the reality that some of the individuals Ive talked to, as Ive worked on this piece of legislation, their medical condition that impairs their wearing a helmet is not necessarily physical, McBroom said. Claustrophobia is a particular ailment, and I talked to an individual who has panic attacks. Allowances may need to be made in these types of circumstances, said Karen Middendorf, the executive director of the Michigan Snowmobile & ORV Association. We all know helmets are worn for safety, and it is safest to have one on while riding. However, if you have an incapacitating condition that does not allow you to cover your head, this becomes a very personal decision. An exception may be needed, she said. McBroom said the bills are not linked to what others consider the main issue: that motorcyclists arent required by law to wear helmets, yet snowmobile and ORV riders are. In this bill package, we are not dealing with that larger issue of is mandating helmets for everybody right or wrong in the first place, he said. But some snowmobile and ORV riders say the larger issue is personal choice. The doctors note should not be part of anything like this that is truly ridiculous, said Chris Bovee, a longtime snowmobile rider and resident of Harbor Springs. While I would always ride a motorcycle or snowmobile on trail with a helmet, it being a law isnt right, Bovee wrote in an email. At the very least, if I am on private property, piss off. The decision to wear a helmet or not is something I am very capable of making Dont need a law for it. Paul Anderson, the owner of Sled Solutions in Acme and a longtime snowmobile rider, agreed it should be the choice of the rider, not the government. But the government is involved, and helmet-wearing exemptions are presenting as partisan issues. The bills passed the Senate mainly along party lines. The Department of Natural Resources and the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer administration are against it, McBroom said. Frequently the party that is the same as the administration decides to support the governor and departments and divisions, those kinds of things, he said. The bill would have attracted more Senate Democrats, McBroom said, but the department and current administration opposed it. John Pepin, the Department of Natural Resources deputy public information officer, said the agency had no comment. McBroom said he hopes to gain support from both sides of the aisle before the bills come up for a vote in the House. I certainly have some good connections with Democrats and Republicans in the House that I hope Ill be able to utilize to get bipartisan support, he said. Dr. Alistair Chapman, a Spectrum Health trauma surgeon and director of the Spectrum Health Trauma Research Institute in Grand Rapids, said the bill should neither be partisan nor an issue in the first place. I am disappointed that legislators are again exploring helmet exemptions. A helmet is a common-sense safety mechanism. Wearing one is smart and safe, he said. Anderson said he plans to continue on as he has been: I wear a helmet on my snowmobile not because Im required to but because I want to. Getting rid of the ORV/snowmobile helmet law as a whole wouldnt make that much of a difference in peoples behavior, he said. If you took a poll of how many people would opt out of wearing a helmet on a snowmobile if the law didnt require it, youd find most would still wear it, Anderson wrote in an email. Why? Because its cold without one! Thank goodness it's the weekend, right? Yes, exactly. If you're looking for a weekend adventure or just a weekend experience, there's plenty to do throughout Michigan that's no more than a day trip or a weekend trip away. From the loud, to the fun, to the spooky, the Wolverine State doesn't disappoint. The fall weather settling in also makes things more perfect. Here are five things to do in Michigan this weekend. 1. Monster Jam Looking for a wild night out? Head over to Grand Rapids this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday-Sunday-SUNDAY for Monster Jam. See stunts, big trucks, and watch things get smashed. Almost sounds therapeutic. Monster Jam takes place at Van Andel Arena. 2. Charlevoix Apple Festival What's better than a juicy, tasty apple? How about a freshly harvested juicy, tasty apple? You'll get that and more at the Charlevoix Apple Festival. This annual autumn event features a variety of apples as well as a market that you can get yourself some eggs, fruits, vegetables, squash and mums. There's also food on hand such as chili, hot dogs and Irish apple cake. Yum! 3. Fort Fright Why is it that older things are the perfect ingredients for a scary experience? Seriously, old mansions, vintage cruise ships, the list goes on and on. And an 18th century fur trading fort in Mackinaw City fits the bill just fine. At Fort Fright, there's ghouls, goblins, and spooky tales centuries old that could very well give you chills and thrills from the days of and proceeding the Revolutionary War. Fort Fright is meant for all ages, however, there are some extra spooky experience available to take in, if you dare. 4. Great Lakes Comic Expo There's expected to be costume galore in honor of many of the captivating superheroes that have graced the covers of several comic books. From Spider-man to Batman, and maybe even Bartman there will be plenty of sights to see and experiences to take in. This Clinton Township event is also expected to feature special guests, including Don Simpson, the creator of "Megaton Man." 5. Ann Arbor Arborfest It's all about art and fun this weekend in Ann Arbor. Not only will 100 pieces of fine art be on display at this large outdoor event, there will also be live music, craft beer and cocktails, activities, and food trucks. Oh, and by the way, it's free. A vote was passed in the very room in which future commissioners impacted by the decision will serve. The Midland County Apportionment Committee voted on new apportionment for the seven county commissioner districts Wednesday. The Reapportionment Committee voted (4-1) on Plan C, the new map that will be in effect for 10 years. Five members of the committee were present for the Wednesday meeting in the Midland County Services Building: Midland County Clerk Ann Manary, Midland County Prosecuting Attorney J. Dee Brooks, Midland County Treasurer Cathy Lunsford, Midland County Democratic Party Chair Jennifer Austin and Midland County Republican Party Chair Cathy Leikhim. Manary, Brooks, Lunsford and Leikhim voted yes to pass Plan C. Austin voted no. The map, along with a resolution that was passed Wednesday, will be filed with the State of Michigan. Manary, who chaired the reapportionment committee, will file the map, resolution and the "physical wording" of each district on Monday, Oct. 11. "I'm very happy that we were able to move forward with the districts," Manary said. "We did spend a lot of time on Sept. 15, creating Plan C, that was ultimately approved by this committee.We looked at lots of different options when we were making the decisions for Plan C. But we have those guidelines that we have to stay in contact with and you can't think about what political issues are going to arise because of the maps." The other plan, Plan E, was drafted by Austin and presented on Sept. 29 to the committee. "It's disappointing," Austin said. "It went as I expected. I didn't expect to convince four Republicans to attempt to be fair in the County of Midland, but I had to give it my best shot." More than 15 community members on both sides of the aisle were present to witness the vote. The majority of people present expressed frustration with the Plan C decision. The criteria for apportionment are that the districts shall be contiguous, compact and square; townships shall generally not be combined with cities; townships, cities, and villages shall generally not be divided; precincts shall be divided only to meet population standard; no partisan political advantage shall be given to a particular party; and population deviation between commissioner districts must be under 11.9%. This term, all seven Midland County commissioners are Republican. The Reapportionment Committee began meeting on June 2 and has met at least once a month since that time. The Daily News will continue to follow this topic; If youre interested in sharing your perspective, email Reporter Tess DeGayner at tess.degayner@hearstnp.com. Related content Midland Co. Apportionment Committee nearing vote on county commissioner map This winter, the Four Lakes Task Force (FLTF) plans to finish up repairs on the Tobacco River side of the Edenville dam. According to FLTF, the primary Edenville dam repair project includes removing parts of a rollway and constructing a reinforcement wall. Thats just one item on FLTFs long list of projects to be completed in an effort to restore the four lakes and their respective dams. FLTF held a board meeting and webinar earlier this week to update Midland and Gladwin County residents on recently completed efforts and the status of current projects. Progress report: Edenville dam FLTF President Dave Kepler said the restoration on Wixom and Sanford Lakes are significant. The Edenville dam interim repairs on the Tobacco River and Tittabawassee River sides are underway. Parts of the rollway (a natural or prepared slope for rolling logs into a stream) will be removed to take out the upper portions of a spillway on the Edenville dam. The reinforcement wall, or sister wall, will provide structural support for training walls. Around winter, a breach way I-wall berm is planned for the Tittabawassee River side. And looking ahead to next year, FLTF plans to install boat safety booms on the Tobacco River side in summer. The group will make efforts toward embankment stabilization on the Tittwabawassee River side, with the goal to complete this project in the summer. On the Tittabawassee River side, the group has removed downstream sediment and a rollway. Progress report: Secord and Smallwood dams The Secord and Smallwood dams suffered damage from the May 2020 mid-Michigan dam failures. After the Edenville and Sanford dams failed, FLTF completed post-flood inspections to outline the immediate aspects to take action against. This information was shared with EGLE and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC); A decision was made to implement the identified measures, which was completed in April. Paul Drew, whos working on the risk-informed decision making process, met with EGLE, FERC and FLTF members. He said a two-day workshop was completed in September to identify possible consequences of a hypothetical dam failure. The workshops goal was to ultimately understand the annual probability of Secord and Smallwood dams and how downstream communities would be impacted in a potential flooding event. FLTF used the information to design a spillway to fit the need. Hansen said the process is developed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. More recently, FLTF conducted subsurface investigations to better understand soil borings and the mechanics of the soils. Ron Hansen is an environmental health and safety committee member and vice president at Spicer Group, the lead engineering firm with FLTF. Hansen said this understanding is necessary for geotechnical and structural designs. FLTF is working on submitting some permit applications to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) by December. Next summer, the group hopes to have boat safety booms installed on both dams. The group has also completed 30% Design Drawings (with IDF upgrades) and 60% Designs are underway. Progress report: Sanford dam Right now, FLTF said it's in the design and permitting phase of its interim repairs, which includes spillway stabilization and breach closure on the Sanford dam. In the Wednesday meeting, the group said EGLE is reviewing the permit applications. This fall, FLTF plans to begin construction. Community questions, concerns Residents had a chance to ask questions to FLTF members, including Kepler, Vice President Dave Rothman and Hansen. Coleman resident Kelly Bax requested FLTF to share a treasury report, she also added she had concerns over taxpayer money use and possible funding avenues. Regarding the treasury report, Kepler said it is on FLTFs website. Annual reports and tax filings can be found here. Another resident asked about bottomland lake management, which primarily impacts Wixom and Sanford lakes. Rothman said theres an estimated 10 million trees growing on the bottomlands (between the four lakes). Some, he said, are only 4-feet high. Others are over 15-feet tall. FLTF is working on required spraying permits from EGLE to help control the bottomland vegetation, Rothman said. He said residents do not need permits to mow, they can mow 40- to 50-feet out of their properties. Kepler said FLTFs role is to bring the lakes up and deal with environmental management that comes along with raising the lake water levels. However, he said the group does not foresee itself managing all of the lakes, rather the community townships and associations will need to have lake management plans. Rothman said FLTF is collaborating with the Wixom Lake Improvement Board to receive funds to cover the cost of bottomland work, located east of M-30 on Wixom Lake. On the Tobacco side of the Edenville Dam, Tobacco Township asked FLTF to look into mowing as a measure to control Wixom Lakes bottomland trees. Area resident Karen Price, who lives on a river tributary, asked a question about the special assessment districts (SAD). While the SAD boundaries are final, the methodology is not final and will be updated. For more information on this topic, click here. The Four Lakes Task Force is the delegated authority for Midland and Gladwin counties. Related content: Midland, Gladwin: Do you have questions for the Four Lakes Task Force? Not all builders are happy with Gov. Gretchen Whitmers announcement Thursday that Michigan will pay higher "prevailing" wages on state construction projects, three years after Republican legislators repealed a long-standing law that required better pay. The Democratic governor said the cancellation of the law does not preclude her from implementing a prevailing wage policy for state contracts, according to the Associated Press. Nonunion contractors appear likely to sue. Angela Madarang, president of the Greater Michigan Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, said her organization will resist this move from the governor. "After all that we know from the last three years, are any of us really surprised that Gov. Whitmer would again ignore the will of the people and attempt to override state law to enact her partisan agenda?" Madarang said. "Our members will not back down from fighting for their livelihoods because Whitmers job-killing agenda has no place in Michigans construction industry." Jimmy Greene, President of ABC Michigan, said this decision targets over 100,000 contractors and was unconstitutional. These orders will also increase state construction costs, thus affecting taxpayers, he said. Gretchen Whitmers unilateral broadside on Michigans builders and contractors is both illegal and devastating to our states workforce, Greene said. Whitmer has spent the last two years ignoring state lawmakers while she destroys our jobs and economy. Now shes signing illegal orders to undo laws that protect workers and taxpayers. Every worker in Michigan deserves the governors respect. Instead shes attacking them. The Associated Press reports that Whitmer said Thursday that reestablishing the prevailing wage policy is the right decision. When we support hardworking people and make sure they can make good money and we've got expertise on state jobs, it benefits every single one of us," Whitmer said during a news conference at the United Association Local 333 near Lansing. Her move is tied to her 2019 executive directive instructing the Department of Technology, Management and Budget to consider factors such as wages and benefits paid by companies that submit bids, according to the Associated Press. The announcement drew criticism from conservative groups, along with an association of nonunion contractors that primarily funded a ballot initiative that enabled lawmakers to rescind the law in 2018 despite then-Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's opposition. Union leaders and workers applauded Whitmer. "Things in this world are simply not driven on price point alone. We should not pursue the race to the bottom," said Tom Lutz, executive secretary-treasurer of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, who contended that prevailing wage policies will ensure superior value for the government. Republicans accused the governor, who is up for reelection, of trying to "buy back" trade unions that oppose her order to shut down the Line 5 oil pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac. They support building a tunnel to encase a new underwater segment under a deal her predecessor reached with Enbridge. "It smells of desperation," said Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey of Clarklake. "We know union members are migrating to Republicans because of policy not politics. ... They won't fall for this cheap stunt. These are people who work too hard to be fooled." Lutz urged workers to not be "fooled" by allegations that Whitmer acted to help her political allies. "Prevailing wage is good for Michigan because it goes to working people," he said. The potential financial impact of the governor's step was not immediately known, as it was unclear if people working on state infrastructure projects have been paid less since the 1965 law was repealed. At the time of the repeal, it was not expected to save much on road projects because most are at least partially funded with federal money and subject to a U.S. prevailing wage law. Other projects partly financed with state money, such as public schools and university buildings, are not covered by Whitmer's move because those entities not state government award the contracts. Join the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library at the Midland Area Farmers Market on Wednesday, Oct. 13, for free books and GADML swag and a special pumpkin-themed story time at 10 a.m. Enjoy a goodie bag to take home that includes a fun pumpkin craft. This story time is designed to appeal to children ages 0 6. Please meet by the Dow Diamond ticket windows located on the farmers market side of the stadium. This event will be outside and the grass may be wet, so bring something comfortable to sit on. Students are slapping their teachers and running away. It's part of a new challenge on the social media platform TikTok called "Slap A Teacher." There have been several incidents of this challenge reported across the United States, and it has school officials and law enforcement across the country voicing concerns both publicly and letters home to parents. Videos across the country have been posted of teachers and school staff getting hit and the slapper dashing off in an effort to not get caught. What students may not realize is that this is a very serious act. "Anyone walking up to anyone and hitting them is battery," Edwardsville, Illinois Police Chief Mike Fillback said. "We strongly discourage anyone from slapping or hitting someone, especially teachers." Edwardsville is located about 28 miles northeast of St. Louis and is the county seat of Madison County. Fillback said his department will everything they can to enforce the law, and that every action has consequences. "What may seem as a prank could have deadly consequences," he said. School districts are very much aware of this challenge getting carried out. Tim Haist, superintendent of the Big Rapids school district, said teachers and staff always encourage students to act with dignity and respect. He said he's aware of the challenge, and thus far there haven't been any incidents. "It's unfortunate," Haist said. "I feel like kids see things on social media and try to become TikTok-famous. "It's unfortunate our kids are being put in this position, and that our teachers have to on guard knowing that it could happen." Haist also acknowledged that the more social media challenges that come along are more and more inappropriate. Edwardsville School District Public Relations and Communications Coordinator Mary Ann Mitchell said a letter regarding the "Slap A Teacher" challenge is suppose to be sent to parents, but said she didn't have "a timeline of when/if it will be." "If the 'Slap A Teacher' Tik Tok challenge would occur, we would follow our typical procedures for discipline," Mitchell wrote. Regional Superintendent of Schools for Madison County, Illinois, Rob Werden, said the message is "this will not be tolerated" and that students who go through with this challenge will have consequences according to their school district's policies. "It's extremely unfortunate that we have to keep dealing with all these challenges coming from these social media platforms out there," Werden said. He's referring to a recent challenge on TikTok that encouraged students to destroy school property. Many incidents occurred in the bathrooms. "I would like to think that students would make the right decisions," Werden said. The Illinois State Board of Education also commented by saying, "We have not heard of any incidents of this in Illinois. It is obviously entirely unacceptable," ISBE Executive Director of Communications Jackie Matthews said. A student in Springfield, Missouri had to answer to school police after they slapped a teacher and caught the incident on camera. "Anytime we have a situation like this when a nationwide or social media trend makes way here to Springfield sometimes our parents might not be aware, Stephen Hall with Springfield Public Schools told KYTV in Springfield. The "Slap A Teacher" challenge students are attempting has resulted in many institutions getting word out to parents and asking them for help. A student in Massachusetts is facing disciplinary and possible legal consequences after posting their challenge effort to social media. The teacher, who is disabled, can be seen interacting with the student and then getting hit hard in the head. The incident occurred in Braintree, Massachusetts, located about 13 miles south of Boston. Please be aware that physically assaulting any staff member in the Braintree schools will immediately result in notification of the Braintree Police Department and significant school-based discipline, up to and including expulsion," the Braintree school district told parents in a letter. CBS Boston reported segments of the letter online. Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media BRIDGEPORT A person was shot during one of three carjackings that occurred early Friday in the city, police said. Units first responded to Bridgeport Hospital shortly before 2 a.m. for a report of a person with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the hand, police said. Officers spoke with the victim, who said he was robbed of his 2009 green Hyundai Elantra near the intersection of Helen Street and Barnum Avenue. MANCHESTER UR Community Cares aims to create a national nonprofit to support older adults and disabled people directly in their homes as they are aging in place. The agency has received eight grants from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, and recently won $8,500 from Families Helping Families to begin a Clinton Community Assistance Team. Aging is not a disease, but it is going to be a national crisis as 10,000 people are turning 65 daily in the U.S., according to a 2019 report by the AARP. The struggles that many older adults and disabled residents experience have been heightened by COVID-19, climate change and overall financial uncertainty for the future, according to a press release. Many are experiencing barriers to health access to care, including cost, lack of time, transportation, available caregiver, and UCC is a free resource to help with a variety of these issues, the agency said. Since 2019, UCC has grown significantly during this difficult time due to so many people looking for help with a variety of tasks. UCC now has participants in over 100 towns in Connecticut and growing into Massachusetts. They envision a world for older adults and people with physical disabilities, regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status to have improved access to resources, UCC co-founder Michelle Puzzo said in the statement. They are looking for investors, donations and partnerships to continue to scale. UCC is also thinking ahead 20 years to the lack of retirement savings, possible depletion of social security, less pensions, this generation not saving in a 401k, and other social/economic issues. For information, call 860-430-4557 or email info@urcommunitycares.org. ESSEX A New York man surrendered to Connecticut State Police this week in connection with a stabbing in the parking lot of a gas station last month, according to police. State police said Ronald Brooks, 24, of Staten Island, turned himself in at Troop F barracks on Thursday. He was charged on a warrant, granted on Monday, with first-degree assault, second-degree assault, criminal attempt to commit first-degree assault and possession of a dangerous weapon. He was held on $250,000 bond and was expected to appear in court Friday. The charges stemmed from a stabbing in the parking lot of Best Way Sunoco at 1 Saybrook Road around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 20. Troop F dispatch received multiple 911 calls that night regarding a stabbing incident on Main Street in Essex, according to the warrant for Brooks arrest. Police said a 35-year-old East Hartford man was stabbed in the chest and was treated at the hospital for serious injuries. A 33-year-old Middletown woman was cut on her face and treated at the hospital. The man was found unresponsive, according to the warrant. A clerk at a gas station a few miles from where the incident occurred told investigators he saw a fight break out between the driver of an SUV and a man and a woman in another car who stopped at the service station. State police later identifed the driver of the SUV as Brooks after another police officer recognized him from another incident in which Brooks was not arrested, according to the warrant. In surveillance footage, Brooks appears to be agitated and is seen throwing punches in the air before the couple arrive. The footage shows the male and female victims arrive. As the man gets out, it appears he and Brooks may have exchanged words. As the man walks towards the store, hes punched by the man believed to be Brooks, according to the warrant. A fight breaks out, during which the suspect ... removed the fuel pump from his vehicle and sprayed the male victim with fuel. The man kicks the door of Brooks car and the woman sprays his car with gas and throws a cup at it before they drive away, according to the warrant. The trunk of the car is open, allowing clothing to fall out onto the ground. During an interview with investigators, the woman told investigators she had urged the man, her boyfriend, to keep driving but he decided to turn back and get the clothes. As he got out at the gas station to retrieve the items, the man confronted him again and began stabbing him. As they tried to drive away, the man reached in through her open window and slashed her face with the knife, she told police. Investigators later determined the couple were driving a stolen car that contained clothing that had been shoplifted. The male victim underwent surgery at Yale New Haven Hospitals intensive care unit, and declined to speak with investigators. Both victims had warrants out for their arrests, according to the warrant. After police put out descriptions of the suspect and the vehicle through the state police Public Information Office, a Clinton police officer called investigators and identified the assailant as Brooks. The officer told state police he recognized Brooks from suspicious incident. An officer from Westbrook also told police he recognized Brooks, and said he had been approached by police after he was seen acting erratically by yelling at no-one in particular. The officer said he even reviewed his body camera footage from the incident to make sure it was Brooks. Brooks declined to speak to police without a lawyer, according to the warrant. Police later seized his vehicle and obtained a search warrant for it. State police also tied Brooks to the scene based on the card he used to pay for gas, as well as another receipt for a Five Guys restaurant found on the ground at the gas station that used the same card. Police said additional arrests not directly associated with the stabbing incident are expected, but did not further clarify. The Army is delaying the rollout of its much-anticipated Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, or IPPS-A, until 2022 following a year of technical snafus with its online tools. The system is intended to be a one-stop shop for soldiers and the new standard for the Army's backend information technology, or IT, systems that manage personnel records such as pay and awards. A force-wide launch was slated in December after a trial period with the National Guard. However, the system is still plagued with bugs and won't be ready, the Army said this week. "We're looking at a nine-month delay," Roy Wallace, assistant deputy chief of staff for personnel at Army G1, told Military.com in an interview. "It takes a lot of collaboration between IPPS-A and the other systems." The announced delay comes after Military.com reported in September that the IPPS-A launch was expected to cause issues with moves for up to 18,000 soldiers and their families through the holidays. The halt in moves was expected to be a side effect of the backend systems changing. Read Next: Marines, Special Ops Troops Secretly Deploying to Taiwan Amid China Tensions, Report Says Wallace said IPPS-A is about 80% complete, but fine-tuning is going to take time. He added that Gen. James McConville, the Army chief of staff, doesn't want to risk a rocky launch, given how integral IPPS-A will be to the force. "His guidance to us is that [when] we field it, that it will be right," Wallace said. Under the new system, troops will be able to conduct simple tasks, such as requesting leave, electronically. It also will be a tool for commanders to organize their formations and track individual soldiers' special qualifications and talents. The Army still is reeling from the botched performance of an unrelated online service built by Deloitte, ArmyIgnitED, which was broken for most of the year. It is used by some 100,000 soldiers to access college tuition benefits. The problems with that system forced at least 20,000 soldiers to pay out of pocket for school and risk going into debt. The system was broken for months, causing bedlam across the force and drawing the ire of Congress, until Army leaders held a press conference in June to address complaints. ArmyIgnitED is mostly fixed, but issues remain with employees at universities who are not familiar with the new system, causing headaches for some students. However, most have been reimbursed for their out-of-pocket expenses. Until IPPS-A launches force-wide next year, soldiers will conduct business as usual. The delay should not interfere with any existing online tools, officials said. Col. Rebecca Eggers, chief of the functional management division for IPPS-A, told Military.com there's no reason to believe IPPS-A has structural issues, especially after an initial test of the program with the National Guard. "What we've seen works. We don't have any reason to believe the software that we have should not work," Eggers said. "It was proven to be a good system." -- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon. Related: Army Promises to Reimburse Soldiers Affected by Broken Tuition Assistance Website The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Commission said this week he supports an independent commission to probe the failures of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, adding momentum to the proposal on Capitol Hill. A thoughtful, nonpartisan and objective panel similar to the 9/11 Commission that examined the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. could be a benefit, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., told Military.com. Reeds position as chairman and top Armed Services Democrat makes him a gatekeeper for what gets into the annual defense authorization bill, a mammoth, must-pass piece of legislation that would be a likely vehicle for an Afghanistan panel. "I think it's important to understand, not just the last few months, but the whole experience going back to 2001 when we first started our operations there," Reed said. "I think we can learn a lot and also identify decisions that will help us in the future make better decisions." Several congressional committees have begun probes of the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, including both the House and Senate armed services committees, which brought top defense officials in to testify last week. But the hearings have at times devolved into partisanship and political theater, as Republicans and Democrats bickered over whether President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump was more to blame for the final days of the conflict, which included a suicide bombing that killed 13 troops, a botched U.S. drone strike that killed 10 civilians, and some Afghan allies and Americans left behind in the country. Neither of the hearings focused much on what went wrong during the rest of Americas longest war. Last week, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., along with eight other Democratic senators, introduced a bill in the Senate that would create an independent commission to study the entirety of the conflict. Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, said the idea is to have a probe that's "completely independent of the political process." Read next: Army Delays New One-Stop Personnel and Pay System After Year of Tech Headaches Duckworth has said she wants to attach the proposal to the annual defense bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which is expected to come to the Senate floor later this fall. But typically, few NDAA amendments get votes on the Senate floor because of stalemates between senators over which measures will be granted a vote. Asked this week whether she has had any conversations to ensure her proposal gets a vote, Duckworth said, "We're having those discussions." But she added that her focus at that time was on the separate issue of the debt ceiling. Reed told Military.com that, if the proposal comes to the Senate floor, he expects "it will be supported widely," though he acknowledged that "it's become less common now" to have votes on NDAA amendments. Even if the proposal doesn't make it into the Senate's version of the NDAA legislation, the idea of an Afghanistan commission still will have a chance at becoming reality. The version of the NDAA passed by the House late last month already includes a provision to create an Afghanistan commission, as proposed by Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. The makeup of the commission in the House NDAA differs from Duckworth's proposal. The House version would create a 12-member panel appointed by the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate armed services committees. Duckworth's proposal calls for a 13-member panel appointed by the president and the top Democrats and Republicans on the Armed Services Committees, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The Duckworth bill would also bar commissioners from being current or former members of Congress or someone who had any involvement with the war. The House NDAA legislation calls for the commission to complete its work in August 2022, while Duckworth's proposal calls for a four-year investigation. The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, told Military.com his position on an Afghanistan commission depends on the makeup of the panel. Inhofe said he thinks Democrats want to "bury" the issues with the withdrawal from Kabul, which was overseen by the Biden administration. Inhofe had read neither the House proposal nor Duckworth's, but said he thinks a commission investigation should "exist on and on and on because this is a huge, huge deal." -- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel. Related: Our Next War in Afghanistan Is Already Looming. And It May Be Even Harder. A fatal T-38C Talon crash in February was caused by mistakes made by both the Air Force instructor pilot and the Japanese student pilot on board, a newly released investigation found. Instructor pilot 1st Lt. Scot Ames Jr. and Renshi Uesaki of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force died during a Feb. 19 training flight when their jet trainer hit the ground short of the runway at Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama. The two were part of the 50th Flying Training Squadron, 14th Flying Training Wing, at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. The investigation report, which the Air Force posted online Thursday, said the pilots were trying to circle into the airport using the aircraft's instruments. But the T-38 was going faster than it was supposed to and undershot the final turn. Ames told Uesaki to turn the aircraft to line up with the runway for a final approach and slow down, the report found. But the T-38 slowed below the appropriate final approach speed. Ames took control of the aircraft and put the throttles to maximum afterburner in an attempt to recover. But by that point, the report said, the throttles had been idle for 18 seconds. The plane had slowed even further and was descending rapidly. It hit the ground approximately 1,800 feet from the runway at about 4:40 p.m., fatally injuring both pilots. Neither had attempted to eject. Read Next: Marines, Special Ops Troops Secretly Deploying to Taiwan Amid China Tensions, Report Says The investigator concluded that Ames, who was on his first assignment as an instructor pilot, lost situational awareness on the final approach. He didn't realize in time that Uesaki had left the throttles idle for too long and did not react quickly enough to fix the dangerous situation that was unfolding, according to the report. The report added that Uesaki contributed to the crash by becoming "task saturated" and placing, and then leaving, the throttles in idle. The investigation report called this a highly unusual move for a student pilot to make in the T-38. Several instructor pilots told investigators "they would be very uncomfortable" if a student pilot put the throttles in idle at any point in the final turn of such an approach. Instructors typically keep a close eye on student pilots' throttle movements when close to the ground and stay ready to jump in quickly if a mistake is made, the report said. Ames was well-respected by his leaders and colleagues as one of the best first-assignment instructor pilots in the squadron, the report said. But due to a winter storm, he had not flown for nine days before the fatal flight. Witnesses told investigators that after the nine-day break, Ames was rested and excited to fly the mission, which would have continued on to Tallahassee International Airport in Florida. But some uncharacteristic irregularities during mission planning and ground operations suggested Ames "may also have lost some amount of proficiency in the days he was out of the cockpit," the report added. He wasn't present for the weather briefing before the flight, didn't calculate how much extra fuel would be needed to reach an alternate airfield if weather prevented them from safely reaching Tallahassee, and didn't realize the aircraft -- which had just had an engine replaced -- should have flown a local flight before the "cross-country" training sortie to another base, the report found. Those mistakes didn't directly contribute to the crash, according to the report, but they point to Ames' "lack of attention to detail" the day of the crash, and a possible lack of appreciation for the risk involved in the student cross-country mission. -- Stephen Losey can be reached at stephen.losey@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StephenLosey. Related: Air Force Base Halts Flight Operations After 2 Killed in Alabama T-38 Jet Crash The U.S. unemployment rate for veterans held steady in September at 3.6% amid the second consecutive month of poor job growth nationwide as the coronavirus and its Delta variant kept a grip on economic activity. It marks only the second time since February 2020 that the veteran unemployment rate was below 4%, according to a monthly report from the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday. But optimistic forecasts from market analysts for an increase in new veteran hires, possibly to 500,000, were dashed. Only 194,000 jobs were added to payrolls in September, down from the adjusted rate of 366,000 in August and 1.1 million in July. More post-9/11 veterans reported unemployment, up to 3.5% from 3.1% last month, even as the overall U.S. unemployment rate dropped from 5.2% to 4.8% in September, BLS said. Joblessness for those veterans was still well below the double-digit rates in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when it spiked to 11.7% in April 2020. "These are still pretty good numbers," said Tom Porter, executive vice president of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The key problem here is the economy is inextricably linked to COVID. It's not really going to take off until we solve the pandemic." Even so, the long-term outlook for veterans in the job market is showing improvement despite the pandemic and other factors, said Bryan Rollins, director of the Warriors to Work program at the Wounded Warrior Project. "We still see growth. It's still basically a bull market," Rollins said. He pointed to a 12% increase in the Wounded Warriors' job placement efforts over the past fiscal year. The number of veterans who found jobs through the program increased from 1,900 to 2,100. Read Next: Independent Review of Afghanistan War Failures Gets Backing of Key Senator The BLS data was compiled in mid-September, before indications of a downturn in the number of cases and hospitalizations from the Delta variant. Other factors also may have played a part in suppressing an economic recovery, such as uncertainty over raising the federal debt ceiling, gridlock in Congress, the border crisis, natural disasters, and a chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal. President Joe Biden said Friday that the BLS data for September was from mid-month and pointed to signs of an upturn, while he made another pitch for his proposed $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion bill on a variety of social programs. "Look, it's essential that we have to regain momentum we've lost," Biden said. U.S. businesses were more pessimistic about the prospects for an economic recovery from Biden's plans, while economists said a recovery may already be underway. "We are in the midst of a worker shortage crisis, and the number of potential workers is shrinking. Multi-trillion tax and spend proposals in Washington will only make matters worse," Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. Robert Frick, corporate economist for the Navy Federal Credit Union, said the BLS survey taken in mid-September did not track the downturn in the Delta variant wave in the second half of the month. "There are indications that hiring is already accelerating, certainly in the last 10 days, and should accelerate through October," Frick said. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Related: Veteran Unemployment Rates Drop Even as Job Growth Slows Amid Delta Variant Virus Surge As a current print subscriber, you receive 24/7 access to our website and online e-edition at no additional charge. All you have to do is activate your access. To activate digital access, you will need your account number. You can find your account number on any recent subscription notice or bill. Approximately 30 miles north of Moab, Thompson Springs (also known as Thompson) is a tiny town with outsize stories to telland a history clos On Saturday, Oct. 16, Parriotts Garage will host its first-ever auto show at the Old Spanish Trail Arena. Moab may be a desert, but that doesnt mean there arent mosquitoes. In the summer of 2019, mosquitoes were rampant in the city as the Moab Mo We have talked earlier about how times have changed over the last 50 years. Our parents joined a commercial enterprise and generally retired there itself. Others joined a government service or the Railways or the Post and Telegraph or the Armed Forces and also retired there. But this is not so any more. This is what makes Exit Interviews (EI) so important now, as a source of information, which can be used to improve the systems in the company and create a climate and culture where few leave, unless it is for a very good reason(and generally nothing to do with the company culture). In my book Manager to CEO, I had talked about a Swiss CEO of Suhrid Geigy, India and the two things that he did which greatly impressed me in my green years. He was way ahead of his time. Onehe travelled extensively throughout India, also visiting small towns and villages, checking whether Geigy products were available and at the level of the demand there. Second -- he always insisted on an exit interview personally, when anyone above the level of supervisor left the company. Both these activities have become fashionable and de rigeur now in most progressive companies. But this CEO was a path breaker and a path finder, fifty years ago. I think about the many CEOs I have known in 30 years, who profess that they find little use for EI, and dont conduct them at all. When an employee leaves (especially a senior and trusted one), they shut the door and then lock it, so there is no re entry. The CEO takes the exit as a personal affront and insultthe employee leaving is an enemyor worse, a close friend who has now become a sworn enemy. There are other CEOs who accept the EI as a prescription for modern management. Yet they accept all the comments made with a pinch of salt because they come from a source for whom the grapes are sour. The CEO tries to rationalize that the departing employee was not worth holding on to anyway. By closing his mind he misses a good opportunity. Richard Kilburg of Johns Hopkins University says, If the organization refused to look at the information, or to interpret it, those are the ones that do worse over time, simply because they dont test reality. Still there are others, like the one for whom a leaving employee said, I never had access to the top brass. If one got ten minutes of face time with the CEO, after a month of rescheduling meetings, it was significant. But once I was on my way out, the CEO met me four timeswith some meetings lasting more than an hour. The company even offered to double my salary if I would postpone my departure by two months, because there was so much work. Suddenly they not only wanted my opinion, they were actually willing to pay for it! EI are many things, but when one is trying to extract oneself from an unfortunate job, these make for the wobbly tightrope strung between constructive criticism and a badly burnt bridge. Ideally if CEOs take it in the right way, and have the good sense to distinguish constructive comments from revengeful mush, EI can help improve the companys workings and even of colleagues. Jared Sandberg says in the WSJ, You are jumping ship, but your office mates maybe the ones who need a life jacket. The problem is, so much has to go right with an EI, when so much can easily go wrong. Many CEOs fail the EI test because: They do not create an environment for free and frank opinion sharing between themselves and departing employees They are not able to sift through criticismsthose that may be real and those that are imaginary They are not able to deal with the departing employees inflated sense of importance and their own perception of how much their opinions are worth (now that they are going away) They are unable to resist the temptation to give a poor referral to a critical departing employeeas a revenge and a response to rejection of his company. But departing employees can also be at fault and can ruin an EI: When they get on to the soap box, and irritatingly begin to do a Hyde Park speech (now that they have an opportunitylet them have it!) When they get puffed up and irrational, because they are leaving and have another job waiting. When in reverse, they cower; they are afraid that they will lose their status as employees in good standing category, if they are frank When they are revengeful and want to squeeze the last drop with a comment like Its not that I cant work with you anymore. Its just that I dont have to and I dont want to (this opportunity to express bitterness may not come again.) There are now some technologically savvy companies who offer the extension number 800, into an automated system, for prescriptions from departing employees (to avoid a face to face). However, most departing employees never make that call! Once again, the CEO and his personality influence the organisationfor better or for worse, at the Exit Interview. We had mentioned in Thursdays closing report that Nifty, Sensex may move sideways or continue its rally. On Friday, the indices opened higher and ended with major gains. On the NSE, there were 1,089 advances, 960 declines and 79 remained unchanged. The trend of the major indices on Fridays trading are given in the table below: RBI has kept policy rates unchanged in its Monetary Policy Committee, this was 8th time in row that RBI has kept the rates unchanged. RBI has also retained its GDP growth projection at 9.5% in 2021-22. RBI has proposed to increase the per transaction limit of IMPS from Rs 2 lakh presently to Rs 5 lakh. TCS has reported 29 percent growth YoY in its consolidated net profit for quarter ended in September to Rs 9,624. Its consolidated revenue from revenue also increased by 16.8 percent to Rs 46,687. Emami Agrotech, is planning to invest around Rs 10 bn to Rs 15 bn over the period of next 3 years to achieve its ambitious target of becoming leading food company. Emami Agrotech is an Emami group company operating in the business of spices, edible oils and soya chunks. Wockhardt, zoomed 11 percent in early trade on media reports of stake sale to Serum Institute of India (SII) and closed with major gains of 5.50%. Mobikwik, has received SEBI approval for its Rs 1,900 crore Initial Public Offer (IPO). It is expected to launch IPO before Diwali around 4 November. It was last valued at $700 million in its last funding round in April. PayTM, Nykaa and Policy Bazaar are also eyeing IPO debut this year. SEBI has temporarily forbidden NCDEX from launching new mustard seed contracts, in August the regulator had banned NCDEX from launching new contracts in futures of Chana. The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: The Union government is selling the national carrier Air India to Tata Sons for Rs18,000 crore, department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey announced this afternoon.. This puts an end to the prolonged attempts to sell and turnaround the airline by various governments over the past decade. The deal allows the Tata group to reclaim authority over Air India after 68 years. Tata group's acquisition of Air India has been in the news for the past one week. Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata greeted the news with a tweet that said, Welcome Back, Air India with an old photograph of the legendry JRD Tata getting down from an Air India aircraft. Things have some a full circle for the group, since the sudden nationalisation of Air India, then considered among the best airlines in the world, had left JRD Tata heartbroken and he was offered chairmanship of the airline as a consolation by then prime minsiter Indira Gandhi. The Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM), headed by Union home minister Amit Shah has cleared the proposal to sell the airline to Tata Sons. AISAM has the finance minister, commerce minister and aviation minister as members. Government approves the winning bid of M/s Tata Sons SPV (M/s Talace Pvt Ltd) for @airindiain disinvestment at an enterprise value of a18000 crore The bid by the consortium led by Ajay Singh was a15,100 crore - @SecyDIPAM #AirIndia pic.twitter.com/E4sivPQfvs PIB India (@PIB_India) October 8, 2021 Tata Sons and Ajay Singh (chairman of SpiceJet) in his personal capacity, were the only two entities in fray to buy the beleaguered airline. Reserve price for Air India was set by the government at Rs12,906 crore. The sale is expected to be at an enterprise value of Rs18,000 crore, out of which Rs15,300 crore would be the debt retained by the winning bidder. According to the bid terms, Tata Sons will pay Rs2,700 crore in cash. Welcome back, Air India YY pic.twitter.com/euIREDIzkV Ratan N. Tata (@RNTata2000) October 8, 2021 The government had tried to auction its majority stake almost three years ago, but it drew no bids, forcing the government to ease the terms. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government also ended up extending the deadline for bids many times. The final Air India sale process started early last year and is now finally getting consummated. With this, there is now a fresh revival of hope for the airline, which has been making losses every year since its merger with Indian Airlines in 2007. As of March 2020, Air India's losses amounted to Rs70,820 crore. However, the most interesting part about the Tatas successful bid for Air India is that the conglomeratewhich is one of India's oldesthad ventured into aviation in 1932 with Tata Airlines, which later on became Air India. After the nationalisation in 1953, Air India went to the government, but the Tatas were in the driving seat till as late as 1977. For long, the airline has been regarded as a loss-making entity but it does have assets. The winning bidder will get 100% stake in its subsidiary Air India Express and its 50% stake in AISATS the ground handling company, the second largest air fleet in the country, lucrative bilateral routes, slots, and more. The two airlines have a fleet of 144 aircraft as per data released by the ministry of civil aviation. This does not include the four 4 B747s which are supposed to be transferred on the books of Alliance Air which will remain with the government. Air India operated 2,712 departures in November 2019 and currently is the second largest player at Delhithe largest airport in the country by air traffic as well as departures. With the international network, Air India holds 2,738 slots across 42 destinations which include some of the most congested airports like London Heathrow, New York JFK, Singapore Changi and Hong Kong. Air India Express holds 651 weekly slots which include those at congested airports like Singapore and Dubai. Air India has deals in place with Mumbai and Delhi airports for land parcels which host simulators, among other things. While the land parcels will not be transferred to the new owner, the new owner can continue with the simulator and office spacesubject to separate deals. With both cities being expensive to operate, having such a facility in the vicinity of the airport is a big plus. AISATS also has its own building on a leasehold land in Bengaluruwhich is fast emerging as a third hub in the country with potential to beat Mumbai as second busiest domestic airport. Air Indias debt of Rs46,262 crore would be transferred to Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL), a special purpose vehicle set up to transfer Air Indias debt. The transaction will not include non-core assets including land and building valued at Rs14,718 crore, which will be transferred to AIAHL. In January 2020, when the Air India preliminary information memorandum (PIM) was floated, the airline industry in India was on an upswing. New highs were recorded each month in terms of traffic, fleet induction, and airport expansion. Fast forward to October 2021 when the Air India sale is getting completed, and the picture has changed dramatically. Governments are bailing out airlines across the world and the chances of any larger carrier investing in Air India have been diminishing with each passing month. It is learnt that the second bidder, consortium led by SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh, had placed a bid (in his personal capacity) of Rs15,100 crore, out of which Rs12,835 crore would be the debt to be retained and Rs2,265 crore would have been the payment in cash. Earlier Dr Subramanian Swamy had pointed out how the second required bidder Ajay Singh (SpiceJet) had told the high court that he has no money to spend to save SpiceJet. Mr Swamy had contended that this disqualifies him from bidding for Air India and, hence, the bid process is null and void. I have just learnt of Delhi High Court documents which show that Air India's second required bidder Mr. Ajay Singh had told the HC that he has no money to spend to save Spice Jet. That disqualifies him from bidding for Air India, which in turn declares the Bid process null void. Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) October 4, 2021 The proposed bid for Air India is riggedSpice Jet is ab initio disqualified to bid since it has defaulted on payments including to its staff. Let Rotten Tata take over Spice Jet and show he can turn it around. He has made a mess of Air Asia. The proposed bid is fraudulent. Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) September 16, 2021 In recent years, Air Indias performance metrics worsened, delays and flight cancellations mounted, and fliers moved increasingly towards the low-cost carriers. Air India has a hub & spoke model (connecting smaller stations to hubs and thus offering better connectivity) while the low-cost carriers operate point-to-point. But despite better connectivity, a generous baggage allowance, meals on board and wide international connectivity, the already shabby brand image took a severe beating. Air India has nearly always topped the charts in consumer complaints and compensation paid for delayed/cancelled domestic flights. Last year, reports of a rat on board a local flight, which had to be cancelled, aggravated the tatty image. Branding experts say that customers will expect nothing less than world-class performance which the Tatas have already demonstrated at the Taj Hotels which enjoy a reputation for best-in-class hospitality. Life has come full circle for the iconic Maharajahthe jovial, rotund inimitable mascot for the Air India. The Maharajah with his trademark twirly moustache and quintessentially Indian turban is going back to the Tatas. The Tatas already have two airlines in its kittyVistara and AirAsia but they are running losses there. The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor's wife Bindu Kapoor and two daughters - Radha and Roshni Kapoor in the Rs 4,000 crore Yes Bank-DHFL scam. A bench comprising Justices S.K. Kaul and M.M. Sundresh said: "In the meantime, the petitioners are granted interim bail with no specific conditions at this stage as the petitioners were originally granted bail/interim bail subject to certain terms and conditions by the trial Court which would naturally equally apply here". On September 28, the Bombay High Court had rejected the bail applications moved by Kapoor's wife and daughters. Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, representing the CBI, submitted a supplementary charge sheet filed against the petitioners for the offence of forgery under Sections 468 and 471 of the IPC. He added petitioners had been denied bail by both trial court and the High Court. Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the petitioners, submitted one of the petitioners had an infant who she was still breastfeeding. Salve submitted the charge levelled that Rana Kapoor had forged the signature of one of his daughters (Radhika Kapoor), surprisingly, the daughter herself had been denied bail. The bench said it appears that on account of lesser offences being charged for by the supplementary charge sheet, bail is sought to be denied even though the petitioners were granted bail earlier when they were charged under Section 409 carrying a life sentence and/or granted interim bail after supplementary charge sheet when they were arrayed as accused for the first time. Raju submitted that he would like to place a counter affidavit on record. In terms of the supplementary charge sheet under Section 468, IPC (carrying seven years sentence) and Section 471, IPC (bailable offence) are added and the petitioners were summoned for the first time in the supplementary charge sheet and were granted interim bail. "Despite the fact that the supplementary charge sheet adds lesser offences, bail has been denied both by the trial Court and by the high court vide an elaborate order", noted the bench. The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing after six weeks. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article. Jade Schmidt Mathematical Sciences Jade Schmidt has earned this years Outstanding Teaching Award for her unwavering commitment to her students and crafting the best possible learning environment for them. A great professor is one who manages to make people interested in the topic even if it is statistics, wrote Brock Strande, a student in Schmidts Introduction to Statistics class in Fall 2019. Jade accomplishes the task of inspiring students and then some with her teaching style, which has allowed me to enjoy my next level statistics class this semester. Schmidt, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, has been the student success coordinator for the universitys introductory statistics course, STAT 216, since 2013. In that time she has completely revamped the way the course is taught at Montana State, applying a simulation-based active learning approach and incorporating real-world examples to show how statistics applies to students in many fields of study. Schmidt has co-authored sections of an open-source textbook for the class, created case studies and classroom activities, and, as students shifted to a blended format, created instructional videos for them to watch on days they are not in the classroom. She also teaches one or two sections of the course each semester, nearly 30 thus far. As Department Head, I can attest that Jades work ethic and commitment are what make her an outstanding instructor both in terms of lecturing in the classroom and in terms of student interaction and course management outside the classroom, wrote Elizabeth Burroughs, head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. She is a remarkable teacher, and she spreads her expertise by teaching others, mentoring others, working alongside others, and training others. In addition to curriculum development, Schmidt creates and maintains a database of instructor resources, manages grades and course administrative tasks. She runs weekly meetings for instructors, many who are graduate students, to preview the next weeks content and activities. Both colleagues and students praise her expertise, enthusiasm and teaching abilities. I have observed her teaching several times, and, though I have been teaching at the undergraduate level for over 20 years and my research area is statistics education, I still learn new teaching techniques and tips from Jade on a regular basis, stated Stacey Hancock, the STAT 216 Faculty Course Supervisor. Though parts of her success are measurable, like the increase in student success rates from 70% to 82%, her true contributions are immeasurable. I cannot imagine a more deserving candidate for this award, Hancock stated. It's no secret Californians are and have been moving to Texas. Last month, the University of Texas at Austin and Stanford University teamed up to release a study breaking down the differences between California and Texas. The two compared the economic policies of the states and how it affects the quality of life. In short, it's cheaper, which many Texans already knew, but the study focuses on the differences in economic policy, concentrating on taxation, government services, and regulation. Texas is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. The state gained two congressional seats in the latest census, while California lost one seat for the first time ever. The study also notes the Lone Star State has lower incomes taxes, but higher property taxes and a lower percentage of insured residents. However, California has much higher income taxes and spends 60 percent more than Texas on a per-resident basis. State and local tax revenue per capita in California were $7,326 per state resident versus $4,709 in Texas, according to the study. Additionally, Texas has only 7.8 percent of homes that cost more than $500,000. Most homes are under $200,000 in the state. In California, 57.8 percent of houses cost more than $500,000. Recent research suggests California's tax hikes from nearly a decade ago caused a large number of wealthy residents to leave the state, according to the study. California has the country's highest top marginal individual income tax rate at $2,882, while Texas is one of just eight states with zero individual income tax. The study also looked at the crime rates in each state, which were relatively similar. The violent crime rate in California was 441.2 per 100,000 residents while it was five percent lower in Texas at 418.9. Despite similar crime rates, Texas has a larger share of its population in either prison or jail. The incarceration rate in California at the end of 2019 was 640 per 100,000 residents versus 990 per 100,000 residents in Texas. When it comes to education, California spends more per K-12 student, but "student outcomes are if anything better in Texas," the study noted. In conclusion, the study said both states have much to celebrate but also much to improve upon. Economically, each state has become significantly more powerful. With respect to other measures of well-being, California excels in health outcomes but fares poorly on housing affordability and air quality while Texas is the opposite in all three cases, the study concluded. While the study doesn't choose a side on which state fairs are better, it's clear from the results people come to Texas because it's less expensive to live here. Ten months after James Vance, a former Marine and retired policeman in Princeton, W.Va., died of covid, his two young children are still reeling from his death. Julia, 12, a middle-schooler who used to do everything with her father, is withdrawn. Her sister Jamie, 7, still talks about him in the present tense. As for Mom, Jerri, a third-grade teacher, she is struggling to keep up with bills and maintain a sense of normalcy for her daughters while still processing the devastation of losing the love of her life. "All three of us are in therapy," Jerri Vance said. "Every time we go out, everything is about covid. We have to see that daily and deal with people who say it isn't real when it's beyond real to us." Throughout the pandemic, public health experts and other observers have often noted that children have been largely spared the worst because they are less likely to develop severe illness from the virus. The fact that many of the dead are parents or caregivers has been largely left out of the conversation. A new study published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics attempts to quantify the vast hole left by these deaths, estimating that roughly 140,000 children under 18 may have lost parents or caregivers from March 2020 to June 2021 due to covid or other causes classified as pandemic-related. Those numbers take into account both official covid deaths and deaths from other causes, such as homicides and drug overdoses, beyond those expected in a typical year before the pandemic. The consequences are life-changing: Losing a parent or other primary caregiver is one of the most stressful things that can happen in a child's life - putting them at risk of a trajectory of depression and post-traumatic stress, as well as physical manifestations of grief, such as heart problems. The data also reveal vast disparities by race and ethnicity - even more skewed toward an overrepresentation of minority communities than covid deaths. In the United States as a whole, 1 out of 500 children lost at least one parent/caregiver. But for American Indian children, it's 1 out of 168; for Black children, 1 out of 310; for Hispanic children, 1 out of 412; for Asian children, 1 out of 612; and for White children, 1 out of 753. The highest burden of death has occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border, in the South and in tribal areas. Susan Hillis, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researcher and lead author of the study, said she has been lying awake at night worrying about the magnitude of the problem. "It's disturbing to think about how for every four covid deaths, one child is left behind," Hillis said. "This is a crisis." Hillis and her co-authors, along with religious and tribal leaders, parent groups, grief support therapists and others are calling on states and the Biden administration to do more to support these children. They are urging a comprehensive response that includes financial assistance, mental health services, education, insurance and increased resources for the foster care system. Pamela Addison, 37, of Waldwick, N.J., who is raising two young kids on her own after her husband died of covid, started a Facebook group to try to bring attention to the issue and offer support for other parents facing the same loss. "I feel like these kids are so forgotten," she said. "We need to acknowledge this is happening and the consequences of these children losing a lifetime with their parents." - - - Mass casualty events in history have been shown to have a domino effect on children. Following World War I, studies showed that children whose soldier fathers died before or after their birth appeared to have decreased life spans. The more than 3,000 children who lost parents in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still talk about the impact it has had on their lives. "When a death is sudden and unexpected - which covid is by its nature - there's a lot of uncertainty, and that can put children at risk for many different health consequences," said Komal Sharma-Patel, a clinical psychologist at Children's National Hospital, who has been working with children who have lost parents due to covid. Addison is desperate to protect her two young children from those outcomes. Shortly after her husband, Martin, a speech pathologist, died of covid early in the pandemic last year, her daughter stopped eating and began screaming at odd times, like when Addison would touch the night light. Elsie was only 2 at the time, and when mother and child began to work with a therapist, Pamela Addison realized it was her way of communicating her loss. It had been her papa who would tuck her in and turn off the night light. "She was sad all the time," Addison recalled. Today, Elsie, who is 3 1/2 and can speak, continually tells Addison to "be healthy" - expressing fears of losing her other parent. Addison also worries about her younger son Graeme, who was only 6 months old when his father died. For now, he is content to kiss his father's picture good night, but she wonders about the questions he will ask when he gets older. Kate Kelly, 16, whose dad, a stage and sound manager at a church, died at age 54 in Atlanta. He experienced a blocked artery but was unable to get treated in time due to hospitals being full of coronavirus patients. His daughter said she's trying to deal with the anger she feels about his death. "It makes me mad. That was my dad. He went to urgent care, but he didn't get the help he needed. He was looked at as less important because it wasn't covid," she said. Kelly, a high school sophomore, is the middle child, and says her sisters are not coping well with the Jan. 23 death either: "I can tell my little sister - I don't think she completely understands it. I'm pretty sure she's still in the denial phase. My older sister, she's really struggling because she was really close with my dad, but she's trying to put on a brave face." - - - In areas hit hard by the pandemic, the loss of so many parents has raised questions about how to preserve traditions, culture and community when supporting their children. Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, said she worries that the impact of the loss of so many elders and parents will impact not just today's children but future generations, especially for small Indigenous communities like hers. She said she'd like to see more counseling about loss due to covid integrated into programs for at-risk children. "In native communities, this an extension of intergenerational trauma that has been inflicted from forced removal from our lands up through present day," she said. In Dallas, Aaron Blake Sr., a bishop who has been working with children orphaned by covid, said he broke down in tears when he saw data on parent and caregiver deaths from covid at a recent meeting with other Christian leaders. He recounted the story of two children, whose young, single mom recently died of covid. The pair seemed destined for foster care. But the school district, social workers and community groups were able to locate the father, who had not previously been involved in the children's care and did not even have beds for them, and work with him to provide a home for the children. "We want to help these kids stay within their families so we don't see a loss of community," Blake said. He said he also worries that the impact of the loss of grandparents, even if they are not legally a child's caregivers, is not being fully recognized, and believes more must be done to figure out ways to provide that same sort of guidance to youths who may have lost these loved ones. "In communities of color - Black and Brown - the matriarchs and patriarchs are grandmothers. They are the major stabilizers and voices in these homes," Blake said. He said his church is working with health departments and school systems to see if there is a way to figure out how many children may have been living in the same home as an elderly relative who died. "If we can identify these kids," he said, "then we can help them." - - - The Washington Post's Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report. Midland County residents outside city limits will soon receive a mailer informing them about the county tax assistance district proposal that will be on the November ballot. If approved, sales tax in the county would be raised from 7 percent to 8.25 percent. County commissioners have said the additional revenue would be used to fund infrastructure projects. Theyve also said oil companies that operate in the county would be affected more than residents. The Commissioners Court approved mailing the brochure during a special meeting on Thursday. The county has not yet received a quote for the cost of printing the mailers, but commissioners said it would be under $50,000. The voters are not going to have a clue what [the assistance district] is or that this is even on the ballot, Commissioner Randy Prude said during the meeting. He said the mailer would let voters know theres going to be something on the ballot, and they need to think about it. The brochure will be a one-page document stating the language that will appear on the ballot, according to a copy obtained by the Reporter-Telegram. It also lists what the county is allowed to use the sales revenue for, including: --Construction, maintenance or improvement of roads and highways; --Provision of law enforcement and detention services; --Maintenance or improvement of libraries, museums, parks or other recreational facilities; --Services that benefit the public health or welfare, including firefighting and fire prevention services; --Provision of economic development and tourism. The mailer does not say whether residents should vote for or against creating the assistance district. County Attorney Russell Malm said the county is not allowed to advocate for the proposal. The language in the brochure was previously approved by the Texas Ethics Commission when Nacogdoches County sent out a mailer about their tax assistance district, according to Malm. A motion to approve distributing the mailer to county residents passed 4-1, with Commissioner Scott Ramsey casting the dissenting vote. All that should be done by a PAC (political action committee), Ramsey said. Thats the job of the people who are out there advocating for it, not the county. Using county dollars, to me, is advocacy. Commissioner Robin Donnelly said that he agreed the mailer should be distributed by a PAC, but because no committee exists, he said there was no other way to inform voters of the proposal. Whether we agree with it or not, its just information that needs to go out, Commissioner Luis Sanchez said. While it is hard to be certain this far out from the winter season, lead U.S Long Range Forecaster Paul Pastelok believes that another extreme winter spell is possible for the 2021-2022 season in parts of Texas, including the San Antonio area. "As far as the cold goes, we got to watch February again. I don't think it'll be a repeat of last year, but I think it's still a threat," Pastelok tells MySA. "We can see a pretty big charge of cold come down through the Plains, but maybe aimed slightly farther east this time, more like the Mississippi Valley [and] Central Plains, rather than Texas," Like last year, North America is currently experiencing a La Nina weather pattern, but the system this year is slightly weaker, making it challenging for forecasters to know exactly what to expect. Outside of the possibility for extreme events, Pastelok predicts that generally, the San Antonio area should see temperature and precipitation averages falling within the normal range. "We feel pretty confident that going into the rest of the fall and into the early part of the winter season, where you are at in San Antonio, that it's not going to be that bad," says the forecaster. Conditions outside of Texas could make things chillier for longer periods of time in the Alamo City. "You'll have some rain, but then there'll be dry periods as well in November into December. I think it's going to be some ups and downs there, but won't be too bad," Pastelok says. "The thing I worry about is the extent of cold that could come down at some point in mid-to-late December, through the Plains states. Some of that chill can get down into San Antonio, whether it gets down to freezing or not hard to say at this point." Temperatures between the Gulf of Alaska and Hawaii are currently far above normal, similar to the conditions that made last year ripe for Winter Storm Uri in Texas. Currently in the Arctic, the polar vortex is weaker, which means that the cold is not staying in the polar region, and is instead escaping into other places. This causes more opportunities for cold to leak into the continental U.S, but forecasters don't currently think that will necessarily drive down into Texas again. "The extreme that we saw last year, everything had to come together perfectly," says Pastelok. "Now, we'll have to wait and see if northern Pacific water temperatures stay warm to see how the pattern evolves." This year's February freeze was a perfect storm, according to the forecaster, and was likely a hybrid effect of natural weather patterns and climate change. Recently, the Farmer's Almanac predicted our region will see another winter storm in late January 2022. "The phenomenon that happened last year was an in-between of cycles, the La Nina signal, and a couple of things that are going on that have to have been affected by climate change, like the melting of ice around the polar region, which opens up water and air flows up into the upper atmosphere," says Pastelok. "That changes the upper patterns and the water temperatures in certain parts of the globe, which may or may not be directly affecting what happened in Texas last year." Pastelok says that notably, water temperatures between Delaware and Maine have been warming more considerably than anywhere else in the Atlantic over the last 10 to 15 years. This side effect of global warming can set up blocking patterns that also forces cold air masses to push downward toward Texas. For Texans looking to purchase a new parka, they will have to wait in see. Pastelok says we can look forward to an average San Antonio winter, but should keep our eyes peeled for more updates on the potential for outlying extreme weather events later on in November. Muhlenberg Hosts Hunger Free Campus Symposium Sponsored by the Colleges chapter of Challah for Hunger, the program will bring visibility to food insecurity on college campuses. By: Kristine Yahna Todaro Friday, October 8, 2021 00:46 PM The COVID-19 pandemic has caused increased levels of food insecurity for college students, and students of color are disproportionately impacted. Food insecurity now impacts nearly one-third of college students at four-year institutions and nearly of two-thirds students at two-year institutions. On Sunday, October 24, Muhlenberg College will host the Hunger Free Campus Symposium, 2-4:00 p.m., in Miller Forum, Moyer Hall, to bring attention to both the issue and potential solutions. Registration is required. The event is free and open to the public but masks are required. Light refreshments will be served. Speakers will include Pennsylvania State Representatives Malcolm Kenyatta and Mike Schlossberg and Congresswoman Susan Wild. Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey and First Lady Frances Wolf will provide video remarks during the symposium. Natalie David, '22 (left), president of Muhlenberg College Challah for Hunger and a mentor for Challah for Hunger nationally, says, Food insecurity in higher education is a problem that is wholly solvable, but college students, administrators, and state and federal legislators must work together to create sustainable and equitable solutions. Over the past three years, Muhlenberg has taken great strides in addressing food insecurity with initiatives such as emergency grants and the MULE Community Cabinet. Imagine how much more can be done to support students in the Lehigh Valley if our legislators invested in student well-being? David advocates for SNAP to be expanded, eligibility restrictions for college students lifted and Hunger Free Campus Legislation passed. In Pennsylvania, if passed, this legislation would provide $1 million in funding for anti-hunger initiatives in public institutions. On the federal level, the EATS Act would eliminate the long-standing 20 hour/week work requirement for college students and would ensure that nearly 4 million college students have the resources they need to thrive. No one should have to make the choice between getting their education or struggling to get their next meal, says Arielle Weinberger '22, education and advocacy director of Muhlenberg College Challah for Hunger. The well-being of our students is the well-being of our future and its legislation like Hunger Free Campus Grant Legislation and the EATS Act that will give students access to these rights. David says, More than ever, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed inequalities along racial and economic lines, and it is time we create a more equitable future for all college students through passing Hunger Free Campus Grant Legislation and the EATS Act. A scene from the movie Percy vs. Goliath. Jacksonville Public Library, 201 W. College Ave., will be hosting a movie night at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The movie, Percy vs. Goliath, is based loosely on the story of a third-generation farmer and his six-year battle after being sued by the corporation Monsanto over his use of seeds the company says are proprietary. Overnight reports from Jacksonville police: Eggs were thrown at a house and vehicle in the 800 block of Freedman Street about 3:40 a.m. Friday. Christopher D. Mead, 48, of Jacksonville and Dawn A. Carlson, 55, of Jacksonville were cited on disorderly conduct charges after police were called at 9:53 p.m. Thursday to a disturbance in the 1100 block of North Diamond Street. A package was stolen from the porch of a residence in the 800 block of South Main Street, according to a report filed at 12:25 p.m. Thursday. Two tires were taken off a trailer between 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and 7:50 a.m. Thursday in the 700 block of West College Avenue. Illinois College senior Maddie McKeown gets a flu shot Thursday from fellow nursing student Gracie McDowell, a junior, during a Morgan County Health Department walk-up flu clinic. The clinic continues today from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the JHS Bowl. An Oregon man has pleaded guilty to his role in a massive marijuana distribution scheme unraveled in part by a Morgan County drug bust. Robert Fiels, 33, of Springfield, Oregon, appeared this week before a federal judge in Buffalo, New York, and pleaded guilty to distributing or possessing, with the intent to distribute, 1,000 kilograms or more (2,200 pounds) of marijuana. The White House press corps is in a snit again because President Biden, who many reporters openly cheered on in last years election, has stiffed them repeatedly, refusing to answer their questions and most recently and tossing them unceremoniously out of the Oval Office. Indignant, the White House Correspondents Association filed a protest with the administrations communications office, where it will be routinely acknowledged and routinely ignored. Given Bidens successful campaigning from the basement of his home in Wilmington, Delaware, last year while the nation was in the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, his strategists concluded the same approach could be applied with equally favorable results in the White House. It appears the presidents senior staff reached a judgment that minimizing interactions between the president and reporters is in his best interest. The likelihood of change in the face of media complaints no matter how well founded is non-existent. The risk of offending the press corps is well worth it when placed next to the possibility of the president straying off message, rambling, forgetting names of his cabinet officers and foreign leaders, careening off on a rhetorical tangent and telling tales about his various life experiences which his staff later must clarify or walk back. As harsh as it may sound, a nervous White House staff believes Biden simply cannot be trusted if engaged in freewheeling exchanges with reporters. Theyve implemented a protective protocol of controlled presidential remarks, usually read from a teleprompter to a sparse audience of reporters or from behind the Oval Office desk. On those infrequent occasions when questions are permitted, Biden recognizes reporters from a staff supplied list, a departure from the raise your hand systems followed by previous administrations. The time is limited in these sessions before a communications office staffer declares it at an end. The strategy is reflected also in the frequency of the no public schedule notation on the daily list of activities distributed to reporters and by the early in the day announcements of a lid, meaning no newsworthy events are planned. Make no mistake, the priority obligation of a presidential staff is always to him. The first rule drilled into them is protect the client. The obligation to the media comes second and, if that translates into shielding him from the media, so be it. Given Bidens long history of exaggerations, embellishments and personal reminisces which turn out to be stream of consciousness creations, his staff is hyper-sensitive to speculation about a cognitive decline and a diminished ability to grasp complex domestic or foreign policy issues. There is, of course, no requirement for a president to grant regular access to the media or respond to questions as part of a public appearance. It is rather an expectation that part of the chief executives job description is utilizing the media as a vital conduit to the American people. This administration has chosen to limit his exposure, preferring the daily press briefing often including a cabinet officer, depending on the issue at hand as the less risky method of delivering the message, framing the narrative and satisfying the medias appetite. The White House press corps has arguably the most prestigious and coveted assignments in journalism, spending every day of their professional lives at the nerve center of American government and global concerns, flying on Air Force One, witnessing history in the making and sharing their views on television talk and panel shows. They dont, however, get to dictate working conditions or make demands on the Administration whose actions they cover. Play the hand youre dealt rather than whine you want different cards. Despite unprecedented changes in the media landscape, some of the most incisive, insightful and analytical commentary is still produced by reporters and broadcasters who use their talents and dedication to ferret out information on behalf of the American people. It is their duty to aggressively challenge misrepresentations and falsehoods and expose them. Continuing to meet that responsibility will do more to enhance their reputation than complaining they dont see the president as often as theyd like. Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. He can be reached at cgolden1937@gmail. Businesses across the country could soon be facing some serious heat from federal regulators. In response to worker deaths and injuries spurred by dehydration and roiling temperatures, the Biden administration will soon propose a federal heat standard via the Occupational Safety and Health Administrations rule-making process the same agency tasked with implementing vaccine mandates. And already, familiar fault lines are emerging between labor groups such as United Farm Workers and businesses and entrepreneurs fearful of runaway costs. Before overhauling federal rules, regulators should consider the unintended consequences of reinventing the wheel and mull less costly alternatives. OSHA can ensure that farmworkers have shade and water without mandating costly paperwork requirements and heat illness plans. It is easy to discount the dangers of heat from behind a laptop in an air-conditioned room. The simple fact, though, is that dozens of people working in agricultural fields die each year due to exposure to heat and sunlight. A recent investigation by NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations revealed nearly 400 workers have died from environmental heat exposure in the U.S. over the past 10 years. These deaths are happening even though the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires employers to mitigate known risks. In addition, OSHAs field sanitation standard, requires employers in agricultural operations to provide sufficient toilet facilities, hand-washing facilities, potable drinking water (suitably cool and in sufficient amounts) to their employees. The standard also stipulates, [T]he employer shall notify each employee of the location of the sanitation facilities and water and shall allow each employee reasonable opportunities during the workday to use them. Based on these laws and standards in place, OSHA could make a point of more consistently monitoring employers to make sure they are giving their workers reasonable opportunities to drink water under adequate shade in order to mitigate the known risks of heat exposure. And OSHA has certainly handed out heat illness-related citations. The Biden administration, though, wants to focus on more expansive regulations that could mandate everything from required training and increased mitigation paperwork to more paid breaks. Unlike, say, more consistent water and shade, these interventions are far from no-brainers. Oregon Farm Bureau Policy Counsel Samantha Bayer points out, [f]armers have to keep track of so much. And then to go and learn new rules that are pages and pages of legalese and then not only learn them and apply them on their own farm but then effectively communicate those with their employees when theres language barriers is really challenging. Any (inevitable) delegation of that responsibility will lead to increased costs, much of which will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher produce prices. Regulators, then, need to carefully weigh the benefits of compliance beyond ordinary shade and water requirements with the cost of a regressive tax on food. While the benefits of a strict federal standard are unknown, regulators could at least look to Californias rules (from 2005) mandating training, prevention plans, emergency procedures, and close observation. And, despite roughly 4,000 heat-related inspections per year and a citation rate of 47%, California has still seen about four dozen worker heat deaths since 2010. Compared to the roughly 400 worker heat deaths nationwide over the same period, this figure suggests that California hasnt found a regulatory panacea. Ultimately, more consistent enforcement of basic rules might prove more useful in preventing worker deaths than broad-based mandates which could lead to compliance headaches and higher food prices. The Biden administration and OSHA should think twice before fanning the flames of the regulatory state. Ross Marchand is a senior fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. Tuolumne County Public Health reports 31 new COVID-19 cases since yesterdays report, there are 278 residents with active Covid cases including 5 who are hospitalized. As shown in the images the California Department of Public Health states from September 19, 2021 to September 25, 2021, unvaccinated people were 7.1 times more likely to get COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people and from September 5, 2021 to September 11, 2021, unvaccinated people were 17.4 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people. The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County is down to 37.4 from 37.5 per 100,000 population. There were 4 released from isolation since yesterday, there have been a total of 4,723 released. There have been 5,106 community cases, 105 deaths, and 1,620 inmate cases with no currently active inmate cases. Todays newly reported cases include 8 cases age 17 or younger and 11 cases age 60 or older. The gender and age breakdown is; 3 girls and 1 boy age 0-11, 2 girls and 2 boys age 12-17, 1 woman and 3 men age 18 to 29, 1 woman and 2 men 30-39, 2 women age 40 to 49, 3 women age 50-59, 2 women and 2 men age 60 to 69, 3 women and 2 men age 70 to 79, 1 woman age 80 to 89 and 1 woman ago 90 or older. Of the 31 new community cases, 20 were unvaccinated and 11 were vaccinated. Of Tuolumnes population eligible to be vaccinated 59% have been vaccinated. Tuolumne Countys active community cases went below 200 for 8 days before increasing. Cases were above 200 for 49 days between August 2nd and September 19th with a high of 407 active cases. During the previous surge, active cases were above 200 for 36 days between November 15th and December 20th with a high of 350. Active cases were below 30 between March 5th and July 14th. There were two Covid deaths reported on Monday, October 4th. Calaveras County Public Health reports 10 new Covid cases since yesterdays report. Active cases increased to 45, including two Covid hospitalizations. There are 6 new cases age 0-17 and 2 new cases age 65 years old or older. Since the pandemic began Calaveras has had 580 Covid-19 positive children who are 17 and under and 632 Covid-19 positive people 65 and over. Calaveras has vaccinated 53.9% of their eligible population. There were two Covid deaths reported on Tuesday, October 5th. Mariposa County Public Health says, You may have noticed we reported a large number of hospitalizations in our case report yesterday afternoon. We dont like reporting these kinds of numbers to our community. In Mariposa County, 16 of our 63 active cases are currently hospitalized (in locations outside of the county). This means that 1 out of 4 of our current cases are hospitalized. We are also seeing an increase in younger adults being hospitalized for COVID-19. We remind everyone that we all hold power to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our community: wash your hands, wear your mask, practice social distancing, stay home if you are sick, get vaccinated, share accurate information. As always, our thoughts are with our community members currently in the hospital as well as their friends and families. We hope to be able to report their releases home soon. Todays update increased their cases by 15 with the active cases rising to 75 including 16 who are hospitalized. Last Weeks Overview (Sep 24- Oct 1) Tuolumne reported a total of 197 new Covid cases and Calaveras reported 151 new cases. There were two deaths of Tuolumne residents due to COVID-19 and three deaths of Calaveras residents. Hospitalizations in both counties decreased over the week although Friday Tuolumnes increased from four to six. COVID-19 Testing The LHI testing site at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds will be closed Monday, October 11th for the Columbus Day holiday. Public health recommends if you believe you have been exposed to Covid, schedule an appointment to get tested 5 days after exposure and if you are having any symptoms, please get tested right away. The Tuolumne County State testing site is open 7 days a week beginning from 7 AM to 7 PM at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds. Appointments can be scheduled at www.lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888-634-1123 the same website and phone number can be used to schedule tests in other counties. Testing is also available through some pharmacies, at Rapid Care, the hospital emergency department if you are experiencing any symptoms, or contact your healthcare provider. COVID-19 Vaccines Tuolumne Public Health says, Thank you for continuing to take the positive actions to protect ourselves and those around us from illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. Vaccination is the most important step we can take to reduce the spread of disease, and reduce the impact to our healthcare system. In addition, the continued practice of other preventive actions like wearing a mask in public, keeping your distance, avoiding crowds, washing hands, cleaning surfaces, and staying home when sick will help slow the spread of the virus. Students as detailed here in the school term immediately after full FDA authorization and approval Governor Gavin Newsom plans to require COVID-19 vaccination for students in grades 7-12, and after that for students in K-6. 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. In Calaveras, mobile vaccination clinics now do COVID-19 testing. For COVID-19 testing times and locations go to: https://covid19.calaverasgov.us/. Walk-ins only for COVID-19 testing. No appointment is needed. Register online to reduce waiting time: https://bit.ly/3wpNEUU. The Pfizer vaccine requires 3 weeks between doses and the Moderna requires 4 weeks. The J&J vaccine requires only one dose. Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot information is here. 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. County/Date Tier Color Active Cases New Cases Total Cases COVID Deaths Amador 10/7 133 16 3,262 53 Calaveras 10/7 45 10 3,595 76 Mariposa 10/7 75 15 1,182 13 Mono 10/7 78 15 1,371 5 Stanislaus 10/7 1,520 191 75,027 1,297 Tuolumne 10/7 278 31 6,726 105 For other county-level statistics view our page here. HWY 108 crash near Tulloch Dam Road where person was ejected from vehicle View Photos Update at 5:15 p.m.: The CHP reports that a tow crew is working to remove the solo vehicle that crashed on Highway 108 near Tulloch Dam Road this afternoon. They add that traffic is moving once again. Just before 4 p.m. a sedan in the westbound lane went off the roadway about 50 feet into a field and then overturned, ejecting one person. That individual was flown to a Modesto hospital from the scene suffering major injuries. Further details on the crash are below. Original post at 4:24 p.m.: Tuolumne County, CA First responders are on the scene of a solo vehicle crash on Highway 108 between Keystone and Knights Ferry in Tuolumne County. The wreck happened just before 4 p.m. near Tulloch Dam Road. The CHP reports that a sedan was westbound when it went off the roadway into a field and overturned. They add that one person was ejected from the vehicle and is unresponsive, suffering a head wound. An air ambulance has been called to the scene as the CHP reports major injuries in the crash. The lanes are not blocked but traffic is backed up due to emergency vehicles and personnel on the shoulder. An update will be provided as soon as new information comes into the newsroom. Photo of the police sketch of the Zodiac Killer and Poste highlighting a forehead scar View Photos Groveland, CA Could the infamous Zodiac Killer, who shot, stabbed, or choked his victims and sent coded letters to newspapers taunting law enforcement, really have been living in the quiet town of Groveland? While some of those cryptic notes have yet to be decoded, a group of independent investigators called The Case Breakers claim they have uncovered the serial killers true identity. The report has gained international attention over the past 24 hours. They assert that the sadistic killer is Gary Francis Poste, a retired Air Force veteran, house painter, and Groveland resident. However, he cannot defend himself or be questioned because he died in 2018. Two years earlier, Poste was arrested by Tuolumne County Sheriffs Deputies in February of 2016 for corporal injury to a spouse, and his mugshot from that arrest is in the image box photos. The group, made up of about 40 former law enforcement investigators, journalists and military intelligence officers, say physical and forensic evidence, as well as recovered photos from Postes darkroom led to this conclusion. A picture of Poste with the same forehead scar as the one in the police sketch of the Zodiac Killer can be viewed in the image box. The notorious Zodiac Killer is linked to five murders taking place from 1968 to 1969 in the Bay Area, but the cold case sleuths insist he is also responsible for a sixth-slaying. That of an 18-year-old student, Cheri Jo Bates stabbed 42 times outside a school library in Riverside in 1966. The group put out a press released Wednesday calling for police there to release refrigerated hair, skin and blood found under the victims fingernails for DNA testing. But they say that Riverside police are 100% sure that Bates was killed by someone other than the Zodiac and refuse to release any of that evidence. The Case Breakers say they also interviewed a man who claimed that he grew up in Groveland and was one of Postes so-called Zodiacs criminal posse. They say he recounted that Poste liked to kill animals. The FBIs San Francisco division is not on board with the groups theory. It put out a statement that the Zodiac Killer case is still open and there was no new information to share. Click here to view the entire Case Breakers press release. A sex offender and a murder suspect have been added to the Texas Department of Public Safetys (DPS) Texas 10 Most Wanted Lists. Cory Lee Reed of Lubbock has been added to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders list. Justin Marquiwis Cuba of Sherman was added to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitive List. Reed has been wanted since Sept. 2020 when a warrant for his arrested was issued after Reed failed to register as a sex offender. In 2010, Reed was convicted of two counts of sexual assault of a child following incidents involving a 14-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 10 years of probation. Reed a 6-foot tall, 170-pound, 30-year-old man was convicted of failure to comply with a sex offenders duty to register and received five years of probation. His probation was revoked in 2012 and sentenced to eight years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison. He was released on parole in March 2019. He has scars on his head, lip, back, left forearm and left knee and has ties to the Lubbock and San Angelo areas. A reward of up to $3,000 is being offered for information leading to Reeds arrest. Cuba has been wanted since Aug. 3 when a warrant for his arrest was issued in connection to the homicide of a man in Ladonia by the Fannin County Sheriffs Office. Three days later, the Grayson County Sheriffs Office also issued warrants for his arrest for two counts of failure to appear, charges of aggravated robbery and manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance. In 2011, Cuba was convicted of manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance and sentenced to 10 years in a TDCJ prison, where he was released on parole in Oct. 2019. Cuba 5-foot-9, 190-pounds, 33-years-old may go by alias such as Justin Marquez Cuba, Justin Marquez Cuban and Justin Marquise Cuba. He has tattoos on his neck, chest and left arm. He also has scars on his abdomen, right arm, left forearm and both shoulders. A reward of up to $7,500 is being offered for information leading to Cubas arrest. To be eligible for cash rewards, tipsters must provide information to authorities using one of these three methods: Call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-8477. Submit a web tip through the DPS website by selecting the fugitive you have information about, then clicking on the link under their picture. Submit a Facebook tip by clicking SUBMIT A TIP link (under the About section). All tips are anonymous regardless of how they are submitted. Tipsters will be provided a tip number instead of using a name. Do not attempt to apprehend the fugitives. They are considered armed and dangerous. Click here to read the full article. Scott Koenig, former manager of the metal bands Biohazard and Fear Factory and a veteran of the early Def Jam Records/ Rush Communications company that managed or released albums by the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Slayer and others, has died. He was 57; the cause of death was not announced at the time of this articles publication. A native of Staten Island, Koenig got his start as the metal guy at Vinyl Mania and Its Only Rock n Roll, two of the many major record stores in New Yorks Greenwich Village during the 1980s. He attended New York University with Rick Rubin and introduced the Def Jam co-founder to Slayer, who became the first non-rap signing to the label; Rubin produced several of their albums, including the career-defining Reign in Blood and South of Heaven. Koenig later brought the Chicago doom-metal act Trouble to the label, whom Rubin also signed and produced. Soft-spoken and low-key, in contrast to the loud music and musicians he worked with, Koenig was a familiar face on the New York music scene of the era and appears in the Beasties 1986 video for Fight for Your Right to Party (thats him with the fake eyepatch getting a pie in the face). Koenig briefly managed Slayer and worked for Rush into the 1990s, hitting his groove managing the New York punk-metal outfit Biohazard, who released nine studio albums over the next 20 years. Koenig cut a deal for the band to release its second album, 1992s Urban Discipline, on indie metal powerhouse Roadrunner Records, ironically after theyd signed with Warner Bros. (a common tactic during the era, also used by Guns N Roses and Pearl Jam precursor Mother Love Bone, to build underground buzz before the major-label debut). In 1995 he began managing Roadrunner metal act Fear Factory. Around this time he founded King Management and moved to Los Angeles, where he was a regular on the citys metal scene, particularly at the legendary Rainbow Bar N Grill. Information on survivors was not immediately available. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It's October the leaves are changing and each passing day presents a bread crumb trail leading to Halloween. Sure, you're already planning your elaborate costumes, parties, and pumpkin patch trips. But are you properly educating yourself on some of the best seasonally appropriate, creepy and curious San Antonio stories? I didn't think so. There's no quicker ticket to get in the spirit of things than digesting first-hand accounts of the ghosts that lurk some of our city's most historic places. Perhaps you're more interested in the story of a local cryptid hunter chasing Texas' giant birds, or a New Braunfels-based Texas UFO expert. Whatever the case, you don't need to revisit your favorite childhood episodes of Canadian television series Goosebumps to catch a scare. You can access all the frights you need, in real life, right here in San Antonio. As someone who dabbled in the creepy stories beat, here are some of my favorite tales I've uncovered so far. Courtesy of Justin Parr Meet the ghosts haunting Hot Wells Ruins Earlier this year, I chatted with local artist Justin Parr, who was a longtime resident and grounds keeper of the city's historic Hot Wells Ruins, about some of his eeriest experiences with the paranormal on the grounds. Highlights include the cases of a couple of scared skaters, a Halloween party gone wrong, and strange interactions with a character called "Paranormal Paul." Read more. Discover one man's search for the giant pterodactyl-like birds flapping over San Antonio In my short tenure reporting around San Antonio, I've had the opportunity to meet Ken Gerhard, a cryptological personality that has made multiple appearances on the History Channel, who resides here in San Antonio. Over 10 years ago, Gerhard moved to the area to explore report of giant, unrecognizable bird-like creatures flapping over the city and towns in the Rio Grande Valley. These reports of this unknown creature are not only from his own research, but have actually been documented in newspapers across Texas. Read more. Camille Sauers Become acquainted with the lesser known ghosts in the historic Menger Hotel The Menger Hotel, resting on the original battle grounds of the Alamo in downtown San Antonio, has long been known to be home to ghosts. Naturally, San Antonio has a pretty complicated history, and that coincides with complicated ghosts. Some include King Ranch founder and Confederate Captain Richard King and President Teddy Roosevelt who is said to have spent some time in the bar (the bartender showed me a snapshot of a figure in the area). One that gets discussed less often is Sallie White, a former Menger chambermaid who was biracial and embroiled in an abusive relationship, ultimately shot and killed by her husband outside of the hotel. I visited the site and chatted with a local ghost tour expert from Sisters Grimm to learn more about her life. Read more. Courtesy of Jane Kyle Explore the galaxy with Texas UFO expert "UFO Jane" After attending a UFO Festival on a whim with my friend at the Wonderland of the America's Mall, I met Jane Kyle, a true alien believer, who runs a website documenting reported UFO sightings around Texas. Together with her partner in crime "Glurp" (a man that presents as an alien who I suspect is her boyfriend) she runs a YouTube channel discussing her findings and alien insights. We chatted about some of the most significant sightings around Texas and whether or not we are truly alone. Read more. Courtesy of Deborah Moore Wolff Revisit the local folk legend of the Gillespie Mansion more often referred to by its more problematic name. San Antonio is full of our own histories and legends. Some claim to have grandmothers who have danced with devil at a Westside bar, while others have family members who snuck off in high school to drink Lone Star's in an abandoned mansion, said to be the site of a brutal familial murder. Learn more about some of the mysteries surrounding the site. Read more Students at Gus Garcia University School in Edgewood Independent School District were able to meet U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona on Thursday. The education official dropped into the Alamo City with San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro to promote the Biden administrations Build Back Better plan. Cardona chatted with students in the historically underserved district about the challenges the pandemic posed to their learning experience. The middle school partners with Texas A&M-San Antonio, which helps students prepare for the college track. The Build Back Better agenda provides resources to expand some of the great things they are already doing here at Gus Garcia, Cardona said, according to the San Antonio Express-News. That partnership with colleges, the pipeline for teachers, giving students the opportunity to have voice in the development of what they are learning, that is powerful. Biden's ambitious plan is more than education, though. The agenda invests in working families by creating more jobs, cutting taxes, and lowering costs. Biden and his administration are currently traveling the country to churn up support for the plan, which is stalled in Congress. The Express-News reported that most of Cardona's visit was spent listening to students about their education experience and what they'd like to see improved. They asked for more after-school programs focused on robotics, more teachers after school to help, math help, and more challenging courses. We are still healing from a pandemic, Cardona told the San Antonio Express-News. We are going to heal and grow but they need time to heal together." On Twitter, Cardona said the Build Back Better plan is America's way to show that "education is the great equalizer." He called his trip to the San Antonio campus "amazing." "Thank you for showing me around your district and introducing me to so many great students & educators," he tweeted. Starting Monday, October 11, Northside Independent School District will no longer mandate face masks on its campuses. The local district announced the change in its mask policy on Facebook earlier this week. According to its post, the decision comes as COVID-19 cases have declined for a number of weeks. "While face masks will not be mandated, we will strongly encourage their continued use by all students, staff, and visitors while indoors and on school buses. We will ask staff to model this behavior," the district posted on its website. NISD noted the number of positive cases in its district has been "manageable" because of the use of face masks. The district stated it plans to continue monitoring its positive cases on its campuses and is prepared to reinstate the mask mandate if COVID-19 spread rises significantly. "We believe that we have an ethical obligation to our students and staff to keep them safe," the district added to its post. "While the positive health metrics over the past several weeks help us feel confident in this decision, we will be prepared to return to a temporary mask mandate if conditions warrant." According to the district's website, 23 campus staff members and 177 students tested positive for COVID-19 as of October 3. In Bexar County, the overall COVID-19 risk level dropped to mild for the first time since July 20, according to Tuesday's coronavirus briefing. The positivity rate has also declined to 3.9 percent, a drop from last week's 5 percent. Courtesy San Antonio College Alamo Colleges District is laying out plans for its journalism education after the Ranger, San Antonio College's student-run newspaper, announced it would stop the presses after nearly a century. The Ranger reported on its own demise on Tuesday, saying the newspaper, which laid a foundation for generations of journalists, would cease operations after the current semester. The news echoed throughout the industry, leaving many to question what the effect would be on aspiring journalists of color who for years counted on the college to serve as a pipeline in their careers. An out-of-state billionaire who has previously bankrolled attempts to defend controversial immigration laws is responsible for nearly all the donations to Gov. Greg Abbotts $54 million border wall fund. A member of one of Americas richest family dynasties, Timothy Mellon, contributed nearly 98% of the funds total donations when he donated $53.1 million in stock to the state in August, according to public records. Mellon is the 79-year-old Wyoming-based grandson of banking tycoon and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Before Mellons donations, Abbotts private fundraising campaign had stalled at about $1.25 million around mid-August, two months after its launch a drop in the bucket for a project with a price tag estimated in the billions of dollars. But on Aug. 27, a state website that tracks donations to the crowdfunding effort said the fund had jumped to nearly $19 million. By the end of the month, it had topped $54 million. The donations have since stalled again. Mellon did not respond to multiple requests for comment made to his company, New Hampshire-based Pan Am Systems, and a marketing firm that handled publicity for his 2015 autobiography. Abbott declined to comment. Mellon does not appear to have close ties to Texas. But he was a top donor to the reelection campaign of former President Donald Trump, who made building a border wall a top priority, and has previously donated money to defend legislation targeting immigrants. In 2010, he gave an unsolicited $1.5 million to the legal defense of an Arizona law that required police to determine the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to The Washington Post. Critics said the law would lead to racial profiling. The law was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down parts of it but left intact the section allowing officers to ask about immigration status. Last year, Mellon gave $20 million to America First Action, the main super PAC supporting Trumps reelection. Since 2018, hes donated $30 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House GOP super PAC, and he gave $30 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which tries to elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate, in 2020. Mellon has not donated to Abbott, but he gave $2,500 to Republican gubernatorial challenger Allen West when West ran for Congress in Florida in 2012. Mellon ramped up his political donations in 2018. While he overwhelmingly supports conservative campaigns and Republicans, Mellon also gave to two Democrats: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York in 2018 and former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii for her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Ocasio-Cortezs campaign later said it did not solicit the donation and would return it. Mellon has taken heat for using offensive stereotypes to describe Black Americans in his self-published autobiography. In the 2015 book, Mellon wrote that after the Great Society programs of the 1960s, which were intended to tackle poverty and racial injustice, Black people became even more belligerent and unwilling to pitch in to improve their own situations, according to The Washington Post. He also called social safety net programs slavery redux. Mellon is the chair of Pan Am Systems, a privately held transportation and freight holding company. In the 1980s, he founded a rail company called Guilford Transportation Industries. In the 1990s, he rebranded the company after buying the brand of bankrupt Pan Am Airways. Forbes estimated Mellon was worth almost $1 billion in 2014, and last year the magazine estimated the Mellon family was worth $11.5 billion. Abbotts crowdsourced wall Abbott, a two-term Republican, has made border security his top priority this year as he seeks reelection next year and is fighting off challenges from his right. Abbott has blamed the Biden administration for an increase in migrants at the border. In March, Abbott deployed state military and police resources to the border to help federal authorities enforce immigration law. In June, he announced a state of disaster in 34 counties that were seeing large increases in migrant crossings and he unveiled his plan to build a state-funded border wall, picking up where Trump left off. The Texas Legislature has approved nearly $3 billion over the next two-year budget cycle toward border security, with about $1 billion going to the governors office for grants, including $750 million dedicated to construction of a border wall. Texas is already paying $25 million for a nearly 2-mile concrete barrier along State Loop 480 in Eagle Pass. Portions of the federal border wall started by the Trump administration, and put on hold by the Biden administration, ranged from $6 million per mile to $34 million per mile for construction. Abbotts office said it has identified 733 miles of border that may need some type of barrier. While the state displays the aggregate of private donations to the border wall on its website, it does not readily provide the names of individual donors, despite a commitment from Abbott early on that the crowdfunding effort would have transparency and accountability. Outside of Mellon, the fund received more than 12,100 individual donations as of Sept. 14, totaling about $1.3 million. The median donation was $50. That level of fundraising is more in line with a similar crowdfunding attempt by Arizona lawmakers 10 years ago to raise private money for constructing a fence on the Mexican border. That effort received about $270,000 in three years, according to The Arizona Republic. During the Trump administration, a nonprofit called We Build The Wall, which included his former political adviser Steve Bannon as a board member, raised $25 million for a border wall. Bannon and Brian Kolfage, the groups leader, were accused by the federal government in August 2020 of looting the charity for personal gain. Bannon was later pardoned by Trump. Tax benefit Tax experts say Mellons decision to donate stock instead of cash could yield a tax benefit for the billionaire. Normally, a person has to pay taxes on profits made on their investments when they are sold. But investors who donate stock to charity avoid paying a tax on the earnings on their investment and get a tax deduction for the full amount of stock. Its common to give stock thats increased in value because they can get rid of the gains and they can deduct the donations, said Lloyd Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School. Such donations are usually made to nonprofit organizations. But under the tax code, a charitable contribution to a state would likely be tax-deductible if it is made exclusively for public purposes. Some people, for example, get tax deductions for donating money to cut the federal debt. The only hurdle is ensuring the money is only used for public purposes. In the case of [a] border wall, presumably built upon public land, I think itd be hard to argue there are private purposes, said Lisa De Simone, an accounting professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. But Mayer said such donations raise questions about undue influence by wealthy donors on governmental policymaking. In June, Tennessee billionaire Willis Johnson offered South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem $1 million to help pay for a state National Guards deployment to the border to aid Texas efforts to catch people crossing illegally. The states soldiers were then sent to the Texas border. The thing thats controversial about these kinds of donations is whether theyre distorting government priorities. If government collects money in taxes and the government Legislature and governor decide how to spend it, theyre setting their priorities based on the political environment, Mayer said. But if you open it up to donations, youre handing what the government should spend their money on to wealthy donors. Disclosure: University of Texas at Austins McCombs School of Business has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here. The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org. (Natural News) Using the COVID crisis as justification, New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh demanded Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take control of the democratically elected provincial government of Alberta. (Article by Anthony Murdoch republished from LifeSiteNews.com) In a letter dated September 29 and addressed to Trudeau and Minister of Health Patty Hajdu, Singh wrote that Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has done such a bad job of dealing with the COVID situation that action is needed. We recognize that health is predominantly a provincial jurisdiction, but considering the dearth of leadership shown by Jason Kenney and his United Conservative government, we implore the federal government to use the tools at its disposal to protect Albertans, Singh wrote. This is an urgent emergency and we cannot wait for the House of Commons to resume. We must take action now. Citing a disastrous fourth wave of COVID, Singh argued that Kenney has been absent as a leader and that the federal government must intercede to protect the lives of countless Albertans. His letter mentioned claims that are in fact, even at the time of its release, outright falsehoods. Singh contends that Kenney has not implemented a vaccine passport or instituted more lockdowns. Despite the fact he was against vaccine passports initially, Kenney relented and launched one in Alberta, which has been in place since mid-September. Kenney has also enacted rules banning the unvaccinated from gathering together and has put a cap on attendance at churches. He has also mandated mask-wearing and enacted physical distancing rules for some businesses. In the letter, Singh also writes that healthcare workers are exhausted and the hospital system in Alberta is on the verge of collapse. However, despite hospital staff no doubt being under extra pressures lately, an emergency room physician from Alberta claimed that the hospital capacity crisis in his province was created, is nothing new, and is not from COVID-19 patients. Dr. Gary Davidson recently said, We have a crisis, and we have a crisis because we have no staff, because our staff quit, because theyre burned out, theyre not burnt out from COVID. Davidson said that the current crisis has nothing to do with COVID, its been going on for six years, and it was created while Alberta was under NDP Premier Rachel Notley. So, about six years ago, we had a government come in and about two years into their mandate they started cutting positions in our department, Davidson noted. Constitutional lawyer: Singhs letter more a political and rhetorical document than a legal one John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), told LifeSiteNews that he highly doubts even real mismanagement of a certain responsibility by one level of government amounts to adequate legal grounds for another level of government to step in and take over. Mr. Singhs letter is more a political and rhetorical document than a legal or constitutional one, Carpay said. If our constitution allowed for such takeovers, we would see endless controversies over this, because the federal and provincial governments often criticize each other about mismanaging various portfolios. Carpay said that, to his knowledge, he is not aware of any unusual constitutional provision that empowers the federal government to violate provincial jurisdiction on the basis of some emergency or crisis. But if such provision exists, Mr. Singh does not reference it in his letter, and presumably he has access to legal counsel to assist him, who would have provided him with that information, if such section exists, Carpay told LifeSiteNews. NDP is known to use unions to help advance its socialist agenda of bigger government The provincial NDP party in Alberta has the ears of the largest unions in the province, those being in the healthcare and education sector. Singhs letter specifically singles out both education and healthcare, and specifically the nurses union. He wrote that his party has spoken to hundreds of healthcare workers who are at their limit. The federal government could step in and assist with support for healthcare workers and to ensure nurses are available from other regions. This could mean working directly with nurses unions, providing funds to incentivize retired nurses to return to work for the duration of the pandemic, or support Alberta in providing nurses with emergency pay increases in line with jurisdictions like Quebec and Ontario, Singh wrote. Singh added that schoolteachers and staff are terrified at the COVID case count in Alberta schools, and that the Trudeau government should step in and protect Albertans by providing additional support for contact tracing, testing and reporting infection rates in schools across Alberta. Healthcare in Canada is provided by each province, which alone has full jurisdiction on all aspects relating to the delivery and setup of the medical system. Read more at: LifeSiteNews.com and Pandemic.news. (Natural News) All of a sudden, Frances Haugen is one of the most famous people in America. But does she deserve to be? Of course not. As you will see below, Haugen is a far left activist that has donated money to Democrats dozens of times. She is being advised by Obamas former deputy press secretary, and her political views would place here squarely within the radical fringes of the progressive movement. But now people all over America are talking about her, and many are regarding her as some sort of a hero. (Article by Michael Snyder republished from EndOfTheAmericanDream.com) Dont fall for that trap. Yes, I know that it is tempting to cheer for anyone that makes Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg look bad. Facebook lured all of us in by offering a free and open forum where we were free to discuss anything, and then once they became one of the biggest tech companies in the world they started censoring viewpoints that they did not like. At this point, the censorship is so extreme that Facebook is almost entirely useless for honest public discourse at this point. But Haugen and those that are backing her are not attacking Facebook for all of the oppressive censorship that is happening. Instead, they want Facebook to do even more censoring. Of course they are trying to spin their efforts as some sort of noble cause to protect children. Just check out the following quote from Haugens testimony in front of Congress Facebook knows its engagement ranking on Instagram can lead children from very innocuous topics like healthy recipes [] to anorexic content over a very short period of time, Haugen alleged. Facebook knows they are leading young users to anorexia content. If the far left was actually concerned about anorexia, they would have taken a censorship hammer to the television and movie industries a long time ago. But of course that has never happened. This isnt about anorexia or any of the other straw men that they are putting out there. Ultimately, what they want is for Congress to set up regulatory agencies that they would control that would force Facebook and other social media companies to censor independent thinkers like us. At one point during her testimony, Haugen actually admitted this Right now, the only people in the world who are trained to analyze these experiments, to understand what is happening inside of Facebook, are people who grew up inside of Facebook, or Pinterest, or another social media company, said Haugen. And there needs to be a regulatory home where someone like me could do a tour of duty after working at a place like [Facebook], and have a place to work on things like regulation Haugen is trying to portray herself as someone that had access to Facebooks deepest secrets, but she didnt. In fact, Facebook has made it quite clear that she was a relatively low level employee Minutes after her testimony, Facebook issued a statement attempting to discredit Haugen, stating that she worked for the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question. But the mainstream media is turning her into a superstar because she is pushing an agenda that they want to push. The far left has been begging for more social media censorship for a long time, and Haugen is definitely a member of the far left. She has donated to Democrats dozens of times, and that includes a donation to AOCs congressional campaign The National Pulse has thus far identified 36 donations from Haugen during her time as an employee of Facebook, Pinterest, and Gigster. All of the donations, which total nearly $2,000 since December 2016, have gone to Democrats including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. On January 13th, 2020, Haugen sent money to Ocasio-Cortezs congressional campaign and a further contribution to her Courage to Change Political Action Committee (PAC). In addition, it is being reported that she is being advised by Obamas former deputy press secretary Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee who has for the past 10 months fed internal documents to a top Wall Street Journal reporter, and who revealed her identity in a primetime broadcast on Sunday, is working with the political consultant and former Obama administration deputy press secretary Bill Burton and his consulting firm, Bryson Gillette. It is unclear when Haugens relationship with Burton and Bryson Gillette began, how big her communications team is, and whether it includes other political operatives. So no, we should definitely not put Haugen in charge of regulating Facebook. In fact, under no circumstances should she ever be put in any position of authority over anything. Anyone that wants Facebook to take the level of censorship to an even higher level is absolutely nuts. Since the 2016 election, many of the most prominent conservative websites in the country have already been censored into oblivion Top conservative Facebook pages with daily traffic in the millions saw 75% to 95% drop in traffic since the 2016 election. Many of these top conservative and Pro-Trump Facebook pages from 2016 ARE GONE today. The rest were censored and had their traffic decimated. In the old days, Facebook was such a wonderful tool. If you wrote something that was really worth reading, it was fairly easy to go viral back then. Before the 2016 election, my websites used to get huge waves of traffic from Facebook. Unfortunately, that has now completely changed. Just like so many other non-politically correct authors, my work is being greatly suppressed by Facebook. But the current state of affairs is not nearly good enough for the far left. They wont be happy until everyone that disagrees with them is completely silenced on all major social media platforms. They say that they want to remove dangerous and offensive content, but if anyone is putting out dangerous and offensive content it is them. Of course they wont just stop at censoring us online. As history has shown, the far left is never satisfied, and they will take things as far as they possibly can. These are such ominous times, and our country is increasingly becoming unrecognizable. The right to free speech is still in our Constitution, but at this stage free speech is essentially dead on the Internet. And if people like Haugen get their way, much more censorship is on the horizon. Read more at: EndOfTheAmericanDream.com and Conspiracy.news. (Natural News) During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the majority of national governments across the globe have embraced the idea of lockdowns. Meanwhile, Sweden has been criticized for not enforcing lockdown mandates. Yet over 18 months after the pandemic, Sweden has had fewer excess coronavirus deaths compared to most of Europe. Members of the mainstream media have criticized the Swedish government for its decision not to enforce lockdowns, but theres no doubt that the Swedes appreciated the move as it meant they didnt have to face many months of social isolation. When the government announced the decision to forego lockdowns, many claimed that Sweden would suffer many losses. But months later, the country didnt record as many deaths as others predicted. And instead of celebrating the win, some tried to twist the facts to present an anti-Swedish narrative. In an article released in August 2021, the author presents data to make Swedens outcomes look bad. Since the start of the pandemic, roughly 11 out of every 100 people in Sweden have been diagnosed with COVID-19, compared with 9.4 out of every 100 in the UK and 7.4 per 100 in Italy. Sweden has also recorded around 145 COVID-19 deaths for every 100,000 people around three times more than Denmark, eight times more than Finland and nearly 10 times more than Norway, reads the article. In the quote above, the author highlighted a comparison that focuses on diagnoses in U.K. and Italy because actual deaths from coronavirus are fewer per million in Sweden than in either UK or Italy. By using this comparison, the author just shows readers that coronavirus is less fatal in Sweden. There may be more cases recorded in the country, but there are also fewer deaths. The author then looked at death rates to show that Sweden did worse compared to Denmark, Finland and Norway. But the claims are useless as Sweden actually has fewer excess deaths than other European countries. Excess mortality is a more reliable measure of deaths in a country since it provides a more extensive view of the actual effects of both coronavirus and coronavirus policy. (Related: Swedens chief epidemiologist believes no-lockdown approach was winning strategy against COVID-19.) Sweden proves lockdowns do more harm than good Its true that there are other European countries with fewer deaths proportionally. For example, Denmark, Finland and Norway have remarkably low numbers of coronavirus deaths compared to the rest of Europe. However, this doesnt explain why Swedens approach to coronavirus measures did better compared to other EU member states, like France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and others. Excess mortality in Sweden is estimated to be 785 per million people. It is estimated at 988 per million in France and 1,917 per million in Spain. In the United Kingdom, it is estimated at 1,657 per million. Sweden has 7.7 percent more deaths in 2020 than its average for the preceding four years. Countries that have enforced several periods of strict lockdowns, such as Belgium and Spain, have had an excess mortality of 16.2 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively. Overall, 21 of the 30 countries with available statistics has higher excess mortality compared to Sweden. In another data, which includes an adjustment due to differences in both the age structures and seasonal mortality patterns of countries analyzed, Sweden places 18th out of 26 in terms of mortality. The highest or worst ranked are Poland, Spain and Belgium. Another way of comparing Sweden to the rest of Europe is to examine excess mortality in 2020 and 2021 compared to average monthly deaths from 2016 to 2019. Since February 2020, total deaths that have been measured as a percentage of the 2016-2019 average are lower in Sweden compared to the EU 27 in 14 out of 18 months. While Denmark, Norway and Finland compare favorably against Sweden, a lot of other European countries cant say the same. Compared to France, Swedens excess monthly deaths are lower in 13 out of 18 months in that period. Comparisons are similar with Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Out of Europes large nations, only Germany fares better than Sweden. If you choose Finland, Denmark and Norway to compare Sweden with, theres no doubt that results will show Sweden as an outlier. But compared with most countries in Europe, along with the U.K., Sweden fares better. And even if Sweden did similarly compared to other European countries, this would still contradict the negative predictions of public health technocrats. Sweden has fared much better than predictions of complete and utter disaster by mainstream media and so-called health experts. Despite the meddling from mainstream media, at least 43 percent of Swedes have high or very high confidence in how the country is handling the pandemic. According to a survey, only 30 percent have low or very low confidence. Swedens government and health authority have acknowledged that they could have done more to protect Swedens elderly. But they did what they could to suppress the pandemic while also ensuring that the citizens arent stuck at home and unable to work because of oppressive measures like lockdowns. Visit Pandemic.news to learn how Sweden and other countries are handling the coronavirus pandemic. Sources include: CreativeDestructioMedia.com BusinessInsider.com Reuters.com 1 (Natural News) Nearly a dozen police officers in Denver are joining a lawsuit against the department for forcing them to get vaccinated against their will for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19). One of them, Jose Manriquez, is pretty much paralyzed as a result of getting his first jab of the Pfizer vaccine, which contains genetically modifying (GMO) mRNA technology. Just 34 years old, Manriquez was a healthy runner prior to getting injected. Immediately after getting his first dose of Pfizer, however, Manriquez lost feeling in his legs and feet and now has trouble walking without assistance. The worst story is a guy, 34 years old, four kids, who had covid last year and recovered, hes a runner, very healthy, went ahead and took the mandatory jab to not lose his position with the Denver police on August 22, Manriquezs lawyer Randy Corporon told Fox News in an interview. He can barely walk now. He falls down if he doesnt have people around him. So, there are other consequences to forcing this jab that people are not thinking about. Manriquez explained that right after getting his first dose of Pfizer, he started developing body aches and pain in his legs. One week later, the pain got worse and he had to be sent home. On the way home, I couldnt feel my feet anymore, Manriquez told Fox host Ainsley Earhardt. I couldnt feel the gas pedal or the brake pedal and pretty much had to call for help to get home, and I barely made it. Manriquezs doctor confirmed that the Pfizer shot did this to Manriquez, and that the situation will probably get worse before it gets any better. Im just so frustrated with the doctors, Corporon added. They dont have the courage. The effects started hitting him right after he took the shot. Some nine other officers who were part of the force have joined Manriquez in a lawsuit against the Fauci Flu shot mandate that caused all this. Denver mayor lied about courts saying covid vaccine mandates are a good way to protect people Meanwhile, Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock was caught lying about a court ruling over the mandate, falsely claiming that the judge in the case confirmed it as a good way to help protect people against the Chinese Virus. The judge said nothing of the sort, Corporon stated. Hes a lousy mayor, but hes not stupid. For him to say that, when all the judge said is, until we exhaust our administrative remedies with now these nine officers, we cant come back to see her. Corporon says that many of Manriquezs co-workers who refused to get the jab like he did have had to retire early. And Manriquez, who complied, is now potentially injured for life. Weve got Jose, 34, just at the beginning of his career, who had trouble getting up here to his chair, Corporon told Earhardt as Manriquez struggled to hold back tears. He broke down because he had fallen over putting his kids to bed, and his little girls think daddys broken This is a guy who had serious covid last year and beat it, so his body was raging with antibodies, and they gave him this jab and now his hand was shaking like this this morning when he came up. Corporon also explained that a single mom who joined the lawsuit is concerned about her ability to have children in the future. Like many, she took the jab reluctantly in order to avoid losing her job, but is now regretting it. The latest news about the injury and death tolls from Fauci Flu shots can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: Twitter.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Finland joins other Scandinavian countries in imposing new restrictions on the use of Modernas Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine for younger males due to the risk of harmful side effects, including heart inflammation. Mika Salminen, director at the Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), says that they would instead give the Pfizer vaccine to men born in 1991 or later. The new restrictions are based on data collected in a Nordic study involving men from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, which found that men under the age of 30 who received the Moderna vaccine had a slightly higher risk than others of developing myocarditis. Swedish and Danish health officials also previously announced that they would pause the use of the Moderna vaccine for all young adults and children, citing the same study. Preliminary data has been sent to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Unions medicines regulator, for further assessment. The EMA determined in July that cases of heart inflammation in some male patients were likely associated with Modernas COVID-19 vaccine. (Related: BREAKING: Sweden, Denmark both ban Moderna covid vaccine for causing myocarditis in young people.) The study was conducted by Denmarks Statens Serum Institut, a government institution under the countrys Ministry of Health; the Medical Products Agency in Sweden; the National Institute of Public Health in Norway and Finlands THL. U.S. and European regulators have cautioned that both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines appear to be linked to chest pain and heart inflammation in teenagers and young adults. Swedish health authorities have noted that the heart symptoms usually go away on their own, but patients still have to be assessed by their doctors. Data also points to an increased incidence of myocarditis in connection with the COVID-19 vaccination, mostly in male adolescents and young adults. The preliminary analysis from the Nordic study indicates that the connection is especially clear with the Moderna vaccine after the second dose is taken. The increase in risk is seen within four weeks after the vaccination, mainly within the first two weeks, the analysis states. Use of Moderna vaccines suspended in Scandinavian countries In Denmark, people under 18 will no longer be offered the Moderna vaccine as a precaution. Danish health authorities note that data showed an increased risk of inflammation when inoculated with the Moderna vaccine. Norways health agency has also urged young people under 30 to opt for the Pfizer vaccine due to the increased risk of a rare side effect with Moderna. Meanwhile, Italys Health Minister Roberto Speranza says that his country isnt planning on suspending or limiting the use of the Moderna vaccine, adding that European countries should work together more closely to coordinate better. U.S. regulators and the World Health Organization (WHO) have insisted that the risks of getting the mRNA vaccines are outweighed by their benefits. Moderna executives, in particular, have stepped up to defend their vaccine. A Moderna spokesperson says it was aware of the decision made by Sweden and Denmark, adding that the cases were typically mild and individuals affected usually recovered within a short time frame with standard rest and treatment. Scandinavian countries have adequate supplies of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and will still be able to continue their vaccination rollouts. Anders Tegnell, Swedens chief epidemiologist, says that they will follow the situation closely and act quickly to ensure that vaccinations are safe and effective in protecting people against the disease. Get more updates about COVID-19 vaccinations around the globe at Pandemic.news. Sources include: ZeroHedge.com ABCNews.go.com Yahoo.com (Natural News) On Tuesday, National Institutes of Health (NIH) head Francis Collins resigned from his post following the revelation that he lied about funding illegal gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China. Instead of jail time or the gallows, Collins is apparently strolling off into the sunset as always seems to be the case for white-collar criminals. He also issued a statement pretending to be an honorable man who served the country well in sending millions of American taxpayer dollars to China. It has been an incredible privilege to lead this great agency for more than a decade, Collins had the gall to say in a statement posted to the NIH website. I love this agency and its people so deeply that the decision to step down was a difficult one, done in close counsel with my wife, Diane Baker, and my family. I am proud of all weve accomplished. I fundamentally believe, however, that no single person should serve in the position too long, and that its time to bring in a new scientist to lead the NIH into the future. Im most grateful and proud of the NIH staff and the scientific community, whose extraordinary commitment to lifesaving research delivers hope to the American people and the world every day. Touching. Except for the fact that Collins is a liar who made untrue statements, as the media is calling them, about grants that were funneled from Tony Faucis National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to the WIV. We now know, based on what has been revealed thus far, that American tax dollars were sent by Collins and Fauci to China for the purpose of creating chimeric SARS-related coronaviruses much like the one that has been circulating since the start of the plandemic. These genetically modified coronaviruses would not exist, were it not for Collins and Fauci, who used Americans hard-earned money to created Frankenstein coronaviruses capable of infecting human cells. Obama appointed Collins to his post in 2009 According to Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, Collins and Fauci both lied when they denied any involvement in supporting illegal gain-of-function research. Collins and Fauci also lied about purposely enhancing pathogens, making them a pandemic threat. It is Barack Hussein Obama who is responsible for putting Collins in his position back in 2009. Fauci, on the other hand, has been in government for decades a quintessential political dinosaur, you might say. Collins was the longest-ever serving director of the NIH, having held his position through Obama, Donald Trump, and now Joe Biden. Prior to being appointed, Collins worked at The BioLogos Foundation, which he founded, which reportedly aimed to bridge a dialogue between science and religion. Even before being appointed by Obama, Collins was buddies with George W. Bush, who in 2007 awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his involvement in the Human Genome Project. Like Fauci, Collins was all over the television last year pushing for face masks to be forced on children. Collins has also blamed unvaccinated Americans for the continuation of the plandemic, even though the science shows that fully vaccinated Americans are the one driving disease and death. This is not a political statement or invasion of your liberties, Collins rattled during one of his media appearances about forcing children to wear a mask. This is a life-saving medical device. Asking kids to wear a mask is uncomfortable, but kids are pretty resilient. If we dont have masks in schools, this virus will spread more widely. It will probably result in outbreaks in schools, and kids will have to go back to remote learning, which is the one thing we want to prevent, Collins further threatened. To keep up with the latest news about the plandemic, be sure to visit Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: Breitbart.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) It has been revealed that the University of Pittsburgh is engaged in something much more sinister than just aborted baby butchery. According to shocking new reports, the school has been conducting Nazi-level experiments that involve tearing apart live babies and extracting their vital organs and other body parts for research purposes. In one instance, Frankenstein scientists at Pitt sliced off a babys scalp and implanted it onto the back of a laboratory rat to see if it would grow any hair. That research was published in the Nature journal, pictures included. News of these and other horrors at Pitt prompted around 100 members of Congress to call on the Biden regime to release more details about the program, which is funded with American taxpayer dollars. Cheryl Allen, a reporter for The Federalist, wrote an expose about the situation, calling on law enforcement to immediately investigate the grotesque, immoral, and potentially illegal actions the university has taken in its treatment of preborn human beings. Pitt should provide complete transparency regarding how the university obtains and experiments on these aborted babies, Allen says. She is not alone, either. Even some pro-abortionists say they are disturbed by the news and want action to be taken to stop this kind of thing. Murdering already born children to dissect their body parts is unspeakably evil and deserves real justice. As an alumnus of Pitt, it troubles me to see my alma mater become a national hub for training students for controversial fetal experimentation, allegedly using staff employed by Planned Parenthood, the nations largest abortion business, Allen laments. Fauci plays a huge role in Americas baby murder and organ harvesting industry It appears as though Pitt was illegally obtaining tissue from babies that were aborted both in the womb and outside the womb. This means that infanticide is part of the process of conducting such research. We are alarmed by public records obtained by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which show that the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) may have violated federal law by altering abortion procedures to harvest organs from babies who were old enough to live outside the womb, Fox News reported. Allen further writes that live babies are having their kidneys, livers and hearts cut out and removed. This alone should spark a full investigation, Allen says, and yet not a single thing has been done so far to address this issue. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala has done nothing, Allen writes. U.S. Attorney Stephen Kaufman declined to comment. Attorney General Josh Shapiro, an extremely pro-abortion politician with Planned Parenthood among his campaign donors, has given no response, except to tweet out his support for abortion-on-demand. We also now know that Pitt has certain racial quotas in place to ensure that there is diversity involved in which babies are slaughtered for their organs and tissues. Not surprisingly, Tony Fauci of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is heavily involved in this murder-for-profit scheme. He has sent countless American taxpayer dollars to Pitt in the form of grants to keep the aborted baby body parts racket going all these years. Hundreds of pages of records acquired by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that the American government and its academic partners prefer fresh and never frozen baby body parts, meaning the specimens being murdered are alive during the procedures. As shocking as these Dr. Mengele-type revelations will be to many, theyre not actually surprising not to those acquainted with the beliefs prevailing in society today, Allen writes, referring to the fact that America no longer values the sanctity and dignity of human life. The latest news about these and other horrors can be found at Abortions.news. Sources for this article include: TheNewAmerican.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Despite the fact that about 88 percent of its population is now fully vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), Vermont is seeing a massive surge in new hospitalizations for the disease. Reports indicate that a heavy spike like this has not been seen since the peak of the plandemic last winter, proving that the injections, which Donald father of the vaccine Trump his own words proudly brought to the world at warp speed, are not working to flatten the curve. I think its clearly frustrating for all of us, lamented Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, which monitors virus statistics for the state. Right now, the number of hospitalization cases in Vermont is almost at record levels. The state recorded September as its second deadliest month, and October might set a new record. This is all in spite of the fact that almost everyone in Vermont has taken both of the shots recommended to them by Tony Fauci and many have also gotten their third Biden booster shot as well. If the jabs really worked as claimed, Vermont would be the healthiest state in the nation right now. Instead, Vermont is fast becoming the sickest state in the country. The state recorded the highest rate of hospitalizations per 100,000 residents on Sept. 30, breaching a record set on Jan. 31, 2020, reported Ivan Pentchoukov for The Epoch Times. Eight people reportedly died of the CCP (Communist Chinese Party) virus in Vermont on Sept. 13, the highest total recorded in the state so far. Fully vaccinated Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut all seeing similar spike in hospitalizations, deaths Some 90 employees from the Vermont Health Department (VHD) signed a letter back in late August admitting that the number of new cases of the Chinese Virus has been steadily rising among the fully vaccinated. At that time, nearly half of all new cases were in people who took the full regimen of injections as prescribed by the government and Big Pharma. Since that time, that figure has skyrocketed to more than 76 percent. Very few unvaccinated people in Vermont are testing positive and getting sick, in other words. The vast majority of all new sicknesses and deaths there are occurring in people who obeyed Fauci and other politicians and took the jabs. Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, lifted Vermonts state of emergency back in June once at least 80 percent of the states population received at least one dose of the shot. This reliance upon the vaccine to save the state obviously failed. We cant be in a perpetual state of emergency, Scott announced this week. Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut, the three states that follow right behind Vermont in terms of vaccine compliance, are all seeing a similar surge in new hospitalizations and deaths. The head of UMass Memorial Health, the largest health system in central Massachusetts, recently came out to admit that ever since the state reached what should have been herd immunity from near-total vaccine compliance, hospitalizations for covid have soared 20-fold. Massachusetts has the fifth highest vaccination rate in the nation, notes Pentchoukov. Connecticut, the second-most-vaccinated state in America, is likewise seeing a massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths so much so that the state legislature recently extended the governors emergency powers to respond to this latest wave of the virus. On Sept. 22, Maine, the third-most-vaccinated U.S. state, had nearly 90 people in intensive care units, a pandemic peak for the state, Pentchoukov further adds, proving a direct correlation between high vaccination rates and major upticks in sickness and death. To keep up with the latest news about the injuries and deaths being caused by Fauci Flu shots, be sure to check out ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com TheEpochTimes.com (Natural News) Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been exposed by Project Veritas for trying to hide the fact that its Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines contain ingredients made from aborted babies. A whistleblower named Vanessa Gelman who works as the senior director of worldwide research at Pfizer told a Project Veritas reporter that her company has been working overtime to try to prevent the truth from coming out because it might turn some people away from getting jabbed. From the perspective of corporate affairs, we want to avoid having the information on fetal cells floating out there, said Vanessa Gelman, Pfizer Senior Director of Worldwide Research. The risk of communicating this right now outweighs any potential benefit we could see, particularly with general members of the public who may take this information and use it in ways we may not want out there. We have not received any questions from policy makers or media on this issue in the last few weeks, so we want to avoid raising this if possible. Numerous other Pfizer officials said the same types of things, revealing that the companys use of aborted human fetal tissue in laboratory testing was supposed to remain a secret though the cat is now out of the bag. Theyre being so deceptive in their emails, its almost like it is in the final vaccine, admitted Melissa Strickler, a Pfizer insider and manufacturing quality auditor, about how there may actually be aborted baby cells right inside the injection vials. It just made me not trust it. You can watch a video interview with Strickler and Project Veritas at this link. If you take a covid vaccine, your body is being genetically modified with aborted babies Strickler reached out to Project Veritas of her own accord, explaining that she had no one else to turn to because her own company wont be honest with me. What I was told to do was to trust Project Veritas and to go with you guys by lawmakers, by lawyers. The aborted cell line used in the Pfizer shots is called HEK293T. These cells were used in the IVE assay, and some company employees like Strickler believe that it may also be in the formula that is being injected straight into peoples bodies. The HEK portion of the cell line name, by the way, refers to human embryonic kidney. There are other cell lines such as human equivalent dose (HED) that are also used in the creation of vaccine injections. It was Strickler who shared with Project Veritas a slew of internal company emails that discuss how Pfizers plan all along was to keep the truth about all this under wraps so as not to discourage anyone in the general public from taking the shots. One of these emails suggests that Pfizers covid jabs contain synthetic and enzymatically produced components derived from aborted baby tissue. One or more cell lines of this aborted baby tissue with an origin that can be traced back to human fetal tissue has been used in laboratory tests associated with the vaccine program, the same email admitted. Pfizer, by the way, attempted to strong-arm the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into approving a third booster shot, which is also being pushed by the Biden regime. The FDA has not issued its approval for any boosters. This expose from Project Veritas is the fifth in its covid vaccine investigative series. There are sure to be many more to come as the plandemic narrative falls to pieces. More related news about Chinese Virus vaccine deception can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: ProjectVeritas.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Dear Readers, I cannot protect you if you dont read the information. If you decide you prefer to live and do read the information below, ask yourselves this question: (Article by Paul Craig Roberts republished from PaulCraigRoberts.com) Why do people with no legislative poweremployers such as the Nazis at Ochsner Health System in Louisiana, school boards, university administrators, restaurant managers and owners, airlines, any employer, governors, mayors, hospitalsthink they have the power to violate the Nuremberg laws and coerce patients, students, employees and their spouses, and everyone else to accept injections with a substance that has by far the worst record in vaccine history of association with death and serious lifelong health injury? Indeed, the record of the Covid vaccine is worse than all previous vaccines added together. Every person issuing a mandate is an incipient Nazi or many times worse. They have no such authority; yet the murderous fools expect not to suffer the fate of Nazi officials, doctors, and judges who did far less. Where did they get such an unrealistic expectation? They got it from the presstitute scum media, everyone of which is an accomplice to mass murder and crimes against humanity. They got it from the moron installed by the corrupt and criminal American establishment who stole an election and installed the moron in the Oval Office. They got it from Fauci, Walensky, and other public health officials who are in league with Big Pharma and benefit from its profits. They got it from the total failure of the Trump and Biden regimes to investigate NIH and Fauci for violating the Bioweapons Convention signed by the US government and financing gain of function bioweapon research which is where the Covid virus came from. Covid-19 came from NIH research grants, not from a bat. In other words, clearly, the US government is an active accomplice in the mass murder and injury inflicted on people worldwide by the Covid vaccine. Everyone of these criminals must be held accountable. In Indias large Uttar Pradesh province, administering Ivermectin to the population reduced Covid cases by 97.1 percent. This information has been suppressed by the Western whore media and public health authorities. https://www.globalresearch.ca/india-ivermectin-blackout-2/5757553 Ochsner Health System in Louisiana requires spouses and partners of employees to get vaccinated or your pay check is reduced I told you the control would be total. It will get worse. https://www.globalresearch.ca/forced-vaccinations-get-worse-louisiana-health-system-now-requires-spouses-employees-get-vaccinated-pay-non-compliance-penalty-vaxx-violations-every-pay-period/5757512 CDC Hides Vaccine Deaths by Requiring Them to be Classified as Unvaccinated Covid Deaths This deception is where the pandemic of the unvaccinated comes from. https://www.globalresearch.ca/cdc-allows-hospitals-classify-dead-vaxxed-people-unvaccinated/5757502 UK Vaccine Fatality Rate Higher than Virus Fatality Rate https://www.globalresearch.ca/uk-vaccine-fatality-rate-higher-than-virus-official-lies-money-corrupts-medicine-german-vaccinated-deaths/5752979?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles A Citizen Pleads for the Legislature to Protect US Citizens from Vaccine Mandates https://www.globalresearch.ca/open-letter-senator-ron-johnson-covid-19-vaccines-pandemic/5757508 The CDC released more data today into VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) which shows that there are now 1,969 fetal deaths among pregnant women who received a COVID-19 shot Yet doctors and CDC recommend pregnant women be vaccinated! Under the Nuremberg laws, these doctors and health officials are committing felonies punishable by execution. https://www.globalresearch.ca/1969-fetal-deaths-recorded-following-covid-19-shots-criminal-cdc-recommends-pregnant-women-get-shot/5757505 Millions of People Are Having their Health and Lives Devastated by the Covid Vaccine. The facts are everywhere. Yet the Pharmaceutical Industry and Medical Establishment Deny the Facts and Support Coerced Mandated Injection with a Deadly Substance. Clearly this is not in the interest of public health. https://www.globalresearch.ca/woman-injured-covid-vaccine-pleads-health-agencies-help-local-news-agency-kills-story-after-pressure-from-pfizer/5757500 Remdesivir and the Covid Vaccines Are Instruments of Death Being Intentionally Administered to the Worlds Peoples for the Purpose of Reducing the Population The horrendous evidence supports no other conclusion. At this point with so many facts on the table we cannot pretend that the inflicted disaster is merely a mistake due to NIH, CDC, and FDA incompetence. During Attorney Thomas Renzs speech at Clay Clarks ReAwaken America Tour in Colorado Springs, Renz talked about two Whistleblower nurses that revealed to him that they have seen a two-tier system of health care depending on the patients vaccination status. The nurses revealed that patients that are vaccinated are getting Ivermectin, which is proven to heal people. But if you are unvaccinated, they put you on Remdesivir in the hopes that you will die said Attorney Thomas Renz. Deaths attributed to Covid are good for profits and the other agendas as it stampedes the fearful to injections. https://www.globalresearch.ca/attorney-thomas-renz-releases-stunning-data-never-before-seen-vaccine-injury-death-tracking-system/5757493 https://www.globalresearch.ca/nearly-50000-medicare-patients-died-soon-after-getting-covid-shot-whistleblower/5757410?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles Englands Public Health Authority announces that the vaccine does not protect you from hospitalization and death. Fully vaccinated people account for 63.5% of Covid deaths: Read more at: PaulCraigRoberts.com and Depopulation.news. (Natural News) Mr. Chambers of Los Angeles, a medical equipment expert and salesperson with 50 years experience, which includes selling ventilators to hospitals for Covid patients, is done staying quiet about this pandemic of deaths caused by the mechanical ventilators, so hes blowing the whistle. You dont have to be famous, or a scientist or doctor to let the world know the awful truth about something dangerous that the medical industry claims is working. Western medicine, after all, is wrought with fraud through and through, but this whistleblower explains in great detail exactly why very few Covid patients survive the ultimate choke machine, and this information needs to go viral, soon. First off, Covid-19 viral infection causes severe inflammation in the lungs, making the soft tissue even more vulnerable to damage. Those receiving Covid vaccines are compounding that health detriment by introducing billions of sticky spike proteins into their bloodstream, which can also damage soft lung tissue (pleura) and the respiratory tract protective tissue (epithelium), causing MORE damage and MORE inflammation. Then, Covid patients are sedated, and in goes the plastic endotracheal tube that gets shoved down the windpipe (its called intubation). Most ventilator victims should prepare for death within 3 weeks at this point. Lung tissue inflammation compounded by Covid vaccines and plastic breathing tubes responsible for killing 8 times more patients than the ones saved Suddenly, airways that once carried oxygen-rich air and exhaled carbon dioxide waste gas, are being battered, bruised, scraped and irritated, causing MORE inflammation, making breathing even MORE difficult. This can go on for up to three weeks, until the patient dies, and then of course, Covid is blamed for the death and labeled as such by every hospital in every state. Just take a look at New York which has an 88 percent death rate for their Covid patients who have been put on a ventilator. Why is this still a go to treatment for Covid patients? No doctor or scientist can answer that question. Sure, respirators can save lives, but are they appropriate for Covid patients? The clear and concise answer to that question is NO. One problem with the plastic breathing tubes is that the patient can no longer talk, swallow or cough. Their airways become paralyzed by plastic insertion/intubation. Plus, if the machine is not set to the absolute proper setting, the patient dies, according to our whistleblower insider, who knows just about everything there is to know about ventilators. On top of all that, Covid is a respiratory-attacking viral infection that is often mixed with a bacterial infection from wearing the mask all day, which also turns into pneumonia easily, compounding breathing difficulties. Its a wonder any Covid patients survive hospital stays at all, with all this deadly nonsense going on. Medical equipment expert and blogger from Los Angeles has been warning the public for 18 months about the dangers of using respirators for Covid Who else on the planet is warning everyone of all the Covid ventilator-caused deaths? Active licensed medical practitioners are all trained as to what to say and how to record deaths, and if any of them blame the ventilators, even just once, they get fired and their medical license revoked. Now they are all being coerced to take the clot shots or lose their jobs, and they see these ventilators killing patients right in front of them, and they want no part of it anymore. Thats why millions of healthcare workers are quitting their jobs right now or finding some place or some way to work without getting force-vaccinated with blood-clotting gene therapy injections, prescribed kidney-killing Remdesivir, and choked to death on a ventilator machine. Covid patients need treatments that reduce (not increase) inflammation and stop the virus from replicating, rather than fueling it with billions of virus-mimicking prions. It doesnt even take a background in medicine or medical technologies to see that Covid vaccines, Remdesivir and ventilators are compounding the problems of the pandemic, creating a pandemic of their own, thanks to Western Medicine and the scam artists who are perpetrating the entire nightmare of bad medical care. Be on the look out for vaccinated individuals suffering from Spike Protein Syndrome, where billions of virus-mimicking particles clog their blood, causing deadly blood clots and myocarditis. Tune your truth news dial to Pandemic.news to stay informed of the engineered pitfalls of the Covid scamdemic. Sources for this article include: Pandemic.news TruthWiki.org NaturalNews.com LaLoftBlog.com Mount Cumbre Vieja erupts in El Paso, spewing out columns of smoke, ash and lava as seen from Los Llanos de Aridane on the Canary island of La Palma on September 19, 2021. - The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain's Canary Islands today spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby, authorities said. Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island and has erupted twice in the 20th century, first in 1949 then again in 1971. (Photo : Photo by DESIREE MARTIN/AFP via Getty Images) An erupting volcano from the Spanish island of La Palma caused more earthquakes and lava flow after part of the crater collapsed, Monday. The Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Islands off northwest Africa had been producing fiery molten rock following the same route to the sea which calls out emergency evacuation for more people. Spain's National Geographical Institute said it recorded two quakes early Monday that measured more than 3.0 magnitude, two weeks after its explosion. "It's not over yet, we don't even know how long there is to go," the Canary Islands' regional president Angel Victor Torres told public broadcaster RTVE. "We're in nature's hands." Thanks to swift evacuations, the lava flow has not affected La Palma that much, a home to 85,000 people. However, it had caused significant damage to property, thousands of public infrastructure and farmland. Biggest eruption on the island in more than 100 years Earlier this morning, eruption and lava flow in La Plama continues without significant changes. There is ash arising a 2-3 km and slowly drifting southwest, as well as a new lava flow from the now breached crater. According to the latest reported data, the lava had "covered more than 400 hectares of land, including 31 km of roads and destroyed more than 1000 buildings. The lava flows reach a maximum width of 1250 meters, and have a height of 8-50 meters. The slowly growing sea delta forms a peninsula about 40 hectares, and adds to the southwestern coastal western plains formed by recent volcanic eruptions." With only little more than two weeks of activity, the recent eruption was already the biggest on the island after the two previous ones during the past 100 years, with an estimated volume of 80 million cubic meters last Friday, and now probably more in the range of 100-120 million m3. This surpasses both the eruptions of San Juan (1949, with 55 million m3 lava) and Teneguia (1971, 43 million m3 lava). Also read: 200 Homes and Businesses Destroyed by Fire in Caribbean Resort Island Spain's prime minister vowed to rebuild La Palma as lava flows continue Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a 206 million euros aid package, approximately $238 million, after the volcanic eruption that began two weeks ago devastated the country. "We are facing a test of resistance, because we don't know when the volcano's eruption will end," Sanchez said in a press conference. "But citizens should know that when it does end, the government of Spain will be there to help with the enormous task of rebuilding La Palma and offer a horizon of prosperity." While the Cumbre Vieja volcano has not yet showed any signs of slowing down, its eruptions have been continuously monitored. La Palma government officials also monitored the air quality in the premises and increase in sulfur dioxide levels after the latest fissures opened. Fortunately, they confirmed that no present health threat to residents were posed. However, they advise residents to seal their doors and windows to block the toxic gas created when molten lava hits the ocean. Also read: Researchers Observe Strategy of Social Parasitism in Ants The koala's future is jeopardized by habitat loss and climate change. The Koala retrovirus, or KoRV, is a lesser-known danger to the famous Australian mammal. So scientists at the University of Queensland set out to learn more about KoRV's transmission to understand the virus better. "In most Australian populations, a conserved retrovirus, koala retrovirus (KoRV)-A, is found within the genome of koalas," the researchers stated. "Exogenously transmissible and more pathogenic divergent sequences and subtypes are thought to exist." Related Article: Chagas Disease: Texas Faces New Deadly Outbreak Amidst the Covid Pandemic Spreading From Mother to Joey The virus predisposes koalas to chlamydia and other illnesses, according to study co-author Keith Chappell, an associate professor at the University of Queensland, and is wreaking havoc on wild populations across Queensland and New South Wales. Professor Chappell explained, "The virus induces immunological exhaustion, making it more difficult for koalas to cope with these other, already-harmful environmental stresses." "We eventually showed how the virus transmits - from mother to joey - by decoding variants of the viral DNA in 109 captive koalas." "It appears that transmission between mother and joey happens as a result of close contact, with a joey being exposed to a mother's potentially infected secretions, such as milk." "Mothers shared their viral variations three times more than dads, indicating that this is the virus's primary mode of transmission." The research gives a unique insight into conservation and captive breeding efforts by pinpointing the transmission route from mother to offspring. "This discovery will be beneficial for koala conservation," said lead researcher Briony Joyce, "because it implies that captive breeding programs focusing on moms with a low number of retrovirus variations might result in healthier animals for release. "Also, if antiretroviral therapy is proved to be safe and effective against KoRV in koalas, we recommend that it be administered especially in mothers during mating seasons to avoid transmission." "This research contributes to evidence-based conservation by boosting koala resilience in the face of a changing and difficult environment." Koala Retrovirus The koala retrovirus (KoRV) is a retrovirus found in various koala populations. It's thought to cause koala immune deficiency syndrome (KIDS), an AIDS-like immunodeficiency that makes afflicted koalas more vulnerable to infections and malignancies. The virus is considered an exogenous virus that integrates itself into the koala DNA (becoming endogenous). As a result, the virus may spread both horizontally (from animal to animal) and vertically (from human to human) (from parent to offspring as a gene). Horizontal transmission modes aren't fully characterized, although they're considered to necessitate tight contact. Outbreak According to research, some koala populations, including an isolated colony on Kangaroo Island, have been found to lack the endogenous version of the retrovirus. This implies that the viral gene sequence in the koala genome is a recent addition. Furthermore, KoRV (and KIDS) in Australian koala populations show a trend spreading north to south. Some communities in the north are afflicted, whereas others in the south (particularly Kangaroo Island) remain unaffected. Previously, the term 'koala retrovirus' was used to describe an unknown oncovirus found in cancer-stricken koalas. KoRV has been proven to be capable of transducing host oncogenes, but whether the resultant transforming viruses are transmissible has yet to be determined. Also Read: Rat Bite Fever: Deadly Rat-Borne Disease is Spreading Quickly in the US For more health and medicine related news, don't forget to follow Nature World News! As per new research, an international agreement to safeguard the ozone layer is anticipated to put a stop to skin cancer with about 443 million cases and cataract with about 63 million cases for individuals who were delivered in the United States through the end of this century. Stratospheric Ozone Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and ICF Consulting, placed their attention on the far-reaching effect of a landmark 1987 treaty referred to as the Montreal Protocol and later changes that strengthened it greatly. The agreement stops the use of chemicals including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that lead to the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere. Stratospheric ozone protects the planet from dangerous levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun, keeping life on Earth protected. For the measurement of the prolonged effects of the Montreal Protocol, the scientists came up with a computer modeling approach that made it possible for them to look to both the previous times and the future. And this will be done by simulating the impact of the treaty on Americans delivered between 1890 and 2100. The modeling disclosed the associated decrease in ultraviolet radiation, the effect of the treaty on stratospheric ozone, and health benefits as the outcome. Also Read: How Saving the Ozone Layer in 1987 Slowed Global Warming Threat to the Ozone Layer Adding to the number of skin cancer cases and also cataract cases that were prevented, the study also revealed that the treaty, as most recently changed, will help in the prevention of roughly 2.3 million deaths related to skin cancer in the U.S. NCAR scientist and also a co-author of the study, Julia Lee-Taylor, said: "It's very encouraging. It shows that, given the will, the nations of the world can come together to solve global environmental problems." The study which EPA funded was released in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. The agency sponsoring NCAR is the National Science Foundation. Scientists in the 1970s started focusing on the threat to the ozone layer when it was discovered that CFCs that are used as refrigerants and in other things, discharge chlorine atoms into the stratosphere, setting off chemical reactions that damage ozone. In the next decade, concerns increased with the discovery of an Antarctic ozone hole. UV Radiation Losing the stratospheric ozone would be disastrous since increased levels of UV radiation have been connected with some types of cataracts, skin cancer, and immunological disorders. The ozone layer helps in the protection of land and aquatic ecosystems and also agriculture. The research team came up with a model referred to as the Atmospheric and Health Effects Framework so that the impacts of the treaty can be quantified. This model, which draws on different information sources concerning ozone, population demographics, and public health, includes five computational steps. The outcomes revealed UV radiation levels going back to the levels of 1980 by the middle of 2040s under the changed treaty. Related Article: Ancient Mass Extinction Caused by Erosion of the Ozone Layer, Says Researchers For more news, updates about ozone layer and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News! From Wednesday into Thursday, torrential rain prompted severe flash flooding in portions of Alabama which killed a child in the state's northern part, leading to immediate rescues from cars and homes in the Birmingham region, officials revealed. Flash Floods in Alabama On Wednesday evening, floodwater rapidly flowed into roads, yards, and parking spaces especially in the most impacted city of Pelham, about 20 miles south of Birmingham. So many residents and motorists were unexpectedly trapped, the city fire chief said. On Thursday morning, Chief Michael Reid from Pelham Fire told reporters that in only Pelham, responders got over 280 calls and succeeded in making over 80 rescues from homes and not less than 15 from cars with the use of boats and other means. In Pelham, the flood injured at least one person, Reid said without giving details. By Thursday morning, the water was gradually reducing but footage from CNN officials still display water lapping at the doors of some cars and homes in the Birmingham region prior to sunrise. The flooding in the town of Arab which is around 60 miles north of Birmingham claimed the life of a child, the coroner's office in Marshall County revealed. More information about that unfortunate incident wasn't disclosed immediately. Also Read: Central States to Experience Flash Flood Risk After Days of Torrential Rainfall Torrential Rainfall For several days, places across central Alabama have witnessed torrential rainfall and some regions have received 6 to 13 inches, the National Weather Service said. The weather service also said in just a few hours only on Wednesday, portions of the Birmingham area got 4-7 inches, with radar hinting that more rain may have taken place in some parts Wednesday. 3.34 inches is the October average for Birmingham and this means that portions of the region got remarkably more than they usually get in a whole month. Police Chief Pat Cheatwood told reporters that Thursday the homes and vehicles of many residents in Pelham were affected by the flood. Cheatwood said: "Our city was just affected back in March by a tornado, so we still have residents recovering from that. So this has been a tough year for Pelham." The weather service said the region could possibly witness a few more inches of rain Thursday which could trigger more flooding. Flood Watch As of Thursday morning, flood watches were in effect in portions of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, as well as the Florida Panhandle. Jim Coker, the Emergency management director for Jefferson County, including Birmingham said impacts from the flooding that has already taken place will still be noticed over some number of days. On the phone, he told CNN: "Crews will be out tomorrow checking damage and checking infrastructure, which is everything from roadways to pipelines to power lines." Coker said a major concern is the condition in which the flood has left roadways, as workers will like to make sure there are no washed-out areas that could prompt traffic issues. Related Article: Heavy Rainfall Persist in Southeastern US, Increasing Risks of Flash Flood For more news, updates about floods and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News! Scientists detected a 125-million-year-old dinosaur DNA in China, and it could be the oldest recorded chromosome material preserved in a vertebrate fossil. Researchers suggest it is possible that cell DNA coiled inside nucleus structures in fossils of plants and algae can be dated back up to millions of years. In fact, a set of microfossils from 540 million years ago might have hold preserved nuclei of world's first animals. Although it can be hard to distinguish a fossilized nucleus this old from a random mineral created during the fossilization process. The newly published study aims to further support their hypothesis that dinosaur cartilage material from the Late Cretaceous is a 'perfect candidate' for DNA preservation across time. Nuclear preservation in the cartilage Researchers compared fossilized cartilage of Jehol dinosaur Caudipteryx with cells from modern chickens, and found that structures in the fossils looked much like chromatin, a complex of DNA and protein. "The fact that they are seeing this is really interesting, and it suggests we need to do more research as to what happens to DNA and chromosomes after cell death," said Emily Carlisle, a doctoral student who studies microscopic fossils and their preservation at the University of Bristol in England who is not involved in the study. Does this mean the dinosaur species can be resurrected from their fossilized DNA? Scientists say no, not even close. "If there is any DNA or DNA-like molecule in there, it will be - as a scientific guess - very, very chemically modified and altered," says lead author Alida Bailleul, a paleobiologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Bailleul said that it should be possible to untangle snippets of a genetic sequence if the chromosome material in fossils can be identified, while digging deeper into dinosaur physiology. However, that is if the DNA is even there, provided that the remnants are over a hundred years old. the cells contents would have been rotten and decayed by now, even before fossilization could take hold. "Any microscopic structures inside cells were considered collapsed cell contents, such as organelles and membranes, that had rotted before mineralization," Carlisle told. Also read: 'Chief Dragon' Dinosaur, The Oldest Meat-Eating Dinosaur with the Size of a Chicken, New Discovery Legitimate cell structures in a few fossils Previous discoveries had shown that some fossils can indeed fossilize. For instance, in a 2014 study, a 190-million-year-old fern cells buried in volcanic ash had fossilized so quickly that some were frozen in the process of cell division, and it is without doubt that the chromosomes are visible in some of these cells. Moreover, Bailleul and her colleagues were also able to report possible preservation of DNA in the skull of an infant Hypacrosaurus that lived 75 million years ago in 2020. "We were specifically interested in the cartilage because it's a very good tissue for cellular preservation, perhaps even more so than bone," Bailleul said. For the new study, researchers are still examining the well-preserved specimen of the Caudipteryx cell and collect more chemical data to shed light on the identity of the mysterious structures. "I hope we can reconstruct a sequence, someday, somehow," she said. "Let's see: I could be wrong, but I could also be right." Also read: Footage of Monstrous Alligator Swallowing Another Gator in Whole Goes Viral Murder hornets (Vespa mandarinia), commonly known as Asian giant hornets, are the world's biggest wasps. These hornets are native to Asia, but international trading unintentionally brought them to North America, where they threaten local animals by killing other insects such as wasps and bees. According to the Natural History Museum in London, "murder hornet" is commonly used online. However, it may be a sensationalist title. These hornets don't actively chase humans, but they may kill them with powerful stings if they feel threatened, especially if they are allergic to their venom. Related Article: Asian Hornet Invasion: First "Murder Hornet" of 2021 Discovered in Washington State Giant Hornets Murder hornets may reach a length of 2 inches (5.1 cm), which is roughly the same as a human thumb. Their heads are bright or orange, which contrasts with their typically dark brown or black thoraxes, which run between their heads and abdomens. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), their big abdomens exhibit alternating dark brown or black and yellow or orange. The stingers of murder hornets are around 0.2 inches (6 millimeters) in length. According to the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web, murder hornets are omnivores who consume a variety of insects, notably beetles, as well as tree sap and fruit (ADW). Hornets hunt in groups, but they are most known for their coordinated "slaughter" assaults on beehives, in which several hornets attack a colony of much smaller bees. During these attacks, up to 20 or more hornets shred apart the bees protecting the hive with their mandibles before infiltrating and destroying the rest of the colony. Bee Killing Rampage During a "slaughter" assault, murder hornets can kill up to 30,000 bees in a colony. After the majority of the adult bees have died, the hornets concentrate on the larvae and pupae, which are the bees' latent phase between larvae and adults. According to the University of Florida, murder hornets kidnap bee larvae and pupae and carry them back to their nest to feed to their larvae. Although honeybee stings cannot pierce the thick outer skin of hornets, Japanese honeybees (Apis cerana japonica) have devised a technique to protect their hives against hornet assaults. First, a swarm of bees swarms an invading hornet and traps it in a tight ball of their bodies. According to a previous article from Live Science, they then vibrate their bodies together to heat the ball to around 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius), which is hot enough to kill the hornet inside but not hot enough to kill the bees. Unfortunately, bees that don't live in the murder hornet's natural range, such as North American native yellow bumblebees (Bombus fervidus) and European honeybees (Apis mellifera) - which aren't native to North America but help pollinate crops - didn't evolve alongside the ferocious giant hornets and didn't have strategies to defend themselves.mAs a result, the invading hornets pose a greater threat to them. Invading North America Murder hornets were first discovered in North America in August 2019 on Vancouver Island, Canada. According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), the hornets were confirmed to be in the United States in December 2019, when the WSDA validated two hornet complaints near Blaine, Washington. Entomologists tracked down and destroyed the first murder hornet nest in Blaine 11 months later by attaching radio trackers to live hornets they had captured and followed them back to their nest, as previously reported by Live Science. In the years 2020 and 2021, more murder hornets were recorded in Washington and Canada. However, according to the WSDA, one dead hornet located in Marysville, Washington, in June 2021 looked unconnected to any of the previously identified hornets and so was from a different introduction. Also Read: Scientist Claims That Wasps Aren't Just Pointless Creatures For more news from the animal kingdom, don't forget to follow Nature World News! Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). Our County Editor Dave Hinton is editor of The News-Gazette's Our County section and former editor of the Rantoul Press. He can be reached at dhinton@news-gazette.com. One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021 Common gut bacteria can fuel the growth of prostate cancers and allow them to evade the effects of treatment, a new study finds. Scientists revealed how gut bacteria contribute to the progression of advanced prostate cancers and their resistance to hormone therapy by providing an alternative source of growth-promoting androgens, or male hormones. Hormone therapy is the standard of care for advanced prostate cancer and works by lowering levels of androgens. But researchers found that low androgen levels in patients can drive the expansion of gut bacteria, which can become hormone factories to sustain prostate cancer growth. Bacterial fingerprints identified by scientists may help pick out patients at high risk of developing resistance to treatment who could benefit from strategies to manipulate their microbiome. For example, men could undergo a fecal transplant or take a yoghurt drink enriched with favorable bacteria. The role of gut bacteria in prostate cancer A team of scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, the Institute of Oncology Research in Bellinzona, Switzerland and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology used mice and patient samples to investigate the role of gut bacteria in prostate cancer growth and progression. The findings, once further validated in the clinic, could provide new opportunities for the treatment of prostate cancer through manipulation of the microbiome. The study, published in the journal Science, was funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Movember, Prostate Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK and The John Black Charitable Foundation. Gut bacteria are part of our microbiome and are usually valuable to humans. However, cancer and other diseases can ruin this mutually beneficial balance for example by promoting the expansion of gut bacteria and encouraging them to release toxins or other molecules that affect cancer cells. Given the role these gut bugs can play in cancer, researchers looked at whether the gut bacteria from men with prostate cancer could also alter patients hormone metabolism, and so affect cancer growth. Gut bacteria can drive resistance Scientists found that getting rid of all gut bacteria in mice with prostate cancer slowed tumor growth and delayed the emergence of hormone resistance. They also found that transplanting feces from mice with hormone-resistant prostate cancer into mice with low androgen levels that had not yet developed resistance encouraged tumor growth. The researchers demonstrated in mice that gut bacteria were able to make androgen hormones from precursor molecules. To translate the findings into humans, researchers analyzed the gut bacteria from patients who were being treated at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. They looked at two different groups of patients 19 men whose prostate cancers were still responding to hormone therapy and 55 men with advanced hormone-resistant prostate cancer. Identifying bacterial 'fingerprints' Transplanting stool from prostate cancer patients with hormone-resistant prostate cancer into mice whose cancers were not resistant promoted tumor growth and hormone resistance. Scientists also analyzed microbial genetic material from the stool of men with prostate cancer and identified a specific bacterium Ruminococcus that may play a major role in the development of resistance. In contrast, the bacterium Prevotella stercorea was associated with favorable clinical outcomes. Researchers incubated mini-tumors called organoids derived from prostate cancer patients with different gut bacteria and attempted to treat them in the lab. This helped them identify favorable and unfavorable bacterial fingerprints linked to prostate cancer outcome, which could help identify men who could benefit from strategies to manipulate the microbiome. 'Yoghurt enriched with favorable bacteria' Study author Professor Johann de Bono, Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: Our findings reveal that the initiation of hormone therapy for prostate cancer can trigger gut bugs to start producing androgen hormones. These androgens can then sustain prostate cancers growth and drive resistance to hormone therapy worsening mens survival outcomes. Excitingly, our research has identified particular signatures among gut bacteria which could indicate that some men with prostate cancer who have these gut bugs are more likely to develop resistance to hormone therapy. The next step will be to further explore how we apply these signatures in patients, with the aim of devising tests to pick out men who would benefit from fecal transplants, antibiotic therapy and other strategies to manipulate the microbiome. In the long-term, our aim would be to produce a yoghurt enriched with favorable bacteria to prevent resistance to treatment. 'New treatment strategies' The influence of the gut microbiome on cancer is a fascinating new area of science that we are just beginning to understand. These exciting findings are the first to unveil a mechanism through which the gut microbiome can drive prostate cancer growth and resistance to hormone therapy. Understanding how common, good bacteria in the gut which play a vital role in keeping us healthy can interfere with hormone metabolism in men with prostate cancer could help us devise new treatment strategies. I look forward to this research moving forward into the clinic and hope that strategies to manipulate the microbiome could make a real difference for patients. Professor Kristian Helin, Chief Executive, The Institute of Cancer Research, London Professor Andrea Alimonti, Head of Molecular Oncology at the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR), Professor at Universita della Svizzera italiana (USI), at the University of Padova and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), said: Our discoveries pave the way to adjuvant therapeutic strategies that, through microbiota manipulations, counteract the expansion of androgen-producing bacterial species. Using telemedicine, COVID-19 patients can be cared for safely at home from initial home isolation to recovery or, in case problems arise, admission to hospital. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now successfully demonstrated this in a study involving 150 patients with risk factors for a severe progression of the disease. COVID-19 patients are required to go into home isolation. But this can be dangerous for high-risk patients if they develop a severe progression during isolation. In this case, timely admission to the hospital for treatment can be critical for survival. Unfortunately, many COVID-19 patients do not immediately notice when their condition starts to deteriorate. The alternative of playing safe by admitting all at-risk patients immediately upon diagnosis would overburden the clinics. Small effort large gain in safety During the recent Corona waves, Georg Schmidt and his team provided telemedical care to more than 150 patients with risk factors for a severe progression of the disease using an ear sensor that is easily worn behind the ear like a hearing aid. The sensor recorded all important values such as body temperature, heart rate, respiration rate, and oxygen saturation in 15-minute intervals and transmitted the data to the telemedicine center at TUM's university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar. There, the team continuously monitored all incoming data. In addition, each participant was called at least once a day to inquire about his or her condition. Whenever the team noticed a deterioration in the readings, they called the patient. A physician then took a decision on whether hospitalization was indicated. With minimal effort, the team achieved a quality of monitoring quite comparable to that at a hospital. Great patient satisfaction Around one in eight participants had to be admitted during the study. Interestingly, most of these patients later stated that they did not themselves realize the degree of deterioration in their condition. To our knowledge, this is the first study worldwide to continuously monitor patients in home isolation remotely and to prompt immediate hospitalization in the event of critical health deterioration." Prof. Georg Schmidt, Head of the Biosignal Processing Group, Klinikum rechts der Isar The study illustrates that COVID-19 risk patients can be monitored effectively using telemedicine, potentially saving valuable resources in future waves of infection. Patients were also very satisfied and felt significantly safer thanks to the continuous monitoring. The human brain is a constant buzz of activity, with its 86 billion nerve cells (neurons) sending electrical signals from one region of the brain to another. The signals travel along the white matter fibers, a maze of wire-like fibers, ultimately giving rise to all brain functions. Uncovering these wire-like highways between neurons has been a longstanding challenge for neuroscience. Existing methods for mapping this neural circuitry at the cellular level are either limited to animal studies or require highly specialized equipment for data acquisition and processing. Recently, a novel approach for mapping and visualizing these nerve fibers was developed by Professor Aviv Mezer and Dr. Roey Schurr, neuroscientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI)'s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC). They utilized a technique that has been around for almost 140 years, but was never used to study the fiber architecture of the brain's white matter. Their findings were published today in the prestigious journal Science. Neurons themselves have long been studied using the purplish Nissl stain a stain invented by German medical student Franz Nissl in the 1880s. Its use in staining neurons has revolutionized our understanding of the cortex - the outer gray layer of the brain. However, the Hebrew University team are the first to use Nissl stained brain slices to reveal fiber pathways in white matter. The brain's white matter is mainly made up of nerve fibers and a group of cells known as glia. These glial cells, until very recently, were largely ignored and thought to be rather unimportant space fillers in the brain in fact their name "glia" comes from the ancient Greek, meaning "glue". When Schurr joined Mezer's lab as a doctoral student, he decided to look at some pictures of Nissl stained brain tissue. "It was just curiosity," recalled Schurr, "textbooks are full of illustrations, but I wanted to understand what the white matter of the brain actually looked like." To Schurr's surprise, he noticed that the glial cells formed a pattern of short rows. Moreover, the glial rows seemed to align with the local nerve fibers. "We did a thorough literature review and found a 1992 paper that already described this glial cell organization," shared Schurr, "but this finding did not receive the attention it deserved in our field." Other research took over, but recently Schurr returned to the unusual observation he had made. The researchers realized that by using simple computational tools from the field of image processing, they could capitalize on the patterned cell organization to uncover the white-matter architecture. I was amazed when we first applied this technique to a Nissl-stained slice of the brain. In Nissl-stained images, the white matter has a faint homogeneous appearance. Applying some computational tools suddenly brought out a colorful map depicting the fine architecture of white-matter fibers, which was hidden there all along. We immediately recognized it as an important piece of the puzzle that scientists have been searching for in the study of white matter." Professor Aviv Mezer, Neuroscientist, Hebrew University of Jerusalem This technique, termed by the Hebrew University researchers as the Nissl-ST ("Nissl-based Structure Tensor"), can be applied to the white matter in any brain slices that have undergone Nissl staining. Since Nissl staining is the most common stain used in brain science, there is much of it to be found all around the world, including digitized datasets and open-source atlases of high-resolution stained brain slices. "The application of Nissl-ST," Mezer concluded, "has great potential for future studies of white matter in normal brain development, aging and pathological states that affect white matter, such as neurodegeneration and schizophrenia." The correlation between poor oral health and COVID-19 severity, as well as the correlation between oral health and delayed recovery, demonstrates a potential need to consider oral health an additional risk factor for cardiac patients who may contract COVID-19. The new sub-study, examining Egyptian cardiac patients, will be presented at ACC Middle East 2021, a hybrid meeting held in partnership by the American College of Cardiology, Egyptian Society of Cardiology and the ACC Egypt Chapter on Oct. 14-15, 2021. The oral cavity is a potential reservoir for respiratory pathogens. Previous trials have linked poor oral hygiene with increased inflammation and cardiovascular disease. According to the researchers, COVID-19 severity has also been linked to an inflammatory response. The researchers hypothesized that increased COVID-19 severity may be linked to poor oral health status, especially in patients with cardiovascular diseases. According to the study authors, the study assessed oral health status, severity of COVID-19 symptoms, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and duration of recovery. Oral tissues could act as a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2, developing a high viral load in the oral cavity. Therefore, we recommended maintenance of oral health and improving oral hygiene measures, especially during COVID-19 infection. Simple measures like practicing proper oral hygiene, raising awareness of oral health importance either in relation to COVID-19 infection or systemic diseases by using media and community medicine, regular dental visits, especially in patients with CVD, and using [antimicrobial] mouthwashes [could help in] preventing or decreasing the severity of COVID-19 disease." Ahmed Mustafa Basuoni, MD, cardiology consultant at Cairo University and lead author of the study The study included 86 Egyptian heart disease patients with a confirmed COVID-19 PCR test. Using a questionnaire, researchers from Cairo University assessed oral health and COVID-19 severity. An oral health score was used to determine the effect of oral health on COVID-19. Data on CRP levels and COVID-19 PCR tests were collected via the questionnaire and confirmed via medical records. CRP levels are used to determine when there is inflammation in the body. According to the researchers, the correlation between oral health and COVID-19 severity showed a significant inverse relationship, as did the correlation between oral health with recovery period and CRP values. Poor oral health was correlated to increased values of CRP and delayed recovery, especially in patients with cardiac diseases. "Oral health should be a part of routine history taking and examination in cardiac patients," Basuoni said. "Lifestyle measures should be instructed to all cardiac patients regarding good oral hygiene with regular dental visits. We need to give more space in research for these risk factors which can be easily modified." Scientists at IST Austria describe for the first time the structure of a protein complex essential for our cells to function properly. Study published in Nature. Severe fatigue, muscle weakness, even blindness mitochondrial diseases have various symptoms. In fact, the majority of genetic diseases are caused by defects of the mitochondria. Hence, understanding these power houses of our cells is crucial for the developments of new treatments. In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria now show for the first time the structure of a protein complex essential for their work. In order to fulfill their many tasks, cells need energy. In the cell's power plants, known as mitochondria, the energy contained in our food is converted into the molecule ATP. It serves as a kind of fuel that drives most cellular processes from muscle contraction to the assembly of our DNA. Professor Leonid Sazanov and Irene Vercellino are now the first scientists to precisely show what a protein assembly essential for this process looks like in mammalian cells. Like a fishhook Using cryo-electron microscopy, a technique that allows researchers to look at extremely small samples in their natural state, first author Irene Vercellino and Prof. Sazanov show the exact structure of the so-called supercomplex CIII 2 CIV. This assembly of protein building blocks pumps charged particles, protons, through the mitochondrial membrane, which is needed to start the energy conversion process in the cells. It therefore fulfills a similar task as the starter battery of cars. Up to now, this supercomplex has only been described in plant and yeast cells where it takes on a very different form, as the researchers now discovered. In order to understand how exactly energy production works in animal cells like our own, the scientists now took a close look at mice and sheep cells and were surprised. Nobody could have predicted the way SCAF1 acts." Professor Leonid Sazanov Previous studies already showed that the molecule SCAF1 plays a role in assembling the two protein complexes that together form supercomplex CIII 2 CIV. Instead of interacting with the two protein complexes on the surface only, the molecule goes deep inside complex III while being attached to complex IV. "It is like a hook swallowed by a fish. Once it's swallowed it can't get out," the structural biologist explains. Close, but not too close Furthermore, the scientists show that supercomplex CIII 2 CIV takes on two different forms a locked and an unlocked or mature one. "In its locked state some parts of complex III are still missing and the interaction between the two complexes is very intimate," describes Sazanov. Once it is fully assembled, however, the two complexes are connected by SCAF1 without getting in each other's way. "In order to fulfill its tasks, complex III probably prefers to be free from interference in its movements," the Belarusian-British scientist assumes. Being assembled into a supercomplex, on the other hand, speeds up their chemical reactions, which has great advantages for the animal. It has been shown, that mice and zebrafish missing the SCAF1 molecule are significantly smaller, less fit, and less fertile. In their recent study, Vercellino and Sazanov describe the molecule's role in forming supercomplex CIII 2 CIV, which optimizes the cellular metabolism. It has been the final piece of the puzzle: together with their previous studies, Sazanov and his team now determined the structures of all supercomplexes in mammalian mitochondria. The team is thus laying the foundation for new treatments for mitochondrial disease. Imagine the day when any tissue or organ can be repaired or the replacements personalized to the patient. That's one of the goals of work being done by David Umulis of Purdue University and a team of scientists using artificial intelligence in biology to see how cells defend themselves from chemical or mechanical attack and/or repair their damage with the help of biochemical and mechanical inputs and reactions. If this is successful, Umulis says, scientists could have a new way to address human health and longevity. If you can touch a network and modify three or four locations at once, the capability to treat diseases or damage will improve as you are signaling all these different biological pathways simultaneously." David Umulis, Purdue University Unlocking new potentials Umulis uses AI in several of his biomedical engineering projects, including quantifying images and simulating developing cells. He finds that it provides results better, earlier and faster, and can be inexpensive compared with many hours simulating cell features. But he wants to innovate and push further. The new Emergent Mechanisms in Biology of Robustness, Integration & Organization (EMBRIO) Institute will use AI to expand biology and engineering through exploring how cell signals are integrated to fight off invaders or activated to repair wounds, which are both essential to survive. "I want the EMBRIO Institute team to be known as the research team that cracked the code on how cells organize to change structure function for defending and repairing tissues," says Umulis, EMBRIO project director, professor and the Dane A. Miller head of Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. "The network where the cells make those decisions and how it is copied and replicated throughout the animal kingdom is still a big mystery. The integration of laboratory experimentation with the simulation and data acquisition approach that we have is really the best way to address such a large-scale fundamental biological processing question." Purdue serves as the main site for the EMBRIO Institute, which has received $12.5 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) over five years as part of the agency's Biology Integration Institutes (BII) program. The partner institutions are Indiana University, Morehouse College, the University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, the Ponce (Puerto Rico) Health Sciences University and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Morehouse, Ponce and Mayaguez are essential to expanding the contributions of traditionally underrepresented populations throughout the EMBRIO Institute. "The EMBRIO Institute exemplifies the goals of the BII program by bringing together an interdisciplinary team of researchers around the common goal of understanding how the processes that sustain life and enable biological innovation operate and interact within and across different scales," says Wilson Francisco, Ph.D., program director in the Directorate for Biological Sciences at the NSF. "It will also provide effective new training paradigms that are inclusive and prepare the next generations of scientists to navigate diverse fields in the biological sciences and STEM broadly. By combining experimental biology, theory, computation and modeling, alongside training and education of a diverse group of students, EMBRIO holds the potential to advance biology, biotechnology and the biological sciences workforce." As director, Umulis will coordinate and empower researchers and students to find new ways to use AI in cracking cellular organization. "We can do a lot more with a lot less," he says. "That allows us to think about addressing how cells are computing and then how cells are coupled, leading to tissue changes at this massive scale." With AI, Umulis and scientists are able to use full 3D simulations of biological structures to establish predictive capabilities. This allows them to see how the shape of networks and tissues can change. They can then link different biological systems together such as cell chemistry and chemical signaling, and mechanics and mechanical changes to better predict outcomes in more complex systems. "We are getting to a point where we know how a tissue grows, shapes and forms into something that has the right structure and function based on the genotypes, the genetics and the signaling pathways," Umulis says. "Biology is able to use all these things synchronously during stages of life and development. The way they do it is an amazing synchrony that can only be tapped through the combination of simulation and AI." EMBRIO's biological systems group acquires data for simulations immediately such as a plant fighting off invading fungi or such as the tens of thousands of cells signaling each other to heal a wound. However, developing models to fuse the various discoveries will take time. "We're going to use each biological system for the best data acquisition that we can get so that we are able to answer how cells respond together to fight off would-be attacks. How are wounds closed? How can we accelerate that? How do cells orchestrate processes of tissue remodeling for embryo development or to repair and restore cell, tissue or organ function? This is the most important part for life," he says. Building on strengths in AI and biomedical engineering The AI and biology industry doubles in size every five years, meaning the biology, engineering and science students coming into EMBRIO now will be the cutting-edge leaders over the next 10 years, Umulis says. Umulis has gathered a team of specialized engineers and scientists who, in turn, will work with and inspire students of these new techniques and address future workforce development needs. One of the institution partners involved is Morehouse College, a liberal arts historically Black college and university (HBCU) in Atlanta. Juana Mendenhall, the Walter E. Massey Professor of Physical Sciences at Morehouse College, is one of the research partners who will be conducting research within the EMBRIO Institute in her Morehouse laboratory. She brings expertise in materials chemistry and fabrication along with nanobiotechnology using atomic-force microscopy to investigate biology processes to the project. In addition to the core research that Mendenhall will conduct with the institute, she also sees many positives for her students. They're able to gain experiential opportunities by enhancing their lab techniques and learning new software for computational modeling and data science visualizations that will help them develop as scientists, she says. "The ability to engage and train HBCU students in AI at the intersection of STEM while employing methods used in biology and biomedical engineering is needed for our students at Morehouse," Mendenhall says. "Our students need to see the synergy between the natural sciences, life sciences and engineering. "In collaboration with Purdue, Morehouse will have access to cutting-edge technology and tools to help study these processes. This will further enhance our students' knowledge and exposure to the emerging field of integrative biology." Umulis and EMBRIO leaders also plan to use existing open-source programs but will develop additional AI and biological programs for students. Almirall S.A., a global biopharmaceutical company focused on skin health, has hosted a scientific session during the 30th EADV (European Association of Dermatology and Venereology) Congress which addressed the need and importance to focus on patient wellbeing in real-life clinical practice. The symposium was part of Almiralls participation in the congress, which consisted of 21 posters and four scientific sessions. Psoriasis is one of the most prevalent skin conditions in the world and it affects the overall emotional wellbeing of 88% of patients,and at least 20% of them have considered suicide. In this regard, according to the World Psoriasis Happiness Report 2018, only 27% report that their doctor talked to them about mental health. Additionally, almost 50% of psoriasis patients feel that their healthcare professionals dont understand the impact that the disease has on their mental health. In the symposium titled Are you wasting your time getting to PASI100?, Prof. Piaserico (Italy) together with Prof. Mrowietz (Germany) and the happiness scientist Prof. Quoidbach (Spain), addressed questions on psoriasis patients true needs and wellbeing. The experts pointed out that, in addition to manage the diseases clinical manifestations, the clinical practice should implement an overall and holistic assessment of the wellbeing of each patient. The endpoints that are currently being used, such as PASI and DLQI, do not capture correctly the full impact of psoriasis on patients life, stated Prof. Stefano Piaserico, Associate Professor at the University of Padua, Italy and Head of the Regional Centre for Psoriasis. As a first step to measure the value of a treatment on the overall wellbeing of the patient, Prof. Quoidbach brought up some practical tips that dermatologists could implement in their clinical practice, for instance asking questions like How do you feel? Do you feel okay? Do you feel happy?. The speakers also outlined that it is crucial to take into account the long-term control of psoriasis given the chronicity of the disease. In this context, Prof. Ulrich Mrowietz, Head of the Psoriasis-Center at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, presented the design of the innovative POSITIVE study, which assesses the improvement in the overall wellbeing of psoriasis patients treated with tildrakizumab. The overall wellbeing of a patient and the holistic approach of people-centered healthcare has never been measured in a robust prospective psoriasis study. To assess patient wellbeing, this study will apply the 5-item WHO Well-being Index (WHO-5), a widely used questionnaire assessing the subjective psychological health-related wellbeing in a variety of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression. For the first time, WHO-5 will be tested as a primary endpoint in patients with psoriasis to capture the effect that tildrakizumab can have on patients wellbeing in a real-world setting. Moreover, the long-term response on physicians' satisfaction and psoriasis patients' partners' lives will also be evaluated. Tildrakizumab was chosen for this study as a representative of the anti-IL-23 class biologics, that block the key master cytokine in the pathogenesis of plaque psoriasis. A Colorado kidney transplant candidate who was bumped to inactive status for failing to get a covid-19 vaccine has become the most public example of an argument roiling the nation's more than 250 organ transplant centers. Across the country, growing numbers of transplant programs have chosen to either bar patients who refuse to take the widely available covid vaccines from receiving transplants, or give them lower priority on crowded organ waitlists. Other programs, however, say they plan no such restrictions for now. At issue is whether transplant patients who refuse the shots are not only putting themselves at greater risk for serious illness and death from a covid infection, but also squandering scarce organs that could benefit others. The argument echoes the demands that smokers quit cigarettes for six months before receiving lung transplants or that addicts refrain from alcohol and drugs before receiving new livers. "It is a matter of active debate," said Dr. Deepali Kumar, an expert in transplant infectious diseases at the University of Toronto and president-elect of the American Society of Transplantation. "It's really an individual program decision. In many programs, it's in flux." Leilani Lutali, 56, a late-stage kidney disease patient from Colorado Springs, Colorado, learned in a Sept. 28 letter from UCHealth in Denver that if she didn't begin a covid vaccine series within 30 days, she would lose her spot on the transplant waiting list. Both she and her living donor, Jaimee Fougner, 45, of Peyton, Colorado, refused to get vaccinated, citing religious objections and uncertainty about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. "I have too many questions that remain unanswered at this point. I feel like I'm being coerced into not being able to wait and see and that I have to take the shot if I want this lifesaving transplant," Lutali said. She said she offered to be tested for covid before the surgery or to sign a waiver absolving the hospital of legal risk for her refusal of the vaccine. "At what point do you no longer become a partner in your own care regardless of your own concerns?" she said. Lutali now hopes to take her transplant quest to Texas, where several hospitals, including Houston Methodist and Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, said they don't require covid vaccinations to approve active candidates for the national waiting list. The difference between policies in Denver and Dallas and elsewhere underscore a tense national divide. As of late April, fewer than 7% of transplant programs nationwide reported inactivating patients who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated against covid, according to research by Dr. Krista Lentine, a nephrologist at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. But that was just a snapshot in late spring, and like all covid-related practices, it's "rapidly changing," Lentine said. UCHealth in Denver began requiring covid vaccinations for transplant patients in late August, citing the American Society of Transplantation's August recommendation that "all solid organ transplant recipients should be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2." Patients who undergo transplant surgery have their immune systems artificially suppressed during recovery, to keep their bodies from rejecting the new organ. That leaves unvaccinated transplant patients at "extreme risk" of severe illness if they are infected by covid, with mortality rates estimated at 20% to 30%, depending on the study, Dan Weaver, a spokesperson for UCHealth said. For the same reason, transplant patients who receive covid vaccines after surgery may fail to mount a strong immune response, research shows. UW Medicine in Seattle began mandating covid vaccines this summer, said Dr. Ajit Limaye, director of the solid organ transplant infectious diseases program. Patients were already required to meet other stringent criteria to be considered for transplantation, including receiving inoculations against several illnesses, such as hepatitis B and influenza. "For anyone who does not have a medical contraindication, basically, we're requiring it," he said. "There's a very strong sense to make it a requirement, like all the other hoops, straight up." By contrast, Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, where doctors performed the first double-lung transplant on a covid patient in June 2020, is encouraging but not requiring vaccination against the pandemic disease. "We don't decline care of transplant based on vaccine status," said Jenny Nowatzke, Northwestern's manager of national media relations. "The patient also doesn't get any lower scores." The lack of consistent practice across programs sends a mixed message to the public, said Dr. Kapilkumar Patel, director of the lung transplant program at Tampa General Hospital in Florida, where covid vaccines are not required. "We mandate hepatitis and influenza vaccines, and nobody has an issue with that," he said. "And now we have this one vaccination that can save lives and make an impact on the post-transplant recovery phase. And we have this huge uproar from the public." Nearly 107,000 candidates are waiting for organs in the U.S.; dozens die each day still waiting. Transplant centers evaluate which patients are allowed to be placed on the national list, taking into account medical criteria and other factors like financial means and social support to ensure that donor organs won't fail. "We really make all kinds of selective value judgments," said Dr. David Weill, former director of Stanford University Medical Center's lung and heart-lung transplant program who now works as a consultant. "When we're selecting in the committee room, I hear the most subjective, value-based judgments about people's lives. This is just another thing." The centers can choose to place candidates on inactive status for a variety of reasons, including medical noncompliance, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees transplants. As of Sept. 30, that category accounted for 738 of more than 47,000 registrants waiting in inactive status, though it's not clear how many are tied to vaccination status. A particularly thorny question involves unvaccinated people who need transplants specifically because covid infections destroyed their organs. As of late September, more than 200 lungs, as well as at least six hearts and two heart-lung combinations, had been transplanted for covid-related reasons in the U.S., according to UNOS data. Many of those organs were transplanted earlier in the pandemic, before any covid vaccine was widely available. That's no longer the case, Weill said. "If you're just now getting vaccinated, you've done it at gunpoint, actually," he said. "It's not just a personal choice; they're making some kind of a statement." Such patients are usually younger and healthier than other transplant candidates, aside from the covid-related damage, and they're often acutely ill enough to go to the top of any transplant list. "The sick covid patient might go ahead of the stable cystic fibrosis patient," Weill said. Tampa General's Patel said he performed a lung transplant on a patient who was transferred to Florida after being delisted at another center because he wasn't vaccinated for covid. "I mandated with him basically on a handshake that he will get his vaccine post-transplant," Patel said. "But his family? They haven't agreed." Eventually, Patel said, he thinks nearly all transplant programs will mandate covid vaccination, largely because transplant centers are evaluated on the longer-term survival of their patients. "I think it's going to spread like wildfire across the country," he said. "If you start losing patients in a year due to covid, it will be mandated sooner rather than later. The malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) causes frequent, chronic infections that represent a major unrecognized burden on global health, according to a review by Kevin Baird of the Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit in Indonesia and Katherine Battle of the Institute for Disease Modeling in the United States publishing October 7th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine. In this review, Baird and Battle summarize evidence indicating that the global burden of malaria estimated from reported cases of acute attacks likely miss the widespread but more subtle harm done by chronic infection of P. vivax. Furthermore, P. vivax often affects impoverished communities where people face multiple health challenges. There are five Plasmodium species that cause malaria, but the vast majority of reported cases are due to Plasmodium falciparum, with about 193.5 million cases annually. P. vivax is the second most common reported cause, with about 14.3 million cases annually. A recent study found that while P. falciparum is more likely to cause death within two weeks of diagnosis, patients with P. vivax were more than twice as likely to die over the long term. Chronic infections in people who are repeatedly exposed to P. vivax cause damage to the kidneys, brain, and circulatory system. An improved understanding of the biology of P. vivax has recently revealed multiple factors that contribute to its toll on global health. The parasite can exist in the body at low levels that cause no symptoms, making it difficult to diagnose, but can still spread. Sub-Saharan Africa was once thought to be practically immune to P. vivax infection because most of the population lack the Duffy antigen, a molecule on the surface of red blood cells the parasite uses to invade. However, a recent study finds that P. vivax transmission is still widespread in this region. Additionally, there are two common genetic variations carried by part of the population that interfere with successful treatment of P. vivax malaria. All these factors complicate efforts to estimate the full extent of P. vivax infections and control its spread. Baird and Battle conclude that the traditional approaches developed to combat P. falciparum in Africa are inadequate for P. vivax. Eliminating P. vivax will require different diagnostics, therapies and vector control strategies, and better data that reveal the true scope of the burden. Blood smears from patients suffering acute vivax malaria do not suffice to measure global burdens of this infection. The parasite finds refuge in deeper organs where the harm done is more subtle but nonetheless substantial." Kevin Baird, Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit in Indonesia and Katherine Battle of the Institute for Disease Modeling A lung transplant can mean the difference between life and death for people with diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and even severe COVID-19. Yet, recipients of donor lungs must take daily medications to stave off damage caused by their own immune system, which attacks the organs it recognizes as foreign-;a process known as rejection. A new University of Michigan Health study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, has identified cells that appear to play a pivotal role in creating the scarring, or fibrosis, characteristic of chronic rejection following a lung transplant. Almost 15 years ago, Vibha Lama, MBBS, M.S., a professor in the Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, and her lab described the presence of stem-cell-like cells, called mesenchymal stromal cells, in lung sample fluid from lung transplant recipients. We found that even ten years post-transplant, these cells belonged to the donor, not the recipient. At that time, we had no clue where in the lung they were coming from or what role they played." Vibha Lama, MBBS, M.S, Professor, Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine, Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan To figure this out, her lab generated a mouse model to recreate what happens within a lung transplant recipient. With the model, they followed a transcription factor known as FOXF1 as a sort of trail of breadcrumbs back to the cells' original location. They discovered that these cells formed a reservoir of stem cells within the bronchovascular bundle deep inside the lung. These bundles contain a bronchus (airway), arteries, connective tissue and other structures and is the part of the lung which connects it to the outside environment. In this study, explained Lama, who is senior author on the paper, they show that these specific stem cells are interacting with neighboring epithelial cells within that airway niche. Epithelial cells line and protect the airways and produce a protein known as Sonic hedgehog. Via this protein, epithelial cells signal the stem-cell-like mesenchymal cells, which make up the scaffolding of the lungs, to make FOXF1, a repressor that keeps the stem cells in check. "We are just recently understanding that there are many different kinds of mesenchymal cells in the lung," said Lama. "What we describe here is not only are there many kinds of mesenchymal cells, FOXF1 is retained only in these specific stem-cell-like cells." In the case of lung transplant rejection, Lama hypothesized that immune cells from the recipient attack the epithelial cells which disrupts the balance between them and the mesenchymal cells. "Because of the damage caused by rejection, the epithelial cells get damaged, Sonic hedgehog is reduced and that interrupts the signaling to the mesenchymal cells to keep quiet," she said. "Because of that, these cells start dividing and they lay down more collagen, which leads to fibrotic scarring." The work sets the stage for more research into the interaction of these cells with epithelial and other cells it their vicinity to further characterize what happens during chronic rejection and potentially how to prevent it. Furthermore, discovery of these cells is also important in understanding other airway diseases like asthma and COPD. (Newser) Update: California on Thursday became the first state to prohibit "stealthing," the nonconsensual removal of a condom during sex, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that defines the act as sexual battery, the AP reports. Our original story from Feb. 9, 2021, follows: story continues below "Stealthing" during sex may soon be illegal in California, making it the first state to deem the practice a crime. The Los Angeles Times reports that Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia introduced a bill this week that would classify nonconsensual removal of a condom (ie, without your partner's OK) during intercourse as sexual battery, making the remover of the condom liable for damages. Sexual battery, per California's Civil Code, is when a violator "acts with the intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact with an intimate body part of another, and as a result, commits a sexually offensive act." "It's disgusting that there are online communities that defend and encourage" the practice, "but there is nothing in law that makes it clear that this is a crime," Garcia said Monday, per GV Wire, which notes the practice has been called a "rape-adjacent" one. "A lot of women [compare] it to feelings of experiencing rape," a John Jay College of Criminal Justice psychology professor tells the Times. "It violates the trust you had in your partner." Garcia tried to pass similar bills in 2017 and 2018, but her office says they never got anywhere because of concerns about sending too many people to the state's prisons. Garcia, who's been at the forefront of California's Me Too movement, faced sexual misconduct accusations of her own, after an ex-staffer said she'd inappropriately touched him during a softball game. An investigation by the Assembly cleared Garcia of wrongdoing. Advocates for victims of sexual violence are pleased that Garcia is once more bringing the issue into the spotlight. "This is an act that's a violation of someone's autonomy," says an attorney with the Fierberg National Law Group. "There's the risk of pregnancy, there's the risk of STIs, but also inherently it's changing the entire nature of the sexual encounter." (Read more sexual battery stories.) (Newser) A Pennsylvania woman charged Tuesday with murdering her 87-year-old father and his girlfriend of 15 years had just been removed from his will, a friend of the couple told police. Sherry Lee Heffernan, 55, allegedly drove an RV from her home in Landenberg, Pa., to her father's property in Surf City, NJ, in the early hours of Sept. 29 before stabbing John Enders and 75-year-old Francoise Pitoy to death. Police said the couple's friend told them Heffernan, a real estate agent, was "disgruntled" that her father had chosen another agent to list his bayfront home, which had a pending sale of $1.999 million, per the Star-Ledger. (The listing is no longer active as of Thursday.) The friend also said Enders had written Heffernan and an estranged daughter out of his will within the last month. story continues below The friend added that Heffernan owned a 28-foot Winnebago. On Sept. 29, cameras captured a white RV heading toward Surf City, pulling up near Enders' home around 5am, then leaving the area around 6am with its headlights off, according to an affidavit obtained by the Star-Ledger. Cameras also captured a person walking toward the home around 6am, and later hopping a backyard fence nearby wearing oversized clothes and carrying an orange bag. Called to the scene Sunday Oct. 3 for a welfare check, police found Enders dead in his recliner and Pitoy dead on a stair landing, per the Asbury Park Press. Both had "multiple obvious stab wounds," according to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. Police also found a discarded rubber glove, bloody foot and shoe prints, and blood on a fence post near where the person had been spotted on camera, per the affidavit. Heffernan was arrested on an unrelated warrant at her home on Monday. Her son then backed up the home sale dispute, telling police that he and his mother believed Pitoy to be a "gold digger" who had driven the decision to sell the home, per the Asbury Park Press. He also said his mother had made a "midnight dash" to her father's home the previous week and was the only person to have recently driven the RV, which was parked at the home. Per the affidavit, officers executing a search warrant found stains "consistent with dried blood" inside. (Read more murder stories.) (Newser) There were signs: Elon Musk moved from Los Angeles to Texas, and he held Tesla's shareholders meeting in Austinthe first time it's been held outside California. Musk used the occasion to announce Thursday that Tesla's headquarters will be moving to Austin, as well. At the moment, the company is based in Palo Alto, California. Musk told the meeting about drawbacks to the current location, CNBC reports. "It's tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away," Musk said, adding, "There's a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area." story continues below Musk is building a Tesla assembly plant in Austin, which is where he held the meeting. He's also moving toward selling electricity in Texas. His personal move also cuts his tax liability and puts him near the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica. Oracle and Hewlett Packard are among the tech companies that have recently moved from California to Texas. "In Austin our factory is like five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown," Musk said Thursday, per TechCrunch. Musk had threatened last year to move to Nevada or Texas during disputes with local California officials. The company has stepped up hiring for the Austin factory this month, per KXAN, posting hundreds of jobs. The automaker will continue to expand in California as well, Musk assured shareholders. "Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%," he said. "If you go to our Fremont factory, it's jammed." (Tesla just lost a $137 million hostile workplace lawsuit involving the Fremont plant.) (Newser) Abortions past six weeks of pregnancy have officially resumed in Texas following a federal judge's ruling that blocked the state's enforcement of the most restrictive abortion ban in the country. However, the New York Times reports the majority of the state's roughly two dozen abortion clinics had not started performing such abortions again as of Thursday. At least six had, or were preparing to, per the AP. "Theres actually hope from patients and from staff, and I think theres a little desperation in that hope, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman's Health, which operates four clinics in Texas. Folks know this opportunity could be short-lived." story continues below Indeed, a separate AP story looks at the question of how long a reprieve this might be for the pro-choice crowd. Texas has promised to appeal the casea lawsuit filed by the Biden administrationto the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and whichever side loses there will likely appeal to the Supreme Court. Both of those courts have previously declined requests from abortion providers to suspend the ban's implementation until its constitutionality has been definitively ruled on by the courts, and one expert says the 5th Circuit is likely to rule in Texas' favor. It's not clear when those courts might be expected to weigh in on the coming appeals in this case. Texas' ban effectively prohibits abortions past about six weeks of pregnancy, or before many women know they're pregnant. (Read more Texas stories.) (Newser) The former Northwestern University professor accused of carrying out a murderous plot with a man he met online has now been convicted of first-degree murder. Wyndham Lathem, 47, a well-known microbiologist, was found guilty of stabbing his boyfriend, 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau, to death in 2017 at a Chicago high-rise. Prosecutors say Andrew Warren, whom Lathem met online, concocted the scheme with Lathem as part of a sexual fantasy the men shared. But Lathem testified that it was Warren who killed Cornell-Duranleau during a meth-fueled sexual encounter involving all three men, and that he was not involved, though he admitted he'd engaged in consensual "knife play" with Cornell-Duranleau before the attack. story continues below Lathem and Warren fled after the slaying and were ultimately arrested in California. Warren, a 61-year-old British national who traveled to the US on Lathem's dime, pleaded guilty in 2019 in a plea deal that offered him a 45-year prison sentence in exchange for testifying against Lathem, which he did, for more than an hour, ABC 7 reports. He admitted he stabbed Cornell-Duranleau, but said it happened only after Lathem, who came up with the idea, started the violence. The original idea was for the two depressed men to kill each other, Warren testified, but Lathem later suggested killing his boyfriend instead after they were unable to buy a gun. The prosecution also played a recording Lathem apparently made for his parents while on the run, a sort of video suicide note in which he appears to admit killing Cornell-Duranleau, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The jury reached a verdict in just 90 minutes, WGN reports. (Read more murder stories.) (Newser) Update: The mystery over an accident involving a US submarine in the South China Sea has been solved: The USS Connecticut smashed into an underwater mountain that wasn't on the charts, reports CBS News. Eleven sailors were injured in the collision last month, and the sub had to sail to Guam on the surface for repairs. Given the locale, one fear had been that the nuclear-powered sub ran into a Chinese counterpart, but the Navy investigation showed otherwise. Our original story from Oct. 7 follows: story continues below The USS Connecticut, a nuclear-powered submarine, hit a submerged object in the South China Sea Saturday, leaving 11 sailors with non-life-threatening injuries, sources tell CNN. "The submarine remains in a safe and stable condition. USS Connecticut's nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational," says a statement from the US Navy's Pacific Fleet. "The incident will be investigated." Two of the soldiers suffered moderate injuries while the others had scrapes and bruises, the Guardian reports. The US and allies including the UK, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands have been carrying out training operations in and around the South China Sea, which is why the Connecticut, a multibillion-dollar Seawolf-class sub, was there. Officials say it has since headed to port at Guam and should arrive within days, the Washington Post reports. The incident was purposely kept quiet for a few days while the crew traveled there, sources say. "The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed," the statement says. One unnamed official says it was not another submarine the Connecticut struck, but could have been a sunken vessel or shipping container. CNN notes the sub was operating "in one of the world's most difficult undersea environments, one filled with noise from ships above and a seabed with constantly shifting contours that can surprise any submarine crew." (US-China tensions have recently increased over the Chinese military encroaching on Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone.) (Newser) Chelsea Manning is fighting to be allowed into Canada, and the Canadian government recently made her an offer that she decided to refuse. In advance of a hearing that started Thursday, the former Army intelligence analyst was invited to attend in person in Montrealso that border agents could physically remove her from the country if she lost her case, the Guardian reports. In a document seen by the National Post, government lawyers last week asked the Immigration and Refugee Board to postpone the hearing until Manning was physically present, arguing that the "purpose of a removal order is to compel an individual who is found to be inadmissible to leave Canada" and enforcing the order would be "impractical" if Manning attended remotely from the US. story continues below IRB adjudicator Marisa Musto rejected the government's request on Monday, calling it "confounding," the Post reports. Musto noted that if the ruling went against Manning, she would be considered inadmissible whether she was in Canada or not. "Admissibility proceedings not only have the effect of removing inadmissible persons from Canadian territory but also to preclude them from entering," said Musto. Months after Barack Obama commuted her 35-year sentence in 2017, Manning tried to enter Canada but was told she was banned because of her conviction under the Espionage Act for passing classified documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to WikiLeaks. "I really like Canada," Manning, appearing via videolink, told the hearing Thursday. She said she had been allowed to visit the country to speak at a conference in 2018. Foreign citizens can be declared inadmissible if they have been convicted of crimes that would have led to a sentence of 10 years or more in Canada, but Manning's attorneys argued Thursday that she would have been protected by Canadian whistleblower laws, the CBC reports. They played the "Collateral Murder" video leaked by Manning, showing a US Army attack in Baghdad that killed 12 people in 2007, including two Reuters employees. A decision on Manning's case is expected in the coming weeks. (Read more Chelsea Manning stories.) (Newser) Teachers' groups, local authorities, and law enforcement continue to warn against the newest supposed TikTok challengeone that involves hitting teachersbut the social media platform is now saying it doesn't think the dare originated on TikTok. Teachers in Missouri and South Carolina are among those who've reportedly been the victims of the "slap a teacher" challenge, which is said to involve students sneaking up from behind an unlucky educator and doing just that. Now two more incidents, the first in Louisiana, where authorities say a high school student punched a disabled 64-year-old English teacher several times on Wednesday, knocking her to the ground, per the New York Times. story continues below That student at Covington High School, 18-year-old Larrianna Jackson, is now facing felony battery charges. The teacher was treated at a local hospital for arm and head injuries and released. In the second incident, officials with Massachusetts' Braintree Public Schools say a district employee was similarly assaulted, though further details weren't given, reports NBC Boston. BPS officials say the police have been contacted and the student could end up being expelled. Officials are still trying to figure out if the attacks were inspired by a challenge posted on TikTok. There's one problem, though: TikTok says there is no such challenge, at least not on TikTok. "This alleged 'challenge' would violate our policies ... but the reality is that we have not found related content on our platform, and most people appear to be learning about the offline dare from sources other than TikTok," the company said in a statement to Insider. Instead, an examination by that outlet found videos on TikTok from teachers simply warning against the challenge. It appears an early sign of the "slap a teacher" challenge emerged in mid-September after an Idaho school resource officer included it as part of a Facebook post that warned of "upcoming TikTok challenges" by month. The officer tells Insider he originally saw the list in a private Facebook group. Also included on the list: "Mess up a toilet/vandalize the restroom at school," which was a challenge shut down on TikTok in September, as well as "jab a breast" (set for January) and "make a mess in the courtyard or cafeteria" (March). In a Wednesday tweet, TikTok called the "slap a teacher" challenge "an insult to educators everywhere" and noted if any such content shows up on the platform, it will be removed. (Read more TikTok stories.) (Newser) Northern California wildfires may have killed hundreds of giant sequoias as they swept through groves of the majestic monarchs in the Sierra Nevada, an official said Wednesday. "It's heartbreaking," Christy Brigham, head of resources management and science for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, told the AP. The lightning-caused KNP Complex Fire that erupted on Sept. 9 has burned into 15 giant sequoia groves in the park, Brigham said. Most saw low- to medium-intensity fire behavior that the sequoias have evolved to survive, Brigham said. However, it appeared that two grovesincluding one with 5,000 treeswere seared by high-intensity fire that can send up 100-foot flames capable of burning the canopies of the towering trees. That leaves the monarchs at risk of going up "like a horrible Roman candle," Brigham said. story continues below Two burned trees fell in Giant Forestwhich is home to about 2,000 sequoias, including the General Sherman Tree, considered the world's largest by volume. However, the most notable trees survived, and Brigham said the grove appeared to be mostly intact. Firefighters have taken extraordinary measures to protect the sequoias by wrapping fire-resistant material around the bases of some giants, raking and clearing vegetation around them, installing sprinklers, and dousing some with water or fire-retardant gel. However, the full extent of the damage won't be known for months, Brigham said. Firefighters are still occupied protecting trees, homes, and lives or can't safely reach steep, remote groves that lack roads or even trails, she said. The KNP Complex Fire was only 11% contained Thursday after burning 134 square miles of forest. (Read more California wildfires stories.) (Newser) This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to two journalists from the Philippines and Russia. The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace," the Norwegian Nobel Committee tweeted Friday morning. Ressa, CNN's former lead investigative reporter in Asia, won Unesco's press freedom prize earlier this year for her reporting in the Philippines, where she manages the Rappler news website. The Nobel Committee said Ressa and Rappler have focused attention on President Rodrigo Duterte's "controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign." story continues below Muratov helped create the Novaya Gazette, which the Committee to Protect Journalists has described as "the only truly critical newspaper with national influence in Russia today." The Nobel Committee praised the newspaper's "fundamentally critical attitude towards power," adding that its "fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media," the AP reports. "Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda," said Nobel Committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen. "Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time." There were some 329 candidates for the prize this year. Before the prize was announced, there was speculation that it might go to a journalist or a journalists' organization, though climate activist Greta Thunberg and Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya were also considered front-runners, the New York Times reports. (Last year's prize went to the World Food Program.) (Newser) Being lost at sea for nearly a month wouldn't be most people's idea of a good time, and it probably wasn't for Livae Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni, but it was still a respite of sorts for at least one of them. The Guardian reports the two men from the Solomon Islands were rescued Saturday off the coast of Papua New Guinea, after floating 250 miles off course during 29 days trapped on the open water. The men's journey began Sept. 3, when they set off on a 23-foot, 60-horsepower motorboat from Mono Island, with their destination set for the island of New Georgia, about 125 miles away. story continues below "It should have been OK," Nanjikana says, noting they'd done this trip in the past. It was not OK, however: Heavy rain and wind soon interrupted their travels, making the shoreline they used as their guide difficult to seefollowed by their GPS dying. The two men shut off their engine to save fuel as darkness approached, and the bad weather drove them further out to sea, per the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation. For the next four weeks, the men survived by eating oranges they'd brought with them and coconuts that floated by their boat. They were able to catch rainwater in a canvas to drink. On their 27th day lost at sea, they spotted the island of New Britain in the distance, and two days later, a fisherman in a wooden canoe. Using the little bit of fuel they had left, they throttled closer to him (until the fuel ran out), then frantically waved and shouted until he noticed them. The men's boat was towed to shore, where they received medical treatment and a meal. Nanjikana sees a silver lining in what the Independent is calling "an epic story of survival and resilience." "I guess it was a nice break from everything," he tells the Guardian. "I had no idea what was going on while I was out there. I didn't hear about COVID or anything else." Arrangements are being made to get the men back home. (Read more lost at sea stories.) (Newser) Barbara Corcoran has apologized for failing to obey one of society's many unwritten rules: When somebody is joking about the size of their butt, you should not join in. The Shark Tank judge was accused of fat-shaming Whoopi Goldberg during an appearance on The View Thursday, USA Today reports. When discussing the size-inclusive Good American denim brand, Goldberg joked about whether they would fit her COVID butt. Co-hosts Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin reassured Goldberg that the jeans would fit, but she appeared taken aback when Corcoran said: "When you get finished with those jeans and decide you don't like them, give them to meI'm going to make two pairs." story continues below Navarro fired back with a remark about Corcoran's floral dress: "Whoopi, let me just tell you something. Both Sara Haines and Jill Biden wore that dress already, on TV," she said, per Fox. On social media, viewers criticized Corcoran and praised Navarro. "Ana will call you out in a second if you come for one of the co-hosts, but will really come for you if you mess with Whoopi," wrote one viewer, per Page Six. Viewers criticized Corcoran's remarks as "rude" and "insensitive," noting that Goldberg has been dealing with health issues including sciatica. Later Thursday, Corcoran apologized in a video posted on Twitter. She described Goldberg as an "old friend" with a "phenomenal sense of humor." She added: "I made a joke at Whoopi's expense, which I realize now wasn't funny. For anyone who I may have offended unintentionally, I just wanted to say I really am very sorry." (Read more Whoopi Goldberg stories.) (Newser) After his girlfriend broke up with him, a British medical student for weeks plotted his revenge. That included making a list of supplies, from a "fat suit," and "black morph suit" to a "wig" and "perfume," per the BBC. Finally, six weeks after the split, 25-year-old Milad Rouf traveled from his home in Cardiff to London and on to Brighton, where he showed up at his ex's doorin the fat suit, morph suit (a spandex suit that covers the body head to toe), sunglasses, and a face visorand threw acid in her face, per the Guardian. Rym Alaoui, a junior doctor in her 20s who'd studied medicine with Rouf at Cardiff University before ending the brief relationship and moving to Brighton, was left debilitated and blind in her right eye as a result of the May 20 attack. story continues below "I have had five surgeries" and will likely have more, she told Lewes Crown Court in a statement. Yet "I am unable to move my neck and close my eyelids" or "to attend work or live my life." She described the psychological effects as "colossal," adding of Rouf, "I cannot understand what was in his mind." In sentencing Rouf on Thursday to 11 years in prison with a four-year extended licence to be served in the community, Judge Christine Laing QC said he'd been motivated by nothing more than "simple jealousy and anger at being rejected," per the Guardian. "You knew full well what you were doing was wrong and you tried to evade responsibility for it to continue to pursue your medical career." "Using padded clothing and makeup, he made himself appear to be a black woman of large build," said prosecutor Flora Page. Alaoui hadn't recognized Rouf as he handed her a note, then threw sulphuric acid in her face as she read it. "The acid was so concentrated it scorched the paintwork off Alaoui's front door," per the Guardian. Rouf pleaded guilty to applying a corrosive fluid with intent in August after authorities found the list of items for his disguise in his home, per the BBC. Laing applied an extended sentence, noting he was a danger to women and had not shown "any real remorse." (Read more acid attack stories.) (Newser) If you thought talk about Ozy Media was over, steel yourself. The digital media firm caught up in the convoluted wake of a fraudulent phone call and other controversies is making headlines again. A former Ozy editor now says he suspects the person on the other end of that fake phone call wasn't COO Samir Rao, as has been claimed, but perhaps CEO Carlos Watson. Watson himself said Rao was the person impersonating a YouTube executive during a February meeting with potential investors from Goldman Sachs, who were mulling pumping $40 million into Ozy. story continues below After it was discovered the call had been faked, Watson told Goldman Sachs and New York Times reporter Ben Smith that Rao had been the impersonator, claiming Rao was suffering from a mental health crisis. Eugene Robinson, a writer and editor who worked for Ozy for nearly a decade, tells the Wrap he's not so sure about that, noting that it seems iffy that Watson wouldn't have somehow been part of a conference call involving a potential investment worth tens of millions of dollars. "Maybe three or four [people connected to Ozy] have made mention of this, and outside of Ozy, pretty serious people, one or two have come to me and they said they believe that's the only way it would have worked," Robinson tells the outlet, noting that Watson and Rao typically took investment calls together in Ozy's conference room in Mountain View, Calif. "The idea that he didn't know what was going on ... beggars belief." While Watson and Rao haven't responded to the Wrap's requests for comment, the Times' Smith notes he did ask Watson directly if it was him on the call, and "he denied it." Smith adds that Ozy's former board chair, Marc Lasry, has also said it was Rao on the call. The Wrap notes Rao hasn't said anything about all this and has deleted his social media accounts. Meanwhile, Robinson, who says he was fired from Ozy two times, penned a Thursday op-ed for the Times on what it was like to work for the company. He documented an initially demanding yet exciting environment that soon deteriorated into a "poisonous" one with high turnover and a "shrieking Mr. Watson." Robinson's overall take: "I was not exactly surprised by Ozy's collapse, just amazed that it took so long." (Read his piece in its entirely here.) (Newser) A blast went off Friday at a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers in northern Afghanistan, killing or wounding at least 100 people, a Taliban police official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place in Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province, but militants from the Islamic State group have a long history of attacking Afghanistans Shiite minority, the AP reports. Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, said the attack may have been carried out by a suicide bomber who had mingled among the worshipers inside the mosque. The state-run Bakhtar news agency put the death toll at 46, per Reuters. story continues below "I assure our Shiite brothers that the Taliban are prepared to ensure their safety," Obaida said, adding that an investigation was underway. If confirmed, a death toll of dozens would be the highest since US and NATO forces left Afghanistan at the end of August and the Taliban took control of the country. The Taliban have been targeted in a series of deadly attacks by rival IS militants, including shooting ambushes and an explosion at a mosque in Kabul. The Kunduz explosion went off during the weekly Friday prayer service at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque. The Taliban leadership has been grappling with a growing threat from the local Islamic State affiliate, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan. IS militants have ramped up attacks to target their rivals, including two recent deadly bombings in Kabul. The group has also declared war on Afghanistan's minority Shiites and has taken responsibility for some of the worst attacks targeting the community. The local Islamic State affiliate also claimed responsibility for the horrific Aug. 26 bombing that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 US military personnel outside the Kabul airport in the final days of the chaotic American pullout from Afghanistan. (Read more Afghanistan stories.) (Newser) When David Adler Staveley's unlocked car was found near the Atlantic Ocean in May 2020, with his wallet inside, family members assumed the Massachusetts man was dead. After all, the 54-year-old had left what appeared to be suicide notes for his associates and relatives, including his 80-year-old mother, per the Washington Post. Authorities now say it was all a ruse, and not Staveley's first. Only three weeks earlier, Staveley had become "the first person in the country charged with fraudulently seeking forgivable pandemic relief small-business loans" under the CARES Act, according to a release from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island. story continues below Investigators accused Staveley and an accomplice of defrauding the federal government out of more than half a million dollars. Staveley, 54, of Andover and David Butziger, 53, of Warwick, RI, had received $543,959 through the Paycheck Protection Program after falsely claiming to own three restaurants and another business with "large monthly payrolls," according to the Thursday release. "In fact, they did not own the businesses." Some loan applications were placed in Staveley's brother's name, per the Post. After he was released to home detention with electronic monitoring, "Staveley removed his electronic monitoring device, staged his own suicide, and fled," according to the release. Investigators say he changed his phone number five times over three months while moving between several states before he was tracked to Alpharetta, Ga., on July 23, 2020. He had "multiple false identification documents that he had used throughout the period of his flight," court records note. He's pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and failure to appear in court, as he skipped out on a June hearing. He was sentenced Thursday to four-plus years in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Butziger pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in September 2020 and is due to be sentenced Nov. 1, per MassLive. (Read more faked death stories.) (Newser) A 58-year-old Pittsburgh-area mail carrier who was looking forward to retirement has become the latest postal worker to be killed in the line of duty. Police and postal inspectors say Erik Kortz blocked Louis Vignone's mail truck with his van in a Collier Township neighborhood before shooting him multiple times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Kortz, 53, then drove to a police station and said he'd shot somebody, authorities say. The Department of Justice says that in an interview, Kortz claimed that he shot Vignone because he believed that Vignone and his family had poisoned Kortz and his family with cyanide when they were neighbors. story continues below Authorities say Kortz told investigators that he was familiar with Vignone's mail route and went to find him Thursday morning. Kortz has been charged with federal crimes including the murder of a United States employee, which carries a potential death sentence. Friends and neighbors say Vignone was a devoted husband and father who "wouldn't hurt a fly," KDKA reports. Neighbor Ken Bock says he was "one of the most loved guys in the neighborhood." "He was just a laid-back guy who was ready to retire," Bock says. "He just told the neighbor across the street here he was thinking about retiring this spring. So it's a bad, bad situation. I can't believe it happened here." (Read more mail carrier stories.) (Newser) Documents released Friday show the Trump International Hotel in Washington lost millions while Donald Trump was president, though he claimed it was profitable, prompting a House panel to ask for answers from the GSA. The hotel lost more than $70 million during Trump's term, the Washington Post reports, despite the revenue from doing business with foreign governments. The Democratic leaders of the House Oversight committee told the GSA director Friday that the files raise questions about "the agency's ability to manage the former Presidents conflicts of interest during his term in office when he was effectively on both sides of the contract, as landlord and tenant." story continues below Trump leases the place from the General Services Administration, and the deal has been a point of contention since he took office. Customers included top Republicans, fundraisers, and lobbyists foreign and domestic. The Constitution bars presidents from accepting gifts from other nations; the Supreme Court dismissed a pair of lawsuits on the issue as no longer relevant as Trump was leaving office. Trump broke accepted practice by putting assets in a trust run by his sons when he became president, per CNN, and continuing to profit from them. Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Gerry Connolly want the GSA to turn over more documents, especially concerning foreign revenue. They also said Deutsche Bank gave Trump preferential treatment in letting him defer payments on the principal of a $170 million hotel construction loan, per CNN. The loan terms were revised to allow that in 2018. Hotel payments from foreign governments totaled $3.7 million while Trump was in office, the committee said. The committee said financial disclosures show Trump collected more than $156 million in income from the Pennsylvania Avenue hotel from 2016 to 2020, though it was losing money. Without more documents, the lawmakers told the GSA, "there is no way for anyone examining these records to understand why millions of dollars flowed between the Trump Hotel and President Trumps other businesses," per the Hill. There was no immediate comment Friday from the GSA, the Trump Organization, or Deutsche Bank. In the past, Trump has called scrutiny of his hotel's finances politically motivated. Trump has put his lease on the hotel on the market but hasn't sold it yet. (Read more Donald Trump stories.) TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Bahrain, Russia and other members of the UN Human Rights Council pushed through a vote yesterday to shut down the bodys investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states who wanted to keep the mission going. Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the independent investigators another two years to monitor Yemens conflict. During the debate, Bahraini ambassador Yusuf Abdulkarim Bucheeri said that the international group of investigators had contributed to misinformation on the ground in Yemen. In the vote called by Bahrain, 21 countries voted against the Dutch resolution, including China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Venezuela and Uzbekistan. Eighteen, including Britain, France and Germany, voted to support it. There were seven abstentions, and Ukraines delegation was absent. The United States only has observer status. Dutch ambassador Peter Bekker said the vote was a major setback. Bahrain committed to acceptance of all faiths: HRH Prince Salman Bahrain committed to acceptance of all faiths: HRH Prince Salman TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa yesterday reiterated Bahrains commitment to embracing and promoting tolerance, dialogue and acceptance of all faiths. Bahrain is practising this in line with the vision and leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, said the Crown Prince and Prime Minister. HRH Prince Salman was with the Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia and Apostolic Administrator of Northern Arabia, Bishop Paul Hinder, at Riffa Palace. The Crown Prince and Prime Minister welcomed the Bishop to Bahrain and praised his humanitarian efforts to spread goodwill, devotion, and tolerance. His Royal Highness noted Bahrains dedication to promoting initiatives that bolster cultural pluralism, peace, and rapprochement between religions, highlighting the significant role played by the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence in consolidating these values. Bishop Hinder expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to meet His Royal Highness and praised Bahrains cultural diversity and history of religious and cultural tolerance. The Chairman of the Rashid Equestrian and Horse Racing Club High Committee, HH Shaikh Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, were present. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Curtains will lift on the fifth edition of Bahrain Smart Cities Summit 2021 on Sunday. The two-day conference at the Gulf Conference Hall in the Gulf Hotel is under the patronage of Essam bin Abdulla Khalaf, the Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning. The summit will have 250 participants from the government and private sectors and various consultants, experts, engineers, specialists, academics, the United Nations Development Programme, the UN-Habitat Programme, Bahrain Real Estate Investment Company (Edamah), Bahrain STC, Diyar Al Muharraq and other international agencies. The summit will also have participants from the Ministry of Interior, the Information and e-Government Authority, the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and companies from the United States of America. The summit will discuss solutions, future technology, waste management solutions, community partnership for environmental monitoring, cities as a centre for implementing sustainable development goals and others. The event will also shed light on the BeAware Bahrain app as one of the success stories of Bahrains battle against the coronavirus pandemic. The conference will have 40 speakers participating in 10 sessions, during which they will present 20 papers. The summit will also see the announcement of the Smart Cities Award 2021 during the opening ceremony. An accompanying exhibition will have the participation of 15 government and private sector agencies. The 2021 edition builds on the success of the 2019 summit, which had seven government entities, three international parties and 250 participants. Click here to read the full article. The world premiere of Jeymes Samuels The Harder They Fall at the BFI London Film Festival was the hottest ticket in town on Wednesday evening, with the red carpet boasting a stream of bold-face names including the films stars Idris Elba and Regina King and Netflix boss Ted Sarandos. They were joined by a host of personalities spanning film, television, technology and music, including Jay-Z, who was there in his capacity as the films producer (he also co-wrote the music alongside Samuel), rapper Kid Cudi, Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis, British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, former Britains Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon, fashion designer Ozwald Boateng, haute shoemaker Christian Louboutin and model Sabrina Dhowre Elba, among others. Stealing the show, however, was break-out Bridgerton star Rege-Jean Page, whose step and repeat appearance drew gasps from the audience inside the auditorium as they watched a live stream of the red carpet action going on outside. As the 2,700-capacity venue filled almost to the brim, Ben Roberts, chief executive of the BFI, took to the stage to welcome guests to the premiere, which also served as the LFFs gala opening, and thank the festivals sponsors and donors. He was followed by LFFs director Tricia Tuttle, who paid tribute to Samuels feature debut effort, noting it stars our most glamorous BFI governor, referring to Elba, who is a member of the BFIs board of governors. Finally, the cast and crew came out onto the stage to rapturous applause, though even Jay-Z couldnt compete with Elbas homecoming: as the London-born actor walked onto the stage, the crowd went wild, for a moment better resembling San Diego Comic Cons Hall H than the usually buttoned-up British audience. As he introduced the film, Samuel spoke of his love for the Western genre, which he has watched since childhood, but acknowledged its traditionally racial homogeneity: All of these amazing men and women of color [] didnt have a voice, he said of the genre, before reeling off a list of real-life Black cowboys, including Nat Love and Rufus Buck, the lead characters in The Harder They Fall. I just wanted to assemble them all in one place at one time, like the Avengers. The Harder They Fall will get a limited theatrical release on Oct. 22 before heading to Netflix on Nov. 3. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Halo has accepted the resignation of Mr. Met, who will leave the Company effective October 31, 2021, to pursue new opportunties. Since co-founding the Company in 2017 along with Chief Executive Officer, Kiran Sidhu, and Chief Financial Officer, Philip van den Berg, Mr. Met has been a key partner in building Halo into a leading multi-country operator. He has been focusing his efforts on Halo's international assets over the past several months on a transition plan. The operations of Halo in North America will continue to be led by SVP Operations, Joshua Haddox, who joined the Halo in November 2020 following Andreas' secondment to Africa. Akanda Chief Executive Officer Tej Virk is assembling a new, local leadership team in Southern Africa, consisting of Gustav Trichardt, who will serve as Facilities Manager, and Greg Beadle, who has been appointed as Commercial Director. Trichardt joins Akanda from MGMC Pharma Group, where he managed a Good Agricultural Practice certified cultivation facility previously owned by Canopy Growth Corp (NYSE: CGC) (TSX: WEED). Beadle joins Akanda from Highlands Investments, the former operations of Canopy Growth Corp. in Lesotho, where he served as Chief Growth Officer directly after his role as Business Development Director at Canopy Growth Corp. in Africa. "We thank Andreas for his many contributions in developing the Bophelo campus," commented Virk. "The additions of Gustav and Greg are part of Akanda's plan to bring in domain experts from my expansive international cannabis network. I am confident they will successfully carry forward the baton to drive Akanda's commercial and operational scale-up." Added Sidhu, "As previously communicated, Akanda is forging its own path and as part of this, Tej is assembling an exceptional team. Gustav is an outstanding local addition to Bophelo, bringing more than 20 years of experience in taking high value developments to completion and has been actively involved in Lesotho's cannabis industry since legalization in 2018. When Andreas transitioned to Africa to help establish Bophelo late last year, Halo replaced him with Joshua Haddox from Moxie in Los Angeles, who has been in the industry for over ten years. In his role as SVP Operations of Halo, Joshua has helped to automate, streamline, and reduce costs in our operations in Oregon and California. We are grateful for the many contributions Andreas made to Halo, and we wish him the best in his new venture." Closing of the Transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, including the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, and is expected to occur in October 2021. About Halo Collective Inc. Halo is a leading, vertically integrated cannabis company that cultivates, extracts, manufactures, and distributes quality cannabis flower, oils, and concentrates and has sold approximately eleven million grams of oils and concentrates since inception. The Company continues to expand its business and scale efficiently, partnering with trustworthy leaders in the industry who value Halo's operational expertise in bringing top-tier products to market. Halo currently operates in the United States in Oregon and California, Canada, Southern Africa in the Kingdom of Lesotho, and the United Kingdom. The Company sells cannabis products principally to dispensaries in the U.S. under its brands Hush, Mojave, and Exhale, and under license agreements with Papa's Herb, DNA Genetics, Terphogz, and FlowerShop*, a cannabis lifestyle and conceptual wellness brand that includes G-Eazy as a partner and key member. As part of continued expansion and vertical integration in the U.S., Halo boasts several grow operations throughout Oregon and two planned in California. In Oregon, the Company has a combined 11 acres of owned and contracted outdoor and green house cultivation, including East Evans Creek, a six-acre grow site in Jackson County with four licenses owned and operated by Halo and two third-party licenses under contract to sell all of their product to Halo; Winberry Farms, a one-acre grow site located 30 miles outside of Eugene in Lane County with a license owned and operated by Halo; and William's Wonder Farms, a three-acre grow site in Applegate Valley, under contract to sell all of its product to Halo pending the closing of Halo's acquisition of its licenses and business assets. Halo has recently acquired Food Concepts LLC, a master tenant of a 55,000 sq.ft. indoor cannabis cultivation, processing, and wholesaling facility in Portland, Oregon operated by the Pistil Point entities (the "Pistil Point Acquistion"). In California, the Company is building out Ukiah Ventures, a planned 30,000 sq. ft. indoor cannabis grow and processing facility, which will include up to an additional five acres of industrial land to expand the site. Recently, Halo partnered with Green Matter Holding in California to purchase a property in Lake County, developing up to 63 acres of cultivation, comprising one of the largest licensed single site grows in California. Halo also plans to expand its operations in California by opening three dispensaries in North Hollywood, Hollywood, and Westwood. In Canada, Halo acquired three KushBar retail cannabis stores located in Alberta as a first in its planned entry into the Canadian market, leveraging its Oregon and California brands. With the KushBar retail stores as a foundation, the Company plans to expand its foothold in Canada. Halo has also acquired a range of software development assets, including CannPOS, Cannalift, and, more recently, CannaFeels. In addition, Halo owns the discrete sublingual dosing technology, Accudab. The Company intends to spin-off these assets and its intellectual property and patent applications into its subsidiary Halo Tek Inc. and expects to complete a distribution to shareholders on a record date to be determined by Halo. Halo has recently announced its intention to reorganize its non-U.S. operations into a newly formed entity called Akanda Corp., whose mission is to provide high-quality and ethically sourced medical cannabis products to patients worldwide. Akanda will seek to deliver on this promise while driving positive change in wellness, empowering individuals in Lesotho, and uplifting the quality of the lives of employees and the local communities where it operates, all while limiting its carbon footprint. Akanda will combine the scaled production capabilities of Bophelo Bioscience & Wellness Pty. Ltd., Halo's Lesotho-based cultivation and processing campus located in the world's first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) containing a cannabis cultivation operation, with distribution and route-to-market efficiency of Canmart Ltd., Halo's UK-based fully approved pharmaceutical importer, and distributor that supplies pharmacies and clinics within the U.K. With a potential maximum licensed canopy area of 200 hectares (495 acres), Bophelo has scalability that is arguably unmatched in the world today. For further information regarding Halo, see Halo's disclosure documents on SEDAR at www.sedar.com Connect with Halo Collective: Email | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram About Akanda Corp. Akanda is a recently formed Ontario corporation that was founded in connection with the contemplated Reorganization. Following completion of the Transaction, Akanda will be an international medical cannabis company, cultivating ethically sourced cannabis of the highest quality at scale, leveraging trusted brands, at a low-cost compared to many of its competitors. Akanda's initial portfolio will include key businesses such as Bophelo, a cultivation and processing campus in the Kingdom of Lesotho in Southern Africa, with distribution and route-to-market through CanMart, a UK-based fully approved pharmaceutical importer and distributor which supplies pharmacies and clinics within the U.K. Bophelo operates a campus in the Kingdom of Lesotho focused on the cultivation and production of medical cannabis products for international export. Akanda believes Bophelo to be one of the largest licensed marijuana cultivation sites in the world with access to a maximum of 200 hectares of canopy. Through partnerships and licensing agreements with award-winning seed producers, including DNA Genetics, Bophelo will provide Akanda with a low-cost gateway to the broader African continent and access to international markets. CanMart is one of a limited number of fully-approved importers and distributors of medical cannabis products in the U.K. market with supply and distribution to pharmacies and clinics throughout the U.K. CanMart is committed to providing a range of the best possible cannabis-based medicinal products sourced from around the world. A cornerstone of Akanda's value system is its fundamental commitment to using its operations as a force for sustainability and social good. Akanda will seek to deliver on this promise by driving positive change in wellness, empowering individuals in Lesotho, and by uplifting the quality of the lives of employees and the local communities where it operates while limiting its carbon footprint. Adhering to best practice ESG sustainability and disclosure standards is among Akanda's highest priorities. Connect with Akanda: Email | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only Halo's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Halo's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved". Forward-looking information may relate to anticipated events or results including, but not limited to the closing of the Transaction, the Company's plans to expand in Canada and California, the expected size and capabilities of the final facility planned at Ukiah Ventures, the size of Halo's planned cultivation facility in Northern California, the ability of Bophelo and Canmart to serve the U.K. market, the proposed spin-off with Halo Tek Inc. and Halo's proposed plans to reorganize its non-U.S. operations via Akanda Corp. By identifying such information and statements in this manner, Halo is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements. In addition, in connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, Halo has made certain assumptions. Although Halo believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Among others, the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information and statements are the following: delays in obtaining any required regulatory approvals in connection with the Transaction, the inability of Akanda to raise capital on the terms currently expected by management of Akanda, changes in the consumer market for cannabis products, changes in the expected outcomes of the proposed changes to Halo's operations, delays in obtaining required licenses or approvals necessary for the build-out of Oregon operations, the proposed spin-out with Halo Tek Inc. or the proposed reorganization with Akanda Corp., delays or unforeseen costs incurred in connection with construction, the ability of competitors to scale operations in Northern California, delays or unforeseen difficulties in connection with the cultivation and harvest of Halo's raw material, changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; and the other risks disclosed in the Company's annual information form dated March 31, 2021 and other disclosure documents available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and Halo does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to Halo or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice. Non-Solicitation This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell nor the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein, 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. SOURCE Halo Collective Inc. For further information: Contact Information: Halo Collective, Investor Relations, [email protected], www.haloco.com/investors; Akanda Corp., Matt Chesler, CFA, FNK IR, Investor Relations, [email protected]; For additional information please contact Philip van den Berg, Chief Financial Officer of Halo at [email protected] Related Links https://haloco.com/ Uttar Pradesh police have put up a notice outside the residence of MoS Ajay Mishra Teni in Lakhimpur Kheri, asking his son Ashish Mishra to appear before it on October 8 in connection with the violence. Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday arrested two accused in connection with Lakhimpur Kheri violence, said the police. The arrested persons have been identified as Luvkush and Ashish Pandey. Inspector-General of Police (IG), Lucknow range, Lakshmi Singh on Thursday told media persons that the police is sending summons to the main accused, Ashish Mishra, for questioning. Ashish Mishra Teni is the son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni. Uttar Pradesh police have put up a notice outside the residence of MoS Ajay Mishra Teni in Lakhimpur Kheri, asking his son Ashish Mishra to appear before it on October 8 in connection with the violence. Meanwhile, police have recovered empty bullet shells at the violence site, sources in the Uttar Pradesh government told ANI. A total of eight people including four farmers died in the violence that took place in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3. Leading counterintelligence officials issued a memo to all of the CIAs global stations saying that a concerning number of U.S. informants were being captured and executed., according to The New York Times. The CIAs counterintelligence mission centre investigated dozens of incidents in the last few years that involved killings, arrests or compromises of foreign informants. In an unusual move, the message sent via a top-secret cable included the specific number of agents killed by other intelligence agencies, according to The New York Times. Top American counterintelligence officials in an unusual top-secret cable said that the CIAs counterintelligence mission centre had looked at dozens of cases in the last several years involving foreign informants who had been killed, arrested or most likely compromised, reported The New York Times. The cable also noted the specific number of agents executed by rival intelligence agencies. Usually, these specific details are not shared in such cables. Highlighting the struggle of the CIA, the cable stressed that the agency is having issues as it works to recruit spies worldwide in difficult operating environments. Recently, adversarial intelligence services in countries such as Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan have been hunting down the CIAs sources and in some cases turning them into double agents, said The New York Times. The cable also acknowledged that recruiting spies is a high-risk business. It also emphasised that in recent years, various issues have plagued the agency such as poor tradecraft, being too trusting of sources, underestimating foreign intelligence agencies, and moving too quickly to recruit informants while not paying enough attention to potential counterintelligence risks a problem the cable called placing mission over security, according to New York Times. Various compromised informants have highlighted the growing prowess of other countries in employing innovations like biometric scans, facial recognition, artificial intelligence and hacking tools to track the movements of CIA officers in order to discover their sources. The CIA has many ways to collect intelligence but networks of trusted human informants around the world remain the centrepiece of its efforts, the kind of intelligence that the agency is supposed to be the best in the world at collecting and analysing. Former officials have said that the CIA case officers its frontline spies earn promotions through recruiting new informants. In the last two decades, the CIA had been devoted to terrorist threats and the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. But now again a centrepiece of the CIAs agenda has been to improve intelligence collection on adversarial powers, both great and small, particularly as policymakers demand more insight into China and Russia. The loss of informants, former officials said, is not a new problem. But the cable demonstrated the issue is more urgent than is publicly understood, according to New York Times. Policymakers and geopolitical experts in Washington are advocating a shift in outlook towards Islamabad following the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan which was aided by Pakistan. This shift in tide has been widely attributed to Pakistans covert and overt support to the outfit which led to the swift fall of the democratically elected government in Kabul in August this year. Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said that Washington is looking to reassess its ties with Islamabad. Pakistan Foreign Office later expressed surprise over Blinkens remarks, saying it was not in line with the close cooperation between the two nations. A few weeks later, a bill was introduced in the US Senate calling for a probe into Pakistans support to the Taliban for the 2021 offensive that toppled the Afghan government. More than 20 US Senators had introduced the bill and demanded sanctions on the Taliban in Afghanistan and the foreign governments that support the outfit. Writing for The Washington Examiner, Michael Rubin argued that it is time for both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives to say enough is enough. It is time to move the fundamental rethink of US Pakistan policy from rhetorical to reality. Strip Pakistan of major non-NATO ally status. Designate Pakistan as a terror sponsor. Put it on the Financial Action Task Force blacklist where it belongs, he added. Rubin, who is the resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), said apologia for Pakistan should not be hardwired into US foreign policy. He said that Pakistans failure to come clean about its sheltering of Osama bin Laden and numerous Pakistani terrorists captured while fighting alongside the Taliban should have landed Pakistan on the state sponsor of terror list a while ago. Terming Washingtons strategy of Pakistan as delusional, Rubin reminded that that between 2002 and 2018, the US gave the south Asian country more than USD 33 billion. That equates to more than USD 100 for every American man, woman, and child. Whether that aid was civilian or military, neither Washington nor Pakistan have anything to show for it. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US commitment to Taiwan is crucial for peace and stability in the region. The statement comes after US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to abide by the Taiwan agreement. The United States will continue to strengthen its relations with Taiwan amid rising tensions between Taipei and Beijing, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday (local time). Our commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and it contributes, we believe, to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the broader region as well, Price said. Well continue to stand with our friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security and values, and we will continue to deepen our ties with a democratic Taiwan. Price went on to say that the United States strongly urges China to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan. On Wednesday, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said China might mount a full-scale invasion of the island nation by 2025. China has sent in recent days almost 150 military aircraft close to Taiwan while the US and other allied forces conducted drills in the South China Sea. US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to abide by the Taiwan agreement, which ensures a peacefully determined future for Taiwan in exchange for US recognition of Beijing as the official Chinese government. Despite mass layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic, more Connecticut residents were enrolled in health plans administered by private-sector insurers in 2020 than the two previous years, according to a newly updated study by the state Insurance Department. Nearly 2 million people in Connecticut had insurance administered by private-sector insurers last year, including the states own plan offered to government employees. The state hired Anthem last year to take over administration of the plan from the Oxford Health Plans subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare. That was a 9.2 percent increase from 2019, and the highest level of coverage since 2017 when more than 2.2 million people were on health plans handled by private-sector carriers. In the early months of the pandemic, many people avoided annual checkups and other non-emergency medical care as they stayed home to avoid contracting the COVID-19 virus. But doctor visits were more the norm this year, insurers say, despite the delta variant causing some people to scale back activities in public spaces. In picking up administration of Connecticuts health plan and the Connecticut Partnership Plan the state extends to municipalities, Anthem built on its already dominant market position in the state. The company added 187,000 members on a net basis for a 20.7 increase, pushing its enrollment above 1 million members including some classified as part of national accounts according to a spokesperson. In late July, Anthem executives said the pandemic has also prompted the company to increase its coverage for mental health. He added that it has resonated with employers nationally shopping for new plans, given the stresses some families are experiencing during the pandemic. Annual enrollment kicks off in November, when companies present the menu of health care options they are offering employees in 2022, along with any changes in cost, coverage and health requirements like checkups. That has been the focus over the last several months, said Peter Haytaian, an Anthem executive vice president, speaking in July. We were really being sensitized to these issues around COVID and the need for advocacy, affordability, and focus on issues like behavioral health. CVS-owned Aetna was the only other insurer besides Anthem to record a double-digit percentage increase in Connecticut membership, adding nearly 29,000 members for a 10 percent bump in its membership base to 313,000 people. As the case with Anthem, Aetna saw significant growth in administration of self-insured plans, including a program for small businesses interested in the concept. Aetna entered the year with more than 17,000 small-group members enrolled in Connecticut. Many self-insured plans are able to keep costs in check by not having to comply with state mandates for insurance coverage of varying treatments, on grounds they have a federal exemption under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Last year in Connecticut, 85 of every 100 people with health coverage from the private sector belonged to self-insured plans. That is well out front of the 67 percent rate nationally for self-insured coverage, as estimated by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman TORRINGTON Pizza lovers, members of the Y, community leaders, and those looking to have a good time are invited to Bad Dog Brewery in Torrington to name the best pizza in town, with food, a raffle and silent auction and Bad Dog beer, according to a statement. The event will be held Oct. 19, 6-9 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the Northwest CT YMCAs financial assistance program. Marty Connor, a member of the Ys Board of Directors and Torringtons City Planner, came up with the idea for the fundraiser. This will be a fun event at a great venue to raise money for the Y, he said. The Y works to provide opportunities for kids and families and to help them develop strong bodies, sharper minds and hopeful spirits. And in times of crisis, like now, the Y is also here for all. From homeless shelter and affordable housing, to food insecurity, to COVID-19 emergency child care, to supporting struggling youth, the Y answers the call to find solutions. This novel event pits Torrington pizzerias against each other to earn the title of Best Pizza in Torrington. and will surely spark some friendly competition. Tom Filippini, Territory Manager for U.S. Foods, said, Our Pizza War Event is vital to the continued success of supporting our community for those children and families less fortunate. Your generosity in either donating and participating in this event or others is greatly appreciated. I also feel that some fun cameradery will bring our Torrington pizza restaurants a chance to show what they offer. Our goal at the Y is to serve every individual who comes to us. We do not want age, income or background getting in the way of someone who wants to live a healthier lifestyle. The Y is truly an amazing place - a place where everyone should have the opportunity to better themselves, whether that be in spirit, mind or body, Greg Brisco, CEO at the Y, said. In the past, our Fall Fundraising Events have been a time for good friends to gather for a good cause. This year is no different, and, in many ways it is even more important than ever to support our community. The Northwest CT YMCA, in 2020, provided more than $108,000 in financial assistance to 420 individuals while serving over 8,200 during a pandemic, according to Brisco. Tickets are $25 per person and are available online at nwcty.org or at the door. The ticket includes access to the party, pizza and one beverage. For more information, call the Y at 860-489-3133 WEST HARTFORD Hoping to offer voters an option down the middle, a group of former Republicans are running for town council and the school board in West Hartford as A Connecticut Party. The party is a revival of the independent party created by former Gov. Lowell Weicker in 1990. Incumbent Lee Gold, Mark Merritt, Rick Bush and Roni Rodman are all running for the town council under A Connecticut Party and Ross Jacobs is running under the party for school board. Merritt, the campaigns chairman, said they left the Republican party due to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the removal of U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney from her Republican leadership position. The last straw for us was that we cant be silent, Merritt said. It was a point in time where it was the end. She wasnt going to be silent...about how far this party has drifted from its core values. Merritt said their slate of candidates hope to offer voters a center option between the Republicans and the Democrats this November. One of the things we have seen and heard from folks is the option of having something different, Merritt said. The beauty of what weve done is to carve out more of the middle and center lane. Merritt describes himself as fiscally conservative, but more open to ideas on social issues. We are not Trump supporters, he said. We wanted to be more centered. Lets have some common sense to governing. Speaking on their candidates, Merritt said Golds leadership as a current member of the town council is valuable to their process. We all have that unique experience, Merritt said. Lee is running for reelection. He has been independent minded. He didn't want to be beholden to any party ideology. Thats where we all align. Merritt said the five candidates have a similar mindset, which is a strength to their party. The like-mindeness brings that cohesiveness of how we work and get things done, Merritt said. Merritt said he likes to compare it to a pothole being in front of your house. In his words, that isnt a Democrat and Republican pothole, but a West Hartford pothole. This is why we created the party, Merritt said. Its for folks who feel left behind by either party. We have some ideas and solutions to address the needs of our town. We want to get those things done. Were independent minded. Lets talk about the solutions. Lets put it into action. NEW HAVEN Technology entrepreneurs and representatives from the University of Connecticut and Yale met Friday with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the National Science Foundation, in an effort to lobby for more federal money to fund research in Connecticut. Blumenthal, D-Conn., is urging Congress to provide at least $10.2 billion in the fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill for the NSF to promote the progress of science, secure the national defense and advance the nations health, prosperity and welfare. The NSF currently invests $71 million in Connecticut, according to Blumenthal. This is cutting-edge stuff, he said. We should value and celebrate the scientific research and the training of future scholars. In Connecticut, we dont have oil wells, we dont have gold mines, but what we do have is smart and talented people. Panchanathan said the focus Connecticut has made on the biotech, life sciences and green energy industries ultimately will pay off . They are going to be blockbusters, he said. Youve got amazing institutions in Connecticut and they are focusing on niche areas when they can have an impact. Faculty from Yale and UConn said that in order for important scientific research to continue, they need to be able to count on an uninterrupted flow of federal money from agencies such as the NSF. The NSF is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education in science and engineering; its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health. Jeff Brock, dean of Yales School of Engineering and Applied Science, said consistent funding allows for a steady stream of ideas. One of things were focusing on is how engineering is a driver of innovation, Brock said. Radenka Maric, vice president for research, innovation and entrepreneurship at UConn, said 40 percent of funding for research at the universitys School of Engineering comes from the NSF. We believe research and education go hand in hand, Maric said. Your investment shows that Yale and UConn are a powerhouse. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, also D-Conn., addressed the event via a recorded video. He called work in the sciences being done in the state the economic salvation of Connecticut and said there is room for the federal government to invest more money in the field. We should be proud of what the NIH and NSF do, Murphy said. And yet only 4 to 5 percent of the federal budget is invested in science. Investors have a definite interest in funding life sciences and biotech companies, said Kevin Rakin, a partner in HighCape Capital, a New York City equity fund that has raised $600 million for a variety of Connecticut companies. The pandemic has made investors recognize the importance of science, he said. Something is resonating out there about the role science can play, he said. There are a lot of places people can place capital and some of them are placing it here. And what youre seeing is just the beginning, Fridays event was held at 100 College Street, home to a large Alexion Pharmaceuticals research and development facility and a building built by Massachusetts-based developer Carter Winstanley. The developer has spent more than two decades developing space in the New Haven area to meet the needs of the life sciences and biotech industries. Winstanley said the area has all the right ingredients that were found in Silicon Valley and Kendall Square. Areas that have the deepest pool of intellectual capital create a sustainable market, he said. Investing in that will be critical for the future. Weve done over 2 million square feet here and I feel like were just getting started. Winstanley said his familys company has $500 million invested in the New Haven area. For the biotech and life sciences sectors to continue to thrive, he said, more incubator space for start-up companies is needed. To that end, Winstanley is doubling down on his companys investment on New Haven. Across the street from where Fridays meeting was taking place, construction crews were busy at work on another Winstanley property, a 10-story life sciences building known as 101 College. Part of the space in the new, 500,000-square-foot building will be devoted to flexible biotech incubator space. BioLabs, a Cambridge, Mass.-based company that specializes in managing coworking space for life science startups, will operate the incubator, Winstanley said. Johannes Fruehauf, chief executive officer of BioLabs, the nations largest provider of laboratory co-working space with spots for 350 startup companies, said, We have situation in this country that is very unique. We have a very productive and efficient engine for biotech innovation. We need to keep this industry at home and to keep it strong, he said. To do that, Winstanley said Connecticut officials said private sector companies need to work on developing space for companies that outgrow incubator space. When the companies emerge from the incubator, we dont want them to move to New York, he said. We want to keep them here, close to the innovators. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com CORNWALL Mark McEachern, Executive Director of the Torrington Historical Society, will give a talk about the history of Torrington, accompanied by historical photos, at 4 p.m. Oct. 10 on Zoom. McEachern will compare and contrast the origins of the towns of Cornwall and Torrington. Both towns were incorporated in 1740 but the way they were settled differs substantially. For the first hundred years they were strictly agricultural but after that they diverged and Torrington developed into a small city, while Cornwall remained primarily agricultural and rural. Mark will discuss his theory about why that happened. His program will also focus on how the rise of the industrial and business economy attracted wave after wave of immigrant job seekers from the 1830s to the present. Items such as woolen cloth, wooden shelf clocks, musical instruments (including guitars and reed organs), brass machinery, needles, bearings, and hardware were all manufactured in Torrington. Given this, McEachern will discuss major industries and immigration in detail. He will also speak about the contributions of the Vail family and the Coe family whose names may still be familiar to the residents of the area. Registration required; go to: https://cornwalllibrary.org/events Goshen candidate holding public discussions GOSHEN First Selectman candidate and Democrat Peter Kujawski invites the public to join him for a series of public discussions followed by Q&A at the Mary Stuart House Barn, 160 Sharon Turnpike, Goshen. The series will be held Saturday, 9-11 a.m., Oct. 17, 4-5:30 p.m., and Oct. 24, 4-5:30 p.m. Flanders celebrates camp season WOODBURY Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust is celebrating its largest summer camp and academy season. Due to the generosity of individual donors, the Jewish Federation of Western Connecticut and the SMPS Family Fund, Flanders was able to serve a greater population of families, providing safe, educational and fun summer programming to children in need from Woodbury, Waterbury and surrounding communities. These camperships provided families with much needed childcare during the summer months and ensured that all those who wished to participate were able to do so, Flanders said in a statement. For more information on how you can grant the gift of a meaningful summer to a child contact Flanders Director of Development, Jennifer Callery- Stokes via phone at 203-263-3711 or by email Jennifer@flandersnaturecenter.org Christmastime in Torrington invites listings TORRINGTON - Christmastime in Torrington is seeking city-wide holiday events that celebrate the traditions of the Christmas season. Back by popular demand, the community calendar will feature Thanksgiving holiday activities and December activities showcasing Torringtons celebrations and traditions during this festive time. Businesses, schools, churches, civic organizations and all are encouraged to forward their Thanksgiving and December event information to be included in the calendar. Information should include event name, date and time, address of event, and contact information. Forward all details to Maurette Wall at maurette_wall@torringtonct.org by Oct. 22. The Official Guide to Seasonal Events & Activities calendar will be available in businesses and will provide a valuable resource for residents and visitors. Halloween events planned in Torrington TORRINGTON The Torrington Parks and Recreation Department in collaboration with Torrington Municipal and Teachers Federal Credit Union and the Torrington Lions Club is sponsoring a Drive-thru Trunk Or Treat at Torrington Middle School, 4-6 p.m. Oct. 23. The rain date is Oct. 24. The event is open to all ages; trunk or treating will be limited to ages 15 and under. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, families and children should remain in their cars at all times. Trunk or Treat participants will hand out candy while practicing social distancing. It is preferred that families have their trunks open with a bucket for candy. Families participating in this event are encouraged to decorate their vehicles and have their children wear costumes. Anyone interested in decorating a vehicle and handing out candy, must register in advance at the Torrington Parks and Recreation Department. Call 860-489-2274 for an application. Halloween Decorating Contest: The Torrington Parks and Recreation Department is sponsoring a Halloween Decorating Contest at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 28. Displays should be lit from 6-9 p.m. and will judged in the following categories: Commercial: Halloween Display and Residential: Decorated Doorway and Halloween Display In order to participate, an entry form must be filled out and submitted to the Torrington Parks and Recreation Department. The deadline for entry is October 26. Trophies awarded to the top three in each category. Hospitals and pharmacies across Connecticut are now offering booster shots or third doses of COVID-19 vaccines to those who qualify. Gov. Ned Lamont has promised the process of getting an additional shot of vaccine will be easier than in the spring, when high demand led appointments to fill up within minutes. He reiterated that point on Wednesday. You can go to any of our pharmacies virtually no questions asked, you can get that booster if its been more than six months and you think youre eligible, the governor said, speaking to reporters after an event in Bethel. Booster versus additional dose Federal regulators announced last month that a limited number of Americans would be eligible to receive booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The announcement was narrower than the Biden administrations stated goal of allowing anyone who had received the vaccine to get a booster six months after their initial series of shots. Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have also submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration to allow boosters of the two other federally authorized COVID-19 vaccines, but neither has been approved by the agency yet. Vaccine providers also make a distinction between booster shots and additional doses. In August, the FDA authorized third doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for people with compromised immune systems. The difference comes down to immunity. A booster is meant to address waning immunity, while a third shot is intended for those with compromised immune systems who need more than two doses to achieve maximum effect. Eligibility People eligible for a booster shot of the Pfizer BioNTech fall into three basic categories, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include people 65 and older, adults over the age of 18 with underlying medical conditions, and adults over the age of 18 who are at increased risk of exposure due to their job or living conditions. The list of underlying medical conditions includes cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, dementia, down syndrome, heart conditions, HIV infection, obesity, liver disease, pregnancy, sickle cell disease or thalassemia, smoking, being a solid organ or blood stem cell recipient, stroke, substance use disorders and patients who are immunocompromised. Jobs that might put someone at increased risk of exposure to the virus include first responders like health care workers, firefighters, police and staff of congregate facilities; educators, including teachers, school staff and day care workers; food and agricultural workers; people who work in manufacturing; prison guards and staff; postal workers; grocery workers and people who work in public transit. However, the CDC said people should talk with their health care provider about their personal risks to determine if their job puts them at increased risk. Dr. James Cardon, Hartford HealthCare's chief clinical integration officer, admitted those categories are a little vague, and said the hospital systems inclination is to administer the booster if someone feels they qualify, rather than policing who is eligible. We tend to take a liberal view of people who say gee I think I qualify and I feel safer with a vaccine, Cardon said. As long as its Pfizer and they have it in the right time interval. Scheduling a shot Cardon said the hospital system is handling around 3,000 booster shots every week, and people can either walk up or schedule an appointment for their shot. During the sign-in process, people must attest that they qualify for a booster. People should bring documentation from their previous shots. We are adhering to just Pfizer and not cross-matching the different (mRNA) vaccines, Cardon said. Large pharmacy chains, including CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, are accepting appointments for booster shots. During the online scheduling process, people must to attest that they qualify for a booster under one of the categories outlined by the CDC. The systems also require users to enter the date of their last vaccine dose, and will not let them proceed if they received their last dose within the past six months. CVS, Walgreens and Walmart locations around the state all showed readily available appointments for Pfizer booster shots within the next week. Flu shots People can also now safely get a flu shot at the same time as their booster. When COVID vaccines first became available, many recipients were told to wait to get other vaccines. The CDC has since clarified the two can be taken together. You can get them at the exact same time, Cardon said. With the flu shot, timing is important because getting it too early can cause immunity to wane before flu season ends, he pointed out, but from this point on, youre pretty much in good shape to get both if thats what you need. Thats important, because the colder weather headed into the fall could see COVID-19 infections rise, but also cases of other respiratory illnesses as well. We are also seeing some increases in respiratory illnesses and flu-related illnesses right now, said Dr. Ajay Kumar, Hartford HealthCares chief clinical officer. So we might actually have a different type of problem in terms of different types of respiratory infections in late winter. Those could impact hospital capacity later in the winter, he said. A month after President Biden issued his testing and vaccination mandates, accusations of unconstitutionality and dictatorship are still flying. The accusations are demonstrably wrong, but the more the mandates validity is in limbo, the harder it will be to get doubters vaccinated, even in the face of firings and fines. It should be clear by now that the president has that constitutional authority. The claims of unconstitutionality are twofold: First, that the mandates violate individual rights, such as free exercise of religion or a right to bodily integrity. Second, that only states not the federal government may issue such mandates. As to individual rights, the federal courts have held consistently for more than a century that vaccine mandates do not violate individual rights. In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld an order requiring smallpox vaccinations in the midst of a raging epidemic. Decades later, the court said that religion claims would not override vaccination requirements. The other critique Ill call it the power argument has two aspects. The first is a federalism issue, that the federal government has no police power authority to regulate to protect the public health, welfare and safety, matters reserved to the states under our federal structure, including the 10th Amendment. The argument is valid, as far as it goes, but Bidens executive orders do not rely on a police power. They invoke powers explicitly granted by the Constitution to the federal government: to lay and collect taxes, provide for the common defense and general welfare, regulate interstate commerce, and make rules for governing the military. Congress has power to impose conditions on grants when it spends federal funds to provide for the general welfare. Can anyone seriously argue that halting a pandemic that has killed 700,000 Americans is not in the general welfare? This provides authority for mandating vaccinations of employees of federal contractors and educational and health establishments that receive federal funds (nearly all of them). Ordering military personnel to be vaccinated falls within the power to make rules for the land and naval forces and the presidents role as commander in chief. The most controversial mandate does not even require vaccination, offering a testing option. It applies to workers at any company with 100 or more employees. This authority comes from Congress power to regulate interstate commerce, protect instrumentalities of interstate commerce and regulate activities that substantially affect interstate commerce. Surely a pandemic that has slowed the manufacture and shipment of goods through interstate commerce, and killed thousands of workers in interstate commerce with a virus that has traveled in interstate commerce, substantially affects interstate commerce. The power argument further holds that even if the federal government may impose vaccination mandates, it has not done so, because these powers lie with Congress, not the president. The authority for anything the president does must come from either the Constitution or an act of Congress. There is no apparent authority in the Constitution for a presidential mandate to private employees, so the question becomes whether Congress authorized it. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires employers to maintain conditions or adopt practices reasonably necessary and appropriate to protect workers on the job with the goal of assuring safe and healthful working conditions. OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, created by the act, regulates workplace safety largely by promulgating rules. This involves a complex process of review and public comment that typically takes seven years, so the administration has invoked an emergency procedure in the law, which would be valid for six months. The decision to use the emergency procedure is the target of much of the criticism. It is clear to me that the presidents orders fall within his constitutional and statutory authority. There will surely be challenges, because it is new and feelings run high, but I doubt they will ultimately succeed. If I am wrong, the task falls to Congress, whose powers are broader than the presidents, or to state governors and legislatures, whose powers are not seriously in doubt, despite occasional cries of dictator! Something must be done. As long as the mandates validity is in doubt, anti-vaxers and doubters will be encouraged to resist, and the pandemic will continue. It should not matter whether a health and safety regulation emanates from the states or from Washington, as long as it emanates. Doing it from Washington is quicker, easier, uniform and entirely constitutional. This is why the Constitutions framers created a national government in the first place to deal with problems that affect the nation as a whole and are beyond the reach of the states. William V. Dunlap is a professor of constitutional law at the Quinnipiac University School of Law. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has reacted to the Federal Governments approval of stipends for students of education in ... The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has reacted to the Federal Governments approval of stipends for students of education in public tertiary institutions. Recall that the Federal Government had on Tuesday announced the payment of N75,000 and N50,000 stipends per semester for students pursuing a degree in education and a Nigeria Certificate in Education, respectively. Undergraduate B.Ed/B.A. Ed/ BSc. Ed students in public institutions will receive stipends of N75,000 per semester, while NCE students will receive stipends of N50,000 per semester, according to the governments announcement. Reacting, the ASUU Chairman, Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) Chapter, Dr Christopher Echereobia, lauded the government over the decision, saying it is a welcome development. He gave the commendation in an interview with NAN on Friday, in Owerri, the Imo State capital. Echereobia, a senior lecturer with the Department of Crop Science and Technology, described the decision as a step in the right direction, given the fact that education is the bedrock of excellence in all fields of human endeavour. He noted that successful countries had gotten it right with their education systems, adding that the approved funds, if properly channeled, would alleviate the sufferings of poor students and encourage aspiring students to consider a career in education. Echereobia, however, called on the government to take urgent steps to ensure that the funds were disbursed to the intended beneficiaries. To pay stipends to students of education is a welcome development and a step in the right direction. This will encourage more students to pursue a career in education thus strengthening the foundation for a greater Nigeria. I urge the Federal Government to put necessary machinery in place so as to ensure that funds for this purpose are not diverted to the wrong purse, he added. Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability Delivered By: Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability Delivered By: His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari President, Federal Republic of Nigeria At the Joint Session of the National Assembly, Abuja Thursday, October 7, 2021 PROTOCOLS 1. It is my great pleasure to be here once again to present the 2022 Federal Budget Proposals to this distinguished Joint Session of the National Assembly. 2. Distinguished and Honourable leaders, and members of the National Assembly, let me start by commending you for the expeditious consideration and passage of the Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2021. This further underscores your commitment to our collective efforts to contain the COVID-19 Pandemic and address the various security challenges facing our country. 3. I will also take this opportunity to thank you for the quick consideration and approval of the 2022-2024 Medium-term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper. Our hope is that National Assembly will continue to partner with the Executive by ensuring that deliberations on the 2022 Budget are completed before the end of this year so that the Appropriation Act can come into effect by the first of January 2022. 4. The 2022 Budget will be the last full year budget to be implemented by this administration. We designed it to build on the achievements of previous budgets and to deliver on our goals and aspirations as will be reflected in our soon-to-be launched National Development Plan of 2021 to 2025. 5. Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members, in normal times, I make use of this opportunity to provide an overview of global and domestic developments in the current year, a summary of our achievements, and our plans for the next fiscal year. 6. However, these are exceptional times. The grim realities of COVID-19 and its lethal variants are still upon us. From President to Pauper, the virus does not discriminate. 7. This is why our country still maintains its COVID -19 guidelines and protocols in place to protect its citizens and stop the spread of this disease. 8. Over the past few days, we have consulted with the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 and the leadership of the National Assembly on how best to present the 2022 budget proposal keeping in mind the deep-rooted traditions in place and the guidelines for safe mass gatherings. 9. We ultimately decided that the most responsible and respectful approach was to hold a shorter than usual gathering while allowing the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to provide fuller details of our proposals in a smaller event. 10. I am sure many of you will be relieved as my last budget speech in October 2020 lasted over fifty minutes. 11. Still, over the next few minutes, I will provide key highlights of our 2021 performance as well as our proposals for 2022. PERFORMANCE OF THE 2021 BUDGET 12. The 2021 Budget of Economic Recovery and Resilience is based on a benchmark oil price of 40 US Dollars per barrel, oil production of 1.6m b/d, and exchange rate of 379 Naira to US Dollar. Furthermore, a Supplementary budget of 982.73 billion Naira was recently enacted to address exigent issues in the Security and Health sectors. 13. Based on the 2021 Fiscal Framework, total revenue of 8.12 trillion Naira was projected to fund aggregate federal expenditure of 14.57 trillion Naira (inclusive of the supplementary budget). The projected fiscal deficit of 6.45 trillion Naira, or 4.52 percent of GDP, is expected to be financed mainly by domestic and external borrowings. 14. By July 2021, Nigerias daily oil production averaged one 1.70million barrels (inclusive of condensates) and the market price of Bonny Light crude averaged 68.53 US Dollars per barrel. 15. Accordingly, actual revenues were 34 percent below target as of July 2021, mainly due to the underperformance of oil and gas revenue sources. Federal Governments retained revenues (excluding Government Owned Enterprises) amounted to 2.61 trillion Naira against the proportionate target of 3.95 trillion Naira for the period. 16. The Federal Governments share of Oil revenue totalled 570.23 billion Naira as of July 2021, which was 51 percent below target, while non-oil tax revenues totalled 964.13 billion Naira. The poor performance of oil revenue relative to the budget was largely due to the shortfall in production as well as significant cost recovery by NNPC to cover the shortfall between its cost of importing petrol and the pump price. 17. The National Assembly will recall that in March 2020 the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency announced that the price of petrol would henceforth be determined by market forces. 18. However, as the combination of rising crude oil prices and exchange rate combined to push the price above the hitherto regulated price of 145 Naira per litre, opposition against the policy of price deregulation hardened on the part of Labour Unions in particular. 19. Government had to suspend further upward price adjustments while engaging Labour on the subject. This petrol subsidy significantly eroded revenues that should have been available to fund the budget. 20. On a positive note, we surpassed the non-oil taxes target by eleven (11) percent in aggregate. The sustained improvement in non-oil taxes indicates that some of our revenue reforms are yielding positive results. We expect further improvement in revenue collections later in the year as more corporate entities file their tax returns and we accelerate the implementation of our revenue reforms. Improving Revenue Generation and Administration 21. We have stepped up implementation of the strengthened framework for performance management of government owned enterprises (GOEs), with a view to improve their operational efficiencies, revenue generation and accountability. The 50% cost-to-income ratio imposed on the GOEs in the Finance Act 2020 has contributed significantly to rationalizing wasteful expenditures by several GOEs and enhanced the level of operating surpluses to be transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). I solicit the cooperation of the National Assembly in enforcing the cost-to-income ratio and other prudential guidelines during your consideration of the budget proposals of the GOEs, which I am also laying before you today. 22. On the expenditure side, as at end of July 2021, a total of six point seven-nine (6.79) trillion Naira had been spent as against the pro-rated expenditure of seven point nine-one (7.91) trillion Naira. Accordingly, a deficit of four point one-seven (4.17) trillion Naira was recorded as at end of July 2021. The deficit was financed through domestic borrowing. 23. Despite our revenue challenges, we have consistently met our debt service commitments. We are also up to date on the payment of staff salaries, statutory transfers, and overhead costs. As at (4th of October 2021, a total of 1.732 trillion Naira had been released for capital expenditure. 24. I am pleased to inform you that we expect to fund MDAs capital budget fully by the end of the fiscal year 2021. 25. Capital releases thus far have been prioritised in favour of critical ongoing infrastructural projects in the power, roads, rail, agriculture, health and education sectors. 26. We have made progress on the railway projects connecting different parts of the country. I am glad to report that the Lagos-Ibadan Line is now completed and operational. The Abuja-Kaduna Line is running efficiently. The Itakpe-Ajaokuta rail Line was finally completed and commissioned over thirty (30) years after its initiation. 27. Arrangements are underway to complete the Ibadan-Kano Line. Also, work will soon commence on the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Line and Calabar-Lagos Coastal Line, which will connect the Southern and Eastern States to themselves and to the North. 28. Progress is also being made on several power generation, transmission, and distribution projects, as well as off-grid solutions, all aimed towards achieving the national goal of optimizing power supply by 2025. 29. I am again happy to report that we continue to make visible progress in our strategic road construction projects like the Lagos Ibadan expressway, Apapa Oworonsoki expressway, Abuja Kano expressway, East-West Road and the second Niger bridge. We hope to commission most of these projects before the end of our tenure in 2023. 30. The Pandemic revealed the urgent need to strengthen our health system. Towards this end, we constructed 52 Molecular labs, 520 bed intensive care units, 52 Isolation centres and provision of Personal Protective equipment across 52 Federal Medical Centres and Teaching Hospitals. 31. We continue to push our expenditure rationalization initiatives which we commenced in 2016. For example, on personnel costs, the number of MDAs captured on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System increased from 459 in 2017 to 711 to date. 32. The recent passage of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, and consequent incorporation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation should also result in rationalisation of expenditure, as well as increased investments and improved output in the oil and gas industry. 33. Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members, you will agree with me that a lot has been accomplished over the last year but there is still much to be done. I will now proceed with a review of the 2022 Budget proposal. THEME AND PRIORITIES OF THE 2022 BUDGET 34. The allocations to MDAs were guided by the strategic objectives of the National Development Plan of 2021 to 2025, which are: a. Diversifying the economy, with robust MSME growth; b. Investing in critical infrastructure; c. Strengthening security and ensuring good governance; d. Enabling a vibrant, educated and healthy populace; e. Reducing poverty; and f. Minimizing regional, economic and social disparities. 35. The 2022 Appropriation therefore is a Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability. 36. Defence and internal security will continue to be our top priority. We remain firmly committed to the security of life, property and investment nationwide. We will continue to ensure that our gallant men and women in the armed forces, police and paramilitary units are properly equipped, remunerated and well-motivated. 37. The 2022 budget is also the first in our history, where MDAs were clearly advised on gender responsive budgeting. These are part of critical steps in our efforts to distribute resources fairly and reach vulnerable groups of our society. PARAMETERS AND FISCAL ASSUMPTIONS 38. Distinguished Members of the National Assembly, the 2022 to 2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper sets out the parameters for the 2022 Budget as follows: a. Conservative oil price benchmark of 57 US Dollars per barrel; b. Daily oil production estimate of 1.88 million barrels (inclusive of Condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day); c. Exchange rate of four 410.15 per US Dollar; and d. Projected GDP growth rate of 4.2 percent and 13 percent inflation rate. 2022 REVENUE ESTIMATES 39. Based on these fiscal assumptions and parameters, total federally-collectible revenue is estimated at 17.70 trillion Naira in 2022. 40. Total federally distributable revenue is estimated at 12.72 trillion Naira in 2022 while total revenue available to fund the 2022 Federal Budget is estimated at 10.13 trillion Naira. This includes Grants and Aid of 63.38 billion Naira, as well as the revenues of 63 Government-Owned Enterprises. 41. Oil revenue is projected at 3.16 trillion, Non-oil taxes are estimated at 2.13 trillion Naira and FGN Independent revenues are projected to be 1.82 trillion Naira. PLANNED 2022 EXPENDITURE 42. A total expenditure of sixteen point three-nine (16.39) trillion Naira is proposed for the Federal Government in 2022. The proposed expenditure comprises: a. Statutory Transfers of 768.28 billion Naira; b. Non-debt Recurrent Costs of 6.83 trillion; c. Personnel Costs of 4.11 trillion Naira; d. Pensions, Gratuities and Retirees Benefits 577.0 billion Naira; e. Overheads of 792.39 billion Naira; f. Capital Expenditure of 5.35 trillion Naira, including the capital component of Statutory Transfers; g. Debt Service of 3.61 trillion Naira; and h. Sinking Fund of 292.71 billion Naira to retire certain maturing bonds. Fiscal Balance 43. We expect the total fiscal operations of the Federal Government to result in a deficit of 6.26 trillion Naira. This represents 3.39 percent of estimated GDP, slightly above the 3 percent threshold set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007. Countries around the world have to of necessity over-shoot their fiscal thresholds for the economies to survive and thrive 44. We need to exceed this threshold considering our collective desire to continue tackling the existential security challenges facing our country. 45. We plan to finance the deficit mainly by new borrowings totalling 5.01 trillion Naira, 90.73 billion Naira from Privatization Proceeds and 1.16 trillion Naira drawdowns on loans secured for specific development projects. 46. Some have expressed concern over our resort to borrowing to finance our fiscal gaps. They are right to be concerned. However, we believe that the debt level of the Federal Government is still within sustainable limits. Borrowings are to specific strategic projects and can be verified publicly. 47. As you are aware, we have witnessed two economic recessions within the period of this Administration. In both cases, we had to spend our way out of recession, which necessitated a resort to growing the public debt. It is unlikely that our recovery from each of the two recessions would have grown as fast without the sustained government expenditure funded by debt. 48. Our target over the medium term is to grow our Revenue-to-GDP ratio from about 8 percent currently to 15 percent by 2025. At that level of revenues, the Debt-Service-to-Revenue ratio will cease to be worrying. Put simply, we do not have a debt sustainability problem, but a revenue challenge which we are determined to tackle to ensure our debts remain sustainable. 49. Very importantly, we have endeavoured to use the loans to finance critical development projects and programmes aimed at improving our economic environment and ensuring effective delivery of public services to our people. We focused on; a. the completion of major road and rail projects; b. the effective implementation of Power sector projects; c. the provision of potable water; d. construction of irrigation infrastructure and dams across the country; and e. critical health projects such as the strengthening of national emergency medical services and ambulance system, procurement of vaccines, polio eradication and upgrading Primary Health Care Centres across the six geopolitical zones. Innovations in Infrastructure Financing 50. In 2022, Government will further strengthen the frameworks for concessions and public private partnerships (PPPs). Capital projects that are good candidates for PPP by their nature will be developed for private sector participation. 51. We will also explore available opportunities in the existing ecosystem of green finance including the implementation of our Sovereign Green Bond Programme and leveraging debt-for-climate swap mechanisms. Enhancing Revenue Mobilisation 52. Our strategies to improve revenue mobilisation will be sustained in 2022 with the goal of achieving the following objectives: a. Enhance tax and excise revenues through policy reforms and tax administration measures; b. Review the policy effectiveness of tax waivers and concessions; c. Boost customs revenue through the e-Customs and Single Window initiatives; and d. Safeguard revenues from the oil and gas sector. 53. Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members, I commend you for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021. It is my hope that the implementation of the law will boost confidence in our economy and attract substantial investments in the sector. Finance Bill 2022 54. In line with our plan to accompany annual budgets with Finance Bills, partly to support the realization of fiscal projections, current tax and fiscal laws are being reviewed to produce a draft Finance Bill 2022. 55. It is our intention that once ongoing consultations are completed, the Finance Bill would be submitted to the National Assembly to be considered alongside the 2022 Appropriation Bill. CONCLUSION 56. Mr. Senate President, Mr. Speaker, Distinguished and Honourable Members of the National Assembly, this speech would be incomplete without commending the immense, patriotic, and collaborative support of the National Assembly in the effort to deliver socio-economic development and democracy dividends for our people. 57. I wish to assure you of the strong commitment of the Executive to strengthen the relationship with the National Assembly. 58. Nigeria is currently emerging from a very difficult economic challenge. We must continue to cooperate and ensure that our actions are aimed at accelerating the pace of economic recovery so that we can achieve economic prosperity and deliver on our promises to the Nigerian people. 59. The fiscal year 2022 is very crucial in our efforts to ensure that critical projects are completed, put to use and improve the general living conditions of our people. 60. It is with great pleasure therefore, that I lay before this distinguished Joint Session of the National Assembly, the 2022 Budget Proposals of the Federal Government of Nigeria. 61. I thank you most sincerely for your attention. 62. May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Journalists across the country, under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) have elected new set of leaders to pilot the af... Journalists across the country, under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) have elected new set of leaders to pilot the affairs of the union for another three years. It was gathered that the National President of NUJ, Chris Isiguzo has been returned unopposed for another term in office. Isiguzo was first elected at the 6th triennial delegates conference of the union in Abeokuta in 2018. Isiguzo emerged as the President of the union for another three years in office during the 7th delegates conference of the union which was held in Umuahia, Abia State. The election was witnessed by three former Presidents of NUJ, representatives of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the Deputy National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero. Isiguzo got 665 votes from 704 voters accredited for the election, while his opponent, Yusuf Idris polled 15 votes, despite the fact that Idris had earlier stepped down. 22 votes were declared invalid. Chairman of the National Credentials Committee, Garba Muhammad declared Isiguzo winner of the election. Other national officers who emerged unopposed include Yahya Al-hassan who emerged as Deputy National President and a former Vice President of B-Zone and ex-Ondo NUJ Chairman, Barrister Dele Atunbi of NTA, Abuja elected unopposed as National Treasurer. Others are Samuel Dada of LTV, Lagos who emerged unopposed as the National Financial Secretary and Ladi Emmanuel who is now the new National Internal Auditor. Our correspondent gathered that 6 Zonal Vice Presidents and Zonal Secretaries were also elected at the conference. A former Ekiti NUJ Secretary/Vice Chairman Ronke Samo of NOA Chapel from Ekiti State was returned as the First female Vice President of B-Zone Southwest, while Abdulrasaq Alege emerged as B-Zone Secretary. A gubernatorial aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke has described as a figment of the imagination o... A gubernatorial aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke has described as a figment of the imagination of the writer, the news that has been generating furore regarding his visit to the Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II. The story which purportedly emanated from Moses Olafare, the Director of Media and Public Affair to the Ooni had claimed that the gubernatorial hopeful had promised to buy a jet for Ooni Ogunwusi. The Media Assistant to Senator Adeleke, Femi Babalola in a press release disclosed that his principal who was in Ile-Ife to pay obeisance to the Ooni for his absence during the Olojo Day only assured the Ooni that the family Jet would be available for him whenever he is travelling overseas. Babalola added that Adeleke said that whenever the Oonirisa is travelling overseas, a helicopter will be provided to take him to the airport where the family Jet will take him to his destination abroad. The media aide also revealed that Adeleke also promised to rehabilitate the road leading to the town since it was already in a deplorable state. He added that Adeleke had stated that he noticed with utter dismay the terrible state of the roads in the state and promised to prioritise road rehabilitation especially in Ife which has been considered to be the source of the Yoruba nation. However, at no time did he mention that he will purchase a jet for the Imperial Majesty, the Media Assistant only quoted the governorship flag bearer of the PDP out of context. We are not accusing him of getting a story as a media man but advising him to confirm the story before disseminating such. Meanwhile, in a telephone chat with a staff of the Oonis Directorate of Media and Public Affair, DAILY POST was made to understand that the news making the rounds was a personal story sent to some reporters who in a bid to add authenticity to their reports attributed it to Moses Olafare, the Oonis spokesperson. Nollywood actress, Shan George has reacted to a video of Chinwetalu Agu denying that the outfit he was wearing when he was arrested is the... Nollywood actress, Shan George has reacted to a video of Chinwetalu Agu denying that the outfit he was wearing when he was arrested is the Biafran flag. The Veteran actor was arrested by troops of the Nigerian Army for wearing Biafra-themed clothing at Upper Iweka Road, Onitsha. Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, the Director, Army Public Relations, confirming his arrest, said the veteran actor was apprehended for inciting members of the public and soliciting support for the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). However, in a viral video after his arrest, Chiwetalu Agu said he was sharing bread to hungry Nigerians and not demonstrating for anyone to join Biafra. According to him, his outfit is just a dress with a rising sun and not anyway representing the Eastern Security Network, ESN. Reacting, Shan George, in a post via her Instagram account, urged the actor to own up to his fight for freedom. She noted that there was nothing absolutely wrong with fighting for freedom adding that Nigeria once fought to be freed from the British colonialists. My dear brother, you are clearly wearing a Biafra flag and you should own it with your full chest. I dont get all the rising sun English you are speaking. I personally see nothing wrong in certain people fighting for their freedom. Nigeria fought for theirs from the British before 1960. Scotland and the rest fought for theirs too, at least you were not carrying any arms, fighting for freedom peacefully shouldnt be a crime, own your fight with your full chest, she wrote. Watertown, NY (13601) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High near 45F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 34F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Mayor LaToya Cantrell and New Orleans' top health official told leaders of many of the citys 34 parading organizations Thursday that the city is working toward something resembling a normal Mardi Gras season, but it's too early to say whether parades can roll responsibly in 2022. Were doing everything we can to ensure that Carnival happens, the mayor said at a meeting of the Mardi Gras Advisory Committee. She warned, however, that she intends to see that New Orleans moves forward without any regrets at all. Cantrell decided in November that parades would not roll in 2021, and the city put up fencing along many popular gathering spots to reduce crowds ahead of the Carnival season. It was the first time in 42 years that parades would not roll in the city, and, aided by freezing temperatures, the holiday was largely confined to house floats and private parties. On Thursday, Cantrell said the Halloween-themed Krewe of BOO! float parade she recently approved to roll on Oct. 23, will test the citys ability to stage a Carnival-style parade while still suppressing the spread of COVID-19. The city has stipulated that all participants in the Krewe of BOO! must either show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for the coronavirus. Its a great opportunity to kick off our guidelines, Cantrell said, noting the goal was to establish measures we can live with, and, at the end of the day, live after. Jennifer Avegno, the director of the city's Department of Health, will monitor participants in the Krewe of Boo! in the weeks after the parade, and will survey the crowd to determine the safety of conducting parades in February and March 2022. In August, Cantrell gave the parade-deprived city reason for optimism when she called on krewe captains to encourage their membership to vaccinate as a first step to safe parading in the future. At Thursdays meeting, both Cantrell and Avegno noted that New Orleans high vaccination rate and citizens' willingness to abide by COVID protocols point to the possibility of Carnival parades. The availability of vaccine boosters and the advent of COVID vaccines for children should also help clear the path for parades. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up But both women emphasized that the conditions relative to the coronavirus and its spread months from now are hard to predict. Cantrell pointed out that part of the challenge of controlling the spread of the virus during Carnival is that the event draws crowds of visitors from far beyond the city limits. Perhaps, she said, the city would impose COVID protocols on tourists. Whether that is showing proof of vaccination and/or a negative test when you come to the city of New Orleans, thats something that Im thinking about, she said, because were opening ourselves up to the world. The mayor did not elaborate further on that concept. Cantrell also mentioned that one of the challenges the city currently faces is a workforce shortage that could impact Carnival, including refuse removal. Carnival took place as usual in 2020, but it probably shouldnt have. In retrospect, health officials recognized that the big party had probably helped spread the COVID-19 virus, which had only recently arrived in the United States. The explosion of the illness across the country prompted Cantrell to cancel parading during the 2021 Mardi Gras season. +19 Swampus Returns, a Halloween stationary parade, will pop up in Gentilly Oct. 30 Last Decembers weird stationary Krampus parade in Gentilly was such a success that the krewe has decided to conduct something similar this ye Travel during the pandemic has been largely limited out of New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport, but nonstop flights to a popular European destination will resume between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Nonstop flights between MSY and London Heathrow will resume on December 9, operating three times a week, according to British Airways representative Josephine Simmons. The flight time is 10 hours and 15 minutes without any stops. London Heathrow is one of Europe's largest hubs, with connections across the continent and beyond. The press release mentioned specifically that the direct flights to New Orleans "proved to be a hit with customers when [it] first launched." Last month, Louis Armstrong International was ranked the number one airport in North America by J.D. Power. There were rumors of the return of the British Airways nonstop flights this past March, but stricter travel restrictions prevented the airline from operating in and out of MSY. It will be 20 months since last operation by the time British Airways wheels touch down in New Orleans in December, according to Simmons. New Orleans airport ranked number one in North America by J.D. Power Louis Armstrong New Orleans International airport has been ranked as the best airport in North America for its size when it comes to customer The announcement comes on the heels of policy changes enacted by the Biden administration to ease COVID-19 based travel restrictions. Starting in November, foreign visitors will be permitted to fly to the U.S. with valid vaccination and a negative COVID test result taken within three days before a flight. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Vaccinated U.S. citizens are subject to the same testing requirements as foreign visitors. Non-vaccinated U.S. citizens can still fly in and out of the country, but must adhere to a stricter testing range: within one day before their flight and after they arrive home. +2 U.S. easing COVID restrictions for foreign flights to America starting in November WASHINGTON In a major easing of pandemic travel restrictions, the U.S. said Monday it will allow foreigners to fly into the country this fall Details on how the upon-return test will work have not been released yet. Nor has information on how children will factor into these new rules. However, on Thursday, Pfizer asked the FDA to approve COVID vaccine shots for children between the ages of 5 and 11. The British Airways press release mentioned, "we are also adding additional services to destinations all over the world, to ensure our customers can take advantage of a much-needed holiday." Its been a deadly week in New Orleans: 20 people shot, seven fatally, since Sunday, the New Orleans Police Department said. Officers have responded to two mass shootings one outside of an Uptown church Wednesday and another in Central City on Thursday night. The most recent homicide, a man gunned down in Treme, was reported Friday morning as New Orleans Police Superintendent Shawn Ferguson prepared to hold a news conference to publicly address the worrying spike in violence. Ferguson noted that many of the shootings werent committed under the cover of darkness, but in broad daylight. Theres a bolder, more brazen criminal element that were dealing with, he said. No arrests have been made in any of the cases. But Ferguson wanted to reassure the public that the department is aware of the rise in violence and is responding appropriately. Bloody Thursday In the most recent homicide, New Orleans police received a report of a shooting in 1100 block of North Claiborne Avenue about 11:12 a.m. Friday and found a man shot to death inside a vehicle there. No other information was available. The Treme homicide followed a particularly bloody Thursday in New Orleans. Four people were shot just after 8 p.m. as they were walking near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and South Robertson Street in Central City (map). Three of the wounded arrived at the hospital in private vehicles, NOPD said. But officers found the fourth victim dead on a porch in the area. No condition information was available for the survivors. Around the same time, three people were shot in the 2400 block of Allen Street, near the intersection of North Rocheblave Street (map), NOPD said. At least two of the victims, a 25-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man, were shot while sitting in a vehicle. All arrived at the hospital in private vehicles about the same time as the victims from the Central City mass shooting, complicating matters for investigators, who were trying to sort out where in the city each person had been shot, Ferguson said. No information was available about the conditions for the victims in the Allen Street shooting. About 9:48 p.m. Thursday, police were dispatched to another shooting, this time near the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Verbena Street in Gentilly, authorities said. Officers found an unidentified man, 20, who had been shot multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Two other non-fatal shootings were also reported Thursday, including an 18-year-old with a gunshot wound who fled the scene of a car crash in 1900 block of St. Thomas Street along with three juveniles, ages 15 and 16, around 11 p.m. All four who ran from the vehicle, including the wounded man, were arrested, though authorities have not said what they were booked with. Mass shooting Uptown The week's first mass shooting was reported Wednesday. Someone opened fire on a crew working on an Uptown drainage project outside a church at General Taylor and Annunciation streets, NOPD said. One man died at University Medical Center within hours of the shooting. A second worker died later at the same hospital. The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office on Friday identified the men killed as Zernell Lee, 19, and Derrick Copelin, 25. +2 2nd person dead after Wednesday quadruple shooting of drainage crew outside church Two men are now dead following a quadruple shooting that targeted a crew working for an environmental nonprofit outside a New Orleans church, A 20-year-old male crewmember was in the intensive care unit and the fourth victim, also 20, was reported to be in good condition, according to a statement released Thursday from Groundwork New Orleans, the environmental nonprofit that was installing permeable pavers at the site of the shooting. "To have a homicide occur at a church," Ferguson said Friday. "If church ground is not sacred, what is?" 'We are coming for you' New Orleans police officials can't yet say whether any of the violence is connected or whether it's retaliatory. Ferguson said he's approved overtime for the homicide and patrol divisions to further the investigations and increase visibility in the city. But the superintendent had an "ask" for members of the community. "If you see something, please say something," Ferguson implored. Residents with video, photos, or any other evidence no matter how small or insignificant it may seem may help solve the cases and bring peace the victims and their families, Ferguson said. As for the offenders, Ferguson warned, "Just know for a fact that we are coming for you." Staff writer Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed to this story. AMD and Microsoft have finally acknowledged poor L3 cache performance in Windows 11, and a fix for the same is on the way in the form of a Windows update later this month. AMD also notes that CPPC2 may not schedule threads properly on preferred cores in Windows 11 and is investigating a fix. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , E-Mobility , Education , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Human 2.0 , Ice Lake , Intel Evo / Project Athena , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Linux / Unix , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Radeon , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Rumor , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Single-Board Computer (SBC) , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) Ticker Update 10/12: Wccftech has received specific dates for the update rollout. The L3 cache latency issue will be fixed by Microsoft via a Windows Update scheduled for 10/19. AMD will follow suit with a CPPC2 driver power profile update on 10/21. AMD has apparently finished creating the updated CPPC2 driver package and said that it can share it with customers directly upon request before 10/21 if needed. Original article: Windows 11 just went GA a couple of days ago, but one issue that has been plaguing AMD Ryzen users ever since the OS's Insider preview build is poor L3 cache performance. It looks like AMD and Microsoft have finally acknowledged this issue and have assured that a fix is indeed in the works. According to AMD, Ryzen processors that have been listed as compatible with Windows 11 have been found to have increased L3 cache latency. Many users have been complaining on various forums about this issue ever since Microsoft dropped the first Windows 11 Insider Preview build, but the problem remained unaddressed till date. Until this official acknowledgement, Microsoft did not even list this as a known issue in each build's release notes. Having a high L3 cache latency can impact programs that are very dependent on memory access times. Gaming, for instance, can be impacted a lot leading to anywhere between a 10-20% reduction in fps compared to corresponding tests on Intel platforms. Thankfully though, Microsoft will be releasing a Windows update this month to address the same. It may be noted that the new Dev channel builds of Windows 11 that are ahead of the public release do not have this bug. So, it is likely that Microsoft will be backporting some of that code in an upcoming cumulative update for the current public release branch. AMD also notes that the CPPC2 feature may not automatically assign threads to the processor's fastest core, thus affecting single-threaded apps. CPPC2 stands for Collaborative Processor Performance Control is basically an ACPI 6.2 spec that allows the CPU's power management to work with OS power management to allow for core ranking. In case of AMD, each core is ranked roughly 3% apart to let Windows decide which core is the fastest. Apparently, the public release of Windows 11 impacts the functionality of CPPC2 in a way that single-threaded apps suffer a performance hit. AMD notes that the performance impact is more pronounced in CPUs with more than eight cores and above 65 W TDP, which basically means all the 12-core and 16-core Ryzens and all Threadrippers and EPYCs. AMD said that an update to address this issue will be made available this month. Most likely, AMD will be issuing new chipset drivers with an updated Ryzen power plan that rectifies this issue. It is good to see both Microsoft and AMD finally acknowledging this problem. Windows 11 is a requirement to ensure proper scheduling with Intel's upcoming Alder Lake processors, so AMD processors taking a performance hit puts them at an unfair disadvantage in comparative benchmarks. That being said, AMD Ryzen processors are perfectly usable in current Windows 11 builds. But any untoward performance hit is not acceptable so if you are very particular about that, it's best to remain on Windows 10 for a while. We did our own testing of L3 cache performance on an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X using AIDA64's cache and memory benchmark and the results can be seen below. Note the particularly low L3 read/write speeds and high L3 cache latency in Windows 11 compared to Windows 10. We will once again test cache performance after the fixes have been deployed and see if they do solve the problem. Buy the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X on Amazon Kris Wiley is the director of the Roseburg Public Library. She can be reached at kwiley@cityofroseburg.org or 541-492-7051. BEIRUT, Lebanon President Biden and his administration speak less of calculated interests in dealing with the rest of the world and more of letting values like democracy and human rights guide the way. But in the administrations handling of the public release of an intelligence assessment last week concluding that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia had approved the operation that killed the dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, American strategic interests prevailed. The United States sought some accountability for the crime, imposing sanctions on a former intelligence official and the covert force that killed Mr. Khashoggi. But faced with the possibility that directly punishing Prince Mohammed could cause a breach with an important Arab partner and anger the kingdoms likely future monarch Mr. Biden held back to preserve the relationship with Saudi Arabia. The tension surrounding the release of the assessment on Friday illustrated new frictions in the U.S.-Saudi relationship since Mr. Biden took office and could complicate how the two countries interact going forward. In December, State Senator Jen Kiggans of Virginia, campaigning for a competitive U.S. House seat based around Norfolk, issued a nearly 900-word statement on Facebook detailing her commitment to restoring voter confidence but making no mention of Mr. Biden or whether she disputed the 2020 results. (Her primary opponent, Jarome Bell, said during an interview with Mr. Bannon that people involved in election fraud should be sentenced to death.) I agree with you 100% that it is right to question the electoral process and to hold those accountable who are responsible for ensuring our elections are conducted fairly with the utmost integrity, Ms. Kiggans wrote in her statement. Even Republican candidates who acknowledge Mr. Biden as the legitimate winner say potential fraud needs to be addressed. Mary Ann Hanusa, a former official in President George W. Bushs administration who is running for Congress in Iowa, said she would have voted to certify Mr. Bidens victory on Jan. 6, but she added that because of the coronavirus, changes to voting practices in several states were made outside of law and when you do that, it really opens up the door to fraud. Understand the Claim of Executive Privilege in the Jan. 6. Inquiry Card 1 of 8 A key issue yet untested. Donald Trumps power as former president to keep information from his White House secret has become a central issue in the Houses investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Amid an attempt by Mr. Trump to keep personal records secret and the indictment of Stephen K. Bannon for contempt of Congress, heres a breakdown of executive privilege: What is executive privilege? It is a power claimed by presidents under the Constitution to prevent the other two branches of government from gaining access to certain internal executive branch information, especially confidential communications involving the president or among his top aides. What is Trumps claim? Former President Trump has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the disclosure of White House files related to his actions and communications surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He argues that these matters must remain a secret as a matter of executive privilege. Is Trumps privilege claim valid? The constitutional line between a presidents secrecy powers and Congresss investigative authority is hazy. Though a judge rejected Mr. Trumps bid to keep his papers secret, it is likely that the case will ultimately be resolved by the Supreme Court. Is executive privilege an absolute power? No. Even a legitimate claim of executive privilege may not always prevail in court. During the Watergate scandal in 1974, the Supreme Court upheld an order requiring President Richard M. Nixon to turn over his Oval Office tapes. May ex-presidents invoke executive privilege? Yes, but courts may view their claims with less deference than those of current presidents. In 1977, the Supreme Court said Nixon could make a claim of executive privilege even though he was out of office, though the court ultimately ruled against him in the case. Is Steve Bannon covered by executive privilege? This is unclear. Mr. Bannons case could raise the novel legal question of whether or how far a claim of executive privilege may extend to communications between a president and an informal adviser outside of the government. What is contempt of Congress? It is a sanction imposed on people who defy congressional subpoenas. Congress can refer contempt citations to the Justice Department and ask for criminal charges. Mr. Bannon has been indicted on contempt charges for refusing to comply with a subpoena that seeks documents and testimony. Senate primaries so far seem to be competitions to decide which candidates can cast themselves as the strongest allies of Mr. Trump and his quixotic quest to overturn the election results. Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, who spoke at Mr. Trumps Jan. 6 rally, is seeking a promotion to the Senate. Representative Ted Budd of North Carolina, whom Mr. Trump endorsed during his speech on Saturday night, introduced his Senate campaign with a video promising to make sure our elections are fair a barely coded reference to Mr. Trumps claims. In Ohio, a super PAC called the USA Freedom Fund is attacking official and prospective candidates for being insufficiently loyal to the former president and America First principles, while backing Josh Mandel, the Republican former Ohio state treasurer. I am the only candidate in Ohio who gets up wherever he speaks around the state and has the guts to say this election was stolen from Donald J. Trump, Mr. Mandel said last month on a podcast hosted by Mr. Bannon. VILNIUS, Lithuania She has met Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and President Emmanuel Macron of France. Just this week, she was feted in Washington, where she was received by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But while Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the unlikely pro-democracy leader from Belarus, may have little trouble getting a meeting, her high-flying company only underscores her predicament. Its been almost a year since Ms. Tikhanovskaya was forced to flee Belarus after claiming victory in presidential elections. Now the challenge she faces is how to maintain influence in Belarus from abroad. The support of Western leaders may help, but goes only so far. Still, the meetings are part of Ms. Tikhanovskayas strategy to build a broad Western phalanx against the Belarus dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, who has limited her ability to challenge him inside the country, where her return would mean certain imprisonment. On a 2005 trip to Iraq, I wrote a column about spending a night on the U.S.S. Chosin, which commanded the U.S. Navy task force off the coast of Iraq. There I interviewed Mustapha Ahansal, a Moroccan American sailor who acted as the Chosins Arabic translator when it stopped ships suspected of carrying pirates or other hostile actors. The first time I boarded a boat, he told me, we had six or seven people one Hispanic, one Black person, a white person, maybe a woman in our unit. Their sailors said to me, I thought all Americans were white. Then one of them asked me, Are you in the military? It shocks them actually. Ahansal told me that an Iraqi Coast Guard officer once expressed astonishment to him that people from so many different religions and races could produce such a strong navy, while here we are fighting north and south, and we are all cousins and brothers. Leadership matters: The American population has diversity similar to the U.S. militarys, but the ethic of pluralism and teamwork shown by many of our men and women in uniform reduces the tribal divisions within the armed forces. Its not perfect but it is real. Ethical leadership based on principled pluralism matters. That is why our military is our last great carrier of pluralism at a time when more and more civilian politicians are opting for cheap tribalism. What is most frightening to me is how much this virus of tribalism is now infecting some of the most vibrant multisectarian democracies in the world like India and Israel, as well as Brazil, Hungary and Poland. India is a particularly sad story for me because, after 9/11, I offered up Indian pluralism as the most important example of why Islam per se was not responsible for motivating terrorists from Al Qaeda. Everything depended, I argued, on the political, social and cultural context within which Islam, or any other faith, was embedded, and where Islam is embedded in a pluralistic, democratic society, it thrives like any other religion. Although India had a large Hindu majority, it had had Muslim presidents and a Muslim woman on its Supreme Court. Muslims, including women, had been governors of many Indian states, and Muslims were among the countrys most successful entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, today, Indian nationalism based on pluralism is being weakened by Hindu supremacists in the ruling B.J.P. party, who seem hellbent on converting a secular India into a Hindu Pakistan, as the eminent Indian historian Ramachandra Guha once put it. That democracies all over the world are being infected by this tribalism virus could not be happening at a worse time a time when every community, company and country is going to have to adapt to the accelerations in technological change, globalization and climate change. And that can only be done effectively within and between countries by higher degrees of collaboration among business, labor, educators, social entrepreneurs and governments not rule or die, not my way or the highway. A rush to buy Covid pills At least four countries in the Asia-Pacific region announced agreements with the drug maker Merck to purchase a pill that the pharmaceutical company says could halve the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19. Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea have all announced agreements to buy supplies of molnupiravir, the Covid treatment pill, even though their regulatory agencies have yet to approve the drug. Thailand and Taiwan are also reported to be in talks to purchase supplies of the pill. The announcements came less than a week after the pills manufacturer released results from clinical trials that showed its effectiveness. The countries are the first to agree to buy the pill other than the U.S., which purchased enough pills for 1.7 million treatments for $1.2 billion in June. Treatment: Mercks pill, the first oral antiviral drug that can be taken at home, is expected to help limit future coronavirus outbreaks and to reduce the need for costly hospital stays. On a June day in 2008, three U.S. soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were ambushed and killed when their Humvee convoy was hit during a combat patrol by mines and rocket-propelled grenades about 50 miles south of Kabul. At least one of the men was dragged off and dismembered, Afghan and Western officials said at the time. More than 13 years after the brutal attack and about a month after Americas two-decade war in Afghanistan ended, a man whom the federal authorities described as a former Taliban commander was charged on Thursday with four counts of murder in the killings as well as other terrorism-related crimes, including the downing of a U.S. military helicopter. The man, Haji Najibullah, was already in federal custody after being charged last year with kidnapping an American journalist and two Afghan nationals who were taken hostage at gunpoint several months after the deadly roadside offensive. Haji Najibullah led a vicious band of Taliban insurgents who terrorized part of Afghanistan and attacked U.S. troops, Audrey Strauss, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement on Thursday announcing the unsealing of the new charges. She added that neither time nor distance can weaken our resolve to hold terrorists accountable for their crimes. Early in her time as a medical student in the late 1950s, Paula J. Clayton watched a psychiatrist analyze a patient with clinical depression. The doctor, who had herself been analyzed by both Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud and now taught at Washington University in St. Louis, asked the patient to explain his dreams, and the two spent time discussing what they meant. But when the session was over, the doctor did something that Freud would never have done: She prescribed electroshock therapy. It was something of a revelation for Dr. Clayton: The old methods of psychiatry, steeped in Freudian theory, had their limits, and physiological treatments were needed too. She came to believe that a new approach was necessary, beyond analysiss reliance on talk therapy, one based not in philosophy and speculation but in empirical research and data and a conviction that mental illness, like any illness, can be diagnosed and treated. Arkansas lawmakers approved legislation on Wednesday that would require employers to let their employees opt out of vaccination, an attempt to walk back the White Houses vaccine mandate for millions of Americans. The bill is in the hands of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who expressed reservations about it at a news conference early Wednesday, hours before state lawmakers passed it. I dont believe in a federal mandate on vaccination, Mr. Hutchinson said, referencing President Bidens recent mandate that all companies with more than 100 workers require vaccination or weekly testing. But I also dont believe in state mandates as well on employers and defining the employer employee relationship. Mr. Hutchinsons office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the bills passage. The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Kim Hammer, a Republican, said on Wednesday that it was unfair for employees to be terminated because of a forced vaccine requirement on them. An Illinois woman will spend four days in jail and will be barred for a year from Yellowstone National Park for not moving out of the way of a grizzly bear and three cubs while visiting the park in May. The woman, Samantha Dehring, 25, of Carol Stream, Ill., pleaded guilty to willfully remaining, approaching, and photographing wildlife within 100 yards, Bob Murray, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Wyoming, announced on Thursday. While visiting Roaring Mountain at Yellowstone on May 10, Ms. Dehring and others saw a grizzly bear with three cubs, according to the U.S. attorneys office. Others at the park backed away from the bears and returned to their vehicles, but Ms. Dehring did not retreat and took pictures of the animals, the U.S. attorneys office said. The bottom line is that the more often you use the tests, the better, said Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard and a proponent of rapid testing. (Dr. Mina advises Detect, Inc., a diagnostics company working on a rapid molecular test.) If you want to spend time with a medically vulnerable person, you should take a test a few days before seeing them, and then take another test on the day of the visit. Think about, How do I test as close as possible to the thing that Im doing? Dr. Mina said. When I go visit my parents, I always bring rapid tests with me. Right before I walk in the door, I use the test in my car. What do I do if the test is positive? Most of the time, a positive result means you have the coronavirus, particularly if you have symptoms. But false positives do happen. Recently, Ellume, an Australian company, recalled nearly 200,000 test kits because of concerns about a higher-than-expected rate of false positives. If theres reason to doubt a positive result, take another test, preferably from a different manufacturer or at a testing center. People hosting large events, like weddings, and using the tests to screen guests should have a few extra tests on hand from a different brand for those guests who test positive. You can be confident in the result if the second test is negative, Dr. Mina said. It would be really rare for someone to have a true positive and then have a second test show a false negative result, he said. If youre having a dinner, you may as well just cancel dinner if someone tests positive. But if its a high consequence event, like youre having a wedding and flying somewhere, and youre going to screen a few hundred people, you may get a false positive and want to test again. How do I find a home test? Although supplies are expected to improve in the coming weeks, the tests can be difficult to find right now. Try the websites of stores like CVS, Walgreens, Costco or Walmart or check with a local drugstore. I recently searched the CVS website for a friend in New Jersey and found BinaxNow tests at a store about 30 minutes away. When he arrived, he found the shelves stacked with tests. A word of warning: Make sure you search by brand name. If a store is sold out of a rapid test, the website may direct you to a different type of test, called a home collection test, that requires you to mail the sample to get the result. But hold out until you find a rapid test. The fact that they are rapid, Dr. Gronvall, of Johns Hopkins, said, is what makes them a really great test to make sure somebody is not infectious at that moment. President Biden on Thursday appealed to private companies to mandate coronavirus vaccinations for employees, asking them to take initiative as an effort that he announced last month to require 80 million American workers to get the shot undergoes a lengthy rule-making process and may not go into effect for weeks. The president, delivering remarks at a construction site outside Chicago, said that encouraging Americans to get vaccinated had helped, but it had not gone far enough to address the pandemic. Even after all of these efforts, we still have more than a quarter of the people in the United States who are eligible for vaccinations but didnt get the shot, Mr. Biden said. Thats why Ive had to move toward requirements. He said mandates had not been his first instinct, but the requirements were already proving that they work. The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. This weeks issue is written by Amaali Lokuge, an emergency physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. One of the most loved emergency physicians in our department retired two weeks ago. It was earlier than expected, and given the heightened emotions of Covid and lockdown, the news brought many of us to tears especially because some of us spent the last few weeks trying to convince him to stay. Richard was the first person to train as a specialized emergency physician in Australia, and it seems wrong that Covid should end his career. But work had become too stressful, isolating and difficult to bear when age and comorbidities increase his Covid risks. His story is not unique, and plays out across the disciplines in health care as Covid takes its relentless toll on our well-being and our work force. The personal protective equipment, the PPE, is tough. There are times when, with my glasses fogged up, the shield dripping with condensation, I feel like ripping it all off and screaming for air. During a resuscitation, the normally quiet and controlled room is now full of noise as everyone speaks 10 decibels louder just to be heard. Previously easy conversations with patients become fractious as I try to project through the PPE and my tone sharpens because its not my normal range. At the end of a shift, an eviscerating headache and sore muscles are now the norm. The PPE traps us safe within a silo, unable to reach out, to share a joke with one another, to gossip in whispers. The camaraderie of emergency medicine is receding. We try to push the grief away for later and wonder whether this will be the norm for years to come. Emergency departments are usually open spaces with clear lines of sight, but now our department at the Royal Melbourne Hospital is changing. Cubicles are enclosed with doors, whole areas are cordoned off to house Covid patients, and the department feels like its getting smaller even as the patient numbers increase exponentially. A sense of claustrophobia builds with each passing shift. What were those fears then? I think people see you less seriously. I felt like that towards other women whod had children, if I was honest. I thought that if youre having a family, you havent put your work at the center which was wrong. Youre not less of an artist because youve become a parent. You would never put that on a male artist. So I just did the work, put it out and grew from there. It was a great lesson for me at that time. Your children are now young teens living in a world shaped by social media. What do you think about the kind of bodies theyre surrounded by these days? Everyone worries about social media, but actually, my kids are way smarter than I was at that age. My son reads The New York Times every day, where I never even saw a copy until I was in my late teens. Its quite difficult to keep the innocence of your children going for as long as youd like, but social medias pluses are phenomenal. I worked with a transgender model called Del LaGrace Volcano to make a painting called Matrix, and when I showed it in New York in 1999, people thought that kind of body didnt exist or couldnt exist. Now I hear my kids talking about gender fluidity. Theres so much more tolerance today, and thats really a wonderful thing that we must preserve. Jenny Saville Through Feb. 20, 2022 at various venues in Florence, Italy; museonovecento.it. With an urgency to preserve memory and modernize as the remaining Holocaust survivors enter their 80s and 90s, at least half a dozen Holocaust museums are being built, plan to break ground or have recently expanded, with more broadening their approach to look beyond the past and reflect todays social changes. Steven Spielbergs U.S.C. Shoah Foundation, founded in 1994 to record survivors stories, is at the forefront of the evolution. In a 2018 New York Times article, Spielberg described the need to broaden the focus, saying: The presence of hate has become taken for granted. We are not doing enough to counter it. The foundation is now archiving and studying victims of genocide in Rwanda or the Rohingya in Myanmar, developing medical ethics educational programming, podcasts, and offering records to genealogy companies. (My maternal grandparents recorded video testimony with the Shoah Foundation in the 1990s.) Now its teaming with the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida to design and build a museum in Orlando that will showcase the foundations library of 55,000 survivor video testimonies (totaling over 115,000 hours) and also have high-tech virtual installations to appeal to younger people. 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. Under Pressure The Senate Judiciary Committee released a new report on Thursday, titled Subverting Justice: How the Former President and His Allies Pressured D.O.J. to Overturn the 2020 Election. So far, Ive only read the title page, and it seems to be about how the former president and his allies pressured D.O.J. to overturn the 2020 election, Stephen Colbert said on The Late Show. OUT LOUD: A Memoir, by Mark Morris and Wesley Stace. (Penguin, 384 pp., $18.) While the title may seem odd for a book about a choreographer, Morris has always been outspoken, outrageous and unashamedly out, Brian Seibert noted in his review. And while a novelist helped him write this memoir, its voice is unmistakably his: direct, brash, flippant, charming, impenetrably self-assured. And funny. A LOVERS DISCOURSE, by Xiaolu Guo. (Grove, 288 pp., $17.) Reversing the common theme of a Westerner baffled by the habits and rituals of an Asian country, as our reviewer, Marcel Theroux, put it, the newly relocated Chinese-born anthropologist who narrates Guos novel casts her ethnographic eye on the inhabitants of 21st-century Britain and their disagreements over Europe. UNFORGETTING: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas, by Roberto Lovato. (Harper Perennial, 352 pp., $17.99.) At the dark heart of this memoir, which confronts historical amnesia and U.S. complicity in systemic violence and inhumanity, is a family secret kept by the San Francisco-born authors father regarding the genocidal aftermath of a 1932 uprising in El Salvador. Our reviewer, Carolyn Forche, called the book groundbreaking. ELEANOR, by David Michaelis. (Simon & Schuster, 720 pp., $20.) Our reviewer, Gail Collins, described this as the first major single-volume biography of the most important first lady in American history to appear in more than 50 years. It is a terrific resource for people who arent ready to tackle Blanche Wiesen Cooks three-volume work. [MUSIC PLAYING] pamela paul Whats it like to be a child living without a home in New York City? Andrea Elliott joins us to talk about her new book, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City. How did Phoebe Robinson launch her own book imprint and publish her third book during the pandemic? The actress, writer, comedian and producer will join us to talk about her new essay collection, Please Dont Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes. Liz Harris will be here to talk about whats going on in the publishing world. Plus, my colleagues and I will talk about what were reading. This is the Book Review Podcast from The New York Times. Its October 8. Im Pamela Paul. My colleague Andrea Elliott joins us now from Harlem. She is the author of a new book, her first book. Its called Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City. Andrea, thanks so much for being here. andrea elliott Thank you so much for having me. pamela paul This book is based on a series of stories you wrote for The New York Times. Tell us about that series and when you wrote it. andrea elliott So my path to Dasani began in October of 2012 when I was on the investigative desk at The Times, and I was trying to find a way into the story about the citys homeless crisis. And I wanted to specifically find a kid to write about. And at that time, there were more than 22,000 children in the shelter system. Its a crisis that continues to this day, but the numbers have dropped significantly with the eviction moratorium. At that time, that population would fill Madison Square Garden, just to give you a visual. And so, I was standing in front of Auburn Family Residence, which is a homeless shelter, city-run, that was a decrepit place in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which had become a kind of beacon of gentrification. It really captured what was happening all around Brooklyn after 2000, when people just came in and began to revitalize would be one way of describing it these neighborhoods. To the people who had been living there for decades, many of them families, Black families, brown families, it felt very much like they were being pushed out. And that was the world that Dasani was growing up in. Ill never forget the moment that I met Dasani. I was standing outside the shelter. And the first person I saw was her mother, Chanel. She was walking out with her children trailing behind her in single-line formation. She looked like a drill sergeant. And that image of them, that first image, the seven children and the baby in the stroller, really has stuck with me all these years later because it said so much about them as a family, their unity, the strength of their bond, the discipline that they showed in how they navigated the streets. Chanel had grown up on a very different street than Dasani. Shed grown up in the 80s in Eastern Brooklyn in the predominantly Black and poor neighborhood, separated from wealth, separated from lighter-skinned people. Her mother named her for the perfume that she spotted in a magazine. Dasani, her daughter, was growing up in a world in the modern American city, essentially, which is a place, New York and other places like it. This is a city where the rich and the poor live in striking proximity. And the thing about Dasani that struck me immediately was just how quintessentially New York she was. She was such a New York kid. She was so alert and funny and curious and tough. And she had so much to say. And she had this incredible sense, both of the injustice of her life. Her family was living all 10 members of her family crammed in one room at the shelter. Theyd been living there for years. I remember saying to her at one point, your mom has a lot on her plate. And she said, Ive got a lot on my plate. And she started naming all the things on her plate. And they were metaphors, like the macaroni was her parents. And the collard greens were her siblings. pamela paul So she was really talking about her plate. andrea elliott She was talking about her plate, her plate as a child who had to deal with such great burdens. pamela paul And she was 11 years old at the time? andrea elliott Dasani was 11 years old when we met. And she was the second oldest of eight children and really kind of a third parent in that home. Her parents are married. But she would do so much in the morning, right? Shed wake up around dawn, go to her window, and look at the Empire State Building in her first moments of quiet. She did this every morning. This was her routine because she liked to, as she put it to me, see what was going on out there. It made me feel like somethings going on out there. So that aspiration was always just a part of her character from the very beginning. It struck me as something that just kind of defined her. And even her very name is aspirational. Her mother named her after the bottled water that had just come to Brooklyn as part of this new moment of gentrification, where she wondered who could even pay for water. Then she would get her siblings dressed and ready for school. And by the time most children in New York City are waking up to go to school, Dasani had been working essentially for two hours. And she herself would arrive often late and hungry to her own school, which was a kind of second home for her. And for children in the city who are poor, the New York public school system is a second home, or sometimes the primary home. pamela paul I want to talk a little bit about the behind the scenes, how the sausage gets made, with a story like this and what eventually obviously became a book. You started off wanting to write about homelessness in New York City and poverty in New York City. How do you figure out, this is the person that were going to hang the story on, build it around? Because its not the opposite way around, right, where you suddenly saw this girl and then realized, I need to tell her story. Were there other people that you considered? And what made you decide Dasani is the right person for this piece? andrea elliott Ive always believed as a journalist that the story shows itself to you, and you just have to do the work of being there and being present for as long as possible until it becomes more clear. I think in the very beginning, I thought Dasani would be a principal person, but that, in fact, in the very beginning, I had three families I was following at that shelter. And I had this approach that a lot of journalists take, that we need to capture three different families to give a sense of the spectrum of experience. But what I think becomes more important to the reader is to be able to identify deeply with one story, one protagonist, and follow that person. And this has happened in prior works of mine. I mean, I did this with an imam in Brooklyn. I spent six months with him. It was not my intention in the beginning. He and Dasani are very different people, but theyre similar in one way, which is that they are people who want to talk and feel unheard. So, I felt drawn to her, I think, because she was, unlike most children and I am the mother of two girls, so I know this well she was somebody who, at a very young age, could articulate in a moving and profound way her experience. And thats a rare trait even in adults. She was aware of the injustice of her life. And she was aware of that something else that was outside her window, that thing that she was always staring at in the morning, which was the tower lights of the Empire State Building, and wanting to see what they said about that day, if it was St. Patricks Day or if it was Jay-Zs birthday. And this constant reaching for that something else was so much a part of her persona as well. And I think that the tension between what was for her, which was this room crammed with 10 family members and mice and just horrible conditions of poverty in New York City, and what could be, that tension between those two is so much the story of Dasani. And the thing that moved me the most about her was that she was trying while surviving very difficult circumstances, constantly reaching for something else and thinking about how to get out and how to transcend. pamela paul So you knew you wanted to tell her story. And of course, its a reciprocal relationship. Did she and her family immediately consent to talking to you, trust you with her story? How did you navigate that on her end and also the fact that, of course, shes a minor? andrea elliott This was a long and careful process. I dont regard trust as a destination in my work. I believe that trust is a work in progress at best. Its something that ebbs and flows. And I think that I did a typical job of, as any reporter would, of explaining my work and my process, showing them my previous stories and doing everything I could to convince them that I wanted to do right by their story and to tell it in a compelling way and a deep way that they would recognize as authentic. But putting aside every pitch I made, I think, really, at the end of the day and this held true for my eight years with this family what mattered most was something very basic, which was just that I kept showing up. And I think for them, outsiders in particular and these can be very well-meaning outsiders, not just people who are there monitoring them or from the city, but teachers or people whove entered their lives from the outside world tend to leave, and even their own friends and family. Theres just a lot of uncertainty when you are faced with housing insecurity, food insecurity. Dasani attended eight schools by the time she was in the eighth grade. And she had lived in six shelters at that point. In a story like this one that, for The New York Times, took us about a year, thats a lot of time spent together. Ruth Fremson, the photographer, and I spent so much of that time doing what really looked like nothing to Dasani and Chanel. Ruth waited, I think, a month before she even took out her camera. And I was also kind of just investing time, more than anything. And it also helped me to begin to organize my thoughts on what I would do as I would ride the train home back to the Upper West Side from Brooklyn. And I started making what I call train notes. And a lot of the notes from that notebook wound up almost unchanged in the book. But these were my initial observations about the relationships in that family, the tensions, the struggles, the aspirations, all the things that were striking me. I just didnt do a lot of that in front of them at first because I wanted them to feel like they were getting to know me and not being so self-conscious. I had something very early on that I used, a tool. Its a pen that records audio. And Dasani and her siblings pamela paul Thats very James Bond. andrea elliott Well, they called it my spy pen. They were like, thats your spy pen. And they loved it. They would take it and use it as a microphone and pretend they were on TV, talking into it. I love to write with dialogue, and it was my way of making sure that I had captured everything accurately. And so, I would be taking notes with this pen, but it was also recording. And then it was timestamped, and so I could transcribe all of it. But they ended up using it as a way to interview me sometimes. And/or Dasani would pretend she was a newscaster on TV. And it became a kind of way for us to connect, a tool of connection, I should say. And they were partners in telling their story from the very beginning. We, The New York Times, gave them cameras and video cameras to record the conditions of their room because we were prevented from gaining access. So the Auburn, like other city-run shelters, is closed to the public. So theres very little outside monitoring or scrutiny. Eventually, Ruth and I snuck in. Dasani went to the back of the shelter, opened the door that set off the fire alarm, and then we bolted upstairs past four sets of security guards. They didnt notice. I think people did this all the time. They would sneak in lovers or contraband. So I think it wasnt an unusual occurrence, but it was scary. And when we got to the room, then we were able to finally be inside this experience that they had been documenting for us. But their documentation also provided a different lens because to have Dasani pointing her camera at the different things that were occurring and having her narrate that was just as important as me seeing it directly. pamela paul Its so interesting, the relationship. In certain ways, shes a journalist of a kind, doing this documentation. And youre a journalist, but its clear you also had a close relationship with Dasani, and presumably, with other members of her family. Was that hard to navigate, to separate the way you felt about her as a human being, as someone who, as you pointed out, was kind of a steadying presence in her life, and your role and job as a journalist and later as an author? andrea elliott To say it was hard to navigate is putting it nicely. This was and remains, I think, one of the great challenges of this kind of work. It is a real test of ones ability to hold two things in your mind at once, that Im here to do a job, and that Im a human being. I think in the very beginning, I entered into this still with a more traditional view that the journalist wears the journalist hat, and the subject is the person whos being written about and whos answering questions. And its kind of a one-way street. That all went out the window because what I realized with Dasani and her mother in particular was that the way I could learn about them deeply was to converse with them and to share about my life. And I would learn so much just in the questions they asked me. So it was very much a two-way street. And I think that I came to see that this sort of more traditional notion that youre not supposed to have feelings about the people youre writing about because that makes your reporting biased potentially or lacking in so-called objectivity, I started to really question that. And I actually even came to see that not only is the feeling of empathy that one has for ones subjects OK. Its, in fact, essential to elevating the story in a manner that readers will respond to. I dont see it as a detriment that I had deep feelings of, at times, sadness or anger at watching the things that occurred to them. I see it as a way of doing my work. And I think that what I learned to do is just to try to balance those two things as much as possible and to understand that its complicated and to never feel utterly comfortable with it, right? Because I think if you feel like youve kind of figured it all out, thats dangerous. You have to constantly be second-guessing yourself and wondering, OK, am I getting too close here? Or do I need to step this back? How could I help more? Am I not helping enough? And I had to be so careful because we have really clear rules in our profession. There are boundaries between the reporter and the person that the reporter is writing about. So they knew that early on, but there were plenty of moments where I felt like I didnt do enough. pamela paul For an outsider, when you see someone experiencing homelessness, the first question one often asks is, well, how did they get that way? How did this happen? And I want to ask that with what I imagine are two different answers that maybe you can address. One is perhaps personal, particular to their situation, and then the larger structural or situational reasons why Dasani and her family and other families like hers are experiencing homelessness to the extent that they are in New York City. andrea elliott If I had to summarize what Dasanis story is about, I would say its not about homelessness. Its about belonging; its about who gets to belong to a place and who doesnt. And that place is a physical place, which is New York City, but its also a metaphorical place. Its a place that feels very different for Black and brown families, more than 50 years after the civil rights movement, more than 50 years after L.B.J.s declared war on poverty. This is still a city where nearly half of residents are living near or below the poverty line. And one of the first things that really struck me that made me interested in even finding Dasani was the fact that the United States has the highest child poverty rate of any superpower and the second highest or I guess now, its dropped down to about third or fourth, according to the United Nations, of any wealthy nation in the world. So, when I started out writing about Dasani, the word homeless was the label absolutely that was assigned to describe her condition. And I think eight years later, if I have taken anything away from this, its that the label is just the point of departure for understanding the reasons why. There is no way you can look at her current homelessness without seeing the racial underpinnings of that. And yes, there are structural causes. The most important revelation, I think, in the reporting over these recent years, I had heard that Dasanis great-grandfather had fought in a distant war. And this was a kind of family legend that he used to tell these crazy stories about fighting, and no one really believed him. And so, my researcher, Craig Hughes, whos been so instrumental in all of this, with Craig, I reached out to Veterans Affairs. And I filed a FOIA and eventually got June Sykess military record. He had fought in World War II as a Buffalo soldier, as part of the Armys segregated all-Black regiment. And he had returned home in 1945 with three bronze stars and then joined the Great Migration north, landed in Brooklyn with his wife. He was a trained mechanic. But this was a time when it was impossible to get a mortgage in redline Brooklyn. It was impossible as a Black family to get a mortgage in the suburbs, in the 50s by then. It was very hard to find work in his profession because the labor unions were still largely closed to Black workers. And its, like, every barrier faced him. And as a result, he worked very hard. He worked from the time he got to Brooklyn until he died 30 jobs. But none of them were in his profession. And I looked at the data with a researcher from Columbia that tracked the average wages. He wound up mostly working as a janitor. And what he earned as a janitor over those years, compared to what he would have earned as a mechanic, the gap in those two wages was about $200,000. He was unable to do the one thing that the G.I. Bill enabled millions of white veterans to do and that helped create Americas middle class, which is to buy a home. So much of white wealth is rooted in homeownership, right? And then how this carries over by generations. His future generations would not be able to benefit from his own homeownership because he just wasnt able to get a mortgage. So, as a result, he wound up in the public housing in Fort Greene that Dasani refers to as the projects. And he worked all of these jobs and had a really, really hard life. And this is a heroic person who should have had a very different return home from World War II. pamela paul Andrea, we are out of time. And its very upsetting because we have touched on the very, very tip of the iceberg. But I think this will leave listeners and readers eager to get the book to find out exactly what has happened to Dasani in the years since you reported that series. Obviously, youve continued to tell her story and update it. And you can see Dasani today as she appears on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, where this book is reviewed by Matthew Desmond this week. So Andrea andrea elliott Oh, my gosh. pamela paul thank you so much again. Congratulations on the book and a pleasure talking to you. andrea elliott Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. pamela paul Andrea Elliotts new book is called Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City. [MUSIC PLAYING] Something fun coming up from the Book Review. As part of our yearlong celebration of the 125th anniversary, were throwing a subscriber-only virtual event on October 25th. Itll be at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. Join deputy editor and regular podcaster Tina Jordan, some of our Books colleagues here, and a few other faces you might recognize as we share the classic books we got wrong and some we got right. Plus, favorite letters to the editor, Book Review trivia and more. You can RSVP at nytimes.com/bookreview125. Tina Jordan joins us now to help celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Book Review. Hey, Tina. tina jordan Hey, Pamela. So Im bringing you today one of my favorite I dont really want to call it an op-ed. Its sort of a lighthearted piece that ran in 1921. And its called, Do Your Serious Reading in the Subway. And our editor said: You can read anything you want to in the subway and no questions asked, not so much as an eyebrow lifted. If you have a book that you want to read, but that you do not want to be seen reading, the ideal spot for you is on the subway train. It doesnt matter what the book is. Goes on to say: The subway crowd has seen so much of literature in the course of its comings and goings, the catching of expresses and locals, and locals and shuttles, it cannot be said to be narrow-minded. It has ridden up to 116th Street with Columbia students reading Beowulf in its native Anglo-Saxon. It has ridden downtown in the early morning with young men reading How to Recognize Total Strangers at 20 Yards. It has stumbled over young ladies of faultless fingernails engrossed in The Princess of Sinners. And it goes on to say, dont worry about missing your stop. Thats the fear of people who take books on the train, that theyre going to become so engrossed that theyre going to miss their stop. We tell them, youre going to get used to it. And it concludes by saying, look, no ones ever going to question you about what youre reading on the subway. pamela paul No, theyre just going to give you the side eye. tina jordan Now I think they might give you the side eye, but its basically saying, leave your highbrow books of French verses at home and take that big, sleazy novel youve been wanting to read on the train, because people will care less. And I kind of love that, right? pamela paul Yep. tina jordan Anyway, and it comes with an illo: Everyone on the subway is reading a book. pamela paul And now theyre on their phones. tina jordan And now theyre on their phones, I know. pamela paul Thanks, Tina. tina jordan Thanks, Pamela. [MUSIC PLAYING] pamela paul Phoebe Robinson joins us now from Brooklyn. Her new book is called Please Dont Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes. Phoebe, thanks for being here. phoebe robinson Thanks for having me. pamela paul So you have had a busy pandemic, it sounds like. You have launched your own book imprint at Penguin Random House, Tiny Reparations Books. You have your third book out now. Tell us a little bit about why you wanted to start your own publishing imprint. phoebe robinson When I met my lit agent Robert Guinsler back in 2014, he had read a blog of mine and saw me on a New York stand-up comics list. So he reached out to me. And he said, You might be writing a book, but if youre not, I would love to sit down and chat with you. And I was so excited because I wanted to write a book, and I just didnt know how to go about getting an agent. So we met, and I told him about my idea for my first book, You Cant Touch My Hair. And he kind of got the sense that Im not a one and done kind of author. So he asked me whats the end game for me. And I was like, well, I know Toni Morrison used to edit other peoples books while she wrote her own. That sounds like too much work, so Ill just have an imprint instead. I had no idea what it really meant. I just was like, I love books, and I want to be surrounded by books, which is a part of it. But its a way more difficult job than I expected. pamela paul What does it involve, starting up your own imprint? phoebe robinson I have an editor. Her name is Amber Oliver. And we go through submissions, try to figure out what fits our brand best. We really try to look for strong voices, try to reflect a multitude of experiences. Theres pitch meetings, where youre like, This is what we will do for you. Please come with us. We love your manuscript so much. And then theres everything from looking at and approving book covers to doing press, to reading submissions, all the stuff. But its so much fun, and I really, really enjoy it. And its really nice to see it from this side of publishing. And I really just feel like Im getting a great education. And Im having a blast. pamela paul Oh, good. I was going to ask you if it was fun because I was going to say, you do a lot of fun things already that might be comparatively or might sound to maybe book people like more fun, like doing comedy and starring in TV shows and being in films. So Im glad that the ins and outs of being a publisher are fun. Maybe not as fun? I dont know. phoebe robinson No, it is. I mean, its different kinds of fun. You know what I mean? Standing onstage and doing stand-up, that taps into a different side of me. And then the book aspect hits another side of me. So its all fun, but in different ways. pamela paul I want to talk more about the publishing, but you just touched on something that I think is really interesting, which is, is it a natural transition from stand-up comedy and performance to a comedic essay? Because you dont have access to those same tools. You have different things. So Im curious what its like taking that kind of stand-up comedy to the page. phoebe robinson It certainly informs it, but book writing is a completely different style of writing than stand-up. You know, stand-up, theres a rhythm. And youre aware of the laughs and how theyre hitting. And with a book, you can have more flavor with it. You can be vulnerable. You can slow it down, have some downbeats. You could be really funny. So I think writing a book, theres just I dont want to say less pressure to be funny, but its just in a different way, you really are just trying to go with what makes you laugh, as youre writing it down. I do that with everything, whether its stand-up or writing a script or writing a book. I really try to make myself laugh. And if I can do that, then Im off to a great start. But I wouldnt say that its difficult to write stand-up versus book writing. I think they both have their challenges. But I think with a book, Im not really writing with an ear towards like, oh, the audience is going to laugh now. Thats just not it just doesnt come into your head when youre writing a book. So I just really try to enjoy the moment when Im writing and not always go for the big laugh and just really be able to be open and honest. And I think thats one of the things people really enjoy about my essays, is that Im not just always trying to be jokey, jokey, jokey, but I do want to have something of substance to say, too. pamela paul Well, there is a lot of serious subjects in this book racism and performative allyship, some very personal subjects, like your decision not to have children, the challenges of interracial relationships. Does writing about those kinds of personal subjects come easily to you? Or do you have to coax yourself into and get yourself to go to certain places? phoebe robinson I think I try to be honest. And the stuff that I write about in the book are certainly things that I would say in an everyday conversation. So for me, its not necessarily difficult. Its just more, especially, in particular with the essay, about deciding to not have children, I just know the stigma that women face when they decide to voluntarily not be a mother. And I think Im still sort of in that age range. Im in my mid-30s. And so, people, I think, are still sort of like, oh, OK, youll probably change your mind. But, you know, Im sure as I enter my 40s, people will be like, OK, what are you doing? Why did you decide not to have kids? And so, I really just wanted the essay for anyone whos reading it who is voluntarily child-free who, for whatever circumstances, theyre unable to be a mother, I just wanted to write about it and say, I think society needs to back off and stop telling women the only way they can actually be a woman is if they are a mother. pamela paul Lets go back to your publishing imprint, Tiny Reparations Books. Tell us about that name and why you chose it for your imprint. phoebe robinson When I used to do 2 Dope Queens with Jessica Williams, we would always joke about, were too ignorant and silly to get actual reparations. Were not going to get the cash, but we can get those tiny reparations, like those nice, little, bright spots in life. And so, as I was thinking about this imprint and what I wanted to do and remembering how difficult it was in 2015 for me to sell my book, and people are very comfortable being like, Nobody wants to read a funny essay collection by a Black woman. Black women writers arent relatable, they dont sell. So for me, Im looking at this imprint as a platform for me to publish women, people of color and people from the queer community. And just, this is my way of giving back and just saying, if I decide to not buy your book so I can publish it, its not because of how you identify, what you look like. And so I just really want this imprint to just be a celebration of the multitude of voices that are out there. I hope Tiny Reparations is one of many imprints that are doing that. pamela paul How many books do you plan to publish a year? phoebe robinson Were slated to do three to five a year. So we currently have, including my book, 11 on the slate. So we have my book coming out this year, five in 2022, and five in 2023. So we really have hit the ground running. And we have literary fiction, nonfiction, essay collections, a little bit of poetry. Were publishing a book by a phenomenal artist named Tourmaline, who is writing a biography on Marsha P. Johnson. We have an art heist book called Portrait of a Thief, written by Grace D. Li. And its about five Chinese Americans who are hired to steal Chinese artwork from America and bring it back to China. We have a coming-of-age story about a little girl and her older sister who are sent to live with their grandfather for the summer after their father passes away. So theres a lot of really good stuff here. Im really excited. pamela paul So authors generally love their publishers, they love that there is a publisher who will publish their work. But in general, authors also often complain about their publishers. They didnt promote it right, they didnt do this, they didnt give enough money, et cetera. So Im curious for you this is your third book of essays what may be different now that you are your own publisher. I mean, is there anyone to complain to? phoebe robinson Yeah, I mean, I guess just complaining to myself. But I think Plume and I, weve had a great rhythm with the past two books. And I brought my publicist, Sam, who is Indian, and Brittany, who is Black, into the fold as well. So theyre involved in the publishing of all our books because I think most people who are aware of publishing realize that its overwhelmingly cis, straight and white. And so, if were going to be publishing books from various backgrounds, we want to make sure that were hitting as many kinds of outlets as possible and spreading it out there. We have a strong marketing and social media team. So we have a lot going on. And we really try really hard to make sure that books are going to be supported in the way that makes an author feel good. And I remember when I wrote my first book, and Jess and I just had the 2 Dope Queens podcast. And so, I still really wasnt known at all and did a really great job of getting my book out there, finding the right people who were going to post about it on social media, the right interviews. So we really hope that every author on the slate has an amazing experience. And if they dont, we will take that information and learn how to do better. Of course, no ones perfect, and so, I dont think were going to nail it every time. But as long as we keep growing and learning and doing better and doing right by authors, I think I can be proud of what were trying to accomplish here. pamela paul All right, one more question about someone elses book, and then well talk more about this book. And that is Michelle Obama. Now, she probably didnt need a huge amount of support and publicity, but of course, her book had a huge and really exciting book tour. And you were a moderator on that book tour. What was that like? And how did it come about? phoebe robinson She was selling out arenas that held 20,000 people to talk about a book. Thats probably not ever going to happen again. So it was already a very surreal experience and really cool to see people of all ages and races and sexual orientations just to come and listen to her talk about her life and share her story, which is really, really, really cool. And it all came about because when she was figuring out her press run for Becoming, she wanted 2 Dope Queens to be the one bit of nontraditional interview that she would do. And so, Jess and I were we used to joke that the Obamas listened to the podcast. And we were like, well, OK, I guess they did, and they liked it. And so Jess and I, we took a train to D.C. We went to her office. And she couldnt have been lovelier. And shes so funny. She has 120 different stories that are hilarious and smart and wonderful. So it was so great to sit down with her and interview her. And when I found out that her team and her were interested in me being a moderator on the book tour, I was kind of like, Im available for any and all dates. Its like I was immediately so thirsty. And I was like, I know the first date is in Chicago. Ill do Chicago. I love Chicago. And her team was like, oh, we have someone booked for Chicago already. And I was like, who do they have booked? What is going on? And then it was Oprah. And I was like, oh, right, right, right. That makes pamela paul Right. phoebe robinson the most amount of sense. But shes amazing and incredible. And I hope she writes another book. She doesnt need to, but I hope she does because I really enjoyed the first one. pamela paul So your first essay in this collection is called 2020 Was Gonna Be My Year! (LOL.) So I think its fair to describe this book as a quarantine project. How and why did you sit down to write? And was it because it, in part, at least, that a lot of the performance opportunities that might have otherwise been out there shut down with lockdown? phoebe robinson I wasnt really planning on writing a book last year because before Covid, my standup special was supposed to come out. Its coming out October 14th. That was supposed to come out last year. My Comedy Central talk show was supposed to come out. I was developing another TV show for myself. So I was really sort of in the mind space of like, oh, lets do all these other projects, and Ill just take a break from book writing for a bit. And that was totally fine. And then when Covid happened, and we were all indoors, I was really just reading a lot every day. I think I read something like 64 books last year. I was just it was helping me escape. It was helping me process the world and then feel better. And I just had a lot of time inside to sit and think about these things and watch what was happening with George Floyd and all the performative allyship and self-care and not having kids. And so, I just was in quarantine with my boyfriend, which, we are a couple who have very busy careers. He works in music touring, so hes gone a lot. Hes currently on the road with Guns N Roses, and hes been gone for 10 weeks. And so that was kind of our life. We were apart for a lot and come together. And so then we went into being into quarantine together for 15 months. And I was just sort of noticing the ways that it was funny, how we were getting in each others way, but also how we were really there for each other. And I was like, oh, this could be an essay. And I was thinking about a lot of different things. And I was like, this might make for a nice essay collection that certainly is of this time, but its also really touching on evergreen subject matters. And thats really how it came about. And, yeah, I wrote it on the dining room table in our apartment. pamela paul You said before working on your first essay collection, speaking of reading, that you read about 15 or 20 essay collections as a kind of preparation. And Im curious I dont know if, you probably dont remember all those titles off the top of your head, but what are some of the books that you read when you were first starting to write essays as a form? And then, more generally, which essayists do you really admire? phoebe robinson Yeah, I mean, I read David Sedaris, Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Roxane Gay, Shonda Rhimes, I guess Malcolm Gladwell. I dont know Outliers wasnt necessarily an essay. But you get it. Anyway, I just was reading I read Issa Raes book. Caitlin Moran, who I absolutely love, I think shes so fantastic and really funny. Nora Ephron and Samantha Irby, I love her, too. Because it was my first book, I was just sort of like, OK, let me just see how the rhythm of these books, how much is funny, how much isnt. How do they organize the order of the essays and all that stuff? And then, I have my own particular voice and style. And so I just really try to have fun with it, even though there were parts of me that was stressed out and being like, Ive never done this before. I was just a freelance writer and doing blogs and stuff. And now to go from 800 words to I dont know what was the first book? Like, 60,000, 70,000 words. It was really daunting. So it was good to just read those other books and be like, Im psyching myself out, but I can actually do this. pamela paul All right, well, lets give listeners a taste. Here is from part of your first essay, which is called 2020 Was Gonna Be My Year! (LOL.) phoebe robinson My 2020 wouldnt have been what it was if it werent for everyone who attended the final dates of my Sorry, Harriet Tubman stand-up tour, especially those who confuse me for literally any other Black woman who works in Hollywood. I mean, maybe Alfre Woodard does have a tight hourlong set on her boyfriends uncircumcised penis and living in New York City, but do you think she drank Ensure to get out of bed and perform for 150 people in Sacramento who are noshing on chicken wings? Still, this was my first solo tour. So despite the occasional audience confusion about who I was, I will cherish that tour forever. Id also like to thank Duolingo, because without you, I wouldnt have been able to butcher Spanish when calling Oaxaca Taqueria to place a dinner order meh gustaria tres carnay ah sa dahs, por favor and then lie and say my name is Karen, as butchering another language is total Karen vibes. pamela paul That was Phoebe reading from her new essay collection, Please Dont Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes. Phoebe, thank you so much again for being here. phoebe robinson Thank you so much. This is so fun. And when anyone wants to talk about books, even if its not my book, even if you were just like, I want to talk about someone elses book, I dont care for your book, Id have been like, OK, Ill show up. pamela paul Well, we got to talk about your book. [MUSIC PLAYING] Liz Harris joins us now with some news from the publishing world. Hey, Liz. liz harris Hi, Pamela. So weve got some big awards this week. The Nobel Prize in Literature, which is considered the most prestigious world literature award, went to Abdulrazak Gurnah, which was announced on Thursday. He was born in Zanzibar, which is now part of Tanzania. He left at age 18 as a refugee after soldiers violently overthrew the government. It was in 1964. And he lives in Britain and has written several books about the immigrant experience in Britain, including Memory of Departure and Pilgrims Way. And he is the first African to win in more than 10 years. We also got the National Book Award finalists this week, which includes Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr, Matrix, by Lauren Groff, and Zorrie, by Laird Hunt, in the fiction category. In nonfiction, A Little Devil in America, by Hanif Abdurraqib, and Grace Cho, Tastes Like War, A Memoir. And then in poetry, we have What Noise Against the Cane, by Desiree Bailey, and Floaters, by Martin Espada. A few kind of notable absences were Richard Powerss newest book, Bewilderment, which has been a best seller, which has gotten mixed reviews, was not on there. And nor was The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, which was another best seller that was longlisted in September. But congratulations to the finalists. pamela paul Congratulations to all of them. Thanks so much, Liz. liz harris Thanks, Pamela. [MUSIC PLAYING] pamela paul My colleagues John Williams and Greg Cowles join us now to talk about what were reading. Hey, guys. greg cowles Hey, Pamela. pamela paul Greg, lets start with you. What are you reading? greg cowles Well, Im reading a classic 20th-century French novel that I had never gotten around to in my years of studying French. Its a 1936 book called Diary of a Country Priest by Im not sure Im going to get his name right. Its Georges. His last name is maybe Bernanos or Bernanos. B-E-R-N-A-N-O-S. The book was subsequently made into a classic Robert Bresson film that I also have not seen. Part of the reason that I turned to this book now is that Ive read a couple of novels recently that both incorporated religion as an overt theme or element. Thats Jonathan Franzens Crossroads. The main character is the associate pastor at a church. And the whole setting milieu of the book takes place against this church and its youth group. And then Sally Rooneys Beautiful World, Where Are You, which has a prominent character in it whos a practicing faithful Catholic, much to the amusement of some of the other characters. And its rare enough in contemporary fiction, or really, in urbane contemporary life overall for religion to feature that both Franzen and Rooney have characters kind of preemptively mock it. Theres something almost shamefully earnest about it. And maybe that makes sense because I feel like religion and literature are, in some ways, rivals. Theyre competing channels for a certain kind of questing personality, but for the same reason, they make really natural companions. And Im always surprised that there arent more Marilynne Robinsons or Flannery OConnors, true believers who use fiction to explore their faith. So The Diary of a Country Priest, its exactly what the title says. Its a novel, but its written as the yearlong journal of a young Catholic parish priest sent out to a rural village in France. He is physically unwell. We learn in the first chapter that hes been turning a wan, pale yellow over the past year. And well eventually learn he has stomach cancer. Hes probably 30 years old or so. This is his first assignment out of seminary. Hes also mentally unwell. Hes contending with that whole Lost Generation-type boredom. I say Lost Generation-type boredom. Its really just boredom, the human condition. And spiritually, its not that he is unwell. Hes not a doubter. Hes devout in his faith, but he is uncertain how best to practice his faith in the world. He doesnt feel like he fits in among the villagers, who are these rural peasant types. In some ways, the time period and the setting of the book reminded me of another book I talked about on the podcast the last year, John Bergers Pig Earth, which was also about rural France, the peasantry and the encroachment of modern times at the early part of the 20th century. So, this priest, Im not sure he ever gets a name in the book. He feels like he doesnt fit in. He makes the rounds. He feels like the people dont necessarily theyre practicing, but he feels like they dont feel the same spiritual impulse that he does, and they maybe mock him a little. In some ways, hes a lot like the associate pastor in the Franzen book, where hes very earnest and not sure how to cope with the parish thats maybe less earnest than he is. And hes just constantly struggling to reconcile what, in theological terms, I guess, youd call the competing parts of the Trinity, weighing which has most relevance to him and to the people that he serves. And thats pretty much the whole the plot of the book. Its not an action thriller. He gets progressively less healthy. It grants tremendous access to a troubled and faithful soul in a way that fulfills what we expect from both literature and from religion. john williams Is it shortish, or is it greg cowles Uh, no, I mean, its about 300 pages, maybe just under 300 pages. So I mean, the last book I read before this was Annette Gordon-Reeds On Juneteenth, which you just fly through. pamela paul It sounds like it goes at about the regular pace of 300 pages. greg cowles Yeah, thats right. How about you, John? john williams I am just about finished with Colm Toibins new novel, The Magician, which he talked about recently on the podcast, I thought very well. It is, as listeners to that episode will know, the life, or a novel based on the life, of the German writer Thomas Mann, who won the Nobel Prize and wrote The Magic Mountain and Buddenbrooks and Death in Venice. It follows the well, it doesnt follow it directly, but it is similar, in a sense, to Toibins 2004 novel, The Master, which was about a few years in the life of Henry James. These are the two books that I think stand out in his bibliography that are written about famous writers. And I really loved that book, which I read almost way back then, so its been a while. But for whatever reason, I was hesitant to pick this one up. The things that I was reading about it, even the positive things, just didnt I dont know. They made it sound maybe a bit less rich than The Master. But its very different. I actually enjoyed it a great deal. The Master is a really internal book. You get a sense of Jamess interior life. Its a melancholy book. Its a bit of a psychological book. And this is more of Toibin looking at the grand canvas of history and putting Mann and his family against it and just moving through those events. And you actually dont get a lot, I dont think, of what I would call psychology. You sort of see everything from the outside. But as such, I think its incredibly well done. Theres a wryness to it. He can be very funny in brief moments. And theres also just a sense of the family moving out of Germany before and during the war, and the ways in which theyre endangered but the ways in which they continue to live and, if not thrive, to be themselves, I guess. You sort of see people living in this tumultuous time in history without the history overtaking the story in a strange way. His children are all very interesting characters, very lively people. And I dont know he sets this whole thing spinning in a way that I found it had a page-turning quality to it, which is not how I would describe The Master. Even though I read it fairly quickly, I could see someone getting a little bit bogged down in it. This, to me, is a bit more I think once youre in its grip, it moves pretty quickly. I dont know if either one of you has read it. greg cowles I have not. Im curious because I did read The Master, and it felt very much there like he had immersed himself in the work of Henry James and was a little bit channeling Henry James in writing it. So theres almost like a cover version sense of john williams No, thats right. greg cowles And I wonder if hes doing the same thing with Mann here. john williams I dont think so. And thats the funny thing, is that the Henry James book, thats a very difficult person to cover. But I think youre exactly right. It gave you some of the feeling of a James book and of his style, which was quite something and I thought very impressive and bold. This is, I would not say that he is trying to immerse you in either his style or his consciousness. It is Toibins style. And even the somewhat awkward thing, occasionally, is that hell do something like, Mann sat down to write his novel, Buddenbrooks. Youre like, OK, well, thats a little on the nose. I mean, you could sort of hint what hes doing and not give me the sort of Forrest Gump recreation of it. greg cowles Pamela, what are you reading these days? pamela paul Well, I recently read a book that Im just going to say flat out is one of the best narrative nonfiction books by a journalist Ive ever read. john williams Now were talking. Here we go. pamela paul I cannot recommend it highly enough. I urge everyone to read this book, even if theyre not interested in the subject on the surface. So the book is called The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier, by Ian Urbina, who is a former investigative reporter for The New York Times. He was here for 17 years. I actually never met him, although he was on the podcast when this book came out in 2019. This book is about maritime law, the lack of maritime law, and the abuses of nearly nonexistent maritime law, which is to say, most of the Earth, as we know, is covered with the ocean. And most of that ocean is not governed by anyone anyone. I mean, there are some loose international agreements and laws that no one is able to or willing or has the money or desire, sometimes, to enforce, and that therefore is an enormous cesspool of international crime that goes on, that everyone is aware takes place, and very little is done about it. And so, there is slavery at sea. There is, of course, piracy, which is probably the thing that weve heard most about. People know Captain Phillips. People think about Somalia. But that piracy is all over the place. That piracy is what you would expect, which is, its theft at sea. And why wouldnt it be rampant? Because there are no police officers out there. There is no C.I.A. or FBI. There is no one that can cover the huge vast stretches of ocean, where all of this crime takes place. Illegal fishing is just one of the many issues in the book thats covered. And what you find out will absolutely appall you, not just in terms of the environmental devastation, but the exploitation of workers and exploitation in terms of indentured servitude, in terms of outright slavery, physical and emotional abuse. The conditions that we sometimes read about in developing nations with regard to factory conditions are nothing compared to what it is at sea. The detail in this book, I could talk about this for a very long time. Ill say a few things specifically about what makes it so good. Its not just the subject matter. Its the way in which Urbina structures his story. Unlike some journalists where a book is kind of created based off a series of articles, it always feels like a coherent whole. You never feel like, OK, and now were at the next story that he reported. And he very deftly interweaves behind the scenes, how I did this. He doesnt overly rely on the first-person narrative. It doesnt feel like an egotistical book. He explains, you might be wondering how I got this person to talk to me. Or, you may be wondering how I got aboard this vigilante ship thats going after illegal poachers because no government will. And the way he gets aboard them is like, its worthy of a movie. And then the other thing that I think makes it so powerful is that its a little bit like when the movie Apollo 13 was being made. I remember there was some kind of interview with Ron Howard, the director, with Tom Hanks, in which they said, we made the decision not to embellish this at all because the simple facts of what happened are so insane that its hard enough to believe it as it is. Theres just no reason to exaggerate. And thats the way this book feels. It feels very journalistically responsible. Theres no exaggeration. If anything, it is very low key. And yet, for a nonfiction book, I found it to be one of the most page-turnery books Ive read in a long time. I stayed up late reading. I woke up early to read. I was reading in the middle of the night. So, there you have it, The Outlaw Ocean. john williams I know youve read a great deal of reported nonfiction. So if youre saying its one of the best things youve read, then thats a huge recommendation. pamela paul It is so good. Basically, even if you dont care about the ocean, you should read this book, is what Im saying. But lets run down the titles of what we all read. greg cowles I read Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos. john williams I read The Magician by Colm Toibin. pamela paul Senate agrees to raise debt ceiling until December The Senate passed legislation last night to temporarily raise the debt ceiling through early December, after 11 Republicans joined every Democrat in voting to take up the bill, clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to break the G.O.P. filibuster and staving off the threat of a first-ever federal default. The final vote was 50 to 48, with senators split down party lines. It came the day after Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, partly backed down from his blockade on raising the debt limit, offering a temporary reprieve as political pressure mounted to avoid being blamed for a fiscal calamity. The bill would raise the statutory debt limit by $480 billion, an amount the Treasury Department estimates should sustain borrowing through at least Dec. 3. The actual X-date will be determined by calculating tax revenues and expenditures. Such projections are especially difficult this year because of complicated coronavirus pandemic relief programs. Quotable: Republicans played a dangerous and risky partisan game, and I am glad that their brinkmanship did not work, said Chuck Schumer, the majority leader. What is needed now is a long-term solution so we dont go through this risky drama every few months. For three-quarters of a century, the California dream has been synonymous with a house like 5120 Baxter and its cousins in the postwar suburbs. But there was an earlier version of California living, one where urban neighborhoods had apartments next to houses and suburbs had boarding units and small-scale farms that families used for food and extra income, making their property work for them. The states housing future is starting to look like that homestead past. On Ms. Estradas block, a number of homeowners already have their adult children living in backyard apartments, along with aunts and uncles in converted garages. Units without permits are a common enough sight in Clairemont that Mr. Logue, the teacher on Baxter Street, called it the Clairemont remodel. None of this is atypical: California has long had some of the most overcrowded homes in the country, and researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, estimate that the Los Angeles metropolitan area has over 300,000 unpermitted units. Some were built for income. Others were built for family. Whatever the reason, they are now a crucial piece of the housing stock and home to a citys worth of people. Legalized A.D.U.s are just a higher-end version of the same idea. This theme shows up in surveys of A.D.U. rents, which are affordable compared with similarly sized units in the area. Its not because they are undesirable. Its that a lot of them are discounted for friends and free to family. Ms. Estrada didn't get the house down the street. Another family bought it. No matter: She plans to employ the states new A.D.U. laws to develop her own property to the max, adding a 1,200-square-foot apartment above her house and making the garage a one-bedroom. Her parents will live there. Her adult daughters will live there. She has already hired an architect. A house for me was security for me and my husband, she said. And now were going to use it to secure our daughters future. The model homes advertised in the Clairemont Villas brochure are still standing, wrapped around a corner of Clairemont Drive. Fading white picket fences enclose the front yards. On a recent afternoon, one had its garage door raised. Inside were crates of canned goods and produce along with a half-dozen shopping carts loaded with bags of groceries. Nobody was living inside: The dream house is now a food bank. Alain Delaqueriere contributed research. Bill Gates has bought enormous tracts of farmland. Warren E. Buffett acquired a 400-acre Nebraska farm in the 80s that produced corn and soybeans, reasoning that this investment in agriculture had no downside and potentially had substantial upside. That logic may seem appealing. But can investors in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds follow the Gates and Buffett examples? Yes, but unless you buy cornfields or cow pastures of your own, only indirectly. No mutual fund or E.T.F exclusively owns land. Instead, funds and E.T.F.s hold the stocks of agribusiness companies, like Deere & Company and Archer-Daniels-Midland, or buy futures contracts for commodities, like corn, soybeans and wheat. The investment case for farmland and thus for a fund that might proxy for it boils down to two words: scarcity and necessity. The supply of arable land is limited less than one-fifth of the acreage in the United States is suitable for farming and food is essential. Unless everyone hunts and gathers, the world needs farms. I was actually in Austin for that snowstorm in a house with no electricity, no lights, no power, no heating, no internet, he said. This went on for several days. However, if we had the solar plus Powerwall, we would have had lights and electricity. Tesla is a leading maker of solar panels and batteries the company calls one of its products Powerwall for homeowners and businesses to store renewable energy for use when the sun has gone down, when electricity rates are higher or during blackouts. The company reported $1.3 billion in revenue from the sale of solar panels and batteries in the first six months of the year. Mr. Musks announcement that Tesla would be moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif., came with few details. It is not clear, for example, how many workers would move to Austin. Its also unknown whether the company would maintain a research and development operation in California in addition to its factory in Fremont, which is a short drive from headquarters and which it said it would expand. The company has around 750 employees in Palo Alto and about 12,500 in total in the Bay Area, according to the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies. It is also not clear how much money Tesla will save on taxes by moving. Texas has long used its relatively low taxes, which are less than Californias, to attract companies. County officials have already approved tax breaks for the companys new factory, and the state might offer more. Over the years, California granted Tesla hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks, something that Gov. Gavin Newsom noted on Friday. But because Tesla will continue to have operations in California, it may still have to pay income tax on its sales in the state, said Kayla Kitson, a policy analyst at the California Budget & Policy Center. Whatever incentives they offer Tesla, Texas officials are not likely to change their support for the fossil fuel industries with which the company competes. But Ms. Sinemas demand to cut spending on climate provisions in the budget bill could force Democrats to cut or shrink programs designed to help poor communities adapt to climate change as well as to help companies adjust as the economy transitions away from fossil fuels to clean energy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted in a letter to colleagues this week that the climate programs would remain. The climate crisis is a health issue, jobs issue, national security issue and a moral issue to pass the planet on to future generations in a responsible way, Ms. Pelosi wrote. This challenge must be addressed with justice for vulnerable communities, who have been hit first and hardest by the climate crisis. A spokesman for Ms. Sinema, John LaBombard, forcefully denied that Ms. Sinema requested the cuts. Neither Senator Sinema nor our office have requested or demanded such cuts, nor have we even heard of any such demands, he wrote in an email. The people familiar with her request, who asked to speak anonymously because they were not authorized to speak on the record, said that she had asked for a cut to the climate program as part of a larger effort by Democrats to hunt for ways to lower the price tag of the broader spending legislation. Mr. Biden had initially envisioned a spending package of about $3.5 trillion, but Democrats are now trying to cut that to $2 trillion, in order to win support from Ms. Sinema and Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, without whose votes the measure will not pass. As Democrats try to slice $1.5 trillion from the overall bill, party leaders have vowed to protect at least two major climate change programs, which together total about $450 billion. Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. From the 2016 to the 2020 elections, Donald Trump improved his performance among certain segments of Latino voters, prompting surprised reactions from many journalists and people who work in politics. But this phenomenon was clear to those carefully tracking Latino sentiment and few were doing that more diligently than the Times political reporter Jennifer Medina, whose parents are Panamanian. Ms. Medina, who is based in Los Angeles, started working on campaign coverage in 2019, and that September she reported on Latinos attending a Trump rally, some of whom said they felt like political loners among their Democratic friends and family. In 2020, she followed up that work with accounts of Mr. Trumps macho appeal and why evangelical Latinos considered him a defender of their religious values. She also recently looked at the role that Latino voters played in helping Gov. Gavin Newsom keep his job in the face of a recall election in California. Here, Ms. Medina talks about developing her beat, speaking to hundreds of voters and achieving depth in her conversations. This interview has been edited and condensed. How did you find yourself covering Latinos in the 2020 presidential campaign? The campaign was the first time in my career that I had covered national politics full time. Nobody ever explicitly assigned me the beat of covering Latino politics. I just followed where the story was, and thats what the story was in 2020. Despite her sometimes imposing roles, Seydoux in conversation marches to the beat of her own drummer. At a Midtown boutique hotel, she paused frequently, at times trailing off into silence, yet she beamed with affability and curiosity. Her first comments werent about Bond, or Wes, but rather the existential critique in Dumonts France. She knows shes part of the capitalistic system, Seydoux mused about her character, France de Meurs, a TV journalist in crisis. And she wants that that was her ambition. But shes conscious of the fact that shes also a tool of the system. And shes conscious of her own alienation. This was not what I expected to hear in the Bond bubble, as her publicist referred to the films press operation at the hotel. But Seydoux freely shifted from Bond talking points to off-handed analysis of her roles. When I played Madeleine, I was first degree: There was no distance, there was no irony. My positioning as an actor is something that I really love, Seydoux said. By contrast, in the Dumont, the subject is the philosophical dimension. When I asked Dumont about her performance, he put it simply: Lea Seydoux brought Lea Seydoux! I liked how natural she was. I was interested in working with her nature to build an artificial character. (France, also a New York Film Festival selection, opens in December.) In The French Dispatch (arriving Oct. 22), Seydoux plays a caretaker and lover to a great incarcerated artist, Moses (Benicio Del Toro). Her briskness and wit keep up the comic tempo. The first round of mandatory vaccinations for health care workers required people who work in hospitals and nursing homes to get vaccinated by Sept. 27 doctors, nurses, orderlies and technicians. This round covers home health care workers; people who work in adult care facilities and dialysis centers; and hospice workers. How many are vaccinated? The state has been keeping track of vaccination data for hospital workers and nursing home workers. Its also keeping track of vaccination status at adult care facilities, where there are around 30,000 workers. But the state has not been formally tracking vaccination status among home health aides. So, in a sense, the state doesnt know how big the mountain is that this industry has to climb to get to 100 percent. Some industry representatives think that as few as seven out of 10 home health care workers a category of at least 250,000 people in New York have been vaccinated. But there was also some evidence that people rushed to get vaccinated as the deadline approached. The Visiting Nurse Service reported a 90 percent vaccination rate on Tuesday and 94 percent on Thursday. Industry representatives say that even a 5 percent loss of staff could be serious because the field is already short about 100,000 workers. No ones waiting in the wings to take these jobs, and there are many other fields that pay approximately the same. A home health aide could change to a different, less grueling job where theres no vaccination mandate, like a retail job. To me, I Wonder What Became of Me? represents cultural innovation more generally. For one, the fusion happened far beyond the stage. The difference between the boopiness of Europop and the richness of modern American pop is due, historically, to what P.J. ORourke once satirically described as Europes tragic lack of Black people. (He was referring to Poland, but the point, however exaggerated, applies far beyond.) The story of Black and white Americans frequently centers on abuse, dismissal and conflict, as it must. Beyond this, though, there has always been cultural melding, both above and below the radar. That melding has increased in tempo over the past several decades. It is especially striking in language: American English among young people gets more infused by Black English by the decade. My girls enjoy a YouTuber known as SSSniperWolf, a young woman of, reportedly, Turkish and Greek ancestry who pops off casually with Black English words and idioms. For instance, Ive rarely heard the whimsically scatological dookie uttered by someone who wasnt Black. But she isnt pulling some sort of quotidian minstrelsy; this effortless infusion of Black English expressions is now routine among many Americans her age and even older. A surly teen sweetly totaled my car not long ago (Im fine!), and despite his being of South Asian descent, his speech was perfect Black English and again, this is now to be expected. His cousins and friends who came to the scene all spoke the same way. The fusion weve come to recognize is even in body language. The righteously disapproving neck swivel traditionally associated with Black women is now a gesture one can see young women of all ethnicities using. More than two decades ago, Stanley Crouch told Salon: Carl Jung said that white Americans walk like Negroes, talk like Negroes and laugh like Negroes, adding that Jung would have been in a position to know, being from Switzerland, where they make the real white people! Of course, cultural appropriation can go overboard. We are justifiably wary today of those in power mimicking, sometimes profiting from, cultural products of the disempowered. Some see and take exception to mainly this in the dialect mixing I refer to. However, appropriation yields hybridity that, especially after the passage of time, only the most resolutely clinical of mind-sets can see solely as symptoms of injustice. Peoples sharing space will copy one another even if they dont always get along. And in any case, another side of the incorporation of Blackness into Americas popular canon is the increasing dilution of whiteness as a cultural default. To see how far America has come, one need only watch about 15 minutes of 1950s television. I Wonder What Became of Me is a beautiful example of how weve arrived where we are: It can be a wonder indeed how beauty can emerge from, and in spite of, racial mistrust and dissension. Have feedback? Send a note to McWhorter-newsletter@nytimes.com. John McWhorter (@JohnHMcWhorter) is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University. He is the author of Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever and Woke Racism. Mark Zuckerbergs speechwriter from 2009 to 2011, Kate Losse, says that one of his favorite sayings during her time with him was companies over countries. The statement could be brushed off as the braggadocio of a young billionaire. It can also be seen as a foundational principle of technologys pursuit of scale as politics. It is best to think of it as both. The politics of platform scale is similar to the politics of too big to fail that made banks impervious to the risks of their own making during the 2008 financial crisis. There is a lot to be said about whether banks should have been bailed out and who paid the long-term cost for doing so. But it is at least within the realm of reason to accept that financial institutions are truly so intertwined with U.S. policy, militarization and geopolitics that defending their scale is a matter of national interest. Its hard to make a similar case for Facebook. Zuckerberg may well will Facebooks inevitability into being, but we still have time to determine if we should govern Facebook as if it is inevitable. The inevitability question is complicated by another dimension of scale: that Facebook is not just a U.S. political problem. When Facebook went down this week, so did the companys other platforms Instagram and WhatsApp. The outage brought into focus the divide between different groups experience of Facebooks politics. For many Americans, Facebook going down is an inconvenience; there were memes about rediscovering ones husband, writing deadline or bookshelf during the hourslong Facebook outage. But internationally, WhatsApp is a primary messaging service. Its critical infrastructure for the federal government in the Philippines and hospitals in India. Immigrants in the United States worried about contacting their family back home in places like Malaysia, Ghana and Brazil. But the fault lines in how people use Facebook were also made visible in other domains, like that of disabled people who worried about communicating with their friends, families and caregivers on free-to-use platforms. My U.N.C. colleague Matt Perault told me this week that tech policy is like all policymaking in that it is cost-benefit analysis. That is to say, good policy accepts the trade-offs between insufficient but practical regulations for some agreed-upon, if incomplete, social benefit. Matts insight comes from his former post as a director of public policy at Facebook and now as director of a U.N.C. lab on information technology policy. Its a useful lens through which to view the comments made by the Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen in congressional testimony this week. She testified that the company chooses profit over safety, and explained that it conducted its own research on platform affordances that encourage dangerous behaviors, such as eating disorders and self-harm. Despite this research, Facebook chooses to develop affordances that generate attention, which in turn generates profit, even when those affordances are dangerous for some users. Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor at the University of Virginia and a foremost expert on the social and cultural implications of Facebooks political dominance. On a recent podcast with Virginia Heffernan, another media scholar, Siva characterized Haugens testimony as equivalent to the smoking gun documents that felled the tobacco industry. In the case of Big Tobacco, we decided that the smoking was enjoyable but was also dangerous to public health. We made a cost-benefit analysis of imperfect trade-offs and chose collective well-being. Some people were hurt by that trade-off. People with a physical addiction had to pay more for their vice, for example. But the trade-off was made. Paying attention to technology policy and debates about Facebook may have seemed niche 10 or even five years ago. With the last week from outages to congressional testimony it is clear to me that now is the time for every informed citizen to have a position on regulating Facebook. We should be guided by understanding the trade-offs and whom they affect. The most marginalized people are the ones who are going to be most affected, he added, because they are more likely to live in areas more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, frequently receive a smaller share of federal disaster aid, and are less likely to be able to afford the high cost of insurance. The National Flood Insurance Program About 75 percent of all flood insurance policies are administered by FEMAs National Flood Insurance Program. You can buy one of these policies through a local insurance broker or get referred to one by calling the national program at (888) 379-9531. Any renter, homeowner or business owner in one of the 23,000 participating communities is eligible for a policy, with rates set by FEMA. But those rates are changing. Currently, the average annual premium is $734, according to ValuePenguin. But a new rating system, called Risk Rating 2.0, which FEMA rolled out this month, takes into account a homes location, its size and its overall flood risk. While 23 percent of policy holders will see their rates drop under the changes, 66 percent could see their rates rise by as much as $120 a year, and 4 percent could see their rates rise by $240 a year. Existing policyholders will see rates rise beginning in April. Lawmakers from coastal states, including New York and New Jersey, have urged Congress to block the new rates. The national programs coverage is reliable, but its limited. Residential policies max out at $250,000 for the building and $100,000 for contents. And not all contents are covered. If your basement floods, your policy could replace your walls, boiler and hot-water heater, but not the cost of replacing any personal possessions in the basement, like sofas, televisions and clothes. If you have a finished basement or live in an expensive area like New York, a national flood policy would probably not make you whole in a major disaster. If you have a $500,000 home, you may have a huge gap in coverage, Mr. Friedlander said. There are other limits, too. These policies do not cover living expenses, so if you have to move out temporarily, youll have to cover those costs yourself. And new policies generally take 30 days to take effect, so homeowners looking for coverage for the rest of the 2021 hurricane season, which lasts through November, may be left without coverage during a high-risk period this year. Private Flood Insurance Private flood insurance typically offers more flexible coverage, but it isnt available in all markets. Prices are not set by the government, so they fluctuate based on the providers risk assessment. And unlike the National Flood Insurance Program, a private carrier could drop you in the middle of a term or deny your renewal, potentially leaving you in the lurch in a disaster, according to ValuePenguin. Imagine you are at a research camp in the Tanzanian grasslands and you need to relieve yourself. You walk to the nearby pit toilet: a concrete slab with a tiny portal that opens into an eight-foot pit heaped with human waste. You drop your pants, squat and carry out your business. Suddenly you realize you are not alone. Maybe it is a slight gust of air, or something even more corporeal. Ive had the soft, leathery caress of a bats wing against my buttocks while having a poo, said Leejiah Dorward, a postdoctoral researcher at Bangor University in Wales. In Tanzania, the spaces under certain pit latrines have become cozy havens for roosting bats, according to a paper published by Dr. Dorward and colleagues in September in the African Journal of Ecology. The researchers found the pits rotting depths warm the air, and the concrete slab overhead keeps predators out. Even the occasional falling feces or overhead spray does not drive the bats away, though they may startle the animals into flight. Suddenly you would feel one charge upwards and launch itself between your legs, said Amy Dickman, a senior research fellow at Oxford University and director of the Ruaha Carnivore Project in Tanzania. Then you have this furry mammal just flying into your behind. Though Dr. Dickman was not involved with the research, her toilet was one of seven examined by Dr. Dorward. It was at the memorial mass of Tom Sheas mother, in February 2018, that Dan Elliott realized he was falling in love. The two men had met through OkCupid in April 2017, and had been dating somewhat intermittently, as Mr. Shea lived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., while Mr. Elliott was then a resident of Paoli, Pa. But when Mr. Elliott, who had lost a partner of 38 years just a few years before, sat in a church in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., and heard Mr. Shea speaking of his mothers faith, he was moved. He knew how to talk about faith and belief, and it wasnt sentimental, said Mr. Elliott, whose commitment to Roman Catholicism had been shared by his late partner. I think that was the thing that struck me the most. We had not talked a lot about religion before, but it helped me understand that he had no problem accepting someone being devout. Clapping, whispering, cameras snapping, questionable music: These are the sounds of a classic fashion show. Bursts of laughter? Those are less common. Yet several were heard last Saturday night, rolling around the 19th-century Parisian theater where the great and storied house of Cristobal Balenciaga skipped the traditional catwalk and screened a special 10-minute episode of The Simpsons. It was a surprise more than a year in the making, and the result of a sometimes grueling collaboration between two exacting creative entities known for their attention to detail. So far it has been viewed more than five million times on YouTube. In the episode, Homer writes to Balenciaga (Dear Balun, Balloon, Baleen, Balenciaga-ga, he says as he struggles to pronounce the famous fashion name) for Marges birthday, explaining that his wife has always wanted to own something by the brand. Sidney A. Beard and Jill Brown have six cats, three hens, two dogs, two rabbits and a Belgian draft horse, all rescues. The only one who doesnt live in the house is the horse because we couldnt sneak him into the neighborhood, Ms. Brown said. Mr. Beard grew up in Needville, Texas, a small town southwest of Houston. My family has lived there for generations. I worked for my father in the rice fields for as long as I can remember, said Mr. Beard, 38. Ms. Brown, 40, grew up in Anchorage. They knew AK Diamond J Ranch, in Homer, Alaska, would be the perfect pick for their nuptials, because, Mr. Beard said simply, Jill loves Alaska, and Homer is a beautiful location we both like. Ms. Brown is a senior technical manager at Honeywell Aerospace. Mr. Beard is an instructor stationed on the Moored Training Ship USS La Jolla (MTS 701) in Goose Creek, S.C., near Charleston. The couple now lives with their menagerie of adopted pets in North Charleston. Daniil Kalyuzhny and Nina Naydenova disagree about the nature of their first meeting. In 2016, Mr. Kalyuzhny, then an M.B.A. student at Cornell University, attended a recruiting event for business school students at J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, where Ms. Naydenova is an executive director of mergers and acquisitions. She describes the encounter as an interview, while he considers it more of an interrogation. What they do agree on is that not even the faintest spark flew. Nina asked me questions rapid fire on why I wanted to be a banker, Mr. Kalyuzhny recalled. Lets just say the meeting was intimidating, and no sparks flew, just sweat. Mr. Kalyuzhny, 33, is now a vice president of investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. A graduate of Manhattan College with a M.B.A. from Cornell, he immigrated to America with his family from Odessa, Ukraine, when he was 2, settling in Passaic, N.J. and later moving to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Ms. Naydenova, 33, is a graduate of Cornell and first came to America with her mother and brother, following her father, from Etropole, Bulgaria, when she was 6. When she was 8, along with her mother and brother, she went back to Bulgaria for a year because of visa issues, returning to America for good when she was 9 and settling in Clifton, N.J., a mile from Passaic. China fined the food-delivery giant Meituan $530 million for antitrust violations on Friday, the second major penalty this year in Beijings efforts to bring the countrys big internet companies to heel. The governments campaign has been blessed by the highest levels of the Communist Party leadership. It has involved a wide cast of regulatory agencies and policymaking bodies. And it has wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth for shareholders of some of Chinas and the worlds most successful tech businesses. Like regulators and politicians in the United States and Europe, Chinas leaders have watched with alarm as internet companies have gained ever-greater influence over commerce, society and everyday life. They want to ensure that these companies do not use their power to gain unfair advantages over rivals or exploit captive consumers. But Beijing can move with a speed and decisiveness that Western officials can scarcely imagine, knocking down companies and industries with a few swift strokes. Over the summer, many countries across the world opened to international visitors following the successful rollout of vaccination programs, but fragmented rules about which vaccines will be accepted and what documentation is required, as well as a lack of compatibility between vaccine apps, have left many travelers confused and frustrated over where they can visit without extraordinary headaches and restrictions. Lower efficacy, more stringent restrictions More than 2.7 billion people around the world have been fully vaccinated with a range of vaccines that vary in degrees of efficacy, according to Our World in Data, an Oxford University Covid-19 database. Across Asia, the United Arab Emirates and South America, millions have received Sinopharm, Sinovac and other vaccines manufactured in China, but concern over their efficacy has resulted in many countries not recognizing them for the purpose of travel. Millions more who received domestic vaccines like the Sputnik V in Russia and Covaxin in India, which have not received approval from the World Health Organization, are also limited in where they can go. Britain eased its travel rules this week, expanding the list of vaccination certificates it recognizes from other countries and territories, including Turkey and India, but certificates from many nations in Africa and South America were excluded. In terms of vaccines, the United Kingdom, the 27-member European Union and the 26-country Schengen Area accept the four vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson but Britain and many E.U. states do not recognize the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, despite their approval by the World Health Organization. The United States is still in a regulatory process to determine which vaccines it will accept when the country opens to fully vaccinated travelers in November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement. But vaccines listed for emergency use by the W.H.O., including AstraZeneca, will be recognized, the agency said. The Sputnik V vaccine, which has been approved in more than 70 countries but not yet by the W.H.O., is unlikely to be accepted by the United States as it initially reopens for international travel. These confusing rules over approved vaccines are not limited to Britain and the United States. Experts warn that the haphazard and preferential approach to travel regulations is creating a two-tier system where people vaccinated with the most effective vaccines mainly in the west are able to cross borders freely, while those in developing countries who have received vaccines with a lower efficacy, are not. They fear that such policies will contribute to immunization hesitancy in parts of the world where the most widely accepted vaccines are not available. The case of Mr. Maynard, the criminology professor, appears to spotlight the stresses of the pandemic, links to mental illness and the arduous work of stopping arsonists before they cause irreparable harm. Investigators tracked Mr. Maynards movements using his food stamp transactions, phone records and a device they attached to his car in the Lumberjacks parking lot. An itinerant professor who received his doctorate in sociology from Stony Brook University in New York and taught at Santa Clara, Chapman and Sonoma State Universities, among others, Mr. Maynard had a particular fascination with the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana. He wrote at least six articles related to Jonestown and Jim Jones, the cult leader. In his writings, Mr. Maynard said he was drawn to the topic in part because it helped him to explore the field of social deviance. His Jonestown studies focused on those suffering severe forms of narcissistic personality disorder, when the world they have known in the past starts to spin out of their control. In interviews, former students described Mr. Maynard as anxious, troubled and, at times, inappropriate. One said he often taught his classes during the pandemic via Zoom from a darkened bedroom, revealing details about an ailing father, a lawsuit against his former landlord and his battles with his mental health. Last year, his life appearing to unravel further, Mr. Maynard lived in his car, according to court documents. As he traversed Northern California, he sent messages to students that included rantings, as well as links to YouTube videos meandering footage of trees and mountains in which he ruminated on the state of the world. He also appeared fascinated by arson. While Mr. Bannon worked at the White House in 2017, he departed in August of that year, and was not an executive branch employee in the lead-up to, or on, Jan. 6. It is not clear how executive privilege which can shield White House deliberations or documents involving the president from disclosure would apply to any interactions he may have had with Mr. Trump related to the riot, which occurred more than three years after he left the administration. Steve Bannon was not in the executive branch and was not working for the president, said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the committee. Even if you make the assumption that Donald Trump has even a shred of executive privilege, how could that extend to Steve Bannon? The Biden administration said on Friday that it would not extend executive privilege, which usually applies to a sitting president, to the former president for the first batch of documents requested by the committee. That means the panel would have access to a wide range of documents it requested from the National Archives. As part of this process, the president has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not warranted for the first set of documents from the Trump White House, Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, said Friday. The development sets up a potential legal battle between Mr. Trumps claims of executive privilege and the committee, which is scrutinizing efforts by the former president to overturn the results of the 2020 election and any connections he or his administration may have had to the rioters. Mr. Trump said in a statement that he had sent a letter to the National Archives contesting the Biden administrations stance, and he denounced the committees investigation as a dangerous assault on our Constitution. Mr. Raskin, who is a constitutional law professor, said executive privilege hinges on whether national security concerns outweigh the need for government transparency. In this case, he said, they are not in conflict. WASHINGTON Congress disposed of a looming global economic catastrophe this week by doing what it does best: Not much. After weeks of a market-threatening partisan stare-down, Senate leaders struck a not-so-grand bargain that raised the debt ceiling into early December, just two short months away. If history is any guide, lawmakers will then engage in the exact same fight all over again and may even end up with yet another Band-Aid solution. That kick-the-can-ever-so-slightly-down-the-road debt deal followed the Houses nonconsideration last week of a bipartisan infrastructure bill after a promised vote. The delay meant blowing through a Sept. 30 deadline to keep federal highway programs funded, but not to worry: Congress bought itself a whole month with a temporary 30-day patch that will give Democrats more time to resolve deep differences among them over a huge social safety net measure that may or may not come together by Oct. 31. It all unfolded just as Congress narrowly averted a governmentwide shutdown by just hours last week, passing a temporary bill to fund federal agencies through Dec. 2 to give itself more time to haggle over the 12 annual spending bills. That fight will inevitably collide with the battle over the debt limit, the big social policy bill and the infrastructure legislation. Theres an element of needing to be able to pass something that is less partisan that would be able to pass now rather than waiting for something that includes everything, he said. Mr. Quiroga feared that Democrats would lose the House majority in the midterm elections unless were able to deliver on some things. But one priority he wants Democrats to stand fast on is universal free prekindergarten. My gosh, that is such a huge issue, he said as he held his son, Nico. That can actually transform a community. Mr. Quiroga, who works in tech, looked at his son and did some math about climate change. When he gets to be my age Im 33 now you know, in 32 years, the Earth is still going to be warming unless we do something now, he said. Referring to Mr. Bidens pledge to put the country on a path to cut emissions sharply and to his plan for universal prekindergarten, Mr. Quiroga said that there are aspects of those that I wouldnt compromise on personally as a progressive. With very few exceptions, voters were not steeped in the details of the social and climate policies that are wrapped into Mr. Bidens agenda. To a perhaps surprising degree, Ms. Jayapals supporters trusted her to know how hard to fight. Im not a moderate Democrat, said Kathy Smith, a retired rehabilitation therapist in her late 70s. Im pulling for the whole thing. Ms. Smith was spurred to become an activist by the election of Donald J. Trump. She has made phone calls to voters in various swing states. But she deferred to Ms. Jayapal on where progressives should dig in their heels. Hopefully she will recognize when she needs to moderate her stance, she said. Right now she feels its not the time. And I kind of feel she knows more than I do. We are bringing to bear the full resources of the U.S. government to make available first-class medical care to those affected and to get to the bottom of these incidents, including to determine the cause and who is responsible, Mr. Biden said of the law. Civil servants, intelligence officers, diplomats, and military personnel all around the world have been affected by anomalous health incidents, Biden said, stopping short of using the word attacks. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, did not go into specifics on Friday when asked whether the episodes posed a threat to the American public, or specifically to Americans traveling abroad. We take every reported incident seriously and what we want to do is ensure that our national security team is using every resource at our disposal, Ms. Psaki said. Without an attribution and an assessment of the cause for the origin, I do not want to go further. The presidents signature came just as the episodes appear to be increasing in frequency and some have become more brazen: A C.I.A. officer traveling with Mr. Burns to India several weeks ago became the latest victim, in an incident that resonated inside the White House because his travels had not been publicized, and because targeting a member of the traveling party of the C.I.A. director if that is what happened seemed especially provocative. The India incident came after two dozen or more cases were reported in Vienna, which is home to three U.S. Embassies (two of which are linked to United Nations agencies), as well as the negotiations over Irans nuclear program. It is also the operating territory of spies from around the world. And over the summer, Vice President Kamala Harriss trip to Vietnam was delayed for several hours because of concerns over incidents there. The Indian Health Service announced this week that Black Native Americans in the Seminole Nation, known as the Freedmen, will now be eligible for health care through the federal agency, which previously denied them coronavirus vaccinations and other care. The shift in policy comes as the Biden administration and members of Congress are pressuring the Seminole and other Native tribes in Oklahoma to desegregate their constitutions and include the Freedmen, many of whom are descendants of Black people who had been held as slaves by the tribes, as full and equal citizens of their tribes under post-Civil War treaty obligations. The I.H.S.-operated Wewoka Indian Health Clinic provides services to members of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, and personnel at the clinic and other I.H.S. facilities in Oklahoma have been informed that they should provide services to Seminole Freedmen who present at their clinics and hospitals, the Indian Health Service said in a statement. The Seminole Nation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the announcement. Chuck Hoskin Jr., the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, announced on Friday that his tribe would also start allowing Seminole Freedmen to visit their tribally operated I.H.S. hospital, near Wewoka. For my constituents, building a generational new system of affordable child care that will finally help working parents enter the work force, and then excluding them from it will represent a severe blow to their faith in the federal government, she said. New Jersey already pays more than $10 billion in taxes than we receive in federal spending, Ms. Sherrill added, and I will not let another federal program pay less to New Jersey tax payers than it does to all other Americans. Her position reflects the dilemma Democrats face as they contemplate shrinking 10 years and $3.5 trillion of climate and social safety net programs into a likely size of around $2 trillion. At heart, as they work to unite around President Bidens signature domestic policy package, Democrats are debating the meaning of government itself, and which citizens should benefit from the taxes almost all of them pay. They are also clashing over how best to get Americans to embrace an expansion of the safety net. With Republicans routinely bashing them as the party of the rich, Democrats may have a hard time defending a plan that lavishes benefits on the leafy suburbs of Montclair and Chatham, N.J. But they also know that the most popular government programs and the most stable ones have been those broadly enjoyed, even by the upper reaches of the middle class, such as Social Security and Medicare. Liberal Democrats, as well as some from politically competitive districts like Ms. Sherrills, argue that the bills benefits should be available to everyone. That would mean fewer programs but more comprehensive ones. The measure is expected to clear the House next week, days before the Oct. 18 deadline when the Treasury Department said the government would no longer be able to borrow to finance its obligations under current law. Mr. McConnell has come under withering criticism from former President Donald J. Trump and some of his Republican colleagues for agreeing to allow the debt limit increase to come to a vote, after insisting for weeks that his party would never do so. He did so under the mounting pressure of a looming government default and as Democrats coalesced around the idea of changing the filibuster rules to allow them to raise the borrowing limit unilaterally. The letter, which the aide said he sent to all Republican senators, appeared intended at least in part to assuage the anger of his colleagues. Mr. McConnell has insisted that Democrats use a complex and arcane budget process known as reconciliation to raise the debt limit, which would shield it from a filibuster and allow it to be passed without any Republican votes. Democrats, who are already using that process to advance a sprawling multitrillion-dollar domestic policy package, have refused, arguing that it would be too time-consuming and cumbersome. The Republican leader argued that by allowing the short-term increase to move forward this week, he was calling Democrats bluff, offering them plenty of time to use reconciliation to enact a longer-term solution. Im proud that California was the first in the nation to get this done, Ms. Garcia said in an interview on Friday. But also I have a sense of urgency to see other state legislatures pass similar bills so its clear, across all of these states, that stealthing is not just immoral but illegal. Ms. Garcia, a Democrat, said that she had been trying to pass legislation criminalizing stealthing since 2017, when a Yale University study by Alexandra Brodsky, a lawyer, brought widespread attention to it. She said in an interview last month that she had run into considerable opposition over the years, mostly from lawmakers concerned about what penalties to set, how to prove it had been committed and other issues. The State Assembly unanimously passed this iteration of the bill in September. Seeing this topic go from a young womans masters thesis to now, you know, a global mainstream discussion is really the exciting part, Ms. Garcia said. On Thursday, the Legislative Assembly in the Australian Capital Territory, which includes Canberra, also passed new laws that define stealthing as an act of sexual assault. Ms. Garcia said she hoped the new law would help prevent the act and broaden the conversation around consent. This bill is allowing us to have a discussion about consent in our homes and our schools and in our relationships, she said. The bill does not stipulate the possibility of jail time for stealthing, but supporters of the law say that civil litigation can sometimes yield more results for victims. Last month, Ms. Garcia said the bill was a good first step in laying the groundwork to eventually add stealthing to the states criminal code. Eric Trump, who has helped run the family business since his father started his campaign for president, called the $74 million tally of losses at the hotel between 2016 and 2020 total nonsense, since it includes a common accounting exercise that cuts actual business profits by considering the annual depreciation of the value of the property. The revenues collected from foreign government sources, Eric Trump added, would have been much higher if the Trump family had actively worked to solicit this business. Instead, the company attempted during most of the time Mr. Trump was in office to discourage it, he said. The Trump family made annual payments to the Treasury for the Trump hotel in Washington totaling $355,687 between 2017 and 2019 to attempt to return profits from these sales to foreign government officials. The payments from foreign governments led to accusations in court cases that Mr. Trump was in violation of the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution, which seeks to bar federal officials from receiving payments from foreign governments. Eric Trump also disputed a suggestion by the House Oversight Committee that the Trump family had received preferential treatment from Deutsche Bank, which financed the renovation of the Old Post Office building before it reopened as a hotel. The committee questioned why the terms of loan were changed to interest-only payments in 2018, but Eric Trump said the relatively high assessed value of the hotel allowed the company to defer principal payments on the $170 million loan for several years. They have written a narrative that is purposely false, Eric Trump said in an interview Friday. And they know it is false. Former President Trump had filed annual public reports, as required under the law, providing only gross revenues from the hotel, not profits. The information released on Friday includes profitability figures calculated in a number of ways. Detailed financial reports prepared by Mr. Trumps auditors, which were also released by the House on Friday, show a total loss of $74 million by including depreciation in the value of the hotel of about $8 million a year. More effective flu shots may emerge from the mRNA technology behind two successful Covid vaccines. Modernas doses are mostly going to wealthier nations, enriching the company while leaving the poor behind. But preliminary state data also show that at least 34,000 home health aides appeared to have missed the deadline, rendering them unable to work and worsening a labor shortage in the industry. About 86 percent of home health aides in New York have met a deadline to be vaccinated. About 86 percent of home health aides in New York have met a deadline to be vaccinated. Image Workers at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, a nursing home in the Bronx, last month. Credit... James Estrin/The New York Times The vaccination rate among home health workers in New York as a deadline arrived on Thursday for them to get Covid shots was about 86 percent, exceeding the expectations of some union and industry leaders and suggesting thousands may have made a last-minute decision to be inoculated, according to preliminary state data. But the states survey of agencies providing home health care also showed that at least 34,000 workers appeared to have missed the deadline to get vaccinated under the new state mandate, rendering them unable to work and deepening a labor shortage in the industry. Some industry leaders had predicted that as few as 70 percent of workers were likely to be vaccinated before the deadline, and the higher-than-expected rate suggested some workers may have chosen to be immunized to save their jobs. Faced with a similar cutoff the previous week, hospital and nursing home staff in New York accepted the shot in greater numbers than home health aides, who typically make just above minimum wage. About 92 percent of hospital and nursing home workers had received at least one shot when their deadline arrived on Sept. 27. Though home health workers have largely been out of the spotlight during the pandemic, New York State has at least 250,000 of them, with some estimates rising to over 500,000. The deadline applied to employees of the states 1,500 licensed home health agencies. Another 30 percent of home health aides statewide were hired directly by patients through a Medicaid program and were not subject to the mandate. New York had never before released data on what percentage of home health aides have been vaccinated, making it impossible to draw comparisons with the new numbers, which were released Friday. The numbers came from a Department of Health survey of all licensed home care agencies, which asked them to report their vaccination levels on Thursday. Agencies representing some 245,000 workers responded. They reported that on average, 86 percent of their employees had been partially vaccinated and that 71 percent had been fully vaccinated. The home health care work force in New York has suffered from sharp shortages that have only been intensified by the pandemic, as has been the case in other states. At the same time, demand for home care has risen as people have tried to keep their loved ones out of nursing homes, in part because of the poor conditions in homes that the pandemic exposed. Though the loss of workers was not as steep as feared, some industry leaders warned that losing even 5 percent or 10 percent of aides in a field already suffering from a labor shortage could lead to the curtailment or elimination of care for thousands of patients. The losses might also create backlogs of patients at hospitals that typically discharge patients to home care, the leaders said. Al Cardillo, president of the Home Care Association of New York State, said the percentages alone did not tell the whole story. Even some agencies with high vaccination rates were losing large numbers of employees that would be hard to replace, he said. I just received word from a New York City-area agency that today, to comply, had to remove 175 home health aides from service, Mr. Cardillo wrote in an email. And this is from an agency with a 94 percent vaccination rate among aides. One hundred seventy-five aides in one agency, on top of the emergency shortage that already exists, is just huge. Read more As international travel returns, confusion over vaccines reigns. Image Britain expanded the list of vaccination certificates it recognizes from other countries and territories, but certificates from many nations in Africa and South America remain excluded. Credit... Guy Faulconbridge/Reuters Over the summer, many countries across the world opened to international visitors following the successful rollout of vaccination programs. But fragmented rules about which vaccines will be accepted and what documentation is required, as well as a lack of compatibility between vaccine apps, have left many travelers confused and frustrated over where they can visit without extraordinary headaches and restrictions. More than 2.7 billion people around the world have been fully vaccinated with a range of vaccines that vary in degrees of efficacy, according to Our World in Data, an Oxford University Covid-19 database. Across Asia, the United Arab Emirates and South America, millions have received Sinopharm, Sinovac and other vaccines manufactured in China, but concern over their efficacy has resulted in many countries not recognizing them for the purpose of travel. Millions more who received domestic vaccines like the Sputnik V in Russia and Covaxin in India, which have not received approval from the World Health Organization, are also limited in where they can go. Britain eased its travel rules this week, expanding the list of vaccination certificates it recognizes from other countries and territories, including Turkey and India, but certificates from many nations in Africa and South America were excluded. In terms of vaccines, the United Kingdom, the 27-member European Union and the 26-country Schengen Area accept the four vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson but Britain and many E.U. states do not recognize the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, despite their approval by the World Health Organization. The United States is still in a regulatory process to determine which vaccines it will accept when the country opens to fully vaccinated travelers in November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement. But vaccines listed for emergency use by the W.H.O. will be recognized, the agency said. Besides the three authorized for use in the United States those made by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson they are AstraZeneca, the version of AstraZeneca made in India, and two Chinese vaccines: Sinopharm and Sinovac. The Sputnik V vaccine, which has been approved in more than 70 countries but not yet by the W.H.O., is unlikely to be accepted by the United States as it initially reopens for international travel. These confusing rules over approved vaccines are not limited to Britain and the United States. Experts warn that the haphazard and preferential approach to travel regulations is creating a two-tier system where people vaccinated with the most effective vaccines mainly in the west are able to cross borders freely, while those in developing countries, who have received vaccines with a lower efficacy, are not. Read more Advertisement Continue reading the main story Brazils Covid-19 death toll passes 600,000. Image A Brazilian flag was added to a display representing the 600,000 people who have died from Covid-19 in Brazil on Friday at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Credit... Bruna Prado/Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO Brazil surpassed the grim landmark of more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths this week, making its death toll second only to the United States. The countrys official tally of fatalities reached 600,493 late on Friday, more than a year and a half after the beginning of the pandemic in Brazil, according to a consortium of major media companies that have been collecting data from local governments. The United States has recorded 712,822 deaths, according to a New York Times database. Brazils vaccination campaign appears to have slowed the progress of the coronavirus, experts said. It took only 36 days for the country to go from 300,000 to 400,000 deaths, and 51 days for the disease to claim the next 100,000 victims, a point passed on June 19. The most recent 100,000 Covid-19 victims died over 111 days. Natalia Pasternak, a microbiologist who is the president of the Instituto Questao de Ciencia, a Brazilian nongovernmental organization, said the country was on track to control the pandemic if it continued to vaccinate people at the same rate. We have to have a responsible optimism in the country with the advance of vaccination, Ms. Pasternak said in Portuguese. This is thanks to a very good national immunization program, built up decades ago, and a population extremely favorable to the vaccine. Brazils president, Jair Bolsonaro, a conservative populist, has drawn heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic. He repeatedly played down the threat of the virus, railed against quarantine measures, declined to be vaccinated himself and defended the use of ineffective treatments. His government was also slow to secure access to coronavirus vaccines even as Covid overwhelmed hospitals across the country. Most Brazilians are willing to get immunized against the virus, polls show. Even though the initial campaign to vaccinate the population was hampered earlier in the year by a shortage of doses, health workers had managed to fully immunize 46 percent of Brazilians by Friday, the data from the media consortium shows. The United States surpassed 700,000 deaths from Covid-19 earlier this month. Its death toll rose over the summer as the highly contagious Delta variant spread, despite an ample supply of vaccines. Brazil, India, and Mexico follow in the ranking of total deaths, according to The New York Times database. Questions have been raised about the quality of the data released by the Brazilian government, because of delays and omissions. But the group of major media companies, the Consorcio de Veiculos de Imprensa, has been collecting information from regional governments and releasing it daily since April 2020. With vaccination gaining ground in Brazil, local governments have loosened restrictions aimed at curbing the virus, and social distancing rules are often disregarded in many places. The pandemic appears to be over in some neighborhoods, like the Saude area in Rio Janeiro, where there are frequent outdoor concerts. Some public health experts, however, have said it is too early to relax measures intended to stop the virus from spreading. Brazil shouldnt start releasing now, removing the restriction on the use of masks, giving people a false sense of security, because its not over, Ms. Pasternak said. Read more Advertisement Continue reading the main story Modernas doses are mostly going to wealthier nations, enriching the company while leaving the poor behind. Image A dose of Modernas Covid vaccine being administered last month in Kajiado, Kenya, a middle-income country where the United States has donated doses. Credit... Patrick Meinhardt / AFP via Getty Images The Massachusetts-based company Moderna has been supplying its shots almost exclusively to wealthy nations, keeping poorer countries waiting and earning billions in profit. According to Airfinity, a data firm that tracks vaccine shipments, Moderna has shipped a greater share of its doses to wealthy countries than any other vaccine manufacturer. About one million Moderna doses have gone to countries the World Bank classifies as low income, as compared to 8.4 million doses of the Pfizer shots set aside for those nations. In addition, middle income countries have had difficulty getting a hold of the Moderna vaccine, with most of those that have reached deals to receive it reporting they have not obtained any doses, and at least three countries reporting they are paying more for the doses than the United States and the European Union. Moderna executives have said that they are doing all they can to make as many doses as possible as quickly as possible but that their production capacity remains limited. Moderna developed its breakthrough vaccine its only commercial product with the financial and scientific support of the U.S. government. The companys market value has nearly tripled this year to more than $120 billion. Two of its founders, as well as an early investor, this month made Forbes magazines list of the 400 richest people in the United States. The disparity in the distribution of its doses has earned the company some criticism. They are behaving as if they have absolutely no responsibility beyond maximizing the return on investment, said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read more Black pastors in New York City promote vaccination from the pulpit. Image The Rev. John S. Udo-Okon encouraging vaccinations last month at Word of Life International Church in the Bronx, N.Y. Credit... Thalia Juarez for The New York Times Dozens of people gathered at the Word of Life International Church in the South Bronx in New York City on a recent Saturday for its weekly food bank, but the pastor was also interested in discussing a different subject. He said he wanted everyone there mostly Black residents, including seniors and mothers with small children to know that Covid vaccines were easy to find. More important, the pastor, the Rev. John S. Udo-Okon, wanted them to know that the vaccines would not harm them. More than 80 percent of adults in New York City have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, but there are significant racial disparities in the vaccination rate. Only 55 percent of Black adults have received at least one vaccine dose, compared with 92 percent of Asian Americans, 75 percent of Hispanic adults and 62 percent of white residents, according to data published by the city government. Community leaders attribute that low vaccination rate among Black New Yorkers to a combination of factors, primarily a history of racism in the medical system and a subsequent distrust of authorities. To address the gap, health officials and some Black churches have sought to use the power of the pulpit to vouch for the safety of vaccines and to push back against misinformation. They have also hosted vaccination events in church halls or from mobile vans parked outside of churches after Sunday services. These cultural institutions are a safe space to have discussions you go to your faith leader and theyll answer questions, said Dr. Torian Easterling, the first deputy commissioner and chief equity officer at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Read more Advertisement Continue reading the main story Vaccine hesitancy, an issue among police officers, is also evident among firefighters. Image A firefighter picking up his Covid-19 vaccination card in January in Los Angeles. Credit... Jae C. Hong/Associated Press Vaccine hesitancy among police officers in the United States has been one of the themes of pandemic news this year, but in some places, firefighters are joining the resistance. This week, hundreds of firefighters in Los Angeles filed a notice of intent to sue the city over its vaccine mandate, saying an Oct. 20 deadline to get vaccinated is extreme and outrageous. The notice, filed on Thursday, said each of the 871 firefighters would seek $2.5 million each if the lawsuit is filed for a projected total of over $2.1 billion. A lawyer representing the group said that the city would have 45 days to evaluate the notice and that he expected to file the suit immediately after that period. Firefighters in Spokane, Wash., joined state workers in a lawsuit over statewide vaccine mandates, according to KXLY-TV. In Orange County, Fla., a group of firefighters upset by a vaccine mandate sued the county, WFTV reported. The International Association of Fire Fighters statement on vaccines offers no support for rejecting vaccine mandates. Instead, it notes the extreme importance of vaccination for fire fighters and medical emergency personnel who work in confined and uncontrolled environments while treating or transporting patients or interacting with the public. The statement lists the few options available for exemptions, and lists some of the financial penalties and job losses that defying mandates could incur. Kevin McBride, the lawyer representing the Los Angeles firefighters, said in an interview that his clients did not trust the available vaccines and could be fired for defying the citys vaccine mandate. All three vaccines used in the United States are highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death from Covid-19, and serious side effects, like a strong allergic reaction, are extremely rare. Mr. McBride said the Los Angeles authorities had rejected his offer of a middle ground in which weekly testing would substitute for getting the shot. The mandate passed by the Los Angeles City Council in August did not include an option for regular testing. As of Thursday, about 64 percent of members of the Los Angeles Fire Department were fully vaccinated, according to a spokeswoman, Cheryl Getuiza, and about 1,200 members had not had a single shot. Since the pandemic began, two members have died, and 1,070 have been infected, she said. Los Angeles is also experiencing vaccine hesitancy among its law-enforcement agents. The firefighters notice of intent to sue was filed on the same day that the Los Angeles County sheriff, Alex Villanueva, said he would not enforce the vaccine mandate at his department, which employs some 18,000 people. Read more More effective flu shots may emerge from the mRNA technology behind two successful Covid vaccines. Image Receiving a flu shot at a community clinic in Chicago last year. Credit... Taylor Glascock for The New York Times While not as virulent as the coronavirus, the flu has a staggering global impact: three million to five million cases of severe illness every year, and up to 650,000 deaths. Every few decades, a new flu strain spills over from animals and leads to a pandemic. Flu vaccines have been around for eight decades, but they remain mediocre. A flu shot is good for only one flu season, and its effectiveness typically reaches somewhere between 40 and 60 percent. In some years its as low as 10 percent. Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker A look at all the vaccines that have reached trials in humans. But a new generation of highly effective flu vaccines may emerge in the next few years, based on the same mRNA technology that has protected hundreds of millions of people against Covid-19. While traditional influenza vaccines are grown for months in chicken eggs, mRNA vaccines are manufactured relatively quickly from scratch. In theory, their faster production may make them better matched to each seasons flu strains. And when theyre injected into people, they may provoke a stronger immune response than traditional flu vaccines do. Two companies Moderna, the Massachusetts biotech company that produced one of the authorized mRNA vaccines for Covid-19, and Sanofi, a French vaccine maker began trials for mRNA flu vaccines this summer. Pfizer and BioNTech, the companies that produced the other mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, started their own flu trial last month. And Seqirus, a vaccine producer based in England, is planning to test another mRNA vaccine for the flu early next year. No one can say for sure how well any of these four seasonal flu vaccines will turn out, but many experts are optimistic. And further down the line, mRNA technology may be tailored to make vaccines that work for years against a wide range of influenza strains. I am beyond excited for the future of flu vaccination, said Jenna Bartley, an immunologist at the University of Connecticut. Read more Advertisement Continue reading the main story Advertisement Continue reading the main story MEXICO CITY The United States and Mexico began overhauling an aged security agreement on Friday to better confront the flow of criminal activity between the two nations, but officials at the high-level talks conspicuously sought to avoid focusing on the ever-growing migrant crisis on their shared border. It was a striking omission, given the thousands of people, largely from Central America and the Caribbean, crowded on the Mexican side of the border, many in squalid camps, seeking entry to the United States. And it underscored the inertia in both governments for finding a broad solution for managing the crisis, particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court in August rejected President Bidens efforts to let some migrants in by easing asylum restrictions imposed by the Trump administration. Instead, the top diplomats and immigration, defense, economic and legal officials from Mexico and the United States began discussing on Friday a replacement to the Merida Initiative, a security agreement signed in 2008. The country is set to review its restrictions on Monday, two weeks after they were put into place, and to make adjustments depending on the situation in the community. For Mr. Wong, one vision of how the pandemic might play out in Singapore and elsewhere would include face masks, limited travel and social distancing, perhaps until 2024. He stressed that Singapore was still on a path toward living with Covid and said he recognized that any form of tightening, no matter how small, would be met with anger and frustration because people are anxious to move on. But we have to adjust based on the realities, based on the situation we are facing, he said. Last month, officials scrambled to set up community treatment facilities equipped with oxygen tanks and asked those with mild or no symptoms to recover at home. Many Singaporeans said there was confusion about what to do and that the government appeared ill prepared. The future of Austrias government will now depend on the left-leaning Greens, the junior coalition partners, who were always uncomfortable political bedfellows with Mr. Kurz and who had campaigned on a platform of clean politics. Prominent voices in the Greens party now see that position and their support for the government as untenable under a chancellor who is suspected of using funds from the finance ministry to pay for positive media coverage. They are now calling for another member of his Peoples Party to take over the chancellorship. Short of that, they could pull out of the ruling coalition and try to form a new government with a combination of smaller opposition parties, though they lack the numbers in Parliament. If all fails, the country could face new elections. Such a person is no longer capable of performing his duties, and of course the Peoples Party has a responsibility here to nominate someone who is beyond reproach to lead this government, Sigi Maurer, the Greens leader in Parliament, said of Mr. Kurz. Mr. Kurz, 35, says he is determined to hang on. He rose to prominence after seizing control of the conservative Peoples Party and refashioned it by co-opting many of the messages of the far right at a time when anti-immigrant populism was surging in Europe. The Russian authorities have repeatedly delayed inspections by the European Unions main drug regulator that are required for the approval of its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, the blocs ambassador to Russia told the countrys news media on Friday. Moscow has criticized the bloc for not approving the vaccines use sooner, but the ambassador, Markus Ederer, said that the extended timeline was not politically motivated. The Russian side has repeatedly postponed the timing of the inspection requested by the E.M.A., which slows down the process, Mr. Ederer told the local outlet RBC, referring to the European Medicines Agency. These are the facts. Sputnik V has been approved for use in more than 70 countries, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund that backed the vaccines development. But it has not been approved by the European regulator or the World Health Organization. That creates difficulties for Russians traveling to the European Union and to the United States. PARIS The Catholic Church in France was once so powerful that it was considered a state within a state. In Roman Catholicisms global hierarchy, France cemented its position as far back as the fifth century, when it became known as the eldest daughter of the church. While Catholicism has ebbed across the Western world, its unrelenting decline in France is all the more striking given its past prominence. Now, a devastating church-ordered report on sexual abuse by the clergy released this week, after a similar reckoning elsewhere, was yet another degradation, further shaking what was once a pillar of French culture and society. The report, which confirmed stories of abuse that have emerged over the years, shocked the nation with details of its magnitude, involving more than 200,000 minors over the past seven decades. It reverberated loudly in a country that has already been transformed, in recent generations, by the fall of Catholicism, and deepened the feeling of a French church in accelerating retreat. The Rev. Laurent Stalla-Bourdillon, a priest and theologian in Paris, said that the church was still coming to grips with the extent of its gradual marginalization in French society. BRUSSELS Poland threw down the gauntlet to the European Union on Thursday when its Constitutional Tribunal issued a judgment that the Polish Constitution in some cases supersedes rulings by the blocs highest court. The Polish judgment, which is a direct challenge to the primacy of European law, one of the cornerstones of the European Union, will only take effect once it is published by the government in an official journal, which could take some time. But the European Commission, the blocs executive, responded quickly, asserting that the Court of Justice of the European Union has primacy over national courts or constitutional tribunals in member countries. The commission said it would take steps to enforce the judgments of the European high court. For the European Union, getting members to adhere to the blocs laws is critical for the survival of the union, which is based on shared sovereignty, and a commitment to European values and the rule of law, as set out in its governing treaties. Hours after a Russian newspaper editor received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to safeguard freedom of expression, the Russian government made another move to muzzle that expression. Nine activists and journalists, including prominent Russian-language correspondents for the B.B.C. and the American-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, were declared foreign agents by Russias Justice Ministry. They now have to submit to onerous disclosure requirements, including having to attach a lengthy disclaimer to every social media post. It was the latest evidence that the Nobel for Dmitri A. Muratov came amid the most intense campaign of repression against the independent news media in Russias post-Soviet history. The Parliament does not represent all the people, it does not represent the minority with an alternative point of view, Mr. Muratov said outside his newspapers office in Moscow on Friday. The media represents them, and this is exactly why, I believe, these attacks on the Russian press are taking place. Seeking to bolster press freedoms as journalists find themselves under increasing pressure from authoritarian governments and other hostile forces, the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the Peace Prize to two journalists thousands of miles apart for their tireless efforts to hold the powerful to account. The journalists, Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia, were recognized for their courageous fight for freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions, the committee said in a statement released after the announcement in Oslo. Ms. Ressa a Fulbright scholar, who was also named a Time magazine Person of the Year in 2018 for her crusading work against disinformation has been a constant thorn in the side of Rodrigo Duterte, her countrys authoritarian president. In the hours after Dmitri A. Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, reactions in Russia were mixed, exposing a deep divide among the Kremlins embattled critics on how to best push back against an increasingly authoritarian state. Many Russians rejoiced at Mr. Muratovs award and celebrated the success of his newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, which has produced hard-hitting investigations despite tremendous pressure since it was founded almost three decades ago. But supporters of the jailed opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, who was poisoned last year in an operation that Western officials say was organized by the Russian security services, and subsequently jailed, were particularly disappointed. Mr. Muratov, himself, said on Friday that if it were up to him, Mr. Navalny would have won the prize, citing his courage. While Mr. Muratov has grown increasingly disillusioned with politics in Russia, he has sought to find ways to engage with the Kremlin. That was evident in the reaction of Mr. Putins chief spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, who congratulated him on the award. Every year, speculation is rife over who will emerge from the intensely secretive voting process. Scientists whose work has helped combat climate change and improve the environment have already been recognized in Nobel Prizes handed out earlier this week. Two scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for work that laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earths climate and how humanity influences it. Two chemists were honored for findings that have helped lessen the impact of chemistry on the environment. Greta Thunberg, the 18-year-old climate activist from Sweden, is widely thought to be in the running for the peace award. She has been a top contender for the prize since 2019, when Time magazine recognized her as its Person of the Year. Among the hundreds of submissions, 95 are organizations. Last year, the $1 million cash prize went to the World Food Program, the United Nations agency that is the worlds largest humanitarian organization, for its efforts to combat a surge in global hunger amid the pandemic. With the world still struggling to emerge from a pandemic that has killed more than 4.6 million people, observers have speculated that the Nobel committee might reward work being done to lessen the suffering. At the top of many shortlists is the U.N. World Health Organization, which has sought to act as the voice of authority amid a cacophony of misinformation surrounding the coronavirus. Scientists whose work over decades led to the rapid development of vaccines that have changed the course of the pandemic, to the surprise of many, were passed over when awards for Medicine and Chemistry were announced earlier in the week. But the global vaccine initiative, Covax, could be selected for its ambitious, though struggling, efforts to promote equal access to the lifesaving vaccines. More than half of Americans younger than 65 had health coverage through an employer in 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Families with job-based health insurance contributed an average of $5,600 toward the cost of health coverage last year, with employers paying more than $15,000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The foundation expects to release its report on 2021 costs in November. Given all the moving parts, employers are taking different tacks to manage costs next year. Nearly a third said they would consider narrowing the network of doctors and other providers available to patients, Willis Towers found. (It surveyed 378 employers of varying size, representing almost six million workers, in June and July.) A quarter of employers said they charged extra for covering a working spouse, if additional coverage was available through the spouses employer, and 9 percent said they were planning to add such spousal surcharges in the next year or two. And in a trend to make care more affordable for lower-wage workers, some employers may vary their contributions to employee health care premiums, based on the employees jobs and their level of pay. Employers may contribute less to higher-paid workers health premiums, shifting more cost to them, and contribute more to lower-paid workers, to help them pay for the care they need. About a fourth of employers do this now, and 8 percent more are planning on doing it in coming years, Willis Towers found. Its aimed at affordability, which is a hot topic, Ms. Stone said. The financial services company Synchrony, which has a large number of hourly workers, has used tiered premiums for years. The companys entry-level tier offers health coverage starting at $2 a week for an individual and $10 a week for a family of five; higher-tier employees might pay twice as much or 10 times as much. The plans have the same type of coverage across tiers; just the premium varies, said Aaron Brown, the companys senior vice president of total rewards. Its the right thing to do, to make sure health care is affordable for our employees, he said. Employees seem receptive; the company says the share of employees who elect medical coverage is consistent across wage levels. Employers see mental health as a top priority, said Mr. Bernstein of Mercer, and are responding by increasing the number of covered therapy visits, and offering digital tools to help increase access to providers. Online services like Ginger, for example, let workers schedule remote visits quickly and offer exercises to help reduce anxiety. People are now more open to talking about wealth, he said, asking questions like: How did you make that trade-off? How much did it cost? And investors realized that they needed a plan to protect what theyd earned, whether they were a tech billionaire or a tech worker. When times were good, it can seem like theyre always going to be good, said Sharon Klein, president of family wealth for the Eastern United States at Wilmington Trust. Sometimes you dont understand that until you have a really disruptive event like we had in 2008. A lot of people learned that you need to be really coordinated and have a team so you can pivot and change on a dime. She added that more of her clients today are poised to take advantage of opportunity but also be defensively positioned if something happens. The perceptions of wealth as it relates to taxes and investing have also changed. Now, many more people believe that the wealthy have advantages over everyone else, and even the accountants and lawyers who service the wealthy accept some of that criticism. Take, for example, the report in ProPublica in June that Peter Thiel, the tech entrepreneur, has $5 billion in a Roth I.R.A., on which he will pay no taxes when he withdraws the money. Individual retirement accounts were created by Congress to help the middle class save for retirement. Im convinced that changes to planning tools are in the cards, said John Dadakis, a partner at the law firm Fox Rothschild. Look at the Roth I.R.A. and what happened there. Its great for some people, but the concept of creating a $1 billion Roth I.R.A. or even a $100 million Roth I.R.A. where you dont have to pay any taxes is clearly the wrong result. Richard A. Behrendt, a former inspector for the Internal Revenue Service who then worked for a decade helping people hold down their tax bills, said that when he was at the I.R.S., one of the biggest takeaways for me was the mechanizations that very well-meaning people in the law and accounting world would undergo for their clients. Jala, a small town in the Mexican state of Nayarit, is famous as the home of the worlds largest ears of corn. The same species can be cultivated in other parts of the country, but it just doesnt grow as big. In 2019, the grower of the worlds largest ea of corn, a farmer named Jesus Nazario Elias Moctezuma, won the annual corn cob competition in Jala, Nayarit with a cob that measured 39.5 centimeters long. The runner-up lost by only half a centimeter, and most of the other participants werent far off either. They all compete with ears of corn from the Jala landrace, a giant species known for producing some truly humongous ears of corn. Unfortunately, as impressive as its cobs are in terms of size, the Jala landrace has been losing out against more mainstream species and is in danger of being lost forever. Photo: Reddit While 40-cm-long ears of corn are still considered huge, they are definitely not as long as they used to be. In 2016, a local farmer won the annual contest with a 45-cm-long cob, and scientific reports dating back to 1924 mention ears as long as 60 centimeters, and plants over 6 meters in height. But as the number of farmers growing it decreased, so did the size of the ears. The Jala maize landrace is unsuited to mechanization due to its size and agronomic requirements, socioeconomic researcher Carolina Camacho said. It must be sown by hand and, because the plant can grow to several meters or taller, the ears must be harvested on horseback. Despite the size of its ears and the prized floury texture, the truth is that the Jala landrace is losing out to more competitive and profitable varieties. And as more farmers switch to other species, the unique genetic pedigree of this legendary species gets diluted. The real tragedy is that simply exporting the Jala landrace to other states or even other areas of Nayarit wont yield the same humongous ears of corn. The species is already grown in neighboring states like Sinaloa and Jalisco, as well as in other parts of Nayarit, but it just doesnt grow as large as it does in Jala, at the foot of Ceboruco volcano. 5W Public Relations is named agency of record for H&H Bagels, a New York brand founded in 1972. As H&Hs first agency of record, 5WPR will lead strategic media relations in the consumer and franchise space for the company. 5W will build upon H&H Bagels legacy in New York, highlighting their significance in the industry to tell the brands story while supporting company announcements, including regional and nationwide expansion. We are excited to celebrate our 50-year anniversary in 2022 and expect this partnership to kickstart our next 50 years as a truly great, iconic New York City brand, said H&H Bagels CEO Jay Rushin. Altus Marketing, a Moore company, is selected as direct mail marketing agency of record for Thompson Child & Family Focus. Altus Marketing will work together with Thompson to steer their direct response fundraising program and maximize donor growth through strategic insights with creative innovation backed by data and analytics. Founded in 1886 as an orphanage, Thompson has since grown into a nonprofit organization operating across North Carolina, providing evidence-based early childhood, family stability and mental health services for children and families in need. With the support of Altus Marketing, we look forward to building a sophisticated approach to sharing our mission with like-minded donors to fund our efforts to care for and protect children and families in need, said Thompson president Will Jones. Imagine PR has been appointed as the North American public relations representative for The Singular Hotels, a portfolio of two luxury properties in Santiago and Patagonia, Chile. The agency will provide integrated public relations, digital marketing and brand partnerships, among other services. Specific areas include strategic communications counsel, travel recovery services, media relations, event planning and execution, social media content and strategy, and influencer connections. The company will also lead media familiarization trips and tours. Maria Ressa Take a bow, journalism The Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, founder of the Rappler website, and Dmitri Muratov, editor of Moscows Novaya Gazeta, is an extraordinary tribute to journalism, said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire. It is a powerful message at a time when democracies are being undermined by the spread of fake news and hate speech, he said. RWB and the #HoldTheLine coalition launched a solidarity campaign for Ressa in July 2020 and created a website https://holdthelineformariaressa.com that features hundreds of videos recorded by infuential figures that will play until the Philippine government drops all charges against her and Rappler. America doesnt buy it. Gallup reports that a mere 36 percent of Americans trust the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. Thats the second lowest level of media trust since the divisive 2016 Trump/Clinton presidential campaign when only 32 percent of America trusted the media. Trust in the media rebounded to 45 percent in 2017 as Democrats rallied around journalism to counter Trumps "enemy of the people charge and cries of fake news. Trust began to decline in 2018. Americas trust in media ranged from 68 percent to 72 percent between 1972 and 1976. Another headache for Facebook. The National Press Clubs Press Freedom Team will host a news conference on Oct. 12 with Andy Parker, father of slain WDBJ-TV (Roanoke, VA) reporter Alison Parker to talk about the Federal Trade Commission complaint filed on his behalf against Facebook. The complaint questions Facebooks role in allowing a moment-of-death video of Alison Parkers Aug. 26, 2015 murder to be posted and re-posted on the platform. Parker and her cameraman Adam Ward were shot and killed while conducting a live interview. The Parker family did not want to the video of the murder to be posted on Facebook or any other platform. The complaint says Facebooks response to requests to remove the video have not been adequate. Andy Parker, a member of the NPC, became a gun control advocate following the death of his daughter. He has testifed before Congress, contributed to the Washington Post, USA Today and Huffington Post and is the author of For Alison: The Murder of a Young Journalist and Her Fathers Fight for Gun Safety. 08/10/2021 - Major reform of the international tax system finalised today at the OECD will ensure that Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) will be subject to a minimum 15% tax rate from 2023. The landmark deal, agreed by 136 countries and jurisdictions representing more than 90% of global GDP, will also reallocate more than USD 125 billion of profits from around 100 of the worlds largest and most profitable MNEs to countries worldwide, ensuring that these firms pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate and generate profits. Following years of intensive negotiations to bring the international tax system into the 21st century, 136 jurisdictions (out of the 140 members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS) joined the Statement on the Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalisation of the Economy. It updates and finalises a July political agreement by members of the Inclusive Framework to fundamentally reform international tax rules. With Estonia, Hungary and Ireland having joined the agreement, it is now supported by all OECD and G20 countries. Four countries - Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - have not yet joined the agreement. The two-pillar solution will be delivered to the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Washington D.C. on 13 October, then to the G20 Leaders Summit in Rome at the end of the month. The global minimum tax agreement does not seek to eliminate tax competition, but puts multilaterally agreed limitations on it, and will see countries collect around USD 150 billion in new revenues annually. Pillar One will ensure a fairer distribution of profits and taxing rights among countries with respect to the largest and most profitable multinational enterprises. It will re-allocate some taxing rights over MNEs from their home countries to the markets where they have business activities and earn profits, regardless of whether firms have a physical presence there. Specifically, multinational enterprises with global sales above EUR 20 billion and profitability above 10% - that can be considered as the winners of globalisation - will be covered by the new rules, with 25% of profit above the 10% threshold to be reallocated to market jurisdictions. Under Pillar One, taxing rights on more than USD 125 billion of profit are expected to be reallocated to market jurisdictions each year. Developing country revenue gains are expected to be greater than those in more advanced economies, as a proportion of existing revenues. Pillar Two introduces a global minimum corporate tax rate set at 15%. The new minimum tax rate will apply to companies with revenue above EUR 750 million and is estimated to generate around USD 150 billion in additional global tax revenues annually. Further benefits will also arise from the stabilisation of the international tax system and the increased tax certainty for taxpayers and tax administrations. Todays agreement will make our international tax arrangements fairer and work better, said OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. This is a major victory for effective and balanced multilateralism. It is a far-reaching agreement which ensures our international tax system is fit for purpose in a digitalised and globalised world economy. We must now work swiftly and diligently to ensure the effective implementation of this major reform, Secretary-General Cormann said. Countries are aiming to sign a multilateral convention during 2022, with effective implementation in 2023. The convention is already under development and will be the vehicle for implementation of the newly agreed taxing right under Pillar One, as well as for the standstill and removal provisions in relation to all existing Digital Service Taxes and other similar relevant unilateral measures. This will bring more certainty and help ease trade tensions. The OECD will develop model rules for bringing Pillar Two into domestic legislation during 2022, to be effective in 2023. Developing countries, as members of the Inclusive Framework on an equal footing, have played an active role in the negotiations and the Two-Pillar Solution contains a number of features to ensure that the concerns of low-capacity countries are addressed. The OECD will ensure the rules can be effectively and efficiently administered, also offering comprehensive capacity building support to countries which need it. Further information on the continuing international tax reform negotiations is also available at: https://oe.cd/bepsaction1. Media enquiries should be directed to Pascal Saint-Amans (+33 6 26 30 49 23), Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, or to Lawrence Speer (+33 1 4524 7970) in the OECD Media Office (+33 1 4524 9700). Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to preserve individual liberty and improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Three Bank of Ireland branches in Offaly will close their doors for the last time today. The bank's branches in Banagher, Edenderry and Clara will close from today (October 8) along with 85 other outlets across the country. The bank says its partnership with An Post will allow customers to access a number of services in their local post office, including over the counter cash and cheque lodgements, withdrawals, and balance enquiries. The bank has written to customers to inform them of the closure date, as well as advising them of banking services available to them after October 8. Bank of Ireland customers in Banagher will have to travel 12 kilometres to Birr to avail of in branch banking, while customers in the Clara area will have to travel 11 kilometres to Tullamore. Bank of Ireland customers in Edenderry face by far the longest trip to their nearest bank which is now located 25.5 kilometres away in Edenderry. As talks of climate change, the protection of the environment and the importance of living a greener lifestyle dominate our society, you would be forgiven for believing that the ban on peat harvesting is a good thing in Ireland. But when a country that has its own supply of peat is now importing almost 4,000 tonnes of the stuff from Latvia just to supplement the product it can no longer legally harvest, is it really a greener option? A total of 3,600 tonnes of horticultural peat arrived on Irish shores last week - the first time in history that Ireland has had to import the product. That massive shipment of peat was delivered to Klasmann- Deilmann Ireland Ltd., a factory and is now stockpiled on the edge of a bog that straddles the Longford/Westmeath border and on which the company has been working for 40 years. That bog has lain idle since 2019 when the ban on peat harvesting came into effect. If the sheer size of the delivery hasnt quite hit home yet, consider this: it took 200 truckloads on a 200km round trip to carry that peat from the bog in Latvia to the port in Riga. Thats 40,000km of diesel. Add to that the journey from Riga to Drogheda and youve got 3,000km of heavy fuel oil for the ship. The final leg of the journey took 200 truckloads on a second 200km round trip to carry that peat from the port in Drogheda to its destination, where it sits in mountainous piles, just metres away from a bog that could have provided the same quantity without the giant-sized carbon footprint. Meanwhile our bogs in Ireland are emitting carbon whether we are harvesting peat on them or not, said Kevin Mahon of Klasmann- Deilmann Ireland Ltd. Peat is being harvested in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, and Russia So this is not an EU problem; it is a uniquely Irish problem and if there was a willingness to allow a Just Transition away from the use of peat in horticulture, the system could be fixed, he added. Instead, there is a suggestion being presented that there is a system for companies to get regulated, if only companies in the sector would follow the system. Currently, companies have to go through a four- stage process for a licence to harvest peat, begining with what Mr Mahon has dubbed permission to apply for permission for Retrospective Planning Permission. This application for Leave for Substitute Consent from An Bord Pleanala should, in theory, take no more than a few months but Klasmann-Deilmanns application has been with An Bord Pleanala for 15 months now and is still no further on. If granted Leave, the company can apply for Substitute Consent to An Bord Pleanala, which could take up to two years and, if granted, they can apply to the County Council for planning permission, a process which could take another two years. In our case, this bog actually straddles Longford and Westmeath so its two separate planning applications in two different counties, said Mr Mahon. If granted planning permission by the County Council, the company can then apply to the EPA for a licence. This process could, again, take up to two years, with objections and appeeals - and with no guarantee of a licence at the end of it all. So what the Just Transition commissioner had recommended in his report was that there be a one-stop-shop set up - which makes absolute sense - that you put in one application, which would cover licencing and planning in one, Mr Mahon explained. We dont care which agency does it, whether its An Board Pleanala, or EPA, but just one point of contact, rather than this big long process. For a start-up, a six year wait to achieve regulatory approval to commence activities would be an untenable situation, according to Mr Mahon, but for a business that has already been operating successfully for forty years this is effectively a death sentence. We have only survived to date because, as a matter of policy, we hold several years of stock to protect us against the possibility of encountering successive seasons of bad weather. In addition, we have supplemented our own stocks by purchasing large quantities of peat from Bord na Mona but, now that they have ceased operations, stock is no longer available from that source. Hence the massive importation from Latvia. In fact, most Irish substrate manufacturers will exhaust existing stockpiles of peat in the coming months, if not sooner, which will lead to a shutdown of the entire horticultural sector. The imported peat is to supplement the reserve supplies of Irish peat that have now been almost exhausted, forcing the sector to import peat into Ireland at a higher cost both financially and environmentally, placing 17,000 jobs across Irelands horticultural sector at risk. A streamlining of the sequential permitting process is necessary to avoid the imminent shutdown of the industry and Growing Media Ireland (GMI) is now calling on the Government to secure the resumption of peat production in Ireland immediately to avoid a sector-wide financial and environmental crisis. It is seeking a fair and workable licensing system that will provide for the phasing out of horticultural peat harvesting over a transition period to 2030, allowing alternatives to be developed but ensuring that there is a secure supply of Irish sourced growing media during that period, so the sustainable horticultural sector is not jeopardised. Local Fianna Fail TD Joe Flaherty last week addressed the Dail, stating that peat producers were aghast at the news of such a large shipment of peat landing on Irish shores. We were warned time and again that we would end up importing peat. We were warned time and again that Just Transition was going to fail the midlands, he said. Some 3,600 tonnes of peat travelled 3,000 km from Latvia. Similar, if not better quality peat could have been extracted from bogland no more than ten to 15 miles away and could have been brought on 10 km journeys. We are now being told by Growing Media Ireland, which represents the peat producers, that we are going to need at least two shipments the size of what arrived into the country last Saturday to meet Irelands peat demands for the foreseeable future. Peat producers are aghast, disillusioned and disappointed. They looked for a fair, equitable and workable licensing system that would have enabled them to extract peat, he continued. Bord na Mona withdrew its seven applications from An Bord Pleanala at the start of the year, leaving two live applications, both of which are from a local producer, Klasmann-Deilmann, which is just up the road from me in Rathowen. There is surely an opportunity there for some of the Department officials to liaise with An Bord Pleanala and to prioritise and, it is hoped, get those two applications over the line to allow the producer to start extracting that peat to try to head off the absolute folly whereby we imported more than 200 truckloads into our country last Saturday - something we are going to repeat twice every month. The issue will also be discussed at the next meeting of Longford County Council where Legans Cllr Paul Ross has submitted a notice of motion requesting that Longford County Council call on the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a fast-track one-stop-shop framework for planning and licencing for the harvesting of horticultural peat, as was recommended by the Just Transition Commissioner in his progress report dated April 2020. Such a streamlined approach between statutory bodies would help prevent the absurdity of 200 truckloads of peat being imported from Latvia to be stockpiled on a bog just outside Legan and would instead allow the resumption of the responsible harvesting of peat moss here in Ireland, as it occurs elsewhere in Europe, he said. All sectors of Irish horticulture including mushroom and small fruit and vegetable growers throughout Ireland are severely affected by the halting of peat harvesting in Ireland. But this affects all of us as food prices are expected to increase as a result of peat importation. It is probably fair to say that the current dysfunctional system favours the agenda of certain members of this government, so it is perhaps unsurprising that the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications is reluctant to make any changes that would lead to the resumption of harvesting in Ireland, said Mr Mahon. It is hard to see how the current situation will benefit Irelands Greenhouse Gas Emissions and it certainly will not benefit the horticulture sector in Ireland. Its gross hypocrisy and Green Wash. A WOMAN who is exceeding her monthly mortgage payments is still being pursued by a bank in the courts, the Offaly County Registrar has heard. James Seymour, sitting in Tullamore, was told that Ulster Bank had instituted proceedings against the woman in 2013. The registrar was told she is paying 700 a month to Ulster Bank even though the normal payment was 627. She had been able to make the increase after speaking to the Money Advice & Budgeting Service (MABS). A barrister for the bank said he believed the matter was being re-entered by the bank because even that level of repayment would not clear the arrears of 27,000. He said personal insolvency would be the correct route but the borrower, who represented herself in court, stated she had explored that four years earlier. Mr Seymour adjourned the matter to March 10 next year for the borrower to engage a personal insolvency practitioner again, saying that process could force a solution, whether it be a writedown or a restructuring. In another case a couple told the registrar that they had their property valued and the asset's value would exceed the amount owed. Other proceedings involving Mars Capital, which manages mortgages for a so-called vulture fund, were adjourned when the registrar was told a personal insolvency practitioner (PIP) had been engaged. The registrar urged many of those in mortgage distress to explore the possibility of personal insolvency. In relation to one case where an order for possession was being sought by Pepper Finance, a firm which services loans on behalf of so-called vulture funds, Mr Seymour was told the arrears were now 325,000. Pepper Finance was represented remotely in court by a solicitor from the firm Sellors but the borrower appeared in person and represented himself. Eanna Bane, for Pepper, said the matter had been adjourned previously for the borrower to send on an income and expenditure report but he had been advised that no report has been received and no repayments had been made. Mr Seymour told Mr Bane that it would not be appropriate to hear an application for possession remotely and he would adjourn the matter for a physical hearing. The borrower told the court he had been in correspondence with Pepper about the forms for the income and expenditure report but he had not yet received them. The solicitor for Pepper said the last repayment was 600 and it had been made in February 2016. Proceedings had first been issued in 2014. Mr Seymour told the borrower that while he had every sympathy for anyone facing mortgage arrears, it was hard to have sympathy when they was no evidence of repayments for five years at a time when there were plenty of other people struggling and making repayments. The defendant said he had the house up for sale and had a client who was prepared to buy it and he was going to negotiate a writedown of the debt. The deal for the sale was near enough done but then fell through because of all the hullabaloo on the part of Pepper's solicitors. Mr Seymour said the case had been going on for seven years and he could not let it drag on because the debt was only getting bigger. He said he would adjourn the case once more, to December 16 next, but directed the borrower to speak to a personal insolvency practitioner immediately. The registrar added that he believed the only way Pepper would accept a sale of the house was if the proceeds went to them. When the borrower told him that he had been fighting with Pepper for a long time, the registrar said the country was full of people fighting with other people, including himself. However the money had been borrowed and while he had every sympathy for anyone who got into difficulties, in this case the defendant needed to go and make an insolvency arrangement. Mr Seymour said the insolvency provisions were for people like him who had a significant debt and need to get out from under it. In another case where an application was made to substitute Pepper Finance for the original lender, Ulster Bank, the registrar adjourned his decision because the borrowers were not present. The registrar heard the property was a family home and proceedings had first been issued in 2019 by Ulster Bank. Pepper Finance took over the servicing of some non-performing Ulster Bank loans later in 2019 when the bank sold them to the US fund CarVal Investors. A solicitor and an advisor from MABS were present at the sitting of the County Registrar where more than 100 cases involving mortgage arrears were listed. The registrar advised a number of borrowers to speak to MABS on the day and the solicitor, Mark Stafford, appeared for many others. The registrar heard that some borrowers had already been engaging with MABS and had been dealing with personal insolvency practitioners (PIP) or were attempting to enter into mortgage-to-rent arrangements. Along with Ulster Bank and Pepper Finance, numerous other banks and funds were taking actions against borrowers, including EBS, Start, Promontoria, Bank of Ireland, KBC, Haven Mortgages, AIB, Shoreline Residential and Mars Capital. One of the actions dated from 2003 but most were between 2008 and 2020. While the weather is set to be very wet for much of the country on Friday and through tonight, he weather forecast for Ireland for the weekend is for more settled conditions for the country with a good deal of dry weather expected. According to the latest weather forecast from Met Eireann, the weather will turn largely settled in the coming days as high pressure builds over Ireland but it will be cooler. There will be a dull start on Friday morning with outbreaks of rain and drizzle, heavy in places. Rain will become lighter and patchier through the morning, with drier intervals and occasional bright spells developing. A spell of heavier rain will spread over parts of the southwest and west in the evening, with a further risk of localised flooding. Mild with highest temperatures of 16 to 19 degrees, possibly reaching 20 degrees in parts of the east with the best of the sunny spells, in a mostly moderate southerly breeze. Persistent rain will gradually extend northeastwards on Friday night to all areas with a clearance moving into western areas towards morning. Mild with temperatures not falling below 12 to 14 degrees in mostly moderate southerly winds with some mist patches developing. The latest weather forecast for Ireland for Saturday from Met Eireann says there will be a clearance to drier conditions with good sunny spells in the west which will extend eastwards through the morning and early afternoon as the rain moves into the Irish Sea with some patchy drizzle following. Highest temperatures of 15 to 18 degrees with light to moderate northwesterly breezes developing. It will be a largely dry night on Saturday night with long clear spells and just isolated showers, mostly near northern coasts. Lowest temperatures of 6 to 9 degrees in a light west to northwest breeze with mist and fog forming, becoming dense in places. According to Met Eireann, Sunday will be largely dry with sunny spells though a few showers will continue in parts of Ulster. Highest temperatures of 13 to 15 degrees in light to moderate west to northwest breezes. Continuing mainly dry overnight on Sunday night with clear spells. Lowest temperatures of 4 to 8 degrees in a light west to northwest. Mist and fog will form again, with a risk of becoming quite dense in places. According to the latest Met Erireann weather forecast, Monday will be mostly dry for the morning with some sunny spells. However, light outbreaks of rain will move in over Ulster through the morning, extending to the northern half of the country during the afternoon. Staying largely dry further south. Highest temperatures of 13 to 16 degrees in a light to moderate west to northwest wind, fresher on northern coasts. Light rain will slowly move further south overnight, becoming patchier as it does so. Lowest temperatures of 4 to 8 degrees with clear spells generally, but milder over parts of Ulster where outbreaks of rain will persist. Mist and fog will once again develop in light northwesterly breezes. The price of a life-changing drug for Irish babies with a rare progressive disease has been agreed. The HSE will now reimburse single-dose Zolgensma gene therapy used to treat babies with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Reimbursements will be available for newborn babies with SMA type 1, or pre-symptomatic children with up to three copies of the SMN2 gene. SMA affects approximately one in 8,000 people, according to SMA Ireland, and the neuromuscular disease causes immobility a and short life span. Up to 60% of children born with the disease will never be able to sit up independently and do not live beyond two years of age. The representative group has welcomed news of the agreement, which was negotiated by Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands through the BeNeLuxA initiative. SMA Ireland director, Jonathan O'Grady, called the day "significant" for Irish babies with SMA and their families and carers. He said, "Todays announcement means that the two or three children born each year in Ireland with the most severe form of the disease will now have access to this life changing medicine. However, to ensure that Zolgensma will have maximum effect for those who meet the criteria, it is vital that treatment is administered as early as possible." The group is also calling for SMA to be added to the national list of diseases as part of the neonatal screening process. He said, "Genetic screening for common and rare disorders, including SMA, is now standard practice in other European countries and in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Detection at the earliest point is absolutely critical here to achieve the best treatment outcomes for babies with SMA." Mr OGrady concluded by encouraging families with newborns missing milestones to consider contacting SMA Ireland. I was 15 when I told my family about my gender identity, said Saro Imran, a transgender youth advocate and social entrepreneur for the rights and empowerment of transgender people in Multan, Pakistan. Imran, 28, felt a sense of relief when she came out to her family because she didnt have to live her life in secret anymore. For many young transgender people, the reaction isnt as positive when they reveal their gender identity to their families, friends, and community, Imran added. UN Human Rights has documented widespread discrimination and stigma against trans people in the health sector, schools, employment and housing, as well as in accessing bathrooms and lack of recognition of their gender identity and made recommendations to Governments on steps to take to better protect the rights of trans people. Since 2013, Imran has been a transgender youth advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights. She is working with several local and international organizations such as Rutgers Pakistan, AwazCDS-Pakistan, Family Planning 2030, Commonwealth Youth Network for Gender Equality, and International Youth Alliance for Family Planning. Supporting the trans community Imran knows firsthand what it is like to feel unsafe in public. In 2010, a crowd of people physically attacked her for being transgender. She was badly beaten and slowly recovered with the support from her peers, she said. This type of violence and traumatization can deter young transgender people to be open in public about their identities, according to a recent report on youth protection. She said that after the attack, she decided to be an advocate for those who are unable to stand up for themselves and be open about being transgender. Imran said the accessibility of mental health services and peer support is crucial for transgender people because societal pressure and discrimination is an ongoing ordeal. This is echoed by the World Health Organization, that has documented substantial health disparities and barriers faced by trans people in accessing health services. They are going to go through a lot of ups and downs in their lives, especially those people who are not accepted by their families, she said. The Government of Pakistan took steps to make life safer and more inclusive by legally recognizing transgender people with the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, a law that was ratified by Parliament in 2018 to legally provide equality to transgender people and to protect their rights. The new law gave a lot of courage and support for this movement and the movement itself is becoming stronger, she said. Since the Protection of Rights Act, Imran has seen more grassroots level organizations for transgender people and it has also provided more opportunities for them as well. There are a lot of success stories that I have seen, including transgender people who are working now in Government, in media, in the corporate sector, and as entrepreneurs, she said. And that is a good thing that needs to be showcased on an international level, rather than just showing the bad things. Even with the progressive Protection of Rights Act, transgender people, especially youth, continue to face many challenges in the civic space such as harassment, security, and lack of access to social and economic opportunities, Imran said. While the support from the Government is vital for this marginalized community to feel safe, Imran said there still needs to be more support from families and civil society. The biggest hurdle is there is no family acceptance for transgender people in Pakistan, she said. They are abandoned by their families at a very early age. Some members of Imrans family are still not on her side, but she said its a long journey toward acceptance. Diversity is beautiful, so accept the diversity and accept your diverse kids, she said. If you do not accept them, the world will not accept them, and they will suffer in their own life. 8 October 2021 This story is part of Human Rights Champions a recurring series featuring portraits of human rights defenders or organizations that stand up for human rights. Disclaimer: The views, information and opinions expressed in this article are those of the persons featured in the story and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: A consortium including the Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network, S&P Global, and Hamilton Lane, are backing Novata, a new public benefit corporation aiming to streamline ESG measurement, data collection, and benchmarking for private companies and private-markets investors. "Novata launched as an innovative new public benefit corporation and technology platform built to provide the private markets ecosystem, including private equity firms, with intuitive and effective Environmental, Social Good and Corporate Governance (ESG) measurement, data collection and benchmarking," said a press release. Novata is led by Alex Friedman, formerly the chief financial officer of the Gates Foundation and chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management. Novata is seeking to be a data hub to help companies gather, analyze and report ESG data that can be benchmarked against other companies. Directly informed by the needs of general partners and limited partners, Novata is designed to offer a vetted ESG reporting framework built around 10 critical metrics that consistently appear across leading ESG methodologies and a secure technology platform that provides a clearer view of ESG impact, it added. "The majority of the world's economic activity is driven by private companies. It is their approach to environmental and social impact which will ultimately accelerate the ideals of inclusive capitalism," said Alex Friedman, Chief Executive Officer ...................... To view our full article Click here 2020 has been an unforgettable year for everyone. It has been especially unique for every business throughout the United States. At Interpreters Unlimited (IU), 2020 has been a year of adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic, making sure to continue to provide interpretation and translation services uninterrupted. This year also marks a great milestone for IU, it is their 50th anniversary as a Languages Service Provider. Since 1970, IU has been one The hybrid terrorists used by these terror groups are mostly engaged in normal jobs and use small weapons in these acts. Pakistan-based Jihadi terrorist groups are using 'hybrid terrorists' to conduct targeted killings and disrupt stability in Jammu and Kashmir, a news agency mentioned top government sources as saying on Thursday. Earlier, two Hindu teachers were killed by terrorists in Srinagar. According to the report, the hybrid terrorists used by these terror groups are mostly engaged in normal jobs and use small weapons in these acts. "The hybrid terrorists used by these terror groups for these targeted killings are mostly engaged in normal jobs and are used for such killings using small weapons. They return to their normal routine after carrying out such acts," ANI mentioned top government sources as saying. They added that many of these youth have been identified, and security forces are taking strict action against them. On Thursday (October 7), Inspector General (IG) Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that police have several leads on hybrid terrorists and operations are being conducted to capture them with security forces. The racket focused on selling drugs among IT professionals and students and were operating from a rented apartment in Thrikkakkara, Kochi. Kerala police have busted a drug racket and arrested seven peddlers who were operating from Kochi. They were running drug businesses in the districts of Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Kollam. According to the police, the racket focused on selling drugs among IT professionals and students. They were operating from a rented apartment in Thrikkakkara, Kochi. Twenty-five grams of MDMA, LSD slab and Hashish oil have been seized from the arrested. The police are investigating the matter. Narco Jihad in Kerala: Tanvir, Soofiyan and Others Arrested in Kollam District, Drugs seized In yet another incident of drugs being seized in Kerala, Tanvir, Soofiyan, Don and Abhilash were arrested for selling drugs in the Kollam district. 5.5 grams of MDMA, 105 grams of Hashish oil and Button narco tablets were seized from them. The police had received information about these drug peddlers from college students. Upon investigation, it is revealed that the drugs were brought in from Bengaluru. The drugs are then transported to all the districts of Kerala, with women being used as carriers to avoid detection by the Police. One gram of MDMA costs Rs 10,000, and 25 people can use one gram, the arrested people told police. Drug racket busted in Kochi, drugs worth Rs 1 Cr seized, Muhammad Ajmal, Faisal and five others arrested A drug racket was busted in Kochi (Kerala), and the police seized drugs worth Rs one crore. The police have arrested seven people, including two women. The arrested drug peddlers are Muhammad Ajmal, Faisal, Muhammad Fabaz, Muhammad Afsal, Taiba, shaman, and Sreemon. The drug trade was centred in a flat in Kochi. After receiving a tip-off about the drug trade, customs preventive wing and excise conducted a joint search operation in the flat at Kakkanadu (Kochi) and arrested the seven. The investigative agencies have revealed that the racked used an i20 car for their drug business. They sold drugs like MDMA, LSD and others. The drugs were brought from Chennai, the report states. Any connection of this drug trade with terror funding needs to be probed, since Kerala has become a hotbed for Islamic fundamentalist activities. The IAF was established on October 8, 1932, in undivided India under colonial rule and King George VI gave it the prefix "Royal" for its contribution during World War II, which was dropped after India became republic in 1950. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (October 8) extended his greetings to air warriors and their families on Air Force Day and said that the Indian Air Force (IAF) is synonymous with courage, diligence and professionalism. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "Greetings to our air warriors and their families on Air Force Day. The Indian Air Force is synonymous with courage, diligence, and professionalism. They have distinguished themselves in defending the country and through their humanitarian spirit in times of challenges." On Air Force Day, the Indian Air Force will proudly celebrate its 89th anniversary today. The IAF was established on October 8, 1932, in undivided India under colonial rule. King George VI gave it the prefix "Royal" for its contribution during World War II. The prefix was later dropped in 1950 when India became a republic. Courtesy: ANI Jammu and Kashmir government (UT administration) has said that certain elements are making efforts to create communal tension. New Delhi: India on Thursday (October 7) said that while it condemns terror attacks on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, the government is also raising the much disturbing menace of cross-border terrorism at various platforms. "We are worried about the cross border terrorism and are discussing the issue at various platforms," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters while answering questions at a press briefing here. "We strongly condemn such attacks," he remarked. It may be mentioned that because of certain repeated attacks on civilians, including teachers, the Jammu and Kashmir government (UT administration) has said that certain elements are making efforts to create communal tension. Two teachers were killed in a terrorist attack at a government school in the Eidgah area of Srinagar on Thursday. A day before, a hawker was shot dead by terrorists in Srinagar. The incident took place near Madina Chowk, Lalbazar. The ill-fated victim, Virender Paswan, hails from Bihar's Bhagalpur region. Makhan Lal Bindroo, a businessman, was also killed by terrorists in Srinagar on Tuesday. Boundary issue with China: Speaking at the media briefing, MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi said India expects China to work towards early resolution of the remaining issue in Eastern Ladakh. "It is our expectation that China will work towards early resolution of the remaining issue ....," he said and suggested that China should fully abide by the bilateral agreements and protocols. He also said that External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, met Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and both leaders discussed the border tensions. "We have given many statements on the issue. Earlier, we said that provocative unilateral measures of China result in disturbance of peace and tranquillity. We have repeated this many times," he said. More than 12 rounds of military talks and a series of diplomatic parleys have been held between two sides. Celebrating the legacy of Kerala Gandhi K Kelappan, who played an important role in the social transformation of modern Kerala, Prajna Pravah national convener J Nandakumar inaugurated the memorial for K Kelappan constructed by Nila Vichara Vedi near the river Nila. The fire brought from the famous Tali temple was used to light up the lamp in the memorial. While addressing the gathering, J Nandakumar said that the Kerala government should follow the model set by Kelappan when it comes to the overall development of the state. Union minister V Muraleedharan lashed out at the successive state governments in Kerala for deliberately forgetting the legacy of K Kelappan, who is also known as Kerala Gandhi. The Union Minister was inaugurating the program to commemorate the 50th death anniversary of K Kelappan organised by Nila Vichara vedi. He also added that the successive state governments who ignored the samadhi bhoomi of K Keralppan are busy building memorial of Malabar Hindu genocide leader V.k Haji. V Muraleedharan also announced all the help from the Union Governments side to protect Kelappans Samadhi bhoomi. Former Governor of Mizoram Kummanam Rajasekharan while addressing the crowd said that K Kelappan was instrumental in connecting the people in Kerala with the Indian national consciousness. The modern Kerala is indebted to K Kelappan for bring the Gandhian values to public sphere. K Kelappan was an Indian politician, independence activist, educationist and journalist. During the Indian independence movement, he was the lead figure of Indian National Congress in Kerala and was popularly known as Kerala Gandhi. After Indian independence, he held various seats in Gandhian organizations. He is the founding member and president of the Nair Service Society and was also the founder of Kerala Kshetra Samrakshana Samiti . He was a major influence on the Vaikom Satyagraha movement and later led the Guruvayur Satyagraha in 1932. K Kelappan also played a vibrant role in the 'Tali Temple Movement'. Locals at Angadippuram in Malappuram who were trying to peacefully rebuild a Hindu Temple destroyed by Tipu's forces in 18th century were harassed by extremist Muslim elements, asserting that a Mosque was nearby the destroyed site. Then Left Government was also apathetic to the local Hindu cause. Kelappan himself entered into the struggle and led a 'Satygaraha' for the reconstruction of the Temple. Despite several attempts by the Government and police to stop the protests, Kelappan's satyagaraha won and the Hindus were allowed to build their temple. Christian preacher allegedly forced the minor girl to drink and sexually abused her several times. The victim said he threatened to kill her family with his supernatural power if she refused to do so. Aizawl: Self-proclaimed Godman of Mizoram preacher James Lalramliana, arrested for molestation of a minor in church. Mizoram police have apprehended self-proclaimed Miracle performer and preacher James Lalramliana for sexual abuse of a 16 years old girl. The preacher, who has fled Sailutar village after his sexual abuse allegations came to light, was arrested by police on Wednesday night (06/10/21) from his hideout. The 'preacher' was allegedly found sexually abusing a minor girl. According to reports, a minor girl from Sailutar village confessed that James Lalamliana, who has been doing ministry (Christian religious supervisor appointed by the church) in their village for the past months, was frequently intimate with her has often made her drink alcohol. The preacher James Lalamliana often abused her sexually once she got drunk. After the shocking revelation of the minor girl, an FIR was lodged by her family in Darlawn police station. The Village council of Sailutar banished James on the same night and warned him to never step into their village again. The sexual abuse allegedly happened during one of James' bizzare ministries where teenage minors were forced together in a church for 40 days. They alleged that James would often request their presence with him inside the "Holy place". The victim further alleged that James threatened to kill her family with supernatural power if she did not comply. The minor made this confession during a prayer meeting and has expressed guilt and shame over it. An FIR was registered in Darlawn, and Darlawn police have apprehended James on Wednesday in Aizawl, where he had fled. As per the report, James Lalramliana is a street preacher who has overstayed his ministry in Sailutar, claiming that "Elijah's altar is about to arrive". He has many followers in Sailutar, who have allegedly defended him in the past, even after his alleged crimes started to surface. He was reported to have taken shelter in the village's Sunday school hall, but later relocated to an apartment provided by his followers. The arrested preacher James has claimed to perform many supposed "Miracles", including transforming water into wine. A few months ago, his failed attempt at resurrecting a dead man through his "Power" and prayer created a big buzz in Mizoram. Over the past years, many intellectuals and religious leaders in Mizoram have expressed concerns over his style of ministry. As per Aizawl district SP Lalruaia, a case had been registered against the accused under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. The accused was sent to judicial custody by a local court and is now in Central jail, Aizawl. Hindu ancestors, sages put this great knowledge not only on paper but at that time with great skill and design many concepts were practically implemented on the ground and it can be seen through various temples, metalwork, architectural beauty, mathematics, surgical methods... We as Indians have failed to understand the deep and real meaning of the holy Vedas and Hindu culture texts written by the great sages and our ancestors. Psychologically, if we look, any knowledge from our ancient times can be easily understood by adding some personal relevance around the subject to show it through storytelling, making it interesting and easy for the listener to remember. However, this concept given by our sages was not properly adopted by future generations, took only symbolic meaning without understanding it scientifically and due to lack of understanding of the original deep knowledge, a great blow was inflicted on the social, economic and spiritual spheres. Every knowledge, literature, concept written as some message is actually a deep scientific and technical concept, information about composition, medicine and surgery, advice on physical, mental and social health, nurturing and balancing of environment, life management and work management, political and economic considerations. The main objective was to create a socially, economically, spiritually healthy society so that the country and the world would progress at the same time with the theme Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. Advances in science and technology are the main reason for the growth of human civilization. India has been contributing to the field of science and technology since ancient times. Even today what we call traditional knowledge is actually based on scientific reasoning. Veer Savarkar wanted, Not only a particular caste, but everyone should raise the standard of living by developing modern technology using Vedic literature. Lokmanya Tilak had a very in-depth study of Vedic knowledge, a treatise can be written on his knowledge. Hindu ancestors, sages put this great knowledge not only on paper but at that time with great skill and design many concepts were practically implemented on the ground. We can see various temples, metalwork, architectural beauty, mathematics, surgical methods.... Physics The German physicist Werner Heisenberg once said ... About Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of quantum physics that seemed so crazy suddenly became more meaningful. The concepts of atoms, molecules and substances can be traced back to the Vedic age. Moreover, the concepts of astronomy, metaphysics and spirituality are described in the Rig Veda, the ancient Hindu scriptures of the Vedic period. Why have Indians built thousands, so incredibly architecturally amazing temples around the world? Were they rich enough to spend money on this venture? Yes, their eternal Sanatan Hindu culture gave them wisdom, intelligence, hard work, spirituality and most importantly progress in the field of research, the purpose behind which was to make humanity prosperous and peaceful. The German philosopher Gottfried von Herder once said, The origin of mankind can be traced back to India where the human mind got its first shape of wisdom and virtue. From the intricate layout of the Harappan cities to the existence of the iron pillars in Delhi, it is clear that the indigenous technology in India was extremely sophisticated. These include design and planning of water supply, transport flow, natural air conditioning, complex masonry and construction engineering. The search for peace and true knowledge, both spiritually and scientifically, remained the basic DNA of ancient Hindu civilization. Hindu places of worship are temples whose architecture is another science. Now let's take a look at why we should visit temples... Magnetic and electric waves are constantly moving inside the earth; When we build a temple, architects and engineers choose a piece of land where these waves are abundant. The main idol is placed in the center of the temple; This place is also known as sanctum sanctorum. The temple is built and then an idol is erected, the worship of which is commonly known as pranapratishta. The idol is placed where the magnetic waves are highly active. During the installation of the idol, they bury some copper plates under the statue; The plates are engraved with the Vedic script; These copper plates absorb magnetic waves from the earth and radiate to the surrounding area. Therefore, if a person regularly visits the temple and moves around the idol clockwise, his body absorbs these magnetic waves and increases the positive energy to live a healthy life. The German philosopher Schopenhauer writes in his commemorative work, "The World as Will and Representation" - "There is no study in the whole world as beneficial and so advanced as the Upanishads. It is the consolation of my life; it will be the consolation of my death." Let us now understand the scientific way of ritual and spiritual practices Why not eat food during eclipse? During an eclipse, the sun is obstructed by the moon or the earth, so that the wavelengths of ultraviolet rays and blue light do not reach the earth sufficiently. Therefore, the level of bacteria in cooked food increases. If we eat the same food, it can lead to illness. Therefore, our sages suggested that food should not be cooked or eaten during that time. Kush or Darbha grass is kept with food items, the nanoparticles of which destroy the toxic rays. Why one should not sleep with the head facing north? Our body has its own magnetic field, also called the heart's magnetic field. Similarly, the earth also has its own magnetic field, which extends from south to north. If we sleep with our heads facing north, we are letting our magnetic field become asymmetrical in the earth's magnetic field. This can lead to problems related to blood pressure and your heart has to work harder to overcome this disparity of magnetic fields. The second reason is the presence of iron in our bodies. Asymmetric magnetic fields cause iron to build up in the brain, which can lead to many health problems, such as headaches, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and brain degeneration. How does your happiness index increase? There are four hormones that determine our happiness - Endorphins, Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin. The techniques of pranayama, yoga and meditation not only help to be physically and mentally healthy but also make a better life and a happier life by inducing the required amount of these hormones. Why do Indian brides wear rings? In Indian culture, brides are required to wear a ring. In the Indian tradition, wearing a silver ring on the second toe has been practised for thousands of years. It is a symbol of a woman's marital status and also of its social significance. In Sanatan Dharma, unmarried girls do not wear rings. This practise is still followed today. Scientific and Ayurvedic benefits: According to ancient studies, the second toe is directly related to pregnancy. Therefore, the ring in the toe creates acupressure, which leads to a healthy pregnancy. It also helps the bride to be mentally stable. The specific nerve where the ring produces acupressure is connected to the uterus. This keeps the parameters in and around the uterus stable, making the pregnancy healthy and stable. Our ancestors never used the surgical method caesarian. In recent times, its use for delivery has increased as many women have stopped preferring the ring. Menstruation is also controlled by time intervals resulting in a married woman having a higher chance of conceiving. It regenerates the reproductive organs and reduces gynaecological problems. Silver is a good carrier, so putting a ring in the ring helps to get polar energy from the earth and then distributes it to make the body fresh and energized. One culture sows and another culture benefits, all cultures in the world should learn to respect this great culture without mocking this great Indian culture. Jinping XI's government is imposing such norms on the autonomous region of Tibet to tighten its grip on the region. Beijing: In a bid to tighten command over Tibet Autonomous Region, Chinese authorities have directed the Buddhist monasteries in Tibet to translate classroom texts from Tibetan into Mandarin, China's "common language," said a news report. Beijing has also instructed the monks and nuns to adopt the Chinese language for communication instead of their native language, government authorities said at the three-day conference held in Qinghai province last month, reported Radio Free Asia. "This policy is just an ignorant power play by the Chinese government," said Radio Free Asia, quoting a Buddhist scholar, who added that "the question now is, who will translate these Buddhist texts, and what kind of job will they be able to do?" The Buddhist scholar also expressed that this policy is aimed at China's Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism. "A few Tibetan scholars and researchers participated in this [Qinghai] meeting, they were forced to do so in spite of their reluctance," the scholar said. "There is no good intention behind this plan," he added. This is the latest evidence from the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) that indicates Chinese authorities' real view of minority languages that come second, Human Rights Watch informed. Last month, Chinese authorities detained two Tibetan students who 'opposed' Beijing's plan to impose the use of the Chinese language as the only medium of instruction in Tibetan schools. Jinping XI's government is imposing such norms on the autonomous region of Tibet in an attempt to tighten its grip over the region. Earlier in September, Chinese authorities have also threatened to shut down a Tibetan school if they fail to provide classroom instruction exclusively in Chinese. Courtesy: ANI Pakistan, which had been grey listed by FATF, assured strict action against groups like LeT, but let it lie low till the Taliban captured Afghanistan. Islamabad: Despite Pakistan's assurances to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of controlling terrorist groups, it was found that Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) international operational commander Sajid Mir's had a role in the killing of a Swedish cartoonist in Sweden early this month. LeT is based in Pakistan, and LeT's international operations leader Sajid Mir has been associated with Pakistan Army's intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Mir is involved in numerous international terrorist attacks, including the Mumbai attack of November 2008. Today, he is one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. The killing of Vilks in a car crash in Sweden was planned and executed by Mir, which is a clear sign of Pakistan's secret move of reviving LeT's international operations, and Vilks' killing was camouflaged as an accident. Vilks was the target of Muslim extremists groups since he drew the controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in 2007. Iraq's Al-Qaida had offered USD 100,000 for the killing of Vilks. Similar threats were passed by LeT against Vilks. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan himself is a vocal supporter of such groups and people targeting those insulting the Prophet. This year, he had ordered the French Ambassador to leave Pakistan after 'objectionable' cartoons were published in a French magazine. Pakistan, which had been greylisted by FATF, assured strict action against groups like LeT, which are involved in terrorism. But the matter of fact is that LeT was asked to lie low till Afghanistan was captured by the Taliban. Even LeT was asked to train new cadres and fight alongside the Taliban. The killing of Vilks by Mir exposes Pakistan's fake assurances to FATF and the international community to combat terrorism. Courtesy: ANI Dr Jaishankar said India and the US are working together on global issues and are dedicated to the well-being of the global commons. New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has said that views of India and the United States ran along parallel paths for many big challenges such as terrorism, pandemics or climate change. "Both India-US relations and the Quad speak of a newer and more collaborative era of our ties," he said, adding, in an era when technology is increasingly connected with trust and supply chains with reliability, we are contemplating how best to take forward the post-Covid economic recovery. The Minister said India and the US are working together on global issues and are dedicated to the well-being of the global commons. He said this provides the basis for coordinated action. The Minister said this while giving the keynote address at US-India Business Council (USIBC) India Ideas Summit and 4th Annual Meeting on Thursday (October 7). Dr Jaishankar said that both countries are focused on a relationship that has not only steadily expanded, but is now consequential enough to be imbued with a bigger purpose. He said the COVID challenge has been met through a Quad initiative that taps into the strengths of each of the participants. The climate action concern is addressed through the US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership. He further stated that the relevance of advanced technologies is captured by Quad initiatives ranging from Artificial intelligence, 5G and beyond to critical minerals, space and blockchain. The India-US trade potential is being explored bilaterally through Trade Policy Forum and in a larger group through additional supply chains. The Minister said that the benefits of India being a Major Defence Partner of the US are becoming evident when it comes to defence and security. The collective Quad commitment to maritime security is equally relevant, he said. The Indian government imposed 'reciprocity' on all British nationals arriving in India from the UK regarding the vaccine and COVID-19 protocols. New Delhi: It seems the language of 'Tit-for-tat' or the 'reciprocity' policy, to put it mildly, has worked with the British government. "No quarantine for Indian travellers to the UK fully vaccinated with Covishield or another UK-approved vaccine from October 11. Thanks to the Indian government for close cooperation over last month," tweeted British High Commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, bringing an end to the stalemate. Making the United Kingdom understand things in a language and gesture it understands better, the Indian government, on October 1, finally decided to impose 'reciprocity' on all British nationals arriving in India from the UK regarding the vaccine and COVID-19 protocols. "Our new regulations will come into effect from October 4," a source in the central government had said. It also asserted that the restricted norms were to be applicable to "all UK nationals arriving from the UK." All British citizens, thus arriving in India from October 4, Monday, had to face a mandatory 10-day quarantine irrespective of vaccination status. This was done after the UK government had slapped such hurdles for Indians travelling to the United Kingdom, notwithstanding having taken the jabs. "Good evening! From Monday, October 11, travellers from India to the UK, double jabbed by Covishield or any other vaccine recognised by the UK regulator does not have to quarantine. So it will be easier and cheaper to enter the UK. This is great news," Alex Ellis said in a video message. Meanwhile, the British government has also provided relief to 46 other countries removed them from 4 am (British time) Monday, October 11 from the red list. Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic remain on the red list. However, official sources in Britain said such 'red list' restrictions would remain for these seven countries. The UK government also extended the inbound vaccinated arrivals system to a further 37 countries and territories across the globe, including India, South Africa and Turkey, meaning eligible vaccinated passengers arriving from the rest of world countries only need to take a day 2 test in England. The UK government has confirmed that passengers will be able to send a picture of their lateral flow test as a minimum requirement to verify test result accuracy and keep prices down once Day 2 tests switch to lateral flow later this month, followed by a free PCR if positive. Moreover, passengers returning to England from 'these destinations' will no longer be required to enter hotel quarantine. The continued progress on vaccination both at home and around the world means the UK government can "confidently reduce the size of the red list" to focus on countries that pose the highest risk. Eligible fully vaccinated passengers and eligible 'under 18s' returning from countries and territories, not on the red list can do so with just a day 2 test. Other passengers who are not fully vaccinated with an authorised vaccine returning from a non-red destination must still take a pre-departure test, a day 2 and day 8 test and complete 10 days self-isolation (with the option of Test to Release on day 5). Commencing October 11, the eligible travellers vaccinated in over 37 new countries and territories, including Brazil, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey, will also be treated the same as returning fully vaccinated UK residents as long as they have not visited a red list country or territory in the ten days before arriving in England. The UK's move not to recognise India's vaccination was not only discriminatory, but it also reflected a virtual superiority complex and "colonialist mindset", according to some observers. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar had met his British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss in New York last month and took up Covishield-vaccinated travellers being required to quarantine in the UK. MEA spokesperson said the international community must continue to insist on the fulfilment of goals outlined in the UN Security Council resolution New Delhi: India on Thursday, October 7, said that the vandalisation of a Gurdwara in Kabul raises concerns not just for India but for the world and the international community. "Obviously it raised concerns not just for us, but I suppose across the world," MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said here. "It is important that the international community continue to insist on the fulfilment of goals outlined in the UN Security Council resolution," he further said at the weekly media briefing answering questions. According to reports, the Gurdwara Karte Parwan in Kabul was vandalised a few days ago. It may be mentioned here that under the presidency of India, the UN Security Council resolution on Afghanistan was adopted on August 30. The MEA spokesperson also said that issues relating to the Afghan situation were figured during US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's talks with Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla in Delhi. Both sides agreed that there was a need to ensure that terrorism does not emanate from Afghan soil. In fact, even during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit in September, the issues figured prominently at the bilateral discussions between PM Modi and US President Joe Biden and in a separate meeting between the prime minister US Vice President Kamala Harris. "We highlighted our perspective on the role of Pakistan and what are our concerns regarding that," Mr Bagchi said. In key deliberations, the US Deputy Secretary of State, who held meetings with Foreign Secretary Shringla and NSA Ajit Doval, had asserted that Washington firmly stands for India's 'national security'. In yet another crucial statement, she also had said that - "No country is in a rush to recognise or give legitimacy to the Taliban." No direct Delhi-Kabul flights soon: Meanwhile, India is unlikely to resume direct flights between New Delhi and Kabul soon. The MEA spokesperson said that he did not have any "update" on the resumption of the flights between India and Afghanistan. "It is a complicated and sensitive issue. There are various factors that need to be taken into account," he said. Before the Taliban takeover of the war-hit Afghanistan, there were direct flights between Delhi and Kabul operated by Air India and KAM Air. Lately, the Taliban leadership has requested the Indian government to 'resume' flights between Kabul and New Delhi. In fact, in the first such 'official communication', the Taliban regime in Afghanistan urged the DGCA for the resumption of flights. Tourist Visas: More than a year since New Delhi had completely 'suspended tourist visas' in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Central government has announced that it would begin issuing visas from October 15. Initially, the tourists will be allowed entry into India only on chartered flights. Sources said that those wanting to visit India on scheduled commercial flights would have to wait till November 15, sources said. In the life of the Church, the contribution made by women comes in many shapes and forms, which become evident and exemplary in the concreteness of living experience. Today, their contribution is able to indicate a path for the Churchs regeneration, and more besides. After having recounted the lives and stories of Samaritan Women and the Prophetic Rebels in previous issues, in the September edition of Women Church World we are taking a journey to explore great spiritual friendships between men and women. These articles demonstrate that common and co-responsible work, as an inclusive combination, has always been fruitful in the life of the Church. In fact, it is often precisely these couples who have initiated innovative processes. In this issue of Women Church World, we recount stories that have marked different moments in the millennial history of the Church, and which are characterized by intense and rich relationships. These relationships are expressions of a spiritual love, like that between Clare and Francis, or fraternal as that between Scholastica and Benedict, or absolute like the relationship between Eloisa and Abelard. These stories are also interesting human adventures between distant personalities, like that of the energetic Joan of Chantal, follower and at the same time inspirer of Francis de Sales; or, in more recent times, of the calm and sunny Romana Guarnieri who was converted to Catholicism by the restless and tormented Fr Giuseppe De Luca. It is important to talk again about these extraordinary friendships in the history of Christianity because, albeit with different accents, and measured by the culture of their time, they are partnerships based on equality. These are testimonies to a different order in relationships, in which there is mutual recognition of the same dignity, appreciated both by hierarchies and by the world at large. Sometimes, in these couples, it is precisely the female leadership role that is most pronounced. For example, the energy with which Armida Barelli supported the projects of Agostino Gemelli, with whom she founded and managed the Catholic University. These experiences are laboratories. These women and men have worked on a common project, and trusted and valued each other as they did so. In addition, they have made this project available to their church. Their confrontation gave rise to spiritual and theological insights and comparisons. From the strength of their friendship, a social commitment has sprouted, which was aimed at mankind in the here and now, on earth. Whats more, organisations have sprung up that have helped the Church to change its approach to tackling the scourges of the world. For example, what the two giants of charity in Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul achieved. To talk about this again is important for several reasons. First, because it is a wealth that risks being lost; second, some of these questions are being posed by the Church today; and finally, to the covenant between man and woman God has entrusted the earth (Synod for Young People, 13). (DCM) Pope Francis met alongside other religious leaders and scientists from around the world in the Vatican, to take a common stand for the protection of the environment, ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference scheduled for 112 November in Glasgow, Scotland. The following is the English text of the Popes address, which was consigned to participants in the meeting, Faith and Science: Towards COP26, held on Monday, 4 October, in the Hall of Benedictions. Religious Leaders and Representatives, Excellencies, Dear Friends, Thank you for your presence, which clearly shows our desire for a deepened dialogue among ourselves and with scientific experts. I would like to propose three concepts that can guide our reflection on this shared endeavour: openness to interdependence and sharing, the dynamism of love and the call to respect. 1. Everything is connected; in our world, everything is profoundly interrelated. Science, but also our religious beliefs and spiritual traditions, have stressed this connectedness between ourselves and the rest of creation. We recognize the signs of divine harmony present in the natural world, for no creatures are self-sufficient; they exist only in dependence on each other, complementing one another and in the service of one another.1 We might even say that the Creator has given each to the other so that they can grow and reach fulfilment in a relationship of love and respect. Plants, waters and animals are guided by a law imprinted upon them by God for the benefit of all creation. Recognizing that the world is interconnected means not only realizing the harmful effects of our actions, but also identifying behaviours and solutions to be adopted, in an attitude of openness to interdependence and sharing. We cannot act alone, for each of us is fundamentally responsible to care for others and for the environment. This commitment should lead to an urgently needed change of direction, nurtured also by our respective religious beliefs and spirituality. For Christians, openness to interdependence springs from the very mystery of the Triune God: The human person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships, going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with all creatures. In this way, they make their own that Trinitarian dynamism which God imprinted in them when they were created.2 Todays meeting, which brings together many cultures and spiritualities in a spirit of fraternity, can only strengthen our realization that we are members of one human family. Each of us has his or her religious beliefs and spiritual traditions, but no cultural, political or social borders or barriers prevent us from standing together. To illumine and direct this openness, let us commit ourselves to a future shaped by interdependence and co-responsibility. 2. This commitment must constantly be driven by the dynamism of love, for in the depths of every heart, love creates bonds and expands existence, for it draws people out of themselves and towards others.3 Loves driving force, however, is not set in motion once for all; it needs to be renewed daily. That is one of the great contributions that our religious and spiritual traditions can make to help bring about this much needed change of course. Love is the mirror of an intense spiritual life: a love that extends to all, transcending cultural, political and social boundaries; a love that is inclusive, concerned especially for the poor, who so often teach us how to overcome the barriers of selfishness and to break down the walls of our ego. This represents a challenge born of our need to counter the throwaway culture so prevalent in our society and resting on what our Joint Appeal calls the seeds of conflicts: greed, indifference, ignorance, fear, injustice, insecurity and violence. Those seeds of conflict cause the serious wounds we are inflicting on the environment, such as climate change, desertification, pollution and loss of biodiversity. These in turn are leading to the breaking of that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying.4 The challenge to work for a culture of care for our common home, but also for ourselves, is one that inspires hope, for surely humanity has never possessed as many means for achieving this goal as it possesses today. We can face this challenge on various levels. I would like to emphasize two of them in particular: example and action, and education. Inspired by our religious beliefs and spiritual traditions, we can make important contributions in both these areas. Many opportunities present themselves, as the Joint Appeal clearly notes in pointing to the various educational and training programmes that we can develop to promote care for our common home. 3. That care is also a call to respect: respect for creation, respect for our neighbour, respect for ourselves and for the Creator, but also mutual respect between faith and science, in order to enter into a mutual dialogue for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building networks of respect and fraternity.5 Respect, in this sense, is more than an abstract and passive recognition of others. It is an empathetic and active experience of desiring to know others and to enter into dialogue with them, in order to walk together on a common journey. For, as the Appeal goes on to state, what we can achieve depends not only on opportunities and resources, but also on hope, courage and good will. Openness to interdependence and sharing, the dynamism of love and a call to respect. These are, I believe, three interpretative keys that can shed light on our efforts to care for our common home. COP26 in Glasgow represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations. We want to accompany it with our commitment and our spiritual closeness. 1 Cf. Encyclical Letter Laudato Si, 86. 2 Ibid., 240. 3 Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, 88. 4 Benedict xvi, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 50. 5 Encyclical Letter Laudato Si, 201. We are many, different, and yet we are one, we are Church. This is what we read on the pages of the book Prayer: The breath of new life published by lev in 2019, prefaced by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. The book collects the Popes words on prayer and in particular, his catechesis on the Our Father. As the Pope, Kirill reiterates in his preface how important it is, in an age marked by the crisis of communication, to emphasize that in the prayer of the Our Father, taught to us by Jesus, the pronoun I is not used because each of us presents this prayer to our Heavenly Father in the name of all humanity. The Russian edition of the book was presented to the Pope by the President of the Department of External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, who was ... This content is reserved for Subscribers Dear Reader, access to all editions of LOsservatore Romano is reserved for Subscribers. Click here to subscribe Subscribe by 30 November to receive the promotional yearly price of 20. On the 50th anniversary of the Council of Bishops Conferences of Europe, ( ccee ) on Thursday afternoon, 23 September, Pope Francis presided over Holy Mass in Saint Peters Basilica, with participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Council. At the moment of the Eucharistic prayer, the Councils Vice Presidents, Cardinal Nichols and Archbishop Gadecki, approached the altar. Concelebrating with the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences of Europe, were also prelates and cardinals from other geographical areas. The following is the English text of Pope Francis homily. Today the word of God presents us with three words that challenge us as Christians and Bishops in Europe: reflect, rebuild and see. Reflect. So the Lord tells us, through the prophet Haggai. Twice he says to the people: Reflect on your ways! (Hag 1:5.7). Which ways should Gods people reflect on? Let us hear what the Lord has to say: Is it time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins? (v. 4). The people, upon returning from exile, had been concerned about rebuilding their homes; now, they are comfortably ensconced at home, while the house of God lies in ruins, with no one to rebuild it. Those words Reflect on your ways! are challenging because today, in Europe, we Christians can be tempted to remain comfortably ensconced in our structures, our homes and our churches, in the security provided by our traditions, content with a certain degree of consensus, while all around us churches are emptying and Jesus is increasingly forgotten. Consider how many people no longer hunger and thirst for God! Not because they are evil, but because there is no one to awaken in them a hunger for faith and to satisfy that thirst in the human heart, that innate and perpetual thirst of which Dante speaks (Par., II, 19) and which the dictatorship of consumerism gently but insistently tries to suppress. So many people are induced to feel only material needs, and not a need for God. Certainly, we are preoccupied by this, but are we really occupied with responding to it? It is easy, but ultimately pointless, to judge those who do not believe or to list the reasons for secularization. The word of God challenges us to look to ourselves. Do we feel concern and compassion for those who have not had the joy of encountering Jesus or who have lost that joy? Are we comfortable because deep down our lives go on as usual, or are we troubled by seeing so many of our brothers and sisters far from the joy of Jesus? Through the prophet Haggai, the Lord asks his people to reflect on another thing: You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves but no one is warm (v. 6). The people, in a word, had everything they wanted, but they were not happy. What did they lack? Jesus suggests the answer in words that seem to echo those of Haggai: I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, naked and you did not give me clothing (Mt 25:42-43). Lack of charity causes unhappiness, because love alone satisfies the human heart. Concerned only with their own affairs, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had lost the savour of gratuity. This can also be our own problem: concentrating on various positions in the Church, on discussions, agendas and strategies, and losing sight of the real programme, that of the Gospel: the impulse of charity, the fervour of gratuity. The solution to problems and self-absorption is always that of gratuitous gift. There is no other. This is something to reflect on. After reflection, there is another step: rebuilding. Build my house, God says through the prophet (Hag 1:8), and the people rebuild the Temple. They stop being content with a peaceful present and start working for the future. Yet since some were opposed to this, the Book of Chronicles tells us that the people worked with one hand on stones, in order to build, and the other hand on the sword, in order to defend this rebuilding process. It was no easy thing to rebuild the temple. This is what is required to build the European common house: to leave behind short-term expedience and to return to that farsighted vision of the founding fathers, what I would dare to call a prophetic vision of the whole. They did not seek a fleeting consensus, but dreamt of a future for all. This is how the walls of the European house were erected, and only in this way can they be consolidated. The same is true for the Church, the house of God. To make her beautiful and welcoming, we need, together, to look to the future, not to restore the past. Sadly, a certain restorationism of the past is currently in fashion, one that kills us all. Certainly, we must begin from the foundations, yes truly from our roots, because that is where rebuilding starts: from the Churchs living tradition, which is based on what is essential, the Good News, closeness and witness. We need to rebuild from her foundations the Church of every time and place, from worship of God and love of neighbour, and not from our own tastes, not from any alliances or negotiations that we might make for defending the Church or Christianity Dear brothers, I would like to thank you for this work of rebuilding that you are pursuing by Gods grace; it is not easy. Thank you for these first fifty years in the service of the Church and of Europe. Let us encourage one another, without ever becoming discouraged or yielding to resignation. The Lord is calling us to a splendid work, the work of making his house ever more welcoming, so that everyone can enter and dwell there, so that the Church can have doors open to all and that no one will be tempted to think only of guarding the doors and changing the locks, those simple temptations. No, change takes place elsewhere: it comes from the roots. It is from there that rebuilding comes. The people of Israel rebuilt the Temple with their own hands. So did the great rebuilders of the faith on this continent. Let us look to its patrons. They did their small part, trusting in God. I think of saints like Martin, Francis, Dominic, Pio of Pietrelcina, whose feast we celebrate today; patrons like Benedict, Cyril and Methodius, Bridget, Catherine of Siena and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. They began with themselves, with changing their own lives by accepting Gods grace. They were not concerned about dark times, hardships and those divisions that are always present. They did not waste time criticizing or laying blame. They lived the Gospel, without worrying about relevance or politics. Thus, with the gentle strength of Gods love, they embodied his style of closeness, compassion and tenderness for that is Gods style. They built monasteries, reclaimed land, enlivened the spirit of individuals and countries. They did not have a social programme, but the Gospel alone. And they carried on with the Gospel. Rebuild my house. Here the verb rebuild is in the plural. All rebuilding takes place together, in unity, with others. Visions may differ, but unity must always be preserved. For if we keep the grace of the whole, the Lord keeps building, even when we ourselves fall short. The grace of the whole. This is our call: to be Church, together, as one Body. This is our vocation as pastors: to gather the flock; not to scatter it or to keep it enclosed by fine fences, which would in fact kill it. Rebuilding means becoming artisans of communion, weavers of unity at every level: not by stratagems but by the Gospel. If we rebuild in this way, we will enable our brothers and sisters to see. This is the third word, which comes at the end of todays Gospel. Herod tried to see Jesus (cf. Lk 9:9). Now as then, many people talk about Jesus. In those days, they said: John is risen from the dead Elijah has appeared one of the ancient prophets has arisen (Lk 9:7-8). All those people respected Jesus, but they didnt grasp his newness; they fit him into preconceived notions: John, Elijah, the prophets. Jesus, however, cannot be squeezed into the boxes of hearsay or deja vu. Jesus is always new, always. The encounter with him always astonishes, and if you do not feel that astonishment in the encounter, you have not encountered Jesus. So many people in Europe see the faith as deja vu, a relic of the past. Why? Because they have not seen Jesus at work in their own lives. Often this is because we, by our lives, have not sufficiently shown him to them. God makes himself seen in the faces and actions of men and women transformed by his presence. If Christians, instead of radiating the contagious joy of the Gospel, keep speaking in an outworn intellectualistic and moralistic religious language, people will not be able to see the Good Shepherd. They will not recognize the One who loves each of his sheep, calls them by name, and bears them on his shoulders. They will not see the One whose incredible passion we preach: for it is a consuming passion, a passion for mankind. This divine, merciful and overpowering love is itself the perennial newness of the Gospel. It demands of us, dear brothers, wise and bold decisions, made in the name of the mad love with which Christ has saved us. Jesus does not ask us to make arguments for God, he asks us to show him, in the same way the saints did, not by words but by our lives. He calls us to prayer and poverty, creativity and gratuity. Let us help todays Europe faint with a weariness that is Europes current malady to rediscover the ever youthful face of Jesus and his Bride. How can we fail to devote ourselves completely to making all people see this unfading beauty? During a discourse to representatives of various religions gathered in the Clementine Hall for the meeting Religions and Education: Towards a Global Compact on Education on Tuesday, 5 October, Pope Francis called for a renewed educational activity that can advance universal fraternity in our world. The meeting, which coincided with Unesco s World Teachers Day took place within the context of the Global Compact on Education, promoted by the Pope on 12 September 2019, to educate the new generations in fraternity, peace and justice. The following is the English text of the Holy Fathers words. Dear brothers and sisters, I am pleased to welcome you on this significant occasion to promote a Global Compact on Education. On this World Teachers Day instituted by unesco, we, as representatives of different religious traditions, wish to express our closeness and gratitude to teachers, and at the same time our concern for education. Two years ago, on 12 September 2019, I appealed to all those engaged in various ways in the field of education to dialogue on how we are shaping the future of our planet and the need to employ the talents of all, since all change requires an educational process aimed at developing a new universal solidarity and a more welcoming society (Message for the Launch of the Compact on Education). For this reason, I promoted the initiative of a Global Compact on Education in order to rekindle our dedication for and with young people, renewing our passion for a more open and inclusive education, including patient listening, constructive dialogue and better mutual understanding. I invited everyone to unite our efforts in a broad educational alliance, to form mature individuals capable of overcoming division and antagonism, and to restore the fabric of relationships for the sake of a more fraternal humanity. If we desire a more fraternal world, we need to educate young people to acknowledge, appreciate and love each person, regardless of physical proximity, regardless of where he or she was born or lives (Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, 1). The fundamental principle Know yourself has always guided education. Yet we should not overlook other essential principles: Know your brother or sister, in order to educate in welcoming others (cf. Encyclical Fratelli Tutti; Document on Human Fraternity, Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019); Know creation, in order to educate in caring for our common home (cf. Encyclical Laudato Si) and Know the Transcendent, in order to educate in the great mystery of life. We are concerned to ensure an integral formation that can be summed up in knowledge of ourselves, our brothers and sisters, creation and the Transcendent. We cannot fail to speak to young people about the truths that give meaning to life. Religions have always had a close relationship with education, accompanying religious activities with educational, scholastic and academic ones. As in the past, so also in our day, with the wisdom and humanity of our religious traditions, we want to be a stimulus for a renewed educational activity that can advance universal fraternity in our world. If in the past, our differences set us at odds, nowadays we see in them the richness of different ways of coming to God and of educating young people for peaceful coexistence in mutual respect. For this reason, education commits us never to use Gods name to justify violence and hatred towards other religious traditions, to condemn all forms of fanaticism and fundamentalism, and to defend the right of each individual to choose and act in accordance with his or her conscience. If in the past, also in the name of religion, discrimination was practiced against ethnic, cultural, political and other minorities, today we want to be defenders of the identity and dignity of every individual and to teach young people to accept everyone without discrimination. For this reason, education commits us to accept people as they are, not how we want them to be, without judging or condemning anyone. If in the past, the rights of women, children and the most vulnerable were not always respected, today we are committed firmly to defend those rights and to teach young people to be a voice for the voiceless. For this reason, education impels us to reject and denounce every violation of the physical and moral integrity of each individual. Education must make us realize that men and women are equal in dignity; there is no room for discrimination. If in the past, we tolerated the exploitation and plundering of our common home, today, with greater awareness of our role as stewards of the creation entrusted to us by God, we want to give voice to the plea of nature for its survival, and to train ourselves and future generations in a more sober and ecologically sustainable lifestyle. Yesterday I was impressed by something that was said by one of the scientists at our meeting: My newborn granddaughter will have to live, in fifty years time, in an unlivable world, if things continue as they are. For this reason, education commits us to love our mother Earth, to avoid the waste of food and resources, and to share more generously the goods that God has given us for the life of everyone. I think of what one thinker, not a Catholic, used to say: God always forgives, we occasionally forgive. Nature never forgives. Today we want to state that our religious traditions, which have always played a leading role in schooling, from teaching literacy to higher education, reaffirm their mission of integrally educating each individual: head, hands, heart and soul. To think about what we are feeling and doing. To feel what we are thinking and doing. To do what we are feeling and thinking. The beauty and harmony of what it is to be fully human. Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for taking part in this meeting. I also thank those who, due to the pandemic, could not be here today. And now I invite you to a brief moment of silence, asking God to enlighten our minds so that our dialogue will bear fruit and help us courageously to pursue the paths of new educational horizons. Interlochen Center for the Arts will officially mark the completion of its campus master plan, a 30-year transformation that played a key role in its evolution from a national summer music camp to a global, year-round, and multidisciplinary arts and education leader. The Sasaki Associates Campus Master Plan guided 17 major facility projects, including dedicated and state-of-the-art homes for Interlochens seven arts disciplines: creative writing, dance, film and new media, interdisciplinary arts, music, theater and visual arts. Over the last 30 years, the incredible generosity of our community has brought the Sasaki Plan to fruition and remade the artistic face of our campus, said Interlochen Center for the Arts President Trey Devey. Young creatives ages 8 to 18 from all 50 states and 40 countries journey each year to Interlochen to transform their passion into purpose across arts disciplines in facilities on par with professional arts organizations, colleges and conservatories. Interlochen will celebrate the major milestone for an invited audience on Oct. 21-22, with performances, exhibitions and readings by Arts Academy students across campus and with dedication ceremonies at the plans two most recently completed facilities: the newly opened Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow House, a convertible residence hall with visiting artist suites and sweeping views of Green Lake; and the state-of-the-art, 26,000-square-foot lakeside Dance Center. Interlochen students, faculty and staff will be joined by current and retired trustees, past presidents and representatives from Sasaki Associates and other architectural firms. Initiated by former Interlochen president Dean Boal in October 1990 and approved by the Interlochen Board of Trustees in July 1991, the campus master plan was funded by former Interlochen trustees Herbert H. and Barbara C. Dows eponymous foundation. It set out to create a physical environment worthy of Interlochens emerging global reputation while taking advantage of the campuss unmatched natural beauty, with careful attention to preserving wooded and lakeshore terrains and vegetation. Thanks to the extraordinary support of our community, we can now shift our focus to making Interlochen even more transformative and accessible for future generations of creative changemakers as we approach our second century, Devey said. As part of Vision 2028, a set of strategic priorities leading up to its Centennial, Interlochen plans to substantially increase merit- and need-based financial aid for Arts Camp and Academy students to ensure the Interlochen experience is accessible to even more young artists. (This academic year, 80% of Arts Academy students received merit- and need-based financial aid, totaling nearly $16 million, a level of financial aid that distinguishes the Arts Academy among other top private secondary schools.) Interlochen also plans to partner with the most sought-after faculty and guest artists to create even more impactful educational experience and enhance programs across the institution. These initiatives encompass touring opportunities that allow students to share their work throughout Michigan and in major cultural centers across the country and around the world. Efforts to retain and recruit world-class educators who have a passion for teaching young artists are already underway, with recent hires including Broadway veteran Justin Lee Miller, Interlochens inaugural program director of musical theatre; acclaimed violinists and distinguished teachers Tina Chang Qu and Jorja Fleezanis, new members of the string faculty; award-winning trumpeter Josh Lawrence, director of jazz studies and many others. Through Vision 2028, Interlochen also aspires to be the unmatched leader in diversity and inclusion in arts education. Recent advances in this area include increasing the domestic diversity of the Academy student body from 21% to 28% between 2015 and 2021, and increasing domestic diversity among students attending Interlochen Arts Camp from 22% to 28% between 2016 and 2019 (the most recent summer of normal Camp operations). Ultimately, the Sasaki Associates Campus Master Plan set the stage for Interlochens bright future, creating nine world-class arts facilities: the Phoenix Theatre, the Frohlich Piano and Percussion Building, the Harvey Theatre Complex, the Writing House, the DeRoy Center for Film Studies, the Herbert H. and Barbara C. Dow Center for Visual Arts, the Upton-Morley Pavilion, the Music Center, and the Dance Center. The plan also encompasses renovations to major venues Corson Auditorium and the Interlochen Bowl, as well as the Mallory-Towsley Center for Arts Leadership, home to Interlochens convener for lifelong learning, the College of Creative Arts; Bonisteel Library, which features academic and music collections; Corson Park, a picturesque lakeside seating and garden area; the Dennison Center for Recreation and Wellness; and the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow House, a lakeside convertible residence hall with visiting artist suites. Regarding the Herbert H. and Barbara C. Dow Center for Visual Arts, it is one of the nation's most impressive structures dedicated to visual art at the high school level. The 36,000 square-foot, light-filled facility features separate studios for painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, metals, fibers, photography, and printmaking, as well as a professional-caliber gallery for exhibitions by students, faculty, and staff. The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow House is a 38,000 square-foot facility. Dow Houses innovative design also allows it to convert effortlessly into summer faculty residences. The facility features 36 student rooms, four visiting artist suites, four practice rooms, multiple lounges, and environmentally friendly utilities, including geothermal heating. Located on the shore of Green Lake, the building not only claims a prime waterfront property, but also connects aesthetically to the expanded Dance Center that sits immediately adjacent. The connected but separate visiting artist wing provides inspiring vistas and comfortable spaces for artists to unwind after a day of lectures, performances, and master classes. The four modern suites are a vital tool in recruiting top-name artists and serve as a hub connecting acclaimed artists across a variety of disciplines. The Dow House features a geothermal system that both heats and cools the facility, with 16 400-foot wells. Its exterior design incorporates natural earth tone color and some exposed wood structures that allow it to blend in with the surrounding wooded area. Efforts were made to save trees along the shore, and to maintain a natural shoreline vegetation buffer alongside the property to help keep unwanted nutrients out of the lake. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Andrew Mullin. Friday, Oct. 1: 11:36 p.m. A deputy responded to a breaking and entering that occurred at a Warren Township location. The incident is currently under investigation. 10:02 p.m. A deputy was dispatched to a two-vehicle injury accident at a Warren Township location. A 74-year-old at fault Edenville Township male driver was cited. A 23-year-old Jerome Township female driver was cited for no insurance. 9:47 p.m. Officers responded to a domestic verbal dispute on Sandow Road. 8:27 p.m. Officers responded to a two-person injury crash in the area of Eastman Avenue and North Saginaw Road. 8:20 p.m. Officers responded to a case of domestic violence on Eastman Avenue. 7:48 p.m. Officers responded to a two-vehicle crash in the area of West Sugnet and North Saginaw roads. 7:46 p.m. A Lee Township resident called 911 reference a child custody issue. They were referred to Friend of the Court. 6:28 p.m. Officers responded to a hit-and-run crash on North Saginaw Road. 5:43 p.m. Officers responded to a vehicle crash and a driver operating while intoxicated on South Saginaw Road. 4:16 p.m. A 67-year-old Geneva Township female reported a possible fraud. The female was given an ID theft check sheet and is currently working with her credit union to resolve the issue. 3:05 p.m. Officers responded to a two-person injury crash in the area of Eastman Avenue and the Midland Mall North Entrance. 2:43 p.m. Officers responded to a hit and run crash on Eastman Avenue. 1:01 p.m. Officers responded to a two-vehicle crash on West Wackerly Street. 12:37 p.m. A 23-year-old female had questions/concerns regarding parenting time with her childs father. 9:21 a.m. Officers responded to an assault and obstruction of justice and assault on West Campbell drive. Officers also made a warrant arrest. 7:51 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Ingersoll residence for a death investigation of a 62-year-old Ingersoll Township male. The deputies found nothing suspicious, and the death was determined to be from natural causes. 7:32 a.m. An unknown truck reportedly failed to pay for $35.03 from a gas station in Warren Township. 12:17 a.m. Deputies conducted a traffic stop at a Lee Township location. Deputies contacted the 57-year-old female driver who advised she didn't have any insurance on the vehicle. The female was cited for no insurance and a report is being sent to the Midland County Prosecutors Office. Thursday, Sept. 30 10:55 p.m. Deputies responded to a Greendale Township residence in reference to a suspicious sounds and footsteps. The area was checked and nothing out of the ordinary was discovered. 9:36 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to speak with a 47-year-old female Jasper Township resident and she advised her dog was attacked through the fence by her neighbor's dog. The dog needed medical treatment and the neighbor was issued a citation for the incident. A report was forwarded to the prosecutors office. 9:04 p.m. Officers responded to a two-vehicle in the area of Washington and East Haley streets. 8:59 p.m. Officers responded to a vehicle crash in the area of North Saginaw and Orchard roads. 8:02 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Greendale Township location in reference to a 38-year-old male stating there are multiple reckless drivers in the area. The male wanted extra patrols in the area. 7:37 p.m. Officers responded to a disorderly conduct at Wellness Drive. 5:23 p.m. A deputy was dispatched to the area of North Meridian Road near West Saginaw Road for the report of a two-car crash. 4:50 p.m. Deputy dispatched to a Mills Township roadway after two reports of a male walking down the roadway acting odd. Deputy located the homeless male, who was walking toward a friend in Pinconning. No crime was committed, and the male continued his way. 3:52 p.m. Deputies spoke to a 45-year-old Geneva Township female in reference to a suspicious situation. The female believes her ex-husband is possibly littering in her yard, along with the neighbors yard. The female advised she does not know for sure but would like this incident documented. 12:30 p.m. Officers responded to a two-vehicle, injury crash in the area of Joe Mann Boulevard and Elisenal Drive. 12:18 p.m. A 67-year-old Jerome Township female reported a fraud. Unauthorized transactions of $499 was taken from her bank card. 10:39 p.m. Officers responded to a case of fraud on Scenic Drive. 10:08 a.m. A 77-year-old Larkin Township was the victim of a fraud. She sustained approximately $47,000 in loses. 4:11 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Mills Township residence in reference to a suspicious situation. Deputies were disregarded prior to their arrival on scene. 3:38 a.m. Deputies responded to a Greendale Township residence in reference to suspicious lights and footsteps. The area was checked and nothing out of the ordinary was located. 1:17 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Geneva Township residence in reference to a 41-year-old female reporting her 43-year-old live in boyfriend kicked down the door to their residence. Both parties were separated, and no physical assault occurred. The female was referred to the courts to obtain a personal protection order. On Forbes' annual list of billionaires in 2021, membership rose to 2,755 people, 660 more than a year ago. Together, that group of people from across the globe has collected $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion in 2020. Here are the five wealthiest people in Michigan, all members of that 2,755-person billionaire list. These five Michigan billionaires also made Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans for 2021, according to the recently released ranking. 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. Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - mBotswanas tourism industry has been rewarded for demonstrating excellence in recovery strategies for the sector, an official source said here Friday Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Following an in-depth analysis of the situation in Cote dIvoire, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) recommended on Thursday that countries hosting Ivorians end their refugee status, and help them to voluntarily repatriate, obtain permanent residency or begin the naturalization process to remain Photo: (Photo : Brendon Thorne/Getty Images) "Succession" actor Keiran Culkin opens up about this estranged relationship with his father, Kit Culkin, and said that he was not a good person overall, which also means that he's not a good parent to his children. The Culkin patriarch has been divorced from Patricia Brentup after 21 years of marriage and seven kids, one of whom, Dakota, died in an accident in 2008. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Keiran, 39, said that his dad was not abusive to him per se, but he also did not look up to Kit as a good parent. He recalled a time when their father disappeared from their house for three weeks, but he and his siblings were not worried about it. "He didn't really belong here, and when he was finally gone for good, it made the most sense," Keiran said. The HBO star also said that his relationship with Kit was different from what his father had with his famous older brother, Macaulay Culkin. In his memoir, "Junior," the latter wrote that Kit was an abusive dad and felt that he abhorred his kids, especially Macaulay, 41, who suffered years of silence until Kit left their family. Read Also: George Clooney Teaches His Twins How to Prank, Wife Amal Says Keiran Reflects on Sister's Death While Keiran also started as a child actor, he didn't experience the same popularity as Macaulay, the hugely popular star of "Home Alone." He recalled that his older brother would get harassed on the street by fans. This made Keiran conscious of accepting roles because he did not think he could stomach childhood stardom like Macaulay. But Keiran said that the worst thing that happened to him was losing his older sister, Dakota Culkin, who was struck by a car in Los Angeles more than 13 years ago. She was 29 years old. Keiran said he is forever grieving for Dakota and still weeps about her "out of nowhere." Keiran's other siblings are Shane, 45, Quinn, 37, Christian, 34, and Rory, 36, also an actor. Now a father of two kids, the actor said that he regrets his children will never meet Dakota. There are days when he struggles to talk about her to his own family. Keiran's Family Life Keiran is married to Jazz Charton, and they welcomed their second baby, a son, in August. Their daughter, Kinsey, is now two years old. The couple wed in 2013, and Charton has been actively documenting their family life on social media. It's still unclear, however, if Keiran will influence his kids to get into acting as well. Their dad, an actor on the stage in New York, pushed his children to be performers at such a young age. Kit and his ex-wife ran a theater called the Light Opera of Manhattan with all of their kids in the production. While some of his other siblings were not interested in an acting career, Kit steered his kids' life on the stage. Keiran said that despite his early start, he didn't become a technical actor and couldn't take on versatile roles, unlike Macaulay or Rory. It wasn't until he had "Succession" on HBO that he realized he could be good in showbusiness. Meanwhile, to this day, the Culkin brothers do not have any contact with their father. Their estrangement for their dad runs deep that Keiran wasn't even aware Kit watched him on stage in 2014. Related Article: 'Shang-Chi' Actor Tony Leung Tells Hollywood He Avoided Father Roles Because of His Lonely Childhood Photo: (Photo : Mario Tama/Getty Images) Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has requested to meet with the bosses of TikTok to discuss the worrying and dangerous content proliferating on the platform as another game. The "Slap a Teacher" challenge is trending among the kids on the social media app. Tong said that he had written a letter to TikTok executive officer Shou Zi Chew, stressing that the "lawlessness, self-harm and reckless, dangerous pranks" originating from the app are adding to the problems of families and educators due to the pandemic. The attorney general said that he wants TikTok leaders, parents, and educators to have a dialogue on the physical and mental impact of these challenges, especially after schools have shut down temporarily to stop the activities. Some students have also been sanctioned for their participation, including in the previous controversial challenge, "Devious Licks," which has resulted in acts of vandalism among the students. Read Also: Students Are Stealing School Items for 'Devious Licks' Tiktok Trend, Prompts School Officials to Raise the Alarm "It should not take a nationwide school vandalism spree for TikTok to act," Tong said, adding that other challenges have encouraged kids to overdose on medication, disfigure themselves and engage in different dangerous acts. With the "Slap a Teacher" challenge becoming popular, Tong sees this as an implication that TikTok has failed to control the "spread of harmful content." TikTok fails to control the spread of dangerous content. In CT, vandalism closed schools and the new Slap a Teacher challenge may put educators at risk. I am urging TikTok to come to CT to meet with educators and parents and commit to reforms that stop this reckless content. pic.twitter.com/soO2wVT49M AG William Tong (@AGWilliamTong) October 4, 2021 What Policies Are In Place? The attorney general also wants TikTok to provide information on the policies in place to ensure that there is no abuse and misuse of the platform. Tong also wants the social media app to analyze why these policies fail since harmful trends continue. Distractify reported a full list of TikTok Challenges from September 2021 to May 2022 for students to join. Some of these encourage criminal acts, pushing school officials to warn the kids that they could land in jail if they are caught. Even Sen. Richard Blumenthal has scrutinized TikTok and other social media platforms because of their impact on the younger generation. He had also written letters to these companies asking their executives to speak with the Senate subcommittee amid the rising mental and physical abuse trend among the kids. In response, TikTok said it has been removing those disturbing contents on the platform. However, the moderation isn't enough to keep track of its millions of users and uploaders. This is not the first time TikTok has been under hot water from public servants. In 2020, former President Donald Trump also warned that he would ban the social media app if it's sharing data of its American users with the Chinese government. However, a federal judge has blocked Trump's move to disallow users in the U.S. to access TikTok, effectively preventing the ban from taking place. TikTok's Positive Value Despite the dangerous challenges, TikTok has been valuable for crowdsourcing information that has helped with the case of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who was murdered in Utah. According to NBC News, "citizen detectives" were instrumental in providing information to law enforcement agencies. Over 1.2 billion TikTok videos with the #gabbypetito hashtag trended on the platform in September, allowing investigators to find content that they would otherwise miss out on even if they went on the ground. Some of these videos include places that Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, the person of interest in the case, visited or people that they met during their cross-country trip to U.S. national parks over the summer. Related Article: 'Slap a Teacher' Tiktok Challenge Sparks School Response, Zero Tolerance Enforced Photo: (Photo : Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images) Divorced parents disagree about the best ways to protect their children as options for the COVID-19 vaccine in kids are now available. Some are going to court to fight each other, fueling more tensions in the family. Veronica, a critical care nurse in New England, told The Washington Post that she had panic attacks whenever her ex-husband would message her about their 12-year-old daughter's vaccination. The mom witnessed how much damage the virus can do to unvaccinated patients, but the father challenged her decision in court. What followed was six weeks of expensive bills to lawyers. Both parents came prepared with pages of articles and research to present to the court, including a recommendation from their child's pediatrician. Theirs isn't the only court battle over their kid's vaccination, as Hillary Moonay, a Pennsylvania family lawyer, said that they had several cases involving parents and the custody over who gets to decide the child's vaccination. Read Also: Newsom Announces Vaccine Mandate for Schoolchildren in California, Effective January 2022 First Major Disagreement for Some Ex-Couples Same-sex parents Michelle Roy-Augustin and her ex-partner could navigate their divorce and custody without any problems until the COVID-19 vaccine became an issue. Roy-Augustin has two boys, ages 12 and 10, but she prefers to wait for the vaccines for the kids when a larger sampling of trials in children would confirm its safety. Speaking with WebMD, the mother said that she and her ex-wife clashed over this decision, and it was their biggest disagreement as divorced parents. They used to be always on the same page on everything, including their children's other vaccinations. According to Atlanta lawyer Kyla Lines, parents are "certainly going to fight over their kids," as a ploy for a power play. Lawyers are bracing as they will get involved in these deeply personal and complicated cases. Depending on the family dynamics, disputes relating to vaccinations could be harder to iron out because parents have different activities and preferences. For instance, one parent might feel it's safe for the family to enjoy indoor dining while the other parent doesn't want the kids exposed and venturing outside. Simple disagreements could quickly turn into full-blown court battles. Lawyer Elizabeth Lindsey said that one's belief system could also influence the fight between parents. One parent could trust the science while the other could be skeptical, and it's the belief systems that are harder to change, so the court has to intervene. COVID-19 Vaccine for 5 to 11 Years Old The clashes come as Pfizer had sought authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine for children between 5 to 11 years old from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It could likely trigger more disputes among parents since the younger children will soon be part of the vaccine statistics. Pfizer projects could roll out with the program by the holidays. The drug manufacturer has received full authorization for vaccines for the above 16 years old. Full approval is still pending for kids between 12 to 15 years old, but the children may be vaccinated under emergency authority use. The trial for the COVID-19 vaccine for kids below five years old is still underway. Related Article: Halloween 2021: CDC Director Says Trick-Or-Treating Possible With Some Safety Guidelines Photo: (Photo : Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay ) Injuries at the workplace are real. From slip and fall to machine accidents, you cannot predict when a workplace injury accident will strike. Still more, workplace injuries can affect your life in a number of ways. From losing part of income to being incapacitated, there are several ways a workplace accident can affect you. The good news is that you can apply for workplace compensation and still lead a quality life. On these lines, here are instances when you should consider hiring a worker's compensation lawyer. Employer, Insurer Denies That the Injuries Occurred at Workplace Not all employers are honest. The same applies to insurance companies. If these parties deny that the accident occurred, then it's time to hire a workers' compensation lawyer. In most cases, a small accident can lead to a disease in the future. In these cases, your employer may deny that the accident happened in the first place. This is the time to seek the services of a competent workers' compensation lawyer. Your Employer Is Reluctant to Handle Your Claim According to the law, all workplace injuries should be reported immediately. Here, you must be provided with proper paperwork. Still more, your employer is obliged to help you lodge a claim with your insurance company. A good employer should follow up with this process. Unfortunately, certain employers will drag their feet when it comes to helping you lodge your claim. Each state has different reporting regulations, deadlines, and statutes of limitations. On average, this shouldn't take more than 30 days. If you suspect that your employer is dragging his/her feet, look for Calhoon and Kaminsky P.C. - Workers Compensation Attorneys. Disability At times, you may suffer permanent disability. This can be partial or even total disability. In most cases, permanent disability can prevent you from working again. In these instances, your insurance company will not easily accept the claim. It will contest them. This is because such claims can be very expensive. Hire a lawyer to deal with these difficult insurance companies. Going it alone can expose you to a lot of legal hurdles. Insurance Company Can't Meet All the Medical Bills Usually, an insurance company is like any other profit-seeking business. It will do everything possible not to spend. This includes refusing to pay medical bills. For instance, your medical doctor may recommend certain special treatments. Afterward, your insurance company refuses to meet these bills. This is where a lawyer comes in. With a workers' compensation lawyer, you have a legal expert who understands the law. He/she will compel the insurance company to honor these bills. Your Insurer Denies the Claims Insurance companies can deny your claims. In this case, you will have to appeal the decision. However, making an appeal isn't that easy. It involves a lot of complications. Still more, things can get very contentious. Disagreements will arise. Emotions will rise. Going it alone can be overwhelming. That's where a legal expert comes in. With a lawyer, you can be sure of getting the right legal representation. This is because a lawyer understands the appeal process and how to handle difficult insurance companies. Lost Wages, Medical Bills As stated before, insurance companies want to make profits., Thus, they will try to cut costs. This includes giving you a raw deal. In most cases, you will be given an offer that doesn't cater to all the lost income, wages, and rising medical bills. The examining doctor will devise rates that will determine the amount you receive. In certain instances, your instance company may dispute the rating. In this case, they will bring in an independent medical examination officer. This will most likely lead to low ratings. The best thing to do is to hire a good lawyer to dispute the independent medical exam. A good lawyer knows how to convince the court to award you a higher rating. Preexisting Condition Preexisting conditions can worsen your condition. Most likely, your insurance company will argue that your injuries have been worsened by the preexisting condition. However, this shouldn't scare you from applying for claims. If you have proof to counter their claims, then present them. Still more, insurance companies will hire highly experienced lawyers to prove their cases. Representing yourself in court can be an uphill task. However, hiring a good attorney will make your case stronger. He/she will take the evidence and prove that your preexisting condition has nothing to do with your injuries. Social Security Disability-Related Benefits Social Security Disability Benefits (also referred to as SSDI) are usually affected by your worker's compensation benefits. In particular, worker's compensation benefits tend to reduce the benefits. A good lawyer knows how to structure these benefits in such a way that it eliminates the offsets. Thus, bring in a lawyer into your team and reduce or minimize this offset and get the right Social Security Disability benefits. Your Employer Wants to Retaliate and Punish You After injuries, your employer may start frustrating you. For instance, you may get fired. Still more, your employer may reduce your working hours. Still more, he/she may also pressure you to return to work or face certain repercussions. In most cases, you may receive certain penalties from your employer. To protect your rights, bring in a lawyer. He/she will defend you against these unwarranted penalties. Third-Party Claim The injuries can be caused by a third party. In this case, you will have to file a lawsuit. For instance, if you were hit by a negligent driver, you will need to take your case to court. However, court matters are very challenging. The court has its own rules. You should stick within the statutes of limitations. You must file the paperwork in the right way. If you don't have a legal background, things can be tough. However, hiring a lawyer will give you an easy time to recover. He/she will litigate your case, giving you sufficient time to recover. How To Hire A Workers' Compensation Lawyer Not all lawyers are conversant with the worker's compensation laws. Worker's compensation law is very particular. It requires expertise. Thus, don't just pick any lawyer. Choose a lawyer who can deliver results. Select a lawyer with a reputation. Choose a worker's compensation lawyer with adequate experience. Here are practical strategies for hiring a good workers' compensation lawyer: Experience Law is very wide. It covers a lot of issues. In particular, worker's compensation-related laws can be very confusing. It takes an experienced lawyer to deliver real results. That's why you need an experienced lawyer on your side. Thus, select a lawyer who boasts years of experience. Preferably, hire a lawyer with more than 65 years of experience. This will increase your chances of getting the best deal. Referrals There are several worker's compensation lawyers out there. Each of these lawyers can deliver. However, if you want the best results, consider seeking referrals from other legal experts. Preferably, seek referrals from your current lawyer. Still more, you can get referrals from workers who have been in similar situations before. If a lawyer is referred to you, it means that his/her work is excellent. Educational Background Like any branch of law, labor laws are explicit in nature. They require a high level of specialization. Thus, it's important to check the educational background of that lawyer. Where did he/she go to school? Did he/she attend all the coursework? These are some questions to guide you in selecting the right worker's compensation lawyer. Testimonials Testimonials are powerful tools for gauging the expertise and professionalism of any lawyer. Thus, request that lawyer for testimonials. You can follow up with these past customers and try to ascertain their experiences working with that lawyer. Certification Law is a highly regulated field. All lawyers are required to get certification before they can practice. Unfortunately, certain lawyers are crafty. They break these regulations by practicing without proper certification. Here you are not protected. If anything happened to you, the law won't be on your side. However, a certified lawyer will abide by the rules. His/her conduct will be guided by the laid-out standards. Thus, request for certification of that lawyer. Countercheck it with authorities. This is the only way you can be assured of results. Reviews Happy customers will ultimately rate you highly. On the other hand, unsatisfied customers won't shy away from leaving negative reviews. Thus, if you notice that your lawyer has excessive negative reviews, run away. Also, watch out for lawyers with forged reviews. How Can a Lawyer Help You? Any worker's compensation case involves a lot of proceedings. From filing partwork, building a case, to negotiating with your insurance company, there are a lot of steps to be followed. A workers comp lawyer will help you accomplish these steps accurately and in a timely manner. He/she will negotiate with your insurance company for the best settlement. On similar lines, the following are things a lawyer can do for you. File Paperwork Worker's compensation cases are guided by statutes of limitations. A good lawyer understands these deadlines. On average, a worker's compensation case should be filed within 30 days. Failing to adhere to these timelines can have your case thrown out of court. That's why hiring a lawyer is the best decision you can make. Still more, the paperwork includes several intricate details. Making simple mistakes can cost your case. A lawyer is conversant with these details. He/she will help you fill the paperwork accurately. Build A Strong Case Building a strong case isn't an easy process. You must consider all the aspects and possibilities of the case. You need to analyze the evidence of the case. Still more, you should litigate the case in the correct way. A lawyer is trained to gather evidence, analyze them, and present them in a convincing way. Thus, going it alone can be disadvantageous. Use a lawyer to present a strong case before the court. Court Process The court process is guided by several rules. There are several rules involved. You are expected to abide by these rules. So, what if you aren't conversant with the court setting? Things can be tough, right? Well, that's where a lawyer comes in. A lawyer will help you abide by the court procedures, eliminating costly mistakes. Litigate Your Case Litigation is a vigorous process. Is very demanding. You need a lot of experience and confidence to handle the parties in court. Still more, dealing with difficult judges can be intimidating. That's why you are advised not to go it alone. Work with a lawyer. A lawyer is highly trained to aggressively represent you in court. Plus, lawyers know how to handle difficult judges. Protect Your Rights Your rights can be violated when dealing with a worker's compensation case. If you are not aware of specific rights, you will be disadvantaged. The insurance company will take advantage of your situation to violate your rights. For instance, you may be asked private unnecessary questions. Since you don't understand these rights, you will innocently answer these questions. However, a lawyer is very conversant with your rights. He/she will stand with you till the end. Nobody will violate your rights. He/she will interject whenever an unnecessary question is posed. Witness Cross-Examination Cross-examination can be intimidating. Imagine cross-examining somebody who looks like he/she can kill you any time and you are injured. It can be intimidating, right? Well, avoid these situations by hiring a good lawyer. A lawyer isn't moved by the physique of the witnesses. He/she knows how to extract crucial information regarding your case. Estimate Settlement Of course, you can win your case. However, getting the right settlement can be another uphill task. Your insurance company may resort to using shrewd methods to give you a raw deal. Bring in a lawyer to deal with these crafty insurance companies. A good lawyer will take all factors into consideration before arriving at the final settlement. Still more, lawyers are equipped with a high level of negotiation skills. The Bottom-Line Don't suffer in silence with workplace injuries. The law protects worker's rights through workplace compensation benefits. Here, you can apply for workplace injury claims and lean a normal life. The above are instances where your worker's compensation case needs a good lawyer. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions (Click on image to Greatly Enlarge) In May Patently Apple posted a report titled "Detroit's First National Building will House Apple's Developer Academy." Today, Apple revealed that the inaugural class of developers and entrepreneurs were welcomed to its Apple Developer Academy in Detroit this week. The academy, which is Apples first in the US, will help prepare its students for jobs in the thriving iOS app economy. In addition to the fundamentals of coding, academy participants will learn design, marketing, project management, and more with an emphasis on inclusivity and making a positive impact in their communities. Lisa Jackson, Apples vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives: "We believe apps for everyone should be designed by everyone, and that all aspiring developers and entrepreneurs should have the opportunity to be a part of the thriving app economy. Detroit has an incredible entrepreneurial spirit, powered by creativity and inclusion, and were thrilled to welcome this inaugural class of creators as we start classes at the Apple Developer Academy, the first of its kind in the US. Through the power of technology and innovation, we are proud to be helping prepare these innovators for new opportunities." (Click on image to Greatly Enlarge) Apple Developer Academy participants learn the fundamentals of coding and the full suite of skills to thrive in the iOS app economy which supports more than 2.1 million jobs across the US. Sarah Gretter, Michigan State Universitys lead of the Detroit Apple Developer Academy: "Our goal is to create new pathways and new opportunities for a diverse group of 21st-century tech leaders, and were proud to be working with Apple to bring this vision to life. Im inspired by our first class of students, and cant wait to see where this journey takes them whether its starting a new business, creating a new app, or developing marketable new skills." For more, read Apple's full press release. View this post on Instagram A post shared by (@utvghana) Collapsed Gold trading firm Menzgold has said it will start paying locked up funds of its aggrieved customers in December this year.We strive to complete the final phase of our audit endeavors and shall proceed to fully publish the following in the print and digital new media; List of all paid traders/transactors paid so far. List of all final eligible traders/transactions as well as the total sum of indebtedness by Menzgold Ghana Co. Limited.Menzgold shall proceed to pay the final publicized list and total sum from the 20th December, 2021 to 30th June, 2022 in our quest to give final closure to this very depressing matter and to restore our dear enviable Companys integrity, Menzgold said in a statement.It however noted some of the claims made by the customers are fraudulent.Additionally, we have discovered shocking evidence that points to the fact that, some claimants purporting to be indebted to by Menzgold transacted through third parties; some unethical Menzgold and Brew Marketing Consult staff members and in other instances via referrals, mostly close relations who took delivery of their funds under the pretext of signing them unto to the Menzgold Gold Vault Market but ended up engaging in the many cryptocurrency products on sale on the Ghanaian market, with a monthly return on investment (ROI) ranging between thirty and sixty percent (30%- 60%).We are commencing the final phase of the audit; this session would be traders/claimants interviews to fully ascertain facts and satisfy ourselves with regards to questionable adverse discrepancies and irregularities that characterize some transactions claims received for audit and its subsequent payment. Hence, invitations would be extended to some individuals, the statement added.Meanwhile, the aggrieved customers have petitioned parliament over their locked funds.Theyre upset about the delay in the prosecution of Menzgolds Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nana Appiah Mensah, also known as NAM1.Spokesperson for the aggrieved customers, Fred Forson, thus called on government to cooperate with Parliament to bring closure to the matter.We call on Parliament to investigate the closure of Menzgold including the role played by SEC and EOCO as well as the bank accounts of the CEO and board members of Menzgold and Brew Marketing Companies. The whereabouts of some 4000 kilograms of gold assets should also be investigated.Ghana should as a matter of urgency treat the unresolved Menzgold issue as an emergency national catastrophe. We call on the government in the spirit and within the wind of cooperation blowing in parliament to work closely with the august house to find an amicable solution to this conundrum that customers find themselves. Finding a solution will end the extinction of over a million Ghanaians whose lives and very existence have been shut with the shutdown of Menzgold, Fred Forson said during a presser in Accra. Source: starrfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has marked his 58th birthday anniversary by having breakfast with cured lepers in Accra. The Vice President, accompanied by his wife, Samira started his day by visiting the Weija Leprosarium on Thursday morning to interact and share his joy on the special day with the cured lepers, majority of whom have been abandoned by their families. Dr. Bawumia, who is the Life Patron of Lepers Aid Ghana, has often shared fond moments with cured lepers in the country on special occasions, including festive seasons. Speaking at the breakfast with the lepers, Dr. Bawumia said: "It is really an honour and a privilege to be here today on the occasion of my 58th birthday." He added that sharing moments with the lepers, especially on his birthday "gives me so much joy because lepers have been ostracized by society." The Vice President appealed to society to embrace the lepers because there is nothing wrong with interacting with cured lepers. Dr. Bawumia reiterated government's commitment to the welfare of lepers, disclosing that government has been building and extending facilities for lepers at leprosariums in the country. "During the Covid pandemic, President Akufo-Addo insisted that all of you should be given the vaccine, and as you can attest, you have received them," he added. The Head of the Weija Leprosarium Father Andrews 'Nii Lantey' Campbell, commended Dr. Bawumia for choosing to spend his birthday with lepers, as well as his immense contributions to their welfare over the years. "We are happy and blessed that you have chosen to spend your birthday with us," said Father Campbell. "You have taken a great interest in lepers, not just here in Weija but across other places in the country. We are so grateful for what you have been doing for us over the years. "We are also grateful to your government for what you have done at the leprosarium by giving us facilities such as a dormitory block, clinic, a research centre, which is the first of its kind in West Africa." Dr. Bawumia and the 2nd Lady were joined by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway to serve meals to the cured lepers. The Vice President also donated a number of items, including bags of rice, assorted drinks, a bull and Gh10,000 cash to help in the running of the Leprosarium. 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. Featured Video The Public interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) says the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) has not received any disbursement in the first half of 2021. The Committee said an amount of GH 129.26 million, representing five per cent of the budgeted Annual Budget Fund Amount (ABFA) allocated to the DACF, was not disbursed. PIAC made the finding in its Semi-Annual Report on the management and use of petroleum revenues for the first half of 2021. The semi-annual report is in fulfilment of Section 56 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), 2011 (Act 815). The Committee, since its establishment in September 2011, has exercised its oversight responsibility of monitoring and evaluating the management of Ghanas petroleum resources by the government and stakeholder institutions. In compliance with provisions of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), 2011, the Committee prepares statutory Semi-Annual and Annual Reports, which aim at keeping Ghanaians and other interested stakeholders regularly informed about the management and utilisation of the countrys petroleum revenues. The 2021 PIAC Semi-Annual Report is being published three weeks after the statutory date of September 15, 2021, which is earlier than in the past. The 2021 PIAC Semi-Annual Report covers the period January to June and encompasses a broad range of issues associated with petroleum revenue management such as information on production, liftings, total revenues accrued and allocated by Government, ABFA utilisation and the management of the Ghana Petroleum Funds, Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF) and the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF)). The report said instead of withdrawing from the GSF, the Government utilised an amount of GH 40.17 million from the Treasury Main Account to shore up the ABFA in the first quarter. The Earmarked Funds Capping Realignment Act, 2017, which discontinued allocations to GIIF for infrastructural development has been amended to restore petroleum revenue funding to GIIF, it said. PIAC reiterated its recommendation in previous reports that the Minister for Finance should grow the GSF to better position it to serve its purpose of shoring up ABFA expenditure when there are revenue shortfalls in the Budget. PIAC recommended to the Ministry of Finance that, there was the need for the Supreme Court decision on funding of the DACF with petroleum revenues to find expression in the PRMA, which was being reviewed, with the necessary provisions as was the case with the ABFA and GIIF. This will enhance direct implementation and monitoring of ABFA-funded projects at the Subnational level. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video If you are fully vaccinated in Ghana you are now ok to enter the United Kingdom (UK) without the hassle Ghanaians have gotten used to under Covid-19. It means Ghanaians travelling to the UK will no longer have to do day 8 test or be quarantined for 10 days. This follows the removal of 47 countries and territories from the red list of the UK. The number of countries on the UK Covid travel red list has been be cut from 54 to seven, the UK government has said. From Monday, October 11, 2021, the red list in the UK will reduce to seven countries and proof of vaccination will be recognised from 37 new countries and territories including Ghana. A travel update issued by the UK's Department for Transport and Department of Health and Social Care on Thursday, October 7, 2021 said the UK will be cutting 47 destinations from its red list including South Africa, with just seven countries and territories remaining on the Warning sign - all others will be included in the rest of world category. South Africa, Brazil and Mexico come off the red list, which requires travellers to quarantine in an approved hotel at their cost for 10 full days. The UK's Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps said the changes begin on Monday and "mark the next step" in opening travel. This latest move will be seen as a boost to the airline industry and families separated during the pandemic. Seven still on red list Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic remain on the red list. "I'm also making changes so travellers visiting England have fewer entry requirements, by recognising those with fully-vax status from 37 new countries and territories including India, Turkey and Ghana, treating them the same as UK fully vax passengers," the UK's Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps stated. The measures announced Thursday mark the next step as the United Kingdom continue to open up travel and provide stability for passengers and industry while remaining on track to keep travel open for good. red list reduced to 7 destinations (Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela) with 47 countries and territories removed from 4am Monday 11 October government extends inbound vaccinated arrivals system to a further 37 countries and territories across the globe including India, South Africa and Turkey, meaning eligible vaccinated passengers arriving from rest of world countries only need to take a day 2 test in England government confirms passengers will be able to send a picture of their lateral flow test as a minimum requirement to verify test result accuracy and keep prices down once Day 2 tests switch to lateral flow later this month, followed by a free PCR if positive The removal of the 47 countries and territories from the UK's red list, will make it easier for more people to travel abroad to a larger number of countries and territories. Passengers returning to England from these destinations will no longer be required to enter hotel quarantine. The continued progress on vaccination both at home and around the world means government can confidently reduce the size of the red list to focus on countries which pose the highest risk, informed by UK Health Security Agencys (UKHSA) assessment. The update said eligible fully vaccinated passengers and eligible under 18s returning from countries and territories not on the red list, can do so with just a day 2 test. Other passengers who are not fully vaccinated with an authorised vaccine returning from a non-red destination must still take a pre-departure test, a day 2 and day 8 test and complete 10 days self-isolation (with the option of Test to Release on day 5). Also announced today, from 4am Monday 11 October, eligible travellers vaccinated in over 37 new countries and territories including Brazil, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey, will also be treated the same as returning fully vaccinated UK residents, so long as they have not visited a red list country or territory in the 10 days before arriving in England. Countries with approved COVID-19 proof of vaccination. Passengers who are not an eligible traveller with an authorised vaccine arriving from a rest of world destination must still take a pre-departure test, a day 2 and day 8 test and complete 10 days self-isolation (with the option of Test to Release on day 5). The latest travel update builds on the announcement from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office earlier this week that it has lifted advice against all but essential travel for over 30 countries and territories. More advisories will be removed as countries and territories come off the red list, making it easier for people to be covered by insurance when travelling to a wider list of destinations. The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: With half-term and winter sun around the corner, were making it easier for families and loved ones to reunite, by significantly cutting the number of destinations on the red list, thanks in part to the increased vaccination efforts around the globe. Restoring peoples confidence in travel is key to rebuilding our economy and levelling up this country. With less restrictions and more people traveling, we can all continue to move safely forward together along our pathway to recovery. Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said Our robust border measures have helped protect the phenomenal progress of our vaccination programme, and it is because of this success both here and around the world that we can safely open up travel further and we can visit friends and family abroad. Were now making it easier and cheaper for people to travel by allowing fully vaccinated travellers from non-red list countries to use lateral flow tests on day 2 of arrival, as long as they provide proof of use. The change to restrictions builds on the recent simplification of international travel rules, including the removal of pre-departure testing for eligible fully vaccinated travellers implemented earlier this week. Government scientists will continue to engage with countries still on the red list and keep the evidence on variants of concern, especially Lambda and Mu, under close review in order to ensure the UKs approach remains proportionate. The government will continue to maintain surveillance at the border through testing and genomic sequencing, so that we can respond rapidly if risks from any country increase. From late October, eligible fully vaccinated passengers including under 18s returning from a rest of world country will have the option to replace their day 2 test with a cheaper lateral flow test, followed by a free PCR test if positive, reducing the cost of tests on arrival into England. The government can also confirm passengers taking postal tests will be able to send a picture of their lateral flow test as a minimum requirement to verify the test result, with the ambition remaining to have this in place for people returning from half-term breaks by the end of the month. The data for all countries and territories will be kept under review and the government will not hesitate to take action where a countrys epidemiological picture changes. The following destinations will be removed from the red list from 04:00 BST on Monday: Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chile, Congo (Democratic Republic), Costa Rica, Cuba. Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Paraguay, Philippines, Reunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Emmanuel Barrigah, General Secretary Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC), says the Council will continue to fight for the passage of the Bill for the promotion of proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values, which has been laid before Parliament. This comes after some Christian clerics led by the Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, presented a memorandum to the constitutional, legal and parliamentary affairs committee expressing their support towards the passage of the 36-page bill anti-LGBTQI+ Bill before parliament. The bill, which is yet to be considered by parliament, seeks to unequivocally criminalize LGBTQI+ activities. According to the bill, people of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both. The bill also proposes that a person who, by use of media, technological platform, technological account or any other means, produces, procures, markets, broadcasts, disseminates, publishes or distributes material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, or a person uses an electronic device, the Internet service, a film, or any other device capable of electronic storage or transmission to produce, procure, market, broadcast, disseminate, publishes or distribute materials for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, commits an offense and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than ten years. Additionally, it suggests that persons who engage in any activity that promotes, supports sympathy for or a change of public opinion towards an act prohibited under the Bill be held liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years or not more than ten years. Speaking to the host of Kaakyire Ofori Ayim, Emmanuel Barrigah, Genaral Secretary Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC), explained that all religions including Christianity, Islam and Traditional religion do not subscribe to the practice of homosexuality. They have added Pansexual to the alphabets which means one can get married to a loaf of bread, a tree and the like if they so wish. My child informed me that it was in the news that a man has gotten married to his rice cooker. How is that possible? We will ensure that this bill is passed, Meanwhile, a group of Professors and human rights activists have opposed the bill, describing it as undemocratic. The group says the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, when passed into law, would erode a raft of fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. The group who are against the passage of the bill include Mr Akoto Ampaw; author, scholar and former Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Prof. Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh; a communications and media expert, Prof. Kwame Karikari; the Dean of the University of Ghana (Legon) School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, and a former Dean of the University of Ghana School of Information and Communication Studies, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The government has committed to adopting a proactive approach to regulate the emerging mining sector in the northern part of the country. The north has lately become very alive with mining activities both small and large-scale operations while illegal mining ( galamsey) is also becoming a major challenge. In the Upper East Region, Cardinal Resources, a mining firm, is currently undertaking preparatory works towards establishing one of the countrys biggest mining operations in Talensi, while Earl International Gold (GH) Limited has obtained the necessary permits to commence large-scale underground rock mining in the same region. The exploitation of iron ore at Sheini in the Northern Region, significant deposits of gold at Dollar Power, a border town in the Savannah Region and illegal small-scale mining activities at Nagroma in the North East Region are some of the emerging issues in the sector. Rampant Speaking at a meeting with the Small Scale Miners Association in Bolgatanga last Wednesday, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, said: Mining activities have become rampant in the north. The conventional wisdom was that mineral deposits were only found in the south, but as we can see now, there are significant proven resources in the north as well. If we dont begin enhanced regulation at the very beginning, we will lose the opportunity, he added. Mr Jinapor, who was on a weeks tour of the five regions of the north, said lessons from the mining industry in southern Ghana ought to guide our actions in the north and the government will not relent to ensure enhanced regulation. He said river bodies and the integrity of the ecosystem in the northern part of the country must be preserved at all cost. Furthermore, he insisted that the institutional, legal and operational framework for the sector should be fit for purpose and capable of dealing with all emerging challenges. Traditional leaders Mr Jinapor, who also addressed the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, called on the traditional authorities in the region to support the governments efforts at ensuring the efficient management and exploitation of mineral resources in the region. He said the traditional authorities needed to be involved to ensure the efficient management of the resources. The Upper East Region has sand, granite, limestone, quarry and gold, and already it has been established that gold is found in commercial quantities in the region. We are already aware that there is a very robust small mining industry and there are about two or three large-scale mining operations ongoing in the region, he said. Therefore, he said, it was imperative for the traditional authorities to play pivotal roles in the operations of all mining companies from the beginning to ensure that there were proper regulations in place, so that the region would become a model for learning and practice in the mining industry. We do not have to wait, as happened in southern Ghana, for mining to be done irresponsibly; for river bodies to be polluted, so that we cannot have water to drink again; for the land to be degraded and polluted with all kinds of chemicals used for mining, only for us to come and say we are forming a task force against the practice; that will not help us, he said. Mr Jinapor explained that although the Constitution made it clear that all mineral resources were vested in the President, the surface rights empowered the chiefs and other traditional authorities to play pivotal roles in the mining industry. Responsible mining The minister called for the strengthening of cooperation between the government and traditional authorities to ensure that mining was done in a responsible manner. Resolution of issues The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Stephen Yakubu, said most of the issues in mining areas in the region had been resolved. Going forward, he urged all stakeholders to support the government's measures to ensure that mining companies complied with mining laws for improvement in the lives of the people. Chiefs committed The Vice-President of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, Naba Abisa Anthony Atasige III, expressed the commitment of the chiefs to support the government to promote responsible mining in the region. Nana Atasige, who is also the Paramount Chief of the Mirigu Traditional Area, however, advised the government to take urgent steps to effectively address illegal mining. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Curbing coups d'etat in West Africa requires more proactive measures, including dialogue and mediation, a former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, has said. According to him, the resurgence of military interventions sends very bad signals and had the potential to reverse the democratic process across the sub-region. While expressing concern over the seeming public support for unconstitutional regime changes, as occurred in Mali and Guinea, he cautioned that such situations could complicate the enforcement of the democratic norms of good governance. To my mind, more proactive interventions that prevent constitutional crises and obviate the need for sanctions are a critical way out of such dilemmas. This, in turn, demands more proactive engagement, facilitated through dialogue and mediation, Dr. Chambas said. Event This was contained in virtual address he delivered at the opening of a regional policy workshop on: Opportunities, challenges and best practices in building infrastructure for peace in Freetown in Sierra Leone. Organised by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), with support from the Government of Denmark, the workshop was participated in by policy makers, experts and security actors who discussed measures to strengthen regional and national conflict prevention efforts. Conflict mediation Proposing measures to improve conflict mediation efforts in West Africa, Dr. Chambas said mediation mandates must be based on contextualised scenarios that recognise and respond to the particularities of specific conflicts. Such mandates, he added, required flexibility in order to accommodate and respond to the diverse conflict situation in the region. He also proposed the development of a roster of professional mediators with expertise in specific areas. There is an underlying assumption that suggests that the appointment of Heads of State of ECOWAS automatically equips a leader with the skills and competencies required for effective mediation, overlooking the fact that mediation is a challenging endeavour that requires training and professionalism. It sometimes raises questions about neutrality and the commitment of parties to the peace accords that are signed, he added. Infrastructure for peace The Commandant of the KAIPTC, Major General Francis Ofori, expressed concern over the fact that over the years, attempts by ECOWAS member states to develop nationally owned and nationally led infrastructure for peace had produced uneven results. While commending ECOWAS for demonstrating leadership by creating regional mechanisms for conflict prevention, he urged member states to leverage those mechanisms to establish an institutionalised approach to conflict transformation and building resilience. The Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Tom Norring, also said the current development in the sub-region underscored the need for greater focus on conflict prevention and peaceful resolutions. He urged countries in the sub-region to develop national frameworks on conflict prevention and also coordinate their actions because violence and conflict show little respect for borders. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Afigya Kwabre North MP, Collins Adomako-Mensah has joined the forces against the homosexual community in Ghana. There is currently a passionate appeal by some Members of Parliament, primarily the Ningo-Prampram MP, Sam George who has publicly shown his sharp teeth against the practices of homosexuals and called for a private members bill, to ban homosexuals from freely exhibiting their acts. The anti-LGBTQ+ bill called Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill has been proposed to be passed to outlaw homosexual activities, but a group of academics, legal practitioners, human rights activists, Professors and Civil Society Organizations have kicked against the bill. Touching on the bill during a panel discussion on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Hon. Adomako-Mensah stated emphatically that he is absolutely against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) activities, hence calling for an outright prohibition in Ghanaian society. "I can't see myself that my daughter will come to show me her lover and it turns out to be another woman. It will be very difficult for me. So, in principle, I don't aspire to that LGBTQ+. Of course, I'm a Christian, my teachings don't tell that a woman should have sexual affair with another woman," he stressed. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Head of Monitoring at the Forestry Commission, Charles Owusu, has lauded the Parliamentarians in favour of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill aimed at criminalizing homosexual activities in the country. There is an ongoing heated debate on the bill - Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill - which when enacted will ensure homosexuals face either a jail term or fine or both as deterrent to prospective Ghanaians who seek to join the homosexual community. One of the proponents of the bill is the Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament, Sam George who has publicly expressed disgust over homosexual acts and the pressure for Ghana to legalize homosexuality. But a group of academics, legal practitioners, human rights activists, Professors and Civil Society Organizations have mounted a strong opposition against the bill. They argue that the bill is an encroachment on the fundamental human rights enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. Charles Owusu, discussing the bill on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', fired salvoes at the opposers of the bill cautioning them against supporting homosexuality. To him, no matter what the opposing group does, no one will accept LGBTQ+ practices in Ghana. He therefore applauded Sam George and his likes in Parliament who are fighting for the anti-homosexual bill to be passed into law saying "we salute them this morning for standing against this. This thing wrecks a nation; it destroys family and country. We applaud those who have kicked against this dirty thing from happening in this country". Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Charles Owusu, former Head of Monitoring Unit of the Forestry Commission, says voting on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Parliament should be made public to all Ghanaians. Charles Owusu was alarmed at some scholars and lawyers who have risen against the bill. A bill currently before Parliament which seeks to criminalize lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers (LGBTQ+) and people who promote such acts has been described as a violation of the 1992 Constitution by a group of academics, lawyers, researchers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and human rights activists. The group include lawyer Akoto Ampaw; author, scholar and former Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa; the Dean of the University of Ghana (Legon) School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba; the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Information and Communication Studies, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo and the former Chief Executive Officer of erstwhile Ghana at fifty Secretariat, Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey among others. In view of the rift on the bill, Charles Owusu has asked for an open balloting to expose the Members of Parliament against the bill. "According to CDD survey, 95 percent of Ghanaians say they don't accept it. It has to be an open ballot. We don't like secret balloting; open ballots for us to see those who will vote for and against," he said in his submissions on Peace FM's flagship programme 'Kokrokoo'. He explicitly asserted that Ghanaians hate homosexuality, ''it's abominable and nation-wrecking. It ruins people's future'', so any Parliamentarian against the bill, he assured, will be voted out of the Legislative House. "We need to see those who are going to vote for and against, and we will all join ourselves with the Church of Pentecost to heavily campaign against that person," he emphasized. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Police Administration has put in place a comprehensive operational measure to address insecurity issues associated with cocoa purchasing and the transportation of cocoa beans from cocoa-growing communities to the ports. The contingency measures will include the police conducting special exercises, such as mounting checkpoints, escorting vehicles conveying cocoa beans to the ports and intelligence gathering. It is expected to ensure that farmers, purchasing clerks and other officials of the licence buying companies (LBCs), drivers in charge of transporting cocoa beans and residents of cocoa-growing communities receive the necessary security protection. It is also expected to address robbery attacks on cocoa purchasing clerks, particularly during peak cocoa purchasing periods, and attacks on trucks transporting cocoa beans to the ports. The security arrangement for the 2021/22 cocoa season was announced in Accra yesterday when the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, met the management of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and LBCs to discuss security arrangements and mechanisms to address insecurity in the cocoa sector. Outcome of meeting The meeting, which was held behind closed doors, was at the request of the IGP, following a number of insecurity issues recorded in relation to the haulage of purchased cocoa beans and the safety of funds meant for the purchase of cocoa beans from farmers. There have been attacks on haulage trucks transporting cocoa beans to the ports during the night and a number of insecurity issues confronting the cocoa sector. At the end of the meeting, the acting Director General of the Public Affairs Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Kwesi Ofori, and the Head of Public Affairs of COCOBOD, Mr Fiifi Boafo, briefed journalists on the outcome of the meeting. Operational details Mr Ofori said the meeting discussed the security challenges facing the cocoa sector and the protection of cocoa communities from the activities of robbers and other criminals. He explained that the grand security operation would be coordinated from the national headquarters of the Ghana Police Service, with regional, divisional and district police commanders taking tactical measures. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The President of the Young Democrat Union of Africa , Ms Louisa Atta-Agyemang has made a strong call on the Chairman of the Southern Africa Development Community, H.E Dr Lazarus McCathy Chakwera to use his good office to intervene to ensure the political situation in Tanzania where leaders of the opposition party , CHADEMA are indiscriminately arrested and harassed. She indicated YDUA , has been actively involved in campaigning for reforms and freedom for all persons . Mr. President , Free Mbowe is still in custody and being dragged up and down to court on grounds which clearly show how the Tanzania ruling government is incensed on clamping down on opposition. This a chance for African leaders to do right by democracy and our future generations. She further stated stated . In response President Lazarus Chakwera assured the union and young people of his commitment to deepen social protection and promotion of human dignity. If you ask me to be an ambassador for youth , yes I will The political situation has drawn a lot of international condemnation with YDUAs call being the latest . Following the death of President Magafuli , his successor President Samia Suluhu has continued the indiscriminate arrest and oppression of the opposition. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Fomer NDC Central Regional Chairman and now Social commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has advised the new KMA Chief Executive, Sam Pyne, to be beware of people who come to him singing his praises and pledging unflinching support for him. According to him, some of those people have ulterior motives. Making his submissions on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Allotey Jacobs said; "He (Sam Pyne) should be beware of those who come to him to profess that 'as for me, I'm with you', 'will follow you' and so forth because as they tell you this is the same way they will go to another person to say something different about Sam Pyne. Let your human relations lead you. Your respect for authority, that is the Regional Minister, if you unite with him; you will succeed.'' He also offered a helpful message to Mr. Pyne as a guide for his leadership saying, "he should take good care of his party people. Speak the truth! . . . .You will always be confronted with some bad guys who will come as agents, so he should watch out!!'' Allotey Jacobs made these comments while complimenting Mr. Pyne for his new appointment. Sam Pyne, in an election supervised by the Metropolitan office of the Electoral Commission (EC), won fifty-five votes out of the 58 votes representing 94.8 percent to be confirmed the KMA Boss. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ghanaians actress Princess Adwoa Agyapomaa popularly known as Mylisa has taken her acting craft into the literary space. Born in the Oyoko Royal Clan in Kumasi, the actress recently released her first book titled: "What Nobody Will Tell You", a book that interrogates issues of marriage and relationships. The book navigates some of today's relationship and marriage challenges, exploring some common themes such as trauma, depression, sexual abuse, among others. According to the actress, getting to experience the reality of her screenplay was one of the major factors that led her in writing her first book and she remains hopeful of impacting lives through her writing skills. She said: Acting and reality are two different worlds and for me, I pursued this adventure to unravel the secret world and some of the experiences I witnessed were mind-boggling. "It's been years of hard work to finally release the book and I'm grateful to all who helped make this dream a reality and I hope it serves its purpose of changing lives and making positive impacts".. She added that proceeds made from the sales of the book will directly go into her "Mylisa Foundation" which seeks to address issues of abuse across genders especially for men who have been physically and mentally abused by their relatives. "My philanthropic works seek to divulge issues of sexual abuse as we seek to help victims conquer various forms of anxiety and depression. So anyone who buys my book contributes to my foundation. "I am very passionate about this societal challenge especially for the male gender because I believe they also deserve equal attention as the female gender, so I want to dedicate more of my efforts in addressing it," she stated. Mylisa has been touted as one of the fastest rising actresses on the African continent having starred in popular Nigerian movies "Oh GhaNaija" and "Millions Men". Mylisa, who is a model, has been featured on the cover page of the Adehye3 Magazine as well as being a realtor in Ghana. 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. Featured Video Beth MacLean, the woman at the centre of a human rights case dealing with persons with disabilities and their attempts to move out of institutions, testifies at the inquiry in Halifax on Tuesday, March 6, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese A staff person cleans a door handle at the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, below a notice from Ottawa Public Health advising people to delay visiting city facilities if they are at risk or have symptoms of COVID-19, Saturday, March 14, 2020. While many offices remain sparsely-staffed or empty, the businesses that clean them say demand for their services is getting back to normal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang A Beech Island man was arrested in Cayce on Wednesday on charges connected to the solicitation of a minor. James Michael Black, 40, is charged with one count of criminal solicitation of a minor, a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, and one count of attempted disseminating obscene material to a person under age 18, a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment. Investigators stated Black solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex and sent a sexually explicit image to someone he believed to be a minor, according to a news release from the South Carolina Attorney General's Office on Thursday. The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators and the Cayce Department of Public Safety made the arrest. Investigators with the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, also a member of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation. This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office. "Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law," according to the release. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. KABUL, AFGHANISTAN An Islamic State suicide bomber struck at a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 46 people and wounding dozens in the latest security challenge to the Taliban as they transition from insurgency to governance. In its claim of responsibility, the region's IS affiliate identified the bomber as a Uygher Muslim, saying the attack targeted both Shiites and the Taliban for their purported willingness to expel Uyghers to meet demands from China. The statement was carried by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency. The blast tore through a crowded mosque in the city of Kunduz during Friday noon prayers, the highlight of the Muslim religious week. It was the latest in a series of IS bombings and shootings that have targeted Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers, as well as religious institutions and minority Shiites since U.S. and NATO troops left in August. The blast blew out windows, charred the ceiling and scattered debris and twisted metal across the floor. Rescuers carried one body out on a stretcher and another in a blanket. Blood stains covered the front steps. A resident of the area, Hussaindad Rezayee, said he rushed to the mosque when he heard the explosion, just as prayers started. "I came to look for my relatives, the mosque was full," he said. The worshippers targeted in Friday's were Hazaras, who have long suffered from double discrimination as an ethnic minority and as followers of Shiite Islam in a majority Sunni country. The Islamic State group and the Taliban, who seized control of the country with the exit of the foreign troops, are strategic rivals. IS militants have targeted Taliban positions and attempted to recruit members from their ranks. In the past, the Taliban managed to contain the IS threat in tandem with U.S. and Afghan airstrikes. Without these, it remains unclear whether the Taliban can suppress what appears to be a growing IS footprint. The militants, once confined to the east, have penetrated the capital of Kabul and other provinces with new attacks. This comes at a critical moment, as the Taliban attempt to consolidate power and transform their guerrilla fighters into a structured police and security force. But while the group attempts to project an air of authority through reports of raids and arrests of IS members, it remains unclear if it has the capability to protect soft targets, including religious institutions. In Kunduz, police officials were still picking up the pieces Friday at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque. Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi told The Associated Press that 46 worshipers were killed and 143 wounded in the explosion. He said an investigation was under way. The death toll of 46 is the highest in an attack since foreign troops left Afghanistan. The United Nations mission in Afghanistan condemned the attack as "part of a disturbing pattern of violence" targeting religious institutions. A prominent Shiite cleric, Sayed Hussain Alimi Balkhi, called on the Taliban to provide security for the Shiites of Afghanistan. "We expect the security forces of the government to provide security for the mosques since they collected the weapons that were provided for the security of the worship places," he said. Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief in Kunduz pledged to protect minorities in the province. "I assure our Shiite brothers that the Taliban are prepared to ensure their safety," he said. The new tone struck by the Taliban, at least in Kunduz, is in sharp contrast to the well-documented history of Taliban fighters committing a litany of atrocities against minorities, including Hazaras. The Taliban, now feeling the weight of governing, employed similar tactics to those of IS during their 20-year insurgency, including suicide bombings and shooting ambushes. And they have not halted attacks on Hazaras. Earlier this week, a report by Amnesty International found the Taliban unlawfully killed 13 Hazaras, including a 17-year-old girl, in Daykundi province, after members of the security forces of the former government surrendered. In Kunduz province, Hazaras make up about 6 percent of the province's population of nearly 1 million people. The province also has a large ethnic Uzbek population that has been targeted for recruitment by the IS, which is closely aligned with the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Friday's attack was the third to target a place of worship or religious study in a week. IS has also claimed two deadly bombings in Kabul, including the horrific Aug. 26 bombing that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel outside of Kabul airport in the final days of the chaotic American pullout from Afghanistan. IS also claimed a bombing on Sunday outside Kabul's Eid Gah Mosque that killed at least five civilians. Another attack on a madrassa, a religious school, in Khost province on Wednesday was not claimed. If Friday's attack is claimed by IS, it will also be worrying for Afghanistan's northern Central Asian neighbors and Russia, which has been courting the Taliban for years as an ally against the creeping IS in the region. ___ Akhgar reported from Istanbul. Associated Press writers Kathy Gannon in Islamabad and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. Bankruptcy court officials have asked a judge for permission to hire an expert to investigate whether the financial collapse of a historic cotton gin in Davis Station was the result of fraud or other wrongdoing, documents filed this week show. The U.S. Trustee's office wants the examiner to review financial records for Rickenbaker Gin for the period between 2018 and Sept. 1 of this year, when the company sought legal protection from its creditors. Financial statements show the agribusiness has assets of about $2.1 million against debts totaling more than $8.1 million. Among the liabilities is roughly $6.5 million that the gin failed to pay farmers for their crops, despite taking in revenue of nearly $35 million for the period and paying owner Burt Rickenbaker an annual $115,000 salary. The S.C. Department of Agriculture compensated the farmers from two funds set up to cover crop losses. The state agency now wants to recoup that money from the gin owner. The examiner will determine whether any debts disclosed in the bankruptcy filings "or any other outstanding obligation of the debtor was caused by misappropriation, fraud or dishonesty" and whether any legal action can be taken. The State Law Enforcement Division is also conducting a criminal investigation of the missing money. Among the issues the trustee's office wants to investigate are numerous undocumented loans gin owner Burt Rickenbaker received from Santee Leasing and its owner, James "J.C." Black, whom Rickenbaker termed a friend he's known since he was a teenager. Rickenbaker said under oath last week that he borrowed the money to help with his company's cash flow, although there were no written agreements stating the purpose of the loans. Rickenbaker said his wife also loaned $80,000 for the gin's operations, although that loan also was undocumented. Financial documents filed with the court stated that the company repaid her in December. "The events leading up to the debtors ultimate financial demise give rise to several unanswered questions concerning, for the most part, how the debtor has sustained such substantial losses that made it unable to repay farmers for crops it sold on their behalf," the trustee's office wrote in its request for an examiner. "These questions warrant an answer." A hearing on whether an examiner should be hired is scheduled for Nov. 4 in Charleston. If approved, the examiner would be paid $50,000 to prepare a report that would be made public by Jan. 24, unless an extension is granted. The 76-year-old gin was founded by Rickenbaker's father upon his return to South Carolina after World War II. The S.C. Legislature recognized the company in a 2003 resolution for its "commitment to the cotton industry in Clarendon County." A Charleston-based beauty products company is now under new ownership after being sold to a Dallas investment firm. Highlander Partners LP announced Oct. 8 that it bought RMS Beauty, an organic cosmetics business headquartered in West Ashley. Financial terms were not disclosed. Rose-Marie Swift founded the brand that bears her initials in 2009 as a leader in the clean-beauty movement after experiencing health problems from years of working as a makeup artist. In her healing process and research, she discovered that some of the toxic chemicals and heavy metals in her system were also found in many commonly used beauty products. After rebuilding her health, Swift created an organic color cosmetic line. Swift said Highlander is a good fit for her brand. "Over the years, many firms have tried to invest in our brand, but weve been self-funded and profitable since day one, and we were able to be patient and wait for the perfect fit," she said. "Highlanders operational expertise and creative approach to investing are unique and unparalleled, and they believe in our core ethos." The head of the Dallas investment firm said the company has been looking into the beauty and personal care segment for about three years. "We believe RMS is the pioneer and leader in clean beauty and has significant growth opportunities, while also giving us (the option) to create a larger clean beauty platform," Highland CEO Jeff L. Hull said in a written statement. "It is our intention to continue to grow in this category through additional acquisitions." David Olsen, a managing director at Highlander, will immediately assume the role of CEO of RMS. He previously was chief executive of beauty retailer Cos Bar and global vice president of Net-A-Porter. He called RMS a unique brand with growth potential. "We intend to revamp the brand, strengthen and expand RMS extensive retail relationships, drive the direct-to-consumer business, and enhance and broaden the product assortment," Olsen said. Elaine Sack, who has been directing the Charleston operation for years, will become chief strategic officer. Two years ago, The Nickelodeon Theatre and Indie Grits Labs, the media education nonprofit associated with the Nick, had high hopes for a radio show dubbed The Grain. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic came and, like so much else, it was upended and prompted a pivot. On Sept. 25, the theater launched The Grain again, but this time as a podcast. Wed made three episodes before everything got shut down, said Darion McCloud, former Indie Grits fellow and professional artist. The switch to the popular audio format came from the Nickelodeon Theatres Director of Programming Thaddeus Jones, who started at the theater in October 2020. He brought together McCloud and his now-collaborators Jodie Srutek, another Indie Grits fellow, and Yzabelle Alvarado. The podcasts name and intent refers to finding a grain of truth in various topics. The trio has recorded 10 episodes, with the first three debuting on Spotifys Anchor podcast app. The Grain is about Columbia, but we relate the topics we discuss to cities and towns all over South Carolina, said co-host Srutek. It was important to us to create something interesting and thought provoking, whether you live in Columbia, Greenville, Charleston, or really, anywhere. After introducing themselves on the first three episodes, the podcast will dive into weighty topics on a local level. For instance, one episode features a conversation with a Black woman moving to a predominantly White neighborhood in Columbia and another focuses on local artists. Were thinking about issues like health, McCloud said. We think about art. We did an episode about what makes a space a White space or a Black space. What does that mean in real terms? ... We did things that are of interest to us but also of interest to the world. The Grain enters a crowded podcast market, with seemingly new options dropping daily from national media outlets and ambitious people. But there are local options, as well. Historic Columbia's "Historically Complex" podcast explores local controversial monuments and their legacies; South Carolina Public Radios "South Carolina Lede" covers daily issues, and there are others. Still, McCloud was confident their approach will get them attention and, subsequently, listeners. The three of them form an intriguing group as well, varying in age and perspectives. For example, Alvarado was approached while she was still a student at the Midlands Audio Institute. Jones, the director of programming, gave her an internship for the podcast and Alvarado reasoned that she brings on a younger persons perspective, compared to the co-hosts. McCloud underscored their chemistry and willingness to be curious, as well. As corny as it sounds, Jodie and I and Yzabelle are all genuine. We talk about the things that were enthusiastic about, we hope that comes through, McCloud posited. We talk about things that were sincere about, and we ask a lot of questions. I think thats one of the things thats appealing: We dont pretend to be experts on everything. If the podcast is successful, they dont want to stop with the only local listeners. The hosts hope that theres enough inherent appeal in the topics and their discussions for it to stretch across a wider geographic area. My main goal is for it to reach all of South Carolina and not just stay local to Columbia, Alvarado said. Because all of these issues can be seen everywhere else. Id like to get interviews from people all over the state and bring those stories out to people. I want it wherever people can hear it, McCloud adds, whether thats in Afghanistan or Aiken. Kingstree, SC (29556) Today Cloudy with showers. High 76F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 48F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Charleston-area residents were met with hours of backed-up roadways this week as traffic incidents on Interstate 26 caused stop-and-go commuting, underscoring infrastructure problems in South Carolina. S.C. Highway Patrol officers had to shut down the interstate twice in three days once after a fatal collision Oct. 4 and again the morning of Oct. 7 when a dump truck full of sand overturned. There were at least five incidents reported one morning last month as heavy rain drenched the peninsula. All of the crashes occurred on the eastbound lanes of I-26, shutting down parts of the highway. Some blame these backups on outdated infrastructure. Gov. Henry McMaster said last month he wanted legislators to use $360 million of federal COVID aid to widen I-26 between Columbia and Charleston a plan that would take an estimated eight years to complete. But Cpl. Nick Pye, a patrol spokesman, said the road would likely see heavy congestion following any major incident, even if infrastructure improved. It wouldnt matter if we had eight lanes on both sides of I-26, he said. If people get on here and get into collisions, then the lanes are going to be blocked up. And improving roadways building more or expanding existing ones cant be done quickly. The trooper implored residents to do their part and drive carefully. Traffic jams this week Cars crawled through a single open lane during their morning commute Oct. 7 while workers cleared sand from the truck, which crashed shortly after 7 a.m. Two eastbound lanes near the Charleston International Airport were shut down, resulting in bumper-to-bumper traffic along I-26 east near College Park Road, around 12 miles from where the crash occurred. Rivers Avenue and Henry Brown Boulevard, major routes running parallel to I-26, and other arteries were gridlocked with commuters heading to Charleston. Three days prior, two SUVs collided on I-26 near Martha Drive, leaving one person dead, Pye said. The crash also caused parts of the interstate to be shut down. Charleston County, and specifically I-26, is known as a high-collision area in the state. Troopers use "area-coordinated enforcement" whenever they notice a pattern of crashes concentrated to one area, Pye said. After the two most recent wrecks, tri-county residents can expect a higher volume of officers from the Highway Patrol and North Charleston Police Department monitoring the interstate through the weekend, Pye said. We dont want to get out here and write people a $500 speeding ticket, but if thats what it takes to prevent fatalities and prevent collisions, then thats what were going to do, he said. Columbia to Charleston One particular stretch of I-26 has been plagued by heavy congestion: the 70-mile length of road between Columbia and Charleston. An I-26 veteran told The Post and Courier she regularly makes this trip but leaves extra early and has friends on speed dial in case she gets trapped behind a crash. Gail Fludd Washington remembered once having to cancel a trip to Charleston after sitting in the worst traffic she had ever seen. We had traveled down the road a ways, and the traffic was just back-to-back with no relief in sight, she said. I turned around. Even I couldnt handle that one. A recent report from the D.C.-based nonprofit The Road Information Program highlighted some of the problems congestion on South Carolinas major highways and roads, including I-26, has created for residents and businesses. The organization estimated road congestion alone costs Palmetto State drivers $2.1 billion a year in lost time and wasted fuel. The average motorist in Charleston wastes 56 hours a year sitting in traffic, which costs them $1,165, according to the report. In Columbia, motorists waste, on average, 43 hours in traffic each year, at a cost of $842. Whats more, massive population growth has dramatically shifted the traffic landscape, particularly in coastal and metropolitan sections of the state. As a result, public resources such as transportation infrastructure are placed under more pressure, the report found. And a lack of public transportation in the Lowcountry exacerbates the issue. The Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority provides a bus system, but its scope is limited by many major roads that are too narrow and often too congested to properly accommodate a bus service. The incoming Lowcountry Rapid Transit system is a promising initiative with dedicated bus lanes that will run along the U.S. Highways 78 and 52 corridor from the North Area to downtown Charleston. The project could provide relief to the commuter-clogged I-26 by taking some of them off the parallel highway. This transit plan, however, remains years from construction. The state is also planning what could be one of its more expensive road makeovers for Interstate 526. One project would double the width of the highway from four to eight lanes end to end from West Ashley to Mount Pleasant. Another, the Mark Clark Expressway project, promises to create an 9-mile extension to the highway, connecting West Ashley to Johns Island and then James Island. Advocates say the proposed expansion would improve commute times between Johns Island and North Charleston by more than an hour. But it could be several years before any new construction is finished, delaying any potential for reprieve. Olivia Diaz contributed to this report. South Carolina's Southern Baptist pastors applauded the denomination's decision to move forward with an investigation into how the church has handled sex abuse claims. A top Southern Baptist Convention committee voted Oct. 5 to open up legally protected records from two decades of sexual abuse complaints to the outside investigative firm Guidepost Solutions. "This recognizes that sex abuse survivors must be listened to," said the Rev. Marshall Blalock, pastor of First Baptist Church in downtown Charleston. The committee also agreed to waive attorney-client privilege in the reviewed cases. The vote came after several state Baptist conventions released public statements urging the denomination to waive this privilege and support a transparent investigation. In South Carolina, 25 pastors published a letter threatening to cease sending money to the denomination's Executive Committee if this was not done. Those advocating for transparency said the Executive Committee had no choice but to waive its attorney-client privilege's because it was directed to do so by the ultimate authority in Southern Baptist government: the church representatives. These representatives, otherwise known as messengers, voted at the conventions annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn., in June to authorize the investigation. Opponents called this decision financially reckless, citing attorneys advice that it could prompt insurers to drop their coverage of the conventions entities. What were doing is about creating chaos, committee member Joe Knott of North Carolina said in opposition to the waiver. The Executive Committee has come under scrutiny since a 2019 report by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News documenting hundreds of cases of abuse in Southern Baptist churches, including several in which alleged perpetrators remained in ministry. The Rev. David Sons, Lexington pastor and a member of the Executive Committee, voted in favor of waiving privilege. He called the Oct. 5 decision a step toward dealing compassionately and justly with sex abuse allegations. "My hope is that by this action, we can begin to repair the trust deficit that has developed over the past few years between the Executive Committee and the Southern Baptist Convention," Sons said. The task force will consider ways to best prevent sex abuse as it waits for the report. Such steps might involve creating a denominational database that IDs sexual predators within the religious institution, said Blalock, who is vice chairman of the task force. The force will also help local churches consider how congregations are responding to sex abuse allegations. "You need to be able to have someone who is trauma-informed to hear and interview the folks who come forward," Blalock said. The average pastor has no idea what to do when theyre hearing these stories. Some pastors have invested thousands of dollars in recent years into preventative measures. The Rev. Randy Harling of First Baptist in Summerville said the church has spent over $40,000 in the past two years on surveillance cameras and background checks of church employees. "In today's world, you cant afford to bypass that," he said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. SPARTANBURG The first of several candidate forums scheduled for contested Spartanburg City Council seats included discussions about economic development, gun violence and affordable housing. Both District 4 candidates, incumbent Jamie Fulmer and Christopher Jefferson, participated in the virtual forum held Oct. 7. District 5 candidates participating in the forum included Terrance Hawes and Severino Alvarez. Janie Salley and Chance LeBron, who are also candidates for that seat, were unable to participate in the forum. Early voting for the Nov. 2 municipal elections in Spartanburg began Oct. 4 and continues through Nov. 1 at the Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Spartanburg County at 366 N. Church St. City Council members serve four-year terms. Amy Wood of WSPA moderated the forum. During a time of unprecedented growth, Spartanburg faces issues that will shape the future. The candidates running for City Council all said they understand the challenges ahead and believe collaboration with community partners is needed to help tackle some of the city's pressing issues including providing better access to transportation, addressing homelessness and fostering economic mobility for residents in all of the city's districts. The candidates also shared how they would work to reduce gun violence in the city, which has seen increase in homicides this year. Jefferson said to prevent gun violence, more mentoring and educational opportunities are needed for the area's youth and communication is needed between city leaders and neighborhoods to better identify issues concerning residents. "We need to start engaging and have pride in the community," Jefferson said. "Without that, it leads to crime." Fulmer said he didn't know all the root causes of why gun violence continues to grip some neighborhoods in the city but believes broader participation is needed and the community policing program should to be strengthened. He also said vacant police officer positions need to be filled and the police department should continue to increase staff diversity. "I think we need to work on our neighborhoods and create safer and vibrant neighborhoods," Fulmer said. Hawes and Alvarez agreed improving community relationships between residents and officers would help reduce gun violence in the city, however, addressing poverty and mental health in some cases is also necessary. Hawes said he believes in some concentrated areas of poverty the city has not prioritized providing resources. Gun violence and crime are secondary behaviors and the city needs a better understanding of what drives the behavior so it can be prevented, Hawes said. "Let's get real resources to people in need and show them they are cared for," Hawes said. Alvarez suggested the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year is in part responsible for an increase in gun violence. "Tensions are running high all over Spartanburg," Alvarez said. He also said cultivating more programs for youth could be effective in reducing crime, as well as neighbors watching out for neighbors. Candidates were asked whether the city could provide more affordable housing not concentrated in specific areas. Hawes and Alvarez said the city should be in agreement to provide long-term affordable housing to residents. In some cases between the city and developers, affordable housing units could switch to market rate after a period of time. As the city's housing stock continues to increase through new development, Fulmer said more incentives should be given to developers to build housing developments that include an affordable component. The city's new comprehensive plan should also help drive new housing, Fulmer said. A draft of the proposed plan was release to the public Sept. 28. Candidates addressed diversity in the city and whether they believed some in the Black community have been left behind in the recent economic development boom. The candidates also discussed how the city could better serve women and the immigrant community through the city's budgeting process. Jefferson said he believed some members of the city's Black community have felt "out of the loop" when it comes to being part of the discussions regarding economic development. He suggested more effort is needed to provide information to residents in those neighborhoods as the city continues to grow. For Alvarez, the city's diversity is what makes the area attractive and helps unite its residents. Alvarez said his top priority is to improve access to transportation and grocery stores in District 5. "We need more grocery stores in the area," Alvarez said. "As far as I can tell our district is a food desert and that is not acceptable." Hawes agreed the city is becoming more diverse but didn't want equity to get left behind in the process. If elected, Hawes said he would work to provide better accessibility to quality health care, transportation and stores with healthy foods. Some street lights and bus shelters need to be replaced or repaired in the district, he said. In District 4, Jefferson pointed to recent development along Pine Street as an example of progress in the city that can be emulated in other areas. Working together, the city can take a more cohesive approach in future development, he said. Fulmer touted District 4's collection of neighborhoods, including Converse Heights, as an example of what makes the city strong by working together to identify how to improve residents' quality of life. If re-elected to a second term, Fulmer said he would continue to make sure roads are safe and work to provide more economic opportunities for those who may feel left behind. When it comes to police officers and firefighters, Jefferson said the city should do what it can to keep those personnel from burning out on the job. Jefferson also said the city's immigrant population offers untapped potential to help move the city forward. Homelessness was also addressed during the forum. "I think my plan for addressing homelessness is to prevent people from falling into homelessness in the first place," Alvarez said. Alvarez said for those who are homeless he would work to connect them with resources to address their needs and also work to provide better transportation if it is a barrier to employment. Fulmer said homelessness has increased in the city over the past several years. "It is a crisis and it is getting seemingly worse," Fulmer said. "We are seeing it across the country partly due to the (COVID-19) pandemic." Jefferson agreed that more residents in the city have struggled to pay bills during the pandemic, leaving some without housing. He wants to address the issue by providing more opportunities and connecting the homeless with resources. Candidates also discussed how the city could work with Spartanburg County to develop a broader transportation system. Hawes said with most of the manufacturing jobs in the region being in the county, some city residents might benefit from have more accessible transportation into the county for those jobs. The forum was sponsored by the Upstate Action Alliance, The League of Women Voters Spartanburg, the NAACP West Spartanburg Branch, SIREN and Alianza Spartanburg. On Oct. 12, the Spartanburg Mayoral Candidate Virtual Forum will be held at 7 p.m. Cathy McCabe, former city attorney, and Jerome Rice, current councilman for District 5, will participate. The mayoral candidate forum will be streamed live on the Upstate Action Alliance and League of Women Voters Spartanburg County Facebook pages. Additional virtual forums featuring City Council and mayoral candidates will be held Oct. 22 and hosted by OneSpartanburg and streamed on its Facebook page. 9 a.m.: District 4 candidates Fulmer and Jefferson; 11 a.m.: District 5 candidates Alvarez, Hawes, LeBron and Salley; 1 p.m.: Mayoral candidates Cathy McCabe and Jerome Rice. We have written about the National School Boards Associations letter to Joe Biden asking for federal help against an alleged epidemic of violence against school boards, and about Attorney General Merrick Garlands response to that request, a memo to the FBI dated just five days after the NSBAs letter to Biden. When Garlands masters say jump, he jumps. Glenn Reynolds weighs in at the New York Post: American parents are organizing to fight racist critical race theories being taught in their kids schools. Attorney General Merrick Garland, once touted as a moderate, has responded by asking the FBI to treat them as domestic terrorists. As befits the Biden administration, this over-the-top authoritarianism is accompanied by the stench of corruption, as it turns out that Garlands son-in-law is in the business of selling educational materials on CRT. But of course, the genesis of this problem lies with the school boards themselves, not DOJ: The bigger problem is that school boards all over America seem to be growing ever more authoritarian themselves. Instead of serving as bastions of small-scale representative democracy, boards seem to regard themselves as above accountability to the voters and parents. *** The magic words I feel threatened are now used by bureaucrats to escape accountability for their own misbehavior. Thats what the NSBA has done, on a larger scale, in the face of widespread parental dissatisfaction with curricula that tell white and Asian students that they are inherently racist and black students that they are permanent victims. That is right. The NSBAs letter to Biden alleged an epidemic of violence, but the handful of incidents it cited were pathetic. The idea that this is some kind of crime wave that local authorities are unable to cope with is ridiculous. But the more insidious reference is to threats. How, exactly, is the FBI going to investigate these purported threats? The NSBAs letter to Biden specifically invoked the PATRIOT Act as it relates to domestic terrorism. I take it the reference is to Title II, Enhanced Surveillance Procedures. Title II provides broad authority for interception of electronic and telephone communications. So does Garlands direction to the FBI mean that the Bureau will undertake to collect emails sent and received by parents who are concerned about Critical Race Theory? Or monitor their telephone calls? It remains to be seen whether Garlands memo is just a sop to a Democratic Party constituency, or signals a serious intent to violate the civil rights of parents who complain to local school boards. Either way, Glenns closing injunction is on the money: As I survey the current scene, Im inclined to take the long view, which goes all the way back to Watergate. One of the ignored subtexts of Watergate is that a part of the fury behind the drive to get Nixon is that Nixon had made clear after his 1972 landslide his determination to challenge directly the power of the permanent bureaucracy, and thereby the power base of the Democratic Party. Watergate was a blunder, easily exploited by Democrats and their media adjuncts to drive Nixon from office, as even Nixon himself later admitted. (I gave them a sword. . .) But the Nixon saga led to a new phase in American politics, by which Democrats, in the form of their permanent government servants and media adjuncts, decided to criminalize political differences. Some of the Watergate prosecutions were legitimate matters of criminal behavior, but some were sheer partisan vindictiveness, seldom better explained that in Maurice Stanss book The Terrors of Justice: The Untold Side of Watergate. Stans was not the last person to be prosecuted by the federal law enforcement bureaucracy in the FBI and DoJ for partisan reasons. The DoJ went after Reagans labor secretary Raymond Donovan on trumped up corruption charges in the 1980s, with Donovan asking after his acquittal at trial, Where do I go to get my reputation back? Then the deep state tried to get Reagan on account of his blunders that led to the Iran-Contra fiasco, but that didnt work. A number of technical violations were chargedOliver North for accepting a free security fence as an illegal gratuity, and no charges ever brought in connection with the supposed offenses that started the whole scandal. The deep state hoped to get George W. Bush and/or Dick Cheney with the nonsense Valerie Plame leak investigation, investigating for months after the prosecutors knew that the leaker had been deep stater Richard Armitage, but finally issuing a technical indictment of Lewis Libby for a memory lapse in talking to the FBI. (And needless to say, President Bush was too much of a wimp to stop this travesty.) This is how the FBI-DoJ Political Prosecution Complex (DPPC for short) works: if they decide to target you, they will come up with something. Notice, in passing, how quickly Democrats got rid of the independent counsel statute when it became evident in the cases of Mike Espy and Bill Clinton that it could be used against Democrats. It was meant only to be used against Republicans. The playbook got its most complete workout with Trump, who was completely unacceptable to the establishment, and thus had to be destroyed with all of the tools carefully honed since Watergate. Which brings us to the present moment, and the crusade being waged against my old graduate school classmate John Eastman. In giving legal advice to President Trump and Vice President Pence in the aftermath of the election, he cant be charged with any plausible crime, so the mob is attempting an implausible one: that he was conspiring to overthrow our Constitutionessentially a coup. A Trump lawyer wrote an instruction manual for a coup, reads the breathless Washington Post headline, to give just one of the many many hyperbolic headlines. Beyond this, there is a crusade to have Eastman investigated by the California State Bar, which is clever lawyering, since the lawyers making the charge know there is no chance the California Bar would move to suspend or disbar Eastman (unless they completely cave to the mob, which I suppose is not impossible), but the general public doesnt know this, so it is effective innuendo. Now, you can read for yourself Eastmans six-part legal memo to the Trump team that revolved around ambiguities and defects of both the 12th Amendment and the Electoral Count Act. It is a novel interpretation, no doubt, and one that needed a couple of key parts to fall into place that didnt occur, which is one reason Vice President Pence was unpersuaded in the end. I doubt it ever could have worked, more for political than legal reasons. But the most conspicuous thing about the reaction to Eastmans argument is that the left isnt bothering to refute it point-by-point, or take up the issues Eastman raises about the 12th Amendment and the Electoral Count Act (let alone election integrity itself) but instead is launching a pure ad hominem attack with all of the coup talk. This is beyond everyday leftist hypocrisy on at least two grounds. First, how come whenever a leftist legal scholar comes up with a novel interpretation of the Constitution to achieve leftist ends it is never called an attack on the Constitution? Example: Erwin Chemerinsky, one of Eastmans chief accusers, in 2016 called for the judiciary to declare the electoral college unconstitutional (because Trump had won it), because it supposedly conflicts with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Never mind the audacity of supposing that one clause of the Constitution can be employed selectively to render another part of the Constitutiona part in use continuously for 230 yearsnull and void; it is a certainty that not a single person in Congress who wrote and voted for the 14th Amendment in 1868 would ever have entertained such a novel interpretation. Why, its the kind of thing only an inventive mind like Eastman might think! The point is, the devotees of the living Constitution get a case of the vapors when someone comes up with a novel interpretation that doesnt align with the leftist agenda, but never seem to notice when they do exactly the same thing (which is oftenChemerinsky also argues that Vice President Harris could rule the Senate filibuster unconstitutional on her own authoritywhy didnt Eastman think of that! oh, wait. . .even though the Constitution is explicit and clear that each chamber of Congress gets to make its own rules of procedure). Never forget: todays liberals hold the Constitution in contempt and wish to gut it if they couldexcept when it comes in handy as a cudgel to beat on anyone associated with Donald Trump. Second and more to the point: let us, for the purposes of discussion only, accept the premise that Eastmans novel legal analysis was subversive of democracy. Im so old I can recall leftist lawyerssuch as those who belonged to the Communist front National Lawyers Guild back in the daywhose explicit goal was to overthrow the Constitution. How come no liberal defender of the Constitution ever brought demands for the disbarment of these seditious lawyers? (Except for Joe McCarthy perhaps, and therein lies a clue to the matter.) For that matter, the faculty of the University of California are supposed to take an oath to defend the Constitution, and yet Angela Davis, an avowed Communist (still) who expressly advocates overthrowing the government and Constitution of the United States, remains a celebrated figurein fact, not long ago making a Time magazine list of the 100 most influential Americans. I have a theory of the case that goes beyond mere self-serving leftist hypocrisy. One reason for the hysterical reaction to Eastman, and the silent aversion of gaze when you mention someone like Angela Davis or the late William Kunstler, is that liberals actually dont take radicals like Davis seriously. Time magazine is just virtue-signaling when they celebrate her, but not even an addled Joe Biden is ever going to look to Angela Davis or William Kunstler or others like them for serious advice, legal or political. But the left does take Eastman seriously; they are actually scared of him, and even more afraid of arguing with him, because deep down they suspect they will lose the argument. (This is acknowledged in a subtle way in many of the news stories that include passages about Eastman being a once respected legal scholar. They cant call him a hack, unlike some of Trumps other questionable choices in legal aid.) So he must be destroyed, by any means necessary. And those means, as we know, are plentiful and organized these days. From this and a lot of other observations piling up, I have a new theory of the intolerance of the left: the academic left in particular are deeply insecure peopleoften professionally insecure, despite the fortifications of tenure, but also intellectually insecure, which is why leftists mostly refuse to debate anyone any more. In some cases it may be that the nihilism at the heart of the modern leftist outlook bursts through in personally demoralizing ways, as it ought to. It is also the case that when you reduce everything to a question of power, and your will-to-power doesnt have much effect off campus (until recently), you increasingly become intolerant, vindictive, and censorious to any dissent. And the demonization and intimidation the left uses is a feature, not a bug. Naturally the left calls this justice. The Nigerian Army has confirmed that its troops of the Exercise Golden Dawn on patrol arrested veteran Nollywood actor, Chiwetalu Agu. Army spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, a brigadier general, who stated this in a statement on Thursday, said the actor was arrested for soliciting support for proscribed separatist group, IPOB. There were viral videos earlier on Thursday depicting Mr Agu being manhandled by soldiers. In the video, the actor was seen dressed in an attire with the groups colors and symbol. The army said the actor was arrested specifically for urging members of the public to join the group which has been proscribed. Mr Nwachukwu also stated that the army would clamp down on any individual who continues to promote the group which is tantamount to going against the Nigerian constitution. Exercise Golden Dawn was launched three days ago. Read full statement: TROOPS ARREST CHIWETALU AGU WHILE SOLICITING SUPPORT FOR PROSCRIBED IPOB Troops of Nigerian Army(NA)have arrested one Chiwetalu Agu while inciting members of the public and soliciting for support for the proscribed Indegenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Dressed in a very well known attire of the proscribed group, Chiwetalu Agu was picked up for questioning while inciting members of the public to join the proscribed group. Though he attempted puting up some resistance when troops made effort to take him into custody, he was not assaulted or subjected to brutalization. While the NA recognizes the inalienable rights of the citizenry to freedom of movement and expression as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is apparently a violation for any individual or group to incite the public to cause mayhem or break down of law and order. It is therefore pertinent to state that while exercising such freedoms, it must be done within the confines of the law, bearing in mind the imperative for peace, and national security. For the avoidance of doubt and emphasis, the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) remains proscribed . Therefore, any individual or group seen to be projecting and advancing the cause or activities of the group is viewed as brazenly challenging the constitutionality of Federal Republic of Nigeria. More worrisome, was the fact that considering the prevailing security situation of the region, coupled with the ongoing Exercise GOLDEN DAWN , his action could be a tacit endorsement and support for the proscribed group. We have all witnessed the activities of the group take a violent dimension in recent times. Chinwetalu Agu has clearly demonstrated uncharitable disposition to negate peace and security in the region, hence, he is taken into custody for preliminary investigation. It is important to once again place on record that the allegation that he was brutalized is false and should be disregarded accordingly. While the NA would not allow IPOB and its sponsors to hold the region captive and allow the security situation to degenerate, it is instructive to restate that national interest supercedes any parochial consideration. Individuals or groups who fan the embers of violence are warned to desist or face the consequences of their actions. The ongoing Exercises are on course and will rid the region of all forms of criminality. The peace loving and law abiding people of the South East are enjoined to please go about their normal activities, as efforts are ongoing to bring perpetrators of violence to book. They are equally urged to continue to support the security agencies to restore normalcy to the region in furtherance of peace. ONYEMA NWACHUKWU Brigadier General Director Army Public Relations 7 October 2021 A. D. Yahaya was a radical intellectual and his brand of politics can be situated in paragraph seven of the Sawaba Declaration: The Northern Elements Progressive Union of Northern Nigeria, therefore, being the only political party of the Talakawa, enters the field of political action determined to reduce to nonentity any party of hypocrites and traitors to our mother country, and calls upon all the sons and daughters of Northern Nigeria We lost Professor A. D. Yahaya on Saturday. For me, he was a teacher, mentor, guide and inspiration. He was my Head of Department and project supervisor in my final year in Ahmadu Bello University. I had proposed to study the political consciousness of the peasantry in Kano and he was so excited by the choice that he called me to his office, commended me on the good subject I had chosen and proposed that he would supervise the project himself. That was in 1976 and since then, we had maintained close relations in the decades that followed. He was a real gentleman; polite, soft-spoken and always following up on the progress of his former students. After my participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 1978, the entire set of graduates from Kano were offered employment by the Kano State government. They already had all our information from the Scholarship Board. I guess that was a different epoch in Nigeria, when graduates had the problem of deciding which job offer to accept. I was not keen on working for the State government, as I wanted to be a practicing journalist. I walked to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) to see if they could take me on and I was asked to resume the following day as producer and presenter, current affairs, while the formal processes of interview and the paper work would be done later. I therefore started my career as a journalist. I did not know that Professor Yahaya had already offered me a job as a graduate assistant at Ahmadu Bello University. He contacted me, arguing that I would be more useful in the academy, as the media world has too much restraint on intellectual expression. I accepted, resigned from NTA and moved to Zaria. Our generation of young academics graduates of 1976-1979 met exceptional circumstances. Following the assassination of Murtala Mohammed on February 13, 1976, the following day many expatriate staff held a party and danced through the night. The conclusion was obvious: they were celebrating the assassination. Students were furious when they learnt about it, traced the party-goers and gave them a good beating. Years later, some people argued that they were having a Valentine party, which, had the students known, would have made them even angrier, as it was a time for mourning not love. The end result was that most of the foreign staff left the university and our generation of graduate assistants and assistant lecturers started teaching immediately, before even concluding our Masters degrees. The position of Professor Yahaya and some of his Nigerian colleagues was that the university should not seek to recruit new foreign staff but should follow the path of recruitment and development of young Nigerian academics. Within our Department of Political Science, Professor Yahaya encouraged us to take up the heavy burden as a rapid results approach to intellectual development. He trusted us, guided us, gave us great responsibility and declared that we were previously his students who had transited into the colleague status. He gave us the confidence and protection to say what we felt at departmental and faculty meetings and by so doing greatly accelerated our intellectual development. A. D. Yahaya was a radical intellectual and his brand of politics can be situated in paragraph seven of the Sawaba Declaration: The Northern Elements Progressive Union of Northern Nigeria, therefore, being the only political party of the Talakawa, enters the field of political action determined to reduce to nonentity any party of hypocrites and traitors to our mother country, and calls upon all the sons and daughters of Northern Nigeria to muster under its banner to the end, that a speedy termination may be wrought to this vicious system of administration, which deprives them of the fruits of their labour, and that POVERTY may give place to COMFORT, PRIVILEGE to EQUALITY, and political, economic and social SLAVERY to FREEDOM. His doctoral thesis, which was later published by Ahmadu Bello University Press in 1980, was: The Native Authority System in Northern Nigeria. The innocent looking title hid the deep inclination of the author to radical commitment and action. He traced, in detail, the ways in which the Native Authority (NA) System worked closely with traditional rulers to oppress the talakawa, the masses, in Northern Nigeria. His doctoral thesis, which was later published by Ahmadu Bello University Press in 1980, was: The Native Authority System in Northern Nigeria. The innocent looking title hid the deep inclination of the author to radical commitment and action. He traced, in detail, the ways in which the Native Authority (NA) System worked closely with traditional rulers to oppress the talakawa, the masses, in Northern Nigeria. One of the consequences of their actions, he pointed out, was the stifling of the development of political forces in the North. The State was the NA which, in turn, was the expression of traditional authority all of them arraigned against the people. This accounted for why nationalist movements developed very late in the North. In was in this context that the Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU) emerged in 1950 to contest the oppression and monopoly of power by the NA system. They had very strong ideological leaning, expressed so eloquently by the Sawaba Declaration: That the shocking state of social order as at present existing in northern Nigeria is due to nothing but the Family Compact rule of the so-called Native Administration in their present autocratic form. There is today in our society an antagonism of interest, manifesting itself as a class struggle between the members of the vicious circle of Native Administration on the one hand and the ordinary Talakawa on the other. NEPU had the belief and boldness to articulate its ideological preferences to the people, in opposition to what the powers that be wanted. On page 166 of the book, for example, Professor Yahaya provided some of the content of this radicalism, interestingly enough, citing the police report on NEPU surveillance. In a public lecture at Moonshine Hotel, Zaria on October 16, 1952, Aminu Kano told the talakawa that their elected representatives were fake because they rigged the elections; that people in authority are, by definition, servants and not masters of the people, so they can disobey directives from the authority, especially directives that force them to work without pay and so on, which the police, of course, considered to be sedition. Professor A. D. Yahaya was very happy about the victory of the Peoples Redemption Party in Kano and Kaduna States in 1979 and did not hesitate about serving as political adviser to the PRP governor of Kano State, to revive the struggle for the emancipation of the Talakawa. The politics of that epoch were much clearer than what we have today. The political parties at that time were clear about what they were. The Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) was the party of the Northern aristocracy and it was structured around the system of Native Administration, which they controlled. It was conservative, it believed in maintaining stability and the power it controlled. It was the party of what Max Weber would call eternal yesterday. To ensure that yesterdays men would control power tomorrow, it was ruthless in using repressive powers of the state to deal with the opposition. NEPU, on the other hand, was not shy to define itself as a party for radical change that was engaged in class struggle to emancipate the oppressed masses, the talakawa. The leaders of NEPU were well versed in Islamic knowledge and used the knowledge to justify the struggle, as being in conformity with the religion of the people. For both parties, membership was important and a determining character. The NPC was faithful to its nature and saw membership as voting power delivered by Emirs and Chiefs. Its politics, therefore, was to keep the aristocracy happy, as long as they towed the line and obeyed their political bosses. When Emir Muhammadu Sanusi did not toe the line, he was summarily removed from the exalted office of the Emir of Kano. I am here referring to the grandfather of the Emir of Kano recently removed for the same reason; at least some things remain the same. NEPU members saw the party as theirs, met weekly to discuss party affairs and were sovereign members who determined party leadership at conventions. They believed in their party, stood for it through trials and tribulations and each member knew exactly what their party stood for. Professor A. D. Yahaya was very happy about the victory of the Peoples Redemption Party in Kano and Kaduna States in 1979 and did not hesitate about serving as political adviser to the PRP governor of Kano State, to revive the struggle for the emancipation of the Talakawa. Rest in peace, Professor. May God forgive his shortcomings, grant him Al-Janatul Firdausi and give his family, friends and former students the fortitude to bear the loss. A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES. The second part of our deep-dive into the kidnap-for-ransom industry in Nigeria uses data to show that kidnappings have been on the rise annually since 2018 across Nigeria. Read the first part of the report here. As dusk fell on the second day of January this year, apprehension gripped Kaya as over 50 motorcycles, each carrying three men wielding AK-47 rifles, stormed the community. Then there were loud bangs from guns before buildings and vehicles went up in flames. The attack left 11 persons dead and nine others with bullet wounds. The pictures that emerged from the attack are extremely gory and cannot be published for ethical reasons. That attack was a return fight. The previous day, January 1, men in Kaya in Giwa area of Nigerias northwestern Kaduna State had confronted the gunmen, who had come to kidnap for ransom. In a rural context, where government is far removed, the men were already accustomed to mobilising themselves against armed attacks. But their efforts were not successful. Despite losing their leader, Shamsu Umar, to the resistance, the invaders kidnapped an unspecified number of persons, including two women, according to records reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES. The bandits dont want resistance when they attack a community to kidnap residents for ransom, said Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, a journalist, who has had rare access to interview some of the bandits in their enclaves. When they are resisted or they lose a member, or they are attacked by the vigilante or the military, they re-mobilise to sack the community. Kaya lies close to Hayin Kaura community in Katsina States Dandume area, where 80 Islamic school pupils were kidnapped in December 2020. The attacks, which officials and the media loosely call banditry, have crumbled the world of Nigerias northwest, stalling progress against the regions longstanding education sector crisis with repeated mass abductions of students at schools. The January fate of Kaya is what several other communities across the Northwest, which has now become Nigerias kidnapping hotbed, have endured and it mirrors a pattern: invading communities to kidnap some valued residents and forcing families to raise money for ransom. If they are resisted, the bandits would re-arm and return to sack a community. It all started with the collapse of the Fulani economy, said the Commissioner for Home Affairs and Internal Security in Kaduna State, Samuel Aruwan. This is that a Fulani man, with a dozen children, all dependent on cattle, wakes up one morning and finds that his animals have been rustled. He has no skill, he may not even be able to speak any language other than Fulfulde. With easy access to arms in the forest, he would decide to rustle another mans cattle and it goes on like that. But at a point, they feel that why do they have to go steal cows when they can kidnap the owner and force his family to sell all the cattle to raise money for ransom? In the year 2020, 937 people were kidnapped in Kaduna State alone, according to a government report that documented only reported cases. And in the first quarter of 2021, 949 persons were kidnapped, again as reported by the government. The report did not say if the 39 students abducted on March 11 at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka, were included in the statistics. By May 5, all the students had been released following a deal that officials told PREMIUM TIMES involved a prisoner swap. But while the Afaka students were in captivity, bandits struck at another Kaduna school, Greenfield University in Chikun area, abducting at least 23 students and staff on April 20. They demanded a sum of N100 million for their release. But amid reiterated vows by Kaduna State Government not to negotiate with the kidnappers or pay them, the kidnappers killed three of the students and left their remains in Kwanan Bature, a location close to the university on April 23. On April 26, two more students were killed, sparking a wave of outrage across the country. On May 1, one of the students was released following what is believed to be a ransom payment deal by the students parents. Others remained in captivity for several weeks before their families paid ransom to free them. In other cases of mass abduction at schools in the Northwest, 279 girls, said to be aged between 10 and 17 years, were abducted at Government Girls Science Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State on February 26. That event mirrored a similar attack on December 11, involving over 300 students from a boys boarding secondary school in Kankara, Katsina State. The mastermind of the Kankara abduction, Awwalu Daudawa, was killed in May after a gun duel with a rival gang. He had accepted an amnesty offered by the Zamfara State Government but decided to return to the forest where he was killed. Apart from invading communities and schools to kidnap for ransom, bandits also lay siege to highways and undertake targeted operations, entering private residences to abduct individuals. John Bala Gora, who is a community leader in Atyap Chiefdom of Kaduna State, was kidnapped from his Kaduna home after gunmen invaded his residence one late night in 2017, broke his arm and took him away. We walked in the bush through the night and what happened between my house and where we stopped in the morning was a hell of a beating, said Mr Gora. They kept beating me every night and said they were just interested in money. He did not disclose the amount, but he said his family paid a ransom to secure his release. I saw dead bodies, Mr Gora added, recalling that his abductors told him those were the remains of their victims whose family could not pay the ransom. But they said they also killed those whose families paid ransom, depending on what they just chose to do. Some of them also decided to kill me too but one of them saved me. Where bandits attack residences in urban centres, they work with information from urban residents, investigators familiar with arrested bandits told PREMIUM TIMES. It is a sort of an industry with different linked roles, one investigator said. There are individuals in the cities and towns who identify targets and obtain valuable information on their movements to help the kidnappers. They get paid for the information they supply. The kidnappers or bandits are usually resident in the forests. They dont know the urban residents and have to depend on individuals, like neighbours and security guards of targets, for information. The vast forests straddling the Northwestern states, from the Northcentral Niger State, have long been ungoverned and infested with massive arms, easily traded along cattle routes extending to Nigeria from neighbouring countries, our findings revealed. From Birnin Gwari, you can get to Zamfara through the bush, said Mr Aruwan, explaining that arms could be moved across locations by criminals in the ungoverned space that the forests have become. He told PREMIUM TIMES that a key part of the governments response is to combat arms flow. Two suspected bandits held in custody in Kaduna, Umar Sule, 40, and Musa Sabiu, 35, told PREMIUM TIMES that they travelled to Zamfara State using a motorcycle along cattle routes from Kadunas Kachia area to procure a gun. They were arrested by the police just as they were about to cross to their settlement. They said the gun was bought from one Rabiu, with whom they had operated as cattle rustlers in the Kankara area of Katsina State previously. In the forests, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, bandits have to keep procuring arms to sustain their operations and protect themselves against rival gangs, vigilantes, and military strikes, thereby becoming hostage to gunrunners. Apart from having to pay informants, proceeds from abductions mostly go to arms suppliers, our findings revealed, based on interviews with officials and persons with some understanding of the operations of the bandits. But patrons also sponsor bandits with guns. Mr Gora said his abductors advised him to leave his work and invest in us. He said, I asked them what sort of investment and they said kidnapping business. They said I would only have to give them guns and ammunition and I would be getting a percentage from their operations. Based on our findings from interviews with officials, experts and survivors, the bandits are predominantly forest-dwelling Fulani herders who have now gone rogue. But a Boko Haram splinter terrorist group, Ansaru, is also active in the northwest forests and has been involved in high profile abductions, officials told PREMIUM TIMES. Our reporter sighted highly disturbing photographs of the fatalities inflicted on the Nigerian security forces by the terrorist group. Ansaru is said to have recruited from rural Hausa communities. As the kidnapping frenzy continues in the Northwest, emboldened bandits spread their activities to the neighbouring north-central state of Niger and communities on the fringes of Abuja, the countrys capital. According to PREMIUM TIMESs count of kidnapping in the media, an estimated 793 people were kidnapped in the North-central between January and May 2021. In 2018 the media only reported 24 kidnap cases in the region. The next year, only 30 cases were reported in the North-central. But the number rose to 135 in 2020 and 793 in the first five months of 2021. According to the data, an overwhelming majority of the cases within the period (674) were in Niger State. Other parts of the north In Nasarawa State, the commissioner of police, Adebola Longe, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said kidnappers were hiding the vast forests of the state. We would ensure that in Nasarawa State, there is no place for any criminal element, particularly the bandits to hide whether in the forest at Keyawu or Maraban Udege or Awe or Farin Ruwa or Nasarawa Eggon or Mada station or Eke in Doma local government, Mr Alonge said. Awyetu Jimba was kidnapped, alongside six other farmers, in early May on his way to the farm and taken to Zoni forest, another notorious hideout used by kidnappers in Nasarawa State. He and the other hostages were held for three weeks. He said they were fed once a day with yam their abductors stole from farms in the forest. The food was never enough. We walked far distances in the forest during the day and we rested at night. We slept on rocks and itchy grasses with mosquitoes, sometimes under heavy rain, as we changed locations daily until I was released, he said. Mr Jimba said his abductors tortured him daily as they grew impatient. He said the kidnappers originally requested a ransom of N5 million, but they eventually agreed to collect N3 million. My family was able to gather N3 million for my release with support and contributions from other members of my community, he said. The media reported fewer cases in the countrys Northeast, which is contending with the over decade-long Boko Haram insurgency. While Boko Haram is the primary kidnap culprit in the region, Yobe appears to be the kidnapping hotbed of the region with 112 cases reported between 2018 and May 2021. Kidnapping in southern Nigeria In the South-west, 264 people were kidnapped between 2018 and May 2020, according to media reports. Just like in other regions of the country, the data showed a drastic increase in the number of persons kidnapped in the region. The total number of people kidnapped in the region rose from 45 in 2018 to 92 by May 2021. Osun State with 50 persons kidnapped between 2018 and May 2021 and Ondo State with 99 persons kidnapped within the same period are the kidnapping hotbeds of the Southwest region. The South-south used to report the highest number of kidnappings. Militants in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states targeted oil expatriates and pirates hijacked foreign sailors and their vessels for ransom. While there are no official records of the frequency of kidnap incidents and the number of those kidnapped during the time, there appears to be a lull in the kidnap activities following the letup of militancy in the region. However, the number of kidnap incidents in the region since 2018 is still a major source of concern. According to media reports, 341 persons were kidnapped in the region between 2018 and May this year. The data show that Delta, Edo and Rivers had the highest number of cases in the region with 73, 124 and 95 respectively. The South-east recorded the lowest number of persons kidnapped of all six geo-political regions of the country with an estimated 77 persons kidnapped from 2018 to May this year. The Nigerian military has since launched an operation to reclaim the forests of the North-west from the bandits. The governments of at least four states in the region have cut telecommunications networks, suspended weekly markets and restricted the movement of cattle and sale of fuel to support the operation. Although initial reports indicated that the bandits were beleaguered and moving out of the area, latest reports indicate that they continue to attack rural communities in Zamfara and Sokoto states. In the South-west, the six state governments have established a regional security outfit, Amotekun, to support the police in the fight against kidnappers. They also passed a law banning open grazing of cattle to check clashes between herders and crop farmers. The Niger State Police Command says it has rescued the kidnapped traditional ruler of Wawa in Borgu Local Government of Niger. Mahmud Aliyu, the victim, was kidnapped by heavily armed gunmen on Sunday at his palace at about 10 p.m. The Police spokesperson in the state, DSP. Wassiu Abiodun, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Saturday. Mr Abiodun said that the royal father was rescued on Friday at about 19:30 hours, after a sustained effort of the Police, military and vigilante. Mr Aliyu is currently receiving medical attention at an undisclosed facility. (NAN) The Nigerian Police Force has said it has no plan to reintroduce the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The police spokesperson, Frank Mba, made this known in a statement Thursday in Abuja. The statement comes amidst rumours and speculations, particularly on social media, that the police had reintroduced the defunct squad. The then Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, last year announced the dissolution of the dreaded police unit. The dissolution of SARS came after thousands of Nigerians, particularly young people, took to the streets to protest harassment and intimidation by the defunct unit. Following the dissolution of the unit, the police created in its place a new outfit called Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT). In the statement on Thursday, Mr Mba urged Nigerians to disregard the report, adding that the unit is gone for good. Read the full statement: PRESS RELEASE NO PLAN TO BRING BACK SARS, SAYS IGP Trending news to the contrary absolutely false! The attention of the Nigeria Police Force has been drawn to a false news report making the rounds online and offline suggesting that the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, psc (+), NPM, fdc has ordered the re-establishment of the defunct Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS). The Force wishes to categorially emphasize that there is no plan whatsoever to bring back the disbanded SARS. SARS is gone for good and will not resurrect under any guise whatsoever. The IGP notes that the Force has since reorganized its operational structure to fill the vacuum created by the disbandment of SARS. Currently, the leadership of the Force is focused on efforts at deepening reforms within the Police and bequeathing Nigerans a Police Force that will be more effective, efficient, technology-driven, humane and Rule of Law-compliant. The IGP therefore calls on members of the public to disregard the report which is absolutely false and deliberately intended to disinform and misinform members of the public. CP FRANK MBA FORCE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER FORCE HEADQUARTERS ABUJA 7th October, 2021 The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in Ibadan has ordered the Oyo State Board of Inland Revenue to reinstate a clerical officer, Adebisi Ogunjinmi, unlawfully dismissed almost six years ago. The judge, J.D Peters, described her dismissal from service as unreasonable, unjustifiable and unfair labour practice. Suit Ms Ogunjinmi had sued the Oyo State Board of Inland Revenue, the states Civil Service Commission and its Attorney General in her suit marked NICN/1B/19/2016 over her alleged unlawful dismissal in November 2015. In the suit filed on 16 February, 2016, the claimant said her dismissal through a letter dated 16 November, 2015 was based on an unproven allegation of failing to remit N454,234 revenue to the purse of the government. She denied the allegation, adding that she was denied a fair hearing. She alleged that the defendants never gave her the opportunity to attend any enquiry or investigation panel to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against her following a query that was served on her. Under cross-examination during the trial, Ms Ogunjinmi had told the court she normally paid whatever money she received into (the Oyo State) government account. Defence In their defence, the defendants justified Ms Ogunjinmis dismissal which they claimed was based on a case of gross misconduct against her. They said her appointment took effect from 2 October , 2011, and that between January 2013 to 2015, she was queried, suspended, and eventually dismissed for her failure to remit N454,234 to the Board of Internal Revenue. They said she was arrested and released on 16 September, 2015 the same day she was queried. They admitted that she was never invited to face any panel between the time she was queried and the time she was dismissed. The defendants also admitted that there was no document before the court to support the assertion that she agreed to refund money allegedly fraudulently taken. They also filed a counterclaim against the claimant, urging the court to, among other things, compel her to refund the money she allegedly took fraudulently from the government. Judgement In the judgement delivered on the suit on 28 September, 2021, which was seen by this reporter on Thursday, the judge nullified Ms Adebisis dismissal and ordered her reinstatement. The judge ruled that the public service rules on the basis of which she was employed were not followed in dismissing her. I hold that the 1st defendant did not comply with the procedure enshrined in the Public Service Rules Vol. 1 section 4 03402(L) of January 2013 in dismissing the claimant from its employment, the judge said. He set aside the letter dated 16 November, 2015 issued by the Board of Inland Revenue dismissing the plaintiff as a clerical officer. I reinstate and order the immediate reinstatement of the claimant as clerical officer grade level 04 to the pensionable establishment of the Board of Internal Revenue, without any loss of employment rights, including promotion, Mr Peters ordered. The court further ordered the Board of Internal Revenue to pay Ms Adebisi all her arrears of salaries plus allowances from 1 September, 2015 till the day of this judgement. He based his verdict on the grounds that Ms Adebisis dismissal was in breach of the Civil Service Commission Regulations, Laws of Oyo State of Nigeria, 2000. The judge ordered the 1st defendant (Board of Inland Revenue) to pay N200,000 as cost of prosecuting the proceedings to the claimant. All the terms of this judgement are to be complied with immediately, the court declared. Earlier, the court dismissed the preliminary objections filed by the claimant to challenge the courts jurisdiction. Claimants lawyer demands compliance with judgement The lawyer to the claimant, Femi Aborisade, has written a letter to the Attorney-General of Oyo State on the need to comply with the verdict. In the letter dated 7 October, 2021, Mr Aborisade urged the judgement debtors to be law-abiding persons and expressed hope that they would comply with the judgement. Giving a summary of the verdict, the claimants counsel pointed out the need for the judgement debtors to pay his clients arrears of salaries as ordered by the court. The essence of the brief of our client is that the judgement debtors should observe the orders made by the court without any further delay, the letter read in part. The United States Ambassador to Liberia has given a powerful endorsement to Hassan Bility, the justice activist accused in court proceedings this month of bribing witnesses. In a visit to the Monrovia office of Mr Bilitys organisation the Global Justice and Research Project, Ambassador Michael McCarthy, commended Bilitys work in gathering evidence that has led to the convictions of three war criminals and charges against nearly a dozen more. We stand with Mr Bility for the work he is doing and many other people are standing with him. He is supported by other governments and diplomats of other governments, said Ambassador McCarthy in an interview. The ambassador did not directly address accusations by three witnesses in the ongoing war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi that Mr Bility attempted to bribe them to make false testimonies. Mr Bility has rejected the claims saying they are being orchestrated by those who have been charged as a result of his work or fear they will be charged. Ambassador McCarthey said the U.S. Embassy took the threats of violence against Bility and his team very seriously. I want to make it clear that violence against those who seek justice through the rule of law must never be tolerated in Liberia, Ambassador McCarthy said in a statement. The United States Embassy regards the security of committed researchers like these to be of the utmost importance, and as a bellwether of Liberias democratic progress. The ambassadors intervention will be felt by many perpetrators accused of war crimes in Liberias civil war. Those like Agnes Taylor, whose war crimes case in the U.K. was dismissed on a technicality leading to the denial of her permanent residency application, will be unlikely to secure a visa to most international countries including the United States and may risk charges in any country where she does secure a visa. Ms Taylor will also risk being extradited to the U.K. should prosecutors there decide to open a new case. Others such as Representative George Boley, who was deported to Liberia from the United States after being found by U.S. authorities to have violated immigration laws, is in the same boat. Those inside Liberia will be afraid to travel in case they also face charges and extradition. Inside the United States, there are accused war criminals living in fear they too might be charged as Boley, Mohammed Jabbateh, Tom Woewiyu and Moses Thomas were. The ambassador applauded Mr Bilitys success in securing dozens of charges and convictions. He also praised the Liberian government and media for allowing thorough coverage of the trial of Gibril Massaquoi and other cases in the United States and Europe. Many counties do not have such things said the ambassador and the people of Liberia should be proud of institutions like the GJRP. Civil society and a free press are alive in Liberia. Organisations like Mr Bilitys cant exist in many countries in the world but here in Liberia he and his colleagues do their work, he said. Ambassador McCarthy said Americas commitment to justice was underscored by the fact that the first person convicted for crimes in Liberias civil wars was American citizen, Chucky Taylor, the son of former President Charles Taylor. Charles Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence for crimes in Sierra Leone. Chucky is serving a 97-year sentence in the U.S. state of Florida. At the same time, Ambassador McCarthy urged the Liberian legislature to overcome gridlock and pass a bill establishing a war and economic crimes court. Criminals who committed war crimes should not live with impunity and think they will never pay for their crimes, said the ambassador. At the same time, it is very important that the Liberias war crimes commission be designed and overseen by Liberians, and it cannot be run by outsiders. We support the active discussion as to which form this commission should take but it is left with the Liberian people in the desire of a system of justice that will account for unpunished crimes. The trial of Mr. Massaquoi will continue on Friday which is likely to be the last day before the court returns to Finland for final hearings. A verdict is expected this year. This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. The Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, has said the 2022 budget figure proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari is low. Mr Akabueze stated this while speaking on Channel Television programme, Politics Today on Thursday. Mr Buhari presented a total budget of N16.39 trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday. The figure is the highest in the countrys history and over N3 trillion more than the 2021 budget. Mr Buhari hinged the increase on the need to give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) a sum of N100 billion for the 2023 General Election, while another N50 billion will be set aside for health workers hazard allowance and other allocations to security agencies with the total available revenue for the year estimated at N10.13 trillion. Against the backdrop of the budget breakdown and the soaring state of the countrys debt profile, Nigerians, after the presentation, took to different social platforms to condemn the figures. Mr Akabueze, a leading person in the budget preparation, said the federal budget is so low compared to the countrys unmet needs. Well first of all, I think we need to understand that as large as the size of this budget might seem to Nigerians, and as you say its the largest so far, the truth of the matter is that our budget is still way lower than it should be. The problem of Nigeria isnt that, Im talking about the government now, were spending too much money, its that were actually spending too little. If we look at, I mean theres a global measure for this, you know, which is called a public expenditure to GDP ratio. For Nigeria, the public expenditure to GDP ratio is still in the order of 12 per cent. The average for Africa is 22 per cent, some countries in Africa have about 30 per cent, I mean in the developed countries, the ratio is, you know, typically over 40 percent. And so, you know our budgets. But, why are our budgets still so low relative to our needs, and its because the budgets are so low in terms of size; that is why there is still a lot of unmet needs. But theres a correlation between that and our revenues, he explained. He further explained that Nigerias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio, which is barely eight and nine per cent, is far below the 20 per cent for other African countries. Mr Akabueze, who had served as the CEO of NAL Bank Plc (now Sterling Bank) and two terms Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget with the Lagos State, said the country may not meet some of its needs, going by its current revenues from GDP, without borrowing to fund the deficit. By the IMF measures, you know, standards, the country needs at least 15 per cent revenue to GDP ratio to either begin to approach fiscal viability. Alright, and we are just barely over 50 per cent of that, he said. The Budget office boss mentioned defence and security agencies among the sectors crying that they are underfunded, even though many Nigerians would disagree given the widespread state of insecurity in the country. A veteran Nollywood actor, Chwetalu Agu has been released from the custody of the Nigerian Army 24 hours after his arrest. The Nigerian Army arrested the movie star on Thursday for supporting the proscribed separatist group, IPOB. Army spokesperson Onyema Nwachukwu accused the actor of inciting members of the public and soliciting for support for the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in a release issued on Tuesday. In a viral video on Thursday, Mr Agu was seen dressed in Biafran flag regalia, which prompted the Nigerian Army to arrest him at Upper Iweka Road, Onitsha, Anambra State. The National President of The Nigerian Actors Guild, Emeka Rollas, told PREMIUM TIMES that his team facilitated Mr Agus release. Mr Rollas said Steve Eboh, AGNs special assistant on military affairs and intergovernmental relations, confirmed Agus release from the army barracks in Enugu on Friday. Reactions from actors Surprisingly, Nigerian celebrities, especially actors, kept mum on the issue save for Walter Anga and Shan George. Mr Anga expressed his displeasure over his colleagues arrest on Instagram. A man that has spent almost his lifetime putting smiles in every home even when you the man is out there struggling to put food on the table for your family. Can this be done to any northerner? Northerners even go as much as wearing camo on the streets.Na God go judge una, he wrote. Ms George, in a post via her Instagram account, urged the actor to own up to his fight for freedom. She noted that there was nothing absolutely wrong with fighting for freedom adding that Nigeria once fought to be freed from the British colonialists. She said, My dear brother, you are clearly wearing a Biafra flag and you should own it with your full chest. I dont get all the rising sun English you are speaking. I personally see nothing wrong with certain people fighting for their freedom. Nigeria fought for theirs from the British before 1960. Scotland and the rest fought for theirs too, at least you were not carrying any arms, fighting for freedom peacefully shouldnt be a crime, own your fight with your full chest. When he was arrested, the actor insisted that his outfit had nothing to do with the IPOB. He was captured on video saying, This sun on the dress Im wearing is just a rising sun because I believe I must rise. I was sharing bread when they came to arrest me, I was not organising any demonstration. Is it wrong to feed the hungry Nigerians? Agus usage of specific language slang, phrases, or cliches in films made him a household name in Nigeria and among Nollywood admirers abroad. The 65-year-old actor has enjoyed a flourishing acting career spanning three decades. Nairobi, October 7, 2021Tanzanian authorities should unconditionally release cartoonist Opptertus John Fwema, and drop investigations into Mgawe TV journalist Harold Shemsanga and the media outlets owner, Ernest Mgawe, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 24, police arrested Fwema at his home in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and have since detained him at the Oysterbay police station, according to a statement by the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC), as well as Florence Fwema, the cartoonists brother, and Robert Mwampembwa, the head of the Creative Industry Network, a local industry body, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Police say that Fwema is under investigation on cybercrime offenses, but have yet to arraign him in court, according to his brother, Mwampebwa, and a THRDC lawyer familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ via messaging app but asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns. Fwema was arrested days after publishing on his Instagram page a political cartoon that was critical of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, according to those sources. Separately, on October 2, police in Kawe, a suburb in Kinondoni District of the Dar es Salaam region, arrested Shemsanga, a reporter with the recently established YouTube news channel Mgawe TV, while he was covering an event by members of BAWACHA, the womens league of the Tanzanias leading opposition party, CHADEMA, according to the Defenders Coalition statement, as well as Shemsanga, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Mgawe told CPJ that police detained him later that day when he went to seek bail for Shemsanga. Both men told CPJ that they were released on the evening of October 4, but that police are still investigating them on allegations of illegal assembly, alongside several members of BAWACHA. Shemsanga told CPJ that police had yet to return electronic devices confiscated during his arrest. Critical political commentary and coverage of the opposition are essential to Tanzanias democratic discourse, and it is deeply worrying that police are equating this kind of journalism to criminal activity, said CPJs sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. Police should unconditionally release cartoonist Opptertus John Fwema. Authorities should also discontinue any ongoing investigations into Mgawe TVs Harold Shemsanga and Ernest Mgawe, return their confiscated devices, and abandon the habit of throwing journalists behind bars for their work. Fwema publishes illustrations and cartoons on his Instagram account and takes commissioned work in Dar es Salaam, according to Mwampembwa. On September 16 and again on September 20, Fwema published a political cartoon that depicts Hassan as a child playing with a basin of water painted with the Tanzanian flag, while a large man wearing a black coat printed with the words Kiwetecripple in Kiswahili and a play on words that refers to former President Jakaya Kikwetestands behind her, telling a group of concerned people that she leads the country well. The cartoon is a critical commentary on Hassans governance and depicts Kikwete being weak but also acting as her protector, according to CPJs review of the cartoon and a statement published by Cartooning for Peace, an international network of press cartoonists, calling for Fwemas release. On September 24, police initially claimed that they were arresting Fwema in connection to investigations into the theft of a motorbike, but the following day they told him that he was under investigation for misuse of the internet, according to Florence. The cartoonist did not have legal counsel present when he was initially questioned by police, who asked him about the cartoon, according to Florence Fwema and Mwampebwa. Yesterday, a lawyer acting on behalf of the THDRC filed a bail application for Fwema at a Dar es Salaam court, which set a hearing in the case on October 11, according to a statement by the THRDC that was reviewed by CPJ. In the October 2 incident, police approached Mgawe TV reporter Shemsanga while he was interviewing BAWACHA members following a jogging event in Kawe, according to the journalist. Even though Shemsanga identified himself as a journalist, the police officers demanded that he come with them to a local police station. The BAWACHA members, who demanded an explanation for his arrest, accompanied them to the station, Shemsanga said. At Kawe police station, the officers confiscated his devices including a camera and laptop; reviewed footage of his interviews; and locked him up in a cell, Shamsange said. Several of the women were also arrested, according to Shemsanga and an October 2 statement from BAWACHA that was posted on Twitter by the leagues secretary general, Catherine Ruge. Police said they had detained all of them on suspicion of illegal assembly and after a few hours they were transferred from Kawe to a police station about 24 kilometers (15 miles) away in Mbweni, according to these same sources. Mgawe told CPJ that when he went to the police station in Mbweni later that day to seek bail for Shemsanga, police also arrested him. He said that they are investigating him for being complicit in the act of illegal assembly because he had sent the journalist on the assignment. Following their release on October 4, both Shemsanga and Mgawe were ordered to report periodically to the police station in Mbweni. Shamsange told CPJ that Mbweni is far from his home and that his journey to and from the station on October 5 took about five hours on public transport. Shemsanga told CPJ they were due back at the police station on October 8. Since mid-September BAWACHA has been organizing jogging meets for its members, saying that the events are supposed to promote good health among women in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to media reports. Videos posted on Twitter by Ruge and on CHADEMAs YouTube channel show women at several such events jogging in t-shirts printed with the words Tume Huru (Independent Commission) and chanting the same words, a reference to CHADEMAs campaign for reforms to the countrys electoral commission. In a phone call on October 7, Tanzania government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa referred CPJ to police, and specifically the forces spokesperson David Misime, for comment on Fwemas detention, and the arrest of Mgawe and Shemsanga. Someone who answered Misimes phone today did not say anything and CPJs queries to Misime, sent via WhatsApp and SMS, were also unanswered. When reached for comment on his phone, Kinondoni police commander Ramadhani Kingai referred CPJ to the Dar es Salaam special zone police commander, Jumanne Muliro, whose phone rang without answer today. Muliro did not immediately respond to a text message from CPJ asking about Fwemas detention and the arrest of the Mgawe TV journalists. However, the local Dar Mpya news blog quoted Muliro saying that those arrested in Kawe had indications of breaching peace by using exercise as pretext to rouse political sentiments, according to an October 2 tweet from the outlet. A phone number for Tanzanias Inspector General of Police Simon Sirro that was listed on the polices website did not connect today. CPJs email to the police headquarters and an address for the Kinondoni regional police, asking about the detention of Fwema and the arrest of the Mgawe TV journalists, also went unanswered. The police say 187 kidnapped persons were on Thursday rescued by security agents during raids on the dwellings of bandits in Tsibiri forest in Maradun local government area of Zamfara State. The police spokesperson in the state, Muhammad Shehu, who disclosed this in a statement issued in Gusau on Thursday, said the rescued victims comprise males, female adults and children and have been handed over to the state government. Following the implementation of the new security measures by the Zamfara State Government, the police and other security agencies have been carrying out assaults on identified bandits locations in different parts of the state, with a view to ridding the state of all recalcitrant bandits and other criminal elements. Today, 7th October, 2021, police tactical operatives, in a joint operation at Tsibiri forest in Maradun local government area of the state, succeeded in the unconditional rescue of 187 victims abducted in Rini, Gora, Sabon Birni and Shinkafi communities in Bakura Maradun and Shinkafi LGAs respectively. The abducted victims, who had spent many weeks in captivity, were unconditionally rescued following extensive search and rescue operations that lasted for hours, Mr Shehu said. The Commissioner of Police in the state, Ayuba Elkanah, handed over the rescued victims to Governor Bello Matawalle. Speaking at the event, he said the new security measures in the state have led to the rescue of hundreds of abducted victims. Similarly, several bandits and their collaborators have been arrested, some have been charged to court, while others are undergoing discreet investigation, Mr Shehu said. Meanwhile, Mr Elkanah said the police and other security agencies would continue to work for the return of lasting peace and security in the state. He sympathised with the victims for the sufferings they passed through while in captivity, and promised that the police would redouble their commitments to protect lives and properties of the citizens of Zamfara State. Responding, Mr Matawalle thanked the police and other security agencies for their resilience and hard work in the enforcement of the new security measures in the state. Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Kabiru Balarabe, the governor said the state government would continue to support and encourage security agencies in the state, to enable them to perform their duties effectively. He further said that the state government would ensure that the rescued victims undergo medical treatment before being reunited with their families. (NAN) After decades of trials, the world has potentially found a new silver bullet against malaria, one of the oldest and deadliest infectious diseases. Malaria kills about half a million people yearly, nearly all of them in sub-Saharan Africa, including 260,000 children under five. On Wednesday, and in a historic announcement, the World Health Organization (WHO), for the first time, approved for general use in children in sub-Saharan Africa, and other regions with moderate to high rates of plasmodium falciparum malaria transmission, the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine with the brand name Mosquirix. This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control, Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHOs director-general, said in a statement. With several concerns especially on the efficacy, funding and sustainability of the new vaccine, here are 10 things you should know about Mosquirix. 1. What is Mosquirix? The vaccine called Mosquirix was developed by PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mosquirix is not just the first approved vaccine for malaria, it is the first developed for any parasitic disease. Parasites are much more complex than viruses or bacteria, and the quest for a malaria vaccine has been underway for many decades. 2. Origin of Mosquirix The RTS,S malaria vaccine is the result of 30 years of research and development by GSK and through a partnership with PATH, with support from a network of African research centres. It has faced several challenges including funding and lack of sustained clinical successes. In November 2012, a Phase III trial of RTS,S found that it provided modest protection against both clinical and severe malaria in young infants, according to the European Medical Agency (EMA). As of October 2013, preliminary results of the phase III clinical trial indicated that RTS,S or Mosquirix reduced the number of cases among young children by almost 50 per cent and among infants by around 25 per cent. The study ended in 2014. In a bid to accommodate a larger group and guarantee a sustained availability for the general public, GSK applied for a marketing license with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in July 2014. GSK treated the project as a non-profit initiative, with most funding coming from the Gates Foundation, a major contributor to malaria eradication. On 24 July 2015, Mosquirix was recommended by the EMA to be used to vaccinate children aged 6 weeks to 17 months outside the European Union. A pilot project for vaccination was launched on 23 April 2019 in Malawi, on 30 April 2019 in Ghana, and on 13 September 2019 in Kenya. On Wednesday, the vaccine was endorsed by the World Health Organization for broad use in children, making it the first malaria vaccine candidate to receive this recommendation. 3. How it works The Mosquirix was designed to rouse a childs immune system to thwart plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest of five malaria pathogens and the most prevalent in Africa. Infection is prevented by inducing high antibody titers that block the parasite from infecting the liver. According to the EMA, Mosquirix requires up to four doses, and its protection fades after several months. But health experts believe the jab will still have a major impact against malaria in Africa considering the scourge of the disease on the continent. 4. Major ingredients One of the ingredients in the Mosquirix vaccine is sourced from a rare evergreen native to Chile called a Quillay tree. Reuters reported on Wednesday that the long-term supply of these trees is in question. Meanwhile, the active substance in Mosquirix is made up of proteins found on the surface of the plasmodium falciparum parasites. 5. How it is administered Mosquirix requires up to four doses, and its protection fades after several months. It is given in three doses between ages 5 and 17 months, and a fourth dose roughly 18 months later. A fourth injection is recommended 18 months after the third. The vaccine is given as a 0.5 ml injection into a muscle of the thigh or in the muscle around the shoulder (the deltoid). The child is given three injections with one month between each injection. Mosquirix can only be obtained with a prescription. Following clinical trials, the vaccine was tried out in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana where it was incorporated into routine immunisation programs. More than 2.3 million doses have been administered in those countries, reaching more than 800,000 children. 6. How effective is Mosquirix? Mosquirixs effectiveness at preventing severe cases of malaria in children is only around 30 per cent, which did not meet the WHO benchmark of 75 per cent efficacy, and thereby raising concerns among experts over its long term use. Research also shows that the overall efficacy of the jab seems to wane with time. But WHO said it recommended the vaccine based on the advice of its two global advisory bodies, one for immunisation and the other for malaria, especially because the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine is highly effective for preventing the P. falciparum malaria in children. 7. Any side effects? WHO said the side effects of the vaccine were rare, but sometimes included a fever that could result in temporary convulsions. 8. How will Mosquirix help Africa in fighting malaria? A modelling study published last year by the New York Times estimated that if the vaccine were rolled out to African countries with the highest incidence of malaria such as Nigeria, it could prevent 5.4 million cases and 23,000 deaths in children younger than five each year. A trial of the vaccine in combination with preventive drugs given to children during high-transmission seasons found that the dual approach was much more effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalisation and death than either method alone, the report stated. Azra Ghani, chair of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, said she and colleagues estimate that giving the malaria vaccine to children in Africa might result in a 30 per cent reduction overall, with up to 8 million fewer cases and as many as 40,000 fewer deaths per year. For people not living in malaria countries, a 30 per cent reduction might not sound like much. But for the people living in those areas, malaria is one of their top concerns, Ghani said, adding that; A 30 per cent reduction will save a lot of lives and will save mothers (from) bringing in their children to health centres and swamping the health system. 9. What are the next steps? The Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme is coordinated by WHO and supported by in-country and international partners, including PATH, UNICEF and GSK, which is donating up to 10 million doses of the vaccine for the pilot. Next steps for the WHO-recommended malaria vaccine will include funding decisions from the global health community for broader rollout, and country decision-making on whether to adopt the vaccine as part of national malaria control strategies, the UN health body said. 10. Funding support The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided catalytic funding for late-stage development of RTS,S between 2001 and 2015. Financing for the pilot programme has been mobilised through an unprecedented collaboration among three key global health funding bodies: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and Unitaid, WHO said. The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia. The duo were honoured for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which the Nobel Committee described as a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. In an era of increasing authoritarianism and swirling attacks on journalists, Ms Ressa and Mr Muratov both led independent news outlets in their respective countries. The two were recognised for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia the Norwegian Nobel committee said. They were part of a broader struggle to protect press freedoms. Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time. They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions, the committee wrote. Ms Ressa, 58, was quoted as saying the prize shows nothing is possible without facts, referring to the links between democracy and freedom of expression. She has worked to expose the abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines. Her biography shows that she co-founded Rappler, a digital media company for investigative journalism, an organisation she still heads. Since going live in January 2012, Rappler has become one of the countrys most popular and influential media platforms, mixing reporting with calls for social activism. Today, the site attracts an average of 40 million page views and 12 million unique visitors a month, figures that more than double during the Philippines election season, the New York Times reports. Reporters for the organization have exposed government corruption and researched the financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest of top political figures, working tirelessly to expose President Rodrigo Dutertes controversial, violent anti drug campaign. Accepting this landmark, Ms Ressa said she hoped the award was a recognition of how difficult it is to be a journalist today. This is for you, Rappler, she said, her voice breaking slightly, adding that she hopes for energy for all of us to continue the battle for facts. On the other hand, Mr Muratov works under increasingly difficult conditions to defend freedom of speech in Russia. He was one of the founders of the independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, in 1993 and has served as the newspapers editor-in-chief since 1995. Novaya Gazeta is the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power, the committee wrote. The newspapers fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media. The newspaper has continued to publish despite harassment, threats, violence and murder, according to the New York Times. The Nobel Committee said since the newspapers start, six of its journalists have been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya who wrote revealing articles on the war in Chechnya, Despite the killings and threats, editor in chief Muratov has refused to abandon the newspapers independent policy. He has consistently defended the right of journalists to write anything they want about whatever they want, as long as they comply with the professional and ethical standards of journalism, the committee wrote. The National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Oyo State Command, has warned residents of the state against harbouring users and sellers of Indian hemp in their premises. The agency gave the warning during an enlightenment campaign at the Ojaba Central Mosque during Fridays jumaat service in Ibadan. Addressing the congregation, the NDLEA Assistant Commander in the state, Toyin Ajanaku, said that anyone caught harbouring sellers of Indian hemp in his or her premises risks confiscation of such property to the federal government. Mr Ajanaku said it has been observed that most of the houses in Ibadan township harboured and allowed their premises to be used for the sale of Indian hemp and other hard drugs. The assistant commander urged those involved in such illicit acts to desist before the hand of the law catches up with them. He said that one of the consequences of taking hard drugs is the increasing insecurity in the state and Nigeria in general which the security agencies in the country are currently battling with. Mr Ajanaku said the government will do everything under the law to ensure that insecurity is eradicated in the country. We are here to advise you on the implications of taking hard drugs and harbouring sellers for you to desist and ban those using your premises in transacting drug business. Drug abuse is responsible for insecurity in the country and we urge you to desist and report those engaging in drug abuse to the NDLEA for peace to reign in the country, Ajanaku said. The assistant commander called on the people of the state and Nigeria in general to support NDLEA in the fight against drug abuse. He said that most crimes being perpetrated in the country are carried out under the influence of hard drugs, adding that the NDLEA will continue to do its best in dealing with those engaging in illicit drugs. (NAN) For the past decade, the African continent has shown a remarkable commitment to building a repository of investment opportunities across business sectors. Tourism, for instance, has witnessed a spike in Cape Verde, sustaining its economy on hospitality efforts. Tourism contributes to 24 per cent of GDP in Mauritius. In 2019, Ghana launched a viral campaign, The Year of Return, attracting globetrotters and foreigners seeking to reconnect with their roots. The Year of Return popularised Ghana as a tourist destination with Trans-Atlantic trade appeal, following a 5.5 per cent contribution from the tourism industry to the nations GDP in 2018. Before the pandemic, a hospitality report showed that Africa was the second-fastest growing tourism region globally, with a growth rate of 5.6 per cent after the Asia Pacific, against a 3.9 per cent global average growth rate. Now, with the number of travels per year on a decline as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, conversations abound on whether domestic tourism numbers will begin to look up and how the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AFTCA) will accelerate progress for regional tourism. The AFTCA and Integrating local value chains With a potential market size of over 1.2 billion people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion across all 55 member states of the African Union, much is to be expected from AFTCA, particularly in integrating African countries to drive up demand and supply for goods and services, as well as facilitate intra-continent migration. The movement of people and goods will enable trade and create more valuable local opportunities. In Nigeria, family-owned investment company, Heirs Holdings, is further integrating its state of play to leverage these unfolding opportunities across Africa. An example of such is its strategic investment in the hospitality landscape a sector dominated by hotels but is witnessing the emergence of new players and product offerings set to diversify and expand the sector. Digitally savvy consumers have fuelled the culture of lifestyle and hospitality, driving the adoption of experiential packages in the hospitality industry. This cultural shift enhances competition and opens opportunities for new entrants into the hospitality market. One such example is Aura, a new digital platform redefining hospitality in Nigeria, enabling people to book accommodation, restaurants, and experiences from their mobile devices. Launched by the hospitality investment arm of Heirs Holdings and one of Africas leading hospitality brands, Transcorp Hotels Plc , it is the companys pathway to boosting inter-regional participation in the tourism and hospitality sector. The reduced dependency on international tourism is an opportunity to explore grassroots recreational outlets. Auras bold and targeted approach is to leverage the existence of homes, create traction for underrepresented small businesses, and showcase national heritage, through curated lifestyle and tourist experiences. Its ambition is to engage thousands of partners from homeowners, hoteliers, restaurateurs, and experience providers to earn income by listing their properties or services on the platform, increasing economic growth and development while improving lives. With Aura, more local businesses will be better positioned to insert themselves in value chains, leading to increased income sustainability. Addressing access in Regional Tourism According to the World Tourism Rankings of 2019, there were 69.9 million international tourist arrivals to Africa. This statistic, according to the World Tourism Rankings of 2019, positions Africa as a much-desired destination for non-African travels. However, much is still unsaid about access to tourist destinations in Africa for Africans. Inter-regional connectivity in Africa remains a challenge. A significant number of the African population still find it difficult to acquire visas. Enthusiastic tourists in Africa are exempted from the diverse experiences in neighbouring countries. Countries are unable to promote their local travel destinations and tourist offerings to attract more regional travellers. One solution for this predicament will depend on policy adjustments within which Africans can begin to move toward regional integration. Africa is long overdue a flight hub in West Africa particularly to address the challenge of ease and accessibility while travelling regionally. At present, TAP Air Portugal connects African travellers to Lisbon, Sao Tome and Principe and Cape Verde, making the case for why more airlines need to expand their global route network operations in Africa. Alternatively, travellers sometimes must fly to Europe to connect to another country in Africa, with the same fate applicable to regional logistics, all of which have implications on trade activities. Policy adjustments can also happen at the national level, the case of such being in Ghana, when, for the Year of Return campaign, it waived some visa requirements and passed amendments to a 2002 law that permits people of African origin to apply for a right to stay indefinitely in Ghana. Another solution to boosting regional tourism is Intra-African trade: whereby regional organisations can facilitate cross-country tourist exhibitions and engage Africans on a regional level on what their neighbouring states have to offer. Such a move would weave a brighter future for a region that has repeatedly noted the urgent need to address its continent-wide connectivity gap. Industry diversification: A new reality for hospitality players Having suffered a loss of over $50 billion in revenue in the wake of a changing society affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism industry players face a new reality: how to recoup from these unprecedented losses, create more employment opportunities, and celebrate the dynamism on the continent. Addressing the deficit in international travel demand in the wake of COVID-19, Transcorp Hotels was able to identify and enable new products that meet local hospitality needs. Recently, it launched several initiatives: a drive-through cinema, laundry delivery service and food delivery all with the aim of driving long-term returns and delivering premium consumer experiences. In addition, it launched Workspace by Transcorp Hotels a business hub for corporates designed to boost business activities in a hospitable environment. Pathway to recovery for Africas tourism & hospitality play As African economies recover, new interventions in the tourism and hospitality sector will emerge to help address the impact of the pandemic and slow-down of growth. Digital products like Aura by Transcorp will augment efforts to move Africa toward an integrated market, as the continent has one of the fastest-growing mobile phone penetration rates. Similarly, it will provide a young African population and a growing middle class with leisure opportunities. The AFCTA agreement is expected to boost about 50 per cent intra-African trade between now and by 2030 less than a decade. Achieving this will require a viewpoint that embraces local small and medium-sized enterprises. Indeed, the strongest outcome for the tourism industries in Africa will occur when key players diversify supply chains, establish regional value chains, and boost the growth of home-grown value-adding products. The hope is that with an enabling environment like the AFCTA, Africans can begin to embrace solutions developed to empower them socially and economically, just as regional economies spur growth and expand in capacity. Dupe Olusola is the MD/CEO, Transcorp Hotels Plc The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday, granted permission to a former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, to travel abroad for medical check-up. Mr Adoke who is standing trial along with another defendant on money laundering charges filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had deposed his passport as part of conditions of bail granted him by the court. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the court granted permission to Mr Adoke to travel to the United Arab Emirate (UAE) for the medical check- up from October 11 to November 15. The prosecution represented by Nnenna Oko did not oppose the application moved by Mr Adokes lawyer, Kanu Agabi. In his ruling, the trial judge, Inyang Ekwo, ordered that his traveling documents especially the passport deposited with the court as part of his bail conditions be released to him. Mr Ekwo while granting the request of the former AGF, however, ordered that Mr Adokes lawyer, Kanu Agabi, to give an undertaking on behalf of his client before the passport would be released. The judge also directed the Deputy Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court to notify the Nigeria Immigration Service of the courts order. The court further ordered that the ex-AGF must, upon his return to Nigeria, surrender the passport to the court. The suit was adjourned till December 6, 7 and 8 for resumption of trial. Background The EFCC had on August 4, 2020 re-arraigned Messrs Adoke and Aliyu Abubakar on an amended 14-count charge bordering on money laundering. Each of them facing seven counts had pleaded not guilty. In count 9 of the charges, the EFCC had alleged that Adoke, sometimes in 2013, in Abuja, made a cash payment of $2,267,400 to Risslanudeen Muhammed and thereby committed an offence contrary to the combined effect of section 16(1)(d) and of section 19a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under section 16(2)(b) of the same Act. Messrs Adoke and Abubakar are also standing trial alongside others in a separate case before the Federal High Court and at the FCT High Court in Gwagwalada in Abuja, in respect of the Malabu Oil scam charges. The Malabu scam The Malabu scandal 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. From accounts controlled by Mr Etete, about half the money ($520 million) went to accounts of companies controlled by Aliyu Abubakar, popularly known in Nigeria as the owner of AA Oil. Anti-corruption investigators and activists suspect he fronted for top officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration as well of officials of Shell and ENI. The transaction was authorised in 2011 by Mr Jonathan through some of his cabinet ministers and the money was payment for OPL 245, one of Nigerias richest oil blocks. The oil resources of the OPL 245 license have remained undeveloped since the controversies began. Eni initiated international arbitration proceedings against Nigeria in September, alleging the government has breached its obligations by refusing to let the firm develop the license, which has now expired this May. President Muhammadu Buhari has approved two new tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The president approved the establishment of the Federal College of Agriculture, Kirikasamma and the Federal College of Education (Special) Birnin Kudu, his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES Friday. Read the full statement below. In consonance with the commitment of his administration to diversify the economy with agriculture playing a critical role, President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (Amendment) Bill 2021. With the amendment, the Council is expected to play a crucial part in coordinating research efforts in the agricultural sector towards achieving food sufficiency and security in the nation. The President, who assented to the bills before his visit to Ethiopia, also approved the establishment of the Federal College of Agriculture, Kirikasamma and the Federal College of Education (Special) Birnin Kudu. Garba Shehu Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) The Nigerian government on Friday received 501,600 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from the government of France. The vaccines, which were delivered through the COVAX facility, a vaccine alliance aimed at ensuring equitable distribution of vaccines globally, arrived in Abuja, Nigerias capital city, on Monday. The vaccines were received and stored at the countrys National Strategic Cold Store near the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. Speaking during the inspection of the vaccines on Friday, the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said France has not only been a dependable development ally to Nigeria but has been quite brotherly in all ramifications. The donation of over half a million doses of AstraZeneca to Nigeria is a demonstration of Frances confidence in Nigerias capability as an active and progressive partner in the global fight to end the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Storage system Mr Shuaib said Nigerias vaccine storage facilities have so far remained efficient and well maintained. He said no standards are compromised in logistics requirements for effective management and utilisation of all COVID-19 vaccines available in the country . He explained that the government has put in place the necessary measures to ensure monitoring and accountability of the vaccines. We track utilisation of all COVID-19 vaccines in all states of the Federation and receive daily reports from our senior supervisor and State Immunisation officers who are on the field to monitor the management and administration of the vaccines, he said. He reiterated the governments commitment to safe, equitable, and effective COVID-19 vaccination of all eligible persons in the country. He said the government will continue to work with development partners and engage with all to sustain transparency in the countrys vaccination program. In his remarks, the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Jerome Pasquier, commended the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 for addressing the pandemic through procurement of vaccines and getting them across the country. Mr Pasquier said he was happy that the French government was donating over half a million doses today and encouraged Nigerians yet to take the vaccine to do so. After 3 years in Nigeria, today happens to be my final assignment in Nigeria as I leave the country for France tomorrow, to begin my next assignment, he said. He noted that the French border is fully opened to Nigerians that are vaccinated. If you have a proof of vaccination, that will be said, you can go to France. You do not need to have a COVID-19 test before boarding the plane. You do not need to have a COVID-19 test, when you are in France, this is with your certificate from Nigeria, which is not required in some places around the world. The Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-related abuses and other matters, on Friday, delivered its decision on 34 petitions pending before it. A retired judge heading the panel, Doris Okuwobi, gave the panels decision on the cases. The 34 cases are petitions by victims of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other arms of the police, who have gone to court, obtained judgements but unable to execute them. In the different petitions, victims of SARS abuses narrated their ordeals with officers of the defunct SARS and how they were awarded compensations in competent courts of jurisdiction but yet to receive the relief. The judgment sums awarded to the petitioners are N2 million, N5 million, N10 million, N20 million among others. Petitions, decisions Some of the petitions on which decisions were delivered on are; Bonu Pascal and family vs FSARS; Ibrahim Kabiru vs FSARS; Okwuchukwu Obiechina and Nzube Obiechina vs. FSARS; Afeez Mojeed vs. FSARS; Philip Enwerem vs. FSARS; Tomori Gbolade vs. NPF; Titi Agnes vs. FSARS; and many others. One of the petitioners, Bonu Pascal, approached the panel for the enforcement of N300 million judgement against the police and Badagry Local Government Area, Lagos State over the death of his son. The police lawyer, however, told the panel that the matter is at the appeal court and outside the jurisdiction of the panel. Another petitioner, Nzube Obiechina, prayed the panel to compel the Nigerian Police Force to pay N2 million awarded to her at the Federal High Court, Ikeja. The judge awarded the sum as compensation for the torture and brutality she suffered in the hands of SARS, including losing two-months pregnancy in the process. Another petitioner, Tomori Gbolagade, who was shot by a drunk police officer in Lagos, appealed to the panel to help him get the judgement sum awarded to him by the Federal High Court in 2015. The court awarded $31,562 and another $15,000 for the third stage and N5 million for the general damage, physical and emotional, he said. Giving her decision on the petitions, Mrs Okuwobi said the panel would compile the names of all petitioners with subsisting court judgments with no appeal pending against them to the federal government for enforcement of judgment. The state and federal government of Nigeria have committed themselves in paying the sum given to victims of human rights abuse as expressed in the section of the law. By the virtue of section 207 of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, judgment of courts is to be respected by all persons, Mrs Okuwobi said. The panel recommended the judgment sums should be paid to the petitioners. The panel further recommends that the National Assembly immediately and urgently look into the provision of section 84 subsection 2 of the Sheriff and Civil Process Act (2004), in order to address the frustration experienced by parties who obtain judgments against the government and its agencies but are denied the fruits of their judgment, which is not in the best interest of justice, the retired judge said. While a similar decision was given on all petitions with subsisting court judgements, the panel struck out petitions that are pending before the appellate court. There may be no hope of Africa taking back her territories, especially when the local populace have been wiped out, but our memories must not be wiped clean. As humans, we must empathise with the residents of the Canary Islands in this their time of grief, but that is not to say we should forget that these islands, even if owned by Spain, are African. Sunday, September 19, like past Sundays in the Canary Islands, promised to be a quiet, restful day. It was also a day of Christian worship. But beneath the earth of La Palma on the islands, rocks had been pulverised and turned into molten. That afternoon, the lava sprouted into the air, triggering off volcanic eruptions, which are still raging. The lava flowed like a river from the Cumbre Vieja volcano and got to the sea within ten days. It was a hapless populace that watched the volcanic eruptions, to which many lost all they had, as many houses were destroyed, and over 268 hectares of farmland laden with bananas, grapes and avocado, became taken over by the lava. In the early days of the eruption, even as residents sat dejected, bemoaning their loss and wondering how they could start picking up the pieces of their lives, excited tourists were pouring in, taking photographs and selfies, which were being posted in the social media. They were excited by the fountains of lava sprouting into the sky and returning to earth before flowing in at least three directions, destroying all in their paths. The tourists had no empathy for the dejected residents. The Spanish government also had little empathy; it saw the tragedy as a good opportunity for making money. The morning after the eruptions began, with people fleeing their homes and some residents being evacuated, Spains Industry, Trade and Tourism Minister, Maria Reyes Maroto Illera, sent a message to tourists and potential tourists that the island is safe for tourists, especially to watch the eruption live. To Maroto, the issue is not the evacuation of residents, the protection of lives or the general danger, including to the environment and climate, which the eruption poses. Rather, to the economist: The most important thing right now is reassuring tourists who have been affected, and also those who may be travelling to the island today or during the course of the week. Were providing information so that tourists can travel to the island and witness something undoubtedly unprecedented for themselves. That information will let tourists know that the island is open and also whether their hotel has been affected so they can stay elsewhere and enjoy their holidays. We can also make the most of this as an attraction so that a lot of tourists who want to enjoy what nature has brought to La Palma can do so in the coming weeks and months. The Spanish began their conquest of the Canaries in the early 1400s and systematically began to wipe out the local populace. Their main objective was the extermination of the local male populace, while using the local females for interbreeding. This is incredible, but true. The indifferent behaviour and money-centred reaction of the Spanish minister is a reminder that the Western ideology can be cold, infernal and interested primarily in exploitation and profit. What rules the being of the Spanish minister is the lots of money that can be made in selling the unfolding disaster as a perfect tourist package. Although a member of the Spanish Socialist Party, she is blind to the loss and sorrow of the victims of the volcano who are her fellow Spaniards. She is also unperturbed by the unfolding environmental disaster, including the fact that the eruption and lava would change the geographic shape of La Palma and its environs. It is an eruption, which registered over 22,000 tremors in one week! Just so you know that Marotos mindset is institutional, her boss, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, visited La Palma this week. While promising a 206 million ($239 million) aid, he urged tourists the world over to come and watch the unfolding tragedy: I would like to let tourists know that this is a safe place, they can come and enjoy the island. Campaigning that people should come and enjoy a disaster? What really is left of our humanity? This was the same mindset that led their forefathers to exterminate the indigenous African population and turn the islands into a white enclave. Once on a trip to Spain, the then Iberian Airlines, which took me from Lagos, had a stop-over at the Canary Islands, and I told myself, wait a minute; we just left Lagos! That was when I realised that rather than being Spanish, the Canary Islands are actually in West Africa! They are just 587 kilometres from Western Sahara and 992 kilometres from the West African country of Mauritania, while imperial Spain that lays claims to the islands is 2,016.7 kilometres away! In fact, the West African country of Cape Verde is farther than the Canary Islands! Where the islands are 587 kilometres from Western Sahara, Cape Verde is 1,358 kilometres away. The Spanish began their conquest of the Canaries in the early 1400s and systematically began to wipe out the local populace. Their main objective was the extermination of the local male populace, while using the local females for interbreeding. What the Spaniads did in the Canaries to the indigenous populace by virtually exterminating them and seizing the lands, is the same thing Britain did in Australia, and the white migrants to the indigenous Indian population in the United States. Only partial Canarian customs and traditions like the whistle language (Silbo) still survive. The main Canarian language, Guanche of the pre-colonial era, became extinct in the 17th Century. What the Spaniads did in the Canaries to the indigenous populace by virtually exterminating them and seizing the lands, is the same thing Britain did in Australia, and the white migrants to the indigenous Indian population in the United States. That was what the whites tried to do in Kenya, Algeria, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The method adopted was the same; white colonialists seize a territory and try to exterminate the local population. There are other African territories the Spanish seized and continue to occupy. There are three of them that are Moroccan. These are Ceuta, which a mere eight kilometres from Morocco; Penon de Valez de la Gomera, which is 75 kilomtres; and Melilla, which is 10.5 kilometres from Morocco. While holding on to Moroccan lands, the Spaniards try to bribe the Moroccans with other peoples lands. When the Spanish colonialists formally left Western Sahara on February 26, 1976, rather than allow the Sahrawi independence like other colonies, they gave the country to Morocco as a sort of propitiation. So, rather than challenge the Spaniards for their lands, the Moroccans are trying to hold on to Western Sahara. Both countries also continue to collaborate in this unholy project. For instance, when Morocco expelled the Sahrawi patriot, Aminatu Haida from her country on November 13, 2009, she was taken to the Canary Islands where the Spanish tried to prevent her from leaving the islands. There may be no hope of Africa taking back her territories, especially when the local populace have been wiped out, but our memories must not be wiped clean. As humans, we must empathise with the residents of the Canary Islands in this their time of grief, but that is not to say we should forget that these islands, even if owned by Spain, are African. Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author. Gombe State governor, Inuwa Yahaya, has ordered the immediate conversion of the abandoned School of Nursing and Midwifery in Dukku to Gombe State University, Dukku Campus. This decision, according to the governor, is to provide a platform for the introduction of various degree courses that will bridge the educational gap inherent in the northern part of the state. Mr Yahaya was in Dukku Local Government Area to inspect some projects and to push for the construction of the Gombe Abba/ Kirfi road by the North East Development Commission (NEDC). Accompanied by the Board and Management of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) as well as members of the National Assembly, the governor first visited the abandoned College of Nursing and Midwifery before proceeding to Police Tactical Training School and later Gombe Abba/Kirfi road which he and his Bauchi State counterpart, Bala Mohammed, are prevailing on the NEDC to have it constructed. The governor equally commissioned the Farm Service Centre in Dukku equipped with modern agricultural implements and inputs for the maximum benefit of farmers in the state which was built, equipped and handed over to the Gombe government by the North-East Development Commission (NEDC). While speaking at the College of Nursing and Midwifery Dukku, Mr Yahaya said establishing a college with such nomenclature will require putting up a hospital of specialist status which can only provide training for a minimal number of nurses and midwives. Considering the current economic downturn in the country, of which Gombe is not immuned, it is going to be difficult for the state to yield into spending huge amount of money, especially in the midst of competing demands to construct another specialist hospital that will compliment the college. So it was for this reason that my administration thought it wise to get it converted to a campus of Gombe State University, so that it can provide the opportunity for many of our children to acquire University education, he added. The governor then directed that the college be converted to Gombe State University, Dukku Campus to provide a platform for the introduction of various degree courses that will bridge the educational gap inherent in the northern part of the state. The governor revealed that the over N2.4 billion so far expended in the college must not be allowed to waste, hence the decision by his administration to have it converted to a campus of the state-owned university. At the Gombe Abba/Kirfi road, Mr Yahaya told journalists that the economic importance attached to the construction of the road is enormous in view of the fact that the hundreds of communities that live along the stretch of the 62 kilometre road are engaged in agricultural activities. He therefore appealed to the NEDC to look at the possibility of constructing the road for the social and economic benefits of the people of both Gombe and Bauchi States. In his response, the Chairman of the Commission, Paul Tarfa, and the Managing Director of the commission Mohammed Alkali, assured the governor that the intervention agency will do all that is necessary to see to the construction of the road in no distant time. At the Police Tactical Training School, Dukku, the governor told the Board and Management of the NEDC that the Gombe State Government donated the facility to the police as part of his administrations determination to ensure peace and tranquility in the state and the North-east sub-region as a whole. The governor explained that since one of the mandates of the commission is to bring about lasting peace through rehabilitation, reconstruction and reintegration, it behoves on the NEDC to intervene by putting up some of the structures required for the smooth take off of the school. He said when fully operational, the academy will engage in the training of police personnel in Counter Terrorism Unit, (CTU) Special Protection Unit (SPU) and Border Patrol. The Commission, through its board chairman, assured the governor that the commission will look at the request forwarded with a view to intervening. The Commandant of the Anti-Terrorism Unit, Yahaya Usman, had earlier intimated the governor that since the hand over of the school about a year ago, the college has remained dormant due to lack of budgetary provision to equip it with necessary training facilities. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has won every seat in Wednesdays Nasarawa State local government council polls. The Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission, Ayuba Wandai, disclosed this when he announced the results on Thursday in Lafia. Mr Wandai said the APC candidates won the chairmanship and councillorship positions in all the 13 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. In this regard and in line with power vested in me as the Chairman of the commission and Chief Electoral Officer of the state, I hereby declare APC candidates in the Chairmanship election in all the 13 LGAs as winners and are hereby returned elected. For the councillorship position of the 147 electoral wards, the APC candidates are hereby returned elected. It is on record that seven political parties namely: ADC, APC, LP, NNPP, PDP, SDP and ZLP participated in the exercise, he said. He said based on reports from the field, the election was conducted peacefully across the state, except for the delay in the distribution of election materials in some parts of the state which he claimed were due to logistics problems. So far, NASIEC has successfully conducted the election that can be best described as free, fair and credible, in line with the electoral law of the state, he said. Mr Wandai recalled that the commission had, on July 7, released its guidelines for the conduct of the chairmanship and councillorship elections across the state and had proceeded with deliberate and determined steps to conduct the election. So, in line with the responsibility vested on NASIEC, the commission successfully conducted the October 6 local councils election across the 13 LGAs and 147 electoral wards of the state, he said. Buzu, second in command to the notorious banditry kingpin, Bello Turji, has reportedly refused to release 20 people he kidnapped in Gatawa despite collecting ransoms for their release. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the bandits killed 19 and abducted 21 others in a night attack in Gatawa town. This newspaper also reported how the bandits sent one of the victims with a handwritten letter to the district head of Burkusuuma, Sarkin Rafi, asking for N20 million for the release of the victims. PREMIUM TIMES gathered exclusively from two sources, including one whose younger sister was among those abducted, that the bandits asked families and friends to collate the money and pay through the village head of Katsallen Kade. The source, whose sister is kidnapped, said: Buzu, taking decisions on Turjis behalf, said the money should be paid through the village head. But we pleaded and negotiated with the monarch, who is afraid of going against the bandits, from N20 to N2 million. He said the bandits were eventually given N2.2 million but Buzu has refused to release the victims. Another source from Sabon Birni, who also asked not to be named due to safety concerns, confirmed that the money was taken to the bandits but none of the victims have been released. The victims are being held in Suruddubu, which is all under Buzus territory. What I heard is that when the N2.2 million was given to Buzu, he insisted that the whole N20 million must be paid, and in addition jerry cans of fuel. It is becoming scary because the issue is just like a movie premiere, the source said. The police spokesperson in the state, Sanusi Abubakar, did not respond to calls and SMS sent to him on the issue. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has registered a total of 2,525,471 voters for the 6 November governorship elections in Anambra State. The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, announced this at an emergency meeting with the 18 recognised political parties in Abuja on Friday. Mr Yakubu said the commission arrived at the new figure after removing 62,698 persons from the total of 138,802 new registrants recorded at the end of the first quarter of the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise on 5 September. The removed figures were for those spotted by the system for duplicate registration. While the number of the new eligible CVR registrants stands at 77,475, Anambra State, as at the 2019 General Election accounted for 2,447,996 registered voters. In Anambra State, a total of 138,802 citizens completed the registration, including applications for transfer and requests for replacement of lost, damaged or defaced PVCs as required by law, Mr Yakubu said. However, in the process of cleaning up the registration data, we discovered that many previously registered persons re-registered afresh. As a testimony to the effectiveness of our new system for checking double and multiple registrations, the Commission found out that some 62,698 persons who are already registered voters in Anambra State went ahead to register again. These double or multiple registrations are invalid by law. We have archived these registrations and will not print new PVCs for them. Their old PVCs remain valid and they can use them to vote at the Polling Units where they registered and probably voted in previous elections. The same cleaning up exercise is going on nationwide. As soon as it is over, the Commission will provide further details to Nigerians on the situation in other states of the federation and action to be taken on the matter, the INEC chairman told political parties in attendance. He expressed concerns over the growing state of insecurity in Anambra, the safety of its personnel and facilities which bare the mark of recent arsonist attacks. Mr Yakubu cautioned political parties against utterances and actions that could worsen the insecurity in the state and thereby make the work of the Commission, political parties and security agencies even more difficult. It may also lead to voter apathy. Ozigbo, Soludo, Uba on INEC final list Before Fridays meeting with parties, the INEC had on Thursday released the final list of candidates who will fly the flags of their respective parties. After months of turbulent legal and leadership tussles within the three dominant parties in the state, their candidates were cleared by the Commission to participate in the governorship poll. A former CBN governor, Charles Soludo, was listed as the candidate of the ruling party in the state, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), while Valentine Ozigbo and Andy Uba were listed as the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The commissioner also listed a serving senator and business mogul, Ifeanyi Ubah, as the flag bearer of the Young Progressive Congress (YPP). The Prince William Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Australian biotech company Starpharma today announced it has signed a sales and distribution agreement for its VIRALEZE antiviral nasal spray with ADMENTA Italia Group (ADMENTA), a leading pharmaceutical retail and wholesale distribution company in Italy. The Italian over-the-counter pharmaceutical market is the third largest in Europe after Germany and the UK. VIRALEZE is expected to be available to Italian consumers this quarter through ADMENTA's extensive LloydsFarmacia chain, which comprises 260 retail pharmacies, including 13 parapharmacies and 50 franchising pharmacies, as well as LloydsFarmacia's online platform. VIRALEZE is a broad-spectrum antiviral nasal spray, applied in the nose to provide a physical barrier between viruses and the nasal mucous membrane which traps and irreversibly inactivates viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Its antiviral agent, SPL7013, has been shown in laboratory studies to have potent antiviral and virucidal activity in multiple respiratory viruses, including multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2, where it has been shown to inactivate >99.9% of the highly infectious Delta variant. ADMENTA employs 1,400 people in Italy across its wholesale and retail operations, supplying more than 2,500 pharmacies, parapharmacies, drug stores and hospitals. ADMENTA is also the Italian holding company of McKesson Europe. The US-based McKesson Corporation is a global leader in healthcare supply chain management solutions, retail pharmacy, community oncology and specialty care, and healthcare information technology. Vincenzo Masci, Marketing and Procurement Director of ADMENTA-LloydsFarmacia, said: "We are delighted to have partnered with Starpharma for VIRALEZE antiviral nasal spray in Italy. VIRALEZE will be an excellent addition to both our retail and distribution sectors as we head towards winter." Dr Jackie Fairley, CEO of Starpharma, said: "We are very pleased to have partnered with ADMENTA in Italy and we look forward to having VIRALEZE available soon to Italian consumers, through pharmacies as well as through the leading LloydsFarmacia online platform." VIRALEZE antiviral nasal spray is registered in Europe and India, and available in certain markets online at www.viraleze.co. In the UK, VIRALEZE is partnered with LloydsPharmacy, also part of the McKesson group, and Starpharma is in advanced discussions with potential commercial partners elsewhere in Europe, India, Asia and other regions. SOURCE Starpharma LEESBURG, Va., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AM LLC , a public health firm supporting federal, state, and local health departments and K-12 school districts, announces a one-year Partner level sponsorship of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents ( VASS ), the professional association for school system executives and their leadership teams. VASS is a non-profit organization of superintendents and school system leaders from across Virginia who are committed to the belief that the public schools of the nation are the primary instruments in maximally developing the potential of its student citizens. They were created to provide leadership in identifying and advocating the needs of public school students through policy development and other appropriate actions. "Compared to other states, Virginia has had a relatively safe opening," said AM LLC's CEO and founder, Dan Gabriel. "However, instead of being out of the woods, the delta variant changed everything for the worst this summer. As kids spend more time indoors this fall, the chance for crippling new outbreaks due to new variants or misplaced optimism and lax protocols remains a distinct possibility. We are more than ready to keep Virginia students and teachers safe from COVID-19 and we look forward to working with them through this period of real uncertainty." In October, Virginia directors of schools will gather for the VASS Annual Fall Conference (October 17-19) for meetings and professional development workshops at the Charlottesville Omni where representatives from AM will be on hand to meet with Virginia's superintendents. As a Partner, AM will facilitate program development and advisory assistance with key SSA members and decision-makers. AM is co-sponsoring the Monday morning presentation entitled "Virginia Department of Health's Update on Health Guidelines and Regulations" featuring Laurie Forlano, Director of the Office of Epidemiology from the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the conference and elsewhere, AM will collaborate with county leaders, health advocates, and corporate partners to identify priorities and to ensure that these stakeholders receive timely and accurate information to make appropriate health decisions for their communities. Counties, states, or K-12 partners that are interested in partnering with AM for COVID-19 mitigation support should contact Dr. Christopher Orlea at [email protected] . About AM LCC AM LLC was purpose-built to work with partners addressing large-scale public health challenges. AM LLC can design and quickly deploy tailored and scalable workforce solutions to help your organization with all aspects of contact tracing, testing, and vaccine programming. Learn more at https://amllc.co/. Media Contact: Dylan M. Martinez | [email protected] SOURCE AM LLC Related Links https://amllc.co The Gorilla Prize is awarded annually by Spain's famed Loro Parque, which TripAdvisor has named the best zoological organization in the world, and is intended to highlight environmental responsibility, strategies and actions to conserve disappearing creatures, and the sustainable use of resources. Loro Parque said it wanted to "reward Ganzert's commendable work in guaranteeing the welfare of animals in the different areas in which the organization she presides is active, as well as her work in communicating and raising awareness of the need to help and protect animals in danger, thus contributing to a better world." American Humane has been working to protect and preserve Earth's species for more than 100 years and is renowned for its work in helping save the Bald Eagle, pushing for international treaties to stop polluting the seas and save birds, supporting the passage of the Endangered Species Conservation Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act, and advocating against seal hunting, the killing of porpoises by the tuna industry, and many other animal protection initiatives. Most recently, Dr. Ganzert launched the worldwide Humane Conservation program, a new, global first-of-its-kind initiative solely dedicated to helping preserve disappearing species by ensuring high, science-based standards of welfare for the millions of animals in the world's zoos, aquariums and conservation centers that are serving as arks of hope for rare and endangered creatures. Leading zoological institutions around the world have joined this effort, including Loro Parque, which was the first in Europe to be certified. "Receiving this important recognition is so special because this award is given by someone for whom I have such tremendous respect," said Dr. Ganzert. "Wolfgang Kiessling and Loro Parque have given thousands of rare and magnificent animals a helping hand, rescuing and providing a safe place for gorillas, chimpanzees, tigers, panthers, sea lions, orcas, dolphins, penguins and many other animals. In fact, he is responsible for saving ten species from the brink of extinction. All over the world, our animal friends are in dire need as they face what scientists are calling a "Sixth Mass Extinction" in which some one million species are threatened and may disappear forever. Wolfgang Kiessling and Loro Parque have reached out and made alliances with major organizations in the hope that we can turn the tide on the terrible threat facing so many species today." To emphasize her point, Ganzert then played a clip from her award-winning new conservation documentary, "Escape from Extinction," which is reaching audiences worldwide with dramatic facts and footage on how today's leading zoological organizations are serving on the front lines of conservation and pulling endangered species back from the brink. The annual awards, now in their 18th year, were delayed because of the worldwide pandemic and were held at a gala on October 1 at the headquarters of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. The event was attended by the founder of Loro Parque, Wolfgang Kiessling; the president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos; the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Jose Manuel Bermudez; the mayor of Puerto de la Cruz, Marco Gonzalez; the insular councilor for the Natural Environment, Isabel Garcia; the Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla; the vice president of Loro Parque, Christoph Kiessling; and more than 200 guests. Wolfgang Kiessling highlighted the commitment of the winners of the Gorilla Prize to the protection and conservation of animals and their natural habitats, especially today, when human overpopulation is causing irreversible damage to nature and so many irreplaceable species. "All this massive destruction leads to the disappearance of species, and we should do everything possible to protect our flora and fauna," Kiessling said. That is why Loro Parque Fundacion, in its more than 27 years of history, has invested almost 23 million dollars in more than 200 conservation projects around the world and highlights through the annual Gorilla Prize truly exceptional efforts to protect and preserve Earth's remarkable and disappearing species. "I feel fortunate to work alongside those who are on the front lines of defending the diversity of life on Earth and preserving a biological legacy that we can hand down to future generations," said Ganzert. "This work is what makes The Gorilla Award so meaningful to me and the larger community of animal lovers, scientists and others who care about our planet and all those living beings who share it with us. Thank you for this significant honor." About American Humane American Humane is the country's first national humane organization, founded in 1877. For more information, please visit www.americanhumane.org and please follow them on Facebook and Twitter. SOURCE American Humane Related Links http://www.americanhumane.org In its recent " It Started Out with a Phish " study, Area 1 Security analyzed more than 31 million threats that could have resulted in over $354 million in direct losses, had they been successful. Area 1 offers the only preemptive, cloud-native solution proven to be effective against targeted "1:1" (versus "1 to many") phish, such as supply chain-based Business Email Compromise and credential harvesters that lead to ransomware attacks . Other solutions only stop high-volume threats, require time-intensive "tuning," and fail to act in real-time. The senior midmarket IT leaders who attend MES+ vote on the XCellence Award winners to recognize the most distinguished midmarket products, services, and presentations. This award honors Area 1 Security not only for its dedication to excellence, but also for its continued commitment to understanding the unique IT and business needs of the midmarket. "Area 1 Security's unique ability to deliver what we call INBOX.CLEAN that is, an inbox free from the most sophisticated threats that result in massive financial fraud clearly resonates with today's IT leaders," said Steve Pataky, chief revenue officer of Area 1 Security. "Midsize enterprise teams need solutions that free up security resources, preempt vs. remediate risks, automate processes, and provide measurable business outcomes. INBOX.CLEAN helps them achieve those goals." "The MES+ XCellence Awards pay tribute to the IT suppliers that provide groundbreaking and innovative ways to thrive in our evolving midmarket landscape," said Adam Dennison, VP of Midsize Enterprise Services at The Channel Company. "The winners have demonstrated their commitment to helping midsize enterprise IT leaders find new opportunities for future growth and build on the business lessons learned over the past year and a half. We congratulate Area 1 Security, and we look forward to being a part of their continued success." The Channel Company's MES+ Fall 2021 conference was held September 1921 in Dallas, TX. It brought together senior midmarket IT decision-makers, top technology suppliers, IDC analysts, and industry thought leaders to share the latest market intelligence, accelerate their business goals, and form invaluable strategic relationships. To learn more about MES+ and the XCellence Awards, visit https://event.thechannelco.com/mes-plus-fall/awards . Tweet This: @TheChannelCo congratulates @area1security on winning the MES+ XCellence Award for Best MES Newcomer! #MES21 Connect with MES+ on Twitter and LinkedIn to get real-time updates and engage with midmarket IT peers. About Area 1 Security Area 1 Security is the only company that preemptively stops Business Email Compromise, malware, ransomware and targeted phishing attacks. By focusing on the earliest stages of an attack, Area 1 stops phish the root cause of 95 percent of breaches 24 days (on average) before they launch. Area 1 also offers the cybersecurity industry's first and only performance-based pricing model, Pay-per-Phish. Area 1 is trusted by government agencies and Fortune 500 enterprises across financial services, healthcare, critical infrastructure and other industries, to preempt targeted phishing attacks, improve their cybersecurity posture, and change outcomes. Area 1 is a Certified Microsoft Partner, and Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year for Security. To learn more, visit www.area1security.com , follow us on LinkedIn , or subscribe to the Phish of the Week newsletter. About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com Contacts Dayna Klein Elaine Dzuba The Channel Company Area 1 Security 508.416.1152 [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Area 1 Security Related Links https://www.area1security.com MEXICO CITY, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Becle, S.A.B. de C.V. (the "Issuer") announced today the consideration for the previously announced offer to purchase for cash (the "Offer") any and all of its outstanding 3.750% Senior Notes due 2025 (the "Old Notes") and the related solicitation of consents (the "Consents") from the holders of Old Notes to certain amendments to the indenture governing the Old Notes (the "Consent Solicitation") carried out by Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC (the "Offeror" or "Morgan Stanley"). The Offer and the Consent Solicitation are being made on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement dated September 27, 2021 (the "Offer to Purchase"). The following table sets forth the consideration payable for Old Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) on or prior to 5:00 p.m. New York City time today, October 8, 2021 (the "Consent Payment and Withdrawal Deadline"), and accepted for purchase by the Offeror in the Offer (the "Total Consideration"). The Total Consideration is calculated on the basis of the bid-side price of the 0.375% U.S. Treasury Note due April 30, 2025 (the "Reference Security") at 11:00 a.m. (New York City time) today, October 8, 2021. The Total Consideration includes a consent payment of $50.00 per $1,000 principal amount of Old Notes. Holders who validly tender (and do not validly withdraw) their Old Notes after the Consent Payment and Withdrawal Deadline and on or prior to 11:59 p.m. New York City time, on October 25, 2021, will be eligible to receive the Total Consideration minus $50.00 per $1,000 principal amount of Old Notes. Old Notes CUSIP Nos./ISINs Principal Amount Outstanding Reference Security Relevant Bloomberg Page Fixed Spread Total Consideration per $1,000 principal amount of Old Notes 3.750% Senior Notes due 2025 Rule 144A CUSIP No.: 47215T AA6 Reg S CUSIP No.: P59705AA4 Rule 144A ISIN: US47215TAA60 Reg S ISIN: USP59705AA47 $500,000,000 0.375% U.S. Treasury Note due April 30, 2025 FIT5 25 bps $1,096.96 Copies of the Offer to Purchase are available to holders of Old Notes from the Information Agent at +1 (800) 884-5101. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. ("Citigroup") and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC ("Goldman Sachs") have been engaged to act as dealer managers in connection with the Offer. Questions regarding the Offer may be directed to Morgan Stanley at +1 (212) 761-1057 (collect) or +1 (800) 624-1808 (U.S. toll free); Citigroup at +1 (212) 723-6106 (collect) or +1 (800) 558-3745 (U.S. toll free); or Goldman Sachs at +1 (212) 357-1452 (collect) or +1 (800) 828-3182 (U.S. toll free). Each of the Offeror and the Issuer, as the case may be, reserves the right, in its sole discretion, not to accept any tenders of Old Notes for any reason. The Offer is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, as described in the Offer to Purchase. Morgan Stanley reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to waive any and all conditions of the Offer, at or prior to the Offer Expiration Time (as defined in the Offer to Purchase). Morgan Stanley reserves the right to terminate, withdraw or amend the Offer and the Consent Solicitation at any time and from time to time as set forth in the Offer to Purchase. The Offer is being made in connection with a substantially concurrent offering of senior notes (the "New Notes") by the Issuer to be sold in an offering exempt from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to purchase or a solicitation of an offer to purchase or sell any securities (including the New Notes offered by the Issuer pursuant to any substantially concurrent offering), nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Issuer is not making the Offer. The Issuer has consented to the Offeror making the Offer described in the Offer to Purchase. The Offer is made only by and pursuant to the Offer to Purchase. Neither Morgan Stanley nor the Issuer makes any recommendations as to whether holders should tender their Old Notes pursuant to the Offer. It is intended that the Old Notes purchased by the Offeror pursuant to the Offer at the Initial Settlement Date (as defined in the Offer to Purchase) will be exchanged by the Offeror to the Issuer for a decrease in the proceeds payable by the Offeror and the other initial purchasers in respect of the New Notes. It is intended that the Old Notes purchased by the Offeror pursuant to the Offer at the Final Settlement Date (as defined in the Offer to Purchase) will be exchanged by the Offeror for cash to be paid by the Issuer. The Offeror and the Issuer or any of its affiliates expressly reserve the absolute right, in each of their sole discretion, at any time and from time to time, to purchase or offer to purchase any Old Notes, through open market or privately negotiated transactions, tender offers, exchange offers, optional redemption transactions or otherwise, in each case upon terms and conditions and at such prices as we may determine, which may or may not differ materially from the terms of the Offer and could be for cash or other consideration. For further information, please contact: BECLE, S.A.B. DE C.V. Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena No. 800-4 Alvaro Obregon, Santa Fe, 01210 Mexico City, Mexico + 52 55 5258 7000 [email protected] Legal Notice This announcement is not an offer to purchase, a solicitation of an offer to purchase or deliver Consents, a solicitation of Old Notes or a solicitation to deliver Consents, or an offer or solicitation to sell any securities. The Offer is not being made to, nor will the Offeror accept tenders of Old Notes from holders in any jurisdiction in which the Offer would not be in compliance with the securities or blue sky laws of such jurisdiction. This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the terms of the Offer. These statements are merely estimates and as such are based exclusively on management's expectations for the Issuer, the business of the Issuer and the proposed transactions discussed herein. These forward-looking statements depend materially on changes in market conditions, government regulations, pressures from competitors and the performance of the industry and macro-economic factors, among other factors, many of which are outside the Issuer's control or ability to predict, that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Each of the Issuer and the Offeror disclaims any obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release must be read in conjunction with the Offer to Purchase. This announcement and the Offer to Purchase contain important information which must be read carefully before any decision is made with respect to the Offer. If any holder of Old Notes is in any doubt as to the action it should take, it is recommended to seek its own legal, tax, accounting and financial advice, including as to any tax consequences, immediately from its stockbroker, bank manager, attorney, accountant or other independent financial or legal adviser. Any individual or company whose Old Notes are held on its behalf by a broker, dealer, bank, custodian, trust company or other nominee or intermediary must contact such entity if it wishes to participate in the Offer. None of the Issuer, Morgan Stanley, the dealer managers, the Tender Agent and Information Agent (as defined in the Offer to Purchase) and any person who controls, or is a director, officer, employee or agent of such persons, or any affiliate of such persons, makes any recommendation as to whether holders of Old Notes should participate in the Offer. SOURCE Becle, S.A.B. de C.V. CINCINNATI, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Water Vaccines, Inc. ("BWV" or "Blue Water Vaccines" or "the Company") a biopharmaceutical company developing vaccines, today announced that it has filed a registration statement (Registration No.: 333-260137) on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The shares of common stock to be sold in the offering are expected to be offered by the Company. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. Maxim Group LLC will serve as sole book-running manager for the proposed offering. The Company plans to use the proceeds from this offering to fund its research and development activities, for working capital and other general corporate purposes. The proposed offering will be made only by means of a prospectus, which forms a part of the registration statement. Copies of the registration statement and the preliminary prospectus included therein relating to the proposed offering, when available, may be obtained for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. A registration statement on Form S-1 (Registration No.: 333-260137)relating to the proposed sale of these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Blue Water Vaccines Blue Water Vaccines, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing vaccines headquartered in Cincinnati, OH. The company holds the rights to proprietary technology developed at the University of Oxford, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CHMC), and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The company has licensed a novel virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine platform from CHMC to develop vaccines for multiple infectious diseases. Blue Water Vaccines universal influenza vaccine has the potential to provide lifelong protection from influenza by leveraging epitopes of limited variability in the head domain of the haemagglutinin protein that are naturally targeted by the immune system. The company's streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) live-attenuated vaccine may prevent middle ear infections, known as Acute Otitis Media (AOM), in children and has been shown to prevent colonization of pneumococcus bacteria in the middle ear of animal models. AOM accounts for approximately 20 million physician visits annually in the United States and, globally, AOM caused by pneumococcus accounts for approximately 300 million cases each year. For more information, visit www.bluewatervaccines.com. Contact Information: Erin Henderson Email: [email protected] Olipriya Das (media) Email: [email protected] SOURCE Blue Water Vaccines, Inc. Related Links http://www.bluewatervaccines.com NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces an investigation of potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Camber Energy, Inc. (NYSE American: CEI) resulting from allegations that Camber may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public. SO WHAT: If you purchased Camber securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2170.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On October 5, 2021, market analyst Kerrisdale Capital published a report entitled "Camber Energy, Inc. (CEI): What If They Made a Whole Company Out of Red Flags?" The report stated that the Company "has failed to file financial statements with the SEC since September 2020, is in danger of having its stock delisted next month, and just fired its accounting firm in September." The report alleged that Camber only has one real asset, a 73% stake in an OTC-traded company, Viking Energy Group, Inc., with negative book value and a going-concern warning that recently violated the maximum-leverage covenant on one of its loans. The report further alleged that the company's "'ESG Clean Energy' technology license is a joke." Finally, the report also alleged that "the most fascinating part of the CEI boondoggle actually has to do with something far more basic: how many shares are there, and why has dilution been spiraling out of control?" and that the "market is badly mistaken about Camber's share count and ignorant of [Camber's] terrifying capital structure," estimating the Company's "fully diluted share count is roughly triple the widely reported number." On this news, Camber's share price fell $1.56, or 50%, on October 5, 2021, damaging investors. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.rosenlegal.com SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. Related Links www.rosenlegal.com PHOENIX, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Centuri Group, Inc. ("Centuri") today announced that recently acquired subsidiary Riggs Distler & Company, Inc. ("Riggs Distler") has been selected as a general contractor to New York's Sunrise Wind project, representing the state's largest offshore wind supply chain contract to date. The joint development partnership between rsted and Eversource has the capacity to power nearly 600,000 homes with 100% renewable energy to help New York accomplish a carbon-free energy grid by 2040. Riggs Distler will provide a broad range of onshore heavy civil, mechanical, and electrical services centered around the construction, assembly, inspection, and installation of the Sunrise Wind advanced foundation components. The scope of work will include the construction of large-scale and specialized components that are fundamental elements of the wind farm's turbine foundations, including external concrete platforms, suspended internal platforms, and anode cages. Drawing from Riggs Distler's strong connection and reputation with local unions and supply chains, Riggs Distler will directly employ more than 100 skilled tradesmen and women from local labor unions in New York to build the offshore wind components at the Port of Coeymans. Training for these positions will include apprenticeship and on-site training by the local unions with additional opportunities to support construction efforts. "We're proud to be the general contractor for the Sunrise Wind farm and pleased to bring our local skilled union workforce to this groundbreaking project," said Stephen M. Zemaitatis, Jr., President & CEO of Riggs Distler. "Riggs Distler's leadership team was early to recognize the transformational potential of offshore wind in the United States. As such, we have worked tirelessly to ensure that our companyour team members, current and future, and facilities are ready to help realize the promise of this exciting new industry." "Now with Riggs Distler as part of our family of companies, we look forward to investing in New York and its people for decades to come, and in doing so, contributing to the significant growth of the offshore wind industry in the United States," said Paul M. Daily, President & CEO of Centuri. Riggs Distler will spend an anticipated 277,000 person-hours on the project, which will provide the New York Power Grid 924 Megawatts of renewable energy. New York-based technology manufacturer LJUNGSTRM will partner to contribute another 200,000 person-hours to pre-fabricate steel components. The Smulders Group, a leading manufacturer of offshore foundations, has signed a transfer of technology agreement with Riggs Distler and LJUNGSTRM to support the project with key knowledge transfer. Riggs Distler is vetting additional opportunities for local construction, manufacturing, and transportation companies to support the procurement and supply of materials in the state. Founded in 1909, located in Cherry Hill, NJ, and with offices in New York, Riggs Distler is a contractor of choice for utility companies throughout the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions and has a growing portfolio of work in emerging clean energy technologies. About Centuri Group, Inc. Centuri is a comprehensive utility infrastructure services enterprise dedicated to delivering a diverse array of solutions to North America's gas and electric providers. Through sound investment, shared services, and an unwavering commitment to the safety of our employees and the communities we serve, Centuri supports the performance of its operating companies across the U.S. and Canada. https://nextcenturi.com/ About Riggs Distler & Co., Inc. Founded in 1909, Riggs Distler self-performs turnkey union construction solutions in the utility, telecom, and industrial markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Riggs Distler was acquired in August 2021 by Centuri Group, Inc. https://riggsdistler.com/ SOURCE Centuri Related Links https://nextcenturi.com PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chartwell Law, one of the nation's fastest growing defense firms, announced the opening of its first West Coast office. The new Chartwell Portland, Oregon office is led by David Rossmiller, a veteran insurance coverage litigator. David's practice also includes railroad and trucking law, environmental contamination litigation, bodily injury and property damage insurance defense, as well as medical malpractice litigation. David also has experience with intellectual property litigation and employment law. David has written extensively for Appleman on Insurance treatises and other insurance publications. He is a past author of the widely read and well-respected Insurance Coverage Law Blog and has been frequently quoted on insurance and other legal topics in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, The Oregonian, and many more. David became a lawyer after an early-life career as a journalist, including working as an award-winning investigative reporter for a daily newspaper in Phoenix, Arizona. Joining David will be partners Elissa Boyd, Andrew Gust, Ryan Tarter along with associate Dustin Dorsey. "I chose Chartwell because of the firm's enthusiasm, creativity, and down-to-earth approach to the practice of law," said Rossmiller. "This is an exciting group of people who understand what it takes to thrive in a rapidly changing industry." The new Northwest office is Chartwell's first on the West Coast and will be an immediate benefit to the firm's clients. "Many of our clients are consolidating their legal work to a shorter list of firms," said Tom Strohmetz, Chartwell's Chief Communications Officer. "As a bi-coastal law firm practicing in 26 states and Washington D.C., we can provide our clients with even better service, coverage, and efficiencies by assisting them nationwide." "Chartwell's mission has always been to help clients achieve their goals. This client focused approach has driven Chartwell's success," said Strohmetz. Despite the impact of Covid, Chartwell continues to expand and service local and national clients in new states and jurisdictions. "We continue to thrive as we remain focused on our clients, while respecting and supporting our employees, and leading the legal community with flexibility and forward-thinking solutions," commented Strohmetz. Chartwell Law started as a four-lawyer firm in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in 2002. Since then, it has soared into the NLJ 250 list of the largest law firms in America as a fast-growing defense litigation firm. With 175 lawyers practicing in 26 states and Washington D.C., Chartwell has continuously diversified its practice areas and states served. The fastest growing sections of the firm are Insurance Coverage, Commercial Litigation and Property & Casualty Litigation. The firm's Northwest office is located at 1050 SW 6th Avenue, Suite 1100, Portland, Oregon 97204. About Chartwell Law Founded in 2002, Chartwell Law began as a workers' compensation boutique defense firm. In response to our clients' needs, today with 23 offices located throughout the United States, our attorneys represent and counsel businesses in a wide variety of legal matters ranging from insurance defense to employment law to complex insurance coverage issues to high-stakes commercial litigation. Contact: Paula G. Renaldo [email protected] (954) 914-4192 SOURCE Chartwell Law BLOOMFIELD, Conn., Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI), a global health service company, today announced a definitive agreement with Chubb (NYSE: CB) to sell its life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses in seven countries for $5.75 billion dollars. The transaction is expected to be completed in 2022, subject to applicable regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. "Our agreement with Chubb is another step forward in advancing our strategic focus on our global health services portfolio," said David M. Cordani, president and chief executive officer, Cigna Corporation. "We are proud of our success in building these life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses in Asia Pacific and improving the well-being and sense of security of our customers throughout the region." Upon completion of the transaction, Chubb will acquire Cigna's life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Thailand as well as Cigna's interest in a joint venture in Turkey. In Korea, Chubb will acquire and plans to continue to operate the business under the LINA Korea (Life Insurance Company of North America Korea) brand. Cigna will continue to operate its robust international health businesses for the globally mobile population, as well as local market services in the Middle East, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and its joint ventures in Australia, China and India. Chubb will pay Cigna a cash consideration of $5.75 billion. The transaction is not subject to a financing condition and Cigna expects to realize approximately $5.4 billion of net after-tax proceeds from this transaction. Cigna expects to utilize the proceeds from the transaction primarily for share repurchase, broadly consistent with Cigna's capital deployment framework. The impact of the transaction is expected to be neutral to slightly dilutive to Cigna's earnings per share in 2022. "The addition of Cigna's business, which is overwhelmingly A&H, will rebalance our global portfolio toward this important region," said Evan G. Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer, Chubb. "We have long admired and respected Cigna's business in Asia including its talented people, innovative products, technical and analytical capabilities, distribution and management." Cigna and Chubb are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for customers, partners, clients and employees throughout this period. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as lead legal counsel, and Baker McKenzie is serving as lead regulatory counsel on the transaction. About Cigna Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) is a global health service company dedicated to improving the health, well-being and peace of mind of those we serve. Cigna delivers choice, predictability, affordability and access to quality care through integrated capabilities and connected, personalized solutions that advance whole person health. All products and services are provided exclusively by or through operating subsidiaries of Cigna Corporation, including Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, Evernorth companies or their affiliates, and Express Scripts companies or their affiliates. Such products and services include an integrated suite of health services, such as medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits, and other related products. Cigna maintains sales capability in over 30 countries and jurisdictions, and has over 190 million customer relationships throughout the world. To learn more about Cigna, including links to follow us on Facebook or Twitter, visit www.cigna.com. NOTES: The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors, including price, general business and market conditions, and alternate uses of capital. The share repurchase program may be effected through open market purchases or privately negotiated transactions in compliance with Rule 10b -18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including through Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. The program may be suspended or discontinued at any time. Earnings per share means adjusted income from operations on a fully diluted basis. At the consolidated level, adjusted income from operations is not determined in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP") and should not be viewed as a substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measure, shareholders' net income. Adjusted income (loss) from operations is defined as shareholders' net income (or income before taxes for the segment metric) excluding net realized investment results, amortization of acquired intangible assets and special items. Cigna's share of certain realized investment results of its joint ventures reported in the International Markets segment using the equity method of accounting are also excluded. Adjusted income (loss) from operations is measured on an after-tax basis for consolidated results. CIGNA FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release, and oral statements made in connection with this release, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on Cigna's current expectations and projections about future trends, events and uncertainties. These statements are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements include statements relating to the impact of the sale of Cigna's life, accident and supplemental benefits businesses, including, without limitation, the impact of the transaction on Cigna's projected earnings per share, Cigna's share repurchase other capital deployment plans, the projected closing date for the transaction and the projected impact of the transaction on the parties. You may identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "believe," "expect," "plan," "intend," "anticipate," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "may," "should," "will" or other words or expressions of similar meaning, although not all forward-looking statements contain such terms. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: receipt of the regulatory approvals necessary for the transaction; the satisfaction or waiver of closing conditions for the transaction; effects on the business as a result of uncertainty surrounding the proposed transaction; as well as more specific risks and uncertainties discussed in Cigna's most recent report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K available on the Investor Relations section of www.cigna.com. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made, are not guarantees of future performance or results, and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict or quantify. Cigna undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. Cigna Contacts: Investor Relations Alexis Jones [email protected] Media Ellie Polack [email protected] SOURCE Cigna Corporation Related Links https://www.cigna.com DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dover (NYSE: DOV) announced today that it will release third quarter 2021 earnings at 6:00 a.m. Central time (7:00 a.m. Eastern time) on Tuesday, October 19, 2021. Later that morning, Dover will host a conference call at 9:00 a.m. Central time (10:00 a.m. Eastern time) to discuss these results. To participate on the conference call, please dial 1 (877) 876-9176 (domestic) or 1 (785) 424-1670 (international), conference ID DOVQ321. Due to the expected number of callers, please dial in at least 15 minutes before the conference is to begin and ask to be connected to the Dover teleconference. A link to the live audio webcast will also be available on the company website at dovercorporation.com. An audio replay of the conference call will be available from 12:00 p.m. Central time, October 19, until 10:59 p.m. Central time, October 26, by dialing 1 (800) 753-9134 (domestic) or 1 (402) 220-2678 (international). Additionally, a replay link of the webcast will be archived on Dover's website for 90 days. 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. 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 WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Following is a statement from Lisa Nicole Matthews, President of the National Press Club and Angela Greiling Keane, President of the National Press Club Journalism Institute on Maria Ressa, who today, along with Dmitry Muratov, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. "We were so pleased to hear the news this morning that the Nobel Committee has named Maria Ressa to represent all journalists as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Maria has been an inspiration to the world as she fought for the truth and for her rights and in fact the rights of free people everywhere as the leader of Rappler. We know she has a smile on her face this morning because she is almost always smiling. We do too. The Nobel Committee could not have picked a better person to represent journalists. "Maria was the National Press Club's 2020 John Aubuchon Honoree, an award that traditionally includes in person receipt of the award and a speech by the honoree. But Maria, who faced nine bogus charges from the Philippine government was denied the right to travel. She repeatedly requested letters from us asking the government to release her and repeatedly those requests were denied. Maria was a prisoner in her own borders even while a global champion of freedom of the press. Eventually Maria did speak to us last year in a recorded message. It was an inspiring and electric moment. "Hearing from Maria is a tonic for journalists. She reminds us of all that is best in our profession. Her drive for truth and her passion and determination are impressive to witness. Her voice reminds us of our role in democracy, and, of our place in the world. This award could not come at a better time as a free press is being attacked across the planet. "We have two wishes for Maria this morning. First that her country will now remove the threat of prison from her by dropping the cases against her and letting her focus on her world; and, second, that she might now be allowed to travel without restrictions and join us at the National Press Club to receive her award and to flash her famous smile and her peace sign." Earlier this year during a National Press Club virtual address on World Press Freedom Day, Ressa spoke about her fight for press freedom in the Philippines and around the world. Listen to her remarks here. Founded in 1908, the National Press Club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists. The Club has 3,000 members representing nearly every major journalism organization and is a leading voice for press freedom in the United States and around the world. The National Press Club Journalism Institute, the Club's non-profit affiliate, promotes and engaged global citizenry through an independent and free press and equips journalists with the skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire civic engagement. CONTACT: Contact: John Donnelly, Chair, Press Freedom Team, National Press Club [email protected], 202-650-6738 SOURCE National Press Club Related Links http://press.org The tests measured a wide variety of performance parameters including mobility, fire control integration, firing U.S. Army projectiles with MACS propelling charges across the full range of propellant charge zones focusing on max charge firing. Yugo's NORA B-52 M21 is the latest version of the NORA system which received a chassis upgrade along with updates to the fully automatic loading system for compatibility with U.S. Army MACS propellant charges. Yugo design engineers participated in the testing to learn what upgrades would be most needed by U.S. Army artillery crews. Upgrades from feedback during testing are already being designed to meet the mobile artillery needs of the U.S. Army. The NORA B-52 M21 system will be on display at the annual AUSA Exposition in Washington, DC. Oct 11-13. Both GO and Yugo were pleased with the overall performance of the system and believe the NORA B-52 M21 would be a potent option for the U.S. Army. Marc Morales, President of Global Ordnance, LLC, expressed his excitement after the test. "The NORA system showed great capability even in extremely challenging Arizona desert conditions during the hottest part of the summer. We drew a difficult time period to show what the system could do, and it knocked it out of the park. The Yugo team provided exceptional support, successfully demonstrated the NORA's flexibility and performance, and went above and beyond to show Yugo's commitment to delivering an exceptional product. This is a formidable team and weapon system." Marc Morales, President With the shoot off completed, the U.S. Army is evaluating the test data to determine the optimal road ahead to modernize Army mobile artillery. GO is very thankful to Yugoimport for their dedication and commitment for their team of engineers, mechanics and crew that supported the U.S. Army testing. Our combined team displayed our responsive and agile support during the testing at YPG. Media Contact: Marc Morales [email protected] SOURCE Global Ordnance LLC Related Links http://GlobalOrdnance.com DUBLIN, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Power Float Market, By Type (Ride-on (Hydrostatic, Mechanical), Walk Behind)), By Application (Commercial Buildings, Industrial Buildings, Others), By Blade Diameter (36 inch, 46- 48 inch, Above 48 inch), By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Global power float market is expected to grow at a steady rate in the forecast period The power float is a hand-operated machine and provides a dense and smooth finish to concrete beds. The use of power float lowers the time and eliminates the need for materials for applying the finishing screed on the surface. Power float takes a minimal amount of time and is less dependent on manual labor. The rise in the growth of the construction industry around the world and the upcoming construction projects is paving the way for the power float market growth in the next five years. The growing population all around the globe requires the construction of more industrial and commercial spaces. The high demand for the residential sector and the surge in government initiatives providing financial support and construction of buildings are fueling the growth of the global power float market. The rise in consumer spending capacity due to the improving economic conditions is influencing the growth of the power float market as it is required in the construction process. Global power float market is segmented into type, application, blade diameter, regional distribution, and company. Based on the regional analysis, Asia-pacific is expected to witness significant growth in the forecast period, 2022-2026. Supportive government policies and initiatives and the growing population pool is driving the growth of the market in the forecast period. The rise in the construction of commercial spaces to cater to the growing working population and to boost the economic status is contributing to the power float market's growth. The major players operating in the global power float market are Multiquip Inc, Wacker Neuson Group, Allen Engineering Corporation, Altas Copco, Parchem Construction, Supplies Pty. Ltd., Bartell Morisson Inc., Shanghai Dragon Construction Equipment Co. Masterpac, MBW Inc., Shandong Shenhua Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and others. Major companies are developing advanced technologies and launching new services to stay competitive in the market. Other competitive strategies include mergers & acquisitions and new service developments. Report Scope: Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2016-2019 Base Year: 2020 Estimated Year: 2021 Forecast Period: 2022-2026 Global Power Float Market, By Type: Ride-on Hydrostatic Mechanical Walk Behind Global Power Float Market, By Application: Commercial Buildings Industrial Buildings Others Global Power Float Market, By Blade Diameter: 36 inch 46- 48 inch Above 48 inch Global Power Float Market, By Region: North America United States Canada Mexico Asia-Pacific China India Japan South Korea Australia Singapore Malaysia Europe Germany United Kingdom France Italy Spain Poland Denmark South America Brazil Argentina Colombia Peru Chile Middle East & Africa & Saudi Arabia South Africa UAE Iraq Turkey Companies Mentioned Multiquip Inc Wacker Neuson Group Allen Engineering Corporation Altas Copco Parchem Construction Supplies Pty. Ltd. Bartell Morisson Inc. Shanghai Dragon Construction Equipment Co. Masterpac MBW Inc. Shandong Shenhua Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8am7bl 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 Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices. Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation on pros and cons of prevalent pricing models. Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers. Get a free sample report for more information Insights into buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers: Several strategic and tactical negotiation levers are explained in the report to help buyers achieve the best prices for the Structural Steel market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Structural Steel pricing levels, pros, and cons of prevalent pricing models such as volume-based pricing, spot pricing, and cost-plus pricing and category management strategies and best practices to fulfil their category objectives. For more insights on buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers, www.spendedge.com/report/structural-steel-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report Key Drivers and Trends Fueling Market Growth: The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the low bargaining power of suppliers. Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors. Identify favorable opportunities in Structural Steel TCO (total cost of ownership). Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes. Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities. To get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment. Subscribe Now for Free Some of the top Structural Steel suppliers listed in this report: This Structural Steel procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. ArcelorMittal SA Nippon Steel Corp Hesteel Group Co. Ltd Get the Details That You Are Looking for: Buy our detailed market analysis report to uncover: Changing market landscape with yearly forecast till 2025. Analyze the market's competitive and vendor landscape. How much marketing budget to set aside for geographical market expansion? Understanding the most adopted procurement strategies by buyers across industries. Download the FREE sample Report Now! 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. Contacts SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOURCE SpendEdge "We're proud to join Shell Hydrogen's 'Project Neptune', expanding California's hydrogen infrastructure to meet increasing consumer demand for clean, zero-emission transportation solutions. Hyundai offers a superb fuel cell vehicle in its NEXO SUV, and this effort will help ensure that every eco-focused fuel cell driver has convenient refueling options wherever they choose to go," said Olabisi Boyle, vice president of Product Planning and Mobility Strategy, Hyundai Motor North America. Hydrogen refueling infrastructure growth is critical to rapidly increase consumer adoption of zero-emission fuel cell vehicles. By joining Project Neptune, Hyundai reinforces its commitment to fuel cell technologies and their positive impact on the environment, a key pillar of its long-range strategic vision. The new hydrogen stations will be partially funded by public funds from the California Energy Commission (CEC). Two other fuel cell vehicle manufacturers have also joined the consortium with respective agreements for fuel cell vehicle sales to support infrastructure growth. This agreement with Shell Hydrogen furthers Hyundai's global relationship with the energy company. In March 2021, Hyundai Motor Company signed a new five-year Global Business Cooperation Agreement with Royal Dutch Shell plc to expand collaboration on clean energy solutions. Hyundai Motor America Hyundai Motor America focuses on 'Progress for Humanity' and smart mobility solutions. Hyundai offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs, and electrified vehicles. Our 820 dealers sold more than 620,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2020, and nearly half were built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. For more information, visit www.HyundaiNews.com. Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn SOURCE Hyundai Motor America Related Links https://www.hyundainews.com/ Intention to Seek Written Shareholder Consent for Certain Equity Issuances including to Orion and Equinox All dollar figures are in US dollars unless otherwise noted RENO, Nev., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - i-80 GOLD CORP. (TSX: IAU) (OTCQX: IAUCF) ("i-80", or the "Company") announces that in connection with the previously announced acquisitions by the Company of the Lone Tree and Buffalo Mountain gold deposits from Nevada Gold Mines LLC ("NGM") and the Ruby Hill mine from affiliates of Waterton Global Resource Management ("Waterton"), the Company will be seeking shareholder approval pursuant to the requirements of the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") of certain proposed issuances of securities and common shares of the Company ("Common Shares") to one or more investment funds managed by Orion Resource Partners (collectively, together with their respective affiliates, "Orion"), Equinox Gold Corp. ("Equinox") and certain other potential convertible debt investors, as further described in a news release dated September 7, 2021 and detailed below. As previously announced, the Company has entered into a non-binding term sheet with Orion for up to $140 million of acquisition financing, with an additional $100 million potentially available via an accordion feature. The Company and Orion are in the process of finalizing definitive documentation in respect of the foregoing. The Orion Financing is expected to include a mix of equity and convertible securities, warrants and secured instruments for up to $140 million, with an additional $100 million potentially available via an accordion feature. The securities to be issued will be priced based on the issue price of C$2.62 (the "Issue Price") in respect of the previously-announced equity private placement the Company expects to complete with NGM and others, including the issuance of: (i) up to 19,195,419 Common Shares (the "Orion Conversion Shares"), upon conversion of the principal of a $50 million unsecured convertible loan (the "Orion Convertible Loan") that is intended to be provided by Orion to the Company along with, if Orion elects to receive its accrued interest in the form of Common Shares, such number of Common Shares upon conversion of the interest on such loan as is determined based on the market price of the Common Shares on the TSX at time of the conversion (ii) 839,799 Common Shares (the "Transfer Fee Shares") at the Issue Price in satisfaction of the transfer fee of $1.75 million that will be payable by the Company to Orion in connection with the Asset Exchange (as defined below), and (iii) 5,500,000 Common Share purchase warrants (the "Orion Warrants") to Orion, with each Orion Warrant exercisable for one Common Share at price equal to 125% of the Issue Price for a period of three years from the date of issue (subject to acceleration under certain circumstances). Orion may also subscribe for Common Shares in the Additional Private Placement (as defined below) at the Issue Price for up to that number of Common Shares such that when added with its current holdings of Common Shares and the Transfer Fee Shares it will own 9.9% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares following the completion by the Company of the transactions with NGM, Waterton, Orion and the private placement (the "Orion Private Placement Shares", and together with the Orion Conversion Shares, the Transfer Fee Shares and the Orion Warrants, the "Orion Issuances"). Pursuant to the rules of the TSX, the Orion Conversion Shares and the Common Shares issuable upon exercise by Orion of the Orion Warrants will be deemed to have been issued at a discount to market price and are regarded as being part of the number of Common Shares being issued pursuant to the transactions with NGM, Waterton and the private placement. The Corporation also expects to accept additional unsecured convertible loans from one or more additional potential convertible debt investors in a principal amount of up to an additional $10 million (the "Additional Convertible Loans" and together with the Orion Convertible Loans, the "Convertible Loans") on the same terms as the Orion Convertible Loan. As disclosed in its news release dated September 7, 2021, the Company has entered into a definitive membership interest purchase agreement to acquire the Ruby Hill mine from Waterton in consideration of (1) US$75 million in cash payable on closing, (2) Common Shares (the "Ruby Hill Payment Shares") equal to $8,000,000 divided by the US dollar equivalent of the 10-day volume weighted average trading price as of the date that is three business days immediately prior to the closing date of the acquisition based on the USD/CAD exchange rate on such date (the "Ruby Hill Issuance") and, (3) milestone payment rights pursuant to which Waterton will be entitled to receive up to an additional $67,000,000 upon the occurrence of certain milestones in accordance with the milestone payment rights agreement to be entered into on closing of the acquisition. The Company may, prior to closing of the acquisition, elect to pay up to $8,000,000 in cash in lieu of all or any portion of the Ruby Hill Payment Shares, in which event the number of Ruby Hill Payment Shares issuable would be reduced accordingly. If the issuance of the Ruby Hill Payment Shares, after giving effect to any election by the Company to pay any portion thereof in cash, would result in Waterton holding more than 9.99% of the then issued and outstanding Common Shares calculated on a partially diluted basis, the number of the Ruby Hill Payment Shares to be issued will be reduced and the Company will pay cash in lieu of such portion of the Ruby Hill Payment Shares. As previously announced, the Company has entered into a definitive exchange agreement to acquire the Lone Tree and Buffalo Mountain gold deposits from NGM, including certain processing infrastructure, via an asset exchange in consideration of (1) the Company's 40% ownership in the South Arturo property; (2) assignment of the Company's option to acquire the adjacent Rodeo Creek exploration property; (3) contingent consideration of up to $50 million based on production from the Lone Tree property; and (4) arrangement of substitute bonding (and release of NGM bonds) in respect of the Lone Tree and Buffalo Mountain reclamation obligations at closing (collectively, the "Asset Exchange"). Concurrent with or as soon as practicable following the closing of the Asset Exchange, NGM has agreed to subscribe for Common Shares at the Issue Price in an amount equal to the lesser of $50 million and the amount that would result in NGM holding 9.9% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis, after giving effect to the Additional Private Placement Issuance (defined below) (including any participation by other subscribers, including any potential subscription by Equinox Gold Corp. ("Equinox") upon exercise of its anti-dilution rights, and any shares issued to Waterton on or prior to the private placement) (the "NGM Issuance"). The NGM Issuance is part of a larger non-brokered private placement offering (the "Additional Private Placement Issuance") by the Company of up to $90 million of Common Shares at the Issue Price, not including any shares that may be issued to Equinox upon the exercise of its anti-dilution right (the "AntiDilution Right") pursuant to the support agreement between the Company and Equinox dated April 7, 2021 (the "Support Agreement"). Equinox currently holds 56,041,282 Common Shares and 2,318,596 warrants to purchase Common Shares representing 29.03% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a partially-diluted basis (calculated in accordance with the Support Agreement). The Ani-Dilution Right provides Equinox the right to maintain its pro rata ownership of Common Shares in connection with the Ruby Hill Issuance, the NGM Issuance, the Additional Private Placement Issuance and the Orion Issuances. Equinox may elect to maintain its pro-rata ownership of Common Shares by: (i) subscribing for and purchasing from treasury an agreed-upon number of Common Shares (the "AntiDilution Shares") on a pro-rata basis at a price per Anti-Dilution Share equal to the implied price per Common Share issued in connection with the equity private placement transactions giving rise to such Anti-Dilution Right (the "Equinox Share Issuance"); (ii) providing the Corporation a convertible loan (the "Anti-Dilution Convertible Loan") on the same terms as the Convertible Loans on a pro-rata basis (the "Equinox Convertible Loan Issuance"); and/or (iii) to extent the issuance of the Orion Warrants trigger the rights Anti-Dilution Rights under the Support Agreement, subscribing for warrants (the "Anti-Dilution Warrants" and together with the AntiDilution Shares and Anti-Dilution Convertible Loan, the "Anti-Dilution Securities") of the Corporation on a pro-rata basis (the "Equinox Warrant Issuance" and together with the Equinox Share Issuance and the Equinox Convertible Loan Issuance, the "Equinox Issuance") in each case subject to the requirements of the TSX and the provisions of the Support Agreement. Equinox has advised the Company that it intends to exercise its Anti-Dilution Right for up to $10 million, but has not determined the type or mix of the Equinox Issuance. If Equinox were to exercise the Anti-Dilution Right exclusively to provide an Anti-Dilution Convertible Loan, Equinox would be entitled to maintain its pro-rata ownership of Common Shares in respect of the Convertible Loans by providing an Anti-Dilution Convertible Loan in a principal amount of up to approximately $24.5 million alongside the $60 million of Convertible Loans. If the full principal amount of the Anti-Dilution Convertible Loan is converted at the Conversion Price, the Anti-Dilution Convertible Loan would result in the issuance of 9,420,547 Common Shares. If Equinox were to exercise the Anti-Dilution Right exclusively to acquire Anti-Dilution Shares, Equinox would be entitled to purchase up to 12,506,375 Anti-Dilution Shares at the Issue Price for gross proceeds to the Company of approximately US$26 million without the need for disinterested shareholder approval in respect of insider participation under the rules of the TSX. Assuming the issuance of the Orion Warrants trigger the Anti-Dilution Right, if Equinox were to exercise the Anti-Dilution Right to acquire Anti-Dilution Warrants, it would be entitled to acquire up to 2,249,753 Anti-Dilution Warrants. The Company does not expect the ultimate scope of Equinox's exercise of its Anti-Dilution Rights to require disinterested shareholder approval, however Equinox has not provided a binding commitment the Company in respect thereof. Equinox is not under a binding commitment to purchase any Anti-Dilution Securities, or provide an Anti-Dilution Convertible Loan as at the date hereof. The Equinox Issuance, together with the Ruby Hill Issuance, the NGM Issuance, the Additional Private Placement Issuance, the Orion Conversion Shares, the Transfer Fee Shares and the Orion Warrants, are referred to as the "Other Issuances". The Company confirms today that it will be seeking shareholder approval of the Orion Issuances, Additional Convertible Loans and the Equinox Issuance pursuant to the requirements of Section 607(g) of the TSX Company Manual. Shareholder approval of the Orion Issuances, Additional Convertible Loans and the Equinox Issuance is required pursuant to the rules of the TSX because the Orion Issuances, Additional Convertible Loans and the Equinox Issuance, when combined with the other portion of the Other Issuances, will result in the issuance of an aggregate number of listed securities greater than 25% of the number of securities of the Company which were outstanding, on a non-diluted basis, at the time the transactions were agreed to. As noted above, rules of the TSX deem these securities to have been issued at a discount to the then-current market price. The Company is relying on an exemption from the requirement to hold a shareholder meeting available under Section 604(d) of the TSX Company Manual, and is seeking to obtain the approval of the Orion Issuances and Equinox Issuances by written consent by more than 50% of the shareholders of the Company. As previously announced, the closing of each of the transactions with NGM, Waterton, Orion and the private placement are subject to the satisfaction of a number of conditions precedent, including regulatory approvals and, in the case of the Convertible Loans, completion of due diligence and the negotiation and execution of mutually satisfactory definitive documentation with Orion. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in the United States. The 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, unless an exemption from such registration is available. About i-80 Gold Corp. i-80 Gold Corp. is a Nevada-focused mining company with a goal of achieving mid-tier gold producer status. i-80 is well financed with more than $70.1 million (as at June 30, 2021) in cash and has recently signed financing agreements with NGM and nonbinding term sheet with Orion to provide access to as much as $240 million. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including but not limited to, completion of the Asset Exchange, completion of the Ruby Hill acquisition, completion of the equity private placement with NGM, Orion, Equinox and/or other subscribers, and completion of the convertible loan financing transaction with Orion and others and the exercise of the Anti-Dilution Right by Equinox. Such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company, its projects, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events, performance and results and speak only as of the date of this release. Forward-looking statements and information involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indicators of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or information, including, but not limited to: failure to satisfy of the relevant conditions to the completion of the transactions described herein, failure to obtain the relevant regulatory approvals, material adverse changes, exercise of termination rights by any relevant party, unexpected changes in laws, failure to complete the Orion financing transaction on satisfactory terms, rules or regulations, or their enforcement by applicable authorities; the failure of parties to contracts with the company to perform as agreed; social or labour unrest; changes in commodity prices; and the failure of exploration, refurbishment, development or mining programs or studies to deliver anticipated results or results that would justify and support continued exploration, studies, development or operations. SOURCE i-80 Gold Corp Related Links www.i80gold.com LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. ("Ginkgo" or "the Company") (NYSE: DNA) for violations of the securities laws. The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. Ginkgo is the subject of a report published by Scorpion Capital on October 6, 2021. The report alleges that the Company is a "colossal scam." The report describes the Company as a "shell game" whose revenues are highly dependent on related-party transactions. Scorpion Capital alleges that the Company is a"Frankenstein mash-up of the worst frauds of the last 20 years." Based on this news, Ginkgo shares fell as much as 20% in intraday trading on the same day. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at [email protected]. The class in this case has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. CONTACT: The Schall Law Firm Brian Schall, Esq. 310-301-3335 [email protected] www.schallfirm.com SOURCE The Schall Law Firm Related Links www.schallfirm.com SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- IQAir North America has funded through the SME Education Foundation new scholarship support for STEM education opportunities for underrepresented students. The scholarships, to be administered by the SME Education Foundation for IQAir North America, an international environmental technology company focused on air quality monitoring and air cleaning products, make $130,000 available over five years to qualified and deserving students. IQAir North America is based in California. "These scholarships areour opportunity to assist students who are historically underrepresented in STEM related careers," said Glory Dolphin-Hammes, CEO of IQAir North America. "Workplaces are stronger with a workforce of diverse opinions and life experiences. Our goal is to help provide financial assistance to those with diverse backgrounds who have the who have the skills, aptitude and drive to achieve but lack the resources." The IQAir Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship awards to deserving students began this year. "The Foundation is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion throughout our portfolio of initiatives to prepare and support students in their pursuit of educational and career opportunities," said Rob Luce, vice president of the SME Education Foundation. "Through expanded outreach, partnerships like this important collaboration with IQAir, and the leadership of our diverse and accomplished board, we are making a difference and improving the availability of opportunity." This year, the SME Education Foundation awarded a record number of scholarships to women and/or minorities as part of a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative. Scholarship awards to female students nearly doubled, and scholarships to minority students and minority female students nearly tripled and quadrupled, respectively. The IQAir Diversity and inclusion Scholarships are an important step in progressing toward solving manufacturing's well-documented and increasing skills gap. "That gap is reflective of a social and economic gap in underrepresented communities," says Dolphin-Hammes. "It's our responsibility and a strategic imperative to provide education and skills training opportunities: We're proud of this initiative." About IQAir IQAir is a Swiss-based air quality technology company that since 1963 seeks to empower individuals, organizations and communities to breathe cleaner air through information, collaboration and technology solutions. About The SME Education Foundation The SME Education Foundation inspires, prepares and supports the next generation of manufacturing and engineering talent. Organized by SME in 1979, the SME Education Foundation works to bring students, educators, industry and communities together through its SME PRIME program; awards annual student scholarships and conducts the Student Summit Event Series held at SME events in North America. Learn more here, and follow @MFG_EDUCATION on Twitter. SOURCE SME Education Foundation HONG KONG, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Koning Corporation has been working to get more Koning Breast CT (KBCT) into clinics not only throughout the US, but also around the world. Within the past week, the company has entered into a partnership with Chesa Industries LTD with the intention of putting ten KBCT into clinics across Southeast Asia. Koning Breast CT "This partnership will allow many more women to get true 3D breast imaging exams, and without the discomfort of compression," says Chesa Industries CEO, Dilip Parmanand. Mr. Parmanand has brought together a host of prominent Southeast Asian doctors to bring this revolutionary, no-compression breast CT to women throughout the area. Lutao Ning, Koning CEO, says, "We are excited to work with Chesa Industries. This is the start of exponential growth for Koning, as well as a major step forward in the pursuit of bringing women's breast health into the future." Why This Matters 80% of the Asian female population have dense breasts. This makes it harder for conventional mammograms to find lesions, especially at their earliest stages. Koning Breast CT is suitable for women of all sizes and for both fatty and dense breasts. As Covid-19 ravaged the world, women began foregoing their annual mammograms. However, there has been an increased demand for the KBCT, since the device cuts down on the need for multiple processes (i.e. mammograms followed by ultrasounds). Moving Forward Mr. Parmanand expects to install four KBCT into clinics throughout Hong Kong, and two per quarter in following months. About Koning: Koning is a global HealthTech company that focuses on improving the breast imaging industry with its patented Koning Breast CT (KBCT). Koning's vision is to create a revolution in medical imaging through advanced computed tomography technology and dramatically improve the way clinicians visualize and evaluate breast tissue. The KBCT is expected to optimize early disease detection, diagnosis, intervention and treatment, and will improve survival rates for millions of patients worldwide. If you'd like to support Koning's vision or would like to learn how you can contribute to Koning's success, you can visit the Koning repulic.co campaign. For more information, please visit Koning's website or contact Naomi Cosman at [email protected] . SOURCE Koning Corporation Related Links http://www.koninghealth.com BEIJING, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kuke Music Holding Limited ("Kuke" or the "Company") (NYSE: KUKE), a leading provider of classical music content, licensing, subscription, and smart music learning solutions in China, today announced that the 24th Beijing Music Festival ("BMF," or the "Festival") will commence on October 9th and run until October 24th, celebrating this year's theme of "Masters and Celebrations." Spanning across 16 days, the Festival will host audiences featuring 18 sets in 20 main concerts, encompassing genres including symphonic music, opera, vocal music, chamber music, percussion music, and orchestral film music. The 24th BMF will not only host exciting professional performances, but will also feature children's concerts, "Music at Noon" concerts, master classes, lectures, and other public events for various audiences. These programs will serve to facilitate multi-dimensional dialogue between Chinese and foreign composers. It will also feature performances of masterpieces including some of China's premier compositions of various genres, paying tribute to the pathfinders and innovators in the long history of classical music while presenting a magnificent, panoramic view of classical music culture. Mr. Long Yu, Director of Kuke and founder of the Beijing Music Festival, commented, "Building a platform for young musicians to showcase their talents and letting the world hear the voices of young Chinese musicians are the most dedicated missions of the Beijing Music Festival. We have been ceaselessly exploring new changes and innovations in our performances over the years. Hosting performances such as our 'Urban Series,' 'Immersive Opera,' and our 'Music Carnival' at key commercial landmarks in Beijing, reflects our endeavors to showcase the cutting edge of music culture to audiences through the lens of an international and innovative perspective, as we continue our persistence in promoting the festival and expanding its cultural influence." Mr. He Yu, Chief Executive Officer of Kuke, commented, "We are very excited to celebrate another year of the Beijing Music Festival. The festival not only entertains and delights classical music fans, but also serves as a platform to showcase the musical talents of young Chinese musicians and plant the seeds of appreciation for classical music in the next generation of musical talent. This serves as an important part of our classical music learning ecosystem, which we have established to serve the entire career development cycle of music students from inception to album publishing. We have spared no effort in organizing our 24th Beijing Music Festival and look forward to entertaining music fans, showcasing the amazing musical talent in our programs, and enhancing appreciation of classical music to amplify the impact of elegant music worldwide." About Kuke Music Holding Limited Kuke is China's leading comprehensive music group encompassing the entire value chain from content provision to education services. By collaborating with its sister company Naxos, the world's largest independent classical music content provider in the world, the foundation of Kuke's extensive classical music content library is its unparalleled access to more than 900 top-tier record companies. Leveraging its market leadership in copyrighted classical music content in China, Kuke provides highly scalable classical music licensing and subscription services to over 700 universities, libraries and online music platforms. In addition, it has hosted Beijing Music Festival ("BMF"), the most renowned music festival in China, for 23 consecutive years. At the same time, Kuke provides consumers with premium music content, music literacy education, talent competitions, and public performances through its apps, Kuke Music and BMF Club. Through KUKEY, the Company's proprietary AI music education system, Kuke aims to democratize music education via technological innovation, bring fascinating music content and professional music techniques to more students, and continuously improve the efficiency and penetration of music learning. By integrating music content and education, Kuke is constructing a unique AI-driven music education ecosystem and providing students with full life-cycle music programs. Investor Relations Contact: Kuke Music Holding Limited Email: [email protected] Phone: +1 (212) 321-0602 SOURCE Kuke Music Holding Limited Related Links www.kuke.com DETROIT, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Michigan law, cannabis, psilocybin and other plant based medicines are currently listed as schedule 1 controlled substances. That means you can be arrested and face massive fines and extensive jail time for possession of these natural plants. This November, Detroiters have an opportunity to make a change that affect everyone by voting yes for Proposal E. The People For Healthy Choices, a community based advocacy group is committed to educating voters about the impact Proposal E has on everyone in our city. For decades our communities suffered at the hands of misguided drug laws and harsh prison sentencing that results in disproportionate prison population. In fact, the schedule 1 designation for plant based substances originally thought to be a gateway to stronger drugs, has only proven to be a gateway to our criminal justice system. Nearly 80 percent of people in federal prison and 60 percent of people in state prison for drug offense are Black or Latino. The current laws are also contrary to research showing that plant based medicine offers incredible relief for sufferers of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and many other forms of mental health issues. Plant medicines have been used for healing purposes by indigenous cultures for thousands of years, and there is mounting evidence that shows their ability to integrate with modern addiction therapy. Death by opioid addiction is on the rise in our country. Studies show the 3 waves of opioid overdose deaths are attributed to the following: 1) prescription opioids like Oxycontin and Vicodin, 2) Heroin, 3) synthetic opioids, like fentanyl which are now combined with cocaine. Psychedelic plant medicines have been used for healing purposes by indigenous cultures for thousands of years, and there is mounting evidence that shows their ability to integrate with modern addiction therapy. Plants like psilocybin, ayahuasca, and particularly ibogaine, have demonstrated unprecedented results for those who use them as a tool on their recovery journey. In fact, the studies have been so promising that the FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designation for psilocybin. That means they put the therapy on a faster track for development and approval. Currently, there are over 1200 similar cannabis psychedelic and drug policy bills in state legislature and Congress throughout the country. Our laws make it hard for people stay out of jail, heal from addictions and improve mental illness in a natural way. The "People For Healthy Choices," a local advocacy group is asking Detroit Voter's to take a stand and Vote Yes for Proposal E to decriminalize plant based medicine. Voting yes to proposal E makes it easy heal and decriminalize plant based medicine. On November 2nd, Vote yes for Proposal E, makes it easy! For more information: William Nelson 313-461-2358 [email protected] SOURCE People For Healthy Choices As Platinum sponsor, Pivotree will lead two sessions exploring crucial areas of frictionless commerce, including cybersecurity and machine learning for master data management (MDM) TORONTO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Pivotree Inc. (TSXV: PVT) ("Pivotree" or the "Company"), a leader in frictionless commerce solutions, is pleased to announce its sponsorship and upcoming speaking sessions at Winshuttle Engage 2021, the virtual Winshuttle User Group conference being held October 11-14. "We're excited to continue our participation as a Platinum sponsor for the Engage conference. We always look forward to connecting with Winshuttle users, as well as many of our shared customers and partners," said Derek Corrick, General Manager, MDM at Pivotree. "This year, with the growing importance of cybersecurity, automation, and frictionless commerce across industries, we welcome the opportunity to share our expertise, newly introduced solutions, and best practices for 2021." Pivotree's first on demand session, led by Sr. Director of Cybersecurity Todd Edwards, will focus on How Security Builds Trust in Frictionless Commerce. It will explore how companies can take the right steps to protect their businesses during the new era of cybercrime and customer data privacy regulations. Edwards will discuss how to support a frictionless trust framework for quality assurance, compliance, and real-time vulnerability and privacy mitigation. In Pivotree's second on demand session, Director of Product Management Mohsin Maqsood will explore how advancements in machine learning can help companies leap past costly, time-consuming product on-boarding friction points. The session, How to Drive Cost and Time out of Product On-Boarding, will show how machine learning can not only reduce the time and expense of product on-boarding it can actually eliminate it. As a leader in frictionless commerce, Pivotree continues to expand its portfolio of offerings, providing solutions that help companies adapt to an ever-changing digital commerce landscape. Engage attendees will get insights on the recently launched Pivotree Cybersecurity Watch solution. As a foundational offering for holistic cybersecurity, Pivotree Cybersecurity Watch leverages best in breed technologies combined with a team of security experts at Pivotree to protect and defend digital businesses against evolving cyber threats. Additionally, Pivotree will be highlighting its DIVE machine learning platform . DIVE integrates with MDM applications to automate the manual data management processes that often slow organizations down, including mapping of unstructured data, product classification, data normalization, and product recommendation. As long-standing partners, Winshuttle and Pivotree have an extensive list of more than 35 joint customers across industries. With the pair, companies can leverage over 20 years of combined MDM knowledge, hosting, implementation, and machine learning best practices. For more information about Pivotree's solutions and services for Winshuttle, visit https://pivotree.com/platforms/enterworks/ . About Pivotree Pivotree is a leader in frictionless commerce with expertise in eCommerce, MDM, Cloud, Cybersecurity, and Supply Chain solutions. It is an end-to-end vendor supporting clients from strategy, platform selection, deployment, and hosting through to ongoing support. It operates as a single expert resource to help companies adapt relentlessly in an ever-changing digital commerce landscape. Leading and innovative clients rely on Pivotree's deep expertise to choose enterprise-proven solutions and design, build, and connect critical systems to run smoothly at defining moments in a commerce business. Pivotree serves as a trusted partner to over 170 market-leading brands and forward-thinking B2C and B2B companies, including many companies in the Fortune 1000. With offices and customers in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, Pivotree is widely recognized as a high-growth company and industry leader around the globe. For more information, visit http://www.pivotree.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. SOURCE Pivotree Inc. Related Links https://pivotree.com/ SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading digital signage and experience platform provider, Raydiant , has joined forces with WiFi-powered marketing platform Adentro to bring valuable customer insights to brick-and-mortar customers. The Adentro marketing suite pairs with the guest WiFi network in physical business locations to create a closed-loop marketing platform and attribution system. The WiFi connection not only provides a way for customers to opt in to the merchant's CRM, but also provides data and insights around customer visit behavior. This gives retailers, restaurants, and other brick-and-mortar businesses the data they need to project sales and create targeted marketing campaigns. Raydiant digital screens can then be set accordingly, showing in-store signage that speaks directly to that audience, based on Adentro data. "Partnering with Adentro opens up a new and rare insight into customer behavior for brick and mortars," said Raydiant CEO, Bobby Marhamat. "With Adentro, they can measure key metrics like dwell time, visit frequency, peak hours, demographic breakdowns and other important data. The technology offers our brick-and-mortar customers a window into what their customers want and who they are. This data is crucial for creating targeted marketing campaigns that bring in more business and sales, both online and off." Adentro CEO John Kelly agrees that the new partnership will be a boon for brick-and-mortar businesses. "We're excited to join forces with Raydiant," said Kelly. "Both of our platforms work off the basic truth that a brick and mortar's success is inexorably linked to their in-store customer experience. Aligning our platforms and bringing Adentro technology to Raydiant customers simply makes sense." Adentro's proprietary technology lets businesses connect their online marketing efforts to real customer visits at their physical location. Doubling as a CRM, all data is stored against customer profiles in Adentro, which can be used to build out customer segments and create automated marketing campaigns based on visit behavior. Adentro technology is available to Raydiant customers with an additional fee, and the platform is a natural complement to the Raydiant customer experience platform. To learn more, visit raydiant.com . About Raydiant Raydiant's Experience Management Platform enables organizations to build strong, long-lasting relationships with their employees and customers by helping them create memorable, interactive experiences both in-location and in the workplace. Their easy-to-use, plug-and-play, cloud-based solution empowers Raydiant customers to create, manage and scale experiences across 1 or 100,000 locations anytime, anywhere. Founded in April 2017, Raydiant is backed by notable investors, including Bloomberg Beta, Lerer Hippeau, Transmedia Capital, 8VC, Atomic Ventures, and Ron Conway. Media contact: Bobby Marhamat [email protected] 4152711270 SOURCE Raydiant, Inc. LOUISVILLE Ky., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ScholarRx today announced a new partnership with APSA, the American Physician Scientists Association, which serves as a voice for physician-scientist trainees at all levels. As a part of this partnership, APSA becomes a charter member of ScholarRx's Medical Student Alliance for Global Education, or MeSAGE. MeSAGE empowers student organizations with the tools and expertise to build medical educational content that is often missing from standard curriculum. This partnership will focus on developing curriculum on platforms that are critical to APSA, including but not limited to: Tomorrow's physician Diversity/inclusion Women in science and medicine Along with helping to drive and develop this curriculum, APSA members will be granted access to these materials through the Rx Bricks digital learning system developed by ScholarRx, including the new Bricks Create authoring platform. APSA's president, Jose Rodrigues, states, "APSA is the leading voice for physician-scientist trainees. We pride ourselves in supporting the development of a robust and diverse physician-scientist workforce. Our team is committed to building value for our members, and thus we are excited about our partnership with ScholarRx. By providing cutting-edge resources in medical curricula, this partnership will enable our members to support their own training as the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders in science and medicine." Dr. Tao Le, founder and CEO of ScholarRx, comments, "Through MeSAGE, we are excited to partner with APSA to address deep education needs at a global level and to help future physician scientists define, build, and learn the key content that may be missing from the standard curriculum." About ScholarRx: ScholarRx is a mission-driven organization currently serving over 150,000 medical students and physician learners annually. ScholarRx has developed a revolutionary componentized, multi-competency curricular platform that empowers medical schools and medical student organizations to rapidly develop high-quality education experiences, even in resource-constrained environments. About APSA: The American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) is a national organization dedicated to addressing the needs of future physician scientists with respect to their training and career development. The mission of APSA is to be a voice for physician-scientist trainees at all levels. APSA aims to help physician-scientist trainees realize their educational and professional goals in an organization free from harassment or discrimination based on gender, orientation, race, ethnicity, or religion. SOURCE ScholarRx Related Links http://www.scholarrx.com The Black in Jewelry Coalition (BIJC) is hosting "Together by Design", celebrating Black love and jewelry design. Tweet this "The Together By Design contest highlights, celebrates and elevates Black jewelry designers and love," said Annie Doresca, BIJC President. The Together By Design contest is open to couples residing in the United States who are not already married, although they can be engaged. Once the winning love story is selected, the second phase of the Together by Design competition is for the competing jewelry designers to sketch a ring based on the couples' love story. The winning design will be brought to life and given to the winning couple. All judges are members of BIJC. Judges of the Together By Design Love Story contest include: Michelle Graff, Editor-In-Chief of National Jeweler; Elyssa Jenkins- Perez, Director of Membership and Digital Content at JVC and Vice President of BIJC; Amina Sorel, Amina Sorel Fine Jewelry; Guerdy Abraira, Owner of Guerdy Design; and Severine Ferrari, Founder of Engagement 101. Judges of the Together By Design Jewelry competition include: Jalnar Dhanani-Wade, Owner and Designer of The Benchmark Collection; Jennifer Gandia, Co-owner of Greenwich St. Jewelers; Ronke Nedd, Founder and Creative Head at Rebecca Noff Designs Inc.; Sheryl Jones, Sheryl Jones Inc; Marla Aaron, Marla Aaron Jewelry. For full contest rules and to enter, visit https://blackinjewelry.org/together-by-design/. SOURCE Black in Jewelry Coalition Steve Vance, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, said: "We greatly appreciate the donation of these important pieces to our collection at the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Cherry Creek, SD, Chief Hump's camp and the oldest still inhabited Mniconjou community in the Dakota's, was the place Spotted Elk stopped before the final journey towards Wounded Knee." Chief Spotted Elk's Smith & Wesson Schofield Second Model 45-caliber single action pistol was one of his possessions later found in Geronimo-Mangas Caves (Canada). It is accompanied by documentation from Deborah Spotted Tail Elk, the Chief's great-great-granddaughter, confirming that this pistol was his. His personal knife with 19th Century blade, stag elk handle, and brass fittings was assembled by Spotted Elk himself as part of the Ghost Dance tradition. This piece was removed from the Chief's frozen body by a soldier after the Wounded Knee massacre. "We're honored to support the return of these historic artifacts;" noted Thomaston Place Auction Galleries owner and auctioneer Kaja Veilleux. "Our client, a collector and dedicated student of Native American history, is thrilled to see them back home where they belong and where they can be preserved for future generations." Spotted Elk became hereditary chief of the Mniconjou Sioux in 1874. He participated in the Indian Wars of 1875-1876, most notably the Battle of Little Big Horn, and he took part in the exodus to Canada in 1876. On return to the United States, the Tribe was assigned to the Wounded Knee Creek Reservation. With the rise of the "Ghost Dance" (a spiritual movement that prophesied the reunion of Indian tribes and removal of the white man), of which he was a proponent, and the death of Geronimo in 1890, the leader known by U.S. soldiers as "Big Foot" was deemed to be the last major threat from the Sioux, which the Army solved by massacring them all in their winter camp. Based in Thomaston, ME, Thomaston Place Auction Galleries is an international auction company that is a leader in discovering antique and fine art treasures. Their expertise in researching and marketing antiques and fine art has earned Thomaston Place the respect of buyers, collectors and experts worldwide. SOURCE Thomaston Place Auction Galleries Related Links www.thomastonauction.com LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the world's largest humanitarian organization fighting global hunger, today announced that Multi-platinum and Diamond certified global superstar The Weeknd has been named a Goodwill Ambassador. He joins an international roster of ambassadors who use their voices and platforms to advocate for ending global hunger. Each year, the U.N. World Food Programme provides lifesaving food assistance to over 100 million people in more than 80 countries. "The U.N. World Food Programme is doing urgent and important work to change and save lives on a daily basis and I feel passionately about addressing world hunger and helping people in need. Our partnership is an authentic extension of all our efforts and intentions to help those in need and bring an end to so much suffering," said Abel 'The Weeknd' Tesfaye. The Weeknd has been a passionate advocate and generous supporter of humanitarian causes throughout his career, with over $3 million in donations to various organizations in the past year. Most recently, he donated $1 million to the U.N. World Food Programme's relief efforts in Ethiopia following months of deadly violence in northern Ethiopia. As the son of Ethiopian immigrants to Canada, the conflict deeply impacted him, and ultimately this moved him to deepen his relationship with the U.N. World Food Programme. "We are thrilled to welcome The Weeknd to the WFP family. His compassion and commitment to helping the world's hungriest people is truly inspirational," said United Nations World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley. "Every night, 811 million people go to bed hungry, and another 270 million are marching toward starvation. This is just not right and we have got to speak out and act today to save lives. We need everyone to come join our movement to end hunger - it is all hands on deck to avoid a global catastrophe." "Whether he is performing or speaking out about global hunger, The Weeknd's voice is powerful and inspiring, only matched by his dedication to helping people around the globe," said World Food Program USA President and CEO Barron Segar. "We are honored that he has joined our mission. He will undoubtedly inspire the next generation of humanitarians in the fight to ensure no man, woman, or child goes to bed hungry." About the U.N. World Food Programme: The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the world's largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people living with conflict, natural disasters and the impact of climate change. World Food Program USA, a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, DC, proudly supports the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme by mobilizing American policymakers, businesses and individuals to advance the global movement to end hunger. Our leadership and support help to bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world. To learn more about World Food Program USA's mission, please visit wfpusa.org/about-us. About The Weeknd: Filtering R&B and pop through an ambitious widescreen lens, The Weeknd has taken over popular music and culture on his own terms. The multi-platinum and diamond certified star is one of the most listened to artists in the world on Spotify (over 68 billion streams), and is a top 10 artist of all time for RIAA singles. His 2020 album After Hours is the #1 most streamed R&B album of all time (followed by his 2016 album Starboy at #2), and his 80's nostalgic track "Blinding Lights" went 5X RIAA-certified platinum and broke the record for Billboard's longest-running #1 on its US radio chart. Alongside his gilded musical career, he has graced the covers of TIME, Forbes, Variety, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, and GQ magazines, as well as late night TV stages with heralded performances on SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and the VMAs, where he accepted the awards for Video of the Year and Best R&B and most impactfully as the solo headliner of the 2021 Super Bowl LV. He walked away from The Billboard Music Awards with 9 trophies including Top Artist, along with notable wins and performances at the acclaimed Brit Awards and iHeart Music Awards. In recent times he has made acting appearances in TV and film, with 2019's film Uncut Gems as well as starring in and co-writing an episode of the hit show American Dad. He generously shares, making over $3M in donations so far in 2020 and 2021 to various charities including a recent $1 million dollar donation to help with the crisis in Ethiopia. The continuous record breaking of charts, sales and streams, headlining the biggest festivals and stadiums in the world including this year's Super Bowl, and his ever mysterious public persona have combined to establish The Weeknd as one of the most compelling and significant artists of the 21st century. Media Contacts: Toula Athas World Food Program USA Director, Communications [email protected] ID, on behalf of World Food Program USA [email protected] Kathryn Frazier BIZ 3 Founder/CEO [email protected] SOURCE U.N. World Food Programme Related Links https://www.wfpusa.org SOUTH BEND, Ind., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global mobility solutions provider, AM General, will feature products and services that demonstrate continuous transformation for todays and tomorrow's demands on the modern battlefield at the Annual Meeting and Exposition of the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Oct. 11-13, 2021, Booth #7341, Hall D, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. "We are excited about attending this year's AUSA, and especially grateful for all of the work done to make this in-person show a reality." said Jim Cannon, President & CEO of AM General. "I'm extremely proud of the enduring HUMVEE platform and I'm looking forward to highlighting our investments and innovation with the NXT 360 and other breakthrough technologies that meet the army's modernization needs." On display at the show will be a diverse lineup of products that highlight the company's continuous innovative spirit and its commitment to future technologies. Making its US debut, the HUMVEE NXT 360 delivers MRAP levels of protection in a truly light tactical vehicle for increased survivability without sacrificing mobility or agility. Visitors to the booth will also see the HUMVEE 4-CT vehicle with the Expanded Capability Kit (XCK) - Troop Transport (9) with capacity for up to 9 warfighters. This vehicle represents the latest automotive technology that AM General offers customers, including enhanced occupant safety, upgraded powertrain options, and improved mobility and handling. Finally, AM General will present a new tactical security truck, the HUMVEE X-TSV (Extreme Tactical Security Vehicle), that has a proven chassis and armored cell designed with mission driven versatility, purpose-built reliability, and a low platform sustainment cost versus competitors in its class. AM General continues to capitalize on its strategic partnerships to develop products and technology that meet the requirements to win in an ever-evolving world. Through a new agreement with global integrated defense company QinetiQ facilitated by Lincoln International, the company is exploring electrification technologies for military vehicles, including the integration of their militarized Hub Drives technology into the AM General platforms to deliver hybrid tactical vehicles for the future battlefield. Together, the companies are looking at innovative ways to meet the U.S. Army's future requirements for extended-range hybrid, increased sustainability and performance through electrification. AM General will also have representatives available to provide in-depth information on engineering and logistics services, their award-winning global supply chain management, field service support, as well as parts and equipment warranty support. About AM General AM General designs, engineers, manufactures, supplies, and supports specialized vehicles for military and commercial customers worldwide. Through its military business, the company is widely recognized as the world leader in design, engineering, manufacturing, and logistics support of military grade tactical vehicles, having produced and sustained more than 300,000 vehicles in over 70 countries. AM General has extensive experience meeting the changing needs of the defense and automotive industries, supported by its employees at major facilities in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, and a strong supplier base that stretches across 43 states. Please see more information about AM General at www.amgeneral.com . Media Contact: Deborah Reyes, Global Marketing and Communications Director / AM General E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE AM General Related Links https://www.amgeneral.com LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vision Films Inc. ("Vision") announces the US and Canadian VOD release on October 16 of sci-fi alien adventure White Sky from M and M Film Productions UK. Written by Philip Daay, directed and produced by Adam Wilson, and produced by Malcolm Winter, Makenna Guyler, and Monika Gergelova of M and M. White Sky was filmed on location in Wales during the pandemic, September 2020. White Sky Sci-Fi Thriller Movie Poster Vision Films, Inc. Logo Synopsis : When three campers witness an alien mothership descending on their town and turning the population into "Altered" human beings, they team up with a reclusive stranger who offers to guide them to safety. As they're chased deep into the forest and one of them becomes infected, they realize there's nowhere to hide from the Altered horde that seems intent upon finding and assimilating them. Trailer: https://youtu.be/U_Ywe4yMvM8 Starring: Natalie Martins (Get Gone), Ade Dimberline (The Spanish Princess), Makenna Guyler (King of Crime), and Jordan McFarlane. Lise Romanoff, CEO/Managing Director of Vision Films shares, "White Sky is the perfect sci-fi release for Halloween, it covers all the bases the horror audiences love: great special effects, suspense, action and of course, aliens." Malcolm Winter, Managing Director/Commercial Director says, "M & M Film Productions overcome all the obstacles to shoot White Sky in the lockdown and create an entertaining Sci-Fi drama." Monika Gergelova, CEO/Managing Director adds, "White Sky has a strong female character in "Hailey" who does not give up, no matter what she has to face. Sensational all the way through." White Sky will be available on all major streaming and cable platforms in the US and Canada, and on DVD October 19, 2021. About Vision Films Vision Films is a leading independent sales and VOD aggregator specializing in the licensing, marketing, and distribution of over 800 feature films, documentaries, and series from some of the most prolific independent film producers in the world. Led by Lise Romanoff, Managing Director/CEO Worldwide Distribution, Vision Films releases 2-4 films a month across Theatrical, VOD, DVD, and television platforms. visionfilms.net About M and M Productions and M Productions is an Independent UK Motion Picture Production company founded/led by Monika Gergelova, CEO/Managing Director and Malcolm Winter Managing Director/Commercial Director and together they bring decades of motion picture and investment financing to M & M Film Productions. The principals also possess well-respected relationships with production suppliers and distribution outlets on a needed basis. Media Contact: Andrea McKinnon [email protected] (818) 415-9442 SOURCE Vision Films, Inc. "Since we first introduced Bandit wines in lightweight, eco-minded Tetra Pak cartons in 2003, we've made protecting the environment our mission," said Charles Bieler, co-founder of Bandit Wines. "Partnering with 1% for the Planet in 2019 helped us continue that cause, and we're proud to help fund the environmental nonprofits that need our help." One percent of proceeds from Bandit Wines will continue to benefit organizations such as National Park Foundation and Protect Our Winters both organizations close to the hearts of founders Charles Bieler and Joel Gott. Bieler and Gott aim to make the brand's 2022 contribution even more impactful, with the help of Bandit's fans. Bandit fans wishing to support and further 1% for the Planet's mission can purchase Bandit's seven varietals. The wines spanning Pinot Grigio to Cabernet Sauvignon are packaged in convenient, easy-to-tote, easy-to-seal Tetra Pak cartons depicting a unique American outdoor landscape. Visit www.banditwines.com to learn more about how 1% for the Planet partner Bandit Wines contributes to environmental causes. About Bandit Wines Bandit Wines is the brainchild of Charles Bieler and Joel Gott, a rogue winemaking pair who forged a partnership in 2003 to bring their passion for great wine and their thirst for exploration together in convenient, easy-to-tote 1L and 500mL Tetra Pak cartons. Bandit's lightweight box design and twist-to-open cap make it an adventure-ready wine that stays fresh and uses natural resources responsibly. Bandit is available nationwide in seven popular varietalsPinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Dry Rose, Merlot, Red Blend and Cabernet Sauvignoneach featuring unique, custom illustrations that inspire outdoor adventure and appreciation of America's treasured landscapes. For more information visit www.banditwines.com. About 1% for the Planet 1% for the Planet is a global organization that exists to ensure our planet and future generations thrive. We inspire businesses and individuals to support environmental nonprofits through membership and everyday actions. We make environmental giving easy and effective through partnership advising, impact storytelling and third-party certification. Started in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, our business members and individual members have given hundreds of millions of dollars to our approved nonprofit partners to date. Today, 1% for the Planet's global network consists of thousands of businesses, individuals and environmental nonprofits working toward a better future for all. Look for our logo to purchase for the planet, learn more and join at onepercentfortheplanet.org. Social Media Instagram: @BanditWines Facebook: @BanditWines Twitter: @BanditWines SOURCE Bandit Wines ACL Airshop is a market leader in Air Cargo "ULD" logistics support worldwide at more than 50 major airports. Tweet this Customers highly value the worldwide availability of our large and growing fleet of ULDs. Flexible lease terms can be as short as 7 days, or meaningful savings are available with long term leases and full-fleet ULD Management programs. Flexible lease terms can be as short as 7 days, or meaningful savings are available with long term leases and full-fleet ULD Management programs. Customers appreciate our large worldwide network of service points at major hub airports. This allows one-way leases and drop-off's at destinations when desired. Customers can pick up and return worldwide. ACL Airshop locations on six continents carry all types of ULDs and cargo restraints such as nets, straps, fittings and corner ropes. This allows one-way leases and drop-off's at destinations when desired. Customers can pick up and return worldwide. ACL Airshop locations on six continents carry all types of ULDs and cargo restraints such as nets, straps, fittings and corner ropes. Customers recognize the value of speed and efficiency. ACL Airshop is well-known for its speed of responsiveness to clients on a 24/7/365 basis. "Custom ULD Solutions" speaks to the array of flexible programs that ACL Airshop offers, not rigid programs such as ULD fleet pooling. ACL Airshop is well-known for its speed of responsiveness to clients on a 24/7/365 basis. "Custom ULD Solutions" speaks to the array of flexible programs that ACL Airshop offers, not rigid programs such as ULD fleet pooling. Customers know that the digitalization wave is changing things quickly . The nature of logistics management in air cargo is now enhanced with innovative technologies, which is why ACL Airshop created "FindMyULD" and other effective new tools. "ULD Control," Bluetooth tracking, and proprietary Repair Station software are examples of continuous investments so customers can manage their ULD fleet around the world from the palm of their hand . The nature of logistics management in air cargo is now enhanced with innovative technologies, which is why ACL Airshop created "FindMyULD" and other effective new tools. "ULD Control," Bluetooth tracking, and proprietary Repair Station software are examples of continuous investments so customers can manage their ULD fleet around the world . Customers see ACL Airshop as a one-stop shop. We operate in five highly complementary business segments: Cargo Control Products Manufacturing, ULD Leasing, ULD Sales, ULD Repairs, and ULD Logistics Management. Sustainability has become an important strategic imperative in the air transport industry. ACL Airshop is committed to doing its part for a greener, better world. For example, the company provides lightweight aluminum pallets for lease, which are engineered to be thin but strong, reducing overall weight and thus saving fuel burn and costs in the long-term. In its own internal investments, the company recently built an ultra-modern new production facility in South Carolina, using numerous Lean techniques to enhance productivity, increase materials velocity, and reduce utilities waste. The company is playing a prominent role in the Dublin symposium as the leader and sponsor of a full day covering Sustainability, with expert presentations by more than a dozen industry thought-leaders from around the world. ACL Airshop owns, maintains and leases more than 50,000 Unit Load Devices (ULDs), including air freight pallets and containers, issued from 55 airport hub locations across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. ACL Airshop's strong growth in recent years builds on the company's 38-year heritage as an air cargo equipment and logistics specialist. Its worldwide services network has expanded from 23 airport hub locations in 2016 to 55 at latest count. Today, the company maintains the largest independent inventory of lease-ready ULD assets in the industry for short-term solutions, and also has an array of longer-term ULD Management contracts. The company is deploying innovative logistics technologies such as "FindMyULD" which yield better fleet efficiencies and operational cost savings for customers. ACL Airshop was first-in-market among its competitive class to offer Bluetooth tracking & tracing of air cargo pallets and containers. For more information, please visit www.ACLairshop.com. Forward Looking Statements: The Company from time to time may discuss forward-looking information. Except for factual historical information, all forward looking statements are estimates by the Company's management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that are beyond the Company's control and may cause actual results to differ materially from management's expectations. SOURCE ACL Airshop DETROIT, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) today announced that it will conduct its 2022 annual meeting of stockholders on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. Additional details will be provided in the company's proxy statement. About Ally Financial Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a digital financial services company committed to its promise to "Do It Right" for its consumer, commercial and corporate customers. Ally is composed of an industry-leading independent auto finance and insurance operation, an award-winning digital direct bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender, which offers mortgage lending, point-of-sale personal lending, and a variety of deposit and other banking products), a corporate finance business for equity sponsors and middle-market companies, and securities brokerage and investment advisory services. A relentless ally for all things money, Ally helps people save well and earn well, so they can spend for what matters. For more information, please visit www.ally.com and follow @allyfinancial. For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit https://www.ally.com/#disclosures. Contacts: Daniel Eller Ally Investor Relations 704-444-5216 [email protected] Jillian Palash Ally Communications (Media) 704-644-6201 [email protected] SOURCE Ally Financial Related Links http://www.ally.com LONDON, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Successful entrepreneur George Meressa, the founder and CEO of the renowned Amazon advertising agency Clear Ads, was recently featured in "My London News." The article, "Croydon man, 33, went from selling sweets at school to running 1.2m business and working 3 hours a week," highlights Meressa's journey from growing up in a low-income family to running a successful million-pound business. To read the full article, visit https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/croydon-man-33-went-selling-21526924. George Meressa Clear Ads Founder Meressa has always possessed a knack for business, which naturally led him to attend university, where he studied for a degree in Business Management. His big break came from working for a friend who ran a Google advertisement agency. Meressa says, "He gave me that opportunity; I knew from that day that I was set for life." Eventually, Meressa began exploring his own business venture with Clear Ads, where he narrowed his advertising focus to Amazon PPC. The company was already well-established as a go-to for Amazon PPC and DSP ads advertising before the pandemic; however, once the pandemic hit, there was a significant shift to online business, and the demand for Clear Ads services exploded. His team has since grown to an impressive 21 employees, allowing Meressa the time he requires to focus on his health. To date, Meressa has more than 10 years of experience in digital advertising, including Google, Amazon, Bing, LinkedIn and Facebook pay-per-click platforms. He has worked with countless advertisers across the globe in many different industries and sectors. Clear Ads uses data-driven strategies to grow sales, increase profits, lower cost of sale and maximize return on investment for clients using Amazon DSP and PPC. The company website is an excellent resource for online sellers, hosting a podcast and blog page with exclusive insight from the Clear Ads team and special guests, strategic advice to boost Amazon ads and DSP performance, as well as interviews, case studies and recommendations to help fine-tune campaigns with real-world strategies to implement right away. To learn more about Clear Ads Amazon advertising services, visit the official company website at https://clearadsagency.com. Contact Name: George Meressa Contact Phone: +442037474686 Contact Email: [email protected] About Clear Ads Clear Ads is a paid advertising agency focusing on Amazon and Google for small and medium-sized enterprises around the world. SOURCE Clear Ads Related Links http://clearadsagency.com DUBLIN, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, plans to announce third quarter 2021 results on Friday, October 29th, 2021 in a news release to be issued at 5:00 am Central Time. Greg Case, CEO, will host a conference call at 7:30 am Central Time on Friday, October 29th, 2021. The conference call will be broadcast live through Aon's website at www.aon.com. A replay will be available shortly after the live webcast. The earnings release and supplemental slide presentation will be available on Aon's web site at www.aon.com. About Aon Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Our colleagues provide our clients in over 120 countries with advice and solutions that give them the clarity and confidence to make better decisions to protect and grow their business. Follow Aon on Twitter and LinkedIn. Stay up-to-date by visiting the Aon Newsroom and sign up for News Alerts here. Investor Contact Investor Relations [email protected] +1 312 381 3310 Media Contact Nadine Youssef [email protected] +1 312 381 3024 SOURCE Aon plc HAMBURG, Germany, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AUTOCRYPT Co., Ltd., a leading mobility security solutions provider, announced its participation at the ITS World Congress 2021 event to be held between October 11th to 15th, 2021. ITS World Congress is one of the largest events focusing on future mobility and digitalization of transportation, and the event offers exceptional access to the global community by inviting all sectors in the mobility field to play a role in the ongoing development of intelligent transport systems (ITS) and services. At this year's offline event, AUTOCRYPT will be presenting a range of mobility security solutions dedicated to creating a holistic mobility security services platform with a focus on V2X security, supporting regional standards of the EU, North America, as well as China, and APAC. AUTOCRYPT's V2X security product AutoCrypt V2X not only provides an endpoint security library and backend PKI authentication system but also customizable UI based on centralized management service. As one of the top five V2X security providers in the world, according to Markets and Markets, AUTOCRYPT plans to showcase its oversight of South Korea's smart road V2X capabilities at booth B5.014 at the ITS event. Additionally, with its newest vSOC (Vehicle Security Operations Center) for its in-vehicle security solution, AutoCrypt IVS, OEMs can enjoy convenient management and access to oversee monitoring and detection of any vehicular cybersecurity threats. "As Europe sets itself apart as an essential market for the development of mobility and security solutions, our expansion into Europe with our newest Munich office and ITS World Congress 2021 gives us confidence for a post-pandemic era," said Daniel ES Kim, AUTOCRYPT's CEO and co-Founder. "We are thrilled to provide more of our solutions worldwide by offering a greater commitment to providing integrated mobility security technologies for OEMs and suppliers in the industry." Find out more about AUTOCRYPT and its comprehensive mobility security solutions by visiting booth B5.014 or contact [email protected] AUTOCRYPT is the leading player in transportation security technologies. Recognized by TU-Automotive as the Best Auto Cybersecurity Product/Solution of 2019, AUTOCRYPT continues to pave the way in transportation and mobility security through a multi-layered, holistic approach. Through security solutions for V2X/C-V2X, V2G (including PnC security), in-vehicle security, and Fleet Management, AUTOCRYPT ensures that security is prioritized before vehicles hit the road. SOURCE AUTOCRYPT BEIJING, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) ("Autohome" or the "Company"), the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China, today announced that Mr. Xiao Wang has resigned as Chief Technology Officer of the Company due to his other personal commitments, effective immediately. The Company's board of directors has appointed Mr. Bibo Xiang as the new Chief Technology Officer effective immediately, in charge of the Company's overall technology framework and development roadmap. Mr. Xiang has extensive experience in the fields of search engine, commercial advertising, recommendation system, natural language processing and data mining. Prior to joining Autohome, Mr. Xiang served as senior vice president of VIPKID, and Chief Technology Officer of Koolearn Technology Holding Limited (HKEX: 1797), in charge of digital transformation of education and training business. Prior to that, Mr. Xiang worked at Yahoo Search, Taobao Advertising, Shanda Online, 360 Search and 360 Commercial Products, where he was responsible for technology management of search, recommendation and advertising businesses. Mr. Xiang received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Technology from Southwest Jiaotong University in 1999, and his master's degree in Information Security from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2006. Mr. Quan Long, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Autohome, stated, "On behalf of Autohome, I'm pleased to welcome Mr. Xiang to the team as Autohome's Chief Technology Officer. We believe that his extensive experience and dedication will strengthen our technological capabilities and further our pursuit of innovation. We also would like to thank Mr. Xiao Wang for his considerable efforts and contributions to the Company during his tenure as CTO, in particular in enhancing our technology infrastructure and the technology components of our services as we continue to cultivate the auto ecosystem. We respect his decision and wish Xiao continued success in his future endeavors." About Autohome Inc. Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) is the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China. Its mission is to engage, educate and inform consumers about everything auto. Autohome provides original generated content, professionally generated content, user-generated content, and AI-generated content, a comprehensive automobile library, and extensive automobile listing information to automobile consumers, covering the entire car purchase and ownership cycle. The ability to reach a large and engaged user base of automobile consumers has made Autohome a preferred platform for automakers and dealers to conduct their advertising campaigns. Further, the Company's dealer subscription and advertising services allow dealers to market their inventory and services through Autohome's platform, extending the reach of their physical showrooms to potentially millions of internet users in China and generating sales leads for them. The Company offers sales leads, data analysis, and marketing services to assist automakers and dealers with improving their efficiency and facilitating transactions. Autohome operates its "Autohome Mall," a full-service online transaction platform, to facilitate transactions for automakers and dealers. Further, through its websites and mobile applications, it also provides other value-added services, including auto financing, auto insurance, used car transactions, and aftermarket services. For further information, please visit www.autohome.com.cn . Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will", "expects", "anticipates", "future", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, Autohome's business outlook, Autohome's strategic and operational plans and quotations from management in this announcement contain forward-looking statements. Autohome may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), in announcements made on the website of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Hong Kong Stock Exchange"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Autohome's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Autohome's goals and strategies; Autohome's future business development, results of operations and financial condition; the expected growth of the online automobile advertising market in China; Autohome's ability to attract and retain users and advertisers and further enhance its brand recognition; Autohome's expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its products and services; competition in the online automobile advertising industry; relevant government policies and regulatory environment in China; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Autohome's filings with the SEC and announcements on the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Autohome does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: In China: Autohome Inc. Investor Relations Tel: +86-10-5985-7483 E-mail: [email protected] The Piacente Group, Inc. Jenny Cai Tel: +86-10-6508-0677 E-mail: [email protected] In the United States: The Piacente Group, Inc. Brandi Piacente Tel: +1-212-481-2050 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE Autohome Inc. Related Links http://www.autohome.com.cn TORONTO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- During the early days of the COVID-19 global pandemic, more and more doctors began providing telemedicine services to patients. This didn't just help patients receive safe, socially-distant treatment, it also demonstrated to all involved just how effective patient-doctor virtual visits can be. While it is entirely possible (but definitely not recommended) that some doctors could walk away from telemedicine once COVID-19 subsides, there is no doubt that telemedicine has made a lasting impression and patients want online treatment options. (L to R): Scott Wilson and Dr. Richard Tytus, Co-Founders of Banty Inc. Banty Inc. - Official Full Logo According to recent findings shared by Statista, 48% of surveyed respondents believe that telemedicine is the way of the future. Dr. Richard Tytus, Co-Founder and Medical Director of telemedicine solution Banty Inc. , shares that belief because he thinks virtual medicine can: Improve a clinic's reach: When a medical practice offers telemedicine services, it becomes a go-to spot for new patients. This could include a patient switching doctors because their previous one didn't offer virtual doctor visits, or someone who travels a lot for business and needs a telemedicine option. No matter the case, allowing for virtual visits can help a clinic expand its patient roster When a medical practice offers telemedicine services, it becomes a go-to spot for new patients. This could include a patient switching doctors because their previous one didn't offer virtual doctor visits, or someone who travels a lot for business and needs a telemedicine option. No matter the case, allowing for virtual visits can help a clinic expand its patient roster Provide ultimate patient convenience: Getting to and from a doctor's appointment requires a lot of work for some patients. By offering virtual appointments instead and receiving the same, or better, level of care patients will appreciate how much easier it can be to confer with their doctor. Yes, some appointments will still need to happen in-person, but telemedicine allows for a wide array of treatments to be provided from a distance Getting to and from a doctor's appointment requires a lot of work for some patients. By offering virtual appointments instead and receiving the same, or better, level of care patients will appreciate how much easier it can be to confer with their doctor. Yes, some appointments will still need to happen in-person, but telemedicine allows for a wide array of treatments to be provided from a distance Prevent patients from getting sicker: Some patients put off coming to an in-person doctor's appointments out of fear of catching a virus while sitting in the waiting room. This can lead to a patient not getting the treatment they need for a current medical issue and getting sicker as a result. Telemedicine helps eliminate this possibility, as patients can now see a doctor from the comfort of their living room Some patients put off coming to an in-person doctor's appointments out of fear of catching a virus while sitting in the waiting room. This can lead to a patient not getting the treatment they need for a current medical issue and getting sicker as a result. Telemedicine helps eliminate this possibility, as patients can now see a doctor from the comfort of their living room Continually evolve year after year: If there is one guarantee with technology, it's that evolution is always happening. Every year, new forms of technology are emerging and helping us live and work better. The same goes for telemedicine solutions. Consistently, new telemedicine solutions (like Banty Medical ) are emerging and offering medical clinics and their patients better ways to connect with each other through the introduction of game-changing features and applications. Don't expect this to stop any time soon "Medical clinics currently using a telemedicine solution are leading the charge and showing patients just how easy and safe it can be to visit their doctor virtually," adds Dr. Tytus. "As a result, I expect more and more patients to choose this method of treatment for years and years to come." Banty.com's video call service offers all subscribers a custom, permanent URL (i.e., Banty.com/MyMeeting ); a secure, end-to-end encrypted meeting space; excellent video quality; and unlimited meetings each month. Banty has a number of solutions that are meant to make it easy to meet with those who matter most to you. (Watch the 'Banty Is Easy' video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhmVdwrR_w8&t=10s ) Today, everyone has a mobile number and an email address. In the near future, everyone will have a Banty room address: Banty.com/YourName About Banty Founded in 2020, Banty offers exceptional video conferencing solutions for Businesses , Medical Practices , Virtual Events , and Personal use . Banty video conferencing is easy to use and ultra-secure. The platform provides users with a dedicated Banty.com URL , accessible via any desktop browser or through iOS and Android mobile apps. In order to receive government approval to become a verified medical platform, Banty was upgraded to meet new cyber security standards, making it one of the most secure platforms available. Each day, the Banty team goes above and beyond to ensure the platform remains one of the most secure and innovative virtual meeting solutions in the world. For more information, please visit Banty.org/solutions , or follow Banty on social media to learn more about the latest platform innovations: LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube , Instagram . Contact: Scott Wilson 289-259-8059 [email protected] SOURCE Banty Inc. NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION SEB INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT AB, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. SYMANTEC CORPORATION and GREGORY S. CLARK, Defendants. Case No. 3:18-cv-02902-WHA ECF CASE Dept.: Courtroom 12, 19th Floor Judge: Honorable William Alsup SUMMARY NOTICE OF (I) PROPOSED SETTLEMENT AND PLAN OF ALLOCATION; (II) SETTLEMENT HEARING; AND (III) MOTION FOR ATTORNEYS' FEES AND LITIGATION EXPENSES To: All persons and entities that, during the period from May 11, 2017 to August 2, 2018, inclusive (the "Class Period"), purchased or otherwise acquired shares of the publicly traded common stock of Symantec Corporation ("Symantec") and were damaged thereby (the "Class").1 PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY; YOUR RIGHTS WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE SETTLEMENT OF A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT PENDING IN THIS COURT. YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED, pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and an Order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, that the Court-appointed Class Representative, SEB Investment Management AB, on behalf of itself and the Court-certified Class, in the above-captioned securities class action (the "Action") has reached a proposed settlement of the Action with defendants Symantec Corporation, now known as NortonLifeLock Inc. ("Symantec") and Gregory S. Clark (collectively, "Defendants") for $70,000,000 in cash that, if approved, will resolve all claims in the Action. A hearing will be held on February 10, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, before the Honorable William Alsup, either in person at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Courthouse, Courtroom 12 - 19th Floor, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102, or by telephone or videoconference (in the discretion of the Court) to determine: (i) whether the proposed Settlement should be approved as fair, reasonable, and adequate; (ii) whether the Action should be dismissed with prejudice against Defendants, and the releases specified and described in the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement dated June 8, 2021 should be granted; (iii) whether the proposed Plan of Allocation should be approved as fair and reasonable; and (iv) whether Lead Counsel's application for an award of attorneys' fees and payment of expenses should be approved. Lead Counsel, which has been prosecuting the Action on a wholly contingent basis, has not received any payment of attorneys' fees for their representation of the Class and have advanced the funds to pay expenses necessarily incurred to prosecute the Action. Lead Counsel will apply to the Court for an award of attorneys' fees in an amount not to exceed 19% of the Settlement Fund, or $13.3 million, plus interest. In addition, Lead Counsel will apply for payment of Litigation Expenses in connection with the institution, prosecution, and resolution of the Action in an amount not to exceed $2.5 million. The total Notice and Administration Costs are estimated to be $415,000. Any fees and expenses awarded by the Court will be paid from the Settlement Fund. Class Members are not personally liable for any such fees or expenses. If the Court approves Lead Counsel's fee and expense application, and based on the current estimate of Notice and Administration Costs, the portion of the Settlement Fund that will be distributed to Class Members will be approximately $53,785,000, plus interest accrued. If you purchased or otherwise acquired Symantec common stock during the Class Period and are a member of the Class, your rights will be affected by the pending Action and the Settlement, and you may be entitled to share in the Net Settlement Fund. If you have not yet received the full printed Notice of (I) Proposed Settlement and Plan of Allocation; (II) Settlement Hearing; and (III) Motion for Attorneys' Fees and Litigation Expenses (the "Settlement Notice") and the Claim Form, you may obtain copies of these documents by contacting the Claims Administrator at Symantec Securities Litigation, c/o A.B. Data, P.O. Box 173106, Milwaukee, WI 53217, 1-800-949-0206, [email protected]. Copies of the Settlement Notice and Claim Form can also be downloaded from the website for the Action, www.SymantecSecuritiesLitigation.com. If you are a Class Member, in order to be eligible to receive a payment under the proposed Settlement, you must submit a Claim Form online or postmarked no later 28 days after the Court approves the Settlement. The deadline may be as early as March 10, 2022. The Settlement website, www.SymantecSecuritiesLitigation.com, will be updated to inform Class Members of the approval of the Settlement, if and when that occurs. If you are a Class Member and do not submit a proper Claim Form, you will not be eligible to share in the distribution of the net proceeds of the Settlement but you will nevertheless be bound by any judgments or orders entered by the Court in the Action. If you are a member of the Class and wish to exclude yourself from the Class, you must submit a request for exclusion such that it is received no later than January 13, 2022 at midnight, in accordance with the instructions set forth in the Notice. If you properly exclude yourself from the Class, you will not be bound by any judgments or orders entered by the Court in the Action and you will not be eligible to share in the proceeds of the Settlement or object to the Settlement. Any objections to the proposed Settlement, the proposed Plan of Allocation, and/or Class Counsel's application for attorneys' fees and payment of expenses, must be filed with the Court and delivered to Class Counsel and counsel for Defendants such that they are received no later than January 13, 2022 at midnight, in accordance with the instructions set forth in the Settlement Notice. Please do not contact the Court, the Clerk's office, Symantec, any other Defendants in the Action, or their counsel regarding this notice. All questions about this notice, the proposed Settlement, or your eligibility to participate in the Settlement should be directed the Claims Administrator or Class Counsel. Requests for the Settlement Notice and Claim Form should be made to: Symantec Securities Litigation c/o A.B. Data, Ltd. P.O. Box 173106 Milwaukee, WI 53217 1-800-949-0206 [email protected] www.SymantecSecuritiesLitigation.com Inquiries, other than requests for the Settlement Notice and Claim Form, may be made to Class Counsel: Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP Jeremy P. Robinson, Esq. 1251 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 1-800-380-8496 [email protected] By Order of the Court Source: Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP 1 Certain persons and entities are excluded from the Class by definition and others are excluded pursuant to request. The full definition of the Class including a complete description of who is excluded from the Class is set forth in the full Settlement Notice referred to below. SOURCE Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare (PQHH) today commended the introduction of the Choose Home Care Act of 2021 in the U.S. House of Representatives. Introduced by Representatives Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and James Comer (R-KY), the bipartisan legislation is designed to increase access to home health care following hospitalization for eligible Medicare beneficiaries by offering a safe, high-quality post-acute option for nursing home level services in the home. The Choose Home Care Act was also introduced in the U.S. Senate (S.2562) in July by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Todd Young (R-IN). The House companion bill is also originally cosponsored by Representatives Sanford Bishop, Jr. (D-GA), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Buddy Carter (R-GA), Dwight Evans (D-PA), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Brian Higgins (D-NY), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Mike Johnson (R-LA), Tom O'Halleran (D-AZ), Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Paul Tonko (D-NY). "Since being introduced in the Senate, Choose Home has received an outpouring of support from America's home health community as well as consumer and patient advocates alike, which we believe demonstrates how important it is to increase access to safe, cost-effective care at home for Medicare beneficiaries after hospitalization. We commend Reps. Cuellar and Comer for their leadership on issues impacting the delivery of home care and are excited to see this bill introduced in the U.S. House," said NAHC President William A. Dombi, Esq. The bill is supported by AARP, LeadingAge, Allies for Independence, the National Council on Aging, Moving Health Home, the Council of State Home Care & Hospice Associations, and the Forum of State Associations. If enacted, the Choose Home Care Act would enable eligible Medicare patients to receive extended care services as an add-on to the existing Medicare Home Health benefit for 30 days post-discharge. This legislation would help seriously ill individuals recover safely at home, increasing patient and family satisfaction as well as significantly reducing the risk of exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other infectious diseases. The Choose Home model also promotes significant Medicare savingsup to an estimated $247 million annuallyby offering nursing home level services in the home setting instead of in a skilled nursing facility or other institutional settings. Further, recent polling data from Morning Consult show strong support for post-hospital care in the home with 94% of Medicare-aged respondents saying they would prefer health care at home to a nursing home. In the same poll, 86% of respondents expressed support for the Choose Home legislation, including 92% of Democrat respondents and 83% of Republican respondents. PQHH Executive Director Joanne Cunningham also thanked the House sponsors and cosponsors for their leadership in advancing this legislation in the U.S. House. "We applaud Representatives Cuellar and Comer, and all the original co-sponsors, for recognizing the value of home health and the importance of advancing legislation to increase seniors' care options after hospitalization. With their support, we are hopeful we will see the Choose Home Care Act enacted this year in order to help us better protect our nation's vulnerable aging and sick populations while also modernizing the Medicare Home Health Benefit," she said. About the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare was established in 2010 to work in partnership with government officials to ensure access to quality home healthcare services for all Americans. Representing community and hospital-based home healthcare agencies nationwide, the Partnership is dedicated to developing innovative reforms to improve the program integrity, quality and efficiency of home healthcare for our nation's seniors. To learn more, visit pqhh.org. About National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is the voice of home care and hospice. NAHC represents the nation's 33,000 home care and hospice providers, along with the more than two million nurses, therapists, and aides they employ. These caregivers provide vital services to Americans who are aged, disabled, and ill. Some 12 million patients depend on home care and hospice providers, who depend on NAHC for the best in advocacy, education, and information. NAHC is a nonprofit organization that helps its members maintain the highest standards of care. To learn more, visit nahc.org. SOURCE Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare and National Association for Home Care & Hospice NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BizVibe has added key challenges and trends for all utilities industry groups on their buyer and seller platforms. Within the utilities category, BizVibe's water, sewage, and other systems industry group consists of 15,000+ company profiles which now contain 50+ company data points, including a list of potential challenges which are expected to impact market participants over the next few years. Snapshot of key challenge impacting BizVibe's water, sewage, and other systems industry group. One challenge which is being highlighted is high energy consumption in plants. Energy is the largest cost driver for a wastewater treatment plant as it accounts for 30%-40% of overall operating costs. As a result, fluctuating energy prices put severe cost pressures on operations and challenge utility businesses to maintain cost-efficient operations. By identifying such challenges, BizVibe is helping users analyze which suppliers are right for their business, while allowing them to efficiently monitor the risk of doing business. Get Free Access to all Industry Challenges Key Insights Provided for Water, Sewage, and Other Systems In addition to analysis on how key challenges are expected to impact utilities businesses, BizVibe company profiles contain numerous high-quality insights to help users discover, track, compare, and evaluate suppliers or sales prospects. These insights include: Relevance and influence of industry trends and challenges, segmented by region Press releases and news coverage referencing key trends and challenges Risk of doing business score, segmented by operational, financial, compliance, and country risk Top company competitors at the global, regional, and national levels Names of top company decision makers, including job titles and social profiles Company financials such as annual revenue, profitability ratios, and management effectiveness View 50+ Company Data Points for Free Water, Sewage, and Other Systems Product and Service Categories BizVibe's platform provides access to over 10 million buyer and supplier company profiles. Businesses from more than 200 countries are categorized into 40,000+ product and service categories, each providing detailed insights tailored to the needs of procurement and sales teams globally. The water, sewage and other systems industry group features 15,000+ company profiles categorized into multiple product and service categories, enabling clients to identify and connect with potential new business partners across diverse market segments. Get Free Company Profile Access for all Categories BizVibe for Buyers and Sellers BizVibe is a modern B2B platform dedicated to connecting buyers and sellers from around the world. Powered by the latest best-in-class solutions, BizVibe is designed to help companies generate leads, shortlist suppliers, request proposals, and identify global companies. Evaluate companies side-by-side to compare key metrics and initiate productive partnerships. Buyers use BizVibe to discover suppliers from among more than 5 million companies using advanced search filters and comparison tools. Features for buyers include: Shortlist potential suppliers Track and compare companies Set up custom news alerts Quickly create and customize RFIs Explore BizVibe's buyer services: https://www.bizvibe.com/buyers Sellers can take advantage of BizVibe's smart sales intelligence tools to discover, evaluate, and communicate with prospects across 300+ categories. Features for sellers include: Identify and qualify sales prospects Receive customized prospect recommendations Analyze and evaluate potential buyers Integrate CRMs for efficient data transfer 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 https://www.bizvibe.com/?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=prn&utm_campaign=t6_bsh_week40_2021&utm_content=2213 The ultra-rare 1981 holiday flexi-disc, now being reissued for the first time on 180gram vinyl, was originally given away by the U.K. magazine Flexipop and then rediscovered as the band was researching and reviewing material from their personal archive for their forthcoming box set, to be released in August of 2022. If it sounds familiar, here's why: the track was actually the original recording for what would later become one of Blondie's biggest hits, "Rapture." After shelving this version because the tempo was recorded too slowly (it was later recut into what became the global hit song), Chris Stein decided to go back into the studio a year later with the original track to record Debbie Harry and Freddy's "Throwdown" vocals for this cheeky, holiday masterpiece. "It has been an impossible amount of time since I believed in Santa Claus, but I could very well believe again if he was Freddy Brathwaite!! Some of my best times have been making music with Chris Stein and Freddy B," notes Debbie Harry, with Chris Stein adding: "Freddy has done as much as any multi-platinum selling Hip-Hop star to promote rap culture." Fab 5 Freddy expands: "In the beginning of my journey into pop culture, Chris & Debbie were among the first to take me and my ideas about hip hop culture seriously and were like mentors to me shining a light along the road and assisting my quest. I'm happy after all this time the world can now hear this fun holiday tune we did way back then!" Flash forward 40 years - as the band sought to re-release the original recording, they engaged DJ and producer Cut Chemist (also known for his previous work as a member of both Ozmalti and Jurassic 5) to put his spin on the track, thus rounding out the Yuletide Throwdown EP project. Cut Chemist (Lucas MacFadden) explains: "Blondie and Fab 5 Freddy are two giants in their respective cultures. "Yuletide Throwdown" is a perfect example of those worlds coming together. Chris Stein's music and Debbie trading raps with Fab created something entirely new sounding. It was an honor to work on this project as I have been a fan of their work for my entire life." The new 2021 mix of the original track, which appears on the EP, was produced by 4x Grammy winner Steve Rosenthal and mixed from the original analog tapes by Grammy winner Tom Camuso on his vintage Neve console at Studio E in Brooklyn. The limited edition vinyl, available in both magenta and black versions, will come packaged in a die-cut bespoke 'disco-bag' style sleeve with exclusive artwork by New York graffiti artist 'Hugogyrl.' Yuletide Throwdown is available to pre-order and stream at: https://blondie.lnk.to/YuletideThrowdownSR Track list : SIDE A 1. Yuletide Throwdown (Cut Chemist Remix) SIDE B 1. Yuletide Throwdown (Cut Chemist Radio Edit) 2. Yuletide Throwdown (1981 Original Recording) About Blondie: Undeniably one of the most trailblazing and influential bands of our time, Blondie is pioneering frontwoman/songwriter Debbie Harry, guitarist/conceptual mastermind Chris Stein and powerhouse drummer Clem Burke, along with now long-standing bandmates bassist Leigh Foxx, guitarist Tommy Kessler and keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen. Among their hits is the groundbreaking rock-disco hybrid "Heart of Glass," the equally influential hip-hop fantasia "Rapture," the stalker-love song "One Way Or Another," and the lilting calypso "The Tide Is High." It's a thrilling journey back to when Blondie pushed punk onto the dance floor and introduced a wider audience to hip-hop sounds, all the while building a catalog of enduring hits along the way. For the last four decades, Blondie has become and still remains a true global icon, one whose influence both shaped and continues to inform the worlds of music, fashion and art. From an irreverent Lower East Side punk outfit to bona fide international ambassadors of New York cool, Blondie will forever be synonymous with that punk spirit that lives somewhere in all of us. Their chart-topping success, fearless spirit and rare longevity led to an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and more than 40 million albums sold worldwide to date. As we look back at the band's storied career, it makes Blondie's current vibrancy that much more stunning after 40 years of entertaining all of us. And the band shows no signs of slowing down - Blondie's latest release BLONDIE: VIVIR EN LA HABANA (Limited edition blue vinyl) is out now: https://blondie.lnk.to/vivrenlahabanaPR . The new soundtrack comes from the short film capturing the band's 2019 live debut performance in Havana, Cuba. The film already has growing recognition from the industry with a string of film festival premieres around the world, including its U.K. premiere at the Sheffield Doc/Fest and U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. SOURCE Universal Music Enterprises Related Links https://blondie.lnk.to/YuletideThrowdownSR V2X technology has been proposed by the USDOT as the best way to address the chronic death toll on America's roadways, with nearly 37,000 lives lost and a record 6,721 pedestrians killed at intersections in 2020. Leading city managers and state transportation agencies are looking to deploy V2X technology regionally to reduce vehicle crashes and fatalities and improve pedestrian safety. Up until now, many cities seeking to deploy the life-saving V2X technology have had to assemble the elements of a large vehicle deployment manually, developing specifications and coordinating multiple vendors to ensure a successful outcome and meaningful results. The DENSO-Brandmotion partnership simplifies the process of equipping vehicles for long term testing. Brandmotion has served the Tampa Connected Vehicle (CV) Pilot for 5 years and provided responsive professional grade automotive integration and service capability. DENSO is the On Board Unit (OBU) supplier to OEMs for Tampa's CV Pilot Phase 4, bringing true "Tier 1" development capabilities to the project. Bob Frey, Program Manager for the Tampa CV Pilot said "Having worked with both companies to complete vehicle integration services for V2X deployments, our experience is that they bring complete high-quality solutions to our deployments and have excelled at helping us deploy transportation safety applications from concept to operating on the "street" on schedule. To me, that is the most important aspect of these safety projects, getting applications "out in the street" so the public benefits". The partnership between DENSO and Brandmotion will provide transportation agencies with the following vehicle-related deployment services: DENSO On Board Unit (OBU) platform (Hercules) has the ability to run and process applications that support both Cellular V2X (C-V2X) communications and Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) in an automotive environment (while DSRC is still permitted by the United State Federal Communication Commission (FCC)). Standard set of applications, including Blindspot/Lane Change Warning, Electronic Emergency Brake Light, Forward Crash Warning, Intersection Movement Assist, Red Light Violation Warning, and Traffic Signal Priority Custom application development for specific agency application goals Thorough vehicle-specific installation planning, vehicle system design and validation From small to large-scale installation and tech support "DENSO has a long history of supplying high quality V2X hardware and software to meet customer requirements. DENSO was the first company to provide DSRC components for the Japanese market. We have supplied high quality V2X hardware and software to North American customers to support technology validation for over a decade. Our latest generation North American V2X platform (Hercules) builds on our past experience, and we are pleased to focus on increased deployments in partnership with Brandmotion", said Sue Graham, DENSO Director, Advanced Engineering Group. "We are committed to supporting USDOT's national focus on achieving roadside infrastructure and equipped vehicles to advance the safety benefit without delay and to provide the state agencies with "real-time" road data. Brandmotion has been honored to serve as the vehicle integrator of choice to national V2X deployments for over 6 years, and to have had the opportunity to install more than 3,000 OBUs through 16 state deployments nationwide. As interest in V2X technology increases, we are pleased to partner with DENSO to offer the highest quality on board equipment available" says Jeff Varick, Founder of Brandmotion. About Brandmotion Since 2005, Brandmotion has been working continuously to reduce the number of lives lost on our roads due to traffic accidents. Specializing in the design, integration, and distribution of emerging automotive safety technology, Brandmotion is a recognized leader among aftermarket installers of mobile electronics. The company was awarded 2020 SEMA Best New Performance Product Finalist Award, 2018 SEMA Best of Show Award, 2018 SEMA Best New Van/Pickup/Sport Utility Product Award, 2016 SEMA PRO Manufacturer of the Year honors at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Learn more at www.brandmotion.com and follow us on LinkedIn. Press Contact: Lucas Frank 734-619-1250 www.brandmotion.com SOURCE Brandmotion Related Links http://www.brandmotion.com SHANGHAI, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cango Inc. (NYSE: CANG) ("Cango" or the "Company") is issuing a bi-monthly industry insight publication called "CANGO Auto View" to bring readers, drivers and passengers up to speed on the automobile market's emerging trends. Below is an article from the Company's 5th edition for September 2021. A new sales model for new energy vehicles (NEVs) Traditionally, automobile manufacturers produce cars and sell them wholesale to dealers, who conduct retail sales to end consumers as well as after-sales services through independent 4S stores. As a new generation of Internet-savvy consumers drives demand and trends like electrification and auto intelligence become more popular, an increasing number of automakers have started to adopt a direct sales model, wherein consumers order cars directly from the manufacturer's website for delivery or local pickup at a manufacturer-operated showroom or "experience center." Prices are unified regardless of region, and rebate-enabled or other dealer discounts are not available. Tesla, a U.S. automaker and market leader, was the first to disrupt the traditional sales process by adopting a direct sales model. Competition for new consumption scenarios In addition to competing in areas like technology and capital, many new car brands have followed Tesla's example and opened car experience centers in large shopping malls and other high foot traffic areas, making shopping malls an important NEV brand battlefield. 4S stores traditionally operate in suburban locations, far away from the city center, to offer a large area for car maintenance. In contrast, according to the "Report on the Development of China's Automobile Sales Channels in 2020," the current proportion of urban showrooms for NEV brands is about 65%, and they tend to select large shopping malls or office buildings in city centers. Sales centers in particular are located in large shopping centers in bustling downtown areas. Data has also shown that separating sales and after-sales services is key for NEV brands. Tesla mainly operates its after-sales service centers in China through the authorization model by cooperating with third-party repair and maintenance service centers. According to a third-party survey, as of April 2021, Tesla, NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto had 87, 131, 125, and 57 stores respectively in the surveyed shopping malls. The top three cities in terms of the number of NEV stores are Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen, all of which are mega cities with "car purchase restrictions and license restrictions." Among them, Shanghai hosts the richest portfolio of NEV brands. The Shanghai West Nanjing Road business district alone hosts Tesla, NIO and XPeng experience stores. There are numerous possible explanations for this trend. NEV automakers need to increase brand awareness, and shopping malls, known as "offline traffic aggregators," attract high-value foot traffic that can draw the consumers closer to brands, expand brands' exposure, and enhance brand image. NEVs are also relatively new to the market and mainly appeal to consumers aged 25 to 40, who have a great deal of spending power, are willing to try new things, and value excellent customer service and consumption quality. Given the various benefits of opening stores at shopping centers, traditional car companies including BYD, BAIC, SAIC and Dongfeng, have also begun to compete for space in high-quality business districts. Disadvantages of the direct sales model There are also downsides to NEVs' direct sales model, including the cost of renting high-quality, high-traffic retail space. According to the media, the annual rent for XPeng's flagship experience center in Sanlitun, Beijing, with a floor area of nearly 500 square meters, is about 10 million yuan. NIO's showroom in Wangfujing, Beijing, occupying 3,000 square meters, costs as much as 70-80 million yuan per year. Because auto industry players are typically well-capitalized, their demand for space caused rents in shopping malls to rise dramatically, negatively affecting tenants in catering, apparel and other businesses with less backing from the capital market. However, industry insiders generally believe that the practice of opening stores in shopping centers is only temporary. Currently, new brands lack brand awareness and customer base, and must choose store locations with the largest potential audience to build their brand. Once new brands establish their reputation and fan base, they will eventually return to more traditional auto business areas, building larger service centers that customers visit only when service is required. Explosive growth of NEV sales presents another challenge for the direct sales model. If the current growth momentum in NEV sales continues, sales of NEV brands may reach 200,000 to 300,000 cars annually. This sales volume requires a huge team for direct operation, increasing pressure on auto manufacturers without a mature sales channel network to take care of the inventory, sales cannot be estimated accurately, and the risk is simply too concentrated. Other risks inherent to the direct sales model have also begun to emerge. For example, Tesla's Auto Shanghai incident and new brands' price reductions have clearly shown that manufacturers are at a disadvantage when handling user complaints and disputes because of the lack of a buffer between the consumer and the manufacturer, which was previously the role of dealers. The Mercedes-Benz Xi'an incident is a positive example of a dealer acting as a middleman, dealing with issues behind the scenes and preventing further escalation while protecting the manufacturer. Bridging the gap between traditional and direct sales Some new carmakers have attempted to adopt a dual sales model, by combining direct sales and directly-operated showrooms with 4S dealerships in a single city. However, this creates a conflict between dealers and the manufacturer, as well as an inconsistent consumer experience. Therefore, a brand that establishes the direct model in a given city must continue with that model to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure consistent prices and services. By building up a direct store management team in charge of brand showcase, user operation, user experience, user services, test drives and charging services, and dedicate professionals to different segments, costs can be reduced while greatly improving customer satisfaction. The NEV market and the younger generation of consumers will shape the development of direct sales model. Traditional automakers are already evolving to remain relevant and compete with their new energy peers, driving an industry-wide revolution. About Cango Inc. Cango Inc. (NYSE: CANG) is a leading automotive transaction service platform in China connecting dealers, financial institutions, car buyers, and other industry participants. Founded in 2010 by a group of pioneers in China's automotive finance industry, the Company is headquartered in Shanghai and engages car buyers through a nationwide dealer network. The Company's services primarily consist of automotive financing facilitation, car trading transactions, and after-market services facilitation. By utilizing its competitive advantages in technology, data insights, and cloud-based infrastructure, Cango is able to connect its platform participants while bringing them a premium user experience. Cango's platform model puts it in a unique position to add value for its platform participants and business partners as the automotive and mobility markets in China continue to grow and evolve. For more information, please visit: www.cangoonline.com. Media Contact: Juliet Ye Cango Inc. Tel: +86 21 3183 5088 ext.5581 Email: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cango_Group SOURCE Cango Inc. HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Centric Financial Corporation, ("Centric") (OTC Pink: CFCX), a parent company of the wholly-owned subsidiary Centric Bank, has been named a 2021 Top Team in American Banker's 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking recognition for the fourth time, announces Patricia (Patti) A. Husic, President & CEO. The Centric Bank leadership team, 60% of whom are women, is being celebrated for their extraordinary teamwork, promotion and hiring of women, and diversity initiatives. They are one of five American Banker Top Teams including Citigroup, TD Bank, City National Bank, and Huntington Bancshares. "I could not be prouder to stand beside these women who have diverted disruption and channeled it into opportunities to serve our customers and forge new customer and community relationships," says Husic, who was also recognized as an American Banker 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking for the seventh consecutive year. "While we immersed ourselves into being a financial lifeline for our communitiesfunding $311.3 million in PPP loans and opening 1,400 new checking accounts in two monthsI watched in awe of this team as they defied the status quo on what they thought they could accomplish to flourish personally and professionally." The 2021 Centric Financial Corporation Top Team, which includes Patti Husic, Sandra Schultz, Leslie Meck, Kimberly Turner, Christine Pavlakovich, Jacqueline Fahey, and Catharine Krugh, will be honored on October 21 at an invitation-only awards gala at Glasshouse in New York City. While continuing impressive growth this year in total loans of $261 million and deposit growth of $87 million, four of the executives on the list were promoted for their unmatched response and support during the pandemic. With 60% of Centric Bank's executive leadership team female, and 70% of the workforce female, the bank has turned rhetoric into realityno peer bank in Pennsylvania equals Centric Bank's percentage of women in leadership. "The women on this list are at the forefront of significant changes across the financial services industry and in society more broadly," says Bonnie McGeer, Executive Editor of American Banker and Chair of the Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance program. "They are leading reinvigorated efforts to increase diversity of all kinds in the senior ranks, concepting the future of work and helping central banks explore the idea of developing digital currencies, to name just a few of the many initiatives they have underway." In addition to achieving Best Banks to Work For wins in 2020, 2019, and 2018 and as a champion for small business, Centric Bank crested $1 billion in assets in 2020. "For 19 years, this list has honored trailblazers, change-makers, and unparalleled achieversindividuals who have helped transform the industry despite countless obstacles," says Gemma Postlethwaite, CEO of Arizent, publisher of American Banker. "This year's honorees are a testament to the perpetual resilience required of leaders today." The October 21 in-person event is a chance for the honorees to gather, connect, and celebrate their achievements in the face of unprecedented challenges. It is also an important opportunity for the financial services community to convene and recommit to driving toward a more equitable and inclusive industry. American Banker recognizes leaders in multiple lists: The Most Powerful Women in Banking , The Most Powerful Women to Watch , The Most Powerful Women in Finance, Top Teams andin a special recognition for 2021 Standouts . The complete list of honorees can be viewed at American Banker's website and is featured in the October 2021 issue of American Banker Magazine: americanbanker.com/women-in-banking. ABOUT CENTRIC FINANCIAL CORPORATION AND CENTRIC BANK An American Banker 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018 Best Banks to Work For, four-time American Banker Most Powerful Women in Banking Top Team, three-time Best Places to Work, and Top 50 Fastest-Growing Companies for eight years, Centric Bank is headquartered in south central Pennsylvania with assets of $1.1 billion and remains a leader in organic loan growth. A locally owned, locally loaned community bank, Centric Bank provides highly competitive and pro-growth financial services to businesses, professionals, individuals, families, and to the health care and dental industries with the Doctor Centric Bank Division. Centric Bank was named one of the Top 200 Community Banks in the U.S. in 2021, 2020, and 2019. Founded in 2007, Pennsylvania-based Centric Bank has financial centers located in Harrisburg, Hershey, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Doylestown, Devon, and Lancaster, as well as a loan production office in Devon and an Operations and Executive Office campus in Hampden Township, Cumberland County. To learn more about Centric Bank, call 717.657.7727 or visit CentricBank.com. Connect with them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Centric Financial Corporation is traded over the counter (OTC-Pink) with the ticker symbol CFCX. About American Banker American Banker empowers banking professionals with unique insight and analysis into the ideas transforming their business and industry. Across its journalism, events, research, and benchmarking, it helps drive the way forward through the complexity of business innovation, retail and commercial disruption, technology, regulation, and reform. With a banking community 850M strong, American Banker's transformative content connects leaders online, in person, and in print every day. Contact: Anne Deeter Gallaher Tel. 717.580.4856 [email protected] SOURCE Centric Financial Corporation Related Links https://www.centricbank.com STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chelsea Financial Services announced that they have increased their sponsorship level with Where-to-Turn.org by donating the installation and annual agreement for ADACompliaSite, an ADA Website Compliance Software, improving site access for those with disabilities and/or visual impairments. Where-to-Turn.org website with ADACompliaSite.com ADA accessibility Software widget activated. With one-click access to over 38 Website Accessibility Controls, enabling their visitors to instantly adapt the site's design to their individual needs. Group of Logos - Chelsea Financial Services - Where to Turn - ADA CompliaSite - Chelsea Financial Sponsors ADA CompliaSite, ADA Website Compliance Software, to Where-to-Turn, a crises relief organization. "We had updated our website with ADACompliaSite.com software in order to make our CHFS.com site more compliant with the the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)." stated John Pisapia, President of Staten Island-based Chelsea Financial Services. "We've had such amazing feedback about our site's enhanced accessibility that it just made sense to help Where To Turn, this amazing New York City-based organization, upgrade their site to be compliant and more accessible as well." Chelsea Financial Services has been a sponsor for Where To Turn for some years now, providing annual support, collections and marketing for Where-To-Turn.org's Annual Toy Drive, including a recent "Christmas in August" Toy Drive for 2021 to help get a jump start on collecting toys this year. "Our Where-To-Turn.org 2021 Toy Drive will return right after Thanksgiving and provide thousands of toys for children of families in need." stated Dennis McKeon, Founder of Where To Turn, a crises relief organization. "We look forward to Chelsea Financial Services continued involvement in sponsoring our toy drives and our website, including this recent donation for the installation and annual contract for the accessibility software. As a non-profit, we serve a lot of Seniors and support the Disabled as well with various programs, so providing better website accessibility is not only helpful, it's a requirement." Chelsea Financial previously sponsored Where To Turn's website re-design, along with continued quarterly sponsorship of Where-To-Turn.org's updates, maintenance and hosting plans. "Sponsoring ADACompliasite was a logical next step," mentioned Pisapia. "Many of the people served by Where To Turn have reached their retirement years, so this software is extremely helpful in improving website accessibility for them. And, to be honest, this software helps me see my own site betterI wish it was installed on every site that I visit!" Frank Cilento, Registered Representative at Chelsea Financial Services, was the one who first introduced Pisapia and Chelsea Financial to this great organization. "I love how accessibility is the focus of this recent sponsorship." stated Cilento. "And it's even better with how easy ADACompliaSite is to use, especially that the software remembers your choices for the next visit. With just a couple of clicks, visitors can change the colors, make text larger, turn the site black and white, and more with over 38 one-click controls. And they can use any combination to create a design that's to their liking or needs." added Cilento. Please join Chelsea Financial Services in supporting this great organization with a donation via their website, Where-to-Turn.org, or by donating toys during the first weeks of December. You can deliver or ship to Chelsea Financial Services, 242 Main Street, Staten Island, NY 10307, Monday - Friday from 9am - 5pm. SOME HISTORY ON ADA COMPLIANCE FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990 and prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, ensuring that they have equal rights and opportunities. A software "widget" like NthDegreeGroup.net's ADACompliaSite software assists websites in following both the ADA legal requirements and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), adopted internationally as standards for accessible website design. ADACompliaSite software is accessed via an accessibility icon that floats on every page. When clicked, site visitors can change design elements of the website with just 1-2 clicks, making the site instantly more accessible and individually tailored to their needs, without expensive re-design or the need to hire costly ADA Consultants. About Chelsea Financial Services Chelsea Financial Services is a national full-service brokerage firm. Chelsea opened its first brokerage office in Staten Island, New York in 1999. Celebrating 22 years, Chelsea financial clients receive investment, retirement and financial planning advice from 73 Registered Representatives based in 20 States. Visit https://chfs.com for more information. For Registered Representatives interested in joining Chelsea Financial Services "No Minimum Production Requirements" Team, please visit joinchelsea.com for more information or to inquire. About Where to turn Founded in 2001 shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, Where to Turn provides crisis relief services for victims of any kind of tragedy by helping victims obtain the help that they need during the recovery process. Where to Turn fosters community participation and interaction while assisting those in need, including their "Free Prom Dress Distribution" and annual "Senior 'Senior' Prom" projects. Visit Where to Turn for more information or to donate. Media Contact for Chelsea: John Pisapia [email protected] (866) 898-5800 242 Main Street, Staten Island, NY 10307 Media Contact for ADA CompliaSite / Nth Degree Group: Barry Lippold [email protected] (305) 615-1033 153 E Flagler St #330, Miami, FL 33131 Related Links https://chfs.com https://where-to-turn.org https://adacompliasite.com SOURCE Chelsea Financial Services Related Links https://chfs.com ZURICH, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb Limited (NYSE: CB) today announced a definitive agreement to acquire the life and non-life insurance companies that house the personal accident, supplemental health and life insurance business of Cigna (NYSE: CI) in seven Asia-Pacific markets for $5.75 billion dollars in cash. The operations to be acquired include Cigna's A&H and life business in Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia and its interest in a joint venture in Turkey. These operations generated approximately $3 billion in net premiums written in 2020. This highly complementary transaction advances Chubb's strategy to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, a long-term growth area for the company, and adds to an already sizable A&H business while expanding the company's Asia-based life insurance presence. Upon completion of the transaction, Asia-Pacific's share of Chubb's global portfolio will increase from approximately $4 billion to $7 billion in premium and represent approximately 20% of the company (excluding China). Over 80% of the premiums from the business to be acquired are from supplemental A&H products, further building Chubb's leadership in global supplemental A&H, with premiums growing from $3.7 billion to $6.1 billion. Together, A&H and life will comprise 21% of the company's overall premium revenue compared to 14% today. "The addition of Cigna's business, which is overwhelmingly A&H, will further balance our global portfolio toward this important region," said Evan G. Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chubb. "We have long admired and respected Cigna's business in Asia including its talented people, innovative products, technical and analytical capabilities, distribution and management. We know these businesses well as we already have a sizable operation of our own in the region and globally. These businesses produce very stable, high-quality earnings. The digital opportunity across the region is large and untapped and suitable for our direct-marketed A&H products and our consumer P&C and simple life insurance products. We are looking to the future. Broadly across the region, Chubb will be better able to capitalize on market and product opportunities with strong brand, complementary direct marketing skills and the cross-selling of Chubb's non-life product to life customers." "Our agreement with Chubb is another step forward in advancing our strategic focus on our global health services portfolio," said David M. Cordani, president and chief executive officer, Cigna Corporation. "We are proud of our success in building these accident, supplemental and life benefits businesses in Asia Pacific and improving the well-being and sense of security of our customers throughout the region." Attractive Shareholder Returns The underlying economics and value creation of the transaction are very attractive. Upon close, the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Chubb's core operating earnings per share and return on equity (ROE) for full-year 2023 by 6% and approximately 55 basis points, respectively. Deal ROE goes from 11% to 14% over five years after PGAAP adjustments. The company also expects a strong return on investment (ROI), with a three-year ROI of 15% and an IRR of approximately 20%. The tangible book value per share dillution is expected to earn back within six months. There is strong, steady cash generation with high dividend payout capacity of approximately 70% of operating income. The company will maintain its strong balance sheet and does not expect the transaction to impact its current AA investment grade rating or its capital management commitments, including its current share repurchase program and annual dividend. Financing, Efficiencies, Closing and Approvals The $5.75 billion cash consideration is not contingent upon financing. Chubb estimates that it will realize in excess of $80 million of expense savings. The transaction is expected to be completed in 2022 and is subject to required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Please refer to the presentation titled "Chubb to Acquire Cigna's Personal Accident, Supplemental Health and Life Insurance Business in Seven Asia-Pacific Markets," which is posted on the company's investor relations website, investors.chubb.com, in the Events & Presentations section for further information on the transaction. About Chubb Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Forward-looking statements made in this press release, such as those related to the acquisition of the businesses noted above, potential post-acquisition performance or otherwise, reflect our current views with respect to future events, business transactions and business performance, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements, including without limitation, statements about the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, including future financial results; the expected timing of completion of the transaction and our ability to complete it; receipt of any required regulatory approvals and completion of other closing conditions; our ability to integrate the acquired businesses, operations and employees; general competitive, economic, political, insurance and reinsurance business market conditions; and judicial, legislative, regulatory and other governmental developments, as well as management's responses to these factors, and other factors identified in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE Chubb Limited Related Links http://new.chubb.com "The conversational AI software platforms that the IDC MarketScape has evaluated have shown that organizations can develop and deploy sophisticated AI-based conversational agents that can truly interact and provide a wide range of self-service that wasn't possible only a few years ago," says Hayley Sutherland, IDC's analyst on the assessment alongside David Schubmehl. "Cognigy has created a multilingual, multichannel conversational AI platform with a low-code development environment that enables both business users and developers to create conversational AI applications across the enterprise." As part of this evaluation, IDC analysts spoke with dozens of organizations using these conversational AI software platforms to develop and deploy applications that are providing great customer and employee service and generating significant return on investment. The IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the circles. "As a leader in customer service automation, we are honored to be recognized in a Leader category in this 2021 IDC MarketScape assessment as a multilingual, multi-channel Conversational AI platform. We place high value on our client services which has helped us to develop working solutions alongside our clients to provide a quality experience," says Cognigy CEO Philipp Heltewig. Strengths of Cognigy include: Strong technology support: Cognigy has developed very strong natural language processing capabilities as well as an extensive low-code developer toolset for creating and deploying conversational AI applications. Its natural language understanding (NLU) capabilities include support for over 100 languages and dialects including variations of English, Spanish and Portuguese. Cognigy has developed very strong natural language processing capabilities as well as an extensive low-code developer toolset for creating and deploying conversational AI applications. Its natural language understanding (NLU) capabilities include support for over 100 languages and dialects including variations of English, Spanish and Portuguese. Broad based channel capabilities: Cognigy supports a wide range of digital channels including text messaging/SMS, rich web chat, email, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and others. Cognigy supports a wide range of digital channels including text messaging/SMS, rich web chat, email, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and others. Voice capabilities: Cognigy Voice Gateway is a turnkey solution to deploy virtual voice agents for automated phone conversations, allowing seamless integration into any existing voice network and can connect to various engagement channels from where users initiate calls: SIP Trunk, PSTN or cellular, Enterprise Unified Communications (UC) and IP-PBXs, Contact Centers or WebRTC. It supports agent assist, intelligent routing, outbound voicebots and other use cases. To read an excerpt of the report, visit www.cognigy.com/idc-marketscape-leader-2021. About Cognigy Cognigy is a global leader in omnichannel Customer Service Automation. Intelligent voice and chatbots powered by its Conversational AI platform help businesses improve service quality, reduce operational costs, and support teams across the enterprise. Cognigy's award-winning AI understands user intents precisely and enables natural dialogs in over 100 languages. Easily scalable and pluggable, its low-code platform automates business processes through integrations into backend systems, operates as SaaS and on-premise, and is GDPR compliant. Cognigy's worldwide client portfolio includes BioNTech, Bosch, Daimler and Lufthansa. Learn more at cognigy.com. About IDC MarketScape IDC MarketScape vendor assessment model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market. IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors. SOURCE Cognigy Related Links http://cognigy.com Cybersecurity positions account for 20% of technology postings in 2021. Tweet this IT occupations in all sectors of the U.S. economy expanded by 140,000, to nearly 5.6 million.1 Demand for cybersecurity workers continues to trend upward. CompTIA's analysis of employer job posting data for IT occupations shows that so far this year cybersecurity positions account for 20% of postings compared to 18% in 2020 and 17% in 2019. US Employer Cybersecurity Job Postings (January-September) 2021 529,123 2020 456,363 2019 448,853 "It's been an especially challenging period on the cybersecurity front with attacks on critical infrastructure, the growing threat of ransomware, and of course, new vulnerabilities brought on by the pandemic" said Tim Herbert, executive vice president for research and market intelligence at CompTIA. "The persistently tight labor market for cybersecurity professionals means employers must cast an even wider net and look internally to develop talent from within their own ranks." Employer job postings for all new IT occupations totaled approximately 295,000 in September. Industries with the largest numbers of openings included professional, scientific and technical services (47,630), manufacturing (29,966), finance and insurance (28,549), information (20,985) and retail trade (10,944). The IT occupation job posting data re-affirms that employers' need for tech talent and career opportunities for individuals is present in nearly every state and metropolitan market. Among the states, while California, Texas and New York had the largest number of job openings last month, Arkansas, North Dakota and Mississippi recorded the strongest month-over-month increase in tech job postings. New York, Washington and Dallas led metro areas in total tech job postings. Fayetteville, Ark., Boise, Idaho, and Little Rock, Ark., were the top three markets in the monthly increase in jobs postings. Three in 10 of all IT job openings (85,000 plus) in September were for positions in emerging technologies or roles that require emerging tech skills. About 14% of the emerging tech job postings were in the field of artificial intelligence. The "CompTIA Tech Jobs Report" is available at https://www.comptia.org/content/tech-jobs-report. About CompTIA The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a leading voice and advocate for the $5 trillion global information technology ecosystem; and the estimated 75 million industry and tech professionals who design, implement, manage, and safeguard the technology that powers the world's economy. Through education, training, certifications, advocacy, philanthropy, and market research, CompTIA is the hub for advancing the tech industry and its workforce. Visit https://www.comptia.org/ . Media Contact Steven Ostrowski CompTIA [email protected] +1 630-678-8468 1 Monthly occupation-level data reporting from the Bureau of Labor Statistics may be subject to higher levels of variance and volatility. SOURCE CompTIA Related Links http://www.comptia.org SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Del Grande Dealer Group (DGDG), the Bay Area's largest family-owned automotive group, announced today that Oak Tree Mazda will begin operating under a new name and will be known as Stevens Creek Mazda, effective immediately. This rebranding strategy reflects both the evolution of the Mazda brand as well as DGDG's vision for state-of-the-art car dealerships with cutting-edge technology. Along with the name change, a newly remodeled dealership was revealed. The building follows Mazda's new Retail Evolution Design and incorporates practical state-of-the-art automotive retailing processes that uniquely express the Mazda brand. The ownership and staff have not changed, and the new name highlights the prime location of the dealership, being on Stevens Creek Auto Row, one of the top auto rows in Northern California. As part of our dedicated focus on providing guests with a world-class experience, DGDG believes it was appropriate to rebrand the dealership into a next-level facility to more specifically reflect the continued development of a modern automotive retail experience. "Oak Tree Mazda has been part of the DGDG foundation for decades and we are excited to continue on the next journey with the name Stevens Creek Mazda, combined with our brand new state-of-the-art facility, said CEO Shaun Del Grande. "Our team continues to do an amazing job taking care of our guests who are going to love our technology focused designs." About DGDG The Del Grande Dealer Group (DGDG) is the Bay Area's largest family-owned automotive group. The dealer group comprises 14 brands and 13 dealerships. DGDG is committed to making Happy Car Buyers with a world-class guest experience and their No Brainer Pricing. For more information, visit DGDG.com. SOURCE Del Grande Dealer Group Related Links https://www.dgdg.com/ Education Cannot Wait announced today a new US$4 million First Emergency Response grant in Afghanistan. Tweet this Delivered in coordination with Afghanistan's Education in Emergencies Working Group, the ECW grant will provide 38,000 internally displaced children and adolescents - with a focus on girls' education (20,900 girls) - with access to quality, flexible learning opportunities and psychosocial support. Afghanistan's Education in Emergencies Working Group estimates that approximately 400,000 school-aged children in Afghanistan have been forcibly displaced since January 2021. Across the country more than 3.7 million girls and boys are out of school, and just 37 per cent of teenage girls can read and write, compared to 66 per cent for adolescent boys. "Every girl and boy in Afghanistan deserves to realize their inherent human right to a quality education. The rights of girls and adolescent girls are especially important, as well as that of children with disabilities given the widespread challenges and suffering of both groups. Education Cannot Wait and our partners are responding with speed to provide safe and inclusive educational opportunities for an entire generation of Afghan children and youth that risk being left behind within a complex humanitarian crisis. This represents our investment in peace, our investment in girls' education, and our investment in human dignity and human rights," said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. The ECW investment builds on the impact of the Fund's Multi-Year Resilience Programme in Afghanistan, which had reached close to 120,000 children (58% of whom were girls) by 2020, by expanding access to community-based education for children, promoting continuity in learning, supporting teacher training, improving monitoring systems, and establishing child protection and safeguarding measures. The First Emergency Response grant provides learning and psychosocial support opportunities for displaced and at-risk girls and boys including adolescents through the provision of a variety of flexible and alternative learning programmes offered in community-based temporary learning spaces. Other activities include the provision of teaching and learning materials; teacher trainings on pedagogy, disability inclusion, and psychosocial support; rehabilitation of gender-sensitive and disability-accessible water and sanitation facilities; light repairs to community learning structures damaged during conflict; and provision of recreational and psychosocial support kits. Arabic | English | French | Spanish Note to Editors About Education Cannot Wait (ECW): Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. We support quality education outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and other crisis-affected girls and boys, so no one is left behind. ECW works through the multilateral system to both increase the speed of responses in crises and connect immediate relief and longer-term interventions through multi-year programming. ECW works in close partnership with governments, public and private donors, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and other humanitarian and development aid actors to increase efficiencies and end siloed responses. ECW urgently appeals to public and private sector donors for expanded support to reach even more vulnerable children and youth. ECW is administered under UNICEF's financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations; operations are run by the Fund's own independent governance structure. On Twitter, please follow: @EduCannotWait @YasmineSherif1 @KentPage Additional information available at: www.educationcannotwait.org SOURCE Education Cannot Wait Related Links http://www.educationcannotwait.org BATON ROUGE, La., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Erin Dauterive, MD, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Trusted OBGYN for her outstanding achievements in the medical field and her devotion to the medical community through her services at Ochsner Medical Center O'Neal. Erin Dauterive, MD Committed to offering the best possible care, the Ochsner Medical Center O'Neal is situated at 16777 Medical Center Drive in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The dedicated physicians provide primary care and a number of specialty care services all in one convenient location. Same-day appointments are available, and Ochsner makes it easy for you to fill your prescriptions at its onsite pharmacy. Board-certified Obstetrician & Gynecologist Dr. Erin Dauterive specializes in all facets of women's health, including obstetrics and gynecology, gynecologic robotic surgery, robotic surgery, family birthing services, and alternative birthing options. She has devoted over nine years to the medical community at the Ochsner Medical Center, demonstrating the highest level of professionalism, integrity, and compassion. Throughout her years practicing at the Ochsner Medical Center, she has garnered a commendable reputation for providing excellent care, her attentiveness, and her willingness to inform her patients. Among her academic achievements, Dr. Dauterive received her undergraduate degree at Louisiana State University. Her medical career began after obtaining her medical degree from LSU Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in Shreveport, where she became a Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Society member. To further her medical training, she then completed an Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. While in residency, Dr. Dauterive served as Co-Administrative Chief Resident her senior year. She also received several awards including, "Special Resident in Minimally Invasive Gynecology". Following this, she became board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In her spare time, Dr. Dauterive enjoys health and fitness. She devotes her time to local and community charitable endeavors. Dr. Dauterive dedicates this honorable recognition to her father, Dr. Francis Ralph Dauterive, Jr., an OBGYN, and her mentor Dr. Veronica Gillispie. To learn more, please visit https://www.ochsner.org/doctors/erin-dauterive and https://www.ochsner.org/locations/ochsner-health-center-oneal. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634 [email protected] More in Enquiry SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com Today, Faurecia stands in unity with the scientists and engineers across the country who will celebrate Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day , which is celebrated on Oct. 8 because the atomic weight of hydrogen (1.008). In line with its goal to become CO2 neutral by 2030, Faurecia boasts the expertise and technology to support the country's zero-emission objective while supporting customers with holistic hydrogen fuel system solutions. "Faurecia's product portfolio and hydrogen storage solutions, enriched by Symbio's stack systems technologies offer a complete range of hydrogen fuel cell solutions to meet all power and durability needs from light-duty to commercial and heavy-duty vehicles as well as design expertise that enables us to support customer vehicle integration needs," said Jose-Vicente March, Vice President Zero Emissions, Faurecia Clean Mobility North America. Faurecia's industry leading hydrogen technology offers key benefits, including longer driving range, faster refueling times, and a lower tank weight, allowing scalability for passenger and commercial vehicles. Most important it offers a reduced total cost of ownership, a measurement in which fuel cell electric vehicles are estimated to overtake battery electric vehicles between 2023 and 2030. Reducing the cost of hydrogen mobility is key in offering a competitive solution, and with its R&D capabilities and industrial know-how, Faurecia and Symbio plan to reduce the cost of hydrogen storage systems and stacks by more than 75% by 2030. In designing the next generation tanks, Faurecia is innovating for a more durable, sustainable and longer-life product with best in-class safety, performance and cost-efficiency. Key developments as Faurecia continues to develop its leadership position in hydrogen: Faurecia has created a global center of expertise for hydrogen in France. In this center of expertise, Faurecia develops the next generations of homologated, smart, lightweight and cost-competitive hydrogen storage systems that increase performance without mitigating safety. Faurecia and Michelin created a 50-50 joint venture named Symbio . Symbio has developed a comprehensive range of fuel cell stacks for broad applications across the automotive industry. Called StackPacks TM , these fuel cell stacks can be adapted to light & medium-duty commercial vehicles, trucks, buses and passenger cars. . Symbio has developed a comprehensive range of fuel cell stacks for broad applications across the automotive industry. Called StackPacks , these fuel cell stacks can be adapted to light & medium-duty commercial vehicles, trucks, buses and passenger cars. In April 2021 Faurecia successfully completed its acquisition of CLD , one of the leading manufacturers of hydrogen tanks in China . Through this acquisition, Faurecia was awarded a contract by SAIC Motor to provide hydrogen tanks for a large fleet of commercial vehicles. CLD has also been recently certified by the Chinese central government as the first domestic producer of Type IV hydrogen tanks. , one of the leading manufacturers of hydrogen tanks in . Through this acquisition, Faurecia was awarded a contract by SAIC Motor to provide hydrogen tanks for a large fleet of commercial vehicles. CLD has also been recently certified by the Chinese central government as the first domestic producer of Type IV hydrogen tanks. Faurecia and Symbio will supply Stellantis with fuel cell stacks and hydrogen storage systems for light commercial vehicles. Faurecia will also equip around 1,600 Hyundai heavy duty trucks to be delivered to Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility in Switzerland . for light commercial vehicles. to be delivered to Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility in . In 2021, Faurecia became a major member in key hydrogen associations in North America including Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) and California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP). As hydrogen mobility rapidly gains momentum, Faurecia is at the heart of a growing ecosystem of partners supporting its industrialization and adoption at scale. Consequently, Faurecia is well-positioned to support growing demand for zero-emissions hydrogen mobility solutions globally. The company plans to expand its hydrogen footprint into North America as it establishes a new hydrogen R&D and manufacturing site. Press contact Analysts/Investors contact Eric Fohlen-Weill Director of Corporate Communication [email protected] Marc Maillet Director of Investor Relations [email protected] About Faurecia Founded in 1997, Faurecia has grown to become a major player in the global automotive industry. With 266 industrial sites, 39 R&D centres and 114,000 employees in 35 countries, Faurecia is a global leader in its four areas of business: seating, interiors, Clarion Electronics and clean mobility. The Group's strong technological offering provides carmakers with solutions for the cockpit of the future and sustainable mobility. In 2020, the Group reported total turnover of 14.7 billion. Faurecia is listed on the Euronext Paris market and is a component of the CAC Next 20 index. Find out more at: www.faurecia.com Faurecia's vision for hydrogen Societal and political pressure on the automotive industry to reduce emissions has never been higher. As stringent new regulations come into force around the world, and with demand for electrified vehicles constantly increasing, Faurecia has made sustainable mobility a strategic priority. Hydrogen mobility is rapidly gaining momentum and Faurecia is at the heart of a growing ecosystem of partners supporting its industrialization and adoption at scale. Faurecia has a clear roadmap to develop hydrogen solutions adapted to different use cases in passenger cars, commercial vehicles, logistics, industries and beyond over the coming decade. The Group covers 75% of the hydrogen powertrain with hydrogen storage systems, as well as fuel cell stack systems through Symbio, our joint venture with Michelin. Faurecia ambitions to become a world leader in hydrogen mobility and targets 3.5bn sales by 2030. By 2050, the Group aims to be CO2 neutral for total emissions including the use phase of our products. SOURCE Faurecia Related Links http://www.faurecia.com LONDON, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical professionals around the world now have a new resource to help them understand the challenges of treating and caring for migrants and refugees with neurological problems, thanks to a new book authored by a Specialty Group of neurologists and neuroscientists under the auspices of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN). Neurology in Migrants and Refugees , which is a part of the WHO's Sustainable Development Goals series , discusses the scientific and epidemiological data of neurological diseases in migrants. It provides practical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases and examines the relationship between immigration and neurological diseases in migrants and refugees. The leaders of the WFN Migrant Neurology Specialty Group reported a wide range of impacts facing migrants based on years of research on the neurological care and treatment of migrants from all corners of the world to attendees of the World Congress of Neurology (WCN) on October 6, 2021. Lead by Mustapha El Alaoui-Faris, professor of neurology and neuropsychology at the Mohammed-V University and director of the Alzheimer's Center of Rabat, Morocco; Antonio Federico, professor of neurology at the University of Siena, Italy; and Wolfgang Grisold, professor of neurology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria and secretary-general of the World Federation of Neurology, the group's top findings include: Certain types of neurological diseases and disorders disproportionately affect migrants. Many migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa experience neurological complications as a result of AIDs. In North Africa , there are high rates of cases of movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Cases of epilepsy are common in Latin American migrants. , there are high rates of cases of movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Cases of epilepsy are common in Latin American migrants. Understanding the reasons for these commonalities helps advance treatment for migrants and broaden our understanding of these diseases. Neurology in Migrants and Refugees also reports on the impact of specific neurological diseases on migrants including cerebrovascular diseases, epilepsy, dementia, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, headache, stroke and functional and mental disorders. The neurological manifestation of COVID-19 in ethnic minorities and palliative care in migrants. Details of major barriers to medical care facing migrants and refugees. The language barrier between medical professionals and migrant patients. "If you have a patient with epileptic seizures, for example, who is a migrant and doesn't speak the same language as their doctor, it can be difficult to separate neurological manifestations from psychological ones. So accurately diagnosing and treating migrants becomes difficult due to lack of communication," Alaoui-Faris explained. Neurology in Migrants and Refugees also sheds light on migrants' difficulties accessing quality medical treatment. The majority lack medical insurance and can't afford medication or hospitalization. There can also be cultural barriers. Some may choose not to go to the hospital or see a doctor because the expectations for assistance and care differ, based on their cultures and experience. Cultural barriers are often exacerbated by language barriers. "This book will be useful for clinicians, neurologists and also the world's policy makers and elected leaders to develop policies for good health for everyoneespecially migrating people. It will help focus the issues facing migrants and refugees as they seek medical care, especially for neurological diseases," said Federico. Alaoui-Faris, Federico and other contributors hope Neurology in Migrants and Refugees will open minds to the problem of migration and the major barriers migrants face when trying to access medical care, ultimately attracting the attention of policymakers and governmental organizations around the world and serving as a tool for neurologists to use when treating migrants for neurological problems. Neurology in Migrants and Refugees will be released in November 2021. To pre-order a copy, please visit: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030810573 . About the World Congress of Neurology The World Federation of Neurology's World Congress of Neurology brings together leading neuroscientists and public health experts to turn research into action and emphasize the importance of brain health across the globe. The 25th Biennial conference occurred virtually from October 3 to 7, 2021, and was organized in association with the Italian Society of Neurology (SIN). About the World Federation of Neurology The World Federation of Neurology represents 122 neurological member societies around the globe to foster quality neurology and brain health worldwide by promoting neurological education and training with an emphasis on under-resourced areas of the world. WFN supports the spread of research and clinical information in the pursuit of improvements in the field of neurology. With support from member organizations around the globe, WFN unites the world to allow patients greater access to brain health. For more information, please visit the WCN 2021 website at www.wfneurology.org , find our live stream press conferences on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wfneurology/ , on Twitter at https://twitter.com/wfneurology or by searching using the tag #WCN2021. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE World Federation of Neurology Related Links http://wfneurology.org/ Hydrogen energy and fuel cell technologies offer a clear pathway toward low- and no-carbon emissions economic growth, while creating high-quality jobs and enabling decarbonization across industry sectors. As countries and companies around the world increasingly look to hydrogen as a clean energy pathway, GenCell is uniquely well-positioned to take a leadership role in the emerging national and international hydrogen economy. Having executed an IPO in 2020 on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to accelerate the investment in our unique and innovative alkaline fuel cell and ammonia to energy technologies, we are proud to note many laudable accomplishments that will aid us towards realizing our vision: Upon winning a tender and successfully supplying 37 GenCell G5rx backup power units to CFE the state-owned utility of Mexico , CFE then exercised their option to double the order to 74 units; , CFE then exercised their option to double the order to 74 units; GenCell Energy successfully deployed its revolutionary A5 off-grid solution for satisfactory 24/7 powering of a Neyarlinan ohf Emergency Communication System (ECS) in Iceland for 1500 consecutive hours; for 1500 consecutive hours; Douglas PUD, the Douglas County Public Utility District in the State of Washington contracted to deploy the GenCell G5 backup power solution to run on renewable hydrogen produced by the PUD's own hydrogen production facility; contracted to deploy the GenCell G5 backup power solution to run on renewable hydrogen produced by the PUD's own hydrogen production facility; GenCell signed a framework agreement with Japanese conglomerate the TDK Corporation to support GenCell in developing a novel approach to green ammonia; GenCell completed the design and synthesis of a noble metal-free (palladium) catalyst; GenCell received a substantial investment by a group of international institutional investors led by the world's leading banking group BNP Paribas through its investment arm BNP Paribas Energy Transition Fund; The GenCell G5 backup power solution received a first-ever permit for a hydrogen fuel cell generator from the State of Israel's Electric Authority; Electric Authority; GenCell has affiliations with numerous industry associations, among these FCHEA, Hydrogen Europe and the Ammonia Energy Association as part of our program to participate in global hydrogen and fuel cell development projects; As the sponsor for the Hydrogen Round Table at the Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Conference to be held in Israel in December 2021 , GenCell is committed to the expanded development of the Israeli hydrogen energy economy; in , GenCell is committed to the expanded development of the Israeli hydrogen energy economy; In September 2021 at the IWCE critical communications event in Las Vegas , following collaboration with leading global telecom providers, GenCell launched its compact, resilient and emission-free backup power solution the GenCell Backup Operations eXtender (BOX) designed specifically to meet the needs of the telecom industry; at the IWCE critical communications event in , following collaboration with leading global telecom providers, GenCell launched its compact, resilient and emission-free backup power solution the GenCell Backup Operations eXtender (BOX) designed specifically to meet the needs of the telecom industry; As part of our strategic growth program, GenCell has moved its headquarters to larger office space, doubling our personnel and the area of our production floor; Looking to the future, GenCell is proactively developing our total green power solution from well-to-wheel. We welcome partners to join us in our vision to enable an emission-free distributed energy system based on green ammonia: Generation of economical green ammonia from surplus renewable energy resources Leveraging of green ammonia as an optimal solution for seasonal non-degradable long-duration energy storage Extraction of hydrogen-on-demand from green ammonia This extracted hydrogen fuels alkaline fuel cells at site of power load, enabling totally green power As Israel's blue and white fuel cell pioneer, GenCell is celebrating National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day in Israel and is aiming to lead the efforts to spur the growth of the Israeli hydrogen industry and raise public and consumer awareness of the benefits that fuel cell technologies and hydrogen energy provide in reducing emissions while driving economic growth. As part of our commemoration of Hydrogen Day, GenCell is a bronze sponsor of the Hydrogen Online Conference, where our sales team will be attending our virtual booth and our CEO Rami Reshef will be providing a keynote presentation on the topic of Leveraging Novel Green Ammonia Synthesis for Totally Green Power. Comments Rami Reshef, GenCell CEO, "As we reach Hydrogen Day 2021, we are excited to take stock of the impressive growth we are experiencing and to further reinforce our commitment to our vision, our objectives, our employees and our stakeholders to execute on our ambitious R&D, engineering, sales and customer success programs. We are proud to be a part of the rapid expansion of the hydrogen and fuel cell community around the world and will do everything in our power to turn our company vision into a totally green power future." About GenCell Energy GenCell Energy (TASE: GNCL) fuel cell solutions offer affordable, clean power for humanity, enabling businesses to Say No to Diesel and render diesel generators obsolete. Using ultra-reliable fuel cell technology that powers spacecraft, we deliver backup power for utilities, homeland security, healthcare and automated industries. Our revolutionary process to create hydrogen-on-demand from anhydrous ammonia (NH3) enables our fuel cell solutions to also provide primary power for off-grid and poor-grid sites, as well as rural electrification. GenCell Energy numbers more than 95 employees, including veterans of space and submarine projects. The company is headquartered in Israel with a worldwide distribution and support network and retains unique intellectual property that includes patents, trade secrets and know-how. Contacts: Babel PR Tel: +44 (0)74 3600 2058 [email protected] Shelli Zargary GenCell Energy Tel: +972 54 5617161 [email protected] www.gencellenergy.com SOURCE GenCell Energy DUBLIN, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "The Wholesale and Retail of Food in Ghana 2021" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report focuses on the wholesale and retail of food in Ghana, a country that experienced rapid economic growth from 2010 when it began extracting oil from large offshore reserves. However, this growth has been tempered recently by the energy crisis, depressed commodity prices, long term macroeconomic imbalances and coronavirus. Many international retailers view Ghana as a gateway to a larger West African market of more than 260 million people. Although most food is still purchased at traditional markets, there is increasing demand from a relatively large and largely untapped market for the convenience and variety offered by formal retail and supermarkets. Report Coverage This report focuses on the wholesale and retail of food in Ghana and includes information on the state of the sector, major players, corporate actions and developments. There are profiles of 10 companies including South African companies Shoprite and Massmart, international players such as Unilever, distributors such as Gold Coast Matcom and local companies such as PZ Cussons Ghana and Melcom. Informal and Formal Sectors The retail food sector in Ghana is dominated by the informal sector made up of traditional retail outlets including open air markets, street-side vendors and shops. Open air marketplaces are an integral part of the food retailing system. The formal wholesale and retail industry in Ghana is dominated by businesses that are owned by companies from India, Lebanon, and several European countries, while South African companies have been increasing their market share due to bilateral trade promotion with Ghana. Imports As Ghana's underdeveloped domestic agricultural and food processing sector produces a limited selection of products, there is demand for imported food products, especially consumer-ready products. Most of these products are imported from South Africa, China, Europe, and the Middle East. International fast food brands cater mainly for the middle and high-income classes. Key Topics Covered: 1. INTRODUCTION 2. COUNTRY PROFILE 2.1. Geographic Position 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE INDUSTRY 3.1. Industry Value Chain 4. SIZE OF THE INDUSTRY 5. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY 5.1. Local 5.1.1. Trade 5.1.2. Corporate Actions 5.1.3. Regulations 5.2. Continental 5.3. International 6. INFLUENCING FACTORS 6.1. Coronavirus 6.2. Economic Environment 6.3. Rising Input Costs 6.4. Technology, Research and Development (R&D) and Innovation 6.5. Government Incentives and Support 6.6. Environmental Concerns 6.7. Labour 7. COMPETITION 7.1. Barriers to Entry 8. SWOT ANALYSIS 9. OUTLOOK 10. INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS 11. REFERENCES 11.1. Publications 11.2. Websites APPENDIX Companies Mentioned EcoDi Ltd Gold Coast Matcom (GCM) Ltd Massmart Holdings Ltd MaxMart Ltd Melcom Ltd PBC Ltd PZ Cussons Ghana Ltd Samba Foods Ltd Shoprite Holdings Ltd Unilever Ghana PLC For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/acy4j1 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, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Haemophilia Treatment Market, By Type (Haemophilia A, Haemophilia B, Haemophilia C), By Product (Recombinant Coagulation Factor Concentrates, Desmopressin, Others), By Treatment, By Therapy, By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Haemophilia Treatment Market was valued at USD13906.45 million in 2020 and is forecast to reach USD24205.39 million in 2026 by registering a CAGR of 9.06% The Global Haemophilia Treatment Market is driven by increasing awareness campaigns regarding haemophilia among the population across the globe. Moreover, ongoing attempts in research and development activities for the development of new therapy solutions is positively impacting the growth of the market. Also, surging incidences of bleeding disorders have been observed worldwide, which is further expected to bolster the growth of market over the next few years. The Global Haemophilia Treatment Market is segmented based on type, product, treatment, therapy, company and region. Based on type, the market can be categorized into Haemophilia A, Haemophilia B and Haemophilia C. Generally, the classification depends on the deficiency of coagulation factor present in a patient. Based on that, type A is the most frequent type, and the prevalence rate has been recorded to be four times more than haemophilia type B. In addition to this, majority of existing products are used for treating type A haemophilia, which is contributing to the increasing growth of the segment over the coming years. Regionally, the market is segregated into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and Middle East and Africa. Out of which, North America dominated the Global Haemophilia Treatment Market in 2020 owing to increased prevalence of haemophilia A & B in the United States and Canada. Besides this, organic and inorganic strategies of major pharmaceutical companies present in the United States is further contributing to the market growth in the region. Additionally, Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the fastest rate in the coming years. This high growth can be ascribed to the ease of regulatory policies in Australia and Japan for the approval of drugs for the treatment of haemophilia A. In addition to this, improved funding by public and private players for the improvisation of healthcare facilities in India and China, is further anticipated the drive the market growth in Asia Pacific. Major players operating in the Global Haemophilia Treatment Market include Novo Nordisk A/S, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Bayer AG, Pfizer, Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Sanofi S.A., CSL Behring LLC, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., Octapharma AG, Sangamo Therapeutics Inc., Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc., Baxter International, Inc., Grifols SA, Biogen Idec, Inc., Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., and others. The companies are adopting new strategies in order to stay competitive in the market. Rising competitiveness is anticipated to drive innovation in the market, therefore helping the industry to solve existing challenges and meet the unmet needs in the market. Besides, these major market players are focusing on new product development, mergers and acquisitions, and business expansion to attain a higher market share. Report Scope: Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2016-2019 Base Year: 2020 Estimated Year: 2021 Forecast Period: 2022-2026 Global Haemophilia Treatment Market, By Type: Haemophilia A Haemophilia B Haemophilia C Global Haemophilia Treatment Market, By Product: Recombinant Coagulation Factor Concentrates Plasma Derived Coagulation Factor Concentrate Desmopressin Antifibrinolytics Agents Global Haemophilia Treatment Market, By Treatment: On-demand Prophylaxis Global Haemophilia Treatment Market, By End-user: Replacement Therapy ITI therapy Gene Therapy Global Haemophilia Treatment Market, By Region: North America United States Canada Mexico Europe Germany United Kingdom France Italy Spain Asia-Pacific India China Japan Australia South Korea South America Brazil Argentina Colombia Middle East & Africa & Saudi Arabia UAE South Africa Companies Mentioned Novo Nordisk A/S F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG Bayer AG Pfizer, Inc. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Sanofi S.A. CSL Behring LLC BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. Octapharma AG Sangamo Therapeutics Inc. Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc. Baxter International, Inc. Grifols SA Biogen Idec, Inc. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vmlkg1 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 Download free sample report Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices. Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation on pros and cons of prevalent pricing models. Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers. Get a free sample report for more information Insights into buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers: Several strategic and tactical negotiation levers are explained in the report to help buyers achieve the best prices for the Workers Compensation Insurance market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Workers Compensation Insurance pricing levels, pros, and cons of prevalent pricing models such as volume-based pricing, spot pricing, and cost-plus pricing and category management strategies and best practices to fulfil their category objectives. For more insights on buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers, www.spendedge.com/report/workers-compensation-insurance-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report Key Drivers and Trends Fueling Market Growth: The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the low bargaining power of suppliers. Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors. Identify favorable opportunities in Workers Compensation Insurance TCO (total cost of ownership). Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes. Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities. To get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment. Subscribe Now for Free Some of the top Workers Compensation Insurance suppliers listed in this report: This Workers Compensation Insurance procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. MetLife Inc. Munich Re AXA Group Get the Details That You Are Looking for: Buy our detailed market analysis report to uncover: Changing market landscape with yearly forecast till 2025. Analyze the market's competitive and vendor landscape. How much marketing budget to set aside for geographical market expansion? Understanding the most adopted procurement strategies by buyers across industries. Download the FREE sample Report Now! 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. Contacts SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOURCE SpendEdge Founded in 1957, Rosenau Transport has 24 owned hubs and depots throughout four provinces, generating unaudited revenue of C$175 million in the 12 months that ended on 31 August 2021. With this expansion of its existing operational activities in Canada, the service area of GLS now covers most of the Canadian population. It also provides a link to GLS operations along the US West Coast, as the Rosenau Transport network moves to GLS' combined freight and parcel model. The total consideration is C$360 million, approximately 245 million on a debt- and cash-free basis. Canada is the world's ninth-largest economy, with a combined parcel and freight market of approximately C$25 billion that's growing about 5% per year. GLS entered this market in 2018 through the acquisition of Dicom and operates a network of about 30 hubs and depots, with 1,400 employees. The company has delivered revenue growth of around 8% per year since the acquisition. "The addition of Rosenau Transport to GLS complements and enhances our Accelerate strategy. With this acquisition, GLS expands its service in Canada significantly and aims to play a significant role as a national logistics provider for parcels, LTL, FTL and customers brokerage with US reach", says Martin Seidenberg, CEO of GLS Group. "With its strong presence in Western Canada, high quality and entrepreneurial culture, as well as freight capabilities and parcel potential, Rosenau Transport's model is similar to our existing Canadian business and provides an excellent fit. I look forward to welcoming Ken and the Rosenau Transport team to GLS and capturing the significant opportunities ahead of us." Rick Barnes, President of GLS Canada says: "As we link two regional carrier networks together, with direct service to most cities and towns in the country, we will produce one of the most integrated transportation systems in Canada. The extended geographical reach will provide our 30,000 clients with a new national and international alternative for all of their shipping needs." Rosenau Transport will continue to be led by Ken Rosenau, President of Rosenau Transport, and will be fully consolidated within GLS for reporting purposes once the transaction closes. Ken Rosenau says: "Rosenau Transport is excited to join the GLS family and align with an industry-leading organisation that will open new opportunities and markets on a global scale. The combined transportation networks of GLS and Rosenau Transport will allow us to offer a comprehensive Canadian solution to better serve our clients. We look forward to working closely with Rick Barnes and the GLS Group to continue to champion our company's motto "Our Business is Built on Service, For our Customers, For Each Other and For our Communities." About GLS Group GLS Group is a leading cross-border parcel service provider. The company provides reliable, high-quality and personal parcel services to customers in 41 countries, complemented by freight and express services. Thanks to the company's expansive cross-border network and strong local market knowledge, customers can expect the same seamless, flexible and personal service across Europe and beyond. GLS also operates through wholly-owned subsidiaries in Canada and on the USA's West Coast. The GLS network consists of 71 central and regional transhipment points and about 1,500 depots, which are supported by approximately 31,000 final-mile delivery vehicles and 4,000 long-distance trucks. GLS employs around 21,000 people. In 2020/21, GLS generated record revenues of 4.5 billion euros and delivered 840 million parcels, despite global challenges. SOURCE GLS Canada Foundation for a Drug-Free World 's Truth About Drugs campaign is fact-based drug education that helps kids make their own decisions about how they want to live their lives. Foundation materials are based on the understanding that peopleespecially youthdon't like to be told what they can or can't do. The Truth About Drugs campaign is fact-based drug education that helps kids make their own decisions about their lives. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime , "For every dollar spent on prevention, at least ten can be saved in future health, social and crime costs." The drug prevention initiative supported by the Church of Scientology reflects the conviction: When someone understands what drugs really are and what they do, they are far less likely to abuse them. The volunteers have supplies of 14 kid-friendly booklets at their "Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life" display. These booklets present the unvarnished truth about the most commonly abused substances. Next to the tent, children and teens paint their own drug-free messages on a long roll of paper. Passersby admire the artwork and pick up booklets for themselves, their kids and their friends. The Vienna volunteers also share their message on their Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life YouTube video channel and Drug-Free Austria Facebook page . Scientology Churches provide drug education specialist training, sponsor chapters of Foundation for a Drug-Free World, and work with local educators, police, churches and nonprofits to reach youth on this vital subject. To make these materials available to anyone wishing to tackle the drug crisis, the Church of Scientology International Dissemination and Distribution Center in Los Angeles, California, produces and ships out Truth About Drugs booklets, DVDs and education packages in 20 languages, free of charge to parents, educators, law enforcement, community groups and nonprofits for their drug prevention activities. And the Scientology Network features drug prevention programming including The Truth About DrugsReal People, Real Stories documentary, public service announcements , and Voices for Humanity episodes on drug-prevention heroes making a difference in their own communities worldwide. SOURCE Church of Scientology International Related Links http://www.scientologynews.org http://www.scientology.org CHICAGO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hub International Limited (Hub), a leading global insurance brokerage and financial services firm, announced today that it has acquired the assets of Verity Insurance Services Inc. and Bellehaven Management Inc. (together, Verity Insurance). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Located in Covina, California, Verity Insurance is an independent insurance broker providing commercial insurance and health benefits. Verity Insurance also specializes in the consumer electronics and manufacturing industries. Herman Auyang and Helen Chang, co-owners, and the Verity Insurance team will join Hub California. About Hub's M&A Activities Hub International Limited is committed to growing organically and through acquisitions to expand its geographic footprint and strengthen industry and product expertise. For more information on the Hub M&A experience, visit WeAreHub.com. About Hub International Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Hub International Limited is a leading full-service global insurance broker and financial services firm providing risk management, insurance, employee benefits, retirement and wealth management products and services. With more than 13,000 employees in offices located throughout North America, Hub's vast network of specialists brings clarity to a changing world with tailored solutions and unrelenting advocacy, so clients are ready for tomorrow. For more information, please visit www.hubinternational.com. Media: Marni Gordon Phone: 312-279-4601 [email protected] M&A: Clark Wormer Phone: 312.279.4848 [email protected] SOURCE Hub International Limited Related Links www.hubinternational.com Following the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries across the world have adopted stricter safety guidelines. This has resumed manufacturing activities and increased the number of construction activities worldwide. The resurgence of these activities is increasing the demand for hydraulic equipment such as valves, pumps, cylinders, and filters. The market is expected to be driven by factors such as the mechanization of agriculture and growth in the agriculture machinery market, and increased growth in the global construction machinery market, and a growing commercial aircraft leasing market. The report also offers information on the upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. Have a Quick Look at Our Sample Report Before Purchasing Hydraulic Cylinder Market: Opportunities Governments across the world are focusing on developing and revamping their infrastructure. For instance, governments in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are making significant investments in the development of luxury hotels, resorts, parks, and religious monuments to accommodate the increasing tourist population from the Middle East. Such developments are increasing the demand for construction machinery, thereby creating several growth opportunities for market players. Hydraulic Cylinder Market: Segmentation by Type Based on the segmentation by end-user, the market generated maximum revenue in the CMMH segment in 2020. The segment is driven by the advantages of CMMH machinery such as ease of mounting and high precision compared with substitutes such as pneumatic cylinders. Also, the growth of the global construction industry is contributing to the growth of the segment. Hydraulic Cylinder Market: Segmentation by Geography APAC held the largest market share in 2020 and the market growth in the region is expected to be faster compared to the growth of the market in other regions. The growth of the market in APAC can be attributed to the rapid growth of the construction industry coupled with the high adoption of construction machinery and material handling equipment in the region. Also, the strong growth of the automotive industry is contributing to the growth of the hydraulic cylinder market in APAC. One of the fortune 500 companies had used the detailed research report on the hydraulic cylinder market and had decided to increase their market share in the APAC region which offers the highest market opportunities during the forecast period. Explore more about market opportunities: Request PDF Sample Now Hydraulic Cylinder Market: Major Vendors Aggressive Hydraulics Inc.: The company offers hydraulic cylinders such as welded hydraulic cylinders, telescopic cylinders, mill duty hydraulic cylinders, and others. Bailey International LLC: The company offers hydraulic cylinders such as maxim tie rod hydraulic cylinder, WSB swivel ball welded hydraulic cylinder, and others. Bosch Rexroth AG: The company offers hydraulic cylinders such as mill-type cylinders, tie rod cylinders, large cylinders, and others. Caterpillar Inc.: The company offers hydraulic cylinders namely CLY GP-1090, Head70X45, ROD AS-HYD-YM, and others. Eaton Corp. Plc: The company offers hydraulic cylinders namely, EH series, IHM and TV series, N series, and G series. Along with the market data, Technavio offers customizations as per the specific needs of companies. The following customization options are available for the hydraulic cylinder market report: Regional Analysis Further breakdown of the market segmentation at requested regions. Market Player Information Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players, vendor segmentation, and vendor offerings. Know the strategies adopted by vendors during the COVID-19 Recovery Phase. Speak to our Analyst for a Customized Report Related Reports: Global Hydraulic Accumulators Market Global hydraulic accumulators market is segmented by end-user (agriculture and forestry, oil and gas, and others) and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, MEA, and South America). Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Control Valves Market Global control valves market is segmented by product (sliding shaft and rotating shaft), end-user (power, oil and gas, chemical, water and wastewater (WWI), and others), and geography (APAC, Europe, North America, MEA, and South America). Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Hydraulic Cylinder Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of about 5% Market growth 2021-2025 $ 2.53 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.50 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution APAC at 47% Key consumer countries The US, China, Germany, Japan, and the UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Aggressive Hydraulics Inc., Bailey International LLC, Bosch Rexroth AG, Caterpillar Inc., Eaton Corp. Plc, HANNON HYDRUALICS LLC, HYDAC Verwaltung GmbH, Ligon Industries LLC, Parker Hannifin Corp., and Wipro Enterprises (P) Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contact Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com SOURCE Technavio Related Links https://www.technavio.com/?utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pressrelease&utm_campaign=Exp7.1_004_wk17_homepage&utm_content=IRTNTR70524 Investment Community Teleconference Set for November 9, 2021 at 8 a.m. ET TORONTO, ON, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Hydro One Limited (TSX: H), the largest electric transmission and distribution utility in Ontario, plans to release its third quarter financial results the morning of November 9, 2021 before North American financial markets open. A summary of the results will be distributed by newswire and the complete MD&A and financial statements will be posted at hydroone.com/investors and www.sedar.com. Hydro One's management will host a teleconference with the investment community at 8 a.m. ET that same morning to discuss the results and outlook. Those wishing to listen to the teleconference should access the live webcast on the Investor Relations Events and Presentations section of Hydro One's website at www.hydroone.com/investors. A rebroadcast of the teleconference will be available following the call at the same link. Those members of the North American financial community wanting to ask questions during the call should dial 1.866.221.1674 at least ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time and request Hydro One's third quarter results teleconference, conference ID 8546552 (international callers should dial 1.270.215.9604). Other interested parties and media are welcome to participate on a listen-only basis. Hydro One Limited (TSX: H) Hydro One Limited, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, is Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution provider with approximately 1.4 million valued customers, approximately $30.3 billion in assets as at December 31, 2020, and annual revenues in 2020 of approximately $7.3 billion. Our team of approximately 8,700 skilled and dedicated employees proudly build and maintain a safe and reliable electricity system which is essential to supporting strong and successful communities. In 2020, Hydro One invested approximately $1.9 billion in its transmission and distribution networks, and supported the economy through buying approximately $1.7 billion of goods and services. We are committed to the communities where we live and work through community investment, sustainability and diversity initiatives. We are designated as a Sustainable Electricity Company by the Canadian Electricity Association. Hydro One Limited's common shares are listed on the TSX and certain of Hydro One Inc.'s medium term notes are listed on the NYSE. Additional information can be accessed at www.hydroone.com; www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov . SOURCE Hydro One Limited DALLAS, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- JDC Healthcare Management LLC ("JDC") is notifying individuals of an event that may affect the security of some personal information. While, to date, JDC has no evidence that information has been or will be misused, JDC is providing information about the event, JDC's response to it, and resources available to help protect personal information. JDC will be mailing written notice to potentially impacted individuals for whom it has contact information. JDC also posted notice of this incident on its website at: https://3k9pi2sm0491ksmp5ktsbsz7-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/JDC-Website-Notice.docx-.pdf. On or about August 9, 2021, JDC became aware of a malware incident impacting certain company systems. JDC immediately worked to restore its systems and launched an investigation, with assistance from third-party computer forensic specialists, to determine the nature and scope of the incident. While our investigation is ongoing, on August 13, 2021, we determined that certain documents stored within JDC's environment were copied from or viewed on the system as part of the cyber incident between July 27, 2021 and August 16, 2021. Based on the investigation, JDC is currently conducting a detailed review of the impacted data to determine the type of information and to whom it relates. This effort is currently ongoing. While the investigation to determine the full scope of information affected is ongoing, the involved JDC systems may have contained the following types of information at the time of the incident: clinical information, demographic information (including Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, and dates of birth), health insurance information, and financial information. However, to date the investigation has found no evidence of actual or attempted misuse of data, JDC is making its community aware in an abundance of caution. JDC takes the confidentiality, privacy and security of the personal information in its care seriously. Upon learning of this incident, JDC moved quickly to investigate and respond to this incident, assess the security of its systems, restore functionality to its environment, and notify potentially affected individuals. As part of JDC's ongoing commitment to the security of information, JDC is reviewing and enhancing existing policies and procedures to reduce the likelihood of a similar future event and has reported this incident to law enforcement. JDC will also be reporting this incident to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and state regulators, as appropriate. We recognize that individuals may have questions that were not addressed. If you have additional questions, please contact (844) 788-0420, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central Time. JDC encourages individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud, to review their account statements, and to monitor their credit reports for suspicious activity. Under U.S. law, individuals are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus. To order a free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. Individuals may also contact the three major credit bureaus directly to request a free copy of their credit report. Steps You Can Take to Protect Personal Information Enroll in Identity Monitoring If you were affected by this incident, your mailed notice letter will include enrollment information and instructions. Other Steps Individuals Can Take to Protect Personal Information Individuals have the right to place an initial or extended "fraud alert" on a credit file at no cost. An initial fraud alert is a 1-year alert that is placed on a consumer's credit file. Upon seeing a fraud alert display on a consumer's credit file, a business is required to take steps to verify the consumer's identity before extending new credit. If you are a victim of identity theft, you are entitled to an extended fraud alert, which is a fraud alert lasting seven years. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, please contact any one of the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below. As an alternative to a fraud alert, consumers have the right to place a "credit freeze" on a credit report, which will prohibit a credit bureau from releasing information in the credit report without the consumer's express authorization. The credit freeze is designed to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name without your consent. However, you should be aware that using a credit freeze to take control over who gets access to the personal and financial information in your credit report may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make regarding a new loan, credit, mortgage, or any other account involving the extension of credit. Pursuant to federal law, you cannot be charged to place or lift a credit freeze on your credit report. To request a security freeze, you will need to provide the following information: Full name (including middle initial as well as Jr., Sr., II, III, etc.); Social Security number; Date of birth; Addresses for the prior two to five years; Proof of current address, such as a current utility bill or telephone bill; A legible photocopy of a government-issued identification card (state driver's license or ID card, etc.); and A copy of either the police report, investigative report, or complaint to a law enforcement agency concerning identity theft if you are a victim of identity theft. Should you wish to place a credit freeze, please contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below: Equifax Experian TransUnion https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/ https://www.experian.com/help/ https://www.transunion.com/credit-help 888-298-0045 1-888-397-3742 833-395-6938 Equifax Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 105069 Atlanta, GA 30348-5069 Experian Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016 Equifax Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348-5788 Experian Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 160, Woodlyn, PA 19094 Individuals can further educate themselves regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, credit freezes, and the steps you can take to protect your personal information by contacting the consumer reporting bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission, or your state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission may be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580; www.identitytheft.gov ; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The Federal Trade Commission also encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. Individuals can obtain further information on how to file such a complaint by way of the contact information listed above. Individuals have the right to file a police report if they ever experience identity theft or fraud. Please note that in order to file a report with law enforcement for identity theft, individuals will likely need to provide some proof that they have been a victim. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement and the individuals' state Attorney General. This notice has not been delayed by law enforcement. For District of Columbia residents, the District of Columbia Attorney General may be contacted at: 400 6th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001; 202-727-3400; and [email protected]. For Maryland residents, the Maryland Attorney General may be contacted at: 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; 1-410-528-8662 or 1-888-743-0023; and www.oag.state.md.us. For New Mexico residents, you have rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, such as the right to be told if information in your credit file has been used against you, the right to know what is in your credit file, the right to ask for your credit score, and the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. Further, pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the consumer reporting bureaus must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information; consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information; access to your file is limited; you must give your consent for credit reports to be provided to employers; you may limit "prescreened" offers of credit and insurance you get based on information in your credit report; and you may seek damages from violator. You may have additional rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act not summarized here. Identity theft victims and active duty military personnel have specific additional rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. We encourage you to review your rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by visiting www.consumerfinance.gov/f/201504_cfpb_summary_your-rights-under-fcra.pdf, or by writing Consumer Response Center, Room 130-A, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. For New York residents, the New York Attorney General may be contacted at: Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341; 1-800-771-7755; or https://ag.ny.gov/. For North Carolina residents, the North Carolina Attorney General may be contacted at: 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; 1-877-566-7226 or 1-919-716-6000; and www.ncdoj.gov. For Rhode Island residents, the Rhode Island Attorney General may be reached at: 150 South Main Street, Providence, RI 02903; www.riag.ri.gov; and 1-401-274-4400. Under Rhode Island law, you have the right to obtain any police report filed in regard to this incident. It is unknown how many Rhode Island residents, if any, were impacted by this incident at this time. SOURCE JDC Healthcare Management OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Medicare health plans in every region served by Kaiser Permanente have received a 5-Star rating the highest possible from CMS (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) for 2022. CMS' Medicare Part C (health plan) and Part D (drug plan) Star Rating system is designed to allow Medicare-eligible individuals to compare Medicare health plans based on quality and performance. Plans that receive 5 out of 5 Stars in the annual ratings are recognized as excellent, providing expert medicine, seamless care, and outstanding service to their Medicare health plan members. The 2022 plans in California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, the mid-Atlantic states (Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.), the Northwest (Oregon and Southwest Washington), and Washington state all received 5 out of 5 Stars. "These ratings affirm our standing as one of the finest health care organizations in the country and represent the excellent care provided by our highly skilled physicians, nurses, clinicians, and front-line staff," said Nancy Gin, MD, executive vice president and chief quality officer for The Permanente Federation, the national umbrella organization for the more than 23,000 physicians who provide care to Kaiser Permanente's members. "We are dedicated to providing high-quality care for our Medicare health plan members and helping them live full, active lives." Consistently a top choice Kaiser Permanente first earned the distinction of 5 star ratings for all of its Medicare health plans in 2014. This is also the 11th consecutive year all Kaiser Permanente Medicare health plans have been rated 4.5 Stars or higher. Kaiser Permanente provides care to nearly 1.8 million Medicare health plan members in 8 states and the District of Columbia. "Kaiser Permanente is proud to provide, year after year, the highest quality health care and service, which is what our Medicare health plan members expect and deserve," said Andrew Bindman, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Kaiser Permanente. "From the moment our Medicare health plan members choose Kaiser Permanente for their care and coverage, we work diligently to provide an exceptional, coordinated care experience, and this distinction is a reflection of those efforts." Every year, CMS rates all Medicare Advantage health plans (Parts C and D) on multiple facets of care and service, including chronic conditions management, health maintenance, patient experience, customer service, and pharmacy services. Kaiser Permanente's excellent plan ratings demonstrate the value of our integrated health care delivery system, which brings a myriad of services together, in many cases all under one roof, and puts our patients at the center of care. Enrolling in a Kaiser Permanente Medicare health plan Medicare-eligible people can enroll in individual Medicare Advantage and Part D plans during the Medicare open enrollment period, which begins on October 15 and runs through December 7, 2021. Medicare-eligible individuals who have a 5-Star Medicare health plan available in their area can also take advantage of a special enrollment period that runs from December 8, 2021, through November 30, 2022. During that time, they can join or switch to a plan with a 5-Star quality rating (one plan change allowed per special enrollment period). Medicare beneficiaries can learn more about Kaiser Permanente's highly rated Medicare health plans and historical Star ratings by visiting kp.org/medicarestars . About Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve approximately 12.5 million members in 8 states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists, and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery, and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education, and the support of community health. For more information, go to about.kp.org Contact: Marc Brown [email protected] 510-271-6328 SOURCE Kaiser Permanente LOMPOC, Calif., Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation on Thursday ripped the Bureau of Land Management for its blatant effort to wipe out Wyoming's wild horses. The agency on Thursday began a helicopter roundup of 4,300 wild horses in southwest Wyoming, the largest in BLM's history. Over the coming weeks, BLM plans to permanently remove 3,500 out of an agency-estimated 5,105 wild horses from five Herd Management Areas made up of 3.44 million acres of federal, state and private land in Southwest Wyoming. Of 800 wild horses that BLM plans to return to the range, half will be mares treated with fertility control. That will leave about 1,605 wild horses, or one horse for every 2,141 acres. "Unless BLM changes course, this roundup could mark the beginning of the end for wild horses across Wyoming's Checkerboard region," said Neda DeMayo, president of Return to Freedom, a national nonprofit advocacy organization. "That's what will happen if a local association is allowed to dictate to a federal agency and monopolize public lands for private livestock and hunting." The roundup comes even before BLM has finalized an amendment to its Resource Management Plan. The agency's preferred option: Effectively zeroing out the wild horse population on three Herd Management Areas while slashing the number of horses it allows on a fourth. The BLM's plan also includes the use of dangerous, costly and inhumane surgical sterilization of wild mares, which RTF strongly opposes. BLM is amending its Resource Management Plan in order to comply with a consent decree it entered into in 2013 with the Rock Springs Grazing Association, a livestock group that sued to have wild horses removed from Wyoming's Checkerboard, a 2-million-acre area of alternating blocks of private and public land set up in the 1860s as part of negotiations with the Union Pacific railroad. "BLM's state office is clearing wild horses out of the way for livestock and hunting interests," DeMayo said. "The agency's preferred plan shows blatant bias toward ranchers whose livestock already dwarf the number of wild horses there. BLM's reason that it's too hard to separate public and private lands -- is just not good enough for an agency tasked by federal law with protecting wild horses." BLM's pending plan considers only reallocating forage from wild horses to other wildlife or livestock without making an equivalent amount of forage available to wild horses elsewhere. In drafting its plan, BLM apparently did not consider other possible solutions more in keeping with the 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act like land swaps or scaling up a program of safe, proven and humane fertility control, which could stabilize herd populations and reduce the number of wild horses removed then warehoused in already overcrowded off-range holding facilities. Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF ) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to wild horse preservation through sanctuary, education, conservation, and advocacy since 1998. It also operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at three California locations, caring for 500 wild horses and burros. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates about wild horses and burros on the range and at our sanctuary. SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation Related Links https://returntofreeedom.org In the pledge, developed by Fairtrade as part of its Be Fair With Your Climate Promise campaign, the companies commit to take accountability for their own climate impact. They also commit to work alongside Fairtrade to protect and invest in the resilience and green transition of global food supply chains in the face of the climate crisis. As companies sourcing from Fairtrade producers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the signatories to the pledge see the climate crisis hitting the people in their supply chains disproportionately hard. Increasingly volatile weather is damaging crops, harming livelihoods for farming communities, and making crop production more unpredictable. With approximately three weeks until COP26 takes place in Glasgow, UK, governments must "set ambitious, science-based rules and targets which do not allow unscrupulous businesses to ignore the damage they are causing to the planet, and which encourage responsible business to do more," the pledge states. Cheryl Pinto, Global Values Led Sourcing Manager, Ben & Jerry's, says: "This is an issue of justice, so together with our fans and Fairtrade we call on world leaders to take urgent action. 1.5C warming will disproportionately and negatively impact disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. This means that the people who grow our food in climate vulnerable nations, where they are already suffering the consequences of climate change yet did the least to cause it, face a bleak, daunting future as their livelihoods are increasingly threatened. The $100 billion climate finance promise must be met and delivered, so that it reaches farmers, strengthens their resilience, and supports a just, fair future for all." Other Fairtrade signatories to the pledge include Bewleys, Cafedirect, Clipper, Coliman, Cru Kafe, Equal Exchange, Greggs, Kaladi, Liberation Nuts, Matthew Algie, Navitas and People Tree. Together, all the signatories commit to four key areas of action as part of their ongoing work in their international supply chains, and they call on other businesses to do likewise: To pay fair prices to producers farmers and workers should not have to choose between tackling poverty and building resilience to the climate crisis. 'Our Fairtrade commitments are critical to achieving this,' say the companies. To be long term partners with farming communities, listening to the experience of farmers, sharing their own expertise and investing in the urgent transitions farmers need. They will back a shift in food production and supply to one that is resilient to the changing climate, including backing nature-based solutions. They will support farmers as they work together to cut the emissions embedded throughout their supply chains. To "know and show" their climate impact, by measuring carbon emissions embedded in their supply chains, assessing the climate risks faced at farm level, and publishing the results. The companies say they want to raise awareness about the challenges and the practical solutions, setting a high bar for other businesses. To speak out, calling in public and private for Governments to set and deliver ambitious targets for emissions reduction and climate finance which puts farmers and agricultural workers first. The business pledge follows the publication of an open letter from 1.8 million Fairtrade farmers and workers across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this week. The letter warns governments that their lack of action is threatening farmers' livelihoods and global food supplies, and deepening poverty. Furthermore, the letter calls out the broken promises from world leaders. It demands that the promised $100 billion climate finance is not only paid, but that those funds reach farmers and workers directly to ensure they can withstand the growing challenges of climate change, including by planting more trees and investing in more resilient crops. Frits Snel, Tony's Chocolonely Country Manager, US, said: "We can't achieve social justice on a broken planet. And climate injustice often means the ones actively contributing to climate change feel its repercussions least. This reinforces the structural inequality of global industry and economy. Practically speaking, this also means cocoa farmers are already feeling the consequences of climate change. We're proud to be carbon neutral, to work with farmers in protecting the land and to produce plastic free packaging. But there's certainly more to be done. We aim to keep raising the environmental bar together with farmers and our partners at Fairtrade." British convenience retailer Co-op recently announced a commitment in their recent Climate Justice for People and Planet report to continue to spend more than 0.7% of their pre-tax profit on international aid and has joined forces with Fairtrade Africa and Fairtrade Foundation to support producers combating the effects of climate change. Jo Whitfield, Food CEO from the Co-op, said: "We are reliant on the global food system for the food we enjoy. However, the reality is that for many of our suppliers the impact of the climate crisis is immediate and pressing. That's why we've been calling on governments to ensure producers in low-income countries receive support to cover the cost of adapting to climate change and transitioning to low carbon production, and on businesses to play their part too." Speaking on behalf of the global Fairtrade campaign, Mary Linnell-Simmons, Director of Marketing and External Relations at Fairtrade America, says: "We welcome support for farmers from these forward-looking brands and retailers. It's imperative that businesses take a lead by earnestly committing themselves to supporting the farmers in their international supply chains. We call on other businesses to do the same. It is more important than ever that we listen to our farmers, raise their voices and ensure governments and businesses alike act now!" For more information about Fairtrade's Be Fair With Your Climate Promise campaign is visit: www.fairtrade.org.uk/be-fair About Fairtrade Fairtrade changes the way trade works by putting farmers and workers first. That means better prices, decent working conditions and more trade power for small-scale producers. Leading by example, Fairtrade has producers represented in 50% of its governance. Fairtrade International is an independent non-profit organization representing 1.8 million farmers and workers worldwide. It owns the FAIRTRADE Mark, a registered trademark appearing on more than 30,000 products, which is the most recognised and trusted sustainability label in the world. Fairtrade International and its member organisations collaborate with businesses, engage shoppers, activate civil society, and enable producers to take control in order to bring about a fair, sustainable future a future rooted in social justice. www.fairtrade.net SOURCE Fairtrade America Related Links https://www.fairtrade.net LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This October, Los Angeles Fashion Week will wave goodbye to virtual runways as Art Hearts Fashion ushers in a week of key shows and events at the Majestic Downtown. Taking place October 14th-17th, the return to in-person shows marks a moment of creative inspiration and renewal for designers. Guests can look forward to bold streetwear, custom lingerie, modern couture, and ready-to-wear designs from the most sought after national and international designers. Los Angeles Fashion Week Powered by Art Hearts Fashion This season, EyeBuyDirect, has partnered with Los Angeles Fashion Week as a Presenting Sponsor. EyeBuyDirect will provide designers some of the hottest styles for models walking the runway. VIP guests will find stylish, quality frames from EyeBuyDirect in their event gift bags and will be encouraged to share their favorite styles on social using the hashtag #RunwayMyWay. The beauty trends hitting the catwalk are made possible by Title Beauty Sponsor Runway Rogue, Official Makeup Tool Sponsor Japonesque, and Official Hair Care Sponsor I.C.O.N. Additional sponsors include: Classic Cat, Rockstar Energy Drink, Pretty Party, Shibue Couture, The Makeup Light, Simply Gum, Eat Me Guilt Free, Topo Chico, Hint Water, Florapy Beauty, Sugar & Kush, Simply High, Warwick LA, and AHF media partners: California Apparel News, Angeleno Magazine, Fashion Week Online, 24Fashion TV, FNL Networks, BEHIND IT Magazine, and Famous and Savage Magazine. The event will feature a fine art gallery curated by Six Summit Gallery. Special thanks to Official Hotel Sponsor Hilton Checkers Los Angeles, the premier location for pre-event drinks and dinner. Happy Hour will be hosted at the Hilton Checkers rooftop each day from 5PM-6PM. TICKETS TO LOS ANGELES FASHION WEEK SCHEDULE Thursday, October 14th 6PM Doors Open 7PM HOUSE OF SKYE By Skye Yayoi Drynan 9PM Merlin Castell, Gh Luxury Lingerie Friday, October 15th 6PM Doors Open 7PM Eni Buiron FEMME, Alexis Monsanto, Glaudi 9PM Watt x W.G., Willfredo Gerardo 1030PM Official Afterparty hosted by Classic Cat Saturday, October 16th 6PM Doors Open 7PM ARGYLE GRANT, Chicago Playground, Chavez Inc. 9PM Mister Triple X, Kentaro Kameyama, Custo Barcelona 1030PM-2AM Official Afterparty at Warwick LA Sunday, October 17th 6PM Doors Open 7PM NATALIA FEDNER, Stormy Weathers, Giannina Azar 8PM Presentation by Adolfo Sanchez 9PM Kenneth Barlis, ASTA RAZMA, Diana Couture X UBS Gold 1030PM Official Closing Gala hosted by Classic Cat For additional information contact: [email protected] SOURCE Art Hearts Fashion VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Ritchie Bros. (NYSE: RBA) and (TSX: RBA) the world's largest industrial auctioneer and a leading equipment distributor, invites interested parties to participate in its third quarter 2021 earnings conference call, occurring on Friday, November 5, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time / 8:00 a.m. Pacific time / 3:00 p.m. GMT. During the call, company executives will discuss Ritchie Bros.' earning results and answer questions from analysts and institutional investors. The Company's third quarter 2021 earnings results will be released after NYSE and TSX markets close the day prior, on November 4, 2021. Analysts and institutional investors may participate via conference call, using the following dial-in information: 1-888-664-6392 (toll-free North America) 08006522435 (toll-free UK) 1-416-764-8659 (Toronto & overseas long-distance) Please ask to participate in Ritchie Bros.' third quarter 2021 earnings call, and quote conference ID 22352106 if prompted. Media and other interested parties may listen to the conference call via webcast, by selecting the third quarter 2021 earnings call webcast link at https://investor.ritchiebros.com. Please note that there will be presentation slides accompanying the earnings call. The slides will be displayed live on the webcast, and will be available to download via the webcast player or at https://investor.ritchiebros.com/events-and-presentations the morning of the call. A replay of the conference call can be accessed after 2:00 pm Eastern time / 11:00 am Pacific time / 6:00 pm GMT until December 5, 2021 at 416-764-8677 or 1-888-390-0541 (using passcode 352106#). About Ritchie Bros.: Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE: RBA) (TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets. Operating in a number of sectors, including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, oil and gas, mining, and forestry, the company's selling channels include: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world's largest industrial auctioneer offers live auction events with online bidding; IronPlanet, an online marketplace with featured weekly auctions and providing the exclusive IronClad Assurance equipment condition certification; Marketplace-E, a controlled marketplace offering multiple price and timing options; Mascus, a leading European online equipment listing service; and Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty, offering privately negotiated sales. The Company's suite of solutions also includes Ritchie Bros. Asset Solutions and Rouse Services LLC, which together provides a complete end-to-end asset management, data-driven intelligence and performance benchmarking system. Ritchie Bros. also offers sector-specific solutions including GovPlanet, TruckPlanet, and Kruse Energy, plus equipment financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services. For more information about Ritchie Bros., visit RitchieBros.com. SOURCE Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Related Links http://www.rbauction.com DETROIT, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Early last week Meridian of Michigan was awarded a Pinnacle from the Michigan Association of Health Plans (MAHP) for their innovative work in supporting maternal women during their pregnancy and postpartum period. "It is an honor to be recognized for our hard work in supporting our maternal members," said Sean Kendall, Meridian Plan President and CEO. "It is imperative to the health and longevity of both the mother and baby that they have the proper care they need and we have been able to support this care through our maternity program." Meridian's maternity program targets low and moderate at risk members and connects them with a Community Health Worker (CHW). Members that are successfully contacted and enrolled in the program receive on-going support from their assigned CHW. CHWs help educate maternal women on the importance of pre and post-natal visits; helping them establish timely care for both themselves and their baby. The program also has a large emphasis on connecting mothers to community resources by sharing local supports when a need is indicated. This is not the first time Meridian has won a pinnacle award from MAHP. Having now won 13 awards since 2014, 2 of which are for their maternity work, Meridian continues to bring forward innovative programs that demonstrate improvements in health outcomes, lowered healthcare costs and an increase in services to their members. About Meridian Meridian of Michigan provides government-sponsored managed care services to families, children, seniors, and individuals with complex medical needs primarily through Medicaid (MeridianHealth), Medicare Advantage (WellCare), Medicare-Medicaid Plans (MeridianComplete), Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (WellCare), and the Health Insurance Marketplace (Ambetter from Meridian). Meridian is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a leading multi-national healthcare enterprise committed to helping people live healthier lives. For more information about Meridian, please visit www.mhplan.com. SOURCE Meridian of Michigan Related Links https://www.mhplan.com COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MGF Sourcing (the "Company"), one of the largest apparel sourcing, manufacturing and supply chain companies in the world, today announced that Michael Yee, President of MGF Sourcing Asia, will become Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective February 1, 2022. Mr. Yee will succeed James Schwartz who will assume the newly created role of Executive Chairman at that time. The Company also announced the promotion of Jennie Wilson, Chief Administrative Officer, to President and Chief Operating Officer, also effective February 1, 2022. "Michael is well positioned to take MGF into its next phase of growth and prosperity," said Mr. Schwartz. "Not only has he developed incredible relationships with our vendor community and retail partners, but he has also been critical to leading MGF and our associates through the challenges of the pandemic that have significantly impacted our industry." Mr. Yee joined MGF Sourcing as President of MGF Asia in November 2019 from GAP Inc. where he was President and CEO of Greater China Retail and EVP of Global Sourcing and Production. Prior to that, he served in various leadership roles with Accenture, Liz Claiborne, and Kurt Salmon. As CEO of MGF Sourcing, Mr. Yee will continue to be based in Hong Kong. Adds Mr. Yee, "I am humbled by the opportunity to be the CEO of MGF Sourcing, a company with deep roots and a history of success that is the culmination of our incredibly talented people and loyal customers. I would like to thank Jim and all the associates of MGF for their support. It is an honor to lead the business into the future." Mr. Schwartz has been in the industry for nearly 43 years and has served as CEO of MGF Sourcing since it was acquired from L Brands in 2011 and was with its predecessor company, Mast Global Fashions, beginning in 1983. Under his leadership, MGF has grown to a fully standalone business sourcing over a billion dollars of goods annually serving many of the best brands in retail. As Executive Chairman, Mr. Schwartz will also serve as a business advisor to Mr. Yee and Ms. Wilson on key strategic initiatives. "It has been an honor and a privilege to work with the team at MGF and with our brand partners and supplier community," said Mr. Schwartz. "I look forward to continuing to work with the Company in my new role and am confident that MGF will thrive under Michael's and Jennie's leadership." Ms. Wilson has been with MGF since 2012, first as Chief Financial Officer and more recently as Chief Administrative Officer. Prior to MGF, she served in senior finance roles with DSW, L Brands, and Dunkin' Brands. "Jennie has been here since the beginning and led the creation of the infrastructure to support this business from the ground up, including Technology, Finance, and Logistics," said Mr. Schwartz. "She has been instrumental to MGF's success and will continue to partner closely with Michael in guiding MGF in its next chapter of growth." About MGF Sourcing MGF Sourcing is an independent global sourcing company with a specialization in apparel and accessories. With more than forty years of experience, they have developed a strong track record as an agile and trustworthy partner. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, the company maintains offices in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and the United States. Our global team collaborates across categories and borders, supporting innovation and increasing flexibility and speed to market for our customers through our ability to provide design, distribution, production oversight, and other manufacture management services. SOURCE Sycamore Partners Gallium nitride (GaN) is a next-generation semiconductor technology that runs up to 20x faster than legacy silicon, and enables up to 3x more power and 3x faster charging in half the size and weight. Navitas' GaNFast power ICs integrate GaN power and drive plus protection and control to deliver simple, small, fast and efficient performance. With over 130 patents issued or pending, and significant trade secrets including a proprietary process design kit (PDK), Navitas believes it has a multi-year lead in next-generation GaN power ICs. Data center upgrades from legacy silicon to GaN are estimated to save almost $2B/year in electricity costs, while GaN adoption in solar microinverters has been estimated by Enphase Energy to enable 10x faster switching and a significant reduction in costs. Per-vehicle GaN content in passenger EVs is estimated as $50 for on-board fast chargers, $15 for DC-DC converters and then up to $200 for later adoption in traction drive. "Alongside Hangzhou and Shanghai, the new state-of-the-art Shenzhen office is another, significant addition to Navitas China," said Charles (Jingjie) ZHA, VP and general manager of Navitas China. "Chinese demand for next-generation power systems is growing exponentially and with the world's only fully-integrated GaN power ICs, Navitas is in a fantastic position to capitalize on that growth. The new facilities demonstrate our commitment to support expanded customer demands in China." Navitas' new office is in the iconic Baidu International Building, in the high-density Nanshan District. The design itself is an interpretation of ancient Chinese poetry into the binary codes that power the digital age, while also representing the client's corporate temperament to the world. The building won the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat 2019 award for sustainable and healthy cities, which reflects Navitas' goal to "Electrifying our World". Navitas estimates that each GaN power IC shipped saves 4kg of CO 2 emissions vs. legacy silicon chips. About Navitas Navitas Semiconductor Limited is the industry leader in GaN power IC's, founded in 2014. Navitas has a strong and growing team of power semiconductor industry experts with a combined 300 years of experience in materials, devices, applications, systems and marketing, plus a proven record of innovation with over 200 patents among its founders. GaN power ICs integrate GaN power with drive, control and protection to enable faster charging, higher power density and greater energy savings for mobile, consumer, enterprise, eMobility and new energy markets. Over 130 Navitas patents are issued or pending, and over 25 million GaNFast power ICs have been shipped with zero reported GaN field failures. On May 7th, 2021, Navitas announced plans to "Go Public at an Enterprise Value of $1.04 Billion via Live Oak II (NYSE: LOKB) SPAC Business Combination. Navitas Semiconductor, GaNFast and the Navitas logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Navitas Semiconductor Limited. All other brands, product names and marks are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks used to identify products or services of their respective owners. Contact Information Stephen Oliver, VP Corporate Marketing & Investor Relations [email protected] SOURCE Navitas Semiconductor Related Links https://navitassemi.com/ Inspired by the hundreds of stories shared on MonumentalMoments.com over the past year, Monumental Moments - The Hug was unveiled on Thursday, October 7, to coincide with Mental Illness Awareness Week (October 3-9) and ahead of World Mental Health Day (October 10) at New York City's iconic Lincoln Center. Performing during the reveal was the internationally renowned, Boston-based Me2/Orchestra, the world's only known classical music organization created specifically for individuals living with mental illness and the people who support them. The orchestra created an original musical score to kick off the Monumental Moments initiative in October 2020. The Monumental Moments community platform and charitable initiative was created to offer hope, support, inspiration and a way for the mental health community and all those facing challenges during the pandemic to connect and share how they're prioritizing their mental health. The Monumental Moments community is now encouraging people to share any lessons learned since the start of the pandemic, what they are grateful for and how they continue to care for their mental health. "I am honored to work with Neurocrine Biosciences to join the Monumental Moments initiative and create something that means so much to me. The sculpture is dedicated to those who have been struggling with their mental health because of the pandemic and represents the importance of supporting each other during these unprecedented times," Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada said. "Art can help bring people together, and I hope the sculpture will remind us all that we can overcome these difficult times as a community." To usher in this time of reflection, Rodriguez-Gerada's sculpture of a hug, developed in collaboration with international art and design foundry UAP, represents the importance of connection and supporting each other and how much many of us missed hugging loved ones during these trying times. Research demonstrates that hugging can help minimize negative emotions and support a more positive state of being.1 The sculpture depicts two adults and a child in an embrace, and the green ribbon woven throughout represents the importance of continued mental health awareness and support, while highlighting the significance of this year's Mental Illness Awareness Week and World Mental Health Day. "Last year in support of the launch of Monumental Moments, we debuted an original score to bring to life the emotional impact this time has had on many," said Caroline Whiddon, Executive Director and cofounder of Me2/Orchestra. "This year, we are pleased to perform again and stand alongside Jorge and this magnificent sculpture to celebrate the resilience of the Monumental Moments community that has grown over time." One in five adults live with a mental health condition,2 and research from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health Tracking Poll, a KFF survey tool, found nearly half (47%) of adults continue to report negative mental health impacts as a result of the pandemic.3 People living with mental health conditions may also be impacted by tardive dyskinesia (TD), a movement disorder associated with taking medication to treat bipolar disorder, depression or schizophrenia.4-6 These movements are characterized by uncontrollable, abnormal, and repetitive movements of the face, torso, and/or other body parts, which can impact those living with TD socially, emotionally, and physically.4-8 Public posts on social media using the hashtag #MonumentalMoments will help support people living with mental health conditions, including those living with TD, and the challenges that they may experience. On behalf of posts shared, Neurocrine Biosciences is making donations to mental health organizations as part of its commitment to support people living with mental health conditions. "At Neurocrine Biosciences, we remain committed to supporting people living with mental health conditions and associated challenges like tardive dyskinesia," said Kevin Gorman, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer at Neurocrine Biosciences. "We're proud to work with Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada and the Me2/Orchestra to help support all those who have faced mental health challenges during the pandemic. Our hope is that people continue to engage in the community and help others by sharing their Monumental Moments about what they have learned or how they have grown." For more information including mental health resources, visit MonumentalMoments.com or Facebook.com/MonumentalMomentsPage and join the conversation online by sharing #MonumentalMoments. About Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is an involuntary movement disorder characterized by uncontrollable, abnormal and repetitive movements of the torso, extremities and/or face, which can include hand or foot movements, rocking of the torso, lip smacking, grimacing, tongue protrusion, facial movements or blinking, as well as puckering and pursing of the lips. The condition is associated with taking certain mental health medicines such as antipsychotics, which are commonly prescribed to bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. In patients with TD, these treatments are thought to result in irregular dopamine signaling in a region of the brain that controls movement. The symptoms of TD can be severe and are often persistent and irreversible. TD is estimated to affect approximately 600,000 people in the U.S. About Neurocrine Biosciences Neurocrine Biosciences is a neuroscience-focused, biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering, developing and delivering life-changing treatments for people with serious, challenging and under-addressed neurological, endocrine and psychiatric disorders. The company's diverse portfolio includes FDA-approved treatments for tardive dyskinesia, Parkinson's disease, endometriosis*, uterine fibroids* and clinical programs in multiple therapeutic areas. For nearly three decades, Neurocrine Biosciences has specialized in targeting and interrupting disease-causing mechanisms involving the interconnected pathways of the nervous and endocrine systems. For more information, visit neurocrine.com, and follow the company on LinkedIn. (*in collaboration with AbbVie) About Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, a Cuban American contemporary artist, is recognized worldwide for his unique "urban" large-scale mural portraits that can be seen from space. By utilizing walls and floors as canvases and citizens as models, he became one of the most well-known urban artists who displays his work on walls of different cities around the world. Rodriguez-Gerada began his career in the early 90s as a founding member of New York's Culture Jamming Movement. Since then, he has mastered his artistic directions as a muralist, sculptor and land artist. Rodriguez-Gerada has created a series of important large-scale murals, including his work in Queens, New York, memorializing the late Dr. Decoo, a Latino pediatrician who lost his life after battling the pandemic in New York City, and the Hispanic and African American communities who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Rodriguez-Gerada has collaborated with multiple organizations and institutions, such as Google Research Lab, The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, to work to forward positive initiatives and projects. About Me2/Orchestra Me2/Orchestra is the world's only known classical music organization created specifically for individuals living with mental illness and the people who support them. Founded in 2011 by Ronald Braunstein and Caroline Whiddon, both of whom struggle with mental health conditions, it serves as a model organization where people with and without mental illnesses work together in an environment where acceptance is an expectation, patience is encouraged, and supporting each other is a priority. Together, they have found music to be a medium that helps inspire people and bring them together. Me2/Orchestra's mission is to erase the stigma surrounding mental illness through inspiring performances and supportive classical music ensembles. 1 Robinson KJ, Hoplock LB, Cameron JJ. When in doubt, reach out: touch is a covert but effective mode of soliciting and providing social support. Soc Psychol Personal Sci. 2015;6(7):831-839. doi:10.1177/1948550615584197 2 National Alliance on Mental Illness. Mental health by the numbers. Accessed August 2021. https://www.nami.org/mhstats 3 Kearney A, Hamel L, Brodie M. KFF Health Tracking Poll mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: an update. Kaiser Family Foundation. Published April 14, 2021. Accessed August 2021. https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/mental-health-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/ 4 Task Force on Tardive Dyskinesia. Tardive Dyskinesia: A Task Force Report of the American Psychiatric Association. American Psychiatric Association; Washington, DC; 1992. 5 Cloud LJ, Zutshi D, Factor SA. Tardive dyskinesia: therapeutic options for an increasingly common disorder. Neurotherapeutics. 2014;11(1):166-176. 6 American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. American Psychiatric Association; 2013:712. 7 Guy W. ECDEU Assessment Manual for Psychopharmacology. National Institute of Mental Health; 1976. 8 Ascher-Svanum H, et al. Tardive dyskinesia and the 3-year course of schizophrenia: results from a large, prospective, naturalistic study. J Clin Psych. 2008;69(10):1580-1588. SOURCE Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. Related Links https://www.neurocrine.com/ FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 5; Released: September 2021 Executive Pool: 761 Companies: 44 - Players covered include Early Sense; Eight Sleep; EMFIT; Lenovo Group; Sleep Number Corporation; Smart Caregiver Corporation; Tekscan; Wellsense and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Bed Monitoring Systems and Baby Monitoring Systems 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 Bed Monitoring Systems and Baby Monitoring Systems Market to Reach US$1.8 Billion by the Year 2026 Growth in the global market is mainly attributed to rising aging population, increasing uptake of unobtrusive monitoring options and growing investment in development of the healthcare infrastructure. The market is powered by immense popularity of baby monitoring solutions, on-going efforts to prevent fall injuries and pressure ulcers, and explosion of the e-commerce. In recent years, a large number of clinical settings and hospitals have embraced continuous monitoring systems to track respiratory and heart rates of patients in real-time. Powered by latest technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence, these devices deliver enhanced features and are gaining increasing traction from high incident of chronic medical conditions. While increasing uptake of baby monitors is driving demand, strong emphasis on sleep monitors to analyze sleep patterns, mainly in homecare settings, is providing notable revenue boost to the market. In addition, the availability of smart bed monitoring systems along with increasing incidence of sleep disorders is bolstering the market growth. Increasing geriatric population that is susceptible to various chronic conditions, falls and associated medical complications is expected to propel global demand for these devices. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Bed Monitoring Systems and Baby Monitoring Systems estimated at US$1.3 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$1.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.6% over the analysis period. Baby Monitoring, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 6.3% CAGR to reach US$808.6 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 Elderly Monitoring segment is readjusted to a revised 7.3% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 27.2% share of the global Bed Monitoring Systems and Baby Monitoring Systems market. The baby monitoring segment growth is driven by increasing number of working women and busy lifestyles. The segment is gaining from rising parent awareness, increasing influx of new devices and rising uptake of these systems across homecare settings. The U.S. Market is Estimated at $389.5 Million in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $210 Million by 2026 The Bed Monitoring Systems and Baby Monitoring Systems market in the U.S. is estimated at US$389.5 Million in the year 2021. The country currently accounts for a 29.45% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$210 Million in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 8.3% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.2% and 6.6% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 5.7% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$227.8 Million by the end of the analysis period. North America commands major market share due to increasing incidence of sleep-related disorders along with high level of awareness regarding health benefits of baby and bed monitoring systems. In Asia-Pacific region, growth is attributed to increasing healthcare spending, supportive insurance policies, rapid expansion of the healthcare sector, rising middle-class segment, and increasing spending power. Bedsore Monitoring Segment to Reach $327 Million by 2026 Bedsore are a common problem among patients admitted in hospitals, and physicians always take a physical inspection of admitted patients to check whether the patient has developed bedsores or not. Recent years saw advent of sensor-enabled monitoring systems that enable identifying the bedsores in hospital-admitted patients in real-time. In the future, more sophisticated and affordable bedsore monitoring systems are likely to emerge for hospital admitted as well as for bed-ridden people undergoing treatment at their homes. In the global Bedsore Monitoring segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 5.4% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$183 Million in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$263.1 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$32.6 Million by the year 2026. More MarketGlass Platform Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide. Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years. CONTACTS: Zak Ali Director, Corporate Communications Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Phone: 1-408-528-9966 www.StrategyR.com Email: [email protected] LINKS Join Our Expert Panel https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp Connect With Us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./ Follow Us on Twitter https://twitter.com/marketbytes Journalists & Media [email protected] SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Related Links http://www.strategyr.com Technavio offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario and the overall market environment. Read Free Sample Report The flexible food packaging market in North America is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. To leverage the current opportunities, market vendors must strengthen their foothold in the fast-growing segments while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Flexible Food Packaging Market in North America 2021-2025: Segmentation Material Plastic Paper Foil Geography US Canada Mexico Find insights on the impact of each segment and make informed business decisions. Download a Free Sample Now Flexible Food Packaging Market in North America 2021-2025: Vendor Analysis and Scope To help businesses improve their market position, Technavio's report provides a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the market. Some of the major vendors of the flexible food packaging market in North America include Amcor Plc, Berry Global Group Inc., CCL Industries Inc., Constantia Flexibles Group GmbH, FLAIR Flexible Packaging Corp., Mondi Group, ProAmpac Intermediate Inc., Reynolds Group Products Inc., Sealed Air Corp., and Sonoco Products Co. The report also covers the following areas: Factors such as lower cost of production and less plastic waste than rigid packaging, increasing consumer preference for packaged food, and growing demand for high-barrier packaging films will offer immense growth opportunities. However, factors such as fluctuations in the prices of raw materials may threaten the growth of the market. Get lifetime access to our Technavio Insights. Subscribe now to our most popular "Lite Plan" billed annually at USD 3000 . View 3 reports monthly and Download 3 Reports Annually! Flexible Food Packaging Market in North America 2021-2025: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2021-2025 Detailed information on factors that will assist flexible food packaging market growth in North America during the next five years during the next five years Estimation of the flexible food packaging market size in North America and its contribution to the parent market and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the flexible food packaging market in North America Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of flexible food packaging market vendors in North America Related Reports: Chocolate Packaging Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025: The chocolate packaging market has the potential to grow by USD 3.82 billion from 2021 to 2025. Download Free Sample Report Now The chocolate packaging market has the potential to grow by from 2021 to 2025. Download Free Sample Report Now Bakery Packaging Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025: The bakery packaging market has the potential to grow by USD 8.52 billion from 2021 to 2025. View Sample Report Flexible Food Packaging Market in North America Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of over 6% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 4.13 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.11 Regional analysis US, Canada, and Mexico Performing market contribution US at 79% Key consumer countries US Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Amcor Plc, Berry Global Group Inc., CCL Industries Inc., Constantia Flexibles Group GmbH, FLAIR Flexible Packaging Corp., Mondi Group, ProAmpac Intermediate Inc., Reynolds Group Products Inc., Sealed Air Corp., and Sonoco Products Co. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized. Download Free Sample Report now to uncover successful business strategies deployed by companies in the flexible food packaging market in North America About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contact Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media & Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: [email protected] Website: www.technavio.com/ SOURCE Technavio MILWAUKEE, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- North Shore Healthcare, the largest provider of post-acute care in the Upper Midwest, has entered into an agreement with Sound Physicians, a leading physician practice in acute and post-acute care, who will provide after-hours telemedicine support to 52 North Shore skilled nursing facilities in Wisconsin. Sound will work in partnership with GAPS Health, a nationwide physician-led organization focused on enhancing medical directorships and patient outcomes, to ensure that North Shore residents receive quality physician services 24-hours per day. According to David Mills, North Shore's Chief Executive Officer, "Receiving consistent physician support during evenings and weekends has been a challenge for providers for many years. These are the times when we need the most guidance and support from professionals, often at a moment's notice. We are extremely excited to partner with Sound Physicians as they have developed an innovative care model that addresses this issue, resulting in better outcomes and support being delivered to our residents and staff." "Sound Physicians will focus on bringing acute care expertise to North Shore via our integrated telemedicine platform to improve clinical outcomes and reduce unnecessary returns to the hospital," says Brendan McNamara, Chief Executive Officer, Telemedicine, at Sound Physicians. "For 20 years, our high-performing care models have consistently improved acute and post-acute episode outcomes, and we look forward to collaborating with North Shore and GAPS to ensure seamless round-the-clock care." North Shore Healthcare, headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, operates 71 long-term skilled nursing care, short-term rehabilitation, and assisted living facilities in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and North Dakota. "We are excited to work with Sound Physicians to manage and care for North Shore residents. Sound's experience delivering expert, on-demand physician services on nights, weekends, and holidays adds additional support and continuity of care to optimize patient outcomes," says Dr. Jerry Wilborn, Chief Executive Officer for GAPS. "This partnership will ultimately help improve nursing satisfaction, dramatically reduce hospital readmissions, and improve the quality of care." Sound Physicians will launch their TeleSNF program at Wisconsin North Shore locations beginning October 2021. For more information, visit: nshorehc.com soundtelemedicine.com gaps-health.com About North Shore Healthcare North Shore Healthcare and its centers proudly serve communities in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and North Dakota. With 71 centers that offer long-term skilled nursing care, short-term rehabilitation, and assisted living services, we are the largest post-acute care provider in the Upper Midwest. North Shore is dedicated to being The Right Choice for families and employees by establishing a culture that reinforces the values necessary to be the premier health services provider and employer in each of the communities we serve. About Sound Physicians Sound Physicians is a leading physician partner to hospitals, health plans, physician groups, and post-acute providers seeking to transform outcomes for acute episodes of care. For 20 years, our high-performing and affordable care models have combined physician leadership, clinical process, technology, and analytics to consistently improve clinical and financial performance. We are pioneers in value, working together with our partners and community providers to bridge gaps in patient care, from hospital to home. Visit us at www.soundphysicians.com. About GAPS Health GAPS Health, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a physician-led organization that provides Medical Directorships across the nation. We deliver clinical and value-based programs for post-acute facilities, assisted living communities, accountable care organizations (ACOs), iSNPs, and payers. Now operating in over 20 states with licensure in almost all states, our innovative clinical pods focus on enhancing and improving the effectiveness of physicians and post-acute providers to care for the frail, elderly, and chronically ill, including COVID-19 patients. This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com. SOURCE Sound Physicians Related Links http://www.soundphysicians.com LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Camber Energy, Inc. ("Camber" or "the Company") (NYSE American: CEI) for violations of the securities laws. The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. Camber is the subject of a research report published by Kerrisdale Capital on October 5, 2021. The report, titled: "Camber Energy, Inc. (CEI): What If They Made a Whole Company Out of Red Flags?" alleges that the Company "has failed to file financial statements with the SEC since September 2020, is in danger of having its stock delisted next month, and just fired its accounting firm in September." According to the report, the Company's only actual asset, a 73% stake in OTC-traded Viking Energy Group, Inc., is in deep trouble and subject to a going-concern warning. The report makes multiple other allegations about the Company, including that its "'ESG Clean Energy' technology license is a joke," that "the most fascinating part of the CEI boondoggle actually has to do with something far more basic: how many shares are there, and why has dilution been spiraling out of control?" and that the "market is badly mistaken about Camber's share count and ignorant of [Camber's] terrifying capital structure." The report also estimates that the "fully diluted share count is roughly triple the widely reported number." Based on this news, shares of Camber fell by more than 24% in intraday trading. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at [email protected]. The class in this case has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. CONTACT: The Schall Law Firm Brian Schall, Esq. 310-301-3335 [email protected] www.schallfirm.com SOURCE The Schall Law Firm Related Links www.schallfirm.com HELSINKI, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Growing a productive forest requires hard work and commitment. Correctly timed thinning improves the forest's growth conditions and makes trees grow sturdier more quickly. Thinning supports forest biodiversity when part of the forest is always in the growth phase. "Thinning can also be called improvement felling, as it ensures the productivity of the forest, and the high quality and health of trees," says Tuomo Moilanen, forest specialist at Ponsse. "The better a forest grows, the better it sequesters carbon. Thinning ensures that trees can be processed into high-quality products that sequester carbon for dozens or even hundreds of years," says Moilanen. In cut-to-length (CTL) harvesting, trees are already processed up to the intended length in the forest, enabling thinning to be ecological. When the harvester operator plans trails so that they can also be driven by the forwarder, trees can be both felled and transported without needing to move around unnecessarily in the forest. "At thinning sites, the distance between trails is roughly 20 metres, and trees remaining by the side of the trail will grow in Finnish conditions 2025 per cent more quickly, because they will have room to grow, both above and below," Moilanen says. Ponsse's harvesters, forwarders and harvester heads have also been designed for thinning sites The six-wheeled PONSSE Beaver and the eight-wheeled PONSSE Fox, Ponsse's harvesters in the smaller size category, are ideal solutions for first thinning. PONSSE Fox is an excellent choice, especially when operating in soft terrain. High-flotation tracks should be selected as optional equipment for softer terrain to prevent surface damage. At heavier thinning sites, the PONSSE Cobra and Scorpion harvesters, combined with the H5 or H6 harvester head, are the best choices in terms of productivity. In PONSSE Scorpion, the unobstructed visibility in all directions, together with cabin and crane levelling, makes working smooth even at dense thinning sites. As eight-wheeler machines, both models are also excellent in soft terrain. While Elk and Wisent are the most popular PONSSE forwarders for thinning sites, Buffalo is also an excellent choice, especially when distances are longer, and the aim is to improve productivity. The forwarder can easily pick up trees from thinning sites when trails are properly protected (with branches) and as straight as possible; the fewer sharp bends there are, the less surface damage is caused. At thinning sites, the harvester head should be selected according to the dominant tree species. However, it should be considered that damaged trees and other trees in poor condition must also be removed from thinning sites, calling for sawing and feed force from the harvester head. The harvester head must be reliable at thinning sites because a large number of trees are produced quickly during each shift. At thinning sites, much rests on the forest machine operator the operator decides what trees are removed and what are left standing. The forest owner hands over their assets to a professional forest machine operator to receive the highest possible profit, also in the future. During September Ponsse organized an online event where our customers and specialists explained more about our solutions for thinning sites. Watch the web event recording subtitled in English, Swedish, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese and learn more: https://youtu.be/SR-4a6fKxPE For further information, please contact: Marko Mattila Ponsse Plc, Sales, Marketing, and Service Director. Tel. +358 40 0596298 [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/ponsse-oyj/r/ponsse-solutions-for-thinning-sites,c3428571 The following files are available for download: https://news.cision.com/ponsse-oyj/i/ponsse-thinning-aerial,c2964774 PONSSE Thinning aerial SOURCE Ponsse Oyj VICTORIA, Seychelles, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PrimeXBT, one of the fastest-growing trading platforms offering forex, cryptocurrency, stock indices, commodities, and more under one roof, has announced the much-anticipated launch of the Covesting Yield Account module. Covesting Yield Accounts Are Now Available On PrimeXBT Covesting Yield Accounts join the rest of the Covesting ecosystem and a world-class suite of advanced trading tools on PrimeXBT to offer platform users another way to generate income passively, all from a single account. The Covesting Yield Account technology offers direct access to top DeFi protocols such as Uniswap, Compound, Curve, Yearn.Finance, and others, but without the need for technical expertise or to connect wallets to a decentralized exchange. Using the tool, users can safely and securely stake idle crypto assets for industry-best variable APYs of as much as 10% under current market conditions. The tool provides a fully transparent estimate of expected APY rates. Within just a few clicks, users can begin staking any crypto assets stored in a secure PrimeXBT crypto wallet for passive income, making the benefits of DeFi much more accessible to all. PrimeXBT And The Continuous Roadmap Of Innovative Releases Covesting Yield Accounts are the latest update as part of an ongoing white label licensing agreement and B2B partnership between PrimeXBT and licensed European fintech developer Covesting. Other innovations include the Covesting copy trading module and COV token staking, which can unlock utilities that boost APY rates when using the Covesting Yield Account system. It is also just the most recent release in an ever-growing lineup of assets and continuous updates released by the two companies in cooperation. PrimeXBT recently debuted seven of the most popular new crypto altcoins, while Covesting made several key safety updates to margin allocation and performance metrics in the Covesting copy trading module. In the future, PrimeXBT and Covesting will connect Covesting Yield Accounts to additional DeFi protocols and CeFi platforms to increase yields further and improve diversity across the service. 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 . About Covesting Covesting is a global fintech company incorporated under the laws of Gibraltar, which offers the broadest array of software solutions for retail and institutional customers worldwide. Covesting has become one of the world's first companies to receive a Distributed Ledger Technology License (DLT) from regulatory authorities in Gibraltar. For more information, please visit covesting.io . Follow Covesting on Facebook , Twitter , and Telegram . SOURCE PrimeXBT LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Remote Desktop , a remote access solution from IDrive that enables users to remotely access their RDP-based Windows computers and servers from any PC, Mac, Android or iOS device, is aiming to solve vulnerability issues with RDP by implementing robust access and security controls. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a major impact on the cybersecurity landscape. In fact, according to ESET's Q4 2020 Threat Report , there was a 768% increase in RDP attacks from Q1 to Q4 2020, mainly influenced by the shift to many businesses having their employees work from home. Attackers are able to steal sensitive data and compromise networks by taking advantage of desktops that are left unprotected. Serious risk factors that have led to the rise in RDP attacks are unrestricted access to RDP ports, and weak passwords which organizations rarely manage, leaving themselves vulnerable to password reuse DDOS attacks. By implementing the following security measures, Remote Desktop is able to assist organizations in protecting RDP: Closed RDP Ports - most RDP connections listen on Port 3389, enabling attackers to accurately guess this number and reach computers with misconfigured firewall rules. Remote Desktop does not require the user to expose the RDP Ports to the public and change any firewall rules / ACLs to enable remote desktop access. most RDP connections listen on Port 3389, enabling attackers to accurately guess this number and reach computers with misconfigured firewall rules. Remote Desktop does not require the user to expose the RDP Ports to the public and change any firewall rules / ACLs to enable remote desktop access. Secure Access with Trusted Devices - for every sign in to the account from a new device, users are required to authorize it as a Trusted Device, helping to prevent unauthorized access. for every sign in to the account from a new device, users are required to authorize it as a Trusted Device, helping to prevent unauthorized access. End-to-end Encrypted RDP Sessions - sessions operate over end-to-end encrypted RDP channels with an additional layer of TLS and 256-bit AES-encrypted channels, preventing anyone from viewing sessions by listening on the network. Every session is based on private / public key exchange from the remote to the local computer, further guaranteeing viewer-to-host data protection. sessions operate over end-to-end encrypted RDP channels with an additional layer of TLS and 256-bit AES-encrypted channels, preventing anyone from viewing sessions by listening on the network. Every session is based on private / public key exchange from the remote to the local computer, further guaranteeing viewer-to-host data protection. Two-step verification - enhances the security of Remote Desktop accounts and prevents unauthorized access. Once two-step verification is enabled, in addition to a password, users will need to enter a verification code received on their Time-based OTP authenticator app while signing in to their Remote Desktop account. Remote Desktop provides a secure remote access solution that does not require users to configure a VPN, Microsoft RD Gateway, public servers/IP, or firewall changes. This allows users to access their work, share files/folders, and manage their computer as if they are sitting in front of it, making it a suitable solution for remote work, remote learning, and work-from-home initiatives. Pricing for the service starts at $9.95/year per computer for unlimited users and unlimited remote access. Remote Desktop also offers a free 7 day trial for up to 5 users, no credit card required. About IDrive IDrive Inc. is a privately held company specializing in cloud storage, online backup, file sharing, remote access, compliance and related technologies. Core services include IDrive,RemotePC and IBackup. SOURCE IDrive Inc. NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrity advocates including Rosario Dawson, Mayim Bialik and Sarah Michelle Gellar open up about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health and share their coping strategies in a special video event to mark World Mental Health Day, Oct. 10. The "Take a Mental Health Day" video event premieres Oct. 8 at 9 a.m. ET on Parade's YouTube channel and Parade.com. It features new Parade Media/Cleveland Clinic research in which more than 6 in 10 Millennials (63%) and more than half of Gen Z adults (57%) agreed that celebrities and public figures who speak out about mental health issues help them personally, compared with 46% of average Americans. Further, 63% of Millennials and 54% of Gen Z adults are likely to check on the mental and emotional wellbeing of their friends and family following a celebrity's statements on the issue (vs. 42% of average Americans). "Celebrities who open up and show their vulnerability around this difficult topic go a long way in destigmatizing mental health challenges," says Lisa Delaney, SVP/Chief Content Officer, Parade Media. "They empower fans to have personal conversations in families and among friendsthe first step in getting help and support." Also, according to the survey, the pandemic has elevated mental health as a priority: 82% of Americans now believe mental health is as important as physical health, a 14% jump from 2018 Parade Media/Cleveland Clinic research. In addition to Dawson, Gellar and newly named Jeopardy! host Bialik, former American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and The Good Place star Jameel Jamil share how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their mental health and the strategies they use to stay strong. Find the video on Parade's YouTube channel and Parade.com. Find full survey results here. Lessons from the pandemic: Mayim Bialik: "What I noticed about my mental health during the pandemic is that anything about me that was already struggling started struggling more. So, I've always had anxiety; my anxiety got worse. My sleep got disrupted. My stomach was getting upset. I was having trouble concentrating. I was bumping into things all the time. All those little tendencies I had to lean towards anxiety just got stronger." Jameel Jamil: "The pandemic has put a lot into perspective as to how short life is. And I think I intellectually always had a fairly good grasp on that because I've lived with chronic illness my whole life. But more so than ever, it's just reminded me that, wow, this [could] end tomorrow, that we have to we have to make sure that today was better, that we did more, that we did better, and that we felt better." Jordin Sparks: "When everything flips on a switch and your whole world kind of changes, your schedule changes, it can be very easy to spiral." Why it's important to prioritize mental health: Rosario Dawson: "We get really lost in our projections of the future and we spiral when we concentrate too much on what's happened in the past. And we make it perpetuate in our present as if it's still happening. And we lose this momentand suddenly we look up and years and decades have gone by because we've never been present." Best daily mental health practices: Dawson: "I love things like just taking a deep breath, holding it in for four seconds, and then pushing it out, holding that for four secondsit just does things to the actual systems in your body. But it just brings you present. Just being alive in the present I think is just so critical for our mental and emotional health. We can't solve all the problems, we can't change things in the past, but right here, right now I'm alive and I'm ok. That's so important to remind ourselves. We got this." Bialik: "One of the things I had to do was to start limiting the amount of news I was consuming. Reading every day about all the possible worst things that could be happening, and all of the numbers and all of the rates was actually just making me more anxious I was killing a lot of time and trying to distract myself by scrolling through social media a lot I was doing what we call compare and despair I thought it was distracting me, but it was actually making me more anxious." Sarah Michelle Gellar: "Put the words 'for now' at the end of every sentence. 'My kid won't sleep for now.' like 'I'm not sleeping for now.' Understanding that everything can be temporary .." Sparks: "I remind myself to breathe --- it is something I've had to work on my entire life. I can tell when I'm not doing it and I'm not aware of it, because my anxiety starts to rise." On sleep and mental health Dawson: "I'm just not interested in being that person who's like, 'I'll sleep when I'm dead.' It's like, no, I need my sleep. Sleep is really one of those things that's a silver lining out of this whole quarantine that I've gotten that I've maximized as a really important part of your physical and emotional wellbeing. On exercise and mental health Jamil: "I've actually learned that regardless of your size or ability, moving your body every single day is priceless for your mental health." Gellar: "Exercise for me has been really important, especially in the pandemic when I wasn't by nature as active as I normally would be. Working out has been a savior for me. Reading is my one thing where I can really shut down and disappear into something." On empathy and kindness Gellar: "[Wearing a mask is] not just about protecting you. It's about protecting the community and being a good citizen. And what being a kind person looks like that it's not just about me." About Parade Media Parade Media develops and distributes premium content across digital, mobile, video, and print platforms. Its brands include Parade, Relish & Spry Living. Based in Nashville, Tenn., and New York, the company also creates custom content for major brand clients and retailers. Visit us at parademediagroup.com. Contact: Parade Media: Lisa Delaney, [email protected] SOURCE Parade Media Related Links http://parademediagroup.com SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo will accept, on behalf of the City, the Energy Saving Superhero Award from OhmConnect as a reward for San Jose residents reducing the greatest amount of energy use in 2021 in the OhmConnect City Energy Challenge . OhmConnect CEO Cisco DeVries presented the City with a $50,000 award. The funds will go towards San Jose Aspires micro-scholarships, a program that enables youth in underserved neighborhoods to set goals that chart a path toward receiving a post-secondary education and reduce the barriers that disadvantaged students of color face in accessing academic opportunities. The Challenge, which launched on May 19, 2021, was a friendly competition between Oakland, Fresno, San Jose and Bakersfield, with each city working to recruit new energy savers to help prevent summer blackouts. City of San Jose Residents Were Awarded $50K Check and Won Coveted Title of 'Energy Saving Superheroes' "I am immensely proud of San Joseans for rising to the challenge of cutting back their energy use in the face of public utility shut offs and the risk of wildfires across our state," said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. "These Energy Saving Superheroes exemplify what it means to do our own individual parts to contribute to a conservation-minded energy grid that is resilient to the difficulties of climate change." The city of San Jose, and San Jose Clean Energy, signed up 3,505 new users more than 1% of all households in San Jose to save energy and protect California's grid. To build on San Jose residents' success in contributing to citywide energy savings, local San Jose students will be awarded 10 micro-scholarships worth $5,000 each through the San Jose Aspires, which this $50,000 award will fund. "The City Energy Challenge shows us what can be accomplished with a clear objective and incentives," said Cisco DeVries, CEO of OhmConnect. "San Jose is a shining example of what we want to see across California: residents using energy more strategically so that they save money while alleviating stress on our grid. Enabling everyone to easily do their part is how we'll achieve a clean energy future." Although California's grid operator issued eight Flex Alerts this summer -- the most in one year since 2006 -- there were zero rolling blackouts, thanks in part to the conservation efforts of OhmConnect users in San Jose and throughout the state. OhmConnect users saved more than 1.5 GW of electricity this summer to relieve stress on the grid the equivalent of taking nearly 1 million homes off the grid for an hour. To highlight the importance of energy efficiency, Mayor Liccardo issued a proclamation declaring "Energy Efficiency Day" in San Jose. "We're thrilled to learn that the Energy Saving's Superhero Award will provide more scholarships for students in the SJ Aspires program," said Jill Bourne, City Librarian. "Since SJ Aspires launched in 2019, a total of 856 local high school students have claimed 3,799 micro-scholarships. This award will help us continue to break down financial barriers for students and help them realize their dream of obtaining a post-secondary education." Mayor Sam Liccardo launched SJ Aspires in partnership with the San Jose Public Library and the San Jose Public Library Foundation. SJ Aspires began as a way to reduce financial and informational barriers preventing low-income youth in San Jose from attending college. The program uses a unique system of task-oriented micro-scholarships that align with the students' college-going or post graduation decisions and actions. To watch a recording of the press conference, click here . About the City of San Jose With more than one million residents, San Jose comprises the 10th largest city in the United States, and one of its most diverse cities. San Jose's transformation into a global innovation center in the heart of Silicon Valley has resulted in the world's greatest concentration of technology talent and development. About OhmConnect OhmConnect, winner of the 2021 Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award, was founded in 2014 to improve the lives of people and the health of the planet by reimagining the way energy is (collectively) used. Today, OhmConnect enables hundreds of thousands of customers to reimagine how they use energy, and to be rewarded for timely, smarter, home energy use. OhmConnect makes it possible for customers to use clean energy without buying expensive solar-powered systems or changing energy providers. The company pays its users for saving energy when the grid is at risk of using dirty power. OhmConnect has provided California n consumers with more than $15 million of rewards for saving energy. Customers of the three major California electricity suppliers Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric can sign up with OhmConnect for free at ohmconnect.com . Follow OhmConnect on Twitter @OhmConnect , see the OhmConnect blog or check them out on Facebook and LinkedIn . Media Contact: Marcus Ismael, Communications Manager, Office of Mayor Sam Liccardo, 415.312.0706, [email protected] Alexandra Pony, PONY Communications, 250.858.0656, [email protected] SOURCE OhmConnect Related Links https://www.ohmconnect.com/ The Most Anticipated Events of the Cannabis Business Year AMA Reddit October 21 Introducing Media Awareness and New Investor Social Media OTCQX: SHWZ DENVER, CO, Oct 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Schwazze, (OTCQX:SHWZ) ("Schwazze" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it will attend the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference at the Marriott Marquis in New York City on October 14th - 15th and MJBizCon 2021 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on October 20th - 22nd. Benzinga New York Justin Dye, CEO & Chairman, and Nancy Huber, CFO, will be hosting 1x1 investor meetings at the Benzinga Conference on October 14th and 15th. Justin will present on October 14th, 2021 at the conference. A copy of the presentation will be available on the Company's website after the event. Accredited investors interested in scheduling a 1x1 meeting with the Schwazze executive team please contact investor relations at [email protected]. MJBizCon Las Vegas Justin and Nancy will also host private investor meeting at the MJBizCon Conference from October 20th - 21st. Accredited investors interested in scheduling a 1x1 meeting with the Schwazze executive team please contact investor relations at [email protected]. Success Nutrients and the Three-a-Light team, subsidiaries of Medicine Man Technologies dba Schwazze, will host a booth at MJBizCon Oct 20th - Oct 22nd. Come visit the team at booth #C1357 to chat about building a successful cultivation with the Three-a-light program and Success Nutrients. Ask Me Anything Reddit Live from the MJBizCon tradeshow floor, on October 21st at 10:00 AM PT, Justin Dye will host an AMA "Ask Me Anything" event on the subreddit thread r/weedstocks to engage with investors and answer topical questions, please submit your questions in advance to ensure verification from Reddit. Investor Social Media Schwazze is pleased to announce that it will be showcasing investor materials on new Schwazze social handles. Please ensure that you follow us for all investor updates at the following handles: Twitter https://twitter.com/Schwazze_2021?t=QjTeeh5kE17EJR9U2xvwrg&s=09 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SchwazzeInvestors/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/Schwazze_Investors/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwazze-investors Schwazze Featured on BTV CEO Clips CEO Clips is the largest library of publicly traded company CEO videos in North America. These 90 second video profiles broadcast on national TV and online via 15 top financial sites including: Thomson Reuters, BNN Bloomberg, Yahoo! Finance and Stockhouse.com. Watch CEO, Justin Dye, on CEO Clips, speak about Schwazze building the premier vertically integrated cannabis company in Colorado. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e89rI8qna4k If you cannot view the video above, please visit: https://b-tv.com/schwazze-from-seed-to-sale-btv-investing-news/ About Schwazze Schwazze (OTCQX: SHWZ) is building the premier vertically integrated cannabis company in Colorado and plans to take its operating system to other states where it can develop a differentiated leadership position. Schwazze is the parent company of a portfolio of leading cannabis businesses and brands spanning seed to sale. The Company is committed to unlocking the full potential of the cannabis plant to improve the human condition. Schwazze is anchored by a high-performance culture that combines customer-centric thinking and data science to test, measure, and drive decisions and outcomes. The Company's leadership team has deep expertise in retailing, wholesaling, and building consumer brands at Fortune 500 companies as well as in the cannabis sector. Schwazze is passionate about making a difference in our communities, promoting diversity and inclusion, and doing our part to incorporate climate-conscious best practices. Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. was Schwazze's former operating trade name. The corporate entity continues to be named Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. Schwazze derives its name from the pruning technique of a cannabis plant to enhance plant structure and promote healthy growth. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "plan," "will," "may,", "predicts," or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events or performance, are based on certain assumptions, and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control and cannot be predicted or quantified. Consequently, actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) our inability to manufacture our products and product candidates on a commercial scale on our own or in collaboration with third parties; (ii) difficulties in obtaining financing on commercially reasonable terms; (iii) changes in the size and nature of our competition; (iv) loss of one or more key executives or scientists; (v) difficulties in securing regulatory approval to market our products and product candidates; (vi) our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy in Colorado and outside the state, (vii) our ability to consummate the acquisition described in this press release or to identify and consummate future acquisitions that meet our criteria, (viii) our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and realize synergies therefrom, (ix) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, * the timing and extent of governmental stimulus programs, and (xi) the uncertainty in the application of federal, state and local laws to our business, and any changes in such laws. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law. Follow us Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Twitter SOURCE Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Peak Fintech Group Inc. ("Peak" or the "Company") (OTCMKTS: PKKFF). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Peak 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 October 4, 2021, market researcher Grizzly Research published a report alleging discrepancies in Peak's business practices. The report alleged, in relevant part, that: (1) Peak's acquisition of Heartbeat, a Chinese insurance product management and brokerage platform, was mired in suspicious dealings, in which Peak paid a company that was not the registered owner of Heartbeat; (2) the actual registered owner of Heartbeat reported zero revenues in 2019 and 2020; (3) Peak's statements regarding Heartbeat's growth since 2020 were not substantiated by basic facts, including the fact that Heartbeat's website did not go live until 5 days after Peak's acquisition; (4) there was evidence that Peak inflated its reported revenue by up to 112% in recent fiscal years; (5) the CEO of Peak Group China was previously associated with several companies listed on government blacklists in China. On this news, Peak's stock price fell $1.31 per share, or 17.4%, to close at $6.19 per share on October 4, 2021. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP Related Links www.pomerantzlaw.com NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 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 NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Annovis Bio, Inc. ("Annovis" or the "Company") (NYSE: ANVS) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and docketed under 21-cv-04040, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants that purchased or otherwise acquired Annovis securities between May 21, 2021 and July 28, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Plaintiff pursues claims against the Defendants under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act"). If you are a shareholder who purchased Annovis securities during the Class Period, you have until October 18, 2021 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. [Click here for information about joining the class action] Annovis is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company that is developing therapies addressing neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimer's disease ("AD"), Parkinson's disease ("PD"), and AD in Down syndrome. Its lead compound is ANVS401 (Posiphen), an orally administrated drug which purportedly inhibited the synthesis of neurotoxic proteins that are the main cause of neurodegeneration. At all relevant times, the Company was conducting two Phase 2a clinical studies. The trial conducted in collaboration with the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study examines twenty-four early AD patients, whereas the AD/PD trial examines fourteen AD and fifty-four PD patients. Both are double-blind, placebo-controlled studies and were purportedly designed to measure not only target, but also pathway validation in the spinal fluid of patients. Annovis stated that if it could show both target and pathway validation in two patient populations, it "believe[d] that [its] opportunity for successful Phase 3 studies is better than if we merely demonstrated target validation in one patient population." The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that Annovis's ANVS401 did not show statistically significant results across two patient populations as to factors such as orientation, judgement, and problem solving; and (2) 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 28, 2021, after the market closed, Annovis reported interim clinical data from its Phase 2a trial. Among other things, the Company reported that AD patients twenty-five days after treatment failed to show statistically significant improvement compared to the placebo. Annovis also reported that, although patients showed cognitive improvements in certain areas, the results were not statistically significant. On this news, the Company's share price fell $65.94, or 60%, to close at $43.50 per share on July 29, 2021, on unusually heavy trading volume. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 7980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP Related Links www.pomerantzlaw.com OSTERSUND, Sweden, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Skanska has signed additional contracts with an existing client for improvements to their corporate office in the western USA. The contract with our joint venture Skanska Balfour Beatty is worth USD 159M. Skanska's portion is worth USD 80M, about SEK 680M, which will be included in the US order bookings for the third quarter of 2021. Construction is underway and is scheduled for completion in December 2023. Skanska is one of the leading construction- and project development companies in U.S., specialized in building construction, civil infrastructure and developing commercial properties in select U.S. markets. Skanska USA had sales of SEK 66 billion in 2020 and had about 7,600 employees in its operations. For further information please contact: Yena Williams, Communications Director, Skanska USA, tel + 1 213 514 2918 Andreas Joons, Press Officer, Skanska AB, tel +46 (0)10 449 04 94 Direct line for media, tel +46 (0)10 448 88 99 This and previous releases can also be found at www.skanska.com. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/skanska/r/skanska-signs-additional-contracts-for-office-improvements-in-western-usa-for-usd-80m--about-sek-680,c3429137 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/95/3429137/1478358.pdf 20211008 US office improvements SOURCE Skanska CHICAGO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Smart Grid Market by Component (Software, Hardware, Services), Application (Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Consumption/End Use), Communication Technology (Wireline, Wireless), and Region - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Smart Grid Market size will grow to USD 103.4 billion by 2026 (forecast year) from USD 43.1 billion in 2021 (estimated year), at a CAGR of 19.1% during the forecast period. Smart grid technology enables the transition from a traditional energy distribution network to an intelligent electricity grid that allows two-way communication between the utility and its customers. The smart electric grid uses digital communication technologies, information systems, and automation for monitoring the energy flow and adjusting the changes in energy demand and supply. It also helps in real-time monitoring power consumption by coupling it with smart metering systems, providing consumers and suppliers with information on real-time power consumption. Thus, the smart grid helps improve system operating efficiency, thereby reducing the operational cost. Increasing demand for smart infrastructure in industrial, commercial, and residential environment to offer lucrative opportunities for the Smart Grid Market during the forecast period. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=208777577 The software segment is expected to dominate the Smart Grid Market, by component, during the forecast period. The software segment accounted for the largest share of the Smart Grid Market, by component, in 2020. The software segment of Smart Grid Market are further classified into seven typesAdvanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Smart Grid Distribution Management, Smart Grid Network Management, Grid Asset Management, Substation Automation, Smart Grid Security, and Billing and Customer Information System. The distribution segment is expected to dominate the Smart Grid Market, by application, during the forecast period. The distribution segment accounted for the largest share of the Smart Grid Market, by application, in 2020. Efficient distribution application helps in quicker restoration of electricity after power disturbances, reduces operations and management costs for utilities, and ultimately lowers the power costs for consumers. Browse in-depth TOC on "Smart Grid Market" 290 Tables 69 Figures 296 Pages View Detailed Table of Content Here: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/smart-grid-market-208777577.html The wireline segment is expected to dominate the Smart Grid Market, by communication technology, during the forecast period. The wireline communication technology segment accounted for the largest share of the Smart Grid Market, by communication technology, in 2020. Wireline communication technology is driving the market as it is comparatively cost efficient, and this type of transmission is less prone to third-party intrusions and interruptions. It mainly includes fiber optic, Ethernet, and powerline carriers. Fiber optic and Ethernet are the most preferred media for networking in distribution automation. Fiber optic offers higher bandwidth support and speed, which helps provide high performance, reliability, and improved coverage. Moreover, fiber optic communication technology is widely used in substations as it can operate at high voltages. Currently, commercial optical fiber transmission systems offer bit rates of up to 10 Gbps, using single wavelength transmission and approximately 40 to 1,600 Gbps using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). North America is expected to lead the Smart Grid Market North America includes countries such as the US, Canada, and Mexico. The US and Canada, which contribute heavily to the growth of the regional market. The region is estimated to account for the largest share of the global Smart Grid Market, and a similar trend is expected to continue until 2026. One of the key reasons for the large market size is the early adoption of smart grid projects. The strong financial position of the US and Canada enables them to invest heavily in smart infrastructure platforms of the Smart Grid Market. Speak to Analyst: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=208777577 The market in US is expected to grow mainly because it is the most mature market in terms of smart grid deployment, advanced IT infrastructure, the presence of several enterprises, and the availability of technical expertise in the country. Smart grid technology in the US is undergoing a considerable transformation as digital technologies are being applied to distributed energy resources. All these factors are expected to drive the growth of the Smart Grid Market in North America. The key players include GE (US), ABB (Switzerland), Siemens (Germany), Schneider Electric (France), and Itron (US). Browse Adjacent Markets: Energy and Power Market Research Reports & Consulting Browse Related Reports: Smart Meters Market by Type (Electric, Gas, Water), Communication Type (RF, PLC, Cellular), Component (Hardware, Software), Technology (AMR, AMI), End-user (Residential, Commercial, Industrial), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/smart-meter-366.html Substation Automation Market with COVID-19 impact analysis by Offering (Hardware, Software, Services), Type (Transmission, Distribution), Installation Type, End-use Industry, Component, Communication, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026 https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/electric-power-substation-automation-integration-market-208537744.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/smart-grid-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/global-smart-grid.asp SOURCE MarketsandMarkets SAN DIEGO, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of San Diego is delighted to announce that at its September meeting, the University of San Diego Board of Trustees unanimously adopted an amended Investment Policy aligned with Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si'-- one of the first universities in the world to do so. In the 2015 papal encyclical, Pope Francis called for urgent action to care for our common home, the poor, and the vulnerable who are disproportionately impacted by global environmental problems such as climate change, pollution, access to clean water and loss of biodiversity. This week, the Catholic Church celebrated the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most well-known and beloved figures in Christianity. Revered for his compassion for the poor, nature and animals, Francis is considered the patron saint of ecology. "This change to the investment policy reflects the university's commitment to social justice, stewardship of the planet, protection of human life and dignity, and promotion of the common good into its investments, said James T. Harris, president of the University of San Diego. "This change is part of multiple commitments that USD is making to set the standard to ensure a healthy environment and a sustainable common home for future generations." Impactful strides have been made since 2016: The university has reduced its exposure to fossil fuels in its investments by approximately 60 percent. Only 3 percent of USD's $818 million long-term investment pool was invested in fossil fuels, and USD has not made any new commitments to these limited partnerships since 2016. long-term investment pool was invested in fossil fuels, and USD has not made any new commitments to these limited partnerships since 2016. By 2035, the university will seek alternatives to eliminate its exposure from fossil fuel companies. The university has committed approximately $60 million toward impact investments in all three components of the Environmental, Social and Governance practices (ESG), a growth of more than 400 percent since 2016. This landmark decision stems from recommendations made by a Socially Responsible Investing Task Force (SRITF) composed of USD students, alumni, faculty, staff and trustees. "The task force carefully considered the concerns of USD's community members along with the ethical and fiduciary responsibilities of the investment committee and the board. Ultimately, working together allowed us to reach a set of unanimous recommendations that each stakeholder group was proud to support," said Leandro Festino, USD Board of Trustees Investment Committee Chair. "While the university has proactively taken steps to avoid new investments in fossil fuels for many years now, officially approving these policy changes is a significant expression of the alignment of the values of our institution and demonstrates clearly our commitment to our planet," said Donald Knauss, USD Chairman of the Board of Trustees. ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO The University of San Diego sets the standard for an engaged, contemporary Catholic university where innovative Changemakers confront humanity's urgent challenges. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD's eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. USD introduced Envisioning 2024 , a strategic plan that capitalizes on the university's recent progress and aligns new strategic goals with current strengths to help shape a vision for the future as the university looks ahead to its 75th anniversary in the year 2024. SOURCE University of San Diego Related Links http://www.sandiego.edu Tomorrow Water selected by The Water Council to demonstrate its Proteus treatment technology in annual Pilot Program. Tweet this After a competitive selection process, Tomorrow Water's Proteus technology was chosen for TWC's 2021 Pilot Program because of its potential to benefit the Great Lakes and local wastewater treatment facilities. The Proteus technology will be installed on-site for a demonstration pilot at the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's (MMSD) South Shore Water Reclamation Facility. The Proteus up-flow media filter technology is designed to increase the tolerance of wastewater treatment plants to "peak flow events" caused by rainstorms, safeguarding plant performance in the face of aging sewer systems and erratic weather patterns caused by climate change. For MMSD, whose Jones Island and South Shore facilities treat 150 million gallons of wastewater on a dry day but roughly 630 million gallons during a rainstorm, innovation in wet weather flow management is a long-term priority. The agency is also interested in Proteus more broadly as an advanced primary treatment system which may be able to provide cost-effective retrofit opportunities to improve downstream treatment capacity through carbon redirection and footprint savings. Proteus, which provides simultaneous removal of suspended solids and digestion of organic contaminants from wastewater without the use of chemicals, handles a far greater range of flow rates compared to clarifiers or settling tanks which traditionally have filled the role of primary treatment. Proteus is also much smaller compared to traditional technologies, offering the potential to shrink the physical footprint of sewage treatment infrastructure. The technology was recently featured by Global Water Intelligence as a "Primary Treatment Pioneer" for its clever use of split-bed aeration and cross-shaped media to improve wastewater treatment plant resilience and flexibility. The Proteus pilot project at MMSD's South Shore wastewater treatment plant is expected to operate from October of 2021 until March of 2022 and will be available for touring. "Supporting the progression and demonstration of new water technologies is one of The Water Council's main objectives," said Karen Frost, Vice President of Economic Development and Innovation for The Water Council. "The Pilot Program provides companies like Tomorrow Water with the opportunity to take those innovative solutions and pilot them in Wisconsin." "We are grateful for TWC, MMSD, and their partners and are excited about this great opportunity to demonstrate the Proteus technology in Wisconsin," said E.F. Dongwoo Kim, CEO of Tomorrow Water. "This demonstration pilot will help showcase the benefits of Proteus to other municipalities in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the United States who can benefit from chemical-free primary wastewater treatment that is highly tolerant of wet weather flows. Proteus has already been adopted in the real world at large scale in Seoul, Korea, in installations that process 66 million gallons per day and 190 million gallons per day. We are excited to introduce this proven technology in the USA." This is the second demonstration pilot project for Proteus at a municipal wastewater treatment facility, after an earlier project successfully concluded at the Anthony Ragnone Treatment Plant in Genesee County, Michigan. About Tomorrow Water Through innovative technology and thought-leadership, Tomorrow Water is minimizing the global environmental impact of wastewater treatment, while delivering sustainable, practical, and economical solutions. Tomorrow Water is committed to building sustainable waste and wastewater management systems, integrating low-energy wastewater treatment, energy production and other crucial elements of modern infrastructure whenever feasible. The company serves municipal and industrial clients, providing novel processes and solutions for advanced wastewater treatment, sludge minimization, nutrient removal and recovery, land and energy savings, and permit compliance. About The Water Council The Water Council (TWC) is a global hub dedicated to solving critical water challenges by driving innovation in freshwater technology and advancing water stewardship. Built on more than a century of water innovation, TWC has coalesced one of the most concentrated and mature water technology clusters in the world from its headquarters at the Global Water Center in Milwaukee, Wis., USA. Recognizing the need for smarter and more efficient use of water worldwide, TWC also promotes water stewardship as a natural complement to water innovation in the effort to preserve freshwater resources in the Midwest and around the world. Today, The Water Council has established itself as a global leader in the water industry and one of America's premier economic development clusters as recognized by government agencies, Brookings and the Harvard Business School. About The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) is a regional government agency that provides water reclamation and flood management services for about 1.1 million people in 28 communities in the Greater Milwaukee Area. MMSD mission is to protect public health and the environment through world-class, cost-effective water resource management, leadership, and partnership. MMSD is highly regarded nationally as a leader in wastewater treatment, flood management, and green infrastructure. A recipient of the U.S. Water Prize and many other awards, MMSD's record of 98.4%, since 1994, for capturing and cleaning wastewater from 28 communities in a 423 square mile area. Many metropolitan areas struggle to capture and clean the national goal of 85% of all the rain and wastewater that enters their sewer systems. Contact Information [email protected] 714.578.0676 SOURCE Tomorrow Water Related Links tomorrowwater.com TOKYO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- UniCask Co., Ltd, has announced Springbank 1991 as its "genesis cask" to be released as the world' s first NFTs representing fractionalized ownership of a whisky cask, making whisky cask purchase available to everyone.* After releasing NFTs of casks of Japanese Whisky last April, UniCask plans to sell fractionalized cask ownership NFTs of a highly sought-after Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Springbank 1991. In April 2021, UniCask Co., Ltd. released the beta version of its web application "UniCask" which allowed users to easily buy/sell, own, and manage whisky and spirits casks with a smartphone. "UniCask" enabled users to easily prove the ownership of spirits casks, register transfers, and manage the online trading history of individual casks. Trading spirits in wooden casks (where the spirits' value increases as a vintage item) has been limited to small communities, such as among acquaintances of distilleries or people in the spirits business, which made it extremely difficult, or practically impossible for average collectors and amateurs to participate. Traditionally, ownership of spirits casks are managed with paper certificates. Paper-based cask management was troublesome for distilleries and warehouses to identify the rightful owner and keep the records. Owners of spirits casks had to receive/send physical paper documents to confirm and register ownership. Because the only proof of ownership was on paper, once it gets lost or distorted or trading with someone online, proving the ownership was quite a hassle. For the above reasons, trading of whisky casks could not be scaled up to include general collectors and amateurs who require more frequent ownership changes. To solve this problem, UniCask started its service in April 2021, and minted NFTs linked to Japanese Whisky to customers overseas. UniCask's next step is to make ownership of whisky and spirits casks possible for everyone by fractionalizing a whisky cask into NFTs with blockchain technology. The owner of each fractionalized CASK NFT can exchange their token for whisky in the future on a fixed date when the cask is bottled. CASK NFTs not only function as certificates to claim the resulting bottles from the cask, but also carry various features such as: enabling its owners to partake in UniCask's games (where each NFT has its own unique attributes), and the tickets to the exclusive UniCask community. With the next UniCask web application update, fractionalized CASK NFTs will bring its owners enjoyment while they await for the cask to mature. The first event to reveal detailed information about the "genesis cask" On 4th October 2021, UniCask held an online event with its partner, Kingsbury in the UK. During the event UniCask announced the release of fractionalized ownership CASK NFTs linked to a Springbank 1991 cask. This event was broadcasted live from the warehouse that stores the Springbank 1991 cask. Chris Dai, CEO of UniCask and Gordon Wright, the director of Kingsbury and a member of the founding family of the Springbank distillery gave insightful talks about the merit of NFTs for the whisky lovers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpbzRUQELcw&ab_channel=UniCaskChannel Item: Single Malt Scotch Whisky distilled at Springbank Distillery Distilled: 1991/12/6 Bulk Litre: 112.2 Litre Alc. Strength: 56.40% Cask Capacity: 250 Litre Cask Type: Hogshead Country of Origin: United Kingdom Producer: Springbank Distillery *The owner of CASK NFT must be able to legally consume alcohol in the country of residence. About Springbank Springbank is a single malt whisky distillery in Campbeltown on the Kintyre peninsula, in western Scotland. Since its establishment in 1828 to this day, Springbank's single malt has been loved by whisky connoisseurs. The distillery is located within several hundred meters from the Firth of Clyde, which is said to impart saltiness to the whisky during maturation and makes Springbank a complex single malt with rich flavours. Springbank is also one of the few distilleries that the late whisky critic Michael Jackson gave his highest five stars and enjoys great popularity. About UniCask's blockchain support UniCask aims to make luxury whisky casks available to everyone and is thus designed as a multi-chain compatible NFT. In addition to the Ethereum blockchain, UniCask will also support other blockchain protocols such as our partners Astar/Shiden and Taraxa. UniCask plans to add support for more public blockchains in the future. For more info, please visit: UniCask https://unicask.jp/ UniCask's Twitter https://twitter.com/UniCask_eng Discord(Community) discord.gg/qqcuvxvVsh Media contact: [email protected] SOURCE UniCask Co., Ltd. Related Links https://unicask.jp NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global law firm White & Case LLP announced the promotion of 59 lawyers around the world to its partnership today. The promotions are effective on January 1, 2022, and represent 12 of the Firm's global practices across 24 locations throughout the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. "Our new partners represent a rich and diverse set of skills, experience and backgrounds," said White & Case Chair Hugh Verrier. "This is our largest class of White & Case partners ever. It reflects our commitment to deliberate, strategic growth that supports exceptional service for our clients globally. We are investing in our people for the long term." Listed by the regions in which they are based, our new partners are: Americas (22 new partners) Adam M. Acosta has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in Washington, DC , Adam focuses on antitrust litigation, government investigations and related counseling. has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in , Adam focuses on antitrust litigation, government investigations and related counseling. Kevin C. Adam has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in Boston , Kevin focuses on complex litigation and counseling in matters concerning both antitrust and intellectual property law issues. He has experience advising clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice. Based in , Kevin focuses on complex litigation and counseling in matters concerning both antitrust and intellectual property law issues. He has experience advising clients in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Christoffer Adler has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Christoffer advises sponsors, banks and direct lenders on leveraged and investment-grade financing transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Christoffer advises sponsors, banks and direct lenders on leveraged and investment-grade financing transactions. Aaron Colodny has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Aaron focuses on chapter 11 proceedings, out-of-court restructurings and complex litigation, representing both debtors and creditors. has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Los Angeles, Aaron focuses on chapter 11 proceedings, out-of-court restructurings and complex litigation, representing both debtors and creditors. Elodie Gal has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in New York . Elodie focuses on securities offerings, advising on complex securities law issues for capital markets transactions and for SEC reporting companies. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in . Elodie focuses on securities offerings, advising on complex securities law issues for capital markets transactions and for SEC reporting companies. Emilio Grandio has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Houston, Emilio focuses on domestic and cross-border M&A transactions with an emphasis on cross-border transactions in Latin America . has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Houston, Emilio focuses on domestic and cross-border M&A transactions with an emphasis on cross-border transactions in . Fern Han has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Houston, Fern acts for both lenders and borrowers on a wide variety of finance, project finance and project development matters. has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Houston, Fern acts for both lenders and borrowers on a wide variety of finance, project finance and project development matters. Matthew Hendy has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Matthew advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Matthew advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. Sam Hershey has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in New York , Sam represents clients in federal and state court litigation, with a focus on bankruptcy matters. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in , Sam represents clients in federal and state court litigation, with a focus on bankruptcy matters. Daniel Kozin has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Daniel advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in New York, Daniel advises private equity funds and corporate clients on domestic and global M&A and equity investments. Julian Lamm has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in Los Angeles , Julian represents multinational corporations in complex civil litigation, with a focus on the technology sector. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in , Julian represents multinational corporations in complex civil litigation, with a focus on the technology sector. Scott Levi has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in New York . Scott advises public companies and companies going public on corporate governance matters, including compliance with US securities laws. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in . Scott advises public companies and companies going public on corporate governance matters, including compliance with US securities laws. Katherine McCullough has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Washington, DC , Katherine advises investment funds, both on the sponsor and investor side. Her investor-side work includes representing sovereign wealth funds and university endowments. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in , Katherine advises investment funds, both on the sponsor and investor side. Her investor-side work includes representing sovereign wealth funds and university endowments. Amara Mullins has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in Los Angeles . Amara represents technology companies in litigation and regulatory disputes. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in . Amara represents technology companies in litigation and regulatory disputes. Daniel Nussen has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Los Angeles , Daniel represents SPAC sponsors, investors and underwriters in SPAC IPOs and deSPAC business combinations. He also advises issuers on SEC filings and capital raises. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in , Daniel represents SPAC sponsors, investors and underwriters in SPAC IPOs and deSPAC business combinations. He also advises issuers on SEC filings and capital raises. Abraham Paul has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Sao Paulo, Abraham represents Latin American issuer and underwriter clients on unregistered equity and debt capital markets offerings, as well as US-registered offerings. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Sao Paulo, Abraham represents Latin American issuer and underwriter clients on unregistered equity and debt capital markets offerings, as well as US-registered offerings. F. Paul Pittman has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in Washington, DC , Paul advises on data privacy and cybersecurity issues. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in , Paul advises on data privacy and cybersecurity issues. Nicole Rodger has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice in Los Angeles. Nicole advises private equity funds and corporate borrowers, financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice in Los Angeles. Nicole advises private equity funds and corporate borrowers, financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. Neeta Sahadev has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Silicon Valley, Neeta focuses on tech-related M&A transactions as well as SPAC transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Silicon Valley, Neeta focuses on tech-related M&A transactions as well as SPAC transactions. Kerrick Seay has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in New York, Kerrick advises financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in New York, Kerrick advises financial institutions and direct lenders on leveraged lending and other debt financing transactions. Tami Stark has been named a partner in our Global White Collar Practice. Based in New York , Tami focuses on white collar criminal and regulatory defense. She is a former Assistant Regional Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. has been named a partner in our Global White Collar Practice. Based in , Tami focuses on white collar criminal and regulatory defense. She is a former Assistant Regional Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. Joshua Weedman has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in New York . Joshua focuses on commercial and bankruptcy litigation, and also has experience with M&A-related disputes. EMEA (32 new partners) Derin Altan has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Istanbul , Derin focuses on equity and debt capital markets, and also advises on public mergers and acquisitions. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in , Derin focuses on equity and debt capital markets, and also advises on public mergers and acquisitions. Julien Bensaid has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Paris , Julien acts for private equity firms, other financial sponsors and corporate clients in a diverse range of transactions that includes public and distressed mergers and acquisitions as well as general corporate matters. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Julien acts for private equity firms, other financial sponsors and corporate clients in a diverse range of transactions that includes public and distressed mergers and acquisitions as well as general corporate matters. Orion Berg has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in Paris , Orion advises on foreign direct investment and regulatory matters, notably in the electronic communications and energy sectors. has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in , Orion advises on foreign direct investment and regulatory matters, notably in the electronic communications and energy sectors. Tim Bracksiek has been named a partner in our Global Tax Practice, based in Frankfurt . Tim's tax practice covers transactional, structuring, advisory and controversy work. has been named a partner in our Global Tax Practice, based in . Tim's tax practice covers transactional, structuring, advisory and controversy work. Victoria Burton has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in London , Victoria advises private equity and corporate M&A clients on a range of issues including founder and shareholder disputes, investor concerns, directors' duties, corporate governance and conflicts of interest. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice. Based in , Victoria advises private equity and corporate M&A clients on a range of issues including founder and shareholder disputes, investor concerns, directors' duties, corporate governance and conflicts of interest. Alexandra Diehl has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Frankfurt , Alexandra has national and international dispute resolution experience, with a focus on investment arbitration. has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in , Alexandra has national and international dispute resolution experience, with a focus on investment arbitration. Olga Fedosova has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Paris , Olga advises corporations, financial institutions and sovereigns on debt capital markets products in France , the CIS and Africa . has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in , Olga advises corporations, financial institutions and sovereigns on debt capital markets products in , the CIS and . Cristina Freudenberger has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Cristina advises issuers and investment banks on a range of debt, equity and hybrid corporate finance products. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Cristina advises issuers and investment banks on a range of debt, equity and hybrid corporate finance products. Thomas Glauden has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Brussels , Thomas advises on general corporate law, domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures and venture capital transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Thomas advises on general corporate law, domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures and venture capital transactions. Felix Hopker has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Felix focuses on insolvency administration, serving as a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts. has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Felix focuses on insolvency administration, serving as a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts. Samy Markbaoui has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Paris, Samy acts for sovereign and commercial clients in international arbitration matters and related disputes. has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Paris, Samy acts for sovereign and commercial clients in international arbitration matters and related disputes. Sara Nordin has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in Brussels , Sara focuses on economic sanctions, export control, customs- and import-related regulations and trade policy. has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice. Based in , Sara focuses on economic sanctions, export control, customs- and import-related regulations and trade policy. Jean Paszkudzki has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Paris , Jean has experience handling complex cross-border carve-out transactions for large corporate clients, and managing M&A and corporate aspects of SPAC and traditional IPOs. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Jean has experience handling complex cross-border carve-out transactions for large corporate clients, and managing M&A and corporate aspects of SPAC and traditional IPOs. Lars Petersen has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice in Hamburg . Lars focuses on EU and German public law and regulatory work, including litigation, and public procurement. has been named a partner in our Global Antitrust Practice in . Lars focuses on EU and German public law and regulatory work, including litigation, and public procurement. Sebastian Pitz has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Sebastian advises on complex mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on financial institution and fintech transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Frankfurt, Sebastian advises on complex mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on financial institution and fintech transactions. Sherief Rashed has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Cairo , Sherief advises clients on project development and commercial contracts, project finance and the banking aspects of complex and cross-border transactions, including conventional and Islamic financing structures. has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in , Sherief advises clients on project development and commercial contracts, project finance and the banking aspects of complex and cross-border transactions, including conventional and Islamic financing structures. Mark Richardson has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in London , Mark advises multinational corporations on a range of corporate matters, including private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and large-scale reorganizations. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Mark advises multinational corporations on a range of corporate matters, including private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and large-scale reorganizations. Neha Saran has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in London . Neha advises financial institutions on a range of cross-border capital markets transactions, with a focus on regulatory capital issuances and liability management exercises. has been named a partner in our Global Capital Markets Practice in . Neha advises financial institutions on a range of cross-border capital markets transactions, with a focus on regulatory capital issuances and liability management exercises. Marek Sawicki has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Warsaw, Marek advises on mergers and acquisitions for private equity and corporate clients, with a focus on international transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Warsaw, Marek advises on mergers and acquisitions for private equity and corporate clients, with a focus on international transactions. Adrianus Schoorl has been a named partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Riyadh, Adrianus focuses on financial services regulatory matters. has been a named partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Riyadh, Adrianus focuses on financial services regulatory matters. Hans-Georg Schulze has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in Berlin . Hans-Georg advises on mergers and acquisitions with a focus on transactions in the energy and technology sectors. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in . Hans-Georg advises on mergers and acquisitions with a focus on transactions in the energy and technology sectors. Daniel Schwartz has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Daniel is a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts, and he also focuses on international restructuring cases. has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in Dusseldorf, Daniel is a regularly appointed insolvency administrator with German courts, and he also focuses on international restructuring cases. Alessandro Seganfreddo has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Milan , Alessandro advises on both public and private mergers and acquisitions, as well as private equity matters. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in , Alessandro advises on both public and private mergers and acquisitions, as well as private equity matters. Laetitia Souesme has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in London , Laetitia advises on international arbitration matters, with a focus on the energy, infrastructure and mining sectors. has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in , Laetitia advises on international arbitration matters, with a focus on the energy, infrastructure and mining sectors. Jan Stejskal has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Prague, Jan advises private equity funds, financial groups and international corporations across industries on domestic and cross-border transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Prague, Jan advises private equity funds, financial groups and international corporations across industries on domestic and cross-border transactions. Stephanie Stocker has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in London. Stephanie focuses on complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes, primarily on behalf of energy sector clients. Her experience includes international arbitration and the enforcement of arbitral awards. has been named a partner in our Global Commercial Litigation Practice in London. Stephanie focuses on complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes, primarily on behalf of energy sector clients. Her experience includes international arbitration and the enforcement of arbitral awards. Will Stoner has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in London , Will advises companies, insolvency practitioners, banks, investment funds and other financial institutions on cross-border restructurings, special situations and distressed debt investments. has been named a partner in our Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. Based in , Will advises companies, insolvency practitioners, banks, investment funds and other financial institutions on cross-border restructurings, special situations and distressed debt investments. John Timmons has been named a partner in our Global Intellectual Property Practice. Based in London, John advises on data protection and cybersecurity issues. has been named a partner in our Global Intellectual Property Practice. Based in London, John advises on data protection and cybersecurity issues. Ates Turnaoglu has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Istanbul, Ates advises on leveraged, structured and acquisition financings as well as financial restructurings. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Istanbul, Ates advises on leveraged, structured and acquisition financings as well as financial restructurings. Ben von Maur has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in London. Ben focuses on private equity transactions and equity investments, and also advises on corporate transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice in London. Ben focuses on private equity transactions and equity investments, and also advises on corporate transactions. Louise Vun has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Dubai, Louise advises real estate developers on master community planning and real estate title structuring. She also advises on hotel and hospitality management agreements regarding third-party operators and on a range of real estate development projects. has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Dubai, Louise advises real estate developers on master community planning and real estate title structuring. She also advises on hotel and hospitality management agreements regarding third-party operators and on a range of real estate development projects. Martin Weber has been named a partner in our Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Berlin , Martin focuses on advisory work and regulatory disputes in Germany and the EU. Asia-Pacific (5 new partners) Mai Kuroda has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Melbourne , Mai focuses on major development projects, primarily for energy, mining, power generation and transmission companies. has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in , Mai focuses on major development projects, primarily for energy, mining, power generation and transmission companies. Charles McConnell has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in Singapore , Charles focuses on leveraged finance and complex cross-border transactions. has been named a partner in our Global Debt Finance Practice. Based in , Charles focuses on leveraged finance and complex cross-border transactions. William Moran has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice in Tokyo. William advises on international trade and regulatory matters, with broad coverage of economic sanctions and export controls. has been named a partner in our Global Trade Practice in Tokyo. William advises on international trade and regulatory matters, with broad coverage of economic sanctions and export controls. Andrea Reeves has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in Melbourne , Andrea focuses on property development projects, with experience in property related agreements, commercial joint venture and joint development agreements, renewable energy projects and compulsory acquisition processes conducted by government clients. has been named a partner in our Global Project Development and Finance Practice. Based in , Andrea focuses on property development projects, with experience in property related agreements, commercial joint venture and joint development agreements, renewable energy projects and compulsory acquisition processes conducted by government clients. Aditya Singh has been named a partner in our Global International Arbitration Practice. Based in Singapore , Aditya has a broad international arbitration practice with experience in large commercial, investor-state and construction matters. Press contact For more information, please speak to your local media contact. SOURCE White & Case LLP Related Links https://www.whitecase.com NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International women's rights organization Equality Now is hosting its annual Make Equality Reality Gala on October 12, 2021 at 8:30PM ET/5:30PM PT. Supporters around the world can join some of their favorite artists and activists for an evening celebrating International Day of the Girl Child and the people who inspire and support Equality Now in its actions to protect and promote the rights of women and girls globally. Melissa McCarthy Debbie Allen (credit Marvin Joseph at Washington Post) Today, Equality Now's work is more essential than ever. Every day, women and girls across the world face violence and discrimination. 1 in 3 women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, regardless of age, background or country, and every country has laws that treat women and girls as second-class citizens. This year's gala will honor Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women (2013-2021), and feature the fourth annual Changemaker Award presented by Gucci and CHIME FOR CHANGE to Zimbabwean girls' rights activist Shantel Marekera. The evening will also feature a special performance by Marjan Naderi, 2020 D.C. Youth Poet Laureate, to highlight the struggle and activism of Afghan women and girls. An incredible lineup of artists will join the honorees, including Tig Notaro, Melissa McCarthy, Jane Fonda, Debbie Allen, Gloria Steinem, Margaret Atwood, Jodie Turner-Smith, Paul Reiser, and more. "Now, more than ever, our vision is set toward the future and toward the people who have the potential to change it: girls. But, every day, girls' potential is threatened by gender-based violence, harmful practices, discrimination, and laws that treat them as second-class citizens" said Yasmeen Hassan, Global Executive Director of Equality Now. "This year's gala is a special opportunity for Equality Now and our supporters across the globe to come together to celebrate the tremendous potential of every girl to change the world and to work toward a future where every girl can fulfill that potential, because a better world for girls is a better world for all of us." The evening's Host Committee includes Margaret Atwood, Jane Fonda, Chandra Jessee, Karen Lehner, Janva Patel, Paula Ravets and Jennifer Allan Soros. While the gala is open to the public, RSVPS are required - and donations are strongly encouraged to help Equality Now continue its work to secure equal rights for women and girls worldwide. For more information and to secure a place at the gala, please visit: https://www.equalitynow.org/gala_2021_cal ABOUT EQUALITY NOW Since 1992, Equality Now has worked to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world by combining grassroots activism with international, regional, and national legal advocacy. We campaign to achieve legal and systemic change that benefits all women and girls, and work to ensure that governments enact and enforce laws and policies that uphold their rights. Our campaigns are centered on four program areas: Legal Equality, End Sexual Violence, End Harmful Practices, and End Sex Trafficking, with a cross-cutting focus on the unique needs of adolescent girls. Our advocacy has resulted in the repeal of over 50 sex discriminatory laws, including recently in Syria, Switzerland, Lebanon, and Jordan. We have been instrumental in the enactment of laws against all forms of violence against women, like rape, sex trafficking, and harmful practices such as child marriage, "honor" crimes and female genital mutilation. We have had significant victories in strategic litigation, including winning a landmark case against the Government of Sierra Leone, which resulted in the lifting of a discriminatory ban that prohibited pregnant girls from attending school. Working alongside local partner, we have now filed a case against the Government of Tanzania, seeking to overturn a similar discriminatory policy of expelling pregnant girls from school and banning adolescent mothers from returning to school after giving birth. Equality Now's focus on legal rights is strategic and long lasting. In response to the current pushback on women's rights occurring in many countries and the setbacks experienced by women and girls in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we stand strong in our mission. Media Contact: Shawn Purdy 1 (617) 308-0251 [email protected] SOURCE Equality Now Related Links http://v Wondr Medical launched in 2020 with the aim of being the world's first regulatory compliant medical network platform for the medical community across the globe: from leading surgeons to doctors and nurses. A place where the medical community can search for information on new cases, medicines and new studies, as well as experience weekly events, lectures and global conferences from leading experts and key opinion leaders across the globe. A modern digital melting pot of medical communication and education - tailored according to their needs and preferences. . Importantly, it is the world's first regulatory compliant platform allowing medical professionals a safe and innovative way to discuss case information, and exchange ideas and sensitive information. Founder, Consultant Cardiologist, Dr. Justin Davies believes 2021 is a landmark moment for medical communication - how the medical community communicate across the globe is changing, fast: "We're on the cusp of something serious happening; it's a ticking time-bomb. More steps need to be made." Dr. Davies explains. "It's easy if we don't talk about it, but use of What's App, Facebook and Twitter between medical professionals is widespread. Quite simply, it's not regulated, secure or compliant and each discussion is siloed," Davies explains. " We provide a safe and regulatory environment for the exchange of ideas and information, that enables you to access all the insights, information, experts, and cases you require in real-time. I'm convinced in helping the medical community communicate better - our platform will help each of us to become better doctors. Wondr Medical delivers on-demand medical knowledge within a secure regulatory environment. The benefits are speed, poise and security for a medical professional who has never been under so much pressure. Reaching 200k active new members in 2021 is a landmark moment for the business, with use of the platform accelerated by the need amongst the medical community for one regulatory compliant home to search, connect and discover. The pandemic shifted the whole medical community online overnight, and platforms like Wondr Medical have provided the tools for it to do so. "During the pandemic the big physical medical conferences and events needed a new digital home. The traditional stages for the sharing of new ideas now went online and they used Wondr. The shift in how medical education is consumed, how knowledge is shared, coupled with the widespread misuse in clinical environments of traditional social media platforms, has enabled us to help significantly, but it really is just the beginning, with new tools being used within our platform. Simply sign up, download the app, and at your fingertips is everything you need to be the best medical professional you can be. Don't be the one who gets the book thrown at them; instead embrace the chance to build your networks, discover new thinking, and tap into the brightest minds. The best Doctors are always learning." About Wondr Medical Wondr is the platform for medical discovery, built around health care professionals. We believe medical knowledge starts with curiosity. From breakthrough research to advances in best practice, from meeting collaborators to learning from mentors and peers - it all starts with the drive to discover more. Wondr exists to drive and feed that curiosity, pushing medicine forward, for medics and patients everywhere. Our mission: To accelerate medical learning and discovery by creating the world's most connected medical network. Find out more . Biography Dr Justin Davies, MD, PhD, is a cardiologist, inventor and serial entrepreneur. After inventing iFR, a computational technique for detection of coronary artery disease commercialised by Philips in over 10,000 hospitals around the world, he realised the urgent need for an online platform to improve communications between the medical community around the world. Wondr Medical was founded to address this need, and to provide an integrated tool to facilitate safe and secure communications of medical or educational information. Now, 3 years on, Wondr Medical is revolutionising the way in which the medical community access data. Through building network infrastructure between different data streams and providers, removing barriers to access, and developing tools for better networking, Wondr Medical continues to pioneer and innovate to help improve global healthcare for all through better communications. SOURCE Wondr Medical DUBLIN, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Antibody Drug Conjugates Market by Indication, Linker, Payload, Target Antigens and Geography: Industry Trends and Global Forecasts, 2021-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report features an extensive study of the current and future potential of ADCs being developed for the treatment of various indications. In addition, it features an elaborate discussion on the likely opportunity for the players engaged in this domain, over the next decade. Over the years, various technological advancements, such as antibody engineering for site-specific conjugation and enhanced pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, have paved the way for antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) to be recognized as potent therapies targeting a wide range of indications, including solid tumors and hematological malignancies. ADCs are engineered therapeutics comprised of monoclonal antibodies attached to potent cytotoxic payloads through chemical linkers. In fact, the FDA has approved 11 ADCs, namely ado-trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla), brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris), inotuzumab ozogamicin (Besponsa), gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg), moxetumomab pasudotox (Lumoxiti), polatuzumab vedotin-piiq (Polivy), enfortumab vedotin (Padcev), sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy), trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu), belantamab mafodotin-blmf (Blenrep), and loncastuximab tesirine-lpyl (ZynlontaT) till date. The success of these therapeutics can be attributed to their high tumor selectivity and cell-killing potential of monoclonal antibodies, while limiting off target toxicities. These advantages have made ADCs a new frontier of chemotherapy, thus, bringing about a paradigm shift in the treatment protocol of different types of cancer. The growing popularity of ADCs is evident from the number of patents filed / granted for ADCs, which has increased from 1,992 in 2011 to over 22,700 in the first quarter of 2021. With approximately 80 ADCs being investigated in more than 250 clinical trials, the pharmaceutical industry is witnessing a dynamic shift from conventional technologies to newer and more robust approaches for the development of such complex biomolecules. In the past few years, several well-funded start-ups / small companies, offering advanced linker technologies, more potent warheads, and novel conjugation technologies, were established. Moreover, multiple licensing deals were inked in the past few years between various stakeholders, to advance the development of ADCs product pipeline. It is worth noting that companies are also evaluating their proprietary ADCs in combination with other effective therapeutic modalities, such as epigenetic modulator, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and monoclonal antibodies. ADC-based combination therapies offer multifaceted advantages, such as reduced drug resistance, improved drug efficacy, shrinking tumor metastasis, and increased cancer survival rates. In addition, novel conjugated drug molecules, such as bicycle drug conjugate (Bicycle Therapeutics), extracellular drug conjugate (Centrose), peptide conjugate (Esperance Pharmaceuticals), phospholipid drug conjugate (Cellectar Biosciences), radionucleotide conjugate (Nordic Nanovector), and tunable drug conjugate (BlinkBio) have also been introduced. Driven by the substantial progress in the use of novel ADC-based combination therapies, the associated clinical results, and ongoing technological advancement, coupled to the marketing authorization of multiple ADCs, the ADC therapeutics market is anticipated to grow at a commendable rate in the mid to long-term. Amongst other elements, the report includes: A detailed review of the current market landscape of ADCs, providing information on drug developer(s) and technology provider(s), phase of development (marketed, phase III, phase II/III, phase II, phase I/II, phase I, preclinical / discovery stage) of lead candidates, target antigen (CD30, HER2, CD22, CD33, and Others), type of linker used (VC, Sulfo-SPDB, VA, Hydrazone linker, and Others), type of payload / warhead / cytotoxin (MMAE, DM4, Camptothecin, DM1, MMAF, and Others), type of antibody (Anti-HER2, Anti-TROP2, Anti-CD30, Anti-mesothelin, Anti-CD22, and Others), antibody isotype (IgG, IgG1, IgG2, and IgG4), type of therapy (monotherapy and combination therapy), combination drug(s) (if being evaluated as combination therapy), target indication(s) (breast cancer, blood cancer, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, gynecological cancer, head and neck cancer, lung cancer, and others), line of treatment (1st line, 2nd line, 3rd line, and Others), route of administration (intravenous and subcutaneous), and dosing frequency (Q1 weeks, Q2 weeks, Q3 weeks, Q4 weeks, and Others). Elaborate profiles of companies (shortlisted based on phase of development of the lead drug) and their respective product portfolios. Each profile features a brief overview of the company, its financial information (if available), product portfolio, recent developments, and an informed future outlook. An analysis of the most commonly targeted therapeutic indications and details of ADC candidates being developed against them, highlighting key epidemiological facts about the diseases and currently available treatment options, other than ADCs. A list of key opinion leaders (KOLs) within this domain, featuring detailed 22 matrices to assess the relative experience of the individuals, who were shortlisted based on their contributions (in terms of involvement in various clinical studies) to this field. It also includes a schematic world map representation, highlighting the geographical locations of eminent scientists / researchers engaged in this domain. In addition, it presents an analysis assessing the credibility and (relative) level of expertise of different KOLs, based on number of publications, number of citations, number of clinical trials, number of affiliations, and strength of professional network (based on information available on LinkedIn). An insightful competitiveness analysis of biological targets, featuring a [A] three-dimensional bubble representation that highlights the targets that are being evaluated for ADC development, taking into consideration the number of lead molecules based on a particular target, phase of development of candidate therapies, number of clinical trials and number of target disease indications, and [B] a five-dimensional spider-web analysis, highlighting the most popular biological targets based on a number of relevant parameters, including affiliated publications, grants received to support research on a particular target, number of industry players involved in drug development efforts based on a singular target and geographical distribution of associated clinical trials. An analysis of the recent collaborations (since 2014) focused on the development of ADCs. It includes partnerships inked by various stakeholders in this domain, covering R&D collaborations, licensing agreements (specific to technology platforms and product candidates), product development and commercialization agreements, clinical trial agreements, mergers and acquisitions, and other relevant agreements. An analysis of the investments made, including seed funding, venture capital financing, debt funding, grants, capital raised from IPOs and subsequent offerings, at various stages of development, in companies that are focused on developing ADCs. An in-depth analysis of the various patents that have been filed / granted related to ADCs. It includes information on key parameters, such as patent type, publication year, geographical location, issuing authority, assigned CPC symbol, emerging focus areas, and leading industry / academic players (in terms of size of intellectual property portfolio). It also includes a patent benchmarking analysis and a detailed valuation analysis. A study of the various grants that have been awarded to research institutes engaged in projects related to ADCs, between 2016 and 2021, highlighting various important parameters, such as year of award, support period, amount awarded, funding institute, grant type, focus area, type of recipient organization, key project leaders, key regions, and leading recipient organizations. An in-depth analysis of completed, ongoing, and planned clinical studies of various ADCs, based on several relevant parameters, such as trial registration year, phase of development, current trial status, enrolled patient population, study design, leading industry players (in terms of number of trials conducted), study focus, target disease indication, and key geographical regions. An elaborate discussion on the various strategies that can be adopted by the drug developers across key commercialization stages, namely prior to product launch, during / post launch, including a timeline representation of the key strategies adopted by drug developers for the commercialization of their proprietary products. Key Questions Answered Who are the leading players engaged in the development of ADCs? Which indications can be treated with ADCs? Which partnership models are commonly adopted by stakeholders in this domain? What are the investment trends in this industry? Which are the most active clinical trial centers? Who are the key opinion leaders that can help you drive your development efforts? How is the current and future market opportunity likely to be distributed across key market segments? Key Topics Covered: 1. PREFACE 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3. INTRODUCTION 4. MARKET OVERVIEW 5. COMPANY AND DRUG PROFILES 6. KEY THERAPEUTIC AREAS 7. KEY OPINION LEADERS 8. TARGET COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS 9. PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS 10. FUNDING AND INVESTMENT ANALYSIS 11. PATENT ANALYSIS 12. ACADEMIC GRANTS 13. CLINICAL TRIAL ANALYSIS 14. KEY COMMMERCIALIZATION STRATEGIES 15. PROMOTIONAL ANALYSIS 16. COMBINATION THERAPIES 17. NOVEL CONJUGATION TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS 18. ASSESMENT OF NON-CLINICAL DATA, FIRST IN HUMAN DOSING 19. COST PRICE ANALYSIS 20. CASE STUDY: CONTRACT MANUFACTURING OF ADCs 21. CASE STUDY: COMPANION DIAGNOSTICS FOR ADC THERAPEUTICS 22. SWOT ANALYSIS 23. MARKET FORECAST AND OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS 24. EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS 25. CONCLUSION 26. APPENDIX 1: TABULATED DATA 27. APPENDIX 2: LIST OF COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS Companies Mentioned 3SBio 3W Partners 4BIO Capital 5AM Ventures Ventures 6 Dimensions Capital AbbVie ABL Bio AbTis Actinium Pharmaceuticals (ATNM) Acuta Capital Partners Adage Capital Management Adagene ADC Therapeutics Adcendo Advanced Proteome Therapeutics Advantech Agensys Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Ally Bridge Group Alphamab Oncology Alta Partners Alteogen AltruBio Ambrx Amgen Amgen Ventures Angiex Antikor Biopharma Apricot Capital Aravis ARCH Venture Partners Arix Bioscience Arrowpoint Partners Asana BioSciences Astellas Pharma AstraZeneca Auven Therapeutics Avacta Avalon Ventures AVICT Global Avipep Therapeutics AVROBIO Bayer Bayern Kapital BDC Capital Beam Therapeutics BeiGene BioAtla BioGeneration Ventures (BGV) BioMed Valley Discoveries BioMedPartners Biotest BlackRock BlinkBio Boehringer Ingelheim Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund BOM Capital Boxer Capital Boyu Capital Bregua BrickBio BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology Bristol- Myers Squibb btov Partners BVF Partners Byondis Calculus Capital California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Cambridge Enterprise, University of Cambridge Canaan Partners Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) (CPRIT) Cancer Research Technology (CRT) Cancer Research UK Casdin Capital Catalent Catalent Biologics CEL Healthcare Celgene Cellerant Therapeutics Celltrion Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics (CCAB) Centrose Changjinboya Chengcheng Capital Chiesi Ventures Children's Hospital Los Angeles China Life Private Equity Investment China Venture Capital Fund (CVC) CITIC Private Equity (CPE) Clovis Oncology Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) Coparion Cormorant Asset Management Crescendo Biologics CStone Pharmaceuticals CTI Life Sciences Fund CureMeta CytomX Therapeutics Daiichi Sankyo Debiopharm Decheng Capital Deerfield Management Diatheva dievini Hopp BioTech Efung Capital EirGenix Eli Lilly EMD Serono Esperance Pharmaceuticals Essex Bio-Technology Eurostars Eventide Everest Medicines Exelixis Farallon Capital Femtogenix Fidelity Investments Five Prime Therapeutics Florida Institute of Technology Fonds de solidarite FTQ Foresite Capital Fortis Therapeutics Fosun Pharma (formerly Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical) Freenome GamaMabs Pharma Genentech GeneQuantum Healthcare General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) (GIC) Genmab Genor Biopharma GIC Gilde Healthcare Gilead Sciences GlaxoSmithKline Global Bio-India Glycotope Glykos Glythera Goodwin Biotechnology Greater Bay Area Fund GT Biopharma Guotai Venture Capital Gustave Roussy Hangzhou DAC Biotech Harbour BioMed HBM Healthcare Investments HealthCap Heidelberg Pharma Hercules Capital Heritage Provider Network High-Tech Grunderfonds Hillhouse Capital Hisun Pharmaceuticals Hofon Capital Sichuan Hongbo Equity Investment Fund Management HOPU Investments Huadong Medicine Huagai Capital Hudson Bay Capital Management Humanwell Healthcare Iconic Therapeutics Iksuda Therapeutics ImmuneOncia Therapeutics ImmunoBiochem ImmunoGen Immunome Immunomedics (acquired by Gilead Sciences) Innate Pharma Innovate UK Invenra Invus IONTAS IP Group iProgen Biotech Janchor Partners Janus Henderson Investors Jazz Pharmaceuticals Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals JLABS Johnson & Johnson Innovation Johnson Matthey JT New Century JX Partners K2 Investment Kairos Therapeutics King Star Capital Kite Pharma KLUS Pharma Lake Bleu Capital Laurion Capital Management Legend Capital LegoChem Biosciences Levena Biopharma LifeSci Venture Partners Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV) Lilly Ventures Logos Capital Loyal Valley Capital Lumira Capital MAB Discovery MabSpace Biosciences MabVax MacroGenics Magenta Therapeutics Matrix Capital Management Mayo Clinic MediaPharma MedImmune (acquired by AstraZeneca) Meltwind Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Menarini Merck Merck KGaA Mersana Therapeutics Millennium Pharmaceuticals MilliporeSigma Minomic Shanghai Miracogen Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Morphotek (Eisai) MS Ventures Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) Myeloma Investment Fund NanoValent Pharmaceuticals National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Research Council of Canada (NRC) of (NRC) Navrogen NBE-Therapeutics Nerviano Medical Sciences New Enterprise Associates Nexthera Capital Nordic Nanovector Northeast Securities Prosperity Healthcare Fund NovImmune Novo Holdings NovoCodex Biopharmaceuticals o2h Ventures OBI Pharma OCCIDENT OGD2 Pharma Oncolinx Oncomatryx Biopharma OPKO Health OrbiMed Advisors Oriza Seed Venture Capital Osage University Partners Otsuka Pharmaceutical Overland ADCT BioPharma Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) Oxford Finance PAG Pappas Capital Perceptive Advisors Pfizer Pfizer Ventures pH Pharma PharmAbcine PharmaMar Philogen PICC Capital Equity Investment Pierre Fabre PolyTherics PPF Capital Partners Fund Puma Biotechnology Pureos Bioventures Pyxis Pyxis Oncology Qiming Venture Partners Quantum Leap RA Capital Management Rakuten Rakuten Medical Ramot Recepta Biopharma Redalpine Redmile Group Redwood BioScience Regeneron Pharmaceuticals RemeGen The Research Council of Norway Ridgeback Capital Investments Roche Roche Venture Fund Rock Springs Capital RTW Investments Samsara BioCapital Samsung Biologics Sanofi Sarah Cannon Research Institute SBI Group Schroder Adveq (acquired by Schroders) Seagen Sequoia Capital China Seventure Partners Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Shengda Group Shenogen Pharma Siamab Therapeutics Silicon Valley Bank Sinopharm Capital SK Skyline Ventures Sofinnova Ventures Soleus Capital SOPHiA GENETICS Sorrento Therapeutics SOTIO Springworks Starling Ventures Start Codon Stonebridge Capital Surveyor Capital Sutro Biopharma Suvretta Capital Management Suzhou Wuzhong Biomedicine Industrial Park Investment SV Health Investors Synaffix SyndicateRoom Syndivia Synthon T. Rowe Price Associates Taikang Insurance Group Takeda Oncology Takeda Pharmaceutical Takeda Ventures Tekla Capital Management Terra Magnum Capital Partners (TMCP) TF Capital The Column Group The Scripps Research Institute Third Rock Ventures TOT BIOPHARM TRIO Pharmaceuticals Triphase Accelerator TRITON FUNDS Tubulis UCB University of Copenhagen University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) Vaccinex VelosBio (acquired by Merck) Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners Vertex Ventures VI Partners Vida Ventures Viking Global Investors Vir Biotechnology Visterra Vivo Capital Wellington Management WILD Family Office Wild Ventures WS Investments WuXi AppTec (formerly known as WuXi PharmaTech) WuXi Biologics WuXi Healthcare Ventures WuXi STA Xintela Y-Biologics York University Ysios Capital Yuanda China Yuhan Corporation Yunfeng Capital Zhejiang Teruisi Pharmaceutical Zhejiang University Future Capital Zheshang Venture Capital Zymeworks For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/390dpc 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 New Delhi, Oct 8 : Yogesh Singh is set assume charge as the new Vice Chancellor of the Delhi University (DU) on Friday. Till now he was the Vice Chancellor of Delhi Technological University (DTU). On Thursday, he was relieved from the post. After being relieved, he will now take over the charge of Delhi University. Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had approved the order to relieve Yogesh Singh from DTU on Wednesday evening. In the order approved by the Lieutenant Governor, it was said that Yogesh Singh will leave the charge of DTU on 7 October so that he can take over as the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University. On September 22, the President had approved Singh's name for the post. Prior to DTU, he was the Director of Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology from the year 2014 to 2017. Singh had also been to Sayajirao University, Baroda as the Vice Chancellor. New Delhi, Oct 8 : Depots for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC)'s electric buses, which would ply on the city roads from early 2022, are getting ready in the national capital. DTC Managing Director, Ashish Kundra, shared two pictures of the newly built depots with its caption reading: "Depots for #electricbuses getting ready in #Delhi ! Public transport set to change". Delhi Cabinet in March had approved a proposal for the engagement of 300 Low-Floor Fully Electric Air Conditioned buses by DTC under the Centre's 'Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India [FAME] Phase-II' Scheme. DTC's Deputy Chief General Manager (Traffic & Public Relations), Ravinder Singh Minhas, had told IANS in September that Delhi will start getting its first 300 e-buses from January onwards as the tender for the same has matured. Under the FAME scheme, the buses will be able to operate a minimum of 140 km in a single charge. As per official sources, these buses will be controlled by DTC and operated by private entities. Under the arrangement, the operator will provide the driver and the DTC will depute its own conductor in the buses. In August 2020, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had said 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 its rollout. Both the Delhi and Central governments are "actively" batting for greener and sustainable mode of transportation to "better tackle" the future challenges of environmental problems due to climate change. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The high-profile Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) bust in the financial capital of the country has left a series of difficult conundrums for the public to understand, further deepening the mystery. The NCB has so far arrested around 18 people in the drugs case, including, Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan's son -- Aryan Khan who has been sent to 14 days of judicial custody. But even as the case is progressing further, there are some layers, when unearthed, raise eyebrows. The first thing which comes into our mind is how was the contraband taken to the luxury ship? The NCB had said that during the raid, it recovered various popular party drugs like cocaine, MDMA, ecstasy, mephedrone, and charas. Of all the contraband, the cocaine was 13 grams, charas 21 grams, 22 pills of MDMA, and five grams MD. It is yet 'unanswered' as to how the star kids were able to procure these drugs. The NCB's swoop, which shook Bollywood's core as the future potential superstar-kid of one of the reigning actors was involved, almost sounded unbelievable till a picture of a dazed Aryan sitting on a bench inside the agency's office in south Mumbai emerged from nowhere. A bald man, who was later identified as an alleged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kiran Gosavi, clicked a picture with the starkid on the ship deck triggering a row that BJP activists were involved in the October 2 raid conducted by the NCB on the luxury ship Cordelia Cruise. Another BJP leader Manish Bhanushali was seen hauling out some of the accused, including Aryan and Arbaaz Merchant. How did a private person who is a BJP activist hand over the accused? -- another unanswered question. Of the eight people that were the first detained by the NCB, three -- Mohak Jaswal, Nupur Sarika and Gomit Chopra are from Delhi. Mohak and Nupur are both fashion designers, while Gomit is a hairstylist. Sources earlier confirmed to IANS that both Mohak and Nupur had come to Delhi with Gomit but still there is no further details about them. Did they go to Mumbai to attend the party or were they already residing there? It is yet to be answered. It is being said that the luxury ship, the Cordelia Cruises, which was raided by the sleuths of NCB when it was preparing to lift anchor for a fun-filled two-night gala voyage to Goa, had around 1,300 affluent passengers on board. Were only eight of these 1,300 people, consuming or carrying drugs with them? Is NCB going to question the remaining voyagers....? Coming back to the centre of attraction of this drug-bust, Aryan Khan, due to which this case became a high-profile case. The NCB had clearly stated that drugs was not recovered from the possession of the megastar's lad, while only six grams of charas was found in the possession of Arbaaz Merchant. If the quantity was so low, why was the NCB wdemanding another four days of his custody? Aryan's lawyer Satish Maneshinde, too, fired several questions at the drug probe agency, as the NCB said it needed custody extension so they could confront him with other accused. On Wednesday, the NCB arrested Achit Kumar whose name popped up from WhatsApp chats. "Why did the NCB not confront Aryan and Arbaaz with Achit yesterday only? NCB is well equipped, they have more than 100 officers," the lawyer asked posing another question that was not answered. "Confrontation cannot be grounds for custody," he quipped. Last but not the least, two days ago, the NCB made four more arrests in connection with the case. All the four arrested were employees of Namas'cray, a Delhi-based event management company that organised the 'rave party' onboard Cordelia Cruises' Empress ship. But wait, why are we forgetting that the Covid-19 pandemic is still ravaging the country. The country is still witnessing nearly 300 fatalities every day. Then how come under pandemic-induced restrictions, such a party was allowed. Another unanswered question! -- Syndicated from IANS New Delhi, Oct 8 : Pakistan's consistent efforts to portray the apparent distraught human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir referring to vague and unrealistic figures of troop presence and the nature of violence that apparently occurs on a daily basis has not only led to a creation of bland and superfluous narrative over the years but has been irritating those being approached by the Pakistani government on the Kashmir issue. In the European Union (EU) circles, the Pakistani narrative is referred to as the "'K'acophony". Usage of this jargon has become common among EU members who tend to ignore the push made by Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. Western countries are increasingly beginning to believe that there is no role for them to play in the Kashmir issue and that the matter has to be settled through dialogue between the two countries. The pressure being built by the Pakistani government is thus having a reversal effect. The traditional practice of sending out letters at the highest levels by the Pakistani government on a regular basis to their counterparts in different countries on alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir has only made the issue appear redundant and insipid. Moreover, such efforts have led to the realisation that this is part of diversionary tactics by Pakistan to take away global attention from the internal problems it faces. A careful analysis of the trend indicates that over a period of time, the Kashmir issue has lost traction with the international community/institutions. In some cases while the Pakistani side has raised the Kashmir issue, the concerned foreign agency in turn has asked the Pakistani side to first clean their own house on the human rights front. The UNHRC, at its leadership level, appears to be seriously concerned about human rights violation in Pakistan including the ongoing harassment of ordinary people in the form of continued detention, denial of rights to freedom of expression, restrictions on public assembly, pressure faced by journalists and alleged use of unlawful means of dealing with general crime. The UNHRC has also been concerned about the situation in Pakistan occupied Kashmir which remains pathetic as far as human rights condition and freedom of expression is concerned. In the last two months, with glaring human rights violation surfacing in Pakistan, the UNHRC feels that there is need for introspection by the Pakistani government on gross human rights violations on various fronts including efforts to suppress the voice of the minorities. The UNHRC also feels there is need for teams from the UNHRC Working Groups, dealing with "enforced and involuntary disappearances" as well as "torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", to visit Pakistan to assist the government in formalising legislations on "enforced disappearances" and "torture". This would have to be preceded by a thorough assessment of the ground situation that prevails in Pakistan. The UNHRC also feels that Pakistan should bear responsibility for assisting Afghanistan in sustaining the spirit of human rights, especially in the case of women and girls. The UNHRC feels that functional requirements of the UNHRC in Afghanistan should also be assisted and facilitated by Pakistan to the extent possible considering the latter has a significant hold over the government in Afghanistan. There is a realization among European nations and also among international organisations working in Pakistan to exert pressure on Pakistan to first clear its own mess and also help Afghanistan build a transparent and homogeneous society free of any human rights violation before any recognition is accredited to the help and assistance sought by Pakistan from the international community. Much though Pakistan might try to draw the attention of the world to the Kashmir issue, the fact remains that the world's focus now is on Afghanistan, and Pakistan's credibility would depend on how it delivers on this front, while clearing up its own mess. San Francisco, Oct 8 : Tech billionaire Elon Musk has announced that Tesla is moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, where it is building a plant. Tesla will continue to operate its electric vehicle factory in Fremont, California, and increase production there by 50 per cent. "I'm excited to announce that we're moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas," Musk said at an annual shareholders meeting on Thursday, reports Washington Post. "Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California." Musk himself moved to Texas last year, as SpaceX increased its presence in the southern tip of the country. Tesla started building its next US Gigafactory outside Austin in 2020 and a new video of the project shows the place is already turning into a busy industrial area. A video uploaded on YouTube by electric car enthusiast Jeff Roberts showed the progress of the factory, recorded from day one. Initially, Tesla referred to the factory as the Cybertruck Gigafactory because the automaker planned to produce the electric pickup truck there. However, Tesla first planned to produce the Model Y at the factory, and the company later renamed it "Gigafactory Texas". Tesla also plans to establish battery cell production at the factory and make it an "ecological paradise" open to the public. In addition, a Tesla Gigafactory Texas battery-related job opening was recently posted by the electric car maker in its Careers page. The job listing was shared by Automotive President Jerome Guillen via his official LinkedIn account. New Delhi, Oct 8 : A massive fire broke out at a cloth godown in the early hours of Friday in the national capital, a fire department official said. The senior fire department official said they received a call about the fire incident around 03.51 a.m. in a factory at 118 Sanjay Colony near Harkesh Nagar Okhla phase 2, after which as many as 18 fire tenders were immediately pressed into the service. "The fire is still continuing and we are trying to douse it," Director-Delhi Fire Services Atul Garg told IANS. Thick fumes of black smoke could be seen billowing out of the factory which was engulfed in a massive inferno. The Delhi Fire Service chief informed that the fire was caught in cotton, thread, and cloth waste inside the basement, ground, and first floor of the building. The firefighters were trying to put out the fire for the past five hours. "The three-storey building is around 1200 square yards with a basement," he said. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Garg confirmed that so far there have been no casualties or injuries. The incident comes just 10 days after a fire broke out at a cardboard godown in the Dabri area of the city. This blaze was also brought under control and no casualties were reported then. Bengaluru, Oct 8 : Income Tax raids conducted on some contractors and chartered accountants in Bengaluru took a political turn as sources said that they were being carried out on a close circle connected with former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to send out a signal to him. Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy stated that the IT raids were being conducted to control Yediyurappa and his son B.Y. Vijayendra. "The party wants to hold them back before Yediyurappa and Vijayendra do something," he maintained. Sources in the party said that Yediyurappa is not happy with the high command cold-shouldering him after he stepped down from the post of Chief Minister. Sources also say that Yediyurappa is also upset for not giving a cabinet berth to his son, BJP Vice-President B.Y. Vijayendra. Rubbing salt on the wound, the BJP did not announce Vijayendra's name in the list of in-charges for by-elections initially. After a strong protest by his followers, his name was included. Earlier, the party had scuttled Yediyurappa's plans of touring the state. Yediyurappa, with all his limitations, continues to have mass appeal across the state and no BJP leader in Karnataka could match his charisma. Incumbent Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai though has started off well, he needs to go a long way in terms of matching the aura of Yediyurappa. However, the party wants to move on with Yediyurappa as there are charges of rampant corruption, favouritism against him. After ensuring the smooth exit of Yediyurappa, the party was shocked by his statement against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He stated that the Modi wave alone cannot win elections in the state for the party. The party also knows how Yediyurappa confronted party veteran L.K. Advani after he was asked to step down from the top post during his first tenure. The party recently appointed his confidantes as the political secretaries of the Chief Minister to assuage the old horse. Sources said Yediyurappa is not happy with the turn of events and he has started feeling being snubbed. In case Yediyurappa decides to stay low during elections, the party will suffer as BJP still lacks the leadership to match the mass appeal of Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and H.D. Deve Gowda family and Congress President D.K. Shivakumar. Yediyurappa reacting to the IT raids from his native Shikaripura in Shivamogga district whether he has been targeted stated, "IT officers have carried out their duties. They will not spare anyone who goes wrong. This is not political. These raids will not have any effect on the by-elections," he stated. "I will react more after getting information on Friday," he said. Chief Minister Bommai stated that IT raids are not connected to his government and he came to know about them only through the media. "Will react once I get details," he also said. As many as 300 officers from the IT department conducted raids in 50 locations across Karnataka on Thursday from early morning. Sources said that the raids were conducted on the specific inputs regarding huge kickbacks while implementing various schemes to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore in the Water Resources ministry during the tenure of Yediyurappa. The officers raided the house of M.R. Umesh, who was the BMTC conductor cum driver turned contractor, allegedly made fortunes after coming into the close circles of Yediyurappa. He worked as the Personal Secretary of Yediyurappa and his services were also continued by the Bommai government. However, after this fact came out in the open, his appointment was taken back. Washington, Oct 8 : Staggering into the 19th month of its fight against the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the US is ramping up efforts on triple fronts -- vaccination, mandate and test -- expecting to further contain the spread of the virus ahead of the upcoming winter season. On Thursday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed in its latest update that 216,012,495 people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, making up 65.1 per cent of the entire US population, reports Xinhua news agency. According to the update, fully vaccinated people stood at 186,385,751, accounting for 56.1 per cent of the total, while a total of 6,372,007, or 3.4 percent of the fully vaccinated group, have received booster shots. Pfizer and BioNTech said on Thursday that they were seeking the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) emergency use authorization (EUA) for their Covid-19 vaccine for children aged between five to 11. If authorised, this would be the first vaccine for children in this age group. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been approved for people age 16 and older and has an EUA for people ages 12 to 15. On Wednesday, the White House announced that it will buy $1 billion worth of rapid, at-home coronavirus tests to address ongoing shortages, "a plan hailed by public health experts who called the move long overdue", reported The Washington Post. The actions will quadruple the number of tests available to Americans by December, according to Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. On Thursday, President Joe Biden travelled to Chicago to talk about vaccine mandates. Chicago was picked in part because it is the home of United Airlines, one of the first major carriers to require shots for its 67,000 employees. Biden said last month that he would use his presidential powers to require two-thirds of American workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus, which included a private sector to mandate that all companies with more than 100 workers require vaccination or weekly testing. He also moved to mandate shots for healthcare workers, federal contractors and most federal workers, who could face disciplinary measures if they decline to be inoculated. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dharamsala, Oct 8 : Tibetan Buddhist monk the Dalai Lama has sent virtually wished Archbishop Desmond Tutu on his 90th birthday by addressing the latter as the "elder spiritual brother" who lives in complete peace. In a video message, the Nobel Peace Laureate, 86, on Thursday said, "I have deep admiration and respect for you Bishop Tutu. So I want to express my greeting to you on your 90th birthday. We religious people should follow people like Bishop Tutu who lives in complete peace." Archbishop Tutu is a close friend of the Dalai Lama and has co-authored with His Holiness the book titled "The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World". Sharing his long bond with the Bishop, the Dalai Lama said: "We joke with each other about what we believe. I believe in life after life but not in a creator, Bishop Tutu believes in a creator. So sometimes he teases me that he's ready to go to heaven, but I may go to a different place. "Anyway, you see, we are both totally dedicated to finding peace of mind and through peace of mind we try our best to bring about peace in the world. "So on this special day, your 90th birthday, I will offer special prayers and greetings. My elder spiritual brother please live long. We need you to set the world a good example. As far as compassion is concerned, while we are in our mother's womb and after birth, her warm heartedness, her compassion, and her loving kindness are the key factors in our survival." he globetrotting monk, known for his simplicity and jovial style and prefers to participate in meetings with religious leaders, and lectures businessmen on ethics for the new millennium and the art of happiness, said the life starts that way. "Keeping alive our experience of our mother's loving kindness when we are young is one the key factors for our survival and our being able to live a happy life. Our life begins that way and the rest of our life we should keep a more compassionate mind with loving kindness. "These days some scientists say that the more peaceful our mind is, the more compassionate our mind is, the physically healthier we will be. If we simply have loving kindness here in our hearts, automatically our face will smile more. "If we have suspicion and hatred in our hearts, even when someone smiles at us we will be able to show an artificial smile in return," the Dalai Lama said. "As far as compassion's benefits are concerned, we are not talking about the next life or going to heaven, but in our day-to-day lives we really need a more compassionate mind," the leading spiritual figure bringing Buddhist teachings to the international community concluded. Chennai, Oct 8 : The Karur district administration in Tamil Nadu is to shower gifts on people getting vaccinated during the mega vaccine drive on Sunday. This is the fifth mega vaccine drive to be held in the state to inoculate people above the age of 18. The administration will conduct a lucky draw at the vaccine centres in the district on Sunday for all those getting inoculated and will give away gifts, including domestic appliances. Karur district collector, T. Prabu Shankar in a press statement on Thursday said, "As part of the mega vaccination drive of the Tamil Nadu state government the district administration will conduct a lucky draw for all those getting vaccinated on Sunday and gifts will be provided for the winners." The district collector also said that an incentive of Rs 5 will be provided to those volunteers who bring people for vaccination to the camps. A washing machine is the first prize in the lucky draw while the second prize will be a wet grinder and the third a mixer grinder. There will be 24 prizes with Pressure cookers being given away as gifts. The district collector said that there will be 100 consolation prizes. The district administration said that the names of volunteers who bring in more than 25 people to the camp will also be included in the lucky draw. The state health minister Ma Subramanian lauded the efforts of the Karur district administration to inoculate more people. While speaking to IANS the minister said, "It is a good effort. The success of the vaccination camps has been the support rendered by the district administrations and the health department. "Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has written a letter to the Prime Minister requesting for a sanction of 50 lakh doses of vaccine every week. With the support of the respective district administrations, the state is well on the way to achieve our target of inoculating the entire population of the state with at least one dose by the year-end." Washington/Seoul, Oct 8 : The US supports efforts to alleviate the suffering of North Korean people and is engaged in efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to such people in the reclusive North, a State Department spokesman said. Addressing reporters on Thursday, spokesman Ned Price also noted the US would support humanitarian assistance for the North even if its efforts to denuclearise the country do not move forward, reports Yonhap News Agency. "Even when we disagree with a particular regime, we believe that we must work to the best of our ability to do all we can to alleviate the suffering of the people," he said when asked about the US' position on the recent shipments of Covid-19 medical supplies to North Korea. The World Health Organization said on Thursday that it has begun sending such supplies to the North. North Korea had kept its border closed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic early last year, with many people saying an outbreak would have been especially devastating in the country that lacks even the most basic medical supplies and equipment. "And so we continue to support international efforts aimed at the provision of critical humanitarian aid to the DPRK," Price added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The Department spokesman, however, emphasized that the North Korean regime itself was largely to blame for the suffering of its own people. "The regime continues to exploit its own citizens, to violate their human rights, to divert resources from the country's people to build up its unlawful WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and ballistic missiles program," he said. Still, the US is involved in efforts to facilitate and also expedite the provision of humanitarian assistance to the North Korean people, Price noted. The resumption of humanitarian assistance for North Korea also comes amid stalled negotiations on ending North Korea's nuclear ambition. Pyongyang has ignored numerous overtures made by US President Joe Biden's administration that came into office in January, while also staying away from denuclearisation negotiations with Washington since early 2019. Price reiterated the US' commitment to engaging with North Korea in dialogue. October 08 : Vicky Kaushal is all set for the release of his film Sardar Udham. Helmed by Shoojit Sircar, the biographical film is about revolutionary freedom fighter Udham Singh, who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer in London to take revenge for 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar. Vicky Kaushal played the role of Sardar Udham Singh. The film is produced by Rising Sun Films in collaboration with Kino Works. The film will premiere on October 16, 2021, on Amazon Prime Video. Ahead of the films release, Vicky shared a new picture of himself on his Instagram handle. The photo revealed his intense look as Sardar Udham Singh, when the freedom fighter was in prison. In the image, the Raazi actor wears a rugged look and has a scar on his forehead. Vickys look in the film impressed many fans and celebrities who praised the actor in the comments section. Image Source: Instagram/vickykaushal09 Vicky Kaushal looks intense in a new pic from Sardar Udham Sharing the picture, Vicky wrote a little about the revolutionary freedom fighter. 1931, Prison, India. Udham Singh was in prison for possession of prohibited papers "Ghadr-i-Gunj" ("Voice of Revolt"). He was released later but under constant surveillance. Soon, he escaped to Europe and never got to return to India. #SardarUdham #SardarUdhamOnPrime | Oct 16. Recently, the makers of the film had released the trailer of the film. At the launch of the trailer, Vicky said he hopes that Sardar Udham is remembered by the people as his name and sacrifices for the freedom struggle got lost in just a line in history books. Sardar Udham Singh and many other people who gave their lives for our freedom struggle get lost in a line, paragraph or a page in our history books. Sardar Udham Singh was probably that one line, paragraph or a page in the book. The actor further added, But because I had heard his stories from my grandparents and parents, there was always this connection straight from my core where I related to that man. I related to his angst. Sardar Udham was officially announced in March 2019. Shooting for the film kicked off in London in April 2019. The shooting also took place in Russia, United Kingdom, Europe, Ireland, Germany, and North India. The film was wrapped up on December 27, 2019, in Europe. Initially, the film was announced for a theatrical release on Gandhi Jayanti 2020, but due to Covid-19, the release date was postponed. Kolkata, Oct 8 : Bengalis might experience another wet 'puja' this year. The Alipore Meteorological department has predicted that the formation of a depression in the sea of Andaman might create a favourable condition for showers in South Bengal, including Kolkata between October 13-15. The four days of Durga Puja starts in West Bengal on October 12 and ends on October 15. The cyclone that was formed in the Bay of Bengal has lost its strength leading to sunny days in South Bengal, but the MeT department has said that another low depression is set to be formed in the seas of Andaman from Sunday which will gradually gain strength and move towards North Andhra Pradesh and Orissa / According to the weather office, the low pressure will create favourable conditions for rainfall in several districts of South Bengal, including Kolkata, from October 13-15. The Alipore Meteorological Office said the sky would be cloudy in South Bengal for the next few days and there will be scattered light to moderate rains. The districts of South Bengal received less rainfall from Saturday to Tuesday, but the rainfall will increase again in North and South Bengal from Wednesday. The department has also predicted that sky in Kolkata will be partly cloudy from Friday onwards and there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorms. Daytime temperatures are 2 to 3 degrees higher than normal. Due to this gloomy atmosphere the discomfort index will be high. The humid situation will be on the rise and that will lead to an uncomfortable situation. In the next 24 hours, the maximum temperature in Kolkata will be around 34 degrees Celsius and the minimum will be around 27 degrees Celsius. In the last 24 hours, the minimum daytime temperature in Kolkata was 27 degrees Celsius, 2 degrees above normal. The maximum humidity in the air was 97 per cent. There has been no rain in Kolkata in the last 24 hours. The MeT department has also predicted that though the monsoon is showing signs of withdrawal from the entire country, but it is yet to be over in West Bengal. This year the districts of Gangetic West Bengal received 31 per cent more rainfall in this monsoon with the city recording nearly double (96 per cent) rainfall than the normal making it the wettest September in this decade. In general, though, North Bengal receives more rain than South Bengal but this year the process was reversed with Gangetic West Bengal recording a surplus rainfall of nearly 31 per cent and North Bengal and Sikkim receiving 9 per cent deficit rainfall in this monsoon (between June 1 and September 30). However, the MeT department predicted heavy rainfall in North Bengal in the next couple of days and it is expected that this will reduce the deficit to a considerable portion. According to the meteorological department, though the state witnessed a comparatively dry August this year with 34 per cent deficit rainfall across the state, the excessive rainfall in September has helped in recovering the deficit and allowed a surplus rain in the state. In September, the state received 39 per cent excess, while Gangetic Bengal had a surplus of 80 per cent rain. North Bengal, which usually receives more rain than the south, has been dry this year. Along with Sikkim, North Bengal has a 9 per cent rain deficit, down from a 40 per cent deficit in north Bengal and Sikkim last month. So far Kolkata is concerned, the city received nearly 96 per cent more rainfall in September this year. The normal rain count for Kolkata in September is 318 mm. This year, it received 613 mm, said the MeT office. The city has rarely had such a wet September in recent years, said the weathermen. Latest updates on Navratri Festival 2021 -- Syndicated from IANS Bengaluru, Oct 8 : The Congress high command is considering wooing the Lingayat vote bank, which is presently supporting the BJP in Karnataka by giving representation to leaders of the community at the state and national levels. Congress sources said that the party has taken a decision in this regard after former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa's exit from the post. Congress top brass is contemplating that along with Opposition leader Siddaramaiah, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, known as the mass leaders representing oppressed classes, and D.K. Shivakumar, being the leader of the dominant Vokkaliga community, one from the Lingayat community could provide the political push. And, this combination could help to boost the prospectus of the party in the Assembly elections in 2023. The Lingayat vote bank en masse moved into the fold of BJP after former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi unceremoniously removed Veerendra Patil from the office by announcing his exit from the airport in 1990. Patil was credited with mobilizing the Lingayats back to the Congress and was instrumental in its biggest ever victory in 1989. The Congress party had then won 179 of 224 Assembly seats. Sources in the Congress said that the suggestion was made by Siddaramaiah during his meeting with Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi during his visit to New Delhi recently. The party is now contemplating giving the post of AICC General Secretary and groom a Lingayat face at the national level. It is said that senior Congress leaders and former ministers S.R. Patil, M.B. Patil, KPCC Working President Eshwar Khandre hailing from the Lingayat community could be given the opportunity. New Delhi, Oct 8 : Expressing solidarity with the families of victims killed by terrorists in Kashmir, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday demanded that the Centre provide security to the people in the valley. "The attack on Kashmiri sisters-brothers is painful and condemnable. In this difficult time we are with our Kashmiri sisters-brothers. The Central government should immediately take steps to provide security to all the citizens," she said in her tweet in Hindi. Congress leader Manish Tewari said there was an apprehension of targeted killing, but the government did not act as,"On 5th of October 2021 Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti had written to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha warning of such targeted killings and asking for Security but unfortunately they were not heard." On Thursday, Sonia Gandhi instructed the party in J&K to extend support to the grieving families. The statement from the Congress said, "The BJP govt's inability to protect the Kashmiri Pandit community and civilians at large is a direct result of the instability they have caused in the region. The increase in militancy and rise in violence is proof of this government's weak and apathetic attitude". The party said in the last 48 hours five persons, including M.L. Bindroo -- a prominent Kashmiri Pandit -- have been killed in terror incidents. "We strongly condemn these atrocious attacks on civilians. Congress President Smt Sonia Gandhi has instructed in-charge Of the state Rajni Patil to extend our support to the grieving families." Rahul Gandhi, who visited the state last month, too condemned the killings. In a tweet in Hindi, he said, "The incidents of violence are increasing in the valley. Terrorism has not stopped despite demonetisation and abrogation of 370 - the central government has totally failed to give security..." Two teachers were shot and killed by terrorists inside a government higher secondary school in the Eidgah area of Srinagar. The slain teachers included the principal of the school, Supinder Kaur and a Kashmiri Pandit teacher Deepak Chand. Thursday's killings come two days after the terrorists shot a local Pandit, M.L. Bindroo, a non-local vendor from Bihar and a local taxi driver in Kashmir. San Francisco, Oct 8 : Social networking giant Facebook has announced new mental health resources, tools and programming across its apps, ahead of the World Mental Health Day on October 10. "Facebook is working with mental health experts and organisations around the world to connect people with the support they need, and we're launching new content and tools to encourage people to start conversations about mental health," the tech giant said in a blogpost on Thursday. Amid concerns of social networking giant's effect on children's mental well-being, it opened new 'Emotional Health' resource center on Facebook. The centre includes resource cards on tips for creating positive mental health, and guides to provide equitable access to mental health support to vulnerable communities such as Black, Latino and Asian among others. Recently, Facebook was criticised by a former employee in the US Congress about the negative effects of its platforms on children's mental health. On WhatsApp, UNICEF launched a new global mental health chatbot to offer tips for communicating what's on a person's mind, breaking down stigmas and starting a conversation with someone you are concerned about. Further, the World Health Organization's (WHO) health alert chatbot on WhatsApp will provide for mental health and wellbeing resources like exercises to help reduce stress. Regional helplines, including a Loneliness Advice chatbot developed by the Connection Coalition in the UK, are also available. On Messenger, the tech giant worked with WHO and acclaimed illustrator Caleb Boyles to develop the "I Care For You" sticker pack to help kick start conversations when the words are hard to find, the blogpost said. "On World Mental Health Day and beyond, WHO is working with partners to raise awareness about the importance of mental health care, as well as to encourage people to open up, seek help, or offer support to those loved ones who may need it" added Gabriella Stern, WHO Director of Communications, in the post. The tech giant has also recently introduced new suicide prevention toolkit, which has resources for parents, educators, youth and media on how to safely discuss suicide challenges. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the CBI can directly register a case upon receiving credible information, which discloses cognizable offence and it is not mandatory, for the investigating agency, to conduct a preliminary probe (PE) before registering the case. A bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud noted that since the institution of PE is not mandatory under CrPC, therefore for the top court to issue a direction will be stepping on the legislative domain. Justice Chandrachud said if the CBI decides not to conduct a preliminary inquiry, then the accused cannot demand it as a matter of right. While delivering a judgment, the bench said the high court donned the role of a chartered accountant to absolve the accused of his crime. The top court emphasized that the CBI can register cases directly upon receiving credible information and further added that there cannot be a judicial directive to conduct a preliminary enquiry in every case of corruption. The bench, however, added that it will be open to CBI to carry out PE in appropriate cases. The bench noted that it was argued whether the CBI could even register a case since the Telangana government had withdrawn general consent to CBI. However, the bench refrained from delving into this aspect, and kept the question open. The detailed judgment in the matter will be uploaded later in the day. Rome, Oct 8 : Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi thanked Angela Merkel for playing a "decisive role" in shaping the future of the European Union (EU) during the latter's final visit to Rome as the German Chancellor. His remarks came at the conclusion of what likely was Merkel's last official meeting with Italy's top officials, as she prepares to leave the position as soon as a new German federal government is formed following the recent parliamentary elections, reports Xinhua news agency. "I thank the Chancellor on behalf of the government and myself personally for the decisive role she has had in designing the future of Europe" over the past 16 years, Draghi said at a joint press conference here on Thursday. In turn, Merkel noted that Draghi had played an essential role in safeguarding the euro. "I believe the euro symbolises our (EU) unity, therefore no effort has to be spared to further strengthen and develop it and there is still much to be done in this field," she told reporters. Merkel's talks with Draghi touched on other issues, such as the goals of the G20, whose rotating presidency is held by Italy this year; the need to boost Covid-19 vaccine supplies across the world; and the situation in Afghanistan, on which Germany and Italy hold the same position. The two leaders also discussed climate change and environment protection in view of the major UN Climate Change Conference (or COP26) to be held in Glasgow between October 31 and November 12. Mumbai, Oct 8 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday proposed to introduce a framework for carrying out retail digital payments in offline mode across the country. In common parlance this means introduction of facility where digital transactions could be carried out even in situations where the Internet connectivity is low / not available (offline mode). In his virtual address post-MPC meeting, RBI Governor said that the pilot of this innovative technology facilitating digital payments in offline mode has been successful and the learnings indicate that there is a scope to introduce such solutions, especially in remote areas. The RBI's Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated August 6, 2020 had announced a scheme to conduct pilot tests of innovative technology that enables retail digital payments even in situations where the Internet connectivity is low / not available (offline mode). Three pilots were successfully conducted under the Scheme in different parts of the country during the period from September 2020 to June 2021 involving small-value transactions covering a volume of 2.41 lakh for value Rs 1.16 crore. Given the experience gained from the pilots and the encouraging feedback, RBI had now proposed to introduce a framework for carrying out retail digital payments in offline mode across the country. Detailed guidelines will be issued in due course. --IANS sn/dpb Get Outlook for iOS Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 8 : The Kerala Assembly on Friday was informed by the Minister of Devaswom and Temples K. Radhakrishnan that the government is going ahead with the proposed Sabarimala airport and would be completed in a time bound manner. Radhakrishnan was replying for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to a calling attention motion moved by N. Jayaraj on the topic about the proposed Sabarimala airport. "The Cheruvally rubber estate has been selected as the place for the proposed airport. The feasibility study report has already been submitted to the Civil Aviation Ministry and they have sought more details and it would be given shortly," said Radhakrishnan. "The state-run KSIDC has been appointed as the nodal agency for all the preliminary work, including taking over the land. This airport is in the high priority list of the government and it would be completed in a time bound manner," added Radhakrishnan. Located in Kottayam district, the 2,263 acres Cheruvally estate lies about 48 kms from the famed Sabarimala temple. Incidentally, this proposed estate is owned by the Thiruvalla headquartered Believers Church and for long has been a contentious issue between the successive governments over the title of the estate. The state government has all along contested that this land originally belongs to it. The ownership over the estate has seen long standing legal disputes between the present owners and the state government and is in the Kerala High Court. It was in 2016 that Vijayan got the informal sanction from Union Civil Aviation Minister Anand Gajapathy Raju for going forward to build an airport near the Sabarimala temple. There has been a demand for an airport to cater to the Sabarimala pilgrims and during the Oommen Chandy government (2011-16), a proposal by a private player to build an airport at Aranmula, in Pathanamthitta district got entangled in various issues at the local level. After the Vijayan government assumed office in 2016 May, they revoked the earlier sanction given to the Aranmula airport and the search for another suitable land in the same district was started. Mumbai, Oct 8 : Actor Chandan Roy Sanyal has talked about the prep that went into his transformation to play a ruthless villain in upcoming hostage drama 'Sanak: Hope Under Siege'. He says he dived into training knowing that he will be pitted against action star Vidyut Jammwal. Chandan took training under the guidance of an American action director for a month and even learned rifle shooting. He said: "I dived into the prep for Sanak knowing full well that I will be pitted against India's invincible action star, Vidyut Jammwal. I had to match his sanak. I trained for a month with my action director and I familiarised myself with the use of rifles. "It was super exciting for me to play a sanki villain and I rehearsed for a month. It's a very different role from what I've done in films earlier. I hope the audience enjoys it." The film also stars Neha Dhupia and Rukmini Maitra. Directed by Kanishk Varma,'Sanak: Hope Under Siege', a hostage drama, will stream on Disney+ Hotstar on October 15. Kochi, Oct 8 : In partial relief for gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh, the Kerala High Court on Friday dropped charges registered against her under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (Coefeposa) Act. However, Swapna Suresh will continue to cool her heels in the jail here, as she faces charges slapped by the NIA probe team. Hearing a plea filed by her mother, a division bench of the court noted that the charges under Cofeposa do not hold good. The smuggling case came to light on July 5, 2020, when the Customs arrested Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, for allegedly smuggling gold in a diplomatic baggage destined for the Consulate. Swapna Suresh, who also worked previously in the UAE Consulate, and her associate Sandip Nair were arrested in the same case by the National Investigation Agency from Bengaluru a few days later and since then, all three have been in judicial custody. New Delhi, Oct 8 : His own experience with cracking the Civil Services Examination (CSE) prompted Syed Waquar Raza, a serving IPS officer, to pen a one-stop guide on internal security and disaster management for future aspirants. In addition, his 14 years in uniform have given him an opportunity to closely study the security challenges about which there a general idea but cannot be delved deeper "in the dust and grime of everyday policing". "Internal Security of India and Disaster Management" (Oxford University Press) has been primarily intended for aspirants of the UPSC Civil Services examination, but "any reader interested in the myriad internal security challenges that India faces will find the book useful and instructive", Raza told IANS in an interview. However, beyond generalities, he sidestepped a question on the fresh challenges posed by the situation in Afghanistan, saying service rules did not permit him to do so. Studying the questions from previous years' examinations showed that the subject required an analytical understanding of the various challenges along with knowledge of current developments. "My own experiences of working in different capacities at various places of West Bengal such as in LWE-affected areas, bordering districts, and CID gave me the opportunity to observe closely the various aspects of internal security challenges that India faces today. Also, as a first responder in times of disasters, the nature of policing job provided me with valuable insights in aspects of disaster management," Raza said. "Though I have been working as an IPS officer for over 14 years now, the journey of writing a book provided me with an opportunity to closely study various topics related to security challenges, about which we do have a general idea, but would not have got a chance to delve deeper in the dust and grime of everyday policing. My aim was to write a book covering the internal security and disaster management portions of UPSC Civil Services syllabus that would be a one-stop solution for the aspirants and would relieve them of the necessity to search and sift materials from various sources, including the Internet. I hope my effort will be helpful for the aspirants," he added. He expands on this in the Preface. "Authors often face the dilemma about which chapters to include, what topics to cover in the chapters, how much to include in each topic and what to exclude. I have tried to throw the net wide, so that an aspirant does not have to look for multiple learning resources - available online and offline - but can solely rely on this book for covering virtually all topics related to the internal security challenges that India faces today, as well as the various types of disasters and their management efforts. At the same time, I have tried to provide just the optimum depth of topics so that the aspirant gains the confidence to answer any related question to the examiner's satisfaction," Raza writes. While writing the book, he relied heavily on articles of many security experts and think tanks including IDSA, CLAWS, ORF, etc. He also referred to books such as "India after Gandhi" by Ramchandra Guha, to understand the historical context of many of India's current security challenges. "The Internet provides an excellent tool to search, verify and cross-check facts and figures. Government websites such as that of the Ministry of Home Affairs also provide valuable and up-to-date information related to our internal security challenges," he said during the interview. Question: Hitherto, Internal Security in India has focused on three broad areas: Terrorism, Secessionism and Maoism. Have the developments in Afghanistan following the US withdrawal added a new dimension to this and how can the Indian state best cope with the challenge? "Yes, the current developments in Afghanistan have been a cause of concern for India. It has the potential to cause regional instability and a possible spill-over effect in terms of a surge in terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. China and Pakistan too have been eager to increase their footprints and influence in Afghanistan. However, the UNSC resolution 2593 requires that Afghan territory should not be used for terrorist activities, and it specially refers to UN-proscribed terrorist organisations such as the LeT and the JeM," Raza said. "India has been keenly following the current developments in Afghanistan. It seeks a broad-based and inclusive government in Afghanistan. India has helped build over 500 infrastructural projects worth over $3 billion, which has generated tremendous goodwill for India, among the Afghan people. Owing to her historical friendship and ties with the people of Afghanistan, India should continue supporting the common people there with humanitarian assistance," he added, declining to go further due to service restrictions. This does not take away from the value of the book, with important key words highlighted in each of its 18 chapters; maps, diagrams and tables included for conceptual clarity, boxes provided for topics of recent relevance; quick revision provided at the end of each chapter; and conceptual videos for each chapter linked by QR code for easy access. In sum, this book is a must read not only for CSE aspirants but for the general public too. (Vishnu Makhijani can be reached at vishnu.makhijani@ians.in) Seoul, Oct 8 : Samsung Electronics on Friday said that it is expected to post record sales in the third quarter of the year, apparently buoyed by its semiconductor business. In its earnings guidance, the South Korean tech giant estimated its sales at 73 trillion won (US$61.2 billion) for the July-September period, up 9 per cent from a year ago. Samsung also projected third-quarter operating profit at 15.8 trillion won, up 27.9 per cent from a year earlier. Should the preliminary earnings results stand, its sales will be the largest for any quarter to date, while the operating profit will be the second largest after the third quarter of 2018, reports Yonhap news agency. However, its third-quarter operating income estimate missed the market consensus of 16.2 trillion won in a survey by Yonhap Infomax, which compiled data from 13 local brokerage houses. Its preliminary sales figure is also below the market consensus of 74.8 trillion won. On a quarterly basis, Samsung's third-quarter operating profit estimate was up 25.7 per cent from the second quarter, while that of sales was up 14.6 per cent from the previous quarter. Samsung, the world's leading memory chip and smartphone vendor, did not break down performances of its respective business divisions, saying it will announce the detailed earnings later this month. Varanasi, Oct 8 : After the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the Congress has shifted its focus on the 'Pratigya Rally' in Varanasi, which is to be addressed by party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday. This will be the first rally to be organised by the Congress in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh election as it is the Prime Minister's constituency and the Congress has geared up to make it a grand success. Vishwa Vijay Singh, Vice President of the Uttar Pradesh Congress told IANS, "This rally will be organised in Varanasi and the Congress workers of eight districts have been put on work to mobilise people for this." The districts include Mirzapur, Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Mau, and Ballia. The Congress is hoping to mobilise a good crowd after the Lakhimpur Kheri incident where farmers were killed allegedly by the son of a Union Minister. Party MLA Deepak Singh said: "From Varanasi, the Congress will take pledge that they will fulfill all the promises. From here, the message will be taken to each constituency that the party will do whatever they will promise as we have done in Chhattisgarh." Priyanka Gandhi, who has taken up the farmers' cause in the state, and Congress leaders say that this is high time to reestablish the party in the state as except the Congress, no other party is taking up the cause of the people and highlighting their sufferings. Priyanka Gandhi on Thursday demanded a probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or a high court into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. She also said that Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son is among those booked, should resign to ensure an impartial probe. "In my view and that of the victims' families as well, the case should be probed by a sitting Supreme Court or high court judge, and not the retired judge," she said. The state government, on Thursday, had appointed retired high court judge Pradeep Srivastava to probe the Lakhimpur violence. Kabul, Oct 8 : The Taliban-led government's Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation has started the repatriation process of Afghan families who fled to Kabul after the fall of their home provinces to the group in August, the media reported. According to the Ministry, there are around 2,000 displaced families in Kabul, TOLO News reported. The Ministry assured that the displaced persons will also be provided with aid. In a statement on Thursday, Deputy Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, Arsalan Kharotai said "this process began today and will continue, thus all (displaced) families in Kabul will go back to their provinces". Since the Taliban started their march towards Kabul, hundreds of families fled their home provinces and have been living in open areas or in tents in several parts of Kabul. Their situation has become more dire as winter approaches, said the TOLO News report. Baghlan resident Mihruddin, who is physically challenged, said: "I haven't received any aid. The little aid that is provided, the able-bodied take it." Another displaced Kunduz resident, Abdul Baseer, said "we have a demand to immediately move the people, the people have become sick, it has been over a month that we are here". The World Food Program said that Afghanistan is scrambling with severe economic conditions and warned of an economic crisis in within coming weeks in Afghanistan. Although some countries and donor organizsations have provided humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, a large of number of people remain in need of support. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Chennai, Oct 8 : Lack of proper promotion and transfer policies leading to arbitrariness in decisions, amending eligibility conditions and qualifications after the recruitment process has begun, scrapping the recruitment process midway are some of the human resources issues afflicting the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), said sources. Sources also told IANS that IRDAI which governs the sensitive insurance sector deals in public money running into thousands of crores does not have policies for Whistleblowers and a Vigilance Manual. The human resources recruitment issue had even been raised in Parliament and other official fora, but no action has been taken, it is learnt. The Telangana High Court's recent verdict setting aside the promotion of Mamata Suri as the Chief General Manager (CGM) and ordering S.N. Jayasimhan, FCA, as the only person qualified for the CGM post will be the first of the several verdicts that may go against IRDAI, sources preferring anonymity told IANS. The court also held that the power of relaxing the qualification is not vested with the Chairman since no resolution to that effect has been passed. Hence the action of the Chairman in relaxing FCA to CFA/ICWAI and promoting Suri is contrary to law, arbitrary, and without jurisdiction. On her part, Suri preferred an appeal against the Single Judge's order. The Bench ordered an interim suspension of the Single Judge order, but added its order does not come in the way of the IRDAI promoting Jayasimhan in the existing vacancies. According to sources, there are several cases filed against IRDAI by its employees against their non-promotion, transfers and other matters. It has been reported that the Managing Director of Institute of Insurance and Risk Management (IIRM) had written to IRDAI that the institute cannot be a parking ground for some routine transfers at IRDAI to favour some and punish some. The IIRM is promoted by IRDAI and Telangana government. The Central government had once told the Rajya Sabha that IRDAI had received complaints relating to lowering of the age, reallocation of unfilled vacancies, pattern of questions in written exam, reservation of posts and rosters in connection with one of its recruitment drives that began in 2018. Replying to the question raised by Rajya Sabha member Javed Ali Khan, the government in 2019 said IRDAI had to cancel that recruitment process midway in May 2019 as it found the minimum experience criteria mentioned in the notification did not explicitly specify the sector or area of work in which work experience was required. This led to some candidates without useful experience being considered for further stages of the recruitment process. The government had told the Upper House that in order to avoid future litigation and to maintain transparency, IRDAI cancelled its recruitment exercise. The expenditure incurred in the process -- issuing advertisement, conducting written exam and evaluation of answer sheets was about Rs 22.47 lakh. "However, no probe was ordered to fix accountability on allowing some candidates without useful experience being considered for further stages of recruitment process. Are eligibility and qualifications being prescribed to hire select individuals," questioned a source. In the absence of Whistleblowers policy in IRDAI, senior officials said the officials fear they would be subjected to revengeful action by the top management if they highlight the wrongs happening in the Authority. Curiously, way back in 2016 IRDAI had issued a Corporate Governance Guidelines for Insurers in India where it has advised insurers to have a Whistleblowers Policy. In a reply to a query raised under the Right to Information Act (RTI), the IRDAI had replied that its staff regulations 2016 does not have any provision dealing with whistleblowers. To another query as to the avenues available to high light or act as a whistleblower in the Authority, the IRDAI had replied: "The information sought is in the nature of a 'query' and does not qualify as 'information' as defined in Section 2 (f) of RTI Act, 2005." Perhaps the governance policy is only for insurers and not for IRDAI like the view, a critic need not be a performer, commented a source. (Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in) Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 8 : The CPI-M's Kerala unit is known for the immaculate discipline of its cadres across all levels, but ever since Pinarayi Vijayan took over as Chief Minister, this record seems to show signs of fraying, and what started as a trickle is slowly gaining traction. As of now, three leaders, who seem to have deviated from the hallowed line of discipline, includes former Health Minister K.K. Shailaja and two-time young legislator A.N.Shamseer, not to mention veteran leader P. Jayarajan, a former legislator and district Secretary of Kannur. While in the run-up to the April 6 polls, Vijayan nurtured hopes of retaining office, it was not until the votes were counted on May 2 that the full scale of his victory became clear - bettering the 2016 performance, making Vijayan the supreme and unquestionable leader, not just in Kerala but also at the national level in his party. From there on, Vijayan showed that he is the ultimate boss and when it came to picking his cabinet ministers, he effected the first shock, when he dropped Shailaja, despite her handling of the Covid pandemic and then came the crucial move when he decided to make his 'new' son-in-law P.A.Mohammed Riyas, a Minister. This decision ruled out a ministerial post for Shamseer. And since then, hee has been blowing hot and cold, especially in the floor of the assembly and Shailaja also, who won more accolades from the opposition benches than from the ruling benches, when at times she found fault in the way her successor Veena George handled the pandemic and also the way Education Minister V.Sivankutty was running his department. Meanwhile, Jayarajan has been cut up ever since he was asked to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Vadakara in Kozhikode, which he lost and after that, he felt he was being sidelined in the party, especially at Kannur, from where Vijayan also hails. There were instances when Vijayan failed to even take notice of the presence of Jayarajan at public venues. Jayarajan suffered another jolt when he was not allowed to contest the Assembly polls on the grounds that he had contested the previous Lok Sabha polls, but present State Cooperation Minister V.N. Vasavan, however was given an exemption. Meanwhile with Vijayan continuing to reign supreme both in the government and party, all eyes are on what his strategy would be as crucial party meetings are being held to the run-up to the state conference and the subsequent Party Congress which is being held at Kannur next year. A media critic said there is no doubt that Vijayan continues to reign supreme and hence it is bad news for anyone who tries to raise their head. "In the CPI-M there are ways to silence those who create noise and unfortunately for those who do this, at the moment, their organisational meetings to elect new committees are going on. It is at these meetings the CPI-M weeds out 'trouble makers' and since their organisational structure is strong and perfect, if they want to sideline any, they do it and once done, then it is difficult for such people to get back. So one will have to wait and see, what happens at these ongoing party meetings. At the moment Vijayan is on a winning wicket," the critic said. New Delhi, Oct 8 : In a bid to counter any untoward incident during the upcoming festive season, the Delhi Police have intensified patrolling in several areas of the national capital, an official said here on Friday. Navratri, which marks the beginning of the festive season, began on Thursday with people, though less in numbers this time, began thronging the local markets and temples. They have made strict security arrangements keeping in view the ongoing countrywide celebrations, the police official added. "The safety of the people is our topmost priority. The police personnel have been deployed on roads and streets to intensify patrolling and checking at pickets for area dominance," the official said. The police could be seen throughout the night patrolling in different areas of the city. "Due to the huge rush of people, there is always a possibility of some untoward incident. We feel safe and secure when we see 'men in uniform' patrolling in our area," said a local shopkeeper in north-west Delhi. The senior police officials also urged citizens to be their "Eyes and Ears" and inform them about any anti-social element in the area. The Delhi Police Special Cell had on September 14 busted a Pakistan-based terror module and arrested seven suspected terrorists who were planning to carry out terror attacks in the country during this festival season. The suspects are now in police custody. Los Angeles, Oct 8 : Actor Woody Harrelson punched a man in self-defense following a row after a man reportedly would not stop taking pictures of him and his daughter. Police were called to a hotel in Washington D.C. at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday in response to a report about an assault on the roof deck, and found several people there, including the 60-year-old actor, who has Deni, Zoe and Makani with wife Laura Louie, reports femalefirst.co.uk. Police said a man, who appeared to be intoxicated, had taken photographs of Harrelson and his daughter, and so the 'Hunger Games' star reportedly approached him and asked him to stop and delete the pictures he had already taken. A report by police officers then tells how the actor admitted he got into a verbal dispute with the man who "lunged towards" him in an attempt to "grab his neck", and so he punched him "in his neck in defense of himself". Witnesses backed up the 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' star's account of what had happened, and police told NBC Washington their statements suggested the other man had been the aggressor. The unnamed guy who had been taking photographs was questioned in his hotel room and his name will be released if he is charged. The investigation is still ongoing. The actor, who has been in the city filming HBO series 'The White House Plumbers', has declined to comment on the incident. This isn't the first time the actor has had an altercation with someone taking pictures. In 1995, he got into a scuffle with two paparazzi who he claimed had stalked his family during a visit to Martha's Vineyard and was later ordered to pay one of them over $4,800, while the other, who had filmed the incident, was given just $2. In 2008, he was sued for reportedly attacking and breaking the video camera of a photographer, with the case dismissed two years later after they agreed a settlement out of court. The 'No Country For Old Men' star in 2019 was accused by a paparazzi of assaulting him and damaging his video camera at New York's LaGuardia Airport, but no charges were filed or further action taken. Harrelson said of the latter incident at the time: "I wrapped a movie called 'Zombieland', in which I was constantly under assault by zombies, then flew to New York, still very much in character. With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie." New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Supreme Court on Friday said it is "not satisfied with the steps taken by the state" in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, and expected a responsible government, system and police. The top court also observed that handing over the case to the CBI was not the solution. A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said: "We are not satisfied with the action taken by the state". On the non-arrest of Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, the bench queried Salve, "Is this the way you treat the accused in other cases as well?...Sending notice". The bench told Salve, "When there is a serious allegations of murder and gunshot injury, how the accused in other parts of the country are treated. Please tell us." The bench further queried senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, that has the state government made a request to give the case to the CBI? Salve replied that it is entirely in their hands. However, the bench told Salve: "CBI is also not a solution and you know the reason why...You find out better mode". Salve said the case is extremely serious. The bench replied: "If it is an extremely serious case that's not how things are taking place. It is only in words and not in action". Salve admitted before the top court that what has been done by the state is not satisfactory and remedial action will be taken soon, and urged the bench to put the matter for hearing immediately after the Dussehra vacation. The top court also took a strong objection to SIT formed in the matter, which comprises local officers. The bench said it may not be required to keep the SIT anymore, and emphasized that they should not destroy evidence or do anything negative. Salve submitted that given the evidence in hand, allegations under Section 302, may be possibly true. The top court told Salve that it will take up the matter after Dussehra vacation, 'but that does not mean the state holds its hands', and insisted that the state must take immediate steps. Justice Kant said: "You have to inspire confidence". Salve said, "What they have done isn't satisfactory". The bench said: "Because of the sensitivity of the issue, state should understand, we aren't saying anything more". The apex court has listed the matter for further hearing on October 20. On Thursday, the top court had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a status report indicating who are the accused named in the FIR filed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and whether they have been arrested or not. On October 3, nine persons, including four farmers, were killed in the violence that had erupted during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Mumbai, Oct 8 : US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, leading a high-level delegation, visited the Indian Navy's Western Naval Command Headquarters, officials said here on Friday. Received by top officials during the trip on Thursday, Sherman interacted with WNC chief, Vice Admiral R. Hari Kumar, and held talks on a variety of issues. These included avenues to strengthen the growing cooperation between the two nations and their navies, deal with challenges emerging on the maritime front besides enhancing collaboration and interoperability to ensure maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Sherman was given a broad overview of regional security dynamics and the operational responses of the WNC in recent times. These related to delivering humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) to friendly foreign countries, conducting counter-piracy operations, enhancing maritime safety and security in the region, and strengthening foreign cooperation initiatives with special emphasis on Indo-US co-operation. Also highlighted was the stellar support provided by IN ships through Operation Samudra Setu II to battle the Covid-19 pandemic by bringing home containerised liquid medical oxygen to mitigate shortfalls in the country. Sherman was escorted on a tour of the state-of-the-art Aircraft Carrier Dock at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai at the culmination of her visit. The interactions with the visiting Deputy Secretary of State's high-level delegation at the WNC is described as "an additional but significant step in expanding and intensifying the multi-dimensional Indo-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership". -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Kabul, Oct 8 : A top official from the Ministry of Information and Culture of the Taliban government in Afghanistan has called the Islamic State (IS) a "headache", while downplaying that the terror group was a "threat", the media reported. Adding the the group would soon be "suppressed", Zabihullah Mujahid, the Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, said: "We don't call Daesh (IS) a threat, but we call it a headache... It creates headaches in some places but is immediately taken out in every incident; (they) have been chased out and their sanctuaries found." The Minister added that the people of Afghanistan do not support the IS. However, political experts have said that the IS a serious problem for Afghanistan, warning that if tremendous efforts are not made to counter the group, it will extend its activities. Tamim Bahis, a political analyst, said: "Daesh (IS) doesn't have international and regional support, and without support Daesh will not be able to fight for a long time. However, fighting with Daesh will create problems for the Taliban." The Islamic Emirate recently arrested four IS-affiliated members in Paghman district of Kabul, while two other terrorists were captured in the eastern province of Nangarhar. This comes as the international community has continued to voice concerns over the possible presence of IS in Afghanistan. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Srinagar, Oct 8 : In the aftermath of serial killings of civilians by terrorists, People's Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday demanded the resignation of J&K Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha. Addressing the media at the party headquarters in Srinagar, PDP spokesman, Suhail Bukhari said that the LG has lost his moral authority to continue in his job following the recent killings of civilians in the valley. "For the past two years, the MHA is directly controlling the security situation in the valley. And look what it has led us to", Bukhari said. He said the Government of India and its administration is responsible for the deteriorating security situation in the valley. "No Kashmiri is feeling safe today. The situation has worsened here. "We demand immediate resignation of the LG". The PDP workers later started a protest march towards the city centre Lal Chowk. However, the police intervened and disallowed the protest march. Patna, Oct 8 : The Bihar Police arrested six persons for pelting stones at the convoy of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Bihar's Darbhanga district on Friday afternoon. Darbhanga SSP, Babu Ram accompanied by other police officials was patrolling in the district to ensure panchayat elections went off peacefully. When Babu Ram and his team reached the Sadar area of the district, some miscreants who were alleged to be supporters of the 'mukhiya' candidate, pelted stones at the police convoy. "Due to sudden stone pelting, a window pane of one of the cars broke. The police personnel immediately retaliated and managed to arrest six persons after a brief chase," said the SSP. In another incident, villagers of Hussainpur panchayat under Bhore police station forced the Block Development Officer (BDO) and police officials to leave the polling booth as the latter allegedly used abusive language against the voters in the polling booth. The incident happened in polling booth numbers 111 and 112. The villagers claimed that voting was underway at the polling booth peacefully when the BDO of Baikunthpur and police officials reached the booth. They hurled abuses at the voters standing in the queue. Many women voters were also present there. "The voters were angry over the behaviour of police officials. We protested against them and asked them to avoid using abusive words. As they did not stop, the villagers assembled at the polling booth for voting forced them to go outside the campus. The angry villagers chased them with sticks," a villager Rameshwar Jha told the media. Bhubaneswar, Oct 8 : Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has urged his cabinet colleague Nitin Gadkari to expedite the expansion work of NH-55 (earlier called NH-44) in Odisha. The National Highway expansion work is divided into two sections -- Cuttack-Angul and Sambalpur-Angul. Pradhan has written to Gadkari after receiving a petition from the villagers of Boinda in Angul district regarding the inordinate delay in expansion and improvement of the highway. "In their petition, they have said the foundation of NH-55 was laid in December 2018 and it was decided to complete the work by September 2020. Further, they have said the expansion work of NH-55 has been entrusted to M/s Gayatri Projects Ltd. whose work is not up to the mark as the company doesn't carry out the work properly causing road accidents regularly," the Union Education Minister said in his letter. Around 600 lives have been lost in several road accidents in this area during the last four years while construction of two bridges at Panimahar and Chandan Pokhiri has not yet been completed, he added. Pradhan mentioned that the construction of seven elephant underpasses is also pending and the land compensation amount at the revised rate has not been paid to the land losers in many places. "I take this opportunity to request you to look into the matter at your personal level for a favourable consideration of the above demand for well-being of people of this area," he added. New Delhi, Oct 8 : Cleanliness, beautification and a better revenue mechanism will be the top most priorities of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) if it comes to power in the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls. "AAP's main promise to Delhi is to transform it into a clean and beautiful city. We will also simplify the current complex property tax system. Apart from that, we will make the revenue mechanism of the city fit by working on outdoor advertisements and toll tax and all," AAP MLA from Greater Kailash, Saurabh Bharadwaj told IANS. The MCD elections are due in April 2022. Since 2007, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been ruling the civic body trifurcated into three zones -- North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) -- in 2012. Speaking on the Delhi High Court's recent order regarding garbage and rising cases of dengue, Bharadwaj said, "Delhi High Court's bench has been questioning MCD over the same topic for the last two-three days. The bench has taken notice of the piles of garbage in the city. It is obvious that cases of dengue will rise under such circumstances. MCD has failed on cleanliness front, too, and since it is not accountable to Delhi government, only High Court can ensure strictness here." Calling the present situation "a dismal state of affairs", the Delhi High Court on Wednesday said the national Capital is falling by leaps and bounds every day on the civic front, adding that it appears that the duty of the municipal corporations is only to pay salaries and pensions to their employees. Everywhere there is dengue, garbage, cattle roaming on the streets, roads are in bad shape, the high court said. Canberra, Oct 8 : Australia's national police agency on Friday revealed that the number of investigations it is conducting into far-right extremism has increased 750 per cent in the past 18 months. Australian Federal Police (AFP) Assistant Commissioner Scott Lee warned that far-right extremism is the country's fastest-growing threat, reports Xinhua news agency. He told broadcaster SBS that the number of nationalist and racist violent extremism cases before the AFP's Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCCT) has grown by 750 per cent since the start of 2020 and now accounts for 15 per cent of the unit's investigations compared to 2 per cent in 2019. "There was certainly an increase in the JCCT's nationalist and racist violent extremism caseload from 2019 and into early 2020," Lee said. "We expect it to increase further than what we are seeing at the moment, but how much further it will increase is difficult to ascertain at the moment." He said the rise could be partly attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, with Australians in lockdown spending more time online, expanding the rapid spread of extremist ideologies. "We are seeing the impact of Covid-19 more broadly on some of the ideological drivers as well, so we are expecting it will increase particularly in terms of racist views, where people are anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim or anti-Indigenous. We are seeing this affect people, particularly young people who are vulnerable to these ideologies," Lee said. The rise in AFP cases reflects a trend in the wider Australian law enforcement community. Australia's domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), revealed earlier this year that right-wing extremism now accounts for 50 percent of its caseload compared to 10 percent before 2019. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Congress has submitted a list of star campaigners for the bypolls, which includes some prominent leaders from the G-23 list and Kanhaiya Kumar, who has recently joined the party. Anand Sharma, who belongs to Himachal Pradesh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Chief Minister of Haryana, and Raj Babbar are the three members of G-23, who have been included in the list. Apart from them, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel are also in the list with Sachin Pilot and Navjot Singh Sidhu while Ashok Gehlot is excluded,sources said, adding that Gehlot is looking after the elections in Rajasthan. The Congress is slated to hold a CWC meeting this month and ahead of the meet, the party has tried to reach out to the dissenters, who have demanded the meeting of the highest decision making body of the party. Former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had written for an early meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). Azad in his letter had pointed out about the need for a permanent president and to discuss party affairs in the present scenario. He had reiterated his demand for organisational elections in the party. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had launched an attack on Rahul Gandhi and wondered who in the party was taking decisions. He said that the party leaders' demand for organisational elections had not been met. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sibal had said, "There is no president in our party, so we do not know who is taking all the decisions. We know it, yet we don't know." The bypolls are going to be held in 15 states and union territories, including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal on October 30 and the counting of votes will take place on November 2. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Mumbai, Oct 8 : 'Tum Bin' actor Priyanshu Chatterjee is all set for his upcoming film 'Barun Rai and the House on the Cliff', which has been shot in the UK at locations such as Southampton, Camden, Cheshunt, North Weald, Stapleford Tawney and Hackney. Talking to IANS, Priyanshu shared his experience of doing a crossover film. "Working on a film like 'Barun Rai and the House on The Cliff' has been great," the actor said. "It is a different experience working on a British crossover film. Its sensibilities are very different from those of a Bollywood production. In a crossover film, an actor has to focus on targeting a different global audience." The film, directed by Sam Bhattacharjee, is scheduled for a UK release on October 29 and is slated to be out in India in December. Priyanshu plays the character of 'Barun Rai', a parapsychologist and detective. Playing such a role for the first time in his career, Priyanshu dons a completely different look in this film, which will be similar to the classic 70s look of a crime investigator. The film, described as a paranormal/psychological horror film, also features actors such as Nyra Banerjee, Sid Makkar, David Bailie, Aakash Shukla, Tony Richardson, George Dawson and Emma Galliano. It is produced by Unicorn Motion Pictures. "Our director Sam Bhattacharjee's energy was pretty infectious. It was also great working with Nyra Banerjee, Sid Makkar and Aakash Shukla. It was also an amazing experience to be able to team up with international actors such as George Dawson, Tony Richardson and Emma Galliano. They are some of the most amazing and patient actors I have ever worked with," added the actor, who's also known for movies such as 'Dil Ka Rishta', 'Bhootnath' and 'Hate Story 3'. At the end of his conversation with IANS, Priyanshu said: "To be shooting non-stop in rough, cold, brutal weather and keeping your humanity alive is a great human triumph. I saw that every day in this unit's actors and technicians. I salute all of them." Washington, Oct 8 : A nuclear-powered US Navy fast-attack submarine was damaged after it "struck an object" while it was underwater in the Indo-Pacific region on October 2, the US Pacific Fleet said in a statement. The Seawolf-class submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) "remains in a safe and stable condition" and its "nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational", the statement said on Thursday. "The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed. The US Navy has not requested assistance. The incident will be investigated," Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying. It added "there are no life-threatening injuries" from the accident. A defence official told the US Naval Institute (USNI) News that about 11 sailors were hurt in the incident with moderate to minor injuries. The US Pacific Fleet didn't disclose where the collision occurred, just saying the submarine was "operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region". The ship has had to transit at the surface and is slated to arrive in Guam on Thursday, the Navy Times reported. Connecticut is one of the three Seawolf-class subs of the US Navy, said USNI News, calling it one of the most capable and sensitive attack submarines. New Delhi, Oct 8 : Steps taken towards reduction in paddy straw generation are yielding positive results with the total paddy area and straw generation reduced compared to last year, the government claimed on Friday. "The total paddy area in the states of Haryana, Punjab and eight NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh have come down by 7.72 per cent during the current year as compared to last year. "Similarly, total paddy straw generation from the non-basmati variety is likely to be reduced by 12.42 per cent during the current year as compared to the previous year," a release from the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) said. Both Central and State governments of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have been taking measures to diversify crops as well as to reduce the use of PUSA-44 variety of paddy. "Burning of paddy straw from the non-basmati variety of crops is the prime concern. Crop diversification and moving away from PUSA-44 variety with short duration High Yielding Varieties are part of the framework and action plan for control of stubble burning," the release said. As per data received from the state governments of these states, the total amount of paddy straw generated this year is likely to come down by 1.31 million tonnes (from 20.05 million tonnes in 2020 to 18.74 million tonnes in 2021) in Punjab; by 0.8 million tonnes (from 7.6 million tonnes in 2020 to 6.8 million tonnes in 2021) in Haryana, and by 0.09 million tonnes (from 0.75 million tonnes in 2020 to 0.67 million tonnes in 2021) in the eight NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh. The total quantity of straw generated by the respective states was 28.4 million tonnes in 2020, which is now expected to come down to 26.21 million tonnes in 2021. The decrease in non-basmati variety is expected to be even higher. Paddy straw generation specifically from the non-basmati variety of crops is expected to decrease from 17.82 million tonnes in 2020 to 16.07 million tonnes in 2021 in Punjab and from 3.5 million tonnes in 2020 to 2.9 million tonnes in 2021 in Haryana. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in Delhi and NCR through a comprehensive framework had directed the respective state governments to promote short duration and early maturing varieties of crops since they can be managed quite efficiently and provide a much wider window for paddy straw management. As per recommendations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the Government of India, CAQM had actively pursued with State Governments for promotion of the same. Apart from this, the Crop Diversification Programme is also being implemented in the states of Punjab and Haryana along with the NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh to divert the area of water-guzzling paddy to alternate crops, the release added. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The US has been secretly maintaining a small contingent of military trainers in Taiwan for at least a year, according to a new report, the latest sign of the rising stakes in US-China rivalry, the Guardian reported. About two dozen US special forces soldiers and an unspecified number of marines are now training Taiwanese forces, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The trainers were first sent to Taiwan by the administration of former President Donald Trump but their presence had not been reported until now. The report came as President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday that Taiwan will "do whatever it takes to defend its freedom and democratic way of life". "Taiwan does not seek military confrontation," she told a security forum in Taipei. "It hopes for a peaceful, stable, predictable and mutually beneficial coexistence with its neighbours. But Taiwan will also do whatever it takes to defend its freedom and democratic way of life." US troops have not been permanently based on the island since 1979, when Washington established diplomatic relations with China. Pentagon spokesman John Supple would not comment directly on the report, but noted that "our support for and defense relationship with Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat" from China, the Guardian said. "It is an important step but it's intended primarily not to be provocative but actually improve the defence capability of Taiwan's forces," said Jacob Stokes, a fellow of the Indo-Pacific security programme of the Centre for a New American Security. "There's always this balance between symbolism and substance, and I think by doing it quietly it's meant to be more substance." Puducherry, Oct 8 : Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy on Friday distributed an ex-gratia amount of Rs 50,000 each to the families of Covid-19 victims here. The Puducherry government in a statement said the government has issued an order in compliance with the guidelines formulated by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and on the directive from the Supreme Court of India. On the basis of these, an application form has been formulated for quick disbursement of the ex-gratia amount of Rs 50,000 to the family of each victim. According to the statement from the Puducherry government, 1845 families will benefit from the government initiative. This includes 1,445 people from Puducherry, 248 from Karaikal, 45 from Mahe, and 107 from Yanam. The Puducherry district collector Purva Garg in the statement said the District Disaster Management Authorities of the respective districts would distribute the relief to the families. The ex-gratia payment will be made through Aadhar linked Direct Benefit Transfer. The transfer would be executed on submission of an application by the concerned family along with the details of the death, the statement said. A Covid-19 Death Ascertaining Committee cum Grievance Redressal Committee with the Puducherry district collector as Chairman with Dr. J. Ramesh, Chief of Government Pharmacy, Dr. J. Kavitha, Associate Professor, and Dr. M. Vivekanandan, Professor, JIPMER as their members. The claims, according to the statement, will be settled within 30 days of submission of application. The district collector in the statement said the eligible claimants can get the application forms from the concerned taluk offices and the completed application forms could be submitted to the taluk offices in their jurisdiction. New Delhi, Oct 8 : Union Minister for roads and highways, Nitin Gadkari on Friday said he has asked Elon Musk-run Tesla to come and manufacture electric cars in the country and the government will extend all support needed for the manufacturing facility. Speaking at the 'India Today Conclave 2021', Gadkari said: "I have told Tesla that don't sell electric cars manufactured in China, in India. You should manufacture electric cars in our country, and also export cars from India". The government may consider lowering import duty along with offering other sops to Tesla but for that the EV major would have to invest in setting up a manufacturing facility in the country. Currently, India levies 100 per cent tax on the imported cars of price more than $40,000 (Rs 30 lakh) inclusive of insurance and shipping expenses, and cars less than $40,000 are subject to 60 per cent import tax. Musk recently said that he wants to launch cars in India, but the country's import duties on EVs are "highest in the world by far". "We want to do so, but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!" he had posted on Twitter. The EV company had urged the government to lower the import tax on EVs to 40 per cent from 100 per cent. Tesla also has plans to set up its manufacturing unit in Karnataka once the electric car maker gets success with imported cars. Gadkari said that whatever support Tesla wants to manufacture its electric cars in the country, "the government will provide that". The minister had said recently that Tesla has a golden opportunity to set up its manufacturing facility in India as the country is bullish on e-vehicles. Currently, the premium car market is about 7 per cent of the total car market in India. Without a relaxation on import duty, Tesla will remain premium for the Indian market but not ultra-premium. Gadkari also said with the use of alternative fuel and technology, the Indian automobile sector could be the number one in the world. He said it was his dream to make the Indian automobile sector the leader of the segment in the world. "I am confident that we are going to be the number one in the world by using alternative fuel and technology within five years," the minister said. Speaking on the issue of air pollution, Gadkari said: "The most important problem which our country is facing is the problem related to pollution and the economy. And by using petrol and diesel we are going to generate air pollution in the country." New Delhi, Oct 8 : Following the targeted killings of individuals including Hindus and Sikhs in the Kashmir valley in the last six days, the head of the Intelligence Bureau's Counter Terror (CT) operations on Friday arrived in Srinagar to supervise the operations carried out by the security forces against the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. The counter-terrorism teams of other national security agencies had arrived in the valley yesterday to assist the Jammu & Kashmir police as a force multiplier, sources in the security establishment said. Seven Hindus and Sikhs have been killed in individual attacks in the valley including pharmacist Makhan Lal Bindroo who refused to leave Srinagar when most of the Hindus and Kashmiri Pandits were forced to migrate in the 1990s by the terrorists. While the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir was reviewed on Thursday by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, it was decided to deploy the specialised counter terrorism teams of the security agencies while sleuths of the intelligence agencies including IB and R&AW would monitor the situation. The meeting was attended by NSA Ajit Doval, IB chief Arvind Kumar and R&AW Secretary Samant Goel. The Home Minister also held separate discussions with the NSA and R&AW chief on the J&K situation to handle the 'lone wolf' attacks in the valley. Killing a civilian after ascertaining the identity of the victim in broad daylight poses a new challenge for the security forces in the valley and these killings have been carried out by youths who have not even joined any terrorist cadre yet. In most of the incidents, small weapons like pistols were used for these killings, sources added. Since January this year, a total of 28 people have been killed by the terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir. Except seven, all were Muslims. As per the report about Thursday's killing of two teachers, Supinder Kaur and Deepak Chand were the only non-Muslims in the school who were separated from the other teachers and were shot dead from close range. Talking to journalists on Thursday, CRPF DG Kuldeep Singh said that the force has reviewed the situation with other stakeholders in J&K and has taken preventive measures to contain the terror activities. Stating that three 'lone wolf' attacks have taken place, he said the "situation in J&K has not deteriorated." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Chandigarh, Oct 8 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday retracted his 'controversial' statement to pick up sticks and fight "furious farmers", saying his government aimed to maintain law and order. During his visit to Mata Mansa Devi Shaktipeeth here, the Chief Minister told the media that he had a self-realisation that Goddess would protect "us all, that is why he withdrew his statement in which he appealed for self-defence when needed". Khattar said the main objective of the government is to maintain law and order. He said he has prayed to Mata Mansa Devi for the happiness and prosperity of all citizens of the country and the state. Earlier, addressing the state unit of BJP's Kisan Morcha, Khattar had said that 1,000 people with sticks should form volunteer groups at different places of the state and "treat" farmers who have been holding protests against the three farm laws passed by the Central government. "Pickup sticks and answer those furious farmers. We will see everything," he had said. Sydney, Oct 8 : Former Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Ian Healy said that he was a little surprised with the amount of work that was put in to get the England Test players to agree to tour Australia ahead of the Ashes at the end of the year. England are yet to announce their squad for the Ashes series set to begin on December 8 in Brisbane. "It took a bit more work than I thought it might. They had to really come to the party (Australia) I'd say with some facilities and the quarantining type work that the team and their partners could do if they wanted to be here at Christmas, which the English players said we want our families here at Christmas," said Healy on SENZ Breakfast show on Friday. "They got it done, they're going to resort them, which I thought would always be the case, you need to really put them in nice conditions, not total lockdown, but lockdown (in) a resort for example," added Healy, who represented Australia in 119 Tests and 168 ODIs. Healy was in praise of England captain Joe Root for his handling of the process, saying that Root has led from the front. "It still took 11 hours (to come to an agreement), meetings all day with Joe Root who asked very good questions and has absolutely led from the front a very statesman-like performance by him we're hearing." The last time England won the Ashes in Australia, it was in 2010/11. Australia are current holders of the Ashes, spanning across five Tests. Beijing, Oct 8 : The first lunar sample in more than 40 years, brought by China's Chang'e-5 probe also includes lava dated at two billion years old, giving an insight into volcanic activity on the Moon. In December 2020, Chang'e-5 lander brought back about 1,731 grams of lunar samples from the moon. The mission -- the first ever by a Chinese team -- used only tiny fragments to confirm predictions about the Oceanus Procellarum region, where the spacecraft had landed, Nature reported. At about two billion years old, the samples reveal volcanism that is at least a billion years younger than any found by NASA's Apollo astronauts or by the Soviet Union's uncrewed Luna missions in the 1960s and 1970s. "This is the youngest-ever lava flow dated from the Moon," Katherine Joy, a planetary scientist at the University of Manchester, UK, was quoted as saying. The findings, published in the journal Science, fill a vital gap in the Moon's geology, and will also help scientists to understand the history of other Solar System bodies, the report said. On 1 December 2020, Chang'e-5 lander descended on the volcanic Mons Rumker area in the Oceanus Procellarum region. It spent the next two days examining its surroundings and gathering the samples with the help of its camera, spectrometer, radar, scoop and a drill. The probe also withstood temperatures of over 100 degrees Celsius on the lunar surface. Oceanus Procellarum, a latin term which means 'Ocean of Storms' stretches 2,500 kilometres from north to south on the Moon's near side, It is thought to contain young solidified lava, an indication of relatively recent volcanism on the Moon, the report said. While no mission had landed at Oceanus Procellarum earlier, samples returned by the Apollo and Luna programmes had provided evidence of volcanic eruptions on the Moon stretching back more than 4 billion years, with the majority occurring between 3.8 billion and 3 billion years ago. The findings provide a vital data point about the history not just of the Moon, but of the wider Solar System too. By knowing the exact age of Oceanus Procellarum, and matching that to the number of its craters -- which accumulate over time as impacts occur -- scientists can infer that locations on other worlds, such as Mars, where similar numbers of craters are of a comparable age, the report said. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Congress party's fortunes in Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls next year, would not be revived despite all the "hype" generated around the Lakhimpur-Kheri incident, and the subsequent arrest of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, political strategist Prashant Kishor said on Friday. "People looking for a quick, spontaneous revival of GOP led opposition based on #LakhimpurKheri incident are setting themselves up for a big disappointment. Unfortunately there are no quick fix solutions to the deep-rooted problems and structural weakness of GOP," Kishor, who played an instrumental role in propelling Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress back to power in the West Bengal assembly polls held in March-April this year, wrote on Twitter. GOP stands for Grand Old Party -- a term often used for the Congress. The Congress, however, refused to comment on Kishor's remarks. Senior party leader and spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: "I do not comment on the remarks made by any consultant." Kishor's assertion has not gone down well within the Congress provided that both Priyanka Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi have raised the issue of Lakhimpur-Kheri, and even visited the families of the victims. The remarks have come amid "strong speculation" that Kishor would join the Congress and the party was deliberating on the issues raised by him. Even as no one in the party is averse to the idea of Kishor joining the Congress, the party leaders have said that he should not be given sweeping powers regarding elections. The Congress is preparing for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. In the politically crucial north Indian state, the Congress is pitted against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. London, Oct 8 : Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, whose digital investigative media outfit has been chronicling abuses and excesses of power in the Phillipines, especially in the present, and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, who is heading a free paper taking a critical view of the government for nearly a quarter-century now in face of all challenges, were on Friday conferred the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021. Announcing the 2021 laureates, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said that it chose Ressa, the founder and chief of Rappler, and Muratov, the founder of Russian daily Novaya Gazeta, for "their courageous fight for freedom of expression", and as "representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions". Stressing that "free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies, and war propaganda", it said it "is convinced that freedom of expression and freedom of information help ensure an informed public" and that these rights are "crucial prerequisites for democracy and protect against war and conflict". "The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov is intended to underscore the importance of protecting and defending these fundamental rights," the Committee said. It noted that without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time, and thus, this year's Nobel Peace Prize award "is therefore firmly anchored in the provisions of Alfred Nobel's will". The Committee said Ressa has used freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country, the Philippines. As a journalist and CEO of the Rapplers, which she co-founded in 2012, she has "shown herself to be a fearless defender of freedom of expression". Rappler has focused critical attention on the Rodrigo Duterte regime's "controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign", which has led to so many deaths that it "resembles a war waged against the country's own population". Ressa and Rappler have also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse, it added. The Committee said that Muratov has, for decades, defended freedom of speech in Russia "under increasingly challenging conditions". Muratov was one of the founders in 1993, and Editor-in-Chief since 1995, of the Novaya Gazeta, whose "fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media". "Since its start-up in 1993, Novaya Gazeta has published critical articles on subjects ranging from corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, electoral fraud and 'troll factories' to the use of Russian military forces both within and outside Russia," it said, despite its opponents having "responded with harassment, threats, violence, and murder" with six of its top journalists killed, including Anna Politkovskaya who wrote revealing articles on the war in Chechnya. However, "Muratov has refused to abandon the newspaper's independent policy. He has consistently defended the right of journalists to write anything they want about whatever they want, as long as they comply with the professional and ethical standards of journalism," the Committee said. Bengaluru: A health worker administers a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to a beneficiary, during COVID-19 mega vaccination drive at Chandra Layout in Bengaluru on Friday, September 17, 2021 (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News New Delhi, Oct 8 : To prevent the spread of Covid-19 infection and ensure smooth functioning in Delhi government offices, all its employees have been asked to get themselves vaccinated by October 15, said a Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) order on Friday, adding that the Union government may issue similar orders for Central government employees working in the city soon. "All government employees working in departments, autonomous bodies, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), local bodies and educational institutions under Government of National Capital territory of Delhi, including frontline workers, healthcare workers as well as teachers and staff working in schools as well as colleges must get vaccinated (at least first vaccine dose) by October 15 as per prevailing guidelines prescribed by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare," the order said. The above mentioned groups, who do not get vaccinated till the specified date will not be allowed to attend their offices and institutes from October 16 till they have received the first vaccination dose. "The said period of absence from duty will be treated as 'on leave' till the time of receiving the first dose of vaccine," the DDMA order added. This decision was taken in a meeting held on September 29. "Government of India may consider issuing similar directions in respect to its employees working in Delhi," the statement said. During September, the Directorate of Education (DoE) issued similar guidelines for teachers and other school staff, making it mandatory for them to get vaccinated by October 15. In the past one week, DDMA has issued orders on similar lines to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as schools, offices, institutes and religious places along with other public spaces have started opening up in a phased manner. With the onset of the festival season of Navratri, Dusshera and Durga Puja, celebrations have been allowed in the national capital with strict adherence to the Covid-19 guidelines. New Delhi, Oct 8 : Mental health is an essential component of holistic health and awareness on it will go a long way to address the stigma surrounding it, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Friday. Launching the Green Ribbon Initiative in the national capital, the Minister distributed green ribbons among the officials, urging them to spread the awareness on mental health across the country. "This green ribbon is a symbol of mental health. We need to spread more and more awareness about mental health in our society," he said. Emphasising that all types of health and wellbeing are essential for progress, he said that without healthy individuals, there will not be a healthy family and by extension a healthy society and a healthy nation. Ill health, either physical or mental, leads to poor productivity thereby adversely affecting the growth and productivity of nations, he stated. "Out of ten, three students suffer from mental health issues. 14 per cent of our children are suffering from mental health issues," said Mandaviya, underlining the need to sensitize parents, teachers and other stakeholders to spot and assist young citizens in need of help. "We need to the conversation on mental health issues first within the family and gradually include the school environment too. We need to train our teachers in such a manner that they will be able to easily detect mental health issues in children," said Union Health Minister. The event was organised by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in partnership with Hansraj College, Delhi to raise awareness on mental health as part of the activities being taken up during ongoing Mental Health Awareness Week, October 5-10. New Delhi, Oct 8 : Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar on Friday met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya here along with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and sought additional allocation of funds under the National Health Mission (NHM) for upgradation of Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in the state. "The Centre has responded positively to our request. We also discussed about strengthening the trauma care, secondary and the tertiary care in all districts across the state," Sudhakar said while interacting with the media after the meeting. He also said Mandaviya appreciated Karnataka's efforts in the Covid-19 management. The state has an inventory of over 50 lakh doses of vaccine and has achieved 82 per cent coverage in the first dose and 37 per cent coverage in the second dose among eligible population. The state government is awaiting Centre's guidelines on vaccine for children. The children's vaccine is in trial phase and the Centre will soon decide on the issue after discussing with the vaccine manufacturers. "We must not let our guard down against pandemic and state government has released guidelines for festival season. We are continuing to conduct about 1 lakh tests everyday and the positivity rate is less than 0.4 per cent. So there is no need to panic," said Sudhakar. Hyderabad, Oct 8 : The Telangana Legislature on Friday passed a resolution urging the Central government to conduct a caste wise census of backward classes while holding general census for 2021. Both houses of the state legislature passed the resolution unanimously. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who moved the resolution in the Assembly, said that in view of the uplift of poorer sections of the society, it was necessary to maintain accurate statistics for taking up various welfare measures for benefiting poorest of the poor. Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy announced passing of the resolution unanimously. The Legislative Council also unanimously adopted government resolution demanding the Central government to take up caste-wise census for backward classes in 2021. The resolution was passed three days after the Chief Minister gave an assurance in the Assembly. He had urged the Centre to enhance the reservation quota of Scheduled Castes and also undertake caste census. Rao had accepted the suggestion of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi for caste census and wondered why the Centre was not coming forward to undertake this. "All kinds of nonsense is spoken in the absence of statistics. Unless you have the facts and figures, you can't make the proper plans for upliftment of any section," he had said. Imphal, Oct 8 : With disagreement brewing between the ruling allies months ahead of the elections to the 60-seat Manipur Assembly, hectic political and administrative activities have begun in the BJP-ruled state with both political parties and Election Commission readying themselves for the electoral battle. Manipur is one of the four BJP-ruled states in the northeastern region comprising eight states. The others are Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, while the allies of the saffron party are ruling in the remaining northeastern states. BJP President J.P. Nadda will visit Manipur on Saturday and Sunday and hold a series of meetings with the party leaders and BJP allies -- the National People's Party (NPP) and the Naga People's Front (NPF). On October 2, Nadda had held a meeting with Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, state minister Biswajit Singh, and state party chief A. Sharda Devi in Delhi. Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national General Secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and party spokesperson Sambit Patra were also present in the meeting. According to BJP sources in Imphal, Singh and other state leaders have apprised the central leaders about the current political situation in the state. The sources told IANS that the central leaders also asked the Chief Minister and other party leaders to prepare a roadmap for winning the upcoming Assembly polls, which are expected to be held along with the elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa early next year. In a setback for the ruling alliance, the NPP led by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma recently announced that it would go alone in the polls, which is expected to be held in February-March before the end of the Manipur Assembly terms on March 19. Sangma had said that the Manipur Assembly elections are crucial for the NPP to emerge as a stronger political force and to expand the organisational base in the state. With four MLAs, NPP, the lone national party from the northeastern region, is one of the major allies of the BJP-led government in Manipur. Initially, all the four MLAs were made ministers but two of them were dropped from the council of ministry in September last year after the NPP and the BJP got engaged in an open squabble, which had to be sorted out by the Central leaders. Of the two NPP ministers, Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar Singh is holding the Finance, Excise, Taxation, Science and Technology, Economics and Statistics and Civil Aviation portfolios. Senior NPP leader L. Jayentakumar, former Education and Health Minister, said that there is no pre-poll alliance with any party. "The NPP would play a key role in the formation of the next government after the elections," Jayentakumar said. With four legislators, the NPF is yet to declare its stand for the upcoming polls, but people in the political circles believe that the party, which has strong organisational networks both in Manipur and Nagaland, might keep its alliance with the BJP. After 15 years, Congress was ousted by the BJP-led alliance in the 2017 Assembly polls, despite emerging as the single largest party with 28 seats. But the saffron party, which had bagged 21 seats, stitched together a coalition government with the support of four NPP MLAs, four NPF members, the lone Trinamool Congress MLA and an Independent member. Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh said that his party would again win majority in the next elections, just like in 2017. "Last time (2017) the then Governor Najma Heptulla refused to give the Congress a chance to form the government despite Congress emerging as the single largest party with 28 seats. "The voters in Manipur are not fools and they are conscious enough to elect their genuine leaders who deliver the goods with all sincerity," the former Chief Minister said. Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Thursday held a virtual meeting with the district election officers (DEOs) of all the 16 districts in Manipur. According to an EC official, Deputy Election Commissioner Nitesh Vyas discussed the status of poll preparedness and conducted a special summary revision of the electoral rolls in the state as well as the responsibilities of the DEOs in the successful conduct of the polls. The meeting also discussed polling stations' rationalisation, involvement of human resources, training of officials on proper functioning of EVMs and VVPATs, election materials, law and order, district specific issues, and enrolment of 18-21 age group voters, among others. The official said the EC has assured maximum support and assistance for the smooth conduct of the polls in Manipur. Manipur Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Agrawal, Additional CEO N. Praveen Singh and other senior officials were present in the meeting. (Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in) New Delhi, Oct 8 : Two Uzbek nationals were held with $1,14,600 (approx Rs 86 lakh at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on Friday, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) said. The accused, identified as Ummatov Sherzod and Sayfullaev Sardorh, were supposed to travel to Sharjah by Air Arabia airlines flight No.G9-466. During x-ray screening of their bags, CISF personnel noticed a suspicious image of currency notes inside their handbags. They were allowed to go for check-in and immigration formalities, but they were kept under close watch through electronic and physical surveillance. During the pre-embarkation security check, their bags were screened and selected for a physical check. "On physical checking of their bags, a huge amount of foreign currency - $19,200 from the hand baggage of Sherzod and $95,400 from the hand baggage of Sardor, or a total of $1,14,600, was found concealed under the clothes inside their bags," the CISF said. As on inquiry, the duo was not able to produce any valid documents for carrying a huge amount of foreign currency, both of them, and the recovered foreign currency, were then handed over to the Customs officials for further action in the matter. Kabul, Oct 8 : A suicide bomber has targeted a mosque in Afghanistan's Kunduz city during Friday prayers, killing at least 50 people, officials said. Images on social media showed bodies and debris inside the mosque, used by the minority Shia Muslim community, the BBC reported. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Sunni Muslim extremists, including the local Islamic State (IS) group, have targeted the Shia community because they consider them to be heretics. IS-K, the Afghan regional affiliate of IS that is violently opposed to the Taliban, has carried out several bombings recently, largely in the eastern part of the country. The deputy minister of information and culture, Zabiullah Mujahid, confirmed the incident. "Today in the afternoon, in the Khanabad Bandar area in the capital city of Kunduz, a blast targeted a mosque belonging to our Shia citizens, which martyred and wounded a number of our compatriots," he added. Zalmai Alokzai, a local businessman who rushed to a hospital to check whether doctors needed blood donations, described seeing chaotic scenes. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on October 5 in the case of two groups based in the Northeast and West Bengal. A total of 15 premises were covered in the search action, which was spread across Kolkata, Guwahati, Rangia, Shillong, and Patna. One of the groups is engaged in the business of cement manufacturing. During the search action, it was found that this group generated unaccounted income by indulging in out-of-books sales and booking bogus expenses. This unaccounted income is laundered back into the business through shell companies. Evidences found during the search revealed that many paper companies are run by the group to provide accommodation entries to its flagship concern, the I-T Department said in a statement. These paper companies were found to be non-existent at their given addresses, it added. During the search, incriminating evidence indicating bogus unsecured loans, bogus commission paid, bogus share premium received through shell companies etc was also found. These evidences indicate that an amount of more than Rs 50 crore may be unaccounted, it said. The group was also found to be wrongly showing tribal individuals as creditors, and such amounts being to the tune of around Rs 38 crore. Further, details of certain offshore entities/ bank accounts were found during the search, which are apparently not declared in the relevant returns of income. The other group is actively engaged in executing railway contracts in Assam, Mizoram and other parts of the northeast. During the search action, incriminating documents, loose sheets and digital evidences were seized, indicating undisclosed investments in land and properties. Large number of sale deeds pertaining to land and properties have been found, the valuation whereof could be in excess of Rs 110 crore. During the search, corroborative evidence could not be produced to explain the source of acquisition of these assets. Further, documents containing details of cash transactions amounting to more than Rs 13 crore in the sale of properties have been found. These search and seizure actions resulted in detection of undisclosed income in excess of Rs 250 crore. Unaccounted cash of more than Rs 51 lakh has been seized. Nine bank lockers have been put under prohibitory orders and are yet to be operated. Further investigations are in progress. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its unhappiness over a tweet published by a media organisation falsely claiming that Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana met the kin of victims of Lakhmipur Kheri violence. He said he was sitting inside the courtroom, and how it is possible to get to Lucknow. A bench headed by the Chief Justice and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, terming the tweet unfortunate, said it respects the media and its independence but this is "not at all fair". It emphasised that media should verify facts before putting out any information, adding: "We are sorry to observe that somebody is exceeding the limit of freedom of speech". The bench said these are all false representations. A lawyer raised the issue during the hearing of a PIL in connection with Lakhimpur Kheri violence. He submitted that on Thursday, a media organisation had posted a tweet claiming the CJI had met the kin of the victims. At this, the Chief Justice said: "They must have some sense because I was sitting in the court. How can I go to Lucknow and visit the family." Senior advocate Harish Salve, who representing the Uttar Pradesh government, said all of them are at the receiving end due to irresponsible tweets. He added, "I have seen some about myself also. Justice Kohli said: "We respect the media and their independence... but this is not the way to cross it. This is not at all fair." The Chief Justice said it is part and parcel of public life and in public life "we have to receive". "Leave it there. We should not bother about these things," he said. During the hearing, the top court said it is not satisfied with the action of the Uttar Pradesh government in connection with its probe in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, where eight persons were killed on October 3. The top court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on October 20. Patna, Oct 8 : The Bihar Vigilance Bureau conducted raids in the house and office of an executive engineer on Friday and seized assets worth Rs 2.26 crore. The engineer Madan Kumar is deployed in the state government's Building Construction Department. An FIR has been registered against him under relevant sections of the Disproportionate Assets act. Two separate vigilance teams bureau raided his residence at Gola road and office in Patliputra colony. This was the second raid of the Vigilance Bureau in the last three days. Earlier on Tuesday, it raided the office and residence of Kauntey Kumar and seized half kg gold, one kg silver, Rs 15.5 lakh in cash, documents of properties, fixed deposits and 8 passbookss. "The investigations of both the cases are currently underway. The officers have been asked to file replies. We have asked them to provide other sources of earning apart from their earnings through government jobs," a Vigilance Bureau official said. Udupi : , Oct 8 (IANS) Karnataka Education Minister B.C. Nagesh on Friday said that the primary schools in the state would be started after Dasara festivities as the Covid-19 cases are coming down drastically. "Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is also keen on opening primary schools. A meeting will be conducted soon with the expert committee in this regard and hopefully, we will be able to begin classes from the very next day of the Dasara festival," he said. "By the grace of God, Corona cases are coming down in the state. Positivity rate is very low and experts are suggesting that the schools could be open for students of Classes 1 to 5," he added. Many districts in the state are not recording a single case of Covid-19, Nagesh noted. However, he clarified that the government has not yet made mandatory for the children to attend classes in schools. "The options of online and offline classes will be given to them. We will not force parents to send their children to schools," he said. The Minister said that staff of government schools have been directed to start the 'Midday meal' programme from the very next day after the Dasara festival. Karnataka government has allowed theatres to operate with 100 per cent audience seating capacity and also allowed pubs to function. Night curfew's duration has been reduced following the low Covid positivity rate in the state. Even after the Ganesh festival, there has been no hike in the number of Covid cases in the state. Experts are saying that the authorities must be vigilant during Navratri festive season and must ensure strict adherence to Covid guidelines until Diwali. The state government has continued strict restrictions at the border check posts with neighbouring Kerala and Maharashtra. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mumbai, Oct 8 : A Superintendent of Police-rank officer with the Narcotics Control Bureau has been arrested for allegedly molesting a 25-year-old woman in an train in Maharashtra, a railway police official said on Friday. The accused, identified as Dinesh Chavan, 34, working for the NCB Mumbai, who was nabbed by the Railway Police at Parli in Beed district. Railway Police Commissioner Quaiser Khalid said that the accused was travelling on the same train as the victim after attending a court case in Hyderabad. "In her complaint, she (victim) explains the incident as him touching her in an immodest way, removing her undergarment from her bag and sniffing them, and placed on his chest that disturbed her," said Khalid in a statement on social media. The victim raised her voice for help, waking up the other passengers, who caught hold of Chavan and handed him over to the GRP who arrested him, while the woman continued with her onward journey to Pune. The GRP have registered a case under various sections of Indian Penal Code pertaining to sexual harassment, lewd words and gestures intended to insult the modesty of a woman, etc and further investigations are on. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Congress has stepped up its attack on the government for not sacking MoS Home Ajay Mishra Teni after his alleged involvement in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident while his son is said to be absconding and not turning up for questioning. Addressing a press conference Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "Prime Minister and UP Chief Minister are standing with the criminals." The Congress leader provided details of the case in which Mishra's acquittal in a murder case was challenged in the Allahabad High Court and the judgement is reserved since 2018. Surjewala said, "I am saying with full responsibility that the conduct of the court is in doubt in this matter as how can a judge remember the arguments after three years." The Congress asked if the same treatment will be meted out to persons who have committed similar crimes and are absconding as the Supreme Court has pointed out in the case on the non-arrest of Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra. The bench queried the Uttar Pradesh government "Is this the way you treat the accused in other cases as well?...Sending notice". The bench told Harish Salve, "When there is a serious allegation of murder and gunshot injury, how the accused in other parts of the country are treated. Please tell us." The bench queried senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, that has the state government made a request to give the case to the CBI? The Police in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri on Friday issued a fresh notice to Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, asking him to appear before them on October 9 to record his statement. The notice said that Ashish Mishra was asked to appear before the police on Friday but he failed to do so. This time, the notice also warns Ashish Mishra that if he fails to appear on Saturday, necessary legal action would be initiated against him. The second notice was issued after the state government told the Supreme Court that Mishra would appear before the police on Saturday. Hyderabad, Oct 8 : Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao's portrait was unveiled in the Telangana Assembly on Friday. The portrait was unveiled by Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy, in the presence of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and other leaders. The portrait has been installed as part of the birth centenary celebrations of the former Prime Minister organised by the Telangana government. Legislative Council's protem Chairman Bhoopal Reddy, Deputy Speaker Padma Rao, Legislative Affairs Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy, Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and P.V. Narasimha Rao Centenary Celebration Committee Chairman K. Keshava Rao were also present. Narasimha Rao's daughter and Legislative Council member Vani Devi and other family members of the former Prime Minister attended the event. The year-long birth centenary celebrations ended on June 28. The same day a bronze statue of the late leader was installed on Necklace Road, which has been renamed as PV Marg. It is one of the seven bronze statues of Rao planned to be installed as part of centenary celebrations. The Telangana government has already requested the Centre to install a statue and a portrait of Narasimha Rao in Parliament and also rename Hyderabad Central University as Narasimha Rao Central University. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) organised the celebrations to recognize the services rendered by Narasimha Rao, who hailed from Telangana. Narasimha Rao was born on June 28, 1921 in Vangara village in Karimnagar district of Telangana. He served as the Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996. India's first and only Telugu Prime Minister so far, he also had the distinction of being the first Prime Minister outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to complete a full five-year term. Lakhimpur Kheri : , Oct 8 (IANS) Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday proceeded on indefinite fast in support of his demand for action against Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra and main accused in Sunday's violence in which nine persons, including four farmers, were killed. Sidhu, who visited home of local journalist Raman Kashyap, who was among the killed, said that he wanted to join the farmers' protest. He said that his fast would continue until the accused were arrested. Chennai, Oct : Tamil Nadu will go for the second phase of rural local body elections on Saturday. The first phase of polls in nine districts was held on October 6 and the counting of votes will take place on October 12. The rural local body polls were held last in 2011. The first phase of the polls were peaceful except for some minor scuffles between the two major Dravidian parties, AIADMK and DMK. People of Amundi panchayat in Katpadi had boycotted the polls after the panchayat President's post, which was under general category was converted to SC (woman), pointing out that there were only 2 SC women and one SC man in the village and that reserving the post for SC (woman) was unscientific. Police are on high alert for the second phase of polls as the killings and beheadings at Tirunelveli and Dindigul districts of south Tamil Nadu had created a fear among the people. The administration of Tirunelveli where the polls are being held during the second phase have deployed a heavy police contingent. Panaji, Oct 8 : After 10 years of efforts by the previous governors and state governments to resist efforts to bring the Raj Bhavan under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai on Friday, threw open the doors of the gubernatorial institution to RTI queries. The announcement was made by Pillai at a public function in Raj Bhavan in presence of Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, while also refusing to blame the past Governors for not taking such a decision earlier. "I would like to publicly declare my policy that Governors are bound to furnish information to the people and people are supreme," the Governor said. "I do not want to blame anybody, but hereafter RTI with respect to Raj Bhavan will be available for all the citizens," he further said. The Raj Bhavan has been at the Centre of a controversy for nearly a decade now, over its refusal to acknowledge itself as a "public authority", ever since the Goa State Information Commission passed an order in 2011, stating that the institution should share information under the RTI act, because it was a "public authority". Following the Commission's order, which was passed while hearing a petition by local activist Aires Rodrigues, the Raj Bhavan had appealed in the Bombay High Court of Goa challenging the contents of the order. In the same year, 2011, the High Court also upheld the order of the Commission, following which the Raj Bhavan had appealed in the Supreme Court. Earlier in his speech, Pillai had extolled the virtues of Mahatma Gandhi in his speech, especially the prism with which the Father of the Nation viewed the people of a country as more powerful in a democracy than an elected representative or one holding a constitutional post like a Governor. "The basis of democracy is that people are supreme rather than the Governor, Chief Minister, or opposition leader... all are expected to serve the people. They are not the boss of the people," Pillai said. Guwahati, Oct 8 : Amid widespread protests, the Adani Guwahati International Airport Limited (AGIAL) on Friday took over the management, development and operation of the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport in Guwahati, the second international airport in the northeast after Imphal, officials said. Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said that the LGBI Airport was on Friday formally handed over to AGIAL led by business tycoon Gautam Adani in a restricted ceremony. Airport director Ramesh Kumar handed over a symbolic key to Utpal Baruah, who has been appointed Chief Airport Officer by the AGIAL. The AAI tweeted: "Adani Guwahati International Airport Ltd (AGIAL) today took over operations, management and development of AAI's Guwahati airport through PPP mode for a lease period of 50 years." The Adani Group tweeted: "We are delighted to announce that the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport is now a 'Gateway To Goodness'. We are privileged to be at your service and welcome all passengers to our airport in Guwahati." The opposition Congress, local party Assam Jatiya Parishad, and AAI employees' unions have been protesting against the handing over of the airport to the private party. During the March-April elections to the Assam assembly, the issue had dominated political campaigns. Hundreds of people from various walks of life had earlier launched a signature campaign demanding the cancellation of the leasing out of the vital airport to the private company. AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi said that the LGBI Airport is one of the most profit-making airports in India and the government's claim of privatising it for the benefit of the passengers is not justified. On August 9, the AGIAL had began its 'Observation Period' at the LGBI Airport as part of its mandate to develop and modernise northeast India's main airport. In 2018, the Central government had leased out six AAI airports -- Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru -- for operation, management and development under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. The Adani Group had emerged as the successful bidder for all the six airports. "The Centre took the decision to enhance the revenue of the AAI and augment the economic development in these areas in terms of job creation and related infrastructure," an AAI official told IANS. Currently, there are 15 airports in the northeast region -- in Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur, Lilalabari and Rupsi (Assam), Tezu and Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Agartala (Tripura), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalaya), Dimapur (Nagaland), Lengpui (Mizoram), and Pakyong (Sikkim). Kathmandu, Oct 8 : Nepal has signed an MoU with India to prepare a detailed project report for the proposed $3.15 billion railway line linking Kathmandu with the Indian border town of Raxaul, a statement said on Friday. This proposed rail line is seen as counter to China's bid to expand the railway upto Kathmandu. The broad-gauge line will give the Nepali capital a direct connection with the Indian railway network, enabling non-stop train travel to all Indian cities. Both sides signed the SOPs for start of passenger train services on the Jaynagar-Kurtha section and the MoU for final location survey of the proposed broad gauge railway line between Raxaul and Kathmandu, according to the statement issued by the Indian Embassy here. The agreements were signed on Thursday during the Fifth Joint Working Group and the 7th Project Steering Committee meetings in New Delhi on October 6-7, to review implementation of ongoing cross-border railway links and overall bilateral cooperation in the railway sector. On the Indian side, the JWG was led by the Railways Ministry's Executive Director, Traffic Transportation-Freight, Dr Manoj Singh, and the PSC by the External Affairs Ministry's Joint Secretary, DPA-III, Anurag Bhushan, and the Nepali side was led by Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Keshab Kumar Sharma, in both meetings. On March 9, the Nepali Cabinet had given an in-principle approval to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport to sign an MoU with India to create a plan. The Konkan Railways Corporation has already prepared a pre-feasibility study of the proposed broad-gauge railway project. The train link to Raxaul, which will be 136 to 198 km long, is seen as New Delhi's attempt to counter Chinese influence in Nepal. According to the understanding, India will finish the detailed project report within 18 months of the commencement of the agreement, and Nepal will facilitate the process. The Indian government will bear the cost of preparing it. Once this railway is constructed, goods can be transported directly to Kathmandu from India and third countries. Currently, shipments originating overseas are brought to the inland container depot in Birgunj by rail and transferred to Kathmandu and other locations by road. The SOPs of Jaynagar-Kurtha railway provide the technical aspects of running passenger trains on the new section and will serve as a guiding document for early start of rail services in the upcoming cross-border railway links with Nepal. This construction of the Jaynagar-Kurtha railway line was funded by India. Besides reaching out to these two understandings and agreements, both sides discussed the ongoing works of Jaynagar-Bijalpura-Bardibas, and Jogbani-Biratnagar broad gauge railway lines between India and Nepal, being developed with grant assistance from the Indian government. Nepal and India are mulling at least five different cross-border railway lines between the two countries. "The technical preparedness of the completed 34-km-long section of the railway line, from Jaynagar (India) to Kurtha (Nepal) for operationalisation of passenger train services was also reviewed. Nepali side also informed that necessary regulatory framework will be put in place to facilitate early operationalisation. For Kurtha to Bilajpura (17.25 km) section of the railway line, Nepal assured to provide necessary facilitation for completion of the work at the earliest," the statement added. Both sides also agreed to expedite the work on completion of the 18.6-km-long Jogbani-Biratnagar rail link, and its early operationalisation. During then Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli's state visit to India in April 2018, the two neighbours had agreed to construct a new electrified rail line with Indian financial support connecting Raxaul and Kathmandu. As per the joint statement issued at that time, the objective of constructing the railway is to expand connectivity to enhance people-to-people linkages and promote economic growth and development. In August 2018, the two sides exchanged an MoU to carry out a preliminary engineering-cum-traffic survey of the broad-gauge line. India had designated Konkan Railway Corporation to undertake the study. As per the survey report, construction of the proposed railway will need an investment of $2.66 to $3.15 billion, in addition to land acquisition, taxes on imports of various technical and other materials. The Indian side has proposed to build four lines to connect Raxaul with Kathmandu. The construction is expected to take five years after clearance of the land from the Nepal side. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre's response on a plea seeking directions to develop a mechanism to examine medical bills or complaints of patients, who were over-charged by private hospitals amid the Covid-19 pandemic. A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, Vikram Nath, and B.V. Nagarathna noted that the matter raised is in the petition is important. After hearing arguments in the matter, the bench issued notice on the petition. It said direction has been sought to set up a mechanism by Central government to scrutinise bills of patients who believe they have been over-charged. The petitioner had argued that amid Covid, patients had to take avail medical facilities of private hospitals, as the public healthcare infrastructure was burdened. The bench said: "This concerns a wide strata of society. Issue notice, returnable after 4 weeks." The plea, which was filed under Article 32, relied upon the instance, where Pune Municipal Corporation had issued notice to hospitals for over-charging patients, who have complained of being over-charged. The petitioner had made Union of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state governments, and the Cabinet Secretary as respondents in the plea. However, the bench asked him to amend the plea to delete the Cabinet Secretary as a respondent. The plea contended that there were instances of over-charging and patients, who were helpless in such a scenario, had to approach local bodies, which issued notice to private hospitals for over-charging patients. New Delhi, Oct 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to fare better in terms of satisfaction of work, according to the ABP-CVoter-IANS State of States 2021 tracker. Across the country, Modi got support of 66.4 per cent of the respondents, with 40.3 per cent people 'very much satisfied' with his work and 26.1 per cent 'satisfied to some extent' despite a decline in popularity ratings during the devastating second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, 30.6 per cent people are 'not satisfied' at all with the performance of Modi. Three per cent of the participants chose the 'Don't know/Can't say' category. Notably, Manipur backed the PM with highest percent of support recording 51.2 per cent. Next to the northeastern state, Uttarakhand stands with 47 per cent. One of the poll-bound states -- Uttar Pradesh, has also given a thumbs up to Modi with 43.3 per cent support. In Goa, 35.8 per cent people are very much satisfied with Modi while 39 per cent people are satisfied to some extent. According to the latest survey, Punjab recorded the least popularity of PM Modi registering 15 per cent. In Punjab, 18.2 per cent people are satisfied to some extent with the Modi government while a majority of 58.6 per cent people are challenging his popularity, stating they are not at all satisfied with his work. After Punjab, 33.2 per cent participants of Uttar Pradesh recorded not at all satisfied with Modi's work. However, 2.7 per cent people of the largest populated state refrained from registering their opinion. In all-India level, 3 per cent people refrained from commenting on Modi's performance. Gurugram, Oct 8 : Two brothers were allegedly attacked by a group of 5-6 unidentified miscreants over a contractual dispute in the Pataudi area of Gurugram on Friday morning, the police said. Police said during the attack one of the accused shot at the two brothers in which one youth received a bullet injury in his leg while his brother received two gunshot wounds in his leg and chest and was later declared dead by the doctors. The complainant Mahender of Jodi Sapka village of Pataudi stated in his police complaint that he along with his brother Ajit and a few labourers from his hotel were sitting inside the hotel and talking to each other. "During this, an unknown man came to us and threatened us without any reason. Later, after half an hour around 5-6 unknown miscreants came in and threatened us with dire consequences due to a contract with a private firm, later one of the accused pulled out his gun and shot at me and my brother Ajit and fled from the spot," the complainant told the police. The victims were rushed to a private hospital by the hotel labourers where Ajit was declared dead by the doctors. "Following a complaint given by the victim a case of murder including other relevant sections of the IPC was registered against unknown culprits at Pataudi police station. The police is scanning the CCTV footage of the incident spot to develop an identity of the criminals," said a police official. Hyderabad, Oct 8 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday appealed to the opposition parties not to curse the state for the sake of politics. Speaking in the State Legislative Assembly, he said while opposition parties were free to speak for politics and criticise the government for its mistakes, they should avoid belittling the state. Claiming that no other state in the country was implementing the kind of welfare schemes launched by Telangana, he said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was on course to build Telangana envisioned during the movement for separate state. KCR reiterated that during last seven years Telangana not only overcame many problems including shortage of electricity, drinking water and irrigation facilities but also became one of the top contributors to the country's GDP. He has slammed the BJP leaders for their statements that the Centre is providing funds to the state. "It's Telangana which is giving funds to the Centre and what is getting from the Centre is very less compared to its contribution," he said. "When the Centre is not giving funds where is the question of diversion," he asked referring to allegations by BJP leaders that the TRS government is diverting funds received from the Centre. He pointed out that Telangana's per capita income of Rs 2.37 lakh is double than the average per capita income in the country. He recalled that the people of Telangana were ridiculed in undivided Andhra Pradesh as someone who had no knowledge of agriculture but the same Telangana today has much higher per capita income compared to Rs 1.70 lakh of Andhra Pradesh. KCR said that once dry lands of Telangana has today transformed into lush green with abundant availability of water due to completion of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation and other projects and round-the-clock electricity supply. He said unlike in the past when people used to migrate from Telangana to other states for employment, it is now attracting workers from all over the country. He claimed that 15 lakh workers from other parts of the country are working in Telangana. The chief minister districts like Mahabubnagar which used to witness large-scale migration of agriculture labourers is today getting migrant labourers from Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) and other places. He reeled out the figures to compare the achievements of his government compared to the previous Congress governments in undivided Andhra Pradesh. The chief minister also took exception to Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi's heaping praise on former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. KCR reminded Owaisi that it was also during Rajasekhara Reddy's time that Telangana suffered a lot. "He did injustice to Telangana in all aspects including water and funds. If such a man is praised in Telangana Legislature, it surprise us," he said. The chief minister said it was during YSR's regime that Wakf land belonging to Dargah Hussah Shah Wali was given to Lanco company. He alleged that other Wakf properties were also encroached and put up for sale but he along with Muslim leaders foiled the attempts. Jaipur, Oct 8 : Amid the ongoing war of words and differences in Congress, former Rajasthan deputy chief minister and ex-state unit chief Sachin Pilot drove the car from helipad with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot seated next to him, after landing from a helicopter in which he flew along with Gehlot. The two leaders were also accompanied during their flight by Rajasthan congress president Govind Singh Dotasara and Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken. They had gone to attend nomination filing programmes in Dhariawad and Vallabh Nagar. It was interesting to see two "rival" leaders sharing chopper and car after triggering a war of words a few days back. Last week, Gehlot had indirectly attacked his "rival camp", saying, "I am here for 15-20 years, and will return to power in the next term too. Nothing will happen to me now. If you want to be sad, be sad... it's not in my hands," he said on Saturday while inaugurating the Rajasthan government's public outreach programme, Prashahan Gaon/Sheheron ke Sang. The statement supposedly was a comment on the other faction being headed by Pilot. On Thursday, Pilot also made an indirect remark, saying: "I will stay here for 50 years. I am not going anywhere and will complete all the pending work." He was speaking at a book release function here. This statement is being linked to the remark made by Gehlot in the past. Earlier, he also said that those in power should not become arrogant. The statement indirectly was linked to Gehlot although he had said this in the context of Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri incident. Also, on Friday, while Gehlot, Dotasara and Maken tweeted the picture of the four leaders flying in the helicopter together, Pilot simply re-tweeted the picture shared by Maken which made it clear that differences between two camps are still simmering. Both Pilot and Gehlot also did not share any picture of each other while addressing election gatherings for by-polls which are scheduled to be held on October 30 in Dhariawad and Vallabh Nagar. New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Supreme Court on Friday said it is "not satisfied with the action taken by the state (Uttar Pradesh)" in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, adding that the top court expects "responsible government, system and police". The apex court also observed that handing over the case to the CBI was not the solution. At the outset, a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana said these are very serious charges and the law should take its course against all the accused. He said there are statements made by the eyewitnesses, when the Uttar Pradesh government counsel submitted the case is possibly Section 302. He added the court expects responsible government, system and police, and the accused have to be treated as same way, as they are treated in other cases. The top court was hearing a PIL registered on the basis of letter by two advocates seeking action and CBI probe into the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. The bench also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said: "We are not satisfied with the action taken by the state." Representing the Uttar Pradesh government, senior advocate Harish Salve contended that Ashish Mishra who allegedly mowed down protesting farmers had been asked to appear by Saturday 11 a.m. He added that since the postmortem did not show any bullet injury, therefore a notice under Section 160 CrPC was sent. Salve said: "But the manner in which car was driven and if allegations are true, there is a case of murder". On the non-arrest of Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra, the bench queried Salve, "Is this the way you treat the accused in other cases as well... Sending notice." The bench told Salve: "When there is a serious allegation of murder and gunshot injury, how the accused in other parts of the country are treated. Please tell us." The bench further queried Salve if the state government has made a request to give the case to the CBI to which he replied that it is entirely in their hands. However, the bench told Salve: "CBI is also not a solution and you know the reason why... You find out better mode." Salve said all the shortfalls would be addressed within two days. Salve said the case is extremely serious. The bench replied: "If it is an extremely serious case that's not how things are taking place. It is only in words and not in action." He admitted before the top court that what has been done by the state is not satisfactory and remedial action will be taken soon, and urged the bench to put the matter for hearing immediately after the Dussehra vacation. The top court also took a strong objection to SIT formed in the matter, which comprises local officials. The bench said it may not be required to keep the SIT anymore, and emphasized that they should not destroy evidence or do anything negative. The top court told Salve that it will take up the matter after Dussehra vacation, 'but that does not mean the state holds its hands', and insisted that the state must take immediate steps. Justice Kant said: "You have to inspire confidence". Salve said, "What they have done isn't satisfactory." The bench said: "Because of the sensitivity of the issue, the state should understand, we aren't saying anything more". The apex court has listed the matter for further hearing on October 20. On Thursday, the top court had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a status report indicating who are the accused named in the FIR filed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and whether they have been arrested or not. On October 3, nine persons, including four farmers, were killed in the violence that had erupted during a farmers' protest in Lakhimpur Kheri. Srinagar, Oct 8 : One terrorist was killed and another escaped in an encounter between the terrorists and the Jammu and Kashmir police in Srinagar on Friday evening, officials said. Police said the terrorists fired at a police team drawing a swift retaliation in which one terrorist was neutralised and another escaped from the spot. Police have recovered arms and ammunition and started a search operation. "Terrorists fired upon Srinagar Police team. Police also retaliated. During ensuing chance encounter, one terrorist got neutralised but one escaped. Arms and ammunition recovered. Identification being ascertained," the police said. New Delhi, Oct 8 : When speculation was rife about an imminent takeover of the ailing Air India by a Tata Sons SPV, a wit had commented: "For the Tatas, Tata doesn't mean goodbye." Truly, the carrier that Jehangir (J.R.D.) Tata launched as Tata Airlines on October 15, 1932, which rose to become one of the leading airlines of the world named Air India International, was nationalised in 1953, and then got reduced to an ailing behemoth by successive governments after 1977, is finally back home, a year shy of its 90th anniversary. Young Jehangir was bitten by the flying bug in his childhood, thanks to Louis Bleriot, the French aviator who was the first to fly across the English Channel in 1909. The pioneering pilot knew Jehangir's father, R.D. Tata, well, and their children too became good friends. And whenever Jehangir would spend his summer holidays at a beach resort in northern France where his father's friend had a home, he would see Bleriot's chief pilot occasionally land a plane on the beach. He even took a joy ride on one of these flights. These experiences fired Jehangir's imagination, but he had to wait till he was 24, when a flying club opened in Bombay and could give him an aviator's licence -- he was the first Indian to get one in India -- on February 10, 1929. In the following year, the Aga Khan announced a cash prize of 500 pounds sterling for an Indian who would fly solo between England and India. Jehangir completed the flight between Karachi and London, but not before another pilot, Aspy Engineer, flew into Karachi from London. Engineer won the prize, was recruited to the Royal Indian Air Force, and went on to become independent India's second Chief of Air Staff, succeeding Air Chief Marshal Subroto Mukherjee. The prize may have eluded Jehangir, but he made history on October 15, 1932, when, flying from Karachi at a 'dazzling' 100 miles an hour, he landed in Bombay via Ahmedabad in a wood-and-fabric, second-hand two-seater de Havilland Puss Moth loaded with air mail. The Karachi-Bombay route was important because the Imperial Airways flight from London terminated in Karachi. There was clearly a business opportunity here, for the mail from the imperial metropolis had to reach the Jewel in the Crown. The final destination of the flight was Madras via Bellary. It was completed by Neville Vintcent, a former Royal Air Force pilot who had convinced the then Chairman of Tata Sons, Sir Dorabji Tata, who was quite reluctant at first, to invest the Rs 200,000 that Jehangir required to set up the airline. Vintcent became the first chief pilot and manager of Tata Airlines, which had two other licensed pilots -- Jehangir Tata and Homi Bharucha. Recalling those days, J.R.D. Tata said: "We had no aids whatsoever on the ground or in the air, no radio, no navigational or landing guides of any kind. In fact, we did not even have an aerodrome in Bombay. We used a mud flat at Juhu, which was then a fishing village-cum-beach resort near the city. The sea was below what we called our airfield, and during the monsoon the runway was below the sea! So, we had to pack up each year, lock, stock and barrel -- two planes, three pilots and three mechanics -- and transfer ourselves to Poona, where we were allowed to use a maidan as an aerodrome, appropriately under the shadow of the Yerwada Jail!" The jail, incidentally, was where the British Raj had imprisoned Mahatma Gandhi in 1932-33. Despite working in such primitive conditions, within a year, Jehangir was able to establish Tata Airlines as the quality benchmark of the country's fledgling aviation sector. The annual report of the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA) for 1933-34 stated: "As an example of how an airmail service should be run, we commend the efficiency of Tata Services -- even during the most difficult monsoon months when rainstorms increased the perils of the Western Ghat portion of the route, no mail from Madras or Bombay missed the connection at Karachi, nor was the mail delivered late on a single occasion at Madras." Jehangir launched Air India International in 1948, at a time when flying was considered a luxury meant only for the rich. To raise capital for his aviation company, as the scholar N. Benjamin points out, he wrote letters to the rulers of Bikaner, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jamnagar, Jammu and Kashmir, Travancore and other, and also sent them share application forms. Their response was positive and soon, civil aviation took wing in the country under the stewardship of J.R.D. Tata. Even Jawaharlal Nehru, who was not a great fan of private enterprise, wrote to Tata: "I have had plenty of information from various sources, both official and non-official, about the running of your air service to Europe. All accounts agree in speaking well of it and praising it for its general efficiency. Congratulations!" It is this legacy, nurtured in challenging circumstances, that has come back to where it rightfully belongs. Tata Sons will now have to carry the dual burden of carrying forward the legacy and measuring up to the expectations of the nation. (Sourish Bhattacharyya can be contacted at sourish.b@ians.in) New Delhi, Oct 8 : The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice on a plea seeking direction to the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to release the question paper and answer key for the candidates for NEET-PG 2021. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioners, contended before a bench headed by justice D.Y. Chandrachud that this is a very serious issue, and elaborated that there are 16 lakh under-graduates who appear for NEET-UG, while only about 1.75 lakh are doctors who can take the NEET-PG. "We are not allowed to keep the question papers. We are not shown the answer sheets. The answer key is not uploaded. We have no idea how many questions were right, how many were wrong," he argued. The plea argued that the authorities withholding this information from the candidates are arbitrary and legally flawed, and as a consequence they are not left with any means to compare their responses with the answer key. The bench, also comprising justice B.V. Nagarathna, noted that the question bank for PG is very limited, while for UG it is very large and disclosing it would affect the sanctity of the examination. Justice Nagarathna added, "Then there will also be a debate on whether an answer is correct and there will be a challenge to that if the answer key is uploaded." Sankaranarayanan, however, argued that this should not absolve the authorities from maintaining some transparency in the process and ensuring a method for revaluation. After hearing the arguments in the matter, the bench said: "Let us issue a notice and at least see what the other side has to say." Amaravati, Oct 8 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy's cousins and businessmen Y.S. Anil Reddy and Y.S. Sunil Reddy on Friday denied involvement in the recent seizure of drugs at Mundra Port in Gujarat. Stating they have no connection whatsoever with the seizure of drugs, they threatened to initiate legal action against those making baseless allegations against them. The duo clarified that they are not even aligned with any political party. Neither any relevant information was supplied to substantiate these allegations, nor any prior notice was issued, said the statement. Anil Reddy and his brother Sunil Reddy started Reddy Global Industries in 1999, and since then, their business has grown into a conglomeration of enterprises spread across Africa, with a foray into the beverages, pharmaceutical and mining sector. They said they have been conducting their businesses in a legitimate manner and have maintained an unblemished record of ethical performance, while complying with all domestic laws, rules and regulations. Some politicians have sought to hurl certain false and egregious allegations against them. Over the past few days, Telugu Desam Party leaders including Pattabiram Ram and Varla Ramaiah have made certain 'wild allegations'. They said the allegations carried by several other news channels including social media websites have created a deep and pernicious impact on their reputation. New Delhi/Mumbai, Oct 9 : When was the last time you actually walked along a river? Or at least know of someone who has trudged along the entire length of any river? Here is your chance to know about one such fantastic effort by an entrepreneur-turned-environmentalist Siddharth Agarwal, who waled the entire length of Ganga river all the way from where it meets the Bay of Bengal to Gangotri and Gaumukh. Directed by Shridhar Sudhir, the film, 'Moving Upstream', documenting the voices and concerns of the people living along the Ganga will be a prominent film at the All Living Things - Environmental Film Festival (ALT-EFF), a film festival dedicated to films about the environment. The 2021 edition of ALT-EFF kickstarts on Saturday on a virtual platform due to the pandemic. This year the festival has 44 films from 31 countries being screened -- all themed around topics of environment, conservation, and climate change. "ALT-EFF uses this medium to make the audience understand the climate crisis from an embodied understanding. The films are carefully selected and in its second year, the festival brings some unlikely narratives to the fore. The selections for each of these films exemplify the tenacity, commitment, and hope of the creative community, as the climate emergency looms over us," the organisers said. Apart from 'Moving Upstream', two other most talked about films 'Moti Bagh' and 'Lakshmanrekha' that would be screened during the film festival talk about the environmental and climate change related crisis faced by farmers combined with migration and other social issues and the solutions they think of. Bringing a story from Uttarakhand, Moti Bagh, directed by Nirmal Chander Dandriyal, revolves around the story of Vidyadutt Sharma, a farmer, activist, and a poet, who chronicles the changing landscape in verses of resistance. Nominated for Oscars in 2019, the film documents how, against the forces of migration, Sharma and Ram Singh, his Nepali farmhand, plough the fields to keep a dream called Moti Bagh alive. Helmed by Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl, Lakshmanrekha is a story of a man, Laxman Singh, who turned 58 drought-hit villages into an oasis in Rajasthan. The film talks about the movement and how awareness about water conservation helped the poor villagers with the help of traditional wisdom. The viewers can watch these films by registering on the ALT-EFF website. Founding member and the festival director, Kunal Khanna said, "At ALT-EFF, we always believed in sharing the narratives that are interesting and raise potent questions about the climate crisis. It is a celebration of unlikely narratives that ultimately raise our awareness and consciousness about the current state of the environment. "Through films as a medium, our aim is to make a difference in the community by presenting films that spark a conversation on the environmental crisis and the ways we can change our situation." The festival has roped in a great jury including internationally acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Michael Snyder and six-time national award-winning filmmakers, Anand Patwardhan, and Amin Hajee. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Patna, Oct 9 : Incidents of violence and booth capturing were reported on Friday in Bihar during the third phase of Panchayat elections, voting for which was held in 35 districts. An incident of booth capturing took place at Sohraja village in the Naxal-affected Jamui district. A group of miscreants carrying batons and iron rod entered the booths and tried to cast votes in favour of a particular candidate. As soon as they entered the booths, the polling and presiding officers objected, following which they were manhandled. The polling and presiding officers, however, managed to push them away. As a large number of supporters of that particular candidate were present outside the booth, they pelted stones and attacked with batons. Due to police inaction, the voters have lodged a complaint with the SHO of Gidhaur police station, but instead of taking appropriate action, he reportedly abused them. Due to violence, the polling was disrupted for more than 2 hours. The situation was normalised after the SDM and DSP of the respective zone arrived with the adequate force. In another incident, Jamui police arrested Pawan Kumar Bind, a candidate contesting for the post Mukhiya (Village Head), for influencing the voters at polling booths. Bind, along with his supporters, was visiting every booth in his constituency and influencing people to cast votes in his favour. His supporters were also seen applying pressure on voters standing in the queue for voting. In Vaishali, the villagers accused the officials of changing the EVMs. The angry voters and supporters of the candidates demanded cancellation of election. The incident was reported from Chandsarai, booth number 255. The supporters of Beena Sinha, the candidate of Panchayat Samiti involved in agitation. They alleged that the police personnel changed the EVMs. Following the incident, Amit Aman, the zonal magistrate of Jandaha said: "We have received written complaint from a candidate and investigation is currently underway." Hyderabad, Oct 9 : GMR Hyderabad International Airport will be investing Rs 6,300 crore to increase the airport's capacity to 34 million passengers per annum. This will make Hyderabad Airport larger than Orly Airport Paris, said Antoine Crombez, Deputy CEO, GMR Airports Ltd while addressing Indo-French Investment Conclave 2021 here on Friday. Last year, GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL) had announced a strategic partnership with Groupe ADP for its airports business. Groupe ADP's acquisition of a 49 per cent stake in GMR Airports set a robust industrial partnership. Meanwhile, French fruit beverages manufacturing company Georges Monin has doubled investment in its upcoming manufacturing plant in Telangana to Rs 200 crore. The conclave organised by the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IFCCI) to strengthen French investment opportunities in Telangana, saw participation by over 100 CEOs, CXOs and diplomats of France. The event showcased and promoted existing French investments in the state within its large network and position Telangana as one of the most sought-after investment destinations due to its strategic location, conducive business environment, state-of-the-art infrastructure, proactive governance, and favourable ecosystem. The delegation also visited French companies that are successfully operating in the state such as Safran Aircraft Engines, Mane India and Sanofi Shantha Biotech. The conclave included several panel discussions focusing on key industries and the official session was attended by Emmanuel Lenain, Ambassador of France to India, KT Rama Rao, minister for information technology, Telangana, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT department, Telangana, and Sumeet Anand, IFCCI President. "France and French companies are fully committed to increasing their presence in Telangana and seizing the many opportunities of this thriving, innovation-oriented state. Many French groups have already invested in Telangana, particularly in biotech, IT and aeronautics. These Indo-French business endeavours in key sectors in Telangana also help to strengthen the strategic partnership between our two countries," said the French ambassador. He said he was proud that that French companies demonstrated exceptional solidarity with Telangana during the second wave of Covid-19 by contributing to a French-made world-class oxygen generator plant to the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences. "Telangana is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. Since the formation of the state, the Telangana government has been introducing innovative policies to attract global firms and investments," said K.T. Rama Rao. Highlighting the TSiPASS policy, he stated that the Telangana government has been giving approvals for various investment proposals within 15 days. He added that through this policy, the Telangana government has attracted crores of investment to the state and has created lakhs of employment opportunities in the region. Rama Rao also mentioned that Telangana has been the favorite destination for IT, Aerospace, Life Sciences, and Pharma companies. He noted that Telangana is home to many French companies. He claimed that many more companies from France are showing interest in investing in Telangana. "If any company wants to invest in India and can mention what other states are offering, We will meet their offer or beat their offer," he said. Sumeet Anand, President, IFCCI told the conclave that Telangana has a very healthy investment climate with strong leadership, investor friendly reforms, strong cluster competency in key sectors, innovation and digital acceleration along with increased urbanisation and consumption levels. Payal S. Kanwar, Director General, IFCCI said that Telangana is a key state for French investment in India and can already see the strong and successful establishment of companies like Safran, Sanofi, Mane, Monin, Capgemini, among many others. New Delhi, Oct 9 : With the mandate of promoting agri-export from Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has scripted "new success stories" as the export of agricultural products of the regions has picked up. Under the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) for exports, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir exported Geographical Indications (GI) certified product 'Kashmir Saffron' from Srinagar to Dubai and other West Asian markets during March-April. A few months after the offices of APEDA, a statutory body under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, got functional in Jammu and Srinagar in February, a shipment of Mishri variety Kashmir Valley Cherries was carried out from Srinagar to Dubai for the first time followed by commercial shipments creating international market for Indian Cherries during the month of June-July, followed by repeat orders for Indian Cherries, a release from the Ministry said on Friday. In another major boost to export activities in the Valley, shipments of Kashmir Valley fragrance rice Mushkbudji and Acacia honey have been planned and samples have already been sent during August by the Kashmir Valley Start Ups/new entrepreneurs to Lulu Group FMCG Dubai, Oman and other West Asian markets. Meanwhile, samples of Kashmir Valley apples have also been planned during September to Oman, Qatar, Dubai and other West Asian markets for the shipment. With the help of APEDA, shipment of Ladakh Apricots was carried out from Leh to Dubai for the first time followed by commercial shipments of Ladakh Halman Apricot during the month of August-September. The shipment was handled by local entrepreneurs from Kargil with the established exporter from Mumbai to their counterpart in Dubai. Product samples of Sea Buckthorn such as juice, pulp, concentrate, oil, and herbal fusion tea have been obtained and provided during September to Indian corporate food producers for development of products for domestic as well as overseas markets. APEDA has carried out sensitisation of officials of Seed Certification, Directorate of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) of Srinagar and Jammu Regions for their convergence into Organic Certification Agency under NPOP during July. "APEDA also signed MoUs with Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and Jammu & Kashmir Trade Promotion Organisation (JKTPO) for technical support and promotional activities for enhancing productivity and promotion of potential products from the region." The APEDA has took up the issue of a comprehensive export logistics requirements for UT of Jammu and Kashmir with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Central Warehousing Corporation, and other departments during July for creation of Customs Clearance Facility, smooth X-ray and handling for perishable commodities and issuance of Phytosanitary Certificate facility at Jammu, Srinagar and Leh airports. Under the APEDA's Agri Export Plan for UT of Jammu and Kashmir, Apple, Cherry, Walnut, Honey, Saffron, Rice, Gucchi have been identified as potential products for exports. Similarly for the UT of Ladakh, Sea Buckthorn, Apricots and certified organic products have been identified as potential products for exports. London, Oct 9 : Another 36,060 people in the UK have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 8,081,300, according to official figures released Friday. The country also recorded another 127 coronavirus-related deaths, Xinhua news agency reported. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the UK now stands at 137,541. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test. There are currently 6,763 patients in hospital with Covid-19. The data came as the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is lifting restrictive Covid travel advice for a further 51 countries and territories. Destinations that are having the "all but essential travel" advice lifted include former amber list nations. With the advice lifted, people will be able to get travel insurance again for those countries as most insurers use it as a reference point to exclude cover. The number of countries on the travel red list has been slashed to just seven on Thursday. The destinations that remain on the red list are Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and Dominican Republic. More than 85 per cent of people aged 12 and over in Britain have had their first dose of vaccine and more than 78 per cent have received both doses, the latest figures showed. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, Oct 9 : Union Minister of State for Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) Ashwini Kumar Choubey released a Black kite fitted with a satellite tag to mark the valedictory ceremony of the Wildlife Week that concluded on Friday. The Black kite is fitted with a satellite tag for research purposes being undertaken by the Wildlife Institute of India. The data will help understand the migratory patterns for the species, a release from the Ministry said. The event under the theme of Conservation Collective was held at the National Zoological Park, Delhi, the only zoo directly under the MoEF&CC. The Minister also visited the enclosures of the new entrants, including tigers and lions, at the Delhi zoo during the event. He also visited the new arrivals three sub-adult Asiatic lions, one male and two females that have been received from Sakkarbaug Zoological Park, Gujarat. Choubey named the two females as Maha Gowri & Shailja and the male as Maheshwar coinciding with the occasion of Navaratri. He planted a native species of Gujarat Gir landscape, Kanak Champa (Pterospermum acerifolium), near the lion enclosure. Choubey visited the enclosure wherein the two female tigresses, approximately four-year-old have been brought in from the Wildlife Rescue Centre, Gorewada at Nagpur. Earlier, these were rescued from Brahmapuri forest division in Chandrapur district and now, shall support the Conservation Breeding Programme for Bengal tigers at the Delhi Zoo. Minister named the tigresses as Aditi and Siddhi. Two Sloth bears, a three-year-old male, and a two-year-old female have also been received from WRC, Gorewada and one female Chausinga, one lady Amherst's pheasant and three Red Eared sliders have also been received as part of the exchange from Shakkarbaug Zoological Park, Gujarat. Delhi zoo is spread across 188 acres and supports over 200 varieties of trees, 95 species with 1,200 individuals of animal species in large scientifically designed enclosures making it truly the green lungs for the national capital. Armor of God: a powerful testament to the authors faith in God. Armor of God is the creation of published author Andi L. Mabry, a devoted wife and loving mother to three grown children who has been a lifelong resident of southern Idaho. Mabry shares, The Armor of God provides a fresh, encouraging, and fun way for your child to learn an important, biblical task. Knowing there is no escape from trials and discouragement for our children, as parents, we yearn to protect them from dangers in their path. Ephesians 6 is one of the best instruction manuals for children and adults alike to find tools to protect themselves from the darkness we all will surely face. The Armor of God is written with your little one in mind, teaching them not only what pieces of armor to put on but also how it will help them day to day. With a memorable poetic text, your child will be able to repeat this entire book on their own in no time. This will help them learn to arm themselves with Gods protection each day, as commanded in His Word. What task can you name that is more important for your child than girding themselves with Gods protection today? Make reading this empowering and equipping story to your little ones a daily habit and watch as they grow stronger in their own walk with Jesus. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Andi L. Mabrys new book is an encouraging opportunity to discuss the concept of the Armor of God with children. Mabrys lyrical story is certain to delight and entertain young readers everywhere. View a synopsis of Armor of God on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Armor of God at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Armor of God, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Pure Gold Forensics, Southern Californias only accredited, private forensic DNA laboratory, will begin using STRmix forensic software to resolve mixed DNA profiles in criminal investigations. Pure Gold Forensics decision to use STRmix is based on the softwares strong track record in producing usable, interpretable, and legally admissible DNA evidence in a wide range of violent crime and sexual assault cases, as well as cold cases in which it was used to re-examine evidence originally dismissed as inconclusive. John Buckleton DSc, FRSNZ, Forensic Scientist at the New Zealand Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) and one of the developers of STRmix, notes that since it was launched in 2012, STRmix has proven to be highly effective in interpreting complex DNA evidence, contributing to the successful resolution of more than 300,000 cases worldwide. Pure Gold Forensics specializes in forensic DNA testing, using the latest technology in equipment and chemistry at its AL2A accredited forensic DNA testing facility in Redlands, CA. STRmix works by assessing how closely multitudes of proposed profiles resemble or can explain an observed DNA mixture. Relying on methodologies routinely used in computational biology, physics, engineering, and weather prediction, the probability of the observed DNA evidence can be calculated assuming the DNA originated from either a person of interest or an unknown donor. These two probabilities are then presented as a likelihood ratio (LR), inferring the value of the findings and level of support for one proposition over the other. STRmix success in accurately analyzing complex DNA mixtures has led to its use in 68 local, state, federal, and private forensic laboratories in the U.S., as well as all nine state and territory labs in Australia and New Zealand and 14 other forensic labs in countries including the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Finland, Switzerland, and Denmark. A new version of STRmix, Version 2.9, was recently launched. STRmix v2.9 contains a number of new features, including: the introduction of a batch maker mode, allowing multiple interpretations to occur simultaneously, and database search templates; memory usage improvements, which are particularly significant in dealing with higher order DNA profile mixtures; and improvements to biological modelling calculations designed to improve the modelling of stutter peaks. The team behind STRmix has also launched two related products: DBLR, an application used with STRmix that allows users to undertake superfast database searches, visualize the value of their DNA mixture evidence, carry out mixture to mixture matches and kinship analyses; and FaSTR DNA, expert forensic software that rapidly analyzes raw DNA data generated by genetic analyzers and standard profiling kits and assigns a number of contributors (NoC) estimate. Together, STRmix, FaSTR DNA, and DBLR complete the full workflow from analysis to interpretation and database matching. For more information, visit http://www.strmix.com. There seemed to be a need for more doctors like us in Baltimore County. - Dr. Josh Bross, DC Elite Chiropractic & Sport today announced its expansion to the Towson area of Baltimore County. The new location, 1122 Kenilworth Drive #109, Towson, MD 21204 will be the next phase in expanding expert level chiropractic care to the Maryland area. According to Founder and CEO, Dr. Josh Bross, the Baltimore area location has been part of our plan for a few years now. "We have a very specialized soft tissue-based practice, and in our research, there seemed to be a need for more doctors like us in Baltimore County. We are excited to have a location to serve Baltimore County and Baltimore City, and work with other health care professionals to give our patients the best care possible". Owner Josh Bross has extensive training that has equipped him and his team to handle all parts of car accident cases. This includes case management, expert narratives, MRI readings, testifying, and more. About Elite Chiropractic & Sport Founded in 2010, Elite Chiropractic & Sport provides a full range of services individually designed to rapidly resolve injuries, restore function, and improve performance. Our chiropractors are recognized soft tissue experts in the field and continue to stay abreast of the latest clinical research and innovative treatment procedures. Our providers are experienced with trauma care and handle all ranges of car accident injuries, including whiplash, back pain, shoulder inquiries, neck pain and more. We use a variety of treatment techniques that target the muscles and spine to ensure your best recovery possible. For more information visit the website at https://elitechirosport.com About Growth Solutions Team The Growth Solutions Team is a leading provider of Business Consulting, Sales & Customer Service Training, and Small Business Advisory services. Our team assists companies with revenue generation, profit maximization, business processes, Strategic HR, and business development. Our programs are designed to meet you where you are, and to generate lasting results for your company. For more information visit the website at https://growthsolutionsteam.com The Son Always Rises: 31-Day Devotional: a delightful opportunity for personal and spiritual growth. The Son Always Rises: 31-Day Devotional is the creation of published author Correne Constantino, a loving wife and mother who served as an educator for many years before changing career paths and switching to service in library sciences. She is a childhood leukemia survivor who praises God for many blessings. Constantino shares, How consistently does the sun rise each morning? Our Father in heaven promises to be even more faithful than the sun. He gives us His word and assures us that He will never leave us, nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Our walk here on earth is not easy; we face many trials and heartaches. Jesus told us it wouldnt be: In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33). The Son Always Rises is a thirty-one-day devotional created to remind and inspire us to live in the joy and peace we find in knowing our Savior. Through the hills and valleys of life, Jesus walks faithfully by our side. Each morning, the Son rises with us and promises to be at our side through whatever the day will bring. These daily devotions will remind you of His faithful love and help you set your feet on your daily walk with Him. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Correne Constantinos new book is an active and inspiring call to strengthen ones relationship with God daily. Constantino shares in hopes of helping others find the peace, comfort, and joy that she has experienced through devoted worship. Consumers can purchase The Son Always Rises: 31-Day Devotional at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about The Son Always Rises: 31-Day Devotional, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Siemplify brings our services to the next level of security monitoring. Cygilant, a provider of Cybersecurity-as-a-Service, today announced the launch of its enhanced Cygilant SOCVue+ platform, powered by best-of-breed Siemplify technology. SOCVue+ supports the portfolio of Cygilant offerings that make powerful enterprise-level cybersecurity accessible for organizations of all sizes. The platform delivers the critical tools and 24x7x365 visibility needed to effectively monitor customer environments and rapidly identify and respond to security incidents as they occur. Cygilant customers will benefit from the SOCVue+ pairing with Siemplify, which combines security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) with end-to-end security operations management. Siemplify, together with Cygilants set of best-of-breed partner technologies in SIEM, endpoint detection and response (EDR), vulnerability management, and patch management, will provide an enhanced experience over Cygilants existing solution. We are thrilled to add the power of Siemplify to enrich our core SOCVue+ stack, said Rob Scott, Cygilant CEO. Siemplify brings our services to the next level of security monitoring. With capabilities that include machine learning and SOAR, Siemplify enables our cybersecurity security operation center (SOC) analysts to collaborate more effectively, group cases, and identify and respond faster to alerts and anomalous activity across a range of network devices in our customers environments. Ultimately, this improves our ability to reduce customers risk. Today, it is increasingly difficult to manually identify, analyze, and respond to critical incidents amid an overload of logs and alerts. On the SOCVue+ platform, Siemplify SOAR reduces complexity and automates the collection and consolidation of feeds from multiple endpoints, with repeatable processes and playbooks that speed response. At the heart of SOCVue+, an intuitive Siemplify dashboard provides a centralized view of the data and streamlines collaboration and communication between Cygilant analysts and customers for coordinated response and support to security alerts and incidents. Customers that tested the new Cygilant SOCVue+ in focus groups stated that the friendlier interface gave improved visibility of SOC activities including 24x7x365 views into activity status, decisions, and metrics. Cygilants Cybersecurity-as-a-Service empowers organizations to manage, monitor, detect, and respond to cyber threats with flexible services that can be scaled easily as needs change. Organizations using these services can strengthen their security efforts with immediate access to enterprise-level security capabilities, talent, and best-of-breed tools without the need to invest in an in-house solution or hard-to-find skilled security resources. Cygilant will deploy SOCVue+ to both new and existing customers over the remaining months of 2021. Plans to incorporate additional functionality of Siemplify SOAR into Cygilant Cybersecurity-as-a-Service offerings are in development. Learn more about Cygilant SOCVue+. ABOUT Cygilant provides cybersecurity-as-a-service for mid-sized organizations to protect against cyber threats by combining best-of-breed technology with Cygilants 247x365 global SOC-as-a-service and the Cygilant SOCVue+ platform that includes critical analyst tools and an intuitive dashboard interface to deliver a holistic view of organizations cybersecurity posture. Cygilants best-of-breed partners include Siemplify, SentinelOne, AT&T USM Anywhere, LogPoint, Qualys, and Ivanti. Learn more about Cygilants services, including security monitoring, vulnerability and patch management, and endpoint threat detection, at http://www.cygilant.com. Follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/cygilant and Twitter: https://twitter.com/cygilant Siemplify, the leading independent security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) provider, is redefining security operations for enterprises and MSSPs worldwide. The Siemplify platform is an intuitive workbench that enables security teams to manage their operations from end to end, respond to cyber threats with speed and precision and get smarter with every analyst interaction. Founded in 2015 by Israeli Intelligence experts, with extensive experience running and training security operations centers worldwide, Siemplify has raised $58 million in funding to date and is headquartered in New York, with offices in Tel Aviv. Visit us at siemplify.co and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. PR Contact: Lahn Bain marketing@cygilant.com WHAT Digital Summit Tampa 2021 will be held on Wed., Oct. 13, 2021 - Thurs., Oct. 14, 2021 at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, FL. The two-day, in-person conference will feature a stellar line-up of industry thought leaders and visionaries from Cisco, Google, SiriusXM and The Coca-Cola Company in addition to local and regional companies and marketing agencies who will present the newest and best practices in email marketing, content management, digital advertising, lead generation, social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), analytics and more. Each of the 40+ 30-minute speaking sessions are formatted to be instructional how to talks that cover a specific marketing topic and leave experienced marketers with practical tactics they can immediately apply to their own efforts. WHO Speakers at Digital Summit Tampa 2021 will include: Jon Youshaei, former Instagram & YouTube executive (Keynote speaker) Carmen Collins, Cisco (Keynote speaker) Mike Epstein, Cinematic Music Group James Clark, The Coca-Cola Company Brand Raper, Footlocker Rob Lawson, Google Grant Simmons, Homes.com Steve Keller, SiriusXM Matthew Capala, Alphametic (Miami, FL) Brittany Ward, Create Collabs (Tampa, FL) Rachel Hernandez, FreeUp (St. Petersburg, FL) Alexa Heinrich, St. Petersburg College (St. Petersburg, FL) Deana Goldasich, Well Planned Web (Tampa, FL) Victoria Shepherd, Yes.Fit (Lakeland, FL) To view a complete list of speakers and presentation topics, go to: https://tampa.digitalsummit.com/2021/agenda/. WHEN/WHERE Wed., Oct. 13, 2021 - Thurs., Oct. 14, 2021 Tampa Convention Center 333 S. Franklin St., Tampa, FL 33602 To purchase passes to attend, go to: https://tampa.digitalsummit.com/tickets/. About Digital Summit Series Digital Summit Series is where Marketers Stay on Top of Their Game. Founded in 2008, the series is held in more than 20 U.S. cities each year and features speakers from the most creative and innovative companies and brands who present the newest and best practices in email marketing, content management, digital advertising, lead generation, social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), analytics and more. Digital Summit keynote speakers have included luminaries such as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks; Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code; Randi Zuckerberg, director of market development for Facebook; digital marketing pioneer Ann Handley; and best-selling authors Seth Godin and Dan Pink. Thought leaders from global brands such as Disney, Microsoft, Google, Nike, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook are regular presenters. Produced by Naylor Association Solutions, a leading provider of innovative tools and services for associations that strengthen member engagement and increase non-dues revenue, Digital Summit Series convenes 1,200+ sessions, workshops and seminars annually, attracting more than 15,000 marketing professionals each year who seek to further their knowledge and skill set in the ever-changing and evolving digital ecosystem for marketing communications. The lineup for each individual Digital Summit event is custom tailored by marketing agency experts, influencers, consultants and industry analysts. For more information, go to https://digitalsummit.com/ and follow on Twitter @DigitalSummits. This integration will help our managers simplify their resident communication while enhancing our residents overall experience. Domuso, a leading payment platform and financial services provider for multifamily operators, today announced the release of a self-service, on-demand interface to streamline how resident maintenance requests are communicated, organized, tracked and resolved for property operators. Offering maintenance requests inside of our core digital payment platform is an important development in our long-term mission to make multifamily operations more efficient through technology, explained Michael Lightfoot, CEO of Domuso. Managing maintenance requests online drives productivity for properties by reducing manual touchpoints. The interface, which is integrated with properties core property management system, is bi-directional, and automatically updates the maintenance request status when the property completes the task. This creates a more direct workflow reducing time-consuming email and in-person communication, freeing up management to work on high value tasks with no additional cost. Additionally, properties can customize their maintenance request forms, collecting key property-specific information upfront as well as permissions to enter an apartment or inform the presence of a pet. Online maintenance requests are a natural product enhancement for Domusos payment technology, said Peter Ramos, senior vice president of operations, Weller Property Management. This integration will help our managers simplify their resident communication while enhancing our residents overall experience. Quickly addressing maintenance problems has the dual benefit of being able to take action on time-sensitive issues while simultaneously improving resident satisfaction. By providing an easy way to make requests in the same interface they use to pay rent, residents can now submit requests as they occur and view their status as they are being handled in real-time. Properties will be able to quickly assess their performance as residents submit ratings and reviews directly within the portal. Property management companies using a variety of software systems with Domuso will now be able to activate online maintenance requests with the piece of mind that comes with Domusos 24/7 account support. More information about Domusos maintenance requests can be found on its website. To find out how to start using Domusos advanced digital rent payment platform, please contact sales@domuso.com. About Domuso Domuso is driving the digital transformation of rent payments in the multifamily industry with a payment and communication platform to manage the entire resident lifecycle, from move-in to move-out. Domuso captures 100 percent of a propertys receivables electronically while giving residents the flexibility to choose multiple payment methods from any mobile device. Domuso removes paper payments from the leasing office by replacing money orders with Online Certified, the industrys only digital certified payment method. Other Domuso innovations include secure off-site cash payments in partnership with MoneyGram and the ability for residents to pay with a photo of their check using Mobile Check Pay. Four of the top 10 NMHC property management firms use Domuso because it improves financial performance, reduces business risk and streamlines operations. Domuso is privately held and headquartered in Santa Monica, California. For more information, visit https://domuso.com. Eggtronics experience is directly relevant to addressing environmental sustainability in the face of growing global demand for electricity. Eggtronic has announced that it has been selected as one of the promising start-up companies from G20 countries that will present to investors at the prestigious G20 Innovation League, a special event dedicated to innovation and hosted by the G20 Italian Presidency. Taking place on October 9th and 10th in Sorrento, Italy, the G20 Innovation League is a unique opportunity for startups to showcase their solutions on a global stage. Matteo Ovi, Eggtronics Head of Worldwide Business-to-Business Sales, will be participating in a Cleantech pitching session, one of the five vertical focuses of the event. Organized by the Italian Trade Agency (ITA-ICE) jointly with the Italian National Innovation Fund of CDP (CDP FNI) and SIMEST, the G20 Innovation League is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Technological Innovation and Digital Transition, and the Ministry of Economic Development. The event will be hosted in Sorrento and virtually via online streaming sessions at a dedicated platform (http://www.g20innovationleague.com), in which the audience may schedule B2B meetings with the startups involved. As well as the challenges and opportunities of Cleantech, G20 sessions will cover the potential and risks of artificial intelligence (AI), IoT and wearables technology, smart cities and the future of mobility and the future of healthcare. The plenary session will be opened by institutional remarks from the Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, the Italian Minister of Innovation, Vittorio Colao, the CEO of CDP Venture Capital SGR Enrico Resmini, and the President of the Italian Trade Agency, Carlo Ferro. Keynote speakers will deliver unconventional insights on five major global challenges. The event will be concluded by Undersecretary of State, Manlio Di Stefano. The complete program is available here. About the event, Minister Di Maio said, The international community must come together to find long-term, innovative and sustainable solutions to the complex challenges the world faces today, from the Covid pandemic to climate change. Italy believes that this framework connecting investors and start-ups under the aegis of a G20 special event is a valuable flagship deserving further development: cooperation, innovative ideas, massive investments and bold policies are the ingredients to ensure next generations can enjoy a sustainable, inclusive and resilient future. Commenting on Eggtronics participation, company CEO and founder Igor Spinella states, It is a great honor to be selected to present at this prestigious event. As a startup dedicated to improving energy use by increasing the efficiency of power conversion technologies, Eggtronics experience is directly relevant to addressing environmental sustainability in the face of growing global demand for electricity. For more information, for remote attendance to the event and to schedule meetings with participating startup companies please visit: http://www.g20innovationleague.com. About Eggtronic: Eggtronic has been revolutionizing the world of power converters and wireless power since 2012. Based in San Francisco, Modena, Italy and Guangzhou, China, Eggtronic develops cutting-edge, environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient technologies, with more than 180 international patents granted worldwide. 2020 saw the launch of the new Einova high-end innovative retail brand, while the new ICs division will produce its first microchips starting the beginning of 2021. Whether through B2B partnerships in the consumer, automotive, or industrial fields, or for everyday consumers, Eggtronic invents revolutionary power technologies to make modern life easier, more efficient and more connected. http://www.eggtronic.com Contact details for editorial enquiries: Simon Flatt, Grand Bridges Marketing E-mail: simon@grandbridges.com Tel: +44 7976 245243 Ref: Egg019/A We believe Energetic Insurance is a key to enabling our industry achieve this scale because their product enables all kinds of businesses not just the giant investment grade corporations to adopt renewable and energy efficiency. Announced officially at the Insuretech Connect 2021 (ITC) conference, Energetic Insurance announced the completion of a Series A financing of $7 million led by Schneider Electric Ventures with participation from MS&AD Ventures, MCJ Collective, and Atlantic Global Risk. Existing investors Congruent Ventures, SCOR P&C Ventures, MUUS Asset Management, Powerhouse Ventures, and Clean Energy Venture Group also participated in this round. Foley Hoag was counsel for Energetic in this transaction. Energetic operates as a Managing General Underwriter (MGU) with initial capacity provided by SCOR Global P&C, the fourth largest global (re)insurer rated AA-/Aa3 by the three major ratings agencies. Energetic's founders met SCOR P&C Ventures at the first ITC conference in 2016 which ultimately led to their partnership for the EneRate Credit Cover product. The round blends support from global players across the energy, insurance, and finance sectors, demonstrating cross-sector alignment and collaborative action for renewable energy development. Varun Jain, General Partner at Schneider Electric Ventures stated: Schneider Electric is a market leader in the deployment of distributed, digital and decentralized technologies for the renewable and energy efficiency sectors. To scale these deployments and achieve a successful energy transition we must have affordable and scalable financing options. We believe Energetic Insurance is a key to enabling our industry achieve this scale because their product enables all kinds of businesses not just the giant investment grade corporations to adopt renewable and energy efficiency. Energetic Insurance is unlocking the much sought-after middle market of energy and we are excited to support them in their growth. Energetic Insurance created the EneRate Credit Cover insurance policy which addresses a longstanding barrier to growth in the renewable and energy efficiency industries by covering default risk for payments made by commercial and other non-residential customers who purchase electricity through long-term power purchase agreements. Many of these commercial customers are unrated or below investment grade, which further increases the need for EneRate Credit Cover. Lenders who finance these projects based on the expected regular payments from the business to the project developer can now lend with confidence in cash flows when EneRate Credit Cover is used. To-date Energetic has placed their novel form of credit insurance on projects with over $70M of insured value with 160 sites across 13 U.S. states. The funding raised will enable Energetic to expand their team and reach new markets, with a focus on technology development, product offering diversification, and geographic expansion. At MS&AD Ventures, we care about creating a better future for the world. The clean energy transition is an important global topic and we see climate change as a critical risk management issue. Energetic Insurances products will be a key enabler for the financing and development of this transition. We have been tracking the team for some time and their deep market expertise and analytical prowess has yielded a robust, data-driven approach to underwriting credit risk for the energy sector. The growing demand for their EneRate Credit Cover validates the need for better financing options for solar and next generation energy. We are excited to support the team at Energetic as they scale their impact on climate and energy finance. said Tiffine Wang, Partner at MS&AD Ventures. James Bowen, Co-founder and CEO of Energetic Insurance stated: Im honored to be able to work every day with such a dedicated and committed team at Energetic. Because of their relentless efforts, we are poised to harness this additional capital and investor support to grow and streamline operations as we expand our current offering and enter new markets. Thanks to the enthusiastic support of our existing and new investors, Energetic Insurance is becoming a driving force behind the clean energy transition. Project developers, tax equity investors, and debt lenders in the U.S. and abroad can purchase EneRate Credit Cover to protect against default risk for up to a 10-year term. This allows financiers to the project to benefit from SCOR Global P&Cs AA-/Aa3 credit rating. EneRate Credit Cover can be used on renewable energy or energy efficiency projects with commercial or other non-residential electricity customers, including utility scale projects and community solar projects. The electricity buyer can be investment grade, unrated or sub-investment grade. Julian Torres, Chief Investment Officer at Scale Microgrid Solutions said: EneRate Credit Cover is a powerful tool I can bring to bear as a financier and developer of resilient and sustainable distributed generation projects. It allows me to target with confidence the large segments of the US market that have historically been considered unbankable by tax equity investors or lenders. Im excited to see the global venture communitys support for the critical role Energetic is playing to expand the adoption of renewable energy in the US. Energetic Insurance is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and was supported initially with an $850,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). ### For media inquiries, please contact: James Bowen - (617) 701-7796 james.bowen at energeticinsurance.com NOTE: This Press Release does not constitute and is not intended by Energetic Insurance or any of the entities mentioned in this release to constitute a solicitation for any insurance business. ------- About Energetic Insurance (http://www.energeticinsurance.com) Energetic Insurance is a Managing General Underwriter (MGU) with a novel, data-driven approach to develop new risk management products to unlock exponential growth in the renewable energy industry. Our first product, EneRate Credit Cover, unlocks renewable and energy efficiency project financing for unrated and below investment grade counter parties by covering counterparty credit risk. EneRate Credit Cover was selected by Insurance Insider Magazine as the New Underwriting Product of the Year for 2020. Headquartered in Boston, Energetic Insurance was awarded a SunShot Prize from the US Department of Energy in 2017 and has received a total of $12 million in financing to date. EneRate Credit Cover and other insurance policies are issued by RE3 Energetic Insurance Solutions, LLC, or SiKey Insurance Services, LLC (in New York), both wholly-owned subsidiaries of Energetic Insurance, Inc. Energetic Insurance complies with all state-mandated regulations for surplus line insurance brokers and is licensed as a surplus lines broker in Massachusetts with License #: 2053916. About Schneider Electric (http://www.se.com) At Schneider, we believe access to energy and digital is a basic human right. We empower all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment. We provide energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. We combine world-leading energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services into integrated solutions for Homes, Buildings, Data Centers, Infrastructure and Industries. We are committed to unleash the infinite possibilities of an open, global, innovative community that is passionate about our Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values. About MS&AD Ventures (http://www.msad.vc) MS&AD Ventures is a global early-stage fund based in Silicon Valley and backed by Mitsui Sumitomo & Aioi Nissay Dowa (MS&AD Holdings). The firm invests in emerging technologies in Fintech, InsurTech, AI, Sustainability, Digital Health, Big Data, and Enterprise/Cybersecurity. Regions served include the US, Israel, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. About Scale Microgrid Systems (http://www.scalemicrogridsolutions.com) Scale is a vertically integrated distributed energy platform, with a core focus of designing, building, financing, owning and operating cutting-edge distributed energy assets that offer cheaper, cleaner, and more resilient power. Their team of energy and financing experts accelerate growth in distributed energy projects by providing financing to technology providers, energy developers, and OEMs, while also directly helping large energy-consuming customers to take charge of their energy infrastructure and future-proof their businesses. About SCOR (http://www.scor.com) SCOR, one of the worlds largest reinsurers, provides insurance companies with a diversified and innovative range of solutions and services to control and manage risk. Using its experience and expertise (The Art & Science of Risk), SCOR provides cutting-edge financial solutions, analytics tools and services in all areas related to risk. Houston SEO Directories has released an infographic that makes choosing the right SEO company a matter of answering simple questions. You need to be confident in the people running your campaign, or youll just be wasting valuable time and money." Houston SEO Directory along with Actual SEO Media, Inc. has released a general tips sheet to make finding the right SEO company a simpler task during these changing times. Search Engine Optimization companies are very good at making it difficult for prospective clients to find the right business suited for their needs. It is an easy field to get lost in, and their effectiveness with SEO makes it so the right company for each client is not necessarily the first to appear on a search engine results page. SEO is an important part of any businesss marketing strategy when nearly 80% of all purchases begin with an online search. Natalie McBain, a content writer for Actual SEO Media, explains the import of the tip sheet: You need to be confident in the people running your campaign, or youll just be wasting valuable time and money. Consequently, you should carefully consider the answers to the following questions to ensure you find the right SEO company for your business. Question 1: Who are Your Past and Current Clients? With a list of past and current clients, prospective clients can discuss the effectiveness of an SEO companys campaign. They can get a sense of whether the tactics employed work or if the company is spewing nonsense for easy returns on investment. Question 2: What are Your SEO Strategies? By asking about strategies, clients get an estimate of how long positive results will take and last. The SEO experts also show their interest in the clients company by suggesting specific changes that would be needed to optimize the website for a results page. Question 3: Do You Follow Googles Webmaster Guidelines? Googles Webmaster Guidelines are a set of rules meant to improve the user experience on Google. Finding a company that abides by these guidelines is essential for proper SEO success. Question 4: Can You Guarantee a Top Spot on Googles Search Engine Results Page? This is a trick question. Only the search engine can guarantee a top result. However, SEO companies use the search engine guidelines A company that answers with a definitive yes to this should not have a prospective clients trust. Question 5: What is Your Expertise? If a client is looking for national SEO exposure, they should not work with an SEO company whose expertise is local. Search Engine Optimization requires specific tinkering, so choosing the right tinkerer is important. Question 6: What Changes Would You Make to My Website? Like question 2, this question allows the SEO company to show interest in the client as they flex their analytical skills on their specific website. Search Engine Optimization will alter the content of the website to meet the guidelines search engines recommend, so it is important to be prepared. Question 7: How Will You Evaluate My Campaigns Success? Understanding the metrics by which a campaign will be measured helps facilitate proper communication. It also shows clients how serious a company is about long-term success, rather than quick gains. For more information about Search Engine Optimization or other online market strategies and tips, Houston SEO Directory can be reached via main office phone at (281) 758-9766, or by email at: NationalSEODirectories@GMail.com. MMA Heavyweight Champ Stipe Miocic at his fire station in Valley View, OH. "I'm proud to join forces with GovX to help spread the word to firefighters across the country, and more men and women with service-related backgrounds." - Stipe Miocic GovX.com, the online shopping site exclusively for current and former military, first responders, and federal employees, has partnered with Stipe Miocic, the MMA heavyweight champion and Ohio firefighter. The alliance promises to help promote GovX.com to those who are eligible for exclusive membership, and to give back to nonprofits dedicated to Americans with service-related backgrounds. Stipe Miocic is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the heavyweight division. A former six-time champion, he is popularly regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time. He holds the records for most wins in heavyweight title fights alongside the longest title defending streak in the division with three consecutive defenses. On top of his MMA career, Miocic serves his community as a part-time firefighter paramedic in Oakwood and Valley View, Ohio, where he's worked for over a decade. This combination of fighter and firefighter makes Miocic uniquely positioned as an ambassador of GovX. "I'm proud to join forces with GovX to help spread the word to firefighters across the country, and more men and women with service-related backgrounds," said Miocic. "GovX is a brand dedicated to this community and I consider it a privilege to work alongside them." The partnership between GovX and Miocic will be visible across various platforms, including a new national TV campaign, as well as web and social media campaigns. GovX and Miocic also launched a new feature called STIPE'S CORNER, a monthly charitable effort designed to support nonprofits giving back to Americans with military, first responder, and law enforcement experience. Every month, Miocic will select a new product in the GovX catalog and GovX will donate 5% of proceeds from sales of that product to the GovX Gives Back nonprofit of the month. To learn more about Stipe Miocic, follow him on Instagram @stipemiocic, and listen to his podcast J.A.B.s (Just Awkward Buddies) wherever podcasts are available. ABOUT GOVX GovX.com is for men and women of service. A members-only online destination for military and first responders, the site offers thousands of products from hundreds of brands at exclusive, below-retail pricing. Members include active and veteran U.S. military, firefighters, law enforcement officers, federal agents, healthcare workers and personnel from related government agencies. For more information, visit http://www.govx.com Greenberg Traurig's Vanessa Albert Lowry, Lorraine Tyson, and Martye Kendrick to Speak at National Association of Bond Lawyers Workshop Greenberg Traurig, LLP Public Finance & Infrastructure Shareholders Vanessa Albert Lowry and Lorraine M. Tyson as well as Of Counsel Martye Kendrick will present at the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL) workshop titled Hybrid 2021, Navigating a Changing World, Together (Actually and Virtually). The workshop, taking placing Oct. 13-15, will have virtual and in-person attendance options and will feature panels discussing the uncertainty and resulting flexibility in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Albert Lowry will speak on a panel titled Refunding and Reissuance on Oct. 13 at 4:45 p.m. CDT. The panel will focus on recent developments and discuss and analyze a variety of tax issues through a combination of hypotheticals and a roundtable discussion of refunding and reissuance trends, according to the workshops website. Tyson is chairing a panel on Oct. 14 at 10:45 a.m. CDT titled Public Private Partnerships From Start To Finish. The panel will provide a high-level overview of the P3 process, discuss issues that are often negotiated during a P3 transaction, and recent P3 deals and federal infrastructure legislation. Kendrick will participate in a panel on Oct. 14 at 3:45 p.m. CDT titled Private Activity Bond Tests. The panel will discuss basic principles of the private activity bond tests and address complex applications of the rules, management contract guidelines, and changes to remedial action regulations. Albert Lowry, who is based in the firms Philadelphia office, focuses her practice on tax, public finance, and asset securitization matters, as well as investment and repurchase agreements. Based in the firms Chicago office, Tyson focuses her practice on public private partnership and public finance transactions and government law. She represents insurance companies, pension funds, banks, finance companies, and other institutional investors on corporate finance transactions. Tyson also advises governmental clients on general corporate matters and legislation. Kendrick, who is based in the firms Houston office, is a highly accomplished attorney, with deep experience in handling matters relating to tax-exempt bond financings, commercial real estate transactions, structured finance, and tax. About Greenberg Traurigs Public Finance & Infrastructure Practice: Greenberg Traurig, LLP has a national public finance practice that consistently ranks among the top bond, disclosure, and underwriters counsel firms according to The Bond Buyers nationwide and statewide rankings. Greenberg Traurig LLPs Public Finance & Infrastructure Practice has been serving the needs of state and local issuers, underwriters, credit providers, bondholders, and conduit borrowers throughout the United States for more than a decade in virtually every area of public finance. The firm currently has more than 35 attorneys in the Public Finance & Infrastructure Practice in its Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington, D.C. offices. About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2,300 attorneys in 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 4.0 Plus Certified. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com We are fully committed to working with JBA Risk Management and our platform technologies to address the complex issue of flood risk in a changing climate for our clients. Shubharoop Ghosh, Vice President of Data Services at ImageCat. ImageCat today announced the availability of JBAs latest global 30m resolution flood data on its exposure management and underwriting platforms Inhance and FacFinder. JBA is the first risk management company to offer flood mapping and probabilistic flood modelling on a truly global scale. This new dataset will enable ImageCats insurance and non-insurance clients to better understand and manage their flood exposure at any location worldwide. We are very excited to see our global flood data available via ImageCats platforms, said Matt Reid Managing Director at JBA Risk Management USA. The powerful combination of best-in-class data and workflow focused analytics enables our joint clients to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently ultimately leading to better management of flood related risks. JBA provides river and surface water flood maps for every country globally at 30m resolution. This enables clients to take a globally consistent view of flood risk. In addition, many countries are modeled at 5m resolution with the inclusion of coastal flooding where appropriate. These flood maps are combined with JBAs Global Flood Event Set and revolutionary new technology to form the basis of the worlds first global probabilistic flood modelling. This new update is a continuation of ImageCat and JBAs already established relationship to bring JBAs flood data products to the insurance market, said Shubharoop Ghosh, Vice President of Data Services at ImageCat. We are fully committed to working with JBA Risk Management and our platform technologies to address the complex issue of flood risk in a changing climate for our clients. ImageCats flagship exposure product, Inhance, is a ground-breaking solution to exposure data problems and provides a suite of analysis tools to help (re)insurers, managing general agents and brokers visualise their property exposures in terms of completeness, accuracy, and appropriateness. FACFinder is an exposure aggregation and hazard mapping platform for Facultative Insurance underwriters that allows them to monitor exposure aggregation and perform better risk analysis. It provides a quick and simple way to identify existing risk locations and their exposure to hazards and allows them to understand the impacts of adding new facultative locations to their book of business. To learn more about how JBA flood data can help your business, please join the Inhance October Data Partner Spotlight by registering here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yNIjrIfLTDqaejnXgU1uiA # # # About JBA JBA Risk Management (http://www.jbarisk.com) is a leading provider of flood risk science offering best-in-class flood maps, models, analytics and consultancy to the re/insurance and non-insurance sectors, including mortgage providers and property search companies, governments, the international banking community and NGOs. With a collaborative team of expert scientists, hydrologists, mathematicians, and engineers, JBA use pioneering science to stay at the forefront of flood modelling innovation Headquartered in the UK with offices in Asia Pacific, the US and Europe, JBA Risk Management is part of the JBA Group founded in 1995. About ImageCat ImageCat (http://www.imagecatinc.com) is an international risk management innovation company supporting the global risk and catastrophe management needs of the insurance industry, governments, and NGOs. As a leading provider of risk and disaster management technologies, ImageCat is highly regarded for cutting-edge products, services, and R&D activities, targeting decision support needs at all phases of the disaster management cycle. Court records allege that many of the defendants, including Saumil Thakkar and Poorvesh Thakkar, have violated multiple provisions of the Texas Securities Act. Attorneys at Bajaria & Forgerson Law Group, on behalf of their client, have filed a lawsuit against Saumil Thakkar, Poorvesh Thakkar, Mahesh Thakkar, Vaishali Thakkar, Thakkar Development Group LLC (Thakkar Developers), Perfect Business Services, Inc. (Perfect Tax & Finance), PASMAA GP Investment Fund LLC, PASMAA GP Investment Group Fund Manager LLC and other relevant parties. Court records allege that in late 2017 some defendants, including Saumil Thakkar and Poorvesh Thakkar, approached plaintiff's representatives about investing in a real estate investment fund that they were developing. Specifically, they were told that the fund would raise around $20 million dollars by October 2018 and would invest in certain real estate projects in North Texas. The petition further alleges that the defendants made multiple misrepresentations related to the investment fund and breached its agreement with the plaintiff by accepting new members past the deadline therefore diluting plaintiffs share. Court records also allege that investors have not received any returns from the investment and that unregistered securities were issued. Court records further allege that many of the defendants, including Saumil Thakkar and Poorvesh Thakkar, have violated multiple provisions of the Texas Securities Act, misrepresented the nature and composition of the investments, fraudulently induced plaintiff into investing $2.5 million dollars, used the real estate fund to pay Thakkar Developers millions in excessive fees, and used the real estate fund to purchase land from entities affiliated with the Thakkar Family at inflated prices. The petition also alleges that Perfect Tax solicited investment from the firms client base. A copy of the lawsuit can be found by visiting the Dallas County Court Online Records website database and entering the cause number: DC-20-15967. Favad Bajaria is lead counsel in the case for the plaintiff and serves as Bajaria & Forgerson Law Group's Managing Partner. Bajaria & Forgerson Law Group is a boutique business law firm focused on banking, title insurance, real estate, and sophisticated business and securities litigation. The firm represents banks, investors, developers, and real estate funds in transactions and title insurance matters. The firm also has extensive experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts throughout Texas in all types of commercial and business matters. "While they dont yet wear the uniform, many of them tell us they plan to in the future." Today, the National Military Family Association (NMFA), the leading nonprofit dedicated to serving families who stand behind the uniform, and Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen, an organization run by and for military teens, released data fielded from a first of its kind military teen experience survey. When asked if they plan to serve in the military in the future, a stunning majority (65%) of these military kids answered yes. Thats compared to just 13% of their civilian peers, according to the Department of Defense. The survey of over 2,000 military teens is an effort to better understand the experience of this often-overlooked and underserved part of the military community. Military teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 responded to the NMFA + Bloom Military Teen Survey during a two-week period in May of 2021. The results brought to light that a significant 42% of military teens show signs of emotional distress. The survey also identified stressors military teens have about their basic needs, with 36% of respondents expressing concerns about food insecurity. Military teens serve our country every day alongside their service member parents, said Besa Pinchotti, Executive Director and CEO of the National Military Family Association. They move when the military tells them to - usually every two to three years. They start new schools, find their way in new communities, support their families through deployments, separations, and the unique challenges of military life. While they dont yet wear the uniform, many of them tell us they plan to in the future. Thanks to this partnership with Bloom, we can be more focused on developing the right programs and resources for these young patriots who will, one day, protect us all. The survey used the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS), a validated, 7-item scale that measures the well-being and psychological functioning of our military teen community ages 13 and up. The scale is structured to focus on a positive approach, and it builds on previous scales to capture a wide conception of well-being, including emotional, cognitive, and psychological components, packaged in a short-form survey teens can reliably complete. Additionally, the organizations relied on the USDA Food Security Survey for Youth Ages 12 & Older (USDA short form) to measure the food insecurity levels of military teens. We would like to express our immense gratitude to the National Military Family Association for their sincere willingness to amplify the voices of military teens, said Elena Ashburn and Matthew Oh, Co-founders of Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen. With the results of this survey, we hope to shed light on some of the struggles that we see in our resilient community every day. Military teens, many of whom will become the future fighting force of America, are ready to be heard. We hope that you are ready to listen. NMFA has made specific recommendations to Congress that have been included by both the U.S. House of Representative and U.S. Senates respective mark-ups of the National Defense Authorization Act to establish a Basic Needs Allowance for families struggling to put food on the table. To learn more about our recommendations and download the full report, visit: https://www.militaryfamily.org/the-military-teen-experience/ About National Military Family Association The National Military Family Association is the leading nonprofit dedicated to serving the families who stand behind the uniform. Since 1969, NMFA has worked to strengthen and protect millions of families through its advocacy and programs. They provide spouse scholarships, camps for military kids, and retreats for families reconnecting after deployment and for the families of the wounded, ill, or injured. NMFA serves the families of the currently serving, veteran, retired, wounded or fallen members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, and Commissioned Corps. of the USPHS and NOAA. To get involved or to learn more, visit http://www.MilitaryFamily.org. About Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen is an organization run by and for military teens. It was created in April 2020, after founders Elena Ashburn and Matthew Oh both struggled with moving away from Carlisle, PA. They wanted to make sure that other military teens knew they were not alone in their struggles and could find solace in the military community. Bloom is the place military teens can find comfort and advice about everything military kid-related: from moving tips to the top things to do at your duty station. NVTC Appoints New Chair and Vice Chair of its Data Center and Cloud Community. NVTC is delighted to have two seasoned experts lead our Data Center and Cloud Community. Both Vinay and Stan have been affiliated with NVTC for ten years and are regarded as influential leaders representing the data center and cloud industry, said Jennifer Taylor, NVTC president and CEO. Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the trade association representing the national capital regions technology community; InterGlobix LLC, a global solutions company focused on the convergence of data centers, terrestrial fiber and subsea fiber; and Dominion Energy, providing reliable, affordable, clean energy to nearly seven million customers in 16 states, today announce the appointment of InterGlobixs President Vinay Nagpal as the chair and Dominion Energy Director of Customer Solutions and Strategic Partnerships Stan Blackwell as vice chair of NVTCs Data Center and Cloud Community effective October 1, 2021. As one of the nations leading technology councils, NVTC serves companies from all sectors of the industry, from small businesses and startups to Fortune 100 technology companies, as well as service providers, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. As part of its operating model, NVTC hosts ten peer-to-peer communities of interest. The mission of the NVTC Data Center and Cloud Community is to provide a consistent, collective and compelling voice for promoting the interests of the region's ever growing data center, cloud and critical infrastructure community in order to contribute to the long-term growth and prosperity of the industry. NVTC is pleased to announce the new Chairs of the NVTC Data Center and Cloud Community: Vinay Nagpal has been leading the development of digital infrastructure solutions on a global scale for over 26 years. As the president of InterGlobix and a former executive with Digital Realty, DuPont Fabros Technology, TATA Communications, Verizon Business, UUNET, CanWest Global Communications and Intrinsyc Software, he has led global initiatives focused on the convergence of data centers, subsea fiber and terrestrial fiber. Vinay is part of leadership and advisory teams for the Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC), the QTS Richmond NAP, Total Telecom Submarine Networks EMEA, DE-CIX, RTI Cables, SubOptic, PTC and previously GPX India, LINX NoVA and the Open-IX Association. Stan Blackwell has been with Dominion Energy for 25 years. He currently leads Dominion Energy's data center practice, supports its largest customers in Northern Virginia, and manages the Outdoor Street Light Program in Virginia and North Carolina. Stan has also held leadership roles in finance, accounting, electrical design, renewable product development, contract management, key account management, and economic development. Before joining Dominion Energy, he spent nine years in the computer industry with AT&T and NCR in various financial roles. Northern Virginia is the leading data center market in the world. NVTC is delighted to have two seasoned experts lead our Data Center and Cloud Community. Both Vinay and Stan have been affiliated with NVTC for ten years and are regarded as influential leaders representing the data center and cloud industry, said Jennifer Taylor, NVTC president and CEO. Their combined leadership will be a catalyst encouraging next-gen leaders to engage in growing this important data center market within our local economy. NVTC provides a second-to-none platform enabling the growth of key technology areas in our region with a great sense of community and opportunity to give back. It is an honor to be selected as the chair of the NVTC Data Center and Cloud Community, said Vinay Nagpal. I look forward to collaborating with Jennifer, Stan and the community members to continue to lead the growth of our regions data center and cloud industry. Dominion Energy is a key ally of the data center industry and is committed to helping propel the regions growth, while also supporting companies as they strive to meet renewable energy goals. We supply over two gigawatts of load and do so with excellent reliability and increasingly-clean power, said Stan Blackwell. I am honored to be associated with NVTC and look forward to working with great leaders in the data center and cloud sector. The first NVTC Data Center and Cloud Community meeting of this new season will be held on October 14, 2021 and will feature a keynote from Chris Sharp, CTO of Digital Realty, the largest Data Center in the region, followed by a fireside chat hosted by Vinay. For additional information, please visit: http://www.nvtc.org. # # # About the Northern Virginia Technology Council The Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) is the trade association representing the national capital regions technology community. As one of the nation's largest technology councils, NVTC serves companies from all sectors of the industry, from small businesses and startups to Fortune 100 technology companies, as well as service providers, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. Nearly 500 entities make up the NVTC membership and look to the organization as a resource for networking and educational opportunities, peer-to-peer communities, policy advocacy, industry promotion, fostering of strategic relationships, and branding of the region as a major global technology center. Visit NVTC at http://www.nvtc.org. About Dominion Energy More than 7 million customers in 16 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va. The company is committed to sustainable, reliable, affordable and safe energy and to achieving net zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its power generation and gas infrastructure operations by 2050. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn more. About InterGlobix LLC InterGlobix LLC is a global consulting and advisory company focused on the convergence of datacenters, terrestrial and subsea fiber. InterGlobix offers strategic business consulting and marketing solutions for datacenter and the connectivity industry worldwide. InterGlobix also owns InterGlobix Magazine, the industrys first and only global magazine of its kind focused on Datacenters, Connectivity, Luxury and Lifestyle. Visit InterGlobix at: http://www.interglobix.com to learn more. Media Contacts: NVTC: Kara Mauceri, kmauceri@nvtc.org, 301-775-3322 Dominion Energy: Rayhan Daudani, Rayhan.Daudani@dominionenergy.com, 804-771-6115 InterGlobix: Jasmine Bedi, jasmine@interglobix.com,571-375-9597 Chris Auffenberg Family of Dealership offers oil and filter change service to the drivers of Cape Girardeau, MO Oil is important for the lubrication of the vehicles engine. Oil filter plays a critical role in ensuring that the oil is there in the engine. Therefore, regular maintenance of oil and filter must be carried out. Chris Auffenberg Family of Dealership offers oil and filter change service to the drivers of Cape Girardeau, MO. Maintaining oil and filter helps to improve the efficiency of the engine, get better mileage, increase the lifespan of the engine, is environment friendly, protects the engine, and cools the engine components. It is essential to take the vehicle to a dealership that offers the best service facility. Chris Auffenberg Family of Dealership is known for quality automotive service and repair. Currently, the dealership is running an oil and filter change service coupon. With the coupon, drivers can replace engine oil per specifications (up to 5 quarts), install a Hyundai oil filter, check/adjust vital fluids and get free Multi-Point Inspection. The oil and filter change service coupon is valid till November 2021. The dealership offers several other service coupons like battery test, timing belt replacement special, brake special, Hyundai In-Cabin Air Filter, Cooling System Special, Complimentary Hyundai Multi-Point Inspection, Hyundai Wiper Blades, and Discount on Vehicle Service. Interested drivers who want to avail the oil and filter change service coupons can carry a printout or show on their phones when they drive down to the dealership. Individuals who want more information about the coupons can visit the website of the dealership at http://www.chrisauffenberg.com. Drivers can directly go to the dealership and inquire about sales at Chris Auffenberg Family of Dealership Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The certifications confirm ParentSquares commitment to protecting student privacy, as well as providing districts nationwide with technology that has an impact and that they can trust," said Anupama Vaid, ParentSquare Founder & President. iKeepSafe is pleased to announce that ParentSquare has earned the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor, FERPA, and California Student Data Privacy Certifications; iKeepSafe also found ParentSquare to be compliant with CCPA. These certifications signify that ParentSquare has been proactively and independently assessed by iKeepSafe, an experienced privacy protection organization. iKeepSafe Privacy Certifications simplify privacy compliance for education technology vendors and make it easy for schools to identify websites, apps, data management platforms, and other technology products that follow various privacy laws governing student data. Products that carry the iKeepSafe badge provide educators and parents with the assurance that the product meets iKeepSafes standards in the areas of privacy, safety, and security. ParentSquare is the only fully unified product that engages every family with school communications and communications-based servicesall the way from the district office to the classroom teacher, and all in one place. Schools know whos not being reached, and have the reports and tools to improve contactability and communications equity while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and security. Were pleased to achieve these three privacy certifications from iKeepSafe, said Anupama Vaid, ParentSquare Founder & President. The certifications confirm ParentSquares commitment to protecting student privacy, as well as providing districts nationwide with technology that has an impact and that they can trust. We congratulate ParentSquare on earning the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor, FERPA, and California Student Privacy Certifications. ParentSquare undergoing this rigorous certification process clearly demonstrates their dedication to safeguarding student data, said iKeepSafe President Amber Lindsay. Districts and schools who are currently using or considering using the school-home communications platform can feel confident that ParentSquare meets iKeepSafes high standards of data privacy protection. In addition to earning the iKeepSafe Privacy Certifications, ParentSquare also recently reaffirmed its commitment to the latest version of the Student Privacy Pledge (introduced by the Future of Privacy Forum and the Software & Information Industry Association), which is a legally binding and public declaration to safeguard student informationjoining over 200 other signatories in the edtech industry. About ParentSquare ParentSquare is relied upon by millions of educators and families in 44 states for unified, effective school communications. ParentSquare provides parent engagement tools that work from the district office to the individual classroom, supported by powerful metrics and reporting. ParentSquares technology platform features extensive integrations with student information and other critical administrative systems, translation to more than 100 languages, and app, email, text, voice, and web portal access for equitable communication. ParentSquare (http://www.parentsquare.com), founded in 2011, is based in Santa Barbara, CA. About iKeepSafe The Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe) certifies digital products as compliant with state and federal requirements for handling protected personal information. We help organizations achieve and maintain compliance through product assessments, monthly monitoring, annual training, and assistance with remediation. To view iKeepSafes list of assessed products, visit https://ikeepsafe.org/products/. Detecting scoliosis early in children and young adolescents can allow for early treatment with special scoliosis exercises and possibly bracing. This type of treatment helps prevent curves from progressing beyond 30 degrees. An estimated 80% of the population will suffer from back pain during their lives. Scoliosis, a potentially painful back condition, will affect 3% of the population, or around nine million people. On October 16, 2021, experts at Hey Clinic for Scoliosis & Spine Care in Raleigh will help patients celebrate World Spine Day by encouraging early screening and treatment for scoliosis and teaching patients how to help heal themselves! Ben Franklin once said, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and this is certainly true for scoliosis. Detecting scoliosis early in children and young adolescents can allow for early treatment with special scoliosis exercises and possibly bracing. This type of treatment helps prevent curves from progressing beyond 30 degrees -- which helps prevent lifetime curve progression, and suffering with pain and deformity, which might even require major spine surgery later in life," explains Dr. Lloyd Hey, Director of Hey Clinic for Scoliosis & Spine Care. Dr. Hey believes World Spine Day is a great opportunity to raise awareness of scoliosis, which can be easily identified by using any smartphone with a bubble level! These hard facts explain why early detection and follow-up is key to successful treatment: The National Scoliosis Foundation explains that scoliosis impacts infants, adolescents, and adults and there is no cure. A study published by The American Association of Pediatrics concluded that there was significant success in preventing spinal curve progressions and surgery in children who were screened, diagnosed and treated with a custom brace. 68 percent of curves progress during adulthood, especially curves over 30. Therefore lifelong follow-up can be helpful for adults with known scoliosis. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons recommends confirming a scoliosis diagnosis through an x-ray, spinal radiography, CT scan or MRI, but a screening technique called the Adams Forward Bend Test can be done by anyone. Guidelines published by The Scientific Society on Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT) stress the importance of early screening and support conservative treatments such as Schroth therapy and bracing. Hey Clinic providers realize that every life is precious and they are committed to compassionate, conservative, lifelong care for their patients. Thats why experts at Hey Clinic created a Simple Scoliosis Screening Checklist parents can perform at home. If any of the signs below are identified, a pediatrician should be contacted. Simple Scoliosis Screening Checklist: Forward Bend: Standing with the feet together, place your palms together and bend forward as far as you can. Is one side of the back higher than the other? A smartphone bubble level can help measure that angle of trunk rotation. SOSORT recommends x-ray and scoliosis center follow-up if the ATR is over 5 degrees. Stand Up: Are the shoulders and hips even or is one higher than the other? Is one arm farther away from the body? Is the upper back excessively rounded (kyphosis hump)? Clothing Check: Does one pant leg appear to be longer than the other? Does one shirtsleeve seem longer than the other? Does the bra or tank top tend to shift towards one side of the trunk? Providers at Hey Clinic recognize that each patients needs are unique and offer non-operative treatment paths using a combination of Schroth PT with high tech 3D CADCAM Bracing. 3D CADCAM Bracing The 3D CADCAM Cheneau-style brace is a light-weight, custom brace fabricated on-site, that applies pressures to certain areas of the spine while providing opposite void space to shift the curves. This design offers better correction than other styles of bracing and compliant use of the 3D CADCAM Scoliosis Brace can halt curve progression, help with pain and often provide correction in flexible curves, says, KC Wheeler, Certified Prosthetist-Orthotist and Hey Clinic provider. The brace is also ultra-thin, ultra-light and less noticable under clothes, more comfortable, and easier to put on than the older off the shelf braces. Schroth Physical Therapy Schroth Physical Therapy is a technique designed to strengthen and retrain the muscles of the back and core to hold the spine in better alignment. Jessica Giddings, Hey Clinic Physical Therapist explains, The goal is to elongate, de-rotate and stabilize the spine, as well as improve postural awareness and teach life-long spine healthy habits. Since we've implemented the new scoliosis exercise training, we've seen growing interest in these conservative measures for both kids and adults with spinal deformity - and lots of smiles from families who find these techniques are helping to prevent curve progression and decrease symptoms says Dr. Lloyd Hey. Our team at Hey Clinic is fully aware of the struggles someone with scoliosis can face if their curve progresses and is not treated. Diagnosing scoliosis early, before a growth spurt, can help a provider set up a treatment plan to prevent a bigger curve from forming, says Hey. For more information visit us at http://www.HeyClinic.com About Hey Clinic for Scoliosis & Spine Care and Dr. Lloyd Hey Dr. Lloyd Hey has served as a scoliosis surgeon for children, adolescents, and adults for the last 26 years. Dr. Hey earned his undergraduate degree from MIT and received his MD through the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) MD program. Dr. Hey held a surgical position at Duke University and was Associate Professor, Division Orthopedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Duke University. In 2005, Dr. Hey started Hey Clinic for Scoliosis & Spine Care and in addition to his Raleigh practice, he has served as Chairman of the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) Safety & Value Committee and Chair of the Adult Deformity Committee. A Winning Generation: an empowering exploration of overcoming adversity. A Winning Generation is the creation of published author Rev. Dr. Gaddis J. Faulcon, the president and founder of Agape Worship Center and Training Institute, Inc in Stem, NC, and the president and founder of Winning Generation Education and Training Institute. Rev. Dr. Faulcon shares, Rev. Dr. Gaddis J. Faulcon discovered how to win at life under adversity. He has experienced how to change from an attitude of doubt to one of belief. Today, he is a well-trained college administrator and professor. He has achieved what was unexpected by many people earlier in his life. God has performed in him what many would have thought to be impossible! He is a pastor of a church, a president of a consulting firm, and an author of a book. In Winning Generation, he shares insight and advice about issues of leadership and management. He has learned from his real-life experiences how to overcome many disadvantages and setbacks. He is now a goal achiever and a winner! Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Rev. Dr. Gaddis J. Faulcons new book is an encouraging discussion of believing in oneself and pushing towards a successful future. Rev. Dr. Faulcons educational and administrative background are apparent within the pages of this highly motivating work. Consumers can purchase A Winning Generation at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about A Winning Generation, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. The Poe Predicament by Phil Thomas I thought about the concept for a long time before I actually decided to write the novel, but I believed it was a story worth telling. Its October, the spookiest month of the year, and the perfect time for Foundations Book Publishing Company to release Phil Thomas debut novel, The Poe Predicament, a masterfully conceived and entirely unique supernatural mystery about a college professor who time travels to the early 1800s to help exonerate a man falsely accused of murder Edgar Allan Poe. The legacy of Edgar Allan Poe is something that has intrigued me for years, starting in high school when I began reading his works, Phil explains on his Facebook page. I wondered what it would be like if someone from the twenty-first century somehow ended up back in nineteenth century New York City and runs into a very young Poe, fresh out of West Point. I thought about the concept for a long time before I actually decided to write the novel, but I believed it was a story worth telling. The Poe Predicament is on sale for release week and hit #1 in the Alternative History category on Amazon within the first forty-eight hours. Its currently available for purchase in ebook and paperback formats through all online retailers. Phil Thomas is a bestselling author and screenwriter from the suburbs of Philadelphia. He is a member of the International Association of Professional Writers & Editors and is the co-host of What Are You Afraid Of?, a weekly horror and paranormal show that airs on Para-X radio on Friday evenings at 9:00 pm. He is featured in Monsterthology 2 collection, released in October 2019 by Zombie Works Publications with his story, "Tinfoil Bullet". His short story, Teddy Bear Kill! Kill! is featured in the anthology, Nightside: Tales of Outre Noir, released by Close to the Bone Publishing on October 30, 2020. His short story collection, "Dinner, Drinks, and Ectoplasm" is available now for FREE through various outlets, including his website at http://www.philthomas.net. Facebook: @philthomas117; Twitter: @filmauthor1 Read more about The Poe Predicament by Phil Thomas here: https://www.foundationsbooks.net/book/the-poe-predicament/ For author interviews and all media inquiries contact: Susan Pierce Publicist & Promotions Director Foundations Book Publishing Company SJ.Pierce@FoundationsBooks.net Direct: 404-410-6956 Scale Your Local Catch We are thrilled to have the opportunity to engage with and facilitate connections between innovative small-scale and community-based seafood producers to strengthen local and regional seafood systems. Small and mid-size seafood businesses across the United States are invited to apply for the inaugural cohort of Scale Your Local Catch (SYLC), a no-cost five-month virtual business accelerator program designed to train seafood producers on marketing their catch directly to consumers, scaling their business, and building greater resiliency within local and regional food systems. Applications are open online through November 5, 2021, for the program beginning in early December and concluding in April 2022. SYLC is produced by the Local Catch Network, based at the University of Maine, and is offered at no cost through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agricultures AMS Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP). SYLC was developed in partnership with Ecotrust, with the goal of strengthening local and regional seafood systems by addressing challenges associated with direct marketing and by building the knowledge, skills, and networks needed for direct marketing seafood businesses to scale up their operations and increase their capacity and viability for long-term resilience. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to engage with and facilitate connections between innovative small-scale and community-based seafood producers to strengthen local and regional seafood systems, said Jordan Richardson, Coordinator of the Local Catch Network. Weve successfully built a training program for farmers, ranchers, and fishers in the Northwest to expand their ability to feed the region. Im excited to work with the Local Catch Network and our partners to expand the model and reach communities across the country, said Tyson Rasor, Fisheries & Food Systems Program Manager at Ecotrust. Program topics include business structure, taxation, accounting, credit/finance, market development, and additional topics. Participants will receive customized business support from service providers and consultants who understand the unique needs of fishers and seafood harvesters who want to build financial viability, strengthen their business structure, and grow with integrity. Applicants should meet all selection criteria. Preference may be given to applicants who: Are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or identify as a person of color Are Women Are located in a remote/rural community with a population(s) of less than 25,000 Produce a value-added product from a raw commodity they are fishing, raising, or harvesting Interested applicants can register here to attend an information session on October 15, 2021 from 1-2pm ET. For full program information and to apply, visit https://localcatch.org/scale-your-local-catch/ or contact Jordan Richardson (Jordan.Richardson@maine.edu) and Tyson Richardson (trasor@ecotrust.org) with any questions. About the Local Catch Network The Local Catch Network, based at the University of Maine, is an inclusive, values-based network of 500+ seafood harvesters, researchers, and community organizations from across North America. LCN members support and promote safe, direct, transparent and profitable boat-to-fork systems of local and regional seafood distribution, such as Community Supported Fisheries (CSFs) and similar models. LCN is governed by a volunteer Executive Committee responsible for supporting the growth and development of the network, with backbone support from the North American Marine Alliance. FMI: https://localcatch.org/. About Ecotrust Ecotrust creates and accelerates triple-bottom-line innovations to benefit our region and inspire the world. Our work is rooted in the region from California to Alaska that holds productive lands and determined people. On the farm, at the coast, in the forest, and across our cities, we work in partnership towards an equitable, prosperous, climate-smart future. We recognize the legacy of colonialism and the deep inequities of this place, and we believe that radical, practical change is possible and necessary. Since 1991, we have created durable change and sparked ideas across the globe. Join us at ecotrust.org. For many drivers, car insurance is an expensive necessity that is needed to do their daily routines. Luckily, there are many methods that can help anyone save money on car insurance, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that presents several factors that affect the premiums and how drivers can pay cheaper car insurance For more info and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/why-do-you-pay-so-much-on-car-insurance-premiums Car insurance rates have a tendency to rise over time. Besides that, there are several factors that affect the costs of car insurance like higher costs of medical bills, increased prices of newer vehicles, and others. The most common factors that affect the price of car insurance are the following: Address. The location where a driver is living has a major impact on the price of insurance. Different areas have different insurance rates that are influenced by theft rates, vandalism, traffic congestion, hailstorms, and others. Drivers that live in large cities will pay higher insurance rates than those that live in small rural communities. Driving record. Drivers that have safe driving habits are less likely to be involved in accidents and will pay less on their insurance rates. On the other hand, drivers that have at-fault accidents, speeding tickets, DUI, convictions, and other traffic violations in their driving records will pay much more on their premiums. Furthermore, drivers that have numerous traffic violations will have a hard time finding an insurance company that is willing to sell coverage to them. Gender. Statistics show that male drivers are usually involved in more severe accidents than female drivers and are more likely to die than females. Therefore, insurers will charge more on male drivers (especially young drivers) than female drivers. Drivers that live in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, will be relieved knowing that the insurers cant use the gender in order to determine rates. The type of car. Certain car models have higher claim rates than others. Usually, these types of vehicles are more likely to be involved in accidents or to be stolen. Drivers that own one of these vehicles will pay higher insurance rates. Policyholders that own vehicles that have high safety ratings will manage to save money on car insurance. Credit history. Insurance companies consider that drivers that have a credit score under 600 to be riskier to insure, and for that, they will charge more on their insurance. Drivers that live in California, Hawaii, and Massachusetts are in luck because the local legislation doesn't allow the insurers to use their credit score to determine insurance rates. 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. The Sorenson Legacy Foundation is providing financial support for student interns to work on transcribing and researching Wilford Woodruffs writings with the hope that the experience will strengthen their skills and faith as well as bring uplifting messages to others." The Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization formed to digitally transcribe and publish Wilford Woodruff's documents from 1833 to 1898, today announced they have received a major grant from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation to support 90 new internships for college and high school students. For the next three years, the funds will expand the work of the Wilford Woodruff Papers project to engage ten qualified interns each semester. Students pursuing studies in editing, publishing, history, humanities, women's studies, family history, and data science departments at any college or university are encouraged to apply. The foundation is accepting senior project proposals as well. We are thrilled to be awarded this grant from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation," said Jennifer Mackley, Executive Director of the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation. "The grant will make it possible for us to engage more students in a variety of ways as we expand the project. The creativity and enthusiasm of our current high school and college interns has accelerated our publishing process. We look forward to what the Sorenson interns will help us accomplish. The grant will make it possible to expand and accelerate the transcription process. The project is already ahead of schedule because we have been able to increase the pace of transcription through crowdsourcing. We now have 115 dedicated individuals working to transcribe, verify, and hyperlink the 1,500 documents we have located and digitized. The Sorenson Legacy Foundation grant enables us to hire additional student interns as mentors and trainers to the ever growing team of volunteers, Mackley said. In less than one year the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project has completed transcribing and hyperlinking the first 20 years of Wilford Woodruffs journals (1833-1853) and nine of his 11 autobiographies. Additionally, they have identified 4,602 people with whom he interacted and completed research to publish biographical sketches for many of them to aid readers in their contextual study of Wilford Woodruff's writings. The Sorenson Legacy Foundation is providing financial support for student interns to work on transcribing and researching Wilford Woodruffs writings with the hope that the experience will strengthen their skills and faith as well as bring uplifting messages to others, said Lisa Meiling, Executive Director of the Sorenson Legacy Foundation. Strengthening the rising generation by engaging them in learning furthers the work of both foundations. We are very grateful for this gift that will allow us to not only provide educational opportunities but also help engage the rising generation in learning the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in context and increase understanding of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, said Mackley. Click here for more information about the student internship program at the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation: https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/volunteer About the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation The Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in January 2020 for the purpose of publishing Wilford Woodruff's documents on the open-access website wilfordwoodruffpapers.org. The foundation is not affiliated with nor sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but seeks to be in harmony with the Church and support its mission. The foundation is working in cooperation with the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. http://www.wilfordwoodruffpapers.org Wilford Woodruff, (March 1, 1807 - September 2, 1898) was an American religious leader who served as the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death. About the Sorenson Legacy Foundation The Sorenson Legacy Foundation based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a nonprofit corporation established by the James LeVoy Sorenson family for the exclusive purpose of promoting charitable, religious, educational, literary and scientific endeavors. The foundation is qualified under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. http://www.sorensonlegacyfoundation.org MEDIA CONTACT: Diane Lefrandt Nelson diane.nelson@wilfordwoodruffpapers.org 801.357.9159 Atlas Total Health Chiropractic, Chattanooga and the North Georgia regions largest chiropractic team, today announced they are looking to expand to three new locations in 2022 - two in the Chattanooga area and one in Georgia. The group currently boasts 17 locations throughout the region. The thriving practice aims to help patients reach optimal health by addressing underlying problems, educating, and informing them as well as offering optimal treatment options at an affordable cost. A number of studies compiled by the American Chiropractic Association show the proven effectiveness of chiropractic treatment. Many patients report improvement of Acute and Chronic Pain leading to less reliance on medication. Chiropractic care also leads to the promotion of natural healing, increases flexibility and mobility to the joints, improves posture, decreases stress levels as well as blood pressure. Chattanooga Chiropractor (Atlas Total Health Chiropractic) provide expert non-surgical treatment to relieve pain, immobility, and other conditions that interfere with a full life. Among the causes of discomfort that our chiropractor and his staff treat are back pain, neck pain, and work injuries. Atlas Total Health helps patients achieve better health, and ultimately, improved quality of life throughout one's life span. Services offered include Wellness, Dry Needling, Pain Management, Personal Injury, and Chiropractic Adjustment. The mission of our team at Total Health Chiropractic is to address the cause of your pain, said Dr. Dominick J. Tomasino, founder of Atlas Total Health Chiropractic. Our goal is to educate, inform, and empower all of our patients. We will provide the highest quality of care at an affordable cost. Tomasino is a Board-Certified Chiropractic Physician and has a Certificate of Attainment from the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners as well as a BS in Nutrition. Tomasino has also served on the Tennessee Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Conditions treated at Atlas include Auto Accident, Back Pain, Fibromyalgia, Headaches, Herniated Disc, Neck Pain and Sciatica. New patients can take advantage of a consultation, exam, Adjustment, and one set of X-Rays for $39. Other locations include three in the Chattanooga area as well as offices peppered throughout Georgia - including Atlanta and Alpharetta. The new locations will offer patients another 20 years or longer of personalized care for achieving optimal health and well-being. For more information, please visit http://www.totalhealthchiro.com, email Susan Caulder at Info@totalhealthchiro.com or call (866) 668-0108. About Atlas Total Health Chiropractic Atlas Total Health was founded in 1996 by Dr. Dominick J. Tomasino who is a Board-Certified Chiropractic Physician and has a Certificate of Attainment from the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Atlas Total Health Chiropractic is a family of full-service wellness & Chiropractic clinics in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Georgia. Woolpert Project Manager Luiz Frediani Luizs diverse yet focused leadership experience with clients and design firms gives him unique insight into retail development planning and the skills needed to ensure each project proceeds smoothly and successfully. Woolpert has hired Luiz Frediani as a project manager to support retail development projects and clients, primarily in Florida. The trilingual project management professional has more than 20 years of experience managing multiple facets of retail development at global firms, from directing construction and facilities for Starbucks to executing real estate contracts and permits for Walmart in South America. A civil engineer by trade, Frediani is an international associate with the American Institute of Architects and earned his masters degree in business administration from the University of Manchester in England. This versatility has benefited Frediani, a Brazilian native, in several international leadership roles. These have included directing real estate needs to support industries from transportation to health care, leading internal and external retail management teams, executing all phases of a project life cycle from site selection to completion, and identifying organizational and financial process improvements to cut costs and gain efficiencies. Frediani said at Woolpert he will be able to combine his professional and academic experience to implement strategies to help clients evolve and succeed, regardless of the environment. The role of a project manager in retail developments is to bring balance to the business and enable the technical team to do their best work and improve their way of life, Frediani said. With recent retail trends driven by the pandemic, such as pick-up lockers and drive-and-go spaces, theres a market need to update internal spaces at stores and restaurants across the U.S. With Woolperts comprehensive architecture, engineering and geospatial (AEG) services, we can efficiently capture existing conditions and provide multiple options and solutions for clients. Woolpert Market Director Mark Mockus said Fredianis proven skills in retail management and project execution combined with his entrepreneurial approach to profitability make him an ideal fit for the firm. Luizs diverse yet focused leadership experience with clients and design firms gives him unique insight into retail development planning and the skills needed to ensure each project proceeds smoothly and successfully, Mockus said. This trajectory matches that of our retail development team, whose extensive cross-market capabilities directly support 21st-century industry needs. Luiz will be a great asset to our team in Florida and our extended group around the world. 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 more than 1,600 employees and 60 offices on four continents. For more, visit woolpert.com. Founders, entrepreneurs, C-Level executives, investors, politicians, and journalists will meet to navigate the current state of mobility and to pave the path for the next phase of sustainable transportation. Attendees will gain exclusive insights into growth opportunities, market trends, and sustainability practices through a series of panel discussions and networking sessions. Speakers at WMS21 include: Maya Ben Dror, Portfolio Lead Sustainable Automotive and Mobility Initiatives at The World Economic Forum; Dr. Anjes Tjarks, Senator for Transport and Mobility Change for the City of Hamburg; and Jonas Seyfferth, Director at Strategy&, part of the PwC network. Jonas Seyfferth said: Everyone who is attending this event has a similar purpose and vision of the future of mobility. The Summit for me and for us as a firm is about diving into an exciting atmosphere of disruption and change and bringing together people from different angles and perspectives. In partnership with the World Economic Forum, the event is hosted by Wunder Mobility. The company is accelerating the global transition to sustainable mobility. It provides software, vehicles and a full range of services to cities and companies to help them launch and scale new mobility services. Active in 900 cities with over 50k vehicles on its platform and 22m rides shared, Wunder Mobility wants to make the world a greener, healthier and happier place through shared mobility. Gunnar Froh, Founder and CEO of Wunder Mobility, said: Sustainable transportation is now more crucial than ever. Im very excited that we can bring industry experts, thought leaders, and policymakers together again in person. This summit sets the course for the future of new mobility and provides a voice to the entire ecosystem. This years event will take place in person in Hamburg, Germany, at the International Maritime Museum. Safety measures will be in place to comply with local regulations and to ensure the health of all attendees. While WMS21 is not a digital event, presentations and panels will also be broadcast online. What to expect at this year's event? Conference: Inspirational speakers share their knowledge in lively panel discussions. Tech Playground: Guests can play around with and be inspired by new technology. Test Drive: Guests have the chance to test out all types of new mobility first-hand. Active Matchmaking: Facilitated 1:1 meetings between guests who want to meet each other. Networking & Party: A collaborative, memorable environment and networking breaks. Download the full WMS21 agenda and apply for exclusive tickets at http://www.wundermobility.com/summit. Actresses Maiwenn, Rachida Brakni & Isabelle Adjani in "Sisters". Credit: Distrib Films US With a strong female cast, including Academy Award Nominee Isabelle Adjani, this film is a beautiful interpretation of the richness and complexity of life, says Francois Scippa Kohn, founder of New York-based Distrib Films. Sisters, a drama starring Isabelle Adjani, Rachida Brakni, and Maiwenn (DNA, Poliss), will premiere on October 29th at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles. The film, directed by Yamina Benguigui, was acquired by Distrib Films for US distribution. Sisters will be available via virtual engagement at watch.laemmle.com starting November 5th, as well as on virtual screens: https://www.distribfilmsus.com/portfolio/sisters/. Sisters follows the story of French-Algerian sisters Zorah, Nohra and Djamila who, for 30 years, have been living with the hope of finding their brother Rheda, who was abducted and hidden by their father in decolonized Algeria. Their relationship is shaken when the eldest sister, Zorah, decides to write a play based on the traumatizing events of their childhood. Upon learning their father is dying, the three sisters travel to Algeria to seize their last opportunity to have him reveal the whereabouts of their brother. When the past catches up, the sisters have no choice but to put their differences aside. With a strong female cast, including Academy Award Nominee Isabelle Adjani, this film is a beautiful interpretation of the richness and complexity of life, says Francois Scippa Kohn, founder of New York-based Distrib Films. Its a very personal take on family relationships and what it means to become independent. As a distributor, it is important to share women-focused stories that speak to identity in modern societies with mass appeal so Im thrilled to have Sisters in our line-up and will continue looking for such singular and atypical titles. For more on Sisters, please visit: https://www.distribfilmsus.com/portfolio/sisters/ About Distrib Films: Distrib Films has been releasing movies since 2010, starting in France and then expanding to the US. As an independent company, Distrib Films President and Head of Distribution Francois Scippa Kohn has built a strong network of connections within the industry with producers, sales agents, theater and festival bookers, VOD aggregators, and all types of vendors helping to release each movie with a tailored approach. Recipients of the American Association of School Librarians 2021 awards and grants are slated to be honored during the organizations national conference in Salt Lake City, October 2123. The winners, sponsors, and volunteer leaders of the award committees will be recognized during AASLs opening ceremony and general session and additionally feted at an awards recognition breakfast hosted by AASL. Here, we introduce some of the librarians and administrators who are being recognized for their accomplishments this year. Calvert County Public Schools in Prince Frederick, Md., was named winner of the AASL 2021 National School Library of the Year Award. This award, sponsored by Follett, recognizes a single or district-wide school library that exemplifies the implementation of AASLs national school library standards. Calvert County Public Schools will receive a crystal obelisk (the symbol of school library excellence) and $10,000 for its school libraries. In a statement, Lisa Brakel, who chaired the award committee, pinpointed what set CCPS apart. Their libraries are led by exceptional school librarians who make the libraries a unique and essential place in the districts learning community, she said. Working as a team they challenge each other to go above and beyond their daily work expectations and genuinely transform teaching and learning for everyone in their district. The 2021 AASL Collaborative School Library Award goes to Amanda Hurley, library media specialist for Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Ky. Scholastic Book Fairs sponsors this $2,500 award, which spotlights the innovative ways that school librarians and teachers work together to create and implement curriculum-supporting programs using school library resources. Hurley teamed up with math teacher Sarah Zehnder to develop a program called Engaged2: Yearlong Math and Library Collaborations, which includes 1015 projects that educators can choose from to use with students in a given school year. One example that impressed the award committee chaired by Jennifer Powell was a semester-long project in which advanced geometry students were asked to research, plan, and design a renovation project for the school library. As the assignment progressed, students analyzed the needs of the library and its users, identified ways to improve the librarys space and service, created a scaled model of the renovation, and pitched the project to an audience of teachers, fellow students, and administrators. Hurley and Zehnder faced the added challenge of implementing these interactive lessons during a period when schools were closed due to the pandemic. As a result, they turned an in-person project into a virtual one by joining forces with the Jessamine County Public Library, which allowed the educators to secure 360-degree images of the library and create an interactive field trip for their students using Google Tour Creator. A project entitled Empowering a Diverse Community of Learners Through Biographies from educators at Gwin Elementary School in Hoover, Ala., has been selected the winner of the Roald Dahls Miss Honey Social Justice Award. Sponsored by Penguin Random House, the award consists of a $2,000 prize for the librarian as well as up to $1,000 travel and housing reimbursement to attend the AASL Awards ceremony, and a $5,000 book donation from PRH. Library media specialist Jennifer Northrup, third-grade teacher Hali House, STEAM teacher Kelley Feagin, and outreach public librarian Katie Jane Morris drew inspiration from the diverse population of their school community to design a project that used biographies of influential Black Americans to help students better understand social justice and the real-world struggles their subjects faced. Though the project emphasized reading, writing, digital literacy, and information literacy, it also helped students develop critical social-emotional skills by exploring identity and empathy. As part of the collaboration, Feagin provided students with a way to present their final research reports using robotics. The latest recipient of the AASL Distinguished School Administrator Award is Dr. April Grace, superintendent of Shawnee Public Schools in Shawnee, Okla. Grace was instrumental in implementing AASLs National School Library Standards in her district prior to Oklahomas official adoption of them statewide. She created the position of district-level school library services coordinator to ensure that district librarians were sufficiently trained in the standards and that their library programs were aligned with the standards. Within her first few months as superintendent, Grace made moves to restore funding and staffing cuts (including full-time certified librarians), and to establish flexible scheduling. The committee believes that Dr. Grace provides school librarians in Shawnee Public Schools with the whole package, committee chair Susan Hess said in a statement. This includes financial and staffing support, flexible scheduling, and access to professional development opportunities. She believes that the school library is the central core and heartbeat of the school and says that if we want all learners to receive an exceptional and equitable education, then all learners must have access to a fully funded library with a qualified school librarian. In recognition of her contributions, Grace will receive $2,000 from the awards sponsor, ProQuest, the library database and research-tool company. MLW FIGHTLAND REPORT: HAMMERSTONE VERSUS FATU, MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE MATCH, AND MORE We are in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and your announcers are Jared St. Laurent and Rich Bocchini. Match Number One: Myron Reed versus Arez versus Aramis versus Tajiri for the MLW Middleweight Championsip The crowd chants for Tajiri. Aramis and Tajiri shake hands and then not to feel left out, Reed offers his hand to Tajiri and they shake. Arez offers his hand and Arez with a full nelson. Tajiri kicks Aramis and Reed away and then Arez with an arm drag into a take down. Arez with a rollup for a near fall. Reed with a back slide on Arez for a near fall. Reed sends Aramis into Arez and Arez with a rollup. Aramis with an arm drag to Arez and Arez tries for a sunset flip and gets a near fall. Tajiri with a rollup on Arez for a near fall. Reed gets a near fall on Aramis. Aramis with a super kick to Reed and Arez sends Tajiri to the floor. Reed also goes to the floor. Aramis gets on Arezs shoulders and Aramis with a satellite move. Arez with a snap mare for a near fall. Aramis with a straitjacket and Aramis with a shoulder tackle. Aramis with a boot but Arez blocks it and Arez goes for a leg sweep but then hits a head scissors. Aramis with a head scissors to Aez. Arez with a forearm and Aramis with a forearm and Arez catches Aramis and Arez with a kick. Reed with a leg drop from the apron to Aramis. Reed with an STO to Arez followed by a slingshot leg drop. Reed goes for a springboard cutter but Arez and Aramis block it. Tajiri with a back heel kick to Arez and a round kick to Aramis. Tajiri and Aramis lock up and Tajiri with a side head lock and Aramis goes to the apron and connects with a shoulder and Aramis with a slingshot arm drag and drop kick to Tajiri. Arez rolls through and hits a suicide dive onto Tajiri. Aramis with a suicide dive to Arez. Reed with a suicide dive onto Aramis. Arez with a flip dive onto Reed. Aramis with a plancha onto Arez. Reed with a plancha onto Aramis. We go to commercial. We are back and everyone is down on the floor. Tajiri stops Aramis on the apron and Reed with a leaping cutter over the top rope to the floor. Reed sends Aramis back into the ring and Reed with a springboard 450 splash but Tajiri with a round kick to break up the cover. Tajiri with a brainbuster but Arez breaks up the cover. Tajiri punches Arez but Arez with an enzuigiri. Arez with kicks but he misses an enzuigiri. Tajiri with a waist lock and Arez with a back elbow and rollup into a double stomp. Arez goes for a hanging swinging neck breaker on Aramis but Aramis counters and hits a reverse suplex for a near fall. Aramis with a back heel kick to Tajiri followed by an Irish whip. Tajiri with a tarantula on Aramis and Arez kicks Aramis. Reed kicks Arez and Arez leaps over Reed on a charge into the corner. Arez with a Boston Crab in the turnbuckles and Tajiri kicks Reed in the chest. Aramis sends Tajiri to the floor and Arez leaps over Aramis. Aramis with a leg sweep and kick to the arm. Arez with a forearm and enzuigiri but Aramis with a rolling elbow. Arez kicks Reed on the apron. Arez goes to the apron and rolls back in and kicks Aramis and follows with a suicide dive onto Tajiri. Aramis with a plancha onto Reed. Aramis with Spanish Fly on the floor to Arez and they return to the ring. Aramis drop kicks Arez in the back of the legs but Arez with a super kick. Aramis with a round kick and Arez with package sit out power bomb for a near fall. Arez goes to the turnbuckles and goes for a frog splash but Reed hits a cutter as Arez lands on Aramis. Reed holds on and gets Arez up for an Air Raid Crash but Tajiri breaks up the cover. Tajiri kicks Arez to the floor. Reed with a cutter and then Reed is pushed toward the referee and Tajiri with the green mist and then Tajiri with a handspring kick to knock Aramis off the apron. Tajiri with the Buzzsaw kick for the three count. Winner: Tajiri (new Champion) We are interrupted by Contra Unit. Mads Krugger says that destiny calls, but you will not triumph. The Black Hand of Contra will hunt you down. Tonight, you will denied your quest for gold. Tonight, the Black Flag of Contra will be draped over your body. We go to the back where Mads Krugger, Ikuro Kwon, and the Sendai Death Squad attack security members to find out where Alexander Hammerstone is. We go to commercial. We are back and we are told that the Opera Cup will start next week on Fusion Alpha with Tom Lawlor versus Davey Richards in a first round match. We are also told that on November 6th, Will Ospreay will make his MLW debut in Philadelphia. We go to MLW Embedded in New York with Alicia Atout. She is joined by Raj Giri, Andreas Hale, and Emilio Sparks in the studio. Dave Meltzer is appearing from his home. Alicia brings up the recent WWE releases and she asks if this means that the WWE is for sale. Dave says there is always talk about a sale. He brings up Vinces age and the value of the company. He mentions the Peacock deal and how it means that WWE is looking to make money from bigger companies. Raj says that they always talked about never being for sale. He says that there was talk in the past. Andreas says that this is clean things up. Emilio says that Vince is like Andy from Toy Story and how he brings in new talent when he will work out some new deals. Alicia asks about potential buyers for WWE. Raj mentions CAA, Fox, and NBC Universal. Alicia asks Emilio how realistic a sale might be. He says that as a fan, he does not want to see WWE sold. He says it is a possibility in 10 years. Alicia brings up AEW and the signing of WWE free agents. She asks who is next. Andreas mentions Kevin Owens. He says his contract may be up soon and his friends are in AEW. Raj mentions Bray Wyatt. Alicia asks about Kevins contract. Raj says it expires in January. Alicia asks about other people whose contracts could be up. They mention Sami Zayn. Alicia mentions that Will Ospreay will be coming to MLW. She asks Dave about Will Ospreay. Dave says Will is one of the most talented in the business. He is a top tier performer. Raj says that people would say he is in the top three or five. Andreas says that Will is very talented. Andreas says there is a cache when you say you are the real IWGP World Champion. He says that Will may go after this companys biggest champions. He says that Myron Reed and Will Ospreay could be a match of the year. We go to commercial. We are back and Contra Unit goes into a room and they are met with many of the MLW wrestlers. They continue to brawl while the door is closed and latched. Cesar Duran says that he will not let Contra Unit destroy his World Title Match. Match Number Two: Alexander Hammerstone versus Jacob Fatu (with Josef Samael) in a Title versus Title No Disqualification Match Hammerstone runs Fatu into the corner and connects with shoulders and chops. Hammerstone runs Fatu into the corner again and Hammerstone with punches and kicks. Fatu sends Hammerstone into the corner and connects with an uppercut and chop. Fatu with a head butt. Fatu with another head butt. Fatu sends Hammerstone into the turnbuckles. Fatu with a splash into the corner. Fatu with more punches in the corner. Hammerstone with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex followed by a second one. Hammerstone clotheslines Fatu over the top rope and Fatu lands on his feet. Fatu runs Hammerstone into the corner and connects with shoulders and a punch. Fatu with a chop and kicks in the corner. Fatu with a hard Irish whip. Fatu with more punches and another hard Irish whip. Fatu runs into an elbow and Fatu catches Hammerstone and hits a uranage. Hammerstone rolls to the floor and Fatu sends Hammerstone into the guardrails. Fatu gets on the guardrails and hits a moonsault onto Hammerstone. Hammerstone sends Fatu into the apron. Hammerstone goes to the apron and he pulls Fatu onto the apron. Hammerstone with a forearm and Fatu with a slap. Hammerstone with an elbow and then he gets Fatu up on his shoulders. Fatu gets back to his feet and he kicks Hammerstone and hits a piledriver on the apron. We go to commercial. We are back and Hammerstone is down in the ring. Fatu tries to send Hammerstone into the chair in the turnbuckles but Hammerstone collapses to the mat. Fatu sends Hammerstone into the chair. Fatu kicks Hammerstone and then Fatu goes to the turnbuckles with a chair and Fatu with a Van Terminator but Fatu cannot capitalize on it. Fatu gets a near fall. Fatu with a nerve hold on Hammerstone. Hammerstone with elbows and a belly-to-back suplex. Fatu runs into a boot from Hammerstone and Fatu blocks another kick. Hammerstone with an enzuigiri. Hammerstone with an exploder into the turnbuckles. Hammerstone with a clothesline in the corner followed by a knee and uppercut. Hammerstone with a flying boot for a near fall. Fatu gets Hammerstone up for a Samoan drop but Hammerstone gets to his feet and hits a bicycle kick but Hammerstone goes down after landing awkwardly. Hammerstone with a German suplex and a sit out power bomb for a near fall. We go to commercial. We are back and Fatu with a pop up Samoan drop. Fatu goes up top and hits a swanton but Hammerstone rolls to the floor to avoid being covered. Fatu with a suicide dive onto Hammerstone. They return to the ring and Hammerstone with a forearm to knock Fatu off the apron. Hammerstone with a pescado onto Fatu. Hammerstone limps over to Fatu to bring him into the ring. Hammerstone goes up top. Hammerstone with a missile drop kick and Fatu hits the turnbuckle after the impact. They both limp to the center of the ring and get in each others face. Hammerstone with a forearm and Fatu with a punch. Hammerstone with another forearm and Fatu with another punch. Hammerstone with a back elbow and Fatu with another punch. Hammerstone with a punch and head butt, but Fatu shows Hammerstone how to head butt an opponent. Hammerstone with punches. Samael grabs Hammerstone as he tries to go off the ropes and Fatu clotheslines Hammerstone over the top rope. Samael hits Hammerstone with the spike and Hammerstone is sent back into the ring. Fatu gets a table from under the ring and puts it in the ring. Fatu returns to the ring and he sets up the ring while Hammerstone is down. Fatu puts Hammerstone on the table and Fatu punches Hammerstone. Fatu gets the Contra flag from Samael and puts it over Hammerstone. Fatu with a double jump moonsault through the table but Hammerstone kicks out at two. Hammerstone grabs the flag and throws it into the crowd. Hammerstone with punches and a clothesline. Hammerstone with a power slam and then he gets Fatu up for a TKO and the three count. Winner: Alexander Hammerstone (new World Champion) After the match, Hammerstone is presented with both title belts. Confetti falls from the ceiling of the 2300 Arena and then he collapses in the ring as he realizes that he is the MLW World Champion. We go to credits. If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here! The topical political drama has been produced by UFA Fiction, the company behind the international hit series Deutschland 83, 86 and 89. Inspired by real events, the series follows Germanys most successful media lawyer Leo Roth as she navigates political battles with her law firm whilst mixing with the glamorous world of the rich and famous. For Roth, work has only one purpose: to win every case. Berlin Legal is directed by Randa Chahoud (Deutschland 89) and Stefan Buhling (The White Snake), with Felice Gotze (Uber die Grenze) and Lena Kammermeier (Bleiben will ich wo ich nie gewesen bin) as the head writers. The cast includes Lavinia Wilson (Deutschland 89), Stefan Kurt, Annika Kuhl, Rainer Sellien, Michaela Caspar, Maryam Zaree (4 Blocks), Niels Bormann (Deutschland 89), Aaron Altaras, Sebastian Hulk, Sophie Rois (Barbarians), and Jacob Matschenz (Berlin Babylon). Kerstin Grunewald, director international sales, Studio Hamburg Enterprises, said: Berlin Legal takes a look behind the murky world of law, politics and celebrity. We are confident the series will have a broad international appeal due to its exciting plot, complex characters, and the issues it tackles around privacy, hate speech and fake news, which are timely and relevant to viewers across the world. UFA Fiction is one of the most successful production companies in Germany and has a long track record in making thrilling series which captivate German and international audiences, so were honoured to have them on board. Kristina Henning (producer UFA Fiction) and Benjamin Benedict (CEO UFA Fiction and producer) added: Berlin Legal is a show about the greatest social transformation of our time: digitalisation and the resulting publicity of our private lives. In our series people experience how their most intimate secrets are dragged out into the public. Once there, explosive information spreads rapidly and gets stuck in people's minds. The victims of hate speech, public shitstorms and misinformation often feel powerless, because it seems impossible to avoid this unwanted display of their private lives or the spread of lies. When it comes to privacy, it is not only the rights of the individual that are at stake, but our constitutional state. Consequently, our main character Leo Roth is the first media lawyer at the centre of a legal series. A Google Cloud premier partner, SADA will assist with the integration as MadHive doubles its $50 million Google Cloud investment deal announced last year to support the companys explosive growth.MadHives infrastructure-as-a-service enterprise software has been on a growth path over recent times and has accelerated local OTT reach extension across major broadcasters including Fox, Hearst, Scripps and TEGNAs Premion. More recently, DTC brands and agencies aiming to target more precise audiences beyond social media, such as the computer security company McAfee, have bolstered MadHives client roster and further fuelled its 100% YOY revenue growth.Over the past year, MadHive has been in a period of hyper-growth as broadcasters and brands adopt our technology to power their cross-channel advertising efforts, commented MadHive CEO Adam Helfgott. This increased investment in SADA and Google Cloud will allow MadHive to create an even stronger infrastructure that allows for lightning-speed insights and campaign optimisations, while solving widespread industry problems like fraud, transparency, privacy and interoperability for our clients. SADAs expertise has helped MadHive save 60% on cloud services with Google Cloud by building more efficient scaling systems. Our extensive expertise in scaling Google Cloud operations will allow MadHive to spend its time more effectively researching, iterating and deploying technology that is revolutionising the advertising industry, added SADA CEO Tony Safoian. Our team of cloud experts support MadHive with everything from implementation and scaling to cost optimisation, security and problem solving with Google Cloud engineers. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 10/07/2021 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. couple Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt have revealed how Serena's family reacted to their engagement news and what their plans are for moving in together.Joe, a 34-year-old former grocery store owner from Chicago, IL, got down on one knee and presented Serena, a 23-year-old Canadian publicist from Toronto, with an engagement ring during Tuesday night's Season 7 finale of ."Oh my God, my family is going to kill me!" Serena said at the conclusion of the broadcast, before smiling and kissing her new fiance."I'm sure they're going to kill me first," Joe joked.Serena confirmed how her family actually reacted in a joint interview with Joe on Wednesday."I think shock was the first emotion, definitely shock, but I mean, we have a great relationship," Serena told Us Weekly of her parents."They're very loving and supportive and as much as I would say, they're still a little bit shocked by all of it -- I mean, it's just very unconventional -- [but] they're just excited to be a part of it and be able to share it now with their family and friends and get to know Joe more."Joe revealed he's already met Serena's parents and the meeting went "great.""I mean, they're wonderful people and very similar to my family in a way. But yeah, I mean they're obviously..."Serena suggested her parents weren't exactly thrilled about the news when she interjected, "They're like, 'You're engaged to a stranger!' when I called them.""That's the difficult part, right? Because they've never met me," Joe explained. "We're slowly building the relationship."Joe and Serena fell head over heels in love for each other on the show after coupling up in the first few days of Paradise.The couple also managed to stay together and remain strong once Joe's ex-girlfriend of nearly two years, Kendall Long , showed up on the beach, seemingly unsure of whether her intention was to find closure with Joe and move on or patch things up with Joe.Joe and Kendall said that despite being in love and happy together, they broke up because they couldn't agree on whether to live in Chicago or Kendall's home city of Los Angeles long-term.Joe gave Los Angeles a chance during and after his stint on Dancing with the Stars and wanted to move back to Chicago to be with his friends and family, but Kendall apparently wouldn't even consider relocating and trying out a life in Chicago.As for Joe and Serena's plans for the future, Joe revealed, "Right now, we're splitting time between Chicago and Toronto, and then we are planning on moving in together in the spring.""We're deciding between probably three locations, either Toronto, Chicago or New York. We'll figure it out."Serena added how the pair has "a little bit of time" before they must make a big move.On the show's finale , Joe gushed after getting engaged, "We followed our hearts and will just figure out the other stuff later," suggesting he and Serena had made no official decisions about post-show logistics yet.And Serena joked, "The most logical people on the beach followed our hearts and got engaged!"Regardless of where they end up, Joe and Serena are convinced they'll be together and be happy."We're definitely excited to take that step in the relationship and, you know, we both love the East coast, but it's kind of whatever makes the most sense for us personally and professionally at the time," Serena shared.Prior to appearing on , Joe got eliminated very early from Becca Kufrin 's season of The Bachelorette and met Kendall on Season 5 of Paradise.And Serena dumped Matt James on his The Bachelor season earlier this year after her hometown date.In addition to Serena and Joe, two other couples got engaged on 's seventh season: Kenny Braasch and Mari Pepin-Solis as well as Riley Christian and Maurissa Gunn.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 10/07/2021 ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. couple Kenny Braasch and Mari Pepin-Solis have shared their next step as a couple and how they've already got the ball rolling on wedding planning!Mari, a 24-year-old marketing director from Luquillo, Puerto Rico, accepted a marriage proposal from Kenny, a 40-year-old boyband manager from Chicago, IL, during Tuesday night's Season 7 finale of ."So we haven't set, like, a wedding date or anything yet, but I am going to be moving to Chicago in the next few months," Mari, 25, revealed to Us Weekly in a joint video interview with her new fiance."So that's our first step, and we did agree to get married in Puerto Rico, where I'm from. So there's that!"Kenny said he knew he was going to propose marriage to Mari after ending his romance with Demi Burnett and going on one date with Tia Booth when Mari had pulled him aside to patch things up between them.Kenny therefore said he had his heart set on giving Mari an engagement ring "quite a few days before the engagement."Mari and Kenny also agreed they don't even notice the age difference between them anymore."The way that we work together and the way that we go about our lives fits really well together, so it doesn't really feel like there's a gap at all," Mari said.In terms of how their families reacted to the couple's engagement news, Kenny shared how his parents were "very shocked" at first, but Mari noted her family was "really excited" for her."Both of my parents cried when I told them," Mari recalled with a laugh. "But they're happy for me."The two families apparently gathered together to watch the finale.On 's finale, Kenny said getting engaged to a person so soon was "insane" but he'd be an "idiot" not to wife Mari up because he was absolutely crazy about the girl.Mari, wearing a long floral white dress with her hair down and curled, then met Kenny -- who had "100 percent of her heart" -- on the beach.Mari told Kenny she had entered Paradise with high hopes and their first two days were magical. Mari, scared what they had was too perfect, ran away from him -- only to fight for him and win him back. Mari said she felt like the luckiest woman in the world to be with him.Kenny said in reply that he was "blown away" by Mari's beauty at first sight and felt something entirely new for her. Kenny also acknowledged how they had been tested like no other couple in Paradise.Kenny's hands were shaking and he needed to pause and take a deep breath, before yelling, "Mari, I am so f-cking in love with you! And I can't see my life without you. You are an amazing woman and you've changed my whole outlook on life."In addition to Kenny and Mari, two other couples got engaged on the finale: Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt as well as Riley Christian and Maurissa Gunn.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group Genesis will reschedule four dates of its Last Domino? tour. ADVERTISEMENT The British rock band said Friday that it is postponing the shows due to positive COVID-19 tests within the band. "This is a hugely frustrating development for the band who are devastated with this unlucky turn of events," a statement reads. "They hate having to take these steps but the safety of the audience and touring crew has to take priority. They look forward to seeing you upon their return." Genesis said it is working to reschedule Friday's show at Glasgow SSE Hydro and the Oct. 11, 12 and 13 concerts at The O2 in London as soon as possible. The band will announce the new dates on its website and social media pages. All tickets will remain valid and ticket holders will be contacted by their ticket providers. Genesis kicked off the Last Domino? tour in September. The tour reunites Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford after a 13-year hiatus. The North American leg of the tour will begin Nov. 15 in Chicago and end Dec. 16 in Boston. Genesis is known for such singles as "Follow You Follow Me," "Mama," "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" and "I Can't Dance." The band was formed in 1967. South Korean boy band NCT 127 is gearing up to release its new repackaged album. ADVERTISEMENT The K-pop group shared a schedule for the album, titled Favorite, on Friday. NCT 127 will release a "Classic" mood sampler and first teaser image for the album Tuesday, followed by teaser images Oct. 13-15. It will also share album details Oct. 15. The group will then release a "Catharsis" mood sampler and teaser image Oct. 16, followed by additional teaser images Oct. 17-19. NCT 127 will share "Story of Favorite" teasers Oct. 20-22. The group will release "Favorite" teaser images Oct. 23 and 24, as well as a "Favorite" music video teaser Oct. 24. NCT 127 will release Favorite and the full "Favorite" music video Oct. 25. Favorite is a repackaged version of NCT 127's album Sticker, released in September. The repackaged version will feature the new songs "Favorite," "Love on the Floor" and "Pilot." NCT 127 consists of Taeil, Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Winwin, Jungwoo, Mark and Haechan. The group is a subunit of the boy band NCT. Kim Hye-yoon has become one of South Korea's hottest young stars, thanks to roles on hit dramas Sky Castle and Extraordinary You. But she unveils a very different side as a tattooed hellraiser out for revenge in The Girl on a Bulldozer, which premiered Friday at the Busan International Film Festival. ADVERTISEMENT In the film, Kim plays Gu Hye-young, a college dropout who sets out to investigate a mysterious car accident that left her father brain-dead. Before long, she's gone down a rabbit hole of corruption, violence and deceit with little hope of escape. Kim, 24, told UPI that she was immediately drawn to the challenge of playing Hye-young, who is shockingly brazen and relentless in her quest for vengeance. "I had never seen a character like this, who breaks the rules all the time," Kim said. "She's entirely new. I wasn't sure how to play this part, and that made me want to do the film." When we meet Hye-young, she's an angry young woman, trapped in limbo with a gambler father (Park Hyuk-kwon), whose Incheon restaurant is constantly on the edge of financial ruin, and a little brother (Park Si-woo) she is determined to protect. She loses a fast-food job and is stuck doing court-mandated vocational training for an assault rap. Instead of studying to become a barista or a stylist, Hye-young learns to drive a bulldozer -- a skill that, as the title suggests, will come in handy later. We also learn quickly that Hye-young doesn't back down from anyone, whether it's an interloper with designs on her father's restaurant or a cop who dismissively raps her on her head. Instead of turning the other cheek, she slaps back twice as hard, "Personally, I think [Hye-young] has a purity about herself, and she reacts right away if someone crosses her line," Kim said. "I don't think of her as violent. She's just honest with her feelings." FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! The film's director, Park Ri-Woong, said that he set out with a vision of a character whose only power is an uncanny determination. "She's someone who looks weak but inside she's really strong," Park told UPI. "She's doesn't have any secret spy skills, she doesn't gain any extraordinary abilities. I just wanted to see a character that takes on every obstacle she faces." The obstacles keep multiplying for Hye-young, as her investigation runs up against powerful business and political interests in the form of her father's former boss (Oh Man-suk), who owns the land on which the family's restaurant sits. Park said he didn't intend to make a social statement, but The Girl on a Bulldozer explores a milieu familiar to fans of Parasite and Squid Game: a wealthy society in which inequality is on the rise and opportunities are on the decline -- where the strong prey on the weak with little consequence. It's also a setting in which a young woman like Hye-young is not expected to drive a bulldozer or have a full-sleeve tattoo, much less fight back against injustices large and small. Kim said it took her a while to fully embrace Hye-young's defiant persona. "I was very careful at first," she said. "Part of me thought: 'Is it OK to do this?' But inside, I realized that I really did want to break all the rules." The Girl on a Bulldozer, which is director Park's first feature film, is slated for theatrical release in South Korea early next year. In the meantime, Kim Hye-yoon fans will find her starring in a pair of upcoming TV series: Inspector Joy, which premieres next month, and Snowdrop, set for December. The 26th Busan International Film Festival runs through Oct. 15. It is screening 233 films from 70 countries. Porterville, CA (93257) Today Some sun this morning with increasing clouds this afternoon. High 68F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 45F. Winds light and variable. Around 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department responded to a shooting in the 200 block of Morton Avenue, according to an email from ACCPD Public Information Officer Shaun Barnett. 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students from Windham Elementary School get a surprise visit from the plow truck they named as part of the Vermont Agency of Transportation's Name a Plow program on Wednesday, 11/17/21. Brattleboro, VT (05301) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 63F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional light rain...mainly this evening. Low near 35F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Thomas Ely gives food out during the Everyone Eats program in Newfane, Vt., on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. Food is given out every Wednesday at the Newfane Congregational Church. Tim Wessel currently serves in his 5th year on the Brattleboro Select Board, after serving as both chair and vice-chair. He writes twice monthly on the convergence of politics and policy in Windham County. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of the Brattleboro Reformer. The Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce has announced the following events and meetings. To register or for more information, email Lauren@nwctchamberofcommerce.org or visit nwctchamberofcommerce.org. Oct. 13: 5 p.m., Leadership Northwest Orientation and Class of 2020 Recognition, Edison Grill. Join us as we honor the Leadership NW Class of 2020 and welcome the new class of 2022! Class members are free-all other guests are $20/person. The Milford Arts Council performing arts theater and the Founders House Pub & Patio are hosting a special gypsy swing jazz brunch on Oct. 31. The event will be at The MAC, with doors opening at 11:30 a.m., and a performance by New York-based veteran guitarist Doug Munro and his gypsy swing group La Pompe Attack starting at 12:15 p.m. The venue is located at 40 Railroad Ave. South. We are so excited for this event. This is another that has been rescheduled due to the pandemic but it was definitely worth the wait, Meg Carriero, MAC marketing specialist, said. The food will be delicious and Doug Munro is one of the greats, she added. At the MAC weve lowered our seating capacity for the safety of our patrons, performers, volunteers, and staff so your experience will be even more intimate and personal than before. However, that also means tickets are going very fast for this one so you dont want to delay. Munro is a two-time Grammy-nominated artist who is fluent in a variety of styles, soul-jazz, Latin, organ trio, rockin blues and gypsy jazz. He has released 11 solo albums, published 75 original musical compositions, and over 300 arrangements for other artists recording projects. He has appeared on 50-plus albums that feature featuring many artists such as Michael Brecker, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Dr. John. Munro also has earned orchestra credit on the Oscar-winning documentary titled When We Were Kings. Gypsy jazz, which is also known as gypsy swing, or hot club jazz, is a style of jazz dance that was previously developed by the Romani guitarist Jean Django Reinhardt in Paris during the 1930s. Munro will tell stories about the information at the event. Munro is also an educator, having formed the Jazz Studies Program at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY, State University of New York Purchase College, serving as the jazz programs director from 1993 to 2002. He still teaches as its director emeritus amongst a fine arts company of faculty. Food will be provided by Founders House and included in attendees ticket prices. Tickets are on sale now. Ticket prices are $105 for a table for two people and $210 for a table for four people, according to The MACs website for the event at https://milfordarts.org/doug-munro-lp. For more information or to purchase a ticket, visit milfordarts.org. We are so excited for this event. This is another that has been rescheduled due to the pandemic but it was definitely worth the wait, the Marketing Specialist for The MAC, Meg Carriero, told Hearst Connecticut Media. The food will be delicious and Doug Munro is one of the greats. At the MAC weve lowered our seating capacity for the safety of our patrons, performers, volunteers, and staff so your experience will be even more intimate and personal than before. However, that also means tickets are going very fast for this one so you dont want to delay, Carriero said. Founders House is located at 117 Broad St. in Milford. LITCHFIELD Brandywine Living at Litchfield partnered with Norbrook Farm Brewery, Clocktown Brewing Company and Great Falls Brewery Sept. 18 for the first Red, White & Brew event, organized in honor of National Assisted Living Week 2021. Attendees enjoyed beers from partnered breweries while dancing to music by local band, Stache. Brandywine Living chefs prepared an assortment of themed food including red, white and blue salsa cups, street corn, sliders, patriotic cupcakes and mason jar apple crisps, according to a statement. NEW HAVEN A 35-year-old man was shot Wednesday evening on Congress Avenue, according to New Haven police. The department received a ShotSpotter alert of gunfire on Congress Avenue between West and Redfield streets around 8:32 p.m., Officer Scott Shumway said in an email. Responding officers were approached by a woman who stated that her son was struck by the gunfire and was driving himself to Yale New Haven Hospital, said Shumway. Officers and Detectives met with the victim who was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Officers located a crime scene, which was processed for evidence by the departments Bureau of Investigation, Shumway said. Shumway asked that any witnesses who have not yet spoken with the department contact the New Haven Police Department Investigative Services Division at 203-946-6304. He said callers may remain anonymous or submit tips anonymously by calling 866-888-TIPS(8477), or texting NHPD plus your message to 274637 (CRIMES). As of Sept. 26, there had been 22 homicides, 85 nonfatal shootings and 264 incidents of shots fired in New Haven this year, according to the latest statistics from police. At this time last year, there had been 16 homicides, 79 shootings and 161 incidents of shots fired, police reported. The last time the city saw so many incidents in any of the three categories by this time in the year was 2011, according to the department. At this point in that year, there had been 25 homicides, 92 nonfatal shootings and 318 incidents of shots fired. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com WILLINGTON A mother was charged Monday after running over her 3-year-old son last year, according to Connecticut State Police. Jessica Raymond, 34, was charged with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle. She told detectives that she didnt notice anything while driving the car, and realized what had happened when the boys father told her to call 911, according to police. On May 3, 2020, around 5 p.m., a 39-year-old man was getting ready to take his 3-year-old son on a walk in the woods. The boy ran past him out the door, so the man asked a tenant in his house to watch the boy while he got a bag ready for their trip, records show. The tenant saw the boy going on a path leading up to a concrete slab on the property, according to documents from the Connecticut State Police. The man later found his son seriously injured in the driveway of his home on Tolland Turnpike in Willington, according to police records. The man then waved down a trooper traveling on Route 74, screaming for help, according to an arrest warrant from Connecticut State Police. The trooper went to the end of the driveway, finding Raymond, who at the time was 33, screaming and bent over the 3 year old, records show. The toddler was excessively bleeding from the left side of his face from what looked like extreme blunt forced trauma, police said in the arrest warrant. The 3-year-old boy was later pronounced dead just before 6 p.m. at Rockville Memorial Hospital, records show. When the trooper asked Raymond what happened, she claimed she didnt know she hit him, and kept repeating Im so sorry, I didnt know, the arrest report stated. The trooper noticed a pink handbag with a half pint of Jaegermiester that was almost empty, according to arrest records. Raymond claimed the bottle and handbag. She told the trooper she had purchased the bottle while out running errands and started drinking when she turned into the driveway, according to the arrest report. Raymond told police she did not hear a bump nor a scream while driving up her driveway, the arrest report said. Everything was normal, she said. I had no idea that I might of hit him, she told police. A tenant living with Raymond told police that Raymond and the man argue and call the police on each other frequently. The tenant also said, There is no doubt in my mind that Jessica loves her children but she is not very involved on a daily basis, and added that the young boy spent a lot of time watching television, and Raymond only seemed to be involved when it is convenient for her, according to Raymonds arrest warrant. The tenant said Raymond was a social drinker, but never seemed drunk, often finding unfinished drinks of hers in the kitchen from the night before. The tenant also noted that they knew Raymond has some mental health and medical issues that she took medication for, according to the arrest warrant. After analyzing Raymonds blood, officials found that her blood alcohol concentration at the time of the incident was 0 percent. Detectives also analyzed Raymonds phone, finding that she used it while driving but not at the time of the incident, arrest records show. liz.hardaway@hearst.com In a significant step towards building better strategic and diplomatic relations, India struck a deal with Hungary and Siberia to recognise each others COVID-19 vaccination certificates on Friday. The major development was announced by the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Twitter, where he insisted that the move will significantly facilitate mobility across the countries. He said that the recognition of the vaccination certificates will cater to help people move across countries for education, business, tourism and other things in the post-pandemic world. Hungary, Serbia agree to mutually recognise Indias vaccination certificate In the tweet, Bagchi wrote, "Mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates begins! India and Hungary agree to recognise each other's Covid-19 vaccination certificates. Will facilitate mobility for education, business, tourism and beyond." Mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates begins! India and Hungary agree to recognize each other's Covid-19 vaccination certificates. Will facilitate mobility for education, business, tourism and beyond. Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) October 8, 2021 Moreover, Bagchi further informed that along with Hungary, Serbia has also recognised Indias vaccination certificate. MEA Spokesperson further added that Serbia and India have decided to officially acknowledge each others vaccination certificates. "Yet another country recognises India's vaccination certificate! Traditional friendship with Serbia translates into mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates," Bagchi informed in the tweet. Yet another country recognizes India's vaccination certificate! Traditional friendship with Serbia translates into mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccination certificates! Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) October 8, 2021 These vital global developments come a day after the UK government decided to remove the requirement of mandatory quarantine for vaccinated Indian passengers. The UK government, on Thursday, officially recognised that they will consider fully vaccinated Indian citizens as vaccinated UK residents. UK govt removes travel restrictions imposed on Indians, will treat vaccinated Indian passengers as UK residents The Boris Johnson government has removed over 37 countries from the travelling red list, including India, permitting the passengers to travel to the country. Vaccinated people from over 37 new countries and territories, including Brazil, Ghana, Hong Kong, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey will be allowed to travel to England, the UK government announced on Thursday. Announcing the decision, UK MP Rt Hon Grant Shapps wrote on Twitter, that only 7 countries, including South Africa, have been put on the restraining red list and passengers from all other countries have been permitted to travel. However, it was notified that the passengers must have not visited a red list country or territory in the 10 days before arriving in England. Image: AP/ PTI/ Rep Image The Indian Air Force (IAF) is celebrating its 89th anniversary on October 8, Friday. The day will witness a scintillating air display by various aircraft including heritage, modern and frontline fighter jets in a parade-cum-investiture ceremony at the IAF's base in Hindan, Ghaziabad. The spellbinding aerobic display will commence with skydivers of the Akash Ganga team dropping out of an AN-32 aircraft in colourful canopies. It would be followed by performances by 47 Squadron deploying Mig-29 UPG aircraft, 116 Helicopter Unit with the Advanced Light Helicopter Mark IV Rudra and 2255 Squadron Det Air Force. On the occasion of IAF's 89th anniversary, here is the full list of active aircraft of the Indian Air Force, as per the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft-- Aerospatiale Alouette III Antonov An-32 (Cline) BAe Hawk Beriev A-50 Boeing (Hughes) AH-64 Apache Boeing 737 (Series) Boeing C-17 Globemaster III Boeing P-8 Poseidon Dassault Mirage 2000 Dornier Do 228 HAL Dhruv HAL HJT-16 Kiran HAL LCH HAL Tejas LCA IAI Searcher Ilyushin IL-76 Ilyushin IL-78 Kamov Ka-226 Sergei Lockheed Martin C-130 J Super Hercules Mikoyan MiG-29 (Fulcrum) Mikoyan Gurevich MiG21 Mil Mi-17 (Hip-H) Mil Mi-26 (Halo) Mil Mi-35 (Hind-E) Mil Mi-8 (Hip) SEPECAT Jaguar Sukhoi Su-30 (Flanker-C) List of aircraft in IAF's fighter jet fleet Out of the 27 active aircraft, here are the leading jets that are a part of the IAF's dynamic fighter fleet- MiG-21 The MiG 21 is one of the most known fighter jets across the world and has served in over 60 countries in the last six decades. Owing to the increased number of accidents that the fighter plane has witnessed in recent times, India is planning to gradually retire the last of its MiG 21s over the next 3-4 years. Sukhoi Su-30MKI Sukhoi Su-30MKI is one of the most advanced fighter jets in India's possession and is the current backbone and frontline fighter of the IAF. The aircraft is used as the primary air-to-air and air-to-ground strike machine. Mirage-2000 The Mirage-2000, first commissioned in 1985, is one of the most versatile and deadliest aircraft. In India, the aircraft has been dubbed as 'Vajra' which refers to the thunderbolt weapon wielded by God Indra. Mirage 2000 aircraft played a crucial role in India's victory over the iconic Tiger Hill during the Kargil War. HAL Tejas LCA In the 1980s, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) started the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme to replace the ageing Soviet-sourced MiG-21. In January 2021, the Defence Ministry signed a Rs 48,00 cr deal with HAL to acquire 83 LCA-Tejas Mk1A aircrafts SEPECAT Jaguar The SEPECAT Jaguar or 'Shamsher' is a fighter jet jointly developed by British Royal Air Force and French Air Force. Currently, it is only being used by the Indian Air Force in an upgraded version and serves as its primary ground attack aircraft. MiG 29 The MiG 29 was produced by the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the 1970s to counter US F-Series planes like F-15 and F-16. In India, the MiG29 is known as 'Baaz' (Hawk) and forms the second line of defence after the Sukhoi Su-30MKI. Rafale The induction of French-made 4.5 generation Rafale aircraft is being witnessed as a gamechanger for India. The twin-engine jets are capable of a diverse range of missions from ground and sea attacks to air defence and nuclear strike deterrence. India had signed an agreement with France to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. As the country observes the 89th anniversary of the Indian Air Force Day, the celebratory parade commenced at the Hindon Air Force Station in Ghaziabad. This year, the IAF Day parade paid tribute to the heroes of the 1971 war, when India defeated Pakistan to help Bangladesh attain independence. IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari inspected the Air Force Day parade and presented Vayu Sena Medal for gallantry to officers. Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh, and Chief of Army Staff General MM Naravane were present at the event. The famous Tangail airdrop operation with three paratroopers, including one Army personnel, making a jump from a vintage Dakota transport aircraft was witnessed. A Vinaash formation carried out by six Hunter aircraft was observed that showcased the victory in the Battle of Longewala. Earlier on October 6, full dress rehearsals for the air display saw several IAF aircraft at the Hindon base near Ghaziabad. On this particular day, aircraft will fly at low altitudes in various areas around the country. The parade was conducted in accordance with COVID-19 protocol. The Air Force personnel who participated at the even practised for the past 3-4 months every day for a total 809 hours to perform the scintillating display. Indian Air Force Day On October 8, 1932, the Indian Air Force was founded and since then, it has contributed majorly to several crucial wars and landmark missions. Initially, it was established as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire, that honoured India's aviation service with the prefix Royal during World War II. Following India's independence from the British in 1947, the name Royal Indian Air Force was retained and served in the name of the Dominion of India. However, three years later, in 1950, with the government's transition to a Republic, the prefix Royal was omitted. IAF has, since 1950, participated in four wars with Pakistan and one with China. Some of the other crucial operations undertaken by the IAF include Operation Vijay, Operation Meghdoot, Operation Cactus and Operation Poomalai. The IAF takes part in United Nations peacekeeping missions as well. (Image: PTI) The Kerala High Court quashed the detention of gold smuggling accused Swapna Suresh under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA) on Friday. Even as she was incarcerated, the Customs department had slapped the stringent COFESOSA on her in October 2020. This law allows a person to be kept in preventive custody for up to one year without trial. The order of the division bench of the HC comprising Justices AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Mohammed Nias CP came on a plea by Swapna Suresh's mother seeking the quashing of this detention order. The petition mentioned that the accused is the only woman who is in preventive detention under COFEPOSA in Kerala at present. In its order, the bench held that the evidence was not sufficient to warrant her detention under this stringent law. In custody since July 12, 2020, Suresh is currently lodged at the Women's Prison and Correctional Home, Attakulangara. Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court will hear her bail plea in the gold smuggling case registered by the NIA on October 22. What is the Kerala gold smuggling case? On July 5, 2020, Customs officials seized 30 kg of gold worth Rs.15 crore at the Thiruvananthapuram Airport from a diplomatic cargo addressed to a person in the UAE Consulate. Sarith PS, who worked at the UAE Consulate, was apprehended in this regard. Subsequently, Swapna Suresh, an ex-Consulate employee working as the manager of the Kerala State Information Technology Infrastructure Limited and M Sivasankar, the ex-Principal Secretary to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan were also arrested in this case. In January 2020, the NIA filed a charge sheet before the Special Court in connection with the Kerala gold smuggling case. Claiming that the conspiracy started in June 2019, the agency alleged that the aforesaid persons raised funds and smuggled 167 kg of gold between November 2019 and June 2020 through the import cargo addressed to diplomats at the Consulate General of UAE in Thiruvananthapuram. Furthermore, it added that the main accused had planned to smuggle more gold from countries such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Holding them responsible for threatening the "economic security of India", the agency revealed that the probe against absconding persons and others who facilitated the crime is underway. Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal launched a port mobile application dubbed 'MyPortApp' in Kolkata on Friday. The App's purpose is to promote transparency and simple access to port-related information. According to a statement by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, the app is aimed at port users who want to make use of various port services. It incorporates all port facts digitally and virtually monitors operations. Union Minister @sarbanandsonwal launches MyPortApp for digital monitoring of port operations Targeted towards Port Users for availing various Port services, the App is aimed to promote transparency and easy access to port-related information Read: https://t.co/s6U9cFu1jp pic.twitter.com/NqxEto5lW1 PIB India (@PIB_India) October 8, 2021 "The app also has various information like vessel berthing, rake & indent, rake receipt, container status, tariff, bills, Port holidays, etc., and can be accessed anywhere 24x7 and reach out directly to the port," Ministry said in the statement. Union Minister Sonowal also launched a 1 Mega Watt solar project in Haldia port, which will generate sustainable energy for port operations. With a guaranteed electricity generation of 14 lakh KWH per year, the project will lead to self-utilization and lower its carbon impact in order to meet the National Solar Mission promise. According to the statement, this will also result in a reduction in the unit rate of electricity generated and cost savings of Rs 70 lakh per year. Glad to inaugurate a 1 MW Solar Plant and improved illumination & CCTV surveillance system at Haldia Dock Complex. Also launched the My Port App, which will boost EoDB and started works of a host of infra development projects. pic.twitter.com/OfnJMctDeE Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) October 8, 2021 To facilitate port operations, the Haldia Dock Complex of Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port has also undertaken enlargement and development of the GC Berth road. The project, which will cost Rs 29 crore, intends to provide connectivity for traffic movement on the dock's western side. According to the statement, this would also improve evacuation efficiency due to road widening and reduce accidents due to unidirectional traffic flow. Notably, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is on a two-day visit to West Bengal, where he would inaugurate, unveil, and dedicate many projects worth Rs 352 crore to the nation. Sonowal wants export target reach Rs 3 lakh Crore by 2022 Sarbananda Sonowal said on Thursday that Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata would play an important role in making the country self-sufficient, and he prompted all stakeholders to work together to achieve an export target of Rs 3 lakh crore by 2022. Inaugurating a host of projects at Haldia Dock. @SMPort_Kolkata https://t.co/nCVqU1AGXV Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) October 8, 2021 He tweeted, "The Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port is a pride of India and plays an important role in the nations development." In a press conference in Kolkata, he expressed optimism that the port will boost trade to the northeastern states and neighbouring Bangladesh. Sonowal stated that the National Waterways 1 and 16 would be linked, allowing direct access to Assam from Bangladesh. (with inputs from ANI) Image: @PIB_India/Twitter/PTI The Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) announced on its website on Thursday that the death toll after Wednesday's terrorist assault in central Mali had increased to 16, with nine others injured. According to the Malian Army, a FAMa convoy on the Bandiagara-Koro route was the target of a complicated improvised explosive device (IED) terrorist strike at approximately 11:25 a.m. on Wednesday, October 6. Earlier, on Wednesday, FAMa's public relations department had given a provisional estimate of nine troops dead, 11 injured, 15 terrorists slain, and 20 motorbikes confiscated. Although no group had claimed responsibility for the incident, the current attack is identical to other assaults in central Mali by extremist groups affiliated with Al-Qaida, AP reported. Separately on Saturday, October 2, after the detonation of an artisanal mine triggered by a mission vehicle in northeastern Mali, one UN peacekeeper died, and four others were severely injured. Terrorist attack on Army A month earlier on September 12, an armed militant group assaulted a military patrol in central Mali, killing nearly five troops and three terrorists, Xinhua news reported, quoting a statement by the Malian Armed Forces. The terrorist organisation had set up the attack on Sunday (September 12) morning at 11:45 am (local time), in which the Operation Maliko patrol unit of the Army bravely responded to the attack, the statement said. The attackers also set fire to five army vehicles. On August 19, up to 15 Malian troops were slain in an ambush on National Road No. 6 in central Mali. The Indian External Affairs Ministry responded by issuing a statement denouncing the incident. The Ministry also expressed its condolences to the families of the dead troops as well as the Mali government. Islamic terrorism in Mali Since 2012, Mali has been fighting to prevent an Islamic terrorist insurgency. Extremist militants had seized control of northern cities of Mali but were driven out in the year 2013 by a French-led military operation. On the other hand, extremist militants immediately reassembled in the desert and resumed attacking the Malian army and its supporters, including French troops and United Nations peacekeepers on a regular basis. Though several French army personnel, as well as the United Nations peace-keepers, are present, the extremist militants have continued to spread their influence throughout central Mali, inflaming tensions amongst ethnic groups in the region. (Image: AP/Representative) The number of people arrested in detention centres in Tripoli, Libya, has tripled in the previous five days, after at least 5,000 migrants and refugees were detained amid violent mass arrests across the city since October 1, according to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). MSF provides medical services in three Tripoli detention institutions and has seen numerous detainees confined in overcrowded and unclean conditions with insufficient food, water, shelter, or medical care. Many of those detained have already spent years in custody after fleeing conflicts or dictatorships across Africa. The EU-backed Libyan coastguard intercepted them as they attempted to reach Europe via sea. The arrests, according to Libyan police, are linked to illegal immigration and narcotics trafficking. "Many of those arrested were reportedly subjected to serious physical assault, including sexual violence, during searches on their houses," the MSF stated in a statement. According to the UN, one child migrant was killed and at least five others were wounded by gunshots. The Libyan migrants are confined in inhumane conditions After hundreds of refugees and migrants arrived at its Tripoli day centre seeking protection, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Monday that it was suspending operations until further notice. The ban was imposed due to 'escalating tensions involving violence and disruptive behaviour,' according to the agency. The UNHCR announced on Thursday that it was working to develop other communication routes with those in need. Since 2017, more than 81,000 migrants have been apprehended at sea and returned to Libya by the Libyan coastguard. The first findings of an independent fact-finding mission commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council stated, 'Murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, persecution, and other inhumane acts committed against Libyan migrants form part of a systematic and widespread attack directed at this population, in furtherance of a state policy that may amount to crimes against humanity.' Migrants of all gender and age groups are confined in inhumane conditions, some of whom die. Some children are kept with adults, putting them at risk of being abused. Sexual abuse and torture (such as electric shocks) are common, according to the study. (With inputs from agencies) Image: AP South Sudan has ordered the freezing of bank accounts of five members of a coalition of activists calling for political change. The Peoples Coalition for Civil Action, formed in July, has called for President Salva Kiir and his rival deputy Riek Machar to step down, accusing them of failing the people of South Sudan for a decade of war and fragile peace. In a letter seen by The Associated Press, the director-general of the governments banking supervision division on Wednesday directed all commercial banks operating in South Sudan to block accounts belong to the five activists with immediate effect. The statement didnt give reasons for the order. The Central Bank of South Sudan confirmed the letter. A government spokesman could not be reached. The order freezes the accounts of Abraham Awolich, former executive director of the Sudd Institute; Rajab Mohandis, executive director for the Organization for Responsive Governance; Wani Michael, former executive director of the Okay Africa Foundation; Jame David Kolok, executive director of the Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance and Kuel Aguer Kuel. Awolich, a co-founder of the coalition, said they would not be deterred by the governments order, which he called a war against civil society in South Sudan. This action is an attempt by the government to weaken the members and the PCCA as an organization, he told the AP, adding that the action has raised the coalitions profile. Michael in a social media post called it unfortunate. South Sudan, the worlds youngest country, is struggling to recover from a five-year civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Former rivals Kiir and Machar now lead a government accused by watchdogs of falling behind on implementation of the peace deal. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Rachele Mussolini, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, has won the second term as a city councillor in Rome on Wednesday, Newsweek reported. According to the official figures released on Wednesday, Rachele secured the maximum votes and won the elections by 8,200 votes. Notably, the elections were held on October 3 and 4 across Italy. According to the report of Newsweek, around 1,200 municipalities across Italy including, the four largest cities, Rome, Naples, Turin and Milan, were voted for their councillors. The report said that Rachele had secured only 657 votes in the 2016 election. It is worth noting that Rachele Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini and the daughter of jazz pianist Romano Mussolini. Her grandmother ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 using a series of power-grabbing moves and the use of secret police. Despite having a strong family background, Rachele asserted that she does not want to be identified simply for her grandfather's actions. Rachele said she has many left-wing friends. Meanwhile, after winning the election with such a huge majority, Mussolini, in an interview with the newspaper La Repubblica, said that this time the people of Rome has voted due to her "initiatives" taken during her service at the City Council. Earlier, people had voted on her "surname", added Mussolini. 'People voted me on the basis of my work, not the surname': Rachele Mussolini "In the past, I got interviewed only because of my family name. During my last term, they started asking about the initiatives I promoted on the city council. I have worked hard," Rachele Mussolini, told Wednesday's edition of the daily newspaper la Repubblica. "I learned to live with my surname since I was a child," she added. "At school, they used to aim at me, but then Rachele emerged and, the person (that I am) prevailed over the surname, however burdensome that name is," Newsweek quoted La Repubblica's interview with Mussolini. However, when the Italian daily asked about her take on fascism, she was reportedly reluctant to answer and just changed the topic by saying "she was against its glorification." Image: Instagram/Rachele Mussolini Poland's constitutional court declared earlier this year that national law took precedence over EU law in areas where they conflicted, setting the country on a collision path with the EU's executive arm, the European Commission. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated on Friday that Poland has no plans to exit the European Union, despite opposition and government factions accusing each other of wanting to leave, as per the reports of Sputnik. Morawiecki took to Facebook and wrote a long post, a small part of it read, "The entry of Poland and Central European countries into the European Union is one of the highlights of the last decades. Both for us but also for the EU itself. We all won on this one. That's why I'm clear: Poland's place is and will be in the European family of nations." He continued, "We have the same rights as other countries. We want these rights to be respected. We are not an uninvited guest in the European Union. And that's why we don't agree to be treated as a second-class country. We want a community of respect, not an equal and equal association. This is also our community, our union. That's the kind of union we want and that's what we will continue to create. Poland's opposition and government have recently accused each other of wanting the country to leave the EU, according to Sputnik. The primacy of the Polish Constitution above EU law was decided by the Republic's Constitutional Court on Thursday evening. In addition, the Polish PM stated that Poland wishes to remain a member of the European family of nations. 'Lukashenko's purpose is to create a 'new path' for Arab migration into Europe' Morawiecki blamed Belarus's President Alexander Lukashenko for destabilising the situation in the EU. He said that Lukashenko's purpose is to create a 'new path' for Arab migration into Europe and destabilise the situation in the entire EU by instrumentalizing migrants from Iraq, Syria, Morocco and other countries, according to the First News. He also said that they must collectively defend Poland's external border and the entire European Union in the face of such complicated dangers. Poland has the complete support of European allies. Image: AP The 32-year-old Serbian human rights lawyer, Nikola Kovacevic, received a renowned award for Europe from the United Nations refugee agency on Thursday for assisting scores of people fleeing their homes, including those being transferred back and forth across regional boundaries. Kovacevic is the first Serbian and Balkan winner of the UNHCR's regional Nansen Refugee Award. He stated, "If we lose the fight for the legacy of the refugee convention, which was designed for us Europeans in the second World War, whats going to happen next? Because, you know, there is this old saying: Everybody can come in a situation to become a refugee." He noted that closed borders and the practice of mass expulsions, both in the Balkans and across Europe, have eroded the existing levels of protection established for migrants. People attempting to flee their homelands are frequently sent back to their home countries without even trying to see what will happen to them. He further said that dozens and dozens of Afghanis are trapped between Poland and Belarus. Thousands of migrants make perilous trips every day, particularly those attempting to exit Libya across the Mediterranean Sea, only to encounter repeated denials from authorities. During such expulsions from one country to another, some of Kovacevic's customers have sustained catastrophic injuries. Over the years, Kovacevic has handled a variety of cases, including the extradition of a Kurdish activist to Turkey and almost one-third of all approved protection requests in Serbia. He vividly recalls his first visit to an asylum centre in Serbia in 2012, as well as the Iranian family he met there. Last year, Kovacevic won a case for refugees before Serbia's Constitutional Court, which found that Serbian police had wrongfully deported a group of Afghans to Bulgaria, including nine children, and ordered the government to compensate each of them. The UNHCR stated Kovacevic had demonstrated extraordinary dedication and contributed to improved asylum procedures in Serbia when announcing the prize this year. He has assisted his customers in finding housing, employment, education and medical care. UNHCR stated, "his determination instigated their hope for a better life." (Inputs from AP News) Image: AP Sweden is striving to strengthen its ability to launch satellites into space. Spaceport Esrange, outside the city of Kiruna in the country's far north, is set to start operations in the summer of 2022. Esrange began as a launching range and research centre in the 1960s. Since 1966, the facility has launched about 600 rockets and weather balloons, mostly for research purposes. Its location, 200 kilometres above the Arctic region and surrounded by immense wilderness, is viewed as particularly advantageous for research and launching satellites. Currently, the European Union (EU) lacks the capability to launch satellites from European soil, which Sweden hopes to overcome by modernising a rocket range built in the 1960s. 12-year loan to make reusable rockets a reality The European Spaceport is located in French Guiana, a French overseas department, in the northeastern portion of South America. Surprisingly, the investment in expanding satellite capability in Europe does not come from the EU, but rather from a financing deal between the state-owned space business SSC and the Nordic Investment Bank for SEK 120 million ($13.6 million). The 12-year loan will be used to fund investments required to make reusable rockets a reality. "With this cash, we'll be able to deploy satellites into space. With the current message, we'll get a basic ability in place. Then there is more room for development," New Esrange project manager Philip Phlsson told Swedish Radio. The government made the first investment in the test operations in 2018, allocating SEK 60 million ($6.8 million). Whereas, SSC announced on Twitter, "We're getting close now. A new loan agreement with @nib will finance the last pieces of the planned spaceport capability at Esrange." We're getting close now. A new loan agreement with @nib will finance the last pieces of the planned spaceport capability at Esrange. Of great importance for a sustainable development of life on Earth. Expected first satellite launch in 2022 https://t.co/XvgU0KmX3r pic.twitter.com/Nq5xUQUMz5 SSC - Swedish Space Corporation (@SSCspace) October 6, 2021 "Europe has lagged behind in space technology for the first 50 years. Both the EU and the European Space Agency (ESA) are investing substantially now, and Sweden can participate in the global space scene with our state-of-the-art space base Esrange," said SSC head of strategy Stefan Gustafsson, Sputnik reported. Sweden will join an exclusive group of roughly a dozen countries across the world that have their own satellite capabilities as a result of this. Satellite launches can be used for a variety of objectives, including gathering information about the planet, atmosphere, and oceans, monitoring the environment and weather, and deforestation and forest fires. (Image: PTI/Representative) The Iraqi capital Baghdad is decorated with posters of candidates for the upcoming Iraqi election that will take place on Sunday. This year, the election will be held under a new reformed electoral law that divides Iraq into 83 constituencies, instead of 18, which theoretically allows more independent candidates to participate. Iraq has requested U.N. monitoring on election day - October 10 - and the U.N. is also helping Iraq's High Electoral Commission, the official body that oversees polls. The electoral law changes fell short of demands by protesters. Activists had wanted more of the smaller districts, but after 11 months of talks, lawmakers agreed on 83, up from 18. The lines were drawn to facilitate a 25% participation quota by women for 329 parliament seats. Walking around the Tahrir Square in Baghdad, the protest hub for Iraqi mass protests during October 2019, Activist Ahmed Hashoush called for a boycott of the upcoming Iraqi election. Hashoush with sorrow and sadness remembered the Tishreen (October) revolution accusing the international community of not supporting the Iraqi people voices "unfortunately lot of politicians and countries have silenced their ears on the Iraqi voice calling for real change" said Hashoush. Over 600 people died in the October 2019 mass protests. Security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the crowds. The protests died down after few months because of the brutal crackdown and the coronavirus pandemic. There have been demands for serious efforts in bringing weapons under the control of the state security forces. Meanwhile, election campaigns continued in Iraq two days before the parliamentarian election day. Hundreds of Iran-backed group Al-Fateh bloc held a rally at the martyr's monument. Al-Fateh supporters marched holding Iraqi flags and chanted slogans against the US and Israel. An Iranian back party, Asaeb Ahl Al-Haq called on all foreign troops to pull out of Iraqi soil. Qais Al-Khazali, the head of the party called on the high turnout of the elections accusing some countries of being against the Iraqi political system. Iraq has requested U.N. monitoring on election day, and the U.N. is also helping Iraq's High Electoral Commission, the official body that oversees polls. Iraqi authorities, with the help of the U.N., are taking measures to prevent voter fraud. There will also be 130 international experts monitoring the polls, along with 600 support staff. An independent audit firm will keep tabs on how votes are counted. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) As the Israel-Palestine conflict continues to worsen, the Palestinians and other human rights groups have raised concerns over the practice of holding bodies as bargaining chips.' The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a Palestinian rights group has said that Israel is holding as many as 82 Palestinian bodies, and Hamas still holds the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed in the 2014 Gaza war. The groups have also said that many of those bodies are buried in secret cemeteries with the plots marked only by plaques of numbers. After the policy to withhold bodies of attackers was established back in 2015, the human rights activists have reportedly said that Israel began holding in bodies of all Palestinians killed during the alleged attacks even though they are not connected to the terrorist group, Hamas. Hamas rules Gaza and Israel considers it to be a terrorist group. Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of turning corpses into bargaining chips. As per the Associated Press report, he said that the policy is deliberately and unlawfully punishing the families of the deceased, who are not accused of any wrongdoing. Mustafa Erekat, who is still waiting for the remains of his son killed a year ago in Israel, said, They have no right to keep my son, and it is my right for my son to have a good funeral, as per AP. Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said at the time that holding the remains of the victims of the attacks would ensure the return of Israeli captives and even the remains. One of these bodies is Erekats son, Ahmed. Footage shows the incident involving Ahmed Israeli officials, as per AP have said that Ahmed was shot and killed after deliberately plowing into a military checkpoint in June 2020. The news agency has stated that the security camera footage showed the car veering into a group of Israeli soldiers and sending one of them flying back. Citing the same clip, the report stated that Ahmed had stepped out of the car and raised one of his hands before he was shot multiple times and then collapsed to the ground. Ahmeds family has said that it was an accident that caused their son his life. AP stated that Mustafa said his son was passing through the checkpoint on his way to the city of Bethlehem to purchase clothes for his sisters wedding that night. The incident has reportedly attracted widespread attention because Ahmed was the nephew of Saeb Erekat, a veteran Palestinian spokesperson and negotiator who died in 2020. Image: AP (With AP inputs) In his first teleconference with Chinese President Xi Jinping on October 8, Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated he discussed issues concerning Senkaku Islands, Hong Kong, and the Xinjiang areas. Following their 30-minute chat, the leaders decided to work towards constructive and stable Japan-China ties, 'since next year marks the 50th anniversary of the restoration of bilateral ties,' stated Kishida. According to China's state-run media, Xi Jinping told Japan PM Fumio Kishida that he will endeavour to enhance "conversation and collaboration" with Japan while pushing the neighbouring country to "handle disputes" over sensitive issues like Taiwan relations in a proper manner. It was the first meeting between Japan's and China's leaders since Yoshihide Suga, Kishida's predecessor, assumed office in September last year. Xi Jinping expressed the hope that the two countries will 'meet halfway' and use this occasion to open up new avenues for bilateral cooperation. China urges Japan to enhance mutual trust and collaboration Meanwhile, the media report states Xi told Kishida that China would welcome Japan's participation in the Beijing Winter Olympics, which is scheduled to be held in February next year. China has come under fire from democratic countries for alleged human rights violations in areas such as Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang. Several human rights organisations from around the world have petitioned the International Olympic Committee to overturn its decision to allow Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, citing the US accusation of 'genocide' in Xinjiang. As per Chinese media, Xi sent Japan PM Kishida a congratulatory message on October 4, saying the two Asian countries should strengthen conversation and communication while enhancing mutual trust and collaboration in a bid to construct a bilateral relationship that fulfils the requirements of the new era. A peek into the history of Japan-China ties China is one of Japan's most important commercial partners, but the two countries are at loggerheads over the sovereignty of the East China Sea's uninhabited Senkaku Islands. Despite Tokyo's complaints, Beijing claims the Japanese-administered islands, which it refers to as Diaoyu and to which, it frequently sends coast guard vessels. Moreover, Japan has joined the United States and other Western countries in condemning Chinese pressure on democratic Taiwan. Though Taiwan is self-governed, Beijing, however, regards it as a renegade colony and wants to reunify with the mainland. While preserving stable bilateral relations is crucial for the area and the international community as a whole, Kishida has stated that Japan will "speak what needs to be said" about China's alleged violations of human rights and the rule of law. Since their separation in 1949 due to a civil conflict, China and Taiwan have been governed independently. Since independence-leaning Tsai Ing-wen took over as Taiwan's president, their relations have deteriorated. Image: AP Mali's transitional Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga stated that the relations between Mali and France have not yet reached the point of withdrawing ambassadors and cutting diplomatic ties. As per the reports of Sputnik, he further said that they have strong links because of their shared history and people. Apart from the one in Algeria, France's contingent in Mali is its largest. He also stated that they have historical, cultural and economic ties as a result of their human relationships. He does not believe anyone will accept the responsibility of cutting ties with France. According to the Prime Minister, this is not their goal, nor is it the goal of their leadership. He also stated that France should recognise that the Malian government is responsible for the country's security. He also assured Mali will seek assistance from other partners if they are dissatisfied with certain Paris acts, according to Sputnik. Mali joined France in the fight against terrorism Maiga further said that Mali joined France in the fight against terrorism when the latter requested information and aviation support. He insisted that the deployment of servicemen was never mentioned. France followed through on this arrangement in Konna, Gao and Timbuktu, but when they arrived in Kidal, they barred the Malian soldiers from entering. According to the Prime Minister, French troops formed an enclave in Kidal and handed it over to Ansar al-Din, a terrorist group that collaborates with Al-Qaeda. They have armed troops led by French officers. Maiga went on to declare that Mali will not tolerate it, according to UrduPoint. History of Mali and France France was the former colonial master of Mali, which was known as French Sudan at the time, and controlled from Bamako, which was later designated as the capital of Mali's fledgling republic. The French reign influenced Mali in a variety of ways, including the adoption of French as the country's primary language. France and Mali enjoy a close relationship as a result of this. Both belong to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. In France, there are approximately 120,000 Malians. President Emmanuel Macron, in 2017, committed to combat all terrorists in Mali. (Inputs from ANI) Image: Facebook/@ChoguelKokallaMaiga Hours after US President Joe Biden announced the continuance of the emergency related to Syria, the country's foreign minister Faisal Mekdad issued a warning to Kurdish militias asking them to stop working for the Pentagon. In a televised interview, Mekdad threatened actions against Kurdish militias, who he accused of working as American agents, in the northeastern part of the country. Colloquially known as Rojava, northeastern Syria is governed autonomously. Despite a withdrawal order issued by former US President Donald Trump, American troops continue to operate in the region in alliance with Kurdish rebels. On Thursday, Faisal Mekdad asked the US to pull out all its troops from the region asserting that Syrian troops would eventually go there and oust them. Emphasizing his point further, he said that the Syrian army will not abandon any part of the country, including the northeast. Warning the Kurds, he said they must realise that the future is for Syria and such forces should stop working for foreign powers against their own country. Furthermore, he also asked the Turkish military, which has continued its presence in the region since 2019, to withdraw. What is happening in Syria? While the Syrian civil war ended in 2019, the northwestern part of the country which includes the Governorate of Idlib and parts of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia- continue to remain under rebels. The Syrian civil war commenced in 2011 after the country's president Bashar Hafez Al-Assad tried to suppress opposition to his authoritarian rule. While armed fighting has now ended, the 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 challenging situation for countries all across the globe; however, for Syria, it has been a significant challenge with its economy and health care sector crippling due to the decade-long war-like situation. Image: AP The 20-year-long efforts of the United States government to restrict the cultivation of poppies in Afghanistan would result in vain as the Taliban government was reportedly pondering to legitimise its farming. Though the extremist group had promised to continue the restrictions on poppy cultivation, the crawling economy left the Taliban with no option, reported Knews. It is worth mentioning that the war-ravaged country accounts for the export of nearly 80-90% of the deadly by-products including, "heroine". According to the report, the representatives of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan hinted at the legitimisation of deadly drugs farming. Earlier, it was assumed that the Taliban would not allow the nourishment of the poppy farms in the southern parcel of the war-ravished country. The exert who are familiar with the developments of the extremist groups had believed they would endeavour to institute a hardline interpretation of Islamic Law and therefore would not allow cultivation of poppy. While reacting to the reports, Deputy Minister of Counter Narcotics, Haji Abdul Haq Akhond Hamkar, said that the door is still open to potential "legalisation" of farming -- providing Afghans are not the ones harmed. "We either create alternative jobs or legalise it. Then the problem is solved," Hamkar conjectures. "We are working on it; we are open to the idea." Meanwhile, the reports also revealed that the top leadership in the Taliban government are of the view that legalising the poppy would help them in growing the war-battered economy. Top Taliban leaders believe legitimisation of poppy would help the economy It is worth noting that the high pharmaceutical-contingent nations such as the United Kingdom export poppy from Australia and Turkey as a legitimate means to harvest the plants needed for opioids and other demanding painkillers. "If such a thing is possible, it's best to work on legalising it. It will help grow the economy, and we won't have to put a lot of effort into it because it's already being cultivated widely," surmises Mawlawi Noor Ahmad Sayeed, the Director of Information and Culture in Kandahar. Meanwhile, the Knews report claimed that a major chunk of the economy depends on the cultivation of poppies in Afghanistan. The report said that the extremist organisation so far have a crackdown on small narcotic dealers but "big fishes are given a free pass". The recent seizure of around 3,000 kg of heroin exported from Afghanistan Recently, a major narco-terror nexus involving the smuggling of 2,988.21kg heroin from Afghanistan to multiple Indian states was busted last month. The massive drug racket refers to the seizure of heroin worth Rs 15,000 crore from two containers at Gujarat's Mundra port that were shipped from the Bandar Abbas Port in Iran. The shipment seized at the Gujarat port comprised two consignments, one of which carried 2,000 kilograms of heroin while the other had close to 988 kilograms of heroin - both were originating from Afghanistan. With inputs from ANI Image: ANI/Representative Police in Brazils Rio de Janeiro discovered a collection of over 8,000 items of Nazi memorabilia on Tuesday at the house of a paedophile suspect. As per the CNN report, the collection discoveries this week by the Brazilian police was estimated to be worth 3 million euros (nearly $3.5 million). The items included some from the Third Reich period and others were uniforms, flags, coins, medals, images of Adolf Hitler along with guns and ammunition from the Nazi regime. Rio de Janeiro Police Chief Luis Armond told the US media outlet, It's appalling. I have never seen anything like it. I felt like I was at Inglourious Basterds [sic] movie. The Nazi memorabilia were found by the law enforcement authorities when they went to the 58-year-old mans home to serve an arrest warrant on the suspicion of paedophilia. The Rio de Janeiro police went to the house following local residents saying that the man was seen approaching children and tried to take them to his property. As per the police statement on Wednesday, apart from items belonging to the Nazi regime, they found pornographic material involving minors on the mans computer. The suspect now faces several charges including illegal possession of guns, racial discrimination, possessing child pornography. The chief told the media outlet that the man now faces prison time of up to 30 years. We are just starting the investigations, it's not a common case. We need to trace how he acquired those items, from who and where. And now we have a problem on how to store it since it can deteriorate or be stolen," Armond told the media outlet. The police noted that the possession of items from the Nazi regime is suspected to have come from illegal auctions on the internet from across the globe. 100-year-old Nazi Guard Goes On Trial Meanwhile, a 100-year-old man, accused of being an accessory to murder for serving in the Nazi army as a guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin during World War II, went on trial in Germany on Thursday, October 7. As per The Associated Press, the trial of the defendant who is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder, took place at the Neuruppin state court. The court then moved the proceedings to a prison sport hall in Brandenburg for organizational reasons. The suspect was identified as Josef S, adhering to the German privacy rules. IMAGE: AP Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy said the award was in recognition of his "uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism." Born in Zanzibar in 1948 and based in England, Gurnah is a professor at the University of Kent. He wrote 10 novels, including "Paradise," which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994. The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (1.14 million US dollars). Gurnah was lauded for characters who "find themselves in the gulf between cultures...confronting racism and prejudice, but also compelling themselves to silence the truth or reinventing a biography to avoid conflict with reality." Gurnah, who recently retired as a professor of English and post-colonial literatures at the University of Kent, got the call from the Swedish Academy in the kitchen of his home in Canterbury, in southeast England. He initially thought it was a prank. Gurnah, 72, arrived in Britain as an 18-year-old refugee half a century ago. He said the themes of migration and displacement explored in his novels are even more urgent now amid mass movements of people displaced from Syria, Afghanistan and beyond than when he began his writing career. "The scale is different," he said. "What makes it different, I think, is what we see in the way that people risk their lives. Of course, people risked their lives from Haiti coming to the United States a couple of decades ago, and that was horrible." But in more recent years, the vast numbers of asylum seekers perilously crossing the Mediterranean or the Sahara, he said, are "a different scale of horror". IMAGE: AP (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Washington, Oct 8 (PTI) The just-concluded visit of Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to New Delhi was an opportunity for the United States to deepen its strategic partnership with India, a US official has said. "Overall, this was an opportunity for the United States to deepen our strategic partnership with India, a partnership that affords opportunities for both the countries, and a partnership that is incredibly important to us as we seek to underscore and to underline a free and open Indo-Pacific," State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Thursday. "And India, to us, as a member of the Quad, as an important geopolitical partner, is an instrumental element to that overarching goal," he said responding to a question on the just-concluded visit of Sherman. After spending three days in India, the top American diplomat on Thursday night flew to Pakistan. In addition to her meeting with her Indian counterpart Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, she also had a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. During her India trip, Price said Sherman had an opportunity to engage substantively and constructively with some of the key interlocutors. "She had a meeting with the Foreign Secretary, Harsh Shringla. They discussed, as we often do, with our Indian partners, growing security, economic and Indo-Pacific convergence between India and the United States, including around topics that are of mutual interest to both of our countries: ending the COVID-19 pandemic, combating the climate crisis, and accelerating clean energy deployment, deepening trade and investment ties and expanding cooperation on cyber security and emerging technology," he said. "We, of course, have worked closely with India over the course of many months now, after an announcement that emerged from the first virtual Quad Leaders' Summit about India's role as a key Covid vaccine manufacturer for the region. And so, this is one of the many areas where we have enjoyed a deep and collaborative relationship with India," Price said. "In the course of that meeting, they also discussed pressing regional and global security challenges that included those posed by events in Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, the People's Republic of China. They also discussed the ongoing efforts to return Myanmar to a path to democracy. The deputy also had an opportunity to meet with Indian Minister of External Affairs, Dr Jaishankar, they discussed some of these same issues," he said. PTI LKJ KJ KJ (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Its unclear what object the USS Connecticut struck, with speculation that it may have been a shipwreck, a sunken container or a mobile object. A U.S. nuclear submarine struck an object while submerged in the South China Sea last weekend, the U.S. Navy said, at a time when rival nations are stepping up military activities in the busy and disputed waterway. Eleven sailors were reportedly injured. The U.S. Pacific Fleet issued a statement late Thursday saying the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) struck an unknown object on the afternoon of Oct. 2, while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region. The statement said there are no life-threatening injuries to the sailors. It added that the submarine remains in a safe and stable condition with nuclear propulsion plant and spaces being unaffected and fully operational. While the extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed, the U.S. Navy has not requested assistance and the incident will be investigated, the Pacific Fleet said. Incidents on naval ships are often reported after a delay for security reasons. The U.S Naval Institute, an independent forum that specializes in the U.S. Navy and naval issues, quoted an unnamed U.S. defense official as saying that 11 sailors were hurt in the incident that occurred in the South China Sea and that the submarine is now headed to the Pacific U.S. island territory of Guam on the surface. The USS Connecticut is believed to have been conducting routine operations in the area where the U.S. Navy is seeking to safeguard freedom of navigation amid Chinas increased maritime claims and activities. Its unclear what object the USS Connecticut struck, and speculation is rampant on defense forums. Some say it may have been a shipwreck or a sunken container. Others point to the possibility of a mobile object. We'll have to await the U.S. investigation report, if ever it does materialize, said Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. Until then, we have a lot to speculate about what that unidentified underwater object is. It can be really an inanimate object such as a shipwreck or even an uncharted seamount, or it could be a mobile object such as another manned submarine or drone, he told RFA. In my mind, this collision in South China Sea would have been inevitable anyway considering the intensifying spate of military activities by regional and extra-regional countries in the area, Koh said. The South China Sea like the other littorals throughout this region isn't exactly the best place for subs to operate in, honestly. It has been a busy time in the South China Sea, with three aircraft carriers from the U.S. and the U.K. conducting exercises with regional partners. The U.S. say their activities are to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific but China, which claims most of the South China Sea, says theyre aimed at countering its rising maritime power. On Friday, a two-week naval exercise called the Bersama Gold 21 involving U.S. allies Australia, the U.K., Singapore, New Zealand and Malaysia kicked off in the South China Sea. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China was gravely concerned about the submarine incident and demanded the U.S. to provide details, its purpose of cruising, and whether it caused a nuclear leak or damaged the marine environment." The U.S. has long been making trouble in the South China Sea in the name of freedom of navigation, which poses a grave threat and major risks for regional peace and stability. This is the root cause of this incident, Zhao was quoted as saying in a transcript on the ministrys website. China itself is very selective about publicizing its maritime activities in the South China Sea. It has the largest navy in the world including a dozen nuclear-powered submarines. This number is likely to increase to 21 by 2030, according to the U.S.s Office of Naval Intelligence. Observers say the South China Sea has become a flashpoint of tensions between the U.S. and China and a potential conflict zone between the two powers. The USS Connecticut is one of three Sea Wolf-class boats, commissioned in the Cold War era. It is 107 meters long and can carry around 130 sailors and officers. The submarines home is the Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton in Washington state. A polar bear stalked the submarine USS Connecticut in the Arctic in 2003. Credit: U.S. Naval Institute The collision was not the first time the Connecticut unexpectedly came into contact with an unfamiliar object. In 2003, after surfacing in an ice pack between the North Pole and Alaska, it was approached by a polar bear. The bear reportedly stalked the submarine for around half an hour but only chewed briefly on the rudder and didnt cause any damage. In 2013 another nuclear submarine, the USS Jacksonville, collided with a fishing vessel in the Persian Gulf and lost one of its periscopes but no one was hurt. In 2005 near Guam, the sub USS San Francisco struck a seamount at full speed, killing one sailor and injuring 24 others. In February 2001, the USS Greeneville, a Navy submarine, accidentally rammed into the Ehime Maru, Japanese training vessel for fisheries students, in waters near Hawaii, killing nine of the Japanese fishermen. Reopening will hinge on the population having access to vaccines, expert says. In this Dec. 28, 2020, file photo, staff of the Pyongyang Department Store No. 1 disinfect the store to help curb the spread of the coronavirus before it opens in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea has begun accepting international aid to help it combat the spread of COVID-19, but its border with China remains tightly sealed, experts and observers told RFA. The World Health Organization (WHO) has started sending shipments of medical supplies to North Korea through the Chinese port city of Dalian, it said in its most recent weekly report for South and East Asia, which covered the week of Sept. 20 to 26. The supplies had been stranded in China since the start of the pandemic in January 2020, when Pyongyang and Beijing closed the Sino-Korean border and suspended all trade, the WHOs representative to North Korea, Edwin Salvador, told RFAs Korean Service Thursday. A few months ago, UN agencies were informed by the Ministry of Public Health that they would allow some of these items stranded in China to be transported to DPR Korea through Dalian seaport, Salvador said Consequently, WHO was able to transport some of the items by ship to Nampo seaport. We are informed that these items along with the other items from the other UN agencies, remain under quarantine, he said. The border closure has proven disastrous for the North Korean economy, as China accounts for more than 90 percent of North Koreas trade and much of the countrys economic activity revolves around the purchase and sale of goods from its northern neighbor. Without Sino-Korean trade, commerce in entire North Korean towns has dried up, and ships sit idle in port rusting from disuse. The UNs Food and Agriculture Organization estimated in a recent report that North Korea would be short about 860,000 tons of food this year, about two months of normal demand. With the border closed, food from China cannot bridge the gap. Starvation deaths have been reported, and if the border does not reopen soon, North Korea could descend into a food crisis similar to the 1994-1998 famine that killed millions, or as much as 10 percent of the population by some estimates. Pyongyangs plans to eventually reopen the border have nothing to do with it allowing shipments of medical supplies from the WHO, Ahn Kyungsoo, head of the South Korea-based dprkhealth.org, told RFAs Korean Service. Ultimately North Korea must first get a vaccine. In fact, a complete border opening will be possible only when there is a certain amount of herd immunity, said Ahn. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said on Thursday that there are no updates at this stage in response to RFAs inquiry about support for COVID-19 vaccine in North Korea. Pyongyang surprised observers last month when it turned down Beijings offer of about three million doses of Chinas Sinovac vaccine. Britains former ambassador to North Korea pointed out to RFA that North Korea has allowed isolated shipments of goods during the pandemic. The fact that it is reported in this case to be doing so again does not necessarily indicate or presage any more general opening on its border, said Alastair Morgan, who was stationed in Pyongyang between 2015 and 2018. But the shipment could indicate the beginning of a gradual reopening, according to Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Korea Chair at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. I believe that Pyongyang will continue to reopen before the winter arrives. Then the Kim regime will have the opportunity to decide whether it wants to close the border during the winter and start to fully re-open from the spring, or whether the regime feels that it is safe to carry on reopening, he said. I think that North Korea will need to be satisfied that the new COVID-19 strains are weaker than previous ones. It will also need to start receiving vaccines so that at least the regime feels that it is safe for its people to meet with others, said Pacheco Pardo. A spokesperson for UNICEF told RFA that it was also able to move essential health supplies into North Korea, but not in significant amounts. Other organizations have reported difficulty in sending aid to North Korea. The Norwegian Red Cross told RFA last month that it was preparing to provide aid to North Korea, but it was unable to provide in-kind assistance. First Steps Health Society, a support group for North Korea located in Vancouver said in a newsletter last month that the import of aid materials to North Korea was still suspended. The Canadian group voiced concern that some of its supplies in Dalian were perishable and would go to waste if not shipped soon. North Korea still claims that it is completely virus-free and has not reported a single confirmed case of the coronavirus. Observers doubt the claim, citing costly quarantine measures and reports that hospitals isolate suspected cases, while those who die of suspected symptoms are quickly cremated before COVID-19 can be confirmed as the cause of death. Reported by Jeongeun Ji for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Naing Linn tried to flee when agents of the junta showed up at his shop to arrest him. Military forces in Myanmars central Magwe region shot and killed an official from the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) in front of his wife and children as he attempted to flee arrest, RFA has learned. Naing Linn, an executive member of the NLD committee in Magwes Salin township, had been in hiding since the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the democratically elected government of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The 45-year-old grocery store operator was having lunch when troops showed up at his shop, one of his colleagues on the committee told RFAs Myanmar Service. Two of them came in undercover, pretending to be shoppers After they learned he was home, a vehicle arrived with men wearing plain clothes These men gestured like they were going to shoot him, so he ran away, said the committee member, who requested anonymity for security reasons. He didnt run very far. They started shooting and hit him in the leg. We heard them yelling, Are you going to run? Try running now! Then we could hear them beating him. Finally, they shot him in the back of the head, the committee member said. After the shooting, Naing Linns body was taken by ambulance to Salin Hospital, and authorities told his family that they had to pay to retrieve it. But they were not told how much they owed or whom they should pay. With no one claiming the body, the authorities had it cremated at Salin townships Zeydi Hla crematorium. Friends and supporters collected the remains and returned them to his family in an urn. Naing Linn had been a champion of infrastructure projects in his home village of Wunya. He was close to many NLD politicians that he had campaigned for in the 2015 and 2020 elections and had successfully lobbied them to make repairs on roads that connect Wunya to other towns and villages. He is survived by his wife, his eight-year-old daughter, and his five-year-old son, who witnessed the shooting and immediately went into hiding. Naing Linns wife is too scared to answer phone calls and has decided not to hold a funeral ceremony at their home, his friends told RFA. RFA attempted to contact junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment about the shooting, but he was not available. The military junta has killed at least 1,080 people for resisting its rule since Feb. 1, according to an RFA tally, 54 of which died within a few hours or days after their arrest. Naing Linns colleague said the shooting was an act of revenge for his political activism. The NLD won in a landslide in every district of the Magwe region in both elections. They held a grudge against him. I think they were just so resentful against our party. I recall working together with him when we were campaigning for the party during the elections, Naing Linns colleague said. Once the resistance started, we got a lot of assistance from him. He told me to stay in good health and fight until we win. He said when the movement is over, we will meet again, said his colleague. A 37-year-old resident of Salin, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told RFA that Naing Linn had been a model member of the community. He was kind and polite to everyone and deserving of our respect and admiration He spread knowledge and inspired us to fight for the truth. He lost his life for the cause he believed in, the resident said. Myanmars military government has detained 270 members of the NLD ranging from the partys leader Aung San Suu Kyi to low-level committee members from rural towns, according to records from the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Eugene Whong. BAKU -- A court in Baku has sentenced a member of the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (AXCP) to 13 years in prison after finding him guilty of financing terrorism -- a charge he and his supporters have rejected as "absurd." Niyameddin Ahmadov's relatives, friends, and colleagues were not allowed to be present in the courtroom when Judge Siyavus Haciyev pronounced the verdict and sentence on October 8. In his last testimony at the trial, Ahmadov reiterated his innocence and called all charges against him unfounded. His lawyers said the court's decision will be appealed. Police detained several supporters of Ahmadov who had gathered in front of the Court for Serious Crimes in Baku. Ahmadov is a bodyguard of AXCP's leader Ali Karimli. He was detained in mid-April and initially found guilty of violating sanitary regulations introduced to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Ahmadov was sentenced to 30 days in jail on that charge. He was later charged with financing terrorism. Human rights groups in Azerbaijan recognized Ahmadov as a political prisoner. Critics of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev say authorities of the energy-rich South Caucasus state frequently jail opposition activists, reporters, human rights defenders, and civil society advocates without grounds to silence dissent. Aliyev, who has ruled Azerbaijan since shortly before the death of his predecessor, his father Heydar Aliyev, in 2003, has rejected the criticism. With reporting by Turan Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has voiced support for the troops guarding the Belarusian frontier from illegal migration after reports that Belarusian forces allegedly fired shots -- possibly blank ammunition -- at Polish servicemen. Morawiecki tweeted that "all state powers" were behind the border guards and the military. Earlier on October 8, Polish Border Guards spokeswoman Anna Michalska said Belarusian forces fired shots across the European Union's eastern border on October 7, without specifying what forces were targeted. Michalska said no one was injured and that most probably blank ammunition was used. "I am and I always will be firmly with our soldiers and our Border Guards," Morawiecki said on Twitter. "I want to thank our services for their professional and responsible approach." The Polish Foreign Ministry also summoned Alyaksandr Chasnowski, the charge d'affaires of Belarus in Poland, "in connection with the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border and the aggressive actions of the Republic of Belarus against Poland," the ministry said in a statement, without elaborating. In Belarus, State Border Guard Committee spokesman Anton Bychkouski rejected the claim, saying that the Belarusian border guards hadn't used weapons over the last 24 hours. Bychkouski said that the committee had officially asked the Polish authorities to specify their claim, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. EU members Poland and Lithuania are facing a surge in migrants, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, crossing over from Belarus in what European officials say is retaliation by Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka for sanctions against him and his regime by the bloc. Both countries have declared states of emergency that deny entry to some border regions to anyone except border guards and the security services. They are also building razor-wire fences along their border with Belarus. With reporting by RFE/RL's Belarus Service and Reuters A seven-story residential building partially collapsed in Georgia's Black Sea city of Batumi, with several people understood to be trapped under the debris. Local media sources reported on October 8 that some 300 rescuers were searching for around 10 people at the site, and that one woman and two children, including a newborn, had so far been rescued. The country's interior ministry confirmed two people trapped under the ruins were able to communicate through their mobile phones. Hungary says it is signing up to a 15 percent global minimum tax rate on multinational corporations, becoming the last member of the European Union to do so after Ireland and Estonia joined on October 7, bringing the international reform a step closer. The agreement is aimed at preventing international corporations from paying less tax by registering in countries with low rates. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development brokered the deal, and it was approved by the Group of 20 in July. "A compromise has come about that we are able to join wholeheartedly," Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said. "Hungary will be able to collect the global tax using a targeted solution." "Hungary's position has been consistent throughout: we made it clear that we would only adopt a global minimum tax that does not lead to a tax increase in Hungary, does not endanger the competitive advantage of the Hungarian economy, and protects the workplaces of the Hungarian people," Varga said. On October 7, Ireland dropped its opposition to the overhaul, agreeing to give up its 12.5 percent rate for large multinationals, which helped it lure Apple, Google, Facebook, and other large corporations to make Ireland the location for their European headquarters. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announced the government's decision at a news conference, saying that joining the agreement ensures that Ireland "is part of the solution." The decision is a reversal of the stated policy of successive Irish governments that vowed never to give up the low rate. Some 1,500 multinationals that will be hit by the higher rate currently employ around 400,000 people or one in six workers in Ireland, Donohoe said. He said he nevertheless was "absolutely satisfied that our interests are better served within the agreement." Estonia had been concerned that joining the reform could threaten its tech start-up sector, but Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on October 7 that it "will not change anything for most Estonian business operators, and it will only concern subsidiaries of large multinational groups." The U.S. Treasury Department has pressed countries to support the global minimum tax. "We are on the way to a generational achievement of creating a global minimum tax, which would create a more level playing field so jobs and investment can flourish in the United States," U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on October 7. With reporting by Reuters and AFP This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Russian independent newspaper Novaya gazeta Editor in Chief Dmitry Muratov and Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression." "Ms. Ressa and Mr. Muratov are receiving the Peace Prize for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia," the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the award-giving body, said in a statement on October 8. "At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions." The prestigious Nobel Peace Prize is intended to honor an individual or organization that has "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations." The award is accompanied by a gold medal and more than $1.14 million to share between the two laureates. The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895. Muratov, 59, was one of the founders of Novaya gazeta in 1993 and has been the newspaper's editor in chief for 24 years. The Nobel committee said Novaya gazeta, which it described as "the most independent newspaper in Russia today," has defended freedom of speech in Russia "under increasingly challenging conditions." The committee hailed the paper's "critical attitude towards power" and its "fact-based journalism and professional integrity," which it said "have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media" -- including corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, and electoral fraud. Novaya gazeta has faced "harassment, threats, violence, and murder" since its start, with six of its journalists being killed, including Anna Politkovskaya, whose reporting exposed high-level corruption in Russia and rights abuses in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya. The 15th anniversary of Politkovskaya's assassination in her apartment building in central Moscow was marked on October 7, with the United States and the European Union renewing their calls for all those responsible to be brought to justice. Muratov dedicated his Nobel Peace Prize to Politkovskaya and the other Novaya gazeta's journalists and contributors who had been killed for their work. "I am not a proper beneficiary of the prize. Yesterday, it was the 15th anniversary since Anna Politkovskaya's murder. I think, since the Nobel Prize is not given posthumously, they decided to give the prize to her and our other slain journalists via other people. The prize is also for our brilliant journalists working with us now," he told a news conference in Moscow. "I want to say it again. This is a prize given first of all, to our slain colleagues -- [Novaya gazeta journalists] Igor Domnikov, Yury Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Nastya Baburova, [human rights activists] Natalia Estemirova, Stanislav Markelov, and others." But Muratov added that, if it had been his decision, he would have awarded the prize to imprisoned Russian opposition leader and Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny. If it was up to me, and if I was a member of the Nobel Committee I would give this prize to the person who deserves it most these days, I mean Aleksei Navalny." Despite the killings and threats, Muratov "has refused to abandon the newspaper's independent policy" and "consistently defended the right of journalists to write anything they want about whatever they want, as long as they comply with the professional and ethical standards of journalism," according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Muratov said part of the money he will receive will be used to treat children with serious illnesses and young journalists. "On Monday, we will decide how to properly use the money. One thing is clear -- we will help children with serious illnesses, especially children with spinal muscular atrophy, journalistic start-ups, and Vera hospice." RFE/RL President Jamie Fly welcomed the honoring of Muratov and his team, saying, "We share their commitment to independent journalism in Russia at a time when the truth is under sustained assault by the Kremlin. "This recognition of the importance of their work is an inspiration to all journalists working in Russia at this critical moment," Fly added. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, also congratulated Muratov, saying he was "talented and courageous," while the spokesman for Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said the award was "well-deserved." Russian authorities have been accused of increasingly cracking down on independent media outlets, civil society groups, rights activists, and others, using legislation on "undesirable" individuals or groups, as well as the so-called "foreign agents" law. Ressa said her Nobel Peace Prize win shows that "nothing is possible without facts," and added, "A world without facts means a world without truth and trust." The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Ressa, who heads a digital media company for investigative journalism, Rappler, "uses freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism" in the Philippines. A spokeswoman for the UN human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, congratulated both Ressa and Muratov on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, saying it was "recognition of the importance of the work of journalists in the most difficult circumstances." The Committee to Protect Journalists said Muratov and Ressa "personify the values of press freedom and the reason it matters. These are journalists under personal threat, who continuously defy censorship and repression to report the news, and have led the way for others to do the same." "This Nobel Peace Prize is a powerful recognition of their tireless work, and that of journalists all around the world. Their struggle is our struggle," the executive director of the New York-based media-freedom watchdog, Joel Simon, said in a statement. The secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, called the award "a powerful message at a time when democracies are weakened by the proliferation of false information and hate speech." With reporting by Reuters, AFP, Interfax, and TASS Romanian health authorities have reported 385 COVID-19 fatalities, a new record since the start of the pandemic, prompting doctors to urge a new lockdown. Out of the total number of fatalities, 357 were registered over the past 24 hours while the rest were previous COVID-19 deaths that had not been reported before. The number of new coronavirus infections in Romania -- with the second-lowest vaccination rate in the European Union -- rose by 13,854 in the past 24 hours. Romania, one of the poorest countries in the EU, is suffering from a spike in deaths as a fourth wave described as "catastrophic" by President Klaus Iohannis takes hold. The record -- 15,037 infections -- had been registered on October 5. A total of 1,332,221 cases have been registered in Romania since the start of the pandemic. Lines of ambulances have been waiting outside several hospitals in Bucharest and the northeastern city of Iasi for beds to become available, television footage showed. Doctors at the infectious-diseases hospital in Iasi on October 8 urged the authorities to impose an immediate lockdown to curb the infections. Just one intensive-care bed was available on October 8 in the country of 19 million. "I fear we are already in the Italy scenario," said Valeriu Gheorghita, the head of the national vaccination campaign, referring to the overwhelming of the health-care system in northern Italy during the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, Romania is considering transferring some 200-300 patients outside the country for treatment. Neighboring Hungary has offered to help with sick patients, while the Netherlands and Poland have offered oxygen supplies within the framework of an EU-wide mutual support mechanism. Anti-vaccine sentiment is widespread in the country, especially in rural areas, fueled both by conspiracy theories on social media and a lack of trust in the authorities. Missteps by the center-right government have added to the difficulties. At the start of the vacation season in summer, the authorities allowed Romanians to mingle without masks and gave over-optimistic public messages, including a statement by Prime Minister Florin Citu in June, who said Romania had defeated the pandemic, although only 25 percent of the population was vaccinated at the time. With reporting by RFE/RL's Romanian Service, Digi24.ro, and AFP Russia's Justice Ministry has added more reporters, including five RFE/RL journalists, to the register of "foreign media agents." Russia's "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly. It requires NGOs that receive foreign assistance and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity to be registered, to identify themselves as "foreign agents," and to submit to audits. Later modifications of the law targeted allegedly foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time. Several RFE/RL correspondents have also been added to the list. In the latest such step, authorities added to the list the following journalists: Tatyana Voltskaya, Yekaterina Klepikovskaya, and Yelena Solovyova, who collaborate with RFE/RL's Russian Service and its North.Realities desk; Yelizaveta Surnacheva, a Russian journalist who works for Current Time in Kyiv; and Current Time freelance TV journalist Roman Perl. RFE/RL President Jamie Fly condemned the move as another attack on the free media in Russia and reaffirmed the media outlet's commitment to its Russian audiences. "Today's targeting by the Kremlin of five Russian nationals who work for RFE/RL is just the latest attempt to silence independent media in Russia. We will continue to fight this absurd use of the 'foreign agent' law to control the information that the Russian people can access and engage with," Fly said. "Our commitment to serving our audiences in Russia will not waver." RFE/RL said in a statement that "due to its refusal to submit to the unjust and invasive content labeling provisions of the foreign agent law, RFE/RL now faces nearly $4.4 million in fines, and the prospect of additional fines in the near future as well as criminal liability for the officers of its own Russia-based legal entity." RFE/RL added that it has filed suit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the law and the fines. "The ECHR has accepted the case on a priority basis, and has formally communicated its acceptance to the government of Russia. The Russian government is due to submit its observations on the admissibility and merits of the application by November 10," it added. Also added to the list on October 8 were journalist Daniil Sotnikov, from independent news channel TV Dozhd and BBC Russian service correspondent Andrei Zakharov. Galina Arapova, director of the Media Rights Protection Center, and environmental activist Yevgeny Simonov were also included. The register also added the Bellingcat investigation project, MEMO, the publisher of the Caucasian Knot website, and the U.S. firm Mason GES Anonymous Foundation, which owns the M.News online publication. Some 85 people and organizations have so far been included on the "foreign agents" register, 68 of them since the beginning of the year. On September 1, editors in chief and publishers of more than 20 independent Russian publications demanded in an open letter that the current list of media "foreign agents" be canceled, as well as 12 amendments to the current legislation on "foreign agents" be introduced. The open letter was addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko. The Kremlin has promised to consider the appeal of journalists to amend the law on "foreign agents." Microsoft said Russia accounted for most state-sponsored hacking that the software giant has detected over the past year, with hackers mostly targeting U.S. government agencies and think tanks. In a report released on October 7, Microsoft also highlighted the growing threats of ransomware attacks, saying that the United States was by far the most targeted country. Microsofts Digital Defense report is closely watched by industry experts and governments alike, given how widespread the companys software products are used across the world. The report comes as the United States has sounded growing alarms about the dangers of both cyberattacks, as well as ransomware. President Joe Bidens administration has struggled to understand the full scope of the so-called Solar Winds attack, which saw hackers penetrating deep into U.S. federal agencies. And the White House has urged U.S. companies to urgently update their software and defenses to protect against ransomware attacks. The cyberattacks, which utilized vulnerabilities in Microsoft software, were widely publicized after their discovery late last year, and U.S. officials have blamed Russias foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, which has denied the activity. The SVR, along with Russias military intelligence agency, the GRU, and the main domestic security service, the FSB, are all known for having active cyberoperations, for both espionage and for potentially damaging attacks. Other countries highlighted in the report were North Korea, Iran, and China; Microsoft said China accounted for fewer than 1-in-10 of the state-backed hacking attempts detailed in the report, between June 2020 and July 2021. The scope and depth of the SolarWinds hack stunned many U.S. officials, and there has been a growing call in Congress to retaliate. At a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, Biden sought broad understanding about what sort of cyberactivity would be considered permissible and what would be off-limits. However, U.S. officials say there has been little evidence of any letup in Russian hacking efforts, either from state-backed or private, criminal groups. Earlier this week, the head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said during an event hosted by The Washington Post that U.S. intelligence agencies have seen no significant changes. In all, Microsoft said, Russian hacking attempts rose to 58 percent of all hacks detected by the company in the 2020-21 period covered by the report, up from 52 percent. North Korea was second as country of origin at 23 percent. Chinas share fell to 8 percent. Wtih reporting by Reuters A military vehicle struck a land mine in the Central African Republic (C.A.R.), killing at least two police officers and three Russian paramilitaries helping government forces battle rebel groups in the war-torn country. "Three Russian allies and two Central African police officers were killed," government spokesman Ange Maxime Kazagui told AFP on May 30. Five members of the local security forces were also wounded in the attack, which occurred on May 28 in the west of the country on a road between Barberati and Bouar. Russia helps President Faustin Archange Touadera combat rebel groups in the resource-rich countrys ongoing civil war, including fielding Russian mercenaries and security details for government figures. Moscow says it has only sent unarmed "instructors" to train the C.A.R. Defense Ministry. Numerous witnesses and NGOs say the instructors are in fact paramilitaries from the Vagner Group, a Russian military contractor with ties to the government, who are actively participating alongside Rwandan special forces and UN peacekeepers in the fight against rebels. A UN report in March expressed concern about Russian paramilitaries participating in human rights abuses alongside C.A.R. government forces, and in some cases UN peacekeepers. The alleged abuses include mass summary executions, forced displacement of the civilian population, and indiscriminate targeting of civilian facilities. Russia has significantly increased its presence and influence in the C.A.R., where Russian national Valery Zakharov serves as national-security adviser to President Touadera, who was sworn in for a second five-year term on March 30 after winning an election in December. Bangui has also granted gold- and diamond-mining permits to Russian companies suspected of having links to businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the man believed to be the head of the Vagner Group. With reporting by AFP and Corbeau News Thousands of Afghans camped out in Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province on the border with Tajikistan hope to leave their country and Taliban rule. Many had been at the border for weeks but now the Taliban has forced hundreds to flee the area amid reports of death threats from the militants. ASHGABAT -- A top World Health Organization (WHO) official has traveled to Turkmenistan, whose government has denied any presence of coronavirus within the Central Asian state's borders. Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov held "constructive" talks with WHO's regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, when the two met in Ashgabat on October 7. Kluge's visit came as hospitals in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Authorities in Turkmenistan continue to insist there are no coronavirus cases in the country, but they have imposed strict restrictions in territories where a high number of people with COVID-19 symptoms have been reported. On October 6, several nongovernmental organizations issued an open letter in which they urged Kluge to publicly state the WHO's official position on the coronavirus situation in Turkmenistan. According to the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation, Democratic Civil Union of Turkmenistan, Association of Independent Lawyers of Turkmenistan, Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, and Turkmen.News online newspaper, the epidemiological situation in Turkmenistan is dramatic due to the spread of the coronavirus. The groups called on the WHO official to publicly challenge the Turkmen government regarding its promise to provide the UN agency with biological material of patients with COVID-19 symptoms so that they can be tested by independent, international labs. In January, Kluge said Turkmenistan had failed to meet the WHO's request to send samples of Turkmen patients diagnosed with pneumonia for testing. WHO officials previously visited Turkmenistan in July 2020, after which the authorities imposed restrictions to prevent the spread of the disease in the country. The WHO officials at the time recommended Turkmenistan carry out measures "as if there is coronavirus in the country." KYIV -- Ukraine's state-owned export-import bank lent $60 million to companies owned by a businessman with interests in parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, a new investigation has found. The businessman, Serhiy Bryukhovetskiy, has also paid millions of Ukrainian hryvnyas in taxes to the separatists and put up as collateral for the loan a Kyiv shopping mall whose ownership is under dispute, according to the findings by Schemes (Skhemy), an investigative news project run by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service in cooperation with UA: Pershy television. The findings raise questions about why Ukreksimbank -- which is Ukraine's third-largest bank by assets and serves as the authorized financial agent for the government when making foreign loans -- was allowed to issue financing to an entity doing business with the separatists, possibly in violation of Ukrainian law. The findings also come as Ukreksimbank's chief executive is under fire for a confrontation with Schemes reporters who raised the question of the loan as they interviewed him earlier this week. In April, the loan committee at Ukreksimbank authorized a $60 million loan to two companies controlled by another company owned by Bryukhovetskiy. The bank, which is nominally independent from government interference, is overseen by a supervisory board, whose members are, under the bank's governance rules, appointed by the cabinet after an independent competition. Observers say that, in fact, they usually represent the interests of three entities: Ukraine's president, Cabinet of Ministers, and parliament. Corporate registry documents show that the parent company, registered in Horlikva, just north of the regional capital of Donetsk, specializes in the maintenance of equipment and machinery used in mines. Mining for coal and other minerals is a major industry in eastern Ukraine. It is also major source of revenue for the separatists who have controlled parts of the area known as the Donbas and its mines since war against government forces erupted in April 2014. Ukrainian authorities later imposed a trade blockade and made it illegal for Ukrainian companies to do business with companies in the separatist-held areas under a law prohibiting "terrorist financing." The blockade, however, is known to be porous, with some trade circumventing the prohibition. Public records, however, show that Bryukhovetskiy's company paid around 1.4 million hryvnyas (about $50,000) to the separatists based in Donetsk in the first seven months of 2021 -- something that could be considered illegal under the "terrorist financing" law. Schemes was unable to contact Bryukhovetskiy for comment. A request for comment submitted to Bryukhovetskiy's son-in-law, who is a member of Ukraine's parliament, went unanswered. Sky Mall Adding further to the mystery is the question of the collateral that Bryukhovetskiy put up to receive the Ukreksimbank loan: a Kyiv shopping mall known as Sky Mall, which has been at the center of a multinational legal battle pitting an Estonian businessman against a Ukrainian businessman. The multiyear fight over the mall's ownership has been heard in London arbitration court and drawn a public warning from Estonia's president about investing in Ukraine. It has also been the target of investigations by Ukrainian authorities. Bank documents seen by Schemes show Bryukhovetskiy's company in fact currently owns Sky Mall, something that had not been previously reported. During an interview on October 4 at Ukreksimbank's Kyiv offices, Schemes sought commentary from bank CEO Yevhen Metsher, and showed him the ownership documents. Metsher became defensive, and he and his spokesman ordered a security guard to seize the cameras and memory cards of two Schemes reporters. The journalists were allowed to leave the office after the interview was apparently deleted from their memory cards. But Schemes technicians managed to retrieve video showing the entire confrontation. Amid condemnation from top government officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, Metsher stepped down temporarily as CEO. The day after the interview, Ukreksimbank released a statement saying that the information being sought by Schemes reporters was a "bank secret," and made the false assertion that the crew left the bank offices "without hindrance." In a post to Facebook on October 5 that was later deleted, Metsher wrote: "What happened yesterday and is unfolding today around the bank's brand and my name is no longer journalism, but actions deliberately and purposefully aimed at provoking and tarnishing the reputation of management and its activities." After the announcement that he was stepping down temporarily, Metsher posted another message to Facebook, and apologized to RFE/RL for his actions. "I am ready to fully cooperate with the investigation. I am deeply confident that freedom of speech is an important element of Ukraine's development," he wrote. "Once more, I would like to express my sincere apologies to the journalistic community and personally to" the reporters involved. On October 8, prosecutors announced that Metsher and two other bank employees were being criminally charged in connection with the confrontation with the Schemes reporters. The coronavirus toll rose fast, trust in the president fell, the prospect of justice in pathbreaking journalist Anna Politkovskayas killing receded further still after 15 years, and harrowing footage emerged with a claim of widespread prison torture. Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward. Target Audience On his Sunday prime-time current affairs show on state TV, Dmitry Kiselyov frequently directs his trademark stream of derision against Washington and the West. The most striking example may have come in March 2014, just as Moscow was dressing up its armed takeover of Crimea with pomp-filled parliament sessions and elaborate legislation, when Kiselyov told viewers that Russia is the only country in the world that is realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash. Lest the message come across as too subtle, the screen behind him showed a billowing mushroom cloud, a visual aid to help audience members at home and abroad contemplate the unthinkable. On October 3, Kiselyov took aim at a target closer to home, or actually at home: the Russian people. With COVID-19 case numbers climbing and the official daily death toll reaching new highs nearly every day, he admonished citizens for failing to take precautions against the coronavirus even as the state, he used a Russian idiom to assert, is crawling out of its skin to protect them. Heres a vaccine for you. Here are masks and drugs. Here you go: new hospitals and doctors. But in response, citizens, for the most part, wanted to spit on themselves and others, he said, using another colorful phrase to claim that most Russians dont give a damn. The prominent placement of this public lashing -- or public-lashing suggested to observers parsing the subtleties and not-so-subtleties of Russian state TV that President Vladimir Putin and his government are concerned enough about the COVID crisis to blame it on the people. The current situation certainly seems like ample cause for alarm. Daily case numbers have risen sharply in the last month, reaching about 25,000, and seem to be headed toward the high of just under 30,000 that was hit in December 2020. The number of deaths recorded daily has far surpassed the high reached at that time, 635, and hit 929 on October 6. The total official number of coronavirus deaths in Russia is now over 213,000, but the states numbers have been widely questioned since the start of the pandemic and estimates of the true number of COVID deaths range up to 600,000 and above in the country of 142 million. Kiselyov hit on a big part of the problem when he mentioned vaccines first on his list. Despite being the first country to approve a vaccine for use back in August 2020, when Putin made the announcement, Russia has fully vaccinated only about 30 percent of its population less than one-third, compared to about two-thirds in France and Germany and over 56 percent in the United States. Beyond Belief? And a big part of that part of the problem is trust, or rather the lack of trust in the authorities and their claims and their motives -- a phenomenon that has deep roots in the seven-plus decades of Soviet rule but which has also been driven by the words and actions of Putin and other prominent Russians inside and outside of government. Trust is also a problem for Putin himself, polls show. According to a survey by the independent Levada Center, which released the results on October 6, public trust in the president fell to 53 percent in August, down from nearly 80 percent in 2015 -- following the seizure of Crimea the previous year -- and 71 percent in September 2017. It has not been lower since October 2012, three months after he returned to the presidency following a stint as prime minister. Putins ratings have been hit by an unpopular retirement-age increase in 2019 as well as broader economic woes such as rising prices, stagnant living standards, and household wealth levels that are also lower than at any time since 2012. The poll was conducted in late August, before the legislative elections were held on September 17-19, so the survey did not gauge how voting for the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, may have affected the public mood. But amid widespread allegations of fraud following a campaign in which the authorities took extensive steps to keep Kremlin opponents out of the elections, it would seem counterintuitive to think that trust in Putin or the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party has been boosted by the balloting. Whatever the causes of the decline in trust for Putin, it may not be what he wants to hear as Russia hurtles toward 2024, when his current term ends and he has the option -- provided by a constitutional amendment pushed through in 2020 -- to run for reelection. Putin, who turned 69 on October 7, is now about a month older than Boris Yeltsin was when the countrys first post-Soviet president stepped down on the last day of 1999 and handed him Russias reins. Putin has been president ever since, aside from the four-year stint he served as prime minister from 2008-12 to avoid violating the constitution -- which he went ahead and had changed in 2020 anyway, to give himself the option of staying on in the Kremlin until 2030 or even 2036. The Journalist And The Murder October 7 also marked 15 years since the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the investigative reporter, human rights champion, and Kremlin critic who was shot dead as she returned to her Moscow apartment building after buying groceries. At the time, Politkovskayas killing was a ghastly reminder -- not the first and not the last -- of the risks run by Russians who delve into the doings of those who hold power in Russia or ask uncomfortable questions about the way the state works. Amid concerns that the statute of limitations has expired, her murder has also become one of the most powerful pieces of evidence suggesting that when suspicions about a grave crime lead too close to the Kremlin or Putins power structures across the country, justice -- in the form of the successful identification and prosecution of the person or people behind the killing, as opposed to those who carried it out -- is extremely elusive. Fifteen years later, Politkovskayas killing is still those things, of course, and its also more: Looking back, her slaying seems to many like an ominous forecast of a future that is now the present. In a book published two years before her death, she warned that Russia was hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance," and wrote that journalists who did not serve Putin risked death, the bullet, poison, or trial. The anniversary of Politkovskayas killing comes amid a sweeping clampdown in which the state has targeted the political opposition, civil society groups, and independent journalistic outlets, using forceful means as well as an expanding web of legislation, including foreign agent laws, to muzzle the media. Despite the pressure on journalists and activists, however, information that raises suspicions of wrongdoing by the state -- and sometimes appears to provide strong evidence of crimes by the authorities -- sometimes emerges. There are the Pandora Papers, for example -- a huge leak of financial documents that exposed the hidden wealth and financial dealings of dozens of Russians, among others, including several who are considered close to Putin. On October 4, human rights defender Vladimir Osechkin said he and his colleagues had obtained a large amount of footage showing inmates in several regions being tortured by Federal Security Service (FSB) officers and prison guards. Osechkin, who left Russia in 2015 and lives in an undisclosed European country, said he obtained 40 gigabytes of footage from an IT specialist and former inmate who recently fled abroad. Osechkin said the videos show that officers of the FSB and the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) are using rape and other forms of abuse to force inmates to cooperate with them and turn against other prisoners, pulling them onto a conveyer belt of torture behind bars in Russia. Pyotr Kuryanov, an expert with a Russian prisoners rights foundation, suggested that the persistence of torture and abuse is a legacy of the Soviet Union and its vast prison camp system, as well as a result of the dominance of current and former members of the security services -- Soviet and Russian -- under Putin. People who came out of the NKVD, the Cheka, and the KGB remain in their posts," he told Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. In a sense, he added, the gulag, the barracks, and the very same KGB methods continue to operate. NOTE: The Week In Russia will not appear October 15. The next edition will be published on October 22. KULTAR SINGH SANDHAWA Chandigarh: The faces of the ruling parties and Chief Ministers of Punjab have changed from time to time, but the vicious cycle of suicides by the farmers, farm laborers, and ordinary traders-shopkeepers has not stopped at all. If the governments would have cracked down on the mafia and the corrupt, and had used the same money to eradicate the debt burden of the farmers and laborers and had made arrangements to stop the wastage of crops; they (farmers) would not have taken the extreme step. Advertisement CHIEF MINISTER CHARANJIT SINGH CHANNI Disclosing this here on Friday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab MLA and Kisan Wing state president Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that another farmer Darshan Singh of Ghuduwala village in Mansa district was forced to consume poison after the cotton crop was destroyed and he could not bear the burden of debt. He said it was clear that the Congress and the SAD-BJP governments do not care about the farmers and farm laborers. Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was also doing nothing more than a drama. Despite visiting the pink bollworm affected area, the Congress government has not yet given any relief, said Sandhwan, adding that the Congress and the Badals had only announced debt waiver; but no debt waiver was given to the farmers, laborers, and small traders. KULTAR SINGH SANDHAWA Advertisement Kultar Singh Sandhwan said the assistance of Rs 50-50 lakh given by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to the martyred farmers of Uttar Pradesh was a good step. But what is the Channi government doing for the farmers of Punjab? he questioned. He said more than 700 farmers have been martyred during the ongoing farmers' agitation. Why is the Channi government not doing anything about them? Even today the farmers of Punjab are carrying the burden of debt whereas, in 2017, the Congress party had promised to waive all the debts of the farmers and laborers. Like the rule of the Badals, even today, poor quality of cotton seeds and useless pesticides were given to the farmers, due to which the cotton crop was ruined by the pink bollworm, he said. Farmers on Protest The AAP leader alleged that the Channi government did not compensate the farmers for the damaged cotton crop nor did it fully waive the debt. Sandhwan said if the government had waived the entire debt of the farmers and provided them with good crop seeds and good pesticides, Darshan Singh and dozens of other farmers and farm laborers would not have embraced death. He said if the government had put an end to the mafia rule in the state and canceled the deadly power deals, the government would not have had to take any loan to waive the minor debts of the farmers and laborers. Advertisement Damage of cotton crops Kultar Singh Sandhwan said, If the Congress government is truly sympathetic to the farmers, it should immediately waive the debts of the farmers. Provide financial assistance of Rs 50-50 lakhs to the martyred farmers of Punjab on the lines of UP and immediately release compensation of at least Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh per acre for cotton crop damage by pink bollworm. ENSURE QUALITY FOOD WITHOUT UNDUE HARASSMENT Chandigarh: Deputy Chief Minister Punjab who is also the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Om Parkash Soni directed all the Food and Drug Control officers posted in the districts to discharge their duties keeping in view the public interest. Advertisement In his first meeting with the officers at Punjab Bhawan on Friday, DCM categorically said," Gone are the days of arm twisting on the name of sampling. Ensure sampling to provide quality food to the public but at the same time no undue harassment of Food Business Operators(FBOs)would be tolerated." Deputy Chief Minister Punjab, OP Soni Redefining the monthly sampling targets, OP Soni said that the District Health Officers should not conduct sampling for the sake of sampling or for meeting monthly targets rather they should conduct effective sampling that would help to weed out black sheep in the food trade and prevent the sale of substandard food items to the public. "Ensuring the highest quality of food products for the people of the state is your primary responsibility; any deviation from the course of action will not be tolerated," said Soni. Advertisement On this occasion, DCM directed the Drug Control Officers to check the illegal sale of habit-forming drugs in the state. Refusing to permit the opening of more private drug de-addiction centres in the state, he said that evaluation of the performance of all existing de-addiction centres in the state is conducted, and thereafter if needed the permission for more centres will be granted. Condemning turning blind eye to the working of existing de-addiction centres, he said that monthly inspection be done and occasional surprise checks are made to ensure proper record of drugs purchased and supplied by these centres. "Most stringent action is taken if any mismatch in drug inventory is seen," said Soni. He cautioned the officers to present in the meeting that any kind of corruption in the department would not be tolerated and immediate action would be taken against any officer/employee found guilty of the same. He appealed to the people of the state that if any officer/employee of the Health and Family Welfare Department seeks a bribe, the information should be brought immediately to his notice. Taliban rule in Afghanistan Afghanistan is now under the control of the Taliban, whose condition is deteriorating day by day. Darkness could strike Afghanistan at any time today. Today, the country is plunged into the darkness of the underworld, but the new darkness will come only because of the power cuts by neighboring countries. Afghanistan does not generate electricity and buys electricity from neighboring countries, but since coming to power, they have not paid their electricity bills or paid anymore. Advertisement Taliban There is no money to pay salaries and when the Taliban reopened passport services on Wednesday, there were queues of Afghans seeking to leave the country. The country relied on 75 percent foreign aid and now has no means of earning a living. It had only one illegal means, and that was drug cultivation, with which its farmers sell drugs all over the world. But where drugs grow, people will be addicted. Power Supply Advertisement Now the Taliban has started its own Taliban treatment of drug users. Efforts are being made to rehabilitate drug addicts by tying them up with ropes and beating them, which is an inhumane act. But just as the Taliban today are pushing women behind the scenes to enslave the men of the house, humanity cannot be expected from them. Taliban's production and consumption of drugs Today women are not allowed to read, write or work. An international-level Afghan player was sharing her grief on social media that the Taliban police were looking for her again. Those who can run will be left behind but most people are now preparing to live a life worse than death under the poor rule of a dictatorial government. Seeing their country sinking, England has started talking with them because if the money is not given, Afghanistan is heading towards starvation. There is a need for world leaders to come together and work together because the Taliban's thinking is not only going to destroy Afghanistan, it is going to have an impact on the surrounding countries, especially us. Advertisement Taliban's brutality The assassination of a Pandit in Kashmir shows that the burning wounds will now be healed by Pakistan and the Taliban. Just as the history of the past in India is being tarnished in today's politics, so too the Taliban are sowing the seeds of hatred by boasting about the deeds of 10th century AD as the invaders from there attacked the Somnath temple in 10th century AD. Jammu and Kashmir Advertisement The Taliban is currently selling US-supplied ammunition through shops and its buyers will only spread terror. The United States is responsible not only for the destruction of Afghanistan but also for the terror that is being unleashed on us. Voices need to be raised so that Afghanistan does not receive a single penny of foreign aid. When the Taliban do not keep pace with the times, they have no choice but to taste the fruits of their sins. If they are not controlled today and made more powerful, Afghanistan will be a terror home to the world in the future. - Nimrat Kaur Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang made this comment Thursday while responding to questions about a Chinese TV series that is allegedly premised upon inaccurate history and wrongful depictions. She said Vietnam requests that China properly abides by the "mutual awareness of high-level leadership" of both countries regarding "friendly and objective propaganda that fosters societal foundations beneficial for the development of both countries' relations." The historical inaccuracies were detected after comments made on social media platform Bidu regarding a trailer for a TV serial called "Ace Troops" described the story as being set in the 1980s when "the Vietnamese army was getting stronger... and launching invasions into China." Chinese website Manyanu said the series was about "Chinese soldiers in a self-defence counterattack against Vietnam," which is completely contrary to facts. Vietnamese netizens have pointed out that the clothes worn by the actors in the trailer match those of Chinese soldiers when they invaded Vietnam in 1979. Hang said Vietnam's consistent stance on historical issues is to "look towards the future" and to look at history accurately and objectively. Vietnam desires practical actions that contribute to friendly and cooperative relationships between and development of all countries in the world, she added. A new study recently revealed it may have finally discovered a new therapeutics, the first-ever in the field of medicine, for dengue fever. Washington Newsday report specified that tens of millions of people every year suffered from dengue, causing the dreadful symptoms to earn the nickname "breakbone fever." As shown in the study, tests in cell cultures, as well as in mice, specified that newly-detected molecules could disarm the virus successfully, preventing them from multiplying and stopping illness. The new development appears to be effective as a preventive measure or treatment once the infection has been transmitted. ALSO READ: Science Just Figured Out Why Mosquitoes Love Human Blood What the Therapy Can Do Scott Biering and Eva Harris from the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health said this new development is an "exciting find" in combatting dengue fever. In addition, the two concluded in their study published in nature, despite not being part of the study. The danger showed by the mosquito-borne dengue virus, which infests approximately 98 million individuals every year, and is endemic in more than 120 countries all over the world, is undeniable. As indicated in the report, it can induce severe symptoms similar to flu and can result in severe condition of dengue fever, which can be deadly. Since there are four variants of dengue fever, infection with one does not shield against the infection with another, and contracting dengue fever a second time, is frequently more threatening. Vaccination for Dengue Fever At present, there is no treatment for the illness, and thus, initiatives are concentrated on the minimization of spread, which includes a program that's infecting mosquitoes that have disease-resistant microbes. Dengvaxia, in particular, a vaccination that's effective in the fight against a single variant, is only authorized and approved for administration in a few nations. As a Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention report indicates, in 2019, Dengvaxia was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. It was authorized for administration in children whose age ranges between nine and 16 years old, with laboratory-verified previous dengue fever infection and residing in a place where dengue is common or endemic. However, this vaccine is not authorized for use in travelers in the US, who are visiting the country but are not residents of the site where the virus is endemic. Here comes JNH-A07, a molecule detected by screening hundreds of probable candidates in a procedure that researcher Johan Neyts has characterized as in search of "a needle in a haystack," a similar Yahoo! News report said. As this report indicated, consequently, it turned out that the wait was undoubtedly worth it. Its effect on diseased animals is unparalleled, Neyts explained, who took part in the research. Antiviral Efficacy Neyts, a virology professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium, there is substantial antiviral efficacy even if the cure is commenced at the peak of viral duplication. Essentially, JNJ-A07 is acting by preventing the dengue infection from interacting with a pair of proteins that are vital for its replication or reproduction. The said therapeutic worked against all four strains of the dengue virus in tests or trials in cells, which include those from mosquitoes and humans. Since dengue can change rapidly, the study authors looked at the manner JNJ-A07 would fare as there are mutations of the virus. Neyts explained it took them about six months or half a year in the laboratory in infected cells, to get substantial resistance to such therapy. Related information about dengue fever is shown on JJ Medicine's YouTube video below: RELATED ARTICLE: Genetically Modified Mosquitoes in Florida Keys: What Can These Insects Do? Check out more news and information on Medicine & Health in Science Times. The first lunar rocks sent back to Earth in almost 40 years have indicated that the Moon was volcanically active later in its history than scientists previously assumed. An international team of scientists led by Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences experts analyzed lunar samples obtained by China's Chang'e 5 mission, which retrieved more than 4 pounds of materials from the lunar surface. The findings provided a more thorough picture of how the Moon evolved and may help scientists determine how the inner solar system's planet originated approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Chang'e 5 was the Chinese first lunar sample-return mission since 1976 and China's first lunar material probe. It is one of at least eight phases of China's lunar mission to study the entire Moon. The country launched the probe in late November and returned in early December 2020. The researchers published the study, titled "Age and Composition of Young Basalts on the Moon, Measured From Samples Returned by Chang'E-5," in the journal Science on Thursday. Moon Used To Volcanically Active Moon was volcanically active for a longer period than scientists had previously thought, the Chang'e 5 samples show. Bradley Jolliff, study co-author and a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, said in Astronomy.com that the Chinese samples were produced by magma that erupted about 2 billion years ago. Scientists believe that radioactive uranium and thorium penetrate deep into the guts of such bodies while they are young. These slowly decompose and emit heat, maintaining the mantle molten for billions of years in a big body. However, simulations show that the material as tiny as the Moon would rapidly lose all of its heat. The Chang'e 5 spacecraft landed in the Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, a volcanic plain on the Moon. The samples, taken from the surface and 6 feet into the lunar crust, are likely to fill up key gaps in our understanding of the Moon's past. ALSO READ: Statio Tianchuan: China's Official Chang'e 5 Moon Landing Site Has 7 Topographical Features Latest Vocanic Activity In Moon Happened Sometime 3 to 4 Billion Years Ago Moon rocks from NASA's Apollo program (per Space.com) and the former Soviet Union's Luna 24 mission (per Popular Mechanics) indicated that most volcanic activity occurred between roughly 3 billion and slightly earlier than 4 billion years ago. Jolliff said in an NBC News report that volcanism on the Moon appeared to decline after that. However, scientists have noticed places of the Moon that are less extensively pockmarked with impact craters in the decades after the Apollo and Luna flights, suggesting that materials on the surface are newer due to volcanic eruptions. Crater counting is a technique used by scientists to determine the age of planetary surfaces. Based on the known ages of materials from the Apollo moon missions, researchers can estimate the chronology of craters. Crater counts revealed that regions of the Moon's surface with less impact craters were between 1 billion and 2 billion years old, Jolliff pointed out. RELATED ARTICLE: China's Chang'e 6 Lunar Probe on 2024 to Showcase Equipment from European Countries Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times. All BART employees would be required to be fully vaccinated by mid-December under a proposal by the regional rail agencys Board of Directors. Under the measure introduced by BART board Vice President Rebecca Saltzman, all of the agencys employees and board directors would be required to get fully vaccinated by Dec. 13, with exceptions made only for those who qualify for a reasonable accommodation or a religious exemption. The criteria for a reasonable accommodation is unclear. The proposal will be decided next week during a vote at the BART board meeting. The proposal, which has support from at least four of the agencys nine Board of Directors, was introduced as BART and other Bay Area transit agencies have struggled to vaccinate their workforces, particularly their frontline workers. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said this week that hundreds of the agencys transit operators have not yet been vaccinated and risk being fired after the citys Nov. 1 deadline. That could result in chaotic reductions to Muni service, the agency said. Our main goal here is keeping everyone safe our employees and our riders and continuing to have reliable service, Saltzman told The Chronicle. Until now, BART had relied on a strategy to encourage employees to get vaccinated and make vaccines more accessible, while the agencys labor unions have been opposed to a vaccine mandate. The agency has allowed workers to take paid time off work to get inoculated. It has organized several on-site employee vaccination clinics. BART officials lobbied for essential transit workers to gain priority access to vaccines as the state began rolling out vaccinations. BART also offered employees two paid floating holidays if they got vaccinated and submitted proof by Sept. 15. But despite the agencys efforts, were still not getting close to 100%, Saltzman said. According to BART, 79% of the agencys employees 4,000-plus employees were fully vaccinated as of Sept. 29 Since mid-September, the pace of employee vaccinations has slowed down, Saltzman said. Were just not sure, without having a mandatory policy, how else to get to close to 100% of workers vaccinated, Saltzman said. More public institutions across the Bay Area and nation are relying on employee mandates as a way to get their workers vaccinated. Several of these local mandates, so far, have been effective. Nearly 900 San Francisco employees who work in high-risk settings rushed to get vaccinated ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline. But San Franciscos transportation agency still had about 640 unvaccinated employees as of this week, and the agency is bracing for a worst-case scenario where Muni service is significantly pared down once unvaccinated transit workers are let go at the end of the month. Consultants and contractors who work on BART property would also have to be vaccinated under the proposed measure. If the measure is passed by the Board of Directors, BART General Manager Bob Powers would then bargain with the agencys labor unions over the policy and impacts of this decision, according to the proposal. John Arantes, a transit vehicle mechanic and president of SEIU 1021s BART chapter, said the union supports 100% vaccination at BART. But Arantes, who is vaccinated and has tried to motivate as many people as I can to get vaccinated, said the union wants the agency to continue to lean on its strategy of attempting to educate employees and allow them to decide for themselves. 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. To just mandate it and if you dont (get vaccinated) you lose your job or anything like that, we think thats the wrong way to go, Arantes said. BART board director Debora Allen agreed. Allen said in an email that she supports vaccines, though added, I generally oppose, unless there is a testing option, employer-mandated COVID vaccines. Patience, compassion and understanding is needed to continue to educate those unvaccinated workers of the risks taking without threatening them with their jobs, Allen said. Board directors in support of the proposed mandate said its partly in response to the pandemics disruptions of BART operations. Since March 2020, 2,377 BART employees have taken pandemic-related leave, according to the proposals text. Infection rates among unvaccinated employees have also been 54% higher than vaccinated workers since the delta variant became the regions dominant coronavirus strain. Some of our most frontline employees have higher number of unvaccinated personnel, and so its really important to me because these are individuals who I believe are most at risk, board director Bevan Dufty said. Ricardo Cano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByRicardoCano California, the U.S. coronavirus hot spot early this year, in recent weeks has recorded some of the lowest case rates in the country. How did that happen? And why does it appear to have reversed positions with states that fared better through the winter surge? One clear example is the New England states of Vermont and Maine. Relatively shielded from the worst of the nations previous surges, they have struggled against the delta variant, which has sent their case rates soaring. The two states have higher vaccination rates than Californias, experts say but lower natural immunity. As horrific as the winter surge was, with hospitals overwhelmed and death rates hitting pandemic peaks, experts say California emerged from it with a relatively significant amount of natural immunity. And that, combined with vaccination levels that are above the national average, is now playing a major role in keeping case rates so low. Experts stress that case rates are just one data point and that a more telling metrics at this point in the pandemic are hospitalizations and death rates, which are low across the board in both California and New England due to the power of vaccines. However, There is a lot of naturally acquired immunity from last January, said George Rutherford, an infectious disease expert at UCSF. Maybe its not the end-all be-all, but it sure as hell works for the short term. Comparing data: Maine, Vermont struggling Adding to the success in California, Rutherford said, are relatively strict health policies, particularly in the Bay Area but also other more populated regions including Los Angeles County. Vaccine mandates and mask rules have proliferated in Bay Area counties and across the state, which is even the first in the nation to require schoolchildren to be vaccinated, when full federal approval is given for the shots. All these factors are reflected in Californias coronavirus numbers: This week, state data reflecting single-day daily averages, unlike the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions full-week averages showed the average daily rate of new cases was 18 per 100,000 people, the second lowest rate in the nation behind Connecticut. The case rate for just the Bay Area was even lower at 10 per 100,000. Like California, many New England states have also been known for their pandemic rigor. Five of New Englands six states have the highest vaccination rates in the country, with Vermont topping the list at 70% of its total population fully vaccinated. Californias rate is lower at 59%. And yet in states like Maine and Vermont, which had long staved off the worst of the pandemic, the delta variant has latched onto unvaccinated pockets. Maine, with a vaccination rate just under Vermonts at 69%, has been struggling the hardest in the region, breaking its single-day record in daily new cases last week. Its most recent case rate was 44 per 100,000 residents. Maine and Vermont, like California, recommend universal indoor masking, and have instituted some COVID-19 vaccination requirements for state and health workers. But they lack a higher level of natural immunity like Californias, experts said. Maine is paying the price of not having had big numbers of cases, said Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. They dont have natural immunity to help. While Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah said Monday that cases are trending downward, he expressed concern that they may settle at a very high plateau, according to Maine Public. Vermont has also seen a higher spike during the delta surge, reaching a pandemic peak of 35 cases per 100,000 per day on Sept. 21. While cases there are also starting to decline, the rate is still relatively high at 30. Comparing data: Connecticut New Englands southernmost state, Connecticut, has charted a different coronavirus curve from the rest of the region one more similar to Californias, owing to some of the same factors, including natural immunity, experts say. Connecticut was hit hard early in the pandemic as cases exploded in neighboring New York, Doron said. The pandemic curve then followed a trajectory roughly similar to Californias. Connecticut this week had the lowest seven-day daily average of new cases among U.S. states at 12 per 100,000, according to state data. The state also has a high vaccination rate, with 69% of the population fully vaccinated, and like California has a universal indoor masking recommendation. 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. Connecticut also requires all state employees, child care workers and employees of K-12 schools to be fully vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. Health care workers are required to be vaccinated, with no exceptions. But another key difference for Connecticut, as in California, is its natural immunity from previous surges, experts say. The state was hard-hit both in the spring 2020 and winter surges, and Doron said that likely makes the difference. Hospitalizations, deaths lower for all While Californias low case rates have received much attention in recent weeks, experts point to other numbers that they say should guide the future course of pandemic policy namely, hospitalization and death rates. Those numbers are low across the board in California and New England a sign that while cases may spike in areas within highly vaccinated states, vaccines provide strong protection against severe illness and deaths, experts say. According to the New York Times COVID tracker, all the New England states except Maine top the list for lowest hospitalization rates in the U.S., ranging from 7 per 100,000 in Massachusetts to 10 per 100,000 in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Californias is No. 7 lowest in the nation at 13 per 100,000. Maine is not far behind at No. 11 in the nation, with 16 hospitalizations per 100,000. Death rates in the New England states and California are also among the lowest dozen in the nation: New Hampshires deaths per day per 100,000 are the lowest at 0.14, with Maine following closely at 0.15. California is No. 12 in the nation with a rate of 0.24, but is half the national average of 0.54. Doron stressed that in the delta era, case rates are no longer the most important metric. Were still trained to be focused on cases, she said. We are going to have to shift our focus from cases to hospitalizations. With vaccinations there will come a time when cases dont matter. Theyre not the yardstick to which policy should be made. Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang In a first since the pandemic began in 2020, a cruise ship will sail into the Port of San Francisco on Monday. The event may have particular resonance in the Bay Area, where a coronavirus crisis aboard a different cruise ship 18 months ago first helped bring the reality of the pandemic home for millions in the U.S. But officials are touting the comeback of cruises as more than symbolic they say its crucial to San Franciscos economic recovery. The return of cruises next week is another exciting part of our citys recovery happening right now, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement. Weve got the only in-person Fleet Week in the country, the Giants hosting the Dodgers in the playoffs this weekend, the Warriors back in front of fans at Chase Center, and the Citys first parade on Sunday with the Italian Heritage Parade. San Francisco is really coming alive, and were just getting started, she added. The ship arriving Monday, the Majestic Princess, is operating at 60% to 75% of its 3,560-passenger capacity, according to Princess Cruises. The ship will dock at the Port of San Francisco overnight, and passengers will get to spend some time in the city. The Port of San Francisco is expecting 21 cruise calls through the rest of the year, followed by a record 127 in 2022. Joe DAlessandro, the president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, that visitors from cruises will help buoy local businesses. Our recovery from the pandemic has been very slow, and its going to continue to be very slow, he said, noting that the city depends on international and business travel, which still have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. But the record number of cruises set to stop at the port next year is a really good sign for the citys recovery going forward, he said. The cruise comes to San Francisco by way of the Port of Los Angeles. In addition to an overnight stop in San Francisco, the cruise will be heading to San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico, before returning to Los Angeles on Oct. 14. At the beginning of the pandemic, before COVID-19 was well understood, several cruise ships became early hot spots for the disease. Among them was the Grand Princess, which was stricken by an outbreak and held for several days off the San Francisco coast in March 2020 with several thousand passengers and crew quarantined aboard. The ship eventually docked in Oakland and infected passengers were quarantined at Travis Air Force Base. Ultimately, more than 100 people from aboard that ship tested positive, and at least seven died. But DAlessandro said that this is a very different time from early 2020, and that our understanding of the virus has changed enough to keep cruise passengers, crews and residents of the cities they visit safe with measures like COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements. Honestly, theres going to be more steps taken to ensure the safety of somebody coming in on a cruise ship than if they just drove across the bridge, he 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. Passengers on the Majestic Princess cruise and other ships in the Princess line have to present proof of full vaccination, as well as a negative COVID-19 test within two days before boarding the ship, according to the company, which means that the ships will be operated as vaccinated cruises, as defined by the (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), with guests and crew vaccination rates approaching 100%. The company said it has also added COVID-19 medical resources, improved air circulation on board, and expanded staff to oversee public health and outbreak prevention and response. The CDC has a detailed reopening guide for cruise ships, which includes a requirement for mass testing capacity on board. Cruise ships are expected to bring thousands of people to our waterfront, Elaine Forbes, executive director of the Port of San Francisco, said in a statement. We are proud to work with public health agencies to ensure cruises will return safely to keep our waterfront community healthy and economically vibrant, she added. Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com @DanielleEchev With their thunderous, spiraling, soaring precision, the Blue Angels attract most of the attention during Fleet Week, flying in the skies above the San Francisco waterfront through Sunday. But theres more to the show than the Navys famed blue-and-gold jet team including Gregory Colyer, a Marin resident who performs stunts in his 1940s-era T-33 jet trainer, a Lockheed Shooting Star. Colyer, who goes by the nickname Wired, takes the plane high in the skies, looping, rolling, twisting and turning as it is pours out a trail of white smoke. A San Francisco native, Colyer said he dreamed of becoming an air show pilot since he was 4 or 5 years old. My mom says it was all I talked about, he said. Colyer persuaded his mom to get her boss, a recreational pilot, to take him for a ride when he was 7. He loved it, but his next flight wouldnt come until he was in the Army, took private flying lessons and earned his pilots license. When he exited the military, Colyer eyed a job as a commercial pilot, but the small airlines that hired entry-level pilots paid just $9 an hour, not enough to support his growing family. Instead, he spent the next 27 years as an air traffic controller, working out of the Oakland center, but still flying for fun the same reason he bought the T-33 in 2008. When the price of aviation fuel suddenly soared from around $1 a gallon to $8, he decided to enter an air show to help cover the bills. Colyer discovered a new career. I was just getting into it for free gas, he said. I ended up making a pretty good business out of it. Colyers business, Ace Maker Airshows, now owns three T-33s, all sharing the Ace Maker name differentiated by different Roman numerals. Before COVID shut down the country, he was flying in as many as 30 air shows a year, had two pilots working for him and was considering an act involving all three planes. He also uses the aircraft to help train pilots at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California and Pax River Naval Air Station in Maryland. And he gives lessons to pilots who want to learn to fly a T-33. This year, Colyer plans to fly in 10 air shows around the nation, including Fleet Week, which he performs in for free. The T-33, with one seat behind another in the cockpit, was designed to train pilots making the transition from propeller-driven planes to jets. It proved popular with the Navy and the Air Force, which used variants of the aircraft until 1997. Widely known as the T-Bird, it was derived from the first U.S. fighter jet. The all-metal plane has a distinctive look with wing-tip fuel tanks. The plane was popular not just in the U.S. but in several other countries, including Japan and Canada, which built their own versions of the T-33. Some were used in combat in rebellions in several countries, according to the Smithsonian Institute. The last of the active T-33s was retired from the Bolivian Air Force in July 2017. Colyers Ace Maker is a Canadian plane but repainted in U.S. Air Force colors. 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. Youre about to experience a trip into history, Colyer said to a Chronicle reporter Thursday as he lowered the cockpit cover and sped down the runway at Yolo County Airport, where he keeps the plane. After takeoff, the plane banked right, ripping through the air on the tip of its wing. Soon after, high above Lake Berryessa, Colyer executed a couple of aileron rolls, giving his passenger a topsy-turvy view and a bit of a spinning head. Then the jet continued passing over the Ghost Fleet in Suisun Bay, across central Contra Costa County, crossing over the Oakland hills toward Oakland International Airport, where Colyer brought it in for a gentle landing. The trip smooth but for the aileron rolls lasted just nine minutes. The Ace Maker I guzzled about $800 worth of fuel on the trip, he said. Shortly after the Ace Maker landed at the airport, the Blue Angels, flying new planes, taxied to the runway and took off with a deafening roar and a cloud of smoke that lingered for minutes. A small crowd gathered to watch. Colyer may not be the star of the show, but hes thrilled to be here. I dreamed of flying fighters when I was a kid, he said. Now here I am at 57 flying them in air shows. Things work out if you dont give up. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan Noah Berger/Associated Press Four firefighters working the KNP Complex blaze in Tulare County were struck by a falling tree on Thursday afternoon, authorities said. At around 3 p.m., a radio transmission reported the tree had struck firefighters who were battling the lightning-sparked blaze, according to fire officials. Officials at Oakland School for the Arts canceled a day of classes this week in response to growing calls from students to combat what some described as a pervasive attitude of indifference towards reported incidents of sexual assault and misconduct on campus. School officials canceled classes Monday to recognize what administrators described as the immediate need for more discussion about how best to meet the short- and long-term needs for support for our students. The cancellation followed a student-led walkout on Sept. 30, when hundreds of students filed out of classrooms to underscore a list of demands presented to school officials, including one to clearly communicate the schools sexual misconduct policies. OSA is a nonprofit charter school with over 800 students in grades 6-12. All students except those entering sixth and seventh grades must pass an artistic audition in order to have their application entered into the school lottery. Administrators brought in counselors to discuss a plan of action, and the school sent a letter to families stating it was their goal to enlist a team of external practitioners with the cultural competency to address the needs of everyone involved. Evette Davis, spokesperson for OSA, said the school cannot comment on any specific allegations, but said its committed to creating a safe and equitable learning environment for all of its students. OSA will not tolerate sexual misconduct, violence or bullying of any type. The school is committed to working swiftly to secure the necessary resources to support our students, families, staff and community and is working diligently to provide help for those who need it, and to investigate the allegations raised ... to ensure accountability, she said. Because of privacy laws, its not always clear how a school or district has responded to an allegation. However, school officials have a legal responsibility to respond to allegations of sexual assault, harassment and discrimination when it is reported. OSA isnt the first Bay Area school grappling with this issue. Berkeley High School students urged their administration to change what they called a pervasive culture of sexual misconduct in 2015. Five years later, the high school experienced its own walkout where hundreds of students said they havent seen enough progress on the issue. Students are also demanding that OSA improve its support for survivors of sexual assault by speaking with the alleged perpetrators parents, thoroughly investigating both the report and the alleged perpetrator, and delivering appropriate consequences if necessary. OSA Student Safety Committee leaders Aisling Baus, 17, Susanna DeAngelis Nelson, 17, Maya McCall, 16, and Symi Gabriel, 14, organized the walkout. They expressed cautious optimism about the administrations response. This is a step in the right direction, said Aisling. The administration seemed confident that theyll be able to bring professionals in, and I think its definitely a good thing, but not enough. The walkout concluded with an open comment time where students in the crowd recounted their experiences with sexual assault on campus. Maya said this moment created a safe space and described students sharing intense emotions. Committee members said theyll continue to push the administration and to fight until all their demands are met. Though some of these demands are already listed in the schools current policy, Maya said the school has seldom followed its own protocol. 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. All of the (examples listed as sexual misconduct) have happened at OSA, she said. We walk around every day in school with our abusers, and we are just fed up. According to Davis, OSA has brought in an outside investigator to help administrators with the allegations. OSA is not finished with its process, and therefore not at the stage for accountability to have taken place. There is no timeline yet for when investigations will be concluded, but a timeline will be established, she said. A week before the walkout, the SSC created an anonymous response forum for students to share their stories of assault on campus. Around 22 students submitted stories of alleged sexual assault at the hands of other students or faculty. As for the future, the committee wants to set up an on-campus sexual health clinic and ensure a safer campus for all students. I want to see an OSA where no one has to be afraid, said Symi. I get calls from my friends saying, I think someone is going to hurt me. I think my abuser is following me. We want to make a culture where that doesnt have to happen. Ryce Stoughtenborough is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ryce.stoughtenborough@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rstoughts Its official: Restaurants can continue selling cocktails to-go and serving alcohol in parklets. On Friday morning, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed three bills into law that ease alcohol restrictions in California at the Oakland restaurant Kingston 11. The new laws SB 314, AB 61 and SB 389 make permanent some emergency provisions that were enacted by Californias Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at the beginning of the pandemic to help restaurants stay in business. That includes the sale of takeout cocktails, which had been prohibited before the pandemic, as well as the Bar and Restaurant Recovery Act (SB 314), which allows businesses that are serving alcohol in outdoor areas, like parklets, the chance to apply for a permanent permit. Food orders must accompany takeout cocktails under the new takeout alcohol law, and only restaurants that serve full meals may participate. A bar that doesnt have a kitchen cannot sell drinks to-go. The legislation will need to be extended or renewed in five years. The third law, AB 61, relaxes several regulations for restaurants, designed to make it easier for them to operate. Some of these new flexibilities include allowing coffee bars to operate outdoors, allowing restaurants to use parking spaces to increase seating and waiving the requirement for fully enclosed kitchen and service areas, with the goal of promoting air flow. Lawmakers including Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda) gathered at Kingston 11 to praise the bills passages. Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), who sponsored the bill pertaining to to-go cocktails, said that this became an important income stream for bars and restaurants over the last year and a half. When our restaurants closed, so did a part of our community, said Bonta of the early stages of the pandemic. Here we had an opportunity through legislation and through the boldest, most progressive budget passed by this governor to ensure that that lifeline could be opened. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Many individual cities like San Francisco had already enacted laws that will make it easier for restaurants to have parklets, but alcohol sales in those parklets is under state jurisdiction, which is why a law at the state level was necessary. The lawmakers at Kingston 11 noted that these new measures are among the bright spots to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. During the most difficult time sometimes the most creative ideas come forward, said Lee. Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley San Francisco will loosen its mask mandate on certain indoor spaces on Oct. 15. Along with seven neighboring counties, the city will remove local mandates once low COVID case and hospitalization rates are reached and at least 80% of the total population is fully vaccinated. The coming changes to mask rules have a notable exception: restaurants and bars, where patrons must still mask up after Oct. 15 when not eating or drinking. Bay Area health officials report theyre encountering some confusion about the difference between a booster and a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Though both involve an additional shot, the rules and guidelines differ in several ways. Resources on COVID-19 and Californias reopening: For detailed maps and new city-by-city Bay Area data, check The Chronicles Coronavirus Tracker. To get regular updates on our coverage, sign up for our coronavirus newsletter. Latest updates: CDC advisers to review need for Moderna and J&J booster shots this month: Vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet on Oct. 20 and 21 to make recommendations on booster doses of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, the agency said on Friday. The meetings will take place a week after experts at the Food and Drug Administration give their opinion on the need for additional doses of the two vaccines. If approved, the boosters could become available as soon as Oct. 22. Los Angeles sheriff says he wont enforce the countys vaccine mandate: Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who oversees the largest sheriffs department in the country with roughly 18,000 employees, said during a Facebook Live broadcast Thursday that he doesnt plan to enforce L.A. countys vaccine mandate in his agency, the Associated Press reports. Los Angeles County employees had to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1, according to an executive order in August that allows only religious and medical exemptions. Villanueva said his employees are willing to be terminated rather than get vaccinated. More than 26,000 people have died of the coronavirus in Los Angeles County. Children as vulnerable to getting COVID as adults, study finds: Children of all ages including infants and toddlers, have a similar risk of being infected with the coronavirus as adults, according to a study published Friday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Based on research conducted in adults and children living in Utah and New York City from August 2020 to April 2021, the report found that while children are as susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, they have symptoms only half as frequently as adults. San Francisco hits 70% vaccination rate in Black community: After a concerted outreach effort aimed at the Black/African-American community in San Francisco, the citys Department of Public Health said Friday that 70% of eligible residents have now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Black San Franciscans been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. From the beginning of our vaccine rollout, weve been focused on reaching communities that have historically been underserved by meeting people where they are, partnering with community organizations, and ensuring that our outreach is equitable and effective, said Mayor London Breed, who hailed the progress as a milestone. The 70% rate among Blacks in the city compares favorably with the state average of 57% and just 37% nationally, according to the DPH. Marin County follows S.F., will ease some mask rules Oct. 15: A day after San Francisco announced it would loosen its mask mandate for certain indoor spaces, Marin County Public Health said it would also ease its local mask mandate in limited indoor settings starting Oct. 15. Those include include gyms, fitness centers, office settings, employee commuter vehicles, religious gatherings, and college classes, according to the health department memo. To be exempt from the requirement, all individuals present must be vaccinated; there must be no more than 100 individuals present; and the setting cannot be open to the general public. Were not ready to lift the mandate across the board, but were in a good place to ease restrictions for the safest settings. said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin Countys Public Health Officer. Newsom signs COVID recovery package for restaurants, bars: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill allowing restaurants, bars, breweries and wineries that sell food to continue benefiting from the sale of to-go alcoholic drinks through Dec. 31, 2026. Appearing in Oakland, Newson also signed Senate Bill 314, which was co-authored by San Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener and gives businesses with outdoor dining spaces such as parklets a one-year grace period to apply to make them permanent. These innovative strategies have been a lifeline for hard-hit restaurants during the pandemic and today, were keeping the entrepreneurial spirit going so that businesses can continue to create exciting new opportunities and support vibrant neighborhoods across the state, Newsom said. CDC vaccine panel to discuss vaccines for 5- to 11-year-olds in November: A panel of vaccine experts will meet in early November to consider whether to recommend the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children younger than 12, the Associated Press reports. The Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices has scheduled a two-day meeting for Nov. 2 and 3, health officials said Friday. The experts, who help the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention develop recommendations for doctors and the public about which vaccines should be used and how they should given, are anticipating that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will have decided by then whether to authorize use of the Pfizer vaccine for children between ages 5 to 11. If the CDC follows suit, 5- to 11-year-olds could start receiving shots as soon as Nov. 4. Long COVID gets clinical definition from WHO: The World Health Organization has developed a medical case definition for long haul symptoms of COVID-19, commonly referred to as long COVID. According to the agency, the condition occurs three months after COVID-19 symptoms first appear in a patient, last at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis. Signs of long COVID can include but are not limited to fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction, according to the WHO. Symptoms may be new onset following initial recovery from an acute COVID-19 episode or persist from the initial illness, the bulletin adds. Symptoms may also fluctuate or relapse over time. Chiropractors have become a vocal source of vaccine misinformation: An investigation by The Associated Press has found that an influential group of chiropractors are behind a campaign to sow fear and mistrust of vaccines against COVID-19. In a report published Friday, the news agency found a small but vocal group of the nations 70,000 chiropractors has capitalized on the pandemic that has killed 700,000 Americans by pushing supplements as alternatives to vaccines, dispensed doctors notes to allow patients to get out of mask and immunization mandates, and donated large sums of money to anti-vaccine organizations. The AP also found some chiropractors were selling anti-vaccine ads on Facebook and Instagram, including one in California who pushed a link to a disinformation-filled video series about vaccines. U.S. job market remains sluggish: Employers in the United States added about 194,000 jobs in September, an underwhelming number that analysts blame on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A report released by the Labor Department on Friday shows that while the unemployment rate sank last month from 5.2% to 4.8%, it was mostly because 180,000 fewer people looked for work in September, which means they were not recorded as unemployed, the Associated Press reports. S.F. issues vaccine mandate for city contractors: San Francisco will require all city contractors who work alongside employees on a regular basis in city-run facilities to get vaccinated under a new order issued by Mayor London Breed Friday. The order follows the citys existing vaccine mandate for its 35,000 city employees, addressing the citys extensive contracting system, and reflects similar federal mandates for contractors. Read more about the mandate here. Cruise ships to return to San Francisco after 18-month pandemic pause: In a first since the pandemic began in 2020, a cruise ship will sail into the Port of San Francisco on Monday. The event may have particular resonance in the Bay Area, where a coronavirus crisis aboard a different cruise ship 18 months ago first helped bring the reality of the pandemic home for millions in the U.S. Read the full story here. Bay Area airports have seen more travelers in recent months. They expect even more during the holidays: While experts predict it will take years for the battered airline industry to see the same number of travelers it had before the pandemic, the Bay Areas airports said the last few months have been an improvement. Read the full story here. 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. Why are Californias COVID cases are lower than in other states that are more vaccinated: California, the U.S. coronavirus hot spot early this year, in recent weeks has recorded some of the lowest case rates in the country. How did that happen? And why does it appear to have reversed positions with states that fared better through the winter surge? Read the full story here. Facebook, Google dont plan mask policy changes despite S.F.s plans to loosen mandate: Two of the Bay Areas biggest employers, Facebook and Google, arent planning any mask mandate changes despite San Franciscos move to lift part of its requirements next week. The city will allow workers to remove masks in offices where vaccinations are required, but both tech giants said there wont be any immediate changes to their policies. Read the full story here. BART will require all employees to be vaccinated by mid-December, under new proposal: All BART employees would be required to be fully vaccinated by mid-December under a proposal by the regional rail agencys Board of Directors. Read the full story here. Heres where each Bay Area county stands on meeting mask rollback benchmarks: The plan outlined Thursday by eight Bay Area counties to lift their universal indoor mask mandates hinges on meeting several benchmarks tied to COVID case rates, hospitalizations and vaccinations. None of the eight counties with mandates San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma is yet meeting the requirements. Most are not expected to hit all the metrics for at least two months. Read the full story here. Another study finds efficacy of Pfizer vaccine wanes, especially for men: Six months after receipt of the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, its efficacy substantially decreased, especially among men, persons 65 years of age or older, and those with immunosuppression, according to a study released Wednesday. The report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the shots work significantly better in those between the ages 18 and 45 than older adults. Women has higher counts of antibody at the end of the study, which was conducted between December and July. UCSF has no plans to lift mask mandate: San Francisco will allow the lifting of its mask mandate on Oct. 15 in certain settings such as indoor college classes, but some institutions are still figuring out what to do. We are still evaluating the public health orders and have no plans to lift the mask requirement yet at UCSF, said spokesperson Laura Kurtzman. San Francisco to lift some mask rules Oct. 15, other counties lay out criteria: Starting Oct. 15, people in San Francisco may stop wearing masks at indoor spaces that require proof of vaccination including gyms, offices and places that host small gatherings as long as no children under 12 are present and other safety measures are in place. Other Bay Area counties also laid out a roadmap for rolling back mask requirements for vaccinated people, but none gave a specific date. Read the story here. Mask fatigue and vaccine mandates: Public health officials are set to establish new rules for when, where and how we can begin to uncover our faces. Meanwhile, a rush of San Francisco workers have been getting vaccinated to meet a city deadline, proving that vax mandates work, whether youre a building inspector, a cop or a Golden State Warrior. On The Chronicles Fifth & Mission podcast, health reporter Erin Allday joins host Demian Bulwa to discuss two emerging pandemic storylines in the Bay Area. Listen to the podcast here. COVID-19 hospitalizations in California fall to half of summer peak: The number of confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state dipped to 4,385 on Tuesday. That is close to half the number recorded during the peak of the summer delta surge on Aug. 31, with 8,353 hospitalizations. In the Bay Area, there were 493 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday, compared to 1,141 on Aug. 24. Seven of the 9 counties in the Bay Area have now advanced out of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions high coronavirus community transmission level into the substantial category. Napa County and Solano County the latter has the lowest vaccination rate in the region and did not adopt the universal masking policy remain in the worst category. Regarding Asian Americans left out of news coverage (Letters, Oct. 5): I believe that if most Asian Americans made more of an effort to participate in race-related issues in general and not only those issues that directly effect them, then maybe more of an effort would be made to include Asian Americans in race-related narratives. We should be shouting Stop Hate not Stop AAPI Hate, especially when the majority of hate crimes are against African Americans. You cannot be invisible when it does not directly effect you and then be front and center when it serves your best interests. Rhonda Williams, San Francisco Jails arent hospitals Regarding Fund mental health, not deputies (Open Forum, Oct. 4): Cat Brooks is entirely on target. A 2014 report by the National Sheriffs Association and Treatment Advocacy Center concludes that there are 10 times as many individuals with serious mental illness in our jails and prisons as in our psychiatric hospitals. All parties agree we need to expand funding and programs in public mental health. The question raised by the Babu litigation is whether expanded services should occur in jail or in the community. There are very poor outcomes for people with mental illness behind bars. In jail, even a mental health jail, officers are first responders, and they tend to approach all problems as potential rule violations that trigger punishment. People suffering mental illness do not do well with negative reinforcements. In contrast, health professionals in the community offer targeted therapeutic interventions and minimize the use of force. A large majority of the jail population, including most individuals with mental illness, can be safely released and treated in the community (diversion). We must not proceed with a settlement in the Babu case that funds more sheriffs officers and denies individuals with mental illness quality mental health treatment. Terry Kupers, Oakland Giants go for pennant Regarding Saving it all for final day (Front Page, Oct. 4): Congratulations to Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Gabe Kapler and the National League West champion San Francisco Giants. On the 70th anniversary of Bobby Thomsons home run and Russ Hodges famous call of the Giants win the pennant! the Giants again edged the Dodgers to win a title for Oracle Parks favorite tenant. In the words of an aphorism attributed to Mark Twain, history never repeats itself, but it often rhymes. Stephen A. Silver, San Francisco Blue Angels sound great Yes, the Blue Angels are loud. I love it. To me, its the sound of freedom. Freedom in that I live in a country where that sound is NOT a frequent wartime occurrence. Theyve also given me some incredible and indelible memories. Like walking down Van Ness Avenue late one Thursday afternoon and seeing them fly directly over my head. Or looking out a ground floor window, seeing one of them streak by and being able to read the golden letters United States Navy on the side of that blue plane. What thrills! Im glad theyre back. Bring em on! Barbara Tetzlaff, San Francisco Print state COVID data Where are the daily COVID stats for California? I was disappointed to find that there were no daily statistics for California COVID cases and deaths in the Sunday paper or in the Monday paper. Please continue to print them. We look to our daily newspaper to keep us informed. As multiple crises pile atop one another in the young 21st century, a tripartite mural at a former San Francisco post office lobby rebukes us with its dated optimism. War and Peace, by the artist Anton Refregier, is a reminder of what might have been had the U.S. and the world learned enough from two catastrophic wars and the rise of fascism between them to have chosen a different path. When Refregier painted it 75 years ago at one end of the Rincon Annex post office building in downtown San Francisco, the mural expressed the then-widespread hope for a future that didnt happen. In 1940, Refregier, a resident of Woodstock, N.Y., won a prestigious juried competition to paint 27 murals for the San Francisco post office lobby sponsored by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, a New Deal initiative to embellish federal buildings with work by leading American artists. It also was one of its most provocative commissions because what Refregier envisioned would represent the full, messy history of San Francisco, including its racial and class divisions subjects rarely if ever seen on post office walls. World War II postponed the project, and in 1943, Congress terminated the Treasury Section and transferred his commission to the new Public Buildings Administration. In spring 1945, Fortune magazine sent Refregier to San Francisco to make drawings of the United Nations Conference on International Organizations. The gathering was designed to abort another world war, or worse. Just two weeks before the meetings opening, a cerebral hemorrhage felled Franklin D. Roosevelt, whod conceived the United Nations. The conference delegates met a month later in an ancient grove of redwoods at Muir Woods National Monument to dedicate a plaque that named Roosevelt the chief architect of the United Nations and Apostle of Lasting Peace for All Mankind. Roosevelts death and the political jockeying Refregier witnessed at the U.N. conference inspired him to create a magnificent climax to a mural cycle showing a city largely built on conflict While keeping most of his original plan for the mural, he scrapped his original plan for the final piece (a panoramic painting of the San Francisco worlds fair of 1939) and replaced it with a triptych a three-paneled picture depicting the healing of old wounds through international cooperation and the price of not doing so. In the left panel, an immense armored hand rises from a pile of burning books, a swastika flag, and concentration camp prisoners to confront the massed guns of the Allies. In the right panel, people of all races gather round a circular table covered with the flags of many nations, the sun of a new day rising behind them. Refregier sought to bridge the two antithetical pictures with a portrait of Roosevelt in the center. He was inspired by a photo of the ailing president. Roosevelts face, the artist said, was that of a tired, sensitive, and completely beautiful man who lives in the heart and the minds of the people and thus belongs to the history of this city. He would dedicate the entire cycle to the memory of the late president. Refregier returned to San Francisco in June 1946 to paint the lobby, but he quickly fell afoul of unsympathetic bureaucrats who ordered him to remove Roosevelt, telling him that the image of a recently deceased president was inappropriate for a federal building. Refregier resisted for seven months, but he ultimately capitulated to what he saw as the forces that were even then launching the Cold War. It was necessary, he said, to erase the image of Roosevelt and his plans for coexistence, and peace, hope of friendship with the Soviet Union. The artist replaced Roosevelts face with a multiracial group looking to the United Nations for a fulfillment of the four freedoms that the president had named in his 1941 State of the Union address. In addition to the freedoms of speech and religion, Roosevelt had insisted that two more freedoms from fear and from want should become global human rights. But the world was not to be freed of fear or want. As Refregier foresaw, the Cold War erased the hopes Roosevelt had inspired for peace and economic freedom, while the McCarthy era brought purges against those who shared Roosevelts vision. Led by nationalist organizations and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearsts press (Hearst Corp. owns The Chronicle), efforts to censor or destroy Refregiers murals began as he was painting them. I believe a committee should make a thorough investigation of this type of art in government buildings with the view to obtaining the removal of all that is found to be inconsistent with American ideals and principles, Rep. Richard Nixon said in 1949. The murals survived but the post office did not. In the 1980s, the building was redeveloped into Rincon Center, and the extant lobby is maintained as a public space listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, just steps from where the nations of the world once met to sign the U.N. Charter, a growing legion of the homeless, hungry and sick shuffle city streets below opulent towers. They testify to how very far San Francisco, the nation and the world have veered from Roosevelts freedom from want and freedom from fear. At a time when collective global action is needed to address climate chaos, pandemic disease, nuclear weapons and resurgent fascism, few today look to the U.N. as the congress of nations Roosevelt and Refregier hoped it would become. Like Roosevelts face, the purpose for which it was created has been erased. Gray Brechin is a project scholar at the Living New Deal in UC Berkeleys Department of Geography and is the author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin. This piece was written for Zocalo Public Square. SACRAMENTO High school students in California will be required to learn about the contributions and oppression of people of color in America, under a measure Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday. AB101 by Assembly Member Jose Medina, D-Riverside, adds a one-semester ethnic studies course to the states high school graduation requirements for public schools, starting with the 2029-30 academic year. Schools must also begin offering ethnic studies courses as an elective by the 2025-26 year. America is shaped by our shared history, much of it painful and etched with woeful injustice, Newsom wrote in a signing message. Students deserve to see themselves in their studies, and they must understand our nation's full history if we expect them to one day build a more just society. The effort to require ethnic studies in public schools has been a lengthy, controversial fight at the Capitol. Last year, Newsom vetoed a similar bill Medina carried after critics said a draft curriculum for the course was biased, though he signed another law requiring an ethnic studies course for students within the California State University system. But opposition to the bill enacting a requirement for high schoolers dissipated after the state Board of Education approved a model ethnic studies curriculum for public school students this past spring. Earlier draft versions of the ethnic studies guidelines prompted a torrent of complaints. Many of the comments focused on concerns that the curriculum evoked anti-Semitic stereotypes or needlessly dwelt on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The final version of the curriculum removed those references, though it received critiques from some educators and activists who said it erases Palestinians and waters down content about Arab Americans. Californias ethnic studies course is designed to teach students about the history, culture and struggles of different racial and ethnic groups, including discussion of what the model curriculum describes as institutionalized systems of advantage and the causes of racism and other forms of bigotry. It focuses on four historically marginalized groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. The guidelines also include supplemental lessons on Jews, Armenians and Sikhs. When the bill passed the Legislature, Medina called it the culmination of a 50-year struggle to diversify public-school curriculum. The ethnic studies movement began in the late 1960s, when students at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley led strikes to demand courses about people of color. The inclusion of ethnic studies in the high school curriculum is long overdue, Medina said in a statement. The signing of AB101 today is one step in the long struggle for equal education for all students. California set out to write an ethnic studies curriculum in 2018. From the beginning, the process was embroiled in tension, and Medinas legislation was sidelined two years in a row while the state sought to resolve disputes over the course curriculum. Some Republican legislators said the course is inappropriate for high school students, arguing it is rooted in critical race theory, a view that racism is ingrained in laws and government institutions. Proponents say ethnic studies courses are shown to help students of color improve academically because they feel empowered by seeing themselves reflected in textbooks, rather than a Eurocentric version of history. The final version of AB101 includes a provision that discourages school districts from using earlier versions of the model curriculum that included references to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The measure also prohibits schools from using instruction materials that promote bias or discrimination toward any group. I appreciate that the legislation provides a number of guardrails to ensure that courses will be free from bias or bigotry and appropriate for all students, Newsom wrote. Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner San Francisco officials and educators decried conditions inside a Mission District public school during a hearing Friday, one in which students and teachers described rodent infestations, 90-degree classrooms, students being asked to bring their own toilet paper to school and a gas leak that went neglected for more than a week. Officials and faculty members said these issues have persisted for years and are just a sliver of the dangerous, dilapidated conditions inside Buena Vista Horace Mann, a bilingual elementary and middle school in San Francisco. A classroom full of students attended Fridays hearing, a first-ever for a Board of Supervisors meeting, said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who convened the hearing. Im angry at this point, said Supervisor Ronen, who represents the Mission District. I started out this process wanting to be polite and calm, but now I am angry. Frankly, we have lost confidence in SFUSD, Ronen said. Administrators and teachers said they have been sounding alarms about the dangerous conditions for more than five years. Now, they and San Francisco supervisors are urgently calling for a full-scale renovation of the school, which was built more than 100 years ago and has had myriad problems with its electrical system, piping, the roof and rodents, among other issues. The San Francisco Unified School District said its working to renovate the school and acknowledged some of the problems while saying safety issues have been addressed. The safety and well-being of students and staff is our highest priority, and any identified safety issues at BVHM have been addressed to meet requirements, district spokesperson Laura Dudnick said in an email. We recognize that the run-down nature of the BVHM facility and challenge in addressing day-to-day conditions such as peeling paint, cracked floors, and overheating rooms contributes to a feeling of neglect in the school community. The district is working to remedy this through our request for funding from the SF Board of Education, Dudnick said. In addition to the renovation, representatives from the school also asked for an inspection by a third party, and for the district to provide monthly, public reports on every aspect of the renovation process, which SFUSD agreed to. Supervisor Ronen said the board will offer to front the cost for Public Works to do a complete inspection of the schools emergency repair needs. On Tuesday, SFUSD will present a bond reallocation plan to school board commissioners. Commissioner Matt Alexander said he planned to introduce a measure to shunt additional bond money for renovations up to $55 million, he said. If the measure passes, the project could begin immediately. I think weve failed the school, said Alexander. This has gone on for a really long time. ... This is what institutional racism looks like. The school was built for only 300 middle school students, but it merged in 2011 with a K-5 school to create a single K-8 school, doubling its size to 600 students. Officials say the school filed several complaints about the unsafe conditions, all of which went unanswered by the district. In January 2020, the San Francisco Fire Department inspected the school and cited it for missing sprinkler certifications and evacuation signs, as well as other infractions. But that fall, SFUSD published its school report card, where it rated its facilities as good in every category. Perhaps the most egregious offense, advocates said, was that on Aug. 16, students and faculty members noticed the smell of gas, which SFUSD dismissed as the odor of decaying rodents. A week later, the principal called Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which found a potentially dangerous gas leak and ordered the 480 students in attendance to evacuate the school immediately. 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. What students and teachers are facing at Buena Vista Horace Mann is inhumane, said fourth-grade teacher Allison Matamoros, who attended the hearing virtually with a classroom of students. We were literally gaslit by the district when we reported the smell. Its a slap in the face. Matamoros presented images of some of the schools conditions, which included leaking roofs and falling tiles, debris falling from the ceiling, and a room that is both a printer room and a bathroom. She also presented at least two instances involving child injuries one where a student received 12 stitches after falling over a crack outside, and another where a child got an electric shock from plugging a computer into an outlet. This school means everything to everyone, said one of the students. But all of the things that have been happening lately is not OK. Another student, who was in eighth grade and had attended the school since she was 5, said she has seen children urinate in the yard because they dont want to go in the bathroom. She added that she was sure many students could relate to having classes interrupted by rodents scurrying across classrooms. This is the most horrendous hearing Ive ever been a part of, said Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who asked if the school was even safe for students to be in on a daily basis. SFUSD Director of Policy and Planning Viva Mogi said that the school should not shut down, and that it is safe for students to attend. Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain San Francisco will require all city contractors who work alongside employees on a regular basis in city-run facilities to get vaccinated under a new order issued by Mayor London Breed Friday. The order follows the citys existing vaccine mandate for its 35,000 city employees, addressing the citys extensive contracting system, and reflects similar federal mandates for contractors. Contractors who qualify will have to be fully vaccinated meaning 14 days have passed since their second vaccine shot by Dec. 31. The city will require contractors to follow the policy under all new contracts that start Jan. 1. The city has thousands of contractors, but not all will fall under the mandate. Exactly which contractors will have to get shots isnt yet clear the City Administrator will release specifics on Oct. 15 but its intended to target someone such as a nonprofit worker at a work station alongside city employees instead of a repairman fixing an appliance. If a contractor who falls under the order doesnt get vaccinated, their employer could remove them from the workplace and replace them with a vaccinated employee. But if the employer refuses to comply with the order, the city could terminate the organizations contract. Our vaccine mandate for City employees has always been about protecting the public we serve and protecting our workforce, Breed said in a statement. By extending the mandate to contractors who work alongside our City workers, we are continuing to do everything we can to keep our City workforce strong and healthy. San Francisco, which already has one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation, rolled out the first, and strictest, employee vaccine mandate in the country to push the numbers even higher among its huge workforce. So far, that plan seems to be working. As of Wednesday, 1,705 city employees less than 5% of the workforce were unvaccinated, and 364 had not reported their vaccination status. That number dropped from 2,706 unvaccinated and 939 unreported on Sept. 23. Those who dont comply by the deadline of Nov. 1 could lose their jobs. Human Resources Director Carol Isen said she was pleased with the high vaccination rate among employees and that mandating the same for contractors who regularly work alongside them was the right thing to do. 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. Contractors will be able to get religious and medical exemptions. The city couldnt provide a number of how many contractors it has total, and doesnt know how many are already vaccinated. Some contractors who work in high-risk settings such as hospitals, homeless shelters and nursing homes already had to get their shots by Sept. 30 along with city workers in those facilities. While some of the citys powerful municipal unions, including those that represent firefighters, police and sheriffs deputies, have opposed the citywide employee vaccine mandate, not all contractors are unionized, so any protest to the mandate could be more muted. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench Newlyweds in Kauai may soon find it harder to obtain romantic shots of them posing in front of a ravishing waterfall or sunset-drenched cove, after the state government issued cease-and-desist orders to two photography companies on the island. Both Bradyhouse Photographers and The Foxes Photography have been told to stop taking photos without permits at several iconic state parks, reports the Hawaii Star. The locations in question include Kalepa Ridge, Wailua Falls, Hanakapiai Beach, Waimea Canyon and Kokee State Park, all of which require permits for commercial photography. Working without a permit there can lead to fines or even jail time. Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kauai Visitors Bureau, told the Hawaii Star that she has seen photographers charter boats to photograph wedding parties along the stunning Honopu Valley coastline. That is 100% illegal and culturally inappropriate, she said, adding that when she attempted to talk to the photographers, she was met with threats. One caption on the Foxes Photography website, under a wedding photo taken under Wailua Falls, may even have promoted law-breaking behavior. One of the biggest waterfalls in Kauai is also one of the easiest to access. You can get a great view of it from the road, but the steep hike down to the base is 100% worth it. If you want elopement photos here though, wed strongly recommend going early in the morning because its a popular spot, the caption read, according to the Hawaii Star, although it now appears to have been removed. The waterfall, featured prominently in the opening credits of the television series "Fantasy Island," is located in Wailua River State Park, a region that requires a permit for any commercial activity. In a statement to Hawaii News Now, Bradyhouse Photography said it had in fact been closely following all of the Department of Land and Natural Resources rules, and that it had previously obtained a permit. However, DLNR denied that the company had applied for permits, saying that it had no records of applications from Bradyhouse. Many of these places are both naturally and culturally sensitive and we would not be issuing permits for commercial drone operations or wedding photos in these sensitive locations, DLNR Division of State Parks Administrator Curt Cottrell told Hawaii Star. LASSEN NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. He drove out of the Lumberjacks restaurant parking lot on a Tuesday in August, up Main Street, past the fire station and the gun shop. Then, Gary Maynard left the small city of Susanville in the northeastern corner of California and headed up a steep highway into the Sierra Nevada, where, prosecutors say, he set the forest ablaze. Maynard, a criminology professor who specializes in deviancy, now sits in a Sacramento jail awaiting a hearing. The crime expert, investigators say, became a criminal himself. Arson, a crime whose perpetrators have included lawyers, dentists, millionaires and residents of homeless encampments, has for decades been a concern in California, where about 10% of wildfires every year are set on purpose, according to Cal Fire, the states largest fire agency. With megafires in recent years plaguing California, where forests and scrublands remain extremely desiccated by drought and other effects of climate change, the arsonists match is an especially potent threat. And the crime is on the rise: Last year the number of wildland arson fires in California rose by 6%, from 301 to 320. Over the past two months, three people suspected of arson in Northern California have been considered responsible for fires that burned thousands of acres and destroyed more than 200 homes and businesses. The fires that Maynard is accused of setting were put out before they could destroy any buildings. The wildland arsonist is the most dangerous criminal in the world, said Ed Nordskog, who has spent a career interrogating arsonists in California as an investigator in Los Angeles. They can burn a whole town down in an hour. In late September, the Fawn fire, which investigators say was set by Alexandra Souverneva, a yoga instructor from Silicon Valley and chemistry and biology graduate of the California Institute of Technology, injured three people and burned 185 structures north of Redding. An official with Cal Fire said that there was overwhelming evidence Souverneva intentionally lit the fire and that she might have been responsible for a vegetation fire the day before in the same area, according to court documents. Upon her arrest, the documents said, Souverneva said she had attempted to boil water she feared might be tainted with bear urine. Earlier that month, the Hopkins fire, which prosecutors say was set by a 20-year-old local resident, burned about 250 acres and destroyed 46 structures in Mendocino County, three hours north of San Francisco. The man, Devin Lamar Johnson, was on probation and now faces three charges of arson. Although some wildfires in California are ignited by lightning, a vast majority have nonnatural causes sparks from electrical equipment, the heat of a lawn mower engine or, in the case of one of the states largest fires, a man hammering a stake into the ground. Arson is a particularly challenging problem because it is so hard to prevent. Convicted arsonists in California must register with a statewide database that currently lists 5,318 names, according to Gianni Muschetto, chief of the law enforcement program at Cal Fire. Some arson experts believe that the coronavirus pandemic has given rise to an increase in arson activity, along with higher rates of homicide, aggravated assault and car thefts. In California, the number of arson arrests jumped during the pandemic: 120 arson arrests were reported by Cal Fire in 2020 compared with 70 the year before. Arson offenses had been declining nationwide for the past few decades, but FBI numbers show about 13 arson offenses per 100,000 people in 2020, about a 20% increase from the previous year. Arrests could also be up, experts say, because of increased vigilance by residents at a time of widespread fear of wildfires and the damage they have caused. Nordskog, who has interviewed more than 300 arsonists in his career, says it is a crime that crosses race and gender lines. The Hollywood portrayal of serial arsonists excited by fire and doing it for a thrill applies to a small subset of arsonists, he said. But more common are people frustrated with their jobs or family life or suffering mental health crises. Most arsonists are just angry people, he said. The case of Maynard, the criminology professor, appears to show both the stresses of the pandemic, links to mental illness and the arduous work of stopping arsonists before they cause irreparable harm. Investigators tracked Maynards movements using his food stamp transactions, phone records and a device they attached to his car in the Lumberjacks parking lot. An itinerant professor who taught at Santa Clara, Chapman and Sonoma State Universities, among others, Maynard had a particular fascination with the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana. In interviews, former students described Maynard as anxious, troubled and, at times, inappropriate. One said he often taught his classes during the pandemic via Zoom from a darkened bedroom, revealing details about an ailing father, a lawsuit against his former landlord and his battles with his mental health. Last year, his life appearing to unravel further, Maynard lived in his car, according to court documents. As he traversed Northern California, he sent messages to students that included rantings, as well as links to YouTube videos meandering footage of trees and mountains in which he ruminated on the state of the world. He also appeared fascinated by arson. Heather Williams, a federal public defender who is representing Maynard, said her team was investigating Maynards employment history, but she provided no other details about his personal life or a possible interest in fire. We cannot ethically answer your questions at this time, she wrote by email. Something was off, said a former student, Vamsita Venna, who took two of Maynards classes at Santa Clara University, where he was an adjunct faculty member from September 2019 to December 2020. Eventually, Venna and others raised concerns with professors; an employee at the university notified the police. Maynards contract was not renewed, the school said. What appears clear is that in the final months of Maynards teaching career, the boundary between his academic research and personal fascinations with fire began to blur. According to court documents, officials first came across Maynard in July when responding to a wildfire on the slopes of Mt. Shasta, about an hour south of the Oregon border. After a mountain biker called to report the fire, an investigator with the U.S. Forest Service found Maynard on a rutted road trying to extricate his car, which had gotten stuck on a boulder. Agents photographed the car and took note of the patterns of its tire tracks. When the same tracks were found near a second fire that ignited less than 24 hours later, the lead investigator obtained a warrant to track Maynards phone. Verizon sent coordinates for the phones location every 15 minutes to agents, who closely tracked his movements. When Maynard traveled to Susanville, they placed the tracker on his car. On Aug. 3, agents followed Maynards movements into the hills. The air was thick with smoke from the Dixie fire, a megafire burning several dozen miles away that experts believe started from electrical equipment. Maynard drove into a labyrinth of rutted dirt logging roads in the Lassen National Forest and set three additional fires, investigators say. After the third fire he was arrested. Investigators charged Maynard with setting one fire, and say he is quite likely linked with several others in July and August, all of which were caught before they could cause the devastation that other wildfires have in recent years. He has pleaded not guilty. The U.S. district attorney who brought the charges against him argued that Maynard was particularly dangerous, even among arsonists. Where Maynard went, fires started, Phillip Talbert, the district attorney, said in a court filing. Not just once, but over and over again. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. When Jordan Lentos clients closed on a home in Oakland this month, they were thrilled with their purchase. As a real estate agent, he commonly watches new homeowners dream about furnishing their new place and building a life there, but these buyers were excited about something else, too. They were looking forward to no longer paying an electricity bill. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom home came equipped with a fully owned solar roof and a Tesla Powerwall (a home battery), which according to the sellers of the property, meant they typically sold more electricity back to the grid than they ever used. Plus, there were also two fast car-charging hookups in the garage perfect for the new buyers electric cars. It's a logical progression, Lento, a Red Oak Realty real estate agent specializing in the East Bay, said. More and more people are getting EVs and that starts a fury of what else can we do? Im not paying for gas, how do I not pay for electric? As these types of sustainable home features increase in popularity among homeowners, theyre starting to become something that buyers are putting top of their list of amenities they desire. I have buyers that are targeting homes with solar power specifically and/or solar generators, or whats more common is the Tesla power battery, Lento said. Its not only from an ecological perspective, which most people are very mindful of, but also with blackouts being more popular every year and air quality being more of a problem every year, people are looking for those features so they can breathe when the power goes out. The sellers of that Oakland home told Lento that during the 2020 blackouts they were able to live three full days without power and never even turned off their air conditioning. They also didnt feel bad about their carbon footprint. Lento said its also being taken into consideration on the sellers side. He recently had clients interested in selling their home, and the property had many of these features and he advised them to put the house on the market in September. Its going to be smoky and really hazy and really hot, he said he told them. People are going to walk into your air conditioned house with no electrical to pay for and have clean air. I think in the next three to five years, if not sooner, as these events become more intense, its only going to become more and more top of mind as fire season gets longer. Its great for the environment, but its also a livability thing. East Bay Redfin agent Katy Polvorosa said she has had to learn more about these eco-features as they become more common, as well as educate clients more about them and their considerations in the home buying process. Im more in tune to them, too [as an agent]. Its something you have to consider if you already have an electric car and youre purchasing a house. You want it set up pretty much right away because you need to be able to drive your car, she said. Its definitely part of the conversation, and it will probably grow as more and more people get electric cars. While Polvorosa said she has had a few clients that wouldnt buy a home without an EV charger installed, she said these and other eco-friendly amenities are mostly bonuses for buyers and not necessarily a non-negotiable. If clients are particularly interested in these features, she often reminds them about their ability to be added later on. She also has had to add in more education for clients about the difference between solar panels that are fully owned and solar that is still part of a lease, which would then have to be transferred to the buyer. In the Bay Area with power outages and fires, it's definitely something people are thinking about, she said. They are wants but arent necessarily needs. They are pluses. Polvorosa said shes even personally thought about adding a Tesla battery in her own house, assuming it would add some value to her home. While many buyers get excited about these eco-features, Lento said if a home ticks every other box except that one, its something clients are more likely to give up on if a house has everything else theyre looking for. Eco-features tend to be the kind of thing where buyers are very intent on it, but because good inventory is hard to come by, it's the kind of thing that buyers are willing to concede on, he said. Lento said its also not yet gotten to the point where realtors are recommending sellers add these features into a home to increase the ability to sell a house. The most common recommendation is still a new coat of paint or to refinish the floors first. If he was to recommend a buyer do something to appeal to someone who wanted a more eco-friendly property, hed simply say to pop on a Nest thermostat. As the world is shifting to electric vehicles, we're definitely seeing a trend develop in San Francisco with our buyers. About a third of our buyers are going to either have an electric car already or want the ability to install a charger, San Francisco agent Aaron Bellings said. ... They are definitely a selling point for buyers, and good value adds, but sellers aren't proactively installing them just yet for a sale from what we've seen. This desire for eco-friendly amenities is definitely not a passing fad, said Jim Walberg of Compass, as he said hes seen them as more of a focus in the past three years, particularly among millennial home buyers. The return on investment for adding energy efficiencies to a home are proven by higher resale prices and also the speed of the sale of the home, he said. New home builders have jumped on the bandwagon by creating energy efficient upgrades. Walberg also said hes hoping to see a continued emphasis on water saving devices like graywater systems and smarter irrigation systems. Lento said drip irrigation systems which use less water than traditional irrigation systems are also becoming more common in Bay Area homes and are often advertised when selling a home. The demand for amenities like solar and Tesla batteries is clearly increasing, Lento said, as he is seeing anecdotal evidence that the wait times for these items have skyrocketed. While some of that delay can surely be attributed to COVID-19-related supply chain issues, it also shows that more people around the Bay Area are adding on these amenities. Pricing on these features can vary a Tesla Powerwall plus installation is likely to cost at least $10,000 in the Bay Area so how much these features add to the actual value of the home is still hard to estimate, Lento said. But that doesnt stop it from being enticing when you see it. Once [buyers] see it, they say, We really want to seek out homes like that. Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed Friday that his companys move to Texas was, in part, inspired by a California lawmaker's incendiary tweet to him. The tweet in question? Fk Elon Musk, from progressive California Assemblywoman Lorena S. Gonzalez. Musk's confirmation came in response to a fawning Tesla blog post, claiming that Musk selflessly tried to resist the actions of the government by reopening a Fremont factory in violation of Alameda Countys COVID-19 precautions in 2020. For context, Musk sued the county over the stay-at-home order that shut down the company's factory, and dropped the suit 11 days later. The Tesla fan blog headlined "Tesla Moved its HQ to Texas Following Explicit Offer from California Assemblywoman" calls out Gonzalez for tweeting out an expletive to Musk, saying the tweet "indicates serious problems in the apparatus of the state." Musk tweeted, in response to the article and its headline, Exactly. Gonzalez was nonplussed, tweeting that the CEO makes too much of his money from taxpayer subsidies in CA to pull out." This comment is in reference to the fact that Tesla will keep its California factories. And, yes, hes still awful, she added on Twitter. Worth $200 billion & left his janitors hanging during the pandemic. She later tweeted screenshots of her being harassed on Twitter and Instagram by Tesla enthusiasts. In a press conference that took place in Oakland Friday, in which he praised Musk for "his entrepreneurial spirit," California Gov. Gavin Newsom chimed in on Gonzalezs comment. I receive tweets like that probably on an hourly basis and Im staying here and I love this state, Newsom said, per Politico reporter Jeremy B. White. And, for what it's worth, Newsom also defended the state's tax for businesses like Tesla. Page Content During the last general election, the U.K. government included a manifesto pledge to make flexible work the default position unless employers have a good reason not to make it so. In 2019, the government launched the Flexible Working Taskforcea partnership across government departments, business groups, trade unions and charities to encourage employers to consider advertising jobs at all levels and pay grades as flexible. But things had gone quiet and this commitment wasn't included in the most recent Queen's Speech. However, the government has now launched a consultation which sets out a number of proposals. These are built around the principle that working arrangements are best decided through dialogue between the parties. The government intends to provide, what it calls an "enabling framework" within which these conversations can take place rather than setting out specific legal requirements. The government will not change the law to allow employees a right to have flexible work. Employees will still have to initiate the discussion, as they do now, and the focus of the consultation is to support employees to start these conversations and help employers to respond to them. In other words, the government has no intention of making flexible work the default position. It has set out five specific proposals: 1. Making the right to request flexible work a 'day one' right Currently employees can make a request to work flexibly under the statutory procedure only if they've worked for their employer for at least 26 weeks. The government believes that making flexible work available at the outset of the employment relationship will help encourage employers to consider flexible working options early in job design/recruitment process and give employees more confidence to make a request. It is asking for views about whether the qualifying period can be removed and what benefits this might deliver. However, it does not intend to impose a legal duty on employers to say in job advertisements whether they are open to flexible work. 2. Ensuring that the eight business grounds for turning down a request remain valid Employers who turn down a request to work flexibly under the statutory scheme must be able to point to one or more of the business grounds set out in the legislation. The government doesn't believe that these present a disproportionate barrier to flexible working (they don't) and doesn't think that they need to be changed. However, it wants to find out if the existing business reasons are still appropriate. 3. Requiring the employer to consider alternatives Currently, an employer can turn down a request if it has relevant business reason. It doesn't have to consider alternatives to the one proposed, although, in practice, many employers do. The government wants to explore whether it's practical to ask employers to set out, when rejecting a request, what alternatives it's considered (and, if viable, presumably offered to the employee). It believes that asking employers to consider alternatives will help influence organizational norms. 4. Reviewing the administrative process underpinning the process Currently, an employee can make only one statutory request every 12 months and the employer has three months to consider it. The government is considering removing this limitation so that people can make more than one request each year to reflect changes to their personal situations. It is also considering changing the three-month time limit employers have to respond (which can be extended by agreement) to a shorter period. One of the options is for the process to be concluded in less than two weeks! Anybody who has been involved in this process will know that such a short timescale is completely unrealistic unless the parties are in agreement from the outset. 5. Requesting a temporary arrangement Currently, if the employer agrees to an employee's flexible working request, it will be a permanent change to the employee's terms and conditions of employment unless the parties agree otherwise. The government believes that the ability to request a temporary arrangement is under-utilized and it wants to know if businesses are aware that they can agree to short-term arrangements. Other Actions In addition to these proposals, the Flexible Working Taskforce will review what has been learned during the pandemic and develop advice to help support new ways of working. It will start by looking at the location where people work, including hybrid working, and will consider practical issues to help employers support those people who want to work flexibly. The government also wants employers to develop flexible working policies. The July 2019 consultation, "Good Work Plan: Proposals to Support Families" contained proposals to introduce a new requirement for large employers (250+ employees) to publish their flexible working policies. The government has rejected that idea in favor of encouraging employers to publish their policies. The government will also launch a separate call for evidence to consider the extra flexibility that people may need including the need for ad hoc and informal flexibility. Deadline Responses must be submitted by 11.45 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 1. Joanne Moseley is an attorney with Irwin Mitchell LLP in Birmingham, England, U.K. 2021 Irwin Mitchell LLP. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission of Lexology. President Hakainde Hichilema, who relaunched the programme in Lusaka, the country's capital, said having people vaccinated was critical if the fight against the pandemic was to succeed, Xinhua news agency reported. Lusaka, Oct 8 (IANS) Zambia has re-launched the Covid-19 vaccination programme with the aim of targeting 70 per cent of the eligible population. "As we relaunch the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, we call upon all Zambians to rise up and join hands in taking full responsibility and control in fighting the Coronavirus pandemic," he said on Thursday, stressing that the rejuvenation of the vaccination campaign was necessary in order to raise awareness and create unprecedented demand for key interventions in order to save lives, livelihood and the economy. According to the Zambian leader, many people in the country have been hesitant to take the vaccine because of lack of adequate information on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. He has since urged leaders from all sectors to participate in raising awareness among members of the general public. United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Coordinator Coumba Mar Gadio said the UN will continue to support Zambia in fighting the pandemic. She said vaccines have proven to be safe and that countries that have rolled out massive vaccination programs have seen a reduction in the number of Covid-19 cases. Only 5 per cent of the eligible population have so far been vaccinated since the first launch of the program on April 14, 2021. --IANS int/pgh Microsoft has acquired productivity platform Ally.io to help improve employe experience by aligning their work to the companys strategic mission and core priorities. Ally.io, a leading OKR (objectives and key results) company, will join the Microsoft Viva family as part of its employee experience platform (EXP) designed to help companies embrace the new digital work life, Microsoft said in a statement late on Thursday. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The OKR category is a fast-growing and emerging space and Ally.io is leading the way as one of the most loved tools on the market. Since its launch in 2018, Ally.io has been adopted by over 1,000 leading high-tech, manufacturing, financial services and healthcare businesses across more than 80 countries. "Ally.io will power a new Microsoft Viva module. Viva is an employee experience platform that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources and insights from anywhere you work," said the tech giant. Powered by Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, Viva helps organisations foster a culture of human connection, growth, well-being and success. "Over the next year, we'll be investing to bring Ally.io into the Microsoft cloud, evolve the existing integrations with Microsoft Teams, and weave Ally.io into Viva, Office, Power BI and the broader set of Microsoft 365 apps and services," the company said. "Until then, current customers can continue to expect the same great support and service, and new customers can continue to purchase the existing service through ally.io," it added. Tata Motors is in discussion with Ford to acquire the latters units in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, according to sources. If the transaction materialises, it would be Tata Motors second asset procurement from the US major. In March 2008, the Indian major bought Jaguar Land Rover from Ford for $2.3 billion. Presently, Tata Motors has three passenger vehicle making plants in the country (one is a joint venture with Fiat Chrysler). The Ford India contract, which is at a budding stage, comes after Tata Motors separated its domestic passenger vehicle business, valued at about INR 9,420 crore, into a standalone entity. Ford would get to shed its money-losing India unit and escalate investments in electric and automated vehicles, the future of mobility. Tata Motors interest in Fords local unit gained momentum after its leadership, that include chairman N Chandrasekaran and executive director Girish Wagh, met Tamil Nadu government officials. While Tata Motors has no manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, it has a plant in Gujarat, which is next to Fords production unit. Tamil Nadu is too keen to find an owner for Fords facility in the state so that it can protect jobs as the US major has decided to stop making cars in India. Ford took the step after accumulated losses of its India unit crossed $2 billion over the last 10 years and the road to profitability continues to remain hazy. Deliberations are continuing and Tata Motors could decide not to proceed with the deal. A Tata Motors spokesperson said that Chandrasekaran had a courtesy meeting with TN chief minister M K Stalin but declined to share details of the discussions. A Ford India spokesman states, We continue to explore possible alternatives for our manufacturing facilities and have nothing further to comment on the ongoing speculation. Motilal Oswal Financial Services head (research) Siddhartha Khemka say that the Ford India contract would be a benefit for Tata Motors as it would be a distress sale topped with certain benefits expected from the government of Tamil Nadu. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! The boss of big box South African retailer Massmart Wholesale will steer Metcash through the next chapter of the COVID-19 pandemic after chief executive Jeff Adams confirmed plans to retire on Friday. Metcash, which owns the IGA supermarkets, Mitre 10 hardware store and Cellarbrations chains, told investors it would appoint Doug Jones to the top job from February 2022. Mr Jones has spent the past 14 years at Walmart-controlled Massmart. Metcash CEO Jeff Adams will step down from his role at the start of 2022. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer. Jeff Adams had previously flagged he wanted to retire in 2022, setting off a global executive search. He has been with Metcash since 2017 and oversaw the companys growth strategy, as well as steering it through the first waves of the pandemic. Metcash chair Rob Murray said Mr Adams had shown significant endurance and resilience over the past year, given his family had been based in the United States throughout this period. And in Facebooks crisis du jour, kicked off by a whistleblowers claims that the company repeatedly chose its short-term corporate interests over the good of humanity, some nuance has likely been lost. Instagrams internal research about the apps influence on teenage girls mental health does not appear conclusive, as some researchers told me and NPR reported . The real power of the scandals is the opportunity to ask: Holy moly, what is Facebook doing to us? Credit:David Paul Morris, Bloomberg In the firestorms, there may have been too much credit given to the Kremlin, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook and too little to human free will. In 2016, the worst fears were that a wildfire of Russian propaganda on Facebook persuaded a bunch of Americans to vote for Donald Trump. In 2018, people spun yarns that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica brainwashed us with data they vacuumed up from Facebook users. Not quite right. In Facebooks major scandals of the last five years, some of the scary details or breathless conclusions have been off base. But each one has moved us closer to essential truths about how Facebook affects our lives. So yes, we have all gotten stuff wrong about Facebook. The company, the public and people in power have at times oversimplified, sensationalised, misdiagnosed the problems or botched the solutions. We focused on how the heck Facebook allowed Macedonian teenagers to grab Americans attention with fabricated news and did less to address why so many people believed it. Each public embarrassment for Facebook, though, is a building block that makes us a little savvier about the influence of these still relatively new internet technologies in our lives. The real power of the scandals is the opportunity to ask: Holy moly, what is Facebook doing to us? And what are we doing to one another? Kate Klonick, a law school professor, told me that when she started as a doctoral student at Yale Law School in 2015, she was told that her interest in internet companies governance of online speech was not a subject for serious legal research and publication. Online life was not considered real life, she explained. Russian election propaganda, Cambridge Analytica and other Facebook news in the years that followed changed that perception. Those stories have done one huge thing: Theyve started to make people take the power of technology companies seriously, Klonick said. That is one thing that is different about this Facebook episode from all the ones that came before. We are wiser. And we are ready. There is a coterie of former tech insiders and outside professionals who have studied Facebook and other tech superpowers for years, and they are armed with proposed fixes for the harms that these companies perpetrate. The Malaysian government hopes to finalise a foreign alliance for national car maker Proton by the end of March as planned even after the withdrawal of France's PSA Peugeot Citroen, a minister said on Monday. PSA Peugeot last week called off talks about possible industrial collaboration with Proton, saying the "right conditions for a successful project weren't in place". Proton is still in talks with Germany's Volkswagen AG and US-based General Motors Corp about a possible partnership. "We gave the time at the end of March. We (will) try to stick to that timeframe," Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama. Talks with Proton's suitors included areas such as equity and technical ownership, he said in the report. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Dad [actor Rance Howard] hated the script. He didnt get American Graffiti at all. He thought it was too episodic and loosely structured. It was so radically different from any other script that I had ever come across, including the fact that it had the word graffiti in its title; I had to look it up. But I saw something fresh and gently subversive in the script and was fascinated by the way George Lucas had situated the story in 1962, a mere 10 years in the past, but an eternity ago in terms of social mores, given how fast American culture had evolved in the 60s. George was looking to capture the lost innocence of the cruising culture that he and his friends had enjoyed as teenagers in his hometown of Modesto, 160 kilometres inland from San Francisco in Californias Central Valley. It was a world of souped-up hot rods and sleek Ford Thunderbirds, closer in feel to the 1950s than to the tumultuous years that lay ahead. The whole movie took place in the space of one night near summers end, the last one before a group of childhood friends went their separate ways: some off to college, others to work or points uncertain. I was exactly the right age for American Graffiti, 18, and I would be fresh out of high school when the production team was scheduled to film it, in the northern summer of 1972. In fact, it would be my first acting job where I was no longer required to have a welfare worker on set, a freedom that I relished almost as much as the script. For all his reservations about American Graffiti, Dad respected my enthusiasm. We were, at that point in our father-son dynamic, at a crossroads. He had held the reins to my career pretty tightly throughout my childhood; as long as I was a minor, he and Mom were going to be the primary decision-makers about my career and future, though I was always respectfully looped in. But Dad drew a circle around March 1, 1972, on the calendar: the date of my 18th birthday. On that day, he promised, he would step back and let me become the architect of my professional life. He was as good as his word. Still, my getting cast in the movie was not a given. First, I had to meet with George Lucas and Geno Havens, the films assistant casting director. George was a slight, soft-spoken man with thick, curly dark hair and a beard. In those days, George could be reticent and awkward around actors, so Geno served a valuable role as his go-between. I had one concern. My agent had informed me that American Graffiti was going to be a musical. So the first thing I told George was that I could neither sing nor dance. Thats okay, George said. It is a musical but nobody sings. He paused when I looked puzzled. Its a musical in that its built around songs, George explained. The songs are playing on the radio. Theyre part of the atmosphere, the setting for the characters. This was my introduction to Georges outlier thinking. But I would be put through the wringer. Apparently, they were conducting a nationwide search for young actors. At that point, I had my sights set on the character of Curt, the part that ultimately went to a sharp little guy from Beverly Hills named Richard Dreyfuss. Advertisement Two auditions later, I found myself in a room reading in front of Fred Roos. This was a good sign. Fred was the hottest casting director around, an associate of Francis Ford Coppola, one of Graffitis producers, and he had put together the unimpeachably great cast of The Godfather. Second, Fred knew me! A decade earlier, he had been the casting director for The Andy Griffith Show in which Id starred for eight years from 1960 to 1968]. So I felt like I had an ally. I did a total of six auditions. There was one where I had to improvise with other potential cast members. There was another where I did a chemistry read with Cindy Williams, who they had in mind for the part of head cheerleader Laurie. It would be my first acting job where I was no longer required to have a welfare worker on set, a freedom that I relished almost as much as the script. Finally, to my delight, I received good news from Bill Schuller, my agent. After months of call-backs, each one of which made me more pessimistic about my chances, he told me that I had won the part of Steve, a young man who is headed east for college and keen to persuade his high-school steady, Laurie, that they should see other people while apart. He laid on a caveat, though. Its a very low-budget picture, Ronny, Bill said. Theyre only paying the other actors $US750 a week. I pressed hard and got you up to a thousand a week because youre the only one with any name value. Fine by me. I didnt care about the money or my placement in the credits, which was another issue that Bill brought up. Credits are strictly in alphabetical order, and I took a shot at having them list you as Ron rather than Ronny, but they want people to recognise your name from The Andy Griffith Show, he said. So I had to give em the Ronny. American Graffiti would mark the last time I used my childhood moniker. Before shooting began, I had a one-on-one meeting with George Lucas where I mentioned to him that after the shoot, I would be starting film school at his alma mater, the University of Southern California (USC). Youre going to love it, George said. Make sure you take some animation classes, because animation is pure filmmaking. You dont have to deal with the actors. This was a strange thing for a director to say to an actor about to be in his next film, but hey, everything about George was unconventional. Advertisement As psyched as I was to have this job, I didnt regard it as a major career break. George, though he was a big deal to hard-core cineasts like me, was barely known to the public. At that point, he had directed one feature, a dystopian thriller called THX 1138, based on a 15-minute short he made at USC. It was critically respected, but a box-office bomb. So, in my mind, I was making a cool little art-house film by a visionary indie director from whom I might learn something. The movies budget was in the $US700,000 range. By contrast, budgets for The Exorcist and The Way We Were, shot in the same period, were $US12 million and $US15 million, respectively. Money was the least of my concerns at that point in my life. I had turned 18 in March, whereupon my parents turned over to me the custody of my bank account and bonds. My net worth, I discovered, was well into the six figures: a sum that I was proud of, though I didnt breathe a word of it to my friends at Burroughs High School in Burbank, lest I come off as a jerk. I was irked, I will admit, when I came in third in the senior classs voting for Most Likely to Succeed. Third? Third? Cmon! Hadnt I already frickin succeeded? No, what concerned me was uncertainty about my future. One day, a few weeks after I registered for the draft, I checked the mail at our house in Toluca Lake in Los Angeles. Among the envelopes was one from the US Selective Service System, addressed to me. Shit. I opened it. Inside was a letter notifying me that I was to report to a local military office for a physical. I had heard from friends that this was how it worked: you got this letter, you took your physical, and if you passed and were drafted, you were inducted into the military on your 19th birthday. George Lucas (at left) had a spontaneous approach to directing, confusing Ron Howard at times. Credit:Alamy The American Graffiti script carried another sting. One of Georges most brilliant, wrenching twists was that the movies teenage high jinks and poignant goodbyes were followed by a final beat: an end card explaining what happened to four of its male protagonists. Mine, or Steves, was that I stayed local, presumably to marry Laurie, and I was working in Modesto as an insurance salesman. Paul Le Mats character, John, died in a car crash. Rick Dreyfusss character, Curt, was a writer living in Canada, the inference being that he moved there to avoid the draft. And sweet, geeky Terry the Toad, played by Charles Martin Smith, was reported missing in action near An Loc, in South Vietnam, just three years after the events depicted in the film. It was another reminder, not that I needed one, of the worst-case outcome for any young man who was shipped over. I simply folded it up and put it in my wallet, where it practically vibrated in the back pocket of my jeans. I figured that if I ignored the problem, it might go away. Still, that piece of paper haunted me. I told no one about the Selective Service notice. I simply folded it up and put it in my wallet, where it practically vibrated in the back pocket of my jeans. I figured that if I ignored the problem, it might go away. Still, that piece of paper haunted me. Sometimes, when I was alone, I took it out, unfolded it, and reread it, hoping that its meaning would somehow magically change in the process of rereading: an act of futility if ever there was one. No matter what, I kept that damned notice to myself. I didnt want to upset anyone, least of all Mom and my girlfriend Cheryl [whod go on to become my wife]; nor did I want to make them complicit in a potential felony. Advertisement When American Graffiti began filming, I drove my VW Bug up the coast to San Rafael, where the cast and crew were staying in a Holiday Inn. San Rafael was supposed to stand in for Modesto, which George decided had become too modernised to plausibly resemble his hometown as he remembered it. But we ended up shooting mostly in the town of Petaluma, whose city council proved more willing to take on the disruptions of a film crew and a bunch of vintage cars cruising their main drag. Loading I immediately saw that there was something of a cultural divide between me and most of the cast. With the exception of Charlie Martin Smith, who was my age, the rest of the movies principals were significantly older than me and much more worldly-wise. Rick Dreyfuss, Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Harrison Ford, Bo Hopkins: these folks were anywhere from six to 12 years my senior. I initially took Cindy Williams to be my age because she looked so young, but I soon found out she was a seasoned, womanly 24. She sensed, correctly, that her 18-year-old acting partner was inexperienced at kissing scenes and a bundle of nerves about performing them. We cant kiss for the first time on camera, she said. We better practise. With the professionalism of Hollywoods intimacy co-ordinators, who supervise and choreograph sexually explicit scenes for film and TV, Cindy taught me how to make out convincingly for the camera without overstepping. She was not interested in me romantically, nor was I in her. She performed this service out of generosity, saving me from embarrassment and pre-emptively ensuring that our scenes did not end up on the cutting-room floor. Cindy, Charlie, and Rick were the actors I ended up hanging around with the most. And Jeff Bridges a little, too, because he was seeing Candy Clark and occasionally came to visit. Harrison and Paul were the cast hellions. They treated that Holiday Inn like it was the Sunset Marquis and they were Led Zeppelin, trashing their rooms and generally raising a ruckus. Harrison Ford, who played Bob in the film. Credit:Alamy One Saturday, when we had time off, they were drinking beers and pitching their empty bottles out the window, watching them crash in the parking lot. Then they tossed an unopened beer, which exploded on the blacktop in a gusher, which made them double over in laughter. I was concerned that the shattering bottles were getting just a little too close to my still-new Bug. Harrison, Paul, I said, you can have your fun, but I have to go downstairs and move my car. Can you hold your fire while I do that? Advertisement Sure, Ronny, sure. Go ahead, said Harrison. As soon as I got to the parking lot, a bottle exploded at my feet. Harrison and Paul poked their heads out the window. Dance, Opie, dance! Paul shouted [Opie was the name of my character in The Andy Griffith Show]. Then more bottles came flying in my direction, accompanied by the sounds of nefarious cackling from above. I somehow managed to pull away in my car before they did any damage. That incident was the only Opie-shaming that I experienced, though I did occasionally endure some razzing because, at that point, I was the sole cast member who was recognisable to the public, and the locals liked to approach me for autographs. But this teasing was all in the spirit of fun, as was Rick Dreyfusss penchant for calling me Ope, which rhymed with hope. For example, when he and I were trying out some improvised dialogue on each other, at Georges urging, I noted that I had never worked this way before. Rick smiled his mischievous smile. You aint in Mayberry anymore, Ope! he said. American Graffiti was set in the outwardly more innocent period before the tumultuous 1960s. Credit:Alamhy I sure wasnt. And it was exhilarating. I could just feel the generational shift taking place. We were all in our teens and 20s. Even George was only 28. The people involved in the production behind the scenes were mostly San Francisco-based, like George. They had long hair. They wore beads and bandannas around their necks. Some of them were women. I had to that point been exposed to nothing but old-line, hard-boiled, Anglo-Saxon, male Hollywood. George boldly ignored the orthodoxies of traditional filmmaking. We had no make-up team or individual dressing rooms. We all got changed into our wardrobes inside a single Winnebago motor home that someone had driven to Petaluma for the shoot. The female actors applied their own make-up. The male actors didnt wear any. George shot most of the movie in continuity, as it plays on the screen, because he knew that we would look progressively more exhausted and undone after six weeks of night shooting, and he wanted us to come by our sunrise dishevelment naturally, in verite fashion. Advertisement The 1.5 degree drive-by You need to know a little climate politics to understand the flex. The Paris Agreement today commits each nation to do their utmost to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in keeping with holding global warming beneath 2 degrees and as close to 1.5 degrees as possible. Today that lower target, 1.5 degrees, has become the focus of the worlds discussion. But leading up to the Paris climate talks in 2015, 1.5 degrees was barely even a consideration, even though climate scientists agreed it was the point at which we stood a better chance of avoiding potentially cataclysmic climate tipping points. The target only exists in the Paris Agreement because of a diplomatic ambush set by one of the worlds smallest nations - the Marshall Islands, population about 60,000. That was then: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hugs then Marshall Islands minister Tony de Brum at the Paris climate summit. Credit:Andrew McLeish Then Marshallese foreign minister Tony deBrum recognised that while 2 degrees warming might be tolerable to other parts of the world, it would obliterate many Pacific communities and nations. Under the slogan 1.5 to stay alive deBrum began gathering support for an international coalition that would later become known as the High Ambition Coalition (HAC). When the Paris talks began no one outside the group knew of its existence, but deBrum had already managed to secure the support firstly of Pacific island nations and then other small island countries in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean. Some African nations came on board later. The EU also backed the grouping, and when the negotiations started to bite, the group managed to pull the United States on board. Finally, more than a week into Paris negotiations, the HAC broke cover as Dr Wesley Morgan, researcher at the Climate Council and research fellow at Griffith Asia Institute, put it in a recent essay in the Australian journal Foreign Affairs. The moment was dramatic. DeBrum walked towards the final session of the Paris talks flanked by the Spanish politician serving as European energy commissioner, Miguel Arias Canete, and the US chief climate negotiator Todd Stern. The three had palm fronds woven into their lapels to symbolise their common purpose. The Marshallese statesman also had the votes of 90 nations in his pocket. World leaders, diplomats and staffers suddenly realised theyd been wrong-footed. Australia, the Pacific big brother that used to boast of punching above its diplomatic weight did not even know the bloc existed before this moment. We could not have gotten a Paris Agreement without the incredible efforts and hard work of the island nations, said then US President Barack Obama the following year of the efforts of deBrum and the group he corralled. Australias then foreign minister Julie Bishop announced that we too would join the HAC. The problem was Australia was short on entry requirements. We are delighted to learn of Australias interest and look forward to hearing what more they may be able to do to join our coalition, said deBrum. The $100 billion compromise So when laying out the demands of the Pacific Island Forum this week Bainimarama was not speaking, entirely, as a minnow in an ocean of whales. And the $100 billion in climate finance he demanded was not a figure plucked from the sky. He was referring to a commitment made by wealthy nations in previous climate talks that began to take shape in 2009, and that has never been met. The agreement is based on a fairly obvious inequity. Industrialised nations have been dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, and have made themselves rich doing so. Poorer nations are only now going through that process. The urgency of the climate crisis dictates that all nations must rapidly reduce their emissions, including - especially - emerging economies now reliant on heavy, dirty industry. Recognising that greening the planet meant that poorer countries could not burn carbon as the richer world had, a payoff was agreed to during UN talks in Copenhagen in 2009. Rich nations would mobilise $100 billion in finance each year by 2020 to help developing nations go greener faster. A so-called Green Climate Fund would manage the effort. The problem was, says one of Australias former chief climate diplomats, Professor Howard Bamsey, the language built into the agreement to ensure it won support, was loose enough to be almost meaningless. Mobilise, he says, is one of those UN verbs, so you have to parse it very carefully. It was never made clear, he explains, if mobilising finance meant giving grants or facilitating cheap loans or creating policies to help funnel private money. Whatever it means, no matter how hard you parse it, you never get anywhere near $100 billion a year on a ledger. It is hard today to work out how much money was ever secured. By some counts the most funding achieved in a year was $20 billion. By a recent OECD analysis it is closer to $80 billion, if you count finance channelled directly between nations rather than through the Green Climate Fund. But Bamsey says the purpose of the fund was more than a practical climate response. It served to bind nations in common effort, and its failure to date is a blow to the global climate accord. Australia once placed itself at the heart of the project, recognising it as an effective way to channel global support for the Pacific. Bamsey himself was appointed executive director of the GFC in 2016. In an early round of funding Australia committed $200 million to the effort but in 2018 Prime Minister Scott Morrison said during a radio interview with Alan Jones that kicked off with a discussion of their mutual support for a horse racing advertisement to be projected onto the sails of the Opera House that Australia would no longer be contributing to that big climate fund. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Fijis Frank Bainimarama during his official visit to Parliament House in Canberra in 2019. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Later in Senate estimates hearings foreign affairs staff confirmed that this comment constituted the announcement that Australia would no longer be part of the Green Climate Fund, though the nations foreign aid to the Pacific continued. So what next? DeBrum died in 2017. Hed perhaps be surprised to see how much the world has changed since then. Carbon emissions are still trending up rather than down, but there is now a consensus that clean energy is cheaper than dirty alternatives. Around 70 per cent of the global economy exists in jurisdictions that are committed to reducing emissions to net-zero by 2050. There is an increasing, but still cautious optimism on the Liberal side of Scott Morrisons government that Australia wont embarrass itself at next months United Nations climate conference in Glasgow. A commitment to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 the bare minimum that our forever allies in Washington and London expect of us appears to be within reach despite the sabre-rattling from a handful of National Party ministers and backbenchers. There is even a chance that Australia will offer a more ambitious interim target to 2030. Illustration: Simon Letch Credit:The Sydney Morning Herald The expectations for a historic policy shift, after 12 querulous years of climate obstruction by the Coalition in opposition and in government, is built on a simple political calculation. The Liberal Party has more seats at risk in the cities from continued inaction than the National Party has in the regions from net zero. Accounts differ on the seats in danger. One senior Liberal familiar with the internal polling nominates up to six the inner metropolitan electorates of Chisholm in Melbourne, Brisbane, Wentworth and North Sydney in the Prime Ministers home city, as well as the outer-metropolitan electorate of Boothby in Adelaide, and Robertson on the NSW Central Coast. Last month the Australian government announced, in a grandiose statement by foreign minister Marise Payne, that it would adopt a regime to target sanctions on human rights abusers and those involved in serious corruption. Thirty-one democratic countries already have such Magnitsky laws, and collaborative use of them will become important in the fight back against authoritarianism, all the more necessary after the Afghan disaster. However, our governments actual plans, set out in DFATs response to a joint standing committee proposal to introduce full-blooded human rights sanctions, falls far short of the recommendations. All the government intends to do is to tinker with an existing law which has not worked well, in the interest of its foreign policy but not of human rights. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan has added weight to the need for sanctions to fight authoritarianism. Credit:AP The joint committee recognised that a Magnitsky Act should embody the countrys values and engage its community in ostracising those who do not share theirs: by seizing assets, visa bans and like means of naming, blaming, and shaming. But this exercise will not work unless there is public confidence that those placed on the blacklist have fairly and authoritatively been judged guilty, by adjudicators independent of politics. Although the government must have final say, the joint committee proposed that an independent body should make recommendations after receiving evidence from victims, NGOs and migrant groups, as well as from law enforcement agencies. But the idea that members of the public or of civil society should have any input is utterly rejected. What a disgrace. After 18 months of tirelessly guiding NSW through the pandemic, when we reach the 70 per cent vaccinated target, Dr Kerry Chant isnt at the conference where it is announced (Take freedoms slowly or itll be brief, October 8). This was a complete lack of courtesy and gratitude on the part of the new Premier. It was a chance to publicly acknowledge the selfless work of Dr Chant, who has probably seen very little of her family during this time. Julia Booth, Westleigh Kerry Chant is one of my favourite constituents. Is that all youve got, Premier? Dr Chant is the Chief Health Officer. She and her team have helped us get through the pandemic without the obscene levels of deaths seen elsewhere in the world. Show some respect. Jackie Blackledge, Artarmon Premier Perrottet is our Trump and Dr Chant is our Dr Fauci. We all know how that ends. Tony Moore, Queens Park Thank you, Dr Chant. You have been a warrior and a champion for medical knowledge, discretion and duty. Pauline Paton, Centennial Park Road to nowhere Whats with all the road maps? By definition, a road map is a form of map that details roads and transport links. We need a plan. Thats it. John Bye, Elwood (Vic) Rescued by Captain Liberator Who knew that beneath the drab suit of Tony Private Citizen Abbott, theres the superhero costume of Captain Liberator, whose mission is to single-handedly end Taiwans isolation while staring down its looming neighbour (Abbott seeks an end to vibrant Taiwans isolation, October 8)? Joan Brown, Orange Many of us thought we were rid of Abbotts shirt-fronting diplomacy when he failed to win his safe north shore seat. Now he claims our relationship with China cant get any worse, as though a handful of trade sanctions is no worse than all-out warfare. Thanks for that, private citizen Abbott. Peter Newberry, Randwick Scott Morrison has invoked the Sergeant Schultz I know nothing response and insists Abbott has travelled to Taiwan in a private capacity. If thats the case, Id like to know how he was allowed to venture overseas when the rest of us still cant leave the country. Presumably there was some degree of government prior knowledge of the reason for the trip, and official imprimatur of it, for him to obtain an exemption. Ross Duncan, Potts Point Perhaps after Abbott has shirt-fronted Xi Jinping in Beijing, he might consider going to Glasgow, to represent our Prime Minister, who will be too busy in Canberra. He can go as a private citizen of course, as he seems to be able to come and go as he pleases. Geoff Nilon, Mascot Can someone please give me the number for Abbotts travel agent? As a private citizen, there are a few world leaders Id love to meet when Im able to travel overseas. A chin-wag with Angela Merkel would be brilliant before she leaves office. Kerry-Ann Aitken, Naremburn Who is paying for these uber-diplomat jaunts? Not the Aussie taxpayer, I hope. Owen Carroll, Forster First Abbott is fined for not wearing a mask and now he appears in Taiwan with his mask not covering his nose. It seems that he has only half learnt his lesson. Peter Procopis, Bowral Reward teachers for opening door of opportunity for pupils It should be a no-brainer to rank teaching as the premier profession, way above those that now have that status, such as medicine and law (Thousands of teachers work outside expertise, October 8). What teachers provide are the building blocks for all professions, and what is more important than that? It is time that this is recognised with both prestige and appropriate salaries. It is that simple. Anne Ring, Coogee My husband is doing a mid-career change to become a maths teacher. It has become increasingly clear that the content of the masters of teaching is largely irrelevant to the practicalities of the classroom. Once he graduates, he will be earning less than a senior administrative officer in the NSW public service. The government needs to improve pay and conditions for teachers or risk losing them to the private education sector. Paddy Fitzgerald, Breakfast Point I have long thought, like your correspondent, that a return to the system of what was then called bonding could be an answer to the shortage of teachers. When people trained to be teachers in the 1970s you were bonded and sent to a school. You needed to teach for three years and serve out your bond. The bond could be used to ease some HECS fees. If you broke your bond, which my older sister did as she married and became pregnant, you needed to repay the bond, which was about $500. It worked then, it could possibly work again. Lillian Hornby, Sans Souci Coal fund has a great flipside Resources Minister Keith Pitts proposition that the government create a $250 billion fund to support coal operations in Australia as a methodology for supporting miners has a very attractive reverse side (Dont look to farmers for carbon cuts, warn Nats, October 8). It is acknowledged that Australias contribution to climate warming is a fact, but the unacknowledged fact is that the export of billions of tonnes of our coal is making a significant and measurable contribution to pollution and to climate change. If our government were to establish such a fund as proposed by Pitt, and to utilise it to both close down all coal operations in Australia and retrain the coalminers, then Australia would make a huge contribution to mitigating and reducing climate changing pollution. Indeed, we would show the world the way. Chris Rivers, Port Macquarie Coal exports are likely to be cut in half by mid-century (Emissions plan would slash coal exports, October 8). This is truly appalling news. You mean we expect to be still burning fossil fuels in 2050? Some people just dont get it. David Mathers, Lidcombe MPs and big mouths The Prime Minister has railed against people who say the most foul and offensive things and do so with impunity (PM hints at consequences for social media, October 8). I could not agree more, and the sooner members of Parliament stop being able to hide behind parliamentary privilege, the better. Joe Weller, Mittagong The Prime Minister has labelled social media a cowards palace. Perhaps Parliament could be similarly described, given what has unfolded there over the past several years. Brett Hendry, Boambee East Scott Morrison lays into the social media enablers, citing lack of accountability. A federal ICAC would address federal MPs lack of accountability yet Morrison is extremely reluctant to act. His complaints about the tech giants would be more credible if he practised what he preached. David Gordon, Cranebrook Show me the bills The injustices highlighted by Kieran Pender would be less likely to happen if we had a charter of human rights like those of comparable countries (A win for transparency, but not yet justice, October 8). Andrew Macintosh, Cromer On a hybrid high While the monetary cost of electric vehicles remains prohibitive for many, and it could take a decade to enjoy cost benefits when compared with a petrol car, this is not the case for hybrid cars (EV cost benefit evident but only after a decade: report, October 8). We downsized to a small hybrid and fill the tank for about $30, which can last six weeks compared with seven to10 days for our previous car that cost about $50 to fill. There are new and used hybrid vehicles that will provide cost benefits immediately and drive just as well as petrol cars. Many are self-charging. Theres no excuse to avoid transitioning now while we wait for EVs to come down in price; maybe start saving once you have your hybrid. Marie Healy, Hurlstone Park Life lines of demarcation Having failed to organise a swift and adequate supply of vaccine in 2020, Scott Morrison certainly had months and months to at least prepare an efficient system for delivering vaccines equitably across the country before they arrived (States had months and months to get hospitals ready: PM, October 7). But he didnt. His failures leave many parts of regional Australia with below-average vaccination rates. That is what will put hospitals, particularly small regional hospitals, under huge pressure when everything reopens. But apparently thats not his problem. Lynne Wallis, Talofa Prove me wrong Yes, non-believers do have a singular view that there is no god out there dictating what people should think and how they should behave (Letters, October 7). There are no grounds for a belief that atheists have a morality significantly different to those in the major Western religions. When the atheist objects to religious views it is usually in defence of those harmed by these unproven views. Gillian Baldwin, Windradyne Pique period The French ambassador to Australia is questioning whether our friendship can survive the submarine issue (French ambassador returning to redefine terms of relationship, October 8). Our friendship has survived the deaths of Australians in France in WWI, the battles between Australians and the French in WWII, and the French nuclear tests in the Pacific. So yes, Mr Ambassador, our joint friendship is greater than this current matter. Please dont blame all Australians for this dispute. It came as a surprise to us as it did to you. Vive la France! Denis OBrien, Orange Now that the French ambassador is coming back to Australia, does this mean a return to ping-pong diplomacy? Pamela Duncombe Balmain. Nothing like it Im old enough to remember even older Manly ferries (End of an era for Manlys iconic ferry, October 8). I have very fond memories of travelling on the South Steyne, not in summer, but winter when my dad thought a trip to Manly was a good idea. One trip stands out. As we crossed the opening to the harbour the ship rocked and rolled better than the Luna Park roller coaster. My friend was too slow to move out of the doorway and copped a dumping from a particularly large wave. Those were the days. Genevieve Milton, Newtown Postscript The old adage 24 hours is a long time in politics was never so pertinent as this week in state politics. Hard to imagine the comings and goings in such a brief period, Denis Suttling of Newport Beach wrote. There were mixed feelings expressed about Gladys Berejiklians departure, but there was no doubt about how the majority of correspondents felt about the new Premier. Dominic Perrottets nudge to Trumpian politics was a worry, but it was his religious beliefs, and concerns they would influence his leadership of the state, which led to hundreds writing to the Herald. The majority of letter writers agreed that the last thing we need is another conservative fundamentalist Christian in public office, mouthing off as though he speaks for all Christians. The views of some that didnt agree, who wrote that a persons faith should not disqualify them from doing their job and Perrottet should be given a chance, were published in Thursdays letters. They were strongly criticised by many the following day. Australia entered the pandemic with 337,000 registered nurses and produces about 20,000 nursing graduates every year. It is also increasingly reliant on skilled migration to bring in experienced nurses to supplement the workforce and do harder-to-fill jobs in regional areas and aged care. Figures provided by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation show that skilled migrants make up 21 per cent of all newly registered nurses. In Victoria, overseas-trained doctors make up 23 per cent of total doctors and 30 per cent of doctors in regional areas. The Victorian Health Department estimates that since the start of the pandemic, the number of healthcare migrants joining the states workforce has plummeted by about 40 per cent. A department spokesperson said this was due to the difficulty of recruiting doctors, nurses and allied health professionals from overseas while navigating border closures and quarantine arrangements. Ms Ward said this could create a longer-term problem for Australias healthcare. If we dont do something to secure our new graduates as well as keep the international pipeline, we are going to get caught in the worldwide shortage that is coming, she said. Despite the federal government including nursing on its list of priority occupations for skilled migrants and offering more than 3100 special medical visas to doctors and nurses to come here to work, would-be healthcare migrants have been refused travel exemptions and visas and bumped from flights. The impact of this is being acutely felt in our hospital wards, GP clinics and nursing homes and also in the university and college courses where, until the pandemic, a steady stream of nurses from countries like India and the Philippines enrolled in three-month bridging courses to gain registration in Australia. Loading La Trobe University confirmed its entry program for international nurses had been severely disrupted by international border closures and it had no intake of students this year. At Central Queensland University, enrolments for its graduate certificate in nursing have fallen from 70 students last year to just three this year. Southern Cross University used to train nearly 300 international nurses a year at its Lismore campus in NSW. It currently has none enrolled. Although this is partly due to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia changing its entry requirements for overseas nurses, it suggests that many overseas nurses are giving up on Australia. In 2019, the Australian College of Nursing had a waiting list of 3000 people to do its course. The waiting list is now down to 300 and its current intake has just two nurses from overseas. One of them is a 31-year-old cardiac theatre nurse from Manila, nicknamed Cham, who is about to start a job with a Melbourne suburban hospital. She was accepted into the course before the pandemic but, once Australias borders closed, had her application for a travel exemption rejected five times. She is one of seven Filipino nurses who had planned to come to Australia together. Instead, two of them persevered and eventually made the trip. Its surprising, especially when you see the news about the need for nurses and that nurses here are already exhausted, said Cham, who asked that her real name not be disclosed. There are five nurses waiting in the Philippines for a miracle to happen and their visas are about to expire. It is really hard and mentally degrading, but you need to keep hoping and praying. There is a split between the College of Nursing and the nurses union over the extent to which Australia should rely on overseas nurses, particularly those from poorer countries. The union argues it is unethical for Australia to draw on nurses from low-income countries facing their own shortage of healthcare workers. Overseas recruitment should not be the primary strategy to overcome workforce shortages in Australia or as an alternative to education and recruitment opportunities for the existing domestic workforce, the union wrote in a recent submission to government. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federations federal assistant secretary, Lori-Anne Sharpe, said there was no quick fix to Australias healthcare labour-force problems, where there is a shortage of experienced nurses and underemployment of graduate nurses. This is the accumulation of decades worth of problems in workforce planning, she said. We wouldnt support stealing from under-resourced countries which have really high demands. The Australian College of Nursings Ms Ward said although Australia needed to do better to support and retain its own graduates, it should also keep its doors open to overseas nurses from diverse backgrounds. Australian College of Nursing chief executive Kylie Ward It is a female-dominated profession, so you are giving opportunities to women they wouldnt otherwise get. Who are we to say no if they meet the criteria? We are part of a global system and should encourage diversity and opportunity. Queensland police have charged a 29-year-old man with murder following an alleged incident in a Cannon Hill home on Friday where a man was found dead. Police said they were called to a property on Aster Street in Cannon Hill in Brisbanes south about 2pm on Friday to conduct a welfare check. A crime scene was declared after the deceased man was found inside the home. Police investigate after a man was found dead at a Cannon Hill residence on Friday afternoon. Credit:Nine News A man was found unresponsive inside with significant injuries, including a head injury. Victorias COVID-19 case numbers continue to follow perhaps slightly exceed the Burnet Institutes projections for reopening, with the growing effect of vaccination counteracted so far by increases in movement among the population. However, data suggests Victoria is unlikely to have as many hospitalisations and deaths as there were in NSW because the state is further advanced in its vaccine rollout than NSW was when it had similar case numbers. Modelling commissioned by the Victorian government and released alongside the states road map to reopening forecast new cases would reach about 2000 a day on October 10 before plateauing, then jumping again when lockdown lifted at the end of October. Victoria faces a large number of new hospitalisations in coming days. Credit:Jason South The end point of the Burnet Institutes projections are troubling: peak hospital demand of 3150 patients, peak ICU demand of 706, and a better than one-in-two chance of overwhelming the healthcare system. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been slapped with two fines totalling $400 for breaching Chief Health Officer directions by failing to wear a face mask in public. The Premier has apologised for not wearing a mask while walking across the carpark at Parliament House to speak to reporters on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Victoria Police confirmed that it issued two $200 fines to Mr Andrews for breaching the Chief Health Officers directions after he was filmed approaching Parliament without a mask on. The Age has confirmed the Premier has already paid the two fines. Two truck drivers from New South Wales who allegedly lied about their COVID-19 test results to enter Western Australia have been released on bail. Scott Megson and Liam Glendenning crossed the WA-South Australia border at Eucla in their truck on October 5 after obtaining a valid G2G pass. The men drove into WA from South Australia in a truck. Credit:Glenn Campbell Under WAs extreme risk restrictions, anyone who has been to NSW or Victoria must provide proof of a negative PCR test at least 72 hours before departure. They must also quarantine in a government-sanctioned hotel for 14 days, get tested on days one, five and 13, and wear a mask on arrival. Australia has intervened in the global push to regulate tech giants, writing to the US Senate to urge it to follow the nations lead to make social media companies deliver safer products. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has drawn global media coverage and ignited a bipartisan push in the US congress to rein in the tech giants, after testifying this week that the company knowingly harms its users and prioritises profit, stokes division, and undermines democracy. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has offered to testify at the US congressional hearings about Australias efforts to regulate the tech giants. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen In a letter to the chairs of the Senate hearings this week, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher and eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the issues the US committees were grappling with are ones of truly global impact, adding that Australias leading regulatory approach had been internationally recognised. The letter included an offer for Ms Inman Grant to give evidence to the committees on Australias actions, noting that the World Economic Forum in June had recommended that other nations should consider forming a body specific to online safety, such as Australias eSafety Commissioner. Coronavirus vaccine booster shots will be made available to people who have severely weakened immune systems after the governments vaccine advisers approved the doses for a group of about 500,000 people. Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said immunocompromised people, such as those with cancer or who have had a transplant, are being prioritised for vaccine booster shots because their immune systems do not give as strong a response to the virus after two doses. Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Unfortunately [for] some people that have immune systems that dont work as well as the general population, those vaccines may not lead to that protection, Professor Kelly said on Friday. So the evidence is now clear that people in those categories of immune-compromised should receive a third dose. That should happen at a period after the second dose, between two and six months after that time of the second dose. The government may be inching towards changing its draft. It could give ground, for instance, on the idea that the CIC cannot initiate investigations and can only act on references from other agencies. The draft position is untenable because it weakens the commission compared to other agencies and departments, including those it may end up investigating. The Attorney-General, Michaelia Cash, will probably have to fix part of the draft bill that sets up two standards for inquiries one for officials including police officers, another for politicians. The Australian Federal Police Association and the Police Federation of Australia want one rule for all. Morrison and Cash will struggle if they want to deny them that. Attorney-General Michaelia Cash and Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The government is also signalling a concern about retrospective powers, but its position is confusing. To stop the commission examining events in the past would be to neuter it from the start. Experts think it should be able to consider conduct in the past against the laws that prevailed at the time. Whatever those changes, the federal plan is to set up a weaker body than most of the state and territory commissions that have operated for years. The CIC could not put politicians in a public witness box; hearings would be held in secret. Berejiklian would never have given public evidence under the federal model. Voters would never have heard her being asked about her relationship with Daryl Maguire, the former Liberal MP whose financial dealings led him to leave NSW Parliament. They would not have heard the recorded telephone call, played in an open hearing in October last year, in which Berejiklian stopped Maguire telling her more about his deals, saying: I dont need to know about that bit. The thank-you note for a bottle of wine written by Barry OFarrell that triggered his downfall. Credit: The federal model would never ask a politician in a public forum about his or her dealings with a company receiving big government contracts which is what happened when the NSW ICAC asked former NSW premier Barry OFarrell to appear in April 2014. Voters would not hear OFarrell denying he had received a bottle of 1959 Penfolds Grange Hermitage. And they might never see the handwritten note confirming he did. The federal commission would not set up a public hearing into payments from property developers, as Victorias IBAC did in 2019 when it asked staff from property developer John Woodman about the Casey land scandal. That hearing included testimony about an $8500 payment to attend a fundraiser for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Liberals regard the fall of Berejiklian as damning confirmation of the flaws in the ICAC model revealed with OFarrell six years ago and former NSW premier Nick Greiner in 1992. Greiner was cleared of corruption by the NSW Supreme Court over appointing an MP to a public service body, but that ruling came too late to save him from political attack. He resigned before Parliament could attempt a no-confidence motion. ICAC did not force Berejiklian or OFarrell to resign: both did so based on what emerged in hearings. Days before OFarrell went, the counsel assisting ICAC, Geoffrey Watson, SC, basically cleared the premier and a fellow minister. We have found no evidence to implicate either in any corruption, he said. Berejiklian stepped down before the next hearings have even begun: the trigger was an ICAC press release saying it would investigate whether her conduct involved a breach of public trust. Flowers and messages of support outside Gladys Berejiklians constituency office in Northbridge last weekend. Credit:Jessica Hromas This is the power of an ICAC: to change politics through public statement and open hearing. It does not convict because that is a matter for the courts. It does not sack because that is a matter for Parliament. When its target is a politician, a commission can produce evidence that shifts the scales in public debate over whether that politician should stay or go. These scales work very differently to the scales of justice. Those who hate this power overlook how necessary it can be to finding corruption in politics. Former NSW minister Eddie Obeid flourished under a political system that allowed his dealings to go unchecked. He even won $162,000 in a defamation claim against the publisher of this newspaper in the NSW Supreme Court in 2006. It took the ICAC to uncover government deals that gave his family a $30 million windfall. But the Liberals are not the only ones with doubts about bringing this power to Canberra. There were concerns within Labor about going too far when former leader Bill Shorten and his shadow cabinet discussed their policy before the 2019 election. Labor chose to back a powerful federal ICAC but only after a debate about whether it might lead to show trials for politicians. There is no sign of division within the Coalition, which means there is no pressure on Morrison to go further than the very limited bill already circulating. More than half the lower house does not want the NSW model, if it accepts a corruption watchdog at all. The advocates for the strongest possible reform do not have the numbers. Loading The scene is set for a deadlock. Cash is planning to put a bill to Parliament in the coming weeks after three long years of argument since the Coalition promised a new watchdog. There has been at least a year of detailed debate over the draft government plan. The message from the government is obvious: it does not really want to do anything. Morrison feels so strongly about the risk of a NSW model that he is unlikely to negotiate with Labor and the crossbench on changing the final bill. Labor would probably want to make the theme of corruption part of its campaign at the next election, citing the sports rorts and car pork funding programs, which means it may prefer to reject the government bill and promise a stronger watchdog under a Labor government. The chances of a crossbench deal appear to be slim too. The government could get its way with support from Pauline Hansons One Nation and at least one other, but it would struggle to get Rex Patrick, the South Australian independent who will be campaigning on integrity and transparency when his position is at stake in next years election. Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie is unimpressed with the government, which might leave the outcome up to another South Australian, Stirling Griff. There is no guarantee Hanson will side with the government: a public debate about a docile watchdog could make it hard for her to back the bill, given she is also up for re-election next year. Loading An election test is certain. The Coalition will promise action while Labor will vow to create a stronger watchdog, accusing Morrison of being weak on corruption. First, however, they must decide whether the new commission lives or dies in Parliament. One of the arguments against change is that politicians have always engaged in pork-barrelling. The $100 million sports rorts program or the $660 million promised for car parks can be shrugged off by some who point to the original sports rorts affair, in 1992, to argue that some things never change. But the amount of money certainly does: the projects scribbled on a whiteboard three decades ago were only worth $30 million. If you want greater accountability and if you want this sort of malfeasance to end, does it matter to say that it is no worse now than 20 years ago or 40 years ago? asks Keith Dowding, professor of Political Science and Political Philosophy at the Australian National University. If ministers arent embarrassed by the fact that things are revealed in Parliament, and that journalists criticise them, then you might want some other process, in which case an integrity commission with teeth might be the way forward. Loading But Dowding, who has written at length about ministerial accountability in Australia and other countries, is cautious about the popular assumption that rorts are worse. The data that we have shows that its not straightforwardly the case that its worse now, he says. One trend, however, is the deterioration in the public service. One of the things that has changed, and which makes it easier for government to do these sorts of rorts, is that the public service has been weakened, he says. At the top end it has been more politicised. You have far more people who are staffers and political appointments and who are making decisions, so a large part of the public service integrity has disappeared. So I think there is a structural problem in the way in which government is now operating, both between ministers and the public service. There is already proof of corruption. The Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) announced on August 23 that a former Australian Border Force (ABF) official had pleaded guilty to forgery and theft. On September 1, it said a former Department of Agriculture official engaged in corrupt conduct by helping a building company. On September 8, it said a former ABF officer had helped a drug syndicate. Loading One of the objectives of the new commission will be to absorb the work of the ACLEI. There is no dispute over this because the argument among politicians is about the power to examine politicians. In the debate over how far this power goes, there may at least be a consensus that politicians cannot be spared the scrutiny. The federal government is bigger than ever, with more power in every field from social services to national security, and with more money pouring into projects that range from local shower blocks to nuclear submarines. The potential for corruption is immense. Who knows what a strong integrity commission could uncover? Or what it could deter? The resignation of Gladys Berejiklian as NSW premier over allegations raised by the Independent Commission Against Corruption has rocked NSW but it has also become a talking point in the debate about an equivalent Commonwealth integrity commission. Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week said he saw a real problem in setting up a federal agency similar to the ICAC and millions of people who had seen what happened to Ms Berejiklian would understand thats a pretty good call not to follow that model. He went on: Youve got to have processes that assume people are innocent before [they are] thought to be guilty. Mr Morrison is entitled to defend Ms Berejiklian but his remarks show a fundamental misunderstanding of how the ICAC operates. The ICAC has not found Ms Berejiklian guilty or even implied it. All it has done is announce public hearings into whether Ms Berejiklian broke any rules relating to state government grants paid to bodies in Wagga Wagga and Dubbo in which her secret lover, former MP Daryl Maguire, had an interest. Five years ago, our new Premier Dominic Perrottet defended Donald Trumps election, saying; There is a silent majority who ... are looked upon with contempt by the political classes. If you question man-made climate change you are not a sceptic, he continued (although in fact thats pretty much the definition). If you support stronger borders, you are not a racist. If you want a plebiscite on same-sex marriage, you are not a homophobe ... Its time for a new political conversation that reflects the concerns of everyday people. This push to make elite right-wingery appear to support the common man (not woman, never that) via anti-intellectual venom is straight from the neoliberal playbook. Whats interesting is how both Perrottet and Trump have roped architecture into that oxymoronic purpose. Dominic Perrottet and Rob Stokes tour the White Bay Power Station in Rozelle last November. Credit:Louie Douvis One of several things Perrottet and Trump share is a hatred of modern architecture. Why? Because, they say, its ugly. Nothing about how either man presents or behaves suggests a special eye for beauty. Yet both have singled out architecture as an aesthetic superpower. What will it mean for NSW to have a premier who can put post-Structuralist into a sentence, even if he doesnt know what it means? It didnt take Dominic Perrottet long to highlight the political importance of western Sydney after becoming Premier. A few sentences into his first public statement in the job, he claimed the heart of this government would be in the citys west. Labor leader Chris Minns has also made the western suburbs a priority. From the time he took on the post in June, Minns has spoken repeatedly about the cost of living challenges in the region, especially road tolls. Then treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Labor leader Chris Minns face off during question time in June. Credit:AAP Around a quarter of all the seats in NSW Parliament lie in the sprawling suburbs of west and south-western Sydney and many are decided by a relatively small margin of votes. That combination makes the western suburbs the states key electoral battleground. Once considered Labor heartland, the politics of western Sydney has become much more contested during the past three decades. Former Liberal prime minister John Howard won a string of federal seats in the citys far west and south-west in 1996 and his success gave rise to a new category of voter: Howards battlers. As a result of Haugens testimony, Facebook has come under united bipartisan pressure from both Democrats and Republicans and has been forced to shelve plans for an Instagram Kids app for the preteen market - at least for now. Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen provided damning testimony about the social media giant. Credit:AP Even Facebook itself appears to be no longer standing in the way of regulation. Its been 25 years since the rules for the internet have been updated, and instead of expecting the industry to make societal decisions that belong to legislators, it is time for Congress to act, a Facebook spokesperson says. In Australia the story has reignited a debate about how to regulate content on the internet, and not just in terms of cyber-safety. In an extraordinary intervention, both Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce this week flagged the possibility of making the platforms legally responsible for defamatory comments. Morrison accused the tech giants of allowing their platforms to become a cowards palace for anonymous trolls who destroy peoples lives and say the most foul and offensive things to people, and do so with impunity. Haugens Facebook dossier is wide-ranging. It reveals details about a program called cross check or XCheck that whitelists high-profile accounts so that the companys normal enforcement measures against harassment and incitement to violence dont apply. It suggests the company was consistently willing to accept 10-20 per cent more misinformation if it meant 1 per cent more engagement. It describes how Facebook prematurely removed controls put in place before the November 2020 US presidential election in December to reprioritise engagement, just a few weeks before the US Capitol riot. It exposes the weakness of the companys response to criminal issues in developing countries, from drug cartels in Mexico to human traffickers in the Middle East. One of the most striking disclosures was what Facebook knew about the harmful effects of its photo-sharing app Instagram for many users, especially teenage girls who account for a large chunk of the audience. Australias Assistant Minister for Mental Health David Coleman, a former chairman of NineMSN, says the whistleblower files demonstrate the social media giants cant be trusted to act in the best interests of children. He is scathing of Facebook and Instagrams abysmal efforts to enforce their own age-limit restrictions. There are undoubtedly millions of children who are on social media platforms at an age where it is unsafe for them to be there, he says. What is the role of society and government if not to protect kids, and we know that we cant trust the social media platforms to do that. Australia has led the way on cyber-safety, establishing the worlds first eSafety commissioner in 2015 and passing the Online Safety Act 2021, which technology companies must comply with by mid-2022. Australia was among only a handful of countries to force technology platforms to pay news publishers for content, and debate is now turning to defamation. There are clear signs of a growing appetite within some sections of the Australian government to crack down further on the social media giants. But with just four already-packed parliamentary sitting weeks left this year, momentum for reform could be stymied by the headwinds of the looming federal election and campaign season. Facebook says the company removed more than 600,000 underage accounts on Instagram over the past three months, and has thousands of staff as well as AI technology dedicated to removing accounts belonging to underage users. Many people can use Instagram and not be harmed, or the problems can fade with time like in Tildas case. For others, the apps relentless focus on social competition and the algorithms that can lead users from healthy recipes to pro-anorexia content at warp speed, can contribute to the development of eating disorders or self-harm. Haugens documents show that internal Facebook research found more than 40 per cent of teenage Instagram users who reported feeling unattractive said the feeling began on the app, one in five teens say Instagram makes them feel worse about themselves, and many teens reported the app undermined their confidence in their friendships. Teens regularly said they wanted to spend less time on Instagram but lacked the self-control to do so. Loading Facebook researchers concluded some problems around social comparison were specific to Instagram, not social media more generally. Some Facebook executives resisted an internal push for change, saying the social competition was the fun part of Instagram for users, and in public the company cited external research which downplayed the correlation between social media usage and mental health harms. In a public post Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said it was false that Facebook prioritised profit over safety. He said the Instagram research had been mischaracterised because it also showed many teenage girls who struggled with loneliness, anxiety, sadness and eating issues said Instagram made these problems better, not worse. This week Morrison and Joyce seized on the debate about online abuse proliferating on social media as a stick to threaten a further crackdown through defamation law reform. In a deliberate choice of words, Morrison said that platforms that refused to unmask trolls were not a platform any more, theyre a publisher. Joyce, whose daughter has been the subject of scurrilous gossip by anonymous commenters, declared that platforms must be held liable, saying if they enable the vice, they pay the price. Their comments follow a High Court decision last month that found media outlets were legally responsible as publishers for third parties comments on their Facebook pages even if they were not aware of the comments. The bombshell ruling also has implications for other administrators of Facebook pages, including MPs and regular citizens. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was false that Facebook prioritised profit over safety. Credit:AP Associate professor Jason Bosland, director of the Centre for Media and Communications Law at Melbourne Law School, says making the social media giants liable for defamatory remarks circulating on their platforms as soon as they are published would be an extreme outcome, and probably make Facebook, Twitter and other companies unable to operate due to the legal risk. You would have very few experts that are consulted that would suggest that Facebook should be liable for absolutely everything thats published on their platform without notice, Bosland says. The nations attorneys-general, led by Mark Speakman in NSW, are considering the options for defamation law reform. Australias eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant says the whistleblower revelations, while not surprising, could galvanise action in the US and that in turn would bolster Australias efforts. She too likens it to efforts to regulate car safety and mandate seatbelts in the 1960s to 1980s. This is the tech industrys seatbelt moment, she says. For too long, they have not had any brakes put on them whatsoever and the primary reason is because they served as a driver of innovation and inspiration and growth and development and no government wants to put the brakes on that. Loading Australias efforts include giving the eSafety commissioner statutory powers to order the removal of content, working with the industry to promote the concept of safety by design and the Online Safety Act 2021. The Act takes a co-regulatory approach - eSafety has produced a white paper outlining the expected outcomes, and technology companies or industry bodies (for sectors such as social media platforms, internet of things, or gaming providers) have until June 2022 to register codes showing how they plan to comply. Those codes need to be approved by eSafety and will be registered under the Act, giving regulatory force. Inman Grant says previously Australia regulated for a specific set of harms, such as cyber-bullying, image-based abuse and illegal online content such as child sexual abuse or terrorist content. The new Online Safety Act is about basic online safety expectations or a social licence to operate. However, the US is a market 12 times larger than Australia and the home jurisdiction for Facebook and most other technology platforms, so regulation in the US would be of far greater import. Communications Minister Paul Fletcher and Inman Grant this week jointly wrote to the US Senate Committee for Commerce sharing details about Australias regulatory approach and offering for Inman Grant to appear at the hearings. Australias eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant says the whistleblower revelations, while not surprising, could galvanise action in the US and that in turn would bolster Australias efforts. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Inman Grant believes international standards are inevitable for technology, just like they are now embraced by the car industry. Conflicts of profits and safety During her two years at Facebook, Frances Haugen says she saw the company repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profits and our safety [and] consistently resolve these conflicts in favour of its own profits. Haugen, who had previously worked at Google, Pinterest and Yelp, grew so concerned at what she saw at Facebook that she resigned and decided to compile evidence before she left. She says the solution lies not just in regulation but in a demand for full transparency about Facebooks data and algorithms. She says at other large tech companies such as Google, independent researchers can download and analyse company search results from the internet, but Facebook hides behind walls that keeps researchers and regulators from understanding the true dynamics of their system. However, Inman Grant says it would be very difficult to regulate algorithms because they are not static - you would also need to be given information about how the algorithms adapt and change through machine learning, and regulators like eSafety would have to employ a team of data scientists and data engineers. Manchester: It was vintage Boris Johnson. After an intellectually empty conference, the British Prime Minister took to the stage to celebrate with the party faithful the 2019 victory in which he sent the corduroyed communist cosmonaut Jeremy Corbyn into orbit where he belonged. The gags kept coming. He lampooned his opposite number Keir Starmer as a human weathervane, Starmer chameleon, musing that if Columbus had listened to captain hindsight, hed be famous for having discovered Tenerife. Delegates react as they wait to listen to Prime Minister Boris Johnsons keynote speech during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. Credit:Getty Images With rhyme, he ridiculed Starmers Labour Party members for moving a motion against the new Australian, UK and US alliance AUKUS. I know that there has been a certain raucus squaukus from the anti-aukus caucus, Johnson told his laughing crowd. PHILIPSBURG:--- I waited to see if the minister would have voluntarily apprised the parliament of her recent trip to the Netherlands, the (main) purpose of such and any agreements if made, MP Wescot recently explained. That not being the case, I have -via the chairperson of parliament- requested the minister to provide this information to parliament. Clearly from the Ministers press releases, the focus of the trip has been on the prison of St. Maarten and on the efforts to build a new prison. This would beg the question of how far this process is locally and what are the financial implications for the country St. Maarten. Is this included in the 2022 budget? Are we still in charge of the process? The Justice Committee of parliament, chaired by MP Heyliger Marten is planning a visit to the prison sometime next week. Rather than just wander around at the facility, it would, in my opinion, be much more constructive to have a report from the Minister of Justice beforehand, so that if any discussions are to be held with, be it management, staff, or inmates representatives, at least the government and parliament would be privy to the same information. We have heard from the inmates and management of the prison in the past and the question would be, what if anything has changed since then? I can only imagine the situation rapidly deteriorating and the only one to enlighten the parliament adequately would be the Minister of Justice. I, therefore, hope that Minister Richardson will honor my request to update parliament on her efforts to move the project for a new prison forward before parliament undertakes any visits to the facility, MP Wescot concluded. SABA/THE HAGUE:--- Saba Island Governor Jonathan Johnson paid a working visit to The Hague from Tuesday, October 5 to Friday, October 8. The main reason for Johnsons visit to the Netherlands was his attendance of the Mayors Conference of the Netherlands Association of Mayors which took place this year in Veenendaal on October 6 and October 7. During this congress, Johnson was able to catch up with many Dutch mayors on recent developments and important subjects in areas like crisis management, safety, government administration, and the pandemic. It was good to network with colleagues who face the same challenges and to hear how they deal with those challenges. Even though there is a difference in the situation, the challenges that we face are similar, said Johnson. The formation of the new Dutch Government provided a good opportunity for Johnson and his support staff to meet various important relations and institutions in The Hague. Meetings were held with the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations of the First Chamber, members of the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations of the Second Chamber, Vice-President of the Council of State Thom de Graaf, Commissioner of the King of South-Holland Jaap Smit, Chairman of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and Mayor of The Hague Jan van Zanen, VNG Deputy Chairman Pieter Jeroense, Chairman of the Christian Democratic Party CDA and former St. Eustatius Government Commissioner Marnix van Rij, and, naturally, with the coordinating ministry for Saba, the Ministry of Kingdom Relations and Home Affairs BZK. The main goal of these meetings was to give an update on how Saba is doing and to pave the way for further needed developments on the island. These vary from poverty alleviation and economic development to good governance and strengthening of capacity. During his update, Island Governor Johnson shared that Saba is currently working on a multi-annual plan with goals to be reached in 2030, whereby the Saba Package will be coming to an end next year. It is important to discuss the necessary follow-up with The Hague. Sabas budget consists mostly of temporary funding for structural tasks or to eliminate backlogs. This creates undesired risks for the governing of our island and the execution of our tasks and responsibilities, said Johnson. The Island Governor explained that being a Public Entity actually means having four (4) different roles in one (1) decentralized layer of government. We have municipal tasks, state tasks, province tasks, and water management tasks. This demands a lot of the government and people of Saba. The civil service organization must be qualitatively robust and strong, to deal with these tasks and the budget should reflect this as well, he said. In the opinion of Johnson, citizens deserve a service-oriented government on both national and local levels, with a keen eye for local circumstances and context. Dili, (Timor-Leste) 6 October 2021(SPS) - After Organisations from the Timorese Civil Society had launched recently a Campaign in Timor-Leste to urgently free Sultana Khaya, her family and all the Saharawi human rights activists imprisoned by Morocco. Today the Campaign has been reinforced byJoint Press release signed by various Timorese Political parties, NGOS, Political personalities, Human rights Organisations and Universities. Here is the full text of the Joint Press release: Sultana Khaya is renown Sahrawi woman human rights defender whose work focuses on promoting peacefully the right to self-determination for the Sahrawi people. The human rights defender is the President of the organization League for the Defense of Human Rights and against Morocco Plunder of Natural Resources in illegally Morocco Occupied Western Sahara. Sultana has been just nominated for the European Parliaments 2021 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Sultana Khaya and her family have been under de facto house arrest since last November 2020 in their home in city of Boujdour, Western Sahara imposed by the Morocco security. During all this time Sultana and her family have been subjected to all kind of cruel inhuman and degrading treatment including physical, psychological torture, ugly harassment and surveillance; Moroccan Security service agents are regularly stationed in front of their home, preventing the family from leaving the house and people, including relatives, from visiting them. On numerous occasions, Sultana Khaya and her family have been physically attacked by police when they tried to leave their home. Sultana has suffered recently from Covid 19, and now the death threat and intimidations from the Moroccan Security forces because of her political opinion related to Western Sahara. The police heavy-handed stakeout around Sultana Khayas home illustrates Moroccos determination to keep pressure, including psychological, on those who reject its claim of sovereignty over Western Sahara, Goldstein said, acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Yet speaking out peacefully remains her right, and nothing justifies blockading her home without any legal basis. The police heavy-handed stakeout around Sultana Khayas home illustrates Moroccos determination to keep pressure, including psychological, on those who reject its claim of sovereignty over Western Sahara, Goldstein said. This unlawful detention is part of a wider crackdown by the Moroccan authorities on Sahrawi activists and critical voices within Western Sahara. Moroccan authorities have long kept a strong lid on any public protests against Moroccan rule in Western Sahara and in favor of self-determination for the territory. They have beaten activists in their custody and on the streets, imprisoned and sentenced them in trials marred by due process violations, including torture, impeded their freedom of movement, and followed them openly. Moroccan authorities also refused entry to Western Sahara to scores of foreign visitors over the last few years, including journalists and human rights activists. Human rights watch Western Sahara has been under Moroccan military occupation since Spain, the former colonial power, pulled out in 1976. Last November 2020, Morocco violated the 29-year ceasefire with the Polisario Front, and war returned to the territory, followed by a Moroccan fierce crackdown against the Sahrawi people. We the under signed call for the immediate urgent actions: - We add our voices to many others calls including Human rights watch and Amnesty international that Morocco must immediately lift the arbitrary house arrest against the Saharawi human rights defender, Sultana Khaya and her family. - We condemn Moroccos human rights violations against Saharawis peacefully calling for self-determination and independence in illegally occupied Western Sahara. - We call upon the International Committee of the Red Cross to take "urgent steps" to ensure the security and safety of unarmed Sahrawi citizens and to urgently send a medical mission to the city of Boujdour to examine the ongoing violations of the international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions against Sultana Khaya family. - We call upon Morocco to free release all the Saharawi human rights activists including Gdeim Izik Group - We call upon UN to give the United Nations Mission for the referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) a mandate to monitor and report about human rights in Western Sahara. - United Nations must protect the Saharawi civilians in occupied Western Sahara - Morocco must open the occupied Western Sahara to international observers and International media to report about the situation in Western Sahara and the Status of Human rights. 062 A new report from Fitch says jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector recovered faster between March and August 2021 in states with higher vaccination rates. The Fitch analysis indicates that states in the highest quartilewhere more than 66 percent of the population was vaccinated against COVID-19 at the beginning of Augustrecorded leisure and hospitality job growth around three times higher than states in the lowest quartilewhere less than 50 percent of the population was vaccinated. In percentage terms, leisure and hospitality job growth between March and August 2021 averaged nearly 12 percent in the highest quartile states for vaccination, and less than 4 percent in the states in the lowest quartile, according to the report. Vermont, for example, which had the highest vaccination rate in the country at 75 percent in August 2021, recovered 23 percent of leisure and hospitality jobs between March and August. Wyoming, by contrast, which had the second-lowest vaccination rate at 44 percent in August 2021, shed 8 percent of leisure and hospitality jobs in the same period, according to Fitch. While Fitch analysts said that vaccination rates show a notable relationship with leisure and hospitality sector job growth, the findings do not purport to prove a causal link and Fitch acknowledged that other factors were likely at play, including the prevalence of other public health measures and labor supply. The leisure and hospitality sector was hit particularly hard amid the pandemic, suffering the highest proportion of job loss, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between February 2020 and August 2021, job loss in the leisure and hospitality sector accounted for 31 percent of all employment loss, followed by education and health services (17 percent), and trade, transportation, and utilities (10 percent). The least impacted sectors were finance and mining (1 percent each), state government and information technology (3 percent each), and construction (4 percent). Blue stateswhich have higher vaccination rates than red statestend to have a higher proportion of leisure and hospitality jobs than red states, where industries like agriculture and manufacturing play a bigger role. Red states, on the whole, have dominated the economic recovery, recording the lowest rates of unemployment in the United States in August 2021, recent data showed. The top seven states with the lowest unemployment rates in August were Alabama (3.1 percent), Idaho (2.9 percent), Nebraska (2.2 percent), New Hampshire (3.0 percent), South Dakota (2.9 percent), Utah (2.6 percent), and Vermont (3.0 percent), according to a Sept. 17 release of state-level unemployment data by the Commerce Department. With the exception of Vermont, which has a Democrat-controlled state House and Senate and a GOP governor, all have Republican trifectas, meaning Republicans hold the governorship, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. The seven states with the highest unemployment rates in August were Hawaii (7.0 percent), California (7.5 percent), Connecticut (7.2 percent), Illinois (7.0 percent), New Mexico (7.2 percent), New Jersey (7.2 percent), and New York (7.4 percent). All seven have Democrat trifectas. By Tom Ozimek Tom Ozimek has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education. The best writing advice he's ever heard is from Roy Peter Clark: 'Hit your target' and 'leave the best for last.' Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved STAMFORD TIP Digital, a technology incubation program for data science-focused startups hosted at the University of Connecticuts Stamford campus, has seen the number of participating companies more than triple since its launch about eight months ago, according to data released this week by the initiatives funding organizations. The program now hosts 17 data science startups, compared with five at its mid-February launch. Those firms employ a total of 109 people, and seven of those businesses are generating revenues, according to TIP Digital officials. Were thrilled with the significant growth weve achieved in such a short time, TIP Digital Director Margaret Feeney said in a statement. The program is buzzing with energetic entrepreneurs who are excited to be part of the community we are building. Theyre making exciting progress. TIP Digital is a key part of the broader UConn Stamford Data Science Initiative, which is receiving $4.2 million in funding, equally provided by the university and the nonprofit collaborative StamfordNext. The latter organization makes grants to projects that support local entrepreneurs and innovation. TIP Digital is already exceeding our expectations for attracting and propelling the data science industry in Stamford, StamfordNext Executive Director Wes Bemus said in a statement. Its exciting to see our city on the cutting edge of todays Fourth Industrial Revolution in which data is the new oil. The TIP Digital companies have collectively raised more than $3 million in additional seed funding since the programs launch, according to program officials. FinTron, which focuses on personal finance, has led the group with fundraising of $2.5 million since February. I have loved every minute of our partnership with TIP Digital. Its management team has done everything in its power to support our growth and development as young entrepreneurs, FinTron CEO Wilder Rumpf said in a statement. Be it introductions, speaking engagements or just general advising, TIP is always eager to help, and the TIP community has really shown us the breadth of the incredible tech talent here in Connecticut. I look forward to growing our business in tandem with TIP and to proving the power of community. Whether, one of TIP Digitals first five startups, raised $100,000 as part of its acceptance into the 2021 Summer Cohort of Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, a New York City-based program. Formerly known as ACW Analytics, Whether uses its expertise in earth and data sciences to predict the impact of severe weather on infrastructure such as electrical utilities assets. The TIP is a very nurturing environment for early-stage companies. It brings the full support of the university ecosystem, Vijay Jayachandran, co-founder and CEO of Whether, said in an interview in March. It makes us feel good about the support we will get as we build out our company. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott Under the motto ' South Summit shape the future ' the last edition of South Summit came to an end. The meeting returned in person and managed to bring together the agents of the Spanish and global entrepreneurial ecosystem in the La Nave space. During these three days, # SouthSummit21 brought together more than 22,000 attendees, between physical and virtual, more than 680 speakers , 8,000 startups, more than 1,600 investors with an approximate portfolio of 135,000 million dollars and 7,000 members of corporations in search of innovation . In addition, as if that were not enough, more than 25,000 connections have been closed during these three days of the meeting organized by South Summit 2021 powered by IE University, in collaboration with the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, co-organized by the City Council Madrid and with partners such as BBVA, Telefonica, Endesa and Banco Sabadell's BStartup. Winners The American startup Symba was crowned the winner of this edition, the highest award it received from Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid. It is a project created in California and in which all its founding team are women, specialized in helping corporations implement talent and training programs, offering face-to-face, virtual and hybrid options. You may be interested: Tec de Monterrey presents an entrepreneurship program open to all public In addition to Symba, four other startups have been recognized today in the project categories ' Most sustainable ', ' Best team ', ' Most innovative ' and ' Most scalable ', selected from the total of 100 finalists of South Summit 2021, among the most of 3,800 projects presented in this edition. The award for the most 'Most Sustainable' project, awarded by Maria Benjumea, founder of Spain Startup South Summit, was won by the Basque Alerion . This project, a native of San Sebastian and winner of the Energy & Sustainability vertical, is specialized in creating high-precision digital duplicates using autonomous drones and automated damage assessment analysis, focused on the inspection of wind turbines, solar inspections and refineries. . This project, a native of San Sebastian and winner of the Energy & Sustainability vertical, is specialized in creating high-precision digital duplicates using autonomous drones and automated damage assessment analysis, focused on the inspection of wind turbines, solar inspections and refineries. Wheel the World , winner of the Travel and Tourism vertical, won the startup's award for the 'Best Team', presented by Josep Oliu, President of Banco Sabadell. Coming from the United States, it is an app that works as a multi-hotel platform for people with disabilities and draws a system of accessibility maps through Artificial Intelligence. , winner of the Travel and Tourism vertical, won the startup's award for the 'Best Team', presented by Josep Oliu, President of Banco Sabadell. Coming from the United States, it is an app that works as a multi-hotel platform for people with disabilities and draws a system of accessibility maps through Artificial Intelligence. Juan Jose Solis, Head of New Business for Core at BBVA, was in charge of delivering the award to Weecover as the 'Most scalable' startup. Coming from Barcelona, it is the winner of the Fintech & Insurtech vertical and has created a new concept for the integration of insurance solutions in B2B2C, for clients, insurers and companies, 100% digital. as the 'Most scalable' startup. Coming from Barcelona, it is the winner of the Fintech & Insurtech vertical and has created a new concept for the integration of insurance solutions in B2B2C, for clients, insurers and companies, 100% digital. Idoven , for its part, was awarded as the 'Most Innovative', a distinction that has been given to it by Manuel Muniz, Provost of IE University. Originally from Madrid, the startup winner of the Health and Wellbeing vertical tries to prevent heart disease, redefining the way to diagnose arrhythmias using AI and digital health solutions. Maria Benjumea, founder of Spain Startup South Summit, announced at this closing the next edition of the meeting: South Summit will return in 2022, but we will do it in spring. From June 8 to 10 we will return, betting once again on Spanish entrepreneurial talent . Likewise, Benjumea made an assessment of what this South Summit 2021 has meant, it has been a challenge, but, without a doubt, it has been the best edition of all. We have achieved a vibrant and sustainable meeting, despite the uncertainty, in which we have returned to normality, with all the protections . In addition, in recognition of THE NEXT BIG THING, the competition that bets on the entrepreneurial talent of the little ones within South Summit, Diego Escudero, from the Valdefuentes School in Madrid, has taken the stage on behalf of all the children who have participated. Sustainability was one of the main protagonists of this edition, along with the three base pillars of South Summit: Connection, Innovation and Business. Proof of this has been the intervention of Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International, who spoke about the impact of human activity on biodiversity. Lambertini warned that the consequences will not only be negative for the rest of the species on Earth, they will also be negative for our health and our way of life. We must remember that we depend much more on nature than nature on us . The keys to mitigating this impact, according to the Director General of WWF International, are a combination of initiatives, regulation, transparency and new technologies and a commitment from companies, governments and consumers. Another of the most discussed topics during the last day of the meeting was the importance of gaining consumer trust and how business commitment and sustainability are key to this. This has been the main idea that Christopher Gavigan, co-founder of The Honest Company with actress Jessica Alba, has exposed today, who has highlighted that between 85 and 90% of the time consumers choose values and ideas over the prices . In this sense, Gavigan has pointed out that consumers demand that companies " show them their values, not that they tell them about them ." In the first two days of this meeting, the winners of the verticals of this edition were announced, which fell on: Alerion, in Energy & Sustainability; Ponicode, in Digital Business; Internxt, in Connectivity & Data; Tunefork, in Consumer Trends; Symba, in Education; Logistiko, in Mobility & Smart Cities; ienai Space, in Industry 4.0; Idoven, in Health & Wellbeing; Wheel the World, in Travel & Tourism, and Weecover, in Fintech & Insurtech. Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The good news: linguist John McWhorter says woke and wokeness will eventually be over. The bad news: maybe not until 2028 and, even then, destined to be replaced by another word. I am ready for wokeness to be over right now. Sign up to get Colins newsletter delivered to your inbox, for free Im a liberal, I think. If I have any doubt about that, all I have to do most weekends is scan my emails from conservative Hearst readers who are happy to inform me that I am a liberal @#$% or a *&%$ing liberal or, of course, the charming portmanteau that mashes liberal with an outdated and offensive term for people with mental disabilities. But to people on the left, I am increasingly unsatisfying, because I do not check off enough woke boxes. Well come to that in a second. But first: the term itself is older than you think. McWhorter traces its published use back to a 1962 piece in The New York Times about Black slang. Starting eight or nine years ago, it skyrocketed to popularity on social media. Stay woke was a thing. In recent years, wokeness has done what all skyrockets do. It has plummeted to earth. These days, it feels a bit like a millstone, dragging liberals and Democrats down with the weight of its tiresomeness. Its more effective as a taunt from the right you can buy Trump T-shirts that say Everything woke turns to s--t than as a rallying cry for the left. James Carville has been saying that wokeness could wreck the Democratic Party in 2021. Bill Maher has been saying hes succeeding comedically by mocking wokeness in his stand-up shows. Back in the day, says Maher, "There was no such thing as woke, and now they (the left) do have a crazy section, which I call out as a liberal. I think I'm kind of one of the only people doing that, so there's a hunger to hear that." I dont eagerly join their ranks. Carville was the guy who said Paula Jones was what you get when you drag $100 through a trailer park. Maher is a narcissistic popinjay. But they are my brothers in exhaustion. Wokeness makes me tired in a way that political correctness never did, even though it could be argued that the two movements run on the same railroad tracks. The biggest difference is, I think, social media, which is populated by people with time on their hands and surplus energy. Social media allows them to band together and enforce a bunch of norms that are not really spelled out anywhere. I notice this in some of the critiques directed at the Friday edition of my public radio show, a weekly roundtable on culture known as the Nose. For those episodes, I draw from a group of 15 to 20 regulars. They were all chosen because theyre smart and good talkers, but because I really do get the issue of representation we are proud to have people of color and LGBTQ folks in the mix. And yet ... When we discussed the college faculty seriocomic series The Chair, we used our three panelists (two women, one man) who have spent their careers on college faculties. I also teach college, and I claim lived experience bonus points for being the cross-racial adoptive parent of a Latinx child, which is also the case for the protagonist of The Chair. But we took wokeness-driven flak on social media for having no Asian panelist. Sandra Oh has the starring role on The Chair. When we discussed the movie version of In the Heights, the panel consisted of a gay man, a Black woman and me. The rationale behind those choices that all three of us have experience putting theatrical musical works onstage. This time, the criticism was our failure to include a Latinx person, which was ironic because the shows creators were getting trashed on social media for having a too light-skinned Latinx cast, given the darker-complected Dominican Republic population of Washington Heights. The substructure of these arguments depresses me. The arts, in particular, are supposed to be universal and specific. The notion that only an Asian could fully comprehend The Chair seems a bit insulting to the show and its creators. Isnt the goal of culture to cut through categories and reach a lot of people, as opposed to telling enclaves the stories they already know? But The Woke, on social media, grab their green eyeshades and No. 2 pencils and start filling out the ledgers. They have never, in the encounters mentioned above, brought up content. They cant get past the identities of the commenters. Its the other kind of No. 2. I share many of their values. I want power and resources reallocated. I want inequalities addressed and past injustices redressed. What dont I share? A tone, I think. Its the tone of what journalist Matt Taibbi perfectly describes as the most moralizing, tendentious, humor-deprived, jargon-obsessed segment of American society. Unfortunately (for me) Taibbi used those words to describe the audience to whom public radio in his opinion now caters. I dont think thats quite fair, but its the kind of criticism Im starting to hear from other liberal listeners. Theres a paper-thin difference, at times, between good intentions and silly prescriptiveness. Prior to last weekends Womens March in Washington, the organizers instructed marchers not to wear Handmaids Tale costumes, the red cloaks and white bonnets that were so visually striking at previous marches. The costume, said the organizers, erases the fact that Black women, undocumented women, incarcerated women, poor women and disabled women have always had their reproduction freedom controlled in this country. Thats a very true and powerful argument being used as the basis for a fairly silly admonition. Which is how I have come to think of wokeness. Some of the most dire and tragic aspects of the American experience have been co-opted and leveraged to justify ridiculous and divisive rules. 2028 cant come fast enough. Colin McEnroes column appears every Sunday, his newsletter comes out every Thursday and you can hear his radio show every weekday on WNPR 90.5. Email him at colin@ctpublic.org. Sign up for his newsletter at http://bit.ly/colinmcenroe. STAMFORD More than a year ago, a group of Italian-Americans in Stamford fought to preserve a statue of Christopher Columbus in the downtown. On Sunday, theyll celebrate that the statue is still standing. The Stamford chapter of the Italian-American service organization Unico is putting on the Columbus Day celebration, which will take place around 11:15 a.m. at the monument, which depicts Columbus standing on a globe to symbolize the New World in the center of a small pool of water. The 1960 monument dedicated to the 15th-century explorer, and his name on the park where the statue stands, caused heated debates in the city this summer, mirroring those at other spots honoring Columbus around the country. In July2020, then-Superintendent of Parks and Recreation Jennifer Williams said an ad-hoc committee would be formed to discuss the statue and whether or not it should be removed. But that never happened, and the debate around the statue slowed to a crawl. This week, Director of Operations Mark McGrath said the option of forming the committee was not met with a great deal of interest or indication of planned action in doing so by either side of the issue. However, the city of Stamford would be happy to revisit the issue if residents feel that potentially removing the statue is something that should be discussed, he said in a written message. Revisiting the debate might be on the horizon: The mayoral election is taking place in less than a month which could affect the future of the monument. Bobby Valentine, who is running as an unaffiliated candidate and has been the grand marshal of New York Citys Columbus Day celebration in the past, said the statue is meaningful to many. Stamfords first Italian-Americans were banned from labor unions and certain neighborhoods, and discriminated against in untold ways, yet they fought our nations wars, built our city on their backs and enriched our culture, he said, in a written statement. Columbus is a symbol of that and his statue is meaningful to many in our community. He added, At the same time, Stamford is home to many important cultures that also should be celebrated. Valentine said he would propose a multicultural museum at Old Town Hall to celebrate Stamford historical figures such as Jackie Robinson. In a written message, Democratic candidate Caroline Simmons said, I dont think it is the job of a mayor to unilaterally tear down statues, but rather to listen to our community on the figures they want to see in our public spaces and work with our elected boards on this process. She added, We must celebrate Italian heritage and the contributions our Italian-American community had made while also acknowledging the suffering of indigenous people and tell the full story of our history. The trend of communities tearing down statues of Columbus or demanding that such monuments be removed came on the heels of mass protests that broke out across the country last year in the wake of the shooting death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Last year, thousands of Stamford residents marched in our city for racial justice demanding action from their elected officials. As a state representative, I was proud to take part in those demonstrations, and to subsequently help facilitate conversations about racial justice at the state capitol, work that led to the passage of new state laws giving state residents greater protection from racial discrimination, Simmons wrote. I am committed to continuing those efforts by listening, collaborating and advocating as mayor of Stamford for a more just and equitable community. Columbus Day in Stamford has recently been celebrated with the Thats Amore Italian Street Festival, which has drawn a crowd of thousands to Columbus Park. Because of COVID-19, the food festival was canceled last year, and this year as well. The ceremony planned for Sunday will include playing the American and Italian national anthems and free coffee and biscotti. Mary Lou Rinaldi, who serves on the Stamford Board of Finance, will raise the Italian flag, while state Senator Ryan Fazio will raise the American flag. Al Fusco, president of the Stamford chapter of Unico, said the event is happening rain or shine. He said interest in the ceremony has increased. When asked if the controversy surrounding Columbus legacy was causing some to back away from celebrating the holiday, he said the opposite is true. Instead, the debate over the statue has caused some to dig their heels in against the removal of the statue. Were not stepping back from it at all, he said. People now are saying, No, thats not going to happen here in Stamford. ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com TORRINGTON Their names were read aloud. The names of people who were allegedly killed by a family member, spouse or partner during the last year were read, one by one, as guests at the Susan B. Anthony Projects annual vigil honoring survivors and victims of domestic violence came to the podium. After the readings, each person lit a candle until the entire group stood quietly as others were invited to speak out and tell their story of survival. Men and women gathered late Wednesday for the vigil. The event was held at Coe Memorial Park, where members of Susan B. Anthony Project distributed information on its programs. A collection of 47 little pairs of childrens shoes were displayed on the steps of the civic center, representing the 47 children who stayed in the agencys shelter during the last year. The shoes are a way for people to recognize what domestic violence does to a family, said Jeanne Fusco, executive director. The first speaker shared their experience with their spouse, who they are divorcing, and described physical abuse. The speaker described the challenges of enforcing restraining orders, working with the court system to be treated fairly, and the emotional toll it takes . The second speaker talked of a friends experience, and said, not everyone gets a second chance. According to SBAP, Domestic Violence Awareness Month evolved from the Day of Unity, first celebrated in October 1981 by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The goal was threefold: to mourn victims of domestic violence, to celebrate survivors of domestic violence, and to connect those who work to end domestic violence. The themes remain the focus of Domestic Violence Awareness Month events. In 1987, the first Domestic Violence Awareness Month was observed. That year, the first national toll-free domestic violence hotline was started. Fusco recognized members of the Torrington Police Department: Officer Robert Simon and Sgt. Brandon Kelly. Kelly is the departments liaison with SBAP and works with other officers, teaching them how to work with victims of domestic violence, to get them the help they need. Simon, who leads the departments community policing team, has been instrumental in connecting with people in need, Fusco said. Anthony Roldan was honored for his work with SBAP clients, helping them find safe housing. Navigating the system (for assistance) can be difficult, and Anthony has been instrumental in that process, Fusco said. Heather Rems Korwin, owner of Sanctuary Power Yoga, was honored for leading yoga classes for the agencys clients, and KidsPlay Childrens Museum received a certificate of thanks for opening the building to families, giving children a place to play and parents a little break. Just being able to let your kids play and to relax, take a breath, take a minute, can really help, said Eileen Mariott, executive director of KidsPlay. Were happy to do whatever we can to help. SBAPs Clothesline Project is now on display at the Harwinton Public Library, Torrington Public Library, and outside the Goulet Building at Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Winsted, featuring T-shirts designed by domestic violence survivors and their supporters, to raise awareness of the pervasive problem of domestic violence in the community. The agency also will hold a campaign this month, Kisses for Cops and Hugs for Healthcare, to thank area law enforcement and healthcare workers who are on the frontline of assisting victims, and helping to prevent and end domestic violence. The events are co-sponsored by SBAP Prevention, Education and Outreach sponsor, Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, and the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Founded in 1983, Susan B. Anthony Project promotes safety, healing and growth for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, and advocates for the autonomy of women and the end of interpersonal violence. SBAP provides 24/7/365 crisis and support services, as well as education and prevention programs, free, to two cities and 18 towns in Northwest Connecticut, including a 24-hour crisis hotline, emergency shelter, transitional living services, court and medical advocacy, individual counseling, and support groups. For more information about services and programs, visit www.sbaproject.org, or call 860-489-3798. The 24-hour crisis line is 860-482-7133. STAMFORD A city middle school was placed on lockdown Friday afternoon after two students discovered a message threatening a school shooting, the schools principal said in an email to parents. Cloonan Middle School principal David M. Tate wrote in the email that two students found a specific threat of a school shooting written on a table in the courtyard during a classroom mask break Friday morning. Tate said the two students alerted their teacher who then relayed the message to school administrators leading to a lockdown. Whenever we have information of any potential threat to our school we take every precaution to safeguard our students and staff while communicating with our families and others, Tate wrote in the email. Tate said Stamford police had a swift response to the reported incident, quickly arriving on school premises to investigate and secure the grounds. Police found that there was no credible threat to the school at this time, according to a school district spokesperson. While police determined there was no threat Friday, officers remained on the premises throughout the remainder of the day, the spokesperson said. In the wake of the incident, Tate commended the students and staff for their prompt and appropriate response to the message. We are especially indebted to the two students who found the note and alerted their teacher as well as her immediate response to the information, he said in the email. Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident. There have been no reported arrests as of 4 p.m. Friday. When such threats or incidents arise, Tate said the first step is to order a lockdown, a shelter-in-place command or an evacuation of the school, depending on the situation. Next, Tate said, the school notifies first responders and citywide school administrators, like associate superintendents and the superintendent, of the incident. Lastly, the school principal alerts families to the schools status, then sends updates to student families to either inform them that the situation has been resolved or to provide them with explicit instructions as to where and when to pick up your child if that is necessary, Tate wrote in the email. This allows us to minimize any interference with First Responders as they attend to the situation, Tate wrote in the email. Hopefully these incidents will be few and far between. Still we can never be too prepared for emergencies. This is why we run monthly safety drills and special emergency drills so that we can be prepared for the unthinkable, he said. Senate Chair Anca Dragu on Friday tabled in Parliament a bill that sets clear criteria for allocating money from the Government Reserve Fund and a transparent mechanism, establishing its cap at 0.5% of the total government expenditures. "We have noticed how the Government Reserve Fund has become a political instrument with which the prime minister allocates money at his discretion to local administration. In the last seven years, the amounts distributed to the local administration from the Reserve Fund have steadily increased, amounting to billions of lei wasted without being used for national emergencies, without knowing where it went. Public money must be distributed according to clear and transparent criteria, and in a responsible manner. A prime minister cannot use public money to buy political support," Anca Dragu is quoted as saying in a press statement released by the Save Romania Union - Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (USR PLUS) alliance on Friday. According to Dragu, the law says that the Reserve Fund available to the government may finance urgent or unforeseen expenses incurred during the budget year, but the practice of recent years has shown that "this money is used at will, on a discretionary basis, out of step with the law in force, only to satisfy the mayors and county council chairs loyal to the political leader of the moment." "This is what happened during Dragnea's government; it also happened the other day, when, also on the Dragnea model, ousted Prime Minister Florin Citu distributed over 1 billion lei to the mayors and county council chairs who helped him win the internal battle inside the National Liberal Party (PNL), and to the Social Democratic Party (PSD) barons who can help him lead a minority government. USR PLUS aims, by the bill submitted today, to prevent such situations by introducing clear and transparent criteria for the allocation of money from the Reserve Fund." The bill provides for the repeal of Article 29 in Government Emergency Ordinance 83/2014 on the remuneration of staff paid from public funds in 2015, as well as other measures in the field of public expenditures. The bill also introduces the obligation to carry out a public consultation process and to justify the urgent and unforeseen nature of the expenditures financed from the Reserve Fund. Under the bill, the Reserve Fund cannot exceed 0.5% of the total government outlays, which compels the government to come before the lawmakers to present a detailed report on the manner and level of use of the Reserve Fund. On Wednesday, the government decided to allocate over one billion lei from the Reserve Fund for local projects, with part of the amount to cover the costs of social assistance and child protection services paid by county councils. On Thursday, USR said that Prime Minister Florin Citu allocated one billion lei from the Reserve Fund to the mayors of PNL and UMDR [Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania], and also to PSD mayors from whom he hopes to get help for a minority government. PSD national leader Marcel Ciolacu said the party will file a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Florin Citu for allocating one billion lei from the Reserve Fund in what he terms bribes to PNL mayors, Agerpres informs. The National Liberal Party (PNL) has decided in the National Executive Bureau (BEx) that the PNL's nomination for the position of Prime Minister, at the consultations on Monday, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, is the Florin Citu, interim PM following his dismissal as PM by Parliament, and chairman of the PNL, wrote, on Friday, on Facebook, the interim Culture Minister, Bogdan Gheorghiu, a member of the BEx, agerpres reports. The PNL delegation which will attend on Monday consultations with President Klaus Iohannis will be composed of Florin Citu, Rares Bogdan, Gheorghe Flutur, Lucian Bode and Iulian Dumitrescu. "Thus, in accordance with article 89, letter o), the PNL's BEx has unanimously decided that the proposal for the National Political Bureau of the PNL, for the position of Prime Minister, which PNL will make during consultations with the President of Romania be Florin Citu," Gheorghiu also wrote.President Klaus Iohannis invited the chairs of political parties and formations represented in Parliament for consultations on Monday, at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, in view of designating the candidate for the position of Prime Minister, announced the Presidential Administration.The Liberals are the first expected at the discussions, at 12:00 hrs. Former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase submitted, on Friday, to the High Court of Cassation and Justice a request for legal rehabilitation, in order to end several interdictions in place after he was released on parole in August 2014, agerpres reports. "Given that all conditions provided by the law have been fulfilled, I have submitted today, with the court, the request for legal rehabilitation," announced Nastase, on Facebook. According to article 166 of the Criminal Code, a convicted person can be rehabilitated, on demand, by the court, following the fulfillment of several terms: 4 years, in the case of a conviction to prison greater than 2 years, but which does not exceed 5 years; b) 5 years, in the case of a conviction to prison greater than 5 years, but which does exceed 10 years; c) 7 years, following a conviction to prison greater than 10 years or in the case of life imprisonment, commuted or replaced with the punishment of prison; d) 10 years, in the case of the conviction to life imprisonment, considered served following pardoning, the fulfilling of the prescription term for the punishment's execution or parole.Furthermore, according to article 168 of the Penal Code, the request for legal rehabilitation will be admitted if the person convicted fulfills the following conditions: a) he did not commit another crime in the time interval mentioned in art. 166; b) has fully paid the court costs and fulfilled his civil obligations established through the conviction decision, with the exception of cases when he proves impossibility to fulfill or when the civil party renounced damages.The former Prime Minister was paroled in August 2014, after serving part of the four and a half years he was sentenced to in two cases: "Zambaccian" and "Trofeul calitatii". After being paroled, the courts imposed on Nastase a series of interdictions, including one against seeking office among them.Adrian Nastase was convicted on June 20, 2012 to two years imprisonment in the Trofeul Calitatii case, of which he served eight months, being paroled.Later, on January 6, 2014, he was convicted by the High Court of Cassation and Justice to four years in prison for bribetaking and three year for blackmail in the Zambaccian case and was released in August 2014. On Friday, President Klaus Iohannis promulgated the normative act to amend and supplement Law of Gratitude for the victory of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989, for the anti-communist workers' uprising in Brasov in November 1987 and for the anti-communist workers' revolt in Jiu Valley - Lupeni - August 1977 no. 341/2004, which stipulates that former Romanian Communist Party (PCR) dignitaries do not benefit from its provisions, agerpres reports. "The persons who are proven to have held at least a function or a leading position within the local, regional or national governing bodies of the Romanian Communist Party in the period 1945-1989 do not benefit from the provisions of the present law. The persons who are proven to have held at least a function or a leading position within the local, regional or national management bodies of the patriotic guards in the period 1945-1989 do not benefit from the provisions of the present law," stipulates the law. According to it, the persons requesting the issuance of the certificate are to submit, together with the application, an authenticated affidavit that it does not fall within the mentioned provisions, under the sanction of the criminal law.In case of annulment of a certificate, the responsible State Secretariat will propose to the President of Romania the withdrawal of the title assigned based on the former. MEP Nicu Stefanuta announced on Friday that Romania will receive oxygen concentrators from the Netherlands and Poland, but also medicines for COVID-19 patients offered by Germany, through the European Civil Protection Mechanism and the RescEU Program. Also, our country will receive support consisting of medical staff and beds, as well as the taking over of patients, wrote Nicu Stefanuta on Facebook. "European aid is on the way. Direct bilateral support from Germany, France, Hungary, Greece. Medical staff and beds, as well as patient care. Germany offers 12,700 different medicines, similar to Tocilizumab. The Netherlands supports the approach with 200 oxygen concentrators. Poland is offering to provide 50 oxygen concentrators," the MEP said. According to him, this is an example of European solidarity. "The Commission has mobilized and the member countries have responded. More resources and more support are available to Romania through the European Civil Protection Mechanism and the RescEU Program. European solidarity is at the heart of all our joint actions," Nicu Stefanuta also wrote, Agerpres informs. The PNL announced on Friday that it will not nominate a prime minister at consultations on Monday at the Cotroceni Palace after the fall of the Citu Government. "Given that, at this moment, we do not have a majority in the Romanian Parliament, at these consultations, PNL will not nominate a prime minister. The National Executive Bureau of PNL considers that, in order to unblock the political crisis, it is the best decision for PNL not to advance a proposal for a prime minister at Monday's consultations," the liberals transmitted. At the same time, the liberals specify that the decision for the nominated prime minister to be the chair of the party, Florin Citu, does not change. PSD Secretary General Paul Stanescu says early elections can be held, noting that President Klaus Iohannis is obliged to contribute to triggering them, otherwise he will become "with proper documents the Romanian gravedigger." "President Iohannis hypocritically claims that early elections are impossible to organize. That the Constitution does not allow it. But in January 2020 he and his traveling companion, Orban, wanted early elections along with the local ones. The reason? They did not have a parliamentary majority. They gave up because the pandemic had started and they had to pretend to manage the crisis, because in reality they only managed their political and financial interests. Hospitals are now suffocated by liberal irresponsibility, and people are dying. They are, at the moment, again without a parliamentary majority, but, as you can see, early elections are no longer to Iohannis' liking, because the PNL is no longer in the graces of the electorate," Stanescu transmitted on Friday, in a press release. According to the general secretary of PSD, early elections can be triggered, if there is political will.President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday that it is in fact almost impossible to hold early elections. In his opinion, the fact that "a party is still marching" with this type of election seems to him "a form of avoidance rather than something else". Head of Romania's Emergency Management Department (DSU) Raed Arafat announced on Friday that there are talks with Hungary for the transfer of severely ill COVID-19 patients. "It is already known that there are talks with Hungary. A mechanism is being set up making it possible for us to use facilities (...) in the cross-border area. And we expect that to be completed. It cannot be completed in one day or two. There are talks and we expect our colleagues to come and tell us about their final solution. It is possible to do it, but we are waiting for them over there to tell us what the agreed mechanism is. And, of course, we'll see how we work with them. (...) From the border area and not only, because we can also transfer from Bucharest to Arad and from there we can cross the border. The problem is to improve the transfer mechanism - what patients, how many patients, where exactly, doctors, liaison staff to help there," Arafat said at the National Centre for Response Coordination and Management at Ciolpani. Romania intends to donate to Bangladesh 200,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses, the dismissed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, declared on Friday, during a joint press conference with his counterpart AK Abdul Momen, on a visit in Bucharest, agerpres reports. "We discussed, equally, about our efforts of countering the COVID-19 pandemic and in this context I informed my colleague about our country's intention of making a donation of 200,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Bangladesh," Bogdan Aurescu said. It is for the first time when a Minister of Foreign Affairs from Bangladesh is visiting Romania. Since I was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, I reopened our embassy in Romania. From various reasons it was closed in 1995 and we recently reopened the diplomatic mission. I hope that in the future Romania will open its diplomatic mission, which had activity from 1973 until 2000, AK Abdul Momen said.The two signed a memorandum for establishing a consultation mechanism between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries.According to Aurescu, the document will allow a "very good structuring of the cooperation" in several fields, including the dialogue regarding the bilateral management of the work force that comes from Bangladesh. Romania's pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai hosted on Wednesday the seminar "The Future of Energy, Bringing Together Conventional and Alternative Sources", which is intended to promote the exchange of best practices as a platform for the identification of sustainable energy solutions, agerpres reports. On this occasion, Secretary of State with the Energy Ministry Akos Derzsi, as keynote speaker, said that the event organized by the Romanian Pavilion is a good opportunity for the institution he represents to showcase its activity. He also stressed that green energy is a strategic objective of Romania and the need to attract investments in the field. In his turn, the Consul General of Romania in Dubai, Nicoleta Teodorovici, highlighted that energy is a vital sector, including for Romania, and that environmental protection must be a priority, especially through the use of renewable resources.Also during the seminar, CEO PMG Wind Romania Calin Florian made a presentation on the implementation of hybrid wind and solar energy systems, as a solution for a sustainable energy.The event was moderated by the General Commissioner of Romania's National Pavilion, Ferdinand Nagy, according to the Facebook page of the Romanian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is pictured at the entrance to its branch in Beijing, China April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said on Friday it will restrict certain types of retail businesses involving foreign-exchange and commodities trading. The move by China's biggest bank comes alongside a range of actions by regulators to curtail financial risks that include dampening commodity price rises, banning cryptocurrency transactions and restricting property speculation. The bank's restrictions also come as global energy prices have surged in response to power shortages in China and some other parts of the world. ICBC said in a statement that starting Oct 17 it will suspend new account openings for so-called "account forex business". Under this business, individuals can trade forex against the yuan for speculative or hedging purposes, and cannot withdraw or transfer the foreign currencies from the trading accounts. Starting from Nov 14, existing clients will be barred from opening new trading positions. ICBC will also stop taking in new clients from Oct 17 in a similar trading business involving energy, base metal, agricultural products and precious metal indexes, ICBC's statement said. "Risk is high these days in global forex and commodities markets, so please pay attention to controlling risks," the bank said. In recent months, ICBC and other banks, including Bank of China and China Merchants Bank closed foreign exchange trading businesses that had let individual clients bet on non-yuan currency pairs. Chinese regulators have been tightening control over the country's currency market, Reuters reported last month. Chinese banks have been burnt by risky investment products in the past. Last year, Bank of China's clients suffered losses in a crude oil-linked product after a slide in oil prices. (Reporting By Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by David Goodman and Jane Merriman) JACKSON, Mich., Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CMS Energy announced today it will provide 2021 third quarter results along with a business and financial outlook at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 28, 2021. A webcast of the presentation will be available on CMS Energy's website, cmsenergy.com. An audio replay will be available approximately three hours after the webcast and will be archived for 30 days on CMS Energy's website in the "Investor Relations" section. CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS) is a Michigan-based energy company featuring Consumers Energy as its primary business. It also owns and operates independent power generation businesses. For more information on CMS Energy, please visit our website at cmsenergy.com. To sign up for email alert notifications, please visit the Investor Relations section of our website. Check out Consumers Energy on Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/consumersenergymichigan Twitter: https://twitter.com/consumersenergy LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/consumersenergy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consumersenergy View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cms-energy-to-announce-third-quarter-results-october-28-301395777.html SOURCE CMS Energy CHICAGO, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Easterseals convened national leaders, including U.S. Representative Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA Third District), Chair, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, and National Education Association President Becky Pringle, for an all-too-relevant discussion on the significant disparities that Black students with disabilities experience within specialized education programs nationwide and solutions to address these inequities to ensure equity, inclusion, and access to quality education for these students. The 90-minute virtual event, hosted in partnership with EducationWeek, provided a forum for members of Easterseals' Collaborative on Racialized Disabilities (CORD) initiative including Dr. Mildred Boveda, Associate Professor of Special Education at the Pennsylvania State University; Dr. Maleka Donaldson, Assistant Professor of Education and Child Study at Smith College; and Dr. Aubry Threlkeld, Dean of the School of Education, Endicott College to share their research with more than 500 educators attending the event. Students with disabilities, especially students of color, have long faced myriad challenges in navigating classrooms, IEP protocols, and advocating for their specific needs across the education system. These challenges are now only exacerbated by the pandemic. The research reflects outcomes from the initial phase of special education advocate training developed by Easterseals and CORD to address the pressing need to better serve Black youth with disabilities and their families. Research findings confirm that Black youth encounter wide inequities in services provided within specialized education programs; Black students with disabilities are disproportionately represented in special education and are more likely to experience exclusionary disciplinary actions from school; anti-Black racism and ableisma system that assigns value on people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideals of normalcy and intelligenceexacerbate the challenges Black families face when navigating and accessing high quality special education services; and typical trainings for special education advocates tend not to directly address the uniqueness and complexity of Black families' experiences. The need for culturally appropriate resources and training for Black students, their families, and advocates resonated from the research. Subsequently, these are being developed through the Easterseals CORD initiative to translate the research into practice within the Easterseals Network and through partnerships with educators and advocates nationwide. "I'm incredibly grateful to Education Week for extending their platform for this important conversation on a topic that is incredibly close to home for me, and a key focus of our mission as an organization," remarked Angela F. Williams, CEO, Easterseals. "What a gift to have a lineup of such powerful, dynamic speakers with a wide range of thoughtful perspectives and progressive visions. I truly feel like ground was broken today." Research shared during the virtual event is a direct outcome of the work being done through Easterseals' Black Child Fund with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Comcast Foundation. The event provided the opportunity to introduce Erika Watson, Easterseals National Director of Childhood Development, Education, and Equity, who will be driving this work at the national level for the organization. About Easterseals Easterseals is leading the way to full equity, inclusion, and access through life-changing disability and community services. For more than 100 years, we have worked tirelessly with our partners to enhance quality of life and expand local access to healthcare, education, and employment opportunities. And we won't rest until every one of us is valued, respected, and accepted. Through our national network of Affiliates, Easterseals provides essential services and on-the-ground supports to more than 1.5 million people each year from early childhood programs for the critical first five years, to autism services, to medical rehabilitation and employment programs, to veterans' services, and more. Our public education, policy, and advocacy initiatives positively shape perceptions and address the urgent and evolving needs of the one in four Americans living with disabilities today. Together, we're empowering people with disabilities, families, and communities to be full and equal participants in society. Learn more at www.easterseals.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/easterseals-hosts-virtual-event-with-education-week-to-share-research-from-its-collaborative-on-racialized-disabilities-initiative-301395818.html SOURCE Easterseals MIAMI, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) announced last night the winners of the 2021 National Bravo! Awards, recognizing the best multicultural public relations teams and campaigns in the country. Mixte Communications and NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises were the big winners of the night with four awards each while H+M Communications was named 2021 Agency of the Year. Presented by Aflac, the hybrid virtual event was transmitted live from Miami, FL. "It was incredibly rewarding and exciting to bring back the HPRA National Bravo! Awards this year and celebrate our esteemed honorees, agencies and corporations who are working each day to show the power of the Hispanic community and consumer," said National HPRA President Sonia Diaz. "We are also thrilled to announce the launch of the National HPRA Scholarship Program, which aligns with our mission to play an active role in creating a talent pipeline of Hispanic PR professionals by supporting their dream of a career in public relations." Recognizing the Best in Hispanic/Multicultural PRSince 2014, the HPRA National Bravo! Awards has recognized communications teams behind incredible brands, organizations and campaigns that drive meaningful impact among the growing Hispanic and multicultural markets. This year's awards introduced new categories, like COVID Response, Best Media/Virtual Event and Social Justice, to reflect the work multicultural teams did around the pandemic and social issues that have been front and center the past 18 months. H+M Communications was named Agency of the Year for its success in driving, retaining and growing their multicultural business and offering as well as its commitment to developing Hispanic PR talent and providing excellent company culture for its employees. Winners of the 2021 National Bravo! Awards by category are: Campaign of the Year: Decision 2020 by NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises COVID Response (TIE): Securing COVID Safety and Critical Resources for Educators and Families by Balsera Communications Nuestros Negocios by NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises CSR Campaign: Decision 2020 by NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises Digital PR Campaign: TurboTax Gives You Mas by Havas FORMULATIN Food & Beverage Campaign: El Patio Tecate by PINTA Influencer Engagement Campaign: Unleash the Sabrosura by Canijilla USA Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign: Decision 2020 by NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises Internal Communications Campaign: Enterate con Verizon by Verizon Latin America Campaign: Madres eXtraordinarias by Edelman for Roche Latin America New Product Launch: Colgate Gum Renewal by BCW Global Non-Profit Campaign: The Power of the Latinx Voter by APC Collective & MWW Media/Virtual Event: Prioritizing Latinx Community Outreach During Covid-19 by Mixte Communications Multicultural Campaign of the Year: Unfinished Business by BCW Global Public Education Campaign of the Year: Prioritizing Latinx Community Outreach During COVID-19 by Mixte Communications Public Affairs Campaign: #VotingMovesCA: Activating Youth Voices for Voter Turnout by Mixte Communications Social Justice Campaign: #VotingMovesCA: Activating Youth Voices for Voter Turnout by Mixte Communications Technology Campaign: TurboTax Gives You Mas by Havas FORMULATIN "Congratulations to all of this year's winners. As we've witnessed over the last year, the pandemic has further reinforced the critical role communicators play in reaching the Hispanic community. As public relations and marketing for Hispanic and multicultural consumers evolves, we remain steadfastly committed to recognizing the great work being done," said Diaz. Celebrating Honorees Making a DifferenceHonoring notable influencers who are making a positive impact in the Hispanic community is at the heart of the annual HPRA National Bravo! Awards, which recognized the following honorees this year: Magda Yrizarry, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Verizon was recognized with the HPRA Diversity & Inclusion Award for her leadership in advancing diversity, inclusion, and community investment. for her leadership in advancing diversity, inclusion, and community investment. Maria Hinojosa was honored with the HPRA Journalist of the Year Award for her storied career covering the Latino community. for her storied career covering the Latino community. Rosanna Fiske, Global Chief Communications Officer at Royal Caribbean, was presented with the HPRA Pioneer of the Year Award , for her esteemed contributions to the communications industry. , for her esteemed contributions to the communications industry. Enrique Santos, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer at iHeart Latino, received the HPRA President's Award for his commitment and dedication to being a leading voice in amplifying the positive impact and contributions of the Hispanic community. The 2021 HPRA Bravo! Awards were made possible thanks to the support of presenting sponsor Aflac, and the generous contributions of Moet Hennessy USA, Cision, Edelman, Havas FORMULATIN, Intuit TurboTax, and Verizon. The judging panel for the 2021 HPRA National Bravo! Awards was comprised of senior public relations and marketing professionals from agency, corporate, brand & academia. For additional information regarding the Hispanic Public Relations Association, please visit HPRAUSA.org. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hispanic-public-relations-association-announces-2021-national-bravo-award-winners-301396344.html SOURCE Hispanic Public Relations Association Vehicles and equipment for the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division arrive in Europe in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve on July 6, 2021. (1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division/Facebook) Two Army brigade combat teams will deploy a combined 5,600 soldiers in the summer to ongoing operations in Iraq and Europe, the service announced Tuesday. About 1,800 troops from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based out of Fort Carson, Colo., will deploy to Iraq to support to Operation Inherent Resolve. The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based out of Fort Riley, Kan., will send about 3,800 troops to Europe to support Operation Atlantic Resolve. The Fort Carson soldiers will replace the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Louisiana Army National Guard, as part of a regular rotation of forces, the Army said. Operation Inherent Resolve is the mission to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. Our soldiers and leaders have been training hard preparing to answer our nations call, Col. Ike L. Sallee, commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said in a statement. We are ready for this mission. The Fort Riley troops will replace the Fort Hood, Texas-based 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a mission to support NATO allies and partners against Russian aggression in Europe. "The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team is honored to deploy in support of Atlantic Resolve as a regionally allocated force in Europe, Col. Brian E. McCarthy, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team commander, said in a statement. It is a great privilege to aid in the preservation of peace by showcasing our Army's ability to project readiness across the globe. This brigades legacy of fighting and training alongside our European partners began in the fields of France during World War I. We are proud to uphold our dedication to a strong Europe, and once again stand with our allies and partners. Army units have conducted nine-month rotations in Europe since 2014, where units conduct multinational training events across more than a dozen countries including Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Estonia, according to U.S. Army Europe and Africa. Rose Thayer Rose L. Thayer is based in Austin, Texas, and she has been covering the western region of the continental U.S. for Stars and Stripes since 2018. Before that she was a reporter for Killeen Daily Herald and a freelance journalist for publications including The Alcalde, Texas Highways and the Austin American-Statesman. She is the spouse of an Army veteran and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in journalism. Her awards include a 2021 Society of Professional Journalists Washington Dateline Award and an Honorable Mention from the Military Reporters and Editors Association for her coverage of crime at Fort Hood. previous coverage US Air Force gets $152 million in upgrades underway at base in Romania An AH-64 Apache attack helicopter with the 1st Cavalry Division Combat Aviation Brigade conducts training in September at Fort Hood, Texas. About 2,000 troopers from the brigade will deploy to Europe this fall for a nine-month training rotation with Operation Atlantic Resolve. (Hayley Haka/U.S. Army) The 4th Security Force Assistance Brigade out of Fort Carson, Colo., and the 1st Cavalry Division Combat Aviation Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, will deploy within the next three months to support two different missions spread across Europe, the Army announced Friday. The assistance brigade, which is a specialized unit tasked to train and advise partner nations, will support security cooperation in Europe, the Army said. Adviser teams from the brigade will deploy in six-month rotations to Georgia, Latvia, North Macedonia, Poland and Romania, where they will establish partnerships with the land forces, Army Europe said. Deployments will begin this month, but the Armys announcement did not specify the number of troops included in each rotation. The brigade headquarters will remain at Fort Carson, Army Europe said. The 4th SFAB provides specialized and experienced, purpose-driven U.S. Army leaders who aim to increase interoperability in support of [U.S. Army Europe and Africa] security cooperation objectives, said Col. Robert Born, commander of the 4th Security Force Assistance Brigade. Our team of advisers are fully prepared for our upcoming deployment to Europe this fall. We are ready to train with our allies and partners, as well as add 4th SFAB advisers to the 70-year history of the U.S. Armys presence in Europe. The 1st Air Cavalry Brigade will send about 2,000 troops to participate in Operation Atlantic Resolve, a nine-month training rotation in partnership with more than a dozen European countries, including Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania. Troops will replace the 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Riley, Kan. Training to fight and win with our European partners builds confidence across the globe in NATOs combined lethality, said Col. Reggie Harper, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade commander. The training rotations began in April 2014 and place about 7,000 soldiers across the region at any given time, according to U.S. Army Europe and Africa. Rose Thayer Rose L. Thayer is based in Austin, Texas, and she has been covering the western region of the continental U.S. for Stars and Stripes since 2018. Before that she was a reporter for Killeen Daily Herald and a freelance journalist for publications including The Alcalde, Texas Highways and the Austin American-Statesman. She is the spouse of an Army veteran and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in journalism. Her awards include a 2021 Society of Professional Journalists Washington Dateline Award and an Honorable Mention from the Military Reporters and Editors Association for her coverage of crime at Fort Hood. Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, shown in 2018, is trying to overturn a ban on her entering Canada. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has waited four years to visit Canada. But when an invitation from the Canadian government finally came, it turned out that immigration authorities just wanted the chance to physically remove her from the country. This odd turn of events took place shortly ahead of Mannings hearing this week before a Canadian immigration tribunal. Manning is contesting a ban on her entering Canada: border agents barred her entrance through a Quebec crossing in 2017, citing her conviction on espionage charges after what The Washington Post called one of the most notorious leaks of classified documents in U.S. history. Last week, attorneys for the Canadian government requested that Mannings hearing, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, be delayed so that she could attend the proceedings in person instead of via video conference from the United States. They reasoned that should she lose the case, border agents could only remove her from Canada if she were already in the country. Marisa Musto, an adjudicator for Canadas immigration board, rejected Ottawas argument on Monday, calling the governments motion confounding. If [Manning] were physically in Canada when the order was made, the requirement would be that she leave Canada. Given that she is already outside Canada . . . it can be said that the objective of [immigration laws] . . . would, de facto, be fulfilled, she wrote in a decision. News of Mustos ruling was first reported by Canadas National Post newspaper. In 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in military prison for passing on a vast trove of classified diplomatic and U.S. military cables to the WikiLeaks website. Her disclosure, later dubbed the War Logs, shed light on the civilian casualties committed by U.S. forces, while alleging America ignored accusations of torture and murder in Iraq. After serving seven years in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Mannings sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017. She was a cause celebre for antiwar and government transparency advocates, while others alleged she put U.S. lives and operations at risk as an attention-getting antic. Manning later spent 11 months in a detention facility in Alexandria, Va., for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. She attempted suicide in jail and was released in March 2020, when the grand jury disbanded. Lex Gill, a Montreal-based immigration lawyer representing Manning, said in an interview that her clients video-conference hearing began as scheduled after the Canadian governments motion was turned down. She declined to give further details on the case, citing ongoing legal proceedings. During Thursdays hearing, a point of contention came down to Mannings decision to divulge sensitive documents. A government lawyer questioned Manning on how she executed the leak while Manning maintained she didnt jeopardize any U.S. government assets, reported the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. A 2007 video of a U.S. Apache helicopter firing on civilians in Baghdad, killing several, including two Reuters journalists, was shown during the hearing. Leaking this video, Mannings lawyer Joshua Blum argued, and the rest of the War Logs was justified by necessity. A final decision on whether Manning can enter Canada is likely to be made in one or two months, her lawyer said. previous coverage US agrees Assange could serve sentence in Australia in extradition appeal Buy Photo From left, Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Ketch, Staff Sgt. Stephen Gulczynski and Staff Sgt. Corey Clark, all assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas, were honored Thursday for intervening when a fellow soldier attempted to die by suicide in June. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes ) Only an hour had passed between Staff Sgt. Corey Clark leaving a barbecue at a fellow soldiers house near Fort Hood, Texas, and the frantic rush to talk his friend down from the edge of a bridge over Stillhouse Hollow Lake. You never know what someones going through. I had no clue because we were at the barbecue and everything was fine, Clark said, after realizing his friend, who was not named by Fort Hood officials, was masking a great deal of pain and attempted suicide. After Clark had left the backyard gathering June 19, the other soldier drove to an area known as Chalk Ridge Falls Park. He entered a fenced off section along a dam and was standing on a narrow six-inch ledge of a foot bridge about 100 feet above water, according to the incident report from the Bell County Sheriffs Department, which also responded to the incident. The soldiers spouse, who was out-of-state, was worried her husband was thinking about suicide, so she called her husbands platoon sergeant in the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Ketch. He quickly began coordinating with Clark and another platoon member, Staff Sgt. Stephen Gulczynski, to locate the soldier. They also reached out to local law enforcement. Once they found the soldier on the ledge, the three noncommissioned officers and an officer with the sheriffs department began slowly to approach the soldier and coax him back to safety. Clark said he reminded his friend of the fun that theyd had that day, and the positive aspects of his life he avoided negative topics. Eventually, Clark was able to grab his friends arm. Gulczynski then grabbed him in a bear hug and the four men pulled the soldier over the railing and back to safety. During a ceremony Thursday to honor the three NCOs, each one credited their suicide prevention training from the Army and the increased focus on building relationships among troops for preparing them to deal with the situation. Once a month, Gulczynski said he and his squad spend time together. Most often, they go to breakfast and just talk not about work, but about other topics. It allows the soldiers to see a different side of us, that we are human as well, said Ketch, who has spent 19 years in the Army. That's where they begin to open up and talk and they accept that connection with us. The Army calls this trust-building effort People First, and it encourages tough conversations that break down barriers. It builds on already required training on equal opportunity, which targets racism and sexism, sexual assault and harassment prevention training and suicide prevention training. On the same day that the 1st Cavalry Division recognized the three soldiers, two of the Armys top generals toured Fort Hoods new People First Center, a facility that pulls all this training into one location. Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, the Armys deputy chief of staff for personnel, or G-1, and Lt. Gen. Jason Evans, deputy chief of staff for installation programming, or G-9, observed Thursday a role-player training scenario designed to challenge what soldiers know about suicide prevention, sexual assault reporting and domestic violence. If you look at the soldier and their families as the pacing guide that makes everything that we do strong, all our energy, all the efforts, all the policies, all the training will be focused on them, Brito said. Buy Photo Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, the Armys deputy chief of staff for personnel, or G-1, and Lt. Gen. Jason Evans, deputy chief of staff for installation programming, or G-9, tour the new People First Center at Fort Hood, Texas. The facility consolidates into one place training for prevention of suicide and sexual assault and harassment, as well as equal opportunity and substance abuse. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes) Brito also serves as one of three chairpersons for the Armys People First Task Force, which was created in the wake of the Fort Hood Independent Review Committees report that identified a number of problems at the base that equated to a lack of trust between soldiers and leaders that had been brewing for years. Former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy appointed the committee after Spc. Vanessa Guillen was killed at Fort Hood by a fellow soldier. It took more than two months for law enforcement to find her body, and during that time Guillens family, veterans and advocates began to raise concerns about conditions on the base. Many of the reports recommendation will be implemented Army-wide under the People First Task Force. Fort Hood invited Brito and Evans to tour their new facility in hopes in could become a flagship for the Army, said Col. William Zielinski, the facilitys director. The center is less about a building and more about an opportunity to build a team, he said in a statement. Having been a nation at war with several hundred thousand suffering from [post-traumatic stress disorder] from the wounds of war, the focus on deployments and redeployments. What we want to do is bring back the units and focus on what matters the most, which is people. While the People First Task Force is still finalizing additional policies and changes related to the Fort Hood report, Brito said leaders are not waiting. At bases across the Army, leaders have taken initiatives similar to Fort Hood that have begun to make an impact. The success of all this work will be seen through real-world response, such as troop surveys about their command climate and the reenlistment rates, Brito said. Maj. Gen. Michael Keating, deputy commander for support (U.K.) of III Corps and Fort Hood; Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, deputy chief of staff, G-1 of the U.S. Army; and Lt. Gen. Jason Evans, deputy chief of staff, G-9 of the U.S. Army, listen intently as Cpl. Elizabeth Allen-Perez provides some feedback following a sexual assault and suicide prevention demonstration at Fort Hood's new People First Center Oct. 7. (U.S. Army photo by Brandy Cruz, Fort Hood Public Affairs) () For the three soldiers honored at Fort Hood, the success of their training was measured by the life of their friend who is still standing in formation with them. Its part of our job, Ketch said. Its no different than me standing in front of the enemy for him. But at the same time, its not just the enemy that shoots bullets, its the enemy within or some other issues that might occur. The men were keenly aware that Thursdays gathering could have been a memorial service for their friend. Instead, they were honored by their unit for saving a life for answering a phone call and taking action when a soldier needed help. The battalion and Bell County, presented Clark, Ketch and Gulczynski with two awards for their actions on June 19. Each received the civilian police departments Life Saving Award and an Army Achievement Medal. Ketch said despite all the time theyve all taken to get to know each other, no one knew the soldier was at risk of dying by suicide. Ketch said he continues to analyze the experience to try and learn how to intervene earlier. Even in a situation like this that [doesnt involve] my soldiers, I think about it, I read the reports if I can, and I check my soldiers every day, he said. A lot of times when situations like this occur, most of that's hidden away. You'll never see it. It never comes out. And when it does, it's too late at that point. So all you can try to do is just have that personal connection, and in this situation that personal connection did save his life. To reach the veterans crisis hotline, call 800-273-8255 and select option 1. Rose Thayer Rose L. Thayer is based in Austin, Texas, and she has been covering the western region of the continental U.S. for Stars and Stripes since 2018. Before that she was a reporter for Killeen Daily Herald and a freelance journalist for publications including The Alcalde, Texas Highways and the Austin American-Statesman. She is the spouse of an Army veteran and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in journalism. Her awards include a 2021 Society of Professional Journalists Washington Dateline Award and an Honorable Mention from the Military Reporters and Editors Association for her coverage of crime at Fort Hood. The first prototype hypersonic hardware is delivered to soldiers of 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. The Army is closer to fielding its Dark Eagle hypersonic missile after issuing the ground equipment to the unit, it said in a statement Oct. 7, 2021. (U.S. Army) The Army is a step closer to fielding its Dark Eagle hypersonic missile after equipping soldiers with ground launchers that would fire the weapon at much higher speed and with greater precision than the services current artillery systems. The 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state was issued the first prototype hypersonic ground equipment, the Army announced Thursday. Today marks an important milestone in equipping our nations first hypersonic battery Now, Soldiers can begin training, Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, director of the Armys hypersonics program, said in a statement. The hardware included a battery operations center, four transporter erector launchers, and modified trucks and trailers needed to support the Armys Long Range Hypersonic Weapon. The first prototype hypersonic hardware is delivered to soldiers of 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. The Army is closer to fielding its Dark Eagle hypersonic missile, it said Oct. 7, 2021. (U.S. Army) Still missing is the missile itself. But the Army expects the weapon to be ready by 2023. The Dark Eagle is designed to fly 3,800 mph and hit targets 1,700 miles away with precision. The U.S. is in a race with Russia and China to develop hypersonic weapons systems and the Pentagon has stepped up funding in hopes of getting the edge. Still, some security analysts say the U.S. is trailing its adversaries in its development of the weapons. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it test-fired a hypersonic "Tsirkon" missile for the first time from a submarine. In speeches, President Vladimir Putin has touted Russias advances in various hypersonic systems as invincible weaponry. The Pentagon has been involved in developing hypersonic weapons since the early 2000s. But at the time, the U.S. was heavily involved in Iraq and Afghanistan and funding for such programs was relatively limited. That has changed in recent years. This is due, in part, to advances in these technologies in Russia and China, leading to a heightened focus in the United States on the strategic threat posed by hypersonic flight, a July Congressional Research Service report said. Both China and Russia have conducted numerous successful tests of hypersonic glide vehicles and likely fielded an operational capability, the report said. The Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Connecticut returns to port at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Wash., in 2011. (Timothy Aguirre/U.S. Navy) TOKYO Submarines proliferating in the South China Sea are increasing risks in already treacherous waters, security experts said Friday, a day after the Navy announced an undersea collision in the Indo-Pacific. The USS Connecticut, a Sea Wolf-class fast-attack submarine, was damaged Oct. 2, when it collided with something while submerged in international waters in the region, the Navy said Thursday. The statement, which did not describe the object that was struck, said several sailors suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Damage to the Connecticut is still being assessed, but the vessel has been moving on the surface toward Guam since the incident. A spokesman for the Hawaii-based Pacific Fleet, contacted by Stars and Stripes on Thursday, would not say where the collision occurred. However, an unnamed defense official told U.S. Naval Institute News it was the South China Sea. Many Chinese submarines are operating in the region, although they are less capable than the nuclear-powered U.S. vessels, according to Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. Beijing has at least 57 diesel-electric submarines and five nuclear attack versions, according to a 2015 report by the Office of Naval Intelligence. The fleet is projected to add 14 more vessels, including 11 nuclear attack submarines, by 2030. At least eight nuclear-powered submarines that will be acquired by Australia as part of the AUKUS pact, formed with the United States and Britain last month, are expected to join those operated by the U.S. and other nations beneath the contested waters. A sub-on-sub collision is among many hazards in the South China Sea that include submerged equipment, fishing nets and surface ships, Chong said by telephone Friday. There is any number of things they could be colliding with, he said. The lack of major damage suggests the Connecticut likely wasnt moving fast when the accident happened, according to Chong. Submarines are being asked to perform fairly risky kinds of operations anyway, he said. In the South China Sea, we are talking about much more shallow waters. The risks are higher than if they are in the middle of the Pacific. The moderate to minor injuries reported also indicate slow speed at the time of the crash, said New Zealand-based U.S. security expert Paul Buchanan. It could be that [the Connecticut] was doing some seafloor mapping or surveillance, he wrote in an email Friday. The fact that it did not pick up the underwater object with its sensors indicates that they could have been jammed and it was running slow but blind at the time. Only China and Russia have the capability of blinding an adversarys sonar systems and use it in contested waters such as the South China Sea, Buchanan said. Seawolf-class boats have advanced shallow water technologies, so that suggests that it was running slow, blind and relatively deep, he said. The submarine accident follows a pair of deadly crashes involving U.S. destroyers in the Western Pacific four years ago. In June 2017, the USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged container vessel, killing seven sailors in Japanese waters. Two months later, 10 more sailors died aboard the USS John S. McCain when it collided with a Liberian-flagged tanker near Singapore. The Navy said the incident involving the Connecticut will be investigated. Buy Photo Italians and Americans dance the night away at a nightclub near Aviano Air Base, Italy, prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Italy is reopening discos and nightclubs Oct. 11, 2021, after being closed more than a year because of pandemic restrictions. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes) NAPLES, Italy Nightclubs will be allowed to reopen beginning Monday across Italy for the first time in more than a year and stadiums will be able to hold events at greater capacity, following the continued decline of COVID-19 case numbers from their summer highs. The national government approved the reopening and loosened many restrictions on concerts and other large gatherings Thursday. Nightclubs, discos and dance clubs can open at capacities of 50% indoors and 75% outdoors, an Italian Council of Ministers statement said. It wasnt immediately clear how the decree would impact U.S. military bases in Italy. Over the course of the pandemic, commands have taken time to evaluate new rules before issuing guidance. However, the commands generally have followed Italian law and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations. People who want to visit a nightclub will have to show their green pass health certifications, or the CDC equivalent, indicating they are fully vaccinated. Those without a vaccination pass must show a negative rapid antigen test within the last 48 hours or a negative molecular test within the last 72 hours, or have a verified recovery from COVID-19 within the last six months. People who want to visit a nightclub, disco or dance club will have to show their green pass health certification, or its equivalent. (suedtirol.info) Other restrictions include mandatory mask wearing indoors unless a person is dancing and a ventilation system in closed rooms, according to the Italian decree. The new rules also allow movie theaters and concert halls to operate at full capacity. Stadiums may allow 75% capacity outdoors and 60% indoors, according to the Corriere della Serra newspaper. Also, museums are no longer required to meet social distancing guidelines, the Council of Ministers statement said. But people attending museums and other venues must continue to show their health certifications and wear masks. Venues that violate the rules risk closure after a second violation, the statement said. In the meantime, Italian officials will continue with measures designed to encourage more people to get vaccinated. Starting Friday and through the end of the year, all public and private employees working in Italy will have to prove they have green pass certifications. Those who dont face an unpaid suspension but wont lose their jobs, a Sept. 16 Council of Ministers statement said. People found to be working without health certificates could be fined up to 1,500 euros, it stated. Its unclear how that decree impacts U.S. military installations, including NSA Naples, Naval Air Station Sigonella, U.S. Army Garrison Italy in Vicenza and Aviano Air Base. NSA Naples officials are aware of the decree and will make every effort to align with Italian policy, said Lt. Jamie Moroney, a base spokeswoman. NSA Naples will communicate our way ahead on this matter in the near future, she said. New COVID-19 cases in Italy have steadily declined since the last week of August, according to Italian Health Ministry website data. The ministry reported 2,938 new cases and 41 deaths on Thursday. There have been nearly 4.69 million cases and 131,198 deaths in Italy since the pandemic began. The ministry reported Friday that 79.6% of the population 12 and older is fully vaccinated. Sicily, which was put into the countrys yellow zone in August after a rise in cases, will return to the white zone Saturday. That means restrictions, such as mandatory mask wearing outdoors if social distancing could not be maintained, will be lifted. Alison Bath (iStock) Lets take a quick trip back in time, just a few decades ago, to our childhood years ... Its the month of October, and the neighborhood is abuzz with anticipation. Houses are decorated with hay bales, corn stalks and gourds. Kids run from school bus stops, unable to resist jumping into neat piles of freshly raked leaves. Black cats skitter past scarecrows made from straw-stuffed flannel shirts and work pants with patches at the knees. And of course, there are pumpkins. Tall and skinny, short and stout, perfectly round, warty and misshapen. Plucked fresh from local farmers fields, or picked from crates in front of grocery stores. Adorning stoops, flower boxes, porches, benches, lawns and stumps. Pumpkins are our most essential and ubiquitous seasonal symbol. With one notable exception pumpkin pie, which really doesnt count because its made with processed and spiced mush from a can pumpkins are only meant for decorating, carving and smashing. Certainly, no one would ever eat pumpkins, or God forbid flavor their coffee with them. Squash-flavored beverages? Whats next, kale salad? Blech! Sure, we may fish a few slippery seeds out of pumpkins open cavities for roasting and salting, but there is no possibility that anyone will make palatable food out of the stringy, slimy pulp of this oversized species of winter vegetation. Pumpkins might be homely, but they aspire to loftier goals than soup. They mingle modestly with gourds in seasonal displays, but make no mistake about it. On Halloween, pumpkins willingly take center stage, becoming the stars of the show. As soon as Mom says its time to surgically transform them with sharpened knives carefully gutting, scraping and whittling their thick meat into exaggerated personifications pumpkins courageously report for duty as Jack-o-lanterns, keeping watch at every house with a spooky orange glow. Then, after the kids have removed their Casper masks, gorged themselves on Laffy Taffy and fallen into a sticky slumber, our brave pumpkins must face their mortality. In the days following Halloween, will they shrivel in the sun, only to be tossed, soft and gnatty, into trash bins on garbage day? Or will they be assaulted in the night and die dramatic deaths at the hands (or feet) of smashing hooligans, the same vandals who toilet-papered the neighbors houses during trick-or-treating? Regardless of our pumpkins final fates, we can all agree they served their singular purpose respectably. Now, lets pause our trip down memory lane, and return to the present. Its October 2021, and somewhere along the way, the pumpkin has become the most exploited vegetable on Earth. It started innocently enough. In 2003, an executive at Starbucks suggested that a new fall beverage should be added to the companys seasonal repertoire, which already included winter flavors such as Peppermint Mocha and Eggnog. From the moment the first Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte was served through a drive-thru window to a mom in a minivan who just finished her step aerobics class, our lives were forever changed. Quite suddenly, pumpkins and their traditional spices nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger were everywhere. Pumpkins no longer have to wait for Halloween to become the star of the show, because today, pumpkin spice is featured in everything from lasagna noodles to lip balm, Triscuits to toothpaste, Bud Light to bologna, cream cheese to cat litter, car polish to kombucha, cigarillos to Spam, Jell-O shots to shower gel, Pop Tarts to personal lubricants, and everything in between. Its unclear why pumpkin went from unpalatable fall decor to consumers cultural icon. However, Starbucks has sold more than 424 million pumpkin spiced lattes in the U.S. since 2003, surpassing all the other coffee flavors. Clearly, todays public loves the essence of the once-humble pumpkin. So much so, they now demand that mustache wax, Cup Noodles, goat cheese, Twinkies, hand sanitizer, hummus, dog chews, cough drops and vodka are produced in pumpkin-inspired varieties. Those who claimed this was just a trend" need to shut their pie hole. Clearly, we are in the midst of a Pumpkin renaissance, and we might as well enjoy it. Read more at themeatandpotatoesoflife.com, and in Lisas book, The Meat and Potatoes of Life: My True Lit Com. Email: meatandpotatoesoflife@gmail.com Buy Photo A reunification banner hangs on a fence near the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, May 24, 2017. (Aaron Kidd/Stars and Stripes) CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea Less than half of South Koreans believe its necessary to reunify the war-divided peninsula, the lowest percentage in over a decade, according to a recent poll by Seoul National University. Roughly 44% of respondents to the survey conducted between July and August said it is at least somewhat necessary for North and South Korea to reunify, said the poll released Tuesday by the universitys Institute for Peace and Unification Studies. The annual in-person poll surveyed 1,200 people between the ages of 20 and 74 and has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. The figure represents the lowest number of people who believe reunification is necessary since the polls inception in 2007. The number of respondents who think it is not essential has been steadily increasing, from around 16 percent in 2018 to 29 percent this year. The younger generation played a major role in the decline in support, according to university researchers. Nearly 43 percent of respondents between the ages of 20 and 39 said the South does not really need to reunify with the North, and 34 percent said the country does not need to at all. The generational divide is unsurprising due to the social changes over the past few decades, said North Korean studies professor Park Wongon of Ewha Womans University in Seoul. Younger South Koreans have a very different view of North Korea compared to the older generation, Park told Stars and Stripes by phone on Wednesday. The younger generation of South Koreans havent seen North Korea as the same nation and ethnicity they are seeing the North as a totally different entity. The survey also asked participants the reason for their responses. Roughly 32 percent of those who disfavored reunification cited economic burdens imposed by North Korea, the highest percentage among the surveys choices. Seoul is expected to absorb much of the costs associated with reunification. Previous government estimates started at $1 trillion, which, according to the World Bank, amounts to over 60 percent of the countrys gross domestic product last year. Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called for a reunification tax in 2010, but the proposal was abandoned after facing public backlash. Over 26 percent of the surveys respondents cited social problems that can arise after unification, and 21 percent said they opposed reunification because of differences in the countries political systems. South Koreans are also increasingly pessimistic about the possibility of reunification, the poll said. Roughly 25 percent said they believe it is impossible while another quarter think it will happen after 30 years. Only 1.3 percent believed reunification is possible within the next five years. The two Koreas remain separated after the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice agreement rather than a peace treaty. South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month repeated his calls for formally ending the conflict, which senior North Korean official Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, responded to as a good idea. Stars and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report. Asked about the reports, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian avoided attacks on Washington and instead repeated standard Beijing talking points, saying that the United States should recognize the high sensitivity of the issue and halt military contact with Taiwan. (Molly Crawford/U.S. Navy) TAIPEI, Taiwan China reiterated calls for the United States to cut off military ties with Taiwan on Friday, in a cautious response to reports that United States Marines have been stationed on the self-ruled island for more than a year to strengthen its defenses against intensifying Chinese aggression. Asked about the reports, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian avoided attacks on Washington and instead repeated standard Beijing talking points, saying that the United States should recognize the high sensitivity of the issue and halt military contact with Taiwan. China will take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, Zhao said. China claims the island of 24 million people as part of its sovereign territory, threatening to take control by force if Taiwans government formally declares independence. But proudly democratic Taiwan considers itself a country and has shown no interest in submitting to Chinese Communist Party rule. About two dozen U.S. troops, including a special-operations unit and a contingent of Marines, have been in Taiwan to train military forces for more than a year, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing unnamed U.S. officials. Taiwans foreign and defense ministries declined to comment on the report, which was a rare confirmation from U.S. officials of the nature of training programs in Taiwan. The Pentagon last year denied Marine special operatives were training in Taiwan after the islands military tacitly acknowledged the change to regular exchanges. In a speech at the Yushan military forum in Taipei on Friday, Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen did not address the matter but noted that developments in the Indo-Pacific were creating new tensions that could have a devastating effect on international security and the global economy if they are not handled carefully. The revelation threatens to undermine the tentative start of a detente in the years-long diplomatic feud between Washington and Beijing, as well as to set off a spiral of military tension as the United States and its allies counter Chinas efforts to gain a military advantage in the region. Response on Chinese social media was muted on Friday, suggesting censors were tamping down discussion. The relative silence about Taiwan on Weibo, Chinas Twitter-like service, contrasted with a flurry of nationalist commentators jumping on news of damage to a U.S. nuclear-powered Navy submarine that collided with an object in the South China Sea. The few who did post about the Taiwan training program called for a stern response from Beijing, with users asking why China was not striking back? or calling for Taiwan to be liberated immediately by the Peoples Liberation Army. On Weibo, Hu Xijin, editor in chief of Chinese state-backed Global Times, a stridently nationalist tabloid, taunted Washington for only sending 24 soldiers without fanfare, instead of openly setting up a base. Roll the dice, he jeered. See whose willpower is ultimately stronger when it comes to the Taiwan issue. China, angered by growing international sympathy and support for Taiwan from the United States and its allies, has sharply escalated its military aggression toward the island. In the past week, the Chinese air force flew a record150-odd warplanes into Taiwans air defense identification zone. Taiwans Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng, in response to the warplane drills, said that military tensions across the Taiwan Strait were at their most serious in more than 40 years. Chiu further predicted, without providing details, that Chinas military capacity would significantly reduce obstacles to a full scale invasion of Taiwan within the next four years. By 2025, China will bring the cost and attrition to its lowest. It has the capacity now, but it will not start a war easily, having to take many other things into consideration, he said. The dire warning comes as Beijing has vocally opposed efforts by Washington to strengthen support for Taiwans defenses, creating a delicate balancing act for the White House as it attempts to honor commitments to Taipei without sparking a potentially dangerous response from China. In response to questions about Chinese military threats to Taiwan, the State Department has underscored that its commitments to Taiwan are rock solid, while President Biden said that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to stick with the Taiwan agreement, an apparent reference to a U.S. policy that acknowledges Chinas position of claiming Taiwan without taking sides in the dispute. China has also poured scorn on the emerging Quad partnership and a new pact known as Aukus for the United States and Britain to provide Australia with technology to build nuclear-powered submarines both efforts to counter Chinese military aggression in the South China Sea and broader Indo-Pacific region. Speaking last month after the Aukus announcement, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told The Washington Post it was hypocritical for China to criticize Australias acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines given the rapid expansion of its own Naval fleet. China is yet to provide a publicly convincing strategic rationale as to why such an extensive, forward leaning military posture is necessary, Rudd said, adding that Beijings actions had created a great regional arms bazaar in the Asia Pacific as people seek to arm themselves to defend against what they perceive as a growing Chinese military challenge. Pushback against Chinese military adventurism was evident in a speech on Friday at the Yushan forum in Taipei by former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who warned that its quite possible that Beijing could lash out disastrously very soon. His visit to Taipei, and pointed critique of Beijing, attracted controversy in Australia, where some commentators said the trip was unnecessarily provocative toward China and created a fresh headache in the already troubled bilateral relationship. Senior Australian political leaders have said Abbott made the trip in a private capacity. Abbott was unapologetic, saying that nothing is more pressing right now than showing support for Taiwan. I dont think America could stand by and watch Taiwan [be] swallowed up, he added. Miller reported from Sydney. The Washington Posts Lyric Li in Seoul, and Alicia Chen and Pei-Lin Wu in Taipei contributed to this report. Buy Photo Staff members at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa receive the influenza vaccine at Camp Foster, Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. (Frank Andrews/Stars and Stripes) CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa U.S. military and health officials are urging people to turn out for their seasonal flu shots as bases across the Pacific begin to offer the vaccine. While flu activity was historically low during the 2020-21 flu season, we could see flu activity surge this season, with relaxed COVID-19 mitigation strategies, increased travel, and the reopening of schools and business, the medical director for the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases, Dr. William Schaffner, said Thursday in Bethesda, Md. The head of the Centers for Disease Control Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, speaking alongside Schaffner, urged everyone ages 6 months and older to get vaccinated. The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and the risk of both flu and COVID-19 circulating could put additional strain on hospitals and frontline healthcare professionals, she said. Buy Photo A staff member at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa receives the influenza vaccine at Camp Foster, Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. (Frank Andrews/Stars and Stripes) These sentiments were echoed by officials at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa, which began offering the vaccine to hospital staff on Oct. 1 and everyone else on a walk-in basis on Oct. 4. I recommend it because it adds greater protection as far as reduction of getting an illness or disease, Navy Lt. Trevor Spellman, the vaccination deputy officer in charge, told Stars and Stripes during a recent tour of hospitals vaccination site. It impacts the workforce and manning, he said. If someone gets sick for a number of days, someone else may have to cover for them. The hospital on Camp Foster is accepting patients 6 months and older from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week through Oct. 24, said spokesman Joe Andes. Other area installations already offering the flu vaccine include Yokosuka Naval Base, homeport of the 7th Fleet near Tokyo, and Osan Air Base, headquarters for the 51st Fighter Wing near Seoul. At Yokosuka, patients can receive the shot at multiple locations and times until Oct. 16. The vaccine push ends Oct. 16, but the hospital will accept people after that. Osan is offering the shots at its on-base immunization clinic, and active-duty troops can walk in between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Others, ages 3 and older, can get vaccinated at the base gym from noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 14-15. Meanwhile, hospitals at other bases appear to still be awaiting their vaccine supply. Camp Humphreys the largest U.S. military installation in South Korea expects to start the shots next month. A spokeswoman for the 65th Medical Brigade, Emily Yeh, said it will inform the community via its Facebook page once they are available. The Branch Health Clinic at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, has scheduled a shot drive for 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 3, 9, 17 and 23. Vaccines will also be available by appointment. Buy Photo Service members line up to receive the influenza vaccine at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa on Camp Foster, Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. (Frank Andrews/Stars and Stripes) At Yokota Air Base home of U.S. Forces Japan, 5th Air Force and the 374th Airlift Wing in Tokyo the base is still determining the best method to roll out the flu shot as supply comes available, an unnamed wing spokesman said via Facebook Messenger. We will update our local population once there is a clear distribution method in place, the message said. Spellman explained how flu vaccinations will work at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. Patients will first be asked to show ID and then to fill out vaccination paperwork, he said. They will then move into a tent on the lawn to get the shot. Everyone will receive a vaccination card, Spellman said. Parents are encouraged to contact their primary care provider or hospital immunization clinic to make sure they have good understanding if their child can take the influenza vaccination, he said. Buy Photo Commuters look at photos of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Koreans in 1977, displayed at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, May 9, 2018. (Stars and Stripes) CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea North Korea on Thursday downplayed its unresolved history of abducting Japanese citizen and called for new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to be discreet about his words and actions, days after he raised the issue with the U.S. president. The abduction issue was long resolved perfectly and completely after past summits with Tokyo, North Koreas Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Japans insistence on raising the issue again is moot, it added. The communist regime admitted to abducting 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. Although then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il claimed in 2002 that they were taken by rogue groups motivated by patriotism, regional governments widely believe they were kidnapped by state agents to provide cultural intelligence on Japan. In 2014, North Korea created a special investigative committee to track down Japanese citizens in its country in exchange for loosened sanctions. Pyongyang dissolved the group two years later because of the tense relations spurred by a North Korean nuclear test. The Japanese government has identified 17 victims so far, but many more are believed to have been kidnapped. Five were repatriated in 2002 following negotiations between the two countries. Kishida, who took office on Oct. 4, campaigned on raising the issue during his administration, including the possibility of hosting a summit with North Korea. He mentioned the abductions during a 20-minute call with President Joe Biden on Oct. 5, his first conversation with a world leader. Kishida asked for continued understanding and cooperation towards the immediate resolution of the issue, according to a readout of the call from Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Biden responded by offering his support. North Korea said in its statement Thursday that Kishidas conversation had an ulterior purpose and asked what he is really trying to get from the issue. It is most likely that the [North Korea-Japan] relations would be set gloomier if the Japanese Prime Minister makes a wrong start from the beginning, as it is doing now, the statement said. Japans chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, declined to comment on the Norths statement at a news conference Friday, but said we cant absolutely accept its claim that the abduction issue has been resolved. The governments position on the matter has not changed, Matsuno said, and it will continue its attempts to normalize relations between Japan and North Korea through a comprehensive agenda that includes the abduction issue. Abduction is the most important issue for the cabinet, Matsuno said, adding that time is of the essence due to the old age of the abductees and their families. A man makes his way through snowfall in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday Jan. 22, 2019. Heavy snow descended on the Balkan countries causing havoc throughout the region. (Amel Emric/AP) Europe may face gas shortages this winter if the cold weather depletes storage levels to zero, leaving the region entirely dependent on additional flows from Russia, according to consultant Wood Mackenzie. If Europe and Asia experience cold winters, there wont be enough gas to meet demand unless extra volumes flow from Russia, Massimo Di-Odoardo, vice president for gas and LNG research at Wood Mackenzie, said in a note. Cold weather conditions could boost heating demand up to 20 billion cubic meters, and divert 10.5 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas away from the European market, he said. Thats more than 29 billion cubic meters of gas that will probably remain in storage sites by the end of March, provided Russia uses all of its existing capacity up to contractual obligations. With European inventories at record-lows, the world is watching for any signs of extra supply from Russia. Earlier this week, prices finally eased after President Vladimir Putin signaled offers to ease gas-supply shortages. Futures in Europe have broken record after record in recent weeks and are up about 400% since the start of the year. Uncertainty over the timeline for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline starting up and if Gazprom PJSC will send extra volumes via existing routes across Ukraine and Belarus, are key price drivers. This winter could be one like no other, Di-Odoardo said. A cold winter in both Europe and Asia would risk European storage levels dropping to zero, leaving Europe dependent on timely approval of Nord Stream 2 or Russian willingness to ship more gas through Ukraine if it is to avoid demand curtailments. European inventories will reach 87 billion cubic meters by the end of October, and the region will use about 58 billion cubic meters of that supply to meet the winter demand, according to Wood Mackenzie. If temperatures are within normal seasonal levels, however, Europe wont have any issues meeting its demand, leaving stockpiles in a comfortable range by the end of March, which should help to ease prices, he said. But in the cold weather, Europe would be wholly dependent on Russian flows above existing capacity, Di-Odoardo said. If Nord Stream 2 is approved by the end of the year, it could deliver as much as 12.5 billion cubic meters through the winter and provide some respite, Di-Odoardo said. But Europe would also require almost that amount of gas again flowing via Ukraine above the current ship-or-pay agreements, he said. To add to that, if the winter is also cold in Russia, Gazprom may only have sufficient volumes to ship extra fuel either via Nord Stream 2 or through Ukraines pipelines, but not both, he said. Russia has been overwhelmed with demand also at home where it needs to prioritize filling domestic inventories as questions remain over available extra production volumes. The sky could be the limit for European gas prices this winter, Di-Odoardo said. Naval Air Station Sigonella and Italian air force officials donated 20 pallets of surplus contributions for Afghan evacuees to local charities in Sicily on Oct. 7, 2021. (NAS Sigonella) NAPLES, Italy Twenty pallets of extra donations originally intended for Afghan refugees went to two Catholic charities instead in a giveaway by Naval Air Station Sigonella and Italian air force officials. The donations were made Thursday to an aid organization and a soup kitchen in Acireale, a commune of Catania, an NAS Sigonella statement said. Items donated included clothing, personal hygiene products and baby toiletries, said Lt. Drake Greer, an NAS Sigonella spokesman. Working with the Italian air force and the Italian government, NAS Sigonella served as a transit site for evacuees prior to their relocation as part of the U.S. State Departments Operation Allies Refuge. "Today's solidarity initiative shows the full partnership between NAS Sigonella and the Italian Air Force to reciprocate the great generosity of the Sicilian community," said Alberto Lunetta, the external relations director for NAS Sigonella. During the evacuations, NAS Sigonella hosted 4,283 travelers on 21 flights and provided lodging for 3,187 people at one time, the base statement said. As of Sept. 16, 100 evacuees remained at the base. Flights to the U.S. from overseas bases, which were halted for weeks because of small numbers of measles cases found among evacuees, were expected to resume over the Columbus Day weekend. The U.S. Embassy and the National flag are seen in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Under Kremlin orders, the U.S. Embassy has stopped employing Russians, leaving Russian businessmen, lovers and exchange students adrift because they cant get visas and American parents unable to register their newborns as citizens. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) MOSCOW Russia on Friday accused three American embassy employees of theft and demanded that they leave the country or face prosecution, further exacerbating already tense relations. Russias Foreign Ministry accused the three staff members of stealing personal belongings from a Russian citizen. No details of the alleged incident were offered. The ministry demanded that their diplomatic immunity from prosecution be immediately lifted so they could face court - otherwise they must leave the country immediately. Recent months have seen a steady, rising drumbeat in sharpening rhetoric from Moscow, as officials amplify the sense of a Western threat against Russia. The Russian news agency Tass said the alleged theft occurred Sept. 18 and reported that the Interior Ministry estimated the value of the stolen items at just over $200. Independent news outlet Chtd reported that the allegation against three administrative and technical staff from the embassy is related to the taking of a backpack from a man in a cafe in central Moscow. Moscows move on Friday comes days after NATO expelled eight Russian diplomats, accusing them of spying. It also follows Russias anger over a call from a group of U.S. senators on Tuesday for the expulsions of 300 Russian diplomats. Russian officials said if that proposal were implemented, Russia would force the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The row is the latest in a series of incidents with Russia irritated over U.S. sanctions on seven Russian officials in March over its August 2020 poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was jailed in February on charges he says are political. Among those blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury were Andrei Yarin, the chief of the Kremlins domestic policy directorate; Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) or domestic intelligence service; and deputy ministers of defense Alexei Krivoruchko and Pavel Popov. In April, Washington expelled 10 Russian diplomats and imposed more sanctions on several dozen Russian individuals and companies saying they were associated with malign Russian activities. In response, Moscow advised U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan to go home to Washington for consultations and recalled its own ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov. Sullivan resisted the initial recommendation to depart from Yuri Usakov, a top foreign policy aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, however he flew out soon afterward. As part of its tit-for-tat response, Russia also barred eight former and current officials from entering Russian and banned the U.S. Embassy from hiring Russian or third-country nationals. The move saw the U.S. Embassys visa section slow down its issuing of visas due to what it called staff shortages. The two ambassadors returned to their posts in June, after a slight uptick in relations following a meeting that month between President Biden and Putin in Helsinki. Relations remain frosty, however, while talks have been ongoing on areas where there appears to be potential for cooperation on issues such as strategic arms limitation and climate change. In this July 10, 2008, file photo, friends and family watch a military honor guard carry the casket of Sgt. 1st Class Joseph A. McKay, during a funeral service at Long Island National cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y. (Mary Altaffer/AP) NEW YORK An alleged Taliban commander who was previously charged in the 2008 kidnapping of journalist David Rohde is now facing charges related to attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan during that time period, including one in the Wardak province that killed three soldiers and an interpreter. Haji Najibullah, 45, was extradited to New York last year to face charges in the abduction of Rohde and two Afghan nationals working with him several years after the U.S. invasion. Rohde was held hostage for seven months, a terrifying international incident that was widely followed around the world. After he freed himself, Rohde documented the details of his imprisonment and his remarkable escape in a five-part series for the New York Times. In an indictment made public Thursday, officials allege that Najibullah also commanded Taliban soldiers to kill U.S. and allied troops. He was hardly quiet about his affiliation, the court filing says, at times acting as a Taliban spokesperson in television interviews in which he threatened U.S. soldiers. The Biden administration withdrew the last U.S. troops from Afghanistan several weeks ago, a controversial move that allowed for the swift retaking of power by Taliban militias that easily intimidated U.S.-trained Afghan troops. President Joe Biden has defended the decision, arguing that a withdrawal deadline agreed upon with the Taliban by President Donald Trump left the United States with no better option. Rohde, who worked for the Times at the time of incident but is now on staff at the New Yorker magazine, made a brave escape from a Taliban compound in Pakistan, where his kidnappers had been keeping their hostages. Afghan journalist Tahir Ludin was able to escape with Rohde, while a third captive, Asadullah Mangal, stayed behind. In announcing new charges against Najibullah on Thursday, Justice Department officials released new details, including that Najibullah was actually a commander in the Taliban paramilitary organization, which was long ago designated as a terrorist group. As such, they say, he is responsible for attacks on U.S. troops that were carried out by others. Sgts. 1st Class Matthew L. Hilton and Joseph A. McKay, along with Sgt. Mark Palmateer, were killed when their convoy was attacked by the Taliban with improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in June 2008, according to Najibullahs superseding indictment. An interpreter working with the service members also died, according to officials. Najibullah bragged on video around November 2007 and September 2008 about how well-armed his fighters were, the superseding indictment says, brandishing for the camera an improvised explosive device, Kalashnikov automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Fighters under his command, who numbered as many as 1,000, are also believed to be responsible for shooting down a U.S. helicopter in October 2008 and firing rockets and other weapons at an Afghan National Police outpost in September 2008. Najibullah was previously alleged to have forced Rohde at gunpoint to beg for financial help from his family, an ordeal recorded on video. He and his alleged accomplices wanted millions of dollars in ransom and the release of Taliban fighters in U.S. custody, according to court papers. Najibullah faces charges including murder for the deaths of the U.S. soldiers, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, providing material support for terrorism, conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction and other related counts. An arraignment is expected next week. Attorneys from the Federal Defenders of New York who are representing Najibullah declined to comment on the upgraded charges. President Biden delivers remarks regarding the U.S. debt limit in the State Dining Room at the White House on Monday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post) WASHINGTON President Joe Biden signed legislation Friday to provide financial aid to U.S. government personnel believed to be suffering from Havana Syndrome, the mysterious illness that began afflicting diplomats and intelligence officers in Cubas capital in 2016. The bipartisan bill authorizes the CIA and State Department to provide employees with additional financial support for brain injuries and requires the agencies to create rules for making payments and study whether additional legislative action is needed. The Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks Act, or Havana Act, passed unanimously in the Senate in June. After multiple delays, the House voted unanimously late last month to send the legislation to Bidens desk. I want to thank Congress for passing it with unanimous bipartisan support, sending the clear message that we take care of our own, Biden said in a statement. We are bringing to bear the full resources of the U.S. Government to make available first-class medical care to those affected and to get to the bottom of these incidents, including to determine the cause and who is responsible. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of the authors of the legislation, has cast it as an attempt to help U.S. personnel who have had to battle the bureaucracy to receive care for their debilitating injuries. Collins was among those who attended Fridays signing ceremony at the White House, which was closed to the press. In a statement afterward, she said those impacted by Havana Syndrome should have been treated the same way we treat a soldier who suffered a traumatic brain injury on the battlefield. Biden also signed a separate bill with bipartisan support on Friday that directs the Department of Homeland Security to complete a study of cybersecurity risks to schools. Victims of Havana Syndrome have reported a sudden onset of a range of symptoms such as headaches, nausea, memory loss and other cognitive difficulties. During the past five years, as many as 200 incidents have been reported among U.S. personnel in countries also including Russia, China, Colombia and Uzbekistan. Earlier this month, a member of CIA Director William J. Burnss team reported experiencing symptoms consistent with Havana Syndrome while traveling to India. In August, two U.S. personnel in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, also reportedly suffered from unexplained health incidents just before the arrival of Vice President Harris. In another sign of stepped-up attention by the federal government, the CIA recently removed its top officer in Vienna following criticism of his management, including what some considered an insufficient response to a growing number of purported Havana Syndrome cases at the U.S. Embassy in Austria. The exact cause of Havana Syndrome remains unknown, and U.S. officials refer to potential cases as anomalous health incidents, even as government investigators continue to probe its origins. The condition is characterized by a broad range of unexplained symptoms that include migraines, fatigue, vertigo, anxiety, dizziness, memory lapses and cognitive impairment. Some of those affected have said that they felt as though they were hit by a blast wave or beam of energy. In some cases, the symptoms were intermittent; in others, they persisted and required long-term care. The first known cases were reported among U.S. and Canadian personnel in Cuba in late 2016. CIA officers stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Havana reported feeling intense fatigue, nausea and pulsating pressure in their heads. Brain scans later showed tissue damage normally seen in patients with concussions after a bomb blast or car accident. As U.S. officials sought answers, the Obama administration evacuated much of the embassy staff. At the time, the United States and Cuba had only recently restored diplomatic ties following decades of hostilities, and some observers speculated that the incidents were the result of attacks aimed at sabotaging U.S.-Cuban rapprochement. Cuban officials denied any involvement or knowledge of the illness. Since then, suspected cases of Havana Syndrome among U.S. diplomatic and intelligence officers have cropped up in multiple countries. Earlier this year, some lawmakers in Congress urged the intelligence community to provide more information about the nature of the incidents, following reports that at least two White House officials were afflicted by similar symptoms near White House grounds in 2020. According to The Wall Street Journal, investigators initially believed that a sonic or acoustic weapon was causing the unexplained symptoms. A separate medical assessment in 2018 theorized that the illness could be the result of exposure to microwaves, which produce energy at a radio frequency. In December, a scientific panel organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine also found that directed, pulsed, radio frequency (RF) energy could be responsible. Some observers have said that Havana Syndrome could be the unintended consequence of an intelligence-gathering mission by a foreign government. Current and former intelligence officials have increasingly pointed a finger at Russia, which has staged multiple brazen attacks on adversaries and diplomats overseas. No evidence against Moscow has been made public, however, and Russia has denied involvement in the incidents. Burns in July appointed a senior CIA officer who played a leading role in finding Osama bin Laden to head a government task force investigating the incidents. Both Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said that finding the syndromes root cause is a priority. Critics and Havana Syndrome victims have urged the U.S. government to be more proactive. A 2018 classified assessment of the State Departments handling of the incidents found serious deficiencies . . . in areas of accountability, interagency coordination, and communication, at all levels. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Patrick Semansky/AP) Troops, equipment and installations across the Defense Department must become more resilient to extreme weather conditions that will grow harsher in the coming years amid a changing climate likely to stoke global security and stability problems, a top Pentagon official said Friday. The Defense Department has been mandated to include climate change adaptation into its planning for small units to top-line strategic efforts to ensure the United States retains its military prowess even under the most difficult conditions, said Richard Kidd, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for environment and energy resilience. He spoke Friday with the Washington-based Defense Writers Group, one day after the Pentagon released its new 32-page strategy to adapt to changing climate. We're going to adapt our training, we're going to adapt our plans, policies and procedures. We're going to pivot the entire department towards living and operating in a reality altered by climate change, Kidd said, noting the world was growing not only hotter but more volatile as harsher climate leads to problems including food and water scarcity in some parts of the world. What climate change does is it makes that insecurity, instability more pronounced I think that insecurity and instability, while they have been in the world for a long time to this point, its going to become more pronounced in the years ahead. The Pentagon cannot ignore the problem, Kidd said. Officials have fingered climate change as a major problem facing the military in recent years and they have blamed it, in part, for a huge uptick in homeland military operations, especially for the National Guard. In recent years, more troops have spent more time fighting larger and longer-burning wildfires in the western United States and others have been called to respond to increasingly potent hurricanes and flooding in the east. Some of those storms accounted for billions of dollars of damage suffered at coastal military installations in recent years, including major devastation in a pair of 2018 hurricanes at key posts such as Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., and the Marines Camp Lejeune, N.C. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin labeled climate change an existential threat to the nations national security in a statement accompanying the release Thursday of DODs Climate Adaptation Plan. An excavator demolishes a house at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., April 1, 2021, that was severely damaged by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. (Tiffany Price/U.S. Air Force) The Department of Defense must act swiftly and boldly to take on this challenge and prepare for damage that cannot be avoided, Austin said in the statement. Every day, our forces contend with the grave and growing consequences of climate change, from hurricanes and wildfires that inflict costly harm on U.S. installations and constrain our ability to train and operate, to dangerous heat, drought, and floods that can trigger crises and instability around the world. The Pentagon plan was one of 23 climate change-focused plans released by federal agencies on Thursday. About one week after President Joe Biden took office, he directed the governments largest agencies to design new plans to adapt their operations to changing climate and find ways to mitigate the impacts the U.S. federal government has on the changing climate. While Thursdays plan focuses on how the department can continue functioning despite the near-term, unavoidable consequences of climate change, the Pentagons crucial plans to reduce its own longer-term impact on climate change are forthcoming, Kidd said. The Defense Department expects to release a report later this year detailing its plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, he said. Greenhouse gases include a number of gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to climate change, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Carbon dioxide, which is emitted from burning fossil fuels among other human activities, accounts for about 80% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA. The Defense Department is the single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world and emits more greenhouse gas than two-thirds of all the nations on Earth, according to the Pentagon. Kidd said the Pentagon has worked for 10 years to reduce its reliance on carbon-emitting fuels, but it has a lot of improvement still to achieve. I think the science is very clear right we have to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to zero, and we have to do it before 2050 if we want to avoid the most pronounced effects of climate change, Kidd said. All agencies in the federal government are expected to contribute to that objective so, were going to be a part of that effort. The strategy announced Thursday instructs the Defense Department to build resiliency into its intelligence and decision-making processes, troop-training efforts, equipment including vehicles and weapons, infrastructure, and supply chain. For service members, it means taking steps to prepare to fight in the most extreme weather conditions brutally cold and extremely hot and dry, according to the strategy. It prescribes adding training in areas prone to extreme weather and prioritizing medical skills and first aid meant to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat. It could also mean new climate-focused education for troops, Kidd said, as the Pentagon works to ensure decision-makers at every level are making climate-informed decisions. For example, an Army transportation convoy leader should understand that not letting the trucks idle makes both good operational sense as well as good climate sense, he said. All of the militarys gear from rifles and pistols to nuclear-power ships must also be stress tested to operate in harsh environments, according to the strategy. The Pentagon must pursue technological updates to ensure military gear works in sweltering and frigid conditions, according to the plan. Installations across the world will have to assess the climate-related impacts that they could face. At Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., a climate assessment has already led planners to change the locations of some planned infrastructure projects away from areas impacted by sea level rise, according to the report. Those changes include adjusting the elevation of battalion training facilities. But Parris Island will also take other mitigation steps, the report said, including stormwater and roads upgrades, constructing a tidal exclusion barrier, and planting new forest. The Defense Department has begun looking at 1,400 of its installations and other properties for expected impacts of climate change, including sea level rise, heat and drought and increased flood levels, Kidd said. It will closely study how to mitigate problems brought by climate change at its existing locations, but it has not reached the point where it is considering any major basing changes solely because of climate impacts, he said. Ultimately, the Pentagon might have to make such changes moving certain units or operations to new locations, taking new steps to harden installations against climate impacts, or abandoning some of its installations, Kidd said. We know that the past is no longer an indicator of the future, he said. If you look to the future, we might get to the point some place where we have to ask those hard questions about what mission sets are located at a particular installation. Those are the really hard choices that could be out there in the future for some of our installations, but we're not there yet. When David Adler Staveleys family members found his suicide notes in May 2020, many thought the Andover, Mass., man was dead. The notes were left with associates and family members - including Staveleys 80-year-old mother. When his unlocked car was found parked near the Atlantic Ocean, law enforcement agents dispatched a search-and-rescue boat in the hopes they could find his body. Still, not everyone was convinced Staveley was dead. People who knew him best told investigators they suspected the apparent suicide was another one of Staveleys schemes. And it was, according to federal investigators. Over the next three months, Staveley used fake identities and stolen license plates to evade law enforcement agents trying to track him down. He changed his phone number at least five times before U.S. Marshals closed in on him in Alpharetta, Ga., just north of Atlanta. In his possession, according to court records, were multiple false identification documents that he had used throughout the period of his flight. He was apprehended on July 23, 2020, and pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and failure to appear in court. On Thursday, Staveley was sentenced to more than four years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Staveley, 54, was wanted in connection to what the Justice Department referred to as a brazen attempt to defraud the federal government of $543,959 in forgivable loans available to businesses hit hard during the global pandemic, known as the Paycheck Protection Program. Federal investigators alleged that Staveley and David Butziger, 53, of Warwick, R.I., falsely claimed they owned four businesses with large monthly payrolls, including three restaurants. A Justice Department news release issued Thursday states, In fact, they did not own the businesses. Staveley had submitted loan applications in his brothers name without the mans knowledge, court records state. He also submitted fraudulent tax-return documents created by Butziger, the records add. While the loan applications were still pending, a concerned citizen aware of their fraudulent nature brought them to the attention of law enforcement which ultimately led to their denial, according to the sentencing memo. Though Staveley was ultimately thwarted in his attempt to obtain PPP funds, there can be no question that his intention, at the very beginning of the pandemic, was to exploit the national crisis for his own advantage, it states, adding: He saw the economic emergency created by the pandemic simply as an opportunity to make himself rich by taking for himself what was meant for those in need. Staveley and Butziger were arrested in May 2020. They were the first people charged with defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program. Three weeks later though, according to court records, Staveley cut off the electronic bracelet monitoring his movements and staged his own death. He left suicide notes with family members and associates, and his car was found parked near the ocean in Massachusetts, with his wallet inside. With uncertainty as to whether Staveley had indeed committed suicide though, law enforcement agents began a three-month-long hunt for him. Staveley, according to court records, claimed Butziger told him to remove the electronic-monitoring device and drive south. Staveley was ultimately caught in Georgia. Federal prosecutors argued for a harsh sentence. The public, they said, should be protected from Staveley, who has two prior federal fraud convictions in New Hampshire. [He] simply seems incapable of taking full responsibility for his own choices in life, the sentencing memo states. Staveley broke down during the sentencing hearing Thursday, WJAR reported. His attorney, Jason Knight, asked the court for compassion, according to the station, saying his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder made worse by his incarceration. Knight did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post. Judith Sanborn, Staveleys mother, also testified during Thursdays sentencing, saying she would help her son, who has paid dearly for his mistakes, WJAR reported. Butziger pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in September 2020. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month, according to the Associated Press. A Waihi Beach resident's sadness and frustration about her partner in a wheelchair not being able to gain access to the beach is prompting the community to rally behind a new movement. The community's reaction to the woman's plea on social media has been immense, as they too felt it was simply not good enough, and that everyone, no matter their capability, should be able to enjoy the beach. And so this started the Accessible Waihi Beach movement! In January this year, two beach wheelchairs, worth more than $16,000 were donated in by LJ Hooker and a local beach resident. These were made available for free use for both locals and visitors all year round, says a statement from the Waihi Beach Community Events and Promotions group. "Goldfields School from Paeroa visited the Waihi Beach area in February and used the beach wheelchairs the very day they were delivered. "Then the Waihi Beach community decided they would like to go even further and provide easy access for ALL onto to the beach." The plan to achieve this is by introducing Accessibility Beach Mats which enables wheelchair users, those with mobility issues, our elderly community and even young families to get onto the beach, says a spokesperson for the group. "It will also mean that Waihi Beach can welcome new events such as adapted surf competitions and host special needs schools at our beach and community. "Guided by local Dave MacCalman, Halberg Foundation, and through consultation with Tauranga Council (who placed mats at Mount Maunganui); Waihi Beach Community Events & Promotions has coordinated a plan to purchase and install mats (to be out over the summer period) near the mobility toilets at the north end of Waihi Beach. Waihi Beach Surf Lifesaving Club are also in full support of this initiative." The mats are made of 100 per cent recycled polyester roll and will have longevity of 8-10 years. The project has been costed out at about $45,000. The response to the project has been huge. "Sponsorship contributions - large and small from both businesses and individuals, as well as a give-a-little page have generated over 80% of the funds required. "And we have just received news that we will receive the remaining funds through two local grants that were applied for. refore, we are confident to have the mats purchased and installed by Labour Weekend, in time for summer!" David Hayes, back left,, Julie Hayes, Mel Gearon, Barb Young, Bill Young, Gary Always, Jessica Harris, Marion Gattung, Demian Dunlop, Theresa Gattung, Peter Church, Trudi Gatland, Cindy Clare, Tai MacCalman, front left, and Dave MacCalman. Photo: Cassandra Sharp Photography. The key sponsors of this initiative are: LJ Hooker Waihi Beach, The Gattung Family, Andrews House Movers, Waihi Beach RSA, Bee NZ, Waihi Beach Contractors, The Gatland Family, Bill & Barb Young, Flat White Cafe, Hikaka Investigations, Maurice Trapp Group, Athenree Holiday Park, Threads of Mayhem, Waihi Beach Surf Club and Waihi Beach Community Events & Promotions. There are beach access mats at Mount Maunganui, Takapuna and Days Beach in Wellington. The Mount and Day Beach mats were paid for and managed by their council (Takapuna was donated by a family). However, the Waihi Beach community is driving this project and making it happen through it's own initiative and funding. Waihi Beach is a community of coasties who work hard to care for and protect their beach, but are equally passionate about ensuring that everyone can enjoy and experience our beach like they do! Now thats what you call community! Healthier, better tasting and more sustainability-focused varieties are the goals of the new 50/50 joint venture Kiwifruit Breeding Centre that opens its doors this week. The Kiwifruit Breeding Centre, dubbed the Centre, has been established by Plant & Food Research and Zespri to take their 30-year relationship of successful kiwifruit breeding to the next level. With about 45 staff, the Centre is based in Te Puke, and operates out of Kerikeri, Motueka and Mt Albert. It will also have a presence offshore in selected kiwifruit regions. The Centre will be jointly funded by Zespri and Plant & Food Research, a New Zealand Government-owned Crown Research Institute. The organisations will share royalties from any future commercialised new varieties. The Centres inaugural CEO Matt Glenn says he was drawn to the opportunity to lead an organisation focused on science and commercial success. The Centre will be key to the future success of New Zealands iconic kiwifruit industry. Plant & Food Research and Zespri have laid a very strong foundation. They now want us to spread our wings and develop new cultivars that will delight consumers all around the world. The Centre aims to extend New Zealands position as the worlds leading innovator in kiwifruit. Experienced agrifood and innovation sector director Michael Ahie is Chair of the Kiwifruit Centre Board. Ahie is Chancellor of Massey University and a former Chair of Plant & Food Research. This October, Kiwis around the country will take the fashion rulebook and throw it out the window. Clashing prints, colours and patterns will be proudly displayed around the country in efforts to get LOUD for children and adults with profound hearing loss who access sound through cochlear implants. Loud Shirt Day is back! The annual fundraising event returns on Friday, October 29, to encourage Kiwis to raise vital funds for The Hearing House and the Southern Cochlear Implant Programme the only two charities in New Zealand dedicated to helping children and adults with cochlear implants learn to listen and communicate. Hearing loss can impact anyone at any time and cochlear implants change lives the impact of this technology is profound, says Dr Claire Green, Chief Executive at The Hearing House. It couldnt be easier to show your support and help us continue to provide our life-changing services. Just put on the very loudest shirt you own and encourage your friends, whanau and co-workers to do the same to raise much-needed funds for Loud Shirt Day 2021! Getting involved can be as simple as making a donation. Individuals can bring a gold coin to take part in a loud dress-up day at school, businesses might hold a themed lunch, host a fashion show at daycare, or get the whole town/community immersed in fundraising. You can even text LOUD to 305 and donate $3 to Loud Shirt Day to support all New Zealanders who access sound through cochlear implants A cochlear implant is a surgically-implanted electronic device that restores hearing for those with profound hearing loss. Hearing loss can be genetic but is also caused by infections and viruses. A cochlear implant is often the last and only viable treatment to give a person access to sound. Public funding gives recipients access to cochlear implant technology but both charities depend on donations to deliver specialised support throughout each recipients lifetime. All children accepted as candidates for cochlear implantation in both ears receive full public funding. The Government's 2021 Wellbeing Budget increased the baseline funding for adult implants per year throughout the country from 40 to 120. The procedure isnt covered by health insurance. The funding will dramatically reduce our waiting lists, which currently have 200 adults across the country accepted for and awaiting surgery, says Neil Heslop, Chief Executive of the Southern Cochlear Implant programme. Its an indescribable feeling for our patients having their cochlear implants switched on for the very first time, he says. However, the switch on is only the beginning of a persons journey to access sound with cochlear implants. Recipients require intensive specialised support and therapy as they learn to process sound through their cochlear implants, and depend on our services throughout their lives, says Dr Green. As our largest fundraising event of the year, Loud Shirt Day is critical to this work across both SCIP and The Hearing House. If youre ready to get loud, enrol now as a team, individual, workplace, school or community at https://www.loudshirtdaynz.org/register. For updates, follow Loud Shirt Day on Facebook or Instagram #GetLoud2021 There are 44 new community cases today. The Ministry of Health reports 20 of these are household contacts, 12 are known contacts, and 12 remain unlinked with investigations continuing to determine how they are linked to the current outbreak. "We acknowledge todays numbers are higher than recent days. This is not unexpected because there have been a number of contacts of new cases and we can expect to get fluctuations from day to day," says Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay. Of today's new cases, 41 are in Auckland and three are in Waikato. The total number of the community cases in this outbreak is now 1492. Waikato update The three new cases in Waikato are all linked and contacts of existing cases. Interviews are continuing to determine any further contacts or locations of interest. There continues to be a strong response to calls for testing in Waikato with 5180 swabs taken yesterday. There are seven pop up testing sites operating today at Claudelands, Te Rapa, Karapiro, Raglan, Huntly, Kawhia and Tokoroa, with extended hours to cater for demand. The existing testing centre at Founders Theatre is also open, says a statement from the Ministry of Health. "Further details on exact locations and hours of testing sites are available on the Healthpoint and Waikato DHB sites. "The Ministry of Health urges anyone in the Waikato with any symptoms that could be Covid-19 to get a test. "Waikato turned out in record numbers yesterday to get vaccinated with 10,397 doses given, with large increases seen in rural areas. "This equates to a four per cent increase in first doses across the Waikato in one day. 77 per cent of people in the Waikato have now received their first dose and 52 per cent are fully vaccinated. A big thank you to everyone who came forward." Alert levels for the whole of the Waikato will be reviewed again on Monday. Update on Auckland case who travelled to Northland The case reported last night, who recently travelled to Northland, was last night transferred to an Auckland quarantine facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE, says the Ministry. The case was under investigation after returning a weak positive result from a test in Whangarei earlier this week and yesterday returned a positive test result in Auckland. "Public health staff are continuing investigations to identify whether there are any locations of interest or exposure events associated with the case. "In some instances, a location of interest may not be listed on our website. This doesnt mean no actions have been taken around tracing the movements of a case. The focus of publishing locations of interest is on locations where contact tracers dont have a good idea of who was there at the relevant time, like bars and supermarkets. "For some locations of interest, like personal appointments, we have a good understanding of who was there at the relevant time and an effective means of contacting those people via existing communication channels and networks. These situations are closely managed by contact tracers, who may determine that the location does not need to be added to the list published online. "Contact tracers are often dealing with people who are stressed and some people can find it difficult to recall where theyve been, when they are under pressure." Locations of interest are added to the Ministrys website as quickly as possible. We ask people to check these regularly, especially if you have visited, or live in Auckland, Waikato or Northland. Northland testing centres There are four testing centres operating in the Northland region. These are at Kaitaia Hospital; 1 Sammaree Place in Kerikeri, Dargaville Hospital; 20 Winger Crescent in Kamo; and Pohe Island in Whangarei. Possible exposure event at Middlemore Hospital Counties Manukau DHB has advised the Ministry of Health of two possible Covid-19 exposure events at Middlemore Hospital, both from the same patient. On Monday, October 4, the patient presented to the Emergency Department for a non-Covid related issue where they stayed until they were assessed and discharged. They answered no to all screening questions and were asymptomatic. The patient again presented to ED on Thursday, October 7. "Following discussion with medical staff, the patient was isolated, tested and moved to a negative pressure room. They subsequently returned a positive result," says the MOH. "Although asymptomatic on their first visit ARPHS has determined that their infectious period encompasses this date and as such are acting out of an abundance of caution in identifying potential contacts. "As of this morning 42 patients and 18 visitors have been identified as contacts. "No staff are required to stand down as they were wearing the appropriate PPE. While there have been a number of exposure events at Middlemore, this is not unexpected as there are a number of subclusters in South Auckland, for which Middlemore is the local hospital." See below for a full breakdown of today's numbers: Cases Number of new community cases 44 Number of new cases identified at the border Three Location of new community cases Auckland (41) Waikato (3) Location of community cases (total) Auckland 1,450 (1,068 of whom have recovered); Waikato 25; Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered) Number of community cases (total) 1,492 (in current community outbreak) Cases infectious in the community 17 of yesterdays 29 cases have exposure events Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious 12 of yesterdays 29 cases Cases epidemiologically linked 32 of todays 44 cases Cases to be epidemiologically linked of todays 44 cases. Cases epidemiologically linked (total) 1,444 (in the current cluster) (26 unlinked from the past 14 days) Number of sub-clusters 16 epidemiologically linked subclusters. Of these, six are active, one is contained and nine are dormant. There are 14 epidemiologically unlinked subclusters. Of these, five are active, none are contained and nine are dormant. Cases in hospital 25 (total): North Shore (2); Middlemore (12); Auckland (10); Waikato Base Hospital (1) Cases in ICU or HDU Five Confirmed cases (total) 4,169 since pandemic began Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) 166 out of 2,353 since 1 Jan 2021 Contacts Number of active contacts being managed (total): 1,749 Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) 77% Percentage with at least one test result 74% Locations of interest Locations of interest (total) 206 (as at 10am 8 October) Tests Number of tests (total) 3,543,083 Number of tests total (last 24 hours) 29,925 Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours) 10,439 Tests rolling average (last 7 days) 20,797 Testing centres in Auckland 22 Wastewater Wastewater detections No unexpected detections in the last 24 hours COVID-19 vaccine update Vaccines administered to date (total) 5,621,078; 1st doses: 3,400,749; 2nd doses: 2,220,329 Vaccines administered yesterday (total) 82,303; 1st doses: 19,705; 2nd doses: 62,598 Maori 1st doses: 336,832; 2nd doses: 198,104 Pacific Peoples 1st doses: 214,878; 2nd doses: 136,202 Vaccines administered to Auckland residents to date (total) 2,044,163: 1st doses: 1,226,962 (86%); 2nd doses: 817,201 (57%) Vaccines administered to Auckland residents yesterday (total) 26,277: 1st doses: 4,638; 2nd doses: 21,639 NZ COVID-19 tracer Registered users (total) 3,281,845 Poster scans (total) 414,678,519 Manual diary entries (total) 17,799,538 Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday 2,539,723 New case identified at the border Arrival date From Via Positive test day/reason Managed isolation/quarantine location 24 September China Full travel history to be confirmed Day 12 / routine Auckland 5 October Russia Singapore Day 0 / routine Christchurch 7 October Full travel history to be confirmed Qatar Day 0 / routine Auckland However, The Doctors Tauranga on Devonport Road say they follow all public health guidelines and offer free testing when cases meet Ministry of Health guidelines. Following a positive wastewater test in Tauranga on Tuesday, September, 28, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield implored residents in the greater Tauranga area who were symptomatic or had been at any locations of interest to get tested for Covid-19. However, one resident says he was actively put off getting a test by a medical centre in the city. He claims, despite being informed to get tested by Healthline, staff at The Doctors Tauranga told him his symptoms did not align with Covid and if he wanted a test he would need to pay for it. He suggests a staff member at the centre was rude and diminished his symptoms making him embarrassed to have presented in the first place. I was told I had to pay, he says. I went elsewhere. With Covid approaching our region and after the wastewater test I assumed they would be happy to give tests to anyone who suspected they might have it but that was not the case. The issue appears to have continued. A number of negative reviews on Google have also highlighted the same problem over the past week. One user says a member of staff at the centre is actively trying to discourage people from getting Covid tests. Another, details how they had to go to another location to get tested. A staff member discouraged me to get a Covid swab, says the complainant. I told her she isn't a health care professional and maybe she shouldn't be making those calls. The reviewer says they eventually had their test elsewhere because the receptionist wouldn't book them in. They are now looking for a new GP. The Doctors Tauranga say they follow public health advice and guidelines at all times and make alterations when information changes or when locations of interest become important to the practice and patient population, as recently seen in the Waikato outbreak. We encourage testing for all our patients with Covid-19 symptoms, says The Doctors acting regional business manager Wendy Dillon. Following public health guidelines, we encourage testing of non-symptomatic patients when locations of interest come into play and these guidelines change. Testing is free when it meets the Ministry of Health Case Definition. The Doctors Tauranga say they follow all public health guidelines. Image. Google Maps. The Doctors say they also do their best to accommodate unenrolled patients. At least one of the individuals displeased with their treatment is not enrolled at the centre but found their details on the Healthpoint website advising testing locations. We prioritise appointments and healthcare for our enrolled patients, says Wendy. We welcome casual patients and do our very best every day to provide them the best care and advice possible. Another person who asked for a test at the centre, although without symptoms, says they were also told they would need to pay for a swab. On this occasion, The Doctors Tauranga appear to have followed official advice on patients who present without symptoms and without direction from Healthline or another health official. However, the person in question still believes staff at the practice were "off-putting" regarding a Covid test at a time of extreme caution. Official advice on the Ministry of Health website is that testing for Covid-19 is free if a person has symptoms or has been directed to take a test by a health official. They are also free if crossing an Alert Level boundary. Testing is not free if youre seeking a Covid-19 test to travel to another country. Medical Officer of Health for Toi Te Ora Public Health Dr Phil Shoemack details the criteria for people who should present for a Covid-19 test. Anyone who has visited a location of interest as listed on the Ministry of Health website should follow the advice on the website, he says. In some instances, that will include presenting for a Covid-19 swab. Additionally, anyone with even the mildest symptoms who has recently visited a Waikato town where cases have been confirmed is urged to please get a test today, even if they havent been to a location of interest. Whilst he states that individuals without symptoms do not require a test he also makes it clear that people being turned away from testing should not be the norm. Individuals who are totally asymptomatic, and who have not travelled out of the local area, are not required to be tested, he explains. " Anyone who presents for testing, however, should not be turned away. The MOH advises if you have symptoms consistent with Covid-19, such as cold or flu symptoms, you should contact Healthline or your doctor to find out if you need a test. If they agree you should be tested for Covid-19. Making it complicated THE EURO ZONE The investigation is about to be shelved as alleged misdemeanors occurred when Juan Carlos, as reigning monarch, had legal immunity According to the Pandora Papers - an international journalistic investigation into offshore activities by the world's rich and powerful - Corinna Larsen named Spain's former king Juan Carlos as a beneficiary, in case of her death, of an initiative set up in 2006 called the Spanish-Saudi Investment Fund (SSIF). The latest development, which apparently shows that Larsen made plans in 2007 for Juan Carlos to receive 30% of the fund's income, raises questions about the true purpose of the Spanish-Saudi concord: was it merely a front for offshore finances, or genuinely intended to improve infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and North Africa? A former government minister involved in setting up the SSIF has told El Pais newspaper that it collapsed in 2010 because Saudi Arabia wasn't providing sufficient funds. But cash wasn't a problem in 2008, when the Saudi royal household transferred 100 million US dollars to a Swiss bank account held by a Panamanian company called Lucum, the key beneficiary of which was Juan Carlos. The emeritus monarch is then said to have transferred 65 million of this to Larsen in 2012, who then used part of the money to purchase and refurbish apartments in London and Switzerland. Was this money laundering, or entirely legitimate use of a very generous gift? The question arises - if the Spanish-Saudi Investment Fund was meant for developing infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and North Africa, to the mutual benefit of recipient countries and Spanish lenders, then why was 100 million dollars donated by the Saudi royal household to a private account linked to a Panama firm of which Juan Carlos was the prime beneficiary? It was the multi-layered complexity surrounding this mysterious payment that aroused the suspicions of Swiss and Spanish tax authorities: the fact that the money wasn't declared in Spain, that the SSIF was registered in the ultra tax-competitive Channel Islands and that the Saudis, supposedly unable to meet their end of the original financing deal, nevertheless made a 100 million dollar payment to Juan Carlos via Panama and Switzerland, a chunk of which was later transferred to Larsen. "Ah well," you might think, "this was such a long time ago. Does it really matter anymore?" This is the main reason why Spanish investigators are apparently preparing to shelve their enquiries into the country's former king, citing the statute of limitations and the fact that the alleged misdemeanors occurred when Juan Carlos, as reigning monarch, had legal immunity. The key point is that no one had a clue what was going on at the time, that no one even suspected anything untoward was happening when Juan Carlos was on the throne. And that's why the offshore finance industry - a shadowy realm in which opacity and complexity are the key commodities - is such big business. Spain's Health Minister hints that indoor face mask rules will not be eased until spring The department fears a wave of influenza cases this winter, which could complicate the healthcare situation The Ministry of Health in Spain is not yet considering dropping the existing mandatory wearing of face masks in indoor spaces, although the departments head, Carolina Darias hinted this Friday (8 October) that it is unlikely it would happen before spring. Darias, however, expressly avoided giving a date and called for patience, despite the improvement in the coronavirus pandemic figures and the fact that Spain returned to a Covid-19 'low risk' zone yesterday after the cumulative incidence rate fell below 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants after some 14 months. The head of the Ministry of Health suggested that remaining coronavirus control measures would be eased "little by little". She warned that now, when the autumn "respiratory viruses" arrive, the healthcare situation could be complicated, especially if the mandatory wearing of face masks in some situations is relaxed. Wave of flu Darias said, "Indoors we are going to continue with [masks]," and added that they would see how the pandemic, which is declining thanks "to vaccination", develops. The great fear of the ministry is that this autumn and winter a strong wave of influenza will be unleashed after the relaxation of the Covid measures. This year cases of flu in Spain reached historical lows, mainly thanks to the widespread use of masks. Current Print Subscribers will be prompted to either login to their current site user account or to create a new one. A confirmation email will be sent when a new user account is created, which must be confirmed within three days in order to provide uninterrupted online access through your Print Subscription. Once the email address is confirmed please provide your Account Number to activate your Print Subscription Service. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. Our Most Popular Magazines + Digital We get it. You live by the Ski Valleys snow report even when youre hours away. You follow every Taos post on Instagram. Our small town occupies a BIG part of your heart. Keep in touch with all things Taos when you subscribe to FIVE of our national award-winning magazines, plus access to the website and e-edition for a full year at the special low rate of just $55. dragracer567 BHPian Join Date: Aug 2019 Location: Barcelona Posts: 443 Thanked: 1,930 Times What if? An exercise in alternate automotive history of India This got me thinking, why don't we do the same for the automotive world? As in, what if at various points in automotive history, different decisions were made by car-makers or different events had played out that would've radically transformed the industry today. Here are a couple of topics off the top of my head: ******* 1) What if Maruti had partnered with VW instead of Suzuki? The decision to partner with Maruti was probably the wisest decision that Suzuki had ever made. India is right now, Suzuki's largest market by a fair margin and is a juggernaut of the Indian car industry with a market share of 40-50%. Effectively, apart from Japan, India remains the only market where Suzuki is a dominant player with fellow Japanese car maker Toyota dominating the rest of the world. However, Suzuki wasn't always destined to enter the Indian market so early. Infact, VW was the first car manufacturer to be approached for a potential partnership which eventually didn't materialize for some reason (perhaps senior Bhp-ians could explain why). But had VW been the chosen partner, the Indian automotive market would've been unrecognizable. For one, Maruti-VW wouldn't have been as dominating as Maruti-Suzuki is now given the different business culture that the Germans would've brought over as compared to the Japanese Zaibatsu culture of giant conglomerates. Maruti under VW would've been less monopolistic and we'd have much higher competition in the car market with other manufacturers getting a bigger share of the pie and the market composition (not size) would be fairly similar to the Chinese market today where VW was an early entrant as well. If that's the case, Ford probably won't have left India but GM probably would, given their shattered reputation towards the end due to selling rebadged SAIC cars. A bigger available market share would mean than Japanese Companies like Toyota would bring in their entire global portfolio and might even be the largest car maker in India piping Maruti-VW. The Tatas and Mahindras will have a harder time competing with global products being launched in India much earlier, keep in mind that the Safari and Scorpio became so popular initially because they had no global competitors. Coming to Suzuki, it would be a much smaller and niche player globally without the Indian market to soak up so many of its products and it would probably have left the US market much earlier. Also, given the low margins, its likely that modern Suzuki cars like Swift, Ignis and Baleno would never have been developed. Either Suzuki would've evolved as a company that makes larger cars akin to Nissan/Mazda or would've gone extinct in most markets like Mitsubishi. 2) What if Porsche never made the Cayenne? This is a fairly easy one to theorize. The Cayenne effectively saved Porsche making it one of the richest car manufacturers around. So, would Porsche have survived without the Cayenne? It probably would have survived given just how popular the brand is all over the world. If the brand survived on its own, it would probably have stayed on in a similar vein to Maserati or Aston Martin with a small market share and products that are of a lower quality to its German rivals. We would probably still have a 911 but without the profits that the Cayenne and Macan brought in, it would be a much more lower quality product similar to the last gen Astons. Another possibility is that VW would've absorbed the brand much earlier circa 2004-05 when VW was on a purchasing spree. If this is the case, Porsche would've survived and made top-end cars but these would be more VW clones than the Porsche of today (speaking of which, Porsche would probably have made an SUV in the early 2010s on the Q7/Touareg platfom). While the modern Cayenne and Q7 share the same platform, the Cayenne till has its own identity but if Porsche was absorbed by VW at a position of weakness (and not a position of strength like in our timeline), Porsche wouldn't have been able to retain its identity as say Lamborghini was able to due to its Italian heritage. More importantly, there wouldn't be a sport-SUV market. The super-fast and good-handling SUV trend started with the Cayenne, so there would be no ML63 AMG, no BMW X5/X6 M, no Urus, no Ferrari/Aston Martin/Maserati SUVs. Rather SUVs would probably have remained benign cross-overs with the thought of 'fast, good handling SUVs' still being considered oxymoronic. ******* Offcourse, many of you may disagree with my postulations and might have your own theories on how these alternate histories might've played out. Please do share if you can think of any such alternate history scenarios in the automotive world, I'll share more in due time in this thread as well. Alternate history is one of the most interesting niche genres around, it gives you an insight into what the world could've been if one event/decision had changed in history. Offcourse, we've all thought about how our life would have been if we had attended a certain university or accepted a certain job for example. There are also some very interesting literature on this genre with Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle bring amongst my favourite. I also religiously follow Youtube channels that postulate various alternate history scenarios (Alternate History Hub, Monsieur Z, whatifalthist etc).This got me thinking, why don't we do the same for the automotive world? As in, what if at various points in automotive history, different decisions were made by car-makers or different events had played out that would've radically transformed the industry today. Here are a couple of topics off the top of my head:*******The decision to partner with Maruti was probably the wisest decision that Suzuki had ever made. India is right now, Suzuki's largest market by a fair margin and is a juggernaut of the Indian car industry with a market share of 40-50%. Effectively, apart from Japan, India remains the only market where Suzuki is a dominant player with fellow Japanese car maker Toyota dominating the rest of the world.However, Suzuki wasn't always destined to enter the Indian market so early. Infact, VW was the first car manufacturer to be approached for a potential partnership which eventually didn't materialize for some reason (perhaps senior Bhp-ians could explain why). But had VW been the chosen partner, the Indian automotive market would've been unrecognizable. For one, Maruti-VW wouldn't have been as dominating as Maruti-Suzuki is now given the different business culture that the Germans would've brought over as compared to the Japanese Zaibatsu culture of giant conglomerates. Maruti under VW would've been less monopolistic and we'd have much higher competition in the car market with other manufacturers getting a bigger share of the pie and the market composition (not size) would be fairly similar to the Chinese market today where VW was an early entrant as well. If that's the case, Ford probably won't have left India but GM probably would, given their shattered reputation towards the end due to selling rebadged SAIC cars. A bigger available market share would mean than Japanese Companies like Toyota would bring in their entire global portfolio and might even be the largest car maker in India piping Maruti-VW. The Tatas and Mahindras will have a harder time competing with global products being launched in India much earlier, keep in mind that the Safari and Scorpio became so popular initially because they had no global competitors.Coming to Suzuki, it would be a much smaller and niche player globally without the Indian market to soak up so many of its products and it would probably have left the US market much earlier. Also, given the low margins, its likely that modern Suzuki cars like Swift, Ignis and Baleno would never have been developed. Either Suzuki would've evolved as a company that makes larger cars akin to Nissan/Mazda or would've gone extinct in most markets like Mitsubishi.This is a fairly easy one to theorize. The Cayenne effectively saved Porsche making it one of the richest car manufacturers around. So, would Porsche have survived without the Cayenne? It probably would have survived given just how popular the brand is all over the world. If the brand survived on its own, it would probably have stayed on in a similar vein to Maserati or Aston Martin with a small market share and products that are of a lower quality to its German rivals. We would probably still have a 911 but without the profits that the Cayenne and Macan brought in, it would be a much more lower quality product similar to the last gen Astons.Another possibility is that VW would've absorbed the brand much earlier circa 2004-05 when VW was on a purchasing spree. If this is the case, Porsche would've survived and made top-end cars but these would be more VW clones than the Porsche of today (speaking of which, Porsche would probably have made an SUV in the early 2010s on the Q7/Touareg platfom). While the modern Cayenne and Q7 share the same platform, the Cayenne till has its own identity but if Porsche was absorbed by VW at a position of weakness (and not a position of strength like in our timeline), Porsche wouldn't have been able to retain its identity as say Lamborghini was able to due to its Italian heritage.More importantly, there wouldn't be a sport-SUV market. The super-fast and good-handling SUV trend started with the Cayenne, so there would be no ML63 AMG, no BMW X5/X6 M, no Urus, no Ferrari/Aston Martin/Maserati SUVs. Rather SUVs would probably have remained benign cross-overs with the thought of 'fast, good handling SUVs' still being considered oxymoronic.*******Offcourse, many of you may disagree with my postulations and might have your own theories on how these alternate histories might've played out.Please do share if you can think of any such alternate history scenarios in the automotive world, I'll share more in due time in this thread as well. Skype allows users to communicate with peers by voice using a microphone, video by using a webcam, and instant messaging over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones are charged via a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features, including file transfer, and videoconferencing. Microsoft and Facebook Account Integration Sign up and sign-in is easier than ever. You can now sign into Skype using your Microsoft or Facebook account - there's no need to create a new Skype account. This makes it even easier to connect with friends on Skype without having to set up another account. IM friends on Messenger Now you can instant message your Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail and Outlook.com contacts via Skype all in one place. If you use a Microsoft account today, merging your accounts is easy - just sign in to Skype with your Microsoft account. Calling with Messenger friends is coming soon We're working on polishing a feature which will enable audio and video calls to Windows Live Messenger customers using Skype desktop clients. The feature will be available in coming weeks. Skype localized to six more languages We are excited to support our growing community around the world with new localized versions of Skype in Thai, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Catalan and Slovak, bringing the total languages Skype supports to 38. Visual user interface refresh We have refreshed and flattened the Skype UI with a simpler and less cluttered look. We have updated the look of the instant messaging and SMS areas as well. Removal of online user count We have removed the online user counter at the bottom of your Skype Contacts list to unclutter the UI and make more space for your friends within the contacts list. Display previously created profile pictures When you change your profile picture, we will now show you all of your previous Skype profile pictures so you don't have to look through old files if you want to use a previous image. Improved telemetry We are constantly looking for ways to improve the quality of our product. To that end we are adding additional "opt-in" telemetry reports for users who choose this option: "Tools>> Options>>Advanced>>Tick "Help improve Skype..." The reports may contain your Skype ID and or Microsoft Account ID but we will not use it to identify or contact you. What's New: Improved chat experience For the last year weve dedicated a lot of time to refresh the chat experience in Skype. Weve brought more improvements to the desktop. Photos in your new Skype for Windows and Mac apps show up as youd expect, beautifully displayed for your instant viewing. On Windows, theres more spacing between contacts and chats, as well as message previews for unread chats, making it even easier to follow conversations. Chat and call simultaneously with one click People love multi-tasking. Many of you already exchange IMs while on a live call today. With the new side-by-side design, you can effortlessly multi-task on a voice or video call. On Mac, it only takes one click. Share messages, photos or files for a more active conversation together, without ever leaving your call. Free group video calls Skype loves bringing groups togetherso, last but not least, the free group video calls we previously announced work better than ever on the redesigned Skype for Mac and Windows. The JDK is the Java Development Kit, the full-featured SDK for Java. It has everything the JRE has, but also the compiler (javac) and tools (like javadoc and jdb). It is capable of creating and compiling programs. The new Oracle Technology Network License Agreement for Oracle Java SE is substantially different from prior Oracle JDK licenses. The new license permits certain uses, such as personal use and development use, at no cost -- but other uses authorized under prior Oracle JDK licenses may no longer be available. Sometimes, even if you are not planning to do any Java development on a computer, you still need the JDK installed. For example, if you are deploying a web application with JSP, you are technically just running Java programs inside the application server. Why would you need the JDK then? Because the application server will convert JSP into Java servlets and needs to use the JDK to compile the servlets. What's New: Oracle today announced the availability of Java 17, the latest version of the worlds number one programming language and development platform. Java 17 delivers thousands of performance, stability, and security updates, as well as 14 JEPs (JDK Enhancement Proposals) that further improve the Java language and platform to help developers be more productive. Java 17 is the latest long-term support (LTS) release under Javas six-month release cadence and is the result of extensive collaboration between Oracle engineers and other members of the worldwide Java developer community via the OpenJDK Community and the Java Community Process (JCP). Since the previous JDK 11 LTS released three years ago, over 70 JEPs have been implemented. Offering a Simpler License Oracle JDK 17 and future JDK releases are provided under a free-to-use license until a full year after the next LTS release. Oracle will also continue providing Oracle OpenJDK releases under the open-source General Public License (GPL), as it has since 2017. Enhancing Long-Term Support for Customers Oracle is collaborating with the Java developer community and the JCP on enhancing LTS scheduling to give organizations more flexibility on when, or if, they want to migrate to a newer Java LTS version. Oracle is proposing that the next LTS release should be Java 21 and made available in September 2023, which will change the ongoing LTS release cadence from three years to two years. Backed by the Oracle LTS and Java SE Subscription, customers can migrate to Java 17 at the pace that best meets their needs. Oracle will provide customers with security, performance, and bug-fix updates for Java 17 through at least September 2029. Over the last three years weve heard how much developers love the latest features, and weve seen the ecosystem truly embrace the six-month release cadence, said Georges Saab, vice president of development, Java Platform Group, Oracle. One of the biggest challenges Java developers face today is that their organization only allows them to use the latest LTS release. By moving LTS releases to every two years, developers that are with conservative organizations now have more choice and access to the features that they love and want to use. Oracle is making changes that will significantly benefit the Java community by shifting the long-term support releases to a two-year cadence and introducing a new, more relaxed license that provides free production use of Oracle JDK for an extended time, said Dr. Arnal Dayaratna, research vice president, Software Development at IDC. These changes will give organizations greater flexibility in managing the complexity of modern application development and deployments in the cloud, on-premises, and in hybrid environments. Accelerating Javas Adoption in the Cloud Java is one of the most successful development platforms ever and is built on continuous innovation that address the evolving needs of developers. To accelerate Java adoption in the cloud, Oracle recently introduced the Oracle Java Management Service, a new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)-native service to help organizations manage Java runtimes and applications on-premises or on any cloud. Java Management Service gives customers visibility into their Java deployments across the enterprise. This spans all of the Java versions installed in their environment, including versions of Java running in development and in production. It also highlights any unplanned Java applications running and checks if all installed Java versions are up to date with the latest security patches. JDK 17 includes new language enhancements, updates to the libraries, support for new Apple computers, removals and deprecations of legacy features, and work to ensure Java code written today will continue working without change in future JDK versions. It also offers a language feature preview and incubating APIs to gather feedback from the Java community. Updates include: Java Language Enhancement JEP 409: Sealed Classes Sealed classes and interfaces restrict which other classes or interfaces may extend or implement them. This enhancement is yet another improvement from Project Amber, which aims to increase developer productivity by evolving the Java language. Updates and Improvements to Libraries JEP 306: Restore Always-Strict Floating-Point Semantics The Java programming language and Java virtual machine originally only had strict floating-point semantics. Starting in Java 1.2, small variances in those strict semantics were allowed by default to accommodate limitations of then-current hardware architectures. Those variances are no longer helpful or necessary, so they have been removed by JEP 306. JEP 356: Enhanced Pseudo-Random Number Generator Provides new interface types and implementations for pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs). This change improves the interoperability of different PRNGs and makes it easy to request an algorithm based on requirements rather than hard coding a specific implementation. JEP 382: New macOS Rendering Pipeline Implements a Java 2D pipeline for macOS using the Apple Metal API. The new pipeline will reduce the JDKs dependency on the deprecated Apple OpenGL API. New Platform Support JEP 391: macOS AArch64 Port Ports the JDK to the macOS/AArch64 platform. This port will allow Java applications to run natively on the new Arm 64-based Apple Silicon computers. Removals and Deprecations JEP 398: Deprecate the Applet API for Removal All web-browser vendors have either removed support for Java browser plug-ins or announced plans to do so. The Applet API was deprecated, but not for removal, in Java 9 in September 2017. JEP 407: Remove RMI Activation Removes the Remote Method Invocation (RMI) Activation mechanism, while preserving the rest of RMI. JEP 410: Remove the Experimental AOT and JIT Compiler The experimental Java-based ahead-of-time (AOT) and just-in-time (JIT) compiler were experimental features that did not see much adoption. Being optional, they were already removed from JDK 16. This JEP removes these components from the JDK source code. JEP 411: Deprecate the Security Manager for Removal The Security Manager dates back to Java 1.0. It has not been the primary means of securing client-side Java code for many years, and it has rarely been used to secure server-side code. Removing it in a future release will eliminate a significant maintenance burden and enable the Java platform to move forward. Future Proofing Java Programs JEP 403: Strongly Encapsulate JDK Internals It will no longer be possible to relax the strong encapsulation of internal elements via a single command-line option, as was possible in JDK 9 through JDK 16. It will still be possible to access existing internal APIs, but it will now require enumerating, as command-line parameters or JAR-file manifest attributes, each package for which encapsulation should be relaxed. This change will lead to more secure applications and fewer dependencies on non-standard, internal JDK implementation details. Previews and Incubators for Later JDK Releases According to Grist, Microsoft plans to study how increasing access to information and parts for repairing its devices can reduce its carbon footprint. It intends to act on its findings before the end of 2022. That means making repair instruction manuals and parts available outside Microsoft's own authorized repair network. Microsoft reached an agreement with the nonprofit shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, which focuses on environmental and social corporate responsibility. In June, As You Sow filed a shareholder resolution criticizing Microsoft's device reparability restrictions while Microsoft pledged to reduce its carbon footprint. The argument behind the resolution is that electronic waste is a critical environmental issue and that if consumers are more easily able to repair their devices, they'll throw them away less often. This week, Microsoft announced it would increase the reparability of its devices in apparent support of the "Right to Repair" movement. Microsoft agreed with a shareholder advocacy group on apparently environmental grounds. Many companies in recent years have been criticized for only allowing certain vendors to repair the devices they sell, Apple being a primary example. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently expressed support for Right to Repaira movement maintaining that manufacturers make it easier for customers to repair the products they buy themselves or make repair materials easier for third-party vendors to acquire. The filing from As You Sow criticizes Microsoft's lobbying against federal Right to Repair bills in the US in the past. iFixit told Grist that shareholder resolutions, like the one from As You Sow, have been effectiveness in prompting climate action. "We've seen shareholder resolutions become a significant tool for climate activists," iFixit US policy director Kerry Sheehan said. "We're seeing it get adopted in the repair context as well in part because these are very connected." In brief: Microsoft says Russia is the source for a majority of the nation-state cyberattacks observed in the past year, followed by North Korea, Iran, and China. In its latest Digital Defense Report, the company highlights trends in cybercriminal activity, which is growing in scale and sophistication with each passing month. Cyberattacks are on the rise, and Microsoft says Russian state-sponsored hackers are responsible for more campaigns that all other nations combined. The company's Digital Defense Report this year draws from a large data pool and brings into focus a number of trends in cybercrime, supply chain security, hybrid work, disinformation, and nation-state malicious activity such as data breaches and ransomware attacks. In the report, Microsoft corporate vice president of customer security and trust Tom Burt says no less than 58 percent of all cyberattacks observed by the company between July 2020 and June 2021 came from Russia alone. Not only that, but attacks coming from this region are increasingly effective -- almost one in three are successful at compromising the security of the target organizations or population group. More than half of the attacks performed by Russian nation-state actors seem to be directed at government agencies and medical institutions for intelligence gathering in the areas of foreign policy and national security. The most targeted countries were the US, the UK, and Ukraine. Almost all of the remaining volume of nation-state activity was observed as coming from China, Iran, and North Korea. China is widely blamed for the SolarWinds and Exchange Server attacks, but it also has some of the most talented white hat hackers in the world. Some Chinese actors such as CHROMIUM have been observed targeting neighboring countries for insights into their investments, negotiations, and economic resilience plans. Others like NICKEL have done the same with government agencies in Europe as well as Central and South America. Iranian hacker groups worked with Russian hackers to undermine the US presidential elections last year. Microsoft's report notes that more recently, Iran has greatly intensified its cyberattacks on Israel amid heightened tensions between the two countries. North Korea has a long history of attacking cryptocurrency exchanges and mining operations to extract funds for its weapons program. However, as the pandemic hit the country's already fragile economy, North Korean hackers from the notorious LAZARUS group turned to skimming card details from online shoppers and social engineering campaigns that target security researchers. Overall, almost 80 percent of nation-state activity targeted enterprise and government organizations. Over the past three years, Microsoft has alerted its customers no less than 20,500 times about attempts from malicious actors to breach their systems. The Redmond company is only one of many companies in the broader security community, so its visibility is limited to a portion of all cyberattacks. Ransomware attacks have also been getting worse, as the operators of these campaigns have gotten bolder over the past year. Some of you may recall the Colonial Pipeline attack from earlier this year, which has triggered a strong governmental response. However, Microsoft notes the top five sectors targeted by ransomware campaigns are consumer retail (13 percent), financial services (12 percent), government (11 percent), manufacturing (12 percent) and health care (nine percent). It also doesn't help that the "cybercrime-as-a-service" economy has rapidly evolved into a sprawling online marketplace where anyone -- even the less technically inclined among us -- can purchase ransomware kits for as little as $66. Then you have suppliers of compromised user credentials for a variety of services or organizations selling for anywhere between $1 and $50 per set, and sometimes much more depending on the perceived value of the victim. This is all facilitated by a diverse ecosystem of cryptocurrency escrow services that act as brokers between buyers and sellers. That has led the US Justice Department to form a new cryptocurrency enforcement team that will deal with criminals who misuse digital tokens, which Microsoft says is a step in the right direction. Another positive trend is that governments and companies are establishing a closer relationship when it comes to reporting and dealing with cybersecurity incidents. Some countries are introducing and passing new laws that treat these incidents as a threat on national security. A notable example is that of the Netherlands, who will use intelligence as well as armed forces to respond to ransomware attacks -- a decision that will likely be mirrored by other countries in the coming years. Finally, Microsoft weighed in on the challenges of developing better security for an increasingly hybrid workforce. Many businesses are currently navigating the relatively unexplored waters of hybrid and remote work after being forced to move in this direction by the coronavirus pandemic. This created a wider attack surface for cybercriminals, but the risks can be mitigated by practicing fundamental cybersecurity hygiene. One of the recommended steps is to have everyone in your organization use multi-factor authentication, which is one of the cheapest layers of security you can add. Microsoft says this alone can prevent 98 percent of the attacks we see today, as someone who stole or bought credentials can't effectively use them to breach your network. The good news is that Microsoft has seen a 220 percent increase in multi-factor authentication usage across partner and client companies. The company does, however, note that we have a long way to go before organizations reach full adoption of stronger authentication methods. In context: The US government has asked chipmakers to be more transparent about what they do in an effort to expose bottlenecks in the supply chain. However, regulators are grasping at straws, as foundries are operating at full capacity and the only way to solve the current chip shortage is to build more manufacturing plants -- something that is already happening but will take years to fully materialize. Last month, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said during a Reuters interview that it was time for the government to become more aggressive in dealing with the ongoing chip shortage that is having a large impact on many industries and directly affecting thousands of US workers. Raimondo explained at the time the White House had sent a voluntary request for information to chipmakers in an effort to determine the bottlenecks in the supply chain and identify potential solutions to the challenges that lay ahead. She also warned that if companies don't answer the request, regulators are ready to use other tools to coerce them. The problem is that foundries like TSMC don't yet know how to respond to this request, or even whether or not they can. The company was asked to disclose a variety of details about what types of products it makes for its clients, inventory levels, lead times, as well as its relationships with suppliers and clients, expansion plans, and how it allocates the available production capacity. Sylvia Fang, who is TSMC's general counsel, told Nikkei "we will definitely not leak our company's sensitive information, especially that related to our customers." Fang said the company is currently evaluating the request to see how it may respond to it without compromising information that it deems confidential. TSMC is already doing its best to help companies that have low levels of chip inventory, and it even prioritized chips for automakers to some degree. Earlier this week, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said the situation is a lot more complex than it seems, and that some companies have been hoarding chips for months. As for increasing transparency, Fang says "customer trust is one of the key elements to our company's success," so the firm will be taking its time before it answers the US government's questionnaire. It also has the full support of the Taiwanese government, who is ready to step in "if our companies face unreasonable demands." Companies that were sent the questionnaire have until November 8 to answer voluntarily. Even if they do, it's not clear how the US government intends to solve a problem that is the result of a storm of factors, including stratospheric demand for chips, an energy crunch in China and Covid lockdowns in Malaysia that have led to factory shutdowns, plus increased prices for raw materials like silicon and rare earth metals. And let's not forget about the fact that chipmakers can't find enough skilled workers right now. (Photo : Pexels/Pixabay) Facebook app A man from Texas who posted on Facebook that he paid a COVID-19 patient to deliberately spread the virus at a grocery store in San Antonio, Texas, by licking items is now in prison. The man was sentenced to over a year in federal prison on Oct. 4. Texas Man Jailed Over COVID-19 Hoax The man was identified as Christopher Charles Perez, who also goes by the name Robbins. He was found guilty of two counts of making hoaxes by the federal jury, according to NBC News. According to the Justice Department, his hoaxes are connected to biological weapons. According to the documents, Perez posted on his Facebook account that his "homeboy's cousin has COVID-19" and that he has "licked everything for the past two days" because they paid him to. Perez also wrote that they told him not to record anything and post anything only, ending his post with a warning. Also Read: Facebook Misinformation Generates More Clicks Than Factual News [STUDY] The Southwest Texas Fusion Center received a screenshot of Perez's post last year. The center then called the FBI in San Antonio, which led to Perez's arrest, according to IFLS. The 40-year-old man told the FBI investigators that the post was a hoax and that he did not pay anyone to spread the virus. He said he wrote it because he thought too many people were still outside grocery shopping and attempted to scare them from the stores to stop them from spreading the virus and keep them safe. The court document stated that Perez said he did not know anyone who is positive of the coronavirus. Investigators also confirmed that the post was a hoax. However, U.S Attorney Ashley C. Hoff stated that Perez's attempt to scare people with the threat of spreading the virus is no joking matter, and he needs to be held accountable. Hoff stated in the statement that the federal court takes threats to harm the community seriously, and they will prosecute anyone who does so to the full extent of the law. FBI San Antonio Division Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs stated that those who would threaten to use the virus as a weapon against others would be held accountable for their actions. He said that it applies to hoaxes as well. Perez's post had spread fear and panic in his community. His sentencing shows that law enforcement is serious about COVID-19 and finds hoaxes about it as a crime. The FBI thanks the local law enforcement in Texas for their help in this case. Aside from being in prison for 15 months, he is also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, according to CBS News. COVID-19 Hoax Online Since the pandemic began last year, numerous social media platforms have been going the extra mile to stop the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19. Platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have shut down accounts that spread fear and misinformation about COVID-19. Earlier this year, Facebook changed the way that it recommended groups and had limited the reach of users that broke its rules. The move was made after the company was criticized for its lack of action against misinformation. In 2020 alone, Facebook removed more than 14 million posts regarding COVID-19 misinformation. The social media platforms continue to update their policies to ensure that they are clear of any harmful content. Related Article: Facebook Blocks COVID-19 Misinformation Researchers from NYU, Cuts off Access to Ad Library This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Sophie Webster 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Microsoft's "Right to Repair" focus is up, and the company is asking for time to research the potential effects it has, and it would be viable for its devices after it was asked for by organizations. It is known that the Right to Repair Act is already something that would be observed in all of the industries in the country, after avoiding it for a few years now. The Right to Repair law gives local or third-party shops the power, knowledge, and resources which they would need when diagnosing or repairing a gadget or object for a supposed customer. This would not necessarily void the warranty or have it rejected by the mother company, as they should be disclosing different ways on how to repair their devices. The Federal Trade Commission agrees with President Joe Biden for his recommendation to push the Right to Repair bill as a mandate. Microsoft's Right to Repair After several companies were grilled for their right to repair adherence, now is the time for Microsoft to own up to it, especially as people are already requesting it. Through Grist and As You Sow, Microsoft is reminded that they are to adhere to the supposed bill or law that would soon be approved to give people the chance to have their devices fixed. The Right to Repair can also give a person the power to fix their own devices, especially if they are confident and knowledgeable enough to open it up and do the fixing themselves. That being said, Microsoft is looking at its technology for its chance to soon debut the Right to Repair and have it available for all. Currently, Microsoft is investigating and studying the matter. This requires delicate research before it releases its guidelines, especially as it does not want to reveal trade secrets that they have. Read Also: Microsoft Laptop Sale October 2021: List of Models With Pre-Installed Windows 11 and Other Details! Deadline is Extended to 2022 for Findings That being said, the request by Grist and As You Sow has been appealed by Microsoft, and it is because they have set a deadline for themselves to deliver on the files that were initially requested. Microsoft has asked for the deadline to be at the end of 2022 for everything that is needed, and then people can proceed from there. Potentially, it would make the devices easier to repair, as well as give people specific guidelines that they can follow. Would it Bring it As Requested? It is unknown if Microsoft would bring it as requested by the two companies, but it is them against their word, as well as the mandate that compels them by the most powerful man in the country. The US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), has said that Microsoft lobbied the Right to Repair several times now, in a different state. Related Article: iPhone 13 Face ID Won't Work from Third-Party Screen Replacement, Needs Apple-Right to Repair Disregarded? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isaiah Richard 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. SpaceX has announced that it has given the name "Endurace" to its newest Crew Dragon capsule. The Endurance will be used for the upcoming Crew-3 mission, which will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on October 30. The announcement was made by one of the astronauts of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Raja Chari, who is also part of the Crew-3 mission. The Endurance is the third Crew Dragon capsule to fly a crewed mission. SpaceX's other Crew Dragon capsules that have done so are the Endeavour and the Resilience. SpaceX's New Crew Dragon Named Endurance SpaceX has named its newest crew dragon "Endurance." The announcement of the name was made by one of the NASA astronauts who will board the capsule later this month. According to a report by Space, the four crew members of SpaceX's next mission, Crew-3, "had the honor of hanging a name on the spacecraft, which was previously known simply as 'Capsule 210.'" The four crew members of the upcoming Crew-3 mission are NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and Kayla Baroon, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer. In a video posted on NASA's Twitter account, Raja Chari said that the name given to the newest Crew Dragon capsule is "a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit, as we push humans and machines farther than we ever have." The name Endurance is "also a nod to the fact that the development teams, the production teams [and] the training teams that got us here have endured through a pandemic." The Crew Dragon Capsules The Endurance will be the third Crew Dragon capsule that will be used for a crewed flight. The first Crew Dragon capsule to do so is the Endeavour, which was used during SpaceX's Demo-2 test flight. The Demo-2 test flight is the space company's first crewed mission. The Endeavour was also used for SpaceX's Crew-2 mission, which was launched to the ISS last April. The Crew-1 mission, on the other hand, was flown by the Resilience capsule. It is also the same Crew Dragon capsule used for SpaceX's first all-civilian mission, Inspiration4. Related Article: SpaceX Crew Dragon Returns to Earth From ISS With Four Astronauts Aboard The Upcoming Crew-3 Mission The Crew-3 is the next SpaceX mission, which is scheduled to launch to the ISS on October 30. The mission is the space company's fifth crewed flight. According to the report by Space, the Crew-3 mission is part of the contract SpaceX signed with NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The initial launch date for the Crew-3 mission was set for October 23. It was then delayed to October 31 before it was once again moved to its current launch date. The four astronauts that will be part of the mission will be staying in the ISS for six months. They will also bring scientific gear with them that includes human research and rodent research, among other experiments. Also Read: SpaceX Saving Significant Costs By Reusing Falcon 9 Rockets This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isabella James 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. NASA Perseverance has done it, and it is with its rigorous research on the Red Planet, where it has discovered the "watery past" of Mars via the Jezero Crater that was once a lake. The research has opened up a lot of new possibilities to explore for NASA and Perseverance, as well as a look at the history of the Red Planet. The initial mission of Perseverance is to look for signs of water on the Red Planet, and it aims to determine if there is still a source of hydration on the planet, as several people eye it to be the next human destination. SpaceX is also on its way to Mars with the Starship and Super Heavy Booster rocket venture to make life multi-planetary. NASA Mars Perseverance Discovers Mars' Water-Filled History NASA has reported that the Perseverance and its research team have found something that is a massive discovery for humans and its venture to space. And that the iron-rich planet of Mars has once had water flowing on its dry and cold lands, making it once a planet that was alive, warm, and liveable. However, this is still not considered as a precursor to the planet once having life forms or even the extraterrestrial creatures that once lived there. This must be discovered by NASA, as it could suggest that Mars was once a planet that was teeming with life. Notably, this event of having water is still attributed to billions of years ago and does not necessarily mean that water is still available on Mars, as it was originally discovered in analysis that it already ran out of it. Read Also: ISS Astronauts To Welcome Russian Film Crew On The Station For A Movie Shoot NASA Mars Jezero Crater Once a Lake The research of Perseverance and its team has been published via Science's publication, and it holds the different findings that are not limited to the signs of water initially found on Mars. The research has greatly focused on the Jezero Crater to be once a lake and that the body of water has helped in the formation of the crater. Additionally, several indications that water from the lake was also seen from outside of the crater, and it helped in bringing several sediments of rocks that have made Jezero what it is today. Several thousand years ago, the research found that Mars has bodies of land that are thick enough to hold out water and have it flowing. NASA Mars: Fossil Hunt A rock outcrop called "Kodiak" has been seen by the Perseverance, and it suggests another sedimentation remnant from Mars, which further supports the water findings. Moreover, it was said that NASA would use this opportunity to locate potential regions or locations on which Perseverance would research more, especially as it drills underground to look for fossils. The watery past of Mars would help in answering where NASA should look for remnants, fossils, and other important elements to give humans more information about the Red planet. Related Article: SpaceX's 5th Crewed Flight, Crew-3, to Launch to ISS on Oct. 30 This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isaiah Richard 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tesla is saying goodbye to Silicon Valley, but not to California, and hello to Austin, Texas. Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has announced that the company's headquarters is moving to Austin during an annual shareholder meeting. The state is also where the company's Gigafactory is currently being built. Musk has clarified that, despite the move of Tesla's headquarters to Texas, the company's activities in California will continue to expand. Last year, the Tesla CEO threatened to pull Tesla out of California due to Musk disagreeing with the state's stay-at-home policy that was implemented because of the ongoing pandemic. Tesla Headquarters is Moving to Texas Tesla's headquarters will be moving from California to Austin, Texas. The announcement was made by the company's CEO, Elon Musk, during an annual shareholder meeting. The Tesla CEO himself has been a Texas resident since last year. According to a report by The Verge, Elon Musk made it clear that his company "will be continuing to expand our activities in California." "So this is not a matter of Tesla leaving California," he said during the meeting. Despite the plans to move the Tesla headquarters to Texas, which The Verge noted is a state where it is illegal to sell cars directly to buyers, the company's electric vehicle factory in Fremont, California, will continue to operate. Related Article: Elon Musk: Tesla Wants Texas Law to Change, EVs Built in Austin Need to be Sold Outside, Then to Buyers Musk vs California? According to a report by Forbes, the Tesla CEO's relationship with the state of California has been less than stellar as of late. The report states that "Musk has soured on the state in recent years, most notably after health officials in Alameda County, where the company's Fremont factory is located, set restrictions to protect worker safety and health during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020." The report also notes that "Musk has increasingly bristled at strict rules in California while warming to the appeal of cheaper, less-regulated Texas." Last year, Elon Musk threatened to pull Tesla out of California because he disagreed with the state's shelter-in-place directive for its citizens. Tesla's Gigafactory in Texas Beyond being the future location of its headquarters, Texas is an important location for Tesla because it is where its next Gigafactory is being built. The company began building its Gigafactory just outside Austin last year. Elon Musk said early this year that Tesla is planning to hire 10,000 employees for its Gigafactory in Texas. He has also said that a college degree will not be part of the requirements. Job listings that were posted last year, including listings for job positions related to video games and user interface. Specific examples of related job postings are listing for a video game engineer, rendering engineer for an infotainment software, and software engineers for the user interface. Also Read: Tesla is Buying More Land in Texas: Could This be a Potential Battery Factory? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isabella James 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Elon Musk said that SpaceX's Starlink internet service plans to roll out nationwide in the United States this month or by the end of October. As per Tesmanian, SpaceX's satellite internet has already reached 16 countries in total even as it is still in the beta phase, which includes more than 100,000 customers in nations like Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Starlink said on its website that during its beta service, its internet speeds could range from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s. On the other hand, the connection latency could go up to 40ms or 20ms at a minimum. The internet service firm further warned that the internet connection could be unavailable at times during its "Better Than Nothing Beta" phase. However, the company assured that the said issue and connection quality are expected to significantly improve as the Musk-led firm installs more satellites. Elon Musk: SpaceX Starlink Internet to Roll Out Nationwide Now, Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of Starlink, revealed on his Twitter that its nationwide rollout is coming to its US users soon. The billionaire Starlink exec further invited his Twitter followers to sign up as early as now before the slots run out due to the upcoming wider rollout. Answering one of the queries from the social media platform, Musk disclosed that Starlink plans to roll out nationwide before October comes to an end. However, the Starlink boss noted that the initial rollout will still be the limited number of users depending on location. That said, subscribers of Starlink in locations where there are numerous users could expect the service to be unreliable on its initial rollout. Musk went on to assure that the internet quality, along with the user limitation, "will improve as more satellites are launched." Should be nationwide rollout by end of month. Note, still limited by peak number of users in same area. This will improve as more satellites are launched. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 7, 2021 As such, its users will have to wait for Starlink to launch more satellites to fully enjoy the wireless low-latency service that the firm promises, according to Mashable. It is worth noting that Musk clarified that Starlink is actually meant for locations that are not crowded by too many people. With that, its users could expect issues in areas where the population is highly dense. Read Also: SpaceX's Starlink to Launch Satellite Internet Service in the Philippines, a Country With One of the World's Worst Internet Connections SpaceX Starlink GPS Function Elsewhere, last Sept. 25, developers outside SpaceX's Starlink shared that the satellite constellation of the space exploration firm could soon expand from providing low latency broadband services, as per Space.com. To be precise, the engineers claimed that Starlink could extend to releasing its GPS functionalities. The engineers further said that the GPS feature from the Starlink satellites could be comparable to the similar function that current smartphones offer. On top of that, they also noted that the cube sats of the internet service provider could also be used as GPS machines. Related Article: SpaceX Starlink Broadband Internet Service To Go Global This August? It Could Fill the Gap Between 5G and Fiber This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Teejay Boris 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Google Pixel 6 rumors and leaks are not anything new to tech enthusiasts and Google fans who have been monitoring the latest updates regarding the smartphone. The latest set of leaks, however, just might spark interest because of how comprehensive it is. The latest Google Pixel smartphone leak is thanks to a German retailer's advertisement, which reveals many details of the upcoming release. The details revealed by the leak include specs, pricing, and even a release date for Germany. Google Pixel 6 Leak by German Retailer A new Google Pixel 6 leak has made its way to the internet, giving tech enthusiasts and Google fans alike a better idea of what to expect from the new smartphone and even when to expect it to arrive. A leak of a German retailer's advertisement states that the Google Pixel 6 will be available in Germany on October 28. According to a report by Gizmodo, the leak also indicates that it will be priced at 649, which is equal to around $750. The leaked advertisement also mentions some of the specs of the Google Pixel 6. Per the report by Gizmodo, the German ad says that the upcoming Google smartphone has a 6.4-inch display, 8GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, a 12MP ultra-wide camera, and a 50MP primary camera. Related Article: Google Pixel 6 Pro Leaks Surprisingly Comes From Actual Developer, But Deletes Post After-What Details Were Revealed? Google Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro Full Specs A previous Tech Times report published in July listed all the important specs of the Google Pixel 6 and Google Pixel 6 Pro. The Tech Times report, which cites a separate report by Front Page Tech, lists the following specs of the Google Pixel 6: 6.4-inch screen size AMOLED display 8GB RAM Android 12 OS 128 GB or 256 GB storage 50MP wide camera 12MP ultra-wide camera The following are the specs of the Google Pixel 6 Po: 6.71-inch screen size Plastic OLED display Android 12 OS 12GB RAM 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage 50MP wide camera 12MP ultra-wide camera 48MP telephoto lens Many of the specs mentioned above are similar to the specs mentioned in the leak of a German retailer's advertisement. What is Google Pixel? The Google Pixel brand was first introduced in 2013, and the first product under the brand is the Chromebook Pixel. The brand has since grown to include phones, tablets, laptops, and accessories. The first-ever Google Pixel smartphones are the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL. These first-generation phones were announced in 2016 and were followed by the Pixel 2 & 2 XL, Pixel 3 & 3 XL, Pixel 3a & 3a XL, Pixel 4 & 4 XL, Pixel 4a & 4a XL, and Pixel 5. The Google Pixel 6 Pro is the first smartphone that is part of the lineup that bears the "Pro" branding instead of the usual "XL." Also Read: Google Pixel 6 Wireless Charging to Have 23W of Power, Larger than the iPhone 12 Magsafe This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isabella James 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. "Yakuza" creator, Toshihiro Nagoshi, leaves Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, ending his 32 years of stay in the former. The "Yakuza" creator brought the long-time producer and director of the successful franchise, Daisuke Sato, along with his departure, according to PC Gamer. The sudden development from the two masterminds of the "Yakuza" gaming franchise comes amid the reports claiming that the Chinese firm, NetEase, is trying to pirate Nagoshi from his long-time company Sega. However, the creator of "Yakuza" kept mum about his next move and only confirmed that he is leaving both Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega, as per IGN's latest report. 'Yakuza' Creator, Toshihiro Nagoshi, Leaves Sega, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio The official website of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio published the message of Nagoshi, confirming that he is letting go of his position in the firm as he leaves. The now-former head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio further extended his gratitude to the fans who supported his creation, the "Yakuza" series. The "Yakuza" creator went on to acknowledge the support of his colleagues to his craft, which he said has helped him push the boundaries. Nagoshi added that both the series he created and the studio he helped established will continue without him. As mentioned, the producer and director of the "Yakuza" series, Daisuke Sato, is following the creator's departure. As per Kotaku, Sato also played a major role in the popular gaming franchise, which includes his stint as the producer of the series, and the director of the "Yakuza 3." 'Yakuza Creator' NetEase Transfer Rumors Last Aug. 30, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese gaming developer and publisher, NetEase, is already in "final negotiations" with the creator of Yakuza to take him from his longtime employer, Sega. The report further disclosed that Nogoshi is slated to create his own team, along with new gaming titles for the China-based company. NetEase is the developer behind popular mobile games, including "Knives Out," "Cyber Hunter," and "Identity V." The Chinese firm also holds a license to distribute international titles, such as "Starcraft 2," "World of Warcraft," and even "Overwatch" in the Asian nation. However, Nogoshi has yet to confirm or deny the said report. Read Also: Yakuza Kiwami 2 Is Officially A Go, But Here's Why It's More Than A 'Yakuza 2' Remake [Trailer] 'Yakuza: Like a Dragon' Sequel To fill the gap that Nagoshi left in Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the "Yakuza" series producer, Masayoshi Yokoyama, will sit as the director of the firm. Yokoyama further announced that they are already working on a sequel of the "Yakuza: Like a Dragon." Related Article: Xbox Game Pass January 2021 List: 'Yakuza,' 'Cyber Shadow,' 'The Medium' Among Additional Games This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Teejay Boris 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Photo : Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images) FaceTime is often used by people wanting to connect to their loved ones. But have you ever heard of it saving lives? These paramedics certainly have. In London, a lot of ambulance workers have been known to use FaceTime to conduct video calls with doctors, all while administering first aid to stroke patients, reports ITV. As such, a lot of these stroke patients have gotten life-saving treatment far quicker than normal. Both the patients and paramedics have also largely avoided time-consuming transfers to hospitals. Crew members of the London Ambulance Service were forced to cope when the pandemic hit. They turned to iPads in order to connect with doctors in the event of a 999 call, while they're assessing stroke patients. Various experts, as reported by Sky News, have been hailing this method as "effective" because it "brings the specialist into the patient's front room." With how effective FaceTime has been at providing immediate, appropriate care to stroke patients, the UK NHS is now planning to implement this system all across the country. It's so effective, in fact, that the number of patients being sent to the hyper-acute stroke unit at the University College London Hospitals (UCLH) has been basically cut in half. In short, more people's lives are being saved just because of a FaceTime conversation with a specialist right at the scene of an emergency call. This isn't the first time, however, that FaceTime has been known to save the life of a stroke patient by providing access to quicker treatment. Three years ago, a New York woman using FaceTime to chat with her sister basically saved the latter's life when she noticed that something was off about her sister's face. Granted, this didn't really involve input from a health expert, but it still got the job done. Read Also: 5 Easy Ways To Reduce The Risk Of A Stroke And Lower Blood Pressure Paramedics Using FaceTime Brings Tech At The Forefront Of Modern Healthcare Modernizing healthcare is all about using every bit of technology available, including the likes of FaceTime, to ensure that those in need get the appropriate treatment fast. This rings true especially for stroke patients, whose lives depend on every single second of delay. A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain suddenly gets cut off. As a result, every little bit of delay could mean that a patient might suffer from a debilitating disability or even death. Quick treatment is critical, and that's where the LAS paramedics got the most from going on FaceTime with doctors. But of course, that's not the only tech available. Back in August, the US FDA just approved a treatment method called the Vagus Nerve Stroke Rehab. It's considered the first treatment method of its kind for patients suffering from a chronic ischemic stroke that doesn't require any drugs. With it, patients can actually have most of their lost motor functions restored. It won't work as well without rehabilitative activities, but it can potentially help patients recover better. Related Article: Smart Pill Could Soon Be Used To Detect Health Problems From Inside The Gut This article is owned by Tech Times Written by RJ Pierce 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Children's vaccine shots are now expected to be implemented this coming November. However, this would still depend on the final decision of health regulators. Right now, the global COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting many countries, especially after medical researchers confirmed new variants, such as Delta, which could infect even young individuals. Because of this, many government officials and health departments and organizations are now debating if children should be allowed to get vaccinated. But, U.S. federal officials said that they now consider administering around 20 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to immunize children, specifically school-age ones, against COVID-19. They are currently expecting this as early as November. Before that happens, they already purchased enough doses to provide two vaccine doses to around 28 million kids between the ages of five to eleven. Children Vaccinations Might Be Difficult According to The Washington Post's latest report, managing vaccinations for young U.S. residents could be harder compared to those for adults. Also Read: United Airlines Layoffs 593 People for Violation of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate "Kids have gone back to school, we're seeing disease increases in pediatrician offices because of exposures to other viruses, and we're needing [children] to come in for flu vaccine," said Children's Minnesota's Former Infection Prevention and Control Senior Director Patsy Stinchfield. Aside from back-to-school activities, health regulators could also have an issue when vaccinating five to eleven-year-old children since health experts are still trying to provide third COVID-19 vaccine shots to immunocompromised individuals. On the other hand, they also administer third coronavirus vaccine shots to older Americans, who are at high risk of severe infections. WHO Also Makes Anti-COVID-19 Efforts While the U.S. health regulators are still deciding if vaccine shots for 5-11 years old children should be approved, WHO (World Health Organizations) decided to launch its new Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination program. This new project of the international health agency aims to help residents in poorer countries get vaccinated. WHO also explained that the new anti-COVID-19 program would help end the current two-track pandemic. Specifically, the new strategy of WHO would help every country across the world to immunize 40% of their popularity by the end of 2021 70% by 2022. For more news updates about children's vaccines and other similar topics, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Malaria Vaccine for Kids Made by GlaxoSmithKline Endorsed by WHO This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Source: Austrade Benchmark Report 2021 Australia is a Springboard to the APAC Region Australia has become a development testing ground for tech MNCs such as Boeing, Mastercard, Google and IBM. International companies can tap into Australias unrivalled integration with Asia to expand into or enter global value chains across the region. Australia has Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with most of the region; 12 of Australias 15 FTAs are with Asia. These trade agreements provide a solid foundation for tech industries through best-in-class digital chapters that cover tech trading rules. Australias priorities for the digital chapter of the Australia-UK FTA include strong rules on data flows and localisation to provide a secure, online environment for tech businesses and support the growth of e-commerce between the two countries. The UK-Australia Fintech Bridge[1] Signed in 2018, the UK-Australia FinTech Bridge strengthens bilateral engagement on fintech policy and regulation, facilitates trade flows and access to capital opportunities, promotes two-way investment and addresses barriers to international growth. The agreement makes it particularly compelling for UK and Australian fintechs to test each others market without the risk of an unfamiliar regulatory environment and provides structured support to new entrants. Revolut, GoCardless, Wise (formerly TransferWise), 10x Banking, Railsbank, Recordsure and Truelayer are fantastic examples of UK fintechs to successfully invest, launch and scale new products and services in Australia. Matt Baxby, CEO of Revolut Australia says: Australia has a familiar regulatory regime and high quality fintech talent. This makes Australia an attractive market for Revoluts expansion outside of Europe. FinTech Australia has just last month released its fintech regulatory map; the first interactive toolkit of its kind designed to help investors navigate Australias regulatory landscape. Consumer Data Right[2] A world-first, Australias Consumer Data Right (CDR) introduced by the Australian Government - gives consumers more control over their data, enabling them to access and share data with accredited third parties to access better deals, which paves the way for the development of new products and services. The CDR will first apply to the banking sector, followed by the energy and telecommunications sectors. Quantum Technology[3] Australia has world-class quantum research capabilities, ranked in the top five countries overall, and a rapidly emerging quantum technology industry underpinned by the expertise and IP developed in its research institutions. In 2040, Australias quantum technology industry could generate over A$4 billion in revenue and create 16k jobs. Australias 16 quantum-related companies conduct activities that span technology types, from hardware and software development to consultancy. If you are a UK tech company looking to expand in the APAC region, look no further than to Australia! Austrade is here to help: The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is Australia's leading trade and investment agency. We are experts in connecting Australian businesses to the world and the world to Australian businesses. We are the national point-of-contact for international companies, providing market information and insights, promoting Australian capability, and facilitating connections through our extensive global network to help you to establish or expand a business in Australia. The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is proud to be a member of techUK. [1] The Economic Contribution of Australias Tech Sectorhttps://techcouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/TCA-Tech-sectors-economic-contribution-full-res.pdf. Tech Council, 2021 [2] UK-Australia FinTech Bridge: [2] UK-Australia FinTech Bridge: https://treasury.gov.au/fintech/uk-australia-fintech-bridge [3] Consumer Data Right: https://www.cdr.gov.au/ [4] Growing Australias Quantum Technology Industry: https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/services/consultancy-strategic-advice-services/csiro-futures/futures-reports/quantum. CSIRO, May 2020 LSU President William Tate IV responded Friday to reports that the university among several other institutions failed to protect students from former graduate student Edouard d'Espalungue d'Arros, who continued to interact with students despite being charged with third-degree rape after a 2018 arrest. D'Espalungue later racked up rape and sexual misconduct complaints at LSU. The Advocate | The Times-Picayune published an investigation Tuesday into how d'Espalungue was able to flee last year to his home country of France, after he was suspended from LSU for a year over a student's report that he raped her in September 2020. Her report was separate from another woman who also told police that d'Espalungue raped her in 2018, and whose criminal case has been in limbo since d'Espalungue absconded. In total, at least seven women have complained about varying degrees of sexual misconduct on the part of d'Espalungue. +6 An LSU French grad student was charged with rape, suspended for assault. Here's how he got away. She spent two and a half years wondering if she made the right decision after the night that had come to eclipse the happier parts of her life. Six of them filed a federal lawsuit late Monday against LSU, saying that the university failed to follow Title IX laws that prohibit sex-based discrimination and that require institutions to investigate reports of sexual misconduct. "I read through every word of the painful and traumatic events expressed in recent news articles about allegations against a former graduate student," Tate wrote in a message midday Friday. "Given that this is a pending lawsuit, I am unable to respond directly to the accounts, which is incredibly frustrating." LSU's initial response to the investigation was also that officials were reviewing the lawsuit, but noted that the university did not generally comment on pending litigation. Tate added slightly more Friday. "First, while I was not here when these allegations occurred, I want these students to know that they matter to me. Every student matters to me," said Tate, who began the role as LSU president in July. The lawsuit says complaints of d'Espalungue's misconduct at LSU started in 2018 and stretched through 2020. "Second, predators and their enablers will be held accountable end of story," he added. "Third, I want to tell you what Title IX will look like during my tenure as your President. I see a campus community in which no survivor goes without the support and resources necessary to recover from the trauma of sexual assault or harassment." Tate said LSU has "made incredible strides forward in a relatively short period of time" to beef up its Office of Civil Rights and Title IX. University officials have created better "trauma-informed responses," strengthened relationships with student and advocacy groups and eliminated "past policy gaps," he wrote. "Those are just words, though," Tate said. "Paired with the tireless vigilance and dedication of our campus community, this really means that we will compassionately and empathetically serve our students and employees through building a culture of transparency, trust, and accountability that deters sexual violence in the first place and protects survivors when the unthinkable does occur." LSU's campus has been embroiled in a scandal for nearly a year now over how campus officials have handled complaints of sexual misconduct, many involving athletes. Law firm Husch Blackwell's recent review of those cases found that LSU's Title IX office was woefully underfunded, and that the university failed to follow both federal laws and best practices in responding to complaints of sexual assault, domestic violence and more. 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 Attorneys for the six women who filed the lawsuit against LSU responded to Tate Friday, saying that universities must do better and that there would be less need for Title IX trauma support if there were less trauma. We thank President Tate for his statement, and invite him to sit down with us and other stakeholders as part of LSUs Title IX initiative," said attorneys Elwood Stevens and Mimi Methvin in a statement. "It seems President Tate agrees that LSU has, at least in the past, reflected a wider culture in which women are not believed and predators are protected by DAs, police, the courts, and other institutions." "His promises of improvement for the future are encouraging," they added. "However, President Tate inherited LSUs past Title IX failures and cannot simply look to the future. Instead of dragging past victims through the courts for years, including our clients, we ask for honest dialogue, acknowledgment of their pain, and making restitution now." Tigers Against Sexual Assault, an LSU student group, said in a statement Thursday that they were "once again disappointed to see survivors hurt by LSU, Louisiana law enforcement, and worldwide rape culture." +4 Despite new law requiring it, LSU and police have not signed agreement over sexual assault Six months ago, as lawmakers pushed for answers from LSU officials amid a sexual assault scandal roiling the flagship campus, several vented f The Advocate | The Times-Picayune's investigation into d'Espalungue featured a woman pursuing the criminal rape case against him, who asked to be identified by her middle name, Anne. A 24-year-old UL Lafayette graduate, Anne said she was both relieved and furious when she heard from the LSU students earlier this year who also reported rape, groping and sexual harassment from d'Espalungue. Had her 2018 case been taken more seriously, she said, then perhaps the others could have been prevented. On the night she reported being raped on a religious retreat near Alexandria, Anne said, a sheriff's deputy talked her out of receiving a rape exam and tried to dissuade her from pursuing criminal charges. Even after d'Espalungue was arrested, her case stalled. The Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office wanted her to testify before a grand jury rather than simply charge dEspalungue, but the grand jury proceedings were rescheduled three times. Even as Anne's case stalled, d'Espalungue blossomed in Baton Rouge. He launched an American Journal of French Studies, affiliated with LSU. He was named to Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome's international relations committee, and posted pictures on social media as he received recognition from Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin and Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser. He won various awards. +2 New Derrius Guice rape allegations emerge in updated lawsuit about LSU sexual misconduct Three more women have come forward to publicly blast LSU's handling of their complaints of rape and sexual harassment two involving football The lawsuit says women were complaining about him at LSU throughout that period, but the complaints were never properly investigated. Anne, meanwhile, was never informed that d'Espalungue had been suspended from LSU in late 2020 over another student's report that he raped her. After that second rape allegation, dEspalungue petitioned a Rapides Parish judge for permission to travel home to France for Christmas 2020, with his attorney mentioning his many accolades, but not the recent suspension. The DA's office did not object to the request, and the judge agreed to it. He has never returned. France is among the countries that does not extradite its citizens to the U.S. when theyre accused of crimes on American soil. A troubled virtual school in Baton Rouge, where many students have missed weeks of instruction, has added teachers but is not expecting to fill all vacancies until the end of next week. Continued problems at EBR Virtual Academy dominated discussion at Thursdays East Baton Rouge Parish School Board meeting. As it stands right now, for me, it is unacceptable to see and know that we are in October and that we have students that are not fully staffed, including our virtual school, board member Dadrius Lanus said. More than 1,300 children transferred this year to the EBR Virtual Academy, the lone home for online instruction this year for the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. Its a school that grew dramatically in size right before the school year started on Aug. 11. Problems have been particularly pronounced in middle and high school grades, in which many students werent in class until after Labor Day. The board had a similar debate on Sept. 16, which ended promises to fully staff the school quickly, promises that came and went unfulfilled. At least one student didnt start any classes until Oct. 1, according to the childs grandmother. East Baton Rouge is hiring a small portion of the faculty in the upper grades, but the district is relying on Austin, Texas-based Proximity Learning for the bulk of its staff. Daphne Donaldson, chief of human resources for the school system, said that both the district and Proximity are hiring simultaneously for the virtual school. She listed six teaching vacancies that East Baton Rouge is filling. "We still have some vacancies at the virtual academy as we are facing vacancies as we are across the district," Donaldson said. 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 Ted Robinson, a representative with Proximity, said that in the past two weeks the number of vacancies his company has shrunk from 36 to 13 and he said his goal is to fill those by the end of the next week We are working feverishly to fill those 13 vacancies, Robinson said. Lanus said he sympathizes with Proximitys problems given the nationwide teaching shortage, but said thats why the school system contracted with the company. "I understand it's hard, but we contracted with you because it's hard, he said. Robinson said that the company was told it needs to staff for far fewer students and has scrambled to catch up. He also said that the company has been trying hard to fill vacancies with its other clients across the country, even turning down new jobs as a result. We are not taking on new clients, Robinson said. Besides staffing, theres the issue of catching up children whove missed instruction. Robinson and school officials say they are talking about adding tutoring and perhaps special weekend sessions to help catch students up. Donaldson said the virtual school has been trying to do a lot from scratch quickly. "This year it was not perfect, she said. Weve established that, right? I do believe that moving forward this is the future. Superintendent Sito Narcisse said hes spoken to other superintendents who decided not to set up virtual schools because it would be difficult, but he decided it was the best way to go. We took the challenge, even though it's been a challenge we've been working through those kinks," Narcisse said. "I still think we've done the right thing for our community." Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission In early August, someone with the user name boothy paid $1.5 million for a digital cartoon image of a monkey with golden fur shooting red laser beams from its eyes. While picture No. 3749 in the Bored Ape Yacht Club series could have been copied for free, this particular digital image was an original release, its one-off status recorded on a public, digital ledger (or blockchain) as an NFT (non-fungible or non-exchangeable token). NFTs are commonly associated with digital art, such as these works from the Bored Ape series. Credit:Portrait of an Era at HOFA Gallery. Bored Ape Yacht Club: Bored Ape #3398 (2021) and Bored Ape #5981 (2021) In purchasing the images NFT, the buyer was securing his or her proof of their ownership of the image. NFTs, most commonly associated with digital art, are becoming colossally lucrative. Often used as Twitter avatars Mike Tysons Cool Cat, for instance they have become online symbols of status and wealth. Bored Ape No. 3749 made its original seller a 450 per cent profit in a few weeks, while trading across the whole Ape collection has hit more than $US235 million. Meanwhile, sales of the NBAs Top Shot collection, which features players iconic moments as GIFs, reached $950 million in less than a year. As we segue unsteadily into COVID-endemic status, Dan Khomenko, chief executive of Australian-based marketplace NFT Stars, is planning the countrys first NFT exhibition, SIDUS, in Melbourne. NFTs are opening up millions of opportunities for artists from all domains, he says. This is good news for the citys anonymous street artist Lushsux, dubbed Australias answer to Banksy, who shot to controversial fame in 2016 with a Footscray mural of a big-breasted Hillary Clinton wearing a Borat-style mankini. According to a crypto-art sales website, he has already earned about $US3 million from NFT sales of his graffiti-style caricatures and internet memes, beginning in May 2020. Digital assets are finally here, he tells Good Weekend, and NFTs are the framework that makes them legitimate. Squid Game this, Squid Game that. As with much of the world, youve likely spent the past week binging on Netflixs inescapable Korean hit series. And now, after such a stretch spent in a headspace of gory survival, youre not exactly ready to transition back to lighter fare like, say, the Packed to the Rafters reboot or whatever Ted Lassos about (footy fans with dad issues?). Despair not because brutal dystopian madness is in vogue right now (eh, who knows why) and your thirst for bloody-minded content is a mere click away from being satisfied. Enjoy the following suggestions, if thats the right word for it. The Korean series is Netflixs most successful non-English language show ever. Credit:Netflix Alice in Borderland (Netflix) This 2020 Japanese series, set in a dystopian Tokyo, has surged in popularity on Netflix after Squid Games success thanks to its similarly toned graphic violence and brutal games of survival. While it lacks Squid Games biting capitalist allegory, playing more like a commentary on the escapist pathology of video games, the series dives deep into its characters alliances and betrayals. Battle Royale (Shudder) The cult 2000 Japanese film, about a group of high school students dumped on a remote island and forced to fight to the death by a government keen on curbing juvenile delinquency, set the template for Squid Games sadistic survival horror. Squid Games creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has admitted the shows premise came to him more than a decade ago when I was in financial straits myself and spent much time in cafes reading comics including Battle Royale and Liar Game. The cabbage is staring at me. Every time I open the crisper, it glowers at me, all 2 kilos of it, silently daring me to cook it. But first, I must save the life of more perishable vegetables, in a women and children first way. Yes, I have succumbed to the lure of the weekly vegetable box, only to receive enough vegetables for a month. Its one thing I can do to support small-scale producers and razz up my cooking, reducing the (lets face it) repetition of the last year or so. But more than that, its fun. Unpacking the box is like Christmas. The brain goes into overdrive trying to work out what needs to be used first, and what could go with what, while all the time thinking, Wow, thats a very big cabbage. Illustration by Simon Letch. Credit: There are lots of different fruit and veg box initiatives out there, such as Ooooby and Block11 Organics in Sydney, and Organic Empire and Northside Fruit & Veg in Melbourne. My box is from highly regarded growers Newcastle Greens, available for pick-up from Freds restaurant in Paddington during lockdown. It includes something Ive never seen before (this is like home schooling) the wonderfully lacy, ruched green leaves of siber frill kale that looks like a mermaids wedding bouquet. It also contains deeply purple shiso leaves, bright puce heirloom turnips, and purple daikon radish as well as the usual broccoli, cauliflower and beetroot. An almost military discipline is required to get through it all. The leaves go first, in feisty salads. Rainbow chard stalks get cut into short logs the size of penne and used as pretend pasta with an arrabiata sauce, the wilted leaves served on the side. Cauliflower is steamed, covered with cheddar cheese slices, then baked into a cheats cauliflower cheese. I pickle the turnip, Turkish-style. Who is afraid of freedom? That is the question, as we inch closer towards new freedoms on Monday. For many of us, it cant come too soon. Human beings are not built for life in lockdown, confined to our domestic dungeons. Having over 100 days of not seeing friends or family, having to juggle home-schooling with work, has been enough to plunge thousands of us into a state of what psychologists call languishing not quite clinical depression but certainly not joy either. Opening up ... the new Premier, Dominic Perrottet, reveals greater freedoms on Thursday. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Which explains Dominic Perrottets first steps as Premier in accelerating NSWs moves towards reopening. The new Premiers adjustments to the Reopening NSW road map are modest. The fully vaccinated will be able to have up to 10 visitors at home rather than five. Outdoor gatherings will allow 30 people rather than 20. Schools will fully return a bit earlier than expected. Yet the announcements feel significant maybe even unnerving to some. Time flies. Its 6pm already. Its Friday. Its October. Its counter-intuitive. Every day is the same day, every week, every month. Youd think theyd drag endlessly. Instead, they collapse into one another. They collapse time. Every days a yawn, and then its gone. Credit:iStock All the features of daily life have disappeared, but rather than leave a blank space, its as if theyve left a vacuum and all of time has fallen into it. Individual moments drag, but collectively, they zoom by. Where did that week go? That month? Social media, obviously. Its a rabbit hole, but we might as well go down it as do anything else. Watching the numbers. They change daily, but the days dont. Grand final day was a diversion for many, and for Melbourne fans joyous, but now its whatever day again. Then theres trade period: talk about a time without beginning or end. There arent many places in Sydney where you can look up to the night sky for an unfettered view of the Milky Way; its usually an hour or twos drive before city lights give way to clearer stars and brightly shining planets. But that could soon change under a Northern Beaches Council plan to turn parts of Palm Beach into the countrys first urban night sky park, which would have international accreditation and welcome families for telescope stargazing or astronomer-led picnics throughout the year. A blue torchlight beam shines over the view of Palm Beach looking south from the lighthouse. Credit:Nick Moir Astronomers say Governor Phillip Park and Barrenjoey Headland are uniquely dark spaces for a city, since they are surrounded by water on three sides. Environmental advocates are on board because low lighting would create a more habitable environment for wildlife such as microbats and fairy penguins. But not all locals are pleased: one residents group says it is concerned about safety and security risks, including burglary, because of the darkness. They are worried the park activities will deliver commercial profits to tour providers without benefitting the community and cost the council tens of thousands of dollars to install appropriate lighting. One of Queenslands richest rugby league clubs, firming as a favourite to host the long-awaited 17th national franchise, received $17 million in public money across a multi-year redevelopment of its home stadium in Brisbanes fast-growing north. The Redcliffe Dolphins are behind one of three pitches to become the NRLs latest team alongside the Firehawks and Jets, also based in Greater Brisbane and claim to leapfrog the Broncos with an asset base of $100 million behind their bid. Almost 10,000 people squeezed into the then-Dolphin Stadium at Redcliffe, before its final NRL-ready touches, to see the Roar play Melbourne City in November 2019. Credit:Jono Searle/Getty Images As the NRL confirmed an expansion would take place from 2023, the games finances were also on the agenda, with the new club required to have a $50 million bank guarantee to carry it over the next five years without handouts from head office. They will not be required to pay a licence fee. Police have confirmed they used force during the arrest of a Queensland man who later died after a violent struggle with officers. Two officers involved in the incident at Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, are now also on leave, police said. About noon on Thursday, police responded to reports of people acting suspiciously in a car, which was later determined to be stolen. The scene at Wilsonton in Toowoomba on Thursday afternoon. Credit:Nine News When police arrived at Stones Street in Wilsonton, two men fled the scene, while officers tried to arrest a 27-year-old Indigenous man, who was born in Mitchell, in the Maranoa region. After repeated delays brought on by the states lockdowns, Victorias inquiry into the impacts of colonisation on Indigenous people, an Australian first, is expected to begin hearings in a few weeks. Charged with the powers of a royal commission to investigate historical and ongoing injustices, it will range across cultural violations and massacres; policing and criminal justice; child protection, family and welfare matters; health and healthcare; and other areas of economic, social and political life. While its mandate is broad, and its time frame years, at its most elemental it has one purpose: to finally, without fear or favour, hear and document the truth. It is, and will be, a remarkable process we hope all Victorians embrace even though the truth will often be painful. Yoo-rrook Justice Commission chair Professor Eleanor Bourke. Credit:Justin McManus In support of these efforts, and to assist our readers gain a better understanding of this process, The Age is launching its own truth-telling series. We agree that we cant have true reconciliation and a shared future without first telling the truth of what happened. We know there is never one truth; there are many. But there is a story of Victoria that too few Victorians know. To kick off the series, associate editor Tony Wright has explored what we know about the peoples of Victoria before colonisation. Its a revealing piece on what is known of a time when Indigenous people tended the landscape and followed rituals many, many generations in the making. The chair of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission, Professor Eleanor Bourke, writes of her own familys history her mother was the daughter of a Wamba Wamba man and a Wergaia woman. All families are unique, but Professor Bourkes stories of removals, missions and racism are common. This is something Joyce can control in his own party. A good start would be to kick out those who spread malicious misinformation on COVID-19. Just as he rightfully expects social media companies to operate ethically, the electorate rightfully expects politicians to behave ethically. Peter Farrell, Point Lonsdale If it is wrong, it must be called out regardless It is not often that I would find some of Barnaby Joyces views agreeable. But he certainly strikes a chord with his comments on the vile rumours that inhabit our social media. However, not so long ago a certain Premier was subjected to similar vile rumours, some even promoted by members of the Coalition in this state. Where was Barnaby Joyce then? Strangely quiet. It should not take a personal experience of this type of situation to bring oneself to a point of demanding it stop. If it is wrong, it is wrong, and should be called out regardless. In addition, Mr Joyce could also start to call out the many falsehoods that members of his party are currently spreading on a whole range of issues. Graeme Gardner, Reservoir The one job where you are paid to be nasty Scott Morrison (The Age, 8/10) failed to mention the obvious comparison between social media and parliamentary privilege. You can say the most scurrilous, scandalous and slanderous things in both, but you only get paid by the taxpayer in one of them. Frans Posset, Diamond Creek Parliament, where the true bullies roam freely Scott Morrison damns social media as a cowards palace for cyber bullies. I thought Parliament filled that role for bully types. Who has forgotten his unjustified character assassination of Christine Holgate in the national sound chamber? With increasing restraints on freedom of speech and opinion, politicians should not be surprised by peoples recourse to social media. Mere citizens often do not share politicians inflated opinions of themselves. Frank Carleton, Longwarry The peace, the quiet of a social media-free world How tantalising to learn that Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the like can experience an outage and go offline (The Age, 5/10). Lets find that switch and flick it. Just think how peaceful, kind, cohesive and meaningfully connected our society could be without social media. Bring it on. Julie Perry, Highton THE FORUM MPs faulty memories Dan Andrews response to questions over his contact with United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall of I cant recall is just a variation of I cant remember of the Coate inquiry into hotel quarantine. It looks like the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) should prepare for bouts of amnesia from our politicians. Martin Newington, Aspendale Distrustful? Of course. Your correspondent (Letters, 7/10) asks: Who to trust: an ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) commissioner or a politician under investigation? I ask the same question, with a slight variance. Who to trust: an IBAC commissioner or a politician under investigation? John Capel, Black Rock Such ludicrous claims The day after three of the worlds most eminent scientists are awarded the Nobel prize in physics for their 50 years of identifying and explaining climate change and its effects, we witness the ridiculous and ill-informed comments from Gina Rinehart dismissing climate change as propaganda. No wonder we are still having a debate. Move on, the science is settled. Hans Pieterse, Narre Warren North A resources shakedown It is more than a bit rich for the Prime Minister to accuse Queensland of shakedown politics over its demand for more hospital funding to deal with the increased COVID caseload after it opens up. After all, his own Resources Minister, Keith Pitt, is calling for a $250billion financial guarantee for the resources industry to make sure jobs are not lost in coal and gas if and when the government embraces a target of net zero emissions by 2050 (The Age, 8/10). Rosemary Sceats, Macleod For our childrens future Scott Morrison, we do not need you to look after the country in November. The states have been holding the hose quite successfully despite your absences during the bushfires and pandemic. It really is morally and ethically incumbent on you to represent us at the climate conference in Glasgow. Our kids (and yours) depend on Australia joining the world in limiting climate change. Theo Richter, Bentleigh East Enforcing vaccination My sister, who is passionate about family history, has found an entry in the records of the Geelong Court of Petty Sessions which informs us that our maternal grandfather, being parent of [our mother], a child born in Victoria on or about the 11th day of February 1917, did neglect to cause such child to be vaccinated within six months of its birth. Case deferred. It was followed by an entry dated April 1918, where our grandfather again attended court to be told the case was withdrawn because the child was now vaccinated. Grandfather was a repeat offender apparently as he was fined 20 shillings in March 1914 for the non-vaccination of our aunt. Vaccination was not optional then and no doubt saved countless lives as it continues to do. We live in interesting but not unique times. Elida Brereton, Southbank Our highest standards Re Students in COVID-19 hotspots wary of return to class (The Age, 5/10) which quoted a student from Ilim College. The college was not contacted for input into this article. Despite what it suggests, our college has strict COVID-safe measures in place to ensure the safety of our students, staff and community. Face masks are mandatory. Social distancing and density requirements are implemented. Visitors are strictly limited. Hand sanitiser and sanitary surface wipes are provided in all areas. We have a thorough cleaning and disinfecting program and staff have been trained to manage COVID-19. Air purifiers have been installed in exam rooms. All staff are being vaccinated and where practical, they work from home. There have been no major COVID-19 outbreaks within our college, and we strongly believe this is due to our proactive approach towards being COVID safe. Ilim College Our roving jetsetter Tony Abbott is overseas again, visiting Taiwan in a private capacity (The Age, 8/10). Numerous Australians are refused travel exemptions or cannot return home. We are certainly not all in this together. Geoff Oliver, East Malvern The need for caution Victoria should watch very carefully New South Wales opening up experiment and not follow blindly. It is highly likely that this will result in increased deaths and long COVID cases. With Victorias ambulances and hospitals already stretched, and a now plentiful vaccine supply, it should adopt a 90 per cent fully vaccinated target, which can be quickly achieved, to minimise death and suffering. Brewis Atkinson, Tyabb The problems we faced So Scott Morrison says NSWs opening up on reaching the 70 per cent double dose vaccination target should be a sign of hope to the rest of the country, particularly those in Victoria (The Age, 7/10). Well, Mr Morrison, had we received vaccines at a similar rate to other OECD countries, and had we not had to divert our limited allocation to NSW when it initially mismanaged its lockdown, we in Victoria would not need hope nor your patronising comments. David Marsden, Glen Iris Putting ourselves first Australia once rode on the sheeps back, manufacturing and mining. Now, judging by the demands for fast exits from lockdowns, our economy is desperately dependent on nightclubs, pubs, restaurants, coffee bars, shops and tourism. A me economy? Kay Moulton, Surrey Hills Qualities of a true PM Anthony Albanese is not the most charismatic and inspiring, or aggressive and cut through, opposition leader (Letters, 8/10). However, there is a world of difference between a prime minister and opposition leader. In a prime minister, I am looking for competence more than charisma, honesty more than hubris, policies more than photo opportunities, authenticity more than aggressiveness, action more than announcements, and empathy more than ego. I want a leader who can inspire ministers and public servants to work together for the betterment of our society and the survival of our planet. I do not know whether Albanese, as prime minister, can do that, but I know that the incumbent cannot. Graeme Henchel, Yarra Glen Just a cut, please If my hairdresser charges a first haircut after lockdown levy, I am sending the bill to Brian Cullum (Letters, 8/10). Angus McLeod, Cremorne What could go wrong? The federal government should solve the states health funding crisis by using its own JobKeeper model: give the states all the money they request and then leave it to their own honesty to give back funds if they got too much. Don Relf, Mentone The well-off and needy Regularly The Age reports stories of underfunded hospitals, underpaid nurses, hungry and homeless people, destitute refugees, overcrowded public schools and woeful rural health services. Yet the Money section regularly responds to queries such as How can I reduce my assets to get a larger age pension? Apparently you should renovate your kitchen, buy a more expensive house, go on more holidays and/or hand out money to the kids. Then you can take more from the public purse, leaving less for the really needy. The fact that it is legal at all prompts some serious questions about Australias value set. Kairen Harris, Brunswick Bad luck for the Premier I didnt know the police were issuing fines for not wearing masks. Daniel Andrews (The Age, 8/10) should join the hordes of walkers along the Maribyrnong River paths. About 70per cent are not wearing masks and the police just drive by. Nothing to see here. Pauline Ashton, Maribyrnong AND ANOTHER THING Credit:Illustration: Matt Golding Politics Hopefully the Frenchship will be restored soon. Gordon Moss, Brookfield Who do the spin doctors think theyre kidding? Its USUKA, that order, that outcome. Lyn Beaumont, Bentleigh If the Glasgow summit were moved to Hawaii, our boy would be the first on the plane. Ian Maddison, Parkdale The PM doesnt need to attend Glasgow. Hes doing his bit with Ley, approving four shiny new coal mines. Royce Bennett, Baxter Imagine a progressive, intelligent and natural statesman such as Turnbull becoming Labor leader. A certain next PM. Andrew Taylor, Mount Martha Kenneth Coghill (8/10) put it so comprehensively. Lets have Tanya Plibersek for leader. Irene Morley, Seaford Will Kevin Rudd please retire to his beach shack and go surfing and leave us to get on with living. Jill French, Hervey Bay Will Barnaby condemn Victorias IBAC as a rogue player akin to the Spanish Inquisition? Greg Curtin Blackburn South Who is paying for Tony Abbotts unusual trip to Taiwan? Margaret Ludowyk, Brunswick COVID-19 Is it 4000 ICU beds or 4000 lies? Charlotte Spencer-Roy, East Melbourne The irony. Anti-vaxxers with trendy tattoos rejecting medical science yet untroubled about chemicals being injected into their skin. Russell Kenery, Red Hill Soon in tears, Simon told of the loss of his mother when he was at the Police Academy and then confided that when he was in his early teens he had been molested by the notorious paedophile priest Michael Glennon. Convicted paedophile and former Catholic priest Michael Glennon. Credit:Mario Borg The psychologist talked to me about what the priest had done and asked for me to describe in graphic detail the acts I committed with him. I told him I felt ashamed to say and embarrassed, but he assured me it was OK and after some time he gained my confidence and I told him everything about what had happened. What I was made to do to the priest and what the priest had done to me. By this stage I was very upset. During this time, the psychologist moved closer towards me and started to rub my leg gently ... I was stunned and shocked. He looked at me in the eyes and continued to rub my leg and moved to my penis and then, for what seemed like an eternity, massaged and rubbed me. I felt sick. I felt like the small child from all those years ago in the church. Simon was ushered out to see Deputy Commissioner Eric Millar. I tried to tell the deputy commissioner what had happened, but I couldnt. I retreated into my shell. When Millar asked how his meeting with Oswald had gone, he replied: Not good. I had tears in my eyes, Simon recalls. Then [Millar] cut me off. When he finally tried to complain he was either ignored, or worse, treated as if he was the guilty party. He lost trust in senior officers and in 1998, after 17 years in the job, he resigned. After giving evidence before the Royal Commission into sexual abuse he felt strong enough to make a complaint to polices Salus taskforce, set up to investigate sexual misconduct by police. Loading He confided to friends inside and outside the force what had happened. This helped corroborate Simons allegation to Salus investigators. One of those former colleagues, John, says: It changed him. It impacted heavily on him. John, who gave evidence at the committal hearing, says the decision to drop the charges was a real kick in the guts for Simon. By the time Salus began its investigation Oswald had moved overseas, where he taught young men and women in Thailand on several subjects, including ethics. In September 2018, when he returned to Melbourne for an annual visit, he was arrested and charged by Salus detectives. All those years ago, Oswald was recruited to usher in a new and enlightened era for policing. The former Navy officer was the first professional psychologist employed by Victoria Police. The plan was to give him a taste of street policing before promoting him to the rank of Inspector, working on the theory that cops only want to confide in other cops. He was sent to the tough St Kilda station as part of his training. Later he would find any excuse to come back and hang around the young cops at the station. An experienced senior sergeant took him aside and said: Peter, what are you doing? Youll get a reputation. Then on May 12, 1986, he was gone. There was no real farewell and no explanation. It was rumoured that because of allegations of sexual impropriety he was given an ultimatum: resign or face a criminal investigation. It appears he preferred a period of unemployment to a period of incarceration. Around that time, a senior constable was charged with multiple indecent assault charges that began when the male victim was 12. The offender jumped bail and months later was found in Queensland, extradited and convicted. The original investigation found Oswald shared a house with the senior constable and the victim said Oswald was there when the assaults occurred. The investigation was stopped before Oswald was formally interviewed. In the Salus investigation police found that victim, now aged 50, living overseas. He said he has a new life and didnt want to be involved in any fresh prosecutions. Loading The senior constable - who was sentenced to 13 months - also refused to cooperate with the fresh investigation into Oswald. Salus investigators could not interview senior police who might give insight into Oswalds resignation as they had all died or were infirm. A psychologist who studied with Oswald at the University of NSW remembers him as outgoing and charismatic: He was older than us when he turned up in our third year. He said he had been a trainee priest, and we knew him as Peter the priest. He would run study groups at his house behind a church in Coogee. Once qualified, the psychologist found himself on the same military recruiting panel as Oswald. He said the only reason to join the Navy was being able to bugger and be buggered. It was then I realised he was dodgy. It turned out that it wasnt a throwaway line. I cant hug my son The kid from Gippsland joined the Navy to learn a trade. At 16 he was accepted as an apprentice electrician only to find himself subjected to sexual assault, bashings and verbal bullying. In a bid to give him a new start he was transferred from a ship based in Sydney to Melbourne, to help build HMAS Cook. As he was to drive back, a fellow seaman asked if Dave would give Navy officer Lieutenant Peter Oswald a lift. Happy for the company, Dave said yes. During that trip, in 1979, Dave found that Oswald was a trained psychologist and so confided that he had been sexually assaulted. Once at the base in Melbourne, Dave was again subject to brutal treatment - so much so that the commanding officer wanted to find him a safe place to stay. And what could be safer than to board with psychologist Peter Oswald? It didnt take long. He plied me with alcohol and advanced on me, says Dave. The assaults continued for three months. Discharged from the Navy as unsuitable and badly damaged, Dave was eventually diagnosed with PTSD. In 2004 he made a complaint to what was then known as the Victorian Psychologists Registration Board. They told me that his response to my complaint was that he was moving overseas for at least five years and that he wanted his registration to lapse. A hearing was held on the evening of June 30, 2004 and Oswalds barrister argued that we were friends and that he was not treating me. Loading He admitted to one drunken sexual encounter that he insisted was consensual. Oswald was a 33-year-old lieutenant, Dave a 20-year-old able seaman. The board stated that although they believed me, as they had no evidence of me being a patient, such as records of clinical visits, and that because it was over 20 years ago, they would not be ruling against Oswald. Dave no longer works and has considered suicide about a million times: I have no friends and find it impossible to trust people. If someone does me a favour I think: What do they want in return? Those beautiful words written by Gunditjmara writer, musician and filmmaker Richard Frankland are hopeful. The Yoo-rrook Justice Commission, delayed like everything else by the pandemic , will get fully underway in a few weeks, inquiring into the impact of colonisation on First Nations peoples in Victoria. Nothing like this has ever happened in Australia. The commission has sought submissions. It will hear evidence. It will travel around Victoria bearing witness to peoples stories. It seeks the simple truth, which is never simple. It seeks healing. It is, and will be, a remarkable process and one I hope every Victorian embraces even though, as Frankland notes, some of what we will hear will terrify us. Why do we need to do this in 2021? Because so few of us know the Indigenous history of what we now call Victoria. Even fewer of us understand at a deeper level the ongoing pain of it. There is something powerful about allowing the truth to seep in. Nationally, in 2017, Indigenous representatives unveiled a proposal for a permanent Indigenous Voice to Parliament and a Makarrata Commission to oversee a South African-style truth and reconciliation process. Those initiatives have been slow and contested. Meanwhile, Victoria has gone its own way, and we congratulate the state government for its leadership. Some months ago, The Age decided that we couldnt let this opportunity slip away. On Saturday, we begin an ongoing effort to tell the truth of our history and to allow the space for Indigenous Victorians to tell their stories of the past, and their hopes and plans for the future. William Barak, Wurundjeri man, artist, activist and diplomat, was a born leader. It is with thanks to the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation that The Ages series Yoo-rrook: A Time For Truth has Baraks stunning 1885 artwork Corroboree (Figures in possum-skin cloaks) as its overarching visual element. William Baraks Corroboree (Figures in possum-skin cloaks), 1885. Credit:With thanks to the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation. Barak witnessed traditional Indigenous life upended when Europeans flooded across Bass Strait and occupied the country that had sustained his people and their lore for tens of thousands of years. A determined survivor, he learnt the ways of the invaders and, despite crushing tribulations, used his knowledge to keep alive the culture of his people and their right to land. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will promise to redirect billions of dollars in federal government spending towards Australian-owned businesses and jobs as part of a revived Australian-made focus. Federal Labor will once again take an Australian-made procurement plan to a federal election, vowing to overhaul the way government contracts work and prioritise local companies and their employees through a 10-point plan. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese wants to spend more government money on Australian businesses. Credit:AAP Mr Albanese will tell the NSW Labor State Conference on Saturday he sees no reason why Australian taxpayer dollars should go to London when they can go to Launceston, or why governments buy from Pittsburgh when they can buy in Perth. The way in which governments use their purchasing power reflects how they view the governments role in shaping the economy, Mr Albanese will say, according to a draft copy of his address circulated to the media. Singapore: China has committed human rights violations, breaches of international obligations, and cyber espionage under the cult of the new red emperor, said former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, in a speech that marked a stark turnaround for a leader who once wanted to be a true friend of China. Abbott, who led negotiations over a China-Australia free trade deal while he was prime minister between 2013 and 2015, used a speech at the Taiwan Yushan regional security forum on Friday to unload on the leadership of President Xi Jinping and accuse Beijing of bullying, self-generating belligerence and to warn it could lash out disastrously very soon. Strong words from former prime minister Tony Abbott in his second appearance in Taipei. Credit:Getty Images Our challenge is to try to ensure that the unthinkable remains unlikely; and that the possible doesnt become the probable, he told diplomats, politicians and business leaders at the annual forum in the capital Taipei. China regards the democratic island of Taiwan as its own and has vowed to unite it with the mainland over the coming decades by force if necessary. Beijing has launched more than 100 warplanes including fighter jets and nuclear bombers towards Taiwan over the past week, threatening its airspace and forcing Taiwan to scramble jets in response. Warning: Graphic images Islamabad: Senior Taliban officials and United States representatives are to hold talks this weekend about containing extremist groups in Afghanistan and easing the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country, officials from both sides said. Its the first such meeting since US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in late August, ending a 20-year military presence there, and the Talibans rise to power in the nation. The talks are to take place in Doha, the capital of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, on Saturday and Sunday, local time. People carry the body of a bombing victim in Kunduz province, northern Afghanistan. Credit:AP The talks were announced hours after an Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 46 minority Shiite Muslims and wounded dozens in the deadliest attack since the US departure. Warsaw: Polands Foreign Ministry summoned the top Belarusian diplomat in the country on Friday after Polish authorities alleged that Belarusian forces had fired shots possibly blank ammunition at Polish troops along their common border. The incident marks an escalation of tensions along the border between Belarus and Poland, which is also part of the European Unions eastern border. The Polish government accuses Belarus of encouraging people from the Middle East and Africa to migrate in large numbers into the EU by entering Poland. The action has been described by the EU and Lithuania, also the target of such state-facilitated migration, as hybrid war. Migrants are seated, after crossing the border from Belarus into Poland in the village of Usnarz Gorny, Poland. Credit:AP Polish forces have responded in many cases by pushing migrants back across the border into Belarus. Some asylum-seekers also have died while caught between the two countries. Freezing, arid and lifeless, the dusty Jezero crater on Mars is currently an inhospitable desert. Yet 3.7 billion years, ago it was full of water and could have harboured life, scientists believe. The first analysis of images from NASAs Perseverance rover show that the crater was once a 34 kilometre-wide lake, which was fed by a river, and which suffered flash flooding. The Jezero Crater, where the Mars lander is. Credit:NASA Huge boulders now lie in the lake bed after being swept tens of kilometres downstream by the raging currents, the pictures show. But researchers are most excited by the discovery of layers of fine-grained clay and mudstones at the site because they could preserve traces of ancient life. In a world of increasing evil, sometimes all you need to strengthen your belief in humanity is a story that reminds you that goodness exists. Ruben Santiago-Hudson's Lackawanna Blues, belatedly receiving its Broadway premiere via Manhattan Theatre Club 20 years after it debuted at the Public Theater, is that story, a tale of a kind woman taking care of her community, and how those actions inspired her young ward to try and change the world himself. Ms. Rachel Crosby, or Nanny, as she was commonly known, is that woman. Her charge is the playwright and performer himself, who created this moving tribute to his surrogate mother in the spring of 2001, and, in the wake of 9/11, toured this story of compassion to regional theaters across the country. Their relationship is that of parent and child, though Nanny was of no blood relation to young Ruben. She wasn't related to anyone she took care of, but a little fact like that didn't get in the way of her maternal instincts. Operating a few boarding houses in Lackawanna, New York, Nanny became a proxy guardian to everyone who landed under her roof, whether they were recently released from a psychiatric facility, a former convict, or just in need of a hot bowl of soup. Santiago-Hudson simultaneously narrates the story and plays all the characters. What he does over the course of 90 minutes is a real feat of acting; simply costumed by Dede Ayite in a guayabera, he transforms himself into more than two dozen figures simply through subtle shifts in body language, physicality, and vocal patterns, all accentuated by the haunted lighting of Jen Schriever. He transmits the essences of characters like Ol' Po' Carl, the former Negro Leagues player forced to give up the drink after being diagnosed with "roaches of the liver," the single-legged Lemuel Taylor, who pitched a rock across a pond with such force it looked like he levitated, and eccentrics like Numb Finger Pete, Small Paul, Sweet Tooth Sam, Lackawanna Smitty, and more, all though a change in the way he stands or a hunch of the shoulders. It's just so enjoyable to watch him play, and set designer Michael Carnahan provides him with a beautifully ramshackle set that evokes real-life and memory simultaneously. It's easy to see why Lackawanna Blues was a hit at the Public Santiago-Hudson's words are soul-filling, and his performance is one of the more amazing solo turns I've seen (he's backed by blues guitarist Junior Mack, taking over for the late Bill Sims Jr., who originally joined the writer onstage). It's even clearer why the play really took off in the post-September 11 world; who couldn't use some kindness then? In a post-pandemic, post-George Floyd United States, this story of an unsung hero like Nanny, who probably saved the lives of so many disenfranchised men and woman by simply feeding and housing them, is all the more relevant. I'm glad Santiago-Hudson decided to bring Nanny back to reopen the Friedman Theatre. We could use more people like her these days. Imagine that: a world where everyone operates with benevolence in mind. Wouldn't that be the place? Hyundai and Amazon Evolve the Digital Retail Experience FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 7, 2021 -- Hyundai and Amazon Ads are again enhancing the car shopping experience with brand new features launching today on Hyundai's Evolve showroom on Amazon. The expansion of the digital showroom allows shoppers to discover available vehicles at participating dealers and begin the vehicle selection process directly on Amazon. Customers can configure and estimate the price of their desired Hyundai vehicle, locate real-time inventory and contact dealers to complete the sale. The Hyundai Evolve showroom can be found at Amazon.com/Hyundai. "Our mission is to be the leader in a seamless, digital and transparent retail experience in partnership with our dealer body," said Jose Munoz, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor North America. "The events of the last 18 months have made it clear that many consumers want a car buying process that aligns with how they purchase nearly everything else in their life. Amazon is a leading retailer and we're excited to continue collaborating with them on digital retail experiences." Alan Moss, VP of Global Ad Sales for Amazon Ads, said: "We are thrilled Hyundai is continuing to innovate with us to evolve their showroom experience. We look forward to a deeper collaboration on new features that enhance the showroom and make it even more helpful for customers as they discover and research Hyundai vehicles." These new features build upon Hyundai's digital showroom on Amazon that initially launched in 2018, and makes Hyundai the first automotive manufacturer to establish these enhanced experiences on Amazon. Hyundai Motor America Hyundai Motor America focuses on 'Progress for Humanity' and smart mobility solutions. Hyundai offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs and electrified vehicles. Our 820 dealers sold more than 620,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2020, and nearly half were built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. For more information, visit www.HyundaiNews.com. SOURCE Hyundai Motor America FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., Oct. 8, 2021 -- As the United States works towards an energy economy with zero carbon emissions by 2050, hydrogen fuel cell technology will be critical in complementing renewable electricity to reach this goal. Today, Faurecia stands in unity with the scientists and engineers across the country who will celebrate Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day, which is celebrated on Oct. 8 because the atomic weight of hydrogen (1.008). In line with its goal to become CO2 neutral by 2030, Faurecia boasts the expertise and technology to support the country's zero-emission objective while supporting customers with holistic hydrogen fuel system solutions. "Faurecia's product portfolio and hydrogen storage solutions, enriched by Symbio's stack systems technologies offer a complete range of hydrogen fuel cell solutions to meet all power and durability needs from light-duty to commercial and heavy-duty vehicles as well as design expertise that enables us to support customer vehicle integration needs," said Jose-Vicente March, Vice President Zero Emissions, Faurecia Clean Mobility North America. Faurecia's industry leading hydrogen technology offers key benefits, including longer driving range, faster refueling times, and a lower tank weight, allowing scalability for passenger and commercial vehicles. Most important it offers a reduced total cost of ownership, a measurement in which fuel cell electric vehicles are estimated to overtake battery electric vehicles between 2023 and 2030. Reducing the cost of hydrogen mobility is key in offering a competitive solution, and with its R&D capabilities and industrial know-how, Faurecia and Symbio plan to reduce the cost of hydrogen storage systems and stacks by more than 75% by 2030. In designing the next generation tanks, Faurecia is innovating for a more durable, sustainable and longer-life product with best in-class safety, performance and cost-efficiency. Key developments as Faurecia continues to develop its leadership position in hydrogen: Faurecia has created a global center of expertise for hydrogen in France. In this center of expertise, Faurecia develops the next generations of homologated, smart, lightweight and cost-competitive hydrogen storage systems that increase performance without mitigating safety. Faurecia and Michelin created a 50-50 joint venture named Symbio . Symbio has developed a comprehensive range of fuel cell stacks for broad applications across the automotive industry. Called StackPacks TM , these fuel cell stacks can be adapted to light & medium-duty commercial vehicles, trucks, buses and passenger cars. . Symbio has developed a comprehensive range of fuel cell stacks for broad applications across the automotive industry. Called StackPacks , these fuel cell stacks can be adapted to light & medium-duty commercial vehicles, trucks, buses and passenger cars. In April 2021 Faurecia successfully completed its acquisition of CLD , one of the leading manufacturers of hydrogen tanks in China . Through this acquisition, Faurecia was awarded a contract by SAIC Motor to provide hydrogen tanks for a large fleet of commercial vehicles. CLD has also been recently certified by the Chinese central government as the first domestic producer of Type IV hydrogen tanks. , one of the leading manufacturers of hydrogen tanks in . Through this acquisition, Faurecia was awarded a contract by SAIC Motor to provide hydrogen tanks for a large fleet of commercial vehicles. CLD has also been recently certified by the Chinese central government as the first domestic producer of Type IV hydrogen tanks. Faurecia and Symbio will supply Stellantis with fuel cell stacks and hydrogen storage systems for light commercial vehicles. Faurecia will also equip around 1,600 Hyundai heavy duty trucks to be delivered to Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility in Switzerland . for light commercial vehicles. to be delivered to Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility in . In 2021, Faurecia became a major member in key hydrogen associations in North America including Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) and California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP). As hydrogen mobility rapidly gains momentum, Faurecia is at the heart of a growing ecosystem of partners supporting its industrialization and adoption at scale. Consequently, Faurecia is well-positioned to support growing demand for zero-emissions hydrogen mobility solutions globally. The company plans to expand its hydrogen footprint into North America as it establishes a new hydrogen R&D and manufacturing site. About Faurecia Founded in 1997, Faurecia has grown to become a major player in the global automotive industry. With 266 industrial sites, 39 R&D centres and 114,000 employees in 35 countries, Faurecia is a global leader in its four areas of business: seating, interiors, Clarion Electronics and clean mobility. The Group's strong technological offering provides carmakers with solutions for the cockpit of the future and sustainable mobility. In 2020, the Group reported total turnover of 14.7 billion. Faurecia is listed on the Euronext Paris market and is a component of the CAC Next 20 index. Find out more at: www.faurecia.com Faurecia's vision for hydrogen Societal and political pressure on the automotive industry to reduce emissions has never been higher. As stringent new regulations come into force around the world, and with demand for electrified vehicles constantly increasing, Faurecia has made sustainable mobility a strategic priority. Hydrogen mobility is rapidly gaining momentum and Faurecia is at the heart of a growing ecosystem of partners supporting its industrialization and adoption at scale. Faurecia has a clear roadmap to develop hydrogen solutions adapted to different use cases in passenger cars, commercial vehicles, logistics, industries and beyond over the coming decade. The Group covers 75% of the hydrogen powertrain with hydrogen storage systems, as well as fuel cell stack systems through Symbio, our joint venture with Michelin. Faurecia ambitions to become a world leader in hydrogen mobility and targets 3.5bn sales by 2030. By 2050, the Group aims to be CO2 neutral for total emissions including the use phase of our products. Hyundai Ranks Highest Among Mass Market Brands In J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study Elantra Wins Emerging Automation Award for Front Cross Traffic Warning Technology FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 8, 2021 J.D. Power designated Hyundai as its highest ranked mass market brand in the 2021 U.S. Tech Experience Index (TXI) Study, released this week. Hyundai earned a top score of 519 and was praised for offering an above average level of technologies and excellence in execution. Hyundai Elantra is also the mass market model receiving the emerging automation award for front cross traffic warning technology, which Hyundai calls Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist (FCA) with Pedestrian, Cyclist and Junction-Turning Detection. Based on research, we understand unmet customer needs, and deliver advanced technology solutions to meet their needs, said Ricky Lao, director, Product Planning, Hyundai Motor North America. We are glad customers find these advanced technologies user friendly. The TXI Innovation Index Study measures how effectively each automotive brand brings technologies to market, measured on a 1,000-point scale. The index combines the level of adoption of new technologies for each brand with the excellence in execution. The execution measurement examines how much owners like the technologies and how many problems they experience while using them. The TXI Study analyzes 36 technologies, which are divided into four categories: convenience; emerging automation; energy and sustainability; and infotainment and connectivity. Only technologies classified as advanced are award eligible. Elantra Wins Emerging Automation Award for Front Cross Traffic Warning Technology The Hyundai Elantra won the emerging automation award for its Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist (FCA) with Pedestrian, Cyclist and Junction-Turning Detection, which uses radar technology and camera sensors to help prevent accidents with other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. FCA automatically reduces speed and alerts the driver of potential on-road collisions. With Electronic Stability Control (ESC), FCA ensures greater protection by automatically applying the brakes at the right time. The available junction-turning feature can detect an on-coming vehicle when turning left at an intersection and may warn the driver and provide braking assistance to help avoid a collision. Cheyenne, WY (82001) Today A mix of clouds and sun with gusty winds. High around 45F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 33F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. A moment of silence while I feed my phone to the sea. Photo: Tim Robberts/Getty Images Imagine just imagine the feeling of waking up one morning to see choice snippets from your bitchiest group chat, chopped up and sprinkled throughout a splashy story in a national paper of record. Imagine, if you will, that the subject of said texts was a mutual acquaintance who put a vital organ up for blind donation, for no tangible reason other than human kindness. Aaaagh! Its not looking good for you; indeed, its looking like a waking nightmare, one that (in a cruel twist) somehow allows you to empathize with Ted Cruzs wife. Horrible, simply horrible. How did we get here? Well! On Tuesday, the New York Times magazine ran a nearly 10,000-word feature on perceived betrayals in literature, which really took off among media types on Twitter. Entitled Who Is the Bad Art Friend? it dissects the minutiae of an approximately six-year beef between unpublished writer Dawn Dorland, and published writer Sonya Larson. If you want to spend the next hour wincing into the neck of your sweatshirt, I suggest you read it yourself, but in brief: Ca. June 2015, Dorland decided to make a non-directed donation of her kidney, meaning she made it available not to a specific person, but to any old stranger on a transplant list. Around this time, she also decided to make a private Facebook group updating a small circle of friends, relatives, and members of a writing group who called themselves the Chunky Monkeys (I know and Im sorry but we dont have time to stop here; eyes on the prize) on her altruism. For some people who found themselves among Dorlands confidants, her performative handling of an ostensible act of charity undercut its selflessness; this camp did not engage with the posts as much as Dorland thought real friends should. She singled out one guilty party Larson in a series of emails, which escalated to a full-blown lawsuit when Dorland, who is white, learned that Larson used the donation as a jumping-off point for a short story about an oblivious white savior, despite never even commenting in the Facebook group. The story would go on to accrue accolades, and though Larson denied stealing Dorlands life material for personal gain, she appears to have pulled a saccharine letter Dorland wrote to her unknown kidney recipient straight off of Facebook and plopped it in her narrative. Thats according to a series of subpoenaed text messages between Larson and various Chunky Monkeys, ripping on Dorland over a period of years. What did the texts say? Wow, you love the drama; here we go. When a friend and fellow Chunky Monkey texted, in 2015, to say, Im now following Dawn Dorlands kidney posts with creepy fascination, Larson reportedly responded: Oh, my God. Right? The whole thing though I try to ignore it persists in making me uncomfortable. I just cant help but think that she is feeding off the whole thing. #domoreforeachother. Like, what am I supposed to do? DONATE MY ORGANS? The chatter didnt stop there. In late summer 2016, Larson wrote: Dude, I could write pages and pages more about Dawn. Or at least about this particular narcissistic dynamic, especially as it relates to race. The woman is a gold mine! Trust, there is more, but arguably the most damning exchange came in January 2016, when Larson allegedly texted two friends the following: I think Im DONE with the kidney story but I feel nervous about sending it out b/c it literally has sentences that I verbatim grabbed from Dawns letter on FB. Ive tried to change it but I cant seem to that letter was just too damn good. Im not sure what to do feeling morally compromised/like a good artist but a shitty person. For about as long as Dorland has been feuding with Larson, I have been joking with members of my own group chats that, one day, our texts will be read aloud in court, and naturally, this hearing will be hilarious. Now the possibility makes me feel all barf-y. Who among us has not waggled their eyebrows at an attention-seeking tweet, or a praise-courting post, in the assumed confidence of like-minded friends? Who among us has paused to consider that our pettiest quips might one day become fodder for approximately 8.5 million Times subscribers? That a time-stamped history of talking shit might become a matter of public record, the first thing that surfaces should anyone bother to Google our names? That we might forget our stupid, offhand jabs but our data networks never will? Hmm yeah, ouch. A moment of silence while I feed my phone to the sea. Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly referred to Dawn Dorland as a member of the Chunky Monkeys. She was not. Stay in touch. Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. The headquarters of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc., is seen in Wichita, Kansas, on Dec. 17, 2019. (Nick Oxford/Reuters) American Airlines, Spirit AeroSystems to Meet Biden Dec. 8 Vaccine Deadline WASHINGTONAmerican Airlines Group Inc. and aircraft parts manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. said on Wednesday they would meet a deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden to require vaccines for its employees by a Dec. 8 deadline for government contractors. The White House announced the Dec. 8 deadline for employees of federal contractors last month and the requirements are expected to cover millions of employees. American Airlines, the largest U.S. carrier, told its 100,000 U.S.-based employees they must submit proof of full vaccination as soon as possibleno later than Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021 To be clear, if you fail to comply with the requirement, the result will be termination from the company. Wichita, Kansas-based Spirit said the mandate would cover its 10,500 U.S. employees.As a federal contractor, testing is not an option for Spirit employees, the company said. Last month, Raytheon also said it would require all U.S. employees to be vaccinated, while Southwest Airlines, which also has significant federal contracts, said Monday it would require its U.S. employees to be vaccinated by Dec. 8. Some airline officials had asked the White House to push back the requirements, signed by Biden last month, until after the busy holiday travel season. The White House is adding clauses to future government contracts mandating inoculations. Steve Cave, a King & Spalding attorney who specializes in government contracts, told Reuters last month he expects the order will impact tens of millions of U.S. workers or more. The tentacles are far reaching, Cave said. The number touched by this will be huge. Its probably in the upper tens of millions. The Labor Department separately plans to issue an emergency temporary standard requiring employers with more than 100 workers to have them inoculated or tested weeklya policy expected to cover more than 80 million workers. By David Shepardson A man rides a bicycle next to a construction site near residential buildings in Beijing, China, on Jan. 13, 2021. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters) Analysis: Fall in Chinas $1.3 Trillion Land Sales to Test Local Finances, Economy BEIJINGSagging demand at Chinas urban land auctions amid a crackdown on borrowing by private developers risks squeezing regional finances, pressuring local authorities to scramble for other income sources to fund investments and support the economy. Land sales soared to a record 8.4 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion) in 2020, the equivalent of Australias annual gross domestic product, bolstering fiscal budgets in a pandemic year. But tighter regulations on borrowing by private developers since the summer of last year are increasingly eroding demand for land. The value of nationwide land sales abruptly fell 17.5 percent on year in August, according to Reuters calculations of finance ministry data, the biggest slide since February 2020. Further falls could force regional governments, who on average depend on land sales for a fifth of their revenue, to cut spending and investment. Many economists have already downgraded Chinas 2021 GDP growth forecast, due to a cooling property market and contagion risks from indebted property behemoth China Evergrande. To boost incomes, some local authorities may be driven to issue more bonds, increasing their debt obligations. They may even hasten plans for a controversial property tax, analysts say. In general, the proportion of land sales revenue for local governments in China is quite large, at over 20 percent, so if land sales decline, or their growth slows, local government spending will see a certain amount of pressure, said Betty Wang, senior China economist at ANZ in Hong Kong. Falling Demand To better control land prices in the countrys most valuable locations, and by extension, prices of finished homes, authorities said in February that Chinas 22 biggest cities can only conduct three rounds of land auctions this year. The authorities have also since put a cap on the highest bids to contain prices. But since the first round of auctions in March-June, demand has fallen as cash-strapped developers stayed away. In an ongoing round of auctions in JuneOctober, about 40 percent of the plots on offer were withdrawn or had no bidders as of Sept. 30, a Reuters analysis of over 1,000 public notices showed. That compared with 5 percent of untaken offers in the first round. Tianjin in northern China sold 40 out of 61 plots, while Shenyang, the provincial capital of Liaoning, offloaded 19 of 46 lots, the Reuters analysis showed. Moodys predicts land sales growth will be in the low single-digits in 2021 before declining in 2022. Sales grew 16 percent last year. To offset poorer sales, local governments could issue more bonds, but that would raise the prospect of a higher debt burden, Moodys warned in a report. Highly-indebted Tianjin and Liaoning may struggle to meet debt obligations if land sales worsen, according to Moodys. State Support State firms have dominated land auctions as private developers stuck to the sidelines, but it is uncertain whether this would be enough to safeguard local government revenues. The value of winning bids by state firms have been triple that of private developers in the June-October auctions so far, marking a departure from past trends. But, as of Sept. 30, their overall bids were down 45 percent to 277.2 billion yuan from the March-June auctions. In the southwestern megacity of Chengdu, state-controlled China Railway Construction Corp placed bids for 15 plots of land and put down a whopping deposit of 4.28 billion yuan ($662 million). In contrast, private developers such as China Fortune Land have spent less on land purchases this year than in 2020, or nothing at all, according to the Reuters analysis. Evergrande, through a local developer, bought only one plot this year in June, the analysis showed. The other companies did not respond to requests for comment. Seven out of Chinas 22 biggest cities have until the end of October to auction land, including Beijing and Shanghai. Longer term, local authorities may seek other sources of fiscal revenue such as property taxes, ANZs Wang said. The Chinese regime has mulled a nationwide property tax for over a decade but faced resistance from stakeholders including local governments themselves, who fear it would erode property values or trigger a market sell-off. ($1 = 6.4452 Chinese) Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in the Senate Chamber of the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., on April 8, 2020. (Tommy Metthe/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP) Arkansas Lawmakers Advance Bill to Ban Businesses From Requiring Workers Vaccine Status Arkansas lawmakers on Thursday advanced a measure that would ban businesses from requiring workers to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status. In a 2211 vote, the majority-Republican Senate advanced the legislation that would grant employees and contractors a right of privacy, meaning that businesses would not be allowed to demand them to disclose whether theyve been vaccinated against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. A House panel later endorsed the bill, sending it to the full House for a final vote. The proposal is among several measures limiting or prohibiting vaccine requirements that have dominated a session that was intended to focus on congressional redistricting. A day earlier, lawmakers sent Gov. Asa Hutchinson a proposal allowing workers to opt out of their employers COVID-19 vaccine requirements. The measures are primarily in response to President Joe Bidens COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which he announced last month, that requires businesses with 100 employees or more to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations or ensure weekly testing. Weve got to push back, and this is where it starts, Republican state Rep. Mary Bentley, a member of the House Public Health Committee, said before the panel endorsed the measure. If enacted, the proposal would only take effect early next year, as it failed to secure two-thirds of support in the Senate, which is needed for the legislation to be enforced immediately. Without that backing, it would take effect 90 days after the legislature adjourns. It isnt clear whether the Republican governor will sign the measure into law if it reaches his desk, however he has previously expressed concern about other attempts by the legislature to prevent businesses from requiring employees to be vaccinated. The Epoch Times has contacted Hutchinsons office for comment. Early on Wednesday, the governor told reporters at a news briefing that he doesnt believe in a federal mandate on vaccination, referring to the presidents recent mandate on companies with 100 workers or more. But I also dont believe in state mandates as well on employers and defining the employer-employee relationship, he added. The president said last week that 96 to 98 percent of Americans need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the nation can go back to normal. But one thing is for certain: A quarter of the country cant go unvaccinated and us not continue to have a problem, Biden told reporters at the White House on Sept. 27. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Tunisian police stand guard outside the parliament in Tunis on July 27, 2021. (Fethi Belaid/AFP via Getty Images) At Least 30 Injured in Trains Collision in Tunisia: Mosaique Radio CAIROAt least 30 people were injured in a two trains collision in the Tunisian capital on Thursday, Tunisian Radio Mosaique reported. Injured were transferred to two hospitals for medical care, Mosaique said. There were no further details on the cause of the accident. By Alaa Swilam and Mahmoud Mourad Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces a snap five day lockdown for the state during a press conference in Melbourne, Australia on July 15, 2021 . (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images) Aussie State Leader Dan Andrews Fined $400 for Not Wearing Face Mask The premier of the Australian state of Victoria, Dan Andrews, whose capital city Melbourne drew international attention in September for its harsh police response to protests against COVID-19 restrictions, has been fined $400 by police for not wearing a face mask. Victoria Police on Friday afternoon confirmed that Andrews had been fined $200 each time for breaching the states mask mandate on both Wednesday and Thursday this week. Both times he was caught without a mask as he approached his daily press conference. Victoria Police can confirm it has issued two infringement notices to Premier Daniel Andrews for breaching Chief Health Officer directions, a statement read. Andrews had earlier apologised after a video and photo emerged of him not wearing face masks, which prompted police to investigate. In a statement to News.com.au, Andrews earlier said that he would pay any fine from police if he was found to have breached public health orders; otherwise, he would have donated the equivalent amount to a charity. I am aware that as I approached two press conferences at the back of Parliament House this week, I removed my mask after leaving the car, before I walked to the back doors, he said. I expect Victoria Police to assess this, and if they choose to issue a fine, of course, I will pay it. If they do not issue a fine, I will donate the same value to a charity working to support people in this pandemic because whilst this was an oversight, oversights mattereveryone needs to follow the rules, and I am sorry it occurred, he said prior to being fined. Video by a local Seven News reporter caught the incident on Thursday, while a News Corp reporter snapped a photograph of the mask-less premier on Wednesday. In Victoria, anyone 12 years and over must wear a fitted face mask whenever they leave their home, indoors or outdoors, unless a lawful exception applies, according to the state government. Five million people in that state are subject to stay-at-home orders, that only permit them to leave their homeswhile wearing a maskfor five reasons. Those reasons are shopping for necessary goods and services, care and caregiving, exercise, authorised work or permitted study, or to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Under orders from the states chief health officer, masks must also be worn while riding public transport or taking a taxi or rideshare services for one of the five permitted reasons. People who do not wear a face mask when required to can be fined $200. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is prepared for administration at a vaccination clinic on Sept. 22, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) Australia Prepared to Vaccinate Children Under 12 The Australian government says it will be ready to provide Pfizer vaccinations to children younger than 12 once they receive approval from the TGA. Pfizer has sought emergency approval with the FDA in the U.S. to administer a lower dose to children aged between 5 and 11 following successful trials. The Australian government, since September, have encouraged Pfizer to apply to the TGA for approval to vaccinate children as young as 5. Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton said that the decision made to vaccinate under-12s is not political. We have the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) and all sorts of approval processes, he said on the Nine Network on Friday. They dont approve vaccines without the most rigorous testing, and we should take heart from that. If they approve it, then the government will act on that straight away, but its a decision for the scientists. Dutton also noted that evidence showed COVID-19 did not affect children the same way as adults. Indeed in the most recent report (pdf) released by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) indicated that despite the greater virulence and infectiousness of the Delta strain, 98 percent of the reported cases of infected children aged 0 to 18 from Jun 16 to Aug 19 were asymptomatic or had a mild case of disease. However, TGAs studies on Pfizer vaccines indicate that young adults younger or equal to 19 years of age have the highest risk of myocarditis-like cases after vaccination. Until Sep 26, this age group had a rate of 1.4 myocarditis-like cases per 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine as compared to 0.8 and lower in all other age ranges. TGAs most recent report on Oct 7 confirmed that ongoing analysis of Australian data with Pfizer indicates that there is a higher-than-expected number of cases of myocarditis in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated individuals. Furthermore, the cases are more common in teenage boys after the second dose. These findings concur with other overseas drug regulators. However, TGA stated that myocarditis-like cases are usually short-lasting and resolved after treatment and rest. Victoria recorded 1838 new COVID cases on Friday, setting a new single-day record for any jurisdiction since the pandemic began last year. Meanwhile, Queensland and Western Australia have been urged to boost increase their vaccination rates; the two states were the last two states to reach the 50 percent vaccination thresholds for over-16s. Dutton said COVID-free parts of Australia could not stay in lockdown indefinitely. Thinking that you could lock down and pretend like its not going to come to Queensland or not going to come to Mackay or into Perth or Fremantle is complete nonsense, he said. Infectious disease physician Katherine Gibney from the Doherty Institute said states like Queensland not opening up their borders until higher vaccine thresholds were met made sense. Additionally, she noted double-dose vaccine targets of 70 and 80 percent are reasonable targets for states and territories to begin the reopening process. Nationally, nearly 60 per cent of over-16s are fully vaccinated. Jean-Pierre Thebault, then French ambassador in charge of G7 summit preparations, speaks on his mobile phone while working in Biarritz, south-west France, on Aug. 25, 2019. (Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images) Australia Remains Our Friend but Morrison Govt Needs to Rebuild Trust: French Ambassador The French ambassador to Australia, Jean-Pierre Thebault, has told Australian media that his mission in returning to the country is to determine whether France still trusts Australia after the sudden cancellation of a multibillion-dollar order for French submarines in favour of a new deal with the United States and the United Kingdom. Speaking to local radio on Friday, Thebault said that while he understood that it was Australias sovereign right to make a new deal to serve its national interests, France took exception to the way it was managed, which he said was a serious breach in trust that needs to be repaired. As part of the new AUKUS security alliance between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Australia will be supplied with technology to construct its own nuclear submarines. French officials allegedly learned of the deal just hours before U.S. President Joe Bidens announcement. France later recalled its Australian and U.S. ambassadors in protest. At first, the French ambassadorwhen askedsaid that it remains to be seen if the two countries can be friends again. But he later backtracked and said that Australia remains our friend. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrisonwho welcomed the French ambassadors returndefended the deal on Thursday, which he said was a difficult decision that caused deep disappointment and hurt to France but was better for Australias national interests. Thats the thing about difficult decisions. To take difficult decisions, you need to be conscious of what the implications of those are. But understand what the greater benefit is to Australias national interests. Thats what I did on the subs. Thats what Ive done on AUKUS, Morrison said. Thebault on Friday said France was best placed to know and support the idea of sovereignty but said, the way you do the thing, describes who you are. We need the Morrison government to rebuild the trust, Thebault told a national radio service. He noted that it would take time but that the French ambassador was committed to having those discussions. When you cite, publicly, on several instances, until the last minute, of the absolute importance of your ally; on mutual respect, on values of transparency and openness, you cannot behave exactly the other way, he said. The prime minister also said that he looked forward to the first time he and French President Emmanuel Macron could speak again on the phone. Weve worked together very closely, and Im looking forward to getting through what is a difficult period, he said. Minister for Education Alan Tudge at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Aug. 27, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) Australias Education Minister Optimistic About International Students Returning Australias Education Minister Alan Tudge has said that he is optimistic about the prospect of a rebound in the international student sector. The past 18 months have been tough for the international education sector, Tudge told the Australian International Education Conference on Oct 8. Student enrolments have declined by 70 percent since this time in 2019 for English language providers, whereas enrolments for public universities as a whole has declined by 17 percent. Those providers that have been more dependent on the Indian, Nepalese, and Vietnameseas opposed to the Chinese markethave also been hit very hard, Tudge said. However, the federal education minister is optimistic about the path forward given national vaccination rates have been increasing. Australia is getting close to achieving 70 and 80 percent vaccination targets. According to the national plan to reopen the country, international students can start to return to Australia at 70 percent and then in even larger numbers from 80 percent. Tudge promised that mechanisms will be put in place to allow for safe entry of large numbers of international arrivals. An International COVID-19 Vaccine Certificate will be introduced this month. Currently, the certificate will be for outbound travel for Australians, but there are hopes that it will be expanded to authenticate vaccination certificates issued by other countries. Tudge expects that small numbers of international students will return to Australia later this year. Meanwhile, the Victorian state government has on Oct. 7, already submitted to the federal government its plan for international students to return. The plan is currently in review. If approved, hundreds of students will be expected to return to study in Victoria at the end of the year. At stage one of the plan, priority will be given to enrolled students undertaking practical work such as medical or health students, or those completing their degrees or postgraduate research. Up to 120 places will be open each week for international university students. Stage two will cover arrivals of international students enrolled in TAFEs, English-language courses, private colleges, and secondary schools. The state of New South Wales is also expecting to have 500 international students return in December. The Council for International Education is working with the state of South Australia on the final details of the pilot plan approved in June this year. Prior to the pandemic, international education was Australias third-largest export sector with a revenue of $37.6 billion in 2019. Since the pandemic around 17,300 university jobs have been cut nationally. International education revenue for the 2020-21 financial have dropped by 28 percent to $26.7 billion and is expected to drop by the end of year at the current rate if lockdowns continue. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan testifies to Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 9, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Biden EPAs Purge of Industry Representatives Violated Federal Law: Lawsuit The Environmental Protection Agency failed to follow federal law when it purged industry representatives from two advisory panels, a lawsuit filed Thursday alleges. Michael Regan, a President Joe Biden nominee, was sworn in as the administrator of the agency, known as the EPA, on March 11. Twenty days later, he removed every member of two panels, totaling 54 people. Resetting these two scientific advisory committees will ensure the agency receives the best possible scientific insight to support our work to protect human health and the environment, Regan said at the time. An internal 2017 directive prohibited scientists who received EPA research grants from serving on the panels. That prevented qualified officials from serving on the panels and thus restricted eligibility for membership, Regan alleged, pointing in part to a watchdog review (pdf) of the process that uncovered irregularities to the nominations. Regan himself, though, violated the law when conducting the purge, Stanley Young, one of the members, asserted in the new filing through lawyers. None of the 54 members are affiliated with industries the EPA regulates. That means the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and the Science Advisory Board are not fairly balanced, which is required by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), attorneys Brett Shumate and Joseph Falvey of Jones Day wrote. The EPA regulates industries including manufacturing, mining, and healthcare. This purge and the subsequent reconstitution of the board and the committee violated FACA and its implementing regulations. The committees are now unfairly balancedboth in terms of points of view and the functions the committees are required to performbecause they lack a single member affiliated with regulated industries, the suit says. EPA also failed to adopt appropriate measures to ensure that the committees are protected from inappropriate influence. The new committees are subject to inappropriate influence because they are stacked with academics who are financially beholden to EPA through multi-million dollar research grants, it states. The suit was filed in federal court in Washington. It asks the court to hold that EPA and Regan violated federal law and to halt panel proceedings until the memberships are constituted lawfully. The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn as he leaves the White House on Oct. 7, 2021, in Washington, DC. Biden was traveling to the Chicago area to promote his Build Back Better agenda while also encouraging employers to have their employees vaccinated. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Biden Urges More Employers to Issue Vaccine Mandates Ahead of OSHA Rule President Joe Biden is asking private businesses to implement COVID-19 vaccine mandates ahead of the rollout of his federal rule requiring many to do so. The president traveled to Illinois on Thursday to tour a Clayco construction site in Elk Grove Village and to give a speech. Im calling on more employers to act, Biden said in his address. My message is to require your employees to get vaccinated. The speech also included Bidens familiar refrain: This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Biden continued to claim many heart and cancer patients are unable to get treatment in emergency departments overrun with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. About 67 million eligible Americans have not been inoculated with any of the vaccines developed in response to the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. Bidens speech comes as his approval rating has taken a dip. Fifty percent now say they approve of Biden, while 49 percent disapprove, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. During his visit to Elk Grove Village, the presidents motorcade rolled past a large protest with lots of pro-Trump, anti-Biden signs. One sign said: Mandates are 4 Greed and power. Bidens executive order, announced Sept. 9, is set to require all workers at private businesses with 100 employees or more to be vaccinated for COVID-19 or show a weekly negative test. It will also require employers with more than 100 employees to provide paid time off for workers to get vaccinated or to recover if they suffer an adverse reaction post-vaccination. The White House has said there is no clear timeline for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to craft this new rule, which many Republicans have vowed to fight in court. But Biden is making the case for businesses to put mandates in place on their own before the rule is put in place. Businesses have more power than ever before to change the arch of this pandemic and save lives and protect and grow our economy, he said in the speech. Many large companies have already taken this step, with many increasing their vaccination rate above 90 percent. Biden, along with federal health officials, point to this as evidence that vaccine mandates work. Still, many workers are choosing to be fired rather than receive the vaccine. United Airlines said last week that its set to terminate 593 of its employees who have chosen to not comply with the companys vaccine mandate. Biden downplayed that number Thursday touting the companys vaccination rate, which went from 59 percent to 99 percent after United put its mandate in place. When you see headlines and reports of mass firings and hundreds of people losing their jobs, look at the bigger story, said Biden. When asked why the Biden administration doesnt require vaccination for all domestic flights, deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that while no options are off the table, we are focused on the aggressive and urgent action like the ones weve emphasized today. The average number of daily COVID-19 cases nationwide dropped by 12 percent over the last seven days to just under 98,000, and hospitalizations dropped 14 percent to about 7,400, said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday. A climate activist from the group Insulate Britain sits on the ground in handcuffs after being arrested by police during a demonstration in which the protesters blocked a roundabout in central London on Oct. 8, 2021. (Daniel Sorabji/ AFP via Getty Images) Britons Opposition to Insulate Britain Grows After 3-week Action by the Eco-Activist Group: Poll More Britons are now against the actions of Insulate Britain (IB) after the environment activist group blocked motorways and other busy roads for the past three weeks, a new poll suggests. A survey result (pdf) published on Friday by YouGov showed that 72 percent of the people surveyed on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6 were against the groups actions, up 13 percent from the result of a survey from three weeks prior. Around 18 percent of participants supported IBs actions, and 10 percent said they didnt know the answer. Among participants who considered the environmental issue the most important to them, about 58 percent opposed IBs tactics, 33 percent supported them, and 10 percent couldnt decide. Asked if IBs actionssuch as blocking roads and fixing themselves on roads and other infrastructure or objectshelp or hinder their cause from their own perspective, 67 percent of those surveyed said they hinder their cause, a 10 percent increase from three weeks prior. Nine percent of the people surveyed thought IBs actions help their cause, down 3 percent from three weeks prior, while 16 percent said they dont make any difference (down 3 percent) and 7 percent didnt have an answer (down 5 percent). Among those who considered the environment the number one issue, 60 percent said IBs actions hinder their cause, while 17 percent said they were helpful, 16 percent said they didnt make a difference, and 7 percent didnt know. Asked to consider the same question from the perspective of the public, more people thought the IBs tactics hinder their cause. Handout photo issued by Insulate Britain of protesters from Insulate Britain blocking Old Street roundabout in central London on Oct. 8, 2021. (Insulate Britain via PA) However, as the government announced planned legislation to fine or imprison people who block roads on Tuesday, more people are saying they dont want these people jailed. The pollster asked people if they supported the imprisonment of the protesters who obstruct traffic on motorways and main roads. About 57 percent of those surveyed said they were opposed to the idea, a significant jump from the survey result of a previous survey on Sept. 23, in which only 20 percent of the respondents opposed the idea. Around 34 percent of all respondents surveyed this week supported prison terms for traffic-blocking protesters, the number went down to 28 percent among those who considered the environment their top issue. The percentage of people supporting the imprisonment of road-blockers fell from 68 percent on Sept. 23, to 34 percent this week. YouGov said 1,667 adults across Britain participated in the survey. Drivers stand watching from their cars as traffic is halted during a roadblock by protesters from Insulate Britain at a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London on Sept. 27, 2021. (Steve Parsons/PA) IB activists blockaded a number of motorways and busy roads since Sept. 13, demanding the government insulate 29 million British homes by 2030. A number of injunctions were issued to prohibit the activists from blocking the motorways, but the apologetic yet adamant activists went on with their actions, disregarding threats of fines and imprisonment. The group blocked the M25 motorway again on Friday, as well as a major London roundabout, infuriating motorists. Speaking on ITVs Good Morning Britain programme on Friday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the activists actions are completely and utterly unacceptable, adding that the police have been serving injunction papers to named individuals. When it comes to injunctions, you are in fact in contempt of court, and Im hoping, Im sure that the courts will want to take that behaviour into account when they come up against justice, Shapps said. Climate activists from the group Insulate Britain block the road as police officers work to remove and arrest them during a demonstration in central London on Oct. 8, 2021. (Daniel Sorabji/ AFP via Getty Images) In a statement emailed to The Epoch Times, Insulate Britain said it recognises and understands the publics [sic] frustrations over the ongoing traffic disruption. We accept that we are not popular, the statement reads. We wish to draw attention to the fact that Sir David King has said that the next three to four years will determine the future of humanity. The fate of humanity, thats all our mothers and children, all our hospitals and roads, our economy and, our food supplies. Our government is not taking the most cost-effective solutions to avoid this future and we are seeking to bring attention to this. In a statement emailed to The Epoch Times, a government spokesperson said, Peaceful protest is a fundamental right of our democracy, but it must be within the law. We cannot allow this repeated, reckless and dangerous behaviour to continue on our roads, causing misery and putting lives at risk. California Losing Tesla Headquarters to Texas During his remarks to Teslas shareholders at their 2021 Annual Shareholder Meeting on Oct. 7 near Austin, Texas, Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk announced to applause, Im excited to announce were moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas. At the same time, he displayed a Tesla logo superimposed on a Texas-style sheriff badge that read Dont Mess With onscreen, while wearing a Western-style bandana around his neck. The key reason Musk gave for the move is theres a limit to how big you can scale it in the Bay Area. The headquarters in California are located at a site previously used for a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota. Musk said that when Tesla moved into the factory, it was a like a child putting on his or her parents giant shoes, but now its difficult to add more stuff to the factory. Furthermore, he said, its difficult for people to afford houses [and] people have to come in from far away. Fremont is in the heart of Californias Silicon Valley, which also includes San Jose and the home of Stanford University, Palo Alto. According to Musks comments, Teslas artificial intelligence, chip design, and some other engineering functions will remain in Silicon Valley. The factory and headquarters in Austin will be five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown, [and] were going to create an ecological paradise along the neighboring Colorado River, not to be confused with the Colorado River that runs between California and Arizona. Musk was careful to state, This is not a matter of Tesla leaving California. Indeed, he emphasized that all Model S and Model X cars are made in the Fremont factory. However, when he was congratulating his China team for getting the Shanghai factory to make cars of the best quality [and] lowest cost, he did add and also low drama, presumably referring to the issues surrounding the mandatory factory closure at the beginning of the pandemic in California. He may have also been hinting at other possible issues that many manufactures in California have cited for moving production outside the state, including avoiding the rigorous air and water quality rules. The experiences and rationale provided by Tesla mirror the findings of the Milken Institutes 2021 study (pdf) of Best Performing Cities. That report said that Austin, Texas, is the third best-performing large city in America and that the San Francisco metropolitan area fell from first place in 2020 precipitously to 24th, and that San Jose fell from fifth down to 22nd. The regions high home prices may have contributed to these declines in rankings. In a study of 2020 population changes, Chapman University found that the No. 1 reason people leave California is high home prices and that the No. 2 reason is Californias high level of regulation compared to other states. Furthermore, with proposals to increase Californias state-level income tax in discussion, now may have seemed like a good time for the senior executives of Tesla to all move to Texas, which has no state-level income tax. Some of the about 220 Chinese vessels reported by the Philippine Coast Guard, and believed to be manned by Chinese maritime militia personnel, are pictured at Whitsun Reef, South China Sea, on March 7, 2021. (Philippine Coast Guard/National Task Force-West Philippine Sea/Handout via Reuters) Chinas Maritime Militia: The CCPs Covert Military Arm Chinas maritime militia poses as fishing boats in carrying out military missions News Analysis Despite Beijings disclaimers, Chinas maritime militia is very real. It is composed of vessels that look like civilian fishing boats but are tasked with supporting the Chinese Navy in controlling the seas. The sailors are called Little Blue Men, a play on little green men from Mars. When pressed for an explanation, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) refers to them as the so-called maritime militia. Seafood is key to Chinas food security. China consumes 65 million tons of fish per year, which is 45 percent of the global volume. According to CCP official sources, China maintains the largest fishing fleet in the world, with 2,701 boats and ships. The London-based Overseas Development Institute, however, estimates that China deploys 187,000 fishing boats, including 17,000 vessels in distant-water operations. At least 100 of these vessels and 1,800 sailors operate under the command of the Peoples Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM). This subcomponent of the CCP armed forces is trained and equipped to support the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in laying claim to islands, features, and waters in disputed areas. Carl Schuster, former director of operations at the U.S. Pacific Commands Joint Intelligence Center, told CNN that the boats have automatic weapons and reinforced hulls, and can achieve a top speed of around 18 to 22 knots, which is faster than 90 percent of the worlds fishing boats. Additionally, the vessels are outfitted with Beidou navigation satellite systems to be independent of the GPS. An investigation by Radio Free Asia (RFA) discovered that many of the boats belong to the state-owned enterprise Sansha City Fisheries Development Co, Ltd., which has managed government projects involving classified national security data. The boats carry cutting-edge communications systems, transforming them into mobile communications and surveillance platforms that can gather and transmit intelligence back to authorities in a remote location. The PAFMM can be used to track foreign vessels and U.S. aircraft, as well as surveil the shores of countries that are part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road). Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs at the University of the Philippines, claims that the PAFMM plays a significant role in the CCPs plan is to establish control over the entire South China Sea. In April, the Philippine Coast Guard became suspicious when it observed the same 200 Chinese fishing boats sitting idle in the same location, near the Spratlys Whitsun Reef, a Philippine possession, for several weeks. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Whitsun Reef incident was the single largest gathering of Chinese fishing vessels ever. Chinese vessels, believed to be manned by Chinese maritime militia personnel, are seen at Whitsun Reef, South China Sea, on March 27, 2021. (Philippine Coast Guard/National Task Force-West Philippine Sea/Handout via Reuters) The boats were not fishing and it is unlikely that legitimate fishing boats would just sit for a protracted period of time, doing nothing. As a result, the Philippine Coast Guard reported its suspicionthat these boats were actually on a covert military operation. Confronted by the Philippine government, the Chinese foreign ministry and embassy in Manila denied the accusation that the suspicious boats were on a mission from Chinas maritime militia. The Peoples Republic of Chinas Embassy in Manila actually issued a statement saying, There is no Chinese Maritime Militia as alleged. Although some Chinese diplomats deny the existence of the PAFMM, its responsibilities have expanded tremendously. In 2013, Xi Jinping visited Hainans Tanmen Maritime Militia, in light of recognizing the role it played in the seizure of Scarborough Shoal. Major-General Gai Longyun, commander of the Guangdong military district, addressed the PAFMM sailors and said that the maritime struggle is growing more urgent, and that the state was exploring ways to strengthen the maritime militia. Additionally, military authorities called for the mobilization forces, such as militia, to participate in the struggle at sea. In 2016, when the PLA was reorganized, the National Defense Mobilization Commission (NDMC) system was placed under the Chinese State Council and the PLAs Central Military Commission, with a dual civilian-military command structure, tasked with overseeing and mobilizing the militia. The PAFMM, supported by the Chinese Coast Guard, is used to enforce Chinas territorial claims to 90 percent of the South China Sea, particularly, around the Paracel and Spratly Islands. China has also built 3,200 acres of new land, to further extend its territorial claims. The CCP military operations in the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 were an excellent example of the regimes maritime military strategy, using the PAFMM as the front line while reserving the Coast Guard and Navy as the second and third lines. The PAFMM poses a particularly difficult problem for the United States. First, it consists of civilian vessels, so any actions against the militia by the United States or its allies would be considered an attack on civilians. For the claimants of the South China Sea and other disputed waters, the PAFMM represents a military force that they may not be able to defeat. Additionally, by engaging with the PAFMM, they would be risking retaliation by the PLA. From a pure military and strategic standpoint, a U.S. Navy flotilla could destroy any number of boats it encounters. However, the sheer numbers of these small vessels would make them elusive. While the United States is engaging in one place, the PAFMM could be active in another. There is also fear that the Philippines, the country most threatened by the PAFMM, might engage with one of the boats, dragging the United States into a war with China. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Coals Resurgence: Futures Rally to Fresh Record Highs This year, U.S. coal prices have staged a fierce comeback amid renewed global demand and supply cuts. As parts of Europe and Asia face a growing energy crisis, industry observers project that the fossil fuels gains could be extended into 2022, prompting more countries to increase production and shipments. Coal futures on Oct. 5 surged to fresh record highs of $269.50 per metric ton, lifting their year-to-date gains above 200 percent. Across the globe, the black combustible sedimentary rock is soaring: European coal is trading at a 13-year high, Australian Newcastle coal rallied 230 percent, and Chinese thermal coal prices have hit new all-time highs. While demand is intensifying worldwide, coal inventories are presently insufficient to satisfy consumption. The temporary panacea has been to boost output, support foreign shipments, and increase investments in coal power plants. How the World is Responding American utility companies have switched to coal in response to the immense electricity demand, but domestic miners have slashed their mining capacities by as much as 20 percent since 2015. The Chinese government has substantially increased its coal usage, forcing the state to unleash reserves and import more from producing nations. Beijing recently released Australian coal from bonded shortage, despite a year-long import ban. Zhejiang Province stimulated coal imports from Kazakhstan and Africa. Chinese officials have eyed Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela as the countrys next energy trading partners because of their immense coal and crude oil supplies. Aerial view of a modern large coal power plant in Dezhou City, Shandong Province, China in this undated photo. (chungking/Adobe Stock) Beijing began ordering financial institutions to boost funding for companies that are ramping up output, while Chinese regulators plan to relax coal mine safety efforts as authorities want domestic firms to produce more of the energy commodity. Overall, Chinese Senior Vice Premier Han Zheng has required state-owned energy companies to gather as much fuel as possible ahead of winter. A power crunch is expected to hit India as its coal stockpiles have reached a crisis point, leaving the emerging market with few options. According to the government, the nations 135 thermal power plants possessed an average of four days of coal supplies, down from 13 days of stocks in early August. As a result, officials are encouraging state-run Coal India to boost production to circumvent the supply squeeze. The UKs electricity system operator (ESO) has spent nearly $120 million to ensure the last remaining coal power stations are operational. These outlets are left on standby to generate electricity on short notice. European power producers are turning to Russia for more coal to help mitigate the energy crunch expected this winter. Despite being the worlds sixth-largest coal producer, experts agree that Moscow could not export enormous amounts of coal on short notice, whether it is because Russian companies would be unprepared to meet Europes stringent environmental requirements or limited transportation capacity. Problems With the Green Energy Transition Despite United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pushing governments and private companies to end the deadly addiction to coal, the commodity still accounts for more than one-third of global power generation. In recent years, the world has shifted away from coal in favor of renewable alternatives. However, as a growing number of advanced economies experience shortages and power outages, many have been questioning the global green energy transition. In energy management the term baseload is the permanent minimum load that a power system is required to produce in order to meet fundamental electricity demands by customers, wrote Ole Hansen, the head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, in a research note. In the past that baseload was provided by conventional power plants such as coal and nuclear plants, but with the green energy transformation in Europe, many of these conventional power plants have been shut down and replaced with renewable energy production, and with gas being the go-to fuel when production from renewables drop. Great Britain is coming off the least windy summers in 50 years. Germany has failed to create enough wind power as subsidies for old wind turbines have ended or the infrastructure is being dismantled amid wear and tear. Industry observers warn that it could take years for new turbines to go online. Beijing has conceded that it cannot depend on renewable sources right now. Because renewable energy (sources such as) wind and solar power are intermittent and unstable, we must rely on a stable power source, said Su Wei, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC), at a global leaders climate summit in April. We have no other choice. For a period of time, we may need to use coal power as a point of flexible adjustment. The State of Coal in 20212022 Lucas Pipes, an analyst with B Riley Securities, stated that it would be challenging for North American and European markets to initiate gas-to-coal switching in a timely manner. Investors are underappreciating the structural changes that have taken place in the North American energy landscape that could lead to these higher prices persisting for some time. Chief among them, in our opinion, is a dramatically smaller coal generating and mine supply footprint, which limits gas-to-coal switching, Pipes wrote in a research note. Coal supply bottlenecks are already emerging. It is difficult for the industry to increase output by more than 10 percent from 2021 levels, limiting gas to coal switching. Coal producers are anticipated to expand capacity by 30 percent over the next several years to take advantage of these higher prices. In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) report, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast that U.S. production would jump 7.8 percent in 2021 and 2.7 percent in 2022. The EIA also estimates that exports will advance by nearly one-quarter this year and 4.5 percent next year. Ryan Driskell Tate, a Global Energy Monitor research analyst, warned that these investments could lead to as much as $91 billion in non-performing assets. Tate said that new mines and expansions of existing mines will be producing coal for a world in which coal is unviable economically, and untenable for the environment. The logo for Coinbase Global Inc., the biggest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, is displayed on the Nasdaq MarketSite jumbotron and others at Times Square in New York, on April 14, 2021. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) Coinbase More Aligned, Has More Employees After Cutting Woke Activism Out of Business: CEO Coinbase is now much more aligned and has even increased the number of its employees a year after the company announced it would focus on creating an open financial system for the world and disengage from social activism and political issues, prompting some workers to walk out. In series of Twitter posts published on Oct. 1, Co-Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong said the companys headcount has increased by 110 percent since Sept. 27, 2020, when he made the initial announcement, while some of its diversity numbers have improved on some metrics. Its been about a year since my mission-focused blog post. It wasnt easy to go through at the time, but looking back, it turned out to be one of the most positive changes Ive made at Coinbase, and Id recommend it to others, Armstrong wrote. We have a much more aligned company now, where we can focus on getting work done toward our mission. And it has allowed us to hire some of the best talent from organizations where employees are fed up with politics, infighting, and distraction, he said. The CEO noted that one of the biggest concerns for the company has been how its stance on societal and political issues would impact diversity numbers at the company. In last years blog post titled Coinbase is a mission focused company, Armstrong suggested that it had become common practice for companies to engage in a variety of social issuesincluding those unrelated to what the company doeswhich could create internal division and prove to be detrimental to said company. It would go against our principles of inclusion and belonging to be more of an activist company on issues outside of our core mission, he said at the time. We have people with many different backgrounds and viewpoints at Coinbase, and even if we all agree that something is a problem, we may not agree on how to actually go solve it. This is where there is a blurry line between moral statements and politics. We could use our work day debating what to do about various unrelated challenges in the world, but that would not be in service of the company or our own interests as employees and shareholders, the CEO wrote. While Armstrong acknowledged that some employees cared deeply that the company they work for values such social issues, Coinbase was taking a different stance and would not be engaging in any political debates or social activism unrelated to the company. He noted that this stance may prompt some employees to leave the company, which he said is never easy but that ultimately, it would allow Coinbase to be more aligned. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong at TechCrunch Disrupt Europe 2014 in London on Oct. 21, 2014. (Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for TechCrunch) This illustration photo shows the Coinbase logo on a smartphone in Los Angeles on April 13, 2021. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images) The post faced backlash from critics, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who said that bitcoin is direct activism against an unverifiable and exclusionary financial system which negatively affects so much of our society. Important to at *least* acknowledge and connect the related societal issues your customers face daily, Dorsey added. Twitters former CEO Dick Costolo also pushed back at Armstrongs decision, writing, This isnt great leadership. Its the abdication of leadership. Its the equivalent of telling your employees to shut up and dribble. But after weathering the backlash, Coinbase is now thriving one year on, and has maintained a diverse team, while diversity has improved on some metrics, according to its CEO. You will get lots of attacks online, and not everyone will agree, but ultimately people want clarity and authenticity from leaders, not platitudes. It will come back to you tenfold, he wrote in Octobers update. Armstrong also noted that there was a huge disparity between the negative reaction his initial post received online and in the media, and the overwhelmingly positive reaction it got from his employees. It turns out that there are people from every background who want to work at a mission focused company, Armstrong wrote, adding the only sense I can make of it, is that there is a huge mismatch between peoples [sic] stated and revealed preferences right now, and were operating in an environment of virtue signaling and fear of speaking up. In his updated announcement, Armstrong also thanked those employees who stepped in to fill in for workers who left the company following his initial announcement. This was heroic and awesome to see, he added President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with business leaders about the debt limit in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on Oct. 6, 2021. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo) Conservative Advocacy Group Launches Advert Targeting Biden Administration Over Not Too Smart Bidenomics A conservative advocacy group has launched a new advert targeting the Biden administration over its not too smart approach to economic policy after White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed it was unfair and absurd that companies would increase costs for consumers in response to higher tax rates proposed by Democrats. Club for Growth is a national network of over 500,000 Americans advocating for conservative economic principles. As per its website, the group is the only organization that is willing and able to take on any member of Congress on policy who fails to uphold basic economic conservative principles regardless of party. The group has taken issue with Psakis claim last week that it is unfair and absurd that companies would raise prices for goods and services in response to higher taxes proposed by Democrats. Psaki insisted that President Joe Biden remains committed to not raising taxes for anyone making less than $400,000 a year. There are some who argue that, in the past, companies have passed on these costs to consumers We feel that thats unfair and absurd, and the American people would not stand for that, Psaki said at a press briefing on Sept. 27. The advert, which launched Wednesday afternoon, is called Econ 101. It shows an image of the White House before panning to Psaki during last weeks briefing while the narrator says, The White House, wow, you must have to be pretty darn smart to to work there. Say, Jen Psaki, when President Biden increases taxes on business, wont those costs just get dumped on customers? the narrator then asks. Thats unfair and absurd, the clip of Psaki says before repeating. So a very basic principal of business? the narrator asks before the clip of Psaki is played again. The advert ends by dubbing Psakis claim and Bidens economic policy Bidenomics, adding that its not too smart. Rarely does the arrogance and incompetence that embodies the modern radical Democrat Party converge so perfectly in a single soundbite, Club for Growth President David McIntosh told Fox News in a statement. Whats even more amazing is that shes probably the best they have. McIntosh added that the purpose of the advert is to remind Democrats, lobbyists, and the media of what the Biden administration is doing to the economy and just how out of touch their policies are with their constituents. Its long past time to stand up to this angry and entitled socialist nonsense, the groups president added. The advert is running on Facebook and Instagram and cost roughly $15,000, according to Fox. House Democrats have proposed raising the top rate for high-earners to 39.6 percent from the current 37 percent. The new rate would apply to married couples who have taxable income over $450,000 and single people who make more than $400,000. It would also increase the top capital gains rate to 25 percent from 20 percent, while the wealthiestthose earning more than $5 millionwould also face a new surtax of 3 percent under the House plan. Democrats, including Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Richard Neal (D-Mass.), argue that this will make the tax system more equitable. Our tax system lost its progressive power at the top end because many of the wealthiest taxpayers in America have had a chance to play by different rules than those of ordinary wage earners. We are taking a significant step toward leveling the playing field. Specifically, we propose to increase the top individual rate to 39.6 [percent], and to increase the top capital gains rate to 25 percent, and add a 3 percent surtax for individuals making over $5 million, said Neal. In line with President Bidens pledge and our partys values, weve ensured that none of these tax increases will affect households earning under $400,000, added Neal. Club for Growth has also taken aim at Rep. Adam Kinzingers Illinois district over its opposition to the over $3 trillion tax increase proposed in the reconciliation bill. The group bought a television advert in Illinoiss 16th congressional district called Pickpocket that ran for one week. The USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group is seen during a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations on Sept. 19, 2021. The strike group also participated in a joint military exercise with the navies from six countries near the Japanese island of Okinawa from Oct. 2-3, to support open Indo-Pacific region. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Haydn N. Smith/U.S. Navy) Conservative MPs Call on Ottawa to Support Taiwan Following Chinas Military Air Incursions Conservative MPs Michael Chong and Melissa Lantsman are calling on Ottawa to support its democratic ally Taiwan, as the Chinese regime escalates military action against the island nation. Chinas latest incursions into Taiwans air identification zone are needlessly provocative and only serves to destabilize the security of the region. Canada must support our friends in democratic Taiwan, Lantsman wrote on Twitter. Chong called Chinas actions unacceptable and said Canada should follow the lead of its allies and speak out in support of Taiwan. Canada must stand with our democratic allies in the Indo-Pacific region, and publicly state our support for Taiwan as have our Australian, American, British, and Japanese allies. On Oct. 4, China swarmed the island with a record 56 military aircraft, as it continued its streak of intimidation in recent days. From Oct. 1 to Oct. 5, the regime sent up to 150 military aircraft into Taiwans airspace, including fighter jets and bombers, among others. The communist-led Peoples Republic of China sees Taiwan (PRC)officially the Republic of Chinaas a breakaway province, while it has no de facto control over the self-governed democracy. Since 2016, the PRC has frequently launched military air incursions into Taiwans air identification zone (ADIZ). In response to the PRCs most recent increased aggression, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced Oct. 5 that a new U.S. naval strategy will be introduced to deter China from invading Taiwan and strengthening the United States partnerships with countries in the Indo-Pacific region. The new strategy will be released this week, according to Defense News. A Pentagon official told AFP on Oct. 8 that a contingent of U.S. special operations and conventional forces have been giving training to Taiwanese troops in recent months. China protested against this on Oct. 8, claiming it to be detrimental to the U.S.-China bilateral relationship. As Beijing escalates tension with Taiwan, Canada and the navies of Japan, United States, Britain, New Zealand, and the Netherlands participated in a major a joint military exercise near the Japanese island of Okinawa over the past weekend, in one of the largest aircraft carrier gatherings in recent years. HMS Queen Elizabeth JS Ise USS Ronald Reagan USS Carl Vinson JS Kirishima JS Yamagiri USS Shiloh USS Lake Champlain USS The Sullivans USS Chafee HMS Kent HMS Defender RFA Fort Victoria RFA Tidespring HNLMS Evertsen HMCS Winnipeg HMNZS Te Kaha Conducting joint training pic.twitter.com/PYmlY4B6W7 Intel Air & Sea (@air_intel) October 4, 2021 The joint exercise involved 17 ships from six countries, included three Western aircraft carrier strike groups and a Japanese helicopter carrier that is capable of launching F-35 stealth fighters, according to CBC News. Among them was Canadas frigate HMCS Winnipeg, which has been escorting the Royal Navys latest aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth on a world tour. The Epoch Times reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment, but did not receive a response. The congested Port of Los Angeles is shown in San Pedro, Calif., on Sept. 29, 2021. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Containergeddon: Supply Crisis Drives Walmart and Rivals to Hire Their Own Ships LOS ANGELESThe Flying Buttress once glided across the oceans carrying vital commodities like grain to all corners of the world. Now it bears a different treasure: Paw Patrol Movie Towers, Batmobile Transformers, and Baby Alive Lulu Achoo dolls. The dry bulk cargo ship has been drafted into the service of retail giant Walmart, which is chartering its own vessels in an effort to beat the global supply chain disruptions that threaten to torpedo the retail industrys make-or-break holiday season. Chartering vessels is just one example of investments weve made to move products as quickly as possible, said Joe Metzger, U.S. executive vice president of supply-chain operations at Walmart, which has hired a number of vessels this year. The aim is to bypass log-jammed ports and secure scarce ship space at a time when COVID-19, as well as U.S.-China trade ructions, equipment shortages, and extreme weather, have exposed the fragility of the globe-spanning supply lines we use for everything from food and fashion to drinks and diapers. More than 60 container ships carrying clothing, furniture, and electronics worth billions of dollars are stuck outside Los Angeles and Long Beach terminals, waiting to unload, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. Pre-pandemic, it was unusual for more than one ship to be in the waiting lane at the No. 1 U.S. port complex, which handles more than half of all American imports. Other big retail players, such as Target, Home Depot, Costco, and Dollar Tree, have said they are chartering ships to deal with the pandemic-driven slowdown of sea networks that handle 90 percent of the worlds trade. A shopper loads items into her car in the parking lot of a Walmart in Willow Grove, Pa., on May 19, 2021. (Matt Rourke/AP Photo) Or, as Steve Ferreira of shipping consultancy Ocean Audit describes the escalating concern: Containergeddon. U.S. retailers traditional lifeline from Asia is freezing up due to a resurgence of COVID-19 in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia plus a power-supply crunch in China. The supply snarls coincide with booming demand as consumers spend more on goods than going out, and the festive shopping frenzy nears. Burt Flickinger, managing director at retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group, said at least 20 to 25 percent of the goods stuck on ships were unlikely to make it onto shelves in time for the Nov. 26 Black Friday kickoff for the holiday shopping season, a period when retailers make more than a third of their profits. Route for Great Profit The biggest chains are taking matters into their own hands. In a typical year, Walmart would have moved those toys from China to Los Angeles in hundreds of 40-foot (12-meter) cargo boxes stacked like colorful Lego bricks on gigantic container vessels that serve multiple customers. But 2021 is far from typical. Incoming cargo at the Port of Los Angeles is up 30 percent from last years record levels. Trucks and trains cant remove it fast enough, leading to logjams, said the ports Executive Director Gene Seroka, reflecting the surge in consumer demand. Its like taking 10 lanes of freeway traffic and squeezing them into five, Seroka said. Chartered ships that offer valuable cargo space and can sidestep the container terminals play a critical role in this second pandemic holiday season, particularly for time-sensitive goods like Christmas sweaters that wont sell if they arrive too late. The congested Port of Los Angeles is shown in San Pedro, Calif., on Sept. 29, 2021. (Mike Blake/Reuters) The Flying Buttress, for example, entered Los Angeles waters on Aug. 21. It got stuck in a queue outside the port before it bypassed clogged terminals and unloaded its goods at a separately operated bulk cargo dock nearby on Aug. 31, according to Refinitiv data and shipping records. During that voyage, Walmart circumvented the shortage of 40-foot containers typically used for global shipping by switching to bigger 53-foot containers that are almost exclusively used to move goods by truck and train within the United States. Other companies are also playing the shipping game including Home Depot which said it was creatively working to obtain additional capacity. The home improvement retailer dodged the Los Angeles gridlock by sending its Great Profit charter ship nearly 125 miles south to the Port of San Diego. On Sept. 15, the ships onboard cranes hoisted 7-foot Halloween Spellcasting witches, Christmas lights and other holiday decor onto docks there, said Ocean Audit CEO Ferreira, who helps shipping customers claw back overpayments. This is the home stretch. Theyre doing whatever it takes to win in an overheated market, he said of retailers. Why Port Size Matters Yet there is a limit to such workarounds. Great Profit moored at a terminal that handles everything from sugar to windmill blades but can only accommodate a maximum of 500 containers from one to two ships per month between now and the end of the year, said Greg Borossay, the ports maritime business development principal. Thats because San Diego, like many other U.S. seaports, doesnt have the towering gantry cranes needed to pluck boxes from massive ships. Rail service is equipped for autos and other specialty cargo. And, roads in surrounding commercial and residential areas arent set up for the fleets of trucks needed to whisk thousands of containers to other parts of the country. Wed have a very unhappy community if we had 3,000 (boxes) coming off a ship, Borossay added. Not all retailers will hire ships to support sales, and other factors could be significant in picking out potential winners and losers. Clothing and accessory retailers have seen their inventories decline even as sales have accelerated, stoking worries about sell-outs, said Jason Miller, associate professor of logistics at Michigan State Universitys business college. Ships await to be offloaded in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Jan. 12, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) General merchandise retailers like Walmart and Target, on the other hand have done a better job of keeping inventory on pace with sales, he added. Paying $20,000 Per Container The global supply crunch is providing lucrative opportunities for bulk cargo ship operators, though; they are cashing in on a record spike in container shipping rates that has sent freight costs above $20,000 per box on the biggest liner vessels. Global container shipping players like AP Moller Maersk and Hapag Lloyd, are flush with cash from the soaring rates. Major lines are putting in every ship we can find, Hapag Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said. Several shipping sources said other firms were snapping up second-hand container vessels of all sizes. Hong Kong-based Taylor Maritime, which according to shipping databases manages the Flying Buttress, did not respond to a request for comment. Dry bulk transporters have a short window of time to prepare decks to safely secure and carry cargo boxes. They typically transport commodities in below-deck cargo holds. Genco Shipping & Trading is seeking approval from its ship safety certifier to prepare some of its own dry bulk vessels to carry containers. Genco isnt going all-in on container shipping, said CEO John Wobensmith, who called the project opportunistic. Separately, agribusiness giant Cargill said it is looking into using some of the dry bulk ships it charters to instead hold containers, if only as a temporary solution, to alleviate bottlenecks. By Lisa Baertlein, Jonathan Saul, and Siddharth Cavale Crisis After Crisis: Are We Witnessing the Great Fall of Beijing? Commentary From Evergrande to rising unemployment, blackouts to a rapidly aging population, China is facing an existential reckoning. The wolf warrior Chinese diplomats, still busy howling at the world, are understandably worried. Are we witnessing the great fall of Beijing? In the middle of September, I wrote a piece asking if China was in a state of permanent decline. The answer at the time was yes. Almost a month later, the answer still appears to be the same. As William Pesek, a senior contributor to Forbes, recently noted, Chinas Evergrande default drama appears to be symptomatic of a deeper malaise gripping the Chinese economy. According to Pesek, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has done its very best to hide surging local government debt. Now, however, the cat is out of the bag. Evergrandes default troubles, in the words of the author, seem like small embers compared to the $8.2 trillion worth of local government financing vehicles [LGFVs]. Evergrande, currently the worlds most famous (or infamous) property developer, is swimming in a sea of debt, somewhere in the region of $300 billion. If we view Evergrandes problems through a panoramic lens, we are presented with a much clearer picture. Chinas outstanding LGFV debt, according to Pesek, now amounts to roughly 52% of Chinas gross domestic product, topping the official amount of outstanding government debt. As Chinas GDP growth continues to nosedive, Beijings hopes of world domination become increasingly unlikely. The actor Ryan Reynolds once quipped: Any kind of crisis can be good. It wakes you up. The CCP, no fan of Reynolds movie Deadpool, is most definitely awake, but one assumes the regime is far from happy. After all, the Chinese people have been sold a lie. For years, the CCP has promised its citizens prosperity, growth, and a future full of triumphs. Together, we can conquer the world, the people were told. Words, as we all know, are extremely cheap. Is the Worlds Factory About to Close for Business? In a recent Project Syndicate article, Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University, argued that the biggest challenge facing CCP policymakers involves rebalancing an economy that has depended for too long on a bloated real estate sector. Stephen S. Roach of Yale University also voiced some concerns. Chinese leader Xi Jinpings regulatory clampdown campaign, which is closely linked to the CCPs socialist idea of common prosperity, will only serve to subdue the entrepreneurial activity that has been key to Chinas private-sector dynamism, according to Roach. Raghuram G. Rajan of the University of Chicago agreed, warning that the CCPs lack of political checks and balances only serves to heighten the risk that Xis business crackdown may go too far. A housing complex by Chinese property developer Evergrande in Huaian in eastern Jiangsu Province, China, on Sept. 17, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) The three men make a number of valid points. Long before Xis disingenuous calls to usher in an era of common prosperity, the CCP was busy rearranging the deckchairs as the Titanic filled with water. Last year, according to reports, around 80 million people in China were out of work. Thats almost a quarter of the United States population. For years, Chinas official unemployment rate appeared to be relatively stable, but the past year has seen the tally register a significant spike. Today, among the nations young workers, the unemployment rate stands at 15.3 percent. As the CCP continues to shoot itself in the foot, the people of China, particularly the younger citizens, pay the heaviest price imaginable. A country that offers little hope to its people also offers little in the way of employment. Not surprisingly, a lack of work brings a lack of money; a lack of money brings a lack of opportunities, including the chances of finding a spouse. For the country as a whole, a ticking demographic time bomb is set to detonate in the not so distant future. According to recent findings, 18 percent of Chinas population is over the age of 60; only 17 percent of the country is under the age of 17. In other words, the countrys death rate looks very likely to exceed the birth-rate for years to come, unless younger people start having particularly large families, according to the UKs Daily Mail. To compound matters, the cost of living in China is increasing rapidlythe signs are ominous. As China becomes increasingly unaffordable, especially for the unemployed, family planning has taken a backseat. Winston Churchill once said, Never let a good crisis go to waste. The CCP, clearly misinterpreting the old adage, has gone to great lengths to create further crises. Unpleasant endings are often associated, either implicitly or explicitly, with darkness. How fitting, then, that China recently found itself struggling with electricity shortages and blackouts. The country desperately needs coal. Australia has plenty of it. Theres just one problem and its a sizable one: The diplomatic bridge between Beijing and Canberra has been demolished. Geopolitical tensions with Australia are at an all-time high. Whos to blame for the breakdown in relations? The CCPs belligerence and deceit has backed China into a corner. To be more accurate, the Party has plunged China into a hole that looks increasingly difficult to escape from. If we are witnessing the great fall of Beijing, then its important to remember who orchestrated the whole affairthe supposed gurus in Chinas capital city. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Two Chinese SU-30 fighter jets take off from an unspecified location to fly a patrol over the South China Sea in this undated photo. (Jin Danhua/Xinhua via AP) Crisis Fatigue and Other Impacts of Chinese Incursion Commentary The Chinese regime continues to aggressively penetrate Taiwans air space. Since the Oct. 1 anniversary of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) takeover of China, Beijing has sent nearly 150 planes through Taiwans air identification zone, which has forced Taiwan to scramble its fighters and activate air defenses numerous times. These events are incredibly important for what they signify and what they would lead to, which includes China pressuring Taiwan until the timing is correct, China using these incursions as a signal to the world of its dominance, and inducing a sense of crisis fatigue that could lead to a sneak attack. These planes are not the first act of war strike. As many analysts note, the Chinese regime would start a war with a cyberattack, overwhelming missile or drone strike, massive electronic warfare, and then follow up with air strikes once its targets air defenses have been significantly degraded. A token amount of lightly escorted bombers would be a poor way to start an attack. The timing is also completely wrong for an attack. Yes, the United States actions in Afghanistan send a signal of weakness, but China is hosting the Olympics in mere months. This is propaganda bonanza for the CCP as it gets to show the world how important China is. China gets six weeks of free advertising for being the greatest country on Earth. Beijing wont step on an event in which it literally invested billions and which will be a free poster. These actions do have an impact in their symbolism. They act as a sort of inverse of the Freedom of Navigation patrols the United States does. These are operations where Washington sends a warship through the territorial waters of contested territory in the South China Sea. This might sound provocative, but it sends a message that the United States upholds international law and rejects the Chinese regimes aggressive attempts to claim land. If international law is disregarded, it means that issues are solved by whoever has the biggest military and is willing to assert it at the expense of its neighbors. In short, without using the constraints of international law, Beijing would be incentivized to be even more aggressive. The inverse of that would be China flying bombers within Taiwans air identification zone. This reasserts the claim the CCP had since 1949, that Taiwan has and will always be a part of China. In contrast to Freedom of Navigation patrols, these are not a part of international law. While the regime doesnt enter Taiwanese territory, it operates in a way that is a clear provocation. At this point though, it has been so long and both nations have taken such different trajectories that many people in Taiwan consider themselves Taiwanese, instead of Chinese. A Taiwanese Air Force F-16 in foreground flies on the flank of a Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) H-6 bomber as it passes near Taiwan on Feb. 10, 2020. (Republic of China (ROC) Ministry of National Defense via AP) The biggest impact of this event may be what doesnt happen. Every time the Chinese aggressively penetrate Taiwanese airspace or conduct large maneuvers on the island-nations borders, this produces what is called crisis fatigue. And when nothing happens during so many crises, it opens Taiwan and the West to a surprise attack. If the West receives warning of a pending Chinese attack, the many false starts in incidents, such as the Chinese flybys, might cause them to disbelieve their intelligence. For example, many people wonder why the French fell to a surprise German attack even though they had ample time to prepare, and there were limited targets and times for the Germans to attack. But during the winter, so little happened between the belligerents that this period was dubbed the phony war. By the spring of 1940, the French knew an attack was coming. But the Germans delayed their invasion of France several times while the high command tinkered with the details. Thus, when the Germans were ready to invade, there had been so many false starts and people who cried wolf that most of the units needed for the attack were already in place. The French, because they had been in a state of crisis for so long, misread the relatively small troop movements as insignificant, disregarded the signs of an impending attack, and six weeks later Paris fell. Given the continuing threats from a nuclear North Korea, aggressive China and Russia, and numerous terrorist attacks, it is important to remain vigilant. Since 1949, communist China has fought preemptive, offensive wars with each of its neighbors. It continues to aggressively bully its neighbors. While these maneuvers are largely symbolic, the symbol is that of a Chinese fist ready to punch its neighbors. The timing is wrong for an invasion, as any possible strike wont happen until after the 2022 Winter Olympics. But the Chinese regimes constant patrols keep its claims in mind and may lead to crisis fatigue when it is ready to attack. While the constant Chinese aggression might become background noise to policymakers, we must remain vigilant for every crisis to avoid a surprise attack. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Cult of the New Red Emperor: Former Australian PM Delivers Sweeping Critique of Beijing Stresses solidarity with Taiwan Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has delivered a stinging criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership during a speech to the Yushan Forum in Taiwan on Oct. 8. Abbott said he turned down an opportunity to attend the conference two years earlier, afraid he might provoke Beijing. However, since then, his perspective on the Chinese regime has changed after the CCP took over Hong Kong, carried out the persecution of the Uyghur minority, and cancelled popular personalities in favour of a cult of a new red emperor. Its weaponised trade, especially against Australia, with our barley, wine and coal exports all stopped on spurious safety grounds, and its embassy has published 14 demandsessentially that we become a tributary statethat no self-respecting country could accept, he told dignitaries at the Forum including Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. The trigger was politely seeking an impartial inquiry into the origins of the Wuhan virus, he added. So, this year, Im here, having concluded that Chinas belligerence is all self-generated. He admitted that he previously had high hopes for the CCP when he signed off on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement and prepared to join the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. However, that has since changed. Much has changed in just six years, but its not Australias goodwill towards the people of China, about a million of whom are now Australians and making a fine contribution to our country, he said. Australia has no issue with China. We welcome trade, investment and visits, just not further hectoring about being the chewing gum on Chinas boot. Abbott urged democratic allies to stand in solidarity with Taiwan against Beijings increased aggression, which he noted was entirely the fault of the communist regime. Sensing that its relative power might have peaked, with its population ageing, its economy slowing, and its finances creaking, its quite possible that Beijing could lash out disastrously very soon, he said. Our challenge is to try to ensure that the unthinkable remains unlikely; and that the possible doesnt become the probable, he added, stressing that any attempt by Beijing to coerce Taiwan should be met with incalculable consequences. Nothing is more pressing right now than solidarity with Taiwan if we want a better world, he said. I wont end urging you to stay safe. Rather something nobler and higher; stay free. Chinese state-owned media mouthpiece, The Global Times on Oct. 6, warned that current sitting Australian members of Parliament should not follow Abbotts example and visit Taiwan, claiming it would cause irreparable damages. Abbott is the second former Australian prime minister to address the Forum after Malcolm Turnbull. He arrived in Taiwan on Oct. 7, revealing he was visiting in his own private capacity and that he was keen to assist the self-governing island with ending its international isolation. Abbott has backed Taiwans entry into the 11-nation strong Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership instead of China. A man casts his ballot at a polling station on federal election day in Shawinigan, Que., on Oct. 21, 2019. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes) Elections Canada Confirms Bloc Win Over Tories in Trois Rivieres After Recount OTTAWAThe Bloc Quebecois is being confirmed as the winner of the Quebec riding of Trois-Rivieres after a judicial recount. Elections Canada says the Bloc beat the Conservatives by 83 votes, after votes were counted again. The Tories went to court to request a recount to check the original result, which had the Bloc winning the seat by 92 votes. Elections Canada is confirming that Bloc candidate Rene Villemure has won the Quebec riding with 17,136 votes. The Conservative candidate Yves Levesque came a close second with 17,053 votes. Trois-Rivieres is the second judicial recount in Quebec. The Liberals picked up another seat Wednesday after Elections Canada confirmed that Brenda Shanahan beat the Bloc candidate in Chateauguay-Lacolle by just 12 votes. The recount overturned the election-night result which had the Liberals losing to the Bloc in the riding. Next week, votes will be recounted in the Toronto riding of Davenport where the NDP lost to the Liberals by 76 votes. The smoke stacks at American Electric Power's (AEP) Mountaineer coal power plant in New Haven, W.Va., on Oct. 30, 2009. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Energy Crisis May Trigger Winter Blackouts Across US: Coal Firm CEO The energy crisis that has led to shortages and blackouts in Europe and Asia could hit the United States this winter, the chief executive of an energy firm says. Weve actually had discussions with power utilities who are concerned that they simply will have to implement blackouts this winter, said Ernie Thrasher, the head of Xcoal Energy & Resources, according to Bloomberg News. They dont see where the fuel is coming from to meet demand. He also stated that utilities are switching to coal from natural gas during the fall and winter months to keep up with the demand. The global demand for power has increased as economies attempt to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, triggering natural gas shortages primarily in Europe and Asia. Power producers, including Duke Energy, have warned customers that bills may spike this winter. Dukes Piedmont Natural Gas unit stated on Oct. 5 that higher gas prices and low production will raise customer bills by approximately $11 per month in North and South Carolina. That whole supply chain is stretched beyond its limits, said Thrasher, whose Pennsylvania-based company works in coal logistics. Its going to be a challenging winter for us here in the United States. The New York State Public Service Commission told Bloomberg that its monitoring utilities in New York to determine whether theres enough fuel for the winter. The utilities have hedged approximately 70 percent of their residential electricity needs, the agency said, stating that it expects to meet demand this season. The benchmark U.S. natural gas contract has been rallying, lately hitting seven-year highs, but its $5.62 per million British thermal units price is a far cry from the $30-plus being paid in Europe and Asia, Reuters noted. However, the U.S. market is worried about the coming cold, particularly in New England and Californiawhere prices for gas to be delivered this winter are far above the nationwide benchmark. In New England, buyers are expecting gas to cost more than $20 per million British thermal units. In New England, gas for January delivery is soaring, trading last week at more than $22 at the regions Algonquin hub, which would be the highest price paid in a month since January and February of 2014. Henry Hub prices continue to climb for the winter months, but we should see even bigger increases on the East and West Coasts for New England and California, said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at commodity analytics firm Kpler. Reuters contributed to this report. In this photo illustration, the Facebook logo is displayed next to a screen indicating a problem in San Anselmo, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Facebook Shuts Down Reopen California Schools Group A popular Facebook group called Reopen California Schools was mysteriously shut down last week. Were not going to be deterred. Were not going to be beaten down. We will continue forward, group founder Jonathan Zachreson told The Epoch Times. Many parents have relied heavily on Reopen California Schools for information to help them navigate their way throughout the pandemic, and theyre devastated to see it taken down, he said. Ive gotten a lot of support. A lot of them are angry and are going to do whatever they need to do to help get it back. The shutdown comes in the wake of a call from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen for increased censorship, a complaint (pdf) from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) linking parents protesting at local school board meetings with domestic terrorism, and a sympathetic response from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In recent months, parents have attended school board meetings to voice their concerns over neo-Marxist critical race theory (CRT) being taught in California classrooms under the guise of ethnic studies, as well to protest masks and COVID-19 vaccine mandates. I wouldnt say my group specifically was targeted in this whole thing, but I do believe that recent events with the Attorney General, the [National] School Boards Association and this fake whistleblower testimony calling for more voices on Facebook to be censored opened the door for people at Facebook to start shutting down groups, Zachreson said. I have no communication from Facebook. Zero. There was no warning so Im really surprised this happened, he said. Zachreson said he hasnt received any recent warnings on any posts or comments, and that he prides himself in closely moderating posts on the site to make sure theyre being factual. Because his group hasnt violated any Facebook rules, Zachreson said, Im left to speculate so really it makes me believe that it has something to do with them trying to suppress parents voices. At last count, Reopen California Schools had more than 18,400 members. Ive submitted two requests to Facebook Help for what its worth, he said. When you report a problem, theres not really an easy way to do it. You cant appeal if the group is gone. I cant even see the group. Its like its gone. Since his group was shut down, there has been some chatter on social media of Facebook banning other parent groups, he said. I did hear that there was a New York moms group that was against mask mandates. They got shut down on the same day that my group got shut down, so I do believe theres probably going to be more to come. Maybe there are smaller groups that havent been reported yet, Zachreson said. I find it really surprising that we were targeted. I believe, part of it might be that weve e been so effective at bringing stories to light on a lot of controversial issues that have come up, he said. We have been one of the more effective groups at getting change in California, Zachreson said. Reopen California Schools has joined forces with Let Them Breathe to sue California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) over the mask mandate in schools. Were suing Gov. Newsoms CDPH and a few others over their state reopening guidance in California, specifically the mask mandates, quarantine protocols and testing protocols, he said. The groups believe masks should be optional. There should be mask choice for students and teachers, Zachreson said. Reopen California Schools also plans to help organize and fight to get school choice initiatives on the ballot in 2022. He suspects the site might have been targeted because it supported the gubernatorial recall election, the results of which have still not been certified, and maybe the fact that were suing Gov. Newsom. Zachreson said for now he is waiting to hear back from Facebook. Im hoping that they reverse it and fix whatever issue is causing this, and they offer an explanation and apology, he said. In the meantime, Zachreson is directing parents to his website: ReopenCaliforniaSchools.com and other social media sites. Two parents have expressed their dismay about the Reopen California Schools shutdown on the groups Twitter site, @ReopenCASchools. MamaEsq tweeted: Honestly, this is very upsetting. Your group provided a wealth of information and knowledge from lawsuits to different school options and so on. Many of us would have been completely lost without it. MG wrote: Wow, just checked and its gone. This group helped so many parents navigate the last 18 months, helped with alternative school options, [and] navigating differences between counties/districts, etc. Fed Ready to Handle September Jobs Report With Kid Gloves U.S. hiring probably accelerated last month, a range of high-frequency indicators suggests, as the effects of the latest COVID-19 surge began to subside, but even a second straight weak employment report would be unlikely to derail the Federal Reserves plans to begin reducing its support for the economy. Ahead of the U.S. Labor Departments release on Friday of the nonfarm payrolls report for September, data from firms tracking work patterns signals an outcome in line with the median estimate of a gain of 500,000 jobs in a Reuters poll of economists. And that may be more than enough. Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled last month there was broad agreement among policymakers to begin reducing the U.S. central banks $120 billion in monthly asset purchases as soon as November, as long as the September U.S. jobs report, in Powells words, is decent. Even the Feds most dovish policymakersMinneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and Chicago Fed President Charles Evanshave indicated their willingness to go along with that timeline for paring back the quantitative easing put in place last year to stem the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. We think the bar for QE tapering will be met as long as the payroll print is above zero, said Lydia Boussour, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. Boussour forecasts that 384,000 jobs were gained last month. The path to normalizing monetary policy cleared further on Thursday after U.S. lawmakers reached a temporary deal to raise the federal governments debt limit. The move averts a potential debt default later this month that would have forced the Fed back into crisis-fighting mode. The latest surge in U.S. coronavirus cases peaked in mid-September. Estimates are mixed on how much of a damper that had on job growth during the month. The lowest estimate in the Reuters poll is for an overall gain of 250,000 jobs in September; the highest is 700,000. The ADP National Employment Report, which has a poor track record of predicting the broader Labor Departments report but provides some clues, on Wednesday showed private payrolls increased 568,000 last month, beating economists expectations, as restaurants and other in-person businesses resumed hiring. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends the House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 30, 2021. (Al Drago/Pool via Reuters) Payroll data from Homebase showed a 5 percent decline in employment in September among the 50,000 small businesses it tracks, but it said the drop was likely due to seasonal effects rather than underlying weakness. A report this week from payroll management firm UKG showed the number of shifts worked by U.S. employees stabilized in September after falling in August. Thats broadly consistent with economists current estimates of job growth last month, UKG Vice President Dave Gilbertson said. Graphic: Shifts worked still subpar. Shifts worked in the leisure and hospitality sectors fell during the month, likely due to workers opting out of in-person jobs when possible due to concerns about the virus. And work in manufacturing, Gilbertson noted, rose less than usual for September, likely reflecting supply chain bottlenecks and potentially auguring poorly for the retail sector during the upcoming holiday season. We know for sure it (job growth in September) didnt accelerate in the way people were hoping it would accelerate, but we can also be pretty confident in saying this was not a crash, he said. Reuters contributed to this report. Federal Prosecutors Unravel Cold-Case Murder at Chicago Gang Trial CHICAGOFrederick Cornell has had a recurring nightmare since his brother Willie Woods was murdered on April 16, 2003. It was in the early evening, and Cornell and Woods were chatting on a sidewalk in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago. Two men walked past them and suddenly turned around with guns in hand. Cornell shouted Guns! and ran to hide behind a parked car. He came back after a few gunshots to find his brother laying against a fence, dying. Woods suffered multiple gunshots to the face. He died at the scene. For years afterward, Chicago detectives were unable to identify the suspects. Around 2012, the Woods murder case landed in the cold case unit at the police department. However, after a years-long joint investigation by FBI, ATF, and Chicago police, new evidence emerged about the Woods murder. Tremayne Thompson and Juhwun Foster, both Four Corner Hustler gang members, allegedly killed Woods at the order of their leader Labar Spann. In 2017, the Woods murder was included in a sweeping federal racketeering conspiracy indictment against 11 Four Corner Hustler gang members, including Thompson, Foster, and Spann. They were charged with a series of racketeering activities, including murders, drug trafficking, extortions, and robberies, between the mid-1990s to 2017 under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. When the months-long trial opened on Sept. 20, Spann was the lone defendant in the courtroom, as others had gotten out of it by taking plea deals or agreeing to testify against him. Spann faces up to a life sentence if found guilty. It is at this trial that prosecutors unraveled the Woods murder that has haunted his brother Cornell ever since. Sammie Booker, an underling of Spann, testified to the jury on Sept. 28 that he was an accomplice in the Woods murder. In 2003, Black Souls gang chief Sealord (as pronounced) asked Spann to kill Woods in exchange for money and drugs. Spann agreed; he asked Thompson and Foster to kill Woods and he also asked Booker to help the two get away from the murder scene with a getaway car. The night of murder, Booker, sitting in a car from afar, saw Thompson and Foster shoot Woods up, he told the jury. He then picked the two up at a nearby street and sped away. Around 2013, when Booker was incarcerated for a gun offense, he agreed to provide information about Four Corner Hustlers to the federal prosecutors and law enforcement agents. Since then, he had more than a dozen interviews with the government. In 2007, Booker testified before a grand jury about three murders he committed at Spanns order, which ended up in the sweeping racketeering indictment against Four Corner Hustlers. Booker had pleaded guilty in the above RICO indictment and agreed to work with the government to testify truthfully against Spann in exchange for reduced sentences. On cross-examination, the credibility of Bookers testimony was questioned by Spanns attorney Steven Shobat, who tried to convince the jury that Booker is a career criminal and a habitual liar who was capable of saying just about anything to obtain reduced sentences. Darius Franklin, another key witness, told the jury on Oct. 5 that he saw the Woods murder and knew the people who killed him. Franklin, a ranking member of the Undertaker Vice Lords gang on the West Side of Chicago, hung out often with Spann and his underlings in the early 2000s. The night of Woods murder, Franklin was asked by Spanns people to join them simply to catch the exciting action. As the action unfolded, Franklin saw Thompson shoot Woods in the face a couple of times. Franklin also testified that before the murder, he saw Sealord giving Spann heroine as down payment for Woods murder; and that after the murder, he saw Sealord pay Spann, Thompson, and Foster. In 2014, when Franklin was incarcerated in Florida for a federal drug conspiracy crime, he agreed to provide information about illegal gang activities to federal law enforcement agents. Over the course of several meetings, he told what he knew about Spann and the murders Spann was involved in. In 2016, Franklin testified before a grand jury about the Woods murder. Now, Franklin is still incarcerated and faces a pending federal drug offense case. However, he will not get any reduced sentences for his testimony at Spanns trial; the only benefit he gets, the prosecutors said, is immunity, which means that his testimony would not be used against him in any subsequent court proceedings. On cross-examination, Shobat raised reasonable doubt about Franklins presence at the murder. Shobat doubted that Spanns people would invite Franklin to simply watch the murder for fun. Shobat asked, So as I understand, from your description, you were just there to be a witness, who could later say I saw Foster and Thompson shooting Foots (Woods nickname)? Franklin replied, Yes. Shobat later provided possible explanations as to how Franklin could have learned details of the murder from other sources if he hadnt witnessed it himself. It turned out that Franklin was locked up with Thompson and Foster together for months and both told Franklin about the Woods murder. As for what he did to Booker, Shobat also described Franklin as a career criminal and a habitual liar who was willing to do anything to obtain benefit from the government. The credibility of Booker and Franklins testimony are left to the jurors to decide. Judge Thomas Durkin at the outset of the trial instructed jurors to look only for facts in the testimony, and to weigh a testimony through the witnesss intelligence, access to evidence, motive, memory, and consistency. Cornell also identified Thompson and Foster as his brothers killers. That was in 2015, more than 10 years after the murder. A Chicago police detective called Patrick Deenihan and his partner knocked on Cornells door and showed him photos of six people. Deenihan, a detective working at the cold case unit, took over the Woods murder case in 2012 from a retired detective. Aided by a modern computerized mugshot database, Deenihan was able to assemble a photo array of people that fit the description of the suspects. Cornell signed his name on two photos, that of Thompson and Foster. Federal Vaccine Mandates Implicate, Infringe on Canadians Charter Rights: Legal Experts The mandate that requires federal employees from core public services to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 has constitutional issues that implicate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an Ontario lawyer says. There are several sections of the Charter of Rights that are implicated by mandating vaccines, generally speaking, said Ryan OConnor, a Toronto-based litigator who specializes in areas such as employment and appeals and also advises clients on matters involving federal and provincial legislation. The first is Section 7 of the Charter, which protects an individuals right to liberty and security of the person, and the second and most pertinent section would be Section 15 of the Charter, which protects individuals from discrimination and that requires equal treatment of individuals before and under the law. In announcing the mandate on Oct. 6, in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said federal employees have until Oct. 29 to be fully vaccinated or face being placed on administrative leave without pay as early as Nov. 15. The new policy will impact over 267,000 employees of departments that fall under core public administration, including the RCMP, Correctional Services of Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, and many other federal services. The vaccine mandate applies to both full-time and part-time employees regardless of whether they are working from an office, from home, or are stationed overseas. I think the federal government is creating a real, very significant legal issue for itself, says OConnor. With respect to imposing a mandate for individuals in the public service who work from home, theres no conceivable reason why would it be a term of a public servants employment to be vaccinated if they work entirely from home. He points out that a large portion of public servants have been working from home throughout the course of the pandemic, and it stands to reason that they can continue to do so. So to say a vaccine mandate is a condition of employment for someone working from home, and then ultimately putting them on unpaid leave or terminating them, thats going to give rise to lawsuits with respect to severances if the person is not unionized, and grievances if the public servant is unionized, OConnor said. Theyre really putting themselves in a situation where they can be exposed to grievances and lawsuits. Ryan OConnor, a lawyer at Zayouna Law Firm who specializes in areas such as employment and appeals and also advises clients on matters involving federal and provincial legislation. (Courtesy of Ryan OConnor) Trudeau said on Oct. 6 that enforcing the mandate is about keeping people safe on the job and in their communities. Because when it comes to keeping you and your family safe, when it comes to avoiding lockdowns for everyone, this is no time for half measures, he said, while announcing a similar vaccine mandate for travel by plane and rail. OConnor says he doesnt believe the vaccine mandate has anything to do with public health and public safety. If they were doing this for public health reasons, perhaps they would consider ensuring that individuals be tested before they enter the workplace. If they were doing this for public health reasons, then they would not require public servants who work from home to be vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID, he said. The crux of the issue here is, its more about politics than it is about public health, and that can be problematic from a legal perspective when these mandates and potential unpaid leaves and terminations get challenged. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, a non-profit legal firm, said that the vaccine mandates are still announcements at this stage but that if a law is passed by Parliament or by way of order-in-council, then these policies can be challenged in court. On Oct. 7, the Justice Centre issued a statement slamming the federal mandates, with a focus on the travel aspect of the measure, saying it means that unvaccinated Canadians will lose their right to move and travel freely within Canada, their right to leave Canada, and their right to earn a living and participate in society without discrimination. Staff lawyer Allison Pejovic said the centre is profoundly disturbed that the mandates will prevent unvaccinated Canadians from leaving the country. Such a mandate is an egregious and unacceptable infringement of Canadians constitutionally protected mobility rights. There is no scientific justification for this, she said in the statement. John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre, questioned the scientific basis of the vaccine mandates. Governments throughout history have used the notion of science to support their policies, along with various appeals to public health, safety, security, morality, and so on, he said. No government will violate human rights without putting forward a good-sounding justification, such as the war on terrorism, communism, online hate, drugs, or a nasty virus. The Justice Centre fears that the mandates will be extended, noting that although two doses are accepted as full vaccination under current federal and provincial requirements, this may soon change to requiring three, four, and more injections to maintain ones legal status as fully vaccinated, as has been demonstrated in Israel and the Netherlands. Floods and landslides continue to plague parts of China. To make the situation worse, authorities are discharging water from local reservoirs, with little to no warning ahead of time. A newly built house is torn down in China. Police reportedly beat up the ownerwhos disabledand his elderly parents. Some overseas Chinese people are running scams on dating websites. As a consequence, Chinese authorities are destroying their homes to force them to return to China. Controversial Chinese tech giant Huawei is hiring a former BBC news executive to help it brush up its international image. In a blow to Chinas nuclear ambitions, the United States blocks Chinas largest nuclear company from sourcing crucial materials from the United States. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more first-hand news from China. For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter. Students return to school at Seminole Heights Elementary School after the Florida Department of Education mandated that all schools must have in-class learning during the week in Tampa, Florida, on August 31, 2020. (Octavio Jones/Getty Images) Florida State Board Sanctions 8 School Districts for Defying Ban on Mask Mandates PUNTA GORDA, Fla.The Florida Department of Education on Thursday sanctioned eight Florida school districts for defying the states ban on school mask mandates. School districts in Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties now face financial penalties. Commissioner Richard Corcoran reported to the board that none of the eight counties had provided any information proving that they were in compliance with state law before Thursdays meeting. They cant pick and choose which parts of the law they want to follow, Corcoran said as he was handing out the penalties to the school districts. He also gave the districts 48 hours to amend their policies before the penalties went into effect. The state law the commissioner was referring to is an emergency rule adopted last month by the Florida Department of Health, that props up the Parents Bill of Rights. The rule requires that parents can opt-out their children from wearing mask mandates imposed by schools. The rule states that opting out of mask requirements is at the parent or legal guardians sole discretion. The commissioner recommended that sanctions in the amount of one-twelfth of each school board members annual salary be withheld. In addition, the commissioner recommended withholding funding in the amount equal to any federal grant the districts receive, namely the Project Safe Grant. The Biden administration has dedicated taxpayer money from the Project Safe Grant to repaying school districts the funding lost due to defying state bans on school mask mandates. These grants according to Corcoran serve to backfill what was withheld from Broward and Alachua districts for not complying with state law regarding mask mandates. Last month the U.S. Department of Education chose to award COVID-19 aid funds to cover salaries of board members in Broward and Alachua Counties. Corcoran said they were the only two districts in the country to apply for and receive this type of grant funding. Corcoran reported during the meeting that Alachua had received a total of $147,710 in grants from Project Safe Grant and Broward has received approximately $420,000. The state began withholding Alachuas funding on Aug. 28 which so far totals $13,429. The six remaining counties were also penalized but their funding totals were not readily available by press time. The state commissioner said the federal grants served to buy off school districts and said the federal government was interfering with the state boards responsibility to govern its educational system, which is in violation of the tenth amendment of the constitution. Every Floridian should be offended by the federal governments interference in state education issue, he said. We will not be strong-armed by the federal government. Superintendents from each county were allowed five minutes to defend their policies. All eight superintendents argued their policies were in compliance and should not have sanctions imposed as they were following the law and serving students in the name of safety. Orange County Superintendent Barbara Jenkins read her defending statement to the state board during the meeting and said, the action was legal and the action was necessary given the alarming rise of school-related COVID-19 cases during the August surge fueled by the contagious delta variant. Public comments were taken before the meeting began. A majority of the callers were from Brevard County saying the district was not in compliance and the parents complained they were removed from a board meeting earlier in the week, which they contend was a violation of Florida Sunshine Law and asked the board to investigate. Most asked for salaries to be withheld while one parent wanted them to take the consequences a step further. I would like to see the board remove the superintendent and the board members, Catherine Delaney a parent of a Brevard County student said. I want them held accountable; we dont want lawbreakers on our school boards. A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, on May 8, 2019. (Paresh Dave/Reuters) Google Banning Ads With Inaccurate Content on Climate Change Google is banning advertisements featuring content that contradict what it called inaccurate content on climate change, and will no longer allow ad revenue to be made from them, the company announced in a blog post on Oct. 7. The tech giant said the new policy will go into effect in November and will help strengthen the integrity of Googles advertising ecosystem, and also align with their past work to promote sustainability and confront climate change. In recent years, weve heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change, the company said in Thursdays blog post announcing the updates. Advertisers simply dont want their ads to appear next to this content. And publishers and creators dont want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos. Google said that those concerns are what led them to create the new monetization policy, which applies to commercials Google places online, as well as the websites and YouTube videos that run Google ads. The updated policy prohibits advertising for and monetization of content that contradicts what Google calls the well-established scientific consensus on the existence and causes of climate change. It includes any content that denies human contributions to global warming or treats climate change as a hoax or a scam, such as denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change, Google said. Going forward, Google will be analyzing content and considering whether it presents accurate or false claims about climate change, or whether it is simply discussing or reporting such a claim. We will also continue to allow ads and monetization on other climate-related topics, including public debates on climate policy, the varying impacts of climate change, new research and more, the company said. Google added that it consulted with authoritative sources on climate scienceincluding those who have contributed to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reportswhen creating the new policy. The new policy will be enforced through employees reading or watching the content as well as through automated tools, although the company did not state specifically what these are. Googles new policy comes as President Joe Bidens administration aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Google had previously in late 2019 announced its support for the Paris Agreement and touted multiple ways it was taking to support renewable energy markets and ensuring sustainability in its products. This week, the big tech giant rolled out several products aimed at increasing climate awareness, including a routing model in Google Maps that shows users the most eco-friendly route to their destination. Last month, Facebook announced several new measures to expand community engagement with climate topics and said it was seeking to make sure people have access to reliable information while reducing misinformation. It added that it was going to invest $1 million in a new climate grant program to fact check any climate content it deems misinformation. A Master Carvers Journey from Soviet Repression to Americas Freedom How Alexander A. Grabovetskiy's God-bestowed talent saved him For as far back as he can remember, Russian Alexander A. Grabovetskiy has found woodcarving fascinating. Around the age of 5, he marveled over the handmade wooden toyscarved bears and other small animalsin his local gift shop. He remembers asking himself, How in the world is it possible to make them? Little did he realize then that woodcarving would become his world and that a simple woodcarving knife would become his savior in the Soviet Union and in the United States. Master woodcarver Alexander A. Grabovetskiy creates intricate ornamental woodcarvings in his Florida workshop. (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) The Little Apprentice Grabovetskiy had seen far grander wooden creations than those delightful toys. His grandfather was a furniture maker. Before the Russian Revolution, his maternal great-great grandfather was a famous redwooder (a woodworker who uses only dark woods such as Indian mahogany), who worked for the royal family in St. Petersburg, creating exquisite furniture on par with Chippendales. Grabovetskiys great-great grandfather died before he was born, and his surname was eradicated after the revolution. The Soviet regime didnt like anybody who was connected to the royal family, he said in a telephone interview. Traces of his famous relative may have been wiped out, but Grabovetskiy inherited the familys woodcarving talent. When he was just 6 years old, he stole a chisel from his grandfather and created his first carving in a stone brick: a human face. He thought it was a really nice project and proudly showed it to his grandfather, but he wasnt happy. In the Soviet Union, woodworking tools were really expensive, so his grandfather wasnt impressed, Grabovetskiy explained. But Grabovetskiys enterprising spirit paid off. From then on, his grandfather set about showing him how to hold a chisel, how to choose the right materials, and other skills of the trade. Craftsmen like his grandfather knew that an apprentice had to start early in life to learn to master carving. So, at the age of 6, Grabovetskiy began an apprenticeship of sorts. He fondly recalled sitting outside carving small projects, and his grandmother, the grandchild of the familys famous woodcarver, teaching him whittling techniques. We did not have any machinery. We didnt even have any table saws. Everything was done by handsaws, chisels, and mallets. That was the only way, the only approach, he said. Alexander A. Grabovetskiys gift for wood carving runs in this family: his grandfather was a furniture maker, and his great-great grandfather created furniture for the Russian royal family. (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) A Master Apprenticeship He said, chuckling, By the age of 16, I thought I already knew everything. Then he met Vladimir Tokarev, a master woodcarver and fine artist. Tokarev saw Grabovetskiys talent and invited him to become his apprentice, suggesting that if he taught the young man everything he knew, then maybe Grabovetskiy could surpass him. Tokarev took Grabovetskiy under his wing, teaching him the fundamentals of woodcarving. He started with the design approach using ancient geometry laws such as the golden ratio, an ancient geometric calculation that replicates nature and results in the most harmonious compositions; and the Fibonacci sequence, a numerical sequence that when drawn results in a spiral said to be close to the golden ratio. He gave me only one knife, and he said, Until you master a knife, I cant give you any gouge (a chisel with a curved blade especially used for woodcarving). For over a year, Grabovetskiy perfected his woodcarving technique using only one knife. For centuries past, woodcarvers only used the knife, no gouges. Once Tokarev was satisfied that Grabovetskiy had mastered the knife, he gave him one gouge to practice and perfect his carving with. Grabovetskiy laughed. On some of his projects now, hell use 100 gouges for just one project. Tokarev trained his apprentices to use as few tools as possible to achieve great carvings. Training in that way meant that Grabovetskiy could take two months to complete one project. A gouge (woodworking chisel) alongside one of Alexander A. Grabovetskiys creations. (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) Imprisoned for Preaching Two years into his seven-year apprenticeship, Grabovetskiys life changed dramatically. At nearly 19 years old, he was arrested for preaching and put in prison. The [regime] didnt like the idea that somebody could influence peoples opinions, he said. Grabovetskiys imprisonment was during the last years of the Soviet Union. People didnt have any food, even outside of the prison. But inside it was worse. There was absolutely no food. We would eat only once a day, he said. Prisoners were given what they called balandabowls of murky, almost black liquid with solids floating in it, which often caused diarrhea, and sometimes death. Looking back at his imprisonment, Grabovetskiy is grateful for his apprenticeship with Tokarev, being taught to master one knife. He couldnt get any woodcarving tools in prison, but he was able to make a small knife. The blade was less than half an inch (10 millimeters) long. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to have. That one knife was actually a lifesaver for me, he said. Grabovetskiy survived by carving small jewelry boxes and the prison staff allowed him to have a small potato to eat each day, which he shared with three other prisoners. Later, he used the knife to embellish furniture by creating carvings and marquetry. Prison staff then sold his creations to the mafia because during the collapse of the Soviet Union, the regime didnt pay prison staff. Grabovetskiy spent nearly two years in prison. He was released as part of a prison amnesty when the Soviet Union collapsed. Finding Freedom In March 1996, when he was 23 years old, Grabovetskiy, his wife, and their 10-month-old son left Russia for good. All they brought with them was a suitcase, and most of that space was taken up with a pillow. In retrospect, he would have packed differently: We were brainwashed. We thought that in the United States, everything was just artificial, no pillows, not the traditional way. They first settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We arrived on Saturday. Sunday we went to church, and by Monday I was already employed by house framers, he said. The job didnt last long because of the language barrier, but Grabovetskiy quickly picked up another job and learned English. Settling in America had its joys and challenges. Because some people openheartedly invited us to their homes, and so onit was a blessing for them to meet people from Russia. But some people looked at us as enemies, and thats still going on. The problem is between governments, not people-to-people. And normal people, they just worry about work and dinner time with the family, and so on, he said. After a year, Grabovetskiy and his family moved to Indiana, where he established a carpentry business covering all manner of woodworking jobs from installing doors to making flooring and made-to-order kitchen cabinetry. Later, his business expanded to building luxury homes. He employed ex-pats from the former Soviet Bloc, many of whom had been persecuted for their Christian faith, like he had. These highly skilled woodworkers had the same challenges that Grabovetskiy once had. Without being proficient in English, they couldnt find any good jobs, but they still had families to feed. Together, they conquered the local market and became the best at what they did. Alexander A. Grabovetskiy carving a pair of lions. (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) Alexander A. Grabovetskiy undertakes all types of woodcarving commissions from majestic lions to elegant architectural accents, to flourishes of flowers, berries, and volutes (spirals). (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) Grabovetskiys Design Approach Most of the time, Grabovetskiy designs first and then finds the right piece of wood. But sometimes the wood dictates the design. For instance, when he taught a class on 18th-century furniture making, he was struck by the grain in a couple of pieces of walnut wood, and a design based on the movements of the woodgrain came to his mind. Each of Grabovetskiys woodcarvings begins life as a drawingon paper, the timber itself, or a computer if hes working on a large-scale project. Although each carving looks gloriously dynamic, every element has been meticulously planned using geometry and mathematicsright down to how many flowers and how many petals each bloom has. Its an ancient approach that he happily teaches his students in person or online. For instance, using a piece he made in 2014, Grabovetskiy explained how he applied the golden ratio, splitting the upper half of the vertical composition by 62 percent, leaving the lower part of the carving with 38 percent. The result: a harmonious composition with the upper part of the carving being abundant with blooms, berries, and a trellis-like structure, as opposed to the lower part which is sparse in comparison. Alexander A. Grabovetskiy uses ancient geometry and traditional woodcarving techniques to create all of his intricate woodcarvings. In this 2014 woodcarving War and Peace, he applied the golden ratio, splitting the top half of the composition by 62 percent and the lower half by 38 percent. (Courtesy of Alexander A Grabovetskiy) Viewing the complex piece, the eye is immediately drawn to the peony, which is located in the golden spot. This is where, Grabovetskiy explained, the flowers surrounding the peony enhance its position of importance. The composition is also set on diagonals. For example, a volute (a spiral) is carved diagonally down to the left of the peony. Alexander Grabovetskiy meticulously plans the design of each sculptural motif in his woodcarvings. For instance, he even calculates the number of petals for each bloom. (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) Most of Grabovetskiys pieces are carved from one piece of wood, although its also common to glue pieces of wood together before starting big projects, just because wood is becoming less readily available. For his 2014 piece, titled War and Peace, Grabovetskiy added and glued on a few extra carvings to finish the piece, just as preeminent 18th-century woodcarver Grinling Gibbons would have done. Some of Alexander A. Grabovetskiys woodcarvings are wafer-thin, a skill hes developed over time and through enduring many cuts to his hand. (Courtesy Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) When Grabovetskiy carves, theres no sanding; its a traditional approach. He likens the result to fine art, where the artists every brushstroke is unique. Each time he carves, the mark he makes is called a pull mark. Every pull mark on a piece of timber makes them really unique, just like a diamond has different sides and when you catch the light, it casts a shadow. he said. Master carver Alexander A. Grabovetskiy doesnt sand any of his woodcarvings. This traditional approach allows viewers to observe the artists skill by the gouge (woodworking chisel) marks, called pull marks. (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) A detail of Alexander A. Grabovetskiys intricate woodcarving. (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) A Gift From God Now, Grabovetskiy lives in Florida, a move he made to establish a church and to set up his woodcarving workshop and school. Woodcarving is Grabovetskiys passion, not just a job. Its a talent that he believes God bestowed on him, and he sees it as his responsibility to perfect and pass on that gift. Part of Grabovetskiys responsibility is to pass on his skills to other woodcarvers. His weeklong classes are sold out within minutes, and students come back year after year. He realizes that its because he teaches traditional woodcarving and art history; neither are usually taught in college curricula. An Old Testament story made him see his talent clearly. The Book of Exodus tells how God asked Moses to make sure the slave Bezalel built the tabernacle. God said: I appointed him. It meant that God placed particular talents in Bezalel, Grabovetskiy explained. Remarkably, most of Alexander A. Grabovetskiys wood carvings are created from one piece of wood. (Courtesy of Alexander A. Grabovetskiy) Grabovetskiy ardently believes that his God-given talent is woodcarving. Its a talent that has saved his life many times: in prison and when he started his woodcarving business. Grabovetskiy continues to perfect his skills by hand carving sumptuous ornamental wooden sculptures using centuries-old traditional techniques. As a testament to his talent, Grabovetskiy is world-renowned, having won the Woodworkers Institutes International Woodcarver of the Year 2012 award and teaching often-sold-out courses to woodcarvers around the country and online. Every profession, not only woodcarving, if you have a talent in some area, God gave you that talent and you really have to polish it, he said. To find out more about woodcarver Alexander Grabovetskiy, visit Grabovetskiy.com How Can We Best Educate Our Children? Parents and all right-minded people want the best for children, and one important aspect of considering what is best for them is contemplating their education. What is the process by which they become educatedwhat does having an education mean? It is not enough, I think, just to select the best school we intend to send them to; we have to think deeper than this, because the best school isnt necessarily best for your particular child. Indeed, we see this clearly when parents with more than one child make different decisions for each one. Furthermore, best can so often mean not very much. It may mean simply the most expensive or exclusive, if we go privately, or it may mean, if we go publicly, the most popular or most visibly branded school, with reputation hinging on, perhaps, just one sole factor such as examination results. The idea that just because we pass lots of examinations means that we are educated should make all thoughtful individuals wince. Surely true education is much more than simply carving out a career in a narrow field by passing increasingly arduous sets of exams! This then takes us back to first principles. What do we want education to achieve? What would it look like if our children were educated? Andwhat this article is aboutcan we learn anything from the past, and in particular from the ancient Greeks? The Ancient Greeks on Education I think we can. Lets explore three simple ideas that come from Plato. I say simple, but this is not a derogatory term. As Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde said, Im a man of simple tastes, Im always satisfied with the best; and as business expert Donald G. Krause said more seriously in his book The Way of the Leader, Only what is simple can produce outstanding success. Its interesting that this quotation comes from a book on leadership, because the etymology of education is from a Latin word meaning to lead forth. Children are not going to accidentally become educated or spontaneously pop up as mature adults; they need to be led there. But to return to Plato, what are the three simple ideas he has, or more exactly, what ideas do Socrates, Plato and Aristotle share? According to traditional ornamental plasterer Patrick Webb, they laid the foundation for 2,400 years of philosophic inquiry, and their provisional conclusion was that the Good, True, and the Beautiful at the highest actualisation of ultimate reality was indistinguishable as an unity: the One. And love is the force that draws us towards it. There has been much development since then on these topics, but the fact is, on the face of it, we can all understand the good, the true, and the beautiful, and this relates to education and what we want for our children. Plato (L) and Aristotle in Raphaels 1509 fresco, The School of Athens. (Public domain) The True, the Good, the Beautiful But we may be asking, yes, but what are the good, the true, and the beautiful? And how does that relate to the institutions of learning to which we may or may not wish our children to attend? Ultimately, as Webb noted, these three ideas are onean indistinguishable unity. That is to say, when we see one operating, usually all three simultaneously operate. Where we have one, we tend to find the others. If we remove ourselves from the realm of theoretical abstractions (philosophy proper) and just consider how these ideas play out practically, which is in real human beings, what do we find? We find that when a person is good or acts on their perception of goodness, theres a behavior that manifests it. We invariably note that doing something good also tends to exhibit the qualities of truthfulnessthe trueand also becomes in itself beautiful. If we consider the good actions of people like St. Francis of Assisi or Mother Teresa, were struck by both their truth and honesty in doing what they committed to do, and also a certain beautyoften via its simplicity and immediacythat emerges from their behavior. What Im getting at is that ultimately what we want for our children is an education that helps lead them (and us, of course, since parents are an essential part of this process) to behaviors that are consistently good, true, and beautiful. And the word for this is very old-fashioned: We want an education that leads to the development of character, real character. One might expect opposition to this. Psychologist James Hillman in his The Force of Character observed that character died in the twentieth century, and, according to American essayist Norman Mailer, Ego is the great word of the twentieth century. Political and cultural commentator David Brooks in his The Road to Character extends this notion further when he notes that the Usage of words like character, conscience, and virtue all declined over the course of the 20th century. Usage of the word bravery has declined by 66 percent over the course of the 20th century. Gratitude is down 52 percent, and kindness is down 56 percent. Despite this, however, when we consider where to send our children, the question becomes: Does this institution focus on, promote, and truly commit to the development of character in its students? How would we know this? Their mission statements? Hardlytheyre two a penny! Finding a Character-Building School Look for perhaps three things. Like always attracts like, hence the expression birds of a feather flock together, so step one is not to focus on examination results but on the reputation and standing of the teachers and professors themselves, especially their principal. After all, were not going to get character development in our children from people who have little character themselves. Discovering whether faculty have character means digging a bit deeper than simply reviewing their academic qualifications in the institutions handbook. What good are they doing beyond what they are paid to do? What truth do they stand for, and whats beautiful in their lives? Often we learn whats beautiful by knowing what their hobbies or passions are. Fortunately, with social media being what it is nowadays, its not difficult to find a lot of information about individuals that they themselves have put in the public domain. The second step is a close examination of the curriculum on offer. Clearly, this is where the institutions real priorities become apparent. Two things here are, I think, really important. First, balance: This almost certainly means ensuring that the humanities and arts are not underplayed and rendered subservient to science, technology, and generally utilitarian subjects. A balanced and character-building curriculum will include the arts. (David Tadevosian/Shutterstock) What I am getting at is the centrality of the imagination in a curriculum that is going to develop character and characters. Imaginationonce sparkedleads to the most astonishing results. Again, David Brooks: When you go to a school, it should offer you new things to love. We dont become better because we acquire new information. We become better because we acquire better loves. And this love begins in our imagination. Indeed, how many of us can truly say we loved a particular subject or discipline ever since a great teacher first taught us and inspired our imagination about it? A quality education will spark a childs curiosity and imagination. (Iakov Filimonov/Shutterstock) Finally, the third step to look for is the results of the work of the institution over time. How do we evaluate this? The alumni! What do these former students look like? What former students does the institution hold up as being typical of their processes? We need here to look beyond the merely famous former alumnimerely being famous or rich or powerful is not itself necessarily an example of goodness, truth, and beauty. But who are their exemplars? Youd expect, wouldnt you, some results after years of toil in the educational fields? Remember, in undertaking this search, you are engaging in something of real and material benefit to society. For, as civil rights activist Rustin Bayard said, The only way to reduce ugliness in the world is to reduce it in yourself. This is exactly what focusing on characterand the good, the true, and the beautifulhelps us to do. Hundreds of American and Southwest Airlines Employees Protest Against Vaccine Mandates Workers at multiple airlines across the United States are protesting against COVID-19 vaccination mandates after several carriers announced employees must get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs. Hundreds of American Airlines (AA) workersincluding pilots and flight attendants in uniformstook to the streets outside the companys Fort Worth, Texas headquarters on Thursday to protest against the new measures, The Dallas Morning News reports. Many of them brandished signs reading Mandates wont fly and Dont fire my Dad in response to the new rules, while some protestors said they were skeptical of the effectiveness of the vaccine and concerned about unreported side effects. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hasnt reported any long-term side effects from the approved COVID-19 vaccines, noting that they have undergone and will continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history. American Airlines told workers in an email Wednesday night that they have to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 24 or face termination. The company said it is providing an extra day of vacation pay and other incentives for employees who submit proof of vaccination by the November deadline and that employees will be able to seek religious or health exemptions to vaccination. Southwest Airlines (SWA) also announced it will require all of its 56,000 U.S. employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Biden administration last month issued an executive order requiring all federal contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, unless they are granted a religious or medical exemption. Contractors that dont comply may lose out on government contracts. Large U.S. airlines have a number of federal contracts. The Dallas-based airline said in a press release on Oct. 4 that it had conducted a thorough review of the new rules from the Biden administration, and determined that its contracts with the U.S. government require full compliance with the federal vaccination directive. U.S.-based employees of the major carrier have to be fully vaccinated or have an approved religious, medical, or disability accommodation by Dec. 8 to keep their jobs. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), a union, announced on Oct. 5 that it would be filing a temporary restraining order against SWA to stop the company from carrying forward its mandate. The order forms part of a lawsuit that SWAPA filed on Aug. 30 challenging forced time off and other changes to working conditions imposed by the airline during the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to be perfectly clear: SWAPA is not anti-vaccination, but we do believe that, under all circumstances, it is our role to represent the health and safety of our pilots and bring their concerns to the company, SWAPA said in a statement. SWAPA has authorized its members to demonstrate against the mandate and strenuous working conditions during the pandemic and has also authorized $1 million in support of those protests, which could begin this fall, according to SWAPA president Casey Murray, News Week reports. The Allied Pilots Association, a labor union representing American Airlines pilots, said on Wednesday that it expects management to meet its obligations under the Railway Labor Act to negotiate the implementation and effects of this mandatory vaccination requirement on our pilots. The Railway Labor Act seeks to promptly resolve disputes between airline carriers and their employees and protects the rights of workers to collectively bargain. United Airlines was the first U.S. carrier to mandate vaccines for its domestic employees, having announced its mandate in August. It confirmed on Sept. 29 that it was going to terminate 593 of its employees who have chosen to not comply with the companys vaccine mandate. Delta Air Lines remains a major U.S. carrier that has chosen not to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all its employees, although it does require all new U.S. employees to be vaccinated, and that all unvaccinated Delta staff enrolled in its health care plan pay a $200 monthly surcharge. Mimi Nguyen Ly and Reuters contributed to this report. A cameramen shoots footage in front of an IBM logo at the world's biggest high-tech fair, the CeBIT, in Hanover, Germany, on March 5, 2009. (John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images) IBM Mandates All US Employees to Be Fully Vaccinated by Dec. 8 IBM said on Thursday it requires all U.S. employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8, or they will face unpaid suspension. This comes in the light of President Joe Bidens mandate last month ordering all federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated, with a few exceptions, and private employers with 100 or more workers to require employees to be vaccinated or tested weekly.. IBM, which is a federal contractor, has tens of thousands of U.S. employees. IBM had previously said it would allow only fully vaccinated U.S. employees to return to offices. However, the new policy applies to all U.S. employees, even those working from home. Some can, however, claim exemption from the rule on medical and religious grounds. Major tech companies including Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have also mandated vaccinations for employees. A participant stands near a logo of IMF at the International Monetary Fund - World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Oct.12, 2018. (Johannes P. Christo/Reuters File Photo) IMF Urges Governments to Make Fiscal Plans to Tame Pandemic Debt WASHINGTONGovernments should start planning a return to more sustainable budgets with policies that win the trust of investors, after unprecedented fiscal stimulus to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday. But each country must determine the appropriate timing and pace of fiscal consolidation based on its own individual circumstances, the IMF said in its Fiscal Monitor report. The fiscal plans needed to consider the stage of the pandemic, existing fiscal vulnerabilities, the risk of economic scarring, pressures from aging populations, development needs, and historical difficulties in collecting revenues. There are countries where the pandemic is still raging and therefore the priority continues to be the health emergency, IMF deputy fiscal affairs director Paulo Mauro told Reuters in an interview. Other countries where economic activity is picking up can start thinking about also gradually reducing the degree of fiscal support that they provide to the economy, he said. A Fiscal Monitor chapter titled Strengthening the Credibility of Public Finances said countries that commit to medium-term fiscal sustainability with credible budget frameworks are rewarded with lower borrowing costs and a greater ability to refinance debts. What we find in the report is, governments can commit credibly to fiscal sustainability, that buys them time, and it buys them flexibility in this very difficult period of the pandemic, Mauro said. The report said IMF research showed countries with credible fiscal framework plans could more quickly reverse big jumps in debt, with feasibility for a 15 percent increase in debt to be reversed in a decade, absent additional shocks. The Fund recommended that countries commit to broad fiscal targets with underlying tax and spending policies for the next three to five years, with specific policies, such as tax increases or raising the age for securing retirement benefits. Fiscal rules, such as keeping budget deficits within a certain percentage of gross domestic product, or independent fiscal councils within governments could add credibility, it said, adding that goals that were easy to communicate helped. But the IMF said fiscal plans should be flexible to allow economies to stabilize and avoid cuts in key public investments. Changes to taxes or spending can be pre-legislated and can be made contingent on the recovery, the IMF said. It cited Britains announcement that corporate rates would rise in April 2023, and Israels passage of a sunset for extended unemployment benefits linked to achieving a lower jobless rate. By David Lawder In Bolivia, Coca Farmers Find Exploitation Replaces Abuse A coca farmer in Bolivia lives in poverty, while others reap wealth from the crop he grows. He and his family earlier suffered persecution at the hands of the police, which, with the election of the socialists, was replaced by what he regards as exploitation by the government. Agustin Calichu, 60, has been working as a coca farmer since his early 20s on his plantation two miles outside the town of Villa Tunari, located in the Chapare region in the Bolivian Amazon. Chapare is located in the department of Cochabamba, where growing coca is legal for up to 200 square meters of cultivation per family. Chapare has a history of coca-leaf production for use in narcotics and traditional medicine. Agustins farm comprises a total of 12.3 acres divided between different crops, including coca. His adult son, Victor, met this reporter outside the familys small, single-story home with a sheet metal roof. Victor Calichus wife, three children, and father share the home. The sole vehicle in the dirt driveway belongs to the younger man, who works as a taxi driver in Villa Tunari in addition to helping his father with the farm. He pointed out a variety of crops grown on his familys farm, including corn, potatoes, and papaya. After a 30-minute walk through the jungle, Victor Calichu revealed the farthest portion of his familys land, which is where they grow coca plants. His father was working in the field with a machete. Agustin Calichu recalled the violent police raids. Agustin Calichu in his familys coca field on Sept. 16, 2021. (Autumn Spredemann/The Epoch Times) We were treated worse than dogs. The police would invade our farms [in Chapare] without a warrant and tie the men down on the ground while beating them. They demanded to know where the drugs were. We were just farmers, we had no drugs, he told The Epoch Times. I cant even speak about what they did to our women. A special narcotics task force of the police called the Unidad Movil Policial para Areas Rurales (UMOPAR) has operated within the Chapare region since 1983. Due to the high concentration of cocaine trafficking near the town of Chimore, the force began raiding and burning coca farms in the surrounding area, according to Agustin Calichu. The Epoch Times contacted the office of the Fuerza Especial de Lucha contra el Narcotrafico, which is the narco-trafficking division of the police responsible for UMOPAR, for comment and was told their office is unaware of any unauthorized action against cocaleros [coca growers] perpetrated by UMOPAR. Former minister of the presidency, Carlos Romero, addressed the subject of human rights violations committed by the UMOPAR during a session of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly on March 21, 2019. Romero said that from 1996 to 2005, there were human rights violations committed in Chapare, including 60 people killed and 523 detained. Romero also said that an economic crisis for coca producers followed. Romeros address focused on human rights violations against coca farmers during that nine-year stretch, but a former member of the Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta (FTC), which is a military narcotics task force that works in tandem with UMOPAR, claims the illegal burning of coca farms in Chapare was still happening in 2008. Calichu family coca plantation on Sept. 16, 2021. (Autumn Spredemann/The Epoch Times) Juan Carlos Siles, 32, was 19 years old when he worked with the FTC in Chapare. We shouldnt have been there. We had no permission, it wasnt even legal, Siles told The Epoch Times. Some [farmers] would run and some would curse us, but the women would beg us not to burn their coca. I remember Mothers Day that year, because a woman the same age as my own mother pleaded with us, while crying, not to burn her coca [plants], Siles said. Siles said that after three months of working in Chapare with the FTC eradicating coca plants on farms, his unit only found drugs on two occasions. The rest were regular farmers like Agustin Calichu. We dont grow drugs. We grow crops. Coca is used for many things, like natural medicine. What we do is legal, but UMOPAR still burned our farm. They burned everything, even the crops that werent coca, Agustin Calichu said. The Calichu family coca plantation on Sept. 16, 2021. (Autumn Spredemann/The Epoch Times) Victor Calichu said the raids were the reason coca growers began farming deep in the jungle. It made the task of finding coca bushes a challenge. Agustin Calichu said a silver lining presented itself once Evo Morales, of the Movement for Socialism party (MAS), was elected president in 2006 and the violent police raids on his farm stopped. Morales had been a labor union boss for coca growers. His rise to power resulted in fewer violent police crackdowns on the farmers. Morales also kicked out U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials in 2008. Media reports suggest the MAS has made millions from the sale of coca leaves to drug traffickers. By comparison, the elder man said he gets paid only US$8 to $9 per kilogram of coca leaves he sells to the people who arrive at his farm driving government-issued vehicles. Victor Calichu and guides walking through the jungle to the coca field on Sept. 16, 2021. (Autumn Spredemann/The Epoch Times) Agustin Calichu gets paid in cash for the leaves and is usually able to sell his whole harvest in one transaction. Private sales dont follow a set schedule, and they can be hit or miss on the profit. However, the farmer feels he cant complain overall since he only makes US$5 per kilo of leaves when he sells directly to the public markets in Cochabamba and La Paz, where residents buy coca for traditional medicinal uses. But at the end of the day, his family lives in poverty. Its hard to make a living for a family just as a farmer, even when you grow coca, Victor Calichu said. When asked how he felt about being paid so little, Agustin Calichu just shrugged. I want to live in peace with my family. That is whats most important. I still make more money from my coca [leaves] than I did before the MAS was in power. Morales stepped down as president after a disputed general election on Nov. 10, 2019. The MAS party was reelected to power with Luis Arce as president in October 2020. Arce was minister of economy during the 13-year tenure of Morales. Victor Calichu with corn also growing on his familys farm, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Autumn Spredemann/The Epoch Times) Opposition presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso's supporters protest outside Ecuador's National Electoral Council to demand the official results of the presidential elections, in Quito, Ecuador, on Feb. 20, 2017. (Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo) In Ecuador, America and Europe Neglect Their Economic Leverage Over China US and EU should make clear that Ecuador is expected to further distance itself from Beijing News Analysis Ecuadors plan for free trade agreements with the United States, European Union, Russia, and China demonstrate that democracies are not utilizing their own large economies to protect democratic values. On trade matters, Ecuador has in effect broadcast that it is not choosing sides in the developing new cold war between China and a U.S.-led coalition seeking to protect democracy and human rights globally. And apparently, that is no problem for the Biden administration, which has repeatedly stated that the United States is not asking other countries to choose sides. The European Union, the worlds other largest market by GDP, already has a trade deal with Ecuador and is even further from seeking to use its market power to encourage the closer integration of democracies, and thereby protect democratic values in Ecuador and the world. So Ecuador is shrugging its shoulders and seeking trade deals with China and Russia over the coming four years, even as its president, Guillermo Lasso, has stated that the United States is the countrys priority alliance and trade partner. On Oct. 7, Ecuadors Production and International Trade Minister said that a U.S. deal was the priority in the Ecuadorian presidents attempt to double its foreign direct investment (FDI) to $1.8 billion annually. The minister, Julio Jose Prado, spoke to Reuters in an interview. A trade deal does not depend on what a minister or president thinks, but on where Ecuadorean companies need to be, Prado told Reuters. If that means having trade deals with China and the United States at the same time, well, we will do it. There is plenty of room for Chinas trade, investment, smuggling, and bribery to influence or corrupt Ecuadorian politics. President Lassos planned increase in FDI is meant to offset a deep recession that afflicted the country due to the pandemic. Ecuador defaulted on its debts in 2020, and so it is desperate. Lasso himself was recently identified in the Pandora Papers, which is approximately 12 million leaked files that includes financial information about many world leaders who hide wealth offshore. The president, a former banker and conservative who beat a left-wing candidate in April, replaced a Panamanian foundation that made monthly payments to his close family members with a trust based in South Dakota in the US, according to the BBC. Had the leftist, economist Andres Arauz, won the election, the turn toward Beijing would likely have been more pronounced. Rafael Correa, who oriented Ecuador from Washington to Beijing between 2007 and 2017, when he served as president, backed the candidacy of Arauz. Correa executed a series of loan-for-oil deals with Beijing and broke off relations with U.S. financial institutions, effectively putting the country under Beijings influence. The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, speaks during the annual gathering for the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City on Sept. 21, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Just before leaving office, the Trump administrations U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) attempted to reverse Ecuadors fall into Chinas orbit through a mid-January 2020 deal that envisaged the United States purchasing Ecuadorian oil and infrastructure assets so that Ecuador could pay off its debt to Beijing. As part of that deal, Ecuador agreed to forgo 5G purchases from Chinese companies. Now that Donald Trump is no longer in office, Ecuador may be testing the waters to see if it can again profit through increased trade and investment from Beijing. The Biden administration should make clear that continued American economic largesse, and access to U.S. markets, is dependent upon Ecuador demonstrating, through its political and economic relations, that it sides with democratic countries, rather than with Beijing. Ecuador should stop seeking trade deals with China and Russia, for example, and improve its relations with democratic Taiwan. Touch action is required by countries in Latin America, where China seeks to expand its illiberal influence through trade, investment, and likely the bribery of heads of state and their families. In 1823, President James Monroe pronounced his famous doctrine meant to keep European colonial powers out of the Americas. Now, Russia and China have expanded their influence through Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, all of which are led by authoritarian communists, and all of which have failed spectacularly at bringing their citizens economic growth, human rights, and freedoms of speech and the press. Chinese companies are already significant importers of Ecuadors crude oil, shrimp, bananas, cacao, timber, and cut flowers, and investors in the countrys mining operations. Ecuadorian exporters are concerned that the Trump-era agreement to displace Chinese debt and 5G technology could hamper Ecuadors exports to the authoritarian country. But it is every democracys responsibility to reorient trade away from an increasingly powerful and totalitarian China, and toward democracies and other friendly countries that will use the economic gains from trade responsibly. The United States and Europe, as the worlds most economically powerful centers of democracy, must more assertively use their economic influence and purchasing power to wean the rest of the world from a dangerous economic dependence upon the worlds most dangerous authoritarian regime. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Commuters make their way into work in the morning in the financial district of Dublin, Ireland on Oct. 18, 2018. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters) Ireland Agrees to Global Tax Deal, Sacrificing Prized Low Rate DUBLINIreland dropped its opposition to an overhaul of global corporate tax rules on Thursday, agreeing to give up its prized 12.5 percent tax for large multinationals in a major boost to efforts to impose a minimum rate worldwide. Ireland, the low-tax European headquarters for blue chip companies including Apple, Google, and Facebook, declined to sign up to the initial deal in July, objecting to a proposed rate of at least 15 percent. An updated text this week dropped the at least, clearing the way for ministers to do what successive governments said they would never contemplategiving up the low rate that has helped win Ireland investments and jobs for decades. Joining this agreement is an important decision for the next stage of Irelands industrial policya decision that will ensure that Ireland is part of the solution, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told a news conference. This is a difficult and complex decision but I believe it is the right one. Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe talks to journalists as he arrives for the second day of an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium on June 25, 2021. (Olivier Matthys/Pool via Reuters) All bar a handful of the 140 countries involved signed up to the July deal, brokered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), that marked the first rewriting of international tax rules in a generation. The holdouts, which include fellow EU members Estonia and Hungary, cannot block the proposed changes. The 140 negotiating countries are due to meet on Friday to finalise the deal. The U.S. Treasury, which had pressed Ireland to support the global minimum tax, hailed Dublins decision as putting the world on a path toward a generational achievement to ensure corporations pay their fair share of taxes. If Ireland had maintained its lower rate, multinationals that book profits there could be forced to pay the additional tax elsewhere under the proposals. The government said it had received assurances from the European Commission that Ireland can maintain the 12.5 percent rate for firms with annual turnover below 750 million euros ($867 million) and keep tax incentives for research and development. The Commission also promised it will stick faithfully to the OECD agreement and not seek a higher rate among member states, Donohoe said. No Substantial Impact While Ireland wrestled with the prospective changes for months, it will not be the first change to its tax regime. A 10 percent tax rate convinced Apple to set up a manufacturing facility in the 1980s, with Microsoft and Intel following suit. The government increased this to 12.5 percent in 1997 to comply with EU state aid rules and multinational jobs mushroomed. The 12.5 percent rate was fiercely defended in the intervening years, most notably when Ireland came under pressure to raise it as part of a 2010 international bailout. Many analysts expect Ireland to remain competitive in the battle to attract foreign direct investment. Some 1,500 multinationals that will be hit by the higher rate currently employ around 400,000 people or one in six workers in Ireland, Donohoe said. We would be reasonably confident that this wont have a substantial impact, said Kieran McQuinn, research professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) think tank. As a country matures, other factors such as the flexibility of our workforce (and) membership of the EU tend to become very important as well, he added. ($1 = 0.8649 euros) By Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries Afghan men stand next to an ambulance after a bomb attack at a mosque in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Oct. 8, 2021. (AFP via Getty Images) ISIS Claims Responsibility for Terrorist Bombing That Killed 46 in Afghanistan An ISIS terrorist affiliate claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack that killed dozens inside an Afghan mosque on Friday. ISIS-K, the Afghanistan branch of the Syria- and Iraq-terror organization, said one of its members was behind the blast via its Amaq news channel. The individual who was behind the attack was a Uyghur Muslim, the group said. The blast tore through a crowded mosque in the city of Kunduz during Friday noon prayers, the highlight of the Muslim religious week. It was the latest in a series of ISIS bombings and shootings that have targeted Afghanistans new Taliban rulers. Kunduz provincial spokesman Matiullah Rohani told news outlets that at least 46 people died in the blast, adding that more than 100 more were injured. Meanwhile, main Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that several of our compatriots, likely referring to Taliban members, were killed and injured in the attack. And the Taliban strongly condemns this heinous act and promises to find and punish the perpetrators of this heinous crime, he added on Twitter. The attack, according to the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, is part of a disturbing pattern of violence and represents the third deadly attack this week apparently targeting a religious institution. Afghan men carry the dead body of a victim to an ambulance after a bomb attack at a mosque in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Oct. 8, 2021. (AFP via Getty Images) The U.N. family in Afghanistan is deeply concerned by reports of very high casualties in an attack today in Sayyidabad Shia Mosque, it said. Initial information indicates more than 100 people killed and injured in a suicide blast inside the mosque. In recent days, the Talibanitself a designated terrorist group by several U.S. intelligence agenciessaid it has conducted operations against ISIS-K in Afghanistan, killing several of the groups fighters. After the Taliban took over the country, Pentagon officials acknowledged that potentially thousands of ISIS members were released from prisons in August. And this week, a Republican lawmaker stated that a terrorist who carried out a bombing in Kabul in late August was released by the Taliban just days earlier. U.S. national security officials have now confirmed to me the reports that the Aug. 26 Kabul bomber was a known ISIS-K terrorist that was previously detained at the Bagram prison and was released along with thousands of others just days before the deadly attack, Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) said in a statement this week. President Bidens disastrous handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan led to a series of events that culminated with the tragic loss of life on Aug. 26 outside of the Kabul airport, he continued. Thirteen Americans, including one of my constituents, were killed because of the poor judgment and execution of our troop withdrawal. Judge Rejects Oregon State Police Troopers Request to Stop Governors Vaccine Mandate A judge turned down a request from Oregon State Police troopers to halt Oregons COVID-19 vaccine mandate, slated to take effect later this month. Retired Oregon Supreme Court Justice Jack Landau said that Democrat Gov. Kate Brown was acting within her authority when she issued the order mandating vaccinations. Landau, who is presiding over the troopers lawsuit in Jefferson County Circuit Court, wrote that Brown and the state have an unquestioned interest in protecting the health and wellbeing of the states employees and added, Likewise, they have undeniable interest in protecting the public from the dangers posed by the COVID-19 virus. Brown recently issued an order to mandate vaccines for the states executive branch workers, including state troopers. Hundreds of thousands of healthcare staff and public school employees also have to receive the vaccine under her mandate, although her orders allow for medical and religious exemptions. Dan Thenell, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told The Oregonian newspaper each of the plaintiffs are assessing their options for moving forward. Meanwhile, Portland-based Nike said it will mandate vaccines for all office-based workers. All employees who are coming back to the office have to receive the shot, the firm confirmed in a statement this week. Last month, a statewide civil rights coalition announced it filed a lawsuit against the state of Oregon and the Oregon Health Authority over the mandate. None of our Plaintiffs have been given the option by their employers to decline vaccination, Ben Edtl, the CEO of Free Oregon, Inc., told KTVL. Many of them have been denied exemptions, like in Mollys case, referring to one of the plaintiffs, medical receptionist Molly Valdez. Valdez told the news outlet that because she already contracted COVID-19 earlier this year, she was hesitant to get the vaccine. As the higher-ups [at her workplace] started releasing things saying that we needed to follow the vaccine mandate, I said oh wait, theres a portion that says medical exemption, and I knew my doctor would be more than happy to grant me the medical exemption knowing my medical history, my familys medical history, I have been seeing him since I was 11 years old, he knows me really well, Valdez said, adding that she is a Type 1 diabetic. But Valdez said that after her doctor granted her a medical exemption from the vaccine, Valdezs employer told her that having COVID-19 and being a Type 1 diabetic is not a valid reason for exemption. The mandates come about a month after President Joe Biden announced sweeping vaccination mandates for all healthcare staff who work at facilities receiving Medicare or Medicaid funding, federal employees, and federal contractors. Also announced was a potential mandate that would force private businesses with 100 or more employees to require their workers to get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. In comments in Illinois on Thursday, Biden defended his plan and downplayed reports of mass firings. When you see headlines and reports of mass firings, and hundreds of people losing their jobs, look at the bigger story, the president said Thursday. Ive spoken with Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, whos here today. United went from 59 percent of their employees to 99 percent of their employees in less than two months after implementing the requirement. Laguna Beach Reopens Sand Area on Beaches Following Oil Spill Laguna Beach, California, has reopened its beaches with limited access following the oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach after an oil spill caused beach closures to begin the clean-up process. The reopening went into effect Oct. 8 at 7 a.m. for the sand, which does not include the shoreline or water, both of which are still fully closed off until further notice. I am very pleased that our City team has come up with a plan to open the sand so that our residents and visitors can walk and relax on our beautiful beaches, Laguna Beach Mayor Bob Whalen said in a statement. The Coast Guard advises that we must keep the water closed for health reasons until the water quality can be fully analyzed. I ask everyone to cooperate with this restriction and stay out of the water. We will be working with state and federal officials to open the water as soon as it is safe. Officials warned that oil spill residue may still be present in the sand, so visitors are encouraged to use precaution and avoid contact with any oil traces. The city noted that they will continue to monitor the beaches in the weeks to come, with the possibility of intermittent isolated closures if oil begins to appear on the beaches, with future full reopenings dependent on consultations with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Orange County Health Care Agency. Laguna Beach announced a closure to its beaches on Oct. 3 at 9 p.m. in anticipation of the spill reaching the citys shoreline. Leaked Documents Designed to Hurt Lt. Col. Scheller: Defense Counsel Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Schellers defense team has criticized military officials for leaking case documents ahead of an Oct. 14 trial by special court-martial, saying that the leak is designed to harm Schellers reputation and distract people from his calls for accountability for senior leaderships disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. On Oct. 9, Task and Purpose published a story based on leaked documents that purport to show Schellers support for the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach. Schellers Jan. 6 comments dont come from his public videos or statements made on his social media, but rather an alleged conversation he had with an unnamed executive officer, according to the Task and Purpose story. One of Schellers attorneys, Timothy Parlatore, told The Epoch Times that the alleged conversation was taken out of context. Scheller was only commenting on how the Jan. 6 situation could have been worse, according to Parlatore. Parlatore said the leaked legal documents are designed to hurt Lt. Col Scheller ahead of his trial. The U.S. Marine faces charges of contempt toward officials, disrespect toward superior commissioned officers, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, dereliction in the performance of duties, failure to obey order or regulation, and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. Its something Ive seen plenty of times in other cases. When the public narrative isnt going towards the governments preferred narrative, they have a tendency to selectively leak documents to try to change that narrative, Parlatore said, adding that the documents may not have come from the prosecution, but from other military officials. Along with facing criticism for leaving behind Americans, allies, and billions of dollars of weapons, senior officials also have come under fire in recent weeks for making false and misleading statements about a botched Aug. 29 drone strike in Kabul that killed innocent Afghan civilians. For weeks after the strike, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted the bombing was a righteous strike, and that any civilian deaths resulted from secondary explosions. But after a Sept. 10 New York Times investigation raised doubts about the veracity of the militarys claims, the Department of Defense later admitted that the drone strike killed 10 civilians, seven of which were childrenand no terrorists. At a Sept. 29 congressional hearing, Milley and two other top military officials further made the stunning admission that they knew within hours that the strike had killed civilianssuggesting that they knowingly lied about the incident for weeks. We knew the strike hit civilians within four to five hours after the strike occurred, and U.S. Central Command issued a press release saying that, Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie said on Sept. 29, contradicting numerous earlier statements that officials had no indication of civilian deaths until later. When people in the military like Lt. Col. Scheller stand up and demand accountability, when they say you all screwed up, when they point out General Milleys statement that Afghanistans not going to be defeated by the Talibanwell, he ends up in a brig, and you all end up in front of us, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said during the Sept. 29 hearing. And your [Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins] former employer Raytheon ends up with a lot of money, and we have poured cash and blood and credibility into a Ghani government that was a mirage. Parlatore said he wanted to remind the public that this is what his clients case is about: an attempt to hold senior military leadership accountable. An entire generation of warriors went over there. We gave our youth, our health, our limbs, and, in some cases, our lives. With the events of the past couple of months, there should be some accountability for why things went down the way they did, and to provide some accountability and peace for these warriors who have given so much, Parlatore said. And of course that extends to this drone strike. Why was it presented as a righteous strike? Parlatore added that his client is willing to accept accountability for his actions; he thinks senior military officials should do the same. He didnt just talk the talk, hes going to walk the walk and accept accountabilityas he would hope others would do, Parlatore said. Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva Says He Will Not Force Employees to Get Vaccinated Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he will not force his employees to get vaccinated after the city approved one of the strictest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the country, saying the issue of COVID-19 vaccines has become so politicized. Speaking during his weekly Q&A on Facebook on Oct. 7, Villanueva said the new mandate puts him in a difficult position where he faces losing more employees at a time when the police force is already struggling with staffing issues. Im not forcing anyone. The issue has become so politicized, Villanueva said on Thursday. There are entire groups of employees that are willing to be fired and laid off rather than get vaccinated, so I dont want to be in a position to lose 5 to 10 percent of my workforce overnight on a vaccine mandate. Villanueva added that he is already struggling with barebones staffing issues due to the defund the police efforts. This is like the worst of two worlds right here. So, we have to pick and choose. The Los Angeles Sheriffs Department told The Epoch Times it has no comment at this time. The city of Los Angeles approved the new vaccine mandate on Oct. 6, requiring anyone aged 12 or above to provide proof of vaccination to enter indoor venues such as indoor restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, salons, indoor government facilities, shopping centers, and more. The mandate will become effective as of Nov. 4, but does not apply to pharmacies and grocery stores. Exceptions will also be made for individuals with valid medical exemptions and for those with a sincerely held religious belief, which will be reviewed by the location the person wishes to enter. For people with religious or medical exemptions, negative COVID-19 tests within 72 hours of entry will be required, according to the ordinance. Unvaccinated individuals attempting to use government services will be provided with alternative arrangements for access to government services, including online or outdoor services, or providing proof of a negative test to enter, as per the mandate. The city council vote on Oct. 6 was 112, with Councilmen John Lee and Joe Buscaino voting to oppose the new mandate. An executive order from Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis in August also mandated vaccination for over 110,000 county workers. Similar mandates have also been implemented in New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco, and West Hollywood. A number of countries throughout Europe have also implemented various mandates and vaccine passport-type systems. LAs tough mandate has left residents divided. The Epoch Times interviewed residents and visitors at Manhattan Beach, California, pier asking their opinions on the new policy. Out of seven people interviewed, two of them opposed the mandate. This is not the first time Villanueva has spoken out about vaccines and subsequent mandates. Earlier this year, the sheriff said that forcing vaccinated individuals and those who have already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks indoors is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Jack Phillips contributed to this report. Afghan men carry the dead body of a victim to an ambulance after a bomb attack at a mosque in Kunduz on Oct. 8, 2021. (AFP via Getty Images) More Than 100 Killed and Wounded in Mosque Explosion in Afghanistan: UN Dozens of people were killed during a suicide bombing attack at an Afghan mosque in the city of Kunduz on Friday, according to the United Nations and the Taliban terrorist group. Initial information indicates more than 100 people killed and injured in a suicide blast inside the mosque, the United Nations mission to Afghanistan wrote on Twitter. Earlier, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote that the explosion occurred at a Shiite mosque. A number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded, he wrote in a Twitter post. The [Taliban] arrived at the scene with a special unit and started investigating. Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz, told Al Jazeera that at least 100 died or were wounded in the blast, adding that the majority of them have been killed. Obaida added that he would assure our Shia brothers that the Taliban are prepared to ensure their safety. If confirmed, a death toll of dozens would be the highest since U.S. and NATO forces left Afghanistan at the end of August and the Taliban took control of the country. The Taliban have been targeted in a series of deadly attacks by rival ISIS terrorist group, including shooting ambushes and an explosion at a mosque in the capital of Kabul. A Doctors Without Borders official who wished not to be named told Al Jazeera that about 90 wounded people are being treated by the group. Afghan men stand next to an ambulance after a bomb attack at a mosque in Kunduz on Oct. 8, 2021. (AFP via Getty Images) We are still receiving people, the official said. Photos and video from the scene showed rescuers carrying a body wrapped in a blanket from the mosque to an ambulance. The stairs at the entrance of the mosque were covered in blood. Debris from the blast covered the floor and the mosques lofty ceiling was charred black. ISIS has declared war on Afghanistans minority Shiites and has taken responsibility for some of the worst attacks targeting the community, including attacks on their mosques in Kabul and the western province of Herat. Previously, an ISIS affiliate claimed responsibility for an Aug. 26 terrorist bombing that killed 13 U.S. military personnel and about 169 Afghans near the Kabul airport during the final days of the rushed and chaotic evacuation after the Americans withdrew from the country. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) earlier this week said that the suicide bomber responsible for the August attack was a known ISIS-K terrorist that was previously detained at the Bagram prison and was released along with thousands of others just days before the deadly attack. President Bidens disastrous handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan led to a series of events that culminated with the tragic loss of life on Aug. 26 outside of the Kabul airport, he added. Thirteen Americans, including one of my constituents, were killed because of the poor judgment and execution of our troop withdrawal. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Firefighters work on an inundated road following an earthquake, in Tokyo, on Oct. 8, 2021. (Kyodo News via AP) More Than 30 Injured After 5.9 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Tokyo Dozens of people have been left injured after a powerful magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck Tokyo on Thursday evening. The earthquakethe largest Japan has seen since 2011occurred at 10:41 p.m. local time and damaged underground water pipes, derailed passenger trains, and caused fires in at least one home, according to The Japan Times. Japans Meteorological Agency said the quake was centered in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo, and first registered the magnitude as 6.1, with an initial depth of 80 kilometers (50 miles). The earthquake has since been updated to a 5.9 magnitude with a depth of 62 kilometers (38.5 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). There was no danger of a tsunami. A road is soaked in water following an earthquake, in Tokyo, early Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. A powerful earthquake shook the Tokyo area on Thursday night, halting trains and subways. (Kyodo News via AP) Chinas Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Friday that 32 people were injured, of which three sustained serious injuries from the quake, The Associated Press reports. In Chiba prefecture, police said 11 people were injured, and two women in separate locations sprained their ankles after being violently thrown to the floor during the quake. A commuter train partially derailed in eastern Tokyo when it made an emergency stop, leaving three passengers with slight injuries after they fell, AP said, citing the disaster management agency. Other people suffered injuries in the Kanagawa, Saitama, and Gunma prefectures. The earthquake caused buildings to sway and street signs to swing violently, and left some trapped inside elevators when they automatically stopped working. Over 20 commuter lines in Tokyo and the surrounding area went offline, leaving passengers stranded. Some passengers were able to take shelter at facilities set up by local municipalities. Some commuter lines were operating again by early Friday morning. Tokyo Electric Power Company said about 250 households were without power in the capitals Shinjuku Ward but service has since been restored. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said there were no abnormalities at nuclear power facilities in the area. New Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida returned to his office at 11:20 p.m. on Thursday to respond to the situation, and ordered officials to help rescuing victims and prevent further damage from spreading. The Prime Minister also instructed relevant ministries and agencies to assess the damage that the earthquake had caused and asked train operators to support passengers who were not able to return home. Kishida posted a message on Twitter urging people to check the latest information and take action to protect your lives. He said it was the strongest shaking in Tokyo since March 2011. The PM told reporters in a press conference on Oct. 8 that the latest earthquake was the first time in 10 years that Japan has experienced a wake with a seismic intensity of 5 or higher in the 23 wards of Tokyo, since the Great East Japan Earthquake. The March 2011 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan, and registered 9.1 in magnitude. It generated a powerful tsunami that hit the coast and damaged the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing the countrys worst nuclear disaster on record. The event led to 18,000 deaths, including several thousand victims whose bodies were never recovered, and the destruction of more than 123,000 houses, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Mothers of Sons Cry Out for Truth, Justice Media silent on suffering due to political correctness A group of Australian mothers, upset over ugly custody battles, have banded together to raise awareness of the growing abuse of the family court system by women against men. Mothers of Sons, started by well known Australian feminist, media commentator, and now mens rights advocate, Bettina Arndt, said she started the initiative because she believed it would be comforting for women with similar experiences to share their stories. Ive had people of all sorts contacting me about these issues to do with injustice against men, and many, many of those are women, including mothers who have had sons whove suffered dreadful ordeals, particularly in the criminal justice and family law systems, she told The Epoch Times. Arndt said she thought it would be a good idea to let the mothers tell their stories in the hope that maybe the mainstream media would take notice because were all supposed to believe women, arent we? she said. The groups website features several testimonials, including one from Michelle Jones, whose son was falsely accused of rape and domestic violence (police placed 32 charges against him) and had to spend several months in prison before his ex-wifes story was unravelled by authorities. We never had any doubt that Daniel was telling the truth. And to see a son being accused of such violent and racist crimes is absolutely soul destroying as a mother, she said in a video on the Mothers of Sons website. The family spent A$250,000 (US $181,000) in the legal fight for their son. Michelle Jones story on the Mothers of Sons website (Screenshot) Another case saw a mother claimed that her son, a doctor, was falsely accused of domestic violence and had been fighting an ongoing custody battle for her grandson. I believe in the past four years my son has spent close to $400,000 in legal fees and still counting. He now takes medications for anxiety and consults a psychologist, Vimala said. I believe there are thousands of mothers like me who shed tears and that many lives are lost in the process. I am helpless and, at 71 years of age, I can only pray God hears our prayers and justice is served to our sons. Court System Struggling to Cope With Families Australias family court system has undergone frequent repair jobs since its founding in the 1970s. In fact, over the past two decades, the court has been the subject of 31 reports and five parliamentary inquiries, with the most recent concluding in June this year. Lawyers are unanimous in their assessment of the system, with former President of the Law Council of Australia, Arthur Morris S.C., saying, There is no doubt Australias family law system is broken. Delay, cost, and confusion continue to let down families and children in need. Experts believe, however, that the systems struggles stem from the difficulties of applying rigid legal frameworks to regulate inherently complex, amorphous, and emotional disputes. The outside of the Supreme Court of New South Wales building is seen in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 9, 2013. (William West/AFP via Getty Images) These are peoples lives. Theyre not criminals, Atticus Busby, a Sydney-based family law solicitor, told The Epoch Times. A lot of the time, theyre not suing someone for breach of contract or some legal, contractual duty. Theres a moral contract; theres a mum and dad contract; theres a contract when you got married. There was a commitment for life which is no longer connected, so now you got all this property to sort out, and theres a lot of psychological evaluation, he said. Augusto Zimmermann, a former member of the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, said the system was open to abuse by parties who wanted the marriage the least. Many cases of domestic violence have ended up in courts where these allegations have been disproved, and sometimes many years after the accused found themselves evicted from their homes and alienated from their children, he told The Epoch Times. Men No Longer Given A Place in Media, Politics Arndt asserts that the dominant narrative in Australian politics and media is on womens rights, meaning little airtime is available for mens issues. One story we presented was of a woman whose granddaughter, a toddler, was murdered by her mother when she lost custody to her husband, she said, referring to the story of Jo Thomson-Jones, whose son, Nathan, fought a long-running custody battle for his daughter Iyla. This is a woman telling the story of a shocking family tragedy, Arndt said. That is a story that would normally attract widespread interest. But in this case, its a woman whos the villain of the piece, killing a tiny child and destroying a mans family. That challenges the feminist narrativeso the media takes no notice. Jo Thomson-Jones story on the Mothers of Sons website (Screenshot) Arndt years of work in promoting mens issues has also triggered calls for her to be cancelled by other feminist groups despite her background as a feminist in Australia. In 2020, she was appointed to receive the Member of the Order of Australia for significant service in the field of social commentary and promoting gender equity. However, she was targeted by feminist groups, claiming she had minimised violence towards women after interviewing Nicolaas Bester. Bester was convicted of raping and abusing the current Australian of the Year, and prominent Tasmanian sexual assault victims advocate and originator of the #LetHerSpeak campaign, Grace Tame, when she was a child. Australian of the Year Grace Tame (centre) during the Womens March 4 Justice in Hobart on March 15, 2021. (AAP Image/Rob Blakers) Bester was 58 years old and Tames teacher at the time of the assaults. Arndt conducted the interview to highlight the vigilantism directed towards Bester after he left prison, which one Supreme Court judge said was regrettable. Arndt said she thought that feminism had gone off the rails and was alienating people. There are women across the world who love men and want to see men receive fair treatment, she said. Our world is no longer about equality for men and women but about giving advantage to women at the expense of men, and I think theres no question the majority of women object to that. She pointed to the example of Erin Pizzey, the woman who set up the first womens refuge in the United Kingdom but then received death threats and boycotts from militant feminists after she told the truth about domestic violence perpetrated by either women and men. Pizzey is a woman who grew up with a violent mother. So she wasnt surprised to discover when she was running her refuges, that many of the women coming in were violent towards other women and towards their children, and she started to speak out about that, Arndt said. She added that modern feminists had successfully leveraged issues that could gain traction politically and in the media. Eric Louw, a retired professor in political communication and expert in postmodern theories, says feminist activists were extraordinarily successful at spreading their ideas. Feminist ideas are now effectively no longer open to critical scrutiny. They are just taken as true and good. When an overwhelming majority of journalists in a society take on an idea as given, as true, and as good then you have an ideology, he told The Epoch Times. Once you have such a powerful ideology in place, politicians are going to learn to be very careful. Any politician stepping outside the bounds of what feminist ideology argues is true is going to invite serious attack from the mainstream journalist community, he added. A woman wears a face mask in Midtown Manhattan in New York on July 29 2021. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images) Natural Immunity: An Alternative to Vaccines? News Analysis Sen. Rand Pauls (R-Ky.) question was simple: Are you a doctora medical doctor? asked Paul, a licensed medical doctor, at a hearing on Sept. 30. I have worked over 30 years on health policy, answered Xavier Becerra, who is secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Youre not a medical doctor. Do you have a science degree? And yet you travel the country calling people flat-earthers who have had COVID, looked at studies of millions of people, and made their own personal decision that the immunity they naturally acquired is sufficient. Paul was responding to Becerras claim, made during a Sept. 21 online forum, that because some flat-earthersespecially those in places of influencechoose to peddle fiction, were losing more loved ones today than we were a few months ago. Becerra had also said, The harm caused by those who lack confidence in and denigrate the vaccine cannot be overstated. But you presume somehow to tell over 100 million Americans whove survived COVID that we have no right to determine our own care? Paul said. You alone are on high, and youve made these decisionsa lawyer with no scientific background, no medical degree? Pfizer Scientists While Becerra didnt clearly answer Pauls questions about natural immunity, others have stepped into the breach left by public health authorities. On Oct. 4, a Project Veritas expose revealed that multiple scientists at COVID-19 vaccine maker Pfizer believe natural immunity is superior to the immunity conferred by their own product. When somebody is naturally immune, like they got COVID, they probably have betterlike, not better, but moreantibodies against the virus, said Nick Karl, a Pfizer biochemist. Because what the vaccine is, is itlike I said, that proteinthats just on the outside, Karl said, referring to the spike protein on the surface of the CCP virus, which the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 replicates with the aim of inducing immunity. So its just one antibody against one specific part of the virus. When you actually get the virus, youre going to start producing antibodies against, like, multiple pieces of virus, and not only just like the outside portion, like the inside portion, the actual virus. So your antibodies are probably better at that point than the vaccination. Chris Croce, a senior associate scientist at Pfizer, told a Veritas journalist that natural immunity leaves people protected most likely for longer [than vaccination] since there was a natural response. If you have [COVID-19] antibodies built up, like, you should be able to prove that you have those built up, said Rahul Khandke, another Pfizer scientist. Yet media coverage of natural immunity sometimes seems designed to call its very existence into question. Covering a district court judges decision to uphold the University of Californias vaccine mandate, Reuters placed the words natural immunity in scare quotes. Natural Immunity What is natural immunity, exactly? Does believing that natural immunity exists, or that it protects you better than the vaccine, make you a flat-eartheror are Pfizers own researchers onto something? Natural immunity is pretty straightforward: its the immunity that you get to a disease after recovering from it, as a result of your immune system remembering how to fight the pathogen the next time the two cross paths. In slightly more technical terms, natural immunity involves the adaptive immune response. It could thus potentially include not only the antibody released in response to the spike protein but also other antibodies, along with various memory B and memory T cellsin short, the sort of broad and deep response that Pfizers Karl described in Veritass undercover interview. In fact, vaccination is intended to mimic natural immunity by promoting a manageable immune response that doesnt cause serious illness. CDCs Explanation Yet despite these common-sense facts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) web resource on natural immunity and vaccines is frustratingly vague and arguably misleadingit sidesteps the question of natural immunitys superiority or inferiority to vaccine-induced immunity in order to emphasize the (real and serious) dangers posed by many diseases for which vaccines are available: Some people believe that naturally acquired immunityimmunity from having the disease itselfis better than the immunity provided by vaccines. However, natural infections can cause severe complications and be deadly. With no explanation, and at a real cost to public trust and understanding, the CDC has run together two separate claims: The first claimthat infection with COVID-19 presents more risks than vaccination, particularly in older or obese individualsmay in fact be reasonable, though its not the focus of this article. If true, it would suggest that people shouldnt intentionally contract the disease in order to gain natural immunity. Yet the second claimnamely, that natural immunity to COVID-19 is weaker than vaccine-induced immunitydoesnt stand up to scrutiny. For one thing, it runs contrary to our experiences with past diseases. Evidence As Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco, pointed out in a detailed Twitter thread on the duration of COVID-19 immunity, a 2008 Nature article showed that survivors of the 1918 influenza pandemic were still able to mount an immune response to the 1918 virus roughly 90 years later. Additionally, and as Paul noted while questioning Becerra, the CDC considers natural immunity, including presumptive natural immunity for those born before 1957, an acceptable substitute for measles vaccination. Along similar lines, Army Regulation 40-562 states that prior infection and consequent natural immunity can be the grounds for a medical exemption from immunizationa regulation to which two active-duty service members have appealed in their lawsuit against Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins vaccine mandate for all troops. Early results from Denmark, published in The Lancet in March, hint at the protective value of infection. In that study, which involved testing of 69 percent of the countrys population, prior infection was found to shield people reasonably well from reinfection, though less so among older groups. And a September feature by The BMJ, a UK-based company that helps provide clinicians with medical information, summarized some of the older and newer research suggesting that natural immunity is as or more effective than vaccine-induced immunity. Notably, an April 2021 study on the entire population of Israel found that vaccination by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was roughly as protective as prior infection. An August study on data from Israelis Maccabi Healthcare Services went further, showing that prior infection was associated with greatly reduced risks of hospitalization and symptomatic illness compared to two doses of the vaccine among people who had never been infected. Studies from Austria, Ohios Cleveland Clinic, and other countries and organizations, as well as systematic reviews and similar summaries of previous research, have painted a similar picture: immunity from prior infection is as or more powerful than immunity from vaccination. Further underlining the immune systems resilience to infection, a very recent study from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare showed that protective antibodies remained in the vast majority of those who had had COVID-19, persisting at least 12 months after their initial infection. Meanwhile, new research from Israel and Qatar has shown that the vaccines protective effects begin to wane several months after the second dose. Passports and Mandates Outside the United States, many other countries acknowledge the protective effects of natural immunity. As reported in Science, some countries, including Israel, France, and Italy, give one rather than two doses of vaccine to people previously infected by the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. England recognizes natural immunity when granting vaccine passports. Under New York Citys Key to NYC program, by contrast, the passports that people 12 and older need in order to access indoor restaurants, gyms, and other spaces only recognize vaccination. And while George Mason University (GMU) professor Todd Zywicki ultimately received an exemption to his institutions vaccine mandate on the basis of his natural immunity, many others facing vaccine mandates havent been so lucky. In August, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, rejected an emergency request from Indiana UniversityBloomington students challenging that institutions vaccine mandate. The students writ noted that the universitys mandate does not include an exemption for those with natural immunity, including those who have previously been infected and fully recovered. Most recently, on Oct. 10, a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush denied a request by a Michigan State University employee to receive an exemption from that schools vaccine mandate because of her natural immunity. The Epoch Times review of vaccine mandates didnt find a single school offering exemptions to students who had acquired immunity, in line with mandates issued by various states and the federal government. Censorship If natural immunity to COVID-19 is real and significant, why is it being kept out of the conversation? Pervasive censorship, including the silencing of knowledgeable physicians and scientists, may provide part of the answer. The nonprofit Brownstone Institute claims that the social networking website LinkedIn is suppressing its content, including a piece from Harvard epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff, in which Kulldorff argued that hospitals shouldnt be firing unvaccinated nurses who have acquired natural immunity. Facebook users have reported censorship or threats of censorship for sharing the Israeli natural immunity study, Project Veritas videos, and other content related to natural immunity. The climate of speech suppression around COVID-19 is nothing new. While Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who appeared to advocate greater censorship on the platform, was brought before the Senate and booked on 60 Minutes, an earlier Facebook whistleblower, Morgan Kahmann, was fired after he shared documents to Project Veritas that revealed that Facebook was secretly censoring content perceived to promote vaccine hesitancy. Haugen apparently departed Facebook in May of this year, though her LinkedIn profile doesnt yet indicate that she has left the company. According to Kahmanns most recent GiveSendGo update, he remains unemployed. More troubling still, the Pfizer employees recorded by Project Veritas suggested that a climate of censorship and self-censorship hobbles the pharmaceutical researchers themselves. Oh God, I signed NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] against this, said Karl. You dont talk about anything that can possibly implicate you or, like, Big Pharma, said Croce. Even if you shut the door to the office, its kind of like, whos listening? First Sea Lord Admiral Tony Radakin talks to media in front of the HMS Queen Elizabeth at HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, UK, on May 22, 2021. (Steve Parsons/PA) Navy Chief Admiral Sir Tony Radakin Announced as Next Head of Armed Forces The First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff has been appointed as the new armed forces chief. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, 55, will take over as Chief of the Defence Staff from General Sir Nick Carter on November 30. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was delighted to confirm Radakins new position, having proved himself as an outstanding military leader credited with deploying more Royal Navy troops on the front line and more ships at sea. As Chief of Defence Staff his responsibilities will include leading and setting strategy for defense, as well as conducting operations and maintaining relationships with other military leaders. Then Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter outside the MOD headquarters in Westminster, London, following the release of the defence spending review, on Nov. 19, 2020. (Stefan Rousseau/PA) Johnson said: This government has made a clear commitment to create the armed forces of the future, establishing the biggest defense investment programme since the Cold War. Admiral Tony will lead the armed forces at a time of incredible change while upholding the values and standards that they are respected for around the world. I know he will bring drive and dedication to the job and I look forward to working with him. We owe General Sir Nick Carter our deepest thanks for his decades of steadfast duty spent keeping the UK, its citizens, and our allies safe. During his time as CDS, I have valued his wisdom and support through moments of national crisis, including the COVID pandemic. He leaves his post at the end of November with the armed forces in excellent health, ready to face whatever challenges tomorrow brings. I wish him every success in his next endeavor. Radakin was appointed First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in June 2019. Commissioned in 1990, his operational service has involved the Iran/Iraq Tanker War, security duties in the Falklands, countering smuggling in Hong Kong and the Caribbean, and three command tours in Iraq. Radakin said: I am humbled to have been selected as the next Chief of the Defence Staff. It will be an immense privilege to lead our outstanding people who defend and protect the United Kingdom. I would like to thank General Sir Nick Carter for his leadership and wise stewardship of the UKs armed forces over the last three years. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: Admiral Tony has been an outstanding First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff overseeing a period of transformation in the Royal Navy that has seen more ships deployed, for longer, all over the world. That includes the inaugural voyage of HMS Queen Elizabeth at the head of our new Carrier Strike Group which set sail in May. By Ted Hennessey NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant speaks to the media at a COVID-19 update in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 27, 2021. (Joel Carrett - Pool/Getty Images) New Delta Strain Detected in Australian State A new strain of the Delta variant of COVID-19 has been detected in Australias most populous state New South Wales (NSW). Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant revealed that a new variant had emerged, which was different from current strains in the community. Weve been having a program throughout this response to the pandemic around genome sequencing, and those investigations have identified a strain of Delta which is different genome sequencing to the current strain circulating in Sydney, she told reporters on Oct. 8. Theres no indication that this new strain presents any differences regarding transmission or vaccine effectiveness or severity, she added, revealing that currently, eight infections in NSW were from this strainseven of which were in the same household. Were undertaking investigations into the source and how the transmission occurred, and well update you when any information is available. Chants announcement comes after recently promoted NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet announced an acceleration of the states roadmap out of lockdown by expanding the freedoms on offer to residents in the Australian state. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet addresses media at NSW Government House in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 6, 2021. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts) The state government is currently pushing for more residents to get vaccinated. In late September, the roadmap to freedom was revealed, which was modelled on the National Cabinet plan. The roadmap will see one batch of freedoms made available to vaccinated individuals once 70 percent of the population is vaccinated (Oct. 11). Another set will be released once 80 percent is vaccinated, and Dec. 1 will mark the official Freedom Day that will see most restrictions dropped altogether. Perrottet has long been a critic of tough lockdowns. In July, it was reported he told Chant to take a pay cut if she were to proceed with strict lockdowns over parts of Sydney. Recent moves by the premier to speed up the roadmap have attracted criticism from the Australian Medical Association in NSW, left-leaning commentators and politicians. Tim Soutphommasane, former Australian race discrimination commissioner and Marc Stears director of the Sydney Policy Lab, both pointed out that expanding freedoms was not a radical risk and warned left-leaning politicians of being marooned in the pre-vaccination world. During the past 18 months, many self-described progressives and social democrats have grown comfortable with lockdowns. Taking their lead from Jacinda Ardern, Daniel Andrews, Mark McGowan, and Annastacia Palaszczuk, they subscribe to the idea of COVID Zero, they wrote in an op-ed the Sydney Morning Herald on Oct. 8. It has become a progressive article of faith that the best response to the pandemic is a strategy of elimination: using the awesome power of government to restrict peoples behaviour in pursuit of safety, almost irrespective of the cost, they continued. Jose Manriquez in uniform while serving in the U.S. Army National Guard. (Family photo) Nine Denver Police Officers File Lawsuit Challenging Citys Vaccine Mandate Three Reportedly Suffer Adverse Reactions To Shots Jose Manriquez said he joined the Denver Police Department seven years ago because he wanted to help people. Now, the Army National Guard veteran, husband and father of four needs help walking after suffering a severe adverse reaction to a Pfizer COVID-19 shot in late August. The irony of his situation, Manriquez said, is that in 2020 he came down with COVID-19 and nearly died. He has since fully recovered. Why did I need this vaccine? I was active and fit, he told The Epoch Times. In spite of having natural immunity against the CCP virus, Manriquez said, the city told him he still needed to be vaccinated if he wanted to keep his job. I love being a cop and helping people. I dont know whats going to happen if I cant go back to work, he said. I dont want to quit my job and start over. It was either take the shot or get fired. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, is the pathogen which causes COVID-19. The City of Denver reported there are 10,707 full-time employeesnearly 99 percentwho have complied with the vaccine mandate, including more than 98 percent of 1,760 police officers and personnel. Nearly 800 exemption requests were submitted with 652 approved and 71 denied, the city reported. Manriquez said he received his first Pfizer shot on Aug. 22. Later in the day, he began to feel extreme pain throughout his entire body. Jose Manriquez has been a policeman for seven years and had a severe reaction to the mandated COVID-19 vaccine that left him unable to walk without a cane. (Family photo). No shot I ever got (in the military) hurt as much as this one. Nor did I get a reaction like this one, he said. This shot hurt more than the anthrax (shot). I was taking Tylenol to try to tolerate it. I went into work and it really hurt. Manriquez said he was sent home from work after his legs gave out from under him and he fell. On the way home, things got really scary, he said. First, his feet went numb. Then, he couldnt feel the gas or brake pedals in his car. He pulled over and called his duty officer. It was a weird feeling, Manriquez said. I was having all kinds of weird sensationstingling sensations to no feeling at allso I panicked. Manriquez said he drove himself the rest of the way home, but the pain in his knees felt as if they were going to explode. I went straight from being active on Aug. 21 to being inactive on Aug. 22, and walking with a cane, he said. The career officer is joined by eight other patrolmen in a legal challenge to the citys public-health order that required 10 categories of employees to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30. The complaint names Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, Executive Director of the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment Robert McDonald, and Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen as defendants. The complaint alleges McDonald issued the public health order on Aug. 2 to mandate the still experimental COVID inoculations on numerous personnel in Denver County without having legal authority to do so. On March 12, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a statewide COVID emergency declaration that was rescinded on July 8. The emergency order serves as legal basis for the public health order mandating the COVID vaccines, the complaint alleges. Jose Manriquez told The Epoch Times: No shot I ever got (in the military) hurt as much as this one. (Family photo) Simply put, the Aug. 2 order is void because it is clearly beyond the scope of any authority properly invested in (Hancock and McDonald) through the state constitution or any valid statute, the complaint adds. It is tragic and inexplicable that a 7-day grant of statutory power by Mayor Hancock could evolve into an 18-month continuous state of emergency for the City and County of Denver, with no end in sight. With caution thrown to the winds, everyonethe young and healthy, the old, the previously recovered and naturally immune, even pregnant and breastfeeding womenis currently being pressured by governments, businesses and educational institutions to submit to a COVID inoculation with no assessment of the risks or benefits for each individual or any consideration of medical necessity or contra-indication in each particular case. The plaintiffs have requested a judicial review of the public health order, a separate hearing challenging it, and a temporary halt to its implementation. Jacqlin Davis, Public Information Officer for Denvers City Attorneys Office told The Epoch Times: The City Attorneys Office does not comment on active litigation. Denver attorney Randy Corporon is representing all nine officers in the case. He said the facts in the case are still being assessed to determine if monetary damages are warranted. Regarding his client Jose Manriquez, Corporon said he continues to have trouble sleeping and walkingphysical effects that can be attributed to the Pfizer shot. Manriquez said he knows of at least two other Denver police officers who suffered adverse reactions to the COVID injections. He said one officer was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. The other reported excruciating pain after getting injected, like being stung by multiple bees, he said. After whats going on, I refuse to get (the second shot), Manriquez said. My wife has been pretty strong about it. This is just another hurdle, (but) shes scared. (L - R) Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 8, 2021. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters); Filipino journalist sits by the desk at her home in Manila, Philippines, on Oct. 8, 2021. (Rappler/Handout via Reuters) Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Two Journalists for Safeguarding Freedom of Expression The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to two journalists, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. Ressa, a Philippines journalist, became the first Filipino to win the peace prize, and also the first woman to claim the prestigious award by the Nobel committee this year. The Swedish award-giving body said in a statement announcing the winners that Ressa uses freedom of expression in her work to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in the Philippines. In 2012, Ressa became the co-founder of the digital media company Rappler, which put focused critical attention on the controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign allegedly committed by the regime of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte. Maria Ressa, journalist and CEO of the Rappler news website, poses before a news conference to launch a commission to draft an International Declaration on Information and Democracy hold by Human rights group Reporters Without Borders in Paris, France, on Sept. 11, 2018. (Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo/Reuters) Russian journalist Muratov is one of the founders of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, founded in 1993. He has been the editor-in-chief for the Russian paper for a total of 24 years. The Nobel committee called it the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power. Since the papers founding in 1993, it has published critical articles on subjects ranging from corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, electoral fraud, and troll factories to the use of Russian military forces both within and outside Russia, the committee added. Muratov said on Friday he dedicates the prize he won to six fellow Novaya Gazeta journalists who were reportedly murdered for their work. Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Natasha Estemirovathese are the people who have today won the Nobel Prize, Muratov said, reciting the names of six slain journalists or contributors to the paper whose portraits hang in its headquarters. We will leverage this prize in the interests of Russian journalism which [the authorities] are now trying to repress, he told Podyom, a journalism website. Novaya Gazetas editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov speaks during an interview in Moscow, on Oct. 4, 2011. (Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo/Reuters) Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies, and war propaganda, the committee said. Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament, and a better world order to succeed in our time. The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The money comes from a bequest left by the prizes creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895. On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize in physiology or medicine to Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch. (L R) David Julius, PhD professor and chair of University of California, poses in his office at in San Francisco. (UCSF/Steve Babuljak/Handout via Reuters); Professor Ardem Patapoutian of the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Insitute. (Ardem Patapoutian/Handout via Reuters) The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded Tuesday to three scientists whose work found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature. Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan were named as laureates of the Nobel Prize for chemistry Wednesday for finding an easier and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules that can be used to make compounds, including medicines and pesticides. On Thursday, the Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to UK-based Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work puts an emphasis on colonialization and refugees. Reuters contributed to this report. From NTD News New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio presents a proclamation at the 46th Precincts National Night Out in the Bronx borough of New York City, on Aug. 3, 2021. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images) NYC Mayor Accused of Misusing Security Detail According to the citys independent inspector general, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio hasnt paid for the security expense that occurred during his presidential campaign and misused his security detail for his guests or his familys benefit. Margaret Garnett, Commissioner of the citys Department of Investigation, a de Blasio appointee, issued a report (pdf) Thursday detailing the mayor or his family members misuse of public sources the department found in an investigation started from August 2019. No reasonable person disputes that the mayor of New York City should have security protection and that providing such protection, consistent with the citys ethics rules, is in the interest of the city, the report states. However, because of the nature of protective work (to include both the inevitability of idle time and the intimacy of the relationship between detail and protectee over time), the provision of a standing security detail is potentially vulnerable to corruption and misuse of public resources. The watchdog found that the New York City Police Department(NYPD) paid approximately $319,794.20 for the mayors security detail to travel outside of the city on his campaign trips. But the mayor hasnt reimbursed the expense either by himself or his campaign. On May 16, 2019, Mayor de Blasio announced his bid for the 2020 presidential election. His campaign ended on Sept. 20, 2019. According to guidance issued by the Conflicts of Interest Board of the city, any use of city time or resources for political activities is a violation of the guidance, except that certain elected officials may use city-owned vehicles for political travel in or near New York City, the report pointed out. The report also detailed instances in which the mayor or his family member used security details for their personal benefits. For example, NYPDs Intelligence Bureau provided a sprinter van and physical assistance in moving furniture for the mayors daughter Chiara de Blasio when she moved from her apartment to Gracie Mansion, the mayors official residence. The report also stated that de Blasios security personnel drove his son, Dante de Blasio, to or from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, without the mayor or first lady present. The mayor had directly requested several times that Dante de Blasio be driven to locations throughout New York City, such as train or bus stations. From December 2019 or January 2020, NYPD personnel had provided daily rides for Dante from Gracie Mansion to his workplace in Brooklyn until the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. (L-R) Dante de Blasio, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Chirlane McCray, and Chiara de Blasio attend New Years Eve 2015 at Times Square in New York City, on Dec. 31, 2014. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images) The investigation identified about eight instances when de Blasio directly requested that his guests be transported, without his accompaniment, by members of his security staff. According to the report, a limited review of the security details communications identified approximately 36 instances of them transporting mayoral staffers without the mayor or first lady present. Approximately 12 of the 36 instances involved the staffer running errands for the mayor, such as getting him coffee or food. The report also concluded that Howard Redmond, the NYPD inspector in charge of the first familys security detail, actively obstructed the investigation by refusing to turn over a City Hall-issued phone and trying to destroy his NYPD-issued phone. Redmond was referred to the Manhattan District Attorneys office for possible prosecution. De Blasio Defends Himself The mayor defended himself during a press conference Thursday. Im honored to be the mayor of the city, but my first responsibility was as a father and a husband. And so, I think of the safety of my family all the time, de Blasio said. The ultimate decisions on how to align security, how to protect those chosen by the people to lead need to be made by the NYPD. They did not turn to the security experts, even though I made abundantly clear who I turn to for guidance, de Blasio added. To me, that omission is just plain unprofessional, and unfair, and inaccuratedoes a disservice to the people of this city because you cant as another agency talk about whats right or wrong with public safety without actually consulting the public safety experts. It doesnt make any sense to me. And I dont think its right. I have acted in good faith, always. I followed whatever guidance was given me. Ive also constantly thought about the impact this is all having on my family and thought about their safety, and deferred, always, to the NYPD in terms of whats the right way to address that. As to the almost $320,000 expenses he owed to the city, de Blasio said he had filed an appeal to the Conflict of Interest Board. I certainly respect them and have faith that they will carefully review these facts and then come up with a final determination. John Miller, the Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism of the NYPD, also supported the mayor during the press conference. Miller said that the NYPD had located 308 separate threats against the mayor over the last eight years, 33 of those have specifically referenced his family within the threat. The NYPDs Intelligence Bureau position was, before this report for a number of years and remains that the children of the mayor are designated protectees, and we will provide them whatever protection we can when we can, if they accept it, Miller claimed. In an interview with PIX11 Friday morning, Garnett disputed de Blasio and Millers claim. Theres no question that the NYPD has threats against the de Blasio family and that those threats, according to the Intelligence Bureau, might merit protection, Garnett said. But the De Blasios children declined to. They had a security detail of their own; when they became adults they declined it. So what they have in practice now is not determined by security needs, is determined solely by their preference, Garnett said. Its not the appropriate way to do it. Theres not one piece of paper at the police department that documents what the threats arethe analysis, any determination of a security that is matched to what the situation is. Garnett also said she did contact NYPD during the investigation, contrary to the mayors claim. Garnett was nominated by de Blasio in November 2018 and confirmed by City Council the same month. Before that, she served as a federal prosecutor for 12 years. The mayor praised her for decades of work protecting the publics interest at the time. A vial of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is pictured at an Alberta Health Services vaccination clinic in Didsbury, Alta., on June 29, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh) Over 3,500 Alberta Health Care Professionals Call for Halt on Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers A group of over 3,500 Alberta health-care professionals including around 70 physicians is calling on the province to stop mandatory vaccination for health-sector workers, saying the mandate violates their Charter rights. We represent a wide range of vaccinated and unvaccinated health care professionals from multiple disciplines, who are deeply concerned about these mandatory vaccinations, said the group referred to as Health Professionals United, in an open letter to Alberta Health Services (AHS) on Sept. 20. AHS announced its vaccine mandate on Aug. 31, which requires all employees and contracted healthcare providers to be fully immunized by Oct. 31. Failure to do so will result in being placed on an unpaid leave of absence for the period of time required to become fully immunized, according to the AHS policy. In its letter calling for an end to the mandate, the group questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines over time and risks of side effects, among other arguments later disputed by Albertas minister of health. The group cited the findings of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) among several sources to back its arguments. These mRNA vaccines have NOT been proven to prevent disease uptake nor disease transmission supported by the CDCs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report August 6, 2021, the group said, citing the reports findings that the group said showed asymptomatic unvaccinated people have never been proven to be more infectious or transmit more disease than vaccinated individuals. The group also noted concerns about vaccine-related health effects, citing data reported by the U.S. vaccine injury database known as VAERS, saying that as of Aug. 27, 2021 at least 650,077 people in the US have been injured and 13,911 people have died soon after the administration of the Covid vaccine. These numbers could actually be 10-100x higher as a Harvard study showed only 1- 10% of all adverse events are actually recorded, the letter said. The Harvard studys findings are corroborated by our experience that the vast majority of temporally related adverse events are not being correlated and reported by healthcare workers. AHS didnt reply to the groups letter, but the provinces health minister Jason Copping responded, saying that the groups claims are misleading or incorrect. The letter says COVID-19 vaccines have not been proven to prevent transmission of the virus. Thats patently misleading. You can still get sick and transmit the virus even if youre fully vaccinated. But its far less likelyand if you do still get sick, its far less likely to be serious, Copping said in a Sept. 29 statement, adding that multiple studies have shown all of this. He cited several studies to refute the claims made in the groups letter and said the groups concerns of VAERS-reported deaths and injuries from the vaccine were deeply misleading. The data in VAERS has not been reviewed by medical professionals, so we dont know how many of the reports in it may be duplicates or if the COVID-19 vaccine really played a role in a given report, he said, adding data from Health Canada shows that of 16,090 individual reports of vaccine side effects in Canada (0.029 percent of all Canadian doses administered), 4,288 were considered serious (0.008 percent of all doses administered). My bigger concern is the message the letter sends to the 630,000 Albertans who are eligible to be vaccinated but havent yet done so, wrote Copping in the letter. I think most of them are sincerely uncertain and looking for guidance, and Im deeply concerned the letter could influence some of them to choose not to be vaccinated. The group responded to Copping in a letter on Oct. 4, questioning the quality of some of the studies the minister referenced and reiterated that the group is not opposed to vaccines in principle, and only objects to mandatory vaccination. Mandate Risks Losing Health Care Workers: Lawyer Carol Crosson, a constitutional lawyer who represents Health Professionals United, says the group is not anti-vaxxer, but are for pro-choice in vaccinations. These individuals are a group that believes in choice, she told The Epoch Times. Thats their purposeits to share a message about choice for medical treatmentsafter individuals have been fully informed, after theyre provided fully-informed consent. Carol Crosson, a constitutional lawyer from Crosson Constitutional Law who is representing a group of h ealth care workers opposed to mandatory vaccination . (Courtesy of Carol Crosson) Crosson said that the vaccine mandates infringe upon section 7 of the Charterthe right to life, liberty, and security of the person. Life, liberty, and security has been interpreted by the courts to protect personal autonomy in regard to health care decisions, she said. That section of the Charter is precisely on point on this issue. The lawyer, who sent the response letter to Copping on behalf of the group, is also concerned that the blanket policy will risk losing health care workers and thereby putting more pressure on Albertas overburdened health system. At a time where our [health] system is struggling, the best foot forward may not be to enforce a measure that will result in the loss of many health care professionals, she said. She added that the group hopes to continue an open dialogue with Copping. We acknowledge the current pandemic and aim to work together to find solutions that do not compromise our medical ethics and infringe on our rights to choose what is administered into our bodies, the groups response letter said. The Epoch Times reached out to Copping for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication. Are parents who challenge their local school boards domestic terrorists? Thats what the FBI aims to find out based on a recent directive from the Department of Justice. A mom in Virginia, Asra Nomani, says parents like her wont be intimidated. And in America Q&A, we ask how much input parents should have in public school education. Next, banks are warning Americans of whats coming if new tax rules being pushed by the Treasury go through. It would mean virtually every bank account in the country will come under IRS scrutiny, explains Paul Merski, vice president of Independent Community Bankers of America. Finally, in our second America Q&A we ask if Americans are ok with giving the IRS power to monitor every bank transaction over $600? Follow EpochTV on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV Parler: https://parler.com/#/user/EpochTV Polands Top Court Rules Some EU Laws Are Unconstitutional The Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Oct. 7 that some of the European Unions (EU) laws conflict with the countrys constitution and that national laws will have supremacy over those of the EU in areas where they clash. The decision of the tribunal was filed on a motion by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who requested a review earlier this year on a ruling by the European Court of Justice in March that said Polands new regulations for appointing judges to the Supreme Court could violate EU law. According to the principle of primacy, EU laws are superior to national laws for member states of the 27-nation bloc. The attempt by the European Court of Justice to involve itself with Polish legal mechanisms violates the rules that give priority to the constitution and rules that respect sovereignty amid the process of European integration, the tribunal said. Two of 14 judges who considered the case dissented from the majority opinion. The ruling said on Oct. 7 that some provisions in the EUs treaties go against the Polish constitution, a move that was criticized by the European Commission (EC). The tribunals majority said that Polands EU membership did not give the European Court of Justice supreme legal authority and did not mean that Poland had shifted its law sovereignty to the EU. EC President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Oct. 8 that she is deeply concerned by the tribunals decision. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a speech during a debate on The State of the European Union as part of a plenary session in Strasbourg on Sept. 15, 2021. (Yves Herman/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) The EU is a community of values and laws. This is what binds our Union together and makes it strong, von der Leyen said. EU law has primacy over national law, including constitutional provisions. The ruling followed months of court proceedings in which representatives of Polands government, president, and parliament argued that Polands constitution comes before EU law and that rulings by the European Court of Justice sometimes conflict with Polands legal order. Polands government insists that the justice system and the judiciary are the sole purviews of EU member nations and not the EU. The Constitutional Tribunal itself is seen by the EU as illegitimate due to the political influence of Polands Law and Justice (PiS) party government on the appointment of some of its judges. Many of them are government loyalists, including the courts president. Speculations that Poland could eventually leave the bloc were opposed by Morawiecki in a statement, saying the countrys entry in May 2004 is one of the highlights of the last decades. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki addresses a press conference in Budapest on April 1, 2021. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images) Polands place is and will be in the European family of nations, Morawiecki said. [The Oct. 7] ruling of the Constitutional Court confirmed what is literal from the contents of the Constitution of Poland. This is that constitutional law has superiority over other sources of law. We have the same rights as other countries and thats why we dont agree to be treated as a second-class country, he added. We want a community of respect, not an equal and equal association. This is also our community, our union. Thats the kind of union we want and thats what we will continue to create. The Associated Press contributed to this report. From NTD News Safety of Small Town America Suffered in 2020 The historic violence wave of 2020 that sent the national murder rate up some 30 percent was in no way limited to large cities. Smaller cities and towns saw a hike nearly as large, according to data provided by local police departments to the FBI. While rural or suburban living still offers much greater safety than an urban one, that comfort considerably diminished last year, the recently released data indicates. In 2019, towns with populations under 50,000 had a murder rate of less than 2.9 per 100,000. That same rate was more than 3.7 in 2020almost as high as that of 2019 New York City, which was 3.8. One now has to look at towns of less than 2,000 people to get a homicide rate, just barely, under 3 per 100,000. The year prior, those same small towns recorded a rate of less than 1.6. In this analysis, The Epoch Times only looked at towns with FBI data for both 2019 and 2020. There were nearly 9,000 municipalities submitting some data in either year, but less than 7,000 in both years. Almost no towns in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, or Maryland were thus included. No town in Hawaii provided data for 2020. The Epoch Times added data from local sources for some large jurisdictions, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Fresno, Indianapolis, Louisville, Honolulu, and Pittsburgh. While the bulk of inner city murders are shootings between rivaling gang bangers in the middle of the night, small town murders seem to play out differently. Morehouse, Missouri, is a tiny town of less than a 1,000 a bit over 100 miles south of St. Louis. Visitors can spot four churches, a Dollar General, and a good share of trailer homes. In 2019, it boasted a violent crime rate of zero. It hadnt seen a murder since at least 1965, based on available FBI data. In 2020, two people were murdered in Morehouse. A 34-year-old woman and her 27-year-old boyfriend stand trial for killing the womans 73-year-old grandmother, local media reported, citing authorities and case documents. The couple and their three children lived in the victims home on the northeastern edge of the town. One night in August, they tried to rob the septuagenarian and, possibly in the resulting altercation, stabbed her to death. They then wrapped her body in a carpet and ditched her in a soybean field some 20 miles away. Police quickly located the alleged perpetrators. Just a few months earlier and on the other side of the town, a 32-year-old local man allegedly beat an 18-year-old girl to death with a blunt object. He then allegedly stuffed her body into a suitcase and left it in a wildlife refuge some 40 miles away in neighboring Illinois, according to local media and an Illinois nonprofit. Its normal for small towns to rarely have crimes as serious as murder. However, there was an upsurge of such rarities in 2020. Among towns with less than 2,000 residents, Hemingway, South Carolina, last year had its first murder since 1973, based on FBI data going back to 1965 aggregated by the Murder Accountability Project. Bunn, North Carolina, saw its first murder since 1986. Maury City, Tennessee, had its first since at least 1965, which was also true for Mackinaw City, Michigan; Morehouse, Missouri; Hector, Minnesota; Country Club Hills, Missouri; Wallis, Texas; Sperry, Oklahoma; Gretna, Florida; Greenville, Maine; Piedmont, Missouri; and Snow Hill, North Carolina. Some small towns that have had violence problems saw increases last year. East Spencer, North Carolina, never had more than two murders a year since at least 1965, until 2020 when it had six. Coeburn, Virginia, never had more than one murder a year, with the last one in 2007. In 2020, it recorded four. Velda City, Missouri, has reported four murders since at least 1965, two of which were in 2020. Despite these statistics, small towns are on average still far safer than large cities with regard to crime. Based on the 2020 data, cities with more than 100,000 residents had a murder rate of nearly 12 per 100,000up more than 36 percent from the year before. The worst offender was St. Louis with a homicide rate of more than 88 per 100,000 residents. It appears that this is a new historic high for the city, which has for years already carried the infamous title of Americas murder capital. Among major cities, Columbus, Ohio, recorded the most egregious murder hike of nearly 115 percent between 2019 and 2020. Milwaukee follows closely with nearly a 97 percent increase. The murder count in Seattle, Washington, increased by almost 86 percent, though that still pushed the citys homicide rate only to a relatively modest 6.7 per 100,000. In Portland, Oregon, murders went up nearly 83 percent, boosting the rate to almost 8 per 100,000. Lee Tae-Kyu, a senior researcher with the Korea Institute of Economic Research, said Samsung Electronics' plans to build a new chip factory in Taylor, Texas, would be the best investment for Samsung, in Seoul, Korea, on Sept. 28, 2021. (Lee Yu-Jung / Epoch Times) Samsung Expanding US Chip Manufacturing To help avert the global shortage of semiconductor chips, South Koreas Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd is considering expanding its manufacturing operations in the southwest of the United States. The leading yet unconfirmed location for this new plant, contingent on subsidies and access to electricity and water, is the city of Taylor in Williamson County, Texas. South Korean researchers are optimistic about this endeavor. The White House met with chip companies and automakers in April, May, and finally, Sept. 23, pressing them to take the lead in solving the U.S. chip shortage. Participants included representatives from Apple, Microsoft, Micron, TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and Ampere Computing. Also in attendance were representatives from automakers General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, Daimler, and BMW. A chip shortage within the auto industry was created after chip companies began diverting their production to computers and tablets, where demand was soaring, as the demand for autos fell during the early stages of the CCP virus pandemic. This chip shortage forced automakers to cut back production. Location, Location, Location Samsung announced in January this year its intent to build a new $17 billion chip factory in the United States. The company currently operates a chip foundry in Austin, Texas. However, in February of this year, the plant experienced financial losses due to a cold snap that temporarily halted operations. To prevent similar losses in the future and cope with infrastructure-related risks, Samsung decided the new plant has to be outside of Austin. The Korean conglomerate shared its plans for a second production line in the United States last May, during a summit meeting between President Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The estimated 51.7 million-square-foot facility will be four times larger than the Austin plant and produce advanced next-generation chips. However, construction will have to wait until a suitable location is identified. On Sept. 6, Samsung denied rumors that Taylor, Texas, would become the location of its newest chip plant, and while this location is appealing, Samsung was simultaneously considering sites in Arizona, California, New York, and even South Korea. Although Samsung denied it, The Korean Times reported that Samsung had met with representatives of Williamson County and the Taylor City Council. According to the report, the city council authorized Mayor Brandt Rydell to execute a Tax Abatement Agreement, Development Agreement, and Development Review Services Reimbursement Agreement. Then on Sept. 8, the Williamson County Commissioners and Taylor City Council voted unanimously to approve an incentive package for Samsung. The deal states that if Samsung agrees to build its facility in Taylor and creates 1,800 permanent jobs by January 2026, it would receive a 92.5 percent rebate in property taxes for the first 10 years, 90 percent for the second 10 years, and 85 percent for the third 10 years. A Win-Win for Korea and the US During a Sept. 28 interview with The Epoch Times, Lee Tae-Kyu, a senior researcher with the Korea Institute of Economic Research, said that this investment would be the best one Samsung had ever made. He said the tax incentives proposed by the city of Taylor will put Samsung in a favorable position to negotiate for investment. Lee believes Samsung is linked to the U.S. semiconductor supply crisis and that the U.S. government will be uncomfortable if its industries continue to get hit by the supply shortage. The semiconductor industry is becoming more important now that worldwide demand readily exceeds the supply. In the 1980s and 90s, the U.S. government didnt need to adjust its industrial policies. But now its the opposite, as the U.S. government is investing in the semiconductor industry across the board and also offering tax incentives to the battery industry, said Lee. What this suggests, says Lee, is that countries have begun to share the same interests as the corporations. A countrys national interest is codependent on the governments control of its industrial policies to support the economic success of its corporations. Therefore, Samsungs investment decision should protect both national and corporate interests. He believes that South Korea should continue to work with the United States for a win-win cooperation. He said, The reason why the U.S. economy will be dominant for a good part of the future is that through continuous innovation, companies are growing, they are young and dynamic. So, I think Korea should continue to invest in the U.S. as well. In the global chip manufacturing industry, at the end of June, Samsung was second to TSMC (Taiwan), which controlled 52.9 percent of the market share while Samsung controlled 17.3 percent, according to analysis provider Trend Force. China Is Unlikely to Interfere Although the potential deal between Samsung and Texas offers a mutually beneficial solution to a growing problem, speculations abound as to whether this might prompt China to impose pressure on either the United States, South Korea, or both. China is undoubtedly wary of this deal since its involvement with the COVID-19 pandemic and deteriorating trade war with the United States are forcing multinationals to restructure. Members of Fortune 500 companies, including Samsung, have begun shifting their production and supply chains from China to other regions. Although Chinas retaliation is possible, Lee thinks people are overly worried about possible steps the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might take. While the CCP previously imposed sanctions on the South Korean firm Lotte for its involvement with the THAAD missile system, circumstances now are different. For example, if the CCP imposes sanctions on the importation of South Korean semiconductor chips, it would be dissolving one of its essential supply chains. This, according to Lee, Is Chinas most fatal weakness, and (without South Korean chips) China will not be able to achieve the level of nationalization of semiconductors by 2023. The Korean researcher believes China has a long way to go before its chips can compete with those of South Korea. In particular, he says, the semiconductors needed in the fourth industrial era are extremely small, highly integrated, and very sophisticated. Without foreign chip imports or companies entering China to produce them, China would be unable to fulfill its demands. Any attack by the CCP against foreign chip makers would boomerang on itself. Preserving South Koreas Loyalty to the US On Aug. 13, the South Korean president announced a decision he made on behalf of the country that he realized some might view as controversial. He granted Lee Jae-Yong, the de facto controller of Samsung Group and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, an early release from prison. Lee was arrested in February of 2017 and served 207 days on a 2 and-a-half-year sentence for his alleged role in a political and corporate scandal involving Moons predecessor, Park Geun-Hye. Following Lees arrest, various groups petitioned the South Korean government to parole him from prison. They argued he was uniquely qualified to build South Koreas global supply chain for semiconductors. While his imprisonment did not affect Samsungs daily operations, sources inside the company told Reuters that Lee was instrumental in making decisions on major investments, mergers, and acquisitions. This was particularly true since the world was facing a chip shortage and competitors like TSMC and Intel were rushing to make massive investments. Moons decision to release Lee may have been influenced in part by his announcement in May that South Korea would invest more than $437.4 billion in chip and other semiconductor companies in the next 10 years. Leading the initiative would be Samsung, SK hynix, and a national semiconductor team represented by 153 companies. Moon said Samsung Electronics planned to expand its memory and system semiconductor production lines in Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong, and SK hynix planned to build a new large-scale production base in Yongin. Shi Shan, a U.S.-based China expert, suggested Lee was released from prison for a different reasonthat Moons decision was motivated by the U.S. governments dissatisfaction with his adopting pro-communist policies. Specifically, the three nos Moon promised to the CCP: no additional deployment of the THAAD missile defense system, no joining the U.S. missile defense system, and no military alliance with the United States and Japan. But in the last two years, the international situation has changed dramatically, especially the restructuring of the global supply chain led by the United StatesSouth Korea may be left out of this chain. Moon understands that South Koreas development depends on cooperation with the United States. Once excluded from the U.S. supply chain, South Koreas economy will collapse in the next 20 years, said Shi. So in May this year, Moon rushed to the United States to meet with Biden to return to the teamSouth Korea wants to return to the United States high-end supply chain team. Jinbaek Lee and Reuters contributed to this report. Sen. Lummis Discloses Bitcoin Purchase Worth up to $100,000 Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) has disclosed that she purchased up to $100,000 worth of Bitcoin just weeks after Senators sought to make adjustments to the bipartisan infrastructure packages cryptocurrency reporting rules. According to a Periodic Transaction Report filed Oct. 7, Lummis purchased $50,001$100,000 in the digital currency on Aug. 16, from River Financial, a bitcoin exchange platform. The Republican senator has been a longtime supporter of bitcoin, and previously told CNBC in June that she made her first bitcoin purchase in 2013 for $330 per bitcoin, adding that she owned five bitcoins as of the end of the month. Lummis told the CNBC Financial Adviser Summit that shed like to see cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, become part of a diversified asset allocation that are used in retirement funds and other opportunities for people to save for the future. The senator has also said she would like to see stablecoins fully backed by cash and cash equivalents regulated. Stablecoins are a new class of cryptocurrencies designed to have a stable price relative to traditional currencies, or to a commodity such as gold, making them less volatile than other digital assets. CNBC stated that Lummiss recent purchase was disclosed outside of the 45-day reporting deadline set by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act that prohibits members of Congress and other staff from using non-public information derived from their official positions for personal benefit. Under the 2012 act, senators and senior staff with earnings above $119,554 are required to disclose certain financial transactions and must also report any purchase, sale, or exchange of any stock, bond, commodities future, and other securities on transactions above $1,000. Darin Miller, a spokesman for Lummiss office, told The Epoch Times in an email that the bitcoin purchase was due to a filing error, and once we realized it we worked with the Ethics committee to fix it. It was an honest mistake, and the issue has been resolved without penalty. Lummiss latest purchase was made less than two weeks after she joined Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in co-sponsoring a crypto-tax amendment to the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, presented by Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), that would better define the term broker with regards to cryptocurrency. The argument would effectively decide who would and would not be exempt from broker reporting rules, and thus have to report information on trades to the IRS for tax enforcement purposes. Lawmakers had differing opinions on the definition of broker and the amendment subsequently failed to pass by one vote. Last month, Chinas central bank declared all cryptocurrency-related transactions illegal while vowing to suppress the virtual currency market. The Peoples Bank of China said in a statement, translated by CNBC, that services offering trading, order matching, token issuance, and derivatives for virtual currencies are prohibited. Overseas crypto exchanges providing services in mainland China are also illegal, the PBOC said. Cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Tether, are among those specifically cited as not being fiat money and cannot be circulated, according to the banks statement, Bloomberg reported. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) walks to a lunch meeting with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Oct. 7, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Senate Votes to Temporarily Raise Debt Ceiling, House to Vote Tuesday 11 Republicans join Democrats to break filibuster The Senate late Thursday voted to approve a short-term increase to the federal debt ceiling by $480 billion through Dec. 3. The debt ceiling already stands at $28.4 trillion and the bill would lift the debt limit to $28.9 trillion. The bill heads to the House, where there is a clear Democratic majority, before moving to President Joe Bidens desk. House lawmakers will convene on Tuesday to vote on the measure, interrupting a scheduled recess that was set for the lower chamber until Oct. 19, its majority leader, Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), said in a statement. The Speaker and I have both spoken with Treasury Secretary Yellen, who said that if the House fails to act next week, the country will be unable to pay its bills. This cannot happen, he said, adding that immediate action is needed to address the debt limit. The measure is likely to avert a government default that was forecasted by the Treasury Department to happen by around Oct. 18. The final Senate vote, which required a simple majority, was 5048 along party lines. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) didnt vote. The bill was moved to a final vote after 11 Republicans joined Democrats in a vote to invoke cloture in a vote of 6138, ending a filibuster that required 60 votes. The 11 were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had warned that any default on U.S. debt would bring the economy into crisis and trigger a recession. McConnell had proposed a deal with Democrats on Oct. 6 that would temporarily raise the debt ceiling before a government default, after twice blocking Democrats attempts to raise the cap. The offer came after Biden raised the possibility of bypassing the Senates filibuster rule requiring 60 of the 100 members to agree on most legislation. After the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced, Republicans played a dangerous and risky partisan game, and I am glad that their brinksmanship did not work. Democrats had been trying to pass legislation that would have raised the debt limit through the end of 2022, which Republicans blocked. With the debt ceiling pressure warded off for now, lawmakers continue to debate over two Democrat spending billsa $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan with nearly $550 billion in new spending, and a $3.5 trillion effort that includes home health care and child care, education, safety net programs, and the environment. Both bills accord with the priorities in Bidens jobs and families plan. But by late November, their attention will have to return to funding the government and again avoiding the debt ceiling. Reuters contributed to this report. South African Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe speaks at the 2020 Investing in African Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa, on Feb. 3, 2020. (Mike Hutchings/Reuters) South Africa Should Not Rush Move Away From Coal, Minister Says JOHANNESBURGSouth Africa must manage its transition away from coal-fired power generation systematically and not rush a switch to renewable energy sources, Mining and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday. I am not saying coal for ever, I am saying lets manage our transition step by step rather than being emotional, Mantashe told a mining conference, when asked how Chinas pledge to not build new coal power stations abroad would affect South Africa. We are not a developed economy, we dont have all alternative sources, he added. South Africa aims to cut coals share of the energy mix to less than 60 percent by 2030 from around 75 percent now while increasing the share of wind and solar power to around 25 percent. The minister pointed to Chinas own energy needs as an example of what could go wrong if a transition is attempted too quickly. Xi Jinping is now increasing the import of coal, as we talk now, for China, he said. Ahead of next months COP26 climate conference, Mantashe said he is supportive of green financing to support South Africas energy transition, if it can be secured. State power utility Eskom, Africas biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has been pitching to investors for billions of dollars of concessional financing to help it move away from coal and embrace cleaner energy sources. It hopes to announce a deal at COP26. But Mantashe warned again of the economic risks of phasing out coal, saying we must not collapse our economy because we are greedy of green funding. The coal mining sector had 91,459 direct employees last year according to industry body the Minerals Council. Mantashe said he was confident South Africas delegation to COP26 would negotiate a deal that will help the countrys economy. Two men play a board game as they are surrounded by a group of spectators, on a street in Seoul on Sept. 20, 2019. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images) South Korea on Course to Have Highest Percentage of Elderly in the World In South Korea, marriages and birth rates are petering out year by year, resulting in an aged population that is projected to surpass that of Japan and Europe by 2045 and making the countrys aged population proportionally the largest in the world, according to official data. South Koreans aged 65 and older made up 14.9 percent of the countrys total population in 2019 but will reach 37 percent by 2045, even higher than that of Japan, according to statistics released by the Korea Statistics Office on Sept. 2, 2019. The office estimated that by 2067, the elderly will represent 46.5 percent of the population, which will mean South Korea will have the largest proportion of elderly people in the world. Aging Population and Birth Rate The Ministry of Health and Welfare said on Oct.1 that there are currently 10,935 elderly people aged over 100 in South Korea, with 2,012 people newly added this year. As a result of improved living and medical conditions, South Koreas life expectancy during 2015-2020 was 82.5 years, compared to the global average of 72.3 years. In addition, it has had a trend of more deaths than births since 2020. The average number of births per woman of childbearing age in South Korea was 1.24 in 2015 and has dropped every year since, reaching 0.84 in 2020. It has been estimated that South Koreas population will decline from 52 million in 2019 to 39 million in 2067, reported Newsis. This picture taken on May 14, 2019, shows elderly South Korean women attending a class at a city-run library in Suncheon, south of Seoul. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images) Concerns About the Youth According to a survey conducted by Incruit, a South Korean employment portal, about 30 percent of unmarried people in Korea have no plans to get married, and more than one-third of the respondents said they would not consider having children. Among them, women are reluctant to get married and have children mostly because of the heavy burden of childbirth and childcare after marriage, while men are not financially well-off. Seo Hyung-soo, vice chairman of the Korean Committee on Low Fertility and Aging Society, was cited by Newsis saying, Young peoples perceptions have changed. They think that marriage and childbirth make life more precarious, and that it has some limitations if one only relies on government financial support. What newly married couples need most is stability in employment and housing, said Seo, adding that the socio-economic systems of education, health, and medical care should all be improved as a whole in light of demographic changes. The newly elected student committee of Chinese University announced their resignation at press conference in Hong Kong on March 1, 2021. (Song Pi-lung/The Epoch Times) Student Union at Chinese University of Hong Kong Disbands Amid Pressure Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) saw its sole student union broken up on Oct. 7, eight months after the college withdrew recognition of the body. The move marks the latest dissolution of civil societies under the Beijing-imposed national security law. The recent-disbanded groups include the trade union and the group behind the annual Tiananmen Massacre vigil in Hong Kong. For 50 years, CUSU [The Chinese University of Hong Kongs Student Union] existed as an independent student organization whose representatives were elected through a democratic process, the group said in a statement on its Facebook page. It is a matter of profound regret that CUSU is now history. The universitys management said it would stop collecting fees and providing venues for its student union, and suspend its members positions on all student committees. Management demanded the student group to register as an independent society or company through government agencies and assume legal responsibility for itself, according to a statement released on Feb. 25. However, the union said in a Thursday statement that legal opinion suggested it does not need independent registration. We are now torn between following the legal advice or complying with the university administrations demand, the statement read. The union quietly held a joint meeting and voted to dissolve on Sept. 10, adding they had accepted the collective resignation of the student representatives, according to the statement. In another Thursday statement, the school said it regrets the decision and work to transition activities previously managed by the CUSU to the Office of Student Affairs. The tensions between the school management and its student union escalated in February. CUHK announced it severed ties with the body, saying the groups winning platforms may breach the national security laws. In response, twelve leaders stepped down a week later, citing under political pressure. CUHK claimed the newly elected union cabinet, known as Syzygia, made false allegations against the college and exploited the campus for political propaganda in the second statement released in February. In the first statement, the school said it strongly objects to Syzygias 80-page election manifestos, adding it contains possibly unlawful remarks. In its election manifesto, Syzygia accused the university of kowtowing to the regime, adding the security law infringed basic human rights and freedom. Under Pressure In the citys other top universities, ties between authorities and student committees have also soared amid Beijings pressure. HKUs student group criticized plans to implement national security education at the university, saying it was bending over to the wolves of the tyranny in an open letter on April 16. Two days later, Peoples Daily, the Chinese Communist Partys mouthpiece, lashed out at the HKUs student body as a malignant tumor and that strong medicine must be used to remove it. On April 30, Hong Kong University (HKU), the citys oldest university, said in a statement that it had cut ties with its student union on national security grounds and strongly condemns the bodys radical acts and remarks. The draconian national security law has raised concerns about the curtailing academic and political freedom in the former British colony. The vaguely-worded legislation punishes speech or acts deemed secessionist, subversive, terrorist, or perceived as colluding with foreign countries against the communist regime. Under the national security law, over 50 independent groups have been dissolved in 2021. More than 100 people have been arrested, leading to more than 60 charges, mostly against democratic politicians, activists, journalists, and students. Sydney Restaurant Owner to Forfeit $10 Million Protecting Staff From Vaccine Policing "Its not about money at the moment" A prominent restaurant owner will forfeit around $10 million, keeping his 27 stores closed until all restrictions are lifted in Australias most populous state New South Wales (NSW). Rami Ykmour, co-founder of the Rashays restaurant chain in Sydney, announced on Sept. 27 that the business would remain closed until Dec. 1, despite being allowed by the state government to open under an official roadmap to ease NSW out of government-mandated health restrictions. NSW is the first jurisdiction in Australia to announce an official Freedom Day (Dec. 1) that would see most restrictions on vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals removed. In an interview with The Epoch Times on Oct. 8, Ykmour said he was motivated by two reasons to keep his doors closed. Rashays restaurant chain owner Rami Ykmour. (Supplied) The first one is obviously a two-tier society. That was something I dont stand for, and I want everyone to have Freedom Day on the same day. Number two is the safety of our staff. I didnt want our staff to become security guards, and police officers in a family restaurant environment, he said. I dont think thats a role we need to play, and plus, the vaccine passport is not ready, and theyre not in operation. Weve been in business for 23 years now. We are welcoming to anyone who comes into our business, and our success is based on the fact that you can come in with a pair of shorts or slippers on, and you can feel welcome for dinner. Or you can come in with a nice shirt and nice pants and be treated exactly the same, he said. So, standing at the door and asking people whether theyre vaccinated or not just does not align with our brand, he added. Ykmour said Rashays could lose around $10 million in turnover over the next two months. Its not about money at the moment. Weve lost so much over the last 20 months now, and its just something that well wear until its a one-tier society, he said. When asked whether he thought the vaccination issue had become politicised, he replied, Absolutely. You know you can read on peoples Instagram page or on their Twitter pagevaccinated or unvaccinatedits a shame, and I just hope that society can sort of get together again and maybe become one, he said. Ykmour said he was optimistic and that even if there was division, things would change, and people would quickly forget and move forward. This picture, taken on Aug. 27, 2021, shows a girl wearing a face mask walking through the empty streets of the central business district in Sydney, Australia, during the lockdown. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images) I think there are better days ahead, the losses that weve had over the last 20 monthssure, thats life, thats business, and its not a straight line, if its not COVID-19, it could have been something else to our business, he added. Australia has enjoyed some of the lowest infection and death rates from COVID-19 by global standards. This, in turn, has spurred state and territory leaders to readily lock down entire cities and close domestic borders at any sign of infections in the countrywhich has proven politically popular. Over the past 18 months, NSW has largely resisted implementing blanket lockdowns and has been the only state to keep its domestic borders open throughout the pandemic. Instead, it has preferred to rely on contract tracing and targeted, localised lockdowns to control infection rates. However, a July outbreak of the Delta variant in Greater Sydney saw a major policy shift. Within four months, the NSW governments official policy changed from having limited restrictions to implementing some of the toughest public health restrictionsakin to Victorias Stage Four measuresincluding limits on movement within 5km of the home, mask mandates, and the closing of non-essential retail. In late September, the government revealed its roadmap to freedom to gradually open up the state. Based on the National Cabinet plan, the roadmap will see one batch of freedoms made available to vaccinated individuals once 70 percent of the population is vaccinated (Oct. 11). Another set will be released once 80 percent is vaccinated. New NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet recently announced further changes to the roadmap to speed up the states return to normality. Taiwan President Meets French Senators and Former Australian PM Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen met with four French senators and a former Australian PM in recent days as Beijings air incursions near Taiwan surged for a week since Oct. 1. On Oct. 7, President Tsai Ing-Wen met the French delegation in Taipei, Reuters reported. She thanked them for the visit amid Beijings mounting pressure on the island. We will continue to fulfill our responsibilities as a member of the international community to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, Tsai said. Former defense minister Alain Richard led the delegation, who arrived in Taiwan on Oct. 6 despite strong opposition from Beijing. Richard said the French government was willing to make Taiwans presence and participation recognized in the United Nations specialized organizations. On the same day, Tsai welcomed former Australian leader Tony Abbott at the presidential office, according to AP. Abbott said he supported Taiwans bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, sending a strong signal of democracies standing shoulder to shoulder with Taiwan. The former prime minister made clear he supported Taiwan as it stands against the threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which challenges the self-ruled democracy on an almost daily basis. Taiwan economist Wu Chia-Lung told The Epoch Times on Oct. 6 that the French senators trip indicated Frances intention of joining the Indo-Pacific strategy, which the U.K. had already entered. Wu believed France would return to Asia just as neighboring Britain has. He expects France will make further deployments in the region, as one third of world trade depends on sea travel through the Indian Ocean. Wu said that the move by the French senators showed France took the South and East China Seas, the Taiwan Strait, and maritime transportation routes in the region seriously. Moreover, Wu noted, the trip of the senators showed France as well as Japan had the guts to defy communist China, which was of political significance in the international community. Feng Chongyi, China expert and professor at the University of Technology Sydney, cited anti-CCP sentiment in France. In May, the French Senate passed a resolution calling for the participation of Taiwan in global organizations by a vote of 304: 0 and 19 abstentions. The decision backed the Asian democracy to join the WHO, the International Criminal Police Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Feng said that France was also reluctant to continue its engagement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because the CCP directly angered the French by its wolf warrior diplomacy over the issues of Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Additionally, dwindling investment returns in China made the French more determined to establish closer ties with like-minded democracies. Feng stressed that strategically, the Chinese regime relied heavily on nationalism as its most crucial ideological cornerstone. It would highlight its tough stance on Taiwan as a display for Chinese citizens, even if it including offending its neighbors and beyond, to maintain the legitimacy of its delicate regime. Wu added the CCP was purposefully making a dont-offend-me posture toward Taiwan with the air incursions, to blanket its domestic problems. Luo Ya and Fang Xiao contributed to this report. On left, school busses depart past a law enforcement official after dropping off Timberview High School children at the Mansfield ISD Center For The Performing Arts, following a school shooting in Mansfield, Texas, on Oct. 6, 2021. On right, shooting suspect Timothy Simpkins is seen in a mugshot. (AP Photo; Arlington Police Department) Texas School Shooting Suspect Freed on Bail An 18-year-old who eyewitnesses say opened fire in a high school in Texas this week was released from jail on bail on Thursday. Timothy Simpkins walked out of the Tarrant County Jail accompanied by relatives and entered a vehicle without speaking to reporters. He was released on $75,000 bond. Simpkins must wear a GPS monitor and was ordered by Tarrant County Magistrate Judge Brooke Panuthos to remain under home confinement and submit to drug and alcohol testing, WFAA-TV reported. The release drew criticism from some. How does this keep managing to get worse, the sister of Timberview High School teacher Calvin Pettitt wrote on Twitter. Pettitt was one of four people shot by Simpkins after a fight broke out in a classroom on Wednesday in the high school, according to police and school officials. Witnesses told police officers that they saw two male students fighting, one of whom was identified as Simpkins. When somebody intervened in the brawl, Simpkins went to his backpack, grabbed a gun, and opened fire, according to an arrest affidavit. All of the victims survived the shooting. The firearm was a .45-caliber handgun that was said to have been possessed illegally. Simpkins turned himself in and was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Relatives of the suspect say he was bullied in recent months and had became fearful of going to school, driving him to take a weapon. Law enforcement search a home while looking for the suspect in a shooting at Timeberview High School in Arlington, Texas, on Oct. 6, 2021. (Stewart F. House/Getty Images) Im not trying to justify the gun that was brought, but when youre being bullied, when theres bullies, throughout this nation you hear of young people committing suicide, Carol Harrison Lafayette, a relative acting as the familys spokesperson, told reporters on Wednesday night. The decision he made, taking the gun, were not justifying that. That was not right. But he was trying to protect himself. We ask as a family for forgiveness of any type of hurt, she added when asked if she had a message to victims and their families. One of the victims, a 15-year-old student, needed surgery but was recovering, officials said. An adult male, 25, identified by family members as Pettitt, was in good condition, while a teenage girl who was struck was released from the hospital after treatment. The fourth victim, a pregnant adult woman, did not require hospital care. Video footage circulating on social media appeared to show the fistfight that preceded the shooting and Kevin Kolbye, Arlingtons assistant police chief, said officers are aware of the bullying allegations. Even if youre bullied there are other options besides carrying a gun into a school and using a gun in a situation like that. Thats just not acceptable, he told KDFW-TV. Officials have seen an increase in youth carrying weapons in recent years, he added, which he described as not a solution to any type of violence or anything like that. Mansfield school district spokesperson Donald Williams told reporters Wednesday he wasnt sure if the shooting was linked to bullying. He said an investigation would probe the matter. Were going to continue to investigate this particular situation and the students that are involved will be dealt with in accordance to our Student Code of Conduct, Williams said. BEIJING, CHINA - JULY 04: A general veiw of the Tiananmen Square under rain cloud after several days of heavy air pollution on July 4, 2013 in Beijing, China. (Feng Li/Getty Images) The Recent Anti-Corruption Charges Against Two Chinese Officials Point to a Coup Plot: Expert News Analysis Two high-ranking officials in Chinas domestic security system have officially become the latest targets of Chinese leader Xi Jinpings anti-corruption campaign. On Sept. 30, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) anti-corruption watchdog, announced that the case against Sun Lijun, the former Deputy Minister of Public Security, has now entered a formal investigation stage. Two days later, the CCDI made another announcement, saying it was launching an investigation into Fu Zhenghua, the former Minister of Justice and Deputy Minister of Public Security. Sun is being accused of having inflated political ambitions and poor political integrity. Specifically, he is said to have wildly ganged up with others to form interest groups and control key departments. Dr. Zhang Tianliang, a U.S.-based China expert, told The Epoch Times that the two official announcements were issued around the same time, and both used special political struggle terms to define their alleged crimes. This could be an indication that the two cases are linked, Zhang said. Terms such as inflated political ambitions and wildly ganging up with others within the CCP were used to convict Zhou Yongkang, the powerful former head of the domestic security apparatus, in 2014, as well as Bo Xilai, the former Party secretary of Chongqing, and Meng Hongwei, the CCPs Interpol chairman. In addition, Zhou and Bo are both former members of the Politburo Standing Committee. Zhang said he believed that all three had participated in a coup plot against Xi back then. The official use of these same terms to describe Suns offences now implies that Sun and Fu also participated in a coup plan, Zhang said. Another person who may have been implicated in this recent series of cases is Meng Jianzhu, a retired former secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, according to Zhang. Tracing this particular political clique down further, one will find that former vice chairman of the CCP Zeng Qinghong was leading the effort, he said. In December 2014, Voice of America quoted a media professional as saying, Zhou Yongkang is the true leader of the largest coup group since the establishment of Communist China in 1949 And Xi Jinpings anti-corruption campaign is actually a movement of political purges targeting those involved in this coup. However, according to Zhang, the real mastermind behind the coup was not Zhou Yongkang, but Zeng Qinghong. Zeng, a notable princelingwhose father, Zeng Shan, was a Party elderhas been a staunch supporter of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Before Jiang became the Partys general secretary in 1989, Jiang served as the Party boss in Shanghai and worked closely with Zeng, then deputy Party boss of Shanghai. As soon as Jiang became the Party leader, he promoted Zeng and brought him to Beijing as well. As Jiang gradually consolidated his power and formed a faction within the CCP, Zeng became the second-in-command in this political interest group. The official ranks of Sun Lijun, Fu Zhenghua, Meng Hongwei, and Meng Jianzhu are at the deputy ministerial or ministerial level. Zhang pointed out that its impossible that these people by themselves attempted to seize power and engaged in a coup detat. There must be a higher figure behind them whose level is at least a current or former member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Based on all these clues, only Zeng Qinghong meets all these criteria, Zhang said. Based on the CCPs rules of retirement age, officials promoted by Zeng when he was in power will mostly retreat from the core of power after the CCPs 20th National Congress next year. Zhang posited that Zeng will do everything he can to counter Xis move against him, while Xi will likely step up to further purge Zengs followers until he finally puts Zeng in jail. Zhang predicted that before the 20th National Congress next year, some high-ranking officials will be taken down one after another. There will definitely be a battle between Xi Jinping and Zeng Qinghong, he said. Prior to the CCDIs announcement against Sun and Fu, the CCPs leading theoretical journal Qiushi published an article condemning former Chinese leader Lin Biao for plotting a military coup against Mao in the 1970s. Lin was an important figure in the CCPs early days as both a military leader and Maos right-hand man. The article emphasized that the history of the CCPs founding is about the Party commanding the gun, and was widely republished by other Chinese state media. U.S.-based current affairs commentator Chen Pokong told The Epoch Times that the article seems to suggest that right now there is a coup plan cooking in the PLA. By circulating the article, the central authorities intend to warn the military that Xi is the commander of the PLA. UK Households Face Significant Rise in Energy Bills: Regulator British households will be facing a significant rise in energy prices as the price cap is set to be raised next spring, the head of the UKs energy regulator said on Friday. Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley said the price cap, set by the regulator to control the cost of gas and electricity, will be raised by a significant margin in April. We cant predict everything, and the wholesale market, as weve seen, has gone up and down extremely quickly so we cant predict fully what that will be, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. But, looking at the costs that are in the system, we are expecting a significant rise in April. But Brearley said the regulator has no plans to raise the price cap before April. This is a really concerning time for customers, he said. We understand how difficult it is. The price cap is there to protect customers against unfair profits, but legitimate costs do have to be passed through. Brearley said the regulator would review how the price cap is calculated as he warned of a significant rise in energy prices when the current cap is revised in April. Due to the incredible change since August in the underlying price of energy, he said, the regulator will have to review how the price cap is calculated. Brearley denied that the collapse of a dozen energy companies this year was a failure of regulation, noting that the root cause was an extraordinary change in the gas price that was not just affecting Britain, but hitting systems across the world. We need to sit down with the industry, look forward and make sure we make a more resilient market that can manage shocks like this in the future, he said. The UKs National Grid said on Thursday that Britains infrastructure will be able to get enough gas into the country to see it through the winter, and electricity supplies should be safe. National Grid Gas Transmission said that Great Britain will have a positive supply marginthat is to say it can access more gas than is being used during peak demand. It said that the country has access to flexible supplies of gas from abroad, including Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), which is brought in on ships, and gas pipes from Europe. This will be enough to meet all the scenarios of peak demand that National Grid experts have predicted could happen from October to the end of March. PA contributed to this report. A screenshot from Google Maps of students at the campus of University of Sussex in Brighton, England, taken on Oct. 8, 2021. (Screenshot via Googlemaps.com) UK University Stands by Professor Amid Campaign to Get Her Fired Over View on Gender A British university has defended one of its professors after a campaign called her one of this wretched islands most prominent transphobes and demanded her to be fired. The University of Sussex said on Thursday that the effort to get philosophy professor Kathleen Stock fired was disturbing and that the university will not tolerate threats to academic freedoms. Stock, who is known for her book Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, has been at odds with some transgender activists since 2018, when she said that while most trans people are law-abiding and wouldnt dream of harming anyone, trans women shouldnt be in spaces such as females dress rooms in a completely unrestricted way because many of them are still males with male genitalia and are sexually attracted to females. A self-described anonymous, unaffiliated group of queer, trans, and non-binary students, who named their group Anti-TERF Sussex, recently set up an Instagram page, demanding Stock to be fired from the university. TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. In a leaflet titled Anti-Stock Action 2021, the group accused Stock of being a bigot who is harmful and dangerous to trans people. It demanded the university fire Stock. Until then, youll see us around, the leaflet reads. A photo posted by the group on Wednesday shows a banner reading STOCK OUT amid blue flares on top of a casted stone logo of the university at its campus in Brighton. Another photo posted on Thursday shows posters on a wall in the tunnel from Falmer station into campus, reading KATHLEEN STOCK MAKES TRANS STUDENTS UNSAFE and FIRE KATHLEEN STOCK. The university posted a statement by its Vice-Chancellor Adam Tickell on Twitter, saying the university is investigating the campaign. We are investigating activity on our campus which appears to have been designed to attack Professor Kathleen Stock for exercising her academic freedoms, the statement reads. Disturbingly, this has included pressuring the University to terminate her employment. Everyone at the university has the right to be free from harassment and intimidation, he added. We cannot and will not tolerate threats to cherished academic freedoms and will take any action necessary to protect the rights of our community. In a string of Twitter post on Friday, Stock extended her undying gratitude to people who helped or encouraged in the past few days and thanked Tickell for defending her academic freedom after the outgoing vice-chancellor appeared on BBC Radio 4s Today programme. Universities arent places where students should just expect to hear their own thoughts reflected back at them, she wrote. Arguments should be met by arguments and evidence by evidence, not intimidation or aggression. In an email to The Epoch Times, Sussex Police confirmed that it is also investigating the matter. On Wednesday, Oct. 6, we received a report of harassment of an employee at the University of Sussex and we are investigating, the statement said. We take all reports of harassment seriously and will seek to investigate and to support victims. A United Airlines passenger jet takes off with New York City as a backdrop, at Newark Liberty International Airport, N.J., on Dec. 6, 2019. (Chris Helgren/Reuters) United Airlines Plans Over 3,500 Domestic Flights to Tap Holiday Demand United Airlines said on Thursday it plans to operate more than 3,500 domestic flights in December, its largest domestic schedule since the start of the pandemic, seeking to capitalize on pent-up holiday season demand from travelers who did not see friends and family last year. The U.S. carrier said holiday travel flight searches on its website were up 16 percent compared to 2019. United said it would offer new flights to popular tourist destinations including Las Vegas from the U.S. Midwest, as well as add flights to ski destinations such as Aspen from its hub airports. U.S. Airlines are expected to benefit from both domestic and international travel demand during the holiday season, after the Biden administration reopened the country to fully-vaccinated air travelers from around the world starting November. Brokerage Cowen in a note earlier this week said it expects fourth-quarter outlook for U.S. airlines to reflect a strong peak, likely above 2019 levels, as people start planning holiday trips. By Kannaki Deka A passenger plane passes in front of the moon as it makes its final landing approach to Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, on Sept. 12, 2019. (Toby Melville/Reuters) US Airlines Look for Holiday Boost After Delta Variant Interrupts Recovery BOSTONU.S. airlines are looking at the upcoming holiday season and the reopening of vital trans-Atlantic routes to recover the momentum lost in the last quarter following a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. After a strong summer travel season, air carriers had to temper their outlook last month for the quarter through September as the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus slowed down new bookings and drove up cancellations. A month on, dipping COVID-19 cases have raised industry hopes that passengers would be more confident to fly again. Financial services firm Raymond James conducted an analysis of the Transportation Security Administrations 7-day average passenger screening data, which showed that while the travel demand still lags the peak in late July, it has improved from the lows in mid-September. Cancellations have abated, bookings are recovering, Hawaiian Airlines and Hawaiian Holdings Chief Executive Peter Ingram told Reuters in an interview. As we get to Thanksgiving and Christmas, weve got the opportunity for a strong, solid recovery. Bookings have also recovered at Delta Air Lines, which expects domestic travel demand to surpass 2019 levels next year. United Airlines on Thursday said it would fly its biggest domestic schedule since the start of the pandemic, offering more than 3,500 daily domestic flights in Decemberrepresenting 91 percent of its domestic capacity compared to 2019. Theres a lot of pent-up demand, said Chief Executive Scott Kirby. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), a consortium of 290 airlines, expects air carriers in North America to return to profit next year before their counterparts in other geographies. Business Travel The outlook for the industrys cash cowbusiness travelremains uncertain. Airlines for America, an industry trade group, estimates business travel accounted for as much as 50 percent of airline industry passenger revenues before the pandemic. Carriers were banking on office reopenings for a revival in business trips this fall. But the Delta variant forced many large employers to push back their office openings into next year. Airlines say a revival is inevitable. However, there is no consensus on the timeline. Kirby expects business travel to rebound to the pre-pandemic levels in 2023, but JetBlue Airways Chief Executive Robin Hayes reckons it could take a few years. The New York-based budget carrier has reallocated flights from some business markets into leisure markets, Hayes said. We continue to believe that the holiday will be strong, Hayes told Reuters in an interview. Thats certainly what we see in our forward bookings at the moment. Trans-Atlantic Route Reopening Airlines, meanwhile, are buoyed by the Biden administrations plan to reopen the United States in November to air travelers from Europe. The trans-Atlantic route is one of the most lucrative ones in the world and accounted for up to 17 percent of 2019 passenger revenues for the big three carriers. All the U.S. carriers which serve the market have seen a surge in the bookings since the White House made the announcement. Kirby said Uniteds bookings for trans-Atlantic flights last week were above the same period in 2019. Sales have also jumped up at Delta Air and JetBlue. The reopening is not just an opportunity, but is also considered a big test for the industry. A successful reopening of the worlds most important long-haul market is expected to set a trend for other markets to follow. However, a reimposition of the restrictions if COVID-19 cases start rising again could also slow the fragile recovery. Restrictions cant start reappearing where they have disappeared, said Hayes. It acts as a big dampener to demand. By Rajesh Kumar Singh US Charges Former Taliban Commander With Killing US Troops in 2008 A former Taliban commander already in U.S. custody has been charged with murder and terrorism-related offenses in the deaths of three U.S. troops and an Afghan interpreter and the downing of a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan in 2008, federal prosecutors in New York said on Thursday. The U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan said Haji Najibullah was charged in a 13-count indictment that was unsealed in federal court. He was previously charged in the 2008 kidnapping of an American journalist and the new indictment supersedes the earlier one and includes charges related to that incident, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Najibullah served at the time as a Taliban commander in Afghanistans Wardak Province bordering the capital Kabul. He was charged in connection with an attack by Taliban fighters under his command on a U.S. military convoy with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and other explosives, prosecutors said. The attack killed U.S. Army Sergeants First Class Matthew Hilton and Joseph McKay, Sergeant Mark Palmateer and their Afghan interpreter, they said. Najibullah also was charged in connection with an attack by fighters under his command using rocket-propelled grenades that brought down a U.S. military helicopter, prosecutors said. They said no troops died in the attack. A statement from prosecutors said Najibullah was charged with murdering U.S. nationals, providing material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death, hostage-taking, kidnapping and other charges. The statement said the charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. The indictment did not name the journalist, but a law enforcement official familiar with the matter told Reuters after the previous indictment that the case involved David Rohde, a former New York Times and Reuters correspondent who was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2008. Rohde, a Pulitzer Prize winner who is now with the New Yorker, escaped in June 2009. Najibullah pleaded not guilty last November in Manhattan federal court after the previous indictment. Najibullah was arrested and was moved to the United States from Ukraine. Prosecutors said he remains in federal custody. By Kanishka Singh A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chemist checks confiscated pills containing fentanyl at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory in New York on Oct. 8, 2019. (Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images) US Flooded With Fentanyl-Laced Fake Pills From China: Part 1 News Analysis The prevalence of the deadly drug fentanyl is on the rise in the United States. The Department of Justice announced on Sept. 30 that law enforcement officials seized over 1.8 million counterfeit prescription drugs containing fentanyl and over 1,543 pounds of fentanyl powder. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) pointed out that most drugs disguised as prescription drugs in the United States are produced in Mexico, and the components used to make fentanyl come from China. More than 93,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2020, 30 percent more than in 2019 and the highest number of drug overdose deaths ever recorded in the United States, Lisa O. Monaco, deputy attorney general of the Justice Department, said in a Sept. 30 speech. Opioids are responsible for 75 percent of these deaths, with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, being the leading cause of death. Counterfeit pills have been identified in every state in this country, she said. They are being sold in inner cities, suburbs, and rural communities. She talked about the One pill can kill campaign and cited, More than 9.5 million counterfeit pills were seized so far this yearthats more than the last two years combined. These drugs look like prescription drugs. They are cheap, aimed at teenagers, and extremely harmful to American society, according to Monaco. Drugs From China On Aug. 24, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) released a report, saying that China remains the primary country of origin for illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States. While the number of fentanyl products coming directly from China to the United States is decreasing, the amount of fentanyl products diverted to Mexico and then illegally entering the United States is skyrocketing. The report makes clear that the Chinese regimes cooperation in this area remains limited. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long denied that fentanyl mainly comes from China. On Sept. 2, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the United States made a statement on the fentanyl issue, stressing that, Up to now, the Chinese side has never found any cases of controlled precursor chemicals in China being exported to Mexico, nor has Mexico notified the Chinese side of the seizure of precursor chemicals from China. The spokesperson also said that the statements the majority of fentanyl in the U.S. comes from China and Chinese fentanyl flows to the U.S. via Mexico are false. The reason the fentanyl problem continues to worsen in the United States, with the number of deaths rising rather than falling, is because the U.S. has failed to grasp the key problem of addressing drug abuse. China has repeatedly reminded the U.S. side to strengthen supervision over fentanyl prescription and strengthen publicity and education. However, a review of Chinas annual anti-drug report and related conference reports shows that the CCP has achieved a sustained improvement in the drug situation in China through years of border cleaning campaigns, meaning that the border is well protected and the entry channels of drugs are cleared. The CCP has long stressed the need to intercept drugs from abroad. As early as 10 years ago, the CCP launched joint patrols with Laos, Burma (also known as Myanmar), and Thailand to control the flow of drugs across the Mekong River into China. By the end of June 2021, law enforcement departments of the four countries had cracked 3,387 drug-related cases, seized 20.25 tons of drugs, and arrested 3,010 related suspects. The USCCs report, published in August, said Chinas cooperation remains limited. The report also noted that Chinese regulators routinely delay inspections and investigations of sites where Chinese companies may have illegally produced chemical materials. Requests are often delayed for days, allowing any illegal operation to vacate or clean up the premises, the report said. On Aug. 30, when the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the smuggling of fentanyl by Zhang Jian, a Chinese citizen and known drug trafficker, the CCP demanded that the United States stop offering the reward. Zhang Jian was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2017 for selling fentanyl and fentanyl-like substances over the internet to drug dealers and individuals in the United States, and then sending them by mail. In April 2018, Zhang was declared a Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker by the U.S. Treasury Department, while the Justice Department announced the indictment of four other Chinese nationals for laundering money for Zhangs drug trafficking chain. Wang Wenbin, spokesman of Chinas Foreign Ministry, argued at a regular press conference on Aug. 31 that the drugs were ordinary chemicals that were not controlled in China at the time, and the U.S. side has not, to date, provided evidence that the relevant personnel violated Chinese laws. Wang also said that offering a reward for evidence will seriously undermine the basis of China-U.S. drug control cooperation and create obstacles for the next step of bilateral cooperation, and the resulting consequences should be borne by the U.S. side. Also, the Chinese side, solemnly requests the U.S. side to stop offering rewards for arrest. Synthetic drugs and controlled substances seized by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 11, 2020. (CBP Cincinnati) Drug Industry Institutionally Protected The DEA website lists 11 common names for fentanyl, including three that include the word China: China Girl, China Town, and China White. The Australian state governments guide to fentanyl mentions eight common names for the drug, two of which are China Girl and China White. According to public information, there were a number of drug-producing villages in China, with village secretaries who led people to become rich by making drugs. Drug traffickers colluded with local CCP officials to make drug production and trafficking semi-open at that time. According to public information, the largest illegal drug production in China in the past 20 years happened in Boshe village, Lufeng city, Guangdong Province. Over 20 percent of the villagers engaged in drug manufacturing or trafficking directly or through equity participation. Around 2009, some villagers quickly got rich by making and selling drugs. The village was known as Little Hong Kong. Cai Dong, the former village secretary, was the behind-the-scenes boss of Boshes drug production and trafficking. A single marble pillar on the porch of his villa is worth more than $46,500. It wasnt until Dec. 29, 2013, that Guangdong Province dispatched 3,000 police officers to clean up this No.1 village of drug production. The police seized 3 tons of methamphetamine, destroyed 18 drug trafficking gangs, and over 70 drug processing plants. However, some drug makers are still on the run. A number of local police officers in Lufeng served as protective umbrellas for the village. Twelve were arrested and several of Lufengs police chiefs were investigated in connection with the case. Drug manufacturing in China has become more covert. In June 2020, the CCPs state media Xinhua revealed that Cai Zhenhao, from Boshe village and previously released for lack of evidence, had set up a drug-making den in a hidden farm in Lanzhou city. Outside the farm were vegetable fields and livestock farms, where feces from chicken, sheep, and other animals were piled up to mask the smell of drug production. The drug makers at the site were all from Boshe. Fentanyl is known as the third generation of drugs or laboratory drugs. According to experts, fentanyl precursors are easy to obtain, as are processing chemicals and equipment. The synthesis process is simple, so its easy for drug gangs to produce and sell it. In addition, by modifying the chemical structure of fentanyl, new derivatives are constantly being engineered. Underground manufacturing is proliferating and difficult to control. It is impossible to determine exactly how many illegal drug factories there are in China, but according to the public information on a China procuratorial website, people with only primary school education can make drugs with rudimentary equipment. For instance, the consumption of chemical raw materials for producing drugs in Qingdao amounted to 10 tons. Based on clues provided by the United States in September 2017, Chinese police cracked an underground processing plant and two sales outlets for new psychoactive substances, seized over 66 pounds of new psychoactive substances such as fentanyl, cathinone, and alprazolam, along with over 330 pounds of raw materials such as aniline. (Read part two) The Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) departs Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for sea trials following a maintenance availability on Dec. 15, 2016. (U.S. Navy photo/Thiep Van Nguyen II) US Nuclear-Powered Submarine Hit Object but in Stable Condition 11 injured, not life-threatening A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine struck an object on Oct. 2 while submerging in the South China Sea, injuring 11 crew, although there are no life-threatening injuries, the U.S. Navy declared on Thursday. The USS Connecticut (SSN 22), a Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine, was operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region when the collision happened, the Navy said in a statement. The submarine remains in a safe and stable condition. USS Connecticuts nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational, reads the statement. The extent of damage to the remainder of the submarine is being assessed. The U.S. Navy has not requested assistance. The Navy said there are no life-threatening injuries. About 11 sailors were hurt in the incident with moderate to minor injuries, a defense official told USNI News. The official said the boat is now headed to Guam and is expected to pull in within the next day. The underwater accident occurred in the South China Sea, and the boat has been making its way to Guam on the surface since Saturday, a defense official confirmed to USNI News. The areas topography at the time did not indicate there was any land mass in front of the boat, an official told Navy Times. The official requested anonymity because they werent authorized to speak on the record. The official said there were no indications that the accident was hostile or that the submarine collided with another vessel, pointing out the information is still preliminary. The Navy said the incident would be investigated. The Navy has three classes of nuclear-powered submarines in service. According to the Navy, Los Angeles-class submarines are the backbone of the submarine force, with approximately 40 now in commission. Seawolf-class submarines are exceptionally quiet, fast, well-armed, and equipped with advanced sensors. The Seawolf-class has eight torpedo tubes and can hold up to 50 weapons in its torpedo room. But the Navy only has three Seawolf-class submarines because the construction stopped due to the end of the Cold War. The next-generation attack submarine is the Virginia class, which will replace Los Angeles Class submarines when they retire. Nineteen Virginias have been commissioned to date. The last known instance where a submerged U.S. submarine struck another underwater object was in 2005. Then, USS San Franciso (SSN -711) struck an underwater mountain at full speed near Guam. One sailor died in the incident, USNI News reported. A used car dealership in Annapolis, Md., on May 27, 2021. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) Used-Car Prices Soar to Record High Amid New-Vehicle Inventory Slump Wholesale used car prices hit a record high in September with the chip shortage and other supply constraints squeezing new-vehicle inventories and combining with strong demand to send prices soaring. The Manheim U.S. Used Vehicle Value Index rose 5.3 percent over the month in September and by 27.1 percent over the year to an all-time high reading of 204.8. The index is one of several datapoints that provide a snapshot of trends in the secondhand car market, with Manheim being the worlds largest wholesaler of used vehicles. Wholesale prices paid by dealers typically end up getting passed on to consumers. At the end of August, the average list price for a previously-owned vehicle was nearly $26,000, according to Kelley Blue Book, while the most recent government data (pdf) showed that used car and truck prices were up 31.9 percent over the year in August. When the Manheim Index hit a record high of 203 in May, we believed that numbers in the 200s would be behind us for some time, Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke said in a statement. However, the new-vehicle production problem worsened instead of getting better in the third quarter of 2021, Smoke added. The pandemic has disrupted semiconductor manufacturing, and with carmakers now facing stiff competition from the sprawling consumer electronics industry for the reduced supply of chips, the shortage has led to production cuts by automakers around the world. A recent report from consulting firm AlixPartners estimated that the global chip shortage would lead to 7.7 million fewer vehicles produced in 2021, costing automakers $210 billion in lost sales. Automobiles have become increasingly dependent on semiconductors for everything from safety features such as airbag deployment and emergency braking assistance to computer management of engines for better fuel economy and performance. While the United States remains the global leader in chip design, roughly 80 percent of semiconductor foundries and assembly and test operations are concentrated in Asia. Washington has recognized the vulnerability of foreign semiconductor supply chain reliance, with bipartisan efforts on Capitol Hill seeking to bolster domestic semiconductor supply chains by incentivizing manufacturing in the United States. Detroits Big Three automakers were among a number of major firms to attend a Sept. 23 meeting at the White House hosted by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who has called the lack of chip production in the United States a national security risk. A readout of the meeting indicated that the administration reaffirmed that industry needs to be in the lead in resolving the supply chain bottlenecks that are occurring due to the global chip shortage, while Raimondo called on companies to provide information on the chip supply shortage within 45 days. Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen speaks during her visit to Penghu Air Force Base in Penghu county, Taiwan, on Sept. 22, 2020. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images) Whatever It Takes: Taiwanese President Says to Defend Freedom Self-ruled Taiwan will defend its freedom at all costs against any external threats, the president said on Oct. 8, which includes those from its giant neighbor China. It hopes for a peaceful, stable, predictable, and mutually beneficial coexistence with its neighbors, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen addressed the annual Yushan Forum in Taipei, amid a rise in tensions with China that has sparked alarm around the world. But Taiwan will also do whatever it takes to defend its freedom and democratic way of life, Tsai said during her speech. De facto independent Taiwan has its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution. Yet claimed by China as its own territory, the island has seen Chinas incursions at an unprecedented rate. From Oct. 1 to Oct. 5, Beijing sent 150 air force aircraft into Taiwans air defense zone in five consecutive days, compared to around 380 jets throughout 2020, according to Taiwans government-run Central News Agency. Chinas aggression drew the concerns of several U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). This latest action by China, threatening the island of Taiwan, makes clear that China intends an adversarial, provocative relationship with Taiwan, those that support it, and those that value personal freedoms, Murkowski said according to an Oct. 7 press release. If the U.S. stands for democracy, free trade, and personal and civil liberties then we, along with our allies, must remain steadfastly behind Taiwan, said the senator. Fridays event attracted international speakers and Asian leaders representing 10 nationssome attended in person others virtually physically and virtuallyincluding the United States, Japan, Australia, and France, according to local newspaper Taiwan News. Participants discussed ways to establish societal resilience ahead of a post-pandemic era, in addition to regional security issues. Taiwan may be small in terms of territory, but it has proved that it can have a large regional presence [in the Indo-Pacific], she said, adding that Taiwan is fully committed to collaborate with countries to achieve regional prosperity. Taiwan has been seeking the support of other democracies as the stand-off with China worsens and has hosted four French senators and former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott since this week. Taipei also signed a memorandum of understanding with Washington in March, in a bid to establish a coast guard working group. Reuters contributed to this report. U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks ahead of receiving a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the South Court Auditorium in the White House on Sept. 27, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) White House: Some Federal Workers With Valid Vaccine Exemptions Could Still Be Fired White House officials said President Joe Bidens COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all federal workers and contractors allows for some religious or medical exemptions, but agencies may still fire certain employees where no other safety protocols are enough. There may be circumstances in which an agency determines that the nature of an employees job responsibilities requires heightened safety protocols if they are provided with a legally required exception, according to new guidance posted on the federal governments Safer Federal Workforce Task Force website this week. In some cases, the nature of the employees job may be such that an agency determines that no safety protocol other than vaccination is adequate. In such circumstances, the agency may deny the requested accommodation. The task force said that in most cases, unvaccinated employees would have to maintain social distancing, submit to regular testing, and wear masks. But some agencies may require more measures in some cases, depending on the employees job. Determining whether an exception is legally required will include consideration of factors such as the basis for the claim; the nature of the employees job responsibilities; and the reasonably foreseeable effects on the agencys operations, including protecting other agency employees and the public from COVID-19, the task force said in the update. In creating a medical or religious exception, employees have to sign and declare their responses are accurate, according to a sample template provided by the task force. Any intentional misrepresentation to the federal government may result in legal consequences, including termination or removal from federal service, one of the forms read. For those seeking (pdf) a religious exemption, the form asks employees to say why they are objecting to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. To be eligible for a possible exception, you must first establish that your refusal to be vaccinated is based upon a sincere belief that is religious in nature, the sample form stated. A refusal to be vaccinated does not qualify for an exception if it is based upon personal preference, concerns about the possible effects of the vaccine or political opinions. White House officials confirmed earlier this month that all executive branch employees and contractors need to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 8 with any of the three vaccines. In a memo (pdf) released on Oct. 1, the White Houses Office of Personnel Management (OPM) advised federal workers shouldnt wait until the last minute to get vaccinated because other events often interfere with even well-laid plans. Employees who refuse to be vaccinated or provide proof of vaccination are subject to disciplinary measures, up to and including removal or termination from Federal service, said the letter. The only exception is for individuals who receive a legally required exception pursuant to established agency processes. On Sept. 9, Biden announced sweeping measures targeting the federal government, the health care sector, and private businesses. Meanwhile, a number of Republican-led states and federal workers filed lawsuits against the Biden administration, arguing that his mandate is tantamount to federal overreach. A group of federal employees filed a lawsuit against Biden in September, arguing that his executive order unfairly affects those of Christian faith. Other plaintiffs argued that the vaccine mandate doesnt make any mention of natural immunity granted by a previous COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Wokeness at the Alamo: Fact Confronts Fantasy Commentary History isnt clean. We like its lines well defined and its stories in 20-second soundbites, but history is never that way. Its messy. When it doesnt fit the woke agenda, the prevaricators and provocateurs take license to just make things up, often swaying great numbers of people. Such is the case with the recent attempt to recast the Alamo story as an Anglo narrative driven by white supremacy and the desire to maintain slavery. There are several holes in this argument, the first being that the Texas Revolution was hardly an Anglo narrative; the second involving the Texas leaders who actually tried to avoid war with Mexico, and the third is in casting all of the Anglos as white supremacists. Mexican President-General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna campaigned as a states rights candidate but, once elected, abolished the Constitution of 1824 and took full power for himself, declaring himself a dictator. When Zacatecas rebelled, Santa Anna ransacked the city, and 5,000 Mexican citizens were killed or executed. It was a warning to anyone who opposed him. As a result, civil war broke out in four other Mexican states: Yucatan, Tabasco, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas, none of which were slave-holding states. The Tejano population (Mexican citizens born in Texas) was also alarmed. Santa Anna disbanded the local state legislatures, and the elected governors were replaced with political appointees. Advocates of peace in Texas, led by Stephen F. Austin, tried to avoid war, but on a diplomatic mission to Mexico City, Austin was arrested and thrown in prison. He had a year and a half to rethink his position. The Texians (the Anglo settlers who came to Texas) had generous land grants, very low taxes, substantial autonomy, and wanted to continue living under the Constitution of 1824. The vast majority of them never owned slaves. It was simply not in their interest to start a conflict with Mexico. If the Texas Revolution was all about slavery, why would non-slaveholders be willing to die for something they had no part in? (Incidentally, the first soldier to take a bullet fighting for the Texas cause, on Oct. 9, 1835, was Sam McCulloch Jr., a free black man.) It became clear that war was unavoidable. Tejano delegates Jose Antonio Navarro and Francisco Ruiz both signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Of the six general and 14 specific reasons the Declaration argues for independence, slavery didnt make the list. As the convention progressed, Tejanos chose to barricade themselves inside the Alamo and give their lives with the Texians. In a foreshadowing of the American Civil War 25 years later, Alamo defender Gregorio Esparza had a brother in Santa Annas army. After the smoke cleared from the battle, Fernando Esparza was given permission to retrieve his brothers body, and thus Gregorio Esparza became the only Alamo defender to receive a Christian burial. The others were thrown onto a pyre and burned. But the Tejano involvement hardly ends there. Juan Seguin and his men fought valiantly at San Jacinto, and Lorenzo de Zavala went on to help write the Texas Constitution. The argument that the Texas Revolution was an Anglo conflict about slavery is simply false. Finally, David Crockett had a famous falling out with Andrew Jackson over Indian policy. Thats why he was in Texas in the first place. Sam Houston, alone in political circles, argued for the rights of indigenous people and tried to get them title to their lands. He even lived with the Cherokee for six years and was adopted by the tribe as a full Cherokee citizen. He married a Cherokee woman in todays Oklahoma. Jim Bowie also adopted another culture when he married Maria Ursula de Veramendi, the daughter of the Mexican vice governor of Coahuila y Tejas. These men had many close friends from other cultures. Dismissing them as white supremacists is a simplistic, woke fantasy. Did people in the 1800s have different views on race than we do today? Yes. All of them did. Even the abolitionists wrote things that could never be printed in a modern newspaper. But to judge them by a moral standard that has advanced 185 years beyond their time is grossly unfair, amateurish, and irresponsible. Instead of judging previous generations, we should be asking ourselves what people 185 years from now will look back and condemn us for. Thats a more difficult and uncomfortable question. History is always more complicated than we want to make it. Its always messy, and frequently inconvenient to woke fairy tales. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Jerry Patterson Follow Jerry Patterson is a former Texas state senator and Texas land commissioner. Denton Florian Follow Denton Florian is the executive producer of the EMMY award-winning documentary Sam Houston. NORWALK The Rowayton neighborhood is honoring school board member Mike Barbis with several memorials following his unexpected death last month. Norwalk Public Schools Board of Education voted on Tuesday to place a buddy bench at Rowayton Elementary School with a plaque acknowledging Barbis dedication to the school and the district. The board held a special meeting this week to remember their former colleague who had served on the school board since 2011. I really feel like he has worked tirelessly for the students and the staff for many, many years, and hes devoted a big chunk of his life, board member Heidi Keyes said during the meeting. His memory will always live on so Im hoping well be able to do something that will honor his memory tonight, for him and for his family. Keyes, who served with Barbis the longest, made the motion for the buddy bench, which allows students to signal theyre lonely and looking for a friend to play with on the playground at school. Theyre looking to talk to a friend. Maybe theyre feeling as if theyre not included. Maybe theyre sad, said Keyes, who added the bench could help classmates and teachers see when someone needs a friend. It fosters those relationships between peers, as well as adults. The bench will be a start to memorializing Barbis work for the school district. The district planned to contact his family to coordinate a date to publicly unveil the bench at the elementary school. Barbis seat on the board will remain vacant until after Election Day, according to Eloisa Melendez, chair of the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee. The 11 committee members from District E have the responsibility of filling the seat through the end of Barbis term, which expires in November 2023. The Rowayton community at large is also honoring their longtime commissioner with a GoFundMe campaign to raise $50,000 for the Mike Barbis Memorial Fund. The fund will immediately benefit Barbis son Skyler. Details of who the memorial fund will benefit in the future are still being discussed. During his tenure on the school board, Barbis served as chair of the finance committee, negotiations and personnel committee, and facilities committee. As a member of the facilities committee, Barbis oversaw new construction and renovation plans still underway in the school district. He also was a commissioner for the Sixth Taxing District since 2005, leading the charge on the renovation project to the Rowayton Community Center. He was an active member of the Rowayton Volunteer Fire Department and served on the board for the Rowayton hose Company. Mike was a tireless worker who did his homework before any meeting. He was a good friend to young and old and loved the history of Rowayton, said Tammy Langalis, a fellow commissioner and organizer of the Mike Barbis Memorial Fund campaign. emily.morgan@hearstmediact.com WESTPORT Establishing a civilian review board in town is an effort that has been in the works for more than two years. The initiative hit a roadblock Tuesday when Westports Representative Town Meeting voted down an ordinance that would establish the board. According to a presentation by the efforts chief petitioner, Jason Stiber, most other Fairfield County towns have some type of police commission or review board. Fairfield, for instance, has a police commission that works with the police chief on matters concerning and affecting the Police Department, according to the town website. Ridgefield and Darien were other towns Stiber mentioned with commissions. Greenwich was the other major Fairfield County town without a police commission or review board, but Stiber said its Board of Selectmen handles all discipline including the investigations into civilian complaints. Westport is behind the times, Stiber said in his presentation. Here is a timeline of some of the key events in the Westports civilian review board ordinance proposal: April 11, 2018: Stiber is issued a $300 ticket by Westport police for distracted driving after police mistake the McDonalds hash brown he is eating for a cellphone. April 2019: Stiber is found not guilty after months of fighting the distracted driving charge in court. Shortly thereafter, he begins pushing for Westport to establish a citizen review board, which meets with mixed response. July 2019: The RTMs moderator reverses an earlier decision to withhold a proposed ordinance creating a civilian review board from an upcoming meeting, after several members argued town law was being violated. The moderator had originally expressed concerns that the ordinance conflicted with the town charter. June 2020: First Selectman Jim Marpe annouces the creation of the Civilian Review Panel, a five-member board appointed by the First Selectman. According to the town website, the panel is charged with working closely with the members of the Police, Fire and EMS Departments to diversify hiring, oversee the investigation of civilian complaints, and evaluate opportunities to improve transparency and accountability. The panel includes TEAM Westport Chair Harold Bailey and selectwomen Jennifer Tooker and Melissa Kane, who were all appointed by the first selectman. Stiber continued pushing in the summer and fall of 2020 for a civilian review board, because of the perceived weaknesses in the First Selectmans proposed panel. Oct. 5, 2021: After more than four hours of discussion, the full RTM votes 32-1 to defeat a proposed ordinance to create the board, with one abstention. Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Stiber continued pushing for a civilian review board after the first selectman created the Civilian Review Panel. Steve Exum/Getty Images On Wednesday, the U.S. Mint announced its first batch of designs for its American Women Quarters Program, which was authorized by Congress earlier this year. The four-year program will introduce five coins per year with tails honoring a diverse group of historical icons between 2022 and 2025. U.S. Mint The first batch recognizes the achievements of poet Maya Angelou, who hailed from St. Louis, as well as astronaut Sally Ride, actress Anna May Wong, suffragist and politician Nina Otero-Warren and Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. Governor warns Veg Fest vendors against hoarding, price gouging PHUKET: Phuket Governor has warned all vendors selling food and other goods as part of the Vegetarian Festival to not engage in any hoarding of produce or products to artificially inflate prices or to overcharge customers for any goods. Chineseculturecrime By The Phuket News Friday 8 October 2021, 02:50PM Governor Narong warned vendors caught overcharging customers during the Vegetarian festival could face legal action. Photo: Radio Thailand Phuket The warning came during an official press conference held yesterday (Oct 7). The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is held each year to uphold the traditions of Phuket peoples forefathers. Therefore, Phuket Province [the provincial government] has issued an announcement alerting operators to not hoard goods or take advantage of the opportunity to raise prices for goods and services, Governor Narong said. Labels clearly showing the prices of goods and services must be used to be fair to customers purchasing goods and services and to prevent traders from seizing the opportunity to raise the prices of products without any reasonable cause, causing consumers to suffer throughout the festival, he added. Officers from the Phuket Provincial Commercial Office are now inspecting stalls set up near participating shrines across the island, Governor Narong continued. Any vendors found not clearly showing prices or overcharging customers could be found in breach of Sections 29, 30 and 41 of the Price of Goods and Services Act 1999, which may incur a penalty of a fine of up to B100,000 or up to seven years in prison, or both, he warned. Complaints can be submitted by calling the Phuket Provincial Commercial Office at 076-219586 or the Ministry of Commerce hotline 1569, Governor Narogn said. Alternatively, people can inform the Phuket Damrongdhama Center (Phuket Provincial Ombudsmans Office) at 076-213203 or on their hotline 1567, he added. The warning follows officials confirming that vendors had started charging higher prices for dishes served as part of the Vegetarian Festival after the disastrous floods affecting 29 provinces up north resulted in the prices of fresh produce on the island spiral upwards. Phuket talks discuss arrival of Russian tourists next month PHUKET: Vladimir V. Sosnov, Consul General of the Russian Federation for Phuket Province, has met with Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong to discuss the prospect of Russian tourists returning to visit the island as soon as early next month. COVID-19CoronavirusRussiantourismeconomics By The Phuket News Friday 8 October 2021, 03:30PM The meeting discussed the arrival of Russian tourists as soon as early next month. Photo: PR Phuket The meeting discussed the arrival of Russian tourists as soon as early next month. Photo: PR Phuket The meeting discussed the arrival of Russian tourists as soon as early next month. Photo: PR Phuket Mr Sosnov and his delegation met Vice Governor Pichet and other high-ranking Phuket officials at Provincial Hall yesterday (Oct 7). Among the issues discussed was the drafting of a Memorandum of Understanding on Establishment of Relations between Phuket Province and Kamchatka City Russian Federation. The meeting was also held to exchange ideas on the project to open the country to receive foreign tourists under the Phuket Sandbox scheme, including Russian airlines that will travel to Phuket in early November 2021, said a report by the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket). Mr Sosnov said there are many Russians tourists interested in coming by travelling under the Phuket Sandbox project, said the report. However, the Russian government continues to monitor the situation of infected people in Thailand, where the infection situation is high, Mr Sosnov said. Therefore, the Russian government has not yet recommended that Russian tourists come to Thailand, he added. Mr Sosnov reported that The Russian federation considers 40 new cases per day per 100,000 people to be a safe level of infections for Russian tourists to visit. On this issue, Mr Phichet Panaphong, Vice Governor of Phuket, explained that Phuket has only 30 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which is considered a safe area and has strict disease control measures, the PR Phuket report said. In addition, more than 70% of the population in Phuket area has been fully vaccinated, and it is expected that by the end of October, there will be more than 70% of [the population having received] booster third injection vaccinations as well, he added, according to the report. V/Gov Pichet noted that 496 Russian tourists had travelled to Phuket under the Phuket Sandbox project since Sept 1. On behalf of Phuket, Thank you Consul General of Russian Federation for Phuket Province on the occasion of visiting and providing useful information about Phuket, V/Gov Pichet said, added the report. It is a great pleasure to welcome Russian tourists and we hope that airlines from Russia will fly directly to Phuket soon. We would like to recommend that the Russian government expedite the approval of charter flights to fly into Phuket to further promote tourism between Russia and Phuket, he said. Before closing the meeting, and before the exchange of gifts, Mr Sosnov pointed out that the year 2022 will mark the 125th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Russia, the PR Phuket report noted. Two foreigners held for ATM fraud BANGKOK: Two foreign men have been arrested for allegedly using fake electronic cards to withdraw money from bank accounts belonging to people in Bangkok and Hua Hin. crimeimmigration By Bangkok Post Friday 8 October 2021, 06:22PM An immigration police officer points to a monitor showing the arrest of two ATM fraud suspects and details of the case at a briefing in Bangkok on Friday. Photo: Wassayos Ngamkham Investigators from the Immigration Bureau arrested Iacob Corne, 39, of Romania, and Gim Teck We, 33, a Malaysian national, at a hotel in Hua Hin, the beach resort town in Prachuap Khiri Khan. Seized from them were hundreds of fake electronic cards, six bank passbooks and mobile phones, report the Bangkok Post. The arrests were made after police, working with Kasikornbank, found that money had been withdrawn from the accounts of many people, Pol Maj Gen Archayon Kraithong, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said at a briefing on Friday (Oct 8). Investigators discovered that skimming devices, which can capture data from cards inserted into an ATM, had been installed on bank machines at various locations in Bangkok and Hua Hin, he said. During questioning, police said, the suspects confessed to having committed the thefts for over three months, mostly in tourist areas by installing skimmers on ATMs in the morning and withdrawing money at night. The initial investigation found many victims lost several million baht to the duo, said Maj Gen Archayon. UK eases travel rules for countries including Thailand LONDON: Britain will scrap tough COVID-19 quarantine requirements for 47 destinations including South Africa and Thailand on Monday (Oct 11) and make it easier for people to arrive from countries including India and Turkey in the latest relaxation of the rules. Friday 8 October 2021, 09:31AM A notice posted by Phuket officials at 12:20am today (Oct 7). Image: Phuket info Center Britains tourism industry has essentially lost two full summers after travel restrictions imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19 deterred many people from going abroad, reports the Bangkok Post, which cited a report by Reuters. Many countries with high infection levels were put on a red list, requiring arrivals to spend 10 days in a government provided quarantine hotel, while the need for a PCR test and other tests often cost more than the flight itself. Airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet have said that the approach and the frequently changing restrictions have delayed any recovery in the sector, leaving the British industry lagging its European peers. On Thursday, Transport Minister Grant Shapps said he would remove 47 destinations from the red list. The destinations included Thailand. Seven countries will remain, including Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. Thailand will no longer be on the red list for entering England. Check what you must do to travel abroad and return to England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the Transport Ministry said on the website. He has also eased the rules for countries such as India, Turkey and Ghana, meaning that the inoculation status of arrivals will be recognised and fully vaccinated arrivals will only need to take a test on day 2 to check for Covid. The move came after Britain dropped its advice against all but essential travel for 32 countries. But it was still advising against all but essential travel for scores of countries and territories on its red list which include Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Thailand. In a further change, passengers will be able to send a picture of their lateral flow test result to verify test accuracy once the requirement switches from the more expensive PCR test to lateral flow later this month. Shapps said restoring peoples confidence in travel was key to rebuilding the economy. With less restrictions and more people traveling, we can all continue to move safely forward together along our pathway to recovery. Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Rain likely. High near 7C. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.. Tonight Rain ending this evening. Partial clearing overnight. Low 1C. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Things to do in the Attleboro area and beyond (copy) WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Davis, R-Taylorville, has announced his staff will be holding Traveling Help Desks in October. The office of Congressman Rodney Davis will be hosting a series of Traveling Help Desks with congressional staff throughout the year. People who need help with a federal agency, have policy issues they want to discuss or just want to say hi are invited to participate. GODFREY Two businesses have joined the RiverBend Growth Association. Established in 1958, Korte & Luitjohan Contractors, Inc. (K&L), is a family-owned full-service general contracting and construction management firm. It produces projects for a variety of clients from the commercial, institutional, and industrial markets. With our ability to self-perform carpentry, concrete work, piping, and excavating, we maintain a high degree of control over the entire building process for a very competitive price, said K&Ls Jeff Mishkin. Borrowing $500 from his father-in-law to buy a rubber-tired trencher and a backhoe, Cyril B. Pete Korte started installing gas services for Illinois Power throughout Highland. A year later, his brother-in-law Joe Luitjohan joined him in the business. The duo grew the business for the next 23 years. In 1981, Korte bought Luitjohans interest in the company and took K&L into the heavy construction market. The company expanded its scope into three major construction markets: building, heavy and utility. K & Ls portfolio has included water and wastewater treatment facilities since 1984, along with county, state, and federal institutional facilities; production and warehouse facilities; restaurants; schools and recreational facilities; museums and historic sites; financial institutions; medical/dental offices and hospitals; office buildings and corporate headquarters; and worship facilities. We have joined the RiverBend Growth Association because we believe in and align with its mission, said Mishkin. As a 60-plus-year-old, family-owned, full-service commercial general contractor, our firm is committed to attracting, promoting, and supporting new and existing enterprise growth throughout the Bi-State region. K&L engages with like-minded commercial clients to provide project certainty and peace of mind when engaging in a commercial renovation, expansion, or new construction. Personally, I hope to make a positive difference in our entire region by becoming a member of the RBGA, he said. Community growth and enhancement are key to improving our region. And by improving the working and living environments of those commercial clients we engage with, we are doing our small part to make a real positive difference, Mishkin added. K&L is located at 12052 Highland Road in Highland. For more information, visit korteluitjohan.com or call 618-654-9877. For more than 140 years, Prudential Advisors has helped individual and institutional customers grow, manage, and protect their wealth. The local duo of Brian Hamann and Deanna Evans recently opened an office at 205 W. Main St., East Alton. The office has the capability for virtual meetings to accommodate customers needs. Most all of our clients would be quick to share with you that their situation is much better after meeting with us, Hamann said. What makes us unique is the holistic approach we take in handling each clients concerns. We joined the RBGA to introduce ourselves to the area, and to have the opportunity for community involvement, said Hamann. By connecting to the RBGA, we are hoping to form an association with many of the professionals in our community. We are hopeful that this affiliation will provide us with the resources needed to advance our opportunities to provide services and benefit the local area. For more information, visit prudential.com/advisor/brian-hamann or call 618-917-4747. The RBGA is the Chamber of Commerce and economic development organization for the 11 communities known as the Riverbend. For more information visit www.growthassociation.com or call 618-467-2280. ROXANA More space, modern amenities and handicapped accessibility were celebrated at a ribbon-cutting Friday for the new Roxana Village Hall, located on the site of the old Burbank School. About 100 people attended the ceremony Friday morning. Ground was broken for the $12.8 million project in November 2019, but the project had been in the works for a long time before that. On Friday, Mayor Marty Reynolds said Roxana officials had been looking at the location as a site for a new village hall since 2008. The building evolved over several years of property negotiations, Reynolds said at Fridays ceremony. The Burbank School was built in 1937 as a Works Progress Administration project. It was closed in the late 1970s due to declining enrollment and restructuring in the Roxana School District. The building was sold to Dr. David Ayres who donated it to the village, which demolished it in 2008 13 years ago. The ultimate goal was to build a new village hall here, said Reynolds. The 28,000-square-foot building about three times the size of the former village hall which also contained a gymnasium houses the villages general offices as well as its police and fire department. Reynolds noted the pandemic led to some issues with the project. It was a difficult process because of COVID, and we actually delayed the ribbon-cutting and dedication of this building to this point to try to minimize the impact COVID could have, he said. The building has been occupied since March. The fire department got in early, Reynolds said. We had a substantial plumbing failure at our old village hall. This building was not quite ready, but we got everyone in and weve been making it work ever since. The big thing is to have everyone on one level, with multiple ingress and egress into the building, and we have three times the parking here, he added. Roxana Fire Chief Daryl Trask said the new building is absolutely an improvement. Overall, its been very nice, he said. The additional space to move around the vehicles and work around the building this is spectacular. He noted the departments transition to the new building was faster than anticipated because of a sewer collapse. We made a quick move on a Friday night to stay here, he said. And then we transitioned pretty slow over the next couple of weeks. Roxana Police Chief Will Cunningham said additional space was the biggest advantage to the new location. Its a great improvement from our 1936 building, he said. Space was really the biggest (issue), and safety, not just for the workers but people we would bring into the building as well. Now they have everything under one room. Evidence which had been stored off-site is now within the department. We have a covered sally port, which we have never had, he said. And a larger processing area as well, where we can actually secure people better. Its a building for the future, he added. Its not just a building for now. In addition to a ribbon-cutting ceremony and several speeches, state Sen. Rachelle Aud Crowe, D-Glen Carbon, and state Rep. Amy Elik, R-Fosterburg, presented a proclamation celebrating Roxanas centennial. Reynolds talked about the history of the village, incorporated in April 1921 and named after the Roxana Petroleum Corporation which had started construction of a new refinery in 1917. The old village hall was built in 1939. Reynolds said that, in the 1980s, the village started an aggressive annexation program to take in land around what is now Illinois 255. He also said there are several issues the village is still dealing with. The schools playground had served as the location for the Roxana Homecoming normally the first of the summer homecomings in the area but it has not been held for several years. Were trying to arrange an area within the (Roxana Community) Park itself, he said. Weve had multiple questions on that and were trying to work on it. But with space constraints, its just difficult to do. The final fate of the old Village Hall is also pending. Reynolds said village officials are rerouting some electrical services and utilities so it can be parceled out to various entities, including the Roxana Park District. ALTON The Madison County Democrats will host its JFK event 3-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, at Liberty Bank Amphitheater in Alton. Weve had a lot of really great feedback on this event, people are excited to come out and celebrate even if we have to take a different approach, said Democratic Chair Randy Harris. With COVID, the idea of an indoor event, just didnt appeal to us. We had an opportunity to gather at the Alton Amphitheater, which is a great venue and is just a perfect place to have an event like this. Harris describes the outdoor event as fun for all ages. It really is going to be a great time for everyone, said Harris, We plan to have a caricature artist, face painters, and snow cones for kids of all ages. LaMays Catering from right here in Alton is going to be serving food, Harris said. Jason Harrison is huge supporter of the community and were excited he agreed to join us. We also have another small business owner in Travis Williams with his Da Joint food truck. Harris said the event is more of a community get-together than a dinner. I know the Democratic Party has had sit down dinners with speeches and videos and all of that, but we really felt like our supporters, the community, really wants something a little more fun and little more casual, he said. Not that that the fancy dinners werent great, but this is more who we are as a Party and who we support, the community and working families. Several speakers are scheduled to appear starting at 4:30 p.m., including Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. Shes a dynamic leader in our state and nation, said Harris. She takes a back seat to nobody in the fight for communities and working class people. In addition to the Lieutenant Governor, other speakers include IDCCA Chair Kristina Zahorik, State Central Committeeman Bill Houlihan, State Sen. Rachelle Crowe, state Reps. Jay Hoffman and Katie Stuart and Madison County Clerk Debbie Ming-Mendoza. We are also fortunate that three of the announced candidates for Illinois Secretary of State are planning to join us: Anna Valencia, Alexi Giannoulias and David Moore, Harris said. It will be a great opportunity to meet these candidates. The event is the groups major fundraiser of the year. But the grounds will be open to the community, Harris said. Some of the food will be sold for cash, and even if you dont want to buy a ticket, come out and mingle and hear from our Democratic officials. Tickets can be purchased online at www.madcodems.com/jfkdinner or in person at the venue, $30 for a single ticket or $50 for a couple. Each ticket comes with one food voucher and two drink vouchers. If youve been curious about what the Democratic Party is or stands for, come out Saturday, he said. Ill bet you like what you hear. Students are slapping their teachers and running away. It's part of a new challenge on the social media platform TikTok called "Slap A Teacher." There have been several incidents of this challenge reported across the United States, and it has school officials and law enforcement across the country voicing concerns both publicly and letters home to parents. Videos across the country have been posted of teachers and school staff getting hit and the slapper dashing off in an effort to not get caught. What students may not realize is that this is a very serious act. "Anyone walking up to anyone and hitting them is battery," Edwardsville, Illinois Police Chief Mike Fillback said. "We strongly discourage anyone from slapping or hitting someone, especially teachers." Edwardsville is located about 28 miles northeast of St. Louis and is the county seat of Madison County. Fillback said his department will everything they can to enforce the law, and that every action has consequences. "What may seem as a prank could have deadly consequences," he said. School districts are very much aware of this challenge getting carried out. "I haven't heard anything about that happening here," Kim Collins with the Collinsville, Illinois school district said. Collinsville is also located in Madison County. "It's been such a challenging school year, but with all the things that go with keeping students in school makes everyone's plates so full." Edwardsville School District Public Relations and Communications Coordinator Mary Ann Mitchell said a letter regarding the "Slap A Teacher" challenge is suppose to be sent to parents, but said she didn't have "a timeline of when/if it will be." "If the 'Slap A Teacher' Tik Tok challenge would occur, we would follow our typical procedures for discipline," Mitchell wrote. Regional Superintendent of Schools for Madison County, Illinois, Rob Werden, said the message is "this will not be tolerated" and that students who go through with this challenge will have consequences according to their school district's policies. "It's extremely unfortunate that we have to keep dealing with all these challenges coming from these social media platforms out there," Werden said. He's referring to a recent challenge on TikTok that encouraged students to destroy school property. Many incidents occurred in the bathrooms. "I would like to think that students would make the right decisions," Werden said. The Illinois State Board of Education also commented by saying, "We have not heard of any incidents of this in Illinois. It is obviously entirely unacceptable," ISBE Executive Director of Communications Jackie Matthews said. A student in Springfield, Missouri had to answer to school police after they slapped a teacher and caught the incident on camera. "Anytime we have a situation like this when a nationwide or social media trend makes way here to Springfield sometimes our parents might not be aware, Stephen Hall with Springfield Public Schools told KYTV in Springfield. The "Slap A Teacher" challenge students are attempting has resulted in many institutions getting word out to parents and asking them for help. A student in Massachusetts is facing disciplinary and possible legal consequences after posting their challenge effort to social media. The teacher, who is disabled, can be seen interacting with the student and then getting hit hard in the head. The incident occurred in Braintree, Massachusetts, located about 13 miles south of Boston. Please be aware that physically assaulting any staff member in the Braintree schools will immediately result in notification of the Braintree Police Department and significant school-based discipline, up to and including expulsion," the Braintree school district told parents in a letter. CBS Boston reported segments of the letter online. ALTON An Alton man is currently in custody with charges related to a triple shooting last month at Oakwood Estates, as well as an additional charge earlier this month for unlawful possession of a weapon by felon, along with another man on that same charge. On Sept. 8, at approximately 11:20 p.m., the Alton Police Department responded to the 700 block of Oakwood Estates in reference to a shooting. Preliminary investigation revealed that three adults were shot while in the 700 block of Oakwood Estates. The victims who sustained gunshot wounds were transported to Alton area hospitals, then all were subsequently transported to a St. Louis area hospital. This was not a random act of violence and this investigation has revealed that the subjects involved were familiar with each other, said Alton Police Chief Marcos Pulido. The triple shooting was investigated by the Alton Police Department Criminal Investigations Division. After a lengthy investigation, the case was presented to the Madison County States Attorneys Office who reviewed the case. After reviewing the details of the triple shooting investigation, the Madison County States Attorneys Office charged Steven Foster, 35, of the 100 block of E. 13th St., with three counts of attempted first degree murder, three counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, armed habitual criminal, aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful possession of weapons by a felon. Madison County Associate Circuit Judge Ron Slemer set bail at $1 million. On Oct. 4, just after 10 a.m., the Alton Police Department, assisted by the United States Marshals Service, arrested Foster inside a residence, while in the 2200 block of Bostwick St., in Alton. During the arrest, a firearm was located and an additional person that was in the residence was taken into custody. As a result of the discovery of a firearm, the Madison County States Attorneys Office charged Montreal D. Holmes, 45, of the 2200 block of Bostwick St., with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon and Foster was charged with an additional felony of unlawful possession of weapons by a felon. Associate Circuit Judge Janet Heflin set bail for Holmes at $75,000 and for Fosters additional charge set his bail at $75,000. Both Foster and Holmes are currently in custody at the Alton Police Department. The victims in this case continue to recover from their injuries. The Alton Police Department will never give up fighting to protect our community, Pulido said in a written statement. Using the resources we have, we will continue do address any violent crime that occurs. We have a fantastic community and our officers will work diligently to hold the few that choose to commit violent crime. All charges, as well as the statements made herein, are based upon probable cause. The defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law. SAM MONTALTO, Stonington, Boys Soccer, Senior; Montalto scored three goals including the 100th of his career in the Bears 4-0 victory over Plainville in the Class M state tournament. Montalto, who missed the first three games of the season, has 32 goals and nine assists this season. GIRLS & BOYS Soccer Team, Chariho; It wouldnt be fair to single out a player from either team, both of which captured Division II titles over the weekend of Nov. 12. The girls tied their game with Prout with 1:02 left in regulation and prevailed in penalty kicks. The boys scored the winning goal in the final two minutes of the second overtime to beat North Smithfield. ZACK TUCK, Westerly, Football; Tuck rushed for 150 yards on 29 carries in a loss to unbeaten St. Raphael in the Division II semifinals. Tuck has rushed for 1,533 yards and scored 19 touchdowns this season for the 7-3 Bulldogs. Vote View Results The new Renault Arkana somewhat wrongfooted me. True, on first encounter, I was in a rush and didnt take it all in. For some reason I first saw the car as a sporty coupe, judging by flowing lines and fastback rear. Only when standing back and viewing the full profile did I realise the extent to which its jacked up and riding on large, 18 in Pasadena diamond-cut alloy wheels. Very SUV like. Shape-shifter: Renault's first hybrid, the Arkana, is the French brand's first purpose-built hybrid and its first SUV with coupe styling Then it made sense. Thats because the car is Renaults first purpose-built hybrid and the French giants first SUV with coupe styling. So the Arkana really is a crossover whose shape shifts depending on the angle from which you view it. I was driving the electrified S-Edition E-Tech Hybrid 145 Auto, which marries a 1.6-litre petrol engine and electric motor to a six-speed automatic gearbox. The 145 hp of pulling power can still return up to 58.9 mpg but just 108g/km CO2 emissions. The electrified S-Edition E-Tech Hybrid 145 Auto marries a 1.6-litre petrol engine and electric motor to a six-speed automatic gearbox Performance: The Arkana can go from rest to 62 mph in 10.8 seconds and has a top speed of 107 mph Cleaner: The hybrid Arkana starts every time in zero-emissions electric mode and the hybrid system prioritises electric power over petrol My fully-stocked car starts at 28,600 and had extras that bumped it up to 29,800, including fetching Zanzibar Blue metallic paint (650), a black roof (300) and a space-saver spare wheel (250). The full hybrid is priced from 26,300 for the base-level Iconic to 30,900 for the sporty top-range RS Line. But theres lots of safety and driver assistance kit, including anti-lock and active emergency braking, hill-start assist and electronic stability control. Pricing: The full hybrid is priced from 26,300 for the base-level Iconic to 30,900 for the sporty top-range RS Line Comforts: The interior trim includes black fabric, synthetic leather upholstery, manually adjustable seats, tinted rear windows and a 7in driver information display Space: The infotainment system includes a 9.3 in touchscreen while load-lugging owners will enjoy up to 513 litres of boot space The interior trim includes black fabric, synthetic leather upholstery, manually adjustable driver and passenger seats, tinted rear windows and a 7in driver information display. On a couple of long cruises, it was engaging and relaxing, with rest to 62 mph taking 10.8 seconds and a top speed of 107 mph. The car starts every time in zero-emissions electric mode and the hybrid system prioritises electric power over petrol. There are three driving modes and the infotainment system includes a 9.3 in touchscreen. Load-lugging owners will enjoy up to 513 litres of boot space. New book celebrates 007's Aston Martin DB5 Iconic: The first official history of James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 The first official history of James Bonds Aston Martin DB5 reeks quality - from the gorgeous layout to the 302 sumptuous behind-the-scenes photographs. It is co-authored by Will Lawrence and Simon Hugo, with a foreword by the current Bond actor Daniel Craig - and its the first time EON Productions, the maker of the James Bond films, has authorised an official history of this iconic car, which made its debut in Goldfinger and appeared in another seven 007 films (including No Time To Die). James Bonds DB5 (40, Hero Collector Books) has been launched to coincide with the release of the 25th Bond film No Time To Die. Gangs target motorhomes and caravans A staycation boom has prompted security firm Tracker to warn new owners of caravans and motorhomes about the risk of theft by criminal gangs. It urges owners to be on their guard as a surge in sales of used vehicles is reported at online retailers and auction houses. New owners of caravans and motorhomes have been warned about the risk of theft by criminal gangs Clive Wain, head of police liaison at Tracker, said: Gangs are taking advantage of high demand and the resulting higher prices, stealing to serve the burgeoning market. In 2020, Tracker recovered more than 1 million of stolen caravans and motorhomes, and this figure is set to be even higher this year, Mr Wain said, noting a 29 per cent year-on-year increase. He added that physical deterrents include secure storage, alarm systems, hitch locks, wheel clamps and deadlocks on doors. But he also warned: Experienced and determined criminals will get past these. The FTSE 100 has ended the week making modest gains, with the index closing up 17.5 points to 7095.6, although the FTSE 250 shed 23.0 points to 22,536.2 The value of financial assets could be dealt a heavy blow if investors react harshly to signs that the economic recovery is weakening or that inflation is more persistent than expected, the Bank of England warned. In company news, Royal Mails ground-based parcel network GLS will buy Canada's Rosenau Transport for $360million, as it looks to expand its freight carrier services. GLS chief executive Martin Seidenberg said the deal would strengthen the groups growth plans. > If you are reading on our app or another website click here to read Business Live 'Landmark Plan': Chancellor Rishi Sunak has welcomed the international agreement on corporation tax A historic international agreement which will force big businesses to pay their fair share of tax is set to go ahead. The deal, which was agreed in principle in June, was shored up last night after Ireland, Estonia and Hungary agreed to sign up. It will set a minimum corporate tax rate of 15 per cent, and let governments tax a greater share of profits from foreign businesses in the country where they are made. Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who chaired the G7 talks on the deal over the summer, hailed the landmark plan. UK corporation tax is currently set at 19 per cent but is due to rise to 25 per cent. He said: We now have a clear path to a fairer tax system, where large global players pay their fair share wherever they do business. The agreement aims to end a four-decade-long race to the bottom by governments that have sought to attract investment and jobs by taxing multinational firms only lightly and allowing them to shop around for low tax rates. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development thinks the new rate will see countries collect around 110billion in revenues annually. SCHENECTADY - Bishop Anthony Green, a Catholic, knows a church can drape its entrance in a rainbow flag yet offer an LGBTQ visitor who steps inside nothing but cold stares and an occasional awkward "hello." Green believes he and his deacons can offer a warm welcome and unique perspective to LGBTQ worshippers and to Roman Catholics who no longer feel comfortable with the mother church. Green is openly gay and married. One of Green's pastors, Grace Ferris, is a transgender woman who is a former Southern Baptist and a military veteran. "I transitioned from being Gary, male eye candy for the women in my retirement community to someone many of them wouldn't make eye contact with," Ferris said, ruefully. But Ferris also has a daughter who is proud of her parent's bravery during the transition. And, as her neighbors got to know Ferris, she also got an invitation to her retirement community's Ladies Who Lunch Club. "Inclusion" has been a mandate for the Catholic Apostolic Church In North America for longer than the word has become common usage. Green and Ferris are aided by their deacon, Father Vic DeSantis, who left the priesthood decades ago when he realized he was in love with his childhood sweetheart, Mary. (They are still happily married). They all serve as chaplains at St. Peter's Hospital in Schenectady. Throughout the pandemic, they've been worshipping in the hospital chapel streaming services. But now their Saint John of God Parish, a congregation of CACINA, is holding in-person (and live streaming) Sunday worship services at 12:30 p.m. in the Hearth Room of Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church in Schenectady. The church is accessible to those with disabilities. "It will be a hard sell for people who've been alienated by organized religion but those are exactly the people we feel would enjoy worshipping with us," Green said. The mother church was founded in Brazil in 1945 by Bishop Carlos Duarte just a few days after Duarte was excommunicated by Pope Pius for his longtime lambasting of the Pope's silence about Nazi atrocities. (As World War II ended, Duarte was enraged by how many Nazi officials escaped war crimes trials by using Vatican-issued passports to get into Brazil). But Duarte had felt uncomfortable with the Roman Catholic church for a long time. He supported democracy and openly opposed the military coup in Brazil. He was a social justice warrior who battled poverty and racism and championed women's rights during the hopelessness of the Great Depression. He believed priests should marry and women should be ordained. And he wanted anyone who felt like an outcast from organized religion due to their politics or poverty to feel welcome. When his form of Catholicism spread to North America, CACINA reflected his values. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "CACINA offers you a welcoming and inclusive spiritual home, if you: have been denied communion because of divorce and remarriage," the national website declares, "are a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered individual and have been shunned, ignored, or ill-treated by your church, find your political beliefs in conflict with your church, are looking for a church whose reach out to and serve those less fortunate." Green's small group of Albany CACINA members partnered with Emmanuel Friedens Church two Saturdays ago to host a free monthly brunch for the community, especially those struggling financially. About 100 people came. Green says they plan to help Emmanuel with brunch every week. And his CACINA members will be helping Eastern Parkway UMC on election day, Nov. 2, greeting voters and giving them water and snacks as they come to the church to vote. Green is part of the Schenectady Clergy Against Hate which will hold a roundtable discussion at 7 p.m. Oct. 21 at the First Reformed Church in Schenectady. How to hold an inclusive conversation with civility is the topic. Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle AMSTERDAM - A 17-year-old is charged with making a terroristic threat that resulted in a police response and lockout at Amsterdam High School Thursday afternoon, Montgomery County Sheriff Jeffery T. Smith said. Law enforcement officials received a call shortly after noon reporting that there was a threat of gun violence at the school that was made over social media. Top aides to then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sought a job in the Biden administration for then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul so they could remove her from the gubernatorial ticket ahead of his planned bid for a fourth term in 2022, according to multiple people with knowledge of the matter. The Cuomo administration's overtures to Biden officials came before multiple women accused the then-governor of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct. Amid the ballooning crisis, Cuomo stepped down in August and was replaced by Hochul. Cuomo's office told Hochul early this year that they wanted her to leave the ticket so the governor could pick someone with a deeper political pull with minority communities ahead of what he expected to be a difficult campaign, people familiar with the conversations said. The governor's office was looking at several African American female candidates, according to two people familiar with the matter, who like other people in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. After Hochul said she would only consider leaving for an ambassadorship or top post in the Biden administration, top Cuomo adviser Melissa DeRosa asked the Biden team if such an appointment would be possible, people familiar with the conversations said. DeRosa spoke to Steve Ricchetti, a top Biden adviser, two of these people said. Biden officials conveyed that an ambassadorship was not possible but discussed Hochul as a potential candidate for other jobs, including as an official in a Cabinet agency, people familiar with the conversations said. Discussions went on for some time, advisers said. Hochul was considering those possibilities earlier this year, but the conversations with the White House tapered off this spring amid growing allegations about Cuomo's conduct and mounting scrutiny of his administration's reporting of nursing home deaths related to covid-19, the people said. A spokeswoman for Hochul did not respond to requests for comment. The White House declined to comment. A spokesperson for Cuomo declined to comment. The New York Post first reported that Cuomo and his team had planned to remove Hochul from the ticket ahead of a fourth-term bid. In a news conference earlier this week, Hochul acknowledged that Cuomo had tried to sideline her. "It's an open secret that we are not close," she said, when asked about reports Cuomo tried to boot her from the ticket, saying he had wanted to remove her at the end of 2014 and 2018. "And I'm still standing." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Hochul has made her break from Cuomo clear since taking over as governor late this summer, removing a number of his loyalists from the administration. While he was governor, Cuomo often went months without seeing or talking to his lieutenant governor, according to current and former state officials. She often traveled the state on her own, meeting with business officials and attending ribbon cuttings. The move to replace her last year came as the then-governor and his allies huddled to plot a fourth-term strategy and were growing anxious that Cuomo would face a serious challenge, people close to the conversation said. Some Cuomo advisers said they wanted the governor to pick someone he was personally closer with who would play a larger role in the administration. Hochul's ascension to the governor's mansion came after an investigation commissioned by New York Attorney General Letitia James found Cuomo harassed 11 women. He resigned after members of the state assembly moved to begin impeachment proceedings, but Cuomo has vigorously disputed the report - even after leaving office - and allies say he could try to re-engineer a political career. Hochul has recently consolidated local and state Democratic Party officials in her bid for reelection next year but is likely to face a crowded Democratic primary field, which could include New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams. In April of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln's coffin traveled from Washington to Illinois on a historic funeral train. It stopped in Albany along the way, offering lawmakers and citizens a chance to pay their respects. And on the anniversary of that posthumous visit, many have reported that the ghost of the funeral train still rumbles through Albany. It's one of the city's most famous supernatural tales. The story of Lincoln's connection to the regionin life and in deathgoes even deeper. Albany historian Maeve McEneny Johnson shares the spooky legend. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Also on this episode of The Eagle, why does New York still mark its highway exits sequentially rather than by mileage like the rest of the country? Reporter Abigail Rubel tackles that surprisingly complicated question. And finally, Casey Seiler discusses the week's headlines, including the race for governor in 2022, the sentencing of former NXIVM bookkeeper Kathy Russell, and the fate of "Capital Holiday Lights in the Park." ALBANY Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a package of bills into law Thursday that is expected to reduce fatal overdoses around the state through initiatives that expand access to addiction treatment and reduce harm to drug users. The package which includes a bill that will create the nations largest addiction treatment program inside prisons and jails was celebrated by lawmakers and advocates who say it will help New York step out of the dark ages when addiction was treated as a crime and moral failing rather than a brain disease. The event grew emotional at times as both Hochul and advocates shared their personal experiences with loss due to overdose. Hochul said her late nephew, Michael, died six years ago after struggling with addiction and overdosing on drugs that had been laced with fentanyl. Thats why this is personal for me, she said. I dont want other families to endure this. ... We have to send the message that we are there with you. You are still an important part of my family, our family, the New York family and that is the message that has to be shouted out across this state that there are good people with great potential and theyre just dealing with an illness right now. The bills included a piece of legislation that will require state prisons and local jails to provide incarcerated individuals with access to evidence-based addiction treatment, which includes medication that can curb cravings and lessen withdrawal pains significantly reducing a person's chance of relapse and overdose. Only 20 percent of state prisons currently provide access to the medication, despite 80 percent of their incarcerated population struggling with addiction and decades of research showing they are many times more likely than others to experience a fatal overdose, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said. Because medication assisted treatment (MAT) has been so stigmatized and treated as contraband in many facilities, few incarcerated individuals have had access and those with valid prescriptions are often cut off from the medication and forced to experience painful withdrawal symptoms. Finally, correction facilities will have to treat addiction like any other health condition and provide medication instead of punishment, said Rosenthal, who sponsored the bill and has called for its passage for years. Struggling with addiction is not a criminal act, nor is it a moral failing and providing sick people with healthcare should not be considered revolutionary. Hochul also signed into law a bill to decriminalize syringe possession ending a decades-long fight that began with HIV/AIDS activists in the 1990s who argued access to clean syringes was essential to reducing infections and disease. While New York legalized possession of non-prescription syringes in 2000, technical gaps allowed police to continue arresting individuals found with them. That discouraged drug users from utilizing syringe exchange programs. As people who have experienced torturous withdrawal inside jails and prisons, and have been arrested for syringe possession we are elated that Gov. Hochul has taken this necessary step towards ending the overdose crisis by signing these two bills," leaders from VOCAL-NY's Users Union said in a statement. VOCAL-NY, a nonprofit that advocates for an end to punitive drug policies, has fought for the bill's passage for years. Its users union represents people who use drugs and are impacted by those policies. "Our fight is far from over, the union said. "Black and Brown New Yorkers continue to face barriers to life saving medication and are criminalized for their drug use at disproportionate rates to those of white New Yorkers." Other bills signed into law Thursday include: Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Decriminalizing possession of opioid antagonists such as naloxone, which can reverse an opioid overdose. Hochul said possession of such drugs can be used against individuals as evidence of a crime, which discourages their use at a time when overdose rates are at record levels. Expanding the number of eligible crimes for which a person can be diverted from the criminal justice system and into addiction treatment instead. Creating an online directory for distributors of opioid antagonists, making them easier to find. While the event was largely celebratory, some advocates expressed concern that the package doesnt go far enough. Jasmine Budnella, director of drug policy for VOCAL-NY, said the group is still fighting for Hochuls signature on a bill to remove prior authorization on all forms of MAT for individuals covered by Medicaid. Prior authorization requires doctors to get approval from a patients insurer before it will cover certain treatments. A study from 2019 found that eliminating this time-consuming step in New York could save about 586 lives and $51.9 million in savings a year by providing timelier access to treatment and reducing hospital admissions. Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vetoed the bill last year, citing costs during a budgetary crisis. But the move sparked criticism from advocates who noted he had recently signed a bill eliminating that step for New Yorkers with private insurance. It was essentially saying that poor people dont deserve the same access to medication assisted treatment as people with commercial insurance, Budnella said. So she could sign that bill. She could end this two-tiered treatment system. The Times Union reached out to Hochul's office Thursday for a status update on the bill. Hazel Crampton-Hays, a spokesperson for the Hochul, said the governor is looking into the issue. Combatting the opioid epidemic is a top priority for Gov. Hochul, and we are working to determine how to address this issue," she said, of the prior authorization bill. Budnella said the Cuomo administration warned advocates the bill would cost the state anywhere from $10 million to $20 million. But a lack of money can no longer be used as an excuse, she argues, as New York prepares to receive more than $1.5 billion in opioid settlement funds, $600 million in revenues from its opioid surcharge tax, and tens of millions of dollars from the federal government to address the opioid crisis. COEYMANS The Capital Region on Friday cemented its place as a center for New Yorks growing offshore wind industry with the announcement of a second major assembly point for the turbine structures that will ultimately go off the coast of Long Island over the next decade. The Port of Coeymans will serve as the assembly area for construction of wind turbine platforms which will support the Sunrise Wind offshore project off the east end of Montauk Point. A consortium including the Orsted wind turbine company, Eversource utility firm, as well as Riggs Distler & Co. construction will be working at the Carver Companys port facility along the Hudson in southern Albany County. News of the project comes nine months after officials unveiled plans for a wind tower factory at an expanded Port of Albany, 10 miles to the north on the Hudson River, which will also supply wind power development off the Long Island coast. That project is expected to create more than 300 jobs while the Coeymans hub should lead to 230 jobs, including about 115 union positions in the Capital Region. The other jobs will be in Wellsville, Allegany County, where workers at Ljungstrom LLC, will make the steel components which will then be trucked to Coeymans. From there, the wind tower foundations will be shipped down the Hudson River by barge to their installation points off the coast. At $86 million, the contract to build the foundation, or platforms for the off-shore wind towers is the biggest contract so far in the states push for off-shore wind, which is part of a broader effort to develop a carbon-free energy grid by 2040. Along with solar, wind power is a major source of renewable energy. Gov. Kathy Hochul has pushed ahead on the states commitment to developing green energy. In September, she said she wanted to expand the production of solar power and she announced a long-awaited plan for not one but two power lines to bring green energy from upstate and from Canada to the New York City area. Hochuls lieutenant governor, former Harlem state Sen. Brian Benjamin, headlined Fridays announcement, which also was attended by a host of federal, state and local lawmakers. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. More is to come, said Benjamin, referring to other solicitations or bid requests for wind construction that will likely go out in 2022. The Sunrise Wind project is expected to produce 924 megawatts, or enough to power six million homes, noted David Hardy, the CEO of Orsted North America. The company is based in Denmark but Hardy said they also are looking to bring more production into the U.S., which is something state lawmakers have been calling for. Were super committed to making this a local business, said Hardy. Were building the American supply chain from the ground up. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU A plan to potentially fold the tiny Fort Edward Union Free School District into nearby South Glens Falls schools has been aborted, both school boards said. Opposition to the acquisition largely came from Fort Edward, which stood to gain from academic offerings, extracurricular programs, and athletics offered in the 3,000-student South Glens Falls district. But Fort Edward would lose its name, its small class sizes and some feared its cultural identity. The South Glens Falls board unanimously voted in favor of sending the merger plan to voters, while five of nine Fort Edward board officials voted against moving forward with a community referendum. I appreciate that our Board of Education voted to take this important topic to our residents. Any proposal this crucial should be decided by our voters. South Glens Falls Superintendent Kristine Orr said. While the district was prepared to move forward with this work, we understand that now was just not the right time to proceed. If approved by the school boards and voters in both communities, the proposed merger would have made the combined district eligible for $50 million in state incentive aid and $6 million in building aid over 15 years and would have lowered taxes for residents in Fort Edward, Moreau and Wilton. The merger was also seen as an answer to Fort Edward's fiscal challenges. Fort Edward in recent years has seen three budgets defeated and has dipped into its fund balance for five years in a row. South Glens Falls has seen consistent budget approvals for more than a decade and has grown its fund balance in recent years. The Fort Edward school board heard impassioned testimony from community members who argue their children would suffer in a larger school environment. Some took offense at the notion their school district was lacking in academic rigor. Many said the plan disrespected the village's history and cultural identity. The board's vote against holding the referendum was met with thunderous cheers and applause in the high school auditorium on Wednesday. Board members who opposed the measure said the timing wasn't right for a merger. They note that emotions are high due to the pandemic which has stoked cultural battles over public health measures in schools like mask-wearing and vaccine mandates. School board leaders condemned the personal attacks lobbed against board members, who they said were smeared as corrupt "goons" on social media and by opponents who went door to door to blast the proposal. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "Some behaviors we have witnessed don't represent the best of Fort Edward. Many of us don't appreciate the booing, yelling and personal attacks some of us have been exposed to," board member James Donahue said. "We need to come together for the best interest of our kids. Remember, it's Fort Edward against the world." Castallo and Silky Educational Consultants were hired in 2020 to produce a study laying out the benefits and potential pitfalls of annexing the districts. Both districts are facing declining enrollments, the study found. Fort Edward's K-12 enrollment dropped from 494 to 396 in the last six years. Enrollment in South Glens Falls fell from 3,136 to 2,831 in the same period. The joint district would have saved about $1.4 million in salary and benefit costs through a reduction of about 11 teachers and one superintendent. But most of the jobs would likely be cut through attrition rather than layoffs, the report states. There would also be a need to hire about seven or eight teachers in the core subject areas for the Fort Edward students. Fort Edward teachers would have seen a raise to bring their salaries up to the pay of educators in the South Glens Falls district. One of few vocal proponents of the plan, Elaine Trackey-Saltsman, was shouted down by the crowd at a recent hearing. Trackey-Saltsman ran for school board over the summer on a pro-merger platform but lost to an anti-merger candidate. "Let the people decide," she told the board at a Sept. 13 meeting. She added. "As far as dividing the village, the people who want the merger are being very quiet because of the hate that's coming from the other side." ALBANY Immigration advocates are calling on the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul to expand the Excluded Workers Fund. The fund is a first-in-the-nation program passed by the state this year that designated $2.1 billion in COVID-19 relief for undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for other federal and state benefits. But advocates, who initially lobbied for $3.5 billion in the funds, are concerned that many immigrants are being left out of the program as its funds rapidly dwindle. We have been told that the fund is nearing exhaustion and the application is closing imminently, Emma Kreyche, advocacy director at Worker Justice Center of New York, said during a virtual press conference Thursday. This is despite the fact that many people who qualify for the fund have not yet been able to even apply. Advocates did not have a specific dollar amount request for the state government Thursday. As of Thursday afternoon, 342,523 claims were submitted and 118,161 were approved and more than half of the designated $2.1 billion has been distributed, with 99.7 percent of approved claims receiving the full $15,600 in aid. A note posted to the state Department of Labor website reads: "Soon new applications will no longer be accepted. The fund is nearing exhaustion. Applications are processed in the order they are received. The Department of Labor cannot guarantee that funds will be available for any claims submitted after September 24, 2021. This is due to a lack of available funds, Kreyche said. What were here to say is this is the wrong time to cut off access to this critical program. So many people in our communities are just learning about the program or are still in the process of gathering the proofs necessary to apply. Data on the labor departments website shows a spike in submitted applications the week of Sept. 20 which was also the week the DOL told advocacy groups that they would soon no longer be able to guarantee assistance. Advocates also say that by not providing more funding to the program and closing applications soon, upstate immigrants are being excluded from the program. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The Fiscal Policy Institute found that while 1.3 percent of the states undocumented workers reside in the Capital District, theyve only received 0.3 percent of the funds roughly $2.4 million. The Mid Hudson Valley, which has 3 percent of the states undocumented workers, has only received 1 percent of the funds. By comparison, New York City, which has 73 percent of the statewide undocumented population, has received 81 percent of the funds. That speaks to the need for extending the fund as well as making sure people can have access to help applying, said David Kallick, director of FPIs immigration research initiative. Those eligible for the program have also faced other obstacles to applying for and receiving their assistance, such as providing proof of income and income loss for cash workers who dont have W-2s or pay stubs; providing proof of residency for those who do not have drivers licenses or utility bills in their names, as well as getting scammed. This program is the first time anything like this has been done in the country, Bianca Guerrero, campaign coordinator for the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition, told the Times Union last month. Gov. Hochuls administration has a real chance to change things for immigrant workers and make history here. The real test of success is is it going to be funded well enough to meet the needs? We wanna make sure New York gets this right." New York depends on energy supplies from out of state for more than three-fourths of its energy needs, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But when we asked the Cuomo administration exactly which states are providing energy, the amounts, and their source of energy, we received no response. The Cuomo administration took a victory lap when it closed Southern Tier coal plants, resulting in the loss of good-paying jobs in communities like Somerset, Buchanan and Newburgh, while coal plants just over the Pennsylvania border continued to provide New York with dirty power. The hypocrisy of New Yorks energy policy is evident. ALBANY A smattering of state officials began clearing out their offices this week as Gov. Kathy Hochul accelerated her self-imposed 45-day deadline to infuse her administration with new leadership. The moves details of the departure discussions were not revealed have or will result in the departure of commissioners and others appointed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo at the Department of Health, Division of Criminal Justice Services, Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, Office of General Services, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services and the state's ethics commission. Before her first day in office in August, Hochul had pledged to restore the public's trust in its government and to maintain a more transparent administration than Cuomo, whose politically intimidating leadership style became more tarnished due to allegations of sexual harassment and covering up pandemic-related nursing home fatalities, among other blemishes. "You've already seen major changes to the second floor," Hochul said Thursday, referring to the Capitol floor where the Executive Chamber staff predominantly work. "It is unrecognizable to people who are used to seeing the individuals there in the past. That's what I promised, the second floor, my executive team, would change. The caliber of people we've been able to attract is extraordinary." Hochul also is to see the departure of Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member Larry Schwartz, who was previously secretary to the governor for Cuomo and had been one of top confidants. Cuomo also brought Schwartz back to help lead his coronavirus task force, and Schwartz has faced scrutiny for calls he made to multiple county executives at the direction of former Cuomo Secretary Melissa DeRosa in which he discussed vaccine distribution in the same conversation he was gauging their support of the governor. "The governor is grateful for his public service," Hazel Crampton-Hays, spokeswoman for the governor, said in a statement about Schwartz's departure. Schwartz is scheduled to stay with MTA until at least January because, Hochul's office said, to give the Senate time to confirm a new appointee. A report in August by the office of Attorney General Letitia James outlined a toxic culture within the Executive Chamber under Cuomo, in addition to concluding the former governor had sexually harassed or behaved inappropriately with multiple women. Hochul had previously pledged that any members of Cuomo's administration who had been found in the report to facilitate efforts to smear the women who accused Cuomo of wrongdoing would no longer remain employed by her administration. In addition, there may be other members of boards and commissions who are resigning, some at the request of Hochul's administration, as she seeks to place her own nominees in those positions. "For the individuals who will be resigning from board positions, Gov. Hochul is grateful for their public service and for staying to ensure continuity of government until the Senate returns to Albany and can confirm replacements," Crampton-Hays said in a statement. "We are retaining a number of public servants who have demonstrated a commitment to the governor's agenda, and we look forward to working with our top tier team to deliver results for New Yorkers." Perhaps the most high-profile departure was former Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who has been implicated by some lawmakers in Cuomo's alleged cover up of nursing home deaths and a March 2020 directive that required nursing homes to accept COVID-positive residents who were discharged from hospitals. The directive was later rescinded. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. New York Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy, at a press conference on the steps of the Legislative Office Building in Albany on Thursday, called Hochul "complicit" in the actions of Cuomo's administration, a message the GOP has begun to attach to its gubernatorial campaign next year. He noted Hochul, although she has made clear she was not close with the former governor, did not speak out when a January report from the attorney general's office exposed issues with the state's handling of nursing homes and concluded the administration had given misleading data on the number of deaths. Langworthy called for a "full accounting of the nursing home scandal." A report from the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which is expected this month, could answer some questions, but Langworthy said more is necessary. "She's now the governor and has access to every document," Langworthy said. "There's nothing off limits for her and she's avoided this topic." He also called for State University of New York Chancellor James Malatras and Division of Budget Director Robert F. Mujica Jr., a former GOP Senate top aide, to leave state government service. Malatras had edited some of the nursing home data reports for Cuomo's administration but has denied manipulating information to downplay the number of fatalities. "Robert Mujica knows a lot about the budget," Langworthy said. "She probably needs his expertise, but at the same time, if you want to set a different tone, change the faces around you." Mujica will remain with the administration, according to Hochul's office. The governor does not have the authority to remove Malatras, who was appointed by the SUNY Board of Trustees. ALBANY The State University of New York has issued incendiary termination letters to nurses and other medical professionals charging them with misconduct, insubordination, dereliction of duties and incompetence after they declined to get vaccinated by the state's mandatory Sept. 27 deadline. The vaccination mandate imposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration on health care workers led to thousands of workers, including doctors and nurses, facing termination at a time when hospitals have been cutting services, closing beds and, in some instances, diverting patients to other facilities. For nurses and others employed by SUNY hospitals, the stronger wording of the two-page disciplinary letters they received contrasts with similar suspension and termination notices issued to nurses and other medical staff by private hospitals. At Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital in Binghamton, for instance, nurses and other staff were issued suspension notices last week stating: "(S)ince our records show you are not compliant with New Yorks state mandate, you will be placed on suspension," adding, "continued failure to comply will be deemed voluntary resignation of employment." The letters issued by the private Catholic hospital in the state's Southern Tier, like many other notices from private health care providers, have not charged nurses or other medical professionals with dereliction of duty, misconduct or incompetence. Labor union leaders for the nurses and other medical professionals employed by SUNY said the wording of the state's termination notices, as the vaccine mandate is facing multiple court challenges, has raised concerns about whether the nurses' licenses could be in jeopardy if the charges are sent to the state Department of Education, which licenses nurses and physicians, among other health care professions. "Regardless of what theyre doing now, these nurses showed up and put their lives at risk and put their family's lives at risk when there was no vaccine for this virus," said Wayne Spence, president of the Public Employees Federation. "On a practical side, what happens if they change their mind and get the vaccine; it wont matter because they wont have a license. This is short-sighted." The vaccination mandate has spurred a series of legal challenges to the state Department of Health's controversial vaccination mandate that compelled hospitals and other medical facilities including state-run hospitals and nursing homes to suspend or terminate health care professionals who refused to be vaccinated. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. At least two judges have also issued temporary restraining orders intended to delay the state from imposing the vaccine mandate on workers who invoke a religious exemption, but some of the employers regulated by the health department have apparently ignored those court orders and are not granting religious exemptions. There are other legal challenges focused on whether the mandate violated civil rights or labor laws because it was not negotiated. The lawsuits also have challenged the legal authority of the "emergency order" issued by outgoing state health Commissioner Howard Zucker two months after the state of emergency for the pandemic in New York had ended. It's also being imposed as the rate of infections, deaths and hospitalizations for COVID-19 are declining. Hochul has staunchly defended the mandate and two weeks ago asserted that God was responsible for helping scientists and others create the vaccines. "We are not relenting," Hochul said. "Were not backing off. ... There are not legitimate religious exemptions. I feel very confident about our chances in court. ... We have a right to defend our people against a global pandemic." Hochul had also asserted the lack of vaccinations for health care workers was more prevalent upstate than downstate. "We have a different dynamic in some parts of upstate," she had said. "Its a different philosophy is all I will say." Melissa Winans (right) addresses council members at the Titusville City Council meeting Tuesday night. Winans wanted to address council over COVID-19 concerns she has with the Citys new rental licensing program. October 08, 2021 You can't understate the impact of technology on the modern world. The office from 60 years ago doesn't even look the same as before thanks to how far technology has brought us in the last half-century. What has helped spur forward this interest in technology has been the simplification of it. Nowadays, business owners can have little background in tech and still understand the software, making to start seeing a return on it. Increasing Employee Productivity Through the use of technology, business owners can improve their employee productivity and free up their time for the most essential tasks. Employees no longer get bogged down in simple but demanding tasks because technology streamlines much of them. This lowers the costs in two ways. First, it reduces the amount of human labor required for those things, and second, businesses can avoid paying for the labor of those things. Because of technology, businesses can now easily create measurable goals for employees and see how they fulfill them. This tracking ensures that businesses can reach their goals. In some cases, business owners choose to expand their company through technology rather than with employees. In particular, they do this if they learn how the technology will give a better output. Expand Business Rapidly Technology hands you the ability to expand your business rapidly because you can reach people in the online environment, which gives you a global outreach. Retail websites have become one of the most common ways that people will sell their products. They can sell them to several economic markets to maximize their profits. The technology has made it so that anyone can compete with the biggest brands in the business. You might buy internet advertising to reach a global audience. Let's say that you don't have the money for getting started with great technology. You could sell your life insurance policy through life settlement companies to fund your business. This action makes more sense than letting your policy lapse where you would earn nothing from the policy. Easier to Collaborate and Outsource Business technology hands you the ability to outsource much easier than in the past. You can lower your costs while completing the required functions for a lower cost. To give an example, technology puts these things in front of us. For example, if we wanted a logo for our company, we could hire someone to do it for us, and we see a greater variety of choices because of technology than ever before. Improved Communication The communication process since became more advanced has gotten much better. You can improve your communication processes where you no longer need to sit near a phone to speak with clients. Because of that, it frees up the employees who can perform other tasks in the meantime. Considering the fact that bad customer communication is a cancer to most operations, using tech to mitigate that risk is essential. Communication through text, email and apps has simplified the process and given us more methods to work with than in the past. Through technology, intra-office communication has been greatly enhanced. You can update your internal documents. [October 08, 2021] Cygnus Education CEO, Marcelo Parravicini to Speak at LeadsCon 2021 in Las Vegas PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cygnus Education is pleased to announce that Marcelo Parravicini, CEO & Principal, will be speaking at the annual LeadsCon event held in Las Vegas during a panel discussion titled Messaging Strategy: Driving Enrollment Growth While Managing Prospective Student Expectations. Presenting alongside Parravicini is Brad Reifschneider, Executive Director of Digital Marketing, Grand Canyon University, Kenneth Hartman, Senior Partner, Hartman and Associates, LLC and Susan Bogle, Vice President Product Marketing & University Partnerships, Southern New Hampshire University. The interactive presentation will take place on Thursday, October 21, 2021 at 3:45 p.m. PDT. "I'm excited to join tese thought-leaders for a discussion regarding the many challenges higher education marketing and enrollment management professional face," said Marcelo Parravicini. "Having been on both sides of the table in my career the agency and institution side I'm eager to offer insight for higher education marketing teams navigating the hyper-competitive nature of online student recruitment." In addition, Cygnus Education is exhibiting at LeadsCon and encourages attendees to visit their booth (#434) to demonstrate their newest technology innovation, VEGA, and interact with the Cygnus team. VEGA is a proprietary technology that Cygnus offers to its higher education partners to integrate data from marketing efforts, set up performance-based process automation, and help make faster marketing decisions based on real-time intelligence. The Cygnus Education team will be present at their LeadsCon booth on Thursday, October 21 and Friday, October 22, 2021. About Cygnus Education: Cygnus Education, ranked #596 on the Inc. 5000 list, is one of the fastest growing technology, performance marketing and enrollment management solutions providers dedicated to the higher education vertical. Cygnus is a leader in providing fully transparent, analytics-based strategies that achieve challenging marketing objectives, driving scalable and sustainable enrollment growth. Learn more at CygnusEducation.com. Media Contact: Kris Saim EVP, Education Partnerships Cygnus Education 816-500-6725 ksaim@cygnuseducation.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cygnus-education-ceo-marcelo-parravicini-to-speak-at-leadscon-2021-in-las-vegas-301396290.html SOURCE Cygnus Education [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Delimobil Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering Delimobil Holding S.A. ("Delimobil"), a pioneer and a leading shared mobility provider in Russia, one of the world's largest car sharing markets, announced today that it has publicly filed a Form F-1 Registration Statement under the Securities Act of 1933 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC (News - Alert) ") relating to a proposed initial public offering (the "IPO") of its American Depositary Shares representing ordinary shares of Delimobil (the "ADSs"). The number of ADSs to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. Delimobil intends to list its ADSs on The New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "DMOB". BofA Securities Inc, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and VTB Capital plc will act as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering. Renaissance Securities (Cyprus) Limited, Sberbank CIB (UK) Limited and Banco Santander, S.A. will act as joint bookrunners for the proposed offering. A registration statement relating to the proposed IPO has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. ADSs may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer o sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy ADSs, nor shall there be any sale of ADSs in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. The proposed offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the preliminary prospectus, relating to and describing the terms of the proposed offering may be obtained from any of the following sources: - 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. - Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by telephone at: 1-800-831-9146. - VTB Capital plc, 14 Cornhill, London, EC3V 3ND, United Kingdom Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Delimobil undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this news release or to reflect actual outcomes, unless required by law. About Delimobil Founded in Moscow by Italian entrepreneur Mr. Vincenzo Trani in 2015, Delimobil is a pioneer of the Russian car sharing market. Delimobil operates its fleet of over 18,000 vehicles and provides mobility services to approximately 7.1 million registered users in 11 cities across Russia. Delimobil, a literal translation of "car sharing" in Russian, has become a top-of-mind mobility provider in Russia that strives to deliver the best service to its customers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005555/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Firstsource Partners With UiPath to Strengthen Its Impact Sourcing Initiative Firstsource Solutions Limited (NSE: FSL, BSE: 532809), a global business process solutions provider and an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, announced that it has extended its partnership with UiPath, a leading enterprise automation software company, to advance its impact sourcing mission. This strategic partnership, which aims to provide career opportunities to the economically disadvantaged by training them in the laest digital technologies and developing an automation mindset, was also highlighted by Firstsource's Chief Digital Officer Sundara Sukavanam at UiPath marquee customer and partner event, Forward IV, the world's most immersive gathering of automation experts. As a purpose-led business, Firstsource is committed to providing high skilled, high paying opportunities to people with historically limited access from financial, geographic, or other constraints. Firstsource and UiPath will jointly provide training on fast growing automation technologies and cultivate a digital mindset, via UiPath's industry-leading automation platform and academy. Graduates from the program will be placed in real world engagements to create automation solutions for customers across industries. Commenting on the occasion, Firstsource's Chief Digital Officer Sundara Sukavanam said, "As a purpose-driven company, the partnership strongly aligns with our commitment to being there for people in the moments that matter. We believe that the synergies between the two companies will create a positive impact on communities with limited opportunities by creating a talent pool that is geared to succeed in a digital-first world." "At UiPath, we have always believed that empowering the current and future workforce with automation is the key to the growth of an individual as well as businesses. Through this partnership, our goal is to provide people with opportunities for accreditation in next-gen technologies," said Bala Arumugam, Senior Vice President, Global Services, UiPath. Impact Sourcing, the practice of intentionally employing people who traditionally have limited opportunity for employment, has been shown to provide many business and social benefits, including access to new talent sources, greater levels of employee engagement, and economic stability and growth for individuals and the communities in which they live. About Firstsource Solutions: Firstsource Solutions Limited, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, is a leading provider of transformational solutions and services spanning the customer lifecycle - across Healthcare, Banking and Financial Services, Communications, Media and Technology, and other industries. Our 'Digital First, Digital Now' approach helps organizations reinvent operations and reimagine business models, enabling them to deliver moments that matter and build competitive advantage. With an established presence in the US, the UK, India, and the Philippines, we act as a trusted growth partner for over 100 leading global brands, including several Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies. www.firstsource.com About UiPath UiPath has a vision to deliver the Fully Automated Enterprise, one where companies use automation to unlock their greatest potential. UiPath offers an end-to-end platform for automation, combining the leading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities that enable every organization to rapidly scale digital business operations. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005254/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] ITC Systems Announces COVID-19 "Automated Screening Kiosk" - ASK TORONTO, Oct. 8, 2021 /CNW/ - ITC Systems, a premier provider of integrated transaction control, recently launched ASK, an Automated Screening Kiosk that provides fast, efficient COVID vaccination verification. In light of today's announcement by the Ontario Government to lift venue capacity limits, ITC is pleased to offer its solution for instantaneous vaccine verification which is now being used by one of Canada's largest post-secondary intuitions. Whether a restaurant or large capacity venue, this solution means patrons are processed effectively and accurately saving time for all. Expanding on the capabilities of ITC's ASK, the company has developed a new service that quickly and securely verifies Ontario residents' vaccination status against Government of Ontario records. Verification of both vaccinations can be retrieved in under 10 seconds using government issued ID. Health authorities can also access accurate contact tracing information from any location using ASK, eliminating the need for businesses to manually collect the data. "The enhanced functionality in ASK now allowsall businesses including restaurants, gyms, event venues, public buildings, hospitals, transit, and long-term care facilities, reliable verification of double vaccination, and boosters when required", said Andrew White, co-owner at ITC. "ASK provides safety assurances required for businesses and patrons, as we eagerly transition towards normalcy". Last week the company announced that it had deployed 25 ASK Stations for the start of the semester at Seneca in Toronto to ease the return to campus for students and employees who must show proof of vaccination. Seneca took a lead role becoming the first institution in Canada with a vaccination policy designed to protect their community. With 35,000 full-time students, safety for students and employees is paramount. "With a deep understanding of transaction management, ITC is able to react to customer requirements and rapidly bring new functionality to market" said Andrew White, "ASK clearly fills the need for fast, efficient, electronic status verification for COVID safe programs, but will also serve as a modern approach to status verification well into the future. Based on our extensive experience integrating transactions and third-party data, ASK can easily integrate with 3rd party data sources including Provincial and State health authorities." About ITC Systems Founded in 1989, ITC Systems is a multi-national corporation with offices in Toronto and St. Louis focused on providing simple, secure, and dependable integrated transaction control for colleges, universities, public libraries, and other institutions and corporations across North American and beyond. Driven by a commitment to innovation, addressing modern day needs and demands, ITC is the industry's dominant developer of hardware and software for cloud based cashless OneCard commerce solutions, print management, Point of Sale (POS), access control, and self-serve kiosks. Their comprehensive product line is designed, developed, and manufactured in North America, and brought to the global market through a large direct-to-customer and dealer network. ITC's OneCard commerce solution is complemented by an extensive offering of in-house and third-party integrations and applications including credential management, mobile credentials, POS, copy and print control, food service outlets, vending, access control, laundry, and parking. To learn more about ITC Systems, please visit www.itcsystems.com. SOURCE ITC Systems [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Lebanon - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses Sydney, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of BuddeComm report outlines the latest developments and key trends in the telecoms markets. - https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Lebanon-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?utm_source=GNW This has meant that internet services to areas of the country are cut on a regular basis, frustrating all those who depend on stable connectivity, and stalling business growth. Adding to the difficulties are the combined stresses of the pandemic and the political crisis. A caretaker cabinet in September 2021 made way for a new government though there is little confidence on the ground that sectarian-based political horse-trading will give way to responsible governing to improve the lot of the stressed populace. BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the pandemic continus to have a significant impact on production and supply chains all around the world. During this time, the telecoms sector to various degrees is likely to experience a downturn in mobile device and ICT equipment production, while it may also be difficult for network operators to source necessary equipment or manage workflows when maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. Overall progress towards 5G may also be postponed or slowed down in some countries. On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services and devices is likely to be impacted by large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes. In contrast, there may be rising demand for reliable high-speed services from households, education institutions and healthcare services including tele-health. It is largely unknown what the long-term impacts will be as the crisis develops. Key Developments: Tawasul Telecom adds a PoP in Lebanon as part of a wider program to extend its regional network infrastructure; Limited 5G services are launched; Ministry of Telecommunications takes over management of the MNOs Alfa and Touch Lebanon; Telecoms progress in Lebanon steered by the governments 2020 Telecom Vision project; Report update includes Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, recent market developments. Companies covered in this report include: Ogero Telecom, Touch, Zain, Alfa Telecom, Orascom Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Lebanon-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses/?utm_source=GNW Nicolas Bombourg: nbombourg@budde.com.au Europe office: +44 207 097 1241 Oceania Office: +61 280 767 665 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 07, 2021] Lu International Highly Commended in 'Overall Asia WealthTech Provider' Category at The WealthTechAsia Awards 2021 SINGAPORE, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lu International (Singapore) Financial Asset Exchange (PTE) Ltd. ('Lu International'), a subsidiary of China's leading technology-empowered personal financial services platform Lufax Holding (NYSE: LU), has won the honor of being named 'Highly Commended' in the 'Overall Asia WealthTech Provider' category at The WealthTechAsia Awards 2021, which recognized the technology business specializing in wealth management in the Asia market. Lu International was established in Singapore in 2017 as Lufax Holding's first international arm. Since then, it has progressively extended its operations and market reach in Asia. Being based in Singapore, a gateway to Southeast Asia, as well as being one of Singapore's first wealth management platforms providing end-to-end online account opening services and investment operations, Lu International is well positioned to be the fintech enabler of choice for traditional financial institutions in the region that endeavor to provide convenient, efficient, intelligent and personalized digital financial services to investors. Lu International continues to strengthen its network via strategic partnerships with local financial institutions across Southeast Asia leveraging its cutting-edge technology and industry know-how to capitalize on wealth management digitization and growth opportunities for financial services. Commenting on the firm's triumph, Joanna Tang, CEO of Lu International, said: "We are honored to be awarded by WealthTechAsia as a highly commnded 'Overall Asia WealthTech Provider'. We are endeavored to provide the holistic solution to the challenge of wealth management and work with our partners to accelerate the pace of digital transformation within the financial institution industry in Asia Pacific." ClearView Financial Media's CEO, and Publisher of WealthBriefing, Stephen Harris, was first to extend his congratulations to all the winners. He said: "The organizations and individuals who triumphed in these awards are all worthy winners, and I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to the winners and to those who have put so much work into each winning submission. "These awards were independently and expertly judged solely on the basis of entrants' submissions and their response to a number of specific questions, which were answered by focusing on the client experience rather than purely quantitative performance metrics. That is a unique, and I believe, compelling feature. These awards recognise the very best operators in Asia wealth management, with 'independence', 'integrity' and 'genuine insight' the watchwords of the judging process - such that the awards truly reflect excellence in Asia wealth management." About Lufax Holding Ltd Lufax Holding Ltd is a leading technology-empowered personal financial services platform in China. Lufax Holding Ltd primarily utilizes its customer-centric product offerings and offline-to-online channels to provide retail credit facilitation services to small business owners and salaried workers in China as well as tailor-made wealth management solutions to China's rapidly growing middle class. The Company has implemented a unique, capital-light, hub-and-spoke business model combining purpose-built technology applications, extensive data, and financial services expertise to effectively facilitate the right products to the right customers. For more information, please visit www.lufaxholding.com. About Lu International Lu International (Singapore) Financial Asset Exchange Pte. Ltd.("LUI") (Co. Reg. No. 201702479G) holds a capital markets services license issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the Securities and Futures Act (Cap. 289 of Singapore) ("SFA") in respect of its business in the SFA regulated activities of dealing in securities, fund management and providing custodial services for securities, to eligible customers. Lu Global is an online mobile wealth management and investment platform operated by LUI and headquartered in Singapore. It offers 24/7 online access to a wide range of high-quality investments and the opportunity to invest in small amounts easily and with low commitment periods to provide maximum flexibility while benefitting from attractive returns. LUI is a subsidiary of Lufax Holding ("Lufax"), a leading technology-empowered personal financial services platform in China. For more information, please visit www.lu-global.com. About ClearView Financial Media Ltd ("ClearView") ClearView Financial Media was founded by Chief Executive, Stephen Harris in 2004, to provide high quality 'need to know' information for the discerning private client community. London-based, but with a truly global focus, ClearView publishes the WealthBriefing group of newswires, along with research reports and newsletters, while also running a pan-global thought-leadership events and awards programme. SOURCE LU International (Singapore) Financial asset exchange pte. ltd [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 07, 2021] Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology NOVI, Mich., Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Brandmotion, LLC today announced a collaboration with DENSO Products and Services Americas, Inc. based in Long Beach, California to offer a one stop service to cities seeking to equip vehicles with advanced Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology. DENSO is a leading global mobility supplier and Brandmotion is the recognized leader in vehicle integration for V2X deployments. By combining forces, the two companies are offering cities and agencies an easy path to vehicle integration for V2X deployment testing. V2X technology has been proposed by the USDOT as the best way to address the chronic death toll on America's roadways, with nearly 37,000 lives lost and a record 6,721 pedestrians killed at intersections in 2020. Leading city managers and state transportation agencies are looking to deploy V2X technology regionally to reduce vehicle crashes and fatalities and improve pedestrian safety. Up until now, many cities seeking to deploy the life-saving V2X technology have had to assemble the elements of a large vehicle deployment manually, developing specifications and coordinating multiple vendors to ensure a successful outcome and meaningful results. The DENSO-Brandmotion partnership simplifies the process of equipping vehicles for long term testing. Brandmotion has served the Tampa Connected Vehicle (CV) Pilot for 5 years and provided responsive professional grade automotive integration and service capability. DENSO is the On Board Unit (OBU) supplier to OEMs for Tampa's CV Pilot Phase 4, bringing true "Tier 1" development capabilities to the project. Bob Frey, Program Manager for the Tampa CV Pilot said "Having worked with both companies to complete vehicle integration services for V2X deployments, our experience is that they bring complete high-quality solutions to our deployments and have excelled at helping us deploy transportation safety applications from concept to operating on the "street" on schedule. To me, that is the most important aspect of these safety projects getting applications "out in the street" so the public benefits". The partnership between DENSO and Brandmotion will provide transportation agencies with the following vehicle-related deployment services: DENSO On Board Unit (OBU) platform (Hercules) has the ability to run and process applications that support both Cellular V2X (C-V2X) communications and Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) in an automotive environment (while DSRC is still permitted by the United State Federal Communication Commission (FCC)). Standard set of applications, including Blindspot/Lane Change Warning, Electronic Emergency Brake Light, Forward Crash Warning, Intersection Movement Assist, Red Light Violation Warning, and Traffic Signal Priority Custom application development for specific agency application goals Thorough vehicle-specific installation planning, vehicle system design and validation From small to large-scale installation and tech support "DENSO has a long history of supplying high quality V2X hardware and software to meet customer requirements. DENSO was the first company to provide DSRC components for the Japanese market. We have supplied high quality V2X hardware and software to North American customers to support technology validation for over a decade. Our latest generation North American V2X platform (Hercules) builds on our past experience, and we are pleased to focus on increased deployments in partnership with Brandmotion", said Sue Graham, DENSO Director, Advanced Engineering Group. "We are committed to supporting USDOT's national focus on achieving roadside infrastructure and equipped vehicles to advance the safety benefit without delay and to provide the state agencies with "real-time" road data. Brandmotion has been honored to serve as the vehicle integrator of choice to national V2X deployments for over 6 years, and to have had the opportunity to install more than 3,000 OBUs through 16 state deployments nationwide. As interest in V2X technology increases, we are pleased to partner with DENSO to offer the highest quality on board equipment available" says Jeff Varick, Founder of Brandmotion. About Brandmotion Since 2005, Brandmotion has been working continuously to reduce the number of lives lost on our roads due to traffic accidents. Specializing in the design, integration, and distribution of emerging automotive safety technology, Brandmotion is a recognized leader among aftermarket installers of mobile electronics. The company was awarded 2020 SEMA Best New Performance Product Finalist Award, 2018 SEMA Best of Show Award, 2018 SEMA Best New Van/Pickup/Sport Utility Product Award, 2016 SEMA PRO Manufacturer of the Year honors at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Learn more at www.brandmotion.com and follow us on LinkedIn. Press Contact: Lucas Frank 734-619-1250 www.brandmotion.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brandmotion-and-denso-announce-partnership-for-one-stop-vehicle-integration-of-advanced-connectivity-technology-301395838.html SOURCE Brandmotion [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 07, 2021] Banks in Asia Are Going Green with Thales Established Asian banks including DBS Taiwan, UOB in Singapore and leading international bank Standard Chartered use Thales' sustainable banking solutions to help them reduce their carbon footprints. and leading international bank Standard Chartered use Thales' sustainable banking solutions to help them reduce their carbon footprints. Thales provides the industry's most complete sustainable offer, including eco-friendly bank cards and carbon offset programmes. By combining sustainability with the latest technology, Thales is giving confidence to the financial sector and consumers to bank and transact safely, while reducing their impact on the environment. SINGAPORE, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- From the Green Finance Industry Taskforce convened by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to the Green Finance Action Plan 2.0 in Taiwan, governments and regulatory authorities worldwide are addressing concerns over the impact of the sector on the environment and economy. As a result, banks throughout Asia are taking steps to turn their portfolios green and innovate to limit their environmental impact. To support our banking customers in their efforts, Thales brings the industry's most complete portfolio of sustainable banking products and solutions to the table. From using alternative, bio-sourced materials, to helping banks compensate for the carbon footprint of their cards in a comprehensive manner, Thales is partnering with leading banks like DBS, UOB and Standard Chartered to provide greener solutions to their customers. Launching Asia's First Bio-sourced Card for DBS Bank Taiwan "Responsible Banking", "Responsible Business Practices" and 'Creating Social Impact" are the three main axes of sustainable development for DBS Group. In Taiwan, DBS took this a step further in July 2020, when DBS Bank Taiwan issued Asia's first bio-sourced credit card, the DBS Eco Card in their aim to promote customer awareness and use of environmentally-friendly banking solutions. The launch of this card, together with DBS' other sustainable practices, resulted in DBS Bank Taiwan being awarded the "2020 Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Award" from the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy, in recognition of their commitment to the environment. Supporting UOB in its goal to make sustainable financial products accessible to all As one of Asia's largest banks, UOB is committed to forging a sustainable future for its regional customers and communities. As part of its commitment, UOB's environmental, social and governance (ESG) approach is embedded across its suite of financial solutions and services to make it simpler for customers to adopt a greener lifestyle. In addition to offering green financing solutions for electric vehicles and eco-friendly homes as well as sustainable investment solutions, the Bank launched this year Singapore's first bio-sourced credit card for its sustainability-oriented Generation Z customers. The UOB EVOL Card is the Bank's first card o use Polylactic Acid (PLA) and bio-sourced, corn-based materials which are safe for incineration. Compared with traditional plastic credit cards which are typically made up of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), the UOB EVOL Card cuts down on plastic use by 82 per cent and reduces UOB's carbon footprint by 10 grams per card. UOB also plans to replace the rest of its plastic debit and credit cards with environmentally-friendly options in the future. Helping Standard Chartered offset the carbon footprint of their cards To be the world's most sustainable and responsible bank, Standard Chartered Bank is committed to sustainable social and environmental development through its business, operations and communities. For its consumer business, Standard Chartered has taken the bold move to reduce its carbon footprint, starting with the launch of its first CarbonNeutral credit card in Malaysia in November 2020. From November this year, Standard Chartered is rolling out the programme on a global basis, targeting carbon neutrality for its credit and debit card issuance. Assuming the average bank card has a carbon footprint of about 150 CO2eq (carbon dioxide equivalent) or approximately five plastic bags, Standard Chartered's annual issuance of 3 million cards translates to 15 million plastic bags. As part of the Thales carbon offsets programme, Thales works with leading consultancies, auditors and non-governmental organisations to help Standard Chartered measure the emissions from its cards and offset their carbon footprint through a variety of carbon mitigation programmes worldwide. With the CarbonNeutral card, Standard Chartered is contributing to credible and sustainable carbon reduction programmes from the Acre Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil, to the Rimba Raya Biodiversity reserve in Indonesia, while reinforcing commitment to its customers in the area of climate change. Thales' sustainable banking offer is built around the pillar of various environmentally-friendly cards and the carbon offset programme. In addition to bio-sourced PLA cards, the Thales Reclaimed Ocean Plastic card is made using 70% discarded plastic waste cleared from coastal areas, with one card containing the equivalent of one reclaimed plastic PET bottle. The Thales Recycled PVC card is made using post-manufacturing plastic waste from different industries, such as the packaging and printing sectors, containing 85% less plastic than first-use PVC. By combining the green offer with Thales' technology in contactless banking solutions and cybersecurity, Thales offers the financial industry the widest portfolio of products and solutions to help their customers transact safely and deliver on their environmental commitments. "As the global financial sector looks for ways to bounce back post-pandemic, there is greater emphasis on building back better and greener. As a pioneer in the industry, we've seen that our customers deeply value a holistic and comprehensive portfolio of sustainable banking products to make a positive contribution to society. In addition, contactless technology for transactions, mobility and authentication are part of our daily lives. Thales' broad portfolio of solutions are helping the financial sector, not just in how they operate efficiently but also in how they're perceived by their customers and the values that their company stands for." Michael Au, Senior Vice President, Thales Banking and Payment Solutions, Asia. About Thales Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies, investing in digital and "deep tech" innovations connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum computing to build a confident future crucial for the development of our societies. The Group provides its customers businesses, organisations and governments in the defense, aeronautics, space, transport, and digital identity and security domains with solutions, services and products that help them fulfil their critical role, consideration for the individual being the driving force behind all decisions. Thales has 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2020 the Group generated sales of 17 billion. To learn more about Thales' carbon offset programme, click here To learn about Thales' eco-friendly banking card options, click here Press contact Thales, Media Relations Digital Identity and Security Vanessa Viala +33 (0)6 07 34 00 34 vanessa.viala@thalesgroup.com Thales Communications, Asia Serene Koh +65 6594 6898 serene.koh@asia.thalesgroup.com Please visit Thales Group Digital Identity & Security Download HD photos SOURCE Thales [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 07, 2021] Taipei City Government Goes Paperless and Eco-friendly with E-receipt Platform Powered by TPIsoftware TAIPEI, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With the growth of environmental awareness, a sustainable paperless society has been promoted in Taiwan in recent years. As a pioneer, the Taipei City Government has teamed up with TPIsoftware to build the "Taipei City Government E-receipt Cloud Platform" (https://e-receipts.gov.taipei./TPGovEReceipt/index) across its agencies. From now on, for public services provided by the Taipei City Government bureaus and agencies, citizens can ask for electronic receipts besides traditional paper receipts, which not only reduces the risk of losing paper records and the time it takes to retrieve paper documents, but also serves as an approach against deforestation to save millions of paper sheets every year. Toward an era of Smart Government with API connection and integration When planning the platform, TPIsoftware made convenient public services the top priority, and consider the differet business purposes and scenarios of each government entity, aiming to build a cross-unit platform integrating existing systems across the bureaus and agencies. TPIsoftware has digitized the admin process and services, allowing access to 24/7 public e-services anytime, anywhere for citizens. For example, through TPIsoftware's API interface, receipts issued are seamlessly imported into the e-receipt system backend, which simplifies the administration operations and improves efficiency. Citizens are provided with an eco-friendly option; with real-time data synchronization, they can quickly check and download the consolidated e-receipts from the platform. For the Taipei City Government, it also reduces paper usage and contributes to environmental protection. An initiation to motivate environmental actions Michael Chang, the director of the Enterprise Digital Innovation Division at TPIsoftware, said: "We are honored to jointly create this e-receipt platform with the Taipei City Government. Our exclusive offline version further enables the receipt issuing without internet access, fulfilling the needs of administrative staff and boosting government operational efficiency." Ben Yao, CEO of TPIsoftware, said: "TPIsoftware has always positioned itself as a "digital practitioner" and endeavors to make people's lives better with digital technology. We have exhibited our vision through this collaboration with the Taipei City Government. Although it is just the beginning, we hope to inspire more people to engage in protecting the environment, and facilitate this mindset in both public and private sectors." About TPIsoftware TPIsoftware is a Taiwanese software provider with focus in API management, AI chatbots, FinTech and more, delivering services and solutions domestically and overseas. SOURCE TPIsoftware [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 07, 2021] Digital Financial Service Award 2021 Winners Revealed, TPIsoftware Awarded "Recommended Fintech Innovator Award" TAIPEI, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With years of commitment in the financial industry, TPIsoftware has been held in high regard by several prominent clients for our extensive hands-on experiences in FinTech and professional services. Referred by Cathay Securities Investment Trust (Cathay SITE), TPIsoftware is honored to receive the "Recommended Fintech Innovator Award" of 2021 Digital Financial Service Award. As a digital practitioner, we will continue to devote ourselves to Taiwan's financial technology. The 2021 Digital Financial Service Award, sponsored by Commercial Times in partnership with Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable, is one of the largest digital FinTech events in Taiwan, with more than 200 submissions across hundreds of award categories in the banking, insurance, securities industries, etc. The award ceremony took place on October 7th, 2021. Consumer behavior is undergoing a dramatic change due to the pandemic, which has accelerated enterprises' demand for "digital transformation", especially in the financial industry. FinTech has been growing and many financial services are within reach such as mobile payment, online banking, online insurance application, online securities trading and more. "TPIsoftware has been dedicated to driving digital transformation in the finacial industry for 16 years, and built solutions tailored to various business needs for our customers. We always strive to solve customers' pain points in compliance with regulations and information security. Our success lies in our commitment in building rapport and a long-term relationship with our customers," said Yilan Yeh, the vice president at TPIsoftware, "We truly appreciate this affirmation and the referral from Cathay SITE, and we will continue to innovate and invest in the technologies." Ben Yao, CEO of TPIsoftware, said: "We are honored to receive this 'Recommended Fintech Innovator Award' of 2021 Digital Financial Service Award. We always take pride in our Thinkers' hard work and diligent attitude. Our core products and solutions built with our own R&D, such as the API management platform digiRunner and the conversational AI customer service chatbot SysTalk.Chat, all allow us to stay ahead of the competition. We have been upholding the MIT spirit and expanding overseas market, and this award definitely demonstrates TPIsoftware's achievements and the determination to move towards the world stage." About TPIsoftware Founded in 2005, TPIsoftware is a software provider based in Taiwan delivering one-stop solutions and system implementation services to enterprises in various industries. TPIsoftware specializes in AI chatbots, FinTech, digital banking, mobile insurance, telecom application, big data and other system solutions. In addition to its own product lines, TPIsoftware provides customized finance, life insurance, communications, and technology solutions domestically and overseas. Contact: TPIsoftware Peggy Tsai +886-2-2658-0508 #1606 peggy.tsai@tpisoftware.com Subscribe to Newsletter | Website | Facebook | LinkedIn SOURCE TPIsoftware [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 07, 2021] Announcing InGoodTaste: An Independent Creative Consultancy Focused On Grey Space Thinking and Positive Cultural Change SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With an extreme independence and a focus on solving problems using Grey Space Thinking, InGoodTaste has been launched by Mark Riedy, founder of TRUE Communications and digital marketing agency A Known Quantity, along with a group of managing partners. The collective team brings over 75 years of creativity and innovative problem solving to their clients. Effective today, TRUE Communications and A Known Quantity become a part of InGoodTaste. All of the communications and digital marketing services that both companies provided will now be offered as part of InGoodTaste's multi-disciplinary strategy and marketing services. The combined agency features over 20 team members based largely in the San Francisco Bay Area; Boulder, Colorado and Park City, Utah. "For the past 16 years at TRUE Communications and A Known Quantity we have solved an incredible range of problems in partnership with leading brands," says Mark Riedy, Co-Founder and COO of InGoodTaste. "But we always wanted to have an offering that was highly strategic and led with strong creative thinking. InGoodTaste bridges that gap and allows us to work with our partners to solve all of their most important business strategy and marketing challenges." "The fusion of TRUE's communications expertise and the creative firepower of my partners at InGoodTaste, makes for an unprecedented opportunity to bring new, business-transforming solutios to clients that will rival anything out there," Riedy explained. "My partners at InGoodTaste have spent their careers charting the future and fundamentally believe that companies will not stay in business, let alone thrive, without radical change. What really drives InGoodTaste is creating an organization that will help brands remain well ahead of the rate of change." In order to predict what's ahead, the team at InGoodTaste lives in the future. To do this they deploy Grey Space Thinking as their guiding mindset--a way of being and thinking--rather than a specific tool or a method. Grey Space Thinking is the opposite of binary, black-and-white concepting; it's about accepting that we live in a complex, uncertain world and the opportunity is found in the places between extremes. The team at InGoodTaste believe that innovative solutions to the problems that exist is best done in that Grey Space. Problems that InGoodTaste likes to solve include business strategy, consumer research, brand positioning, creative potential, and social impact. The communications strategy and execution that TRUE has offered long-held clients will continue as a central focus of the business under InGoodTaste. Current clients of InGoodTaste include Spot Insurance, Maxpro Fitness, Superpedestrian, asensei, Rapha, Goldwin, Canyon, Giro Sport Design, Zwift, Wahoo, ROKA, Kuat, and more. Contact information: Greg Fisher greg@igtstudio.com; 1.707.495.3756 About InGoodTaste InGoodTaste is a creative consultancy focused on driving positive change in the world through Grey Space Thinking. We collaborate with our partners to solve their most essential challenges by dreaming up innovative solutions in the Grey Space. We solve problems for our partners, ranging from business strategy, consumer research, brand positioning, creative potential, social impact, and strategic communication. We are always seeking creators of change. If you're a creative, a storyteller, a project manager, a strategist, an experimenter, or a dreamer, send us your folio, resume or website career@igtstudo.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/announcing-ingoodtaste-an-independent-creative-consultancy-focused-on-grey-space-thinking-and-positive-cultural-change-301395890.html SOURCE InGoodTaste [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Champions of sustainability honoured at much-anticipated 'ESG India Leadership Awards' by ESGRisk.ai Infosys leads India.inc in overall ESG Performance Hindustan Zinc and Godrej Consumers lead the initiatives in Environment and Governance respectively Axis bank leads in Social category and transparency in disclosures & reporting standards MUMBAI, India, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ESGRisk.ai, India's first ESG rating agency and an Acuite Group company, has felicitated companies that have achieved excellence in the sustainability space. The much awaited 'ESG India Leadership Awards' ceremony, was held virtually today after months of meticulous screening processes to select the winners from India's top 500 listed companies across 55 industries. The ESG winners presented in 21 categories were announced after rigorous research that included collecting and analysing disclosures, stock exchange releases, annual reports, news and controversies. Mr. Sankar Chakraborti, Chairman, ESGRisk.ai and Group CEO, Acuite, said, "These ESG champions deserve a standing ovation. Not too long ago, ESG was an idea that was expected to take shape sometime in the not-so-near future. And now, ESG is not only here with us, it has reached a tipping point, courtesy the enterprise and vigour shown by these companies to make sustainability a way of businesses. The ESG India Leadership Awards gave us a chance to highlight their uplifting stories and inspire corporates to integrate sustainability consciously and unconditionally into the core of their businesses." An award committee was constituted to independently evaluate the effectiveness of the methodology and whether the data and results are consistent. The awardees did not have to nominate themselves or pay a fee to be considered for the awards. What made the event an overwhelming success was the number of registrations, which stood at 2000. Not to forget the general public interest and the curiosity the awards ceremony created. Of the 2000 registrations, 200-plus were directors from different industries and across wide-ranging sectors. In addition, 50 sustainability and risk officers, 300-plus banking professionals including RBI, World Bank and over 25 international agencies participated to make, what should be, a landmark event in India's ESG history. Thanks to the ESG-driven organisations that made it a momentous occasion. Infosys Limited, not only won the Overall ESG Leadership award, it was also crowned winner in Leadership in Equal Opportunities category. The ceremony acknowledged Infosys Limited's excellent practices in diversity and inclusion based on age, gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, qualification, nationality and ethnicity of employees. Hindustan Zinc Limited was declared Environment leader for initiatives in reducing carbon footprint, managing waste effectively, minimising air polluton and managing environmental impact. In GHG Emissions Reduction too, Hindustan Zinc Limited was an outright winner for excellent practices in reducing carbon footprint. The effort of another stalwart of the environment couldn't have gone unacknowledged. Page Industries Limited won the leadership award in Green Supply Chain. Among others, Axis Bank scored the most on Social Impact. It stood out in community services, product quality and safety, employee development and data privacy. Not just that, Axis Bank emerged winner in transparency in disclosures and reporting standards. Keeping up with the group's rich tradition, Godrej Consumer Products Limited was crowned champion for strong Governance practices. And if board diversity is strongly being recommended as a tool to enhance corporate governance, Blue Star Limited can be proud of its policies in including board members with different ethnic, educational, and cultural backgrounds. It deservingly won the award in Board Diversity. Kudos to Mindtree too for winning the leadership award in Board Independence. Many such outstanding achievements were honoured like that of Vedanta Limited that won the Waste Management award and ACC Limited, a worthy winner in the Water Efficiency category. Proactive measures to tackle pollution is the key to achieve progress in sustainable living. In this regard, NTPC Limited demonstrated excellent practices in monitoring air pollutant emissions to win the award in the Air Pollution Management category. And at a time when homes are increasingly going green, Brigade Enterprises Limited was acclaimed for its energy-efficient real estate portfolio and was declared victor in Green Product and Service. Developing management practices and strategy for energy-efficiency and biodiversity mirror a company's ESG approach. In this field, UltraTech Cement Limited won the leadership in Energy Efficiency award while Reliance Industries Limited clinched the best leadership title in Biodiversity Impact Reduction. Awards were also bestowed on Gujarat Pipavav Port Limited in Community Support and Development, Vakrangee Limited in Data Privacy and Security and Bajaj Electricals Limited in Product Quality. Bajaj Electricals Limited has laid the template for efficient quality management systems, communicating product defects, product recall, measuring customer satisfaction and retention rate. Unsurprisingly, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, keeping up with the tag of being a people's organisation, topped the scores in Leadership in Employment Quality. The company stood out for initiatives in fair compensation, flexible work schedules and promoting a positive work culture. Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited too deserve applause for winning the Employee Development award for providing training, reskilling and upskilling opportunities and performance appraisals. Mr. U K Sinha, Former Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI); Mr. S S Mundra, Former Deputy Governor, The Reserve Bank of India; Mr. Dinesh Khara, Chairman, State Bank of India; Mr. Sanjeev Kaushik, Additional Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Ms. Aruna Newton, Assoc. Vice President, Head - Diversity and Inclusion, Sustainability Governance & Reporting, Infosys Ltd. and Mr. Felix Suntheim, Financial Sector Expert, International Monetary Fund addressed the participants and covered various aspects of ESG Landscape. About ESGRisk.ai: ESG Risk Assessments & Insights (ESGRisk.ai) is India's first ESG rating company and an Acuite Group Company. ESGRisk.ai provides objective, independent and unbiased opinion and assessments on the companies' ability to mitigate emerging risks associated with Environment, Social, and Governance issues that have a material financial impact. Our ESG assessments foster informed decision-making while choosing ESG investments, assessing a particular company or industry's performance, reviewing ESG business strategies and identifying the need for policy interventions. To know more, visit: https://esgrisk.ai/ About Acuite Group: Acuite Group comprises Acuite Ratings & Research Limited, a SEBI registered, RBI-accredited bond rating agency, and its two wholly-owned subsidiaries, SMERA Ratings Private Limited, a pioneer in rating SMEs, and ESG Risk Assessments & Insights Limited, India's first ESG rating company. The shareholders of Acuite Ratings & Research are SIDBI, D&B (India), State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, Bank of India, Union Bank of India, and Standard Chartered India. To know more, visit: https://www.acuite.in/ Disclaimer: This release is sent to you for the sole purpose of dissemination through your newspaper / magazine / media / website / agency. The release may be used by you in full or in part without changing the meaning or context thereof but with due credit to ESGRisk.ai. However, only ESGRisk.ai has the sole right of distribution of its releases through any media. ESGRisk.ai has taken due care and caution for writing this release. Information has been obtained by ESGRisk.ai from sources, which it considers reliable. However, ESGRisk.ai does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of information on which this release is based. ESGRisk.ai is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this release. ESGRisk.ai has no liability whatsoever to the users / distributors of this release. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1518961/ESG_Risk_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Huawei Global Digital Power Summit 2021 set to open on October 16 in Dubai Huawei Global Digital Power Summit 2021 is set to open on October 16 in Dubai with more than 300+ individuals attending the physical event, including executives from Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), Group42, ACWA Power, du, Uptime Institute and Engie. Huawei to announce joint actions across the energy and ICT industry chain to unlock green energy potential for a low-carbon smart society. DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To help organizations worldwide get better prepared to seize opportunities arising from a carbon-neutral world, Huawei Digital Power will hold the Global Digital Power Summit 2021 in Dubai, UAE, on October 16th. The summit recognizes that the race to net-zero is on, and that the target of carbon neutrality truly requires a global coalition and international actions. The selection of Dubai, UAE, to host the summit also reflects the importance of the Middle East region to Huawei's global digital power business. Earlier this year, Huawei Digital Power Technologies was established to accelerate energy digitalization and decarbonization. The company aims to integrate digital and power electronics technologies to accelerate clean energy generation, to build green transportation, sites and data centers, as it focuses on building a better and greener future. In the post-COVID world, green economic recovery has garnered significant attention as world leaders are eager to bring economies out of recession through a redesign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the resilience of infrastructure and communities. To date, 137 countries from the UN Climate Convention responsible for 80% of global emissions have committed to net-zero-emission targets. The key to carbon neutrality is the development of a new power system. With a focus on digital innovations for a low-carbon and smart world, the summit will bring together energy policymakers, industry professionals in the data center, ICT and renewable energy sectors, and executives from across the world to discuss the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development and digital transformation. At the upcoming summit, Charles Yang, the newly-appointed President of Global Marketing, Sales and Services, at Huawei Digital Power, will kick off the event, highlighting Huawei Digital Power's commitment to building a low-carbon smart society. Yang is appointed to the new role having previously served as President of Huawei Middle East. An exciting lineup of speakers from global industry players and Huawei partners such as Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), Group42, ACWA Power, du, Uptime Institute and Engie will share their own best practices, success stories, and use cases in improving energy efficiency via digitalization. It's undeniable that no single company can succeed in the energy transition alone. Now more than ever, building a sustainable and low-carbon future requires joint actions and collaboration from across the energy, business, and government ecosystem. Thus, the summit puts a spotlight on the Huawei-backed 'Call to Action' statement that calls for energy industry companies around the world to set coordinates towards a net-zero energy sector. For the first time in history, Huawei believes that everyone can participate in a step-change in efficiency, and the rare opportunity to reconcile the paradox between progress for all and a sustainable future for our planet. The company is thus committed to working with its customers and partners to build low-carbon and smart energy systems. Huawei will also have a full-on live stream experience of the summit. Registration for the online event can happen here. About Huawei Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have more than 197,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world. Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they're at home, in the office, or on the go. For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on: http://www.linkedin.com/company/Huawei http://www.twitter.com/Huawei http://www.facebook.com/Huawei http://www.youtube.com/Huawei SOURCE Huawei Digital Power [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] ParkMobile Announces Partnership with the City of Leavenworth, Washington, to Offer Contactless Parking Payments LEAVENWORTH, Wash., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ParkMobile, the #1 parking app in the U.S., announced that it will be expanding its services to the City of Leavenworth, WA. This is a new market for ParkMobile and will help make parking in the city as seamless and stress-free as possible. With 2.3 million tourists visiting Leavenworth annually, this new parking system will allow visitors and locals alike to find parking safely and more efficiently. Through the partnership, ParkMobile is offering a real-time view of space availability and 325 on-street and 350 off-street zone parking spaces for payment in Leavenworth. ParkMobile has over 27 million users across North America and is available for both iPhone and Android devices. ParkMobile can also be accessed on a mobile web browser for those who do not want to download an app. To pay for parking using the mobile or web app, a user enters the zone number posted on parking meter or on the signs in the parking lots, selects the amont of time needed, and touches the "Start Parking" button to begin the session. The user can also extend the time of the parking session on their mobile device, up to a max of three hours on-street at the parking meters, or all day in an off-street parking lot. Leavenworth marks ParkMobile's third market in Washington, which currently has close to 92,000 users. Beyond the state, the ParkMobile app can be used to pay for parking in over 450 cities in the U.S. including many in the Pacific Northwest region like Corvallis, OR, Boise, ID, Bellingham, WA, and more. "Our goal with bringing ParkMobile to Leavenworth is to reduce frustration around finding a parking spot," said Christie Voos, Communications Analyst for the City of Leavenworth. "We're excited to introduce ParkMobile to Leavenworth, giving our residents and visitors an easier way to park around the city." "We love introducing ParkMobile to new markets and are proud to announce a partnership with Leavenworth," says Jeff Perkins, CEO of ParkMobile. "One of our goals is to expand further in the Pacific Northwest region so the addition of Leavenworth is a great new market for us." About ParkMobile: ParkMobile, LLC is the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in North America, using a contactless approach to help millions of people easily find, reserve, and pay for parking on their mobile devices. The company's technology is used in thousands of locations across the country, including 8 of the top 10 cities as well as college campuses, airports, and stadiums. People can use ParkMobile solutions to quickly pay for on-street and off-street parking without having to use a meter or kiosk. Additionally, ParkMobile offers parking reservations at stadium venues for concerts and sporting events. Reservations are also available in metro area garages, allowing people to drive into the city without having to worry about finding parking. ParkMobile has been named to the Inc. 5000, Deloitte Fast 500, Smart Cities Connect "Smart 50," and the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Top Workplaces. Additionally, the company won the 2020 Stevie Awards for Achievement in Product Innovation and the 2019 Stevie Awards for Most Innovative Tech Company and Best Travel App. For more information, visit ParkMobile.io or @ParkMobile on Twitter. About the City of Leavenworth, WA: The City of Leavenworth is a highly sought-after tourist and outdoor enthusiast destination. It is uniquely both a small town and also a medium sized city due to the influx of visitors during much of the year. The City is currently engaging with the local community on strategic projects such as a potential community center and park, workforce housing, the downtown master plan, and parking solutions to enhance the resident and visitor experience. ParkMobile Contact: Mark Lister, SVP of Marketing, mark.lister@parkmobile.io City of Leavenworth Contact: Christie Voos, Communications Analyst, media@cityofleavenworth.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/parkmobile-announces-partnership-with-the-city-of-leavenworth-washington-to-offer-contactless-parking-payments-301395481.html SOURCE ParkMobile [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] EMTECH and Hedera Hashgraph Join Forces for Highly Performant, Trusted and Energy Efficient Central Bank Blockchain Infrastructure EMTECH, an award-winning software company modernizing central banking infrastructure for financial inclusion and resilience, with blockchain-based platforms, and Hedera Hashgraph, provider of the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy, announced today a partnership to develop an enterprise-grade, highly performant, highly secure and energy efficient CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) infrastructure product. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005082/en/ (Graphic: Business Wire) The joint effort will bring together EMTECH's Ethereum-based CBDC Core Solution and Hedera's public ledger, targeting a faster, more secure alternative to legacy blockchain consensus mechanisms. "Blockchain technology and the mechanisms of distributed ledgers are new and important, especially for emerging markets. In developing a cash-like central bank digital currency, we know scalability, resilience and performance are expected," said EMTECH CEO and co-founder Carmelle Cadet. "This partnership brings both companies' unique capabilities together, to design modern financial market infrastructures that deliver on those key principles. CBDC is more than a software application, it's an infrastructure, and we want to get it right." In addition to research and development for low-cost, higher-energy efficiency, and financially inclusive solutions, EMTECH and Hedera Hashgraph will collaborate on ecosystem engagement, innovation, and capacity building around CBDCs, stablecoins, digital assets and distributed ledger technology more broadly, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean. "We're thrilled to collaborate with EMTECH to give central banks around the globe the opportunity to explore realistic ways to bring CBDCs to fruition, and this collaboration will enable a groundbreaking use of the Hedera network and services," said Mance Harmon, CEO of Hedera Hashgraph. "This partnership is about delivering high performance, and high trust. We're excited to see how EMTECH will meet and exceed the criteria and demands for scalable, secure CBDC solutions." EMTECH decided to leverage the Hedera Consensus ervice (HCS) because of its flexibility, scalability, decentralization, and sustainability. EMTECH's Private CBDC Platform will look to leverage the fast, fair, and secure hashgraph consensus algorithm which provides an Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant (ABFT) ordering service within and between each network. "A country's digital currency impacts its entire economy. It's critical that the technology powering it is built with security, scalability, resilience, and performance in mind," said EMTECH Chief Technical Officer Tabor Wells. "It's exciting to be partnering with Hedera Hashgraph, who shares EMTECH's commitment to delivering solutions that meet those needs." The partnership will further leverage EMTECH's Modern Regulatory Sandbox to enable safe testing for financial service providers looking to engage regulators on distributed ledger based financial services such as stablecoins and digital assets. EMTECH's Modern Central Bank Sandbox Platform, a digital regulatory platform, enables central banks to collaborate with the broader ecosystem of private sector innovators and established stakeholders on one platform to bring fintech technologies to market faster, while addressing key regulatory reporting, risk and innovation challenges. Hedera's hashgraph consensus-based public ledger achieves the highest-grade of security possible (ABFT), with ultra fast transaction speeds and low bandwidth consumption to provide high-throughput, low fees and finality in seconds. EMTECH's Sandbox Platform will offer the Hedera Token Service (HTS) and the Hedera Consensus Services (HCS) for various innovators once launched. EMTECH was recently named Central Banking Journal 2021 FinTech and RegTech "Finnovator of the Year," for its Modern Central Bank Sandbox Platform. For more information about EMTECH and its solutions, visit https://emtech.com/. About EMTECH EMTECH is a fintech company that builds powerful and modern central banking solutions that address the demand of financial inclusion and financial market resilience. In addition to Hedera Hashgraph, recent EMTECH partners include Bank of Ghana, Central Bank of the Bahamas, and WiPay Caribbean. In 2021, EMTECH CEO Carmelle Cadet provided testimony about digitizing the U.S. Dollar with blockchain technology to the United States House of Representatives. The company was founded in 2019 and is based in New York, New York. For more information, visit https://emtech.com/ About Hedera The Hedera network is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public ledger for the decentralized economy. The platform is governed by a council of the world's leading organizations, including Avery Dennison, Boeing (News - Alert) , Chainlink Labs, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, EDF (Electricite de France), eftpos, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), LG Electronics, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Magalu, Nomura Holdings, Shinhan Bank, Standard Bank Group, Swirlds, Tata Communications (News - Alert) , University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group. For more information, visit www.hedera.com, or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) at @hedera, Telegram at t.me/hederahashgraph, or Discord at www.hedera.com/discord. The Hedera whitepaper can be found at www.hedera.com/papers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005082/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Pear Therapeutics to Participate in HLTH 2021 Conference and Evercore ISI Digital Therapeutics Virtual Bus Tour Pear Therapeutics, Inc., the leader in developing and commercializing prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) to treat serious disease, today announced management's participation in the HLTH 2021 Conference and the Evercore ISI (News - Alert) Digital Therapeutics Virtual Bus Tour. HLTH 2021 - The Download on Digital Therapeutics with Evercore : Julia Strandberg, M.B.A., Chief Commercial Officer, will participate in a panel discussion, " A New Paradigm of Care - How Do Digital Therapeutics Make Money ." The panel, moderated by Elizabeth Anderson, Head of Healthcare Technology Equity Research, Evercore ISI, will take place in Boston and virtually on Monday, October 18 at 12:30 p.m. ET. : Julia Strandberg, M.B.A., Chief Commercial Officer, will participate in a panel discussion, " ." The panel, moderated by Elizabeth Anderson, Head of Healthcare Technology Equity Research, Evercore ISI, will take place in Boston and virtually on Monday, October 18 at 12:30 p.m. ET. DTx Virtual Bus Tour with Evercore: Corey McCann, M.D., Ph.D., Presidet and CEO, will participate in a virtual bus tour of the leading Digital Therapeutics companies on Tuesday, October 19 at 9:00 a.m. ET. About Pear Therapeutics Pear Therapeutics is the leader in prescription digital therapeutics, or PDTs. Pear aims to redefine medicine by discovering, developing, and delivering clinically validated software-based therapeutics to provide better outcomes for patients, smarter engagement and tracking tools for clinicians, and cost-effective solutions for payers. Pear has a pipeline of products and product candidates across therapeutic areas, including the first three PDTs with disease treatment claims from FDA. Pear's lead product, reSET, for the treatment of substance use disorder, was the first PDT to receive marketing authorization from FDA to treat disease. Pear's second product, reSET-O, for the treatment of opioid use disorder, was the first PDT to receive Breakthrough Designation. Pear's third product, Somryst, for the treatment of chronic insomnia, was the first PDT submitted through FDA's traditional 510(k) pathway while simultaneously reviewed through FDA's Software Precertification Pilot Program. For more information, visit Pear at www.peartherapeutics.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005048/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. Announces Receipt of Requisite Consents in Consent Solicitations for Each of Its 5.375% Senior Notes due 2025 and Its 4.250% Senior Notes due 2029 PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: PFSI) (the "Company") today announced that it has received the requisite consents to implement the Proposed Amendments (as defined below) to the indentures (the "Indentures") governing its (i) 5.375% Senior Notes due 2025 (the "2025 Notes") and (ii) 4.250% Senior Notes due 2029 (the "2029 Notes" and together with the 2025 Notes, the "Notes") in connection with its previously announced solicitations of consents (the "Consent Solicitations") from holders of the applicable Notes. The Consent Solicitations were made pursuant to a Consent Solicitation Statement, dated September 27, 2021 (as amended or supplemented, the "Consent Solicitation Statement"), to seek consents from holders of Notes to conform the restricted payments covenant and the "permitted investments" definition included in the applicable Indenture (the "Proposed Amendments") to the restricted payments covenant and "permitted investments" definition, respectively, contained in the indenture governing the Company's 5.75% Senior Notes due 2031, which were issued on September 16, 2021. The Company has been advised that it has received consents from holders of a majority of the aggregate principal amount of each applicable series of Notes (not including any Notes held by the Company or any of its affiliates) (the "Requisite Consents"). In connection with the receipt of the Requisite Consents, the Company has executed supplemental indentures to the Indentures to effect the Proposed Amendments with respect to each series of Notes. The Company expects to pay the applicable consent fees to holders of Notes on the applicable record date on October 12, 2021 or promptly thereafter. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC acted as solicitation agent for the Consent Solicitations and D.F. King & Co., Inc. acted as the information agent for the Cosent Solicitations. Neither the Consent Solicitations nor any related documents have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, nor have any such documents been filed with or reviewed by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority of any country. No authority has passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the Consent Solicitation Statement or any related documents, and it is unlawful and may be a criminal offense to make any representation to the contrary. The Consent Solicitations were made solely on the terms and conditions set forth in the Consent Solicitation Statement. Under no circumstances shall this press release constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other securities of the Company or any of its affiliates. The Consent Solicitations were not made to, nor will the Company accept deliveries of consents from, holders in any jurisdiction in which the Consent Solicitations or the acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities or blue sky laws of such jurisdiction. This press release also is not a solicitation of consents to the Proposed Amendments to the Indentures. About PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. PennyMac Financial Services, Inc. is a specialty financial services firm focused on the production and servicing of U.S. mortgage loans and the management of investments related to the U.S. mortgage market. Founded in 2008, the company is recognized as a leader in the U.S. residential mortgage industry and employs approximately 7,300 people across the country. For the twelve months ended June 30, 2021, PennyMac Financial's production of newly originated loans totaled $252 billion in unpaid principal balance, making it the second largest mortgage lender in the nation. As of June 30, 2021, PennyMac Financial serviced loans totaling $473 billion in unpaid principal balance, making it a top ten mortgage servicer in the nation. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding management's beliefs, estimates, projections and assumptions with respect to, among other things, the expected timing for payment of the consent fees. Words like "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "promise," "project," "plan," and other expressions or words of similar meanings, as well as future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," or "may" are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof. Although the expectations in the forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs and expectations, caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or any other information contained herein, and the statements made in this press release are current as of the date of this release only. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005079/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] IDC's Future of Intelligence Research Develops New Index to Measure Enterprise Intelligence and Its Impact on Business Outcomes Becoming a data-driven organization is now a priority for executives and boards of directors across industries. Ultimately, enterprises are looking to become more intelligent to create value for all their stakeholders. To help these decision makers, International Data Corporation (IDC) has developed the Enterprise Intelligence Index, which highlights the levels of enterprise intelligence across regions, industries, and organizational size segments. Based on a global study of 1,170 organizations, the Index showcases the impact higher levels of enterprise intelligence have on business outcomes, such as customer acquisition, employee retention, revenue growth, and others. It also pinpoints the impact of new key performance indicators (KPIs), such as quality of decision making and knowledge capture and sharing, as prerequisites for deriving value from data. "In today's digital world, it is impossible to build a foundation for enterprise intelligence without modern data, analytics, artificial intelligence, and knowledge management technology," said Chandana Gopal, research director, Future of Intelligence. "However, only measuring investments in and adoption of technology is not enough to drive change in data culture and the other three key pillars of enterprise intelligence - the ability to synthesize information, deliver insights at scale, and learn as an enterprise." IDC's (News - Alert) Enterprise Intelligence Index shows that these investments in aggregate, along with dedicated business leadership initiatives to raise enterprise intelligence, result in positive impact on financial, customer, employee, and operational outcomes. On October 12th, IDC will host a webinar, Why Every Executive Should be Focused on Enterprise Intelligence Now. The presentation will highlight the new capabilities and metrics that leading enterprises are adopting to increase their enterprise intelligence and drive value for their customers, shareholders, and employees through their superior ability to synthesize information, learn as an organization, deliver insights at scale, and foster enterprise-wide data culture. The webinar will also include a preview of the Enterprise Intelligence Index and show how it can be used to measure and increase enterprise intelligence in the digital-first world. Details and registration for this complimentary webinar, featuring Chandana Gopal and IDC Group Vice President Dan Vesset, are available at: https://goto.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1497146&tp_key=1cdc7a7fbb. About IDC's Future of Intelligence Practice IDC's Future of Intelligence research practice helps organizations build strategies to become learning enterprises built on evidence-based cultures. In the Future of Intelligence, organizations will rethink how they define and invest in enterprise intelligence, focusing on approaches that scale. To learn more about IDC's Future of Intelligence research practice, please visit https://www.idc.com/promo/future-of-x/intelligence. About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology, IT benchmarking and sourcing, and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data, and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter (News - Alert) at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005075/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Houston-Based APQC Announces Four $25,000 per Year Scholarships, Totaling $100,000 per Student, for Houston-Area High School Seniors A pioneer in business productivity since 1977, Houston-based APQC has announced the launch of the C. Jackson Grayson Scholarship Program in honor of the company's late founder. Each year, the program will award scholarships to Houston-area high school seniors. Each recipient will receive $25,000 per year for tuition, books, and fees, totaling $100,000 per student over the course of a four-year college education. The scholarship application website goes live today: October 8, Grayson's birthday. The deadline to apply is November 30. Inaugural recipients will be announced in March 2022 for Fall 2022 enrollment at a public or private institution. "Jack, our beloved founder, believed that education was the foundation of freedom, productivity, community, and improving the quality of life for all people," says Lisa Higgins, CEO of APQC. "We are thrilled to honor his legacy with these extraordinary scholarships that will change the lives of these young individuals and their families for years to come." Scholarships Target (News - Alert) 5 Counties in Houston Area Students from across five counties - Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Montgomery, and Waller Counties - are eligible for the scholarships. Applicants must be able to demonstrate financial need, have at least a 2.5 GPA, and be perceived as leader in the community. "We're looking to award these life-changing scholarships to those with a drive to succeed but who do not have a financial path forward to make that a reality," notes Ashley White, Executive Director of HR at APQC and head of the scholarship initiative. The scholarships will be administered through Scholarship America ( SAI (News - Alert) ), who will select top finalists for APQC's scholarship committee to evaluate and make final selections. "The work at APQC has been essential in shaping and propelling organizations forward to achieve the goals they've set for themselves. Now, they are doing the same for students," notes Adeeb Barqawi, CEO of ProUnitas. "These incredible scholarships, worth $100,000 per student over four years, compare to that of the Gates Foundation in size and scale, and they show what a committed, driven, and community-minded organization like APQC can do to make a lasting impact on communities and the world." Additionally, scholarship recipients will get the chance to intern at APQC or one of its relevant member organizations, giving them on-the-job training to prepare for the workplace. Award Honors Jack Grayson's Lifetime Commitment to Education Higgins adds, "Jack always believed in the critical role that education plays in lifting individuals and societies out of poverty. He would have turned 98 this year, and I think he would be very proud to know that his legacy is being used to transform lives through education." Grayson retired in 2015 at age 91 and passed away in 2017 at the age of 93. He is remembered as a fierce and highly respected advocate for productivity, quality, and competitiveness in the American economy. His memoriam bio is located here. As founder and CEO of APQC (American Productivity & Quality Center), Grayson spent his professional career mentoring organizations and individuals to be better and do better. His commitment to education was his life's mission. Believing that education was the key to the productivity and long-term success of companies and communities, Grayson personally invested millions of dollars into improving the education system in the U.S. - investments that are paying dividends for individuals, families, companies, and the economy to this day. He served as Chairman of the U.S. Price Commission under President Nixon in 1971 and helped rollback unpopular price controls. He was the creator of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award; co-founder of The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa; dean for business schools at both Tulane and Southern Methodist University; and a World War II Veteran. Interested applicants are encouraged to view the scholarship website for information. About APQC APQC is the world's foremost authority in benchmarking, best practices, process and performance improvement, and knowledge management. With more than 550 member organizations worldwide, APQC provides the information, data, and insights organizations need to support decision-making and develop internal skills. Learn more at www.apqc.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005009/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Highlander Partners Announces the Acquisition of RMS Beauty, the Pioneer Brand of the Clean Beauty Movement DALLAS, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlander Partners, L.P. ("Highlander"), a Dallas-based private investment firm, today announced the acquisition of RMS Beauty ("RMS"). RMS is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and is known as the original brand to drive the industry shift to clean beauty. Rose-Marie Swift founded her eponymous brand in 2009. She is widely considered "The Godfather" of the clean beauty movement, given her 35+ year experience as a makeup artist and deep knowledge of the cosmetics industry. She has worked with supermodels including Gisele Bundchen, Miranda Kerr and Karolina Kurkova, and world-renowned photographers like Mario Sorrenti, Hedi Slimane, and Annie Leibovitz. Her outspoken nature, insights on the industry and candor with her clients and colleagues have earned her deep respect. Rose-Marie founded the brand after experiencing severe health issues. In her healing process and intensive research, she discovered that some of the toxic chemicals and heavy metals in her system were also found in many commonly used beauty products. After rebuilding her own health, Rose-Marie realized she wanted to help other women claim their right to healthy, clean beauty and created the first-of-its-kind, truly organic color cosmetic line. RMS brings the energy of raw, food grade, organic, and natural ingredients with life force to your skin. David Olsen, a Managing Director at Highlander, will immediately assume the role of CEO of RMS. David brings decades of beauty and digital retail leadership to RMS, with prior experience including CEO of luxury beauty retailer Cos Bar and Global VP of Net-A-Porter, where he launched the beauty business. David has a longstanding relationship with RMS and with Rose-Marie, and when he joined Highlander in 2019 to help source and assess investments in the beauty industry, RMS was the first call made. /p> Elaine Sack will move to the Chief Strategic Officer role and work hand-in-hand with Rose-Marie and David through the transition. Ben Slater, a Partner at Highlander, will serve as Chairman of the Board. Rose-Marie noted, "I am beyond excited to partner with Highlander. Over the years, many firms have tried to invest in our brand, but we've been self-funded and profitable since day 1, and we were able to be patient and wait for the perfect fit. Highlander's operational expertise and creative approach to investing are unique and unparalleled, and they believe in our core ethos. I look forward to a great partnership." Jeff L. Hull, President and CEO of Highlander Partners, added, "We have been exploring the beauty and personal care category in a meaningful way for the past two to three years. All of our efforts in assessing the beauty industry have led to an ideal investment with RMS. We believe RMS is the pioneer and leader in clean beauty and has significant growth opportunities, while also giving us optionality to create a larger clean beauty platform. It is our intention to continue to grow in this category through additional acquisitions." Katten served as legal counsel to Highlander. William Blair & Company, L.L.C. served as the exclusive financial advisor and Giannuzzi Lewendon served as legal counsel to RMS. About RMS Beauty Founded in 2009 by makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift, in Charleston, SC, RMS Beauty is a line of living-ingredient-based products that offer true artist-quality performance. The Company has been setting the standard for clean ingredients since its inception. Today, RMS Beauty is a leader in the clean beauty movement, with products distributed globally. For more information, visit www.rmsbeauty.com . About Highlander Partners, L.P. Highlander Partners is a Dallas-based private investment firm which manages over $2 billion of its own proprietary capital. The firm focuses on making investments in businesses in targeted industries in which the principals of the firm have significant operating and investing experience. Highlander Partners employs a buy and build investment approach, creating value by helping companies grow both organically and through acquisitions. For more information, visit www.highlander-partners.com . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/highlander-partners-announces-the-acquisition-of-rms-beauty-the-pioneer-brand-of-the-clean-beauty-movement-301396170.html SOURCE Highlander Partners, L.P. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] New Study from StrategyR Highlights a $5.5 Billion Global Market for Fiber Optic Connectors by 2026 SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Fiber Optic Connectors - 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: 9; Released: April 2021 Executive Pool: 883 Companies: 54 - Players covered include Hirose Electric Co., Ltd.; Molex LLC; Ratioplast-Optoelectronics GmbH; Shenzhen DYS Fiber Optic Technology Co., Ltd.; Sterlite Technologies Ltd.; Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd.; TE Connectivity Ltd.; 3M Company; Amphenol Corporation; Corning Optical Communications; Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Segment (Lucent Connectors, Standard Connectors, Straight Tip Connectors, Multiple-Fiber Push-On/Pull-Off Connectors, MXC Connectors, Other Segments) 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 Fiber Optic Connectors Market to Reach $5.5 Billion by 2026 Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Fiber Optic Connectors estimated at US$3.7 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$5.5 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% over the analysis period. Lucent Connectors, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 7.5% CAGR and reach US$2.4 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 Standard Connectors segment is readjusted to a revised 6.3% CAGR for the next 7-year period. The U.S. Market is Estimated at $1.1 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $1.2 Billion by 2026 The Fiber Optic Connectors market in the U.S. is estimated at US$1.1 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$1.2 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 10% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 3.5% and 5.9% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 4.1% CAGR. Straight Tip Connectors Segment to Reach US$555 Million by the year 2026 In the global Straight Tip Connectors segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 6.2% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$280.3 Million in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$427.2 Million by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. 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-5-5-billion-global-market-for-fiber-optic-connectors-by-2026--301395998.html SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Tauriga Sciences Inc. Expands its Product Offerings of Delta 8 THC Infused Gummies NEW YORK, NY, Oct. 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), a New York based diversified Life Sciences Company, today announced that it has expanded its product offerings of its proprietary Delta 8 THC (Delta 8) infused Gummies, to include a 2nd flavor: Kiwi & Lemonade. Currently, the Company sells 1 SKU of Delta 8 infused Gummies: Watermelon Grape flavor (20mg per Gummy). Since the launch of its Watermelon Grape flavor Delta 8 infused Gummies, sales (of this product) have been strong and continue to accelerate. This product can be purchased from the Companys E-Commerce website, by clicking on the following below direct link: Direct Link: https://taurigum.com/products/watermelon-grape-gummies In other news, the Company continues to experience strong levels of growth in its retail business. The Company has been contacted by a number of large, prestigious, national retailers and is working diligently to complete initial purchase orders. Lastly, the Company plans to announce an important partnership (over the next several days) that has the potential to further enhance its product sales and market opportunities. ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES INC. Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating, diversified life sciences company, engaged in several major business activities and initiatives. The company manufactures and distributes several proprietary retail products and product lines, mainly focused on the Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) Edibles market segment. The main product line, branded as Tauri-Gum, consists of a proprietary supplement chewing gum that is Kosher certified, Halal certified, and Vegan Formulated (CBD Infused Tauri-Gum Flavors: Mint, Blood Orange, Pomegranate), (CBG Infused Tauri-Gum Flavors: Peach-Lemon, Black Currant) (DELTA 8 THC Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Evergreen Mint), (Vitamin C + Zinc Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Pear Bellini), (Caffeine Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Cherry Lime Rickey), & (Vitamin D3 Infused Tauri-Gum Flavor: Golden Raspberry). The Companys commercialization strategy consists of a broad array of retail customers, distributors, and a fast-growing E-Commerce business segment (E-Commerce website: www.taurigum.com). Please visit our corporate website, for additional information, as well as inquiries, at http://www.tauriga.com Complementary to the Companys retail business, is its ongoing Pharmaceutical Development initiative. This relates to the development of a proposed Pharmaceutical grade version of Tauri-Gum, for nausea regulation (specifically designed for the following indication: Patients Subjected to Ongoing Chemotherapy Treatment). On March 22, 2021, the Company announced that it had Converted its U.S. Provisional Patent Application (filed on March 17, 2020) into a U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application. The Patent, filed with the U.S.P.T.O. is Titled MEDICATED CBD COMPOSITIONS, METHODS OF MANUFACTURING, AND METHODS OF TREATMENT. On December 18, 2020 the Company disclosed that it had entered into a Master Services Agreement with CSTI to lead the Company's clinical development efforts. The Company is headquartered in Wappingers Falls, New York. In addition, the Company operates two full time E-Commerce fulfillment centers: one located in Montgomery, Texas and the other in Brooklyn, New York. DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other periodic filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Contact: Tauriga Sciences, Inc. 4 Nancy Court, Suite 4 Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 Chief Executive Officer Mr. Seth M. Shaw Email: sshaw@tauriga.com cell # (917) 796 9926 Company Instagram: @taurigum Personal Instagram: @sethsms47 Twitter: @SethMShaw Corp. Website: www.tauriga.com E-Commerce Website: www.taurigum.com Attachment A. Image for Oct 8 PR [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] With Market Size Valued at $173.6 Billion by 2026, It`s a Healthy Outlook for the Global Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Market San Francisco, Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) - 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: 7; Released: April 2021 Executive Pool: 1578 Companies: 46 - Players covered include Kingston Technology Co., Inc.; Micron Technology, Inc.; Nanya Technology Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; SK Hynix, Inc.; Transcend Information, Inc.; Winbond Electronics Corporation and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Application (Computers, Handheld Devices, Networking, Consumer Electronics, Other Applications) 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 Registy ABSTRACT- Global Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Market to Reach $173.6 Billion by 2026 Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) estimated at US$105.5 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$173.6 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 8.5% over the analysis period. Computers, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 10.2% CAGR and reach US$64.1 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 Handheld Devices segment is readjusted to a revised 8.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period. The U.S. Market is Estimated at $31 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $39.1 Billion by 2026 The Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) market in the U.S. is estimated at US$31 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$39.1 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 13% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 4.5% and 7.6% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 5.5% CAGR. Networking Segment to Reach US$30.5 Billion by the year 2026 In the global Networking segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 7.5% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$14.2 Billion in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$23.6 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. 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/with-market-size-valued-at-173-6-billion-by-2026--its-a-healthy-outlook-for-the-global-dynamic-random-access-memory-dram-market-301395999.html SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] QED Investors Names Tommy Blanchard New COO QED Investors, a leading global venture capital firm focused on investing in disruptive financial services companies, today named Tommy Blanchard as its Chief Operating Officer. Blanchard joins QED from Capital One (News - Alert) where he spent a total of 20 years, most recently as managing vice president, business analysis in Capital One's Commercial Bank. "Tommy is a consummate professional with remarkable people skills," said QED Investors Managing Partner and Co-Founder Nigel Morris (News - Alert) . "He has a phenomenal mind when it comes to articulating process and mission. His experience will be invaluable in helping us scale QED. "Tommy is a trusted and authentic general manager with a world-class reputation for leading cross-functional teams." In his most recent role, Blanchard's responsibilities included data analysis and strategy, process innovation and transformation in cross-team collaboration - all towards driving step function improvements in the sales of treasury management products and services in Capital One's Commercial Bank. Blanchard's previous work at Capital One includes executive leadership positions in talent acquisition, people analytics, co-brand partnerships, loyalty strategies, oerations analysis and supply chain management. "I'm incredibly excited to join QED as they look to scale, building on their best-in-class reputation and enhances their position as one of the premier fintech VCs," said Blanchard. "QED has created an amazing track record of investing in the most talented entrepreneurs and their disruptive financial technology businesses across the U.S. and internationally. I'm thrilled to partner with Nigel and work alongside QED's wonderful team members to continue their impressive record of success. By scaling platform operations and improving how we think about process, we will continue to position QED at the vanguard of fintech VC." Blanchard holds an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, as well as MS and BS degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue University (News - Alert) . He lives in Richmond, Va., and will be based in QED's Alexandria, Va., office. Founded in 2007, QED Investors has invested in more than 150 companies, including 21 unicorns, and has more than $3 billion under management. Last month, QED announced it had closed a substantially oversubscribed $1.05 billion fund, including $550 million in QED Fund VII for early stage investments and $500 million in a new Growth Fund. About QED Investors QED Investors is a global leading boutique venture capital firm based in Alexandria, Va. Founded by Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman in 2007, QED Investors is focused on investing in early stage, disruptive financial services companies in the U.S., U.K., Latin America and Southeast Asia. QED Investors is dedicated to building great businesses and uses a unique, hands-on approach that leverages our partners' decades of entrepreneurial and operational experience, helping their companies achieve breakthrough growth. Notable investments include AvidXchange, Bitso, ClearScore, Current, Creditas, Credit Karma, GreenSky, Kavak, Klarna, Konfio, Loft, Mission Lane, Nubank, QuintoAndar, Remitly and SoFi. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005341/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] IQAir North America and SME Education Foundation Partner to Offer Scholarships to Underrepresented Students SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Oct. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- IQAir North America has funded through the SME Education Foundation new scholarship support for STEM education opportunities for underrepresented students. The scholarships, to be administered by the SME Education Foundation for IQAir North America, an international environmental technology company focused on air quality monitoring and air cleaning products, make $130,000 available over five years to qualified and deserving students. IQAir North America is based in California. "These scholarships areour opportunity to assist students who are historically underrepresented in STEM related careers," said Glory Dolphin-Hammes, CEO of IQAir North America. "Workplaces are stronger with a workforce of diverse opinions and life experiences. Our goal is to help provide financial assistance to those with diverse backgrounds who have the who have the skills, aptitude and drive to achieve but lack the resources." The IQAir Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship awards to deserving students began this year. "The Foundation is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion throughoutour portfolio of initiatives to prepare and support students in their pursuit of educational and career opportunities," said Rob Luce, vice president of the SME Education Foundation. "Through expanded outreach, partnerships like this important collaboration with IQAir, and the leadership of our diverse and accomplished board, we are making a difference and improving the availability of opportunity." This year, the SME Education Foundation awarded a record number of scholarships to women and/or minorities as part of a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative. Scholarship awards to female students nearly doubled, and scholarships to minority students and minority female students nearly tripled and quadrupled, respectively. The IQAir Diversity and inclusion Scholarships are an important step in progressing toward solving manufacturing's well-documented and increasing skills gap. "That gap is reflective of a social and economic gap in underrepresented communities," says Dolphin-Hammes. "It's our responsibility and a strategic imperative to provide education and skills training opportunities: We're proud of this initiative." About IQAir IQAir is a Swiss-based air quality technology company that since 1963 seeks to empower individuals, organizations and communities to breathe cleaner air through information, collaboration and technology solutions. About The SME Education Foundation The SME Education Foundation inspires, prepares and supports the next generation of manufacturing and engineering talent. Organized by SME in 1979, the SME Education Foundation works to bring students, educators, industry and communities together through its SME PRIME program; awards annual student scholarships and conducts the Student Summit Event Series held at SME events in North America. Learn more here, and follow @MFG_EDUCATION on Twitter. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iqair-north-america-and-sme-education-foundation-partner-to-offer-scholarships-to-underrepresented-students-301396260.html SOURCE SME Education Foundation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Kayne Partners Named to Inc.'s 2021 List of Founder-Friendly Investors Kayne Partners, the growth equity strategy of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P. ("Kayne" or the "Firm"), a leading alternative asset management firm with over $30 billion under management, announced today that it has been named to Inc's third annual Founder-Friendly Investors list. The list honors the private equity and venture capital firms with the best track record of success backing entrepreneurs. The final list recognizes 146 firms that entrepreneurs can trust and collaborate with while receiving the financial support they need to help accelerate growth. All 146 have a successful track record of remaining actively involved in the businesses after their investment. "Supporting an entrepreneur's vision and driving growth is more than just a financial investment. It's about building a relationship and supporting the founders beyond that initial year. These private equity firms treat the founders like partners," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. media. Since 2002, Kayne Partners' strategy has been to partner with high-growth software companies at a critical inflection point and support them with capital and stage-specific expertise to drive growth and unlock value. During this time, Kayne Partners has maintained a disciplined focus on partnering with management and founder-owned technology businesses in the lower middle market. "At Kayne Partners, we value innovative founders and management teams who have built scalable businesses with clear competitive advantages that drive adoption," said Nishita Cummings, Co-Head of Growth Equity at Kayne Partners. "It is important to us to have the trust of the teams we partner with as it leads to the foundation of a solid partnership and eventually successful outcomes. We appreciate the continued trust each of our teams has placed in us and are honored to be recognized by Inc. for the value we bring to each of these partnerships." Kayne Partners has worked with over 40 founder-led enterprise software and technology-enabled companies located throughout North America within six primary high-growth industries and various sub-sectors across media & telecommunications, supply chain & logistics, financial technology, healthcare IT, security & compliance, and business process outsourcing & automation. "At each stage of growth, entrepreneurs are forced to navigate newand sometimes unfamiliar challenges. At Kayne Partners, we invest significant time and resources to get to know our management teams and understand each of our companies' underlying markets so we can add tangible value through strategic growth support, our big firm resources, and by leveraging successful past experiences," added Nathan Locke, Co-Head of Growth Equity at Kayne Partners. To further help its companies accelerate growth and scale, Kayne Partners has established a network of strategic operators with tailored backgrounds to fit Kayne Partners' investment criteria. These individuals complement the existing founders and management teams by bringing functional expertise and deep network resources in areas such as executive recruiting and organizational design, business development, sales & marketing, product development, finance & accounting, M&A and corporate development. To compile the list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity. Founders filled out a questionnaire about their experiences partnering with private equity firms and shared data on how their portfolio companies have grown during these partnerships. To see the complete list, go to: The Top 146 Founder-Friendly PE and VC Firms (inc.com) Introduced in 2019, the Founder-Friendly Private Equity Firms list quickly established itself as one of Inc.'s most resourceful franchises. It has become a go-to guide for entrepreneurs who want to grow their companies while retaining an ownership stake. About Kayne Partners Kayne Partners, the Los Angeles-based dedicated growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., leverages its large firm resources to partner and invest in lower middle market, privately held, high growth, enterprise software and tech-enabled service businesses across North America. The team has developed a durable and repeatable investment strategy and process for applying its stage expertise through sourcing and investing in companies at an early inflection point, adding value and scaling through organic growth and M&A, and exiting these must-have assets to strategics & financial sponsors. The team has experience investing across media & telecommunications, supply chain & logistics, financial technology, healthcare IT, security & compliance, and business process outsourcing and automation. For more information, please visit www.kaynepartners.com. About Inc. The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community they need to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005490/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] 97% of Humana's Medicare Advantage Members Are in Contracts Rated 4-Star or Higher for 2022, Reflecting Strong Commitment to Quality of Care, Patient-Centered Clinical Outcomes and Customer Service Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), one of the nation's leading health and well-being companies, today announced the Medicare Star Ratings for its Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, effective January 1, 2022, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS posts Star Ratings at www.medicare.gov. With these results, Humana's Star Ratings continue to reflect the company's strong focus on ensuring high quality of care, patient-centered clinical outcomes and reliable customer service for its members. Humana increased the number of contracts that received a 5-star rating on CMS's 5-star rating system from one contract in 2021 to four contracts in 2022, the most in the company's history, including HMO plans in Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky covering approximately 527,000 members. These plans include CarePlus Health Plans, Inc. in Florida, which received a 5-star rating for the fourth consecutive year, Cariten Health Plan Inc. in Tennessee, which previously received a 5-star rating in 2019, as well as Humana Health Benefit Plan of Louisiana, Inc. in Louisiana and Humana Health Plan of Ohio, Inc. in Kentucky, both of which received a 5-star rating for the first time. In addition, Humana received a 4.5-star rating for eight MA contracts offered in 33 states and Puerto Rico. In all, Humana has 41 rated contracts to be offered in 2022, 32 of which are rated 4-stars or higher and currently cover 4.8 million members, representing 97% of its existing MA membership in rated contracts as of September 2021. Over 99% of retirees in Humana's Group Medicare Advantage plans remain in 4-star or above contracts for 2022. "Humana is committed to helping our members achieve their best health by ensuring high quality of care, improved clinical outcomes that are patient-centered, and strong customer service," said Alan Wheatley, President, Retail Segment at Humana. "Our goal in Medicare Advantage is to offer industry-leading health plan options for people with Medicare that allow them to enjoy all the security of Original Medicare plus valuable added benefits. We are pleased to once again be recognized by CMS with such high ratings for our Medicare Advantage plan offerings." Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Humana has worked to overcome challenges in health care delivery in order to provide full support for its members' health and wellbeing. During this time, Humana sent reusable face masks to MA and Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) members, mailed over one million preventive care colon cancer screening and diabetic condition management in-home test kits to eligible members, and proactively called and scheduled approximately 65,000 members in 46 states to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, with a focus on individuals with societal barriers to scheduling and receiving the vaccine. Commenting on her experiences with Humana at a vaccination clinic earlier this year, Betty P., a Humana Medicare Advantage member in Tennessee, said "Humana was putting my health first, they were trying to help me. They had my health in their interest. I've been with them almost 10 years and they have never failed me." About Medicare Advantage Medicare Advantage's unique public-private structure creates an atmosphere of competition that spurs innovation that can help drive down costs and focus care on a person's whole health. Medicare Advantage plans are focused on coordinating care for those with multiple chronic conditions, helping lead to cost-effective interventions to address the unique health needs of aging or disabled Americans. These are a few reasons why more than 40 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries choose to be covered by Medicare Advantage plans. About Medicare Advantage Enrollment The Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plan Annual Election Period (AEP) begins Oct. 15 and continues through Dec. 7, 2021. During this enrollment period, people eligible for Medicare can choose Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans for the upcoming year - with coverage that takes effect on Jan. 1, 2022. People eligible for Medicare may make a one-time election to enroll in a plan offered by an MA organization with a Star Rating of 5 Stars during the year in which that plan has the 5-star overall performance rating, provided the enrollee meets the other requirements to enroll in that plan. This 5-star special election is available December 8 through November 30 of the following year. For more information about Humana's 2022 Medicare offerings, visit www.Humana.com/Medicare or call toll-free 1-800-213-5286 (TTY: 711). Licensed sales agents are available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time, seven days a week. About CMS Star Ratings The CMS rating system measures the excellence of Medicare plans nationally each year. A plan may receive a rating between one and five stars, with five stars representing the highest rating. CMS uses information from member-satisfaction surveys, health plans, and health care providers to assign overall Star Ratings to plans. The rating system uses more than 40 different quality measures across nine categories, including: Staying Healthy: Screenings, Tests and Vaccines Managing Chronic (Long Term) Conditions Member Experience with Health Plan Member Complaints and Changes in the Health Plan's Performance Health Plan Customer Service Drug Plan Customer Service Member Complaints and Changes in the Drug Plan's Performance Member Experience with Drug Plan Drug Safety and Accuracy of Drug Pricing Additional information about the CMS Star Ratings can be found at: www.medicare.gov. Listed below is a breakdown of Humana's contracts that achieved a rating of 5.0, 4.5 and 4.0-stars: Humana 5.0-Star Rated Contracts H0292 HUMANA HEALTH PLAN OF OHIO, INC. (KY HMO) H1019 CAREPLUS HEALTH PLANS, INC. (FL HMO) H1951 HUMANA HEALTH BENEFIT PLAN OF LOUISIANA, INC. (LA HMO) H4461 CARITEN HEALTH PLAN INC. (TN HMO) Humana 4.5-Star Rated Contracts H0028 CHA HMO, INC. (AZ, CO, HI, IA, IL, KS, MO, NE, NM, SD, TX HMOs) H1036 HUMANA MEDICAL PLAN, INC. (FL, KY, MS, NC, OR HMOs) H1468 HUMANA BENEFIT PLAN OF ILLINOIS, INC. (IL HMO) H4007 HUMANA HEALTH PLANS OF PUERTO RICO, INC. (PR HMO) H5525 HUMANA BENEFIT PLAN OF ILLINOIS, INC. (AL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MT, NC, OH, PA, SC, WV LPPOs) H5970 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK ( NY LPPO) H6622 HUMANA WI HEALTH ORGANIZATION INSURANCE CORP. (DE, KY, MN, MS, MT, NC, NJ, NV, OH, OK, PA, VA, WI HMOs) R5495 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (OH RPPO) Humana 4.0-Star Rated Contracts H0473 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY OF KENTUCKY (TX LPPO) H2237 INDEPENDENT CARE HEALTH PLAN (WI HMO) H2486 HUMANA MEDICAL PLAN OF UTAH, INC. (ID, UT, WA HMOs) H2944 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (GA, KS, MO, OK PFFS - Partial Networks) H3533 HUMANA HEALTH COMPANY OF NEW YORK, INC. (NY HMO) H4141 HUMANA EMPLOYERS HEALTH PLAN OF GEORGIA, INC. (GA HMO ) H4623 HUMANA REGIONAL HEALTH PLAN, INC. (MO HMO) H5216 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (AL, AZ, AR, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, KS, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI LPPOs) H5619 ARCADIAN HEALTH PLAN, INC. (AL, AR, CA (News - Alert) , ID, IN, KY, ME, NH, OK, SC, VA, WA, WV HMOs) H7284 HUMANA HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY OF FLORIDA, INC. (FL LPPO) H8087 HUMANADENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY (MI LPPO) H8145 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, MT, NM, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TX, VA, WV, WI PFFS - Full Networks) R0110 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (LA, MS RPPOs) R0865 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (IN, KY RPPOs) R0923 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (PA, WV RPPOs) R1390 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (NC, VA RPPOs) R3392 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (GA, SC RPPOs) R3887 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (MI RPPO) R4182 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (TX RPPO) R5361 HUMANA INSURANCE COMPANY (IL, WI RPPOs) About Humana Humana Inc. is committed to helping our millions of medical and specialty members achieve their best health. Our successful history in care delivery and health plan administration is helping us create a new kind of integrated care with the power to improve health and well-being and lower costs. Our efforts are leading to a better quality of life for people with Medicare, families, individuals, military service personnel, and communities at large. To accomplish that, we support physicians and other health care professionals as they work to deliver the right care in the right place for their patients, our members. Our range of clinical capabilities, resources and tools - such as in-home care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, data analytics and wellness solutions - combine to produce a simplified experience that makes health care easier to navigate and more effective. More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company's website at humana.com, including copies of: Annual reports to stockholders; Securities and Exchange Commission filings; Most recent investor conference presentations; Quarterly earnings news releases and conference calls; Calendar of events; and Corporate Governance information. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO and PFFS organization and a stand-alone prescription drug plan with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal. Every year, Medicare evaluates plans based on a 5-star rating system. Y0040_GHHLEMUEN_M View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005506/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Blend to Participate in the Morgan Stanley Spark Conference Blend Labs, Inc. (NYSE: BLND), a leader in cloud banking software, today announced that Nima Ghamsari, head of Blend, will participate in a virtual fireside chat at the Morgan Stanley Spark Conference on Friday, October 13, 2021. The discussion will begin at 10:15 a.m. PT / 1:15 p.m. ET. This fireside chat will be webcast live on the Company's investor relations website at https://investor.blend.com/a>. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same web address for 10 days following the conference. About Blend Blend's cloud banking platform is designed to power the end-to-end consumer journey for any banking product, from application to close. Our technology is used by Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and over 310 other financial services firms to acquire more customers, increase productivity, and deepen relationships. Through our software, we enable our customers to process an average of more than $5 billion in loans per day, helping consumers get into homes and gain access to the capital they need to lead better lives. To learn more, visit blend.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005504/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 08, 2021] Claros Mortgage Trust, Inc. Announces Filing of Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering Claros Mortgage Trust, Inc. ("CMTG") today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-11 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC (News - Alert) ") relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common stock. CMTG intends to apply to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CMTG." The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering. Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank, Wells Fargo Securities, JMP Securities (News - Alert) and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, A Stifel Company are also acting as book-running managers. The proposed offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the preliminary prospectus relating to the proposed offering, when available, may be obtained from any of the following sources: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, Second Floor, New York, New York 10014; or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, by telephone at (866) 803-9204 or by email at prospectus-eq_fi@jpmchase.com. This press release shall not constitute an offer 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 Claros Mortgage Trust, Inc. CMTG is a real estate investment trust that is focused primarily on originating senior and subordinate loans on transitional commercial real estate assets located in major markets across the U.S. CMTG is externally managed and advised by Claros REIT Management LP, an affiliate of Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies, L.P. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release, including statements relating to CMTG's expectations regarding the completion, timing and size of its proposed public offering and listing, may be considered 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. CMTG intends for all such forward-looking statements to be covered by the applicable safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in those acts. Such forward-looking statements can generally be identified by CMTG's use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue," "seek," "objective," "goal," "strategy," "plan," "focus," "priority," "should," "could," "potential," "possible," "look forward," "optimistic," or other similar words. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including known and unknown risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. Therefore, such statements are not intended to be a guarantee of CMTG's performance in future periods. Except as required by law, CMTG does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211008005568/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] And so the excitement over the new airport has turned in to skepticism and a horrific look behind the scenes of legislative sausage making. What have we learned . . . - The City manager isn't really trustworthy and is fiercely loyal to Mayor Q - That's not entirely a bad thing but good to know. - Labor struggles will inevitably confront new KCI . . . The group who won the deal doesn't have the best track record. - There was more excitement and participation from mayor & council over this bidding war than anything related improving public safety - Just a quick reminder to voters about what REALLY influences city hall. Hint: Money. Mayor Q's take . . . The round-up . . . "The council awarded the $1.5 billion contract to Vantage Airport Group in a 9-2 vote despite pushback from some council members . . .Some members of the other bids have even alleged that there's corruption involved in the selection process." Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . Kansas City Council awards $1.5B KCI concessions contract to Vantage Airport Group KANSAS CITY, Mo. - After weeks of debate, the Kansas City Council on Thursday approved the concessions contract for the new Kansas City International Airport terminal. The council awarded the $1.5 billion contract to Vantage Airport Group in a 9-2 vote despite pushback from some council members. Vantage Airport Group receives KCI concessions bid KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council voted 9-2, with one abstention, on Thursday to extend the Kansas City International Airport concessions contract to Vantage Airport Group. Vantage agreed to invest $65 million into the project with a term agreement of 15 years, according to a city fact sheet. After bruising process, Kansas City Council awards airport concessions contract to Vantage Airport Group Canada's Vantage Airport Group won out over four rival proposers Thursday to run the concessions at Kansas City International Airport's new terminal, slated to open in March 2023. The City Council vote was seen as a crucial decision, affecting visitors' first impressions of the city for years to come. Kansas City council awards airport concession deal to Vantage Airport Group Kansas City has awarded the contract to run concessions at the new KCI Airport to the Vantage Airport Group.The question has been: Did the Vantage Airport Group really offer the city the best deal?The city council decided overwhelmingly Thursday that it did. City Council approves Vantage's concessions contract for KCI KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- On Thursday, the KCMO City Council approved Vantage's concessions proposal for the new terminal at KCI. The vote was 9-1-1, leading to the contact being awarded to Vantage Airport Group. Developing . . . This time politicos promise it will be the last . . . But that's what they said last time. Of course their decision is based on "the science" which might or might not be up for debate as the nation confronts a pandemic winter and numbers have relented a bit. Money line . . . The extension followed a recommendation from the Kansas City Health Department. The health department credits masking for helping drop Kansas City's COVID-19 infection rate over the past month. While it's dropping, health experts said it's still not under the high rate of transmission threshold. They hope it will drop below that level if masks are required while indoors for another month. There is one change in the new health order council passed. It will allow exemptions for religious organizations and parochial schools. Thats based on recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings in New York and California. Catholic schools in Kansas City allow each parish to decide whether to require masks or not. Some are mirroring the public schools with mask rules. Others are not. Kansas City will allow that religious-based decision making. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . . Kansas City Council votes to require masks indoors for at least another month KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City's mask mandate will be around for at least another month. The full city council voted Thursday afternoon to extend the mandate through Nov. 4. It applies to the majority of people age 5 and older while indoors. The extension followed a recommendation from the Kansas City Health Department. KCMO City Council extends its indoor mask mandate as work continues to increase vaccinations KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council voted 10-1 to extend the indoor mask mandate until Nov. 4th. Mayor Quinton Lucas told reporters Wednesday that increasing vaccinations is the best way to prevent future extension orders. "If we get folks vaccinated this is perhaps something we don't need to deal with for another order extension," Lucas said. Kansas City's indoor mask mandate extended to Nov. 4 Kansas City, Missouri's city council has voted to extend the city's indoor mask mandate.Councilmembers voted to keep the mandate in place until Nov. 4.The indoor mask mandate applies to all public indoor spaces. Kansas City council votes to extend indoor mask mandate through Nov. 4 KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) --- The Kansas City council on Thursday voted to extend the city's mask mandate through the end of the October. Kansas City's extension will last through Nov. 4. The vote was 10-1. Local health experts say it makes sense to continue masking this winter With colder months ahead, local health experts say it makes sense to continue masking. Doctors from the University of Kansas Health System say now is not the time for people to let their guard down.They saw people ease up masking last year and hospitals were overwhelmed. Developing . . . Alternative post title . . . SENATOR HAWLEY PROTECTS KAREN!!! We offer info from both sides of the debate that impacts nicer school districts than KCMO wherein most parents have given up and MOVED OUT over years, decades and generations. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . . Sen. Hawley accuses Biden administration of sending FBI to silence parents at school board meetings Hawley's outrage started earlier in the week when the DOJ announced a new partnership with local law enforcement to investigate threats against local officials. ST. LOUIS - Thursday night, parents once again showed up at a Rockwood school board meeting with plenty to say. MSNBC Goes To Town On GOP Sen. Josh Hawley With A Stinging Supercut MSNBC's Chris Hayes used a stinging montage to call out Sen. Josh Hawley's (R-Mo.) indignation at Justice Department efforts to increase the monitoring of threats to teachers and school officials. Hawley's attack on the move amid a rise in harassment and intimidation over COVID-19 mask mandates and critical race theory teaching was "frankly kind of astounding when the reality of what's happening on the ground is undeniable," Hayes said Tuesday. Sen. Hawley excoriates President Biden for weaponizing the DOJ against parents by using FBI to silence them Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., joined " Tucker Carlson Tonight" Tuesday and tore into the Biden administration for attempting to silence concerned parents by using the FBI to crack down on those angry with education administrators. SEN. Developing . . . Local workers are eager to sue their bosses over the COVID vaxx but the law might not be on their side. Here's the word . . . Lawyer John Ziegelmeyer estimated that roughly 40% of the calls he gets these days are about vaccine mandates. "Definitely, a lot of calls." he said, "from folks being told they have 60 days to be vaccinated or face potential termination." Almost all the callers are asking the same questions. "Is it legal? Do I have to do this? I don't want to do this. How do I not do this?" Ziegelmeyer said. He does not have a clear-cut answer for them yet. TKC is NOT YOUR LAWYER but it's important to understand that both Missouri & Kansas have effectively busted local labor and AT-WILL EMPLOYMENT is the standard. Sadly, and generally speaking, thanks to "conservative" legislators and GOP super-majorities in both Missouri & Kansas state houses It's tougher to win legal victories against bosses in flyover country. Call that karma or just an inconvenient fact for partisan hacks who keep politicizing the pandemic. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . . Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it. I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends. More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it. The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity. About me: I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS. Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line). Age: 42 Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed. I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it). Ukraine calls on the OSCE SMM to launch remote monitoring of the situation in Crimea and welcomes the steps taken by the Mission to interview people on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied Crimea. Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, said this during the OSCE Permanent Council meeting on October 7, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. "We insist on the need to launch remote monitoring of the situation in Crimea, especially in view of the recent detentions of Crimean Tatars on September 3, 4, and 5, which is a continuation of the Russian occupation forces' illegal practice of using Russian law as a pretext for detaining dissidents on trumped-up charges," Tsymbaliuk said in response to the reports by Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine Mikko Kinnunen and Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM to Ukraine Yasar Halit Cevik. In this regard, Tsymbaliuk welcomed the initiative of the OSCE SMM to interview people on the administrative border with Crimea. "We call on the Mission to continue pursuing this practice," he added. At the same time, he noted that the Russian armed formations were restricting the SMM's access to the occupied territories along the Sea of Azov coast. "This happens at a time when commercial vessels continue to face artificial delays, Russia gradually militarizes the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and Crimea becomes a military outpost of Russia," the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna said. In addition, the Ukrainian diplomat condemned yet another forced conscription campaign in the occupied territories of Crimea and eastern Ukraine announced on October 1. As noted, since 2014 and up to this day, more than 30,000 Ukrainian citizens have been illegally drafted into the Russian Armed Forces. ol All obstacles to the production of Turkish armed drones Bayraktar TB2 in Ukraine have been removed, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. He said this at a briefing following his talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Lviv on October 7, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "As for the construction of Bayraktar drones in Ukraine, I believe that this project has already been implemented in Ukraine, because it enjoys the political patronage of both presidents. There were a number of obstacles to its implementation, but they have all been removed," he said. Kuleba noted that a plot of land for a drone construction plant has already been allotted. "That's why politicians have done their job, and now businesses should launch production," he said. Ukraine's Defense Ministry and Turkey's Baykar Savunma signed a memorandum of cooperation on September 29. According to the document, Bayraktar will build a maintenance and modernization center for the company's unmanned aerial vehicles on a plot of land, owned by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, near Vasylkiv, Kyiv region. The center will also train personnel who will operate UAVs. A number of such centers will be built in Ukraine later. op UkraineTurkey trade balance has exceeded the pre-pandemic level. "At today's meeting, we discussed all aspects of our bilateral relations and regional issues. I and Dmytro signed a plan of consultations that will revive our work aimed at the development of bilateral relations and regional issues. This year, our trade balance has exceeded the pre-pandemic level," Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a briefing following the talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba in Lviv on October 7, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. The minister informed that a meeting of the Ukraine-Turkey Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation was scheduled for the near future. In his speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey praised the relations between the two countries and thanked the Government of Ukraine for putting out fires in Antalya and neighboring provinces. "We will never forget this show of solidarity," he said. Cavusoglu also informed that the parties had touched upon consular issues due to the rise in personal contacts of citizens of the two countries in business, investment, and tourism. Turkeys foreign minister assured that both countries would make joint efforts to guarantee the observance of rights of Crimean Tatars in sovereign Ukraine. "And we will work on a project to build housing for the Crimean Tatars and will hopefully begin construction this year," Cavusoglu said. In addition, the top Turkish diplomat invited President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and minister Kuleba to take part in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum scheduled for March. As reported, the 9th meeting of the UkraineTurkey Joint Strategic Planning Group took place in Lviv, in which Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu took part at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba. ol The 30% growth of UkraineGeorgia trade turnover over the past six months testifies to friendly relations. "The trade turnover between Ukraine and Georgia grew by almost 30% over the first half of 2021, clearly testifying to friendly relations between our countries," Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal posted on Twitter. He also expressed gratitude to Georgian Parliament Speaker Kakha Kuchava for his visit to Ukraine. Shmyhal expressed confidence that the strategic cooperation between Ukraine and Georgia would be actively developed further. As reported, events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy took place in the territory of the National Historical and Memorial Preserve Babyn Yar on October 6. The memorial events were attended by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Israel Isaac Herzog, President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Kakha Kuchava, Speaker of the Riksdag of Sweden Andreas Norlen, Marshal of the Senate of Poland Tomasz Grodzki, foreign delegations. The visit of the Georgian Parliament Speaker takes place against the background of the arrest in Georgia of Mikheil Saakashvili, the chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Reform Council of Ukraine, former president of Georgia. As reported, on Friday morning, October 1, Saakashvili posted a video on Facebook, in which he said that he was in Batumi. In the evening of the same day, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced that Mikheil Saakashvili had been detained 1. In turn, the former president went on a hunger strike, saying he considered himself a political prisoner. Mikheil Saakashvili was the president of Georgia in 2008-2013. After losing the 2013 election, he left the country. Several criminal cases were instituted against him in his homeland, within some of which he was sentenced to imprisonment in absentia. In 2015, Saakashvili was deprived of Georgian citizenship and has been a citizen of Ukraine for almost six years. He currently heads the Executive Committee of the National Reform Council of Ukraine. Photo credit: Denys Shmyhal, Twitter ol First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy Oleksiy Liubchenko held a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Italian Republic to Ukraine Pier Francesco Zazo in Kyiv on October 7, Ukrinform reports, referring to the Government portal. Ukraine and Italy have strong trade and economic relations. Among the EU countries, Italy ranks third in terms of trade turnover. Last year, it was over $4 billion, according to preliminary forecasts, this year this figure will be higher. However, we have prospects to improve these positions. One of the tools and an important step can be the signing of an Agreement on Mutual Protection of Investments. The text of the document is currently being studied by the Italian side, Im calling on you to intensify this work," Liubchenko said at the meeting. The Ukrainian first deputy prime minister also spoke about the main administrative reforms and sectors of the Ukrainian economy that may be of interest to Italian business circles. "We have launched efficient mechanisms and reforms to improve the investment environment, first of all, these are decentralization, land reform, and now we are restarting the privatization process. We also have powerful programs to support investment projects. As for the sectors of the economy where it is possible to implement joint projects, it is the development of alternative energy sources, gas production, processing of agricultural products, defense industry, Oleksiy Liubchenko stressed. In turn, Pier Francesco Zazo noted that promising areas of cooperation for Italian business are the space and defense industries, the introduction of high-speed rail services, and infrastructure projects. "We are trying to convince Italian investors to invest in Ukraine. We pass on positive information about the activities of the Ukrainian government - the success of decentralization and other reforms, said the Italian ambassador iy Kyiv police received a report on October 8 that Ukrainian MP Anton Poliakov had been found dead in the Dniprovskyi district of the city, according to a statement posted on the website of the National Police of Ukraine. "Law enforcement officers established that the man felt unwell while travelling in a taxi. Ambulance doctors tried to resuscitate him, but pronounced him dead. The police are taking all the necessary investigative measures at the scene to establish the circumstances of the MP's death. The body of the deceased will be sent for a forensic examination, which should determine the cause of death," the statement reads. Criminal proceedings have been instituted under Part 1 of Article 115 (premeditated murder) of the Criminal code of Ukraine with a note "Natural death." Investigative actions are underway. Poliakov was an entrepreneur from Chernihiv. He ran for the Verkhovna Rada on the ticket of the Servant of the People party. He was a member of the Party for the Future group, chairman of the subcommittee on compliance with anti-corruption legislation in the field of reforming the defense industry of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy. Photo: wikipedia/Frews.fredd NATO will reaffirm support for its close partners, Ukraine and Georgia, at a summit in Madrid in 2022, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said. He stated this at a press conference in Brussels on October 7 following a North Atlantic Council meeting with National Security Advisers, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "I think it's a bit early now to prejudge exactly what kind of decisions leaders will make at the Summit later on next year. But I'm absolutely confident that Allies will continue to stand by what they have stated before, and that is that we fully support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our close partners, Georgia and Ukraine. We also stand by our decisions when it comes to their aspirations to join NATO. We will continue to provide practical and political support, so they can move towards further Euro-Atlantic integration," Stoltenberg said. He welcomed the fact that NATO Allies, NATO Allies, both within the NATO framework, but also bilaterally provide support and thereby help both Ukraine and Georgia. "I met with the President of Ukraine just a couple of weeks ago in New York. We are continuing to strengthen our cooperation and partnership both with Ukraine and Georgia, and then this will be an issue we will address as we prepare for the upcoming summit in Madrid next year," Stoltenberg added. op The United States expects Russia to show political to bring about a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, according to Elisabeth Rosenstock-Siller, Acting Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE. She said this at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on October 7, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "Progress depends on Russia's political will, which we hope we begin to see. The additional measures to strengthen the ceasefire have saved lives, reduced human suffering, and demonstrated progress was possible. We call on Russia to demonstrate such political will again. While we all deeply desire a Russia that participates meaningfully in peace negotiations, at a bare minimum, Russia and the forces it funds, equips, trains, and leads need to abstain from violence in the meantime," she said. Addressing Mikko Kinnunen, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group, and Halit Cevik, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, Rosenstock-Siller thanked them for their "tireless efforts to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict instigated and led by Russia in eastern Ukraine." "We all depend on the SMM and its dedicated monitors to deliver the impartial reports, which provide an accurate view of the situation on the ground. Their unbiased nature allows readers to make their own conclusions based on facts. And the facts demonstrate Russia's aggression is the driver of this conflict," the diplomat said. op During her first visit to Ukraine, newly appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Robin Dunnigan discussed a wide range of USUkraine relations during the meetings with government officials. During her first visit to Ukraine, newly appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Robin Dunnigan responsible for Central and Eastern Europe engaged on the full range of U.S.Ukraine issues in meetings with government, civil society, and media, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine posted on Facebook. As noted, Dunnigan reiterated U.S. support for Ukraines security as it undertakes historic reforms at a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Senik. She then honored the more than 13,000 Ukrainians killed in the east due to Russias aggression and underscored in her meetings the U.S. would continue to support Ukraines civil society, rule of law, and anti-corruption institutions, reads the statement. Photo credit: U.S. Embassy Kyiv Ukraine, Facebook ol Ukrainian and Turkish Foreign Ministers Dmytro Kuleba and Mevlut Cavusoglu have honored the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred in Lviv. According to Ukrinform, Kuleba announced this on his Twitter account. "Today, Mevlut Cavusoglu and I honored the memory of the Heavenly Hundred in Lviv. The Revolution of Dignity has ensured that Ukraine develops as a free & democratic European state. I am forever grateful for the bravery & sacrifice of the Ukrainian people who secured this choice," Kuleba said. Kuleba said at a briefing after talks with Cavusoglu on October 7 that all obstacles to the production of Turkish armed drones Bayraktar TB2 in Ukraine had been removed. Photo credit: Kuleba's Twitter account The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine calls on the European partners to recognize the prospect for Ukraine's membership in the European Union. The corresponding resolution "On the Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine "On Priority Issues of Ukraine's Integration into the EU" was supported by 304 MPs, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ... calls for the recognition of the prospect for Ukraine's membership in the EU in accordance with Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union," reads the statement. According to the document, the Parliament of Ukraine confirms Ukraine's strategic movement towards Ukraine's full membership in the European Union, enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. MPs call on the European Parliament to consider immediately at the plenary session and take steps to ban the Nord Stream 2 project as it runs counter the EU's Third Energy Package, the principles of the Energy Community and poses a risk to Europe's energy security. The Verkhovna Rada points out the threats to the energy and geopolitical security of Central and Eastern Europe posed by the Nord Stream 2 project and calls on the EU, its institutions, and Member States to take into account the risks posed by its operation and take all possible measures to prevent the use of energy resources as weapons. The Verkhovna Rada members urge the European Parliament and the parliaments of the Member States to take additional measures for further sectoral cooperation and provision of support to Ukraine in implementing the principles of the European Green Deal in Ukraine, as well as coordinating the parties' actions taking into account Ukraine's updated nationally determined contribution to the Paris Agreement. Parliamentarians believe that access to financial resources within the framework of the European Green Deal implementation should be a catalyst for reducing the gap in economic development between Ukraine and the EU Member States and call on the European Commission to actively cooperate with the Government of Ukraine in implementing the economic and investment plan for the Eastern Partnership and to coordinate jointly international investments in the green transformation of Ukraine. The members of the Parliament of Ukraine commend the European Union's and its Member States' continued support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty in the face of Russian aggression and underscore it is important to maintain and strengthen sanctions against Russia over the attempted annexation of Crimea and the temporary occupation of Donbas. The Verkhovna Rada urges to strengthen sanctions against the Russian Federation over the illegal issuance of its passports to Ukrainian citizens and the forced involvement of Ukrainian citizens in the elections in the Russian Federation. The members of the Verkhovna Rada express their gratitude to the representatives of the European Union institutions for participating in the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence and the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform, as well as for supporting Ukraine's access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and assuring of further cooperation to overcome the pandemic. As reported, this year's EU-Ukraine Summit will take place in Kyiv on October 12. ol The General Assembly of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), in which Ukraine is represented by Ukrinform, has taken place in Vienna. Among other things, it was decided that the Alliance's General Assembly and Conference would be held in Kyiv in September next year, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. These events were to take place in the Ukrainian capital in 2020 but were held online due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to Ukrinform Director General Oleksandr Kharchenko, holding EANA events in Kyiv will reaffirm that Ukrinform is already an active participant in information cooperation with EU partners, and the heads of Europe's leading news agencies will be able to see that Ukraine is confidently moving towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Clemens Pig, CEO of the Austrian Press Agency, has been elected the new president of EANA. In this position, he will replace Peter Kropsch, CEO of the German news agency dpa. "Next year, the General Assembly of the European Alliance of News Agencies will be held in Kyiv. It will be hosted by Ukrinform, a member of the Alliance. And we are really looking forward to this event. Ukraine is beautiful!" said Clemens Pig, the newly elected president of EANA. The European Alliance of News Agencies was founded in 1956 and currently unites more than 30 leading European news agencies. Ukrinform, which represents Ukraine at the Alliance, has been a member of the EANA since 1995. In the first photo: Oleksandr Kharchenko, Clemens Pig A university professor for many years, Abdelazeez spent his life teaching international law in universities throughout the Middle East. Now a refugee in Jordan since the start of the Syrian conflict, Abdelazeez struggles on a daily basis to support his three children, wife and mother. With academia being a closed sector for refugees, Abdelazeez has not been able to continue his work, and has been facing challenges in meeting not only the basic needs of the family, but also the medical expenses for his elderly mother and the additional educational support that his son Omar requires due to his special needs. I have accepted the reality of life here in Jordan, its difficult. I feel that I have lost 27 years of learning and professional experience. But my belief in God that there will be better times still remains. Sultan from Yemen finds himself in a similar situation. Before the outbreak of the conflict, he was a successful tradesman selling clothes to several large outlet malls. Since fleeing to Jordan in 2014, he has been unable to work due to the obstacles for non-Syrian refugees in accessing the Jordanian labour market. I came here because I thought there would be a future, but it has been more difficult than I expected, Sultan says explaining how difficult it has been to provide for his family and depending on humanitarian assistance. The challenges Abdelazeez and Sultan have faced in recent years in supporting their families were exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But help was on hand as their families were among over 70,000 vulnerable families that have received COVID-19 cash assistance from UNHCR Jordan over the past year. For most families, the assistance helped pay off some of the debts that refugees have accumulated as a result of the economic impact of the pandemic, as well as outstanding rent and electricity and water bills. Muthab, 36, who has lived in Jordan for 16 years after fleeing his home in Baghdad, Iraq, was also a recipient of COVID-19 cash assistance. A divorced father of two, Muthab saves every penny he earns to provide for his children. But over the past year he has struggled a lot. As a windscreen repair specialist, Muthab didnt receive any calls for work during the lockdowns. COVID-19 also made life very difficult for Hanans family. As a construction worker in Aleppo, Syria, Hanan was able to support his family for years, but a number of health issues have prevented him from working since fleeing to Jordan five years ago. Consequently, the family now depends on the two eldest sons, Ahmad, 18, and Mohammad, 16, to provide an income. But the informal work opportunities that Ahmad and Mohammad relied on prior to the pandemic dried up and the family has struggled even more. Just three months ago they were evicted from their previous house as they couldnt afford the rent and still owe two months of rent to their current landlord. We normally only have one meal a day, and sometimes we have to prioritize feeding the young children over ourselves. Sometimes we dont even have JOD 2 for bread and water, says Hanan explaining the difficult decisions his wife and he have to take to meet the basic needs of the family. After receiving the COVID-19 cash assistance from UNHCR in August 2021, Hanan decided to put some of it towards rent, and the rest towards food. I bought chicken and fruit so the family could have a nice meal, he says with a smile. Abdelazeez, Sultan, Muthab, and Hanans are some of over 70,000 households that over the past year have received COVID-19 cash assistance from UNHCR Jordan, to help meet their basic needs. This assistance was supported through funding from Austria, the European Union, and the US. COVID-19 emergency assistance is specifically targeted towards refugees and their families who were severely affected by the impact that COVID-19 has had on the livelihoods of refugees and vulnerable Jordanians. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter We are increasingly alarmed about the humanitarian situation for asylum seekers and refugees in Libya. Following a large-scale security operation by the Libyan authorities in the past week, arrests and raids have been taking place in many parts of Tripoli, targeting areas where asylum seekers and migrants are living. At least one person was reported to have been killed and 15 were injured. More than 5,000 people have now been arrested and held in several detention centres in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Among those are several who had been prioritized for evacuation or resettlement flights out of Libya. The raids, which also involved the demolition of many unfinished buildings and makeshift houses, have created widespread panic and fear among asylum seekers and refugees in the capital. Many, including unaccompanied children and young mothers, who had lost their shelters and are now homeless have approached UNHCR staff and partners at the Community Day Centre (CDC) for urgent assistance. As a result of the raids and deteriorating conditions, we have seen increasing crowds of asylum seekers protesting in front of the CDC in Tripoli, appealing for evacuation out of Libya and resettlement. UNHCR and partners were able to provide assistance to asylum seekers, including food, other relief items and emergency cash at the start of the crisis. But in recent days, escalating tensions among the crowd, resulting in injuries of two partner staff members, and the hindering of access for other asylum seekers in urgent need of help, has prompted us to temporarily suspend regular services at the centre. We continue to call on authorities to: respect at all times the human rights and dignity of asylum seekers and refugees, stop their arrests, and release those detained, including those who had been due to leave on evacuation and resettlement flights. We renew our appeal to the Libyan authorities to allow the resumption of humanitarian flights out of the country, which have been suspended for almost a year. The suspension of humanitarian flights has led to several resettlement countries informing UNHCR that they can no longer receive additional resettlement submissions from Libya for 2021. This will result in the loss of 162 places on direct resettlement flights out of Libya. In total, it is expected that nearly 1,000 resettlement slots will not be filled either from Libya or through the Emergency Transit Mechanisms (ETM) in Rwanda and Niger. The ETM allows UNHCR to evacuate people out of Libya, and then to process their claims for long-term solutions. The flights have been a lifeline for asylum seekers and refugees in Libya. Today (8th October 2021), Gold Rates in Pakistan is 96,500 per 10 grams, and the rate of Gold is 112,500 per tola. See prices of 22k, 24k, 21k and 18 karat Gold Prices of all cities here. Gold Rate in Pakistan today on 8th October 2021 - Per Tola Gold Rate in Pakistan today is 112,500 for 24-Karat, 103,169 for 22-Karat. Per 10 gram Gold Rate in Pakistan today is 96,500 for 24-Karat, 88,458 for 22-Karat. UrduPoint brings you the latest prices for gold rates, silver rates on a daily basis and updates the rates every hour. Gold Rate in Pakistan Today Karachi is the center of the gold market in Pakistan because Gold prices are set by the Karachi Sarafa Market. All other cities set the gold price according to the Karachi Sarafa Bazar Association for Gold Price. According to the below table, the gold rates in different cities such as Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta, Multan and Peshawar are the same. Location 24k 10g 24k per tola 22k 10g Pakistan Rs 96,500 Rs 112,500 Rs 88,458 Karachi Rs 96,500 Rs 112,500 Rs 88,458 Lahore Rs 96,500 Rs 112,500 Rs 88,458 Islamabad Rs 96,500 Rs 112,500 Rs 88,458 Rawalpindi Rs 96,500 Rs 112,500 Rs 88,458 Peshawar Rs 96,500 Rs 112,500 Rs 88,458 Quetta Rs 96,500 Rs 112,500 Rs 88,458 Sialkot Rs 96,500 Rs 112,500 Rs 88,458 (@FahadShabbir) Vienna, Oct 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Friday faced increasing calls to step down, including from his own government allies, two days after he was implicated in a corruption scandal. On Wednesday prosecutors raided several locations linked to Kurz's right-wing People's Party (OeVP) and announced that the 35-year-old and nine other individuals were under investigation over claims that government money was used in a corrupt deal to ensure positive media coverage. The opposition has announced they will file a no-confidence motion against Kurz next Tuesday though whether it can succeed depends on the OeVP's junior coalition partner, the Greens, who have not yet said how they will vote. But Greens leader and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler said the "serious, dire accusations" have "cast doubt on the ability of the chancellor to act and carry out his office effectively". "Now it's getting extraordinarily difficult" to continue to work with Kurz, he told reporters ahead of meeting opposition parties to discuss how they could ensure "stability". If Tuesday's vote gets the required majority in parliament to succeed, it would be the second time Kurz -- who became the world's youngest democratically elected leader in 2017 -- is deposed. In 2019, his coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) collapsed after his ally became engulfed in a corruption scandal, but fresh elections once again saw Kurz's OeVP come out on top. In the latest scandal, Kurz has denied any wrongdoing, saying the accusations against him were "baseless," and has so far ruled out stepping down. Thousands demonstrated in front of the OeVP headquarters in downtown Vienna late Thursday, calling for Kurz's resignation while waving signs that read "Against corruption" and "Shame on you". According to prosecutors, the core allegation is that between 2016 and 2018, finance ministry resources were used to finance "partially manipulated opinion polls that served an exclusively party political interest". This correlates to the time period in which Kurz, already a government minister, took over the leadership of the OeVP and later that of the Alpine EU member at the helm of a coalition with the FPOe. Prosecutors allege that payments were made to an unnamed media company -- widely understood to be the Oesterreich tabloid -- in return for publishing these surveys. The OeVP-Green coalition -- a first at a national level -- entered office in January 2020 and has already been put under strain several times by the fallout from other corruption scandals and differences over questions such as refugee policy. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Maputo, Oct 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :Search and rescue operations were underway on Friday after a boat laden with dozens of people, many of them children, capsized in rough waters off the coast of northern Mozambique, local media reported. The boat was sailing from the port city of Nacala to Memba town, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north, when it capsized. "Around 30 people were on board the vessel, according to available information," Juma Cadria, the administrator of the Memba district, told public radio. Eight people swam ashore, "but the information is still preliminary," Cadria added. Earlier the same station had reported that more than 60 people, mostly children, were missing following the accident. Local officials did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment. (@FahadShabbir) Paris, Oct 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :A landmark ruling by Poland's top court rejecting the supremacy of EU law marks an attack on the European Union, France's Europe Minister Clement Beaune said on Friday. "It is very serious... there is the risk of a de-facto exit" of Poland from the EU, he told the BFM-TV broadcaster in an interview, adding "I do not want the exit of Poland". "This is an attack on the EU by a constitutional court that was modelled by the Polish government," Beaune said. The court on Thursday ruled that some EU treaty articles were "incompatible" with the Polish constitution and warned EU institutions not to "act beyond the scope of their competencies" by interfering with Poland's judiciary. Poland and the EU are at odds over judicial reforms introduced by Poland's governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party which Brussels warns threaten the country's democracy. "This is not a technical or a legal question. This is a highly political topic that adds to a long list of provocations aimed at the EU," Beaune said of the Polish ruling. "When you join a club you sign a contract that is called a treaty, which was ratified by referendum in Poland. This was the choice of the Polish people," he said. Beaune said Poland's government "does not respect the values and fundamental principles of the EU, women's rights, minority rights, or the independence of the judiciary and the media," he said. "There are 80 million Polish people and they want to remain in the EU. They did not want this," Beaune said. The EU Commission said on Thursday it would use all the tools available to ensure the primacy of EU law in Poland. Beirut, Oct 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :Discussions between Iran and Saudi Arabia are on the right track but it will take more time to restore bilateral ties, Iran's foreign minister said in Beirut Friday. Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni kingpin Saudi Arabia, on opposing sides in multiple regional conflicts, have been engaged in talks since April with the aim of improving relations, for the first time since cutting ties in 2016. The discussions were launched under Iran's former moderate president Hassan Rouhani and have continued since his ultraconservative successor, Ebrahim Raisi, took office in August. "The Iran-Saudi dialogue is on the right track," Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said during a news conference at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, on the second day of a 48-hour visit to Lebanon. "We have achieved results and agreements, but we still need more dialogue," he added. (@ChaudhryMAli88) SEOUL, Oct. 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :South Korea's rice production was estimated to rise 9.1 percent this year thanks to favorable weather conditions, statistical office data showed Friday. A combined 3,827,000 tons of rice, a key staple food for South Koreans, was expected to be produced in the country in 2021, according to Statistics Korea. It was up 9.1 percent from the previous year. The statistical office said weather conditions were favorable to cultivate rice amid the proper rainfall and the right duration of bright sunshine. Estimate for rice production per 100 square meters stood at 522 kg in 2021, up 8.2 percent from the prior year. The size of rice paddies across the country edged up 0.8 percent from a year earlier to 732,477 hectares this year. Meanwhile, consumption of rice in the country has been on the decline for the past decades owing to the change in eating habits. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Washington, Oct 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :A US nuclear submarine was damaged after hitting an unidentified object while operating underwater in Asia, the US Navy said Thursday. The USS Connecticut, a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine, "struck an object while submerged on the afternoon of Oct. 2, while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region," the navy said in a statement. It said there were no life-threatening injuries, but USNI News, a site specializing in navy news, reported that about a dozen sailors were hurt "with moderate to minor injuries. " USNI News also said the submarine was operating in the South China Sea, where the US Navy has sought to challenge China's disputed territorial claims on small islands, reefs and outcrops. The navy said the extent of the damage is being examined and the incident investigated. "The submarine remains in a safe and stable condition. USS Connecticut's nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational," it said. USNI News said the vessel is now headed to the US base at Guam. National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf on Friday said massive human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) by brutal occupant forces were a serious threat to peace in the region ISLAMABAD, Oct 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf on Friday said massive human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) by brutal occupant forces were a serious threat to peace in the region. The NSA stated this while shedding light on the IIOJK plight during a call on paid by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, said a news release. The delegations of Pakistan and the US discussed bilateral issues and the changing situation in the region during the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Moeed said the international community needed to talk and liaise with Afghanistan's new interim government. The discussions during the meeting focused on economic cooperation, trade, security in the region and Afghanistan situation was discussed. It added that the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere, where the dignitaries vowed for better bilateral relations between the two countries. The US delegation appreciated Pakistan's role in withdrawal from Afghanistan and assisting the Afghan refugees. (@imziishan) Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Friday said the Sindh government was hand in glove with the mafia fleecing the consumers by selling wheat flour at higher rates ISLAMABAD, Oct 8 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Friday said the Sindh government was hand in glove with the mafia fleecing the consumers by selling wheat flour at higher rates. Addressing a press conference along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Maritime Affairs Mahmood Maulvi here, he said the ruling elite of Sindh including Asif Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto and Murad Ali were responsible for adding fuel to the injury of people by not releasing the public stock of wheat to the flour mills. He said profiteers and hoarders were at par with the Sindh cabinet and they were being facilitated to mint money at the coast of poor consumers, adding, the ruling elite had its share in the ill-gotten money. He said it was responsibility of the government release wheat stock as such interventions help stabilize its prices. He reiterated the demand that the Sindh government should release the government stock of the wheat at the earliest to provide relief to the consumers. The Punjab and KPK governments had been releasing the public stock to flour mills at subsidized rates of the respective provinces to stabilize the prices of the commodity whereas Sindh government had not released any public sector stock so far. He said in Punjab and KPK, flour mills were provided 40 kg of wheat at Rs 1950 and which they were selling at Rs 1100 per 20 kg bag. On the contrary the people of Sindh especially Karachi were purchasing 20 kg flour bag at Rs 1450 to 1500 which was unjustified. He said Ministry of National Food Security and Research, a couple of days ago, wrote a memorandum to the Sindh government with the observation that pricing trend in Sindh indicated that due to delay in release of wheat from public stock by the food department, prices were unstable in the province. The minister said despite having the public wheat stock about 1.269 MMT, no releases had been started so far by Sindh government. The memorandum said in the absence of public interventions, the traders and hoarders were making profit by increasing prices and fleecing the common consumer. Farrukh said in past, wheat worth Rs 13 billion in Sindh was eaten by rodents, perhaps this time also the wheat stock had been wasted by the government. He said the stock was not eaten by the rodents, it was sold by the Sindh rulers and pocketed the money. To a question, he said during past one year the federal government had given Rs 24 billion subsidy to Utility Store Corporation and during past one and half year Rs 30 billion subsidy were given to Utility Stores Corporation where commodities were available at 15 to 20 per cent cheaper than the open market rates. He said the government was also working on a scheme of direct subsidy to the poor people and its modalities were being finalized. He said either they would be given ration cards or would be given cash subsidy, adding, decision in this regard would be made soon. Farrukh said the government was also holding consultations with ghee mills owners and mulling to reduce taxes on the commodity and provide relief to the consumers in cooking oil and ghee prices. He said the Federal Government had been working on many uplift programs in Sindh especially Karachi adding, the government gave Rs 1100 billion package to Karachi, besides Rs 450 billion package for other districts of the province. He said the federal government had built green line bus project for Karachi people and its buses had arrived. Similarly it was working on water supply project K-IV, remodeling of nullahs, Karachi Circular Train and Karachi Trade Corridor. On the other hand the Sindh rulers were busy in making fake accounts and transferring money to their foreign banks. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Maritime Affairs Mahmood Maulvi said if the Sindh government had not purchased enough quantity of wheat at the time of harvesting, it should inform the federal government which so that it could be released from its reserves to stabilize the price of the commodity. He said the Sindh people in general and Karachi people in particular gave mandate to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and it would not leave them on the mercy of the Sindh government. \932 A hospital in Afghanistan's Kunduz city received the bodies of at least 15 people killed in Friday's mosque attack, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) source said Kabul, Oct 8 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :A hospital in Afghanistan's Kunduz city received the bodies of at least 15 people killed in Friday's mosque attack, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) source said. "We have received more than 90 wounded patients and over 15 dead bodies, but the number will change. We are still receiving more people," said the hospital worker, who did not want to be named. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Belarusian Border Committee on Friday sent a request to Poland demanding to clarify Warsaw's statement about the alleged shooting at the border MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2021) The Belarusian Border Committee on Friday sent a request to Poland demanding to clarify Warsaw's statement about the alleged shooting at the border. Earlier in the day, a spokeswoman for the Polish border service, Anna Michalska, claimed that Belarusian border forces fired, most likely with rigged bullets, towards Polish guards. Belarus State Border Committee spokesman Anton Bychkovsky has said that the country's forces did not use weapons at the border perimeter in the past 24 hours. "The border committee sent an official request to the Polish side with the requirement to provide information on the statement made by the representative of the Polish border guard," the committee said in its Telegram channel. The UN Security Council will gather for an informal virtual meeting on Friday to discuss the human rights situation in Belarus, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said HELSINKI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2021) The UN Security Council will gather for an informal virtual meeting on Friday to discuss the human rights situation in Belarus, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. "On Friday 8 October, a high-level informal virtual meeting is held at the UN Security Council on Estonia's initiative to draw attention to the deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus and the actions of Belarusian authorities that violate international law, such as the forced landing of a civilian airplane," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The meeting will be chaired by Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets from a studio in Tallinn, where she will be joined by her Latvian counterpart, Edgars Rinkevics, and Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomenas. "Estonia called the meeting and it has a record number of co-sponsors - 32 countries, including several members of the UN Security Council and other UN members from Europe and beyond," the statement read. Relations between Western countries and Belarus became strained following the August 2020 election that saw incumbent Alexander Lukashenko secure his sixth term in office. With the Belarusian opposition claiming electoral fraud, the country plunged into a political crisis accompanied by mass protests. Several Western countries have slapped sanctions on Belarusian officials over alleged electoral fraud and protest suppression. The tensions took a new turn following the arrest of Belarusian opposition journalist Roman Protasevich on May 23 and the deteriorating situation on the border with the Baltic states over undocumented migrants' influx. A 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard, the oldest person charged with complicity in the murder of thousands of detainees, told a German court on Friday that he was not guilty Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, Oct 8 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :A 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard, the oldest person charged with complicity in the murder of thousands of detainees, told a German court on Friday that he was not guilty. "I am innocent," said Josef Schuetz, who stands accused of "knowingly and willingly" assisting in the murder of 3,518 prisoners at the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, between 1942 and 1945. The Sachsenhausen camp detained more than 200,000 people between 1936 and 1945, including Jews, Roma, regime opponents and gay people. Tens of thousands of inmates died from forced labour, murder, medical experiments, hunger or disease before the camp was liberated by Soviet troops, according to the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum. When asked about his work at the camp, Schuetz insisted that he knew nothing about what happened there and that he did "absolutely nothing". Allegations against Schuetz include aiding and abetting the "execution by firing squad of Soviet prisoners of war in 1942" and the murder of prisoners "using the poisonous gas Zyklon B". His claims of innocence sparked an outcry from co-plaintiffs. Pointing a finger at the accused, co-plaintiff Christoffel Heijer, 84, told the court: "To Mr Schuetz, I would like to say -- I can understand that you were driven by fear of the Nazis to not leave your work, but how did you sleep peacefully for so long? Have you not thought about it? Never felt guilty?"Christoph Heubner, vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee deplored that "the silence continues". "This trial has a significant meaning but it would serve society more if the accused were to participate more," he said. Moldova's Party of Socialists has called for a protest on Sunday to demand the president's resignation after the opposition-backed prosecutor general was arrested on corruption charges CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2021) Moldova's Party of Socialists has called for a protest on Sunday to demand the president's resignation after the opposition-backed prosecutor general was arrested on corruption charges. "The only solution is protesting... The only demand should be that the president, the government and the parliament all resign and that snap presidential and parliamentary elections be called," Igor Dodon, the party's leader, said on Friday. Alexandr Stoianoglo was arrested on Tuesday on accusations of corruption, abuse of power and false declaration of assets. The next day, Moldova's pro-Western President Maia Sandu appointed an acting prosecutor general, Dumitru Robu, who previously worked as a deputy head of the Chisinau prosecutor's office. Stoianoglo, appointed under Dodon's presidency, denied the charges. The Polish foreign ministry on Friday summoned the Belarusian charge d'affaires after Poland said its soldiers were fired at by Belarusian armed personnel on the border between the two countries Warsaw, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :The Polish foreign ministry on Friday summoned the Belarusian charge d'affaires after Poland said its soldiers were fired at by Belarusian armed personnel on the border between the two countries. A Polish border guard spokeswoman said that the incident happened on Thursday and that nobody was injured as the shots were "probably blank rounds". Belarus denied that its forces had fired any shots and asked the Polish side to provide evidence. "We have evidence that the shots were fired," foreign ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina said. "If necessary, this evidence will be handed over to the Belarusian side, and not only to the Belarusian side, of course, but also to the public and other countries," he told reporters. Belarus's state border service earlier wrote on its Telegram channel: "Belarusian border guards have not used weapons on any part of the state border over the past 24 hours". But Polish border guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska said that "a Belarusian service patrol fired shots in the direction of Polish Army soldiers who patrol the border together with us". "There are more and more of these provocations," she added. Thousands of migrants -- mostly from the middle East and Africa -- have tried to cross the Polish border from Belarus since August. The EU has said this influx is deliberately engineered by the Belarusian regime as a way of retaliating against EU sanctions. Poland has responded to the unprecedented migrant arrivals by sending thousands of soldiers to the border and implementing a state of emergency there, as well as building a razor-wire fence. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged a global effort to protect a free press as he congratulated the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, embattled journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov United Nations, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2021 ) :UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged a global effort to protect a free press as he congratulated the winners of the Nobel Peace prize, embattled journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov. "As we congratulate the award winners, let us reaffirm the right to press freedom, recognize the fundamental role of journalists and reinforce efforts at every level to support a free, independent and diverse media," Guterres said in a statement he read to reporters. "No society can be free and fair without journalists who are able to investigate wrongdoing, bring information to citizens, hold leaders accountable and speak truth to power," he said. The UN chief voiced alarm at growing attacks against the media, both online and in person and especially targeting women journalists, as well as the rise in disinformation. "This cannot become the new normal," he said. The Holy See and Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela discuss migration, ethics and peace. By Vatican News staff reporter Pope Francis on Friday received in audience in the Vatican Prime Minister Robert Abela of Malta. The prime minister later held talks with Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, together with Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher. A communique by the Holy See Press Office said that during the cordial talks, the Holy See and Malta took note of the good bilateral relations and the fruitful collaboration between the Church and the State in the Mediterranean island nation. Both sides noted the contribution of Christianity to the history, culture and life of the Maltese people, and the Church's commitment to the human and social development of the country, especially in the field of education and welfare. The Press Office said the talks then reviewed issues of common interest, such as migration, to which the Church and the Government are strongly committed, and some ethical issues. They also spoke about the European and international situation, with particular attention to the Mediterranean region, as well as the importance of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue in building peace and fraternity among peoples. The population of the tiny island nation is estimated at 516,000 people, over 90 per cent of whom are Catholics. They are spread across the country's two dioceses - the Archdiocese of Malta and the Diocese of Gozo. Great Britains new Ambassador to the Holy See, Christopher John Trott, describes his hopes for his new mandate, bringing thirty years of experience as a British Diplomat to use as he looks forward to collaborating with the Pope and the Vatican in tackling global issues. By Francesca Merlo The United Kingdoms new Ambassador to the Holy See has over 30 years of experience in service in what was the Foreign Office and is now the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. Chris Trotts career began in Asia where he served in Burma, Japan and Afghanistan before serving in a number of African nations as well as a short stint in the South Pacific and the Solomon Islands, which he describes as an unusual posting. Ambassador Trott is confident that he is coming into this new role having spent a lot of time thinking about the issues we know concern the Holy Father very much. Some of those issues being development, humanitarian crises, conflict in Africa and given his last posting in South Sudan, Ambassador Trott has lots of experience in this area. From new to old Effectively, he says, he has gone from the newest country in the world to what you could argue is the oldest country in the world an extraordinary contrast, he adds. But the work is similar to an extent, in that you're talking about issues that are crucially important to people's lives, globally, he says. Bringin experience from South Sudan Explaining that South Sudan is a country that has been going through conflict almost since the day it got its independence from Sudan 10 years ago, he says: I know there's a great deal of interest inside the Vatican in some of the experiences that I've had and I'm very keen to build on that in my engagement with the Vatican. Listen to our full interview with Ambassador Trott Pope Francis has repeatedly appealed for South Sudan tirelessly pushing for peace in the nation, even personally hosting its warring leaders in the Vatican two years ago. Main points Ambassador Chris Trott goes on to describe some of the main topics he aims to focus on during his mandate as British Ambassador to the Holy See. The priority, at the moment, for him and his entire team, is climate. This is, of course, ahead of COP26, the climate conference coming up in Glasgow in November which Pope Francis hopes, he said, he will be attending. Once that is over, there will be a much broader discussion on issues of concern to the Holy Father and of concern to the Vatican, as well as on issues of concern to my government, says Ambassador Trott. Collaboration He notes that the Vatican has an extraordinary network of information gathering and has an extraordinary network of collaborators including the Solidarity with South Sudan network run by religious. The Vaticans networks are phenomenal, stresses Ambassador Trott. I mean, no government has sub-offices in every parish in every country, which the Vatican does, and that makes for a real win-win [scenario] for us because, as a government we can provide funding to organisations to do their work on the ground, but we can't reach down into local Communities. We work very closely with the churches in South Sudan both on the peace process and on conflict resolution. Conflict can be resolved by governments talking to governments, and politicians talking to politicians, but you also need communities that have been fighting each other to start talking to each other, and that needs to happen on the ground. That can only be done by people who understand local conditions, and often that is the Church. We then partner with the churches to deliver conflict resolution at grassroots level whilst we are having conversations in hotels in Juba at the national level. The hope is always that those work together, he explains.. In fact, he continues, I think we actually make a real difference on the ground. The Vatican Ambassador Trott says his horizons have been broadened 190 times, if that's how many countries there are in the world, by coming here. There is huge potential for us, he says, the British government works very well with the Vatican and with the network that the Vatican has in development across the globe. I know that these are things that matter to the Holy Father, the Ambassador concludes, that is why it is such a pleasure to be here and to be able to be work on things that matter to him as well as to the Vatican as a whole. Doctors at the Juba Teaching Hospital went on strike over unpaid allowances; South Sudan health officials launched the first round of COVID 19 vaccination using the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in Juba; The legal aid group Justice and Human Rights Observatory facilitated the release of 43 inmates including five juveniles from Juba Central Prison who were either held unlawfully or had no clarity on the offenses brought against them ((PKG)) FBI HISTORY EXHIBIT ((TRT: 05:48)) ((Topic Banner: FBI: Behind the Scenes)) ((Reporter/Camera: Genia Dulot)) ((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou)) ((Map: Simi Valley, California)) ((Main character: 1 female)) ((Sub characters: 1 female; 2 male)) ((NATS)) It belongs to you. FBI: Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. ((Melissa Giller, Spokesperson, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)) So, this exhibition, which just opens and runs through January of 2022, tells the entire history of the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], from inception to its modern-day fight against domestic terrorism in the United States. And we use some of the biggest cases in American history to tell those stories. ((NATS/MUSIC)) ((Melissa Giller, Spokesperson, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)) The exhibition is called, FBI: From Al Capone to Al-Qaeda. And then our first gallery, we have an autographed photograph of Al Capone, who was a famous mobster. And then we have an actual piece of the jet engine from United Airlines Flight 175 that crashed into the World Trade Center South Tower. And that ties in the Al Capone to Al-Qaeda timeline of this exhibition. As you walk through the galleries, we want you to feel like you're in the FBI building. So, we sort of walk through some FBI rooms. Everything in these doors are actual items that came from the FBI: fingerprinting equipment, interrogation equipment, polygraph machines, actual desk typewriters, computers. This office is all the equipment used in the 1940s and 1950s. And then, in our next room, it's all the equipment used from the 1980s and 1990s that the FBI actually had in storage they allowed us to use. So, we brought in authentic artifacts and case files. Weve over 300 artifacts from all of these different stories. Its the first time ever that all these artifacts have ever been brought together at the same time to really help people understand what the FBI does. ((NATS/MUSIC)) ((Melissa Giller, Spokesperson, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)) Bonnie and Clyde were ruthless, 19 and 21 year olds who wreaked havoc across multiple states. Bonnie and Clyde learned early on that if they stole Ford automobiles, they could always outrun the police because they learned that Ford automobiles were faster than the cars that police were driving. And, in fact, they even wrote a letter to Henry Ford thanking him for making the automobiles in such a fast way. They were ambushed by the Texas police and the car was hit 167 times. The coroner counted 17 bullets in Clyde and 21 bullets in Bonnie. So, this is the actual car that they were killed in. And the blue shirt is the shirt he was wearing on his time of death. ((Maria, Visitor)) People don't realize sometimes when they label them, some put them so romantic, how real, in life, they are though, pretty evil people, did a lot of destruction, a lot of killing. I'm not very big in romanticizing all of that. ((Melissa Giller, Spokesperson, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)) The FBI was founded in 1908. President Roosevelt and his attorney general, Charles Bonaparte, agreed that they needed some sort of federal government agency to help fight corruption in the United States. In 1925 [1924], they hired J. Edgar Hoover to be the director of the FBI. ((NATS: J. Edgar Hoover)) We should all be concerned but with one goal: the eradication of crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is as close to you as your nearest telephone. ((Melissa Giller, Spokesperson, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)) In this gallery and the one behind me, we talk about J. Edgar Hoover, some of the things he did for the FBI that was really great, some of the weird things that he did and some of the things that were not so great. For example, when he was hired, he decided that a woman should not be an FBI agent. He fired every single woman that worked for the bureau. And it wasn't until his death in 1972, that women were brought back into the bureau. ((Shell, Visitor)) There are some reasons why every president never replaced him until he was ready to step down. Legend and rumor has it, that he had dirt on everybody. So, nobody would cross J. Edgar Hoover. ((Andre, Visitor)) I've actually visited the FBI building as well as Washington D.C., and it's really impressive to see how much work they do. And I think they get quite a bit of bad press for the failures because people don't really know their successes, the amount of work they do, preventing terrorism, preventing all this. ((Melissa Giller, Spokesperson, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)) I think most people are familiar with Ted Kaczynski, otherwise known as the Unabomber. Over the course of the history of the FBI tracking this gentleman, this criminal, they tracked two thousand, I think it's 417 individuals. He was 2416. So, only him and one other person was still on the list when he was found. And this is just a full-scale replica of the cabin he lived in, in Montana. When the FBI cleaned out his cabin, they found bombs that had not yet been mailed out or detonated. He actually made shoes that were a smaller footprint and a different tread than the shoe he wore, to put the scent of the detectives searching for him in a different track because they were looking for someone with a smaller shoe size. ((Melissa Giller, Spokesperson, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)) 9/11 was in September. So, in December of 2001, just a couple of months later, a guy by the name of Richard Reid decides he's going to go blow up an airline. He builds a bomb. He puts the bomb inside of the sole of his shoe. He gets on the plane and he goes and tries to detonate the bomb. And for whatever reasons, thank God, it didn't deploy. These are the actual shoes that Richard Reid was wearing. This is why we take our shoes off. ((NATS)) Wow. ((Melissa Giller, Spokesperson, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)) Yeah. So, the final gallery in the FBI exhibition you see is the Wall of Honor. This is every single agent, man and woman of the FBI, who have lost their lives in the line of duty. What's remarkable is it's not that many people, and not only is it not that many people, but with the exception of these two, who died very recently in a shootout, about the last 10 to 12, all died in the past three or four years, because they were all part of the FBI evidence team in 9/11 and all worked the rubble of the World Trade Center for a long enough period of time that they've all died of cancer. And even though they died 15, 16, 17 years later, the FBI, rightfully so, calls it dying in the line of duty. ((NATS/MUSIC)) Abortions quickly resumed in at least six Texas clinics after a federal judge halted the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., but other physicians remained hesitant, afraid the court order would not stand for long and thrust them back into legal jeopardy. It was unclear how many abortions Texas clinics rushed to perform Thursday after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman suspended the law known as Senate Bill 8, which since early September had banned abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks. Prior to the blistering 113-page order late Wednesday, other courts had declined to stop the law, which bans abortions before some women even know they are pregnant. Theres actually hope from patients and from staff, and I think theres a little desperation in that hope, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Womans Health, which operates four clinics in Texas. She said some of those clinics performed abortions Thursday but did not reveal how many. Folks know this opportunity could be short-lived, she said. By all accounts, the ruling did not usher in a fast return to normal in Texas. At least six Texas clinics resumed abortion services Thursday or were gearing up to offer them again, said Kelly Krause, spokesperson for the Center for Reproductive Rights. There were roughly two dozen abortion clinics in Texas before the law took effect Sept. 1. Planned Parenthood, the states largest abortion provider, did not say Thursday whether it had resumed abortions, stressing the ongoing uncertainty and the possibility of an appeals court quickly reinstating the law in the coming days. Fund Choice Texas, which covers travel expenses for women seeking abortions, was still receiving a high volume of calls Thursday from patients needing help to make out-of-state appointments. The 20 calls were about the normal volume over the past month, executive director Anna Rupani said. She said her organization which has helped Texas women travel as far away as Seattle and Los Angeles was still discussing whether it would help a patient get an abortion in Texas even with a court injunction in place. The Texas law leaves enforcement solely up to private citizens, who are entitled to collect $10,000 in damages if they bring successful lawsuits against not just abortion providers who violate the restrictions, but anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion. Republicans crafted the law in a way designed to also allow retroactive lawsuits if the restrictions are set aside by one court, but later put back in place by another. Whats really frustrating ... is this law was drafted to create confusion, and this law was drafted to create problems, Rupani said. Its unfortunate that we have an injunction, and people are still having to understand the legal ramifications of what that means for them. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons office has served notice of the states intent to appeal but had yet to do so Thursday. We are confident that the appellate courts will agree that every child with a heartbeat should have a chance at life, said Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed the law in May. Hagstrom Miller said her Texas clinics called in some patients early Thursday who were on a list in case the law was blocked at some point. Other appointments were being scheduled for the days ahead, and phone lines were again busy. But some of the clinics 17 physicians were still declining to perform abortions, fearful they might be held liable despite the judges order. Pitmans order amounted to the first legal blow to Senate Bill 8, which had withstood a wave of earlier challenges. In the weeks since the restrictions took effect, Texas abortion providers said the impact had been exactly what we feared. In the opinion, Pitman took Texas to task, saying Republican lawmakers had contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme by trying to evade judicial review. From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution, wrote Pitman, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama. That other courts may find a way to avoid this conclusion is theirs to decide; this Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right. The lawsuit was brought by the Biden administration, which has said the restrictions were enacted in defiance of the U.S. Constitution. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the order a victory for women in Texas and for the rule of law. Abortion providers say their fears have become reality in the short time the law has been in effect. Planned Parenthood says the number of patients from Texas at its clinics in the state decreased by nearly 80% in the two weeks after the law took effect. Some providers have said Texas clinics are now in danger of closing while neighboring states struggle to keep up with a surge of patients who must drive hundreds of miles for an abortion. Other women, they say, are being forced to carry pregnancies to term. How many abortions have been performed in Texas since the law took effect is unknown. State health officials say additional reporting requirements under the law will not make September data available on its website until early next year. Other states, mostly in the South, have passed similar laws that ban abortion within the early weeks of pregnancy, all of which judges have blocked. A 1992 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court prevented states from banning abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, around 24 weeks of pregnancy. But Texas version had so far outmaneuvered the courts because it leaves enforcement to private citizens to file suits, not prosecutors, which critics say amounts to a bounty. The Texas law is just one that has set up the biggest test of abortion rights in the U.S. in decades, and it is part of a broader push by Republicans nationwide to impose new restrictions on abortion. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court began a new term, which in December will include arguments in Mississippis bid to overturn 1973s landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a womans right to an abortion. Last month, the court did not rule on the constitutionality of the Texas law in allowing it to remain in place. But abortion providers took that 5-4 vote as an ominous sign about where the court might be heading on abortion after its conservative majority was fortified with three appointees of former President Donald Trump. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Afghan girls are unable to attend school because the Taliban have imposed stringent restrictions on women in the country. Several million girls are affected, as Yalda Baktash reports. Surrounded by a group of men wielding axes, Romanian filmmaker Mihai Dragolea was sure he was going to die. The filmmaker, part of the independent Vagabond Film production company, was with his colleague Radu Mocanu as well as Tiberiu Bosutar, a former timber worker turned environmental activist, in a remote forested area in Romania last month for a documentary on illegal logging. While the film crew was working in the woods, a group of 10 to 20 men, carrying axes and bats, approached. Dragolea said someone yelled, "Stop the camera. We're going to kill you." Another man broke their car key so they could not escape. The men beat Dragolea, Mocanu and Bosutar and destroyed equipment in an assault that media and environmental rights analysts say shows the dangers of investigating illegal activities that harm the environment. "Covering the environment can be incredibly dangerous, especially in places where natural resources are a major source of a country's revenue," Meaghan Parker, executive director of the Society of Environmental Journalists, told VOA. Dragolea described the attack as "organized." The group had been filming in Romania's Suceava County a region whose forest has been rapidly disappearing over the past 20 years. "I was sure we were going to die," Dragolea told VOA. "If you see axes coming towards you, that's a message." Dragolea managed to escape the beating by jumping into a ravine, where he called emergency services. Mocanu was beaten and suffered memory loss. Bosutar was also beaten, and the attackers forced him to remove his clothing in an attempt to humiliate him. Dragolea credits the police for arriving at the remote forest area in about 30 minutes and saving them from more serious harm. 'Timber mafia' Romania is home to one of the largest old-growth forests in Europe, and its multibillion-dollar logging industry is a major source of the country's revenue. With the gradual collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, starting in the late 1980s, timber became a private industry in Romania. It drives the economy, providing profits to private forestry companies and jobs for workers. But it has also been susceptible to corruption and crime allegedly tied to the government. In 2020, the European Union, saying Romania was not doing enough to tackle illegal logging or assess environmental impact, started a sanctions process. VOA's call and email to the Romanian Embassy in Washington went unanswered. Romania's so-called "timber mafia" has taken to protecting its interests through violent attacks against forest rangers, activists and journalists, according to the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom. Since 2014, at least 650 forest rangers have been attacked and six deaths have been recorded, according to reports. Additionally, dozens of journalists and activists have been attacked, the center said. "This has been brewing for 30 years and the wood-mafia have become so strong that they are almost impervious," Dragolea told VOA. Covering logging and other environmental issues can sometimes draw journalists into other risky beats such as organized crime and corruption. "With money comes opportunities for corruption and crime," said Parker, from the Society for Environmental Journalists. "[They] are not just environmental reporters. They're business reporters. They're crime reporters. They're corruption reporters. And that puts them often at great risk because they are dealing with people who will want to make sure they don't investigate that corruption or that crime by using physical violence and murder." Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu publicly condemned the attack against Dragolea and his team, and authorities have arrested suspects in the case. But such action is rare, said Laurens Hueting, senior advocacy officer at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom. "People aren't being held accountable. There's very weak investigation, very weak prosecution," Hueting said. "It sends that signal that this is tolerated, this is okay, you can get away with this." Bucharest charged 11 people with "hitting and other violence" in connection with the assault, which Dragolea believes is too lenient. "They didn't mention anything about the destroyed equipment, humiliation, torture or attempt at one's life. Because if one charges at you with an ax, that's attempted murder," Dragolea said. The journalist estimates about 8,000 euros worth of recording equipment was destroyed in the attack. Dragolea and Bosutar returned to the forest a week after the attack to capture footage of unauthorized cutting and plan to continue filming their documentary. "We do not want to quit and succumb," Dragolea told VOA. President Joe Biden will not block the release of a tranche of documents sought by a House committee for its investigation into the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, setting up a showdown with former President Donald Trump, who has pledged to try to keep records from his time in the White House from being turned over to investigators. In a letter to the Archivist of the United States, White House counsel Dana Remus writes that Biden has determined that invoking executive privilege "is not in the best interests of the United States." This came days after Trump lawyers sought to block the testimony of former Trump officials to the House committee, citing executive privilege. On Friday, a lawyer for Steve Bannon said the former White House aide wouldn't comply with the House committee's investigation because of Trump's claim. In August, the House committee investigating the insurrection asked for a trove of records, including communication within the White House under Trump and information about planning and funding for rallies held in Washington. Among those events was a rally near the White House featuring remarks by Trump, who egged on a crowd of thousands before loyalists stormed the Capitol. Importance of documents In the letter, Remus writes that the documents reviewed "shed light on events within the White House on and about January 6 and bear on the Select Committee's need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the Federal Government since the Civil War." The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Friday, which was first reported by NBC News. Copies of the documents responsive to the request were turned over to the Biden White House and Trump's lawyers for review for potential executive privilege concerns in accordance with federal law and the executive order governing presidential records. The committee's 10-page request to the Archives seeks "all documents and communications within the White House on January 6, 2021" related to Trump's close advisers and family members, the rally at the nearby Ellipse and Trump's Twitter feed. It asks for his specific movements on that day and communications, if any, from the White House Situation Room. Also sought are all documents related to claims of election fraud, as well as Supreme Court decisions on the topic. Biden's decision affects only the initial batch of documents reviewed by the White House. Press secretary Jen Psaki said subsequent determinations would be made on a case-by-case basis. The current president has the final say unless a court orders the Archives to take a different action. Trump has not formally sought to invoke executive privilege over the documents, though that action is expected soon. Trump is expected to take legal action to block the release of the documents, which, if a block was granted, would mark a dramatic expansion of the unwritten executive power. Trump will have an uphill battle, as courts have traditionally left questions of executive privilege up to the current White House occupant though the former president's challenges could delay the committee's investigation. Two witnesses 'engaging' Two other witnesses subpoenaed by the panel, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Pentagon aide Kash Patel, are "engaging" with the committee, according to its Democratic chairman, Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, and Republican vice chairwoman, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Thompson and Cheney issued a statement Friday after a deadline for document production had passed. "Though the Select Committee welcomes good faith engagement with witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral," the two lawmakers said. A spokesman for the panel declined to comment on the status of a fourth witness, former Trump communications aide Dan Scavino. Bannon's move sets the stage for a likely clash with House Democrats who are investigating the roles of Trump and his allies in the run-up to the riot, when a large mob of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol as Congress was certifying the results of the presidential election won by Biden, a Democrat. The committee is rapidly issuing subpoenas to individuals who are either connected to Trump or who helped plan the massive rally on the morning of January 6 at which he told his supporters to "fight like hell." Bannon's refusal to comply, and Trump's vow to litigate the testimony, will mean certain delays in the panel's probe. But members of the committee, several of whom worked as prosecutors on Trump's two impeachments, were prepared for the possibility and have repeatedly threatened charging witnesses with contempt. Trump often successfully fought witness testimony during his presidency but may find his legal standing shakier now that he is out of office. A committee effort to charge witnesses with contempt would likely involve a vote of the full House and a referral to the Justice Department. It would then be up to Justice how to proceed with charges. 'Unable to respond' Bannon's lawyer, Robert Costello, said in letter to the panel dated Thursday that until the issues over privilege are resolved, "we are unable to respond to your requests for documents and testimony." Costello wrote that Bannon, a former aide to Trump who had contact with him the week of the Capitol attack, is prepared to "comply with the directions of the courts" when and if they rule on the issue. The letter includes excerpts from a separate letter sent to Bannon by Justin Clark, a lawyer for Trump. Clark says documents and testimony provided to the January 6 panel could include information that is "potentially protected from disclosure by executive and other privileges, including among others the presidential communications, deliberative process and attorney client privileges." Clark wrote to Bannon that "President Trump is prepared to defend these fundamental privileges in court." Spokespeople for Trump have not returned messages seeking comment. Trump said in a statement last month that he would "fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country." As a former president, Trump cannot directly assert privilege to keep witnesses quiet or documents out of the hands of Congress. As the current president, Biden will have some say in the matter. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said an updated security framework being developed between the United States and Mexico "marks the beginning of a new chapter" in security cooperation between the two nations. In his first visit to Mexico as the top U.S. diplomat, Blinken said Friday, "it's time for a comprehensive new approach to our security cooperation, one that will see us as equal partners in defining our shared priorities." He told reporters in Mexico City at a joint press conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard that the security framework will go beyond immigration and border security to tackle the "root causes of the security challenges that we face," including inequity, public health and economic factors. Ebrard said the initiative, called the U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities, is "not just any cooperation agreement it is a security alliance. An alliance has another qualitative level different from a cooperation agreement." Blinken joined U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Mexico City on Friday for what the State Department called a high-level dialogue on security issues. Ebrard represented the Mexican side during the security talks, along with Cabinet secretaries from Mexico's defense and security agencies. "Both of our presidents have named as priorities pursuing criminal networks, preventing transborder crime, protecting our people," Blinken said after arriving in Mexico City on Friday. "To do that, we have to do more to disrupt arms and narcotics trafficking and human smuggling, to strengthen port and border security, to dismantle the financial systems that sustain organized crime and to root out impunity and hold accountable human rights abusers and, critically, to address public health issues of addiction, which fuels the drug trade." Earlier Friday, Blinken met with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who hailed a "new phase" in relations between Mexico and the United States. New agreement Senior administration officials said during a phone briefing on Thursday that the U.S. is unveiling the new initiative to look for "ways to reinvigorate security cooperation." The new U.S.-Mexico bilateral framework will allow both countries to "learn from each other's prevention strategies" and "set enforcement priorities together," a senior U.S. administration official said. That cooperation will be applied to security issues including trafficking and firearms, illegal narcotics, human trafficking and smuggling, extradition of criminals, money laundering and illicit firearms. The new arrangement replaces the 13-year-old Merida Initiative, in which the U.S. provided some funding to assist Mexico in combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational organized crime and money laundering, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday. "The Merida Initiative helped Mexico strengthen rule of law and counternarcotics capacity," Price said. "We want to see to it that those gains are preserved, (and) that that cooperation is deepened." Ebrard described the previous agreement Friday as largely about Mexican law enforcement capturing drug lords. He said the new agreement is a joint strategy that is "much more complex and broader" and focuses on additional factors, including addiction. He said the latest initiative is "more egalitarian, more balanced" than the previous one. Haitian migrants Blinken said U.S. officials are in "very close daily contact with our colleagues in Mexico" about the situation of Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. When asked by VOA about the treatment of Haitian migrants at the border, he said that the United States is "determined that as we enforce our laws, we do so fully respecting the human rights and the dignity of all people." Blinken said the United States is trying to make clear to Haitian migrants that if they seek to cross into the United States as part of an "irregular migration," they "put themselves at tremendous risk along the entire route, and they will not be able to enter the United States." He said various groups are spreading false information that Haitians will be allowed to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and said "we're working to make sure that we're communicating" that that is not the case. VOA's Nike Ching and Wayne Lee contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from Reuters. The Brazilian activist group Rio da Paz (Peace in Rio) held a memorial Friday on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach to honor victims of the COVID-19 pandemic as the nation surpassed 600,000 deaths from the disease. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource center tells the Associated Press that Brazil reached the grim milestone overnight, recording 451 deaths a day in a 7-day average over the last week. Brazil now stands second in the world for lives lost to COVID-19, behind only the United States. Rio de Paz strung 600 white handkerchiefs on the beach, each one symbolizing 1,000 deaths from the pandemic. The group organized a similar memorial in June 2020 to mark 40,000 deaths. Meanwhile, U.S. drug maker Moderna announced Friday it was planning to deliver another billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to low-income countries next year. In a message posted to the company's website, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the company was investing to expand its capacity to deliver the additional doses. The announcement is part of what Bancel describes as its five-pillar strategy to ensure low-income countries get access to the company's vaccine. The plan includes not enforcing its vaccine patents, expanding its production capacity worldwide, and working with the United States and others to distribute their surplus doses of vaccine. The announcement comes one day after a frustrated U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres chastised the world's wealthy nations for inequities in access to vaccines throughout the world. Appearing virtually with World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Guterres said, "Not to have equitable distribution of vaccines is not only a question of being immoral, it is also a question of being stupid." The United Nations and the WHO are seeking $8 billion to implement their strategy to vaccinate 40 percent of every country's population by the end of this year and 70 percent by mid-2022. Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Friday it has recorded 237 million global COVID infections and nearly 5 million global deaths. The center said 6.4 billion vaccines have been administered. Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday he had agreed in his first talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office on the need to work together on issues of shared concern. "I frankly raised concerns between both countries from my side, and I suggested we should continue dialogue in the future," Kishida said in comments aired by public broadcaster NHK after he spoke with Xi on the telephone. Kishida said the issues he had raised included the disputed islands that are known in Japan as the Senkaku and in China as the Diaoyu, as well as Hong Kong and Beijing's treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. He did not elaborate on what was said. "Xi and I agreed to work together on various shared issues, including North Korea," Kishida, a former foreign minister, also said about the 30-minute talks. The Chinese Communist Party's official People's Daily said Xi had told Kishida in their conversation that the two nations should handle sensitive issues such as Taiwan "appropriately". Kishida's new government signaled on Tuesday a more assertive stance on China's posture towards self-ruled Taiwan, suggesting Tokyo would prepare for "various scenarios", while reaffirming its close security ties with the United States. Tension has been rising over Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, to be taken by force if necessary. Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend its freedoms and democracy. "At present, China-Japan relations have both opportunities and challenges," the daily quoted Xi as saying to Kishida. Xi also told Kishida that China and Japan should actively strengthen their dialogue and economic policy coordination and promote regional cooperation, the People's Daily reported. University student Feng Hao of Taiwan and his parents worry increasingly of an attack from mainland China, just 60 kilometers from their island. The number of Chinese military planes flown through a corner of Taiwans air defense identification zone surged to 125 in the first days of October. His parents imagine that in their lifespan, they will see the Chinese PLA stepping onto Taiwanese soil, said Feng, 21 in New Taipei City. If that happens, he said, they want him to seek asylum in a safe place, possibly a European country. A lot of people said Taiwan is safe, but for me I feel like internationally it does not make me feel safe, because its like under pressure, and the Peoples Liberation Army is trying to seek its way to Taiwan, Feng said. China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and has not ruled out use of force if needed to capture it. The recent flights take place over a sea more than 100 kilometers west of Taiwan in a corner of its air defense zone that's also near the Chinese south coast. Analysts say the People's Liberation Army Air Force under Chinese leader Xi Jinping probably increased the aircraft count this month to look strong at home while warning Taiwan and its Western allies not to underestimate Beijings firepower. Right now, they are just doing the pre-invasion exercise and getting the formation they need, said Shane Lee, a retired political science professor from Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan. I dont think (an invasion) necessarily comes, but Xi Jinping will have to do something to relieve some of the domestic tensions, like the blackouts, Lee said, referring to a spate of scheduled, nationwide power outages aimed at easing an electricity shortage. The tension is increasing in China. China has stepped up the number of fighters, bombers and other planes flown through the same corner of Taiwans air space since mid-2020 as Taiwan gets closer diplomatically to the United States, a rival to China. The number per day normally comes in under 10. On October 4, the Ministry of National Defense in Taiwan logged 52 flights including 34 J-10 multi-role strike fighters. Chinas military said on its website on Sept. 30 that its air force is developing weapons, including the J-10, in a sustained, healthy and orderly manner toward the goal of building a world-class strategic air force thats fully capable of protecting national sovereignty, security and development interests. Taiwans air force tasked its own aircraft in response, sent radio warnings and deployed air missile systems to monitor Chinas activity, the ministry said in a social media statement. Increased flight numbers this month coincided with Chinas National Day, an occasion when the Beijing government stresses its achievements. The surge in planes is not a coincidence, said Chen Yi-fan, assistant professor of diplomacy and international relations at Tamkang University in Taiwan. He said the Chinese military had long planned for the October 1 holiday to show muscles and highlight improvements in pilot training for nighttime missions. The government has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when the Nationalist Party that once ruled all of China lost to the Communists and rebased in Taipei. Todays Taiwan government, backed by public opinion surveys since 2019, opposes Chinas goal of unifying the two sides, which have not met for talks since 2016. Taiwanese officials see politics behind the planes. The scare tactics of the Chinese Communist authorities not only hit at Taiwan-China relations, but more so wreck regional peace and stability, Taiwans ruling Democratic Progressive Party said in a statement Monday. The party strongly protests and demands that this kind of irresponsible provocation stop right away. Chinese officials further worry about Washingtons military support for Taiwan, analysts say. The United States has the worlds most powerful armed forces, with China ranked third, according to the database GlobalFirePower.com. The U.S. government sells arms to Taiwan and periodically sends warships to nearby waters in its defense. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Chinese aircraft activity destabilizing with the potential to undermine regional peace and stability. Aircraft carriers the USS Ronald Reagan, the USS Carl Vinson and their British peer HMS Queen Elizabeth met Saturday in the seas east of Taiwan for joint training. Previous U.S. military movements in Asian seas have prompted China to follow up with its own. Despite media reports that suggest the planes are flying over or near Taiwanese land, the Chinese flybys do not signal a coming war, said Shelley Rigger, a Taiwan expert and political scientist at Davidson College in North Carolina. The chief risk, she added, is an accident between the Chinese aircraft and any Taiwanese planes sent to expel them. Taiwan's military gauges its response based on the exact movement of Chinese planes, a defense ministry source told VOA this week. But the psychological effects are deepening among Taiwan residents, since they do not know what to expect next from China, said Chen. Ordinary Taiwanese people feel paralysis and dont know where exactly the PLA fighters are heading to, he said. People are afraid of war but helpless under current cross-Strait circumstances. India's coal-burning power plants, which supply much of the country's electricity, are running perilously low on stocks, raising fears of power shortages just as the countrys pandemic-hit economy is on a recovery path. The coal shortage is being attributed to surging demand as industries rev up production lines and consumers begin shopping ahead of the main festival season. India is the second Asian country, after China, facing a crunch in coal supplies. The average stock of coal in thermal power plants was about four days on October 3, the Power Ministry said earlier this month. If the coal stocks are not ramped up to the level to which plants need to run, there could be challenges going ahead, Vivek Jain, director at India Ratings Research, said, But the problem is, you cannot ramp up output at will. Despite efforts to increase use of cleaner energy sources such as solar, wind and water, Indias 135 coal-burning plants remain the backbone of the countrys power sector, supplying nearly two-thirds of its electricity. Power demand rose by almost 18% in the last two months compared to the same period last year. However, India had cut back on coal imports in recent months due to slowing demand. Now a massive surge in international coal prices poses a challenge to stepping up imports while domestic production struggles to keep pace with the countrys needs. Heavy monsoon rains in September in the countrys coal-mining areas hit both production and delivery of coal, according to the Power Ministry. The dwindling coal supplies are a dampener in Asias third-largest economy where COVID-19 cases have come down dramatically and most curbs have been lifted, allowing most sectors of the economy to reopen. Public transport is operating in cities, markets are buzzing and holiday destinations have seen domestic tourists return in droves. That had raised hopes of an economic recovery. The World Bank has said that Indias economy will grow by 8.3% in the current financial year after plummeting by more than 7% last year. Experts say if demand for power continues to rise, India will have to consider ramping up alternative power sources or increasing imports, say experts. India could be looking at a huge rise in its import bill unless it turns to increasing power output in its nuclear power plants or increasing production of natural gas. But if these are not ramped up in time, we could face disruptions, according to Jain. Power Minister R.K. Singh told The Indian Express newspaper this week that the impact could be felt for months. I dont know whether I will be comfortable in the next five-six, four-five months, he said, But its going to be touch and go. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. This innovative special blends animation with video journalism and is available now at https://projects.voanews.com/terror-in-tigray/ A few days after Tanzania expressed its interest in joining the COVAX global vaccine-sharing facility, the government warned of a third wave of COVID-19 and directed that all precautions to be taken, including wearing face masks. Authorities say that cases are on the rise in all bordering countries, including Uganda, and indications that the disease may again hit the country. Speaking with journalists Saturday, the director of prevention from Tanzanias Heath Ministry, Leonard Subi, insisted residents take precautions to protect themselves from infection. The ministry has begun to see an indication that a third wave of COVID-19 is occurring, Subi said, citing monitoring reports carried out by the ministry as well as interaction between Tanzanians and other nations. In April 2020, Tanzania stopped publishing COVID-19 data as then-president John Magufuli declared God had eliminated the infection. Soon after Magufulis death in March 2021, new president Samia Hassan started a change in handling COVID infections, including admitting its presence. Now the country is waiting for vaccines. Opposition politicians such as Yerico Nyerere from the Party of Democracy and Development, or CHADEMA, say the government should emphasize controlling movements particularly in the area bordering Uganda, where the virus has hit strongly. Nyerere said those areas that have interactions with countries such as Uganda, where there is a high wave of the virus, should enforce serious controls, if possible, even closing the border. He said Tanzania does not want to enter into a lockdown stage, as Uganda has. Some Tanzanians see the need for the government to enforce nationwide prevention campaigns that will also reach villagers. Dar es Salaam resident Imani Henrick said she thinks the government should put in place an inclusive strategy, including encouraging people to wear masks and wash their hands. She called for the government to provide supervision, not just recommend precautions. Henrick said some villagers know nothing about precautions and cant even afford face masks. So, Henrick adds, the government should come with a strategic plan, even including distributing free face masks, particularly for those in the villages. For Ibrahim Chawe, another Dar es Salaam resident, things have changed. He said he hopes the government will fully implement all the precautions recommended by the COVID-19 committee formed by Hassan, including the publication of data. Chawe said publicizing information about COVID-19 and telling people to take precautions is a big step compared to the previous period. Chawe adds that before, wearing masks met disapproval. Now, there are major changes in how infections are being handled. Since Hassan took office in March she has sought to gradually bring Tanzania in line with global public standards for tackling COVID-19. Refugee and humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and Ethiopia were the focus of intense debate during this weeks annual U.N. refugee conference. The U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said the weeklong discussions were constructive. He said there was general agreement on the need for urgent, flexible and unconditional aid to be delivered to millions of internally displaced Afghans through humanitarian agencies. He said that this was doable, but that the delivery of food, shelter and other essential supplies must be done quickly before the onset of winter. He said the Taliban would not impede these operations. Grandi noted that since the Taliban takeover, Afghan society has been barely functioning. He warned that this could lead to an even bigger humanitarian crisis unless the international community stepped in to prevent a complete meltdown of the countrys service, banking and economic systems. It is extremely difficult because much of these economy services functioned in Afghanistan before thanks to international support that now has been frozen or suspended," he said. "So, the question is how to ensure that these services and the economy can function and how can we prevent a major humanitarian crisis. Millions in need in Ethiopia Grandi said Ethiopia was the second crisis that commanded a lot of attention at the conference. He said delegates expressed great concern about the recent expulsion from the country of senior U.N. officials by the Ethiopian government. He said the delegates worried about the limited ability to provide aid to millions of civilians trapped in Tigray and about the conflict spreading to other regions in northern Ethiopia. And of course, the appeal is always the same," he said. "Abandon this useless and devastating approach, which is a military approach, and go for a negotiated process. That is the only way to stop the escalation of humanitarian needs in the country. The U.N. reports around 5.2 million people in Tigray, or 90% of its population, needs humanitarian aid. While most attention was focused on Afghanistan and Ethiopia, Grandi said he appealed to states at the meeting to not forget other refugee crises, noting they exist in every region of the world. They include the Rohingya in Southeast Asia, West Africas Sahel region, Syria in the Middle East, and Venezuela in Central America. Firefighters and numerous studies credit intensive forest thinning projects with helping save communities like those recently threatened near Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada, but dissent from some environmental advocacy groups is roiling the scientific community. States in the U.S. West and the federal government each year thin thousands of acres of dense timber and carve broad swaths through the forest near remote communities, all designed to slow the spread of massive wildfires. The projects aim to return overgrown forests to the way they were more than a century ago, when lower-intensity blazes cleared the underbrush regularly and before land managers began reflexively extinguishing every wildfire as soon as possible. Such so-called fuel reduction efforts also include using fire to fight fire, with fires deliberately set in the cooler, wetter months to burn out dangerous fuels. Forest managers credit such burns with helping protect the Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park. The state of California eased some regulations to increase the use of that tactic. While most scientific studies find such forest management is a valuable tool, environmental advocates say data from recent gigantic wildfires support their long-running assertion that efforts to slow wildfires have instead accelerated their spread. The argument is fueling an already passionate debate. It has led to a flurry of citations of dueling studies and fed competing claims that the science may be skewed by ideology. The debate came to a head over this year's giant Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. "Not only did tens of thousands of acres of recent thinning, fuel breaks and other forest management fail to stop or slow the fire's rapid spread, but ... the fire often moved fastest through such areas," Los Padres ForestWatch, a California-based nonprofit, said in an analysis, joined by the John Muir Project and Wild Heritage advocacy groups. James Johnston, a researcher with Oregon State University's College of Forestry, called the groups' conclusions "pretty misleading," "irresponsible" and "self-contradicting." "Claims that modern fuel-reduction thinning makes fire worse are not credible," Johnston said. The debate focused on a project where the Klamath Tribes and the Nature Conservancy have spent a decade thinning smaller trees and using planned fires. They and the U.S. Forest Service said the treatments slowed the fire's spread and lessened its intensity, while critics said the blaze made its fastest northern run through the same area, spreading 5 miles (8 kilometers) in about 13 hours. Scientists say climate change has made the American West much warmer and drier and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive, accelerating the need for more large-scale forest treatments. Critics say forest thinning operations are essentially logging projects in disguise. Opening up the forest canopy and leaving more distance between trees reduces the natural humidity and cooling shade of dense forests and allows unimpeded winds to push fire faster, said Chad Hanson, forest and fire ecologist with the John Muir Project. Such reasoning defies the laws of physics, said other experts: Less fuel means less severe fire. Fewer trees means it's more difficult for fires to leap from treetop to treetop. The critics contend recent massive California wildfires also moved quickly through thinned areas that failed to protect communities. Timothy Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter who heads Oregon-based Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, said this year's giant Dixie Fire blew sparks past containment lines, igniting piles of dry branches left by a thinning operation near Paradise. The town was nearly destroyed in 2018 in the nation's deadliest and most destructive wildfire in modern times. Thom Porter, director of California's firefighting agency, said critics miss the point: Fuel breaks are one tool that can help slow and channel wildfires while protecting rural homes and communities. "The problem is, when you have a head fire that is a mile or miles wide and it's running through timber like it's grass, there isn't a fuel break out there that's going to stop it," Porter said. Each side can point to plenty of competing examples, said John Bailey, professor of silviculture and fire management at Oregon State University. Some forest thinning has indeed been mishandled, yet "anywhere that we've done an effective fuels treatment, we have modified fire behavior and reduced the intensity." The contrasting views prompted a contentious debate, with one paper suggesting supporters of spotted owl habitat, including Hanson of the John Muir Project, are "selectively using data that support their agendas." Another paper said such dissenting views have "fostered confusion" and can slow what the authors contend are necessary forest treatments. Hanson dismissed the criticism as "character assassination" driven by those who benefit from logging or are reluctant to embrace what he insists is the evolving science. "On average, all things being equal, the thinned areas tend to burn more rapidly and more intensely most of the time," he said, citing his own research, including a broad 2016 review of three decades of 1,500 fires across the Western U.S. conducted with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity and Oregon-based Geos Institute. The division "reflects both evidence and understandable emotion" when wildfires destroy homes or ecological treasures, said Erica Fleishman, a professor at Oregon State University's College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. The competing arguments are part of the legitimate policy and scientific debate, according to Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at California's Pomona College who has written extensively about wildfires, including with Hanson. Forest managers cite examples like where a 400-foot-wide (120-meter) fuel break helped protect rural Sierra Nevada homes. The U.S. Forest Service produced a video called "Fuels Treatments Work A Creek Fire Success Story," and Cal Fire featured it in a fuels reduction guide. "Clearly it's a matter of debate in policy arenas and management, but I think in terms of the scientific literature, the evidence is overwhelming," said John Battles, a professor of forest ecology at the University of California-Berkeley. Torture in prison, chemical weapons, the direct targeting of foreign media, and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad stands accused of a long list of crimes against his people. Since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, journalists and human rights lawyers have been part of the process of documenting what appeared to be war crimes and abuses committed by forces loyal to the president. As attempts to intervene by the international community largely failed, it fell to media and private citizens to demand accountability and with some success. A new film, "Bringing Assad to Justice," highlights those efforts. "People need to be made aware that Syria is one of the world's biggest crime scenes," said Ronan Tynan, the film's director, who is based in Dublin, Ireland. In Syria, "torture is systematic, disappearances continue, and hundreds of thousands have already been victims of these notorious crimes as well as arbitrary killing." The United Nations said last month that Syria's decadelong conflict has left more than 350,000 people dead. Rights groups say the Syrian government is largely responsible. Assad's administration has denied accusations of war crimes, in some cases blaming opposition groups and their Western backers. Collecting evidence British journalist Paul Conroy is among the international journalists who have covered the conflict. The photographer was with U.S. journalist Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik in the city of Homs in Syria in 2012 when Syrian forces targeted their makeshift media center. The shelling killed Colvin and Ochlik and critically wounded Conroy. The journalists had been in the city covering shelling and civilian casualties. In 2016, Colvin's family filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court against the Syrian government for her killing, which included evidence collected by Syrian and Western journalists. "After Marie was killed, we had to depend on local citizen journalists who paid a terrible price in deaths and disappearances," Conroy, who features in the documentary, told VOA. "Evidence is the key to this, and it's been a joint effort all around. The Western press have played a part, but the real tribute should go to the young Syrian activists who've taken cameras and gone into the most horrifying situations to gather this evidence," he said. In 2019, a U.S. court found the Syrian government responsible in the murder of Colvin, ordering it to pay $300 million in punitive damages. Filmmaker Tynan said much of the archival footage he used in the film was produced by Conroy and local citizen journalists in Syria. "These people are not just media workers; they are human rights defenders in the truest sense of that word. And without them, we would not have the evidence we have today against crimes against humanity in Syria," Tynan said. Footage and accounts collected by citizen journalists have also been integral to the work of human rights organizations. Since its founding in 2016, Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), a France-based advocacy group that documents violations in Syria, says it has relied almost solely on local journalists to gather evidence of alleged crimes carried out by the Syrian government and other forces that have controlled various regions in the country. In the Syrian context, citizen journalists have been playing a critical role in documenting abuses and crimes carried out by all sides of this conflict, said Bassam al-Ahmad, STJ's executive director. "They go to places that other journalists can't go to. They have access to information and places that others don't," he told VOA. "The many chemical weapons attacks in Syria were first reported to the world by citizen journalists." Rights groups have accused Syrian government forces of carrying out chemical weapons attacks against civilians across the war-torn country. In June, the intergovernmental Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) told the U.N. Security Council that an investigation into 77 allegations against the Syrian government concluded that chemical weapons were likely or definitely used in 17 cases. Syria's U.N. representative, Bassam Sabbagh, this month denied the use of chemical weapons. He said members of the OPCW were welcome to visit with the exception of one individual who, Sabbagh said, had failed to be objective. Accountability The International Criminal Court in The Hague has not been able to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria, citing lack of jurisdiction because Syria is not a member state of the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. But several European countries, including France and Germany, have begun initiatives to hold Syrian government officials accountable for their crimes. In July, a military doctor accused of torturing dissidents in military facilities in Syria was indicted by a German court on charges of crimes against humanity. Tynan said two prominent Syrian lawyers and journalists, Anwar al-Buonni and Mazen Darwish, who are also featured in his film, have been instrumental in that case as well as helping to secure arrest warrants for Syrian government officials in Europe. "There are many different justice initiatives going on," he said. "France and Germany have issued international arrest warrants against key [Syrian] regime leaders." Journalist Conroy hopes the content and evidence the film gathered will contribute to achieving accountably for Syria. "The Syrian people deserve justice, and I think it's up to everyone who's involved and sees what's happening to keep this story alive and point fingers and go 'these people should not be allowed back [into the international community],'" he said. "They are de facto war criminals, and they shouldn't be dealt with as if they are any other government who made a few mistakes." "Bringing Assad to Justice" was released in Berlin on Wednesday and is available for viewing on digital streaming services. French President Emmanuel Macron faced the frustration of young people from across Africa on Friday over a range of issues, including migration and the vestiges of colonialism, at a summit aiming to turn the page with the continent. Billed as a chance to prove France's commitment in particular to young Africans, the Africa-France summit gathering some 3,000 business leaders, artists and athletes in the southern city of Montpellier was largely dominated by the region's crises. "I can no longer stand to see African youths dying in the sea" trying to reach Europe, a woman told Macron as he visited the dozens of round tables at the vast Sud de France arena overlooking the Mediterranean. A young Guinean urged him to "support the transition" after the military coup that deposed the West African country's long-time president Alpha Conde last month. Sibila Saminatou Ouedraogo, a Burkina Faso participant at the conference, said that African nations -- many of them former French colonies -- still labored under a "relationship of dependency" towards France that was holding back their development. More than 1,000 youths were at the gathering which, though dubbed a "summit" by the French hosts, pointedly excluded leaders other than Macron. 'System of humiliation' The French president will later debate with 12 young people chosen by the Cameroon intellectual Achille Mbembe, who was tasked with organizing the meeting. "We hope that Montpellier will mark a fresh start -- that people listen to Africa and African youths, which have things to say to the world and France," said Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute. But the meeting also comes as many youths in particular have bristled at Macron's decision to slash visas to Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians in a dispute on illegal immigration. Mehdi Alioua, a political science professor in Rabat, denounced "a collective punishment" and a "system of humiliation" -- sparking fierce applause. "We're stuck between condescending language from the West that want to educate Africans, and language from our governments claiming that the West wants to impose its values," said Habiba Issa Moussa, a Nigerian studying in France. Expectations are high that Macron will announce concrete steps such as those proposed by Mbembe, which include a fund for promoting democratic initiatives or increased opportunities for students to study abroad. In a report given to the president this week, Mbembe said France was failing to recognize "new movements and political and culture experiments" underway in several countries. After arriving in Montpellier, Macron said 26 artworks and other prized artefacts stolen by French colonial forces from Benin a century ago would be returned this month as promised. Newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, is a bastion of independent media in Russia with a commitment to free speech that has cost some of its journalists their lives. Muratov, who was among a group of journalists who founded Novaya Gazeta in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union, said after the Nobel announcement that it really belonged to all the newspaper's journalists. "I can't take credit for this. This is Novaya Gazeta's," Muratov, 59, told Russian news agency TASS, saying the award was for "those who died defending people's right to freedom of speech." The award comes with independent media under increasing pressure in Russia. Several outlets were forced to close this year and some prominent journalists fled the country. It also came just a day after Novaya Gazeta marked the 15th anniversary of the killing of its best-known journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin's wars in Chechnya, was shot dead on October 7, 2006, in the entrance hall of her apartment building in central Moscow. She was one of six Novaya Gazeta journalists and contributors killed in connection with their work since the early 2000s whose black-and-white portraits now hang together in the newspaper's office. In an interview with AFP in March, Muratov said the newspaper's reporters knew their work put their lives at risk, but that unlike some other Kremlin critics they would not go into exile. "This newspaper is dangerous for people's lives," Muratov said. "We are not going anywhere. We will live and work in Russia." Support from Gorbachev Gray-bearded and round-faced, Muratov has been one of Russia's most prominent independent journalists for decades. He and Novaya Gazeta's other founders were inspired by the newfound freedoms that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. A key early supporter was former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who donated part of his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize money to buy the new publication its first computers one of them still on display in their office. The heady optimism of those early days is long gone. In the years since Putin came to power in 1999, critical voices have been increasingly pushed to the sidelines in Russia. Still, the Kremlin congratulated Muratov on the award, with Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov describing him as "talented" and "courageous." "He is committed to his ideals," Peskov said. Novaya Gazeta has become one of the few remaining independent voices in a bleak media landscape. Kremlin critics say authorities are waging a campaign against independent and critical media, with many branded foreign agents and others forced to shut down. Investigative journalism Novaya Gazeta focuses on deep-dive investigative reports into corruption and rights abuses, and its journalists have long faced intimidation and violence. Politkovskaya was especially known for her reporting on abuses in Chechnya and was working on a report into torture in the volatile southern region when she was killed. In another high-profile incident in 2009, human rights activist and contributor Natalia Estemirova, a friend of Politkovskaya's, was kidnapped in Chechnya and later found dead in neighboring Inghushetia. In 2018, a funeral wreath and a severed ram's head were delivered to Novaya Gazeta's offices with a note addressed to one its reporters who covered the shadowy Wagner mercenary group operating in the Middle East and Africa. The investigations had shed light on Wagner's operations abroad and on its alleged ties to a Kremlin-linked businessman, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Earlier this year, the paper was again targeted in what editors said was an apparent chemical attack. Despite the heavy price, the newspaper has refused to shy away from tough investigations, and it was one of the publications that dug through the trove of documents leaked in the Panama Papers scandal, exposing offshore wealth of Russian officials. The paper, published three times per week, has a print circulation of 81,000 and its website had 17 million views last month. Muratov was born in the southwestern city of Kuybyshev, now called Samara, on October 30, 1961. He worked early in his career for the populist daily Komsomolskaya Pravda but left with several of his colleagues who were not happy with its editorial policies. Together they founded Novaya Gazeta and Muratov has served several times as its editor-in-chief since 1995. NATO is studying options to bolster support for the multinational G5 Sahel Joint Force in the troubled three-borders region of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where a surge in jihadis violence has cost thousands of lives, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter seen by AFP on Thursday. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization could extend such support through its Support and Procurement Agency, the U.N. chief said in a recent letter to the Security Council. Guterres said he is convinced of the need to create a U.N. support office for the G5 Sahel force, which comprises around 5,000 soldiers from Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, which would be funded by contributions from the United Nations. He said such a technique would be "the most effective approach to provide sustainable and predictable support to the Joint Force." But the United States, the U.N.'s biggest financial backer, has so far rejected the plan, which is favored by France and several African countries. In June, U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N. Jeffrey DeLaurentis said his country wanted to maintain a clear separation between efforts to fight terrorism and efforts to maintain peace in order to protect the U.N.'s neutrality. For years, the United States has said it prioritizes aid to the Sahel countries directly, rather than ramping up U.N. involvement. "The creation of the G5 Sahel Joint Force, despite the persisting challenges, is a strong manifestation of political will by the five core states of the Sahel that merits the support of the international community," Guterres said. "While all interlocutors underscored their strong support to the G5 Sahel Joint Force as an exceptional initiative that warranted international support, there is no convergence of views within the international community on how best to support it," the U.N. chief added. The Security Council, currently led by Kenya, is set to send representatives for a visit to Mali and Niger at the end of the month, to study the security situation. Guterres pointed out that despite the African Union's willingness to take on an integral role in fostering cooperation in the region, "the AU stressed that it would require financial support by another donor" to manage logistical support of the Joint Force. The U.N. currently provides fuel, water and food to the Joint Force through the Minusma peace-keeping mission in Mali, plus bilateral medical support arranged in the last few years. Police in Nigeria's Zamfara state say security forces have rescued 187 people who were abducted by criminal gangs over the last two months. Zamfara State Police command spokesperson Shehu Mohammed said in a statement Thursday that the kidnap victims, including women and children, were abducted many weeks ago from four different communities in the state. Mohammed did not explain how the rescues took place but said the victims were freed from the Tsibiri forest, where the kidnappers were holding them. Security forces in Zamfara began a manhunt several months ago to address the spate of kidnappings in the state. Teams often organize searches in forest hideouts. Their operations led to the shutdown of telecommunication services and the introduction of curfews and movement restrictions, especially on motorcycles, in September. Authorities say the restrictions cut off food supplies for the bandits and made it difficult for them to operate. Mohammed was not immediately available for comment, but security analyst Ebenezer Oyetakin agreed the restrictions paid off. "Whatever is necessary in order to contain the flame of violence that is plaguing the northwest states of Zamfara and Sokoto is welcoming," Oyetakin said. "We can see the results since the pragmatic move to shut down the telecommunications systems in those areas. It is very beautiful and heartwarming." Authorities say the victims will receive medical treatment before reuniting with their families. Zamfara state in northwest Nigeria is one of the epicenters of the kidnap-for-ransom trend by criminal gangs that gained momentum late last year. Authorities in nearby states like Kaduna and Sokoto say the crackdown in Zamfara is driving bandits to other areas and escalating security problems there. But Kaduna-based public analyst and community leader Abu Mohammed says Kaduna state authorities are also taking action. "We have predicted that their source of movement is through the cattle routes, following the grazing reserves and following the national parks in their hideouts," he said. "They have also detected other black spots within the state. So they're trying to comb all these insurgents, all these bad eggs out, and I believe they're doing that." More than 1,200 people have been taken in mass abductions from schools and villages in northern Nigeria since last December. In response to pressure from authorities, gangs have grown fierce, attacking police formations and military bases to prevent rescue operations. The Norwegian Nobel Committee Friday awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. At a ceremony in Oslo, Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen announced the winners, saying, Ms. Ressa and Mr. Muratov are receiving the Peace Prize for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and in Russia." In a statement, the committee said Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, co-founder and executive editor of digital media company Rappler, is being recognized for her fearless use of freedom of expression to expose abuse of power, use of violence and growing authoritarianism in her native country. "I'm a little shocked. It's really emotional," Ressa told reporters shortly after the announcement. Ressa and Rappler have also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents, and manipulate public discourse. In an interview with VOA earlier this year, Ressa detailed multiple travel bans and government cases against her. All told, all these charges carry a maximum penalty cumulatively...I think it's like 103 years, she said. But Ressa, as noted by the Nobel committee, has remained tireless in her work, focusing on disinformation in social media and reporting on President Rodrigo Dutertes controversial anti-drug campaign. I think what the government doesn't know is that the abuses of power that we live through only fuel my determination to hold on to my rights, Ressa told VOA. I'm not voluntarily giving up my rights, and my task as a journalist, like yours, is to hold power to account. The committee honored Russian journalist Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov for his decades-long defense of freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions. In 1993, he co-founded the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and has been its editor in chief since 1995. It is considered the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power. But since its beginnings, six of Muratovs colleagues have been killed. I am absolutely convinced that this award is not mine. I am the incorrect beneficiary, Muratov told VOA in a phone call on Friday. This prize belongs to Yuri Shchekochikhin, Igor Domnikov, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Natalya Estemirov. ... Its their award. Simple as that, he said, listing his colleagues who have been killed. WATCH: Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Talks With VOA's Danila Galperovich The committee said the newspapers fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society. It has published critical articles on subjects including corruption, police violence, unlawful arrests, electoral fraud and the use of Russian military forces both within and outside Russia. The Kremlin congratulated Muratov on his win Friday in a statement that many critics called ironic given Moscows targeting of his colleagues and journalists in general. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 17 journalists were killed in the Philippines and 23 in Russia over the last decade. CPJ congratulated both recipients and applauded the Nobel committee for spotlighting the importance of press freedom. There are a lot of challenges we face in the world today - we're in the middle of a pandemic, we're grappling with climate change. So, the fact that they singled out journalism and press freedom as a key concern, I think really sends a powerful message, Joel Simon, executive director of CPJ, told VOA. We cant solve any of these problems if we're not informed, if we don't have information, and if we don't engage with the world and journalists are the conduit through which people inform themselves. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres also congratulated both journalists in a statement Friday, stressing the importance of a free press worldwide. No society can be free and fair without journalists who are able to investigate wrongdoing, bring information to citizens, hold leaders accountable and speak truth to power, he said. Yet anti-media rhetoric and attacks against media workers continue to rise, he added, noting growing violence and harassment against journalists across the globe. The two journalists will share a $1.1 million cash prize. The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, and literature have also been awarded this week. The prize for economics will be awarded Monday. The awards will all be formally presented in December. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the academy announced this years ceremony will be a mixture of digital and physical events. Laureates will receive their Nobel Prize medals and diplomas in their home countries. Jeff Custer, Tommy Walker and Danila Galperovich contributed to this report. Some information came from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their fight for freedom of expression in countries where media outlets have faced persistent attacks and reporters have been murdered. In making the award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee stressed that an independent press is vital in promoting peace. "Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda," said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the committee, explaining why the prize was awarded to two journalists. "Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time," she said. The Nobel committee noted that Ressa in 2012 co-founded Rappler, a news website that has focused critical attention on President Rodrigo Duterte "controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign" in the Philippines. She and Rappler "have also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse." Reacting to the news, Ressa told Norway's TV2 channel that "the government will obviously not be happy." "I'm a little shocked. It's really emotional," she added. "But I am happy on behalf of my team and would like to thank the Nobel Committee for recognizing what we are going through." The award-winning journalist was convicted last year of libel and sentenced to jail in a decision seen as a major blow to press global freedom. She was the first woman awarded a Nobel this year. Muratov was one of the founders in 1993 of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which the Nobel committee described as "the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power." "The newspaper's fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media," it added. Muratov said he would use his win to help independent journalists who have faced a growing pressure from the authorities, including those who were officially declared "foreign agents" a designation that carries pejorative connotations and implies additional government scrutiny. "We will use it to shore up Russian journalism that has faced repressions," he said in comments carried by a Russian messaging app channel. "We will try to help the people who have been designated as agents, have faced persecution and have been forced out of the country." According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 17 media workers were killed in the Philippines in the last decade and 23 in Russia. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev used some of his prize money from winning the Nobel in 1990 to help what would become Novaya Gazeta buy office equipment and computers. The Nobel committee noted that since the launch of the newspaper, six of its journalists have been killed, among them Anna Politkovskaya, who covered Russia's bloody conflict in Chechnya. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised Muratov as a "talented and brave" person. "We can congratulate Dmitry Muratov he has consistently worked in accordance with his ideals," Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. Some critics questioned if the award respected Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel's will and its original purpose to prevent war. Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, was among those who said it was justified. "Freedom of expression is a part of democracy, and democratic systems are proven to be more stable, less likely to go to war with each other, less likely to experience civil war," Smith told The Associated Press. "I think the important thing about a media that's truly free is that it not only acts independently, but it respects the truth. And that seems to me to be also an important part not just of democracy, but also of the work towards peace." Reiss-Andersen noted that the peace prize has gone to journalists before, including Ernesto Teodoro Moneta of Italy, cited in 1907 "for his work in the press and in peace meetings." In 1935, German journalist Carl von Ossietzky was awarded the prize "for his burning love for freedom of thought and expression" after revealing that the Nazi regime was secretly re-arming in breach of the World War I peace accord. Ressa has been particularly critical also of the role of tech companies such as Facebook in manipulating public debate, and their failure to curb hate speech. Speaking on Rappler's site after the award was announced, Ressa said the "virus of lies that has been introduced through the algorithms of the social media platforms, it infects real people and changes." Reiss-Andersen also noted the risks to free speech in today's world due to the spread of fake news. "Conveying fake news and information that is propaganda and untrue is also a violation of freedom of expression, and all freedom of expression has its limitations. That is also a very important factor in this debate," she said. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders celebrated the announcement, expressing "Joy and urgency" in reaction to the news. "Joy because this is an extraordinary tribute to journalism, an excellent tribute to all journalists who take risks everywhere around the world to defend the right to information," the group's director Christophe Deloire said from its Paris headquarters. The group, known by its French acronym RSF, has worked with Ressa and Muratov to defend journalism in their countries, and comes under regular criticism from authoritarian governments. "And also urgency because it will be a decisive decade for journalism. Journalism is in danger, journalism is weakened, journalism is threatened," Deloire said. "Democracies are weakened by disinformation, by rumors, by hate speech." "This prize is a great signal, a very powerful message to defend journalism everywhere." After the announcement, the Nobel committee itself was put on the spot by a reporter who asked about its decision to award the 2019 peace prize to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who has since become entangled in a domestic conflict with the powerful Tigray region. "Today, I will not comment on other Nobel laureates and other issues than we have on the table today, but I can mention that the situation for freedom of press in Ethiopia is very far from ideal and is facing severe restrictions," Reiss-Andersen said. The award is accompanied by a gold medal and more than $1.14 million (10 million Swedish kronor). The prize money comes from a bequest from Nobel, who died in 1895. A suicide blast inside a crowded Shiite Muslim mosque Friday in Afghanistans northeastern Kunduz province killed at least 46 worshipers and injured more than 150 others. Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the casualty toll to local Afghan media, saying the attack took place in the provincial capital, also named Kunduz. Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-Khorasan), the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, claimed its suicide bomber carried out the attack and warned of more such actions, according to a translation by the SITE intelligence group, which monitors terror groups websites. The United Nations tweeted that it was deeply concerned by reports of very high casualties in the attack. Initial information indicates more than 100 people killed and injured in a suicide blast inside the mosque, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan tweeted. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned what he said was a horrific attack, his spokesman said in New York, noting this was the third assault against a religious institution in less than a week. Attacks that deliberately target civilians exercising the right to freely practice their religion are violations of fundamental human rights and international humanitarian law. The perpetrators must be brought to justice, said Stephane Dujarric. Mujahid said Taliban forces were at the site and an investigation was underway. He gave no further details. IS-Khorasan also was behind Sundays suicide bombing of a main mosque in Kabul. That attack in the center of the Afghan capital killed at least eight people. IS-Khorasan claimed responsibility for it, saying a number of Taliban members were among the dead. The terror group has taken credit for carrying out other deadly bombings in recent days against Taliban fighters in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan. The Taliban regained power in August in Afghanistan after waging an insurgency against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan for 20 years. But the Islamist groups nascent government is now facing a challenge from IS-Khorasan. The Taliban said earlier this week that their security forces have launched an operation against IS-Khorasan bases, destroying one of them in Kabul and capturing at least 15 members of the group. Afghan media quoted Mujahid on Thursday as downplaying the threat posed by IS-Khorasan, vowing Taliban forces will soon suppress it. We dont call Daesh a threat, but we call it a headache, Mujahid said, using a local acronym for IS-Khorasan. It creates headaches in some places but is immediately taken out in every incident; (they) have been chased out and their sanctuaries found, the TOLO news channel quoted the Taliban spokesman as saying. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. An alleged participant in the 1994 Rwandan genocide faces a possible 30 years in prison after U.S. officials deported him to Kigali, where he was taken into custody after his arrival Thursday. Oswald Rurangwa, 59, escorted by U.S. security officials, was deported to Rwanda on a private jet. U.S. Embassy officials received him at Kigali International Airport and immediately handed him over to Rwandan security staff. Rurangwa was handcuffed and led into a waiting Rwanda Investigation Bureau van. Speaking to reporters at the airport, Rwanda Prosecution Authority spokesman Faustin Nkusi said Rurangwa was the head of Interahamwe militia in the Gisozi sector, a suburb of Kigali, during the genocide. "He participated in many acts of the genocide, including planning meetings, joining mobs of attackers, and killing. He committed genocide crimes, complicity to genocide, inciting people to commit genocide, murder and extermination as a crime against humanity," Nkusi said. "We issued an arrest warrant against him in 2008, but this coincided with the Gacaca [court] ruling that had already been handed down to him. So, the U.S. judicial authorities deported him to serve his sentence here," he added. In 2007, a Gacaca, or Rwandan community court, tried Rurangwa in absentia, finding him guilty of genocide and sentencing him to 30 years behind bars. U.S. attorney Charles Kambanda, who is familiar with the case and knowledgeable about legal affairs in Central Africa, said the U.S. had a different rationale for deporting Rurangwa. "Oswald Rurangwa was sent to Rwanda purely on account of immigration fraud, the New York state-based attorney told the VOA Central Africa Service. "This means he was deported, not extradited. ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] handed him over." According to the prosecution, Rurangwa fled Rwanda in 1994 for the Kibumba refugee camp in what was then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. He later moved to another camp, Kayindu, before applying for asylum in the United States in 1996. Nkusi said Rwandan law permits Rurangwa to have his case retried. "You have seen that he has been assigned an attorney," Nkusi said, adding that Rurangwa would be informed of the earlier ruling and given a copy of his sentence. "He will also be informed about his right [of appeal] because even though he was sentenced in absentia, he has the right to have the case retried." Rurangwa was being taken to Mageragere prison, Nkusi said. This story originated in VOA's Central Africa Service. Geoffrey Mutagoma contributed from Washington. The U.N. human rights office warns the deployment of troops and heavy weapons by the Myanmar military into Chin state, Central Sagaing and Magway regions over the past few weeks may portend an imminent attack in these areas. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet has been raising concerns for some time about a possible military crackdown on growing civilian resistance to the Tatmadaw, Myanmars armed forces. The commissioners spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, says the announcement that two special operations commanders have been directed to address the conflict in these areas has set alarm bells ringing. The deployment of these high-level commanders coupled with the internet shutdown and the deployment of heavy arms to this area has really led us to become very alarmed and concerned that there may be an imminent attack, a very serious attack against the civilian population, which is why we are raising the alarm today, Shamdasani said. More than 1,200 people reportedly have been killed since the military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. Shamdasani said violations and mass detentions of civilians have stepped up since September 7. This escalating abuse, she noted, coincides with the declaration of a peoples defensive war against the Myanmar military regime. Over the past month, she says, her office has documented many attacks by the military in Chin state, Central Sagaing and Magway. She said people have been killed, villages raided, and houses burned in an apparent effort to find armed resistance elements and sympathizers of ethnic armed groups. There have been reports of mass arrests, as well as torture and summary executions. Military clearance operations have involved the use of artillery barrages and airstrikes against villages. The internet shutdowns have also meant that millions of people have lost the means to communicate and obtain information necessary for their survival, she said. Shamdasani said the military government has not responded to the report. She noted that's because the United Nations does not recognize the Tatmadaw authorities as Myanmars legitimate rulers. Therefore, she said, her agency and other U.N. agencies have no direct contact with them. Last month, Myanmar military spokesman Saw Min Tun said opposition groups, known as the National Unity Government, were trying to destabilize the country but were headed for failure. The spokesman also accused media outlets of spreading fake news on the situation in Myanmar, according to Reuters. U.S. prosecutors on Thursday charged an alleged former Taliban commander with terrorism-related offenses over the killing of American troops in 2008. Haji Najibullah, 45, is in U.S. custody, charged with kidnapping an American journalist and two Afghan civilians. He was arrested and extradited from Ukraine to the United States in October 2020. On Thursday, prosecutors in New York said they had filed a superseding indictment that added counts of murder to the charges he faces. Taliban fighters under Najibullah's command killed three U.S. soldiers and an Afghan interpreter in an attack on their military convoy in June 2008, the Justice Department said. The assault was made with improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York said. "As alleged, during one of the most dangerous periods of the conflict in Afghanistan, Haji Najibullah led a vicious band of Taliban insurgents who terrorized part of Afghanistan and attacked U.S. troops," prosecutor Audrey Strauss said in a statement. Kidnapping Najibullah is also accused of kidnapping an American journalist and two Afghan nationals and holding them hostage for seven months. The Justice Department has not given the hostages' names, but New York Times journalist David Rohde was kidnapped in Afghanistan in November 2008, along with a translator and driver. According to the Times, which kept news of his kidnapping secret so as not to endanger him, Rohde escaped from his captors in June 2009. Ten of the 13 counts Najibullah faces carry maximum sentences of life in prison. American troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August after 20 years of war ended with the Taliban back in power. A senior American diplomat said Friday that the United States was working with global partners to help prevent a looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan but criticized the countrys new Taliban rulers for failing to deliver on their public commitments, including protecting human rights. We are extremely concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said in remarks to a small group of reporters before winding up her visit to neighboring Pakistan. It is in the interest of all of us in the international community to work together to prevent the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan from spiraling into a broader regional crisis. Sherman recounted a recent U.N. warning that about 1 million Afghan children were at risk of starvation, that more than 18 million Afghans needed urgent humanitarian assistance, and that deepening drought and the approaching harsh winter were only going to make matters worse. We very much appreciate that Pakistan has also increased its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in recent weeks, including providing millions of dollars in food aid," she said. Taliban pledges The U.S. diplomat described as forthright and deep and direct her conversations with Pakistani leaders about the way forward in Afghanistan and how we all should be engaging with the Taliban. She noted that Washington had also been consulting broadly with countries around the world, including Russia and China, to come to common understandings and a common approach on the issue. Sherman ruled out, however, granting diplomatic recognition to the Taliban government at this point. The Biden administration says it is closely monitoring whether the Taliban uphold their promises of tolerance and govern Afghanistan with an inclusive political system where all ethnicities are represented while also ensuring protection of women's rights. We will not, however, judge the Taliban on their words but on their actions, and so far their actions have fallen far short of those public commitments, Sherman said. My colleagues in the Pakistan government and I discussed the importance of holding the Taliban accountable to the commitments they have made. Islamabad has maintained it is not in a rush to recognize the new Taliban government, but it has been urging the U.S. and other countries to engage with the new rulers in Kabul rather than abandoning the turmoil-ravaged country. The American diplomat said that in her talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and others, the two sides also discussed ways to advance cooperation between Washington and Islamabad. Qureshis office in a statement quoted him as sharing Pakistans hope that the Taliban-led government will work for peace and stability, as well as for the betterment of all Afghans. He also stressed that the current situation required positive engagement of the international community, urgent provision of humanitarian assistance, release of Afghan financial resources, and measures to help build a sustainable economy to alleviate the sufferings of the Afghan people, the statement said. Washington has frozen billions of dollars in Afghan assets, mainly deposited in the U.S. federal reserve, since the Taliban took over the country in August. International lending agencies have also halted their financial assistance to Kabul, citing human rights and other concerns. This has made it difficult for the Islamist group to pay government salaries amid warnings of an economic collapse in Afghanistan. Strained ties Sherman, who arrived in the country on Thursday from neighboring India, is the most senior U.S. diplomat to visit Islamabad since President Joe Bidens administration took office. We have a long history of security cooperation and deep personal relationships between our military leaders, both of which are essential components of our counterterrorism efforts, she said. Weve had many years of productive partnership with Pakistan toward that goal and we look forward to more to come. Sherman also met with Pakistani military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa before concluding her visit, an army statement said. Pakistan is committed to making all-out efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan and supports an all-inclusive Afghan government, Bajwa was quoted as telling Sherman. The visiting dignitary appreciated Pakistan's role in [the] Afghan situation, especially the assistance in successful evacuation operations, and pledged to continue working with Pakistan for regional peace. Despite the upbeat comments, Pakistans traditionally tumultuous relationship with the United States is under renewed pressure following the dramatic Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The tensions are rooted in long-running allegations that Pakistan has had deep ties with, and covertly supported, the Taliban, as the Islamist insurgents battled the U.S.-backed Afghan government for almost 20 years charges denied by Islamabad. Late last month, a group of 22 Republican senators introduced legislation to impose sanctions on the Taliban and on all foreign governments that support the hardline Islamic group. The bill also seeks official input from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about his assessment of the role Pakistan played in supporting the Talibans return to power in Kabul. It is an attempt to pass the buck, Qureshi told a recent news conference, alluding to the proposed legislation. Scapegoating Pakistan would be overlooking ground realities. And they have to understand that a partnership with Pakistan is required in the future, as well, to achieve stability in Afghanistan and the region, Qureshi said. Islamabad insists it is being blamed for Americas failures in Afghanistan, even though it facilitated peace talks between the United States and the Taliban that culminated in the February 2020 agreement between the two adversaries. That paved the way for Washington to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan in late August. Islamabad is campaigning to reset its relationship with Washington and others on what Islamabad calls geo-economics, or development and trade, and to move away from the traditional security-based partnership. Adam Weinstein, a research fellow at the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that expectations were low for a breakthrough in Shermans talks with Pakistani officials. "Pakistan wants the United States to formally recognize the Taliban and accept a geo-economic reset that broadens U.S.-Pakistan relations to issues beyond security. Neither is going to happen anytime soon, Weinstein told VOA. If Washington's diplomatic outreach to Pakistan revolves around counterterrorism to the exclusion of all other issues, then that's not diplomacy but rather militarized diplomacy, Weinstein said. Critics noted with skepticism Shermans pledges of furthering bilateral ties with Pakistan, citing remarks she made Thursday during her visit to India. It [the Pakistan visit] is for a very specific and narrow purpose. We dont see ourselves building a broad relationship with Pakistan. And we have no interest in returning to the days of hyphenated India-Pakistan. Thats not where we are. Thats not where were going to be, she said at an event in the Indian city of Mumbai. The announcement of the first-ever malaria vaccine not only inspires hope in the battle against one of the planet's most pernicious diseases but also underscores the need to attack this scourge on multiple fronts, says the head of the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative, which this week rolled out an ambitious five-year plan aimed at taming what he described as "the oldest pandemic." Malaria, a parasitic infection spread by mosquitoes, kills hundreds of thousands of people every year. Most of the victims are young children, and most malaria cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa. While malaria is not endemic to the United States, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden considers anti-malaria efforts a priority, said Dr. Raj Panjabi, who was appointed as PMI's global malaria coordinator in February. PMI, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is a U.S. government program dedicated to fighting the disease. "It's the right thing to do," he told VOA. "There are too many people over 400,000 who die every year from malaria. Most of them are children. In fact, a child dies every two minutes from this disease. And over 200 million cases still occur every year. This is the oldest pandemic. It is a pandemic that has killed perhaps more children than any other, certainly in sub-Saharan Africa. "So that's the first reason: It's just the right thing to do. It's the moral thing to do. We have the tools, the medicines, the tests. Now we have a vaccine that can help us save lives. The second reason is that it is in the interest of the United States for other countries to succeed." A new vaccine, announced this week by the World Health Organization, "is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year." This four-dose vaccine, developed for children under 2 and tested in three African countries, was found to prevent 30% of severe cases. Those figures may sound disappointing, but this vaccine is only one tool among several, explained Ashley Birkett, director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative at PATH, a global organization that promotes health equity and that took part in the 30-year development of the vaccine. "Thirty percent sounds like a modest number, but when you look at the magnitude of the problem and the fact that we have over 260,000 children dying from malaria a year and a vaccine that can build on the other tools and bring another way of offering protection, it has the potential to have quite a significant impact," Birkett said. That, Panjabi said, is why the President's Malaria Initiative this week unveiled an ambitious billion-dollar-a-year plan aimed at saving another 4 million lives and preventing 1 billion infections over the next five years. "Medical breakthroughs are not enough," Panjabi said. One tactic in the plan, he said, is to hire, train and equip local residents as community health workers who can bring tests and medicines to people's homes. Another is to continue work on vaccine efficacy and development. So why did it take scientists 30 years to develop this one vaccine? VOA asked Panjabi. "One of the reasons it's been more challenging is because parasites are frankly, well, evil geniuses," he said. "The malaria parasite has about 5,300 genes. The COVID-19 virus has only 10 genes. "And malaria has a very complex life cycle; it goes between mosquitoes and humans. And so it's challenging to train the immune system when you have a pathogen that has multiple stages within the bloodstream. And so that's one of the real reasons that it's challenging to develop a vaccine for a parasite. And why it's a remarkable achievement that this has been accomplished. It's been decades in the making." The United States and the European Union have honored the memory of a Russian investigative journalist slain 15 years ago by demanding that Moscow bring to justice those who ordered her killing and praising the independent journalists continuing her legacy under Kremlin pressure. In one of two statements issued Thursday, the 15th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's killing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized what he called "continued impunity for those who ordered [her] murder," saying it undermined Russia's freedom of speech, press freedom and broader human rights. "We urge that all of those involved in her murder be identified and held accountable for their crimes," he said. EU foreign affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said the 27-nation bloc "call[s] on the Russian government to ensure that all those responsible for Anna Politkovskaya's assassination are brought to justice through an open and transparent judicial process." He also noted a 2018 judgment by the European Court of Human Rights that said Moscow had not done enough to find those who ordered her killing, even after convicting several people who carried it out. Politkovskaya was shot to death in an elevator of her Moscow apartment building on Oct. 7, 2006. The 48-year-old investigative reporter for Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta had been an outspoken critic of Russia's longtime president, Vladimir Putin. She gained prominence for her coverage of human rights violations committed during Russia's war with separatists in its constituent republic of Chechnya in the 2000s. Her killing coincided with an intensification of a Kremlin crackdown on freedoms of speech and the press in Russia, recalled Jeffrey Trimble, an Ohio State University political science lecturer who had been a senior manager at VOA sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty at the time. "It was the year, for instance, that the Voice of America and RFE/RL lost almost all of their local rebroadcasting partners in Russia," Trimble told VOA in a Wednesday interview. Both Blinken and Stano noted in their statements that Russia's press freedoms have recently weakened further, with the government designating many independent journalists as "foreign agents" or "undesirable." They said the U.S. and the EU will stand in solidarity with those journalists in the face of such pressure. Speaking to Russian reporters Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said finding the mastermind of contract killings was a difficult and lengthy process. He said the "inevitability of punishment" for such crimes was of major importance to Moscow. In 2014, a Moscow court convicted four Chechens, one of whom was the gunman, of involvement in the Politkovskaya killing. A former Moscow police officer also was convicted of being an accomplice. Novaya Gazeta published an article Wednesday, noting that under Russia's statute of limitations, the killing's mastermind would not face punishment more than 15 years after the crime was committed unless a court extended the period. It vowed to push the government to revive its investigation and identify the mastermind. The newspaper also posted on its website a nearly two-hour documentary with findings from its own investigation into the killing. "Even with the crackdown on independent journalism in Russia, creative and brave journalists are finding a way to cooperate and work with their international colleagues," Trimble said. "I hope that Russian journalists who continue to investigate this [killing], together with international journalists who have other resources, can produce information that will force the Russian authorities to take more definitive action to solve this crime," he added. This article originated in VOA's Russian Service. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. President Joe Biden struck a positive tone on lackluster U.S. job creation numbers Friday, saying a drop in unemployment represented a "significant improvement" from when he took office. "Jobs up, wages up, unemployment down. That's progress," Biden said, noting that the American economy continues to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the number of new jobs reported was far lower than expected. The Labor Department said the U.S. economy added just 194,000 jobs in September. Forecasters had predicted 500,000 new jobs would be added. It was the second month of tepid job numbers, and some economists attributed the trend to the effects of the COVID-19 virus delta variant. Unemployment fell from 5.2% in August to 4.8% in September, but those figures only measure people who are actively looking for work. The September jobs report found that those in the labor force defined as individuals over age 16 who have a job or are actively looking for one fell from 61.7% to 61.6%. Before the pandemic, the labor participation rate was 63.3%. Job gains in August were revised upward from 235,000 to 366,000. Some sectors, including hospitality, professional business services, retail, and transportation and warehousing saw job gains last month. Forecasters had predicted a more robust jobs number in nonfarm sectors because of schools reopening, many federal unemployment benefits ending, and an uptick in the number of Americans getting vaccines. "This is quite a deflating report," said Nick Bunker, economic research director at job placement site Indeed in an interview with CNBC. "This year has been one of false dawns for the labor market. Demand for workers is strong, and millions of people want to return to work, but employment growth has yet to find its footing." While Biden stressed the positive, congressional Republicans blasted the administrations economic performance. "Over 300,000 FEWER jobs created than expected in September further proof Biden's economic policies are hurting our country," tweeted Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found that 55% of the Americans surveyed disapproved of Biden's handling of the economy. Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press. The World Health Organization announced Friday that it had established and released the first standardized, clinical definition of what is commonly known as long COVID, to help boost treatment for sufferers. Speaking virtually to reporters from the agencys Geneva headquarters, WHO Head of Clinical Management Janet Diaz said the definition was agreed upon after global consultations with health officials. She said the condition, in which symptoms of the illness persist well beyond what is commonly experienced, is usually referred to as post-COVID, among many similar iterations. It occurs in individuals who have had confirmed or probable new coronavirus infections, usually three months on from the onset of the COVID-19, with symptoms that last for at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis. Those symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction, she said, but there also are others, which generally have an adverse impact on everyday functioning. Diaz explained that until now, a lack of clarity among health care professionals about the condition has complicated efforts in advancing research and treatment. Vaccine supply to Philippines Meanwhile, a senior White House official announced Friday that the U.S. government was shipping 1,842,750 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines a donation that will be executed through the WHO-managed COVAX vaccine cooperative. The doses will arrive in two shipments, probably Sunday and Monday, according to the official. The official said the Biden administration understands that ending the coronavirus pandemic requires eliminating it around the world. U.S. drugmaker Moderna announced earlier Friday that it was planning to deliver another 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to low-income countries next year. In a message posted to the companys website, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the company was investing to expand its capacity to deliver the additional doses. The disclosure was part of what Bancel described as his companys five-pillar strategy to ensure low-income countries get access to the companys vaccine. The plan includes not enforcing its vaccine patents, expanding its production capacity worldwide, and working with the United States and others to distribute their surplus doses of vaccine. On Thursday, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres chastised the worlds wealthy nations for inequities in access to vaccines throughout the world. Appearing virtually with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Guterres said, Not to have equitable distribution of vaccines is not only a question of being immoral, it is also a question of being stupid. WHO's goals The United Nations and the WHO are seeking $8 billion to implement their strategy to vaccinate 40 percent of every countrys population by the end of this year and 70 percent by mid-2022. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Friday that it had recorded 237 million global COVID infections and nearly 5 million global deaths. The center said 6.4 billion vaccines had been administered. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Donald Trump's effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign, a Senate Judiciary Committee report found. The report released Thursday by the Democratic-run committee offers new insight into how the Republican incumbent asked department leaders to declare the election "corrupt" and how he disparaged its top official for not doing anything to overturn the results. Trump's actions led to a near-revolt at department headquarters that receded only after senior officials warned of a mass resignation. "In attempting to enlist DOJ for personal, political purposes in an effort to maintain his hold on the White House, Trump grossly abused the power of the presidency" and arguably violated a federal law that prevents anyone from commanding that federal employees engage in political activity, the report says. While the broad outlines of what took place after the November 3 election have long been known, the Senate investigation based on a review of documents and interviews with former officials lays bare the extent of Trump's all-out campaign to remain in the White House. It shows how Trump benefited from the support of a little-known Justice Department lawyer who championed the then-president's efforts to challenge the vote but how, in the end, other senior officials stood together to face down Trump. The outcome suggests how reliant the fragile U.S. election system is on the integrity of government officials. Trump's effort, now the subject of a Justice Department inspector general investigation, did not succeed and Biden took office on January 20. Even so, the false claims over the election have fractured the nation, with millions of Americans wrongly believing the contest was stolen. Rage about the election compelled a mass of Trump supporters to violently storm the Capitol on January 6 in an effort to disrupt the congressional certification of Biden's victory. The rioters beat and bloodied an overwhelmed police force, sent lawmakers running for their lives and caused $1 million in damage. More than 630 people have been charged criminally in the riot, the largest prosecution in Justice Department history. Republicans' report Republicans issued their own report that downplays the concerns raised by Democrats and said Trump ignored the suggestions from the lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, and refused to fire top Justice Department officials. Their rebuttal claims that Trump was concerned about the election system writ large and not about himself, even though he was publicly fighting to stay in office and pressured Vice President Mike Pence to help him. "The available evidence shows that President Trump did what wed expect a president to do on an issue of this importance: He listened to his senior advisers and followed their advice and recommendations," Senator Charles Grassley, the Judiciary Committee ranking member, said in the minoritys response to the report. The Democrats' report chronicles Trump's prodding of the Justice Department in December and early January to investigate suspected voter fraud and to support his efforts to undo the results. Trump had laid the groundwork for that effort even before the election when he attacked the vote-by-mail process. But he escalated it significantly after Election Day and particularly after the December resignation of Attorney General William Barr, who weeks before he left the Justice Department told The Associated Press that the department had not found fraud that could affect the outcome of the election. The pressure campaign by Trump and his allies included a draft brief the White House wanted the Justice Department to file with the Supreme Court to overturn the election results. The department refused to file the document, which the Senate report describes as raising a "litany of false and debunked claims." The conflict culminated in a contentious, hourslong meeting at the White House on January 3 in which Trump openly considered replacing Jeffrey Rosen, who served as acting attorney general after Barr left, with Clark, an assistant attorney general. The Democrats' report says Trump told Rosen: "One thing we know is you, Rosen, aren't going to do anything to overturn the election." Clark had positioned himself as more sympathetic to pursuing Trump's fraud claims even though the results were certified by states and Republican election officials. Courts rejected dozens of legal challenges to the election and Barr, Trump's own attorney general, had said Biden won fairly. Clark declined to be interviewed voluntarily by the committee, and his lawyer did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Several officials in the January 3 meeting told Trump they would resign if he put Clark in charge at the Justice Department. According to witnesses interviewed by the Senate committee's majority staff, White House counsel Pat Cipollone referred to a draft letter from Clark pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session on the election results as a "murder-suicide pact." Cipollone threatened to quit. Richard Donoghue, Rosen's deputy at the time, replied there was "no chance" he would sign that letter or "anything remotely like this." Donoghue told the committee that he told Trump that all the assistant attorneys general, and perhaps U.S. attorneys and other senior department officials, would resign en masse if the president replaced Rosen with Clark. Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM News Updates The daily news, sports, and events delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria. Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens. User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale Contribute: Leave a comment if you find a particular report interesting or want to add to it. Flag as inappropriate. Mark as helpful or interesting. Send your own user report! Translate Nosara (48.7 km ENE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / complex rolling (tilting in multiple directions) / 2-5 s : We were in bed in Nosara just waking up when I looked to the roof above and saw it swinging tiliting to the lwft and to the right. | One user found this interesting. Riu guanacaste / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s : Very weak shaking | One user found this interesting. 27 km of Samara, Nicoya, Guanacaste (35.9 km E of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s : My wife and I were close to being awake when our bed rattled and shook us awake. 27 km of Samara, Nicoya, Guanacaste (35.9 km E of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s : My wife and I were close to being awake when our bed rattled and shook us awake. Tamarindo / Weak shaking (MMI III) / complex motion difficult to describe / very short : Two different moments of shaking Los Pargos / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : A few rumbles and some horizontal movement Tamarindo Costa Rica / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s San Jose de Pinilla / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s : Two very light bumps. My house rattled audibly. Naranjal / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s Tamarindo / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 1-2 s According to the Swiss Le Temps, the Lebanon Central Bank had known since 2016 that the country was headed toward bankrupcy [1]. Sensitive information was covered up by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the request of Riad Salameh. So, inexorably, the predicted disaster came to pass. On 9 April 2016, the IMF representative for Lebanon, Spanish national Alvaro Piris, submitted an interim report to Central Bank governor Riad Salameh. This document sounded the alarm bells. However, at Mr. Salamehs behest, the IMF redacted the 14 most crucial pages. At the time, the IMF was headed by French-born Lagarde, now president of the European Central Bank [2]. It therefore appears that the bankruptcy of Lebanon could have been avoided, but was allowed to happen because of the collusion between Riad Salameh and the IMF. It is not simply a question of mismanagement and corruption; the bankruptcy of Lebanon came about as the result of a conspiracy involving the leaders of the IMF. Only a handful of insiders were able to bail themselves out. Oh, you like podcasts? Sign up for Vultures new recommendation newsletter 1.5x Speed here. Photo: Wondery One of the more intriguing aspects of Suspect, a new nine-part investigative true-crime podcast, is the extent to which many of the people interviewed seem to express outward awareness about the fact theyre on a true-crime podcast and what that can mean. Can you please do me a favor? asks a man, previously designated as a person of interest, when approached in the third episode. Im trying to tell the truth dont cut this podcast to make me look like a maybe suspect. Later, a woman who served as the jury foreperson in a pivotal trial talked about her responsibility as follows: I had to pay attention. This isnt some true-crime podcast I can listen to and just have an opinion on. In the year of our Lord 2021, you cant swing a cat without hitting a true-crime podcast. The genre, fueled by sheer abundance and the brute force of its popularity, has seeped deep into the culture, reaching a point where the form should probably be expected to engage more routinely in some level of self-reflexivity. A curious thing about Suspect, though, is that as much as some of its interviewees display awareness about the format theyre engaging with, the show itself largely resists doing the same. In fact, Suspect is as straightforward as a true-crime podcast can get. Suspect takes up the unsolved murder of Arpana Jinaga, who was killed the night of a Halloween party at her Redmond, Washington, apartment complex in 2008. The case is described to us as a true whodunit, one that relies purely on circumstantial and DNA evidence because there werent any witnesses to the killing. That the murder took place around the time of a Halloween party lends a slightly surreal quality to the way law-enforcement types discuss the case on tape: Was it the gangster? Was it Jesus secretary? Suspect initially sticks to the costumed whodunit structure, chiefly to establish the gallery of possible suspects, but eventually jettisons that framing as it progresses through the outcome of the actual police investigation. Short of clear leads and smoking guns, the authorities ultimately pin the crime on the lone Black man at the party, Emanuel Fair, who had a prior criminal record. Lets get this out of the way: Suspect is a very good listen. In terms of pure execution, its probably the best narrative true-crime podcast Ive heard all year. The team, led by Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson (who previously collaborated on Over My Dead Body), with further reporting by Natalia Winkelman, approaches every beat of the investigative documentary process with clinical precision and workmanly competence. The resulting product is tight as hell, a listening experience of such efficiency that I couldnt help but compulsively move from each episode to the next. But Suspect is often so uncomplicated in its telling, it almost seems anonymous. Sure, it grapples with several important ideas discriminatory policing based on race, the limitations of DNA evidence, the thorny relationship between the judicial system and actual justice but it doesnt end up being particularly about any of those things, nor does it substantially advance the conversation on any front. This is a series whose internal universe pretty much stops at the very edges of its specific case. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, of course. After all, not everything has to be about something bigger than itself, and theres something to be said about delivering the most polished version of a standard. In that sense, Suspect is a little bit like the true-crime podcast version of a Gerard Butler movie or a really good episode of Law and Order: an exemplar of its genre, but not a revolutionary, which I sincerely mean as praise. But it does leave me with a strong sense of want, and a feeling that the genre is long overdue for a quantum leap forward in its language. This contemporary moment of true-crime-podcast ubiquity and cultural power presents greater opportunity for more ambition and formal innovation than were seeing across the board right now, I think. The gap between practice and potential is further underscored by the many instances in which Suspect carries the genres various conventions and cliches. Theres plinking music. Theres a narrative buildup toward the presentation of a maybe suspect being the likely culprit. There are even awkward smash cuts to ads, a stylistic staple nowadays, where you dont quite realize youre listening to a host-read ad for the shows presenting sponsor (and not a continuation of the actual episode) until a few seconds into the read. Still, I dont mean for this discussion of aesthetics to take us too far away from Suspects merits in and of itself. The series plays out in two halves: the first is a deep dive into the mystery of Arpana Jinagas murder, while the second walks through the events of Emanuel Fairs legal trials, which he endured while being wrongfully imprisoned for nine years. Suspect is a lot more successful in the latter mode, if only because the series wraps up with yet another genre convention: the original mystery resolves inconclusively. Its probably a spoiler to tell you at this point that the team doesnt end up solving Jinagas murder. If they did, youd probably see a news cycle about it by now. They do unearth some new information and context, but this remains a story whose outcome can be easily Googled, even as Suspect underlines the details and the stakes with a more prominent shade. That said, the meta value of podcasts like this along with magazine features, documentaries, and other media formats more generally tends to be clustered in how it can drum up more real-world interest in the case to a point where it can maybe produce a chance of shaking up more meaningful leads. In that sense, the end of Suspect could very well be the start of the rest of the story. Or it might not. In any case, Suspects overarching narrative builds up to Fairs victory against wrongful imprisonment. In 2019, he ultimately walked free after being acquitted of the murder charges. The final stretch of the series lingers in the bittersweet of the triumph: Its justice, but it comes after great loss. Meanwhile, the shift in the podcasts emphasis does mean that Jinagas own story ends up fading into the background a little bit. This is perhaps another way Suspect embodies a core quality of the contemporary true-crime podcast experience: You might get a little more truth and even a little more justice, but youre still far from closure. Lieutenant General Gwen Bingham has spent much of her Army career being a frontrunner. She is only the second African American woman ever to become a three-star General in the Army and as she advanced throughout her career, she has been either the first woman, the first African American, or both to hold that position. The general is quick to mention she would not be where she is without others "plowing tough ground" before her, and her warm, friendly approach has a way of putting everyone at ease. If breaking barriers seems to be a natural talent for Gen. Bingham, it's because she's been doing it her whole life. The girl from Troy Bingham grew up in Texas and Alabama during the '60s and '70s, when the Civil Rights Movement and the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were shaping the nation. It was during these formative years when Bingham says she first experienced racism. As a teenager, a race riot broke out at her high school in Troy, Alabama. "At the heart of the issue was the lack of representation of African American students in the school." To better represent the full student body, school administrators decided to start having two homecoming queens, a white one and a black one. Bingham was the school's first Black homecoming queen. She also become the first person of color to become the Student Government Association President. Looking back, Bingham says she is proud of her hometown Troy, "We kind of worked our way through a hard time." After graduating from high school, Bingham went to the University of Alabama, where she experienced a racist encounter which still resonates with her today. After receiving a bad grade on an exam, she went to the professor's office to ask for study advice. "I remember what came next, as if it were yesterday. He looked me dead in my eye, and he said these words, 'Well, it's a known fact that people like you don't do well in education.' I stood up because I felt the rage boil to the point where I'm just holding my anger. I stood up, I thanked him for his time and I exited his office. As I walked back to my dorm, the tears began to roll down my cheek." Bingham says that every time she recounts this story now, another person of color will approach her and say they've had a similar experience. Rising through the ranks Bingham grew up an Army brat. Her initial plan was to only serve the four years her ROTC scholarship required and then leave the military. However, she fell in love with the vocation and climbed the ranks. Even though she found success in the Army, she can still recall the moments of resistance, like an officer telling her he was upset when he learned a woman would be his commanding officer. But she has never let any of it stop her. "I keep moving forward. I surround myself with positive-thinking people, and that's who I am. And from that, I think I've been able to clear a path for women in general in the military, and certainly women of color." Now retired from the Army after 38 years, Bingham is continuing to clear that path through her work with the military nonprofit Blue Star Families' Racial Equity and Inclusion Initiative. Bingham co-chairs the initiative, helping military families of color find the support and training they need to help diversify leadership in military communities. According to surveys by Blue Star Families, military families of color are more likely to experience financial stress and spouse unemployment rate is higher in active-duty spouses of color than their white, non-Hispanic counterparts. Military families of color are also more likely to have concerns over being welcomed when relocating to new communities. That's one of the reasons why Charo Bates and her two young children are currently living about five hours away from where her Marine husband is stationed. "We don't want to go somewhere where we may have the risk of not being accepted or having our children exposed to racism before you would ever want a child to be exposed to that," Bates told CNN. "I don't want to have to worry about my husband, either. Even though he's an active duty service member, I think we've seen, that doesn't necessarily protect you in thinking about him leaving the house and making sure he gets to his destination and that he's okay all the time. It's emotionally exhausting." Guiding new voices Bates is one of the participants in the Racial Equity and Inclusion Initiative's DEPLOY Fellowship (Diversify and Expand the Pipeline Of Leaders for Your military community) program, which trains military spouses of color to promote and position themselves as the next generation of voices in organizations that support military communities. The Marine spouse currently works on applied research and social impact for Blue Star Families with the ultimate goal of one day making life better for military families through policy. "I would love to be on the Hill making change on the policy side. I want to change the way military families are treated, not only from the medical standpoint, but spouse employment-wise, from the educational component, mental health, there's so many things." By helping to mentor, train and promote other women like Bates, Bingham is finding her way to "pay it forward or pay it back to the next generation." And her own contributions have not been forgotten. In August, the Military Women's Memorial at Arlington Cemetery announced Gen. Bingham's story would be included in the next phase of their "Color of Freedom" display. The exhibit celebrates the diversity of servicewomen and the contributions they've made to the country. Ever humble, Bingham expressed her gratitude for the inclusion and quickly moved on with her day. She might not admit it herself, but Gen. Bingham is kind of a big deal. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. The search for Brian Laundrie, whose fiancee Gabby Petito was found dead in Wyoming after the pair embarked on a cross-country road trip over the summer, continues in an inhospitable Florida nature reserve that may soon prove easier to navigate for teams trying to find him, the Laundries' family attorney says. "It seems the water in the preserve is receding and certain areas are more accessible to search," said Steve Bertolino. "The entire Laundrie family is grateful for the hard work of the dedicated members of law enforcement that have been searching the preserve for Brian over the last few weeks. Hopefully, Brian will be located soon." Officers from multiple law enforcement agencies have been looking for Laundrie since September 17, when his family told authorities he left days earlier for the nearby Carlton Reserve, a vast nature reserve near the family's home in North Port that has been the focus of the search for Laundrie for weeks now. Laundrie returned to Florida on September 1 without Petito, and after her disappearance was reported he and his family rebuffed initial attempts by law enforcement to speak with them directly. Laundrie was being surveilled by police -- as best authorities could do so legally -- before he disappeared, North Port Police Department spokesperson Josh Taylor told CNN's Randi Kaye Thursday. At the time, Laundrie was not wanted for arrest and Petito was still missing. Her remains were discovered September 19 in Teton County, Wyoming. Laundrie has not been charged in Petito's death, but he now is the subject of a federal arrest warrant for unauthorized use of another person's debit card in the days after she last spoke with her family. Authorities never spoke with Laundrie before he went missing. When police were at the family home on September 11, the day Petito was reported missing, Laundrie was not seen and there was no opportunity to speak with him, Taylor told CNN. Additionally, authorities do not have in their possession the phones Laundrie and Petito had on their trip, Taylor said. Police searched the van used on the trip that Laundrie drove back to Florida but neither phone was there, Taylor said. Laundrie had purchased a new phone shortly after returning home, attorney Bertolino told CNN last week. A source close to the Laundrie family previously told CNN's Chris Cuomo that Laundrie left their home without his cell phone and wallet, and Bertolino said the FBI is in possession of the new phone. The FBI has declined to comment to CNN, citing its ongoing investigation. Laundrie's father assisted with search on Thursday Chris Laundrie, Brian's father, was seen Thursday morning entering the Carlton Reserve, after being asked by law enforcement to accompany them on their search, according to Bertolino. "Chris was asked to point out any favorite trails or spots that Brian may have used in the preserve," the attorney said. Though the family provided what information they knew earlier, "it is now thought that on-site assistance may be better," he said. "The preserve has been closed to the public and the Laundries as well but the parents have been cooperating since the search began," Bertolino said. "There were no discoveries but the effort was helpful to all," he said. Police on Thursday denied that a campsite had been found in the reserve during earlier search efforts. That confirmation came after a source close to the Laundrie family told CNN they were informed by investigators that police had made a discovery. The source on Thursday insisted that the Laundrie family had been told a campsite had been found. "Is it possible that they thought that there might be a campsite out there or something they may have seen from the air, but when they got on the ground that's not what it turned out to be. Sure, I think that's a possibility," Taylor, the North Port Police spokesperson, said. "Bottom line is that investigators are telling me that no campsite was found out there." As the search continues, Chris Laundrie and Brian's mother Roberta believe he is still in the reserve, Bertolino said, and as a result, any public call they made for him to surrender to authorities would not reach him. "In short, the parents believe Brian was and still is in the preserve so there was no reason to issue a plea on media that he does not have access to," the attorney said. Family hopes Gabby's life will inspire others Petito's body was discovered in Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming less than two weeks after she was reported missing, dampening the hopes of communities nationwide that she would be found alive. As authorities focused on the search for Laundrie, vigils were held in Petito's honor from Salt Lake City to Wilmington, North Carolina, where a memorial was set up at a restaurant she used to work at, according to CNN affiliate WWAY. The loss of Petito was particularly felt in North Port, as tributes were held in front of the Florida town's city hall, and on Long Island where she grew up. Her father, Joe Petito, described Gabby at her memorial service in New York as a "happy girl" who loved the outdoors and made others feel welcome. "I want you to be inspired by Gabby, that's what we're looking for," he said. "If there's a trip that you guys want to take, take it now. Do it now while you've got the time. "If there's a relationship that you're in that might not be the best thing for you, leave it now," he added. Petito's stepfather, Jim Schmidt, also gave a eulogy, telling those gathered, "Parents aren't supposed to bury their children. That's not how this is supposed to work." In an interview on the "Dr. Phil" show this week alongside other members of her family, Joe Petito said he believes Laundrie is alive and hiding. "Because he's a coward. Flat out. I'd use some other words, but I can't use them on your show," Petito said. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Colbert County District Attorney Bryce Graham said he will seek the death penalty for Brian Lansing Martin, the man accused of killing Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner and William Mealback Jr., and injuring one in a series of shootings last week in Muscle Shoals. Martin currently faces 10 charges related to the crime spree, including four capital murder charges. Graham said in a news conference Thursday that additional charges are possible. Brian Lansing Martin (From Colbert County Jail) Brian Lansing Martin (From Colbert County Jail) Theres still a lot going on in the investigation, Graham said, but theres no doubt as to who the suspect is. Authorities said Martin was traveling on Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals on Oct. 1 when he shot Mealback in the head and chest, then pushed Mealbacks body out onto the roadway. A short time later, Martin was spotted by Sheffield police and chased back into Muscle Shoals. The car chase ended near the Muscle Shoals Walmart, at which point Martin exchanged gunfire with police from multiple agencies. Risner, Sheffield Police Lt. Max Dotson and Martin were each injured. Dotsons bulletproof vest prevented serious injury. Martin received medical care at the scene before being taken to Huntsville Hospital. Risner was flown to Huntsville Hospital, where he died the next day. On Wednesday, Martin was transported to Colbert County Jail for booking on four counts of capital murder, two counts of attempt to commit murder, two counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle, one count of abuse of corpse and one count of felon in possession of a firearm. Graham said as DNA, ballistics and other evidence is processed, its possible Martin will face additional attempted murder or shooting charges. The capital murder charges open the door for the death penalty. Its not the first time Graham has prosecuted Martin in a murder case. In 2011, Martin was arrested on murder and theft charges related to his fathers death. The case went before a jury and even reached deliberation before a plea deal was arranged in which Martin would serve 10 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to manslaughter. Martin began serving his sentence in 2013 but was released in 2016 under Alabamas Good Time Law. Several officials, from law enforcement to legislators to the states attorney general, have called for changes to the law since, saying the murders would have never occurred had Martin been required to stay in prison for his full sentence. A Madison County jury has convicted of Huntsville man of capital murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle related to a Thanksgiving weekend shooting in 2017, records show. Andrae Quavion Norvel Jr., 28, was accused of shooting 29-year-old Mark Chandler Jr. after an argument between the two. Chandler was a passenger in a vehicle on University Drive when he and the vehicles driver were both shot by Norvel, according to authorities at the time. Norvel was arrested on one count each of capital murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle and second-degree assault. The jury convicted Norvel on Oct. 1 of two of three charges. Records show the assault charge was dropped by prosecutors at the start of the trial. Norvel is currently being held without bond in the Madison County Jail. Sentencing has been set for Dec. 10. Four schools in the Lauderdale County School System are dismissing early today due to the traffic logistics of Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risners funeral. These schools will dismiss at 1:45 p.m. today: Brooks Elementary Brooks High School (Pep rally at 1:15 p.m.) Wilson School Underwood Elementary In the Florence City Schools system, Forest Hills Elementary will dismiss at 1:30 p.m. There will be no after-school activities at the school. WAAY 31 will carry Risner's funeral live on television and on WAAYTV.com A Tennessee woman has been arrested after being indicted last year on charges related to a fatal wreck in Jackson County. Melissa Carol Merritt, 65, faces one count of homicide (manslaughter) and one count of first-degree assault. According to the indictment, she was driving under the influence and on the wrong side of the highway when she collided with another vehicle. The driver of the vehicle was seriously injured. The drivers passenger, 58-year-old Sandra Dee Richardson, also of Tennessee, was killed. Records show Merritt was indicted by a Jackson County grand jury in September 2020, but she wasnt arrested until Wednesday. She was released Thursday on $30,000 bond. Turin announced as host city for Italy's first Eurovision in 30 years. Turin is to host the 2022 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest on 14 May after being selected from the shortlist of five Italian cities vying to stage the annual competition. The news was first reported on Friday morning by Italy's newspaper of record, Corriere della Sera before being confirmed by the Italian state broadcaster RAI and Eurovision organisers. RAI chief Carlo Fuortes said the choice, made with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), "was not easy given the very high level of the proposals made the competing cities." The event, to be held in the PalaOlimpico, will reportedly be presented by Mika, the Lebanese-born British pop star, however this has yet to be confirmed officially by the Eurovision. Italy will host the event for the third time in the Eurovision's 66-year history, after Rome band Maneskin won the title in May with Zitti e Buoni. Turin beat Milan, Bologna, Pesaro and Rimini, however Rome failed to make the shortlist last monthdespite the city's mayor Virginia Raggi vaunting the capital as the "perfect stage." Turin was already identified as a potential Eurovision venue in 2017 by RAI ahead of Italy's entry that year, bookies' favourite Francesco Gabbani, who failed to win in the end. The 1991 edition of the Eurovision was held in Rome's Cinecitta Film Studios while the only other time that Italy hosted the contest, after Gigliola Cinquetti won in 1964, was at the Centro RAI in Naples. Photo EIN Eurovision IN If somebody has devised a plan to give the prize to a regime-loyal person from Russia so that, God forbid, the prize doesnt go to Navalny or some other political prisoner or political emigre, thats a devilishly sophisticated blow to our country, its present and future, economist Konstantin Sonin wrote on Facebook. If someone has organized this as a compromise lets show some love to these Russians but lets not bait the bear, thats even stupider than the other option.Sonin is right about the kind of message Muratovs prize sends to Russian journalists and activists who have rejected compromises and refused to make friends with regime figures looking for liberals to co-opt. But Im not sure the effect is intentional. Rather, I fear the judges cant quite see the distinction between Muratov and Navalny, Muratov and Badanin, Muratov and Politkovskaya. They dont know or care who drinks with whom in Moscow, which parties people attend, which charities they favor; their impulse is to support the free press in Russia, and they dont see what might be wrong with honoring what could be plausibly described as its last remnants; its not even a consideration that the plausibility is enhanced by the demise of truly independent outlets. Its significant, in that sense, that the committee chose two different journalists working in different parts of the world, under different political regimes. The Philippines is still a democracy, though one left bruised by Dutertes years in power. Russia is far harder to define that way. But free speech, assaulted by demagogues and misinformation, is under fire everywhere, and by extension so, too, is democracy and peace. We need only think back to Donald Trumps years in the White House to remember a time when even in the United States, where press freedoms are guaranteed by the constitution, the president referred to critical media as enemies of the people. Still, Johnson needs to do more than just build if he is going to create more affordable housing and add to the numbers of young homeowners. If the government wants to raise home ownership rates, boosting supply wont move the needle, says Mulheirn in an email exchange. He notes that lenders have steered clear of prospective buyers with only small deposits; meanwhile, a swathe of regulation to improve financial stability has made them more cautious too. If Britain is to recover home ownership rates of the mid-2000s without jeopardizing financial stability, Mulheirn says the government will have to offset lenders risk, most likely through some form of insurance. Why might Putin want to do that? Nord Stream 2 is the obvious answer. Its a pipeline backed by Russias state-owned gas monopoly, Gazprom PJSC, that connects Russia directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The link has been completed but isnt in operation yet, because the EU has yet to give the necessary permits. Its also been delayed by geopolitical concerns: the U.S., Poland, Ukraine and many other countries see it as a Russian strategy of circumventing eastern Europe, perhaps with the intention of shutting off the gas flowing through existing pipelines there. The country has clear and ambitious climate targets: Carbon neutrality by 2035, a phase-out of coal by 2030, and an increase in renewable energy reliance to about 50% of the overall mix. But its taken a realistic stance on how to get there, by accepting that demand for electricity isnt going away, fossil fuels cant be unplugged overnight, and that nuclear energy can help smooth the transition. The consensus-building approach along the way has resulted in the Finnish Greens, unlike peers elsewhere, abandoning their opposition to nuclear and being open to new plant projects. Storage sites in Europe reached late summer, when natural gas inventories usually get replenished, at their lowest levels in more than a decade for the time of year. Norwegian gas flows were lower than average during maintenance work at its giant fields and processing stations, and supplies from Russia were limited while it was rebuilding its own inventories. Russian President Vladimir Putin calmed the gas market on Oct. 6 by offering to help stabilize the situation, saying Russia could potentially export record volumes of the vital fuel to Europe this year. Quick certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany would be one way to achieve this, according to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. That said, prices in Europe would need to stay high to attract cargoes of liquefied natural gas away from Asia, where China is stockpiling to power its economy and build reserves for winter. Until a few months ago, Duterte himself seemed destined to linger. He was in an unprecedented position, with gravity-defying popularity of the sort that usually eludes presidents limited to a single six-year term. It suggested he would be able to stay on in the upper reaches of power, possibly as vice president, and certainly heavily influence the election of the next occupant of the Malacanang quite possibly his daughter. In the mid-term Senate elections in 2019, the opposition had not secured a single seat, and the pandemic did little to move the needle. One poll published last October put his approval rating at 91%. Some years ago, the legal scholar Sanford Levinson proposed a solution: Award every adult 20 or 30 privilege tickets that can be used over the course of a lifetime distributed to friends, business partners, anyone with whom a person might seek to establish a truly confidential relationship. Should you wish to talk intimately with your local bartender or hairdresser, Levinson writes, you would only have to give him one of your privilege tickets. The court would have little trouble deciding the question of the privilege, because it would apply to anyone who had a ticket. Maybe Holmes and Balwani should have exchanged privilege tickets. The Brussels-based European Commission proposes new laws. Its members, one from each member state, are appointed and are supposed to represent the EU as a whole. Generally the European Parliament, which is directly elected, has to approve the proposals along with the Council of the European Union, made up of ministers or representatives from the 27 national governments. There are some legislative fields that countries have agreed to reserve for the EU level. These are the customs union, monetary policy for countries that share the euro, trade with countries outside the bloc, competition rules for the EU single market, and a common fisheries policy. But EU law also covers other areas, and has expanded over the years to include issues that affect daily life such as food safety or air pollution or data privacy. That sometimes forces changes in existing national laws. It may seem paradoxical, but in the entirety of the wild and woolly world of cryptocurrencies, what some of the top financial regulators are most worried about is the flavor of digital money designed to be the safest. Even the name, stablecoin, exudes, well, stability. But stablecoins in general and the giant among them, Tether, have drawn increasing scrutiny amid worries that they could pose risks to cryptocurrency users and even to the global financial system. With Tether, theres also the question of whether the $69 billion in safe assets that the company issuing the currency says is backing it are really safe. Thats not the only appeal of these photos, which are impeccably composed and intriguingly ephemeral. Relatively long exposures turn commuters into ghostly apparitions, and shooting through glass produces disorientingly layered imagery. (None of the pictures are double exposures or digitally altered.) The limited palette of the underground chambers accentuates the occasional contrasting color, whether the yellow of a womans coat or the blue of the seats in the latest generation of Metro cars. Interestingly, only one picture depicts the new cars, whose chilly color scheme breaks with Metros warm original one. In that sense, Zafrans photos document the end of a literally golden age. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy We are 100 percent opposed to a mandate for a vaccine that still, to this date, has proven that you can still get covid. We think that this is political, Brandon Judd, president of the NBPC, said in an interview. We believe that people should have the right to choose. If they choose to get vaccinated, good for them. If they choose not to, I think thats their choice. Whoa this wine practically jumps from the glass to greet you with a passionate kiss on the lips. Okay, that may sound creepy and even horrifying in todays pandemic-tinted ethos, but its a wine, for crying out loud! This exuberant rose sparkler tastes like eating fresh fruit off the vine, without the stickiness. Its 95 percent xinomavro, a grape variety known to anyone who has tried Greek red wines, with the rest limniona, a variety I had never heard of. My Wine Grapes (any week I have to consult this book twice is a great week!) describes limniona as a recently resurrected and promising Greek variety from Thessalia. (They should call it Lazarus!) Whatever additional life that mystery 5 percent adds to the wine, it works. The price invites comparisons to champagne; while the quality is high, I urge you to enjoy this wine on its own merits. Its not trying to be champagne. ABV: 11.5 percent. But the more significant issue, said Harvard University researcher David Grabowski, is that state governments are often too financially strapped to invest in any social services that arent mandatory, especially since states have to match federal funding with their own dollars. So even though researchers have shown for years that caring for someone in their home costs the government less in the long run than placing them in an institution, many states like Maryland have held back funding for home-based care. With PFLAG, Mrs. Goodman helped establish a Washington-area hotline for gay and lesbian people and their parents, and she said she was horrified by stories of children wanting to kill themselves and of families wanting to disown their children because of their sexual identity. She told the Atlantic magazine that she drew a link between her childhood with her fears that her Jewish identity would be discovered and the experiences of young people afraid of living openly gay lives. Its important to understand how difficult it was to identify these people, Stuart E. Eizenstat, a onetime U.S. ambassador to the European Union who has negotiated Holocaust restitution settlements, said in an interview. Neal was bringing to light real people who were still alive. He played a major historical role in filling the gaps in knowledge of how extensive the Nazi network of survivors was in the United States and in bringing some of these people to justice. The womens slayings come the same week the county exceeded 100 homicides this year, a total that surpasses the number of killings recorded in the jurisdiction for all of 2020, according to department data and tracking by The Washington Post. The county and other communities nationwide, including the District, have seen an increase in violent crime over the last two years. Local advocates and elected officials have cited the pandemic, economic strain, mental health and a breakdown of community infrastructure amid emergency health lockdowns as contributing factors. In the Wason Center poll, 61 percent of all likely voters surveyed said they support protecting a womans access to abortions, most of them Democrats. Fifty-five percent of all respondents said they would oppose a law similar to the one in Texas while slightly more than a third said they would support it. The remarks from the career diplomat followed withering criticism from the Biden administration for what it called his mischaracterization of the circumstances of his resignation and his abandonment of his mission in Haiti during trying times. Despite those attacks, Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee rallied behind the former envoy, saying his compassion for Haitian migrants and ideas for overhauling U.S.-Haiti policy were sorely needed. Rohde, who worked for the Times at the time of incident but is now on staff at the New Yorker magazine, made a brave escape from a Taliban compound in Pakistan, where his kidnappers had been keeping their hostages. Afghan journalist Tahir Ludin was able to escape with Rohde, while a third captive, Asadullah Mangal, stayed behind. The goal of the initiative is to restore the ability of local government, folks that are in the cities and counties across the state, to decide on their own that if we want to increase density or change zoning then we can do that, but we are not going to allow the folks in Sacramento with a sweep of a pen decide for us how our single-family lots should be zoned or built out, he said. The committee has also sought documents and testimony from several top Trump aides, who were urged earlier this week by Trumps attorney to cite executive privilege for matters having to do with presidential decision-making. While Bannon said he would not comply with the requests, the committee said Friday that two other officials former chief of staff Mark Meadows and Pentagon adviser Kash Patel are engaging with the committee. More than 500 years ago, after securing the support of Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II, Christopher Columbus launched the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria from the coast of Spain in 1492, the president said. Today, millions of Italian Americans continue to enrich our countrys traditions and culture and make lasting contributions to our Nation they are educators, health-care workers, scientists, first responders, military service members, and public servants, among so many other vital roles. I want to thank Congress for passing it with unanimous bipartisan support, sending the clear message that we take care of our own, Biden said in a statement. We are bringing to bear the full resources of the U.S. Government to make available first-class medical care to those affected and to get to the bottom of these incidents, including to determine the cause and who is responsible. The brief order from the 5th Circuit, issued about five hours after the appeal was filed, did not rule on the merits of the states request. Any decision from the 5th Circuit could put the issue back before the Supreme Court, which declined to block the law when it took effect Sept. 1 but said it raises serious constitutional questions. Online cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is one of the founders of a new trade association. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation) The booming sector has recruited former top regulators and congressional insiders but is struggling to coordinate its approach. Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng, in response to the drills, said that military tensions across the Taiwan Strait were at their most serious in more than 40 years. Chiu further predicted that Chinas military capacity would significantly reduce obstacles to a full-scale invasion of Taiwan within the next four years. By 2025, China will bring the cost and attrition to its lowest, Chiu said. It has the capacity now, but it will not start a war easily, having to take many other things into consideration. Major uncertainty, however, revolves around the presidents health. Some Czech media reports have suggested that he is gravely ill, raising questions about whether he will remain in office. The presidents office on Thursday referred to a statement, saying that Zemans physician did not recommend that the president vote publicly and that the Presidents future program will be modified. The statement did not address the reports about Zemans potential illness. Ten arrest warrants were issued for her in less than two years, and she is fighting nine separate cases. Throughout, she has remained a staunch advocate of freedom of the press. After her conviction last year, she said the case was not about Rappler but about every Filipino, because freedom of the press is the foundation of every single right you have as a Filipino citizen. The row is the latest in a series of incidents following the August 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was jailed in February on charges he says are political. Last March, the United States levied sanctions against seven Russian officials around President Vladimir Putin, blocking their access to various U.S. assets. In the latest trade special episode of the Real Footy podcast, Jake Niall and Peter Ryan discuss the deals that were done on day four, including Adam Cerra to Carlton, and some of the other potential moves that are bubbling away as we reach the midpoint of trade period. We discuss where Fremantle stand after their moves, how this ranks among Carltons deals in recent years and the details of Cerras deal, and look at how well the Eagles did in landing Sam Petrevski-Seton. We hear about Essendons hope that they can trade for another pick in the first round of this years draft, a cluster-pluck strategy in the mould of the Demons, and GWS interest in bringing back Rory Lobb, the former Giant who has been with the Dockers for the last three years. Plus, the Pies draft debt, what Trent Dumonts AFL future holds, the trade that could come through at the last minute, where the Jordan Clark discussions sit and much more. Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media WESTPORT The town is back in the substantial transmission or red category for COVID-19 cases, according to Westport officials. There has been an increase of COVID cases in Westport, putting the community into a higher category of COVID transmission, said Westport Weston Health District director of health Mark Cooper in a news release. High-risk individuals should take extra precautions, particularly those who are unvaccinated, by avoiding large gatherings. Getting fully vaccinated, wearing masks and social distancing continue to be strongly recommended for all. Reading, PA (19601) Today Breezy and warm with sun followed by increasing clouds; showers towards evening, but most of the day is dry. . Tonight Some evening rain, then clearing late. Brisk and turning colder. Allentown, PA (18103) Today Breezy and warm with sun followed by increasing clouds; showers towards evening, but most of the day is dry. . Tonight Some evening rain, then clearing late. Brisk and turning colder. Fundraising Specialist (Donor Journey Content), Geneva Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Childrens Fund Country: Switzerland City: Geneva Office: UNICEF Geneva Grade: P-3 Closing date: Tuesday, 19 October 2021 Fundraising Specialist (Donor Journey Content), P-3, FT, PFP/PSFP, Geneva, Switzerland, # 96250 Job no: 544811 Position type: Fixed Term Appointment Location: Switzerland Division/Equivalent: Partnerships School/Unit: Geneva, Switzerland Department/Office: Private Fund Raising and Partnerships Categories: Private Fundraising and Partnerships UNICEF works in some of the worlds toughest places, to reach the worlds most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up. The Private Sector Fundraising and Partnerships (PSFP) Section within the Division of Private Fundraising and Partnerships (PFP) works with National Committees and UNICEF Country Offices to maximize income and drive income growth. The position of Fundraising Specialist (Donor Journey Content) is part of the Fundraising and Marketing Services team (FMS) that sits within the Individual Giving (IG) Team in PSFP, PFP. The main role of the Fundraising and Marketing Services (FMS) Team is to enable and support income growth by providing diversified creative approaches to attract new segments of donors as well as to retain and engage with existing ones. The FMS provides creative leadership to all fundraising offices around the world. This includes developing insight-driven content with a digital first approach for acquisition and retention, providing strategic inputs into global and local creative/content discussions, supporting markets and providing creative guidance to fundraising offices on their local content thinking and development and, enables an ongoing sharing of knowledge amongst offices. For every child, a Champion Working in close collaboration with the IG Team and in alignment with the Individual Giving strategy, the position of Fundraising Specialist (Donor Journey Content) will focus on enabling insight-driven fundraising content in the following ways: Providing technical contributions on developing new creative propositions and materials based on clear insights as well as market needs, with a digital first approach, for multiple donor journeys (including acquisition channels). Finding and then sourcing effective stories and visuals from the field to support fundraising activities. Providing creative guidance and building capabilities of the fundraising markets. Influencing and managing multi-stakeholder partnerships and discussions to align with IG needs. How can you make a difference? Summary of key functions and accountabilities: Work together with the Fundraising Manager (Fundraising and Marketing Services) and other members of the Individual Giving team, Regional Support Centers, National committees and Country Offices to deliver creative leadership, guidance and materials to maximize and optimize income from new and existing donors by: 1. Develop insight-led, effective content, with digital first approach, for multiple donor journeys Work with external agencies and internal resources to provide a high volume and varied kind of effective content for global and market-level use, aligned with the global and market fundraising strategies and linked to pre-defined opportunities and gaps for maximizing acquisition and retention income. This would include developing multi-channel creative packages and/or repurposing existing raw content for an active pipeline of content for markets. Build and nurture relationships with fundraising markets to understand their needs, involve them in creative development process and then close the loop by evaluating and analyzing results. Keep pace with emerging trends and shifts in content development (especially for digital channels) to provide effective creative leadership to fundraising markets. Develop creative guidance and materials for targeted, segmented, personalization-at-scale donor journeys for global donors as well as for markets. Develop content materials to support markets with the nurture journeys for their legacy hand raisers. Create KPIs and tracking and evaluation mechanisms for global content usage and then use this insight to make content even more effective. Maintain and nurture relationship with multiple agencies to deliver on our content requirements. 2. Find, then source or curate effective stories and visuals from the field to support fundraising activities Work closely with Country Offices (field offices) to find effective story angles for fundraising and then source (directly or through CO network) stories and visuals suited to fundraising needs. Give inputs into briefs for content gathering missions organized by other teams. Regularly scout UNICEF platforms for good stories and then curate these for fundraising markets. 3. Provide creative guidance and inputs to strategic discussions at the global and local level Add the fundraising voice to the strategic content discussions at the HQ level and then disseminate the relevant information back to fundraising markets. Work closely with other IG Specialists to deliver on market support plans for priority fundraising markets. Plan and deliver capacity building workshops, learning modules and toolkits to help fundraising offices to shift to a more performance-driven creative thinking and content production. Create and disseminate creative guidance documents for markets on relevant topics. Nurture and engage with the content community on an ongoing basis by sharing updates, conducting webinars, sharing case studies, and seeking inputs into global content planning and development. 4. Maintain high levels of expertise and share best practices with the fundraising community cvFywNH Dh7qKS Track global developments in giving and donor behavior sector, both inside and outside UNICEF, as well as the commercial sector. Find good case studies within the UNICEF fundraising community, curate and share in a structured manner- for example, via the creation of manuals, presentations, webinars etc. Participate and/or lead in the coordination, planning and delivery of training workshops to UNICEF staff and partners. 5. If and when required, provide a back-up for emergencies and DRTV content development, and support the team when required To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have... Education: An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: Marketing, Communications, the Humanities, Fundraising, Business Administrations, Social Sciences, International Relations, or another relevant technical field. Alternatively, a first level university degree in a relevant field combined with 7 years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree. Any other additional training in a related field is an asset. Experience: A minimum of five years of progressively responsible work experience in creating performance-driven fundraising or marketing content, is required. Hands-on experience in developing content for digital environment either themselves or with an agency is required. Hands-on experience creating donor journeys, donor journey strategies or content in Salesforce or similar platforms is highly desirable. Experience working in a front-line fundraising environment or in an advertising or marketing agency would be considered as an asset. Experience in writing persuasively, in a results-driven organization, for different audiences, is required. Experience in working with creative teams or agencies and a really good understanding of the creative process, is required. Experience of UNICEF & UN is an asset. Language requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset. For every Child, you demonstrate... UNICEFs values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) The UNICEF competencies required for this post are... Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1) Works Collaboratively with others (1) Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1) Innovates and Embraces Change (1) Thinks and Acts Strategically (1) Drives to achieve impactful results (1) Manages ambiguity and complexity (1) To view our competency framework, please visit here. Click here to learn more about UNICEFs values and competencies. UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. Remarks: UNICEF PFP-Geneva is currently reviewing organizational changes; therefore, the exact future location of the post is still under consideration/to be determined. Candidates may be asked commence duties remotely. Should the selected candidate be assigned and relocate to Geneva, they may later be asked to relocate and be assigned to another location during the initial contract or assignment period. Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. Advertised: Sep 22 2021 W. Europe Daylight Time Application close: Oct 19 2021 W. Europe Daylight Time Link to the organizations job offer: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1633550822861 Senior Coordinator (FAO-China South-South Cooperation), Rome, Italy Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Country: Italy City: Rome Office: FAO Rome Closing date: Tuesday, 26 October 2021 2102692 Senior Coordinator (FAO-China South-South Cooperation) Job Posting: 05/Oct/2021 Closure Date: 26/Oct/2021, 9:59:00 PM Organizational Unit : South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division, PST Job Type: Staff position Type of Requisition : Professional Project Grade Level : P-5 Primary Location: Italy-Rome Duration : Fixed-term: one year with possibility of extension Post Number : 2008690 CCOG Code : 1A11 IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device The length of appointment for internal FAO candidates will be established in accordance with applicable policies pertaining to the extension of appointments FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member nations and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold our values. FAO has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and FAO, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality The incumbent may be re-assigned to different activities and/or duty stations depending on the evolving needs of the Organization. Organizational Setting The South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division (PST) was established to coordinate and implement FAOs renewed South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) strategy following the Outcomes of the Second High-Level United Nations (UN) Conference on South-South Cooperation (BAPA+40) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. PST aims to be a hub for knowledge generation and exchange to promote the uptake of sustainable agricultural practices, technologies, and innovations to address challenges in agriculture and rural development facing developing countries. PST also oversees, coordinates and facilitates South-South and Triangular Cooperation partnerships across the Organization as an effective mechanism for implementing FAOs Strategic Framework, through the exchange of development solutions, promotion of platforms for knowledge management and networks, mobilization of upstream policy support, and fostering enabling environment for effective SSTC among countries in the global south. The post is located in the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division (PST), Rome, Italy. Reporting Lines The Senior Coordinator reports to the Director, PST. Technical Focus Leadership and coordination in development and implementation of strategy and policies for FAO-China SSC programme. Facilitation of partnerships with the Government of the Peoples Republic of China and Chinese stakeholders, as well as other key stakeholders globally for mobilizing financial, technical, and human resources. Key Results Lead the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of PST programmes/projects, as well as provide coordination and operational advice to PST. Key Functions Manages and leads specialized team(s) and, plans and develops annual work plans to achieve divisional targets; Leads strategic thinking and coordinates the preparation of SSTC programme and project proposals, monitors programme implementation, ensuring that all operational activities are carried out in line with the work plans and project documents, and makes recommendations on how to improve results and increase efficiency; Coordinates activities related to budget and funding (programme/project preparation and submissions, progress reports, financial statements, etc.) and finalises/approves related documents/reports; Oversees and leads PST strategic and programming directions, assessing FAOs contributions at the strategic level to ensure that SSTC programmes are aligned more closely to the achievement of the FAOs Strategic Framework; Initiates contact with potential partners to explore funding opportunities, leads negotiations of funding agreements and project proposals with governments, international organizations, international and regional financial institutions and banks, private sector and civil society partners; maintains effective working relationships with key stakeholders throughout the project cycle, including to support implementation, facilitates monitoring and compliance issues and ensures submission of reports, as required; Takes the lead in producing SSTC technical, economic and policy studies, preparation of impact evaluation or equivalent studies, etc.; Oversees the implementation of PST SSTC Strategic Framework and identifies lessons learned, constraints and issues that require timely resolution and corrective actions and presents recommendations to PST Director for improving performance; Coordinates contacts with potential PST partners to explore financing opportunities/resource mobilization; Represents the Organization in meetings with government officials, partners and donors in order to advocate for strategic partnerships; represents PST on organization-wide committees and working groups. Specific Functions Develops more triangular cooperation, regional and global projects to increase the programme visibility and outreach; Develops annual work plans to achieve divisional targets; Coordinates marketing and outreach activities related to FAO-China SSC programme; Prepares reports on the implementation of the FAO-China SSC Programme for Management, FAO Governing Bodies, UN and other fora, as and when required; Performs other duties as required. CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING Minimum Requirements Advanced university degree in international development, development economics, business administration, agriculture, agricultural economics, or a field relevant to the work of the Organization; Ten years of relevant experience in international development cooperation, project management, agriculture development and management, and SSTC; Working knowledge of English and Chinese. Competencies Results Focus Leading, engaging and empowering Communication Building Effective Relationships Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement Strategic thinking Technical/Functional Skills cvFJvrX-Dh7qKS Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions is essential; Extent and relevance of experience in international development cooperation, project management, agriculture development and management, and SSTC; Extent and relevance of experience in developing countries and/or in the international cooperation context; Demonstrated experience in negotiating complex funding agreements with bilateral and multilateral institutions; Demonstrated skills and experience in managing relations and outreach with partners; Demonstrated skills and experience in resource mobilization and SSC; Extent of knowledge on the Chinese agricultural systems, rural development and SSC policies; Extent of knowledge of the FAO-China SSC programme. Work experience in the Government of the Peoples Republic of China is a strong asset. Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency. GENERAL INFORMATION FAO reserves the right not to make an appointment Extension of fixed term appointments is based on certification of performance and availability of funds CONDITIONS OF SERVICE A competitive compensation and benefits package is offered. For information on UN salaries, allowances and benefits, click on the following link: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries allowances/salary.htm Other benefits, subject to eligibility, include: Dependency allowances Rental subsidy Education grant for children Home leave travel 30 working days of annual leave per year Pension fund entitlements under the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund International health insurance; optional life insurance Disability protection FAO encourages a positive workplace culture to increase inclusivity and diversity within its workforce. FAO applies measures in which all staff members contribute equally and in full to the work and development of the Organization. This includes: elements of family-friendly policies flexible working arrangements standards of conduct HOW TO APPLY To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications and language skills; Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile; Once your profile is completed, please apply and submit your application; Your application will be screened based on the information provided on your online profile; Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/ Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications; Incomplete applications will not be considered; Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered; We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date. If you need help, or have queries, please contact: Careers@fao.org Link to the organizations job offer: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1633541049445 The world of James Bond is stirred, shaken and positively blown up in this fifth and final chapter of what you might call 007: The Daniel Craig Years. The world of James Bond is stirred, shaken and positively blown up in this fifth and final chapter of what you might call 007: The Daniel Craig Years. Craig, as most people know, will not be returning to the role of the suave superspy. That alone makes this a pivotal movie in the long-running franchise, for no other reason than Craig's Bond cycle has been the most consistent running narrative, with each movie dovetailing into the next. This is in high contrast to the Sean Connery/George Lazenby/Roger Moore/Timothy Dalton/Pierce Brosnan years, in which each movie more or less stood alone. One assumes this Bond phase was influenced by the successfully interlaced realms of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. After a snowy prelude in which an assassin stalks a young girl, we catch up with Bond holidaying with the lovely Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) in Italy, where, in the interest of making their love official, she suggests he say a symbolic goodbye at the tomb of Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), the doomed heroine of Casino Royale. That doesn't make for the emotional closure anyone anticipated: the pair soon find themselves on the run from a platoon of SPECTRE assassins, their romance in tatters, and all that's before the opening credits. Five years later, in the wake of a London assault on a top secret bio-weapon lab, Bond, retired to Jamaica, is approached by his CIA pal Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright, Westworld) for an important mission in Cuba, finding the scientist (David Dencik) who survived that aforementioned assault. Daniel Craig will not be returning to the role of the suave superspy. (Nicola Dove / MGM) That too takes an unexpected turn, as Bond is compelled to mix it up with his own sleek MI-5 replacement, Nomi (Lashana Lynch), a lively CIA operative named Paloma (Ana de Armas, Craig's co-star in Knives Out) and a whole nest of SPECTRE vipers. It turns out all roads lead to the assassin from the opening scene, one Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek of Bohemian Rhapsody), a man who, like Bond, suffered the loss of his entire family. Unlike Bond, Safin intends to take revenge on the entire world for his loss. So yes, his first name is a little on the nose. There are a few elements to recommend the film, and alas, the mentioning of them would qualify as spoilers. On the downside, director Cary Joji Fukunaga, who co-wrote the script alongside Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Scott Z. Burns, forgoes the cinematic beauty of latter films such as Skyfall, substituting that movie's ace cinematographer, Roger Deakins, for the less inspired Linus Sandgren. Best known for the first season of the HBO series True Detective, Fukunaga tries to duplicate one of that show's high points with an extended take in which Bond blasts his way through an army of henchmen in a bid to get to the top of the villain's lair. It fails to impress, however. (This kind of thing was specifically done better in the awesome staircase fight in Atomic Blonde.) If anything, it calls attention to Fukunaga's lack of economy in storytelling, if the two-hour-43-minute running time doesn't already make that point. (I don't think there is a longer Bond movie: the 130-minute Thunderball only feels like it.) We Have All the Time in the World, the tragically ironic love theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, gets an unexpected half-century callback in this movie for reasons that might seem apparent (see the title). It's notable that this is the song that will stick in your head after you've left the theatre and not the Billie Eilish dirge that plays over the opening credits. I'm not one for nostalgia, especially when it comes to Bond movies. But really (sigh), they don't write 'em like that anymore. randall.king@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @FreepKing If you value coverage of Manitobas arts scene, help us do more. Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism. BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project. As someone born on Vancouver Island who has resided in several cities, Rebecca Stiles appreciates the touches of her adopted province in Manitobas first and only Mormon temple. As someone born on Vancouver Island who has resided in several cities, Rebecca Stiles appreciates the touches of her adopted province in Manitobas first and only Mormon temple. "I like that regional element of it," said Stiles of the repeated images of purple crocuses and wheat in the new buildings decorative touches. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Winnipeg Manitoba Temple owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, opens to the public for two weeks, beginning Saturday. "It reminds you that God is where you are, and you can connect wherever you happen to be." Designed to mimic an English country church, the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, opens to the public for two weeks, beginning Saturday. Visitors can sign up for a 30-minute tour at https://thewinnipegtemple.org/. After its dedication service on Sunday, Oct. 31, only members in good standing can enter for sacred rituals, including baptisms, weddings, and instruction. Church members gather at local meeting houses for weekly worship services and their temples are not used for large gatherings or regular worship. Located on the median between north and southbound lanes of Kenaston Boulevard in the Bridgwater neighbourhood, the one-level red brick- and limestone-clad building stands 31 metres at its peak, topped with a gilded statue of Moroni, a prophet in the Book of Mormon. Visitors to the 991 square metre (10,667 sq. ft.) temple must don shoe coverings to protect the stone floors quarried in Turkey from dirt and gravel. "Everything in the temple is going to be immaculate," explained longtime member Yvonne Robison of the continual cleaning and repairs undertaken by staff and volunteers to keep the building pristine. "If the carpet gets yucky, it will be changed." SUPPLIED PHOTO Based on a cruciform plan, the temple is bisected by a long central hallway with several rooms designed for specific functions, each seating between a dozen and 40 people. The east wing holds an octagonal-shaped baptistry held up by a dozen oxen built in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the denomination is headquartered. Touches of Manitoba are evident in the purple crocuses dotting the friezes and millwork in the room and represented in components manufactured in Winkler and Steinbach. The west side of the building features a room for brides to get dressed in their wedding finery, and a larger sealing room, where couples and families are sealed for life and all eternity, according to church doctrine. A large chandelier with a thousand crystals scheduled to be cleaned every three months hangs above the altar where couples are married and is reflected repeatedly in the gold-framed mirrors on either end of the room. "It gives someone the perspective it (marriage) never ends," explained open house co-chair Allan Robison of the symbolism of the mirrors. He said the first weddings are expected to take place on Nov. 12, with each couple or family allowed about 30 minutes for the spiritual ceremony, which also includes signing Manitoba marriage certificates. SUPPLIED PHOTO Church members can visit the temple instruction room with theatre-style seats for 90-minute education sessions, and then proceed to the celestial room, what most church members consider the highlight of any temple. "Its very sacred, its very quiet, and very peaceful," Allan Robison said of the high-ceilinged room, which features the same muted greens, purples and neutrals found in the rest of the temple. "That room is one room where when people go on a tour, we hope they feel something," "Its where I go to feel the closest to God," added Yvonne Robison, who has visited 95 Mormon temples in the world with her husband, Allan. Designed to have an understated classical elegance, the building might read more as a high-end hotel than a breathtakingly beautiful cathedral with a large gathering space. SUPPLIED PHOTO "Its a little smaller than I expected but the artwork is incredible," said Stiles of her first impressions of the new temple, where she plans to volunteer as a tour guide. Do you appreciate the extensive faith coverage by the Free Press? Become a supporter of the Religion in the News project! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more can help us keep offering trusted coverage of faith in Manitoba. Become a supporter Click here to learn more about the project. "I found the temple to be absolutely gorgeous, really beautiful and (I liked) how well it represented Manitoba really well," said Brandon resident Collette Palmer. Stiles looks forward to more frequent trips to the temple now that she no longer has to travel to Regina to undertake sacred church rituals, called ordinances. "Hopefully, we can go every week or every other week and find that sanctuary of peace from the craziness of the world," said the Bridgwater Trails resident. "To know I have a place to go for some clearheaded guidance is invaluable." Manitoba is home to about 4,700 Latter-day Saints in 14 congregations. The missionary-minded Christian denomination founded by American Joseph Smith nearly two centuries ago has a worldwide membership of 16.5 million people in 196 countries and territories. brenda.suderman@freepress.mb.ca FREDERICTON - New Brunswick is reporting two more deaths linked to COVID-19 and 130 new cases of the disease. Signs warning that proof of vaccination is required at a YMCA in Moncton, N.B., on Wednesday, September, 22, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov FREDERICTON - New Brunswick is reporting two more deaths linked to COVID-19 and 130 new cases of the disease. There are 881 active reported cases in the province more than double the highest number of active caseloads reported during the first three waves of the pandemic. Public health says there are now 58 people in hospital because of COVID-19, including 30 people in intensive care. Officials say 43 of those patients in hospital are unvaccinated, four are partially vaccinated and 11 are fully vaccinated. Heightened public health restrictions begin at 6 p.m. in certain areas of the province including the Moncton and Edmundston regions. Public health is asking everyone in New Brunswick to have Thanksgiving celebrations only with the people in their households. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) A second spill in less than two weeks at a U.S. Steel plant in northwest Indiana sent an oily sheen onto a Lake Michigan tributary, prompting officials to close some nearby lake access as a precaution. PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) A second spill in less than two weeks at a U.S. Steel plant in northwest Indiana sent an oily sheen onto a Lake Michigan tributary, prompting officials to close some nearby lake access as a precaution. The sheen was detected Thursday morning on Burns Waterway outside the U.S. Steel Midwest plant in Portage, but by 8 p.m. it was no longer present on the tributary, said company spokeswoman Amanda Malkowski. She said an existing boom had contained the sheen in an estimated 120-square-foot (11.1-square-meter) area, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported. No sheen was observed entering or in Lake Michigan, Malkowski said. We continue to investigate the cause. U.S. Steel temporarily idled the plant about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Chicago, as a precaution, but operations had returned to normal by Thursday night, she said. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management was investigating, spokesman Barry Sneed said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had no immediate comment on Thursdays discharge. As a precaution, the Indiana Dunes National Park closed access to the lake Thursday off the neighboring Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk, said spokesman Bruce Rowe. He said visitors can still go to the lakefront, but not into the water, and that all other national park beaches are open at this time. The nearby community of Ogden Dunes also shut down access to Lake Michigan from its beach, a town official said. Indiana American Water's Ogden Dunes water treatment facility remained online and the spill wasn't expected to impact its Lake Michigan source water, said spokesman Joe Loughmiller. We are continuing to closely watch our source water monitors and remain in contact with all involved parties regarding this situation, he said Thursday. The water utility had idled that treatment plant for about a week starting in late September after U.S. Steel's Portage plant discharged iron-tainted wastewater into the Burns Waterway. That rusty-colored discharge led to the temporary closure of the Portage Riverwalk and Lakefront and beaches at the Indiana Dunes National Park. U.S. Steel said last week that a failure by a vendor to deliver sulfuric acid used for wastewater treatment was part of the cause of the Sept. 26 spill. The EPA said preliminary testing indicated the iron-tainted wastewater presented no risk to public health. That discharge came weeks after a federal judge approved a revised settlement with the company over a 2017 spill, which happened when the Portage plant discharged wastewater containing a potentially carcinogenic chemical into the Burns Waterway. Last week, a coalition of more than 20 local and national entities with interests in the shoreline of Lake Michigan called on Indiana leaders to do more to protect Lake Michigan from industrial spills. It is clear that Indianas system of water pollution control regulation is broken, they said in their Oct. 1 letter sent to Gov. Eric Holcomb. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California is the first state to let some adult children add their parents as dependents on their insurance plans, a move advocates hope will cover the small population of people living in the country illegally who don't qualify for other assistance programs. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California is the first state to let some adult children add their parents as dependents on their insurance plans, a move advocates hope will cover the small population of people living in the country illegally who don't qualify for other assistance programs. The trend nationally has been to let children linger on their parents' health insurance plans. Former President Barack Obama's health care law let children stay on their parents' plans until age 26. Some states have gone further and let kids stay on their parents' plans until at least age 30, including Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But California is now the first state to go the other direction by letting some adults join their kids' health insurance plans. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed the law this week, but it won't take effect until 2023. The signing of the Parent Healthcare Act will help more families care for their parents the way they cared for us, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said. To be eligible, adults must rely on their child for at least 50% of their total support. The law applies only to people who buy their health insurance on the individual market. Those who get insurance through their jobs, which includes most people in the state, aren't eligible. That makes the law much cheaper. A previous version, which would have applied to more people, could have increased employer premiums between $200 million and $800 million per year, depending on how many people enrolled. That prompted business groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce, to oppose the bill winning key concessions. This narrower version of the law ensures far fewer people can enroll. The California Department of Insurance estimates just 15,000 adults will use this law, prompting an annual increase of between $12 million and $48 million per year for individual premiums, according to an analysis by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The change was enough for the Chamber of Commerce to remove its opposition. The law's author, Democratic Assemblyman Miguel Santiago of Los Angeles, said it targets people who can't get subsidized health insurance because they are living in the country illegally. Covered California, the state's health insurance marketplace, offers discount insurance plans but only to citizens. California's Medicaid program offers government-funded insurance to people 50 and over and 25 and younger regardless of their immigration status. But some adults might be ineligible because they make just over the income limits. The University of California Berkeley Labor Center predicts more than 3 million people won't have health insurance in California next year, 65% of them people who are living in the country illegally. The law is a way to close that gap, Santiago said, while also helping other adults who fall through the cracks. We all talk about increasing health care access, and here was a real easy way to do it, he said. There was a time when the Honda Civic was a small car. When it first came to these shores, the Civic was smaller than a modern MINI. Todays version, the 2022 Civic, is larger than some incarnations of its larger sibling, the Accord. Indeed, the new Civic is only 217 millimetres shorter than the current Accord and only 56 millimetres narrower. Which, ironically, makes a very good case for saving the $8,000 price difference between the two. This is the 11th generation of the car first launched in 1972. Along the way, its had some designs that just didnt seem to work, frankly. Starting in about 2005, the proportions just seemed a bit off, with a short front deck and a greenhouse that seemed to be falling forward. In the last two generations, however, stretching the wheelbase slightly has helped, and the current design hits all the right marks. It seems that for the 2022 version, Honda has tossed aside most of what it knew about Civic and started with a clean slate. The aggressive, arguably over-the-top styling of the last generation is gone, replaced by sleeker taillights and a conservative front facade. Mark Phelan / Detroit Free Press Arguably the best-looking Civic interior yet, the 2022 features an innovative way to disguise the air vents, with a hexagonal grate spanning the dash. Inside is where the biggest differences are obvious: a somewhat plasticky and uninspired interior has been replaced with a spiffy new design that incorporates an elegant treatment for the dash air vents. In most cars, air vents are necessary evils, and, despite creative designs, always look like holes in the dash. In the 2022 Civic, the only indication there are any vents at all is a little lever, to adjust direction, poking out from behind a metal grate with a hexagonal pattern. What Honda hasnt forgotten, however, is Civics blend of reliability and fuel economy, which, despite the car growing between the 10th and 11th generations, has got even better at an average of 6.9 litres per 100 kilometres, which is almost hybrid-like in its parsimony. The made-in-Canada Civic comes with two engine options: a 2.0-litre four-cylinder delivering 158 horsepower and 138 pound-feet of torque, and in Touring trim a 1.5-litre turbo delivering 180 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. The only black mark on the Civic is the transmission: only a continuously variable automatic is available and even on the Touring model tends to dull the response to throttle input. Handling is superb, as weve come to expect on Civic, with an independent strut suspension up front and a multi-link independent suspension at the rear. How Civic stacks up Civics main rivals, the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, are a bit bigger and a bit smaller, respectively, and both are about $4,000 less to start. The base Mazda3 has similar horsepower but beats the base Civic engine in torque with 150 foot-pounds. The base Corolla engine has both less horsepower and less torque. Both the Mazda3 and Corolla offer six-speed manual transmissions. For automatic transmissions, Mazda offers an actual automatic, while the Corollas automatic option is offered only as a CVT. kelly.taylor@freepress.mb.ca Tesla will relocate its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, though the electric car maker will keep expanding its manufacturing capacity in the Golden State, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday. FILE - In this March 14, 2019, file photo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks before unveiling the Model Y at the company's design studio in Hawthorne, Calif. Tesla says it will relocate its headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif., to Austin, Texas, though the electric car maker will keep expanding its manufacturing capacity in the Golden State. Musk gave no timeline for the move late Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, when he addressed the company's shareholders at Tesla's annual meeting. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) Tesla will relocate its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, though the electric car maker will keep expanding its manufacturing capacity in the Golden State, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday. Musk, who last year said he was moving to Texas from California, gave no timeline for the move when he addressed shareholders at Tesla's annual meeting. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Musk clashed with San Francisco Bay Area health authorities trying to enforce shelter-in-place orders. At the time, he threatened to relocate Tesla's operations to Texas or Nevada. On Thursday, however, Musk cited the cost of housing in the Bay Area that has made it tough for many people to become homeowners, translating into long commutes. "Were taking it as far as possible, but theres a limit how big you can scale it in the Bay Area," he said Thursday. "Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. This is not a matter of leaving California." Musk stressed he plans to expand the companys factory in Fremont, California, where Teslas Models S, X, Y and 3 vehicles are built, in hopes of increasing its output by 50%. The announcement drew cheers and applause from the small audience at Teslas manufacturing plant in Austin, where Musk delivered his remarks, which were webcast live. While applauding Teslas announcement that it will expand production in Fremont, Bay Area business leaders bemoaned the headquarters move as the latest sign of the regions ongoing issues. "Mr. Musks announcement highlights yet again the urgency for California to address our housing affordability crisis and the many other challenges that make it so difficult for companies to grow here," said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the business advocacy group Bay Area Council. Last year, tech giant Oracle Corp. decided to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, saying the move would give its employees more flexibility about where and how they work. One of Silicon Valley's founding companies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has also said it will move to the Houston area. At Thursday's meeting Musk also touted the company's record vehicle deliveries this year, while noting that global supply-chain disruptions that have led to a shortage of computer chips remain a challenge. "It looks like we have a good chance of maintaining that into the future," he said. "Basically, if we get the chips, we can do it." As a result, production of Tesla's angular Cybertruck pickup isn't likely to begin before the end of 2022, Musk said, estimating that the company would reach "volume" production on the vehicle in 2023. "We should be through our severest supply chain shortages in 23," he said. "I'm optimistic that will be the case." Tesla said last week that it delivered 241,300 electric vehicles in the third quarter even as it wrestled with the shortage of computer chips that has hit the entire auto industry. The companys sales from July through September beat Wall Street estimates of 227,000 sales worldwide, according to data provider FactSet. Third-quarter sales rose 72% over the 140,000 deliveries Tesla made for the same period a year ago. So far this year, Tesla has sold around 627,300 vehicles. That puts it on pace to soundly beat last years total of 499,550. HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) Oil has been washing up on some Southern California beaches since a leak in an underwater pipeline from an offshore platform sent tens of thousands of gallons of heavy crude into the ocean waters. The spill fouled the famed sands of Huntington Beach, known as Surf City USA, and could keep the ocean and shoreline closed there and in some other communities to the south for weeks. A seagull rests as workers in protective suits clean the contaminated beach after an oil spill, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021 in Newport Beach, Calif. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) Oil has been washing up on some Southern California beaches since a leak in an underwater pipeline from an offshore platform sent tens of thousands of gallons of heavy crude into the ocean waters. The spill fouled the famed sands of Huntington Beach, known as Surf City USA, and could keep the ocean and shoreline closed there and in some other communities to the south for weeks. Here's a look at what happened, who's involved and the aftermath: WHAT HAPPENED? Boaters off Orange County and residents of Newport Beach started reporting a petroleum smell in the air and oily sheen on the water Friday afternoon, Oct. 1. The following morning the Coast Guard confirmed a spill. The sheen on the ocean was miles wide and crude started washing ashore in sticky, black blobs. The leak occurred about 5 miles (8 kilometers) offshore at a depth of about 98 feet (30 meters) and came from a pipeline owned by Amplify Energy. The Houston-based company also owns and operates three nearby offshore platforms that pipe oil into Long Beach. Oil first washed up in Huntington Beach, including Talbert Marsh, a sensitive wetland. Crude was later spotted down the Orange County coast, in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Dana Point. By Thursday tar balls were reported washing up in Carlsbad, in San Diego County. HOW MUCH OIL LEAKED? Its still a mystery. Amplify Energy publicly said no more than 126,000 gallons (477,000 liters) flowed from its pipe. But the company also told federal investigators the total may be 29,400 gallons (111,300 liters). On Thursday, the Coast Guard announced its own estimate of at least about 25,000 gallons (95,000 liters) and no more than 132,000 gallons (500,000 liters). An aerial photo shows the closed beach after oil washed up on a beach in Newport Beach, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) David Pettit, a senior attorney at the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, finds it hard to believe Amplify doesnt know how much oil it lost. If they know what the flow rate was in the pipeline, and how much the pressure dropped, and for how long, you could calculate that in a matter of minutes, Pettit said. HOW WAS THE LEAK DISCOVERED? A commercial vessel anchored off Huntington Beach reported to a national hazardous spill hotline staffed by the Coast Guard that it saw a sheen more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) long just after 6 p.m. Friday night. A satellite image shot by the European Space Agency indicated a likely oil slick in the area around 7 p.m., which was reported to the Coast Guard at 2:06 a.m. Saturday after being reviewed by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration analyst. The Coast Guard said it did not act on either report, deciding to wait until daybreak because darkness and a lack of technology would hamper its search for oil. Amplify CEO Martin Willsher said the company did not discover the leak until it saw oil in the water at 8:09 a.m. Saturday. However, other reports indicate the company had signs of a leak as early at 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Federal regulators said an alarm on Platform Elly alerted a control room operator at that time to a drop in pipeline pressure that could indicate a leak. The company did not report the leak until 8:55 a.m., according to the California Office of Emergency Services. The company that reported the leak on behalf of Amplify said the incident occurred at 2:30 a.m. Around the time the company reported the spill, the Coast Guard said it located oil in the water. WHO'S RESPONSIBLE? The cause is under investigation. Amplify CEO Martin Willsher first suggested Monday that an anchor from one of the many commercial vessels that use the massive Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex might be to blame. The next day the Coast Guard said divers found that a 4,000-foot (1,219-meter) section of the pipeline was laterally displaced by about 105 feet (32 meters). It's bent like a bow string, Willsher said. Video of the ruptured pipeline released by the Coast Guard showed a thin 13-inch-long (33-centimeter) crack that experts said could indicate a slow leak that initially was difficult to detect. Federal transportation investigators said preliminary reports suggest the failure may have been caused by an anchor that hooked the pipeline, causing a partial tear. On Wednesday, Coast Guard investigators boarded the Rotterdam Express, a massive German-flagged container ship that was assigned an anchorage closest to where the pipeline ruptured. Hapag-Lloyd, the shipping company that operates the vessel, said the Coast Guard interviewed the captain and crew and was provided access to the logbook showing the ships locations. Afterward, the Coast Guard called the company to say the Rotterdam no longer was under scrutiny for the spill, the company said. The Coast Guard did not comment. WHAT'S THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT? That will depend on how much oil is out there. Local officials, who feared an environmental catastrophe at first, have more recently voiced hope that the total spill will be less than initially feared. So far, only a handful of oiled birds have been recovered. Teams are out searching for affected animals in the spill area and beyond. Environmentalists say its too soon to know how many seabirds, marine mammals and other animals will ultimately be affected by the oily film covering marsh areas and floating on the ocean or for how long. Researchers say the impact on animals will take a while to understand. They are just starting to learn about some of the long-term effects from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. And many problems remain unseen as oil components build beneath the surface of the ocean. Out on the water by the rigs, theres no visible sheen and no stench of oil like the putrid odor that pervaded Huntington Beach in the days after the incident. COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) Finland has joined other Nordic countries in suspending or discouraging the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in certain age groups because of an increased risk of heart inflammation, a rare side effect associated with the shot. COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) Finland has joined other Nordic countries in suspending or discouraging the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in certain age groups because of an increased risk of heart inflammation, a rare side effect associated with the shot. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare said Thursday that authorities won't give the shot to males under age 30. They will be offered the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine instead. The government agency said it found that young men and boys were at a slightly higher risk of developing myocarditis. The move by Finland followed similar decisions by three neighboring countries on Wednesday. Sweden suspended the use of Moderna for people under 30, Denmark said those under 18 wont be offered the Swiss-made vaccine, and Norway urged those under 30 to get the Pfizer vaccine instead. All four countries based their decision on an unpublished study with Swedens Public Health Agency saying that it signals an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle or the pericardium the double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the main vessels. It added: The risk of being affected is very small. The preliminary information from the Nordic study has been sent to the European Medicines Agencys adverse reaction committee to be assessed. ___ Follow APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A California judge on Thursday blocked portions of the largest proposed residential housing development in San Diego Countys history after the state attorney general and others objected that it would be too prone to wildfires. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A California judge on Thursday blocked portions of the largest proposed residential housing development in San Diego Countys history after the state attorney general and others objected that it would be too prone to wildfires. That and a similar recent challenge in Northern California are the first known times in the nation where a state has intervened to argue that its interests in preventing wildfires overrides a countys interest in building more housing. California is on track for yet another record-breaking, climate-fueled wildfire season. As these mega-disasters become the norm, it is more critical than ever that we build responsibly. We cant keep making the same mistakes, Attorney General Rob Bonta said. San Diego Superior Court Judge Richard Whitney ruled that San Diego County's environmental impact report for portions of the expansive Otay Ranch residential development failed to properly account for the increased wildfire risks from housing thousands of people in what has been designated a very high wildfire hazard zone southeast of San Diego. That violated the California Environmental Quality Act, he ruled, and ordered the county to vacate its permits that would fill highly flammable grassland, chaparral and sage with thousands of homes, parks and other amenities. One of the enforcement provisions related to greenhouse gas emissions, for instance, is essentially the fox guarding the hen house, Whitney ruled. Moreover, the environmental review does not acknowledge or analyze the impact of adding more than 1,100 new homes to the area as to humans being an ignition cause of wildfires. Spokesmen for the county and for Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher did not immediately comment. Fletcher had been the only supervisor to vote against portions of a 36 square mile (93 square kilometers) development, nearly the size of San Francisco. In February, the attorney general's office similarly backed Northern California court challenges contending that Lake County officials did not properly account for the increased wildfire risk from approving 1,400 homes, 850 hotel rooms and resort apartments and other resort amenities on the 25-square mile ( 65 square kilometer) Guenoc Valley Ranch property. California Building Industry Association president and CEO Dan Dunmoyer previously said that the attorney general is overstepping his authority by challenging local officials extensive wildfire safety precautions. The challenges come at a time when California is struggling with a persistent affordable housing and homelessness problem, though critics said the proposed upscale developments would do little to help. The attorney general intervened under a 2018 update to the state's sweeping environmental law and new standards for local officials to analyze whether development projects will increase wildfire risks. HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) An underwater oil pipeline off the Southern California coast was likely damaged by a ships anchor several months to a year before it ruptured and sent oil spewing into the ocean and then onto some of the areas best-known beaches, investigators said Friday. In this aerial image taken with a drone, workers in protective suits clean the contaminated beach after an oil spill in Newport Beach, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. Some of the crude oil that spilled from a pipeline into the waters off Southern California has been breaking up naturally in ocean currents, a Coast Guard official said Wednesday as authorities sought to determine the scope of the damage. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) An underwater oil pipeline off the Southern California coast was likely damaged by a ships anchor several months to a year before it ruptured and sent oil spewing into the ocean and then onto some of the areas best-known beaches, investigators said Friday. Coast Guard Capt. Jason Neubauer, chief of the office of investigations and analysis, said after the first strike its possible other ships anchors subsequently struck the steel pipe that brings oil to shore from three platforms out at sea. Investigators previously said a large section of the pipe was bowed after being struck and dragged along the seabed. It remains unknown when the slender, 13-inch (33-centimeter) crack began leaking oil, and investigators will pour over a year of data on ship movements near the area of the break. No ships have been identified as suspects at this point. Were going to be looking at every vessel movement over that pipeline, and every close encroachment from the anchorages for the entire course of the year, Neubauer said. The accident scene is outside the Long Beach-Los Angeles port complex that is the largest in the country and handles some 4,000 vessels a year. Many of them are from overseas and that could complicate the process of boarding ships of interest in the investigation to get information. The disclosure that the damage to the pipe could have occurred so long ago dramatically reshaped what was known about the leak that sent tens of thousands of gallons of crude into the Pacific. A search that initially appeared to focus on the hunt for one vessel now could send investigators to ports around the country to inspect many ships. It now appears many factors played a role in the pipes failure possible repeated anchor strikes, stresses from being dragged along the seafloor and the corrosive forces of seawater. Neubauer said investigators have narrowed their search to large cargo vessels that would be powerful enough to move a 4,000-foot (1,219-meter) section of pipeline 105 feet (32 meters) across the ocean floor. He also said investigators have zeroed in on a windy storm Jan. 24-25 that could have caused problems for ships trying to anchor in the vicinity of the twin ports. A seagull rests as workers in protective suits clean the contaminated beach after an oil spill, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021 in Newport Beach, Calif. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) Investigators believe the initial anchor strike occurred sometime after a survey of the pipeline a year ago that showed the line was in its original location. The extended timeline was partly based on visible marine growth on the damaged length of the pipe that was revealed in an underwater survey. The Coast Guard previously released vide of the rupture spot and a wider view of the bowed pipe. A crack suggests the pipe, which was installed in 1980, perhaps withstood an initial impact, but had been weakened over time by corrosion and became more prone to fail, said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Houston. Neubauer said a debris field is visible on the seafloor near the break. Investigators will now remove that section of the pipe for lab analysis. It wasnt clear how long the investigation would take. So far, the impact on wildfire has been minimal 10 dead birds and another 25 recovered alive and treated but environmentalists caution the long-term impacts could be much greater. As cleanup continued on the shore and some beaches reopened Friday, though the public still cant go in the water. Anchor strikes on pipelines are relatively rare, but have caused problems in the past. An Associated Press review of more than 10,000 reports submitted to federal regulators found at least 17 accidents on pipelines carrying crude oil or other hazardous liquids have been linked to anchor strikes or suspected anchor strikes since 1986. According to federal records, in some cases an anchor strike is never conclusively proven, such as 2012 leak from an ExxonMobil pipeline in Louisianas shallow Barataria Bay, where a direct strike by a barge or other boat also were considered possibilities. In others the evidence of an anchor strike was obvious. During 1992s Hurricane Andrew, a 30,000-pound (13,607-kilogram) anchor was dragged by a drifting drilling rig over a Texaco pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a dent that broke open when the line was later re-started. In 2003, a 7,000-pound (3,175-kilogram) anchor was found about 10 feet (30 meters) from a small spill on a Shell Oil pipeline in the Gulf. Capt. Morgan McManus, who spent 20 years at sea before taking command of the training ship at the State University of New York Maritime College, said he would find it difficult to believe any competent crew would drop anchor close to a pipeline. If a ships anchor were to become entangled with a piece of infrastructure, the operator is required by federal law to notify the Coast Guard. That would be a big screw-up, McManus said. I kind of have trouble believing that would happen because you notice that stuff on electronic charts. Youre going to map out your position where youre going to drop the hook. McManus said a more likely scenario is that a ship was either pulled off position by strong waves or tides, dragging its anchor with it and snagging the pipeline. A second possibility is that ship getting underway engaged its engines while still reeling in its anchor, pulling it along the seafloor. The leak was discovered Saturday morning, more than 12 hours after initial reports of a possible spill came in. While the exact size isnt known, the Coast Guard slightly revised the parameters of the estimates to at least about 25,000 gallons (95,000 liters) and no more than 132,000 gallons (500,000 liters). The Coast Guard said about 5,500 gallons (20,819 liters) of crude have been recovered from the ocean. The oil has spread southeast along the coast with reports of small amounts coming ashore in San Diego County, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the original site. Amplify Energy, a Houston-based company that owns and operates three offshore oil platforms and the pipeline, said it didnt know there had been a spill until its workers detected an oil sheen on the water Saturday at 8:09 a.m. The leak occurred about 5 miles (8 kilometers) offshore at a depth of about 98 feet (30 meters), investigators said. Questions remain about when the company knew it had a problem and a potential delay in reporting the spill. A foreign ship anchored in the waters off Huntington Beach reported to the Coast Guard that it saw a sheen longer than 2 miles (3 kilometers) just after 6 p.m. on Oct. 1, and that evening a satellite image from the European Space Agency also indicated a likely oil slick, which was reported to the Coast Guard at 2:06 a.m. Saturday, after being reviewed by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration analyst. Federal pipeline safety regulators have put the time of the incident at 2:30 a.m. Saturday but say the company didnt shut down the pipeline until 6:01 a.m. more than three hours after a low-pressure alarm had gone off indicating a possible problem and didnt report the leak to the Coast Guard until 9:07 a.m. Federal and state rules require immediate notification of spills. Amplify said the line already had been shut down by 6 a.m., then restarted for five minutes for a meter reading and again shut down. A meter reading shows how much oil is flowing into and out of the line. The company could have been using that information to confirm if the pressure-change alarm was set off because the line was leaking, said Richard Kuprewicz, a private pipeline accident investigator and consultant. ___ Associated Press reporters Brian Melley in Los Angeles and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed. A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts: FILE - In this March 16, 2020 file photo, medical professionals bring a patient into the NYU Langone Hospital Emergency room entrance in New York. On Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming New York hospitals, including NYU Langone Health, will not release newborn babies or infants in neonatal intensive care units to parents who have not been vaccinated. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts: ___ Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine does not contain fetal cells, contrary to online claims CLAIM: Newly leaked emails among Pfizer employees show that the companys COVID-19 vaccine contains fetal cells. THE FACTS: A widely shared video by the group Project Veritas has led to a false claim online that purported emails among Pfizer officials show that the pharmaceutical companys COVID-19 vaccine contains aborted fetal cells. But the video an interview between Project Veritas founder James OKeefe and a self-identified Pfizer employee who claims to show internal emails from the company does not support that erroneous conclusion. Instead, it shows that the company used a fetal cell line when testing the efficacy of its vaccine. Cell lines, which are key to medical research, are cloned copies of cells from the same source that have been adapted to grow continuously in labs. Nevertheless, users spread the falsehood about the contents of the vaccine widely on social media. You are mandated to inject dead babies into your body, one Twitter account sharing the video falsely claimed. Fetal cells in the vaccines yet they are denying people religious exemptions. At the heart of the widely shared video spurring the false claims are purported emails among Pfizer officials from early 2021. The messages displayed show an alleged conversation about the companys reluctance to publicize that testing of its vaccine not production used a cell line that was originally derived from fetal tissue. One of the main emails cited specifically says, Human fetal derived cell lines are not used to produce our investigational vaccine, which consists of synthetic and enzymatically produced components. It adds: One or more cell lines with an origin that can be traced back to human fetal tissue has been used in laboratory tests associated with the vaccine program. The video also shows an email referencing the HEK293T cell line or Human Embryonic Kidney 293 which was first established in the early 1970s using cells from a kidney of a fetus. Whats not made clear in the video is that it is already publicrecord that Pfizers vaccine was tested using such cells. In a paper published in September 2020 detailing the vaccines development and success in mice and monkeys, Pfizer and BioNTech scientists said that the vaccine had been tested using the HEK293T cell line. And the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in a January document about the COVID-19 vaccines noted: Neither Pfizer nor Moderna used an abortion-derived cell line in the development or production of the vaccine. However, such a cell line was used to test the efficacy of both vaccines. The conference recommended that, in the absence of a vaccine with no connection at all to such a cell line, vaccines that use them only for testing would be preferable to those that use such cell lines for ongoing production. Dr. Saahir Khan, an assistant clinical professor of infectious diseases at the University of Southern California, said about the Pfizer shot, There are no components of fetal cells in the vaccine, and none used in manufacturing." Khan said it is very common to use such cell lines somewhere along the way in the research or development of vaccines and other medicine for humans. He said such cell lines, started decades ago, are grown in labs so the cells being used for research are not the original cells. One COVID-19 vaccine used in the U.S., from Johnson & Johnson, is produced by using an adenovirus that is grown using retinal cells that trace back to a fetus from 1985, according to the Vaccine Education Center at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Vaccines for chickenpox and other diseases also use this type of process. But none of these vaccines contain fetal cells. Pfizer did not respond to questions about the Project Veritas video, but a spokesperson pointed out that information about the testing has been publicly disclosed through a number of sources and news reports. Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed this report. ___ The FBI is not targeting opponents of critical race theory CLAIM: Attorney General Merrick Garland has instructed the FBI to mobilize against parents who oppose critical race theory in public schools, citing threats. THE FACTS: A memo Garland issued on Monday to address a rise in criminal conduct targeting school personnel is being misrepresented online. Garland did not single out opponents of critical race theory. Rather, he stated the FBI would work with U.S. attorneys and federal, state and local authorities to develop strategies to combat what he called a disturbing spike in violent threats facing educators, administrators and school boards. The trend was highlighted in a Sept. 29 letter from the National School Boards Association to President Joe Biden requesting federal assistance to investigate mounting threats and crimes against educators and school officials. Following Garland's memo, an activist known for speaking out against critical race theory a way of thinking about Americas history through the lens of racism shared the erroneous claim that the FBI was specifically targeting public school parents who oppose such race education. Wyn Hornbuckle, the Justice Departments deputy director of media affairs, told The Associated Press the claim was misleading and stated that the Attorney Generals guidance and the Justice Departments efforts are focused on rooting out criminal threats of violence for any reason, not targeting a particular ideology. There has been misinformation circulated that the Attorney Generals directive is an effort to silence those with particular views about COVID-related policies, school curricula, or other topics of public discussion. This is simply not true, Hornbuckle wrote in an email. Critical race theory, developed by scholars during the 1970s and 1980s, centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nations institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society. The concept has drawn condemnation by conservative commentators, lawmakers and former President Donald Trump. The NSBAs letter did not specifically focus on threats surrounding critical race theory. It asked for the federal government to investigate any cases where threats or violence could be handled as violations of federal civil rights laws no matter what prompted them. NSBA and school board members dont want to stop parents from expressing their First Amendment rights, the NSBA said in a statement emailed to the AP. We want to stop the death threats, threats to family members, and other harassment and acts of intimidation that school board members are facing. The group documented more than 20 instances of threats, harassment, disruption and acts of intimidation across multiple states. While the letter did cite several threats it had flagged in response to false assertions that school boards were adopting critical race theory curriculum, the majority of the threats it documented were in response to coronavirus-related restrictions, including mask and vaccine requirements in schools. Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in Atlanta contributed this report, with additional reporting from Terrence Fraser in New York. ___ Infrastructure bill doesnt include tax on cows CLAIM: Under the proposed infrastructure bill, farmers will be taxed for each cow, including $6,500 a year for dairy cows. THE FACTS: The infrastructure bill, a $1 trillion package that was approved in August by the Senate, does not include such a provision. Yet in a tweet shared by thousands that also circulated on Facebook, a conservative commentator falsely claimed the legislation would impose taxes on cows that would cripple American agriculture. Just one example cattle farmers have to pay $2600 PER COW a year, Melissa Tate wrote. Dairy cows $6500 a year. This will put millions of cattle farmers out of business. Tate did not respond to a request for comment. The erroneous claim follows a congressmans false assertion about a separate, $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, referred to as the Build Back Better Act, that is supported by many Democrats. In a statement criticizing that bill, Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin said the legislation would impose a fee on all methane emissions, including in our agriculture industry. The tax is estimated to cost $6,500 per dairy cow, $2,600 per head of cattle, and $500 per swine each year. But the reconciliation bill as currently drafted includes taxes on methane emissions relating to oil and gas production not from livestock. A spokesperson for Mullin acknowledged that the bill does not currently contain those provisions. This is what could happen if the methane fee were applied to agriculture, Meredith Blanford said in an email. She said that while the text of the bill only specifies the oil and gas industry, it also references the Environmental Protection Agencys greenhouse gas inventory and leaves too much room for the EPA to expand its regulatory reach. Blanford said the numbers were derived from an analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation, a lobbying group. The organizations vice president for public affairs, Sam Kieffer, said in a Sept. 30 statement that the groups economists over the summer conducted an analysis of potential costs on agriculture using proposals relating to the methane tax on oil and gas. To clear up any confusion, I want to make clear that the current language of the reconciliation bill does not impose a methane tax on agriculture, Kieffer said. Angelo Fichera ___ Parents dont need to be vaccinated to take their newborns home in New York CLAIM: New York hospitals, including NYU Langone Health, will not release newborn babies or infants in neonatal intensive care units, frequently referred to as NICUs, to parents who have not been vaccinated. THE FACTS: No such restrictions exist. The false information, which claimed to stem from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, circulated widely on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. New Forced Control: NYU Langone and other Hospitals in New York and Long Island are Forcing that if the parent is not VAXXED they will not release Babies from the NICU to Parents or after birth as per CDC Guidelines. You Need to Show VAX-Passport to see your own New Born Baby, the false post states. State health officials said there was no truth to the claim. The New York State Department of Health is deeply disturbed by the grossly inaccurate messages being spread on social media regarding the false claim that theres a prohibition on parents/guardians taking a baby home from the hospital based upon vaccination status, Jill Montag, director of communications at the state Department of Health, told the AP in an email. NYU Langone Health addressed the baseless claims on Twitter last week. In response to the false & completely unfounded post circulating on social media: NYU Langone DOES NOT prohibit a parent/guardian from taking a child home from the NICU due to their vaccination status we vehemently discourage the spread of this inaccurate, harmful information, the statement said. Associated Press writer Arijeta Lajka in New York contributed this report. ___ Teens death in England misrepresented by vaccine opponents Adam Ali, a high school student from Solihull, a town in West Midlands, England, died from the COVID-19 vaccine. THE FACTS: Ali, a 17-year-old student who died in September, had not been vaccinated against COVID-19. His death was misrepresented online. The actual cause of Ali's death is unknown, according to a spokesperson from the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS. One false tweet claimed, Adam Ali 17 years old from Alderbrook school, had his first jab, had instant adverse reaction, convulsing, blood clots, adding he died the other day within two weeks and not a word from the media. Ali, a student at Alderbrook Sixth Form in Solihull, died at Birminghams Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Sept. 19. We can confirm that Adam did not have a COVID-19 vaccination; the cause of his tragic death is currently unknown, a spokesperson for the Birmingham and Solihull vaccination program at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS said in an emailed statement. Arijeta Lajka __ Posts falsely claim sex offenders dont carry identifying cards for privacy reasons CLAIM: Sex offenders are not required to carry cards identifying them as sex offenders because it is an invasion of their privacy. THE FACTS: Several states require registered sex offenders to carry special identification, and when states have rejected such laws, it has been based on the First Amendment, not privacy. Social media users are misrepresenting sex offender laws as they criticize requirements to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, and incorrectly compare the two. So we need a vaccine card to drink a beer at a bar, but sex offenders dont need to carry anything? reads the text on one widely shared TikTok video. The U.S. has over 750,000 registered sex offenders and NONE of them are required to carry a passport because it violates their privacy, another videos text read. Those claims rest on the false premise that privacy protections prevent sex offenders from being required to carry special identification. But experts on sex offender laws confirmed that in at least nine states, sex offenders do have to carry a state ID card with a special label. In some states this says Sex Offender while in others the designation is a code that is known to law enforcement, said Elizabeth Jeglic, a professor and psychologist at John Jay College in New York who researches sexual violence prevention. Courts in some states have struck down laws requiring sex offenders to identify themselves in this way, but judges have not cited privacy reasons. Instead, they have pointed to the First Amendments compelled speech doctrine, which says the government cant force an individual or group to convey a certain message. The claims spreading online this week also fail to recognize that registered sex offenders have limited access to privacy as it is, according to Alissa Ackerman, an assistant professor of criminal justice at California State University, Fullerton. When sex offenders are required to register, they must upload their full name, demographic information, aliases, birthday, address and other information to a public database, Ackerman said. So they dont have a lot of privacy, she said. This claim that is being made online is just asinine. Associated Press write Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report. ___ Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck ___ Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) Slovenias interior minister on Friday rejected accusations that police used excessive force to curb anti-government protests with water cannons and tear gas on the eve of a major European Union summit in the country earlier this week. Police fire tear gas during a protest against vaccinations and coronavirus measures in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. EU leaders are meeting Tuesday evening in nearby Kranj, Slovenia, to discuss increasingly tense relations with China and the security implications of the chaotic U.S.-led exit from Afghanistan, before taking part in a summit with Balkans leaders on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) Slovenias interior minister on Friday rejected accusations that police used excessive force to curb anti-government protests with water cannons and tear gas on the eve of a major European Union summit in the country earlier this week. The demonstrations were the third in a month, organized against virus measures and the use of COVID-19 passes, including for going to work in all state-run firms. People must show that they are either fully vaccinated or that they have taken an expensive PCR test. Interior Minister Ales Hojs said in Brussels that police did their job very well during Tuesday's intervention" and were "within their jurisdiction. An investigation still has opened into police actions, he added. About 25 protesters were detained and several were injured or hospitalized mostly for inhaling tear gas. The director of the police has already ordered a commission in accordance with the law, which will investigate the legality and proportionality of all means used by the police in these protests, Hojs said. Officers in riot gear and on horses repeatedly used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who threatened to block roads as EU and Western Balkan leaders were arriving for the meeting. The clashes led to hours-long chaos on the streets of the capital, Ljubljana, and the detention of a protest leader. Zoran Stankovic, the leader of the Resni.ca party, has threatened to sue the state, saying he was kept in detention illegally. Stankovic's home and his party offices reportedly have been searched as part of the police probe against protest organizers. Clashes with police have erupted at previous protests as well. On Tuesday, an AP video journalist was sprayed by a water cannon and was hit in the head with an unknown object during the police intervention. Hojs refused to comment on the potential case against Stankovic, saying it was in the hands of the prosecutors. The police intervention wasn't ordered by politicians but provoked by the protesters, he insisted. The number of injured police officers, which was three times the number of injured protesters, clearly shows who exceeded jurisdiction, he said. The Resni.ca party has said they would no longer organize the protests, saying this would jeopardize the liberty of their leader. The right-wing politician has denied he was using public discontent over virus measures for political campaigning. Like much of Central and Eastern Europe, Slovenia in recent weeks has seen a rise in new coronavirus infections. The country of 2 million people has fully vaccinated nearly 48% of its population, a smaller share than in many other EU nations. Slovenia currently holds the EUs rotating presidency. NEW YORK (AP) A TV adaptation of the late Sue Grafton's million-selling Kinsey Millhone mystery novels, a prospect the author once swore she would return from the dead to prevent, is now the works. FILE - Mystery writer Sue Grafton poses for a portrait on Oct. 15, 2002, in New York. A TV adaptation of the late writer's million-selling Kinsey Millhone mystery novels, a prospect the author once swore she would return from the dead to prevent, is now the works. A+E Studios announced this week that it had acquired rights to Grafton's famed alphabet series, with such titles as "'A' Is for Alibi" and "'E' Is for Evidence." (AP Photo/Gino Domenico, File) NEW YORK (AP) A TV adaptation of the late Sue Grafton's million-selling Kinsey Millhone mystery novels, a prospect the author once swore she would return from the dead to prevent, is now the works. A+E Studios announced this week that it had acquired rights to Grafton's alphabet series, with such titles as A Is for Alibi and E Is for Evidence. Grafton completed 25 Millhone books, through Y Is for Yesterday, but died in 2017 before she could write a story for Z. Sue Grafton is the ultimate storyteller who spent decades entertaining readers through her rich characters and spellbinding mysteries, Barry Jossen, president and head of A+E Studios, said in a statement. We are honored to carry on her legacy and bring these timeless stories to life. We are actively speaking with interested platforms and seeking a showrunner for the series, as well as the perfect actress to embody the coveted lead role of Kinsey Millhone. Grafton's many fans might celebrate the chance to see her work on the screen, and wonder who might play the famed sleuth Millhone. They might also remember a vow she made back in 1997, recalling her unhappy experiences writing for television movies before she caught on as a novelist. I will never sell (Kinsey) to Hollywood. And, I have made my children promise not to sell her. Weve taken a blood oath, and if they do so I will come back from the grave: which they know I can do," she told January Magazine. Theyre going to have to pass the word on to my grandchildren: we do not sell out our grandma." Grafton's daughter Jamie Clark reaffirmed her mother's vow when announcing her death four years ago, but the author's husband and executive producer of the series, Steve Humphrey, says he and the family have agreed that the times and the medium have changed. "Television has greatly evolved since Sue was writing in Hollywood in the 1980s. From her experience then, she was concerned that her stories and characters would be diminished when they were adapted. But as the power of television has transformed over time, so too has the quality from writing and acting to the production values and viewing experience," Humphrey said in a statement issued through A+E and also posted on Grafton's Facebook page. I selected A+E Studios as my partner because they understand the importance of maintaining the tone and tenor of Sues work and the character and are dedicated to working with us to bring her stories to life in a way that that will please both current and new fans, and will also honor her legacy. Together her children and I believe Sue would bless this decision and would be delighted to see her cherished Alphabet murder series live on and reach millions of new and existing fans around the world." WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. employers added just 194,000 jobs in September, a second straight tepid gain and evidence that the pandemic has kept its grip on the economy, with many companies struggling to fill millions of open jobs. FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2020, file photo, a "Now Hiring" sign hangs on the front wall of a Harbor Freight Tools store in Manchester, N.H. When the U.S. government issues the September jobs report on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, the spotlight will fall not only on how many people were hired last month. A second question will command attention, too: Are more people finally starting to look for work? (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File) WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. employers added just 194,000 jobs in September, a second straight tepid gain and evidence that the pandemic has kept its grip on the economy, with many companies struggling to fill millions of open jobs. Fridays report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate sank last month from 5.2% to 4.8%. The rate fell in part because more people found jobs but also because about 180,000 fewer people looked for work in September, which meant they weren't counted as unemployed. September's sluggish job gains fell shy of even the modest 336,000 that the economy had added in August and were the fewest since December, when employers actually cut jobs. The economy is showing some signs of emerging from the drag of the delta variant of the coronavirus, with confirmed new COVID-19 infections declining, restaurant traffic picking up slightly and consumers willing to spend. But new infections remained high as September began. And employers are still struggling to find workers because many people who lost jobs in the pandemic have yet to start looking again. The persistence of that trend, with job openings at a record high, has confounded many economists. Most of them had expected September to produce robust job growth as schools reopened, thereby freeing parents, especially working mothers, to return to jobs. Several enhanced unemployment benefit programs had expired Sept. 6, potentially providing incentives for more people to seek work. And at least before delta intensified, many companies had planned to return to working in offices, which would have revitalized still-dormant downtowns. Instead, as a result of the delta variant, many office buildings remain vacant and fears of the disease rebounded. A Census Bureau survey found that the number of people not working because they had COVID or were caring for someone with the disease doubled between July and early September. COVID outbreaks have also temporarily closed some schools, making it harder for many mothers to hold down permanent jobs. At the same time, many economists say that as COVID recedes further and Americans resume traveling, eating out and seeing movies, more people will likely re-enter the workforce, and hiring will strengthen. This report is a look in the rear-view mirror, said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at the jobs website Glassdoor, and hopefully this means the worst is behind us, and the worst was just a slowdown in the recovery. For now, people like Sarah Neumeier have chosen to stay on the sidelines. Neumeier, 32, of Natick, Massachusetts, who has 3-year-old twin sons, said she will wait until after the winter holidays to look for work again. She had turned down a job just as the pandemic intensified in March 2020 because, out of concern for their health, she didn't want to place her children in daycare. Those concerns haven't lifted. "I was waiting for the vaccine, she said. My boys were preemies, and we did everything to keep them healthy. I dont want to jeopardize that now. The delta variant has discouraged Neumeier in another way: Her work experience is in event planning, a field that was devastated by the pandemic and is unlikely to recover until the delta variant has faded further. Neumeier has plenty of company. The proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one known as labor force participation declined in September from 61.7% to 61.6%, well below the pre-pandemic level of 63.3%, Friday's report said. The drop in labor force participation occurred entirely among women, suggesting that many working mothers are still caring for children at home. For men, labor participation was unchanged. Some after-school programs weren't yet in place last month to provide all-day care. And child care has become scarcer and costlier in many cases. Lael Brainard, a member of the Federal Reserves Board of Governors, noted in a recent speech that COVID outbreaks in late September caused 2,000 schools to close for an average of six days in 39 states. John Lai, chief executive of Mister Car Wash, with about 350 locations, said hes seeking to hire 500 people in the next three months to add to the companys 6,000 workers. Mister Car Wash, based in Tucson, Arizona, has raised its average hourly-worker pay to $14.50 an hour since the pandemic began and offers health and retirement benefits. Yet its struggling to attract applicants. It is certainly the most challenging labor market that I have ever experienced in my 20 years in the business, Lai said. Some of his female employees, he said, have had to quit to care for children. And despite the end of federal supplemental unemployment aid, Lai is seeing little increase in the number of job applicants. I think its the big mystery of the economy, he said. The folks that are sitting on the sidelines why are they sitting on the sidelines? He suspects that one factor is lingering fear of becoming sick at work. The enhanced unemployment aid that ended in early September included a $300-a-week federal supplement, as well as programs that for the first time covered gig workers and people who were jobless for six months or more. The expiration of those programs cutoff aid for roughly 7 million people. Many business owners and Republican political leaders argued that the extra $300-a-week benefit was discouraging some people from seeking jobs because they could receive more money from unemployment aid. So far, though, the ending of those programs appears to have had little effect on the number of people looking for work. Economists still think that most of the roughly 3 million people who lost jobs and stopped looking for work since the pandemic struck will resume their searches as COVID wanes. It took years after the 2008-2009 recession, they note, for the proportion of people working or seeking work to return to pre-recession levels. September's meager job gain will likely still be enough for the Federal Reserve to proceed with its plans to pull back on its extraordinary assistance to the economy, said Lydia Boussour, an economist at Oxford Economics. The Fed is expected to announce in November that it will begin slowing its bond purchases, which are intended to lower long-term loan rates and encourage more borrowing and spending. Tammy Browning, president of KellyOCG, a staffing agency, said she notices little urgency among some potential job-seekers. Some families have learned to live with less, she said, adapting to one income as mothers stay home. Household savings are, on average, still above pre-pandemic levels, thanks in part to stimulus checks. I think it's going to be several months before people come back in full force, Browning said. One factor behind the weakness in hiring last month was a sharp drop in local government education jobs. The number of such jobs fell by 144,000 last month despite the reopening of schools. That decline suggested that many local school systems didn't hire as many people as they typically do. Many have had trouble finding enough bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other support staff. Most industries added jobs last month, though at a reduced pace. Transportation and warehousing, for example, which has been boosted by a spike in online shopping, added 47,000 jobs. Manufacturers added 26,000. Restaurants, hotels and amusement parks, though, gained just 74,000 positions, more than in August but far below the pace in the summer, when they were adding hundreds of thousands of workers a month. Another reason workers are scarce is a surge in retirements among older, more affluent workers whose home equity and stock portfolios have surged since the pandemic struck and who have managed to build up savings. Goldman Sachs estimates that about 1.5 million people have retired who wouldnt have before the pandemic upended the economy. Many of these people will likely stay retired, economists expect. ___ AP Writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report from Natick, Massachusetts. JOLIETTE, Que. - Members of an Atikamekw community northeast of Montreal are slowly regaining their trust in Quebec's health-care system, a year after Joyce Echaquan died in a hospital northeast of Montreal, according to Chief Paul-Emile Ottawa. Carol Dube, husband of Joyce Echaquan, pauses as he reads a statement next to his daughter Wassihna during a memorial marking the first anniversary of the death of his wife, in front of the hospital where she died in Joliette, Que., on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson JOLIETTE, Que. - Members of an Atikamekw community northeast of Montreal are slowly regaining their trust in Quebec's health-care system, a year after Joyce Echaquan died in a hospital northeast of Montreal, according to Chief Paul-Emile Ottawa. "Confidence is slowly returning," Ottawa, the chief of the Atikamekw Council of Manawan, told reporters Thursday at a joint press conference with the regional health authority that manages the hospital where Echaquan died in September 2020. He said he's "very happy and particularly proud" of the steps taken by the regional health board to improve its relationship with the Atikamekw community. "We're taking our first steps, but never has such collaboration existed in the past," Ottawa said. "There are changes that have taken place, but there are definitely still things to improve. So, we're working very hard to ensure that our goals of reconciliation are met." Earlier this week, coroner Gehane Kamel said Echaquan, an Atikamekw mother of seven, would likely still be alive if she were a white woman and that systemic racism "undeniably" contributed to her death. Kamel's report found that her demise was accidental, but avoidable. The coroner concluded Echaquan's initial diagnosis was based on prejudice and she wasn't properly monitored before finally being transferred to intensive care. Echaquan died of a pulmonary edema that was linked to a rare heart condition. Maryse Poupart, who was named CEO of the regional health authority in March, said she welcomed the coroner's recommendations for her agency, adding that all eight recommendations had either been implemented or were part of existing plans. Kamel also recommended that the Quebec government acknowledge the existence of systemic racism and root it out of institutions. Quebec Premier Francois Legault has denied that systemic racism exists in Quebec. When asked if she acknowledged the existence of systemic racism, Poupart said she appreciated things have to change at the health board, but she said she wouldn't enter into a debate on semantics. The health agency has hired several staff members to help improve relations with Atikamekw patients and a woman from Manawan has been appointed to the authority's board, Poupart said. Thirty per cent of employees have completed a sensitivity training session, she said, adding that a more in-depth training program will be implemented later this fall. A designated staff member to receive complaints from members of Indigenous communities will soon be hired, Poupart said. Steps are also being taken to improve staff-patient ratios, another issue that was raised in the coroner's report. Poupart said the process of improving relations with the Atikamekw people is ongoing and reconciliation takes time. "We can't think that it will be done quickly that would be a monumental mistake in terms of cultural security," she said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2021. Montreal-based civil rights lawyer Julius Grey said Friday he will ask a judge next week to suspend Quebecs system for determining how many family doctors can practise in a specific region of the province. Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot Montreal-based civil rights lawyer Julius Grey said Friday he will ask a judge next week to suspend Quebecs system for determining how many family doctors can practise in a specific region of the province. Earlier this week, Health Minister Christian Dube reduced the number of new family doctors allowed to practise in Montreal and increased the number who can work in nearby suburbs, leading to calls of political interference from the Opposition. Grey told reporters he will seek an interlocutory injunction to have the permit system including Dube's changes immediately suspended by a court, before his case goes to trial. The permit system, called plans regionaux deffectifs medicaux, also known as PREM, is unconstitutional, he added. "I hope, certainly, that they will set aside these administrative changes and that they will declare the system inoperative," he said. "I don't think you can give (the government) much time because it's so urgent." Grey said the system Quebec uses to distribute doctors around the province is arbitrary and unjust and the lack of access to a family doctor in certain regions of the province violates the right to security of person. It also has a negative impact on mobility rights, he added. Dr. Mark Roper, a Montreal family doctor and the director of the primary care division at the McGill University Health Centre's department of family medicine, said nearly 650,000 people in the city don't have a family doctor, more than in any other region of the province. He said the government's permit system underestimates the number of family doctors needed in Montreal and puts people's health at risk. It's also pushing doctors out of the province and preventing those who leave from coming back, Roper said. "We should become a net importer of family doctors and we used to be, but since the PREM process, we have been a net exporter of doctors," he lamented. "In fact, the number of PREMs available has always been five per cent less than our graduating cohort." The Opposition Liberals have described Dube's decision as political interference, which they said routed doctors from areas represented by the Liberals to better-served parts of the province represented by the governing Coalition Avenir Quebec party. Asked on Friday if his decision was political, Dube told reporters, Ill say one thing: if taking care of people in 450 is political, this is a political decision, referencing the area code for the regions surrounding Montreal. Dube said doctors in Montreal need to take on more patients. Ill be very clear: we need to treat every Quebecer the same way, and when I have statistics that prove there are less doctors in those regions and they should be treated as fairly as any other citizen in Montreal or elsewhere, Ill make those decisions, he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship. OTTAWA - The Bloc Quebecois is being confirmed as the winner of the Quebec riding of Trois-Rivieres after a judicial recount. A man casts his ballot at a polling station on federal election day in Shawinigan, Que., Monday, Oct. 21, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes OTTAWA - The Bloc Quebecois is being confirmed as the winner of the Quebec riding of Trois-Rivieres after a judicial recount. Elections Canada says the Bloc beat the Conservatives by 83 votes, after votes were counted again. The Tories went to court to request a recount to check the original result, which had the Bloc winning the seat by 92 votes. Elections Canada is confirming that Bloc candidate Rene Villemure has won the Quebec riding with 17,136 votes. The Conservative candidate Yves Levesque came a close second with 17,053 votes. Trois-Rivieres is the second judicial recount in Quebec. The Liberals picked up another seat Wednesday after Elections Canada confirmed that Brenda Shanahan beat the Bloc candidate in Chateauguay-Lacolle by just 12 votes. The recount overturned the election-night result which had the Liberals losing to the Bloc in the riding. Next week, votes will be recounted in the Toronto riding of Davenport where the NDP lost to the Liberals by 76 votes. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021 GJOA HAVEN, Nunavut - A use of force expert says an RCMP officer who shot and killed an armed man in a remote Nunavut community didn't have effective, less-lethal options he could have used that day. The RCMP station in the hamlet of Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, is seen on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Emma Tranter GJOA HAVEN, Nunavut - A use of force expert says an RCMP officer who shot and killed an armed man in a remote Nunavut community didn't have effective, less-lethal options he could have used that day. Sgt. Brad Fawcett told a coroner's inquest Thursday into the death of 21-year-old Charles Qirngnirq from Gjoa Haven that many of the tools officers are equipped with don't work in cold weather. Fawcett said stun guns such as Tasers don't often work in the cold, pepper spray isn't as effective and batons don't have the same impact through winter clothing. "In this environment, you can preclude all less lethal options" said Fawcett, who is with the Vancouver Police Department. He later clarified his statement. "You certainly could preclude a lot less-lethal options. Anything that relies on a battery can be affected." The inquest has heard that it was about -33 C on Dec. 19, 2016, the day Qirngnirq was shot. Earlier this week, the inquest heard that Cpl. Ian Crowe and Cpl. Tanya Kellogg, the officers who confronted Qirngnirq, struggled to see the man from what they assumed was about 100 metres away. Fawcett said in that situation, binoculars would have been good to have, so the officers could have had a close look at Qirngnirq. The Mounties were responding to reports of a man with a rifle outside the hamlet's airport who was upset that his girlfriend and his young son were leaving to fly to the community of Kugaaruk. Police had received reports earlier that day that he was suicidal. The inquest heard that Qirngnirq was about 84 metres away from the officers when Crowe shot him. Kellogg had been yelling commands at Qirngnirq through a loud-hailer attached to the police vehicle's radio, which could not be removed. She told the inquest she did not have proper concealment from any potential gunfire because she was using the loud-hailer. Fawcett said there are Bluetooth, portable versions that could have helped. The inquest also heard that Ottawa police investigators, who came to Gjoa Haven two days after the shooting, did not record the officers' statements on video or audio because of a technical issue, maybe due to batteries not working in the cold. This meant investigators relied only on their handwritten notes to make a final report on the shooting. Fawcett testified that in determining whether the use of force is reasonable in a situation, video and audio recordings of officer interviews are important. He also said the only two officers working in the remote community didn't have any backup nearby and were unable to contain Qirngnirq. Backup arrived six hours after the shooting from Iqaluit, the inquest heard. "Your ability for containment is extremely limited. You want to try to limit the subjects mobility. You want to control that as much as possible. With two officers thats almost impossible," Fawcett said. He also said no scenario training fully prepares officers for critical encounters. They get "minutes of practice for hundreds of hours of game time," he said. Ottawa police investigators confirmed that two bullets recovered with Qirngnirq's rifle were for a different type of firearm and could not have been loaded into his gun. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2021. ___ This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship. OTTAWA - An Ottawa homeless shelter where demand for services has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic served as the backdrop for the first-ever public event for Gov. Gen. Mary May Simon Friday. Governor General Mary Simon hands a client a bag of fresh produce as she helps deliver meals at the Ottawa Mission in Ottawa, on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang OTTAWA - An Ottawa homeless shelter where demand for services has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic served as the backdrop for the first-ever public event for Gov. Gen. Mary May Simon Friday. May Simon and her husband, former journalist Whit Fraser, spent about an hour at the Ottawa Mission in the morning, meeting with staff and volunteers and handing out hot meals to dozens of clients lined up down the block for what may be their only real meal of the upcoming long weekend. Some of the clients expressed displeasure at the disruption and media presence surrounding May Simon's visit, pulling hats and jacket hoods down over their faces as she and Fraser handed out cardboard boxes of fish and chips and some small bags of groceries. But others thanked her for helping and chatted with her briefly as they packed some fresh vegetables, a box of cereal, and a few canned goods into backpacks and shoulder bags. May Simon said in a statement issued later by email that community organizations like the Ottawa Mission are a vital support to vulnerable Canadians. Aileen Leo, the director of communications, said because of the pandemic the need has never been greater. "COVID has made food insecurity so much worse," she told The Canadian Press in an interview, following May Simon's visit. Leo said in 2019, before the pandemic, the Mission handed out about 520,000 meals, and last year that grew to more than 728,000. This year they're on track to hand out between 900,000 and one million meals. Leo said job losses have really hurt a lot of people, and many organizations had to cut back on their services because of the pandemic. The Mission is looking to buy a second food truck because the one truck they have that provides meals around the city can't keep up. "I've been to many food trucks where people line up for hours with their kids, in the freezing cold or the searing heat," she said. "If they are prepared to do that you know they are hungry." May Simon and Fraser didn't skip the COVID protocols at the door having their temperatures taken, and answering the questions about symptoms or potential exposure to COVID-19. They wore gloves and face masks during the visit as well. Leo said they spent about an hour at the facility, including the brief time helping to hand out food, a tour of the hospice, the health clinic and the chapel. May Simon is Canada's first Inuk governor general. She was sworn in July 26. Later this month she will embark on her first foreign trip, a four-day state visit to Germany where she'll meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and represent Canada at the 2021 Frankfurt Book Fair. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. OTTAWA - The federal government is working on exemptions to its newly released mandatory vaccine policy for people in remote Indigenous communities, many of which are only accessible by airplane. Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra speaks at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Friday, July 30, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck OTTAWA - The federal government is working on exemptions to its newly released mandatory vaccine policy for people in remote Indigenous communities, many of which are only accessible by airplane. The new policy calls for travellers over the age of 12 to provide proof they've received two doses of a Health Canada-approved vaccine at least 14 days before boarding a plane or train. There are 182 communities that have been assessed by Transport Canada or the provinces and territories as "remote." The vast majority are so isolated the only way in and out is by plane, and essential services like medical visits are not accessible by any other means of transportation. People in Neskantaga First Nation about 450 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont. can only get in or out of the community by airplane in the summer, and occasionally ice roads in the winter. "We rely on air service for pretty much everything. It's just like the highways to us," said Gary Quisess, a councillor on the First Nation. People fly in and out of the community for food, medical appointments and even to commute to their jobs, he said, and they have no other options. The community of 400 people, which has been under a boil-water advisory since 1995, recently lifted travel restrictions and now relies heavily on tests to protect against COVID-19. The rates of vaccination in Neskantaga are high, about 98 per cent for adults, but the policy would still have serious impacts for those who are still unvaccinated unless exemptions are made. "I think there should be some room for people that don't get vaccinated," he said. "Where is it going to fall if a person can't get medical help?" Quisess said the government has not reached out to their band office directly about the new vaccine mandate. Government officials have been meeting with Indigenous organizations and representatives from provincial and territorial governments to provide possible exemptions or accommodations for remote Indigenous communities, according to a statement from the office of federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. Alghabra's office did not immediately respond to questions about which groups have been consulted, but said accommodations could include asking for a negative molecular COVID-19 test, rather than proof of full vaccination. Quisess said that would be a relief for Neskantaga where frequent tests are already being done. "Right now, I think there are some concerns with this new policy," he said. "But on the other side, it's a good way to try to stop the virus from spreading." Different communities are handling the virus differently though, he said, and the accommodations may not suit them all. Chief Allan Adam of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta said he supports vaccine passports for travel in and out of his remote community, as long as there is a fair plan to help people who can't get a vaccine for medical reasons. Athabasca Chipewyan is home to about 1,200 people, and more than 80 per cent of those who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine have received them, the chief said. As for people in his community who simply don't want to get their shot, "they're going to have to think twice about that," Adam said. Indigenous Services Canada doesn't provide vaccine rates for First Nations. As of Oct. 5, 786,893 doses have been administered on First Nations, of which 348,757 were second doses. Missinippi Airways, a private air carrier that provides flights to remote communities in Northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nunavut, has also not been consulted by the government about the changes, but said medical-evacuation flights will not be affected. The new vaccine mandate for travellers is set to begin at the end of the month. The government said there would be a grace period of one month, in which unvaccinated passengers can provide a negative test instead. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2021. EDMONTON - The current spike in oil prices is no reason to force industry to spend more on cleaning up Alberta's tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, says the province's energy minister. A decommissioned pumpjack is shown at a wellhead on an oil and gas installation near Cremona, Alta., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh EDMONTON - The current spike in oil prices is no reason to force industry to spend more on cleaning up Alberta's tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, says the province's energy minister. Sonya Savage said the province's recently adopted plan to fix the problem, which requires industry to spend $422 million next year and slightly more after that, will do the trick. "The framework is a fair and balanced approach to address the management of oil and gas liabilities throughout a project's life cycle," Savage said in an email Friday. "It also takes into account the challenging conditions that the energy sector in Alberta has grappled with." But critics say the province's current cleanup requirements are based on the industry's past efforts, which are what led to the problem in the first place. The current price spike for oil, now over $80 a barrel, represents a profit windfall for an industry that should be spending it on cleaning up the province's 97,000 inactive wells. Given the global attempts to shift away from fossil fuels, this may be Alberta's last chance, said Sara Hastings-Simon of the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy. "It's the last, best chance to fix the issue," she said. "It doesn't seem fair to have the Alberta public face the cleanup costs when it's the global shareholders of these companies that are going to see the benefits of those higher prices." In July 2020, the United Conservative government announced the industry would be required to spend at least $422 million next year to clean abandoned wells. That amount increases to $443 million in 2023 and by similar amounts in each of the next three years although targets beyond 2024 are forecasts. Those amounts are based on the industry's past spending and are expected to deal with slightly more than four per cent of the total liability each year. They are in addition to the $1 billion the federal government has made available to industry contractors working on well cleanup. That's enough to speed up the process, said Elisabeth Besson of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. "These policies, together with the (federal) program, will significantly enhance the rate of closure of inactive oil and natural gas sites," she said in an email. "We continue to work with the Alberta government to advance policies and regulations which ensure substantial progress in the timely closure of inactive sites. But the Alberta program isn't enough to cover a liability estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, said Hastings-Simon. As well, she pointed out that fixing four per cent of the problem every year stretches the solution out over 25 years by which time, she said, oil demand and company profits are likely to be substantially smaller. "As we saw over the last year, a modest decline in demand reduces prices dramatically," Hastings-Simon said. "If we're relying on future income 20 years from now, that seems wholly inadequate." New Democrat Opposition environment critic Marlin Schmidt said forcing industry to spend money on cleanup would create jobs at a time when Alberta has the highest unemployment rate of any large province. "We need the jobs right now," he said. "Increased profits for oil and gas companies are not translating into jobs for Albertans. If we focused on getting money that we are owed for cleanup, we could put Albertans to work right away." Savage said the current program allows for higher spending requirements once the economy improves. "Targets may change due to a variety of factors, such as market conditions and results from closure spending in the previous year." Hastings-Simon said the time never seems to be right. "It's never a good time for companies to put in the money that's required to clean up," Hastings-Simon said. "Either the prices are too low so they can't afford to or the prices are too high." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960 Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government approved a covert plan to divert $113 million in excess Autopac revenue which by law should have been used for a rate reduction or rebate to avoid having to pay for rising costs at driver and vehicle licensing. Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government approved a covert plan to divert $113 million in excess Autopac revenue which by law should have been used for a rate reduction or rebate to avoid having to pay for rising costs at driver and vehicle licensing. The plan to divert excess revenue, which has never been publicly disclosed, was devised by senior management at Manitoba Public Insurance in 2020 and approved by both the Tory-appointed board and Crown Services Minister Jeff Wharton earlier this year. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Eric Herbelin president and CEO of MPI. The plan involves taking $60 million from Autopac extension revenue last March, and another $53 million will be moved in March 2022. Eric Herbelin, president and CEO, confirmed in an interview he saw an opportunity to use a portion of the excess Autopac revenue the result of plummeting claims costs during the pandemic to cover rising costs at driver and vehicle licensing. Driver and vehicle licensing is a non-insurance service offered by MPI, but is paid for through general revenue. However, government support for it has fallen short of actual costs for many years, resulting in multimillion-dollar deficits. The licensing branch is facing about $50 million in costs associated with the implementation of a new information technology platform. "... no matter what the colour of the ruling party, these decisions take time and we have bills to pay." MPI president and CEO Eric Herbelin Herbelin said the use of excess Autopac revenue was designed to be a "stop-gap" measure to address the annual shortfall at licensing and cover the cost of technology upgrades. The longer term strategy is to get the government to pay more of the costs, both now and into the future, he said. "MPI has been in discussion with government for over a year," Herbelin said. "(But) no matter what the colour of the ruling party, these decisions take time and we have bills to pay." However, MPI sources confirmed Herbelin was repeatedly told his plan would likely contravene parts of the MPI Act and the terms of the capital management plan (CMP), the rules governing the use of excess revenue negotiated and approved by the Public Utilities Board in 2019. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The MPI Act and the terms of the capital management plan require any revenue over and above capital reserve targets of Autopac insurance must be used for rate reductions or rebates. The CMP specifically requires any revenue over and above capital reserve targets from either the basic or extension lines of Autopac insurance must be used for rate reductions or rebates. "(Herbelin) was very dismissive about everyone's concerns," said one source. "The instant he told everyone about the plan, he was told it was a very bad idea." Licensing funding crunch Manitoba's driver and vehicle licensing (DVL), which includes all of the physical and online services to support annual licensing applications and renewals, is at the heart of an improper use of Autopac revenue. In 2004, the then-NDP government transferred DVL operations to Manitoba Public Insurance. The theory was that allowing people to obtain or renew a licence in the same location where they bought Autopac was good for ratepayers. It allowed the government to offload real estate and leases needed for a separate network of DVL locations. click to read more Manitoba's driver and vehicle licensing (DVL), which includes all of the physical and online services to support annual licensing applications and renewals, is at the heart of an improper use of Autopac revenue. In 2004, the then-NDP government transferred DVL operations to Manitoba Public Insurance. The theory was that allowing people to obtain or renew a licence in the same location where they bought Autopac was good for ratepayers. It allowed the government to offload real estate and leases needed for a separate network of DVL locations. However, MPI was restricted by legislation from doing anything other than manage its auto insurance business. So, the NDP government signed a formal contract with MPI to provide DVL services outside its normal mandate. Under the terms of that deal, the government would still get all of the revenue from licensing and vehicle registration fees, but would provide an annual transfer to MPI to cover the operating costs of DVL. In 2004, that transfer was set at $30 million. Neither the NDP nor Tories have increased support to DVL since that deal was signed, even though the number of vehicles and drivers increased, and the amount of money collected by the government rose. In 2020-21, Manitobans paid $212 million in licence and vehicle registration fees, but MPI still only got $30 million in annual support. In recent years, DVL has started to lose between $7 million to $8 million per year, a sum equal to a 0.75 per cent increase on the average Autopac policy. MPI has repeatedly asked the government to fund all of DVL's costs, but to date, those requests have fallen on deaf ears. The financial pressure on MPI has also increased thanks to Nova, the new e-commerce and information technology platform MPI is currently rolling out. Nova is expected to cost more than $10 million, with about half of that money assigned to operations at DVL. MPI officials said they have asked the government to consider paying for the DVL portion of the Nova project to avoid having to pass on the costs to Autopac customers. The government has yet to respond. Close Neither MPI nor the Tory government alerted the public before triggering this unprecedented diversion of Autopac revenue. Although Herbelin said MPI has tried to be "fully transparent" about the plan, he made no mention of it when questioned about driver and vehicle licensing by NDP Leader Wab Kinew at the June 10 meeting of the crown services committee, three months after the first $60 million was taken from excess revenue. Neither MPI nor the government referenced the plan to divert excess revenue when announcing rate reductions and rebates totalling $179 million. One rebate was triggered in December 2020, and another this past summer. Herbelin said he did not have the authority to reveal that information because it was slated to be part of MPI's latest rate application to the regulator, which begins next week. That excuse did little to satisfy Kinew, who said MPI and the government had a moral obligation to tell Autopac customers in advance about the diversion of revenue, and the fact it would mean less money in their pockets. "(Herbelin) was very dismissive about everyone's concerns. The instant he told everyone about the plan, he was told it was a very bad idea." "Far from the public being aware of this, it seems as if government is trying to actually conceal what's going on," Kinew said. "People's Autopac rates should have been lower. Their rebates should have been higher." Gloria Desorcy, the executive director of the Consumers Association of Canada (Manitoba) said MPI is legally prevented from channelling revenue from insurance policies to cover non-insurance expenses. "Our insurance premiums are supposed to fund insurance lines of business, period. As ratepayers, we expect MPI to provide full rebates to drivers and we will make that case before the PUB." JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Crown Services Minister Jeff Wharton. Wharton, who had been briefed on Herbelin's plan and approved it at every level, declined an interview request. In an emailed statement, Wharton described MPI's diversion of insurance revenues to driver and vehicle licensing as "a business decision" that was made well within the constraints of legislation and the capital management plan. "You are correct, that Autopac funds cannot be used for non-Autopac purposes," Wharton's statement read, "but the funds you are referring to are not Autopac funds." Wharton's statement is contradicted by years of testimony before the PUB and by MPI's own website. "You are correct, that Autopac funds cannot be used for non-Autopac purposes, but the funds you are referring to are not Autopac funds." Statement from Crown Services Minister Jeff Wharton The $113 million comes from revenue generated by "Autopac Options," otherwise known as the "extension" line, which includes enhanced coverage that vehicle owners add to their basic policies for things such as loss of use, rental vehicle coverage and new or leased vehicle replacement. Although extended auto insurance is not a monopoly, Autopac Options is exclusively available to basic insurance policy-holders. There is only one other time in recent memory when a Manitoba government tried to divert Autopac revenue to non-insurance purposes. In 2000, NDP Premier Gary Doer tried to take $20 million in excess Autopac revenue to fund universities. At the time, the Tory opposition made it clear the only proper use for excess Autopac revenue was to rebate them to ratepayers. "The MPI surpluses are not Gary Doer's slush fund," Tory MLA Bonnie Mitchelson said at the time. The NDP backed away from the plan under scathing criticism. Incidents like that kicked off a years-long debate about how best to manage surpluses and when to trigger rebates. Eventually, it resulted in strict rules and guidelines about the use of excess revenue. In 2019, the Public Utilities Board brokered a deal between interveners and MPI for the creation of a capital management plan. It was designed to trigger rate reductions or rebates, or a combination of both, if reserves grow too large in either the Autopac basic and options line of insurance products. Once MPI has earned revenue above and beyond those minimum levels, the money is supposed to be transferred into a rate stabilization account to pay for reductions or rebates. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca A private member's bill to prevent protesters opposed to public health orders from blocking entrances to schools, hospitals and clinics was introduced Friday. A private member's bill to prevent protesters opposed to public health orders from blocking entrances to schools, hospitals and clinics was introduced Friday. Nahanni Fontaine, the NDP house leader and justice critic, said Bill 239 (the Protest Buffer Zone Act COVID-19 Restrictions) is designed to prevent a repeat of a Sept. 1 demonstration against COVID-19 vaccine mandates outside the Health Sciences Centre. On that day, patients and staff had difficulty getting into the hospital and some patients reported cancelling appointments due to the chaos. The bill would prohibit people opposed to COVID-19 public health measures from demonstrating within 150 metres of such facilities, causing a noisy ruckus there or harassing service providers. The sites include vaccination and testing sites, personal care homes, child-care centres and the homes of service providers. There would be penalties of up to $5,000 and up to six months in jail for a first offence, and the penalties would double for further offences. In response, Premier Kelvin Goertzen says he will take a look at the NDP bill. Goertzen says he wants to read the NDP bill thoroughly and would like to ensure that any measures that were adopted wouldn't go too far. "There are often unintended consequences of legislation... so before we take any action on this particular issue, we'd want to make sure that we're doing due diligence on the bill itself," Goertzen said. The Progressive Conservative government put forward a bill last winter that would have allowed the operators of hospitals, railways, courthouses and other critical infrastructure to obtain a court order for a buffer zone. The NDP delayed that bill, along with four others, and the Tories later withdrew all five. Fontaine said action is needed to protect health-care workers and patients. "In these extraordinary times, we have a responsibility to protect Manitobans and to protect those that are working on the front lines," she said. The Alberta government recently announced it was adding hospitals, clinics and other health-care facilities to a list of essential infrastructure protected under an anti-blockade law. with files from The Canadian Press carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Even as COVID-19 dominates the news, momentum is building for influenza season including demand for annual flu shots, local pharmacists say. Even as COVID-19 dominates the news, momentum is building for influenza season including demand for annual flu shots, local pharmacists say. Over 60 per cent of the province's 2021-22 influenza vaccine has been delivered, according to a provincial spokesperson. Hospitals, long-term care facilities, First Nations communities, doctors' offices, pharmacies and clinics have doses available. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jes Buhler, pharmacist at The Exchange District Pharmacy, in the pharmacy's clinic. Pharmacists say they have seen an increase in the number of flu shots being administered. "The flu is a serious condition for a lot of people, and right now, in our hospital(s), we just don't have capacity for that," said Jes Buhler, a pharmacist with the Exchange District Pharmacy. "This year, especially... it's just really important for people to be protected against that. "Even if you're in the category where you think that the flu might not be a serious infection for yourself, it is a serious infection for a lot of other people." Seniors, children, people with chronic health conditions and pregnant women are at increased risk from the contagious respiratory illness. Sam Nocita, a pharmacist and owner of Northway Pharmacy's Selkirk Avenue and Seven Oaks locations, said he's noticed a huge uptick of flu shot demand. "People know what's happened with COVID," Nocita said. "Flu season causes problems every year. A lot of people die from the flu." Last year, Nocita's shops dispensed at least double the number of flu shots they normally would. The first week of flu shots this season is similar to last year's, so there might be a big uptake ahead, he said. "It's still really early," he added. As of Aug. 28, 31.5 per cent of Manitobans had gotten vaccinated against influenza. Keewatin Medical Centre and Pharmacy has also noted a spike in people receiving flu shots since the COVID-19 pandemic started. "Due to... COVID, if you get a little bit of a cough and cold, sometimes people get scared. It may be COVID or it may not be," said pharmacist Amarjeet Makkar. "In this scenario, it becomes more important to get... this flu shot." Many influenza symptoms overlap with signs of COVID-19. Both can cause fevers, coughing, fatigue, sore throats, runny noses, body aches, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. Chris Badiuk, 30, took a jab of influenza vaccine to his right arm Thursday. The global illness has its victims, even if you don't hear about them, he said at the Exchange District Pharmacy. "Every one of those (people) is somebody's family. They're loved," he said. Manitoba plans to launch its seasonal flu campaign soon, according to a provincial spokesperson. "The health-care system remains at risk from the delta variant of COVID-19 as case number and hospitalizations are rising," the spokesperson wrote in an email, adding immunization prevents hospitalizations. Canada's 2019-20 flu season began the week of Nov. 17, peaked in late January and ended around March 28, according to FluWatch, the country's flu-monitoring system. It ended eight weeks earlier than normal, and there were record-low numbers of reported influenza detections, hospitalizations and outbreaks. Even so, Canadians reported 2,493 influenza-associated hospitalizations. Nationally, 306 ICU admissions and 120 deaths were reportedly linked to the flu in 2019-20. gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com A Rosengart man is dead and a hunter has been charged after a fatal shooting near Elma Tuesday night. A Rosengart man is dead and a hunter has been charged after a fatal shooting near Elma Tuesday night. Oleg Unruh, 59, was pronounced dead shortly after he was shot in a wooded area off Silver Bridge Road south of Elma at about 8:05 p.m. Elma is located about 70 kilometres east of Winnipeg. Rosengart is about 130 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg near the United States border just west of Altona. A family member said Thursday there was little information about what happened to Unruh. "He was shot by someone else thats all we know," the relative said, adding the RCMP will provide more details Friday. "(Unruh) didnt know (the other hunter). They were just in the same place at the same time." Elma residents contacted said they didnt know either of the two men. "Apparently they were hunting bears," said one resident. According to the RCMP, the two men didn't know each other and were not hunting together. A Browning rifle has been seized by RCMP, according to court documents. Lac du Bonnet RCMP, along with other RCMP departments and Manitoba Conservation Officer Service, are continuing to investigate. Carsten Aust, 45, a German citizen, has been charged with manslaughter. He was remanded in custody and appeared in a Winnipeg court Thursday. Aust was released on bail, with the consent of the Crown, with a $1,000 surety and a promise not to possess any weapons. He also had to surrender his passport to RCMP. He will next appear in court Nov. 17. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca Burning sulphur. Cow manure. Thats how some Winnipeggers describe the pungent odour of a Red River Boulevard retention pond. "Were sitting here (inside), captive in this beautiful weather and our windows are closed. (The smell is) constant, you open your door and youre just choking," said Donna McDonald. "Its horrible." The stormwater retention basin at Red River Boulevard West and Riverstone Road in Riverbend, just off Main Street south of the Perimeter Highway, has always attracted a large population of geese. But for the last 10 days, it has emitted an odour much more foul than ever before, McDonald said. Donna McDonald says she and her neighbours are overwhelmed by the stench of a nearby pond in Riverbend. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press) "I went for a walk (Tuesday) and walked right up to the pond and I couldnt breathe. It literally just takes your breath away," she said. She and her neighbours initially suspected the "cow manure" scent was coming from the North End sewage treatment plant before they determined the source was the pond. A raw sewage smell was quickly detected at the site during a Free Press visit Thursday afternoon, and intensified each time the wind shifted directions. A few hundred geese were gathered in and around the pond at the time. Roman Pniowsky said a "burning sulphur" stench made it difficult to use his backyard deck over the past two weeks. "It just reeks like hell," he said. Coun. Jeff Browaty, who represents the area, said hes received about a dozen complaints about the retention pond so far and personally visited it to check out the problem. "Its obviously a very unpleasant smell. I fully appreciate that residents are unhappy about the smell and would like to see something done as quickly as possible," Browaty said. Unfortunately, it doesnt appear that the city can quickly eliminate the problem, the North Kildonan councillor noted. A city spokesperson said the smell, along with the current "milky" appearance of the pond, appear to be caused by a bacterial bloom. A stormwater retention basin in Riverbend, just off Main Street south of the Perimeter Highway, has always attracted a large population of geese. For the last 10 days, a bacterial bloom fed by goose excrement, has emitted an odour much more foul than ever before according to nearby residents. "A bacterial bloom occurs as a result of heavy nutrient loading an abundance of bacterial colonies form in the water to try and break down those nutrients the odour results from the bacteria releasing gas as it breaks down the nutrients," spokesperson Adam Campbell said in an emailed statement. Nutrients can enter ponds via excrement, such as goose poop, as well as fertilizers. Campbell noted bacterial blooms have emerged in local retention ponds before, usually in the fall. "While the exact cause isnt known, the issue tends to be worse at ponds with large geese populations," he said, adding the natural breakdown of the nutrients could take time. "This process can take up to three weeks, after which the odour should subside (or it will subside after ice cover)," said Campbell. The city is sealing some sewer manholes to help mitigate the smell and will avoid flushing sewers in the area, since that could make the odour worse, he said. But Browaty said theres not much more that can be done to address the odour. "I wish there was a magic wand that we could make the smell go away tomorrow It is frustrating," the councillor said. Browaty said hes hopeful a shift to cooler, wet weather could soon help entice the geese to move on, stopping them from making more deposits in the pond. After a summer-like start to October, Environment Canada predicts Winnipeg will see rain this weekend, with high temperatures reaching only 16 C Saturday and 17 C on Sunday. Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga The Louis Riel School Division has no plans to release a report on its police-in-schools program, which contains findings that prompted trustees to cancel the community policing initiative this week. The Louis Riel School Division has no plans to release a report on its police-in-schools program, which contains findings that prompted trustees to cancel the community policing initiative this week. Facing pressure from families with concerns about how uniformed officers in schools affects marginalized students, the Winnipeg-based division hired an external researcher to conduct an equity-based review of its school resource officer program in early 2021. University of Winnipeg instructor Fadi Ennab, an expert in anti-racism, undertook a mixed-methodology approach, including a community survey, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with students who had experience with the program. "We really did emphasize the voices of students, staff and families that identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour)... What they shared was that it wasnt a positive lived experience and so, we couldnt ignore those voices," said superintendent Christian Michalik, who recommended trustees discontinue the program at a meeting Tuesday evening. During a phone call Thursday, Michalik said the board is not disclosing the report due to "confidentiality reasons" a decision he indicated was made based on legal counsel advice. Since 2002, the Winnipeg Police Service has been partnering with divisions to supply schools with uniformed officers whose duties include giving presentations on everything from bullying to drugs, undertaking truancy check-ins, and participating in threat assessments. This time last year, 19 such officers worked in six divisions. There was one in LRSD, who has worked across its schools of which there are currently 40 since 2016. Winnipeg School Division cut funding for its nine officers this year, citing budget restraints. On Tuesday, LRSD trustees followed suit, with a unanimous vote to redirect program monies to equity initiatives. For months, Irene Bindi, a parent and vocal member of Police Free Schools Winnipeg, has been inquiring about the LRSD report. "(LRSD leaders) pride themselves in transparency and being of a progressive nature, but even in terms of email responses, in terms of having an open-question period, there has been a real closure around this particular subject," said Bindi, who was appointed to the divisions school resource officer management committee during the 2020-21 school year. She said the review's release is "extremely important" because it is invaluable research for other divisions assessing their police programs. "They owe it to the Black, Indigenous, racialized and marginalized students and parents who participated in it, to release it," Bindi added. "Their onus is to protect kids, not to protect the police." In a statement Thursday, police spokeswoman Ally Siatecki said WPS believes in the hard work and integrity of its school resource officers and remains committed to working with LRSD to increase safety and well-being. Meantime, LRSD has announced plans to launch a diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism initiative. According to the division, the new initiative will address ongoing inequities and systemic racism via: the creation of an anti-racism policy and action plan; ongoing curricula review protocols; professional development; an employment equity policy; and an annual accountability reporting process, among other items. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie EFFECTIVE this week, people who attend religious services that require proof of COVID-19 vaccination do not have to keep their distance from each other. EFFECTIVE this week, people who attend religious services that require proof of COVID-19 vaccination do not have to keep their distance from each other. Under section 22 (3) of public health orders, which came into effect on Tuesday, religious services restricted to people who produce proof of vaccination or proof of medical exemption are not required to maintain physical distances of two metres between households. Religious groups can also gather without capacity limits if they require proof of vaccination. A Free Press story which ran before the public health orders were published on the Manitoba government website stated that physical distancing would still apply to groups requiring proof of vaccination, according to information presented at a media briefing on Oct. 1. The most recent public health order limits indoor religious gatherings with unvaccinated people, who are eligible to be vaccinated, to 25 people or 33 per cent capacity, whichever is greater. Attendees must maintain physical distance of two metres between household groups. Religious gatherings held outdoors are also limited to 50 people, with two metres distance between household groups. Drive-in religious gatherings where people stay inside or close to their vehicle are exempt from the 50-person limit. This latest health order marks the first time religious groups have to decide whether they will distinguish between people who are vaccinated and unvaccinated. Some Christian denominations, including the provinces Roman Catholics, have decided to remain open to all people and follow capacity restrictions. Manitoba Islamic Association, Hindu Society of Manitoba, and several Jewish synagogues decided to limit attendance at their events and services to people fully vaccinated against COVID-19. brenda.suderman@freepress.mb.ca Manitoba's election watchdog is investigating allegations that some supporters of a disqualified Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful had offered to purchase party memberships for others. Following a Free Press report on Sept. 16, the PC party and the Manitoba NDP have complained to Elections Manitoba over the alleged sales of Progressive Conservative memberships during the party's leadership race by one of Ken Lee's supporters. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files) Manitoba's election watchdog is investigating allegations that some supporters of a disqualified Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful had offered to purchase party memberships for others. Both the PC party and the Manitoba NDP complained to Elections Manitoba after a Free Press report on Sept. 16. One of Ken Lee's supporters who initially offered on social media to pay for memberships of those who sign up to support Lee told the newspaper he would provide interest-free $20 loans to those who bought a membership and they wouldn't have to pay it back for 100 years. Reimbursing people for membership fees violates the Election Financing Act, which says a person or organization must not reimburse or otherwise compensate, or offer to reimburse or otherwise compensate, any individual for all or part of a contribution. At a news conference Thursday, the NDP announced the Manitoba elections commissioner had responded to their complaint and had launched an investigation into what leader Wab Kinew called an "election scandal." "This is something that has to be taken very seriously," Kinew said at the event across the street from the PC party headquarters near the legislative building. On Oct. 30, Manitobans who purchased a Tory party membership by Oct. 1 will elect a new leader who will become Manitoba's next premier. "I don't think anyone in Manitoba believes you should be able to buy your way into the premier's office," Kinew said. "I don't think anyone in this province wants to see who the next premier is decided by illegal means." When asked to comment on Thursday, the PC party said it filed a complaint with Elections Manitoba on Sept. 22 and asked for an investigation when it became aware of the allegations. Party spokesman Keith Stewart said the elections commission appointed legal counsel and an investigator, and that the party has provided all the information requested. A ruling isn't expected "for some time," he said in a news release. The party's leadership election committee has referred the matter to the credentials committee "to deal with the individuals that we have been able to identify as being involved in this matter," and recommended they be removed as members "as they do not reflect the values we hold on election procedures or financing." The deadline for purchasing a membership was Oct. 1. Ballots were to be mailed out to members by Oct. 5. The party had expected to reveal the number of eligible voters on Monday, but on Thursday said the list was delayed by an "unprecedented number of membership applications" to process at the deadline, and that they had to be properly vetted before being included in the voters list. A preliminary voters list of 23,624 has been shared with the candidates, along with a list requiring additional verification, the party said. Ballot preparation on the preliminary list was to begin right away, with the final voters list number updated "following a short revision period," the PC news release said. It did not say how many of the memberships were purchased by Lee supporters or how many had been refunded. Kinew called for the leadership candidates to "commit publicly that they will not campaign for the support of anyone whose membership was obtained illegally." When asked, the campaign teams for both leadership hopefuls, Shelly Glover and Heather Stefanson, issued brief statements. "This matter is being dealt with by Elections Manitoba and the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba," Glover's campaign said. "It would be inappropriate to comment at this time." "The PC party has demonstrated that they have correctly taken this seriously, and we have confidence that they will continue to do so," Stefanson's campaign said. "We are confident that the party will continue to ensure this process is fair and ethical." carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca A Tory MLA who has refused to publicly reveal her COVID-19 vaccination status claimed in a private meeting this week that she's fully immunized against the virus, a source told the Free Press. A Tory MLA who has refused to publicly reveal her COVID-19 vaccination status claimed in a private meeting this week that she's fully immunized against the virus, a source told the Free Press. Seine River representative Janice Morley-Lecomte made the revelation Tuesday at a Legislative Assembly Management Commission meeting, which was held behind closed doors. The source said the MLA claimed shes fully immunized but doesnt want that information made public after attendees questioned her for removing her mask. The representative for Seine River has maintained that her vaccination status is a private matter, even though shes an elected member of the Progressive Conservative government, which has been calling on Manitobans to get immunized so hospitals arent overrun by the fourth wave of the pandemic. On Thursday, Manitoba recorded its highest daily COVID-19 case count in more than three months, with132 new cases. Morley-Lecomte and Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler are the only two MLAs who have refused to publicly disclose their vaccination status. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS LOCAL FILES Janice Morley-Lecomte has maintained that her vaccination status is a private matter. Premier Kelvin Goertzen told reporters Wednesday that most members of his caucus have made no secret of their status, posting photos of themselves getting COVID-19 shots on social media. "Our vaccination experience should be our testimony," Health Minister Audrey Gordon said when asked if Manitobans should share that vaccination information. "It should encourage and inspire other individuals to get the facts and to get accurate information that the vaccination saves lives," Gordon told reporters in a scrum Thursday. "It keeps you from ending up in hospital in ICU, so you need to get vaccinated. The more people that share their story, I think the better it will be for all of us." When asked Thursday to explain why Morley-Lecomte isn't being urged to share her vaccination status, Goertzen's press secretary did not respond to a request for comment. "Our vaccination experience should be our testimony." Health Minister Audrey Gordon The PC caucus also refused to comment, citing personal health information and arguing it would be inappropriate to comment on discussions held during in-camera committee meetings. Morley-Lecomte has participated in house proceedings remotely since members returned to the chamber this week. All MLAs in the chamber must be fully vaccinated or produce a negative COVID-19 test result. The vaccination requirement doesnt apply to other meetings or attendance in the legislature, where masks are mandatory outside of offices. In question period Thursday, NDP Leader Wab Kinew asked Goertzen why Manitobans who go to a restaurant or a sporting event are required to provide proof of vaccination, but not those attending cabinet, caucus or other meetings in the legislature. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Kelvin Goertzen told reporters Wednesday that most members of his caucus have made no secret of their status. Goertzen dismissed the question as "foolish" and instead trumpeted the province's successful vaccine rollout. The day before, NDP house leader Nahanni Fontaine called on the premier to eject Schuler, the minister responsible for emergency measures, from cabinet. With the province in a state of emergency because of the pandemic, it's "hypocritical" for the government not to demand all MLAs be vaccinated especially the person in charge of emergencies, she said during question period Wednesday. "The minister responsible for emergency measures should be helping to lead the fight, not undermining it," Fontaine said. In an interview Thursday, Fontaine said she doesn't know if Morley-Lecomte is vaccinated but that "all MLAs should be held to a higher standard, and we should be role models of the behaviour we're asking the public to undertake. "Vaccination is the only way we're going to get out of this and save lives," she said. Fontaine questioned the motives of MLAs refusing to reveal their vaccination status, unless it is to "capitulate to a base that is anti-vax and anti-mask." The government needs to show stronger leadership, said Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont. "This is the worst public health emergency in a century and these are public figures," he said of Morley-Lecomte and Schuler. "Because the PCs won't do anything about it, it makes it look like they're perfectly fine with people not getting vaccinated. It could not be a worse message to send." Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont Their refusal to publicly reveal if they've been vaccinated "undermines the public health response because it gives people the impression rightly or wrongly that they're not vaccinated, and that they're resisting vaccination and there's some justified reason for doing it," Lamont said. "Because the PCs won't do anything about it, it makes it look like they're perfectly fine with people not getting vaccinated. It could not be a worse message to send," the MLA for St. Boniface said. With hundreds of thousand of Manitobans being required to get vaccinated to keep people safe, "it's a terrible double standard," Lamont said. With the Progressive Conservatives in the middle of a leadership race, in which dismissed anti-vaccine candidate Ken Lee reportedly signed up thousands of new members, not showing what they believe in may be "politically convenient" for the Tories right now, Lamont said. Elections Manitoba records show that Lee, the PC party's former chief financial officer, was Morley-Lecomte's official agent in the 2019 election. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca As a strike vote looms, faculty at the University of Manitoba say their employers low wages in comparison to other research schools in Canada continue to hamper recruitment and retention. As a strike vote looms, faculty at the University of Manitoba say their employers low wages in comparison to other research schools in Canada continue to hamper recruitment and retention. The U of M Faculty Association announced late Wednesday its members had authorized the union to conduct a strike vote later this month. The association claims negotiations are at an impasse because of interference by the provincial government; in a release, it cited U of M president Michael Benarroch confirming the wage offer on the table has been mandated by the province. Sources told the Free Press the latest offer, which would account for 2021-22, includes annual percentage increases of: 0.75; 0.75; and 1.0. A union release suggested the offer closely resembles the terms set out in the Pallister government's public-sector wage-freeze legislation, which was deemed unconstitutional in 2020 a ruling the Progressive Conservatives are in the process of appealing. "It feels like a slap in the face," said Sachin Katyal, a cancer researcher at the U of M, who sits on the union executive. "The university needs to grow a backbone and not keep on deferring to the provincial government. The provincial government is not the full funder, students are a funder." Katyal noted the salary grid at the U of M is among the lowest of all U15 institutions and that results in challenges with recruitment and retention, which affect the quality of education because course offerings are in flux. Faculty members are asking their employer to bridge the gap to acknowledge the hard work educators have done throughout the pandemic to boost morale, and improve both recruitment and retention rates, he added. The floor salary for a professor at the University of Saskatchewan in 2020-21 was $135,145. At U of M, it was $105,269 last year. Sean Buchanan, an assistant professor of business administration, said non-competitive wages make being on hiring committees frustrating because candidates are constantly turning down offers for better ones elsewhere. Annual hikes of 0.75 per cent won't fix the problem, Buchanan said. In a generic statement on the matter, university communications officer Sean Moore did not address an inquiry about U of M receiving a new bargaining mandate. Instead, Moore said both parties continue to meet to conclude an agreement "that supports stability in operations; an outstanding educational experience for our students; fairness to our faculty members; and sustainability for our institution." A spokesperson for the minister of advanced education noted via email that governments of different political stripes have long set broad public-sector bargaining mandates. "Mischaracterizing this traditional role, or inaccurately attributing specific bargaining proposals to government, is not helpful. No one wants a strike, especially as all Manitobans continue to deal with the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic," said the spokesperson. The faculty association strike vote is scheduled for Oct. 16 to 18. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie International Day of the Girl (Oct. 11) and International Womens Day (March 8) bookend each year as days to raise awareness about unique challenges for girls, to celebrate progress, and to reflect on what to do next. These annual events seek to galvanize the world to make positive change. Without them, people too easily forget or do little to stop and disrupt the rhythm of inequality. Opinion International Day of the Girl (Oct. 11) and International Womens Day (March 8) bookend each year as days to raise awareness about unique challenges for girls, to celebrate progress, and to reflect on what to do next. These annual events seek to galvanize the world to make positive change. Without them, people too easily forget or do little to stop and disrupt the rhythm of inequality. The harm inflicted daily on Afghanistans girls is but one example. While recently thrust into the news by the Talibans takeover, womens rights have been threatened and silenced for decades. A huge stepping stone toward equality lies with access to education, and the approach is twofold. Education is a human right and a childs most powerful tool to change their own world. It helps girls build healthy and prosperous lives, prevents them from forced marriages and early pregnancies, and enables them to dream fearlessly to reach their full potential. Meanwhile, on national and global levels, educated girls bolster economies, encourage political empowerment and foster changemakers today and in the generations to come. Globally, however, 129 million girls are currently out of school. Gender inequality and poverty in developing communities prevents girls from accessing education. Gender-based violence, forced child marriage and responsibilities in the home keep girls away from school. Additionally, lack of access to clean water or sanitation makes it hard for girls to attend school when menstruating an obstacle that doesnt exist for boys. Without education, poverty is amplified. In marginalized communities, there are physical challenges to overcome before entering the classroom, too. Long walks through rugged terrain, steep hills, polluted waterways and violent gangs only scratch the surface of what young children face an unimaginable path compared to the one that the majority of Canadian families are fortunate to take. COVID-19 has heightened barriers to education in vulnerable communities, and it threatens to set back two decades of progress made in girls education. The pandemic is forcing many girls to stay home and support the family, doing chores and precarious labour. Once access has been temporarily removed, its harder to return to the classroom. In stark contrast, a report by Statistics Canada found that for young Canadian women, participation in post-secondary school education increased to 32 per cent at the start of the 2020-21 academic year, up from 29 per cent a year earlier. Here at home, the unfavorable labour market opened a door for young females to continue education as an alternative economic option. While access in Canada isnt perfect, the hurdles are fewer. Its at this intersection of addressing barriers to education amongst children in Canada and children in other countries that an absence of knowledge becomes clear. Children Believe recently conducted a survey and found that three in five Canadian parents want to make a positive impact for children around the world by helping them access education, but dont know how. Strikingly, 45 per cent of Canadian parents also want to help children gain access to education, but claim the barriers are too big to overcome. As someone who has spent their lifes work in international development, I can say without reservation that no barrier is too big to overcome. At Children Believe, we have a goal to help half a million children access education by 2024. Its ambitious, but not impossible. Over time and with enough education, empowerment and conversation, meaningful change will happen. Just as it is a girls right to access education, it is our right as global citizens to help them. So, as we approach International Day of the Girl, I implore Canadians to consider the two paths to learning that exist in the world, and then consider the opportunities we have to blaze a new trail. Encourage others, donate to an organization if you can, sign petitions, have meaningful conversations and educate yourself and your children. Together we can herald change for girls. Continuing to march to the drumbeat of inequality is not an option. Fred Witteveen is the CEO of Children Believe, a non-profit with a 60-plus-year legacy that empowers children to dream fearlessly, stand up for what they believe in, and be heard. A RECENT story in the Free Press (Keeyask dam increases Manitoba Hydros net income by $20 million, Sept. 24) highlights Manitoba Hydros latest annual report, including partial completion of the Keeyask project. Reported results have ramped up political rhetoric between opposition New Democrats and governing Conservatives over the merits, or folly, of Keeyask and the associated Bipole III transmission line, which was promoted and approved by the Selinger government. Opinion A RECENT story in the Free Press (Keeyask dam increases Manitoba Hydros net income by $20 million, Sept. 24) highlights Manitoba Hydros latest annual report, including partial completion of the Keeyask project. Reported results have ramped up political rhetoric between opposition New Democrats and governing Conservatives over the merits, or folly, of Keeyask and the associated Bipole III transmission line, which was promoted and approved by the Selinger government. Who are we now to believe, and how can we move ahead? In this case, it is important to focus on the numbers, rather than the politics, in order to better understand how to proceed. This sort of approach is termed "balanced presentation." The recent story shows consolidated net income at $119 million, with Keeyask specifically noted as increasing net income by $20 million. At first glance this looks good, suggesting Manitoba Hydro can readily manage its increased debt load. If you read the report more closely, however, it shows electricity and natural gas operations each lost $7 million before considering what are termed "net movements in regulatory balances." The positive net income thus did not come directly from operations, but rather via accounting readjustments. This makes the situation much less clear. Keeyask was originally supposed to cost $6.5 billion, but, as we know, there were escalations. Cost overruns, however, are not inherent. Manitoba Hydros Limestone project in the 1980s was managed by Bechtel-Kumagai and was both on time and under budget. By March 2017, the cost for Keeyask was confirmed as rising to $8.7 billion. In its latest annual report, Manitoba Hydro still cites $8.7 billion, but all costs are not in yet. The final total is not known for certain. The same $8.7 billion figure for Keeyask was cited in the 2020 report of the commission chaired by Brad Wall, which was economically sound but highly political, and also in a 2019 report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives by Lynne Fernandez, an opponent of the Conservatives and an advocate for building Keeyask and other dams. Similarly, both Wall and Fernandez quote an increased final cost of $4.7 billion for Bipole III. We can likely all agree on these figures, subject to finalization. Irrespective of which party may be in power, these debt obligations must be repaid. Problematically, the two projects represent well in excess of half of Manitoba Hydros long-term debt but add no more than 13 per cent in new generation capacity. From this perspective, new dams at such high costs are not desirable. As part of the 2014 Needs For and Alternatives To (NFAT) evaluation for Keeyask, a lifespan of 78 years was noted, along with "cost-of-money" for Manitoba Hydro of 4.7 per cent. Using basic finance, we can estimate annual payments to cover $8.7 billion in debt, translating to about $420 million. Given energy output of 4,400 million kWh annually, the cost translates to about 9.5 cents per kWh. Manitoba Hydros average prices for domestic and extra-provincial sales were about 7.9 cents and 5.6 cents per kWh respectively. Neither is sufficient to cover Keeyask, showing the dam to be a money loser. Manitoba Hydro ratepayers are forced to subsidize Keeyask, especially on export sales, rather than the other way around. Based on such experience, the prospects for future new dam projects look dim. For the opposition, a better focus would be directions suggested recently by former minister Tim Sale. If new generation is needed to offset drought or diversify supply, the obvious candidate is not new dams but utility-scale wind, with costs continuing to decline. What about electricity to replace natural gas for heating, to reduce emissions? Based on Manitoba Hydros own data, the annual fuel cost of electric baseboard heating is more than twice that of natural gas. Carbon-tax escalation to an unimaginable $290 per tonne is needed to match. Only highly efficient heat-pumps can be lower in cost, but are expensive for individual users. Bluntly, we no longer have a low-cost electricity advantage. So, what now? A key opportunity is available to use electricity beneficially, and in a manner hardly sensitive to electricity prices, namely electric-vehicle charging, both light-duty and heavy-duty. I have mentioned before the possibility of higher electricity prices, what is termed "application pricing" to enhance attractiveness for Manitoba Hydro. I discovered this merely confuses potential users; its preferable instead to talk in terms of equivalent fuel prices. Even relatively expensive solar-based electricity can be used here to economically charge electric vehicles, providing fuel at half conventional prices. It is thus highly feasible for Manitoba Hydro to power electric vehicles at prices equivalent to 30 to 40 cents per litre, more than a 70 per cent reduction. This also generates revenues higher than any imagined export, readily covering expensive Keeyask electricity and even the costs of associated charging station infrastructure. This is a win-win scenario; an economically prudent approach to secure a positive future for Manitoba Hydro and Manitobans. Robert Parsons teaches basic quantitative methods and sustainability economics at the I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba. OTTAWA - Canada's chief public health officer has shot a dose of optimism into the country's fight against the fourth wave of COVID-19. OTTAWA - Canada's chief public health officer has shot a dose of optimism into the country's fight against the fourth wave of COVID-19. Dr. Theresa Tam said the efforts made to slow the spread where the virus is surging appear to be working. She said hard lessons must be learned about the risks of removing public health measures too soon, particularly in areas where not enough people have been vaccinated. "The curve is just bending," Tam told a briefing Friday. She also emphasized how basic measures, like masking, should remain in place to avoid another surge in the winter. Tam said it's promising that more than 80 per cent of Canadians eligible to receive a shot are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, however, there are still some six million eligible Canadians who are not properly immunized. She cautioned that people should follow public health measures heading into the Thanksgiving weekend. Specifically, she advised people to restrict indoor Thanksgiving gatherings to those who are fully vaccinated and hosts should make efforts to open windows to improve ventilation. Family members or friends who have added health concerns might want to still wear a mask, Tam added. For those who are not fully vaccinated, Tam recommends gatherings be kept to household members only and ideally take place outdoors. Both she and Dr. Howard Njoo, deputy chief public health officer, acknowledged asking guests their vaccination status could prove difficult. The health agency today released its latest modelling for the pandemic which shows it saw an average of 3,700 new cases reported daily across the country this week, far fewer than initially projected. Tam says nationally, this is also the first time since July where it does not appear the pandemic is in a growth pattern. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2021. _The Canadian Press SACTJ calls for a national conference to develop a reparations policy The South African Coalition for Transitional Justice calls for a reparations policy for those who have experienced gross human rights violations As the South African Coalition for Transitional Justice, we note with deep concern the press reports dated 1 October 2021 that the Department of Justices plans to change regulations covering educational benefits provided as reparation for people who suffered gross human rights violations during apartheid, without consultation with victims and survivor groups as well as other stakeholders. The SACTJ is well aware that existing regulations cause difficulties, delays and denial of access to educational benefits for many people who qualify for reparation for apartheid crimes. For two decades since the closure of the TRC, civil society organisations and stakeholders have decried the inadequacies and broken promises of post-TRC reparations and redress. These problems cannot be resolved by tinkering with individual clauses: we need to rectify the systemic faults that underpin the unfinished business of the TRC today. Nearly a year ago in December 2020, the SACTJ called upon government to hold an urgent national conference of civil society organisations and stakeholders that would be tasked with formulating government policy to ensure provision of redress, reparation and justice for apartheid violations. (See Appendix A: Letter to President Ramaphosa and Minister Lamola re: problems experienced with the current education assistance regulations.) This policy would provide a framework to address all outstanding issues, including those affecting education benefits, the lack of regulations covering medical benefits, the draft community rehabilitation regulations that civil society organisations have repeatedly rejected, and the exclusion of so many people from accessing benefits through the so-called closed list -- the current regulations deny reparation and benefits to anyone who is not certified as a victim by the TRC). The SACTJs letter of December 2020 points out that existing regulations, TRC-related benefits are open to legal challenge for failing to comply with basic provisions of the South African constitution, the Provision of National Unity Act of 1996, and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA). This is in clear violation of the countrys international and domestic obligations including those spelled out under the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law. To date, the Presidency and DOJ have not responded to our request to hold a national conference to develop a reparations policy. This deafening silence echoes the DOJs failure to honour its commitment to address demands of SACTJs member organisation Khulumani Support Group, when the members held a sleep-in at the Union Buildings in October 2020 demanding long-delayed and denied reparation. Instead, we learn through the media that the DOJ intends to tinker with existing regulations rather than repairing the whole faulty structure of post-TRC reparation and redress. These latest attempts to fix the education benefits follow upon the DOJs continuing efforts to pass into law draft regulations for community rehabilitation programmes, using money earmarked for reparations in the Presidents Fund. This is a direct rejection of our plea for a national engagement to develop a just and equitable way forward for the unfinished business of the TRC. The SACTJ calls upon the President and the Minister of Justice, to urgently hold a national conference with civil society organisations and stakeholders to create a mandated national policy covering the long-promised reparation and redress to those who suffered from apartheid human rights violations. As the SACTJ, we offer to partner with government to assist in organising this conference. We call on government to hold this conference before December 16th 2021 -- one year after we proposed it, two decades after government imposed the current flawed system of reparations. As our nation engages in democratic local elections that depend upon trust between government and citizens, we cannot continue promoting regulations without a mandated policy in place the lack of which is a serious legal transgression and a denial of our hard-won democratic rights. We request your response by 15 October, 2021. Endorsed by South African Coalition for Transitional Justice organisational members: Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) Human Rights Media Centre (HRMC) Imam Haron Foundation (IHF) Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM) Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) Khulumani Support Group (KSG) Open Secrets (OS) Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture Trust (TC) Violence Prevention Agency (NPC) Endorsed by the following Individual members: Yasmin Sooka Salim Essop Howard Varney Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh Haroon Gunn-Salie Christopher Gevers Steve Kahanovitz Mary Burton Neafa Kahn Please contact the SACTJ at: An annual list of the world's coolest neighborhoods has been revealed, based on local intel from more than 38,000 city-dwellers. Has your community made the cut? Here are the top 10. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. (You can also get "5 Things You Need to Know Today" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.) 1. Coronavirus Pfizer and BioNTech said they are seeking US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization for their Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. If authorized, this would be the first Covid-19 vaccine for younger children. What does that means for children and their parents? Here are some questions and answers. The move towards vaccinating this age group comes as the US appears to be turning a corner in the pandemic with fewer hospitalizations and increased vaccinations. One expert acknowledged the progress but said he felt "we're still in two Americas" -- a reference to differing vaccination rates regionally -- and another expert warns gaps in those rates still could hinder the country's progress. Globally, the true effects of the pandemic are still being registered. People with learning difficulties died from Covid-19 at a rate nine times higher than the general population during the first wave of the pandemic in the UK, according to a new study. And despite the reopening of some of the world's major business hubs, Hong Kong is still stuck in limbo, after it prioritized opening to China over the rest of the world. 2. Debt ceiling The Senate voted 50-48 Thursday evening to extend the nation's debt limit through early December after Democrats and Republicans reached a deal to avert economic disaster following weeks of partisan deadlock over the issue. Eleven Senate Republicans broke ranks to vote with all Democrats to overcome a filibuster so that the debt ceiling deal announced earlier in the day could move forward. The House will next have to approve the extension before it can be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. An aide familiar with negotiations told CNN that the deal is to increase the ceiling by $480 billion, which is how much the Treasury Department told Congress it would need to get to December 3. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the debate over the US debt ceiling amounts to "flirting with a self-inflicted crisis" but that everyone "breathed a sigh of relief" after Democrats and Republicans reached a deal. However, it does not resolve the underlying partisan stalemate over the issue. It merely delays the fight until another day. 3. Capitol riot Former President Donald Trump indicated that he will try to assert executive privilege to prevent a House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol from getting information from certain witnesses. A source familiar with the former President's legal strategy confirms to CNN that an attorney for Trump sent letters to some of the subpoena targets, informing them of his plan to defend executive privilege. While the letter instructed the subpoena targets to not comply with congressional investigators, according to The Washington Post, it is up to each witness to decide whether to follow Trump's direction. Rep. Pete Aguilar, a member of the committee, told CNN that it is not Trump's place to decide what information is covered by executive privilege. "The former President, it is not his role to claim privilege. That is the current occupant in the White House," Aguilar said. Meantime, the committee issued a new round of subpoenas, targeting two leaders of the "Stop the Steal" group, Ali Alexander and Nathan Martin, who are also affiliated with the planning of the Washington, DC, rally that was a precursor to the attack. 4. South China Sea A US nuclear powered submarine struck an object underwater in the South China Sea on Saturday, according to two defense officials. A number of sailors on board the USS Connecticut were injured in the accident, the officials said. None of the injuries were life-threatening, according to a statement from US Pacific Fleet. It's unclear what the Seawolf-class submarine may have hit while it was submerged. "The submarine remains in a safe and stable condition. USS Connecticut's nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational," the statement said. "The incident will be investigated." The submarine was operating in one of the world's most difficult undersea environments, one filled with noise from ships above and a seabed with constantly shifting contours that can surprise any submarine crew, according to analysts. The Navy said the sub arrived at a US naval base on the island of Guam on Friday under its own power. 5. Ghana In the coming weeks, Ghana's parliament is set to debate a draft bill -- framed in the guise of "family values" -- that seeks to introduce some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws on the African continent. The prospect of it passing is pushing the country's LGBTQ community into the shadows. LGBTQ Ghanaians have been left asking how things got so bad, so quickly, and Western diplomats say they have been caught by surprise. But what one Ghanaian activist calls a "homophobe's dream bill" has deep roots in Ghana's religious community. It also found key inspiration from a US ultra-conservative group with Russian ties. BREAKFAST BROWSE Andrew Lloyd Webber bought a dog because 'Cats' was so bad He said the film "was off-the-scale all wrong." Meow. Rare 16th century Italian dish discovered in a drawer sells for $1.7 million The plate depicting a biblical tale sold for 10 times its original estimate. Netflix edits 'Squid Game' after woman bombarded with texts and calls The fictional drama might have been a smash hit for Netflix, but it has been hell for one woman in South Korea. Adele opens up about her upcoming album Hello, it's her. These pioneering women will appear on US quarters next year Maya Angelou and Anna May Wong are among the women to be immortalized on American currency. THIS JUST IN The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. "Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda," Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said. It is the 102nd time the prize has been awarded. TODAY'S NUMBER 17 That's the number of years a Black man had spent on death row before his conviction was overturned by the Oregon Court of Appeals. The court said Jesse Lee Johnson did not receive an adequate defense, after he was convicted in 2004 of killing Harriet Thompson at her home in 1998. TODAY'S QUOTE "It's appalling. I have never seen anything like it. I felt like I was at 'Inglourious Basterds' movie." Police found a collection of more than 8,000 items of Nazi memorabilia on Tuesday at the house of a pedophile suspect in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It contained a variety of items from the Third Reich period, such as official's uniforms, flags, insignias, coins, medals, images of Adolf Hitler, guns and ammo from the Nazi regime, according to Rio de Janeiro Police Chief Luis Armond. TODAY'S WEATHER Check your local forecast here>>> AND FINALLY 100-hour tiramisu It's Friday. Treat yourself to some dessert (and this aesthetically pleasing video on how to make it.) The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. A group of 136 countries have agreed to a global treaty that would tax large multinationals at a minimum rate of 15% and require companies to pay taxes in the countries where they do business. Estonia, Hungary and -- most notably -- Ireland joined the agreement Thursday. It is now supported by all nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the G20. The countries that signed on to the international treaty represent more than 90% of global GDP. Four countries that participated in the talks -- Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- have not yet joined the agreement. The Biden administration breathed new life into the global initiative earlier this year and secured the support of the G7 countries in June, paving the way for a preliminary deal in July. Ireland, which had declined to join the initial agreement in July, has a corporate tax rate of 12.5% a major factor in persuading companies such as Facebook, Apple and Google to locate their European headquarters in the country. "Today's agreement will make our international tax arrangements fairer and work better," said OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann in a statement. "This is a major victory for effective and balanced multilateralism." Ireland signed up after the preliminary agreement was revised to remove a stipulation that rates should be set at a minimum of "at least 15%." "We have secured the removal of 'at least' in the text," Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said in a statement. "This will provide the critical certainty for government and industry and will provide the long-term stability and certainty to business in the context of investment decisions." The new rate would apply to 1,556 multinationals based in Ireland, employing about 400,000 people. More than 160,000 businesses making less than 750 million ($867 million) in annual revenue and employing about 1.8 million people would still be taxed at 12.5%. "I am confident that Ireland will remain competitive into the future, and we will remain an attractive location and 'best in class' when multinationals look to investment locations," Donohoe said. Alongside a minimum corporate tax rate, the pact includes provisions to ensure that multinational companies pay tax where they generate sales and profits, and not just where they have a physical presence. That could have major ramifications for tech companies such as Google and Amazon, which have amassed vast profits in countries where they pay relatively little tax. Now comes the hard part The OECD expects implementation of the agreement to begin in 2023. But even with Ireland and other previous holdouts now on board, the deal still requires countries to pass domestic legislation. "Like the Paris Agreement on climate, concluding technical talks after firming political support was the easier part, implementing the pact will prove significantly more challenging," analysts at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group wrote in a note this week. The treaty will need to be ratified via a two-thirds majority in the US Senate, which is unlikely given that it allows foreign countries to tax US companies, the Eurasia Group analysts said. An alternative could be "another major tax bill," but the United States is unlikely to consider that until 2025, they added. "While European finance ministers are hoping [Treasury Secretary Janet ] Yellen can deliver swift US implementation through a legislative shortcut, that scenario remains unlikely and if at all possible it would not materialize until after the next presidential election," they wrote. Delayed implementation by Washington could in turn prolong digital taxes on US tech companies introduced by European countries such as France and could even fuel the adoption of digital levies at EU level, sparking trade spats between the United States and Europe. "Implementation of the OECD deal will also be a bellwether of EU-US capabilities to boost ongoing but contentious efforts to collaborate across a host of trade and tech issues," the Eurasia analysts said. Julia Horowitz and Chris Liakos contributed reporting. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. UTICA, N.Y. -- Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon honored first responders outside of the Utica State Office Building on Friday morning, declaring Oct. 8 as First Responders Day in New York. On the front quad, a ceremony took place where Buttenschon recognized and applauded first responders from the local area. First responders were thanked for the heroic work and sacrifice that they make in the line of duty. I can say the importance of our first responders, it is a national recognition but I think the state of New York and my colleagues need to be reminded of the importance. I was able to co-sponsor this resolution in the assembly and I'll do it every year. I just think we need to take a breath and remember all that they do for us," says Buttenschon. Utica Coffee Roasting Company and Holland Farms Bakery and Deli donated coffee and pastries for the event as another way to say "thank you" to local first responders. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The governors of four northeastern states are agreeing to share information about firearms purchases to help detect and investigate straw buyers and other gun crimes. Governors in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania signed an agreement Thursday to exchange gun crime data for use only by law enforcement. The agreement includes provisions governing security and mandated notice if the information is misused. The four Democratic governors say the initiative will help target gun networks that cross state lines. "This memorandum is transformative. I believe this is going to give us and our law enforcement entities in each of our states the tools we need to be able to trace guns that are coming from other states, to understand when a crime has been committed, we want to share information with our neighboring state if someone's on the run," said Gov. Kathy Hochul. "Where are the guns coming from? How are they getting on our streets, and why is there such a disproportionate impact on young people, particularly in communities of color, who are becoming the victims of gun violence?" The states plan to share details they get from federal government reports that show who first bought and sold guns recovered during criminal investigations. ROME, N.Y. -- A Utica woman was airlifted to a Syracuse hospital following a crash on Route 365 in Rome Friday morning. The crash happened around 7:35 a.m. near the Route 26 ramp heading east. According to Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol, 50-year-old Elssy Vintimilla was getting onto Route 365 from the Route 26 ramp around 7:30 a.m. when her SUV was hit by a pickup truck while she was switching lanes. Vintimilla was taken to SUNY Upstate Medical Center via Mercy Flight to be treated for injuries. Maciol says the extent of her injuries is unclear, but she is stable. The truck driver, 33-year-old Andrew Gardner, of Oneida, was not injured in the crash. Part of Route 365 was closed for about two hours but has reopened to all traffic. Maciol says no tickets have been issued at this time but the investigation is ongoing. ROME, N.Y. -- A construction worker from Rome allegedly stole seven guns from a building where he was working on Turin Road. New York State Police arrested 31-year-old Christopher A. Longto on Oct. 6 after five handguns, a shotgun and a rifle went missing from a building he and his construction crew were working on. Police say there is no business currently occupying the building because it is being renovated, so the property owner stored the guns there while it was under construction. Longto was charged with seven counts of second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, burglary and criminal possession of a firearm. Longto was remanded to the Oneida County jail. UTICA, N.Y. -- The president of the Home Care Association of New York State spoke with Gov. Kathy Hochul's office Thursday afternoon to plead his case for extending the state-mandated deadline of Oct. 7 for certain health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Ed Cardillo says he doesn't think an extension will happen and he says, based on a survey, up to 70,000 home health aids alone could lose their jobs Friday. The vaccine requirement will take effect for covered personnel at certain facilities regulated by the State Department of Health, including adult care facilities, home health agencies, long-term home health care programs, AIDS home care programs, hospice care, and diagnostic and treatment centers. Cardillo also says the governor's idea to bring in retirees, students and members of the National Guard to help if needed starting Friday is not a good idea. He says the home health workers that are losing their jobs are certified and trained specifically for in-home care, and the replacements are not. Nascentia Health, which provides home health services locally, says they will not lose any staff due to the mandate. Gail Carmichel, vice president of patient services for Nascentia Health, says the company is not losing any staff members, but they do have a few workers who have provided either a religious or medical exemption. Depending on what happens in court, those staff members may have to ultimately decide on whether to get the vaccine or lose their job. "It has certainly highlighted differences of opinion within our staff and created a little bit of a challenge in terms of respecting all of their individual wishes and still complying with requirements and mandates for our patients," she said. "So, it's always that gray area, where you can't please everyone all the time and yet we have to protect our patients and sometimes it means our staff have to make difficult decisions." All hospital workers in the state were required to be vaccinated by the end of September under the same mandate. Hospitals across the state lost thousands of workers who quit or were suspended for non-compliance. Mohawk Valley Health System alone lost 180 employees. Here's a look at the life of Clint Eastwood, a filmmaker, actor, producer, director and composer. Personal Birth date: May 31, 1930 Birth place: San Francisco, California Birth name: Clinton Eastwood Jr. Father: Clinton Eastwood Sr., corporate executive Mother: Margaret Ruth (Runner) Wood, homemaker Marriages: Dina Ruiz (1996-2014, divorced); Margaret "Maggie" Johnson (1953-1984, divorced) Children: with Dina Ruiz: Morgan; with Frances Fisher: Francesca; with Jacelyn Reeves: Kathryn and Scott; with Maggie Johnson: Alison and Kyle; with Roxanne Tunis: Kimber Education: Attended Los Angeles City College Military service: US Army 1951-1953 Other Facts Produced, directed, starred in and composed music for six films: "Heartbreak Ridge," "Unforgiven," "The Bridges of Madison County," "Space Cowboys," "Million Dollar Baby," and "Gran Torino." Eastwood has 11 Academy Awards nominations with four wins. He is also the recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Award presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Has received one Emmy nomination and one Grammy nomination. Timeline 1955 - His first film role, "Revenge of the Creature." Other bit parts that same year include roles in "Lady Godiva" and "Francis in the Navy." 1959-1965 - Stars in TV western "Rawhide" as Rowdy Yates. September 12, 1964 - The Italian release of "A Fistful of Dollars," the first of three "spaghetti westerns" Eastwood would star in for director Sergio Leone. The film is released in the United States in January 1967. 1967 - Starts Malpaso Productions, a film production company. November 12, 1971 - Directorial debut "Play Misty for Me," in which Eastwood also stars, opens. December 23, 1971 - "Dirty Harry," the first of five films as Inspector Harry Callahan of the San Francisco Police Department, is released. December 9, 1983 - "Sudden Impact," the fourth Dirty Harry film, is released. It includes the now famous line, "Go ahead. Make my day." 1986-1988 - Mayor of Carmel, California. March 29, 1993 - Winner of the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture for "Unforgiven." March 27, 1995 - Receives the Irving G. Thalberg Award. 2000 - Is a Kennedy Center Honors recipient. 2002-2008 - Serves on the California State Park and Recreation Commission. February 27, 2005 - "Million Dollar Baby" wins Eastwood the Best Director and Best Picture Academy Award. 2006 - Produces and directs two World War II films about the Battle of Iwo Jima told from the perspective of both the Japanese and American soldiers. "Letters from Iwo Jima" is the Japanese story of fighting to the death, and "Flags of Our Fathers" tells the story of the six men that raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi. February 17, 2007 - Is named a knight in France's Legion of Honor and is inducted into the Legion by French President Jacques Chirac. November 3, 2009 - Is named a commander of the French Legion of Honor. August 28, 2012 - As a surprise guest at the Republican National Convention, Eastwood ad-libs a speech in the form of a conversation by speaking to an empty chair that is "standing in" for President Barack Obama. December 9, 2019 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution criticizes Eastwood's film, "Richard Jewell," saying that the movie's producers took dramatic license and portrayed AJC journalist Kathy Scruggs, who died in 2001, as having traded sex for information from a FBI source, and having done so due to being exploited by the newspaper -- accusations the paper denies. The film is based off a Vanity Fair story on Jewell, a security guard who was falsely accused of the pipe-bombing at Centennial Park during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. February 21, 2020 - In an interview published in The Wall Street Journal, Eastwood backs Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg for president. October 1, 2021 - Eastwood is awarded $6.1 million in a lawsuit filed against Mediatonas UAB, a company from Lithuania advertising cannabidiol (CBD) products by using Eastwood's unauthorized name, image and likeness. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) Experts on Friday issued a stark warning, and hope for the future, to manufacturers in Tippecanoe and surrounding counties. It happened at a Purdue University conference about the oncoming transition to electric vehicles. The conference was organized by the Dauch Center for the Management of Manufacturing Enterprises. "I see the EV as a wonderful opportunity," says Purdue professor and supply chain expert Ananth Iyer. But for companies on the outside looking in on the electric vehicle transition: "If they do not transition to other products, that's when we see them literally having a really tough time with revenues and that we think is the challenge that has to be resolved," Iyer says. Iyer was one of many industry experts putting their heads together Friday to find solutions. "Our focus is on helping these companies change," he says. Iyer says more than 500 companies manufacture internal combustion components in Tippecanoe and surrounding counties. "We found about 130 of those companies make components that'll no longer be required with the EV," he says. "That is they make engine components, transmission components, etc. So that's the worry." Among those at the conference were Rick Dauch, CEO of Workhorse, an electric vehicle startup aiming to disrupt the delivery industry. "It's not going away over night but it's going to go down in the next five to ten years," Dauch says. North America is projected to transition to electric by 2032. Dauch wants to see batteries and other components for those vehicles made in America rather than overseas. "I think the people who move quickly and cost effective can be winners. It's an opportunity to grow your business for the next five or six decades," he says. Now it's up to manufacturers to sink or swim in the oncoming EV wave. Experts say it's a chance to grow American companies and create high-quality jobs. "If that happens, there's a really bright future for the automobile industry," Iyer says. Industry officials also discussed a new state law creating an EV product commission. The commission will evaluate the capacity and capability of manufacturers in Indiana. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) Mark Withers, interim pastor at Community Reformed Church is being honored as a Hometown Hero. Mark has a strong passion for helping people in the community. For years, he has served meals to the homeless at Lafayette Urban Ministry. At the Tippecanoe County Jail every week and state prison every month, he preaches messages of hope and redemption to the inmate. Mark also holds a clothing pantry for anyone in need. Hometown Hero is made possible with the help of Westminster Village. If you'd like to nominate someone click here. W&M board member Aponte nominated for Panama ambassadorship Mari Carmen Aponte, a member of William & Marys Board of Visitors, has been nominated by U.S. President Joe Biden to serve as the nations next ambassador to Panama, the White House announced today. The selection will be reviewed by the U.S. Senate, which has the authority to confirm such nominations. Aponte, who previously served as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador from 2010 to 2016, joined the William & Mary Board of Visitors in 2019. She is currently chair of the Committee on the Student Experience and a member of the committees on academic affairs and institutional advancement. Mari Carmen Aponte is a leader on the William & Mary Board of Visitors who is respected and valued among her colleagues especially in her board leadership roles, said W&M Rector John E. Littel. She will represent the country with distinction. Aponte currently works as a consultant for management and fundraising. She previously served as acting assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere for the U.S. Department of State, acting as the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America. It is wonderful news that Ambassador Aponte has been nominated to fill this critical role in United States foreign relations, said W&M President Katherine A. Rowe. Her vast experience as a dedicated public servant and international diplomat has brought such value and perspective to the work and discussions of the Board of Visitors, including her role as chair of the Committee on the Student Experience. William & Mary warmly congratulates Ambassador Aponte on this nomination. Aponte also previously served as a member of the board of directors for the Oriental Financial Group, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration and a consultant and lawyer. She was also a White House fellow, assisting the U.S. secretary of housing and urban development. An active member of the American Bar and Hispanic Bar associations, she has served on myriad committees for community and professional organizations, such as the Latino Advisory Council for the Smithsonian National Museum of Washington, D.C., the Kennedy Center Advisory Board and the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. Aponte currently chairs the Community Capital Corporation and is a member of the the Council on Foreign Relations as well as the boards for International Association of Women Judges and the International Senior Lawyers Project. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Rosemont College, a Master of Arts from Villanova University and a law degree from Temple University Law School. A portrait of Vincent van Gogh by Zeng Fanzhi [For chinadaily.com.cn/Xing Yi] The art exhibition Time and Space, which gathers 20 paintings and installations by 13 renowned artists from home and abroad, will open to the public in Shanghai's Yangyun International Community from Oct 16 to Dec 2. Among the exhibits is one portrait of Vincent van Gogh by Zeng Fanzhi, whose work is a tribute to the legendary Dutch artist's own self-portrait and was exhibited in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2018. Your Lost Time Gradient , art installation by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson [For chinadaily.com.cn/Xing Yi] Zeng, 57, is one of China's leading contemporary artists. His Mask Series 1996 No.6 sold for 161 million yuan ($23.3 million) last year, the highest auction price among Chinese contemporary art. Your Lost Time Gradient by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson is an art installation of two concentric circles made of crystal balls galvanized with different shapes of silver, symbolizing moon phases and the eternal elapsing of time. Art exhibition Time and Space will be open from Oct 16 to Dec 2 in Shanghai. [For chinadaily.com.cn/Xing Yi] Shanghai-based artist Ding Yi is known for his geometric abstract art. He was the first Chinese artist to work with French luxury brand Hermes to print scarves featuring his original design. At this exhibition is Early Spring in Jiangnan, a square canvas on which small yellow, green and brown crosses are built up with vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines, forming an intricate pattern with different layers when observed at different distances. Early Spring in Jiangnan is an art work brought by Shanghai-based artist Ding Yi featuring a square canvas board on which small yellow, green and brown crosses built up by vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines. [For chinadaily.com.cn/Xing Yi] Jiang Ning, founder of L.S. Art and curator of the exhibition, said time and space are just numeric measurements without meaning and significance. "Through the creation of artists, the intangible and the void has been captured and become eternal," he said. "I hope the exhibition adds some poetic memories to life." (Source: chinadaily.com.cn) Ling Feng, a neurosurgeon of Xuanwu Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University in Beijing, treats a villager in Baoding, Hebei Province, in early July. [For China Daily] On the way to Xi'an in Shaanxi Province on the night of Sept 19, 2020, the vehicle that Ling Feng, a chief expert in neurosurgery, was riding in with three doctors was caught in traffic caused by a fatal car crash. After walking 1.5 kilometers, they joined ambulance workers, firefighters and traffic officers, and gave first aid to those injured in the accident. The four doctors had just finished volunteering to see patients in Pucheng County in the Northwest China province. Ling, a well-known neurosurgeon of Xuanwu Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University in Beijing, has treated countless people and made a great contribution in the field of the diagnosis and treatment of spinal-cord vascular malformation. In 2017, with her husband's consent, Ling sold their apartment for 2 million yuan ($309,600) and set up the Beijing Ling Feng Foundation, in the hope of recruiting more doctors to provide voluntary medical services. She pushed the Chinese Medical Doctor Association to establish the volunteers' working committee in March 2017. Three months later, Chinese Medical Volunteers Action was launched. By the end of 2020, the team had visited 206 counties, some of which were poorer areas, to see patients. The team has registered 4,400 doctors who are willing to help in rural areas, Ling says. The team has established 192 stations in rural areas, where doctors stay when they volunteer to treat patients and give medical professionals training. Providing better healthcare is intended to prevent rural people from falling into poverty again caused by illness. At the end of 2020, China achieved the goal of eliminating extreme poverty a key goal for the new era of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. An uneven distribution of medical resources in China means that major hospitals in top-tier cities are crowded with patients from all over the country, while many smaller hospitals and rural clinics are shunned because they lack expert doctors. "Illness is a major cause of poverty in many rural areas," Ling says. "We hope our voluntary work will make a contribution to improving health in these regions and help to eradicate poverty." Born into a military family in 1951, Ling joined the army at 16 and was accepted into Shanghai No 3 Military Medical University in 1970. Upon graduation, she was sent to work in Nanjing General Hospital in the capital of East China's Jiangsu Province. Four years later, she began training in neurosurgery at Capital Medical University and then pursued further studies in interventional neuroradiology, a subspecialty in radiology, in Paris, France. Since the early 1980s, Ling has introduced new technologies to China and trained a generation of young neurosurgeons throughout all of Asia in endovascular techniques. This refers to surgical procedures where a catheter containing medication or instruments is inserted into a blood vessel. In 2004, she spearheaded the development of the China International Neuroscience Institute in Beijing. A neurosurgical training center was then established in 2007. She has served the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, which is based close to Geneva, as the chair of Women in Neurosurgery and was president of the WFNS meeting in Beijing in 2019. China Medical Volunteers Action has extended helping hands to other countries, such as Ethiopia, Fiji and Guinea. In Ethiopia, they have helped treat children with hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain. Meanwhile in Fiji, they have provided training for the diagnosis and treatment of strokes, a condition with a high incidence rate there, according to Ling. "We are continuing to recruit new members, but with more overseas missions predicted in the future, we will need more financial support to cover the doctors' travel expenses," she says. China Medical Volunteers Action has received donations from the public and some businesses. At annual meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in March, Lin, who is a CPPCC member, suggested that rehabilitation rooms be added to rural areas' clinics. "Rehabilitation helps patients who were saved from the jaws of death have a better quality of life," Ling says. "But there are not enough therapists in rural areas usually it's 700 therapists for 100 clinicians (globally), but there are only four therapists for 100 clinicians in China." During her visits to rural areas, Ling found that many places relocated areas in particular had a large number of old people, physically challenged people and people with chronic illnesses in need of rehabilitation. Without medical equipment, village clinics cannot do rehabilitation. "If some basic rehabilitation equipment was available, rural clinics could help patients rehabilitate at home," Ling says. Ling recommends that a village of more than 1,000 residents has a rehabilitation room within its clinic, equipped with 10 kinds of rehabilitation products, three physiotherapy instruments and other medical appliances such as a heartbeat monitor and blood-pressure gauge. Still, more volunteers need to be recruited among Chinese doctors, especially rehabilitation therapists. "It costs only 50,000 yuan to set up a rehabilitation room," Ling says, calling on local authorities to give more financial support. She predicts that about 30,000 rehabilitation rooms will be established in rural areas in two or three years' time. "I hope that each and every one of the 690,000 villages throughout the country has a rehabilitation room," Ling says. In June, Ling, a Party member for 48 years, was awarded by the Beijing municipal government for her extraordinary work, ahead of the centennial of the Communist Party of China. (Source: China Daily) AkzoNobel's Intertrac HullCare offers operators unprecedented control by combining remote inspection, advanced cleaning technologies and big data monitoring into a system which sets new standards for operational efficiencies. AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS: Ship owners can now make unrivalled fuel and emission savings after AkzoNobel's International brand launched the marine industry's most environmentally sustainable hull management package. Intertrac HullCare offers operators unprecedented control by combining remote inspection, advanced cleaning technologies and big data monitoring into a system which sets new standards for operational efficiencies. By ensuring that smooth, clean hulls are maintained, customers who choose the option of a ten-year scheme could achieve step-change reductions in CO2 emissions of up to 34,000 tons and fuel savings of 4.6 million. "Tackling the environmental impact of the shipping industry, and in particular hull performance, is an abiding priority we share with fleet operators and shipyards worldwide," explained Jean-Michel Gauthier, director of AkzoNobel's Marine and Protective Coatings business. "Intertrac HullCare exemplifies how we're actively collaborating with our customers to provide new solutions which further their operational efficiencies, financial performance and sustainability ambitions." Fleet operators globally are facing an increasingly complex set of operational and legislative challenges. By combining proven hull cleaning technology and techniques with cutting-edge ROV (remote operating vehicle) inspection and big data monitoring, Intertrac HullCare can boost operational performance metrics and extend service lifetimes beyond any currently available solutions. "With Intertrac HullCare, we can offer the experience, technology and data to maximize a fleet's operational efficiency and drive the carbon neutral journey of our customers with uncompromising performance," added John Willsher, global account manager for AkzoNobel's Marine business. "The data suite, operational cycle, value adding guidance and flexible docking intervals all ensure customers can take unprecedented control of their vessel's hull management and make informed decisions, with confidence. As part of the package, all cleaning is aligned to the BIMCO industry standard for hull cleaning currently under development from the IMO. In addition, reclamation as standard means AkzoNobel is going further to help mitigate the translocation of invasive species when compared with alternative cleaning methods. The company's International brand is a leading supplier of coatings that protect ships by reducing the accumulation of organisms on their hulls, thus reducing the drag created as they move through the water, improving efficiency, reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Worldofchemicals News These Southern states have fully vaccinated less than a third of eligible adolescents. That gap could widen with younger children, expert says Timothy George Simpkins, 18, is in custody. Simpkins is suspected of a shooting at Timberview High School in Arlington, Texas. The WSWS urges metal workers to contact us for assistance in establishing a rank-and-file committee. Huntington, West Virginia-area metal workers at two separate facilities walked out October 1 after their contracts expired without new agreements in place at their respective companies. West Virginia Coal Trains Four-hundred-fifty workers at the Huntington Special Metals Corporation plant, and approximately 50 workers at Sulzer Pumps in nearby Barboursville, are picketing around the clock outside their factories to prevent the entry of scab crews. Special Metals workers are organized under the United Steelworkers Local 40; Sulzer Pumps workers are members of the IndustriALL Global Union, an affiliate of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Sulzer Pumps workers are striking over company demands for changes to seniority rights, health care, wages, and layoff policy. At issue in the Special Metals dispute are a large increase in out-of-pocket health insurance costs and a pay raise offer from the company that does not come close to what workers are asking. The company is reportedly demanding employees pay $1,000 per month for a family health plan, about $750 per month more than the current cost. Special Metals workers have received an outpouring of public support on Facebook for their strike. One worker explained that the company was, Throwing money away on useless projects but not investing back into the machines that run the place. This on top of wanting to cut our wages, raise our insurance and take more of our time that we actually do get off. While everything around us has risen 30 percent in the past year. Its more than just a small cut in pay. Another worker added, PPE and safety policies come to mind more than anything else for me. Theyre only enforced when its beneficial to the company from what Ive witnessed. One supporter of the strike in the local community expressed the growing recognition that the fight of the West Virginia workers is part of a broader social conflict: Its all about to blow up across the country. New York is begging for train operators before they have to shut down the subways. People are sick and tired of being treated like disposable assets. I see half the country walking off the job. People are paying higher taxes, food prices have skyrocketed and peoples salaries are staying the same, said another commenter. They are overworked and underpaid. Although the two plants are only six miles apart, there is no indication that the two unions are in communication with one another, let alone coordinating the work stoppage. Reports from multiple media outlets suggest the unions are discouraging workers, including those at the picket lines, from speaking to the press or the public outside of directing attention to the sparse official statements from the union headquarters. The unions, acting as little more than spokesmen for corporate management, are fearful of the movement of workers in West Virginia linking up with the broader opposition developing nationally and internationally. Across the US and throughout industries like manufacturing, health care and education, workers are walking out over oppressive conditions and attacks on their living standards. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage around the world, the capitalists are demanding workers stay on the job at the risk of their lives. The cost of the pandemic is being forced onto workers backs through unbearable work hours, cuts to compensation or layoffs. Beyond the shop floor, the assault on living conditions is felt in massive consumer price hikes in basic goods, ongoing supply chain disruptions, the ever-present risk to the health of the elderly in care settings, unvaccinated children required to attend in-person schools, and the refusal of governments to implement lifesaving policies on masking, vaccinations, and closure of nonessential businesses. In Huntington, the situation is ripe for a broader strike wave to develop. A contract covering 1,000 of Cabell-Huntington Hospitals nurses and support staff is set to expire November 2. The towns two hospitalsCabell-Huntington and St. Marys Medical Centerboth reached record levels of COVID-19 hospitalizations in September, as the state recorded the highest rate of acceleration of new cases in the country. The ICUs are full and all non-emergency surgeries have been canceled. Meanwhile, the schools are rippling with outbreaks, with no plans to return to remote learning. This is the direct result of the policies of Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican West Virginia Governor Jim Justice. Both parties, at all levels of government, are in lockstep on keeping the economy running full steam ahead, no matter the cost to public health. The strikes at Huntingtons two metal processing facilities have an objectively strategic significance. The sprawling Special Metals plant is the largest nickel alloy production facility in the world. When Special Metals parent company, Precision Castparts, was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2016, the $37 billion deal was characterized as the largest ever made by billionaire CEO Warren Buffett. It is a Fortune 500 company and ranks among the top in the aerospace and defense industry suppliers. The Oregonian describes Portland, Oregon based Precision Castparts head Mark Donegan as having long been among the Northwests best-paid CEOs with average annual compensation at $12.3 million, not including at least $50 million in stock. The alloys produced in Huntington are used in military jet engines, commercial aircraft, deep sea oil rig drilling equipment, energy processing facilities and deep-sea oil rigs. On the 130-acre Huntington facility are operated two 35-ton electric arc furnaces, a 24-ton vacuum induction melting furnace, and rolling mills capable of producing metal coils up to 60-feet wide and weighing 15 tons. Special Metals produces superalloys capable of withstanding temperatures of 760 degrees Celsius or 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. (Consider Venus, the hottest planet in the solar system, is about 475 degrees Celsius.) These are massive, dangerous operations that require a high degree of skill from the workforce to operate safely. According to social media comments by friends and family of striking workers, the company has been working its employees 16 hours a day. Sulzer Pumps, likewise integral to the global economy, requires a highly skilled workforce for its precision machines and foundry. Sulzer is a Switzerland-based company with manufacturing and service facilities in 180 locations globally. The Barboursville Parts Manufacturing Center produces parts for pumps required for oil refineries, barges and critical water, energy and chemical infrastructure. Both companies are imposing the impact of global economic slowdown onto the shoulders of their workforces. On top of the plummeting demand in the airline industry due to pandemic travel restrictions, Precision Castparts/Special Metals also lost a huge chunk of revenue after the Boeing 737 Max fleet was grounded. Sulzer Pumps chairs Peter Loscher and Greg Pox-Guillaume bragged in a letter to shareholders that the company rebounded with good momentum after countries lifted lockdowns and they implemented an aggressive ramp down to cut their workforce. In order to fight back, workers must recognize what they are up against. They face not just individual corporate bosses, but a powerful ruling class of capitalists, their political representativesand the global capitalist system organized in the interest of their corporate profits. As the pandemic has revealed, the Republicans and Democrats alike, along with the unions who align with the faction presently in power, are united in maintaining this system, no matter the cost to the working class. Over 708,000 Americans have died from Covid in the past 18 months; worldwide, the official toll has reached over 4.5 million and the reality is likely many times higher. If the pandemic is to be stopped, the working class must stop it. This requires as a start the building of rank-and-file safety committees in every workplace, independent of the capitalist parties and the trade unions. On October 24, the World Socialist Web Site and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) are holding an online webinar to explain the urgent necessity for an eradication policy for COVID-19. A panel of scientists and epidemiologists will provide the critical knowledge necessary to develop a broad-based and international political movement to finally put an end to the pandemic. We urge all workers to attend, share and help build for this critical event. Contact us to begin setting up rank-and-file committees at your workplace. Ten thousand workers employed at Albertas Real Canadian Superstore grocery stores voted 97 percent in favour of a strike last week, with a strong province-wide voter turnout. A Real Canadian Superstore in Alberta (WSWS) Workers are determined to secure better wages, improvements to unpredictable scheduling practices and protection against COVID-19 infection. The decisive vote comes as grocery store workers have endured months of highly unsafe conditions during the pandemic, while receiving only poverty wages as compensation. Of Albertas 40 Superstore locations, there have been COVID-19 outbreaks in at least 30 stores over the course of the pandemic. Several grocery store workers have died after contracting COVID-19 on the job. The situation has dramatically worsened over the past two months following the July decision by hard-right United Conservative Party (UCP) Premier Jason Kenney to dismantle all remaining public health measures. This reckless move has exposed grocery store workers, and all other sections of the working class, to a horrifying fourth wave of the pandemic that has overwhelmed the provinces hospitals and resulted in some patients being denied life-saving care. Loblaws Inc., the nationwide food retailing giant that owns Real Canadian Superstore, as well as several other retail and pharmaceutical chains, announced it would be giving its employees hero pay at the start of the pandemic. The measly $2 per hour wage increase was infamously clawed back just three months later in June 2020. All the while, Loblaws executives have lavished themselves with gargantuan salaries and bonuses. The 2020 compensation package for Loblaws Executive Chairman Galen G. Weston Jr. amounted to a whopping $3.55 million, while departing company President Sarah Davis earned an obscene $6.4 million. The Superstore workers in Alberta are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which stated that negotiations with Loblaws have been ongoing for more than a year. Despite this, the union has made no public indication that it intends to follow through on the strike mandate. On the contrary, it has all but ruled out job action. Ironically, the point of taking a strike vote is to attempt to avoid a strike, remarked Local 401 Secretary-Treasurer Richelle Stewart. When interviewed by the Edmonton Journal, UFCW Local 401 President Thomas Hesse stated that bargaining was to resume between the union and Loblaws on September 27 and conclude on October 1. In a bargaining update released September 30, Local 401 said talks were progressing slowly. A September 24 press release by UFCW Local 401 declared, If the strike commences, your union will be asking you and your family not to shop at Superstore, nor any of the Loblaws-owned businesses such as No Frills, T&T Supermarket, or Shoppers Drug Mart. Unity and solidarity among Local 401 members will be a vital component of running a strong strike campaign. Such pathetic appeals have nothing to do with unity and solidarity but are aimed at giving the union cover in the event of a strike to isolate it and sell it out. Unity and solidarity among workers cannot be built by proposing a toothless consumer boycott that will have virtually no impact on a multibillion-dollar corporation like Loblaws, which controls more than a quarter of the grocery retail industry in Canada. Rather, it must be fought for politically. Superstore workers, who face the daily threat of COVID-19 infection and earn miserably low wages, are in a strong position to take up such a struggle. An appeal by the Superstore workers for a unified fight against attacks on wages and working conditions would find a powerful response from the thousands of nurses in Alberta whose wages are being cut by the UCP government by 5 percent amid the pandemic, or from teachers forced to risk infection on a daily basis in unsafe classrooms. It would be enthusiastically welcomed by the tens of thousands of mostly low-paid public sector workers across the country, especially in New Brunswick, who have just voted by 94 percent in favour of a strike. The UFCWs record over the past year confirms its bitter hostility to the emergence of a mass working-class movement for better wages and conditions. At every point during the pandemic, the union has endeavoured to keep workers on the job under dangerous conditions and sabotage working-class opposition to the ruling elites profits before lives COVID-19 policy. In March of this year, the UFCW refused point blank to defend Olymel meatpacking workers, who were recklessly herded into plants plagued by COVID-19 outbreaks of catastrophic proportions. A massive COVID-19 outbreak at Olymels Red Deer, Alberta plant saw at least 515 workers infected and 4 workers lose their lives. When the Kenney government greenlighted the re-opening of the Red Deer slaughterhouse and meatpacking operations after a brief shutdown, even as the workforce still grappled with 91 active cases, the union raised no demands for additional safety measures to be taken. In comments to the media at the time, UFCW Local 401 President Thomas Hesse bandied around militant phrases, stating that the company was putting pigs ahead of people. He claimed to be grieving for the dead workers as much as the other workers in the Red Deer plant but proposed no action to confront the pandemic. Hesse is employing a similar tactic this time around, posturing as a friend of the workers but proposing absolutely nothing to wage a successful struggle. Im seeing people terrified going to work in crowded public places, he told the Edmonton Journal. Their billionaire bosses gave them so-called hero pay and then took that away. Its almost like the employer saw it as a calculation error in their enormous profits. Hesses sudden outrage at billionaire bosses is for public consumption alone. He calculates that striking a militant pose will place the UFCW in a better position to ram through a rotten concessions contract that has almost certainly already been cooked up with Loblaws behind the scenes. He is a master at protecting the UFCWs relations with the corporate elite and the state. In the spring of 2020, after three meatpackers died at Cargills High River plant and over 900 were infected, Hesse refused to support the highly exploited workforce in taking any job action to prevent a premature return to work. Under conditions where the virus was still spreading, Hesse asserted that any job action would be illegal under the workers collective agreement. Given the choice between protecting the legality of collective bargaining, i.e., the corrupt partnership between corporate bosses and union officials, or workers lives, Hesse and the UFCW bureaucracy chose the former. As for its role in the food retail sector, the UFCW has been instrumental in allowing a steady worsening in workers wages and conditions. In 1990, the union set the bar for the destruction of full-time grocery jobs when it allowed Loblaws in Ontario to do away with across-the-board wage increases in favour of a new wage structure tied to hours worked. In 1993, union executives convinced workers it represented in Albertas Safeway grocery chain that the company would close stores if they did not accept wage and job cuts and concede to the companys right to employ a virtually unlimited number of part-time workers. Far from being exceptional, the UFCWs record of imposing low wages and precarious conditions over the past 30 years in the food retail sector is of a piece with what the trade union bureaucracy has done throughout all sectors of the economy. This is why Superstore workers must break from the UFCW if they are to take their struggle forward. The first step in this process will be the formation of a rank-and-file strike committee tasked with fulfilling the overwhelming mandate given by the grocery store workers for a province-wide strike. The committee would demand the full disclosure of what has been agreed in the backroom talks between the UFCW and Loblaws. It would allow workers to raise demands starting from what they actually need, not what the employer claims is affordable, including a substantial wage increase, COVID-19 protections on the job and an end to temporary, insecure employment. To conduct a successful strike and achieve their demands against a corporate giant like Loblaws, including the safeguarding of frontline workers lives during the pandemic, Superstore workers require the broadest support from all sections of the working class. They must unify their struggle with grocery store workers across Canada and North America, Dana auto parts workers and Kellogg cereal factory workers fighting sweatshop conditions in the United States, and educators and health care workers, who are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. This is the only way to win decent-paying, secure jobs for all, and prioritize the safeguarding of workers lives instead of corporate profits amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On Thursday, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Dick Durbin (Illinois) released an interim report on the repeated, criminal, attempts by former President Donald Trump, along with his allies within the White House and Republican Party, following his electoral defeat, to coerce top officials within the Department of Justice (DoJ) to support his bogus claims of a fraudulent election in order to carry out a fascist coup. In this Dec. 5, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally for Senate Republican candidates in Valdosta, Ga. A report by the Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic majority details Trump's extraordinary effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election that he lost. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) The explosive report, titled Subverting Justice: How the Former President and His Allies Pressured DOJ to Overturn the 2020 Election confirms several episodes detailed over the last year on the World Socialist Web Site concerning Trumps scheming leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol. These include repeated attempts by Trump and White House allies to have the DoJ officials publicize non-existent investigations into alleged fraudulent activity concerning illegal voting by minors in Georgia, as well as Italian spy satellites and Dominion Voting Systems machines being enlisted in efforts to miscount or alter vote totals in support of Biden. The report covers the crucial period between Trumps November electoral defeat to Joe Biden through a pivotal 23 hour January 3 meeting in the Oval Office at the White House during which top officials throughout the DoJ threatened a mass resignation in response to Trumps attempt to oust acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen. In December, Rosen replaced the recently resigned Bill Barr and after resisting efforts from Trump to investigate Trumps election lies, Trump sought to replace Rosen with acting Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division Jeffrey Clark. White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who also threatened to resign, told Trump that his efforts to fire Rosen and install Clark amounted to a murder-suicide pact, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richad Donoghue told the Committee. Clark, as the report details, completely backed Trumps lies and, unlike Rosen, was willing to sign onto a letter (which he drafted) that was to be sent out to key battleground states in order to pressure state legislatures into electing a new slate of electors to overturn the Electoral College vote. Underscoring how deadly close the United States came to a fascist coup and possibly civil war, Durbin, in comments made to the media and from the Senate floor, claimed, We were a half-step from a full-blown constitutional crisis. This screenshot shows the website of House Select Committee on January 6, which shows no hearings or business meetings are scheduled. Speaking to CNN, Durbin said that this crisis would have erupted had it not been for Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue and eight members of the Department of Justice who stood up and said, Well resign if you take Rosen out of the picture and put Jeffrey Clark in. He continued, If those efforts werent made, we could have seen a collapse of that Department of Justice into a political entity. They [Trump and his allies] already had their handpicked successor, a man named Jeffrey Clark ready to take over, and he was involved in areas he should not have touched as leader of the Civil Division. The report details nine specific instances in which Trump pressured DoJ leadership to back his fraudulent claims of a stolen election, beginning on December 15, 2020, and continuing through January 3, 2021. The report noted that Trumps repeated efforts to enlist DoJ attorneys in perpetuating his election lies arguably violated the criminal provisions of the Hatch Act, which prevent any personincluding the Presidentfrom commanding federal government employees to engage in political activity. The nine instances in less than three weeks included White House meetings and phone calls during which Trump badgered either Rosen and Donoghue separately or together, to initiate investigations and file lawsuits on Trumps behalf. While speaking with the DoJ attorneys, Trump generally lamented the fact that the Department was not doing enough to address election fraud, the report noted. The report drew attention to the key role played by former Republican congressman and Trumps White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in pressuring the DoJ. The report claimed that Meadowss conduct violated longstanding restrictions on White HouseDoJ communications about specific law enforcement matters. The report noted four different times Meadows reached out to Rosen to suggest he investigate bogus claims of election fraud in Georgia, Italy and New Mexico. The report notes that after meeting with Trump to discuss the overturning of the election, Jeffrey Clark told Rosen that Trump was looking to replace him since he would not go along with Trumps plans. However, if Rosen agreed to hold a press conference in which he would announce he was investigating Trumps bogus election fraud claims and send out a letter to state legislatures previously drafted by Clark, suggesting that certain states reappoint new electors in favor of Trump, he would decline Trumps offer to replace Rosen. As has been known since at least last November, the report confirmed that Trump worked in concert with the Stop the Steal movement to pressure the DoJ into helping Trump overturn the results. Trump was aided in these efforts by Republican lawmakers including Representative Scott Perry (Pennsylvania, 10th District) and Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator, also from Pennsylvania. The report confirmed that Perry introduced Clark to Trump and that Perry directly communicated with Donoghue on bogus election fraud claims. Mastriano, like Perry, also talked to Donoghue regarding alleged election fraud. Mastriano also paid thousands of dollars to bus in Trump supporters for the January 6 attack on the Capitol, which Mastriano participated in. The report also made special note of Trump campaign legal adviser Cleta Mitchell. Mitchell supported Trumps stolen election claims and participated in the January 2, 2021, call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he implored Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes. These ties warrant further investigation to better place Trumps efforts to enlist DoJ in his efforts to overturn the presidential election in context with the January 6 insurrection, the report states. For the report, several leading officials under Trump within the DoJ were interviewed, including Rosen, his deputy Donoghue and former US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Byung Jin Bjay Pak, who was forced to resign by Trump after failing to substantiate Trumps claims that fraudulent ballots were being tabulated at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Trump circumvented the line of succession after Paks resignation and tapped Bobby Christine, who was already serving as US Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, to take Paks place. Donoghue testified to the committee that Trump told him he did this because he liked Christine and thought he would do something about Trumps claims. While several high-ranking officials within the DoJ made themselves available for the Committees report, Jeffrey Clark, Trumps agent within the DoJ, has refused repeated voluntary requests to be interviewed by the Committee. In a testament to the raging internecine conflict taking place within the capitalist state, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), charged with preserving White House records, has yet to comply with a May 20 request from the Committee for Trumps White House records. The report noted that the delay in transitioning electronic Trump records from the White House to NARA may prevent the Committee from obtaining a response for several more months. In response to the report, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa released his own report, which claimed Trump did nothing wrong. The available evidence shows that President Trump did what wed expect a president to do on an issue of this importance: he listened to his senior advisors and followed their advice and recommendations, Grassley said in a statement. The report is a confirmation of the Marxist analysis presented on the World Socialist Web Site. In contrast to the pseudo-left, including the Democratic Socialists of America and other socialists, who sought to downplay the first fascist coup attempt in US history, claiming it was just an isolated right-wing demonstration that got out of hand, the report confirms that the attack on the Capitol was the culmination of a definite political strategy, orchestrated by Trump and carried out by his loyalists within the Republican Party and capitalist state, including the police, military and intelligence agencies. Working in concert, these elements carried out a legal and political strategy along with facilitating the security stand-down of the Capitol, which allowed fascist militias hours to search out and kidnap lawmakers as part of Trumps effort to delay the certification of the election. The stunning confirmation of Trumps attempts to overthrow the election have been met with a stony silence by the so-called progressive caucus and the left face of the Democratic Party. As of this writing, a review of the social media accounts of Senator Bernie Sanders, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Pramila Jayapal and Katie Porter shows no mention of the damning Senate report. Instead of warning their followers and the working class of the imminent and ongoing fascist threat, the capitalist politicians are focusing all their efforts on promoting illusions in the Biden administration and the wholly inadequate and rapidly dwindling Build Back Better plan. The meager social spending package has been whittled down from $6 trillion to somewhere between $2.3$1.9 trillion in order to appease the most right-wing members of the Democratic Party and their Republican colleagues who continue to defend the fascist Trump. Beginning last Monday, masks for primary school children in 47 French departments are no longer compulsory. Classes will also no longer be closed for seven days following the detection of a positive case. Instead, all class members will be tested, with only those who are positive or who refuse the test sent home. A school in Strasbourg, eastern France, on September 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias) For now, these measures are being implemented in departments that recorded incidence rates of less than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the preceding week. However, in 23 of the 47 departments selected for these measures the incidence rate among primary school-aged children is above 50 cases per 100,000. This shows that even with mandatory masking, schools have already become primary vectors for the spread of the virus since reopening in September. Masks greatly reduce the chance of infection and are one of many crucial measures for stopping contagion. They should be worn in all crowded environments until there are no cases. However, the wearing of masks will not end the spread of the virus in schools. Even with masks thousands of children are being infected at school every week in France and internationally, some of whom will needlessly die. So far, at least 10 French children have died of COVID-19, including six since June. Eight thousand youth under the age of 19 have also been hospitalized from COVID-19, including 2,000 since June. Announcing the new policy last week, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told France Info, we are launching an experiment in dozens of departments. The government is fully aware that infections will grow en masse. The experiment is whether a policy of immunity by infection amongst children who are unvaccinated will provoke mass social opposition. The Macron governments policy continues the de facto herd immunity policy it has pursued throughout the pandemic. Although the capitalist media widely presents the pandemic as over, opposition to this deadly policy remains widespread. On Tuesday, Le Monde published an open letter against the move to remove masks in schools, signed by a number of leading scientists, individual parents and parent groups in France, such as Forgotten Families and Schools. Citing data from the effects of school re-openings in the UK, Canada and the US, it stressed that the removal of masks will accelerate infections amongst children and their families. It also drew attention to the long-term consequences of COVID-19 infections for children, including damage to vital organs and cognitive development. Undoubtedly the Macron government is looking enviously at England, where schools returned in September without mandatory masking or class closures following a positive case. This has led to at least 10 child deaths from COVID-19 since September. In America, where similar conditions dominate, 22 children died from COVID-19 in the last week alone. While the authors undoubtedly intend to save childrens lives, their conclusions are a political and scientific dead-end; they accept the governments diktat that schools must remain open at all costs, even though schools cannot be opened safely amid mass transmission of the virus. Yet the letter states: In the face of the highly contagious Delta variant, it is crucial to keep schools open and safe by adopting and maintaining measures to minimize the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Macrons policy has nothing to do with a scientific fight to eradicate the virus. His professed concern for the psychological well-being of childrenthousands of whose relatives have died from the pandemic due to the official policy of spreading the virusis a fraud. Macrons policy is driven by French corporations demands for business operations to continue as usual, and thus for students to be in classrooms so that their parents can work. The authors call for the maintenance of compulsory mask-wearing for all age groups and investment in high ventilation equipment for all classrooms. While these measures are necessary to contain the virus, they will not by themselves eradicate the virus and stop infections in schools. The infectiousness of COVID-19 and the Delta variant make it essential that schools be closed as part of a society-wide lockdown to eradicate the virus. Even with the measures proposed, the virus will still spread, mutate into new strains and kill students, teachers, and their families. Implicit in the open letters argument is the false notion that keeping schools open will protect childrens mental health. Mental health and educational quality are critical concerns, but a policy of mass infection or even one of partial mitigation of the virus cannot address them. What could be worse for childrens mental health than constant fear of being infected with coronavirus and transmitting it to loved ones? The best way to ensure childrens physical and mental health is by implementing stringent scientific measures to end the pandemic once and for all, as quickly as possible. This can also rule out future disruptions to their education and the further degradation of childrens mental and physical health. Speaking to the WSWS webinar in August, For a Global Strategy to Stop the Pandemic and Save Lives!, Dr. Malgorzata Gasperowicz of the University of Calgary explained that aggressive public health measures could eradicate the virus in two months. In this short period, all children must have access to high-quality computers and internet and their parents receive full income. This has been shown to be viable in practice by China, where scientific policies led to the suppression of multiple outbreaks of the Delta variant in recent months. Since the pandemic began, the French government, like its counterparts across Europe, has been guided by nothing but the profit interests of the corporations and billionaires. In January and February 2020, when reports from China showed how deadly the virus was and that basic social distancing restrictions were halting the spread of the virus, the Macron government ignored basic scientific advice. Similarly, schools were proven to be major vectors for transmission of the virus during the first wave. Nevertheless, in September 2020, January 2021, and May 2021 the Macron government reopened schools, fueling further resurgences of the virus. From September 1, 2020, to the end of the school year, an additional 80,000 people died from COVID-19 in France. The Pasteur Institute warned in early September that even with higher rates of vaccination than at present, the infectiousness of the Delta variant coupled with the tendency of respiratory viruses to thrive in colder conditions could lead to a peak of hospitalizations exceeding those reached in 2020. In August, the World Health Organization warned of 236,000 additional COVID-19 deaths in Europe by December 1. In the coming months, hundreds of thousands of lives, including those of many children, depend on the struggle for a scientific policy to eradicate the virus. Throughout the pandemic, the education unions and nominally left opposition parties have actively supported the Macron governments herd immunity policy. The only way forward is to orient toward the working class, the only social force that can impose a policy based on science and social equality, not corporate profits. This means a political break from those forces complicit in mass death, and the building of independent rank-and-file safety committees in schools and workplaces. On October 24, the World Socialist Web Site is hosting an international online webinar, featuring an international panel of scientists, who will explain the science behind the policy of eradication, as well as workers and parents who have played a leading role in the resistance to the policy of herd immunity. We urge students, parents, teachers and other workers to register for this event today. Prime Minister Narendra Modis far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has announced that a paltry 50,000 rupees (about US$670) in disaster relief compensation will be paid to the families of Indians who have died from COVID-19. Health workers screen residents for COVID-19 symptoms at Deonar slum in Mumbai, India, Saturday, July 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade) The compensation plan, which the government only brought forward after being sued in court, is akin to rubbing salt in a gaping wound. Millions who watched in horror as their relatives died during Indias second pandemic wave last spring because of shortages of hospital beds, oxygen, drugs, and trained personnel will now have to jump through various bureaucratic hoops to prove to the satisfaction of Indian authorities that they succumbed to COVID-19. And all for a princely sum that in most cases will not even cover a fraction of their loved ones medical and cremation (or burial) expenses, let alone provide them compensation for the loss of a breadwinner or their mental anguish. The 50,000 rupee payment is one-eighth of what disaster victims are entitled to under Indias National Disaster Management Act, 2005. Yet on Monday, Indians Supreme Court gave its approval to the compensation scheme. Grotesquely, Indians highest court went out of its way to praise the governments generosity and its calamitous response to the pandemic. We are very happy that something is being done to wipe out the tears of those who suffered, declared Justice M.R. Shah. We have to take judicial notice of the fact that what India has done, no other country could do. In reality, Modi and the Indian ruling class have perpetrated a crime against humanity. Officially, India with just under 450,000 COVID-19 deaths has the worlds third highest COVID death toll. But a spate of scientific studies of excess deaths in India during the pandemic have demonstrated that COVID-19 has killed 5 million or more Indians. Like the North American and European imperialist powers, Modi and his BJP government have systematically prioritised corporate profits over saving human lives. In the spring of 2020, they imposed a short-lived, ill-prepared lockdown which, by depriving tens of millions of migrant workers of any livelihood overnight, helped spread the dearly virus across rural India, where most of the population lives. They then pivoted to recklessly reopening the economy and continued to do so as infections and deaths rose exponentially for the next five months. Indias even more devastating second wave of the pandemic, from March through June 2021, was, if anything, even more manifestly criminal. For weeks, the government dismissed the warnings of scientists, including its own medical experts, about the emergence of the Delta variant and a burgeoning tsunami of new infections, and bitterly resisted calls for urgent measures to halt the viruss spread. As India was setting new records for daily infections and deaths, Modi went on national television to vow he would save the country from lockdown, not COVID-19. The Modi government has vehemently condemned the studies that show Indias COVID-19 fatalities are a grossand it should be added, deliberateundercount. In this they have been assisted by the corporate media, which has helped it bury the issue, and the opposition parties, which have implemented the profits-before-lives policy wherever they form the state government. However, as part of its efforts to get the Supreme Court to sanction compensation payments one-eighth the statutorily mandated amount, New Delhi has agreed that payments should be made to more than just the families of those who have COVID-19 or mucormycosis (black fungus, a COVID-related disease) listed on their death certificates as the cause of death. Under the court-approved plan, the families of anyone who died within 30 days of a positive COVID-19 test will be eligible for the meagre 50,000 rupee payment. No doubt this was based on a macabre calculusthat to somewhat expand the eligibility for a compensation payment that is only one-eighth the legally mandated sum of 400,000 rupees ($5,345) will prove less costly than paying the full amount to the families of those currently recognised as having died from COVID. The government knows full well that its expanded eligibility criteria will make little difference to the families of the vast majority of the 5 million COVID-dead. Even in pre-pandemic times, proper death certificates were issued in less than one in four deaths. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of those infected were never tested by Indias dilapidated health care system, which has been systematically underfunded by successive governments, whether headed by the BJP or Congress, for decades. According to seropositive studies carried out by health authorities, just one in every 100 infections were detected in Uttar Pradesh, Indias most populous state, and just one in 120 in Bihar, the third most populous. Cynically, the National Disaster Management Agency, which is personally headed by Modi, cited the likelihood that the number of COVID dead will grow to argue that compensation payments should be slashed. Financial prudence, it wrote, demands that we plan in a manner that assistance can be provided to larger number of people should the number of deaths rise. This is, in effect, an admission the government knows that its current drive to remove what few COVID restrictions remain and reliance on a disorganised vaccine rollout as the sole defence against the virus are creating conditions for a massive third wave of infection and deaths. On May 25, in the wake of Indias disastrous second wave, advocates Gaurav Kumar Bansal and Reepak Kansal petitioned the Supreme Court to order the government, which had declared the pandemic a national disaster under the National Disaster Management Act, to provide the 400,000 rupee compensation stipulated in the Acts Section 12 (iii) to all families of those who had died from COVID or mucormycosis. By rejecting their petition, the Supreme Court has created a precedent that will allow Indias government to reduce compensation payments to families affected by future disasters. Time and again, Indias highest court has given its legal imprimatur to the Modi governments authoritarian actions and Hindu communalist provocations, from its August 2019 constitutional coup stripping Jammu and Kashmir, Indias only Muslim majority state, of its semi-autonomous status, to the building of a temple to Lord Ram, on the site of the razed Babri Masjid mosque. But even more fundamentally, the court is a bulwark of capitalist rule. The courts sanctioning of the governments sham COVID-19 compensation scheme is part of a series of judgments it has made that have upheld and enforced the Indian ruling elites criminal pandemic policy. Even if the court-sanctioned 50,000 rupee payment were made to the families of all 450,000 official COVID-19 dead or for that matter such compensation paid for all 5 million of Indias pandemic deaths, it would still represent little more than a drop in the ocean compared to the vast wealth accumulated by Indias super-rich during the pandemic. In the first case, such compensation would total barely US$300 million, and in the latter US$3.35 billion. By contrast, the wealth of Indias billionaires has increased by several hundred billion dollars since March 2020. Syrus Poonawalla, who heads the Serum Institute of India, Indias largest vaccine manufacturer, is a case in point. According to the Hurun India 2021 Rich List, which was published last week, he has seen his fortune shoot up by over $9 billion over the past yeara 70 percent increase. Much of this increase is attributable to the BJP governments decision not to use Indias state-owned medical sector to manufacture vaccines and its stubborn months-long refusal to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all, forcing people to pay for the life-saving jab out of their own pockets and for a higher price. Hurun reports that over the past year, the ranks of Indias billionaires swelled by 58 to 238. Earlier in the pandemic, Oxfams Inequality Virus Report released at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, showed that Indias billionaires had increased their wealth by 35 percent or US$185 billion, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the Modi government, which has pumped billions of dollars into the banks and financial markets, helping pave the way for the massive increase in the wealth of Indias rich and super-rich, it is unthinkable to appropriate even a tiny fraction of these ill-gotten gains to support the millions of people who have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While state funds have flowed seamlessly into the bank accounts and stock portfolios of the super-rich during the pandemic, the Modi government is ensuring that the process of accessing the derisory COVID-19 disaster compensation payments will be as cumbersome as possible. It has ordered the state governments to provide the ex-gratia assistance from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) rather than allocating money from the National Disaster Relief Fund. This will put an additional burden on the already cash-strapped states. This decision has been denounced by some states governed by opposition parties. In Rajasthan, Congress Party state president and Minister of State for Education Govind Singh Dotasara told the Indian Express, You cant impose [the ex-gratia payment] on states. It should be done by the Centre through their relief fund. ... Its not that only one state has been affected by it, its a pandemic. It should be covered under the National Disaster Relief Fund. The truth of this statement is itself a damning indictment of Congress, which has marched in lockstep with Modi in the implementation of a herd immunity pandemic policy. While Congress politicians may squabble with the Centre over who should pay the bill for the sham compensation scheme, they are similarly culpable for the waves of mass infection and death that have swept across the Indian population. The British government intends to stop all investigations into crimes carried out by British forces during and after Northern Irelands three decades of armed conflict known as The Troubles. The move, announced in a parliamentary command paper Addressing the Legacy of Northern Irelands Past, has been analysed by a team of Northern Ireland academics and deemed more wide-ranging than that offered to Chiles military in 1978 under the bloody dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. A mural in Belfast commemorating the victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971, when 11 unarmed civilians were killed by British soldiers. (Credit: photograph of work by public artist R. O Murchu--Flickr PPCC Antifa) The proposal amounts to an unconditional amnesty for British agents, informants and services personnel, as well as members of paramilitary groups, and seeks to draw a legal veil over the role of the British government and its intelligence services during the decades long dirty war in its oldest colony. Should the paper become law, the only people at risk of prosecution from further investigations are those seeking to place new information in the public domain. Introducing the paper, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis indicated the government felt under pressure on the issue. Time, wrote Lewis, is not on our side. Without movement very soon, we... will fail to explain the complexity of the Troubles in an unbiased way and from all perspectives to the children of Northern Ireland today, condemning them to carry a partial view of the Troubles that acts as a barrier to community integration and understanding. Explaining the truth in an unbiased way for Lewis means doing the opposite. The problem for Lewis is that even the slow-moving legal investigations already in motion threaten to reveal far more than the British government can tolerate of its murderous and vile methods in Ireland. Any threat to prosecute individual soldiers brings with it the danger that the personnel in question can, in their defence, bring out the role of their military superiors and of the British government. Paragraph 34 states explicitly that the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland] and Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland would be statutorily barred from investigating Troubles-related incidents. This would bring an immediate end to criminal investigations... and remove the prospect of prosecutions. In paragraph 37 the government claims it is committed to providing greater certainty for all those directly affected by the Troubles and to enable all communities in Northern Ireland to move forward. But the only certainty is that no-one will be held to account, and no-one blamed. Judicial reviews and civil cases would also be barred. These, according to the government, involve an approach that can create obstacles to achieving wider reconciliation. In place of legal proceedings, the government proposes a new Information Recovery Body which would result in families and relatives being offered a file rather than a court case. The government claimed it was committed to full disclosure while taking steps to ensure no inadvertent disclosure into the public domain of information that could threaten national security, i.e., nothing that compromises the intelligence services. Over five decades ago, in 1969, the British Labour government despatched thousands of troops to reinforce the pro-British Ulster Unionist government in the six counties of Northern Ireland. The unionists were seeking to suppress a popular movement for civil rights. Since Irelands partition in 1921, Northern Ireland had been ruled as a semi-dictatorship through emergency powers, fascistic loyalist mob violence, elections gerrymandered to ensure unionist victory, and systematic discrimination against Catholics, particularly the working class, in all areas of social life. Over the next three decades, the six partitioned counties were permanently occupied by tens of thousands of British troops and the border with the Republic of Ireland was heavily militarised, while British forces, backed up by Northern Irelands police and paramilitary state forces, conducted a low intensity dirty war against Irish republicans. A vast security, surveillance, infiltration, assassination, and propaganda operation was unleashed. In all, over the course of the Troubles, some 3,500 people were killed and 40,000 injured by British forces, the Ulster Defence Regiment, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, loyalist and nationalist paramilitaries. Countless more suffered, and continue to suffer, lifelong physical and mental trauma. The Troubles only came to an end in 1998 when the British government, seeking to unwind its military commitment and with Northern Ireland facing economic ruin and unable to attract investment, put together a deal backed by US and European capitalism to offer Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Armys (IRA) political wing, a route to power-sharing devolved government along with their unionist opponents. The Northern Ireland Assembly has operated fitfully, with all its activities divided on sectarian lines, ever since. Along with the 1998 Good Friday agreement came mechanisms to allow some legal investigations of both the unresolved killings and the numerous outrages of the Troubles. A number of high-profile public inquiries were set up, invariably delivering partial but nonetheless damaging reports. A public inquiry was authorised in 1998, for example, into the January 30, 1972, Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry in which 13 people died. The Saville inquiry finally reported in 2010, accusing British paratroopers of shooting unarmed civilians. One anonymous solder was eventually charged, but the case against Soldier F was dropped earlier this year. Earlier this a year, a coroners inquest returned a verdict on the Ballymurphy massacre the shooting of ten unarmed civilians in Belfasts Ballymurphy estate in 1971 during Operation Demetriusthe internment without trial of hundreds suspected of membership of the IRA. The inquest verdict only came about due to relentless and determined campaigning by relatives and supporters of the murdered residents. Yet no one is to face charges. An Historical Enquiry Team (HET), staffed with as many as 100 detectives, operated from 2006 to 2014 only to be wound up after an official inquiry conceded it was not investigating state involvement cases with the same rigour as others. The HET was replaced with a cheaper Legacy Investigation Branch which has convicted no-one since it started work. Half of the 19 cases it has investigated, of 953 outstanding, involve the military. Some of the most sensitive cases are under investigation by Operation Kenova, the police investigation into the murderous activities of the British agent in the IRAs security unit, known as Stakeknife, Freddie Scappaticci. The operation has expanded its activities to include over 200 cases. Headed by former police chief Jon Boutcher, Kenova has so far amassed over 50,000 pages of evidence covering 17 murders and 12 kidnappings. Over 300 people have been interviewed. Since 2019 Boutcher has also been investigating the Glenanne gang of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force, which included members of the Northern Ireland security forces. The Glenanne gang is suspected of carrying out as many as 90 attacks, including those that cost the most lives of any single atrocity during the Troubles, the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. On May 17, 1974, in a coordinated attack, three bombs exploded in the packed streets of rush hour Dublin at two-minute intervals. A fourth device exploded in the town of Monaghan, near the border, one-and-a-half hours later, as a diversionary tactic for when the attackers would be crossing the border into the six counties. 33 people, as well as an unborn child, were killed in the attacks, while 258 were injured. No one has ever been charged for the atrocities and the British government has refused to release relevant documents. Two years earlier, two British agents, Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn, were involved in a British intelligence operation which exploded two bombs in Dublin simultaneously with a Dail Eireann debate on criminalising Sinn Fein. Two people were killed and around 100 injured in an attack blamed on the IRA. The Offences against the State (Amendment) was due to be thrown out until the bombs went off in earshot, swinging the outcome. The Littlejohn affair was covered extensively at the time by the Trotskyists of the Socialist Labour League, who published a pamphlet Anatomy of Dictatorship - the Littlejohn Affair. These are not only issues of historic sensitivity. The amnesty paper follows the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021 which places a six-year time limit on legal action against crimes carried out by British troops overseas. As such, the paper is part of British preparations for major new conflicts abroad and dictatorial measures to confront the working class at home. The command paper was subjected to an excoriating analysis by a team of legal and human rights academics from Queens University Belfast and the University of Ulster, the Model Bill Teamwho had viewed the Stormont House Agreement of 2014 as capable of producing legal mechanisms compliant with current human rights practice. Among the teams most startling findings was the result of a comparison between the British governments proposed amnesty and similar moves worldwide, including a 1978 amnesty passed by Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet, which the team noted is widely regarded as one of the most egregious examples of amnesty. The British government's proposal, like Pinochets, covers serious human rights violations including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances. However, the British proposal goes much further. Unlike in Chile, no offences are excluded, no time limits imposed, and all current proceedings will cease, including all judicial and investigative processes. The team also noted that the Information Recovery Body, put forward to give a pretence of moving investigations forward, will be entirely voluntary and therefore be ignored, while its powers to extract documentation from the state will be less than currently exist. By contrast, coupled with moves to tighten the Official Secrets Acts, the team noted that journalists, legacy investigators and human rights defenders who put evidence of human rights violations into the public domain... would be the only people liable to be prosecuted for conflict-related matters. Food manufacturer Kelloggs announced Wednesday that it plans to use white collar workers and third-party resources as scabs in a strikebreaking maneuver against the 1,400 workers who have launched a strike at its four US cereal plants this week. Picket line in Omaha, Nebraska (source: BCTGM Facebook page) The company announced on its Kellogg'ss Negotiations website that they are implementing contingency plans to mitigate supply disruptions, including using salaried employees and third-party resources [hiring scab labor] to produce food. Workers on social media expressed outrage at the companys actions. Several pointed to an incident that occurred in 2014 during an illegal lockout of the workforce at the companys Memphis, Tennessee plant in which a scab worker recorded video of himself urinating on a conveyor belt of the puffed rice used to make Rice Krispies Treats. Other workers noted the inherent safety hazard of bringing in workers unfamiliar with dangerous production equipment. Mark Gregory, a third shift mechanical operator, told a local news reporter, They can try to run the plant. I know they think it's easy for us to run the plant, but it takes a lot of skill to run the facility. I hope nobody gets hurt. Equipment in there is very dangerous, we spend a lot of time learning how to run the equipment. Workers launched the strike Tuesday morning, shutting down four plants which account for all production of Kellogg's cereals in the United States: Battle Creek, Michigan (also the location of the companys global headquarters); Omaha, Nebraska; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee. Kellogg's is one of the largest producers of cereals and snack foods, with products including Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, Pop-Tarts, and Pringles. Kelloggs workers are fighting against cuts to jobs, wages and benefits, and the expansion of the hated two-tier structure, which forces new hires to labor for less pay than their co-workers on the same line. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) agreed to the provision that created the second tier, which is currently capped at 30 percent of the workforce. The company is seeking to lift that cap and expand the number of ultra-exploited casual workers who receive a poverty wage. In addition, workers have been forced to work under a brutal overtime regime during the pandemic, during which the companys revenues have soared amid rising demand for snack products. According to its 2020 annual report, the company made $1.76 billion in profit on $13.8 billion in sales in 2020. Kelloggs CEO Steve Cahillane received $11.6 million in total compensation in 2020, a nearly $2 million increase from his 2018 package of $9.9 million. In a widely shared Facebook post, one Kelloggs worker wrote, Imagine if you started working at a job that proclaimed to have the best benefits. Then come to find out you will never ever see those benefits because you were hired in after a certain time...Then explain to your family that you put in for a day off months in advance for a special occasion only to be denied that day off...Explain to your family that Santa is going to be late cause you just got forced over 10 minutes before the end of your shift to work another 8 hours. Oh, and after you get home you only get 4 hours of sleep because you have to be back to work...This isn't about employees being greedy. This is about equality and quality time with family. The wife of another worker posted a picture listing the multi-million dollar compensation packages of Kelloggs top executives, commenting, Kelloggs thinks its ok to pay new employees significantly less, and give them less benefits because the men and women who work SEVEN DAYS A WEEK YEAR ROUND cost the company too much money...lets take a look at who is really costing the company too much money. The BCTGM union, meanwhile, has offered workers no serious strategy for victory. Earlier this year, the BCTGM forced through sellout agreements to shut down strikes of Nabisco and Frito-Lay workers, isolating Kelloggs workers before their strike even began. A Nabisco worker in Chicago warned Kelloggs workers, Make sure they count the votes in front of them. Because they didnt count the votes In front of us, we all know that the union just wanted us to go back to work. At the end of the day is all about money. Do you really think that the union wanted to keep paying us? And also ask for more than $105 [in strike pay] that we got. After the sellout contract was forced through, he said, Were all still working about 20 plus hours overtime for nothing. Another Nabisco worker in Richmond expressed his support for Kelloggs workers and said, Fight for what you deserve. He added, Sixteen-hour days is the normal [shift] being forced over [on] us. The company does what it pleases, while the union did nothing to stop the sweatshop conditions. The BCTGM has been promoting reactionary nationalism to undermine the solidarity of workers at precisely the moment when international unity is most needed. Kellogg's is a multi-national corporation with factories in 18 different countries outside of the United States. Any serious strategy to defeat the company requires the international unity of US workers with their brothers and sisters around the world. The BCTGM, however, is promoting America First, anti-Mexican chauvinism, claiming that workers must unite along national lines to prevent the company from relocating operations to Mexico. In a blatantly racist comment to Yahoo Finance, BCTGM Local 3G President Trevor Bidelman claimed, Youre told quite rightly not to drink the water in Mexico. So I dont know why you would want to eat the food that was made from that water. In fact, Bidelman and the union did nothing when Kelloggs announced plans in September to cut 212 jobs from its Battle Creek workforce by 2023. According to a local news report at the time, Bidelman claimed he was blindsided by the proposed cuts and offered only the hope that the union could provide input on the companys decision. The BCTGM is promoting GoFundMe pages to crowdfund resources for striking workers, signaling to workers that they are going to be largely on their own to survive during the strike, even as the union sits on $32 million in assets and $11 million in income built from workers dues money. Both the union and the company fear the outbreak of a genuinely militant and independent struggle by workers, and they are no doubt working behind the scenes to shut the strike down as quickly as possible. The gravest warning must be made against any illusions in the BCTGM. As at Nabisco, Frito-Lay, and countless other struggles in recent decades, the unions follow a tried-and-true strategy of isolating strikers, starving them out with meager strike pay, and ramming through a company-backed concessions contract when workers have reached the breaking point. Kellogg's workers hold immense social power, and can win all their demands and more. However, victory will require workers to take the initiative into their own hands. The World Socialist Web Site urges Kelloggs workers to immediately build rank-and-file strike committees comprised of the most militant and trusted workers to take the struggle into their own hands. Such committees will facilitate the free sharing of information among workers at every plant, enabling workers to develop and implement a strategy for victory. They will allow workers to link up their struggles with those in Frito-Lay and Nabisco plants, as well as across other industries and internationally, in a common struggle for wages, benefits, and healthy working conditions. One of Australias far-right partiesthe libertarian Liberal Democratshas filed documents for a High Court challenge against the new electoral laws that force parties to seek permission to use any words in their name that are already used by existing parties. Liberal Democrats [Image: Liberal Democrats Australia Facebook] The law suit highlights the blatantly anti-democratic nature of the party registration integrity legislation, which seeks to prop up the major capitalist parties by giving them a vetoa political monopolyover the use of common political names, such as liberal, labor and green. The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) completely opposes the reactionary, anti-lockdown policies of the Liberal Democrats, which dovetail with the deadly corporate demand for governments to force the population to live with COVID-19, but the High Court challenge is based on elementary democratic principles. On the phony pretext of avoiding unproven voter confusion over party names, the Labor Party joined the Liberal-National Coalition in rushing the electoral bills through parliament in late August. These laws actually aim to keep voters in the dark about the political identities and programs of election candidates, especially those who present any kind of alternative to the parliamentary establishment. This is no accident. There is mounting discontent and plunging support for the main parties because of the worsening pandemic let loose by the corporate profit-driven policies of the political establishment, soaring social inequality and the rising danger of a US-instigated war against China. The legislation hands to the electoral authorities of the capitalist state the power to determine which parties can use historic political names, including socialist. It also threatens to de-register all parties not currently represented in parliament, such as the SEP, unless they submit the details of 1,500 memberstripling the previous requirementby December 2. That would mean that their party names cannot appear on ballot papers alongside the names of their candidates, preventing voters from making informed choices. The Liberal Democrats case states that the party names veto powers violate the freedom of political communication that the High Court has previously ruled is implied by the 1901 Australian Constitution. This weak and limited implied freedom can be overridden by legislation that supposedly pursues a legitimate purpose. As their excuse, Labor and the Coalition claim that voters would mistakenly take parties with names containing the words liberal or labor to be the Labor Party or the Liberal Party. Yet such parties have existed for years, including the Democratic Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, which has been registered for two decades. In fact, the party name provisions specifically overturn a long line of rulings by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) that no reasonable person would be likely to be confused by such names and that no party had the right to own commonly-used political labels. These rulings date back to 2001, when the AAT, the peak federal tribunal, decided that the AEC had wrongly refused a party registration application by the liberals for forests because the name was too similar to the Liberal Party. In that case, regarded as a landmark for 20 years, the tribunal ruled that no political party could claim the exclusive right to lock up as the property of any organisation, generic words such as Australia, liberal, labour, democrat and national, when it came to names that could be used on ballot papers. The Liberal Democrats won a similar case against the Liberal Party in 2013, as did another split off, the New Liberals, in June this year. In the New Liberals case, the AEC rejected the Liberal Partys claim that the name would cause widespread voter confusion. The AEC ruled that the name New Liberals was sufficiently visually and aurally distinct from the Liberal Party. As a result, it is not likely that a voter will be confused or mistaken about which name is associated with which party. In a naked bid to reverse these rulings, the suddenly amended legislation now prohibits the AEC from registering a partyeven if it supplies the names and details of 1,500 membersif its name contains any word that is even part of the name of an earlier registered party, unless it first obtains the written consent of that other party. The new laws go even further. They allow a registered political party to object to another partys name, at any time, regardless of the partys date of registration, thus opening the way for challenges after a party has been registered. In a display of staggering hypocrisy, the only exemption to proscription is the word democraticalong with function words like the, collective nouns such as party and the name of country, like Australia. According to the legislations official explanatory memorandum, democratic is treated as a unique exception, because of widespread historical use and the intrinsic function of all Australian political organisations. Under the banner of democracy, Labor and the Coalition are tearing up basic democratic rights. Without party registration, candidates have to nominate without any party name, or as unexplained independents. This denies the elementary right of parties to stand candidates in order to campaign across the country for their political programs, as well as the essential right of electors to know the policies of candidates. In a statement issued on September 11, the Socialist Equality Party made clear that it would not seek to veto the use of the word socialist in party names, and called on other parties identifying themselves as socialist to publicly declare likewise. As a matter of fundamental political principle, the SEP objects in the strongest manner to handing to any capitalist state agency, including the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), the power to determine which parties have the basic democratic right to use widely-known and historically significant names, such as socialist and communist, it stated. The SEP has launched a campaign to demand the repeal of these laws and all restrictions on the democratic right of parties and individuals to stand in elections. At the same time, we appeal to all our supporters and readers: Become an electoral member of the SEP to help us retain our registration, defeat this attack on democratic rights and take forward the fight for a truly democratic, that is, socialist, alternative. An independent fact-finding mission delivered a report to the United Nations Thursday cataloguing a plethora of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Libya, including mass killings, arbitrary detention, systemic torture and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands. Libyan security forces have rounded up thousands of African migrants in recent weeks [Source: Twitter] The report, which was based on research in Libya, Tunisia and Italy and interviews with over 150 people, acknowledges that the work of the mission had been obstructed by the Western-backed government in Tripoli. While it focuses on crimes carried out between 2016 and 2020, the report begins by acknowledging: Since the fall of the [Muammar] Gaddafi regime in 2011, the fragmentation of the State and the proliferation of weapons and of militias vying for control of territory and resources has severely undermined the rule of law in Libya. Libya has also been the theater of quasi-uninterrupted armed conflicts resulting in crimes against the most vulnerable, including women, children, members of ethnic minorities, migrants, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons. Nowhere, however, does the report refer to what precipitated the fall of the Gaddafi regime, the disintegration of both Libyas state and its society and the resulting mass violence, i.e., the more than seven-month war of aggression launched by the United States and NATO in March of 2011. The report highlights the eruption of violence during the 2019-2020 battle for the Libyan capital of Tripoli between the countrys two main factions: the UN-recognized, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA)backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy, along with Islamist militias supplemented by thousands of mercenary fighters from Syriaand its rival government in the east of the country, which is defended by the Libyan National Army (LNA) of ex-CIA asset Khalifa Haftar, with the backing of Egypt, the UAE, Russia and France. Airstrikes have killed dozens of families. The destruction of health-related facilities has impacted access to healthcare, and anti-personnel mines left by mercenaries in residential areas have killed and maimed civilians, said the fact-finding missions chair, Mohamed Auajjar. The report calls particular attention to the mass murder carried out by the Kaniyat militia, responsible for killing hundreds of civilians in the town of Tarhuna, southeast of Tripoli. Bodies recovered from mass graves there had been shot multiple times after the victims had been handcuffed, blindfolded and their legs tied. The Kaniyat militia has aligned itself with both the GNA and the LNA at different points in the conflict. Arbitrary imprisonment and torture remain endemic in Libya, according to the report. It states: Most of these prisoners have never been charged, convicted or sentenced to imprisonment following a fair and public hearing. Many are detained incommunicado, some in secret prisons that officially do not exist, sometimes for years without any prospect of release. The families of prisoners are not informed of the fate of their family member. Torture is an established feature of prison system. The conditions of detention are characterized by a lack of hygiene, adequate food and medical care, as well as no separation between children and adults. The Mission documented several cases of deaths through summary executions, torture, starvation, unsanitary conditions and denial of medical care. Sexual violence is prevalent, in particular during interrogation, and it takes different forms, including rape, threats to rape or coercion into engaging in sexual abuse against other inmates. Women find themselves particularly vulnerable and the evidence also indicated that men are not spared from sexual violence. The report cites the forced internal displacement of hundreds of thousands of Libyans who are unable to secure viable conditions of life. It highlights the case of Tawergha, where around 40,000 people, who belong to the ethnic group of the same name, were driven from their homes in 2011 by Islamist militias based in Misrata, backed by NATO airstrikes. A decade later, the people of Tawergha have yet to be allowed to return to the town, which was razed by the US-backed militias. Also documented in the report are the wholesale crimes carried out against migrants, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, who enter Libya in an attempt to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. The Libyan Coast Guard (LCG), trained and funded by the European Union, it states, intercepts boats carrying migrants in a manner that is violent or reckless, resulting at times in deaths. It continues: On board, there are reports that LCGs confiscate belongings from migrants. Once disembarked, migrants are either transferred to detention centers or go missing, with reports that people are sold to traffickers. Interviews with migrants formerly held in DCIM detention centers established that all migrantsmen and women, boys and girlsare kept in harsh conditions, some of whom die. Some children are held with adults, placing them at high risk of abuse. Torture (such as electric shocks) and sexual violence (including rape and forced prostitution) are prevalent. The fact-finding mission states that acts of murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts committed against migrants form part of a systematic and widespread attack directed at this population, in furtherance of a State policy. As such, these acts may amount to crimes against humanity. This state policy involves a coordinated system of brutalization and exploitation of migrants, who are captured by the LCG, turned over to jails run by militias and released only after paying bribes or undergoing a period of forced labor or prostitution. The report says that some migrants have gone through this cycle as many as ten times. It also cites the responsibility that may be borne by third States, without naming them, though certainly the crimes carried out by Libyan authorities against migrants are also in furtherance of the Fortress Europe policy aimed at keeping them out. The report cites two incidents in May and July 2019 during the fighting around Tripoli in which a migrant detention camp set up next to a militia headquarters was bombed twice, killing scores of migrants, who were prevented from fleeing the attacks. In conclusion, the fact-finding mission states that The violence that has plagued Libya since 2011, and which has continued almost unabated since 2016, has enabled the commission of serious violations, abuses and crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, against the most vulnerable. The reports authors state that they have identified both Libyan and foreign actors who may be responsible for these crimes, and that this information may be shared with the International Criminal Court (ICC). But the foreign actors who bear the greatest responsibility for transforming Libya from what was widely considered one of the most advanced countries in Africa into a hellscape are never named. They remain in top state positions in Washington, Paris and London after launching an unprovoked war against Libya based on the phony pretext of a supposedly imminent massacre in the eastern city of Benghazi and under the filthy banner of human rights. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which tried Germanys former Nazi rulers, called the waging of an aggressive war not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole. The truth of this principle finds bloody verification in the unending crimes carried out against the Libyan people in the decade since the US and NATO killed thousands and razed much of the country through seven months of continuous bombing, while arming and aiding Al Qaeda-linked militias to serve as their proxy ground troops. Those responsible for this supreme international crime committed in Libya have never been held to account. They include former president Barack Obama, former secretary of state Hillary Clintonwho gleefully hailed the torture-murder of Muammar Gaddafi by declaring We came, we saw, he diedalong with current President Joe Biden, his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and other senior administration officials. There is no prospect of the Libya fact-finding mission handing their names over to the International Criminal Court, and even if it did, the ICC would do nothing. Its standard operating procedure is to ignore the massive war crimes carried out by US imperialismwhich have claimed well over a million lives over the last decadewhile prosecuting minor dictators and warlords in oppressed and former colonial countries. Of the ICCs 30 open cases, all are against Africans, while the court has scandalously announced its dropping of any investigation of war crimes committed by Washington in Afghanistan, instead focusing its entire attention on the Taliban. Settling accounts with the war criminals in Washington is the task of the American working class, united in struggle with the working people of Africa, the Middle East and the entire planet. The campaign to reinstate London bus driver David OSullivan, sacked for demanding workplace safety during the coronavirus pandemic, has received strong backing over the past week, with more than 1,000 donated to his CrowdJustice fund appeal. A bus driver supporting David O'Sullivan (right) at Brent Cross credit (WSWS Media) OSullivan has submitted a claim for unfair dismissal against bus company Metroline, owned by global transport giant Comfort DelGro. He has raised 12,707 since May and needs to reach 20,000 by November 24 when his preliminary hearing is scheduled. Readers of the World Socialist Web Site can donate here . The campaign is tapping into growing opposition in the working class to the preventable deaths of more than 160,000 people in the UK and 5 million globally. The lives of key workers, the elderly and vulnerable have been treated as collateral damage in a herd immunity agenda that has prioritised profits over scientifically-based public health measures to eradicate the virus. The worlds 2,365 billionaires grew their wealth by 54 percent (2 trillion) during the first year of the pandemic. Bus and transport workers have left messages on the crowdfund site in recent days. I drove a London bus for five years, wrote Steve. The cabs were uncomfortable, and the heating blew exhaust fumes from traffic or re-circulated air from the passenger compartment into your face. Covid-19 made a bad situation worse. The companies know this, which is why Dave was sacked. Support this campaign! Chris donated 15 and wrote, Best of luck with your case, I also work in public transport and know the danger many drivers face from exposure to covid. Solidarity. Fellow bus driver Larry donated 35, while Sara donated 10, writing, I fully support you in your campaign. Bus drivers have been treated really badly and basically left to dieit is awful. Messages and donations have come from around the world, including the United States, Spain, France, Australia and Ireland. Brian, a toolmaker from France, wrote, All the best in your struggle against this injustice brother David. I had a similar experience, in the 1970s, as a shop steward and works convenor, sacked on spurious grounds and then blacklisted and left out to dry by my trade union. I've been following your struggle on WSWS and I'm in full agreement with their campaign in the working class to build the international rank and file committees. I can see no other way forward. It's up to us now to reorganise society in the interest the vast majority, the working class. OSullivans fight is resonating with other key workers. Penny, a retired NHS worker, sent a message to OSullivans defence campaign, describing his case as a damning indictment of London transport, London Mayor and our government that put transport workers in the frontline of risk, denying them any means of protection and refusing to accept responsibility for the massive number of deaths. They showed absolutely no concern for people and perpetrated deliberate culling of the most vulnerable and millions of deaths. May you win justice for yourself and all those who died and their loved ones. On Thursday, OSullivan sent a message to donors via the Crowdfund site explaining: Support for the campaign is growing. Last week I was interviewed as part of a hard-hitting BBC radio 4 program, Occupational Hazard: the bus drivers who died from Covid. It aired evidence of widespread negligence towards the health and safety of bus workers during the pandemic. The BBC cited evidence proving my concerns about a cluster of Covid infections at Cricklewood bus garage were correct. Yet I was sacked for trying to warn co-workers and for claiming my legal rights to a safe workplace under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act. My fight against unfair dismissal is not just about me, its a test case for the rights of key workers during the pandemic. At least 69 bus workers have died from COVID-19, and the pandemic is far from over. You would never know from the media that more than 1,000 people are dying each week from Covid in the UK and more than 50,000 globally. A driver from Stamford Brook garage, operated by RATP subsidiary London United, highlighted the ongoing dangers faced by bus workers in the pandemic. The driver caught COVID-19 in March this year. Last week, he outlined his concerns in a survey circulated by the London Bus Rank-and-File Committee. He explained that none of his co-workers were informed about his illness, placing their own safety at risk. We asked the manager how many people were off sick with Covid. His reply was, I dont have that figure. He was the staff manager. The driver explained that health and safety at the garage is virtually non-existent, Facemasks have been not bothered with for a while now. If you dont wear one in allocation where all management are present, no one will tell you to wear one. In my opinion, far too little was done to protect drivers during the pandemic, even to the point of not telling us who was killed, who was off sick and who we had been in contact with. People were going off duty with Covideven collapsing at the bus station. But what about all the drivers who had been in contact that day? Nothing done. Our union rep is the health and safety rep, yet during the pandemic he had not yet done any health and safety courses and was on furlough anyway as [were] most of management too. There was no one to take your concerns to. I believe the whole thing about operating buses during the pandemic was all about money. In the first lockdown buses were operating a Sunday service, longer duties for drivers but paid at [lower] Monday to Friday rates. The driver said he was opposed to his colleagues being victimised and sacked for upholding their rights to a safe workplace under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act. He said that his own safety concerns during the pandemic were rarely followed up by Unite the union and that he would support industrial action in defence of health and safety during the pandemic. OSullivans defence campaign is spearheading the fight for a policy of COVID eradication and to push back against the intensified attacks on the conditions, pay and basic rights of the working class all over the world. We urge workers to support the campaign and attend the October 24 online meeting, How to end the pandemic: The case for eradication , called by the World Socialist Web Site and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees. After Australias sudden repudiation of a 56 billion submarine contract with France as it made its AUKUS alliance with the UK and the United States against China, French President Emmanuel Macron is intensifying calls for an independent European Union (EU) military policy. French President Emmanuel Macron visits a call centre of the French Social security insurance dedicated to Covid-19 vaccinations, Monday, March 29, 2021 in Creteil, outside Paris. Arriving at an October 5 EU summit at Brdo castle outside Lubljana, Slovenia, Macron pointed to the signing of the AUKUS treaty and the humiliating US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August. While calling for clarification and re-engagement from Washington in the NATO alliance, he added: But we must be clear with ourselves on what we want for ourselves, our borders, our security, and our energy, industrial, technological and military independence. Macron made clear the signing of the AUKUS treaty had caused lasting damage to EU relations with America. We must be realistic about the decisions that have been taken by our allies. There were choices that were made which I cannot say were signs of respect [for] France or Europe, Macron said. He said the EUs goal at the Lubljana summit was to continue to work in good faith with its historic partners and allies, but also to increase its independence and sovereignty. This means that, even as the EU countries insist they do not have money needed for critical public health policies to eradicate the coronavirus and halt the COVID-19 pandemic, leading EU powers are pledging to massively increase military spending to further their geopolitical ambitions. Both Berlin and Paris, which will hold the EUs rotating presidency for six months at the beginning of 2022, have aggressively pushed for an EU military build-up. The Lubljana summit underscored that US threats against China are intensifying US-EU tensions and the European imperialist powers aggressive moves in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. The same day, just before arriving at the summit, Macron had received in Paris US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for talks on improving US-French relations. Prior to Blinkens arrival, Macron made clear that Blinkens visit would not by itself resolve the crisis over AUKUS. He said, We are obliged to observe that, for somewhat over 10 years, the United States first have concentrated more on themselves and on refocusing their strategic interests on China and the Pacific. That is their right, it is their own sovereignty. And I respect popular sovereignty, but there too, we would be naive, or rather we would commit a terrible error, if we did not draw our own conclusions from this. This is a crisis which is set to last, from which we can get out only by concrete actions, an anonymous French official told Le Monde. Blinken also met his French counterpart, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, but no joint press conference was held. Explaining this unusual decision, a French official curtly said: The two ministers will speak once they have something to say. Macron is scheduled to have a telephone call with Biden in the middle of the month, before meeting him in person at the October 30-31 G-20 summit in Rome. The debacle of decades of escalating US-led wars of aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan and across the Middle East and Central Asia has not resolved but has intensified international conflicts and the danger of war. Thirty years after the 1991 Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union deprived the NATO powers of a common enemy, US-EU tensions are deep and growing. The US withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving a power vacuum in Central Asia, is intensifying great-power rivalries across Eurasia and the danger of a new, US-led war. After Washington and the EU clashed over US attempts to arm far-right Ukrainian militias for war with Russia in 2014-2015, however, there is growing opposition in EU ruling circles at US war threats against China. In a briefing titled Frances Indo-Pacific Third Way, the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace think tank points to differences between Washington and the EU powers revealed by the AUKUS treaty. Despite statements about rallying like-minded democratic countries, the Biden administration failed to anticipate Frances reaction. This will have long-term negative consequences on the United States image and on transatlantic relations, already damaged by Donald Trumps presidency, it wrote, adding, there is a growing sentimentincluding in Frances neighbor Germanythat Washingtons new focus on the Pacific is not in line with EU interests. The French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) think tank criticized the escalating danger of war, including nuclear war, provoked by the AUKUS treaty targeting China. The IFRI warned that the signing of AUKUS may trigger an (nuclear) arms race and that the move dangerously exacerbates tensions in East Asia. It listed Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, as regional powers angered by the AUKUS deal. It cited the Indonesian governments statements that it was deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region and calling on Australia to maintain its commitment towards regional peace, stability and security. Pointing to Frances position in the Indo-Pacific region via its island possessions such as Reunion or New Caledonia, the IFRI concluded, France is not the only country in the Indo-Pacific which doesnt want to follow the US blindly and unconditionally on its risky path against China. The drive to war and great-power conflict is, however, not only the product of aggressive US foreign policies but, more fundamentally, of the capitalist nation-state system itself. The geopolitical methods of the EU imperialist powers are not fundamentally different from the more openly aggressive policy of Washington. With the more limited but still substantial military forces at their disposal, they laid out a policy of consolidating their strategic influence in Europes southern and eastern periphery. This includes moves to absorb former Yugoslav states bombed by Washington and the EU powers in the 1999 NATO war in Yugoslavia, to arm Greece against Turkey, and to escalate Frances neocolonial war in the African country of Mali. The Lubljana summit called to prepare to enlarge the EU into the former Yugoslavia. The summit communique declared, The EU reaffirms its unequivocal support for the European perspective of the Western Balkans. After the summit, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic suggested that Serbia would likely not be able to join the EU without first recognizing the breakaway republic of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence with NATO backing in 2008. Vucic said, Without resolving issues with Pristina [the capital of Kosovo], Serbia would not be able to join the EU. Nonetheless, the EU powers stepped up calls for an aggressive intervention. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said enlarging the EU to include former Yugoslav republics was geopolitically critical. If the European Union does not offer this region a real perspective, we have to be aware that other superpowersChina, Russia or Turkeywill play a bigger role there. The region belongs to Europe geographically, and it needs a European perspective, Kurz said. France also has announced a 3 billion deal to sell three naval frigates to Greece as part of its continuing conflict with Turkey in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean Seas. This sale, criticized by Turkey as a threat to regional peace and stability, was ratified yesterday by the Greek parliament. The deal also reportedly commits the Greek armed forces to sending forces to the French war in Mali and across the Sahel region. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) on Wednesday called off a month of protected industrial action by Patrick Terminals workers at the Port of Melbourne. The dock workers had planned to stop work for 12 hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in October, as part of a 19-month dispute over a new enterprise agreement (EA). Container cranes at Swanson Dock, Port of Melbourne (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) The MUA abandoned the Melbourne stoppages in an act of good faith after around one third of Patricks Melbourne workers were forced into 14-day isolation due to COVID-19 exposure. The cancellation came in response to a request by Patrick CEO Michael Jovicic that the union withdraw the industrial action because of the extenuating circumstances that all terminal operators are experiencing in Melbourne. With Victoria currently facing the worst COVID-19 outbreak seen in any Australian state since the start of the pandemic, Patricks competitors have also been hit by the virus. The Victorian International Container Terminal (VICT) was forced to close for several days late last month, after positive cases were found, and around 18 workers at DP Worlds Melbourne have had to self-isolate in recent weeks. The fact is the current delays at Australias ports are not the product of the limited industrial action called by the MUA, which has negotiated sell-out deals with several of Patricks competitors in recent months. The MUA agreed at the highly automated VICT to enforce a ten-year strike ban, in exchange for a minimal pay increase. The union has ensured that workers have been isolated. Any industrial action it has allowed has been organised to ensure minimal disruption to port operations. The MUAs swift cancellation of the Melbourne strike is a continuation of this, and a strong indication that a similar sell-out is being prepared for Patrick workers. Disruption from COVID-19 and limited industrial action has also not hurt Patricks bottom line, with the stevedore recording an annual net profit of $25.6 million in the year to June 30. In reality, the congestion at Australias ports is part of a global supply chain crisis, stemming from the inability of global capitalism to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, the MUA, along with Australias other unions, has demonstrated that its concern is not for the health and safety of workers but with ensuring the continued operations and profitability of big business. Late last month, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), headed by MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin, joined forces with transport employer groups to issue an open letter, demanding that: Seafarers, air crew and drivers must be able to continue to do their jobs, and cross borders, to keep supply chains moving. In other words, the ITF is entirely on board with the capitalist attitude to the pandemic: Let it rip and ensure corporate profit-making activities continue, whatever the health consequences. While workers at Patricks Melbourne and Brisbane ports have already reached in-principle agreement, they are striking in solidarity with workers in Sydney and Fremantle, where negotiations are ongoing. Limited industrial action will continue at the companys other ports, throughout October: Patrick workers in Brisbane will carry out two four-hour stoppages today, a 24-hour strike next Thursday and a 24-hour ban on overtime, shift extensions, upgrades and off/avail work next Friday. At Patricks Fremantle port, upgrade bans are in place over the next two weekends, and workers will down tools for one hour per shift every weekday from October 11 to October 23. This follows a 48-hour strike held over the last weekend in September. No further action is planned in Sydney, after a 48-hour strike held last weekend. The company is offering annual pay rises of 2.5 percent, well below the recently announced official CPI increase of 3.8 percent. The union has agreed to enforce this figure, which amounts to a pay cut in real terms, having abandoned its initial demand for a 6 percent increase. In October 2020, Patrick asked the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to order the termination of strike action, on the grounds that it would negatively impact the economy. Before the hearings were complete, the MUA offered Patrick a peace deal, pledging to halt all industrial action for two years, in exchange for a 2.5 percent pay rise and the retention of existing EA conditions. Although the company refused to accept this deal, the union nevertheless called off the planned strikes and did not carry out any further industrial action at Patrick ports until May this year. Patrick wants to remove clauses in the current EA, requiring consultation with workers and the union over significant change, and the hiring of supplementary, i.e., casual, workers. The company claims these measures have resulted in lengthy delays in hiring new workers. MUA Assistant National Secretary Jamie Newlyn stated: This agreement is about protecting permanent jobs on the waterfront, so we leave the job in a better position than when we found it. In reality, the previous EA, brokered by the MUA in 2016, made it easier for the company to hire new casual workers, as long as the union agreed to it. Two sub-clauses were removed from the 2012 EA, which stated: 9.2 It is the intent to minimise or eliminate use of supplementary employees in all areas covered by this Agreement; 9.3 It is not the intent to employ supplementary employees in the terminals. Robert Gottliebsen, writing in the Murdoch-owned Australian newspaper, claimed late last month that Patrick workers, in an effort to become lords of the waterfront, are seeking new provisions in the EA guaranteeing jobs to friends and family. The claim is based on a recent deal struck by the MUA at Hutchison Ports, under which, around 40 percent of new hires will be sourced from families and friends of employees, 30 percent through names offered by the union and the remaining 30 percent determined by management. In reality, this arrangement has nothing to do with protecting secure well-paid jobs, but is bound up with increasing the unions control over the workforce. The MUA has denied that such a provision is being demanded in the Patrick dispute. Gottliebsen continued: [I]f the Patrick directors cave in, then autocracy will sweep through the waterfront and productivity gains will be lost for a century or more. The nation has a lot of [sic] stake. Gottliebsens is just one of a series of hysterical denunciations of the industrial action to have recently appeared in the Australian corporate media. The tone of these articles demonstrates just how sensitive the ruling class is to any disruption to the countrys supply chain. An editorial column in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) entitled Time to scrape the MUA barnacle off the waterfront, characterised dock workers as privileged labour aristocrats out to cripple Christmas. Claiming that the MUA was exploiting a legalised labour monopoly chokehold on a critical supply point, to extract economic rents for its members, the AFR called for Patrick or the federal government to have the Fair Work Commission issue stop orders to keep Australias vital ports operating. In other words, any attempt by workers to defend their pay and conditions must be stopped, in order to protect the profit interests of shipping companies, exporters, retailers and other major corporations. The AFR claimed the current round of industrial action meant it was time to deal with the unfinished business of the 1998 waterfront dispute. The article lauded the actions of then Patrick CEO, Chris Corrigan, when the unions labour monopoly was temporarily broken. On that occasion, more than 1,400 workers were sacked, herded from the waterfront by armed guards and attack dogs, and replaced with scabs. Despite mass opposition to the actions of Patrick, and a compelling legal case of illegal conspiracy against both the company and the federal Liberal government, the MUA betrayed the struggle and enforced the destruction of 625 permanent jobs. This followed on from waterfront reform, carried out by the Hawke and Keating Labor governments between 1987 and 1991, with the full support of the maritime unions, in which more than half the countrys waterfront jobs were destroyed. This record of betrayal, along with the MUAs recent sell-out deals and its cancellation of the Melbourne strikes, must stand as a warning to Australias maritime workers. The present dispute cannot be left in the hands of the MUA. Workers must fight for the formation of independent rank-and-file committees to organise a genuine industrial and political struggle, as part of developing a counter-offensive to company-union attacks across the entire waterfront. A study released Thursday in the journal Pediatrics found that from April 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, over 140,000 children in the US experienced the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver due to COVID-19. The results follow the July release of a study in The Lancet by the same lead author, Dr. Susan Hillis, which estimated that the same figure globally stood at 1.56 million children through the end of April 2021. A procession of vehicles drive past photos of Detroit victims of COVID-19, Monday, Aug. 31, 2020 on Belle Isle in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) These staggering figures underscore the immense scale of the tragedy that has swept across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the US, nearly one in four of the 621,656 deaths from COVID-19 by June 30 were those of parents or caregivers to children. The latest study notes, the lives of these children are permanently changed by the deaths of their mothers, fathers, or grandparents who provided their homes, needs, and care, adding, Loss of parents is associated with mental health problems, shorter schooling, lower self-esteem, sexual risk behaviors, and risks of suicide, violence, sexual abuse, and exploitation. Loss of co-residing grandparents can impact psycho-social, practical, and/or financial support for grandchildren. After a caregivers death, family circumstances may change, and children may face housing instability, separations, and lack of nurturing support. The level of trauma inflicted on an entire generation of young people is unfathomable. While the ruling elite and their media endlessly repeat the mantra that everyone must learn to live with the virus, in reality more and more families are being ripped apart as nearly 7,000 people continue to die from COVID-19 worldwide each day. Every childs needless loss of a parent is a life-altering event, the vast majority of which have not been written on or covered by the corporate media. Some of those which have been covered offer a glimpse into the social crisis confronting these youth. In late August, five children from Yucaipa, California, were orphaned after both their parents, Davy and Daniel Macias, died from COVID-19 in the same week. Their entire family was infected with the virus during a vacation, with the children recovering but their parents becoming steadily more ill. The children, with the eldest only 7 years old, now live with their grandparents. Terry Seri, Daniel Maciass sister-in-law, told local press that they spend a lot of time at night looking for mom and dad. Also in August, in Mississippi, a 32-year-old mother of a newborn child died from COVID-19 only months after her husband succumbed to the virus, leaving the baby girl orphaned. In neighboring Alabama, a single mother of seven is now raising 12 children on her own after her sister and brother-in-law died from COVID-19 in the same month, orphaning their five children. In Michigan, seven children were orphaned in early September after their mother, Charletta Green, died from COVID-19, and their father Troy, who also had COVID-19, died from a heart attack that began shortly after he learned that his wife was taking a turn for the worse. Given the lack of comprehensive testing and contact tracing, there is no way to measure the precise number of infections that have been caused by the reopening of schools before COVID-19 was contained. However, multiple studies and analyses of government data have shown strong correlations between school reopenings and surges of the virus in their surrounding communities. Undoubtedly, a substantial number of the parents and caregivers who have died from COVID-19 were infected by their children who had been compelled to return to unsafe schools. Capitalist politicians throughout the world have pushed to reopen schools by cynically professing their concern for the mental health and well-being of children who struggled with remote learning. In reality, school reopenings were always driven by the needs of the corporations to have parents back at work producing profits. Just as these same politicians continuously cut education and social spending and never cared about the well-being of children before the pandemic, so, today, they have no concern for the mental health of millions of children whose parents and caregivers have died from COVID-19. There is enormous opposition within the international working class to the pandemic policies implemented by the ruling elites, and a growing desire to fight for the eradication of COVID-19 worldwide. This found powerful expression in the October 1 global school strike initiated by British parent Lisa Diaz. Throughout the week leading up to and including October 1, the primary hashtag for the event#SchoolStrike2021was used over 26,000 times in dozens of countries around the world. Asked about the studies on children who have lost parents and caregivers to COVID-19, Diaz told the World Socialist Web Site, The governments and those who need us to keep working go on and on about mental health. But theres a severe risk of the parents dying, which will have a far greater impact on childrens mental health than remote learning for a couple months. These children now have to live with the thought that they might have accidentally killed their parents. If schools cant be open and safe, if theres going to be any kind of transmission in schools, they need to be shut down. In addition to the loss of their parents and loved ones, children themselves can be severely impacted and die from COVID-19. Recent studies indicate that roughly one in seven infected children develops Long COVID, suffering debilitating symptoms months after infection. Last week, 22 children died from the virus in the US, bringing the cumulative pediatric death toll to 520. COVID-19 is now the leading cause of death among children in Brazil, with 1,518 children ages 10-19 dying from the virus in the first half of 2021. During a major surge of the Delta variant in Indonesia this summer, over 700 children died from COVID-19 in July alone. It is no exaggeration to state that the future of an entire generation now hangs in the balance. If the strategies of herd immunity or its variant of enacting limited mitigation measures remain dominant worldwide, COVID-19 will continue to spread through schools, factories and other workplaces, with millions more people dying and masses of children scarred for life. The only scientifically-grounded and viable strategy for putting an end to this needless suffering and death is one which aims at the global eradication of COVID-19. This entails a globally-coordinated vaccination program, mass testing, contact tracing, the safe isolation of infected patients, masking and the deployment of all other public health measures in every country. Wherever the virus is spreading, schools and nonessential workplaces must be temporarily closed until daily new cases are brought to zero, with workers and small business people guaranteed full income protection during lock-downs. Outlining the scientific basis for these measures and how they can be implemented will be the central focus of the October 24 meeting organized by the World Socialist Web Site and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, How to end the pandemic: The case for eradication. A panel of distinguished scientists and workers will review the present state of the pandemic and chart a course to eradicate COVID-19 worldwide. All those who wish to fight for this program to save lives should register today, invite your coworkers, friends and family, and share the event widely across social media. The announcement by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that her Labour Party-led government will no longer pursue an elimination strategy for COVID-19 has provoked considerable shock and anger, as well as significant confusion. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking at a press conference in September 2020. (Image Credit: Jacinda Arden/Facebook) Internationally, working people and public health experts have looked to New Zealand as a model of a more science- and health-based approach to the pandemic. Until now, NZ was one of a small handful of countries, including China, with a policy of responding to any outbreak of COVID-19 by imposing strict lockdowns and other public health measures to reduce case numbers to zero. Governments in the United States, Europe, Latin America and virtually everywhere else have adopted criminal policies of letting the virus spread, driven by the demands of big business for workplaces and schools to reopen, at the expense of the health and lives of workers. As a result, between 9.9 and 18.5 million people have died from COVID-19, according to the Economist. New Zealand eliminated a nationwide outbreak in 2020 and has largely kept cases out of the community. Just 28 people have died of COVID-19, one of the lowest death tolls in the world. The Labour government, however, has repeatedly sought to accommodate the interests of big business by easing restrictions and lifting lockdowns before it was safe to do so, and by providing multi-billion dollar subsidies and bailouts. Now, the government has succumbed to intense pressure from the business elite to explicitly abandon elimination. This shift comes in the middle of an outbreak in Auckland, the biggest city, which has now spread into the nearby Waikato region. There are 406 active community cases, with dozens being added every day. The Socialist Equality Group categorically opposes the governments decision. We call on working people to urgently take matters into their own hands by forming rank-and-file safety committees to oppose any attempt to reopen non-essential workplaces and schools while COVID-19 is spreading in the community, and to fight for a scientific elimination strategy. All non-essential workers in Auckland and other areas where the virus has spread must isolate themselves at home, with a guarantee that they will continue to be fully paid, until the outbreak is over. This response must be funded by taxing the wealth of the billionaires and corporations, which have continued to profit throughout the pandemic. No expense can be spared to save thousands of lives. The government is highly conscious that ending elimination is deeply unpopular. Surveys have shown around 80 percent of the country supports the elimination strategy and the use of lockdowns. Ardern tried to downplay the significance of the decision during Mondays press conference. She said the lockdown in Auckland has not got us to zero cases. But that is okay. Elimination was important because we didnt have vaccines. Now we do, so we can begin to change the way we do things. When a reporter asked: the public health experts think elimination is still possible, so why abandon it now? Ardern replied: Were in a transition, so I think its a bit too crude to simply say were abandoning our approach. No one should be fooled by this attempt to fudge what is happening. Plainly, it is not possible to simultaneously maintain an elimination strategy and transition away from it. On Wednesday, Minister for COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins reiterated: Our strategy to date of keeping COVID-19 out has served us well, but we can't keep doing that forever. As the prime minister said on Monday, getting back to zero cases of COVID-19 in the community is unlikely. We need to prepare for a gradual transition to the next phase of our COVID-19 response. Arderns announcement was preceded by a campaign in the New Zealand media demanding that the government admit that elimination has failed and the country must learn to live with the virus; that is, to accept large numbers of deaths and hospitalisations. In late September, former National Party Prime Minister John Key wrote a widely-syndicated column against the elimination approach, accusing the government of turning the country into a hermit kingdom like North Korea. The international corporate media greeted Arderns announcement with triumphalism. Britains Daily Telegraph said she had acknowledged something most other leaders did long ago: her government may never completely get rid of the coronavirus. The New York Times similarly said Ardern had acknowledged an end to the elimination strategy seven weeks into a lockdown that has failed to halt an outbreak of the Delta variant. The Times falsely said Ardern was responding to public discontent. As evidence, it pointed to an anti-lockdown protest held two days before Arderns announcement, without mentioning that the event was organised by the extreme right-wing Destiny Church, and opposed by the vast majority of the population. In fact, the government is moving rapidlynot graduallyto loosen the lockdown, despite signs that it was succeeding in lowering case numbers. On September 22, when Aucklands alert level was lowered from 4 (the strictest lockdown) to 3, the total size of the outbreak was 272 cases. Then as many as 300,000 more people returned to workplaces, and schools and early childcare centres partially reopened. The number of active community cases increased to 406, as of today. This week, the government allowed more children to return to early childcare, and Auckland residents to gather in small groups outdoors and engage in activities like swimming and hunting. Schools are set to reopen on October 18, and there are plans to reopen more retail and hospitality businesses, and public buildings, in coming weeks. New Zealand scientists have warned that these moves could lead to the spread of COVID-19 throughout the country. Epidemiologist Michael Baker told Radio NZ that all New Zealanders should plan to encounter this virus in the next couple of months and act accordingly. Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles wrote in the Spinoff that she was gutted when the prime minister announced on Monday her roadmap out of our current restrictions, which signalled a pragmatic transition from the elimination strategy to one of suppression. Wiles told the Guardian that reopening would be felt differently by different classes: the wealthy and privileged are going to still live a wealthy and privileged life, where they may not be touchedcompared to other communities that may well end up being devastated by it. The governments own commissioned modelling shows that, without lockdowns, even with 80 percent of the eligible population (those aged over 12) vaccinated there could be 7,000 deaths and 58,000 hospitalisations in the space of a year. At present, just 42 percent of the total population is fully vaccinatedless than in the US and UK, which are experiencing an explosion of COVID-19 cases and deaths after lifting restrictions. Vaccination rates are particularly low in working class areas and among Maori, who have much higher rates of poverty and poor health. New Zealands vaccine rollout was delayed by the government, which decided to only source vaccines from Pfizer and signed contracts with the company at the end of 2020. Vaccinations only began to ramp up following the August lockdown. Contrary to the medias narrative, the Labour Party-led government has never been seriously committed to an elimination strategy. On March 19, 2020, as New Zealand was being hit with the first wave of the pandemic, with 28 cases identified in the country, director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told the media that the government was not discussing a nationwide lockdown. The following day, Ardern told Newstalk ZB there was no plan to close schools. The government only changed its position and announced a lockdown on March 23 out of fear of an incipient movement in the working class, emerging outside the control of the corporatist unions. Two separate online petitions started by doctors had quickly gained a combined 150,000 signatures backing the demand for an immediate lockdown. The teacher and nurses unions opposed the demand for a lockdown until the day Ardern announced it. In country after country, the pattern was the same: governments only imposed lockdowns and other restrictions grudgingly, in response to wildcat strikes, walkouts and other protest actions taken outside of the unions. In the US and other countries, the unions are now playing a central role in enforcing the reopening of schools, while Delta spreads out of control. The Socialist Equality Group warns that it is fatal to hope that Labour can be pressured by appeals to reverse course. This is the illusion cultivated by the Green Party, Labours coalition partner in the government, which issued a statement appealing for the government to keep its elimination goal. The Ardern government is riding roughshod over public sentiment and obeying the dictates of the financial and business elite. Powerful interests have determined that New Zealand must no longer serve as an example demonstrating that the virus can be eliminated. It is joining other governments, such as Australia and Singapore, that previously adopted stringent measures against the pandemic, but are one by one abandoning these strategies and allowing the virus to spread. The fight for elimination now depends directly on the building of a movement of the working class, which is the only force in society with no interest in the defence of capitalist profits at the cost of unending deaths. Workersincluding teachers, healthcare workers, parents and young peoplemust organise independently of the entire political establishment to defend their safety and protect lives. This requires a complete break from the trade unions, which are supporting the reopening drive in every country, including New Zealand. These organisations do not represent working people, but are closely allied to the political establishment and big business, and have acted as enforcers for austerity and mass redundancies over the past two years. Workers must build new organisations that they control, to organise a global fightback against the homicidal policies of the ruling elite. The way forward was indicated by the October 1 parents strike in Britain, which was organised outside and in opposition to the unions and established parties, and received strong international support. We urge readers to attend the upcoming webinar How to end the pandemic: The case for eradication, hosted by the WSWS and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, which will discuss the science of the pandemic and the measures that must be taken to put an end to it, and to save millions of lives. On October 6, thousands of striking Sri Lankan teachers and principals demonstrated across the island, including in the war-ravaged North and East, as part of their campaign for higher wages. For the past three months about 250,000 government school teachers have been involved in an online teaching strike to demand decent salaries. Protesting teacher in Colombo on October 5 [Photo-WSWS Media] The protests, which coincided with National Teachers Day, were held in 300 education divisions and involved over 200 teachers at each location in spite of minimal efforts by the teachers unions to organise the events. Teachers gathered at public places in the morning, chanting slogans against the government and holding placards such as, Happy teachers day but teachers are unhappy, pay the salaries entitled to teachers, save free education and Stop the victimisation of teachers. Two weeks ago, Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara threatened to suppress the teachers strike in the way we destroyed terrorism. Reacting to Wednesdays protests, he declared that the governments response to the strikers had been too mild and that severe action would be taken in the future. Dozens of teachers were arrested at earlier protests. The Rajapakse government deployed its henchmen in several areas on Wednesday to intimidate the protesting teachers. Health officials and police attempted to disrupt a demonstration at the Dehiattakandiya education division in the Eastern province, accusing teachers of violating COVID-19 social distancing regulations. The government, working in conjunction with the media, is also attempting to whip up public sentiment against the teachers, declaring that their wage demands are unjustified during the pandemic and falsely claiming that the education of children has collapsed because of the strike. The teacher unions leadership has done nothing to rally working-class support against the government attacks. Wednesdays protests were called instead to divert teachers into more bankrupt appeals to the government. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday morning, Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) Secretary Joseph Stalin apologetically said, If the government refuses to continue negotiating with us, what else can we do but take to the streets? In fact, the unions, which have already made clear they are willing to accept the governments paltry wage offer, are appealing for more talks in order to negotiate a face-saving promise from the government and end the strike. Striking Colombo teachers demand higher salaries [Photo: WSWS Media] Teachers have demanded a 31,000-rupee ($US150) increase in the monthly salaries of first grade teachers and a 10,000-rupee rise for newly-recruited lowest grade teachers. The government has only offered 11,000 rupees and 5,000 rupees respectively, with other grades to receive similar small amounts. A cabinet subcommittee appointed by President Gotabhaya Rajapakse has said its proposed increases would be announced in the governments forthcoming November budget and paid in four annual instalments. Indicating the unions readiness to betray teachers demands, Stalin told the press conference: We are not asking for a pound of meat. We have taken a step back. Give us the amount promised by the government at once, without instalments. Give us another discussion to resolve it. Over the past 24 years, successive governments, including the current Rajapakse regime, aided and abetted by the unions, have rejected teachers wage demands. As a result, Sri Lankan teachers are now among the lowest-paid public sector workers in the country. The treachery of the unions this time around is no different from the previous two decades. While the trade unions slavishly beg the government for talks, protesting teachers denounced the government and education authorities for refusing to address their demands. One teacher said: The rulers are enjoying everything without even looking at our problems. Another told the media that she curses the rulers. When police and health officials attempted to disperse their protests, teachers angrily declared, The government has ignored heavy traffic and congestion everywhere else in the country after lifting [COVID-19] travel restrictions but now are trying to stop teachers protests which are being held according to health guidelines. Addressing a government-organised Teachers Day event, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse cynically declared: The struggle to win rights of a profession has no boundaries, but the dignity of the teaching profession must be protected at all times Teachers are responsible to ensure students get back on track. In other words, teachers should end their strike action and accept the governments plans to reopen schools as COVID-19 rages across the country. On the same day, Murutthettuwe Ananda, a Buddhist monk and leader of the Public Service United Nurses Union (PSUNU), held an all-party conference to force the government to address teachers problems. Ananda is a longtime Rajapakse supporter and worked to bring the current government to power. The PSUNU leader told the event that he was personally phoned the previous day by the Sri Lankan president and prime minister, who called on him to intervene in the teachers struggle. Ananda said that the president asked him to take this issue into your hands and we will resolve teachers problems through negotiations. Anandas admission makes clear that he was acting on behalf of the government to try and suppress the teachers struggle and end the strike. Anandas PSUNU previously directed its members not to join a national strike of more than 90,000 health workers on September 27 for a continuation of pandemic-related special allowances and several other demands. In early July, he played a central role in shutting down strike action by around 30,000 nurses demanding a 10,000-rupee disturbance, availability and transport allowance, an increased uniform allowance and a five-day working week. Ananda met with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse on the second day of that strike and agreed to his bogus promises and then shut down the nurses industrial action. The PSUNUs so-called all-party conference was attended by representatives of previous governments who had rejected teachers pay demands. These included parliamentary opposition leader Sajith Premadasa from the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and former President Maithripala Sirisena, who along with other factions of the ruling elite fear the teachers action could become a catalyst for a broader political movement of the working class. The Teacher-Student-Parent Safety Committee (TSPSC), which was initiated by the Socialist Equality Party, published a special statement addressed to the protesting teachers. Entitled Defeat the Rajapakse governments repressive policies! Build action committees and rally the support of other workers for the teachers wage struggle! it explained the political challenges facing teachers and how to take forward their fight. Teachers protest in Nuwara Eliya [Photo credit: Facebook, Malayaga Kuruvi] A protesting teacher from Ambalangoda in the Southern Province told the WSWS that more teachers would have taken part in the protests but they distrust the union leaders. She was surprised that the unions did not say a word about calling on support from other workers, and added, This is very essential to defend our struggle. Another teacher from the Gelioya area in the Central Province said that teachers were protesting because they could not survive on their meagre salaries. Were involved in this action not because of the unions calls. In fact, this time the trade unions did not even provide proper publicity [about the protest]. The teachers themselves are participating because they are determined to show that we cannot give up this struggle, he said. Piradeepan, a teacher from Jaffna, the Northern Province capital, rejected government and media claims that Tamil-speaking teachers in the North were not involved in the strike. Its a lie that Tamil teachers are not participating in this struggle. Protests are taking place all over Vavuniya, Mannar and Kilinochchi. All teachers are in an equal struggle for survival. To work with satisfaction, teachers need a decent salary. That is a common need, Piradeepan said. Demonstrating teachers in Jaffna [Photo: WSWS Media] The TSPSC statement called on other sections of the working class to support the teachers. Sri Lankan workers, the statement said, must unite with the teachers struggle and build rank-and-file committees independent of the trade unions in schools, neighbourhoods and workplaces and organise other class actions, such as protests and strikes. These rank-and-file committees, the statement continued, must fightnot on the bankrupt program of pressuring capitalist governments to win concessionsbut for mobilising the industrial and political strength of the working class to overthrow the capitalist system and establish a workers and peasants government and for international socialism. Over the past week, TSPSC members have held discussions on this program with members of several rank-and-file committees in the health sector. VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Two Vigo County teens will face charges after police said they set to an abandoned house. Last month, the Seelyville Fire Department called Indiana State Police after they put out a fire at an empty house at 1140 North Pointer Street. Firefighters suspected the cause of the blaze was arson - since no electricity was on at the time of the fire. Witnesses told police they saw what appeared to be two minors running from the house just before they saw smoke. After their investigation, police arrested two teens - a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old. Because of their ages, they were not identified. Both teens face charges of: (CNN) -- The US is making headway in its battle against Covid-19 -- with infection and hospitalization rates on the decline after a surge fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant. But with the number of Americans getting booster shots surpassing those who are initiating vaccination, experts warn more is needed to continue the progress. The country has averaged more than 101,200 new cases a day over the last week -- down 41% from a peak in a Delta-driven wave reached in mid-September, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The number of Covid-19 patients in US hospitals -- 68,760 as of Thursday -- is down 34% from a Delta-wave peak reached in September, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Just over 56% of the total US population is fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This wave is receding, but unless we get the nearly 70 million unvaccinated Americans vaccinated, we are at risk for future waves," Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the CDC, told CNN on Wednesday. An average of 384,963 booster vaccine doses are being given daily, while roughly 281,303 people are getting their first dose every day and about 292,927 people are becoming fully vaccinated each day, according to Wednesday's CDC data. Meanwhile, the number of Americans eligible for a vaccine could soon expand. Pfizer and BioNTech said Thursday they are seeking US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization for their Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. If authorized, this would be the first Covid-19 vaccine for younger children. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is approved for people age 16 and older and has an EUA for people ages 12 to 15. An FDA vaccine advisory panel is scheduled to discuss Pfizer's request on October 26. If the FDA authorizes it, a panel of CDC vaccine advisers will meet to consider whether to recommend its use. In New Mexico, more people are getting vaccinated, but it's not happening quickly enough to bring down Covid-19 cases, according to Dr. David Scrase, the acting health director at the state's health department. "Our Delta curve went up pretty steeply, and it's not coming down," Scrase said. "In fact, it's plateaued." Scrase explained he's concerned health care workers are getting exhausted. "In the northwest (region of New Mexico) ... the hospitals are really, really, really overwhelmed," Scrase said. "I've just talked to too many people that say as soon as this curve comes down, they're stepping back from their whole health care career. They just can't do it anymore." And with winter fast approaching, experts are reinforcing the importance of getting vaccinated against both Covid-19 and the flu because they pose a double threat to an already strained health care system. Case numbers for a rare Covid-19 complication in children are seeing a 12% increase, according to the CDC. There have been 5,217 reported cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) through October 4. At least 46 children have died from the illness, a more than 12% increase in deaths from the month before and one of the largest increases this year. Researchers: Covid-19 killed parents or grandparents of 140,000 US children, and minorities were hit harder More than 140,000 US children have lost a parent or grandparent who took care of them to Covid-19, researchers at the CDC and elsewhere reported Thursday. That's about 1 in 500 US children, the researchers said. And children from racial and ethnic minorities were far more likely to lose such a caregiver, the CDC-led team found. National Center for Health Statistics data through June showed that children of racial and ethnic minorities accounted for 65% of those who lost a primary caregiver, while White children accounted for 35%. That's even though minorities account for just 39% of the US population. "During 15 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, 120,630 children in the US experienced death of a primary caregiver, including parents and grandparents providing basic needs, because of Covid-19-associated death. Additionally, 22,007 children experienced death of secondary caregivers, for a total of 142,637 children losing primary or secondary caregivers," the researchers wrote in the journal Pediatrics. Worst hit were kids in Southern border states. Hispanic children in these states accounted for anywhere between 50% and 67% of affected children. In Southeastern states, up to 57% of affected children are Black, and in states with tribal territories, American Indian/Alaska Native children accounted for up to 55% of kids who lost a parent or other primary caregiver to Covid-19, according to the researchers. "Beyond parents, grandparents are increasingly indispensable, often providing basic needs. In the US from 2011 to 2019, 10% of children lived with a grandparent and in 2019, 4.5 million children lived with a grandparent providing their housing. Black, Hispanic, and Asian children are twice as likely as White children to live with a grandparent," they wrote. "Loss of parents is associated with mental health problems, shorter schooling, lower self-esteem, sexual risk behaviors, and risks of suicide, violence, sexual abuse, and exploitation," they added. "Yet, there is hope. Safe and effective vaccines can stop Covid-19-associated orphanhood and death of caregivers from negatively impacting children and families." Immunity from Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine wanes, studies show The immune protection offered by two doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine drops off after two months or so, although protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death remains strong, according to two real-world studies published Wednesday. The studies -- from Israel and Qatar and published in the New England Journal of Medicine -- support arguments that even fully vaccinated people need to maintain precautions against infection. One study from Israel showed antibody levels wane rapidly after two doses of vaccine "especially among men, among persons 65 years of age or older, and among persons with immunosuppression." The study also indicated that immunity for people who get vaccinated after natural Covid-19 infection lasts longer. It's especially strong for people who recovered from infection and then got vaccinated, the study found. A second study from Qatar looked at actual infections among the highly vaccinated population of that small Gulf nation. People there mostly got Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine. The study found protection induced by the Pfizer vaccine "builds rapidly after the first dose, peaks in the first month after the second dose, and then gradually wanes in subsequent months," the research team wrote. "The waning appears to accelerate after the fourth month, to reach a low level of approximately 20% in subsequent months," they added. Nonetheless, protection against hospitalization and death stayed at above 90%, researchers said. The Pfizer vaccine is authorized by the FDA for use as a booster for people 65 and older, people at high risk of severe disease and people whose jobs put them at risk of infection. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, continued to tout the importance of vaccination Wednesday, and cautioned those hoping a promising but unapproved antiviral pill will eliminate the need for inoculation. The drug, called Molnupiravir, was developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. The companies said last week that the pill could potentially cut in half the risk of death from Covid-19, but Fauci said it needs more scrutiny before it can be considered for authorization. "It is very important that this now must go through the usual process of careful examination of the data by the Food and Drug Administration both for effectiveness, but also for safety, because whenever you introduce a new compounds, safety is very important," Fauci said. He also noted, it's more important to prevent disease than to treat it. "Vaccines -- they remain our best tools against Covid-19, because it is much, much better to prevent ourselves from getting infected than having to treat an infection." The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) A fair housing nonprofit is suing one of Indianas oldest banks, Old National Bank, accusing it of discriminating against Black mortgage borrowers through strategies that include seeking to limit its residential lending business to predominantly white areas and customers. The Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana filed the complaint against the Evansville-based bank on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. It contends that the bank deliberately engaged in housing discrimination against Blacks that amounts to redlining and violates the Fair Housing Act, The Indianapolis Star reported. Although the 1968 federal act outlawed redlining, it persists today in the form of racially discriminatory lending practices and the undervaluing of homes owned by Black Americans, according to housing advocates and researchers. The FHCCI accuses Old National Bank of strategies that include deliberately seeking to limit its residential lending business to predominantly white areas and customers, and removing branches in Black neighborhoods. The suit asks the court to issue a permanent injunction requiring the bank to take all necessary steps to remedy the effects of its alleged redlining and to order it to pay damages. Old National Bank said in a statement that it strongly and categorically denies the claims made by the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana regarding certain lending practices. Old National is committed to engaging in fair and equal lending practices. The bank, which declined to comment further because the lawsuit is ongoing, is the largest bank holding company headquartered in Indiana, according to its website. It has nearly $23.6 billion in assets and 166 branches across Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The FHCCI said its allegations against Old National Bank were based on a fair housing investigation it launched in 2016 that looked into the practices of central Indiana lenders. That investigation found that Old National Bank made more than 2,250 mortgage loans in the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson metropolitan area in 2019 and 2020, but only 37 were to Black borrowers, the suit alleges. The bank also identified the borrowers race for more than 91% of those loans, according to the complaint. Over the time period reviewed, Old National Bank has been one of the worst performers in making mortgage loans to Black home seekers in Central Indiana, Amy Nelson, executive director of the FHCCI, said in a news release. Old Nationals peer lenders did a substantially better job at serving the credit needs of Black residents. PUTNAM COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - A Terre Haute man will spend more than 80 years in prison for the murder of a Greencastle woman. A judge sentenced John Gonzales to 87 and a half years for killing Melissa Attkisson in January of 2020. He was convicted in August. Attkisson was found dead inside of a home, and police said Gonzales was later found with some of her belongings. What happened? At the time of the murder, Attkisson's son told police her black SUV was missing. Police also learned her credit and debit cards, as well as her cell phone, and a pink and silver handgun, were also missing. Autopsy results showed Attkisson died from blunt force trauma to the head. LINK | Terre Haute man charged for Greencastle murder Gonzales was arrested in Rock Island, Illinois, where he wrecked Attkisson's SUV. The Putnam County Sheriff's Office also identified Gonzalez as the person who sold Attkisson's cell phone at the south Walmart in Terre Haute. That cell phone had a video clip of Attkisson shortly before her death. Police say she could be heard calling out 'John' and pleading for help. She also appeared to have a gunshot wound to her side and a severely battered face. The pink and silver handgun was on the bed. Police were able to identify Gonzalez as the person who took the images. STARKVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) - Getting a vaccine can be inconvenient for people living in rural areas. To help with that, Oktibbeha County Hospital teamed up with a church on Thursday afternoon to bring the vaccine to the outskirts of Starkville. OCH administered COVID vaccines and COVID boosters on August 13, 2021. OCH administered COVID vaccines and COVID boosters on August 13, 2021. Tyrone Stallings is a pastor at New Zion United Methodist Church in Starkville. His church hosted the pop-up vaccine clinic as a way to minimize the effects of the pandemic on our daily lives. The fear that you have now for not coming to church or going to different events that you normally would go," explained Stallings, "[if you] take your shot, youll be protected." Stallings and numerous other Starkville residents got their boosters with the help of OCH nurses. However, some people, like Maggie Edmonds, came for her first dose of the vaccine. She explained that she was hesitant at first to get the shots because of some underlying diseases, but now she believes it is the best thing for her and her family. If I go head-on and have it done," said Edmonds, "I will be more able to get out more comfortably around other people. Both Edmonds and Stallings encouraged others to get vaccinated and have a message to those on the fence with their decision. Its not something to be afraid of just do it, said Edmonds. If you dont get it for others, get it for yourself," said Stallings. "If you dont want to get it for yourself, get it for the ones you love. OCH and the Mississippi Core of the RURAL Study at UMMC also held a clinic later on Thursday in Crawford at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. TUPELO, Miss (WTVA)- Starting Friday, people across Mississippi can head to South Broadway Street to taste chili from 18 contestant. They will also get the chance to vote for their favorite one. City workers and organizers set up for the festival on Thursday. Organizers canceled the event last year because of social distancing concerns. Dalton Russell with the Downtown Tupelo Main Street association, said theyre happy to warm everyones bellys with some chili once again. Were really excited. Its been a rough past couple of years. We last had this event in 2019, but were excited to get back at it," he said. Organizers are encouraging everyone to wear their mask at the festival. Its easy to want to avoid or turn away from The First Wave and the events that it chronicles; after 18 months of worldwide disruption, struggle and loss, youd be forgiven for not wanting to revisit it. But Matthew Heinemans documentary becomes a must-see almost as instantly as it captures some of the worst moments of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its worth soldiering through even if its subject matter hits especially close to home. Setting up shop in Queens Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Heineman and his crew film the first three months of the pandemic as its staff navigates an event for which the description unprecedented has become an overused term but never an inaccurate one. The filmmakers juxtaposition of overworked physicians and desperate patients offers a concentrated and intimate look at the bottomless, unimaginable depths of loss as well as the indefatigable reservoir of hope that sustains humanity during its darkest moments. The film opens as a man who has contracted COVID says goodbye to his wife on the telephone, rallies momentarily, and then dies. The doctors around him observe a moment of silence, but he is among a deluge of patients they will see in the coming months; It went from three to all, observes Nathalie Douge, an internist who, like her colleagues, soon finds herself working longer and longer hours with worse and worse results. Douge is one of the staff members who has to call the families of patients who are admitted to the hospital, and she contemplates the challenge of empathizing with them while also recognizing how maintaining a safe distance is sadly healthier for her to soldier on against seemingly insurmountable odds. Heineman frames the progression of the pandemic through press conferences from New York governor Andrew Cuomo, but mostly and perhaps rightly avoids politicizing the choices his administration made as the world struggled to know how to slow the spread of the virus. The director does, however, document the increasing pressure those choices exacted on hospitals, quoting Cuomo as he instructs healthcare facilities to increase their patient loads by 50 percent, and to try to increase them by 100 percent. Cuomos gravitas and showmanship gives dimensionality to the larger existential questions that the pandemic has conjured, but the focus remains on those people in the trenches trying to save lives and to summon an ounce of hope to carry on. Story continues The filmmaker follows two patients in particular through the film, Brussels Jabon and Ahmed Ellis, both of whom are on the brink of death when we meet them. Jabon, a nurse herself, gave birth in the first days of the pandemic, so as she convalesces, her infant is protected in a hospital nursery while her husband, also a caregiver, takes care of their daughter and the rest of his extended family as they quarantine together. Ellis works for the NYPD, and his wife tends to their two young children, communicating only through an iPad that the hospital staff provides. Both stories demonstrate that there were successes in reviving and rehabilitating patients, as well as how rare those successes were; when a doctor who sees her life in Ellis pins her hopes on his recovery, for example, you get to see how deeply personal these treatments become to the people providing them, much less receiving them. There are lovely little victories in the hospital, such as when the staff plays the Beatles Here Comes The Sun to commemorate a patient recovering well enough to stop using a ventilator. And then there are the larger cultural forces that continue to discourage and demoralize, such as the protests that ensue after the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police. Douge, a black woman, already feels especially discouraged by the disproportionate numbers of Blacks, Hispanics, and immigrants who come into the hospital seeking care and frequently never leave, but her alternating righteous anger and compassion during Black Lives Matter demonstrations evidences a kind of resilience and tenacity and, perhaps above all, hope that is essential to being a healthcare worker, or maybe just human. Without anticipating his subsequent ouster as governor in 2021, Cuomo exudes an almost unexpected eloquence over those three months as his words touch on the deeper questions of the pandemics impact while attempting to make sense of the more granular logistics of tackling it. Juxtaposed against shots of eerily emptied New York streets, scenes of exhausted and exasperated medical professionals, and eventually, the mass graves and refrigerated trailers holding hundreds of bodies, the speeches offer something close to a running commentary of the timeline itself, as the physicians themselves provide the experiential immediacy and specificity of trying to do their job or any job, really in a city that at one point had more cases than any country in the rest of the world. Heineman, an Oscar nominee for Cartel Land, isnt yet a household name like Alex Gibney (one of the executive producers here) or some of his other contemporaries, but his acclaimed filmography grows in sophistication and pedigree with each new project. While there have already been a spate of films about the pandemic including Gibneys Totally Under Control, which felt like a rushed overview of the crisis that doubled as a pre-election indictment of Trump The First Wave narrows its gaze both in time and scope to create something more intimate, and consequently more powerful, without needing to get into the origins of the virus, the larger response by the country or the world, or the politics involved in combating it long-term. There will undoubtedly be other films that objectively lay out the many failures of now two presidential administrations, that will probe the excesses and shortcomings of the private sector to navigate disruptive rules and restrictions, and even examine what humanity at large faces going forward. But in prioritizing those calls shared between loved ones, those minor wins and losses that keep doctors inspired or break their spirits, and the real-time reverberations of the personal, medical, and political challenges faced in those three months at a hospital in New York City, The First Wave understands the way that individuals frequently can only process events in personal terms and amplifies that understanding in order to create a broader portrait of loss, and to create and encourage empathy to persevere in spite of it. The First Wave will be released by Neon Winter 2021. In a massive sales roll-out, Fremantle has sold Arctic Drift: A Year in the Ice, about the biggest ever Arctic climate research expedition, in a total 170 territories globally. The array of buyers take in Amazon Prime Video for Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Channel 4 in the U.K., PBS science series Nova in the U.S., and France Televisions. More from Variety Arctic Drift follows a year of the unprecedented MOSAiC expedition, led by Germanys Alfred Wegener Institute, which took in 300 international scientists on board the Polarstern, a 12,000 ton German ice-breaker. As the Polarstern drove deep into the Arctic Circle, and then remained frozen in fragile drifting ice flow for almost a year, scientists were able to undertake vital research on an Arctic winter a first in the most hostile and unknown terrain on earth. Arctic Drift: A Year In the Ice is set to broadcast in the U.K., U.S., and France, throughout October and November, coinciding with this years U.N. Climate Change Conference which starts on Nov. 1 in Glasgow. Further Fremantle licensing pacts include pan-regional deals with National Geographic for Latin America, BBC Earth channels in Africa and Asia, OSN for the Middle East and North Africa and Spektrum, part of AMC Networks International Central and Northern Europe, for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Distribution deals feature further public broadcasters such as Denmarks DR, Finlands YLE (Finland) and Norways NRK (Norway) in Scandinavia and multiple split windows arrangements. AMC-owned channel Odisea has acquired rights in Spain and in Italy RAI 4 has picked up premiere rights. Said Jens Richter, Fremantle CEO, international: For public broadcasters, the film is great because we learn a lot, and for commercial broadcasters as well, plus its beautiful and theres adventure. For any SVOD players that wants to sell subscriptions, its great because its premium, high budget, and very unique. Story continues In Eastern Europe, LTV (Latvia), LRT (Lithuania), Canal Plus (Poland) and RTV Slovenija and Czech TV have acquired rights, as have VRT Belgium, KBS Korea, Gain in Turkey and Cosmote TV in Greece. The documentary was originally produced for German broadcaster ARD. Why such fulsome sales? Arctic Drift: a Year In the Ice is about the biggest global topic there is: Climate change, said Richter. Theres also a sense of imperative urgency to the subject which keeps you going, justifies a documentary which took three years to make, he added. The AWI expedition took 10 years to prepare and cost $150 million. Never before had 300 scientists from all over the world assembled on one boat and gone to the North Pole, spending the whole winter there in total darkness. The doc-feature was custom-made for major market clients, fore-fronting connections with British and French expedition members for Channel 4 and France Televisions respectively, for instance. It also has a keen sense of adventure, Richter argued. When we spoke three years ago to the Alfred Wegener Institute, it compared this expedition to a mission to Mars: We know pretty much the same about the North Pole and Mars and to get there and stay there is a huge undertaking. Its also highly dangerous. So its first priority was to get everybody home safe, and then think about the science. That science means that the series and it seems essential for climate change series success is not doom and gloom. MOSAiC allowed scientists to capture previously unattainable data in the sea ice, ocean and atmosphere that is desperately needed to transform understanding of climate change and how the Arctic, its epicenter, regulates temperatures and climate across the globe. Besides the beauty of the Arctic night, the danger, freezing temperatures and ice bears, the idea was also to learn and to transport some hope, Richter said. He added: When we hear the scientists speak, you hear their excitement, the focus, the determination. They really want to make a change and have an impact. So theres a lot of hope in this show as well. Arctic Drift: A Year in the Ice - Credit: Stefan Hendricks Stefan Hendricks Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It feels like the old days, Bailey told Richard in Thursdays Greys Anatomy. And by gauze, it did. As we relished the zippy post-COVID-era Some Kind of Tomorrow, Webber challenged the residents to the toughest surgical workout ever, Meredith sought Amelias input on Davids life-changing offer, and Nick Well, Scott Speedman fantastically Scott Speedmand every scene he was in, throwing so many sparks, the set probably had to be cleared of hairspray lest it present a fire hazard. And if you read on, well go over all of the episodes highlights THATS A VERY OLD-FASHIONED WAY TO ASK A GIRL FOR A DATE | As Some Kind of Tomorrow began, Nick stuck a note under Mers hotel-room door and was caught. Not that it mattered; she still happily agreed to have dinner with him that evening at 7. In Seattle, Link and Jo kinda coparented, while Maggie missed Winston, who was working so much that he slept at work. Nearby, Sara reported to her fellow residents that mom Alma had transferred to work more closely with Team Jackson. And Richard had big plans for the lot of them. From there, we cut back to Minnesota, where Amelia had arrived to behold the lab that was being offered to Mer. Oh, you are definitely not coming back to Seattle, Amelia laughed. But the millions werent just being offered to Mer now, they were also being offered to Amelia, because her sister-in-law was inviting her to be a part of it all. Yikes. More from TVLine greys-anatomy-recap-season-18-episode-2-some-kind-of-tomorrow At Grey Sloan, Teddy protectively hovered over Leo, whod decided to dress as Elsa from Frozen for the day. Sara teamed up with Winston to treat Reshida, who had diabetes and kidney failure. Shed be starting dialysis, her attending reported. When she reported that she wasnt even able to get on a transplant list, Winston wanted to jump into action. But Reshida was sure that she wasnt long for this world. With his pupils, Richard announced that they would be going through a rigorous series of surgical simulations and evaluations. The resident with the highest score, he added, flies solo in the ER that day with an operations on par with their skills. Well, OK, then game on! Round 1 went to Levi. The next round that we saw went to Mabel. And just like that, Richard announced that Levi had won the competition. Hed get to scrub in on Jos ex lap on a foreign body extraction (on a woman who already had a strawberry removed from her, ahem, you know). While that was going on, Dr. Wong reported to Bailey that he was retiring whether she liked it or not to write mystery novels. Story continues greys-anatomy-recap-season-18-episode-2-some-kind-of-tomorrow ANYBODY WHO NEEDS LIFE-SAVING CARE SHOULD GET IT | Bumping into a nephrologist who served as a wall between Reshida and qualification for inclusion on the transplant list because she adhered to incorrect clinical assumptions that ignored the differences between Black people and white people Winston appealed to Bailey, then took action himself. He re-approached the nephrologist, who stood by the EGFR but said shed look into his assertions. Of course, there wasnt time for that. It was suddenly do-or-die time for Reshida, and Winston wasnt about to let her die. So he broke protocol, crossing his fingers that he could get a transplant for her before it was later than too late. greys-anatomy-recap-season-18-episode-2-some-kind-of-tomorrow Treating an injured boy, Megan charmed Cormac. In the next examining room, the boys dad was doing exceptionally poorly; hed passed out at the wheel and was having trouble breathing. Before you knew it, he was coughing up blood, and Owen was calling his bride for a consult. While she pondered whether they should stop letting Leo dress up, she and Owen discovered that the patients lungs looked like a war zone. He had pulmonary fibrosis, he reported. And he didnt want treatment, he just wanted to spend whatever time he had left with his son. Look at you breaking rules and saving lives, Megan quipped to the newlyweds. Arent you glad I got you to tie the knot? Despite Owens determination to save the terminal patient, Cormac let him go home. In Minnesota, Amelia checked out David, who wasnt interested in a Band-Aid for his Parkinsons, only something that would make him whole again. Soon, if I wasnt mistaken, sparks flew between Amelia and Davids brilliant colleague, Dr. Bartley; for Amelia, there was no decision to be made Mer had to say yes and cure Parkinsons. Though Mer balked at Amelias enthusiasm, Scouts mom stood her ground. Youre being ridiculous because you havent accepted the offer yet, Amelia said. Hell, this was Mers chance to get back into neuro. Why would she walk away from this? Amelia asked as Nick stood by looking adorable. Back in Seattle, Levi successfully performed his extraction in front of a gallery full of his peers then hit a snag, requiring his colleagues to talk him through the end of the operation over the intercom. greys-anatomy-recap-season-18-episode-2-some-kind-of-tomorrow YOURE NOT JUST SAVING MY LIFE, YOURE CHANGING IT | Finally, as the hour drew to a close, Meredith showed up for her date with Nick, who admitted that she might want to change into something less fancy. Why was that? He was taking her on a picnic in the woods. This is why I pulled back on my hours, he explained. He was missing everything including staring up at the stars. She didnt do that much, she admitted. Were gonna have so much fun, he replied. By and by, she shared that she was scared to say yes to David and to then fail. I have a very comfortable situation in Seattle, by contrast. Youre not a safety person, Nick suggested. Youre gonna risk it all and win or lose, its gonna be a hell of a ride. Back at Grey Sloan, Winston reported to Reshida that she was on the transplant list. I honestly never thought Id see this day, she said. I can go back to who I was. greys-anatomy-recap-season-18-episode-2-some-kind-of-tomorrow Alone with Richard, Bailey fretted that every day she was losing doctors. They needed for everyone to feel once again like they were all in it together. You want people to remember the why, he said. Luckily, he had some ideas big ones. Finally, Link sang Scout the saddest-ever lullaby about his failed proposal. Youre gonna be OK, Jo assured him. Back at Grey Sloan, Teddy worried some more over Leo and people being cruel to him. They will be, Owen admitted, but they themselves wouldnt be. So lets just let him be happy. And in the last seconds of the episode, Mer made a few demands of David, including that they move the whole project to Grey Sloan. When that notion was shot down, she offered an alternative: I could set up a satellite lab in Seattle and come back and forth once a week. Done, he replied. Does this mean youre in? Indeed, it did. So, what did you think of Some Kind of Tomorrow? The comments section is now open for your two cents (or even a nickel, if youre feeling generous). While youre here, get your first look at Kate Walshs return as Addison. Launch Gallery: Grey's Anatomy Season 18 Photos Best of TVLine Few high-end series say as much about their producers ambitions as Movistar Plus La Fortuna, starring Stanley Tucci and Clarke Peters, one of nine market screenings at this years Mipcom trade fair. La Fortuna weighs in as the single biggest U.S.-Spain co-production in history, teaming Spains Movistar Plus, the pay TV-SVOD unit of giant European telecom Telefonica, and AMC Studios. More from Variety It has the Spanish media companys biggest stars to date. Tucci, a 2021 Emmy winner for Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, plays Frank Wild, owner of Atlantis Underwater Searching, the worlds biggest American deep-sea discovery company. Peters (The Wire) takes on the role of Jonas Pierce, the worlds best maritime rights lawyer. The AMC deal delivers, moreover, the most far-reaching distribution deal for any Movistar series to date with AMC Plus releasing the series in the U.S. and Canada this winter and Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022. Beta Film handles other international sales. Straddling the U.S. and Spain and past and present, La Fortuna is also Movistar Plus largest scale series to date with on-location shoots across the length and breadth of Spain. The series lensed at around 50 Spanish locations, a huge number, including Spains equivalent of the White House, Madrids Palacio de Moncloa. As the action gears up, La Fortuna enrolled the Spanish navy, army, civil guard and oceanography institute to access launches, helicopters, a deep sea submersible, tanks and three Hercules transport planes. La Fortuna marks the first TV series from Alejandro Amenabar, who co-wrote and directed all of its six episodes. Story continues His C.V. includes one of Spains first modern movies to involve true-blue Hollywood stars, the Nicole Kidman-led and Tom Cruise co-produced The Others, and the feat of recreating 391 A.D. Alexandria in Agora, toplined by Rachel Weisz. His The Sea Inside won a foreign-language film Oscar. To attract world-class talent, Europes biggest SVOD players such as Movistar Plus have to guarantee the resources to allow top writer-directors to make the shows they want to make at the level of budget required and with reasonable freedoms. La Fortuna is a case in point. We talk about auteur cinema. Movistar Plus makes auteur series, Amenabar told Variety. Our creative process in terms of freedom, respect and high standards towards creators is very unique, says Movistar Plus CEO Cristina Burzako. Amenabars creative freedoms cut various ways. La Fortuna has the dramatic structure of a series but Amenabars direction is purely cinematographic, says Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus director of original production. It was like shooting a film for over five months, the director recalls. The series adapts a Spanish graphic novel, El tesoro del Cisne Negro, by Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral. This is inspired in turn by the real-life sinking in 1804 of Spains Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes by British frigates a tragedy which led Spain to declare war on Britain, precipitating Trafalgar and the Spanish empires definitive loss of dominion at sea. To explore the human side to the tragedy, as Amenabar explains, he shot the whole naval battle from the point of view of Diego de Alba, based on the true-life figure of the captain of another Spanish frigate in the convoy who witnesses his whole family go down with La Fortuna. In La Fortuna, Amenabar teases out a culture clash, not so much between Spain and the U.S. though this yields some of the series comedy but between two colliding world views. I didnt want to make a black-and-white portrait of Spain and a criticism of America, Amenabar said at a San Sebastian press conference before La Fortunas world premiere at the festival on Sept. 24. Rather, in Wild and Peters, he wanted to contrast two viewpoints: Individual, egotistical interest and a reasonable honest person who thinks of the common good. That clash gives La Fortuna a global reach. Wilds and Peters exist everywhere, Tucci said in San Sebastian. It also means while La Fortunas court case is resolved in episode four, Amenabar continues to show how such world views impact the ultimate fates of all key characters in terms of their relations to the people they love most. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Skateboarding Prodigy Brandon Turner, Now 39, Is Helping Others Battle Addiction Jason Duaine Hahn Brandon Turner As Dylan Phillips catches his breath, a group of skateboarders race by, heading toward the ramps and rails that line Linda Vista Skate Park in San Diego. "I've been doing this for a long time, man," Phillips, a board in his hands and Airpods in his ears, says as sweat drips down his temple on a cloudy summer afternoon. It was just months ago that the 27-year-old traded South Carolina for the shores of Southern California, and it's here amid the thunderous sounds of skateboards rolling across the concrete that he's the closest to feeling happy that he's been in a long time. "This is something I used to love when I was a kid," he tells PEOPLE, tapping his board. "And it's something I'm starting to find a passion for again because it's progression. You can always get better." "It's similar to recovery," he adds. "Because every day is about progression." Phillips, like an estimated 22 million Americans, is in rehabilitation for drug dependence. And after countless attempts at overcoming an opioid addiction, he's found something that is working. "I didn't want to get clean," Phillips remembers of his first attempt at sobriety at age 19, which was followed by the death of his fiancee when they both overdosed on fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid similar to morphine. "I survived, like a miracle from God I survived," Phillips recalls. "And that still wasn't enough to stop the obsession of continuing to use and keeping that lifestyle." What came later was multiple run-ins with the law, nights in jail, and a felony linked to the manufacturing and distribution of opioids, Phillips says. Finally, he reached a breaking point. "I was hopeless and I was ready to just end it," he says before taking a pause. "However that was, I was just not going to live that life anymore." Story continues Skateboarding Prodigy Brandon Turner, Now 39, Is Helping Others Battle Addiction Jason Duaine Hahn Dylan Phillips RELATED: Skateboarder Jeff Grosso Dies at 51: 'Skateboarding Was Lucky to Have Him as an Ambassador Behind Phillips, a group of three skateboarders gathers around local skateboarding legend Brandon Turner. They take selfies with the 39-year-old, whose wavy dreads flow down his slim shoulders and past the gold chain around his neck. "Brandon really cares about us," Phillips says. "He doesn't allow my fear or my anxiety or anything like that to stop me from doing what I'm capable of. He pushes everybody to that level." What Phillips needed most, at this pivotal moment in his life, was someone who knew what it was like to not only feel the pull of addiction but the thrill of skateboarding. Turner an activities director at the San Diego rehab center Healthy Life Recovery was just that person. I know I'm meant to help people. Brandon Turner Every Tuesday and Thursday, Turner and a group of the program's members meet at one of the skate parks located around the city. In the year since he joined Healthy Life Recovery, Turner has held dozens of skateboarding lessons for locals coping with alcohol dependence and drug addiction. "There's almost nothing that I haven't experienced in that world, so I can relate to them," says Turner. "What you feel a connection to is relatability, and in this world of people who are suffering through the same things that I do, it's a no-brainer, you know?" Like those who seek help at Healthy Life, Turner grappled with addictions that began after he became a teen skateboarding sensation more than two decades ago. It would take many years before Turner found the strength to change the trajectory of his life. "After doing a lot of work, I know what my purpose is," he explains. "I know I'm meant to help people." Skateboarding Prodigy Brandon Turner, Now 39, Is Helping Others Battle Addiction Jason Duaine Hahn Brandon Turner with Healthy Life Recovery's skateboarding participants RELATED: Tony Hawk Looks Back on Landing Skateboarding's Holy Grail 20 Years Later: The 900 'Felt Surreal' Much of the progress Turner experienced began after he took account of his mental health and accepted help from others, he says. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 70,000 Americans died from drug-involved overdoses in 2019. This grew to over 93,300 deaths in 2020, likely spurred on by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The skateboarding community was hit by this deadly trend when 51-year-old skateboarder Jeff Grosso unexpectedly died of an overdose in March 2020. Grosso, who turned professional when he was 12 years old, became a beloved ambassador for the sport later in life, helping to preserve its history through his YouTube series, "Love Letters to Skateboarding." But he had long been haunted by his past drug abuse, telling Transworld Skateboarding in 2017 that he overdosed on heroin on three separate occasions. Grosso, who had been sober since 2005, died from the "combined effects" of fentanyl and phenobarbital, a barbiturate commonly used to treat seizures and insomnia, an autopsy report later found. A number of high-profile skateboarders are now living sober and speaking out after struggling with drug abuse, including Guy Mariano, Chad Muska, Elissa Steamer, and Arto Saari. Turner, who can add his name to the list, does not take his journey for granted, and how lucky he is to be alive. Skateboarding Prodigy Brandon Turner, Now 39, Is Helping Others Battle Addiction Jason Duaine Hahn Brandon Turner helps support a skateboarder down a ramp [I] broke my other leg even worse, and cracked my head open, was on life support, flatlined, and they almost cut off my leg. Brandon Turner In many ways, the trouble began before he even knew it had. As a teen skateboarding prodigy in the 1990s, Turner was touring the world with the best skaters in the industry and making tens of thousands of dollars a month before many of his friends had even graduated high school. His reputation in the skating scene soared after he entered a number of trick competitions (too many of them to count, he says) and starred in a series of tapes that showcased his skills, such as the iconic Shorty's video, "Fulfill the Dream," in 1998. "There was a lot of attention," says Turner, who spent much of his childhood in Japan when his father was in the U.S. Navy. "There was always alcohol involved, always girls and women. I was traveling everywhere and I started getting in trouble." It didn't take long for friends and family to take notice of his heavy drinking and constant partying, which seemed commonplace in the skating community. "We go out, we film, we land tricks, then you celebrate," Turner who fans and friends still refer to as "Lil' B," his longtime nickname recalls, adding that he often brushed off any concerns about his alcohol use. This mix of constant partying and free-flowing alcohol ultimately led to two of the most perilous nights of his life. The first occurred when Turner, then 17 and drinking while underage, ran from police when they appeared at a bonfire he and his friends were hosting near San Diego's Mission Beach. When officers caught up to him, he jumped from a bridge, breaking the tibia and fibula in his right leg. "It was devastating," he recalls. Yet Turner was recovered and back to skateboarding just a year after the accident and made plans to officially turn pro. This was another reason to celebrate, and Turner and his friends soon found themselves at a party. "There was some drama, I kicked some people out from another school or something," he recounts. "Then I woke up off of life support in the hospital." Turner, who had been drinking, was hit by a car and suffered injuries more severe than the ones he had just recovered from. "I got ran over, broke my other leg even worse, and cracked my head open, was on life support, flatlined, and they almost cut off my leg," Turner says, adding that his mother was able to convince doctors to salvage the limb. Brandon Turner COURTESY Brandon Turner Childhood photo of Brandon Turner Once more, Turner recovered and was back to skating but again began abusing alcohol and drugs. This continued for several years, culminating in a 17-month sentence in a California prison for multiple DUIs. "That's what really made me have the realization and spiritual awakening to what was really going on inside of me," he says. "It's not easy to really take a deep look at yourself and to be honest about it, especially when you have issues. It made stuff come out of me that I didn't know was there, and that's scary, you know?" While in prison, he reflected on the internal issues he believes fueled his drug use, such as unresolved problems with his family. Months after his release in October 2014, he entered a 12-step program, and began eating healthier and exercising. Turner, who today rides for the skateboard label Sk8mafia, has remained sober since. Me and my family, we all knew it was pretty dire and I just didn't feel like I want to live anymore. Ned Gittings "Those first 30 days, man, the first five days, 48 hours, all that stuff is really difficult," skateboarder Ned Gittings says of the first things he experienced when he decided to quit alcohol. "You're sitting there inside yourself, it's just a terrible time." "But in 90 days, all the stuff they say is true your body starts to change because the alcohol and drugs are out of your system," he says. "And you'll see it, with these guys, the first 30 days they'll start skating. Their whole look changes, their skin, their demeanor. It's crazy to watch. We'll see people after a few months and it's just, 'Oh my God, who is this guy? Who is this girl?' It's crazy." Gittings a tall, scruffy and tattooed photographer struggled with frequent binge drinking until family members urged him to become sober in August 2020. Around that time, he reached out to Healthy Life Recovery after listening to Turner's life story on the popular skateboarding podcast, The Nine Club. "It all happened at the right time for me," he says. "And I say it time and time again, but it saved my life for sure because, by the time I got to Healthy Life, it had gotten really crucial. Me and my family, we all knew it was pretty dire and I just didn't feel like I wanted to live anymore." Skateboarding Prodigy Brandon Turner, Now 39, Is Helping Others Battle Addiction Jason Duaine Hahn Ned Gittings The 42-year-old has since rebuilt his life and the relationships most important to him, including with the mothers of his two young children. Turner, Gittings explains, played an important part by encouraging him to be honest with them about his sobriety. "My kids know that I'm in rehab, they know I don't drink anymore and don't mess with that stuff," says Gittings. "It was hard to see that all that stuff could one day turn into all something positive in my life." Like Dylan Phillips, entering rehab helped Gittings reconnect with skateboarding, something he had long lost to his addiction. "I stopped skating. I got really sick in lots of different ways, emotionally, spiritually, my body was a mess," Gittings recalls. "But rebuilding my body with skateboarding has been hard because skateboarding is very difficult. When you're older, like me, you see the challenge. I knew skateboarding was hard, but I'm relearning how really ridiculously hard it is." RELATED VIDEO: Dax Shepard Recalls the 'Lowest Moment' During His Road to Addiction Recovery: It Was 'Very Scary' Skateboarding may be a helpful tool for people looking to improve their health or maintain their sobriety. Epidemiological studies have shown that people who participate in regular exercise are less likely to use and abuse illicit drugs, and in one 2020 report, a team of five researchers from Cal State San Marcos found that adults who skateboard at community skate parks for at least three hours a week achieved heart rates consistent with what the CDC recommends for weekly cardiovascular fitness. "Rebuilding my body has been beautiful," Gittings says of his return to the sport. "It's a beautiful thing that happened here. I'm really happy to be a part of it." With the sun peeking out from behind the clouds over the skate park, Turner takes a break to join Gittings under the shade of a tree. But Phillips, who was one of the first to arrive for a session, is showing no signs of slowing down. Each and every kick of his board seems driven by a purpose. "That overdose damn near took my life, and I feel like it was God that brought me back to a place where I could succeed," Phillips says. "And this program has been absolutely monumental in my early sobriety," he adds, "it keeps me accountable and gives me something to do with my time, that's to come out here and skate and have fun." When you get on the grip tape and roll, and get that sense of controlling something else that's not attached to you, it's a euphoric feeling. Brandon Turner Turner still remembers hearing the distinct rumbling of a skateboard roaring down his neighborhood street when he was about three years old and living with his parents in San Diego. Each time, Turner went outside to watch the local teenager roll by. "One day he stopped and looked at me, put me on his board, and took me down the street, just super-fast, holding me on the front," Turner recalls of his introduction to the sport. "From that point, I was seriously hooked." While the years that followed were filled with difficulties, Turner never lost his passion for skateboarding and the community that surrounds it. "They're my people, who I understand," he says. In January, more than two decades after starting his career, Turner once again became the talk of the skateboarding world when he won Street League Skateboarding's "Trick of the Year" for 2020 at age 38. The trick, a Switch Hardflip over the legendary "Wallenberg" gap outside Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco, was something he had dreamed of achieving since he was a teenager. "It was a lot of work, I switched up my whole lifestyle to not only better myself and help others, but also so I can be the best I can be as an all-around person, physically and mentally," he explains of the long journey that led him there. Skateboarding Prodigy Brandon Turner, Now 39, Is Helping Others Battle Addiction Jason Duaine Hahn Brandon Turner grinds a railing at Linda Vista Skate Park The honor came just a few months after Turner, along with skateboarders Shuriken Shannon, Tommy Sandoval, and Tyrone Olson, hosted the "Rolling for Rights" rally in San Diego. The event was attended by hundreds of skateboarders in support of ending racial injustice, systemic racism, and police brutality. Despite life's complexities, skateboarding, at its essence, has remained simple for Turner it will give back as much as you put in. And as he's found, the results can be life-changing. "When you get on the grip tape and roll, and get that sense of controlling something else that's not attached to you, it's a euphoric feeling," Turner says, watching as a group of young skateboarders the sport's future head into the park. "When you hop on a skateboard," he says, "it's freedom." If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please contact the SAMHSA substance abuse helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. Democrats will likely drop hundreds of billions of dollars in proposed tax increases on the rich as they scramble to shrink the size of their reconciliation package. Thats good news for moderates who are less enthusiastic about raising rates. But its potentially terrible news for progressives hoping to stick it to the rich. Many see this as their best chance in years to push through major changes in how wealthy people are taxed such as a proposal to begin taxing, for the first time, billionaires unrealized capital gains. The pressure on lawmakers to take up such controversial proposals will dwindle if Democrats suddenly dont need them to make their budget numbers work. Some progressives acknowledge that some of the most aggressive tax proposals could now fall by the wayside, as the demand for revenue eases, but warn Democrats against backing off plans to target the uber-rich. We will make a lot of noise we will not be very happy, said Frank Clemente, head of Americans for Tax Fairness, a group pushing for higher taxes on the wealthy. Its the flip side to Democrats decision to scale back their spending plans. Much of the focus in Washington has been on how they will slim down their package, by either dropping lower-priority initiatives or funding more programs for shorter periods of time, in hopes Congress will re-up them later. But a smaller price tag will also mean big changes on the tax side as well because Democrats are unlikely to raise taxes by more than they need to defray the cost of their plans. Lawmakers are still fighting over the overall size of their package, with President Joe Biden suggesting they will land somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 trillion, down from the $3.5 trillion many liberals had hoped to spend. On Wednesday, though, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the influential centrist, reiterated he won't go beyond $1.5 trillion. Raising $1.5 trillion or so in taxes, to cover that spending, should not be a heavy lift for most Democrats especially given the overlap between a recent proposal by Manchin and a tax plan approved last month by the House Ways and Means Committee. Story continues Manchin wants to raise the corporate rate to 25 percent, which would generate around $400 billion (Ways and Means wants a 26.5 percent rate, which would produce about $540 billion). Both Manchin and Ways and Means would hike the top capital gains rate to 25 percent, producing another $125 billion. Restoring the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6 percent, where it was before Republicans 2017 tax cuts, would produce around $170 billion. Improving tax compliance, by beefing up the IRS, could mean $200 billion in savings. Democrats would likely count hundreds of billions of dollars from so-called dynamic scoring, and hundreds of billions on top of that in health care-related savings. They also appear likely to tighten tax rules on multinational companies overseas earnings, which, under House Democrats plan, would produce $300 billion. Extending a rule Democrats approved earlier this year making it harder for owners of pass-through businesses to use losses to offset income would save $167 billion. All of that could generate more than $1.5 trillion meaning theres less need for more controversial proposals Democrats have raised in recent months, such as taxing stock buybacks by corporations, treating billionaires unrealized capital gains as taxable income and an administration bid to dump provisions in the tax code allowing the wealthy to pass assets to heirs tax free. The pressure for all tax increases becomes smaller as the amount of revenue needed decreases, the advisory firm Capital Alpha Partners said in a note last week to clients. Newer taxes that target wealth, unrealized capital gains, retirement savings or stock buybacks now seem less likely. But some on the left say those are precisely the sort of tax increases that are most needed. While they back the slate of hikes proposed by Ways and Means and Manchin, they also say those dont do enough to dun the richest of the rich. The problem, they say, is that those at the tippy top of the income ladder typically dont make their money from fat salaries, so hikes in marginal income tax rates, for example, dont make much difference to them. The super- rich are more likely to make their money in capital gains and they can avoid capital gains taxes altogether by simply not selling their assets. Thats where proposals like an administration plan to end so-called stepped-up basis comes in it would tax peoples unrealized gains when they die, even if they dont sell. A different means to a similar end would be a plan by Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to subject billionaires' unrealized gains to annual taxes. Democrats need to think about reforms to capital gains that prevent rich people from avoiding capital gains, said Steve Wamhoff, a former tax aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) now at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. You can do all kinds of things to improve the tax code but if those people are paying an effective rate of zero percent on most of their income, well, you have to ask if you've really solved a fundamental problem in our tax code. Not just that. Things like taxing the unrealized gains of the wealthy would provide a new stream of revenue to the government that lawmakers could revisit in the future. If Democrats can establish now that unrealized gains are fair game for the tax man, they could potentially expand that later to people who are merely millionaires. And many progressives see those sorts of tax hikes not merely as a way to defray the cost of Democrats reconciliation plans but as good policy by themselves. Its not solely about paying for spending, said Wamhoff. Theres also issues of tax fairness, and those are issues Democrats ran on. Britney Spears has brought tremendous attention to the potential hazards of conservatorships. Indeed, Spears has done the seemingly impossible by making the issue bipartisan. A forthcoming Senate hearing sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will examine how conservatorships can harm the health and financial well-being of those under guardianships. The United States Indigenous people know this all too well. In 1831, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled tribes were not full sovereigns but domestic dependent nations. It explained that tribes are in a state of pupilage. Their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian. Nearly two centuries later, tribes remain domestic dependent nations and are still denied the ability to self-govern. The conservatorship the United States exercises over tribes exhibits all the malicious symptoms of Spears conservatorship. Problems with tribal conservatorship Due to the ongoing guardian-ward relationship, reservations are laden with dense federal regulations, and this federally imposed "white tape" kills tribal economic development. Trust lands are owned by the United States, allegedly for the benefit of Indians. Reality reveals this trust status has been anything but beneficial to Indians. Since the United States owns the land, virtually every activity on trust land requires federal approval. As Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez recently wrote, The federal government subjects us to crippling oversight whenever we dig a hole. Prairie land on the Navajo Nation. This dense federal regulatory framework causes reservation poverty. Few non-Indian businesses are willing to operate on reservations when the federal regulations can be avoided by opening off a reservation. If an Indian wants to start a business on a reservation, accessing capital is exceedingly difficult because trust land cannot be mortgaged without the approval of the secretary of the Interior. Hence, the private sector is practically nonexistent on most reservations, and its absence helps explain Indian Countrys 50% unemployment rate even before COVID-19. Story continues It's not just Britney Spears: 1.3 million Americans are under conservatorships. Activists want reform. Poverty combines with federal regulations to cause severe health vulnerabilities. The regulations encumbering trust land create dire housing problems on reservations; thus, reservation housing is often overcrowded and substandard. A 2016 report by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Natural Resources said nearly half of reservation housing lacks access to safe water. Overcrowded houses with inadequate sanitation facilities are prime places for the coronavirus to spread. Mace and Crist: The exploitation of Britney Spears: Here's how to protect her and other Americans Indian Country was ravaged by COVID-19, but COVID-19 is far from the only medical malady tribes suffer from. Indeed, Indians experience nearly every health condition at higher rates than the general population , including diabetes, heart disease, and septicemia. The average life expectancy on some reservations is about 50 years old compared with 78 years old for the United States as a whole. The U.S. prevents tribal growth today Reservation socioeconomic problems are often attributed to Indigenous cultures being incompatible with the United States market economy. While each tribe is unique, one can safely say ascribing contemporary reservation poverty to traditional Indigenous culture is complete nonsense. Long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the Americas Indigenous people developed transcontinental trade networks. For example, Chaco Canyon, an Indigenous trade center near present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico, is called Chaco Canyon because cacao beans have been found there. Those beans originated in Central America over a thousand miles away. Chaco Canyon is not an isolated incident, either. Seashells from the Pacific Ocean are found near present-day St. Louis. Copper from the Great Lakes made its way down to Florida, and quinoa from the American southeast was transported up to Canada. O'Mara: An unearthly call is now silent, but we can still save our wildlife from extinction Indigenous trade networks were the product of concerted effort. Tribes instituted laws to facilitate commerce. Contracts were enforced and property rights were recognized, including intellectual property rights meaning only certain individuals could use songs, prayers or images. The extent of commerce between distant and diverse people in the Americas led to the emergence of trade languages, such as Mobilian in the Southeast and Chinook in the Northwest. Making advancement Tribal economies organically adapted to European contact. Indians eagerly purchased guns, clothes, metal tools and more. Tribal cultures transformed as a result of European goods. Indeed, it is impossible to envision the iconic Plains Indians without the horse, yet the horse culture is a direct result of European contact. While tribal cultures naturally evolved for millennia, the United States prevents tribal cultures from advancing today. For example, Tesla recently opened a service center on Nambe Pueblo land in New Mexico. News stories described Teslas move as dodging state law and finding a loophole. These depictions denigrate tribal sovereignty. A more accurate assessment of what occurred is that Nambe Pueblo enacted better laws than New Mexico. Accordingly, Tesla was able to open on Nambe Pueblo. New Mexico is no worse off than if a neighboring state allowed Tesla service centers; in fact, states engage in jurisdictional competition all the time its called federalism. Tribes should be afforded the same respect. After all, that was the deal when they agreed to cede their ancestral lands in exchange for reservations. Tribes will remain the sovereign equivalent of Britney Spears until they are liberated from their nearly two-centuries-old guardianship. Until tribes ability to self-govern is fully recognized, reservations will continue to struggle with poverty and related maladies. Its time to recognize tribes as the sovereigns they are and always have been. Adam Crepelle, an assistant professor, is director of the Tribal Law & Economics Project in the Law & Economics Center at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School. He is also a Campbell Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. 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: Conservatorships hurt tribal life well before Britney Spears Northern Ireland are back on the road in their bid to reach Qatar 2022 as they prepare to face Switzerland in the first of two World Cup qualifiers away from home. Here, the PA news agency looks at five key talking points ahead of the fixture at the Stade de Geneve. Crunch time Bailey Peacock-Farrells penalty save at Windsor Park was crucial as the two sides shared the points last month (Liam McBurney/PA) Last months goalless draw between these two sides at Windsor Park kept Switzerland three points ahead of Northern Ireland with four games left to play in Group C. Win and Northern Ireland will go above the Swiss, with what looks like a race for second place behind Italy in their hands. Lose, and Ian Baracloughs men would be left needing help to navigate a narrow path to the play-offs. Injuries bite again Jonny Evans on Thursday became the seventh member of the original 26-man group to be ruled out of the game (Liam McBurney/PA) Northern Ireland took four points from qualifiers away to Lithuania and at home to the Swiss last month despite being without a string of key players as youngsters stepped up to make their mark. There was excitement when Baraclough named a 26-strong squad for these games that included the returning Jonny and Corry Evans, Stuart Dallas, Josh Magennis and Paddy McNair. But the Evans brothers are among seven players to have subsequently withdrawn joined by Trevor Carson, Michael Smith, Gavin Whyte, Ali McCann and Shayne Lavery the latter two of the younger players who impressed most in September. Landmark night for McNair Paddy McNair is in line to captain the side as he reaches 50 caps (Brian Lawless/PA) A slightly harsh yellow card in the 4-1 win over Lithuania ruled McNair out of game against Switzerland at Windsor Park, and also kept the 26-year-old waiting for his 50th cap. But the Middlesbrough man is certain to start at the Stade de Geneve, and tradition dictates he will do so as captain as he reaches half a century of appearances for his country. Baracloughs future to become clearer? Ian Baraclough is keen to stay on as Northern Ireland manager as his 18-month contract ticks down (Liam McBurney/PA) After a tough start to life in the job, Baraclough has overseen an uptick in Northern Irelands fortunes since the summer, with three wins and two draws in the last six. The 50-year-old signed an 18-month contract when he took over from Michael ONeill last summer and would seem a strong candidate for an extension with several players saying they want to see him stay on in the role as he brings through a younger generation of players. Though the decision will not rest solely on Northern Irelands qualification status for Qatar, further positive results could cement his case. Story continues Switzerland should be stronger Xherdan Shaqiri is set to return for Switzerland (PA) Northern Ireland were not the only ones short-handed in Belfast last month with Switzerland coach Murat Yakin likewise missing several regulars in a game where they were only denied victory by Bailey Peacock-Farrells penalty save. Granit Xhaka remains out having suffered a serious knee injury, but the hosts will welcome back Xherdan Shaqiri and Breel Embolo, two key attacking threats who will pose a severe test of a Northern Ireland defence missing its most experienced campaigner in Jonny Evans. Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photos Getty Images When Art Acevedo was appointed the Miami Police Department chief in April, he was praised as a reformer and the Tom Brady and Michael Jordan of police chiefs by the citys mayor. But just six months into his tenure, Acevedos failure to quickly learn the ropes of Miamis notoriously nasty city politicsand his decision to air them out in a widely circulated memo last monthmay cost him his job, city officials and insiders close to the matter told The Daily Beast. Its just a ticking clock at this point, one city official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Beast. Acevedo declined to comment for this story, telling The Daily Beast he has been prohibited by the city from speaking. Racist Landlord From Hell Tortured Tenants During Pandemic, Lawsuit Says Acevedo was previously the chief of police in Houston. After being sworn in this past April, Acevedo quickly made enemies within the Miami rank and file when he fired veteran officers and demoted others. In September, he was criticized for telling officers the city's police force was run by the Cuban mafia. Under fire from a contingent of city commissioners, Acevedo released a scathing memo on Sept. 24 to the city manager and mayor. He called out commissioners for undermining internal investigations. He also called out his loudest critic, city commissioner Joe Carollo, for allegedly attempting to use the police department as his personal enforcer against political enemies and said Carollo and another commissioner, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, provided him with a target list of businesses the department has wasted untold hours investigating based on the commissioners whims. In subsequent city commission meetings, both commissioners denied the claims in the memo. In one meeting earlier this month, Carollo said that if Acevedo wanted to arrest him for any wrongdoing, he should come right now and do it himself. Here I am, Carollo said. Commissioners Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla did not respond to requests for comment. Story continues Miami City Manager Art Noriega said in a statement to Local 10 that while issues surrounding Acevedo had played out publicly, the disputes were now a personnel matter between an individual employee and the City. Noriega declined to comment on this story. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez meanwhile said in his own statement to the outlet that he has full faith and confidence in Noriegas ability to manage this situation. Suarez did not respond to a request for comment. Despite the distance from Acevedos memo, Bill Fuller, the owner of dozens of properties and businesses in Carollos Little Havana district, said it seemed to provide proof of something hes been suspecting for some time. Fuller, who filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami right after Acevedos memo dropped, told The Daily Beast that two businesses he owns, including the famed Ball & Chain restaurant and bar on the Calle Ocho strip, have been targeted by late-night code enforcement investigations that include numerous members of the Miami police department and look more like a drug bust. Fuller said the harassment was part of a political vendetta Carollo has against him and was pleased Acevedo aired out the issue. Now, he hopes it will be fully investigated despite the chiefs turmoil. He opened that door, Fuller told The Daily Beast of Acevedos memo. At this point its public and we need to have a full understanding of what all that means. Taquerias El Mexicano in Little Havana, Miami, Florida. Google Maps In a statement to The Daily Beast, Miami City Attorney Victoria Mendez said the lawsuit by Fuller and his business partners was an attempt to deflect their illegal management of properties and blame their unclean hands onto the city of Miami. Despite its bombshell claims, Acevedos memo was quickly cannibalized by two commission meetings last week that served as forums for commissioners, and in particular Carollo, to air grievances against Acevedo. At a Sept. 27 meeting, Carollo rehashed previous issues with Acevedo since he became chief. He also read accounts of alleged misconduct surrounding Acevedo at previous departments, The Miami Herald reported. At one point, Carollo presented an image of the chief dressed as Elvis during a fundraiser and criticized the costume as being too tight around the crotch. In a subsequent Oct. 1 meeting, Carollo said Acevedos memo was an attempt to blackmail him and other commissioners. I Covered Congressional Races in Florida in 2018, and Boy Do I Know Why Trump Won the State in 2020 After the two meetings last week, Acevedo was ordered by the city manager to submit a new plan for his approach to the chief job moving forward. This week, Acevedo submitted a much more subdued plan of action for the next 90 days that acknowledges some friction and missteps since he joined the department from the outside. He said city leaders in Miami have a unique style different from anything hed previously encountered and that he might have moved too quickly to make changes. He promised to meet with all commissioners in the next month to repair relationships. But according to city officials with knowledge of the matter, the damage between Acevedo and the city commission is probably irreparable. The day he sent the memo, he was basically saying hes out of here one way or the other, the official told The Daily Beast. The way he wrote it, wasnt like, Hey guys, lets all come back from this, it was Im gonna double down and were going to war. The sentiment was shared by Richard Rivera, the former member of a city police oversight panel from 2018 to 2020. Although the decisions on hiring and firing a police chief rest with the city manager, Rivera told The Daily Beast commissioners in Miami have a tremendous amount of influence over the police department because they control the departments budget. In the past, he said, theyve cut back on positions or taken away resources from the department to weigh in on decisions. He said theyve also been known to wield their influence over the city manager when it comes to hiring and firing. They apply the heat at that pressure point, Rivera said. Noriega, the current city manager, declined to comment. Rivera said he believes Acevedos troubles started before he ever set foot in Miami. In March Acevedos appointment as chief was made and bypassed an interview process with internal candidates, Rivera said. He also said Acevedos role as an outsider in the city, despite his Cuban heritage, didnt help him fit in right away. It doesnt matter that hes Cuban, he said. They dont look at him as a Miami Cuban. While he understood why Acevedo penned his memo in September, Rivera said the decision is a tell-tale sign that the outspoken chief, with nearly 100,000 Twitter followers, was unfamiliar with his new terrain. He has to understand that this is Miami. Its a universe unto itself, Rivera said. If you cant navigate that, thats to your own detriment. Despite the heat Acevedo received for the memo, Fuller, the Little Havana real estate developer, said he hopes the chiefs claims arent brushed aside as Miami political theater. In the memo, Acevedo said he would be providing information about the alleged city hall corruption hed witnessed to the proper authorities, which have made some speculate as to whether there could be an FBI probe. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. At the Oct. 1 city commission meeting, commissioner Kenneth Russell, whod skipped the previous Acevedo roasting session, said that as a result of the memo the issues in them would be ripe for litigation and that anything else said by city leaders could put the city at risk. The city is already contending with Fullers $27-million lawsuit. It claims the city has been well aware of Carollos harassment of two of his businesses since January 2018, shortly after Carollo, who has held many positions within the City of Miami that of mayor, was elected as commissioner. Currently, both businesses are temporarily closed because of code violations. The Ball and Chain in Little Havana, Miami, Florida James Nesterwitz / Alamy Stock Photo The suit alleges that after Carollo won his seat he began seeking retribution against Fuller because he supported his political opponent during the tight race. That included repeated visits from code enforcement investigators and police officers under the guise of possible violations of city code. But instead of issuing quiet violations, the suit alleges Carollo and others made sure the inspections took place at nights and on weekends and included several armed police officers so that they resembled gestapo-style-raids that would scare away customers. Late one night in August, the police department arrested the general manager of one of Fullers restaurants in front of patrons for allegedly not having the proper license to operate the establishment. The charges were later dropped, according to court records. According to the suit, the developed and deployed plan to run Fullers businesses out of town has now extended beyond Carollo and has corrupted every organ of the city government. Before Acevedos memo in September, the suit alleges Carollos alleged corruption was called out by the previous chief of police, Jorge Colina. In a February 2019 letter reviewed by The Daily Beast, Colina wrote to the city manager at the time, expressing concern with a new resolution that would allow Miami Police officers to be part of a task force to conduct site inspections. The resolution in question was passed after a city commission meeting in which Carollo brought up concerns about Fullers properties in Little Havana, the Miami Herald reported. Colina wrote that the discussion of the resolution was aimed at one particular business in the city, which he said, gives the impression that the city is selectively targeting his business for new investigations. He wrote that he was concerned the request would be unlawful. Colina did not respond to a request for comment. Fuller, who is part-Cuban, told The Daily Beast it is ironic that his alleged treatment by city leaders resembles the sort of regime people like Carollo, who was born in Cuba, fled. The exact same tactics where you intimidated businesses, you send police forces in to close down shops and arrest people, Fuller said. Thats not what we know in the United States. His concerns echoed that of Acevedo, who was also born in Cuba and left to California at age 4. In his now infamous memo, Acevedo closed by saying hed been told many times that if he gave the commissioners what they wanted, hed be left alone. But he said if he were to give in to some of the things hes witnessed during his short time in Miami, he might as well have remained in Cuba, because Miami and MPD would be no better than the repressive regime and police state we left behind. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. New Delhi: Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, on Friday (October 8), said that he has asked Tesla not to sell its China-made electric cars in India and that the company should manufacture electric four-wheelers in India and export it to the world. Speaking at a media event, Gadkari also said that he has asked Tesla many times to manufacture its electric cars in India. He added that Tesla has been assured of all the support from the governments side as well. Tesla has recently asked the Central government to lower the import taxes on electric vehicles in India. Currently, the import duties on electric cars are in the same category as fuel-based four-wheelers. "I have told Tesla not to sell electric cars in India which your company has manufactured in China. You should manufacture electric cars in India, and also export cars from India," he said. "Whatever support you (Tesla) want, will be provided by our government," Gadkari added. Reports have previously suggested that the Indian government is not in the mood to lower the import duties on electric vehicles. However, several other global brands have now joined Tesla for asking the Indian government to lower the import duties. Currently, cars imported in India as completely built units (CBUs) attract customs duty ranging from 60-100 per cent. The tax depends on engine size and cost, insurance and freight (CIF) value of cars. Also Read: ZEEL gets time till October 22 to respond to Invescos plea In a letter to the road ministry, Tesla had said that the effective import tariff of 110 per cent on vehicles with customs value above USD 40,000 is "prohibitive" to zero-emission vehicles. Also Read: Motorola Moto E40 with 90Hz LCD, 48MP main camera launched Live TV #mute New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday (October 8, 2021) announced that it is increasing Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) daily transaction limit increased from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. What is IMPS? Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) is an innovative real time payment service that is available round the clock. This service is offered by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that empowers customers to transfer money instantly through banks and RBI authorized Prepaid Payment Instrument Issuers (PPI) across India. IMPS offers instant domestic funds transfer facility 24x7 through various channels viz --Mobile phones, Smartphone- Bank App/ SMS / WAP/USSD (NUUP), Basic phone-SMS/USSD (NUUP), Internet- Banks Internet banking facility, and ATM-By Using ATM Card at Banks ATM. What is RTGS? RTGS is a financial transaction system, where there is continuous and real-time settlement of fund transfers, individually on a transaction-by-transaction basis. RTGS transactions or transfers have no amount cap. What is the minimum amount to be remitted through RTGS? The minimum amount to be remitted through RTGS is Rs 2 lakh with no upper or maximum ceiling. What is NEFT? NEFT is a nation-wide payment system facilitating one-to-one funds transfer. Under this Scheme, individuals, firms and corporates can electronically transfer funds from any bank branch to any individual, firm or corporate having an account with any other bank branch in the country participating in the Scheme. What is the minimum amount to be remitted through NEFT? Although there is no limit imposed by the RBI for funds transfer through NEFT system, some banks may place amount limits based on their own risk perception with the approval of its Board. Since July 2019, RBI stopped levying charges on transactions through NEFT and RTGS, with an aim to promote digital transactions in the country. Live TV #mute New Delhi: Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal will be seen in his much-talked-about upcoming film titled Sardar Udham. The biopic will witness its global premiere on Amazon Prime Video this Dussehra on October 16, 2021. The anticipation among the fans is at the pinnacle as the film is based on the story of late freedom fighter Sardar Udham Singh. Directed by Shoojit Sircar, the movie stars Vicky Kaushal in the titular role and also features Shaun Scott, Stephen Hogan, Banita Sandhu and Kirsty Averton. Actor Amol Parashar also has a special appearance in the film. A look at some unknown facts and reasons why you must watch Sardar Udham Singh biopic: Jallianwala Bagh Massacre connection: The incident took place on April 13, 1919, in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar and remains etched in the pages of the Indian freedom struggle. Many innocent lives were lost in this horrific incident. The massacre deeply impacted Sardar Udham Singh and he pledged to avenge the death of his fellow countrymen. Udham and Bhagat Singhs camaraderie: One of the greatest allies of Sardar Udham Singh was Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Udham Singh met Bhagat Singh in jail and addressed the latter as his guru. The impact and influence Bhagat Singh had on Udham was both powerful and everlasting. Man of various identities: Udham Singh had the capability to disguise and adapt different identities to travel across the world to finally cross that one gate of Caxton Hall and avenge the death of countless innocent Indian souls. He was a perfectionist when it came to nailing different personalities. He worked as an extra on the sets of Elephant Boy (1937). He was a multi-talented person who adapted various skills over time from being a signboard painter, carpenter, welder in a factory, a lingerie salesman to a voyager on a shipping vessel. Micheal ODwyer's killing On March 13, 1940, Sardar Udham Singh shot Micheal ODwyer at a meeting at East India Association and The Royal Central Asian Society at Caxton Hill. Taking out the revolver from his diary, he shot at General Dwyer. He did this in front of the world because he wanted to send a message, he wanted this to be an event that reminded people of the revolution, and that the world should never forget Indias greatest tragedy. He was calm and stood there waiting patiently when he was arrested by the police. He was imprisoned in the Brixton prison. A symbol of Unity During Udham Singh's imprisonment, he held a 36-day hunger strike to symbolise the power and the need for religious unity in India to fight the Britishers. His fasting was a powerful message and an urge to the three major religions of India (Hindu, Muslims and Sikhs) to become one and fight for the freedom of their motherland. He identified himself as Ram Mohammad Singh Azad while in custody, showcasing his belief in unity, negating the anti-colonial sentiments. Sardar Udham Singhs bravery and passion to fight for Indian Independence still inspire us. Watch his extraordinary journey on-screen as Amazon Original Movie Sardar Udham premieres on Amazon Prime Video on October 16, 2021. New Delhi: Ola Electric has raised about USD 200 million (around Rs 1,500 crore) from a clutch of investors in a fresh funding round, valuing the electric vehicle maker at over USD 5 billion, according to sources. Ola Electric has closed a USD 200 million round at over USD 5 billion valuation - a jump of almost 70 per cent from the previous round, they added. The latest round saw participation from existing investors and some US-based bluechip tech funds, the sources said. When contacted, Ola declined to comment. On September 30, Ola had announced raising over USD 200 million in funding from Falcon Edge, SoftBank and others, valuing it at USD 3 billion. While the round was closed around June, the official announcement was made recently. The company has previously raised over USD 600 million from investors, including Tiger Global and Matrix India. This included a USD 100 million debt from Bank of Baroda that was announced in July. The fresh funding will help Ola Electric to accelerate vehicle development across its range of scooters including mass-market scooters, motorbikes, 4Ws and other vehicle form factors. In September, Ola had stated that the sales of its S1 electric scooters crossed Rs 1,100 crore in two days. The two e-scooters - Ola S1 and S1 Pro - were unveiled in August this year. The purchase window will re-open in November. Ola has completed phase I construction of its manufacturing plant, spread across 500 acres, in Tamil Nadu. The company had announced an investment of Rs 2,400 crore towards the facility. The factory will be run entirely by women and employ over 10,000 women at full scale. The company had previously stated that it would initially start with a 10 lakh annual production capacity and then scale it up to 20 lakh, in line with market demand, in the first phase. Also Read: Chief economic adviser Subramanian steps down after 3-year tenure Ola Electric had claimed that its plant - when fully completed - would have an annual capacity of one crore units, "that is 15 per cent of the world's entire total two-wheeler production". Also Read: In good hands: Twitter reacts to Tata Sons buyout of Air India New Delhi: Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) of India Krishnamurthy Venkata Subramanian announced, on Friday (October 8), that he would step down following the completion of his three-year tenure. In an official statement, he announced that he has decided to return to academia. "I have decided to return back to academia following the completion of my 3-year fulfilling tenure as the Chief Economic Adviser, Government of India," he said. In a tweet, he added that the nation has been an absolute privilege and he had wonderful support and encouragement. I have decided to return back to academia following the completion of my 3-year fulfilling tenure. Serving The Nation has been an absolute privilege and I have wonderful support and encouragement. My statement: @PMOIndia @narendramodi @FinMinIndia @nsitharamanoffc @PIB_India pic.twitter.com/NW5Y64kxJ6 K V Subramanian (@SubramanianKri) October 8, 2021 As of now, the Central government hasn't appointed a successor to Subramanian, who was appointed as CEA on December 7, 2018. In past, CEA KV Subramanian has served as a member of several export committees. He was also a member of the Board of Directors at Bandhan Bank and the National Institute of Bank Management. Also Read: Air India Disinvestment: From Centre buying carrier to saying Tata, check airlines journey so far His appointment had come five months after Arvind Subramanian had quit the job of CEA, citing pressing family commitments". Also Read: Return of Air India to the Tatas after 68 years --Here's all you want to know Live TV #mute New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) will observe its 89th foundation day on Friday. October 8 is annually celebrated as IAF Day, with celebrations at Hindon Air Force Station in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad. These celebrations will be held in the presence of Chief of Air Staff and senior officials of the three armed forces. The 2021 IAF Day parade will honour the heroes of the 1971 war in which India defeated Pakistan leading to the creation of Bangladesh. The famous Tangail airdrop operation would be depicted with three paratroopers including one from the Army jumping from a vintage Dakota transport aircraft," ANI quoted IAF official as saying. To pay a tribute to the 1971 war heroes, formations with call signs related to the places and people involved will be displayed in the parade. The Vinaash formation would showcase the victory in Longewala operations with six Hawk aircraft. In order to honour its only Param Vir Chakra awardee Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon, the Sekhon formation would see one each of Rafale, LCA Tejas, Jaguar, MiG-29 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets flying over the parade together. Inset - Some beautiful glimpses of the Full Dress Rehearsal #FDR of the Air Force Day Parade. Do watch the full parade LIVE right here on 8th Oct 2021 starting from 08:00 am IST.#RunUpToThe89th#AtmaNirbhar#Saksham by AVM PS Karkare pic.twitter.com/0VN02E3B9P Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) October 7, 2021 As per ANI report, Meghna formation related to the famous Heli-bridging operations by the IAF to transport army troops across the river Meghna would include Mi-17 and Chinook choppers with a howitzer underslung. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in its release said, "A scintillating air display by various aircraft will be the hallmark of the Air Force Day Parade-cum-investiture Ceremony at Air Force Station Hindan (Ghaziabad). According to the MoD release, the aircraft that will be flying at low levels include Wazirpur bridge -Karwalnagar - Afjalpur -Hindan, Shamli - Jiwana - Chandinagar - Hindan, Hapur - Philkua - Ghaziabad - Hindan. A little bit of history: The IAF was established on October 8, 1932, as a supporting force of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force. Initially known as the Royal Indian Air Force, the prefix Royal was removed in 1950 after India became a Republic. Headed by an Air Chief Marshal (ACM), the Indian Air Force is the fourth largest air force in the world. (With agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: The face-off between the Indian and Chinese troops happened last week along the Line of Actual Control after a few Chinese troops crossed the border in Arunachal Pradeshs Tawang and were detained by Indian soldiers briefly, said the sources in Defence. The Indian and Chinese troops disengaged after the local commanders resolved the issue. The face-off lasted for a few hours before the troops disengaged and Indian troops outnumbered the Chinese at the location and there was no damage to the Indian defences in the face-off that took place between the two sides at the location, the sources said. Since the India-China border has not been formally demarcated and hence there is a difference in perception of LAC between the countries. "Peace and tranquillity in these areas of differing perceptions have been possible by adherence to existing agreements and protocols between the two countries," they said. Additionally, the sources also stated that both sides undertake patrolling activities up to their line of perception and whenever patrols physically meet, the situation is managed according to established protocols. Live TV New Delhi: Another video of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was detained on Monday while trying to reach Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh to visit the kin of the victims there, has surfaced on social media. In the video, the Congress leader can be seen lashing out at an official at Sitapur PAC guest house where she was detained. According to the reports, the person at which Priyanka Gandhi is raising her voice is the District Magistrate of the area. The video capture Priyanka in all her fury. I will not going to disrupt everything. I will only meet those people. I will give you my plan, but I am not having any discussion with you because you represent the government that is completely undemocratic and has completely failed, she told the official. Watch the video here: #CaughtOnCamera: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lashes out at DM at PAC guest house pic.twitter.com/ObLKKwSAOI Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) October 8, 2021 Meanwhile, another video of the Congress General Secretary sweeping a room with a broom as a token of protest against the Lakhimpur Kheri violence had gone viral on social media. Even that video was of a room at the Sitapur PAC headquarters, where Priyanka was detained. The room was apparently dirty and the Congress leader can be seen sweeping it with a broom. After consistent efforts, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were finally able to meet the families of the deceased farmers on Wednesday and promised them all assistance. They arrived in Lakhimpur after the Uttar Pradesh government allowed them to visit the violence-hit district. Live TV Sikkim, a hidden gem in the north-eastern part of India while nestling the lush green forests, beautiful bird sanctuaries, holy caves, highest mountain peaks, scenic beauty, rare wildlife, majestic glaciers, calm hot water springs, gushing waterfalls, colourful Buddhist monasteries, and a sub-tropical climate has become an upcoming ideal destination for tourists to visit and explore. The smallest Indian state is strategically located while bordering three countries namely, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, and boasts of rich heritage and culture apart from its biodiversity. A Saviour Online Travel Guide Now for a traveller to plan an itinerary based on their budget, days of travel, interests, and idle time to visit gets trickier and confusing owing to too much information that is so haywire on the internet that one ends up feeling more lost. At times we end up with bitter travel experiences that could be due to the poor service of the hotel, missing out on local site seeing due to lack of time, or exceeding travel budget Here comes Esikkim Tourism website to your rescue - your online travel guide and booking portal that is dedicated to Sikkim. The website is well designed with a friendly user interface providing all the necessary travel information in a simple and organized manner that helps you plan your travel conveniently. At Your Service 24x7 Their anytime anywhere customer care assistance makes it easier for travellers to contact them in case of any query or problem to make your stay as comfortable and pleasant as possible. Sikkim Tour Packages The website offers a bouquet of well-planned 100 plus Sikkim tour package options to choose from, based on the needs of tourists. Their travel options are segregated under three main categories Bestsellers This includes the most popular destinations to visit in Sikkim varying from 4 nights to 8 nights. This includes the most popular destinations to visit in Sikkim varying from 4 nights to 8 nights. Family/Leisure - This comprises travel options for groups and families who are planning their visit to Sikkim. - This comprises travel options for groups and families who are planning their visit to Sikkim. Honeymoon For all the newlyweds, the portal provides packages specifically designed to cater to the honeymoon couples to experience romance and magic during their vacation. Personalized and Customized As an online travel guide, the website has been sensitive enough to meet the demands of every kind of traveller, be it an adventure seeker, a budget traveller, or someone aspiring to experience luxury. It allows everyone to customize their itinerary with the help of the following filters: Budget per person The website offers packages based on your traveling budget, starting from as low as Rs.10000. Hotel star Ratings- One can choose the property based on the facilities and service it provides with a rating and reviews of 2 to 5 star and their bestseller verified stamp Destination- List of popular places to visit is provided for you to choose from based on your liking. Duration As per the information provided by you apropos your days of travel that could vary from 3 nights to more than 10 nights, the website has ready packages to choose from. Tour Guide Their tour guide main heading comprises detailed information under the following subheadings: Place to visit Helps the traveller with a ready list of Cities and towns to plan their vacation in and around Sikkim. Helps the traveller with a ready list of Cities and towns to plan their vacation in and around Sikkim. Things to do This provides a list of 25 activities, experiences, and local site seeing options that the destination offers with their cost, safety measures, and other small details before visiting the place. This provides a list of 25 activities, experiences, and local site seeing options that the destination offers with their cost, safety measures, and other small details before visiting the place. How to Reach - This apprises the traveller on how to reach their destination via Air, Rail or Road with all the required details like distance, time is taken, nearby airports and railway stations. - This apprises the traveller on how to reach their destination via Air, Rail or Road with all the required details like distance, time is taken, nearby airports and railway stations. Best time to visit- Each travellers needs are different, someone wants to experience Sikkim during winters, for some summer is the best time. Considering this in mind the website helps the travellers with a crucial piece of information on when is the best time to visit a particular destination in Sikkim with all required information about the weather conditions from January till December. Destination and Attractions For the convenience of the tourists, the portal has given a list of famous cities to visit accompanied by the popular attractions that they can experience based on the demography of Sikkim, namely North, South, East, and West. Blogs For all who are interested to know Sikkim before they visit, the website has a rich collection of informative and well-researched articles on adventure activities, history and significance of a particular site seeing location, to give you a glimpse of this mesmerizing, mystical and scenic state of India. Customer Reviews and Enquiry The website has listed reviews of their customers for your perusal that can be referred before you make your travel plans. Also, last but not the least, the portal allows you to make an inquiry in case you need more clarity regarding a particular package or any other information and promptly replies within a stipulated time. (Disclaimer- Brand Desk Content) Vowing to punish the perpetrators of recent terror attacks in Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday night warned those aiding and abetting terrorists that every drop of innocent civilians' blood will be avenged. The LG assured the people that they will "completely demolish" the terror ecosystem. "I am deeply pained and anguished and I promise the family members of the innocent victims that perpetrators of the barbaric acts will be punished soon", Sinha said in a statement on Thursday night. "My tributes to the civilians martyred in the terrorist attacks. My heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones. The UT administration and the whole country stand in solidarity with the families of the victims in this hour of grief," he added. LG Sinha said he was aware that the people of J&K and the whole nation are in deep anger. "Everyone wants justice. I assure you that we have given free hand to the security agencies to eliminate the enemies of humanity, and soon the terrorists and those aiding and abetting them will pay for their heinous crimes", he said. "Every drop of innocent civilians' blood will be avenged", he said. Sinha said the peace and progress accomplished by J&K in the last two years has rattled the neighbouring country and some of its terror sympathizers in the UT. "I want to assure the people that we will completely demolish their terror ecosystem," he added. The LG said the youth of Jammu and Kashmir today wants development as after decades, they have new role models, and new aspirations. "In July, 10.5 lakh tourists came to Jammu and Kashmir. The figure was 11.28 lakhs in August, and in September, the numbers crossed 12 lakhs", he said. The LG said certain elements across the border and their associates in UT have a problem with this kind of growth and prosperity. "I also urge the intelligentsia of Jammu and Kashmir to unite against terrorism, so that we could defeat the biggest enemy of humanity", he added. "Again, I assure the people of India and the residents of Jammu and Kashmir that the terrorists and those who harbor such enemies of humanity will not be spared," LG said. As many as seven civilians have been killed by militants in Kashmir Valley in the last five days. A woman principal and a teacher were shot dead at a point-blank range inside a government school on Thursday. On Tuesday, Makhan Lal Bindroo, a prominent Kashmiri Pandit, was killed by terrorists in Srinagar. Live TV New Delhi: The Kerala government on Thursday (October 7) issued certain guidelines for devotees visiting Lord Ayyappa hill shrine in Sabarimala during Mandala-Makaravilakku in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the pilgrimage season commences from November 16, around 25,000 devotees would be permitted entry daily, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed. In case of any changes in the number of devotees allowed to visit Sabarimala, a call will be taken later, he added. Check the other guidelines here: 1. The virtual queue system will continue. 2. Pilgrims below the age of 10 and above 65 will be allowed entry. 3. Only those who have taken both vaccine doses or have a negative RTPCR report would be permitted to enter the shrine. 4. Devotees would not be allowed to stay at the Sannidhanam after Lord Ayyappas darshan. 5. Devaswom Board has been directed to make arrangements to give 'Neyyabhishekam' (the anointed ghee) to all. 6. Like last year, pilgrims will not be allowed on the forest path via Erumeli or on the traditional route to Sannidhanam via Pulmedu. 7. Vehicles would only be allowed up to Nilackal and from there KSRTC buses should be used to reach Pampa river where permission for bathing has been granted. The decision was taken in a meeting attended by the state ministers of Devasom, Transport, Forest, Health and Water resources as well as the State Police Chief wherein the entry situation before the pilgrimage season was reviewed. The state government also decided to hike the salaries of the cleaning staff and install smoke detectors in buildings as fire safety measures. The devotees who are COVID-19 negative, but suffer from comorbidities should come for the pilgrimage only after a health check-up, the CM said. Meanwhile, Kerala reported 12,288 new COVID-19 cases and 141 deaths on Thursday, which pushed the caseload to 47,63,722 and fatalities to 25,952, the official press release said. (With PTI inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday (October 7) visited the kin of the farmers killed during a protest in Uttar Pradeshs Lakhimpur Kheri. The development comes a day after Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the families of the deceased farmers. Yadav paid a visit to the kin of farmers and a local journalist killed in the violence and questioned why the accused have not been arrested yet. "There is a lot of arrogance in the government. Why have the named accused not been arrested so far? We have hopes from the Supreme Court. Only the Supreme Court will help the poor. The truth will come out. The accused will definitely get punishment. The Samajwadi Party is with the families of the victims. When the Samajwadi Party forms its government in Uttar Pradesh, maximum help will be extended to the victims," PTI quoted the former UP Chief Minister as saying. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav had met with the families of people who died in the October 3 Lakhimpur violence. "Internet services are suspended so that people don't get to share or forward the recorded videos and know the truth," he said yesterday. pic.twitter.com/CDCvLPyJCD ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 7, 2021 The SP chief also demanded Rs 2 crore financial aid and government jobs for the families of the deceased. Slamming the Uttar Pradesh government, Yadav stated, Internet services are suspended so that people don't get to share or forward the recorded videos and know the truth. In the violence that erupted during a farmers protest in the state, eight people lost their lives on Sunday, including four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. The others who died were present in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who came to welcome Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya. Farmer leaders have claimed that Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra's son Ashish was in one of the cars which allegedly knocked down some farmers who were protesting against the deputy CM's visit. An FIR has been filed against Ashish Mishra and others in connection with the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri. Meanwhile, the UP police on Thursday made the first arrests in the incident and took two people into custody. Further, Ashish Mishra, an accused, has been summoned for questioning on Friday. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court asked the state government to explain who are the accused in the FIR and whether or not they have been arrested. (With agency inputs) Live TV Chandigarh: Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday (October 8) separately met the families of the farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Sharing the photos of his meeting with one of the families on Twitter, Sidhu said, "Justice Delayed-Justice Denied." Justice Delayed - Justice Denied With family of brave heart Lovepreet Singh (20), victim of brutal murders by Union Ministers son pic.twitter.com/Oa3KQ5Gl0m Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) October 8, 2021 Sidhu consoled the family members of Lovepreet Singh, one of the four farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Sunday (October 3). Later, he said, "What has happened is a barbaric crime. Entire India is asking for justice. Loss of human lives can never be compensated." He added that Lovepreet Singh's father said he wants justice. "There is evidence, video...Witness account is there. But arrest is not being made because he (Ashish Kumar Mishra) is a Union minister's son," the Congress leader said. Sidhu and Badal also separately met the family members of Raman Kashyap, a 28-year-old journalist who was among the eight people killed in Sunday's violence that erupted during a farmers' protest. Sidhu had earlier demanded the arrest of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra's son in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, saying he would go on a hunger strike if action is not taken against him by Friday. Accompanied by a few Congress leaders from Punjab, including state ministers and MLAs, Sidhu was allowed to head towards Lakhimpur Kheri hours after he was detained at a police station in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday (October 7). The Uttar Pradesh police has issued a fresh notice to Ashish Kumar Mishra, asking him to appear before it by 11 am on Saturday (October 9) in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, after he missed his summons for Friday. Leading a delegation of SAD leaders, former Union minister Badal demanded Mishra's immediate dismissal, besides the arrest of his son Ashish, a statement issued by the party said. Badal visited the residences of the four farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri along with senior SAD leaders Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Bikram Singh Majithia, Manpreet Singh Ayali, besides Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Jagir Kaur. Four of the eight people who died in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence were farmers who were allegedly knocked down by vehicles carrying BJP workers. Angry farmers then allegedly lynched two workers of the saffron party and their driver. The farmers claimed that Ashish Mishra was in one of the vehicles, an allegation denied by him and his father. Badal said it was condemnable that no action was taken in the heinous case either by the Centre or the Uttar Pradesh government despite clear-cut evidence. "The video footage of Ashish Misra's vehicle is available. There are eyewitness accounts that Ashish Misra fled the scene...He should be arrested on murder charges immediately," she was quoted as saying in the SAD statement. Badal also pointed out that there is video footage of the Union minister allegedly threatening farmers and inciting violence against them. "It is wrong to keep him in the Union cabinet and the Centre should take immediate action against him," she added. The SAD delegation visited Lovepreet Singh's residence at Chaukhra village, Nachhattar Singh's house at Namdar Purve, Daljeet Singh's residence at Vanjaran Tanda, Gurwinder Singh's house at Mohrnia and journalist Raman Kashyap's residence at Nighasan village, according to the party statement. Kaur handed over a cheque for Rs 5 lakh to each of the families of the victims, besides assuring them that the SGPC would look after the educational needs of the next of kin of the victims. There were emotional scenes at the residences of the victims' families. The bereaved family members said they could never imagine that anyone could mow down innocent farmers returning home after the conclusion of their peaceful protest, according to the SAD statement. They also said the Uttar Pradesh government had still not initiated action in the case in earnest. They said the perpetrators were locals and were identified but were not being arrested. After meeting Lovepreet Singh's family, Badal tweeted: "The sense of loss and pain they are experiencing is heart-wrenching. Sharing their grief, assured them support in every possible way. We are together in this fight." Live TV New Delhi: Rapping the Uttar Pradesh government, on Friday (October 8), the Supreme Court said that it's "not satisfied" with the action taken by it in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that took place on October 3 in which eight people were killed. The Apex Court also asked the state why accused Ashish Mishra has not been arrested yet. Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Ajay Kumar Mishra 'Teni', had allegedly mowed down farmers with his car. Yesterday (October 7), the police served a notice to Ashish Mishra and summoned him for questioning. The bench of Chief Justice Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said the Uttar Pradesh government is not proceeding in the manner in which it should proceed against the accused while adding that the killing of eight people in Lakhimpur Kheri is a "brutal murder" and law must take its course against all accused. The top court asked the Uttar Pradesh government whether in other murder cases the police issue summons instead of arresting the accused. Not arresting the accused is sending a "wrong message," the Bench observed as the police have not arrested Ashish Mishra. Supreme Court says it is not satisfied with the steps taken by the Uttar Pradesh government in the investigation of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case pic.twitter.com/C76nuN9Dyr ANI (@ANI) October 8, 2021 Meanwhile Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Friday (October 7) that there will be no injustice with anyone and no action will be taken under any pressure. "There is no place for violence in democracy, and when the law is giving guarantee to secure everyone, there is no need to take it into one's hands, whosoever they be," the chief minister said while speaking to a news channel. On allegations that attempts are being made to save the minister's son, Ashish Mishra, in the case, Adityanath said, "There is no such video. We have issued numbers, and if anyone has evidence, they can upload it. All will be crystal clear. There will be no injustice with anyone. No one will be allowed to take the law in his hand but no action will be taken under any pressure." He added, "We will not arrest anyone on allegations. But yes, if someone is guilty, he will also not be spared irrespective of who he is." The apex court ordered the DGP of the Uttar Pradesh government to protect evidence and other materials in the case and not destroy all in the interim by the time another agency takes it over. It listed the matter for hearing on October 20 as the first case. The Bench said it hopes the State government will take necessary steps due to the sensitivity of the issue and it expects responsible government, system and police. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, told the Bench that what has been done by State is not satisfactory and assured it that remedial action will be taken soon. During the hearing of the case on violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, the top court expressed apprehension over the fair probe in the case because of officers involved in the case, saying that it has seen details of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the matter, and the DIG, Superintendent of Police, Circle Officers, etc are all local people.At the outset, Salve said that that "young man (Ashish Mishra) who is being targeted has been given notice and he will appear tomorrow at 11 am". Salve said that if he does not come, the rigour of law will take its course. To this CJI Ramana asked Salve when there is a serious allegation of death or gunshot injury will the accused in this country be treated the same way? He further observed that charges against Mishra are very serious.Salve further said that he was told that post mortem did not show any bullet wounds and explained that it was the reason why the notice was sent under section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) notice. He added that police have found two cartridges; maybe Mishra had bad aim and missed it. "But the manner in which car was driven, allegations are true. I am saying allegations are true and there is a case under section 302 of IPC," Salve added. A single-member Commission of Enquiry with headquarters at Lakhimpur Kheri has been constituted to investigate the death of 8 persons in Lakhimpur Kheri. Uttar Pradesh government has appointed retired Allahabad High Court judge Pradeep Kumar Srivastava as a single-member Commission to inquire about the incident and inquiry to be completed within a period of two months. Earlier, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, party MP Deepender Hooda, and Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Kumar Lallu, reached the village and visited the victims' families. Local farmers blamed Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra 'Teni' and his son for the violence that left eight dead, including four farmers and a local journalist. They were mowed down by a vehicle that was part of the convoy of Minister in Lakhimpur Kheri in north-central Uttar Pradesh. Videos are also being circulated on social media where a Mahindra Thar was seen knocking down protesters from behind.The Minister and his son deny the charges. Ashish Mishra and 20 others have been booked for murder but have not been arrested yet. The government gave Rs 45 lakh as compensation for each family and announced a judicial probe. Channi and Baghel also announced Rs 50 lakh compensation each to the victims' families. Live TV Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be "elected again" in 2024, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday (October 8). Addressing a function at Pansar in the Gandhinagar district, Shah said no other leader in the world has achieved the feat of getting elected continuously for 20 years. "Yesterday, Narendra-bhai completed 20 years in public office. Not a single leader in the world has so far achieved this feat of getting elected continuously for 20 years and serving people without a break for 20 years," he said. "In democratic countries, where people can change their elected representatives, you will not find a single leader who has served continuously for such a long period. Narendra Modi assumed the office (as Gujarat chief minister) on October 7, 2001, and yesterday was October 7, 2021. He is prime minister today and he will be elected again in 2024," Shah said. The Union minister, who represents Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha, was on a one-day visit to Gujarat. After inaugurating a tea stall run by a women self-help group at Gandhinagar Railway Station, Shah reached Pansar village near Kalol town to inaugurate a Primary Health Centre. The Union home minister also performed a ground-breaking ceremony for a lake beautification project at Pansar. During the subsequent function, he launched 143 small projects worth Rs 11 crore. Modi could remain in office for so long because he always cared for people, Shah further said in his speech. "I have always seen him focusing on things which are incomplete. You will hardly find such concern for the nation, state, people and the poor in any other leader," the Union minister added. The Modi-led Union government's achievements in the last seven years would outweigh those of Congress governments in 70 years, he claimed. He listed various achievements of the Modi government such as opening of 60 crore bank accounts, construction of 10 crore toilets and providing electricity to five crore people. Shah later left for his native town of Mansa in the district to perform puja at the Bahuchar Mata temple on the occasion of Navratri, a tradition he has been following for the last many years. Live TV Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (October 7) spoke to the newly elected prime minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, and said he looked forward to working with him to further strengthen India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership. Japan's parliament had elected Kishida as prime minister earlier this week. In a tweet Modi said, "Spoke with H.E. Fumio Kishida to congratulate him for assuming charge as the Prime Minister of Japan. I look forward to working with him to further strengthen India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership and to enhance cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region." Spoke with H.E. Fumio Kishida to congratulate him for assuming charge as the Prime Minister of Japan. I look forward to working with him to further strengthen India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership and to enhance cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. @kishida230 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 8, 2021 Meanwhile, the new Japan PM said on Friday that he would do his utmost to lead Japan out of the COVID-19 crisis while protecting its territory and people in an increasingly tough security environment. Kishida took the top job in the world's third-largest economy on Monday, replacing Yoshihide Suga, who had seen his support undermined by surging COVID-19 infections. Daily cases have recently fallen and a long state of emergency was lifted this month. "I'm determined to devote body-and-soul to overcome this national crisis with the people, carve out a new era and pass on to the next generation a country whose citizens are rich at heart," Kishida said in his first policy speech to parliament. A big early test for him will be leading his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) into a general election on October 31. Kishida had telephone conversations with Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, media reported. The calls marked the first time Kishida talked with either leader since taking over as prime minister, Kyodo News said. On ties with China, PM Kishida said in his speech that building stable relations and maintaining dialogue were very important but Japan would not mince words when necessary. Live TV New Delhi: The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) said it will hold a meeting on Friday (October 8, 2021) to discuss the next course of action on the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that left four farmers dead. The SKM, which is spearheading the farmers' agitation against the Centre's farm laws, also said that it is waiting for the arrest of Ashish Mehra, the son of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra. The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday arrested two men in connection with the October 3 violence in Lakhimpur Kheri district. According to a notice, Ashish Mehra has been asked to come to the police lines at 10 am Friday. The SKM had on Wednesday warned the Centre and the UP government that it would launch a "big programme" if its demands for the removal of MoS Ajay Mishra and the arrest of his son were not fulfilled till the 'antim ardas' of the farmers killed in the incident. In its statement on Thursday, the SKM said that the 'antim-ardas' of the deceased farmers will be held on October 12. It said that it is still waiting for the arrest of Ashish Mishra and his accomplices. The farmers' group also condemned the statement of Uttar Pradesh minister Baldev Singh Aulakh that the Lakhimpur Kheri incident was an "accident" and demanded that he withdraw it. Eight people were killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. Of these, four were farmers, who were allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area. The other four include two BJP workers, a driver of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, and Raman Kashyap, a journalist working for a private TV channel. Live TV Srinagar: The recent incidents of terrorism in Kashmir valley, especially targetted killing of the members of minority communities, has once again reminded of the gory incident of massacre of 36 Sikhs in Chattisinghpora village of Anantnag in 2000. The incident has called for adopting a comprehensive approach to deal with the reemerging incident of terrorism especially after the Pakistan-backed Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. After the killing of Supinder Kaur, Sikh principal of Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Sangam Eidgah area of Srinagar district, and Deepak Chand, a Hindu teacher of the same school on Thursday, the Sikh community of the valley has come forward to lodge their protest and have given a call to Sikh government employees working in Kashmir to boycott their duties. The Chairman of All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) Jagmohan Singh Raina informed, We are very much worried about the recent killing which has reminded us of Chattisinghpora massacre, the community representatives held a meeting to discuss the situation and have given a call to the Sikh government employees of Kashmir to boycott their duties and remain at home until government ensures of their security. Two days before Eidgah incident Hindu Pundit Makhan Lal Bindroo, a chemist, Virender Pawan, a street vendor, and Mohammad Shafi lone, a taxi driver were shot dead in separate incidents. Reacting to the incident Shiromani Akali Dal (B) president Sukhbir Singh Badal has termed the recent killing of members of minority communities as systematic targeting of the minorities and has appealed to both the Centre as well as Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory administrator to augment the security of minorities. The killing of two teachers in the valley is a shocking incident, an attempt is being made to create a sense of fear among the minority communities living in the valley he said. The Sikhs who number around fifty thousand in the valley live in the districts of Pulwama, Baramula, Badgam, and Srinagar. APSCC Chairman said this was their initial reaction and they would wait for the UT administrator and the Centre government to react before they announce their further action. The incident has happened in Kashmir at a time when it is witnessing a surge in tourists rush from across India but has given a big jolt to the hopes of booming business for those in the tourism industry. Live TV New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday convicted real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal for tampering with evidence in the 1997 case of the Uphaar Cinema fire which claimed 59 lives. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma also held a former court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and two others -- P P Batra and Anoop Singh -- guilty in the case and said the misconception of all the accused persons that they will get away with their nefarious design from punishment has been exposed to the world at large. The judge held that the guilt of the Ansal brothers, Sharma, Batra, and Singh was "proved beyond any reasonable doubt" for the offence of criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidence of offence and criminal breach of trust by the public servant. The court said that the convicts destructed critical documents which were capable of proving their complicity in the main case, "making this time the justice dispensation system as the victim." "They tampered/obliterated/tom/defaced some hand-picked documents of the said case through a meticulous planning in order to escape punishment by scuttling trial process and as such fiddled with our judicial system with great impunity," the judge said. The court said the manner in which the process of law was subjected to desecration by convicts was "no less than defiling the justice administration system." "The high-handedness of the accused persons for securing benefit in the trial sans documents by any means demonstrate the scant regard which they have for the justice delivery system which is the bedrock of our democracy," the judge said. He said that the brazen attitude of the accused persons was reflective of their conduct as after the destruction of evidence they vehemently opposed the prosecution plea for adducing secondary evidence. The court said the accused left no stone unturned to prevent the advent of secondary evidence. "Accused Gopal Ansal, Sushil Ansal, H S Panwar (since deceased) with P P Batra, Dinesh Chandra Sharma attacked the very purity and sanctity of the justice system. Their misconception that they will get away with their nefarious design from punishment has been exposed to the world at large," it said. The court is likely to hear arguments on the quantum of the sentence on Monday. The convicts may face a maximum term of life imprisonment. The court also sought income certificates of all the convicts by Monday to decide compensation for the victims and their kin. The fire had broken out at Uphaar Cinema during the screening of the Hindi film 'Border' on June 13, 1997, claiming 59 lives. The Ansals were convicted and sentenced to a two-year jail term in the main case by the Supreme Court. It released them however taking into account the prison time they had done on the condition that they pay Rs 30 crore fine each, to be used for building a trauma centre in the national capital. Two other accused, Har Swaroop Panwar and Dharamvir Malhotra, died during the course of the trial. The court accepted the arguments by senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for the complainant Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), that Ansals and Panwar hatched a criminal conspiracy for the destruction of the most vital piece of evidence collected by the CBI against them in the main case. The case was lodged on the direction of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by AVUT chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy. The documents were handpicked and mutilated, torn and some also went missing, Pahwa told the court. The prosecution claimed that Ansals were prosecuted in the main case and the documents which were mutilated, destroyed, or illegally removed, manifested their involvement in the day-to-day functioning of Uphaar Cinema. It said the Ansals had taken the defence in the main case that they had no involvement in the day-to-day functioning. The tampering was detected for the first time on July 20, 2002, and a departmental enquiry was initiated against Dinesh Chand Sharma. He was suspended and terminated from services on June 25, 2004. The prosecution said that after the termination of his job, the Ansal brothers helped Sharma get employment on a monthly salary of Rs 15,000. When the case was registered, the documents of the company, where Sharma was employed post-suspension, were further tampered with by its chairperson Anoop Singh. Delhi Police had earlier told the court that tampering with evidence by real estate barons eroded the confidence and trust of a common man in the criminal justice delivery system. It said the tragedy was the most sensitive case of the city at that time and tampering with the documents in such a case could not be taken lightly. According to the charge sheet, the documents tampered with included a police memo giving details of recoveries immediately after the incident, Delhi Fire Service records pertaining to repair of transformer installed inside Uphaar, minutes of Managing Director's meetings, and four cheques. Out of the six sets of documents, a cheque of Rs 50 lakh, issued by Sushil Ansal to self, and minutes of the MD's meetings, proved beyond doubt that the two brothers were handling the day-to-day affairs of the theatre at the relevant time, the charge sheet had said. Live TV New Delhi: A Delhi court is scheduled to pronounce its order on Friday (October 8, 2021) in a case related to the tampering with the evidence in the 1997 Uphaar fire tragedy matter involving real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal among others. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma reserved the order on Thursday after the conclusion of final arguments in the matter. The case is related to the tampering with the evidence of the main case of the fire tragedy which had claimed 59 lives, in which Ansals were convicted and sentenced to two years jail term by the Supreme Court. However, the apex court released them on the period already undergone in the jail on the condition that they pay Rs 30 crore fine each to be used for building a trauma centre in the national capital. The Ansal brothers along with a court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma, and other individuals -- P P Batra, Har Swaroop Panwar, Anoop Singh, and Dharamvir Malhotra -- were booked in the present case. Panwar and Malhotra died during the course of the trial. Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for the complainant Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), told the court on Thursday that Ansals and HS Panwar hatched a criminal conspiracy of the destruction of the most vital piece of evidence collected by the CBI against them in the main Uphaar case. The documents were handpicked and were tampered with, mutilated, torn and some also went missing, he told the court. The prosecution claimed that Ansals were prosecuted in the main case and the documents which were mutilated, destroyed or illegally removed, manifested their involvement in the day-to-day functioning of the Uphaar Cinema. It said that Ansals had taken the defence in the main case that they had no involvement in the day-to-day functioning of Uphaar Cinema. The tampering was detected for the first time on July 20, 2002, and when it was unearthed, a departmental enquiry was initiated against Dinesh Chand Sharma and he was suspended. Later an enquiry was conducted and he was terminated from services on June 25, 2004. The prosecution said that after the termination, the Ansal brothers helped Sharma get employment on a monthly salary of Rs 15,000. When the case was registered, the documents of the company, where Sharma was employed post suspension, were further tampered with by its chairperson Anoop Singh. The Delhi police had earlier told the court that tampering with evidence by real estate barons eroded the confidence and trust of a common man in the criminal justice delivery system. It said that the Uphaar Cinema Fire Tragedy was the most sensitive case of the city at that time and tampering with the documents in such a case could not be taken lightly. According to the charge sheet, the documents alleged to have been tampered with included a police memo giving details of recoveries immediately after the incident, Delhi Fire Service records pertaining to repair of transformer installed inside Uphaar, minutes of Managing Director's meetings, and four cheques. Out of the six sets of documents, a cheque of Rs 50 lakh, issued by Sushil Ansal to self, and minutes of the MD's meetings, proved beyond doubt that the two brothers were handling the day-to-day affairs of the theater at the relevant time, the charge sheet had said. The fire had broken out at the Uphaar cinema during the screening of the Hindi film 'Border' on June 13, 1997, claiming 59 lives. The case was lodged on the direction of the Delhi High Court while hearing a petition by AVUT chairperson Neelam Krishnamoorthy. The accused are charged with offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 109 (abetment), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC. Live TV The leading brand Jewelegance is making head turns around with its sophisticated and regal look. Wearing and embracing yourself with incredible jewelry pieces is the legal right of every person who loves to flaunt their beauty and wants to be reckoned as the most beautiful human on the earth. Jewelegance is a brand that has been embodied with a breathtaking assemblage, honoring your charm, and making you fall in love with yourself. Jewelry and embellishments are not just prominent forms of accessories but they are recognized as the phenomenon that becomes a part of your personality and nurtures it in the best possible way. The quintessential jewelry brand Jewelegance always manages to shine on with timeless brilliance adding an exceptional grace to your persona. Incepted during the hot summer months of 2018, Jewelegance has become one of the reputed jewelry brands with its expert team and exquisite ornaments. The artisans have fabricated each piece with pure love and unmatchable creativity that no other firm has been able to produce yet. The jewelry is not restricted to women but the company also manufactures luxurious works of art for men and kids too. The company is walking on the creative stairs of success towards constructing a platform that values the needs and wants of customers and further, makes them feel like a member of the regal empire. Darshan Soni, Dhruval Shah, and Gunjan Soni are the creative heads who are changing the dynamics of the jewelry industry. The artistic team has remarkably created a number of marvels which have bedazzled everyone. Moreover, Jewelegance is a registered trademark under classes 14, 16, 35, 42. With its ceaseless visionary strategies and innovative steps Jewelegance is carving its footprint in the creative realm. Located in Ahmedabad, the brand has proved that they are the pioneer in establishing online jewelry brands that astonish every individual and make their journey memorable. Evolving the industry with innovative and unconventional ideas, Darshan Soni, founder, jewelegance says, We have been successful in retaining the customers' trust while ensuring that online buying and selling of jewelry is the fashion that needs to be fostered. From securing safety to adding new collections every month, the brand has been able to garner a positive response, making a shift in the outlook of people towards online purchasing of ornaments. He further added, We unequivocally strive to innovate our jewelry products and services so that we can always offer the finest experience while meeting our customers expectations. With the vision to make space for jewelry in the online segment of the market, the brand Jewelegance has distributed its services in the online domain, making it the center of the focus to bring innovations in the artistic zone. Seeing the immense growth of Indian e-commerce has unquestionably accelerated many industries and gold jewelry is no exception to this. Creating unique pieces of jewelry at a world-class quality with an affordable price range and selling it online is the eccentric motto of the revolutionary brand. The eloquent owners have put their best fashion foot forward to create magic in the fashion domain. From earrings, rings, mangalsutra, bracelet, necklace set to bangles everything is crafted meticulously to grab the attention of the treasurable buyers. Pointing towards the changing landscape of the jewelry industry, Gunjan Soni, founder, Jewelegance says, Right from the beginning, Jewelegance's motive is the Customer Centric Model. Educating customers on purity, product detail, price bifurcation, Hallmark, and certification are the essential points that the company is looking forward to. Having close customer engagement to enhance a pleasant shopping experience is what defines Jewelegance. Dhruval Shah, founder, Jewelegance says, Jewelegance has Certificate of Registration for Selling Articles with Hallmark and selling only BIS-Hallmark & Certified Gold and Diamond jewellery. Jewelegance is running a Mega Sale on 10,000+ Gold and Diamond Jewellery till 29th Oct with captivating offers. As a part of it, Jewelegance offers Rs. 399 and Rs. 199 per gram making charges on gold and diamond jewelry, respectively. Also, an assured silver and gold coin offer for HDFC Bank Card Holders only till October 15, 2021. The frontrunner jewelry brand is ruling the hearts of people with its designs that never go out of style. The glamorous brand has a royal charm that is reflected through its products and collection. Time and again the company has reshaped the jewelry domain with extraordinary and exclusive pieces and is expected to bring revolutionary changes that will make the company outshine others. Details: Website: www.Jewelegance.com Social Media Handle: myjewelegance Customer Care: +91-63-599-45000 / +91-990-444-3030 New Delhi: The registration process to fill Village Development Officer vacancies in Rajasthan and Ministerial Services Selection Board (RSMSSB) will close on October 9. Interested candidates can apply on the official website of RSMSSB at rsmssb.rajasthan.gov.in. The recruitment drive will fill 3896 vacancies in the organisation. Vacancy details: Out of the 3,896 Village Development Officer posts, 3222 vacancies are for Non-TSP area and 674 are for TSP area. Age limit: Candidates should be between the age of 18 to 40 years. Application fees: For General and OBC (creamy layer) categories, the application fee is Rs 450, while OBC (non-creamy layer) and extremely backward caste candidates have to pay Rs 350. Rs 250 is to be paid by SC and ST candidates. RSMSSB Recruitment 2021: How to apply 1. Visit the official website of RSMSSB at rsmssb.rajasthan.gov.in 2. On the homepage, click on 'Recruitment Advertisement' link 3. Click on 'Village Development Officer 2021: Detailed Recruitment Advertisements', then on Apply Online 4. Log in the required details and upload the documents 5. Pay the application fee and submit the form 6. Take a printout of the application form for future reference Live TV New Delhi: Former actress and activist Somy Ali has extended her support to Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan amid his arrest in a drugs seizure case. On Friday, she took to her Instagram to pen a long note talking about Aryan's arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). She argued that most young adults, teenagers have experimented with drugs all across the world. She also spoke about decriminalising drugs as it's a problem that will never fully go away. Somy also revealed that she had tried marijuana when she was 15 years old and did the same with late actress Divya Bharti on the sets of the film 'Andolan'. She wrote, "What kid has not experimented with drugs? Give me a big freaking break! And let this kid go home. Drugs, similar to prostitution, will never go away which is why both should be decriminalized. This is the epitome of a kid being a kid scenario. No one is a damn saint. I tried pot when I was 15 and then again with Divya Bharti during the shooting of Andolan. No regrets!" "The judicial system is using Aryan to prove a point as this child suffers for no damn reason. How about the judicial system focus on catching rapists and murderers instead?! The US has been fighting a war on drugs since 1971 and yet they are easily accessible to anyone who desires to use them," she added. "My heart goes out to Shah Rukh and Gauri and my prayers are with them. Aryan, you have done nothing wrong and justice will be served, kiddo. #freearyan #facade #justiceforaryan," the former actress concluded. Take a look at her post: For the unversed, superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested in a cruise party drugs scandal on October 3, 2021. The star kid and seven other accused in the case were remanded in 14-day judicial custody by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R M Nerlikar on October 8, who rejected the Narcotics Control Bureau's plea for their further custody for interrogation, reports PTI. On the other hand, Somy Ali has starred in several Bollywood films from 1991 to 1998 with leading actors and had dated Bollywood superstar Salman Khan for eight years in the 1990s. She is now an activist, working for women's rights, victims of domestic and sexual abuse. She is the founder and president of No More Tears USA and is happy working for society. New Delhi: Superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested in a cruise party drugs scandal on October 3, 2021. Ever since Bollywood has been pouring unconditional support to the Khan family either on social media or with personal visits to Mannat in Mumbai. The latest one to extend support happens to be Hrithik Roshan, who wrote a long open letter to Aryan Khan during these tough times for the young lad. His special note to the star kid got a 'like' reaction from his sister Suhana Khan. Suhana Khan, who is younger than Aryan, liked Hrithik's post, giving her first-ever reaction to the whole controversy. Meanwhile, Aryan Khan and seven other accused in the case were remanded in 14-day judicial custody by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R M Nerlikar on October 8, who rejected the Narcotics Control Bureau's plea for their further custody for interrogation, reports PTI. While Aryan, along with Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, was arrested on Sunday following a raid by the NCB on the ship off the Mumbai coast, Nupur Satija, Ishmeet Chadha, Mohak Jaiswal, Gomit Chopra and Vikrant Chhokar were arrested the following day. Opposing the NCB's remand extension plea, Aryan Khan's lawyer Satish Maneshinde said his client was not connected with any of the other accused. New Delhi: Veteran music composer Anandji's daughter Rita Valambia breathed her last on Friday (October 8) after reportedly suffering a heart attack. She was 62. Anandji Vir Shah also has a son. His brother and music partner Kalyanji died in August 2020. Anandji Virji Shah was born to a Kutchi businessman in 1933. His family migrated from Kutch to Bombay to start a provision store. His younger brother and sister-in-law are the husband and wife duo Babla & Kanchan. The two brothers began to learn music from a music teacher. One of their four grandparents was a folk musician of some eminence. They spent most of their formative years in the hamlet of Girgaum (a district in Bombay) in the Marathi and Gujarati areas. Together with his brother, he formed the Kalyanji-Anandji duo, and won the 1975 Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, for 1974 released 'Kora Kagaz'. He is a recipient of the civilian honour of Padma Shri (1992). New Delhi: Aadhaar cards users are encouraged to keep their mobile numbers up to date, according to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The statutory authority issued a warning against fraudsters in a statement on its verified Twitter account. Aadhaar cardholders must keep their cellphone number updated in the document at all times, as a registered phone number is essential to use Aadhaar Online services. If your phone number was not submitted with your Aadhaar, you can go to the nearest Permanent Aadhaar Centre (PAC). Also Read: Good news for Central govt employees! Salary expected to rise. Check DA Hike, HRA calculation The Ministry of Communications posted a tweet on September 20 on the microblogging site which read, Always keep your mobile number updated in Aadhaar. If you have any doubt about whether your correct mobile number or email has been linked with Aadhaar, you can verify the same using this link: https://resident.uidai.gov.in/verify-email-mobile. #BewareOfFraudsters Always keep your mobile number updated in #Aadhaar. If you have any doubt about whether your correct mobile number or email has been linked with Aadhaar, you can verify the same using this link: https://t.co/bq4PUgqHAd#AadhaarAwareness pic.twitter.com/ChmMLIh69X Aadhaar (@UIDAI) September 20, 2021 The user's email address and mobile phone number entered at the time of Aadhaar number enrolment or the most recent Aadhaar data update on the Aadhaar website can be verified. Also Read: Big banking update! IMPS daily transaction limit increased from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh Check the step-by-step process: Step 1: Go to the official website of UIDAI at https://uidai.gov.in/ or simply type directly and click on: https://resident.uidai.gov.in/verify-email-mobile. Step 2: Then click on My Aadhaar in case you visit the official UIDAI website Step 3: Go to the tab Aadhaar Services and select Verify Email/Mobile Number. Step 4: Then enter your twelve-digit Aadhaar number (UID) and check it twice. Step 5: Enter your correct contact details (Mobile number or Email). Step 6: Complete captcha verification. Step 7: Then click on the send OTP option. Aadhaar number is a 12-digit number issued by the UIDAI to Indian residents when they have completed the Authority's entire verification process. Anyone who is a resident of India, regardless of age or gender, is eligible to enroll in order to obtain an Aadhaar number. During the free enrollment procedure, the user is expected to supply minimum biometric and demographic information. Live TV #mute New Delhi: Thousands of Central government employees will finally receive their Dearness Allowance raise of 28% on top of their basic income, after great expectation. In addition, the government has increased the House Rent Allowance (HRA) for these workers and retirees. Employees of the central government will receive this with their September paycheck, so it's something to look forward to heading into October. As a result of the DA exceeding the 25% barrier, the government boosted the HRA for central government employees. As a result, the HRA has been hiked to 27%. On July 7, 2017, the Department of Expenditure issued an order stating that when the DA exceeds 25%, the HRA will be amended as well. The Dearness Allowance has been increased to 28% since July 1, necessitating an increase in the HRA as well. The HRA for these personnel is divided into three unique groups, according to the government's order, which is based on the cities labelled X, Y, and Z. Employees in cities classified as X will receive an HRA of 27% of their basic wage as a result of this. Employees in city Y will receive an 18% HRA against their basic wage from the government. Similarly, the HRA for workers in city Z is 9% of their base wage package. Also Read: RBI Monetary Policy October 2021: Key highlights of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das's announcement The minimum basic compensation for central government employees, according to the Matrix of the 7th Pay Commission, is roughly Rs 18,000. Central government personnel received a DA of Rs 3,060 per month on basic pay of Rs 18,000 per month until June 2021, a 17 percent increase. Since July 20, 2021, central government employees have earned a raise, as they now receive Rs 5,040 per month as per the 28 percent DA criteria. This translates to a monthly compensation increase of about Rs 1,980 for these employees. As a result, the pensioners' compensation will be determined in the future. It should be noted that it was previously expected that the government will implement a 3% increase in the DA and dearness relief (DR) in October. These reports, however, have yet to be validated because there has been no convincing evidence from the administration that this is the case. Employees of the government might have their DA increased to a startling 31 percent if this happens. The government previously increased the Dearness Allowance by 4% in January 2020, followed by another 3% rise in June of the same year. In January 2021, central government employees received yet another raise, with the DA increasing by 4%. Also Read: Big banking update! IMPS daily transaction limit increased from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh Employee unions were also anticipating the 3% increase to be implemented soon, based on AICPI data that revealed the DA due was at 31%, given that the index for June 2021 climbed by 1.1 points, bringing the total to 121.7 points. According to many media reports, if it is declared, it will be effective in the first half of 2021 and will be paid with the October paycheck. Employee unions, on the other hand, argue that it should be paid for September as well. Whatever the case may be, the next festival season will undoubtedly usher in some new alterations and improvements. Live TV #mute New Delhi: Amazon surprised consumers earlier this month by allowing them to change the voice of its virtual assistant Alexa. The voice of award-winning Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan may now be added to Alexa-enabled devices. Users can ask Amit Ji' the time and other questions, similar to how Alexa' wakes them up. However, there are certain restrictions to using this new service, and it is not free. Amazon Echo speakers and the Amazon Android app now support the new voice option. Bachchan will be able to react in both English and Hindi on Amazon Echo devices; however, the Amazon Android app only has an English option. Also Read: Data of over 1.5 billion Facebook users leaked on dark web It's also worth noting that the actor's voice won't be as useful as Alexa's because users won't be able to make shopping lists or set reminders. As part of the Amazon Great Indian Festival sale, the 'Amit Ji' voice option is currently available for Rs 99 instead of Rs 299 for a limited time. You may enable 'Amit Ji's' voice on your supported device in a few simple steps. Also Read: Skoda India names upcoming new sedan as Slavia Step 1: Open the Amazon app on your Android device. Step 2: Press the microphone icon near the top of the Amazon Android app near the Amazon search bar. Step 3: "Alexa!" says the speaker. I'd like you to introduce me to Amit Ji "and then wait. The app will lead you to the "Amitabh Bachchan - celebrity voice on Alexa" product page." Alternatively, you can talk to your Echo device, which will take you to the product page on your Amazon app if the device is linked. Step 4: You'll find a description of the celebrity voice service on the product page; read it carefully before clicking the 'Buy Now' button and making payment. Step 5: "Alexa, enable Amit Ji wake word," speak to Alexa on your Echo device or Amazon Android app once you've made the purchase. Step 6: Alexa will now be able to wake up when you say something that starts with "Amit Ji."" "Amit Jai, what can you do?" is a good question to ask to find out what all your alternatives are." If you are dissatisfied with Amit Ji's voice's restricted functions, you can contact Amazon's customer service for a full refund within three days of purchase. Except for Echo Plus, this capability is not available on first-generation Echo devices. The service is also not supported by Alexa apps on iPhones and FireTV devices (yet). Live TV #mute New Delhi: In a post on Weibo, Pete Lau, co-founder of Oneplus, hinted at the introduction of the OnePlus 9RT. OnePlus 9RT will be released on October 13, according to reports. OnePlus 9 RT is expected to have features such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC and a 120 Hz display. Pete Lau shared a brief history of the OnePlus T series in a post published on Sunday. It began with the launch of the OnePlus 3T in 2016 and ended with the OnePlus 8T, the most recent model in the series. He also hinted that the business will release a new t-series phone with a new moniker, implying the OnePlus 9RT. Weibo disclosed the name of the model that had been circulating in the rumour mill, which was created using the OnePlus 9RT. The company is anticipated to release more information soon. OnePlus 9RT has been making news for the past 2 months. It is speculated that the phone will come to Indian and Chinese markets this month. (Also Read: Data of over 1.5 billion Facebook users leaked on dark web) Oneplus 9RT price According to recent reports, Oneplus 9RT will cost between Rs 23,200 to Rs 34,800. Oneplus 9RT Specifications The phone is expected to be available in three colours. It'll sport a full HD+ display with a hole punch design and a 120 Hz refresh rate, according to rumours. It may also include an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SOC and a 50MP main camera sensor. The new model is also expected to run on Android 11. A 4,500 mAh battery with 65 W rapid charging capabilities is believed to be included in the phone. (Also Read: Twitter testing prompts to warn users before potentially 'intense' conversation) It is rumoured that OnePlus 9RTjoint edition is also in the works alongside OnePlus 9RT. It could be launched next month. OnePlus Buds 72 earphones could also be launched this month alongside the phone. Live TV #mute New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday issued a fresh summon to Union minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish Mishra to appear by 11 am on Saturday in case related to the violence at Lakhimpur Kheri in which eight people were killed. Ashish failed to appear before the police at 10 am on Friday. As per the latest notice, legal action could be initiated against Ashish if he fails to appear before the investigators on Saturday. However, the minister told reporters that his son was not well and that "he will appear before the police and give his statement and evidence as he is innocent". According to some media reports, Ashish may have fled to Nepal. Earlier, the Supreme Court said that it's "not satisfied" with the action taken by the Uttar Pradesh government in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence. The Apex Court also asked the state why accused Ashish Mishra has not been arrested yet. Not arresting the accused is sending a "wrong message," the Bench, led by CJI - observed. A nine-member team led by DIG Upendra Agarwal is investigating the case against the minister's son and others. Farmers claimed that Ashish Mishra was in one of the vehicles, an allegation denied by him and his father who say they can produce evidence to prove he was at another event at that time. Meanwhile on Thursday, two of the seven people mentioned in an FIR were arrested. They have been identified as Luvkush of Banbirpur village and Ashish Pandey of Nighasan tehsil. lodged by the police in connection with the violence. As many as eight people were killed in the violence which tookplace on October 3, four of the eight people were farmers, who were allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers. The farmers, in a fury, then allegedly lynched some people in the vehicles. The other dead included two BJP workers and their driver. (With PTI inputs) Taipei: Taiwan does not seek military confrontation, but will do whatever it takes to defend its freedom, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday, amid a rise in tensions with China that has sparked alarm around the world. Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, reported close to 150 Chinese air force aircraft flew into its air defence zone over a four-day period beginning last Friday, though those missions have since ended. Taiwan has complained for more than a year of such activities, which it views as "grey zone warfare", designed to wear out Taiwans armed forces and test their ability to respond. "Taiwan does not seek military confrontation," Tsai told a security forum in Taipei. "It hopes for a peaceful, stable, predictable and mutually-beneficial coexistence with its neighbours. But Taiwan will also do whatever it takes to defend its freedom and democratic way of life." China says it is acting to protect its security and sovereignty, and has blamed the United States, Taiwan`s most important international backer and arms supplier, for the current tensions. Tsai said that prosperity in the Indo-Pacific needs a peaceful, stable and transparent environment and there are many opportunities in the region. "But this also brings new tensions and systemic contradictions that could have a devastating effect on international security and the global economy if they are not handled carefully." Taiwan will work together with other regional countries to ensure stability, she added. "Taiwan is fully committed to collaborating with regional players to prevent armed conflict in the East China, South China Seas and in the Taiwan Strait." Taiwan has been seeking the support of other democracies as the stand-off with China worsens, and is this week playing host to four French senators and former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, though he is visiting in a personal capacity. Abbott, speaking at the same forum, condemned China for its aggressive actions, aimed not only as his country but also Taiwan. "Its relative power might have peaked with its population aging, its economy slowing and its finances creaking. It is quite possible that Beijing could lash out disastrously quite soon," he said. Abbott added that he did not believe the United States could sit by and watch China "swallow up" Taiwan. "I don`t believe Australia should be indifferent to the fate of a fellow democracy of almost 25 million people." Live TV KABUL: A blast tore through a mosque in Afghanistan`s northeastern Kunduz province on Friday, killing and wounding many people, Taliban officials said. Video footage showed bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque that is used by people from the minority Shi`ite Muslim community. No group immediately claimed responsibility. The blast followed several attacks, including one at a mosque in Kabul, in recent weeks, some of which have been claimed by the Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State. One Taliban official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 28 people had been killed and dozens more wounded in Friday`s blast. The attacks have underscored security challenges for the Taliban, which took over the country in August and have since carried out operations against Islamic State cells in Kabul. "This afternoon, an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shiite compatriots ... as a result of which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter. Brasilia: Brazil is in talks to buy up to 150 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for next year, according to a document sent by the Health Ministry to a Senate inquiry on Thursday (October 7, 2021). The document was shared with the inquiry, which is probing Brazil`s handling of the pandemic, after senators requested information on plans for the country`s vaccination campaign next year. The Health Ministry said it was negotiating the purchase of 100 million doses with Pfizer, with a possibility of acquiring another 50 million doses. On top of the Pfizer vaccine, Brazil will rely on the Astrazeneca shot which it produces in the country - currently with imported active ingredients. Brazil has the world`s second-highest COVID-19 death toll, behind only the United States. President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticized by health experts for his mismanagement of the outbreak, railing against lockdowns and regularly refusing to wear a mask in public. Despite a slow start, Brazil has ramped up a successful vaccination campaign. Over 70% of Brazilians have now received the first dose, compared to 65% in the United States. Live TV